1 Wk11 Monday, Dec 2 Today Bhagavad Gītā, Chs 7-12 Belvalkar, “The BG: A general review of its history and character.” Sw. Vireshwarananda, “The BG: Its synthetic character." Wednesday BG 13-18, Perrett, “Facts, Values and the BG.” Matilal, “Caste, Karmā and the Gītā.”
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Wk11 Monday, Dec 2
Today Bhagavad Gītā, Chs 7-12 Belvalkar, “The BG: A general review of its history
and character.” Sw. Vireshwarananda, “The BG: Its synthetic
character."
Wednesday BG 13-18, Perrett, “Facts, Values and the BG.” Matilal, “Caste, Karmā and the Gītā.”
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Final Paper, Presentation
See Canvas assignments, rubric– Length?
Questions?
BG – Brief Outline
Nature of ātman Arjuna’s despondency Kṛṣṇa’s response Karma-yoga Jñāna-yoga Brahman, meditation Ātman, meditation
Nature of supreme deity7. Theistic Sāṅkhya8. Meditation9. The Sublime Mystery10. God’s powers11. Theophany12. Bhakti-yoga
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BG Outline, cont’d
Relation between ātman & supreme deity13. The field & knower14. The three guṇa-s15. Puruṣa(-s?)16. The divine & demoniac within17. Three-fold faith18. Recap, conclusion
Ch. 6: Meditation, dhyāna-yoga
6.1: One who does what is to be done without interest in result is a sannyāsī & yogī.
2: Sannyāsa = Yoga, Cannot be yogī without renouncing saṃkalpa (‘willful intent’).
3: Not mature in discipline? Do karma.Mature in discipline? Practice śama, tranquility.
4: Mature in discipline = unattached to sense objects and karma, renounced all saṃkalpa-s.
5-6: Lift up the self by the self, the self is both friend & enemy.
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Self-mastery, Aids
6.7-9: The supreme ātman of the one whose ātman is mastered & tranquil has equipoise towards:– heat/cold, joy/suffering, honor/contempt– clay/stone/gold, good/evil persons – friend/ally/foe/neutral/non-partisan/enemy/kin
10-11: Isolation, seclusion, firm seat, pure place. 12: Restrain mind/senses, focus the mind on a single
object, practice yoga for self-purification. 13-15: Posture, inner-state, “absorbed in me,” attains
peace, beyond nirvāṇa, “abides in me.” 16-17: Middle way.
Glorification of Attained State 6.19: Like a lamp in a windless place. 20: Contemplating self by the self, content with the self. 21-2: Abides in truth, absolute joy beyond senses, no
higher gain, unmoved by deep suffering. 23: This state is Yoga, the unbinding of bonds with
suffering, to be practiced resolutely, without despair. 24-26: Give up desire, control the senses with the mind,
focus mind on ātman, think nothing, bring back the straying mind.
29-30: Sees everything with equal eye, ātman ↔ all creatures; Kṛṣṇa ↔ everything/everywhere.
31-2: Kṛṣṇa is in all creatures, so the yogī, grasping oneness of life is in Kṛṣṇa, sees identity in everything.
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Arjuna’s Doubt
6.34: Arjuna: The mind is as difficult to hold as the wind.– 35-6: Kṛṣṇa: Yes, but practice, abhyāsa and
dispassion, vairagya restrain the mind
37-8: What of the faithful one whose mind strays before reaching perfection in yoga? He fails, both to achieve Brahman and to act – a shredded cloud...
Kṛṣṇa’s Guarantee
6.40-43: Such a person will receive conducive conditions in next life to finish the job.
44: One will be sustained even involuntarily, by former practice, and will transcend the Brahman of the Vedas.
45: The yogī, perfected through many births, attains the highest goal.
46: Such a yogī > ascetics, sages who know, those who perform karma.
47: That yogī is most accomplished, who worships Kṛṣṇa, inner ātman is absorbed in Kṛṣṇa.
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Ch. 7: Theistic Sāṅkhya
Jñāna-vijñāna-yoga, knowledge & realization 7.1: How to know me through Yoga and mind focused
on me: 4-6: Lower prakṛti, 8-fold – 5 elements, manas, buddhi,
ahaṃkāra. Higher prakṛti = world-sustaining life-force, Kṛṣṇa.
7: Immanence: “All that exists is strung on me like pearls on a string.” 8-11: Instances
12-13:Guṇa-s come from me – I am not in them, they are in me. I am beyond the guṇa-s, unchanging.
14: Prakṛti’s divine māyā hard to escape without refuge in me.
Theism?
16-19: 4 types of virtuous men: afflicted, seeker of knowledge, seeker of wealth, knower. Knower = my ātman, reaches me directly, knowing “Kṛṣṇa is all there is.”
20-23: However they choose to worship me, in that form I grant them results.
24-5: I am unmanifest, unborn, unchanging, veiled by my māyā of Yoga.
27-30: Likes & dislikes → delusion; those freed from delusion worship me steadfastly, they know Brahman as inner ātman, all karma. They know me as the elements, as divine, as sacrifice, till even at their death.
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Ch. 8: Meditation – dhāraṇā-yoga
8.1-2: Q. What are Brahman, adhyātman (“inner self,” “over-soul”), adhi-bhūta (“inner being,” “over-being” –bhūta = elements), karma, adhi-daiva, adhi-yajña? Cf. 7.30.
3-4: A. Brahman is imperishable, supreme. Adhyātman = innate nature (svabhāva), = prakṛti?Karma = creative force, causing origin of bhūta-s.Adhi-bhūta = perishable existence.Adhi-daiva = Puruṣa.Adhi-yajñā = I myself (Kṛṣṇa?), in the body.
5-7: Liberation after death?
Ch. 8: Goal of dhāraṇā 8-11: Through abhyāsa-yoga, one attains the highest,
divine puruṣa [= Kṛṣṇa?] 10,12-14: Yoga-dhāraṇā on Oṃ [= Kṛṣṇa?] dhāraṇa = YS limb 6, concntrn.
15-16: No rebirth after reaching me. 17-19: 1000 yuga-s = 1 day/night of Brahmā = 4.32x109
human years, creation lasts for a Brahmā-day, then is unmanifest for a Brahmā night.
20-22: Beyond this unmanifest, another eternal, unmanifest, imperishable state, my supreme abode, no return from it, highest Puruṣa, all-pervasive. Reached by bhakti.
23-27: Dying when sun is north of equator (Winter- →Summer-solstice), bright fortnight, day, Brahman-knowers reach Brahman, otherwise rebirth.
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Scale of time The world passes through four
periods, yugas of declining virtue:• Krita-yuga 1,728,000 yrs• Treta-yuga 1,296,000 yrs• Dvāpara-yuga 864,000 yrs• Kali-yuga 432,000 yrs
Entire cycle is a mahāyuga,4,320,000 years.
At the end of a mahāyuga, a “minor” dissolution of world, followed by a mahāyuga of rest and return to cosmic non-differentiation.
Approx. 1½ “Brahmā-minutes”
A kalpa or 1000 mahāyugas, 4,320,000,000 years comprises one day for Brahmā!
Scale of time, cont’d At the end of each kalpa,
4,320 million years, there is a “major” dissolution which lasts for a kalpa, a night for Brahmā
A year of Brahmā is 360 days and nights of Brahmā.
After a 100 Brahmā-years everything, including Brahmā dissolves. (100 x 360 x 2 x 4,320 million years = 300.1104 trillion years!)
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Ch. 9: The Sublime Mystery
rāja-vidyā or rāja-guhya-yoga 9.4-5: The entire world is pervaded by my unmanifest
form. All beings in me, but not I in them. Nor are these beings really in me. My ātman brings beings into existence, supports them but does not rest in them.
7-8,10: Cycle of manifest – unmanifest prakṛti. 9-10: These actions do not bind me, inner eye of prakṛti. 11: Higher existence than human form, as lord of beings. 13-14: Great beings revere & worship me who abides in
divine prakṛti, knowing me as origin of beings, unchanging.
Ch. 9: Varieties of Worship
15-16: Others worship me through knowledge-yajña in different forms…
17-19: I am … immortality & death, being & nonbeing. 20-21: Limited results of sacrifice … 22: Those who worship me, meditate on me exclusively,
I grant them prosperity & security (yoga-kṣema). 23-26: Varieties of worship get corresponding results
(25) from the lord. Cf. 4.11 27-29: Action done as offering to me does not bind, one
with sannyāsa-yoga will join me, liberated. I am impartial. Those that have bhakti towards me, are in me, and I in them.
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Ch. 9: The Guarantee of Bhakti 9.30-32: Even one of wicked conduct, if he worships me
exclusively, is deemed virtuous. He soon becomes dharmic and attains peace. My devotee never perishes, reaches the highest goal, whether evil, commoner, female, of low rank. Cf. 2.40, 5.29, 6.40-43
Ch. 10: God’s Powers, vibhūti-yoga
10.2: I am the source of all gods and sages. 3: Unborn, beginning-less, lord of the worlds. 4-5: Source of all beings’ understanding, knowledge,
non-delusion, patience, truth, sense-control, mind-control, pleasure/pain, being/non-being, fear/ fearlessness, non-violence, equanimity, contentment, penance, charity, fame/disgrace.
6: The 7 sages, 4 Manus 8: Origin of all. 11: I dispel ignorance of devotees out of compassion. 12-18: Arjuna Q: You are Brahman, eternal Puruṣa …
how may I know you, your manifestations & powers?
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Ch. 10: Further Glories 20: I am the ātman in the heart of all beings, their
beginning, middle & end. 21-33: Neutral identification with Viṣṇu, Śiva, Indra,
Rāma, Yama, Brahmā (33) etc. 32,34: Beginning, middle, end of creations, of all.
– 34 quoted by Oppenheimer on first atomic bomb explosion
38: Silence of secrets, knowledge of the learned 39: Seed of all beings, animate & inanimate. 40-41: No end to my powers; anyone’s power, glory,
splendor arises from a fraction of my glory. 42: What use is this knowledge to you, Arjuna?! I
sustain this entire creation with a single fraction of my being.
Ch. 11: Theophany, viśva-rūpa-darśana-yoga
11.8: I give you a divine eye to see. 12: Radiance of a thousand suns –
Oppenheimer @ Los Alamos NM 20: Seeing this wondrous, terrible
form, the three worlds tremble. 25-30: Heroes of both sides
consumed by your fiery, tusked mouths…
32-4: Already slain by me… 41-5: Arjuna apologizes for his
familiarity, asks Kṛṣṇa to revert back to normal form!
55: My devotee, free from enmity to all … comes to me.
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Ch. 12: Bhakti Yoga 12.1: Q. Who knows Yoga best, those who do bhakti or
who worship the Imperishable Unmanifest? 2-5: A. Those who do bhakti, though the other
worshippers [of Imperishable] also reach me but it is harder.
8-12: Easier is better? – Meditation: manas on, buddhi in me, – Otherwise, abhyāsa-yoga = practice,– Otherwise, karma for my sake,– Otherwise, renounce fruit of all action → peace– Practice < knowledge < meditation < renouncing fruit
13-20: Attributes (dharma-s) of one who is dear to me, devoted to me
According to Belvalkar
Is BG a composite text or a unified work? Theistic or Monistic? Contradictions? Free Will? Action v. knowledge v. meditation v.
devotion?
Overall take on article? or ?
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Vireswarananda Reading
Vireswarananda on caste and karma? 4 paths “equally efficacious and capable of leading the
soul to freedom” ?
Accepts Sāṅkhya-Yoga? – Plurality of puruṣa-s?
Biases?– Conception of Kṛṣṇa?– Brahman v. Kṛṣṇa?– Karma-yoga = Devotion? (p. 189)
Synthesis argument? Agrees with Belvalkar?
Overall take on article? or ?
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