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Showing posts from January, 2018

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita-21-2.

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29/01/2018 21.The Lord Dwells in the Hearts of All Beings- 2. 2.1 The Bhagavadgita is very eloquent in its explanation of the manner in which one has to direct one’s conduct and express one’s outlook in relation to these forces. It is always insists, throughout, that we have a sattvic attitude, and not merely a rajasic, or much less a tamasic attitude. The idea behind it is that the supernatural element or the principle of universality is to guide our destiny, our conduct, our actions and our outlook, and we should not be directed by our individual proclivities, idiosyncrasies, instincts, sentiments or desires, nor should all these be decided by the existence of outward objects. Our conduct, our behaviour, our entire outlook, our experiential attitude should not be decided upon by the existence of things outside. Nor should this decision be a consequence of our inward sentiments and ways of looking at things. That is the meaning of saying that it is not enough if we are me...

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita-21-1.

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22/01/2018 21.The Lord Dwells in the Hearts of All Beings-1. 1.1 We have been familiarized with the terms sattva, rajas and tamas many a time through the course of the Bhagavadgita. In fact, these are not independent things external to us. They are not three things that lie outside in space, working in respect of us with an outward impulsion or compulsion. Actually these three forces are pressures exerted from three different sides, and these being mere pressures exerted upon us by the very law of things, they cannot be regarded as substances in themselves. There is a pressure from within, a pressure from without, and a pressure from above. Thus every event is a threefold concatenation of factors. Nothing happens independently by itself, as either a subjective element, an objective substance or a supernatural divinity. Three forces work together—sattva, rajas, and tamas—in everything. 1.2 Na tad asti prithivyam va divi devesu va punah, sattvam prakriti-jair muktam yad e...

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita-20.10.

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15/01/2018 Chapter 20: We are the Fruits and Leaves of the Cosmic Tree -10. VERY IMPORTANT, FOLLOW CLOSELY: All things in the world are divinely ordained. This is the great message that comes forth from these mighty verses of the Bhagavadgita. God plays the drama within Himself—He does not create a world outside, as if there is matter external to Him. It is a scene and a performance that is going on eternally, as it were, within His Being, and He Himself is the witness thereof, while it can be said that He Himself is the actor in the drama. Mystery is the name of this creation, and wonder is the way in which things operate, even in the least of circumstances. The mystery that is hidden within a little grain of sand on the shore of the ocean is cosmically significant. The great mystery that throbs through the orb of the sun in that resplendent supernatural transcendence that we see in the sky can also be seen in the little, insignificant sand particle. In the little ant ...

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita-20.9.

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06/01/2018 Chapter 20: We are the Fruits and Leaves of the Cosmic Tree -9. VERY IMPORTANT, FOLLOW CLOSELY: This Supreme Master of the cosmos, the Soul of the universe, rules and operates through these properties of sattva, rajas and tamas; yet the Bhagavadgita wants to awaken us to another fact—that God is not actually threefold. This threefold activity can be boiled down or reduced to a twofold activity of the positive and the negative powers. We need not call them by the terms sattva, rajas and tamas. They are only, to put it in the language of the Gita itself, the divine and undivine forces, which is another way of saying consciousness which moves us towards unity of comprehension, and that which moves us towards diversity, dissention and separation of one from the other. Both these tendencies are present in everyone, and we as human beings are particularly concerned with our own state of affairs. We are urged in two ways—inwardly and outwardly. We have a loving, sympa...