Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2: Verse 26

Transcript

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Hello, everyone just before episode eight starts, I want to let you know that I've kept some of the longer pauses in this episode.

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Normally I edit them out a little bit, but in this episode I've kept them because I feel that the silence has a quality that has transcended the words that I spoke.

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So hope you liked this episode.

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Enjoy.

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Hello, and welcome to The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host Rahul N Singh.

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Thank you for joining me today and for watching or listening to this podcast episode.

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If you would like to support the Bearded Mystic Podcast, you can sign up to my Patreon page where the details are in the show notes and video description.

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Let's get started with verses 26 verses 30.

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Verse 26.

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So, Arjuna, either you believe that living beings are nitya immortal and are reborn again and again, or you believe that they only live once and that their mrityu, their death is final.

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In either case, you should not mourn their passing.

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Here Krishna raises a very important point, and I'm not sure if he guesses that Arjuna may be having doubts about what he's been saying.

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Or that Shri Krishna's just making sure he addresses every point, which I think is more likely the case, but it is clear here that if Arjuna believes that beings are reborn continuously, then why would you grieve in that sense?

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Because you know that people are reborn.

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Therefore life continues.

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There is no need to feel sad because the person you loved that has died, they'll be reborn again and you would also be reborn.

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Why would you grieve?

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Alternatively, say that you only live once and death is going to happen.

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That's the final thing.

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You can't do anything about it.

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In a way, what Shri Krishna is pointing out is death is inevitable.

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Whichever way you look, therefore do not grieve.

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The same thing is going to happen.

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Death.

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Not something else.

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Whether you believe in the cycle of birth and rebirth, or you don't.

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It continues.

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So death is final.

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Even the death of the people that he's around and you shouldn't grieve.

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The whole point of Arjuna's sorrow is because he fails to comprehend that death is the greatest fact of life.

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He's denying that fact.

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Every law may change in this universe, but one thing that will not change or be modified is the fact that whatever is born will die.

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You could change anything according to your understanding, but this one truth is going to remain.

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It doesn't matter if you believe in a heaven or hell because your life on earth will end.

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Your form has to go, this body and this mind has to die.

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If you believe you live only once, even then you cannot do anything about death.

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Just simply can't do anything about it.

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If people are reborn, there's no need to feel sad because they will have a new form and his mentors, his teachers, his elders will get a new form.

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So why should Arjuna feel sad about that?

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Again, Krishna reminds him that you should not mourn their passing because Arjuna should now be aware of the Atman He should now be starting to comprehend what the atman is.

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The eternal being, this Brahman.

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Only the body is coming and going anywhere.

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But the Atman being partless, it is changeless and it is placeless.

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With this simple understanding, the inevitable shouldn't be mournful and nor should one make a big deal out of it.

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Normalizing death is a great step into being enlightened because death is both a certainty as an event, but post death, we can claim there is uncertainty.

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Yet, Krishna has opened our eyes about post death.

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It's only the body that's going to get recycled into the universe and find a new form, but the Atman has no pre or post death because it wasn't born.

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Yeah.

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The Brahman within us, that awareness, it does not go through any death experience at all.

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It is always alive because it is not born.

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Therefore it does not die.

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We have to keep reemphasizing this.

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So we understand this real amazing truth and we'll move to verse 27.

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Whoever is janma born within matter will experience mrityu the death of their deha, and the supposedly dead will always be reborn again.

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This process is inevitable, so you should never lament about it.

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As expressed with the previous verses anyone born with atoms, of the five elements is going to experience the death of their body, their deha, and the apparently dead will always be reborn.

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In a way, there is never an old body.

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There is always a new body, a recycled body.

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We can never say something is truly old because everything is being renewed.

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So energy is always being transferred and that is the same with the body.

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That is the truth.

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We cannot escape for the body and the mind for this transactional reality.

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What seems to be death, will always get a new lease of life.

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Therefore, why would we be sad?

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Why would we be upset?

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Because someone will be experiencing life again with new, fresh eyes, with a new, fresh mind.

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Everyone will experience death and everyone that's got a body will go through death.

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And it doesn't matter who you are.

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Nobody has escaped that law.

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Whether it is Krishna himself, whether it is Lord Ram ji, whether it's Guru Nanak ji, whether it's Buddha.

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Nobody has escaped this from happening to them.

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Even they have had to go.

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Avatars have had to go.

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one knows that Arjuna realizes that death is inevitable.

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I think he knows this.

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His argument really is no one should have a premature death.

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This is what he's more concerned about.

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He's more concerned that people should be given the chance to live a bit more.

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How can he say that that is better?

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How can he say they going to die a premature death?

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Can he stop them from getting a heart attack in the next second, even before they raise their swords?

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He can't guarantee those things, but this is what he's upset about.

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He believes that everyone should be given the chance to live a bit more and therefore they should not be this war.

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But how does he know that even if they win the war, the other side, how does he know that the teachers and the gurus and the mentors and the elders are going to be happy after?

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Or what if they face suffering after?

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Therefore is giving them more life a good thing?

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Is it a more righteous thing or a less righteous thing?

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Therefore, the question is, is it better to die in this battle or is it better to live long enough to experience suffering?

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And this reminded me of an amazing quote from the dark night that either you die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

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And this is what can happen.

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Therefore, no one dies a premature death, actually, because we don't know what tomorrow will bring.

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We may say ahh they went before their time, gone too soon.

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I've used those phrases too, but now I think about it.

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I am doing an injustice to what their life could have been afterwards.

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That I perceive if they lived a bit longer, it would have been better, but how do I know it's going to be better?

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It's all guesswork, we can't guess those things, therefore it's unrealistic.

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We're not living with reality.

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Time doesn't favor the body.

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We have to understand that.

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Especially when it grows older, we know it slows down.

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We know that it isn't as fresh and young as before, it starts getting weaker.

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The nature of the body is to age.

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It's something we can't escape.

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Think about it, if you compare human life compared to the oceans, just this earth, the mountains of this earth, we're just, like a blip, a little flash in the time span of the earth itself.

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Now, when you think about it compared to the universe, we're a non-existent flash and a blip.

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If you look at the timescale, what is 70, 80 years compared to eternity or billions of years?

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Nothing.

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So what are we getting sad about?

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We're getting sad about a blip?

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It's crazy when you think about it?

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So Krishna establishes here that there's nothing that Arjuna can do about this process.

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Yeah.

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So his sorrow is useless.

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This process is inevitable.

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So you should never lament about it.

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Why, why should he be sad?

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He can't avoid this process.

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Nobody can avoid this process and by him lamenting over it, thinking about it, worried about it, both birth and death, aren't waiting for his approval or command.

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Life does as it pleases.

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So even if Arjuna feels like he needs to think about it, he needs to worry about it, it's not going to stop death from happening.

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He cannot change this process, no matter how much he tries and Krishna doesn't give a chance to Arjuna to think that he can grieve.

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If you think about it, he's not giving the possibility because if people are reborn, then death is merely a simple event that happens and that's the way to view it.

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And if you only live once, you will die and nothing can be done about that.

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It's the end.

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So it's better to embrace.

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And both scenarios does contain that one fundamental fact that death is going to happen.

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So we really need to understand that it is an inevitable process.

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Death is always a tough thing to talk about, to be open about because we have real raw emotions when it comes to death, especially when we lose people we love and we can't ignore those emotions either.

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But it just shows that yes, we need to be emotional and show our emotions.

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It's important.

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We need to let the body and the mind address those things.

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But at the same time, let us remind ourselves of what is true within us.

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This Brahman, this inner dweller that is eternal.

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That is indestructable.

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This is our true self.

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And that was the true self in the other person too.

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There's only one true self.

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So why do I grieve?

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Then we get over the emotional roller coaster that we could be going through.

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Now let's go to verse 28.

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All beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest for some time in the middle, and then unmanifest again at the end.

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Crying and complaining will not change this process.

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Krishna is a bit harsh sometimes.

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How did we begin?

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What is our origin?

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We simply do not know.

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We simply do not know our beginning.

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It's all theory.

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Someone will say God made everyone.

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And the other person would say the big bang caused everything, both are theories.

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God created the planet in six days.

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How did God know what six days was before he created time.

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And what is time?

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It's all subjective.

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It's our experience.

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Just because the earth goes around the sun, we say it's one year.

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But say an alien in another part of the universe may perceive time to be totally different.

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So our measurements are just our own apparatus, it's not anything special.

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And we're using that limited understanding of time to create theories out of things.

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I really want to raise this point that all we know is that we are unmanifest.

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Before we were born, we're just unmanifested.

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And this is an important word because here uncreated is not used.

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Manifested is used not created because something can manifest out of nothing.

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You know, even say, if the universe just appeared out of nowhere, we can accept that.

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Say the big bang occurred and there an existence just manifested itself, through a process.

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That means that it can manifest forms.

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It can manifest atoms, but whatever the manifestation is right now, prior to that, we do not know what it was, how it came to be.

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The thing is, if we say we were created, then we need a creator who shaped us, who formed us, what created us.

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Then we gotta then ask the question, well, who created the creator because something had to given it form?

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Osho says this, that if, if you can accept by principle, that existence can appear out of nothing and it can manifest itself.

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Then why do you need a God?

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Why do you need a creator?

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I can accept this logically.

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You simply don't need to have a creator.

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There's no need for a creator because it eventually just gets really messy because then you have to prove the existence of a creator.

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Our sages, they've never believed that Brahman was the creator.

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They've always understood that Brahman is.

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That's it.Whether manifest or unmanifest, Brahman is.

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It's that consciousness that does not change.

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So all we know is that for short period, a blip on this pale blue dot in the universe, we are born, we manifest and we live our life and then following from that, we will die and become unmanifest again.

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We just simply don't know what happens after.

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So we just are unmanifested that much, our own awareness tells us this, that we become unmanifest.

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Have you ever come across someone who died again afterwards?

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Did they manifest it in the form?

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Did you see that form again?

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No.

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Gurus have died and then not being able to manifest themselves.

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We know that something is before or after life on this planet.

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But until we understand this unmanifest state in the manifested state, it will seem that there is death forever, or there is a continuous process of being born and then dying, being born and then dying.

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We know there is something, we have an awareness that tells us there was something before, birth and death and after death, there's an unmanifest state.

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What is that unmanifest state?

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What is it?

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This is the whole point of inquiry into spirituality.

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Say when someone dies, has anyone said to you, they saw the soul travel out of that person.

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It's just stories.

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Nobody watches a soul disappear.

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If they can, we need to inspect their eyes, put them under a scientific study that they saw a soul leave the body.

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Have they ever seen the jiva travel?

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No, nobody sees it.

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Therefore we simply just do not know about what happens at the time of death.

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We just do not know, and we should be comfortable with this, not knowing and life will always flow in between birth and death.

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This is why it's important to attain spiritual freedom, to attain bliss, to attain liberation while we can see the known, the light.

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Otherwise when the lights turn off again, figuratively speaking, who knows what is in the unknown, therefore it's best to use this manifested state that we've got now, this body and mind that we have now, this G that we have now and turn our minds inward, turn our being inward and realize Berman, the eternal being, this is what we need to do.

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Otherwise, if we do not do this, then everything will remain unknown to us.

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The answer is very simple.

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Answer's really simple here.

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Brahman remains, Brahman is.

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There is no birth and death.

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Only the body goes through birth and death.

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Message is simple, but accepting it, is difficult.

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Understanding it and being fully convinced, full of conviction, that this is your reality, because this is your experience that has now become your reality.

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Krishna raises also an important point, what he says to us, is a fact, and it's not something we can deny, not even scientifically, right.

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As I mentioned before.

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So why do we complain about something we cannot change?

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Why do we do this?

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Why do we moan about this situation?

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Why do we try to avoid death?

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Yeah.

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Have you ever tried to have a conversation about death with other people?

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They'll always say nahin, nahin, nahin, shubh bolo.

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Yeah.

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Shubh bolo meaning speak auspicious things, speak good things.

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When is death inauspicious, who told us that death is inauspicious, whoever it was is wrong.

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Death deserves to be celebrated.

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Why?

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Because you gone back into the unmanifest state, if this is your reality, and if you believe you'll be manifested again, brilliant, more reason to celebrate.

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You're going to be getting a new, fresh body, celebrate.

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This is how we need to be.

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So why do we complain about this process?

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Because one, we fear the unknown as I mentioned and second, we have too many problems to solve in this lifetime itself.

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Third, who will look after my loved ones?

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We constantly feel this fear when I die, who's going to look after my wealth, my business, my job?

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Who's going to be able to do those things?

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Just think about it.

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Many people have died thinking the same thing.

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Life continued.

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We're still okay.

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Death can seem cruel because it takes away all our precious problems.

00:21:08.003 --> 00:21:16.144
In fact, it is the greatest form of liberation, one can ask for without being liberated about one's true self.

00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:28.920
The thing is if you're truly happy with life, would you complain about death or what'd you take death as another moment to celebrate?

00:21:29.490 --> 00:21:44.738
I've thought about this quite a bit recently, because I've been reading this again and studying a bit more that would I complain about death?

00:21:44.887 --> 00:22:00.778
Like would I, if I'm happy, if I'm really content with my life, if I don't really have major desires, then do I need to fear death?

00:22:01.538 --> 00:22:06.653
And it's been something I have gone through a process where I didn't used to fear death.

00:22:07.343 --> 00:22:22.702
Then I started fearing death after losing my guru and only now I'm starting to feel that actually death is okay, I'm going to die.

00:22:23.603 --> 00:22:27.262
I'm going to have to face this fact and say, I die tomorrow.

00:22:28.596 --> 00:22:30.307
Can I die a happy person?

00:22:31.656 --> 00:22:48.517
Can I die as someone that is really happy, really content, because I've been given this knowledge by Krishna, by my guru, that I am Brahman.

00:22:53.707 --> 00:22:55.896
Then I definitely want my life to be celebrated.

00:22:55.896 --> 00:23:18.365
Like when I die, I want people to celebrate because I've realized I cannot die, to face this, it takes courage.

00:23:19.806 --> 00:23:22.955
And the thing is, if I can do it, anyone can do it.

00:23:22.986 --> 00:23:26.645
I really honestly feel this to be true.

00:23:29.357 --> 00:23:41.240
Because I've been reading the Bhagavad Gita, I've been contemplating a lot upon turning my mind towards understanding that it is Brahman and that only Brahman is.

00:23:44.840 --> 00:23:55.657
And when I inquire into Brahman, I do inquire into when was this born?

00:23:56.077 --> 00:24:04.897
Like, I really ask the question, and I really inquire, I really conduct that investigation.

00:24:04.978 --> 00:24:09.637
And then when did it begin?

00:24:10.748 --> 00:24:11.827
Did it ever begin?

00:24:14.018 --> 00:24:17.228
Like, why is time so still in Brahman?

00:24:17.288 --> 00:24:17.857
Why?

00:24:20.018 --> 00:24:21.518
Because it's timeless.

00:24:21.548 --> 00:24:22.478
It's eternal.

00:24:25.938 --> 00:24:26.298
Okay.

00:24:26.327 --> 00:24:34.458
I'm just saying this to you, but I can't transfer what I know to you.

00:24:35.167 --> 00:24:49.857
The words are just hints, but the experience that I feel is for example, that it's like for someone to understand what sweetness is, you have to give them sugar and they have to put that sugar into their mouth.

00:24:50.428 --> 00:24:54.538
Then they need to let the taste buds taste that sweetness.

00:24:54.958 --> 00:24:58.316
Then they understand what sweetness is.

00:25:00.566 --> 00:25:09.836
But until someone doesn't taste what sweetness is, they can never understand what sweetness is, but I can never tell you what sweetness is until you've tasted it.

00:25:10.286 --> 00:25:12.655
Then, you know, you can relate to that experience.

00:25:12.836 --> 00:25:24.955
The same thing with understanding that we are Brahman and knowing we are Brahman, I can talk about it, but until you become Brahman, do you know the experience?

00:25:26.163 --> 00:25:37.153
And someone asked me this question on Tik TOK that have you got over the cycle of birth and death, like have you transcended it?

00:25:38.103 --> 00:25:50.476
And at the time I said, no, I don't think I have, I'm not qualified to answer this, but now I'm thinking differently.

00:25:51.766 --> 00:25:54.675
I'm thinking there is no such thing as birth and death for me.

00:25:54.675 --> 00:25:56.536
So what is there to transcend?

00:25:58.695 --> 00:26:02.445
This body is going to go through birth and death regardless.

00:26:03.496 --> 00:26:04.965
The elements will continue.

00:26:08.205 --> 00:26:14.026
I can't change that, the atoms will be transferred to new atoms, to new forms, to new solid forms.

00:26:15.885 --> 00:26:17.385
I can't change this.

00:26:20.182 --> 00:26:34.063
I can't change this transaction, but being Brahman means that I'm no longer part of that cycle.

00:26:39.682 --> 00:26:39.962
Yeah.

00:26:43.383 --> 00:26:43.702
Wow.

00:26:44.002 --> 00:26:44.452
Okay.

00:26:47.080 --> 00:26:48.000
Let's continue.

00:26:50.086 --> 00:26:51.465
Ignorance of the truth.

00:26:52.395 --> 00:26:56.865
Ignorance of our internal, eternal happiness.

00:26:56.895 --> 00:27:17.429
So yeah, internal eternal happiness of this Brahman is the reason why we complain about death occuring or life seems to be bad, it's because we're ignorant of this internal, eternal happiness.

00:27:17.851 --> 00:27:19.758
Otherwise we wouldn't complain about death.

00:27:19.758 --> 00:27:21.347
We wouldn't complain about life.

00:27:21.827 --> 00:27:23.597
Like what is there to complain about?

00:27:23.897 --> 00:27:32.163
And I thought about this, that if I was in poverty, would I still complain after knowing Brahman?

00:27:34.232 --> 00:27:35.643
I don't think I can.

00:27:38.313 --> 00:27:39.303
I don't think I can.

00:27:40.623 --> 00:27:42.423
I can blame circumstances.

00:27:42.502 --> 00:27:49.893
But I can't blame Brahman and I actually wouldn't reject the experience because it's happening.

00:27:50.472 --> 00:27:51.992
What is there for me to reject?

00:27:53.792 --> 00:27:58.563
I can't pretend I'm not in poverty, I have to embrace it.

00:27:58.563 --> 00:28:00.873
So why would I run away from these things?

00:28:01.712 --> 00:28:03.542
Why would I look at something as being bad?

00:28:05.053 --> 00:28:19.722
It's my subjective opinion that something is bad, but who knows that if I was in wealth at that time, that I possibly would go through some issues.

00:28:22.097 --> 00:28:27.018
Or maybe it's just better not to label oneself as being in poverty or being rich.

00:28:29.807 --> 00:28:30.258
I don't know.

00:28:31.930 --> 00:28:38.529
And then, because we go through these situations and experiences, we then question things like why was I born?

00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:46.000
And then we blame our parents adding another problem to our already problem filled life that why was I born?

00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:47.380
Why did my parents give me birth?

00:28:48.099 --> 00:28:51.032
Why did I come into this world if I'm just going to suffer?

00:28:51.782 --> 00:28:54.873
Or if I'm just going to die, why give birth to me?

00:28:56.012 --> 00:28:58.083
But you're missing the point of life.

00:29:00.063 --> 00:29:03.663
The wonderful aspect of life.

00:29:08.282 --> 00:29:19.465
It it is a blessing to be able to experience all this, like the fact that this body and mind can experience consciousness and understand it is consciousness.

00:29:23.726 --> 00:29:29.996
What value do problems have now?

00:29:32.786 --> 00:29:33.806
They don't have any.

00:29:36.836 --> 00:29:37.346
Nothing.

00:29:38.042 --> 00:29:41.853
So I then do not blame my parents for my birth.

00:29:41.883 --> 00:29:42.752
I thank them.

00:29:46.803 --> 00:29:54.542
I thank them for continuing on this element of birth and rebirth for me.

00:29:54.873 --> 00:29:56.482
So I can experience Brahman.

00:29:57.722 --> 00:30:12.156
I can experience truth, that I had the opportunity to be at my master's feet, my guru's feet, and ask for this wisdom and then be given this wisdom.

00:30:13.946 --> 00:30:18.057
Now, what are the odds, what are the chances of this happening?

00:30:18.267 --> 00:30:23.366
I could be born in another part of the world that didn't know who my guru was.

00:30:23.396 --> 00:30:29.237
I could have been born to different parents and not have the same spirituality.

00:30:32.297 --> 00:30:36.886
Like I am extremely grateful for the life I'm living.

00:30:38.186 --> 00:30:40.136
I literally have no complaints.

00:30:43.554 --> 00:30:58.871
But if all of this were to disappear, like in terms of my material joys, if all my wealth was to disappear.

00:30:59.691 --> 00:31:04.441
But if this Brahman remains, I consider myself still the richest person on this planet.

00:31:06.030 --> 00:31:06.300
Yeah.

00:31:06.590 --> 00:31:08.401
Elon Musk can become a trillionaire.

00:31:09.361 --> 00:31:11.490
Jeff Bezos can become a trillionaire.

00:31:12.835 --> 00:31:13.404
Okay.

00:31:14.275 --> 00:31:15.055
But you know what?

00:31:15.055 --> 00:31:25.585
You're still going to die, but do you die knowing you are happy or do you die because you're still not satisfied, so now you have to think of bigger things to do?

00:31:27.452 --> 00:31:36.943
And you are disturbed until you do those things, but who can just be happy and content in being at rest?

00:31:40.678 --> 00:31:44.667
I can say I can be happy being at rest.

00:31:45.978 --> 00:31:50.663
It doesn't mean that I don't have a drive to make more money or anything like that.

00:31:50.663 --> 00:32:03.667
I'm not saying that those things go, but what I'm saying is that if one looks at the extremes, nothing changes, everyone's going to die.

00:32:06.738 --> 00:32:14.743
Yes, you may live like you're in luxury, but there's a lot of worries that come along with that luxury.

00:32:16.317 --> 00:32:20.307
A lot of dependency also like on the stock market.

00:32:23.468 --> 00:32:26.038
You think that person sleeps well at night?

00:32:27.627 --> 00:32:28.587
Possibly not.

00:32:29.871 --> 00:32:31.871
Actually, I'll link it to the Squid Game.

00:32:33.520 --> 00:32:40.661
If you watched it, you'll understand the last episode, basically that tells you what being rich brings.

00:32:41.253 --> 00:32:45.938
And then also being poor means because it's the same coin, just different sides.

00:32:47.212 --> 00:32:50.442
What I'm trying to say is just really appreciate life.

00:32:51.313 --> 00:32:55.573
Let's continue Adi Shankara ji quotes a line from the Mahabharata.

00:32:56.353 --> 00:33:01.032
They emerged from invisibility and have gone back to invisibility.

00:33:01.215 --> 00:33:03.615
They are not yours nor are you theirs.

00:33:03.913 --> 00:33:06.913
What is this fruitless lamentation?

00:33:08.262 --> 00:33:21.573
So even here we see that this knowledge is not unknown in this great epic, because remember the Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata and that it's not being mentioned for the first time, that this knowledge is known, this wisdom is known.

00:33:22.803 --> 00:33:30.502
It's not new for anybody in the epic and therefore, if you've been reading the Mahabharata, this is not new knowledge for you either.

00:33:31.813 --> 00:33:32.748
You should know this.

00:33:33.647 --> 00:33:33.887
Yeah.

00:33:36.843 --> 00:33:43.665
Some perceive this as amazing, some proclaim that this is amazing.

00:33:44.476 --> 00:33:51.945
Others hear about how amazing this is, but even after hearing about this process, it remains a mystery to them.

00:33:52.115 --> 00:33:54.006
What is Shri Krishna talking about here.

00:33:54.230 --> 00:34:03.101
Adi Shankara ji mentions how this atman, this true Self, this Brahman is impossible to understand and interpret.

00:34:04.990 --> 00:34:05.441
Okay.

00:34:06.310 --> 00:34:10.391
It's impossible for you to interpret it, it's impossible for you to understand it.

00:34:11.681 --> 00:34:22.163
And for example, he uses moving from the thought that we are an individual soul to understanding that it is Brahman and has no other There's no Two.

00:34:23.771 --> 00:34:26.021
It's not easy for everyone to comprehend.

00:34:26.260 --> 00:34:32.920
So it's more or less impossible, it seems to have this understanding that one is Brahman.

00:34:35.141 --> 00:34:38.380
Therefore, we shouldn't feel bad if we do not understand.

00:34:39.791 --> 00:34:42.731
And because Arjuna struggled, we see his struggle.

00:34:44.170 --> 00:34:45.550
And we also struggle with this.

00:34:45.550 --> 00:34:48.253
We see other people struggling with this, so it's fine.

00:34:50.204 --> 00:34:52.664
And we need to understand that we need to be compassionate here.

00:34:52.884 --> 00:35:02.516
There's an aspect of compassion and this is what Shri Krishna says when others hear about how amazing this Brahman is.

00:35:04.134 --> 00:35:09.083
But even after hearing about it, it remains a mystery to them.

00:35:11.414 --> 00:35:14.293
Not everyone will get to this understanding.

00:35:14.893 --> 00:35:17.443
It's the toughest thing to understand in spirituality.

00:35:17.443 --> 00:35:19.483
And this is why I don't believe in conversion.

00:35:19.483 --> 00:35:22.293
You can't convert someone to wisdom.

00:35:24.153 --> 00:35:27.693
The wisdom has to be really worked upon.

00:35:28.623 --> 00:35:34.440
So what we need to understand is that it's going to be a struggle, only a few ever get it.

00:35:35.400 --> 00:35:47.340
They say this, that is a rare one that truly understands this formless, this Brahman, just a rare one, one in a million maybe.

00:35:47.490 --> 00:35:49.800
This is because we do not put enough effort in.

00:35:50.951 --> 00:35:58.873
Hearing this message, understanding this, we can feel a bit of peace in our mind that we're not the only ones that didn't understand.

00:35:59.204 --> 00:36:04.454
We still find that this whole atman being Brahman is a complete mystery.

00:36:05.623 --> 00:36:05.804
Yeah.

00:36:05.813 --> 00:36:20.485
If you still feel it's a complete mystery, that how can the atman be Brahman if you believe in an individual soul or how can the jiva be Brahman, how can Berman just be, even if that remains a mystery for you it's okay.

00:36:20.795 --> 00:36:22.804
This Brahman is amazing.

00:36:23.414 --> 00:36:29.487
Another word that you can use in this translation, they use the word amazing, but another word that can be used as wonder.

00:36:30.521 --> 00:36:58.994
Because wonder has I feel a, more of a special quality, because when you look at something in wonder you actually opened doors to more deeper and creative thoughts, and you see the world, you see everything with fresh eyes, with new intentions and with new thoughts and with silence in the background that is always fresh in you . This is the power something perceived in wonder.

00:36:59.239 --> 00:37:20.744
Now, imagine if you see this Brahman with wonder, because after studying with the teacher, after gaining that understanding of the Tattva, of the 'Tat' the truth, once you get to the truth, the whole walls of ignorance will come crumbling down.

00:37:22.275 --> 00:37:23.625
Maybe not crashing down.

00:37:24.255 --> 00:37:31.291
It will crumble down it like water splashing against the rocks and erodes the rocks like that.

00:37:32.521 --> 00:37:48.152
When we study with the teacher, when we studied the scripture, when we study these beautiful lines of the Gita, we can watch the walls of ignorance, crumble down, erode away.

00:37:49.891 --> 00:37:51.802
This is the power of knowing Brahman.

00:37:52.661 --> 00:37:59.731
That knowledge of Brahman will bring that ignorance to dissolve away.

00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:01.858
And what is it ignorant of?

00:38:02.219 --> 00:38:05.219
It's True Self, that's where the ignorance is.

00:38:05.731 --> 00:38:15.135
Perceiving this, one can see the atman, the Brahman in everything, and can see it as one's own self.

00:38:15.346 --> 00:38:15.556
Yeah.

00:38:15.585 --> 00:38:16.876
There's no difference.

00:38:17.876 --> 00:38:20.726
Everything is me and I am everything.

00:38:21.164 --> 00:38:23.175
This 'I' is Brahman alone.

00:38:23.925 --> 00:38:29.094
This has to be the understanding, not Rahul or whatever your name is.

00:38:29.364 --> 00:38:31.094
This 'I' is Brahman.

00:38:31.724 --> 00:38:42.775
Remember always, we're not this body of mind it's unreal, it's mithya, but Brahman is real because Brahman is sat.

00:38:42.875 --> 00:38:44.284
Brahman does not change.

00:38:44.605 --> 00:38:55.172
Brahman does not modify itself and because the inner dweller within me is Brahman, the inner dweller within everything I see within all matter is Brahman.

00:38:56.096 --> 00:38:57.976
Even an atom is Brahman.

00:38:58.635 --> 00:39:04.096
So once this atman is known, then we speak of its wonder, we express how amazing it is.

00:39:06.556 --> 00:39:08.085
We give talks about it.

00:39:09.936 --> 00:39:20.353
We try to describe with the limited vocabulary that we have about what Brahman is about, how this is the real self, how this is the true self.

00:39:20.541 --> 00:39:25.822
Someone being able to talk about this Atman or this Brahman is a Herculean task.

00:39:26.061 --> 00:39:39.144
It is difficult because how can words ever describe the feeling of understanding this Tattva, that we always were, this Brahman was always me, but I couldn't see it.

00:39:39.684 --> 00:39:41.844
How can one explain this, express it?

00:39:42.045 --> 00:39:46.925
It's again, going back to that example of tasting, what is sweetness?

00:39:48.306 --> 00:39:57.186
It's only until we put the sugar in our mouth and we taste it, can we describe that sweetness and have a shared experience?

00:39:58.027 --> 00:40:03.396
This is what happens when a knower of Brahman will meet another knower of Brahman, it's not about comparing.

00:40:03.688 --> 00:40:11.978
Osho once gave a very beautiful story about two masters that had to go meet each other.

00:40:12.608 --> 00:40:19.177

Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 2: Verse 26 - Verse 30)

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