Chapter 1: Raga - Soga - Moga

In this episode,  learn how Raga (attachment), Soga (Grief) and Moga (Delusion) are interconnected.

We start Season 2 with Periamma’s interpretation. 

Transcript

Chapter 1

Vee 00:04

Hello, everybody, welcome to our podcast Gita a mantra for success. 

Okay, so by popular demand, we're going to start season two, but there is a twist here. We've already shared our interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita in our first season of the podcast. And you know, the Gita has a lot of interpretations. So in this season, we are going to share someone else's interpretation.

We have received this interpretation from my Periamma, and her name is Jaya Ganapati. She lives in Mumbai, India. So, she's been reading and analyzing Gita for a few years now. And she was kind enough to share her interpretation. 

So we're going to start with chapter one, and we're going to call it Periamma’s Gita. Right? Because it's easier that way. I mean, keep it consistent. And we'll go from there. Okay, and the author is going to be Periamma. And we're going to explain Gita from her perspective. 

Okay. So as per Periamma, the punchline of chapter one is wrong thinking is the only problem in our life or negative thinking.  She has tried to explain the first chapter and she's broken it up into five parts. 

The first part covers verses 1 to 20, which is pretty simple, okay, because that just lays out the background. So here in these verses, we get the description of the battlefield of Kurukshetra from, you know, the perspective of the war, and how the preparations are being done before the start of the war. 

Kauravas here, they represent Adharma. The Pandavas represent Dharma. And this war or Yuddha is the Dharma Yuddha. 

Dharma signifies the behaviors like duties, rights, laws, and the right way of living. Adharma is basically the opposite of Dharma. And it includes discord, disharmony, wrongfulness, pretty much polar opposites. And Periamma suggests that Dhritahrastra is both physically and spiritually blind. Sanjaya basically reports to Dhritahrastra through telepathy about the war that is going on in the battlefield, almost in real time. So he sees and he reports it together.

Dee 02:13

Yeah, we spoke about it in season one.

Vee 02:15

Absolutely. So at some point, Duryodhana goes to Drona and tells him that their army is weak, and Pandavas was stronger. He seems to be pretty nervous here. 

And to make him feel better. Bheeshma actually blows on the conch, indicating that the war is starting. And that is basically the beginning of war. Both the generals actually blown it saying they're ready. Let the battle begin. 

Now, in the second part of the first chapter, which basically covers verses 21 to 25, and the story goes to Arjuna. There is a sudden transformation in the mind of Arjuna. He wants to look at Kauravas from close quarters, like no, he's on his side of the battle, he wants to get a closer look. So he instructs, actually asks Krishna, the charioteer to guide the chariot in the middle of the battlefield between the two armies. 

As per Periamma, Duryodhana was Adharmi and then Athathayi.

Dee 03:14

Athathayi? What does that mean?

Vee 03:17

It is a person who has committed the worst possible sin. And there are a few examples of what can constitute the worst possible sin. 

For example, someone who sets others on fire or he feeds somebody poison in intend to kill, you know, destroying people, killing people, taking others wealth, possession land, and in the olden days, also taking others you know, wife forcefully. 

All these constituted the worst kind of sins. And someone who has committed any of these sins or all of these things, of course, are Athathayi. 

So he is Adharmi, Athathayi. Also Duryodhana was Durbhuddhi

Dee 04:02

Durbuddhi means someone who does not have a clear sense of good versus bad.

Vee 04:11

That is correct. And Arjuna was supposed to have clear Buddhi, meaning he had focus, or power to reason, judge and comprehend. That's how he was until he came on the battlefield. And then he started getting confused and we spoke about it. Till that he was pretty clear. Then he asked Krishna to come to the middle of the battlefield. 

And now we'll go to the part three, so these are verses 26 to 28. Now it gets a little more complicated. So let me try to explain it a little more slowly. 

So there are three portions of Samsara. Samsara here has a different meaning. Usually, when you think of Samsara, you're thinking of the concept of rebirth, like the cycle, continuous cycle, life, death and reincarnation, right?

Dee 04:54

Yeah. So basically they say if you let go of Samsara. You you get Moksha, or Nirvana. Got it. That's a popular concept in Hinduism and Buddhism. 

Vee 05:09

That is true, but what Periamma is suggesting here is there are three things that influence Samsara 

Raga, which is attachment 

Soga, which is grief, and 

Moga, which is a delusion. 

So at that time when Arjuna is in the middle of the battlefield, he is influenced by all three portions of samsara, raga, which is attachment, Soga which is grief, and Moga, which is delusion. 

He's too attached to his grandfather and his teacher. He is driven by grief because of this because in the battlefield, somebody has to die, and that’s his grief. He is almost delusional because of his grief.

Dee 05:47

Arjuna is behaving like any human being.

Vee 05:50

Correct, correct. So, I think what Periamma is trying to suggest here is all our problems in our life has something to do with our attachment, that is raga that leads to saga, grief. And when we are filled with Soga grief, we become delusional which is Moga. So that is why we have Raga Soga and Moga.

Dee 06:09

So samsara is raga + saga + Moga put together

Vee 06:14

Raga Soga Moga. There is no Ga 

Dee 06:17

There is no Gha. Raga Soga Moga 

Vee 06:21

Raga Soga Moga are interconnected. 

Intensity of grief or sorrow is directly proportional to the intensity of attachment. The more attached you are, the more grief you will feel. The object of attachment may vary, but the problem of attachment is pretty universal. And that problem is called Samsara. 

Okay, now we move on to the final versus.  The final verses explained how when a person is emotionally disturbed internally, his or her rational intellect stops working.

Intellect has the power to solve most of our problems in our lives. Yeah. But it can function only when we are emotionally balanced. If you are experiencing grief, and you become delusional, because of that, you don't know what you're doing. Once the emotion overpowers the intellect, the intellect has the knack of justifying the emotional weakness. And that has adverse consequences, all different levels - family levels, social levels, religious levels, professional levels,

Dee 07:26

Because you start justifying your act. That goes back to your victim mindset. 

Let me summarize the first chapter, you know, the message is very clear from Periamma -  The root cause of all sorrow and suffering in this world is our inability to deal with conflict.

Vee 07:42

Yep, yeah. And don't forget that conflict comes with attachment,

Dee 07:46

That A word - attachment. 

So we experience conflict at three levels: material, mental and spiritual.

So at the material level, conflict is everywhere, right? And when we have these, we don't have that. 

Vee 08:01

Correct. When you start comparing lives - your lives with others? Uh huh. And you feel conflicted, because of the comparison.

Dee 08:07

Comparison. So the second one is the mental conflict. In our mind are always conflicted, primarily between our rational mind and our ego, correct. So that's our mental conflict.

And there is a third kind of conflict, which is called spiritual conflict. And that happens because you know, many times we are not connected with ourselves. So unless we know we, we are unless we learn to stay connected with our soul or in you know, God or universe or you know, the bigger force, whatever you call it, we will never be able to completely resolve all of our material and mental conflicts. 

So that is the central theme of the first chapter. 

And also, there is another interesting point from Periamma’s interpretation. Let me go back to Arjuna’s dilemma. He was conflicted. Right, right. And, and, and I think he was confused at all three levels. And we and what did he do? He decided to quit, because that was the easiest option he had. So quitting is the default response of the ego.

Vee 09:17

Makes perfect sense because it is easy to quit, but difficult to fight on.

Dee 09:21

Oh, yeah. Sometimes I say death is easy. Surviving is difficult.

Vee 09:26

It's a morbid analogy, but I get what you're saying. It is really easy to quit. But facing adversities is always difficult. So yes, there is conflict everywhere, but you have to learn how to handle it. 

The sooner we recognize this universal truth about conflict, and its impact, the sooner we can progress in our personal and professional journeys, and in many case, spiritual journeys. 

So this is pretty much what is in chapter one and we end Periamma's interpretation of chapter one.

I think it was very interesting and we will  doing this for all the chapters. We'll get back to you soon with the second chapter.

Dee 10:06

Yeah. Until then, stay tuned and remember Raga Soga Moga.

Vee 10:12

Thank you