Hari om everyone,
We started the class with geeta chanting (chapter 2, till verse 12) and continued our discussion of the traits listed by Krishna as those necessary for spiritual awakening; for review those are:
· Humility
· Unpretentiousness
· Non-injury
· Forgiveness
· Uprightness
· Service to teacher
· Purity
· Steadfastness
· Self Control
We had in previous weeks discussed concepts such as humility and non-injury. We expanded our discussion to the other traits as well – for instance, we looked at forgiveness and recounted the story of Krishna and Sisupala; Krishna most famously pardoned Sisupala for one hundred offences against him before striking him down – in the case of forgiveness, one should be willing to endure suffering and inconvenience with forbearance through patience should not be exercised naively. When offence is given with malice as in the case of Sisupala, a person must be willing to answer though perhaps not to the extent of Krishna! We discussed Purity, Uprightness and Steadfastness as well as they are interrelated concepts. Uprightness is the intent within the person for right conduct, similarly, purity is cleanliness in thought, deed and action – uprightness leads to purity and we can maintain the two only through steadfastness – that is to maintain consistency and focus in your actions. That in turn is achieved through self-restraint and resistance to temptations. The last concept we briefly touched upon was service to teacher – this is not merely providing assistance to your guru but aligning yourself with their teachings. Arjuna found an excellent guru in the form of Krishna and we must strive in our own lives to find similar.
Regards,
Raghav and Rashmi.
