Class Summary for Mar 11, 2025 - Chapter-5 - Slokas 16-18

Summarized by: A K Srinivasan

The class started with opening prayers, pranayama and meditation followed by a summary and recap of last week’s class. 

Recap and discussion from last class:

A Karma yogi is ready to give up enjoyer-ship or the ‘my’-ness, while Karma sanyasi is ready to give up doer-ship  or ‘I’ ness. 

One must perform actions but treat the result with ‘prasadabuddhi’ and eventually progress to treating the entire action as prasadam. 

The crush of pilgrims to Tirupati temple example was discussed. At the end of the darshan, devotees often tend to quickly transform from a state of devotion to the Lord to being aggressively choosy about the prasadam they receive when they are presented with choices. Instead, the right attitude would be to treat the entire experience as prasadam.  

We should strive to give our 100% knowing it is not you who is doing the action. When you have realization of ‘oneness’, all transactions will be from Brahman to Brahman, and not with just individuals.

To progress in this path to Realization, you are encouraged to follow the daily toolkit. At a minimum, thank the Lord for everything, when you wake up and when you go to bed, introspect on the actions of the day and meditate. Eventually you will transform from consciously doing meditation to being in a meditative state at all times.

Introduction to Verses 16, 17, 18

You lose the “I”ness with knowledge and this reiteration of knowledge is how you start to recognize the Brahman in others and obtain the grace of the Lord

Practicing daily meditation you strengthen the mind to overcome your vasanas, thereby progressively exhausting your Prarabhdakarmas and not adding any new sins. When you are in Samsara, it often can feel like you are in a maze, with all the relationships, work challenges, family pressures etc - Meditation helps by zooming out and giving us a 30,000ft view and with analyzing our vasanas and develop our ‘vyragyam’. It is this journey within, that determines our intrinsic value.

Example of impoverished man trying to sell gold idols of the Ram Parivar to a jeweler was discussed. While his expectation was that he will get higher sale value in the order of importance of the idols in his mind, from Hanuman to Lakshman to Sita to Ram, the reality was otherwise. The jeweler gave him the most value for Sita then Hanuman then Lakshman and the least amount to the Ram idol. The value of these idols was exclusively determined by their intrinsic weight, the gold contained in them, and not on the perception of value of the seller. 

The journey to self realization goes thru multiple stages – 

• Shravanam, like listening to a parayanam and understanding that consciousness is the same around us

• Mananam – reflecting on what we learnt about consciousness

• Nidithyasanam is when you recognize that you are not BMI

• Samadhi, when you attain the state of Realization and mental state; one who is a Jeevanmuktapurusha

Discussion on various interpretations and states of samadhi ensued. 

Once you attain the state of Realization, all things become equal as you recognize the Brahman in everyone. You no longer can discriminate in your treatment of a Brahmin, cow, a dog, or a dog-eater. This takes time and is a long journey, but is achievable with daily practice. 

Class concluded with closing prayers.