The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita - 3.9. Swami Krishnananda
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Saturday, May 30, 2020.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -9.
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1.
Merely because of the nature of the confrontation before us, we may be repelled after a time even by the goal of spirituality, the very ideal which attracted us earlier, because our comprehension of the nature of this ideal was not comprehensive enough. One cannot keep up the sobriety of spirit throughout one’s life, because of the power of rajas and tamas within, whose nature one does not properly understand. The things from which we withdraw ourselves in a spirit of renunciation may demand recognition some time later, at some moment, on some occasion when they find that the circumstances are suitable for their having a say, because, usually, the religious renunciation is a misguided attitude in most cases of even so-called genuine aspirations, all because we work upon the reports given to us by the sense organs; and to a large extent our idea of God, the idea of spirituality, the notion of renunciation, are all conditioned by what the senses tell us.
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2.
What gives us pain and sorrow, and that which appears to be not in consonance with our idea at any particular moment of time of what we call the spiritual ideal, may be regarded as worth renouncing. Persons and things are abandoned, and the world is regarded as the field of bondage. We dub it as a factory in which Satan works, from which we have to extricate ourselves at the earliest moment. Our idea of God is sensory. If we would deeply consider this theme, we may realise that we are unable to dissociate the God-ideal from sense-perception, boiled down to its essentiality. We may not conceive the God-ideal or the spiritual ideal in a physical or material form, but the sensory atmosphere does not necessarily mean a material atmosphere. It is a peculiar organisation of consciousness that we call the field of sense-activity.
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3.
When I speak of the sense-world, I do not mean the physical world necessarily or the material objects with which the senses come in contact. It is, rather, an arrangement of consciousness by which it bifurcates subjectivity from objectivity, cuts the object of perception from the subject that perceives or cognises, and refuses to see any kind of vital relationship between itself and its object. The field of sense activity is such that the object of sense perception does not appear to have of any kind of organic connection or real meaning in respect of the subject, so that we can wholeheartedly love something and wholeheartedly hate something also, without any impact of it upon our own selves. This is how the senses work. But every love and hatred has some kind of impact upon the subject, because it is not true that the world is made up of isolated subjects and objects, finally.
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4.
So, the war of the Mahabharata, in which Arjuna was engaged, was not a war against some people, merely. He was engaged in a vast atmosphere from which he could not extricate himself psychologically, a point which was driven into his mind by Sri Krishna, as explained in the Second and Third Chapters.
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Chapter- 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation. ENDS.
Next - Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite
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-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, May 30, 2020.
Chapter 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation -9.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Merely because of the nature of the confrontation before us, we may be repelled after a time even by the goal of spirituality, the very ideal which attracted us earlier, because our comprehension of the nature of this ideal was not comprehensive enough. One cannot keep up the sobriety of spirit throughout one’s life, because of the power of rajas and tamas within, whose nature one does not properly understand. The things from which we withdraw ourselves in a spirit of renunciation may demand recognition some time later, at some moment, on some occasion when they find that the circumstances are suitable for their having a say, because, usually, the religious renunciation is a misguided attitude in most cases of even so-called genuine aspirations, all because we work upon the reports given to us by the sense organs; and to a large extent our idea of God, the idea of spirituality, the notion of renunciation, are all conditioned by what the senses tell us.
------------------------------------------------------------
2.
What gives us pain and sorrow, and that which appears to be not in consonance with our idea at any particular moment of time of what we call the spiritual ideal, may be regarded as worth renouncing. Persons and things are abandoned, and the world is regarded as the field of bondage. We dub it as a factory in which Satan works, from which we have to extricate ourselves at the earliest moment. Our idea of God is sensory. If we would deeply consider this theme, we may realise that we are unable to dissociate the God-ideal from sense-perception, boiled down to its essentiality. We may not conceive the God-ideal or the spiritual ideal in a physical or material form, but the sensory atmosphere does not necessarily mean a material atmosphere. It is a peculiar organisation of consciousness that we call the field of sense-activity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
When I speak of the sense-world, I do not mean the physical world necessarily or the material objects with which the senses come in contact. It is, rather, an arrangement of consciousness by which it bifurcates subjectivity from objectivity, cuts the object of perception from the subject that perceives or cognises, and refuses to see any kind of vital relationship between itself and its object. The field of sense activity is such that the object of sense perception does not appear to have of any kind of organic connection or real meaning in respect of the subject, so that we can wholeheartedly love something and wholeheartedly hate something also, without any impact of it upon our own selves. This is how the senses work. But every love and hatred has some kind of impact upon the subject, because it is not true that the world is made up of isolated subjects and objects, finally.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
So, the war of the Mahabharata, in which Arjuna was engaged, was not a war against some people, merely. He was engaged in a vast atmosphere from which he could not extricate himself psychologically, a point which was driven into his mind by Sri Krishna, as explained in the Second and Third Chapters.
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Chapter- 3: The Spirit of True Renunciation. ENDS.
Next - Chapter 4: The Struggle for the Infinite
To be continued ..
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