Speaking To God

The Bhagavad Gita 2:46-47

speakingtogod — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:20:24 +0000

Gita 2:46

Just as a well is of little use when water is flooding on every side, this is the value of the Vedas to a wise Brahman. (Brahman can mean God or in this case, one who knows God.)

Gita 2:47

You have a right to your work (actions) but not to its fruit. Never should the fruits of your action be your motive. Also, never should you be attached to inaction (laziness).

This verse sounds very selfless and maybe a little overwhelming. The thing is this book has to do with finding the meaning of life and therefore happiness. And as most of us know, acquiring “things” is not the way to happiness, people who really think like that always come up with more things they want.

This verse is saying to let go of doing things for the reward. We should do our work in this world because it is our dharma (duty). And doing your work well is for the best for all (society). It’s not that you can never keep the things you receive from your work, but that should not be our sole purpose.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:45

speakingtogod — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:09:41 +0000

Gita 2:45

The Vedas (ancient Sanskrit scriptures) concern themselves with the three gunas (qualities of material nature). Get past these three gunas, Arjuna.

Be indifferent to the pairs of opposites, eternally fixed in truth. Be free from the desire to acquire and hoard, and (instead) be self controlled.

The gunas discussed in this verse are spoken of in detail in the fourteenth chapter of the Gita. But for now the gunas are the three qualities of material nature. The Vedas say that the material world is broken into three qualities, which are goodness/truth, passion/action, and ignorance/inertia, and that everything in this world are made up of differing degrees of these qualities. Krishna will explain this more later.

Krishna also begins to touch on a topic he will go into a lot, which is very important to grasp in order to begin to receive the peace and happiness in your life which I’m sure this book can bring you. The statement I’m referring to is “indifference to the pairs of opposites”, what this is referring to, is our ceaseless desire to keep things the way we want them. This goes from the littlest thing like the water in the showers is a little too cold, or a little too hot, to the big things like I want to live in a beautiful house in the country instead of this stuffy little apartment. Not that we never have to concern ourselves with what we need or want, but I am telling you if you were to start listening to yourself very carefully you would begin to see it never stops. Your mind is constantly thinking of what you like and don’t like from minute to minute. Now this is a very time consuming job and it can leave you with very little extra energy, like to figure out the meaning of life or your purpose in it. So Krishna is going to try and teach us to stop doing this.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:42-44

speakingtogod — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:50:10 +0000

Gita 2:42-43

The ignorant delighting in the flowery words of the Vedas, say “There is nothing else”. These ignorant ones full of desires and intent on heaven and rebirth (into good earthly positions), do many specific religious rites in order to secure power and enjoyment.

Gita 2:44

Those attached to power and enjoyment, whose thoughts have been stolen-away (by such things) are not given the resolute intelligence needed for samadhi (union with God through intense concentration).

The Bhagavad Gita 2:41

speakingtogod — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:17:55 +0000

Gita 2:41

Of those who are resolute in this practice, their intelligence is singular (unwavering). But many branched and endless are the thoughts of the irresolute.

The mind for most of us is scattered. It is actually hard for many of us to stay focused on one thing for any length of time. Most of us are seeking the ability to be single minded and focused.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:40

speakingtogod — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:11:50 +0000

Gita 2:40

In this practice no effort is lost, and even a little discipline protects one from great danger.

This a beautiful verse! God is saying here that what ever effort you put into your spiritual growth will never be lost, and protects you from so much harmful material reactions.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:39

speakingtogod — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:19:13 +0000

Gita 2:39

You have heard the intellectual explanation of yoga. Now hear the principles of yoga, by ardent practice you shall rid yourself of the bondage of karma.

He is speaking hear of Sankhya yoga which is a traditional system of analytical study within Hindu philosophy. It is one of the six branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy. Now Krishna is going to start teaching us about yoga, in all it’s forms. Most westerners have a singular idea of what yoga is, but the Bhagavad-gita will describe different yoga systems. Yoga actually means “to unite”, it’s a path or discipline which leads to union with God or the spirit force within us, and within the universe. So when yoga is mentioned time and again throughout the Bhagavad-gita it means to unite or link with the supreme, The differences within yoga, only refer to which method to use to obtain this linking to the supreme.

This verse also mentions yoga as a way to free yourself from the bondage of karma. Although karma will be talked about extensively this is about the first time it is mentioned here. It is very important to understand. It will probably take the entire Bhagavad-gita to really understand the concept. But I’d like you to start getting a good idea of what it is. Karma is actually the idea that for every action there is a reaction. Karma is built into the material world it can be understood as easily as if you touch fire you will get burned. This is predetermined and nothing will change it. There are many similar and easy to follow actions and reactions in the material world, but there are also innumerable reactions to things that we will not see. A few verses back Krishna mentioned sinful reaction, this is referring to a karmic reaction. Just about every action in this material world will cause a reaction, well the concept of karmic bondage is you have to be here to receive that reaction. So it makes sense that as a living breathing being we are all always acting, so it goes to follow that you’re always receiving a reaction. When you die you still have all types of reactions coming to you, so you have to come back again and again to receive your reactions, but of course while your here you have to act, collecting more reactions, and so on and so on, that is the bondage of karma. Krishna will try to teach us how to break this seemingly unbreakable cycle of karma and karmic reaction and bondage.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:38

speakingtogod — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:12:08 +0000

Gita 2:38

In the battle (some people also consider this to be the battle of life) consider pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat to be the same, in this way you will not incur sinful reaction.

This is the beginning of one of the most repeated themes in the Bhagavad-gita. Krishna begins to explain that the sin that Arjuna was afraid to incur by killing people in his own family in war would not and will not be incurred if Arjuna does his duty with out expectation or reaction to the outcome. As he said in the previous verse everything will be fine, with what ever out come should occur. This is one of the lessons that can change your life for the better if taken to heart. The thing is to have faith that everything will turn out right in the end. This faith will come from many directions. But the first and easiest to grasp is, it begins with dharma. There are many reasons things happen like they do and many of these reason will be understood better as Krishna teaches Arjuna about Karma. But to begin with if we try to understand the concept of dharma we will begin to let go, because we will know that we are doing everything we can to do things correctly. Once you know you are doing your best for the good of all in all things you just naturally let go of the outcome. Just for a mundane example: Let’s say you get a letter from the bank saying you have made an error and you owe the bank $1,000.00. If you have been keeping good records and you are organized, you will think that is not true and I will pull my records and bring them to the bank and the whole matter will be resolved. But on the other hand if you have not been keeping good records, but yet do not believe it is true, you will panic, and probably spend much energy fretting until it is resolved. In this case your dharma would have been to be organized and keep records. Well this is an easy example of being able to let go because of doing your dharma nicely. Now of course it can all get more complicated than this, but this is a beginning of understanding and a beginning of what Krishna is trying to teach Arjuna. The first step in accepting whatever happens is preforming your dharma. And many steps in understanding and acceptance will follow.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:33-37

speakingtogod — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:11:36 +0000

These following verses are about the glory of performing your duty or dharma properly.

Gita 2:33-34

If you were to avoid your proper duty in this engagement, your duty and glory will be lost and you will incur sin. People will tell of your disgrace forever and for a man of honor this is worse than dying.

Gita 2:35-36

The great warriors who have held you in high esteem, will think you have left the battle out of fear, and will consider you insignificant. Your enemies will speak many thing about you that should not be said. What could be a greater hardship than this.

Gita 2:37

Either by being killed you will attain heaven or by conquering your enemy you will enjoy the earth, so stand up Arjuna and fight.

Gita 2:31-32

speakingtogod — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:43:24 +0000

Gita 2:31-32

Think of your dharma (duty) and do not waver. For one in the warrior caste(kshatriya) there is nothing greater than a righteous battle. It is good fortune and the Kshatriyas are lucky to encounter such a battle by which the gates of heaven are opened to them.

Dharma is to do you duty to the best of your ability, for the good of all. Arjuna, was raised within his kingdom to be a warrior for it was the job of the royal families to protect the citizen, this was his duty.

Many people believe that with the idea of accepting both good and bad equally as it comes, must mean people loose their motivation to do anything, but this is a great misconception and the balancing of these two thing will be discussed in detail by Krishna as we go on. The understanding of the two is the key to having a happy and successful life. In the following verses these topics will be touched on starting with dharma.

The Bhagavad Gita 2:26-27

speakingtogod — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 12:22:31 +0000

Gita 2:26-27

But even if you think one is eternally born or eternally dead, you still should not mourn Arjuna. For the one who has been born, death is certain, and for the dead birth is certain, Therefore, since this is inevitable you should not mourn.

Krishna is now saying if you do not believe in the soul, then still you must except the inevitable, which is that the body will certainly die. But what he also adds here is that “for the dead birth is certain”. So therefore he is saying that reincarnation is also inevitable. Which is what many of us wonder about, and Krishna will speak about this much more now and will speak about it further on.