Summary:

In this session, we revisit Bhagavad Gita Chapter 2, Verse 12, exploring the paradigm shift from seeing oneself as a limited individual to understanding one's true nature as sat-cit (Existence-Consciousness). The teaching uses the analogy of space and a cup to illustrate how Atma (Self) is unaffected by the changing conditions of body and mind.

The session then delves into Verse 13, which discusses the stages of life (childhood, youth, old age) and the concept of reincarnation. It explains the composition of a jiva (individual soul) in terms of three bodies: physical (sthula-sharira), subtle (sukshma-sharira), and causal (karana-sharira). The subtle body is further broken down into cittam, buddhi, manas, and ahamkara.

The lesson emphasizes the importance of understanding one's true nature as Atma, which is unchanging and aware of all three bodies. It concludes with the Pavamāna Mantra, highlighting the journey from ignorance to knowledge, darkness to light, and mortality to immortality. The teaching aims to help students recognize their intrinsic nature beyond the temporary body-mind complex.

REVISION OF BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 12:

Final revision of important Verse 12. 

• Within paradigm we live “I’m small individual, and I have to get things to complete me”, is not possible, which Arjuna suspected through logic: World is made of limited units of times-space, and self is limited, who wants freedom from limitation in reference to world and self, it’s impossible. Thus need paradigm shift. Individuality is not totally false, neither totally true. For example, wave isn’t totally false, but has a much bigger reality about itself as water; which is water… the truth of wave and ocean… and this is an accomplished FACT. Therefore if take self as a single wave, and see other waves, naturally you’ll be troubled by death. Krishna says, “There was never a time when I, you, or these people… didn’t exist”.
• Krishna reveals Atma as sat-cit. There is a changing nature of us, and Awareness in whose presence the changing conditions of body-mind are known.
• How many sat-cit’s are there? One. Body-minds are many.  How to understand this?
  • ANALOGY OF SPACE:
    • Space is one, it contains everything. Suppose it is never born, nor does it cease. When cup is born, is cup-space really born? No. But coming of cup, gives space as-though confinement. And the confinement has a usefulness about it in reference to forms, for example it holds water. However before cup came, space was, while cup is alive, space is, after cup breaks, space is. Secondly, space also isn’t affected what’s inside the pot.
    • Similarly, sat-cit (one total conscious being) is always true, like undivided space. Then body-mind comes into being, and it as-though, confines sat-cit into a single entity. Body equated to cup, and mind equated to liquid in cup. Sat-cit throws light on conditions of the body & mind. Suppose your mind generates a complaint, “Not getting this! It's too abstract!”. What has illumined that thought? The Awareful Existence (you).
• Apply to living: Mind-body is designed to go through discomfort (śita-uṣṇa, sukha-dukḥa, as we'll see in BG2.14). Furthermore, just when think everything is fine, a new event affects the mind. And if you think you’re supposed to free the mind, you’ll fail as mind can’t be held constant. You can only understand mind as your incidental nature and not intrinsic nature. Just like drama of life is happening on stage, and the light on the stage is sat-cit. 

BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 13:

देहिनः अस्मिन् यथा देहे कौमारम् यौवनम् जरा ।
तथा देहान्तर-प्राप्तिः धीरः तत्र न मुह्यति ॥ २-१३॥
dehinaḥ asmin yathā dehe kaumāram yauvanam jarā ।
tathā dehāntara-prāptiḥ dhīraḥ tatra na muhyati ॥ 2-13॥

Just as, for the jīva, the indweller of this body, there is childhood, youth and old age, similar is the gaining of another body. With reference to that, a wise person does not come to grief.

• This body is given to us to undertake journey of life. It’s programmed that it has to go through different stages which can’t be stopped. They are kaumāram [childhood]), yauvanam [young age], jarā [old age]. It goes through 6 modifications: Asti (present in womb of mother), jayate (born), vardhate (grows), viparinamate (matures), apakṣīyate (decays), vinaśyati (perishes). If your identity is restricted to these 6 modifications, it severely affects your self-image.
• What is life of a person? Per Vedas, it’s life of a jiva. The Jiva goes through different lifeforms, taking different bodies and minds.
• Jiva is made up of 3 bodies, or 3 updadhis (superimpositions): 
  1. Sthula-sharira (Physical or gross body):
     • The mass of atoms taken to the doctor. 
  2. Sukshma-sharira (Subtle-body):
     • “Subtle” in sense of being more subtle then the physical body. EG: Neuro scientist can see electrical impulses, cells, but can’t see your thoughts. Therapist has to depend for you to talk, as they can’t hook up instrument to see your troubles.
     • Consists of:
       1. Cittam: Remembering/recall mechanism. 
       2. Buddhi: Understanding, analysis, connecting the dots, see relevance of the teaching.
       3. Manas: Emoting mechanism. Serves as feedback whether you're on track or gone off course.
       4. Ahamkara (ego):
          • Aham, or I, refers to sat-cit. But the “kara” (doer) produces a sense that “aham” is isolated to one given body-mind instrument, and thus is doing/experiencing whatever the physical/subtle body is doing/experiencing. For example if physical body is walking, that experience gets associated to the “aham“, thus we say “I am walking”. 
          • Ahamkara can also be understood as a survival mechanism. For example, if I am hungry, I don't start feeding you. I feed the instrument that is hungry.
          • Another way to understand ahamkara is, it generates opinions about “aham“, or I. One moment, opinion is “I am CEO”. In the dream, “I am a popper!”. Another dream, “I am a criminal”. Listen to BGita recording, “I am a student”. Teaching the BGita, “I am a teacher!”. So ahamkara constantly attaches adjectives and roles onto “aham“. It's needed for transactional purposes, whether person is liberated or not.
  3. Karana-sharira (Causal Body):
     1. GENERAL EXPLANATION:
        1. Influences Life Trajectory:
           • It's called “Causal Body” because it causes (shapes) the other two bodies (physical/subtle) to be what they are. Meaning it causes or shapes your mental inclinations [Saṁskāras] (such as deep thinker, attracted to illegal things, attracted to spirituality/purity) — which consequently shapes your personality — which influences your life trajectory.
           • Examples how impressions (samskaras) show up in your life:
             1. SIBLINGS: Two children born to the same parents can have vastly different tendencies. One child might be inclined towards music, while the other might be drawn to art. These differences are due to their individual samskaras.
             2. DHARMIC ORIENTATION: Samskaras gained in previous lives can influence one's current life. For instance, a person born into a family committed to dharma will have samskaras that reflect those values, regardless of their current upbringing.
             3. DISPASSIONATE TYPES: Those who are dispassionate and inclined towards spiritual pursuits may have saṁskāras from previous lives that lead them to seek sannyāsa (renunciation). 
             4. LYING: A person with a tendency to hurt others or lie for personal gain has saṁskāras that reflect these negative dispositions. These samskaras influence their behavior and interactions with others.
        2. Storage of Karma-Phala:
           • Causal Body also stores all unseen results of past actions. Think of it as an archive of punya (results of appropriate actions) / papa (results of inappropriate actions) points. 
     2. DETAILED EXPLANATION:
        • Causal Body consists of past unseen causes (aḍṛṣṭa-phala) which have given rise to this this body-mind you're carrying around in this life. It sets up a general trajectory of your life. In Vedic language, Causal-body is collection of karma-phala (results of past actions) in your account.
        • Collection of karma means: Every action performed has 2 kinds of results: drsta [seen result of your action. EG: If helped someone, you feel good] and adrsta [delayed result, you don’t know when it’ll occur].
          • Both seen & unseen can be of two types:
            1. Punya: unseen result of appropriate action.
            2. Papa: unseen result of inappropriate action.
        • Therefore any action you perform, the action's unseen results (either punya/papa) make up the Causal Body.  
     3. PURPOSE OF CAUSAL-BODY TEACHING:
        • Helps you avoid convert life into a fatalistic philosophy. EG: This is happening to me because something was done in past and there's nothing I can do about it!
        • Causal-Body shows that your life here isn’t a random event. Your life today is product of past causes, whether you can trace them or not. The moment you change your actions, you create new causes, which changes your future. So you’re neither totally free nor totally bound, as you come with power of choice.
     4. SUMMARY OF CAUSAL BODY (karana-sharira):
        1. Causal Nature: The Kāraṇa-śarīra is the cause of the physical and subtle bodies, shaping inclinations and personality.
        2. Storage of Karma-Phala: It stores the unseen results (of actions aligned with dharma and misaligned with dharma) of past actions, influencing current and future experiences.
        3. Purpose of Teaching: To avoid fatalism and empower individuals to take responsibility for their actions and shape their future.
        4. Specific Function: Acts as a repository for adṛṣṭa-phala, influencing the formation of the physical and subtle bodies and setting the trajectory of one's life.
• And what is Atma?
  • The awareness in whose presence 3 bodies are changing.
  • Physical/Subtle body changing is easy to understand. But how is Causal Body changing?
    1. Your responses / actions inject Causal Body with new unseen punya/papa karma-phala. 
    2. New orientations developed (such as orientation for study / purity) is injected into karma-phala.
• SUMMARY:
  • As long as jiva doesn’t know it’s changeless identity, I identifies with the 3 bodies, which generates causes for Me. Consequently, I have rebirth, until in one life I figure out I am much bigger then this incidental body-mind-sense complex.
  • Knowing one’s intrinsic nature, the wise person does not grieve for bodies that have been coming and going for eons.
  • Therefore Krishna reminds Arjuna, “I’m not the small Arjuna with this body-mind, I am Atma which is experiencing/knowing life through this body. And I have to make use of this body-mind to discover Atma”.
    • EG: B.U. 1.3.28 (Pavamāna Mantra: Being Purified Mantra)
      • Asato ma satgamaya: From asat (taking my body-mind as intrinsic), take me to sat (knowing I am the invariable presence).
      • Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya: My (deathless, indestructible) reality is always with me, but I don’t see it. To see it, I have to bring light of knowledge regarding my true nature.
      • Mrtyor ma amrtam gamaya: If I use BGita to see my nature, I’ll gain immortality because Atma is immortal.
• NEXT VERSE: Means to understanding your nature is through composure of mind in reference to objects…

—

Course was based on Neema Majmudar's Bhagavad Gita & Swami Dayananda (Arsha Vidya) home study course.

Recorded 18 Aug, 2024