Class summary for Feb 3, 2026 - BG Chapter 7 - Slokas 17-19

Summarized by Yamini:

Recap:

By Narada muni’s  story we understand that Sravanam, Mananam and Nidhidyasanam are all very important.

What we can perceive with sense organs are impermanent things and what we cannot perceive are permanent.

When it comes to desires, our mind should be like the wood which doesn’t get affected by the magnet and not like iron which absorbs the magnetism of desires.

Always keeping the Lord in mind helps to pull away from desires brought through senses.

Non-Virtuous (Evildoers) are the ones that do not think about God and are not seeking the ultimate knowledge.

The 4 stages of mukti are Salokyam, Samipyam, Sarupyam, Sayujyam.

We should hold on to God in this chaotic world like we hold on to the rope while dipping in the roaring waters of Ganga.

We cannot attain moksha with just bhakti, gyana is also needed to realize the brahman in us.

Like the singer concentrating on tanpura’s ‘Sa’ to bring him back, we have to keep Lord in my mind and bring ourselves back from time to time.

Husband and wife not loving each other was further explained. They do not love the external beings, but they love the atman residing inside.

This class:

Stories are an easy way to convey the topic.

Bhagavad Geeta also starts with a story.

Stories are easier to identify with and to understand the concept.

Meaning of what evil doers (Durshkrutan) means-

Those who are not thinking of Brahman or does not move in the direction of seeking Brahman

Non virtuous people who do not think of the lord at all, are considered evil doers.

There are Rajasic, tamasic and satvic properties in all of us and at different proportions based on time and current situation.

The evil doers is a spectrum going from non-virtuous to 100% satvik.

The word used for evil doers Durshkrutan can also be defined as unfortunate and Sukrutan are defined as fortunate ones who are put in a spiritual path by vasanas.

Krishna says he will accept us as we are as long as you have faith.

Robbers for example are branded by society as bad, but God accepts everyone as the same as long as they feel remorse and surrender to God.

But someone like Hitler will not be accepted by God, because he never realized or accepted his wrong doings or tried to stop.

The moksha of Sisupala, Ravana, Hiranyakasipa are exceptions. At the end they gave complete surrender. But if they do not realize their mistakes at the end and surrender, they do not attain moksha, for example Duryodhana, Karna.

When we make a mala out of jasmine, our hands will smell like a flower for a long time but the smell keeps decreasing. Similarly, our vasanas also keep decreasing with time and effort.

Jaya, Vijaya were given a choice of 7 lives of bhakta or 3 lives filled with hatred for him.

They chose the 3 lives in order to come back to lord quickly.

Doing positive karmas helps you set your path to a moksha and continue in the next birth with it by putting you in a conducive environment.

There are some Marati books that showcase Karna in a very positive light. His words in the book make us believe that he was very nice, but we have to remember that he took the side of adharma, so he was bad.

In Mahabharata, when Karna is killed, he asks Krishna why he motivated Arjuna to kill him, when he was unarmed and not ready to fight. Krishna points out all the occasions that he had the choice and picked adharma over dharma. Karna finally agrees.

In Hindu philosophy there are 12 branches, 6 of which are spiritual and 6 are non-spiritual.

In Charvaka philosophy- When Dasharadha dies, one of his friends asks Rama, why he wants to perform last rites when he is already dead. He presents the philosophy of there being no need to perform any of the rituals. Rama responds with why it is important to do the last rites.

Videos:

Chapter 7 verse 17:

Gyani, The one who experiences the higher state, who is steadfast in devotion, and he is not influenced by desires, is nobler than all other types of bhaktas (arti, artharthi and jignasu)

Lord says that for the Gyani he is the greatest love and he himself has the utmost love for these bhaktas.

As the river joins the ocean, it becomes one with the ocean and it does not have any independent existence. Similarly, the Gyani has lost the worldly identity and identifies as one with the God. 

He is in a different realm of experience. He is in the highest state of consciousness.

Gyani is operating at a different level of thinking.

When we say aham brahmasmi, they are just words to us. But when a Gyani says it, their level of understanding of the saying is very different.

It is very hard to identify the Gyani with the naked eye. They look and behave like everyone else but their way of looking at the world and experiencing it is very different.

Video 2  : 

Chapter 7 verse 18:

All 4 types of bhaktas are noble.

Out of the four, Gyani is the one who has reached God and become one with him.

We might think how a beggar can be considered noble, he is only transactional. He is only coming to the place of worship for his own benefits?

Once there were a son and father and they had a litigation

The son wanted a lot of wealth from his father and went to all 3 courts.

The fight goes on for years. Finally, the boy comes back to the father defeated, with torn clothes, hungry and says he is tired.

The father embraces him and forgives him.

Similarly, the God will be pleased with the beggar thinking that he came to him to fulfill his desires when he could have gone somewhere else

Video 3  : 

Chapter 7 verse 19:

Only at the end of many lives, an individual reaches the Lord.

We should not be discouraged because we do not know how many lives we lived to get to this one.

Like how Darwin tells how much time it took for to reach this form of life from a unicellular organism to plant to human.

It is hard for us to realize even if we are already in the path of realizing the higher self.

So we are pessimistic and don’t believe that it can be achieved in the current lifetime.

Gurudev jokingly mentions that since there is no concept of rebirth in christianism , they are very devoted and that Hindu is not worried, because he thinks he can do better in the next life.

Sudurlabha- it is very rare that an individual has broken the shackles of plurality and risen from vasanas and reached the higher self. 

We do not know when we can become that Sudurlabha.

Subjective matter

In the recent scientific american publication, there are 35 different ways to define consciousness. In the end all the spirituality is dismissed in one sentence.

Because science is all about materialism. Spiritualism is a different perspective and thinking.

But there are things science cannot explain, for example it talks all about cells, but there is no proof or knowledge about how a cell was born or how all of them work together to sustain lifeform for years and years together.

In the process of many lives and refining, we should have many realized people walking around us, but it is very hard to identify externally.