Simple Living, High Thinking

Time stamps & topics:

47 sec: What action is (karma), what inaction is (akarma), and what detrimental action is (vikarma). A formula for how to live in this world without getting enmeshed in it.

5 min, 41 sec: What is inaction (akarma)?

14 min, 30 sec: How inaction, or neglecting to act, can also result in karmic reactions.

19 min, 15 sec: Being conscious of the different types of actions we can engage in. Everybody is always acting - what kind of action do you want to engage in?

23 min, 55 sec: Why do we have sensory pleasures if we're not meant to enjoy them? If Krishna cares about me, why do I have desires which get me entangled in the material world?

33 min, 15 sec: What our body is actually meant for.

35 min, 30 sec: God, as the Supreme person, is not devoid of personality, feelings, likes, or dislikes. God has these traits and wants to engage in a loving relationship with us, another person. Just as we can't have a deep relationship with a pet, we seek relationships with other people who can reciprocate love in the way that is fulfilling.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

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[Bhagavad Gita, Ch 4, Texts 9-15]

Time stamps & topics:

- 9 min, 29 sec: The main lesson of Ch 2 was that we are not this body; we are an eternal soul. The primary lesson of Ch 4 - acting in this world but not being attached to the results. Krishna uses himself as an example.

- 13 min, 5 sec: What does it mean to perform transcendental duties? Can everyday people like us be transcendental, and what does that look like?

- 21 min, 26 sec: What allows us to make spiritual progress. When we see ourselves as hopelessly fallen, we create a great divide between us and God. It is empowering to see ourselves as capable of "acting like Krishna" and being receptive to God's grace. Krishna, our saints, and our saddhus all set an example for us on how to act transcendental. It puts the responsibility back on us to take accountability for our choices and actions, and that it's possible to become transcendental in this lifetime.

- 28 min, 28 sec: Your real nature is to be spiritual, just as fire's nature is to emanate heat.

- 32 min, 25 sec: What does it mean that everyone follows Krishna's path in all respects? It's all Krishna's system, whether you're moving forward or backward. We all come into our lives at different stages of karma. No matter where we are in the state of our consciousness, everything is connected to Krishna in some way.

- 39 min, 45 sec: Examples of what it looks like to detach from the results. Real-world examples of what it means to do your duty without be attached to the results.

- 49 min, 10 sec: To go one step further, how to take the results of your actions and offer it to Krishna - even if the results are not what you wanted.

- 51 min, 15 sec: Attaining transcendental love for Krishna. Krishna's transcendental nature described.

Tukaram Prabhu's 7/24/2020 Bhagavad Gita class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/277938436841801

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

[Bhagavad Gita, Ch 4, Texts 5-11]

Time stamps & topics:

4 min, 27 sec: Summary of where we are in Chapter 4. Krishna starts to reveal himself as God.

9 min, 9 sec: How we think of God as an abstract concept. It takes more of an effort to include God as a person in your life, with personality, character, and the ability to come into your life to transform it.

14 min, 8 sec: Does the Christian conception of God align with the philosophy of an all-good God? The philosophical differences between Krishna consciousness and Christianity.

25 min, 18 sec: The importance of teachers, gurus and elders in a religion. How disciplic succession has always been an integral part of any established religion. We wouldn't have the Bible without the apostles.

31 min, 15 sec: How resistance to a spiritual teacher is an obstacle to a spiritual practice.

37 min, 48 sec: Why critical thinking for each individual is important when analyzing a religion or tradition. We must avoid blind faith foolishness and ask questions of our religious leaders. A solid tradition will be able to address any philosophical question with logic and reason. God created us with logic and reason, and it's natural that we should be able to use logica and reason to understand God.

42 min: The role that suffering can take in our lives to help us in our spiritual growth. Do we allow suffering to help us grow?

46 min, 45 sec: How important it is to work on ourselves in order to grow spiritually and absorb religious teachings. We have a misconception that spirituality should be easy and "fit into" our daily material lives.

1 hr, 7 min: How learning about Krishna and knowing who he is allows us to fall in love with him. To know him is to love him.

Tukaram Prabhu's 7/17/2020 Bhagavad Gita class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/293014208605311

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

Time stamps & topics:

4 min, 48 sec: The "imperishable science" - there is a difference between matter and spirit. The context of chapter 2 and 3, leading into chapter 4.

7 min, 12 sec: Who is Vivasvān? The significance of Krishna's claim that he gave instruction to the sun-god.

10 min: If we are God's devotees and friends, we will be able to understand transcendental mysteries through God's grace.

13 min, 20 sec: What does it mean when we say God is a person versus an energy? The implications of free will as it relates to love of God.

21 min, 6 sec: Krishna is now claiming to be God. What makes Krishna's claims any more believable than a homeless person at a bus stop claiming they are God? Why should we believe Krishna?

23 min, 21 sec: Why do we believe God exists? Philosophical arguments given for the existence of God through natural theology. How do we know consciousness exists?

41 min: Taylor's Cosmological argument for God's existence unpacked.

46 min, 15 sec: Why we believe Krishna is God, versus just a demi-god. This argument assumes the existence of God is agreed upon. Why then is Krishna considered God?

52 min, 20 sec: Would an all-good God send someone to hell for eternity? How to analyze a tradition's conception of Divinity and their sacred texts, whether it's the Bible or the Bhagavad Gita.

[Bhagavad Gita, Ch 4, Texts 1-5]

Tukaram Prabhu's 7/13/2020 Gita class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/3232094456830281

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

Time stamps & topics:

4 min: How sin is defined in the Bhagavad Gita As It Is. What the sanskrit word for sin is. How other religions use the word 'sin' versus the meaning in the Bhagavad Gita.

10 min: How these texts in Ch 3 are the most powerful texts in the Bhagavad Gita with regards to our relationship with the material world.

11 min, 25 sec: How lust is defined in the Bhagavad Gita As It Is.

15 min, 30 sec: Why anger is a covering for sadness. The process in which desires turn to anger, and how all desires eventually turn into wrath.

25 min: How desire is tied to resentment, and how resentment is actually a healthy coping mechanism. The two types of resentment and how to heal from them.

41 min: What it means to have a higher taste. There's a false dichotomy that you'll be sad if you give in to desires or sad if you fully suppress them. But there's a third option, which is a higher taste and a higher enjoyment.

46 min, 10 sec: The distinction between the mind and the intelligence and how to control the mind with your intelligence and actions. --- We conclude our discussion of Ch 3 with Krishna's perspective on sin and lust. Traditionally, in the West, these terms have a specific connotation to them. However, in vedic texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, sin and lust carry a slightly different definition. Hear why resentment is actually a healthy reaction, and how you can use resentment to approach relationships in a healing way. There is a link below to a Satsang lecture that Tukaram Prabhu gave earlier this year. He goes into great detail as to how you can process resentment and use it to heal relationships.

[Bhagavad Gita As It Is, Ch 3, Texts 36 - 43]

Tukaram Prabhu's 7/3/2020 Bhagavad Gita class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/614663129146684/

Tukaram Prabhu's 1/18/2020 lecture on why resentment is healthy: https://www.facebook.com/longbeachtemple/videos/576205886444770

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

Time stamps & topics: 1 min 48 sec: The setting for the Bhagavad Gita and who Arjuna is. A summary of Ch 3 and where we are at.

7 min 24 sec: The complex question - If God is omniscient, He already knows everything. So how can I have free will? Why Text 35 can be troubling, as it appears to leave a lot to interpretation. Should I continue to do my duty, even if I'm doing a bad job of it?

12 min 40 sec: The majority of Americans do not work in the field that they studied. There is a lot of confusion for people as to what their duty should be. How we can traverse this.

14 min: How commitment plays a part in determining your duty. How honoring your commitments and sticking to it allows you to thrive in your chosen path. 18 min 48 sec: The problem is, we're trying to find a material solution to a spiritual problem. Going from job to job looking for the perfect one. How to ground ourselves to something higher than ourselves. 27 min: How do I know what my duty is? Discussion of the 4 different categories of social order, and determining what your nature is. 39 min: How do I know which of the 4 categories I fall under? Finding your class, and within your class is your specific instance.

48 min 45 sec: Our highest eternal duty. At what point does my duty stop being something exterior or something that has to do with the material world, and become internal and related to Krishna? 55 min: Our material world duty vs our eternal duty - Let's not focus on what we should do, but who we should be. Building a lifestyle and character with integrity, honor, respect, transparency, and being an honorable part of your community. Living for something far greater than yourself. At the end of your life, you have something to give to the younger generation - what's your legacy? [Bhagavad Gita, Ch 3, Text 35]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

Tukaram Prabhu's 6/26/20 Bhagavad Gita Class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/217249052642600/

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

We pick up our discussion of Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3. Text 30 is a summation of the entire Bhagavad Gita: "Therefore, O Arjuna, surrendering all your works unto Me, with full knowledge of Me, without desires for profit, with no claims to proprietorship, and free from lethargy, fight." Krishna is teaching that we are not just renouncing things and actions, but we are renouncing all things *to* Krishna. We are giving all actions to Krishna and doing all things for him. We act in this world as a service to God.

We shouldn't think that we are the doer. Our actions and our duty belong to Krishna, so we shouldn't get attached to doing our duty. We must figure out who we are, what we're made of, and what we're supposed to do. In doing this, we can carry influence in this world and do what we're supposed to do, according to our nature.

Listen to this episode to hear more about the deep impact of understanding that we are not the body. Once we start to accept this, it changes how we perceive and act in this world.

[Bhagavad Gita, Ch 3, Texts 29-35]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

Tukaram Prabhu's Bhagavad Gita Class: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=557426311599056

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

We continue our discussion of The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 3, along with current events surrounding Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and our part in a spiritual revolution. [Bhagavad Gita, Ch 3, Text 28]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

What can we do to make a difference in today's social justice movement? What should our role be to help move the conversation forward? One of our hosts, Tadeu Souza, grew up as a black man in South America - from African-Brazilian to African-American. Hear his take on what it really means to accept that we are not the body, and what it looks like to accept accountability for our part in this society. [Bhagavad Gita, Ch 3, Texts 26-27]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!

[Bhagavad Gita, Ch 3, Texts 17-26]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simpleliving108 Instagram: https://instagram.com/simpleliving108 Website: http://simplelivinghighthinking.net

Tukaram Prabhu's Gita Class: https://www.facebook.com/lagunabeachtemple/videos/548063822739105/

To hear Indradyumna Swami's poignant story about Father Pierre, go to the 1:39:00 mark: https://soundcloud.com/iskconpsena/father-pierre-indradyumna-swami

To get your own copy of the Bhagavad Gita, or any of Srila Prabhupad's books, please visit: https://lagunatemplebooks.org/. All donations go toward the cost of the books and supporting the temple. Thank you!