The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 3.5 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

Chinmaya Mission Mumbai:

Greetings for Shri Hanuman Jayanti!

Shri Hanuman is the star devotee, always at the feet of His Lord. 

Pujya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda’s message highlights His strength, wisdom, love, and above all His single pointed dedication to His Master, Shri Rama.

On Hanuman Jayanti, may Shri Rama’s most ardent Bhakta bless each one with His inimitable brand of devotion.

Pavanasuta Hanuman ki Jai!

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Tuesday 23, Apr 2024 06:20.
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 
Chapter 3: The Aranya Parva of the Mahabharata -5.

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Every spiritual seeker, every sadhaka, should have time to sit alone for one hour every day. Sit under a tree somewhere. Do not chat with people unless, of course, it is a helpful person. Why do you chat unnecessarily? If it is an equal to you or it is a superior person like a Guru, you can chat with him, but do not chat with youngsters. You should go on thinking, “What is my difficulty?” Do you believe that there is no difficulty? And you will not be able to know yourself much, except when you are totally alone to yourself. In the din of the noise of work and social engagement, you lose your personality in the psychology of the crowd, and you will not know anything about yourself. In a large crowd of noise and celebration and function, you forget even your appetite and hunger. You can even miss your meal; you don't bother about it because of the immense satisfaction of the crowd and the noise. But when you are alone, you feel your appetite and would like to have food.

All the things that are inside the mind will slowly start moving when you are alone. There should be no noise. Even scorpions and lizards in the house will not move if you make a lot of noise. They will be still or go into a hole.  We make a lot of noise in our life, and so all our impulses are buried inside. This is what psychoanalysts call suppression and repression of impulses, which are not likely to be good for the health of the psyche. They create complexes – a kind of odd behaviour which we sometimes have. Our behaviour is not always very fine and happy, cultured and sweet. Oftentimes we become odd. It is not that we want to be odd, but we suddenly feel pulled to behave like that due to the pressure of something inside. We may repent for it afterwards, but yet we lose our balance occasionally, even in the outside behaviour of our personality, let alone in our balance inside. Therefore, each one of us should find time to sit alone.

And you should never hide your faults to your own self. Nobody would like to tom-tom one's own faults to society, because there is a conflict between desire and social reality. This is what psychology and psychoanalysis say. Human longings do not always concur with social norms, and this is what is meant by conflict with reality causing revolt and various complexes in the individuals of society. But it is better to know one's own position: “I have this weakness in me.” Otherwise, if you do not settle these issues, they will gain an upper hand. A silent enemy should not be considered as a friend merely because it is silent. Silent impulses are not necessarily absent problems. They are present potentialities of future difficulties.

Again, a question may arise: what are these difficulties? They are nothing but the calls of our own personality, the calls of our involvements. Anything in which you are involved is a reality and, as I said, our difficulty is a conflict with reality. What are the realities? Anything with which you are concerned is a reality for you. If you are not concerned with anything, it is not a reality. As a citizen of a country, the national law is a reality. You should not say it is not there. You cannot come in conflict with that.

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Continued

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