Action Meets Destiny: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 32

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43:09

Action Meets Destiny: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 32

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Join us as we explore the Bhagavad Gita. This week, we will be diving into Chapter 2, verse 32. In these weekly lectures, we focus on specific ancient teachings that we can all apply to our day-to-day lives and personal spiritual journey!

Bhagavad Gita Spirituality Inner Journey Dharma Ancestral Patterns Self Discovery Spiritual Practice Personal Growth Overcoming Challenges Dharma Exploration

Meet your Teacher

Toronto, ON, Canada

Meet your Teacher

Toronto, ON, Canada

Transcript

So we are reading from the Bhagavad Gita. This particular version that I'm holding up is by Stephen Mitchell but you can read any version you want or you don't have to have a copy to follow along at all. The Bhagavad Gita is a dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna and Arjuna is a great warrior. In India he was born into the warrior caste so it is his dharma to protect the country and to fight you know that's his his thing. And there's a great civil war. Imagine taking the place you grew up and splitting everybody down the center and now you are on a side of that and all of a sudden you look around at the battlefield which is what's happened. Arjuna is in a great white chariot. Krishna is his charioteer and he has said to Krishna take us into the center of the battle let me look around you know let me see my opponents who I will vanquish. And he looks around and all he sees are friends and family. He also sees his evil cousins and if you want to know more about that real foundation of the story I highly recommend listening to the introduction recording in my playlist called Bhagavad Gita and we go into a lot more detail about the evil cousins and who's on each side and all that kind of thing. But what happens is he looks around and he's like I don't want to fight these people. I know these people. Some of these people are family. Some are friends and even my cousins they're just people you know even if they're messed up even if they're evil even if they've done bad things to me I don't want to fight. So Krishna has said to him you must fight you must battle this is what you're here for. So there's a lot of confusion around the Gita where some people say well so they're they're saying that violence is okay that you're supposed to war is that what you're saying but that isn't the greater message because the battlefield is called Kurukshetra which is actually the battlefield of the heart and so the battlefield is actually the warrior that Arjuna is the warrior that we all are is actually it's the path of the spiritual warrior and again not some strange vanquishing spiritual person with a sword of light and all that not that but if you imagine you on your personal journey your experience here on earth this is a confusing place to live like sometimes we I don't know about you but some days are really bright and shiny and other days you sort of wake up thinking what are we doing like what what in the world are we doing why is it so hard it's very confusing and I think it's really good to admit that to ourselves that some days it's really hard. Part of the problem in the western world is that we see life as an accumulation of material goods or we see success as having made this much money or having this kind of relationship or having this number of children or achieving this particular status and so when we're kind of climbing this curious ladder of the material world it actually isn't satisfying deep in our hearts I mean there's a thrill in it there can be a great thrill of out there you know you know but in the same way that you might decide I want to run a marathon the actual completing of the marathon that's nice that's a great thing and afterwards you're like wow okay I did it but the real thrill is the journey and how you had to shift and grow in order to run that marathon all the dials we had to turn inside of us to get the courage to change to get rid of the fluff in our life to get rid of the voices in our head that tell us we can't do it all those things that journey to actually be able to run the marathon that's the thrill that's where our soul locks in to the journey and we feel alive and we don't question why we're here because we're taking that inner spiritual journey where we're looking at all of the inner mechanisms inside that say this is important this isn't important I like that I don't like that and we look at all the patterns that we keep falling into that maybe cause us real suffering the spiritual path is that inner journey the outer journey just happens whether we're in relationship or not in relationship we have an inner journey whether we have 14 kids or no children we have an inner the inner journey is the same whether we have all the money in the world or we don't know how to pay rent this month month we have an inner journey our responses to that our courage our optimism it's all the same no matter what the external world is saying so all of a sudden back to our quote battlefield this is the journey of our life and all these people on the Kurukshetra on this battlefield it's funny when I keep saying battlefield it sounds so violent but on this field of discovery there are all the things the hundred cousins of Arjuna the evil cousins they represent all the aspects of us that keep pulling us down our addictions our patterns our issues with our self-worth there are people against Arjuna who are family grandfathers uncles and they represent our ancestral inheritance you know what has been going on for generations and generations in our soul what did we experience through epigenetics inside our mothers our grandmothers these are all wirings inside of us that no matter what our external circumstances are they are on this field of discovery they are there they are in the arena of our life on Arjuna's side are his four brothers and these guys all represent your highest self courage love optimism faith whatever those things are inside of you that help you on this field that help you in this arena and so when Arjuna goes into the center of the field and he says I don't want to fight I don't want to do it I'm sick of it I don't want to shed blood I don't want anything and he slumps into the chariot this is us on those hard days we don't want to keep trying and we're not like despondent like we want to end it all we just we're just simply like you know what I'm just going to go with the flow I don't want to keep arguing I don't want to keep standing up for myself I don't want to make these hard choices I don't want to have that hard conversation I don't want to buck the family any longer I just want to just have some peace so I'm going to close my eyes and pretend none of this is happening and there are times when this is a really good idea sometimes we do need to withdraw and just breathe into our own self but eventually we have to open our eyes and we have to deal with it because this is the path last week we talked about the different stages of a spiritual path the first stage is that when we're kind of unconscious we're sort of just rolling through life that we're just sort of you know I remember years ago I went to a holistic practitioner and and she looked at me and she says you know Katrina you can live your life like you're inside a pinball machine only changing direction when you hit a wall or you can slow down and listen and when we're in that first stage we're very often like that like we just keep on doing what we're doing until we hit a wall or we're in so much pain that we're willing to change so that's that first level the next level is oh wow you know what I have courage I can do stuff I can drive my own boat now desire suddenly becomes everything I want three cars and I want that job and I want that partner and I want this and I want that and everything is driven by this desire to and it's not evil it's just this desire to be whole this desire to expand into my biggest self and there's some idea that there is some spiritual meaning in life but it's still very driven by the external world it doesn't matter where we are on this journey we've all we all play in all of them all the time but then the third level the warrior this is where we actually know better we've actually got some teachings at our back we know we've had some aha moments we've realized that okay you know what my experience here on earth is up to me I make choices I choose how to respond to my circumstances even if I can't change them you know classic victor frankel teaching that we can't always change what's going on around us but we can hundred percent choose our response to it this is warrior talking now this is someone saying you know what I'm ready to make change I'm ready to see the patterns that I'm walking through and change them that's what I'm ready to do but this requires a bit of discomfort this requires a whole different level in yoga they call it tapas it's almost like you know you're meant to do something and you're willing to be uncomfortable to make it happen because you're going to have to crawl out of a rut you know you're going to have to crawl out of a pattern that maybe your family has been in for 50 generations or maybe you've been in for 50 years and so this is a requirement and this is the journey of Arjuna this is the journey of all of us and so Arjuna's still not sure and the last little while Krishna has been saying he's been trying to explain to him about the true nature of life and that's all what we've been talking about for the last few months that you are this eternal being you know you don't have to be so attached to all these things right but now he's shifted gears and said okay let's forget all that but what are you really here to do Arjuna really so today we're looking at chapter 2 verse 32 and again you don't have to have a book to follow along but if you do this is where we are so again previously he says this self with a capital s who dwells in the body is inviolable forever therefore you have no cause to grieve for any being Arjuna know what your duty is and do it without hesitation for a warrior there is nothing better than a battle that duty and joins or joins with so here is the verse we're going to look at today blessed are warriors who are given the chance of a battle like this which calls them to do what is right and opens the gate of heaven i'm going to read another couple versions of it so in this one this is by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and he calls Arjuna Partha which just basically means he comes from the family of Partha happy are the Kshatriyas oh Partha who find unsought such a battle an open door to heaven this is Paramahansa Yogananda's version here he calls Arjuna son of Pritha and Pritha is Arjuna's mother who would also which also stands for the earth and duty and all that oh son of Pritha fortunate are the Kshatriyas when such a righteous battle has unprovoked fallen to their lot they find therein an open door to heaven Kshatriya means warrior oh Arjuna fortunate are the warriors when such a righteous battle has unprovoked fallen to their lot they find therein an open door to heaven what comes to you when you hear that what thoughts roll through your mind purpose yes will you walk through the door yes a threshold moment unprovoked struggles can lead to that necessary change of direction 100 percent so this is what Paramahansa says there are two kinds of noble warriors the soldier of any land who engages himself in a righteous war for the protection of his country and the spiritual warrior who is ready to use self-control and undaunted endeavor to protect the inner kingdom of peace the spiritual warrior who is ready to use self-control and undaunted endeavor to protect the inner kingdom of peace gratitude for my daily struggles yes there's a few really interesting parts of this that are really significant one is the idea that these battles arise unprovoked Arjuna didn't go looking for this battle it came to him so when we think of all the challenges that we have in our lives that come to us they appear you know maybe they're relationship struggles maybe they're emotional triggers maybe they're financial maybe they're community oriented maybe there are personal health issues but they have come to us and what's interesting is when a challenge comes to us and they align with our spiritual path how fortunate are we to get to do this to engage in this challenge the obstacles struggles in our daily human life are an opportunity to lean into our divinity totally i need to live in harmony with the reality of my own existence in life exactly this is where faith is interesting and i don't mean faith in a religious dogma way i mean faith that says this is interesting that this has come forward in my life and to not necessarily say why has this happened to me what did i do wrong what am i being punished you know why why why not that but to actually reframe it and say what part of me needs to step forward in order to engage with this what part of me is lying dormant that i need to grow and expand and lean into to really shift into my path this is a very different question i do a lot of counseling with people and i have to tell you it is almost always that somebody has some challenge that presents to them and when we can back up which i can do because i'm a third person i'm not connected into any of the the drama and the emotional loading that's happening it's a fascinating thing when you can see wow engaging in this will change your life because whatever the thing is that's such a challenge that has brought them to me it's overwhelming why is it overwhelming it might not be overwhelming to someone else someone else might say oh well if i had that happen i would just do this or this it'd be so easy but the very fact that it's overwhelming tells us that there are deep patterns deep programs that this is bringing to light so to actually say wow okay what are my normal responses to this what are some new responses to this and this is where all the spiritual practices come into being like very often we think oh well i'm going to do yoga because i'm on a spiritual path i'm going to meditate because it's on a spiritual path it's these are practices for life if you're going to do yoga do yoga because you need to do the yoga because you need to release something you need to empower something you need to let something go like i teach kundalini yoga kundalini yoga is designed to stimulate and kind of provoke whatever it is inside of you that is keeping you down that is keeping you locked in cycles if you do a meditation practice and you sit in silence you will watch your mind try to derail you this is interesting it's interesting to begin be able to look at that from that witness mind and say why is my mind doing this what is this weird pattern and then to truly go deeper what's under this pattern where did i learn this is it an adaptation to past trauma what's going on why can't i sit still why can't i just relax why am i so attached why can i not stop reacting to the world this is why we do spiritual practice in the same way that if if you imagine like a samurai warrior and they're going to go out and they're going to be a samurai warrior why did they do practice every day why did they train two to three hours every day to develop skills for the battlefield to develop strength so that they are able to actually do the job ahead this is why we do spiritual practice whatever it is maybe it's reading ancient texts maybe it's doing yoga maybe it's meditation maybe it's walking along the ocean in solitude who knows what your spiritual practice is but we do it for these moments so that when it's time and what that may be the battle that has arisen in front of you is i need to have a hard conversation with my partner and not that i have to do something mean to them but i have to be honest about something and i want to be able to do it in a kind way i want to be able to do it that it builds a bridge between us i want to be able to do it in a way that empowers them to maybe find a different path within themselves i don't want to bring more violence in this is no small thing to try to do that it's not it's easy to just fight and it's easy to withdraw very often in the world we end up in that fight flight freeze fawn flop then you know the five reactions to stress and danger in the world it's no small thing to develop the ability to stay in the arena and when you really even think of what are the qualities of a warrior it's not violence violence is not doesn't help especially in this path especially in the spiritual path that we're talking about what do we need to really face these challenges face these perhaps ancestral patterns that are running through us and keeping us enslaved to the past or enslaved to a past version of ourselves we need clarity which is no small thing we need steadiness and we need the willingness to engage to step through the door to take action to stand to stand for what we believe in it's no small thing because the reality is that whatever it is that is happening in our life that we we need to stand up to it's hurting us and it could be other people it could be situations but 99% of it is inside 99% is my own self saying I don't want to risk an argument like we might say oh well I really avoid conflict why do we avoid conflict and I'm just talking if you really think about anything in your life right now that is a challenge what is what has arisen that we need to look at and we ask ourself what am I afraid of what is it that makes it so hard to walk in alignment with who I truly am and then you can look at it and say wow whatever this is this has been torturing me my whole life this didn't just start yesterday this has been going on for decades and here we stand given the opportunity to engage with it to dance with it to sort it out to battle with it like and and we say battle but it doesn't mean violence but it means we have to try like I know for me like we've talked a lot about in past classes about these words battle fight you know and I understand I also share the aversion to these words and in the outside world I don't necessarily fight battle you know I don't do that but I don't do it inside either which means I don't fight for me and even that like I don't even mean fighting for me in the face of someone else which also is a challenge because I have this no no no I'm a peaceful passive person pacifist person but one of the reasons I love this journey of the Gita with everybody here is that I'm also too passive in my own Kurukshetra it's like no Katrina like there are all these little aspects maybe of my inner world well not maybe they're all these aspects of my inner world that aren't really me they aren't really me and they do cause little energy leaks here and I end up on the wrong path there and I end up maybe eating too much or not doing this or not honoring my truth or not being who I truly am and so then I'm always walking around like there's there's the true Katrina inside but then there's like this other weird collection of all these other aspects of me that isn't really me and so there's really something for me to say personally engage Katrina battle let that part of you die let that part of you go it's old it's something your mom battled with it's something when that your grandmother battled with it's something that your dad battled with who knows but you gotta let it go even though it feels so familiar so it's interesting to just sort of say this is a worthy battle this is so helpful right now I'm in a lawsuit that's requiring me to stand up for myself so many old stories and ancestral energies coming up as I proceed and it's a beautiful example because there's so there's easily different paths right there's a time where you're like whoa okay I gotta get really mad here so I stand up for myself so now in the journey of standing up for ourselves we're kind of watching going well this is interesting isn't it great there's this clarity when you kind of back up and go huh you know it's sort of like imagine you know I have all these lord of the rings battles in my mind and you could just look at this and just go raging into battle you know just like if you want but probably nothing good's going to come of it but if we have clarity and we have steadiness and we're willing to do whatever it is that's actually on our path we might actually go and find higher ground to get a better look at what's really going on and then from that ground you may find something a better way to actually engage with this it makes me wonder if the suffering we talk about of course not the man-made war etc feels more like a drama that we hang on to maybe there is a choice or action we can take and be at peace totally I call the shell my mask personas once I get started standing up for yourself you may never stop yes that is true there was a psychologist back in the 60s or the 70s named Rollo May one of the things he taught was that the most important moment in your healing journey is the I am moment the moment where you realize that you matter you that you're not here just to make other people happy you're not here to serve a partner you're not here to look right for your parents you're not here to look right for society you are not here for other people you exist a soul incarnate here on earth you are here to have an experience this is a massive deal because until we've had that I am moment it doesn't even matter what we learn or the practices we do it's like you're building a castle on sand just think of the times in your life where your self-worth has been all about does that person like me does that person listen to me and it could be our parents it could be a partner it could be our job it could be whatever you know that whatever they think of me defines me and if we want to wonder whether or not this is true we just have to ask ourselves who am I thinking about all day am I thinking about what that other person thinks am I thinking about like I can't believe they said that I can't believe they did that I can't believe they did this I can't believe this blah blah blah all about other people and if you are thinking about what other people are thinking all day long they define our world but then there's a moment sometimes it's an aha moment sometimes it's a I have in my head a come to Jesus moment but I don't mean a religious way in a religious way but there's a moment when all of a sudden you're just like what have I been doing I don't care what other people think what does Katrina think what does Katrina want to do and we've even been told this is selfish but I'm not talking about making other people do what Katrina wants to do I'm talking about Katrina going out and doing what she wants to do on my short 90 some odd years here on earth if I'm lucky it's a small window why in the world am I not doing what I'm here to do and what's interesting is in the context of the Gita what you are meant to do is your dharma this is your spiritual path this is what you're supposed to do this is what you're here to do and when we are living on our actual path our dharma our authentic journey whatever you want to call it we're happy and we don't force other people to do things and we don't try to overpower people and we do we actually become very nice people because we don't have all this fight in us we're not battling all the time and trying to prove ourselves to people and all that we're actually just living our life so once we have that I am moment then suddenly this is the definition of up for ourself because suddenly when I now exist I also do look inside and say where are these voices in my head coming from that are telling me that I'm doing everything wrong where is this heavy criticism inside of me coming from and then you do that work you figure that out so then all of a sudden you're having an interaction with someone and they're being heavily critical of something you've done and you're kind of looking at them going and you know you also have the consciousness to say oh am I right are they right did I do something wrong do I need to experience you know what I mean like we're not walking around you know sociopaths we're like but there are people in the world who are just angry and when they get angry at you it has nothing to do with you they're also angry at the bus boy and they're angry at the car in front of them and they're angry at the politicians they're angry at the neighbors they're they're just angry and when an angry person comes to you and you become the focus of their anger you kind of just look at them and you know you just see it because you know it has nothing to do with you and so yeah you might stand up for yourself and you're like you know you got to keep moving on there my friend you know this has nothing to do with me and standing up for ourselves is really interesting like in many ways this is the foundation of what Gandhi taught satya graha satya is truth and truth in that this is like your connection to your truth your authentic path someone once described truth as my conversation with the divine my alignment with the divine satya so when you are truly living in alignment with your divine self graha means to stand so satya graha is to stand in one's truth and this is actually the foundation of Gandhi's teachings of ahimsa non-violence because when you stand in your truth there's nothing to be violent about you're just sharing your truth and the world that you know depending on who we're hanging out with some people get really angry and i don't mean my truth isn't what do i think of you that's not it my truth might simply someone might call and say oh katrina can you come do this thing and if that's not in my path today then i'll say oh i can't and they could freak out well what do you mean i helped you there because there were strings attached and how come with this and what about that and what about you know and you're just like i don't know why you're arguing with me i am so blessed by the people around me who are just honest they just say their truth and then that's it and to truly understand that it didn't come from me a lot of that training came from the people in my world because i'm a people pleaser by heart i'm you know sometimes you know i have friends who are like katrina i'm kind of afraid to ask you because i'm afraid you're going to say yes even if you should say no so i've been called to the mat to actually be honest or else my friends won't ask me because they can't trust that i'm gonna be honest that is a possible way of living right like we actually can cultivate that around us but it always still it begins with us we have to be willing to be honest and if someone gets mad about it that's okay we just stand in that truth and that's what gandhi did gandhi wanted the people of india to be independent they didn't want the british in there overriding them he was like we need to be independent ourselves and he just stood in that truth and there's nothing to fight because basically the other side's just like no we want to be in charge we want you to be enslaved to us we want you to do this well what's gandhi going to say no i want like it's just it's a ridiculous conversation so you just stand in your truth and you let them spin so in answer to your question once you start standing up for yourself it's pretty hard to stop and why would you want to because again it's not a violent thing it's not like you're walking around standing up for yourself in front of people it's not like that you're just walking in your path it's a very very gentle non-violent thing to just be honest so i'm just going to read it one more time blessed are warriors who are given the chance of a battle like this which calls them to do what is right and opens the gates of heaven does that resonate for you guys like when we really meet the challenge ahead of us we do it in alignment with who we truly are that this opens the gates of heaven for us we are always heard we are always heard yeah i would love to hear from you guys where you're at with this teaching or what you're taking away from it or the thoughts that are rolling through your mind i just love hearing everybody's perspective namaste infinity there's no end to what is possible omnipotent so assuring and peace provoking i am this is so aligned with where i'm at so just letting the gentle awareness wash through me awesome this was perfect timing for me i was going to withdraw to keep peace but now i know i can keep peace if i own what's happening that's beautiful it helps me to trust myself it's all an opportunity to walk the path this was a very interesting and enlightening day work has been an incredible challenge trying to please instead of doing what works for me time to shift gears beautiful it's important that we are here yes understanding even more deeply now why it's so important for everyone to dive within and find their truth to lean into curiosity during challenges open to being fully me even in the face of confrontation trusting who i am is exactly what is needed at that time trust my intuition and trust my truth stand in my truth no giving in to people placing totally i'm feeling encouraged fortified to continue my battle it's been very challenging yet continuing without being vested in a specific outcome feels key this makes me think of shiva benevolent and fearsome it gives us permission to be fearsome when needed that the gates of heaven lie on the other side yeah well i hope you have a wonderful week thank you so much for being here and i'll see you next monday