The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity 8-4: Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday 07, October 2024, 07:00.
The Relevance of the Bhagavadgita to Humanity:
Chapter 8: The Realism and Idealism of the Bhagavadgita-4
The First Six Chapters of the Bhagavadgita: 
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on Bhagavadgita Jayanti

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The student has to approach the teacher in this manner. This student should not think he already knows something which the teacher also knows. If that is the case, to that extent he will not be submissive, and he will not be receptive. A deconditioning of the mind is necessary before we try to learn anything. We should not have preconceived notions in our heads and go with some kind of boasted knowledge while we are students. “Empty thyself and I shall fill thee.” But if you have already come filled, what can I give you? One of the conditions of a good student, a studentship or a discipleship, is a total deconditioning of oneself. All preconceived notions should go. It is a clean slate, an empty vessel, a pure mind, a receptive heart, and a submissive attitude.

Now, when the windows are open, rays of light beam forth through every slit of this opening. The doors and windows have to be kept open if the sun is to enter this room. If you have closed every avenue, it will be pitch dark. When the student is open completely from every pore of his personality, the administration of the proper medicine commences in a medical fashion, gradually, slowly: today this, tomorrow that, and so on, taking its own time, not in a hurry. It was done in the context of a perfect master speaking to a perfect student, and giving a message which comprehended all the aspects of the issue, or the problem on hand.

How do you tackle a problem? This may be an administrative aspect of life. Tackling a problem is an administrative issue, but it is also an educational system. Even administration is a process of education. You have to move like a good psychologist, as a good doctor administering treatment to a patient. It is a question of understanding things and approaching a thing only to that extent as would be necessary under a given condition, and not more. You should not point out everything at the same moment. So the immediately visible vesture of your personality is to be taken into consideration.

We have vestures of personality. By vesture, I do not necessarily mean the physical body and the vital sheath, and so on, which philosophers speak of. It is a vesture of your personality, your makeup, your outlook, your attitude, your behaviour, your conduct, your viewpoint, your opinion, your philosophy. All these have certain vestures. They are graded stage by stage.

Our personality is made up of certain levels. The personality of ours looks like an abstract thing. It is not necessarily the physical body. It is abstract in the sense that a human being is also some abstract principle, finally. We cannot say that we are a body, though it looks like we are that only. All the values that we admire in life are not necessarily material and physical, because we have seen that a materially well-placed and physically well-built personality is not necessarily a complete personality, not a satisfied personality. Our involvements are the levels of our personality. Each one has to understand for oneself what are the involvements of oneself. There are immediate involvements, and other subtle ones which come as layers inside, which can be considered a little later. 

But immediate problems are immediate involvements. A pressing situation which has to be attended to just now is the most immediate involvement of a person, though there are other involvements which are also important enough, and it takes a little time for us to go deep into this issue of what our involvements are. We have to take time to understand that. Sometimes it may look that we are involved in nothing. Some people feel, “What involvement have I got? I am a free man.” It is not so simple as that. 

Involvement means the recognition of anything outside you as real to the extent it affects your existence. Is there anything real outside you, or is there nothing real outside you? No sensible person will say there is nothing outside them. We feel that there are certain things outside us, and they are real to us, and to the extent that we accord reality to that which is outside us, to that extent we are involved in it. The concession of reality that we have granted to something outside us is also the extent to which we are involved in it, and no one can say that it is not involvement.

Continued

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