Self-inquiry is concerned with the scientific inquiry into the source of the subjectivity. Then the periphery will take care of itself. The intelligence that is born out of self-inquiry will manifest itself in the periphery and we learn the art of living without conflict in the periphery. The Maha Bharat war and other wars in the human history are due lack understanding of source of subjectivity and leading only a sensual life. If a leaf of a big tree is damaged the roots of the tree will not be affected but if the roots ...
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Self-inquiry is concerned with the scientific inquiry into the source of the subjectivity. Then the periphery will take care of itself. The intelligence that is born out of self-inquiry will manifest itself in the periphery and we learn the art of living without conflict in the periphery. The Maha Bharat war and other wars in the human history are due lack understanding of source of subjectivity and leading only a sensual life. If a leaf of a big tree is damaged the roots of the tree will not be affected but if the roots are diseased it will affect the entire tree including the leaves. So if the mind is not healthy, in a state of Self-ignorance it affects the whole human life including the health of the body. Bhagawad Gita is a scripture on human psychology and so it is relevant to the whole humanity irrespective of their conditioning Unless you understand the mechanics of workings of your own mind you cannot reach the state of no-mind. This understanding of working of your own mind is self-inquiry. The state of no-mind happens as naturally as it should be. So for people with psychological problems Gita is a better book than spiritual scriptures. The pity of humanity is that they somehow adjust to the Self-ignorant life and go on postponing to jump out of stream that is created by Self-ignorant activity though they have an opportunity to jump out of it. For them known devil is better than unknown angel. Among all who participated in Maha Bharata war it is only Arjuna who dared to jump out of this conflict creating Self-ignorant activity. Life is only for those who live it intensely like Arjuna and mental transformation is certainty for him. Those who lead a peripheral life and run away from the conflicts presented to them cannot reach the divine. Ramana Maharshi at a very tender age of 16 faced death fear and gone beyond it and settled in the ultimate reality once and forever. Truth is only for such daring people, it is not for cowards leading a casual sensate and vegetative life. We are conscious beings but we never use our consciousness to resolve the life problems but we depend on beliefs, dogma, to face the present life situations. We cannot run away from our own mind, the "false I" will always follow us wherever we go. An individual who is not courageous enough to be in the world cannot renounce anything at mental level. A sannyasin is one who transcended the world through mental renunciation. This chapter is called Arjuna Vishada yoga(Yoga of despair). Blessed are the people who experience despair for they find a way out of this Self-ignorant life. Despair is the process through which bliss can arise. Despair marks the beginning of journey towards bliss. But Arjna's despair is not yet ripe because still he wants kingdom and show it to his relatives without killing them. Buddha and Mahavira renounced their kingdom out of understanding that there no happiness to be gained with having a kingdom. But Arjuna's case is different, he still has hopes of being happy winning a kingdom and to enjoy with family members.So through Bhagawad Gita lord Sri Krishna made his mind ripe enough to receive the truth and make him a wise man with Self-knowledge.After tasting Self knowledge Arjuna fought the war without any doer-ship.Action with doer-ship makes our life miserable.With Self knowledge we will learn the art of action without any doer-ship.Whatever the challenge we respond from awareness spontaneously unlike previously where we used to act with ideation with a goal.Bhagawad Gita is the only scripture which tells us how to act.Action is life in relationship and how we act is very important in life. For that purpose Bhagawad Gita is the best book. In all 18 chapters of the books Lord Krishna points out the importance of having Self knowledge and the direct path to have the Self knowledge is self-inquiry.
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