1. References to Swami Chinmayaanada's works:
a. "Holy Geeta" - bound volume with commentary
b. "The Bhagavad Geeta" - sanskrit text, transliteration,
word-by-word meaning with the commentary - paper-back volumes -with several
chapters grouped in sets. Good one to possess if one is interested in
pratipada artha.
This B.G. should be studied ' as Srini indicated with appropriate
background understanding of the terminology - This can be obtained by the
introductory book by Swami Chinmayananda - "Manual of Self Unfoldment" - It
is this text, first studied in the study groups in Chinmaya Mission before
they take up giita or Upanishads. Otherwise one can get easily lost in the
understanding of Atma, Paramaatma, jiivaatma etc. I found Swamiji books
are much more logical and analytical.
The books can be ordered through Chinmaya Mission Tri State Center in
Philadelphia where the Chinmaya book distribution is there. I donot have
address off hand but can be searched through Nescape with Chinmaya -
In the first chapter Arjuna rattles and sugar coats his inability to face
his duty by brining adharma and inter-caste deterioration and female
degradation as a causality resulting from war. In the vishaadha yoga,
Vyasa pictures a confused state of Arjuna - through Arjuna our own internal
struggles between values. It is the inner conflict that every one goes
through not just Arjuna - between what need to be done as duty versus
emotionally driven impulse generated actions. If it is just Arjuna's caste
problem and how to face his war, then it is a temporal problem and Krishan
would have given a temporal solution to it and did not have to go through
an exhaustive 700 slokas of explanation. Recognizing his problem Arjuna
asks for shreyas -Ch.II-7&8 - because of kaarpaNya dOsha I do not know what
is right and wrong and please tell me what is shrEyas (not just what I
should do) considering all aspects - nishchitam bruhi mE tat and surrenders
as sishaya - Until he finds Arjuna as shishya - Krisha does not begin
giitOpa desha -
He dismisses all arguments of Arjuna with one stroke - You are talking like
a punDit quoting the dharma shastraas while ashOchanya manva shOchatsvam -
grieving for those who does not grieved for --etc. and from thenon gives
the highest philosophy in the next 15 slokas in terms of nature of atma.
One has to go through these texts studying the implication and discussing
slowly.
Referring to varnaasrama - Krishan discusses in the IV - 13 which everybody
quotes justifying the existence of caste system in India.
it says: chaaturvarNyam mayaa sR^ishhTam (people only quote up to this
without the next part which says) guNa karma vibhaagashaH.
Based on guNa and Karma(action) the four varNaas I have created. First
notice there is no birth specified. GuNaas are satva, rajas and tamas
these are discussed exhaustively but mostly in the 14th chapter. Satva is
predominated by the intellectual activiity with least ahankaara, mind
purified from all self centered ego driven desires. In pure bhakti or pure
JNyaana - in bhakti recognizing that he is the doer and not me and all
actions are by Him to Him; and in JNaana -understanding that I am a subject
and not an object while the body, mind and intellect that perform are
instruments belonging to prakR^iti - it is a saakshiibhava
RajO guna is that which propels one to vigorous actions induced by desires
arising from innate tendencies - vaasanas - likes and dislikes -
Tamo guNa manifests as ignorance, laziness, procrastination etc.
Every one has these guNaas in different proportion. A Brahman - Brahman
charati iti BrahmanaH, one who travels towards Brahman, is the one who has
predominantly satvaguna - Or it is the other way around - one who has
predominance of satvaguna, he is a true Brahman.
One who has predomiinance of Rajo guna with satva next and tamas next is
kshatriya.
one who has predominance of RajO guna with tamas next and satva next is vais=
ya
one who has Tamo guna predominant followed by rajas and satva is sudra.
Nature of guna dictates the activities - that is why Krishan says based on
guna and Karma - classification is done - Now why does he has to classify.
Classification is the essential mode of operation for any scientific
analysis, particularly when Krishna is showing by dissecting the human
personality and its traits. It is difficult to know for anybody internal
mental motives in any action that is dictated by guNaas. This means
Krishna teaching is only meant for self analysis not for branding someone
as Brahmin or sudra etc. So that everyone, who is born as sudra with
predominantly ignorance, raises himself from that to the highest satvic
state or Brahman state. This is a litmus type of test by one self to
oneself! This is not modern interpretation to suite the times or to cover
up and project Vyasa as caste-ist. Remember by birth he himself is a
product of fisher woman and a R^ishi. He rose himself by his own
self-effort to the highest state of Jeevanmukta.
In the Prussia suukta, this is beautifully pictured - In the total purushaa =
-
braahamanOsya mukha maasiit
baahuurajanya kR^itaH
uuruutadasya yadvaishyaH
padbhyaam shuudrO ajaayata.
Brahmin (thinkers) sit at his face
kshatriyaas acts from his hands or shoulders
from the thighs the vaisyas
suudraas are born from his feet.
Notice birth is designated for the sudras and not for others - every one
that is born is sudra first. Because the root cause for birth itself is
ignorence, tamas. There is only ignorence evan as childhood - One has to
raise above depending his guna and karma - Gunas manifest as likes and
dislikes.
Many of us are just interested mostly in sense enjoyments and do just labor
without contemplating on the higher meaning of life. Here I donot mean
labor as manual labor -it means those who live for his stomach sake-He may
be a big officer or big minister -or a scientist like me, a self centered
ego centric utterly selfish ones are sudras (by birth he may claim a
Brahmin - but that does not mean anything if his guNaas and karmaas do not
reflect his Brahmin state!). Those who are involved in the activities
outside who think that they have to work to uplift the society - are true
kshatriyaas - who are ready to sacrifice their life for the society -
action first - type - They are true workers - social workers, cultural
workers etc. etc. who fights against injustice. There is name and fame
involved in all these activities - people like Arjuna - who is ready to
fight where ever he is - He obviously cannot sit down in one place and
meditate - He fights with Lord Siva even while he was trying to meditate.
Somebody brought swadharma - swadharma based on your vasanas - not by
birth. your swadharma is what your conscious says - if you go against it,
it will prick you. That is true honesty - satyam - have the guts to do
what you believe in. Then there is no sin - no internal conflicts - sin is
the divergence of mind and intellect. Doing your swadharma you are better
off than following paradharma. You will be at peace with yourself. That
is what B.G. is teaching us.
=46inally the contemplative ones, these are subjective scientists, who are
seen enough of the rat race and what to contemplate on the meaning of life,
the very purpose of life. No more interest in any action, since they have
realized that the jagat - the world is in constant motion - jaayatE
gachchhatE iti jagat - and one cannot establish a steady equilibrium state
free from conflicts because the system keeps changing. Hence by action,
karma that which is finite cannot give rise to a solution that is beyond
finiteness. Because karta, karma, kriya of the tri (tripura) are all time
bound and each one excludes the other and by mutual exclusion each one
limits the other. One has to transcend the three ( that is why Lord is
called tripuraantaka - who ends the three - this cannot be accomplished by
karma but by transcending the karma - transcending the time itself (time is
change).
For such contemplation, one needs a saatvic Buddhi - it is not tiikshaNa
Buddhi - a sharp intellect which is required for dissecting and dividing
one into many - what a true specialist scientist does - but a suukshma
buddhi - a subtle intellect which looks for the unity in the diversity -
one in many - the underlying substratum - a changeless- aadhaara - in the
changing world - that is the vishva ruupa or that which pervades everything
but itself ever permanent and changeless. a pure mind devoid of pressures
of guna and karma(vaasana) is the saatvic mind is the braahminic mind - He
is the subjective contemplative scientists. How many really are true
brahmins - very few -
Now Venu Desigi asks why did Vyasa discuss in such a way that others can
misuse it.
=46irst, one should investigate to whom the text is written and who is
qualified to study this text. At the end of each chapter, both to
indicated that the chapter ends here, since they were passed on by word of
mouth, it says:
Om tat sat iti shriimad bagavat giitaasu upanishatu brahmavidyaayam yOga
shaastrE srii krishanaarjuna samvaadE ( like sankhya)- yogo nama (dviteeyO)
adhyaayaH.
The subject contents is not classification of objective world or
castesystem as practiced outside but the inner world around but deals with
the Brahma vidya to reach the Bahaman which is the nature of sat and that -
tht - which is the goal of human life (tattvam - tat tvam - tat tvam asi -
you are that - that Brahma vidya and it is sastra as Srini pointed is the
science of yoga - yug is to join - yoking the mind - that which teaches is
the yoga sastra - not relating to body genetal organ distinctions - male
and female - etc. Because these belong to matter and you are not the
matter. Only one who is qualified can only unravel the truth about the
Brahma vidya - others will obviously if they study will only misquote and
misunderstand or quote out of contest or misuse for their personal use.
This happened in the past the happening now and will happen in the future.
But t=99ose who are interested in Brhamavidya will not miss the essense of
what Bhagavan Vyaasa through Krishna pointing the direction of human
evolution.
It was for this reason only this sastras were taught to the qualified
students by the teacher and it was taught by word of mouth only, and was
recommended not to teach to the unqualified. Qualification as we have
discussed above is not based on the birth but by his mental status.
Although, some selfish used even this injunction to deprive those who are
qualified because they are born in the wrong woumbs. In the name of
equanimity this is happening even now where qualified are denied admission
for education becuase of their woumbs. It is same wine in a new bottle.
Heriditory factors came into picture just as in current day admisions, for
example in medical colleges, you get extra point if your parents are also
doctors and/or from the same school. I am not judging these but only
poiting out the inherent limitations in these systems.
B.G. unlike Upanishads - talking about pure philosophy in the high
mountains of Himalayas far from the maddening world quietly under a tree,
is taught to a dynamic individual to raise above not to run away from the
field but to act with proper attitude - Hence it is a yoga sastra - hence
the science created with teaching to an army man in the middle of battle -
a man of downtown like us how to fight the battle of life, but still to the
one who is completely surrendered to the teacher - shishyatOham - ready to
accept with clear mind the teaching that which is shrEyas for him.
If this is just interpretation to a modern men, I advise the objectors to
look into commentaries from time immemorial by Sankara bhaasya, Raamanuja
bhashya (Sribhashya) and Madhavas, Varadaacharya, Madhusudhana saraswaties,
Sant JNaaneswar and other intellectual giants on which even the modern
writings quoted are based on.
What Swami Chinmayananda has done is to bring in the intellectual logic of
the modern scientific mind and put the same arguments in the form that they
can appreciate -His greatest contribution, I feel is the representation of
BMI chart, representation of subtler concepts in a graphical form for easy
understanding. Remember he himself was not by birth a Brahman, nor his
own teacher Swami Tapovan but by Krishna's definition are truly the real
Brahman by guna and karma. Read Swami Tapovan, autobiography - Esvara
Darshan.
The teaching of Krishan is Universal - Caste-ism as practiced in India is
local. The classification that Krishna provides is universal. It is the
classification of the human traits so that one can evolve from tamasic to
rajasic to satvic - Read an exhaustive analysis of these in Viveka
chuuDamani of Sankaraachaarya. For this reason only B.G. is revered as song
celestial by many including Western philosophers. Aldus Huxley to Roland
to many others - read their own analysis.
Through B.G, Bhagavan Vyasa brought the abstract philosophy to the man of
downtown so that he can live without running away from life and duties, yet
reach the highest now and here. That is why it is the greatest teaching of
mankind provided and will for ever, where Krishana brings into synthesis
two divergent philosophical approaches - contemplation versus action.
Now if one calls such a great one who provided us the synthesis of supreme
thoughts some names - does the name of Vyasa gets tarnished! no way. By
calling names it only projects our own ignorence - that is all.
We have to self examine our own biases before we point-out biases of
others. One thing that Swami Chinmayaananda used to teach me and others -
do not point fingers at others and remember every time you point your
finger, three of your own fingers will be pointing at you. Let us first
clean our mind, and our intentions before we try to point dirt in others.
By this I am not trying to point fingers at any body. That is why I made
humble request in my last posting. Let us not misdirect our energies in
the wrong channels and divide and in the process discriminate people on the
basis of different guna and karma basis and loose in the battle of fighting
for unity and equanimity. Pointing at the old practices of discrimination,
we are setting up a new ones as you can see what is happening in India now.
A new wine in the old bottle.
If my posting is taken as a personal attach, I regret for that - It was
intended more to clarify from my understanding than to accuse others.
Regrets that the posting has become large. If you have come this for -
thanks for you patience.
This time I will really keep quite on this topic since I see Pillalamarri
trying to catch up his mail.
Hari Om
Sadananda
K. Sadananda
Code 6323
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington D.C. 20375
Voice (202)767-2117
=46ax:(202)767-2623
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What you have is His gift to you and what you do with what you have is your
gift to Him: Swami Chinmayananda
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