Hari om everyone,
Synopsis of this week's class - Started with meditation and chanting Geeta chapter 4.
The Kyun Kyun (QQ - Quirky Question) of the day was - What can I hold without touching it?!
We had a couple of interesting answers -
One said - breath; another said - knowledge...
They were right too. We were looking for 'conversation'. We can hold a conversation without ever touching it. And without ever touching it, we can destroy a relationship with an 'angry conversation' too.
We continued discussing Chapter 15. We had already discussed that this is an important chapter as it gives the entire vedaanta in a nutshell. Many people chant this chapter entirely before eating food, every day! Some people chant 2 verses - brahmaarpaNam (ch. 4) and aham vaishvaanaro bhootvaa (ch. 15) before eating every meal.
This is to remind us that eating food is also like a yajna. We should eat food to sustain ourselves but not sustain, just so that we can eat food!! These verses remind us that the one eating the food (me) is Brahman, the food we eat is also Brahman, and the digestive fire that digests the food is also Brahman.
With that, we moved on to the 16th chapter. This chapter is called 'daiva-asura-sampad-vibhaaga yoga'. This talks about the divine and demonic qualities in people.
There are 26 divine qualities enumerated in this chapter. Adapting these will elevate us to divine/pure realms. But there are only 3 demonic qualities that we need to beware of... and just 3 can cause a great deal of havoc!
We started discussing the divine qualities one by one. We covered about 9 of them in class.
One of them was 'fearlessness'. We asked the students, 'So, someone will dare me - if you don't try drugs you are not brave at all!' At that time, how can I claim to be fearless if I don't try?!'
Our students quickly said, 'It takes more courage to NOT yield to peer pressure and stick to your values!' We were very proud of them!
We were discussing when do we fear and what really is fear?! We spoke about the many scenarios that bring about fear in us. We figured that fear comes ONLY when there is another involved - another person, another place from where we are, another time in the future, etc... The common factor was, that when there is someone/something other than me involved, there is fear.
Vedaanta solves that problem beautifully! That is why we even call it 'Advaita'. Dvaita means second. Advaita means 'there is no second'. Why couldn't they just call it 'first' then?
Our students had the answer - it can mean there's a 3rd or 4th or however many. When I say I came first in a race, it can mean that in the race, there were 500 people, 4 people, or only I ran..., and I came first :). But when we say there is 'no second' that means, there IS ONLY ONE - Brahman!
When there is only one, what will it fear of or from?! That one is ME, says shaastra...
We will discuss this further in the next class.
Until then, here's a thought to contemplate -
Beware of such "friends"!
Until next time...
Regards,
Rashmi and Sirisha.
Rashmi and Sirisha.
