Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7 - Lesson 8 of 8

INTRODUCTION

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Kṛṣṇa talks here about pāpa and puṇya,
sinful and meritorious acts. Kṛṣṇa
addresses mortal beings here, in the
form of Arjuna. So He talks about
doing virtuous acts and avoiding sinful
acts. What follows is more important.
He says to go beyond duality, the
duality of sin and virtue. This is only
possible when we become aware. It is
only when we become aware that we
can reach Him. The greatest
philosopher that Hinduism has known,
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, prays to the greatest
Master that the Universe has known,
Kṛṣṇa, ‘Save me from this endless cycle
of saṁsāra, the cycle of birth and
death.’ To know that one needs to be
saved from this cycle needs great
wisdom. To seek the feet of the Master
who can lead you to that liberation
needs great wisdom and awareness.

You can be born again and again
and still think that you are being
born for the first time, and that this
is the only life that you have.
This knowledge requires no
wisdom.

With this knowledge, you focus on
this life and want to extract the
maximum juice out of it. You run
after everything possible, as if there
is no tomorrow. Please understand,
this is not your only life. This body
is not who you are.

Illustration of a person playing a flute

All this is temporary. What you chase is a dream. One day you will wake up and discover that this life is nothing but a dream. You are more than this body and mind; you are above this body-mind.

What you are endures after death. When you understand this Cosmic Truth, you are liberated. Buddha calls this cycle of birth and death a bondage. It is sorrow because it is not real. It is not the real you that dies and is reborn. The real you changes bodies as you change clothes.

It is never too late to reach me
kr̥ṣṇa ends this chapter with the
prescription for how to know and
understand him and reach him.
even at the time of death, he says,
even if all your life you lived a
dissolute life, if at the point of
departure you realize your folly, the
futility of the psychodrama that you
have enacted, that is enough to
redeem you.
the mere recognition of that can
save you.

His compassion is unlimited. He
promises: Knowing me at the time of
death, even at the time of death, will
lead you to Me. We cannot change
our nature at the last minute.

If we want to die with the thought of
the Divine uppermost in our mind,
we must cultivate the habit of
remembering Him now. We should
start knowing and understanding
Him today. Then and only then will
we know and understand Him at the
time of death.

Some may ask, 'What is the need
to understand and know Kṛṣṇa,
whether at the point of death or
before?

If I do the right things in the
right manner, why should it
make any difference whether or
not I understand and know
Kṛṣṇa?'

Please understand that Kṛṣṇa is
not talking about the physical
Kṛṣṇa, or even about the Cosmic
Consciousness that He is.
He speaks about our
understanding, about knowing
ourselves, who we are.

Kṛṣṇa in His deep compassion says, ‘Even if that happens at the point of death, I shall redeem you.’ He does not want us to miss that chance, even if we have not thought about Him all our lives. He does not rule out the possibility, even if we have not been seeking all our lives. He wants us to discover the master within. Even if we do that at the point of our last breath, it is okay with Him. How can we even intellectually understand that Kṛṣṇa is supreme? Forget the demigods, how can we even accept that He is greater than us? We are so full of our identity and root patterns, that even if a thousand Kṛṣṇas were to descend in front of us, we would ask them for their identification cards! We will recognize Kṛṣṇa only if He comes in front of us in the mold and image of Him that we have stored in our Minds!

The ultimate Master resides
within us, not anywhere else.
The external Master, be He
Kṛṣṇa or Nithyānanda, is a guide
to make us understand, know
and accept the Master within us.
Yes, it may be possible in rare
cases for that wisdom to dawn
on us at the point of death, but
it is not common.
Someone who constantly seeks
that truth will continuously
search for that Master within,
and has a better chance of
making that connection earlier
rather than later in life

Kṛṣṇa must come to us in our image of Him. Then we will accept Him as the Supreme and hang His picture on the wall. Everyday, Kṛṣṇa comes to us in many forms. He comes to us in the form of every person we meet. We decide whom we will accept and whom we will reject.

We cannot accept Kṛṣṇa in parts and reject Him in parts. Either we accept Him totally or reject Him. We have to surrender to Him. We have to surrender our identity, our root patterns to Him. We have to surrender to Him that foolish image that we have in our minds of Him.

Meditation is a technique for surrendering one's identity. Completion is the process of surrendering one's root patterns. Throughout the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa suggests to Arjuna techniques, sūtras that leads to liberation.

Combined with the cognition at the intellectual level, śāstra, with the higher devotional acceptance of His glories through verses, stotra, the Gītā leads you through the path of surrender into liberation.

Dropping one's identity requires a deep cognition, acceptance, intranalization, and completion which brings the merger of the Self, World and God. Simply put, we accept our Divinity and become one with the Divine. We become complete, whole! This is what Enlightenment is about.

The simple truth is that the present
moment of completion is Kṛṣṇa
consciousness. When we reach this
state of being in the present moment,
we reach Him and we are complete.
So it is not the mere intellectual
understanding of what we read in the
verses, but the authentic listening,
śravaṇa, authentic intranalying,
manana and powerfully living and
radiating, nididhyāsana of what Kṛṣṇa
speaks into our listening, that can
complete us.

So, let us pray to the Ultimate Kṛṣṇa
to give us the intelligence and
awareness to realize the truth about
ourselves, to give us this experience
of eternal bliss, Nityānanda.
May you reach Kṛṣṇa consciousness
and realize eternal bliss, Nityānanda

GOALS:

Teach about reaching Kṛṣṇa
consciousness and being more
than this body and mind Help
children understand about the
ultimate master within us

ASSESSMENTS

What does Kṛṣṇa say is more important than sin and virtue?

What is the cycle of birth and death?

What do we need to do if we want to die with the thought of the Divine uppermost in our mind?

What is the role of the external Master, be He Kṛṣṇa or Nithyānanda?

Why do meditation and completion?

What do the techniques, sūtras in the Gītā lead to?

How do we reach Kṛṣṇa?

ART OF THE DAY

ART OF THE DAY: CYCLE OF BIRTH & DEATH

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Paper

Coloring pens

PROCEDURE

Encourage the children to do a drawing that helps them understand the birth, old age, death cycle.

INFERENCE

To know that one needs to be saved from this cycle needs great wisdom. You can be born again and again and still think that you are being born for the first time, and that this is the only life that you have. This knowledge requires no wisdom.

ACTIVITY OF THE DAY

PROCEDURE: One child stands apart while the remaining children choose one to be Kṛṣṇa. The child who was standing apart rejoins the other children and has to ask questions to find who is Kṛṣṇa in this round. The answers to the questions can only be yes or no. Repeat as time allows, with a different child being Kṛṣṇa and also a different child asking the questions. Option is to have the children moving around, for example, pretending to be at a market, or in a forest.

INFERENCE: Kṛṣṇa comes to us in many forms. He comes to us in the form of every person we meet.

WORKSHOP OF THE DAY

[Figure: A person dressed as Krishna playing a flute]

WORKSHOP OF THE DAY: VAAKYARTHA SADHAS - STRIVE TO REACH THE ULTIMATE

Hold Vaakyartha Sadhas on the topic: "The ultimate Master resides within us, not anywhere else. The external Master, be He Kṛṣṇa or Nithyānanda, is a guide to make us understand, know and accept the Master within us."

Conclusion: When we reach this state of being Kṛṣṇa consciousness in the present moment, we reach Him and we are complete.