Bhagavad-Gita: A Guide for Life — Part 1 of 6

Haribol. [Audience: Haribol.] So the theme for the retreat: The Bhagavad-gita, a guide for life. The title of this work, Bhagavad-gita, literally means the song of God, and it shares extraordinary spiritual insights. It begins with a person who is in extreme crisis, and so the address of Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna is the address to someone who at that time was utterly lost and confused. So that gives you some framework for attempting to appreciate it.

In the introduction, the commentator who presented this translation that we’re using, the Bhagavad-gita as it is, his name was Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He was one of the greatest transcendentalists to appear in the modern era. Motivated by the desire to see the great suffering of all the people of the world alleviated—well, not just alleviated, but actually solved, he took great risk to engage in this wonderful outreach, this wonderful mission. And I will share a little bit from the introduction, which we will dissect a little bit.

“Just what is the Bhagavad-gītā? The purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence.” [Bhagavad-gita as it is Introduction]

Just like, whoa! That is just like, my God, that’s huge. It doesn’t get any bigger than that. You know this word nescience? Yeah? Ignorance or darkness. “…to deliver mankind from the darkness of material existence.” We could probably explore that idea for a couple of hours and not run out of things to describe. The devastatingly sad reality is that mankind has absolutely no idea that they are entrapped in this monumental ignorance. The ignorance, of course, is the distinction between life and death. That’s how critical it is.

The only thing that you can count on in this world is the inevitable experience of death. Doesn’t go anywhere else. Is this wandering or…? It doesn’t go anywhere else. It is the only thing that you can absolutely count on: you will experience, and yet we act and behave as if it is not a reality.

Material existence is, of course, the foundational illusion that I am material, that I am this particular body that I am currently occupying, even though there is not just sufficient, there’s overwhelming amount of proof that you’re not the body and that you will leave it. It is going to happen, and yet I choose to utterly surrender to the illusion that the body is me. My body defines who “I am.” I see it as being the most important and foundational principle of my life, that this body I’m currently wearing is me. It’s… that  is just like shocking, if we had clarity of vision.

“Just what is the Bhagavad-gītā? The purpose of Bhagavad-gītā is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence. Every man is in difficulty in so many ways, as Arjuna also was in difficulty in having to fight the Battle of Kurukṣetra. Arjuna surrendered unto Śrī Kṛṣṇa, and consequently this Bhagavad-gītā was spoken. Not only Arjuna, but every one of us is full of anxieties because of this material existence. Our very existence is in the atmosphere of nonexistence.” [Bhagavad-gita as it is Introduction]

What!? Explain please.

“Our very existence is in the atmosphere of nonexistence. Actually we are not meant to be threatened by nonexistence. Our existence is eternal. But somehow or other we are put into asat. Asat refers to that which does not exist.” [Bhagavad-gita as it is Introduction]

The nature of the material world is that it is constantly changing. The world is not eternal. It is constantly in flux.

The atomic particles that make up your body, where did they come from? And we’ll say, “Well, probably the food that I’m eating and the air that I’m breathing, that’s where the stuff came from that’s making up my body.” Scientifically, all of those atomic particles have been used by innumerable people since time immemorial. The material energy is not growing bigger. It’s the same energy. It’s just being used and reused and reused and reused again. So the body that we’re so attached to and we call as being ourself, all of that energy, all of those atoms have made up thousands of other bodies in the past. And here I am claiming this to be me.

Do you think that’s a little strange? Like, am I loopy or what?

And this world in which we live, where we try to create a home, this world cannot provide you a home. It is not your home. It is not meant to be the place where you are meant to be for all eternity. It is a constant and changing show. And because it is constantly changing and being utilized in so many different ways, by the influence of people, by the influence of the material energy itself, by all of these subtle forces, chemical and physics-related forces, it’s going through all of this constant change; and we’re trying to hang on to it like it will last.

We build relationships, and these relationships cannot do anything other than end. In the big picture, they end. But I want to hang on to them for all eternity: “and they lived happily ever after.”

I seek happiness, and all of my attempts to find the fulfilment and happiness that I seek fail, and I don’t question. I just keep hoping. It’s called hoping against hope. It hasn’t lasted for anyone else. It hasn’t perfectly worked out for anyone else. But I’m hoping that it will for me, even though there is no evidence that it will. I mean, zero evidence. But I’m hoping. “I have hope!” as if that’s really gonna make a difference.

So this perspective is just like—if you could see this reality of what’s just been stated, you’d probably have a nervous breakdown. You wouldn’t be able to handle it because it’s just, it’s so mind-boggling.

I’ll read that last part again.

“Actually, we are not meant to be threatened by non-existence.” [Bhagavad-gita as it is Introduction]

When we’re threatened by non-existence, every time something changes, every time a death occurs, every time your pet dies, your family members leave, they die, we are constantly under threat. We hope for so much perfection, but everything is under threat all the time, and we’re trying to live, and not—and feel everything is okay.

You shouldn’t feel everything is okay, ’cause it’s not. Well, it’s all working the way it’s meant to work. It wasn’t meant to be working any other way.

Actually, we are not meant to be threatened by non-existence. Because we are eternal spiritual beings, we do have an eternal spiritual home. And in our natural spiritual—there is natural spiritual realm where we belong, there is no threat of non-existence, our own death, anybody’s death, because the spirit soul doesn’t die. Actually, we are not meant to be threatened by non-existence. Our existence is eternal. But somehow or other, we are put into asat. Asat refers to that which does not exist.

I’ll just make the point that there is an underlying reality or existence of material energy, but the way in which it manifests different forms and so-called opportunities for the living being to try and exploit and enjoy, that is not real. That is not eternal. But the material energy itself is real.

So it’s just like, oh my gods, just in the next couple of days, we are going to deal with this subject.

“The purpose of the Bhagavad-gita is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence.” [Bhagavad-gita as it is Introduction]

You guys ready for this? Huh? Did you know this was what was gonna happen? You might have some people looking for a refund. “I thought it was gonna be all like spiritual land, peaceful.” The peace is there, the spirituality is there, but we must discover that reality.

So, in approaching this work, number one, I’ll just point out the Bhagavad-gita is not an easy text to read. Anybody disagree? It’s quite heroic of anyone who wants to pick it up and have a go. It’s—because it’s very challenging. It’s going to be filled with ideas and philosophical and spiritual points that you may not have ever heard before or in no way connected with. And so there’s gonna be all kinds of things like coming out of left field. “What!?” What’s that like? But that’s okay. That’s okay. This is not something to read in one sitting and go, “My gods, I’m enlightened.” That would be a massive rarity.

The title or the theme for the retreat: The Bhagavad-gita – a Guide for Life. So we can understand that in so many different ways. One is, it may take your whole lifetime to discover all of the clarity that can be found in the nooks and crannies. It’s a lifelong journey, a lifelong search for deeper meaning and understanding.

In approaching such a subject, there was guidance given as to how one should make spiritual inquiry, and the overarching advice is that one needs to do it in a submissive spirit. It’s very unfortunate that in this current time in which we live, people overemphasize their strength and their boldness and their power. It’s kind of grotesque for me because that won’t really advance your cause in life. It’s just a reaction to being exploited, so I want to become an exploiter also. I want to push back so powerfully that I won’t let anybody screw with me again. And it’s kind of like, oh, yeah, I understand that. That’s a defense mechanism.

But in approaching spiritual topics, one of the great requirements is humility and submissiveness. There has to be an embracing of the reality that I don’t see with great clarity. My mind is constantly talking to me. My mind is constantly saying things and repeating things and coming up with stuff that is influencing me. I’m also being constantly dictated to by something else. It is called, in Sanskrit, the ahankara, the false concepts of self.

This is a big one. This is difficult to fully grasp. It is even difficult for many people to understand. But it’s like every time you use a pronoun, “I.” I don’t like that. Who are you? “Me.” Immediately it’s the presentation of the body and the state of mind, neither of which are you. You are the person within that has been overwhelmed by this false conception of self, overwhelmed and often misled by the mind, overwhelmed by the body that we’re occupying, seeing it as myself.

I mean, it’s just so utterly tragic. You want an ocean of ignorance? You can find it in the word “selfie.” There is nothing more absolutely ignorant, incredibly ignorant and dumb and dangerous as this word and what it represents. It is just like, it just reeks of ignorance. When I have to take 20 pictures of what I call myself and decide which one I’m going to use, that already shows you how profound the illusion is. I don’t really wanna share anything that, where I, it actually really looks like the body I’ve got. It has to look better. It has to be cooler. It has to be so desirable. It has to be so attractive.

What’s this game? What’s this absolutely ignorant game everybody is playing and everybody has become so lost in? I mean, it’s bad enough that people are relating to the body as the self because that carries with it this monumental burden of, “Am I lovable? Am I attractive? Am I desirable? Am I worthy of friends? Am I worthy of love? Am I worthy of praise?” All of those ideas are tied to the illusion that the body is the self. And then when you have everybody seeking to validate their sense of being worth something, of being lovable, of being desirable, of being worthy of friendship, to be worthy of praise or anything, all just based upon what your body looks like, oh my God, that is a formula for unimaginable amounts of unhappiness.

And that’s where we are. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what’s embraced by society, and everybody’s playing the game. And then we wonder why we’re unhappy.

That whole little journey we went on is just to establish a single fact: you don’t know crap. You have got your head in such a dark cavity that you can’t see. Okay? You’ve surrendered to this illusion, this crap that the body is the self, and now you’re going to sit in judgment on something? “Hmm. Hmm. I don’t know if I’ll accept that. ‘I’ don’t know if ‘I’ will accept that.” Who are you? Who is that I? It’s the mind talking. It’s the false ego, the false concept of self. It’s not even the spiritual being that is talking.  And I’m embracing that as me. “Hmm, I don’t think I can accept that.” Like you have sufficient intelligence, you have such clarity of vision that you can see with such perfect spiritual vision? Come on, a little bit of humility might be helpful here.

So, you will be confronted by many different things in such spiritual teachings. And the advice that one is given is to approach this type of hearing and learning with a very submissive heart.

I would like to point out that we are not talking about blind acceptance. Blind acceptance is utterly rejected. But to have a little bit of inkling of an idea, “Hmm, I don’t agree with that.” The next idea is, “But maybe I don’t know. Maybe I can’t see things that clearly, and I may be having difficulty with it, but maybe I should just sort of like, ‘Okay, let’s put that one on the side for now,’ and keep exploring, and then later let’s circle back to that and figure that one out.” Everybody does this type of thing in their life anyway, and it is necessary to approach spiritual learning in the same spirit of submissiveness and, and humility.

One is not asked to challenge, but there are different kinds of challenges. “I know you’re wrong!” That’s one kind of challenge. Another kind of challenge is, “I don’t get that at all. I’m having a really hard time embracing that. Could we look at that one a little bit deeper because I’m struggling with it?” They’re two completely different ways of dealing with something.

We’re going to get to something a little bit later, but I’m—move it up a little bit.

In the process of the cultivation of spiritual knowledge or understanding, the practice of spiritual life, there are fundamentally only two paths, broadly speaking. One path is the ascending path. It is called the aroha pantha in Sanskrit. The second one is called the descending path, the avaroha pantha. And what is the difference? In the ascending path I am relying on my ability, my intelligence, my excellence, my austerity, my power to focus my mind, my goodness. My goodness? Yes. My acts of goodness, as it were, to get me to heaven. I think it’s up to me.

It’s likened to someone attempting to scale Mount Everest, where you have to do, literally, if you have no experience, years of training. And even for those who have some skill and ability, one has to undergo high altitude training, learning how to use crampons on rock and ice, and how to use ropes, and how to work as a team, how to do all of these different things, to be able to climb that mountain. One needs incredible skill and ability. Either that or a lot of money, and you just pay all the guys with the skill and money to bring you there. But the skill is still necessary. The individual and personal excellence is still necessary.

The problem with this approach to spiritual life, it assumes that we are dealing with something that is unconscious or impersonal. What do I mean by that?

Well, you imagine you go to climb Mount Everest, you set up a base camp, right? And then everybody’s got all the gear there, and they’re all tired, and they close their tent to sleep for the night, and in the morning we’re gonna bring all the gear up to the first camp. And you unzip your tent in the morning and you look out and Mount Everest has moved, like it’s gone about 30 kilometres over that way. It’s like, am I… What happened? Is—was I so exhausted? You just pack up all your stuff and you, everybody goes hauling all this gear over there and set up camp, go to sleep, and tomorrow open your tent again, and now it’s moved 28 kilometres over this way.

So the point—I know it’s a dumb proposition, but the point I’m making is that if you are dealing with consciousness, you are also dealing with will. Meaning, if I wanted to—if I catch a horse and want to climb on it, a wild horse, unless you’re trained, it’s kind of like, good luck! Why? Because it’s got its own will, and it doesn’t want you climbing on it. And if you manage to get on top, it’s gonna do everything it can to dislodge you. It’s not just a question of your personal desire to do something. There’s more to it.

So the fundamental principle is: spiritual reality is we are dealing with something that is conscious. We are dealing with the highest spiritual principles. We’re dealing with consciousness and not something that is just dull matter.

In the descending process, it is founded upon the understanding that I actually do not possess the capacity to know all that there is to know. I do not possess the ability to discover the highest transcendental reality just by the exercise of my own will. There is the embracing of the principle of what is called revelation, that if the Highest Spiritual Truth, if God, if the Ultimate Spiritual Reality is shown to me, I can know it. If I am given the vision and the understanding, I can know it. But on my own, I cannot. I don’t have the capacity.

The mind is material energy; and you’re gonna use the mind to discover that which is purely spiritual? It’s actually not even a possibility. That’s pretty—that’s far out. That’s, like, really amazing. Just from a very logical perspective, if there is a higher transcendent reality that I wish to discover, if that transcendent reality presents itself to me, I will know it. And if it chooses not to, I won’t know it. I can’t know it.

What do you think of that? Does this spaz anybody out? Are we having any strong reactions to this? Probably you’re having some internal strong reactions. That would be natural. Because I think of myself as central to everything. It’s all about me. Right? It’s all about me. I see everything in relation to me. The idea of “I like this. I don’t like that.” My parents, my partner or husband and wife, my siblings, my friends, my country, my team. I see everything in relation to me. I see myself as the centre of everything. Whether I’m recognizing that or admitting it, that’s how I see myself.

And usually that’s what we bring to the quest for spiritual discovery, myself at the centre of everything. The reality is I’m not the centre of anything. I’m pretty insignificant on the big scale. I’m just like a tiny little dot. I may be an eternal spark of God, I may be a glorious spiritual being, but in the big picture, I’m pretty insignificant.

I mean, what are we dealing with? And who in this world can actually conceive of the size of a hydrogen atom or the size of an electron that’s rotating around, orbiting around the atom? Who can conceive of how small that is? Nobody. You don’t have the power. You can talk big numbers, but in terms of actually conceiving it, you can’t. On the other hand, the biggest unit that we’re dealing with, the universe in which we live, who can conceive of that? All of the numerous galaxies, the vast distances to thing. If there is an outer perimeter to it, who can conceive of that size? No one. And yet I am going to declare that there is no such thing as God.

That’s ludicrous. That’s just a massive display of a lack of intelligence. I’m sorry, that might offend some people, but look, we gotta get real here. You can’t even conceive, actually, of a hydrogen atom, the size of it, nor can you conceive of the size of the universe and the vastness. If there is any higher transcendent reality, it must exist beyond that limitation. And you can’t even get your head around this limitation, and what, you think you can decide whether there is something beyond that or not, that you have such power of persuasion that you can boldly declare? No, that’s a belief system. It’s not based on actually seeing with clarity.

If one wants to actually be gifted with spiritual vision to come to actually know the soul, to know yourself, and to know any higher spiritual reality or God, it will only happen if you are blessed with that vision.

Have you heard of the Yoga Sutra? It’s a famous work by a great rishi, Patanjali, and he codified the ancient system of Ahtanga Yoga. And he talked about the different—the growth in spiritual understanding and how one comes to perceive the reality that I am an eternal spiritual being, that this body is not me and doesn’t define me. He talked about different states of spiritual consciousness where one exists in a state of what is called samadhi, which is the highest levels of attainment in that system.

And after speaking about the greatest form of spiritual absorption, called asamprajnata samadhi, he then just throws out this little tiny verse—because up to this point it’s like, oh my God, what he’s been taking you through, it’s like how can anyone even do what he’s asking us to do to gain some spiritual insight? It’s just like the requirements are so amazing. One has to be a great hero.

You have to literally, not figuratively, literally, you have to leave cities and towns. You have to go and live in the mountains in a cave. You have to limit your eating. You have to spend hours and hours every day performing asana; and asana is only so that you can sit comfortably in meditation, bringing the senses, reigning them in; adopting guiding principles of life; drilling the breath, pranayama; becoming, being able to fix the mind into one place, which is almost impossible (this is called dharana) before one can attain what is called samadhi. And then there are different levels of samadhi. So you’re talking people not just for one year or two, decades of commitment to spiritual realization.

So, he’s laying it all out and it’s just like, oh my God, mission impossible. And then he throws out this little verse,

“isvara-pranidhanad-va” [Yoga Sutra 1:23]

which means

“The highest attainment is assuredly arrived at by complete surrender to Isvara.”  [Yoga Sutra 1:23]

And it’s just like Booof! [mimes head blowing up] What!?

He’s saying that one must completely surrender, be utterly submissive to the greatest of controllers, Isvara, the supreme controller, so that one will be gifted with spiritual vision.

So this principle is not just a principle that is shared, for instance, in the Bhagavad-gita. This is shared in many parts of the Vedas and, and the yoga system, which is not really part of—it’s considered to be part of the Vedic system broadly, but it is a standalone system of spiritual discovery. So they’re pointing out some things.

Lord Krishna also makes similar statements to Arjuna in the course of his conversation. He says,

“The Supreme Lord said, ‘My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which you shall be relieved of all the miseries of material existence.'” [Bhagavad-gita

When I first heard this idea being shared, to be envious of God, to be envious of a higher spiritual, it was like, “What? I’m not envious of God. I’m a nice guy. I’m not envious.” But with some practice and chanting and contemplation, I got to understand what that means.

We discussed earlier how we see ourself at the centre of everything. I see myself at the centre of my life, right? It is God, or the Ultimate Spiritual Reality, that is at the centre of everything, and I am just an insignificant piece of pixie dust, right? A spark of God, along with incalculable numbers, an ocean, a vast endless ocean of living beings. I am just one of those. And yet I am seeing myself at the centre of everything.

And actually this can define the spiritual journey. On one end of the spectrum, you’ve got me thinking I am the centre of everything, I see everything in relation to me, to being at the other end, utterly selfless and recognizing that it is a higher Spiritual Truth, it is God, it is Krishna that is actually at the centre of everything.

But the fact that I’m sitting there with my camera, my phone, taking so-called selfies is a clear signal of my enviousness of God. Anybody gonna start throwing things at me or what? [Audience member: No, I’m just gonna delete the selfie I just saved.]

It’s just like—I’m not saying that in a mean-spirited way. There is a need to snap out of the nightmare. There is a need to wake up, to get real, to stop living in the fantasy, to stop thinking it’s all about me. No, it’s not all about you. Are you important? Yes, of course you’re important, but it’s not all about you. You need to get over that one really big time, and fast.

One of the big challenges that people may have is with the question of who is Krishna? Who is He anyway? What’s this all about? We will actually go into that one in more depth on the fifth class. We’re not gonna deal with it now.

But in reference to what we mentioned earlier, in our normal life (which is actually highly abnormal from a spiritual perspective) but in our normal life, we, if we respect someone as being authoritative and they throw something at us that we can’t handle, we very easily agree with the idea of, “Okay, let’s put that one aside. Let’s keep walking down this path, and then maybe we’ll circle back and, and deal with that a little bit later.”

So in a similar manner, it will become important to recognize what is the position of Krishna, because that very much is tied to the idea of how authoritative are these words, how authoritative are these opinions, this information that’s being shared. And I am going to have to, to deal with that at some point. So at least, if you find it a little challenging in the beginning, just aah   , put it on the side. Let’s deal with some of that a bit later. Everybody can move at their own pace in this journey.

I think that’s about it for now. Does it sound like it’s going to be of interest? Yeah?

I’ll share something I’ve mentioned before. The very first time I read the Bhagavad-gita, I read it from cover to cover, and I didn’t get one idea that stood out. It was like, what? And it was just like the same stuff being repeated, and it was like nothing really jumped out to me. Part of it was because I had undertaken a quite interesting spiritual journey. I took up Astanga Yoga when I was very young and was very focused on the whole thing, raising the kundalini, having experiences with this light, the Brahmajyoti, or the early part of it, and doing all of these things, and it led me to become influenced by a particular philosophy that is broadly described as impersonalism, the idea that the ultimate reality cannot be personal; it must be impersonal.

That is a materialistic idea, but I was very infected with that idea only because anybody that had talked to me about God gave such a limited and often crappy perspective that I couldn’t buy it. “That’s crap. I’m sorry, I’m not buying it.” And therefore, what I didn’t appreciate was a person’s extremely limited and often incorrect description of God or the attributes of God. If it’s so wrong and if it’s so distorted, that has nothing to do with God or a higher spiritual reality. That’s just that person’s opinion. That’s just the way they’re thinking about stuff.

And if I now reject a Higher Spiritual Truth or reality just because it’s been grossly misrepresented, it means I’m not very smart. And I did that, which shows I wasn’t very smart. But when I was presented with this awesome idea of this vast ocean of light and spiritual energy (and I had had some experience with it), it just seemed like so much bigger than any sort of personal aspect of Godhead. And of course, eventually I realized that was wrong, that was incorrect.

Okay, anybody have a question? Or maybe what we can do, if you have questions in your mind, why don’t you just make a little note, and then maybe share them with Ben or Kalindi. And so, before we start the next class, maybe if there was anything that needed some clarification we can try to address that or deal with it. Okay? Thank you very much.

Please be patient. I might speak a little strongly sometimes, but I feel that it’s necessary. The suffering of the living beings is just so unnecessary, and when we cling to ignorance, bad things happen. The degree to which you are suffering and unhappy now, to that same degree you are embracing untruths as being true, and that is what is resulting in your unhappiness, all of your unhappiness and suffering. And so the need to dispel nescience or ignorance is of great importance. And just because you like a certain idea, that doesn’t make the idea right. It doesn’t make it good. It doesn’t even make it helpful. “Yeah, but I really like it. It resonates with me.” It’s kind of like [eye roll] No. Who is the me that’s being resonated with? The eternal spiritual being or is it some conceit of the mind, the false self? Thank you. Haribol.