Murari Das Blog

Emotions are essential in any normal life. The problem comes when they are misdirected. Bhakti yoga described at length in Bhagavad Gita, is based on emotion because the foundation is love, and love is the strongest emotion. It is different to sentiment which as the word suggests involves only the senses. Emotion goes much deeper than the senses. Lust, anger, and greed are not helpful and must be controlled. They arise from contact of our senses with the different sense objects. Even if contact with the sense objects is restricted, the desires can still remain and cause problems. In Bhagavad Gita Krishna states that by experiencing a higher taste, the lower taste of sense-gratification can be overcome (Bg.2.59). If the taste is gone then lust, anger, and greed will have no foothold because they can only do their work when there is material attachment. No material attachment will mean no lust, anger or greed, this is straight forward. Sometimes we come across the idea of giving up attac...

Krishna doesn’t directly say what is pleasing to Him in so many words. He explains more on the lines of what will happen if we do this, that, or the other. What is good, not good, better, and best for us to do. What is easier and what is harder for us to do. Most of the time He is explaining things from our perspective so that we can make informed decisions on how to act. Among other things, Krishna recommends three times that we should always think of Him because that will bring us back to Him, which is what He wants and is best for us. Therefore, Arjuna, you should always think of Me in the form of Krsna and at the same time carry out your prescribed duty of fighting. With your activities dedicated to Me and your mind and intelligence fixed on Me, you will attain Me without doubt. Bg 8.7 Engage your mind always in thinking of Me, become My devotee, offer obeisances to Me and worship Me. Being completely absorbed in Me, surely you will come to Me. Bg 9.34 Always think of Me, become My...

Consciousness is a quality of a substance that is different to matter. We can call the substance anti-matter, non-matter, superior substance, or spiritual substance, the name is not so important as the fact that it is completely different to matter. It is alive, and conscious, while matter is unconscious and dead. Life is evident by observing it’s effect on matter - birth, growth, maintenance, by-products, dwindling and death. This is well known, and conscious accompanies life. We are alive and conscious because we are different from matter. We are a small spark of this superior substance and we are embedded in a material body. Through the material body we interact with the world, but the material body is a machine only, made of matter. We are the life and consciousness of the machine. We are in our machine of a human being, someone else is in a machine called elephant, someone else mosquito, shark, tulip, there are millions of machines in which life is present. Wherever ther...

The material worlds are created and destroyed constantly, there was never a first time, it has been going on eternally. Outside the material world is the spiritual world. It is a place filled with innumerable planets that extend in all directions forever. Instead of the darkness of our universe, the spiritual world is bathed in the light of the brahmajyoti emanating from Krishna’s transcendental form. All of the planets are occupied and the Supreme Lord resides on each planet, each of which is magnificently beautiful, and far surpasses the wildest dreams of heaven or paradise. There is no suffering here, no anxiety, no effect of time that ages and destroys everything in the material world. The trees are wish-fulfilling trees which supply whatever a person wants. There is no scarcity of anything and no dissatisfaction. Everyone experiences real freedom and can pursue all their desires.

Those who are seers of the truth have concluded that of the nonexistent [the material body] there is no endurance and of the eternal [the soul] there is no change. This they have concluded by studying the nature of both. Bhagavad Gita 2.16 This verse seems enigmatic and mysterious at first glance like some of the verses from the Upanisads, but by understading the difference between spirit and matter, the pieces fall into place.

The three gunas are the influences behind everything that manifests in the material world. Every object, every thought, word and deed, is caused and influenced by them. The only things in the material world that are not a product of the three modes are the living entity and the Lord (which includes His name and paraphernalia etc). The spirit soul bewildered by the influence of false ego thinks himself the doer of activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature. Bg 3.27  There is no being existing, either here or among the demigods in the higher planetary systems, which is freed from these three modes born of material nature. Bg 18.40 We can call the sum total of material energy as Prakriti and within that, there are the three divisions, sattva, raja and tama. And then the Lord and the living entities who bring life to the dull material elements. Krishna speaks a lot about the three modes in Bhagavad Gita. they are relevant from chapters ...

In the third chapter Lord Sri Krishna explains that at the beginning of creation, generations of men and demigods were manifest. He gave them the means to achieve everything necessary for a happy life and at the end, attain liberation. In the beginning of creation, the Lord of all creatures sent forth generations of men and demigods, along with sacrifices for Visnu, and blessed them by saying, "Be thou happy by this yajna [sacrifice] because its performance will bestow upon you everything desirable for living happily and achieving liberation." Purport. The Lord created this material world to enable the conditioned souls to learn how to perform yajnas (sacrifices) for the satisfaction of Visnu, so that while in the material world they can live very comfortably without anxiety and after finishing the present material body they can enter into the kingdom of God. That is the whole program for the conditioned soul. Bhagavad Gita 3.10 All the unpleasantness comes from us ...

Difference between Brahman and soul is in volume. In Bhagavad Gita, Brahman is used quite freely: Those whose minds are established in sameness and equanimity have already conquered the conditions of birth and death. They are flawless like Brahman , and thus they are already situated in Brahman. Bg 5.19 Intelligent persons who are endeavoring for liberation from old age and death take refuge in Me in devotional service. They are actually Brahman because they entirely know everything about transcendental activities. Bg 7.29 The indestructible, transcendental living entity is called Brahman , and his eternal nature is called adhyatma, the self. Bg 8.3 Persons who are learned in the Vedas, who utter omkara and who are great sages in the renounced order enter into Brahman . Bg 8.11 Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman , the unmanifested? Bg 12...

Bhagavad Gita is mainly philosophical. It was spoken by Krishna Himself and is the conclusion of all the Upanisadas. In this unparalleled dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna everything that is important in life is mentioned. In itself it is complete but it is very concise and Krishna deals with one point after another without elaborating. It serves to orient a person so that they know who they are and what they should be doing. While Bhagavad Gita is only 700 verses, Srimad Bhagavatam is 18,000 verses, but the conclusion is the same. The difference between Bhagavatam and Bhagavad Gita is in the detail. For example, in Bhagavad Gita Krishna says: This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and nonmoving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again. Bg 9.10

Bhagavad Gita is about Jnana, Karma, and Bhakti, but Bhakti is more important. Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna. They are His own words which He confirms by stating that He previously gave the knowledge to Vivasvan, and He is now repeating it to Arjuna because it has become lost. He doesn’t say that He learned this science from someone else, or that He is speaking on behalf of someone else. Within the material world, everyone has to learn or somehow acquire the knowledge they have, only the Supreme Lord is exempted from this.