Class Summary for Sep 19, 2023 - Chapter-1 Slokas 32 - 47

Summarized by: Yamini 

Summary of Last week: Arjuna was overwhelmed with emotion.

Meditation, introspection and Japa are 3 sadhanas to keep us centered.

Japa is a good way to bring us back to Meditation.

Why did Krishna stop the chariot right in front of Dhronacharya and Bhishma?

Why was Arjuna sad: Because his reasoning was centered in himself rather than the bigger picture.

Aatatayi is a person who commits one of the 6 worst crimes a human can commit. Duryodhana committed all of them, but Arjuna was willing to excuse all of them and leave the battle field.

Chapter 1- Shlokas 32-38

Act out of sympathy for yourself when you try to do something that you are not supposed to do.

How are we able to moderate /balance our desires?

When you are challenging yourself to do the right thing, observe what excuses/reasoning you are giving yourself for not doing what it right.

This week:

We completed chapter 1

After every chapter we repeat the first Shloka of the chapter once.

Chapter 1- Shlokas 40-47

In these Shlokas, Arjuna shifts from thinking about the effects of this war on himself and his family to the effect of war on families.

He laments thus:

War will destroy everyone in the battlefield, which will leave all the women widowed and children orphaned and destroy families. That in turn will cause destruction of traditions and dharmas. Unrighteousness will follow and prevail due to this imbalance.  As a result Varna Sankaram (mixing of races) will occur.

Varna sankaram creates a lot of friction in society and the daily rituals that keep everything in balance will faulter.

Offsprings might become misguided, and the peace and stability of society might collapse.
Not following ancestral customs will lead the men to hell including those that caused all of this begin with. 
Arjuna is thinking about what the world might think of his decision.
He is ready to stand in the battlefield unarmed and be killed by the Kauravas instead of fighting the war.

When we panic, we try to rationalize our fears. Arjuna is doing the same thing here. 

We have introduced 2 key things in our daily routine before: Meditation and introspection.

3rd one we need to add is Daily Journal. Spend 5 min before introspection to think and jot down about how many times we felt strong emotions (stress, anger, sadness) that day. And how was the intensity and how long it took for you to recover.

Look back about every 3-6 months to see how it is changing.

The class was divided into breakout rooms for discussion. We will be presenting our discussed thoughts next week.

Discussion groups:

1. Sanjaya – who am I ?

2. Arjuna – the distinguished warrior!

3. Duryodhana – is he ready for the throne?

4. Achyuta- who am I ?

5. Dhritarashtra – King or father ?

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