The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 1.2 Swami Krishnananda.

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Swami Udit Chaithanya:

Bhagavatham village 

Namaha Edmionton Programme


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Sunday 11, Feb 2024 07:00.

The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity-2.

The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 

Chapter 1: Introduction-2.

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But we need not be very much concerned over this limitation that is set over our freedom because it is necessary that individual freedom should be so limited in the interest of a larger welfare, because if this limitation is not to be imposed on the sanctioned freedom of the individual, there would be a tendency to assume an infinitude of that freedom. Infinites cannot be two; there is one infinite. If we assume an infinitude of our freedom, another person cannot exist, because our freedom will swallow everybody else. This erroneous tendency is sometimes visible in morbid thinkers like tyrants, dictators and despots who assume a kind of infinitude of freedom, by which behaviour they are erroneously united in that everyone else is subsumed under them as their satellites, as it were, and one man can do anything to anybody else. This is a kind of Caesarean despotism, as they call it, which is freedom going amok. No individual can be free in that sense, because infinitude of freedom sanctioned to a particular individual may defy such a necessity felt by other individuals. Then existence would be nothing but chaos.

Now, inasmuch as everyone is aware that the welfare of each person is, to a large extent, determined by the welfare of other people also – we are sure that the welfare of other people is also, in some way, a deciding factor in our welfare – it follows from this that there is limitation on the freedom that we exercise by the mere fact of the existence of other people who also are free, as we are. The freedom of another is the limitation on our freedom. This is simple to understand. If another person is free, that freedom of that person is a limitation set on our freedom. Now, we cannot complain that this is a bad state of affairs. It is good to limit our freedom because, in a very strange way, we will be able to appreciate that the freedom, even apparently limited in that manner sanctioned to all people, will bring about a larger security of all. Actually, cooperation or coordination of people is nothing but a sacrifice, on each one's part, of one's freedom to the extent that it is necessary to allow that kind of freedom to other people also. This is a generous way of thinking, a liberal way of thought, and a charitableness of feeling, which is not merely a niggardly concession that we are giving to other people, but it is essential for our own welfare also.

When we are good to another person, we are not showing a high-handed, royal gesture of charitableness. It is not a superior attitude that we are assuming by our charity to other people. It is a necessity on our part, because we also expect charity from other people, so we cannot assume an air of importance in this world of coordination and cooperation. There is no one important in this world and, therefore, there is also no one unimportant. The world is a community of ingredients, components, who are equally essential for the working of the machinery of this largely pervasive law of the cosmos. Some modern thinkers consider the whole administration of creation as a kind of management of a cosmic society.

I saw an advertisement of a book written by an American scholar. The name of the book is Cosmic Society. I was very much happy to hear that there is such a thing called cosmic society. The whole of God's creation is a society, or we may call it a family, to make it more intelligible. It is easy to understand the way in which we have to live in this world if we can compare the whole universe to a family. We need not be too philosophical and metaphysical or abstract here. We can be simple, homely, and matter of fact in the understanding of what these things are.

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Continued

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