Class Summary for Feb 13, 2024 - Chapter-2 Slokas 69 - 72

 Summarized by Rajesh

Question - Can we not receive enlightenment w/o God’s grace?

Discussion - Grace at the highest level could be that if we made some progress in our previous life, we will start from that point going forward.  An extreme example is Duryodhana - where he says he knows what the right thing to do is but he can’t do it - that essentially he hasn’t been touched by grace.  We should talk about grace in a positive sense, such as that out of 100+ people signed up for the Whatsapp group,  a dozen or so people found the grace to attend the class.

Gurudev quote on the chat:

When the frequency of our thoughts upon the Lord becomes as high as the frequency with which we now remember the ego-idea, we shall come to realise the Brahman-ideal as intimately as we now know our own ego.

Verses 69-72, completing chapter 2, are setting the stage to proceed to the next chapter.  Though Bhagavan talks about a sage, he will have to rope Arjuna back to Karma Yoga.  

Two ways of attaining Moksha:

• 2-step process (liberated to Brahma loka and then onto Moksha - will be discussed in subsequent chapters)
• Instantaneous process - if remembering the Lord at the end of our lives

Comment - Skeptical that by remembering God at the last moment, that all your Vasanas will be wiped away

Discussion - To remember God at the exact moment before our death, we will have to practice a lot ahead of it and therefore we would be burning away our Vasanas.  This is not as trivial as it seems and discussed more in Chapter 8.

Theme:

Day is considered as enjoying worldly attachment since it is full of activity

Night is considered as being detached from worldly attachment since we are sleeping

Example is of kids who don’t want to go to sleep and don’t want to stop playing with their toys

Key is to achieve a state of mind to overcome material desires, greed, ego and proprietorship (the I-ness - I did this, this is mine)

Gnana Yoga, summarized by ‘thinking of Me at the last moment’, is the final means of realization and true freedom 

Quote on the chat:  

Mark H McCormack, author of What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School writes: "Most corporate executives are one giant ego, with a couple of arms and legs sticking out." Statistics reveal that a majority of executives, who lose their jobs in the senior management level, do so not because of professional incompetence, but because of interpersonal issues.

Having the false ego caused us to stumble.  Keeping our ego in check is key to success and peace.

Video  for Verse 69

In the darkness of the night means you can’t see names and forms - no BMI, PFT & OET.  Our limited egos operate in the waking world, but a Master shuns this day and prefers the night.

Video for Verse 70

Example - Ocean is fed by many rivers but never overflows and is always full because of its vastness.  In the same way, even though desires enter the Master’s mind, their mind never ‘overflows’ or creates a reaction.  Most of us have a ‘lake’ or ‘tank’ of a mind - 1 desire and 22 gallons of ‘overflow’.

Karma Yoga tears up Vasanas.  But as space is created, new Vasanas can take up that space.  Bhakti Yoga can fill up that space, example was given of decluttering the hard drive on your computer.

For some small set of people, the 3 steps of Gnana Yoga itself might be sufficient for Moksha:

1.Shravanam

2.Mananam

3.Nidhithyasam

There was a picture shown of an overflowing suitcase, which we are familiar with as we get ready for a trip.  Our mind is like this overflowing suitcase and we need to declutter it.

Code of conduct for members (anecdote 82) from Swami Chinmayananda:

• By thought, word and deed, every member of the Chinmaya Mission should try to live up to and fulfil the motto as well as the pledge of the Mission
• He should spare time daily to do meditation and scripture study.
• Once a week, on any convenient day, he must offer worship at a nearby temple with the members of his family.
• He should discover a life of harmony first at home. It is expected of him that he does not, on any account, create any domestic unhappiness.
• If there are children at home, he will have at least once a week a Satsang at home consisting mainly of members of the family wherein reading of Ithihasas, like Ramayana and Mahabharata or Puranas like Bhagavatam, in a language the children know, would form an important part.
• When he meets another Mission member, he greets him with "Harih Om”
• Daily offering of pranams to the elders in the house by the younger ones should be followed and inculcated by the Mission members.

Our Motto: To give Maximum Happiness to the Maximum Number for the Maximum Time.

Quote about free will - something to ponder: 

Alone To Alone All Alone

• No Guru can take the responsibility; no scripture can #promise this redemption; no altar can, with its divine blessings, make the lower the #higher.

• The lower must necessarily be trained slowly and steadily to accept and come under the influence of the #discipline of the higher.
• In this process, the teacher, the scripture, and the houses-of-God, all have their proper appointed #duties and limited influences.
• But the actual happening depends upon how far we ourselves learn to haul ourselves out from the gutters of misunderstanding in ourselves.
• We are considered as both our own friend and our own enemy.The lower in us can raise itself to the attunement of the Higher, but the Higher can #influence only when the lower is available for Its influence.
• To the extent the lesser in us surrenders itself to the influence of the Higher, to that extent; It can serve the lower as a great friend.
• But if the lower refuses to come under the influence of the #Diviner in us, the Divine Presence is accused as an enemy of ourselves.
• The potentiality for improvement, the chances for self-growth, the #strengthto haul ourselves out from our own misconceptions, are ever open for employment. But it all depends upon how we make use of them.