The Gita - Memoirs of a Psychiatrist

The doctor has completed our journey through the Gita and Krishna's conversation with Arjuna, but this episode will top the list of episodes on all of our outlets so it will serve both as a conclusion to our study and an introduction to both those finding us for the first time, and those who want to start again as part of their ongoing search for Knowledge and spirituality. We offer this as a good place to end our study or a good place to start, or even a good place to start again with our gained understanding. Remember, no one ever crosses the same stream twice because it's never the same stream and you are never the same person.

E215 - Those who study this Gita, these dialogs between Krishna and Arjuna worship Brahman with the sacrifice of ignorance. But once you learn this, your negativity goes away. At the end of the Gita, Krishna ask Arjuna "Do you understand what I have said? Has the ignorance within you been destroyed? Do not grieve."

E214 - Give up your nature fully and I will liberate you from your sins.

E213 - This utmost of secrets was told by me to you. Consider it completely and carefully, then do as you wish.

E212 - You are destined to do action because of your personality. You can not change your nature by willpower, instead, learn to use your nature for good. Conduct your life as a dedication to Brahman.

E211 - When you surrender all of your actions, you will enter the eternal, omnipresent abode ... Do not let your mind keep slipping from your duties, including those for Brahman. Keep your mind on Brahman and it will help you overcome all obstacles.

E210 - Once he becomes Brahman, he no longer grieves. We continue talking about the qualities of self-realized people. With devotion a person knows Brahman, and after knowing Brahman he enters Brahman and becomes one with Brahman.

E209 - A person of pure intellect has given up his likes and dislikes and given up love and hate.

E208 - One should not give up their natural karma or duty, even though it may not be perfect. Arjuna says that all karmas are "covered with fault". Your Karma is born to you and as you keep doing your duty, you become freer of desires, because as you attach to higher ideals, your lower desires fall off and you move closer to peace of mind.

E207 - We continue our discussion of the importance of doing your own duty, that which you are born to do, even if serving someone else's duty is more materially rewarding. Doing your own duty leaves you calm and peaceful, without agitation and sin (mental disturbance). We do this to calm our mind and minimize the disturbance of our minds so that we can meditate because meditation is what brings us closer to Brahman.

E206 - One attains fulfillment by doing their own duty, By doing his own Karma, while worshipping Brahman, one can become enlightened. This episode talks about honoring the Brahman in you more and following your desires less.

E205 - This episode discusses the qualities of the classes, the 8 qualities of a Brahman, the seven qualities of a warrior, as well as the qualities of the trader and the laborer.

E204 - The doctor explains the true and original meaning of castes as they were defined in Hindu society. The Gita tells us that each of us are made up of two parts, the Atman and our Prakriti or nature. But where does our Prakriti comes from? The doctor also talks about the four castes, the spiritual and enlightened, the warrior, the trader or merchant, and the laborer, and how the proportion of your gunas determines each person's "class".

E203 - Nectar in the beginning. Poison in the end ... When you are focused on your intellect, you end all sorrow. This episode talks about the three types of happiness we experience depending on which of our gunas drive our pursuit of them. Often the path to spirituality is gained by shifting towards a higher form of happiness.

E202 - Resolve takes practice. This episode explores the relationships between our gunas and our ability to focus with fortitude and perseverance. Firm practice and a little discipline reward us with the ability to persevere in our pursuit of spirituality.

E201 - Like everything else, your intellect is swayed by the balance of your gunas and that can shape your ability to focus on good decisions and strengthen your perseverance to stay on the proper path with your choices and actions. Should it be done? Should it be feared? Your intellect reigns in your senses, mind, and actions. You mind runs after your likes and dislikes. Crafting the strength of your satvick qualities keeps you in control of everything that would challenge your peace and spirituality.

E200 - Krishna describes the quality of a doer by the mixture of their gunas. Which gunas are predominant in the doer at the time influence the decisions we make about our actions.

E199 - Actions without attachment, without likes or dislikes, without reward, do not create more attachments and desires. Each of us has a different mixture of sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic qualities, and that combination helps to determine our actions.

E198 - As long as you remain attached to your doership, you are not ready for self-realization. The doctor discusses the building blocks of action which include knowledge, the action, and the doer, as well as the characteristics of sattvic, rajasic, and tamasic actions.

E197 - The Atman is separate from all the doing in the world ... While all actions take place in the presence of the Atman, it is not the doer.

E196 - Moving on from renunciation of our ego in our actions, the Gita helps us to understand our actions and the five causes for them. In understanding why actions happen, we are better at renunciation and ridding our actions of doership and expectation of personal reward.

E195 - The enlightened don't know ... Self-realized people neither hate negative actions nor are they attached to positive actions. This comes from better knowledge of the Self. The doctor also talks about the new James Webb telescope and how it will possibly "reveal" some knowledge the ancients knew thousands of years ago.

E194 - Giving up our attachments, sacrificing our ego, and concentrating on conserving our thoughts, energies, and actions for movement towards our spiritualism brings us peace. The doctor talks of giving up our doership, the "I' ,"me", and "I did it", of our actions and thinking more of what needs to be done. We explore embracing the moment, being less hurried, and the three kinds of renouncement of selfish desire-prompted actions. These help us become successful, calm, and peaceful.

E193 - Krishna tells Arjuna that all action should be relinquished as evil with the exception to charity, in all it's forms, sacrifice, and conservation of our energies. Once again we learn to give up our attachments.

E192 - Many say that Chapter 18 of the Gita is merely a summary, but there are many new things to learn that will help you get your mind to a peaceful state. The doctor introduces us to the analogy of the beautiful lotus flower, that lives in dirty, wetness, but remains untouched by the murkiness of the water. We learn that we have to detach from the world to let the Brahman within us shine through.

E191 - The final verses of Chapter 17 talks about "om, tat, and sat" and how these key words in the Gita are makers and pointers to Brahman. They help us better understand the difference between "this", our world, our thoughts, and our desires, and "that", which is God

E190 - Charity helps to calm your mind and moves you closer to spirituality. The doctor talks about the many forms that charity can take in your life and how giving can reduce the disturbance of your thoughts.

E189 - When you practice tapas with devotion and detachment, the mind becomes pure. We continue our discussion of tapas focusing on the three types of tapas: sattvik, rajistik, and tamasic.

E188 - Conserve your energies to find yourself within yourself. In this episode, the doctor opens a discussion of tapas, which in the context of the Gita means austerity, in this case of the body, speech, and mind. This is an important skill that will help you heighten your actions and move you towards spirituality.

E187 - All actions lead to bondage, except giving and sacrifice ... This episode focuses on sacrifice or the conversion of human activity into "worship" as Chapter 17 continues to explore ways to control our intake and calm our minds

E186 - Calling the next few verses "mind-boggling", the doctor, Ajuna, and the Gita begin to show us how to calm our minds and block out the noise of the world so we can focus on Brahman. Controlling your intake and conserving the power of your senses and mind, helps you transform your convictions towards your desires into higher spiritual values. Often the best way to start is to focus on those higher values we see in others.

E185 - That which holds the truth ... Can you move towards self-realization without following the scriptures? A lot depends on what you worship. Our faith in this world is expressed as our actions

E184 - The doctor provides an introduction to Chapter 17 which focuses on techniques to better your life and move towards self-realization. We know what is right and what is wrong, and we know what we like and dislike. In this chapter, we begin to deal with reconciling our desires with our spirituality.

E183 - The doctor introduces us to the Triple-Doored Gateway to Hell. Desires become binding, and biding desires become gree and greed becomes anger. Spiritual people have given up this triad, but controlling just one of the three can help abate the others and lessen your negative qualities.

E182 - In this life, we too often focus on the perceiver and not the perception. We focus on our sense organs and not our spirituality. In this episode, we re-examine the difference between us (our Atman) and our bodies (matter).

E181 - Arjuna talks about the intellect and the thought process of those who are controlled by their negative qualities. The doctor tells us that money only brings the pleasure of the sense organs, which spawn insatiable desires. He also explains that selfish and immoral actions create mental agitation, suffering, and sorrow. Experiencing this mental disturbance is actually hell. Hell is not a place where one is sent to be punished. It's important to remember we are punished BY our actions not for them.

We are Brahman and we need nothing but we continue to desire as our meant and intellectual attitudes are too often determined by our never-satiated passion for our desires.

Those who are controlled by "demonic" or negative qualities find their search for pleasure is endless and they chase desires that are impossible to fulfill. They are consumed by false pride and arrogance, false and evil ideas, and they occupy themselves with impure resolve. The doctor reminds us that "demons" in this case aren't the same as the definition of demons we usually consider, and it's important to note that not all "demons" show up in our lives with horns.

The doctor outlines a typical self-view and worldview of a person who does not work to diminish his negative qualities as outline by Krishna in these most recent verses and describes how to elevate these views. Most notably the doctor describes how people controlled by their negative qualities often project these negative qualities onto the rest of their world.

The Doctor talks about Arjuna describing more of the negative qualities that can lead us from spiritual wealth and towards bondage to this world and our desires and attach us to our sense organs.

Chapter 16 turns to discussions of some of the negative or "demonic" qualities we should try to limit. The doctor starts with hypocrisy, pride. anger, harshness. spiritual ignorance, and more.

E175 - The doctor continues the discussion of positive qualities we should develop, including spiritual luster, fortitude, purity, and the absence of desires to hurt others.

E-174 We continue exploring the divine and "demonic" qualities in ourselves and how to strengthen them or curb them. In this episode, the doctor tells us about 11 more qualities to develop.

E173 - An intro to Chapter 16 of the Gita, a simpler chapter than the last, which deals with our good and bad qualities, or our "divine" and "demonic" natures. In this episode, we also get a mention of the Three Gates of Hell, Lust, Greed, and Hate.

E172 - As we pause between chapters 15 and 16, the doctor gives some practical tips on how to use these teachings in our day-to-day lives. We learn about dealing with desires, levels of pleasure, the things that drain off the positive that energy we create, and the importance and positives of renouncing self-centered interests, exercise, and donation, in its many forms and levels.

E171 - As I transcend the perishable, I am higher than the imperishable. I am the Supreme Being ... We end Chapter 15 as the doctor tells us that which is the most secret and delves deeper into a subject we've only touched upon before, conditioned consciousness. This is an important concept as we continue to differentiate between the perishable part of our being and that which is imperishable, and even supreme.

E170 - There are two types of beings in this world, one is perishable and the other is imperishable. But the highest being is different. Here we get an introduction to the "three worlds" or the states of consciousness.

E169 - I am the author of the Vedanta and knower of the Vedas ... Chapter 15 has been about describing what Brahman is, as opposed to what it is not as we have explored earlier. The doctor tells us that Brahman is the source of all memory, knowledge, and forgetfulness, the latter being a useful tool instead of a failing. This episode also discusses, in response to a listener question, how to become a better person using the Gita.

E168 - Brahman is your fire, your appetite. In this episode, the Doctor continues to describe what Brahman is and how it's energy passes through us and tells us that deep sleep is often our closest exposure to Brahman.

E167 - The light from the sun, moon, and fire is mine ... Krishna tells Ajuna about the imminence and transcendence of Brahman, which supports beings by energy and supports all plans.

E166 - United with their gunas, the deluded ones do not perceive. Those attached to their needs and desires, their likes and dislikes, do not recognize Brahman. If you only see that which the sense organs show, you are further from Brahman.