Class Notes by Bhargavi
In Chapter 15 of book called “Little prince” , there is a story of the little prince wherein the prince goes from planet to planet. On the sixth planet, he meets a geographer who is sitting at a table with lots of books open and is writing. Little prince is a curious, innocent child. He asks with the geographer asking him if he has seen all that he is writing and reading about. The geographer says no and says that he writes what he has heard from others. He is only a writer who simply chronicles what others have seen in their explorations. The little prince wonders why the geographer cannot see all the things he writes about, himself. Some of us are geographers, we sit at our desks with commentaries, texts and notes whereas some of us are explorers. The latter are not intellectualizing philosophy and morality. One can evolve from being a geographer to an explorer through reflection. Reflection is internalization. We are immersed in subjective science and the whole essence/vision of this science is to internalize. When you start to reflect, you start to experience with your eyes and in your heart and you grow up to become a human. The names of first two humans are Manu and Shatarupa. Manu is a symbol for “Man”, to think. Capacity to think is what distinguishes human from an animal. Shatarupa is an icon for faith. Once you start thinking about living/life, you start to have faith in living/life. Our Applied Gita course is a course in being open, being open to ideas and exploring, being open that after you leave your pooja room/class, you continue to apply Gita.
March is focused on resolving conflicts outside and inside. We began with Chapter 2 verse 72. Main message of this verse is living cheerfully is possible. When you believe this is possible, you have addressed the inner and then outer conflict. You must not wait for this. Even if you come to know who you are, as you die, that dying is irrelevant. Once you are happy, you are happy forever. Since we are living in a period called Kali, the urgency is now even more. Kali means fast, conflict. If you are depending on outside variables to be happy, everything will slowly fall apart. In this period, this “slowly” is actually quite fast. Health, relationships, technologies, economies, all is subject to destruction. So why are you waiting to be happy? The answer to this why is given in Chapter 3 verse 38.
Chapter 3 verse 38: This verse begins with verse 35. In verse 35, Bhagwan Krishna tells Arjuna that it is better for you to try to fail in your responsibilities than try and succeed in another’s responsibilities. In verse 36, Prince Arjuna who already know this, asks Bhagwan why he is not able to try. The answer that is given is Kama and Krodha (verse 37). Kama means desire and where there is desire, there will be Krodha (anger). In the verse 38, it is explained how deep this desire is and how expressive is the anger. Light desire leads to light anger. This is stopping us from applying Gita, from resolving with others and ourselves. If there is smoke covering the fire, all that is required to clear the smoke and see the fire is momentum, like a blow of wind. Fire is an icon for knowledge/Self. If we are light on desire and anger, the momentum of our life will help us to find happiness in ourselves and radiate it outwards.
Also, just as dust on a mirror. If one has medium depth desires, there will be medium expression of anger. In such a case, effort is needed to clear the desires and anger. Implication is that, for you to follow through with resolutions in life, you need to invest effort.
The third example talks about heavy desires and heavy anger. Just as a fetus in the womb is hidden and you have to wait for the fetus to come out to be able to see the inside of the womb, it will require not only effort but time (10 months in this example) to be free of that expression of anger and free from that depth of desire. The message that Bhagwan is trying to share is that if one is Sattwic, they have made Happiness their priority, they know what is important and will follow through with that. A Rajasic person is aggressive and thinks happiness is outside, they are confused inside and cause confusion outside. They need to put in effort. A lazy, Tamasic person, who expects happiness will come to them, time in addition to effort and momentum is required. Bhagwan says you cannot see the knowledge that He has been teaching because of paapa, sin. Sin is when you are far away from yourself.
If we think about an intense conflict we had, the reason is almost always that because you want something from them. Most likely, this is something emotional/mental, for example, appreciation, respect, positioning, reciprocity and this leads to expectations. So if we think about the time we were angry or frustrated, it is because our expectations were not met. This not only applies outwardly, but inwardly too. Breaking of expectations of ourselves, is causing you to devolve. If you talk pridefully to someone who is provoking you, we feel aware of how we are behaving inspite of being a student of this course. It shows how insecure I am! This is the genesis of why we are unable to apply everything we know. We are unable to make the reconciliation between mind and the intellect. In Chapter 2, Bhagwan said not to wait anymore. In this class we are exploring what is causing us to wait and not start applying Gita and it is because of Kama and Krodha.