Riffin' On the Transcendental Structure of Normative Behaviors

“All of the liberated souls in ancient times acted with this understanding of My transcendental nature. Therefore you should perform your duty, following in their footsteps.” 4.15 Bhagavad Gita Transcendental Knowledge

This one is as profound as it is on the cuff/concise! While much could be expounded upon within it, essentially Krishna is arguing largely in favor of social-normative action here.

In so many words He says that the “liberated souls” in “ancient times” (who are presumably hero types that the society celebrates as embodying the very fruits/principles of the social framework which nurtured them…for us Einstein would be an example, or even religious heroes such as Pope John Paul the Second or Biblical heroes even…) understood His “transcendental nature”. To say as much seems to both explain their success, and seems to argue in favor of common sensibility, to an extent. Most of these types are not regarded as disruptors/social antagonists, and as such are most often perceived as men who very much “affirm” the social “duty”/norms of the time.

It’s of no surprise, other than the sheer fact that this advice is that awesome, that Krishna seems to tell Arjuna that because God is Transcendental, and can be channeled through all things at all times…you ought to do…what the world is telling you that you ought to do, to a reasonable extent.

Obviously if there are moral clashes between what you know to be true about the nature of God and the values being represented socially, you have to resist…for the sake of individuals, the society, and God. Otherwise, “you should perform your duty”, following in” the “footsteps” of the great liberated souls which came before you by doing as much.

Implicit within such a notion is that while renouncers are amazing… great men of God such as “the liberated souls in ancient times” do not remain socially impotent. Somewhere in their natural progression they are introduced to a tribe, serendipitously… society is theirs (and the functions of the society are dedicated to their spiritual mission). In their midst, boundaries erode, and they experience a sense that everything transpiring is good…that it is towards a Singular end, and is somewhat malleable to their will when it is aligned with said end.

Society is the esoteric, all encompassing, enigmatic vehicle that brings you hopelessly deeper into the mystery that is at the heart of life. You don’t ever meaningfully turn away from it other than to gain the insight on how to go deeper into it. It is actually just the Source in disguise… we’ve created these artificial categories of division which sees some things as nature and some things as society, but really everything is just One thing, and those conceptions are about where we are at personally.

Those conceptions are about coming to the realization that it’s all just One thing, effectively…

I am being dubious. Obviously this passage was meant to be paired in context rather than removed entirely from the chapter/context which surrounds it. Nonetheless, there was something beautiful to be seen in it…

In the very next passage, Krishna begins moving to a teaching on action (Karma). He wants to define Proper action in simple terms while keeping a rather high universal standard, for whatever reason, and enlightenment is the position he essentially describes as righteous action/proper action. By it, He means that the individual has directly regarded God concerning their specific situation in the cosmos…in time and space, periodically, at that. He describes the person as having a sense of being able to see opposites within one another… action in inaction, inaction in action… flittering notions as such. By this he means that agency is utterly theres as an individual, and that is something really only accessible to an individual when their will has utterly aligned so with that of universe that things become so utterly malleable to them…they have the power! They can assert their will on the cosmos, but these types have always sworn an oath to use every moment to whittle phenomena down into potent presentations of the Dharma so… it’s a machine. Is there a person there? Or has this become a hive-mind thing?

Essentially. But that perspective (hive-mind) makes the notion of like heightened intuitive abilities and the such so much more believable/understandable…and that’s always been a part of Yogic/spiritual culture… auspiciousness.

It should be noted, while Dharmic execution is impressive to witness, and fun to be a part of personally, it’s not this horrible, daunting, unrewarding, impractical thing to learn how to do. Krishna literally defines “proper action” as being in constant conscious communion with God, and portrays a vision of society that not only resembles ours…but also, too, was designed to induce people into transcendental communion with Source through the effective use of…culture. All one needs to do is glimpse the framework and suddenly they can see it in all things at all moments…

Ultimately this stuff is the standard/norm. It was nature’s design, whether man was witting or unwitting of as much. It’s the only destination…of every journey. The real trip is hitting it and just like…staying. And one of the biggest hiccups I’ve been encountering as of late is the notion that it’s more precious than it is…rarer or more methodically convoluted. It takes someone with like a high school level education to have the potential to retroactively recreate these things once they learn how to abstract well, these rambling “Dharma” lectures… there is a simple internal order of reason to it all.

Through prayer/spirituality, the things that we have come to regard as not yet possible but utterly imperative…or nearly impossible in difficulty but necessary for our survival…we break ground in leaps and bounds in this territory. Everything becomes workable. It works if you work it, you just have to put one foot in front of the other. It’s baked in that we are dependent on it, but once that point is hammered in psychologically, you are personally removed from great dramas that spurn the realizations of that sort of dependence in the first place.

Ooo baby heaven is a place on Earth…

Hilariously, we have quite naturally arrived at one of the classic impasses; the psychedelic ritual is not considered normal behavior...but it should be! Normalize self-care...normalize healthy, mental health habits! Oh and it occurs to me that if normative behaviors are inherently transcendental in nature, this means to be ordinary is to be extraordinary...and that's such an apt description of adult life that I'm convulsing as I type this. The Matrix we are in is heroic. To live a day is to contribute socially before you do anything else additionally to try to pitch in/contribute. If you've ever like experienced lethargy during periods of unemployment or low activity, and it seems like you can't even get your rest by slowing down...this is a part of why. The negative things we experience are floating in from other's lives... we are forced to carry one another's weight, and to realize as much really makes going through it all the more beautiful. You are not a self contained creature.