Gītā 2:48-2:72

03/24/2026 · Tue/Thu 12:00-1:15 PM · Brad Bannon · Boston College

📄 Synopsis

Instructor Brad Bannon explores the theological foundations of Bhagavad-Gītā Chapter 2, focusing on the tension between Advaita (non-dualism) and Viśiṣṭādvaita (qualified non-dualism). Using a 'potter and clay' analogy—complemented by the instructor's mention of Play-Doh to illustrate the malleability of the mind and creation—the lecture suggests that while the material (Brahman) is constant, it is creatively transformed into unique, unprecedented individual forms. The lecture connects the chariot allegory from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad to the Gītā, identifying Arjuna as the conscious 'I' and Kṛṣṇa as the moral conscience or divine guide. Central to the discussion is the concept of svadharma—one's unique purpose—and the necessity of acting without attachment to the 'fruits' or outcomes of action, as articulated in verse 2:47. Students analyzed the 'chain reaction' of sensory attachment leading to destruction (verses 2:62-64) and the ideal of the 'disciplined person' who, like the ocean receiving rushing rivers, remains unmoved by the influx of desires (verse 2:70).

⚡ Key Takeaways

Advaita Vedānta posits a non-dual relationship where the one self (Brahman) becomes the many, making every individual an unprecedented manifestation of the divine.
The 'potter and clay' analogy illustrates that Brahman is both the efficient cause (the shaper) and the material cause (the substance) of all existence.
Svadharma represents an individual's unique purpose or 'final cause,' which is discovered by identifying one's particular gifts and skills.
True discipline involves 'retracting the limbs' like a tortoise, meaning one withdraws from the binding power of sensory objects without destroying the senses themselves.
The 'chain of disillusion' begins with brooding on sensory objects, which leads to attachment, desire, anger, confusion, and eventually the loss of understanding.
Verse 2:47 is a central synopsis of the Gītā, teaching that individuals have authority over their actions but no control over the outcomes or 'fruits.'
Equanimity is not the suppression of all desire but the mastery of the mind so that desires do not disturb one's inner peace or influence action.
The metaphor of the ocean in verse 2:70 depicts the disciplined person as one who remains still and full even as the 'waters' of sensory experience flow in.
The instructor uses the concept of 'play' (Līlā) and the malleability of clay to describe how the one self becomes the many while remaining the same essential substance.
Theological study aims to help students use the text as a lens to see the world and others more clearly, rather than just accumulating facts.

🎤 Transcript Tap any timestamp to jump the audio player

Opening Transition and Screen Removal

Brad

Alrighty, y'all, let's take a moment to put away screens and— I almost fell backwards. Just take a moment to transition and try to be fully present. Let's take a breath together. Go ahead and breathe in and out. Word? So we've got a couple of things to do, a few things on the agenda today. One is we're not gonna do a quiz today. And we are gonna do a little game, a little playtime. I'll ask you, I'll hand out some little sheets of some little clues, and we'll have each team strategize a little bit and create something that Try and get other teams to guess what your word is. They're really hard, I'm just gonna say. They're really super hard. And intentionally so. So I'll pass those out while you're in small groups chatting. And you can plan that kind of stuff, what you wanna do. And then we'll have everybody towards the end of class, you go around as a team with a piece of paper and you can give your guesses on the other 6 teams. And we'll just give a point if somebody gets yours and a point if you guess somebody's. ⚠

2:24

Administrative Notes and Unit Overview

Brad

Yeah, so both people get a point. And yeah, at the moment I don't have any particular prize. Yeah, and the other thing is I've got a lecture today. And, yeah, I think it's pretty good. You know, it's kind of like me at 4:30 in the afternoon, a little half-baked, but it's pretty good. And so we'll go through that in a bit. Also, one thing that I said earlier, earlier this unit, I think, was that in this unit I wanted you to try and read each verse, you know, pick a verse and then read that verse from both theistic and a non-theistic perspective, both Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita perspective. But I feel like I haven't really given you enough, I haven't taught you enough about Viśiṣṭādvaita yet. Definitely if you've prepared something for that, use the AI and that kind of stuff, if you have something, please go for that. That's by all means, I'm not like, you know, that's still a good thing to do, but we'll focus on Viśiṣṭādvaita more in the next unit. ⚠

Brad

So For this unit, we'll kind of wrap up Advaita, and then next unit kind of lean way more heavily on Viśiṣṭādvaita. So that way you can have these two, well, really three, but because we did some Mīmāṃsā along the way, so we'll have some Mīmāṃsā and some Vedānta. Well, these two kinds of Advaita Vedānta, or two kinds of Vedānta, right? Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita. ⚠

Student

Cool.

4:09

Small Group Discussion: Verse Analysis of the Bhagavad-Gita

Brad

So what I want next is for you to get into your teams. I'm going to come around and I'll give you a sheet, you know, your little clue. And I want you to chat for a bit in your teams. So really looking for the team leaders to kind of, you know, lead that, but also, you know, as usual, prepare something. And so as I come around, I'm going to ask you for one verse. We can do anything from chapter 2. I mean, maybe not the first 10 verses, but like from chapter 2, verse 10, all the way through the end. Anything. Doesn't just have to be for the, you know, 48 or 47 through the end. But I'd like you to pick one verse or if there's a couple of verses, sometimes they pair, they kind of cluster well together. But I'll come around and I'll ask which verses and then we'll just, we'll have some full group time and we'll kind of go through those verses as a class. So take, I don't know, at least 5 minutes 15 minutes or so. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, I'll cut it off when I start to hear conversation starting to drift away from topic. Yes?

Student

Is it one verse per group?

Brad

I think let's aim for that. Yeah, if it's a couple of verses, that's a small cluster, up to 3. But yeah, most part, aim for one verse per team.

Student

Yep.

Brad

Cool. All right, go for it.

Student

The idea, again, of Brahman being eternal and indestructible, and that's why you shouldn't feel this grief about— I don't even feel like I get it, because you persist. So I think that could bring two points to mind. Exist in reunions, spaces of gathering, collaborative spaces. I think that really captured that ideal throughout the fact that, like, the art is beyond what we talked about being human. ⚠

Student

And like, that kind of surrounded me, uh, what we talked about. ⚠

Student

7 I's.

Student

But like, I feel like that summarizes what, um, pitiful men are— ⚠

Brad

pitiful are men drawn by fruits of actions.

Student

So yeah, like, basically, it's kind of related to what you were saying. ⚠

Student

If you like actively try to Um, doing right and wrong. ⚠

Student

I just wonder where that was.

Student

Um, oh yeah, 2.250. Discipline my understanding of what a benefit is. End people's lives. So arm yourself for discipline and action. When I first read that, I was kind of confused. I was just confused. I thought you're just kind of passive, you're not applying any moral values, you're not getting your bad moods adjusted or, you know, your self-being, but you're just there. You're not really engaging. And I guess you don't have a responsibility to do good or that acts in such a way that it can just act. You don't have to act morally anymore. But I think a lot of the criticism of Śaṅkara is saying that it's not that you act morally, it's just that you aren't bound by your achievements or by your failures. So when I first read it, it sounded like that. After a long time, but instead of that, it really means just by abandoning the good and evil deeds is not necessarily evil in the way that we think. It's just achieving some sort of balance. ⚠

Student

It reminded me, like, especially that one, like, a lot of like This was all from like the material world, which like you kind of— I look from all these things. This is a place where I drive this year because I feel like senses play such a big role in our desires, in our wants. So by trying to remove ourselves from that, I thought that was cool too. ⚠

Student

Retracting its limbs, it's not destroying its limbs the same way. You know, you're still going to have desires, but you're not going to be bound by them. You can retract your desires. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, bro is growing for sure.

Student

Hi.

Student

Hi. Would you get that though?

Student

I don't know.

Student

Yeah.

Student

Oh my God, that would be impossible. do our podcast on Monday, and then before my other class we have like a meeting. We always set that on Monday, so I kind of block my Mondays off. But Thursdays is more for interior design, and usually I just did the soccer competition. but everyone is touching everyone ever since the start. So you can't throw a flag on every play, or you can't like— it's impossible. So I did like the flag intro, like they made us do it. It was a good way to start the tournament, and after that I didn't do that at all. I really like soccer, my favorite, which is terrible. People will yell at you and get mad, but I, I think I'm used to it. Um, other than that, I really like volleyball. ⚠

Brad

There's also—

Student

With respect, respect to the toothpaste.

Student

What do they want? Yeah, it's also on like the outside basket, but like was not what I was envisioning.

Student

I thought it would be inside.

Student

I feel like literally it doesn't matter what the sports is, people are going to be competitive with that. Be the most like basic intramural team and they'll actually fight for their awards. They're too obsessed with outcomes. They need to renounce their desires. ⚠

Student

They need to renounce their desires.

Student

What if I hit someone with that steel? What do you think they'll do?

20:49

Lecture: Advaita Vedanta, Consciousness, and the Shaping of the Self

Student

All right, so I got a bit of a lecture.

Brad

It's probably 10 minutes. Um, I will also post post, you know, so you have access to it. I'll post it on Canvas. So my hope today is to teach you more about the relationship between creation and creativity, and also about the non-dual relationship between the creator and the creation from the perspective of Śaṅkara's Advaita Vedānta. While you each One of you is the creator of your creations, things you're playing, you're creating right now. The Play-Doh has a role to play. Play is kind of a key word today. Playing with Play-Doh is an act of recreation or play that is also an act of recreation. Play-Doh is a fixed color. You didn't create the the Play-Doh out of nothing, but you did creatively transform the material into a new unprecedented form. Moreover, you were only able to transform the Play-Doh because it's flexible, malleable, and shapeable, except for the one that you rejected because it wasn't those things, right? In fact, I did buy this box of— or this set of Play-Doh for this spring because the box that I chose last spring, by the end of the spring, was pretty crusty and not malleable. ⚠

Brad

So, like the human mind, it can become less malleable over time. If a student's mind is rigid, closed, inattentive, or even resistant to being transformed, then the teacher is bound to I can give you all of the pieces, and I can show you how to assemble the pieces, how to harmonize, samanvaya, the many different Hindu creation myths that we've read. I can tell you repeatedly, over and over again, because that's what repeatedly means, that myths are always about the present and never about the past. But I can't remove your preconceived ideas. Ideas. I cannot remove your biases. I cannot remove your assumptions. This is why I opened the semester with my lecture on Husserlian phenomenology and the cognitive barriers to preconceived biases and intentionality. Consciousness is always consciousness of something. While I cannot displace your intention, I can attempt to direct your attention. I can give you the sacred texts and teach you how Shankara instructs us to read the texts. ⚠

Brad

I can put the Chāndogya teaching about clay before the Aitareya teaching about consciousness, and then assign you to read the Bṛhadāraṇyaka teaching about the one becoming the "I," ahaṃ brahmāsmi, followed by the Māṇḍūkya teaching about this embodied self and the four states of conscious awareness, that it is possible for a human to experience. And by the way, it's impossible for a human to experience none of these also. To be human is to experience them. But the truth is that only a relatively small percentage of students will understand the ontological and epistemological non-duality of subject and object, or 'I' and 'not I.' Based on podcast 3, it's very clear that some of the students in this room have grasped Advaita, others have not, and still others seem right on the edge of understanding. Today, I hope to boost my ROI and hopefully lead a few more students towards anubhava, or the experience of non-duality. To do this, I want to help you understand the chariot allegory in a new way. Both the chariot allegory from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, volume 3, and the Bhagavad Gītā itself, which of course takes place in a chariot. ⚠

Brad

For the student of Advaita Vedānta, Arjuna stands in for our conscious 'I' or ego or 'I' identity as a unique individual subject. Kṛṣṇa represents that voice of moral conscience. For some students, the voice of moral conscience may be the voice of God. For others, it may be the spirit of Christ or the Holy Spirit. But regardless, suffice it to say that Kṛṣṇa represents that aspect within us that beckons us towards the good, towards justice, towards equality, and perhaps even towards clay, or Līlā, which is my daughter's name, not incidentally. In the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad, as we learned a few weeks ago, the one self that called itself 'I' and still does call itself 'I' every time any of us utters that word— word? Word. —became the many. That one self that calls itself 'I' became the many, because everything is no different than being no thing. Therefore, the one became you and me, ahaṃ brahmāsmi, tat tvam asi. Or it would be more accurate to say that the one is becoming you and is becoming me, because you and I are not dead yet. And therefore still malleable, still in process, still in formation. ⚠

Brad

Hence, we must ask that question that I've been trying for weeks to get everyone to consider: Why? Why did the one become you? Why is the one becoming you? Why is the one shaping itself into me and Delaney and Brian and Elliot and Tana? Why are we all so unique, and how does Advaita Vedānta account for the uniqueness of Droṇa and Angel? The short answer might be, because the universe is better with yang than without it. That I exist right here and right now as an unprecedented, irreducibly unique manifestation of Brahman. Brahman is not just some thing that we all have in common. It's not something that we have at all. That is not how Kṛṣṇa explains it. "I am Brahman. Everything about me is Brahman, including and especially the things about me that make me utterly unique." Like a potter shaping clay, Brahman is, even right now, in the process of becoming Brad. Why? Well, because there's something about Brad that's never existed before and will never exist again. There is something about me without which the world would be incomplete, to borrow Rāmānuja's language from our earlier reading. ⚠

Brad

Moreover, from the perspective of Advaita Vedānta, totally unique skill or gift or talent or whatever it is that makes me me and makes you you. Once I'm able to identify and recognize that beautifully unique thing about myself, I am able to understand my particular dharma. In the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa refers to this as svadharma. 'Sva' literally means 'one's own,' so one's own dharma. It is your purpose. It is your final cause. It's the very reason that Brahman has shaped itself into your name and form. Wilkes, Samuela, Dylan, Ben, Aiden. Like a potter made of clay. Brahman is both the potter and the clay. Potter and clay are not two. Advaita. So here's the thing about— Bhīṣma— here's the thing about Advaita that most students sleep on. You are the efficient cause. You are in charge of your chariot. Your purpose is not to be a passive recipient, but an active participant in giving shape to your yourself as both potter and clay. The question really comes down to this: how are you going to shape the clay that is your very self? ⚠

Brad

Will you shape yourself into a form that uses those unique particular skills and gifts that make you you towards ends that are śreyas? Or will you transform yourself into a form that uses your unique talents in ways that are only preyas. Arjuna has talents and gifts and mad skills, mostly on the battlefield. He has a duty to defend those innocent women and children and the elders that are being victimized by the powerful and the corrupt. That's his job. As Kṛṣṇa emphasizes to him in verse 247, the outcome is uncertain. Arjuna cannot predict the future. He only has adhikara, or control, or authority over his actions. He was shaped and created for this moment. It is his dharma. The point is: ayam ātmā brahma. This self is Brahman. You are the unique manifestation of Brahman, and as such, You have shaped and are shaping yourself and continue to shape yourself like a potter that is made of clay. Efficient cause and the material cause. Transforming yourself for some purpose. dharma or the final cause. Vocation, calling, purpose, raison d'être. Let's just add in justice for fun. But you have not shaped yourself entirely on your own. ⚠

Brad

Your parents have shaped you, your siblings have shaped you, your teachers have shaped you, your coaches and mentors have shaped you, the world shapes you, and likewise you shape the world around you. "I" and "not I," the stubborn first principle they keep harping on, are not two. Advaita. The question for Advaita Vedānta, therefore, is not: Why are you unique? The question is, why are you transforming into the name and form that is uniquely and particularly you? Or more simply, what is your dharma? svadharma. Seems to end there. Cool. I did not need to close that or turn it off. Cool. Questions, comments, thoughts, confusion, responses, insights? Anybody want to sing? Dance? No? All right. All right, well then, if there's no questions, Then let's dive into the text then. So, there we go. I did write them down. Let's see. No one hopped on 247. I will say we didn't talk about 247 in the other class either. 2:47 is like low-key my favorite passage of scripture from any text. So often it's said that this particular verse summarizes the entirety of the Gītā, or encapsulates the entirety of the Gītā. ⚠

33:48

Group Presentations: Senses, Desire, and Discipline in Chapter 2

Brad

Obviously not everyone says that, but Um, let's start with the 258. That looks like, um, Delaney. Yeah. Um, so let's start by, uh, you can pick any of these 3 translations, um, but just pick a— pick one of the translations and read it if you don't mind. ⚠

Student

Okay, so we discussed the translation by Stoller Miller, so 'When, like a tortoise retracting its limbs, he withdraws his senses completely from sensuous objects, his insight is sure.' And we really picked this verse because we liked the imagery, and we thought that it encapsulated the importance of withdrawing from the material world and the desires and the pleasures that are really associated with that world, especially since sensuous objects are often like the center of our desires. And then with the idea or imagery of retracting its limbs, that's like depicting a movement inward, so I think that kind of like mirrors like finding gratification within the self and your own understanding rather than these external objects. And then Brian also made a really good point with like the term retracting itself, so it says retracting specifically and not destroying, so that's saying that the those desires still exist, you're just not necessarily bound by them. Yeah, good. ⚠

Brad

There also could be sort of the folding in, right? So the infolding is the other side of the unfolding. Yeah, very nice. Thank you. Anything else to add about that or responses? Cool, very nice. It seems like, uh, to 60 to 64, especially 62 to 64, those are pretty popular. Who wants to hop on to 62? Yeah, Nicholas? Do you have a preferred— why don't you read any of those transitions? ⚠

Student

Yeah, I think we were talking about the solar flare transition.

Brad

Solar flare, OK.

Student

You said read it out loud? Yeah, if you don't mind. Breathing about centrist objects Makes attachment to them grow. From attachment, desire arises. From desire, anger is born. We also did 263. ⚠

Brad

Should I just read it? Yeah, go for it. Yeah, it's kind of one thing.

Student

From anger comes confusion. From confusion, memory lapses. From broken memory, understanding is lost. From loss of understanding, he is ruined. We kind of thought of it as kind of like a growing kind of like disattachment, I guess, but I guess in a bad way. When he said, when we are attracted to— or brooding means like dwelling negatively on something. It's like when we're attached to negative objects and that grows, it makes our desire rise, and desire-anger is born. And it's kind of just like a chain of disillusion in a way, where when we become more attached to those like animate objects, we're kind of more distracted from like retroemotions in a way. And then it just kind of gets worse and worse. I thought memory lapse is more as like kind of as more like becoming more disillusioned, like not like actually losing your memory, but losing your value. ⚠

Brad

OK, yeah. Great. Yeah, Alice?

Student

For this section, I looked at a different person's interpretation. I looked at an interpretation by Eshwar. Okay, Eshwar, yeah. Yeah, and essentially for this section, he was saying that like a key part, or like how he interpreted, was that a key part is to control one's attention. And he was saying that for these, like, or we went up to 264, but he was saying like for these 3 verses that like it really applies to the controlling attention aspect of that because it's like this entire part is about everything spiraling into destruction. And something as simple as just your internal thoughts can spiral someone into destruction. And then we were able— or I was kind of able to connect that with the Gospel of Mark because in the Gospel of Mark, it talks about how in chapter 7, It talks about how within, for it is within the human heart that evil intentions come, and all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person. So it just all kind of related back to that idea of being able to control one's emotions and attention. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, good. I mean, attention is so easily overlooked as super important. Particularly from an ethical perspective, but especially also from a non-dual perspective, right? So then if one perceives everything as Brahman, then one's attention is still gonna be drawn towards particulars, right? And so then how does one, how do you draw your attention, right? If you are approaching the world from a, pretty prey perspective, really selfish perspective, then you'll be drawn— your senses, your attention is going to be drawn towards those things that are going to bring you pleasure, whether it's material pleasure, physical pleasure, or some other kind of pleasure. Whereas if you're not oriented in that sort of selfish way, but as that from a more non-dual perspective, then your attention— so on the one hand, everything you see is Brahman. You're going to perceive everything as Brahman. So then, why would your attention be drawn any particular place? So, your attention might be drawn in that case towards those that are suffering, those that are victims of injustice. ⚠

Brad

So, if the point of being is the flourishing of being, right, then, and if one sees Brahman everywhere, then you're gonna be, you're gonna draw, your attention will be drawn towards those that are suffering or victims of injustice, right, and then that drives your ethics as well, right. So attention and intention, super important concepts, yeah, and that ekana, etvar, I don't know that much about him, but he's a— yeah, I believe a non-dualist from the turn of the last century, I believe. I could be— yeah, but I think early 20th century. Yeah, I don't know. Blake, go for it. ⚠

Student

Oh, we talked about these a little bit too. We just talked about how it can be human nature to mess up, but don't let it snowball. You have to kind of stay level-headed, and that comes with discipline.

Brad

Okay, yeah, good. Yeah, so discipline is— yeah, go ahead, Yarsala.

Student

So we talked in our team about the chain reaction we can definitely see in this process. So it's like those step by step, step by step of the self-destruction process. And it's definitely not the one single moment that happens in somebody's process. On the journey is definitely like salt by salt, salt by salt, that the self moves to another level. And I like to see it later on in the section, it was around verse 270, there was the analogy with the ocean. So how do I see it? So the person stays unmoved But the senses, they uncontrollably flow in and flow out. So this is like they exist, they have some characteristics, but they don't particularly change the self. They just can flow in, but the person itself stays unmoved. And it's also like if you're going back to the chariot analogy, so the senses are horses And all this process and the cascade, this chain reaction, is the intellectum that loses control over forces. So they just basically go wherever they want. ⚠

Brad

Excellent. And where they're going to want to go is usually going to be something that's short-term, temporary pleasures.

Student

Yeah. Devin? Yeah, we did verse 270. And I think like the analogy is a really good way to kind of show how like with desire, how the desire is kind of the water. Like you can have something come in to you, but it's how you choose to react to it. Like there's always— he's not like— words. In Śaṅkara's commentary on it, he kind of talks about how the truly disciplined person may have desires, but they're not affected by them. So he says they vanish in the self, they do not bring it under their own influence. And so to me, that kind of just emphasized that like, they're not saying you can't have desires, they're saying that it's how you choose to let them affect you or not affect you is what makes you in control of yourself. And that's how you can, you know, really become understand, like, become one with yourself and have that understanding that Kṛṣṇa is describing. ⚠

Student

And kind of going back to how we learned about, like, the goals of life and how desire was one of them, like both artha and kama, I think that also kind of just highlights how desire is a big part of life and it's inevitable. And nowhere is it saying avoid all desires. It's saying you need to control how you let them affect you because it could tear you apart. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, for sure. Excellent. And also, so what you desire, right? Because we can desire different things. And great. I love that. Yeah, go ahead, Isabelle.

Student

Oh, I guess also connecting with Devin's point, I was looking at 264 specifically. I wonder the Solar Miller perspective, the idea of a man of inner strength who senses experience objects without attraction, hatred, self-control, friends, or anything. So I guess the idea that there is going to be desire, but you want to channel how you're approaching it. So the idea of equanimity or evenness of temper. I feel like also they mentioned the idea of suppression. Self-restraint doesn't equal liberation. You can't just suppress all your desires and then say that you're liberated. It's more just like your mind should be mastering your desire and how you approach everything. So I feel like that verse specifically was really helpful to just explain everything. And also, I guess, just with the commentator I looked at for Shankara, he was essentially saying that with regard to this section of the text, he believes that the ultimate goal is self-knowledge. So this idea of equality is a way to purify the mind to become ready for knowledge. ⚠

Student

So essentially, if you are driven by your desires and your mind isn't able to control them, you're not able to obtain the knowledge that you need to be liberated. So essentially, the idea of self-control is really crucial, and how you govern yourself is one way to look at the text. So I thought that's interesting. ⚠

Brad

Excellent. Great. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Aiden? We also looked at 270. OK. I just felt like everyone else said, I feel like it's really important to make that distinction that it's not about removing desire entirely. That's it. It's not possible. And then honestly, that wouldn't even be like healthy. That's not— ⚠

Student

that's a normal human thing to have.

Brad

And it's more about channeling it to make sure that you're controlling your desires instead of letting your desires control you. And I feel like once you kind of make that distinction and like take those steps towards actually like controlling your desires, then you can like peacefully enjoy the fact that you can desire. Yeah, yeah. I mean, desire is a natural part of existence, right? It's actually what propels us to survive, right? So kind of the survival instinct is the desire for food and sex and sleep and other things, right? So desires in and of themselves can't be bad, right? It's about more how we respond to them and the objects of our desire. We just can change. Devin, did you want to do it again? ⚠

Student

In verse 239, Rāmānuja's commentary really was like an eye-opener for me because he says, let go of a desire for the results. And I think that that was really interesting because the verse is kind of just saying, action's inferior to understanding. Seek refuge in understanding. Pitiful are the men drawn by the fruits of action. It's like the whole commentary, or the whole story, he's telling him to act, but he's saying you need to act for the right reasons, and you shouldn't be acting because you desire what you're gonna get from it or what's gonna come from it. You should be acting because it's your duty and because it's like an intrinsic part of you almost that you want to follow. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, I mean, that also, that sounds like a A really good summary of 2:47 as well, which as Arjuna said is kind of like a synopsis of the whole Gītā. I mean, I think what you just gave us from Rāmānuja's perspective is very, yeah, very much a central theme of the Gītā. Yeah. ⚠

Student

I know it's kind of like cliché, but like on paper it's really easy to understand how to act without restraint, but like How do you do that in real life? I mean, even if you're doing charity work, you're still kind of acting for the result of the better. I don't know how that plays. ⚠

Brad

No, no, it's a good, important question. We will come back a little bit to the question when we get to chapter 3, which is next week. So when we get to chapter 3, verses 20 to 25, then we get a new reason, a new motivation. Because, I mean, on the one hand, like I just said, desires are a natural part of being a being, and it's a major force in how we act, right? What drives us to take action. So if we're saying that one should act without attachment to the results, then what is it that motivates us to act? Which is that kind of your question? Which is super important. And I don't want to just like— yeah, great. Go ahead, Courtney. ⚠

Student

I was kind of thinking about, again, with like the senses and how we're able to direct our senses in a way that we can act without attachment to results. Because I really do think like our senses play such a big role in like sculpting our desires. Like yesterday when I walked outside in the morning saw there was snow on the ground, like, I immediately desired it to, like, go away. Yeah. So I'm just, like, kind of curious, like, how we as humans can, like, put aside that sensory experience and how it forms our desires. ⚠

Brad

So, yeah, great question. And I think that the answer is that you're not supposed to. But if we think back to chapter 1 of the textbook where I talked about Clooney, right? So Clooney and and the image that I gave from the ashrama, building on Clint Eastwood, which is that reading these sacred texts, if we read them in the right way, if we approach them in the right way, then it should affect how we perceive those around us. So it should change. So it's not going to change what I see. It's not going to change the fact that I perceive. So I still have these 5 senses. But it may change how I— how I see my neighbor, right? So as Clooney said, the goal of reading these texts is to see our neighbor through the text, right? To use the text as a— the point isn't to— I mean, the point of putting the text in front of me isn't so that I lock in focus only on the text, but so that I can see Eliot through the lens of the text, right? Yeah? ⚠

Student

Yeah.

Student

I guess, like, also one really helpful perspective perspective that Shankara like added to the idea of like what's motivating our action is like he viewed it more like a theistic way. So like when you're approaching actions, he said that it should be like for God's sake, which is gonna be one read. So essentially like you're not doing something because you want like a transaction, like if I do this, God will give me this. It's more just if I do this, then I'm acting in under like the will of like what God would want. So that's an interesting way to Is that one way of how we go about interactions under theistic lens? ⚠

50:39

Theological Synthesis: Brahman Nirvana and the Analogy of the Ocean

Brad

Yeah, exactly. So, trying to see the— so then, the question that Nicholas asked about what motivates our— what is it that we desire then? It's not that our desire goes away, but our desire becomes for something— it's a bigger desire, or a bigger picture. So then, the word that we'll look at in chapter 3 is lokasangraha. As a thing that helps us to hold the world together. So, we're motivated by a desire to alleviate suffering, to alleviate injustice. So, those are things that we can desire that don't strictly have to do— it may not be, you know, Isabella may not be driven just to alleviate Isabella's suffering, although nothing wrong with that, but that you might be motivated to alleviate the suffering of others, right? More systemic injustice in that speaking. ⚠

Student

I know you're, you know, obviously with the idea of sojourning, you know, reading it through the eyes of who it was intended for. Yeah. And with Gospel of Mark, Exodus, Genesis, it's, you know, for oppressed people, by oppressed people. But like, what is the context of this? Like, is the oppression of the powerful, that the kind of image in the beginning, is that what was going on when this was written, like, actually in India? Or was that just kind of the just for the story's sake? ⚠

Brad

Great question. The short answer is we don't know. I think there's two predominant theories. One would be— I mean, the short answer is we don't know. But one would be that this is really intended as a text for someone who's in a leadership. It's like a leadership text, right? So teaching someone how to be a good leader. So, if you want, you know, your son or your daughter to become a good leader, then you want to give them the ethical moral tools to become a good leader. And so, this is something that is for someone who's sort of in training to be a leader. But another theory would be that it is for people who are in positions of oppression, that are in positions of, you know, I mean, it describes a world that's unjust, right? So, it could be how do you How do you speak truth to power? How do you attack, fight injustice, right, and fight oppression? Or it could be how do you avoid being the oppressor, right? It could be both of those, yeah. But the short answer is we don't know the historical context. Yeah, Alex? Sorry. ⚠

Student

No, it's fine. Going back to the idea of detaching yourself from results. I think while I was like reading this text, like I kind of like struggled with that idea. I was like, oh, like how do you detach yourself from the results while doing something? But then something that I, that I feel like kind of like helped me understand and grasp that idea more is that I read somewhere like the comparison of that and like the comparison of how like Christians will typically say like faith over fear, or like I guess in this faith over outcome. Like, I felt like that was a way— and like, even going back to like in the Gospel of Mark, the parable of like the seeds, like how depending on where their like faith was at, the seed would like grow into— would grow differently. I thought that was like something that really helped me kind of grasp that idea of like, like letting go of what's going to happen and just like doing what you know Yeah, so I mean, you don't let go of everything, but you've got to let go of what you can't control, right? ⚠

Brad

So recognize that you are shaped— you shape yourself, right? It's your responsibility to shape yourself, but you don't have total control over that, right? You're also shaped by your environment. So like the seed— the seed has a genetic predisposition to to grow in this particular way, but it's going to be affected by the amount of rainfall and the soil conditions and the sun and all sorts of things, right? So, environmental factors and other things that are growing around it. So, yeah, I think good to see that sort of really blurring the line between I and not I, right? So, theology is an investigation of first principles. Anchored in the text. Great. ⚠

Student

Yeah, I think, uh, yeah, uh, Jaroslava, Blake, and then, yeah, yeah, uh, I would like to go to the verse 2.72, which was, uh, like the main focus when we had discussion in the group. Yeah, so, um, yeah, we can see the darks, or I can read it. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, if you don't mind.

Student

Yeah, this is the place when they need spirit achieving it. One is freed from delusion, abiding in it even at the time of death, one finds the pure calm and infinity. So I think like this is the, the last verse in this section, so like the closing verse, and it describes not the state of death, it's actually just this state of some like— not a hand, but it's when the state of living fully, like, and act fully without expecting any particular result. And I think it returned us back to one of our mahavakyas that we studied, the I am atman Brahman, the self is Brahman, which is our one great sentences because we can see that it was a journey towards something. And once the person completely like disattaches from all the senses, it can become, become truly Brahman and understand it. And, um, oh yeah, uh, as we talked, as we mentioned about these doors that, um, How can I explain it? We don't need to change the particular self to become the Brahman. We're just surrounded by so much noise that we need to detach from, and then the truly Brahman will open. ⚠

Student

So this is the state we aim to reach. Okay, yeah, good.

Brad

So kind of go on with the flow. Yeah, awesome. Yeah, please.

Student

You talked about shaping yourself, And we saw a lot of that in 2.71. So like the path to shaping yourself and molding yourself, we talked about a little bit about intentionality, like recognizing if you're dealing with the craving or possessiveness and like acting on it, not like completely eliminating it, just having strategies to deal with it. And also like shaping yourself isn't like a individual thing, like atman requires others as well. Like you can't have yourself without conversing with others. Yeah, good. ⚠

Brad

So blurring those lines. Great. Yeah.

Student

Going back to what we were kind of talking about with desire and how desire is kind of inevitable. One of the other things that Ramanuja said that stuck out to me is peace is not reliant on whether desires come or not. So kind of with what Delaney was saying about like seeing snow and like wanting it to go away, like you can have that instinctive desire, but your inner peace is not going to be reliant upon whether that desire like comes to fruition or not. And that also like led me like verse 2.6 6, which was, without discipline, he has no understanding or inner power. Without inner power, he has no peace. And without peace, where is joy? And for some reason, that one stuck out to me because of the joy aspect. I don't know, like, it's kind of the first time I feel like in so far in this text where, like, happiness has, like, been brought up. Um, like, usually it's, like, about peace and tranquility and understanding, but I think by bringing up happiness and also, like, that's the last part that's mentioned. They like go discipline, understanding, peace, joy. ⚠

Student

Like it kind of emphasizes that like joy is that like final end that we strive for.

Brad

Yeah. And astute to point out that it's pretty rare here. I think one way we could look at it is thinking back to the Brahadaranyaka 1:4, that creation story. That we looked at there leading up to the mahavakya of ahaṃ brahmāsmi, and that's which I've drawn attention to a few times. In the beginning was this one and there was no other, right? And how's that one feeling at the beginning? Well, scared, right? And then realize there's no other to be scared of, them alone, right? So scared and alone, and then becomes the Minnie, unfolds as the Minnie, you know, because the Minnie is more fun, right? So I mean, there's an element of joy there, right? So the reason that we're all different then, right, going to understand our differences because, you know, it's more fun to be Isabella and Sophia and Brad than than it is to be just one of those. And so maybe there's an element of joy just from the fact of being oneself, being oneself particularly authentically. Awesome. Good. There's some ethics there too, I think. Yeah, Olivia? ⚠

Student

I think the various analogies they use really help me to understand, I think, like we can relate a lot of this, like what we were saying with the chariot analogy, like the horses are our senses and our reins are our minds. So like the purpose of reins on a horse is to like control them. But I also thought like the water analogy was really profound, not only the one about like rushing water being still in an ocean, but like when your senses are uncontrolled, it's like crashing waves. And like you you have this sense of fear. And I think you can also relate this to when we read the Gospel of Mark, all of the disciples and Jesus were in a boat and the waves were crashing. And then Jesus is able to calm the waters. And I think it's just really interesting how we can kind of see calm water symbolism in both of those. ⚠

Brad

I think that's interesting. Right on. Or tying back to my day 1 lecture, which was largely about the fact that when we're in a world of constant change, constant turmoil, where nothing is certain, right, and change is quite rapid, then what can give us that sort of help us to anchor ourselves, anchor our sense of identity, anchor particularly our ethics, right, and that sort of thing. So we can look at that those depths as a way of anchoring in the text. Yeah, Nicholas? ⚠

Student

I was just going to say, I took away from that also, as water keeps moving towards the ocean, obviously it's changing, but it's the same water. So I think it's like our emotions and self stays the same, but we're allowed to still experience action and result, but not change who we are. ⚠

Brad

So there's one ocean, and that ocean, you know, is constantly changing with the currents and the waves and all that kind of stuff. But if you zoom out far enough, still one ocean, right? Yeah, so exactly. Yeah, so then we can view life as this way, like things are constantly changing, but if you zoom out, you know, and see the bigger picture, then it's more calm, right? More peaceful. Understand that larger piece. Let's dive into this. Is there anybody else that was eager to jump in here that hasn't? Let's dive into this verse a tiny bit more, and then we'll do our little— make sure you're finishing up your sculptures here. Sculpt, sculpt, sculpt. What is it? What am I trying to say? Sculpture. Sure, yeah. Yeah, you don't have Play-Doh? Oh my goodness. Huh? So one thing I keep meaning to draw attention to is that the Gītā is a song, and it's written in verse. And it's written in a very consistent verse, a very consistent meter. If we look at just about any verse, you'll see they all look pretty much exactly the same. ⚠

Brad

It's 4 padas, it's, you know, consistent, it's a consistent meter, right, with the long vowels and short vowels and that sort of stuff. And you can see they all are roughly the same length and all have the same pattern. Those, this is just Shri Bhagavad Gītā, this is just, you know, like Kṛṣṇa says or Arjuna says, but the verse itself follows that shloka meter. But then every once in a while you get to a verse like 2:70, and then all of a sudden the meter changes, right? You can see, even without knowing Sanskrit, you can see, I mean, the meter looks different there than there, right? And you can see this Barbara Stoller Miller, one of the really nice things about her translation is she is a poet and she really does try to capture, I mean, technically this should all be on one line. That's not her, that's just the printing. So, right, it should be, but you can see they're longer. So why does that matter? It matters in terms of interpretation. Citation for a number of reasons. ⚠

Brad

One is that pretty much all scholars agree, I don't think any scholar argues against this, that those verses like this one that don't fit the meter are much older than the other verses, right? So this is an older verse, a more ancient verse, maybe taken from another scripture maybe taken from somewhere else, maybe not, but a much older one. And then when you see those, you should kind of pay a little bit more attention to those verses. Usually something a little different is going on there, and in most cases, including here, the verses that are kind of immediately around it, before and after it, are usually going to be kind of commenting on that verse. Verse, right? So you've got the older verse that's just being copied and pasted in here, and then you've got some newer verses that are kind of commenting on that verse. And so I wanted to draw attention to that. And the other thing is verse 72. As much as Barbara Stoller Miller's translation is nice, as I said, she translates every word, including Brahman. She translates as infinite spirit, and nirvana she translates as the pure calm. ⚠

Brad

Yeah, so the bliss of Brahman, Brahman nirvana, or Brahman nirvana ananda, she just translates as the pure calm of infinity. But any of you know, I mean, when you hear nirvana, what comes to mind? Smells like teen spirit. Yeah, the Buddha, right? So this is a— wait, no? Were you thinking of the band? Yes. Oh, OK. I said smells like teen spirit, but no, the Buddha. The Buddha talked a lot about nirvana, right? So here, so the Gītā is taking Yeah, anyway, we can come back to that text. I want to use the last 5 minutes to, as you're gathering up your things, go around the room. You have, make sure it's obvious where your thing is. Oh, since the previous section got like none of them right. ⚠

1:07:47

Closing Activity: Word Bank and Diagram Exercise

Student

What if we just left it as like a ball? It's wicked hard.

Brad

I decided to give you a word bank. Oh no.

Student

Elliot has like a sculpture. I guess—

Student

I don't know. We have to go around again. I guess we're just going to Elliot's. There's literally no way. Maybe like point to the— ⚠

Brad

make an arrow pointing to like the part itself. Arrow basket.

Student

Like, have it touching—

Brad

Obviously I put too many words up there. Is yours lung? Yeah. Are they brains? ⚠

Student

No. Are they brains? Yes. Insulin? ⚠

Student

You guys, someone got ours. Oh, actually? Yep. We're up a point.