Saturday, April 18, 2020

Bhagwad Gita - Post 201


Verse 14





“That enemy has been slain by me and others also I shall slay. I am the lord; I enjoy; I am perfect, powerful and happy”.



The translation of this stanza is itself its commentary. And it is a commentary on the lives of us too! 


During education, we are keen to defeat our classmates in grade/sports.


When we get to a job, we want to eliminate our colleagues and win name for ourselves.


When we take up a business, we want to eliminate our competitor(s) by all means, fair and unfair.


To the extent, even in spiritual center, this “Killing” spirit is there, but in a subdued manner.


This, in short, is the color and manifestation of our ego!!!


  

Verse 15





“I am rich and born in a noble family. Who else is equal to me? I will sacrifice. I will give (charity). I will rejoice,”—thus, deluded by ignorance


An egoistic individual, given his nature as explained in all previous verses, looks at the world with his glass/lens of ego and judges the world and his own relationship with it. 


He feels happy and congratulates himself on his high birth and breed, on his belongings and wealth, and fails to find anyone equal to him. 


With such a nature, he believes that with some charity, some ritualistic prayers and sacrifices, he feels he can win over even the God!!




Verse 18

  




Given over to egoism, power, haughtiness, lust and anger, these malicious people hate Me in their own bodies and those of others.

  
Once egoism takes possession of an individual, he steadily sinks to the ugliest depths of animalism. 


Driven by passion, he crosses all borders of dignity /culture and values.


Enumerating the inner contents of such an individual, Lord Krishna says that he is "full of egoism, brute strength, arrogance, passion and anger."


Any one of these is sufficient to pull one down to the level of an Asura, but Lord says, such an individual has all these qualities together. 




Verse 21







Triple is the gate of this hell, destructive of the self—lust, anger and greed—therefore, one should abandon these three.


The Lord indicates here that there are three gateways to reach Hell.


Constant flow of thoughts towards attaining an object is Desire.


As and when there is any obstacle to the attaining of such a desired object, Anger arises in a man.


On the contrary, if any object of desire is attained, then the inner state of mind to amass more and more of such object, more and more from that object, whether a human or wealth or any such thing, is Greed


Thus, a man fuelled by desire, can never be satisfied in his life, because, depending upon the outcome of his pursuits with the background of his desires, he is either angry or greedy, as explained.


It is an Ethiopian idea to think, “I will pursue this object with desire for the last time or the second last time and then stop desiring it”.


The pandemic virus flow may stop one day but this desire is such an infection which will never ever cease, unless one gets into the spiritual path with even more vigor than the desires affecting him.



Love.