Bhagavad-Gita 16th Chapter Glimpse

We're almost reaching the end of the Bhagavad-Gita with Syamananda, only two more Ekadasis to go. Chapter 16 is about good and bad character traits with regard to spiritual practice and speaks about the qualities we need to culture and the ones we need to give up in order to approach the aspect of our soul's soul called Bhagavan.

Transcript

Hello Yogi!

Welcome to my podcast.

I'm Aiko and on this show we explore ways to put spiritual theory into sustainable practice.

Welcome and happy Akadasi again.

Ciao Ananda!

Thank you so much.

So now we are on chapter 16.

Would you like to give a recap about what we said during the very short chapter 15?

Yes,

So in the previous chapter we heard about this material world we described as a tree upside down.

So with its roots up and the crown of the tree and the branches pointing down and we are kind of.

.

.

It's a banyan tree.

And banyan trees,

If you have seen in India,

They kind of,

If you just plant one seed it can become a whole forest because one branch will like root itself and then another tree will grow from that and so on.

So it's like a maze.

We're in this kind of forest maze of the material world and we cannot see the branches like we cannot see where it comes from but it is described by yoga practice and detachment.

You can kind of cut down the tree.

It's not that you destroy the world or anything but it's like in your own perception you cut down the tree and you get to the root of it which is the spiritual world.

Yeah,

Because we were saying it's a state of consciousness so you don't cut the world in itself but your consciousness about the world to get to the consciousness of the spiritual world.

Yes,

That's right.

So now we are at chapter 16.

Would you like to say the title?

Yes,

It's the yoga of discerning godly and ungodly natures.

Which is a very interesting title.

Would you like to explain something more about it?

Yes,

So Krishna has several times in previous chapters mentioned spiritual qualities.

He has kind of elaborated on that quite a bit and also mentioned sometimes about unfavorable qualities for spiritual practice like what is here called ungodly.

I don't know what we would call it in modern language like toxic or something like that.

Toxic qualities.

And the connection between the previous chapter and this one is that the previous chapter was called the yoga of the supreme person because like now I mentioned just like briefly here in the recap about the root of the material world being the spiritual world but the spiritual world is personal.

It is a person who is you can say permeating that whole world.

It's like centered on one person.

What would be called Bhagavan.

In English we say god but god means different things in different religions and outside of religion.

But it's you can say it's the center of the spiritual world is a person because personhood allows us to relate and experience love.

So it's not that there is a person there and he has to be served because the thing is in the spiritual world no one needs anything.

But here it's about expressing love like in a drama.

The spiritual world has been likened to a drama.

So to enter it you kind of learn dramatics.

It's a very interesting concept in Indian philosophy.

So this person that is at the center of the spiritual world is not like a dictator who needs a lot of service.

It's just that for love to exist that person has to be there.

So the personhood is in service to the expression of love.

So the 15th chapter is about turning to this person but that is a very deep and esoteric thing.

So in this chapter it's going to elaborate more about like it mentions first in the first verse about divine qualities but then it elaborates more about non-divine qualities for the rest of the chapter which he hasn't really gone into so much in the Bhagavad Gita until now,

Krishna.

So what happens now between Arjuna and Krishna?

Krishna is telling Arjuna basically what the qualities of divine people are and what the qualities of non-divine people are.

And of course,

This should also be kind of explained because it's not that someone is more divine than someone else.

It's like we are all spiritual divine sparks but then the difference is whether you're aware of that and cultivating an awareness of that or if you're ignorant of it and just going in a different direction basically.

Yeah,

And we have both parts in us because we are sometimes good but sometimes we might behave not in a proper way so it's up to us to see,

Oh,

That's the not nice part of me.

Maybe I should try to improve or try to understand why I did that and automatically it becomes better and better.

Yes,

Yes,

Exactly.

Of course,

This is put in like simple words here like kind of bad people and good people but of course everyone is a mix and the purpose of the chapter is to kind of become aware of those unfavourable qualities and practice to uproot them.

So the first verse here,

Krishna is saying he gives a list of the good qualities and we have heard other lists of good qualities already in this series like we've been bringing up from other chapters.

Like a few chapters ago there was the list of what knowledge constitutes.

So here we have a list again and lists are very good because they facilitate discussion like it becomes easy to discuss these things and kind of delve into them.

Here is the list of good qualities.

Fearlessness,

Purity of heart,

Consistency in knowledge and yoga,

Charity,

Sense control,

Sacrifice,

Study of the scripture,

Austerity,

Righteousness,

Non-violence,

Truthfulness,

Absence of anger,

Renunciation,

Peacefulness,

Aversion to criticizing others,

Compassion,

Freedom from covetousness,

Gentleness,

Modesty,

Steadiness,

Courage,

Forgiveness,

Fortitude,

Cleanliness,

Freedom from malice and pridelessness.

Those born of divine nature are endowed with these.

Then Krishna lists unfavourable qualities.

A much shorter list here.

It's hypocrisy,

Arrogance,

Conceit,

Anger,

Harsh speech and ignorance are the qualities of those born of ungodly natures.

And I have a question.

Like isn't ignorance like the source,

The root of all others so-called bad behaviors?

Yes.

Okay.

That was easy.

Because like it sounded like you were going to ask something about that.

No,

No.

That was my question.

Yes.

Yes.

Ignorance of our divine nature,

Which I mentioned before,

Like we all have this divine nature and it is like not being aware of that,

That we are chasing after things outside of ourselves to attain fulfillment,

Which will never happen.

Yeah.

But I ask because it's listed like at the end of the list.

So I was wondering why it is.

Well,

There can be different levels of ignorance.

Like there can also be that we actually are ignorant on purpose.

Just like not caring about something.

It's like to be purposefully ignorant.

But if you're simply,

But then like there comes a point where ignorance actually becomes innocence.

Like if you actually forget so badly that it's not on purpose anymore,

Then you will need help.

You will need someone to actually tell you.

That's how things are.

So Krishna gives this short list here of non-divine qualities.

And Arjuna becomes kind of worried that he is like that.

So this is an interesting part.

Like he,

For example,

Arrogance and anger and harsh speech and Arjuna is a warrior and like in battle,

Those things will come out.

But Krishna is telling him that,

But don't worry.

You are of divine nature.

Not only of divine nature as everyone is,

But of divine nature that he's actually like on the right track also.

Yeah.

Because also now I was thinking about the word ignorance.

Like of course I think everyone on certain level,

They are ignorance.

Even if they,

They're going to study like all the philosophy and they start to dedicate their self like this to charity and all these good qualities that were in the list before,

But you will never be fully knowledged.

There will be always some part of ignorance in you,

Even if you're willing to learn.

Yes.

Yes.

There is the ignorance that if we want to,

Like you say,

If we want to learn,

There is always more to learn.

So you can say,

Sometimes it is said like that,

The more you know,

The more you understand what you don't know.

But this is not the kind of ignorance that is unhelpful.

This is more the ignorance that is turned towards knowledge.

You could say the difference between carelessness and curiosity.

Like carelessness is also ignorance,

But curiosity is a sign of ignorance,

But it's turned the other way.

Like you actually want to know and you do care.

So that's a good point that you brought up.

But here comes this part here.

It's interesting that Arjuna thinks he has bad qualities,

But actually he does not.

And also he was even exhibiting some of those bad qualities or like what was like listed as bad qualities here.

So this shows that someone can show bad qualities outwards,

But actually be truthful on the inside.

And someone can also appear to have good qualities,

But not have good qualities on the inside.

So this kind of little passage here is also about that to kind of show that it's not like an external thing,

These qualities.

It's more the intention behind the action that are important.

So,

Of course,

There can be harsh speech,

Like a mother shouting to her kid to not run over the street without looking first and things like that.

And also like we can show good qualities outwards to kind of fool others and even fool ourselves.

So this is all about doing actual self-work and not trying to look like something.

Of course,

It is good also to be,

This is something we have discussed before,

Like maybe we cannot just become humble,

But at least we can become polite.

Like we can at least be polite.

So just because we shouldn't like fake being humble,

It doesn't mean we should be arrogant.

So we can be polite,

But we can know that that is politeness and actual humility is something else that we need to kind of continue to cultivate,

Which takes longer time to manifest.

So Krishna keeps going through bad qualities and the non-divine nature,

But he kind of sums it up at the end.

He gives like three main things to kind of work on because they kind of lead to all the others,

And that is lust,

Anger,

And greed.

So material desire.

And when material desire is not fulfilled,

Then we become angry.

And then greed.

How would you define greed?

Yeah,

Well,

Desire for material things that anyway they will end because this is,

I think we said already enough times during this short podcast episode that everything what is material it's gonna end sooner or later,

While whatever is spiritual and whatever is consciousness,

It's gonna last forever.

So if you are greed towards something material that anyway it's gonna end,

You just put all your energy in that for no reason.

You're gonna anyway die this life.

But maybe you can put greed towards good things like greed towards wanting to detach from this material greed or something.

Yes,

To kind of turn greed on itself.

Yeah.

It seems like the progression here is like you have material desire and when things doesn't go the way you planned,

Then you become angry.

And then greed could be like the third step that is like,

It's kind of like more like a desperate like grabbing of things.

Like,

Okay,

Things didn't go my way,

But now I'm gonna get it my way.

I'm really gonna make it happen this time.

But in this kind of stubborn.

Yeah,

Sometimes even unconsciously,

Like maybe you're kind of deluded inside.

So you want to buy,

I don't know,

Nice clothes or a nice ice cream or something just to feel comfort for a short time,

But then you actually don't really solve the issue.

Yeah.

Yes,

It's only like it's like sometimes it's likened to your if you're if you're hitting it's a funny example,

But it's like you're hitting your own hand with a hammer.

And then you stop for a moment and you feel and you feel the relief before you keep hitting the hammer on your hand again.

So like these kind of short pleasures are like that it's just some relief from from pain.

Yeah.

So the chapter ends with with a recommendation to to consider scripture before acting to not just act on impulse,

But to try to remember what does the scripture say.

And this is not just something arbitrary.

It's if you think of how how scripture is formed,

It is by people who have spiritual experience,

And they share about that experience and how how that can be reached.

And what we want to have is spiritual experience.

But whatever we think we want to have,

What we actually want to have a spiritual experience.

That is what what we are seeking and other things.

We're like looking for meaning in things that we are actually giving meaning to.

But as our teacher says,

We should actually if we are the one giving meaning to them,

We should kind of contemplate the meaning giver because that is that is where the meaning is.

So scripture is is like is basically testimonials of people who have practiced spirituality before us.

And there and there are just so many generations of that hundreds and thousands of generations of people doing that.

So it is their like collective experience.

So we should we should consider what they have said before we act,

Basically.

And that is how that is how we how we get out of the clutches of things like ignorance and material desires and anger,

Greed,

And so on.

Yeah,

That's what's very nice.

So we're very slowly reaching the end of the Bhagavad Gita.

It's been almost a year now.

Do you want to say something about the next chapter?

The next chapter?

The next chapter is about faith.

A couple of chapters ago,

We spoke about the modes of material nature,

The qualities of material nature.

So this next chapter is about faith in those three qualities of nature.

So you can have if you know,

People may have to go back and listen to that chapter again.

But we talked about the sattva,

Rajas and Tamas.

So the next chapter is about faith.

For example,

Then like tamasic faith,

Rajasic faith,

Sattvic faith.

So basically,

How faith expresses itself in different qualities of nature,

Like here,

Qualities of nature means like quality of mind and mind and intellect,

Because those are also part of nature.

Sometimes we say mind over matter,

But actually it's should be spirit over matter because mind is also part of matter.

So faith is something that's that is happening in the mind,

Mind and intellect.

So depending on the quality on the on the kind of state of the mind of the mind,

Your your faith will have a certain will be of a certain expression.

So that's what we're going to get into next time.

Wonderful.

So thank you.

And see you next time.

See you.

I hope this episode fulfilled its purpose of inspiring you.

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Reviews

I enjoyed the example with the hammer and our hand. Exactly that relief...! 🙈😅