Look Within – Talks on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Venkatesananda

[Guest guest]

Ashocyaananvashochastvam prajnaavaadaamshcha bhaasase

 

" You are worried about what you should not worry about: you grieve

for those you should not grieve for " .

 

It seems by inference, to suggest that worry is alright in certain

circumstances – not for someone who is alive or someone who is dead,

but for other reasons.

 

For instance, one may be worried about one's own stupidity and may

be sorry for remaining in ignorance and loving it – that's a

rather miserable state of affairs.

 

In some scriptures dealing with bhakti, a certain type of unhappiness

(not just unhappiness – it is terrible anguish) is described as

being experienced by a devotee, whenever he suddenly remembers that he

had forgotten god.

 

So that anguish, grief, sorrow and worry seem also have their own place

in the scheme of life.

 

What is emphasised by Krishna is that you are applying it to wrong

situations.

 

You pretend to be worried about people getting killed in a war, but you

don't really have respect for life – and that means there is

hypocrisy.

 

You are not facing the truth, looking at the truth as it is.

 

Today I was reading the scientific American journal and this particular

news item seems to have appeared in 1923 when there were just 300,000

cars and there were 14,000 fatal accidents. The article goes on warning

people that they must learn how to deal with them.

 

We have never dealt with them, have we?

 

The road toll has only increased over the years because we do not face

the fact – and the fact is the car itself.

 

Are we prepared to live without the motor car? No.

 

We want to keep the motor car and then – and then what? You

can't deal with the death; the two together.

 

Also for an instance, we express great concern over some three people

who jumped over Sydney Harbour Bridge; so in order that other people may

not go up this harbour bridge and hurl themselves down, we build all

sorts of protective mechanisms there in our anxiety to protect life.

 

How many? Three lives per year. But that seems to satisfy people.

 

Are we really seriously concerned about people getting killed? Do we

have respect for life?

 

Then we must start taking a total view of the entire situation and not

look at one little corner which seems to suit our conscience.

To be continued..