Zitat von Vedanta am 29. Juli 2018, 14:14 Uhr

“Hinduism” Part 17 (continued)
- Bhagavad Gita, 15^th Chapter
HH Shri Satyanarayana Dasa Babaji

So let’s continue. Now in Chapter 15 – which is also a short chapter, like chapter 12 – Krishna speaks some more interesting things about the world and Himself. He compares this world to a big tree:

ūrdhva-mūlam adhaḥ-śākham aśvatthaṁ prāhur avyayam
chandāṁsi yasya parṇāni yas taṁ veda sa veda-vit

He describes that this world is like a huge ashvattha tree. This is a type of tree found in India which is very big and it can grow and grow and grow and live for many hundreds of years. The meaning is that this material nature itself is actually unlimited. If you try to understand everything about it, there is no end to it.  So you understand the basic things and try to get out of it.

This is what He describes in verses no. 3 and 4:

The form of this tree as previously described is unascertainable in this material world. It is without end, without beginning and without support. After cutting this deep-rooted ashvatta tree with the powerful weapon of detachment ...

So that is the weapon. Because, you remember, the topic which is going on here is jnana, shankya. And the most important aspect of jnana-yoga is detachment. Like the most important aspect of bhakti yoga is devotion to God. Karma yoga is offering the actions you perform without desire for fruits.

He says:

… with the powerful weapon of detachment one should diligently search for that destination after reaching which people do not return again, declaring, “I will take shelter of this Primeval Person alone from Whom this ancient creation has come forth”.

He says that you should try to reach that place.

As He has spoken about the material world and material nature, now He gives little knowledge about His own place. And as I said, the spiritual world, spiritual abode, has qualities and characteristics which do not have any similarity or representation here. Therefore, mostly these things are described in negation. Just like if you know about atma, most of the description is negation, that it does not take birth, it does not die, it cannot be cut it into pieces, you cannot wet it, you cannot burn it … and so on. That is to tell you, it is not like anything you know of. But still it is something. Similarly, about the spiritual abode Krishna also speaks.

In the next verse (5) he says:

The wise who are freed from pride and delusion, who have conquered the evils of material attachment, who are ever devoted to spiritual pursuits, who are completely free from material desires, who are liberated from the dualities in the form of pleasure and pain, and who are beyond delusion attain to that eternal abode.

He says how you reach that abode and He has already qualified it by the word eternal. That abode, the place if Krishna is eternal. Not like the material world which is created, sustained for some time and then destroyed. That place is ever existing. Just like the soul in the body is ever existing, it is the body which changes, the soul does not change, so in the same way. It’s only this material world which undergoes all these changes, but the abode of Krishna does not. Then He gives little more knowledge in the next verse (6):

Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor fire illuminates that realm. It is My supreme abode attaining which one never returns.

The meaning is that that place is self-effulgent. The objects here in the material world are not self-effulgent, to see them you need some other source of light. But there, everything is self-illuminous and conscious. Even the water, even the land, even the trees is conscious there. Now this is very difficult for us to imagine, how can the earth be conscious there because here, the earth is not conscious. But there, if there will be table, the table will also be conscious. And you can actually tell the table, “you can move a little bit this way?” and then it will move [soft laughing in the audience]. You can do all those types of things there. If you go there, then you don’t come here. Unless you really want to come and check out what’s going on here. But nobody really wants that. The meaning is that you become free from karma because we take birth in the material world by the influence of karma.

But if you become free from karma there is no question of taking birth again. You live there eternally in an eternal form which is ever youthful and free from any disease or sickness or old age. Then you just live there permanently. And you will be never separated from the people you love there, and everybody loves everybody. There is no hatred, there is no jealousy, envy, these kind of qualities do not exist. And sometimes, if they manifest there they are only for fun, like play. Sometimes you see in Krishna lila also some people manifesting jealousy etc. - that is just like a play. So everything there is for fun. That’s why I said that spiritual life is fun. And Krishna is a big fun master. Therefore, He is playing His flute. Why is He playing flute? He is inviting all of you to come and join Him.

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