-7th chapter: verses 25, 26, 27, 28
-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on March 26, 2021.
-25th verse: “The Absolute Reality is unmanifest, eternal, changeless, birthless, deathless and non-dual. For people who have not reached the highest state of spiritual evolution, the true nature of this Absolute Reality remains concealed due to the Avarana and Vikshepa shakti of Yogamaya.”
-Maya is non-awareness of the fact that everything in this world is subject to change. This maya veils the light of truth (Prakasha) and projects something false. What we may know intellectually, maya makes us forget at the emotional level.
-We experience Maya in our daily life, when we excessively worry, delude ourselves into thinking about the permanence of situations that are inherently impermanent. For example, a person who has lost his job may worry that he will be permanently jobless.
-If we are aware of a traffic jam ahead, then the traffic jam doesn’t bother us as much. Similarly, once we become aware of maya, we develop spiritual common sense, and are not bothered by it.
-26th verse: “Arjuna – I know the past, present and future of everyone, everything. But no one knows Me.”
-We see only one dimension of time. We worry about the past and future. We forget that in the past things were different, and they will be different in the future. Those stuck in time do not know the Lord, as he is beyond time.
-In the Bhagavata Purana, Lord Krishna is depicted as always smiling. This is because He could see the triple dimensions of time. He knew that situations would change. The ability to see triple dimensions of time gives one the ability to think, talk and act with wisdom.
-Ayurveda defines perfect health as: “sama dosha sama agnischa sama dhatu mala kriyaaha| Prasanna atma indriya manaha swastha iti abhidheeyate”. It means that we are in perfect health when we are physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally healthy. And we are mentally healthy when we accept the changeable nature of all empirical phenomena.
-Per Shankaracharya, when we take to spiritual practices and completely surrender to the transcendental, divine reality, we become instruments in the hands of a higher power that is beyond time. The dividing line between past, present and future is only imaginary. We can transcend the time trap by looking upon the past, present and future with detachment.
-Vibhuti pada in Patanjali Yoga Sutra mentions that when one practices meditations, prayers, yamas and niyamas – one can develop the ability to see far into the future.
-27th verse: “This mental trap of polar opposites – such as raga and dvesha, pain and pleasure, profit and loss – they create maya. They express themselves in the form of desire. Because of this, people fall into delusion.”
-28th verse: “Those who have done virtuous deeds, who undertake spiritual practices such as karma yoga, prayers, meditation – for them this mental trap of pairs of opposites, will end. They will be free from raga and dvesha. They attain chitta shuddhi and they worship Me.”
-We are not able to do what we want to do because of a mental trap. This mental trap is created by our samskaras, which are the result of our past actions. They propel us to act in a certain way, and we feel imprisoned.
-These samskaras can be neutralized by developing a storehouse of positive samskaras, with spiritual practices. As the past samskaras weaken, we feel less conflict in what we want to do.
-Total surrender to God is one way to weaken past samskaras. When we open our heart and place everything at the feet of God, we become spiritually refined and feel a weight lifted from our shoulders. The intensity of surrender determines how fast we progress.
-If a glass is half full of water and we pour milk in it, it will only have 50% milk. However, if we empty the glass and then pour milk, it will have 100% milk. Similarly, when we empty our mind, all negative samskaras are emptied. The mind can then be filled with the pure milk of God’s grace.