Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2 Part II – Sankhya Yoga

Q: What does this mean when you say, ‘How to think is more important than’ what to think ‘?

Answer: Our mind is nothing more than a constant stream of thoughts, all day and all of life. It is vital to manage the thoughts and direct the mind. Negative thinking encourages negative relationships, words and actions, discourages objectivity leading to nervousness and paralysis.

Arjuna’s thoughts that he would kill his loved ones and gurus led him to feel sad, anxious, confused, and question his own decision to fight, which led him to be unable to act. Imagine if a surgeon panics before surgery on a patient. Emotional thinking triggered by anger, guilt, fear, and sadness leads to a paralyzing effect on one’s life. That is why it is important to learn “how to think” than “what to think”.

In any situation, ask, ‘Here I am in this situation, what is the best thing I can do to get out of this and move on?’ and take appropriate steps to avoid self-pity, blaming others, and losing your inner strength.

Q: Compare Arjunas’ ‘misunderstanding’ in today’s life.

Answer: We often see these ‘misplaced thoughts’ in practical life. This happens everywhere, although it is common in the healthcare and financial sectors. We all know that prevention is better than cure. Health is not after the fact. In today’s society it is very common to go to bed late, get up late, go out on an empty stomach and have a late lunch wreaking havoc on the system. When a particular illness is identified, we try to stick to the schedule, sleep on time, and exercise, but can’t we do it earlier? This is an example of wrong thinking or misunderstanding. The same goes for finances, when we are young we spend all our health, energy and resources to accumulate things and money, later when we are old we spend all our money to save our health or we are afraid of losing them or worrying. the ways to preserve them. This is another ‘misplaced thinking’.

Thinking before acting and doing the right thing at the right time is essential in any situation.

Arjuna had these misplaced thoughts when he looked at his enemies as his family instead of enemies and was confused.

Q: If ‘presence’ or ‘atma’ is the same in all, what is the difference between humans and animals?

Answer: Humans are given the sixth sense, the ability to choose. Animals follow instinctive behavior. Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor at Auschwitz, in his book, ‘Man Seeks Meaning,’ says while in the concentration camp, he saw some walking around and sharing their last piece of bread with others. He says that “this confirms that everything can be taken from a man except the last of human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one’s own path.”

“It is not what happens to us that affects us, but how we respond to what happens to us that affects us,” says Norman Vincent Peale. How true !!

How we perceive, how we respond to any situation is our choice. Doing the right thing, not doing the wrong thing, or doing nothing at all is our choice.

Surrendering that ‘ability to choose’ to the Lord is the highest of all surrenders, completely dissolving the ego. Arjuna finally surrendered to Lord Krishna for guidance.

Q: What are the consequences of the fear of failure that Arjuna experienced and is it still true today?

Answer: The fear of failure paralyzes a person, there is no failure. When we do not get the desired result, we think it is a failure, but we must learn to deviate as necessary to get to the destination. It is advisable to think about the situation, decide and act as best we can.

The fear of failure is a self-doubt, an emotional upheaval about the consequence of the action, at the moment of the action, causing numbness.

The consequences of our actions are not our choice. Just like a pointed arrow or spoken words cannot back down, when we allow our emotions to take over we become stressed, unable to think clearly, leading to fear, pain, and panic.

This was the situation in which Arjuna found himself, when he saw all his relatives on the other side of the corridor, although he decided to fight, he was taken over by the affection, the attachment he had for them causing a total collapse.

Q: What is the cause of one’s suffering?

Answer: Heat and cold, pain and pleasure will come to life. These are known through the senses. Only humans have these five senses, ears, eyes, taste, touch, smell (shabda, sparsha, roopa, rasa, ghanda). Through the eyes we measure size and shape, through the ears we understand sound, and as humans we can only hear a certain wavelength.

We experience this world through the senses. When you are in the deep sleep state, the senses withdraw and there is no experience through those senses.

In the waking state, if someone feels that they are not functioning properly, that part of the world is completely passed out.

When our senses each touch the objects, we have an experience. Our eyes can see distant objects like stars in the sky physically millions of light years away, it is a wonderful piece of equipment. But our ears can’t hear that far. The thunder is closer than the stars. To smell it, it has to be closer than sound. Touch is possible only with physical contact, not otherwise. The taste has to be within us. When you touch the cake, you cannot experience it.

The world is the same but the mind interprets it differently.

The senses give perception but the mind gives feedback on perception. A dog sees the book, whether it is edible, eats it or walks away, there is no disturbance in his mind.

The senses help us to perceive objects and situations. The mind interprets by judging, comparing, evaluating good or bad, through the lens of likes and dislikes. According to our understanding of our life and wisdom, our interpretation differs.

Heat and cold at the level of the physical body and pleasure and pain at the level of the mind. This is natural whether we like it or not. Saints experiment too, but the way they interpret makes a difference.

Suffering is due to our interpretation. For example … I’m hurt because you did this or that.

The senses perceive whenever there is connection with the object. When I close my eyes, I don’t see, but my mind creates a memory image and I see it.

In meditation and living in the present, the object leaves and the images also leave. It is not necessary to carry the past.

Q: How do pleasure and pain occur?

Answer: Two monks were walking. The river was strong. They needed to cross when there was a young woman who was also wondering how she would cross. The energetic young monk picked her up and carried her to the opposite bank and she left.

Then after ten minutes, the older monk said “You did not do the right thing. You touched a woman and took her away.”

The young monk replied, “Yes, I picked her up and carried her but I left her after crossing but you still carry her on your mind.”

That is exactly what happens in our life. All of our experiences have a beginning and an end, but we keep doing a replay of the action, allowing for repeated suffering.

If we do a repetition of actions of pleasant situations, it creates attachment. If we do a repetition of actions of sad situations, it creates a deep sadness. Either way, it is a chain that binds you.

Just experience how they come and let go, much like watching scenery while moving on a train, don’t hold on to any one in particular. You don’t turn your neck and keep looking back. Let it go !! Similarly, with every situation in life, don’t look back, learn to live in the present.

Q: What is death?

Answer: When a child goes from elementary school to higher education and moves away a lot. parents may be sad but not grieving. Because they know that it is evolving. Similarly, each body undergoes changes and eventually falls.

Death is not painful, but a smooth transition. When a person dies, he is on the path of evolution from a child to a teenager, from a teenager to an adult, to an old man. The body keeps changing. Cells in the body keep dying every minute. The whole body changes once every seven years. Then there is no pain in the birth of the body or in the death of the body. But while we live inside the body and identify with the body, we experience pain and pleasure, joy and sadness whenever the senses come into contact with the world.

Q: Isn’t it the real world? I interact, see, smell and experience it.

Answer: The world is neither real nor unreal, but it is an appearance. The real has no non-existence. Unreal does not exist at all like the horn of a rabbit or a unicorn.

Like the mirage, it appears to be water. It exists and therefore is not unreal. Pain and pleasure, success and failure, name and fame, world, wealth and position, these are all appearances. Our experiences in the waking state are appearances called mithya.

The popular example is when you see a rope on the road at dusk, you think it is a snake, causing you anxiety and fear, but the moment you realize that it is a rope, the snake in your mind vanishes. . But it still existed, it created an emotion in you, so you can’t call it unreal. That was an appearance, mithya.