Ravi Ranganathan Podcast

Arjuna continues to describe the Cosmic Form he is seeing. With fear overcoming him, arjuna begs Bhagavan to get back to his original form.  Bhagavan restores Himself to his original form and consoles Arjuna. With that description of the Cosmic Form there is nothing much to add as chapter appreciation, except to make one observation.

This podcast "BG -yah pashyati sa pashyati" reaches a milestone.  In Episode 50 Bhagavan is giving His Cosmic Form to Arjuna.

Episode 49 continues the vibhuties, glories of Bhagavan. This cover the eighth and ninth aspects of Bhagavan's glory and chapter conclusion and appreciation.

Episode 48 continues to explain the glories of Bhagavan. Who He Is and how to see him in this world.

In this episode 47, Bhagavan starts a detailed list of 76 of His glories. This covers 21 verses and the list in verse order will sound completely random. Going through these verses in order will make a listener completely lose the purpose of this list. To make life easy, I have reordered all these manifestations and grouped them into 9 glories. With that you can see the clear picture behind what i...

Episode 46 gives introduction to chapter 10 titled Vibhuti yoga.  Vibhuti is glories or manifestations or expressions.  Bhagavan gives 20 inner  expressions and at the request of arjuna gives  a detailed list of 76 manifestations.  

Episode 44 started covering verse thirty two that has created a lot of controversy. In this verse Bhagavan talks about sinners, women, vaisyas (business people) and sudras (workers). Some commentaries have even skipped this verse.  The last episode explained what the controversy was about and some common sense refutations for the criticisms. Some have interpreted this verse to mean women, business...

In Episode 44, what is needed to show devotion to God is continued from the previous episode. In addition to that another major topic is discussed. In chapter four Bhagavan said that he is the creator of the four fold varna division. So far the focus was on kshatriyas, arjuna being a kshatriya. Since Arjuna wanted to take to sannyAsA, Bhagavan also talked about brAhmins who focus their life on Sel...

The five aspects of God started in episode 42 continues. Following this Bhagavan describes three types of His devotees - (1) devotees without desires, (2) direct devotees with desires and (3) indirect devotees with desires.

This episode covers three types of people - fools, mahatmas who are knowers of saguna brahman and finally the knowers of nirguna brahman. This episode also starts the five aspects of god and covers the two functions of the first aspect of God.

Episode 41 has the introduction to chapter 9 and describes the nature of God.

Episode 40 is a chat with my dear friend Smt. Jayasri Sundara Ragavan. She gives her perspective on BG and this podcast and her questions helps to revise and understand about sthitha prajna, our core duty and dealing with extreme sad situations in our lives.

This episode describes the two paths after death - the path of light and the path of darkness. This also has the chapter appreciation.

In this episode Bhagavan compares two places - The abode of imperishable brahman with brahma-loka, the place where the creator, four headed brahma, resides. After explaining the difference, Bhagavan says choose the place you want to go but remember my place has one great advantage which the other place has not!

Episode 37 starts chapter eight  titled akshara brahman, the imperishable God. This is an interesting chapter. One may wonder what is going on here. BG encompasses many Indian thoughts including karma, bhakti, jnAna, yoga etc. They are all practical methods to realize our full potential. Sanatana dharma also talks so much about our after life. This chapter tries to squeeze the various related idea...

Episode 36, the concluding part of chapter 7 explains what knowing God fully mean.

In Episode 35 Bhagavan explains what is God and how to see God in this world.

Episode 34 gives an introduction to chapters seven through twelve.  A paradigm shift happens in chapter seven. Teachings about Self-realization is complete. Now it is time to know what it really means brahma-nirvana state,  whether a God exist and if so what is that God and what is our relationship with that God.  BhagavAn enters the territory of bhakti yoga to explain what is bhakti, to whom shou...

Episode 33 covers the recap of chapters five and six.

Episode 32 gives a summary of chapters three and four.

Episodes 31, 32 and 33 will cover the recap of the first six chapters.  This will give an opportunity for those who have missed the previous chapters to catch up and continue further episodes from chapter seven.   Episode 31 covers the recap of chapters one and two. 

Episode 30,  the concluding episode for chapter six, covers what happens to a practicing yogi who dies without having Self realization. Bhagavan gives some encouraging words. The episode also gives the ultimate definition of yoga and chapter appreciation.  

Episode 29 explains the state of Self realized yogi, a quick summary of how to approach, with what attitude to approach meditation, the benefits of meditation, and the outlook of the Self realized yogi. This episode also covers the concern of arjuna about meditation.

Episode 28 explains the external and internal environment required for Meditation. Bhagavan also explains what we should do and what we should not do in between our meditation sessions. Finally union with Self through Meditation takes place. Bhagavan quotes an analogy that Self realized yogIs have used to explain that state. 

Episode 27 gives an introduction to Chapter 6. This is the last chapter covering the "tvam" aspect in veda maha vakyam "tat tvam asi". This chapter covers the final step to Self realization, meditation.  It addresses the qualifications for meditation, right environment for meditation, what is and what is not yoga and meditation, what should we do and not do while practicing med...