Wednesday, February 8, 2023

For Friday: The Bhagavad Gita, Parts 11-14



Remember, no questions for Friday's class. Instead, we'll have an in-class response based on some of the ideas from Parts 11-14 (some ideas are below). I'll also reveal your next assignment which will be due the week after next, but won't have a single due date. More on that Friday...

Here are some ideas to consider:

* Arjuna asks to see Krishna in his god form, so he can truly believe/understand. What does Krishna/Visnhu reveal to him? Why is he terrified?

* Related to this, why are we not allowed to glimpse the divine directly? Does Arjuna agree with the censorship of the divine form?

* Many people simply can't devote their entire life to meditation and/or concentration on the divine. So how do we do good works? Is Yoga the only way? What if one is too sick or poor to do it properly? 

* If you followed the Tao te Ching as closely as possible, and really practiced its teachings, do you think you would reach Brahman? Is the Tao basically "Yoga"? 

* In part 13, it says that someone must be free of the selfish attachment even to one's children and family. Do you think this means that everyone must be ultimately without any kind of emotional attachments? Will loving your children excessively lead you away from Brahman?

* What do you think Krishna means when he says, "when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others: then he goes indeed to the highest Path" (64)? Is Krishna is Visnhu, one of the supreme gods, how can Arjuna also be God? Or Me? Or You?

* What do the terms "Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas" mean? Why is everything we do under the sway of one of these terms? How can they make even the noblest work go astray? 

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