Lesson 2 of the Bhagavad Gita begins with the compassion of Lord Krishna for Arjuna’s suffering. Arjuna has taken his bow and arrow and tossed it to the ground retreating to his chariot and crying for the choice he must make to kill his enemies who are also his cousins, uncles and grandfathers. Remember this is an allegory. The battle being fought is a spiritual battle taking place on your spine. You are battling your own duality. Your duality forcing choices that are either good for you or bad for you. You are fighting your own nature and habit.
There are 5 Stages of Spiritual Awakening and Arjuna, while quite advanced, appears to be in Stage 3 or Shakti Pod. Deepak Chopra explains the 5 stages as follows:
- The Call to Adventure.
- The Search.
- The Struggle.
- The Breakthrough.
- The Return.
In Kundalini, we discuss the 5 stages as follows:
- Saram Pad (the novice) – When you are introduced to a spiritual path. You may be called to do, learn or explore something new. It is the honeymoon phase when we are happy and everything seems fresh and new.
- Karam Pad (the apprentice) – The daily practice you are to do on the spiritual path. It is all about the action, doing, and practice. It is a time of redefinition and development and experience. Aligning with deeper practice. We work on ourselves. Rub up against discomfort. Each piece is assigned by a mentor.
- Shakti Pad (the craftsman or practitioner) – This is where you confront your ego. You experience wonderful things and work through neurosis or head into hard to bare realms. This is where you either decide to keep going, stay at an apprentice level, or quit altogether. This is where you choose to follow your own desires or the higher values of the path you are studying.
- Sahej Pad (the expert) – You become infinite and aligned with your destiny. You are in flow. It is a stage of ease, balance, and grace when everything fits together. The expert learns by teaching.
- Sat Pad (the master) – Gone through the process of purification. Living a life of service. When the observer dissolves. There is no separation…just transcendence. LINK
Lord Krishna is smiling. Remember he is always joyful and the closer you get to him and away from dark habits, the more joyful you will be and suffering will minimize. God wants you to win. He is on your side. Also, you are cautioned not to wait for God to smile upon you. Arjuna is very lucky to have God’s direct attention. You will not be so lucky. Instead you will receive confusing messages and whisperings hard to decipher. So, place your mind on having a happy disposition and move on in your life.
Lord Krishna pokes fun at Arjuna’s grief. He does this not to be truly mean, but to highlight how absolutely silly it is to grieve for the death of anything. Death is certain. Death of this body happens daily. You do not remember being a toddler and you do not have that body now. Do you grieve? It is also certain you do not die. Only the body dies. What do you grieve for.
It is a good practice to practice grief. Lay in you bed each night and think of all the things you are attached to; home, family, friends, material possessions, fame, fortune, success, your looks, your clothes and your habits. Mentally lose all of them nightly. Burn them in a mental fire and allow the emotions of loss to well up. Over time, you will detach from these attachments which are also certain to die.
It is a good practice to experience extremes. Yogis do this. Extreme immersion in the senses to neutralize the senses. The Aghoris are masters of this.
Lord Krishna teaches Arjuna to cover the world in God. Instead of seeing what you see and classifying what you see as good or evil, see it for what it is; Maya. Maya does mean illusion, but what does illusion mean to you? Your judgments are your illusion and they cause suffering. In Swami Vivekananda’s book, Vedanta, he gives the most amazing examples of Maya. He talks about a mother nursing her baby and giving all of her heart and soul to the care of the child. For whatever reasons, the child grows up to be a terrible and abusive person. He abuses his mother and yet the mother only makes excuses for him failing to see his true nature. She does not remove herself from harm. We do this ourselves with death. It is everywhere and all around us, yet we live like it will not touch us and we fear it. All will die including your success, your legacy and your material achievements.
It is a good practice to sit down with pen and paper and write out your family history. Go back as far as you can in your memory. Write down names, accomplishments and what is left.
Arjuna is called upon by Krishna to fight. You must fight. Know that the soul is too small to be killed by material weaponry. Also know the Soul is individuated from the divine and does not return. There is controversy in this teaching and you are to ignore the controversy and the naysayers. You do not return to the ocean. You remain the wave within the ocean. This should make you feel happy. Your happiness indicates you are attached to your ego.
It is a good practice to meditate daily and progressively with the intend for the magical superpower of past life realization to be cultivated.
As you fight (work…live) do it for the Divine. Do it without attachment to outcome or rewards. This is the only way to “fight.” Arjuna is in his dharma (life purpose). He is a warrior. You are also something. You have unique skills and talents you were born with and if you use them in service to others and God, you will organically be rewarded with all you need. Working for any other reason causes suffering.
It is good practice to contemplate your suffering over the course of your life as you have worked for money, love, fame or respect.
Killing is an act of violence. How can Krishna want the Yogi Arjuna to defy the founding principle of yoga, Ahimsa? Killing for the advancement of spiritual philosophical merit is not violet. No one dies. We have established that. God wants it done. Arjuna is not killing for religious or political reasons which are man made. Also, this is an allegory. You are fighting for higher ideals that are beyond material existence. You are killing the lower reality.
2:21,32. Even when viewed personally, from a stanpoint of one’s dharmic duty, there is no occasion for either grief or hesitation. Nothing is more propitious than for a Kshatriya (warrior), whose duty is to fight for righteousness, to battle for what is right and true. Blessed and fortunate are you, if you must give even your life for such a cause. Such a death will open to you the gates of heaven. (Yogananda’s interpretation of the Gita).
Do you eat meat? It is not allowed. There is very bad karma attached to eating meat. It is tamasic. Free yourself from all three gunas of tamasic (dark), rajistic (action created), and sattvic (pure)
Krishna goes on to wrap up the first part of the teaching which is WHY we need to search for truth and escape Maya. This. is the Shankhya philosophy. We then will move to the HOW which is Yoga Philosophy and than finally the WHAT (what to expect) which is Vedanta philosophy.
The rest of lesson 2 is about giving up this desire nature, the path of Bliss, Samdhi, Joy as discussed about (aligning with Joy) and the suffering of not.
It is good practice to withdrawal your senses from the world. Known as Pratyahara. Just stop. Turn off the noise, do less and eat less. Surround yourself with nature.
It is good practice to meditate at night.
Abandon religion. God’s truth is written in your heart. Seek direct experience of God.
Detach from outcome. Be like a flower that simply grows. All benefit, but that is not why the flower grows. It just grows. As you do things…anything…seek inner wisdom and do for God.
You must learn to monitor your subconscious tendencies. Why do you do what you do? think what you think? Can you accept your emotions arise from memory and your thoughts follow the emotions?
Ask daily in all situations, what don’t I know? what don’t I see?
It is good practice to cultivate magical super powers and then abandon them.
It is good practice to ask yourself if you enjoy suffering and to inventory what causes you to suffer.
It is good practice to watch the world as you would a movie.
It is good practice to acknowledge and honor your mistakes or fall from grace and to get back to it.
It is good practice to see God as the doer and not the self.
And there it is….
Enjoy, Pamela Quinn
*The sole purpose of these articles is to provide information about the tradition of ayurveda, yoga, and meditation. This information is not intended for use in the diagnosis, treatment, cure or prevention of any disease. If you have any serious acute or chronic health concern, please consult a trained health professional who can fully assess your needs and address them effectively. Check with your doctor before taking herbs or using essential oils when pregnant or nursing.