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 Chapter
1
Text 4
atra sura
mahesvasa
bhimarjuna-sama
yudhi
yuyudhano viratas
ca
drupadas ca
maha-rathah
There are many
heroic bowmen in this army equal in fighting to Bhima and Arjuna;
there are also great fighters like Yuyudhana, Virata and Drupada.
Text 5
dhrstaketus
cekitanah
kasirajas ca
viryavan
purujit
kuntibhojas ca
saibyas ca
nara-pungavah
Brave and mighty
warriors like Dhrstaketu, Cekitana, Kasiraja, Purujit,
Kuntibhoja and Saibya are on their side.
Text 6
yudhamanyus ca
vikranta
uttamaujas ca
viryavan
saubhadro
draupadeyas ca
sarva eva
maha-rathah
With them are
warriors like the mighty Yudhamanyu, the powerful Uttamauja, the
son of Subhadra and the sons of Draupadi. All these warriors are
great chariot fighters.
LECTURE OF V.O.
RUZOV
These verses say
that alone we are very weak, no matter how great our plan is or
how strong and pumped up our muscles are. Being alone makes us
weak, because it is actually a sin. Yes, that’s right – being
alone is a sin, because it means we turned away from those who
love us. At least one person – the Absolute Truth – loves us.
Therefore, the desire to be alone is the desire to not see God.
Bhagavad-Gita is meant to rid us of this harmful desire to be
alone. It is foolish and actually it is impossible. Arjuna also
wanted to leave the battlefield, but, after hearing the
Bhagavad-Gita, he stayed and participated in the fighting.
Bhagavad-Gita
starts with a great question. This is not an accident; it is the
concept and idea of this tractate and most other Vedic
tractates. The modern person thinks that knowledge has to appear
in his heart like an inspiration, miracle, or contact with
aliens. People who claim to be in contact with aliens come to my
lectures all the time, but none of them have said anything
reasonable yet.
All this does not
have anything to do with us. The appearance of knowledge in our
hearts depends on whether or not we have a spiritual master and
the right mood when we listen to him. The one who is listening
has to be humble and inquisitive simultaneously. Curiosity is
the desire to find the Absolute Truth, and humility is the
desire to get rid of everything that is not allowing us to come
closer to It. These are the conditions for understanding
Bhagavad-Gita. Without this, it will not go into our hearts, no
matter what we do.
The Royal Lie
Detector
But people are
attached to their foolishness, and attachments blind us. In
Mahabharata there was a castle, which belonged to the Pandavas.
It was built by the great cosmic architect Vishvakarma. This
castle had walls that looked like doors, and doors that looked
like walls. Its swimming pools looked like the floor, and the
floor looked like a swimming pool. After entering the palace, a
person that was attached to his foolish things, constantly hit
his head on the walls, thinking that it was a door, or fell into
the pool, thinking that it was a parquet. This castle was called
“The Castle of Illusion”. It was probably the first psychology
test on Earth. Great politicians were invited into the palace,
and if their heart was not pure enough or if they had sly and
mean plans, this blinded them and they confused the doors with
the walls and the pools with the floor. They got caught into the
traps of this palace. Even on a physiological level, when a
person cries for a long time, after breaking up with the one he
loves, his sight worsens or he even becomes blind from crying so
long.
There are two
types of attachments: attachment to the primary and attachment
to the secondary. The primary is everything that is connected to
spirituality, spiritual realization, saintliness and the
Absolute Truth. And the secondary is all that distracts a person
from the way of spirituality. Such secondary attachments deprive
a person of his connection with the spiritual energy, which
means that his life becomes filled with worries, problems, and
fears.
Once, a famous
millionaire came to see a holy man. He started boasting about
his prospering business, the many factories he has, and which
place he has amongst all the other rich people in the world.
After this, he told the holy man his problem. He said: “However,
despite all my riches, I can not sleep at night. Could you help
me get rid of this problem?” The holy man answered right away:
“Of course. What can be easier? Just give the wise men all your
property and you will be able to sleep peacefully”…
This is the
secret of Bhagavad-Gita. Only the person, who is ready to
change, can understand it. While studying this book, he is ready
to get rid of his painful materialistic attachments. If we are
ready, Bhagavad-Gita will open its secrets to us, and if we are
not, you can read it 100 times, but it will not do us any good.
Getting rid of
something, even getting rid of foolish things, or harmful
things, or absolutely useless things – is a painful process.
Everywhere, we can find the words: “I came to deliver the sword
to you, not peace”. This means there is no easy and comfortable
way of purification. If we decided to clean the whole house,
while we’ll be doing this we won’t have any comfort, rest or
relaxation. We will open all the windows, there will be dust
everywhere - we’ll be moving the furniture and shaking out the
pillows and carpets. This is more like war, than relaxation.
The concept of
good and evil in the world are the same
Our whole world,
from the insect to the human, understands perfectly, what is
good and what is bad. Even animals that live in groups
understand the concept of good and evil just as well as humans.
Moreover, their concepts of good and evil are quite like the
concepts of people. The worst display of evil is illusion.
Illusion consists
of arrogance and attachment. Therefore, when we say goodbye to
illusion, we will have to get rid of that which doesn’t allow us
to develop, and understand that, actually, we are not so
special. If a person is not ready for this, the meaning of
Bhagavad-Gita will not be revealed. The modern person really
likes all kinds of illusion. He watches movies, TV, goes to the
theatre, watches cartoons, reads fictional novels, and looks at
pictures and paintings that look like something real. He drinks
artificial juice, eats artificial food, wears artificial clothes
(synthetics) and looks at artificial nature in the form of
paintings and photo-wallpaper. This is actually the end of the
Earth. There is no Earth anymore, we have replaced it with
illusion.
But the modern
person wants to be the hero in this illusion, that’s why
everyone likes action movies and movies about Superman. They
flatter our hopes and dreams. This is how we develop a dual
personality. We act as if we are a hero, though we are not on
stage. This is a task for actors, but when someone continues to
act outside the stage – this is a mental disorder.
Attachment has
one damnation: if we think that something in this world will
protect us better than God and, after becoming attached, we save
up all these things that will supposedly protect us but, we will
not be able to use these things at the most dangerous moment. If
we rely only on our weapons, they will stop working, if we rely
on our money – it will depreciate, if we rely on our memory – it
will fail us, if we rely on our muscles – we won’t be able to
move. Saving up things will only help us if we rely on the
Absolute Truth most of all.
But we like the
idea of our greatness more. This idea becomes the image of a
great martyr, who hasn’t been understood and appreciated, when
we are old. Our whole life passes in this “Theater of Absurdity
and Foolishness”. However, the world is designed to lead the
person who decided to go the wrong way to despair. This despair
has the chance to become yoga – the desire to change ourselves
and try to go a different way.
In Sanskrit a
peasant is called “krishibala”, which means “the one who can
pull out all the weeds on the field”. This world is made of two
words – “Krishna” and “Bala”. Krishna, who is the Absolute
Truth, is able to pull out all the weeds out of our hearts, if
we attentively listen to His words in Bhagavad-Gita.
A Story About
Akbar and Farid
Akbar often went
to see the master Farid and talk to him. People from the village
where Farid lived knew this. Once they came to see the master
and said:
“The emperor
himself comes to see you. Why don’t you ask him to build a
school or a hospital in our village?”
People in this
village were poor and ignorant. Farid thought a while are said:
“All right, since
you are asking, I will go to see him. But I don’t know how to
ask for something. I have never asked for anything. But since
you are asking, I will try.
In the morning he
came to the palace. Everyone knew that Akbar was his follower,
so they let him in right away.
Akbar was in his
sanctuary, which was a small chapel that he built with his own
hands. He usually prayed there.
Farid came in
and, when he saw that Akbar was praying, he decided to wait.
Akbar was praying out loud and in the end he said:
“O God almighty,
please strengthen my state, increase my riches greatly, and
eliminate my enemies.”
After hearing
this, Farid turned away and decided to leave. Akbar finished his
prayer, looked back and saw Farid, who was going down the
stairs. He asked:
“How did you get
in here? And why are you leaving?”
Farid answered:
“I came to see
the king, but saw a poor man. If you turn to God for help to
solve your problems then, I thought, why don’t I address God
myself? Why do I need an intermediary?
Akbar wrote this
story down in his diary and wrote the following commentary: “At
that moment I realized: no matter what we have, it doesn’t
matter, because the mind keeps asking for more and more”. |
