Namaste.
As we continue on the Bhagavad Gita series,
I'd like to speak about the quality of humility on the spiritual path.
When we look at the Bhagavad Gita,
We see that in Chapter 1 of the Gita,
Arjuna is confused about his duty.
He is a great warrior.
He has fought many,
Many battles.
But now,
When he is about to fight the biggest battle of his life,
When there are millions of soldiers gathered there to fight him,
And as he looks across and sees their faces,
He is overcome with confusion about how to do his duty properly.
Should he fight or should he not?
And therefore,
He says the following verse to Krishna.
In Chapter 1,
Verse 30,
He says,
In this particular verse,
The key word is confused.
Arjuna shows a quality that most of us possess in this world,
That we are confused about how to do our duty properly.
Ninety-nine percent of us,
We do not know what is the purpose of our life.
What is the goal of our life?
Should we go left or should we go right?
And Arjuna displays that same characteristic in Chapter 1,
Where he says to Krishna,
I am confused.
And for the rest of that chapter,
Arjuna continues to speak about why he should not fight.
He starts to give many,
Many reasons.
He starts to use the logic of the mind to explain the decision of not wanting to fight.
And ironically,
Krishna does not say one word in Chapter 1.
He only lets Arjuna speak.
After Arjuna is tired of speaking,
After he has vomited,
Per se,
All of the logic of the mind,
He stands dejected with nothing more to say.
And in Chapter 2,
He says the following verse.
He says,
With my heart overcome by weakness and my mind confused about my duty,
I urge you to tell me clearly what is good for me.
I am your disciple and I take refuge in you,
Krishna.
Please teach me.
So here we see in Chapter 2 that Arjuna is still confused.
He says,
My heart overcome by weakness and my mind confused about my duty.
So the confusion has not gone away,
But something else has awakened,
And that is the quality of humility.
He understands for the first time in his life that he might not know everything.
He might not be the controller of the situation,
That the ego might not deliver him to clarity.
And in this state of utter confusion and utter dejection,
The quality of humility awakens where he realizes that he must seek shelter.
He must seek understanding from something higher than himself.
And so therefore,
He turns to Krishna,
Who represents that divine being.
And in that state of humility,
He says,
I urge you to tell me clearly what is good for me.
I am your disciple.
I take refuge in you.
So here we see that Chapter 1 represents all of our journeys before we go on the spiritual path.
It is a journey that we do ourselves.
We are a rat in a rat race,
Constantly going in circles.
And even though we might win the rat race,
We will never transcend being a rat.
But in Chapter 2 represents our life when we take that first step on the spiritual path,
Where we look to teachers,
Where we look to scriptures.
We look for higher understanding.
And to turn to this higher understanding,
We must have humility,
Because without humility,
We will not be able to perceive and realize the grace of the teacher or of the teaching.
It will be like with our hands poured out,
Our hands open and water pouring through our hands.
We will never be able to capture it.
That is why Krishna does not say one word in Chapter 1.
But now that Arjuna displays this quality of humility,
Now Krishna will start to give the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.
So in that way,
If we want to sincerely grow on the spiritual path,
If we are looking for something higher that can give us clarity about our purpose and meaning,
We must have the state of humility when we approach the teachings,
When we approach the meditations,
When we approach the teacher.
And only through that will we be able to receive the grace that will ultimately help us to rise in consciousness and step into our duty with clarity and purpose,
So we can find peace in our life.
So with that,
Much love and take care.
And I hope that you step into the quality of humility so you can really perceive the grace in your life.
