Bhagavad-Gita Glimpse Chapter 3

In this episode, my husband and I chat about the third chapter of Bhagavad-Gita that deals with karma yoga, the yoga of action. It’s the recommended yoga for the stage when we are identified with temporary circumstances and prone to act on that identification. The psychologist quoted in the episode, whose name Syama couldn’t think of at that moment, is M. Scott Peck, whose books The Road Less Traveled and The Different Drum are highly recommended.

Transcript

Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita the yoga of action Hello yogi welcome to my podcast I'm Iko and on this show we explore ways to put spiritual theory into sustainable practice So welcome again sham,

Thank you.

Do you want to make a short recap about what we talked the last time?

Yeah,

So the last chapter we were discussing was the second and it's like an overview of the whole Bhagavad Gita So you will find many different kinds of yoga explained there the yoga of action And different levels of that and the yoga of knowledge Etc.

Okay.

So today we are talking about chapter 3 which is the Yoga of action is that correct?

Yes,

It's Here it's going in depth about the yoga of action Like I said,

It was brought up also in the second chapter as part of the overview but here we talk about Karma yoga in in a state where one is still attached to one's material personality and and work Okay,

So I think this karma yoga It's kind of it's kind of talked around but it's never very clear very much Explained there are different interpretations.

So would you would you like to share more about?

The karma yoga what that means?

Yes,

So just looking at it at the term karma yoga is to connect and karma is action so to Connect through your action and here we're talking about connecting with God and of course one's Identity in this world is not actually Lasting like all our identities will will fade and change over time and so one could Maybe say that It's maybe hard to connect with God through this identity because God is real and this identity is kind of unreal But can you elaborate about this identity?

It's unreal For example like very simply like I am a man I'm Swedish and so on like these these designations That are not really our true self So Like karma yoga is about connecting that identity somehow like bringing that identity in connection with God somehow and This is also why it's talked about like different levels of karma yoga because We also discussed in the second chapter about Nishkama karma yoga and that is when you start to kind of realize this So like by connecting even your kind of temporary personality with God you kind of gradually Wake up to your real personality And how you do that in practice?

Yeah,

So the methods talked about here in the third chapter is to Get to kind of connect everything to kind of yeah to connect your to see how you are dependent on Different elements like it talks about like making sacrifices for the gods Which is something that was done in ancient culture and not done anymore,

But like the principle can still be applied Like our teacher usually mentions How In a house you have running water you have electricity And you have heat and you have to pay bills for all of those Otherwise,

It'll be turned off It's in the same way like we have Sunshine we have air ether And Kind of making sacrifices to the gods is kind of is in this analogy is like paying the bills of course the the Sun won't like turn off if we don't Make sacrifices,

But the thing is like you can you can connect with the potential of all these things like all like The whole world actually exists for you to realize your your real identity so by paying attention to The divinity that is behind Elements like like fire like the Sun like like the wind then you can remind yourself that you're you're you are to Just like there is consciousness behind all those things And something living There's also consciousness at your core at your center and You are to like live in this world in a way that fosters realization of this In other words you're saying that we often identify ourselves Into what actually we are doing Like I'm a teacher.

I'm a mom.

I'm a auntie but of course I can be so many things because I do so many things and you know I am a mother for someone I'm a sister for someone else,

And I'm a wife for someone else so I'm not really that identification Like what do you mean?

It's that we have a soul?

And but we still don't identify with that we identified with what we actually do So by offering these actions what we do like being a mother beyond teacher Doing yoga to the divinity to the divine energy This will help us connect with our soul yes,

Exactly like For example to like offer like let's say you're you're a teacher and you offer your wife as a teacher,

But how do you do that?

How do you offer your work to to god or to the universe?

It's simply you simply you simply just have to have that intention like you say like now my day of work starts And I'm and this is I'm doing this as an offering And and if you have that consciousness then there will be a like a very different like meaning to your work.

So it's a little bit like uh being detached from the result Yeah,

Like that comes later like karma yoga is is not not so much about being detached from the result It's about connecting both the work and the result and then we come to in later chapters this nishkama karma yoga that was also explained in the previous chapter briefly like when you start to to like realize that um,

This this kind of identity that you have is not It's not your like lasting identity.

It's it's something temporary something you've taken on temporarily But like yours it still is a strong attachment so in in later on in nishkama karma yoga like like even like then you start to kind of Detach in in some ways so you for example you let go of the the result you You like understand that you're not in control of how things turn out basically,

But but like but for now in in karma yoga you You're attached to everything but you're you're bringing it in connection to to the source to god So this is a state of consciousness practically Yes,

Yeah,

All all these all these things are about states of consciousness also,

For example,

Jnana yoga is coming later and it's like all related to this it's Karma yoga leads to nishkama karma yoga which leads to jnana yoga the yoga of knowledge like when you have insight into all these things But to change the consciousness of someone or my own consciousness,

It's very hard we need How can we do that?

We I can just think oh I want to change my consciousness from tomorrow I will offer everything to god but then Like deep inside i'm still doing it for myself.

So how do we how do we help ourselves?

Change consciously You know one simply has to start exactly where everyone is and and even knowing You can even know that like actually you can't even know that you can't even know that You can even know that like actually actually i'm doing this for myself,

But then you say okay then even this selfish action I'm gonna offer to god like i'm gonna do my selfish action for god Like you just you just start wherever you are like,

Um It's it's like we say,

You know,

Like yoga yoga adapts to you.

So and like we also heard parmanabhaswami say say like because sometimes we we have tried spiritual practice before and and now we and It's like you you kind of continuously get converted to like a a better understanding of what you're doing so Padmanabhaswami was saying the other day Like you have to start where you are but he said but you can also say you have to continue where you are so you're like you kind of assess where you are and you You start or you can or like let's say continue Because it's a continuous journey.

Yeah,

That's very nicely said and and yeah,

So mainly practically someone has to make a really introspection And be honest and sincere with oneself Understand where he or she is and then from there have the the intention to grow and offer the practice yes,

And also if one is not even capable to do that much introspection then you can admit that and you can say because that's also part of introspection to to realize to realize the limits of your capacity to To do that so you can say i'm offering this very ignorant action to god like like I don't even know what i'm doing But i'm but it's but i'm doing it for god And I don't know where it's going but it's gonna get more clear as we go along.

Okay So I know some yoga practitioners who actually don't fully believe in god they don't have one figure god or They believe more in the universe in the mother earth because this I guess most of the people Thankfully they believe in mother earth Um,

So what would you tell them about this?

Yeah That also I mean you will have to experiment basically like you can It's also about interest like if you're not like interested in knowing whether there is a god or not then There's no one who can force you but Whatever like you know,

You can't force someone to force you So you can't force them to force you to force them to force you to do that.

So Whatever like let's say spiritual inclination you have you you experiment in that direction you can for example ask the universe You know for answers and see what comes and and I think I mean the worst thing that could happen is that you you have some fun with that.

So So just to anyway offer The universe to whatever you believe yeah to like to the To the most like you can just say like to the most comprehensive possible like overarching Existence like whatever that is.

Um Like you could say universe and maybe there's something more than that.

We don't know but you know,

Just go in the go in the direction of Wholeness of Um that kind of non non-separatedness you could say Okay,

Thank you very much.

This is a very nice explanation of the entire chapter chapter.

Would you like now?

Um to go a little bit more in details like what is Happening actually in this chapter what krishna is doing with arjuna what they're talking about?

Yeah,

So it begins with arjuna asking uh Being confused after after what they've been talking in the previous chapter because Uh Because krishna has told him there that that knowledge is is higher than action But then arjuna asks,

But so then why are you engaging me in this in this war?

If If knowledge is higher than like shouldn't I just sit and cultivate knowledge?

But but krishna is telling him that Action will lead lead to knowledge if it's done in the right way.

And if you try to just go like skip skip action and go to knowledge then um The the kind of desire for action will still be there and you will be like a hypocrite basically And um,

So then krishna starts to explain Karama yoga like with like sacrifices to the gods and to for example not eat without first Offering the food and food and sacrifice and later on he talks about example that even if you have knowledge You should still do the right action just to set a good example for people even if you don't have the Kind of need for for action like others have have the need for action so you If you're in knowledge,

You should show them the right way And then it starts to talk about The the subtle body and how Like we think that we are acting but actually it's The forces of nature acting and we have some kind of part in it,

But but we're very much Everything that's happening is very much like controlled by by physical forces And uh arjuna asks krishna kind of about this like like why are we we forced to do acts that we actually don't want to do and krishna says it's It's because of material desire and the fact that we are not It's because of material desire and the and then he speaks about where material desire is um Kind of situated both in the in the body and in the psyche That it's in the it's in the body.

It's in the mind.

It's in your intelligence.

It's So it's something deep rooted so So he kind of mentions the hierarchy of of the kind of inner what we call the subtle body so What's this hierarchy?

How it works?

Yes,

So he says like we like you have the the physical senses like your um Sense of smell touch and so on and then you have The mind and then you have the intelligence And above that you have the soul.

So so for example like the mind So you have your senses your senses come in come in touch with sense objects and Then your mind is uh categorizing all those objects as things that they like or or dislike And then above that you have the intelligence Which is telling you where those things don't match with with what's actually good for you For example,

You may like something that's not good for you or you may not like something That is good for you So something sometimes you may like things that are good for you and dislike things that are that are bad for you so so the intelligence is kind of sorting that out and and then The soul itself is is above all that but kind of hidden it's it's what makes everything move,

But it's it's kind of anonymous until we Come to like self awakening.

Okay,

That is a very nice explanation.

So like to recap,

Let's say Everything we talk in this series Um,

We can say that in chapter one Where we talk about the yoga of doubt Arjuna is expressing his doubt to Krishna so we should identify ourselves in Arjuna,

Even though it's still super high,

But we can Take the teaching from him We learn how to express our ourselves our attachments and doubt to God to the universe and And and we can Kind of ask if we are on the right track and then somehow we will get an answer a sign and something Yes Like it said for example,

It's said by a nice Psychologist who has now passed away.

Um I forget his name now,

But he said if if you're if you're prepared to That like the answer may be painful And you ask what like am I am I on the right track?

Then you have a like a good chance of of actually actually getting to hear like your real Like getting clarity on like what's your best path to success or best path forward Okay,

Then we will research the name of the Psychologist and put it in the description And then chapter two is the yoga of analysis So in chapter two,

We have an overview of the entire Bhagavad Gita and It's talking practically about the analysis Between the matter and the spirit.

Yes.

Yes.

So there it was like from the first chapter where where Arjuna is very bewildered and standing in front of a like a huge challenge Krishna is kind of lifting him above all that and like showing him the difference between nature and spirit but then bringing him back down again because That that's like not where he is yet.

But he like Krishna is kind of giving giving him a sneak preview of Of self-realization,

But first now he has to kind of go through his his challenges from where where he is at.

So Okay,

And then we have the chapter three that we just talked about Which is the yoga of karma the karma yoga the yoga of action where?

You offer your action to the universe to god to it come to my mind an example of a mother or a father who has who have their kid and they really love them so much or one kid and They really put all their effort like their day 24 hours it's just in order to help this kid growing but then he or she one day will just grew up and leave home and And this doesn't mean that all the energy the parents put into the kid are lost it's just you actually Give offer all this to the kid to his future to the universe Yeah,

Like that is a nice example of of detachment if one can see that if like as an as an analogy as like you you raise a child and Then it's painful when it leaves the home but but But but you know,

That's like all your efforts are are going somewhere.

So yeah,

Like you can you can do your actions in this world and and even if you cannot even if you cannot maybe like Enjoy the results of them.

You're you're giving them your Your yeah,

You're putting them out in the universe Yeah,

And also it talks about the subtle body and the hierarchy between all this This function like mind intelligence Etc.

Is that correct?

Yes.

Yes.

So it talks about kind of Like since the intelligence is above the is above the mind and the mind is above the senses It's good to have a clarity on this for example if Since it's going you can say that it goes like from from top down.

So if your intelligence is Is clear then then it will kind of control your Your mind so even if your mind says something that it wants something that is not good for you Then then your intelligence can can like regulate it or or stop it or uh,

Yeah Which will like stop the the actual physical?

Action or or yeah make it go in a different direction But But this is also like kind of theoretical knowledge even if you're not so so clear on this but you have You have kind of like a desire to A desire to to practice then you may have to start from the bottom like you have to start with your senses like you may have to just like let's say do a good action even if you uh,

Um Even if your intelligence and your mind is not there yet kind of you have to You have to go both ways.

You have to you have to go back and you have to like work on it from all angles And then also we can say that um The Bhagavad Gita is about a conversation between Arjuna and Krishna During the abatifil the Kurukshetra abatifil so in chapter one there is This kind of scenario a little bit explained And then from chapter two Krishna start talking and then the rest of the Bhagavad Gita is just about their conversation Okay.

Yes,

That is that is right other than their their conversation The only thing the only thing happening that is not uh strictly just their conversation is in the 10th chapter,

I believe when Krishna shows his universal form.

It's maybe in the 10th or 11th.

Uh,

We'll see but um,

Yeah,

He like Krishna gives Arjuna a vision showing him showing him that he's god that he is the whole universe and that he is He kind of shows him how all the other warriors on the battlefield are just kind of being crushed By the mouth of time.

It's it's a ghastly ghastly vision in a sense,

But um Arjuna Is kind of shaken by this And asks Krishna to come back to his kind of more kind of more Human-like form good.

Okay,

So we gave a trailer also of the chapter Yes,

And um,

See you next time.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you I hope this episode fulfill its purpose of inspiring you If you like it,

Feel free to share it give a review or a rating subscribe And if you have any questions,

Please get in touch at aiko yogareiki.

Com Namaste