- 6/23/2025
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00:00:00The Vedas are supposed to be the first book.
00:00:03They didn't have the benefit of hindsight.
00:00:05You could think of a little kid just opening his eyes.
00:00:09What's going on? Water? So marvelous.
00:00:12What's going on?
00:00:13Now, do not judge them by their scientific rigor.
00:00:17They didn't have any labs and science is accumulative.
00:00:20When the human consciousness was first beginning to look around,
00:00:24there was nothing it could lean upon,
00:00:27nothing it could turn back to benefit from.
00:00:30There were only questions.
00:00:32And it is that spirit of questioning, of inquiry,
00:00:36that ultimately rejects all suppositions
00:00:40and becomes the Upanishads.
00:00:43The glory of the Vedas, it lies in the fact
00:00:46that slowly they keep rejecting all their assumptions
00:00:51and are ultimately left with only the questions.
00:00:54And it does not stop there.
00:00:56They move beyond even the questions
00:00:59and enter the questionnaire.
00:01:02That's the subject matter of the Upanishads.
00:01:05We are listing the characteristics of the mind that is unlikely to resonate with
00:01:33and really understand the Gita.
00:01:45We said, Shri Krishna is being cautious in advance here.
00:02:00having seen
00:02:05that there is
00:02:10acute resistance within Arjun
00:02:15when it comes to accepting
00:02:19the highest teaching.
00:02:22he is now going to
00:02:29he is now going to
00:02:31take
00:02:35the route of
00:02:39explaining
00:02:42action rather than the actor.
00:02:44Now this is already a suboptimal route.
00:02:49and even in this route
00:02:52Krishna wants to be extra careful.
00:02:58So he is enumerating
00:03:02the tell-tale signs
00:03:08the tell-tale signs
00:03:15of the kind of
00:03:16person,
00:03:18ego,
00:03:19mind
00:03:20that are going to resist
00:03:29anything beyond
00:03:30the carnal self
00:03:39and social norms.
00:03:41He talked of those
00:03:43who devote their entire internal apparatus to the ego.
00:03:49the
00:03:59internal machinery including the intellect
00:04:02devoted to
00:04:04the ego.
00:04:06those whose
00:04:15entire aim
00:04:16is to
00:04:17remain
00:04:20within limits
00:04:27limits provided by
00:04:28birth
00:04:29and by the society.
00:04:31then he
00:04:43said
00:04:47those who
00:04:49think
00:04:51of the highest literature
00:04:54as a recipe for desire fulfillment
00:04:58those who look
00:05:01at the Vedas
00:05:03Ved
00:05:04you could take as
00:05:09a collective
00:05:10term
00:05:15for the entire
00:05:16body of knowledge
00:05:22more specifically
00:05:23spiritual knowledge
00:05:24knowledge.
00:05:27So those who look
00:05:28at the Vedas
00:05:29even the Vedas
00:05:33with a
00:05:35view
00:05:36to
00:05:37fulfill desires
00:05:42these
00:05:44will again
00:05:45not be able
00:05:46to get
00:05:47what I am
00:05:49going to next
00:05:50tell you Arjun
00:05:51Arjun
00:05:57because for you
00:05:58even the highest
00:06:02spiritual word
00:06:07is just a means
00:06:10to your lowly desires
00:06:12even the highest
00:06:15to you
00:06:16to you
00:06:18is not higher
00:06:19than your desire
00:06:24so even when you are looking
00:06:27at the Vedas
00:06:30your entire aim
00:06:31is self-gratification
00:06:36so
00:06:37you will miss out
00:06:38on the
00:06:41knowledge
00:06:42of
00:06:46the self-knowledge
00:06:48part
00:06:50and you will
00:06:51deliberately
00:06:53limit yourself
00:06:56to the
00:07:01hints
00:07:02dedicated
00:07:04to appeasement
00:07:05of the
00:07:07gods
00:07:08of the
00:07:09natural forces
00:07:10of the
00:07:12gods
00:07:13of the natural forces
00:07:18so that the
00:07:20wishes
00:07:24of the
00:07:26devotee
00:07:27can be granted
00:07:33you will be very comfortable
00:07:34with that part
00:07:35of the Vedas
00:07:37and that is the
00:07:38karma
00:07:39kind part
00:07:42the mantra
00:07:43or the sanghita
00:07:45that is not the
00:07:46Upanishad part
00:07:50indirectly what
00:07:51Krishna is saying is
00:07:52that
00:07:53if to you
00:07:55the Vedas
00:07:57do not mean
00:07:58the Upanishads
00:08:01then you will not
00:08:02understand the Gita
00:08:03because you see
00:08:06purely in terms of
00:08:08volume
00:08:10the Upanishads
00:08:11are not even
00:08:1210%
00:08:15of
00:08:17the Vedic
00:08:18heft
00:08:23if you count the
00:08:24number of mantras
00:08:26the verses
00:08:2810%
00:08:29is
00:08:31just
00:08:32too much of
00:08:33an exaggeration
00:08:39less than 1%
00:08:43for example
00:08:44the Rig Ved
00:08:46is the most
00:08:47voluminous
00:08:48among the
00:08:49four Vedas
00:08:52and from the Rig Ved
00:08:53just one
00:08:54principle
00:08:55Upanishad comes
00:08:57just one principle
00:08:58Upanishad
00:08:59and the Rig Ved
00:09:00is such a massive
00:09:01thing
00:09:04the Aitari Upanishad
00:09:09such a massive
00:09:10body of work
00:09:13and
00:09:15just one little
00:09:16Upanishad in it
00:09:19it is easy to
00:09:21miss the Upanishad
00:09:23right?
00:09:29and it is easy to
00:09:30miss the Upanishad
00:09:31and still claim
00:09:33that you
00:09:37are a knower
00:09:39of the Veda
00:09:41or that you have read
00:09:42the Veda
00:09:43right?
00:09:45after all if you have
00:09:47read 99%
00:09:50of some book
00:09:52nothing forbids you from claiming
00:09:54that you have indeed read the entire book
00:09:57right?
00:10:03so you could go to the Rig Ved
00:10:05read everything
00:10:08but the Upanishad
00:10:10and you know the Upanishads if you
00:10:14if you
00:10:15if you
00:10:16go
00:10:18to a copy of the way
00:10:19the Upanishads often come as addendums
00:10:22not too many Upanishads are contained within the main body
00:10:27many of them rather most of them are in the form of
00:10:38something like an appendix
00:10:43an attachment
00:10:49some of them come within the main body as well
00:10:52no doubt but
00:10:53so you can do away with the Upanishad
00:10:58right?
00:11:00and comfortably say you know I have just
00:11:03finished reading the Rig Ved
00:11:09Shri Krishna is warning Shri Krishna is saying if to
00:11:12you the
00:11:14Ved means just
00:11:18the
00:11:20mantras
00:11:21is
00:11:23dedicated to
00:11:25desire fulfillment
00:11:27then the Gita is not for you because the Gita
00:11:32is an Upanishad
00:11:38it is just that
00:11:40it is formally not listed as an Upanishad
00:11:44because it is not a part of the Vedas
00:11:47formally it is also not listed in the Shruti literature
00:11:57because it is a part of the Mahabharata
00:12:00and Mahabharata is a work of human authorship
00:12:05it is attributed to Ved Vyas
00:12:09to Ved Vyas
00:12:14otherwise
00:12:16the Gita is very much an Upanishad
00:12:19hmmm
00:12:21which means that those who do not
00:12:24value the Upanishads themselves
00:12:27how will they value the Gita
00:12:29because de facto the Gita is an Upanishad
00:12:33the Gita is so much of an Upanishad
00:12:44that
00:12:46when you talk
00:12:49of the three canonical pillars of Vedanta
00:12:54after the Upanishads
00:13:01you list the Bhagavad Gita
00:13:04obviously the moment you say Vedanta
00:13:08the first thing that comes to mind is Upanishads
00:13:13practically Vedanta means Upanishads
00:13:17that's true
00:13:18but after that there is the Bhagavad Gita
00:13:27the commentators have said that the essence of
00:13:31the various Upanishads
00:13:35the eleven
00:13:37primary ones
00:13:39or the hundred eight
00:13:42in total
00:13:43has been distilled
00:13:48into
00:13:50the body of the Gita
00:13:55and then come the
00:13:57Vedanta Sutras
00:13:58or the Brahma Sutras
00:14:01which actually contain nothing new
00:14:06they are just an attempt to
00:14:09systematize
00:14:10the entire
00:14:15message of the Upanishads
00:14:18because the Upanishads are numerous
00:14:21therefore it is possible
00:14:23sometimes to get confused
00:14:27not only are they numerous
00:14:30they were composed over various centuries
00:14:34and over a vast
00:14:37geographical expanse
00:14:38it is
00:14:44it is very much possible
00:14:46that the authors
00:14:50we do not use the word authors when it comes to the Upanishads
00:14:54we say seers rather than authors
00:14:57mantra drishta
00:15:01the one who
00:15:03saw the mantra
00:15:05the mantra
00:15:07so these seers
00:15:11I am saying is it is very much possible
00:15:13that they might have been totally disconnected to each other
00:15:17somebody is sitting
00:15:22in the
00:15:24western part of Arayvart
00:15:27one part of Arayvart
00:15:28Punjab
00:15:33or
00:15:34what will be the
00:15:39Pakistan-Afghanistan border today
00:15:43and somebody
00:15:51could have been composing the hymns
00:15:54not composing once again
00:15:56seeing
00:15:58technically
00:16:00you are at flaw if you say
00:16:02that the Upanishads were
00:16:04composed
00:16:06it is a way of
00:16:08expressing reverence
00:16:09saying that they are no ordinary works of human authorship
00:16:15that they are the products of deepest kind of meditation
00:16:19the normal mind
00:16:24cannot give birth
00:16:26to
00:16:28this kind of
00:16:31rare insights
00:16:33so we withdraw
00:16:38human authorship from them
00:16:40we want to say no no no
00:16:42they do not belong to
00:16:43our plane
00:16:44our level
00:16:46they come from somewhere else
00:16:48that does not mean that they actually dropped from the skies
00:16:51that only means that they are not products of the ordinary state of consciousness
00:16:58the ordinary mind
00:17:01so
00:17:02Gita
00:17:03even though it is contained
00:17:17in the Mahabharat
00:17:19is a de facto
00:17:23Upanishad
00:17:25and the Upanishads
00:17:28even though
00:17:29they are a part of the body of Vedas
00:17:35they differ greatly
00:17:40from
00:17:42what the
00:17:44Sangita part
00:17:46of Vedas aims at
00:17:50are you getting it?
00:17:54so Gita
00:17:56comes from Mahabharat
00:17:58but
00:18:00actually
00:18:01the Gita
00:18:02is
00:18:03way above Dhamma
00:18:04Bharat
00:18:07and similarly the Upanishads
00:18:09come from
00:18:11the Vedas
00:18:14but they are
00:18:16in a dimension of their own
00:18:18the Upanishads
00:18:19and therefore
00:18:24if one has not made
00:18:26a pointed study
00:18:29of the Upanishads
00:18:31and just gone through the rest of the Vedic literature
00:18:36one does not deserve to say that he knows Vedanta
00:18:41because there is very little
00:18:45in the rest of the Vedic literature
00:18:50that really resonates with the Upanishads
00:18:56you could be a master
00:19:00of the mantras, of the Brahman part
00:19:03you could have even gone through the Aranyaks
00:19:10but that will not at all mean
00:19:14that you know anything about the Upanishads
00:19:17the Upanishads are in a league of their own
00:19:19in a league of their own
00:19:24so much so
00:19:26that
00:19:28some
00:19:29scholars have
00:19:31controversially
00:19:33claimed
00:19:35that the Upanishads are actually a rebellion against the Vedas
00:19:39the Upanishadic part
00:19:43the Upanishadic part
00:19:45the Vedantic part
00:19:47is so different
00:19:50from the main body of the Vedas
00:19:54that some people have gone to the extent of claiming
00:19:58that the Upanishads are actually a rebellion against whatever the Vedas have said before the Upanishads
00:20:06that the Upanishads are a great U-turn
00:20:09not a U-turn
00:20:14I like to say the Upanishads are a great take-off
00:20:18not a U-turn
00:20:24like an airplane taking off
00:20:28there is a great difference in
00:20:31dimension
00:20:33before taking off and
00:20:36after the take-off
00:20:37the take-off
00:20:41but there is also an organic relationship
00:20:44the take-off could not have happened without the taxiing
00:20:54the Vedas have gone through an
00:20:57organic process
00:20:59a
00:21:01long period of organic process
00:21:03they were not composed in a day
00:21:05again
00:21:06they were never
00:21:10I
00:21:11I stand the risk of being declared guilty on this count
00:21:16it was a long process
00:21:18very long process
00:21:23you would not be wrong if you say
00:21:25more than
00:21:27thousand years
00:21:28just imagine
00:21:29one particular work
00:21:30that is slowly being assembled over a period of
00:21:37thousand years
00:21:39thousand years
00:21:41and obviously they are
00:21:43not dropping from the sky
00:21:44we are not getting into
00:21:46that kind of stupidity here
00:21:48it is an organic growth
00:21:51like a tree growing from the earth
00:21:53not like a
00:21:57revealed book dropping from the sky
00:22:04so they start
00:22:06from one place
00:22:08the very first hymn is dedicated to Agni
00:22:10Rigved
00:22:12please
00:22:16everything begins with
00:22:18please
00:22:19with folded hands
00:22:20you are saying you know
00:22:22just
00:22:23a little request
00:22:24a bit of a favour
00:22:26give me that
00:22:28do not give me that
00:22:31all the bad things
00:22:32you give to those people
00:22:34in the other village
00:22:37they are my enemies
00:22:42those guys over there are celebrating too much
00:22:45can we have a
00:22:51teeny-weeny draught please
00:22:53on that side of the fence
00:23:01and a lot of people think that this is what the Vedic literature is about
00:23:05the method was Yajna
00:23:14and there were so many deities that had to be
00:23:17pleased
00:23:19ingratiated
00:23:23it was not through temples
00:23:25it was through the process of
00:23:28Yajna
00:23:31so there would be Vedic priests
00:23:32and there was such a
00:23:35great
00:23:37importance on sound
00:23:39because the
00:23:40entire worship
00:23:42was just through
00:23:44words
00:23:47nothing had been erected
00:23:49and you really didn't have to go anywhere to
00:23:52do much
00:23:57morning, afternoon, evening
00:23:59the method was just
00:24:00Yajna
00:24:05and in course of time
00:24:07it became corrupted also
00:24:08we know of that
00:24:10animal sacrifice became such an important part of this thing
00:24:17that
00:24:19the entire religion of Buddha and Mahavir had to be based on Ahinsa
00:24:23it was actually a rebellion
00:24:31against Yajna
00:24:35because the whole
00:24:37concept of Yajna was
00:24:39if you do this
00:24:41your desires will be fulfilled
00:24:45Buddha came up with the Shaman
00:24:48philosophy
00:24:49he said
00:24:50nothing doing
00:24:54first of all
00:24:56your desires are rubbish
00:24:58secondly
00:25:00no desire ever gets fulfilled
00:25:04by making offerings to Gods
00:25:10and even if somehow
00:25:12coincidentally your desires do get fulfilled
00:25:17you must see that your desires
00:25:20are not worth fulfilling
00:25:23so the entire Vedic thing was about fulfillment of desire
00:25:30and
00:25:32Gautam Buddha came up
00:25:34with something so ingenuous
00:25:35absolutely new
00:25:39absolutely new
00:25:41not absolutely new because what he was saying
00:25:43the Upanishads were already saying that but no one was listening to the Upanishads
00:25:47you get a proof here in the Gita, right?
00:25:50Krishna is saying Arjun if you are like those people
00:25:53who think of Vedas as Vedas sans Upanishads
00:25:56then you will not get the Gita
00:25:58so we get an idea that there was definitely this trend
00:26:03in popular religious culture
00:26:06that people go to the Vedas just for the sake of
00:26:10the Karmakand part
00:26:13the desire fulfillment part
00:26:15and people were not paying much attention to
00:26:18the Upanishads
00:26:19the Upanishads
00:26:22so the entire game
00:26:25had become about
00:26:27desire
00:26:29and Buddha
00:26:32just
00:26:36put the whole thing aside
00:26:39he said your central problem is suffering
00:26:42and suffering itself comes from desire
00:26:49tremendous departure from whatever was happening till then
00:26:53he said whatever you are doing in the name of religion
00:26:55is just to satisfy your desire
00:26:59and desire itself is at the root of your suffering
00:27:02which means your religion has become your accomplice
00:27:07in the game of your suffering
00:27:17you understand the context?
00:27:20therefore you are seeing
00:27:22that the Bhagavad Gita
00:27:24is de facto criticizing
00:27:28the Vedas
00:27:31and when you will come to the next verse
00:27:34you will be astounded
00:27:38Shri Krishna tells Arjun
00:27:40Nishtragunnyo Bhava Arjun
00:27:42and before he says
00:27:44this he says you know your Vedas are just about the three gunas
00:27:47the three gunas
00:27:48and therefore you must be free of the three gunas
00:27:51he is de facto telling Arjun to be free of the Vedas
00:27:54the exact words are
00:27:56Tragunnyo Vishaya Veda Nishtragunnyo Bhava Arjun
00:28:00he is saying the Vishaya, the subject matter of the Vedas is nothing but the three gunas
00:28:08you know what the three gunas are
00:28:10Prakrati, this entire world
00:28:13Maya
00:28:15he said your Vedic literature is dealing only with this
00:28:17and therefore you must get rid of all that
00:28:24pay attention
00:28:26these are lines of absolute rebellion
00:28:28absolute rebellion
00:28:32Tragunnyo Vishaya Veda
00:28:35the Vedas are dealing only with
00:28:39that which is found in the three gunas
00:28:42the three gunas belong to Prakrati
00:28:44Sankhyog
00:28:47he says all that is there in the Vedas is dealing with only this material world
00:28:52and you must get rid of that
00:28:55Nishtragunnyo Bhava Arjun
00:28:57you drop that
00:28:59you drop what is contained in the Vedas
00:29:03obviously he is not telling Arjun to drop the Upanishads
00:29:06he is telling Arjun to drop that part of Vedas
00:29:10that had become almost exclusively popular
00:29:14with the priests and the population
00:29:16because people being people
00:29:21they were least concerned
00:29:24with the knowledge part
00:29:26they were only concerned with the desire part
00:29:29we do not want knowledge
00:29:31we have desires
00:29:35and we want to use the Vedas to fulfil our desires
00:29:39so the criticism is
00:29:42less towards the Vedas
00:29:44more towards the Vedas
00:29:47and more towards those
00:29:49who are interpreting the Vedas
00:29:51more towards those who are coming to the Vedas
00:29:54and reading the Vedas
00:29:56they are being criticised
00:30:00because the Vedas are
00:30:02not to be criticised
00:30:04they also contain the
00:30:06Vedanta
00:30:08right
00:30:10and that's their lasting contribution
00:30:11that's their immortal contribution
00:30:14so how can you say the Vedas are rubbish
00:30:18if there is even just one Upanishad that is there in the Rig Ved
00:30:25that makes the Rig Ved worth it
00:30:27I am assuming you are giving zero importance to everything
00:30:31except the Upanishad
00:30:32even if you give zero importance
00:30:34to everything except the Upanishad
00:30:36the Upanishad makes the Rig Ved worth it
00:30:39so obviously Shri Krishna is not going to criticise
00:30:43the Ved per se
00:30:46the totality of the Ved itself
00:30:51he is criticising
00:30:53the kind of mind
00:30:55that approaches even the highest scripture
00:30:58just to fulfil its own desire
00:31:01even today it might be possible
00:31:05many of you might be
00:31:07listening to this discussion tonight
00:31:10just because you have a concept
00:31:14that Gita
00:31:16brings auspiciousness
00:31:18and auspiciousness in popular parlance means nothing but prosperity
00:31:22prosperity
00:31:27in the popular parlance you say Shubhlaab
00:31:30you see what you club with Shubhata
00:31:35so auspiciousness means prosperity
00:31:39many of you might be doing that
00:31:41albeit subconsciously
00:31:43grant that
00:31:44do listen to the Durga Sapshati during the Navratra
00:31:53that will bring richness home
00:31:59Devi will shower goodies
00:32:02that means
00:32:06Sri Krishna is saying
00:32:08there is nothing for
00:32:11this kind of a mind
00:32:13no liberation
00:32:18no realisation
00:32:20nothing
00:32:21no realisation
00:32:22no realisation
00:32:26no realisation
00:32:30are you getting it?
00:32:34the Vedic literature is a wonder
00:32:37you start from a very
00:32:40very relatable
00:32:42very common, very ordinary point
00:32:45where you are just looking at the world
00:32:48with eyes
00:32:49full of awe
00:32:52and wonderment
00:32:55and you don't know what to make of it
00:32:58everything appears mysterious
00:33:00even the ordinary forces of nature
00:33:02appear mysterious
00:33:04we are talking of the
00:33:07earliest awakening of the human consciousness
00:33:15there was no
00:33:16no
00:33:18inherited knowledge
00:33:20the seers could benefit from
00:33:22right?
00:33:24the Vedas are supposed to be the first book
00:33:29they didn't have the benefit of hindsight
00:33:37you could think
00:33:39of a little kid
00:33:41just opening his eyes
00:33:42what is going on?
00:33:43what is going on?
00:33:44what is going on?
00:33:47water
00:33:48so marvellous
00:33:52and that spirit
00:33:55of awe
00:33:57of amazement
00:34:01shines through
00:34:03especially the Rig Veda
00:34:04again and again
00:34:06what is going on?
00:34:08what is going on?
00:34:10now do not judge them
00:34:12by their scientific rigour
00:34:16they didn't have any labs
00:34:18and science is accumulative
00:34:20today if you know that G is 9.8 meter per second square
00:34:25G is 9.8 meter per second square
00:34:27it's not because
00:34:29you found that out
00:34:32it's because that figure has
00:34:35come to you over centuries of research of
00:34:39other
00:34:43glorious beings
00:34:44when the human consciousness was
00:34:51first beginning to look around
00:34:54there was nothing it could lean upon
00:35:01nothing it could turn back to benefit from
00:35:06there were only questions
00:35:09questions
00:35:11questions
00:35:13and a lot of suppositions
00:35:15a lot of speculations
00:35:20but not just speculations
00:35:23deep questions also
00:35:29and it is that
00:35:32spirit
00:35:34of questioning
00:35:36of inquiry
00:35:38that ultimately
00:35:42rejects all suppositions
00:35:45and becomes the Upanishads
00:35:53and that's
00:35:55that's very normal
00:35:57you can identify with that
00:36:00when you are at a place you know nothing of
00:36:04you will have two things
00:36:05right
00:36:06one
00:36:07assumptions
00:36:08and second
00:36:10questions
00:36:12the glory of the Vedas
00:36:13it lies in the fact
00:36:16that slowly they keep rejecting
00:36:19all their assumptions
00:36:21and are ultimately left with only the
00:36:23questions
00:36:26and it does not stop there
00:36:27they move beyond even the questions
00:36:34and enter the questioner
00:36:37that's the subject matter of the Upanishads
00:36:44so you begin with fire worship
00:36:47and sky worship and sun worship
00:36:50and sun worship
00:36:52and such things
00:36:54all forces of prakrati
00:36:57and then you move to a point where you say
00:37:00no no no
00:37:02prakrati is just prakrati let her be
00:37:06you remain
00:37:10a detached dispassionate seer
00:37:13seer
00:37:16the witness
00:37:18the same spirit that you find here
00:37:21nishtra guna neobhava arjun
00:37:24so you start from a point of view of extreme attachment to prakrati
00:37:29again and again you are going to forces of prakrati
00:37:34you are going to water
00:37:36you are going even to the thunderbolt
00:37:39you are going to the trees
00:37:41oh the trees they are something special
00:37:43you are going to the soil
00:37:47the wind
00:37:53you are going to them
00:37:55oh they are special they are special they are special
00:37:56they are special they are special
00:37:57and then over the journey
00:38:00the thousand year long journey
00:38:04you slowly say no no no
00:38:06all this is just prakrati
00:38:09and let her be
00:38:11let her do her own thing
00:38:13I am myself
00:38:15nishtra guna neobhav
00:38:19this is where the glory of the Vedic literature lies
00:38:22it dismantles itself
00:38:25it dismantles itself
00:38:29and it takes a lot of courage to do that
00:38:37and there is something in it for everyone
00:38:42if you are someone
00:38:43someone
00:38:45who cannot
00:38:47cope
00:38:49with the
00:38:51with the rigorous austerity
00:38:53of the Upanishads
00:38:59then
00:39:01there is the regular kind of
00:39:03worship for you
00:39:07you could choose
00:39:11you like
00:39:15energy
00:39:17and power
00:39:18and heat
00:39:19and radiance
00:39:20and effulgence
00:39:22Surya
00:39:24you could pick Surya as your favourite deity
00:39:29huh
00:39:32you like the
00:39:34calm song
00:39:36of flowing water
00:39:38then there is
00:39:41Varun for you
00:39:43you could choose
00:39:46it would obviously be
00:39:48not the best choice
00:39:52the best choice is when
00:39:54Ved starts
00:39:56sounding Vedanth to you
00:39:58when somebody says Ved
00:40:00and you hear
00:40:02Vedanth that's the best thing
00:40:03but if you are still not up to it
00:40:06there are other things for you
00:40:08but Krishna is categorical
00:40:10he is saying Arjun if there are other things for you
00:40:12then neither the Upanishads nor the Gita is for you
00:40:16because we are not here to fulfill our desires
00:40:19you must reflect on this for the ordinary man religion is just a means to fulfill desire
00:40:36desire
00:40:40and desires
00:40:42are an expression
00:40:45exactly of
00:40:47the one
00:40:49who suffers inside
00:40:51because the ego
00:40:54feels that it is incomplete
00:40:56therefore it desires
00:41:01Incompleteness and desire obviously go together
00:41:07the more you place your trust on desires
00:41:11the more you are powering your feeling of
00:41:14Incompleteness
00:41:16therefore desire fulfillment
00:41:18is the worst way if you want to treat your insides
00:41:23won't help
00:41:25looks intuitive
00:41:27some might even say looks very logical
00:41:29you know
00:41:30I am not feeling well
00:41:31let me order something
00:41:33let me chat something
00:41:34somebody
00:41:35let me do this
00:41:36let me do that
00:41:40sounds intuitive because our intuition
00:41:43is tied to our experience and these senses
00:41:46you know
00:41:47they will immediately suggest
00:41:49yes yes
00:41:51not feeling
00:41:53nice today
00:41:54order something online
00:41:58it won't work
00:42:00it won't work
00:42:04hmmm
00:42:09and that's something
00:42:11you need to be cautious of today
00:42:14and that's something you needed to be cautious of
00:42:17then
00:42:22getting it
00:42:24because
00:42:25our external situations have changed
00:42:28internally we have not evolved
00:42:32we make the same mistakes
00:42:34externally yes
00:42:36because knowledge is accumulative
00:42:38so over the centuries we have accumulated knowledge
00:42:41capital 2 is accumulative
00:42:42is it not?
00:42:44you keep accumulating capital
00:42:46and you can pass it on to
00:42:47the next generation
00:42:49knowledge you can pass on
00:42:51so these two things we have in abundance today
00:42:56knowledge and
00:42:58capital
00:42:59but internally we are as deprived as we were then
00:43:08we are making the same mistakes that we made then
00:43:10and then
00:43:14getting
00:43:17right?
00:43:25Arjun,
00:43:27if you are one of those who nourish a mind that there is nothing
00:43:31more important than the deeds that lead you to heaven
00:43:34then let's stop right now because
00:43:40that's not what the Gita will give you
00:43:45deeds referring to the rituals, the rites
00:43:51do this and you will be guaranteed place in heaven
00:43:54no Gita is not for that
00:43:57and that will not help
00:43:59help
00:44:01assuage your current inner condition
00:44:05you are in turmoil
00:44:11talks of heaven and hell and pious deeds
00:44:16will not help you
00:44:21similarly if you are one of those who are always full of desires
00:44:25then again I am not going to speak to you any further
00:44:29because your mind will be busy calculating how to fulfill the desire
00:44:36and I will be just wasting myself on you
00:44:40whatever I say
00:44:43either you will not listen to it
00:44:45or you will grab some portion of it
00:44:46hoping that from that portion
00:44:52somehow you can
00:44:55fulfill your desire
00:44:57those who consider attainment of heaven
00:45:03as the
00:45:05ultimate thing
00:45:07this is being repeated
00:45:11Svarga
00:45:13Shri Krishna is quite upset with such people
00:45:16quite upset with such people
00:45:22who think that
00:45:24after your death
00:45:27something pops out of your body
00:45:30or sneaks out or whatever
00:45:33or oozes out
00:45:36there are
00:45:38diverse expressions
00:45:39of mental ineptitude you know
00:45:43of mental ineptitude you know
00:45:50human vocabulary
00:45:53is too little
00:45:55to contain the entire range
00:46:00of
00:46:01of
00:46:07our insane imaginations
00:46:19there have been
00:46:21long winded
00:46:23and very
00:46:25detailed debates
00:46:27somebody said it
00:46:30comes out
00:46:32of your nostrils
00:46:33with your last breath
00:46:39somebody said no no no no no
00:46:41it comes out of
00:46:43the entire body
00:46:45through the skin pores
00:46:47somebody said no no no
00:46:49it is like the light in the eye
00:46:52so when you close your eyes finally
00:46:54finally
00:46:55then it comes out from the eyes
00:47:04facts cannot be numerous
00:47:06but imaginations
00:47:09infinitely numerous
00:47:17you know historically
00:47:18there even have been experiments
00:47:24one king made
00:47:28a total
00:47:30leak proof room for himself
00:47:35with whatever technology that was available
00:47:38he said not even a single molecule of air
00:47:42should be able
00:47:44to breach out
00:47:46he said now
00:47:47my soul
00:47:49will remain in the room
00:47:55and he appointed
00:47:56trusted
00:47:58his eldest son
00:48:00he said after they say that I have died
00:48:04first of all you remain by my bedside
00:48:07and after they say that I have died
00:48:11you catch hold of my soul
00:48:13and put it back in
00:48:16and the soul
00:48:20I tell you
00:48:22is a sneaky thing
00:48:28it can slip away
00:48:30even from the
00:48:32minutest holes
00:48:34so make sure that nothing remains
00:48:36and I can only imagine
00:48:38I too am entitled to imagine am I not
00:48:40and I can only imagine what kind of endeavor would have gone into ensuring that
00:48:45the room is absolutely foolproof I mean leak proof
00:48:49they must have filled it up with water and seen
00:48:55if even one drop is coming out from somewhere
00:48:59and I am pretty sure that the king died of asphyxiation
00:49:05because if nothing can come in and nothing can go out
00:49:10then obviously you will suffocate
00:49:11and obviously you will suffocate
00:49:24Krishna looks almost upset with such people
00:49:28and the irony
00:49:34which I could also call as the tyranny of the common mind
00:49:41is that
00:49:43we have used the Gita to justify
00:49:46the concept of the soul and heaven and hell
00:49:50and here Krishna is saying
00:50:02if you think of these things
00:50:05then let's stop right here
00:50:07the Gita is not for you
00:50:08that is not for you
00:50:26those who are attached to the ritualistic actions
00:50:31that give pleasure and prosperity
00:50:34if you are one of them Arjun
00:50:36we can't be together
00:50:39we can't be together
00:50:43Shri Krishna is criticizing everything that happens in the name of religion even today
00:50:54sounds so contemporary, does it not?
00:50:59as if it is being addressed
00:51:02to one of us here
00:51:04in the 21st century
00:51:07to each one of us here
00:51:13Arjun, if you are
00:51:16one of those who give importance
00:51:20to the rituals and traditions and such things
00:51:24that are supposed to give happiness and prosperity
00:51:28then the Gita is not for you
00:51:29not for you
00:51:32essentially if you
00:51:34follow
00:51:37the prevalent kind of religion
00:51:41then the Gita is not for you
00:51:44Gita does not belong
00:51:46to the kind of religion
00:51:50that shadows popular culture
00:51:51the Gita is not for you
00:51:52the most popular culture
00:51:54Gita is exquisite
00:51:58and exclusive
00:52:00you can either follow popular culture
00:52:03or Gita
00:52:04And that puts spade to any idea that Gita can be a part of popular culture.
00:52:18It's an either or relationship.
00:52:24Either you can belong to the world of popular religion or you can listen to Sri Krishna.
00:52:32You cannot have both.
00:52:35Either you can participate in the norms, moors, traditions, rituals that are branded as religion
00:52:46or you can be a lover, a worshipper, a follower of Gita.
00:52:55You cannot be both.
00:53:00So Sri Krishna, do you see the kind of effort?
00:53:07He is presenting Arjun with an entire list.
00:53:09He is saying this, this, this, this, this.
00:53:11And Arjun, now, if you tick any of these boxes, then I will abandon you.
00:53:22Forget about you running away from the chariot and all those things.
00:53:26You are proving to be such a lousy student.
00:53:34As a teacher, I am telling you, I will drop you.
00:53:37The tables have turned.
00:53:44Just one chapter back, you know.
00:53:50I was saying, I want to run away.
00:53:52And you are saying, wait.
00:53:54Can we have a word?
00:53:57And now you are telling the Gita is not for you.
00:54:00If this, if this, if this, if this.
00:54:02Already you have listed seven conditions.
00:54:05And the fact of the matter is, I meet all seven of them.
00:54:12And you know that very well.
00:54:15And I also know that you will never drop me.
00:54:18In spite of knowing fully well how unqualified I am.
00:54:22You very well know that I am exactly the person who does not deserve the Gita.
00:54:30Nobody deserves the Gita.
00:54:32In some sense, it is always a gift.
00:54:37A thing of grace.
00:54:40And Shri Krishna is making it very clear that you do not deserve the Gita.
00:54:43If you are running after your desires.
00:54:45If you believe in heaven and hell and soul.
00:54:47If you come to a holy book in order to ingratiate yourself.
00:54:51Then the Gita is not for you.
00:54:55That practically rules everybody out.
00:54:59Does it not?
00:55:01If these conditions are to be enforced.
00:55:05Only Shri Krishna will qualify to read the Gita.
00:55:12Everybody else stands disqualified.
00:55:14Look at the compassion here.
00:55:18He is making it very clear that I know that you do not deserve me.
00:55:23Arjun, I know that you are the most deserving among the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
00:55:29And still you do not deserve me.
00:55:31In one sense, Arjun is the most deserving one.
00:55:34In a relative sense.
00:55:36Relative to the others present there, Arjun is the most deserving candidate.
00:55:40But in an absolute sense.
00:55:43Arjun is not deserving at all.
00:55:45And Krishna makes it clear.
00:55:47These are the conditions.
00:55:49Do you meet these conditions?
00:55:51Look at me.
00:55:54Do I look like making the cut?
00:55:57No, I don't.
00:56:02And Krishna is just warning.
00:56:04Warning.
00:56:07Not threatening really.
00:56:09He knows very well.
00:56:11Nobody makes the cut.
00:56:15And still he will deliver the sermon.
00:56:25Are you kidding?
00:56:27Hundreds.
00:56:29More than 500, I suppose.
00:56:31Verses are still to come.
00:56:34And mind you,
00:56:36these verses come to us in a form that has been systematised again by
00:56:43the great systematiser, Ved Vyas.
00:56:48It is very possible that the actual conversation was far more detailed and long-winded.
00:56:56There were far too many more to's and fro's.
00:57:04When two people in real life converse,
00:57:07the conversation is not always as neat as this.
00:57:11Or is it?
00:57:12Do you talk to each other in verses?
00:57:16Especially when you are talking to someone
00:57:20hallucinating with grief.
00:57:23Do you deliver axioms and canons to him?
00:57:29Do you?
00:57:31It is quite possible that the whole conversation happened over maybe
00:57:37days and weeks.
00:57:39Who knows?
00:57:40We will never know.
00:57:43Look at the kind of effort that has been put.
00:57:50And that kind of effort has been put knowing fully well that Arjun is as unfit as anybody else.
00:57:59Arjun is a better candidate only in relative sense.
00:58:03In an absolute sense.
00:58:06In an absolute sense,
00:58:08Arjun is as unfit as any.
00:58:15And yet the effort.
00:58:16And Shri Krishna is not even hiding it.
00:58:22He is saying, I fully well know.
00:58:26I know you.
00:58:28He is listening in such detail.
00:58:30This disqualifies you.
00:58:32This again disqualifies you.
00:58:34This again disqualifies you.
00:58:36So you are disqualified on not one but eight counts.
00:58:38And now we come to the next verse.
00:58:40And now we come to the next verse.
00:58:43I will continue to educate you.
00:58:45I will continue to educate you.
00:59:03Getting it?
00:59:04The people who make strong and pleasant arguments in support of their views.
00:59:11These are again not the persons the Gita should be said to.
00:59:16Basically these are the people who are attached to their own views.
00:59:21And in defence of their views they put forward pleasant words.
00:59:28Exciting arguments.
00:59:30Behind all those words etc.
00:59:32Lies just the stubborn insistence of the ego.
00:59:37I will preserve myself.
00:59:40If you are one of those Arjun,
00:59:42then we should not talk.
00:59:43Then we should not talk.
00:59:46You know.
00:59:49Like one deals with a kid.
00:59:50You see.
00:59:52If you do this again,
00:59:54I will hand you over to the police.
00:59:57The four year old.
00:59:59And he is like, I will be handed over to the police.
01:00:02Yes.
01:00:06He will never be handed over to the police.
01:00:09Hmm?
01:00:12If you repeat this,
01:00:14I will hang you out there to dry.
01:00:20The kid is never going to be hung up there to dry.
01:00:29Getting it?
01:00:31The minds of those who are attached to pleasures and prosperity get bewildered.
01:00:42Basically he is saying you get mad.
01:00:44If you are someone who runs after pleasure, happiness etc.
01:00:48Then you simply become insane.
01:00:50You will not even know what is happening to you.
01:00:52And you will just keep wondering.
01:00:54Why did this happen? How did this happen?
01:00:56But I didn't want this to happen.
01:00:58How did this happen?
01:00:59The reason is that you give so much importance to pleasure.
01:01:04And that's a choice.
01:01:07Somewhere you are still holding on to that hope.
01:01:14I can have both.
01:01:19Hmm?
01:01:20Liberation and ingratiation.
01:01:21Can't I have both?
01:01:29Can't I have both?
01:01:33The ego is greedy, you see.
01:01:36Can't I be liberated?
01:01:38While enjoying the fruits of bondage?
01:01:45Hmm?
01:01:52The mind gets bewildered.
01:01:53The mind gets bewildered.
01:01:54When the mind gets bewildered, how will you understand the Gita?
01:02:02And then you wonder, huh?
01:02:07Minus 2.2%?
01:02:08What kind of performance is this?
01:02:15I listened to the session three times.
01:02:18You listen to the session just three times.
01:02:21You are listening to yourself 3000 times per day.
01:02:29The entire sermon is in negativa.
01:02:32First of all you stop doing this, that and that.
01:02:38You still go to your favourite deities every morning.
01:02:44And ask for your favourite things.
01:02:46And then in the night sometimes, occasionally, accidentally,
01:02:56out of sheer misfortune, you listen to the Gita.
01:03:00And then you hope that you will top the exam.
01:03:11Will that happen?
01:03:13This is the one mistake each of you is making.
01:03:19You want to somehow reconcile Gita with the existing structure
01:03:26of your beliefs.
01:03:29You want to force fit Gita.
01:03:31You don't want to dismantle your existing structure.
01:03:34You have your little sand castle.
01:03:45And you want to park the bulldozer of Gita within that sand castle.
01:03:50How big is your sand castle?
01:03:54Firstly, it is of sand.
01:03:56And secondly, how big is it?
01:03:58This big.
01:04:00Because you are three year old.
01:04:01And Gita is like a bulldozer.
01:04:03And Gita is like a bulldozer.
01:04:14What is the registration number?
01:04:16N-E-T-I-0-0-0-0.
01:04:20It raises everything down.
01:04:22N-E-T-I-0-0-0-0-0-0.
01:04:25Nothing remains.
01:04:28No, just three are sufficient.
01:04:31Only three gunas in prakriti.
01:04:33The bulldozer of Gita.
01:04:35Number plate?
01:04:37N-E-T-I-0-0-0.
01:04:41And very happily.
01:04:42happily. Such sweet ignorance. You are saying you know, bring the bulldozer, I will park
01:04:57it in my existing paradigm. How will the Gita fit in?
01:05:12How? It's like trying to fit an elephant into an aunt's house. Even that might be possible.
01:05:26But it is not possible to reconcile Gita with the belief system you have, with the religious
01:05:35system you have, with the life system you have. You don't want to change that. And you
01:05:45still want to benefit from the Gita. That cannot happen. It's an either or thing, mind you.
01:05:54Krishna himself is saying that. What can I do? And he looks a bit upset. He is saying if you don't
01:06:05meet the criteria then go away. Just that when you will go away he will run behind you and
01:06:15by hook or crook he will, you come here, sit. You think you are so smart he will run away.
01:06:26You will go away only when I kick you away. The definite knowledge of the self is not for such people.
01:06:50So these six or eight kinds of people. And he is saying, and there is this beautiful word
01:06:57that comes here. Vevasaytmika buddhi. Vevasaytmika buddhi. Not the kind of intellect that meanders.
01:07:17definite intellect. Intellect that is devoted to the definite is not for these kind of people.
01:07:32Don't bring your self, your beliefs, your desires to the Gita. I repeat, they are incompatible.
01:07:47It sounds commonsensical, you know. I am a Hindu. I follow the Hindu religious path. The common
01:08:07religion as it is widely practiced by the commoners. I do all that. And Gita too belongs to the Hindu
01:08:19fold. Therefore there will be some congruence. There will be no congruence. There is no compatibility.
01:08:31It's not that if you are a Muslim or a Christian, then the Gita is not for you. Be ready for the shocker.
01:08:46The Gita is not even for the common Hindu. Anybody who believes in a particular line of thought,
01:08:56of idea, of bias, becomes unfit for Gita. Does not matter whether he is a Muslim or a Christian or a Buddhist or a Jain or a Hindu.
01:09:12If you are rooted in the Islamic theology, obviously the words of Krishna will not make sense to you.
01:09:25Similarly, if you are rooted in the Hindu theology, the words of Krishna will not make sense to you.
01:09:33Because Gita is not theology. Gita is philosophy. Gita is not belief system. Does not matter where the belief system is coming from.
01:09:44The belief system could come from Africa. It could come from the Middle East. It could come from China.
01:09:50Or it could come from India. How does it matter? A belief system is a belief system.
01:09:56Those who are wedded to their belief systems become unfit for the Gita.
01:10:07There is Kesar Bhatt from Jammu. He is asking, Acharya Ji, how can one refer to Vedas without desire, when one's, when ego's actions inherently stem from desire?
01:10:19No, you can go to the Vedas with desire. Very well said. Obviously, if you are a patient, you will go to the doctor with the disease.
01:10:30But you cannot go to the doctor with the intent to keep the disease. You are not being told, become healthy, become totally fit and only then approach the doctor.
01:10:43That would be stupid to say. Right? What you are being told is, you cannot be attached to your disease while going to the doctor.
01:10:56Attachment, in fact, is a small word. We are identified with our disease. We are our disease. Who am I? I am my own disease.
01:11:07And with this mind, when I go to the doctor, the doctor will fail on me. In fact, the doctor will look and sound so much like an enemy.
01:11:18So, carry the disease because you are helpless in that regard. You are the sick person. So, obviously, you will go to the doctor and the disease is there.
01:11:29But at least, we are ready to make the right choice. Intent matters, no?
01:11:36When you say, how can I drop desire? Why can't you have the desire to be free of disease?
01:11:43Yes, you must have desire. But if you must desire, then why not desire to be free of your disease?
01:11:52Good morning, everyone.
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