Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16

Character Sketch

Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.
Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.
Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to self destruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

Character Sketch act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five (745) verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty (620) verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven (57) enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

trividhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśanamātmanaḥ kāmaḥ krodhastathā lobhas tasmādetattrayaṁ tyajet

There are three gates leading to this hell: lust, anger and greed. As they lead to the degradation of the soul, these three are to be abandoned

When we shed these we are liberated etairvimuktaḥ kaunteya tamodvāraistribhirnaraḥ ācaratyātmanaḥ śreyas tato yāti parāṁ gatim

Those who have escaped these three gates of hell, O Kaunteya, behave in a manner beneficial to the (evolution of the) soul, and thus (gradually) attain the supreme destination

Anger must be evolved into Authentic Action, Lust into Caring and Compassion and Greed into Contentment and Abundance through the process of completion with all these negative emotions.

yaḥ śāstravidhimutsṛjya vartate kāmakārataḥ na sa siddhimavāpnoti na sukhaṁ na parāṁ gatim

But he who discards scriptural injunctions and acts according to his base impulses attains neither perfection, nor happiness, nor the supreme destination

These emotions are negative or demonic if they are experienced in the context of "me" and with the intention of self-gratification; they only lead to further delusion. However, when the context is changed to "you" and with the intention of enrichment of the other person; they evolve into positive energies that lead us closer to the supreme destination.

tasmācchāstraṁ pramāṇaṁ te kāryākāryavyavasthitau jñātvā śāstravidhānoktaṁ karma kartumihārhasi

By the regulations of the scriptures, one should understand what is duty and what is not duty. After being versed in scriptural injunctions, one should act accordingly

The scriptures teach that you are not separate from the whole; but an intrinsic part of the great harmony of Existence. The Scriptures help deeply embed higher cognitions about your existence into your heart, and love for god, for the self and for others flowers within you

As long as we are bound by anger, lust and greed, we are in bondage; we are in suffering. We live in it day after day and suffer. Kāma, krodha and lobha: lust, anger and greed when we shed these we are liberated. When these three combine, they create moha, or delusion. At one level these emotions are desires. Desires are energy. Lust is what drives us into reproduction and it is essential for the survival of species. Greed is the extreme expression of our survival needs. Anger is often the driving force to get things done. They achieve positive results, too. However, Kṛṣṇa refers to the expression of these emotions in the context of self-gratification. He refers to the gratification of base impulses. The baseness of the impulse is related to the intention, the context.

As long as these are expressed with the cognition of 'me,' they are base and demonic impulses. There are no liberating features. Lust can be transformed when it is expressed in an unselfish and unattached way. Lust will then totally disappear. Compassion and caring will be in its place. Lust is one aspect of the broad spectrum of desires. Unending desire is greed. When a desire is truly fulfilled, it leaves us. Karma is unfulfilled desires that goad us into action. We can never fulfill our desires because many of these desires are not truly ours. We borrow these desires from other people. There is never contentment. Each desire is the seed of suffering. You must complete with your lust, anger, greed, conflicting desires, and identify your true desires, the prārabdha karma, with which you are born into this world. When you imbibe the science of creating the space to have the energy to fulfill them. Your karma dissolves.

Above all, all the non-mechanical parts of your brain are awakened. Many powers which you have inside and you don't know, are awakened. The 'I' blossoms into 'you' effortlessly.

At this stage, we shed anger as well. Anger and guilt are byproducts of desires. What we cannot acquire makes us angry. Anger produces guilt. Being angry towards a person is fruitless. Much of the negativity expressed towards others comes back to us. It depletes our energy. Anger or even guilt is also often an expression of one's inability to do something. It is a self-centered emotion born of one's weakness, powerlessness. Suppression of anger does not help. It can actually lead to chronic diseases like cancer.

When we learn to complete with the emotion of anger instead of controlling it, it becomes energy instead of a disability.

Anger needs to be completed with and transformed into the positive energy of authentic action. What Kṛṣṇa asks us to do is to complete with the negative emotions like lust, greed and anger and create the space, with responsibility, to transform them into positive energies. He tells us that these are gateways to hell so long as we use them from the root cognition of 'me.' When we do completion and transform these emotions into energy, by creating the space of 'you', these same emotions become gateways to heaven, gateway to bliss.

Bliss is never an achievement on our part. Whatsoever we do to achieve bliss is doomed to fail. Bliss always comes from the beyond as a gift. We must be passively receptive to it. We are not to be aggressively active for it, just be receptive like a womb. We must be feminine to receive bliss. We must become pregnant with God. When ego or 'I' disappears, anger, greed and lust also disappear. What is left is bliss

Listen, remember the most important thing! God loves us: He has not given up on us, He is not indifferent to us and He is continuously concerned about us, He cares. The deeper this idea enters your heart, the better, because when you feel more loved by God, you will be able to have love for God, and you will have love for others. That's how we are able to love: if we are loved, we can love. If we are not loved, we don't know how to love; we don't know what love is. God is our substance, our very being. He is not something outside us; He is our innermost core. We do not need to seek and search for Him. Only this has to be remembered: we have forgotten it. God is not lost; only we have forgotten who we are

Don't be identified with the body. Don't be identified with your mind, country, race or religion. Don't be identified with anything. Don't think, 'I am this' or 'I am that'. Remember, neither 'this' nor 'that'. That is one of the secret teachings of the mystics: neti-neti, neither 'this' nor 'that'. If you can avoid both polarities, day and night, life and death, body and mind, then slowly a third energy arises in you, a third force arises in you. That is consciousness. That's your reality. That is freedom—freedom from fear, anxiety, misery, freedom from the world, freedom from the wheel of life and death. Then you are a witness, watching, a mirror reflecting but not getting caught in any reflection. When you are a witness, the 'me' and 'mine' drop. What remains is identification with your energy, with your state, not your status. In that state, you are one with all. You are in the space of Living Advaita, oneness. You become Divine.

Teach the students to not associate themselves with any identities associated with their status in the world, their body or their mind. instead they must become associated with their energy, their state of consciousness. encourage The Students to learn to be in a stance of receptiveness within their being at all times, so that they can forever enjoy their divine presence that permeates everything at all times.

1. What are the three gateways to hell Kama, Krodha, Lobha?
2. What is Greed?
3. Name one positive and one negative result associated with Greed?
4. How can Greed be transformed into Contentment?
5. What is Anger?
6. Name one positive and one negative result associated with Anger?
1. How can Anger be transformed into Authentic Action?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

Paper Pencil Acrylic paints Fine Art Brush Colour Palette

PROCEDURE:

All artistic depictions of Krishna show a peacock feather adorning his head. Let us draw a peacock feather on a paper with our pencils. Now try creating your own perfect colour pallet for painting the feather. Mix various acrylic paints in the basic colours with gold and/or silver paint to make colours. The colours could be called Pearl Blue, Turquoise Blue, Olive Green, Pearl Metallic Green, Chrome Yellow, Golden Yellow, Bronze, and Pearl Metallic Gold. Paint your feather with these unique colours to give your painting a realistic finish.

The very life or Existence is Krishna and the living energy is Krishna. Krishna loves us. He cares about us. Krishna is our substance, our very being. Krishna is not something outside us. He is our innermost core. Let us celebrate Krishna in our inner and outer world!