BG2.61

Today [12^th June, 2007] is an auspicious day for us. We are at the front of the main gate. When we get the everlasting release [from the attachments to this world or bandham] or Moksham, the Lord of Thirumogur guides us in the Archiradi marg. He showers His benevolence on us like rain. We saw all these in the last lecture. His Discus, Sri Chakkarathalwar, cuts off all our papa and punya by His eminence. He removes our illness. Whatever we pray the Lord are all granted by Sri Chakkarathalwar. In addition He induces bhakthi or devotion to the Lord. The sloka we are going to see is also like that. We are all confused. Our confusion has to be cleared. By adding certain seeds or herbs the muddy water gets cleared. Sri Chakkarathalwar also clears our confused minds. The Discus held by the Lord in His right hand eliminates all our sins.

Spurath sahasrara sikhathi theevram Sudarsanam bhaskara koti thulyam l

surad visam prana vinasi Vishno: chakram sadaham saranam prabadye ll

We seek refuge in Sri Chakkarathalwar always. His lightning brilliance, which diminishes the brilliance of millions of Suns, should eliminate the darkness of ignorance in our minds. Sri Krishna also talks of clarifying our confusion in our minds in the sloka 52. The Sri Chakkarathalwar of Thirumogur is Universally famous. With sixteen hands and prathyaleeda step, we can worship Him here. In the sixteen hands He carries sixteen weapons. Swami Vedanta Desika has composed a sthothram Shodasaayuda sthothram in praise of Sri Chakkarathalwar. All the sixteen weapons have different purposes and different mantras. The good will from these sixteen weapons is also different. Sri Chakkarathalwar graces as the Leader of all weapons. There are 154 syllables around the idol of Sri Chakkarathalwar. Each syllable is a mantra. With hair rising like the Agni –sacred fire- and three eyed and ever ready to run, Sri Chakkarathalwar is gracing the devotees. In readiness to protect us He appears in running steps. This type of idol cannot be seen elsewhere. He has to refine our perplexed minds. We have to see the 52^nd sloka, the last sloka on Karma yoga. Earlier by some slokas the everlasting nature of atman was told. From 39^th sloka Karma yoga was described. In that sequence this is the last sloka.

yada te moha-kalilam
buddhir vyatitarisyati
tada gantasi nirvedam
srotavyasya srutasya ca

"When your intelligence has passed out of the dense forest of delusion, you shall become indifferent to all that has been heard and all that is to be heard."

Sri Krishna tells Arjuna that he is going to get disgusted with himself for having clung to various things and which, his mind should have concentrated, were ignored all these days. His intellect was confused all these days. Moham means confusion. When his buddhi comes out of this confusion, at that time he will get nirvedam i.e. he will start hating himself. When he is going to attain this state? After having heard all that Sri Krishna told and all that He is going to tell in due course. Sri Krishna had told him that he was attached to various things and in the coming slokas He is going to further explain on this subject. Hearing both, Arjuna is going to get nirvedam or get disgusted and blame himself. “Where I should have attachment, I did not and where I should not have attachment, I had”. This is going to be Arjuna’s lamentation. Our various actions were all targeted for inferior rewards. Did we aspire for such low objectives? Such aversion is going to overtake. We should have attachment to the Lord. Our atman should have been serving Him only. Discarding these noble things in life we have been after all inferior objectives. We desired all those which were impediments to Moksham and which were all temporary and transient. Mourning such actions of us is nirvedam. So far we have understood that karma performed with detachment and with our buddhi or conscience involved, our papa and punya are eradicated. With the elimination of papa and punya , rebirths are eliminated. By avoiding rebirth we reach God’s feet. Nammalwar says [1.2]: the Lord does not desire anything else but only us. When will we reach Him is His thought always. Therefore we should also discard our desires in other things and cling to His feet. Our query is that He is somewhere and after so much of time if we suddenly fall at His feet, will He accept? He is so great and will He not kick us out for not coming to Him all these days? In Srimad Ramayana, Vibheeshana was somewhere else. When he sought refuge in Sri Rama, he was not driven away. Whoever be, if he comes and falls at His feet, the Lord never drives him away. Sri Sita tells Ravana that if he cared to live happily with his family and clan, he should seek refuge in Sri Rama. She says He is saranagatha vatsala, who will not consider our misdeeds as a mistake but as an advantage. Such is His greatness. Similarly Sri Rama also advises Sugreeva. From all these we understand that the Lord is desirous of taking us to His domain. We should also have identical desire but we concentrated on inferior rewards. Pondering over this only will induce nirvedam and Arjuna will start disliking his behavior all these days. Our buddhi is contaminated. As long as papa and punya are there our buddhi will be like this only. Just as we cannot see our image clearly if the mirror has dust on it, with polluted mind we cannot perform any yoga properly; we cannot distinguish truth from falsehood. Which is thyajyam [rejectable] and which is upadheyam [acceptable] will not be known. This is what He calls mohakalinam. This is a great question before all of us. We cannot decide what we want. If all are asked to demand only one, which cannot be changed later, there will be total silence. We can never be firm in what we want and the requirement changes every moment. Do we want education or employment or good family or wealth? We can never be decisive. This is one type. But what Arjuna is told is that he should discard all the small and ordinary benefits like victory, swarga, etc, and desire only the feet of Sri Krishna. Thus the supreme goal will be unique or singular while the inferior rewards will be many and in multitude. We should reject the multitudes and accept the unique. This is rational knowledge. That is we are able to distinguish our acceptable and rejectable. In Sanskrit this is called thyajya upadeya gyan or viveka gyan. Once this moha kalinam is jumped over, nirvedam steps in and we start blaming ourselves for desiring such trivial things in life and having wasted our time. This disgust is a necessary step to reach Him. This only will make one to perform karma yoga with buddhi. Therefore from this 52^nd sloka we understood all those multiple desires we should discard and contemplate on the unique desire to reach His feet by detached karma yoga. After this Sri Krishna starts His sermon on Gyana Yoga with introduction.