Krishna, our BFF, Best Friend Forever - blog by aktakkar : 02/01/22

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

*Main Points*: 1 *Gita Shloka* 6.5 “One must deliver himself with the help of his mind, and not degrade himself. The mind is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.”

https://vedabase.io/en/library/bg/6/5/

all the previous verses of this chapter, they led to this Verse, when we talked about the inner world that is the “mind” - Shri Krishna says Arjun, that mind is the most important. We are searching for demons on the outside, this person is bad, that person is bad. Factually, our destiny, our future, everything is in our own hands https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=66 2 I had given the example of Martina Navratilova, one of the best women tennis players in history, so Martina Navratilova after she won 18 Grand Slam Tennis titles, she won 31 women's double titles and 10 mixed double major titles, making it total of 59 major tennis titles, amongst the maximum in the women's category, so that Martina Navratilova was playing till the age of 43 and when correspondents asked her that how can you play at World Class level at the age of 43, when all the physical abilities have declined, she said the ball does not know my age. The point was very simple, she said that all games are played in the 6 inch space between your two ears https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=99 3 if we can take charge of our mind, we become the controllers of our destiny. So Shri Krishna says you yourself have to uplift yourself by the power of your thoughts and not degrade yourself thought by thought, we can either sabotage ourselves or we can lift ourselves up and that is why the essence of spirituality is to purify the mind https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=182 4 mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh (Panchadashi) Kripaluji Maharaj has put it in his Bhakti Shatak “बंधन और मोक्ष का कारण मन ही बखान” So all the rituals and everything is fine, but the mind, if it doesn't get purified, then the purpose is not served https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=225 5 So the world sees the externals, the world gives importance to external things https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=244 6 this is an episode that happened in a metropolitan in India. Two ladies went to a bookshop and they told the Shopkeeper, give us one green book and one blue book and one red book and one black book. The shopkeeper said do you want to read them ? They said no no no, we did not want to read them, we just want to decorate our house with them, it doesn't matter, whatever it is, it should look good - that's what the world is all about https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=255 7 Bhagavan Krishna says look, this philosophy will work in the world, but it will not work with Me, because I'm sitting in your heart, you have to actually become good from inside, it doesn't matter what words you say https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=294 8 like in the world, we say thank you, what is the meaning of thank you ? One airplane got into trouble and they realized the flight attendance pilot etc that we are doomed. So the air hostess said okay now all of you, those who know how to use a parachute we've got it, you jump off, those of you who know how to swim when we land on the water, you can get onto the water and swim and the rest of you - thank you for flying with us. https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=313 9 These words sorry, thank you, come so easily in USA particularly, right ? because USA is all “baahar thikh andhar gadbad”, perfect on the outside the inside may be another story. So sorry, thank you, all these externals. Now we say we do the same with Shri Krishna as well - so the mouth is saying “Shyama meri thakurani, Shyam mere thakur” and the mind is saying “chai meri Maharani” when will you come ? https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=361 10 Shri Krishna says, you never did any Kirtan, what you were doing was a physical drill. You have to take the mind to Me, so the sadhna that we are doing here is the most pure kind of sadhna, where from morning till night, you are sitting and taking the mind to God https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=407 11 we have hour after hour after hour of meditation, so that is the real thing purifying the mind, how? taking the mind to God and as helpers we have two, one is the chanting and one is the hearing, so Chant, Hear & Remember this is Tridha Bhakti, Shravan, Kirtan, Smaran श्री कृष्णम स्मरणम् मनसा, वचसा सरस कीर्तनम । श्रोत्रेन श्रवणम नित्यम, त्रिधा भक्ति गरीयसी this is threefold Bhakti, the Best https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=463 12 Shankar ji told Parvati in the Padma Pura:33 with your ears, hear the glories of God, with your mouth, sing them & with your mind, you remember those glories, so rather than blaming the world we need to look into our own inner world (mind) - that should be the number one priority of a sadhak https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=501 13 Shri Krishna says here look Arjun, you yourself are responsible for your degradation or elevation by way of your own thinking by the mind https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=540 14 whom will you blame for your own destiny ? In one office the employees used to bring tiffins from home. So it was a factory, there were mainly male employees - there the wives used to cook. Now one guy would open his tiffin & he says oh no, cheese sandwiches once again, then the next day, he saw oh my God, again, cheese sandwiches, now 3 days in a row he said oh cheese sandwiches once again - so his friend said why don't you tell your wife not to pack cheese sandwiches, he said I don't have a wife, so who packs it ? I pack it myself https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=550 15 Shri Krishna says that this is exactly what your life is - that you have to take responsibility, even a guru what will the guru do ? He will give you advice, he will help you, he will guide you, but if you don't wish to do as per his advice, then what can the guru do ? एक पेड दो पक्षी बैठे, एक गुरु एक चेला, अपनी करनी गुरु उतरे, अपनी करनी चेला इसका अर्थ यह है कि एक पेड़ पर दो पक्षी बैठे हैं-एक गुरु और चेला। गुरु का पतन उसके स्वयं के कर्मों से होगा और चेला भी अपने कर्मों से नीचे की ओर गिरेगा। “There are two birds sitting on a tree—one Guru and one disciple. The Guru will descend by his own works, and the disciple will also only be able to climb down by his own karmas.” We have had innumerable lifetimes before this one, and God-realized Saints were always present on Earth. At any period of time, if the world is devoid of such Saints, then the souls of that period cannot become God-realized. How then can they fulfill the purpose of human life, which is God-realization? Thus, God ensures that God-realized Saints are always present in every era, to guide the sincere seekers and inspire humanity. So, in infinite past lifetimes, many times we must have met God-realized Saints and yet we did not become God-realized. This means that the problem was not lack of proper guidance, but either our reticence in accepting it or working according to it. Thus, we must first accept responsibility for our present level of spirituality, or lack thereof. Only then will we gain the confidence that if we have brought ourselves to our present state, we can also elevate ourselves by our efforts. When we suffer reversals on the path of spiritual growth, we tend to complain that others have caused havoc to us, and they are our enemies. HOWEVER, OUR BIGGEST ENEMY IS OUR OWN MIND. IT IS THE SABOTEUR (deliberately destroys, damages, or obstructs) THAT THWARTS (stops) OUR ASPIRATIONS FOR PERFECTION. Shree Krishna states that, on the one hand, as the greatest benefactor of the soul, the mind has the potential of giving us the most benefit; on the other hand, as our greatest adversary, it also has the potential for causing the maximum harm. A controlled mind can accomplish many beneficial endeavors, whereas an uncontrolled mind can degrade the consciousness with most ignoble thoughts. In order to be able to use it as a friend, it is important to understand the mind’s nature. Our mind operates at four levels: Mind: When it creates thoughts, we call it mana, or the mind. Intellect: When it analyses and decides, we call it buddhi, or intellect. Chitta: When it gets attached to an object or person, we call it chitta. Ego: When it identifies with the bodily identifications and becomes proud of things like wealth, status, beauty, and learning, we call it ahankar, or ego. These are not four separate entities. They are simply four levels of functioning of the one mind. Hence, we may refer to them all together as the mind, or as the mind-intellect, or as the mind-intellect-ego, or as the mind-intellect-chitta-ego. They all refer to the same thing. Various scriptures describe the mind in one of these four ways for the purpose of explaining the concepts presented there. They are all referring to the same internal apparatus within us, which is together called antah karan, or the mind. For example: The Panchadashi refers to all four together as the mind, and states that it is the cause of material bondage. In the Bhagavad Gita, Shree Krishna repeatedly talks of the mind and the intellect as being two things, and emphasizes the need to surrender both to God. The Yog Darshan, while analyzing the different elements of nature, talks of three entities: mind, intellect, and ego. Shankaracharya, while explaining the apparatus available to the soul, classifies the mind into four—mind, intellect, chitta and ego. So when Shree Krishna says that we must use the mind to elevate the self, he means we must use the higher mind to elevate the lower mind. In other words, we must use the intellect to control the mind. How this can be done has been explained in detail in verses 2.41 to 2.44 and again in verse 3.43. https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/6/verse/5 https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=608 16 SO, REMEMBER THE MIND IS THE MOST IMPORTANT https://youtu.be/9q_kMQl-iJ4&t=633

Transcript

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Bhagavat Gita chapter 6 Dhyan Yog The

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Yog of meditation shloka chanting is

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followed by translation and commentary

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by Swami mukundananda

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 Sloka 5 Chanting

Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6 Shloka 5 Translation