Bhagwad Gita - Post 164

Verse 8

Amaanitwam adambhitwam

Ahimsaa kshaantiraarjavam;

Aachaaryopaasanam shaucham

Sthairyamaatmavinigrahah.

Humility, unpretentiousness, non-injury, forgiveness, uprightness, service/reverence to  the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control.

Amānitvam

If grass is trampled on, it simply bends; it does not resist. We should be humbler than a blade of grass. If we chop off the branches of a tree, it does not curse us.

Even if we cut off a large part of the tree, it again shoots up tendrils and leaves. It is very tolerant. Thus, the devotee / Sadhaka should be as tolerant as a tree and as humble as a blade of grass, giving respect to everybody and wanting respect from nobody.

Adambhitvam

There is no show on the part of a spiritual seeker. He never demonstrates himself as a seeker of God, a lover of God, a spiritual seeker.

It is said the sadhana that we perform, the mantra that we chant, and the Guru whom we worship should not be revealed to anyone.

Ahimsa

Non-violence is something well known to us. All beings should feel fearlessness towards us.

Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhavo mattaḥ sarvaṁ pravartate (10.8): “May all be fearless towards me” is the pratijna, or the vow, that we take. “Let nothing, let no one, be afraid of me.”

Kṣāntiḥ

If somebody does something wrong to us, we should not do the same to them.

Here is a short poem: “There is so much bad in the best of us, and so much good in the worst of us, that it ill-behoves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.” So, be forgiving.

Ᾱrjava:

We should be honest and straightforward, and not hide anything. We should not think one thing, say another thing, and do something else.

We have learnt through the hymn  “Kāyena vācā manasa…” about the purity and alignment of thoughts/words/ actions emerging through/ from our Body/ Mind/ Speech/ Senses/ our Tendencies!!!

There should be harmony; otherwise, there will be non-alignment of personality.

Ᾱcāryopāsanaṁ

We should always be humble and worshipful before our teacher, who imparts knowledge to us.

We should not show our greatness or our ego before the teacher, or the Guru.

Let him be worshipped as the veritable manifestation of God Himself.

Swami Sivananda writes in His priceless book "Guru Bhakti Yoga", on  "Service to Guru", the following points

Service to Guru 

¥               Goal of life is Service to Guru.

¥             Every unpleasant incident in life is a test of  your trust in Guru.

¥        Disciple considers the actions; Guru weighs the intentions and motives.

¥                 Doubt in the Guru’s action is the greatest sin.

¥               Never try to appear before your Guru what you are not.

¥               Obedience is the law of life for a disciple.

¥               Don’t miss any opportunity to serve your Divine Teacher.

¥              Be sincere and earnest when you serve your Divine Preceptor.

¥               To love Guru is to serve Guru.

¥               To live is to serve the Divine Master.

¥             Obedience to Guru is better than reverence.

¥             Obedience to preceptor is better than sacrifice.

¥           Adapt, adjust, accommodate with your Guru under all circumstances.

¥               Don’t talk much before your preceptor.

¥               Pure love to Guru is true obedience to Guru.

¥               Give the best things to your teacher first.

Śaucaṁ means physical purity, both inwardly as well as outwardly.

Sthairyam is the decision that we have taken to achieve God-realisation in this birth, and not in a future birth.

Ᾱtmavinigrahaḥ is self-restraint, the control of the senses and the mind.


Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 163

Verse 6

Mahaabhootaanyahankaaro

Buddhiravyaktameva cha;

Indriyaani dashaikam cha

Pancha chendriyagocharaah.

The great elements, egoism, intellect and also unmanifested Nature, the ten senses and one, and the five objects of the senses.

Verse 7

Icchaa dweshah sukham duhkham

Sanghaatashchetanaa dhritih;

Etat kshetram samaasena

Savikaaramudaahritam.

Desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the aggregate (the body), fortitude and intelligence — the Field has thus been described briefly with its modifications.

In these verses, KSHETRA has been elaborated in detail as 24 elements.

"THE GREAT ELEMENTS" (Mahabhutas) --- They are five in number --- space, air, fire, water and earth. They are the rudimentary elements (tanmatras) out of the combinations of which the grosser elements --- indicated here in the stanza by the term "Perceptible" (Indriya-gocharaah) Great Elements --- are formed.

THE EGOISM (Ahamkara) --- This is the sense of "I"-ness and "My"-ness that arises in us in our identification with the world-of-objects. It is this that is the 'perceiver' and 'enjoyer' of this world, and that enjoys and suffers the joys and sorrows of its own world of likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds, and ever weeps in its innumerable attachments in the world outside. The individuality arising out of our relationships with the world-of-matter, is called the "Ego".

INTELLECT (Buddhi) --- The 'determining-faculty' which rationally thinks and comes to its own conclusions and judges good and bad in every experience of a living man is called the intellect.

UNMANIFESTED (Avyakta) --- That which rules the functions of a given mind and intellect, and determines their activities in the world-outside, is the unmanifested factor called the "vasanas". The impressions, left over in the mental equipment as a result of our conscious enjoyment of the world-outside, determine the direction and the pattern of all our subsequent perceptions and feelings.

This source of all individual activities is the residual vasanas in the individual. Naturally, therefore, in its macrocosmic aspect, the total universe of men and things, and their behaviours, must spring from the total vasanas is called in Sanskrit as the "Moola-Prakriti" by the Sankhyans, or as "Maya" by the Vedantins.

From this, it is so evident that the Unmanifested is but the unseen cause, total vasanas, which has manifested as the "seen" --- the world-of-objects.

THE TEN SENSES --- The five sense organs of perception and the five sense organs of action are the vehicles by which each individual perceives the stimuli and responds to them.

THE ONE (Ekam) --- In the context here, this stands for the mind. Even though the sense organs are many, the faculty in us that receives all the stimuli, from all the five avenues of perception, is one and the same, the mind.

THE FIVE OBJECTS OF THE SENSES --- Each sense organ has only one definite field of sense objects to perceive. The eyes can perceive only forms; the ears can listen to sounds; the nose can smell; the tongue can taste; and the skin can perceive the touches. No one of the sense organs can perceive the objects of the other sense organs. Thus, there are five distinct types of sense objects.

The twenty-four factors so far enumerated are the famous 24 principles (Tattwas) of the Sankhyan Philosophy.

Lord Krishna, in enumerating the items constituting the "Field," does not stop with these gross equipments- of Holy matter; but includes even their "modifications" such as desire, hatred, pleasure, pain, the assemblage of the body (Samghata), intelligence, steadfastness, etc. In short not only do the gross body, mind and intellect constitute the entire world-of-objects, but even the perceptions experienced through them, the world-of-objects, the emotions and thoughts are also included in the all comprehensive term; the "Field" (Kshetram) --- "this body" (Idam Shariram).

And the Knowing-Principle, seemingly functioning as the "Knower" (Kshetrajna), is the Subject. To distinguish the Subject from the world-of-objects, an exhaustive understanding of what constitutes the object is necessary. Hence this elaborate enumeration. The entire world-of matter in the cosmos has been directly, as well as by implication, embraced in these two stanzas.

The 24 tatwas have been explained in detail in Tattwa Bodha posts as well as Creation of Universe posts.

Let us summarize the same with the following diagram in which Purusha is the Kshetrajna and the other 24 elements as given by Sage Kapila in the Sankhya Yoga.

The following section, constituted of five consecutive verses together, lists twenty qualities, which in their totality indicate the "Knower" (Kshetrajna).

In fact, the "Knower-of-the-Field" is directly described (in XIII-12) but, in the following couplets, (in XIII-8 to 12) certain mental and emotional attributes, moral attitudes and ethical principles are prescribed since they are essential pre-requisites for the seeker who is anxious to apprehend and experience the Infinite Self.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 162

Verse 3

Kshetrajnam chaapi maam

Viddhi sarvakshetreshu bhaarata;

Kshetrakshetrajnayor jnaanam

Yattat jnaanam matam mama.

Do thou also know Me as the Knower of the Field in all fields, O Arjuna! Knowledge of both the Field and the Knower of the Field is considered by Me to be the knowledge.

Sri Krishna says, " I AM THE KNOWER-OF-THE-FIELD IN ALL FIELDS. " If, in all "Fields" the "Knower" is one, then the plurality is only in the matter-envelopments, and the Life that presides over them is one everywhere. 

This Universal One, the Transcendental Truth is indicated here by the first person singular "I AM" because every seeker has to rediscover in himself, "THAT I AM" (Soham).

Lord Krishna is expounding the Gita in a rare moment of Yogic integration. He is identifying himself with the Self that is everywhere. This is something like electricity declaring: "I am the one energy that gives the glow in all filaments all over the world."

Kṣetrajñaṁ cāpi māṁ viddhi sarvakṣetreṣu 

This root of the Being of individuals, of personalities, of things in the world, is sometimes designated as the kshetrajña in us. 

Where is this kshetrajña, the regulator of the kshetra, the operator of this body, the vitality behind all forms in creation? 

Sarvakṣetreṣu bhārata

“I am present as the kṣhetrajña, or the Knower of the field, in all the fields. That is, all individuals whatsoever—right from Brahma, the Creator, down to the atom—are indwelt by Me, and I know all things as the Omniscient Knower.”

When it is our kshetrajna, it is also the kshetrajna of all other kshetras – sarvakshetresu. 

Kshetrajnam mam viddhi

This is something which is not visible to our eyes or palpable to our senses, but the most essential of all essentials in our life.

As inferred in the Vedic scripture Chandogya Upanishad VI.VIII.VII with the aphorism: sa atma tattvamasi meaning Thou art that.  

Knowledge of the kshetra or the physical body and kshetrajna the Consciousness  or eternal soul, is being praised to emphasize its importance. 

Love.