Thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 14: Verses 11 - 18)

Rahul N Singh: 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host, Rahul N Singh. Thank you for taking out the time today to either watch or listen to this podcast episode. If you are really interested in supporting The Bearded Mystic Podcast, and you've found great benefit in listening or watching these episodes, then please do support this podcast on Patreon where you can get ad free and bonus episodes along with other benefits depending on the tier that you select. Your support means everything, and it really does help the podcast keep running efficiently and smoothly, and also widens the audience that this message can reach to. If you would like to know more about it, the details are in the show notes and video description below. On Saturdays at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time there is a free virtual meditation session along with discussion and Q&A. If you're interested in meditating with us as a community, then you can find out the details in the show notes and video description below. Please do like, comment, and subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube and if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast streaming app, then please do give this podcast a five star rating. It helps the podcast get up in the charts and allows the algorithm to bring this podcast to new listeners and also do review the podcast if you can and make sure you do follow or subscribe to keep getting future episodes. Today we will be continuing on with my thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita and we will be looking specifically at chapter 14, verses 11 to verse 18. So a number of verses to go through today and. Let's get started. Verse 11, When all nine gates of the physical body are illuminated and clean, and the life force becomes healthy, fully functioning, balanced and joyful, one can know for certain that sattva guna is prevailing. So let's look at the whole verse. The nine gates being illuminated and clean means that they are no longer in any desire or ignorance, so that's the whole point of the nine gates. The nine gates are basically the entrance and exits of energy, and that can be through the nose, eyes, ears, anything where energy is released or something is taken in, those are the gates. So what tends to happen those senses, or information does not affect us in any way. The prana becomes healthy, we feel vitality, meaning sattva guna is prevailing, and this prana becomes fully functioning, we feel our body, mind in sync in terms of meaning that sattva guna is prevailing, and again, the prana becomes balanced, we feel stability in whatever life is offering in terms of pleasure and pain meaning sattva guna again is prevailing, and the prana becomes joyful, we feel the impact of higher wisdom, meaning sattva guna is prevailing. So those are the kind of sights that we see in sattva guna. So we will become healthy, fully functioning, balanced and joyful. And the life force is our prana within. So that's how we understand that. When we have cleared out our previous or existing vasanas, our body becomes illuminated and clean. That's the real meaning behind it. So we have to do those spiritual rituals prior so we can be prepared for the higher truth. Maybe you did that in your previous life, so you don't necessarily need to do it in this life. Those are the things that you can understand, so don't take them literally. Understand that there's a bit of leeway that you have to give for these type of philosophies. Then verse 12. Whereas O Arjuna, when greedy, attachment, intense hunger, restlessness, compulsion to action, and an overwhelming desire for material pleasure arise, then rajas guna has gained control of the faculties. So the nine gates that we talked about earlier. Mainly if we see as two nostrils, two eyes, two ears, the mouth then you have where you excrete and also the sexual organ as well. When rajas guna is in control, what happens? So first of all, you have greedy attachment. You have to have everything. You have to consume everything. So you need to get those worldly desires, those worldly possessions. And you need to control your friends and your family. You got to be attached to them. You got to make sure you do everything for them and not focus anything upon yourself. Or, or you do things in their name, but really it's selfishly done for yourself. Then we may have an intense hunger to meet our desires at any cost. It doesn't matter what happens, we will do everything to achieve it. So that intense hunger is where we're constantly thrown into that hunger of desires. We must get back into that. And it's something we can't get ourselves out of either. We're so trapped in it. It's so intense. We cannot ignore it. And then we are restless because, we need to get what we want and we're constantly fidgeting because we need to be doing something. We have this itch to do something. You can't sit still at home. I can't stay in the home. I need to go out shopping. And this is the repetitive action that you do every day. That's precisely when rajas guna is more in line. And there is compulsion to action, meaning every response has to be an act. We don't even think twice before we engage in action. So someone in sattva will be more thoughtful about action, while someone in rajas will just do it and not think about the consequences. So with those type of people, they're not they're not acting in freedom. They're acting in foolishness, in naivety. And this overwhelming desire for material pleasures arises again and again, even after they get what they want. So even if they've gone on a nice holiday they're looking at the next holiday, the next vacation spot. Even if they've not that there's anything wrong with that, go ahead. You're not satisfied or you're not willing to renounce anything. So for example, you'll overspend and over consume. And even when you're meant to limit your spending you're overspending. So things like that's when you know rajas guna is in control. You just have to observe in yourself when you have this desire for material pleasures and know that's rajas and you need to control the faculties, you need to control the senses and ensure that for example, if you're feeling a lot of sexual energy, have a look what that's towards. If you feel like you're hungry all the time and you want to taste certain delicacies, have a look what that's doing. The only exception I'll say here is if you're pregnant, it's different because your body is changing due to hormones. And then. If you so we have to understand that. So don't get too don't get too fixated on this. It is very nuanced. So we have to understand that it's not applicable to every situation. Then verse 13 And finally Arjuna, when consciousness becomes endarkened and when actions are compromised by inertia and a lack of discernment leading towards madness, delusion and destruction then tamo guna dominates. How do we recognize when tamo guna is dominant? Sri Krishna is very clear because we're going to look at the whole verse here. He says when consciousness becomes endarkened, when our awareness becomes clouded by our ignorance of body and mind, of name and form, of attraction and repulsion. That's what happens when it becomes endarkened, when we forget that we're the observer and we fall into the trap of I'm only the body and mind and I need to satisfy those things. And then we sometimes don't even do actions because we are compromised by inertia or we just don't have the right intensity for those actions. We can become lazy and not determined to do anything. We may have a lack of discernment between the real and the unreal and that will lead to a life that is full of delusion. Now what does delusion mean? Delusion means that we are in ignorance. And what does ignorance bring? Destruction. What does destruction bring? Madness. And that's what happens. We become so trapped that we can get depressive and that's tamas when we get really depressive because we're not dealing with life psychologically, tamas can take over and we find that, we see that in people, if you talk to people who are upset with life, who are sad with life, you're around them but you feel like they're taking the energy out of you and even though they haven't took one piece of energy out of you, literally, but around them you feel so tired, you feel so exhausted. That's tamo guna, that is predominant, when we forget the facts of life. All of our actions and thoughts are full of destruction and harm. We think of the worst outcome. We think of what's bad and we think of what will cause suffering and we cause our own suffering. For example, we can't accept the reality of death, of old age, of sickness. Those things is also a part of tamo guna where we think we are doomed and this attitude is what we need to avoid. So this attitude brings us and plunges us into more darkness and once we're plunged into that darkness How can we get out of it? Simply, Sri Krishna says when consciousness becomes endarkened. So all we need to do is bring more light onto that consciousness. What is that which is aware of my mental states? That's not changed as I've got more deluded, as I've got more destructive, what's remained aware and untouched by those elements. That's what a true seeker will strive towards. Verse 14. When the embodied atma leaves their deha, while it's under the influence of sattva guna, they ascend to their next birth in the material lokas which are the home of the devas and other enlightened beings. We're gonna look at the whole verse. They reach the state of heaven of really nice places. But it's not liberation, it's not freedom. We need to understand this. It's very important. First of all, we need to understand when the embodied atma leaves their deha, when they leave this body, when the atma leaves this body, where does it go? Where does that spirit go? When it dies in sattva it is not liberated. It does not achieve mukti. In order to achieve mukti, you need to be alive. Don't leave things to death so that person is not liberated. Okay? And they're under the influences. Remember we have to transcend sattva, rajas and tamas. So they ascend to their next birth. So where do they go? What's next? They leave their body and they enter the realms where there is more peace and harmony. They are with the devas, they are with other enlightened beings. They are with those pious beings which have caused a lot of happiness and joy in the world. So remember, they may reside there, and one may serve them, or one may serve the other enlightened beings, or the other enlightened beings may serve them, and the devas may serve them. They go to that home. But remember, this is, as Sri Krishna says, a pure material loka. It's still prakriti. One has not escaped prakriti yet. Even there, there is sattva rajas and tamas. Whatever is material, has those three gunas. The three gunas. are in all of them. How do we become triguna ateet is by going beyond these. Even if you enter Devalok, if you enter Svargalok, you've not achieved anything much. Because guess what? Yes, you've evolved but, you still have to come back onto the earth and gain mukti. As much as it's decent growth and it's good, we're still trapped. Then Sri Krishna says in the next verse verse 15. Those who leave their body when raja guna is in control, take their next birth among humans like themselves, who are hungry for pleasure and still attached to material actions and possessions. Those who depart when tama guna is dominant, either take birth among deluded and degraded humans or even return as an animal. This again is a sign where Sri Krishna is talking about reincarnation. Again, you can take this as a pinch of salt. I personally believe in this. So I find that this is a credible understanding. Now, look, the way I find this to be a credible theory. Just, let me put one caveat or one disclaimer. I believe we should aim for nothing but liberation and freedom. This is my number one thing. This is what I really want in life. And that's what I think we should all strive for. Especially if you're reading the Gita, it's for that purpose. But, say, for some reason, we're not dealt with the right cards and life is not allowing us to achieve those higher, that higher goal. So what do we do then? Sri Krishna gives us the answer. So let's look into that. He says, those who leave their body when raja guna is in control, take their next birth among humans like themselves, who are hungry for pleasure, and still attached to their material actions and possessions. So if you're full of raja guna, you're seeking to always control your life. That's what life is for you. No matter what, you're looking for ways to keep your investments, grow your wealth portfolio, spend money on upgrades in the house, get the best car. You're doing all those things. Not bad, not good. I'm not judging anyone who does those things. And neither is Sri Krishna. He's just stating a fact. If you do those things, that's what you do. So if you think about it. If all you've been doing is trying to control your life, your last thought will be based on the pleasure that you can seek next. For example, you're about to die, but what you're thinking of, if only I was able to get that number one position as a billionaire. If only I was able to give my family a decent meal. If only if I got that person I really liked when I was in high school. What if I did? What if that happened? Those are what happens when we are chasing pleasures. When raja guna are in control, these people take their next birth among humans like themselves, who are hungry for pleasure. What happens to those people? You find that they will grow up in a home or be born into a home, which will be about getting whatever they want. And in fact, not only are they getting whatever they want, they will be, it will be nurtured into that person. So they will still be attached to their material actions and possessions. So they will not move forward. They'll still be in this cycle of mess. The question then is okay, what will happen to your money and wealth? That's what you'll be constantly thinking about. What will your loved ones do without you? How will they survive? Think about this logically. How many people have lived? How many generations before you have lived who thought without us, how can they survive? How can my future generations survive? The future generations we have not seen. This. This is what happens when we are in raja guna and the last few moments of your life will determine the next and when you're living in the cycle of thoughts like that's eventually what's going to happen when you going to the next birth, you'll be accumulating the same amount of karma as you did before. And that's all you're doing. It's accumulating more karma. You're not actually dealing with your karma. You're accumulating more, getting more karma, therefore entrapping yourself even more. So all that's going to happen is that you can be attached to material actions. So material actions means karma and possessions. That means you'll be more drowned in desires and ignorance. So if we still have attachment and desire that overwhelms our mind, we are full of raja guna. And if we die in such a manner, just imagine that you're going to go through the same thing again. But say you don't. Say you neither achieve Sattva or neither are you in raja guna. In sattva guna nor raja guna. What about when you're in tamo guna? Sri Krishna says, those who depart when tamo guna is dominant, either take birth among deluded and degraded humans, even return as an animal. So those people that have lived in ignorance, will also die in ignorance. Simple as that. They think that there is only this body and mind and what good is it to do anything in life? They see other people happy they want to cause harm to them. So when they die, they will come back in very harsh circumstances. They may be born in poverty. They may be born with some ailments that hinders their enlightenment. Or as Sri Krishna says, we're even returned as an animal. And the only reason why this is concerning is because it means we have taken several steps back from reaching enlightenment. Now, I'm not saying that animals cannot reach enlightenment. I'm not interested in making such a statement, but all I will say is that as humans, we have the ability to think, rationalize and intellectualize, which is something maybe animals cannot do. They're based more in instinct, but in my opinion, sometimes animals act much better than human beings. And they are definitely in the mix between Raja and tamo guna, but you may even find some animals I know I've been with some dogs, which they are totally calm, collected, peaceful, and they are in sattva guna. So the only thing they don't have, which is why they may not be in sattva guna completely, is that just they can't intellectualize Gyan the way we can as human beings. So that's what Sri Krishna is trying to say, is that when he says animal, most likely you may not be able to rationalize thoughts, you may not be able to intellectualize and understand things like scriptures. Then verse 16. The phala or fruit of actions in sattva guna is a state of happiness and well being. The result of actions in raja guna is a mixture of pleasure and pain and the results of actions in tamo guna is to plunge deeper into ignorance culminating in destruction. So the phala fruit of actions in sattva guna is a state of happiness and well being. We're breaking up the verse. The fruit is always sweet when action is pure hearted. When we think of others before ourselves without losing sight of our own self respect. That's when we are in acting within Satvagun and that's the phala that we get. When we are generous in our love and we are generous in our actions that brings us a state of happiness and wellbeing. When we do all those things we're happy in life, we're content in life, we have great well being, we have a great mental state, our mental health is top notch we're really strong, courageous, fearless an enlightened person more or less lives like that as default so that's the wonderful aspect of that when someone is in sattva guna. But what about the results of actions in raja guna? And that is a mixture of pleasure and pain. So when we act in raja guna, then sometimes we do receive pleasure, and at other times it is pain. And when we get thrown in both directions, there's little peace of mind, we're in absolute conflict and we find that we cannot be satisfied in life. We are constantly chasing our desires to remove ourselves from pain or to increase our pleasure. So we're always constantly after the dopamine hit and we want to avoid any type of sadness. This only takes us down the path of suffering because we're repressing. The results of actions in tamo guna is to plunge deeper into ignorance, culminating in destruction. When we act in tamo guna, then we go into deeper ignorance. We lose focus of the truth. We cannot sit and listen to spiritual talks. We cannot understand spiritual wisdom through discernment, through viveka. We look for shortcuts without realising that this very path of spirituality is of effortless effort. And instead we look for lazy ways to be spiritual. We think of all sorts of rationalizations to avoid doing spiritual action and what happens is that these actions destroy any merit that we could accumulate and it leads us to destroy any happiness that can occur in spirituality or in general human life because we are just feeling down and out of it and we're not looking for a way out of it. So that's the thing we go more deeper into our ignorance and therefore we destroy our own mental peace even more and more. Verse 17, From sattva guna higher knowledge is born, from raja guna desires are born and from tamo guna delusion is born. We're going to break this up again. From sattva guna higher knowledge is born. So it is from satvagun that we receive knowledge. Then we use it for our discernment of the Real and the unreal, then higher knowledge makes sense and we turn it into practice. So this is Shravana, Manana, Nididhyasana. Shravana meaning listening, Manana means reflecting, Nididhyasana means integrating and meditating. Due to that our mind stays balanced and collected regardless of what life offers us. We understand that. Life is about pleasure and pain and we understand that there's ups and downs in life. Then we stabilize ourselves by negating prakriti, we identify the Real as the Purusha and remain in formless awareness and then we eventually find the potential to transcend the gunas at this point. Then from raja guna, desires are born. So it is from raja guna that we search for desires. We don't think twice, but go for what attracts us. And we avoid anything that's unpleasant for us. Any unpleasant experiences we will avoid. We will say that's too negative for us. In fact, what we're doing there is toxic positivity and that toxic positivity, the desire to remain positive, even though reality is telling us something else is also another aspect of raja guna. Due to the fear of being alone or having nothing, we desire to get so much, if we keep accumulating, it's adding value to us, that's what we assume, but remember, whatever is material, is not really adding any value to us because Prakriti will claim it once again. And at some levels, we accumulate so much, we hoard so much that we don't know what to do with it. And we're constantly comparing with others. We want what they have. And once we chase one desire and meet it, ten more are waiting, knocking on the door. And from tamo guna, delusion is born. It is from tamo guna that delusion sets in. We start associating the jiva with the body and mind. We'd rather be lazy on this spiritual journey. We don't want to put much effort in. In the name of grace, we do nothing to go further in spirituality. We'll say kirpa will come or grace will appear. We don't have to do anything. It'll come by itself. That's not the way it works. Grace has to be activated and for that you need to put action in. So we get deluded into thinking that other, that spirituality is just going to work for us because it should, we don't have to put in any effort. In the name of surrender, we do no spiritual practice. So we say we've surrendered. Really, we haven't. Only until we surrender our name and form, can we truly say we've surrendered. And surrender means that you no longer associate with body and mind or name and form, and you fully are that witness consciousness. But because we say we've surrendered, we stop doing any spiritual practice, and this then causes us to plunge deeper into delusion that we are this body and mind, and then the truth no longer becomes appealing for us, and ignorance becomes our natural state, and our actions are then born from this. This then causes our actions to cause more harm because we see everything as separate to us and not see that inherent oneness. And what happens there is we become more fixated on separation and delusion. And then verse 18. Those who are sattvic rise upward. Those who are rajasic stay in the middle, and those who are tamasic, devolve downward. Those who are Sattvic, rise upward. What does that mean? They rise upward, their third eye is activated, their actions are noble, their meditation is steady. Their discernment is impeccable, the crown chakra is activated too or the rise of kundalini shakti can occur too. So those are the people that are more or less going towards sattvic that's what happens to them. Those who are rajasic stay in the middle. So they rise upwards. They're evolving in life. They're, they will go towards higher aspects of life. Those who are rajasic stay in the middle. Their playing field is just the world and their mind is just about chasing desires. They have a strong attachment to others. They sometimes may feel empty if they're not getting what they desire. Sometimes they may feel too full. Overconsumption can take over them and they may start feeling overwhelmed by that. They only strive for what they love. and avoid whatever they hate. They're constantly playing that game of raga and dvesha and they also constantly have to be doing something, some sort of activity to distract themselves from the solitude of the witness consciousness, formless awareness. And then those who are tamasic devolve downwards. Devolve further, they go down even further so they, those people that, they act in degrading levels, they hurt others, they hurt themselves, they're full of arrogance, yeah, they're full of holier than thou attitudes, and they try to mask their own fears, they claim they're not fearful, but really they are drowned in fear, their mental state is hazy, they can't think, they don't have any clarity. They can't focus, and they are emotionally unstable, so therefore they go towards more addictive behaviors, so they'll be chasing the aspect of drinking more alcohol, or smoking more cigarettes, or consuming drugs to get themselves out of the current mental state they're in, instead of addressing the mental state they're in. The person who's in tamasic will devolve downward, but remember If you're in tamasic, you have to evolve to rajasic, and when you're rajasic, you have to evolve to sattvik, and that should be the goal for everybody living a human life. So that is the end of the episode, thank you very much for listening. If you liked what you heard and liked what you watched, please do share this podcast with your friends and family who may enjoy this content. Do follow me on social media to keep getting updates. Join the Bearded Mystic Podcast WhatsApp community group to continue the podcast discussion, details are in the show notes and video description below. If you would like to support the Bearded Mystic Podcast as we discussed earlier, do check out the podcast Patreon page. Your support means everything, and it helps this podcast keep running. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do rate this podcast five stars and do give a review either on your favorite podcast, streaming app or on our website. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do like and comment on this video and subscribe to this YouTube channel. Do follow or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast streaming app. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. Let's end with the Shanti mantra and the Soham mantra. Soham Soham. I am That. I am That. Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti Aum Peace Peace Peace Namaste