Considered to be one of the greatest works of spiritual literature of all time, and the most beloved Scripture within the vast Hindu canon, The Bhagavad Gita presents the illuminative teachings of Sri Krishna given to a mind struggling in the darkness of Ignorance.
Just before each epochal shift, when the forces of darkness gain ascendancy and world domination, the Lord manifests Himself. This divine Incarnation is a "descent," or avatara, of the Supreme Person that restores balance and virtue within Nature and human society. The story of the Gita is said to have taken place 5,000 years ago, when such a Shift of the Ages occurred.
The name Krishna means "All Attractive." The Gita tells us that every living entity feels an innate pull towards His beatific Presence. He is the ashraya, the Protector and Friend of all who take shelter in Him.
Krishna speaks of Himself as the Teacher of Gods and Men. Through the endless cycles of Time, He bestows the royal science of Yoga, as a mercy to all beings. Yoga means "union with God." It is through this devoted relationship with the Supreme that the fire of spiritual knowledge is kindled, which dispels the darkness of Ignorance and rescues the living entity from the repetitive and agonizing rounds of rebirth. It is then brought to rest in the all-blissful Nature of the Lord of Love.
Set within the midst of two armies , on the verge of world war, family against family, brother against brother, Arjuna has to make a momentous decision to once and for all end his identification with the body and awaken as the Soul.
Despairing and utterly hopeless, Arjuna sees no way out of this horrific situation. With his senses dried up, mind reeling, it seems his only recourse is to run away and hide from his unbearable pain. On the brink of giving in to the forces of fear and self-destruction, he cries out to Krishna and takes refuge in Him.
Having made himself ready to hear the Song of Bhagavan, Arjuna can now receive the secret teaching of the Soul as an emanation of the Supreme Person. It is through the rekindling of the sacred fire of spiritual knowledge that the Soul takes its rightful place as an instrument of God in the world. With mind, ego, and senses offered totally to the divine, Arjuna can now fearlessly fulfill his true purpose in the world as the beloved agent of Lord Krishna.
Arjuna's struggle in a world gone mad echoes the same epic battle that we face in our own lives. Spiritual ignorance and the loss of communication with God is the root source of all of our problems and the cause of all the insanity and suffering in the world. The Gita provides a powerful and perennial solution for the one that is ready and willing to go beyond the veil of the lower ego and discover the timeless radiance of the Self within.
Nature is the manifest realm of unceasing change. According to the Gita, there is a divine Power (Shakti) that secretly guides the material energies of Becoming, formation, and transformation in accordance with the Divine Plan. We will learn Krishna's masterful teaching on Nature, which includes karma, reincarnation, the gross and subtle bodies, ego, and spiritual liberation.
The inner person or parusha, is said to be of a higher order of Nature (paraprakriti). According to the Gita, the deeper Self is God Consciousness (Brahman), unborn, unmanifest, silent, untouched by the elements of time and space and material existence. Krishna tells us in the Gita: "The living entities in this conditioned world are my eternal fragmental parts. Due to conditioned life, they are struggling very hard with the six senses, which include the mind." (15.7) It is through the process of Yoga, or returning to God, that the obscurations of Maya are overcome and the deeper Self is realized..
The Supreme Person is said to be more and greater than the "irreconcilable opposites" of Parusha and Prakriti, Spirit and Matter. According to the Gita, the Parushottama transcends and includes both the material (prakriti), and spiritual (parusha) realms. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, "But the Divine is neither wholly the Kshara [mutable nature], nor wholly Akshara [immutable spirit]. He is greater than the immutable Self and he is much greater than the Soul of mutable things. If he is capable of being both at once, it is because he is other than they... the Purushottama above all cosmos and yet extended in the world and extended... in self-knowledge and in cosmic experience."
Acting in the world without attachment to the results, as instruments of the Supreme Being, directed entirely by His guidance, in loving service to His Plan.
Discerning the real from the unreal, the impermanent from the permanent, with a mind lit up by the eternal Fire of spiritual knowledge, the darkness of ignorance is overcome.
Having consecrated the mind and the senses to the Divine, a Love that is beyond all limitation and form arises in the heart, uniting it forever in an unbroken devotional union with the Supreme Lord that transcends time and death, and that permeates and embraces all animate and inanimate life.
Sri Aurobindo will be a constant companion in our study of the Gita. He says of his commentary: "We approach it for help and light and our aim must be to distinguish its essential and living message, that in it on which humanity has to seize for its perfection and highest spiritual welfare."
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We will meet every Wednesday from 7:00-8:30pm. Upon registering, you will receive a Zoom link. 8 sessions for $150.