Zitat von Vedanta am 1. Mai 2017, 18:49 Uhr

Class on Hinduism (8^th Part, 4^th continuation)
HH Shri Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji Maharaja

So this situation comes in our lives. We get into a dilemma unable to decide: „Shall I do it or not do it? Some people are just fanatic, they will do it. They don‘t care, they just do it. Or some people are situated in knowledge, they will do it. One who is in between, who is not a fanatic type of person, and he is also not a highly-realized type of person - he will talk double-talk. He won‘t be able to do it. Arjuna is getting into that situation now. Previously, he was very much attached to his kingdom, his honor:

These people have insulted us
and have taken our wealth,
I have to take revenge, I will fight!!

He was in that mood. Now, suddenly his gear changes, he goes into the reverse gear, so he starts thinking:

How can I fight?
This is my friend,
this is my grandfather,
this is my cousin,
this is my nephew,
this is my father-in-law,
this is my teacher, ...
I can‘t be selfish!
I cannot be fanatic like that.
I cannot kill them!

So he refuses to fight. He becomes „compassionate“. Yet this is not real compassion, this is a compassion which comes out of material attachment. There is real compassion where you actually want to do welfare to someone, and there is compassion which is based just on bodily attachment. Because everybody likes one‘s own body, there is nobody who does not like one‘s own body, and bodily attachment also spreads to things which are related to the body. So you are compassionate first on your own self, you want to take care of your own body, and then you also become compassionate in relationship to the body‘s relations. And for that you may actually sacrifice your own body. But that is also for the sake of your self only. It looks like a sacrifice, but it is that you put yourself into someone else. Usually, we are centered around our own body and we will fight to protect this body. For that we may even kill somebody who is very near and dear to us, this is how Arjuna was in the beginning. To get his kingdom back, he said:

OK, I will kill these rascals!
How dare they behave like this!

But now, suddenly what happened? His level of attachment extends, it spreads further down. His level of attachment spreads into the enemies. He starts seeing enemies also as extensions of his own body. So when that happened, he cannot not fight, because you cannot kill yourself. Now for him, killing these people means killing himself, that‘s how he is going to talk. He says:

Better I kill myself instead of killing them!

This is tantamount to the same thing. Because we live for the sake of the body or things which are related to the body. If we have to lose suddenly everything in relationship to the body - all our friends, relatives, possessions, … everything - is lost, then you feel like you are dead! Because your identity is related with many of these things around you. Our identity is not that: „I am just this person, this living being“. But we also identify with many other things like our place of birth, our parents, home, town, country, some other possessions, friends, relatives - you are friend to somebody, you are enemy to somebody. So your identity is also dependent on your enemies. If you don‘t have any enemies then also you feel a little empty:

My God!
I have no enemies!
Whom am I going to criticize?
Whom am I going to hate?

Because that thing is also there. And if you have no friends, then also you feel empty. „I have got not friends! Better go on Facebook, make some friends!“ Therefore:

Facebook is good
to make some friends
and also some enemies.
Then you feel a little alive!

[loud laughing in the audience!] Now, if Facebook goes kaputt [German word for „defect, destroyed“], for one week there is no Internet - how will you feel? You will feel a little lost, isn‘t it? You will think: „Oh my God, what am I supposed to do now?“

Because these are all our identities. Although we are this unit called the physical body and mind and inside atma, we extend it through relations. So relation is like a thread, like a rope which binds you to another person. That‘s why it is called Inter-Net. Because it is a net. A net you know, where threads are going all around, that what makes a net. So you get tied up with so many things. You are not only tied to your friends and relatives, you are also tied to your enemies. If somebody is your enemy, i.e. somebody you don‘t like, writes an e-mail to you, blasting you, then what do you do? You also get to your computer and you write a heavy reply [laughter in the audience]. And then, what do you do after that? You wait [loud laughter in the audience].

What this guy is going to write?

Now suppose, this guy does not reply at all. How will you feel? You will feel very uncomfortable. Every half an hour you want to check your e-mail or Facebook account.

Why this guy is not saying anything?

So this is how you are entangled with friends and enemies. So if all these things are cut off in one shot, you will feel like you have no life. You will actually lose all your energy. Because the mind is now being nourished by these things.

Our mind at present
is getting nourishment
from these love-hate-relations.

***

Whoever survives a coequal opponent will discover that something is missing.

- Otto von Bismarck (1815-98)
Founder of the Deutsches Reich and 1^st Chancellor (1871-90)