Cannot Be Killed: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 19

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43:28

Cannot Be Killed: The Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, Verse 19

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Join us as we explore the Bhagavad Gita. This week, we will be diving into Chapter 2, verses 19. 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 Metaphysical Detachment Pratyahara Social Anxiety Victim Mindset

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Toronto, ON, Canada

Meet your Teacher

Toronto, ON, Canada

Transcript

So we are reading from the Bhagavad Gita. There are many, Many beautiful versions of this book. I'm reading from the Stephen Mitchell version, But there are hundreds and hundreds of versions of the Bhagavad Gita. And it doesn't really matter. If you do want to follow along, You can use any version you'd like. The real focus of our class is the discussion, So it's all good. The story takes place on a battlefield. Arjuna is our hero of the story, And he is one of five brothers, And they are the good brothers. And you might imagine them like your soul. If you imagine the battlefield inside, Like the human journey, They are the aspects of your soul. They are courage, And hope, And love, And all these wonderful things, That when we can connect with those things, Life feels very good. We feel like we're living our dharma. We feel like we're living on our path. They're on one side of the battle, And part of the kingdom, Half the kingdom, Has gathered with them. On the other half, There are Arjuna's hundred cousins, And they are his evil cousins. And there's a whole story, And I have a playlist on my profile. In the very first class, I go deeply into that story of how, Where they all came from, And all that kind of thing. So I'm not going to go into that too much. But just to get a sense of where we are, There is a battlefield. On the one side, We have Arjuna, His brothers, And one side of the battle. Then on the other side, We have his hundred evil cousins, And then all the people on that side. Arjuna has a charioteer. He's in a chariot, And the one driving the chariot is Krishna, Who is sort of like a favorite uncle in the physical world. But of course, In the metaphysical world, It is Krishna, The God, The Lord, The Almighty. And Arjuna says to Krishna, Just before the battle begins, They're blowing their big conch horns and all that, Everything. And he says, Drive me into the center of the battle so that I can see what we're about to do. And as he looks around, He sees family and friends on all sides. And suddenly, This war doesn't feel so good. He doesn't like it. He's like, How can I kill these people? These are my people. It's like a civil war, And all your friends and family have taken opposite sides. And he just looked around, And he saw these wonderful people. His grandfather, One of his greatest teachers, All on the other side. And the reason they were on the other side is because the evil cousins were currently in power. And the grandfather and the teacher, Their primary loyalty was to whoever was in the crown seat. So they had to take that side. And Arjuna just looked. He says, How can I kill these people? He slouches down in the chariot and just says, I don't want to fight. I don't want to kill anybody. I would rather live a life of nothingness than kill these people and have their blood on my hands kind of idea. And this is where Krishna says one of the most confusing things, Which causes a lot of debate as to what the Gita is all about. And Krishna says, Arjuna, You must fight. And thus begins the journey of the teachings of Krishna to Arjuna. And today, We're looking at chapter 2, Verse 19. And again, In the playlist, All the previous chapters are there. So if you want to go back and listen to more, They're all there. But today we're looking at 19. So the battlefield is called Kurukshetra. You can look at it as a physical thing. But the reality is the Bhagavad Gita is a story inside the great Mahabharata epic story of India. Most people would tell you that the Mahabharata, Including the Gita, It's a metaphysical teaching story about being human. So to take the teachings too literally, Like you must fight, You must kill your enemies, Like to actually take that into the physical world, Isn't really the point. The point is that Kurukshetra is the battlefield within each of our hearts. The five brothers stand for our highest selves. And this isn't like a judgment thing, You know, Like my good and my bad side. This is like your true self, Your soul's path, The reason you're here. The hundred cousins are our senses, But not just our senses, Our attachment to pleasure, Our aversion to pain, And everything that those create in our lives. If you imagine all the attachments that we've ever developed over our lifetime, And now compound them all together, Suddenly we're comparing ourselves to others, And we're feeling self-worth issues, And we have self-doubt when we want to go out and do something, And we have jealousy over that person over there, And we wish this over here, And we have depression about that, And we have all these things. And all of these very confusing aspects pull us off of our path. They're always dragging us down. This is when you're like, Wow, This job is that I could take, This is like the opportunity of a lifetime. And then self-doubt comes in. Yeah, But what even if you get it, What if you screw it up, Or what if this completely ruins everything, Or what if it requires like, Oh, I don't know, And then all of a sudden you walk in for the interview, And you're so full of doubt, They don't hire you. And it was a great opportunity. And so what's really interesting at the foundation of when Krishna says you must fight, When we look at this in the context of our life, What happens if you don't engage, If you don't fight those tendencies of self-doubt, Of suffering, Of blaming, Of all that kind of thing? If we just simply go limp, And we just say, Whatever, I'm not fighting this, They win. They just steamroll over us, And one day we find ourself, You know, Stuck in the couch, So depressed, Watching Netflix, Because it'll always win. Those aspects of us, Whether they're hereditary, And I mean, I don't mean hereditary, I mean, Almost inherited trauma, It could be epigenetics passed on through our mother's line, It could be life difficulty, It could be karma, It could be whatever. And when he says fight, He means muster your courage. Remember why you're here. Find love inside of you. Find the clarity to meet these challenges. You know, And that's what he's really saying. That's really the spirit of the Gita. If we want to live our true self, We have to always stay alert. Keep your wits about you. Don't let the hundred cousins win. There's a reason that the hundred cousins' father is the blind king, Drishtarastra, Because they have no sight for the future. They want what they want right now. I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, I don't care what happens, I don't care what happens, And then you do the thing, And now you're off path. Whereas we want to keep our eyes open. We want to stay engaged. So that's really the journey here. All right, I'm going to go back a couple of stanzas, Because Krishna is really deeply talking about how nothing real ever changes. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. The inner world is real. All the outer world is always changing. It isn't actually real. It's constantly shifting. So I'm just going to back up a little. Physical sensations, Cold and heat, Pleasure and pain, Are transient. They come and go. So bear them patiently, Arjuna. Only the man who is unmoved by any sensations, The wise man, Indifferent to pleasure, To pain, Is fit for becoming deathless. Non-being can never be. Being can never not be. Both these statements are obvious to those who have seen the truth. The presence that pervades the universe is imperishable, Unchanging, Beyond both is and is not. How could it ever vanish? These bodies come to an end, But that vast embodied self is ageless, Fathomless, Eternal. Therefore, You must fight, Arjuna. So here is the phrase, Or here is the verse that we're going to look at today. If you think that this self, And the self here is capitalized, If you think that this self can kill, Or think that it can be killed, You do not well understand reality's subtle ways. If you think that this self can kill, Or think that it can be killed, You do not well understand reality's subtle ways. I'm going to read another version of that. This is the Maharishi Mahesh version. He who understands him to be the slayer, And he who takes him to be the slain, Both fail to perceive the truth. He neither slays nor is slain. This is Paramahansa Yogananda's version. He who considers the self as the slayer, He who deems that it can be slain, Neither of these know the truth. The self does not kill, Nor is it killed. So what does that sound like to you? Or what does that make you think or feel when you hear that? It's kind of a curious verse. The spirit lives on. That we are infinite beings. That we are not our human difficulties. Yes, That the soul is eternal. That all the world's a stage, And we are only the players. Yes, There's no end and no beginning. This is the most popular verses, That we are indestructible, Indistractible. In the literal sense, We cannot kill or be killed. In the spiritual sense, Indestructible. That's what I first read. This is why I like studying this with you guys. It's fun to talk with deep people. I'll read it one more time for Christina and anyone else who's quietly joined us. He who considers the self as the slayer, He who deems that it can be slain, Neither of these know the truth. The self does not kill, Nor is it killed. It's hard to describe what I feel about it. It's mind-bending. So you can imagine, If we took this very literally, This is a verse that people argue about a lot. Because people think, Well, So does that mean that we can just go out and kill people, And we're not really killing them, And that's okay, And all that kind of thing. But of course, That isn't the point. It's really important that we don't. But most people aren't looking for an excuse to kill people anyway. We have a conscience, So that's okay. Nothing real can be threatened, And nothing real exists. Of course, In miracles, That killing and dying are illusions. Divine love, Yes. Both the slayer and the slain do not understand. Right. Awesome. So in its purest sense, What this verse is saying is that every single person is a divine being. Every single person here has an eternal center, And every one of us is playing out an ego role. Just like I think Geneva said, You know, With all the world's a stage and we are merely players, That for all intents and purposes, Every single person you see is a spark of the divine playing out a role, And when that role is complete, That spark of divinity will move on to another role, And when that is complete, It will move on to another role, Which we've already talked about in previous verses. So for all intents and purposes, I can't kill anything. I'm not that big. I'm not that important, And we're talking here on the big picture. In the physical world, Can I hurt someone and kill them? Of course I can, And we still don't want to do that. Like in the physical world, Not only do we have conscience, Not only do we care about people, In some world you might say you are creating a karmic knot, Not with that other person, But with yourself. Harming other people poisons our own consciousness, And then that poison inside of ourselves comes back and it creates this what they call a karmic knot that you do have to unpack at some point, Even barring any loving conscious soul within who would not want to do it anyway. It's not that there's no consequences, But that's not what we're talking about, And that's not really the focus of this part of the Gita. This part of the Gita is helping us to detach from this obsession with our ego's life, And so when it says neither can I be the slayer nor the slain, This is really interesting, That I'm not that important. I can't kill divine light, You know, I don't do that, And neither can someone destroy my divine light. The physical bodies can go on, And again this does not justify harm or murder or anything like that. We're talking about the focus within, And there's four big things I want to talk about here that we can really bring this into our lives. First is this can deeply help us release any idea of being a victim in life. Sometimes things can happen to us, Really awful things. We could have suffered childhood abuse, And even into our current day we could have had a really brutal breakup. We could have had relationships with really cruel people. We could have lost a job that maybe threatened our ability to pay the bills and things, And these are all very real things. But the problem is we start to believe that we are a victim. Not that we were victimized, Not that someone harmed us, Not that someone did something to us, But I am a victim. I am fragile. I am breakable. I have been broken, And that's not true. No one can slay you. You are a divine, Eternal being. Has your ego taken some hard hits? Has your physical self become afraid of other people? Afraid of trusting? Afraid of going outside? Afraid of. . . Sure. Sure. In the world you're living in, You've developed some, Whoa, I don't know. Three dogs bit me. I'm not so sure about dogs anymore. But there is a person inside of you. There is a soul inside of you watching yourself be afraid of dogs. I'm observing myself become shaky. When a dog comes close, The one observing is unbreakable. The one observing ourselves being a victim is unbreakable. And this is so important that the one inside of you that's even telling the stories of the victim stories and all that, That's an eternal self. You are not breakable. You are not fragile. And so it's a very interesting thing that nobody has the power to slay you. You cannot be slain. And this is very interesting. The ego, If we, And again, This all comes from this attachment to the ego. If the ego has really taken a lot of blows, The ego can start to believe that it's helpless. I can't do anything. I have no other place to turn. I don't have the strength to do this. I don't have the intelligence to do this. I don't have the means to do this. Of course you do. You are unbreakable. You always have choice. And this helplessness, It comes back to that all the world's a stage idea, That the soul is like the screen. And everything the ego's doing is just the movie being played upon the screen. But when we feel like a victim, We feel like we are playing out these roles, But that we have no control over the script. We have no control over who we're around. We have no control as to whether we fight back, Whether we walk away. We have no control over that. The script is out of my hands. There's nothing I can do. But of course there's something you can do. There is an eternal being inside of that script. And that eternal being within us is writing our own script. And this is a really interesting thing. The other thing it does with the victim thing is it stops us blaming other people for where we're at. It stops us pointing fingers and saying, You broke me. You destroyed me. You did this to me. And then our ego says, I can't go on until they apologize to me. And don't get me wrong, I'm being kind of harsh about this, But so often the apologies we desire, We will never get. Maybe they're from our parents who have passed on. Maybe they're from parents who we never knew who abandoned us. Maybe they're from people who truly have narcissistic traits that have no idea that you've even been harmed because they don't have the ability to even understand. To truly understand that we have a chance to move on. We have a chance right now to continue forward. And it has nothing to do with them because our true self, The realest part of you, Is never touched. Only our clothing. Only the masks we wear. Only the stories we believe we are. Our ego might get hurt. We might have become very afraid because we've been traumatized. But now our eternal self steps forward and says, Now what do I want? That doesn't define me. No one can define us. No one can slay us. So now the flip side of this is you are not the slayer. And the beautiful teaching here is helping us release ourselves from guilt and regret. Because you know, We all make mistakes. We all do things from in times that, And maybe it's not even things we did to other people. Maybe it's things we did to ourselves. Maybe it's things that we wish we'd known better. We can't believe we took that pill, Whatever that pill is, Whether it was a belief, Whether it was someone's thoughts about us, That insult, That training, That education, That whatever. And we did it to ourselves. Maybe we wish we'd never put up with that abuse and we wish we'd never stayed so long and we wish we'd never whatever. But thinking about, Maybe we have regret about how we treated other people. It could be how we treated our kids when we didn't know better. It could be how we treated our friends or partners or parents or anybody. And sometimes that guilt can eat us alive and we can just ruminate on that forever. But we aren't the slayers. Even if we did something to someone, They are an eternal being. Yeah, Their ego may have some new stories that they have to chew on, But that's their journey. You can't harm their eternal self. Their eternal self is still there. They are still connected to the divine and they will find their way. And it's really interesting, Like if you imagine, Imagine sitting in a dark room. When we make mistakes, When we do things that we wish we hadn't, That's how I'm defining a mistake, We have to trust that we did it out of ego, Out of fear, Out of truly out of ignorance. I didn't know. I didn't know better. I didn't, I couldn't. And even if I did know better, For some reason there were other addictions online or there was something else going on that was overshadowing it. So essentially we were sitting in a dark room when we made that mistake. That's the reality, The darkness of ignorance, The darkness of fear, The darkness of something. We were sitting in a dark room. So that's from the past. You know Paramahansa Yogananda says that when we live in guilt, We are living in a past dead world. It doesn't even exist anymore. And we're sitting here in the present moment, Destroying the present moment. And so now imagine you're sitting in this dark room, But there is a light switch right beside you. Do you have to stay in the dark room or do you get to flip the switch? Because you do know better now. You have learned. You have a different consciousness now. So we turn the light on and we make different choices and we make amends where we can. But we turn the light on and we make new choices today. Because we are not the slayer and we are not the slain. Another really interesting application of this is reducing social anxiety and judgment. I am 56 years old. I have been teaching for probably 20 years. Like spiritual topics, Tantra, Yoga, Dance, Whatever. But in my deepest heart, I'm quite shy. And the truth is, I have weird social anxiety. It's not debilitating. It doesn't keep me in my house. It doesn't stop me from going places. But I am perpetually terrified of people's responses to me, Or their reactions, Or are they going to like me? Or did I say the right thing? Did I say the wrong thing? Was I too quiet? It's hilarious. It's kind of like, Wow. And so again, It's not a paralyzing anxiety. But does it ever exist? And I watch myself every so often thinking, You know, And even if someone will say something to me, And I'll kind of say something off the cuff, And then later I'll beat myself up about it because I'll think, Oh, Katrina, You should have been more present. You should have just talked to them. But the truth is, I have a weird discomfort in public for some reason. Like in my own home, I'm pretty good. Anyway, Social anxiety is real. It's a real thing. Well, What's interesting about this teaching is that every single person out there is just a soul. They're just a divine spark. You know, Those 100 cousins are addictions to the senses. They love to compare. They love comparing, Oh, Well, This person's taller than me. This person's got, You know, A nicer body than me. And this person has more money than me. And this person's more intelligent than me. And this person's this, And this person's that. The senses, Those 100 cousins, They love comparing us and then either making ourselves feel so big and strong and so attached to our ego or making us feel like we're nothing and we're terrible and we're nonsense. This is all ego play. This is all just us interacting with the world out there and saying that tree's bigger than that tree and I want to be that tree and not this one and blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah. That's not reality. It's always interesting when they say anyone who thinks this doesn't understand reality. They say that often in the verses. When you go out into a crowd of people, Every single person there is a divine, Eternal being with clothes on. Some clothes look like they're six foot two. Some people, Some clothes look like they're five feet. Some clothes look male. Some clothes look female. Some clothes look, I don't know, Covered in diamonds. Other people are covered in rags. But all the world's a stage. We're all just playing roles. And when this role is complete, We will shed these clothes and put on some new ones. The pauper will become the king and the king will become the pauper. There's no comparison. It's impossible. You can't walk down the street and compare yourself to anybody. And even this might be uncomfortable because there might be a part of you that's like, Yeah, But I mean, I'm better than that guy, Right? If we have any ego at all attached to being anything, We're in trouble because we are divine beings. We are, Our world is perpetually shifting and changing. What we think is amazing today, We could lose tomorrow. And we could be in the state of pure depression and poverty today and something could happen tomorrow and everything would change. But you know what doesn't change? Our eternal self. Right? Surely they're not divine, Right, Elle? 100%. Like, It's a really interesting thing when you go out later today to just walk around and truly in your deepest heart realize every single person you see is an eternal divine soul. They're just wearing a costume. How we interact with that costume, That's 100% up to us. 100%. We are writing the script. It also really helps us see that divine spark in difficult people. That person that's always angry, That person that's always critical, Even critical of you, That person who doesn't understand. But that's just the role they're playing. That's the life they've been given. That's the experiences they've had, The fears they have, The ignorance they live within. And maybe even their successes have created them that way. Maybe their successes have made them feel like they're better than other people. But it's just a role. That's all. It's an interesting thing to be able to look at someone who's very angry and be able to say it's just a role they're playing. And in no way does this mean you have to marry them or hang out with them or hire them or have them as part of your life. My ego, My world, My physical life, Maybe I seek happiness and joy. So I'm only going to surround myself with people who are playing the roles of happy, Joyful people. Or maybe I'm actually, I want to be like a badass who's kind of always on the edge, Outside of the world, Mad at everybody, Cynical about everything. Well, I'm going to go out and I'm going to choose other people who are also playing those roles. Everyone's still a divine being, But I have choice as to who I'm hanging out with. The last thing I want to mention is when we look at this whole story metaphysically, And what we're really doing is slaying the senses, Slaying our attachment to pleasure and pain and all that kind of thing, Right? The pandavas, The good versus evil, Our highest selves versus our attachments to our sensory experiences. We're not slaying our ability to taste or feel or hear or enjoy. We're slaying the cravings, The attachment to it. Sometimes you're craving chocolate and you end up eating the chocolate so fast you didn't even enjoy it. Or you're worried that the chocolate bar is going to end. It's like, Yeah, But I'm craving it, Right? And when we can stop that, When we can remove the attachment, The craving, The desperation, Our enjoyment of the chocolate actually goes up. Because you're actually present and you're eating every bit of it and loving it and aware. It's like there's a process of purification, Almost, Of our senses. You know, Even the self-doubt that leads us to people-pleasing, That all lies on that other side, Because it creates all this anxiety and it takes us off our true path, Because we're so focused on making sure other people, Other divine eternal beings are happy, As if we are the ones in charge of that. If you've ever tried to make someone happy, Eventually we find out it's impossible. There's no such thing. Every single one of us chooses to be happy or not. Every one of us chooses to be happy or sad. No one else can make us happy or sad. So it's an interesting thing to kind of say, I don't want that at all. And then all of a sudden, We slay that need to make other people happy, That need to getting rid of all this self-doubt and everything. And then suddenly, We just enjoy people's company. We just accept them for who they are. We make choices. We're not bound. We don't have this huge anxiety about it all. You know, It's an entirely different experience. A metaphor for Pratyahara, It's a hundred percent teaching Pratyahara. Pratyahara in the eight limbs of yoga, They consider it the withdrawal of the senses. So if you imagine when we meditate, The first thing we do is we sit still. Like the first limb of, Well the first two limbs of yoga are the yamas and the niyamas, But the next one is asana. So the first thing you have to do is find a comfortable seat. That's what asana really means. So somehow you have to sit in a way that you are perfectly comfortable, So you're no longer feeling anything. You're not sensing the body. As soon as you're uncomfortable, Like you know, If you think, Oh wow, I have to be able to sit cross-legged, You're not actually going to be able to practice Pratyahara, Because Pratyahara demands us withdrawing from our touch. So you have to find a comfortable seat, Sitting in a couch, Sitting down, Whatever, So you find a comfortable seat. And then you begin to breathe pranayama, And you slowly allow your focus to start going inside the body. You close your eyes. You shut down sight. You breathe. You release any attachment to what it tastes like in your mouth. You start to release attachment to what you hear out in the world. And as you breathe deeply with your eyes closed in a comfortable seat, Slowly you start to sense your inner world. And in the beginning, That inner world might be very, Might be full of waves. And one of the beautiful metaphors for these teachings is that your eternal self is the ocean, And all the thoughts are the waves. So as the thoughts happen, You just remember that you are the ocean, And you let them float by, And you just keep breathing and knowing that you are the ocean. And this is where Pratyahara, If we can withdraw from all the senses, We have a chance of feeling that eternal self inside. It's a beautiful thing, Like if you try just quiet meditation, Just really focusing on the ocean that you are. It's really beautiful. I'm going to reread Stephen Mitchell's version of this, Just to sew it all up. If you think that this self can kill or think that it can be killed, You do not well understand reality's subtle ways. I would love to know if you'd like to share what you're taking away from this, Or if you have questions. Katrina, Does it all come down to fear? I don't know if it all comes down to fear, But a lot of it does, For sure. And the thing that keeps ringing through my mind is the eternal self has nothing to fear. So if fear is rising, Then it's interesting to look at, To really sit and go, Hmm, What's going on? It all comes down to love. I look at fear as a fiercely loyal friend that is showing you something that's really important to totally to use it as an ally, But never overwhelm you. Is it not just perception? Yes, Because one person might not have that fear. You know, You could have 10 people faced with the same situation, And fear only comes up for some people. So it isn't an absolute truth. Thanks, Katrina. I guess radical honesty of our experiences relieve us from patterns and attachments. And as in Buddhism, As they say, Place the fearful mind in the cradle of loving kindness. Wow, What a beautiful saying. Give yourself the gift of living life from your true self. Well, Thank you, Everybody. Thank you for being here. Maybe I'll see you Friday, Or maybe we'll see you Monday. See you guys.