#3 Bhagavad Gita Commentary in the Kriya Yoga Tradition From Asheville, NC #1 of 3
In this video, we continue to explore Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, “The Yoga of Knowledge of the Imperishable.” Krishna describes to Arjuna the truth of his eternal nature: All the things that he has experienced and considered to be his teachers will die. Anything that’s born will die. But there is something here that is eternal and is always experiencing the changes within consciousness (like anger, sadness, or contentment). What Krishna is trying to impart to Arjuna is the knowledge of what he is because, right now, the soul, involved with nature, identifies with whatever is happening. The meditation process allows you to turn within so that you can learn to experience this witnessing Presence.
The mind says that we’re deluded to think that giving up attachment to our story will bring good fortune. It’s the mind that gives this sense of individuality, and it’s that sense of individuality that causes suffering. When something goes wrong and you suffer, who suffers? The “I” that you think you are is suffering. If you’re not identified with this “I,” then who’s left to suffer? No one.
In Lahiri Mahasaya’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, he states that the problem really is thinking about and labeling things as good or bad. When things happen that are not so pleasant, we can choose to let go of the attachment to the thing that we think is causing us to suffer. Joy is an inside experience, and we can choose our internal state no matter what’s going on.
If you’re doing yoga and meditation to escape from life, you’re not really practicing yoga. Life is yoga practice. It’s learning to exist here and now free of attachments and aversions. The real yogi is one who can experience any situation and still know what they are inside. It begins as an intellectual knowing: I’m not my body. I’m not my thoughts. I’m not my emotions. I’m not my story. It starts out there, but then it slowly starts to move into an actual experience.
When you practice meditation, you learn to distance yourself from identifying with things which you are not. When a yogi is meditating, they’re letting go of thinking about life. Meditation isn’t about figuring out the world. Meditation is about learning to exist as this eternal witnessing Presence. If you can just sit and be there, you are practicing yoga.
Whatever you experience is a result of things you have put into play in the past. You’ve planted seeds (thoughts, emotions, choices) in consciousness. These seeds, having been watered, grow into the things that you experience. If you habitually think and feel in a negative state, it’s because you have planted those seeds. Once you are able to experience a peaceful state inside, then what’s left is to simply observe and let these seeds either sprout and then wither and die (let them exhaust the force of their karma) or intentionally pluck them out and change the way you’re feeling and thinking. You can choose to plant new positive seeds.
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