Inconceivable: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 25

Join us as we explore the Bhagavad Gita. This week, we will be diving into Chapter 2, verse 25. 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

So today we are reading from the Bhagavad Gita. This particular version is by Stephen Mitchell, But you don't necessarily need this version of the Bhagavad Gita. There's hundreds and hundreds of renditions of it. And they're all awesome in their own way. Today we're doing chapter 2, Verse 25. At this point in the story, Krishna and Arjuna are sitting in the chariot, In the middle of this great war. And it's like the war has frozen in time. You know, Like in the movies, You know, Something really bad's happening and all of a sudden someone magically goes and everything stops and you get to try to figure out yourself. So this is what's happening. There's this great war, This great civil war between almost a kingdom of a family, Generations of people. And of course the metaphorical part of this is that this is inside of us. It's almost like there's parts of us that really want to live our true life. We really want to live what we might call our dharma. It's like our straight path to who we really are. But then there's all these other aspects of ourselves. Maybe it's karma. And not in a weird punishing way, But it's karma in that we have patterns that we've been working out maybe for lifetimes. And they kind of run in our unconscious. So it means that as we're walking through life, All of a sudden we just keep finding ourselves in these weird situations. And we keep finding ourselves in these relationships, Or jobs, Or finances, Or whatever. Or even health. And we think, Why do I keep repeating this? Why can't I get out of this rut that I'm in? So this is sort of the other aspect of ourselves. Maybe it's things that the way our parents have always been, Our family's always been, Or maybe it's based in past trauma that we're holding on to. Like, Who knows? So we do seem to have these two sides of ourselves, Or two aspects, That those parts seem to keep us running in circles. But then there's this other part that's saying, I want to live my life. I know better than this. Why am I not living my wisdom? So this inner experience is shown to us like a great battlefield. And Arjuna, Who is on the side of the good, He is on the side of the let's live our purest, Truest life. He and Krishna ride out into the center in their white chariot, You know, With white steeds. And he says, Let me look upon the battle. And then he realizes that he doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want to kill all these people. They all are important to me. They all mean something. They've all been there for me at some point in my life. And sometimes that's what we can feel like in life. That as much as I want to give up the chocolate, Or I want to give up the anger, I want to give up the, I don't know, The self-righteousness, Or I want to give up the self-doubt, Maybe it protected me at some point in the past. Maybe I'm more attached to it than I think I am. And then when push comes to shove, We kind of just give up. And we just sort of retreat to the couch, Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, And we just say, I don't want to do it anymore. But the problem is, Then karma wins. We will get sucked down into our sadness. And so Krishna is in this point in this book, And he's saying, You must fight, Arjuna. And what he's saying is, You must engage. But the problem with all of us is that there's a reason we can't engage. There's a reason we've given up fighting. And it's because the philosophies inside of us are wrong. We've been taught incorrect ways of looking at the world. And those incorrect ways keep us stuck in non-reality. It's like thinking about something 400 times, And just circling the drama. And we think we're doing something interesting, Because we can feel all these emotions. Every time I think about this, I get so mad. Every time I think about this, I feel so bad. It's an illusion. We're not doing anything. All we're doing is tightening our liver, And messing up our health, And maybe even alienating people. But we've been trained that this is normal. We've been trained that drama is normal. We've been trained that anger is normal. We've been trained that all these things are normal. And they may be common, But they're not human nature, By a long shot. And so I'm going to read a few passages that come before the one we're going to look at today. And when I say the word self, You have to imagine it capitalized. So it's not the small self, It's our true self. The self never was born. Coming to be, It will never not be. Birthless, Primordial, It does not die when the body dies. Knowing that it is eternal, Unborn, Beyond destruction, How could you ever kill? And whom could you kill, Arjuna? Just as you throw out used clothes, And put on other clothes, New ones, The self discards its used bodies, And puts on others that are new. The sharpest sword will not pierce it. The hottest flame will not singe it. Water will not make it moist. Wind will not cause it to wither. It cannot be pierced or singed, Moistened or withered. It is vast, Perfect, And all-pervading, Calm, Immovable, Timeless. So this next stanza is what we're going to look at today. It is called the inconceivable, The unmanifest, The unchanging. If you understand it in this way, You have no reason for your sorrow. I'm going to read Paramahansa Yogananda's version of that. The soul is said to be imponderable, Unmanifested, And unchangeable. Therefore, Knowing it to be such, Thou shouldest not lament. I'm going to read the first paragraph. This is the Paramahansa Yogananda's version of this, Because it's quite beautiful. Before the sparks of creation blinked their luminous eyes, Before the cosmic dream took form, The soul resided ever awake and unmanifested in spirit. Before the spirit spewed its thought waves, The soul remained in its bosom, Unthinkable by thought, Undisturbed by change. And when spirit cast forth its dreams of universes and the soul dreamed dreams of body-covered forms, Still the soul remained the same. What does that make you feel like? What thoughts roll through your mind when you hear that? Or any of the readings? Me? My soul is that magical? That's awesome. It makes me want to go inward and realize my true nature. We're getting into the good stuff here. Untouchable and unfathomable. Omnipotent. It makes me wonder what is my true nature and what I've attached through this human experience on earth beyond my meat soup body. Complete. I feel a real sense of honoring my soul. Body-covered forms. How many forms I had. Does our personality reflect our true soul? Infinite and divine. The first thing I want to mention is imagine if this is what, If this is why we meditated. Imagine taking 10 minutes a day to just sit quietly, Release everything else out of the world and just connect in with that eternal infinite divine. It's only with awareness that we can stay in oneness with our true nature. It is when our mind, Which is part of the meat suit, Takes over that we depart from our true nature that is our soul. So just to imagine that, Like just imagine, You know because we always say, Oh well you should meditate every day. You should meditate every day. And it's weird when something like meditation becomes a should. But what if it's simply this, That you're like, I want to remember every day who I really am. I'll be all awake and out in the world and playing my personality and interacting with people and going to work and eating the food and doing all that. I'll do all that. But for 10 minutes every day, I'm going to close my eyes and remember who I really am. Or to remember who I also am. It changes it from a should to a, That would be awesome. How different would that make my life if I had this perpetual awareness of who I really was. So we're going to look at three of the words, Three of the Sanskrit words from the actual Sanskrit. And the first one is avyakta. Avyakta means unmanifest. And what this really means is that the soul cannot be perceived through our senses. You can't see it. You can't touch it. We can't smell it. We also can't objectify it. We can't say, Ah, The soul is this. We can't measure it. We can't say, Oh, Well, This person's soul is bigger than that soul or we can't do that. This is avyakta. Ujjaintya. Ujjaintya means it's inconceivable. And this means that our mind cannot fathom this. So it doesn't matter how much we think about it. You're never going to figure it out. You can't figure it out. You might be able to experience it, But not with the mind. So like your intellect can point to it, We can kind of talk about it like poetry. We can use poetry to point to it, But language can't describe it. You can't figure it out and then contain it in a thought. This is achintya. And the last part is avikarya. And avikarya means unchanging. Now when you think of all the things that we think about in our day-to-day life, Everything we're thinking about is changing. Everything is in motion. Our bodies are always changing. Our emotions are always shifting. Our circumstances are always changing. Our thoughts come and go. Everything is always in motion around us. Accept one thing. Accept this soul inside, Like the soul that is watching it all. So just for fun, Let's just close our eyes for a minute. Just close our eyes. Let's just breathe for a moment. I want you to watch your thoughts. Watch a thought come into your mind and then watch it pass away. And then feel an emotion and feel it pass away. Feel a sensation in your body and then feel it change. And then again, Look at your thoughts and emotions. And inside all of that, Somebody's watching who doesn't change. It's interesting, Like for me, I love to think. I'm thinking all the time. I love to think and create and it's just my jam. But none of it's real. And not that it doesn't matter. It is as changing as the weather, What I think about. So it's funny to imagine the emotions that we have tied up in these thoughts that change like the weather. Like isn't that curious? So this is why I'm going to repeat what Stephen Mitchell says here. It is called the inconceivable avyakta, The unmanifest acintya, The unchanging avikarya. If you understand it in this way, You have no reason for your sorrow. Now in no way are they saying don't feel sad. They're not saying don't grieve. They're not saying don't be happy. They're not saying don't be angry. They're saying don't let it take you over. Recognize that it's just an aspect of you. And these feelings will change and they will morph and you'll feel something different again. But just don't identify with them. And that's the first kind of lesson here that we want to think about. Is the difference between saying I am grieving, I am broken, I am poor, I am. . . This is a dangerous, It's dangerous language. I am. I am defines who you are. And there's something wrong, Intrinsically wrong. I don't mean judgment, I mean incorrect. About making the statement, I am some fleeting emotion. You are an eternal soul. And grief is rising within you. You are an eternal soul going through a time of brokenness. You are an eternal soul who is cold right now. Who is feeling chilled right now. The difference is huge. Because you're not the feeling, You're the field of experience that you're having this experience in. But you are the entire field. In this moment, You could be happy, You could be sad, You could be angry, You could be thinking about politics, You could be thinking about philosophy, You could be thinking about love, You could be cold, You could be hot, You could be wet, You could be dry, You could be anything. In this moment, You are feeling this. In this moment, You are experiencing that. And it doesn't take away from the experience. I visited a friend yesterday who is getting ready to leave us. And I was really sad. And later, When I was home, I really broke down about it. Just really sad. We're meant to feel the feelings. We're meant to be here and love people. And that's why we incarnated. That's why we're in these bodies. That's why we're not on islands all by ourselves. We're meant to be with people and feel emotions and do all that. Imagine also knowing that you are also this eternal being. Now suddenly, Those experiences that we have become very precious. The happy feelings, The sad feelings, Even anger, Even the opportunity to just rage at the sky, If you want. To really feel alive. That's why we're here. But we, As beings, Are capable of immense experience. I can grieve my friend, But I am not grief. Four hours later, I was crying in laughter watching this movie with my daughter and my partner. I am both people and everything in between. That's who we really are. This is another thing we want to look at. Is to really, Really be aware. It's almost like embracing impermanence in life. Imagine really understanding in a deep way that everything in my life is in motion. Do you know why? Because everything is alive. So everything is moving. Everything is changing. Everything is morphing and growing and dying and rebirthing. Everything is changing. How different would we look at our lives if we really embraced that? How differently would we look at a situation that we find ourselves in today? If you imagine your soul, Your eternal soul, Standing in the center of it all and watching all the moving pieces flowing around. It's different. And it's not disconnected. It's not like you don't care or you're not paying attention. It's not like that. Weirdly, Paradoxically, You end up feeling more connected. It's almost like emotions can be scary. We're afraid to feel the depths of grief. We're afraid to feel sadness. We're afraid to feel anger. And so even if we're feeling happy, We're always a little bit afraid because it's not going to last forever. But what if you always knew that, Well, Nothing lasts forever. This will automatically turn into something else. Like it would almost be foolish or nonsense to imagine that anything would ever stay still in the physical world. If we want to experience something that is everlasting and never changing, All we have to do is close our eyes and breathe deeply and feel that deep quiet inside. And again, This is why in yoga, In tantra, They teach that we must practice meditation, Not because it's interesting, But because it reconnects us to our eternal self. And then all the teachings make sense. There's a great saying, You know, That imagine you're sitting there and you fully own that everything around you is in motion. Everything is changing. Well, Then suddenly, We realize that our role here on earth is to participate in the motion. We're not here to control the motion. We're here to participate in it. Our soul, Our soul is here to play and explore and see what I'm here for. How does this affect me? And so again, This is why I like to come back and have a practice of something, Whether it's sitting in quiet meditation, Or whether it's going and sitting by the ocean, Or walking in the woods. Whatever it takes to remember, You know, To remember the oneness, To remember that you are still part of that oneness. You know, That it's not that you're separate, You have to go back to the oneness. You are in the oneness right now. And the last cool takeaway for this is that knowing this also allows us to stop overthinking everything. Because when we really understand that reality is inconceivable. It's unimaginable. So then all of a sudden, Imagine you find yourself having existential thoughts of, I don't know, Why is this happening? What if this happens? What about that? How does this fit into the big picture? I love these thoughts. These are great thoughts. But you know that point where the thinking isn't fun anymore? And you seem to have hit a wall, Or you've come up against blame, Because maybe the reason is because of that person. This is the moment where we have to practice intellectual humility. And what I mean by that is the reality of the universe is inconceivable to our human mind. It's inconceivable. I mean, I'm sure you guys already know this, But I love thinking. I am a dyed-in-the-wool academic. I love reading, Researching, Exploring. So the idea of intellectual humility, You know, I'm not that fussy on it. But it's really important. Because as soon as we realize that I've been spinning hard on this for too long, What's the best thing we can do? Give our mind a break. Sit down. Close your eyes. Just breathe. Or move. Go for a run. Do some yoga. Put on some music. Dance. Go to the gym. Weed the garden. Walk the dog. Go do something. Go to a cafe. Change it up. And just be. And I mean that in a real way. Like, Being doesn't just mean in divine silence within, In a Zen meditative posture. As joyful as that can be. Being is living. And there's something about walking down the street and remembering that we're human. And that that's a miracle. It's a miracle that we're human. It's a miracle. These lives that we live are miraculous. It's amazing. Like when you even look at our human, Our bodies and all the intricacies inside of our hands and our torso and our brain. Like we are an absolute miracle walking around all the time. We have to just get out in the vehicle sometimes. Walk around. Change of scenery. Or meditate. Or have a nap. Realizations come. And it's always interesting too when we've been thinking about something. And it doesn't have to be deep. I have great plans for my business and my teachings and everything that I feel are coming very soon. Like maybe in the new year or in the fall. So man, My mind is chewing hard on them. It's just like thinking, Thinking, Thinking, Thinking, Thinking all the time. If someone asks you, What are you thinking about? Oh, I'm thinking about this. Because I'm always thinking about it right now. Which makes me think aha, It must be coming soon. Because it's amping up to something. But there comes a point where I have to stop thinking about it. It's like I'm in a corner or something. And there is something so blissful about realizing that there is more wisdom in this universe that we can tap into and it's at our fingertips. But we aren't going to get there intellectually. So let's just listen to this again. It is called the inconceivable, The unmanifest, The unchanging. If you understand it in this way, You have no reason for your sorrow. We have five minutes left. I would love to know what you take away from this for you in your life. You know, What do you want to remember going forward? Or if you have questions, I'm happy to answer. I try to ground each day in my soul's nature and stay in that awareness as often as possible. To never lose sight of I am the Oneness observing it all. The part about intellectual humility. Oh, I love that too. Taking time each day to remember who we are. That there is no reason to fear death. That we cannot blame ourselves for everything. Just look, Meditate and learn. My soul can be my guide even if I can't explain it all. To remember to pause and listen to me. That I am not my thoughts. That I am doesn't need to have suffixes attached to it to form my identity. To think about meditation as the moment to find out more about my eternal self. To be is to live. That if we embrace the change that we are part of the changing rather than controlling. I love that. Today it is much more clear the need to meditate in whatever form it takes so wisdom can truly be in me and so much more. Such a profound talk. I find that loving myself brings my soul such loving kindness. I know I'm here to remind others that they are divine love. Change is always happening around me and when I feel stuck I can come back to self and change will occur because I have the power to make change. Isn't that a wild concept? That everything in your life is changeable? It's funny how I think out of the desire for security we try to imagine that everything is solid. But it's like if we were to imagine our life like a forest, Like an ecosystem, Ideally everything is always gently changing maintaining homeostasis but everything is gently changing. It's that whole thing that if this door closes another one opens and if that one closes another one opens and if this person walks into our life you know like that everything is always shifting. That we can overcome any storm. That we are co-creation. Well thank you everybody. I hope you have a wonderful day and a wonderful week and we'll see you soon.