#4 Bhagavad Gita Commentary in the Kriya Yoga Tradition from Asheville, NC #2 of 3
In this video, Ryan continues his discussion of Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.
Material sensations of cold, heat, pleasure and pain are transient and impermanent. If you can endure them while you seek knowledge, they’ll eventually disappear. This is what yoga practice is about, and this is how you master your states of consciousness. People who have experienced enlightenment and clarity of awareness had to master and reshape the consciousness that they’re embodied in to manifest that clarity in the world.
Praying and meditation help to reshape your life. All yoga texts state that everything that happens occurs through self-effort. By deciding that you are going to be a Self-realized person, you are essentially saying that you are going to do whatever it takes to wake up. According to the Gita, the definition of yoga is skillful action, which means being appropriate to the situation whether that action is unpleasant or pleasant. Doing your duty helps you wake up.
One of the themes in the Gita is turning away from mental constructs, the deluded mental condition. You do this by learning to observe the mind yet remain still. When we meditate, we keep our attention in the higher chakras. When you can absorb your attention there, all the conditioning falls away. In the beginning, this may feel scary because it feels like the loss of who you think you are. But if you can keep your attention there, the joy of the eternal Self will eventually dawn. When you wake up, you realize that all the things you attached yourself to and identified with were just a dream and that you have the power to consciously shape this dream to an enlightened state or a pure, clear state. And then you lose your sense of individuality. You can still interact within this world, but you know that is just a point of this larger Consciousness to play out within the world. When you play your role and act appropriately in life while remaining content within your Self, you’re doing your duty and you will experience enlightenment or clarity of consciousness.
By meditating and moving into the witnessing Presence, you can stop identifying with the things which are transient, remain content within the Self, and consciously make choices about what you want this life to be like. This is how an enlightened person lives.
If you can’t immediately take control of your state of consciousness (if you’re angry, sad, or depressed, for example, and can’t just stop), then just watch it without feeding it. Let it go. It’ll eventually play itself out. That karma is exhausting itself within the light of your true Self. The light of the true Self comes from being the witnessing Presence. You don’t have to be perfect in the sense that you’re always happy and joyful, you just simply have to remain as the witnessing Presence and make more positive choices going forward.
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