Gita Satsangh Chapter 16 Verses 3 & 4

[Guest guest]

Dandavat pranams to all!

 

Tasmaat shaastram pramaanam te kaaryaakaaryavyavasthitau; Jnaatwaa shaastravidhaanoktam karma kartumihaarhasi. Therefore, let the scripture be the authority in determining what ought to be done and what ought not to be done. Having known what is said in the ordinance of the scriptures, thou shouldst act here in this world. (BG 16.24)

 

To listen to Swami Brahmanananda of the Chinmaya Mission chanting this Chapter...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B50lu0Oilak & feature=related

 

Rather than delay posting of the remainder of this chapter while discussing the individual qualities in more depth, we will resume weekly posting of the verses. Discussion of the individual qualities will continue at the same time through different threads. Since there has been a short delay in posting of these verses, those who wish to reread verses 1 & 2 can go here: advaitin/message/46752

 

Tejah kshamaa dhritih shauchamadroho naatimaanitaa; Bhavanti sampadam daiveem abhijaatasya bhaarata. 3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride—these belong to one born in a divine state, O Arjuna!

Sankara Bhashya (Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are (the qualties) of one born destined to have the divine nature. Tajah, vigour, not the brightness of the skin; ksama, forgiveness, absence of internal perturbation when offened or assaulted-absence of anger has been explained by us as the calming down of a perturbed mind; thus, forgiveness and absence of anger are distinguished; dhrtih, fortitude, a particular function of the mind which removes the tedium of the body and organs when they become exhausted, and being rejuvenated by which the body and organs do not feel any fatigue; saucam, purity-is of two kinds: external, with the help of earth and water; and internal, the cleanliness of mind and intellect, the absence of such impurities as trickery, attachment, etc.; purity of these two kinds; adrohah, freedom from malice, absence of the desire to injure others, absence of hatred; na-atimanita, absence of haughtiness-too much self-esteem (mana) is atimanah; one having that is atimani; its abstract form is atimanita; absence of that, na-atimanita, i.e., absence of the feeling of one's being too honourable. These (qualities) beginning with fearlessness and ending with this, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, bhavanti, are; (the qualities) abhijatasya, of one destined to have;-what kind of nature?-the daivim, divine; sampadam, nature-of one destined to have divine attributes, of one who is worthy of the excellence of the gods, i.e., of one who would be illustrations in future.

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of pride --- these belong to the one born for the Divine Estate, O Bharata.VIGOUR --- BRILLIANT GLOW (Tejas) --- This is not a mere physical glow of complexion produced by good food and ample rest. Nor is it just an exterior beauty arising out of careful tending of the physical structure and planned nourishing of the pads of flesh around the sage. The glow of spirituality is not literally a painted halo around him, glimmering as a ring-of-fire. The brilliance of his intellect, the twinkling joy in his eyes, the thrilling fragrance of peace around, the serene poise in his activities, the dalliance of his love for all, the light of joy that ever shines forth from the innermost depths of his being --- these constitute their resistible attraction of the personality of the sage, who, with abundant energy, serves all and discovers for himself a fulfilment in that service.FORGIVENESS --- PATIENCE (Kshamaa) --- The context in which the word is used here should increase the depth of its meaning. It is not merely "a capacity to patiently live through some minor physical or mental inconvenience, when insulted or injured by others." It is a subtle boldness that is shown by a man in facing the world around with an unruffled serenity even in the face of the most powerful opposition and provoking situations.FORTITUDE (Dhriti) --- When an individual daringly meets life he cannot expect, all the time, happy situations, favourable circumstances and a conducive arrangement of chances in his field of activity. Ordinarily, a weak man suddenly feels dejected and is tempted to leave his field of work when it is only half done. Many lose their chances of achieving the Highest, and desert the field of action, almost at the moment when, perhaps, victory is round the corner! In order to stick to his guns, man needs a secret energy to nurture and nourish his exhausted and fatigued morale, and this sacred energy welling up in his well-integrated personality is 'FORTITUDE.' Strength of faith, conviction in the goal, consistency of purpose, vivid perception of the ideal and a bold spirit of sacrifice cultivated diligently --- all these form the source from which fortitude trickles down to remove exhaustion, fatigue, despair and so on. PURITY (Shoucham) --- The word indicates not only the inner purity --- purity of thoughts and motives --- but it also suggests, the purity of environments, cleanliness of habit and personal belongings. As a result of an over-emphasis on subjective purity, today, we find in our society, an utter neglect of external purity. Clean clothes and civic-habits have both become rare in our society. Even the devotee-class is unmindful about these, although our religion emphasises that purity and cleanliness are unavoidable disciplines for a seeker. ABSENCE-OF-HATRED (Adroha) --- Harmlessness (Ahimsa) was a virtue explained in the previous stanza. Here the same virtue is repeated not only for the purpose of emphasis but also to indicate a slightly different shade of meaning. The term here should mean more than "ABSENCE OF HATRED." Just as an individual will never have, even in his dream, any idea of injuring himself, a true seeker, in his recognition of the Oneness in all living creatures, must come to feel that to injure anyone is to injure himself. ABSENCE OF OVER-PRIDE (Na-ati-maanitaa) --- To leave off one's exaggerated notions of self-honour is, immediately to relieve oneself from thousands of avoidable excitements and responsibilities. Life is as light as a feather to one who has renounced his over-exaggerated pride while to a Coriolanus, life becomes a heavy cross, to be carried painfully, as it mercilessly cuts through the living flesh on his shoulders. The twenty-six qualities described above give us a complete picture of the nature of a man of 'Divine Estate.' These qualities are enumerated to serve as a guide to all those who thirst to become "perfect." To the extent we are able to reorganise our way-of-life and change our vision of the world around us on the above lines, to that extent we shall economise our energies, that are often wasted in idle pursuits. To respect and live these twenty-six values of life completely, is to assure ourselves of a right way-of-living.

HERE FOLLOWS A DESCRIPTION OF THE DEMONIAC (ASURIC) NATURE:

 

Dambho darpo’bhimaanashcha krodhah paarushyameva cha; Ajnaanam chaabhijaatasya paartha sampadamaasureem. 4. Hypocrisy, arrogance, self-conceit, harshness and also anger and ignorance, belong to one who is born in a demoniacal state, O Arjuna! Sankara Bhashya (Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)Thereafter, the demoniacal nature is now being stated: 4. O son of Prtha, (the attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature are religious ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is abhimanah, self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance. O son of Prtha, dambhah, religious ostentation; darpah, pride arising from wealth, relatives, etc.; atimanah, haughtiness, as explained earlier; and krodhah, anger; eva ca, as also; parusyam, rudeness, using unkind words, e.g. to speak of a blind person as having eyes, an ugly person as handsome, a lowly born man as born of aristocracy, and so on; and ajnanam, ignorance, non-discriminating knowledge, false conception regarding what ought to be and ought not to be done; are (the attributes) abhijatasya, of one destined to have;-destined for what? in answer the Lord says-asurim, demoniacal; sampadam, nature.Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

4. Hypocrisy, arrogance and self-conceit, anger, and also harshness and ignorance, belong to one who is born, O Partha, for a demoniac-Estate.The dark features of the ugly personalities in the world were never before so strikingly brought within the embrace of a simple stanza. All the Satanic forces that can ever come to express in the bosom of man have been brought together under some all-comprehensive 'types' of devilish-ness, as indicated here. To know them would be a sufficient warning of what we must avoid and what all traits, in us, we must carefully weed out from our mental composition, so that the greater energy that is available to a well-developed man, may, without any obstruction, flow out of our bosom. HYPOCRISY (Ostentation --- Dambha) --- 'Pretending to be righteous but living unrighteous ways of life' is the meaning that Shankara gives to this term. Hypocrisy is, certainly, one of the cheapest poses assumed by the vicious. To them, all their superficial glow of goodness and purity, of religiosity and sincerity are but attractive hoods to cover their deadly motives and ugly intentions. ARROGANCE (Darpa) --- Endless pride of learning, or of wealth, or of social status, or of family connections, gives to an individual a kind of insufferable uppishness, and he looks at the world and the happenings around him through this misinterpreting and self-deluding medium and lives in a world of imagined self-importance resulting in an arrogance that drives away all inward peace. Such an individual gets exiled from the love of the community around. An arrogant man is a lonely creature in the world and his only companions are his own imagined self-importance and dreams of his glories which none but he can see. And naturally he becomes highly self-conceited (Abhimanah).

ANGER (Krodha) --- When such a self-conceited, arrogant, hypocrite looks at the world around him and finds that the world's estimate of him is totally different from his own estimate of himself, he revolts within and hence his wrath (Krodha) at everything around him. And once such an individual gets worked up with anger, in his speech and action, there must necessarily be a disconcerting insolence (Parushya). Such arrogance, self-conceit, wrath and insolence --- arise from his own self-delusions (ajnanam). He knows not himself, that he is ignorant of the scheme of the world around him, and consequently, he is blind to the right relationship that he should maintain with the world around him. In short, he is extremely ego-centric and he expects the world to be what he wants it to be, and, in his delusion, he supplies a mad blue-print prescribing how the world of healthy beings is to behave and act in his field of actions. This ignorance of oneself and one's relationship with the things and beings around is the secret cause that generally forces one to revolt against the environments and act quixotically. Such people are termed here by Krishna as the 'Diabolically Fallen,' the Asuric. Such a spectacular contrast provides by the picture of the Asuric, as given here, gloriously brings out the earlier picture of the 'Divinely Good' --- the Daivic, in relief. THE EFFECTS OF THE TWO NATURES --- THE DIVINELY GOOD AND THE DIABOLICALLY FALLEN --- ARE SPOKEN OF AS FOLLOWS:

to be continued...

 

 

Hare Krishna!!!

[Guest guest]

On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:46:41 +0530 wrote

>

 

Oh! How sweet to see Radhe talk about Gita!!!

 

It has been long since I saw the advaitin postings.

 

May the Lord who sent me the Red Lotus Su:ryakamalam from Norway through Alan Larus on Sri Krishna Janmashtami and pointed out by Lady Joy bless you with LOVE and BLESSINGS of SELF REALIZATION!!!

 

May this Gita Jayanti bring what u asked for!!!

 

LOVE

Bhuvaneswar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dandavat pranams to all!

 

Tasmaat shaastram pramaanam te kaaryaakaaryavyavasthitau;

>Jnaatwaa

shaastravidhaanoktam karma kartumihaarhasi.

>Therefore, let the

scripture be the authority in determining what ought to be done and what ought

not to be done. Having known what is said in the ordinance of the scriptures,

thou shouldst act here in this world. (BG 16.24)

 

To listen to Swami Brahmanananda of the Chinmaya Mission

>chanting this

Chapter...

 

 

Rather than delay posting of the remainder of this chapter while discussing

the individual qualities in more depth, we will resume weekly posting of the

verses. Discussion of the individual qualities will continue at the same time

through different threads. Since there has been a short delay in posting of

these verses, those who wish to reread verses 1 2 can go here:

>advaitin/message/46752

 

Tejah kshamaa dhritih shauchamadroho naatimaanitaa;

>Bhavanti sampadam

daiveem abhijaatasya bhaarata.

>3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity,

absence of hatred, absence of pride—these belong to one born in a divine state,

O Arjuna!

>

>

Sankara Bhashya

>(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and

Commentary)

>

>

3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, freedom from malice, absence of

haughtiness-these, O scion of the Bharata dynasty, are (the qualties) of one

born destined to have the divine nature.

>

>Tajah, vigour, not the

brightness of the skin; ksama, forgiveness, absence of internal perturbation

when offened or assaulted-absence of anger has been explained by us as the

calming down of a perturbed mind; thus, forgiveness and absence of anger are

distinguished; dhrtih, fortitude, a particular function of the mind which

removes the tedium of the body and organs when they become exhausted, and being

rejuvenated by which the body and organs do not feel any fatigue; saucam,

purity-is of two kinds: external, with the help of earth and water; and

internal, the cleanliness of mind and intellect, the absence of such impurities

as trickery, attachment, etc.; purity of these two kinds; adrohah, freedom from

malice, absence of the desire to injure others, absence of hatred; na-atimanita,

absence of haughtiness-too much self-esteem (mana) is atimanah; one having that

is atimani; its abstract form is atimanita; absence of that, na-atimanita, i.e.,

absence of the feeling of one's being too honourable. These (qualities)

beginning with fearlessness and ending with this, O scion of the Bharata

dynasty, bhavanti, are; (the qualities) abhijatasya, of one destined to

have;-what kind of nature?-the daivim, divine; sampadam, nature-of one destined

to have divine attributes, of one who is worthy of the excellence of the gods,

i.e., of one who would be illustrations in future.

>

>

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and

Commentary

>

>

3. Vigour, forgiveness, fortitude, purity, absence of hatred, absence of

pride --- these belong to the one born for the Divine Estate, O

Bharata.

>

>VIGOUR --- BRILLIANT GLOW (Tejas) --- This is not a mere

physical glow of complexion produced by good food and ample rest. Nor is it just

an exterior beauty arising out of careful tending of the physical structure and

planned nourishing of the pads of flesh around the sage. The glow of

spirituality is not literally a painted halo around him, glimmering as a

ring-of-fire. The brilliance of his intellect, the twinkling joy in his eyes,

the thrilling fragrance of peace around, the serene poise in his activities, the

dalliance of his love for all, the light of joy that ever shines forth from the

innermost depths of his being --- these constitute their resistible attraction

of the personality of the sage, who, with abundant energy, serves all and

discovers for himself a fulfilment in that service.

>

>FORGIVENESS ---

PATIENCE (Kshamaa) --- The context in which the word is used here should

increase the depth of its meaning. It is not merely "a capacity to patiently

live through some minor physical or mental inconvenience, when insulted or

injured by others." It is a subtle boldness that is shown by a man in facing the

world around with an unruffled serenity even in the face of the most powerful

opposition and provoking situations.

>

>FORTITUDE (Dhriti) --- When an

individual daringly meets life he cannot expect, all the time, happy situations,

favourable circumstances and a conducive arrangement of chances in his field of

activity. Ordinarily, a weak man suddenly feels dejected and is tempted to leave

his field of work when it is only half done. Many lose their chances of

achieving the Highest, and desert the field of action, almost at the moment

when, perhaps, victory is round the corner! In order to stick to his guns, man

needs a secret energy to nurture and nourish his exhausted and fatigued morale,

and this sacred energy welling up in his well-integrated personality is

'FORTITUDE.' Strength of faith, conviction in the goal, consistency of purpose,

vivid perception of the ideal and a bold spirit of sacrifice cultivated

diligently --- all these form the source from which fortitude trickles down to

remove exhaustion, fatigue, despair and so on.

>

>PURITY (Shoucham) --- The

word indicates not only the inner purity --- purity of thoughts and motives ---

but it also suggests, the purity of environments, cleanliness of habit and

personal belongings. As a result of an over-emphasis on subjective purity,

today, we find in our society, an utter neglect of external purity. Clean

clothes and civic-habits have both become rare in our society. Even the

devotee-class is unmindful about these, although our religion emphasises that

purity and cleanliness are unavoidable disciplines for a seeker.

 

>

>ABSENCE-OF-HATRED (Adroha) --- Harmlessness (Ahimsa) was a virtue

explained in the previous stanza. Here the same virtue is repeated not only for

the purpose of emphasis but also to indicate a slightly different shade of

meaning. The term here should mean more than "ABSENCE OF HATRED." Just as an

individual will never have, even in his dream, any idea of injuring himself, a

true seeker, in his recognition of the Oneness in all living creatures, must

come to feel that to injure anyone is to injure himself.

>

>ABSENCE OF

OVER-PRIDE (Na-ati-maanitaa) --- To leave off one's exaggerated notions of

self-honour is, immediately to relieve oneself from thousands of avoidable

excitements and responsibilities. Life is as light as a feather to one who has

renounced his over-exaggerated pride while to a Coriolanus, life becomes a heavy

cross, to be carried painfully, as it mercilessly cuts through the living flesh

on his shoulders.

>

>The twenty-six qualities described above give us a

complete picture of the nature of a man of 'Divine Estate.' These qualities are

enumerated to serve as a guide to all those who thirst to become "perfect." To

the extent we are able to reorganise our way-of-life and change our vision of

the world around us on the above lines, to that extent we shall economise our

energies, that are often wasted in idle pursuits. To respect and live these

twenty-six values of life completely, is to assure ourselves of a right

way-of-living.

 

>HERE FOLLOWS A DESCRIPTION OF THE DEMONIAC (ASURIC) NATURE:

 

Dambho darpo’bhimaanashcha krodhah paarushyameva cha;

>Ajnaanam

chaabhijaatasya paartha sampadamaasureem.

>4. Hypocrisy, arrogance,

self-conceit, harshness and also anger and ignorance, belong to one who is born

in a demoniacal state, O Arjuna!

>

>Sankara Bhashya

>(Swami

Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

>

>Thereafter, the

demoniacal nature is now being stated:

>

>4. O son of Prtha, (the

attributes) of one destined to have the demoniacal nature are religious

ostentation, pride and haughtiness, [Another reading is abhimanah,

self-conceit.-Tr.], anger as also rudeness and ignorance.

>

>O son of

Prtha, dambhah, religious ostentation; darpah, pride arising from wealth,

relatives, etc.; atimanah, haughtiness, as explained earlier; and krodhah,

anger; eva ca, as also; parusyam, rudeness, using unkind words, e.g. to speak of

a blind person as having eyes, an ugly person as handsome, a lowly born man as

born of aristocracy, and so on; and ajnanam, ignorance, non-discriminating

knowledge, false conception regarding what ought to be and ought not to be done;

are (the attributes) abhijatasya,of one destined to have;-destined for

what? in answer the Lord says-asurim, demoniacal; sampadam,

nature.

>

>Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and

Commentary

>

>

4. Hypocrisy, arrogance and self-conceit, anger, and also harshness and

ignorance, belong to one who is born, O Partha, for a

demoniac-Estate.

>

>The dark features of the ugly personalities in the world

were never before so strikingly brought within the embrace of a simple stanza.

All the Satanic forces that can ever come to express in the bosom of man have

been brought together under some all-comprehensive 'types' of devilish-ness, as

indicated here. To know them would be a sufficient warning of what we must avoid

and what all traits, in us, we must carefully weed out from our mental

composition, so that the greater energy that is available to a well-developed

man, may, without any obstruction, flow out of our bosom.

>

>HYPOCRISY

(Ostentation --- Dambha) --- 'Pretending to be righteous but living unrighteous

ways of life' is the meaning that Shankara gives to this term. Hypocrisy is,

certainly, one of the cheapest poses assumed by the vicious. To them, all their

superficial glow of goodness and purity, of religiosity and sincerity are but

attractive hoods to cover their deadly motives and ugly intentions.

 

>

>ARROGANCE (Darpa) --- Endless pride of learning, or of wealth, or of

social status, or of family connections, gives to an individual a kind of

insufferable uppishness, and he looks at the world and the happenings around him

through this misinterpreting and self-deluding medium and lives in a world of

imagined self-importance resulting in an arrogance that drives away all inward

peace. Such an individual gets exiled from the love of the community around. An

arrogant man is a lonely creature in the world and his only companions are his

own imagined self-importance and dreams of his glories which none but he can

see. And naturally he becomes highly self-conceited (Abhimanah).

 

>ANGER (Krodha) --- When such a self-conceited, arrogant, hypocrite

looks at the world around him and finds that the world's estimate of him is

totally different from his own estimate of himself, he revolts within and hence

his wrath (Krodha) at everything around him. And once such an individual gets

worked up with anger, in his speech and action, there must necessarily be a

disconcerting insolence (Parushya).

>

>Such arrogance, self-conceit, wrath

and insolence --- arise from his own self-delusions (ajnanam). He knows not

himself, that he is ignorant of the scheme of the world around him, and

consequently, he is blind to the right relationship that he should maintain with

the world around him. In short, he is extremely ego-centric and he expects the

world to be what he wants it to be, and, in his delusion, he supplies a mad

blue-print prescribing how the world of healthy beings is to behave and act in

his field of actions. This ignorance of oneself and one's relationship with the

things and beings around is the secret cause that generally forces one to revolt

against the environments and act quixotically.

>

>Such people are termed

here by Krishna as the 'Diabolically Fallen,' the Asuric. Such a spectacular

contrast provides by the picture of the Asuric, as given here, gloriously brings

out the earlier picture of the 'Divinely Good' --- the Daivic, in relief.

 

>

>THE EFFECTS OF THE TWO NATURES --- THE DIVINELY GOOD AND THE

DIABOLICALLY FALLEN --- ARE SPOKEN OF AS FOLLOWS:

 

>to be continued...

 

 

Hare Krishna!!!

>

>

>