69 - Maya – The Great Wonder| Swami Tattwamayananda

-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on January 29, 2021.<br />-7th chapter: verses 11, 12, 13, 14<br />-Lord Krishna first teaches Arjuna to evolve a sense of duty consciousness. Later he teaches him karma yoga – learning to do duty without selfish purpose. This is a matter of one’s evolution. One should first do duty with desires. As he evolves, he will learn to do the same duty without selfish desires, with a refined, healthy ego - he evolves from Sakama Karma to Nishkama Karma.<br />-11th verse: “Of the strong, I am their strength that is devoid of desire and attachment. I am that desire in all beings, which is not opposed to Dharma.”<br />-The strength of a great person who uses it for the good of others, the genius of a scientist or a poet or a musician who uses it for noble purposes – that transcendental touch is an expression of the divine.<br />-12th verse: “Sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna – they all proceed from Me. They all exist in Me. But I am not in them.”<br />-The Lord is the master of the three gunas. The three gunas constitute the totality of all human experiences, such as changes of mood and temperament.<br />-13th and 14th verses discuss Maya. Lord Krishna says that those who devote themselves to Him, the Divine Reality, they are saved from the entanglement of Maya.<br />-In life, we encounter situations that defy human logic and have no satisfactory answers. For example, good people may run into difficulties while the opposite kind may have a good time. We may help someone but end up not being in good terms with them. These unknown, unpredictable situations are the manifestations of Maya.<br />-Sri Ramakrishna describes two types of Maya. Vidya-Maya, which creates the desire to do good deeds and liberates us. Avidya-Maya, which creates the desire to selfish deeds and binds us.<br />-Objects in the world are not maya. Our outlook towards them determines whether we end up in vidya maya or avidya maya. A car used for selfish purposes can bind us in avidya maya. But an ambulance