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Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10

Existence Is Your Friend

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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

śrībhagavānuvāca bhūya eva mahābāho śṛṇu me paramaṁ vacaḥ yatte'haṁ prīyamāṇāya vakṣyāmi hitakāmyayā

Lord Kṛṣṇa says: Listen carefully again, Oh mighty-armed Arjuna! Because you are My dear friend, I shall speak further on the Supreme knowledge for your welfare

Arjuna experiences Kṛṣṇa as the Master to His disciple and experiences the Master as a friend (sakha bhāva)

There are two ways in which we can live. First, we can embrace and welcome reality, in which case our ego or root pattern must dissolve because only then can we face reality. Please understand that this reality is God. God is not some entity hidden in some remote corner of the Universe or in the sky. He is the reality around us.

The second way of living is how most of us live: We create a shell, a dream world around ourselves to defend a false ego which has no substance in reality. This is what is meant by māyā—illusion. Since we are hidden in this capsule of our unreal world with our ego as the center, we cannot feel the immediate presence of God, who is actually the closest to us.

Listen! The first thing Kṛṣṇa teaches as rājavidya rājaguhyaṁ (secret of all secrets), is that Existence is not your enemy. It responds to your thoughts. It continuously cares for you. It is intelligence.

If you live with the attitude of enmity with the Whole, even when you live, you will constantly be tortured. When you live with the feeling of friendliness or sakha bhāva, with the attitude that Existence is your friend, that Existence is your own, you feel a deep easiness. Above all, more than the easiness, you will feel deeply connected to Existence.

By its very nature, the wave starts in the ocean, exists in the ocean and falls into the ocean. If it understands that it is a part of the ocean, it will be utterly relaxed. It will live a blissful life. If it fights the fact, it will fight with the ocean. But eventually it has to fall into the ocean.

If you understand that Existence is your friend and it deeply cares for you, you will not feel the need to live according to a script for life.

Instead, you will have tremendous courage and trust in yourself to live life spontaneously. Please understand, Existence constantly cares for you.

Trust the intelligence in you. Be complete and welcome life as it flows. The ultimate secret that Kṛṣṇa wants to reveal is that Existence, Parāśakti, Brahman, is your friend, not your enemy. It is intelligence and it responds to your thoughts. This is the first understanding.

Children to learn about four inner powers and three types of karma. To understand why we assume the body.

To understand what happens when we leave the body.

  • ❖ What are root thought patterns (saṁskāras) and (unfulfilled desires) Karma?
  • ❖ What are the four inner energies- vāk śakti, mano śakti, prema śakti and ātma śakti ?
  • ❖ What are the three types of karma-sañcita, prārabdha and āgāmya ?
  • ❖ What is the sequence of events at the time of death?

GOALS To understand that Existence is your friend and it deeply cares for you

  • 1. Where does God live?
  • 2. What are the two ways of living?
  • 3. What does rājavidya rājaguhyaṁ mean and what rājavidya rājaguhyaṁ is Kṛṣṇa teaching us?
  • 4. Can a wave exist away from the ocean?
  • 5. What gives you trust and courage in life?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

  • 1. A sheet of white paper
  • 2. Green paper cut into leaf shapes so each child has many leaves
  • 3. Pen or pencil
  • 4. Glue

PROCEDURE

Get the children to write the names or descriptions (or draw) on the leaves of all the people they can be friendly with, whether in the past, present or future. One name or description per leaf. Then they stick their leaves onto their white paper to make a tree or forest.

INFERENCE

They can choose to be friendly to different, different people. Your actions should be nivṛitti (completion) based not pravṛitti (incompletion) based.

MATERIALS NEEDED

  • A wide bowl of water
  • Few small stones

PROCEDURE:

An outdoor activity: have a wide bowl of water between 3-4 children. Encourage them to watch the waves formed when they drop a small stone into the water. Get them to take turns to drop only one stone at a time, then two children drop at the same time, then all children around one bowl drop at the same time. Get them to describe what is different in the waves for different numbers of stones. Let them wait each time for the waves to disappear and the water to become calm again.

INFERENCE:

The waves only have a temporary existence and disappear again, just as we are part of the Universe, of Existence