More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
he personifies the aspect of God who so loves the world that he comes into it to reestablish the purity and happiness of the Golden Age.
These golden eras are interesting, because they do coincide with religious tolerance and dialogue.
“Arjuna, actions do not cling to your real Self.” The Self in us is not touched by action; whatever we do, it remains unsullied.
“Those who understand this” – about themselves – “and practice it live in freedom.”
The fire of spiritual awareness burns to ashes even a great heap of karma; thus true knowledge is the greatest purifier of the soul.
What does knowledge mean in this case?
Whenever dharma declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. 8 I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to reestablish dharma.
What is the meaning of dharma in this case?
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results; all his selfish desires have been consumed in the fire of knowledge. 20 The wise, ever satisfied, have abandoned all external supports.
I know this is an ideal, but how do you really establish and maintain this?
Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them.
What a wonderful state, that you are never in competition I with anyone and you do what you do for the act alone.
These offerings are born of work, and each guides mankind along a path to Brahman. Understanding this, you will attain liberation. 33 The offering of wisdom is better than any material offering, Arjuna; for the goal of all work is spiritual wisdom.
I am left with a better idea from this excerpt of what it really looks like.
As the heat of a fire reduces wood to ashes, the fire of knowledge burns to ashes all karma. 38 Nothing in this world purifies like spiritual wisdom.
This is a lovely message that reminds me of the dedication required to burn off the karma.
Those who take wisdom as their highest goal, whose faith is deep and whose senses are trained, attain wisdom quickly and enter into perfect peace.
Why wouldn’t we always pursue this goal?
Arise; take up the path of yoga!
Yes, this is what I am choosing to do!
Though Krishna acknowledges here that this way of sannyasa can lead to the goal,
he recommends
the path of selfless action or selfless service a...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
Krishna says that only immature, inexperienced people look upon the paths of knowledge and action as different.
What a thoughtful idea. I adore this idea of knowledge and action being combined.
Similarly, as long as the karma yogis do not expect reward or recognition, any evil that might stain them has nowhere to cling. Such yogis are said to be detached from the outcome or fruits of their actions (karma phala).
I feel like this is the first step, disconnection from results.
Ultimately, the true Self within him is not affected by what he does, whether good or bad. Only knowledge of the Self, which rises like the sun at dawn, can fulfill the purpose of his life and lead him beyond rebirth.
Adore this metaphors of the sun rising in the sky.
“always.” Once this state of deep concentration becomes established, the person lives in spiritual freedom, or moksha, permanently. This is extremely rare.
Yes, but also so powerful and a source of great joy and awe.
Those who have attained perfect renunciation are free from any sense of duality; they are unaffected by likes and dislikes, Arjuna, and are free from the bondage of self-will.
see the Self in all creatures and are untouched by any action they perform.
This feels like a first step, no connection to results
16 But ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self within. The light of this knowledge shines like the sun, revealing the supreme Brahman.
What are the practices that bring this to the forefront?
Those who possess this wisdom have equal regard for all. They see the same Self in a spiritual aspirant and an outcaste, in an elephant, a cow, and a dog.
Healed of their sins and conflicts, working for the good of all beings, the holy sages attain nirvana in Brahman. 26 Free from anger and selfish desire, unified in mind, those who follow the path of yoga and realize the Self are established forever in that supreme state.
What a lovely concept, even to just touch it is to self realize something great.
In this sense, yoga means wholeness or the process of becoming whole at the deepest spiritual level. The word yoga is also often used as a synonym for raja yoga, the practice of meditation as taught by Patanjali; for meditation is the direct means of becoming integrated, united with one’s truest, deepest Self.
This is one of the best definitions of yogi that I have ever experienced.
The true yogi, the person who is truly integrated inside, looks upon and feels everyone else’s joy and sorrow just as if it were his own. He sees the Self in all beings, everywhere.
This is a beautiful grounded statement. Cool!
Meditation is an internal discipline to make the mind one-pointed, absolutely concentrated.
The Gita, however, recommends the middle path. Success in meditation, Krishna says, comes neither to those who eat or sleep too much nor to those who eat or sleep too little. The body should be neither overindulged nor treated harshly
Krishna admits that the mind is terribly hard to train, but he maintains that it can be done through regular practice if one has detachment.
The general Hindu belief is that Self-realization requires many, many lives of spiritual discipline. –D.M.
Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.
I want to start practicing this at work. Focus on doing the job, but release ,myself from results.
Reshape yourself through the power of your will; never let yourself be degraded by self-will.
This is when you are dominated by senses
The supreme Reality stands revealed in the consciousness of those who have conquered themselves. They live in peace, alike in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, praise and blame.
Yes, this is like the perfect mantra
They are equally disposed to family, enemies, and friends, to those who support them and those who are hostile, to the good and the evil alike. Because they are impartial, they rise to great heights.
Wow, now this is very powerful
But those who are temperate in eating and sleeping, work and recreation, will come to the end of sorrow through meditation. 18 Through constant effort they learn to withdraw the mind from selfish cravings and absorb it in the Self.
When a person responds to the joys and sorrows of others as if they were his own, he has attained the highest state of spiritual union.
trying to control it is like trying to tame the wind.
Arjuna, my son, such a person will not be destroyed. No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come.
Meditation is superior to severe asceticism and the path of knowledge. It is also superior to selfless service. May you attain the goal of meditation, Arjuna!
Ramakrishna says, “One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana, ignorance. One who has seen fire has jnana. But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana.”
I appreciate this level of understanding
Sankhya recognized two fundamental principles underlying all things: prakriti, the principle of mind and matter, and Purusha, the principle of pure spirit. The union of these two eternal, fundamental forces sets in motion the creation of the world as we know it.
Worshipping him, knowing him, enables the devotee to attain the goal.
his divine qualities shine through in the world wherever there is excellence of any kind.
The word maya comes from the root ma, “to measure out,” and originally meant the power of a deity to create, especially to create what Indian philosophy calls “name and form”: matter and its percepts. Maya was the magical capacity to create form and illusion – a god’s divine power to put on a disguise, or to fling forth world after world of life.
I am the taste of pure water and the radiance of the sun and moon. I am the sacred word and the sound heard in air, and the courage of human beings. 9 I am the sweet fragrance in the earth and the radiance of fire; I am the life in every creature and the striving of the spiritual aspirant.
Wow this is rather poetic.
Unwavering in devotion, always united with me, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others. To them I am the dearest beloved, and they are very dear to me. 18 All those who follow the spiritual path are blessed. But the wise who are always established in union, for whom there is no higher goal than me, may be regarded as my very Self.
Yes, the way of wisdom is truly my pathway to salvation, what am I waiting for?
When a person is devoted to something with complete faith, I unify his faith in that. 22 Then, when faith is completely unified, one gains the object of devotion.
Those who take refuge in me, striving for liberation from old age and death, come to know Brahman, the Self, and the nature of all action.
If he makes his mind one-pointed in meditation and learns to focus his being on Krishna, then naturally at the time of death he will think of nothing else. Otherwise, in the chaos of death, he will panic and lose his way.
This is true of any habit. Just keep doing it!
In samadhi, prana is withdrawn from lower levels of awareness to rush upwards to the seventh center at the crown of the head. This is possible only for the yogi who has thoroughly mastered meditation and the control of prana.
Those who remember me at the time of death will come to me. Do not doubt this. 6 Whatever occupies the mind at the time of death determines the destination of the dying; always they will tend toward that state of being.
I would like to study more what this means. If true, what do Buddhist think of?
