-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on January 29, 2021.
-7th chapter: verses 11, 12, 13, 14
-Lord Krishna first teaches Arjuna to evolve a sense of duty consciousness. Later he teaches him karma yoga – learning to do duty without selfish purpose. This is a matter of one’s evolution. One should first do duty with desires. As he evolves, he will learn to do the same duty without selfish desires, with a refined, healthy ego - he evolves from Sakama Karma to Nishkama Karma.
-11th verse: “Of the strong, I am their strength that is devoid of desire and attachment. I am that desire in all beings, which is not opposed to Dharma.”
-The strength of a great person who uses it for the good of others, the genius of a scientist or a poet or a musician who uses it for noble purposes – that transcendental touch is an expression of the divine.
-12th verse: “Sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna – they all proceed from Me. They all exist in Me. But I am not in them.”
-The Lord is the master of the three gunas. The three gunas constitute the totality of all human experiences, such as changes of mood and temperament.
-13th and 14th verses discuss Maya. Lord Krishna says that those who devote themselves to Him, the Divine Reality, they are saved from the entanglement of Maya.
-In life, we encounter situations that defy human logic and have no satisfactory answers. For example, good people may run into difficulties while the opposite kind may have a good time. We may help someone but end up not being in good terms with them. These unknown, unpredictable situations are the manifestations of Maya.
-Sri Ramakrishna describes two types of Maya. Vidya-Maya, which creates the desire to do good deeds and liberates us. Avidya-Maya, which creates the desire to selfish deeds and binds us.
-Objects in the world are not maya. Our outlook towards them determines whether we end up in vidya maya or avidya maya. A car used for selfish purposes can bind us in avidya maya. But an ambulance used for noble purposes can liberate us with vidya maya.
-Maya functions at the level of three gunas. When dominated by sattva guna, it is vidya-maya. When dominated by rajo and tamo guna, it is avidya maya.
-Sattva guna manifests itself as wisdom and serenity. Rajo guna manifests itself as dynamism and ambition. Tamo guna manifests itself as laziness and jealousy. It is better to have rajo guna than tamo guna, and it is better to have sattva guna than rajo guna. A person with sattva guna can be very active without selfishness and attachment, he connects with higher ideas and develops spiritual common sense.
-When a magician performs magic, only the magician is real. The magic is delusion. If one concentrates on the magician, he will not be deluded by the magic. Similarly, God is the magician and real. By concentrating on Him, we won’t be deluded.
-Vedanta defines something as sat (real) if (1) it remains without change in the past, present and future (2) It is beyond time, space and causation and (3) it remains without change in waking, dream and deep sleep states.
-Maya is composed of two sounds: “Ma”, which negates and “Ya” which is a pronoun and refers to something real. So, it is there, but it is not really there.
-Maya is not sat. It changes – therefore, it is relative. Maya is not asat either, as it is not Absolutely unreal. It is not a combination of sat and asat either. Only Brahman is sat.
-Maya is anadi (without a beginning), but not ananta (it is not eternal). These aspects of maya are realized only when we go beyond maya.
-Maya is neither endowed with parts nor devoid of parts, nor a combination of the two. If it were endowed with parts, it cannot be anadi. If it were devoid of parts, it cannot be the cause of evolution.
-All of us experience Maya in our everyday life. It is beyond logical comprehension, cannot be explained in words or cognized with the mind, and is a great wonder.
-Maya is neither subjective, nor objective, nor a combination of the two. We understand the relativity of maya only when we come out of it. Describing maya within it is impossible.
-Maya operates with two powers: Avarana-shakti, which conceals the reality and Vikshepa-shakti, which projects something false.