Bhagavad Gita – Chapters 14-18 Summary

[Silence] Om Saha Navadhu, Saha Navanaktu, Saha Virdyan Karava Vahai, Tejas Vinavadhi, Tamastu Mavid Vishavahai, Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Good, welcome back. We are still trying to conclude our study of the Bhagavad Gita, and I say that with a smile because our class has been interrupted several times. It was in India for a couple of weeks, and then we had the very nice memorial service. It was so nice to see all of you at the memorial service. Last week was very touching to see your commitment, and it was very, very important for me, also just to share that with all of you. So today will be our final day of review. We've been reviewing the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita using both the outline. I hope you've printed out that outline. We'll talk about that in a moment, and using the English version, so we can get the overview. But we've been beginning each class with recitation of Gita Dhyanam, and we'll do that today as well. Very beautiful. Verses, the first, there are nine verses in Gita Dhyanam, the first, says, "Talk to Art and these verses," as you know, traditionally recited before recitation of the Bhagavad Gita, and we're reciting them today. The first of the verses, the Bhagavad Gita, which was taught to Arjuna by Lord Narayana himself, compiled by the Rishi Vyasa and Mahabharata, the sacred reign of nectar in 18 chapters. So Mother Gita, I venerate you, destroyer of suffering, the verses are quite poetic, quite lovely. Repeat after me, please. O Partha, yaprati boditam bhagavata, O Partha, yaprati boditam, Narayana Swayam, Narayana, Vyasa Nakrati Thampuran, Munina, Vyasa Nakrati Thampuran, Madhya Mahabharata, Adwaitamrta varsha neem bhagavatim, Adwaitamrta varsha neem bhagav, ashtada shadhyaya neem, ashtada shadhyaya neem, ashtada shadhyaya, Ambatwa Manusandadhami, Ambatwa Manusand, bhagavad Gita bhagav, ashtada shadhyaya neem, bhagavad Gita bhagav, ashtada shadhyaya neem, salutations to you, Vyasa, whose intellect is vast, whose eyes are like petals of a lotus by whom the lamp filled with the oil of the Mahabharata was lit with a flame of knowledge. Namostu Thay Vyasa Vishalabuddhe, Namostu Thay Vyasa Vishalabuddhu, hullara vindayata patra neetha, hullaya vindayata patra neetha, yena twaya bhara tatayla purnaha, yena twaya bhara tatayla purnaha, prajwali tognyana maya pradipaha, prajwali tognyana maya pradipaha. Salutations to Krishna, who blesses the surrendered, and whose hands are a staff and a symbol of knowledge whom milks the nakitha's nectar. Prapanaparija tha ya prapanaparija, tohtra vetra kapanaya tohtra vetra kapanaya, yana muddraya krishna ya, yana muddraya krishna, yitam rataduhe namahagitam rataduhe namah. The Upanishads are cows, Krishna the cowherd, Arjuna the calf, and we, the wise people, enjoy the sacred nectar, milked from the gita. Sarvopanishadogavosa, dogdha gopala nanda naha, dogdha gopala naha, harto vatsasudhir bhokdha, harto vatsasudhir, dogdha mgitamratamahata, dogdha mgitamratamahata. I revered Krishna, teacher of all, Sanu Vasudeva, destroyer of Kansa and Chanura, the light of Devaki together. Vasudeva, Vasudam Devam, Kansa, Chanura, Mardanam, Devaki, Paramanandam, Krishnam, Vandeja, Gadguru, Bhisma and Drona are the river, just a metaphor. The river represents the battlefield. The battlefield of the Mahabharata, metaphorically represented by a river. Bhisma and Drona are the river's bangs, chai dhrata, its water. Shakuni, blue lily, shalya, a shark, krpa, its current, karna, the waves, sushwasama, vikarna, crocodiles, and duryodhana, of course, is the world pool, sucking everyone in. This river of battle was crossed by the Pandavas with Sri Krishna as the boatman. Bhisma, Drona, tata, chai dhrata, chala, Bhisma, Drona, tata, chai dhra, Gandhar, nilot, pala, Gandhar, nilot, pala, shalya, kravati, krpa, na vahni, shalya, kravati, krpa, karna, the waves, karna, kula, karna, the waves, sushwasama, vikarna, kora, makara, sushwasama, vikarna, kora, duryodhana, baritanin, duryodhana, baritan, sotirna, kalupanda, vaharananadi, sotirna, kalupanda, vahar, kai vaharthaka, keshavaha, kai vaharthaka, keshavaha, the Mahabharata, which is a lotus born of Vyasa's words whose fragrance is a Gita, whose petals are the stories blossomed by Sri Krishna's discourse. It is enjoyed each day by the good people of the world. It destroys, suffering, may it, the Mahabharata bring us liberation. Parasharya, vachasarroja, mamalam, parasharya, vachasarroja, Gitaartagandhot, kattam, Gitaartagandhot, nana kyaanaka, keshavaha, rikata, nana kyaanaka, keshavaha, sambhudhana, boditam, loke, sadjana, shadpa, raha, raha, loke, sadjana, shadpa, raha, epiya, manam, muda, epiya, manam, muda, bhuyad, paratha, pankha, jankarimala, bhuyad, paratha, pankha, jankali, pradvamsi nashreya, saa, pradvamsi nashreya, saa. I revered Sri Krishna, sora savananda, whose grace, by whose grace, the mute become eloquent and the lame cross mountains. Mughankaroti vachalam, mughankaroti vash, pangong langaya te gireem, pangong langaya te, yat krepa tamaham vande, yat krepa tamaham, parama nanda madhavam parama mandam. And the last verse, "Salutations to God" praised by Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra and Ramaruts, invoked by chanting the Vedas in Upanishads, the one who yogis realize with meditative minds, the one whose greatness is not known even to the devas and demons. Yam Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra, Maruta, Yam Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra. Vedai Sangha Padakra Mo Panishadire Vedai Sangha Padakra Mo Par Gayaanti Yamsama Gayaanti Yamsama Dhyana Vastita Tadkatena Manasam Dhyana Vastita Tad Vashyanti Yams Yogi No Vashyanti Yams Yogi No Yes Yantana Vedusura Suragana Yes Yantana Vedusura Devaya Tasmai Namaha Devaya Tasmai Namaha Very nice. If you like to have a copy of this to chant at home, you're supposed to put it on our website as is that summary we've been using and that's what we want to return to right now. We've been using this summary which gives for each chapter. It gives a summary of the contents of each chapter on the far left column. Remember the one speaking here, K meaning Krishna, then it shows the verse numbers, the subject matter and on the far right side is important verses, verse numbers. And I encourage you to get a copy of this from our website, print it out. It'll be a great reference and a purpose of this summary as I've mentioned before is so that in the coming months and years when you want to find something in the Bhagavad Gita, you know where to look. Otherwise, if you have a particular verse in mind, if you have to look through all 700 verses to find it, you won't bother. But with the help of this outline, I bet you can locate in just a few minutes the verse or topic you're looking for that's a purpose. And remember that in our earlier summary classes we discussed how the Bhagavad Gita is comprised of three. In English, "Septad" is that? No, "Septad" is seven. I'm not sure heptad. Not sure the Latin for a group of six. Anyway, in Sanskrit, "Septad" is six groups, three groups of six chapters. It falls into this hexad. Okay, whatever it is. So here, we have come to the final set of six verses, six chapters, which is chapters 13 through 18, which could be related to the word "Asi" in the Mahavakya, Thatwamasi, and the subject matter of these, I'm sorry, final six chapters is most glay, Nyanam, in our last class, Nyanam, knowledge, spiritual knowledge. Spiritual knowledge and that, which is required for the sake of spiritual knowledge. In our meditation session, we had a lot of discussion about the preparation of the mind, and some of you will remember that in chapter 13, there's a set of twenty values, a manitwam, a dhambitwam, a hymnsa, et cetera, et cetera, which is verses seven through eleven. So verses seven through eleven, giving you those values, giving you that kind of knowledge, which is required to prepare your mind for the Vedantic wisdom, the Vedantic knowledge. And we saw in our last class, we saw chapter 13, so we're going to set that aside, move on to chapters 14 through 18, and I want to point out that the subject matter of Nyanam includes knowledge of the mind. In fact, it's nice, we had that long discussion and the meditation session, most of you were here, where we discussed how there's such a problem with the mind's capacity to remove obstacles to knowledge. There's so many obstacles to gaining this knowledge, those obstacles are in our mind, and so it's not surprising that a good amount of teachings in the Bhagavad Gita is devoted to addressing the problems of our mind. In fact, it's possible no other scripture pays so much attention to our minds. And you might think the yogasutras of Patanjali does focus on the mind, but only from a standpoint of meditation, not so much in a general sense. On the other hand, the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita, in particular chapters 14, 16, 17, and 18, chapters 14, skip 15, but then 16, 17, and 18, which means a great part of this final section of the Bhagavad Gita is dedicated to knowledge of your mind. It's very psychological in nature. Chapter 14, which we'll see in just a moment, is dealing with the three goonas, the three qualities, three qualities of your mind. Then in chapter 16, we come to the divine and demonic attributes of your mind. In chapter 17 and the first half of chapter 18, you'll see it's deeply rooted in the use of the three goonas as a mode of explanation for our behavior and how our minds work. So it's a very wonderful psychological analysis, mostly based on the three goonas. The three goonas, you remember, Subtva, Regis, Thomas, refer and referring to qualities of our mind, but not just qualities of the mind. In ancient times, as you might recall from our past discussions, these three goonas were part of the world view. World view means the world consists of three goonas. Just as we consider, based on modern science, we consider the world to be made of matter and energy. In the same way, in ancient times, in a pre-scientific culture, they consider the world to be composed of these three goonas. Subtva, the principle of purity and balance, Regis, principle of activity and passion, and Thomas, principle of darkness and lethargy. And if the entire world is made of three goonas, is your mind part of the world or not? That's it. So therefore, that three-fold analysis is applied to the mind, starting with chapter 14, Guna, Traya, Vibhaga, Yoga, the Vibhaga, the separation of the Guna, Traya of the three goonas. To get the overview of the chapter, we're going to continue to use the English version, English version, which shows some place here. And for the first verse, you can listen and repeat, then we'll recite together. And the reason we've returned to this English version is it allows us to get a summary of the chapter very quickly. I may pause us in our chanting several times to explain as we go through. Let me check my notes. Okay, so you'll see it in the opening part after a very brief introduction. We go right into a discussion of the three goonas. First verse, we can listen and repeat, then we'll chant together. To you, again, I shall declare the highest knowledge, hold to me, the highest knowledge, hold knowing which all the sages reached, knowing which all the sages, the goal supreme from bondage freed, the goal supreme from bondage will chant together. Satva, Rajas, Thomas, these three are qualities from nature born, they all bind the eternal self to the body, this finite form. Satva free from impurity, shine so perfect and flawlessly, yet it binds by attaching one to both knowledge and happiness, Rajas, passionate tendencies, born of craving and clinging love, binds every soul embodied here through attachment to selfish works, Thomas rising from ignorance, causes delusion for mankind, it binds one by negligence, sleep and lethargy. Each of these three can dominate, is stronger than the other two, when such The light of knowledge will arise when Rajas rises these and so. Great agitation and desire with thomas for most these emerge. Delusion, error, lethargy from Satwa one gains high herbers. And due to Rajas, mundane births, those remaining hintamas slow. To inferior herbers descend, but when this truth is recognized, these qualities to cause all acts, knowing what is behind the three, one attains to my state supreme pause here. Just a very important teaching, just a point out. These three qualities are qualities of your mind. And we do following the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, including these highly psychological teachings, we do work our best at improving the quality of our minds. And as I said earlier, we need to improve our minds sufficiently for the sake of gaining this Vedantic wisdom, the knowledge of the ancient rishis. But let's be very careful here. Our minds are composed of the three goonas, which are aspects of nature, prakratis, a word used in chapter 14. And the question is, through this process of improving the mind, which is natural, when will the natural mind attain a condition of perfection? Huh? Perfection? In nature, please go outside and find a perfect tree, perfect tree defined as a tree that has no broken branches, no decay, no missing bark, no dead leaves. Find one tree like that. Do you remember? Many years ago, I made a joke that some of you will remember this. I called this a Martha Stewart designer tree. A perfect tree. Well, that perfect tree might exist in a store made of plastic. But in nature, there is no such tree. Nature is what it is. And the reason we're making this point is, let's be very clear, our minds will never achieve a state of perfection any more than our bodies can achieve. A state of perfection, we're not after a state of mental or physical perfection, we're after knowledge. Knowledge that removes the ignorance that causes suffering. Fortunately, you don't need a perfect mind for the sake of this knowledge. You need an adequately prepared mind. And the teachings that we're seeing here in chapter 14 and elsewhere are plenty to help you get an adequately prepared mind. Let's be very clear, we're not seeking perfection. And just before we return to this, a favorite quotation of Fuji Swami Diananda is what? Many of you know this, right? He's famous for this statement. In psychology, there's no solution. Meaning there's no solution to the problem of imperfection. In Vedanta, there's no problem. He's famous for that statement. Think about it. Okay, let's continue. Verse 20. Transcending these three qualities embodied souls are then released from pain of birth death and old age attaining immortality. Arjuna said, "By what marks can I recognize those who transcend these qualities? How did they rise above the three? How do they act? Oh Lord, tell me." The blessed Lord said, "Observing within difference, undisturbed by the qualities knowing the three perform hallags. They remain firm and wavering, alike in honor and disgrace. Same for a friend and a me, abandoning whole selfish deeds. They transcend the three qualities, those who serve me unceasingly. Through devotional practices, transcending whole three qualities in Brahman, they are fit to merge." So, short chapter, it has just 27 verses, there's one more verse, which was not included in this summary. "To transcend the qualities means what? The qualities belong to the body and mind. To transcend the qualities of the body and mind, to transcend subtle register, this means to recognize your true nature as consciousness, satcharananda, which is utterly unaffected by the qualities of the body and the qualities of the mind. So, to recognize your true nature as consciousness is what it is to transcend the qualities and to return to our summary." So, here we have a brief summary of that chapter and notice, verses 5 to 8 unfolded the nature of the three gonas, the effects of each gonas, transcending the gonas, arginous question, who transcends, entry-christinous answer. So, if you have a question about gonas, what chapter will you turn to? Chapter 14, got it. Then, chapter 15. When you look at chapter at these last six chapters, chapters 13 through 18, chapter 15 sticks out a little bit. And it sticks out in a sense that it doesn't low very nicely. And we don't know how these teachings were compiled. We do know that one single person named Vyasa could not possibly have composed 100,000 verses of the Bhagavad-gita. That's just common sense. So, the Mahabharata was compiled and its compilation comes from many sources, many great saints, many great rishis, and we don't know how did chapter 15 get compiled there. One thing we do know, the fact that whatever has been compiled to be part of the Bhagavad-gita, is extremely important. So, by saying that chapter 15 sticks out, I'm not saying it shouldn't be there, I'm not saying it's that important, I'm simply saying it sticks out. That's all. It's really beautiful, it's really an important chapter, and it's really, I'm pausing and smiling, searching for a better word. I can't find a better word. If you want to say one of the chapters of the Bhagavad-gita is very "mystical." Chapter 15 is a very mystical chapter. Why? It uses some pretty obscure symbolism, chapter 15, called Purushottama Yoga. Purushottama, the highest aspect of Lord, was the final topic of the chapter. The chapter, however, begins with this strange metaphor of an Ashwatta tree whose roots are up in the heavens and whose branches extend into the earth. So, it begins with this very obscure mystical metaphor. It proceeds to talk about Ishura, who is present within us all, and it goes on to distinguish who is Purushottama, what is the highest aspect of Ishura, of which is Brahman, is the subject matter of the chapter. Let's see the English verses, and then we'll go through that. Right. We can chant together. So, it begins with this metaphor of the tree of life, and then it proceeds to talk about Ishura. When Sri Krishna says, "I abide in all beings," Sri Krishna is speaking as Ishura. So, Sri Krishna is speaking as Ishura says he abides in all beings. You'll see that's the second topic of this chapter. We'll chant together. The Blessed Lord said, "The tree of life has roots above. Vedic hymns are its many leaves, branches and roots hang down below." into the world of human hacks its form here cannot be perceived nor hit start its middle or end its trunk those sturdy can be cut by detachment the mighty hacks free from delusion and from pride with detachment they seek the self transcending whole heualities they attain the eternal state there the sun's light can never reach nor the light of the moon or fire reaching there they do not return that is my own supreme abode you see why I say this is mystical so it begins with that strange metaphor with a tree with its roots in the heavens and then talking about the the about about that there the sun's light can never reach nor the light or the moon of the moon or fire reaching there they meaning those who avid that detachment who seekish what are they do not return that is my own supreme abode we'll chant a part of myself in the world has become the eternal soul then that part drew unto itself body mind and sense faculties presiding over sight and touch hearing taste and the sense of smell ruling over the mind as well it perceives and enjoys all things it abides in the hearts of all with eyes of wisdom this is seen but those deluded and impure cannot see this though they may strive the brilliance of the sun above illuminating the world so vast and the splendor of moon and fire understand that light to be mine my energy pervades the earth sustaining whole the creatures I myself nourish every plant being the sap of life itself as the digestive fire within in every creature I abide united with their life and breath I consume all the foods a heat being the source of memory and of knowledge and reasoning I abide in the hearts of all through the Vedas I will pause here so this middle begins with that strange metaphor of the tree the middle part talking about each what is presence has a soul as the essence of every person and now we come to the last part very short chapter just 20 verses the last part talking about who is Puru Shottama what is that highest aspect of reality of Vishuddha in this world two beings exist perishing hand and perishing creatures are all perishable but their souls perish not at all beyond these to his the highest truth the fifth is called the self supreme having pervaded all the worlds the Lord sustains and blesses all since I transcend what parishes also the imperishable therefore I am the self supreme praised in his hand the world the undeluted know me well as the highest the self supreme the sun light and they worship me with their whole hearts and with their minds oh hard you now I have declared this most secret teaching of all knowing this truth one can become enlightened and fulfilled in life self supreme is a translation of Puru Shottama literally the highest person highest reality so this is chapter 15 which is only 20 verses long it's the shortest verse in the Bhagavad Gita chapter 12 also is only 20 verses most chapters are longer than that and to return to our summary Puru Shottama yoga so we see in the first verses the tree of world-day life we see in the middle part talking about Krishna who is within all beings the support of all beings and then finally we have the description of that supreme reality Puru Shottama which is beyond everything and knowledge of that and that is the very short chapter 15 following chapter 15 of course is what a question huh what follows if I'd ask you what is after chapter 15 G maybe sorry chapter 16 Daiva hasura sampat Vibhaga yoga as we hold title so yoga means subject matter or chapter name so the chapter which deals with the Vibhaga the division of sampat of these collections of collections of qualities which are either Daiva or asura Daiva means of the Devas godly divine asura means of the asuras that which is demonic so divine and demonic traits which are traits of human being this is we're back to psychology this is like a chopped this could be a chapter from a psychology book on personality types so it reads a little bit like that and of course the purpose of this is not to analyze the very important point let me make this I said this several times during our study of chapter 16 the purpose of the study is not for us to categorize others oh he's and we do this oh he's very roger sick oh he's so thomasic and now we have new words oh he has these these asura sampat no no no the purpose of these of these teachings is not to categorize or analyze others it's only for self understanding for us to understand our own quirks as it were every one of us has such a rages and thomas no human being is without rages and thomas in the same way no human being is without some asura qualities some demonic qualities Carl Jung the famous Austrian or German psychologist said that we all have a shadow that's true every person's mind has some dark elements and the point is we should know those dark elements there's a tendency many people have to avoid certain things in life and to avoid certain things on our own minds and hearts and to to try to avoid things in ourselves is both psychologically unhealthy and spiritually unhelpful by avoiding our defects by avoiding our bad qualities we first of all we fail to deal with them psychologically and secondly they become obstacles to our spiritual growth we must deal with them but one last comment before we see the English version in dealing with our shall we call them inner demons that's a nice term in dealing with our inner demons we can never afford to lose objectivity which means and this happens to some people we get so focused on our inner demons we get so focused on what's wrong with us we lose perspective and we fail to appreciate what's good many people have this problem we focus on our defects we focus on what's wrong with us because we all have problems but here's a huge trap you we all have many problems but without exception our good qualities far far out number are undesirable That's true for each and every one of us, our good quality is far outnumber our problems, but we may have a tendency to focus our attention on the problems and to ignore all those good qualities that leads to low self-esteem and a variety of psychological problems. It's extremely unhealthy, so as we go through this chapter, and also the next chapter and a half, we'll get more of this, more of this, all this psychological self-analysis, so let's understand clearly, this psychological self-analysis is crucial to uncover our hidden demons, our defects, our problems, to expose them to the light and to work at resolving those problems, but in that process, let us never lose perspective and become so narrowly focused on what's wrong that we fail to appreciate our many, many good qualities or many blessings. So we never want to lose perspective always to stay grounded in the objective view of who we are as good people, working hard to remove whatever problems or difficulties are there. So with that brief introduction, let us see the English version. This is chapter 16, Daiva Asura Sampat Vibhaga, and we'll chant together. So blessed, Lord said, charity, purity of heart, self-control and simplicity, piety and serenity, compassion, freedom from desire. Let me ask you, are we talking about Daiva or Asura Sampat, pretty obvious, don't you think? So what is kind of cute, I'm using that word cute, a little oddly here, it's cute that Sri Krishna in giving us this chapter, he gives us very briefly the Daiva Sampat at the beginning and what is the rest of the chapter? That's right, all right, let's continue, courage, patience and fortitude, modesty and benevolence, oh, how do you know these attributes are known as qualities divine, arrogance and hypocrisy, vanity and hostility, ignorance and like attitudes are considered demonic traits, divine traits unto freedom lead, demonic traits in bondage hold, oh, how do you know you need not grieve, you were born with the traits divine, in the world are two kinds of men, the demonic and the divine, demonic people falsely say, the world is godless and unreal, with minds depraved by such wrong views, they ravage the world with brutal hacks driven by unquenchable greed and by arrogance, pride and lust, bound by cravings a hundredfold, compelled by anger and desire, they seek to satisfy their thirst, hoarding wealth gain by unjust means, thinking, who is as great as me, led hastray by deluded thoughts ensnared by sensuality, into terrible hells they fall, I cast those low sum wicked, into demonic wombs again, deluded in birth after birth, they descend to the lowest plain, threefold are the main gates to hell, desire hanger, greed are they, those free from these domestic traits, can strive to reach the highest goal, but those who scorn the scriptures rules, heeding their own herges instead, they cannot gain the highest goal, nor perfection or happiness, therefore let scripture be your guide, for what should and should not be done knowing the precepts, their pre-scribed, you should have, have they so decree, very straight forward chapter, what a contrast to chapter 15, chapter 15 which was so mystical, this one is very, very practical, very down-to-earth, look inside and distinguish the inner demons from the inner saints, you know that Western depiction on one shoulder is the angel, other shoulder is the devil, so this has somewhat the same orientation here, in chapter 16, let's see the summary once again, very brief, where it opens, with Sri Krishna describing first the divine traits, then the demonic traits, goes on to talk about rebirth, due to demonic traits, and finally concludes that we need to use the scriptures for the sake of this analysis, for the sake of recognizing what is divine, and once again some reference verses on the right hand side, which can be useful for finding important verses. So chapter 16 is followed by 17, Shraddha, Triya, Vibhaga, Yoga, three kinds of Shraddha, Shraddha means faith, but we find in the chapter it's not limited only three kinds of Shraddha, three kinds of course, three kinds would mean Satvika, Shraddha, Rajasya, Shraddha and Tamasa, Shraddha, but then the chapter goes on to talk not only about three kinds of Shraddha, but three kinds of Ahara, food, three kinds of Yagnya, sacrifice, three kinds of tapas, austerity, and three kinds of Charity, Dhana, so all of us's analysis is analysis of our minds, analysis of our behavior, and if we remember our classes we focused a lot on motivation and link between mind and behavior, that's what we're talking about right, the nature of our mind and the nature of our behavior and the crucial link between mind and behavior is motivation, motivation is what arises in your mind and gives rise to behavior, so we spent a lot of time talking about what motivates us, what motivates us to have different kinds of food, what motivates us to partake in different kinds of activity, what motivates us to give charity, are we giving money out of the generosity of our spirit, or are we giving money to manipulate and control, or are we giving money, are we giving money to the wrong people, to the wrong organization, are you giving money to al-Qaeda, people do that, you know that, in this country people send money like that, so this is the idea, so charity, that's charity is it not, so this is the analysis, an analysis of our motivation, and then it concludes with this section on om tatsat, let's see the English version of chapter 17. Arjuna said, "Those who worship with faithful hearts, but ignore the scriptural rules, oh Krishna, how is their faith based on Satva, Rajas, or Thomas, the blessed Lord said, "O Arjuna, threefold is faith, according to one's temperament, people are molded by their faith, as they belive so they become, those who with Satva are endowed, offer their worship to the gods, those with Rajas, two spirits give, those with Thomas, two hordes of ghosts, Those who perform harsh penances, driven by ego and desire, torturing their own bodies thus, know them to have demonic traits, sacrifice penance, charity. Are also known of has three kinds, Satwik, Rajasaka, Masek, to their distinctions, listen now. Sacrifices called Satwik when performed in scriptural accord, not for the sake of gaining grace, but just because it should be done. Sacrifices, Rajasaka, when offered to gain desired hands or performed with hypocrisy, to appear pious and devout. Sacrifices, tamasek, when done despising scriptural rules, lacking mantras, devoid of faith without offering homes and food. Penances are called Satwik when done not for the sake of results, they are Rajasaka, when performed, to gain respect or reverence. Penances are tamasek when delusion casts its wicked spell and one's own body is abused or harmed to others is the goal. Charity is called Satwik when given at proper time and place to a deserving person who has never given gifts to you. Charity is Rajasaka when given with hopes of recompense or forgetting heaven's rewards or when given reluctantly. Charity is tamasek when given at the wrong time or place or given to unworthy ones or when given with this respect by the sacred invocation. Om Tatsat Om, that is the truth Vedic chanting and sacrifice where thus begun in ancient times. Therefore, home is recited first before whole acts of sacrifice or of penance or charity. Performed as scriptures, so hordain, sacrifice penance, charity without devotion, lacking faith, are worthless and will yield no fruits, not hear or hint one's future lies. And that is the end of chapter 17, Shraddha Triya, three kinds of Shraddha, but as you saw, it dealt not only with three kinds of Shraddha faith but three kinds of Ahara, food, three kinds of sacrifice, Yagnya, actually Ahara will come later, three kinds of tapas, austerity, three kinds of dana. Actually, the Ahara was left out of the summary and then ended with that section on Om Tatsat. The point of this chapter then is as another guideline for looking into our own hearts and asking ourselves what is the motivation for our behavior. And in that chapter, remember our discussion, I said the most difficult spiritual practice, but the spiritual practice that will lead to the maximum spiritual growth is a very simple practice. What is it? For everything you do, everything means everything. For everything you do to ask yourself the question, why am I doing this? When you go to work in the morning, why am I doing this? When you're eating food, why am I eating this? When you're watching TV, why am I watching that? It's a tough practice, but you will learn so much about yourself by asking that question, why? What is a motivation for every act? And that's really the essence of chapter 17, which leads us to chapter 18, chapter 18, having 78 verses, I think it's a longest chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. And if you look at, it's called Moksha Sannyasa Yoga, because it deals with that topic at the beginning, Moksha liberation, Sannyasa renunciation. But if you look down in look down to verses 19 and 22, three kinds of knowledge, three kinds again means Sato-Rajas-Thomas, so three kinds of knowledge, three kinds of action, three kinds of agent, three kinds of intellect, three kinds of resolve, three kinds of happiness. Do you see this three-fold analysis in terms of Sato-Rajas-Thomas continues in the first half of chapter 18. So this analysis began with verse with chapter 14, skip chapter 15, chapter 16 was psychological analysis, instead of three gunas, it was analysis in terms of Daiva and Asura, but then right back in chapter 17, three gunas. And here the first half of chapter 18, analysis in terms of three gunas, that comprises most of the first half of chapter 18, the last half of chapter 18 is a summary of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and a kind of leading out of the Bhagavad Gita, reconnecting the Bhagavad Gita to the story of the Mahabharata. We'll see that as we go ahead. I have to point out that in the summary, in the English verse summary that we're going to chant in just a minute, a lot of this material from verses 19 to 44 were omitted deliberately from that English version. And if you're wondering why was it omitted from the English version, the English version was actually written with children and teens in mind. And this particular material was material that I didn't judge. It looked like children and teens would not relate to it. Of course, I was very surprised to discover that not only children and teens like the English version, but as a result, this section is omitted. And that's the reason why it was omitted. Not that it's unimportant, but only that it was material that children couldn't exactly relate to. So our summary will be abbreviated, skipping these verses from 19 through 44. So let's turn to the English version of chapter 18, and we'll pause a couple of times just to observe what's going on. So you'll see that chapter 18 begins by turning to it's one of the favorite topics of the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna is still looking for an excuse not to fight. That started in chapter one, and two, and three, and four. And it continues here in chapter 18. Arjuna is still looking for a reason not to fight. And that's the opening topic. Then we get into that big topic of the analysis in terms of three gonas. We'll see that as we chant. Arjuna said, oh Krishna, this I want to know how to discern the difference between surrender of works, fruits, and renouncing the worldly life. The blessed Lord said, "To renounce His to cease from works, perform for one's own sake alone, surrender His to disown the fruits of all deeds as an offering sacrifice, penance, charity." These works are not to be renounced. They should be done not seeking fruits, but because they have been ordained. Does it sound like karma yoga? It should. So notice the prevalence of karma yoga as a topic. It was a prevalent topic in chapters two, three, four, and five. And here it comes back in a big way in chapter 18. In the entire Bhagavad-gita, one of the most dominant topics is definitely karma yoga. And we'll see that for another couple of verses here. This is Rajasic, performing actions as enjoying, without attachment to their fruits, Deeming them duties to be done. To renounce the sins that was view, not avoiding repulsive tasks, nor attached to delightful deeds, giving up the fruits of one's works. Chisatru renansiyat, and isn't that just what he said in chapters 4 and 5, where Shri Krishna showed Karma Yoga is a kind of renunciation. To renounce your own agenda, to renounce being motivated only by Raga Dhuysa, it's a kind of renunciation involved in Karma Yoga. Deluded people take the self to be the agent of all works, but those devise and egoless are not bound by their deeds at all, knowledge, knower and what is known. These impel actions of all kinds means of action, agent and act. His factors are involved as well, pause, and this is the section that is left out. And now we come to the last part of chapter 18, which is first comes a summation of some of the most important teachings of the Bhagavad-gita, a summary comes followed by the closing passages of the Bhagavad-gita. Those who worship the source of all, pervading the whole universe by fulfilling duties and joined, unto perfection they obtain, doing ones duties poorly though, surpasses doing others well, performing deeds rightly ordained, no one ever commits a sin, duty should never be foresworn, even when problems interfere, all deeds entail some obstacles like a fire enshrouded by smoke, those free from whole attachments here, disciplined and ever content, having seized from whole selfish deeds, they have renounced most perfectly, oh hard you now now learn from me, how one can gain the perfect state, how Brahman is to be obtained, through this knowledge the whole to met those endowed with intelligence, self-controlled and dispassionate purified and contemplative, in Brahman they are fit to merge, absorbed in Brahman they obtain, supreme devotion unto me, thus they know my reality, and thereafter they interme, go for refuge to that alone, with your whole heart, whole hard you now, then being blessed you will attain the state of endless peace, supreme, thus unto you I have explained of all knowledge the most concealed, reflect on this tirely, then go and do whatever you choose, be devoted and worship me, offer sacrifice unto me, then you shall surely come to me, this I promise for you, hard dear, abandon every other goal, and seek refuge in me alone, I shall release you from wholesome, be not sorrowful, do not grieve, arjuna have you listen now, with a completely focused mind, has your ignorance been destroyed, has your confusion been removed, arjuna said, oh Krishna by your holy grace, my confusion has been destroyed, and my composure has returned, as you command so shall I do, Sanjaya said, thus I heard this great dialogue of Lord Krishna and arjuna, this secret yoga I did here, directly from the Lord Himself, O King, as I recall once more, that remarkable dialogue I am hastanished and amazed, I rejoice again and again, where Krishna Lord of yoga is, with the great hard, hard, hard, you know, there is glory, victory, wealth, and most certainly righteousness, which concludes chapter 18, the final chapter of the Bhagavad-gita, and the first part of the summary we already looked at, and even though those verses are missing in the English, it is present in the summary, the summary is complete, so you can find reference to those three kinds of knowledge, three kinds of karma, etc., and then the last part, the perfection of action, quality is necessary for perfection, is still that topic of karma yoga, and then comes the summary, knowledge of Krishna, don't be overpowered by your nature, seek refuge in the divinity within, and then the closing sections of the Bhagavad-gita, the final instructions to arjuna, and what we've just seen, so, and the verses in the right hand side are very important verses, you can look at those verses, so I'd encourage you to get a copy of this summary, and it'll, it'll be a good resource, take this and stick it inside your Bhagavad-gita, that's it, so when you open up the Bhagavad-gita, this reference is right there and available for you, let me, before we conclude, some final comments, we want to make some final observations, the Bhagavad-gita is without the most widely studied Hindu scripture for a lot of good reasons, the primary reason, in my opinion, is that it offers profound spiritual teachings in the context of a battlefield, that battlefield, as you remember, is symbolic of our entire lives, so we could say that the Bhagavad-gita is spiritual teachings for the battlefield of life, very profound, very helpful, it's wonderful now to have finished teaching the Bhagavad-gita here in Asaśama for the third time, in 15 years, we're finishing it for the third time, I taught once before, so this is the fourth time, I've taught the entire Bhagavad-gita, I'm really looking forward to the fifth time, but not just yet, so why, because there are many other wonderful teachings, also teachings for the battlefield, what battlefield are we talking about, the battlefield of the Mahabharata, which is why, starting next week, next Saturday, we're going to start looking at other teachings for the Mahabharata, so the Bhagavad-gita, as you know, is a 700 verse excerpt from the Mahabharata, do you think it's the only 700 verses that are important in the entire 100,000 verse scripture, no, there are many, many, many actions, filled with profound Vedantic teachings that can help us tremendously, and again, set in that same context of the battlefield of life, so we'll begin that starting next Saturday, on our website, you'll find the, if you like to print out the slides in advance, you find the slides will be on our website, the recordings will also be on the website, and as I mentioned earlier, if you have a friend or relative who might like to join us coming at the beginning as a good thing, so they have a chance to come and join us in the beginning of our study of the Mahabharata, so the first class next Saturday will be an introduction to the Mahabharata, to get us oriented properly, before we go into those wonderful Vedantic teachings. I'm really looking forward to it. I've selected, I forget the number like 2,000,000 verses I've already selected, I can't remember how many. It'll probably take us three, four years. We spent four years going through this bug of a guitar, four years gone, what was happening today, months and years are just going anyway, are we in a hurry? Where are we going? We're in no hurry, there's nowhere to rush and get to. So we may spend three to four years going through other parts of the Mahabharata, and then after that we'll see if it's the right time for our fifth time of the Bhagavad-git, I don't know, we'll decide when we get there. So I'm looking forward to sharing all of that with you, and this has really been just wonderful for me to share these teachings of the Bhagavad-gita with you once again. Some announcements, tomorrow, Sunday at Arsha Vidya Gurukla, our parent, Ashram, in the Pokonos, they are having their memorial service for Pujaswamy Dayananda, as you know he passed away on September 23rd, his Mahasamadi was on at 23rd, so their memorial service is scheduled for tomorrow at 11.15 a.m. I invite all of you, I encourage you all to come. I'm going to be attending it, I'm also cancelling tomorrow morning's children's classes so that no one is restricted, so I guess it's my feeling very strongly that this is a time to come together and to offer our respect and reverence for Pujaswamadi and here's one more opportunity. You were all here, I think, for our memorial service last week, and as I said before, it was a wonderful memorial service, I'm sure their memorial will also be wonderful, so please come join us at Arsha Vidya in the Pokonos tomorrow at 11.15. Our evening classes will continue as normal, so 5 p.m. the mindful awareness meditation will occur tomorrow at 5 p.m. and the Satsang question answer period with me at 6.15. So please join us tomorrow evening. This coming Friday we have the second meeting of our new Sardakasanga program. The Sardakasanga means association of seekers, is a program meant to offer Satsang during the week and especially for people who are retired or who are home during the day. Many of you came last week, it's a nice program, it's a nice opportunity for Satsang, it's led by Vaisantish as a nice program planned. So if you're free on Saturday morning or if you know of someone who's like stuck at home and doesn't have anything worthwhile to do, encourage them to come or maybe even arrange a ride for them if they need a ride. So Sardakasanga program, Friday morning at 10 a.m. this coming Saturday, as I said, we will begin our study of the Mahabharata, invite anyone that you think might be interested, it's good to have them come for the first class. And two weeks from today we'll be celebrating Vidya at Dashami, so we'll have a celebration at that time. Library will be open after class and we'll conclude with our press.