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Wk10 Wednesday, Nov 27

Reading the Mahābhārata

Unabridged Translation by Kisari Mohan Ganguli (1883-96) online:https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/

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Today

Bhagavad Gītā, Chs 1-6 Dalmiya, “Moral Philosophy of the

Bhagavad Gītā.” Hiltebeitel, "Dharma in the Bhagavad Gītā.“

Next Week:– Mon: BG 7-12, Belvalkar, Sw. Vireshwarananda– Wed: BG 13-18, Perrett, Matilal

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Final Paper, Presentation

See Canvas assignments, rubric Questions?

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BG – Brief Outline

Nature of ātman1. Arjuna’s despondency2. Kṛṣṇa’s response3. Karma-yoga4. Jñāna-yoga5. Brahman, meditation6. 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

Arjuna’s despair

1. “As a Kṣatriya, my duty is to fight this war; not doing so is wrong.”

2. “But in fighting, I will kill my elders, my teachers, my kin →social chaos, also wrong.”

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Arjuna’s Argument: 1.28-2.9

Signs of anguish, despondency:– Physical: 1.29-30,47 – Emotional: 1.30,47, 2.1,7-8

Kernels of truth:– 1.37: How can we be happy if we kill kinsmen?– 1.38: Greed distorts [Kauravas’] reason …– 39-43: Family destruction → disorder in society – 2.6: We will not want to live after killing Dhṛtarāṣṭra’s

men.

2.5: Better I went begging for alms …

Kṛṣṇa cuts to the chase, 2.11-30

Ch. 2 traditionally called Sāṅkhya-yoga 2.10: Kṛṣṇa replies, as though smiling… 11-13: The learned grieve for neither the dead

nor the living, we are eternal, bodies come & go. 14-15: Sense contact with matter and their

responses are fleeting; equipoise → immortality. 16-19: Know the real vs. unreal, indestructible. 20-21, 23-5: Unborn, eternal, constant, ancient,

imperishable (Cf. KaU 2.18-19) 22: body : clothes :: ātman : bodies (Cf. KaU 5.4)

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Katha recap2.18: The wise one —He is not born, he does not die; he has not come from anywhere; he

has not become anyone.He is unborn and eternal, primeval and everlasting. And he is not

killed, when the body is killed.19: If the killer thinks that he kills; If the killed thinks that he is killed;Both of them fail to understand. He neither kills, nor is he killed.

5.4: When this embodied self dwelling in the body comes unglued and is freed from the body – what then is here left behind?

2.7: Many do not get to hear of that transit; and even when they hear, many don't comprehend it.

Rare is the man who teaches it, lucky is the man who grasps it; Rare is the man who knows it, lucky is the man who's taught it.

Cut to the chase, cont’d

2.26-28: Reasons for unsuitability of grief over death – death, rebirth inevitable.

29: Rarity of knowing the ātman. (Cf. KaU 2.7) 30: Summation: ātman is unslayable, get on

with business!

Moreover, conventional reasons, 31-38: Entry to heaven for warriors killed in battle Glory on earth if victorious Infamy if battle shirked 38: echo of 15

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Sāṅkhya & Yoga, 2.39-41

2.39: What has been explained thus far is Sāṅkhya (philosophy, reasoning, theory), now hear it as Yoga (discipline, practice) → cuts the bonds of karma

40: Reassurance: No effort is wasted. 41: Singleness of purpose vs. many-branched

convictions of the irresolute

Criticism of the Vedas, 2.42-6

42: Vedas = “ritual lore,” florid speech, undiscerning men, delighting in disputation.

43-4: Criticism of desire, enjoyment, heaven, power, ritual.– “contemplation” = samādhi

45: Vedas’ scope is the 3 guṇa-s, rise above that, Arjuna

46: Vedic knowledge : true understanding :: water-reservoir : flood

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Kṛṣṇa on karma, 2.47-53

47: Oft quoted, subtle variances of nuance. 48: Action without attachment, equanimity to

success or failure. 49: buddhi-yoga > karma 50: “Yoga is skill in karma.” 50-51: Good/bad deeds left behind, i.e., non-

binding, transcends rebirth. 52-3: Aversion/indifference to Vedic knowledge. 53: You will attain Yoga when buddhi is still in

samādhi.

A Realized Person, sthita-prajñā, 2.54-72

55-7: Given up desires, self-content, no suffering, longing, fear, anger; equipoised.

58-9: Senses withdrawn from objects like tortoise’s limbs.– 60: the senses carry mind away by force.

61: Meditation on Kṛṣṇa? 62-3: Sense objects → attachment → desire →

anger → delusion → loss of memory → loss of intellect → ruin

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A Realized Person, cont’d

2.64-5: Chain broken by experiencing objects with senses free of likes, dislikes → serenity.

67: Uncontrolled senses can carry away the mind, like wind a ship.

69: Master of restraint (saṃyamin) is awake while others are asleep, and v.v.

70: Mind becomes peaceful like an ocean remains still even while waters rush into it.

72: This is the place of Brahman … even at death, one goes to Brahma[n?]-nirvāṇa

Ch. 3: Karma-yoga

3.1-2: Arjuna protests, you praise understanding, yet tell me to act!

3: 2-fold, jñāna-yoga for the Sāṅkhyas, karma-yoga for the Yogis.

4-5: Abstaining from action & renouncing not valid option, the guṇa-s of prakṛti forceall to act.

6-8: Hypocrisy(6), action without attachment superior. Needed to sustain body.

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Need for Karma

3.9: Perform karma as sacrifice. 13: Remnants of sacrifice are free from guilt,

compared to acting in self-interest. 15: Karma originates from Brahma[n],

Brahma[n] from the Imperishable / Oṃ(akṣara).

16: Karma required to keep turning the wheel set in motion.

17-19: Karma done without attachment attains the highest good.

Need for Karma, cont’d

3.20-26: Act for the welfare of the world, like Janaka & Kṛṣṇa.

27-9, 33: Agency due to prakṛti’s guṇa-s, their understanding (the guṇa-s act on the guṇa-s) leads to detachment.

30: Surrender all karma to me & fight, free from longing and selfishness.

35: Better one’s own dharma done poorly, than another’s dharma done well.

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3.36-43: Nature of “evil”, pāpa

3.36: Arjuna’s question – a non-sequitur? 37-9: Pāpa is desire, anger, born of rajas. It

obscures knowledge, it is an insatiable fire. 40: Based on senses + manas + buddhi. 41-3: Objects < senses < manas < buddhi < He

(ātman). Knowing ātman, kill the enemy = desire.

Ch 4: Jñāna-karma-sannyāsa-yoga

4.1-3: I taught it to the sun … decayed over time. Ancient discipline being retaught to Arjuna.

4: Q. How could you teach the sun?

Kṛṣṇa’s incarnations 5-6: I know all my births. I am unborn, eternal ātman, Īśvara to all beings; resorting to my own prakṛti, I come into being through magic (māyā)

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Kṛṣṇa’s incarnations

4.7-8 (oft-quoted): Whenever dharma declines and adharma flourishes, I create myself for the protection of the good and destruction of the evil-doers, to re-establish dharma, in every eon.

9-10: Whoever knows my divine birth & karma, escapes rebirth and comes to me … attains my status.

11: However they approach me, in that manner I grant them favor.

13: I created the 4-caste system, according to [prakṛti’s? individual’s?] guṇa-s & karma

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!

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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!)

Wise Person

4.14: Karma does not bind me because I have no desire.

19: Wise person = no intention to achieve objects of desire, karma burned by knowledge.– 20: Acts but in effect does nothing.– 21: free from desire, mind & self restrained, only

body acts, earns no demerit– 22: content with what comes by chance, beyond

dualities, not bound even when acts– 23: acts only in sacrifice

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Glorification of Knowledge

4.24: Brahman = offering, oblation, fire, act, sacrificer, destination

33: Sacrifice in knowledge better than that of substances.

34: Serve wise men for knowledge. 35-6: Knowledge lets you see all beings in you

and so in me. Raft to cross over all ‘evil’ (pāpa). 37-8: Flame → all karma to ashes, purifier. 39: One with faith gains knowledge, highest

peace without delay

Ch. 5 Sannyāsa-yoga 5.1: Arjuna asks which is better, renunciation or

[karma]yoga? 2: Kṛṣṇa: Both good, karma-yoga better. 4-5: Only fools separate Sāṅkhya and Yoga. By one, the

fruit of both is obtained. They are one. 6: Sannyāsa is hard without Yoga, with Yoga one

reaches Brahman without delay. 8-9: <verb>ing, I do nothing at all. 10-12: Renouncing attachment, with Yoga one is

unbound by pāpa, purified. 13: 9-gated fortress – cf. KaU 5.1

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Realized Person

5.14-15: Lord of the world does not create agency, action, union with results, does not partake of merit/demerit.

16-17: When ignorance is destroyed, knowledge of ātmanillumines reality, reach a state beyond return.

18-19: Equanimity towards: Brahmin, cow, elephant, dog, outcaste

20-25: Description of a wise person 26-8: Asceticism! 27: Meditation 29: Knowing me as … one finds peace.

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: Q: 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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Dalmiya 2010

Problem: Karma → saṃskāra-s → bondage, rebirthSolution: “desireless action” → mokṣa, liberationObjections (which are countered):1. Desireless action is psychologically impossible2. Desireless action is logically incoherent3. Desireless action is unattractive as an ideal

Revisit last paragraph, 62-3.– mahājana-s as role-models for dharma

Hiltebeitel on dharma in BG R1. 1.1: On the field of dharma

– R2. 1.40-4: family & caste dharma R3. 2.31-3: svadharma, one’s own ‘job’

– R4. 4:7-8: Kṛṣṇa = restorer of dharma Ch. 12: Virtuous persons

Ch. 13: Field & Knower R5? 14.1-3: sādharmyam, same nature R5? 14.21-7: becoming Brahman, everlasting

dharma Ch. 15: Upside-down tree

Ch. 16: Divine vs. Demonic persons– R4. 11.18: protector of dharma

R3. 18.40-7: svadharma, one’s own ‘job’

– R2. 18.66: abandon all dharma-s

R1. 18.70-2: dharmya dialogue