Is detachment from the mind a key to unlocking profound awareness and spiritual growth? How does the Mahabharata serve as a powerful foundation for the Bhagavad Gita, a pivotal philosophical text in Hinduism? What role do the diverse characters in the Mahabharata play in illustrating godly and ungodly tendencies? In what ways does understanding the Mahabharata deepen our insight into the complexities of human nature and spirituality?
Tune in and find out!
Hope you enjoy and if you like my content, drop me a follow and find me on Instagram @stoicspirituality, Tiktok @stoicspirituality, and Youtube @stoicspirituality
Find my other podcast episodes and platforms here: https://rss.com/podcasts/stoicspirituality/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Is it not important for us to be detached from our mind and find the awareness behind
(00:06):
it?
Why is the Mahabharata one of the best stories to set up the most important philosophical
text, singular text, of Hinduism the Bhagavad Gita, and why do the many characters in the
Mahabharata represent godly vs ungodly tendencies along with veterans who are on both sides
(00:27):
who represent desireless action and detachment from results?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, analyze, and
dissect various quotes, books, and messages I've read throughout my entire life.
My name is Jagan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
out to the rest of this world.
(00:48):
And so this episode is going to be dedicated to taking a look at the introduction and the
first chapter of the Mahabharata in terms of the Bhagavad Gita.
And after going over a set of verses from the Bhagavad Gita in terms of the plot, understanding
it, and figuring out some little hidden details present in the commentary, I'm gonna go into
(01:13):
the idea of the mind and the awareness using books such as The Power of Now and The Untethered
Soul to kind of create this idea of excess energy buildup in the mind and how we have
to have a subject-object relationship with our thoughts so that our mind does not take
control of the rest of ourselves.
So I'm gonna start off with kind of the introduction of what the Mahabharata is.
(01:38):
I touched a little bit upon this in previous episodes but I kind of want to step back and
kind of illustrate what the Mahabharata is.
So the Mahabharata is one of the two major epics of Hindu mythology.
And so as expected, with an epic, you will find stories within stories.
May it be the many characters that we meet in this episode, or may it be the various
(02:01):
stories that have led them to the states they are in right now, each individual stretches
back in time with their own journeys and various undertakings to reach this point right now.
So kind of before we start the few verses that I want to discuss, there are three main
characters important for this episode.
(02:23):
So the first main character is Duryodhana.
He is the eldest brother of the Kaurava family, the hundred brothers of the Kauravas, and
he is the major face or the major focal point of how we see the Kauravas.
And so he is the one who is doing a majority of the talking all based on ego and a sense
(02:43):
of superiority in these verses and in this episode.
The next person of importance is Dronacharya.
So Dronacharya is present in the very beginning of the Pandavas and Kauravas story in the
Mahabharata.
So he is the teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas and his most prized pupil is Arjuna, who is
(03:05):
the third brother who the major song of the Bhagavad Gita is told to.
And he is one of the strongest fighters in the Kaurava army.
And so one thing you may wonder is if the Mahabharata is about good vs evil and almost
just vs unjust tendencies, why did Dronacharya and people like the third character Bheeshma
(03:28):
fight on Duryodhana's side as opposed to the Pandavas side even though they were in
the right?
And so this touches on the idea of Dharma.
This touches on the idea of doing in a sense what is or what your purpose is as one of
(03:49):
the definitions presented in the more mainstream definition and kind of sticking to your principles
and your values regardless of the overall difficulty or problems with doing such.
It's kind of sticking to what you believe and what you know is right or what you hold
the code you hold yourself to regardless of in a sense whatever the consequences may be.
(04:15):
And the third person in this episode is Bheeshma.
So Bheeshma is anointed as the commander and the defender of the Kaurava armies.
He is the eldest and wisest veteran and he is the general of the Kaurava army and he
is the fiercest warrior of all matched only by Arjuna on the other side and Drona who
is the second character and the teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas.
(04:39):
So Bheeshma as a character is the person who showed up as the son of the very first lineage
of the Pandavas and Kauravas.
He was the son of someone who was married to Ganga and was cursed as one of the Vasus
one of the seven Vassus to live in this world for in a sense try to tease and mess with
(05:06):
a Rishi.
So this last Vasu Bheeshma is an avatar of a Vasu or someone who's been born in a human
form and he is someone who renounced celibacy or like in a sense chose to be celibate because
he was had a half-brother whose father was very insistent upon his son becoming king
(05:36):
and out of the worry that Bheeshma who was a young 20 year old very powerful and very
loved person, him taking the ascension of the throne in fear of that he asked Bheeshma
to promise that he would stay celibate.
And Bheeshma accepted and announced the celibacy as a result.
(05:59):
So kind of having these three characters on stand for this episode we kind of get a sense
of what the plot is going to be set up as and who the personality characteristics and
traits of each character is.
So a few points as well philosophically speaking to discuss before we discuss the actual verses.
(06:21):
So first as mentioned before the Kauravas represent ungodly tendencies in men and the
Pandavas represent more divine impulses in him.
While the negative forces in a metaphorical sense may number more around you, the inner
divine army may be lesser and weaker but if you organize this under a godhead with desireless
(06:45):
actions, without attachment to results you create a true and permanent victory for yourself.
Marcus Aurelius talks a lot about the idea of not really conquering the empire around
you but the empire inside of you.
The negative forces, the sense objects, the many stimuli that are around you far outnumber
(07:07):
your willpower and your ability to fight back against it if your willpower is scattered.
However if you organize said willpower under Krishna you can create a true and permanent
victory.
You can ally yourself to fight with the right egoist tendencies and claim victory over the
(07:29):
demons that live inside of you and outside of you.
The next thing is the definition of Dharma.
So previously a few minutes ago I stated that Dharma kind of means your purpose or what
you have to do.
There is another definition that is less mainstream but more prominent in the Bhagavad Gita.
(07:50):
And Dharma is eating that which makes a thing or being what it is.
The essential nature of anything and everything.
So a lot of us see the word Dharma as us doing something or us committing an action to reach
and to follow our Dharma but the Bhagavad Gita talks about the idea of Dharma as inherent
(08:13):
to yourself and the very nature and fabric that makes up who we are and who you are as
a person.
The next thing is the idea of a superiority complex or inferiority complex.
So a weak man or someone who is not really ourselves, who is burdened down by the ego
and pride and conceit, we end up having a superiority complex.
(08:37):
Which means that we tend to assert our superiority and dominance in our own heads over someone
and we project our own weaknesses and impurities upon those working around us.
And so the purpose of a superiority complex is more for us to feel better about ourselves
and assert to other people that we are good at this or we are someone that is very powerful
(08:58):
or very well endowed or very well-knowledged in terms of what we can work with the world
through.
However, what a superiority complex really hides on the inside is an inferiority complex.
A superiority complex hides the very nature that you are afraid of or fearful of or the
(09:20):
kind of things that you hope not to be exposed for.
And so the very basis of a superiority complex hides an inferiority complex because you are
so worried about making yourself so well-known and illustrates your many qualities and many
benefits you have as a person that you kind of try to hide or close away or repress off
(09:42):
the parts that you're insecure about, the parts that you're worried about, the parts
that you think you could do better in.
That's the basis of a superiority complex.
Something that we see a lot of in Duryodhana speaking in these verses to Dronacharya and
Bhishma who are two models of virtue, two models of people who have desireless actions
(10:03):
with a detachment to the overall results.
And so this idea of the human heart is that we kind of tend toward having a sense of a
superiority complex.
We tend to glorify one's weaknesses and kind of project our own superiority with some convenient
angelic name and divine pose.
(10:23):
And this creates a kind of separation where our emotions have been divorced or like separated
from our intellect and our objective mind without the guidance of our other mind runs
wild to unintelligent conclusions.
We find ourselves as we put it going down rabbit holes where we do not have the logic
(10:49):
backbone for our emotions to bolster both sides and balance out either end.
So without this objective and subjective mind in ourselves, we kind of run rampant amongst
our own mind, amongst our own thoughts, and amongst our own feelings unable to reach a
(11:09):
possible rational but emotionally logical conclusion.
So now that we've kind of set up a bit of the philosophy behind these next verses, let's
go into the story.
So in the Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 verse 2, Duryodhana goes to Dronacharya who is the
(11:30):
teacher of the Karvas and Pandavas and he pretty much enunciates the many qualities,
the many members and the many armies that are present under him.
He speaks so much and too much about how he has such a powerful army, how his many warriors
(11:51):
who stand beside him fight for him and why he and his army is going to triumph over the
Pandavas.
And so going back to the enemy superiority complex by trying of enunciating and speaking
so much about your qualities or your presence of mind or whatever it may be that you consider
(12:12):
as defining yourself, you instead reveal the inward fears of your own self.
And in Duryodhana's case, he reveals his inward fears of what the final outcome of
the Mahabharata war was to be.
And so he spends many verses, so much time speaking about the opposing army sides and
(12:34):
tries to speak more about his army.
And he continues to blather on in just absolute fear hidden or attempted to be hidden by a
superiority complex to illustrate that his army is better than the Pandavas, more of
a reassurance of himself and seeking the same reassurance from his teacher and continuing
(12:55):
to blather and blather and speak unceasingly about how he is better and how he has so much
more strength.
And even at one point in verse 9 of chapter 1, Duryodhana indicates kind of that everyone
is lying down their lives for his sake.
He makes it seem like everyone around him is fighting for him, not for the real commander
(13:19):
in chief of the army which is Bhishma.
He takes the eagle upon himself that everyone that is there is there because of him, not
because of the presence of individuals such as Bhishma and Drona who if they switched
to the opposite side, much of the army would follow.
(13:40):
But in his deluded state of egoic self, he believes that because of his own charm and
his own charisma which he does not possess, everyone falls and steps behind him, not realizing
the true source of everyone's loyalty and everyone's care and compassion.
And so after he continues talking about his army versus Pandavas army and how his is better
(14:05):
and how his is superior, he goes on then to extol Bhishma's virtues.
So in the mythical sense or in the psychological area of pretty much the Hinduistic mythology,
you not only have a general but you also have a defender.
(14:25):
You have someone who is of great valor, of great strength, and of great promise who has
the ability to in the end be the backbone in a sense of the army.
So in the case of the Karava army, the backbone was Bhishma or the warrior slash defender.
(14:47):
And in the case of the Pandavas army, the defender was Bhima.
And so Bhima is the second of the five Pandava brothers who ends up laying waste to majority
of the Karava army.
So he is a man of great strength and valor and a sense of Dharma and he would go on to
(15:07):
lay waste to the hundred brothers of the Karavas, killing almost if not all of them with his
own hand.
So when his wife was humiliated in the dice game that led to the Pandavas going incognito
for 13 years or rather going into exile for 12 years in the incognito for the 13th year,
(15:28):
when his wife was humiliated and mocked by all the Karavas around him, whose physical
form was lusted for by the arrogant and lustful men of the Karavas, he made a promise that
he would break the thighs of those who slapped them in lust and in desire and would drink
the blood of those who disrespected his wife.
(15:52):
So some accounts of the Mahabharata war talk and illustrate this idea of him drinking the
blood and breaking the thighs, while some do not corroborate this and that is the nature
of an epic.
Some details do not fall through and some translations of some verses, but for the most
part this ends up being a vow that he takes.
(16:14):
And so to kind of provide some context as to hitting someone in the thighs, Bhima's
preferred weapon was a mace.
So when he would fight against Uriyodhana which should be a very massive and very well
like not choreographed but well long lasting fight, a lot of what people around in the
(16:35):
accounts realize that they were very well matched in their fighting prowess and skills.
And so in order to fulfill his vow and in order to defeat Uriyodhana, Bhima would hit
him on his thighs and hit him below his navel.
And so in a lot of even society today we consider that a cheap shot or we consider that something
(16:56):
that isn't the most like normal or in a sense Dharmic way to even attack someone in a sense.
And so when Bhima was to hit him on the thighs and cause his stance to break and cause him
to fall down, a lot of people looked upon that with a little more negative eyes in the
(17:17):
Mahabharata army that he attacked him in an unfair way seeking to fulfill his vow but
in a non-Dharmic unfair way where you won by valor and by hitting someone or fighting
in someone in a more proper manner.
So going back to the idea of what Uriyodhana starts continuing and speaking about, he is
(17:40):
told or he says something obvious over the next few verses.
He tells that everyone should array themselves, everyone should set themselves up to protect
none other than Bhima.
They should work to protect the general or the person who led and held command and control
over the Kaurava army.
And so this is something that as expected is relatively obvious and something that doesn't
(18:04):
need to be stated again because as many armies are set up and many armies are composed and
created, the major purpose of it would be to protect the general and ensure that he
is safe.
But in this arrogance, his egoic delusions and his deep rooted fear about the outcome
of the battle expressed by the amount of reassurance he needed to give himself and hear from others,
(18:27):
he continues to extol the virtues of Bhima and speak as though everyone must protect
them or him as if it wasn't obvious already.
And so, as mentioned before, the basis of ego comes from this idea of superiority, the
idea that you know better than other people or that you are more well versed in whatever
(18:48):
topic or subject of import or interest.
And so Uriyodhana's superiority came from this idea that he thought he knew best, he
knew more, and that everyone else was under the purview of his knowledge, including Bhima
and Dronacharya.
And as mentioned before, superiority complex hides in inferiority complex.
(19:10):
One who believes that he or she is better than someone else and needs to assert that
constantly oftentimes hides insecurity and fear deep inside them.
One quote that I either remember hearing from someone or paraphrased myself is the idea
that confidence stays silent but ego speaks.
Someone who is very confident in who they are as a person and what abilities they have
(19:34):
and their many attributes will not feel the need to express it at any given time or basis.
And when they do say it, they don't hold the ego and pride and expect everyone else's
reaction to be so noteworthy.
They state it with logic and without the attachment of a reaction.
However, someone who has a lot of ego is the opposite.
(19:56):
They feel the need to extol their virtues and tell everyone else that they are right,
they are this or they are that.
It can be manifested even in someone who does not follow through with a lot of the qualities
that they hold dear, yet loves extolling their virtues and telling everyone that they are
the best person.
They know what they're doing.
They are very intelligent and they have such a powerful way of life that no one else can
(20:20):
match.
And in the end, someone who really has that way of life, someone who really follows through
with those dictums or has a life of self-discipline or has these kinds of qualities that are admirable
never feels the need to express it because the happiness they get from doing such thing
is enough for them.
But someone who seeks to do these actions out of a sense of superiority or a sense of
(20:43):
assertion will always find a way to slip it into conversation, will always find a way
to give advice to other people and will always find a way to assert their superiority, their
strength and their force of will.
(21:03):
And so this kind of goes into the idea of the discrepancy of one of ego and one without
ego, comparing in a sense Bhishma and Triodhana.
So in the next few verses, all the while the Triodhana spends a time making a fool of himself
and with this excitement, putting all of these great officers of the army to blame and putting
(21:25):
them under purview of him or Bhishma, what ends up really happening is that Bhishma is
standing on the side over there, not too far away, observing how Triodhana is making a
fool of himself.
So this, the grandfather of the Kauravas noticed intelligently in his and Dronacharya's silence
(21:47):
who Duryodhana speaking in so many volumes to, the outraged temper of a man of knowledge
and action, hearing the bluster of an egoic man speaking, continuing to speak and not
stopping at all, extolling his versatility, extolling his superiority and continuing to
point out the many weaknesses of the opposing side, along with many other obvious things
(22:12):
that come with the flow of blabbering.
One thing that he kind of realizes is that the more they let the Triodhana speak with
Dronacharya and the more the generals even around him continue to hear this blathering
of an egoically consumed man hiding fear, the more they would become ineffectual for
(22:33):
the imminent battle.
Ineffectual meaning unable to operate at such a high standard or the necessity to fight
the Pandava army.
So understanding the many lowered psychologies of the offices under his command and the relating
potential harm it could cause to the Kaurava army, Bhishma takes up his conch and blows
(22:54):
it sending forth roaring waves of confidence into the hearts of people manning the army.
And so while one noticeable point in this is that this action that Bhishma does is performed
out of pity for Duryodhana's mental condition so that he's kind of snapped out in a sense
of his overall lower mental state and attempts at bolstering his own superiority to account
(23:21):
for his deep-seated and deep-rooted fear instead also has a double meaning.
When you blow a conch in Indian mythology, you signal to the army that you are beginning
the war.
The act of aggression in a sense is being sent out by your side.
It kind of looks seems like the first bullet shot in modern warfare where like the first
(23:44):
person who shoots that bullet or shoots that gun ends up being the one who starts the entire
conflict and the blame is placed almost in a sense on him regardless of the standing
armies or regardless of both the armies being present.
And with this lion or conch, for all intents and purposes the Mahabharata war has begun
and the Kauravas in this case became the aggressors because as Bhishma blew his conch so did everyone
(24:10):
else on the Kaurava side and in order to match this the Pandava side also began blowing their
conches to illustrate the beginning of the war.
But the one noticeable point is that the Kauravas were the aggressors.
They are the ones who started the war by virtue of Bhishma blowing his conch first and regardless
of the intention in this case of him trying to snap Duryodhana out of his mental state
(24:32):
it still was noted that they were the aggressors in this conflict.
And so as we continue with Duryodhana's kind of snap out of himself there's a lot of verses
that are also dedicated to major players in the Pandava army.
May it be the five Pandavas, the many relatives they have, and the many warriors they have
(24:53):
recruited over the last few months.
One important point is that the Pandavas made sure they recruited the two people that were
fated to kill the two greatest warriors of the Kaurava army, Bhishma and Dronacharya.
So Bhishma would never raise his hands against someone who was not a male due to his inbuilt
(25:17):
and coded Dharma.
And so one of the things that was illustrated in a previous story of the Mahabharata is
one person who requested Bhishma's hand in marriage was rejected by Bhishma due to his
valiant given to his half-brother's father, brother's half-brother's grandfather.
(25:38):
He rebuffed her and due to the amount of anger she felt as a result she did a lot of meditation
and tapas which is known as meditation with the source or with the end goal of seeking
a boon for many years.
And resultingly when someone channels a lot of this cosmic energy and does a lot of tapas
(26:01):
like that, one of the gods will come down and ask them for a boon to be granted.
And so she asked for the boon to kill Bhishma and in response the god said you will not
be able to kill him in this life but in your next life you will be able to kill Bhishma.
(26:21):
So in order to hasten this process she throws herself into the fire and is consumed so that
she can be reborn with the boon of being the one to kill Bhishma.
And so in the battlefield later in the Mahabharata war, spoiler alert, she is someone who is
(26:43):
reborn as a male but Bhishma knows the story and recognizes that she used to be a female
in her previous birth and refuses to raise his bow to fire at her and to kill her or
disable her and as a result he who used to be a female in her previous birth fires all
these arrows and disables Bhishma's ability resulting in her or him in this case taking
(27:11):
care of Bhishma and causing him to lay on a bed of arrows with Arjuna's help of creating.
So kind of a little more context, an illustration of how each story in Mahabharata and each
kind of facet or each part has its own story behind it, we can easily see the nature of
(27:33):
this ever expanding epic similar to like the branches of a tree where if you find one branch
you can realize that there are multiple branches to spot off of this tree that are interconnected
in this major epic and story, all taking place in the country of India.
So now I'm gonna spend the next episode, the next episode is gonna be dedicated more
(27:53):
to continuing this story and explaining the Pandava side, the setup of the reason for
the divine song of the Bhagavad Gita may it be from Arjuna's anxiety and panic resulting
in him throwing down his weapons in fear and contempt for the overall battle of the Bhagavad
Gita.
And now I'm gonna transition a little more into a philosophical ideology of the sensuality
(28:15):
or the necessity of thinking versus the mind and kind of trying to connect it to some of
the points in the Bhagavad Gita as discussed.
So as we talked about in previous episodes, the mind is an instrument or a tool.
It's not meant to be the primary source of dialogue or not the primary source of our
(28:37):
overall time that we spend in this world.
It's meant to be used when necessary, may it be when we are rationally thinking about
a problem or working our way through a solution.
However a lot of us think that the mind or the one that constantly spins around in our
head providing us dialogue is what we actually are defined by instead.
(28:59):
But one thing that you may or may not have noticed is that 80 to 90% of your thinking
or thoughts circulating in your head is harmful, serves no purpose, or is just repetitive.
It's the same things you tell yourself every single day to belittle or to kind of set yourself
(29:19):
up or label something in the world around you.
And so 80-90% of this statistic is repetitive.
10% to 20% of what you think about for the most part only has merit or value.
And so this statistic kind of refers to people who don't know of this idea of using their
mind or channeling their mind properly, not necessarily people who have started the path
(29:44):
of cutting away the success dialogue.
And so the ego has many definitions depending on the context.
Depending on if you choose to look at Freud's way of the ego being the middle self between
the superego and the id, maybe the idea of pride expanded could be ego and conceit.
But in this case, the ego refers to, in texts such as the Power of Now and the Bhagavad
(30:08):
Gita, refers to a false self created by this unconscious or conscious identification with
the mind.
Not conscious rather, but only unconscious identification with the mind.
It refers to, in a sense, the mind and how we base everything that is our personality
on simply the mind, not the presence or the awareness behind it.
(30:32):
And so the ego, in this case, in this definition, lives for the past and the future.
It doesn't exist for the present because in the present all that exists is awareness
and the one behind the mind.
And this goes into the idea of thinking versus consciousness.
So thinking and consciousness may seem like two similar concepts, but they are not synonymous.
(30:53):
Thought or the mind in this case requires consciousness to exist.
It requires the awareness behind the mind for thought to exist.
However, consciousness does not necessarily require thought and the tool of the mind to
exist.
And the concept of enlightenment in some definitions refers to rising above our thoughts, rising
above our ego, rising above our mind.
(31:17):
Using thinking for a purpose as a tool and keeping your mind focused, not allowing this
incessant and unnecessary and repetitive thoughts to circulate in our head at all times.
And much of what this voice says is unnecessary energy consuming.
Circling back to two episodes ago, we talked about this idea of a red Prius.
(31:39):
Let's say this red Prius had some negative value to you.
May it be someone who rear-ended you in an accident or may it be someone who drove this
who was no longer in your life for whatever purpose or reason.
When you look at this red Prius or when you look at this conceptual illustration that
has entered your stimuli, you attach meaning to it.
(32:01):
You seek to label it.
You seek to attach thoughts, ideas, energy consuming parts to a red Prius instead of
accepting it just as it is.
And this is something that is more natural in terms of what we are born with.
It is something that we use as a technique to label, to create, and to put a box around
(32:25):
the expanse and the major expanse of the world that lies around us.
And as mentioned before, the problems in our life often stem not out of the life problems
itself but of our interpretation and our connection and our mind's commotion about it.
It's not the event itself that causes a reaction, it is our response to the event that causes
(32:47):
us to go down a rabbit hole, for us to continue building upon an event that could have just
stayed in an event in an attempt for the ego or this mind to stay alive in the past or
the future.
And so this voice, if you didn't notice already, narrates and questions the world
around you.
(33:08):
It attempts to make it more discernible or more palpable for ourselves because the expanse
of the world around us, the world that is around us is not comprehensible.
There is so much stimuli coming at us every single moment of time, it may be light, sound,
smells, or whatever else, or touch even.
(33:32):
And we seek, in order to take in this massive world, we seek to label it, we seek to block
out much of everything and not let ourselves sit in this presence without any thoughts
circling in our head.
And as a result, our mind narrates this world, puts a box on it, and creates this place of
comfort and creates this place of perception for us to sit on and be comfortable with instead
(33:57):
of allowing ourselves to take in the world completely for what it is without attaching
our thoughts or mind to it.
Because in the end, our inner world is controllable.
Our inner world, our quality of our thoughts, and the way we see the world is controllable,
unlike the external world which follows its own laws.
Because whether or not you disagree or agree with it, almost everything in your life is
(34:20):
not in your control.
Very little is in your control, with the primary thing being the quality of your thoughts,
recognizing that you are the awareness behind the mind, and seizing this incessant dialogue
that runs in your head at all times.
That is what you can control.
And the two hands that are in front of you can control your actions.
(34:40):
So by choosing not to narrate, and then choosing instead to be open to the world, and allowing
yourself to subsist without trying to box it in or label it, will allow yourself to
be open to the world and be more exposed to it.
Because the mind serves as a protection comfort mechanism to block you off from the world
(35:01):
itself.
It serves to label it so that it feels better, and the ego feels better, connecting you to
the past or the future, and not allowing yourself to subsist in the present.
And the way you cultivate that is through the idea of constant awareness.
So I've talked a lot about this in previous episodes, and it still is worth mentioning,
because it is a revolutionary ideal that will change the way you perceive the world.
(35:25):
The idea that you are the observer of the mind, you are the awareness behind the mind,
and you are the person that lies behind the tool that should be your mind that incessantly
speaks at all times, is one of the most important things for people to understand, is that they
do not allow themselves to fall prey to the mind, to the emotions, and to the incessant
(35:51):
dialogue that causes us to rabbit hole ourselves into a worse mental state.
And understanding that you are the observer of this voice is one of the great mysteries
of creation.
It's not an easy thing to do.
I still struggle with it on a daily basis myself, even though I have posters on my wall
that constantly remind me to do this.
(36:13):
It is not an easy task, but the peace and serenity you get from a few minutes or a few
seconds even of realizing that is unmatched.
Because how can you define something that cannot be defined?
Our mind tries to do it for us, but that's not how reality works.
Trying to label something that cannot be labeled, for instance even trying to put the word God
(36:36):
or try to put the word of a higher power on the being that rises above and is above all
of us in the universe is impractical and implausible, yet we do it for the sake of attributing characteristics
to this higher power, and attempting for our minds to comprehend the vast expanse that
(36:58):
is the universe and the creator of the universe.
And so if we start simply by allowing ourselves to be aware of our thoughts without attaching
judgment to them, for that is another expanse of the ego, but simply being aware of them,
we take the next step into our own spiritual enlightenment to building up desireless actions
(37:20):
and to living a life without attachment to anything in particular.
And remember, attachment is not necessarily valuing or caring about something, it's the
next step where you stake your identity on it, where you stake your identity on pain
and pleasure, where you stake your identity on suffering, where you stake your identity
(37:42):
on your mind, as opposed to the being that lies behind, the soul that lies in all of
us, and the little part of divinity that also lies inside of all of us, inherent and continually
present, ready to be accessed at any moment's notice.
But to access it, we must throw off the delusion of Maya, the delusion of the illusion, and
(38:07):
we must become and take the next step toward enlightenment.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of the Bhagavad Gita, going over
the many godly vs. ungodly tendencies and the superiority complex that Duryodhana tries
to have, along with the segue into the idea of the mind being an instrument and a tool
(38:28):
and how the inner world is controllable and what our voice says is unnecessary and energy
consuming for the most part.
If you would like to hear more content, feel free to drop me a follow at Stoic Spirituality
on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Is it not important for us to be detached from our mind and find the awareness behind
(00:06):
it?
Why is the Mahabharata one of the best stories to set up the most important philosophical
text, singular text, of Hinduism the Bhagavad Gita, and why do the many characters in the
Mahabharata represent godly vs ungodly tendencies along with veterans who are on both sides
(00:27):
who represent desireless action and detachment from results?
Hello and welcome back to Stoic Spirituality, a podcast where I look through, analyze, and
dissect various quotes, books, and messages I've read throughout my entire life.
My name is Jagan and I'm a student of the human experience trying to spread some knowledge
out to the rest of this world.
(00:48):
And so this episode is going to be dedicated to taking a look at the introduction and the
first chapter of the Mahabharata in terms of the Bhagavad Gita.
And after going over a set of verses from the Bhagavad Gita in terms of the plot, understanding
it, and figuring out some little hidden details present in the commentary, I'm gonna go into
(01:13):
the idea of the mind and the awareness using books such as The Power of Now and The Untethered
Soul to kind of create this idea of excess energy buildup in the mind and how we have
to have a subject-object relationship with our thoughts so that our mind does not take
control of the rest of ourselves.
So I'm gonna start off with kind of the introduction of what the Mahabharata is.
(01:38):
I touched a little bit upon this in previous episodes but I kind of want to step back and
kind of illustrate what the Mahabharata is.
So the Mahabharata is one of the two major epics of Hindu mythology.
And so as expected, with an epic, you will find stories within stories.
May it be the many characters that we meet in this episode, or may it be the various
(02:01):
stories that have led them to the states they are in right now, each individual stretches
back in time with their own journeys and various undertakings to reach this point right now.
So kind of before we start the few verses that I want to discuss, there are three main
characters important for this episode.
(02:23):
So the first main character is Duryodhana.
He is the eldest brother of the Kaurava family, the hundred brothers of the Kauravas, and
he is the major face or the major focal point of how we see the Kauravas.
And so he is the one who is doing a majority of the talking all based on ego and a sense
(02:43):
of superiority in these verses and in this episode.
The next person of importance is Dronacharya.
So Dronacharya is present in the very beginning of the Pandavas and Kauravas story in the
Mahabharata.
So he is the teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas and his most prized pupil is Arjuna, who is
(03:05):
the third brother who the major song of the Bhagavad Gita is told to.
And he is one of the strongest fighters in the Kaurava army.
And so one thing you may wonder is if the Mahabharata is about good vs evil and almost
just vs unjust tendencies, why did Dronacharya and people like the third character Bheeshma
(03:28):
fight on Duryodhana's side as opposed to the Pandavas side even though they were in
the right?
And so this touches on the idea of Dharma.
This touches on the idea of doing in a sense what is or what your purpose is as one of
(03:49):
the definitions presented in the more mainstream definition and kind of sticking to your principles
and your values regardless of the overall difficulty or problems with doing such.
It's kind of sticking to what you believe and what you know is right or what you hold
the code you hold yourself to regardless of in a sense whatever the consequences may be.
(04:15):
And the third person in this episode is Bheeshma.
So Bheeshma is anointed as the commander and the defender of the Kaurava armies.
He is the eldest and wisest veteran and he is the general of the Kaurava army and he
is the fiercest warrior of all matched only by Arjuna on the other side and Drona who
is the second character and the teacher of the Kauravas and Pandavas.
(04:39):
So Bheeshma as a character is the person who showed up as the son of the very first lineage
of the Pandavas and Kauravas.
He was the son of someone who was married to Ganga and was cursed as one of the Vasus
one of the seven Vassus to live in this world for in a sense try to tease and mess with
(05:06):
a Rishi.
So this last Vasu Bheeshma is an avatar of a Vasu or someone who's been born in a human
form and he is someone who renounced celibacy or like in a sense chose to be celibate because
he was had a half-brother whose father was very insistent upon his son becoming king
(05:36):
and out of the worry that Bheeshma who was a young 20 year old very powerful and very
loved person, him taking the ascension of the throne in fear of that he asked Bheeshma
to promise that he would stay celibate.
And Bheeshma accepted and announced the celibacy as a result.
(05:59):
So kind of having these three characters on stand for this episode we kind of get a sense
of what the plot is going to be set up as and who the personality characteristics and
traits of each character is.
So a few points as well philosophically speaking to discuss before we discuss the actual verses.
(06:21):
So first as mentioned before the Kauravas represent ungodly tendencies in men and the
Pandavas represent more divine impulses in him.
While the negative forces in a metaphorical sense may number more around you, the inner
divine army may be lesser and weaker but if you organize this under a godhead with desireless
(06:45):
actions, without attachment to results you create a true and permanent victory for yourself.
Marcus Aurelius talks a lot about the idea of not really conquering the empire around
you but the empire inside of you.
The negative forces, the sense objects, the many stimuli that are around you far outnumber
(07:07):
your willpower and your ability to fight back against it if your willpower is scattered.
However if you organize said willpower under Krishna you can create a true and permanent
victory.
You can ally yourself to fight with the right egoist tendencies and claim victory over the
(07:29):
demons that live inside of you and outside of you.
The next thing is the definition of Dharma.
So previously a few minutes ago I stated that Dharma kind of means your purpose or what
you have to do.
There is another definition that is less mainstream but more prominent in the Bhagavad Gita.
(07:50):
And Dharma is eating that which makes a thing or being what it is.
The essential nature of anything and everything.
So a lot of us see the word Dharma as us doing something or us committing an action to reach
and to follow our Dharma but the Bhagavad Gita talks about the idea of Dharma as inherent
(08:13):
to yourself and the very nature and fabric that makes up who we are and who you are as
a person.
The next thing is the idea of a superiority complex or inferiority complex.
So a weak man or someone who is not really ourselves, who is burdened down by the ego
and pride and conceit, we end up having a superiority complex.
(08:37):
Which means that we tend to assert our superiority and dominance in our own heads over someone
and we project our own weaknesses and impurities upon those working around us.
And so the purpose of a superiority complex is more for us to feel better about ourselves
and assert to other people that we are good at this or we are someone that is very powerful
(08:58):
or very well endowed or very well-knowledged in terms of what we can work with the world
through.
However, what a superiority complex really hides on the inside is an inferiority complex.
A superiority complex hides the very nature that you are afraid of or fearful of or the
(09:20):
kind of things that you hope not to be exposed for.
And so the very basis of a superiority complex hides an inferiority complex because you are
so worried about making yourself so well-known and illustrates your many qualities and many
benefits you have as a person that you kind of try to hide or close away or repress off
(09:42):
the parts that you're insecure about, the parts that you're worried about, the parts
that you think you could do better in.
That's the basis of a superiority complex.
Something that we see a lot of in Duryodhana speaking in these verses to Dronacharya and
Bhishma who are two models of virtue, two models of people who have desireless actions
(10:03):
with a detachment to the overall results.
And so this idea of the human heart is that we kind of tend toward having a sense of a
superiority complex.
We tend to glorify one's weaknesses and kind of project our own superiority with some convenient
angelic name and divine pose.
(10:23):
And this creates a kind of separation where our emotions have been divorced or like separated
from our intellect and our objective mind without the guidance of our other mind runs
wild to unintelligent conclusions.
We find ourselves as we put it going down rabbit holes where we do not have the logic
(10:49):
backbone for our emotions to bolster both sides and balance out either end.
So without this objective and subjective mind in ourselves, we kind of run rampant amongst
our own mind, amongst our own thoughts, and amongst our own feelings unable to reach a
(11:09):
possible rational but emotionally logical conclusion.
So now that we've kind of set up a bit of the philosophy behind these next verses, let's
go into the story.
So in the Bhagavad Gita chapter 1 verse 2, Duryodhana goes to Dronacharya who is the
(11:30):
teacher of the Karvas and Pandavas and he pretty much enunciates the many qualities,
the many members and the many armies that are present under him.
He speaks so much and too much about how he has such a powerful army, how his many warriors
(11:51):
who stand beside him fight for him and why he and his army is going to triumph over the
Pandavas.
And so going back to the enemy superiority complex by trying of enunciating and speaking
so much about your qualities or your presence of mind or whatever it may be that you consider
(12:12):
as defining yourself, you instead reveal the inward fears of your own self.
And in Duryodhana's case, he reveals his inward fears of what the final outcome of
the Mahabharata war was to be.
And so he spends many verses, so much time speaking about the opposing army sides and
(12:34):
tries to speak more about his army.
And he continues to blather on in just absolute fear hidden or attempted to be hidden by a
superiority complex to illustrate that his army is better than the Pandavas, more of
a reassurance of himself and seeking the same reassurance from his teacher and continuing
(12:55):
to blather and blather and speak unceasingly about how he is better and how he has so much
more strength.
And even at one point in verse 9 of chapter 1, Duryodhana indicates kind of that everyone
is lying down their lives for his sake.
He makes it seem like everyone around him is fighting for him, not for the real commander
(13:19):
in chief of the army which is Bhishma.
He takes the eagle upon himself that everyone that is there is there because of him, not
because of the presence of individuals such as Bhishma and Drona who if they switched
to the opposite side, much of the army would follow.
(13:40):
But in his deluded state of egoic self, he believes that because of his own charm and
his own charisma which he does not possess, everyone falls and steps behind him, not realizing
the true source of everyone's loyalty and everyone's care and compassion.
And so after he continues talking about his army versus Pandavas army and how his is better
(14:05):
and how his is superior, he goes on then to extol Bhishma's virtues.
So in the mythical sense or in the psychological area of pretty much the Hinduistic mythology,
you not only have a general but you also have a defender.
(14:25):
You have someone who is of great valor, of great strength, and of great promise who has
the ability to in the end be the backbone in a sense of the army.
So in the case of the Karava army, the backbone was Bhishma or the warrior slash defender.
(14:47):
And in the case of the Pandavas army, the defender was Bhima.
And so Bhima is the second of the five Pandava brothers who ends up laying waste to majority
of the Karava army.
So he is a man of great strength and valor and a sense of Dharma and he would go on to
(15:07):
lay waste to the hundred brothers of the Karavas, killing almost if not all of them with his
own hand.
So when his wife was humiliated in the dice game that led to the Pandavas going incognito
for 13 years or rather going into exile for 12 years in the incognito for the 13th year,
(15:28):
when his wife was humiliated and mocked by all the Karavas around him, whose physical
form was lusted for by the arrogant and lustful men of the Karavas, he made a promise that
he would break the thighs of those who slapped them in lust and in desire and would drink
the blood of those who disrespected his wife.
(15:52):
So some accounts of the Mahabharata war talk and illustrate this idea of him drinking the
blood and breaking the thighs, while some do not corroborate this and that is the nature
of an epic.
Some details do not fall through and some translations of some verses, but for the most
part this ends up being a vow that he takes.
(16:14):
And so to kind of provide some context as to hitting someone in the thighs, Bhima's
preferred weapon was a mace.
So when he would fight against Uriyodhana which should be a very massive and very well
like not choreographed but well long lasting fight, a lot of what people around in the
(16:35):
accounts realize that they were very well matched in their fighting prowess and skills.
And so in order to fulfill his vow and in order to defeat Uriyodhana, Bhima would hit
him on his thighs and hit him below his navel.
And so in a lot of even society today we consider that a cheap shot or we consider that something
(16:56):
that isn't the most like normal or in a sense Dharmic way to even attack someone in a sense.
And so when Bhima was to hit him on the thighs and cause his stance to break and cause him
to fall down, a lot of people looked upon that with a little more negative eyes in the
(17:17):
Mahabharata army that he attacked him in an unfair way seeking to fulfill his vow but
in a non-Dharmic unfair way where you won by valor and by hitting someone or fighting
in someone in a more proper manner.
So going back to the idea of what Uriyodhana starts continuing and speaking about, he is
(17:40):
told or he says something obvious over the next few verses.
He tells that everyone should array themselves, everyone should set themselves up to protect
none other than Bhima.
They should work to protect the general or the person who led and held command and control
over the Kaurava army.
And so this is something that as expected is relatively obvious and something that doesn't
(18:04):
need to be stated again because as many armies are set up and many armies are composed and
created, the major purpose of it would be to protect the general and ensure that he
is safe.
But in this arrogance, his egoic delusions and his deep rooted fear about the outcome
of the battle expressed by the amount of reassurance he needed to give himself and hear from others,
(18:27):
he continues to extol the virtues of Bhima and speak as though everyone must protect
them or him as if it wasn't obvious already.
And so, as mentioned before, the basis of ego comes from this idea of superiority, the
idea that you know better than other people or that you are more well versed in whatever
(18:48):
topic or subject of import or interest.
And so Uriyodhana's superiority came from this idea that he thought he knew best, he
knew more, and that everyone else was under the purview of his knowledge, including Bhima
and Dronacharya.
And as mentioned before, superiority complex hides in inferiority complex.
(19:10):
One who believes that he or she is better than someone else and needs to assert that
constantly oftentimes hides insecurity and fear deep inside them.
One quote that I either remember hearing from someone or paraphrased myself is the idea
that confidence stays silent but ego speaks.
Someone who is very confident in who they are as a person and what abilities they have
(19:34):
and their many attributes will not feel the need to express it at any given time or basis.
And when they do say it, they don't hold the ego and pride and expect everyone else's
reaction to be so noteworthy.
They state it with logic and without the attachment of a reaction.
However, someone who has a lot of ego is the opposite.
(19:56):
They feel the need to extol their virtues and tell everyone else that they are right,
they are this or they are that.
It can be manifested even in someone who does not follow through with a lot of the qualities
that they hold dear, yet loves extolling their virtues and telling everyone that they are
the best person.
They know what they're doing.
They are very intelligent and they have such a powerful way of life that no one else can
(20:20):
match.
And in the end, someone who really has that way of life, someone who really follows through
with those dictums or has a life of self-discipline or has these kinds of qualities that are admirable
never feels the need to express it because the happiness they get from doing such thing
is enough for them.
But someone who seeks to do these actions out of a sense of superiority or a sense of
(20:43):
assertion will always find a way to slip it into conversation, will always find a way
to give advice to other people and will always find a way to assert their superiority, their
strength and their force of will.
(21:03):
And so this kind of goes into the idea of the discrepancy of one of ego and one without
ego, comparing in a sense Bhishma and Triodhana.
So in the next few verses, all the while the Triodhana spends a time making a fool of himself
and with this excitement, putting all of these great officers of the army to blame and putting
(21:25):
them under purview of him or Bhishma, what ends up really happening is that Bhishma is
standing on the side over there, not too far away, observing how Triodhana is making a
fool of himself.
So this, the grandfather of the Kauravas noticed intelligently in his and Dronacharya's silence
(21:47):
who Duryodhana speaking in so many volumes to, the outraged temper of a man of knowledge
and action, hearing the bluster of an egoic man speaking, continuing to speak and not
stopping at all, extolling his versatility, extolling his superiority and continuing to
point out the many weaknesses of the opposing side, along with many other obvious things
(22:12):
that come with the flow of blabbering.
One thing that he kind of realizes is that the more they let the Triodhana speak with
Dronacharya and the more the generals even around him continue to hear this blathering
of an egoically consumed man hiding fear, the more they would become ineffectual for
(22:33):
the imminent battle.
Ineffectual meaning unable to operate at such a high standard or the necessity to fight
the Pandava army.
So understanding the many lowered psychologies of the offices under his command and the relating
potential harm it could cause to the Kaurava army, Bhishma takes up his conch and blows
(22:54):
it sending forth roaring waves of confidence into the hearts of people manning the army.
And so while one noticeable point in this is that this action that Bhishma does is performed
out of pity for Duryodhana's mental condition so that he's kind of snapped out in a sense
of his overall lower mental state and attempts at bolstering his own superiority to account
(23:21):
for his deep-seated and deep-rooted fear instead also has a double meaning.
When you blow a conch in Indian mythology, you signal to the army that you are beginning
the war.
The act of aggression in a sense is being sent out by your side.
It kind of looks seems like the first bullet shot in modern warfare where like the first
(23:44):
person who shoots that bullet or shoots that gun ends up being the one who starts the entire
conflict and the blame is placed almost in a sense on him regardless of the standing
armies or regardless of both the armies being present.
And with this lion or conch, for all intents and purposes the Mahabharata war has begun
and the Kauravas in this case became the aggressors because as Bhishma blew his conch so did everyone
(24:10):
else on the Kaurava side and in order to match this the Pandava side also began blowing their
conches to illustrate the beginning of the war.
But the one noticeable point is that the Kauravas were the aggressors.
They are the ones who started the war by virtue of Bhishma blowing his conch first and regardless
of the intention in this case of him trying to snap Duryodhana out of his mental state
(24:32):
it still was noted that they were the aggressors in this conflict.
And so as we continue with Duryodhana's kind of snap out of himself there's a lot of verses
that are also dedicated to major players in the Pandava army.
May it be the five Pandavas, the many relatives they have, and the many warriors they have
(24:53):
recruited over the last few months.
One important point is that the Pandavas made sure they recruited the two people that were
fated to kill the two greatest warriors of the Kaurava army, Bhishma and Dronacharya.
So Bhishma would never raise his hands against someone who was not a male due to his inbuilt
(25:17):
and coded Dharma.
And so one of the things that was illustrated in a previous story of the Mahabharata is
one person who requested Bhishma's hand in marriage was rejected by Bhishma due to his
valiant given to his half-brother's father, brother's half-brother's grandfather.
(25:38):
He rebuffed her and due to the amount of anger she felt as a result she did a lot of meditation
and tapas which is known as meditation with the source or with the end goal of seeking
a boon for many years.
And resultingly when someone channels a lot of this cosmic energy and does a lot of tapas
(26:01):
like that, one of the gods will come down and ask them for a boon to be granted.
And so she asked for the boon to kill Bhishma and in response the god said you will not
be able to kill him in this life but in your next life you will be able to kill Bhishma.
(26:21):
So in order to hasten this process she throws herself into the fire and is consumed so that
she can be reborn with the boon of being the one to kill Bhishma.
And so in the battlefield later in the Mahabharata war, spoiler alert, she is someone who is
(26:43):
reborn as a male but Bhishma knows the story and recognizes that she used to be a female
in her previous birth and refuses to raise his bow to fire at her and to kill her or
disable her and as a result he who used to be a female in her previous birth fires all
these arrows and disables Bhishma's ability resulting in her or him in this case taking
(27:11):
care of Bhishma and causing him to lay on a bed of arrows with Arjuna's help of creating.
So kind of a little more context, an illustration of how each story in Mahabharata and each
kind of facet or each part has its own story behind it, we can easily see the nature of
(27:33):
this ever expanding epic similar to like the branches of a tree where if you find one branch
you can realize that there are multiple branches to spot off of this tree that are interconnected
in this major epic and story, all taking place in the country of India.
So now I'm gonna spend the next episode, the next episode is gonna be dedicated more
(27:53):
to continuing this story and explaining the Pandava side, the setup of the reason for
the divine song of the Bhagavad Gita may it be from Arjuna's anxiety and panic resulting
in him throwing down his weapons in fear and contempt for the overall battle of the Bhagavad
Gita.
And now I'm gonna transition a little more into a philosophical ideology of the sensuality
(28:15):
or the necessity of thinking versus the mind and kind of trying to connect it to some of
the points in the Bhagavad Gita as discussed.
So as we talked about in previous episodes, the mind is an instrument or a tool.
It's not meant to be the primary source of dialogue or not the primary source of our
(28:37):
overall time that we spend in this world.
It's meant to be used when necessary, may it be when we are rationally thinking about
a problem or working our way through a solution.
However a lot of us think that the mind or the one that constantly spins around in our
head providing us dialogue is what we actually are defined by instead.
(28:59):
But one thing that you may or may not have noticed is that 80 to 90% of your thinking
or thoughts circulating in your head is harmful, serves no purpose, or is just repetitive.
It's the same things you tell yourself every single day to belittle or to kind of set yourself
(29:19):
up or label something in the world around you.
And so 80-90% of this statistic is repetitive.
10% to 20% of what you think about for the most part only has merit or value.
And so this statistic kind of refers to people who don't know of this idea of using their
mind or channeling their mind properly, not necessarily people who have started the path
(29:44):
of cutting away the success dialogue.
And so the ego has many definitions depending on the context.
Depending on if you choose to look at Freud's way of the ego being the middle self between
the superego and the id, maybe the idea of pride expanded could be ego and conceit.
But in this case, the ego refers to, in texts such as the Power of Now and the Bhagavad
(30:08):
Gita, refers to a false self created by this unconscious or conscious identification with
the mind.
Not conscious rather, but only unconscious identification with the mind.
It refers to, in a sense, the mind and how we base everything that is our personality
on simply the mind, not the presence or the awareness behind it.
(30:32):
And so the ego, in this case, in this definition, lives for the past and the future.
It doesn't exist for the present because in the present all that exists is awareness
and the one behind the mind.
And this goes into the idea of thinking versus consciousness.
So thinking and consciousness may seem like two similar concepts, but they are not synonymous.
(30:53):
Thought or the mind in this case requires consciousness to exist.
It requires the awareness behind the mind for thought to exist.
However, consciousness does not necessarily require thought and the tool of the mind to
exist.
And the concept of enlightenment in some definitions refers to rising above our thoughts, rising
above our ego, rising above our mind.
(31:17):
Using thinking for a purpose as a tool and keeping your mind focused, not allowing this
incessant and unnecessary and repetitive thoughts to circulate in our head at all times.
And much of what this voice says is unnecessary energy consuming.
Circling back to two episodes ago, we talked about this idea of a red Prius.
(31:39):
Let's say this red Prius had some negative value to you.
May it be someone who rear-ended you in an accident or may it be someone who drove this
who was no longer in your life for whatever purpose or reason.
When you look at this red Prius or when you look at this conceptual illustration that
has entered your stimuli, you attach meaning to it.
(32:01):
You seek to label it.
You seek to attach thoughts, ideas, energy consuming parts to a red Prius instead of
accepting it just as it is.
And this is something that is more natural in terms of what we are born with.
It is something that we use as a technique to label, to create, and to put a box around
(32:25):
the expanse and the major expanse of the world that lies around us.
And as mentioned before, the problems in our life often stem not out of the life problems
itself but of our interpretation and our connection and our mind's commotion about it.
It's not the event itself that causes a reaction, it is our response to the event that causes
(32:47):
us to go down a rabbit hole, for us to continue building upon an event that could have just
stayed in an event in an attempt for the ego or this mind to stay alive in the past or
the future.
And so this voice, if you didn't notice already, narrates and questions the world
around you.
(33:08):
It attempts to make it more discernible or more palpable for ourselves because the expanse
of the world around us, the world that is around us is not comprehensible.
There is so much stimuli coming at us every single moment of time, it may be light, sound,
smells, or whatever else, or touch even.
(33:32):
And we seek, in order to take in this massive world, we seek to label it, we seek to block
out much of everything and not let ourselves sit in this presence without any thoughts
circling in our head.
And as a result, our mind narrates this world, puts a box on it, and creates this place of
comfort and creates this place of perception for us to sit on and be comfortable with instead
(33:57):
of allowing ourselves to take in the world completely for what it is without attaching
our thoughts or mind to it.
Because in the end, our inner world is controllable.
Our inner world, our quality of our thoughts, and the way we see the world is controllable,
unlike the external world which follows its own laws.
Because whether or not you disagree or agree with it, almost everything in your life is
(34:20):
not in your control.
Very little is in your control, with the primary thing being the quality of your thoughts,
recognizing that you are the awareness behind the mind, and seizing this incessant dialogue
that runs in your head at all times.
That is what you can control.
And the two hands that are in front of you can control your actions.
(34:40):
So by choosing not to narrate, and then choosing instead to be open to the world, and allowing
yourself to subsist without trying to box it in or label it, will allow yourself to
be open to the world and be more exposed to it.
Because the mind serves as a protection comfort mechanism to block you off from the world
(35:01):
itself.
It serves to label it so that it feels better, and the ego feels better, connecting you to
the past or the future, and not allowing yourself to subsist in the present.
And the way you cultivate that is through the idea of constant awareness.
So I've talked a lot about this in previous episodes, and it still is worth mentioning,
because it is a revolutionary ideal that will change the way you perceive the world.
(35:25):
The idea that you are the observer of the mind, you are the awareness behind the mind,
and you are the person that lies behind the tool that should be your mind that incessantly
speaks at all times, is one of the most important things for people to understand, is that they
do not allow themselves to fall prey to the mind, to the emotions, and to the incessant
(35:51):
dialogue that causes us to rabbit hole ourselves into a worse mental state.
And understanding that you are the observer of this voice is one of the great mysteries
of creation.
It's not an easy thing to do.
I still struggle with it on a daily basis myself, even though I have posters on my wall
that constantly remind me to do this.
(36:13):
It is not an easy task, but the peace and serenity you get from a few minutes or a few
seconds even of realizing that is unmatched.
Because how can you define something that cannot be defined?
Our mind tries to do it for us, but that's not how reality works.
Trying to label something that cannot be labeled, for instance even trying to put the word God
(36:36):
or try to put the word of a higher power on the being that rises above and is above all
of us in the universe is impractical and implausible, yet we do it for the sake of attributing characteristics
to this higher power, and attempting for our minds to comprehend the vast expanse that
(36:58):
is the universe and the creator of the universe.
And so if we start simply by allowing ourselves to be aware of our thoughts without attaching
judgment to them, for that is another expanse of the ego, but simply being aware of them,
we take the next step into our own spiritual enlightenment to building up desireless actions
(37:20):
and to living a life without attachment to anything in particular.
And remember, attachment is not necessarily valuing or caring about something, it's the
next step where you stake your identity on it, where you stake your identity on pain
and pleasure, where you stake your identity on suffering, where you stake your identity
(37:42):
on your mind, as opposed to the being that lies behind, the soul that lies in all of
us, and the little part of divinity that also lies inside of all of us, inherent and continually
present, ready to be accessed at any moment's notice.
But to access it, we must throw off the delusion of Maya, the delusion of the illusion, and
(38:07):
we must become and take the next step toward enlightenment.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode on the idea of the Bhagavad Gita, going over
the many godly vs. ungodly tendencies and the superiority complex that Duryodhana tries
to have, along with the segue into the idea of the mind being an instrument and a tool
(38:28):
and how the inner world is controllable and what our voice says is unnecessary and energy
consuming for the most part.
If you would like to hear more content, feel free to drop me a follow at Stoic Spirituality
on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Boysober
Have you ever wondered what life might be like if you stopped worrying about being wanted, and focused on understanding what you actually want? That was the question Hope Woodard asked herself after a string of situationships inspired her to take a break from sex and dating. She went "boysober," a personal concept that sparked a global movement among women looking to prioritize themselves over men. Now, Hope is looking to expand the ways we explore our relationship to relationships. Taking a bold, unfiltered look into modern love, romance, and self-discovery, Boysober will dive into messy stories about dating, sex, love, friendship, and breaking generational patterns—all with humor, vulnerability, and a fresh perspective.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com