The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 4.6 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Swami Chinmayananda:

Beware of the two W’s: Wealth and Women, warns Shri Adi Shankaracharya! 

These two while they can bring pleasure but can also lead one to sorrow and suffering. 

Spiritual seekers, heed Adi Shankara’s advice to avoid these pitfalls and find true inner peace. 

Swipe to read his timeless wisdom. 

To purchase this book, comment ‘Bhaja Govindam’.

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Sunday 26, May 2024 06:40.
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 
Chapter 4: Stories from the Aranya Parva - 6.

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There is a period of test for every one of us in this world. It is not that honey and milk will flow immediately, though it must flow one day. It is not that it should not flow – it will flow, it has to flow, but it does not flow immediately. We are put to the rack in the beginning, for reasons God only knows, for reasons of the very nature of the structure of this universe. Sometimes it appears to us that we have nobody in this world. Every spiritual seeker feels that. “I have neither this world nor the other world. I have neither money in my hand, nor friends to help me. I have not even medicine to take if I am sick.” That dejection of spirit may be compared to the condition of the Pandavas in the Aranya Parva. We have nothing. God save us!


This is a very peculiar state of affairs which an honest spiritual seeker may have to pass through. It does not mean that the very first step is a sweet step. It may be a step attended with tremendous hardship. To wrench oneself from attachments to the world, and then feel that one has nothing to replace that which one had earlier, is an indescribable state of mind. We have, in the name of religion, spirituality, yoga, and love of God, freed ourselves from the clutches of human relation, social contact, position, power, authority, land, building, everything, but to replace that little satisfaction of external possession we had, we have nothing with us. So there is a kind of vacuum which should not be there, but will necessarily be there. In the earlier stages of spiritual life, we will find ourselves in a state of vacuum. When we have lost something, if there is nothing to replace that particular position of loss, we can imagine what our condition is. Nobody can exist in a vacuum. It is not possible. But in the earlier stages it looks like a no-man's land. Neither is the world going to help us, nor is there any sign that God is existing. Let alone seeing Him, even His existence cannot be discovered.


In a mystical language, this is called the dark night of the soul by certain great masters who lived the life of spirit. It is a vacuum, no doubt, but it is not an unnecessary condition. It is a precondition to illumination. Suffering and a vacuity – both will be your possessions. The Aranya Parva is nothing but suffering, and the Virat Parva succeeding it, the life of being incognito, is a kind of vacuity, a very indescribable condition, and Arjuna was in that condition in the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita, they say. He did not know anything; it was all confusion, a vacuous condition of human understanding.


We see darkness everywhere and do not know what to do. The direction that we have to take is not clear. This is not to be considered as a retrogression in our aspiration; it is a precondition to further illumination. It was the stage through which even a man like Buddha had to pass, and everyone has to pass, but we are likely to mistake it for a fall rather than a necessary step. When we are completely blank and dazed, looking helpless, we do not know whether we are moving forward or downward in our movement. There a Guru's grace is necessary. We should not be in a vacuous condition at that time. That is a dangerous state where we can fall this way or that way, and to tell us where we actually need to plant our foot properly, a Guru's guidance is necessary.


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Continued

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