Bhagavad Gita in the Light of Sri Ramakrishna (Class 6) | Swami Medhananda
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2023
- In this class (Class 6), we discuss pp. 1209-1220 of Swami Medhananda’s article, “Toward a New Hermeneutics of the Bhagavad Gītā: Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, and the Secret of Vijñāna,” which you can download here:
vedanta.org/wp-content/upload...
In the next class (Class 7 on Oct 29th), we will discuss pp. 1220-1233 of Swami Medhananda’s article, “Toward a New Hermeneutics of the Bhagavad Gītā: Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Aurobindo, and the Secret of Vijñāna.”
Study questions for the next homework assignment:
1. Explain Sri Aurobindo’s contextual justification of his interpretation of the terms “jñāna” and “vijñāna” in verse 7.2 of the Gītā in relation to 7.1 and 7.3.
2. What do you think is the best way to interpret the terms “jñāna” and “vijñāna” in the Gītā? Whose interpretation of the terms do you accept-Śaṅkara’s, Rāmānuja’s, Sri Aurobindo’s, or otherwise? And why?
3. Compare Śaṅkara’s and Sri Aurobindo’s interpretations of verses 15.16-18 of the Gītā. Which interpretation, if either, do you find more plausible, and why?
4. According to Sri Aurobindo, how does the doctrine of vijñāna furnish the philosophical basis of the Gītā’s views on spiritual practice?
5. Do you have any questions about the reading? Did you have difficulty understanding anything? Do you have any doubts or confusions?
Please respond to the study questions by filling in the online form here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA...
Please make sure to submit your responses by Oct 28th 2023 7pm. This form will not be available after that time!
Main textbook: Sri Aurobindo’s Essays on the Gita:
vedanta.org/wp-content/upload...
Supplementary texts:
* Sri Aurobindo, Bhagavad Gita and its Message, edited by Anilbaran Roy (www.amazon.com/Bhagavad-Gita-...)
* Swami Tapasyananda’s Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā: The Scripture of Mankind
* Swami Chidbavananda’s The Bhagavad Gita
Gita app based on Sri Aurobindo’s commentary:
Android: play.google.com/store/apps/de...
iPhone: apps.apple.com/in/app/bhagava...
Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna Jai Sri Ramakrishna
Shree Hari Hara Aum.....🙏🙏🙏😌
Pranam thakur pranam maa pranam Swamiji
Pranaam Swami Medhananda ji
Hare Krishna
Shri. Ramakrishna was like a child in a playground. Jumping on the bars,balancing on the teeter totter, flying in the swing. Fun was the same 😀. Just us who don’t have the capacity to play
Pranam thakur
Pranam Swamiji
Pranam Maharaj 🙏 🙏
Thank you Swamiji for the answer 🙏
Question around 46:00 is very interesting. It proves that Mandukya non-dualists do not understand "Vivartvad". In Nirvikalp samadhi, Shakti alone remains, which is nothing other than Bramhan. Everything perceived in non-samadhi state is the projection of that same Shakti who stops the projection in the Nirvikalp Samadhi. Then how and where will they find Shakti? 🙏🙏
Copying and pasting from professor's own paper in the homework ....🤣🤣 The energy of the classroom is great. enjoying it.🙏
Ah, but there are those who experienced nirvikalpa samadhi AND sahaja samadhi in the same awakening, shifting from one to the other as a matter of focus.
Until you meet Me, I'm impersonal. Now imagine we are separated by enormous referential time scalings of the initial impulse gifting/infolding/unfolding/receiving, and that every expression, even unknown to you, of all the universes and worlds that came and went like so much stage dressing, that near Infinite span of time, of your experiences, your over and over repitions of the delusion of birth and death in a place set up for you, by a being that is not Me, just endlessly running the maze of forms and unanswerables, was, to Me, about 40 seconds in the Stillness wherein I birthed Time as a Gift to She who IS Conciousness. I'm here now though. Care to know Me? It will take you Eternity to know Me, but we have that in common; it will take Me Eternity to know all of You! Don't care to know Me? That was easy. We're done.
Dear Swamiji. I do enjoy this Gita series but I guess we keep the discussions to a separate session :). This kind of distraction from the topic
The 2nd & 3rd stages-- i think its difficult to live a personal life if everything is real but the vast Brahman, because then it becomes real but too vast to reconcile it with day to day personal living-- eg its fine if its you are the only one experiencing it, but if the entire " collective" has same experience of Brahman being real,maybe it would become impractical at the actual day to day practical living, we have to then bring the vast real brahman into a personal relationship like sakha or any such bhaava-- its not dwaita as in separation of the two but like condensing it for better handling, is that what Srk calls jivan mukta??The mother in one of her observations in the agendas says that when you realise this you get the capacity to become very ordinary,nobody will even know that you have are Brahman realised,etx and it has better effect ( for real time transformation) than a guru etc,because you are right into the game- leela- one with evrything, and living an absolutely ordinary regular life,i think the Rishis are like that.
Swamiji, the "person" (immortal soul) who sees the entire elephant, or that "person" (immortal soul) who lives under the tree and sees the chameleon with its multiple colors, is a person who contemplates the Self (elephant-chameleon ) and still contemplates the universe and other souls.
Here we have that Being exists, souls exist, and the universe exists.
If then Being exists, and souls and the universe exist, the "impersonal" aspect of Being, and of anything, can only be an "impression" upon Being, and never the nature of Being. This Being "has an appearance impersonal", as it is one of the infinite ways in which He is perceived. Thakur speaks of the person who can only perceive the form of the Mother if he can move a little away from Her, so that he can see Her. Logically, we will not be able to perceive the shape of an object if this object is stuck to our face. So, the mental state of absorption in God is an inferior vision to that of the soul that remained a little at a distance, in order to have a relationship.
Hi, I wish to know Why relationship with God as Duality (Personal Form/aspect/quality) is superior than Absorption (Impersonal Form/aspect/quality)?
@@viswa2311 When it comes to a relationship, we always need to have at least two people involved, as one relates to the other.
It is in this sense that communion is superior to immersion.
There is never actually an end to duality. Even the salt doll that dives into the ocean and is dissolved in it is still in the ocean, as salt, even though it cannot be perceived.
Born in vain, that soul that has obtained the rare human birth did not seek to know God in this very life. Why was he born in vain? For it is the relationship with God as a person (one person and another relating) that is the reason for the existence of the soul as a person. If this were not the case, birth as a marine coral would perhaps be more appropriate.
In fact, even the existence of souls, of the universe, of everything that we call the journey of life, is only based on the relationship, on the search relationship.
Thakur called existence "God's game." The game is to discover God, know Him, and love Him, being a person.
@@viswa2311 Buddhists emphasized escaping suffering so much that they forgot the search for the enjoyment of existence without suffering (which was the search of Prince Siddhartha). Then the absurd idea of "not me" began to be developed and embraced by world-weary mentalities. Advaita Vedanta reaffirmed the "I", but it did so timidly. So this "I" needs to be affirmed and denied. Sri Ramakrishna never supported this escape. He always taught that our eternal souls are generated from the Primordial Power of Brahman, so that we either live "forgotten" of this as jivas (not knowing God), or we live as liberated souls (those who know God). There is no Advaita attempt to dialogue with the Buddhist idea of "not self" in Sri Ramakrishna's teaching.
Thakur clarified that the issue is to choose the "mature self", rather than the "immature self". Killing the self was never in Sri Ramakrishna's discourse.
@@devotoderamakrishna You have gave a beautiful reason for existence, like others. For me, Reason doesn't matter. Whatever reason you wish to give for this experience, you may. Just another belief, nothing more for me. But, you haven't gave any appropriate reason for superiority, like how would dwelling in Blissful Abode of Brahman formlessly absorbed in the heart - is inferior to dual idol devotional expressions. Seems that, you have to know about that Absorption even better. Never Ramakrishna said that Nirvikalpa Samadhi experience is lesser/inferior to all these.
@@devotoderamakrishna He did talk about "killing the self", in a way. It's very deep subtle teaching, necessary to understand God. When asked to Ramakrishna "who suffers? Why all this sufferings to individuals?", he didn't replied to an Advaitin that "To attain Enlightenment" instead "There is no you, only God everywhere". And he saw only God in the Butterfly and in the Boy who killed the Butterfly. Generally, People needs some boost up according to their beliefs, so a push is given, but going deeper subtle to have firm understanding "Vijnana" (here Vijnana meaning is not what Ramakrishna meant, but normal Sanskrit meaning used in all scriptures, like Vijnanamaya in Taitteriya and Vijnana in Kathoupanishad as a Charioteer) is necessary to attain Knowledge of Brahman (Jnana).