Look Within – Talks on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Venkatesananda.

[Guest guest]

`Prakriteh kriyamaanaani gunaih karmaani sarvasah

 

Ahamkaaravimudhaatmaakartaham iti manyate'

 

" All actions are wrought in all cases by the qualities of nature

only. He whose mind is deluded by egoism thinks `I am the

doer' " – Gita 3 Verse 27

 

When the eyes are open, they see, when the ears are open, they hear;

what I got to do with it, or, what has `I' got to do with it?

 

I am alive, awake, and my eyes are open – if with open eyes I cannot

stop seeing you, then the act of seeing does not need a thing called

`I'.

 

`Prakriteh kriyamaanaani gunaih karmaani sarvasah – your eyes

are seeing all the time - Ahamkaaravimudhaatmaakartaham iti manyate'

– and the foolish man thinks `I am seeing', whereas the eyes

alone see.

 

This can be multiplied to cover every aspect of our life; life lives,

not `I'; mind thinks, not `I'; speech happens, not

`I'.

 

Right. Then we know the other extreme – `God does everything,

O.K, let it happen, I won't do anything.

 

I won't do anything?

 

`Yad ahamkaaram aashrityanayotsya iti manyase

 

Mithyaisa vyavasaayas te prakritis tvaam niyoksyati'

 

" If filled with egoism, thou thinks: `I will not fight' vain

is this, thy resolve; nature will compel thee' – Gita 18 verse

59

 

" If you egotistically believe that you can stop doing something you

are a fool " , he says " that same nature will make you do it " .

 

So, it is not the question of `to do or not to do' but there is

the fundamental question `Is there an ego sense involved in this

action, and is that ego sense a real independent entity or not?'

 

Unfortunately we have never for a single moment enquired along these

lines, into this basic fundamental truth.

 

Is there an ego sense involved in this work?

 

The work happens, but is the I doing it? Is there an I that does it, or

it happens? If it happens, what is this I? what is this ego sense? How

does it come into this action?

To be continued..