BHAGAVAD GITA🔗

BOOK XVIII, VOLUME I

Authored by

THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

अर्जुन उवाच । संन्यासस्य महाबाहो तत्त्वमिच्छामि वेदितुम् ।वेदितुम् त्यागस्य च हृषीकेश पृथक्केशिनिषूदन ॥ १८-१ ॥

The words of a Master are energy.

Arjuna will stop speaking soon. He has just a few words. He is not questioning. He just expresses a few doubts. The arrogance or violence in Arjuna's being has disappeared. He has become like a flower due to the experience of the cosmic vision that Kṛṣṇa showered on him. I cannot even call these words doubts. He just wants to hear the truth from Kṛṣṇa again and again.

Sometimes after listening to the whole discourse, disciples ask me to repeat a joke or a story once more! They have heard it once but want to hear it again. Especially from the master, listening to certain things again and again gives great joy. The words of a Master are energy. These words drill deep into you and transform you. At the time of listening, you may not realize their impact. But they never fail to impact and enrich you. Arjuna asks some of these questions to listen to Kṛṣṇa again.

As I told you, it is not that Arjuna does not know. He has just heard the whole thing. Still, he wants to listen to it once more. Sometimes we enjoy listening to the same thing over and over. It is not that we do not understand, but it gives us great joy to listen to the same thing again and again! Like that, Arjuna wants to listen to the same truth again and again.

Arjuna wants to know why a person would want to sacrifice everything and what is the process of renunciation.

So, giving alms to a Sannyāsi is like taking out insurance. You expect that your merits are getting noted down in a Cosmic record to decide whether you go to hell or heaven. . Make it simple. Give out of your completion. Give unconditionally if you can afford it. Give even if you cannot afford it. that is when giving becomes truly enriching. When you sacrifice what you cannot afford to sacrifice, by the mere act of giving, you become a renunciate, a Sannyāsi. How noble it is!

Arjuna is confused about the act and the actor. What is important is the act. Anyone can be the actor.

❖ Why is Arjuna asking Krishna a few questions here? ❖ What makes the words of the Master so powerful? ❖ What does Arjuna want to know at the beginning of this chapter? ❖ What is the advice Swamiji gives to anyone who has a doubt as to whether the person asking for alms is a beggar or a sannyasi? ❖ What is the space we should carry when we give to others? ❖ When does giving become truly enriching? Who becomes a Sannyasi?

Ask the children to close their eyes and to visualize a true Sannyasi. Then, ask them to give life to their visualization through art.

The act and the space from which the act is performed determines who is Sannyasi.

One food item for each child/teenager (except for the two who will be designated as "beggar" and "sannyasi").

-Choose two children or two acharyas and tell one that he/she is a beggar and the other one that he/she is a sannyasi but do not tell the rest of the class who is who.

-Give the rest of the children one food item to offer.

-Then tell the beggar and the sannyasi to go around asking other children for alms in any way that they want.

-The children get to decide who they want to offer to/what they want to offer. Give them the freedom to act in any way they want.

-At the end, ask everyone to sit in a circle and ask each child about the decision they made and what giving felt like. Also ask the beggar and the sannyasi what their experience of asking for alms felt like..

What is important is the act. Anyone can be the actor. When you give out of completion, not expecting anything in return, whether you give to a monk or a beggar makes no difference.

VAAKYARTHA SADHAS - INNER TRANSFORMATION

Ask the children/teenagers to describe the state that Arjuna is in at the beginning of this chapter and have them engage in a discussion of how Arjuna's state has transformed from the beginning of the war until this point. Then, ask them to write a short essay to explain the transformation that they have seen occurring in their own inner space / mental set-up / cognitions since the beginning of the course.

VAAKYARTHA SADHAS - INNER TRANSFORMATION

When you give, give out of completion, give unconditionally or don't give at all.

BOOK XVIII, VOLUME II

Up Selfless Enriching

Authored by THE SPH NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

श्रीभगवानुवाच ।

When you stop choosing, you will choose everything.

Some learned men say that all kinds of result-based activities are faulty and should be given up, but there are yet other sages who maintain that acts of enriching sacrifice [yajña], charity [dāna] and austerity [tapaḥ] should never be given up.

POWERFUL COGNITION

Enriching Sacrifice is the Path of Completion

Arjuna, best of Bhāratas, now listen from Me certainly about renunciation or tyāga; O tiger among men, renunciation or tyāga is declared to be of three kinds.

POWERFUL COGNITION

Surrender Both Inner and Outer Space.

yajñadānatapaḥ karma na tyājyaṁ kāryameva tat I yajño dānaṁ tapaścaiva pāvanāni manīṣiṇām

Acts of enriching sacrifice [tyāga], charity [dāna] and austerity [tapaḥ] are not to be given up; they should be performed. Indeed, even the Sages are purified by enriching sacrifice, charity and penance.

Enriching and completion, both should be practiced simultaneously

POWERFUL COGNITION

Only by enriching others does your life get enriched.

After all, it is Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the form of the Ultimate who originally created the scriptures and laws. Therefore any explanation from Him should be considered the last word. He says that any process of renunciation should be considered within the context in which it is performed. Renunciation can be of three types: enriching sacrifice, charity and penance; yajña, dāna, tapaḥ. These purify even those who are already evolved and pure.

Those who are truly charitable never allow others to know what they are doing. That is why it is said that your left hand should not know what your right hand is giving. Only then charity achieves its authentic purpose of enriching others. Charity should also involve pain. You can call it charity when you cannot afford to give something away and yet you give it away. Charity must become a penance, tapaḥ and lead to austerity if it is to be real.

Penance, tapaḥ is denying oneself sense pleasures and being complete with the senses. Ultimately, the purpose of all spiritual exercise is to be complete with the mind, body and senses and thereby controlling the mind and senses. Penance, tapaḥ is turning inwards whereas sacrifice, yajña and charity, dāna are focused outwards.

Only by enriching others does your life get enriched. Don’t be selfish. Understand, responsibility is the fruit. Enriching is sowing the seed for the fruit to happen. Enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen.

Kṛṣṇa gives His ultimate opinion. Earlier He explained what others said about renunciation, as either giving up the activity itself or the results of the activity. Now He says that His opinion on renunciation is living without attachment, etāny api tu karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalāni ca (18.6).

Kṛṣṇa gives His ultimate opinion. Earlier He explained what others said about renunciation, as either giving up the activity itself or the results of the activity. Now He says that His opinion on renunciation is living without attachment, etāny api tu karmāṇi saṅgaṁ tyaktvā phalāni ca (18.6).

The person who surrenders to the flow of life, experiences the inner space and outer space at the same time. He enjoys the inner and the outer space at the same time. Whatever Kṛṣṇa has spoken in these seventeen chapters, He is now giving its gist.

As long as you are struggling, you can struggle either in this direction or that direction. As long as you struggle in material life, you avoid spiritual life. As long as you struggle in spiritual life, you avoid material life. Listen! As long as you struggle with completion, you don't enrich. As long as you struggle with enriching, you are not complete! Both are a struggle.

For the first time, Kṛṣṇa gives the ultimate technique for Quantum Spirituality. He is the first quantum scientist of the inner world. He says relax and surrender and you will experience the completion of your inner consciousness.

You will understand that you do not need to choose between the horizontal and vertical lines. You can explode in all 360 degrees. You need not make a choice. You experience choicelessness. Choicelessness does not mean that you do not choose anything. When you stop choosing, you will choose everything.

1. What are the three types of renunciations?

2. What does "sacrifice" refer to in our times?

3. What is the instruction given by Krishna regarding struggles?

4. How should enriching and completion be practiced?

5. What happens when we truly surrender?

“Understand, responsibility is the fruit. Enriching is sowing the seed for the fruit to happen. Enriching is sharing the fruit to create more fruits. Every person who eats the fruit is responsible for sowing the seed for more fruits to happen.” Read the following to the students and ask them to draw the life of a seed and how it creates more and more fruits. Then ask the students to share their thoughts on how they can plant more and more seeds in their own life / how they can enrich others and how enriching others enriches them.

Only by enriching others does your life get enriched.

Without showing the drawing shown on the next page, ask the students to draw a horizontal line that represents the material goals and a vertical line that represents the spiritual goals that they have in their life. Then ask them to write down a few goals on each axis and ask them to point to where their "Being" would be in that drawing. Then ask them to share why they placed their "Being" at that point. After everyone has shared, draw the diagram and explain to them why the Being is placed exactly in the center by using the explanation given in the "inference" section.

WHAT SURRENDERING LOOKS LIKE!

“Let me explain what I mean by the word surrender. Then you can understand better. Think of two intersecting lines, axes. The vertical axis is spiritual life. The horizontal axis is material life. The point of intersection is your being. This is the goal you have. You have some goal in your material life and also in your spiritual life. To achieve your goal in your material life, you are continuously struggling and working. You are somewhere on the horizontal axis. To achieve your spiritual goal, you are again working intensely doing yoga, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, etc. You practice spiritual techniques. You are somewhere on the vertical axis. So when you struggle with material goals, you are on the horizontal line whereas when you struggle with spiritual goals, you are on the vertical line.

WHAT SURRENDERING LOOKS LIKE!

As long as you are struggling, you can struggle either in this direction or that direction. As long as you struggle in material life, you avoid spiritual life. As long as you struggle in spiritual life, you avoid material life. Listen! As long as you struggle with completion, you don't enrich. As long as you struggle with enriching, you are not complete! Both are a struggle.

Kṛṣṇa says, 'Relax from both.' You may think, 'What is this funny instruction He is giving!' You think that if you relax in both you will lose both. However, the truth is that when you relax in both, you fall into your inner consciousness, your being or your inner space. When you experience this inner space, this inner consciousness, you will suddenly realize that you can explode in all directions. You do not need to choose between horizontal and vertical lines. You can travel on both lines at the same time!"

Ask the students to contemplate and discuss the topic of choicelessness: "Choicelessness does not mean that you do not choose anything. When you stop choosing, you will choose everything". How is it possible to choose everything when we stop choosing?

Surrender to your own being, to your own consciousness, to your own inner space.

BOOK XVIII, VOLUME III