Bhagwad Gita - Post 165

Verse 10

Asaktiranabhishwangah

Putradaaragrihaadishu;

Nityam cha samachittatwam

Ishtaanishtopapattishu.

Non-attachment, non-identification of the Self with son, wife, home and the rest, and constant even-mindedness on the attainment of the desirable and the undesirable.

Asaktiḥ: Therefore, we should be detached from things, and live an individual life. We should be alone to ourselves and not mix socially, as these people are not necessary for us. 

Anabhiṣvaṅgaḥ: We should not seek contact with anybody. We should not look for people to chat with. There should be no contact. We do not need friends. 

Let us be very clear on one thing.  Extrovertness and attachment do not go along with spiritual evolvement. 

One can either be an extrovert /a person attached to people/objects or he can be a sincere spiritual aspirant. One cannot be both at the same time.

Putradāragṛhādiṣu: Also, we should not be attached to our family members—such as son or daughter, husband or wife, property or house. 

If we are householders, we have some duty to perform as a trustee of an institution, not attaching ourselves to anything, but doing our duty very meticulously. 

We may live at home, but we should detach ourselves, knowing well that one day or the other we will leave, and also knowing that one day or the other they will leave us. Hence, attachment is unfounded and unwarranted. 

Again, this also needs to be understood very clearly. 

Till the time one enters the spiritual path seriously and sincerely, he/she thought they loved their family very much. 

But this love was never 100% pure, as it was mixed with attachment and more than that, it was colored with some or the other expectation from their family members in return. 

We can all appreciate this point as we close our eyes now and think.

Whereas, when one takes up the spiritual path, he still loves and can continue to love his family, but with a change. It is now pure love, not withstanding how they are, not withstanding whether he /she gets back the same pure love in return.

So, it is now LOVE WITHOUT ATTACHMENT. 

Love without appointment (expectations) and hence no scope for disappointment either. 

nityaṁ ca samacittatvam iṣṭāniṣṭopapattiṣu: 

Whether pleasant things or unpleasant things come — whether good news comes that makes us feel happy, or there is something which makes us very unhappy—we should keep our mind in a state of balance, and not be tilted either to this side or that side.

Verse 11

Mayi chaananyayogena

Bhaktiravyabhichaarinee;

Viviktadesha sevitwam

Aratir janasamsadi.

Unswerving devotion unto Me by the Yoga of non-separation, resort to solitary places, distaste for the society of men.

Mayi cānanyayogena bhaktir avyabhicāriṇī: 

Finally, we should resort to God only. 

All mystics emphatically declare that to invite God into our hearts, we must get rid of the pride of the self.

Avyabhicharini bhakti is ekabhakti, which means wanting only one, and not wanting anything else. If we want another thing simultaneously, it is vyabhicharini bhakti. 

Here is avyabhicharini bhakti, where we do not want anything else except that one thing. “May that devotion be fixed on Me.” And what kind of fixing is it? 

Ananyogena: “With an undivided assiduity of concentration, may you be devoted to Me with a devotion that has no second.” 

It is worthwhile reading the commentary on a sutra from Narada Bhakti Sutra covered in the blog post under the theme Narada Bhakti Sutra.

viviktadeśasevitvam: We should always try to live ekantam—alone—and not in a thoroughfare or a city, where there is a lot of noise and dust. 

As far as possible, we should try to live in ekantavas, have ekantavas, and be satisfied in ourselves and not require anybody else with us. 

Viviktadeśasevitvam aratir janasaṁsadi is dislike for crowds of people. If there is a crowd of people, we should leave that place and go somewhere else—sit under a tree. 

We should not have any kind of taste for organizations, crowds, and the noise of human society. We should be alone to ourselves. 

This aloneness sets in automatically, this cannot be deliberated and achieved.

Love.

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.