Class Notes by Sharmila
The word Krishna when taken literally means black, because Bhagavan Krishna’s skin color is dark like the rain cloud. The implied meaning of “Krishna” is “the one who attracts”. What is attractive of Bhagavan Krishna is that He knows His nature is happiness and that’s why we are drawn to Him. When we know who we are, we will love ourselves more. Another name for Krishna is Murari. Murari’s enemy was Krishna. The implied meaning is — “Mura” means a thorn that is twisted and “Ari” means the one who ends the “twisted thorn”. A twist in our mind is the “ego”, and Murari is the one who straightens the thorn and softens that twist. Our course is not a course in literal meaning but the implied meaning.
To know what Bhagavad Gita feels like, we have to be “Shastra Anusari”. Anusari means “tied to” or “revolve around” the scripture. Our approach to this course is, we take up verbs like relating, communicating, working — verbs we are engaged and add insights (jnana, knowledge).
Verb+insight = joy
Add insight/meaning to what we are already doing , that is the experience of joy in our heart.
In December we studied the following shlokas about “Relating”:
Chapter 6, verse 9 — 9 different personalities were highlighted. In the book “Tao of Pooh” , one of the insights is — “ We are agitated by others when we are unable to change them”. We rarely appreciate someone for who they are, that acceptance is not there. In this shloka, we saw many different personalities and that they should be accepted for who they are.
Chapter 7, verse 7 — We are compared to pearls and there is a cord that connects all of us. In the book “Tao of Pooh”, rabbit is considered to be clever and a clever person does not try to understand others. Pooh is considered simple, and a simple person tries to understand others. As long as we live in a worldly way, we will focus on the “pearls” and not the “connection”. In this verse, we acknowledge that we are all different but what unites us all is that existence, awareness, joy.
Chapter 12, verse 15 — The main thought here was to not agitate people and not to be agitated or disturbed by people. In Srimad Bhagavatam, RajaRishi Bharata shares with Rahooguna that there is no such relationship as master and servant. If one is tuned into oneness and the other is tuned into separation, we don’t have any control over that. We should let go of this false sense of control.
Chapter 3, verse 11 — The higher we serve, the more we will be supported. If we tune into all of humanity, then the creator who is above humanity will support us. If we start living for society, then God is our belayer, Bhagavan will look after the individuality, family, community. All we have to do is to live for what is above us, and we will be supported on all that is below us.
The new verb for this month is “working”.
On an average we work for 50 hours, 50 weeks, 50 years — so 125000 hours we are engaged in work! How should we engage in work?
Chapter 5, verse 8 : Someone who knows how to work feels like they are not working ! All that you “are” and “have”, are you solely responsible for that? As long as we feel we are solely responsible, then we will feel that we are the doer. The more grateful one is, the less one feels that they are the “Karta”. Someone who knows how to work is deeply/perpetually grateful. Our engaging in work is like a tribute that we offer back for everything that we are and that we have.
Those who work and feel like they are not working are ones that are yukta or united and remembering in their mind, truth and nobility. They are personalities who enjoy creation (sunset, breathing eating etc.) So we owe it back to creation, to help creation. If we are grateful , then we will enjoy creation and also help it, serve it, love it and not feel like this is work. In this class, we don’t bring our minds down from the creator or creation, so there is no opportunity for stress and anxiety.
Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling — are the organs of perception (Jnana Indriyas). Here Bhagavan is saying work is seeing, hearing , touching and smelling — and in doing all these the same mentality of being grateful and serving creation should be there. The message throughout Srimad Bhagavatam is “those eyes, those ears, those hands and the nose that is not dedicated to Bhagavan , are really just holes for animals to live in!” In a deeper sense it shows that we don’t know the value of being a human, and if we don’t know the value, we won’t live for enlightenment. We will live for pleasure, possession and position but not peace! If there are Jnana Indriyas, then there are also the Karma Indriyas represented by these fout verbs- eating, going/walking , dreaming/sleeping and breathing.
We should have Arpana Buddhi, dedicate to the divine. If there is Arpana, then what comes back is Prasada. We should be using our Karma Indriyas , organs of response to love creation, to keep growing our love from community to society to humanity. To live for humanity, use your organs for humanity! Eat in a simple way so we can feed more people, be an environmentalist, sleep less (which means work more), be healthy — these are tactile ways to live selflessly.
Bhagavad Gita is known as Smriti (an interpretation of Shruti), we should bring this into our lives!