Thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 14: Verses 19 - 21)

In this episode of The Bearded Mystic Podcast, host Rahul N Singh guides us through verses 19 to 21 of Chapter 14 from the Bhagavad Gita. He delves into the concept of the three gunas - qualities that govern our actions, and the transcendental state that can be achieved when one recognizes and detaches from them. The episode further explores ways to cultivate self-awareness, the journey towards spiritual knowledge, and how to attain a divine state of being as extended by Arjuna's quest for understanding. Furthermore, the discussion revolves around concepts such as birth, death and the transcending of misery, the pursuit of material happiness, Moksha or ultimate freedom, and the mystical nature of Atma or soul. The episode wraps up with a promise to explore the answers to Arjuna's questions in the next episode and a call to action to engage further with Rahul's work on various platforms.

Translation used: The Bhagavad Gita Comes Alive: A Radical Translation by Jeffrey Armstrong

If you enjoyed listening to the 94th episode of the Thoughts on The Bhagavad Gita and want to listen to more episodes like this on the Bhagavad Gita, or on Non-Duality, or the wisdom of the Mystics please follow/subscribe to this Podcast. New episodes are uploaded every Sunday.

Thoughts on the Upanishads, Conversations with the Bearded Mystic, Guided Meditations, and much more only on Patreon, Buzzsprout Subscriptions, Apple Podcast Subscriptions and Supercast.

Patreon: Support The Bearded Mystic Podcast and get ad-free, bonus episodes along with many more benefits:
https://www.patreon.com/thebeardedmysticpodcast

Join The Bearded Mystic Podcast Discussion Group on Whatsapp:  https://chat.whatsapp.com/GcCnyrjQwLuEPHBaVA6q9L

Be notified of my weekly virtual meditation session followed by a Q&A Discussion via zoom (Notifications only):
https://chat.whatsapp.com/DcdnuDMeRnW53E0seVp28b

Please rate and write a review for this Podcast: https://www.thebeardedmysticpodcast.com/reviews/new/

You can follow me and contact me on social media:
Website: https://www.thebeardedmysticpodcast.com
TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdk3HPJh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeardedmysticpodcast/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBeardedMysticPodcast/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bearded_mystic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Bearded-Mystic-Podcast

Transcript

Rahul N Singh: 0:00

Hello and welcome to The Bearded Mystic Podcast and I'm your host Rahul N Singh. Thank you for joining today and for taking out the time to either watch or listen to this podcast episode. Today we will be continuing on with my thoughts on the Bhagavad Gita and we will be looking at chapter 14 verses 19 to verse 21. Now let's get started with verse 19. When a person acting within matter sees that only the three gunas are directing the outcome of all actions, they achieve a divine state of being, just like my own and eventually come to Me. Let's look at the whole verse together. When a person acting within matter sees that only the three gunas are directing the outcome of all actions. So first of all, we need to have this acute awareness and see the beginning of our actions. See the cause of our actions. Where do our actions really arise from? What thought triggers them? What intention do we have when we are conducting those very thoughts? This is what happens. We look underneath the surface of action. Whenever we are acting within matter, when we are acting within prakriti, when we are dealing with the world, we need to see what gunas are directing the outcome of all actions. Remember, all three of them are mixed together, they cannot be separated. We have to see that in this world, whatever actions we do, whatever karma we do, is going to be based on these three gunas. We can then analyse which guna is working, and then address it. Or, if we just ignore it, what will happen is they will work disastrously against each other, and destructively too. So we want them to work positively with each other, we want there to be harmony. Someone that is able to build upon their awareness of the gunas is better. We need to understand that only material outcomes arise from the three gunas, so whatever happens within matter from the three gunas are just for the world. Prakriti will address Prakriti, that's all. And what will happen is, yes, when we start then understanding that actually these three gunas are acting within matter, they belong to matter, they belong to the material and any action I do is only showing me that it's transferred into those gunas themselves. So if I'm doing more spiritual practice, it's causing more happiness, but I'm not getting to eternal happiness. This is the beginning of transcendence. And this is what Sri Krishna is talking about, that once you understand that the three gunas are directing the outcome of all actions, you see that one outcome makes you happy, one outcome either makes you restless and wants you to chase more pleasure, or another one is making you lazy, then you start realizing that that can't be me, because I can be aware of this. If I'm aware of this, then that means that's not me, and that should not be able to control me. So then what happens to that person? When that person understands that even sattva guna, the things that should make them happy, are only from actions done on this material realm, and they have a very short lifespan. When they know that this happiness is not everlasting, but it's very, very temporary. When they start noticing and observing the connection between the gunas and the outcome of our actions, naturally that person becomes more mindful. They start taking time with their decisions. They start discerning between the Real and unreal. They start realizing that they are this awareness that is aware of these objects, of these gunas, of these outcomes, of these actions. It's not part of the actions. It seems to be there as the non doer. What happens when we become more mindful is that we start entering a state where we become aware of our own awareness, we become aware of our consciousness. What is that which is not changing? What is that state that seems to be eternally happy that doesn't have even a slight blip in that happiness, what is it? What is it that once I enter this state, it's very hard for me to get out of it? Because it's truly permanent and it's in that way we enter divinity and we become the same as Sri Krishna's true reality, which is Brahman. And the more we stay in this state, the more we relax in this state, we remain in Brahman nature all the time. These people will end up coming to Sri Krishna. This is how we become trigun-ateet. That's how this happens. This is how we transcend the gunas. So, Sri Krishna is telling us that when a person acting within matter sees that only the three gunas are directing the outcome of all actions, what's the hint here? When the person acting within matter sees. When it starts being the seer, the observer, the witness, and it sees that these three gunas are directing the outcome of my actions, I cannot do anything about it. When one becomes choicelessly aware, that is when one attains, when one realises they have the same divine state of being as Sri Krishna. So what happens is, they act like Sri Krishna did on earth. They let the gunas run, but they remember that they are the seer of the gunas. This prakriti needs the gunas, but Sri Krishna doesn't. Pure consciousness doesn't. Awareness doesn't. So they attain a divine state just like Sri Krishna's, and they eventually come to me. So what Sri Krishna is saying is that eventually they attain Me. Once you've attained Sri Krishna, once you've attained his true form, meaning this Brahman, once you've attained that, what more do you want? If we say that you'll still be trapped in the gunas, that means that you've not gone to Sri Krishna. this is a very subtle understanding, but a very deep understanding, if we can grasp it. I'll just repeat that. Once we go to Sri Krishna, once we become one with Sri Krishna, once we understand there is this inherent oneness, and we understand that we act in the world just like Sri Krishna did, where we do actions, but we remember that we are the seer of the actions, we remember that we are the watcher of the actions, we do not accumulate karma. And we are not made of the three gunas. Our true self is Krishna and Krishna is Brahman. Our true form is Sri Krishna and Sri Krishna is Brahman. Verse 20. When the embodied Atma goes beyond the binding influence of the three gunas, they achieve moksha, ultimate freedom, and go beyond the influence of misery, birth, death and old age and regain their long forgotten, immortal nature. When you remain an observer to the gunas, you know that they are unreal. So there's no need to entertain them. There's no need to identify oneself with them. We understand they belong to the body and belong to the mind, but do they belong to the atma? No. Do they direct the Atma? No. They understand that the Jiva Atma goes beyond the binding influence, it unties those knots, so to speak. So their actions and their outcomes are all based on Prakriti, and that's what they understand these Gunas to do. They know that the three Gunas just belong to the Earth. They belong to Prakriti. So therefore the jiva awakens and goes beyond the influence of the gunas. It understands there's no need for it to be influenced by the sattva guna or the tama guna or the raja guna. It doesn't need to be influenced by them. It doesn't need to be affected by them. It does not need to be embraced by them. Neither does it need to embrace them. So the jiva starts understanding that it is not the body and mind and therefore the gunas can't bind it. So the jiva atma rests more and more in as awareness, as consciousness, understands that that is the real, that's permanent, that's untouched. It does not modify, the three gunas modify, the body modifies, the mind modifies. So it no longer gets bound by it. It doesn't bind in any way with the gunas. Then the jiva realizes it's been Brahman all along. It was always Brahman. It was never away from that state. It just believed that it was something else. And once that delusion was broken, then they realized that they are Brahman itself. Then they regained their long forgotten immortal nature. The only immortal nature is Brahman, pure consciousness. So this then leads to Moksha, to ultimate freedom, where the embodied jiva attains liberation whilst alive or ultimate freedom or liberation. That's what the person attains. And this jiva is knowing and resting in Brahman. So it never feels any misery. Nothing of the world is real, so it never gets overly upset about anything. It transcends such emotions, anything that will bind it back into nature, it cannot. Once those knots are untied, they never tie back up. They are untied for existence, for eternity. One goes beyond birth and one never takes birth again. So they go beyond the influence of birth and death. They're no longer in misery, so they're no longer upset. They're no longer in conflict. They're no longer in suffering. They're no longer chasing pleasure and pain, attraction and repulsion. They're not bound by those things. They're not, they go beyond the influence of birth. Neither will they go into a human being or a saintly family or to an animal. They go beyond prakriti. As a whole, so if they go beyond birth, then naturally, where's death? Is there death in freedom? No. When one is truly free, there's no death. There's only freedom. Death is the implication that something limited has come to an end. How can the limitless come to an end? Logically, the limitless has to remain. Everlasting, eternal, and endless. And death only happens to Prakriti. Because it modifies. It has to end, it has to die. So one goes beyond death and death has never and will never occur to the realized jiva because ignorance is now removed. The delusion is removed that they are the body and mind. Once you understand that you are pure consciousness, you realize pure consciousness does not change at all. If it doesn't change then it is the real and if it's sat, if it's real, then it's permanent. And therefore, if it's beyond birth and death, then it's going to go beyond the ailments of old age. They'll live a long, strong health span. And the jiva, despite being beyond the body, is able to utilize the body effectively, properly, with all due respect. And that's what happens. And then the jiva understands finally, what it has always been. What has it always been? What has been its long forgotten immortal nature? For years the jiva was trapped in the idea that it was the body. And then it went through the whole celestial bodies, then animals and eventually reached that human being state where he was able to or she was able to discern between the real and the unreal. To utilise viveka, their discernment of the real and unreal. To go beyond the likes and dislikes that they had. To go beyond personal taste. Now the jiva realises the most obvious fact. That it has always been immortal. As Brahman. It's nature is this formless awareness. It's been nothing but this formless awareness. Nothing but this pure consciousness. And the substratum of all this prakriti, of all this existence, is Brahman itself. That jiva atman awakens fully. And realizes that the nature that we see with these senses is always changing. But, this nature, which is changeless, is our true self, this immortal Atma, this immortal Brahman itself. Then verse 21, Arjuna inquired. How does one recognize that someone has gone beyond the gunas? How do they behave? And how did they attain that state? A very important question and so far if we looked at the first 20 verses, Sri Krishna is explaining this knowledge and we see how Sri Krishna tells us how to go beyond or how to recognize when these three gunas are acting within us. So Arjuna says, okay, that's well and good. I get it. But how do we recognize someone that's gone beyond the three gunas? Because I want to be inspired. You see, we learn a lot from other people when we observe other people. Obviously, if you're in tamas you are not gonna observe, sattva, you're more open to observing. Again, if you're in raja guna, you're not going to observe because you're constantly chasing pleasure. But when you're in sattvaguna, how do you recognise someone that's gone beyond the Gunas? Another thing that here we can understand is that Arjuna recognises that it's possible to go beyond the Gunas. He, he understands this, whether that's intuitively or whether that's from previous conversations with Sri Krishna, but now it's kind of settling within his own mind. And then he asked, well, okay, what type of behavior did they have? How did they behave? And then how did they even get to that state? Because I need to know that! I need to get to that. You see. Arjuna is quite special. Yes, he has to fight in this war, but at the same time, he wants to be going with the flow of spirituality too. And it's interesting because now if we reflect upon it, Arjuna asked Sri Krishna to be his guru and asked so many things. But that one fundamental thing about asking Sri Krishna to be his guru, to be his teacher, to be his spiritual master. And he, he's showing the attitude of a real disciple. To ask, okay, it's nice that you give me knowledge, but what next? What am I meant to do with this knowledge? A competent teacher will always be able to explain it. And of all competent teachers, we can say Sri Krishna is one of the best. And if Arjuna doesn't take advantage of that, that will be something he will regret for the rest of his life. And, and just imagine, in the very beginning, if you remember, Arjuna was full of tamo guna. You could say he was rajoguna, but he was actually more tamo guna because he was like, why should I fight? What will I get? I'll just go out and beg. Avoiding action. Lazy. And Sri Krishna addresses him and tells him you need to fight. You need to do your duty and fight. But at the same time Arjuna used this moment to gain spiritual wisdom. I think we need to appreciate this. We may turn around and say and question whether Arjuna understood any of it. That's not the point. The question is, how much have we gained from this? And are we the same as Arjuna or are we not the same as Arjuna? Look at it in another way. Arjuna was the only one on that war field who asked questions. Who surrendered to Sri Krishna? Everyone else, either they feared him or they just saw him as a king that was going to help them fight, even though they may know of his divine powers, but it didn't mean anything. And out of the many that were around, how many of them thought to have actually asked Sri Krishna questions, asked for his blessings? And obviously in the next episode, we're going to explore the answers that Sri Krishna gives, because that will be our final episode of this chapter. But the question is, why did Arjuna ask this? We know that he wants to know what to do. And from there, we understand how we need to live. So Arjuna's thinking on a broader level. And my only thing that I will say is a lot of people on this spiritual path, turn around and say, a lot of this is unattainable, it's unrealistic, it's impossible to achieve. Remember that can either be your Rajaguna or Tamoguna. Your sattvaguna will tell you it's possible. And I will tell you it's possible. Because many people have lived the tale to say that they've achieved it. That they've attained it. So, it's really funny for me because, you know, so many people will watch videos and say anything can be achieved. You can achieve, unlock your infinite potential. You see all these type of videos, right? And you see people share it all the time. Or they repost it, but when it comes to spiritual life, they always say it's impossible. I don't know if I can achieve it. I don't know if I can attain it. Or you have the worst. Oh, I achieved everything. I don't need to do anything more. We are not to feel that this is impossible. If Arjuna has asked a question, Sri Krishna is going to have the answer and we're going to explore that answer in the next episode. So I hope you look forward to the next episode because that's where the real answers are coming and it's the answers that we're all looking for. So that is the end of today's episode and thank you very much for listening. If you liked what you heard and liked what you watched, please do share this podcast with your friends and family who may enjoy this content. Do follow me on social media to keep getting updates. Join the Bearded Mystic Podcast WhatsApp community group to continue the podcast discussion, details are in the show notes and video description below. If you would like to support the Bearded Mystic Podcast as we discussed earlier, do check out the podcast Patreon page. Your support means everything, and it helps this podcast keep running. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do rate this podcast five stars and do give a review either on your favorite podcast, streaming app or on our website. Details are in the show notes and video description below. Please do like and comment on this video and subscribe to this YouTube channel. Do follow or subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast streaming app. Thank you very much for listening to this episode. Let's end with the Shanti mantra and the Soham mantra. Soham Soham. I am That. I am That. Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti Aum Peace Peace Peace Namaste