Chapter 13 verse 8-12
“Humility; freedom from hypocrisy; non-violence; forgiveness; simplicity; service of the Guru; cleanliness of body and mind; steadfastness; and self-control; dispassion toward the objects of the senses; absence of egotism; keeping in mind the evils of birth, disease, old age, and death; non-attachment; absence of clinging to spouse, children, home, and so on; even-mindedness amidst desired and undesired events in life; constant and exclusive devotion toward Me; an inclination for solitary places and an aversion for mundane society; constancy in spiritual knowledge; and philosophical pursuit of the Absolute Truth—all these I declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to it, I call ignorance.”
Arjuna had asked the question from Bhagwan- What is true knowledge? Bhagwan answer is the being who has true knowledge exhibits the following behaviors or traits:
1. Humility: Total absence of sense of “I” or pride in any accomplishment
2. Not a hypocrite: Their external and internal compass is always pointing the “true north”
3. Non-violent: In both thought and action. The person does not even think ill of others or their behavior
4. Forgiving: Other’s action don’t affect them so they don’t even have the option of forgiving since they have not taken any offense in the first place
5. Simplicity: They are simple and straightforward in thought, speech, action and their personal needs
6. Service to Guru: Devotion towards their Guru or spiritual teacher is utmost and that is the source of all their other qualities
7. Cleanliness of body and mind: To purify the mind and body requires practice and virtuous get to this state over time
8. Steadfastness: Being firm in their true beliefs and living by “dharma”. Doing the right thing- stay as rock in principles and flow like water in terms of opinions
9. Self control: A lot of the qualities illustrated cannot happen without controlling the mind, intellect to focus and choosing to “respond” to every situation not “react”
10. Dispassion towards sense objects: Withdraw the body, mind and intellect from being affected by the external environment and sense objects
11. Egoless: “I” has disappeared and the person has merged with the supreme consciousness
12. Bearing witness to birth, disease, old age and death: Observe the cycle of life and understand that everyone has to go through them and detach oneself from the effects of this bodily cycle
13. Non-attachment: Person is not attached in body, mind and intellect to the material world around them
14. Detachment from family/friends and relatives: This does not mean they renounce the world and become ascetics but they are constantly aware that all worldly relationships are temporal in nature. They have the empathy, dispassion and kindness to deal with the world but stay detached
15. Even minded: Life happens to all of us. The person with true knowledge however takes good and bad things with same attitude. They are even-minded for all pairs of opposites.
16. Devotion to Supreme: When the body, mind & intellect detach it from the world of objects and things, it has to find refuge in some attachment and these people find that final refuge in the Supreme. That Supreme divine entity does not need to be thought of something external to oneself but reside in own soul consciousness.
17. Solitude: Silence and Solitude is preferred by these persons since they realize that energy is dispensed in breaking silence and engagement with worldly objects is not helpful to advance themselves spiritually
18. Avoid society: They believe in just 2 being a crowd!
19. Constancy in spiritual knowledge: It is one thing to acquire bookish knowledge and quite another to practice and live it
20. Constant pursuit of absolute knowledge: Resident in the knowledge of Brahman or Supreme Consciousness
Simply, anything other than this true knowledge is just ignorance!!! Beings with this true knowledge become the knower of the field- kṣhetrajña
No comments:
Post a Comment