Birthless: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 20

Join us as we explore the Bhagavad Gita. This week, we will be diving into Chapter 2, verse 20. In these weekly lectures, we focus on specific ancient teachings that we can all apply to our day-to-day lives and personal spiritual journey!

Transcript

We are reading from the Bhagavad Gita.

I am specifically reading from Stephen Mitchell's version,

And you don't need to have a copy of the Gita,

But if you do,

It can be any version.

This isn't.

.

.

Today's talk,

Or all of our talks,

Are really about the discussion and the personal journey more than the specific language of the Gita.

But there are hundreds and hundreds,

Maybe thousands of translations of the Gita.

So if you come across one and you like it,

Brilliant.

That's all that matters.

If you want to know a deep dive into the big story of the Gita,

I recommend going to the playlist on my profile called the Bhagavad Gita.

And the first class especially,

The very first class that we did is an introduction,

And it gives the whole background to the battle that we are witnessing this discussion inside.

But essentially,

There is a great battle,

And the battle is between good and evil.

It's almost like a civil war.

Imagine you have a country,

And half the people are on the side of the brothers of Arjuna,

Who is our hero.

And then the other side is sort of led by their cousins.

It kind of sounds like.

.

.

What is that?

What was the hillbilly thing?

The McCoys and the.

.

.

No.

What were they called?

The Hat.

.

.

You know,

The Hadfields and the McCoys.

I'm sure that's not actually the right names.

And what's interesting is,

Physically,

The story is that the four brothers and Arjuna,

They are the brothers of good.

They represent courage,

And love,

And spiritual awareness,

And all that kind of thing.

And they are battling against their 100 evil cousins.

And the evil cousins represent our attachment to sensory pleasure,

Or pain,

Or anything like that.

So in the physical world,

You sort of have this battle.

And Arjuna is on his chariot,

His white chariot pulled by white horses.

And his charioteer is Krishna,

Who is a friend of the family,

But also the divine lord,

You know,

However you want to interpret that.

And Arjuna comes out into the center of the battlefield,

And he looks around,

And on all sides he sees friends,

And he sees family.

And all of a sudden,

He decides he doesn't want to fight.

And Arjuna says to him,

You must fight.

And he says,

I can't.

And he kind of battles back and forth a little bit.

And finally,

He gives up.

And he says,

I don't know what to do.

It's kind of like that ultimate dark night of the soul.

And he says,

I don't know what to do.

Tell me.

I remember in 1999,

I was sick.

I had breast lumps.

My mom had just died of breast cancer.

And I had little kids,

And you know,

29 years old,

Kind of thing.

I didn't want to do medicine,

Because my whole family had died.

Like I was the oldest woman in my family at that point.

And it was like,

Okay,

That's not going to work.

And a teacher appeared in my world.

He was the first person,

I sat with him,

And looked into his eyes,

And I realized that this man saw the world differently.

He wasn't playing according to the rules.

And just being in his presence changed me.

And I was willing for the first time in my life to drop everything I think I thought was true,

And try to embrace his reality.

Because his reality felt clear.

His reality felt true.

And I eventually,

You know,

Wrote a book about my journey with him.

And I had a miraculous healing.

And that was really the big,

Big turning point in my life.

Yeah,

It was 30 years ago now,

I think,

Nearly 30 years.

That's what Arjun is feeling.

He's like,

Okay,

Whatever I've done up until this point is not going to help me get through this.

I give.

Tell me.

Tell me the truth about life.

And so Krishna starts to speak.

And the whole rest of the Gita are these lovely little insights into life.

And each one of them sort of weaves together so that we see the world differently.

It isn't about taking what we already know and chewing it up and editing it and trying to make it.

It's almost like it's not about making us feel comfortable with what we believe.

It's about saying,

What if what you believe is wrong?

What if what you believe is harmful to you?

Even though you're like holding on so tight to it?

What if it's actually hurting you every time you go there?

So this is the context of where we're at now.

We're deep in the lessons of life.

So we're going to just,

I'm going to back up a little bit.

I'm going to,

We're in chapter two,

And I'm going to start about verse 16.

Non-being can never be.

Being can never not be.

Both these statements are obvious to those who have seen the truth.

The presence that pervades the universe is imperishable,

Unchanging,

Beyond both is and is not.

How could it ever vanish?

These bodies come to an end,

But that vast embodied self is ageless,

Fathomless,

Eternal.

Therefore,

You must fight Arjuna.

If you think that this self and self is capitalized,

If you think that this self can kill,

Or think that it can be killed,

You do not well understand reality's subtle ways.

So this is the phrase or the stanza that we're going to look at today.

It was never born.

Coming to be,

It will never not be.

Birthless,

Primordial.

It does not die when the body dies.

I'm going to read another version of that.

This is Paramahansa Yogananda's version.

And again,

Self is capitalized.

This self is never born,

Nor does it ever perish,

Nor,

Having come into existence,

Will it again cease to be.

It is birthless,

Eternal,

Changeless,

Ever same.

It is not slain when the body is killed.

What does that feel like to think that?

Like does it feel scary or does it feel comforting?

It's a game changer that we do not die.

Yeah.

Freeing,

Eternal soul,

A comfort.

It's interesting,

Like,

So on the one hand,

This is a kind of foundational teaching that says to deeply understand the difference between your physical body and your soul.

Authentic knowing and inner trust,

And we are not our physical bodies.

Exactly.

Because very often,

And we've talked about this in previous classes,

Because the world is so focused on the physical,

What we can see,

Hear,

Touch,

Smell,

Taste,

We assume that that's the It's always changing to the point you wonder if it has any essence at all.

But inside,

We are eternal.

Inside,

We have a soul,

Which is like our personal blueprint of the spirit,

Of God,

Of everything,

Of the infinite.

At its very least,

Or its very greatest,

This is a teaching that tells us,

Remember this.

Remember.

Because we live in a world that is kind of obsessed with beginnings and endings.

We record birth dates.

We record the days that people die.

And somehow,

We really treat this with significance.

Like,

We really take this seriously.

That this person was born on this day,

And they died on this day.

And we have all of these emotions attached to it.

Like,

We have all this stuff.

But all that happened is the body disappeared.

The soul is always there.

Imagine looking at life like there were no beginnings and endings.

It's like a soul came in,

Grabbed a car,

Drove the car,

Set the car at the side of the road,

And then the soul kept going.

But the soul never ends.

But we are inundated with this beginning and end idea.

And this is a challenge.

It's just something to really look at.

Some teach that when we go to sleep,

It is a little death.

That we go to sleep,

And we float in pure consciousness while we sleep.

And that death is a long sleep.

That sleep is a small death,

And death is a long sleep.

Imagine.

Imagine that it just,

We sleep,

We wake up,

We are born,

We die,

But the soul is eternal through the whole thing.

So how do we apply this in our lives?

How do we bring this teaching into our day-to-day life?

The first thing is,

It's a little bit easier to be the observer of life.

You know,

If you find yourself really emotionally caught up in something,

Maybe you're really angry,

Or you're really hurting,

Or you're really feeling betrayed,

Or sad,

Or lonely,

Or something,

To really deeply understand that you are eternal light.

But your physical body,

Your personality,

The ego you've been given that defines you,

Which is all good.

It's having a rough day.

It's having a rough time on this planet Earth.

Having a rough time with these other humans.

But you are eternal.

There's really something,

And again,

It's not about not living,

And it's not about not addressing what's going on,

And it's not about not feeling the feelings.

It's an and statement.

You dive into,

We wouldn't have come to Earth if we were just meant to transcend everything that it was to be human.

We're meant to feel everything.

We're meant to feel all the happiness,

And the sadness,

And the pain,

And the joy,

All the stuff.

And we have the capacity to also watch and observe.

And the most beautiful thing about that is,

It means that we don't drown.

It's never overwhelming.

It can be whelming.

It can be huge.

But deep down,

Even in our darkest moment,

Deep down,

We know we'll come out of it.

That's really,

Really helpful.

Another wonderful application of this is it allows us to be fearless when we make decisions.

If you really understand that you are eternal,

You've dropped into Earth for a little while,

And at some point you're going to pop out again.

Maybe you're going to come back in other clothes,

But you know,

You're just here for a time,

Having some experiences.

Well,

Then all of a sudden,

Maybe you would just love to try that new business,

Write that book,

Learn a new language,

Go on that date,

Do something,

Join that club,

Start painting,

Stand up for your rights,

Have that hard conversation.

Like,

Suddenly you feel this freedom to be honest.

Not a freedom to do whatever you want,

You know,

Harming other people,

But a freedom,

A soul freedom.

Like,

It's like your soul gets,

It gets encouraged.

Like,

Literally,

It has courage attached to it.

You're not afraid of anything,

Because you're an eternal being.

And if this personality wants to go and do something fun,

Do it.

And if you want to do something scary,

Do it.

There's a fearlessness that allows,

But as soon as we get all caught up in,

I only have this much time while I'm here,

I have to accomplish these things.

And all these things define me as a successful,

Righteous human.

There's no such thing as a successful,

Righteous human.

You're an eternal soul.

You're an eternal being.

There is no right or wrong choices,

Or successful or unsuccessful,

Or righteous or un.

.

.

There's no such thing.

It's all fabrication in our heads.

We're just living.

There's another big application,

Which is what I really want to focus on today.

It's all about overcoming this issue with aging.

This whole idea of age,

Young or old,

But predominantly old.

Because when you really think about it,

You are an eternal being.

And you came into earth on this day,

And you're rolling along through life.

Bottom line is,

I've been on earth for 56 years.

How old am I?

I don't actually even think it's a real question.

Do eternal things have age?

Does it even exist?

Or is it a fabrication of thought?

Do animals in the jungle think about age?

You know,

Do they walk around going,

Oh,

This one's older,

And this one's younger?

Or do they think about who's stronger,

Or who's younger,

Or who needs to be cared for?

The concept of age is a very human creation.

There's a Sanskrit word in this particular stanza called piranha.

Piranha means ancient,

But ever new.

And that's really interesting.

Ancient,

But ever new.

So can you imagine in your life,

Realizing that you are an ancient being,

But you have an opportunity to be ever new?

One of the biggest challenges is as we get older,

In most societies,

We create patterns.

We start thinking,

Oh,

You know,

Every morning,

I like to do this,

And on Mondays,

I do this,

And by noon,

I do this,

And here's the things I eat,

And here are the people I talk to,

And here are the shows I watch,

And here's where I get my news,

And here's the things I like to do,

And here's where I go on holidays,

And da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

And we very quickly lose ever new.

That's like rust on our soul,

Being in the same pattern over and over and over again.

It's funny,

Yesterday,

We were,

A bunch of us were all sitting doing a jigsaw puzzle,

And we got talking about this,

About our fear of change,

Our fear of different,

And my daughter brought up this quote,

And it was all about how forests are always changing,

And if a forest isn't changing,

It's dead,

And the final quote was something like,

A forest is constantly dying in order to stay alive,

In order to be alive.

Now,

Can you imagine that?

Imagine all the aspects of your life,

Like just think of,

Think of your interests,

Think of what you eat,

What you do,

How you spend your days,

The people you hang out with,

What you watch on TV,

What you read,

What you scroll through,

What you do for fun,

Think of all the aspects of your life,

And imagine that they were all in flux,

That any one of them,

Or all of them,

Have to always be changing,

Dying,

Being reborn somewhere else,

In order for us to stay alive.

Like,

If we really want to embrace this eternal light inside of us,

Daily,

Identical days,

Day after day after day,

Age us.

It makes us feel very comfortable,

And the mind doesn't have to respond anymore.

It's really something to think about,

How this aging idea gets reaffirmed to us every day.

Oh,

I'm just feeling so tired,

And I'm just feeling so ah,

While we sit in our patterns and habits.

But what if we did something different?

Like the cells in our body,

Constantly renewing,

Living and dying.

Exactly.

If we want to stay alive,

That has to be our whole life.

It's interesting to truly imagine that no matter what age we are,

That the eternal light within us is the same.

It doesn't matter how old we are.

It doesn't matter whether we're 20,

Or 50,

Or 80.

The eternal light that we are is the same.

What would life be like if we really embraced that?

It's the same.

Why would you ever stop doing new things?

Why don't we start new businesses when we're 80,

Or 70,

Or 90?

Oh,

Well,

I don't have that much time left,

And I'm tired,

And I've worked hard my whole life.

Whatever,

We have all kinds of reasons.

But this is the prime of our life.

Theoretically,

We're wise beyond our years.

It's probably our most wise time.

We know the most about life.

We understand people.

We aren't walking around terrified and doing this whole rushing around,

And that householder time of when things are really busy.

It's kind of the ideal time to start something new.

And it doesn't have to start a new business.

Not everybody wants to do that.

Maybe it's learning a new language,

Picking up an instrument,

Learning art,

Volunteering somewhere.

The idea that there's a certain point,

And we may all have something in our minds right now that's almost etched in there,

That after this age,

I'm not going to start anything new.

Like after this point,

I'm just going to slowly fade into.

.

.

You know what I mean?

Why?

You know,

Paramahansa Yogananda,

He wrote and taught and lived right until he finally left his body.

This was one of his great teachings.

Can you imagine?

Why not?

So I want us just to do a little meditation,

Just a little one.

And you can do this later in your own time,

In your own way.

But wherever you are,

Let's just close our eyes for a moment.

It's a short one.

Just close your eyes.

And if you're driving,

Just pretend you're with us.

We're going to breathe deeply.

Let your eyes focus at your third eye point.

And I want you to imagine a sphere of white light in your heart center,

Filling your chest.

Feel this white light filling your chest.

And then think this.

Within me is the ageless one.

My cells are vibrating with the light of spirit.

I am the eternal light.

And just feel the weightlessness of that.

And then come back.

And just feel the weightlessness of that.

What does that feel like?

Beautiful expansion.

It's an interesting thing to truly allow ourselves to access that eternal light inside,

That it never ends.

Yes,

It feels like hope,

Joyous.

It feels like peace,

Grounded in calmness,

Warmth.

My whole body feels lighter,

Less dense.

Acceptance.

To me,

There's three things that get in the way of this.

One,

What we've talked about,

The habits.

Habits.

Just to look at the habits we've created.

What do we do every day?

What if we did something different?

What if every day we do something different?

Anything at all.

Let something go.

And this leads to the second thing.

Because one of the biggest challenges as we get older,

Because for us to say,

Oh no,

Aging doesn't happen.

The reality is,

For most people,

It is a reality.

But it isn't necessarily an inevitability.

But why is it such a reality?

Because our society has this thing about holding on to the past.

Holding on to things that form our identity.

And we just keep piling stuff on.

Piling the memories.

Piling the guilt.

Piling the resentment.

Piling the whatever into our consciousness.

And every year that we're alive,

Instead of feeling lighter,

We're heavier.

We're just carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders all the time.

I mean,

Obviously,

If we watch the news a lot,

Or we're really caught up in other people's stuff,

But just even more,

Now it's not even our own stuff.

Now we're just taking on everything.

And it's like,

Why?

Are we sure we need all that?

Because you can feel that,

Right?

You can feel how dampening that is.

How can the light possibly shine for us if we're carrying 54 backpacks full of junk?

And every year we just add another backpack.

And every year we add another backpack.

Imagine if every year you let them all go.

That you were like,

I don't even want to carry that anymore.

And the crazy thing is,

As we're getting older,

We should be getting wiser.

And this is also really interesting in terms of a cultural shift inside of us.

We have this,

I don't know,

I mean,

We're all here from different cultures,

Even within the same country,

We're from different cultures.

But in a lot of places,

Especially wherever I grew up and where I live,

There's this weird idea that as you get older,

You don't get wiser.

You just get older.

And then you just complain about your hips,

And you complain about the weather,

And you complain about this,

And you complain about that.

You just add on.

And then you just sit and you find your easy chair,

And you think about the old days.

And you watch the young people living their lives.

Like it's just this perpetual weird,

Let's just let grandma sit in the corner and,

You know,

Get covered in mold or something.

And it's like,

That's a zeitgeist,

That's a paradigm that a lot of us have lived in.

But what if instead,

Every year as we age,

We really think about life,

And we say,

Why do I think this is happening?

That was an interesting time of my life between 40 and 45.

What wisdom can I gain from that?

What can I learn?

Because if we're truly becoming wiser,

Let's assume that becoming wiser means that we're actually getting filled with light.

We're becoming lighter.

Because we're disentangling from all the dramas.

We're disentangling from the untruths.

So to really imagine letting things go.

If we want to feel that eternal light,

And have the joy to start new things and the energy to start new things,

We can't be living in the past.

And we can't be living in the collective past.

This is where,

Whether it's yoga or meditation or journaling or whatever it is you do,

To slowly let the past go,

So we can stay here.

Now we're going to do one more little exercise.

And this is again,

It's a teaching of Paramahansa Yogananda.

So he believes that the energy in our body doesn't come from food and what we ingest.

He believes that it comes in through the medulla oblongata,

Which if you put your hand and behind your neck,

And you just trace your finger up the back of your neck,

You'll come to a soft spot right at the base of your spine.

This is where the medulla oblongata is.

It's part of the brainstem.

And so just kind of get a feel for that.

Get a feel for it,

You know,

Just to imagine where this is.

And the teaching says that the world is filled with energy.

The air all around us is supercharged with energy.

And the medulla oblongata,

Right here at the base of the spine,

Is an antenna that can pick up all of this energy and supercharge the body.

So we're going to do a little meditation.

We're going to do another little,

It's an energizing technique that you can do.

I'm going to tell it to you.

I'm going to explain it,

And then we'll do it together.

So essentially,

We're going to sit nice and tall,

Get the antenna all set up.

And we're going to inhale,

But we're going to inhale in two sniffs.

The first sniff is going to be short.

And then the second sniff is going to be long.

When we finish inhaling,

We're going to stop breathing,

We're going to hold the breath,

And you're going to tense every muscle in your body.

And you're going to will the energy around in the antenna,

And throughout the whole body.

You're going to flush your whole body with energy.

Then we're going to exhale through a short sniff,

And then a long sniff.

So we're going to inhale through two sniffs and exhale through two sniffs.

And then we're going to sit and just feel the body,

Just feel the sensation.

We're going to do it a few times.

But it's really important to have that pause after.

All right,

So let's sit nice and tall,

Wherever you are.

Close your eyes.

Your hands can be wherever is comfortable.

And we're just going to breathe deeply,

Just expanding the belly as we inhale,

Contracting as we exhale.

All right,

So here's our first inhale.

You're long sniff.

Hold the breath,

Contract all the muscles in your body,

And bring all the energy around you in through that medulla oblongata,

And let it flush your body with energy.

Exhale through a short sniff,

And then a long sniff.

And just sit and breathe naturally for a minute.

Be aware of how you feel.

Awesome.

Let's do it again.

Inhale with a short sniff,

And then a long sniff.

Hold the breath,

Contract your body.

Will the energy in through that antenna flood your whole body with energy like you're plugged into the universal light socket?

Exhale with a short sniff and a long sniff.

Relax and just allow your attention to be on the sensations in your body.

One more time.

Ready?

Take a deep,

Or take a short breath,

And a long,

Take a short sniff and a long sniff.

Hold,

Contract all the muscles of your body.

Bring all that energy in through the medulla.

Flood your body with energy and life.

Exhale through a short sniff and a long exhale.

What did you guys notice?

How was that experience?

I'd love to know.

Aliveness.

Heart beats faster,

Like opening a window and letting fresh air in.

Energizing and relaxing.

I feel it opening up my herniated discs and my cervical spine.

It feels so energetic and good,

And they release from the nerve root.

I feel amazing.

Oh,

Amazing.

Refreshing.

I feel tingly and alive.

I could feel the energy flow through the whole body.

Feel life swirling within.

Energized,

Alive,

Clearing,

Tingling,

Energized.

Felt luminous energy swirling.

Amazing.

And this is something you can do like every day or whenever you want.

Less fear.

It's still moving through me.

Wow,

I think I pressed it.

That's too much,

Then,

Robert.

Too much.

So here was our stanza that we read.

Chapter 2,

Verse 20.

And it's talking about the self.

Actually,

I'm going to read 19 and 20.

If you think that this self can kill or think that it can be killed,

You do not well understand reality's subtle ways.

It never was born.

Coming to be,

It will never not be.

Birthless,

Primordial,

It does not die when the bodies die.

It makes sense that we can feel this energy at all ages,

At any time.

I feel like reading Paramahansa's version again.

The self,

Capital S,

Is never born,

Nor does it ever perish,

Nor,

Having come into existence,

Will it again cease to be.

It is birthless,

Eternal,

Changeless,

Ever same.

It is not slain when the body is killed.

I hope this helps,

This idea of deeply connecting with our eternal self.

You know,

Allowing life to come in and go out and change and grow and that perpetual change brings us light and life.

What was the word that meant ancient but ever new?

Oh,

It's called piranha.

Is that where the mouth of the goddess chakra,

The alta major,

Is located?

I don't know.

I've heard people say,

Like,

Where the bump is,

You know,

On the back of the spine,

There's that bump at the base.

I've heard some people call that the back side of the seventh chakra.

But does that activate energy?

Yes,

It's designed to energize.

It's an energizing exercise.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

We'll see you later.

Reviews

I like that you are teaching to not only sit and rest with the feeling of eternity but that you are encouraging us to keep energizing in the now at all times of our life. I had a strong desire to speak Italian and live in Italy when I was a young adult. Never did that. I had a strong desire as an adult to live in Paris or at least spend considerable amounts of time there. Never was able to do that. Your nudge from the scripture of that book is firing up these desires. My 18 year old son finally got his driver’s license this week. Both the facts that he is 18 and he can drive himself are bringing a new wave of freedom and possibilities.

Love to go back and review what I have learned. Because I have so much more to learn. What I thought was ‘all there was’ is a fools thought. This lesson alone will teach me something new every time I listen, a little more deeply. Thank Heavens these are recorded! Namaste 🙏🏻