Gita Class 001, Ch. 1, Verse 1

Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda

Date Jan 2, 2021

Youtube link: 01 Bhagavad Gita Class by Swami Tadatmananda – Ch.1 Verse 1

Webcast every Saturday, 11 am EST.  All recorded classes available here:    • Bhagavad Gita – classes by Swami Tadatmananda  

Swami Tadatmananda’s translation, audio download, and podcast available on his website here: https://arshabodha.org/teachings/bhag…

Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: https://www.arshabodha.org/

Note about the verses:  Swamiji typically starts a few verses before and discusses 10 verses at the beginning of the class. The screenshot of the verses takes that into consideration and also all the verses that were presented during the class, which may be after the verses discussed initially. We put the later of the two at the beginning

Note about the transcription: The transcription has been generated using AI and highlighted by volunteers. Swamiji has reviewed the quality of this content and has approved it and this is perfectly legal. The purpose is to have a closer reading of Swamiji.s teachings. Please follow along with youtube videos. We are doing this as our sadhana and nothing more

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Class 1

Very good. Welcome to you all and Happy New Year to you. Nice way to begin the new year with our new study of the Bhagavad-Gita not exactly new of course, many of you have studied the Bhagavad-Gita and it’s been our convention here at our arsha bodha center ashram, it’s been a convention for us every saturday morning to study Bhagavad-Gita we’ve had a class in the 20 years. 

We’ve been here at this ashram, we have studied the Bhagavad-Gita three times all the way through. Each time takes about five years. We may also spend the next five years studying the Bhagavad-Gita the fourth time, but don’t let that five years scare you. It is the most wonderful journey a process that we’ll be engaged in together and of course as we go from chapter to chapter the subject matter changes significantly and you’ll be seeing something new all the time. Besides the fact that the Bhagavad-Gita is just such an extraordinary text I think the fact that I’m so enthusiastic about teaching it here for a fourth time. That shows something unusual about this text. I don’t feel like “Oh!, I have to teach the Bhagavad-Gita again”. I don’t it’s the opposite I am just so thrilled really to be returning to the Bhagavad-Gita and I’m delighted to have so many of you be able to attend this class virtually by watching these webcasts when we have classes in our lecture hall pre-pandemic we would have for Bhagavad-Gita class between 100 and 200 students would come for Saturday morning Bhagavad-Gita. But right now there are many more of you watching this webcast live and in the coming weeks it’s likely that there will be many thousands of people will have the opportunity to watch these videos, this webcast. And as a teacher, I find it so rewarding to know that these teachings are reaching and helping so many people so I’m delighted to share this with you and happy that we could begin this new year with our new study of the Bhagavad-Gita.

You see on the screen the first verse of the Bhagavad-Gita and there’s a convention to begin each class with recitation of the verses generally what we’ve done is we’ll recite the 10 verses prior to where we’re studying of course we’re starting the class today so we’re going to recite the first 10 verses that serves two purposes one is it’s prayer,  it’s a convention to begin any class with the various kinds of prayers so this recitation will be prayerful secondly,  it helps get the verses in our minds in our ears so to speak a little bit through that process of recitation and when we recite these verses again and again it becomes very beautiful and very meaningful so we will do that today we’ll start with recitation of just the first 10 verses and we’ll talk more about the meter of the verses most of the verses of the Bhagavad Gita are in a very simple short meter having eight syllables and a quarter you can just listen and repeat and you’ll get the correct sense of the verses so and

I’ve composed these slides in such a way that while I’m reciting the sanskrit you can glance at the translation. I think this is very important, to recite sanskrit verses without knowing the meaning is empty. We’re missing out on something.  I’ve had the blessing of having studied sanskrit for such a long time that as i’m chanting the verses in sanskrit the meaning is absolutely clear. Many of you haven’t had that opportunity to study Sanskrit thoroughly. So that you too can have the meaning in your mind as you’re chanting here’s what you do, as I chant the sanskrit, you glance down at the meaning when I’m done chanting the sanskrit you will repeat the sanskrit knowing the meaning that’s very very simple very important okay.  We’ll begin this is chapter one verse one repeat after me please

Very nice! The very act of chanting these verses is delightful. If you’re chanting it for the first time, It may take you a while to get used to it, but once you’ve chanted these verses for a while it just becomes just a wonderful sadhana, a wonderful spiritual practice. 

Of course,  we’re going to be going through each of these verses and seeing their meaning now, not just the word by word meaning but the application of these verses to our own individual processes of spiritual growth after all that’s why do we study a text like the Bhagavad-Gita these texts  are like guidebooks to lead us forward on our own journeys of spiritual growth. We’ll have much more to say about that in coming classes as we go through the Bhagavad-Gita. We should perhaps begin by considering for a few moments why the Bhagavad-Gita without doubt is the most widely studied scripture in the Hindu tradition. 

Let’s consider that for a moment a quick comment it many people say that the “Bhagavad-Gita is the Bible of Hinduism” that statement is actually incorrect and let me explain why the Bible is the foundation scripture,  the base scripture root scripture on which the christian tradition is based. The Bhagavad-Gita is not the foundational scripture or root scripture on which the Hindu tradition is based. The main scripture for the Hindu tradition is the Veda. The four Vedas are collectively the main scripture for the Hindus. So, for this technical reason let us not erroneously say that the Bhagavad-Gita is like the Bible. It is however the most by far the most widely studied scripture and that’s what we should definitely discuss here briefly. There are so many ways to explain it.

Here’s one way that I find very significant: I’m not a great lover of poetry. Most poetry is, for me,  very obscure and goes right over my head but the Bhagavad-Gita is poetry and I love every word of it and one reason I love it is that it’s not only poetic it’s also very clear and easy to understand usually clarity and poetry don’t seem to go together if something is very clear it’s like a it’s like a manual and it’s not very poetic if something is very poetic it’s often not very clear so in the Bhagavad-Gita we have this amazing, I find it an amazing,  combination of deeply poetic beautiful expressions which are simultaneously crystal clear in the spiritual wisdom that they convey we can find plenty of dull boring books which are not very poetic but do convey lofty spiritual truths we can find plenty of lofty spiritual poetry which is so hard to understand so this is the point i’m trying to make is that one of several reasons that the Bhagavad-Gita is the most widely studied Hindu scripture is this rare combination of beautiful profound poetry and crystal clear clarity in its communication of these profound spiritual truths. 

That’s not the only reason the Bhagavad-Gita is the most widely studied scripture. This is a very important point and the second reason I would say is that the Bhagavad-Gita conveys the main spiritual teachings of the ancient rishis in a context that we can relate to. Let me explain that the ancient rishis are the ones from whom we received the Vedas the Vedas are the poetic outpourings of those ancient rishis and a portion of those Vedas is called as a section called Upanishad you should know this term Upanishad is one of several sections and the Vedas and Upanishads are significant because they contain the purely spiritual teachings of the ancient rishis the Vedas contain lots of prayers, lots of rituals,  lots of obscure meditations but the Vedas also include these wonderful spiritual teachings. Those spiritual teachings are compiled in

sections called Upanishads and you may already know this, the Upanishads are compiled at the end of each of the four Vedas at the end of the Rig Veda there are Upanishads and at the end of the Sama, Yajur Atharva veda.  

At the end of each of the four Vedas there are Upanishads, compiled at the end. Because they’re

compiled at the end of the Vedas in Sanskrit and is anta Veda so the word Vedanta is a synonym for Upanishad, referring to the spiritual wisdom found in the Vedas in the final section called Upanishad now that being said the contents of those Upanishads are not very accessible.

Many of you have studied, I’ve taught many,  many times and while the teachings of the Upanishads are incredibly profound, they’re not easy to grasp and the reason is the context. So the ancient rishis were spiritual geniuses and spiritual giants and they lived lives completely removed from worldly activities; they lived in huts up in the mountains and along the banks of sacred rivers and they lived deeply contemplative lives. Lives that are not very similar to the life that you and I might lead. So they live in a rarefied spiritual world, if I can use that kind of description and their lives then were very different from ours and as a result the way in which they expressed themselves was very different than the way we would express ourselves. 

Their lives were so narrowly focused on this spiritual wisdom that led to an approach in the composition of the Upanishads, which is extremely profound, profound meaning and sometimes so deep that it’s hard to grasp. not sometimes frequently hard to grasp

The context of the Bhagavad-Gita could not be more different. First of all, the very same teachings found in the Upanishads are taught by Sri Krishna to Arjuna. So it’s the same vedantic teachings that originated with the ancient rishis and Upanishads. It is those very teachings that are being imparted by Sri Krishna to Arjuna and that of course is the core story as it were of the Bhagavad-Gita. We’ll get into that in just a few minutes, but what’s different is the context. So the context of the Upanishads is this rarefied spiritual world of the rishis. The context of the Bhagavad-Gita as most of you know the physical context is a battlefield. You know this,  most of you know the story. Well, the battle is about to begin

Arjuna asks and we’ll see these verses shortly, Arjuna asks Sri Krishna to drive the chariot out onto the battlefield so that Arjuna can inspect both sides (both armies)  before the battle begins and while they’re out there in the middle of the battlefield, a dialogue ensues. Sri Krishna and Arjuna are engaged in a long dialogue, which goes on for a total of 18 chapters. Those 18 chapters of dialogues are the Bhagavad-Gita. 

The physical context is a battlefield. Now consider the implications of the context.  The rishis, the context of the Upanishads as taught by the rishis, their context was this highly rarified spiritual life as I said before,  which is something that we may not relate to well, But battlefield is surprising, is surprisingly relatable let me explain why? There are so many aspects of life that resemble a battlefield those of you who have to commute to work you know that sometimes the highways and roads are like battlefields as everyone is trying to get to their destination if you you go to work and sometimes employees are vying with each other for advancement so a workplace can resemble a battlefield sadly sometimes you come home and your own home can sometimes resemble a battlefield.

The idea is there are many areas of conflict and challenge and difficulty in life and those challenges

and difficulties and conflicts make many aspects of our lives resemble a battlefield. Thank goodness we’re not soldiers on a battlefield that would be a very different thing altogether but there are aspects of our lives that resemble a battlefield so for that reason and here’s the point.  

The point is the in the Bhagavad-Gita the same spiritual teachings that were imparted by the ancient rishis in such a lofty rarified manner those very same teachings are presented in the Bhagavad-Gita in a very down-to-earth manner in the context of the battle of life. 

There’s so much symbolism involved and we’re going to be seeing some of that symbolism shortly, including the symbolism of the battlefield. 

Before we can talk about the symbolism of the battlefield, let’s be sure that we understand the historical battlefield. The historical battlefield is called “Kurukshetra”. It is the name of a place. You can visit it even today in North India Kurukshetra. It is the Ksetra (land), the land of the Kurus. Kuru was the name of the family dynasty, the lineage and so Kurukshetra was the land or area or place where this horrendous battle took place. 

Of course, this is the central story of the great Mahabharata so we need to first set the Gita in its context in the Mahabharata and then we’ll come back to the context of the battlefield the Mahabharata. As most of you know,  this is an incredible epic poem from ancient times, about a conflict between two portions of a family. Obviously I’m not going to tell the story of the Mahabharata here. It’s very inappropriate, but that huge epic goes on for 84,000 verses, the longest poem in the world 84,000 verses broken up into 18 books called Parvas. So if we go to the 12th of those 18 books or Parvas, we find a small section among those 84 000 verses, there’s a small section of 700 verses, 700 verses over a span of 18 chapters. I think there are some 2 000 chapters and the whole of the Mahabharata. Don’t quote me on that. I’d have to double check that number that may be incorrect don’t, don’t hold on to it. But of the 84000. I think that’s correct anyway we can check on that. Of the 84000 verses in the Mahabharata, we come in the 12th book to the 700 verse sliver. If you think about it 700 verses amongst 84000 is this tiny little bit is like a gem. 

But that 700 verse segment is excerpted from the Mahabharata and studied independently in fact there are several sections of the Mahabharata which are excerpted and studied independently. 

In general the word “Gita” has several meanings some of you are thinking you know a girl whose name is Gita but that’s not the Gita we’re talking about some of you know that in sanskrit Gita

means song like Gita in Hindi and in this context, Gita can be a name for a section of spiritual teachings excerpted from the Mahabharata. 

There are several Gitas excerpted from the Mahabharata some of you know there’s a section called Anu Gita, there’s a Bhagavad-Gita, there’s an Anu Gita there are several others so Gita can be understood as a small section of spiritual teachings excerpted from the  and this particular one is called Bhagavad-Gita. Bhagavad means belonging to Bhagavan God so Bhagavad-Gita is the spiritual teachings  excerpted from the Mahabharata which were imparted by Bhagavan in the form of Sri Krishna also you know there’s a more common translation so Bhagavad-Gita “the song of

God” and it’s not incorrect either but just to give you a little bit more depth of understanding Gita can mean song so Bhagavad-Gita can mean the “Song of God. But really speaking, Gita here is a name used for an excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita from the Mahabharata. Okay! Enough said.

So in the midst of that 84 000 verses, the whole Mahabharata, is just a wonderful teaching , with so many profound sections. Let let me interrupt myself not to start teaching because how long would it take me to even give an overview of that 84 000 verse text absolutely not possible and not appropriate here in this context so let’s stay focused on the Bhagavad-Gita which this tiny 700 verse sliver is like a gem in that vast ocean of teachings if the 84 000 verses form an ocean of spiritual

teaching. The 700 verses of the Bhagavad-Gita are absolutely like a gem found  in that great ocean. Okay that is the context of the Bhagavad-Gita in the Mahabharata.  

Now we’d like to return to the context of the battlefield and a good way to do that would actually be to return to the very first verse of the Bhagavad-Gita which introduces the battlefield.  

So we will begin now with the first verse of the Bhagavad Gita again. It’s important, traditional and helpful to have the teacher recite the verse and have the students recite after so let us let us continue with that and we’ll do so to introduce each new verse as we proceed so repeat after me

This is the style of not just the style of the Mahabharata, style of most of script, not most scriptures, but of the epics the ramayana the Mahabharata the puranas like the bhagavata purana they all have the style and the style has it that the one who is speaking is introduced in this manner

“he said”, “who said”,  who is speaking?  most of you know as the “blind king”. The father of Duryodhana. Duryodhana is the so-called bad guy of the epic, Dhritarashtra, is his father who is blind

and again I at least at this point will try to minimize the details of the Mahabharata but some details will need to get into here let’s see the verse so Dhritarashtra said and here is speaking if you look at the fourth line he is speaking to sanjaya, his sanjaya is his assistant really speaking sanjaya

is his charioteer, but if you’re a blind king you probably don’t spend a lot of time in a chariot, usually the charioteer is one to take you out onto the battlefield, a blind king has no place on the battlefield so therefore the blind king Dhritarashra is back in his palace along with sanjaya his chariot here and he and Dhritarashra asks sanjaya, in the fourth line “kim akuravata” what did they do? “What did they do? All the warriors” actually was taken in reverse order, in the third line “who were the warriors gathered on the battlefield” some of them were mamakah my warriors which means the Dhritarashtra had 100 sons so those 100 sons are out there on the battlefield also prior to the battle many alliances had been formed so other kings and warriors are out there fighting on the side of the Kauravas so the this is a little tricky, Both sides of the family belong to the lineage of king Kuru

King Kuru lived many generations before so technically both sides of the family are Kaurava. Kauruva means belonging to the lineage of Kuru but there’s a convention that the sons of Dhritarashtra are called Kaurava and the sons of Pandu, Pandu you might remember was a brother of Dhritarashtra the other side of the family the two sides of the family that fought with each other so much, so the sons of Pandu are called Pandava. Pandava the sons of Pandu and Kaurava the sons and those allied with the king Dhritarashtra so in the third line mama the warriors which are my warriors look out of us Pandava cha eva in sanskrit words get run together frequently so Pandava cha  eva get combined due to rules of called sandi due to those grammar rules it becomes Pandavacheva so the Pandavas and my own warriors and the Pandavas what about them they are backing up online second line they are yu yutsavaha they’re ready to fight they’re eager to fight. They’re warriors yutyusu  in singular yu yutsavaha is plural you you sue is a warrior someone who’s ready to fight so all those warriors are samaveta breaking the words apart they have gathered together and now you come to the final we come to the significant part. Where have they gathered? Kurukshetra in the first line they gathered together on the Kurukshetra as I said before that’s the name of the battlefield. So they’ve gathered together on the battlefield the Kauravas on one side of the battle the Pandavas on the other side of the battlefield they’ve gathered together they’re facing each other and in this position in the 12th book of the Mahabharata this is the first day of an 18 day war so the great Mahabharata war is about to take place at this point in the 12th book of the Mahabharata at the beginning of the Bhagavad-Gita is the morning of the 18 days of bloody warfare that are going to be fought which forms a central part of the Mahabharata now that being said here comes the symbolism in the very first word of the Bhagavad-Gita what is the first word dharma. what ? Not an accidental choice a first word dharma righteousness so the Kurukshetra the battlefield is called here dharmakshetra those a endings dharmak shaytray means on the battlefield gives a sense of location so here the battlefield Kurukshetra is being called dharmakshetra the field of

dharma how significant the field of dharma is where the forces of dharma and adharma face off the battle between dharma and adharma or in western literature you’ll always see the prototypical battle between good and evil the term evil is not exactly the same as adharma we’ll talk about that perhaps later but the just as in western literature we have this prototypical battle between

good and evil here in the Mahabharata in general and in the Bhagavad-Gita in particular we begin with this prototypical battle between dharma righteousness and adharma the opposite of

righteousness unrighteousness and this symbolically then represents our lives because each and every day in life you are faced with choices what is the choice you can take the path of dharma you can take the path of adharma sometimes the path of adharma is very attractive it’s very convenient it might even be financially lucrative to take that path of adharma and the choice is up to you and that choice a choice that is made not just once but many times each day you’re confronted with these choices so that conflict that we face every day in life the conflict between needing to choose the right path needing to avoid the wrong path already that’s being represented in the very first word of the Bhagavad-Gita some further symbolism: Dhritarashtra – the king is blind, that blindness,  his blindness is representative of ignorance it’s it symbolically represents ignorance. You know, if if I’m pausing because I’m trying to avoid getting too much into the story of the Mahabharata but you know that all the problems were caused not by Dhritarashtra himself but by his son Duryodhana

Duryodhana hated his cousins; the cousins were the Pandavas. Duryodhana from childhood onwards hated the Pandavas and was jealous of them and tried to kill them many times and this is a whole complex story of the Mahabharata here here’s the symbolism

The acts of adharma, Duryodhana even as a child tried to kill his cousins, You might have had some disagreements with your cousins and other family members but you wouldn’t dream of killing them

Duryodhana tried hard several times to kill his cousins, that’s how adharmic.  Adharma is performed by Duryodhana. Duryodhana is the agent of adharma, but the symbolism here is that Duryodhana is the son of Dhritarashtra look profound symbolism Duryodhana the agent of adharma is the son of Dhritarashtra the blind king who represents ignorance and i’ll make it very clear adharma is born of ignorance I’ll say that again adharma is born of ignorance and let me explain this is a very important vedantic teaching, ignorance there are many kinds of ignorance but here we’re talking about our subject matter is a profoundly spiritual subject matter so the specific kind of ignorance we’re referring to then is ignorance of your true divine nature as you understand well in the Hindu tradition everything is the manifestation of god of Ishvara, a very famous statement in in Upanishad chandogya Upanishad says “sarvam kalvidham Brahma” says “all this is Brahman”, “all this is God” loosely speaking meaning implying the fact that everything is a manifestation of God. Everything is a manifestation of divinity, everything is divine. This is the vision of the ancient rishis: everything is divine meaning you, me, everyone else in this world and the world itself everything is a manifestation of divinity everything is divine. Now we have the problem how can divine beings do such horrible deeds

I was reading a book about world war II and most of you know in world war II there was a profoundly adharmic person named Hitler whose actions led to the death of tens of millions of people, tens of millions of people he killed six million jews in the holocaust and on the battlefield his deeds his direction led to the death of tens of millions of people those numbers are staggering how do we even grasp those numbers here’s the point adolf Hitler was engaged in these terrible acts of adharma but from a Hindu perspective adolf Hitler was as divine as you and me my god how can we understand that how can we say that adolf Hitler was a divine being and Duryodhana was a divine being the divine being named Duryodhana tried to kill his cousins the divine being named Hitler killed

tens of millions of people how can we understand that go back to the my leading statement adharma is born of ignorance we can we’ll use a sanskrit word for ignorance means knowledge ignorance so from avidya comes adharma unrighteousness and here’s how this may sound strange try this suppose adolf Hitler prior to world war ii suppose he got enlightened don’t ask me how and I know it’s just a silly fantasy but suppose adolf Hitler came to understand that his nature is divine that the nature of everyone else is divine suppose he understood that all those jews were divine people if adolf Hitler recognized the innate divinity of everyone and everything would that enlightened adolf Hitler in our fantasy would that enlightened adolf Hitler have engaged in all those terrible deeds never the point we’re making is that due to ignorance of that fundamental divinity of all that exists it’s a spiritual ignorance it’s not an ordinary ignorance a spiritual ignorance due to that avidya that spiritual ignorance due to the non-recognition of the innate divinity of everything that exists due to that particular ignorance adharma is born you see the connection now hadn’t had Hitler been an enlightened saint he could not have acted in such a dharmic ways and no wise person no enlightened person can act in such a dharmic ways but to the extent that ignorance covers and this is this is being blind ignorance is often been called like a veil in fact that term is used so much

the veil of ignorance the veil of ignorance obscures our vision and prevents us from seeing the innate divinity of all that exists when that veil of ignorance prevents us from seeing that innate divinity we’re then capable of all kinds of acts of adharma because why not conversely when you wreck when the veil of ignorance is removed with the help of these spiritual teachings when you recognize the innate divinity of all that exists it becomes impossible how can you hurt a divine being how can you it’s like someone you love dearly you’re not going to injure or do anything harmful to this is a fundamental teaching and let me make one make one more connection and that is I said before that in the west we see this prototypical battle between good and evil and I said at that time that

evil is not the same as adharma and this is this is worth observing here in the Hindu tradition there is no equivalent to the western concept of evil some of you know that in in western religions

the force of evil is personified as the devil as satan, shaitan you know it’s a real being evil is a thing evil exists and therefore you have to watch out the Hindu tradition looks upon it so differently

There is no equivalent concept to evil in the Hindu tradition; there’s no force of evil. There’s no power of evil. There’s no entity or deity that is the embodiment of evil. There’s no such thing as evil, however there’s plenty of adharma are acts that violate principles of dharma acts that cause injury in a very broad broad way of speaking there’s lots of adharma so we can’t speak of evil in the Hindu tradition we can absolutely recognize the terrible consequences of acts of adharma and adharma as I just said is an action is a deed and it is an action or deed born of what you got it born of ignorance avidya. Avidya ignorance is that veil of ignorance which prevents you from seeing

the innate divinity of all that exists that veil of ignorance represented by dritrashra’s blindness leads to acts of adharma. So from the blind king Dhritarashtra came the terribly adharmic son

Duryodhana symbolizing from the veil of ignorance of avidya comes all the acts of adharma that caused so much harm in the world 

Swami Vivekananda the very famous swami from 150 years ago was famous for this  particular statement. He said “there is no evil apart from ignorance”.He said it in various ways but he said there is no evil except for ignorance and he was referring not to ignorance in general but this specific kind of ignorance. This ignorance which is like a veil, prevents us from seeing the innate divinity of all that exists. So look at at this the Bhagavad-Gita opens with the blind king speaking as the representative of ignorance which led to all the adharma, the story of the Mahabharata is just filled with all the acts of adharma committed by Duryodhana and others and the terrible consequences of all of that. 

Just to wrap this up and I think there’s a time yeah we’ll wrap up this class shortly we’ll try to keep these classes to one hour in length

Some people argue that spiritual practice like the study of the Bhagavad-Gita has no direct

benefit in addressing the problems of the world so today our and the world is suffering from so many terrible problems and i’m talking not natural problems like we’re in the midst of the pandemic now so we’re not talking about natural problems like the virus but man-made problems like war. Wars continue in various parts of the world sadly they go on and on and on. So look at this war is definitely an act of adharma. an act of adharma born of ignorance avidya.

Here we are engaging ourselves in a spiritual practice to study the Bhagavad-Gita is a spiritual practice sadhana and the ultimate goal of that practice that sadhana is to remove that veil of ignorance by removing that veil of ignorance you will see so vividly the innate divinity of all that exists and when you see that innate divinity you respect that divinity you love that divinity and it that wisdom that recognition prevents you from acts of adharma

It is impossible to willfully or deliberately inflict harm on that which you perceive vividly as being divine just as you won’t hurt yourself deliberately you won’t hurt that which is divine deliberately the point here and the final point for this class is that this spiritual wisdom that we will discover through our study of the Bhagavad-Gita can remove that veil of ignorance leading you to vividly recognize the innate divinity of all that exists including your own self and in the absence of that ignorance adharma comes to an end there’s much more to be explained about how adharma is the result of ignorance, Well it goes through the whole of the Bhagavad-Gita this is a major topic so I will leave it here and we’ll come back to that topic many times in our in our future study.

So before we conclude this class there are several important announcements. This class will continue every saturday morning in our in the united states and if you miss a class you know all these classes are then recorded and kept on youtube and available to you either by going to my youtube channel or by going to our website you can find all of that the slides that you see these slides are available on our website audio recordings of these classes and podcasts of these classes it’s all available on our our website so make use of those resources.

I’m supposed to remind you that if you’re a regular student watching these videos every week you are expected to make a regular donation the amount of the donation is whatever you think is appropriate but the idea is if you’re studying regularly there should be some kind of regular ongoing donation and you can do that in varieties of ways we have a raksha dhana program where you become a supporter of the ashram you can also if if you work for a large corporation many companies have a matching gift program so you can work with them and get some additional funds sent to support our ashram of course we don’t charge fees for anything we do here so this ashram functions a hundred percent with your generous donations on our website there’s a page on donations you find a lot of information there you can go to that page and get any any information you need and just to conclude as I said at the beginning this is just a delightful way to begin a new year with a new text to study 

I should also mention that we’re starting several new texts or studies at the beginning of this year Bhagavad-Gita will be taught every saturday morning we have a new vedanta class on tuesday evenings a class called Advaita makaranda nectar of non-duality is a text for our tuesday evening class which will also be webcast like this class also tomorrow sunday we’re going to begin a new program called a course in meditation that course in meditation is a series of 42 lessons which will take you through every aspect of building a practice of meditation and each week a new lesson will be uploaded every sunday morning so beginning tomorrow morning we will upload the first of those 42 lessons so plenty but much and just nice that we can make use of these modern tools the internet and so forth to make these teachings so widely available again it’s delightful for me to spend this time with you and please join us for our next class we’ll conclude with the prayer