My response to Bailey reprises some key points about our
study. Check it out if you have the time.
Once again, Bindu has shared her uncommon understanding,
and Venkat has almost caught up, now in the middle of chapter IV.
Enjoy!
Bindu
This chapter helped me see that renunciation is not about escaping
life or avoiding responsibility. Instead, it is about letting go of
attachment to outcomes and not allowing likes and dislikes to
control my actions. Krishna teaches that yoga and renunciation are
not separate paths—they both lead to inner freedom when
practiced with the right understanding.
There have been moments in my life when, even though I know
the situations I am going through should not affect me so deeply, I
still lose control. During those moments, I feel angry with the
Absolute. I have even shouted at Him, telling Him that if I could
see Him, I would want to hit Him. Yet when my anger melts away,
I laugh and say, "You are the only one with whom I can show
every emotion—even the darker ones—because You never react,
no matter how hard I try to provoke You."
In those difficult moments, I often write reflections in my diary.
One of them is this poem:
The Roots Remain
Pushed into the deepest waters,
Where an alligator waits below,
Its patience sharpened by certainty—
Every fall ends the same.
A hanging stem appears,
Thin as hope, fragile as chance.
Upward goes the climb,
Toward light, toward air,
Toward the promise of escape.
Yet each time the surface nears,
The stem is cut.
Down again into the depths,
Where survival demands another leap.
From one stem to another,
From one chance to the next,
Never knowing which will hold.
Sometimes the next lifeline
Turns out to be a snake's tail—
Grasped in desperation,
Only to awaken anger,
Its fangs ready to strike.
Still, the journey continues.
Around and around the circle goes—
Climbing, falling, reaching, enduring.
Fresh air brushes the face for a moment,
Only for unseen hands
To push the struggle back into darkness.
When stems fail,
Roots become refuge.
When roots loosen,
Another hold is found.
When danger strikes,
Another path appears.
Such is life.
Not a straight road to safety,
But a wilderness of uncertain footholds,
Where fate tests every grip,
Every step,
Every hope.
The miracle is not reaching the top.
The miracle is continuing to climb
After every fall,
Holding on through every storm,
Refusing to surrender to the depths—
While the alligator waits,
The snake hisses,
The stems break,
And still—
the roots remain.
This poem reflects how I have learned to let go of anger instead of
holding on to resentment. Whatever hardship I am going through, I
write about it as a reflection and then release it for my own peace.
Once I accept the situation and move forward, I feel lighter and
more focused.
Verse 10 particularly spoke to me: "He who acts, placing all
actions in the Absolute, having given up attachment, is not affected
by sin, like a lotus leaf by water."
I find this image very powerful. It reminds me that we can live
fully in the world, perform our duties sincerely, and still remain
inwardly free if we are not constantly seeking praise, success, or
recognition. In meditation, I sometimes place all my worries on the
shoulders of the Absolute. By doing so, I find freedom. The
problems become like drops of water resting on a lotus leaf, while
I remain the leaf itself—untouched at my core.
The discussion about opposing views also made me reflect on my
own thinking. It is easy to judge people whose opinions differ from
mine, especially on social or political issues. This chapter
encourages me to pause before reacting and recognize that being
attached to being "right" creates unnecessary conflict. Sometimes I
choose silence because I believe silence is wiser than argument.
Remaining open-minded does not mean giving up my values; it
means not allowing disagreement to disturb my inner balance.
My main takeaway from this chapter is that true renunciation is not
withdrawing from life but changing the way we participate in it.
By performing our duties with sincerity, without attachment to
results, and by maintaining balance amid success and failure, we
become freer, more peaceful, and more compassionate toward
ourselves and others.
Question for Reflection
How can I remind myself in daily life to act wholeheartedly while
letting go of the need to control the outcome?
I believe not everything comes in the time or way I expect.
Sometimes I simply have to wait for the right moment. Patience
and resilience are both important. Rather than living in
disappointment, I can continue doing my best, trusting that some
things unfold in their own time. Like the climber in my poem, the
goal is not to avoid every fall, but to keep climbing with faith,
courage, and acceptance.
Scott: I appreciate your summation of the chapter, Bindu. It’s easy
to get lost (maybe it’s important to get lost) in the Gita’s
complexities, yet it’s also essential to have a sensible framework to
relate it to. Plus, losing control does go hand in hand with opening
to new and unexpected insights. Our egos are dedicated to control,
so our inner being has to force them aside at times, and it happens
especially at critical moments. Just ask Arjuna.
It’s totally safe to curse the Absolute, and good therapy.so
long as it isn’t prolonged. It’s another way to let go. The next
lesson will include the assurance you may have already read, in
verse 15: “The all-pervading One takes cognizance neither of the
sinful nor the meritorious actions of anyone.” No lightning bolts
are doled out by a grim overseer. It’s okay to get upset, but use it
to heighten your understanding.
Your poem vividly captures the struggle to reach a goal,
something we can all relate to. You address what it takes to accept
those threats and float trustingly in the depths. Our reading of the
scripture is partly to realize there are fewer vicious demons around
us than we imagine. We can delete the made-up monsters so as to
better focus on the real ones.
It seems you’ve been busily attending to that for a long time
already, Bindu, and your paragraph of explanation after the poem
shows the way.
A yogi finds psychological instruction in many places. I too
am fond of the lotus leaf symbol of detachment. I find I have to
actively shake the mud off—I still react to accusations, but am
much quicker to get over it. I know better than to become
defensive before the water has cleared, and then I can see much
more clearly what the real issues are. Again, you write beautifully
about how to handle this.
Venkat
Chapter IV (12-22)
Around 2011, I bought a DSLR camera in the hope of becoming a
photographer. I have tried multiple times to pick it up and failed to
take pictures. None of them satisfied me. I bought books to
understand the exposure triangle but no luck. I was dejected and
something I wished to learn turned into a nightmare.
In retrospect, I feel the thought of taking a picture with the right
setting and the expectations of awe inspiring pictures were the
hurdles. I think I never thought of it as capturing a memory or a
moment. It was all about taking the best picture and that weight of
expectation held me back.
A couple of years ago, a close friend of mine taught me the basics
before my trip to Yellowstone. My goal was to take a picture of a
wolf from the trip. The pictures weren't great but the memory of
howling wolves next to a bison carcass is still fresh. A month after
our trip, I saw a robin on our fence and I rushed to get a picture.
This time my goal was simple - to follow the instructions of a
recent video and understand exposure. Voila! I was amazed at the
pictures and mind blown. It was like finally getting hold of my
bicycle. More than the pictures, it was being in that moment of
inaction in action.
In these few months of reading Gita, my understanding of learning
has changed a lot. If I don't understand a concept or a term I let it
sit and move away from it as much as possible for things to make
sense on its own. I reach out for help if it doesn't make sense or
begins to be a hindrance to my reading. Of course, there are work
related questions that are time sensitive for which I reach out for
help immediately.
I believe actions arise from conscious and subconscious sensory
influences. While conscious influences are from memory and
logical reasoning, creative ideas arise from the subconscious
influence. They seem to have this never ending interaction in the
outer and inner world.
I could only think of thoughts rising during meditation as an
example of action in inaction. I believe action and inaction are
simultaneously present. I may be wrong but sleep is the only time I
imagine them to be mutually exclusive.
IV 22 talks about possessions and the exercise is to think of the
influence of possessions on wellbeing. I couldn't remember when
this transition happened but I used to think possessions gave
wellbeing based on their purpose or value. In recent times, it has
transitioned to memory. The memory a possession holds or the
time it takes me back to has more value than purpose.
Scott, I am very grateful for these exercises and lessons. It has
helped me look into myself and understand what has held me back
in learning.
Scott: Venkat, your response resonates with the lesson 15 exercise:
Consider aspects of your life that are founded on ideas of
cumulative improvement, and whether it is possible to be
satisfied at every step or whether fulfillment is displaced until
the final stage. “Nearly everyone learns to be dissatisfied with
who they are. We are not okay, and are only tolerable if we are
moving toward a widely accepted version of what okay
means.” What are the pluses and minuses of this central social
tenet?
In so many aspects of life we are improving our skills, “getting
better,” and being praised for it. We can easily tell a good
photograph from a poor one. The conscious takeaway, however, is
that we’re eternally “works in progress,” and not to be taken
seriously yet. It’s too bad, because every moment of our brief
existence is valuable enough to celebrate and share.
Your little boy, Dhruv, is a perfect example—so full of life
and excitement. Before long, though, if he’s like other kids, he’ll
be more excited to “grow up” and get older as fast as possible.
He’ll be eager to stop “being childish,” while from an adult
perspective he’s already spectacular. Sure, we don’t want him to
stay stuck at age 3, but we don’t want him to miss it, either.
The idea is to retain the joy of life as the centerpiece of all
the growing and changing that naturally takes place in every
person’s life. It doesn’t have to inhibit the rapid development we
undergo, at least until we’re old enough to get stuck in the tarpits
of self-definition.
As you’ve shown, your photography work stands out when
you’re fully focused on it, more into it, and that’s the true seedbed
of skill improvement. Why not retain the excitement of getting
better while also reveling in the instrument that enables it, all along
the way?
What you’ve said about learning from your own inner being,
Venkat, is the missing piece Krishna is inviting us to bring into
play. Trusting the Absolute is closely related to trusting our
intuition, if it isn’t spoiled by selfish prejudices. So yes, in yoga we
combine conscious and unconscious aspects to become holistically
centered in whatever we do.
Also, being aware that we bring meaning to our possessions
and activities, and not the other way round, is crucial to self-
awareness. Chapter IV really gives us a lot to work with.
Gopica
Greetings! and thank you. Beautiful metaphors and was
experiencing a fragrance which i am not able to name though, a
feeling of relief with the thought of unitive action superior to the
renunciation of action.
While reading verses 1-10 of Chapter 5, I became aware of
an inflexible element in my personality around money and service.
I find it challenging to discuss payment for my work-sometimes
people postpone paying or expect my services free of cost in the
name of “service.” At the same time, I am careful about spending
for those truly in need, yet I hesitate to spend for outsiders just for
courtesy. My instincts have led me to create boundaries, and I
sometimes worry that this makes me seem cold or aloof, even
when I feel fully present and responsible. These verses are helping
me explore how to act sincerely, respect my own worth, and still
cultivate inner detachment from money and others’ expectations.
Scott: That’s the spirit, Gopica! The verses are meant to stimulate
contemplation, and apply them to ourself. This is a terrific example
of what that looks like. Doors swing open, and we can learn a lot
from peeking through, even if we don’t step inside all the way.
Bailey
Scott’s prompt: Consider aspects of your life that are founded
on ideas of cumulative improvement... Here’s a true story, just
happened:
June 28 (Sunday): We had a lay preacher in church today, Haley
Powell, and she opened her sermon with a reference to George
Bailey, the character played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 film It’s
a Wonderful Life, in his moment of despair, tempted by suicide.
Standing in the river into which he had leapt, GB looks upwards,
says something like “Lord, what do you want of me? Show me the
way.” I suppose that serves in the plot to bring that absurd,
improbable, masterfully-comic angel Clarence into the story. With
Clarence’s good-humored help Bailey will proceed to solve the
problems which had seemed insurmountable, marry the pretty girl,
with the movie ending on the they-lived-happily-ever-after note of
beloved fairy-tales. Our preacher brought her sermon around to
inviting us to look upon one another as potential angels, capable
–if we turn toward one another-- of offering love, help when we
need it. The sermon is followed, in our liturgy, with the Exchange
of Peace: we turn to each other with warm handshakes, sometimes
hugs. The Offering follows next (the Old Testament lesson read
today had been the story of Abraham preparing to offer up his son
Isaac as a sacrifice, then the Lord sending an angel to stop him,
providing in the boy’s place a ram caught in a nearby thicket). I
reached into my pocket for a bill to put in the offering plate. Oops,
no wallet. Must have forgot it on the bureau when leaving the
house.. Oops! Oh No! That can’t be! I used it buying gas on my
way to church! Did I drop it? lay it on the roof of the car and
forget to put it back in my pocket? I left church at once, got to the
car, drove back to the gas station (at Walnut and 46). Nothing
there by the pump. Try inside. No, no wallet turned in. We’ll call
you if... The worst has happened. What is the first thing to
do? Report to police? No, most urgent is to call the credit card
companies. Back at the house I’m standing at the card table in the
garage entrance, I’ve got Visa Capital One on the line, the guy is
just telling me: OK, don’t worry, I’ll restrict use of this card right
away, we’ll send you a new one...
when
here’s a pickup truck pulling into the driveway; here’s a guy
coming out, my wallet in his hand. A total stranger. I let Capital
One know all is suddenly well, thank the guy, hang up. “I spotted
it turning off route 46 onto College Ave”, this guy is telling
me—"should be all there, doesn’t look like anybody ran over it”. I
didn’t move to hug him; I did shake hands warmly, asked his
name. Jared. An Old Testament name, I remark, adding that I was
just on my way to church when I lost the wallet; realized the loss
when it was time for the offering... “You know”, says Jared, “same
thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago, he had
driven up from Louisville (Kentucky) for a medical appointment,
put it on the roof of his car and didn’t miss it until he was back
home, had to drive back here to retrieve it... but what a pain, I
know, those credit cards, replacing the driver’s license...” Jared,
you’re my Good Samaritan today. Do you know the movie It’s a
Wonderful Life? Jared’s eyes widen. Says: “my favorite movie of
all time! I watch it maybe five, six times a year!” Of course Jared
well knows the scene where defeated George Bailey finally turns
to God for guidance. “That’s me!” he says. “I was 20 years old,
raising two boys all by myself, without Him I would never have
made it through. Before the boys, I was a bad fellow, selfish,
wild. He never fails, He’s always there.” (Touches his heart). “I
talk to Him all the time. All the time I ask for guidance.” I (bky)
tell him that I learned from today’s sermon that George Bailey’s
famous line, “Lord show me the way” had not been scripted –it
was added spontaneously by Jimmy Stewart on inspiration;
Director Frank Capra loved it, left it in the final cut. Jared, today
you’re my angel, you’re my Clarence. “You know”, he says, “I’ve
always known, in my heart, what’s right to do, even as a child,
even not doing it. I want to tell people, but they... My older
brother (we were raised Catholic) hated God for years, wanted
what he didn’t have...I couldn’t get him to see he was looking at it
all wrong... then he met a wonderful woman, and he changed, now
his attitude is changed...he has a wonderful life now.” Jared, can I
offer you something? Nah, thanks, gotta go, but you know, maybe
it was meant to work out like this today. Jared, I say, you’re a man
of faith. Hey, he says, I’ve made a new friend. Off he drives.
Comment: am I dissatisfied with who I am? When I realized that I
had done that STUPID thing, leaving my wallet atop the car and
driving off –and it was not the first time I had done something like
that, once I left my wallet in a bookstore on Upper Broadway in
New York (but realized pretty quickly, and the sales clerk, shaking
his head, handed it back)—and the possible-to-likely
CONSEQUENCES were running through my head as I drove back
to the gas station, and then drove home, would DISSATISFIED
would be the right way to put it? Well, certainly “satisfied” would
be the wrong way. But, in my head: stay with the reality, don’t
distract yourself with self-blame, deal with the situation as best
you can, be more attentive, more conscious, more careful going
forward... The point isn’t I’m OK/I’m not OK, the point is Reality
is what it is, my reality, entangled with all these other realities.
One’s habits, one’s tendencies, they don’t improve with age. But,
as the Rolling Stones of their and my youth sang: “Don’t you
panic, don’t you panic, give it one more try”. All of a sudden,
here’s this stranger. Jared. He’s driving along. He sees the wallet.
He stops. He sees my information inside. He comes right to my
house (it isn’t far, and with GPS, easy to find). A man of action,
Jared. A man of (good) faith. He trusts in the Lord. He trusts his
heart. Perhaps, he says, in taking leave, it was all meant to happen
this way. If I had hours to talk with him, even half an hour (we
talked for maybe ten minutes) I might show him Elaine Pagels’
book Miracles and Wonders: The Historical Mystery of Jesus. Not
to try to teach him anything (I am guessing he now follows an
Evangelical version of Christianity): to share with him Pagel’s own
sense of wonder, after a lifetime studying and teaching the history
of Christianity at the highest intellectual level, at how the story of
Jesus has remained alive, vibrant for two thousand years, and not
only for people who profess Christianity or call themselves
Christians. She ends her book quoting this New Testament
passage: “God can make a way out of no way”, transforming what
we suffer into joy. I love this about the gospel stories. Is that what
keeps the stories of Jesus alive among the twists and turns of
history. As I see it, they give us what we often need most: an
outburst of hope.” A sentiment at odds with Vedanta?
June 30 One Paris day in May Christine and I went to the movies;
what I am remembering now is not the film we saw that day–what
was it?—but one previewed: DeGaulle: Resistance. This opened
the day after I left France so I have not yet seen it; Christine has,
has emailed me that it has opened her eyes to an extraordinary
moment in the story of her own country—until now, she had
mostly understood it through things I told her. The world-
historical significance of this moment has gripped my imagination
for years, as my reading, in fiction as well as works of history,
memoirs, biography. The moment? June 18, 1940: the
German Blitzkrieg has in a few weeks since May 10 devastated the
French and British forces opposing it. A new French government,
under the 80-year-old Marshal Pétain is crying “Uncle”,
negotiating a surrender; most of the British forces have managed to
escape back to their island through the “miracle” of the improvised
Dunkirk evacuation, but the smart money is betting that the Brits
will now accept the New Reality and make terms with Hitler
themselves. Indeed, that is the course being suggested by the
Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifex, in secret Cabinet meetings. We
don’t like the Nazis but the reality is they have won; better deal
with them. Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s heroic refusal to
accept this logic is well known (that story is well told in recent
films like Darkest Hour and Roy Jenkins’ excellent biography of
Churchill): the defiant eloquence of his speeches –We shall never
surrender!—has achieved mythic status in historical
memory. This new movie will help English speakers, I hope,
better grasp the true heroic dimension of the junior French general
who on June 18 broadcast on BBC his equally intransigent
Appeal: France has lost a battle. Let all of us who share “a certain
idea of France” resolve to continue the war until we
win! DeGaulle invited patriots to join him in London –I have
evoked in earlier responses the story of one nineteen-year-old,
Daniel Cordier, who did. Few in France actually heard the
broadcast, though word of it slowly spread. Very few acted on the
invitation; indeed most of the French soldiers then in England, who
had been part of the failed Anglo-French effort to stop the German
capture of Norway back in April, chose to lay down arms and
return to France. Marshal Pétain’s Vichy regime condemned
DeGaulle to death in abstentia and set about on a course of
collaboration with the occupying Germans that would come to
include sending Jews to the death camps. The still well-armed
French military, in France itself and in its Asian and African
empire, accepted Vichy’s authority. The odds against De Gaulle’s
“Free French”, and further resistance to a German-dominated
Europe, were beyond overwhelming.
My thought goes now to the Kurukshetra battle as yet
unengaged, to Arjuna throwing down his bow, to verse 8 of Book
IV. To contrast his moment of doubt with DeGaulle’s brandishing
the sword on June 18 is irresistibly tempting as literature, and I am
not resisting the impulse. As history, knowing as we do how the
war was to work out, the story is inspiring. But what, as students
of philosophy, can we learn? The verse reads: “To protect those
who are good and to destroy evildoers, for establishing
righteousness, I assume being, age by age.” Krishna incarnating as
Charles de Gaulle? As Winston Churchill? As the RAF pilots who
fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill over the following year,
effectively forestalling the German invasion plans? As the English
civilian populations who withstood the bombing, the fires and
devastation of the Battle of Britain night after night, the civilian
French men and women (many teenage girls and boys too) who
faced (and often suffered) torture, imprisonment, death to defy the
German occupation, whether they were aligned with General
DeGaulle or not? The righteous actors resisting evil-doers can be
understood as incarnating, in some sense, Krishna? well: why not?
Scott’s interpretation of the verse would seem to steer us firmly
away from an incitement to action along these lines. “Once again,
this verse resonates with the barbaric tendencies of human beings,
because we really get off on destroying evildoers. We’re ready to
go out and bash them at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately,
unleashing war on evildoers just produces more evil. By contrast,
the reestablishment of the goodness of the Absolute does not pit
one side against the other. It is a unifying kindness that is a tide
that raises all boats.” Aptly put, and incontrovertibly –to my
mind—true to the teaching we have received. Winston Churchill,
Charles DeGaulle and those uncounted, unnamed English and
French (and Poles and Belgians and Russians and Canadians...)
who stood up to resist the Nazis were flawed, relativistic human
beings. We know a lot about the flaws of the first two men. They
were not unattached to the fruits of their actions—far from
it! Both wrote books about themselves in the war—and
afterwards-- justifying actions they took which many or most of us
now regard as problematic if not clearly wrong. Fellow students of
African or Asian heritage may want to point to selfish actions of
the British in India, the French in North Africa or Indochina that
caused much suffering to many innocent people. Both men were
repudiated as leaders of their countries by voters at the end of the
war. BUT. In 1940 they did stand up for righteousness against
dark forces of evil which were on the verge of winning. Hitler,
Himmler and company were not just German leaders with different
ideas and original political projects. They were evil actors, willful
“slayers of the self” in the sense of the Isa Upanishad. In the
judgment of this historian such creatures were quite impervious to
approaches based on “unifying kindness”. As at Kurukshetra, the
dark forces had to be fought.
July 3. This is not June 1940. All the actors of that day are
returned to ashes, including both my parents, whose relationship
was abruptly precipitated into marriage in December 1941, with
me as one consequence. The issues, the choices to act/refrain from
action that I confront have been outlined with particular clarity
these past days. That the American Republic, proclaimed with
such echoing principles on July 4, 1776, and subsequently came to
be identified with the universalist notion “democracy” is under
systemic assault by forces led and epitomized by the President it
elected in November 2024 seems to this historian beyond
question. What to do? Vote in the upcoming elections? Of course.
Help Democratic candidates wrest majorities in the U.S. Congress
from the Republicans? Win more power in state governments?
Yes. So in the past month I have sent small sums of money to this
one candidate and that PAC (political pressure group). A direct
consequence, given the technology driven by Lord Algorithm, is
steadily intensifying internet/texting pressure to give more. And
more. Since returning from France I have by conscious decision
given more. Can I be somehow unattached to the fruits of these
actions? A challenge, that! Can I/should I do something else?
March in a No Kings rally, if possible? We’ll see.
Then there’s my son’s alcohol addiction. While I was away at my
reunion he had another pancreatitis attack; the pain, I am told, is
intense. After two days in the hospital, he emerges, returns to
work. Last Sunday his mother calls me: she has just taken him to
the Emergency Room. Another attack. He has admitted that he
took another drink. This time I’m the one to take him home from
the hospital. Last year I had talked at great length with JV, my
daughter Emma’s partner, an out-of-control alcoholic in his youth
who made the decision to emerge, has remade himself as a
successful academic—and an exceptional, compassionate human
being. Joe knows the Alcoholics Anonymous scene in
Bloomington as well as he knows Labor History. At the time he
resisted my suggestion that he reach out to Zack, get him to
engage. It won’t work, he said in effect, unless the initiative
comes from him. Yesterday I said to him: Joe, I can’t buy that
logic today. It confounds me that, having suffered great pain,
putting his job at risk, he would nonetheless take another drink,
back into the pain etc. Take the initiative. Reach out and tell him
more of your own story as you told it to me. How one day you
realized if you took another drink YOU WOULD DIE. Take him,
yourself, to an AA meeting. Joe has agreed to do this.
Scott: I too am a big fan of It’s a Wonderful Life, Bailey. A couple
of years back our symphony performed the music live while the
film played on the big screen. It’s a new trick to keep symphonies
relevant, and it is startling how visceral it is. I catch one or two of
those every year.
It’s fun to have the additional background you’ve supplied.
I don’t see the movie as advocating cumulative improvement,
it’s more like what we’re after: adopting a new perspective where
you realize your true value in the world you inhabit, instead of
merely being a hapless victim of hostile forces. It portrays the
difference between being a big kid and an adult. For literary
purposes, there has to be an outside factor, like an angel, to clarify
(no pun intended?) the conversion, and with the Gita we have a
dialogue between a teacher and student to convey the same clarity.
Did you know that psychologists have tested wallet returns
around the world, and found that it was a very common practice?
Also, the more money in the wallet, the likelier the return. We’re
talking about a lot of experiments, because such kindness defies
expectations. And it makes for a good story, yours being right up
there.
Have I shared Nitya’s take on the book I’m Okay, You’re
Okay? His version was I’m Not Okay, You’re Not Okay, But That’s
Okay.
Elaine Pagels is my dream girl. Talk about wallet returns.
How about ancient scripture returns! There had to be a god or at
least an angel involved with her being blessed with the Nag
Hammadi library.
I suppose you could say that hope isn’t a Vedantic premise,
since it’s another word for expectation, but to me, downplaying
expectations is a spiritual teaching, and not about Christmas
presents or job interviews. We’re free to hope for lots of things to
come about in the future, so long as it isn’t a distraction from self-
examination. Hope could well be part of self-examination; like,
how is it affecting me? But egotistical seekers tend to have a fixed
idea of what they are turning into, thanks to their practice or
religion, and that’s a serious impediment. How would that be
preferable to keeping an open mind about where you’re going? I
suppose if you are flailing, certain assurances would be justified, to
get to a level playing field, or kshetra, where real learning is
possible. The Gita is psychotherapy for the sane, and falls short
regarding mental instability, in my estimation. I don’t think of that
as a fault—the lion’s share of therapy is for disturbed people. We
need a dose for other cohorts, too.
I guess we cling to hope because we worry that without it we
will have no hope. In yoga, polar opposites are to be combined and
canceled out through balancing. Yogis aren’t partisan to hope or no
hope. We are witness to the unfolding of existence. Superficially
we may play around with hope, because it’s a fun game, until our
hopes are dashed. A yogi has enough detachment to not be
unhorsed by the evaporation of their imagined hopes.
Okay, you keep coming back to this point, that Krishna’s
teaching is not applicable to wartime. It’s true, my commentary is
more bubbly, and I should have referred to the war footing more. I
intended to make it as practical as I could. My cheerfulness could
easily be seen as a fault, I agree. Most commentaries brush over
practical problems, so I wanted to include them specifically. As I
worked through my ten-year stint, whenever people brought up
issues to me, I included them in context—marital conflicts, jobs,
interpersonal tension, prejudice—and some others. Addiction is in
there somewhere, though I’m personally aware of how impossible
it is to help with.
As to war, the whole context is war. What Krishna is doing is
healing Arjuna so he can make good decisions, about everything.
Despite popular belief, he is not being instructed to wage war, only
to know himself. In the last chapter, Krishna commissions Arjuna
to make up his own mind: “critically scrutinizing all, omitting
nothing, do as you like.” The war decision comes after the Gita,
when the Mahabharata picks back up. Yes, Arjuna, a true warrior,
decides to fight, and almost everybody dies. But that isn’t the
point. The Gita addresses life before death. It was his decision, not
God’s or anyone else’s.
The value of this study is to be more alive while alive. In that
way, it isn’t about applying this wisdom to history. It’s about
applying it to the present. Now. What to do is very complicated, so
we bring our best game and hope for the best. We don’t know that
the outcome will be the best, but we’ll deal with it as it comes.
And we should learn this ahead of the crises. When Nazis
high on amphetamines come sprinting and shooting at you, there’s
no time to become wise. You do (or not) what fate lays on you.
Judging the past is much easier than the present. For this education
I recommend bringing the war back home. It’s about battling our
mental weaknesses, to allow ourselves to grow. Under fire is not
the time for it.
Let me quote Bindu’s opening line, above: “This chapter
helped me see that renunciation is not about escaping life or
avoiding responsibility.” That’s maybe something you didn’t see,
Bailey. I don’t know why. Here are a couple of verses from the
return to practicality at the end:
18.7) Verily, the renunciation of necessary inevitable action
does not arise; the renunciation of such through delusion is said
to be tamasic.
18.9) When necessary action is done, Arjuna, recognizing its
imperative character, relinquishing attachment and benefit,
such relinquishment is considered sattvic.
All through the emphasis is on freely chosen activity. Necessity is
not malleable, it’s imperative. We suffer its slings and arrows as
best we can. There is no refraining from action taught here.
Chapter III starts of about action this way:
4) By refraining from initiating activities a person does not
come to have the attainment of transcending action, nor can one
by renunciation alone come to perfection.
5) Not even for a single instant can one ever remain engaged in
no action at all. By virtue of modalities born from nature, all
are made to engage in action helplessly.
All those poor souls you catalogue who stood up and were
gunned down were by no means unleashing evil, they were forced
to deal with it. So much slaughter, and then after, we are sure no
one would ever be that stupid again, until the next bloodletting.
I would say that the very intent of the Gita was to teach
humans to choose peace and kindness, despite our proclivity for
mayhem. It does not suggest we should ignore killers and make
nice about it. Those good people defending their countries were
flawed, just like the wise and the rest of us. We aren’t trying to live
without flaws, here—that’s another religious posture, and it’s a
major impediment to equanimity. What do flaws matter when you
are under attack? I don’t see how this lesson diverges from
sympathy for the slaughtered. The question we might be asking is
what can we do now, about the next wave, that promises to be the
bloodiest yet?
Before Krishna’s confirmation comes around again, you are
already free to make your own decisions, Bailey.
Good to hear your perseverance is still supporting your son’s
addiction tragedy. That is necessary action for you of a most
compelling nature.
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