Spiritual Import of Religious Festivals -14.1.8 & 9

23/12/2017.

Chapter :- 14.  The Gospel of the Bhagavadgita - 1.8 & 9.

1. Introduction -8 & 9

VERY IMPORTANT, KEEP IN MIND, ACT ACCORDINGLY :

8.1
It is the conflict between the individual and the world as a whole in the form of this vast creation. Man has estranged himself from Nature. This is the third conflict – the conflict between man and Nature.

8.2
The world seems to be outside us, and we seem to be strangers in this world. We are not sure whether we are really wanted in this world. Sometimes it looks that we are not wanted at all, and yet we, somehow, reconcile ourselves with the hardships of this mysterious creation and pull on in life, "get on", as we say.

8.3
The world is not going to be reconciled if we are not going to obey its laws. Because of a conflict of our individuality with the universal Nature, we suffer various pains – hunger and thirst, heat and cold, and, finally, death.

8.4
All these catastrophes of human life, and life in general, are the outcome of an isolation of the individual from the cosmic Nature. Nature does not die; it is the individual that dies. Nature has no hunger and thirst; it is the individual that has hunger and thirst. Nature does not feel cold, Nature does not want a blanket or a sweater; it is the individual that feels heat and cold.

8.5
The bodily limitations, the vital limitations, the mental limitations and the intellectual limitations are the outcome of this bifurcation of personality or individuality from cosmic Nature. If we are to be tuned to Nature, then we are to become an integral, vital, universal part of Nature. Then we will have no hunger and thirst, no heat and cold, no death. But why should this difficulty arise?

8.6
No one wanted to isolate oneself from Nature. Nobody would purchase trouble deliberately. Then why has this happened? Who is responsible for this banishment of the individual from Universal Nature?

9.1
This third conflict is due to another conflict altogether, viz., the fourth conflict – the conflict between the Universe and the Absolute, between man and God. We are estranged from God Himself. That is why every other conflict has cropped up.

9.2
Social conflict or political conflict is due to individual conflict. The individual conflict is due to the conflict of natural forces in respect of the individual. This, again, is due to a higher conflict between the Universal Soul and the individual soul, man and God waging a war with each other.

9.3
Then it is that God has released this huge army called Nature, with all its terrific armament.

To be continued ...

Swami Krishnananda