Class Summary for April 1, 2025 - Chapter-5 - Slokas 25-29
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.
Class led with parables from participants, around the topic of attachment to higher purposes by detaching from baser ones, including:
• The story about a businessman and a sadhu traveling in First Class by train. Businessman thinks both of them are at the same level carrying similar set of belongings, except for their outward appearances and clothes; one in fine professional attire, while the other in simple, clean rags. They get off at a train station and get talking over a cup of tea. Train starts to leave. Businessman frets about the luggage left in the train, while the sadhu is unperturbed and doesn’t care for the luggage and wants to continue the conversation. * As we evolve thru the path of knowledge, we cease to be attached to material possessions*
• How a string instrument, the iktara, comes into being. From cotton buds detached from the plant, detach cotton from its seed, break up the cotton, spin it all together into thin strands, weave the strands into one tar, and attach it to the wooden instrument frame. And create beautiful sound. *Detach from lower to higher purpose*
• In athletics, a pole-vaulter uses the best techniques and pole available to rise higher. However, if he has to rise that extra inch, he has to let go of the pole to be successful. * detach from lower/attach to higher. Detachment can be from good things too*
• The story about a businessman and a sadhu traveling in First Class by train. Businessman thinks both of them are at the same level carrying similar set of belongings, except for their outward appearances and clothes; one in fine professional attire, while the other in simple, clean rags. They get off at a train station and get talking over a cup of tea. Train starts to leave. Businessman frets about the luggage left in the train, while the sadhu is unperturbed and doesn’t care for the luggage and wants to continue the conversation. * As we evolve thru the path of knowledge, we cease to be attached to material possessions*
• How a string instrument, the iktara, comes into being. From cotton buds detached from the plant, detach cotton from its seed, break up the cotton, spin it all together into thin strands, weave the strands into one tar, and attach it to the wooden instrument frame. And create beautiful sound. *Detach from lower to higher purpose*
• In athletics, a pole-vaulter uses the best techniques and pole available to rise higher. However, if he has to rise that extra inch, he has to let go of the pole to be successful. * detach from lower/attach to higher. Detachment can be from good things too*
Who is a Jnani (ch 20-24)
Someone who maintains absolute internal equanimity and equipoise at all times – not just in times of meditation or prayer. There is no yearning for anything, material or otherwise, the feeling of ‘I am complete, Iam purnaa and am established in the indestructible. These are some of the lakshanas of a Jnani.
Slokas 24, 26 – chanting
Slokas 27, 28, 29 – chants and translations
These slokas are a set-up for what is to come; the next Chapter of the Gita is on Dhyana yoga.
One sees oneness in everyone and that is the path to true freedom and liberation, not tariffs. There is no impact of external factors (increase cooling, close the window, need water…) on your mind, and you keep your mind’s attention focused. The mind’s attention is kept between the eyebrows, where the Jeevatma lives, and the intellect is focused on the inside. This is the state to be in at all times. This is the quest.
Bahktiyoga is the underlying foundation for all the other yogas steps we went thru. Bhati keeps the mind steady:
o Karmayoga – to cleanse the mind, to be ready to absorb gyana (remember to clean the pickle jar…). Nishkaamakarma, all actions are an offering to the Lord
o Karma sanyasa yoga – no attachment to actions or results. No doership
o Jyanayoga – daily practices of sravanam, mananam, nidityasanam
Following this path leads to Moksha – bliss, enlightenment.
*
Challenge frequently cited –
*How to apply these to grahastashram, with our entrenched likes and dislikes?
Requires meditation and control on our vasanas. Follow many, if not all, of the Sadhana package in your daily routine – meditation, mindfulness, prayers when you wake up and at bedtime etc. It’s a journey, and all of us are on it, at different stages of evolution.
Next class – Review videos
Someone who maintains absolute internal equanimity and equipoise at all times – not just in times of meditation or prayer. There is no yearning for anything, material or otherwise, the feeling of ‘I am complete, Iam purnaa and am established in the indestructible. These are some of the lakshanas of a Jnani.
Slokas 24, 26 – chanting
Slokas 27, 28, 29 – chants and translations
These slokas are a set-up for what is to come; the next Chapter of the Gita is on Dhyana yoga.
One sees oneness in everyone and that is the path to true freedom and liberation, not tariffs. There is no impact of external factors (increase cooling, close the window, need water…) on your mind, and you keep your mind’s attention focused. The mind’s attention is kept between the eyebrows, where the Jeevatma lives, and the intellect is focused on the inside. This is the state to be in at all times. This is the quest.
Bahktiyoga is the underlying foundation for all the other yogas steps we went thru. Bhati keeps the mind steady:
o Karmayoga – to cleanse the mind, to be ready to absorb gyana (remember to clean the pickle jar…). Nishkaamakarma, all actions are an offering to the Lord
o Karma sanyasa yoga – no attachment to actions or results. No doership
o Jyanayoga – daily practices of sravanam, mananam, nidityasanam
Following this path leads to Moksha – bliss, enlightenment.
*
Challenge frequently cited –
*How to apply these to grahastashram, with our entrenched likes and dislikes?
Requires meditation and control on our vasanas. Follow many, if not all, of the Sadhana package in your daily routine – meditation, mindfulness, prayers when you wake up and at bedtime etc. It’s a journey, and all of us are on it, at different stages of evolution.
Next class – Review videos
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