Let me continue with more verses from Bhagavad Gita in this episode, taking off from our previous discussion.
People who are predominantly action oriented and also desirous of attaining various worldly riches, perform various fire rituals. Through these rituals they propitiate various divine beings and in return they get whatever worldly things they want. This is a relatively easy path. Others, who are also action oriented but not after worldly riches, indulge in various symbolic rituals.Verse 4.26
Instead of performing fire rituals, where various offerings are made to the fire, these people sacrifice the sense desires into the fire of self-control. In other words, they control their natural tendencies towards sense pleasures. Some of them sacrifice sense objects into the fire of sense organs. Basically, they try to disassociate sense objects from sense organs or they keep away from them.Verse 4.29
Some of these action-oriented people engaged in symbolic rituals, sacrifice the ‘in breath’ into the ‘out breath’. And some of them change the breathing rhythms or even stop both the ‘in breath’ as well as the ‘out breaths’. Basically, these people indulge in various forms of breathing rituals or Pranayama as they are called.Verse 4.34
In contrast, people who are seekers of knowledge go to right teachers who really are realized souls. They become their students. They serve their teachers with reverence and ask them questions to clarify their doubts. At the end, they receive the right knowledge from these teachers.Verse 4.37
The right knowledge is the biggest pacifier. It nullifies whatever wrong actions one might have done before; in the same way a blazing fire burns piles of firewood into ashes in a matter of no time. Results of all past wrong deeds are eradicated once for all, when one attains the ultimate knowledge.Verse 4.38
There is nothing superior or equal to ultimate knowledge. Worldly riches or any other achievements are nothing in comparison to that. Whether you follow the path of action, by performing various material rituals or symbolic rituals, ultimately you reach the same destination which a seeker of knowledge reaches. It is just a matter of time.
That was Bhagavad Geeta verses episode 12
Based on verses from Bhagavad Gita. Interpretations are by Dr. King, that are read
out. Verses are sung by Padmini Dinesh. © Dr.King 2019.
People follow different paths...... very surprised that the geetha has so beautifully categorised personalities thousands of years ago, something that we read in present psychology texts in a different way!!
ReplyDeleteVery true. There are people who believe that Bhagavad Gita is the original text of human psychology! I have a psychiatrist friend who swears that Bhagavad Gita is a psychology book ;-)
DeleteDid not understand the term symbolic rituals
ReplyDeleteYou have asked a simple but difficult to answer question. �� Let me try my best.
DeleteThere are two things here – 1. Symbolism and 2. Ritual
What is a ritual? Ritual is a sequence of operations where the sequence, operations and the implements used in the operation are all rigidly governed by rules.
Let us take the example of the pranayama or breathing ritual mentioned in the post. If you are familiar with any Hatayoga based breathing ritual say – anuloma/Viloma, your teacher would have probably told you which finger to use, how they should be folded, which nostril to close, through which nostril you have to breath, the exact sequence, and so on. That is what a ritual is about.
Now, coming to symbolism – this is like a metaphor in literature. You map some set of actions onto some set of meanings, though the actions themselves don’t exactly stand for them.
To give another example of symbolism, see for example, how a classical Indian dancer enacts. She uses different hand gestures (mudra) and body language to convey a story or theme. That is symbolism.
Now, combine these two. What do you have? You perform a set of actions that are not necessarily exact representation of another set of actions but only have a symbolic correspondence, and both these independent set of actions are done in a ritualistic fashion conforming to rigid rules. That is when you have a symbolic ritual.
Interestingly, there are many symbolic rituals described both in Bhagavad Gita as well as Upanishads. One of the Upanishads even talks about Garbhadana Samskara (first time formal mating of married couple) as a symbolic fire ritual. The description and symbolism are so vivid and explicit that a Swamiji who translated the entire Upanishad to English skipped that part! Probably he was too embarrassed by the detail ��
In the next post I am going to discuss about how Bhagavad Gita describes even Mediation as a symbolic fire ritual.
Pretty long verse, combined 2 verses?
ReplyDeleteThere are not 2 but 6 verses. You probably did not read the text or observed how the verses are recited one after the other.
DeleteThese verses are reordered to convey a theme. But they are not combined.