Class Summary for Feb 11, 2025 - Recap of Chapters 1 - 4, and Intro to Chapter-5

Summarized by:  Yamini

Recap of what the class does and and does not:
Dos: 

We do meditation and prayers before class.

We talk about the meaning of the slokas and how they apply to our daily life.

Everyone participates in the class.

The expectation is that we read before the class, so we can have some lively discussions in class.

Don’ts :

We do not learn how to chant or learn sanskrit

Not a parenting or pravachan class.

We discussed the summary of each of the chapters until chapter 5.

Chapter1: Arjuna vishada yoga

Starts with Dhrutarastra asking Sanjaya to narrate what is happening in the battle field. Duryodhana is accessing his army and naming all the amazing warriors in his army and feeling contempt that the Pandavas army is very limited. 

Arjuna asks Krishna to take him to the middle of the battle field. Arjuna had prepared himself for the war for a long time. And when he comes to the battlefield, he looks at his cousins and also his teacher and Bhishma Pita Maha who brought him up. And Arjuna starts to identify with myself, I and mine. Because of the attachment he didn't want to fight with his own guru and cousins. He starts to question if fighting with his own relatives just for the sake of throne is right  and he goes into a state of mental weakness( Arjuna sthithi). He tries to rationalize his actions. In the end, Arjuna collapses.

Throughout chapter 1, Krishna, just listens to all the questions that Arjuna asks and it's in chapters 2 when he starts answering the questions

This chapter represents how the various characters actually are tendencies within us.

Bhisma is the pseudo ego. Drona is Vasanas within us.  

Anything that brings you away from the spiritual path is considered as a negative tendency. And anything that promotes spirituality is considered a positive. 

Chapter 2 : Sankya Yoga

In this Chapter, Krishna starts to answer Arjuna’s questions. Chapter 2 is a summary of the entire Bhagawad Geeta. It marks a pivotal moment where Bhagwan begins the teachings to a despondent Arjuna. Arjuna is on the brink of despair in the battlefield. And he questions the value of war and the morality of fighting his own kith and kin. Bhagwan responds by urging Arjuna to rise above his attachments and emotions. Emphasizing that the soul is eternal and cannot be destroyed, he teaches Arjuna the difference between the body, which is temporary and transient, and the soul, which is immortal. He also tells Arjuna to perform his duty as a warrior. He is a kshatriya and he needs to perform his duty as a warrior without being attached to the results and thus promoting the concept of karma yoga or selfless action. Bhagwan talks about performing one's duties without attachment to the results, the Karma yoga, which is seen as a step towards developing devotion and surrendering to the divine world. Bhagwan also explains that true wisdom comes from realizing one's own divine nature and understanding the self as separate from the mind of the body. Sankhya Yoga involves disciplined mental and emotional control leading to spiritual wisdom. The control of the mind, is what caused Arjuna his troubles in chapter 1. And the Bhagawan tells Arjuna to transcend his confusion and his doubts through his inner strength. He provides a glimpse of spiritual knowledge to him in this chapter Some people argue that, you know that you can just stop at chapter 2. It has a gist of the whole Bhagawad Geeta. Here it teaches that we should have equanimity and should not get carried away by success or failure and how to have devotion in our work thinking whatever we do is for God. It outlines that there are different paths to achieving salvation, attaining knowledge, and reaching Bhagwan. And that's what is outlined in Gyana yoga, karma yoga and Bhakti yoga. Karma yoga is a path of action, it is how you devote everything to God and every action to God. You are involved in the world, but at the same time thinking about God. Your mind is poised because you're thinking about God and not looking for success and results in everything. Gyana Yoga is understanding your scriptures, understanding the meaning behind things. 

This Is given the analogy to the medicine. Sankhya yoga or the Brahmanya yoga and Gyana yoga, is like surgery, everything is ripped apart and put back everything together.

If karma yoga is secondary medicine, bhakti yoga is supplementary medicine. There is a lot of post surgery care that is involved and you have to take the secondary and supplementary medicine. In our daily lives in the Kaluga we need to keep doing sadhana. Karma yoga is intertwined with it. We need to practice both aspects to be able to complete the journey and reach the ultimate goal. This chapter beautifully explains that a person is going to look the same after attaining moksha. There will not be a halo around him. The change is going to be only internal.

Bhagwan also tells Arjuna how a king should behave and how a teacher should be, the teacher or anyone higher in a position should behave because everybody looks up to them. And he says Arjuna shouldn't quit the war because history is going to look at how he handled. Arjuna's has a new dilemma. Bhagwan gave all of the gyana in one shot in Chapter 2. He spoke about the faith you need to do all of this. And then he spoke about when somebody does all of this, this is what he's going to look like right into the day. Arjuna gets completely confused.because Bhagawan  just bombarded him with with lots of information, in Chapter 2. He is now confused what Krishna really wants him to do. 

Chapter-3: Karma Yoga

Bhagwan starts expanding on all of the topics in Chapter 2. Clarifying Arjuna's questions 1 by 1. One of these topics in the form of karma yoga being expanded . In slokas 36 to 43, Arjuna is asking Bhagwan about that contradiction between performing actions and the pursuit of spiritual wisdom. He is asking which path of knowledge is superior. People still have to perform actions in the world leading to to the temptation to indulge in worldly desires. Bhagwan is responding that desires and actions are rooted in the gunas, He talks about the 3 qualities of nature, the Sattva, Rajas and Thamas that govern human behavior and further explaining that  one’s actions are influenced by these gunas and it's essential to transcend them in order to be free from attachment and bondage.

Chapter 4: Ghana Karma Sanyasa yoga

Chapter 4 is where Krishna says to Arjuna that this knowledge has been passed through many. He has passed it to Manu and.Ikshwaku and Vivaswan. Arjuna doubts how Krishna taught all of them when he knew they were born during the same time. Bhagavan goes on to explain that he knows the number of times he and Arjuna have taken birth and how he remembers but Arjuna does not. He continues to explain what is an action and what is enlightenment. What are the different types of ignorance from sutler to grosser.And how Yagna will help us to get into wisdom and how it helps to gain the knowledge . The 12 Yagnas are covered here and describes which one each can pursue. There are some very famous slokas in this chapter. One says ‘you approach whatever way you approach me, I will reciprocate in that manner’ and the one which we recited before eating food and so all those things.In one of the slokas Krishna says ‘if you do karma yoga properly, all your sanchita karma also gets exhausted’.  We also have ‘Chaturvarna Maya Srushtam’. This is where he teaches us the technique of surrendering the action to the lord. We also talk about action in inaction and inaction in action. How somebody is feverishly acting, doing all kinds of things, but internally he is completely grounded. He is not stressed. That's inaction in action. And then the other way is action in inaction when somebody is in the meditation seat or sitting idly and rigorously contemplating.There is a lot of energy going to and fro, but to the outside world They are not doing anything.

From chapter 1 and 2 we see how Krishna the teacher behaved. He was silent until the student said ‘Please, I am thoroughly confused’.That is when Krishna starts to teach. Until then he is silent. This teaches us when to offer advice to somebody else. Uncalled advice or unasked advice is always unwell. 

Bhagavad Gita teaches us how to live your life on a day-to-day basis. Even if we don't make any progress spiritually, those lessons are enough to make us better. 

Our toolkit or our Sadhana package is a good way to start the various yogas. It includes 

• wake up prayer or a good thought- doing morning prayer in the alter or wherever we usually do. Starting the day with a good thought and thanking the lord for the opportunity. 

• Doing Yoga/Pranayama/Meditation whenever we can -5 to 10 min of each is a good start

• Daily Shravanam - listening to or viewing  spiritual teaching or devotional stories and bhajans during commute or whenever we can.

• Regular walks or exercise while mentally reflecting on what we have learnt

• Aahara jagna- Trying to control food intake wherever possible. Or atleast have control over our desire for our favourite foods.

• Volunteering without expectations- Volunteering without expecting anything in return or volunteering not just because it benefits your immediate family in any way.

• Introspection before sleep- Thinking and analysing about any strong emotions we have through out the day and keeping a journal of the time it took to get over each of those feelings. It'll put our mind on notice that we are not going to do these things without any repercussions. Do a thought parade of what happened in our lives on that day. 

Anything that we have done in the past will have an effect on future. That effect is nothing but  present. Based on the prarabda karma we are put in certain situations. How we react to thse situations and what further actions we do decides whether more vasanas are accumulated or the collected one’s are exhausted. It is like a log that is floating in the river, it flows along with current of the river if nothing happens. But when a small motor is attached to this and a little bit of a steering capability we have some flexibility to accelerate, slow down, steer. Our free will is like the motor which will help us in accelerating our path to moksha. We need to perform all actions with the right attitude the cause effect cycle will be modified.

Chapter 5- In the next chapter, the initial 2 slokas talk about karma sanyasa yoga or karma yoga. There's a subtle difference between the 2. In Karma yoga, we perform the action with the right attitude by which the action is surrendered compared to karma sanyasa yoga,

The next chapter (chapter-6) will be fully about meditation. How do you do, what do you do? What pose, where to do? In the next class we can see further of Chapter 5.

Recomended books:

Mahabharta by shri rajagopalachari 

‘Many live, Many masters’ and  ‘Same soul, many masters’ by Brian Weiss