The Flow Chart for our downfall

Dear Friends,

Greetings to you all. Last week, I couldn't post any message on this blog due to other preoccupations. I am now continuing with the ideas already dealt with in the previous post, where in we discussed the evil effects of desires and craving. The following two slokas are also from Srimad Bhagavad Geeta from the 2nd chapter, Samkhya Yogam, verses 62-63, where in the Lord gives the sequence of steps - like a flow chart - which spell our doomsday and result in total destruction of us. Let us understand them, so that we can try and meticulously avoid falling prey to this downhill path.

ध्यायतो विषयान् पुंसः संगस्तेषूपजायते ।

संगात् सञ्जायते कामः कामात् क्रोधोभिजायते ॥

क्रोधाद्भवति संमोहः संमोहात् स्मृतिविभ्रमः ।

स्मृतिभ्रंशाद् बुद्धिनाशो बुद्धिनाशात् प्रणश्यति ॥

ధ్యాయతో విషయాన్ పుంసః సంగస్తేషూపజాయతే

సంగాత్ సంజాయతే కామః కామాత్ క్రోధోభిజాయతే||

క్రోధాద్భవతి సమ్మోహః సమ్మోహాత్ స్మృతివిభ్రమః

స్మృతిభ్రంశాద్బుద్ధినాశో బుద్ధినాశాత్ ప్రణశ్యతి ||

dhyaayatho vishayaan pumsah sangasthaeshoopajaayathae

sangaath sanjaayathae kaamah kaamaath krodhobhijaayathae ||

krodhaadhbhavathi sammohaah sammohaath smtrthivibhramah

smtrthibhramshaadh budhdhinaasho budhdhinaashaath pranashyathi ||

Purport or Bhaava

The Slippery Steps for Man's Doomsday

Step 1 -  Incessent negative (wrong) thoughts about the sensual pleasures - lead to

Step 2 - Growing mental anxiety to fulfil them - this leads to

Step 3 - Perpetualtion of desires and craving for them - when unfulfilled they beget

Step 4 - Anger (never our desires will be fully satisfied) - this is dangerous and leads to

Step 5 - Delusion (that we are right - loose control on our actions & words) - this leads to

Step 6 - Loss of perception of the end results of our desire prompted actions- it causes

Step 7 - Crash of discriminative ability (or wisdom) - Devoid of this, sure we end up in

Step 8 - Doomsday and Perish

Take a close look at these seven steps which cause our total downfall. The idea here is, each step leads to incresaingly complex next stage. If we act and interrupt this chain of events, we can save ourselves or else we perish. It becomes complex to interrupt in the later steps and we should arrest this in the early part of this flow of events; Best done at the first step of incessant negative thoughts related to sensual plesaures. Sage Sri Veda Vyasa has carefully constructed this flow chart for us, to apply in our lives. He has emphasized what will happen if we get channelized into negative thoughts. We shall see a corollary of this from Jagad Guru Sri Adi Sankara in our next post.

That is all for now. Bye till next post,

Regards

Dr Sarma