What you can/ can't

 

Solution

 To feel nice always read one chapter every day. In rotation you would have read the full book 3 times in two months. 

To feel even better read each chapter three times in rotation. Then you would have read the book 9 times in the two months. 

why A

Why does the Lord teach the yoga sastra to Arjuna and not to Bheema, Yudhishtira or the other Pandava brothers? Why does He teach on the battlefield when both sides are ready for war? Interpreters put forth many interesting observations regarding the context, reasons for the choice of time, place, disciple, etc, with regard to Krishna’s instruction, pointed out Sri B. Sundarkumar in a discourse.

Yudhishtira is proficient in sastra knowledge and does not need to be taught. By nature, he has no enemies and so does not see Duryodhana as one, though the latter shows enmity to him. Left to himself he would not have fought the war. Bheema is waiting for the chance to avenge Draupadi’s humiliation. His pent up anger is his motivation. Arjuna alone feels confused about waging the war at the eleventh hour and surrenders himself to Krishna for guidance and solace. His dilemma is on the issue of fighting Bhishma, Drona and his own kinsmen.

It is not that Arjuna had not fought the same Bhishma, Drona and others earlier. In fact, when the Pandavas were spending the last year of exile in the kingdom of Virata in disguise, Arjuna did not need any motivation to fight against the same elders and kinsmen who were always venerable to him. He accompanied Uttara Kumara to retrieve the cows for the sake of the Virata kingdom. There was no personal stake then but now the gain from the war will be the kingdom and he is not for it. So Krishna imparts the knowledge of atma tatva which alone can dispel Arjuna’s ignorance and delusion regarding right and wrong. He should understand that this kind of self denial is misplaced at this point when his Kshatriya dharma should motivate him to fight against adharma. If he allows Duryodhana to take possession of the kingdom, he is complying with adharma. 

truth and honesty

 Thiruvalluvar stresses the value of honesty. He says that if a person is honest and does not utter lies, then it does not matter even if he does not perform other meritorious deeds. It is not enough to be pure in words and deeds. Tiruvalluvar goes one step further and says that we should have pure thoughts. We can have pure thoughts only if we avoid certain tendencies. Thirvalluvar lists these too. He explains through his verses that envy, anger, harsh words and greed are hindrances to our having pure thoughts.

Thiruvalluvar says that he who is envious of another’s success is one who is disinterested in dharmic actions and the punyas that come through them. He says that desires bring sorrow and so fearing desires is dharmic. Dharma awaits to enter the life of one who is well read, is free from anger and lives a life of self-control. If we speak sincere words that are of benefit to others and are also soothing, then dharma will reign supreme.

Tulasi

 

Every house should have a tulsi plant, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. All the celestials and the Sun reside in tulsi. Brahma resides in the tip of the tulsi leaf. In the middle of the leaf, Lord Narayana and His Consort reside. If a person lights a lamp before the tulsi plant every evening and circumambulates the plant, he will reach Vishnu loka. If a person protects a tulsi pant from being eaten by a goat, then the Lord will protect him. If we consume tulsi leaves that have been offered in worship to Lord Narayana, then we will be cured of diseases. If we wear tulsi bead garlands, then we will attain Brahma tejas. If water that has fallen on a tulsi plant were to fall on us, then we will earn the merit of having had a dip in the Ganges. When Goddess Mahalakshmi emerged from the milky ocean, tulsi also emerged from the ocean. When Sita was in Lanka, as a captive of Ravana, She prayed every day to tulsi.

The Paadma Purana records the glory of tulsi. Sage Narada told Satyabhama, Krishna’s Consort, that he who gives will get something. But he who gives nothing will get nothing. Satybahama wanted Krishna by her side always. So she at once gifted Krishna to Narada, thinking that her act would be rewarded with Krishna staying with her always. But the sage took Krishna with him. He told Satyabhama that if she wanted Krishna back, she would have to give Narada whatever Krishna was worth. Krishna was then weighed and Satyabhama put all her wealth on the other side of the balance. But the balance still remained tilted towards Krishna. Narada then suggested that she place a tulsi leaf on top of all the gold she had placed and when she did that, the scale tilted towards the side holding gold, proving the auspiciousness of tulsi. Just one leaf of tulsi had so much merit.

Chariot.

 

To facilitate the understanding of the self in relation to the body and to highlight the merits of self control, Narada in the Bhagavata Purana quotes the analogy of the chariot that is often used in the sastras, pointed out Sri R. Krishnamurthy Sastrigal in a discourse. The body is compared to a chariot, the senses to the horses, the mind to the controlling reins, the sense objects to the roads to be traversed, the intellect to the charioteer, and the Chitta, the functions of the mind as well as the repository of all affections, to the binding cord. The ten pranas are seen as the axle tree, dharma and adharma as the wheels, the jiva bound by the sense of ‘I’ and ‘Mine,’ as the master of the chariot, the Pranava as his bow, the purified jiva as the arrow, and Brahman as the target.

Ultimately the chariot of the human body has to be mastered by the complete subdual of the senses and by rising above the influence of the gunas that are manifest as human emotions and feelings. For instance, anger, attachment, etc, classified as rajas and tamas are direct enemies to the spiritual aspirant. Satva is advised as beneficial but even this has to be left to gain the bliss of the atma.

Jadabharata succumbed to kindness and had to wait for salvation. These can be overcome with the strength derived from God, and with the sword of jnana sharpened by practice of selfless service and devotion. When the self is realised, the chariot of the human body is to be abandoned. If one does not follow the path described, the horses of the senses directed by the Buddhi will gallop towards the robbers of the sense objects. These robbers will push the master, the charioteer and the horses again into samsara only to get immersed in the darkness of ignorance and constant fear of death.

https://images.app.goo.gl/vFwvfUqeP8aZtsrR6

In the Phaedrus, Plato (through his mouthpiece, Socrates) shares the allegory of the chariot to explain the tripartite nature of the human soul or psyche. The chariot is pulled by two winged horses, one mortal and the other immortal. The mortal horse is deformed and obstinate.

The philosophical import of the chariot images found in the Katha Upanishad and the Phaedrus is considered here. It is claimed that the resemblance in the accounts provided in these disparate texts is not merely incidental. Rather, each chariot-image should be read as contributing to a careful answer to the same thorny philosophical problem: the identification and justification of the best life for the individual. It is argued that each serves to illuminate an internal and complex account of the self, which grounds and supports an effective rejection of the life spent in pursuit of the satisfaction of bodily desires in favor of the life spent in pursuit of wisdom.

Schiltz (2006) makes extensive comparison between Plato's chariot myth and that in the Hindu Katha Upanishad, as does Uebersax (2007). In the Katha Upanishad, we are told, "Know the Self to be the master of the chariot, and the body to be the chariot. ...

The Phaedo’s intense preoccupation with the notions of self-liberation and self-transcendence in the face of death is strikingly reminiscent of Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. It is therefore not surprising that comparative philosophers have shown great interest in comparing this particular Platonic work to various South Asian texts: The Phaedo has been compared to the philosophy underlying yoga and Patanjali, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, the canonical account of the Buddha’s final days. Of particular relevance is the Katha Upanishad, which shares with the Phaedo enough common features, both textual and structural and thematic, for a comparative analysis to be fruitful. These striking resemblances enable me to bring important dissimilarities in the dialogical processes into focus— dissimilarities which have much to convey to us philosophically. These dissimilarities demonstrate that although the two traditions engaged in transformative ideas and practices that centered on the liberation of the soul, there is still a substantial difference between the nature of the philosophy celebrated by the Greeks and the mystical thought developed by the Upanishadic sages.

The preaching of Krishna to Arjuna in the Bhagavadgita contains different levels of meaning. One element of meaning is the content of the preaching itself. But the fact that Krishna's preaching takes the form of a dialogue reveals more layers of meaning. These layers can be found in Krishna's preaching and Arjuna's responses, but they are also embedded in the narrative plot of the Mahabharata epic. The dialogue represents four relationships between Krishna and Arjuna: a friend-friend relationship, a master-disciple relationship, a God-devotee relationship and a Self-I relationship. This Indian concept of dialogue is different from current Western concepts of dialogue.

Mercy

 The ocean of mercy is constantly flowing just as the rays of the sun constantly shine. It is our job to be receptive to that mercy to not only uplift ourselves, but for the betterment of society as a whole.

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