From Thinking To Being: The Bhagavad Gita, Ch2, Verse 39

What is the next step on our journey? This week, we will be diving into Chapter 2, verse 39. 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. Today we are reading from chapter 2. Verse 39. Krishna is still trying to convince Arjuna. That it's okay to engage in this. Battle. The inner battle. The outer battle, Whatever it is. In the past, He said, If you are killed, You gain heaven. Triumph and you gain the earth. Therefore, Stand up Arjuna. Steady your mind to fight. Last week, We looked at this verse. Indifferent to gain or loss, To victory or defeat. Prepare yourself for the battle and do not succumb to sin. This week's. Is. This is philosophy's wisdom. Now hear the wisdom of yoga. Armed with this understanding. You will shatter your karmic bonds. This is philosophy's wisdom. Now hear the wisdom of yoga. Armed with this understanding. You will shatter your karmic bonds. Let's hear some other interpretations. This is Paramahansa Yogananda. The ultimate wisdom of Sankhya I have explained to thee. But now? Thou must hear about the wisdom of yoga. Equipped with which, O Arjuna. Thou shalt shatter the bonds of karma. The ultimate wisdom of Sankhya, I have explained to thee. But now thou must hear about the wisdom of yoga. Equipped with which, Oh Arjuna. Thou shalt shatter the bonds of karma. One more. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This which has been set before you is understanding in terms of Sankhya. Hear it now in terms of yoga. Your intellect established through it, O Partha. Another name for Arjuna. You will cast away the binding influence of action. So what's he talking about here? Sankhya. Was one of the original six. Orthodox schools of Indian philosophy. And they were sort of in pairs. And two of the pairs. Or one of the pairs was Sankhya and Yoga. Sankhya. Was like philosophy. This is the intellectual path. Taking everything and identifying it, Counting it, Naming it, And understand the world with your brain. It's sort of like, You have to look at the world differently. Sankhya was very dualistic. That there was spirit and there was matter. Our suffering. Comes from. Our spirit, Which is our true self, Getting all caught up in the material world. Oh, You don't want to bother with that. You don't want to, You know, That's just going to distract you from the truth. This is Sankhya, This is dualistic yoga or dualistic philosophy. So what he's saying is, Up until this point, That's what we've been talking about. We've been talking about philosophy. That's why in Stephen Mitchell's, He says, This is philosophy's wisdom. Now we will hear the wisdom of yoga. Up until this point, We've been looking at this through the eyes of Sankhya. Of being very intellectual about it all. But now. Let's put it into action. That's really the turning point in this chapter, Is this particular verse. In previous classes, He's like, Kristen's like, Don't you understand? You're just going to shed this body like old clothing. It's not even real. Look at this body, This world that can be affected by fire and water and wind. It's not real. It's transient. But these are all just intellectual ideas. These are just philosophies. And it's hard to kind of take that philosophy and necessarily put it into our life. Every single person here right now has a story. We're all going through something. Some things are very wonderful and some things are really challenging. And so to be able to say, Don't worry about it. None of this is real anyway. Your soul is eternal. And you're sitting there wondering how you're going to pay the bills and whether you're ever going to figure out what you want to do with your life. And it's like. . . Well, That's not really helpful to me. Look, It's sort of a. . . So this new part that we're heading into the Gita, Is all about taking action. Because that's what yoga really is. Yoga isn't. Performing crazy asana or even meditating for hours and hours and hours at a time. Yoga is engaging in life. As your united self. It's bringing your divine truth. Into every single second of your day. Living in union. That's what yoga is. And so what's interesting about that, When I first read this this morning, It really, Really touched me. Because Imagine it's really that simple. That you sit still and maybe you have to make a decision about what you're going to do today or what you're going to eat or who you're going to talk to or how you're going to handle this issue or whatever it is. So you sit still. Close your eyes, You breathe. And you ask yourself, What does my truth say? What does my soul say? In this moment. This is yoga. And then, Of course, The next step is to act in accordance with that truth. This is where we actually engage in life. With our soul. This is what I did with my book, Exactly. But what if it's that easy? This is the problem, Right, Is that we take mystical teachings and we think, Oh, I have to do a ritual around this. And nothing wrong if rituals are your thing. Yoga is life. It is engaging fully like so for example. Last night, My partner and I We were having the weirdest conversation. I don't even remember how it happened. Oh, I know, We were talking about how Couples can lie to each other about things that seem to not be important. They seem like they're just white lies, But they actually create a distance. He asked me a question like, Well, Would you ever tell a white lie to me or something? And I sat there and I thought so hard about it. I thought, Well. . . I guess maybe on this topic, Because I think you might be sensitive to that. Anyway, All of a sudden something in my soul wanted to tell him something. That I actually hadn't told him the whole time we were together for over four years. And I could feel it bubbling up in my soul like it was light. Ta-ra. But of course, There was a reason I hadn't told him in all the time we'd been together. And we were sitting on these chairs right here. And my brain was like, No, Don't do it. Don't do it. Stay safe. Don't rock the boat. And then finally, I said, Well, There's one thing. That I've never actually found the words to tell you. And we ended up going into this deep dive about. Life and love and intimacy and relationships and past relationships and all these things that truthfully I'd been kind of sitting on for over four years. And we ended up having a beautiful conversation. Can you imagine always living according to the little nigglings of your soul? The crazy thing is, When we do this, This is when we feel. Alignment inside. You could live the most perfect life. And I am a hardcore intellectual, Just to understand that this, What I'm talking about, Is one of the biggest parts of my journey and probably will be for my entire life. Because my brain, I just think it has all the answers. So, Or at least that's what I have thought. It's been quite a journey. So part of my life has been I love to read books, I love to be inspired by interesting people, I love spiritual teachers and philosophers and studying all the great religions and like this has been my path for all of my, You know, 56 years. Sometimes when I talk like that, I feel like I'm like two years old, Like I'm only 56. Can't even imagine, You know, By the time I'm 90 and really interesting. And it's like, What I've done is I glean from all these things what I think. Being my ultimate self is. In my brain. I think. That I would be like this, And my perfect day would be like this, And I would act like this, And I would eat this food, And I would do this exercise, And I would write, And I would do, And I have this intellectual idea of what's ideal. This is the Sankhya. Philosophy, Right? The way of looking at the world. But I never actually felt. Alignment. Until I was 29 years old. And I had the breast lumps growing. I met my first teacher. And he said, Katrina, You have to shut off your mind. And listen to your heart. Which was just about the hardest thing in the world, But being afraid of dying really helps. And then. In the tiniest baby steps. I started taking little actions that were in alignment with that truth inside. The things that when I thought of them, My heart lifted. As opposed to drop. You know, This week. Like today even, I have a choice. Do I work on launching this? Yoga teacher training program? Do I work on my book? When I think of working on my book, My heart rises. When I think of doing the YTT today, It syncs. It's that simple. Zero analysis. And I started doing this when I was six. 27 years ago. And all of a sudden, It's like something started to change inside of me. It's like, You know when you ever go into nature? And suddenly all your. . . Armor drops. And it's like your shoulders relax for the first time in 10 years. And you breathe deeply. And it's like you're literally inhaling the breath of the forest. And you feel one with nature. That's the closest I can imagine what it feels like when we start to actually align with our truth. And not just think it, But we actually take action. Based on it. When that voice inside says, I really need to talk to my dad. And we need to have a real conversation. Or, You know what, I really need to start this program now because this is what I'm meant to do. The crazy thing is when we do this one, We feel so. Peaceful inside. And at the same time, If we're afraid of what might come, It's okay. I used to tell myself that I have it on higher wisdom that I'm supposed to do this so I can handle whatever happens. Because what I'm describing, We can't describe. Like we can intellectualize things through philosophy and the Sankhya teachings. But that feeling. Of doing what you know you're meant to be doing. You have to feel it. And that is the shift in the book now. And this is where Krishna is saying, Now you have to live according to your truth. You have to do what you feel called to do. And then you will not question yourself any longer. You know, You'll just walk forward. Does that make sense? It's sort of the lived experience, You know, Before I was sick back in 1999. I argued about religion all the time. I would quote the Bible and Buddhism and Taoism and everything. You just name it. I. . . I would take on anyone in a debate. But then, After my experience, Which of course was this journey of listening to my inner truth and trusting, Listening to my inner truth and trusting, Listening to my inner truth and trusting. You know, And then in the end, Of course, The lumps came right out the side of my breast. Like, Talk about a crazy. . . Miraculous thing. And you know that I never argued about religion again. I can honestly say I do not do it. I'm not interested. Because what Jim taught me. Verba, He literally said this, He was. . . You need to develop a direct connection with God. And this isn't specific to me, And if you don't like the word God, Just replace it with something else. He said, You need to have this as part of your consciousness. And the funny thing is when we feel that, When we're doing, And we all, I think, Feel it in a different way and at different times. If someone was to say, Well, Why are you doing that? You're like. I don't actually really know. Like even if someone was to say to me, Why are you writing this book? I could honestly say I don't really know. But the name came to me. And I had a lot of thoughts. I suppose I'm supposed to write it. Maybe I'm not. Maybe it was just my own personal healing journey. And I'll, I mean, I will, I will publish it, But. I have had the thought that maybe I won't. Maybe I'm just meant to have this healing journey myself and everything I've learned is supposed to go out into other ways. I don't know. But what happens is, That's what it starts to feel like. Because you know, And we'll talk a lot about this in the Gita, Is actions without attachment to outcome. Which is often very hard to fathom. How can we take action without fear? Without being attached to outcome. Like, How is that even possible? But when we're doing what we're called to do, It's like. . . I don't know why I'm doing it. I just know this is why. Maybe suddenly you feel called to take Reiki. And someone says, Well, Why would you take Reiki? And you're like, I don't know. I just. It was a training and I just really felt called to do it. Well, Are you going to see people? I don't know. Maybe. Right, Like that's taking action without attachment to outcome. But part of it is because you feel called to do it in the first place. It's in alignment with your path. And that is what real yoga is. So the second part of the reading, So I'll just reread it here. So the first sentence is, This is philosophy's wisdom. Now hear the wisdom of yoga. Armed with this understanding. You will shatter your karmic bonds. You will shatter your karmic bonds. This is what really hit me this morning. Now let's imagine now karma is not. You'd get what you put out there in the world. It's not this big guilt, Weird thing, Punishment. Karma is simply the patterns that we are in. It could be a pattern like. Feeling like you need to control everything. And again, Maybe this pattern came from lifetimes of being abused or being rejected or being put off to the side. Eventually, You developed a pattern that said, You know what? No one's going to be in control of me. I'm going to be in control of me. And of course, Then that ends up being meaning I'm going to control you and you and you and you and you so you can't hurt me and you can never, You know, Be in charge of me and blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. So now we have a pattern of every single place we go, We are controlling everyone around us. Well, This is going to set up very particular outcomes. Like, You're gonna have a really hard time making friends. Nobody wants to be controlled. You might have a hard time keeping jobs because you need to actually do what your boss wants you to do. There's sort of a challenge there, Or maybe it's vice versa. Maybe you're constantly in situations where everyone else is in control. You marry someone who's super controlling. Your parents were controlling. Your job, You have a job and your boss is super controlling. And then your friends are always telling you what to do. And then you have kids and they're telling you what to do. And you're like, Man, I just can't do anything. But there's only one common denominator. And it's us. Us and whatever pattern we're in. Is perpetuating this pattern over and over and over again. And in the world of yoga and a lot of. . . Religious philosophy, There is the understanding of multiple lives, However that works. Which is why. This so often is so hard to break out of. Because it feels like. It's just reality. Like I came in this way. And maybe you lived a hundred lives like that. So these are these cycles, These patterns, These samskaras that we are stuck in. Karmic cycles. And the hard thing about these cycles is. . . Our actions are driven from our unconscious patterns. Those both patterns, Whether we're uber-controlling, Or under controlling and we're the victim of every story we tell. Both of those actions that we take. Are being driven by an unconscious fear. A fear of being rejected, A fear of being hurt, A fear of being left out, A fear of whatever, A fear of starving, A fear of being killed. Who knows what our fears are if they go back far enough in time. Maybe they're epigenetic and they're actually the fears of our mothers and our grandmothers and our forefathers. Who knows? The important thing is that our actions are being driven from our unconscious. This is why it seems hard to get out of patterns. So what this is saying is. When you sit still in yoga, And I don't mean North American yoga. I mean, Yoga. Meditation. Being conscious, Connecting to your soul. And you actually make a decision based on this moment. The truth in this moment, June 15th, 2026, In the body inhabited by Katrina Boss in Goddard, Ontario, Canada, In this moment, What is my truth right now? And then I take action based on that truth. I am no longer making unconscious actions from the past. From past situations where maybe I was in danger, From past lives where maybe, Who knows, Maybe I was Genghis Khan in a past life and I was a complete jerk. Who knows? But if I keep making decisions from the consciousness made in the past, I am forever bound. To these karmic patterns. But as soon as we stop. Breathe. Focused, Come to this present moment and say, What is my choice today? We can now go down a different path. And this is how we break. The bonds of karma. I'm going to reread Maharishi Mahesh's version here. Actually, No. Let's read Paramahansa's book. The ultimate wisdom of Sankhya, I have explained to thee. But now thou must hear about the wisdom of yoga. Equipped with which, Oh Arjuna. Thou shalt shatter the bonds of karma. So the school of yoga. . . Was developed by Patanjali. And he gave us the eight limbs of yoga. The first two are the yamas and the niyamas, Which are sort of like ways of living in the world. The things you want to focus on, The things you want to let go of. But the next six limbs are interesting. So let's just do a little experiment here. So let's everybody just close our eyes for a moment. Unless you're driving. But just, Let's close our eyes. And I want you to imagine. Something in your life that you'd like to make a decision about. Maybe it's a struggle you're having. Something that's kind of on the surface of today's reality. Questions about life. And so we're going to go through. The last six limbs of yoga. First limb or the first one. Is asana. Your seat on the planet. So however you're sitting. Get comfortable in a strong way. Really feel yourself rooted on the earth in this moment, In this time. Maybe your feet are on the floor. Maybe you're sitting tall, The crown of your head up to the heavens, Because you're not in yesterday's day. You're not 10 years ago. You're not your past lives. You are right here on this day, In this spot on earth. This is your asana. This is you on the planet here right now. The second limb is pranayama. So in this space, Breathe deeply. Connect with your spirit self, Your energetic self. The next limb is Pratyahara. Withdraw the senses from the world. Don't think about anyone else. Release the sounds around you, The smells. Comfort, Everything. Allow yourself to fully go within. Just your soul. Just you and your divine spark. Dharana single pointedly focus there. Allow nothing else to flow in. Again, This is where the teaching that if a thought comes in, Just let it float by, Stay focused. Just sitting in your soul. Deanna. Means absorption. Allow yourself. To release into that single pointed focus. Breathing deeply. Deep inside. And the final stage is Samadhi, Feeling this beautiful inner bliss. That you are all the time. Then, Think about the question you have about today. What does your soul say the answer is? And let's just come back together. What did that feel like for you? Either the journey of sitting with your soul, Asking the question. Hearing the answer. Imagine living. Taking action based on the answers you hear. In that state. What would life be like? Or how different would life be? Compared to your life now. So peaceful. Comfort. That it can actually be that easy to be still and present without complication. Free. The answer was not what I wanted it to be, So I feel sad. And that's OK. I'll talk about that in a sec. Emptied. My inner critic answered faster than my soul. But isn't that interesting? Calm and clear. Present now. I think it's really interesting when the answer that comes isn't what we wanted to hear. The intuition becomes louder when I'm quiet. I recently heard sadness can be tenderness. Oh, That's so beautiful. Sometimes we know a truth. But it doesn't necessarily mean it's time. It's just important that at least that truth is now on the table also. It now lives in consciousness. And now. Hazard. It has a place at the table. That's important. Even if we hear a truth, The second question might be, In that state. What do I do next? And you can even say, Do I do this, Yes or no? Do I do this, Yes or no? Because who knows what the journey really is. I believe that. Intuition, Are kind of like psychics and oracles. That we hear what we're meant to hear in this moment. Sometimes we're meant to think something. And it causes us to, It's like. I always imagine like a city street in the darkness. And it's a grid, And there's tall buildings and sidewalks. And you're standing on the street corner and you don't know which way to go. And then all of a sudden you see a light down at the end of one of the streets. And you think, Oh. I must need to go to that light then. So you start walking down that street towards that light. And then all of a sudden. You get to another street corner. That light goes out and you turn to look to your right. And another light is now at the end of that street. But you needed the first light to get you that far so you would see the turn. You know, We don't wanna, Again, Be too attached. To anything. We know now either. In 2000, 5. I opened a dance studio. I don't know if you all knew that. Was called Casablanca Dance Studio. I love dancing. But at the time I was very shy. I've always been kind of shy. I think I'm still kind of shy. And my daughter and I was, Taylor was maybe. Eight seven or eight. And we were going to these dance classes at the Y taught by this man who was a brilliant dancer. And all of a sudden, After a couple of years, And his classes just kept growing and growing and growing, And after a couple of years, I said to him, I said, Why don't you open a dance studio? I said, You're just doing so well. And he said, Oh, I couldn't do that. I couldn't do that. I went home that night. And An entire business plan downloaded into my head. So I put it all into a spreadsheet, Figured it all out. And then the next time I saw him, I said to him, I said, I put this together. I think it would be brilliant. Well, We ended up going into business together. I was supposed to be the business side. I was also the money, Not that I had money, But I could borrow money. And I was supposed to be the kind of the girl in the back office doing all the background, The business, The marketing, The books, The. . . Planning while he was the talent. And. . . Needless to say, It didn't work out that way. It's a great Big Hairy story. Because he had some. Hidden demons, Let's say. Moved. To sabotage. The whole thing. Very quickly. Before we even started, Before we even opened. But I had already borrowed the money, And the money was spent building the studio, And my name was on the lease. You know, I had too much invested. And so what I believed, That first light down the lot, Down the Street. That I saw was opening a dance studio. And I believed it would create this amazing place where I would get to continue to learn to dance till my heart's content. And very, Very quickly, All things went south. And I was forced to become the teacher as well. And I had to face myself in front of full-length mirrors, Teaching things, Faking it till I made it. And it was really hard. It was a very, Very, Very tumultuous, Difficult time. I was very naive. And then one day. I was teaching a ballroom class and someone came up to me and they said, You're a really good teacher, Katrina. And I said, You're actually a better teacher than he is. And I just was like. . . What? What? Never in my life could I have ever imagined myself being a teacher. I was just that little book nerd in the back corner. I would never stand in front of people. And I was forced to. After a year. . . I had a realization. And long story short. I left the business. And sold it to him for 50 bucks. And got my debt paid out and everything. But I was not allowed to teach dance or have anything to do with it for three years so that he could still, And I was still on the lease and it was a big, Big hairy mess. And so in that, Tavern that was created in my life because this dance studio was everything I was doing. My kids kind of lived there. My kids to this day are great dancers because they turned out, They just sort of lived in the dance studio with me. So they learned all the dances and they were like eight and ten. So to this day, They're still great dancers. But I did everything. I did the business, I did the teaching, I did the workshops, I did everything. And now I was at home on the farm. With this huge gaping hole. Until one day I bought a DVD off of Amazon. About Kundalini Yoga. And it lit me on fire. I was like, This is the most amazing yoga in the whole world. And then I went away and did the teacher training. And then I started teaching yoga. Three years later, Almost to the day, I bought a train station in town here. We had sold the farm. And I bought the station and renovated it. And I started teaching everything there. By this time, His dance studio had folded. And I was now teaching full-time. Teaching yoga, Yoga teacher trainings, Dance, Journey classes, Talking in public to groups for my books, Because my What If You Could Skip a Cancer came out in 2009, And suddenly I'm a public speaker. This was not the plan. This was not why I opened the dance studio. But wow! What a turn of events. So it's interesting to listen to these little nudges of the soul. It's an interesting thing to just, We don't have to get caught up in it. But to take small steps. Steps. Towards that light, That's interesting. Kind of gets the ball rolling in our soul and we don't know what will come. But at least we know it's on our path. I feel like I've listened to and followed a lot of nudges, But they just haven't worked out. I felt very drawn to a guy. Well, You know, Honestly for me, It's about sorting out the nudges. Am I, You know, When I feel drawn to something. Is it my soul being drawn? Is it my fears being drawn? Is it my ego being drawn? Which is it? Those are the questions. Awesome i hope you guys have a wonderful week and we will see you later.