Chapter No.7, Verse No.1, Bhagvat Gita

The word "Philosophy" is derived from the Ancient Greek - philosophía (compounded from phílos: friend, or lover and sophía: wisdom). To quote from WikiPedia, "Philosophy is the discipline concerned with the questions of what is the right way to live (ethics), what sorts of things ultimately exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics), what is to count as genuine knowledge (epistemology), and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).

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Pravin Kumar
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Chapter No.7, Verse No.1, Bhagvat Gita

Post by Pravin Kumar » Thu Dec 26, 2013 8:50 am

CHAPTER SEVEN



THE TWO NATURES

Chapter 7, Verse 1

Krishna says,

“Devote your whole heart to me,

Practice Yoga and

Take me for your refuge.

By doing these things,

You shall have the full vision of me

There is no doubt about it.”

Swami Shivananda:

“Those who practice Yoga with a steadfast mind, take refuge in the Lord alone, with their minds wholly fixed on him and on his lofty attributes of infinite love, beauty, grace, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, mercy, strength, inexhaustible abundance, ineffable splendor, pristine glory and purity.  Intense love for the Lord is real devotion.

Those who are trying to fix their minds on him unbrokenly cannot bear the separation from the Lord for even a moment.

The ordinary servant of an ordinary king, though constantly engaged in service, does not have his mind fixed on the king. His mind is fixed, rather, on his wife and children.  Unlike him, fix your mind on the Supreme Lord, the all-pervading one. Take refuge in him alone.  Then you will know him and his infinite attributes.  Sing the glory and attributes of the Lord, develop love for him, and then your mind will be ever fixed on him.”

Paramahansa Yogananda:

“I knew a Yoga practitioner in India who for years so enjoyed the practice of Yoga techniques that he forgot to love God. He was a spiritual robot…accomplished in the mechanics of Yoga but lacking its heart and spirit, which is God-communion.  The Lord is the maker of the laws of salvation.  It is necessary to practice Yoga techniques with faith and devotion in order to reach the all-knowing Father.  Yoga should therefore be practiced with deepest love and spiritual thirst for the Father of all.”

Sri Eknath Easwaran:

“Arjuna is every man and every woman, and in the Bhagavad Gita we have slipped into his heart to listen in on a dialogue between two levels in our own consciousness.  The voice we recognize belongs to the surface level of awareness…intelligent and well-intentioned, but full of doubts about the meaning of life and how we ought to live.  The other voice, so full of wisdom, is the voice of our real Self, the Lord of love, whether we call him Krishna or the Christ, Allah or the Buddha or the Divine Mother.

As long as we live for ourselves, dwelling on our own separate needs and problems, we cannot help identifying exclusively with our changing selves (Jivas).  It is very much like wearing a mask too long, so long that we think we are the mask and forget our essence.  But through the practice of meditation and its allied disciplines, all of us can learn to discover that which is beneath the mask: our real Self, the Atman, the source of all love, all security, all wisdom and all joy.”



[The Twilight Zone was one of my favorite TV shows growing up.  I only remember a couple of them and those memories are available because of the angst I experienced while watching them.  In this one particular one I am reminded of by Easwaran’s commentary, a theater troupe puts on a show and then retires to the dressing room to take off their costumes and go home.  The show was about monsters and so the make-up was creative; each face had been done up to portray frightening, Halloween-like spooks.  Punch-line: try as they might, none of the actors were able to remove the make-up.



Krishna assures us that no matter how deeply we become mired in the quicksand of illusion (exclusive identification with the mind/body complex), the immortal spark remains alive in the heart so that when we “hit bottom,” because of the Lord’s infinite patience, we will be able to embark upon the long road to the mountain peaks.  This should not make us complacent, for the deeper we sink, the more work there will be to pry off the masks of Maya.]



Ram Dass:



“The ego is an actor by trade.  As children learning to define this amorphous thing that we call our ‘selves,’ and to locate our place in the world, we are taught to draw boundaries across reality, gradually narrowing what we call ‘me’ to the narrow confines of the ego.  Once ‘separated’ from the world ‘out there,’ and all the other people in it, we proceed to construct an identity based on our likes and dislikes, the lessons we’re taught, the requirements of environment, our physical attributes, inherited traits, and experiences, as well as the myriad other conditions that determine our material and mental existence.



In its process of formation, the ego can be compared to an actor preparing for the stage.  It selects costumes, learns its lines, its timing, its gestures, its way of movement, even the choices of roles it may play when it leaves the dressing room and stands before an audience of other egos across the footlights.  Unlike an actor, however, who realizes that he or she is onstage playing a role, we tend to forget who we really are once we’ve taken the stage, like one whose mask becomes stuck to his face, hiding the true face underneath.”



Sri Aurobindo:



“Krishna is all and therefore if he is known integrally in his powers and principles, then all is known, not only the pure Self, but the world and action and nature.  It is only because our view is not integral, because it rests on the dividing mind and the separative idea of the ego, that our mental perception of things is an ignorance.  We have to get away from this mental and egoistic view to the true unifying knowledge, and that has two aspects, the essential Gyan, and the comprehensive Vigyan, the direct spiritual awareness of the supreme Being and the right intimate knowledge of the principles of his existence, Prakriti, Purusha, and the rest, by which all that is can be known in its divine origin and in the supreme truth of its nature.  That integral knowledge, says the Gita, is a rare and difficult thing.”



Srila Prabhupada:



“To hear from Krishna directly through the Bhagavad Gita is righteous activity.  For one who hears about Krishna, Lord Krishna, who is dwelling in everyone’s heart, acts as a best-wishing friend and purifies the devotee who constantly engages in hearing of him.  In this way, a devotee naturally develops his dormant, transcendental knowledge.  As he hears more about Krishna, he becomes fixed in the devotional service of the Lord.  By the development of devotional service, one becomes freed from the modes of passion and ignorance, and thus material lusts and avarice are diminished.  When these impurities are wiped away, the candidate remains steady in his position of pure goodness, becomes enlivened by devotional service and understands the science of God perfectly.”



(For Srila Prabhupada’s complete commentary on this verse, see “Bhagavad-Gita As It Is,”  pp. 321-323)
For detailed palm reading and spiritual guidance Consult at: pravinjsoni97@hotmail.com

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