The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on December 11, 2020.
-6th chapter: verses 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
-In the 37th, 38th and 39th verse, Arjuna asks: “Suppose a person is endowed with shraddha and is making an earnest effort to control his mind. Yet, he fails to attain perfection. What happens to such a person? Has he totally failed and fallen from both worlds – having neither attained anything in the secular world nor in the spiritual realm? I have this doubt, which you should dispel.”
-Shankaracharya says that a seeker with shraddha, who has not yet attained the ultimate goal, may have a deviation from his spiritual ideal – this is called Yoga-bhrashta.
-When we come in contact with sensory objects that can take us away from our spiritual path, we should withdraw our senses from these objects. We should do so by thinking about the dangers of succumbing to such temptation (dosha-drishti) – we should do so again and again.
-The faculty to detect such temptation and withdraw from – it grows when we feed our mind with higher spiritual ideas and associate with holy people. Then, we develop an inner self-correcting mechanism.
-Lord Krishna answers in the 40th verse: “Even if you had a deviation, do not worry. You will not lose anything. Your spiritual samskaras are like a fixed deposit that no one can take away from you – it is yours forever. Even if you want a material life, you will be forced to continue your spiritual journey – you will be helpless because of the power of your accumulated spiritual samskaras.”
-What happens to a Yoga-bhrashta? Lord Krishna answers this question from two different perspectives in the 41st and 42nd verse. 41st verse discusses a seeker who has not achieved Shama (self-restraint), and 42nd verse discusses a more advanced spiritual seeker.
-41st verse: “If a devotee has practiced spiritual disciplines in this life but has not achieved shama - and he has a deviation towards the end - he will be able to continue his spiritual journey by being born in a pure and prosperous family, where his parents are spiritually oriented, and where his unfulfilled desires can be fulfilled.”
-42nd verse: “Those who are more advanced are born in families that have a tradition of producing great spiritual aspirants. Such a birth is rare indeed.”
-In both 41st and 42nd verse, Lord Krishna’s main message is: “Nothing is lost, and you are never late. You can begin your journey right now.” We can start by praying or by doing noble deeds that give us inner tranquility and enrichment.
-Pedigree is not a criterion for rebirth. One of the greatest devotees, Prahlada, was born to a demon, Hiranyakashipu.
-43rd verse: “That mind and impressions inherited from previous spiritual life – you connect with those tendencies. You continue your spiritual journey. You strive for your spiritual life more vigorously. Because of the latent memory of striving hard in previous life, you desire not to fail in this life.”
-The 43rd verse explains the mystery of how our samskaras transmigrate. At death, even though our senses of perception and action are gone, the tendencies that they created are stored in the Antahkarana (mind, intellect, memory and ego). These stored tendencies in the Antahkarana are never lost and are born again.
-Per Shankaracharya, at re-birth, if good tendencies are dominant, they begin to manifest without delay. If bad tendencies are dominant, then the good tendencies lie dormant for some time and assert themselves after the negative tendencies are extinguished.
-44th verse: “The spiritual disciplines and samskaras from previous life – they constitute the momentum that moves the seeker forward. Those who even have a wish to lead a spiritual life, they will reach their destination.”
-When we transcend rituals for material prosperity and start praying for higher things, we start our journey towards the highest spiritual destination.
-Some scriptures say: “what we think of at the last moment, that we become in the next birth”. When we breathe our last, we will have a collection of conflicting thoughts. These thoughts are determined by our collective life as a whole. We can have a good thought at the last moment by building a storehouse of positive samskaras that will assert themselves at the last moment.