100 DISCOURSES ON THE BHAGAVAD GITA

 

 

100 DISCOURSES ON THE BHAGAVAD GITA

 

 

Swami Niranjananandaji

 

 

Before selecting a fine tasting wine,
a suitable glass is chosen.
It must be spotlessly cleaned
and polished to receive the wine.
Processing, cleaning the container is Karma Yoga.

The rule of fine wine is age,
the older the better tasting.
The oldest known found wine
Bhakti, Divine Love, is the oldest wine.
Pouring this wine into the container is Bhakti Yoga.

Within these steps,
the wide and deep history of the glass
and its wine are thoroughly researched
for complete knowledge.
This is Jnana Yoga, the Yoga of knowledge.

Drinking this wine makes one inebriated
of the unknown kind to humans.
Sipping the wine is meditation or Samadhi Yoga.

Paraphrased from
Swami Niranjananandaji’s Mar 10, 2012 Discourse

BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 1

    Lord Krishna says He loves Bhaktas, those innocent, completely surrendered souls. He says, “There is no difference between Me and my Bhaktas.” Bhaktas are staunch in their unwavering devotion, completely surrendered unto Him. Once you surrender yourself, you become a part of whom you surrender to. Then there is no difference between the surrenderer and to whom you surrender. That's the reason why we give more respect and more value to the devotees. Maybe they never went to college, maybe they cannot write, maybe they cannot read, but their words make even the learned great ones fall at their feet when they talk about God because, they stir their hearts. Their hearts are stirred because it is the Truth, direct Truth. That's what it is.
    Everyday in the morning after my meditation, I read three chapters from the BHAGAVAD GITA, the second part of the second chapter and the “State of a Realized Soul”. These three for the last so many years, I enjoy reading them. So every time I read, it concretizes my faith in the Lord. That's one faith that is keeping me alive. I don't have any other thing to survive in this world. I'm neither rich nor educated, nor handsome, nor anything to survive in this world, but that faith in my Lord.
    So, He is introduced to us by Veda Vyasa in such a forum as to please everyone, anyone. The learned scholars accept Krishna, the innocent people love Krishna, the enemies love Krishna because he's a most diplomatic person. He knows how to manipulate things to bring down the vicious ones. Thus, the BHAGAVAD GITA has become the words of Krishna. You may not read the MAHABHARATA, but one part of that contains the eighteen chapters of the BHAGAVAD GITA, that's all, about seven hundred stanzas. Of the seven hundred stanzas, if you only understand one, that is sufficient, that is the key. There are about seven hundred keys. Any one will unlock the door; it will open. When we talk about BHAGAVAD GITA, it is said to be one of the three foundation stones for our Hindu belief. VEDAS, UPANISHADS, and BHAGAVAD GITA, these are the three main foundations.
    Especially when it comes to the BHAGAVAD GITA, we must remember it's a non religious text. We have to call God by some name to recognize Him. In those days, there was no bitterness, there was no quarrel, nothing. So, they called Him Krishna. You see, they recognized the Lord as Krishna. Once again, for God to appear Himself, in order to redeem us and lead us, He need not be born only as a Brahmin. He can be born anywhere, it doesn't matter. So, He was a cowherd; He was born as a cowherd. Krishna is a cowherd — lower than the Brahmins, lower even than the Kshatriyas. But still, everyone worshiped Him. I am a Brahmin and I touch his feet. Why? You see? So, it's all beyond religion.
    What the BHAGAVAD GITA talks about is beyond the religious faith. If you want to survive in this world and be worldly, all right, you have a code of conduct which you must follow; live happily or unhappily, whatever it is. But, if you want to get rid of this and go beyond, then the GITA is the one. It doesn't teach you any religion, it doesn't teach you anything if you do not want to learn; but, it projects two things. One is this world and how you should live in this world, and at the end, if you are tired of this and you want to get out of this world of woes, how you should get out. It is simple. You should know at the time that Krishna lived and talked about this wisdom, making Arjuna a tool for Him to talk, there was neither Christianity, nor Islam, nor Judaism, nor any other isms. So, He did not say anything about anybody or any isms. And later on, you can see the influence of what Krishna said thousands of years ago. The Truth doesn't have a religion; Truth is the basis you see for all true religions. Because the GITA is like a department store — whatever you want to take, you can take. It's a membership store; you can take and sell at retail. Make a profit, that's what's happening. So, GITA is one that serves our purpose. Even me, one who doesn't want religion, but what I want to know, just that solid goal of life, that is to know the self and be free.
    As Sivananda puts it in a simple way, “Know the self and be free; serve, love, give, purify, meditate, and realize. So be good, and do good. Be kind, be compassionate, know thyself and be free.” That's what the GITA does. Know thy self and be free. That is what it does; that's all it does. It doesn't preach anything else.
    Another thing is that all the other literature, when we try to understand it without any bias, how many times has the text been changed? Like the Bible, how many times has it gone through revisions? The BHAGAVAD GITA has gone through no revisions, it has not been revised, and nobody has added or removed anything. Veda Vyasa was the text writer. It is what he wrote, and it is what he heard Krishna say. We may ask, how can he know? In those days people were endowed with such insight. Veda Vyasa was far away from the field of war, but he could see; he could know. See, as I told you, by greatly raising your conscious level, we can see beyond the time, space and causation, and know everything at once that we call the future and past.
    He tells us what the reason is, so that he can make that blind king, the father of those unvirtuous one hundred and one sons, see. Dhritarashtra, he is a blind king; his brother was Pandu, who was the father of the five great brothers, the Pandavas, who are devoted to Krishna. He was not blind, but his brother was blind, it symbolizes.
    Dhritarashtra was blind. Why was he blind? Why did they make him blind in the story? — because of his attachment to his sons. In spite of knowing that what they were doing was wrong, because of attachment, he didn't even reprimand them; he didn't even tell them or advise them to resist from doing evil. So, that's the reason why Dhritarashtra was a blind king. Not because he was a fool, but he was blind. He knew, but he didn't exercise what he knew. He knew what was right, but he didn't do what was right. So thus, that's one reason why he was made blind. Since he was blind, there must be somebody to tell him what was happening. So Sanjaya, his devoted employee, is the narrator. What was happening was a running commentary for Dhritarashtra. He says whatever was happening then, “Arjuna is running, and Krishna is doing this, these people died”, and when it happened and where they attacked, and all those things he tells. But, they are far away from the field of war. How could Sanjaya know? He was an ordinary man, but in order to make Dhritarashtra know, at least in the future, he should not be blind, Sanjaya was given that vision; his vision was extraordinary. He could see what was happening in the field of war, so that he could narrate the whole thing to the blind king, in order to understand the disaster that he has brought upon himself and the whole country. So, that is the whole story.
    Often though, many, many times I have thought about talking about the GITA, I thought myself to be unworthy of that because I do not want to take the responsibility for telling you people, or anybody else what Krishna said. If I want to tell you what Krishna said, then I am assuming I know what He said. I never take it for granted what someone else tells me as if he or she knows perfectly what He said, and I do not want to tell somebody as an authority what He said. He tells me what it is as I perceive, as I try to understand the GITA. Everybody can understand the GITA in their own way, at the time when they read, in the circumstances in which they read, that produce that particular effect. The GITA is a text like that. If you read it a hundred times, you will get a hundred meanings. A hundred types of projections, a hundred types of understanding, different each time. So, what is right? Everything is right. That shows the endless flow of the grace of Krishna in those words.
    So, it has brought me great joy. And whenever I read it, I enjoy it; it gives me peace, it gives me joy. It enlightens me, and eliminates a lot of misunderstanding. It gives you the strength, the faith. It doesn't take you away from the faith that you have already developed. It strengthens that faith. That's what Krishna says in one of the chapters, “Each one should deepen their faith in what they have”. They need not change it. It's called unflinching faith. If you believe in a text, then hold on to that. Your own faith, even if X may be nothing, your own faith in that X is that which will guide you. It will serve the purpose of a plane to take you beyond. That's what it is, faith; it deepens the faith. It doesn't talk about any religion. It only talks about the code, the code of conduct that you have to adhere to in this world, and how to prepare yourself. What is your life’s motto? What should you do? So long as you are there, how should you conduct yourself. At the same time, how should you prepare yourself for the journey beyond this mundane existence.
    All this, within half an hour, He tells all these things, and now for thousands of years, people are still talking about it, and still it is not finished. That is the way when God speaks — the words of Jesus, now it is the end of the second millennium, will flourish, it will continue; the Koran, what Mohammed  spoke, it will continue because the words that involve God will survive for a long time. No matter who said it, how they said it, so long as it involves something of God, it becomes alive; deathless, it becomes eternal.
    So, I will talk on this because a few days ago, the others wanted me to talk about something on this subject. I'm not going to go regularly through chapter by chapter. I will talk as I know, don't be misled. I'm not an authority. I'm not telling you exactly what Krishna said, but what I have understood; how I feel, how I understand at your own pleasure. That's what I tell you. And it's for you people to read and understand. At the same time, how these words of Krishna, the words of the BHAGAVAD GITA has stirred. A lot of these people like Krishna, like right now we were singing "Shri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunityananda". They are all the products of the GITA. Chaitanya is said to be Balarama, and some people say he was Lord Krishna. I went to his temple where he used to be, and day in and day out people used to sing. They used to go mad and sing, sing, sing and dance. What a great joy it is. Whether Krishna lived or not, it doesn't matter. The moment you think that God existed in that form, that faith can make one dance. That dance can lead you away from this world. So, like that we can talk about the Bhaktas also, incorporating them in the talks about the GITA; so, we can mix the two things together. We can recall that love for God.
    Without Bhaktas, without devotees, there is no Krishna. Without Krishna, there is no devotee also. They are two sides of the same coin. Each one tries to support the other. Both of them are necessary. There is one incident, there is one stanza where Krishna says, “Ye Yatha, Maam Prapadyannte Tam Sthathaiva Bhajamyaham.” He says, “Those devotees who like and worship me, in a similar way I worship them; I serve them. If they become my servant, I become their servant.” He also promises, “I appear to them as they want Me to appear to them. I don't force them to do it My way. If they want to see Me as a buffoon, I'll be a buffoon. I'll appear to them so long as their faith pleases, so long as they like Me to appear like that. If they want to see Me like a king, then a king; as a pauper, then I am prepared to be a pauper for them. As they want to see me, so I appear to them.”
    I told you the story about Rama and Tulasidas when he went to Dwaraka, or when he went to Vrindavan. He went to Krishna’s temple and he said, "No, no I'm not going to salute you, my Lord. I know who You are, but except for Rama, I don't salute anybody". So Krishna thought, "Oh, I'm in trouble". So, He threw his flute and held a bow. Then Tulasidas saluted. So, such is the softness of God. “Ananyaschinta Yento Maam, Ya Jahah Paryupasate Tesham Nityabhiyuktanam, Yogakshemam Vahamyaham.” Krishna says, "Those who have surrendered unto Me, I will take care of their needs all the time, means continuously, without any break, all the time. Those who are a part of Me, always their mind should be engaged in my thought. To those people who worship Me like that, think of Me like that. For their daily needs and all that, for their mundane needs and the other worldly needs I will take care.”
    So, there was one Brahmin in Karnataka. It was a long time ago, I was a child when I heard this story. There was a Brahmin who was a great devotee of Krishna. Always, he used to spend his time in singing the name of God. He had children and a wife. But, once his wife came and complained to him in tears, “We are very poor, and we cannot even feed the children.” When she came and told him that, he was reading this stanza I mentioned above. Then it struck him, “Since I was a child, I have been constantly thinking about the Lord, but you're right. Why this poverty? Why should my children starve? Why should you be naked? No, I don't think the Lord means this.”; and he struck out that stanza and he walked away. As soon as he walked away, there was an old man pulling a cart with several bags full of groceries and bundles of clothing and much more. He knocked on the door, and the lady opened the door. The old man asked, “ Is this the house of so and so?” She said yes, and the old man said somebody has sent all these things. So, he dumped all those things in the house. As she saw him bleeding in the mouth, she asked, “What happened to you?” “Somebody cut my tongue, and it is bleeding.” So when the Brahmin got back to his house, everybody had new clothes, and everybody had new things, and he asked what happened? When she told him that somebody sent an old man with all these things and narrated about his bloody mouth and then about the reason, he said, “Somebody cut my tongue.” At once he cried that he was none other than Veda Vyasa, the one who wrote this as an authority on what Krishna said, “I didn't believe and that is why this happened.”
    Even if it's just a story, it can happen. You see? So, this is the story that I heard when I was a child. A lot of things happen. So the Gita is one thing. Especially RAMAYANA, MAHABHARATA, and BHAGAVAD GITA. These are the three things that people can understand more than the UPANISHADS and VEDAS. Unless you know grammar and all those things, you cannot understand them. But BHAGAVAD GITA and MAHABHARATA is like a story. Even workers, who don't know anything, uneducated ruffians, even they can understand, and they enact these plays. MAHABHARATA, and RAMAYANA, and all these, they enjoy. But when it comes to the VEDAS, it is the monopoly of the learned people. But, the same thing is here in a diluted form, which you can drink. That's what it says. The BHAGAVAD GITA is nothing but the culmination of all the UPANISHADS as a milk fed to the calf called Arjuna. Krishna is the cow, Arjuna is the calf, and the knowledge of all the UPANISHADS was poured into his mouth in the form of the BHAGAVAD GITA. BHAGAVAD GITA is nothing but the gist of all the UPANISHADS. You need not read the UPANISHADS, all those things are here in a way you can understand. Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 2

    Whatever is spoken of in the text of the GITA, there is nothing strange, nothing that we all do not know. Once we go through that, we say, "Oh, yes I knew that." That's what happens. Thus, Krishna never spoke something other than what a common human being can understand at the right time. The thing is the time that He chose to reveal the aspects of truth which guides us in every aspect of our lives, too.
    Also, you should know often we sing Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum. Krishna? What is He? For us, for the devotees, He is the summum bonum of life. He is the eternal goal. For the spiritual student, seekers, what is He? Apart from being the goal, Parabrahman, He is also a teacher. He leads us to Himself. He comes, prepares us, leads us, and goes back to receive us. He is both, just like the ticket issuer and also the ticket collector. It's a one man show. That's what it is. Krishnam Vande — Vande means salute; I salute that Krishna who is the Jagadgurum. Jagad means the whole world. Gurum means one who guides, the guru, one who disseminates the knowledge.
    There are so many gurus, charlatans; ordinary people who are running around calling themselves gurus. Being a guru is difficult; everyone cannot be a guru. Krishna never became a guru. You should remember, He was a cowherd; He was involved in amorous sports with Gopis, all kinds of things, but He never revealed that He was a master, Jagadguru. He revealed Himself to be a master only when He spoke within this half an hour the whole truth of one's life. Within that half an hour, He disseminated on the battlefield that superior knowledge to the seeking soul, Arjuna. He didn't choose his brothers, Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva nor Yudhishthira, who is the eldest of the lot, but He chose this fellow. These are the things we are to understand.
    Why He only chose Arjuna? You should remember these solemn words, "The strong should seek the welfare of the weak." So, that's the reason why God kept more company with Arjuna than anybody. But the ego doesn't recognize that. Arjuna thought, "Oh, because He likes me, He is with me." — that ego. But, Bhima and the others never thought that. They were very humble; they knew and surrendered to Krishna. They had recognized who Krishna was. Absolutely, without doubt, they had surrendered completely, so there was nothing for Krishna to do for them. But this fellow, who called Krishna by names, never bothered to respect Him; he took leniency with Him, and all this. Krishna said, "Alright my friend, every dog has his day." So, the guru always waits for an occasion; he waits for a psychological moment when he wants to instruct a disciple. You see, a flower doesn't bloom on the plant every time; it waits for the particular season, right? God also does the same thing. He waits for that particular moment. He never told Arjuna all these things when He was moving with him, but He waited for this particular moment. Even at this moment, He didn't open His mouth until Arjuna was terribly confused, and offered himself as a disciple and beseeched Him for right instruction.
    All his ego was shaken. He saw his own kith and kin, "All these people have to be murdered; I have to kill them all. These are my masters whom I am fighting; it is they who taught me how to hold the bow, and to him I am an enemy today, oh Lord." All of this confusion came all of a sudden. It could have not come, but Krishna wanted it to come. How can the darkness come when there is light, unless light allows the darkness to come in. Krishna wanted to deliver this, not only for Arjuna, but for us, for all the people, for all the time. Who is Arjuna? He is our representative. We are all Arjunas. He represented us long ago. So, you should remember that we were always there at that time.
    So after much crying he says, "Shishyastheham  Shadi Maam Twam Prapannam." "Krishna, I am confused; I don't know what to do. To do or not to do? Why to do, why not to do? What to do or what not to do. You are my only enlightenment; please help me, take me as your student. "Shishya means the student, the disciple. "I bow down to You; I surrender to You, my Lord. Please take me as Your disciple and enlighten me. I'm terribly confused, I do not know what to do."
    So, the GITA starts then. That was the right psychological moment. He could have talked about all these things earlier. But, the ego was so thick; it was solid, but now it was all melted. It has become so soft that even a small needle can make a hole in that ego. That's why Krishna waited until this moment. It ends when Arjuna says ,"All my doubts are cleared my Lord with your blessings; now tell me what to do and I will do it." The End.
    Until then, Krishna doesn't talk only about the war, mostly He talks about the peace. He doesn't talk only about the kingdom, and ruling, and about this world, and about the Dharma of this world, but far beyond — the subtlest possible goal of life to the grossest involvement in this world. Everything is explored. He takes Arjuna by the hand into every sphere of life, every aspect of life, and gives him the essence of the whole life: life here and beyond, it is that. If He had given only the mundane explanation for why he should fight and all that, explained only the mundane life, it would not have affected him so much. It is that which has clouded his understanding, but He has to bring the light of the other world, also. Whether you kill or not, the purpose is to reach there. You have got a purpose.
    See, that is what it is. GITA tells you the purpose of life. Purpose here, and the purpose there — what you are and what you think you are. That's what He explains. Also you should remember, as I told you, it doesn't pertain to one particular time, one particular set of people, or particular geographical area. It is for everyone. I heard that Max Muller, one of the greatest men of Germany, used to keep the GITA on his head and dance. He was so much enamored by the GITA; it is a small text.
    In the introduction to the GITA, it says Vyasa is the author and he wrote everything that Krishna said to Arjuna on the battlefield. Veda Vyasa's MAHABHARATA is like an oil where wisdom burns like a light; he's the greatest poet seer. It is he who wrote this, and he is an authority.
    Gurupurnima — it is also called Vyasapurnama. Gurupurnima is one full moon which is devoted to all the masters. Veda Vyasa was the greatest of all of the masters. So, the gist of the whole GITA is about the life here. How to conduct ourselves here, since we are born here, how we have to conduct ourselves, how we have to isolate ourselves when it comes to action and the fruits of man in this world. In this world, we have to have multiple personalities, because as a man or a woman we are bound by certain duties, certain actions here. We have to adhere to certain elements, and adhere to certain traditions and all those things. Apart from that, we also have to isolate ourselves from them to prepare for the journey beyond!
    What are we? As very often I ask you, are we the body? Are we the senses? Are we the mind? What are we? We are apart from that; we have nothing to do with the body, but still we have involved ourselves in this. Since we have involved in it, how do we get out of it?
    Arjuna had a son named Abhimanyu, whose mother was Uttara. He knew, because when he was in the womb, he overheard that there was a strategic arrangement in the army called Chakravyuha. It's a circular arrangement where you can get in and smash all the enemies and then get out of it. But what happened was, he heard only how to get in, but not how to get back. So, that's how he was killed. We know half; we do not know the other half. In the GITA, He fulfills that. Don't be like Abhimanyu; learn how to isolate yourself and come back here. You are involved here, whether you want it or not, whatever it is you have become. Now, isolate yourself and try to realize your being. That's what it is. Realize your real identity.
    The first chapter is called yoga of despondency. He said, "Oh, I want to fight; I am the hero. I've won this and in the beginning that, I'm the hero of this and that." Then, when he goes into the war front, he sees all his cousins, elders, all the kith and kin, and suddenly he collapses. That's the reason why it's called yoga of despondency. So, it is the weeping chapter, chapter of Arjuna's weeping.
    That's the beginning, and we will continue at the next session. As I told you, I am not an authority on the GITA. Don't ever think that just because I said so, it must be true. It may be true, or it may not be true; who knows? You read the GITA for yourself and know. But, what I read and what I understand, I tell you how I understand, that's all. Don't bank upon what I say. So, if it pleases, if it brings any joy, it is always good to talk about good things anyway. Also, the truth of this life, especially the truth about our being, the real being, cannot be disseminated to one who is not endowed with qualities like discrimination,  perseverance, understanding, and seriousness.
    Just like the other day when the master said, "Everything is Brahman." So he, a student accepted, just like I told you, that you are all "God". So what will happen is that since the guru said we are all Brahman — we say that since we are Brahman, we cannot die. So, the student was walking, and there was a mad elephant that was smashing everything. The man who was controlling it said, "Hey,  get out of the way!!" But the student replied, "I am Brahman, the elephant is also Brahman. So, how can he kill me?" So, he stood where he was and got smashed. Then, he went to his guru with all his bruises. He said, "Oh sir, you told me I am Brahma, and I don't get hurt or anything." "Yes, what happened?" The student narrated the story. "You are Brahman is fine, the elephant is mad Brahman, but there was a wise Brahman telling you to run away." So, in that case the guru must have thought, "I should have told him he is a bloody fool instead of telling him he is Brahman." So, discrimination is essential in the process of learning.
    Whenever a teacher tells you something, we have to have the power of discrimination; if not, you will land in trouble. So, we should understand that. That's the reason why very many times many of the masters, even though you ask him many questions, he looks at you and keeps quiet. Because any answer he gives you will put on a tail and two horns. So, it is better to keep quiet.
    That's why Krishna never told Arjuna any of these things earlier. For a long time they were together. Krishna was with them every moment, but He never told them anything. He never told this to Arjuna. He chose Arjuna, because he didn't have all these qualities which Bhima and others had. They never asked any questions. "Do it Bhima", and he did it. But this fellow — "Why?" When?" "Where?" "What?" "Alright, I will tell you all these things my friend, just wait". He chose this moment, so that has made a big impact on Arjuna. It is making a big impact on all of us today. Also, one of the beautiful things that Krishna says is, "Why I am narrating, this is this." It has no religious binding; it is not a religious text. What was said there is repeated a millennium ago. Krishna says, "Sarvadharman Parityajya  Maam Ekam Sharanam Vraja". "Renouncing all these things, all the other tenets of religion, all sorts of things you have developed, the religious, all the traditions and all kinds of things which you are talking about now, all these things having forsaken, having given up, come and surrender to Me, only to Me." That's all Krishna says. He continues, "Then, I shall free you from bondage and give you the eternal state of being."
    Not that ego, Krishna knows what He is. Ego is when, without knowing, you call yourself God. That is ignorance. When God says, 'I Am", it is not ego; there is no ego there. That's why God is God. He can say "I" and mean everything; but when I say "I", it is ego. If I don't know what I am, but I say "I", you see what I mean? Then He says, come and surrender to me having forsaken all the other things that you think you are bound by. Jesus also said the same thing, "Follow me, I am the way." "I am the way" means what? Is it asphalted? Concrete? What? It means that what I did, you must do. What I got you will get. You see?
    Today in a coffee shop, over a twenty seven cent cup of coffee, I was sitting with my friend, Frank, and we were talking. So, we talked about Clinton and this and that; then I said, "We didn't elect him as a spiritual or moral leader, we elected him as a politician. All the politicians are polluted anyway. It is not politician, it is "pollutician". We knew about all his weaknesses, so why do we want to complain about him now? He has erred and now he is suffering, it's okay." But, we were talking about the war anyway. So then came the role model. He is not a role model, who said he was? That's the whole weakness in us. Who needs a role model? You have to be a role model for yourself. Your parents are there at home. Nowadays, it is hard to find good parents anyway. The role model is you, yourself. You want to be good, then think good deep within yourself, and you'll act good. You are in control of your mind; make mind think good, and your actions will be good. You are the role model.
    Who was the role model for Jesus? This I cannot answer because there is no answer. He was daring enough to follow what He thought He should, and He did it. That's why we celebrate Him. Even in two thousand years, we haven't developed that spirit that we should seek; seek it, and we will get it. He has said, "Follow me, I am the way. Because, the way that I have chosen is the way that you can also choose. You have to lay your own way. I went deep inside. I decided I wanted God; I struggled. I went here and there, and I went for twelve years away from this world; I sat somewhere else. Lo and behold I am here with you now. You are still here; what can I do?" Even if we celebrate the millennium, our entertainment will be shooting a pistol into the air. We have not developed a single iota of what Jesus said. We are proud that we have spent thousands of years, and even in thousands more we will never learn at this rate. Simple thing, that's what it is.
    When the master says it will be simple, it looks simple, very simple, very ordinary. But no, it is pregnant with plenty of meaning. I am the way means you just read what I did; go through, do the same thing. I meditated; I ran away from this world. I prayed to God; I cried. Now, you want to go on Sunday with a three piece suit and say, "Oh, I am a Christian." All right you be a Christian, God bless you; you'll never get anything. I am a Hindu. "Oh, I read the GITA twenty five times; all right God bless you."
    Action —  We may read all sorts of French cookbooks and Indian cookbooks, but never taste unless you make it and eat it. That's what Jesus said, that's what Krishna said, that's what everybody says. Now it is time for us to do. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 3
 
    Krishna has tried to explain to Arjuna, if you can just try to gaze at it, there's nothing extraordinary that He has said. There is nothing that a common man with an ordinary intellect cannot understand. But the great ones, who having more intellect, have confused us so much as to not understand the simple things. That's the whole problem. That's the reason why I always recommend people to hope, and expect, and pray to hear everything from the source, from the horse's mouth. It is solid, it is simple; it will penetrate to your heart. That's what it is. Though it takes time and effort, Truth deserves them.   
    So, the purpose of Krishna's telling all those things at a juncture where each one is prepared to kill each other. He tried to explain all about the mundane, and also about the extraterrestrial facts, truths. Truth pertaining to this world, and truth pertaining to the nature, truth pertaining to the other world, and the nature there. And He tries to explain the purpose of each one of us.
    So, there is nothing extraordinary. But, until you have a sincere need to know, it doesn't make any sense, that's all. As anything else, just like on the day of the test, children get a stomach ache. When we want to learn about the BIBLE or GITA or anything we say, "Oh, I don't have any time; I can't understand." You don't want to understand, so you don't understand.
    As anywhere else, it is the war, they have decided to war against each other. It is the same family, like a Balkan state — same problem. And as I told you the other day, it is the two branches belonging to the same root: two brothers and their children. One is blind. He is blind because of his own misdeeds, blinded by his own attachments to his non-deserving cruel children. That's why he is symbolized as Dhritarashtra. The Pandu, the white one, is truthful.
    Really speaking, after Pandu's demise, the Pandavas, the virtuous ones, the devotees of Lord Krishna, the relatives of Lord Krishna, should have succeeded to rule the land. But, they where deprived of it by these sons of Dhritarashtra; being an elderly man, Dhritarashtra should have told the Kauravas, "No! They are your cousins; they have a right to the throne. They should take over the throne." He never said that, he kept mum. So, his sons were not very virtuous anyway; they were born to be crooked, full of illusions, delusions, greed and treachery.
    It happens everywhere. If you take the RAMAYANA earlier, Ravana was a demon, but his brother, Vibhishana, was a great devotee of Rama. He was truthful, honest. Things can happen in the same family.
    So also here, two brothers had different sets of children born. Even Krishna interfered. Krishna wanted to do the ambassadorial work. He counseled both the parties. Duryodhana, the leader of these hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, the Kauravas, didn't even want to bother about it. Krishna said, "Well, see, you're all the same clan. You all belong to the same famous clan, why do you want to kill each other? War is for those people who don't have any brain. But, you're all enlightened people, rich. You've got a rich history. You belong to a higher clan, all these things. People look to you; you are leaders. You must be exemplary. So, if you do not want to part with all the kingdom to these Pandavas, they're not going to fight against you; they don't want to because they love you more than you love them. They love you. They do not want a bad name for the clan. At least, why don't you give them half the kingdom? That's fair." Duryodhana said, "No."
    Then the second round of talks. "Alright Duryodhana, you don't want to do this much, right? Alright. Why don't you at least give them five villages? A village is not a big thing — small villages, five small villages for these five brothers. Let them be happy. They'll be happy; you can be a king. You can do anything you like." "No!", he said, "Not even a single pinpoint of land for them. They have to be subservient to us."
    Oh boy, this is what happened after the Pandavas came incognito from the forest. You know how they lost in the beginning. They were driven out of their kingdom even before they claimed it, because the uncle of Duryodhana, Sakuni, who was a crooked minister, told Duryodhana, "Don't worry." Because for the ruling caste, that is the Kshatriyas, gambling is a pastime. “We'll invite them for a chess game, and we will deprive them; I'll see that they lose everything." And it is the dharma, the code of conduct for them, that when a man  challenges, they cannot run away; they have to accept it.
    So, when Sakuni sent word to the oldest brother of the Pandavas, "Come for a game of chess." Yudhishthira said, "Alright, fine." Sakuni said, "But it is not a friendly game, you have to bet. Yudhishthira said, "Alright. "He's also a king. That's how they got all the kingdom. Yudhishthira bet their kingdom, and  bet their money and everything, and lastly Yudhishthira lost even Draupadi, their wife. That was the worst thing that ever happened.
    That saddest thing is narrated, especially when Yudhistira lost Draupadi.  Duroyodhana asks Dushasana, "Go and bring her." Duhsasana being the worst kind, goes and brings her. But these Pandavas, who fought against great enemies and giants, could not raise even a little finger. They were all angry, but because they lost everything and are now subservient to Duryodhana, they have to keep quiet. How can they fight? No morale to do so, they sat quiet.
    They have lost morally. That is what it is: physical strength is no strength; moral strength is the strength. Mahatma Gandhi won the freedom for India, not because he was a great martial artist; he was a weak bodied, strong moral character. That's why he won the freedom. Like that, these Pandavas, though they are great, they lost.
    It is with this background Krishna comes into play, enters into this scene, tries to bring about peace between these rivalries. They refuse to give anything to the Pandavas. They said, "No villages, nothing, because they have lost everything. If they want it, let them fight and take it."
    Kshatriyas don't beg, they have no right to beg. Brahmins can beg and also can offer. They have both the rights; they can give alms and they can take alms. But Kshatriyas cannot. If they want to get it, they can smack and take it; they can say, "Come on, I want yours." That's the dictum. They either win or exchange for something else, but they can not beg.
    So,  war is inevitable. So Duryodhana said, "If they want it, let them fight and take it”. Duryodhana thought, "I have a great army, and all they have are five brothers. How many have they got?: their father in laws, and a few patches of small armies, what can they do?"
    Krishna went back, so they decided they would fight. But the strange thing is that even those who loved the Pandavas, because they were honest and virtuous, and those people who had loved and taught them, Bishma, Drona, Ashwathama, all these people, great Kshatriyas and Brahims, great teachers who taught both Duryodhana and Pandavas. Because the Pandavas had lost everything and gone away, they, their former teachers, had been living with the Kauravas. They had eaten their salt and rations, wore their jewelry, and they had lived under their patronage. All these obligations had made them humble. Though they could have thought about it and decided not to stay with Duryodhana, they had lost their tongues because morally they were under their obligation. At the end of the war Bishmacharya says to Pandavas, "I know I should have fought for you, but I was under the obligation of that fellow. This body was protected, and it has eaten the salt of that crooked man; that's why now this body is given for his sake. I am departing from this body; so I don't have obligations. Now, I am free and  I will bless you." So his blessings were there for the Pandavas. That's what he said about being under the patronage and obligations of the unvirtuous people.
    See, if you come under the obligation of a crooked man, even if you are honest, you become lost, you have to abide by them. You will have no voice. You have lost your voice; you have lost everything. That's the reason why people do not accept things from some people whose morals are questionable.
    The war is decided. Krishna is the relation for both the parties; there was no involvement for Krishna in the war at this time. So now they started planning the strategy: bringing in the armies, counting the forces, how many elephants, how many horses, how many chariots, how many commanders, how many regiments, what are their specialities, how are they to be arranged and all that. So, they decided they wanted to collect as much of an army as possible.
    So, they went to Krishna. Krishna was also a king of Dwaraka. Even there you must remember ego. Arjuna went to ask help from Krishna. Duryodhana also went. Krishna was sleeping still. Duryodhana went first and went near the feet of Krishna and said, "Oh, after all he's a cowherd, why should I stand or sit at the feet of this fellow?" He sat near Krishna's head. Arjuna came and saluted and sat at His feet. Krishna, when he awoke and sat up, saw Arjuna first. Then he saw Duryodhana.
    He said. "So, let me know why you have come." Both of them told Him why they were there. Krishna then said, "Look, there are two things here. One, I am not going to involve in the war. I am not going to fight; I am not going to take my disk, or the mace. Nothing. I am not involving; I am one. And, I have all the Yadavas, my army. You can choose either me, non involving, non arm bearing man, one single person, or the whole army, whatever I have." So Duryodhana thought, "He is a cowherd, what can he do? I don't want one, I want an army." Duryodhana said "I'll take the army." "Take It".
    Arjuna said, "I wanted him to take it, I want You, Lord, because where You are, there is the victory anyway. Your blessings and Your presence are worth much more than that. Oh Lord, I pray that you must be my charioteer, the driver, the pilot. You must drive my chariot." He said, "Fine."
    Duryodhana was happy; he thought, "Oh. I have the whole army." Arjuna is happy that Krishna is with them; he thought, "When Krishna is there absolutely we need not worry."
    So then, they selected the day. Unlike now, when all of a sudden we fly over and drop the bomb. See, they had to adhere to certain principles. The field was Kurukshetra, near Delhi. Kurukshetra was chosen since it was a big open field. There were no cricket fields, no football fields, or any soccer fields, they were meant for war. They said alright, "We'll fight there sunrise to sunset, that's all. First rays of the sun means the first arrow flies. The last ray of the sun, means the end of the day's fighting. Then, they would visit each others camp and see who were dead. They'd cry and laugh or whatever it was and then come back to their own camps to prepare for the next day.
    It is the first day. Everybody has come. On one side there's Duryodhana and all his retinue: a big army and all the teachers: great archers, great masters, who taught all these people to fight, Bishma, Drona, Kripacharya, Aswathama, all these great ones are all standing there. They're unhappy, but, as I told you, they were under obligations of vicious Kauravas. Krishna knew how they were feeling.
    So here on this side the five sons, and Krishna in the chariot. Krishna said, "I can drive your chariot, but I will never bear arms. Is that ok with you?”  So Arjuna said, "Alright." Then both of them arrived at the field.
    Duryodhana brought Dronacharya. He was the master; he was the commander in chief. So, he brought him and said, "Sir, I have brought you here because I want to introduce all these people and make you know who are all here on our side so that you can plan your strategy." So he showed everybody: Bishma, Karna, Shalya, Kripacharya, and all the rest. Then he said, "These are all the great warriors. Now please see that you take care of Bishmacharya." Bishma was the first commander in chief; he was selected to be the leader of the whole army. So the day when he died, then the next one took his place; this was the succession of leaders. But Drona was all in all, he planned the strategy so that everybody would take care of the one who was the next leader.
    There was some crookedness here. Duryodhana knew far deep within himself, he knew that all these people, Drona, Bishma, Aswathama, every one of these liked the Pandavas. Duryodhana himself knew that they were right and he was wrong. “And always, these people were on the side of the right and not the wrong. So, because of obligations to me, all of them have joined my army. But at the nick of the time, they may join the opposition”, thought Duryodhana. That's why he says, "Take care of Bishma." See? “He's an old man. Who knows? I cannot trust him. He may run away to the other side, and if he joins opposing party I’m doomed. All our strategy, everything, will be known. And not only that, he's a champion; he taught all of us, and he's a great power. It's a great change if he joins the other side! So please take care!"
    See there are two meanings in  telling him, "Take care of Bishma." And Bishma heard this, and he was damn tired of these crooked people. He said, "At least let the war begin." He knew Krishna. The side on which Krishna belongs, that side wins always. "Let Pandavas win. Let it be over. I am also tired of eating the salt of the unvirtuous ones here. I am tired of it. Let me go and end it soon."
    So he was joyous in two ways. One thing, the time has come for Pandavas to enjoy; it's a question of time. And second is he will be redeemed from his obligations to the Kauravas. So he was happy and he blew the conch. That is the sign; the trumpet in those days was the conch. When he sounded the conch, Drona, everybody started. That sound was great. Everybody started; everybody has their trumpet, too. “Don't play your trumpet”, they say; but in the army, they have to play their own trumpet anyway. They said it was a heart breaking sound! Any ordinary man would be frightened by that. That was one side.
    Then Arjuna told Krishna, "Lord, I am happy that you are my driver." And you must remember, they prayed to Hanuman to come and occupy the flag as a spy. Where Hanuman is, he is like a wind. And also, he can see the whole thing. So that's why Arjuna is called "Hanumadhwaja". "Hanumadhwaja" means one who has got Hanuman in his flag.  Hanuman granted his prayer. He said, "Oh fine! Where Krishna is, there is none other but Rama. I am His servant. All right! I am here!"
    Then Arjuna said, "Lord, I want to go and see. Let me see who is on their side; I know who is on my side. But let me see their side, those who have cheated us, who have been nourishing enmity instead of love and regards. How dare they want to fight us! How dare they want to insult my elder brother and Bhima, Nakula, Sahadeva, all this, all our family the right to one legitimate kingdom! They have put us into such a fix! Let me see! And also I would like to know with whom I should be able to fight. I don't want to fight with the ordinary soldier, the pawns. I want to select one who is equal in my bravery and archery and prowess. Let me see."
    Krishna says, "Yes, my son." That's what He was also waiting for. As I told you, Krishna is a very clever, he is not crooked. Had Duryodhana been there, we could have said he is crooked; but what Krishna does, He is clever. Because He wants to support righteousness.
    So he said, "Alright, come on, let's go!" He brought the beautiful, huge chariot with beautiful white horses. Arjuna sat in there. He is ready: throbbing to shoot the first arrow, to break open the chest of his enemies. Krishna purposely drives the chariot, does not stop at ordinary soldiers or second or third-grade soldiers, but he brings it exactly in front of Bishma, Dronacharya, Aswathama and others whom he worships and knows who love him so much.
    See, there are two things in this: one thing is, He wants to make Arjuna know with whom he is fighting. Second thing is, He wants to make them nervous: "Bishma, you are an old man. You are a teacher. You know who is right, who is wrong. Do you want to fight Arjuna? You took him as a son and you trained him. Now you want to kill him? Drona, you want to do that?" See, just to stir their hearts, it is diplomacy, make them soft. You see? And He says to Arjuna, "Arjuna, see who is all there with whom you have to fight."
    Arjuna saw Drona, the master, one who is like a father, who took care of them when they were children. And Drona, who taught them how to hold the bow and shoot the arrow, and taught all that is necessary for war. "He made me a hero! It is he, Drona! Aswathama, Kripacharya, all these worshipful beings, and my uncle and my maternal uncle, all these persons, all these people." As he went on seeing each one of them, he started shrinking; his spirit started giving way. He looked at Krishna, who kept quiet, and said, "Why, oh Lord? Oh what a tragedy it is! As I see them, I see nothing but my own family which is going to be ruined. These are the worshipful sirs! My uncles, my cousins, all these people for whose sake I want the kingdom! But, it is those very people who are already there to die! If I kill them, if they die, for whose sake should I want the kingdom, oh Lord? I don't want any kingdom, if they do not want. It is for their sake, for their happiness, that I want the kingdom. But they are prepared to die! How can they have the kingdom when they die?"
    So, the dialogue continues. Now Arjuna has come and he has seen and is shedding tears. Next time, let us wipe off his tears. Thank you.




BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 4

    To start with, it's a very popular stanza from the BHAGAVAD GITA, we always repeat this when we remember the BHAGAVAD GITA. It's all about Krishna; Krishna means God, anyway. In place of Krishna, you can put Jesus. In place of Jesus, you can put Mother. In place of Her, you can put Allah. But, the meaning is the same; it's all about Their grace.
    What will Their grace do? If you surrender unto Them, Their grace will do something. What is that “Mukam karoti vatchalam, Panghum langhyate girim. Yet kripa tamaham vande paramananda Madaram”. That is to say, the people who are devoid of the power of speech can start speaking. Those who hesitate to speak, they can speak; and those who have lost their voice can get their voice. It means both. Many times if I ask them to talk, they say, “No, I cannot talk in public.” But they will do it if they are endowed with that power of speech. Mukam means mute. If you are endowed with that, you will no longer be mute. You know recently we heard about the man with one leg who conquered Everest and came back recently. So if God wills, lame people can even fly over the mountains. It is not impossible. Panghum langhyate girim: Only if we seek, and God bestows upon us that grace. That's what happens.
    “Oh Lord, Oh Lord Krishna, or Jesus, or Allah, or whatever It is called. The moment Your grace is showered upon me, everything changes. If I cannot speak, I can start speaking. If I cannot walk, I can start climbing the mountain. Nothing is impossible.
    “Thou art the one whom all these demi Gods — Indra, Vaya, Kubera, Agni — all these people worship and praise Thee, and all those things. All the scriptures, Vedas, Upanishads, all these, what do they talk about? They talk only about You sometimes as a personal God, sometimes like an impersonal God, sometimes as one with us, sometimes in Your real being, that of Brahman.” So, that's the prayer we  usually start with.
    Anyway, we were talking about how the army of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, have come together and Duryodhana has come and introduced all his commanders to the chief commander, chief of staff, that is Bishma. He told Dronacharya, “See these are all the people, see Karna and all these are my great heroes, and they are experts in their specialities of weaponry, so be careful. Bishmacharya is our commander, please be careful, take care of him; never let him out of your sight.” Bishmacharya heard this.
    When he heard this, he blew his conch, and when he blew his conch everyone started blowing their conches. When they started blowing their conches, the other side, the Pandavas, started blowing their conches. Krishna blew His conch, and Arjuna his. Panchajanya is Krishna’s conch, and Arjuna has Devadatta as his own. Everyone has their own conch, and they all blew their conches, and the sound filled the whole cosmos, the whole of space, everywhere. All kinds of drums and everything started beating, causing all their hearts to throb.
    You see when you want to kill somebody, you have to forget about yourself or else you cannot kill, you see. That's the psychology. The drums and everything warms up your blood, and it circulates faster, and all these things happen. Bad people are always bad people; there are chances that sometimes they may be good. But percentage wise we call them bad people, because they are ninety percent bad, and only ten percent good. Good people are ninety percent good, and ten percent bad. So, it is a mixture. The moment we are born here, we are endowed with everything. Sometimes we reveal certain things, and sometimes certain we don't reveal things, that's all.
    See, Duryodhana always doubted. The viscous man has a viscous idea always; even about God he thinks bad. That is his nature. Duryodhana is bad. That is the reason why the occasion for war has arisen. When he introduces all the other commanders, especially when he talks about Bishmacharya, he says, "Take care of him”, there are two things in his mind. Not only that he's precious, but second thing, he knew that his heart is on the other side. He loves the Pandavas because he is an honest man, and he is attached to Arjuna so much. Also he knew that what he is doing is wrong; he doesn't side with the wrong people anyway. He is prepared to die, but he doesn't change sides. So most probably in the nick of time when nobody is watching, he may join them. We have a strategy; if he joins them, then the whole strategy is out. Then we are conquered. These are the two meanings, that's the reason why he says take care of Bishma.
    Seeing this Arjuna says, "Oh Lord, let me go and see." Still there is ego. When we are born here, we are under the spell of this Prakriti, the Maya, Illusion. We cannot get rid of our ego. Whatever the attempt you make, it is so subtle. If you know what ego is, then you can remove it and throw it away. But, it is so subtle, it is a force that nobody can do away with. See? That attachment is so subtle.
    So, he says, "Oh, let us go see, Krishna, who are all there and with whom I will have to choose my opponent. I don't want to fight some Tom, Dick, and Harry. But, I want to fight with one who is capable of fighting with me. Let me see them." Krishna says, "Oh, alright, come on." They rode all the way in that big beautiful chariot, with Hanuman on the flag, and four white horses, and stopped exactly in front of Bishma, Drona, Karna, the unknown brother, Shalya, Kripacharya, all these great revered teachers, uncles, friends, cousins and all those people.
    See? There is a purpose. When God wants to deliver something, He creates an opportunity to deliver. His words do not go to waste. That's why if you read the BIBLE, those words are very measured. When you take the name of Jesus, His words are very measured; whatever the word is, if you attach the name of Jesus there, it came from the mouth of Jesus, it at once strikes your heart. So, Krishna wanted an opportunity to reveal to the world certain facts. So He created, and He brought forth this situation. He could have stopped somewhere else, but no, He brought it exactly here.
    "See Arjuna, these are all your enemies now. Choose your opponent." Arjuna stood with his bow; he was very proud of his bow, “Gandiva”, because it was given by a Demi-god. He looks at all of them, and his heart starts melting. Instead of blowing full like a balloon, it was like a balloon after three days; it shrinks, the air passes out. His ego started melting. Instead of standing, he sat. He became silent, thoughtful, melancholy.
    Krishna said, "Did you see them, my friend?" Arjuna thought, "What am I doing here; why Am I here?" He thinks the omens are not good. "I see all ill omens all around me now. Look, here's Bishma who right from my childhood raised me." See, when Pandu, his father died, who took care of these Pandavas? Bishma. He never married; he remained alone. He spent all of his time taking care of these children. Only when they were driven out, having lost their property, the whole thing in gambling, after that was the time when he stayed with the Kauravas. The Pandavas loved and revered him.
    Then all those memories came, how Bishma helped them learn. He didn't allow them to slack off. Just like I told you about my teacher, Swami Saswatanandaji Maharaj, who taught me Bengali, they were all like that. They said "No. Arjuna, you must be a hero, you must." So they wanted him to be a hero, so they prepared him. Especially Drona, he went to such an extent. There is a story about it.
    Dronacharya was teaching Arjuna to be the greatest archer in the world. But there was another one, a boy Ekalavya. He came to Dronacharya, but he wouldn't teach him. So he went home and built a small hut, and made a statue of him. He revered that statue and said "Oh Lord, now you are my teacher". So, his devotion was so great that he became greater than Arjuna. Once Arjuna and Dronacharya were all walking and the dogs were barking. All of a sudden the barking stopped. They said "What happened?". All the dogs mouths were filled with arrows. They said there must be a great archer here. So Arjuna shrank.
    He went to his teacher and said, "See, there seems to be somebody, but I don't see him. All the dogs stopped barking because their mouths are filled with these arrows. Dronacharya walked that way ,and he saw this boy concentrated, shooting. He came and the moment Dronacharya appeared, the boy with all the jubilant reverence and happiness fell at his feet. Dronacharya looked at him and thought, "If this fellow joins the opponent, Arjuna will be no more Arjuna, he'll be second or third rate; he won't win in the Olympics of the MAHABHARATA."
    See, even this attachment, I'm going to talk a lot about attachment in this; the whole of Gita is about attachment. Krishna’s attachment to his devotees, and the Pandavas’ attachment to Bishma and others, and Bishma’s attachment to them. Attachment, attachment, attachment, Ignorance. It is these things in this world, it is nothing else. That is what Krishna says. You are in this and slowly you will have to get out. That's what the BHAGAVAD GITA is about. So even Dronacharya, the great man, learned master, is attached to Arjuna so much that he's blinded by that attachment. So, in that blindness he asks, "From whom did you learn?" Ekalavya showed the statue of him. So Dronacharya asks, "Oh, you are my disciple?" He has refused already; Dronacharya didn't want to teach him, but it is his devotion that made him the best. "So, you are my disciple. If you have learned from me, you will have to pay the fees." The boy said, “Whatever you ask, everything is at your feet. Dronacharya said, "Alright, give me your right thumb.” (Without your right thumb you cannot shoot.) Readily, he cut it off and gave it to him. Then he was pleased.
    Dronacharya was so attached to Arjuna that he didn't even care about the welfare of this boy who was so much devoted that he offered his thumb in payment. Ever since then, he lost his ability to shoot a bow. If he had joined the Kauravas, Arjuna would have been nowhere.
    Same with Karna, also; Karna was one of the greatest. Karna was the illegitimate son of Kunti. He is the eldest of all these Pandavas. But she left him in the Ganges, because she was worried about what people would think to have borne Karna unwedded. Just like we talk about leaving a child at the steps of a church or something. So even in those days, this illegitimacy was in force. The whole world is full of these things. Though it is not a problem of today, it was there.
    So she left him, and somebody took him, nourished him, and he became a great archer. And he went to Sri Parashurama. He was his teacher, but that is another story; there are so many stories surrounding the GITA in the MAHABHARATA. Karna was great; he was against Pandavas, though he was not bad. But, I know I'm going to talk about, the discipline, the family. When something happened in Columbine High school, we talk about the parents, and their responsibility; from where they got the guns and all these things.
    The same thing here. He was forsaken. When he learns, “I don't know my mother. I don't know my father. I was brought up by somebody else”. Naturally, it makes him sad. “My own mother forsakes me. I am grown up without my parents, oh what a shame.” Though he was one of the chieftains in the Kauravas army, his heart was so great; in giving there is nobody compared to Karna. Karna means the great giver, Danasura. Karna is said to be an incomparable giver. Anything. There is a story about him.
    See, I'm telling you the background for the BHAGAVAD GITA; the BHAGAVAD GITA is short but why this takes place is very long. Once there were terrible rains for a week, and a Brahmin came, a poor Brahmin. In those days Brahmins could go anywhere and approach the kings. He approached Karna. Karna said, "What do you want?" “Oh Lord, it is so cold, I cannot cook, I cannot keep myself warm; I have children and a wife, and I do not have wood. There is no dry wood anywhere, because it has been raining.”
    He told his servants go find some wood. They told him there was no dry wood. Then he said, “Remove all the pillars in the room; cut them all into pieces and give them to the Brahmin. Take it to his house and deliver it.” Such a great man. He didn't care for his palace.
    Karna was given by the Sun God a pair of earrings. It is that which was his power. Once just before the war started Kunti says, "You are my son." He could have slapped her to the ground, but he said, "Oh mother, I am blessed you came to me. What can I give you? What can I do for you?" See what a great son he is. We call him bad, but he is not bad. "Son, now you are a Lord, you are going to be the chieftain. I have my children to take care of." He says, "Yes, tell me what I can do." She says, "Give me those earrings." At once he removed them. He knew that if they go, he goes. He gave them to her. If not, nobody would have defeated Karna.
    All these stupid things happen in the family. What happens in all our families, happened in this family also. In Kauravas family, in Pandavas family. That's the reason why there is a fight; it's a war. He's such a great man, and again why did Dhritarashtra and all his one hundred and some odd children become so bad, so deluded, so selfish, so revengeful, so angry. Why? They tried to kill the Pandavas several times. Why? The Pandavas didn't do anything, they never tried to do any harm. On the contrary, they always fought for them. It was their nature.
    Throughout, their mother was with them and advising them. They never went without the orders of their mother, Kunti. She was a widow, and Nakula and Sahadeva were the children of Pandu’s other wife, Madri, who went into the funeral fire along with Pandu, the father of the Pandavas. Because in those days that was the case. Because she loved him so much, so she said, “No, I will die with him, but you must take care of the children.” So Kunti was saved. So Kunti cared for the children. But nobody felt that they were step children; no, they were all together.
    But, here he was a blind fellow, Dhritarashtra. The significance of being blind is that not only didn't he have eyes, but he didn't have his heart either. He knew right from the beginning, when they were learning under Dronacharya. He used to get reports that the Pandavas were progressing so much, and they were doing so well, and his children were not doing well. Once they took Duryodhana and also Arjuna for a test. He hung a small bird on a tree. He said, "This is the bird that you have to shoot its eye.” So all the students gathered and he said, “Alright, come on. Take aim. What do you see?" The first student said, "I see the leaves, I see the tree, I see the sky." The teacher said, "Shoot." The arrow went elsewhere. Then the second student came up, and the same thing happened. Then Duryodhana, the same thing, he saw the leaf, and he saw the tree, and all these things. Arjuna came. The teacher asked him, "What do you see?" "I see the bird." Then the teacher waited and asked, "Now what do you see?" Arjuna said, "I see only the eye of the bird." The teacher said, "Shoot." He hit the eye. That was because of the concentration. That's what the Kauravas didn't have.
    So, Dhritarashtra was so much attached to his children, and somehow or other he wanted to make his children great in spite of not being great. Right from the beginning, there was no discipline. Even when they tried to poison the Pandavas, he knew he could have stopped them but he didn't say a word. Keeping silent means an approval. That's what he did. When they wanted to burn them, he didn't do anything. All these piled up, you see? He could have stopped all these things from the beginning, he could have nipped it in the bud. He could have avoided the MAHABHARATA. But Krishna wanted to have the BHAGAVAD GITA. If not where would the BHAGAVAD GITA be today? We would be deprived of the benefits we are having now. He wanted to deliver that Universal-Eternal message for humanity. That's the reason why he allowed him to do that. He's got the same relation to both the Pandavas and the Kauravas. And as an advisor, the Pandavas have Krishna; every time they were in trouble Krishna would come and advise them.
    The Kauravas had an Uncle called Sakuni. A very crooked man. Just like in the RAMAYANA, we have that Manthara, who becomes the cause for Rama to go the Jungle. Like that Manthara, it is Sakuni here, a maternal uncle. He knew that he was interested in these people, because he was worshipped by them. He was given a big palace, all the comforts, so naturally his mind was full of crookedness. It is he who instigated them to do all kinds of adverse things.
    On one side, Krishna is the adviser; and they adhered to whatever Krishna said; they never went beyond what Krishna said. That is the reason why they spent the twelve years successfully forests and one year incognito. Then they came back. And when they asked for the kingdom, they were refused. Honestly, they should have been the kingdom back, that was the agreement. They said, “Show me the document where it says that. It is not in the memory anymore.”
    Sakuni said don't give it back to them. And it is this Sakuni who created the gambling, also. They were already bad, and Sakuni made it darker. So that is the whole thing in this world. So they asked, "At least let us have five towns." They said, “No!” "Why not at least five villages, small villages?" The Kauravas said "No, not even a pinpoint of earth belongs to you. You have to serve us." They are all kings, why should they serve? The Kauravas said, "If you want your kingdom, then fight and take it." Kings need not beg. Because they are brothers, they ask, that’s all. If not, they have got a right to raid the kingdom and conquer.
    So they requested Krishna. Krishna came and as an ambassador and tried to pacify both the parties, “Come on, do this, this, this, this.” They said, “No, let them fight, they have no army, nothing; we have an army.” That’s why He said jokingly, “Oh, let them fight and take if they want”. Krishna said, “Alright, that’s the final.” Krishna asked the Pandavas, “Alright, what are you going to do?” They said, "Oh Lord, when You are on our side, we will do whatever You want us to do; it doesn't matter." Krishna said, “Alright, we'll fight.”
     So, the Pandavas, whatever little army they had, with Krishna on their side, were confident. Like the other day I told you, Krishna's army went to the Kauravas’ side, and Krishna came to this side, and Krishna said. “I'm not going to fight, I will only drive the chariot for you, that's all.” Hanuman stayed on the flag. When Hanuman is there, who can win over Hanuman?So, he’s there.
    Now everything is prepared. They came together and Duryodhana introduced his people, and Arjuna saw all his commanders. And when he stood in front of Drona, Kripacharya, Aswathama, and Bishmacharya, and he saw all those people, Karna, and all his cousins, he thought, “These are all my family.” Then all of a sudden he is overcome by this attachment, “How can I kill my own brothers?”
 
So, his reasoning was clouded and he could not think. So the war started within himself, you see? Attachment is such.
     I had an experience; I don't want to tell you about, but it burns. When you're attached to somebody, or something if you lose it, or it is disconnected, oh that will burn you. Supposing you love somebody and she divorces, or she quits. You cannot eat, you cannot drink, you do not know where you are. The mind is not there, the eyes are not there, nothing. You're a goner. That's what the situation is. He thinks, within a fraction of a second all these thoughts come, “How can I kill”, and all these things, and slowly he started shivering. He could not stand any more. The man who held his bow, started falling. He could not stand anymore, and sat down with utmost rejection. Krishna saw.
    You must remember that for all these ages Krishna was with them. He didn't talk about the philosophy and the nature of the Atma, about the soul and other things. He was dealing with the day to day life. But you cannot talk about God and all these other things, when you are not ready to listen, when,  there is no receptivity. You cannot plant seeds unless the ground is fertile and ready. You have to prepare the ground before you plant the seeds. Then you'll get the crop. Krishna waited; He is not in a hurry anyway. He waited. Also, He chose Arjuna, and not anybody else. Why? The others were already completely surrendered, they were a part and parcel of Krishna. If Krishna said, “Fall!”, they would fall off the cliff. But this man would say, “Why? Why not tomorrow? Today is Sunday, why don't I do it tomorrow after a cup of coffee?”.
    So that's the reason why He waited for him to prepare. So, He waited for this. Now was the right psychological moment; the masters always wait for an occasion like this. Then, He started telling him in reply to Arjuna’s cry, "Oh Lord, how can I kill all these people? It's only for these people's sake that I want the kingdom. They are prepared to die instead of enjoying the kingdom. If these people all kill each other, there will be no kingdom left at all. For our sake do we want this big kingdom? No. Let them be happy. Even if they kill me, I don't care. But, I'm not going to kill them; how can I kill them?" Bishmacharya, Dronacharya, oh, what great respect he had for the people who were standing against them today; what a shame it is. Then he said, "It doesn't matter Krishna, it doesn't matter, I'm not going to fight. See, I am sweating; my mouth is drying. And my “Gandiva” is falling off me. I see the omens all around me. It doesn't seem to be good, oh Lord. I don’t know, I am confused. What happens if I kill them, then their wives will become widows, and once they are widows they may go to anybody. And what happens is a mixture of races, then what will be the future? The future will be bleak. Nobody knows their father; nobody knows their mother; nobody knows anything, see. So if I do this, I'll be the cause for this calamity. As a Kshatriya, as a warrior, it is my duty to avoid these things; and I am committing that sin a heinous sin. What happens if all these people die? What about those people who have already died? They will expect us to give oblations. (Here, every year on the anniversary of their passing , we go and put roses on their burial. And whether they smell them or not doesn't matter; we put it there anyway. In Hinduism on that day, we call the priest, and we prepare a feast and we offer all those things as if we invoke their spirit. We give them the food and all those things. If the priest, then it means they have eaten. There are many other things that I'll explain someday. So what happens is, if they die, there'll be nobody to offer these oblations to the people who are in the waiting room there.) “They'll be devoid of this annual offering of oblation, that's a great sin. Their curse will be upon us, and that curse is terrible.”
    “Oh Lord, I do not know, I have lost my reasoning. My mind is clouded, I do not know. Oh Lord, I cannot think properly; I do not know what to do or what not to do; so please, oh Lord, enlighten me, take me to be Your disciple." And that was the beginning. Until then Krishna never spoke. “Oh Lord, I bow down to Thee, please accept me as Your disciple, and remove this ignorance, confusion, and enlighten me.” This is the beginning. Until then, unlike the present day gurus who say, "Come on, come on, I'll teach you!" Who cares? That's the reason why I have got only five people here. Krishna waited for that.
    Unless you ask, you cannot be given. That's the condition. It shall not be given. That's the reason why if you knock, it shall be opened; if you don't knock, it won't be opened. Ask and it shall be given. You must ask. Here, even if you ask, if you do not have the receptivity, if you are not prepared, then it will be like pouring honey on the rock; nothing happens. Now, he is prepared to accept. In the other days when Krishna said something to Arjuna, he would say, "Oh! Come on Krishna, it's alright." He used to argue. Here there is no argument now; it was one sided. "You tell me what to do and I will do it. Now You are the master, I am your disciple; I don’t know anything. Take me as your disciple and enlighten me."
    Then Krishna takes over. He says, "Arjuna, from where did you get this impotence at this time? This is the time when you should be jubilant, and prepare yourself to fight; and on the contrary, you are behaving as if you are a eunuch, impotent. From where did you get this? These are your enemies. They're not your friends. If that was the case, you wouldn't have been here in the first place, you would have been at a party. Not here. So what are you thinking? You are a Kshatriya; you talk about all these things. What is you dharma? You always act as if you know everything, and now you say, 'I am your student, please enlighten me.' Before, you were enlightening me! All these things will happen, whether you participate or not. Now you want to know. If you want to know, I want you to stand up and fight, because they are already dead by their own sins."
    So, He goes on to prepare Arjuna, and we'll talk about it in the next class. It's interesting, because Arjuna means us; we are all Arjunas. On one occasion or the other, we are confused; we are always confused. The whole world is full of confusion for us. So, it enlightens us. The situation is the same. If you put yourself in the shoes of Arjuna, you'll see. That's the beauty of the BHAGAVAD GITA: one size fits all for all the ages, and all the occasions for everyone.

    Thank you very much. If there are any questions, you may ask, and if I know, I will tell you.
    Jake :"Swami, what does Arjuna mean? As our names have biblical meanings.”
    Swamiji: “I have not come across Arjuna.     Bhima means a doer of great things; Bhima means big. I'll find out. Arjuna means you; you need to put your name there. You are right; names have their definition. Names come after certain things, so I'll try to find out. If I know I definitely will tell. Thank you.

Ned: In historic time when was that?

Swamiji: They say it is about 5,000 years old, this story. Over 5 millenniums. Because there is an almanac that says on which day when Bishma died and all those things are there. It has passed down from those days. Because there are historical facts also. They have examined those remnants and have concluded it is about 5,000 years old, the story. And, it is a historical fact; it is woven like that, see?
    Thank you.




BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 5

    We have seen wherever the gravity changes, there is always a chaos, whether we take it in the material world, in the mundane sense, or in our own physical aspect of life. When it changes, even by very few degrees, there'll be a tremendous impact. That's what it is. So as long as our mind keeps on functioning as it should, the senses work alright and that which guides the mind keeps on guiding it properly, then everything is fine. When something happens somewhere otherwise than how it should happen, then the whole thing changes its phenomenon. That is what happens. So long as mind thinks correctly, you have a right reason. And so long as you have a right reason, you have a right activity, and when that right activity is done, then it produces the right result, the right experience, and the right knowledge. And right knowledge leads you to the right place where you should go. You see? Then, if it changes there, what happens is the other way around.
    That's what happens here. So long as they were subservient to Krishna's guidance, everything was fine; so long as whatever Krishna said they did. Arjuna did, Bhima did Yudhishtira, Nacula, and  Sahadeva, everybody did; everything went well. That’s why they passed their test after twelve years in the jungle and one year incognito successfully. Everything they finished with ease, and they came out with experience, a lot of rich knowledge.
    Chapter two begins here. Now the Pandavas asked for the kingdom. They don't give and all those things. It's all right. So Krishna said, "All right. They want war, so wage a war and take your kingdom. It is your right." They accepted. That is the reason why they are engaged in the war in Kurukshetra. All this time, the Kauravas knew who was on either side. They all knew, not that they didn't know, because one word from Krishna covered all these things. "You have to fight." "All right, fight." They accepted at that time.
    And also one other thing you should remember: crooked people always have a crooked thought right from the beginning. I talked about Dhritarashtra. He knew all this and could have avoided, but didn't. And not only didn't he end it there when they started to fight, but even after they assembled there to fight, he wanted to know how his sons were doing. He was jubilant that his sons were going to kill them, and they would be the kings tomorrow. So he wanted to enjoy that. So he prays, "Oh I am blind and how can I see? I want to see this." "All right," God decides, "This blind man is ever blind. He's completely blind anyway. Let me open his inner eye at least, operate somewhere there. All right, so you want to know?"
    So, his personal assistant Sanjaya was given a "TV" vision so he could provide a running commentary on whatever was happening on the field of Kurukshreta between Kauravas and Pandavas. That's the reason why we have it here today. We know what happened there. Had not Sanjaya been there, we never would have this opportunity to think of that, know that. See, the Great Vyasa created that Sanjaya and "TV" vision.
    
    So, Dhritarashtra wanted to know what happened. So, here Arjuna was all right until he came to the center of the theater and saw all those people, and slowly the center of gravity started changing because it was devoid of Krishna's grace. Krishna wanted that to happen. He removed Himself. Once He removed Himself from there, Arjuna said, "I want to see." Krishna said, "All right. You want to see whom you are fighting with? Come on, see. This is Bishma, Drona, Aswathama, Kripacharya and your cousins and all these people. I am not engaging in anything. See whatever you want to see." Arjuna in the beginning thought he wanted to fight with the strongest of the enemy. Since Krishna took away His pressure, His umbrella, then these emotions started scratching him. These emotions, center of gravity, all these things changed. The mind became perturbed, started losing its reasoning. Once mind started losing its grip, it started wandering; it began suggesting unreasonable things as to the relationship of these enemies. He forgot they were enemies prepared to kill him. On the contrary, he became a sadhu, a mendicant. Instead of being a Kshatriya, the warrior, he became a mendicant which is against the principles of that religion. So, he started talking all of a sudden in a different pitch, in a different tone, "Krishna! What a great sin I am doing!" Now he thinks of sin, and he starts telling all those things as if Krishna doesn't know. There he forgot who Krishna was, and who he was and who led him to war against these enemies; he forgot all that.
     Previously when they were in the jungle, they knew. Every time they used to call Krishna, and they accepted whatever He said. Here the mind started not accepting Krishna's words. So all these reasons started coming up from the bottom of his heart, "Krishna, what am I doing? What am I going to do with these people? These are the teachers who taught me. I am overcome by all these emotions. How can I fight?" So once you lose that strength, then all the senses that depend on the mental strength status also give way. Once he mentally decided, "Oh, I cannot fight," then the hand said, "I cannot hold your bow." And the leg said, "I cannot hold your weight standing any more my friend; please sit down," and eyes said, "I cannot see any more." He started crying.
    You see? One single mental moment, one unreasonable reason, and all these things happen. That's what happened. Then he started crying, "Oh Lord, I cannot fight. My bow is falling off me and my lips are parching. I cannot even see clearly what I am doing. And if at all I see, I see bad omens all around me. Nothing good is going to come of killing all these people. Now I think, oh Lord, I don't mind instead of me killing them, I don't mind even if they kill me. I am prepared to die myself but let them be happy; I cannot kill them."
    So Krishna looked at him. He knew that the right time is coming, "Let me wait for two more seconds." Then he waited and said to Arjuna, "My friend, you are a great hero all this time." To Himself He thinks, "All this time you are a hero, not by yourself anyway. It is me who made you a hero. Now I want you to know, now this is the chance."
    Krishna says, "You thought you were a hero; you won lots of wars and all those things. Now from where did you get this stupid idea that you are not going to kill and all these things? At an opportune time, you are hesitant to do your duty. Though you are clouded with all these stupid ideas, you are talking as if you are a very wise man. While thinking unwisely, you are talking to Me as if you are a wise guy. And you are born as a Kshatriya, a warrior; it is your duty to fight and safe guard all the world. See? You have to take care of the good people. You have to punish; you have a right to punish the wrong doers and bad people. And now you are telling Me that you are prepared to be dead at the hands of your enemies for one thing, and you are talking to Me as if you are ready to beg and live your life further without the kingdom rather than to fight and have the kingdom? The kingdom is not for you, it is for the people. It is for those righteous people so that they will do their work, offer oblations, conduct their daily routines according to the Dharma, according to the code of conduct, which ever they follow. That is the reason why you are born as a Kshatriya. If not, you could have become a mendicant like Swamiji. You could have gone with your begging bowl. No! God gave you the best of the arrows and the best of the bows. Now what are you telling Me?”
    “Do you know by doing this, what will happen? Let Me tell you then. The doors of the heavens will be closed on you. Even here, people will vilify you; people will laugh at you. All those people on whom you won the wars will spit at you; they will have the least regard for you. For a king an insult isa death; even a common man will insult you, and you will have to survive all the life with their insults. That is much worse than death for a Kshatriya like you. So the best thing is to think of yourself. Who are you? Are you the man, the person, the flesh and blood or what?"
    Then he goes on to make him understand that he lives in the body, but is not the body, as I often tell you. Krishna continues, "And what are these people and what are you? What are the connections? By what are they guided and by what purpose?" All these things Krishna explains in such a beautiful way as to make him ready to be redeemed. But not until Arjuna, terribly clouded with all these things, begs Krishna, "Oh Lord, you are right! But I don't know, I cannot think any more. My mind has become rigid. My reasoning has become clouded. I do not know what is wrong, what is right, where to turn or what to do. So, Oh Lord, please accept me as Your disciple and instruct me in the right knowledge, right duty." You see, until now, he never asked anywhere, anytime for this knowledge. He told Krishna, "Oh, come on Yadava, come on my friend!" Now he accepts Him as his benevolent Teacher. He tells Krishna, "Please accept me as your disciple and instruct me into the right knowledge. Remove that cloud. Let the sun of reason shine into that darkness of my mind so that I can do the right thing. You are the only one who can do it, Oh Lord, please do it!" Then Krishna further instructs, and let me tell you what He instructs after I hear from Him. Thank you.



BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 6

    The whole problem is this: we are human beings, and being human beings we are expected to be highly evolved creatures. See? And there is an expectation that human beings should be the highest in many things, in almost all the things. That is the whole problem. In the BHAGAVAD GITA, there is nothing except this particular aspect, dharma, code of conduct.
    If we go back in the history of mankind when there was no human at all, what was the dharma then? What was the code of conduct at that time? Supreme code of conduct is what, the Nature. Nature and God, there is a thin layer between them. And, as such, we can very well visualize the code of conduct executed by the Nature; nobody can face that, nobody can erase that, nobody can dictate that. Everyone has to succumb to that, everyone has to exist within the framework of that natural dharma, code of conduct. See? Only when you try to go against it, then you will have problems. Pollution, all these things, we are suffering today; why? Because we are going against the nature. We think we are very wise, we are intelligent; our intellect is supreme. We have a notion we can do and undo things, so we have taken upon ourselves the responsibilities. God, thinking that we are wise enough, gives us freedom because we craved for it. Now we want to surrender that; we have understood now in surrendering that freedom, our redemption is guaranteed, not otherwise. That is the reason why almost all these bhaktas say, “Surrender, surrender, surrender.” “Oh man, you have experienced all those things, you are unfit to exercise freedom, you do not know what freedom is.” See? You do not know.
    Freedom is what? It is the nature of the Divine; freedom — only the Nature knows, only the God, only the Supreme Divinity knows, and unless you identify yourself and merge in that Supreme Entity, you will never be able to know what freedom is and act freely. Your actions will not be free; it will be prompted either by your mind or some other's mind or something, something, something, something, but it will not be yours. You are subservient to these things. Instead of that, turn away from this, and turn towards the Divine and become subservient to the “will” of the Divinity; then your “will” and God's “will” will become one and the same. Say, “Let your will be done, Oh Lord,” instead of, “Let my will be done.” “Let your will be done, Oh Lord.” There is redemption; that is what it is, otherwise bondage
    Now, when it comes to code of conduct, for each one, it is multifarious — multi numerous dharmas are there. If you enumerate, you will take several births to enumerate it. See? So what do you want to follow, what do you follow? You can only follow a certain handful of things; with the rest, you will go crazy. Just because I am a human being, there is so much pressure on me. How to sit, how to walk, how to get up, how to grow, what to do, what not to do, what to think, what not to think, what to expect, what not to expect,  all these things. But you go lower, go to the trees and ask them; they also grow like you, they also die like us. They too suffer when there is fire; when there is cold, they also freeze. Ask them what dharma they have surrendered to. Whatever the nature dictates, that is there and go back. Go to the animals; they kill. We say, “Oh no, see, it is killing.” Ask them, “Hey, you are killing, it is not dharma.” They say, “Get out, I don't have any dharma; I don't know what the conception is.” Instinct, that is dharma; instinct is the dharma. Here, to do or not to do, to kill or not to kill, because we have developed that attachment, several kinds of attachment to several things for several reasons. There is in all the other animals, quadrupeds, and other beings, not that they are not social animals, they have their own society, they have very few code of conducts. Look at the chimpanzees, monkeys, look at those ants, they have a queen, they die working for them. Ask them about the dharma; they don't know. That is all that they know and they are true to that; serve the queen, that is all. The bees, they die for the queen, that is all. The queen herself, ask her, “All these people work for you, what is your dharma?” “I don't know, I am a queen, that is all. I beget these people, these people serve me; I die, they die, we all die. That is all.”
    So there is no problem there; the trees and plants, there is no problem. Go to the river, ask, “Why are you going like this? Why don't you go like that?” “I don't know, I am going this way; if I am meant to go this way, I will go that way, that is all. To flow is my job, I keep on doing, that is all.” And what about the sun, the moon, all the stars? They have their own ways. They don't have the BHAGAVAD GITA, they don't have MAHABHARATA, they don't have BIBLE, they don't have anything; they are what they are. They give warmth, they give light, they give this, they give gases; whatever they have to do, they do. Stars, they do their work, sun, moon, and all of them have their own fixed code of conducts, they do their job, the nature makes them do that; it is the nature, the Supreme. Nature doesn't mean only here, only the wind here, only that heat here — all over limitlessness.
    You cannot comprehend the universe. We call the universe in scientific terms, that which we can see and slowly we are going beyond what we could not see now we see; so, we have put a line there, “Oh this is the universe.” That is not the end; it has no end. Absolutely, it is endless. That is why in Ramakrishna Mission, if you go, the insignia is the serpent eating its own tail: beginning is the end, end is the beginning. That is what it is. There is no end because there is no beginning. Wherever you start, it is the beginning; wherever you end, it is the end. That is all. Here, what is the dharma then? See. So it varies.
    Now, forget about all that; the whole problem is now. Up until now, they were happy because they all did what Krishna told them or they did whatever the nature prompted them to do. You see? Now, the real challenge has come because it is only the human so far as we know, it is only the human who has so many challenges in living, dying, being born and again continuing. The challenges are so many; that is what the beauty of the human life is. Nobody else has so many challenges as we have, as human. Trees and plants, they are neither Hindus nor Christians, not Muslims. Go to the river, neither are they Indians, nor Christians, nor Hindus, nor Jains, nor Buddhists, nothing. But if I ask you, you say, I am a Christian, I am a Hindu, I am this, I am that. So what do you follow? I follow this religion. What is religion? It is a code of conduct.
    Now, we are within the periphery of this nature, God given code of conduct, dharma. When my stomach aches, I have to go to bathroom; that is my dharma. I don't open the Bible and say whether I should go, I don't, I have to go. Breathing, Hindus breathe, Muslims breathe, Christians breathe, Buddhists breathe; if you don't breathe you die. And see, if you don't take care of the eyes, you cannot see. Like this, you have to take care of your physical and you have to take care of your mental and the vital; all these things are there within that nature. Within the framework of the nature, you have to harmonize. If you do not, what will happen, you know; we pay heavily for the doctors who do not even know what the natural law is. They complicate further and further and further until my sad demise. That's the whole thing, the nature. That is the prime code of conduct; anyone who cannot live within the framework of the natural law, they cannot survive in this world. That is the first basis. It is hard in this worldly pollution; we have polluted the whole world. How can you live? We have gone against the nature’s dharma; that is the dharma, that is our prime dharma, and we have disobeyed that and now paying for it! Aren’t we?
    All right, then we can say, “Now we have become a society.” I have lost my freedom long time ago, you see? God gave me freedom and I wandered everywhere. I was enjoying, but now I am caught in the nature, from nature to this society. As we develop, what happens? One became two and two became four and it again became eight, eight became sixteen; thus, things started multiplying. Now people said, “No, no, we have to have our own code of conduct. Do you want to fight? No; there should be no fight. If you fight for a particular cause, some particular is the result.” So, what is that?: “penalty”. If you go against the dharma, there is a penalty and again if you pay the penalty then you become free of the results. You can break the dharma? No. You should not break dharma in the first place. The penalty is only a penalty but still you have broken the dharma for which you will have to suffer. Nature has no penalty; She uses Her heavy hammer, but here if you pay a fine, you are all right, you are free of the quilt. So, the dharma, in order to live within the society, we have to follow that particular society's code of conduct. Indians, go to Indians; they have their own, you see? The Chieftain, what he says is the code of conduct. He dies and the next one comes, and he frames the law. And they follow his or her code of conduct. If you want to stay there, you have to follow; if not, they will kick you out. So you have to find another society where it is harmonious for you to follow the dharma.
    Now, we create another dharma, just like in the huge magician’s boxes — box in the box in the box and so on — dharma in that dharma. And then, from society comes the house, me, my father and parents, all these people. You must behave in a particular way. You have to talk to your sister in a particular way, to mother in a particular way, you have to touch the feet of mother and pray, and that you don't do to sister, she is younger. What you do to your mother, you cannot do to your wife, you can not use your sister or mother, all these things. These are all the rules and regulations, how many? Just this morning, I heard when I turned on the TV that there seems to be 42,000 laws about the gun, but still guns are used for killing — impotent laws. If there are too many laws, you don't know what to follow, what not to follow. You keep on doing, but if it is followed, it is followed; if it is not followed, it falls by the way. Mother should not kill the children; they are killing! Children should not kill the parents; they are killing. So where comes the question of dharma? God given dharma is what I said in the beginning, but the rest of the things, it is you and me who created that. Who created all this dharma? — the people, the society
    Now, then comes these religions. Even in one town, there might be 20 religions. Each one finds a way and comes. If he is strong; he says this is the truth, this is this, this is the way. All right, they follow and they become the followers of that dharma with or without a name. Then, immediately that becomes their dharma. They forget about the nature, they forget about that, they forget about the country, everything, and become involved in that dharma and also dharma about the country. All these things become, if you think, you go crazy. Is it worth living? You cannot live; that is the whole problem in the jungle of meaningless laws and rules.
    Now, since it is BHAGAVAD GITA, Krishna symbolizes one thing, and Arjuna symbolizes others and the confusion is the common field. See? Now, Arjuna had to follow so many laws, regulations. Of course, though we don't have the caste system here is America, nevertheless we follow the caste system; in our own way, we do not have a caste custom. There, they have a caste system and they follow that. One who fights is a kshatriya, one who preaches and teaches and takes care of all the soul and all that, that is the brahmin, and one who does the commerce in order to bring the economy to the people, that is the vaishya, and those who serve all the three above, they are shudras. Do we not have all these classified people here? Class 1, Class 2, Class 3. We do have, but we don't call them brahmins, we don't call them kshatriyas, we don't call them vaishyas, we don't call them this, shudras, that's all. They are all there, everywhere, only they are identified; we don't want to identify here, that's all.
    Now, here Arjuna is born as a kshatriya, neither as a brahmin, nor as a shudra, nor as a commerce man, man of business, but he is born to whom, to uphold the dharma. The duty of the kings born as kings or kshatriya is to uphold the highest dharma, dharma that is given by God, and see that everybody lives under that dharma, the umbrella of dharma, so that everybody would prosper. If you have a complaint you have to go to king; king is open, you need not go through red tape, there is no red tape. You can go to king's palace and say, "Lord, this is what is happening." At once, he will deal with it; it is his duty to take care of all this. Brahmins should do their work, and shudras should do their work, everybody when they do all their work, they stay in their station and work, there will be harmony in the country. There will be prosperity, there will be joy, there will be harmony amongst all people. Only when things start spinning the other way, then the whole thing becomes confused; that is what happened here.
    Dhritarashtra, he is also born as a kshatriya, but is he upholding dharma? No. His sons, they are also kshatriyas, they are also born to rule, but are they ruling accordingly? Are they interested in the people, are they interested in dharma? No? They are self centered, crooked. And those people, Bhishma, Drona, those are all the brahmins. Are they doing their job now? They should have rejected them; they should have said, “We are neither entertaining you nor them. We will keep away.” They did not do it because they are following one dharma. Because they were fed by this fellow, because of being taken care of by Duryodhana, they have to serve until the end. That is the penalty for having broken that dharma. You see? So that is why they are there. If not they would have not fought for them; they are there. All these people, none of them have virtue; even if they have virtue, even if they are honest, they have sold their honesty, they have sold themselves to that bad set of people, Duryodhana.
    Now on this side, everybody followed Krishna. Best dharma when you do not know dharma, it is better to surrender to one who knows dharma, one whom you know he knows dharma. “I don't know, but at least you know something. All right, I will do whatever you say.” That's what I tell my father, because I know, I have got confidence that he knows what is right, what is wrong, whatever it is. So I trust, the trust, that is the reason why the whole of Pandavas, they trusted Krishna. Krishna is the Lord. He need not follow any dharma, because there is no dharma for Him; He is beyond dharma. Dharma is for those who are within the framework of this nature. See, then we have to follow the dharma of the nature. He, the One who creates the nature, who is the Master of the nature, who is the Master of all the masters, see, though He is Krishna here running around like us, He knows what He is. See? He has revealed Himself, so these people, except Arjuna, everybody completely surrendered. Krishna said, “This is only the way to fight and get your kingdom back; it is your right.” So, they accepted. They said, “All right, in this process even if I die I will go to heaven; it doesn't matter.” They are ready. But this man — see, there are some human beings confused, egoistic — is he smart? Not that he is a fool, he is smart. Sometimes, even if you are intelligent, even if you are reasonable, you will get into trouble. Either you must be a complete fool, or you must be completely wise. If you are somewhere in between, then you are always in trouble. See? You are not prepared to accept that you are a fool, nor are you fully wise, so you are in trouble. See?
    All his brothers are ready to fight and now he saw all these people. All those glorious days when he played with Archarayas, when Bhishmacharya carried him when he was a baby. He played with Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Ashwathamacharya; they were all friends. What is life? Me, my wife, my children, my uncle, how many people take a group photo, then they say after ten years, “See, this is my aunt, now she is dead, she is my aunt, she is this, this is this. Oh I remember that Christmas when she gave me this, oh I wanted it and all that, all these things.” What is that? —  attachment. He is carrying that group photo in his heart and everyone in the group photo is telling him what they did, and he remembers all those things. More he sees them, more he remembers, more he remembers, more depth to which he is led into.
    So he is completely drowned in emotion, he is shivering. Why? Because of dharma, because he wants to follow dharma. Those people are ready to fight because they don't want to follow dharma at all; they are ready, “Oh yes come on, who cares.” But here, he is bound by dharma. And now, he wants to abide by dharma, but which dharma? That is the whole problem here. “Dharma according to the nature, or since I am a Hindu belonging to a caste system, whether I should follow them. Even in that, I am a kshatriya. All right, that is the reason I want to rule. But even in that, what am I? I am a man. I must be exemplary. If I kill my own brothers, tomorrow if I become a king, what will my subjects do? They also kill their brothers and say, “What did you do? You killed your brother to get your kingdom, so I killed my brother to get my farmland.”
    So, what morals are you going to teach to your people; being a king is not an easy thing. King doesn't mean having 25 wives, and always spending time in the amorous sports. No, that's not it, he will have no time even to kiss his wife, once in a way; that is the king, always he is a father for the whole nation. Everybody respects the king as father, they address him as father; he is the father. He has got a right on every property. He can do and undo things so long as he is honest, so long as he abides by dharma. See, that is what it is; now whether we, we are all under the same things, whether I should follow my traditional dharma. If I am a Christian, if I have to do something, whether I should go as a Christian and do this, or as an American and do it, or as a Universal man and do it, or as a natural man and do it. In each term, if you do it as a Christian, it will be a different result. If you do it as a Nationalist, it will be different if you do it as otherwise. But what dharma are you going to follow? What are you going to do? That is what the whole problem is; which dharma he has to do.
    From within, there is a dharma also, that love, that outflowing devotion to those masters, all these things, are they not dharmas? They are also dharmas, dharma of the heart. Heart tells, see, these are the things. And this intellect says something else; no, they are bad people, they have taken away your kingdom. You have to fight back to get the kingdom, not for you, but for your elder brother, who is the king, king of the kings, and your brothers, and you have got your wife and mother, whom we have to please. You have got a right and people are all behind you, they are waiting for you to become a king. So that's that and from here it comes which dharma to follow. And again Krishna says, "Come on", and he says, "Wait", these are the things, which to follow; that is the dilemma. We'll continue later. Thank you.



BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 7

    If one is confused, one goes a long way into all kinds of philosophies; it's a different mechanism. One knows unconsciously that the confusion is due to ignorance, and one unconsciously, once again, accepts one's ignorance, though not openly. So, the result of which is confusion, and confusion leads to that difference. So one projects all kinds of philosophies, known and unknown, and imagined philosophies, in order to provide a support for his or her convictions. If one wants to kill, one can find all the reasons to kill; if one doesn't want to kill, one can find all kinds of philosophies not to kill. That is the whole thing; that's what it is. Up till now, Arjuna as a common man was very jubilant because it is the inborn nature for a kshatriya to kill enemies.
    Fighting is the very inner core of that spirit for a kshatriya as it is for a brahmin with knowledge. And the commerce man, whoever it is, you need not ask, he will count pennies, “How much it will bring, and what favor it will do before he wants to give something? If I give him today these 3 dollars, what can he or she do for me? Oh, he has influence there, so I can ask him to do a particular favor, then I can have 30 dollars back.” All right, it's the inborn nature. Even if he has a nature to give, behind that giving, he has an expectation. When a king gives, he gives, that's all. When a brahmin gives, he gives. So like that, it is inborn nature. So also the fourth class, that is the shudras; whoever it is, he may be a lakhier or he may be a millionaire, we call lakhier in India. But still, it is his innate nature to serve. “Ah please, come.” You can immediately understand by his, one's behavior, to what class one belongs to no matter what, rich or poor or pauper, whatever it is. Even if he is a pauper, if he is a brahmin, we can immediately know, we feel like saluting him. So also a kshatriya, he might be a poor man without a kingdom but still he is a warrior; all these things we can see.
    So thus, up till now Arjuna has won many wars; fighting is not strange to him. He has fought; his innate nature is to fight. He was jubilant when Krishna said, “Well, my friends, you may have to fight in order to get your kingdom back. That's what it is. They refused. Duryodhana and party refused to give you even 5 villages. They say not even 5 pinpoints of space for you. So now, you have to fight.” Everybody said yes, Arjuna said yes; then they went and Krishna accepted to be his charioteer, and sent all His big army to fight on behalf of Duryodhana.
    And also I discussed what is the nature of these Masters. Once they take somebody in their hold, they want to see that the purpose for which one accepts the disciple is completed. That is the reason why it is very hard to become a Guru; once you become a Guru, you have to forget about your own redemption. Your redemption depends upon others' redemption of whom you have taken the responsibility. That's the reason why Guru always worries about the disciples. Guru wants them to be perfect, grow, practice, become, because he has taken the responsibility. That is the reason why true Guru doesn't accept thousands and millions. There might be millions following him, but as disciples, he will have only a handful because he has to see to his capacity. He accepts people, he doesn't say but he accepts and prepares them so that along with him, they also follow him to the end. Until they are ready, he can not go; he goes and waits at the door, “Children, come on, come on, it is time, all aboard, come on, come on”. Last one comes, all right, his purpose is done.
    That is the reason why it is not easy to be a Guru; it is good to be a guru to collect some dollars, it's fine. But to be honestly a Guru like Swami Sivananda is what makes us feel guilty whenever we are not ready; we do not do our duty. We always feel guilty, “Oh, maybe Swamiji is hoping for us to follow his path, but we have not done it. We should do it.” That's what we feel.
    So thus, Krishna has accepted these Pandavas; everybody was simple as to accept Krishna and they did exactly what Krishna wanted them to do, except Arjuna. Arjuna was one of the weaklings in one way, not physically or mentally, but psychically, he was. He could not understand who Krishna was; although a number of times Krishna had revealed Himself as to what He was and what Arjuna was, what their relationship was. But still, that ignorance, Maya, could not allow him to perceive the reality of the relationship. Maya plays havoc even between Krishna and His devotees; it is hard. So, in spite of all that, he reveals his ignorance at the auspicious moment. He says, “Oh, I am prepared to war Krishna, come on, come on, take me to the war field.” He’s all right; his chest, instead of 42, it went to 80, and all of a sudden it came to 29, 28, and still shrinking looking at all those people who were his dear kith and kin. He started crying, shivering, and lips were all drying, and he could not even hold that Gandiva, the bow; it was falling off. And he told Krishna; “Krishna,” now he philosophizes his reasons why he does not want to fight, “How can I fight these people? These are my uncles, cousins, and the reverend teachers, teachers who made me what I am today, oh Lord. And how can you expect me to kill these people? I will go and beg, borrow and whatever. It is better even to die at their arrow than to kill them. What am I going to do with all these three worlds, universe, all these three universes? Even if the whole world is mine, what am I going to do without all these people? I want my kingdom because of these people, so that we all could enjoy, but the very people for whose sake I want the kingdom are there, whom I have to kill, and for whose sake am I expecting the kingdom? I don't want.” And again, he explains as if Krishna doesn't know anything.
    That's what happens when I get mad at my daughter, Ambika. Ambika gets into a long philosophy, and it puts me to shame. Her reasons are very reasonable. You see? “Daddy, this is this, this is this.” And I say, “All right”, but still, I am a father so I do not want to give in, but far deep within I am shaken. I am lost, but still I want to keep mum and she wins.
    Now, he projects all kinds of reasons; he says, “Now, I am not going to fight. I am not going to; I am confused, my reason is clouded, I can not think straight, oh Lord.” So he realized he is not thinking right. On one side, he knows that he has to fight; on the other side, he reasons not to fight. It's a conflict within himself and he is watching. That is what I always say, as though as the consciousness which is pervading within the body, we are only “a witness”; we don't involve in anything. Really speaking, Arjuna is neither thinking of fighting nor thinking of not fighting, but he is watching the mind. It is the mind which is projecting all these things; it is a confusing situation.
    So, he raises both the hands and says, “Krishna.” Up till now he was calling Krishna, “Yadhava”, “Oh, my friend”, and all these things. Now, he realizes, He is far superior to that, and he himself is far lower than what he thought he was. “I am equal to You, Krishna, I am Your friend,” turns into a surrender. He surrenders, and he says, “Oh Lord, I am confused, my mind is clouded, my reasoning is clouded. I do not know what is right and what is wrong; I do not know.” “I think I am doing a great sin,” he thought; now he thinks of sin. One who can remove all the sins by very touch, Krishna Himself is there, and he is thinking still of sin. Then he says, “Oh Lord, now only You can eliminate my confusion, clarify everything. Please accept me as Your disciple and show me the way which will lead me to right things. Make me think right, make me do the right thing, please; please, accept me as Your disciple.”
    Disciple means not simply a relationship; it's a very thick relationship. That is, you can not be a disciple unless you are prepared to surrender yourself, fall off the cliff even if it is demanded, There is an incident in one of Paramashansa Yogananda's books, he says, “Fall off this cliff.” And he falls. So like that, the discipleship is like that. That is the reason why Krishna was also not advising him in any other way. Now, since he had surrendered himself as a disciple, now He accepts to be a Guru.
    All right, then, He never hurt the feelings of Arjuna so far. Now, because He has been accepted as a Guru, He says, “This needs a major operation because time is of the essence here. They are all set, they are already blowing conches and drums and all that. They are all jubilant; within half an hour they have to start shooting the bow and now here is the man on whom the whole army of Pandavas are waiting to start fighting.”
    Krishna says, “What a shame, what a shame it is you who are thinking like this; up till now what were you doing? Were you sleeping or what? You tell me all those cock n' bull stories. You are crying for those people for whom you need not care. You need not even worry, and such people you are crying. Why are you crying for those people? And you talk to Me as if you were a very learned man. When you reason, you project your all wisdom, you beat Me, but it is all hollow. Just like Easter rabbit chocolate, it is big and when you pound it; it is all just a little pulp. It is like that, your wisdom that you are telling Me it is like that. What are these people, after all? And these are the people who put you, your family and all those people who follow you into the ditch. They never have any sympathy for you; they don't love you. They have treated you like enemies, they are your enemies. And now, you have accepted them as enemies, and you prepared to fight, and now you say you don't want to. What a shame it is!”

    “And you tell Me that you are prepared to go and beg and live by alms rather than fight. What a shame! What are you? Are you not a kshatriya? You tell Me if you kill these people, all the dharma will be forsaken, and the races will get mixed and polluted, and all that. And if a kshatriya, instead of fighting goes and begs like a pauper begs, is it not a shame, is it not a violation of dharma, is it not against the principle of dharma, the code of conduct? And after all, there are two reasons why you should not worry about these people: one thing is they are enemies, they are there; they are prepared to kill you, even if you don't kill them. They have come to that conclusion that you are their enemies, and they are prepared to kill you, one thing. Even if you do not, they will kill you, Bhima, everybody if they want to”
    “ Second thing is, if you want to tell Me philosophy, I will tell you philosophy; I can tell you I am the master of philosophy anyway. I have a Ph.D. in philosophy. I will tell you. Whom are you killing? Bhishma, Duryodhana, Ashwathama, whom are you killing? There is no Ashwathama really speaking. There is no Bhishma, there is nobody; all you see is the body. It is the body that you are talking about; you are not talking about them. Who is there in Bhishma, who is there in Ashwathama, who is there in Duryodhana? Don't you know? Even by killing them, you are not killing them. You can not; nobody can kill. Only the body, even if you don't kill, they will die tomorrow anyway. You see? And not only that, they are just there, they have a purpose; they are born with a purpose to do what they have to do, and they are doing it. Now, you are born to do something which you do not want to do. That is the greatest thing. And you are crying for them. Even if you try not to fight, kill, you will nevertheless, you will do so as you are born with that purpose. Your own nature will force you to do it.”
    “And you should remember, if you talk about philosophy, I will tell you. In this world, the Truth reigns supreme; the Truth pervades everything. There was not a single fraction of a second when there was no Truth; and untruth never existed. Untruth never exists, and Truth never absents itself. So you should not worry about this; they are always there. That consciousness, that Supreme Consciousness, and Truth, and whatever by hundreds of names you may call it, it is the Eternity. It is always there, it reveals itself in all these things; that's all.”
    “And you should also know: you think you are born today and you are dying tomorrow; you think I am born now and I am going to die. No! You do not know, but I know. I am born several times, and I am dead several times, but you do not know. You too have done the same thing of which you have no knowledge. So also with all these people, there is nothing like death. Death and birth, it is the game within the framework of Maya. When there was nothing here, what was there? The same thing that was there before all these things is still here, but that which comes and goes, the body, the whole world, the whole existence comes and goes of which you do not know. But that which is always here doesn't go anywhere; it doesn't diminish. It is here, there and everywhere all the time.”

    “So, it is a mental conception; your reasons don't stand anywhere near the Truth. Truth is that you are neither killing them, nor are they being killed. Both of them are fools who think ‘I have killed’ and those who think ‘I am dead’. Both of them are fools because nobody kills anybody. Who is the killer and who is the killed? Both of them are the same consciousness, same truth, same thing.”
    “Have you seen those foam mattresses in hospitals? You may cut one or you may not cut one, it doesn't matter, but still they all belong to the same thing. It is like that. There are so many drops; every drop is a drop of water, a part of the same. When you take it out, it looks separate, but when you put it together, it is one. You can not find out, ‘Oh, which drop is that which I had in my cup?’ You can not find out; it is the same. Like this, you neither kill them, nor they are killed. You are not killing; so you must try to understand this part of the truth, and go ahead.”
    “And it is foolish to cry for those people for two reasons: you think your attachment as kith and kin is temporary; once you are dead, you will have no relationship. Once they are dead, they don't have relationship, or the relationship will be whatever you have in your cup; whatever they have in their cup, they all mix in one sea — finished. There will be no Arjuna there; there will be no Bhishma there; everybody dissolves in one Supreme Source. So, you need not worry about it.”
    “And also, you must remember, it is said that once you are born, you have to die. Sharira, that is the body, the physical existence, body, mind, everything, whether you are ugly, beautiful, whatever it is, it has to die. It has to; it is not eternal. No matter what, whether it is pretty or ugly, big or small or whatever it is, it has to go. But one who pervades that body, that which makes the body move, mind think, senses work, that consciousness doesn't die; it is eternal. One who pervades that body and mind and all these things, that doesn't have an end. But the body, mind, and senses, all these things, everything, whatever you see in this world, everything, animate, inanimate, everything will be vanished. From nowhere it has come, and to nowhere it will go. It doesn't have a basis as the Truth. It appears because it appears, and it disappears, but that which pervades that, that which makes them appear and disappear, that doesn't disappear; it is always there, it is eternal, it is the Truth. That is Brahman. That is the whole Truth, that supreme consciousness. That's what holds all these things together.”
    “It's a game, Maya. It is the Maya which makes us feel, ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’, and once you are dead, you are dead, finish. Even if you keep on providing 12 dollars worth of flowers every year on my tomb, still I don't smell a single rose. But it is for your satisfaction that you do that. You think that somebody else will do it for you too; also if you do it now for someone, that is the selfishness also.”
    Once it seems, there was a poor family man, and somehow out of his sufferings, he brought his son up to grow up into a graduate and trained him and all that, and he became a big officer, very rich man and also a powerful officer. So everybody died except this old man and this boy got married and he had a few children. So that people would not think otherwise, he brought his father — the father was satisfied with his own life, in his own tattered cloth, old pants and old shirt, that's all he wanted, that's all. But he didn't like his father to look like this; he requested him, he said, “I am comfortable in this, my son, I am comfortable, I am all right.” So he didn't like him to be in the main house, so he built a small room, out house, and made him stay there. And as he grew older, and his ego as he became powerful, he grew egoistic, more and more egoistic, he started ill treating his father and he didn't even allow his father to come to this house, and he made him stay there. And he used to serve him food in a broken pot. Not even a plate, a broken pot. Father thought, “It's all right, it is my life, I may survive for another few years, my heart is already operated once, who knows, I may go tomorrow or day after, who knows. Let him be happy, it's all right.” He was happy, he never complained. Once, by chance, he was at home, some friends came, “Who is he?”, asked the guests. Instead of telling them that he was his father, he said slowly to his guests, “He is my servant.” So father heard this and he felt bad and he never came to house; he stayed there.
    So there was a son, small son, youngest son. He used to watch his father take the food to him everyday in that broken earthen pot. He was watching, and one day that son hid that pot, he thought that grandpa liked that plate very much, and grandpa said, “Oh I like this, this is beautiful, it's all right. That's what happens when we grow old, we have to eat in a thing like this. Your father loves me so much, that's the reason why he gives me my food in this.” See, he didn't want to complain about his son.
    So this small child thought, “If I love my father, I must give food to my father in this.” So he took it away and hid it, and that night they couldn't find the pot, and the boy didn't tell. Then after a long time, the boy said, “I know where it is.” “Why?” “I hid it.” “Why, why did you hide it?” “I love you so much, you love your dad so much, you feed him in this pot, so I love you that's why I want to feed you also tomorrow in this when you grow old, so if I don't find a pot like this, how can I feed you? That is why I am keeping it safe.” Oh then, it opened his eyes, he said, “Oh my goodness, what am I doing?” So ever since then, he started treating his father fairly.
    So, that's what happens here. Why did I tell this story? Whatever we try to do will rebound to us. Whatever it is, the confusion is this: we always, whenever in our lives the challenges arise, whenever there are reasons to do or not to do comes, at that time we have to withdraw ourselves and watch these things come. And it is then, you will understand better, and deal with it. If not, you will go along with them, and that will lead to the ditch. And also, in this life what happens is if you are born, you have to die. If you are dead, people think that it is the end; that is the beginning for the next, you have to be born. That is the reason why we always try to see that the chain of this repetition of death and birth ceases. We do not want to be reborn so that we will die. So if you want to do, you have to get out of this chain-circle. That can be done only by yoga, by falling into the hands of the Lord. The attachment, the Maya, it is what it is. So, we have to reject all these things, the body, wealth, fame, pride and such other things in life; it takes a long time because for ages together we are attached to them all so much. We do not know where all our roots are to the one grass I want to remove! We can not fool ourselves, because once your roots are spread, you can not remove it. That is what it is. It is not in one life, but in several lives. So, how are you? That is the reason why to start now; if you start now, maybe slowly you will succeed. If you don't feed it, the roots will dry, and then it will come out easily. Then you can get rid of the unwanted grass! The source was our attachments to the worldly things.
    That is what the renunciation is. What renunciation means is nothing to give up, but practice detachment, change of attitude towards life. If we provide these things to ourselves, then it is easy to solve this problem of life and death. What is life and death? So, Krishna tells Arjuna, “It is just like an old bunion, old shirt, old thing; that is, once it is worn out, what do we do? We throw it away; we put on new clothes, that's all. Once from childhood to old age, you smoke, you do all those things; it's all right. Then when it happens, you can not see, you can not hear, you can not move. What happened? That is the end of it. So though you want to do them again, you can’t; you want to run, you can not run; you want to see, you can not see; you want to hear, you can not hear. So, in order to do all those things again, you die and get born again. That's what it is. Even at the age of 80 or 90, they marry; they marry 27 year old girl and she is looking after his money, and he is looking after her beauty. You see? The attachment to lust, wealth!
    So thus, Maya very cleverly entangles the individual beings in her prongs! She hoodwinks us in such a way that we can not even think straight unless God's will helps us, because we have a purpose; we have created our own purpose. And unknowingly, we created the purpose, and knowingly when we have to deal with it, we are surprised being unaware of our own creation of purpose. That's what is for Arjuna. As He tells him, it is not the first birth; it is not the first time. It is his own intention that he wanted to be this. That is the reason he has become Arjuna; he wants to do this. Now, actually when he faces to do it, he can not do it. That's where God supports, helps him. Finish it. You have decided to do it; do it. Finish it; then get rid of this. If you do not, that is why we tell people, if there is pain, don't postpone, suffer it now. Once you commit to something, if it happens that you should suffer, try to suffer it; it will go away. You are stronger than the suffering. If you become weaker, the suffering becomes greater.
    So, he has become a weak hearted person; now he needs Krishna's help. That's what He has been telling him: “Now, you are not killing anybody; it is the body after all. They are already dead. The moment you are born, you are dead; it's a question of time. You see the first, the birth; along with it, you have brought your death also. You just wait, in a matter of time it is coming to that. So it is all coming for them, anyway. You keep watching. Either you go first or they go first; anyway, they are all going. Since you are with Me, maybe you want to watch, you can watch them all go one by one first, if you like.”

    And also, what happens is when Krishna has decided these people are to die, they are already dead. He tells Arjuna later, “You just become a means, I have already done what is to be done. But you wanted to be a hero, and that was your great ambition, and without which you can not die; you will be miserable. I want you to be that great hero. I will make you a hero; become just a medium, just become a means. Take, all you have to do is ‘flow’, for they are already dead. They are just waiting for you, for your arrow, that's all.
    So, we should hear what Krishna says\, or what somebody in place of Krishna says. It comes from the Divine. It must be true; there is no question. You see, neither Dharmaraya, the eldest brother, nor Bhima, the great one, nobody asked any question. Whatever Krishna says, “If we have to die, we will die, come on, we will fight, fight, that's all, who knows better than the Lord Himself.” But it is only this fellow Arjuna. Nobody else questioned, “Krishna, how am I going to fight against them?” See. No faith!
    And what happens, once at a medical college, a student went and enrolled himself as a candidate. First class, first lesson, the professor came, there were about 40 students. “Oh, I'm happy that you all have selected this medical line, and I am happy you will be great doctors; you can remove all the diseases and bring health back to people. For these things, basic requisites are two things: no nausea, you should not exercise any nausea, use of blood, use of all kinds of things, you should never feel nausea. Second thing is keen observation, I emphasize keen observation. These are the two key things for your success. All right, now I will try to test you. Everybody sat very seriously, “Oh yes.” He asked one man, “Go and bring a bowl of excreta, go to bathroom and bring some feces.” He went with all the serious face and brought it, and put it on the table, and he sat. And then the professor said, “Now, you do what I do.” Everyone said, “Yes.” He put finger and put it in the mouth, and, all right, and everybody came and put their finger in the bowl and put it in the mouth very seriously. The professor also did not laugh, and everybody came, did what was to be done and went back to their seats. Last one finished the test, and that is when he broke into laughter, so students didn't know. He said, “I am very happy, you got 50%, none of you showed any nausea, I am happy, but anyway go and clean your mouth afterwards with anti septic lotion. What happens is, you don't have keen observation. I put my ring finger in the bowl and I put this middle finger in my mouth, but you put the same finger in the bowl, and then in your mouth.
    Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 8

    Ignorance is so thick. It is that ignorance, depending upon its thickness, that we are enveloped in this, determines the length of time that we take to redeem ourselves. And had there been no ignorance, I think everything would have been great.
    The Master of all the masters, when He or She wants to disseminate certain teachings, it causes it to be very hard on the person because of the enveloped ignorance. It is better to teach someone who doesn't know anything right from scratch. If one knows everything, then you can teach. You can enhance the knowledge by way of discussion, at least. It will not be a one-sided, but two sides. There will be question and answer by this; there will be a healthy understanding, so you can disseminate your knowledge. But if you are caught in between, if one thinks one know without knowing, then it is hard to teach that person; that is what is happening here. Arjuna asks too many questions, as if he knows much more than the Master, Krishna. “Oh, what will happen Lord?” “This will happen, that will happen, and all such things,” as if Krishna doesn't know.
    So, that is the reason why He has to take half an hour, 700 stanzas, in the midst of the enemies to teach Arjuna while they were watching what was happening. So, He is making him understand. In order to make him understand, since he doesn't know everything, He has to remove the ignorance and start from scratch; He has to empty the whole thing in him. That is the reason why He insults him: “Oh man, you are talking as if you know everything. You do not know anything. And being a kshatriya, you are forsaking an opportunity which is a wide open door to these heavens. And no kshatriya, no warrior, will forego such an opportunity as to wage a war. It is for the righteousness; it is for the sake of the people. And now you are telling Me, ‘Oh, I am running ,and all this.’ What do you know? You don't know anything.”
     That is the reason why in this world it takes a long, long time to understand. This BHAGAVAD GITA has been here for many millenniums, at least 5 or 6 or 7. How long? Still, it has not gone through our heart. How many have been redeemed? How many received benefit of this and got out of this ignorance? Even after several millenniums, still people are talking about it, not understanding it. How many commentaries of commentaries, commentaries over commentaries have been written, but still people are lurking in the darkness. For the last 2 millenniums, we have the Bible. How much has it been absorbed by people? But for every word, they may suffix, “Oh amen, amen.” Only that's all, “Amen”. They have absorbed only the word ‘amen’, and nothing more than that.
    So, It takes a long time to absorb such knowledge about Divinity, because we pretend to be wise while we are not wise. That pretension is how the ignorance works in us. So long as I think I know, I will never know. And also, pessimism, “Oh I can not understand.” “I don't know.” Then you will never know. There must be a medium — you must be willing to learn, to know. That is the reason why there are so many qualifications that are necessary to be a disciple to a master. If not, master will not accept; you may serve him, but he will say, “All right, it will take a long time to become a disciple.” Disciple is one who becomes a part and parcel of the master. Jesus had only 12, and even out of 12 how many remained? Few. Shankaracharya had only 4. Now, there are millions who call themselves the followers of Shankara, but, he had only 4 disciples. To become a disciple — that is the reason why only Arjuna became a disciple after long time. And he requested, “Shisnystheham Shadi Maam Prapannam” (“Please accept me as Your disciple and disseminate the right knowledge at this time because I am in a cloud of confusion.”).
    So now, He is continuing His discourse. It is not a discourse, really speaking. What I am doing now is a discourse; what others come here from India to talk about for a week or ten days or fifteen days — that is discourse. But Krishna is not worried about discourse; He wants to eliminate this confusion in Arjuna and make him wage a war and do his duty; that is all. It is simple. Though it is simple, simplicity sometimes is very confusing, very hard, just like Truth; Truth is very hard to know, digest, though it is simple.
    In a similar way, Arjuna’s mind is clouded. He could not distinguish between the body, the embodied soul, the Nature, and the world — the nature in which we all exist, the nature of the Nature, and the purpose, the purpose why we are here, and again the code of conduct which we are to observe because we are born in that category, all these things. All these things come into play when it is harmonized. When all these facts harmonize themselves, come to one point, then it explodes. Then, the whole thing is achieved, not until then.
    Now one by one, Krishna tries to remove the confusion. First thing is, he thinks he is killing Bhishma, and all these kith and kin. He is standing in front of them; seeing them, he goes back and remembers, “How with what love these people helped me to become what I am. Now, how can I kill them? How can I be ungrateful?” and all these things.
    After all, in this world, now the scientists are coming to a conclusion that about 13 billion years ago, our universe formed. So, our universe is about 13 billion years old, and our earth is still in its infancy. So before this, what was there? From nothing, everything has come into existence, and everything will go into nothing. This is the ultimate Truth. So where was Bhishma, where was Dronacharya, where were all these people? And where was Arjuna, where was Krishna, where was everybody? Now they have come, they have come together; the moment that you become embodied, then you are under the thumb of this nature.
    First thing is, the moment that you enter into this, the Mother Nature will spread the veil of Maya. She makes you forget what you are. She makes you forget what you are, and then makes you think as to what she wants you to think. You are a man, you are a woman, and then you are a kshatriya, you are a warrior and you are a peacemaker, and you are a saint, you are a pauper, you are a thief, you are this and that. Slowly, all these things are fed into you. For how many times, for how many ages have these things been fed into you? You will never know. And when you want to deal with this, you are confused. You are incapable. The Nature is stronger than you. That is the reason, unless you become stronger, you can not eliminate any of these things.
    So, that is what He is telling him; Krishna says, “You are unnecessarily worrying about all these people. These are not people; they are just standing there, that is all. The whole universe is what that Maya is, illusion. Was there a world 13 billion years ago; was there anything in existence? No. It has taken 13 billion years to form into what we see. And again, how long is it going to stay? —  anybody's guess. And after that, what will happen? There were stars, and now there are no stars; the light of which we are still receiving after zillions of years. This is the whole play of Nature. So like this, from nothing, all these things have come, so also these people. This body, there is no body; there is no Bhishma, and now you see Bhishma. Whether you kill him or not, he will not be there. After some time, the Nature will take care of it All your kith and kin, whom you think you do not want to kill, but you are only a means for the end of their fate. And you are a kshatriya; you are born to kill. Kill. You are not killing without a purpose. The purpose being to save the Dharma, the code of conduct; those who are pursuing, following the traditional dharma, that is the code of conduct in order to safeguard them. People believe that you are put in a place in order to save them; they are all waiting.”
    “These people are rascals; they are creating problems for them. There is no harmony; there is no dharma now. There is no code of conduct without which the world will not be harmonious; nobody is practicing that. The world will not be a place where one could live, and there will be no purpose in living then.”
    “So, see how much depends on you. On your one decision depends many things. And you think you are killing them. What are you killing after all? — the body. The body is made up of what? All these five elements, and seven dhatus, elements. All these things come together in order to make the body. And from no where it came and it grew; now, you are there, and you go back to the source.”
    “Even if you kill the body, you are not going to kill that which is occupying that body. That which is occupying that body, and witnessing what that body is doing is beyond anybody's reach. Nothing can reach there. ‘Nainam Chindanti Shastrani Nainam Dahati Pavnkah Nachainam Kledyantypo, Na Shoshyati Marutah’ (Weapons can not sever it, fire can not burn it, water can not drench it, wind can not dry it.) No, it is beyond all this. It is embodied soul; it is always there. Because the body became, and from nowhere it was conceived; it grew and it will diminish. But that which causes this to be what it is now, was always there. Even before the body was conceived, it was there. And after this body is burnt, still it will be there. And again, in between the beginning and the end, it is still there; it is always there. Nobody can harm it; nothing can touch it.”
    “So, why are you worrying? It is only a drama; it's a big drama, that's all. Neither are you killing them, nor are they going to die. It is that attachment, that Maya, that illusion, that has created in you that attachment. It is that attachment which is destroying your reasons, your true nature. It is hiding you from what you are; come out. So, the eternity is always there.”
    “What are they? Brahman, the Truth, the Ultimate Truth is what exists everywhere. Truth can modify Itself for its own purpose whenever it wants; that's what is happening. And you should remember because, you think it will hurt them. It will create pain, and that will bring pain to everybody, and all that. My friend, just understand. All these things, pain and suffering, joy, all these dualities, are born out of objects coming in contact with the senses. So long as we have senses, and come in contact with objects, then the result is either pain or joy or whatever it is. But once the object is gone, the senses are gone and all that, where will be that joy, where will be that pain, where will be all these things?”
    “So, you must understand, and try to calm down. And also, you must remember that for a man of your stature who has won several wars single-handedly — you have been awarded all kinds of crosses — and now when you are standing here, if you turn your back and go away, do you know what they will think? They will think you are a eunuch. You became afraid of these people, and you are running away from the field, the field of opportunity to show your valor. This is the right time. And for a man of honor, this dishonor is worse than the death. For all the eternity, they will be talking, ‘Oh Arjuna, oh, oh I know, he is a coward; he ran away.’ Do you want that to be inscribed on your tombstone? ‘Here lies great Arjuna who ran away from the field in so and so millennium.’ Do you want people to laugh at you? No.”
    “See, being a kshatriya, what happens if you are right. You have a right nobody else has. You, being a kshatriya, belong to the warrior class, and you are also a prince. It is your duty. If you do your duty, even if you do not win and you die, still you will go to the heavens. You know what heavens are. You have a number of times gone there and come back. But, when you die and go, you will stay there for a while more for having done the right thing according to the dharma, according to the code of conduct. And you are foregoing the opportunity, the wide open door of the heavens. So, no kshatriya will forsake an opportunity like this.”
    “It is not a question of living or dying, winning or losing, but doing your duty. It is your duty. And in all these teachings, there are only two things that we are to understand. That far deep within us what we call, with what we identify ourselves, is endless; it is never born, it is never dead. It doesn't have the middle, anadi ananta, nor the beginning nor the end; since neither is there a beginning, nor an end, nor even a middle. So, it is the eternity. And that is what is important to be known, and it is that which is manifesting in each one of us. Put all of us together, and there is no difference. We say we are men, women, donkey, ants, all these things. But, throw away that ant, throw away that elephant, and all that. Take what makes elephant an elephant, ant an ant, and lady a lady, and man a man, and put them together. You will never recognize what is what.”
    Simple people can understand this more than the dry intellectuals. In Vrindavan (Vrindavan is the city, the place where Krishna lived), there is a big, nice beautiful temple. And all those people who followed Vishnu, Vaishnavas, with Krishna, Rama, all those people  gather there in large numbers to worship, dance, and sing. So, there are sadhus there. There is a sect called Vaishnavas, Vaishnava saints. They don't touch the ladies, they don't even see the face of ladies. After some time, they take a vow.
    Once in the same place was the Great Bhakti Saint Mira Bai. You know Mira Bai; Mira Bai was the queen. But, she was so much devoted to Lord Krishna, and she married Krishna in the heart and she suffered hell as we see. But, did she suffer? No, she enjoyed it because always she lived with Krishna. So, how can anything happen to her? But still on the physical level, we see how she suffered, so she came back to Vrindavan and stayed there permanently.
    At that time, every morning, she used to go there to see Krishna, and offer her prayers and come back. Once when she went, it was all covered, and there were two disciples who said, “No, no, you can not go in.” “Why? Every morning I come. You know nobody can keep me away from my Lord,” she said. “No, no, that Swami, Vaishnava Swami, who is dedicated to only Vishnu, Vaishnava, he is worshiping and he won't see women, so don't go there. No woman is allowed.” “Oh. Do one thing. You go and tell your master, ‘Who is his mother, whether your mother was a man or a woman? Who is Radha? Decide whom Krishna is telling whether he is a woman or a man? I thought that there is only one Purusha — that is the Lord Krishna. Who is this other Purusha?’ Ask him. Go!” And the disciples went and told him, “There is a lady, mad, crazy lady, she wants you to answer this.” “What?” “She wants to know whether your mother was a woman or a man or what. What was she? Woman, and have you seen her? Yes, I have seen; she was pretty, beautiful. Oh, you know all those things, but now you don't want to see a woman. She wants to know which Purusha you are. She says Lord Krishna is the only Purusha” At once, after all he was prepared to understand and also it is the word directly from the tongue of Mira — there is no difference between Krishna and Mira anyway — it penetrated his heart. It opened his eyes of ignorance. He said, “Oh yes, you are right. Open all the screens and remove all the curtains. He came and fell flat at her feet and said, “Ma, you have opened my eyes. Pardon me, please come in.”
    If you are prepared to learn, you can learn at every word. Some small child may utter something which may go through your heart, and you will learn, “Oh yes.” If you do not want to learn, nothing, even if you sit in the library and go throughout your life, you can read, but you will never understand. Even if you understand, you will never learn; learning is different from understanding.
    So there is nothing like man, there is nothing like woman, there is nothing like elephant, there is nothing like such things, but all these things are within the framework of this Nature, until the day you rise beyond the Nature. So long as you are controlled by the Nature, whatever Nature wants you to play — you have to play. “All right, be a man.” “All right, Maam, I'll be a man.” “Be this.” “All right.” “Be a saint.” “All right, I'm a saint.” “Be crooked man.” “Crooked man, yes.”
    But, once you transcend this and go beyond the Nature, assert yourself, then the Nature becomes subservient to you. You tell the Nature what to do, and Nature will do. Nature is a blind force, though we give Her a shape as a mother. Because as Brahman, Brahman doesn't do anything. Just like the male lions, it will be lying down; it is the she lion which has to kill and then he will go and eat the first morsel. Brahman — It is static — stays there; but, it is His will which creates this Force. The force of His will is the Mother, the Nature; it is this Nature which creates all this confusion.
    So long as you are playing with this, you are just like a fly in the cobweb; you are gone. You have to go beyond that, then you control the Nature. Many people play miracles. We say miracles, Baba did this miracle, that miracle which is unnatural because nobody can understand how he can do it, and it is beyond the Nature. Yes, he has established, he has asserted himself over the Nature. He is no more Baba. He is not a man; he is not. Neither is he a he or a she or an it. It is beyond that; that is the reason why he can control the Nature. Now, we are all controlled by the Nature; controlling Nature, it comes later. Now, we are controlled by the Nature. Now, in harmony with the Nature, understanding with the Nature, with the grace of the Nature, the force of its illusion called Maya, with Her blessings, we can transcend. Without Her grace, we will never go beyond this. We will wait for all the eternity; not only 13 billion, but another 13 billion, another 13 billion, we will be lurking in this darkness.
    I have already told you several times what happens after death, and between death and birth what will happen. So, you have to take stock. When you go home to  your temporary office, sit at your desk and say, “Oh, I should not have done that, I should have done this, I should have.” It will be too late.
    That is the reason why Mother is great, Nature is great. In one way or another, she will bring forth an opportunity for you to accept, hold on, grow and get out of this. Not once, twice, many times, but as I told you, we have been coated with that ignorance. It is so thick, so many coats of ignorance for all these ages, so it is hard. We want to go. We try to hold on and then, “Oh, it's all right, tomorrow, we will meditate tomorrow. We will do this today. Oh, Swami, meditation is boring. Who wants to go; let us go to Star Wars, let us enjoy. Swamiji is always there, and he is not going to die tomorrow; anyway, his heart has already been operated on. He will survive for another few years. He will be there; Star Wars may go away tomorrow. Come on, let's go.” That's what it is. So, you'll be Star Warring.
    So, you must have the priority when opportunity comes, and if you do not seize, you are a goner; that is what illusion is. It is not this Mother; Nature is not all cruel. She is so kind, She has given you all these things. She can keep you comfortable if you know how to live; but, if you go against it, then you will have problems. And at the same time, it is Her intention for you to give, “All right, this is the passage. You want to go. Instead of being under me, you want to be over me, all right, go. Meet the Lord there.” But still we hesitate. Somebody said, “All right, now today is Sunday, and I met the Lord. The Lord told me that tomorrow He will be sending a beautiful plane that you never have seen anywhere. And, I am going. I want to go, and all those people who  want to come, the Lord said, ‘Bring them.’ So, all of you are devoted; you have been coming all the Sundays, and you are putting 2 dollars in our coffer and it's all right. It's good; you have done a great job. Now, tomorrow when the plane comes, who wants to come? ‘Yes.’” Then everybody started thinking, “Oh boy, finally, we are praying, ‘Oh Lord, take us, take us to Your Self, take us to Your abode, oh Lord, we want to come to You, come to You, take us, take us!’” Now the time has come, what to do? “Oh, sir.” “What?” “Day after tomorrow my grandson is graduating, and I want to attend. I want to give him a camera, and I have bought it already; I want to give it to him.” “All right.” “Sir.” “Yes?” “My deal is not over. My mortgage is still pending and I have to sign it tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow he is coming and I want to see the document. I want to sign. If I don't do it, there will be a problem, so I can not come.” So, out of all the congregation, in that crystal palace, nobody wanted to go. When the time comes, nobody wants to go. And everybody wants, and that is the hypocrisy. That is the reason why we are lurking in the darkness. Opportunities are always there; those who caught that opportunity have already gone. You can not trace them. And the others, they are still here; I am also here.
    So, this is what the whole thing is; he is crying, thinking he is killing the people. And people are not people. They are only imaginations, illusionary. It's all there; that's all. “You are not killing anybody, and you are not going to have the sin; it is not a sin. It is a sin if you do not fight, because you are going against dharma. But killing them is not a sin. So all this pain and sorrow is only temporary; it comes and it goes. You are a hero; you must bear them all. And you must also understand the nature of that embodied soul which you can not see, because eyes can not see. You can not hear even if the soul is talking. You can not hear because your ears are not meant for that.”
    “So, you take it from me. You are born several times, I am born several times, and all these people are born several times. You do not know, but I know. So long as I told you, go beyond, you will have to be born and reborn and all this, all that. So, don't think twice to wage a war.” Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 9

    Ignorance as such is a dark force, and it can not be removed just with the fingernails; it has to be attacked, as we attack a strong army. A multiple pronged attack is necessary; that is what is happening here. Arjuna is down with that tremendous emotion, tremendous confusion. These are all the products of ignorance. Neither the wise people, Bhishma, Drona, on the other side, nor Bhima, the other brothers, and other relatives who are supporting the war, are confused; they are clear. They have accepted the counsel of Krishna; they are there, they are ready. It is only this man, Arjuna, who is terribly confused. He doesn't know what to do, or what not to do. So, he seeks counsel, and Krishna gave counsel. He started with a few words of wisdom, to enlighten him as to the nature of this life, the purpose of this very life, and the actions and the results, and the reason why we have to act, and why we have to create that result. He explained in multiple terms; the words of wisdom, when you are confused, can not penetrate into your heart or into your mind!
    So after all this, Krishna saw he was still terribly confused. None of His words seemed to have done anything much, though it seems to have loosened a bit. But still, it didn't prepare him to say, “Yes, I will do it.” Krishna said, "All right, Arjuna, up till now I told you about the wisdom, wisdom of life, why you are born, why I am born, what is life, what is death, why we are born, why we die, who dies, and who does not. All these things I told you." This is Sankya, that is counsel in wisdom, but now I will have to explain to you how to achieve all that I told you practically. It is theory I told you about. But now, I shall tell you about yoga.”
    “ Yoga is the means by which you experience and establish whatever I say. You may not believe, but I must help you to experience it, and then whatever experience you get out of your actions, then, you can say, ‘Oh yes, it concretizes.’ What I say will be concertized by leading you into the practice. Now, let us do that.”
    “Being in this world, you can not resist from action. This is a question of action; if there was no need for actions, you would not have been born with hands, legs, eyes and all these things. The rocks, they are there; by themselves, they don't act. They have to have somebody to hold them and throw them, and then they go. But here that's different; you are born to act. Action is one of the most important things in yoga. Yoga means action.
    “But what is that action? ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam’ (Skill in action is yoga). Everybody works, and everybody acts. But, there must be skill; there must be understanding. You should know why you are doing, and also when, why, what, where, all such things. Now, there are actions that are forbidden and there are actions that you have to do. And the same action that will yield you the results that you may need sometimes may yield you the adverse results. All this you should have to understand and know.”
    “Now, you are afraid; you are telling me all these things: ‘you will be sinning, you will go to hell.’ And by thinking of all this, you are already in hell; I have to bring you down to the heaven then. So, you are thinking all those things. You have not done anything that you deserve to go there. Anyway, you are confusing yourself; I’ll tell you. This action that you think that you are killing, that you are waging a war against your own elders, and all such thoughts, will definitely bring you a bad result for one reason. That is, you are attaching yourself to the action; you think you are the doer. I have told you, ‘You are neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses. You and Me are the same. You are the awareness, the consciousness. You are a part and parcel of the Divine consciousness.’ And having forgotten, you are attaching yourself, you are identifying yourself with all this action. Thus, the moment you identify yourself with this action, you become responsible for the result of this action. Then, of course, you have to suffer, or enjoy, whatever it is. But, ultimately what will happen is a chain of reactions. And in the process of enjoying that result of your action, you will be doing some more actions, and they will result in some more. So, it goes on like a lady’s complicated braid style; you will never know.”
    “So the best thing is, you must detach yourself, detach yourself from the actions. As I told you the nature of the soul, neither you kill nor they die. So, what is the problem? So your action will not result in anything for you, if you detach yourself. You must detach yourself from the actions; thus, when you become a non-doer by not identifying yourself with the actions, then you will not be responsible for the result of the actions. Even if you kill, you are not responsible because it is an action that is done spontaneously for the sake of the action. Just as we call love for love's sake, action for action's sake, it is to be done.”
    “It is your dharma; because you are born, you have to do it. Had you been born something else, you would not have done this particular action of which you are confused. But since you have done it, you are born; you have to do it. It is your duty. When you do your duty, Karmanyevadhi Karaste Ma Phaleshu Kadachina, (You have only the right to do the action and you have no right for the results, because you are neither the doer, nor the enjoyer). Since you are not a doer when you do your duty, then you are not eligible for the results that accrue out of your actions. So you are not going to hell. Because you are a kshatriya, you have to do it. Do you expect somebody else to come and help you there? You are born to do that, and you have to do it. And, another thing, even if that is impossible for you, you must offer all these actions to the Lord; you work on behalf of your Lord.”
    “If you are not capable of understanding what you are, and if you do not believe, as I told you what you are, all right, work as a servant of God. This is the duty asked of you to do by the Lord, the Creator. He created you as a kshatriya to do certain things in this world, as I am created for My work, as your brothers are created for their work, and the others are created for their particular work. They are all there, but it is only you who are crying because you do not know. They know unconsciously what they should do, but you do not know. Now, I want to tell you that you work as the servant of God; you be the hands of God. Do it, and whatever the results are, they will be debited or credited to the account of the Lord, not you. You are only a means. Offer all your actions, then all the results will also be offered to God.”
    “Do it, you have to do it. What happens is, nature is such, even if you don't, it will kick you in the butt and make you do it. Then, it will be painful for you because you are forced to do it. Now, if you do it by yourself, you will enjoy it. Anyway, you have to do it. Willingly, if you do it as a duty, then you are satisfying not only yourself and fulfilling your duty, but also you will be pleasing the Lord, Who created you, Who appointed you to do this. Don't hesitate; this is what you have to do.”
    “In many of these courses of actions, the servants do something wrong, and their bosses are sued and they pay. They pay the dues, right, and the same thing here. So long as we become independent, think it is our action, and have to do it, then, all right. Be an entrepreneur and then do it, and then whatever comes, you have to bear. Then, you will be crying; then the bills pile up. Send it all to the Lord; ‘I don't know, I am only a booking agent, but I will do it.’ You ask the company, since the company is there. That's what we have to do. You are born to do this; it is your duty.”
    “And, this is the skill; act without any attachment to the work or its results. Whether they kill you or whether you kill them, don't attach yourself to the result, whatever happens. Whether you become victorious or they become victorious, it is none of your business; detach yourself from the result. Now, you attach yourself to the action; let it be spontaneous. Do it! You are born to do it; your nature is to fight. Nature is to do what you have to do. Let it spontaneously flourish.”
    “Go ahead, detach yourself. Because what are you after all? You are wrongly identifying yourself with all these ridiculous things, with your brothers, sisters, kith and kin, this world and that world, and this, that, all that. That is the reason why you have been born, being born and die and born; now, this is the chance for you. Detach yourself completely; this will take you to the highest level. Don't worry even about swarga, heavens. You see, the Vedas, all this wisdom that they talk about is just for one reason. You do not understand anyway; that is the reason why they tell you the small things. Why? They tell you, do yajna, that is the fire ceremony, several kinds of ceremonies in order to please the gods and demigods. Why? You are seeking some fruits. So, they make you think that you are a weakling, that you are a man or a woman or something, a degenerated soul, so that you can not help yourself, so that you need some help. There is somebody who has to fulfill that; so, in order to please them, to fulfill your desires, offer.
    “Why do you want to please all those? Why you want to do all these actions is with one desire, for achieving the highest, according to Vedas, the swarga, that is heavens. Ultimate goal of this life according to those people, those who talk to you about Vedas, is achieving the highest goal, that is a place in heavens, that's all. In order to achieve, you have to do all these things. Forgetting your real being, your real nature, and your real purpose, you have to do all those things. Now, I am telling you, don't hanker after even those things. You don't need heavens. Why? ‘Kshine Puny Mrityuloke Vishanti.’ It is like having a visa to go there, and once your time expires, they will kick you so hard that you come back, fall back again, and you will have no job, nothing. You will be on welfare for a long time. So again you have to start from scratch for a long time again. Try to go back to heavens work like a slave and come back. Come here and go there — in a circle for all the time. ”
    “You will go there and get kicked out, and again you go and get kicked out; you do not know that, but I know. That's why I told you in the beginning, do this; these things will happen. But now, I am telling you according to yoga; detach yourself. You don't need to go to heavens; all those heavenly people will come and salute you, and fall at your feet once you go beyond. Once you become a yogi, you don't care for the pleasures of heavens or the fruits of your actions here, nothing. You will become devoid of everything, you become pure Self, Atmajyoti, light of that Divine Self. Then, all these people will come to you; you need not go. By that time, you don't even see people who come to you anyway; but, that is what happens. Whether you need it or not, it is the result of your detachment, action. That's what you should do.”
    “At that time in the beginning, when I told you that action would yield you results because you were telling me, ‘Oh, if I kill, I will go to hell.’ No. By killing, you are going to heaven because you are fulfilling your duty as a kshatriya. Now, I am telling you, go beyond that; I am telling you, be wise. Detach yourself from the action and their results; this is the skill in action. In spite of doing, you are not doing; in spite of creating the results, you are not enjoying the results. That is the nature of the soul; soul doesn't involve in anything. It is uninvolved; it is only a witness, but it doesn't involve in anything. It is neither a doer, nor experiencer, nor anything else. That's what you are, but you are identifying yourself wrongly with your body, your kith and kin, and this world, all this.”
    “It's all right for the ignorant people, less enlightened people. But, look at all those enlightened people; they never involve in anything. In your course of wandering in the jungle, you must have come across many of them; you have forgotten them. Why should they live far away from all these things? They are not interested; they have detached completely. That is the reason why they are enjoying that peace even while living here. They need not die to achieve that peace; they have already started enjoying that peace. That's what you will enjoy.”
    “So, we will continue this. So, one thing is wisdom, and your own action as a duty without attachment. You have to win, you have to have victory; that is the main purpose. You have to win the kingdom for your brothers, and for yourself. And, only when you become king, can you take care of all the Dharma, the code of conduct which governs all the people. Now, it is all hell let loose. Neither the rulers follow Dharma, nor the people. So in order to bring about that settlement, you have to do it. All right, that is the reason that you must fight. Now, I am telling you the other thing: why you should fight. Both the things, you will be achieving both the things. When you act, the results will be there which help all the others; but at the same time, it will lift you, free you from this attachment. See what a skill is here? All that you have to do is think, and detach yourself. Do the same thing. If you attach yourself, you will be a participant and then you will suffer or enjoy the fruit of action here. But if you detach yourself as a yogi, the results will be there, actions will be there, but it will not touch you. You will be free from all these attachments. This is the skill in action, so think.”
    So, we will continue this later. So, He is trying his best to convince Arjuna to fight as this darkness is too dark, too thick; the ignorance is too hard. Even from the Lord, it takes time; it took half an hour, and seven hundred stanzas. And even in the company of Krishna, the Lord Himself, it was hard for Arjuna to see through. So in that case, what are we? I think of course, it is a few millenniums ago, but we must have made progress by now. Maybe we will be a bit better in understanding. We seem to be better than Arjuna. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 10

    Krishna has been trying to convince Arjuna not to shirk from his responsibility, and then teases him by telling him that it is an open door to the heavens. To do one’s duty has its own reward that is an entry into the heavens where one can enjoy the extra terrestrial enjoyments. Also, it is a duty, a bounden duty, because he has to take care of those people who have hopes in him: his brothers, his family and the whole nation. They are tired of these bad people. And also, for a warrior, shame is worse than death because what will the enemies think if he desists from his duty as a warrior and retreats.
    “You have come here and shown your face and you are running away. What will they think? For all of the eternity, they will be talking ill of you; you will be ashamed. Don't do that. So, if you win, you will enjoy the kingdom; if you die, you will go to heaven. You will enjoy better things anyway; so, there is nothing, you will lose in any case. Do it! And also, according to Sankhya, those are the words of wisdom; I have explained to you as to what you are and what they are. It's a hallucination. You see? It is the same thing. They appear to be what they are, and you think as to what you are. But you are neither what you think you are, nor they are what you think they are. Because the substratum for you, all of us, is one thing, that Eternal Consciousness. No one can kill the other because there is nothing like two things; it is only one thing, one single consciousness, that pervades the whole thing. It manifests in everything.”
    Later on, Krishna will say, “Samam Sarveshu Bhuteshu Tishtantam Paramwswara (That entity, that substratum, the consciousness, lives or manifests in everything in equal quantity.).” It is not big in the elephant and small in the ant. Whether it is this much or that much, it is only just a balloon. That's all. That which makes it is only a small dot.
    “So like that, I have told you the nature of the soul; neither you are the killer, nor they are killed, nothing happens. Come on.” So, all these things are the words of wisdom. The words of wisdom will have to be struck against yoga. Yoga is a process by which you have to establish what you say it is.
     “I'll tell you about the yoga. What is this nature pervaded with? What is this nature made of? The three states, three attributes, that is Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas. The purity, truth, chastity, all these come under Sattva, devoid of anger. And the Rajas, which makes one to act, if one is devoid of this attribute, one doesn't work. But, in a smaller quantity or larger quantity, predominately or not, it pervades everyone. Whether he is a saint, or a sage, or a pauper or a thief, whoever it is, it pervades. Once you have fallen into the hands of the Nature, you have become the embodiment of all these attributes. Somewhere, it pervades in you; that is the reason why even if the individual is a saint, he has to do things. He does; nobody can avoid moments, things to do. And the other one is the darkest, Tamas: inertia, darkness, ignorance. These are the three main attributes that pervade in this world. And, anyone who is caught in this, within this framework, will be moved by that aspect.”
    “If you are a victim of Tamas, if the Tamas, the darkness, the ignorance, is predominant in a person, he may talk sometimes like a wise man, but most of the time, he will be ignorant. So, his actions also will be ignorant; his thoughts will be ignorant.”
    “First, all these three attributes influence the mind. It is the mind which controls all the other organs. So, it pollutes or purifies, whatever attribute it is, the mind first; it attacks the mind, and the mind starts doing things accordingly. If ignorance, Tamas influences the mind, the thoughts will be Tamasic, ignorant thoughts. Then, those thoughts will materialize by your action.”
    And the same thing with Rajas, Rajas is better than ignorance. Still, it is devoid of understanding, but the actions you just do; you can not sit quiet. You have to do this constantly, doing without any purpose; you do not know. Or you will have projects which may or may not be true, all these things. You have to; you keep engaged in projects. Actions predominate in the being where Rajas reigns supreme”
    “And Sattva, when it becomes predominant, one’s thoughts will be pure. She or he will be talking about God, be delving about beautiful things, be wishing good things; the actions will be good and pure. The white, the dark, and in between the gray to say, that's what it is.”
    “So Arjuna, according to yoga, you try to become devoid of these three; get away from them. Don't entangle yourself in any one of these, because any one of these will bind you; so, try to untangle. Yoga means to get out of these shackles, these three shackles. Whether it is made of gold, silver, or brass, it doesn't matter. Still, it is a shackle; get rid of this and get out.”
    “And also, you must remember, we are always caught in between the two things, two prongs; we are always held in between the two prongs of the pliers, Dwandwa (duality). If I am happy, next moment I will be unhappy. If you are happy today, tomorrow you are unhappy; if you are unhappy tomorrow, you may be happy the day after. And if it is cold, tomorrow you are hot, all these dualities. If you are born, you have to die; if you die, you will have to be born. It is not only one life. (That's what in the beginning, He said, “You do not know how many times you are born, but I know how many times you are born, how many times I am born.”) So, you must get rid of this notion; you must get over with these dualities.”
    “The whole yoga is to provide you with right first hand knowledge as to what you are. You have been identifying yourself wrongly with this body, this mind, and this kith and kin, and all these things. This is nothing but just a delusion. They were not there, they will not be here, and in between, they appear to be. Just keep on watching; each one of them will be passing into the future riding the wheel of time. They will be preparing for the next act. So, it is only in between that you see them. So, you should try to get rid of all these misconceptions of life and death.”
    “And also, you are talking about the sin, and all those things. Sin, yes, that's what they have told you, according to what? Vedas.” See, the whole argument, the whole talk is about the Vedas. The Vedas are governing all these actions and everything, the whole caste system under which Arjuna is now worrying about being a kshatriya and whether to fight or not to fight. According to the Vedas, he is born as a kshatriya, so he has to fight; see, he is classified as such. So, according to that Veda only, yes, it will be a sin. What is sin? Whether killing is a sin, or, now, not fighting is a sin.
    “According to the Vedas, you are born as a kshatriya, and you have to fight for the right cause, of course. Sin is when you fight unnecessarily and unwontedly for no reason; but, you are not doing that. It is your duty; you have taken an oath. The moment that you are born in the womb of your mother who is a kshatriya's wife, it means that you are going to be a king and you have to take care of the people; they depend on you. You can not expect brahmins and others to fight; they have their duties that they are doing. But you are failing in your duty; that will be the sin. Not doing your duty will be a greater sin than to kill.”
    “So the sin, what will the sin do? We talk about the sin. What will the sin do? You think you will go to hell; they have created a hell for you. If you do not do this, you will go to hell where you will suffer much worse than what you are undergoing now; that's what the Vedas have told you. That's why you are completely brainwashed with the Vedas without knowing the Reality. So if you go to hell, you will suffer that which you want to avoid. And you are not doing the right things in order to go to heaven either. So, you are short of understanding.”
    “I tell you now what yoga says. Vedas in the first two parts, Brahmana and Samhitas, tell you that you must do your karmas. Karmakanda, it is called Karmakanda. Karmakanda means the worship of all the deities, all the elements, the presiding deities of the elements in this world: Indra, Agni, Yama, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera and to please them with rituals. All these because they are the givers of pleasure to us. Without breath, we can not live, so there is air. The deity that presides over this element we have to worship. And the sun, without sun, how can we exist? So, we have to appease the sun god, and the moon, all of them. And Agni, if there is no fire, how can you cook? How can you keep yourself warm? Even Agni is within us; that is why our body temperature is there. So, we have to appease that fire god. So, they tell you plenty of ways how to offer and appease these deities presiding over all these elements so that all of them will favor you, and so that you will be happy in order for you to be happy. That's what they tell you.”
    “And ultimately, what will happen? If all these people join together, they will pass a resolution and give you a ticket to go to heaven. ‘We hereby certify that Arjuna has done all these works and now he can enter into heaven for such and such a time. He can be provided with all the facilities.’ And you will go and enjoy. And if you don't do it, then not only will these people pounce upon you and eat you, cut you into pieces, but also and even after your death, you will go to hell and suffer. That's what the people say; that's what the Vedas say. But those are the two earlier parts of the Vedas”
    “But what about the other two later parts of the Vedas, Aranyakas and Upanishads? These are the two other parts of the Vedas which are full of wisdom. They say, ‘So long as you do your work with attachment’ (“As I have been telling you a number of times, I am the doer, I am doing in order to get a result according to me.”), ‘if you attach to all these things, you are delving yourself deep into that hole; you are attaching yourself.’ And then it will provide you. If it is successful, it will give you the result you worked for; if not, it will not give you that result. Then, you will feel sorry. You will be unhappy because it didn't give the result you wanted. So, it's a wrong identification. You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are not the senses, but you have attached yourself to them and then you involve in them and their objects, and their results. Thus, though you can be away from them, you are involving in them; you feel you are suffering.”
    “So, as I told you earlier, you can not avoid working, movements, actions; you can not avoid actions. Even trying to sit simply is an action, to breathe is an action, trying not to breathe is an action. Can you be without any action? Dying is an action, being born is an action and in between you are full of actions. As I have told you what will happen in between birth and death, number of times I have explained to you. So, it is full of action so long as you identify yourself with either this  gross or subtle body, or whatever it is. We have several sheaths with which we are identifying ourselves. So long as you are identifying yourself even with the last sheath, subtlest possible sheath of your being, you are subject to torture.”
    “One thing I will tell you, the easiest way, then you will ask Me, ‘How am I going to do?’ You are taken aback, you are aghast, ‘Lord, what am I going to do?’ Before you ask Me, I will tell you, ‘You detach yourself.’ As I told you, you become devoid of these three attributes of Nature, be free from these dualities, turn your gaze deep within and then identify yourself with yourself. And of course, as I have explained to you, you can not remain quiet; you have to act. If you are fighting, it is an action, and not trying to fight is also action. You are crying; it is an action. Not crying is also an action. Thinking is an action; everything is an action.”
    “So, do one thing; in order to remove that identity, offer all these actions and their results to God. Offer all these things as an offering to God. ‘Oh Lord, this is for you; I don't know.’ Then, you will be transferring your results, actions, everything, on the shoulders of the Divine, the God. God will take care because you are not identifying yourself there. You are working on behalf of God as an instrument of God, and whatever it is, it belongs to God; thus, you will free yourself. So, if you can understand these things, you will be happy. You need not worry about that.”
    “So, now, you must understand; you are standing here; and you can not run away. You have to understand this. You are not fighting. Even if you don't fight, you will be fighting anyway, because it is already destined. That is the reason why you are here; if not, you would not have even come here. To have come here, you are going to, but instead of fighting with yourself and then forced to act, you act with understanding as a yogi — yogi is one who has understood completely and detached himself from his actions. Become a yogi; detach yourself from the results and fight. ‘Karmanyevadhi Karaste Ma Phaleshu Kadachina.’ (You have a right only to act; you have no right for the results.) Leave it to God. If you attach yourself to action, then you will have to attach to results; then, you will have to worry. Neither you are attaching yourself to the action, nor to the results. But anyway, here it is a fact that you are acting; you have to fight. Now, fight as a representative of the Divine. Offer everything unto God; you are working for God, and God is asking you to do it. You are doing it as an agent, that is all. Once you offer all these actions to God, offer yourself unto God, and work as an agent of the God, then all the results and everything will be on the shoulders of God. It will be debited or credited to the account of God, not you; so, you are free. Since you have already fallen into this Nature, and you are a victim of this Nature, you have to. You can not forego; only God can help you. So, in order to make God help you, offer everything unto God; force God to help you to remove you from this predicament.”
    “And if you know these things, then I need not tell you any further, because it will be like asking for a glass of water while sitting in a whole beautiful lake full of sweet water. That's what the knowledge of the Vedas is. You are talking about sin, and what will happen. This is my uncle, this is my cousin, this is this and that. Absolutely, it is meaningless.”
    “Once you know as a yogi, you come to this understanding, and you can forget about all the knowledge that these books tell you. These books — book knowledge is only for those people who can not dwell on their own experiences. You are a yogi; become a yogi, then you need not worry about this knowledge of the Vedas. The Vedas and other texts tell you to do things in order to achieve mundane results, but you are not wishing to achieve anything. You do not want anything to be achieved, because you do not want to act with that egocentric notion. You want to detach yourself from the body, mind, and all these things. Then, you are one with the Entity, the substratum of this whole universe, Consciousness Supreme, without any involvement anywhere; you are free.”
    “Then, when you are free, what will this knowledge do? Knowledge is for one who doesn't know; when you know, what is the need for one to tell you to know? When you have already known, what is there to be known? So thus, in a short time, you will be free as a yogi, detaching yourself. Fight! That is all you have to do.”
    That's what Krishna has been saying, and next time we'll talk about Arjuna asking, “If that is the case, what is the sign of the accomplished soul? You are talking about being a yogi and detachment and attachment and all these confusing things. You tell me a hundred things, oh Lord, and where are we to find such a person, and how are we to recognize them? Because in spite of having achieved all these things as You say, still they will be amongst us. They will be eating like us, and they will be walking, and talking and all that. How are we to know? They will come to the same coffee shop, sit opposite to me, and order the same cup of coffee. How am I going to recognize Him or Her, whatever it is? How am I going to recognize this Soul. ‘Stitha Pragnasyaka Bhasha Samadhistasya Keshava Sthitadhih Kim Prabhasheta Kimaseeta Vrajeta Kim. (How do they talk, how do they walk, how do they think, how do they feel, how do they do, what do they do, how are we to recognize?).’ Please!” That's what Arjuna asks, and Krishna answers. That's a beautiful thing. Especially this part from 52nd stanza, I think.
    Every day, Gandhiji used to repeat this part of the GITA in his prayer meetings being attended by thousands of devoted people of all faiths. People used to travel far to attend. So, he used to read this from BHAGAVAD GITA, and then from the Muslims’ KORAN, and from the BIBLE, and from various religions’ texts. He used to pray with all these traditions just to make known that there is no difference between any religion, any faith. It is all according to one’s own faith, one’s ability, that one can understand and practice; that's all. There is only one God, and each one calls Him by different names, and as God has promised, He appears to each one of them as they want to see Him, as they perceive Him. He allows Himself to be perceived like that; that's all. So, this is a very interesting part. Next time we will talk about it. Thank you very much.


BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 11

    I've been discussing nothing new. What we are going to learn now is what we have already learned, but we have forgotten. That is the Nature; nature of things is to learn and forget unless it goes deep into our heart, and becomes a solid milestone and a signpost guiding us. That is what we say, “Human weakness.” That is the reason why Krishna has to take this opportunity to explain everything once again to Arjuna. Many times in several ways He made Arjuna understand all this, what He is going to tell him now. But it was taken lightly. That's the reason why a Teacher, before He spares His breath, always  tests whether the student has a particular attitude to learn, and a capacity to understand, and much more than that, the receptivity. Teacher may tell you a hundred times; He is not tired of telling you a hundred times, if you are prepared to learn.
    Right from childhood, Krishna knows Arjuna and the whole family. Several times, He has revealed Himself; He has revealed the Truth. That is the reason why Dharmaraya and others, even Draupadi, have accepted without any question. Whatever He said, they did it. But Arjuna was one who asked questions, who took it lightly. That is the reason why it has taken a long time for him to understand. Even after this, in MAHABHARATA, you will learn soon after the war and all that, Krishna passes away; He ends His incarnation. Then, Arjuna reverts once again, the same thing. He was beaten by ordinary thieves; the man who faced the whole army could not face small time robbers on the banks of Narmada river.
    It was not permanent; that's what I say. He is the sign of human weakness. Even as we are now, do we mean to say that we are in the absence of the Lord? Lord is here; He is hearing what I am telling you, and seeing what you are doing. He is here. But still, if you have done something consciously, something wrong, then we shiver and then say oh, “God is there; it's all right.” But if not, we take it lightly. Even if God comes and says, “I am God.” You don’t see; we don't. We are so much overpowered by the natural attributes. The three attributes and the dualities, all these things, and much more: hatred and doubts, all kinds of negativities, the powers of Maya, the deluding force of Nature, have inch by inch covered us all. That is the power of Maya, the deluding force of Nature. Even if there is bright light, we can not see; we are blinded. That is all. We can not perceive that bright light.
    That's what ignorance is. Nature can not exist if there is no ignorance. The main net Nature throws, in order to rule over the whole thing, is the net of ignorance. It is a beautiful, colorful weaving, in which like fish, we are all caught. That is the reason why it takes a long time for anyone to understand, especially when it comes to Truth, because we don't want the Truth. Though there is Truth here, we do not want the Truth, because we know the Truth even without knowing what the Truth is. This is a game played by the mind
    But untruth becomes so enamored here, and we pursue that. We know we have to have God behind us, we have to have faith in God, God is true and all that. But still, when it comes on Sunday, if there is a beautiful movie there at the same time when we have the service here, we prefer to go to a movie than to the service here. Because we know that it is a Godly thing, it is the right thing to do; we have to go and all that, but still, we have been victims of this Nature. We are endowed by these three gunas, attributes: rajas, it takes you away there, “Come on, come on”, the movie will be there even tomorrow, but at that time you will have an urge, “now or never”. Then somebody will tell you, “Oh it was such a nice talk.” “Oh, I missed it, oh, I should have...what did he say?” You are interested, you see. So, that is the Nature; that is the Nature with which we are all ruled.
    And the second thing is, we are all guided by the religions. When they talk about Vedas, it is the text of which Krishna talks about. What Arjuna argues is about sin, about going to hell, and not killing anybody, and killing and non-killing, and injuring, and all these confusions. What happens is, it is according to what he has been taught by the religion. And the basis of religion is what for them at that time? Vedas. Just like Bible for us here now, and Koran for the Muslims there, and Talmud and other things for Jews, and for Buddhists and Jains, they have their own texts, all these things, but nobody wants to know what it really means, why it is there. They take it lightly and in a general sense; that's the whole problem. The religion, we always say, “Oh, it is God's word and God gave us Vedas, and God gave the Bible, God gave this Talmud, God gave this, God, everything God gave.” God gave this brain also, the power of discrimination too. It is not so hard to understand everything, but we don't. We take what we want; that which suits us and we accept, and the rest we don't. That is the whole problem; that is the reason why we are all fighting amongst religions.
    And the basis for all these religions are two things: one is fear, second thing is temptation. Though they talk about temptation, “Don't be tempted,” still they tempt you. Tempt you with what? More pleasure, better pleasure than this, “If you do this, you will be rewarded sumptuously,” that's what Vedas do.” Far before Bible, and far before Koran, there was Vedas. Right? That's where it started, that's what they said. That's the reason why Krishna says, “Don't worry about Vedas. Those who teach you have taught you the basis of Vedas offering you punishment, if you fail in your duties as is ordained in there, and reward, if you follow sincerely as directed in there. Because they want to bring the society together, they want to create the rule amongst the society, they want to hold the society together.” That is the reason why, the basis of religion, the basis of these texts; religious texts contain both carrots and sticks. What was the purpose? We don't know. We can survive without them. But now, we have been so much dependent on that, we can not survive without them. Because it brought the whole society together and bound them.
    If it loosens, if it unties, everything falls apart. And what was the best way of bringing the society together, and to create the rule in the society? The temptation. “Do this.” “Oh, you are hungry?” “Yes.” “You want to eat?” “Yes.” If you want to eat, you must have something to eat. How are you going to eat? You must work. How do you work?” In order to please somebody, somehow, all these things. Then it becomes a world. If you are hungry, you must eat. If you want to eat, you must earn. If you want to earn, you must do this. If you want to do this, you must please or whatever it is. Since everybody can not follow the same thing, he said, “If you are hungry, you must eat. If you want to eat, you can not work. Then, you must fight and get things, because you have a responsibility to take over all this.”
    All these things, if you think, sit down and think how these things develop. The religions, started with the temptations. And in order to create that fear, they created God. We are within God, we are without God, we die in God, we live in God, we are born in God, we are dying in God. It doesn't affect. Krishna says, Iswarah Sarva Bhutanam Hriddesho Arjunathistati (God dwells in every heart; wherever there is a heart, God dwells there.) Samam Sarveshu Bhuteshu Thistantam Parameswarah (God lives in the same quantity. In the ant, He is not less, and in the elephant, He is not more). It is He who allows the Nature to work through you. He is watching the reaction between you and the Nature, sitting in your heart. He is sitting in your heart and allowing you to interact with the Nature because that is the purpose why you are born. If not, there was no reason for you to be born. You are born in the Nature in order to interact with the Nature, and experience, know. That is the reason why you are here.
    So in order to do that, they created God, and said, “If you do things that displeases God, if you do that, then God will punish you.” They threw the attribute on God also; He is a punisher. Who is to punish whom? That is what Krishna is saying, “Who is to kill whom? Who is to punish whom? Does the right hand pain the left hand? Who will enjoy or suffer the pain? Whether it is left or right hand, it is Me.”
    So, what happens is, they created this. That's how duality came about. God and me are different. We say, “God” and why? Because of fear. That is what Krishna is trying to remove. “There is no difference between you and Me”, but he is not prepared to accept. Then, in that case, why should Krishna tell him, and why should Arjuna hear if they are not two? If they are the same thing, they need not talk to each other.
    That's what these religious texts have brought about. That's the reason why Krishna has to tell him, “Arjuna, you are right. You are talking about sins and all those things. That's what you have learned from the Vedas. The first two parts of Vedas talk about this, Samhitas and Brahmanas. You are born in order to do certain things. You belong to the society, and you have to respect your father, mother, sister, and all that; what type of relationship you must have is one thing. And second thing is: who is king , what is the relationship between subjects and the king and what you should do, what is your household and how should you take care of your household, and what is the country and how should you devote yourself to the country.
    So, it has taken thousands and thousands of years to finalize, and it is still not finalized. Our experiences are not yet over. When the experiences are over, the world will collapse. Then, we will enter into the new beginning and then start again. That will be a second chapter; I don't know what chapter we are in now. So, it is endless. So, that's how everything started taking shape. So, that's what He is explaining. The Vedas tell you about these different forces which are ruling the Nature. Nature doesn't mean something vague. It has the pillars to support itself.
    What are those pillars? — all these elements. This Vayu, Kubera, the wealth, the owner of this wealth is Kubera; they created one. If you want, you must go to him; he is the treasurer of the whole universal wealth. Whether we dig here, dig there, and whether we get gas, or whether we get gold and diamonds, all them belong to Him. And then, you must know the force of the wind. They saw the force of the wind which can uproot the whole thing; he said, oh, my goodness. Just like the Indians were fooled by Columbus, “If you don't give me food and other things, I will ask my father to hide,” knowing it was an eclipse. So that's what happened. They saw the wind uprooting everything, the tornado. They said, “Oh, this wind is nothing but God.” So, they started worshiping it. They realized the force of the fire. It was here; now it is all gone. Where did it go? “Oh, he ate, so it must be a big hungry mouth. So, we should keep him happy, and if we worship him, he will cook our food and all these things.”
     Slowly, they were all scientists. Scientists were not born in one day, but these scientists are the result of those ancient people, who burned themselves, who were lifted off from the tornado, all such things. Now, the result is that we have all these scientists running around with great achievements; the basis is set of ancient people, whom we have forgotten. Maybe, they are the same people who are born and reborn. Who knows?
    So then, all these people are controlled by something. They created that, “Where do all these people live? There must be a place. Just like we live here, they must be coming and going. Wind must be coming, and sun must be coming. Where do they live?” They created the heaven, “Oh, they must be coming from some place which must be more beautiful than this, and they must be so powerful. That is the reason why they can frighten us.” So they started worshiping them. Two things, there was ignorance and also there was wisdom. They were learning things. As they started learning things, ignorance became a little thinner and thinner.
    So, the ignorance was still there; they were afraid. Because of the fright, they started worshiping them. They said, “If you worship, they will favor us.” Then they said, “If you want this, you must appease this aspect. Call that aspect either Vayu, that is the wind god, or sun god, or moon god, or Venus, or whoever it is, whatever you want. They preside over that, and they have that power; they have that in their pocket. If you want, you reach your hand, and they will give you, if you have please them.
    So, in order to appease them, you create the fire; fire became the messenger. So they had to offer, “Please, we want this to go to Vayu.” “All right.” “We don't have water to farm, we have drought, we don't have the rain; we want rain. So Agni, please deliver these gifts we offer the god of rains.” At that time, there was no vegetarianism. They killed cows, they killed goats, they killed anything. So, before they ate, they offered it to various superhuman-natural forces latter recognized as “God”. “What we eat, that's what they eat; we don't know what they eat. So, they must be eating the same thing; that is the reason why they are coming here. So, all right. Goat, if I offer goat, it will please them, and that will give us what we need. If we offer buffalo, they will give us what we seek.”
    So, they started considering these things, and then they used to offer, and Agni was expected to deliver these offering with requests, “They offered you these things, please take this, and they want you to go and pour some rain,” said Agni to Varuna It worked. During the rainy season, if you offer, naturally, there will be rain anyway. If not, they have to wait, and they said, “Oh, they must not have received our message yet; that is the reason why it has not rained.” Thus, they used to satisfy themselves.
    So, thus, the religion created this temptation on one side. “If you do this, then if all these gods are happy, if you please them, they will favor here, and they will take you to their place at the end. They will give you a place there, and it is ruled by one called Indra.” Indra means supreme, Indra means the head, that's all. So, they created that head, they created the heaven, they created space for all these gods. “If I please all these people, then this Agni, or Vayu, somebody will take me there in a beautiful chariot,” because we use the chariot here. So, the same beautiful chariot is used there for transport; it must be much more superior than ours. So, they will take us there, and we will stay there. So, we want to go there and we have to seek the help of these gods. We should please them, so offer oblations to them.”
    “That's what it is Arjuna; that's what they say. They tempt you with this; they ask you to do this. That's all. And after all these things, as they progressed, they came to the other side of that also, the end. This is the beginning they started, and the end, they came to know. ‘Oh, forget about all these things; now, we know the Nature. We know Vayu, Kubera, all these beings. All these beings are guided and held by One that is called God — not demi god. Brahman, that God doesn't have a shape, doesn't have a place, He is everywhere. Where can He hide? There is not one place; He is everywhere. So, He is Brahman, He is God of gods, He is all pervasive, and He is within and, without us.’ That is what the UPANISHADS say.”
    “UPANISHAD is the end of, Upa-Nishada (Upa-Nishada means to “sit near” — the student sits near the master to learn), that is the end of Veda; all the UPANISHADS, BHAGAVAD GITA and BRAHMA SUTRAS (as a group is called “Prasthanatraya”) put together become Vedanta, end of Vedas. Veda means knowledge; to know is called Veda. Vedavith means one who knows the Veda. Veda is the knowledge, and end of knowledge is UPANISHAD. That is called Vedanta. Basis for Vedanta is mainly the UPANISHAD, BHAGAVAD GITA and BRAHMA SUTRAS. Veda means ‘knowledge’ anta means ‘end’. End of knowledge is the ultimate realization of the ‘Truth of Being’ — ‘Self’ or ‘Brahman’.”
    “UPANISHAD also says on one side, ‘If you want to live in this world, if you want to stick to this world and be happy, naturally, as we told you earlier in the beginning, you have to accept demi-gods, and please them, and do everything according to what the Vedas told you to do: yagna, fire ceremonies, and several other ceremonies, and worshiping, and building temples, and installing idols, and all such things we have told you. You do all those things and you will get that result.’ But what will they do? They will give you better result than what usual results you get. But that is not the end; that doesn't end your miseries. As you have created your heaven, it will take you to heaven; but it is not a permanent place. (Just like Switzerland, they don't allow you to stay or immigrate into Geneva; they don't allow people to come in and buy the house and live there in Geneva now. So, they don't allow; you can visit them.) Once you are there, they kick you back; so, you will come back but they will give you many things to bring here and start like a king. If you have done better things, you will be born like a king, and you will start from there. If you have done anything else, you will be born like this, like this, like that, and all those things later.”
    “But the purpose of your life is not to keep on repeating this; you must find an end. Since you have started a beginning, you must try to find out our end. What is that end? To realize what you are. You have been seeing outside always, and you are trying to entangle yourself. It is a centrifugal process: you are going outward. So, you must make it into a centripetal process: turn your gaze within and see what you are. Can it work without you? What are you? Are you the body, the mind? Are you these things? Think! And, all these things were brought into the UPANISHADS; they found out, ‘No, we are neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses. We are the eternal part and parcel, chip of the same old block; there is no difference. The difference is, because we have imposed upon our self this cover, this sheath of Maya. We have allowed Maya to overpower us because we wanted to come here and live and experience. Now, the truth is whether we know or not, we are what we are. We are the Eternal Truth.’”
    “The moment that you know this, slowly everything falls off. So long as you do not know, they will all grab you; once you know, ‘Oh, he knows,’ they all fall off. That is the end of it. Now, you become one with the Divine. If you once become what you are, what you were, if you become one with what you were before what you have become, then there is nothing. You will also be nameless, formless, spaceless, everything; you are eternal. Just because I do not know, it doesn't mean I am not Brahman. Only thing is I do not know.”
    “Who is to know? There are two things. I do not know. I know but I do not know. I have to convince my mind which is ruling me. There are two parties inside me. You see, always there is a dual personality. Many times I don't want to do certain things, but I am forced to do it. ‘Oh! I didn't want to do it, but I did it anyway.’ Why? You are overpowered by what? You didn't want to; why did you not stop it? No! You are overpowered, because the power here, the Supreme Power, the Supreme Force, is the Nature. Once you have accepted the existence of this Nature, you have to obey.”
    “So, that's what it is Arjuna; you are a victim of these earlier teachings. It is good. That is the reason why you are influenced by those teachings, and you think you are the killer; they are killed, or they will kill you, and you will die, and all such conceptions. That is not the case. The wisdom is not accepted by your intellect very easily. So, yoga is the best way to etch that wisdom on the intellect. The lack of intellect, rather the supreme end where the intellect ends, there the wisdom or intuition begins, and wisdom belongs to the region of that intuition.”
    “So far, you are intelligent; your intellect is full of all these things. You want to be obedient to what Vedas said. That is the reason why you thought you are a king and wanted to take this back; you had taken vows to do this, and you wanted to do all this. Now, all of a sudden, all those teaching have just fallen off you, because they are not true anyway.”
    “I will tell you now about yoga. All that you have to do, because you are taking upon yourself the responsibility and the doership, as very often I have talked to you, doership, “I am the doer.” Without knowing, you are accepting the responsibility for doing; that is the whole main thing problem with you.
No! That is not the case. You are away from this. It is the Nature, the attributes within the Nature that are ruling you. It is that which is forcing you to do it.”
    “Now, if you are wise, you must get over that. First, you will have to fight with them, and release yourself from the influence of these attributes, whether it is Sattva, Rajas, or Tamas, whatever it is. Also, you must get over this duality, ‘me and you’, ‘killing’, ‘action’ and ‘reaction’. All these things you have created within yourself, this duality.”
    “Here, as long as you are here in this world, as a part of this nature, part of this world, belonging to this society, and all these things, you will have to act. You have to act. Even if you do not act, you will be forced to act, because of the force of Nature. You know sometimes even if you are walking, even if you want to walk slowly, the wind pushes you forward. You have to run. Though you can not run, you have to run. So, that is what is happening with you. They are pushing you, and you are thinking like this. Become wise and turn your gaze deep within, and see, ‘Karmanyevadhikaraste Maphsleshu Kadachina’. (All that, you have to do; your duty is to do. That is all.) Because your body, mind, senses, everything belongs to this world, all right; but, far beyond that is what you are.”
    “What is called Arjuna, is far deep within; Arjuna is not this body, but far deep within. And that is why you and I are One. See, I am telling you. It doesn't bother me because I don't take responsibility; I know what it is. It doesn't bother me, because I know I am what I am. I am free. Even if I am telling you this to do or not to do, I am doing it without seeking any result. So, I don't have any attachment. If you are dying, die, who cares? I am telling you what it is.”
    “Just like in India what happens, they make children-they don't have toilets — they make them sit outside. And some old man saw a child and said, ‘No, no, you should not do that here.’ The child replied, ‘No, no, who are you to tell me? I will even eat it.’ ‘All right, do it,’ said the  old man and he walked away. That's what it is. I am telling you what is right. If you do not want to do it, do not do it. That's what my stand is, because I know what I am. I am Krishna. I, too, have a body, I, too, have the intellect, I have the same eyes, everything. But still, far deep within, I am detached, completely detached. If body fell fast today, I am not gone, I know where I am, I can see my body from wherever I am. But you are attached to the body, you have become the body. Detach that, detach yourself from being the body, being the senses, being the mind, being all these super impositions. Detach yourself from the action, then you will be detaching yourself from the reaction. Just do it! It is your nature. Do it.
    “As I told you, you have been exercising that duality, sukha and dukha, that happiness and unhappiness. What is that? — the desire. If you have the desire, and if it is fulfilled, you are happy; if it is not fulfilled, you are unhappy. That is all. So, you must give up that duality. Don't desire; you are desiring for the result. That is the whole problem here. So, give that up! ‘Sukha Dukhe Same Kritwa Labha Labhau Jaya Jayau’ (You must equalize, bring about an equilibrium between happiness and unhappiness.)”
    “Whether you win or lose, whether it is profit or loss, it doesn't matter. Because you are not, as I told you, a creature of this nature; and whether you get profit or loss, it is only temporary. It is here, and it has to end here. So, it is not coming with you anywhere, so why worry about this? Then, with this knowledge, come on, stand up and fight!”
    And, second thing he asks, "How can I do this?" “All right, if you do not understand, you know, the same way I taught you about God also. There is a Supreme Power: God! You have to please God, right! Then only, you will be free. Offer all this to Me. You know who I am; I am the God. I am telling you I am God. That is, offer all these actions to me; then, I will be held responsible for reactions. Since I don't attach myself, you may give it, you may leave it at My door. I may not even take it in; you have left it, and I have not accepted. It will go by its way, so why worry.”
    “So from that point of view, you offer whatever you do unto Me as a service, ‘Oh Lord, I live for You, I breathe for You, I eat for You, I am fighting for You. Whatever it is, I don't know, You are making me fight, I will fight; that is all. I am not fighting; the body fights, everything fights. It is You; everything is for You, for Your sake. I am not myself, I am Thy Self. Whatever happens, it is for You to take care of.’ Offer all these things unto the Divine, and the Divine will take care of it. It will free you, at least. What the Divine does, let the Divine decide. You do yours, you offer everything to the Divine. Let the Divine take care of that. That's what you must do. This is yoga.”
    “Yoga is nothing but the skill in what you do. The same action-you eat, you drink, you kill, you are killed; all these things happen in this world. This is the nature. But, to do all these things in a way that it doesn't bring harmful result to you, whether it be harmful or whatever it is. That is skill. The greatest skill in action is detachment. If you have and practice that detachment, you can do anything in this world; that is yoga. ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam.’ (The skill in action; that skill is this understanding!) It doesn’t mean, ‘Oh, put on nice clothes, and all that; bring the chicken, place it on the table, color it nicely, and then kill it. No!’ That is not skill. Skill is to detach yourself from actions, to free yourself from sense of doership.”
    “Now, all these things you are telling Me, ‘Oh, these are my great relatives and masters.’ Maybe these people are great today; they are elders to you today, but you might have been elder to them in the last birth. Who knows? You don't know, so you must remove that conception since you do not know. They are elders and you are younger; forget about it. They are teachers; you are taught. All right. Then you might have been something in the other way in the past. You do not know, but I know all the past. You do not know the past (that is what Krishna says later). You do not know I am born several times; you are born several times, but you do not know, but I know. I can see everything, what you are, what you were; what you will be, also I know. But for the present, you become skillful in action.”
    “So the best thing is for you to resist these clouding thoughts, inferior thoughts, that you will suffer, and go to hell and all these things. Remove these, open your eyes; turn your gaze deep within. Know you are not the body, not the mind, not anything. So since you are detached from within with the body, whatever the body does doesn't belong to you. So, thus you will become free of the reaction of which you are afraid of, ‘I will go to hell, and there I will have to suffer and such thoughts.’ Forget about it.”
    “Even according to Vedas, here if you win you will enjoy this world, the vast kingdom. If you loose the fight, in fulfilling whatever the dictum the Vedas have told you, you will go to heavens, abode of Vayu, the same wind god, and sun god, and moon god. All these people have seen you doing the right thing according to the Vedas. If they are true, you will go to the heavens, and you will enjoy there. You will enjoy either the kingdom here, or better go to heaven. You will become a martyr.”
    So that is what Krishna has been trying to tell. With all these things, Arjuna says, “Yes, I think it is affecting me a little. Now, I would like to know about what You say that I should turn my gaze deep within and watch myself, and what I am, and about these actions. Those who have understood this are yogis, as You say, that I must be a yogi, I must become a yogi. You told me all this, ‘I must detach myself, and offer all these things to you, and all that.’ Those who have done it, have You seen anybody? Can you please tell me how they act, how they talk, how they live, what they do?”
    This is the question after all these things, Arjuna asks, and this is the best part of the BHAGAVAD GITA, “Sthita Pragnasya Ka Bhasha, Samadhistasya Keshava. Sthitha Dhi Kim Prabhasheta Kim Asita Vrajeta Kim.” (How do they talk, how do they move, what is the nature?) They have turned over the Nature, and they have created their own nature, nature of the Divine. What is the Divine Nature that they have imbibed? What have they achieved whatever it is? And how do they act in this world? According to that, if you detach yourself from the body, mind, actions, all such things, they must be something. What are they? And after detaching, if they still exist in this world, how do they act? The body, as You say, they are different from the body, mind, and senses, but still they are property of the world, and the world keeps on making them act. You can not distinguish, because they also eat, I also eat, you also eat. They also walk, You also walk, I also walk. They also talk, You also talk, I also talk, all right. But, what is the difference? How can I recognize them? How is it recognized that they have reached that point, that state of equilibrium where nothing touches them? Though they are there, though they are acting, they are not acting.”
    Once, Krishna was on the other side; He was always fond of ladies, and we think the moment He was with the ladies, “Oh, He was amorous, He was interested in women.” No, not that. He was God, because what were they? They were all devoted to the Lord. They were incarnated just for their redemption. So God had promised them that, “When I will be born like Krishna, you will be born like gopis. Then with My presence, you will come in contact with My touch, and you will all be redeemed.” That is what the promise was, so He was fulfilling that.
    Then once Jamuna, the river, flooded. So Krishna was on the other side of the town, and they all had gone there with their butter, and milk, and oh, He was a glutton. He was a party man. So all these girls, beautiful girls, their husbands were working in the fields, so they took the chance, and mothers-in-law were doing something, so they took off. All these things happen. What happens in this world now, it is the same thing happened then also. So they all went to play with Krishna, and they loved Krishna so much. They pleased Him; they gave Him butter, milk and yogurt. Meanwhile, it was flooded; when they went there, it was not flooded. It was the Jamuna. Then, there was a flood. Oh, they started crying. “Oh, my husband will be searching for me. If we don't run, he will kill me. My mother-in-law will do this, that.” They all started crying. Krishna laughed. He said, “All right, go, and tell Jamuna, the river Jamuna, ‘If Krishna is a bachelor, please give us way.’” They all started, instead of crying, laughing, “Krishna, You have been playing with us, You are touching us, touching us this way and that. You are a glutton, You are eating, and now You want the Jamuna to think You are a bachelor?”. Then He said, “Don't doubt, go.” They went and said, “Ma Jamuna, if Krishna is a bachelor, and free of all, what we think He is full of, please give us way.” Just like in Exodus, we hear that when Moses said, “Part!”; it parted. Like that, Jamuna gave way. They walked back, and then She started forward. They were all surprised. Why?
    That is what yoga is. That is why Krishna is called Yogeshwara, master of yoga. He is the Master of yoga. “Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum.” We sing sometimes, “Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum. Krishnam Vande”; that is, I bow down to You. “Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum”; You are the Jagat Guru, the world teacher to Whom we bow down. That is what the chant is: “Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum, Krishnam Vande Jagat Gurum.”
    So also, Durwasa, in MAHABHARATA, we come across so many things about him. He was a very touchy person; he had thousands of disciples behind him. He used to move like a town. And everyone used to be shivering; he was a great achieved yogi. At the same time, he was short tempered. He was the one who called the gatekeepers of the heavens to be born in this world. Once he was asked by Duryodhana, as he was pleased by the services rendered Him “I am pleased. What do you want me to do?” “You go to Draupadi, you go to Pandavas, and after they have eaten, you must go and ask for food. And they can not give, so at that time you can curse.” He said, “All right.” He went, and arrived at that time after the meal was completed and the dishes washed and asked to be fed. He was saved anyway because Krishna heard the call. Dharmaraya said, “All right, you please go and take your bath, and food will be ready.” There was nothing. They were all depending on only one bowl that Suriya had given, sun god had given them. In the morning after taking bath, they would sit and they pray for whatever they want, it would give. Once Draupadi ate, it means it is finished. So that day, she had eaten the spinach. And she had washed it and put it away for the day; the day was done.
    So these people came after that. “What am I going to do?” Everybody started worrying. Then Dharmaraya called the brothers; he called, “Krishna, Krishna.” He did not come. Draupadi called, He did not come. And then Arjuna called, He did not come. Then Bhima was sitting idle. He said, “Bhima, come here.” “What brother?” “You don't take part in anything here.” He was the greatest yogi, really speaking. He was completely detached. He said, “You ask me, and I will obey you. See, we have tried to call Krishna. See, Durwasa has come with his battalion, the whole town, thousand people, they have gone to bath, and they are coming, and within that time we have to cook for all those people; we don't have anything. What can I do? We called Krishna; He is our only savior. We all called; He didn't come. Why not you try?” “All right, if you think my call will reach Him. I obey your command.” He threw his mace, and said, “Krishna if you want, my brother wants, come.” So before it touched his chest, there was a hand that held it. “Oh boy, what Bhima? I am a family man; I have my children, I have wife, not only wife but wives, and I was there and you called me. What do you want?” “I don't want anything my Lord; my brother wants Your help.” Krishna said, “Oh boy!”
    He went and asked what the situation was. Dharmaraya explained the whole situation. He said, “Durwasa has come.” Krishna knew Durwasa, “He and his followers are hungry. They want to be fed. What am I going to do?” Krishna said, “Without something I can not do anything. You must offer Me something; what can you offer? Let me see. Did you all finish eating?” “Yes, I even cleaned it,” said Draupadi. “Just find out if there is anything sticking there.” She said, “No, I cleaned it well.” He said, “No, no, just find out.” She went and saw there was a small piece of spinach sticking. He said, “Oh, give Me that.” He took it, and ate it, and said, “Oh, I am full.”
    The moment that He said, full, all those people who were taking their bath said, “Um, um, um.” And then everybody came and nobody was hungry. Durwasa said, “Oh, I am full and I don't feel hungry any more.” And Bhima took the mace and said, “We have cooked everything for you, and now you are not hungry, come on!” “No, no, no, please save us. No, we are not hungry; we can not eat any more now.
    Why? That is why we say, “Eko Vishurmahadbhutam Prithagbhutan Anekashaha. Trim Lokan Vyaptabhutahma Bhungte Viswa Bhugavyahaya.”. That is what we pray every day before we eat, “Krishna, please accept whatever we offer.” Whether we offer it to Jesus or offer it to Buddha or whosoever, they are God, the Supreme; they are the Brahman. The manifestation of that Brahman is what we call Krishna, or whatever it is. Because we can not see Brahman, so it is a manifestation of that Brahman that we can see. This is Sakara, that is Nirakara, with shape and with out shape, that is all. It is the same entity.
    So, the whole universe is a part of the same thing. You see. If the center is full, everything is full. So when Krishna feels happy, the whole world is happy. At this time, He recognized, He made them all recognize, and gathered all those souls, and said, “I am happy, and everybody was happy.” They could not eat anything. So thus, the day was saved. That is this one story.
    Why I was telling this was how Krishna is Yogeshwara, detached. He was just detached. And second thing is, Ramakrishna also told the same thing. Here, Krishna said, “There must be something which you must give Me, and in return I can give you this whole thing. Swalpamapyasya Dharmasya Trayate Mahato Bhayat. That is what Krishna says to Arjuna in this. “Yoga is such a thing, even if you do a little practice, the results are great. It will remove even the greatest fear, fear of hell, fear of all kinds, lot of fear.” That means to say, it removes the ignorance. Yoga is the sandpaper with which you can clean the rust that is ignorance. Then, it will start shining. Yoga is sandpaper, use it. It will make you shine. The fear (that the rust covering you) deluding you will vanish. You will go, will clean down when you start doing yoga, that is when you start using that sandpaper. Then it will go. So, even if you do a little, it does not matter. Rewards are great.
    Once, a farmer used to get up in the morning, and say, “Oh Ram,” with all the heart. That's all he said, and he went and did all the work and came back, and took care of the household and all these household duties, and before sleeping, he said, "Ram, I offer all this to You. Thank You very much." And he slept. That's all he said; that's all he said! And there were other monks who gave up everything, and went to ashram, and what they did not enjoy at home, they started enjoying in the ashram: timely meal, ring the bell and give them tea, and give them food, and people came and offered them watches, silk shirts, and all these things. And they enjoyed. Just like our priests, they come in three suits to tell about how God didn't even have a place to bury His head, but they have beautiful houses. And they get $200,000 a year, and God didn't even have anything to eat. They represent them; that is what these monks do. If they had joined the work, they would not even have been paid $4.25 an hour. Now, they get plenty of money; they can travel in first class whereas you have to wait for one year even if you have to go by bus. That is the whole situation. Thank you.
BHAGAVAD GITA: DISCOURSE 12

    They have the scripture and all the followers of that religion strictly try to follow the text. So, very many times what happens is the text doesn't give you anything other than talk about things. Very many times if you keep on going through the text, it becomes self-contradictory. What is said in the beginning may be contradicted in the end; what is said in the end may not appear in the beginning. All these things happen. So, if you go through, if you do not understand in what context it is said, why it is said, why it is not said, all these things, the people will be confused. Common people, common intellect can not grasp; so, people will be confused. That is the reason why, though they are sincere in following the scriptures, their actions are quite different. That is what it is.
    Vedas proclaim actions and its virtues. We have discussed about the actions; you must act. Nobody can abstain from involving in actions. Actions are important to survive. It is the action which brings you the fruits; for what type of fruit you want, you must do that particular type of action, and that will fulfill your desires. You must have desire in order to fulfill yourself. You must act, you must do karma, you must do the actions, rituals, and it will give you the result. That is what is said. And, later on in the Gita, as it goes forward, it says, you must desist from the actions; you should not act. It is the actions which bind you to this world, this world full of woes of which you are afraid, of which you are always suffering. So, don't act; that is what it says.
    Now, the sincere student who wants to be very true to the injunctions of the Vedas will be confused. Now, what to do or not to do will be the question. That is what has brought the great confusion here. As Arjuna wants to fight, he is deluded, he is confused; he is talking right. See, Vedas said, “You must not kill, you must not injure, you must not do all those things,” and at the same time, they have also said, “In a war, you have a right to kill your enemies for the sake of the good, in order to save the good,” and all such things.
    “Now, Bhishma and all those people, they are good people so why should I kill them? And Duryodhana and others, they are bad, worse, but still they are kith and kin. So if I kill them who are my blood relations, it will be a great sin. I will go to hell. So, on one side if I read, it says kill; the other side says don't kill.” So that is the reason why he is perplexed.
    So, Krishna tries to remove this by various methods, explaining as to what it is. He says, “You must remember you are deluded. You are perplexed because you are trying to understand Vedas; all right, but you don't have discrimination. The power of discrimination has vanished from you. If you do not have power of discrimination, you can not act; you can not understand in what context it has been said that you kill and don't kill. You see?” In order to do that, He explains what it is, what the desire is. In order to get out of this perplexity, in order to remain at peace, remain calm, quiet, and dutiful, what should you do? What do the people do? Those people who have established themselves in that highest state of consciousness, that is what you should follow; you should remain there. They do, but they don't do; they act, but they don't act. See, how contradictory it is, how paradoxical it is. They act, but still it doesn't amount to be an action. Why?
    That's what He is trying to explain. So Arjuna asks, "Why, explain to me how to follow them, how to recognize them, how to realize the state of such people so that I could understand, I could know so that I too could become that. Those who have established themselves in that highest conscious state where they are unbound, uninfluenced, unperplexed, beyond delusion, those who have established themselves in that highest knowledge, highest wisdom, how are we to recognize them? We can recognize them only by their movements, by their talk. So, how do they talk? What are their body movements, or what are their sound bites, what are those things by which we can understand them? Will You please explain to me?” Then Krishna says, “Yes, I will do that.”
    “You must understand those people who have established themselves in that highest knowledge move freely amongst all the things in this world, and amongst all the objects of the senses. But still, none of these objects influences them; they are beyond their influence. Though they live in the Himalayas in the cold; and somewhere where it is hot, it doesn’t bother them. They will be sweating; they do not know that they are sweating. They are cold; they don't mind what cold is. And such people do not bother about the joy or the pain. Why? Because, they don't have any more attachments or desires. Vedas said to do, only when you have desire. When you are desire bound, in order to fulfill your desire, you will have to act very sincerely, seriously according to the rituals. If you perform them, you will get what you desire. But, these people do not have any need, they do not have any more desire. Why? Those people who desire have become subservient to the movement of the senses and the mind. The mind, the senses, and the body-they are ruling them. They are extrovert; that is why they hanker after the objects. Whatever the senses crave, that craving influences their actions. In order to fulfill that, they have to act. That is why those people act; they ‘do’. But these people are established in themselves; they are happy. Their individual self has become established in the Greater Self.
    And when we read Sanskrit, the same word can be used for many things. Atma which is established in itself, the other Atma, but are there two atmas? No. The individual self is also called atma, and the Paramatma, that is the greater self of mind, that hidden part of my own being is also called the self. This individual self establishes itself in the greater self when you are devoid of all these afflictions, these desires. When there are no desires, the senses become inactive, the mind becomes inactive, all these become inactive. In a sense, they become standstill. These people are established in that state so they don't allow the movement of the senses to run toward their objects, because there are no desires. It is that desire which motivates them. They don't have that because they are content. When you desire, then you are not content. When you are content, you do not need, and you do not desire. When your stomach is full, even if you get the best thing, you don't want to eat. They are full; they are content with themselves having established themselves in themselves. That is, small self, the individual self being completely merged in the highest state of that hidden self; it is full. Then, what should one desire? So, they don't desire. And when they have established themselves in that particular state in which they are not there, what can the mind do, what can the senses do, what can the body do? They don't do anything, but the nature — they are still part and parcel of the nature. The body, mind, senses, everything belongs to the nature, so nature keeps on working through them, but it will have no meaning for them. They move but they don't move, they talk but they don't talk, they eat but they don't eat.
    As I told you the other day about Krishna eating the butter and yogurt, still, He “is” because there is no desire. He doesn't need. It is you who wanted to please yourself by feeding Him; you feed Him. By feeding Him, you establish yourself, you merge yourself in Him. So, if He is satisfied, you are satisfied. If you are not satisfied, you feel miserable. So, in order to avoid it, you want to offer, “Oh Lord, take this.” The Lord accepts it, “Oh, you are happy.” Why are you happy? This hand gives to this hand, and it is happy. If it doesn't, it falls. See. So, God doesn't want that to happen; it is the same self. It wants to encourage the little self to merge itself into the greater self. That is the ultimate thing.
    So, once you establish in that, what happens is that you are devoid of all the other experiences like pain, sorrow, joy, and all these. Neither the experience of joy when good news come, or sorrow when something bad happens. There is nothing like bad or good for them because they are far beyond the reach of all these dualities, the product all these three attributes, all these three afflictions on them. It is only so long as you exist and identify with the body, the mind and the senses, and exist in the framework of the Nature, that you will experience all this; you need them. But since they have gone beyond that, their wisdom is completely devoid of all these things. They are established in that state of equilibrium, samadhi. They are there so nothing can penetrate, nothing can reach. There is no nature beyond the region of the Nature.
    They have no desire, so they don't have to fulfill anything, so they don't need the senses. Since they don't need the senses, they don't want that supervisor, the mind, and they don't need the means of body in order to experience it, nothing. Though they are there, they are not there; everything is there, but they are not there. They are no longer extrovert; they are completely introvert. You can not find them where they are because your intelligence, your scope of vision is restricted, so you can not see.
    And, how to establish yourself like that? The delusion, it is that delusion which makes one keep away from experiencing that state. So, even when you do many good things, still that ego, that little bit of ego spoils the whole thing. A pinch of salt will break the whole lot of milk. That is why Krishna says, “You must offer everything in the beginning, and you do this until you reach a particular stage where you don't distinguish between yourself and God. You will have to offer everything unto God so that you will be free from ego, so that ego may not touch you. So, as an offering unto God, do this without any desire; don't have any desire for yourself. Your only desire will be to offer everything unto God, everything: living, breathing, eating, whatever it is, that attitude. With that attitude, if you do, those actions will not bother you. You have no desire and in spite of acting, those actions do not bind you and you will not be deluded. It is those desires which delude; the delusion will take away your understanding, it will take away the power of discrimination. You can not distinguish between good and bad; you can not understand truth from untruth.”
    All these things happen because your intellect is completely clouded. So, you be free; you can become free only by doing what you are doing by offering everything unto God. So, involve the greater self, so the greater self will accept everything. As I told you, Krishna though He ate butter, He didn't feel anything because He didn't want it. So, He doesn't want it, but you have offered. It is your duty to offer; it is His duty to accept. That is all. But, neither does He want it nor do you want it; it goes somewhere. So, neither of them will be bound by the reaction, the karma. That is the reason why God accepts everything in this world. He need not, but still He accepts to free you from the results because that is the only way in which people can progress and become redeemed. As it goes on, slowly and slowly, that karma also becomes thinner and thinner; then, even offering becomes less and less because there is no more to offer. There is no desire. There is a clear understanding of being born, and then he realizes who is to offer what to whom. Then one realizes when the delusion is thinned down, that ignorance is vanished; then, he sees clearly that he is only the image and he tries to merge himself into that Truth. He remains no more an image, but he becomes the Reality, the part of the Reality, the Whole. When the part becomes the whole, then there is no game; the game is over. That is what these people have done.
    Since they have done that, still there is a little bit of karma for which they have to pay, last toll. That is the reason why they exist, because the body, mind, everything, they serve, they have served. Every molecule is alive. You must understand there is nothing without summum bonum of life, substratum of all this creation, whatever you see and unsee, the dust, everything is pervaded by that life, that Divine, everything.
    Everything is evolving; they have a purpose as to why dust has become dust, and me has become me, and you has become you. So, everything has got a meaning and a purpose in this; everything has to evolve. So, the body, mind, and everything that has helped you, they too seek. They can not by themselves evolve; that is the reason why they are attached to you. They hold on to you; without you, they can not do anything. What do you do when I am dead? You burn or bury me, whatever it is. All molecules that made your person is dispersed. Then what? You have to find out somewhere, somebody else. All those particles which serve in such great persons absorb the spiritual awareness. That is why we revere their body after death. When a saint dies, we worship them. In Goa for Saint Francis, every 12 years they used to open the casket, and the body was in tact: no smell, nothing, all that. Now, I think they have done something; it is getting lost now. So, for a long time, the body remained. Even when Aurobindo died, for 3 days the body appeared as if he was alive. They charge; these molecules will become active. They develop; they form, they join somebody, something else, somewhere else, they become active and they slowly evolve.
    Everything is in evolution here. Even every molecule in our body, they have a duty; they have come to you so that if you do good, they will also be sharing your results. That is the reason why when I touch the feet of my Master, even though I don't know where my Master is, I'll be touching him because he is everywhere in the body, in the mind, everywhere. When my Teacher tells me something, I obey. I feel as if it is the truth. Why? It has got that charge; he is there. In the voice, in those movements of the voice, I see him. That is the reason why he touches me. “Don't do that!” Whenever I try to do it, I don't feel like doing it. Why? He has told me. What makes me not to do when he has told me not to do? That force, it is just a word. It is not merely a word; it is the force. So, it’s the word that we can not see, that force that we can feel.
    I told you when people touched Jesus’ garment, they were cured. What is that garment? He pervades everything that touches Him; that is the whole thing. That is the reason why we worship the body, mind, everything that the great ones have touched. It works. Even the stone on which they sat has the power. So, that is the state that happens when you merge yourself into that Supreme Consciousness. So, that is the state in which they remain.
     Krishna says, “If you want to do that, you must take yourself away from being influenced by killing and not killing, all these things that you have been told. Vedas have told, Dharma has told not to kill, and all that. If you have a desire, if you do all those things, but offer everything unto Me, offer everything unto Me, then you will be free of the reactions and their results. You will be free; in spite of killing, you will not be killing, if that is the fear.” Thus, He keeps on explaining to him all about the state of the person who has reached the utmost, one who has established his intelligence, wisdom in the highest state of equilibrium, samadhi.
    It is difficult to explain; it is difficult to find because by simply watching, we can not understand. Their movements, their talks are very confusing because they talk from somewhere, and we try to understand from somewhere. So, that is the reason why very many times the scriptures do not help us much. On the contrary, it brings us a lot of confusion. Thank you very much.
BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 13

    Krishna is trying to explain about the signs to recognize those people who have established themselves in the highest wisdom. Wisdom is the cream of knowledge, as knowledge itself is the cream of all our actions. Wisdom is necessary in order to both manage wisely in this terrestrial world and also beyond. Mostly, what He has been telling is about those who are established in that highest knowledge, the wise people, those who are enlightened. They do not seem to be victimized by their senses nor their organs any more. They are established; they have asserted their authority on them. The wise ones make use of them instead of them making use of the wise ones. The wise ones distinguish themselves from their involvement in the phenomenal body, mind and senses. Having learned the subtle relationship, they know when to turn it off and when to turn it on. The wise people do that. So, all that they have to do is move. In spite of moving with everybody, moving in this world, Loka (Loka means not only within the body, but also this world. The world means the objects. The world would not exist anymore if you do not have senses and their objects. It is only that which makes us believe that there is a world.) So, they move in the world with that mastery over the senses.
    In spite of moving in this world, in spite of utilizing their senses with their sense objects, seeing, touching, all these things, in spite of all that, they see that it doesn't have any reaction on them, on the Self which is devoid of all these things. Like the tortoise, He explains as to what the tortoise does. It sucks all its bodies; it pulls all the organs within itself when there is danger. Have you seen it? Like that, the wise people withdraw the senses from the sense objects; they make their senses withdraw from their objects, and hold them under their thumb. Once the senses do not go to their objects, then there is no action and reaction. So, it doesn't produce any result for them so they need not worry about it. They have control. Most of the others do not; we do not have control. And, they are devoid, in spite of moving with all their objects, the senses and their objects following them, still they are turning away from the results of them. That is another way of putting it. Either, it must bring joy, or it must bring pain. So, they turn away from the results of any of the actions. They do not take the responsibility of doership. They do not identify themselves with those actions, reactions, and the results; so, they are free.
    Once they withdraw themselves, then everything else will follow them anyway. When I am dead, what will happen? Mind does not work, eyes do not see, hands do not stretch, do they? So, they follow me. As I have explained several times, when we die we burn or bury only our gross body, but what about the subtle body? There are other sheaths which have to follow. It is they who take over in the next birth, the next installment of your set of experiences. You need this; this is the opening. They open their offices — the eyes, the legs, and everything. That is the reason why, especially the human, the moment that you are born, you don't walk, you don't see, you don't talk. It takes a long time because they have to bring out all those subtle faculties; so, all have to wait. Slowly, they come and organize; they start talking and walking and, “Oh yeah, my child walks, my child talks, yes.” That is what happens. So, once they withdraw themselves from the senses, senses are gone from the objects.
    But another thing, as I have been telling, it is interesting. Then, is it the final act if you are capable of withdrawing the senses from the objects, is it the completion? Does it mean any wisdom? Oh, not necessarily, it is an attempt. What happens is that you may take away the objects from the senses, like we put a censorship chip now in the TV, but does it mean that far deep within our mind we are not hankering after what they want to see? Take away the lollipop from the hand. You may take it away, but still the child hankers to eat the lollipop. The moment that you talk of it, it makes its presence. So, that is not the final solution. Taking away the objects from the senses, or withdrawing the senses from the objects, but replacing it with the highest taste, the highest experience. That is God. That is realizing your own Self, the blissful state of your own being. Once you have done that, having realized your Self, the Beatitude, having achieved that, then you don't hanker after things. The senses do not run to their objects any more. Even if they run, they do not bother. It is the least concern. There will be no hankering; that is the most important part of it. You can take away the object or you can lose your senses.
    Many people operate on themselves in order not to allow the senses to run after their objects. But still in the mind, even after all that, that hankering  continues. And this hankering will go away only when you establish yourself in your Self, in the true Self. When you recognize yourself, and delve deep within yourself, that is to say, having achieved that wisdom, the highest knowledge of yourself, then all these things will go away. Neither there will be hankering, nor the senses will run to the objects, nor the objects will have any meaning for the senses because you are the enjoyer. You do not want that; you are satisfied. So, you tell the mind you are satisfied, and then mind tells the senses, “It is o.k; everything will be fine.” That is what the wise people do.
     Once they have gone through this, they will establish themselves in that highest State. It takes a long time, but you can achieve that by having understood the process: objects and senses, and your being, and identifying yourself with Yourself, but not with the body, and the senses and their objects, and being moved by the results of the senses and their objects like pleasure and pain. You must run away from that; then, you will be the wisest guy.
    What happens is this — desires; it is the desires which prompt the running of the senses to their objects. So, what happens is that you just come across something and you see, either you see with your eyes or you hear with your ears or something, somehow. You develop a craving; you develop a desire for an object. Just go and see; it is a beautiful thing, then you want to have it. Once you see it, you always develop that desire. Then the desire becomes will, and you MUST have it! Until you have it, you are not satisfied. So, you go, and when you go there, there is another guy who wants the same thing, and he will buy it. Then, you are disappointed. Either, you will feel sorry, you will cry, beat your chest, beat your head against the wall — you are disappointed — or you will go and fight, get hit, and then you will lie down in the hospital. The result is this.
    So, you must try to develop that dispassion, detachment, desirelessness so that your senses will not run to their objects. Once you allow your senses to go to the object, in order to fulfill the desires that you have, that you develop, then it brings in all kinds of problems which takes away your patience, takes away your discretion, your reasoning. You want to fight and get it no matter what, whether it is worth it or not, it doesn't matter. You will be running after it. If the desire becomes that will, as I have explained earlier, if you are not successful in this life, that will be the opening balance for the next life. You will be hankering right from the beginning without your own knowing. “I do not know why my child is developing an attachment for this.” He is not born today. He is carrying on that attachment for a particular thing since the last birth. It goes on and on.
    So that, if you do not check that desire, do not have control on your senses, and if you let loose as you let loose your children running in the street, then the cars will run over them. If you let your senses run, what will happen? It will create the disappointment if you do not get it, and when you do not get it, out of disappointment, you become desperate, angry. Because of anger, you become completely attached to that. Unless you have it, you are not going to be happy. Once you develop that, there is no place for anything else except this anger. When anger takes over, it makes you blind, and in that blindness you don't see any reason. There will be no power of discrimination; you lose everything. Once you lose, you lose your peace, and that wisdom, that intellect. Everything is gone; once it is gone, you become bankrupt. The man finds his end; though he is living, he is almost gone because he has lost his reason. You tell the neighbors to come and tell them to reason with him or her, and everybody comes and tries to reason with him or her. He or she remains adamant.
    All that we need is peace. In order to achieve anything in this world, we have to have the peace. In order to have the peace, we have to realize ourselves, what we  are in essence. Try to develop the detachment because in this world you can not close your eyes and sit under the tree. You have to move around; you have to. You have to go shopping, go to the market, you have to see here, you have to go to a movie. You do all these things, but with a sense of detachment. It is that detachment, and you forget about it. It is all right, gone, not to carry on that. So like that, you should develop that skill. Krishna says, “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam (It is the skill in action).” These are all the actions in which we have to show the skill; that is, develop detachment. In doing your things, if you detach yourself completely, then in spite of being involved with the senses and their objects, and all that, still you will enjoy that peace. You will establish yourself with peace.
    Without peace, you can not achieve anything in this world. It is only that peace; for meditation, you need peace. If you are disturbed — why do I have sometimes only 4 people, and sometimes only 2 people? Because they are worried, and they have too many things to do.  Unless you have peace, you can not meditate. Meditation is only the process by which you can realize yourself, and if you do not have peace, how can you have meditation? You can not meditate. For meditation's sake, you have to have the peace. In order to have the peace, you have to have the detachment, in spite of your being in the midst of things in this world. Nobody can turn away from this world.
    So, if you do this, what will happen is this. You need not go after the desires and their objects, and their fulfillment, and all that. If you run, the objects that you seek will run away faster from you. “Nanny nanny, boo boo.” What is that? They run away. But if you stop, turn away, then they will stop coming back. You peacefully sit down, completely detached, and you will create that ocean of peace. Then all these things, they come and fulfill; everything comes and falls into that ocean. They think, “Oh, it is better to go there. Come on, let us go, let us go.” And, by that time you will have no need for them anyway. But still, they come and fall. In spite of all that, if you don't want money, money will come, you don't want car, car will come, you don't want house, you will have a big castle, but where are you? You have established yourself in that peace, in that complete peace. So, in that state, in spite of all these things falling, it doesn't cause a single ripple in your ocean of peace. You are established in the abode of that state of peace. Unless you have this peace, nothing is possible. That is what it is.
    These are the signs. And it will not happen to those people who are hankering after desires and fulfillments. “Oh, I have a plan for next week, I have a plan for this next year, I have one already for next millennium. I am going to do this, do that.” You may die this evening. Who knows? You have long distant plans, desires. What does that show? — the desires, fulfillment, all these things. “Oh, I wanted to do it, and I could not do it; I did not complete.” No, if you did spontaneously, you didn't do it; you didn't do it as there was no ego, no sense of doership, that is all.
    So, this peace and that enjoyment of that peace does not happen to those people who are constantly desiring things, but those people who have turned away from them attain that state of peace. It is they who enjoy that peace; it is they who bathe in that deep, cool ocean of peace. And not only this — we often say, in order to get salvation, Moksha, the salvation, we have to live. Only while we are living, we have to go; we have to do things too, go. No. All that you have to do is this: establish yourself in that peace. Once you are established in that peace, then you are detached completely. There is no more meaning in getting any more births. As I told you, no action, no reaction, so no desire, no fulfillment, no need for taking any more births. Then, what will happen? You will have no more births, no more body, no more senses, nothing, but you will achieve the highest. At the end of this life, what will happen? There will be the final beatitude, the final life. Then, you will achieve the highest, the true place for which you are hankering after trying all these things. That is the salvation. That is, once you have established in this, even after death it doesn't matter. If you achieve this — “Oh! should I achieve this peace now or later?” It doesn't matter. You are not going to have it like a lottery — one in 80 million you will win — no. You are not one of those one in 80 millions who have lost. You must keep on trying and even if you achieve at the last moment of your life, it doesn't matter. Last nanosecond of your life — still, you will achieve the highest.
    People may think, “Oh, he has not achieved.” No, you have been trying; you will succeed. That will take you ultimately to that stage. You will achieve this peace even at the end of your life, even at the last minute of your life, and that is all right. That will be the springboard for you to dive deep into that final Beatitude, final Salvation.
    Final salvation is possible only when you have achieved peace; peace is only possible when you have complete control on your senses and their objects. Once you have achieved all these things, then you are called a wise one; wise one because they neither rejoice at the good news nor they suffer at the bad news. There is no news for them; it is nuisance for them. So, they have turned away from the dualities. That is the way to see; that is the status that they achieve.
    “So, this is what you must do, Arjuna, you do everything. Think of Me, and do everything for My sake. You know who I am; I have told you now. I am the Supreme God. So now, you keep in your mind that you are doing all this for My sake. And don't have dejection, but reject all those things that is coming by waves on your mind-these emotions. Stop that! Try to turn within and understand yourself — the meaning of your life. Then, it  will not bother you. This is not going to bind you. You are not going to hell; you are not going to have adversities. All these sins that you are talking about, nothing of this will touch you. You will be another wise man.”Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 14

    The Lord has always been instructive. He can only instruct as to what we should do in order to extricate ourselves from this cobweb of ignorance because He is the creator; He is the One who knows everything. It is His force that is working as the Nature. Within the Nature, we are all moving around like blocks of wood in a flood, hitting each other, sometimes going alone, sometimes with the others, and sometimes fighting with each other. All these can witnessed day in and day out. It is good that we have come to know the Source of all these things, and from whose mouth we are hearing the solution also. If we can give attention, it is in our own great interest that we can redeem ourselves of these ridiculous situations that we are in.
    It is not merely the Nature. Nature has so many things, everything: subtle, gross, all kinds of forces manifesting in everything that we see, that we behold and touch. In spite of that, it doesn't affect some people, and it affects other people. That is what He is explaining. Nature, by itself, it is passive unless you poke your nose there. Smell is there; if you don't smell, it doesn't bother you. There is much sound; unless you give ears, you don't hear.
    So, He is telling us, “It is within you, my friend, it is within you. The Nature is there. It is all right, it is fine, but what relationship you have to have, and how to make the best use of the Nature is on you. It is good, it is bad, it is ugly; everything is there. It is your own selection. Don't blame Prakriti, don't blame the Nature.” If it is the creation, if it is the will of the Divine, however, if the willing force is undivine, then its will is also undivine, and the product of its will is also undivine, but fortunately in our view, the Divine is virtuous, free of all kinds of ugliness, all kinds of things that we do not see. Divine is Divine, Divine is beautiful, Divine is pure, Divine is light, peace, bliss, all these things. Its will is also that, and its product is also the same thing. It can not be different.
    Nature is not different from the Divine. If you become one with the Nature, Nature will ultimately take you to the Divine. Ultimately, where is the Nature going to end? Nature, is it going to be different all of the time? It is only a projection; it is not separate. Nature is not separate from God; it is only a projection of God. That is the reason why many times we distinguish between the Nature and the Divine, and we see the tree but not the forest. Sometimes, we see the forest, but we don't see the tree. It is one and the same. Your vision is blurred, defective. Our intellect is defective. That is the reason why we always differentiate between Nature and the Divine, and then we struggle here. So, we are struggling in the Nature, and praying to God to help us. And it is funny that we pray to God to save us from this. Where am I suffering?-in the Divine Itself. So that is the reason, if you can understand, “how can I suffer in the Nature when I can not suffer in the Divine? I am hankering after the Divine. Why?” Because there is no suffering there. There is no pain, there is no joy, there is nothing, but always a status quo, status of equilibrium; you are always in a state of something that can not be described. We can not describe, so that is the reason why we say bliss; it is a blissful state. So, if it is a blissful state, then there must be another state. See, duality comes. So, it is beyond the duality; it is a state which you can only experience. You can not intellectually explain; you can not put it into words. At the most, you can go to that finest word called bliss. That is all: light, peace, all these super-impositions. But, it is beyond all that. It is something which words can not describe.
    It is His own projection. It is God’s projection that we are living in. If the Nature is a projection of the Divine, what is Nature? What we see, we behold, what we experience is all the Divine. If the tree is a part of the Nature, if the mountain is a part of the Nature, wind is a part of the Nature, and again the earth and sky and all these things are parts of the Nature, then what are we? We are also a part of the Nature. Nature can not be without me. As a part of the Nature, Nature being the force of the same Divine we seek, we are also Divine.
    If I am in the nature, I am in the Divine. If I am suffering here, I will suffer there also. That is what the whole delusion is — Maya. It is another subtle force of the nature. It has two parts: Maya, one the binding, one the releasing from the bondage. It is a swinging door. It closes so long as you do not push it; you push it and it opens either outside or inside. You must know which side you have to push. First of all, you have to remember and know on which side you are, whether inside or outside. They all look alike. If you put your finger in one, it will burn; in the other, it soothes. It is the same thing. That is the whole Maya.
    Why should we suffer? We are not suffering; we feel that we are suffering. Each one has their own qualities, attributes. The trees have their own, the animals have their own, all these things have their own. In the process of evolution, we have evolved to a position of receiving the greatest favor of God, that is the intellect. With intellect we can understand what we are. Instead of understanding the right thing, we are trying to understand the wrong thing; that is the reason. All the others are akin to nature. They are all served by instinct, but here we avoid certain things, involve in other things, volunteer something, withdraw something. We do not know from what we should withdraw, where we should invest, where we should go, where we should not go, all such things — discrimination. The other things do not have the power and advantage of discrimination. Power of discrimination is only for the one who has brain, even little brain. We are there.
    Now, that is what Krishna is trying to explain. In this Nature, there are so many things. It doesn't mean just because you have your eyes, you should see everything. There are things that you should not see; there is everything to hear, but there are things that you may not hear. There are so many sounds, so many words. There are so many foods, but you can not eat all of them. There are things that you can eat, and there are things that you can not eat. All these things need discrimination.
    That is what He says, “You must try to understand these things and try to have your control. You have been victimized by your own servants — the senses, the mind, all of them. You are there in order to rule them, but instead of that, you are being ruled over. You are running after what the mind thinks, where the senses take you. That is the reason why you have lost your independence. You have become dependent on them. Once you become dependent, they will make you dance all the time to their tune; they don't dance to your tune.”
    “So, my friend, all that you have to do is try to resist the movement of your senses, take hold of your senses, take hold of your mind. If not, what happens is that if you start trying to control your senses first, they don't recognize you. Though you are the boss, the immediate boss is the mind. They say, ‘I want the order from my immediate boss. I don't know whether you are my boss or not, who knows. My boss knows who you are, but my immediate boss is mind.’ So, what happens is, you may try to pull your senses from objects; it is all right. They will keep quiet because you are stronger than them. They still doubt, ‘Maybe you are my boss, who knows, but anyway let me just wait.’ Why unnecessarily cause rupture? When the mind comes, I will ask mind, ‘Who you are?’ So, they may keep quiet, but in a moment in all this, once the mind comes for inspection, it will say, ‘Why are you sitting quiet? Why? Come on!’ It can throw the whole thing out again.”
    “Mind is so subtle and strong. You think you are strong, but you do not know the mind. Just like the other time, He said, ‘Like the wind blows the boat on the water, the mind blows away the reasoning  and causes you to succumb to the senses.’ Similarly what happens is, in spite of all your efforts, if you make all your efforts in controlling your senses, but you do not control your mind, if the mind is let go, mind is capable of undermining all your efforts. You may be president, but he is the supervisor. He has got a stronger, direct control over the servants, not you.”
    Once it happened it seems, in India, Hyderabad was ruled by Nizam. They were all from the old Moguls who conquered India, all those Muslims. He was pious in the sense of religion. He wrote Koran in his own hand. Being a king, he was the wealthiest man in India. Nizam means nobody excels. I saw the museum of Salarjung, one of his princes, had collected some beautiful things. How rich? It is worth zillions. Salarjung was only a prince. But he was the king; he was called Nizam. He ruled a big state like Hyderabad. But in spite of being so rich, diamonds and other precious stones, gold, silver and everything, nobody knows how much he had. He had a big, huge palace, plenty of servants to attend on him; and his military officers and others wore golden insignias. But, he used to put on the simplest clothing. It may not be dirty, but it is simple, like mine-one shirt.
    Once a watchman was standing guard. In the palace, there are waiting servants everywhere who are the secret service. The Nizam was coming down the stairs, and the watchman stopped and held him, “Where are you going, what are you doing?” He said, “I live here. No, you are a thief, you have entered the palace.” Then, he held him and pulled him to the office there. The moment that the supervisor saw, he stood up and saluted. “What happened?” “This man was coming down from . . .” “He is not a man, he is our king.” He apologized and all that. Nizam said, “It is o.k., you are doing your duty.” Then, he gave him a reward, and then he went back. So, the servants could not even recognize the greatest boss.
    That is the whole problem with us. We are trying to control the senses, but we are not controlling the mind. Once we control the mind, we need not control the senses; senses will automatically be controlled. Take away the mind, the senses will cease to work. They are under their control, and we are going round there independently. No, we can not do that. That is the reason why, in spite of all your struggle in closing your eyes, your ears, and all those things, in spite of it, the mind, when it starts functioning, in spite of your eyes closed, it will make you see; it will make you hear. How many people say, “Oh, I hear voices.”? You hear voices; you start experiencing all kinds of strange things.
    Then Krishna says, “Look here. That is the reason why not only do you have to withdraw your senses from the objects, but the mind. What do you do with the mind? You do not know. You can understand the mind by its movement, that is the stream of thoughts. Thoughts are its movements. If there are no thoughts, there is no mind.”
    “Give something to the mind. That is what I always tell you. Put the Lord's name in the mind. “Matparah”, involve Me in the mind, make the mind think of Me, and then sit down, sit for meditation. Sit down. You have struggled in controlling the senses, but you do not know what the mind is, so it doesn't matter. Instead of thinking of all the other things, think of Me. My thought, thought of Me, will fill the mind. When I am there in the mind, mind can not move towards anything. When I am there, it dissolves; it becomes null and void. All its activities will cease. So, fill the mind with My thoughts so mind is taken care of and does not bother you. If I am in the mind, I will see that the mind does not bother you. And naturally, the senses don't have any connection with the mind. Mind doesn't tell them what to do, so without any order, they do not do anything. So, senses are controlled, mind is away from you.”
    “Now, you can peacefully sit down and meditate and establish yourself in a state of equilibrium. That is what these great saints, ones who have achieved this state, have done. This state about which you asked me how they achieved it. This is how they do it. Sever, withdraw the senses from their objects, one thing, and fill the mind with My thoughts. When they are free from the clutches of the mind and the senses, then what are they? They have nothing else to do but to involve in the deep meditation. Meditation is the means by which you can reach Me, reach My real state. Now, I am Krishna; beyond Krishna, I am Brahman. That is, I have become from the state of non-becoming. From being, I have become. What you are seeing is Me as becoming. Now, we will enter into My state of being which nobody knows, but you will know. So, try to do this. That is what the whole message is. Then, you will reach me there.”
    Then, of course, He keeps on telling how the mind does that, “If the mind thinks of objects, then it gets disappointed, gets into all kinds of wild dreams. When it fails to realize the dream, it becomes angry. When it is angry, it loses its power of discrimination. So, once this occurs, it loses its patience, it loses everything. If it loses its buddhi, power of discrimination, it is doomed. So, don't allow the mind to do that. So, fill the mind with My thoughts, control the mind, and then everything will be all right.” Thank you very much.  

   
 

BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 15

    It is possible, if you sever the connection between the objects of the senses and the senses from them, maybe for the time being it appears as if you have controlled the senses. It appears as if the senses are under your pressure, under your thumb. But, the moment — many times you must have experienced — the moment that what you have separated from your sense reappears, at once the sleeping senses will pounce upon you, as if a hungry snake tries to catch the mouse. So, where was the control? So, it is not possible; temporarily, you may restrict it, but nevertheless, it is not under control.
     After all, as I have explained, the senses are under the control of the mind. If the mind is under your control, and if you demand the mind to keep all the senses under its thumb, then under that assertion of your will on the mind, the mind may hold all the senses under its thumb. You must keep your thumb on the mind; mind will have to have hold onto all those senses, keep away from the senses, and the senses from their objects. Then, it is possible. That is the process.
    How are you going to control that mind, assert on the mind? Mind is a subtle force. Where does it exist? What is it made of? So, all these things are necessary to know. So thoughts — in the beginning I used to tell you before the meditation, all those thoughts, let those thoughts go by. Do not comment on them, and do not involve in them. What happens is, those thoughts keep the mind active. If there are no thoughts, there will be no mind because it is made up of all those thoughts. There are people without any mind. “Oh,” we say, “he doesn't have a mind because he doesn't have a thought — thoughtlessness.” It is not possible to stop the constant movement of the thoughts. Even at present, if you have resisted yourself from involving in the sense objects, in the memory there are many things that have already been established. If you stop them, then the mind will project its own. You know the cows; they eat everything first, and then it keeps on bringing it out and keeps on chewing it, munching. The monkey, you must have seen, at once, it puts everything in the mouth; it stocks, and then when it goes up on the tree, then it keeps on eating it at leisure. That is what the mind does.
    First thing is — last time when I went to put something in my air conditioner, Freon, the mechanic said I have to vacate the whole thing and then refill. I did not know what the process was; then he charged me twice because he had to remove the whole thing and again put it in. It was all right. So like that, the same process we have to do. We have to empty the whole mind, remove all the thoughts that are there already, and then we have to put new thoughts that are convenient and congenial to you. That is what Krishna says, “Fill your mind with thoughts of Me, thoughts of God, thoughts of the Divine. Fill it in such a way that it will force all the other dormant thoughts to move out. It will replenish the mind with thoughts of Me. Once the mind is full of thoughts of Me, the mind will make the senses go only to My things like worship, collecting the flowers. Whenever you go to shop, say “Oh, these are nice fruits for Krishna; I want to offer this for Krishna. This is this, this is that. Oh, I want to clean this because I am doing this puja tomorrow, all such things.”
    So, in every activity, in every object, everywhere you see Krishna, Rama, Jesus, whatever it is. “Fill the mind with one of them, then the mind will be full of thoughts of Me.” Since you do not want the mind to allow the senses to run to their objects, it will settle down. Mind is happy, senses are at rest, then it is at that time you can sit for meditation. If not, what happens is, if you keep on allowing your senses to run to their objects, and mind is engaged in experiencing and gaining all those things, then, as I told you, it is not always successful that the senses will get to their objects. They hanker, they desire but they may not; they will be disappointed, and then you will be upset, then you will be angry. Then what will happen is that you will lose your patience, you lose your balance, state of equilibrium. Then, you do not care what it is. That is the reason why people kill, people do all kinds of weird things. Why? For that moment, they have lost the power of reasoning; they have become insane because they are angry. It is the overruling power — anger. It diminishes all the other senses, all the reasons, everything. Once you lose that balance, once you lose that power of reasoning, then you are gone. Once you are gone, you can not sit for meditation, you can not read, you will be wandering like a crazy man without any aim. So, the whole life will be a waste, the whole birth will be a waste.
    Instead of that, if you make an effort to fill the mind with thoughts of Me, control, through the mind, try to control all the senses, and let them be at rest. Then, when you sit for meditation, that will be a successful meditation. You go deep. And when all the senses are still, mind is still, far within you are awake, that is the time when you make your move because there is no traffic; there is no traffic light there. There is nothing; you can just fly fast. It doesn't matter at what speed. And when they are awake, when the senses are engaged with their objects, and the mind is not addressed, then you will have to keep quiet because you are not going to accomplish anything until the mind is settled, senses are settled again. So, that is your mind. That is what it is.
    So, it is only in the day time when you can walk. When it is the night for the mind and the senses, it is the day for you. It is at that time you can walk, and that day time is called meditation; samadhi is the state where you take off. And if you continue to do this, what will happen is in this lifetime, you may go beyond this nature, this world, and enter into the sphere of Brahman. Even if you do not get into that sphere while practicing here, what happens is that even after death, you need not worry. You will reach that highest state. It is not necessary that you must have your body, mind, and everything here in order to go there. On the contrary, you have to leave them all here. You have to make an effort here, and at the time, you have to leave the body here. Even if you have to stay in the body while keeping the body, you can still go and come back. If not, if you are dead, after that time what will happen? You need not come back to the body again. There will be no mind, no senses, nothing, no duty to do it, nothing. You have severed all your relations with this world, so why do you want to come back? You will have no intention to come back, so you will enter into the state of Brahman.
    Of course, then comes the doubt. Arjuna asks. Arjuna is confused; he is perplexed. It is highly paradoxical. On one side, “Oh Lord, excuse me for asking You. You told me some time ago that I must be a yogi; yoga means to do. You wanted me to fight, You wanted me to do this, You wanted me to do that, and all that. And at the same time, You told me that it is only all this work, the indriyas, that is the senses and their working, and mind and its working, and whole of living itself is a puzzle. It doesn't yield anything, but it is only the wisdom that yields something. Thus, withdraw from everything and become full of wisdom, buddhi yoga, knowledge; gain knowledge. It is only through knowledge; it is not the karma which is going to redeem you from this world, the entanglement of the world, but it is only the buddhi, jnana, knowledge, supreme knowledge, knowledge of the Brahman, knowledge of the Self. If you know That, you know everything; by knowing That, you know everything. That is what you should do; that is what You said. Now tell me, You are interested in me, You are interested in my welfare. Oh Lord, at this stage I am terribly confused. Whether I should adhere to what You said, run after jnana, run away to the Himalayas and join some ashram, and hold my nose and sit down there, take cold water bath in the winter, shiver in the winter, sit down on the rocks and pray and meditate and all such things, and get wisdom if it comes. Should I do that? Or, as You say, I am a kshatriya, involve now in the war, I have to do all these things. What should I do? Karma, whether I should do karma, or run after knowledge.”
    See, that is the reason why it is very hard for a student to tell, unless he is endowed with certain qualifications, especially in the spiritual dissemination. He should have a pure receptivity. And before that, he must have developed that mumukshatwa, that is hankering after the Brahman. “Oh, I want to get rid of this, I want to reach that height, I want to reach that state of Brahman, I want to get the salvation.” He must have that fire in him after that state. Then, he must exercise the power of discrimination and endurance. Just like the other day, I told you a student was asked to sit on the banks of the Ganges for three days, fast, but he had no patience. Third day, “No.” “All right, one more.” “No, it may take a long time or it may take a short time.” And the other story I told you Narada said, “You count the leaves in the tree. As many years as there are leaves on the tree is the number of years that you take to reach the goal.” He said, “At least after that I am going to get it. Now, let me not waste my time. Let me sit down.” So, he sat, and lo and behold, he was enlightened. So, that fire should be there, determination and the endurance; be prepared to do anything, face all the odds. These are all the qualifications. If you do not have that, it will be like honey poured on a piece of rock. That is what it is.
    Now, Krishna said, trying to make him understand about the knowledge, its workings and such. But Arjuna has not been able to grasp, because he was never into meditation and all those things anyway. He was all the time engaged in work, engaged in things, senses, their objects, all those things. The mind was running after all those external things. Now, all of a sudden, he is there in a precarious situation and Krishna is trying to tell him as simply as possible, but still he can not understand. It is hard to understand. So Krishna says, “There are two ways Arjuna, don't get confused. I told you, yes, I am explaining to you things again now. What I told you is true. Without knowledge, you are not going to achieve anything. That is the way of the wise people, those people who have that ability to detach themselves; though they work, they detach themselves from the work. Detaching themselves from the work means they have no attachment to the result of their work. They keep on doing it because they are, like everyone here, influenced by the Prakriti, the Nature. Once you come under the grab of the Nature, you are influenced by one of the qualities of the Nature, three attributes, Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas. The light, Sattva is the light, the truth. Tamas is the darkest, nescience, ignorance, dark. Rajas is action, passion, emotion.
    So, either of these things will, or sometimes all these things will influence, sometimes one thing is more predominant than the other. That is all. Nothing is free from these influences, whether it is the animals or humans, or whatever it is. Whether they know or don't know, but only thing is humans can understand, know, “Oh, I am influenced by rajas. That is the reason I am intending to do this, I think. I can stop and say, ‘Well, I am intending to meditate now, I don't want to do anything, I don't feel like doing anything. Maybe, Sattva is predominant now.’ ‘Oh, I am so tired, I want to rest, I want to sleep, eat and sleep. I want to have a glass of wine, eat, and sleep. That is Tamas. I want to fight, I want to argue, all these things, Tamas. It is all right, just take it easy.’ ‘And then comes Sattva. It doesn't matter, he is free.’” That is what all these earlier statements were. One who is established in this knowledge, he is not perturbed by anything, so it is he who quickly moves towards the Brahman.
    Sometimes one has to develop that will in order to assert one's will over the other. There will be a force; these are all the subtle forces, this darkness, the ignorance, Tamas. When it tries to influence, “Oh no, take a walk. I don't want to sleep now, I want to get up, I want to do this.” “Oh, I want to drink, I want to have a drug, I want to go after drugs.” “Oh, no, that is going to kill me, that is going to deprive me of my being whatever I am.” No, so substitute it with something else, divert your mind from that, all these things. Thus, you have to exercise your reason, and exercise your will. Thus, you can change because each one of you are Prakriti, right? If one thing is falling, put it back and pull the other thing. If the Tamas is coming back, replace it from where you got it. We fail because we have lost our will. That is what I have been telling you. Will, we don't have. That is the reason why only the Prakriti, the Nature, is predominant in the person who has lost or is subservient to the other will. If one exercises one's will, then he or she can assert his or her will even on the Nature.
    Many times I told you about Baba. All of a sudden, He said, “Everybody go to that shed. It is going to rain.” Everybody laughed. He asked, Is everybody there?” “Yes.” Then lo and behold, within a couple of minutes there were dark clouds, and it was flooded, plenty of rain. And also where there was Rishyashringa. Wherever he walked, he brought the rain. So, during Rama's time, all the rishis (recluses) went and prayed, “Please come.” And the moment that he came, there was rain. All these things can happen, after all, Prakriti is the product or the projection of the image of what? — the Brahman. What are you? You are the Brahman. You are the chip of the same old block. If the Prakriti is the projection of that Brahman, is it not your own projection, too? If he is the home servant, if he is the servant of the king, he has to obey even the princess. Are you not a princess? That is what it is. We have to assert and keep all these things going.
    That is what He says. What happens is, I told you about those people who are after knowledge. They don't want anything. They are neither after these heavens, nor about the pleasures of this world. They don't want to be rich, they don't want to be great poet laureates, or great artists, or great swamis, or whatever it is. They don't want recognition. All that they want is the knowledge of that Brahman. They don't even worry about their body, mind, or anything. They are absorbed in the thought of that Brahman, so naturally those thoughts will become concrete. As I told you, the desire when it becomes too strong a desire, it becomes will. When it becomes the strong will, depending upon the intensity of that will, it will fructify, it will yield result. That is what happens here. Those people forget about everything, they are concentrated, they put everything there. Their desire is Moksha, the liberation, or merge in Brahman. That is the desire; they are after that. That desire becomes complete will. That will will make them completely immersed in that thought, in the process, so they don't even care about the body, mind, and everything, no existence for them. Thus, ultimately what happens, without their own knowing, they are already there. You see the body, you see the body move, you see that the eyes see, but are they seeing you? Is the body doing anything? It is the Prakriti, the Nature does Her work, but he is gone already. Due to prabdha, that is past karmas, the body is there, the body will have to finish that karma. That is why, in spite of having established themselves there, still they have to do some things in this world as a final payment because they are not coming back to pay anybody anything. They don't want to leave the bill for anybody. They will suffer, they will do everything, but they are not suffering. It is the body, it is the mind, it is the senses that suffer or enjoys, whatever it is. It is here and now, that's all, finished. They are already gone.
    But what happens with the yogis? Yogi means one who is engaged in the work. Sri Patanjali says, “Pravritti Lakshane Yogah: To involve in work is yoga.” Krishna says, “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam: The skill in involvement is what is said to be yoga.” Do everything unattached. Do not hanker after results; work should be offered as an unattached service.
    That, the suffering, is the influence of the Rajasic, rajas, the emotion, the love, the hate, all these things come there. So they too, they either do good things, bad things, or whatever it is. They keep on doing. They go to work, they marry, they have children, they do this, do that, and so on. They keep on doing, and they become kings, they become paupers, they become beggars, they become, all these things. But, they have no thought of God; they don't have any idea about doing anything for that. They keep on engaged in this world. That is what the Prakriti wants. They are subservient to Prakriti. The other one to whom Prakriti is subservient, here these people who are engaged in only the work, will become subservient because they act in order to have the result. In having the result, they experience, enjoy, suffer, whatever it is. That is all, one circle, big circle; they never get out of the loop, the Prakriti, the Maya. They will be stuck with the Maya, and they will be going round and round. Even when the exit comes, they will jump over the exit; they are afraid to go through. Thus, it goes on.
    But what happens is, in that case, does it mean that we should decide not to involve ourselves in work at all? No. This is where we have to have the power of discrimination, what to do, what not to do, in what we have to engage, in what we are not to engage. Especially when it comes to karma yoga. Karma means that which you are expected to do; like the religious texts, your masters have told what to do, so you are bound to do those things. When you do those things, even if you are doing that, it is not affecting you. The results are not affecting you because it is dictated to you by the religious texts or ordered by the master, the preceptor.
    Just like sacrifice, they talk about the sacrifice in the Gita. Sacrifice, you have to do the sacrifice. Why? It purifies your heart, it purifies everything. Sacrifice means purificatory process. Purificatory process, how does it work? Sacrifice means to offer. Offer to whom? Offer to those who give you the pleasure. After all, you are hankering after pleasure. You do not want the pleasure here; you want the greater pleasure, that is the heavens. And if you want to go to heaven, you must please the person who is in heaven. Who is that? Indra, the demigod, the chieftain of the heavens; so, you appease him. He is greater than you, he is stronger than you. I am talking about the karma. If you step away from the desire for heaven, then you become that buddhi yogi, jnana yogi, then even Indra will come and serve you. You see, you don't care for Indra, you don't care for heavens, and he says, “Please come and visit us in the heavens before you go, please.” That is what it becomes. They run after those people, but here, you run after them. That is the difference.
    What happens, yajna, you have to do it; sacrifice, you have to do, because when you do sacrifice according to the text, according to what you have been taught, then it is pleasing the god. When you are happily engaged, harmoniously engaged in friendship with all those demigods, and you appease them, and they favor you with seeking pleasure, then you are happy. God loves it. That is why you have to do sacrifice. It will please the god because you are happier. It doesn't mean that you are going to reach Brahman. For Brahman, again, you have to come back. Where karma ends, jnana starts. As I told you, God has given us all these indriyas, that is the senses, body, mind, intellect, all these things, seen and unseen, things that we are endowed with. We can not even know what we are endowed with. An artist, from where did he get that force to paint? Where did the poet get that thing to imagine and write poetry, all these things? We don't know. It is coming from somewhere. We are endowed with so many things. Some people talk, some people dance, some people do this, some people commit crime, some people jump, some people die in order to show what the pleasure in dying is. There are people who show you how to avoid dying. Many things, if you keep on, you can not even enumerate. We are endowed with so many things. In every molecule, there is something hidden of which we are ignorant of. We have to know those hidden properties to grow and live a purposeful life. He has packed so many gifts when He sent us here. We have forgotten what that package contains; we have lost the keys to the package. We are not here to just live and die. He has given us many more keys. Why? That is the only way. He has given us a bunch of keys. You must use the right key to open the gate so that you can get in there. That is where in karma, you use incense, and going to temple and seeing maybe, “Oh, my sins will go away, and I will be redeemed,” or “I will go pray to saints and serve them. Maybe, that is the key, all these things.” “Maybe, I should go and work and bring more money, and keep my children and wife happy.” “Now, I must go to lottery or do anything to bring lot of money and build a big house.” Or, some others say, “Oh, we know all these things; maybe, we should take some people and teach them what we know.” All these things are attempts. What key to use. You are endowed with so many things. Which one is the right key. Unless you get the right one, you are not going to open it. You must be a hacker; you must try. That is what God wants.
    The purpose of all these things given to us: the senses, the mind, and all these things, and their objects, the same thing that Krishna was telling. The purpose is not merely to act, interact with the objects for the small pleasures of this world. No! In between, just like the scientists, an understanding comes there. Involve, don't hesitate; whatever comes, experience it. It is that experience. If you do not involve, you do not get experience. If you do not get experience, you do not get knowledge. If you do not get knowledge, you will never get redemption. It is only through the understanding, knowledge, that redemption is possible.
    What is knowledge? I told you. A man went in the darkness. People said, “No, don't go, there is a ghost in that huge tree” Everybody was afraid. He said, “No, no, there is no ghost, I will go.” He went, and it was a windy day, pitch dark; he hammered a nail into the tree as was the bet. While hammering, his shirt got caught, and when he turned to go, it pulled. “Oh! Of course there is a ghost!” He died. The next day a man was told he died yesterday because of this. “Oh,” he said, “all right, I will go today.” He put on tight overalls. He went there, pulled out the nail, zig zagged and everything, then turned back slowly, and came back — no ghost, nothing. And yesterday, there was nail and also piece of cloth. Then, they explained, “This is what happened. There was no ghost; the ghost is in your mind. The ghost was in his mind too; it came. See?” So, that is what it is —experience and the knowledge of truth was born.
    You must experience in order to know. It is that knowledge which removes that nescience, ignorance. If not, you will suffer for all the eternity. It doesn't matter millions of years, you will be lurking in the darkness of ignorance. Day by day, you will go deeper and deeper and not come out. That experience is necessary and at the same time as I told you, the discrimination: what to experience, how to experience, when to experience, why to experience. All these things are necessary so that it will give right knowledge.
    In order to become Buddha — Buddha means the enlightened one, buddhi means enlightenment. One who achieved the enlightenment is called Buddha. He didn't do any haphazard things in order to get there. He sat there under the tree with that determination — giving up everything. That is another way. But Krishna, in continuation, He says, “It is not that you may see people, ‘Oh, I am not doing anything. I am sitting. Neither am I on my head, my hand, leg, nor anything. I am sitting.’ So, it is inaction. They try to find inaction in action. No? But what about the mind? It is already working. It is seeing the picture, it is already in the bazaar, it is already tasting something in the restaurant, but body is not there, body is here, senses are here, everything, but mind is already enjoying all those things. It is all action. Trying to sit is itself an action. You can not avoid action, but you can convert those actions into a contribution to your upliftment, knowledge.”
    So long as you belong to Prakriti — Prakriti means the movement, Prakriti means the motion, Prakriti means the action — once you are here, no matter as how, whether as a great learned Buddha, or Vishnu or Shiva or Jesus, whoever it is, you are engaged in action. You breathe, you have to survive, right, you breathe, what is that? “Oh no, I am not going to breathe.” What is that? It is an action. So, it is hard. How do you find inaction in action? That one single word — desire.
    Remove that desire! Let the Prakriti work through you. She is not working through you as you are, but your body, mind, senses, they belong to Her. She will be breathing through you, She will be seeing through you, She will be, all right, one thing. Second thing is, offer all these things unto Brahman. That is what the text says, “Sacrifice.” “I live for You, oh Lord. I eat for Your sake. I see for Your sake. Joy, it is for Your sake. I suffer, it is for Your sake. I am Yours, oh Lord. I am not enjoying when I am enjoying. I am not suffering when I am suffering. I don't see when I see. I don't do things for myself, it is for You. It is my sacrifice. Every action, Kayena Vacha Manasendra Irva, (All these, whatever I do, with my mind, my hands, whatever it is, it is all up to You.) It is for You, for Your sake. I live for Your sake, my living is Your mission, to fulfill Your mission. I am Your hands; my eyes are Your eyes, my legs are Your legs, whatever it is, it is Yours; so, take over.”
    Thus, if you offer yourself, those actions become inactions. Are you engaged in that action? You are not. It is God and Prakriti. You will become only a means. Through you, the actions are done, but you will not reap the result, the fruit of those actions. So, it is inaction. Action is that which gives you the result. For the sake of the result when you do something, it is an action. When you do the same thing, hankering not after the result, fruit of that action, it becomes non-action, because you are offering it unto the Divine, to God. “Whether it is good or bad, ugly, whatever it is, oh Lord, it is for You, it is Yours. You relinquish doership — ego. You become detached from the fruits of any and all actions.”
    So thus, “You will have to find.” That is what God said when He created this world. It is He, the same thing whether it is the Indian text or the Christian text or the Islam text. He created heavens and earth, all these things, and He created people there and people here, and they were given certain duties, and those people were given certain duties. So, He told both of them, “Come on, come here, sit down. What are you?” “Human beings, all right.” “What are you? Demigods.” “All right, do it.” “Look here, I will give you the duty, I will give you the power. You are in charge of all the wealth. You are in charge of giving pleasure through the eyes. You sit in the legs and you do this. You sit in the heart and you do that.” All these things got assigned. They are subtle; they are all the forces. They live in the heavens, they live in the body, everywhere. We call it Vayu, Kubera, and many more names by whatever the name; these are all the subtle forces that were created.
    And for humans, He said, “Look here, you are here, they are there. You are a pauper, you don't have money. You want money. You pray to this force; He has plenty of money.” “You want to see things; he can give you the sight.” “Oh, you want to enjoy there, have a big vacation, do good things. All right, Indra is there; you can go there.” In order to do this, you offer all these things. You please them. They can not grow their own food there. They have money; they can not buy anything. They have to come here because you are the workers. You have got practice here. So, they will give you money. You want money; all right, you give them what they want, so sacrifice. That is the sacrifice. Agni (Fire) became the Postmaster General. We say, we offer, “Oh Lord, I want longevity, I am growing to 74, I want to live for another 200 years, I want to marry two more wives, half a dozen more children, I want much more money.” “So, who are all there? All right, Indra for longevity- he, for money, Kubera, for this, all right. For them, I offer these things, please give them.” They are appeased, and they will give you. So, that is what the arrangement is. You please them, and they will please you. So, you love each other; you cooperate with each other. You offer sacrifices to them, and they will be pleased. When they are pleased, they will return favors with plenty of things, whatever you desire.
    But, what does it do? This will continue as long as you have harmony. But, you will be tired one day — doing this, doing that. “I am tired of this; I don't want. I want to get rid of it.” That is the beginning. Beginning to try to see inaction in action. “Oh, I have been habituated to do this; my father said I must do it, all right, but I don't want anything. I am doing it because it is my duty. It is my house. My father has been doing it, my grandfather was doing it, my great grandfather was doing it, and so on. They have been doing it; I am doing it. They must have sought something, but now, I don't want anything. I am doing it only as a duty.” Then, it becomes inaction. Action becomes inaction, because you are not hankering after the results, you are not seeking any favors.
    Then, what will happen? It becomes a part of the Buddhi Yoga Process (Knowledge Process). Slowly, that will determine as to what you will reach. The step you have taken determines as to what plane you are lifting yourself up to. So thus slowly, you become a Buddhi Yogi. So, Karma Yoga ends when you start finding inaction in action. Then, that is the beginning for Buddhi Yoga. Then, you will be elevated. Thus, it is that Buddhi Yoga that will ultimately give you the freedom, ultimately take you to the Brahman, ultimately take you to the exalted state of Being. Thank you very much.


 



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 16

    Though importance is given to the jnana, the knowledge without which we can not achieve the highest, we can not enter into the kingdom of heaven, as it were, or moksha, redemption. In order to achieve that, we have to have a preliminary knowledge of the karma too, because it is ultimately the karma which leads to knowledge. Where the karma ceases, there the jnana starts, takes the flight into the unknown.
    That is the reason why we are endowed, if we can watch ourselves, we are endowed with hands, their communion, legs, eyes, the brain, neck, all these parts. These are all the aids for us to achieve the ultimate highest knowledge. If not, God would not have given us all these things. Compared to ourselves, look at the rocks, they are also created by the same Divine. Look at the trees, all these things are created by the same Divine, but they are endowed with certain things that are necessary for them to evolve in their own way, and we are given all these things in order to evolve in our own way. So, we have to make use of them; that is the reason. The whole thing is when you abuse it, then you will have to have a reverse reaction. That is what you may call sin. You see. We are afraid of the karma. People say karma is bad because they are afraid of the bad results. Bad results are the results of the bad actions, not the good actions. That is the reason why they say, “Oh, oh, stop karma.” No! Karma is essential.
    That is what He has been all the time explaining as to what karma is. That karma which has been ordained by our scriptures, in any religion, whatever the scripture says when you go through that, with understanding, of course. That is what I told you, we have to have. One of them is called the discrimination. Then only can you understand what to do, how to do, why to do, when to do. With understanding, when you do, it will yield the result. Then you are the recipient of the best, that is ultimately knowledge. If you are lacking that, then the problem starts. So, the karma is what is ordained by our texts, so that we can not afford to renounce.
    Even after having achieved the highest, still people do karma in order to lead the others, make the others know karma is essential. Karma, any action, should be done without attachment to that. Last time, He said, “Never hanker after the results of the karma, but keep on doing karma without any attachment. Because you are asked to do it, do it, that is all; the rest of the things, leave it to Me.” That is what God has said earlier. All such things, ultimately though we see the others who wrote about dharma, and all such things here. Ultimately, from where does this come, this ordinance? Ultimately, from the Brahman. It is only the Brahman that is the source for all these things, whatever it is, whatever we see, whatever we understand, whatever we can imagine. All these things do come from one source, and that is only one source. There is no other source. The source for all the sources is the Brahman.
    So, as such, we can not determine not to act, but to find inaction in action; that is the skill. That is what earlier Krishna said, “Skill in action is yoga.” What is yoga? To find skill in action. What is the skill? To find inaction in action is the skill. Skill is to understand, discriminate, and do it. My father said, “Do it, do it.”
    So, action is necessary because when God created this universe, He had to arrange everything. I said to Moksha, we had to go and arrange her apartment, her things, and all that. We had to arrange it. If not, how can she study? Same thing here, we are in the university, we are studying. This life is nothing but a study. This universe is nothing but a university. We are all students until we get the salvation, moksha; we are all students. We fail, we pass, we sometimes get A, sometimes get F. That is what the whole problem is here. When He arranged everything, when He put all of us here for evolution, then He created all the facilities. He said, “All right, I will open the bank, I keep the account, I do all these things. You must know how to withdraw, how to draw, how to pay.” So, He created all those other demigods in charge of all the things to give you, and they don't create. Just like some of the countries like England, they depend on others; they have to buy and live there. They can not create; they can not grow. The same thing with this problem. These demigods have their own limitations. So, they give you. What you have to do is, you have to establish friendship with them, and both of you should depend on each other. They are elder brothers; you are younger brothers, that is all. They are elder sisters; you are younger sisters, whatever it is. “You are all my children; you are all my own, but I am giving you these duties.” So, they are there to take care of you while you are here, and at the same time, you will have to remember them too. “So, in order to arrange this, I am giving you the art of sacrifice by which way you can communicate with them, by which way you can satisfy each other. Sacrifice, that is a karma. Sacrifice is the karma; it doesn't bind you because it has been told to you to do by Me. When I say do it, do it. This is the only way in which you can have contact.”
    The other day as I explained, you offer by way of sacrifice all the things with all the love and devotion. They hanker after that because they expect you to do it. If you do not sacrifice, how can they survive there? That is the only way in which they can survive too. You can not survive without air, you can not survive without water, you can not survive without food. All these things from where should they come? You put and it will come immediately. No! You have to have the rain, you have to have the temperature, you have to have all these things. All these things are given to you. It will be given; they are already there, but it must be given at the right time. They must release all these things at the correct time, the seasons. At the right season, right things will come. All these things have been arranged, so in order to not upset these people, you must offer sacrifice.
    Sacrifice is not killing the goat. With all your heart, if you do not have a goat, if you do not have money, if you do not have anything, at least go and have a handful of water and say, “Oh Lord, this is what I have, I don't have anything else. I have my faith and regard in my heart. It is my heart I am giving You.” That makes them happy. They are very happy with you, what you give. They don't demand what you should give, but whatever you give, give it with full heart, faith and regards. That is the sacrifice. Sacrifice does not mean that you must always create a fire, always collect all the things; if you don't gather that, you will be sorry. Oh, no! Imagine, can you not imagine, “Oh, Lord, this is the golden chain, diamond ring that I am giving you, oh, Lord. Please, this is a beautiful diamond ring.” Yes, it will be a diamond ring by the time it reaches Him. Your love can convert anything into anything.
    What is material life? It is an imagination, the imagination of God, the will of God is this beautiful creation. That is the great will, and to your part, as a part of the chip of that old block, you too have got that tremendous will. Will, it can create. If Baba can create this, he can create that too. He has confidence; he has established that, yes, but we are lurking. “Can I, can I not do, am I God, am I not God? Oh, no, today I am God, tomorrow I am not.” No! Constantly, you are the God, God is in you, God can not be without you, you are the God. Then, what God can do, you can do if you completely merge the individual self in the Greater Self, individual self into Supreme Consciousness.
    So, that tremendous will, as human, we can not have that type of will, that type of understanding, so we will have this love. God need not love, He need not offer, but we have to offer because He is the giver. Now, we are at the receiving end at this time. Until we reach the other end, we can only go to that end by offering. We give, give, give, give and ultimately what happens is then, He will take, take, take, take. God takes; that is what we think. He does not even care, but He tries to enjoy your offering, the love, your attitude.
    So, with love, you have to offering accordance with the Vedas. Vedas are also called Brahman. Sometimes, they use the term Brahman for Vedas also. So all these actions have come from where? Brahman. So, you must honor them, and do that. So, when you do this, since it has come from Brahman, it becomes inaction. You are offering; it is your duty to do it. “All right, I offer it to Indra, to Varuna, to Kubera, . . . .”
    Also, you must remember when you offer all these things, why should you offer all these things? Sacrifice, not only to please them, but as a courtesy. Look at that, you don't do anything, you don't pay any taxes. Sun gives you the light and heat without which you can not survive. If there is no rain, already they are crying; there will be drought. They will have no more steak, no more eggs, no more hogs, they are already crying. Why? No rain. “There is no wind, no air, run, run, run, there is no wind here; we are suffocating.” All these things happen. Why? You are not offering to them. They are giving you everything, but in return, you are not offering anything to them, not even a simple thanks.
    So, what you should do is, whatever you eat, whatever you wear, whatever you do, offer it to them and then you use it. They are happy. If you do not do that, those people who cook for themselves selfishly, who wear clothes for themselves, who do everything for themselves, thinking only of themselves, they are called thieves. Those who do everything for themselves, they are called thieves because they are not sharing with those who give them. They are not even offering a word of thanks to God, not even to the demigods like Indra, Varuna, Kubera, Vayu, all these people, from whom we derive all these benefits. Very life sustenance comes from others, not us; we can not create our own, but we never remember them. We don't even offer them the simplest word of gratitude.
    Look at this, what we are doing, we are polluting the rivers, we are polluting the air, we are polluting everything; this is what we are doing. That is the reason why we are suffering. They are turning away from us. There will be chaos. All these planets do have their end. Why? Those who sustain the planet, they are enraged. They say, “All right, we will do away with you. We don't want to work for you. Oh Lord, we don't want to take care of them. Please.” The Lord says, “All right.” Then the planet is gone. Where are those planets of whose released light is still approaching us — but they are gone forever?
    These are some of the small subtle things that we have to understand. Why do planets come in, why do they evolve and have an end? It can survive, but survival depends on all these things. That is the reason why we say on this planet, we are the greatest because we have understood this. We have learned this so we are making the best use of this knowledge. We are creating that harmony between the giver and the taker, and the third force who is the cause for both the giver and the taker — that is the non-involving Brahman, God. We have realized that Supreme Force. That is the reason why we can do a lot of things here on this planet. We, being smallest creatures, still we can do great things because we have understood; we are trying to understand all the rays of this Sun of Knowledge. We are trying to understand, and we are doing it. That is the reason why we offer. When we say, at Catholic Church when you go, after all that, they show you the wafer offered to God and give you. You can buy a pack of wafers at the store. You can eat; I eat all the time, but that one wafer given by the Pope after the service has greater potency because it has been offered. Now, you are taking it as a sacrament. It has that force; it is the right thing. It will nourish your physical, mental, and spiritual health. That is why when we go to Temple, they give sacrament, Prasad, the water called Teertha. After washing the feet of the Lord, they give in humility, and they offer you something to eat, little, after having offered it to God; that is the sacrament. We eat. We can eat many things in the hotel. It doesn't do anything, but when we take this, we are so humble. We are taking it as a Sacrament. It has been offered. When it is offered, God has enjoyed it, and He has left it for you with His Grace. It contains His Grace, His Touch, He has seen it, He has touched it; He has partaken of it.
    That is what we used to hanker after Swamiji's Prasad. There are so many people who can give us many things; we don't care, but when Swamiji, we used to be waiting for Swamiji to call us and give us something. We used to take it. I remember, I used to wait for Swamiji to call me for his “Kutya”. his private dwelling. He used to invite some people, about 10 or 12 people everyday to his Kutya, his private place where we used to dine with him. So, dining with him itself is a great honor, much more than honor, we don't care for honor, that love and that grace. In addition, he used to sometimes only to a few of us, he used to call and give his share after eating. We used to be hankering after that — his Grace. If at all I am whatever it is, it is all because of that grace of his. We all miss that today. He was a great, great Master. He loved us so much; even my own parents might not have loved me that much. I had to struggle; I had to fight, but there, he was a father, mother and guide here and in the hereafter.
    This is a small exhibition of what that Parabrahman can do to us. If Swamiji in the form of Swamiji, if he can show that much love, what a great love it must be that we can enjoy when we forget about all the small things and then raise ourselves to reach that highest form of Swamiji-Brahman.
    So, these are the things. You must always offer before you eat, offer it to God. He is not going to take it away anyway; He will just bless it. By way of offering, you are sanctifying whatever you eat. You buy the cloth and put it on; it doesn't matter, but just one thought, “Oh Lord, this is for You, this is Yours. May I wear it? I will wear it as Your Sacrament, as Your favor.” Then, wear it.” You feel proud; it is God given. You eat, drink coffee, it doesn't matter. “Oh Lord, please accept this humble offering.” That is a good thing. I always used to enjoy watching those Christians when they sit at the table and pray before meals, give thanks to the Lord and offer what they eat, “Give me daily bread.” It is all right, daily bread or whatever it is. They don't eat bread; they eat chicken. They have already killed animal anyway. They say, “Thank you for Your bread.” Whatever you eat, it doesn't matter. So Sri Ramakrishnadeva used to say, “They eat fish, they offer fish.” I went to one of the great ceremonies in the tea estate of one of my friends, Nandeshwar Chakravarti, they are called Annapurna celebration. So Annapurna means wife of Shiva. I said it must be a great thing and all that. When I went, they had all these huge fish cut, head severed from the body and put it on a banana leaf. Then I said, “My goodness, where am I?” I am a brahmin, so I am not used to that. They are used to eating fish so what they eat, they offer.
    I saw a buffalo’s head on a plate in Kamakhya Temple of Mother Shakti. I went to Kamakhya, one of the great Skaktipeethas; it is the part of the Parvati as Shakti when She fought the demons, then She cut Herself into pieces, and then all those pieces fell in different places. I have gone to some of them. They are very, very forceful places, spiritually. I went to one of them in (Kamakhya). There they had offered big buffalo, and I saw the head. I said, “Oh, my goodness.” Then I gave a long sermon to those priests. I went to a rock and I sat there thinking of all that. Then they came, we were talking about tantra and mantra, and all this, all the sacrifices. I told them, that the buffalo was a symbol for ignorance; they accepted, but still they are used to eating meat.
    It does not matter what you eat. God neither eats meat nor vegetables. No! It is for us, but this offering sanctifies whatever we eat. If not, we will be hypocrites, we will be cheaters, we will be coveting because it is given by Him, but we don't even remember; we don't even thank. That is what it is; that is all. Offering is that much; that is the sacrifice. Sacrifice is to offer at least mentally. When we sit in the coffee shop, we can drink but just one second, “Oh Lord, thank you for this cup of coffee. Let this be blessed by You.” That is all. It does not matter. So thus, we should understand these are all the skills in action. Simple — you should know. Then, in spite of doing the greatest thing, but still you will be free like politicians. They wash off their hands. Whenever there is some good thing, they come and stand there for applause. If not, they don't even show their faces. That is the skill in their action. You must learn these things from them too.
    The other thing in action, we should resist, we should keep our senses under control. But physically keeping our senses away from their objects is one thing, and thinking of those objects is another thing. These are called hypocrites. They may not enjoy, experience, the things, but they are constantly thinking of that. Instead of that, God has given all these things; whatever you use for any other purpose, it is all a sacrifice. Sacrifice is to employ your senses, the body, the mind, everything into their objects. It is an action between objects and their counterparts. So, you can not stay away from them. Even if you stay away from, mentally you will be thinking of them. That is a worse sin than involving in them. So involve in action in the name of God as a sacrifice. Then, ultimately what, as I have told you a number of times, ultimately what will happen is experience. You have to have the experience in order to have the knowledge. It is the knowledge which ultimately lifts you up into the place from where you don't come again into this world, salvation. So, that is what the karma is. That is what Krishna has been explaining to Arjuna still. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 17

    Nobody can remain still in this world. The moment they step into the arena of the Nature, no one, when not even that Unmanifest Eternal Supreme Consciousness steps into Nature, even That has to obey the Nature as a manifestation. Though They can surpass, still they have to go by whatever the Nature is.
    Nature by itself stays in a state of equilibrium. You can say, if it is the Nature, everything was created at once. In that case, we should have been perfect right from the beginning. But, we are still evolving. What happens is when it is held under its thumb, within the will of the Divine, the Nature holds all our attributes. Just like these three attributes we were talking about — Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. Sattva is the light, the truth, all the positive qualities. Rajas is that which is endowed with emotions, actions, struggling, all such things. And, Tamas is the darkness, ignorance. All these aspects are in a state of equilibrium because they are under the immediate presence of the Divine. Once God's will causes a movement however, that equilibrium, where all these three attributes exist in peace and harmony, is disturbed. Once they are disturbed, then the friction arises. Because of their friction, the whole thing starts booming. Then, they want to manifest themselves separately. Just like what happens to candidates in a political party — one of the candidates wants to join a third party. There were only two parties, now he wants to be the candidate of the third party. Why? He will quarrel with his former party. Like that, the same thing happens in the Nature. When there is a movement, when the equilibrium is shaken a little, then all these attributes awaken. Then, they start manifesting, independently moving around freely.
    They can not manifest unless the Nature takes hold first. They follow the Nature, and the Nature also can not be without these three forces. Just like three bad children, good children, whatever it is, they follow. Then, they start getting busy with themselves. They just pervade . They start pervading everywhere. That is the reason why every being has all these three qualities. Only sometimes, as I have often said, one of these attributes becomes predominant. That is all. Even a saintly man will become angry sometimes; an angry man also becomes sometimes peaceful. A good man becomes a bad man, and a bad man is likely to become a good man, too. A killer becomes a saint, and a saint becomes a killer. All these things are possible depending on which attribute is predominant in their actions. That makes all these other things act. That is the whole problem here.
    That is the reason why many people talk about action, “Oh no, I don't want to do. It is better to sit quietly and meditate and do that. I don't want to interfere with action; I don't want any action.” That is a bad situation because the lack of knowledge about the action causes us to think that action is bad. Inaction definitely is impossible and if you act with a perfect understanding, the action will yield the result that you need.
    Where was this action born? The attributes are there, but how do they come? How do they manifest? “The actions”, they say according to the text, “are born in the sacrifice.” Sacrifice is born in the text, the knowledge; the text means the knowledge. Knowledge given by whom — the God, the Divine. When God created everything, evolved to a certain extent, then He manifested Himself, and said, “See, these are the things you have to do. All these ages, I was watching. There was movement in the Nature. Nature manifested; along with Nature’s manifestation came these attributes, and these attributes have created the whole blunder. Now, you are suffering. I don't want you to suffer; I want you to come back. In order to come back, it is not easy. So, you have to pay your taxes here, and then take a certificate that you are free of your taxes. Then, you are free of your liability. Then, you can come back. That is what it is.”
     So, in the text, the Vedas, the knowledge, whether you call it Vedas in Hinduism, or Bible in Christianity, or Koran in Islam, whichever you follow, the action is born there. They tell you what to do, don’t they? They tell you what you should do, in order to get what? That is the reason why this knowledge comes from the Divine. There will be a means, maybe Rishis in Hinduism, Jesus in Christianity, Mohammed in Islam, and Buddha in Buddhism. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
    So God, the Supreme Consciousness, manifests in the knowledge of the sacrifice. It is in the sacrifice that the action is born. That is the reason why everything is a sacrifice: eating, sleeping, talking, moving. There is nothing that is not a sacrifice, but as I told you, it is ignorance. Because you do not understand, because we are devoid of that understanding, we are not making use of our actions. Whenever you do an action, there is a result. But if you close your door, UPS will leave it at your door and go away. Somebody will pick it up and go. When you open the door, there is nothing. So, you say, “My action did not do anything.” No. You must have knowledge. There must be receptivity.
    This is what He said. When God created, He created all these things, you, me; we are all known people, we are all human beings. There are animals from whom we have evolved, from that state we have evolved together, we have forgotten of course. That is the reason why part of the animal is still within us. It will stay with us until the last moment because that is where you started. You have passed through all those different stages. Then, it will stay with you along with some of the influences.
    Now, along with that, we have created the super human beings, too. We are not super human beings. We are just human beings. Demigods, we call Indra, Mars, we call them Varuna, Indra, Agni, Vayu, Venus, whatever the other names are for the same thing. They call them by some other name in Greek, same name, same people, same thing. So, they were all created. They don't have a body like us. They have their own body. They have their own system of living. They have their own duties. They are not devoid of duties; they are not devoid of actions. The whole thing is action, interaction. They have certain actions to preform. They have their own code of conduct. They are in charge of things that you have to depend on. We are already crying, “Oh, it is so hot, we did not have rain. There is somebody who has to give us rain.” You can not create rain; it has to come. The Nature has to provide. Under Nature, all these arrangements are made; demigods, they are all in charge of various activities of nature. There is no breeze. We put a fan; fan turns, but no wind. Fan doesn't create wind; it only pushes the air. If there is no breeze, how can the fan create the breeze? So, there must be breeze. Water, see how many fish die, how many animals die because there is no water. When I was in South Africa, and Zambia, I think it was in Kenya; I went to that Serangeti animal preserve where I saw the lions; you could even count the bones. They were lying; they could not even get up to catch their prey. I saw plenty of dead animals; there was hardly any water there. So the water, wind, the heat, all these things are produced or given to us by those in charge, the supervisors in charge of providing us with all these things. If they don't provide, we can not survive. And also, does the wind god survive only on wind? Does the water god depend only on water? No. They depend on something else that we have to give. We have to treat them as our elder brothers and sisters; we have to respect them, honor them. We don't see them because they don't have a body like us. Our eyes are not capable of beholding them, but still they are there. That is the reason we have what we have. Because we are all provided with these, we should know that they come from somebody; that somebody, we have to honor.
    So, we create a situation, a sacrifice, an action. And through that action, it is called sacrifice, we offer, “Oh Lord of the breeze, I don't know where you are, what you are. We have been enjoying your breeze. Without you, we can not survive. Thank you so much. We don’t ask anything, but still you provide us with all this breeze that we need. So, thank you very much. So, in gratitude we offer you this” So, you offer whatever it is, they accept and continue to provide the necessities of life.
    So, in the Vedas, they say what you should offer to God, what they like, what they want. So, you collect it, and offer. Agni is the messenger as I said the other day. Agni, that is called sacrificial fire. There are so many fires. Each one of the aspects of that fire has a different name. That cremation, where we cremate bodies, is also fire that burns the body. We don’t do the sacrifice there. That is a different aspect of Agni. Though it is fire, we don't worship that fire as we worship here. He works like a postman here. He is a UPS man. We offer, “Please give this to whoever it is addressed to.” Even to Mother, we offer costliest jewelry, everything unto Agni, to deliver.
    Once, the Maharaja, not the one who presently died, his uncle, when he was the Maharaja, that is the King of Mysore, he was a great devotee of the Mother. Every morning, he went to the temple and had the Charanambrita, that is the sacrament of the Mother's feet; they wash the Mother and collect the water. In the temple also, the other day, you remember they gave spoon of Holy Water to sip. Unless he took all this sacrament, Prasad and Thirtha, he never did anything. So, he came back and then started his work; he was such a devoted king. He had many courtesans, and many learned people. Out of them, there was one who was worshiping fire; he used to worship the fire day in and day out, all the 24 hours he had fire,

 and at a particular time of the day, evening, and night, he had to do the sacrifice, and he was doing it.
    Once, the king called all the people during Dasara, the ten days of the worship of the Mother we celebrate. On one that occasion, he gave presents to everybody, and he gave a beautiful costly shawl, a wrapper to this man. The man stretched his left hand, which was an insult. When people give you something, you have to use either both hands or the right hand. Left hand is a negative thing, it is only meant for cleaning something else, but not right hand. The right hand is used only for worship, to give and to receive, and all the other transactions. So, people were stunned. King was very calm; he was a very understanding man. So, he didn't do anything. He gave him that, and then asked, “Punditji, will you please tell me why you didn’t accept the gift as usual with the right hand?. Is it low, is it below your dignity to accept my present, or is my present valueless for you? Whatever it is, I would like to know. Why did you take it in the left hand?” Then Punditji said, “Excuse me sire, I did not want to insult, it is not an insult, my Lord. The right hand is used only for the sacrifice; it is devoted only to that purpose and nothing else. The right hand doesn’t do anything; I don’t use my right hand for any other purpose than sacrifice. It is reserved for that. This, you are giving me, you thought you are giving to me. If you wanted to give it to me, if you wanted to see it on my shoulder, only this hand could take it. If I take this in my right hand, this will directly go into the fire.” Then he said, “All right, I would like to give it.” So he put another shawl in his right hand, and at once it was turned into ashes. He said, “The shawl is in Kashi (Benares). There is a Shivalinga, a symbol of Shiva and the shawl decorated it. You can ascertain.” So, they made a hectic effort to know, and they found out on that day at that time, from nowhere, this beautiful shawl came and fell on the symbol of that symbol of Shiva. Then, the king got up, went to his house, and apologized. He said, “No, you are my king, you are worshipful to me, but greater than all the kings is that Lord. So, I worship Agni so that he will take my messages to Him. It is He who takes care of me, not only me though.” Purohitas, they are called Purohitas, who strive and wish well for the whole town. Pura means the whole town, they are called Purohitas, Brahmins, they don't pray for themselves, they pray for the whole lot. So, Shiva takes care of all of us. Agni does this, Agni is the carrier, so we have to worship Agni. Especially, action comes from the sacrifice.
    From where does sacrifice come? Sacrifice itself is Vishnu. Yagna means Vishnu, Vishnu means Yagna; that is another form of Vishnu. That is the reason why karma is created there, action is created. For every movement, there are many things that you have to understand; nothing happens without any meaning, nothing.
    (Krishna to Arjuna) “So, that is why we have to understand this action, and if you have taken disposition as a king, it is your responsibility to take care of the whole kingdom. You are a king, and you have to save the people from these wretched people. They are tormenting the people; the whole people want you to win over them. You see? Now, not for your sake, but for the sake of the others — that is what your dharma says. You are telling me all those other dharmas, but this is the dharma. You are neglecting your dharma; it will be the cause for your destruction, not merely the body and mind, but also your very being. That is what you have to avoid. That is the reason why they have created this sacrifice, and all those things, so that is what you should do.”
    “You are a king born of Indra. Do you forget your duties? You will have to do it. Of course, you may ask, ‘What about those people sitting idle in the Himalayas, and maybe somebody on Mount Shasta too, sitting idle, doing nothing.’ Don't ask me that question. You are not there yet, my friend, you are confused already. Here, I am asking you to do these actions because you are involved already. Once you have fallen into this, you have to finish the whole thing and come out. Then, you can think, ‘I am not going to act’. There will be a stage. You have not arrived there yet; you have entered, but you can not go out. You are here; you have to do it. That's what it is; the wisdom is there.”
    “Those people who are there in the Himalayas are enjoying themselves. Here, you have all this confusion. You wanted the kingdom, you wanted to kill all these enemies of the people, you wanted to be a hero, and all of a sudden you see these people and you are disheartened. There, in the Himalayas is no variation. Now, they have established themselves within themselves. They are enjoying within themselves. Since they have established themselves within themselves, and are enjoying their own self, that is having the full knowledge of themselves, they don’t seek anything. They don’t seek the object. In order to have the object, they don't seek the instrument for providing that object. They don't want the senses, they don't want the mind, they don't want anything. They are living, that is all, because of the Prarabdha. See? Since there is no desire, there is no fulfillment. Since there is no desire and there is no fulfillment, there is no action. Since there is no action, there is no sacrifice, there is nothing. Even Indra and others whom you have to please, they will come to salute them. They are happy with themselves, they have completely gone inside themselves: ‘Atmrati’, one who is enjoying within the Self. They have turned deep within themselves and they are there. That is the reason why you see them motionless; you don't see them sitting idle. This is one aspect.”
    “Now, you want to be like that. If you want to be like that, you should have discarded all your desires, everything. You have already desired; it has become a will. Now, you have to fulfill, you have to get it over with; there is no way out. If you miss now, you will have to be reborn, reborn, and do all these things again. It is a tricky question, it is a tricky thing. See?”
    “Not only this, even before, all those great people you are telling me about, the Himalayan monks, all those people you are talking about, they were kings too. Janaka, that is the father-in-law of Sri Rama, he was a great yogi. There was nothing he sought; he was a king himself, but far deep within he was a monk. He was enjoying himself; he was established completely inside, but still, he ruled a kingdom. Why? Because, he had to take care of the people, but not for himself. It was a duty thrust upon him. There was nobody else, but he was there, and he did it. But, did he have a desire to be a king? Did he have a desire to fight? Did he weep when the day came to fight? No! He did everything, as I told you, being prompted by these three attributes of the Nature.”
    “Had there been no three attributes of the Nature, they would have been all right. But, as a body, as a part of the Nature, you have already allowed those three attributes to work through your body, mind, senses, everything. But, until the day when you withdraw from all of them and go deep within yourself, and establish yourself there, it is a place where none of these things can touch you. That is the reason why he was in poise, he was blissful, he was content. While the body worked, he was a king; he was doing all this.
    Though Janaka was a king, even the great saints from the Himalayas went to him to learn. He taught them how to withdraw themselves and go deep within themselves and establish there. That is the end of it, absolutely no desire. It is desire, even unconsciously you desire, that will be the beginning, first step. Once you take a step outside, you are caught. You have to keep on walking until the day when you come back and realize, ‘Oh, I should not have gone out.’”
    “Some students have a hard time in the college. They come back home, ‘Oh, I don't want to go back to college.’ ‘Why?’ ‘We have problems there.’ ‘That is what happens. Once you come back and stay here, you don't want to go back.’ That is the reason you will have no desire, no fulfillment, nothing. You are enjoying yourself. The Self is enjoying Itself. Then, all these things we want. Why? For that reason, to enjoy that Self, that Bliss. We think all these things will produce; unfortunately, they don't. They don't; they cause more problems. Until the day when you realize this, it is that realization. The moment that you realize, ‘Oh, none of these things will yield, I must turn away from them.’ Right about turn, then that is the moment when you start entering into your self rather than entering into the problem. See, we are not there.”
    “That’s what these people have done. Actions are necessary; you must find inaction in action. Turn away from the desires, turn away from these things, turn away from all these arguments and all that. Look deep within yourself. Let your hands engage, eyes engage, ears engage, everything, it's all right, but don't hanker after them. Let them do their work; it is all right, but you do not command them, you do not encourage them. When they come, you don't hear them. Don't try to behave as if you are separate from all them. You are in fact. You are there. That is all. You have nothing to do. You are only a witness. Close your eyes, and go deep within yourself.”
    The day will come, the body will go, eyes, everything will go back from where they came, back to the Nature, back into that Mula Prakriti, Primordial Nature. You will become your Self, you are already there, you have even become what you were. You have already become. From becoming, you will become a being. That is the whole process. So action, you must remember, is important. Do not hesitate to do the action, but with this intention, with this knowledge. Without knowledge, if you do, then naturally, it will be a suffering. With understanding, not with attachment, but with detachment, understanding doesn't mean that you have to have an attachment. No, understanding is also that detachment. So understanding and detachment, and as a duty, you have to do according to what you have been told by your texts, by the Vedas, by your Bibles, or by Koran, whatever it is. They have told you, do it; sincerely do it. That will help you, not otherwise.
    Without knowing, without that knowledge, if you try not to do any action the Prakriti is strong enough; She is very subtle. These attributes I told you: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas — they are subtle forces. They are capable of pushing you, “Oh, come on.” They take you out, “Come on!” “Oh, hey, hey, hey!” I don't know; you don't see their hands, but you will be moving forward. It is in harmony with them if you continue to do this with understanding, then there will be a day of redemption. If not, you will suffer. So, that is what that karma is. Thank you very much.
    Did I make you understand something? Because I, myself, do not understand anything anyway. So, it is hard to make you understand when I do not understand.
    Another purpose why you have to have the sacrifice is everyday we are taught. We are given Bar Mitzvah. Like that, we have thread ceremony at age five or something, and they teach us Vedas and all that. Until then, we are not allowed to learn Vedas. When we get that, then we are entering into Gurukula. That is Guru's house. Then, we are called twice born when we put on that thread.
    Question — What does the thread signify?
    There are three threads, that is to show that you have given up. When you are born, you have all those blemishes. So, it is these three elements which keep them away and that will protect. It is almost like Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara, or whatever any three aspects; they will take care of that. Once you are done, you are born, and are protected by these three elements. You will be protected in all these three states. A lot of significance is there.
    Once you are done, you are asked to do Sandhya early in the morning; you have to do your oblation, and in the afternoon Madhyanhika, and in the evening, Sandya. So, we worship Surya. At the time when the sun goes down, wherever you are wash your hands and all that, somebody takes bath, if not wash. Then, you have to offer Arghya, that is take water and that is the oblation that you have to give along with some mantra. So, these are the things that we do.
    In addition, we can not cook and eat like we do here. Every house will have to start cooking, take bath and everything, cook, and then we have to offer to four people. There are four Yagnas that we have to do. This is karma kanda, karma, actions. See, we are dependent on the demigods as I told you: Indra, Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, and all these people. We have friends; all of a sudden friends come, and you invite, have a party, you invite people, and all of a sudden uninvited ones come, all of a sudden there comes a man from somewhere else. You offer unto them. These are the ones, demigods and the people. The animals, from where do they get too? They also give you much, the cow, the horses, they take care of you. Even the cats, they don't do anything; at least they lie lazy on your lap, they give you pleasure, so all these things. What about those teachers who taught you? From knowing nothing, you can read, write, you can understand. What a great thing. This is a type of transformation the teachers cause. What a great favor to mankind!
    So, it is called Devayagna. Devayagna is where you offer everything in order to appease the gods, including Brahma, Vishnu, Maheshwara. These are all manifestations of the same Divine. The Divine Itself doesn't want anything, but Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara take care of you, right. Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the sustainer, and Siva causes the destruction. If He opens his third eye, we are all gone. So, we have to appease them all. So, we do every morning, evening, whenever it is, we offer Devayagna. Devayagna is the actions that we do, offerings that we do to appease the gods, supreme beings, and the ancients, Pitriyagna, Pitru, the people who are our forefathers and mothers.
    My father died. He will be waiting for me to give him something; if I don't give him, where will he go? There is no way to get anything there, so he waits. Anyway, that is what the Vedas say. So, what I say is different. I have told you a number of times in my talks what happens after death. My father is not waiting for my oblation anyway, but for a short time during that time of shock, they will be there, and we have to appease them. That is the reason why after you go to Benares or somewhere, you offer the oblation, then you need not because it will multiply and you invest something there and they keep on drawing their pension from there. That is what it is. So, you will be redeemed from offering that, but until then you have to do it every year, anniversary, death anniversary.
    Pitriyagna, Pitri means all those who have passed away, the ancient, our elders, those who have gone to the other side. So, we have to appease them. That is called Pitriyagna. Feeding and entertaining friends and people around is also a Yagna. It is also sacrifice when you feed somebody, give a cup of coffee, two pieces of bread or something, it is a joy; it is a joyous occasion because you are pleasing, and that is the reason.
    Not only that, what about the beggars and others? You give alms, you feed them, you clothe them. All these things become Yagna; it is called Yagna. And of course, Bhutayagna, Bhutas means all the other creatures, they depend on, because by themselves they can not do anything. Many times we feed the dogs. So, that is the reason why, people before they eat they take a part of their food, and give it to dog or something. If nobody takes it, the birds can come and eat, whatever it is. Bhutas, you must satisfy them also. Bhutayagna means to appease, animal kingdom, that is what it is. We offer the food to the fish or the dog or the cow, or whatever it is.
    And then friends, and people, we have marriages. People come, do good or bad things. Whenever the people come, you offer them. That is also Yagna. And, I told you the masters, you have learned all these things. How are you going to pay them back? How are you going to recognize their wealth that has been shared by us? Reading the Bible, reading the Vedas, reading those texts, reading what they have done, what they have taught, even to think of them as what they have done for us, even to praise them, offer them thanks, and do what they have told us to do. All these things are offerings unto those masters. If you are a good Christian, do what Jesus has told you. If I am a brahmin, let me do something as a brahmin is expected to do. That is what my masters has taught me to do, told me to do. That is what it is.
    That is what Krishna says, “Arjuna, it is all right, all these things are all right.” “You may say, ‘Krishna, who is Krishna, who am I? I am what I am. There is nobody beyond me; I am God. Right?, that does not do anything. God need not do anything, but still I have to do. See. I am with you; I am your coachman now, and there whenever you wanted counseling, I became a counselor. I am born as a relative to you, and all such things. I rule the kingdom; people come to complain, and I take care of them. I provide for them; if they don't have food, I supply them food. If they don't have water, I see that they get water. All these things I do. Do I get anything in return? No, because I don't seek any return. I am content within Myself.”
    “ In all these three worlds, up, down, and here, whatever it is, in all these three stages of My conscious being, I don't desire anything. I don't have anything; I am content within Myself. Not even an iota, not even a thread of desire is there unfulfilled. So, I am doing all this unattached, completely unattached.”
    You remember the other day, I told you a story. Krishna went with gopis to other side of the Jamuna; Jamuna is a big river. They went there, and all of a sudden there was a big flood. There was rain somewhere; there came a big flood. Gopis, if they are late, there husbands will beat them. “Krishna, what to do, we followed you and...” “Oh, it is all right, don't worry. Go and tell Jamuna, tell the river Jamuna, ‘If Krishna is a perfect bachelor, give way.’ They came and repeated what Krishna told them to, she gave way. They came back, they were all laughing. See, He touches me, He kisses me, He hugs me, He does all these things, and still He says He is a bachelor. They asked Krishna, “What is the meaning of this?” He said, “Well, I didn't ask. You wanted me to hug, all right, I hugged. You wanted Me to kiss, I kissed. I didn't want anything. Had you not called Me, I would not have come. It is in order to please you. You wanted to be pleased. I pleased you. That is all. It is your desire, not My desire. I have no attachment. If that was the case, I would have been smacked a number of times. No, it is not My desire.”
    The same thing with that Durvasa, the great saint; he was a tremendous, angry man, but still he knew what he was. He was content within himself. He had absolutely no desire, nothing. He ate the whole thing, and he said the same thing. The river wanted to give way, and he said, “All right, go and say, ‘If I am a, the eternal fasting man, eternally fasting, give way.’” She gave way, and they asked why. “You brought all these things; I drank.” People brought potful of milk, and this and that. He ate and drank everything and says he is fasting. “I didn't want anything. Did I write you, please bring a pot of milk, and bring this, this, that? No. You are my devotees. You expect me to do this. All right. I want you to be happy. I want you to do the right things. Encourage you to be happy. That is what it is. That is the reason why I do this.”
    That is what Krishna is doing. Does He want a kingdom? The whole universe is His. Why does He want this kingdom? He has got better people. Why should he hanker after Arjuna? He has chosen to do all these things because those people depend on Him. All right, do it, do it. That is all. Suppose Arjuna dies, He doesn't care. Is He attached to Arjuna? That is what we think; Krishna is attached to Arjuna. Arjuna is attached to Krishna. If something good comes to Arjuna, He says, “All right.” That is the reason why Krishna is there.
    The purpose of the Divine manifestation in this world is not because the Divine wants to enjoy this Prakriti. Prakriti is, the Nature itself is His. Does He not know the Nature, does He not know the sex, does He not know the joy, does He not know the pain, does he not know all these things? It has come from Him. What is Nature? It is His own reflection here. Does He not know? He knows. But still, why does He manifest here? For our sake, in order to gather us, “Come on.” When you meet there, then you will have a story to tell Him, and He will enjoy.
    So, Krishna tells him. That is what it is. “I am detached completely. There is nothing that I have to seek in all these three planes of consciousness. I have nothing; I am content within Myself. That is the reason why I am happy. People are dying; people are being born. I am neither enjoying the birth of some people, nor crying for some people dying. It is a process. I am just completely content within Myself. When you reach that stage, you too will be like Me. For the present, this is what you have to do.” Thank you very much.
 




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 18

    In a state of the unmanifest, when the Divinity doesn't manifest amongst us in any form, then it is not involved in any action; there is no need for any action. Since It is not manifest and we don't recognize It, we don't realize It; we don't see It, so we don't follow It. The moment that the same Divinity manifests within the framework of the Nature which is its own creation, it is its own extension. It has to imbibe all the qualities of the Nature. Once It manifests in the Nature, It has to abide by all the natural laws. That is the reason why we see the Divinity. Today, we worship Rama, we worship Shiva, we worship Jesus, we worship Allah, and all these forms. Why? We follow them. We try to step into their footsteps. We try to do what they did. Even if we do not exactly match what they do, at least it is an impetus for us to do something similar. That is the reason why when Krishna tells Arjuna what happens if the Divinity does not manifest and does not act, then there will be no leadership and there will be chaos.
    Nature, by itself, can not organize all of this because much more than the Nature, especially when we have evolved into human beings, we have a greater ability even to understand the Nature, and many times we even know the inner workings of the Nature, and control the Nature. We go beyond the Nature; we are capable of this. So, in order to organize all these things, there must be the involvement of some higher force than the Nature, and that is only the Divinity. That is why the Divinity often manifests itself, which we call Avatar, incarnations. That is the reason why they incarnate, often times, at various times, in various ways. Whether we see them or don't see them, their actions are imbedded in the Nature. They prompt us. We do not know why we do it but we do it because it is an influence of that Divinity. There is an attraction for the Divinity and It’s work, we being part and parcel of the same “involved” in this world.
    If Divinity does not manifest, and does not involve in actions, then the whole world will cease. Nature can not teach you. She has Her own things to do. She will keep on doing. Where there are no people in the planets, or in the stars, where there are no people, no living being, She does Her work there still. The same thing She is doing here also, but here we adapt, we change, we do things. We build houses, we cook food, we make clothes, we meditate, we realize, we go beyond the Nature, and we even reach God. But, Nature does not involve in it. We convert whatever the Nature is. Nature has got her funds. We draw and make everything useful for us, and make use of it. It is taught by the Divinity. Divinity need not achieve anything because the very Nature is born of the Divinity. So, how can the Divinity be ignorant of the Nature? So, Divinity does not need to do anything, but at the same time Divinity knows the extent of ignorance that we are endowed with, the moment we have fallen into this nature. The moment that we are in the grasp of the Nature, He knows. He or She, or whatever the Divinity is, knows.
    So, in order not to create chaos in the Nature because Divinity does not go against the framework of the Nature without bringing down the whole house, It will show you the crack where you can make a way out. That is what the Divinity does. In order to do that, Divinity manifests and acts. Though it has nothing to gain from it, it is just for the sake of the universe, for the sake of the whole mass, for the sake of us. We follow, we have so many religions, so many cults, so many ways to understand the ways of the Divine and make the best of it for our own redemption.
    In everything, there is an iota of that Divinity; to whatever the extent that they contain, there is some part of that Truth, part of the Divinity. They survive, so long as they hold on to that Truth. Once it becomes faulty and corrupt, the other side of the coin, then they diminish. Many cults have come and gone, many religions shone for a while but are now gone, and many philosophies were brought in and now they are all gone. Only a few survive that are completely involved in Truth, nothing but Truth. At no time are they prepared to become corrupt. That is the reason why manifestation of the Divinity in them is predominant for the last millenniums. We talk about millions of years. Yesterday, I was watching the TV. They said sun will be gone in 5 billion years. We do not know what happens tomorrow. They are talking about 5 billion years. So, it is immaterial. It is 5 billion years now, but how many billions have gone already? How many times sun was born and reborn? If this sun goes, there is another sun, then a hundred suns, millions of suns of which we do not even know.
    Thus, the Nature holds all these secrets; we do not know the extent of nature. Nature is not merely in this planet what we see —the wind, water, fire, earth, ether and the like. Nature may take another form on another planet. It may take another form and do another thing there, it depends. So here, our vision, our experiences, our evolution, everything is confined within this planet.
    Even here, we seek the guidance of the Divine. If not, in spite of all our intellect, all our efforts to cross over the intellect into wisdom, but still it will be beyond our reach unless — that is why God says, “Knock and it shall be open.” We have to knock. Even to knock, somebody should tell where to knock — the discretion, it has to come from the Divine. Many people are wise but they don't have discretion. They are wise, they are brilliant, they are geniuses but they are failures. Why? Small amount of discretion — where to knock. So even that is to be guided by the Divine.
    So, Divine has to manifest. Once Divine manifests, It has to act in order to guide us, give us an impetus as to function. If that manifested Divinity doesn't work, will we follow It? “Yadyadacharati Shreshtah Tatta Devetaro Janah, Saha Yat Pramam Kurute Lokah That Anuvartate.” We see amongst our students that if I scratch my back, all my students will also scratch their back. If I grow my beard, everybody will grow their beard. If I scratch my head, they will also scratch theirs. You know if I do something, they will also do that. That is what the trend is because we are a part of the Nature.
    So as a part of the Nature, we are also drawn there. So when the Divinity manifests, it is nothing but the same gravity. That is why we follow them. Supposing the Divinity which is manifest sits idle like a rock, we all sit like a rock. Because we recognize it is the Divinity and we want to follow, there is no movement, we will have no movement. It doesn't move, we don't move. Then where will be the solution? Where is the salvation? Where will be the end? What will happen? How many leaders have misled the people and gone? That's what will happen if the Divinity does not involve, and show the right way, right things to do at the right time and for the right reason; there will be chaos. Somebody who said, “Oh, nothing but sex, come on have sex, free sex, come on.” That is what he said. He died anyway in Poona. He was here. He had 25 or 30 Rolls Royce. He misled people of simple faith Where are they now? There is the other way, another way around. Everything given to us is meant for some purpose; utilize everything for that purpose. God has given you everything, hands, legs, mind  and vital organs, everything, but utilize everything for the right purpose at the right time. In order to guide us, Rama came, Krishna came, Jesus came, Buddha came, and many others came and departed. All these incarnations, whose nature and abilities vary, guided us. To accommodate us they said, “You have to do this or that. If you want to choose this way to reach the Divinity, do this and that. If you want to reach that way, do such and such a thing.” This is what it is. They showed all the ways. Knock and it will open.
    Had they not done anything like this, where would be the world today? There would have been no Muslims, no Hindus, no Christians, no Buddhists, nothing. Now, everybody is talking about the Divine, everybody is talking about the salvation, everybody wants to work for the salvation. If not, nobody would have bothered even about salvation. People would not have been able to think. As they think, they could not have done. As they have done, they would not have enjoyed. All of these things would have been a chaos. That is the reason why God also says, “If I do not do, if I do not manifest, if I do not do things, people will follow Me, they too will be inert. Inertia will take hold. That is the reason why though I have no interest, there is nothing I cannot achieve, or there is nothing that I want to achieve, and there is nothing that I am trying to achieve. I am just doing for the sake of doing, that is all.”
    And what happens is that people do it with ego. “I am the doer, I am doing it.” Well, then what will happen? It will bind you, that is all. But nevertheless, you are doing. You are breaking the inertia there. You are acting. Sooner or later, what happens, you will realize. Once, twice, 500 times you are born, then you are tired of it, then you say, “I don't want to do it.” Nevertheless, you will be involved because of the force of the Nature, the force of the habit. You will be working, but without any interest. I walk because I have to walk, I breathe, I eat, that is all. You have no choice, no desire. All these things will slow down. Ultimately, what will happen, what God is doing now, you will also be doing. That is the karma yoga. That is the reason why God doesn't dissuade,; He would have told Arjuna, “All right, very good, you don't want to fight, very good, that is what I wanted you to say. Come on, come on, let us go home and have a cup of tea together, come on.”
    No, He is encouraging him to fight, “Though you are not interested, you will have to do certain things, not for your sake, but for the sake of the world. Binding is if you think, ‘I am the doer, and I am doing it for my sake.’ Remove that and do it for Me, for the sake of the Divine, ‘I am doing it for the sake of the Divine.’ Do it. Utilize all your senses, all your faculties, everything for the sake of the people, for the sake of the masses. They expect; it is your duty. Though it is binding, you will have to do it. It may be binding, but it is the same binding which will ultimately lead you to break it. It will release you; you will realize that.”
    That is the reason why they encourage. That is the reason why earlier He said, “You must do Yoga, you must do sacrifices and all such things, as they have said. It will take you to heavens, and it will enrich you, and all those things.”
    You have a right to enjoy, but there is a limit. A man, if he is fond of candy, he will eat one, two, three, four, and then he throws up and says he will never think of candy again. That is what will happen here in this world. All these people, great saints, whom we salute today, go back and read their story about 20 births ago. What did they do? The same thing that we are doing today. They are full to their limit. They have eaten too much candy; they have vomited. That is the reason why they no more want it: no more candy, no more drinks, no more this, no more that, no more. They are satisfied. They don't want heavens, they don't want this, they don't want palace, they don't want wife, they don't want children, they don't want anything. All that they want is to get rid of all this and go back. That is what happens. They all did that. They all did sacrifices; they all did that. They had to do them.
    What happens is, unfortunately we take upon ourselves the doership. That is the reason why it is binding. That is all. If you remove that ego — “me” and “mine”, “I am the doer”, “I am the enjoyer” — take away that sense, then everyone is safe.
    So think in these terms; we are part of the Nature and other things like the mango, too. That is the reason. That part of the Nature, the color, that part of the Nature attracts the eyes, the sight, objects and the faculty of the senses. Senses and their objects, they are on the same level. They are the same; half is here, half is there. That is the reason why eyes can not taste it. Can it? It can only see. It can behold and enjoy, “Oh beautiful.” And there is music. Can the eyes hear the music? Can the tongue enjoy the music? It is the ear; it is the property of the ear. That is the reason why you hear. It is a property, property of the ear. That is the reason why it hears. And you touch the mango, smooth because it is the sense of the skin, but you can not do that with your nose. You hold it, “Ah, what a beautiful smell.” But you hold it near the ear, can you smell it? And cut it and eat the meat of the mango, “Ah sweet, beautiful, it is like sugar.” So touch it, you don't taste it, but eat it, you taste it.
    So like this, the senses and their objects interact because of the Nature. You are not involved in anything. You are as a witness; you are there just like mother will be sitting and children will be swinging, running and playing. You call them, “Come on!,” they will come because they know you are there, they don't mind. They run and do all the things. Even if they fall, they know that mother will come and embrace them, sooth them and clean them. They are free of fear and anxiety. That is what it is. You are the witness; you are there in the heart. All these entities, senses work; all these natural faculties keep on working.
    When you leave the body, what will happen? Can you smell the same mango? Can you eat the mango? Can you see the mango in the first place? You can not do anything. All these depend on you because you are the boss. You are the chip off the same old block, that is the Divine. Even in the Nature, you are there as a part, as a speck on which the whole faculty depends. If you are not there, nothing can move, nothing happens. So it is the Nature, the faculties, or the natural faculties and then again their objects, senses, the faculties of the senses are the Nature, and their objects are also the Nature. So, they interact, that is all; they are playing. You go home and they stop, finish.
    So, why do you want to take it upon yourself, “Oh, I am eating, I am seeing.” No, you are not. You are just there. Many times it is a psychological fear. Just you be there. Even if you are blind, even if you are sleeping, the moment that somebody sees, “Oh, somebody is there in the house,” nobody breaks open the door because light is there and somebody seems to be sitting. You know, so the same thing. You are not doing anything; you are just sitting there, but that is sufficient. The influence of your being there does all these things. So, don't take it upon yourself. So why are you taking it upon yourself as if you are doing it? “I am doing it,” then you have to enjoy it.
    So, that is why Krishna says, “I do all these things, but do I enjoy it? Do I suffer? No. The moment that I want, I will go back. I withdraw Myself and go back. When I want, I project Myself. How many times have I done it. Whenever there is a chaos, I come down setting tracks. Whenever there is a derailment, I will come and put the wagons on the rail, give it a push and go back. That is what I have been doing throughout time immemorial. That is what it is, that is all. If not, I would not have gone back to my abode; I would have forgotten the way. Nothing of this happens, in spite of all My involvement, nothing of this touches Me. That is what you should do. Try to do this. Take away your ego, think that Nature is interacting with Nature itself, the senses being the property of the Nature, they are interacting with the objects of the Nature. So, it is the Nature, it is the play of the Nature, the whole thing: the senses, their objects, all these things. You are just a witness. You are not even involved in them; you are not even commentating on them. You are just there, that is all.”
    “So, you try to think in these terms, and offer all these things to Me, that is all. You are doing it for My sake; think that you are doing all these things for My sake. Offer all these things to Me. Then, you are free.” Thank you very much.
       



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 19

    There is no one who can be without any action. No one thinks that one can remain actionless. The effort to be so is fruitless because no one can remain actionless since the very nature of the Prakriti, that is the primordial force that causes this whole universe to exist, sustain, and destroy, everything that happens is embedded with this. The very quality of the Nature is action. Had there been no action, there would have been no world. Had there been no action, there would have been no creation. Had there been no creation, there would have been no destruction. In between, there would have been no worry about the sustenance too. All these things happen by action; action is necessary. It is a world of actions. Whether it is here, or there beyond this planet, any other planet, wherever it is, whatever it is, it is moving. It has got the action. The pace may be slow or fast; it is visible or not visible, but action is there. The moment that there is a result, the result is the result of the action, so there must have been an action. If not, how come the result is there? The result denotes that there was action.
    That is the reason why, even when the unmanifest Divinity, the Brahman, that is static in its own space, in its own status it is still, but the moment that it enters into the Prakriti, the creation of its own self, it starts moving; it has to create. But the difference is this, when the Divinity falls into the framework of this Prakriti, the creation, It knows constantly Its true being. Since It knows what It is, It is all contented, It is full of knowledge of Its own Self. Since it is fully aware of Itself, then there is no desire. There is nothing to be fulfilled; there is no action to be desired. Thus, there is no action, reaction, though we see the action and reaction. It is only because of the Prakriti, the Nature in the body and senses, the qualities of the Nature which pervade not only the objects, but also the senses, not only the senses, but also the mind, not only the mind, but also the desire and the fulfillment. Everything is pervaded by the force of the Prakriti. That is the reason why there is an interaction between the body, the senses, the mind, and their objects: eating and drinking, and all this family, this, this, this, whatever you take. It is the Nature. There is the Nature, here is the Nature. Object is the Nature, subject is the Nature. So, everything is the Nature because it is the quality which pervades everything.
    So, because we are unaware of that, we have to suffer. We suffer because of ignorance of the fact. But when the Divinity manifests, enters into the framework of this creation, It knows that It is fully knowledgeable. That is the reason why, It at once, as quickly as It falls into the framework of this Nature, It can redeem itself. It can go back at once because It didn't desire anything; there is nothing to fulfill. Here, we are unaware of so many desires that we have desired, not only here now but in the past. Once you wish or desire there, you have to keep on fulfilling. That is the reason why the wise men avoid desires. Even wise men are many times deluded; even wise men are prone to be deluded by Nature and Her qualities. Even they are not free. One is not free until one takes satisfaction in living within oneself.  When one recognizes oneself and lives within oneself, then there is no desire, just like the Divinity does. The part of the Divinity can also do the same thing. One who is established in oneself and enjoys oneself and seeks nothing, though the body works, the mind works, everything works, still he is aloof. As the other day I told you, he is only a witness. He sees, but the Prakriti works through His physical, vital and mental aspects.
    That is the reason, when Arjuna asks, “Where is Your abode?” Krishna says, “Iswara Sarvabhootanam Hriddesho Arjuna Thishtathi” (I am in the heart of everyone.) That is, His Presence, it is His Presence as the jiva of the personal self here or whatever. It is only there, because there the Prakriti works in His Presence and because the Presence is there. Once His Presence is gone, Prakriti withdraws Her participation in Me and takes a rest. “Oh anyway, the boss is not there, come on, let not the hand move, let not the eyes see, let not the mind work.” When there is no mind, all these senses and other organs to function.
    So, the same thing, what the Divinity is we are, because the difference is the Divinity knows Itself, but we are struggling to know ourselves. Once you establish yourself, once you know yourself, turn your gaze within and establish, then even if you are doing action, there will be no reaction; there will be no fruit of your action because there will be no more action. Prakriti works within Herself for Herself. That is all. “I am not in between to snatch the result. No, I am not there.” So, the best way is to change the attitude. “The best thing is,” Krishna says, “don't worry, even the wise people are deluded, even the wise people are taken away by these desires.” Desire is so subtle, it is all pervading in Prakriti. Had there been no desire, I think the world would have ceased to exist a long time ago. So that is the reason why the thought, “I want to build an ashram, I want to have so many students, I want to do this” becomes the desire.
    Buddha in one life, he wanted to save a deer. He was so much attached to the deer; he has to become a deer. So that attachment, he was wise, he was good, great, but still that attachment, that desire to save the life, save this, save that, all these things would, no matter who one is, result in a bondage by actions.
    “It is a very complicated thing. So, don't worry about it, even the wise people can not understand. So what you do, offer everything unto Me. You are doing everything for My sake. ‘Oh Lord, I am doing it for Your sake, it is Yours.’ When it is Mine, then I don't need it so I don't take delivery. It will be returned back, no c.o.d. I don't take the delivery, so it is all right. It has left you, but it has not caught Me, so it is gone. So, you are free from your actions, do it.”
    “You must remember also, when I am born here, when I am incarnated, if I don't do it, if I don't work, what will happen? Everything collapses. That is the reason why often I come in order to uphold whenever there is a slackness. I have to come. I come with multifarious purpose. So, I have to work; I too work. I have come here, I am working with you, I am talking to you. Why should I talk to you? It is My duty. I have to do it, that is why I am born. In My life, I was a cowherd; I took all the cows for grazing. Yes, I had to do it. Why should I do it? I need not have done it. No! Because in the world what the others do, what the great ones do, others follow. And, if they don't do it, then the others also will keep quiet. And again, because you may say, ‘Oh great ones, they are doing a great job and a great service, or whatever it is, what I do is nothing compared to that, oh let me not do it.’ If not, supposing I don't do anything, I go to the Himalayas and sit down. Everyone will come to the Himalayas and sit down. That is all. What will happen to the Prakriti, what will happen to the world, what will happen?”
     “So, wise people, the Siddhas, always do this, those who have accomplished. Wise means those who have realized this and who have established themselves within themselves. They also work and encourage others to work too; they encourage others also to work. Why? Though one's work may not be good, may not be that productive, may not be that serviceable, that profitable, still one should do it. If not today, tomorrow they will realize. Until then, they will have to have that faith in doing. Whatever they have chosen, wherever they have kept their faith in, in that faith whatever action is necessary, they have to do it. Let them do it. Encourage them. Don't tell them, ‘No, no, no, it is not good. No, don't do it, do this, do that.’ No, it will be confusing. You will be bringing a heavy hammer on their faith. Don't do that. They will be confused and they won't do anything at all. Instead of not doing anything at all, let them do what they are doing. Then, in course of time, they will realize; it is a question of understanding. You will understand later, but encourage them to do it. Action is necessary.”
    “So, in your case, offer all those things to Me, and change your attitude that you are killing and you are doing all this, and think that you are offering all that to Me, and you are working for Me. Forget about your doership, forget about your sins, forget about that feeling, fever, mental fever, psychological fever that you are experiencing, all these things. Everything will go away. Come on, do it.”
    That is what it is. In this world, if God doesn't work, nobody works; that is what He has been telling. Again, Arjuna is confused. He says, “Lord, You say often you work, not to work, action, no action, result, no result, do, don't do, all these things. Why? I have seen even those people whom we think they have realized, great people, but still I see them having desires, having to work, having to work out lots of things. What makes one to function in this world like that? It is so deluding; it is so confusing. What makes one to do all this? Though I do not want to do something, I am forced to do it. I don't want to kill, but still something makes me kill. Sometimes, I want to kill, but still something holds me back also, not to kill. All these things happen. What is this?”
    Then Krishna explains, “Arjuna, I have told you this Prakriti has the force called desire, desire and that anger. These two things are pervaded in the Nature. Where there is nature, there is desire; where there is desire, there is anger. It is that deluding factor. First, you are born into the hands of Prakriti. Once you are there, when you fall into the mud, you are smeared with mud anyway. So, once you fall into the Prakriti, all the Prakriti's qualities are attached to you. Of all of the qualities, this one desire, and the anger, they are the two sides of one coin. They bind; they make you blind. It is they who cause the action. It is they, the desire and the anger, because you ask for something, you desire for something, you want to do good or bad, whatever it is. Whether it is good or bad, it is a desire. When it is not fructified, then you turn to the other side of the coin — anger. You hate yourself, either you will kill another who comes in the way if you are strong, or you will go and jump off the cliff — suicide. Whatever it is, it is the destroying of your own self, destroying the very life, the very purpose of your being born here. So thus, you must remember, the desire.”
    “So desire is so subtle, nobody knows; it even deludes the wise people as I told you. Until the day when one recognizes oneself, withdraws oneself into oneself and establishes themselves there, will they be free from desire and the anger. Until then, these two things are what makes you act because these are the two things which are born of that, one of the qualities of the Prakriti, Rajas, passion, Rajoguna, that which makes you, pushes you to work, pushes you into passion. Just like Sattvica, meditation, singing, and all that — all these things are form of Sattva. Tamoguna is fighting, killing, and all these bad destructive elements are born of Tamoguna, inertia, ignorance, all these things are the qualities of the Tamoguna.”
    “And here, this desire, anger, this is born not of Sattva, but of this Rajoguna. That is the reason why one suffers, that is the reason why you must not desire. The moment that you become desireless, then you are not concerned with the result. Once you are not concerned with the result, there is no question of anger. If something comes by, all right, who cares. There is no anger. If not, you will be angry. That anger will yield so many other adverse results for which you will be responsible, so you should be careful.”
    “Also, you should remember, it is very difficult. Many times it is all right, we think we can restrain this anger, we can restrain the desire. Don't be so confident, you see. You should remember in one moment of weakness, they are always there. They are subtle and moving faster than you. One crack, in one flash, they can lay you down. That is the reason why you must be careful. You must be constantly meditating, you must be constantly thinking of this. It is a constant alertness.”
    “It is said body is gross, subtler than the body is all the senses. They are so subtle; their work is not seen. It is so subtle and so fast and so moving. Subtler than all these senses is the mind; mind is the supervising element. And, beyond the mind is you. Once you establish yourself in yourself, then that is the subtlest possible thing — to know yourself. If you can control the mind, you can control all the other things because without mind, senses can not work. If there are no senses there is no gross body that can move, that can work. Mind, though you do not know what it is, because of you, the mind functions. Withdraw yourself into yourself; go deep into your cavity, your real Self, the self into the Self, delve deeper. Then they will have no connection; you remove the life support, and slowly mind will collapse, the senses collapse, the body will collapse, everything will collapse, they don't work. It is not suicidal, but it is a spiritual experience. Thus, you separate yourself from the body, mind, and senses. Everything acts, everything works within the framework of the Nature because it belongs to Nature. It is not your property; it is Nature's property. You are My property, all these things. Once you do that, what happens, you become the boss. You are in your real Self, unmanifested reality. Then, you will control the Nature.”
    “If you become extrovert, then you are the property of the Nature; you must go according to the Nature. You are subservient to the senses, the mind, and all these things. Once you extricate yourself, slowly by delving deeper, establishing yourself within yourself, then you become the boss. The mind doesn't function unless you ask it to work, the senses don't work, nothing works. So, that is the way. That is what you should do.”
    “Also, you are telling Me you don’t want to work; you don’t want to fight. You are prepared to go and beg and live, and all those things. No, that is not it. Everyone has to do one's own duty, however others’ duty seems more attractive, more beneficial, you should not be attracted by that; you should mind your own business. Just because brahmins are worshipped, you can not go and stand there in the place of  brahmin and say, ‘Worship me!’ If you are a brahmin, you can not come and say, ‘Oh, come on, I am going to fight; I am going to kill everybody.’ You can not do that, because they are ordained to do that. That is the reason why they are born there; if not, they would have been born in your family. Brahmins could have been born in your family; you could have been born in a brahmin family. No, you are born here, not as an ordinary man, but as a king. You have a duty; you can not forsake that duty. However, begging is the duty of the brahmin because he doesn't work; he teaches, he practices, he meditates, he realizes. It is he who gives you wisdom; it is he who teaches you. In order to do that, he has to have time. So, all that he does, he comes and begs, whatever he gets, all right, if not, nothing. He has a right. He has a right to give. When the people come, if he has he gives, teaches; he has a right. In your case, you can not beg. You can give because you are a giver,

but you can not beg. Your hand is like this  (palms down), not like this (palms up).”
    “So, you must remember, always it is better to do one's own duty and stick to that, and have Sraddha, have faith in that. Ultimately, that will lead you further into the higher plane of consciousness. You are born here with a purpose; if not, you would not have been born. Why did I not take my birth there? Why was not Bhishma born as Arjuna? Arjuna is born as Arjuna, that is all, because there is only one Arjuna, and it is your duty, and you are doing it. Nobody else can do your duty, and you can not do what others are doing. It is their duty; it is your duty. So, offer all these things; forget about that and do your duty. Otherwise, if you try to do others’ duty, it will bring wrong results which will be very dangerous. It will undermine your real purpose.”
    “Sometimes, if you have diabetes, others are eating sugar; it does not mean that you have to eat sugar. If you eat, you will die. Now, you are having diabetes; you can not eat sugar. Others are enjoying; don't look at others. However sweet their results are, however their results are, however their work is, whatever they are doing, do not worry. You mind your own business, and that is here.”
    “Dharma does not mean only what it is, but what is ordained by your religious texts. You are born into a Christian family. Your Bible says you have to do like Bible says. You have got faith in that; it is what you follow, and it is what they tell you to do, and you must do it. You must have faith in what Bible says, and you must do; then, it is your duty. It will fructify. God will be pleased with it because it is your duty. At the same time, as a brahmin, as a Hindu, as a brahmin you are born, you must do what is ordained by the texts of Hindu Dharma. As a kshatriya you are born, you will have to do as ordained by the same Dharma. That is what the text says. Thank you.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 20

    We do things that we know we should not do, and we do not do things that we know we should do. So, within one person there seems to be several persons, as if, guiding, misguiding, doing and misdoing, all such things. This is a play of the Nature. Nature is a beautiful thing to behold, and it is mysterious as you try to peep into the workings of Her. The workings of the Nature is so strange. It is beyond the comprehension of the intellect to understand because the Nature’s movements are so subtle, subtler than anything else. If you understand the Nature, you can understand Brahman; you can understand God. That is why always Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sri Ramakrishna, used to say, “Go to Mother. Go to Mother, fall in Her lap, cry, tell Her, ‘Oh Ma, if you do not help,’ who else will help because She is the greatest obstacle, and if She takes you in Her bosom, then there is nothing else that can stop you from running into the lap of your Father, the Divine, God, the Brahman. That is the salvation.” For that, this Mother is important, this Nature, Nature in the form of Shakti, Nature in the form of Love, Nature in the form of Destruction, all these aspects. Some things frighten you, some things enlighten you, some things embrace you. All these things, because it is so subtle. Each one is an attribute of the Nature. Each one is a group of things: love, helping, thinking all positive things. “I want to help the world.” “I want to do something else.” Though it is a part of the ego, it is sublimated. “Oh Lord, I am Your servant, I am working for Thee.” Even this is born of Sattva, the light. This is given to us by the Nature. So long as we belong to the framework of the Nature, it is the Nature who has to deliver everything. Nothing comes to you directly. When it comes, when you read, there is a stamp, delivered by Nature.
    So, there are three attributes, the light, the other one is the ignorance, deepest, darkest possible attribute, Tamas, inertia, and in between is the Rajasic, the passion, the color of which is signified by red, while the white signifies Sattva, and the darkest black signifies Tamas. So, we are not free from all these attributes. All these attributes are within us. Whatever the Nature contains, we contain. Whatever God contains, we contain. We are part and parcel of the same thing in a unit; it is a small unit. Everything that is contained in the Nature, in the Brahman or in whatever it is, we have. That is the reason why sometimes we are good, sometimes we are bad, sometimes we are rotten. All these things happen. How many times do we not have complaints about the greatest men? While we worship somebody, as you keep on meditating on them, seeing, looking, concentrating on them, you will find black spots also on them. When we worship, oh, he is all blissful and all that. Also, we come to instances where he was angry, terribly angry. From where does that anger come? If somebody did not bring him milk for offering to God, he gets wild. Why? From where does this come? Rajas. That attribute of the Nature is there. It is not predominant, but it is there. Sometimes, he yawns and sleeps, “Oh, I can not teach you today. Go, go away, come tomorrow, I will teach you.” Inertia, see? It deludes, it will bring a thick veil upon you. In spite of all the things, but sometimes it comes, it holds you. Sometimes it does the worst thing. He, himself, can not explain why it happened. It becomes predominant.
    So, all these things are there, but by practice, by offering ourselves to Mother, offering ourselves at the feet of the Mother, then only it is possible for us to realize, not to fight, but ask Her to give us more of the Sattva than the others. Let Sattva become predominant.
    At the final level, we have to get out of all the three attributes, neither Sattva, nor Tamas, nor Rajas, all these attributes. We should become attributeless. If you have got attributes, you belong to the Nature. Unless you belong to the Nature, you will not have any of these attributes. So it is one of these attributes which forces you to do certain things, either good, bad, ugly whatever it is. You are either a very good man, very good person, doing great service, Divine service, or you will be like a king, doing all great work, taking care of the state, and ruling, and bringing peace to the nation, all these things, Rajas. The sannyasis and sadhus who are in the Himalayas, they don’t take the arrow and bow and go and rule the country. They can only pray, pray for the peace, pray for the goodness, pray for all this, love. But the others, no, we will provide you with safety, we will provide you with the things that are necessary, all that, we will take care of you. Though all these three have ego, one sublimated, one naked, one highest, densest, completely blind. So the other one, killing, all these things, all anti-divine forces are embedded in that inertia.
     Each one has work to do in this world. That is the reason why they are there. There is nothing which is unnecessary in this world but we don’t know the usage of everything that exists. Since we do not know, we don’t use them. Since we don’t use them, we don’t know them. But without our own knowledge, they are all working for us. We are all part and parcel of that victimization; we are all victimized by all these attributes. That is the reason why, so long as you are in the Nature, you are forced to do certain things. Especially when you are in the battlefield like Arjuna, it is raga and dwesha, aversion, love, passion, and desire.
    Desire is the worst enemy of all these things, desire. If you conquer the desire, which you can not, because you do not know how it prompts you. That is the reason why nobody has conquered the desire. Even to conquer the desire is a desire. How can you do that? You are holding the desire and you want to conquer it. It is the subtlest thing. That is what it is, it is the desire. Desire is something that has taken over everyone, not merely the human. The human can understand, but the others in the form of instinct. “I want to eat!” That is a desire. “I want to kill to eat.” That is another desire. These are multiple desires. At least here, we have intellect and discriminative power to divert that desire. In order to fructify, we can plan, do this and that, all these things; we involve in that activity. In the other one, they are shorter things. Pounce and eat and drink and desire is fulfilled. In ours, desire multiplies. The desire, it multiplies here, while there, in all the other animals, it is short, short termed. Its effects are diminished once it is fulfilled. The desires are short, and the fulfillment is also equally short. Here, it is a bottomless pot in human. One leads to another. The moment one’s desire is fulfilled, you think, “Oh, I can have another desire so that it will also be fulfilled.”
    When you strike a wall, when it is hard to fulfill, then you get terribly upset, angry. So you do a lot of foolish things in order to overcome that and try to see that it is fulfilled. It may or may not be fulfilled. That is what it is. It is one thing in between desire and fulfillment, you commit many things which produce many ill effects. Even if you succeed in fulfilling, it has produced many products for which you are responsible and you suffer.
    Just like the mirror is covered with dust, we do not know the desire; if not, we could have control on it. Just like a general, if he knows where the enemy hides, he can attack and kill; but, he does not know where the enemy hides. Just like the mirror is covered with dust, our intellect is also covered. Our desires are covered, our power of discrimination is covered. So, the desire hides behind all these things. We do not know; it is all covered. It is said, “The body is the grossest thing that you can see and control.” If I do not want to walk, I can sit. If I do not want to sit, I can sleep. If I do not want to sleep, I can sit. If I do not want to sit, I can walk. I can do and undo things physically; it is grossest. Subtler than this are the senses. If there are no senses, hand does not work if there is not that sense which controls the hand. So, the senses are subtler. The senses do not work unless the mind is there. Mind is subtler than the senses. At least you can to an extent observe the workings of the senses, but you can not understand the workings of the mind. They say psychologists understand, no. Mind is the subtlest thing. Subtler than the mind is the intellect. Intellect is the product of the mind, but it is subtler than the mind. That is the reason why it is embedded in the mind; it is subtler.
    Subtler than this intellect is the Self. Self is what controls the whole thing, the very presence of which allows all these things to work. If you, the Self, or whatever you call it, withdraw, in the absence of the Self neither the intellect works, not the mind, nor the senses, nor the body. When these things are not there, you are far away from the Nature. The general Nature does not work because these attributes do not function. For these three attributes to work, you have to have the cooperation of these things. These are the means for the attributes to work. And to see all this play, you are the witness; you are there. You neither enjoy nor suffer, but you are a witness.
    Oh, how these things in the Nature happen! It is just like two hands clapping. The attributes belong to the Nature, and their actions through the body, mind, senses, are also the Nature. What is this? Body. What is the mind, what are the senses? They are all the part of the Nature — it doesn’t belong to you. You don’t have mind, you don’t have body, you are Brahman, you are static Brahman, you are the Reality, you are beyond the time, space, and causation, you are never born, you are never dead, you are always Eternal. You are the subtlest thing. It can not even be described as being subtle; you are beyond that. As such, how can these things be yours? How can these things affect you? No! You are there as a witness. You are everywhere and you are passing through this also. You are manifesting in this. You stop by. So, you are watching these things, that is all. Once you go away, the show is over. When all the audience goes away, what will they do? They pull the curtain down. That is what happens to this world. So, you are the subtlest thing.
    That is why, if you want to go beyond all these things, you must utilize your intellect. Beyond intellect is that buddhi, jnana. Buddhi is intellect. Several times the same word is used for both. Intellect and also, jnana, which is wisdom, but many times they use wisdom for buddhi also, intellect also. We have to understand in what context the word is used. So, that knowledge, wisdom is important. Wisdom is far superior to the intellect. So try to control, know these sources, and control them. Control your senses, control your mind, all these things. By doing this, you will be controlling the movements of their actions. Then you will be saved, but it is hard. That is what the yogis try to do. It is hard because we do not know. That is what it is. If you know where they hide, you can conquer them. You do not know them. It is hard.
    That is why bhakti yoga is the best. Somebody else will do the job. Pray to Mother, cry, “Oh Ma, help,” and She will help you. She will do the needful, “Go away, don’t try to bother My child.” That is what Mother does. You are saved. If you are strong, take the help, like Arjuna went to Krishna, ‘Krishna, I will fight but You please drive my chariot.” Not only will He drive your chariot, but also He will give you the advice that He gave Arjuna so that you can fight. If you can not do either, then you will suffer in this world. You are caught in the cobweb.
    So, that is what you have to do, in the day to day life. One day we are this, one day we are that. This nature keeps on changing. It is the nature of the Nature. That is the reason why only one attribute does not become predominant all of the time. It keeps on changing because as the color changes in the Nature, our life also changes, our faculties change, everything changes, keeps on changing. Everything changes. Change is the nature of the Nature — constant. It is so subtle that you can not measure it.
    Once my friend was asking me a long time ago when he was our music director for our dance. He inquired of me once, ‘Shrinivas, can you tell me? We use a knife for 20 years, and you will see it has a small dent. Why?” Every time we cut with it, it loses a small part of itself, but we do not how much. Every time I see that cutting board in my house, it has a dent. So, we have eaten some of this dust, but we do not know. Whenever we cut the vegetables and all that, a part of it is also cut. It is so subtle, we do not know. That is what it is. Without our own knowing, it is so subtle, so small, change is so slow. We do not know. There were no Himalayas, now there are Himalayas. That has produced a beautiful spiritual aura. There were no continents, and there are now seven. Things are falling; some countries are losing ground, and some new islands are coming up somewhere. Everything is happening, the Nature. Quantitatively, has anything happened? Nothing. It is a play of the same play dough. You can make a cow, you can make this, you can make that, you can make small, you can make big, everything. It is the same container full of play dough; that is what the Nature is here.
    So, that is the reason why He says, “Conquer that desire. Who is your enemy? It is the desire.” “Become!” “Oh, great warrior, you are a warrior, you are never tired of fighting, conquer it. Come on, this is the best. If you conquer the desire, you have conquered everything. Don’t worry about the Mahabharata. You have already conquered Mahabharata if you have conquered your desire. Because you have not conquered desire, that is the reason why we are here. You want to fight because you desired for the kingdom. You desired, ‘Oh, I want to fulfill this promise to Draupadi, and this promise to my brothers, and this, this, this, this.’ How many desires do you now have to fulfill? Had you not desired, there would have been no reason for you to fight. Now, you start fulfilling. Take the whole thing, and do it. Thereby, you will have conquered it.”
    So, now that is the worst enemy. Not this, not the Kauravas, not Bhishma, don’t blame anybody. That enemy is within you. It is that desire. You go deep within and try to locate, and conquer that desire. Then, you are saved.
    I remember in 1943 or 1944, when we were struggling for the freedom of our country, freedom under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership, I represented Mysore Congress at that time with three others. One of them was a scientist and was my colleague and leader. One time, he wanted to test Sai Baba, and Sai Baba said, “I am not interested in your coming and testing.” So, they were asking questions. Miracle, there is no miracle and all that. He is not an atheist, but he does not believe in all these things. He is a learned man. It was nice. He is a devoted man, very simple. His possession is only one mat, and a few clothes, that is all. Though he was the vice chancellor of Bangalore University, and a parliamentarian, and all kinds of things, but still he was very simple.
    I met him again a few years ago. Oh, we were all in the prison together; he was our leader at that time. When we were in Yervada Prison in Pune, when Gandhiji was in Agakhan Palace, he was jailed there, and his wife was sick at that time. So, we were there in protest of their being imprisoned. We were young people. All the political prisoners amongst us were young at that time, all high school students, 14,16, 18 years of age at the time.
    So, our jail was full. Our jailer was from Burma; he was an evacuee from Burma, Mr. Barker, very nice man, very sympathetic. He always used to tell us, “You have a right to freedom, and we appreciate what you are doing. God will help you.” That is what he used to tell us. To help us, we had wardens. Wardens are those who are staying in the jail for a long time, life long imprisonment. So, because they have proved to be good, and they have confidence in them, authorities made them wardens. Wardens means they are almost free. They can go anywhere in the jail, like police. Only in the night, they have to go to their barrack, that is all. If not, they can go anywhere. They have their duties and they can supervise the prisoners, other prisoners working and all that.
    One was Ramprasad, who was caught minting notes, currency. He was very nice. He was telling us, “Don’t do this, but we did. It was fancy, that is all, challenge.” He was a young man, used to spend a lot of time with us because we were all students. We used to like him. The light used to be so low that we could not even read. We complained to the jailer. Immediately, he put a bright bulb; he knew that we were students. All those facilities were given. There was one Shahabas Khan, tall, a very nice man. He was so fond of us. We used to call him Chacha, uncle; and he was very inquisitive. He used to take care of us, talk, if we needed anything, he delivered and all such good things.
    There was one Appanna, who had murdered somebody and he was also there. So Appanna used to tell, “See, I am here; I should not have been here. I am here. All that happened was in one fraction of a second I killed somebody in anger. There was no need for anger but anger took over me. As a result of anger, I killed. It happened in a fraction of a second. Now, I am spending all my life here.”
    So, the philosophy, that is how Nature works. That is the desire. There must have been desire; that is the reason why there was a misunderstanding. When the desire was not fulfilled, the anger took over. That anger made him kill. The result is life long prisoner. That is what it is.
    At that time, we learned a lot of these things. Now, after 50 years, I am sitting here. Often, I think of them, what they told us, especially that Appanna. Such nice people, so fond of us, so nice, always smiling and working and free, and, such great nice people. They are all prisoners, they are all for life long. Why? It is the Nature.
    Even in our own lives, we are not free from them. They are in their prisons, we are in our own prisons. They are in the prison which is created by somebody. Here, we have created our own prison in which we are suffering. Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 21

We are entering into jnana yoga, that is Chapter 4, where they discuss about jnana and vijnana, the knowledge and the wisdom, the intellect and the wisdom. In Sanskrit, the same word is used, many times as I told you, for many things, so unless you know in what context it is used, you will never know the true meaning.
    So, after all, what is the purpose of yoga? What is yoga? That is what is being discussed. Compared to what we think yoga is today, everybody has a hand pasted all over the world, “Come and I'll teach you yoga.” That is good. What is yoga, real yoga? Not simply bending backward using the activities of the physical; nor is it simply using the mental faculties. The purpose of anything that you do is what? — to get that ultimate knowledge, that knowledge. The activity of the body itself does not produce yoga. It has to be channeled. It has to be done in a particular way for a particular purpose, at a particular time, all these things. Under all these circumstances, it produces certain things which are important.
    If not, everybody is a yogi. Everybody is doing everything. We sleep, we walk, we eat, we do all these things, so it should provide things. How many times have I fallen sick? Still, I go to the doctor in order to know what the sickness is; I do not know. Why? I have fallen sick very many times. It should have given me knowledge. No. Doctors especially go and learns.
    So thus, yoga, in those days there was no hatha yoga as we think. It is only a few hundred years ago, it started, bending backward and sideways, and all that. The greatest yoga teacher was Patanjali. He said what yoga is. Yoga means, “To sit quietly without any disturbance in one position for a long time and try to watch so that when the body is still you can ultimately watch the senses, movements of the senses. Then, those movements when you watch, it will take you to the chief, the supervisor, the mind. It is over the mind that you have to have control.” It is called raja yoga. That was known as yoga, simple yoga, but then it became raja yoga because we had to distinguish between what we started doing with hatha.
     Yoga is the process of learning things, to obtain the knowledge from the scriptures, from the teachers, from all those people. Then, this is the Jnana part. Then, what we

have learned, we have to provide ourselves, the concrete proof of it. In order to do it, we have to experience it.
    I am Brahman. My teachers told me that I am Brahman, and texts told me that I am Brahman, but am I Brahman just because they told me? I may be Brahman, but not that I know of. I have to realize. I have to experience what is the nature of Brahman, what is Brahman Itself, what is Brahman first of all, the nature of Brahman, the position, the qualities of Brahman, and all these things.
     Then, we have to compare. Do I have those qualities? If those qualities are with me, how is it I am behaving like other than Brahman. Why? What makes me think? What makes me do that? Then, naturally I come to know that it is a polluted Brahman, contaminated Brahman, because it is Brahman involved in Nature. That Brahman is not governed by the Nature, so it is pure, beyond the reach of the time, space, and the causation, pure knowledge, pure light. But here, that is not the case. I do not even know. Unless I know, I read, I can not understand. Why? If I am Brahman, I should also be able to do that. No. Not until the day that I get rid of all those things that are covering me with the veil of ignorance as Brahman. Remove that and when I realize, then there will be nothing else. I don't even call myself Brahman. I am Brahman already. Then, there is no difference between what I seek and what I am.
    So, that which produces this is vijnana. Vijnana is the knowledge that you obtain by your own experience. You don't go and ask, “Oh, am I Brahman?” No! If somebody says you are not Brahman, you are not going to argue. You ignore. So, you have established yourself in that particular truth that you have experienced. That is what the teacher said. You have concretized with your experience. What teacher told you is jnana, and what you have experienced to concretize that is vijnana. Whatever you get by your own experience, that is vijnana. You know it firsthand; you are an authority. Nobody need tell you what it is.
    So, from where did it start? What is the source of yoga? Krishna continues. Krishna is an entity without a name, without a frame, without any impositions. Krishna means the Divinity; Divinity, that is all, God, if you believe that. That is all. So, we have to recognize that Divinity by some name. See, we are not capable. Supposing if I say Brahman, we can not know Brahman. So unless I mix Brahman with something else and speak, nobody will listen or understand. If I give medicine, nobody will take it, so I add some sugar, syrup, then you will take it, “Oh, one more dose.” We call it syrup, add that name to the syrup and then this syrup and that syrup. That is how we have to call Krishna because we could not recognize the Divinity there. Or, we have to recognize it as Jesus. We see the Divinity and we can not understand the Divinity unless we call it by some name and it has a frame. So, we call it Jesus. So, we call it Buddha. It does not matter. It comes from the horse's mouth somewhere. So, He says, the source of everything is only One. From where does the river come? Today we call it the source. It is from that end. To that beginning of the river, from where does the water come? There is somewhere. So, if you keep on going, then you will realize the source.
    Today, we learn yoga here, or over there, or there. But, from where did this originate? That is what the question was. He said, “In the beginning, what was there? There is nothing but only wonder; that is truth. Whether you call it truth or light, or whatever you call it. There was only one entity of which all these things have become. From one being everything has become. That being is the originator of all these things, not only the Nature within which all these things are happening, but also this yoga. As the world came into existence, the yoga also followed the course.”
    “Then, who is the recipient of that yoga? If it is with you, it was with you, all right. But now, I have it. So, how did it come to me? Tell me. Did you give it to me? You did not give it to me. So, now you tell me. You are the one who had it and you never gave me yoga. Now, how did it come? Tell me!”
    Those were the days when we recognized sun as the most divine form of God. In order to make it easier for ignorant people like us to understand, He says, “Yes, if you want to know, I gave the secrecy of this yoga to sun god. Without sun, nothing happens. The sun is the prime and he is the eldest. He is the oldest according to us. Everything runs around the sun. So, I gave it to the sun.” Don't ask me where sun is now. I can not give you his phone number; it is his personal number.
    Anyway, Krishna knew, and He give that yoga to sun god. What is sun? It is all symbolic. Sun is the foremost entity in the Nature. In the Nature, the sun is the greatest from where everything comes. If there is no sun, nothing grows. You (to Karl) are a grower, you know. So, sun is the giver; everything should come from there. Everything revolves around the sun. So He said, “If you want to understand from where it came, all right. You do not understand if I tell you I gave you directly. All right, you want to know the middle men. All right, I gave it to sun. What did sun do? In his turn, he gave it to Manu.”
    Manu is the originator of all humanity. That is why we are all called Manava. (Manu's followers, are those who were begotten by Manu, like Adam.) So, He gave that yoga to Manu. He taught Manu. Then, Manu had a son, Ikshwaku. Ikshwaku was the son of Manu, and he gave it to him. We are all children of that Manu. Oh, so many and we are all the branches and leaves and some new shoots come, all this happened. Ishwaku, then, started giving it to everybody. Thus, Ishwaku is the originator of a dynasty, sun dynasty. We have a lunar dynasty and a solar dynasty. Krishna was born in the lunar dynasty. All the other people, Janaka, Rama, they were all born in the line of Ikshwaku, sun; these are the dynasties. So those kings, it was not given to any ordinary Tom, Dick, and Harry who could not understand. They gave it to those kings, the kings, “rajashas.”
    In those days, kings were not merely kings, they were also yogis, like Janaka, the father-in-law of Rama. Sita's father was a great yogi. Most of the sadhus and others, sannyasis, swamis, they used to serve him being a king. Being brahmins, they used to go and learn from him sitting at his feet. He was not only a king, he was a yogi. He never was attached. The sign of a yogi is unattachment. He was not attached to his kingdom. That is why even further Krishna says, “Even Janaka and others did work, so do not say you are going to beg and live. No. Nobody can hesitate to work. Even Janaka, the greatest yogi, he too worked; he was king. He took care of the kingdom; yet, he was a great yogi.”
    “As the days went by, years after years, somewhere there was a crack in yoga; somewhere, somebody was negligent. They did not learn. Slowly, it diminished, and it was all gone. Now, you are lucky. I am giving it to you directly. After a lapse of time, it survived for a while. Then, lethargic, foolish, arrogant kings were born, and they did not care. They did not carry on the tradition. So, it died; it did not die, but it went incognito. Then, it was to be redeemed. That is the reason why, today, you are lucky. I am giving it to you directly.”
    This yoga is secret because He has been telling you all about karma, all about the life, all about the death, and all these things. This is the secret knowledge. If you go and ask Tom, Dick and Harry, “What is death.” “Death? Don’t know.” “What is birth?” “I don’t know. I don’t know.” That’s what they know. That’s a secret. Deeper inside you go, more you learn about birth, simple birth, simple death, simple living, simple action, simple result. It is simple, but to know everything in detail as if it is an open chapter, open page, is yoga. It is only the yoga; yoga gives you the insight into all these things. Thus, if you know everything, then what is left to be known? Nothing. You’ll be knowing Brahman; you will see Brahman in everything, hiding behind everything. They say, “Tena Vina Trina Mapi Na Chalati.” (Without you, even a blade of grass doesn’t move.)
    I told you the story where God or Brahman comes in the form of Yaksha. God comes and puts a blade of grass, and says to Agni, “What can you do?” “I burn anything.” “Then, burn this!” He couldn’t burn it and went away. Vayu, the Wind God came. “What can you do, what is your speciality?” “Oh I can blow anything away.” “Oh, do it.” “I can’t move it. I tried.” He went away. As Indra came to test, God disappeared. His ego was so much in him, he could not even see the Divinity, even in that form. At least the others were better.
    “So without God, nothing happens. The power of wind, the power of Agni, the power of Indra everything is the power of what? — the Divine. Nature, from where does Nature come from? So everything is His. It is converted into Nature, that’s all. God’s will transforms into the forces of the Nature. And the Nature, in Her work, converts everything as She wants. And when She wants, She can wind up Her business and go like Inspector Gadget. Put everything in a box and go, and when the time comes, She reopens. From nothing, everything comes. It is Her work. It is Her glory.”
    “To know all these things is why yoga is necessary. Yoga is necessary in order to know these secrets. These are the secrets. It is not an ordinary knowledge. That is the reason why many of those people knew and when the interest was lost, yoga was also lost. Nobody attempted. As long as you keep trying, using the knowledge of this, then yoga will survive. If not, yoga will just vanish. Stay home.”
    “Now, it is good. You wanted to know; you have learned. I am giving you this. I started giving you; you are lucky. You should know everything depends on Dharma, the code of conduct that has been established in this world for a good rule, good society, good evolution. In order to have a world, completely well organized, well ruled society evolving higher and higher regions and come back to Me, Dharma is necessary. It is Dharma that provides you the foundation and support. If you are ignorant, there is Dharma to depend upon for guidance until you grow up, just like sapling. We tie it to a stake. When it grows into a big tree, the stake is not necessary any longer. I have seen those poles broken. Until then, it needs it. We are all innocent in the beginning.
    So, there is a dharma for us too. Or when child passes stool here, we say, “You will see only child do this and we clean it. If you do it, everybody will take a baseball bat, because you are expected to know.” They are not expected to know; that is their dharma. They are succumbing to their Nature. We are evolving; we have yet to evolve enough to go over the Nature. Now though, we are being held by the Nature. That’s where we are ignorant and innocent and all that. I don’t kick the dog, if he does something under my tree. If I find the owner, I am not ashamed to complain, but I cannot do anything with the dog because it is his dharma. That’s what the evolution is. Then slowly what happens, instead of falling into the Nature, you’ll slowly understand the Nature. If I have a stomach ache, I want to go. I’ll wait and when I get to the bathroom, then I go. So I will try to control the Nature. I am thirsty. There’s no water. I’m not going to die. I’ll drink my saliva and wait. When I get to the water, I will drink; then I survive. The child will cry. I don’t cry. I’m trying to conquer. Conquering is a wrong word anyway. In order to explain, I have to use that word. If not, it is hard to understand. Know first hand. So, as you go higher and higher, the process of understanding the Nature spreads, deepens. When it comes to the end, then you have to reject everything and take to higher levels of consciousness. It is that intensity of understanding that will ultimately lead you to go beyond the Nature.
    So, the dharma is necessary; if you give up dharma, you will be stuck somewhere. That is all. You cannot evolve; for your evolution, dharma is necessary. That is the reason why dharma is given. Dharma doesn’t mean only the Vedas and the BHAGAVAD GITA and whatever is given in India. What about the KORAN? What about the BIBLE? What about ADI GRANTH? What about the SUTRAS?. All these scriptures are all Dharmas. What are they telling you? Follow this. Understand this. Do this. Do that. Do not do this. Do not do that. If you do this, you will get this. If you don’t do this, you will not get; you’ll be stuck there. You will be polishing the shoes all the time and you will be teaching your son also the same thing, and your son’s son also will do the same thing, that’s all. You’re stuck for all the eternity.
    So, the dharma will eliminate all those conditions and give you freedom to know more and more and more. Whenever this dharma collapses, progress stops and things slide backwards. When you do everything according to the code of conduct, the dharma, you will progress well. As you live here, you get up early in the morning, take a walk and take a bath and do this, do pranayama, do this, and then bring this thing and cook like this and eat. All these are dharmas, and offering it to God will sanctify it, and then you eat it. You wash your hand; you wash your plate. Do not leave it like that or it becomes bad and bacteria breeds, so all such things. You must wash your feet and hands. All these small things and big things, there are so many rules and regulations. These are only small codes. Then, there are codes to follow related to clan, society, nation, super humans, dependents, etc.
    If you follow them, what will happen? You’ll be healthier, richer; your mind will function well, you will learn, you will get knowledge, you will evolve, you will be happy. Your happiness will bring happiness to your wife and children. If you are a happy family, your neighbors will also be happy, and if neighborhood is happy, then the whole village will be happy. Thus, the whole world will be happy if you follow simple things, Dharma.
    Somewhere, today I heard, in Los Angeles somebody shot somebody. Somewhere, dharma is broken. When the dharma is broken, the whole peace is lost; everybody is frightened. They cannot sleep, they cannot eat, they are afraid of the children, they are afraid of themselves, all these things happen. So how can they evolve? How can they be good? Then, they will go and buy another gun; their own friends putting on some other guise for fun are shot, thinking it is somebody else. All these things happen; see, chaos. If you don’t go according to dharma, the whole society will collapse, the whole world will collapse.
    “So, things happen that way. Though I am unborn, The Eternal, happy there in my true form, formless form, spaceless space, I appear. I appear on this world amongst you people in order to uplift your Dharma. Once again, I

make you understand Dharma, stay with you and I follow it so that you will follow it.”
    In the last chapter He said, “ Yadyadacharati Shrestah, Thathadevotarah Janah Saha Yatpramanam Kurute, Lokah Tadanuvartate.” (As the great people do, the others also do. As they do everything, the others also will follow.) That is the reason why all the great people are endowed with great responsibility. All the 24 hours, they must be cautious as to what they say, what they do, where they go because everybody is watching, because they are followed. They follow them. That is the whole truth. This is the reason why Krishna says “I have to be careful when I am born here. If I take liberties to do something, everybody will start, just because I know who I am. I know with whom I am playing.” So, He went to others’ wives and played and what will ignorant people following him do? Oh! They will start raping everybody in the town, so He must be cautious. Though He knows Himself, He cannot be irresponsible. He too has to worship. He too has to honor.
    So, all these things come into play. When our dharma collapses and in place of dharma, others like Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Duhsasana, these kinds of people, will be born when Dharma collapses; to the degree that Dharma collapses, Adharma (contrary to Dharma) takes place. “When the Dharma grows weak, then the whole Nature will start crying. I have to save the Nature. I have to save the whole world. Nobody can do that except Me; so, I have to be born again and again. I have to reestablish the Dharma, see that everything is done. I come, I am born, then I work, and when I feel the mission is accomplished, I go back.”
    The righteous people are tortured by unrighteous people. You see how Ravana used to torture reclusives and rishis engaged in penance, teachings, etc. Even in the RAMAYANA, all the Rakshasas (demons) used to torture these Rishis. They used to become detrimental to their penance and encoded rituals and dump everything so they could not offer oblations to Indra and other gods of the heavens. As Krishna said in the beginning, “You must offer everything to those people.” Vishwamitra could not perform his fire ceremonies, so Rama and Lakshmana went and stood there to protect them.
    So thus Rama was born at that time, and Krishna was born, Buddha was born then, Jesus was born then. It is not a question that only in India Krishna should be born; Krishna could be born as Jesus in Jerusalem, just as Buddha was born somewhere, and as Mother Theresa here. It doesn’t matter, to a small degree or to a big degree. That is the reason why we say Krishna has thousands of hands, feet and thousands of tongues, and then later on He reveals the sacred Being, Himself, to Arjuna. Arjuna could not even behold Him in that form because it was too bright as such.
    What is this God Who has thousands of hands? What are all these hands? Jesus is a hand. Mother Teresa is a hand. Sivananda is a hand. Your hand, his hand, hands that do good things are all God’s hands. God’s hands do not do anything bad. Even the bad people, when they do good, the God is inevitably there. This is the reason why they think good and do good. They are not always bad, predominately bad, but sometimes, unknowingly, some good things come up. They are all God’s hands. That is the reason why there is multi million hands of God, and eyes, same, all these things. It means it is not merely God, an ugly creature with a million hands, million legs. No! It means all those things that do the work of Divinity are His organs, that’s all. So it says, He says “In order to save those righteous people doing their sacrifices, offering themselves to God and their dharma, practicing dharma and all that, bringing peace and love and joy to the whole world and making the Nature proud of them, in order to provide protection to them and to destroy this ignorance. By killing Ravana, Rama didn’t kill Ravana; He killed that ignorance. Once that ignorance was killed, what remains is beautiful Ravana, who was after all, a great soul.
    So, like that, I buy in yard sale some things, a few that are ugly, and I go home, and spend an hour cleaning and all that, and then I say, “It looks beautiful,” and I show it to my wife and she says, “Oh, beautiful already.” She doesn’t know I cleaned it for one hour, and if they had done the same thing, they would have sold it for a better price. It is a silver plate on which I offer to Krishna everyday. I bought it for twenty five cents. I cleaned it; all that I had to do was to clean it. I loved it, and I offer it, nice. That’s all.
    If we remove that dirt covering us, we will see that all of us are divine. If we remove the dirt covering us, we will all shine forth as equally great. There is absolutely no difference. Jesus realized this, Krishna realized this, Sivananda realized it; they never look at anybody as bad. Even the worst people, they used to make them sit on their lap and feed them. That was the kindness of Sivananda. That was the kindness of Jesus; He accepted people as they were, because they knew who they really were. They could see into them; they have an x-ray eye that could see the Divine in them. That’s the reason. That’s why God is born everywhere, born anywhere. Whenever there is protection needed for the righteous people, and destruction is necessary for ignorance, He is there, one way or the other.
    All these simple truths you are experiencing in life, you do not know. All that you have to do is know, that’s all. If you start knowing, then it becomes vijnana. If not, it is jnana that we read in the books. But how many times have you not done good? Sit down and think how many times you have done good things. How many times you have wiped the tears of somebody? How many times have you felt love for somebody in agony? Pile all of them up, put them all together and you’ll see you have got good bank account there. You do not know how to even cash it. You think negatively, “I’m bad, I’m a man, I’m weakness.” No. You should completely not do that; you’ll go down. How can Krishna be born there? Krishna is there, Jesus is there, Buddha is there; that is the reason why very often you have done good things. Hold on to that. When you do that, realize that, continue to do that, repeat it, but don’t go on thinking, “I’m this and that”, let there be absolutely no negativity.
    Remove that negativity, in spite of it. We are human after all. We do something, all right that we think of God, think of doing something else. The presence of Divinity will be there to remove that ignorance which caused you that. You are one unit, within which there is good and bad both. And also Krishna says, “In order to do this, in order to protect this, as a basis for Dharma, it is I, and nobody else could do all this”
    Though logically, I often have told you how these four branches in Dharma itself are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras. This is the root of the caste system that came into existence. It is a social arrangement. Who gave this social arrangement? Who thought of making these divisions? Then again Krishna says, “I did it. I gave this in order to provide you a good healthy society. Brahmins, they are full of Sattva, compassion, love and knowledge. They take care: they will teach everybody, they give knowledge, they are always loved, they don’t hit anybody, they don’t do anything against Dharma. All that they do is teach you all those good things. Sattva predominates in them. Then, I created Kshatriyas. Through them, I protect. They are the kings, rajas; they are broad minded, but active, have valor; all those things are there. They are strong and will protect the society. And then comes the Vaishyas, they plow. They provide you with food, they’ll provide you with commercial things and they take other jobs. They take care of the society, they will provide you with food, they will provide you with clothing or whatever it is, whatever you need. In them are Rajas and Tamas; both of them are there but Rajas, is predominant and Tamas subservient to them. Sometimes, they become Tamasic also. The Sudras, the fourth class, in them Tamas predominates, but sometimes Rajas also comes to surface. So, they serve people; that’s all they can do. They serve; they take care of everything, they’ll keep you happy, they’ll keep you comfortable. So thus, each one will have to take care of their own job and then take care of the others, so there will be a healthy society if each one does one’s job. And again you will ask, ‘How do you distinguish, how do they become that? Is it just because they are born?’” “No,” He says, “If they lack in these qualities, then they are not there. You may be a Brahmin. If you go and polish the shoes and the sweep the street and all these things, you are not a Brahmin. You do not want to learn, you don’t want to teach, you don’t want to go to temple, you don’t want to do any good thing but you want to do meaningful work, that is your Nature. So, Tamas is your predominant Nature. So, you are a Sudra, though you are born to your Brahmin father and mother, you are still what you are by what you do.”
    But, when you think of being a man or woman of God, there is no imposition of this social discrimination. There are stories how even god men in the lowest of caste were honored and respected even by the highest castes. They were so much devoted to God that God used to come to them. They were happy to eat with them, talk with them. They used to make them sing so that Krishna used to enjoy their songs. Sudras all these people, what were they? Low class people, but they are higher than Brahmins. Even Brahmins used to go and learn from them. It is not by birth but by what you do is how your caste is decided. Whatever is predominant in you, that determines what you are, whether you are a Brahmin, or a Sudra or a Vaishyas, whatever it is.”
    “So that is what is created by Me.” Arjuna says, “Krishna, just a minute, if you don’t mind, can I ask you a small question? You say all these things, fine. Now, I know. You are born from years ago, right? How old are you now? Forty?” “Fifty.” “So, you were born 50 years ago. What is the age of Sun? In the beginning, there was Sun. Sun was the first thing, and You are telling me you gave Yoga to Sun. Oh! Don’t tell me, I’m already confused, and don’t confuse me even more. Please tell me.”
    “My son, you do not know. That’s the reason why I’m telling you that I am ageless. Even before Sun, I was. You don’t have that intuitive knowledge but I do have. I am what I am. You are not what you think you are; you think you are Arjuna so you are behaving like Arjuna. So, Arjuna doesn’t know unless you also become Krishna, like Me. I know how many times I am born here, how many times there was chaos, how many Arjunas were there, how many Kurukshetras were there? Even before the Nature, I was, see? You are now born; you do not know all that. You were also born several times as I was born; you too were born several times for several purposes. You do not know. You don’t have that knowledge. You don’t have that sight, but I know. I know how many times you were born, and what all you did, and I know what I did. That’s the reason why I am Krishna and you are Arjuna. I’m telling, you are hearing. If not, you would have been talking, and I would have been listening. You don’t know, I know. That’s the reason why I tell you, I give you all these things. All these things, that is what I am telling because you do not know. It needs intuitive knowledge. Now you are already clouded; your reasoning is clouded, everything is clouded. That’s the reason why you even suspect that I gave my yoga first to Sun God. It came to your dynasty slowly. How many people are gone before you?”
    “ So, you must understand this, if you understand me and understand what I’m telling you, how many times you are born, how many times I’m born. You don’t know, I know. And how many kings before you have done the yoga and they reached the Ultimate and I know, but you don’t know. So, the whole thing is” I know, I know, I know, you don’t know, you don’t know, you don’t know. The day that you will start thinking, ‘Yes I know, I know I know I know’, that is the result of yoga, best of yoga. The day that you will start thinking, ‘Yes I know, I know I know I know’, then it will be, ‘I know, you know.’ Then you will know that you are not you and I am not Me. Both of us are something, the same entity.”

    “Thus, there were people who have understood these things, those people now dead. You don’t think there are so many people before you who did this yoga, who understood, who knew what I am, even My Nature. That’s the reason why many times I have to go bow to these people. Whenever I am born, I have to bow to them because it is they who recognize Me. They know; by yoga they have reached the highest zenith. All those people have come to Me. They are with Me there. Thus, you too will have to work, and you too will come one day to join Me in my True Being. Thank you very much.







BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 22

    It is hard for a “normal” person to identify and know all about the Divine manifestations amongst us. Though it is hard to recognize that situation, nevertheless we feel it, but we cannot explain it. There is none in this world, on this face of the earth at least, who has not felt the Divine vibration, but they cannot explain as to what it is and why it is and from where it is. These are the things that can be answered only by the people who have transcended the material world, because the source of this is from beyond the material world. So, in order to seek, we have to go beyond the material world which is hard. That’s the reason why the kind Lord often manifests Himself as many things amongst us, as the situation demands. He may manifest Himself either as a he or a she or an it; it doesn’t matter. You know you have the incarnation of Narasimha; thus, it is not necessary and we cannot expect that the Divinity should manifest in a particular way. If you are looking in one direction expecting only something to happen, it may have happened; something, somewhere behind you, you’ll not know. So, we should keep ourselves open in order to know and recognize it. A simple statement, but from the spiritual point of view, it needs much preparation to know and recognize.
    How many times you might have shaken hands with people; who knows who it was? You must have brushed the shoulders of somebody somewhere in some land. Who knows who it was? So thus, we should always understand there is Divinity amongst us, always manifesting in one way or the other. The presence of the Divinity is always here; not even for a single fraction of a second is it absent. Whether the world exists or does not exist, it doesn’t matter. The secret is, the world, where does it exist? — within the framework of the Divine, because the world is also the Divine manifestation in a particular way for a particular purpose, and for a particular time span. It exists where? — within the Divinity. And, where does the Divinity exist? — within the world. So, it is; it is here. That’s what we say, “Poorna Madah Poornamidam/Poornat Poornamudachyate” (He’s whole both as unmanifest and manifest, as incarnation or otherwise.) Everything, the prop support of the whole thing, is Divinity, “Isavasyamidam Sarvarm Yatkimcha Jagatyam Jagat” (Everything is pervaded by the Supreme Divinity.).
    We say, “Nature,” that’s what we see, Nature; we say everything happens because of the Nature. Where does the Nature exist? What is the prop support for the Nature? So that, the force, the Divine force makes the Nature do the Nature’s job. So, it is hard to distinguish, it is hard to realize, hard to know, see, recognize.
     That’s why Krishna says you should give up all those notions and your attachments to work and its results, of the senses and their objects, and all these things. Not only that, you must endow yourself with a pure seeking, pure ability to seek; then, it is possible. And also, you must seek the company of those who have realized. Then, slowly you’ll enter into that path and you’ll realize. You must devoid yourself, you must have your life, your mind, your senses. Everything should be as pure as a pure white sheet so that the Divine can reflect. If you see directly, you cannot see the solar eclipse. People make a screen and then they see the reflection. That’s what happens. You cannot see the Divinity because your eyes are only limited to this material world; your eyes cannot see. That which controls the eye can see; that is you. Who are you? — that soul. That’s the reason why God says, “One who establishes oneself in Oneself can see, realize the greater aspect of Divinity.” For it, the soul, is a minute scale, that, the Divinity, is the largest scale. If you taste this, you will taste that also. That’s what we are failing. We are the nearest to Ourselves and we are keeping ourselves from Ourselves far away. That is, we are not understanding our own Selves. And how then, can we understand God? How can you understand that great Divinity when you separate Divinity from your own being?
    That’s the reason why God often, in order to help us, expresses Himself, Itself, Herself, whatever it is. It manifests, maybe as Jesus, maybe as Buddha, maybe as this, amongst us in order to take care of us, be with us to guide us through our efforts in reaching our spiritual goal because everybody is not seeking the Divine in the same path. All the paths ultimately lead to what? — Ultimate Truth, the Divinity, “All roads lead to Rome,” as the saying goes.
    Instead of telling everybody, “Oh, turn back and go home, take another road,” No. Instead of that, “All right, you want to take this path, all right, go this way, that way.” And then, everybody wants guidance; so God becomes Buddha sometime, Jesus sometimes, Allah sometimes, Krishna sometimes, whatever it is, to lead them in their own path, whatever the path they have chosen, whatever the path in which they have established their faith. It is more important, that investment; it is a great investment, the faith. He doesn’t want to disturb that faith; He wants that faith to grow. In order to do that, He manifests Himself in all these forms to deepen their faith in their own path and then guide them, ultimately.
    Those who can understand this, there’ll be no confusion; absolutely, there will be no confusion. If you do not understand, if you belong to the lower Nature and your eyes are not upward BUT downward, then there will be chaos in the society. That’s what we are seeing today. That’s the reason why the people who have realized this are always gracious, tolerant. Each one is struggling to find out ultimate truth. Some people are falling and some people are getting up, some people are moving, some people are sitting, some people are resting. All these things are happening in this world. Don’t judge, don’t judge; let each one move at their own pace, at their own time. Whatever is prompted by the Divine to do, they will do it, but have tolerance, faith and hope.
    Not only is your way right, but the other’s way is also right. You have no right. That’s the reason why He says, “Give up all the other notions; fill your heart with My thoughts, try to invoke My presence in your being. When you invoke My presence in you, I will take over. When I take over, you are merged with Me and there is nothing that you will have to do. I will do everything for you. And as the people come to Me, in whatever the shape, in whatever the state, in whatever the mood they come to Me, for

whatever the purpose they come to Me in faith, I will reward them accordingly.”
    As I told you, if you desire, “I want to see You as a Jesus”, “Come on, I’ll bless you as Jesus. I’ll appear to you as Jesus. You’ll know Me as Jesus, ‘All right, I am Jesus.’” “You know me as Ishwara. All right, I am Ishwara.” Your love and your faith is more important; that will produce the particular result. Have faith, that’s what He says. “Give up all the other notions, come to Me in whatever the way you want to come to Me; come to Me and in that way and I’ll reward you accordingly. You will never go empty handed; your wish will be fulfilled.”
    That’s the promise, and it is always fulfilled. There’s no one who can complain; it is a question of time. If you have invested one penny, you cannot expect a million dollars today. The more you invest, the more you get. It is a great investment bank. The more you invest, you cannot have little faith and then say, “Oh, I didn’t.” You have to have patience; especially in the spiritual life, there is nothing like hurry. Lives together people work in order to reach a particular stage in spiritual life and gradually reach the highest, beyond which there is none. So, have that faith; That will help. That’s what He says. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 23

    Meditation doesn’t start after the bhajans. Meditation starts the very moment that we sit here and relax. Try to understand, try to think of what we are trying to understand, what we are talking about. That itself is Meditation; Meditation doesn’t mean close the eyes and sit idle. There are several methods of Meditation. Constantly thinking of the object of achievement is also Meditation. Meditation is a process by which we can achieve what we have set to achieve.
    Often, I think whenever I see the library, huge volumes and small books, whether it is helpful or whether it is discouraging since we can not read all of them! Very many times, many people come to me and ask a lot of questions. They want to test whether I have read the books that they have read, whether I have understood as they have understood, whether I agree or disagree with them. If I disagree, they want to argue. So, all these things happen. Understanding should be simple because we are all individuals; we have our own way of thinking, we have our own way of living, we have our own way of doing things. We cannot force anybody either to accept or reject whatever it is.
    From that point of view, I am talking to you. I don’t profess to know that what God said is exactly what I say, no. Whatever God seems to have said, even Veda Vyasa, the creator of this MAHABHARATA, in which the BHAGAVAD GITA we are talking about is incorporated, says, “This is what Krishna said.” Just like Bible is written two hundred years after Jesus, this is what Jesus said. So, Veda Vyasa said, this is what Krishna said. It is good, so long as it has meaning and it enlightens us, it is great, whether it is said immediately then or it is said after two thousand years, it doesn’t matter. It is wisdom; there’s no dispute about it. So, when we talk about that, what I understand is more important than what others have understood and whether I agree with them or not. That’s not the question. I respect everyone who has understood BHAGAVAD GITA or BIBLE or KORAN in their own way and do things accordingly. It doesn’t matter at all, but it helps. That’s what even Krishna earlier said, “What you think, what you do is more important than when you try to follow other’s footsteps.” In that case, all of us could have been made into one ball of flesh and one blood. We are all individuals. That’s the whole beauty. God, when He wanted to invest Himself here, “May I become many.” He has become many; He wants to enjoy the multifarious aspects of this life.
     So from that point of view, we all should understand there are things that we have to contemplate. If we do not understand our mind, all of our minds have their own limitations, to that limitation it works out. It makes us understand. If we do not, we’ll wait, if not today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. All of a sudden, it will bring out the meaning. It will, “Oh yes, this is what it is.” So God will help you; if it is God’s word, God will help you. It is His word. You are involving God; God will take care of it. He will enlighten. As God enlightened Veda Vyasa, as God enlightened Shankaracharya to write a thesis or rather commentary on BHAGAVAD GITA, or Madhavacharya on the same BHAGAVAD GITA in other way. They are all beautiful, but are we in any way lesser than that? Is God going to look down upon you, and say, “Aw, go go, go!” to them? No! He is a lovely Father: He’ll disseminate the same knowledge to you in the way that you can understand and the way that is essential for you to understand and do the thing. He will enlighten. That’s the reason why, on the same text there are so many commentaries; so many people have so many views about it. That’s the beauty. Each one is different. Each one is right. No one can say one is wrong. We are nobody to say one is wrong. If it is wrong, it will diminish by itself. Truth always exists. Truth will replace the misunderstanding.
    So from that point of view, what I am talking to you about in the BHAGAVAD GITA, I don’t profess to be a learned scholar. I know what I understand, whatever God made me to understand, whatever I have experienced in my life, and whatever I can connect my experiences to whatever it is said, to that extent I love to talk and discuss. But the rest of it, don’t try to examine me. I will fail because your questions may not have an answer with me. So from that point of view, let us talk. Let us understand this point of view.
    The other day I was talking about God’s beautiful promise; all our Saints and Sages, they have sung the beauty of God and His promises. He loves people. If you love Him, He loves millions of times more. He knows nothing but love. He says, “If you serve My devotees, I will serve you as your devotee because I am the slave of the slave.” If you become a slave of my devotee, I’ll become your slave.” That’s the humility that God wields and God has shown that; He has served.
    Do you know what Krishna did for Arjuna’s family? He was taking care of all the horses. He used to wash and feed the horses because they were devotees, because he wanted to serve them. He need not have done that. He could have sent an Army to take care of them. No, He Himself did it. The people who could not reach Him, He went to them. “If Mohammed cannot go to mountain, mountain comes to Mohammed.”
    There is a beautiful temple in Dakor in Gujarat, India; there is a story about Bodana, a great devotee. Every fortnight he used to walk, all hundreds of miles to Dwarka for that full moon to offer his prayers to Krishna there and come back and go again. There were times when he could not, so Krishna said, “Hey, don’t worry, you don’t come. I’ll come there.” So He came and He was established there in the temple. Beautiful temple, beautiful Krishna, you can touch Him, and all that. You can feel that vibration. So, Bodana brought Krishna from Dwarka all the way to Dakor. So, it’s a stone. For us, it is a statue, but it is not a statue. Even in the statue, there is life; the statue becomes positive and exhibits, reveals itself. As I told you, nothing is devoid of Divine grace and Divine presence. If not, when you give a shape to stone, why should it retain that shape? What makes the stone to retain that particular shape that you give it? It may refuse. So, it has that; so, you have a connection with the life or the presence in the stone and you want, “Oh, I want to give the shape. “Please hold it on.” “All right, I’ll hold it.” If there is no harmony between what you do to the stone and the stone accepting your vibration, it will break; it will knot. There are so many unsuccessful stories of our artists and sculptures.
    God promises that, “I regard everyone as they approach Me. If they approach Me as an enemy, I’ll be the greatest enemy. I will fight. That’s what He did with Ravana. Ravana wanted Rama to be his enemy. What Rama did, He killed him. But did He kill him with vengeance? No, He approached; it was the way in which He approached him. He knew who Ravana was. Ravana also knew who Rama was. He wanted redemption quick. He made Sita to bring Him.
    And there’s a story where Hanuman says, “Ma, I will take care of these people, I will take you; sit on my shoulder. I’ll take you back to Rama at once”. She says, “Oh, no, no, my son, I know you can do it, no.” She says, “Ravana is also my son. He’s tired of being born like this. He’s tired of being away from serving the Lord. He’s tired. He’s confused. He wants to come back and only Rama can deliver him, nobody else, neither you nor me nor anybody else, only Rama”. That’s why he says, “Rama.” In the street, he remembers Rama. RAMA! And in the day time, he remembers, Rama, Rama, Rama; so let Rama come. “All of you, all that you have to do is go tell Rama I am here, and that I want to see Him fast.” Rama came and Rama shot Ravana and brought back Sita.
    If he was real enemy, there’s another story within the story. When Ravana lies down, he’s happy. “Rama, this is the moment that I was waiting for. Why did You delay?” He says, “Oh Lord, I waited; how long did You make me wait. Today is the day that I celebrate. You have redeemed me. I thank You so much.” Rama says, “I know you Ravana, I have come. It’s all right.” Then He calls Lakshmana, “Lakshmana, come here. Touch his feet and ask him to take you as a disciple and ask him to teach you politics.” He was a great politician, oh not like these present day politicians. It is a Shastra; Shastra is a code of conduct. To learn from him, Lakshmana touches his feet and becomes a disciple of Ravana. Ravana teaches all about political sciences; it’s a big chapter. Ravana teaches him all about politics. He was a great musician. Ravana used to play the Veena; he was the master of that string instrument. He was a great artist. His palace was beautiful. All these things are the virtues. At the same time, we see the dark side; we create Ravana like he is ugly. No, far beyond that, it is only God who could see the beauty there. Who was Ravana? So, such is the thing; if you want to worship him as an enemy, he will fulfill that.
    And Shabari in the RAMAYANA was an old woman, very devoted to God. She served all the Rishis there, every mendicant, the teachers, the great teachers who stayed in that forest practicing, teaching. She used to serve everybody and she used to go and collect these fruits; she used to take a bite and if it is sweet and nice, “Oh, I will keep it for Rama. Rama is going to come, Rama is going to come.” Rama came. Rama didn’t bother to go to all the big Rishis, big names, no. He searched for her and came, and she was so (every now and then she used to come, open the door and say, “Oh, did Rama come? Oh, He must be coming today, maybe in the night, in the morning, tomorrow.” She spent all her life anxiously waiting in positive hope.) Rama came. Oh, she was out of herself in blissful joy and what could she do? She could not make any cake. She brought all those fruits that she collected, that fruit that she had taken a bite of. Rama said, “Oh, how tasteful.” He ate. He gave one to Lakshmana. Lakshmana said, “Oh, she has already eaten, I don’t want to eat.” Rama said, “It’s okay, fine.” The same thing, Lakshmana threw it, and it became some plant of medication. When during a battle, when Lakshmana was shot, he goes out of consciousness. At that time, Sushena, the army doctor, says, “I want a particular plant in order to revive him. Who else can go but Hanuman?” Hanuman said, “Why worry about searching? It would take time.” He took the whole mountain and brought it, then said, “Oh, you can find it.” So, he found it and then threw it away after Lakshmana took a bite and was saved. But Rama accepted it, see?
    Then, there is one lady with Ramakrishna Paramahansa. She used to keep a small baby Krishna in her bag, side bag; every day, she used to worship Him, and she used to beg and borrow anything to feed Him. To her, He used to become alive and play havoc. One day, she had to go to Vrindavan and she left that Krishna with Sri Ramakrishna, “Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, please take care.” He took care of Him and when she came back, he said, “Oh, He is very bothersome. He broke this and that; He ran away and I had to chase after Him. It was hard for me to catch Him and make Him behave.” So, he was alive. He used to become a baby. He was a baby Krishna, so He became a baby and actually He did all that play. For us, it is hard to believe, but flesh and blood Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa played with Him and that lady played with Him. What a great joy it is to experience such a phenomenon.
    So, the Lord comes to you as you want Him to appear. He says, “I award them according to what they wish of Me. All that I want is their love, their devotion, their belonging to Me, their sense of belonging to Me. Then, I am available to them in all the ways that they want. Whatever the way they want to have Me, I’ll be there to be had.” What He says, He promises; so He fulfills. It has been proven time and again for all the eternity. He is such a great God; that’s the reason why God is God.
    Again, when we say, these are the actions. All these actions: love is action, my worship is action, everything is action. So God, at the same time, hints to Arjuna, “You say you’ve got money, you are investing a lot of money, but don’t buy cheap things.” The devotion, the love for God is great; the devotion, that meditation, all these things you are offering to God is pleasing God. God is pleased; it is great. It is a great investment, but don’t ask, do all these things when God comes; don’t say, “Lord, can I have a piece of chocolate?” You can throw a piece of money and get chocolate. Don’t, for a piece of chocolate, worship Him and pray, “Oh God, give me a piece of chocolate.” This is like going to a king and then asking for a blade of grass. Don’t do that. “If you want any of the fulfillment in this world — you want wife, you want children, you want wealth, you want all these things — you know I have so many secretaries, such as the Nature and along with Nature you know Kubera, Prajapati and all these demi gods. Indra is there. Varuna is there. Vayu is there, all these demi gods. They fulfill all your desires; for that, you need not come to Me at all. They have their own offices. You apply and they’ll consider your request. By doing sacrifice, they are pleased immediately; I may take time to be pleased because I am a busy entity, but they are there. Their profession is that; they are meant to be giving. One who seeks, one who pleases them, will be fulfilled; whatever the desire is, it may be fulfilled. They are easily approached. Do that; but, don’t waste your devotion in all those things, life, meditation and all these things, and when the time comes, “He gave me a beautiful wife.” That’s not the way. He says, “Ask what I can give you. What can I give you? The redemption, freedom, elimination from birth and death. You can live with Me in My abode. Where is My abode? Your heart, My heart. You become Me, you become one with Me. That’s what you should ask. Don’t ask for anything less.”
    There is one businessman; he was eighty five years old. He spent all his time making money and having concubines and all those things, plenty of children and grand children, all right. He was not married, but he had all kinds of other things. He came and all his relatives said, “See you have not even gone to a temple. You have not done this and that.” He said, “Oh! Yeah, you’re right. I should do it.” So immediately, he decided, see, as he was serious about business, he can be serious in other realms. He became serious; he gave up eating and drinking and all those things. He became completely devoted to the Lord. In a short time, God was pleased and He came and He said, “Oh my friend, don’t starve, you will die. Come on, eat!” “No, no, no, no, I cannot eat. I must see God.” “I am God.” “No, no, no, no, I want to see as I see in my picture.” The Lord said, “All right. I have four hands and mace, disc and lotus.” Then, he said, “Oh Lord, thank you so much.” Lord said, “Look, I am pleased with your penance at this physical age. You have done a great penance; I am pleased with you. Ask me I can give you only one favor, see, for the amount of Sadhana, the devotion that you did. I can give you only one boon, one favor, ask. “Sir, at least give me three.” “No, no, only one.” “At least give me two.” “No, one.” “See, I gave up my food, and all these things; I did all these things and at this rate, I could have collected this much money, this much business could have been done and all that. See, at least you must give me two.” He said, “No, one.” He said, “Just give me a few minutes.” “All right,” He said, “Sir, if you want to give me only one boon, give me one. I must live to see my great, great, great, great grandson becoming the emperor of this whole universe.” Lord said, “Oh my, you are a business man.” “I don’t ask anything, only one wish, I want to see my great, great, great, great grandson becoming the emperor of this whole universe.” He said “All right.”
    So, we don’t deal with God like this. What will happen? You may make a lot of mistakes in asking for such things. He said, “I want to see.” “You can see,” but, he didn’t say how. In that case, what that businessman thought was, “I will be living for all eternity and all these things. I can see I have to marry; I have not married. Now I will marry; I’ll have beautiful children and grand children, their children and all that.” That’s not necessary. He can die and he may not be reborn, but he’ll be like a ghost waiting to see all the time; neither can he be born here and enjoy, nor can he enjoy in that realm. Lord said, “All right, that is your wish. Be it so.” So, when we ask something, let it be meaningful and worthwhile.
     Also there’s another story that Sai Baba told long time ago, when we were there. A man served a great learned saint. He said, “I am pleased and what do you want?“ He said, “All this life I have been working, working, working. I want that genie to work for me.” He said, “Oh, I see. All right. One thing, you must give the genie constant work; if he does not, it will eat you.” “Oh yes, I have plenty of things to give.” The moment, even before he could finish his command, it was done. Oh boy, hardly one day passed, he came running and held his feet. “Oh Lord! save me.” “What, what!” “Genie is going to eat me.” “Why? You said you have plenty of work for him.” So he said, “If you want to avoid being eaten, tell the genie to dig a deep ditch, put in a long post, make it nice, and make it greasy. Then, ask him to go up and come down, go up and come down, until you say stop. So, you don’t tell him to stop. He will keep on being busy. He’ll keep on going up and down.” So, you must know what you ask for. God doesn’t take responsibility for that, of what you want.

    As God, He offers Himself and you’ll be wise enough to ask a particular thing for which you worship him. Not the material thing, material things are available, but that which nobody can give, that only God can give; ask for only that one. If you go to wise people, don’t ask silly things. Ask for things that nobody else can give. They are all specialized stores. You don’t get other things there. You get only particular things which nobody else can give you. You ask for only that; that’s what God says. If you want material things, go to these demi-gods. They’ll give you; they are pleased with your offerings. When you come to Him, indirectly He says, “Be alert what you ask of Me, ask Me the greatest thing that I can give you: My love, My Self. I can redeem you; nobody else can do it. I will give you that; ask that.”
    And third thing we always say, “God is born. God is dead.” God is neither born nor dead. He was to be born as Krishna because He did those things as Krishna. He was to be born as Rama because He did things as Rama. He did this because within the framework of Nature, everyone has to act, do the action; every action produces result, and one should enjoy the result, whatever it is. That’s the whole process, but as Krishna has very clearly said, “I know myself, Arjuna; you don’t know what you are. I have been taking my birth every now and then, several times but I know of that, but you do not know. That’s all the difference.” So Krishna knows.
    Without a cause, God doesn’t incarnate Himself. As the other day, I told you about His utterings: “By myself, I incarnate into this world in order to save this dharma, code of conduct, by which the whole universe moves forward. Whenever there is lack of it, lack of enthusiasm, lack or some danger, I come in order to make up for that and help it grow, help it be alive. Do I need something that fuses in order to make me be born? No. By Myself, I can create Myself. I can disappear and appear. Whenever I want, I can be born. I need not be a child and grow up. I can grow up like an 85 year old immediately. So, I am not born as all the human beings are born. They must have the father, they must have the mother, this thing and that thing, yin and yang, or whatever it is, and then the fusion of this causes their birth. In My case, that is not the case though.”
     That’s the reason why it has been proven when Krishna was born in the jail, He came, appeared, and said, “I’m going to be born now. Be ready, I will be born now and take Me across the river to the other side and bring that child, who is already born, here.” So that’s what happened. He became immediately a child, and He was born. He could have gone like that to the other side by Himself. Why did He create a situation like this for His parents? He too has to follow the natural laws to make them happy that they are His parents. He had promised them that He would be born to them; they have forgotten, but God had not forgotten. So He was born to them. So at once, they forgot who Krishna was. They took him as, “Oh my child.” A child is born. So, they took Him across, and the story goes on.
    So that means to say, He can create Himself. Nobody need help Him to create Himself. He need not have a father and a mother to be born. He can be born like that: “Swayambhu” He does not need any help, does not go under any process; He is beyond that process. That’s the reason why, even if He’s involved in the action they are all inactions. That’s the reason why these actions do not bind God, though God has two hands and two legs and two eyes and one brain; I don’t know about it. Many times, He does according to our human mind; we cannot know whether He has a brain. He does many things without brain. God does things beyond even our imagination.
    So, according to the theory of karma, He is involved in so many things. It should be binding Him tight, but no, it doesn’t bind Him. Why? He doesn’t have a desire. The difference between karma and akarma is that karma gives you the result; every karma gives you result, but when the result comes, you are there as a recipient. You receive it, so you are bound. There, He does it without any desire. He doesn’t have a desire to do anything. “Krishna, do it?” “All right, do it.” “Oh God, help me, help me.” He is not desirous. “Oh, the world is collapsing.” “Oh, everywhere there is crime and all that, please Lord, help.” “All right,” He’s born. You wanted, so that’s what happens; He escapes the heat of this result, of the karma. Though He does karmas, He’s free from the enjoyment of that result, because He is free of desires. He doesn’t have any desire. There is nothing that He has to desire for anyway. The whole creation is His. What is there when we spit, do we take it back? It is like that; it is what He has spit out. It has come out of Him, so He doesn’t want it back, it is for us. So within this, we are entangled in this cobweb; we want help, so He comes. “Because I prayed and You came here and You helped me, You loved me and all these things, so You are involved, so You are bound by that love.” No, that's what I think. God is full of love, who knows? Has He, did He not kill Ravana? Did He not kill others? “Oh Lord, my enemies, please take care of them.” My enemies die and is it not a sin? In order to protect me, he takes care of my adversaries.
    We know we are also the chip of the same old block, but the difference is we have so many desires. We are entangled in them and in their results; that is the reason why we are suffering. Where as God doesn’t suffer, though, I am the same chip of the same block, I suffer because I have committed myself — ego. God doesn’t have ego. When He says, “I, I, I,” it is a pure selfless I. There’s no way else He could address Himself in order to make the human understand it. So, “I am Krishna.” “I am Rama.” “I do this, I do that.” When He says that He doesn’t have that ego, “Oh, I did that,” He doesn’t do that. That’s only the way in which He has to express Himself. “I am Brahman.” If He doesn’t say I, then nobody will connect that Brahman to Him. He has to identify Himself for our sake. If not, He doesn’t care; so, there’s no ego when He says I. But when we say, “I,” “I do this, I do that,” then whatever you do, the products are yours. When He does, He doesn’t put His return address on the products. The products do not go back to Him, but here we put our own return address on first and then do the things. That’s why all the karma’s results will come back to us.
    That’s the reason why He says, “Remove that ego of doer-ship. Remove that and then offer everything unto Me. That’s all, don’t worry. Put My address and send it. When it comes, I will take care of it, but it will not come back to you. You will be free.” You do because you are in the Nature. Nature doesn’t allow you to keep quiet. Even in trying to keep quiet, you think, “Oh, I am sitting.” Also, you are breathing, your mind is working, senses are working; you control one by one, and trying to control them itself is an action. All these things, and even if you are successful in all this, who did it? “I did it. I controlled my mind, I controlled everything, I controlled, I, I.” That one I is worse than all the other things — ego. Then, whatever you did multiplied, multiplication of karmas. All that result will at once hit you like a rock on your head, that one ego. Doer-ship, “I did it, I did it.”
    That’s the reason why, when you do this karma for pleasing all the demi-gods, for the worldly pleasures, you say, “I am doing this, Oh Lord, I am offering you this because I want this from you.” “I want rain, so I am worshiping you, Varuna.” “Oh Lord, there’s no air here. I want air, so I am offering you this please.” All these actions are because of desire.
    So, when you offer your prayers to God, you ask nothing; don’t have any desire. That’s the reason why we say, “Have your own prayer.” Prayer should not be an indent of our requirements. “God, give me my daily bread.” How many times every day we say? He’s a bloody fool, He doesn’t give, no. Once you said the prayer, He knows. The moment that you are born, the moment that you are in the Nature, you have hunger; you have this thing, you think, everything is provided. Then why not ask, “Give me wisdom,” which is lacking. “Lord, I want to have Your darshan; I want to be with You.” If at all you beg, if at all you want to desire, desire for things that only God can give. That should be the prayer. Even prayer should not be that action for which you have to pay. All the other prayers that you do will affect, but this prayer to God, let it be a pure and beautiful offering without craving for anything. Don’t ask anything. If you ask anything, you are proving that God doesn’t know your needs; unless you tell Him, He doesn’t know what to give. No, no, just reveal that you love God and offer yourself to God. That’s all you can do. Even that is an action but minor. Everything is an action. Nobody can avoid action in this world. But, the results vary — binding and redeeming.
    When you offer this love and other things to God, it is humility. Humility is the lack of ego. Absence of ego is humility, but many times humility becomes a cover, a sugar coated pill. It looks like humility, but far deep within there’s ego. Like politicians, “Oh I’m your servant.” And he has 20 servants at home working for him and he says, “I am your servant; give me your vote.” So what! This is not humility.
    Humility is like that of Hanuman’s. Hanuman was capable of saving the whole thing ,but he said, “No, I am the servant of Rama, that’s all.” Then, they wanted to jump. Who is going to jump this 12 miles or 15 miles across the sea, whatever it is between the tip of India and Lanka, to see Sita? Sita is there. Who is going to? Everybody said, “Oh, I can only jump this much, this much.” Hanuman was singing the name of Rama. Then Jambavan, the great bear, came to Rama and said, (Rama was his son-in-law as Krishna. Krishna married the daughter of this Jambavan, who was the army chief in RAMAYANA also. Oh so long is the life that they lived in those days.) Jambavan came and said, “Look, come here, I’ll tell you who can do that. See that fellow with the long tail? Go on, make him do that.” So everybody went and he said, “I don’t know, I’ll try. If Rama blesses me, there’s nothing that one can not do. If Rama says go, I’ll go.” Rama said, “Hanuman, you’re the greatest, you can go.” Then he went. He didn’t say, “Oh I will go, oh yes!” These people could not go because, “Oh, I can do 12 miles.” “I can do 11 miles.” “I can go up to this, but I cannot go under 10 feet.” All this ego, but Hanuman said, “If Rama wants me to do, I’ll try.” And Rama said, “Yes.” Humility! “Go!” And, he was gone.
    When Rama sat on the throne on that day, Hanuman came and sat at His feet. He didn’t say, “Oh, I have helped Rama. I should sit next to Him in a throne.” No, he didn’t say. He said, “I am His servant.” Do you know what Rama said? Rama said nothing to anybody, but to Hanuman He said, “Hanuman, you are My younger brother. You and I are the same; there’s no difference between you and Me. In the family, you are the younger brother to Me, but in reality you and I are the same. Does it mean that I am also a monkey? No, you are also Rama.” That’s the greatest acclamation, reward.
    So thus, for God, no action is binding; so, He can create Himself. That’s the reason why He can incarnate whenever He wants. Whenever He wants to disappear, He can disappear; whenever He wants to appear, He appears. So that is the way. The wisest thing is to remove ego and the doer-ship and then it becomes akarma. So, find inaction in action. It becomes an action when you attach yourself to the action with the desire. If you remove that doer-ship and the ego and just do, because you are within the framework of the Nature and it is the Nature which does that, you become just a witness in the heart of yourself. Say, “All right, I’m not the doer, I’m not the enjoyer, I don’t have anything to do. It is the Nature that is moving. This is the Nature that makes this to do this; what comes out of that is also Nature. It’s all happening within the Nature, so I am free from that.” That is the wise way to find inaction in action so it will not be binding, so it will ultimately lead you to redemption. Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 24

    Earlier, we were talking about karma. It is the karma which binds us and it is the karma which relieves us from the bondage too, both. If you find inaction in action, then it is a releasing factor; it will redeem you. And, if you do not find that, the sense of inaction in action, then it is binding.
    So, what is that which causes the same action as binding force and also releasing force? It is that ego, that identification of yourself with the action, that you are a doer. The sense of doership is the actual cause for either your binding or releasing from the results of the action. That’s what it is called: skill in action. Earlier, Krishna was asking Arjuna, “What is yoga? Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam.” (Skill in action is yoga.)
    What is that skill? Skill is this: it is so subtle. So, we always forget that we are not the doer. We think we are the doer because we do everything with our eyes closed. We are ignorant of the fact that we are not doing anything. It is this Nature, the body, the mind and everything except me, that awareness, that consciousness, which pervades within you; except that, everything else is Nature. It is the Nature which forces you to do everything; even if you try to do nothing, still you are doing something. It is hard to understand.
     So, when you are dead nothing happens. Why? You are not there; so, you are just dead, that’s all. The moment that you are there, everything starts functioning because Nature recognizes your presence and She starts functioning through all the other aspects. The moment that you are there, Nature thinks that, “I may not work there now.” So, She retires. Nevertheless, Her influence is there, even after you are dead. It is the nature of Nature that body doesn’t work; it’s the Nature that the body works when you are there and it is just Nature that the body doesn’t function and it decays. It is the process of the Nature again. Nature is active throughout, whether you are there or not. When you are there, Her function is different than the function that takes place after your absence. Nevertheless, it’s all the Nature. Even when you are there, many times body decays. It is the Nature. So, once you realize this, that it is the Nature that prompts the body to function, that the whole universe functions because of the Nature and not because of anything else. You are not the doer. If you can do something here, you should be able to do many things anywhere else, but you cannot. It is the Nature which does all whether you know or not, whether behind your back or in front of you; whatever it is, it is the Nature. Once you understand this, this is the Nature which works and not me. I am just a witness. I am here. I am anointed with that grease that nothing would affect me.
    If you can understand this, the wise thing, though the karma is done, actions are done, you will not be responsible for the results of it. If you start crying for the results, then you are identifying yourself with the action. You become the doer, the sense of me and mine, “I’m the doer; I want the result,” that desire. You’ll hook onto the results of the action, then you’ll either cry or be happy, or whatever it is, one after the other. Then the chain of reaction will start producing births and deaths, and more births and deaths; so, it goes on eternally.
    Wise people, though they are working, are not responsible for any of the results; they are not worried. If you go to them and say, “Oh sir, you did this, it is good.” They don’t claim any credit. If you say, “Oh, you did this, but because of this, this is done; this is a bad result,” they don’t care. They are neither held responsible for good or bad results of the action, so they are not concerned with it. That’s the reason why sages are free from action and reaction.
    Even good karmas, even virtuous actions are the bondage. That’s the reason why great many sages, we can say, we often say, “Sai Baba, when you can do this, why not remove all the pain in the world?” When he can give, when he can materialize a watch and give you a ring or something, why not materialize something and save the whole world? No, that’s not the purpose of his being here. It is His purpose to encourage you, to turn you inside so that you will realize yourself and then you’ll become free; that’s all. If one starts clearing all those things and keeps on giving you rings and watches, for all the eternity, you’ll be dependent on such things. You’ll know, that’s not the purpose, it is just to create the faith, and turn your gaze within and make you look deep within yourself and understand yourself. Once you understand that, establishing that sense of not doing anything, then you are free. That will be the last birth.
    It will be like deep fried beans that don’t sprout. Thus, the actions are all like beans. The beans of actions that are done by the sages are like fried beans, so it doesn’t sprout, but with us, everything sprouts. So that’s what it is.
    That’s the reason why whenever God incarnates, does work, He does much more than what you and I can imagine to do, but none of them affect Him. Why? Because He is born with a handful of fried beans, you see? They don’t sprout; they quench your hunger. The world's hunger is subsided by that, but it doesn’t sprout, so He is free. He is always free. It is His world anyway.
    Even God falls into the framework of Nature; things happen. If He by mistake, even if He identifies Himself as ignorantly me and mine, then He too has to pay the taxes. He too has to pay the fees. That’s why He’s very conscious far deep within. That’s what He has explained to Arjuna many times. “See, I am what I am. I don’t have any desire. Neither I want to win nor to lose, but you have decided you are My devotee; you’re Mine. I know who you are, so I want to make you understand; that’s all. If you lose tomorrow, I am not going to go and cry. If you win, I’m not going to enjoy. If you want to be like Me, all right, these are the things that you have to do. Nevertheless, since you are bound by dharma, you have to do it. I’m doing My Dharma; I came here as God incarnated to do this. I am doing it; that’s all. If I don’t do it, then it will be again a sin. As God, I am incarnated; I have to do this. I’m doing it and you are born as a Jiva, as an individual soul, to do this. You have to do it. All of us, once we are in the fold of Prakriti, we are in this framework of the universe, we all have to do our share of work. Some will hang onto the results, some let go the results. Those who do not want the results, those who do not care for that though, who are established, recognized and established in the self, those wise people do not hang onto this world and they are released like the gas in the balloon or the air in the balloon. They are released and nobody can recognize where they are; they are one with Brahman.” Same thing, the other ones hang on.
    So, that is the way in which you have to find inaction in action, and action in inaction. All that is subtle identification of the self. If you are established in the self and hanker after no results and remove that ego of doership, then you are free. That is skill with which you have to work in this world. If you do not, then you’ve entangled yourself. That’s the whole thing. That’s what the sages do. That’s the reason why they’re called sages, because they have realized themselves. They know what they are doing, so they have established themselves in themselves. They do not care what the Nature does; it is Nature. So, they go beyond the Nature and then they’re redeemed; no action will bind them, though they are doing all kinds of action. They let the Nature do what She wants; they do not interfere in Her work.
     What do actions do? When those people do not do, we’ll never know if they do not enlighten us. If Krishna said, “No, no, no, no, it would be ego; I don’t want to tell you anything.” Then, where would the world go? So, that’s the reason why, though they need not do any action, they keep on doing.
    Earlier, we said, “Yad Yadacharati Shrestahsthatha Devotarah Janah Saha Yat Pramanam Kurute Lokah Thadanuvartate.” (As those people do, we all do.) My Master meditated; I meditated. He talked good things; I too will always try to talk good. He did great things; I too would like to do that. He loved people. I would like to love people. He served without any fees. We too do it, so we do like that. If he starts drinking, “Oh my Master does, I do.” So if you follow, each one chooses their own ideal; they follow their leader. If you have good leader, you’ll do good things; if you have a bad leader, you’ll do bad things, especially when it comes to the spiritual life. Those who are established in the highest moral character, we follow them. This world will be good. That’s why they do good things in order to bring good things and good understanding and all these things; they keep on doing.
    So, that is not binding because they are doing for our sake. They want you to see the results, not they. Sun shines; those who take upon themselves the sun light, they are healthy. Those who bury themselves in the darkness can’t help, so that’s what it is. Sun doesn’t care. If you make use of him, it’s all right. It is his nature to give light, the heat. So, those great people talk good, do good, everything. If you make use of them, all right; if you don’t, don’t. So thus, they are free. They are the wise people. That’s why they keep on doing work; if not, they need not do. They do for the sake of the world, for the sake of the people, for the sake of others. So, this is not an action, that is the inaction in action.
Thank you very much.

    Joel asked: Could you clarify something? I have tried to absorb several translations of the RAMAYANA and in each translation, there’s one point after Ravana abducts Sita, when Rama and Lakshmana are together, and where Rama seems to become very despondent and depressed and forgets Himself. So I was thinking, if Rama forgets Himself, where does that leave me? Could you explain?
    Swamiji: Rama, when as I told you, when He incarnates in Prakriti, He becomes one with us. He wants to undergo everything as we undergo and tries to come out of those things, showing you the way in which you have to come out too. If He doesn’t forget, and act as if He has forgotten, then He will also do the same thing, but will completely forget; but, you do not know how to come out of it. That’s the reason, in order to show, though I know what I am, like Krishna says, “I know what I am, Arjuna.” But, He doesn’t say that there. His purpose was to be one amongst common people and undergo everything as a common man. He cries, He goes to every tree and asks, did you see My wife? Did you see My wife? But does He not know that His wife is safe? Does He not know who Ravana is?
    If He thinks that He has forgotten, there are other instances where He proclaims what He is. He knows. Why should He go to that old lady who was waiting for Him? She was born earlier than Him; she was waiting for Him. She’s a great lady; she knows He’s going to be born, and she was waiting to see Him. He searched for her and went there. Does He not know?
    So this is an incident He forgot Himself. He cried, yes, that’s what people do. People forget themselves; they are attached to their wives and children. They cry and all these things and this is the way in which they have to come out of that tragedy too, that’s what He wanted to show, though the incarnations tend to make us believe that they have forgotten who they are, that’s only a show! They constantly know who they are. The same thing comes, as the great people do, we follow them, in their action. That’s what He did; that’s what we are all trying to do. So, not that He forgot; He pretended. Many times He, God, pretends to be human. He has two hands, two legs, like us. He too has the emotions and all those things, but far deep within, He reigns supreme over all that and wants to show you how you are also a victim: “Like you, I am also a victim. I am overcoming all these things like this, so you too can do it. If I can do it, you too can do it. Come on, do it,” see? That’s all. He is an example.
    That is what I said. Many versions represent the same thing in so many ways. Each one who translates, has his or her own mind, understands and then writes; so, it is enjoyable. It’s all right. Thank you.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 25

    So, we were discussing karma. Usually, karma means the sacrifice. The sacrifice is called the greatest karma that one has to perform.
    No one can be without performing one kind or the other sacrifice, whoever it is, whatever it is. One may not know that one is performing the sacrifice. Unless it is said in Sanskrit that it is sacrifice, it doesn't become sacrifice. Eating is a sacrifice, sleeping is a sacrifice, hearing is a sacrifice, talking is a sacrifice. You have to understand the secrecy of this. We are offering without our own knowing many things. The whole universe is a part and there is that fire, jnana, knowledge in which we are offering everything into that, in various multifarious ways, in order to get what? The result of that is knowledge.
    Why do we get knowledge? Why do we want? —ultimate freedom. Freedom means to get back to our original Being, that state of Being from which we have become. From becoming, we have to attain the state of Being; that’s what we are trying to do. So for that, whatever we have, we are offering. Birth is a sacrifice, death is a sacrifice, in between whatever we do, everything is a sacrifice in this whole universe. The universe is a fire pot within which we are all offering everything, and it is there we are obtaining knowledge.
    As I told you, everything is pervaded by different kinds of forces. There is life. What is life? Life is a Force; it is so subtle. So that Force, which pervades everything, is there, and from whom we have to learn, in order to learn, we have to pay. We have to hear, we have to hear good music and the scriptures, recitation of the scriptures. We say, “Oh, don't hear bad music, bad things,” “I don't want to hear anything bad because its result is bad.” You are invoking the bad force, the evil force to which you will succumb. That’s the reason why  we are offering the music to the presiding deity of the hearing organ; we are offering the ears’ hearing faculty into that music, or the chants as yajna. Yajna itself is Brahman. So, we offer that. And with hands, we do good things; they are to help. We are to do all these things, so it is a yajna. Even in breathing, we are doing yajna constantly. When you take a deep breath and hold the breath, that is Kumbaka. We are offering that Prana; Prana is the life force. All this Prana, Puraka and Rechaka, that is inhalation and exhalation and all these things. You are offering ultimately into Mukhya Prana. That is the main life force without which we cannot live. That is, in order to get the blessings from the Mukhya Prana, we are offering these things.
    So, everything is an action. Many people are engaged, without their own knowing, in doing services to the public — running hospitals, running soup kitchens, or running any kind of thing. What are all these things? They are for the benefit of the people. Who are the people? They are the sacrificial players for whom we are offering our services. What do all these things do? It will cleanse you, prepare you. Ultimately, all these things will purify various parts of your being and help you to rise above as you become lighter and lighter and cleaner and cleaner. It raises you and you’ll start reflecting the same light which is within and without.
    What is that? That is ultimately jnana, the knowledge, all these things unknowingly. As you do things unknowingly, you are unknowingly accumulating jnana, too.  Man who never went to school can talk to you for hours together all about wisdom. You are shaken, “Oh boy, from where did he get this?” By his own experience for having lived, by having been able to offer and in return for his offering the sacrifice, he has gained this knowledge.
    That’s the reason why people consciously offer themselves. When you become conscious, you’ll know for a particular obtaining, a particular branch of knowledge, you do a particular thing. That’s what, the other day, we were discussing. If you want wealth, you have to worship the one that has wealth, Kubera. There are forces which preside over those aspects. You offer to them and they will take care of you. That’s what in the last several discourses, we discussed. When God created the world, He arranged the whole thing and He put in charge of the wealth and the air and water and everything. They said, “Oh you human beings, you offer to them, please them with your sacrifice, and they will fulfill your desire.” So you, like that, you cooperate with each of them; without your sacrifice, they cannot survive and without their help, you cannot survive. So try to cooperate, don't fight. The day when you do not do it, then both of you will go to the dogs.” That’s what is happening. So, you must; that’s the reason why we have that force everywhere. Everywhere, in everything, there is that force, one kind of the force or the other. That’s the reason why we enjoy, we experience; there is life in everything. When you convert them into something, it becomes the force that is converted; again, it is a force.
    So thus, there is nothing without life, without force, without which we cannot live, as we are the force, conscious of ourselves. There are forces which are not conscious of themselves. That’s all, but we are conscious of them. Many times we are not, too. So thus, we have to invoke their blessings because each one of them gives us the knowledge. We have to have that full knowledge before we get into that freedom, get into that state of being from where we have dropped into this mess. We have come here in order to experience, know everything. So in that process, there is a process. In order to accumulate this knowledge, experience is essential; the action itself is yajna, sacrifice. We have to do everything; every action will be a yajna, and the product of which is knowledge.
    But one thing, that’s what the wise man says, “Don’t do it with that egoistic tendency. Give up that egoistic tendency saying or thinking, ‘I am the doer.’ ‘I am doing it for my sake.’ ‘Me and mine.’ Forget about it. Do it because you have to do it, that’s all.”  When you do it, then the knowledge part will come to you, but the rest of the binding element will not touch you because it doesn’t have the return address to come back to you; it will not be binding. So, the moment that you think, “I am the doer,” with that ego, then you are welcoming  along with that knowledge, that binding. That binding is so subtle that you cannot fight out of it; the more bindings, the more horrible it is. You may have knowledge, but you cannot redeem yourself because it is also binding. That’s the reason why the wise people always say, “Throw that ego out; it is easy, don’t exercise, and don’t desire. Don’t do it for the sake of some desire, fulfillment of some desire. Give up that and then offer yourself, that’s all. Offer it because you have to offer it, that’s all.”
    It is the Nature, a part of the Nature, the three qualities of the Nature which force us, the body and the mind and the senses to do that like you do, but you be silent. Actually, you’re the silent witness. Only when you invoke yourself, when you wake up and join some of these elements, then you are in trouble. As long as you keep yourself as a witness and say, “See, look at these things as a wise man does, yogi does.” Yogi does everything, but doesn’t involve. He’s doing everything as I and you do, devoid of that ego, and he doesn’t have any desire. “Why are you doing this?” “I don’t know”. He doesn’t know because he doesn’t know what the desire is. He doesn’t have any desire. It is doing. “I am walking.” “Why are you walking?” “I am walking because legs want to walk, walk.” So, you have to keep yourself, you have to create that dual personality, one the whole Nature, part of the Nature. Let them keep on doing whatever they want to do, but you be a watchful witness. Thus, you can free yourself. That’s what the yogis do. That’s what all these wise people have done.
    If you want to learn all these things, it is so subtle. What is yajna? What is sacrifice? And, how are we to do and what are the results and all these things? If you want to know, you have to go to the people who know all these things, who have done all these things, who have known all these things, who are the friend of knowledge, those who are prepared to give. But, don’t go with that ego, “Hey, come here! Can you tell me what this is?” He will not care for you. Tat Viddhi Pranipatena Pariprashnena Sevaya, Upadeshyanti Te Gnaninah Tatwa Darshinah (Those secrets, all those things, are given to you, taught to you, disseminated to you, by those wise people, jnanis, those who know the fundamentals of the whole structure and they will part with that when you go. And, we call it Sastanga Pranama, which means all the 8 points of our body should touch the ground. That’s what we do, we fall flat in the temple. It is complete surrender. Offering complete surrender, complete offering of the whole body, mind and soul, everything. That’s what they respect. “I’m offering myself to you.” Show the humility. Having gone to them means, having saluted him like this, falling flat at his feet. Then you ask your questions, “Sir, may I ask you a question?” Then, he will say, “All right. He is humble, he’s prepared to accept, he’s prepared to understand, know.” “All right, I’ll give you.” These are the things money cannot buy: that knowledge; your position, whether you are a king or a president, who cares? The humblest possible creature can be enlightened fast, earlier without any doubt.
    That’s the reason why Yogi Krishna did the same thing when He went to His guru. Doing His discipleship, He used to take care of the cows, drive the cows, milk the cows; all these things, He did. He brought food, cut the wood and brought it to the master. Krishna, He is a God. Now, He is in Kurukshettra, right? Giving us all this knowledge for all the eternity, we have been talking about what He said. Such great one, He also did the same thing. What are we compared to Him? Should we not be humble and do the same?
    So, the only way that we can achieve the knowledge is by being humble, humility, devoid of ego. If you have ego, it will burn you out. You are offering yourself to the ego; ego will burn you out. Ego doesn’t give you anything. You are sacrificing yourself into the fire of Ego. Ego will burn you out, and you don’t get anything.

    But here, offering yourself at the feet of the master, yogis, you’ll get the knowledge. You will multiply; here you get, there you lose. That’s the only way.
    So, that’s what we have to know. Every action that we do, we have to have respect. Mother also said, “Don’t be disrespectful regarding any action by anybody. Whatever one does, let one do with all the devotion, whatever the means, whatever the small thing one does, it doesn’t matter. The attitude with which you do determines the dignity of that and it bears fruit accordingly.” It’s a sacrifice, yajna; it is only a yajna. This is what the sacrifice is.
    If not, why should Jesus go round about talking to people, “Ah, get out”. No, He didn’t do it; He offered the whole life. That’s what we say, “The wine is His blood and the bread is His flesh that we offer.” But, we forget what it means. It is His sacrifice. His sacrificed Himself for the sake of us because we do not know how to sacrifice. He showed us. But, we are not, alas, prepared to sacrifice!
    All these people, the same thing, whether it is Krishna, or Buddha, Jesus, or whoever, Mohammed, whoever it is, all these people told us the same thing, “Be humble, offer yourself. You are the littlest thing in the world. Think like that. Don’t think you are the greatest; think you are the dust of the dust, and then you’ll become the crown of the God. If you become fit to be a dust particle on His feet, then you’ll be fit to be His crown, but if not you’ll be forsaken.”
    Humility, Jesus, look at his humility. Look at Buddha’s humility. All this humility, but of course even humility takes the shape of ego, also. Even ego takes the shape of humility, but you can immediately find out. It’s only one micron plated; even with your knife, you can take off the micron and then you will see the brass. So. humility is pure, and it must come from the heart. It moves the world.
     So, let us consider all this action because what we are discussing, about knowledge, the jnana, this is a sacrifice. You are hearing, I am talking and of all the sacrifices they say, “Of all the sacrifices, Yajna, Jnana Yajna,  dissemination of knowledge, is the highest.” That’s why when you went to my Master, he didn’t give you ladus or sweets or anything. He gave that also, of course, but it was not the main, he always used to give a book, a book which contained a lot of knowledge. Books were free, all the books, thousands of books they used to print. Some first he used to sign and give us, to all his disciples. I had a number of them; I don’t know where they are now. And whoever came saluted, “All right Sir, please take this,” and offered a gift of book of knowledge. That was the sacrament.
    It is said we should offer sacrifice. We go to the temple, we offer bananas, fruits, flowers and all that. We offer and thank God that THE stone God doesn’t eat. It is our heart. Invoke the spirit and He partakes; then, we take it and we partake as a sacrament, and we eat it. We feel gratified, without which there are people in our place without taking that “Thirtha” and “Prasad”, holy water and sacrament. They never drink anything; even if it is 3 o’clock in the afternoon, it doesn’t matter. They will wait for that until the offering has come back from the temple. They don’t eat. That is the first bite that they take. They do that; of course, we don’t do that. Now, we offer. Whatever is offered, that’s the reason why if you go to Denny’s and sit there and whatever comes on the plate, close your eyes and offer it to God, whether it is fish or steak, who cares? Whatever you eat, that’s what Ramakrishna said, Ramakrishna Parmahansa said, “Fish or whatever, what you eat, you share with God. Offer it to Kali, offer it to Mother, and then take it as a sacrament. It doesn’t matter what it is, it gets purified when offered to the Divine.
    As I told you, one of our Maharajah’s, about the 3rd or 4th Maharajah from the present one (there is no Maharajah now anyway), went to Mother Chamundeswari’s temple, Mother’s temple in Mysore. So, always in politics there were envious people; you have enemies. So, some people paid huge bribe to that priest to poison the holy water when he came to the temple. After all, he was a chief priest, so he accepted; if not, he will be murdered, you see? So, he accepted. Maharajah came every morning. He used to come to the temple first barefoot and all that, take all this holy water and then go back to palace and have breakfast. He was very devoted. When he came that day, the priest was just unhappy and he could not control himself. Maharaja saw the whole plate was shaking and said, “Are you all right? What is that?” Maharaja was sharp, he understood there was something wrong, “Oh, I think there is something wrong.” “It is all right. Don’t worry. You’ll not be harmed, don’t worry.” “I don’t even want to know. Now you let me know whether you want to give this as Thirtha (holy water), that is the water from having washed Mother's feet, or poison? What do you think?” “I want to give it to you as Thirtha of Mother’s holy feet.” “All right then, don’t hesitate, give it.” And he took it. All that poison stayed here and only the water went in. Just recently, about maybe about 150 years ago, 200 years ago. The faith. he was a yogi, he was a great writer and musician also.
    Everything enlightens you, all that it needs is your attitude. That’s what Sri Aurobindo has talked a lot about, attitude. It is easy, yoga is easy, attainment of Brahman is easy, everything is easy. All that which is difficult is easy when you change your attitude. The most difficult thing is to change your attitude. Once you change your attitude, then everything will become easy and productive. That’s what the whole thing is.
    So, hereafter, let us consider, each action of ours as the sacrifice, whether we hear music, whether we do something good or bad with our hands, whether we walk somewhere with our feet, whether we see, whether we breathe something, whatever it is, think, “Oh, this is a sacrifice. I am offering this as a sacrificial offering.”
    I remember I had come just then from India and I was taken to Berkeley University for a big music festival. Mrs. Subbalaxmi, one of the greatest musicians from India, had come; so they took me. “Swami come on, we want to take you,” they said. I went there, I saw, I heard little bit and then I went into, I don’t know what happened, I went into deep meditation. They woke me up and it was over. All that I did, whatever, whenever I did, that is what I said, “Oh Lord this music, the pleasure of hearing this music is Your service, it is for You.” Even to this day, whatever comes, it is His. Offer it to Him, that’s all, and take it as His sacrament. He’s not going to take away anyway, so don’t worry.
    There was one boy, small little boy, and his father was a priest in a temple which was far away from the village. It was in a thick forest. Every morning he used to go there and worship and come back. So, the villagers used to support them. Once he had to go away on some errand, so he told the child, “Son you’re about 5 years old, you do as I tell you now: don’t forget to take whatever Mother gives you to offer. She will cook something and give it to you, take this and as I do, take it and offer it to God and after God eats, you bring it back.” He said, “Oh yes.” So he went. The next morning, he took bath and all that, took that and went to the temple and kept it there and did puja and put the plate, all that. He came out, “Oh, let God eat.” He went back in and it was still there. “Oh, you are not hungry, all right, I will wait.” He went out and sat for a while more. He was a child, you know. He went around, and all that, came back in; it was still there. Then he started, “Why, did I do anything wrong? Oh, God don’t do that; my father will be mad. If you don’t eat it, then my father will think I ate it, then he will beat me. Please.” So he started crying. So God was moved and He ate it all and he was happy. “Thank you, thank you God,” and then he brought the plate. Mother said, “What happened?” “Everything,” he said, “God ate.” Then Mother said, “No, no, no! You tell me lie. God doesn’t eat.” “Really, God ate.” Fiasco. Then father came and was about to beat the child when there was some sound, big sound like thunder and, “What are you doing to him? He brought it and I enjoyed it. I ate it and it is not his fault; it is My fault.” Then, father apologized and all that. So innocence wins.
    Yagna, the action with the right attitude: We know that God doesn’t eat; that’s why we bring good things and give it to Him and take it back. If God starts eating, will we be able to offer the costliest purest things to Him? So, the attitude and your faith, these things will produce, the right sacrifice. This is the sacrifice. Innocence, humility, these are the two things that go together. If you are innocent, you’ll be naturally humble. There will be no ego. If you’ve that ego, none of these things will be present anyway, you see. Thank you very much.

    


BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 26

    To talk about BHAGAVAD GITA is to talk about yoga, because the whole life is yoga, nothing else. The better one understands it and tries to coin it as yoga or not, it doesn’t matter. The whole life, right from birth until death, even afterwards, whatever happens, has been dealt with here in a subtle way; it is discussed later.
    So, it is yoga. What is yoga? Yoga is an action, a series of actions, maybe an action or series of actions with one purpose. Purpose of what? Knowing. Knowing what? Knowing about the ultimate Truth. What is Truth? That which doesn’t change under any circumstance, That which is Eternal, That which is unborn and undead. It is and It is always. What is that Truth, what is that reality? Ultimately to know That, that is the purpose of yoga. What is the connection between that Truth which we seek and us? What are we? Are we the Truth? Is the Truth something like us with two eyes, one head, breathing and dying, and in pain, suffering? That’s what yoga is, to know. To know all these things, all the aspects of life.
    You cannot know just simply by sitting, simply being idle like a piece of rock or a piece of wood. That’s the reason why there’s a difference between a piece of wood and a rock and us, people. Even amongst the animate things, like bacteria, we people, we, who can think and do, even amongst the thinking, classified beings, there are the Ones who are exalted and ones who have just started. All these things, various things, if you think, you will go crazy; all these things are to be known.
    In yoga, it is simplified. There are methods by which you can know all these things in a jiffy, if you strike; if you press the right button at the right time, everything reveals itself. The channel opens. That’s where we are searching for that button; we are searching for the channel, the fine tune. Sometimes, somewhere, some of you might be seeing the picture. You must have struck the channel, but it is blurry; you have to fine tune it. In some cases, we have not even found the picture; we keep on pressing the button, but we have to program it. All these things are happening; that’s yoga.
    That’s what the BHAGAVAD GITA tells you right from the beginning. That’s what Bhagavan tells Arjuna, “Without you, I can do; I don’t need you at all for My work. I am taking you as an example to tell the whole world for all the eternity, so that everyone would evolve, understand, that’s all. Without you, I can smash all these people in a jiffy. As I created these people, I can finish them also like this. I have no feeling left, but I want you to be the medium; that’s the reason why I am making you the hero.” That’s the BHAGAVAD GITA; it is full of all the aspects of yoga. It is nothing but yoga, whatever you think, whatever the aspect you try to meditate upon, that BHAGAVAD GITA contains. It is nothing but yoga. That’s what in this chapter, He says very clearly, “Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam.” So in order to know, you have to do yoga. What is yoga? Yoga is skill in action, as He has said.
    What is this skill? — keep on doing. But many times we don’t have the definition, we don’t have a purpose, we don’t have anything, we keep on doing. The moment that you do something, there is a result, but we lose the result. That’s the reason why we have not been able to understand. Many times we are evolving without our own knowing. When you go to a Master, Master knows. “You know.” “Sir, I don’t know.” “Oh, you don’t know, that’s the problem.” That’s what it is. None of you are devoid of those experiences. You all have the knowledge, but you do not know that you have the knowledge. When I say something, “Is it?” “Oh yes, yes, yes.” You say, “Yes, yes, yes,” or do you say, Yes.” It means that you know, but you do not know that you know, so it needs somebody to tell you that you know. That’s what Krishna is doing.
    We think yoga means that you must either go to meditation or go to somebody who comes from India or trained in India who comes here and advertises and goes and stands upside down. God has given us strong legs, but we have to stand on our heads? That’s the yoga. Well, it is one aspect. What is that aspect? You say, “I want to control my body, I want to control my senses, I want to control my mind,” My mind, my body, my senses. That’s why you have to control, because it is yours. If you are living as a tenant in a rented house, you don’t care. You tell him, “You fix the thing; if you don’t fix, I’ll go to another house, who cares?” But if it is your own house, you ask him to take two days holidays, “Come on, you must help me, I want to put on a new roof, it is leaking.” It becomes your problem; that’s what it is: “I am controlling.” That’s the reason why you have to stand upside down, put your legs around your neck; all these things you have to do because you want to establish your control on the physic, because you think it is your physic. You think you are the physic: “Me,” “My body.” “So, I want to control it. I want to control my senses, control this.” These are all the actions that you do. I used to do all those things; now, of course, it is not the body anyway.
    What is that? Nothing but Yajna, sacrifice, actions are called sacrifice in VEDAS. In the book of knowledge, they say, “Every action is called a sacrifice.” Sacrifice means to offer. While twisting my body, standing upside down, trying to control my body, what am I doing? I am trying to offer my body in something, my senses in their objects, or objects in their senses, in our senses. Offering one into the other so that there will be the result. I offer; the body is an offering. In service, people do not have anything, but I can spend my time, “I’ll come and serve you, sir. I’ll spend two hours in your hospital, one hour here, three hours there, one hour for consultation. This is what I can do.” That’s Yajna. This is sacrifice. Yajna means sacrifice. Sacrifice for what purpose?
    Every time you offer, it clarifies, it purifies. Ultimately, what happens? Ultimately, offering your bodily moments and sensual moments and the mental moments, all these things you are offering. Offering somewhere in the whole world cosmos, this one small thing you are offering into the cosmos. “I am helping 20 people.” So, your 20 people is a big sacrifice, the play for sacrifice in which you are offering your service. So, this body becomes purified because you are offering it.
    This is Brahman. This is Truth, this is God. This becomes purified. So, there is no difference. Everything that you offer for the sacrifice, everything that you use for the sacrifice, offering is a sacrifice. What are you sacrificing? — your body. Well, you are a great charitable person; you want to build an institute for the handicapped? You like them; you become one with them and you want to do that. You want to write letters? You open the office, have a table, paper, pencil, paper, typewriter, whatever you need. Once you start doing it, that pen becomes a sacrificial article. It becomes Brahman because it is an article of offering; it is Brahman. The paper becomes Brahman, the table, the whole atmosphere and what you are doing, everything. See, what a great idea? You don’t say, “Oh, it is pencil,” and throw it away. That’s the reason why Mother, until the last, used to keep a box full of small pencils, used to put something on the end and still write with it. She said, “This pencil has served me and I cannot disrespect it; I cannot throw it away, trash it. Until the last moment that it quits, I’m going to use it.” So, she used it. The respect, because it is a sacrificial article, pencil, pen with which she wrote. We used to stand in line for her signature, she used to write. That respect, that power has that. That’s the reason why she recognized that power in the pen, so she used to respect it. The pencil she respected, flowers she respected.
    Of course, when I say sacrifice in Vedas, it is only a fire sacrifice. Fire, water, all these things. We have several pots of purified butter and oil for lamp and cotton, leaves and fruits, and all those things.

    So ordinary people, those who do not know, think they are offering these things only to demi–Gods in order to get some of their desires fulfilled. So, they collect things and offer in order to seek the fulfillment of the small desires like Indra, Agni, Vayu. Offer. The wise person, yogi, also does the same thing, but doesn’t seek anything, having no desire. He or she is doing it because it is said, “I should do it because it is the word from the wisdom of the Saints and Sages who gave us this dictum.” It is said, “I should do it. I am doing it,” that’s all. When he or she does it, what is his or her view? Since he or she has no desire, she or he takes the whole aspect, the place in which she or he is offering as the Brahman. That is Brahman. That’s God. That is Brahman, and the spoon with which he or she feeds things, is Brahman and what she or he feeds is Brahman. The smoke that comes is Brahman. We inhale that. All these things. There’s no desire. There is no fulfillment except the purification of the whole thing. Knowledge, all this sacrifice that is the action, what does it result in ultimately? In simple words, we discussed it long, long time ago and every now and then we are talking about it. Ultimately if you involve in action, action results in what? Knowledge. Ultimately, it is the knowledge which frees you from this bondage. What is bondage? Ignorance. It is that knowledge, understanding, knowing, first hand knowledge, not the second hand because I have been telling you that you are all Brahman. Still, none of you understand that you are Brahman. I’m telling you that you are all Gods, but none of you believe that you are Gods. You are still behaving like Jim, and Karl is Karl, and I am what I am.
    So, are we freed? No. When do we get freedom? When? At the dawn of this knowledge. Knowledge is first hand experience of what I am. Once you establish yourself in that, you are convinced, “I am God.” “Oh, it doesn’t matter. Swamiji need not tell, nobody need tell, I am what I am, even if Swamiji didn’t say I am not that, still it doesn’t matter. I am what I am.” That’s what you say. That’s the day we look for: first hand experience.
    First hand, that’s what the knowledge is. That’s the reason why everyone has to do action; everyone has to do actions to gain experience. You have that experience. Don’t give up any experience, each and every experience, mentally, physically, in all the aspects. Whatever you do ultimately builds up that huge fund of knowledge; you need that much knowledge in order to fight against that ignorance. It is so subtle, so cunning, so crafty, so dark, so thick, so strong. Don’t miss any opportunity to build that fund of your knowledge. That’s the reason why these sacrifices are planned, devised.
    So, everything is sacrifice. In order to do the sacrifice that is  “Sarvam Khalwidam Brahma” (Everything is Brahman). Sacrifice doesn’t mean that you have to dig a hole and make fire and collect all things and put in it, no. You have money. Many people are building charities for the poor people, soup kitchens. Some people go to America. People from Spain came in search of souls to save them here also, you see? They wanted to do a great service here. There were no souls in Spain, so they came to America to find some souls so that they would do some sacrifice here. They sacrificed a lot of them anyway. So what happens is, do this. You cannot dig a deep ditch, then make a fire, then put all this into it. No, God is pleased.
    Everything is a sacrifice. You share; you have your money. Spend money on something that brings in good. Alleviate somebody’s sorrow, somebody’s disease without anybody’s knowledge. Nobody needs to know, only you and God. That is Yajna, that is sacrifice.
    Supposing you don’t have that, you’ve something else. You’re a farmer. You’ve more acres than you need. You’ve plenty of food for your family, your whole family and your people; then rest of them, you call people and say, “All right, I will run soup kitchen. Everybody, whoever wants, poor, hungry, come on, please take,” but don’t say, “I am giving, come on.” “I’m obliging you.” No. Be humble. At least, thank God there is somebody to take when you give. If nobody takes, where is the sacrifice? Be humble that God has created somebody to receive; if not, there would have been no transaction. You would not have given, nobody would have taken.
    In Kashi I remember, till 12:00 o’clock, nobody would take their meals; they would wait for guests. If somebody came, they wanted to feed them and then eat. Nobody feeds after they eat. Especially the ladies, they used to feed everybody and wait, wait and wait. So after the time passed, then she would eat.
    Remember, I told you when Kauravas sent Durvasa, the Saint who gets terribly angry like me, for every silly thing, so that he would go and curse Pandavas, to make them feel bad and suffer. He had thousands of disciples. He came just after Draupadi had eaten and washed the Sun given pot. That small pot would give as much as you want, whatever you wanted until Draupadi ate. Once she ate, finished; have to wait for the next day: no breakfast, no dinner, only lunch, sufficient lunch. Then he came because of the request of Duroyodhana. He served him and he was happy. He said, “Ask for a favor.” He said, “Please go there after Draupadi has eaten and ask for bhiksha. (That is, you beg for your food).” He said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” He went. Oh, they were in trouble. Everybody started fearing , Durvasa said, “I am having my lunch with you sir.” “Oh! my goodness.” The eldest Pandava, Yudishtira, said, “Yes sir, please go to river, take your bath and finish your oblations and all that; then, please come.” Then, he started worrying. He called everybody. Called Krishna, “Who can help us? Only Krishna.” Everybody called, no Krishna, nothing. Time is running out. They are hungry and their bath will finish in a short time, you see? They don’t take a long shower. Arjuna called Nakula, called everybody tried.
    Bhimasena was just sitting quiet, like Hanuman in Ramayana. When Rama wanted everybody to jump from the end of India to Lanka, “Who can jump that?” Hanuman was sitting quietly, and everybody said, “I can go this much, this much, this much.” Then Jambavan, the great bear said, “See that old monkey, go to him.” He said, everybody said, “Come on, you can do it, you can do it.” “If Ram said, ‘Nothing is impossible,’ it is Rama's grace.” “Ram said, you can do it.” Hanuman then jumped.
    This is the same incarnation. Bhima is the incarnation of Hanuman, and so again, Bhima was sitting quiet. Yudhistira called, “You don’t concern yourself. You are in the family, but you are away from the family.” He was a recluse anyway. “What do you want brother?” “This is the whole problem. Duravasa has come and we have to feed him and those thousand mouths. They are not small mouths; they are big tummies. What are we going to do? We have to call Krishna.” “If you want to call, call.” “Okay, since you ask, I’ll call.” “Try.” He threw his mace into the air and stuck his chest out as its target. “Krishna, if You like me, if You want to save me, You come; if not, I’ll offer myself. My brother wants help.” So Krishna came and caught it, “Oh, I am a family man. I have wives and children. You see, I cannot spend a single day without going to you. See, I cannot go on vacation even for a day. What is the problem Bhima?” Bhima said, “I don’t want anything; Your grace is always on me, but my brother has a problem.” He told Krishna the whole thing. Krishna said, “Well Draupadi, have you have eaten?” “Yes, that’s the whole problem.” “Well, did you wash your pot well?” “Yes.” “Just go and find out if there is anything left.” By chance, there was a small piece of spinach attached to the edge she had not cleaned. “Give Me that!” He took it and ate, “Ah, oh boy, I’m full.” The moment that He said He was full, everybody was full.
    Bhima took the mace and stood there. Everybody came, they wanted to sleep. He said, “Everything is ready, please help yourselves. “No, no, no, we want to just rest. We are full, we cannot eat anymore.”
    Just this much spinach, why? Because it was offered to the One who contains all this; we are all part and parcel of the same one God. If God is full, everyone is full. We are in God and God is within us. What are we? We are that chip off the same old block. We are only chips; put together, we become the whole. When the whole is complete, then what are we? We are within that. If God is satisfied, the whole, all the three worlds are fulfilled. When Krishna ate, He also is in every tummy; Krishna is in every heart. And when He’s full and satisfied, where comes the dissatisfaction, hunger and thirst?
    Then Bhima said, “Come on eat some.” “Oh, no, please please.” Instead of cursing them, they started blessing them and left the forest. That’s what it is; that’s the grace, the sacrifice.
    The sacrifice does many things, many good things; everything is a sacrifice. If you have money, you offer it thinking that the whole world is God. Whatever you serve, whomever you serve, wherever you give, you think that it is a sacrifice, and you are offering with humbleness, with humility, with devotion. It is not your money. You think it is yours; it is not, but at least it is there. It has become a medium for you to rise above the meanness. So, give money if you have it. As I told you, a farmer, if he has plenty, he will share with everyone else, like that.
    You remember Karna? When a brahmin came to his house, “It is cold, I don’t have any firewood. It’s all wet.” Karna said, “Break open my house, a part of my house, and give this brahmin the dry wood.” That’s what he said, the sacrifice.
    Even the worst man, when he does sacrifice, he gets purified; without his own knowing, he gets purified. His senses, body, mind, everything purifies. In that state of purification, whatever further the actions do, they bring him useful knowledge unbinding the ignorance, enlightening, removing that darkness. That’s what it does without our own knowing. How many people are not happy when you do something good for somebody, how glad you feel. You feel happy. It doesn’t matter what you do, a little; you’re happy. What is this due to? That is the result of your sacrifice.
    In the gross, we think it is joy, joy of doing, but in the subtlest possible thing, it is the greatest achievement if you remove that ego. What is happening is, not that we are not doing sacrifice; we are doing sacrifice, Yajna, and this is yoga. All that is spoiling is that ego: “I am doing it.” “Me” and “Mine.” Everything minus that me and mine will yield you the best result. You are lacking that result because of this ‘me’ and ‘mine’; that is the ignorance, the ignorant part. Just like a big pot of milk, and if you put one pinch of salt in it, the milk is ruined. That is the worst thing, that ego. That’s what the whole yoga tries to teach you.
    Now, everybody is doing the same thing as yogi with a big placard: “I am a yogi; I’m doing this!” The same thing is being done by a householder, by an ordinary man. He too sleeps, he too gets up, he too walks, he too loves, he too plays, he too does the same thing, but he progresses; the others don’t. So, this ignorance should be removed by removing that ego while doing this by offering. Then everything will be fine, everything will be Brahman, everything, the dawn of knowledge.
    So, what the whole BHAGAVAD GITA tells you is nothing but the simple process by which you can get things that you cannot buy, that you think are far away from you. No, it is in your pocket; all that you have to do is put your hand in and feel it, and you will get it. That’s what He says, that’s what the whole thing is. So, everything is sacrifice and sacrifice should be done because if you are a worldly man, if you want to live in this world, and if you want to fulfill your desires, small desires, then you offer it as a means of seeking blessings from Indra, Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera, and all those people to fulfill your desire. You want money, you want beautiful wife, you want children, you want wealth, whatever it is, but yogis, what do they do? They don’t want any of these; that’s the difference. “It is enough. I have all these things. I am already here. I have seen this world. I have seen this, all this. Now, all that I want is to make the whole thing as a means for my upliftment.” So, he or she tries to remove that ego, “I’m not the doer; I’m not doing it. I’m doing it as the Nature dictates, by Her three qualities that push me to do it, so it is doing. The body’s acting according to the Nature, the mind is working according to the Nature, senses do their work according to the Nature. It is the Nature; it is a part of the Nature, this body, this mind, everything is the Nature, but me. I’m a witness. I’m just there; neither I’m the doer, nor the enjoyer.
    So, when I reject all these things, then where comes the question of my rebirth and reincarnation and repetition of this misery? Then, you will enter into, from where nobody comes back; once having gone, nobody comes back. That is the state. Even when you do pranayama, some people think, “Oh I am just breathing.” Breathing itself is a Yajna. Some people do take a deep breath and hold the breath; that is Yajna one is offering. That is Kumbaka. Rechaka, that is exhalation. Inhalation and exhalation is a process of yoga; Yajna, sacrifice and when you exhale that is, some people do exhale and live without taking air for a long time. They are offering Rechaka, that is exhalation and Puraka, drawing in the air and hold it as a Kumbaka. That is sacrifice, Yajna. Like this, there are five parts of the Prana that they offer everything into the Mukhya Prana (Primary breath), that is the mainstream of life.
    So, all these things, everything, whether you know or not, you are doing yagna. When you become conscious, you’ll attach more importance. When you attach more importance, you’ll respect it more; you’ll be careful, you’ll do it consciously.
    Breathing, hearing, do you want to hear filthy things? How many of you like filthy things? No, you want to hear something good, something pleasing. That is offering. Offering the ear: ear becomes the Yajnakunda. The object of this sense, the ear, sense of hearing becomes the offering. We are offering good music, good lecture, good talk about God into the ears. The same thing, you smell beautiful things, and you look at beautiful things. Why do we go to temple? Why do you go? Not to see those girls who come to see the temple, but you go to see the God. At that moment, when you see the statue, when you see the cross, when you see something, you’ll remember God. So, you’re offering your eyes into the Kunda of God, and you are bringing God that beautiful action of drawing the God into your eyes. Eyes becomes the place of sacrifice.
    How Bhagavan has talked to us, everything is beautiful, everything is respectful, everything has a meaning in the life. The whole life is yoga; getting birth itself is yoga, starts from there. Death, beyond that, does it end? About that, we’ll talk some other time. Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 27

    One thing that was discussed, and we discuss it several times as the time passes, that thing is giving. Wherever you go, you must have come across, in all the fields of activities in this world, giving has become a more important action. Amongst all the actions, giving, whether it is a sacrifice, as I told you, everything is a sacrifice anyway. So, whether it is in politics, social, spiritual, religious, whatever it is, everybody proclaims, “Giving is a virtue. Give, give, give, give.” It is not without any merit. Giving is a great, a great virtue that has been recognized. Giving, always give; it does many good things to the world.
    The second thing is, the knowledge; you must gain knowledge. Constantly, you must enrich yourself with knowledge. In giving, there are so many aspects. They don’t say what you should give; even saying, “Lokah Samasta Sukinoh Bhavantu.” (Let the whole world be free of all the agony and let them all enjoy the happiness.) This is a blessing. This is the prayer; this itself is a giving. You cannot do anything but right from the heart; you want to give that blessing, wish. You want to see that the whole world is full of happiness and joy. What a great giving it is. You are giving, thereby you are offering yourself as a sacrifice on the altar of this universe. “I offer myself if it can bring happiness to this world;” that’s what Jesus did. He offered himself. That’s why he said, “I am dying for your sake, so that you’ll be happy.” “Lokah Samasta Sukinoh Bhavantu,” that’s what Jesus said, that the universe, that everybody be happy. “I am offering myself as a sacrificial lamb.” That is giving. So, this is one aspect from the spiritual point of view; this has a great, great value.
    Very many times we forget; we don’t care because it may include our enemies also. We don’t want to say, “Oh! let our enemies also be happy”, so we don’t say that, let our friends be happy. So, you want to give to your friends, what? Money, if you have money, money is good. Money brings much happiness. Money can be exchanged for several things. The other day I was talking to you about money, if you have money and nothing else but money, at the same time you want to give money. Nobody gives away money like that. It must have a heart. For a miser, that money doesn’t have any value. Money will have value only when you give value to it by using it in a right way — giving is the best.
    Sri Ramakrishna went to the river and started throwing both the gold and the rocks, both. Both are the same because, what are they? If you call it gold and give value, it is gold. Like that, money is the value you give it. So, if you have only money and little bit of heart, all right, you can give money. That’s also not bad; at least, it will help to evolve. It will cleanse your heart, so give money. If I don’t have anything I want to give. I not only want to say, “Lokah Samasta Sukinoh Bhavantu,” but actually I would like to involve in bringing that happiness to the people, just like our great Carter is doing. Being an ex–president, still he goes to the people, joins other people and builds houses for the people who do not have houses and brings something to wipe off the tears of the people who seek help. Involve physically and go to somebody to share in their agony and thus comfort them.
    Now in Turkey, many people have gone to involve in trying to save the people after the earthquake if they can; if not, try to clean it and bring new life to them. Actually involve. Some people go and clean the streets thinking, “Try to see our town, this is my town; I want to make it look nice so I do it. If not, I go to slum, clean it so that people would be healthy and there will not be disease.” So, I do it. “I’m a doctor; I want to involve and once a week I dispense my services free.” All these things are giving. This is sacrifice, giving, giving. All this is true, and some people run soup kitchen, people come, hungry. What happens is there’s a saying “Annadanam Mahadanam. First, “Potabha”, then “Vithobha” says a wise man in Marathi (Of all the giving, giving food is the greatest because when a man is hungry, he cannot preach to him). He must feed him and give everything and then he will hear a few words, if you say. If not, he doesn’t care because he’s after food; he’s hungry. So, running a soup kitchen is good.
    Giving food to the hungry is great but what happens is this; all these things, all this giving, alms, whether it is money, money will be spent. If you give food, in the morning he comes; you give him, and at twelve o’clock again he will be there because he is again hungry. You give him at twelve o’clock and at five o’clock he’s back for dinner. He’s hungry. See, it’s a bottomless thing. You cannot keep on filling. Of all these, what happens is, it only belongs to the physical world, mundane world. All this giving is all right, but within the periphery of the Nature, the world, the mundane life. It’s all right, but there is something which you can give that excels. “Annadanam Mahadanam, Vidyadanam Athah Parah, Annena Kshanika Thripir Yavajjivantu Vidyaya” (knowledge, the teaching). Feeding the hungry is a great virtue. But, giving knowledge (education) is greater. Food satisfies momentary, but knowledge satisfies for all life.
    If a man comes, “Come on, sit down. Stay with me for one year. All right? I’m a carpenter.” I’ll ask my wife, “Come on, feed him.” For one year, I’ll feed him, clothe him, teach him and then say, “All right, my friend, go.” Then what happens, wherever he goes he will find his job, works, earns, and he will fulfill his needs. By giving food, money and all those things, it relieves him only for that moment, but if you teach him, if you’ll part with your knowledge, it will make him survive for a long time, for all the eternity.
    So also, the case with the Masters. That’s why we should always go after the gurus. They say, “You must go to gurus, learn.” We are all tired of this world; we do not want to be born because when we are born, we enjoy, but by the time we have not even started enjoying, we die. We are sad that we die. So, this continues for all the eternity; neither this joy here, nor the death, nor the birth is eternal. I want to get rid of this. I want to get into something which is eternal. So, how can I get it? What is that I should get in order to achieve it? That can be obtained only by those who have it, so you must go to them.
    When you go to a guru for knowledge, and often this highest knowledge will fry all the actions you do that cause you to be born and die —  sufferings and all these things which you don’t want. You are a raw seed; that’s why wherever you fall, you’ll grow back.
    So, when you learn this Atma Vidya, the knowledge of the soul, knowledge of Brahman, knowledge of the reality, the truth, then you are establishing that truth. It is a hot boiling oil in which you are fried. Your actions are fried, your seeds of actions are all fried. When they are fried, it doesn’t grow back; it is done for eternity. You are relieved. That’s the reason why Jnana is important; one who gives jnana is great. One who receives jnana will be redeemed. That’s the reason why we have to give Jnana. That’s why people run to ashrams; they give food, they give shelter and then teach without any fees, without any encumbrances. If you want to learn, learn; if you want to go, go. Freedom is plenty there.
    This is because of the teachings of the Master of  masters, Krishna. Teaching of this Jnana, giving knowledge, dissemination of knowledge, is the highest virtue in this world, that which brings eternal happiness. It removes all the ignorance. By removing the ignorance, all those things that fertilize you to grow back will die; you are freed and you don’t grow. You are eternally merged in that Truth, Brahman.
    Who will give you this? — that guru, not all the gurus. There are teachers who can teach; gurus are different than all the teachers. Guru means the highest, whom we worship, worshipful. I told you gurus are worshiped even by Gods; even Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesvara, when the guru goes, they stand up and salute. The whole world salutes Brahma, whole world stands up and salutes Vishnu and Shiva, but when these people of knowledge like Durvasa, as I told you, in spite of his anger, when he goes, everybody stands up, respects, falls flat at his feet. Why? Not to that body, but to that knowledge. That knowledge is capable of doing many things. It is that knowledge that makes even Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesvara, to merge back into the supreme Self. They have emerged from the Brahman and they have to go back too; even Shiva, Brahma, all these aspects will have to merge back at the end.
    Several times the end has come and it will continue to come; that’s the reason why every time Brahma changes. See, it’s a presidential appointment. The Brahma who was in Tretayuga at that time, He’s not the same Brahma. Brahma changes; that’s why Hanuman is going to be Brahma sometime. So, they get their positions, but the guru knows even beyond Brahma, even beyond Shiva, Vishnu, “Hey Vishnu sit down! I know. I know what you are; don’t wag your tail.” That’s why Vishnu also says, “Oh come on, please sit down, have something to drink, don’t be angry, because if you keep on telling what I am, then nobody will worship me, nobody will build temples.” So he says, “All right, please.” Such is the power of knowledge. That knowledge only he can give, the one who has obtained it, excelled, all this.
    So, that is called guru, not the other teachers. There are teachers who talk about Brahman, who can talk about BHAGAVAD GITA, who can talk about all these things, but they cannot give you anything. But when you go to guru, silently, he will just give, he works on you, he does it, even without your knowing it.
    Sri Ramakrishna used to tell about three gurus, three types of gurus. One guru says, “Come on, I keep on teaching. If you learn, learn; if not, go to hell, who cares?” The other one makes effort to make you learn. If you try to learn, it’s all right; if not, “I tried my best, my boy, thank you very much. I get only $2000 a month and I have worked these many 40 hours, that’s all. It is 41’st hour, it is my hour. I cannot do anything.” That is second class. Last time, I told you that is third class. First class teachers, they don’t accept students. When they accept it, they will see; they break open their head, but they fill it with that knowledge. They will see that the student will learn and fructify. They will go to any extent with the student. That’s the reason why a real guru accepts only a few people, because he knows the responsibility. Guru takes the responsibility; when he takes, he will work until those students, disciples, whom he has accepted, progress. He doesn’t move; he moves with them for lives together, though he doesn’t need to live here, he can any moment escape, go, no. He does not leave his chosen disciple to lurk in the darkness any more.
    You are lucky that there are gurus who accept disciples and work. If not, there are others, selfish, not selfish, but they don’t care. Once they achieve, they merge themselves into Brahman and they are no more here. We are lucky that we have Masters to whom we can go and from whom we can benefit; those Masters accept only few students, that’s all. The masses say, “Oh yeah, oh yes, he’s a great oh.” It’s all right. We heard about that pastor who had a hard time in the plane, Schuller? He was angry with the host on the plane. Do you know what that dress means? What are you? He’s a pastor; he’s going in first class, from the people’s money, and he wants to boss over them. Where is the humility, where is it? He has plenty of people, he goes here and there, is on TV and all that; thousands of people watch him, but can he deliver the goods? He cannot. He can talk about BIBLE because anybody can read BIBLE. Anybody can interpret the BIBLE, but they cannot produce what BIBLE is expected to produce. Only few, only those like St. Francis of Assisi, even though physically he may not be here, you close your eyes, think of him and you will see his grace pours into you. He works like that. Those are the gurus.
    There are a very few of them. Go to those gurus. When you go to those gurus, they also say, “Tat Viddhi Pranipatnena Pari Prashenna Sevaya Upadeshyanti Te Gnanam, Gnaninah Tatwadarishinah” (Those people, when you go, approach them with all the humility, even the slightest ego in you will become a nonconductor). You cannot approach. Even if you sit, he will be sitting there like a tree, but you will not get anything from him because you have not approached him in the way that you have to. They say, “Go humbly.” You are at the receiving end, so you must go that way. Fall flat, with all the humility, forget about yourself: “I am the king, or I am the rich man or I am a poor man, I’m the president.” Forget about all that. You are there as a seeker. Fall flat with all the humility and serve. Not only fall flat and approach, but you must serve; service clarifies and cleans all your personality, mental, physical, sensual. Everything cleans so that it will prepare the ground to receive by serving the master.
    Then ask questions. Don’t ask silly questions, how to have sex. “I want to marry, can you teach me how to marry?” He’s far beyond that. Ask something that you cannot get any answer for your questions. Ask something like that, and then they will try to accommodate you, give you an insight, teach you, lead you through. It is they; then only, will you progress when they start parting with their knowledge, and you keep on building up on that. It is that which will fry all your karmas, all the three: Sanchita, Prabdha, Agama, all these, and then you are freed. When there is no more karma, there’s no result. As a result of karma, you have to be born and suffer and all that. So, you will ultimately merge into Brahman. All these things will happen only when you do these things.
    That’s the reason why they say, “In order to be, you can be a teacher, but you cannot be a guru.” Guru has no equal in English anyway, that is a teacher. That’s the reason why we call even Jesus a teacher, but he’s a guru. There were only a handful of disciples. Shankaracharya, a guru, he had only a handful of disciples. Krishna, Jagadguru, He had only a handful of people; He had the whole world, all the gopis, everybody, but as disciples, He had only a few.
    Like this, you must understand to distinguish between gurus and the teachers; like priests, they can talk on Sundays, like used car sales people, but  there are very few people who can give you that knowledge. Knowledge is something not talked about, but you must feel. When you pour something, though it is like liquid, when you pour, it will burn; that is acid. If you put even ice, though it looks solid, when it goes, it is cold; it doesn’t burn anything. So, knowledge is like that acid; it looks ordinary, but it will burn all your karmas. All that, it will purify, remove all the junk, all the gunk, whatever it is, purifies you, prepares you and pushes you through. That’s the only way in which you can reach the zenith of this life, not otherwise. Only guru can do it.
    So, guru, what does he or she give you? Jnana, that’s the highest giving, highest sacrifice that he does, only he or she does; nobody else can do. So, giving, and giving the highest knowledge. Giving, of all the giving, knowledge is the greatest. So even a little, if you want to talk about God, talk about God, give; if nobody knows, let them know. He or she will be enlightened to that extent. You’ll get your virtue or whatever is due to you. Doing good, talking good, parting that knowledge that you have, that’s good. Of all the things, it doesn’t mean that you should not do other things, “Adhikasya Adhikam Phalam” (More you do, more you sow, more you reap). Thank you very much.

    Question (referring to GURU PRAYER): Could you please say or sing that the way it’s supposed to be said or sung?

Dhyana Mulam Gurur Murtim
Puja mulam gurur padam
Mantra mulam gurur vakyam
Moksha mulam Gurur kripa)

    Swami: First line, gurur murtim — murtim means the stature of guru, the person. As a person, guru is worthy of being involved in dhyana, remembrance, dhyana, contemplation. Contemplate on the personality of the physical aspect of guru. Physical aspect of guru is worthy of being the object of our meditation.
    Second line, gurur padam — padam means feet, feet of the great guru is worthy of worship. Puja mulam, Puja means worship. It is worthy of worship, the two feet of the Master; if he has only one foot, two feet, it doesn’t matter, but feet of the Master is worthy of being worshipped.
    Third line, Mantra mulam gurur vakyam — Guru doesn’t say anything stupid. Whatever he or she says, even in a jovial mood, it becomes a mantra. It is a mantra because it is the bottle that contains divine nectar; whenever it comes, however it comes, it is only that nectar and nothing else. Like that, you see. Guru, whatever comes out of his or her mouth, is nothing but wisdom; mantra mulam, it becomes a mantra. Mantra is the lead word for your meditation and that for your salvation, that means to say wisdom. Mantra means wisdom. Repetition or thinking of what guru says, whenever and whatever she or he says, thinking of it itself will become a process to reach, go beyond the mind. Mantra — Mananaat Trayate Ithi Mantrah — that which takes you across the mind is called Mantra. That Mantra is what guru says, whatever and whenever he or she says, so you must have that respect and listen in rapt attention.
    Fourth line, Moksha mulam Gurur kripa — For salvation, mulam means this is only the process. What? His kripa, his grace. Of all that, without guru kripa, that is the blessings of the Masters, you cannot reach anywhere. Mulam, that is important, it is pertinent. It is important to see that you seek his or her blessings, and it is only her or his blessings which can lead you into Moksha, that is salvation. That’s what it is. Murtim means the figure, the figuring.
    Ekalavya made the statue of Drona. He worshipped Drona and he became a great archer, even without knowing Drona, he made him his guru, see? Murtim, guru murtim, the force, puja mulam gurur padam, padam means the feet. Gurur padam means guru’s feet are worthy of worship.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 28

    Jnana, this is the knowledge part. What happens is everybody thrives seeking the knowledge; everyone's activity, good, bad, ugly, here, there, wherever it is, involving, trying to seek the Knowledge. There is a thirst for the knowledge once you evolve into an intellectual human being. You no longer live on instinct; though a part of us is still there, we act, but much of it has vanished and we are intelligent animals. Because of that intelligence, we always seek. In spite of it, since we are deluded, confused, we do not know what we seek. We know that we are seeking; we do not know what we are seeking. We want something; we do not know what we want. All these things are the motivating power for the human beings to keep on pushing through life after life after life.
    As earlier we said, there’s no one who can keep quiet. Many times in the class room, they say, “Keep quiet: boys keep quiet, girls keep quiet.” Nobody can keep quiet. So, it is the Nature — the nature of our body, mind, senses. Everything is a part of the Nature, so they always correspond with each of the greater Prakriti, greater Nature, part of which we are all small units. So, there is always correspondence. That’s the reason why our mind functions, senses function, body functions, everything. All these things are the result of the Nature. Nobody can avoid it.
    I told you, all that we learn from somebody else is knowledge; it is Jnana, in spite of knowing that we are all Gods, we are the chip of the same old block, or we are the part and parcel of the same Divine. We have read in books, many people have told us, we discuss about it, but still we are not sure what we are. We do not know that we are what we think we are, or what we have been told that we are. We have heard, that’s Jnana, but that doesn’t solve our problem, that doesn’t lead us anywhere; on the contrary, it creates more confusion.
    Just like the other day, I was watching a Buddhist Monk, the Dali Lama. He is nice, I enjoy him. He is very social. He is like a sun, he’ll bring light in the darkness; he brings great joy wherever he goes. He was talking to an interviewer, “There’s no God.” As a Hindu, it should have shocked me; no, Buddha was also a Hindu. It depends upon what it is you call God and what it is you do not call God. There is nothing which is not God anyway. Nothing can exist without God, the presence of God. Some people look to the gross and recognize God, and some people remove that shell and go directly to the core and say, “Oh this is God.” So long as you keep on looking at the cover, “Oh this is God, this is God,” then you are tasting the shell, not the kernel. We say God should taste sweet but this doesn’t taste sweet, so it is not God, so there is no God; it is all bunk. We have not gone beyond that shell and eaten or tasted that kernel; that’s the reason. Also, it depends upon the conception, what God is, what God is not.
    The difference between Jnana, the knowledge, borrowed knowledge and the knowledge that you obtain by your own experience. If I tell you, “Fire burns,” all right, it seems fire burns. But, you put your own finger in the fire and then, “Oh yeah, it does burn!” Then, you can write a book as to what it is, what the experience is; that is jnana. That is wisdom, a direct perception.
    We are all struggling. My father said, my Master said, my Master’s Master said, everybody said, “We are all divine beings, but we have not realized that we are all divine beings.” We are not prepared to accept that we are divine beings. That’s the reason why we are still lurking in the darkness because we don’t want to get out of it. We don’t want to stay here but we cannot get out of this darkness, this confusion!
    So, this jnana comes through the Grace of the Master, the Master who has burned his finger, who has tasted the bliss. When you go, the same thing that you have heard, that you have read in books through all this eternity, that has not solved the problem, but one word from the master, when you go to the master and approach him or her in a particular way. As the other day and several times before, we have discussed how with all the humility, you must go and offer yourself at his feet, serve him, serve her, remove your ego, surrender and then ask with all the humility, with all the devotion and faith. Ask the question. When the master is pleased, he or she will give you the taste of whatever you want, whatever you are trying to experience, to know.
    Whatever you must have heard, it may have created confusion, but the same thing, when a Master tells you, it has a different force altogether. That’s the reason why we say initiation in a mantra, mantra is all right; every day we sing, we all sing, it is good, beautiful. When a particular thing is given to a particular person, it is directed; that force is the potency that works on each individual because it is filled with the experience of the Master there. So, it has a greater potency and it works better. It is that knowledge that you gain by the Master that will burn all the results of your karma. Karma is the worst thing that we can do. We cannot stay without karma anyway, the action. Action is necessary for binding and also freeing ourselves. It is the same action. When you do an action without ego, without seeking any fulfillment, then I work, but I don’t; I am not there. I don’t write a return address so that the result won’t come. I don’t want the result. That action will not bind me.
    Here what happens is, the knowledge given to you by the realized Master, after having accepted you, parting with his or her wisdom to you, what will it do? It will burn all those results of your karma. Then karma will not fructify; that knowledge will burn all your karma, all the actions so those actions will not bring forth any result, especially the birth and death and other things that follow.
    Once you get rid of birth and death, then what happens? You enter into that state of equilibrium, the state of Brahman; that’s what we are all seeking. All this happens to the degree of your faith in the Master, and in his or her words, and even in your sincerity and perseverance, all these things. Just because you fell flat at the feet of the Master doesn’t mean that it is going to burn all your karma. You must have also faith: “Oh! I think, maybe I, I don’t know whether Swamiji is really good, he talks to me but I don’t know.” It’s all gone, you see? We did the same thing, because so long as you don’t go near the teacher, you have respect. When you go there, you lose because familiarity brings contempt. Then, you start doubting your own Master. Then it is that doubt that creates a huge barrier. In spite of all your struggle, you cannot gain anything.
    As I told you the other day a story. Teacher said, “Sit there on the banks of Ganges for one year.” One year, two years, three years and he got tired. He started doubting, “Oh, this old man is playing tricks.” He lost his chance, right? So he was getting purified in a particular fashion. Then, everything will have to coincide in order to reap the harvest of your work. You have to wait.
    So the master, the relationship with the Master and the disciple, ultimately what happens is master and disciple are not separate, inseparable; they become one in the spiritual life. Just like Vivekananda and Ramakrishna: one; they are not different. Without your own knowing, you’ll be progressing in such a way, by the time you have realized the Brahman, that ego and everything else  has fallen off, long time ago. Even if you search, you will not find that ego. That’s what happens if you are growing under the shade of your Master’s Grace.
    That’s the reason why the Masters (gurus) are different from teachers. There are teachers, as I explained to you the other day, there are so many teachers. On Sunday, you turn on any channel, there’ll be so many readers. They keep on reading; you can read, you too have read, say and you can find fault, “Oh he missed this line, he missed all these things.” Neither he goes anywhere nor you go anywhere, but if you are interested, at the same time, sit down in your own house, remember a great Master, Master of all the Masters, Universal Master, Jesus. Shed tears, “Oh Lord, I want to know, I do not understand. I am confused, You please come and help. If You don’t come and help, I’ll cut my head off.” He’s available, He’s free; he gave His own life for the sake of us. So, how can we, how dare we doubt that He doesn’t come, and we go to Tom, Dick and Harry and spend two hours hearing all this baloney. Simplify your heart, become humble, become like a child, innocent, and cry for Jesus; if Jesus doesn’t come, who else will come? He’ll redeem; He’s the master. He’s there for the sake of us. He doesn’t have any agenda for himself. His agenda is us; we are all His agenda.
    So like that, there are Masters; wherever you keep your faith, go there. There is no difference between the Masters; amongst the Masters, they are all one. They are all doing the same work, same thing. Whether you are selling tomatoes, or green chilies or jalapeño or the medicine or this, what are you doing? You are doing a business. They are all involved in this business of bringing you to God and making you understand about God and taking you if you are ready, to take you on their shoulder and fly unto the Lord. That’s what these Gurus are doing.
    So in such a way, when the Gurus and the Masters are offering this great service, how should we be grateful and approach them? If you fail, in spite of having a Master, and if you have failed, it is not the failure of the Master. It is the failure of yours because you cannot close the lid and go and humbly say, “Oh master, will you fill this jar with milk?” How can he fill this jar with milk with the lid closed? You must open, go, simplify, that’s what Krishna says, “You must go to the Master.” It is that knowledge that you get that can burn all your karma because Jnana that opens your eyes, opens the vista and you understand at once! It is that understanding, knowing, that doesn’t bring forth anymore results, adverse results; you may be born, you may be reborn, but it is no more a bondage. Every time, you will be making progress. That’s what it is. That’s what happens.
    So, that’s why Knowledge is important. In all the chapters, whatever we talk, we talk only about the Knowledge because ultimately everyone has to achieve that amount of Knowledge that frees everyone; everyone it frees. So, we should get rid of all of our ego, attachments, and all that, and try to practice; perseverance and faith and all that is that which will help us, not otherwise. Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 29

    After having explained how to go to a Master who knows what is what, who can only guide, whose words have authenticity, and to follow with faith and perseverance, then you’ll reach that point where all the others lead, that is Brahmanjnana — Knowledge of the Brahman. You’ll reach that stage.
    So now once again, after all these discussions, Arjuna is confused. Once again he wants to know. He asks Krishna, “Lord, You said once that karma is good; we should do Karma. Without karma, nobody can stay, so we have to keep on doing karma, that is, only the positive karma. Once again You say, it is the karma which binds us. So, You advise that we should give up karma, renunciation; You preach renunciation on one side, and on the other side You say the contradictory statement that we must keep involved in karma.”
    When we try to analyze, understand all these aspects about the spiritual life, the mind cannot grasp. It is not a matter for the intellectual. It is movement like a serpent. It is not straight forward; that’s the reason why when we try to understand through only the intellect, we are always confused. Even the simplest things in spirituality make us confused. That’s the reason why very many people, though they read a lot, they do many things, but they are still confused and they cannot progress, because so long as there is confusion, they cannot progress. When they cannot do anything, they cannot reach anywhere.
    All this time, Arjuna has been trying to analyze everything mentally, trying to conceive what Krishna is saying. That’s the whole problem. It is not for the mind to conceive things; one must go beyond the mind to the intuitional level. It is very hard to come down, bring it down to the intellectual level and explain things; you cannot. There are certain things that only you can lift the student to that level and remove the intellectual plane and infuse in him or her the intuitional faculty and then produce what is necessary for understanding. Then, it will have the result. If not, the student will never conceive. On the contrary, after some time it will be perverted; she or he will be confused about everything. It will lead to further confusion rather than removing the confusion.
    So that’s what the situation is in this chapter, 5th Chapter. Arjuna says, “You ask me to renounce the karma.” You must also remember Krishna never said to renounce karma. He has been telling no one can remain in this world without functioning, but the only thing is you must remove the ego: “me” and “mine”; “I am the doer.” If you take that responsibility, then you are responsible for the results of the karma. All that He has been saying is that renunciation is not the karma, but the result of karma. Krishna never said, “Give up karma.” Actions are important, actions are necessary; even to sit quiet is itself an action.
    So, what He has been saying all this time is to keep on functioning as the Nature makes you function. You are the part and parcel of the Nature and you cannot avoid it. Since you are a wave in the ocean, you have to function, but you are capable of withdrawing the results by not proclaiming your responsibility to it, by renouncing your doership. Along with renouncing the doership, you’ll be renouncing the acceptance of results of the actions that you do: good, bad, ugly, whatever it is. So thereby, you will provide yourself the necessary aspects, like removal of duality and all such things, and your heart will be purified because it is only through karma that your heart can be purified. Heart in the sense that the mind, everything becomes purified — pure mind, pure heart, pure senses, everything pure. Then the Brahman can reflect; God can reflect in you, through the mind, through the senses, through all these things. Even if you are doing karma, the same karma will become divine actions. Same actions will convert into divine actions because you have removed the ego and all those things. Then, you have made your heart and everything clean, the instruments of action, so that God, the Atman, the Brahman, can reflect. You keep yourself pure so God reflects upon all these things and when it is done, then every action will be divine: divine action, divine result. Everything will be divine. Even while you are doing karma, you are not doing karma; even if you are doing karma, it will become the actions of the Divine and not yours. When it is the action of the Divine, the results are also Divine, and then it is beautiful. So thus you must, as Krishna says, renounce this ego; discard that doership and keep on doing without the sense of doership. Then, you can progress.
    Arjuna says, “Krishna, you say ‘Do yoga but on the other side you say, do this karma. Sometimes You say, ‘Renounce it.’ What are you telling me?” So Krishna further has to explain the same thing; it goes on and on and on. So what will yoga do? Yoga also does the same thing; it will prepare you. Yoga is also an action in order to achieve a certain goal. The breathing and meditation and all these things will cleanse your heart, purify your indriyas (senses), purify your mind and all these things so that Atman will reflect in your person.
    Wisdom, what will actions do? Actions also will result in knowledge, ultimately what the knowledge will do, yoga will also do. The means are different, but the purpose is the same. Both of them will lead you to the state of Brahman, state of equilibrium, samadhi. It will take you to the same point where yogis are also the same as the wise people. So, don’t distinguish; if you are capable of doing yoga, do yoga. If you are endowed with those faculties as to be wise, wisdom, accumulate wisdom, knowledge, that will also lead. Ultimately, yoga also will have to yield you the knowledge anyway. Whether you do this, or that, whatever it is, you have to earn money in order to buy the same ticket to go there. You need the same pass to go there, but to buy that pass, you have to have money. In order to have the money you have to work different profession, yoga, wisdom, or whatever it is. You get that in order to qualify yourself to be there. Ultimately, all of them will lead you to that state of Brahman.
    So, it is not the karma that you have to renounce, it is the result. When they say “renunciation”, it doesn’t mean that you have to sit quiet and withdraw, no. Even withdrawing in yoga, you have to withdraw; that is an action in itself, too. So, it is not the renunciation of action, but the result of all those actions. Regarding the results of the actions, you have only the right to act but not to the results. That’s what He said earlier.
    So, what is the ultimate result? If you attach yourself, if you have got that ego, then if you kill somebody, you will have to go to jail; you’ll be hung. If you hit somebody, somebody will hit you. If you take a knife and hit your finger, you will cut your finger. These are the actions and reactions. You are suffering. Supposing you withdraw yourself? What will happen is the knowledge; you are doing action in order to get that knowledge but not the result, ordinary result, but the knowledge. That knowledge will not come to you unless you detach yourself. You must be a third party, a witness; watch, judge what does he do? He doesn’t involve. When two people fight and argue, he will try to come and know the truth. If he also involves, he will also be a party; he cannot see. He cannot see the truth. In order to see the truth, he must be a third party, a judge; so, you must be a witness. See what karma does, what it brings in, what all happens. Thus, you get that knowledge that is the truth.
    If you involve, “I am the doer”, “me”, “mine”, and all that, then you’ll be a party to that and you’ll lose.
    So, it is not the karma that you have to renounce, but the effect of the karma, the ego, the tendency, “mine” and “me” and all those egoistic approaches. You must renounce that. Also, that is the same result that yoga also does. Yoga also does the same thing. Yoga is another process. There are several processes. These are the two main ones, yoga and the knowledge, karma and jnana.
    Ultimately, everything will end in knowledge, accumulation of knowledge; these are all the means. It all depends upon what you are endowed with. If you have a faculty predominantly to do yoga, do it. If not, if your faculties are strong and endowed with that faculty of realizing jnana, wisdom, go ahead, progress in that field. Ultimately, don’t hesitate; both these things will yield you the same result, that is Brahmanjnana or the knowledge of Brahman and ultimately dissolves the individual self in the greater Self of Brahman. Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 30

    As we discussed last time, it’s the confusion that arises between Sankhya and yoga. Yoga means Karma Yoga, the action. Sankhya means wisdom, knowledge, accumulation of knowledge, and an activity constantly inquiring into what the Self is, the difference between the individual self and the greater Self and all these things. Inquiry, mulling on all the aspects of the Brahman, the Reality, the Truth. What is That? What is the difference between the Truth that we have to achieve and that which you have already achieved? That is we are, we are what we have achieved already, the knowledge. That is Sankhya.
    So, Krishna has been talking about both to Arjuna. Arjuna is already confused and he’s further confused when He says, “You should get shelter under Sankhya, that is wisdom, you must give up everything and meditate, get into the mood of meditation and go deep and inquire, and experience the Brahman, the reality and get going; that’s the whole truth.” While it has affected Arjuna and he’s prepared to undertake, “Yes, You are right, and I think I should do it,” meanwhile, He says, “You cannot give up the Karma; you have to act. You cannot just go into a cave and sit down there as a recluse; you are born to fight, you have to fight, you have to do this. This is your duty.” “Now, what is this duty going to do? What is to be achieved? To achieve whatever it is, which one is helpful? So, You are confusing me. You are definitely confusing me.” This, for the second time, he is telling Him. “Please tell me what is the real way in order to achieve whatever it is, the highest reality. Let me know.”
    Krishna replies, “Arjuna, it is only a child who cannot distinguish or who mistakes or identifies differently between Sankhya and Karma. That is Karma Yoga, the yoga of action, and the yoga of meditation and achievement of knowledge, inquiry into Brahman, inquiry into God, inquiry into Nature, inquiry into all these things. Both of these are not different; they look different, but one cannot go without the other. Ultimately, what does Karma Yoga do? It does the same thing; it prepares you. On the way, it prepares and leads you to the same place where others have arrived from coming from the other way: the inquirer, one who meditates, sits down. It is not an easy thing; there, they have to fight. Now here, you have enemies around you and you have to fight, kill, all these things. These are all actions with one intention, ‘I’m doing it for the sake of the Lord. Not for my sake, it is my duty. I have been born, I have been put in charge of this and I am doing this. I am not doing it in one sense. As long as I identify myself with my body and all the physical existence, then I am doing it, but otherwise I’m not doing it. I’m just a witness.’”
    The Nature, as we have discussed earlier, it is the Nature that takes care of each one. It is the Nature that acts through these instruments, so I’m just watching, that is all; I have nothing to do with this. So, that is the same thing. In spite of acting, in spite of doing all the actions, you’ll not be tainted with any of these actions so long as you think that you are not doing the action. It is your duty and you are doing it duty bound; you are doing it without caring for the results. Thus, even this Karma cleans your heart, cleans your body, cleans your mind, cleans all the other senses, everything, and God starts reflecting upon you. Ultimately, what will happen is, you will merge in the same Divinity. So long as your ego is dissolved, there is a perfect contact with the divine; so, you will merge in it.
    It is easy; at least, you can think and do but there the enemies are hidden, unknown, subtle. Though they sit in seclusion as a recluse in a cave, they have to fight. They can't stand against disappointment, against confusion; though they are sitting there, they’ll be thinking of something else. When the hunger strikes, what will they do? They’ll be thinking of nice steak, where is the best steak house? They do not get it because they have to go all the way, hundred miles so they have to fight that. Then again, everything, every sense, their own senses will be their own enemies then because they don’t have external enemies; then, internal enemies will attack. They don’t identify you as the true self, but they will start eating you away. Then you have to fight everyone, you have to fight your eyes, your mind, your ears, your legs, everything. That’s not easy, so the whole life is spent in trying to control one after the other. Here you need not control. You let go of everything, let the hand do what it should, let your eyes see the enemies and feel, whatever it is; you’re doing your duty, “I don’t want anything,” that’s what you have decided. All right, but it is your duty. You cannot run away from the duty; you have to do it, do it, Karma.
    So, what about those people who have chosen Karma Yoga like Gandhi and Mother Theresa and others? They did it. They didn’t seek any result from their actions. People died. People died on her own lap; she didn’t shed any tears, she prayed, “Oh Lord, this is my service to You. You have died on my lap; this is another drama You are enacting and I am witnessing. It is all right.” That’s what she did. If not, even when we see some death, we cry; it affects us. For Karma yogis, in spite of doing all these things, it doesn’t affect them. The moment that affects, it means they are not completely yogis yet. They are trying. If not, how much you should have cried, how many people died; she took care of only dying people, poor people. Even to think of them, we feel sorry. Even this sympathy, all these things, are born of that emotion; this is a bondage, but for a Karma yogi, after a long time, he or she establishes in him or herself, in his or her own consciousness. Once one is seated in one’s own consciousness, then none of these things, in spite of being involved in those activities, will emotionally upset anybody. On the contrary, it purifies; it purifies the body, the mind, everything: the vital, mental, and physical aspects of the being. That is the reason why when yogis die, even for seven days, their body is full of light; it doesn’t decay because it is so pure. Also, it doesn’t succumb because it never depended on anything except this consciousness. That’s the beauty.
    Sri Aurobindo, when he passed away, for three days nothing happened, as if he was just sleeping. Everything was alive. Who was that in Goa, St. Xavier? Not St. Thomas, he was in Madras; it was St. Xavier. Every 12 years, they used to open the container, and the body was intact. St. Xavier must have lived in Goa. So all these things, these are all the yogis; he is a Christian yogi, he is a Hindu yogi. A yogi is a yogi. Doesn’t matter. The result is the same. It doesn’t matter in what language you pray, or where you work and how you work; whatever it is, it cleanses, it purifies.
    It is only the ignorant people, that’s what we say, children; don’t be childish means do not be ignorant. Childlike is innocent, but childishness is ignorance; so, it is only childish people that are ignorant, who talk differently about these people. “You must do this; you should not do this.” No, because each one is born with a different predominant faculty. So, make use of that predominancy of any aspect and if it moves you, if you feel comfortable in doing Karma Yoga, do it. Go ahead, but completely dive into that. Ultimately, what happens is, as I told you, each action will be, without your own knowing, adding to the growth of knowledge, experience for you.
    Now, even a new Doctor has to ask an old aide, many times he has to consult before either subject or anything. Even new lawyer has to consult old client whenever there is a dispute, whenever he’s confused because they know much more than the new qualified engineer, or a lawyer, or a doctor. Like that, Karma Yoga, by experience, without your own knowing, you will have accumulated so much knowledge of which you do not know. It is good that you do not know because the moment that you know, I told you ego; ego will be born like a weed, eating away the whole thing. That’s the reason why we always should be humble and do it for the sake of the Lord. Offer everything, good, bad, ugly, everything. Thus when we get rid of ego, when the ego is gone, then whatever the action results in, it is pure knowledge, and it is the same knowledge that Sankhya also will yield. There, you have to fight for that knowledge. Here, easily we are accumulating. Ultimately, it is the same knowledge which is going to yield you the highest status, highest state of reality. You’ll get your place there in the highest.
    So, Karma is not different from yoga, that is Karma Yoga is not different from Sankhya Yoga; it is Sankhya, it is the knowledge, pure knowledge, meditation and all these things. So both of them are unified, but they look like different aspects; but, one cannot be without the other. Predominantly, one aspect is evident, but the other one follows, that’s all. Both ultimately will lead to the same result. Ultimately, both of them will remove the ego and help each one of them to establish in one’s own consciousness; that’s what the ultimate goal is. Once it is there, then it is at the end of the final stage. They are released of all this bondage and enter as a wave in the ocean, or ray of light. One’s own consciousness becomes completely merged in the Utmost, the Ultimate, Brahman or God, whatever you want to call It.
    So, the Karma gives you also other results with ego when you do it. But, because of your sincerity, devotion and all that, there are other results. The moment that you ask for result and result is obtained, then the whole thing is lost there. Like that, the whole account is settled there, you owe that responsibility.
    There are people who are good, but they have always been thinking that our ultimate goal is to reach heaven, “So, for going to heaven, I must be pure, I must be good, I must do these things.” They keep on doing it and they will buy a ticket for a short trip and come back and thus it is a waste of time. All that is the desire and the ego, ego and the desire. Minus ego and desire all the other Karmas will purify you. Since you didn’t ask for any result, you did not ask for anything, so it will ultimately be like an investment, like a roll–over; it keeps on multiplying and will yield you the knowledge that is necessary. So, we have to give up our ego and attachment and desire and keep on doing our Karma, or whatever the Karma we are engaged in. That will yield you the same result as the Sankhya, as the seekers who give up attachment, and give up all these things and give up the family and all that. Merely putting on a garb and running away into Himalayas or some jungle and sitting idle in the cave doesn’t solve any problem. The fight is here whether Sankhya or Karma; it is here.
    It depends upon your temperament. That’s the reason why we are a part of the Nature; Nature dictates. If you’re wise enough and watch yourself, you know whether your inclinations are towards Sankhya or Karma. Wherever you are comfortable, drop in, engage yourself in and start doing it. Do not bother whether to do this, do that, or wonder if that or this will be interesting. No, each one is the same; each one will yield you the same result. So, let there be no confusion; so, you have to fight, you fight. Ultimately, you also will become a great yogi of high achievements.
    Janaka, Rama’s father–in–law, was a King. He fought, he ruled, but he was completely detached. He was a Karma yogi, yes. He was a Sankhya yogi, yes. Great people, great renunciates used to go and study with him, a King. Instead of teaching the King, they used to learn from the King because he had achieved that highest state. Thus, it is one and the same, one can be both, so let there be no confusion between Sankhya and Karma Yoga. That’s what He’s trying to explain. Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 31

    When we are talking about karma and it’s effects, it should not be construed as to it’s pertaining only to this physical world. This physical world is only a part of the whole game. The world that we see, we behold, we live in, is not the only world; the Nature, that prompts everyone to act, does not pertain only to this world, this physical world. So far, we have been trying to understand from the physical existence of this world, that’s all. Even this physical world, itself is so vast; it goes beyond your imagination. Your imagination cannot even reach the zenith of this creation. Even the physical world itself is only a gross existence of the whole. So, it doesn’t mean karma, the effect of karma, the process, belongs only to this physical world, whether we live in this world or on the moon or Mars or Pluto or wherever it is, whatever it is.
    The action doesn’t cease; that’s the reason why we have been discussing the karma, karma, karma, karma: the action. Supposing we think, “All right, we live for a hundred years, two hundred years, five hundred years; it’s all right. Once we are dead, it is done, so there is no body. We don’t exist so we don’t do any karma, ‘Oh, thank God.’” It is a false conception once again. In the process of evolution, this gross body is only a minimal existence. There are things that prompt this physic to move; if not, it is like a piece of rock. You have seen dead body, what does it do? It doesn’t do anything; only you have to do everything to that. Thus, there are things that make us move; they can exist without this physical body, too. There are seven sheaths and there are seven planes of consciousness through which we are to go through in order to reach the Beyond. It is not an easy thing. What we behold, what we experience here is only very limited.
    So when we talk about karma, it is essential to learn, accumulate knowledge. Knowledge doesn’t come by itself, so we have to act, or we have to read; at least, we have to see in order to know. Seeing itself is an action; hearing itself is an action. Supposing you don’t have an ear, “Oh thank God, I need not, no more activity of the ear.” No, far deep within we will be thinking; you can hear the sound within. You may not hear what I say, but you’ll be hearing somebody else talking within you. Things will happen.
    So, if you go from physical to subtler and subtler stages, you exist. We’re not being only this form, may not be with all these faculties. There are different faculties enabling you to live. Just like if you live in Antarctica, you have to have some more of some things. If you live in tropical places, you need some more things. Thus, you will be provided those things which are necessary to exist in those places. As you go through the subtle planes, you’ll be dropping things; in the subtler planes, you need very little, very little. You cannot carry this. As you climb Himalayas, as you go up, you have to drop things you cannot carry because you cannot breathe for lack of oxygen.
    Thus, as you go into the subtler planes of consciousness, there are actions that you have to do to move from one stage to go into the next stage until you reach the Brahman. From there, you reach no further. Once you have achieved, you never come back; it is from where you came. From where you came, you are going back. Once you go there, you say, “This far, no further. I’m sorry Sir, I don’t want to go back on any mission.” Until then, you have to go, you have to process yourself.
    So as you go, you must keep on doing karma one way or the other. One way or the other, you keep on doing it until you die, throw away this body. It’s all right, you are done. You need not shake your hands, you need not do this or that. The world will be the same. Within this world, you’ll exist as something else, but you’ll be still in your body, you’ll be doing things with your hands. You may not have the physical hand, but you’ll have a subtler hand, subtler eyes, subtler ears, but only certain faculties do not function. You may not hear, or you may talk, but I may not hear because my faculties are only tuned to this. If you are living in front of me, sitting in front of me and talking to me I can hear; if you are dead and gone, don’t do that. If you are gone and talk to me, I cannot hear you unless I also come to that plane. Yogis can do, can go to all the planes; they reign supreme in all the planes. That’s the reason why they can bring the news from that plane to this.
    Thus, when Swami Kriyananda went to see Sai Baba, Sai Baba told him, “Oh! Your Master is happy with you.” Swami Kriyananda was happy. How did Sai Baba know because Yogananda passed away long time ago? Baba can reach; yogis can reach all the stages. They are not confined only to the body. They can leave their body, go away, come back and occupy the body again if they want. But are not these karmas?
    Even the yogis do karma, but that is what Krishna has been explaining. These yogis by their own will, they do all these things without any attachment. They are not proud that they can go, do these things, no. The moment that they think about this, they cannot go back, go there at all; the ego is so heavy. It is a snake; it will tie you down. You cannot move.
    The yogis do all these tremendous things; their work is devoid of ego and self interest — no desire. We common people do all these common things; what we are doing is the same thing. The difference is we do it with ego. We want a title, the fruits of action. We want Nobel Prize, we want for people to appreciate, we want all these things, “Oh, I didn’t know, I did it for the God’s sake.” I know that people want to know you have done for the God’s sake. That is the selfish ego. Had it been for the God’s sake, it would have been good, but you are doing work for the God in order to gain appreciation from the people — so, that ego, the desire. So, if you want to work like those yogis, you have to be devoid of ego and attachment.
    In all the planes, in the whole world, those people who live on either side of the Good Lord in the heavens, are kicked out and will come back here. Why? Same thing, even there, the ego. In all these planes wherever you are, you must be careful. That’s why the yogis shield themselves. Wherever they are, whether they are on the gross physical level or in the subtlest possible level, they are ever conscious not to exercise ego. They execute in such a way that ego doesn’t even reach them. Within a limit it doesn’t even penetrate them; they shield themselves in such a way. That’s the reason why they can do all this and ultimately they will dissolve themselves into the Brahman. Even the great yogis, the moment they have that ego, they will fall. Once again, they have to wash out their things and again the memories will be there; they cry, they struggle, they want to reach there, that space again, but they cannot because they have lost. They have to work harder again, but it will help because they have already gone through the first inning and so the second innings will be better; they will improve.
    So, it is not an easy thing. That’s the reason why you cannot avoid karma because you are in the Nature. Nature persists even in the subtle planes; Nature doesn’t mean only the wind that you see, and perfumes you smell and lives you experience and all these things. It is not merely the ghost of Nature and also not a simple peace in the ocean, or the silence of the mountains. It is not only that; Nature persists even in those subtle planes of consciousness. Even there, the Nature pervades. Nature also modifies Herself in order to be there, in order to provide you things; Nature is there to help us. Nature is not there just as an obstacle, no. It is the ignorance that is an obstacle; we cannot have harmony with the Nature.
Question (Sherry): Are the other planes like here?
Swamiji: Yes. I know I want to go to India, but now I have to stop at Chicago and Denver and Los Angeles and so forth. When I get there, I know.
    Ramakrishna used to say, “ Cry for the Mother. Mother will hear and help as a cat comes to rescue her crying kittens.” That’s the reason why he  cried for Mother, “Now come on, You must help me.” Mother took him, like this. What is Mother? The Force. What is force? The Nature. God works through the Mother, the Nature. What does God do? God by Himself doesn’t do anything at all. The Will, God’s Will, manifests as Shakti in the Nature, the Force in the Nature. It is that force which works. So we say, “Oh God works.” God doesn’t do anything. It is the Nature which does. That’s the reason why you care more for the Shakti. She modifies Herself by all kinds of forces; She modifies Herself as light, heat, cold, death, sorrow, emotions, and many more. All these things are the forces of Nature. She is all pervading if you know how to make use of it.
    In order to know, you have to surrender to Her. Be a nice child. Lay on her lap and say, “Ma, here I am. I do not know You. I do not know how to please You, please.” Mothers are always kind. She will make you understand. She will give you the provision to understand and make the way smoother and you can traverse the whole dark tunnels of this Nature smoothly and come to the other side where you can see the light. Without Her help, if you want to fight or misuse or abuse the Nature, you are a goner. The moment you want to think of fighting this Nature, you must know that you are already defeated,. You are a goner; don’t attempt. It is her Grace; it is only her Grace that saves us here. We say, “Oh! We have harnessed air, the world; we have harnessed this and that. We have harnessed the river, etc.” We have harnessed everything except our self. If you harness yourself, then you can travel through the Nature smoothly, but every time you think you’re conquering, you are being conquered. So, that’s the reason why all those great ones say, “Mother.” Somebody calls Her Lakshmi, somebody calls Her Saraswati, somebody calls Her Ma Shakti; it doesn’t matter by what name you call Her, She is the same. You’ll see one aspect and call Her, name Her like that; that’s all. It’s the same. So, She lives to deliver what pertains to that aspect of Her.
    What I’m trying to drive home is that the Nature exists. Whenever we are within the framework of the Nature, actions do not cease. You cannot avoid action; even if you are dead, your actions continue because you are in the Nature until you become completely devoid of all this and become one with the Divine, one with the Divine Consciousness. From there, you don’t come back again. Until then, even until the last moment, you are within the framework of the Nature; you are under Her thumb. So long as you are within the framework of the Nature, your actions do not cease. The only thing you have to understand is that those people who think, “Oh! I’m not doing anything. I have conquered the actions, so I will have no problem.” No, it’s only ignorant people who can think this. But, actions are necessary. What are actions? What does it mean? Actions are important. That’s the reason why Nature has provided you to act. If not, She would have made you a piece of rock. Does it mean rock is not functioning? Rock is functioning as a rock. It is not functioning as you function. You are not functioning like it; you are not supposed to function like a rock. Nature has made the rock a rock, you are you so that you can function. You can help gain by participating in the process.
    Ultimately without action, no knowledge is possible. “Oh! I’m not doing anything. Oh it’s all right, I will read the books, I will go to library and read and study, then I will know.” What is reading? It’s an action. You read and then you think that you want to experiment; you’ll be forced to try to experiment. All these things will happen. Are these not actions? If you think you are smart, Nature can outsmart you in a jiffy. Don’t ever dream of it.
    Thus, knowledge and action are two sides of the same coin. That’s what Krishna has been trying to apprise Arjuna. “Don’t think, don’t. You are already confused and more confusion is on the way because once you are confused, you always try to confuse further. So just stop; take a deep breath and then try to understand.” That’s what Krishna is trying to say. That’s the reason throughout the GITA, it is karma and knowledge, knowledge and karma. This world, Nature itself is a Karma Bhoomy, the plane in which you have to act. You cannot sit quiet even if you think, “Oh! I will take poison and die so that I need not work.” No, that’s not the solution. In the subtle body, you will have to do subtler things. Then, you’ll be yelling and nobody hears you and you get wild, “I’m talking and nobody is hearing.” This causes a frustration that will yield you something other than what it is, so you have to struggle; the struggle that you undergo here in the physical world is better than in the other one.
    Many things happen; so, go naturally. Nature is good. Mother Nature will take you and you be kind to Her. Be loving to Her and She will love you. She will provide everything that is necessary for you. There lies your possibility of salvation. Thank you very much



 
BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 32

    The ultimate goal is to reach the highest consciousness, that consciousness by whatever the name, is called God, Brahman or Param Atman, whatever; that is the human goal. If you squeeze all the intellect and take out the juice, that is called Wisdom; that is what enlightens you to that effect. So, there are quite a few ways of reaching there; all roads lead to Rome. All these efforts that you are making is unconsciously towards that goal; those who are conscious direct all their efforts towards one. When you are unconscious, you go, you change your mind, you take another route, you’ll be circling around, but you don’t make a pace forward.
    That’s the whole problem here that is confusing. In order to reach that, there are facts that we have to understand. The main parts have been discussed here, one is Sankhya, that is the Wisdom, part of Wisdom, pure Wisdom and another one is action, Karma Yoga. Ultimately what will happen, both these two main roads lead to the same state of Bliss, state of origin, state of our Being, true Being, but there are different schools of thought about this. Those who practice one think the other one is lower or it may or may not lead to the other. Karma yogis think that without Karma you cannot reach, so we must do Karma. Sankhyas think Karma doesn’t make any sense because Karma doesn’t develop anything; it is only the Wisdom. Ultimately, what we lose here is: what does Karma do? What does Sankhya do? What does the Wisdom do? Whether it is Karma Yoga or Jnana Yoga, or Vidya Yoga, Yoga of Wisdom, all these yogas do the same thing. It doesn’t matter by what name you use, things go on happening; both are admixed in our lives.
    As I have been discussing, all along, we cannot sit idle; we have to do something. Once you are born, you step into activity. Even after death, does it mean that you are ceased of action? No. There are stages of consciousness through which you have to pass. It depends upon how you work out here fast or slow. In each plane of consciousness, as long as you belong there, you have to keep on working. Just like people after retiring take a second job and still work because they cannot stop working. Like that, here we cannot stop working. Once you are born, the very purpose of our birth is to work. Only thing is we forget about the aim or the purpose for which we have to act, for which we have to work. It is that which brings in all problems here. If not, there would have been no BHAGAVAD GITA, there’d have been no BIBLE; there’d have been nothing. Everything would have been all right. Everything is trying to expose and tell you the aim of your life, the purpose of your being born here and what you should do in order to achieve that goal; that’s all. Different people have worked out different ways or views so they have all put these ways and views in their essence into our thoughts so that we could choose and do. But, we are confused because we try to sort out all those things through the intellect. Intellect has its own capability but it is not endowed with that power to think of this. It can only think about achievements in this mundane life. When it comes to the other things, it is only the wisdom, intuition; it is that intuitional knowledge which can help you. In order to achieve that intuitional knowledge, again, you have to have a clean heart, clean mind, clean life.
    What is intuitional faculty? It is the reflection of the Sun, the Truth, the life that we seek. In order to make it reflect on our lives, we have to keep ourselves clean. That’s what happens. So it is for that reason that we have chosen all these activities. Karma Yoga, what does Karma Yoga do? Many people go to African countries, they go to Mexico, the other countries; they’re called peace workers. If you go to India, there are people who work for no money, nothing, nothing at all. They seek some bread somewhere, they sleep somewhere, but they work; they clean the streets, attend to the needs of the poor people, all this as a dedication, just like Mother Theresa did. What did they do? Constantly, they think they are serving God. They see God in everything: sick, healthy, rich, poor, dying, living, everything moving and not moving.
    That’s the reason why we pray to the stone; without our own knowing, we see. If there had not been present in that piece of stone that what we seek, stone would have not been a stone. Stone would have been something else. To become that something, there must have been that particular thing that we seek. Something makes you what you are. It is that same thing which makes a stone a stone. That’s the reason why we have to respect stone also. We say, “Respect nature, don’t disturb.” Some say, “Oh! Environmentalists are stupid; they do not know. We want to cut the trees for our own uses.” We do not know; we have to respect the Nature. What is Nature? What are these trees? What is this tree? What is that piece of stone? When you go there, “Ah, what a peaceful place.” Why did you not have it at home? Why do you want to go there? What do you see there? More than your decorated kitchen, or the drawing room or whatever room, it is plain, huge trees, so strong. Are you looking at the monkey, or a giraffe or a stream, or what? You sit there, you say, “Oh what a beauty.” What are you looking at there? Without your own knowing, you are appreciating what you are seeking; you do not know you are face to face with what you have been seeking all through your life. That’s the reason why there is peace.
    What is that peace? It shows the presence of the Divinity there, your Divinity, Divinity within you. It is that which recognizes the unpolluted Divinity there. There is harmonious conjunction, there is a knowledge; you enjoy it.
    That’s what yogis do. They enjoy the peace somewhere else, in some other plane of consciousness. All through the consciousness, it is the same thing that passes through, like a thread. If you see a garland, there are small and big beads and long and short beads; everything is strung, but in the big bead, the thread doesn’t become big and in the small bead, it doesn’t become small. Whether it is an ant or an elephant or the tree or a rock, whatever, God, the presence of this Divinity, is all through. We have to allow that to reflect in us consciously. That is what the yogi does. Consciously, he or she makes an effort and the Sankhya, that is the man or woman of knowledge, the man or woman who seeks this true knowledge, she or he also does the same thing.
    By this activity either as a Jnani, or as a seeker of Wisdom or as a Karma yogi, all effects are to cleanse your heart, cleanse your mind, senses, body, everything, everything. Karma Yoga is to offer your services in the form of your activity as an offering to God; see God everywhere. Thus, what happens is whether it is the sick, whatever it is, you’re serving God. You are appearing to me as a sick person; I’m happy to serve you here as a sick person. I’m happy to serve you as King, if you are a King. If you are my neighbor, love thy neighbor. If as a wife, child, friend, teacher, I am equally glad to serve them. If you start doing this, all that you do is nothing but create that atmosphere in which you enjoy the presence of the Divinity. You have chosen only to bring that Divinity outside and you want to live in that Divinity. So thereby, you are mixing your Divinity and all the combined Divinity in all that you do. While living without your own knowing, you’ll be happy, spiritually happy.
    Maybe after having worked for all those poor people and all those things, you are tired, but at the same time there is, far deep within the satisfaction. You’re happy, you shed tears, “Oh I have done this for them. I’m happy that somebody was served.” Somebody has accepted your service. That is why also you must be grateful. Many Karma yogis fail. Some do service in order to serve, while others want their picture on the front page and want Nobel Peace Prize; they want this or that. That loses all the aroma of that work.
    Why are you not identifying yourself with the Divinity, that is the Divine presence? Because all over here is that dust which has gathered on your heart; it is not reflecting or accepting the heat of the Divine. In order to do that, you have to cleanse off that which is covering the heart — the ego. As I told you, the desires, ego, that is very subtle force; even the greatest ones have not been able to remove that. They are great in all ways but still because of that thin layer of ego, they have not been able to enjoy that.
    So the loss of ego, the rise of humility, these things will happen when you do Karma Yoga. When you serve, when you do all these things, you remove, cleanse, but any amount of Karma Yoga will not yield anything until you become humble. Humble means to become devoid of this ego. Remove that ego, “I am not the doer.” It is the Nature which is doing. God doesn’t do it by Himself; God doesn’t do anything anyway. It is the Nature. If God starts doing, then it will not be God then, and then we’ll be the Nature. So, we are all part and parcel of Nature. It is the Nature which does, so in what way am I going to gain credit from what is being done? Supposing I don’t have the hand. I’m paralyzed. How can I serve with my hand? How can I serve? How can I walk to the temple if I’m paralyzed? So, thank Nature. Nature is cooperating with me giving me the strength, and the legs to go and worship in the temple. And the hands, strong hands to serve somebody, to bring the joy in their lives. And beauty, appreciate beauty, the God, the Divinity. What is beauty? The presence of Divinity. Hear nice things about the world.
    So like this, it is the Nature which does all these things. So, in what way am I going to claim credit, in what way am I capable? I’m not capable of anything. “Oh thank you, Nature, thank you Mother.” Once you realize this, you become humble. Think, “Had I been deprived of my eyes or ears, I could not see many things around or hear beautiful music.” Many people are suffering. Thank God, you are not in that position. So, in what way should we worship the Nature for Her Grace on us? Make the best use of it. Make use of it with all the humility. Then, it is this humility; work with humility. That cleans our heart; that’s only the purpose.
    Why should we do Karma Yoga? Only for this purpose. And, also there’s not just one type of action that you have to do but all kinds of actions. Long ago we discussed, there are actions that are necessary for us to do. There is, of course, daily prayer. They say, “When you get up, as soon as you get up, thank God for having been around one more day to live and do work. Thank God that I am alive this morning.” Prayer, that’s what I have been taught and that has been taught by the people who have enjoyed, experienced in the past. That is the reason why there is a force; there is that meaning in that. So, that is one of my actions, prayer.
    And serve, respect, “Good morning Father,” or “Good morning Mother.” It is not a mere formality, you feel it; in India, we touch the feet of our parents. Of course, I never did it to my Father. When I did, he was so joyful, He said, “My son is touching my feet.” I never did; once I did when I wanted to tell him that I was going to be a Sanyassin, at that time. In Northern India everybody, from the youngest touches everybody’s feet, then next older and like this. It is humility; there is nothing but love and humility and devotion. These are the three things in doing that. Touching the feet, or “Good morning Father, good morning Mother,” in that, the respect, the identification; you are worthy of my respect and love. And seeking blessings, it is mutual. All this is another part of Karma Yoga; this is also action, yogic exercise.
    Don’t think yoga only means he should have a long beard and put on some clothes and wander all over the world. No, that’s not it. You are all yogis. There's not a single one who is not a yogi. Only thing is he doesn’t have a sign, he doesn’t have a slogan, except that everyone who does these things, they're all yogis.
    In society, somebody works on some board, tries to contribute whatever the service he is capable of. A carpenter builds schools and a doctor dispenses medicine; the bricklayer lays bricks. And if you are educated, if you can, you will become a teacher and during your off time you go and teach as voluntary work. What is this? Yoga. Is it not yoga? You don’t seek appointment, you don’t seek any remuneration. You want only to give, give, give like God. Jesus, gives us everything; He doesn’t take anything. Are you not a yogi? We’re all yogis, all of us, but just think; remove that ego, and the desire. “I am doing this because, the result of this will be this and I want it.”
    If you hanker after the result and desire for that result, then once again, the flavor is gone. It is all gone just like our beautiful milk, pot of milk and you are putting in a handful of salt. It is useless. Do not desire; do it without any attachment to your work or the result or the outcome of that. Do it spontaneously, whatever you want to do. So, this is Karma Yoga.
    Jnana Yoga , that’s what they do, they give up; they do not do all these things that Karma Yogis do in action. They dedicate their lives to spiritual research. You cannot negate them. They go into the scriptures, they practice, they read, they accumulate knowledge, they come out with that knowledge. They dedicate the whole life for that. So, that also will ultimately take you. The result of Karma Yoga is the same thing as Jnana Yoga by not doing anything but to concentrate on learning, sitting, meditating. They also cleanse their heart. Karma yogis in their way cleanse their heart; both of them are trying to do the same thing, cleanse the heart, so that the Divine will reflect in the heart. Thus ultimately, at the end, both of them will reach the same goal which is destined. No one can say, “Oh! I am a Karma yogi. I am doing this, so everybody should do this; if not, you will go to Hell.” Or the one seeking knowledge cannot say, “Oh, if you don’t do this you will go to Hell.” No.
    There is nothing like Hell for those who are thinking of God all the time. Those who are working for the sake of God consciously, or unconsciously, for them, there is no Hell; there’s no Hell at all. You create your own. You have to plan for yourself and create what type of Hell you want. God has not created a Hell. Are we not the chip off the same old block? Are we not all His children? Do you want to stab your son? Do you behead your son? No. Which Mother does, which Father does? When He is the highest Father, Father of all the Fathers, how can you say, how can you blame Him? God created Hell and Heaven. No, even for a single second I cannot think that God can create a hell. We are created in a beautiful world; you put poison and say, “Oh, God created Hell here.” Who created that Hell? Who poisoned the world? So, we’re creating hell for ourselves and we blame God. God never punishes anybody. It is you. It is our own actions, it is our own ignorance, it is our own selves. We who land in those things and then call it a Hell. There’s nothing like Hell; it is suffering. Hell means suffering. Why are you suffering? — because of the ignorance. Why are you ignorant? Because you do not want to see the light; you want to be blind. You know some people after they wake up and say, “Please shut off the light; I cannot see.” They don’t want to see the light.
    Thus, there’s no difference between all this; you become devoid of all this ego and ignorance. The sign of such a one is that he or she doesn’t try to distinguish between a dog, an elephant, an ant, a man, a woman and all these things. She or he doesn’t see the differences. He or she sees the unifying factor there, sees the same light in everybody, the same Divinity in everything. He or she is called pundit, not these press people who are called pundits. They’re not pundits. Pundits are those who know the reality.
    The Reality is the Divine presence in each and everything, the prop support of the whole thing, every molecule, not only in the body. Body is made up of all these molecules, protons and electrons and neutrons and whatever atoms are there. There’s one atom and that is God. You remove that atom and all other things will be only electrons and ding, ding and all that. So, prop supporter is the Divinity in several modifications. You can not say, because you see Divinity in one form and way here and don’t see the same form and way elsewhere, doesn’t mean that Divinity is not there. Divinity can modify Itself in various ways.
    As God lives in my heart, he cannot live in the same form in the stone, same way in the tree, but nevertheless there’s Divinity. Without Divinity, nothing can exist; the Nature Herself can not exist. The force of the Nature, Nature itself doesn’t have any strength unless God invests His force in Her. His will takes the shape of the Nature; that’s the reason why Nature is strong. Next to God is Nature. The step before God is to know the Nature. If you know the Nature, you know the God. It is one step. It takes a long time. If you want to know the Nature, know yourself; it is the nearest. Whatever is in the Nature  is in you, subtle, gross, water, air, all these elements; everything is within you. Whatever we see outside in huge quantity is all in the right proportion within us. We are the laboratory. If we can understand ourselves, we understand the Nature; if you can understand the Nature, then the next step is to know God Himself. There is no difference. Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 33

    Sankhya, that is the Knowledge, the Wisdom and the Yoga, usually called Karma Yoga, is the process by which we attain the Wisdom. The cream of all actions ultimately will become the Wisdom. Just like people work hard and collect money and put it in the bank and save, earning is one side and saving is on the other side. It is the two sides of the same coin, or you may call it two wheels of the same cart. Without karma, you are not going to get Knowledge and without Knowledge, you are not going to get the ultimate result of your life. The ultimate goal of our life is to achieve the highest state of consciousness, or the state from which we have come. The continuous process of becoming will end in the process of going back to the original state of being.
    We are not being still; we are in the process of becoming. From whatever we started as, from there we started becoming this, becoming that, becoming this, becoming, becoming. So, now we have become this. Now, we are not happy with this process, because we cannot be happy in any place on any level until we return to our original state. Unconsciously, we know that this is not the state in which we exist. Our state of being is different than what we are in. This is artificial. That’s the reason why we are unhappy here. Even if you are a king, the  wisest man, or the greatest saint, still you are unhappy here so long as you are here in one way or the other. In any way that you like, we are still unhappy because this is not what we want to be. So, we are just in the process of becoming. Becoming from one to the other, lower to the higher.
    So thus, in order to culminate at a point from where we don’t become anything any more, “Having achieved the state from where you don’t come back again as you are, that’s the state of being where nothing happens, there is no change, status quo there.” That is the Brahman devoid of any activity. Activity is when you need something; there must be a desire. Then you act in order to achieve that; and by doing that, you will be achieving some by-products for which you have to answer. All this confusion will end there and once you achieve that state of being, then there’s no more desire. So, there’s no activity. When there’s no activity, there’s no result. When there’s no result, there is no dealing with it. Thus you will be in a state of bliss, bliss or whatever you call it. People say bliss, blissful state, peaceful state, all kinds of things but it is a state without any of these attributes. It will be a beautiful state, that’s all, where you don’t have all these miseries.
    So thus, to achieve that is our goal here in our human life. Each one of us does not have the same attitude, aptitude, and strength. Some people are mentally strong and others are physically strong. These are the tools given to us in order to achieve the same thing, consciously or unconsciously. Those who are strong, those physically can employ themselves; they do employ. Those who cannot, who have a stronger mental strength, they will go ahead there. So, we utilize all these faculties that are given to us, that we are endowed with. We utilize that and there will be a time when we have to intermingle the results of all this. Whether you collect pennies or dollars, quarters or dimes, you have to put them all together; then, it will make the whole. That’s what will buy you things. That’s what will remove your needs; that’s what will happen.
    So on one side, if you are strong, you have to act, continue to work, but work with one intention, to know, to achieve that Knowledge; by utilizing your body, body will give you the experience, all that. There are certain things you can forego sometimes if you are intelligent. What will they do? They will skip you two grades and put you in the sixth grade instead of fourth grade. You are there. So thus, what happens, the Sankhyas, they say, “All right, mentally they must have progressed in the earlier stages.” That’s the reason why they have become Sankhyas. That’s the reason why they have known much more than those people who are acting still. So they ask, “Why should we go back there again? We’ll start from the other stage.” So, wisdom. So they say, “We are not going to do anything. We are not involved in any karma, any action. We’ll go to the cave, we’ll go to a corner, sit down and manipulate, contemplate, think, gaze, experience the stages.” See, those stages which will be achieved later by those people who work, these individuals will achieve these states sooner. Ultimately, they too will have to achieve that state. Just like Bhakti Yoga, and Karma Yoga and all these branches of yoga, these are the different ways; all roads lead to Rome. Ultimately, all these roads will lead you to the same peak; culminating point is the same, but here, Sankhyas have already gone through the purification process. They have purified mentally, physically, psychically, everything. That’s the reason why they are born with a higher status, so they will start; they are not inclined to drop back into this. They know it. They need not go back into this, so they will start from there. Whereas, others will start gradually; they feel like serving the society, they feel like doing this, they feel like doing that, they have that emotion. So, in Sankhyas, the emotion, all these things are harnessed; they’re all utilized in a particular way. Now, they don’t bother. Here, “Oh! There is a flood. People are suffering; let me go and volunteer myself.” You feel like doing that. “Oh! There’s lot of ignorance; let me open a school and teach.” You feel like doing that. “Oh! There’s sickness, let me go and help.” “There’s poverty, let me share my wealth with them, we’ll build them houses, build them schools, and so forth.” All this is without egoism. You’ll realize what a great joy it is to do that. Not only you enjoy, others enjoy; when they enjoy, also you enjoy. There are twenty thousand dollars; if you put your one dollar, then you’ll become the owner of all that. You’ll be a participant in all that, isn’t it? “Oh! I will inherit the whole thing.”
    So thus, your participation in the society, doing all these things will ultimately help you; it is your own self. You identify yourself with others. Mahatma Gandhi, when he went back to India from South Africa, he said, “If I have to work for these poor people, I must be one like a poor man. I cannot put on three piece suit and tell them, ‘Oh you’ll be happy. I want to serve you.’” No, so he put on a loin cloth and only one thing to cover. That is all and he never had more things, than what he had throughout his life. He was a lawyer. He was an advocate, he was an attorney; he wore three piece suit and had money too. Once he went, when he jumped into this public work, he removed all that and he started participating among the poor like a poor man. What a poor man can afford, that’s all he had. He ate like that, he slept like that, he talked like that, he did all that. That’s the reason why he could move the whole world, because he was one with the world. Unlike other politicians, who say, “Oh come on, I want to help you, I want to do this ,I want to take care of your Medicare, I want to do this and that.” First, they want to take care of themselves. They spend million and a half dollars on themselves and then spend two thousand dollars on some institution there. They say, “Oh see, I have created this.” No, that’s not the way. They have to identify with those with whom they work. That is what karma yoga is: to become one with whom you have undertaken to serve.
    So thus, what happens to the whole will happen to me; I am not isolated. That is what happened to me when Gandhiji went on fast because people were killing each other; Hindus killing Muslims, Muslims killing Hindus. A huge uncountable number of people died when partition took place creating Pakistan. At that time, he could not bear it; he went on a fast. When he went on fast, the whole of India stopped. The whole of India stopped eating and all that because they were more interested in Gandhi than anything else. Gandhi was the whole India, whole India was Gandhi because he identified himself with the whole mass; then, he became the whole mass. Small thing: you help one man without an ego and there are twenty people who are watching you and when you need something, all those twenty people will think, “Oh! See this is the man who helped, what a great man, he needs our help now. Let us get behind him.” So, all the twenty people will come to you. So your investment of one penny brings you twenty pennies, right? So who is richer?
    The same thing in spirituality, in Karma Yoga. Without your own knowing, you are building up your treasure which will take you ultimately there. You must identify yourself and work without any egoism and desire. The desire, if at all there is any, it should be a grand desire, “I want God.” That’s a desire. That is a relieving desire; it is not a binding desire. The moment that you want a fire, it is the nature of the fire to burn. If your hands are filthy, if you try to hold the fire, what happens? It burns all the filth; that’s what happens here. If you work, even if there is a desire, especially the spiritual desires like “I want God,” “I want to be elevated to the state of Brahman,” these are desires that ultimately will push you there. These desires will ultimately yield the results, the results that do not bind you; it will free you. These are the freeing results of the desire. And the desires of this world, the mundane desires which are binding, will hold you back. These two are the same thing; action and the desires, everything is necessary, but where you put, when, why, how, that’s more important. That’s what you learn in Karma Yoga. When you refine yourself, your heart will become pure, body becomes pure, senses become pure; you’ll become nothing but purity itself. Then, you are ready to feel it with that Wisdom, the Cream of all this. What is that? Wisdom. Every action that you do will result in the Knowledge. Ultimately, the final product of all this knowledge is Wisdom. It is that knowledge which Sankhyas utilize and you’ll become a Sankhyist later.
    So thus, you’ll become; there’s no difference between Sankhyas and Karmis and it’s only ignorance that prompts us to see differently. Ultimately, they are the same and the process is the same and the purpose is the same and the result is also the same, achievement is the same. Don’t distinguish; though they look different, they are not different.
    Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Buddhi Yoga, Sankhya and Karma are the same. One should not be neglected by the other. Long time ago, I heard this story. There was one fisherman by the banks of Ganges. All that he did was, he woke up in the morning, worked hard and in the evening took a bath, went to the temple, then bought things from his daily earnings, went home and gave it to wife. Wife and children were happy because he brought some things home; the wife cooked them, all ate and then went to sleep. Once again in the morning he got up, took the name of God. He had a boat. His main business was to take the people across the river, from one bank to the other for a small remuneration. That’s all he did; in those days, it was sufficient. So once there was a flood, and there was a professor who was visiting the town, and he wanted to go across the river. It was evening and it was almost time for this fisherman to go home, but the professor said, “I’ll give you this much money; can you take me across?” The boatman said, “It is flooding, it is almost evening and it is time to go home.” “Ah come on, come on; take me.” He said, “If you like I will try.” Then in midstream, the boat started leaking. Meanwhile, right from the beginning, the professor was boring. He was asking him, “How old are you? How many children do you have? Who are your parents? From where did you come? Did you go to school? Which school did you go to? How far did you get in reading?” He said, “I never went to school. I never did; I served my father. He taught me how to do all these things; that’s all I did. That is all I am doing, so I’ve a number of children and I’m feeding and taking care of them.” “Ah, I see,” the professor said, “If you did not go to school, half of your life is lost, gone.” So, the boatman heard, was thinking, “Yes, maybe.” Then in the midstream, when the boat started leaking, he said to the professor, “Sir, you have been teaching all the time, right?” “Yes.” “So, you went to all the good schools and all that, beautiful schools?” “Yes.” “Now it is a question of life and death. Did you ever learn swimming?” He said, “Why? No.” “Then I feel your whole life is lost.” So, he jumped and swam across. Sankhya, all that he did was, learning; that’s all. The boatman did everything without knowing; he was learning something which could save him. So, that was necessary. We should learn; at the same time, we should know how to swim. Thank you.






BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 34

    We have been discussing about the knowledge, knowledge that redeems us and frees us from the bondage. What is bondage anyway? Bondage is the lack of knowledge of the reality; this ignorance causes us all the problems in our lives. That’s why we call it a bondage.
    Ignorance holds you in bondage. If you want to be free, you should get rid of this bondage; bondage being ignorance. What is that which removes the ignorance? Knowledge, understanding about the bondage; experiencing it: not merely talking about the truth, not merely knowing the truth, but experiencing the truth. The knowledge that you establish on your own, by experiencing the truth first hand, that knowledge alone can free you.
    Often as I tell you, if I say you are God, I can see you as God. To you, you are not God; to me, you are God because I see God in you. Unless you realize that you are what you are, until then, no matter even if God comes and tells you, “You are God,” you will never believe me, my friend.
    So, everything should be your first hand experience. That’s the whole problem. Many of you are faithful or religious or skeptical. Maybe you are, maybe you may not be religious, but none of you are skeptical; still, there’s a degree of not understanding the truth. Even if people say that you are what you are, you are not prepared to accept it because you have not experienced it by yourself. That’s what the yoga does; yoga helps you experience that truth by yourself. This you will not understand by your own self; you will not understand until you cleanse, until you clean your reflector, the heart. The heart is the reflector. It must reflect on your heart, heart in the sense of the mind, the intellect, you accept; that’s what it is. Many times when we say heart, it is the intellect; it is the mind also; it should reflect.
    Far deep within you, you know. If I say you are God, “Yes, I think so.” What is that which brings in the doubt? It is the intellect; intellect is the property of the mind. And the mind being the house of ignorance, the intellect being the product of mind is also ignorance.
    See, the technology, is it ignorance? Product is all right, but the result of all the technology is what? Technology, a product of the intellect, is good; the result is what? Ignorance. It is that, the intellect, that should be convinced. When will it happen? It should be cleaned, be devoid of those doubts and all that. That’s the reason why there’s a process.
    The ancient ones who experienced the self by themselves have come out. They have given us every detail as to how we should clean our hearts and minds by the practice of Karma Yoga slowly and steadily. Identify yourself, not only yourself, work, utilize all the faculties that are endowed upon you. The mind, think of good, think of the great ideals and let it bring forth the happiness and joy. The legs, do the walking to the great places where you can touch, where you can walk through the places and enjoy, experience.
    People are part of the Nature. As the physic has the Nature, as the product of the Nature, it has its own nature. You have your own nature; you being the light, you being that consciousness, you being that soul. So, you identify yourself with that; wherever there is an opening for you to realize, experience.
    Only when there is a shield, you cannot accept; you cannot reach. Many of you have experienced it, but you do not know. It happens in the absence of the mind, in the absence of all the other faculties. “When it is dark, when it is dead of night for all the others, for a yogi it is waking state. When it is waking state for all the others, the yogi goes into deep sleep.” What does it mean? All the other faculties like the mind and the hands and all these things when active, you are diverted; your attention is diverted, there’s no time to reflect upon yourself. In the deep sleep, what happens is that everything is relaxed, everything is gone into deep recess. At that time, you are free for yourself; you travel. We call, we talk about astral travel and space travel and all kinds of things. How many of you have not done that? You do not know you have done that. In the morning when you wake up you have a new experience, “Oh! I feel something great. Oh! I feel something.” What made you feel that great? Without your own knowing, you are capable; you are. For that moment, you are dead. You don’t have body, you don’t have the mind, you don’t have senses, you don’t have anything; all that you have is yourself. You identify your self with the whole thing. No Nature can bind you, no nothing, nothing; you are free. At that time you experience many things. There’s no place where you cannot go. There’s nothing that you cannot do; you are free. And once again, as out of your own will, you have bothered to enter into this world; you have a mission charted out for yourself. So, you have to fulfill, so you have to come back.
    Again in the morning, when the sun shines, sometimes before the sun shines, sometimes even after midday, people wake up and slowly they experience, and when they come back after that experience, it influences even the grossest inert body, mind and all the senses; they also feel something. They also enjoy, experience without telling, without knowing because they cannot know. Your very presence after having experienced has brought them joy, that’s what it is. When you feel, “Oh! I feel great, I feel something strange, I don’t know what.” What? Mind cannot know; these things happen beyond the reach of the mind. That’s the reason why mind cannot know; since mind cannot know, your intellect cannot interpret because of its incapacity to interpret. You will never know. You cannot tell others. That’s the whole problem.
    In order to experience all these things directly, what happens in a state like that, a yogi experiences at his or her own will consciously. All these things happen unconsciously, right? Here, the yogi does consciously. He or she is awake, aware, wants to know, wants to experience. So purposely, she or he rests his body, physic, gets out of the physic, the vital, the mental and he or she can see the body, mind, everything; but at the same time, he or she is out of it. Once free from all this, she or he can expand herself or himself into anything. They experience, know the reality, understand. Sometimes he or she is completely absorbed there, doesn’t want to come back into the body. Body stays for a while; after all it has it’s own limit and it collapses. But sometimes, after all this, maybe after an hour, after ten minutes, maybe after three days, maybe after a month, she or he can come back into the body.
    That’s the reason why these yogis are great teachers. They had a few confidants, students in whom they had confidence. They always used to keep them when they used to meditate. They used to do chores like clean the space, cook. That’s what I did sometimes.
     Did I discuss about yantra and mantra and all that? The symbols that they write, draw and then chant and all that? So what happens, these purify the space and then they sit. Once they sit in a posture there, yogi can leave the body and body is taken care of. So at that time, it is the students who will take care, see that nothing happens when the owner comes back to the house. They take care. Also you should know the vibration, these yantras and mantras, the symbols and all that. (There are of course nowadays, those who write anything anywhere, talk, write books. They go to India and talk to some Tom, Dick and Harry and come back and write a book and sell. It is a best seller confusing everybody. These snakes and all these things did not know what it is.) So during that time, since he is not there, who will take care? I have seen, when you make that mandala, the creatures go round but they don’t go inside. You put some of the things and then do that and they don’t even touch; they don’t go. It is that vibration; we do not know.
    Especially this occultism is a thing that we have not been able to understand. It is a tremendous force, it is a force of the Nature, natural force that is hidden that we have not been able to explore. It is the force of the Nature. Anything that happens within the Nature, it is the force of the Nature that happens. It is the Nature which can bind, it is the Nature which can redeem it. So, it creates that particular force in the Nature, not to hurt. And there’s the Nature, same occultism, that can hurt. It can make the same force hurt; both the things are there. So especially the yogi knows the subtleties of the Nature, invokes that particular force and invites it to take care and then he or she establishes, keeps the body and then moves out for three days, four days. So all these things happen; it’s a process.
    The purpose of all this is to gain that Knowledge. Ultimate Knowledge is what? To know what I am, who am I? We are all suffering from Alzheimer; we do not know what we are. We do not know our address, we do not know our kith and kin; we are wandering here in this world. Only yogis know; its only those people, few people who do not suffer from this disease, Spiritual Alzheimer. So, this is the ultimate knowledge; it is to know who you are, “What am I? Who am I?” The answer for this is the Knowledge. It is that Knowledge which takes you beyond, far beyond from where you’ll not return any more.
    But at the same time, this is the karma, actions, which will provide all this knowledge; unless you act, you will not know. How can you experience without action? You have to involve. You have to involve in the action and it is ultimately the action that gives you the experience. It is the experience which gives you the knowledge and it happens both ways. And as earlier it was told, there are two things which prompts to accumulate this jnana; one is if you have a desire and in order to fulfill your desire, you act. Just like invoking all the other demi-Gods, “I want, I am a poor man, I want to help; there is somebody who can give me wealth. They have said that this is a particular force in the Nature which can give me the wealth. So in order to please the demi god, I do some karma.” That’s also karma; that is also an action. That’s the reason why, when your actions are bound or prompted by the desire, then it will have a lesser force and it doesn’t lead you to that Knowledge; it is limited. Also, you do virtuous things according to the religion, your own religions; they say, “Do this, do that, do this, do that.” What will it do? If you do all this, you’ll be nice, be good, do good, be kind, be compassionate, all these things. What does it help? It will take you to heavens. That’s also good, but ultimately what is there? Once you have enjoyed that, there’s no suffering there; there’s suffering here. You don’t want to suffer so you go there, you enjoy. Instead of being here you go to Hawaii and after ten days you’ll be back here. That’s what happens from heaven. They’ll kick you out after the visa period is over, “Show me your passport sir. You are done; you are overstaying here.” One kick and you’re back here searching for your house, searching for your wife, children, everything. So you have to start again; be good, do good, be kind, be compassionate, again go and come back. So, this is also action.
     So, you have done, and after having done all these things for lives together, you will come to know, “Oh no, I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to go to heaven.” Do you want to go to heaven? Those who have returned may not know that they have been there, but there is an inkling. “No, I’m not interested in heaven; I’m not interested in this. That what I am, I want to know; I want to know what this ultimately is. I’m confused. I don’t want to go anywhere. I don’t want this; I don’t want that. All that I want is answers to some questions in me that I have been trying to find an answer to.” That is the result of having gone through all these experiences indirectly; unconsciously, you do not want them anymore not because you have not experienced. You have experienced the knowledge of which has brought you to this, “No, I don’t want any of these things now. I want to know what I am, who I am, what is the reality, what is the truth.” It doesn’t matter; you are prepared to suffer. You are prepared to do this, you don’t want to avoid anything and will jump into that. That’s what the yogi does.
    Yogi doesn’t seek. That’s the reason why these yogis do not do all those things that are said you should do: get up in the morning, do the oblations and the fire ceremony. They may not do it because they don’t seek anything. These are all for those people who are desirous of some fruits, that’s all. But, they don’t care. That’s the reason why even the demi-Gods come to serve these yogis. Yogis know better than these demi-Gods. They do not know. Just like the President may not know it is the secretary who has to tell him what it is and then he will sign. The secretaries and the servants know more than the Lord. That’s what it is. These demi-Gods are asked to take care of their own things. You offer in prayer what you want. If they are pleased, your desire is fulfilled. They do not know; they cannot recognize. Even if God comes, they cannot recognize they have not seen. So that’s the reason why even those demi-Gods, ultimately, after their term is over, become human beings; they have to evolve like a human being and then come up. It’s only here they can do all these things, not otherwise.
    In heaven, what can you expect, what yogi will go there? There are night clubs, there are picnics, there are pageantries; that’s what it is. That’s why some want to go, but yogis don’t want to go there; they don’t care. They have known about all that and they do not interest them any more.
     So in order to reflect this, they have to cleanse. Who will do that? One who has seen, who has involved in oneself, who has identified oneself with oneself and lives in oneself, not extrovert but introvert. It is they alone who can experience the Divinity, experience the reality, experience the truth. It is that Experience, it is that Knowledge which will free them; once they are gone, they are gone. They will never come back. They need not come back unless they choose.
    This Knowledge is important. In order to achieve this Knowledge only, you have to do karma. That karma will not bind if you do not have any desire: desireless. Desire and the selfishness — the desire and that egoism, ego, me and mine — it is this combination that keeps you away from experience. Though you do karma, though you do pray, meditate, everything, “Oh! I meditated for an hour. Oh! I meditated on this. Oh! I meditated  on that. I! I! I! I!” In the absence of that “I”, everything will be fine. It is so subtle, that ego. Once you develop ego, ego ultimately produces that desire. Ego wants the desire. Desire craves and the ego wants to fulfill. It is in between them that the actions happen so it doesn’t give the knowledge that is necessary. But the same knowledge, the same action, activities that you undertake, without ego and without any desire, only action for the sake of the action and witnessing the results, is the knowledge. This other knowledge is sold. Though you act, if you attach your ego and the desire, you are selling that knowledge, beautiful cream that comes out of that activity; it is sold for this fulfillment of your petty desires. What did he give up?
    God also works. Atman is within the Nature. We say, “God did this, God did that.” Does God do that? No. But, still God works through the Nature. Whether you do through the Nature or whatever it is, these karmas, these actions should bind Him. Does it bind Him? No. Why? Whatever is done, it is done. He doesn’t claim responsibility because there’s no ego, there’s no selfishness, there’s no desire, there’s no fulfillment. Action for the sake of the action, that’s all. That’s the reason why He has not come under our judgment. He’s free. Krishna and Jesus, all these people, entered into this life and did many things. These actions should have prompted many things. No, they are free. They didn’t do it for themselves; they didn’t do it with any desire.
    As we have discussed earlier, once you have fallen into the Nature, you are the property there of the Nature; Nature can work through you. So, Nature works through you. As long as you are in the hands of the Nature, Nature works through you, it’s all right. But the moment that you attach that “me”, you take that and then you are in trouble. If not, you are free in spite of actions; nothing bothers you. Nature works through us, whether you are a yogi, whether you are a saint or a sage or a thief, good or bad, whatever it is. You are the property of the Nature once you are here. It is that ego that brings all the problems. Let your ego go spontaneously, then you are free because the results are not yours. You keep on doing what the Nature does through you. Offer, “This is body’s, but me, my soul, is not Nature’s. I am the boss.” Far deep within your consciousness, it is free from the Nature; it is free from anything. But, because you have chosen to be in the body, and since the body is the property of the Nature, and since you identify yourself with the body, mind and all these things which belong to the Nature, you think you are also under the thumb of the Nature. So, you are doing everything strangely; that’s the whole thing.
    It is that knowledge which we have to understand now. In order to understand this, we have to cleanse our heart. The way, the means by which only we can understand is to be clean so that we could see our selves, the God, the truth; whatever you call it, it should reflect. These activities are necessary in order to do this. Those who have already done them are called the wise people. Those who have done don’t do the work, don’t do what yogis do because they’ve already completed it. Them we see; we have not seen them doing, so we say, “Oh! It is good, how come, how come these people are not doing in order to achieve the same place.” Yogis are doing work, working hard, and these people are sitting there just talking about it, meditation and do this do this and do that. They are not even bothering about the world. There is an earthquake in Turkey and all that; it doesn’t bother them. There is going to be six billion people by 2015. It doesn’t bother them. Nothing bothers them because they know the Truth. For us, it is something; for them, it is nothing because it is a projection of the same thing. It is a ray of the sun, and when the sun goes, the rays also will be withdrawn, that’s all. We are only seeing these rays; it is only the projection. They know it is just a projection and one day or the other this projection will have to end in it’s own way, “So why should I worry? It is not my worry. Even I am dying, even this body is going like all the other bodies, and the world is going like all the other worlds are going and everything else. But the center point is Me. What am I? I am That Who is beyond the death and the birth. I am That which is Nothing. I am beyond dualities, beyond the pain, sorrow and happiness. Nothing can touch Me. I am That particular consciousness, particular Divinity, an iota of that Divinity spread all over.”
    In order to experience this, they are struggling; it is that. They have known, but now they want to establish themselves there in that particular phase. That’s what they are struggling for; that’s the reason why they don’t do all these karmas. So ultimately, it is the knowledge which has led them to that place and it is these people, yogis, who are doing this. They will also be led to that place. Ultimately, these are the two sides of the same coin; they will ultimately lead everyone to the same thing.
    So, we should involve; we should do this. It is a training center. This is the beginning and that is the end; both are the same. Those who have established themselves in themselves by knowledge, by experience, don’t distinguish between anything. When they talk about pundit, not the newscasters who are pundits; pundit means one who has the knowledge of the Divine. Those who have the Divine knowledge and are established wisely, don’t distinguish. They see in the elephant; they don’t see the elephant. They see that Atman, that Light; they see the Divinity. They don’t see the dirt as dirt; they see the Divinity that manifests within it. It is not dirt; dirt cannot be dirt without that, so they see that. The dog and the tree, whatever it is, they don’t see; they see what makes them be, but they are the same thing, as I told you. The thread that holds all kinds of Beings, that’s what they see; they see the thread holding all these things. That’s the sign of a saint, of a wise man, who does not distinguish between anything.
    That is the ultimate goal, ultimate establishment of one’s wisdom; it is to seek that. Everyone consciously or unconsciously is struggling. The religions are talking about it, knowing or unknowingly; the ancient people have talked about it and they wanted us to realize that too but we are confused. There are too many broadcasts about this; that’s the reason why we’re confused. That’s the reason why we have to go beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. Everything we are trying to understand from the intellectual point of view, we have to give up and let the intuition work; rise yourself beyond the intellect and get into that intuitional plane. It is there even an uneducated person can feel and enjoy the supreme Divine Consciousness, whereas a multi-graduate, multi-master degrees cannot take you there. It is the intellect that’s helpful in the beginning, but it is the same thing that will choke you later; it will hold you on.
    Don’t try to be attached to your intellect. You are smart, you are good, have a four point zero grade average and everything’s all right, but forget about it. Go a step beyond. That’s the region of the intuition from where you can see wisdom, beautiful vista; it is a vista point. Even mind cannot understand what you see there, what you do there. It’s a beautiful thing.
    That’s where ultimately the yogis go. Yogis do not try to intellectualize everything; they intuitionalize. That’s the reason why these people saw the supramental force; they saw beyond. We cannot even understand what supramental force is because we cannot see; the mind cannot see unless it is forsaken or open completely to the intuition. When the intuition takes over our being, then it is possible to follow the understanding of the supramental and you will be the recipient of that supramental consciousness. So all these things we have to work out in order to do this. Whether you are a Karma Yogi or a Jnana Yogi seeking after knowledge, it is the purpose of both of them. In order to get that knowledge, you have to experience; in order to experience, you have to have meditation. That’s what they say.
    In the end of this chapter, Krishna says what we have been doing. He says, “Bring your eyes closer to the spot between the eyebrows and the root of the nose, and control your breath; make it rhythmic.” That’s what I have been telling you all through while guiding you into meditation. What happens is, if you do not have rhythmic breathing, you cannot concentrate; mind wavers. It is the mind that is important to us, now in the beginning. So for meditation, this is the background; that’s what it says. Controlling the breath, breath control, breathing, it must be rhythmic, slow and steady. It should flow through both the nostrils in order to achieve the stillness of the mind. It’s only when the stillness of the mind is established, can you then go beyond the mind. When the mind is moving, you cannot pass through it. The mind is moving so fast, you cannot pass through; so, kill the mind, still the mind, whatever it is, then you can go. Then, it is achieved by bringing both the eyeballs together at the spot between the eyebrows and the root of the nose here; they call it third eye. There’s a small speck of light some can see or locate and some may not be able to do so; concentrate there. That will be the gateway to go into and then go through your mind and everything. You go beyond, and you forget about your body, mind, everything, completely. Maybe, depending upon you, your capacity, for an hour or ten minutes, even for a few seconds, it doesn’t matter; you feel the change. You experience it. One jolt is what is necessary. That’s what Ramakrishna Paramahansa gave Vivekananda. He could not see his head. “Where's my head? Where is my head?” “Head is gone.” Just a taste, that’s what happens.
    In meditation, first jolt, many people cannot bare it; the moment that a wave comes, they open their eyes and they look at everybody, where they’re all closing their eyes and they cannot close their eyes back. They’re afraid because it’s too much for them. They have been engrossed in the mind so much that they do not know anything; they do not want to experience anything. That’s the reason why they suffer. In meditation, you have to be bold enough also. If you can go beyond. Go beyond; it’s all right. What happens at the most, even I am going to die anyway tomorrow. In this process if I die, it is good; who cares? Somebody will throw away my body if it starts smelling bad. They will take care of it. Why should I worry?
    So, that’s the end of this chapter. This is the way in which you can experience the Brahman. Once you experience this, then you always try to go there. And one who is fond of drinking, he always establishes his contact with that bar and he’s always there. He leaves the work early and goes to the bar. You see, because he enjoys it there. That’s what happens; it’s an intoxication. Spiritual aspect is the greatest intoxication, Divine intoxication. Once you enjoy it, you want to stay there, you want to go there; you’ll feel like doing that. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 35

    The saint who is established in himself or herself is the wise one who has realized what he or she is: that Supreme Consciousness that is Brahman. Brahman is the supreme consciousness. This reality, that which is never born and never dies, that is always eternal, truth, reality, whatever you call it. That is in what one establishes oneself; he or she becomes that. He or she exercises equal vision; he or she doesn’t see anything other than Brahman. He or she is Brahman. In what he or she has established himself or herself is Brahman, what he or she sees is Brahman; everything is Brahman, so he or she sees nothing except that. He or she has that vision that sees only That. The rest of the things, now that he or she doesn’t see, but even if he or she sees, he or she neglects it because it is not reality. It is superimposition, so he or she removes all that superimposition automatically. His or her vision is such as to remove all that and penetrate through them and see only reality. That’s the reason why, when he or she establishes himself or herself in that, he or she sees no difference between anything: between an elephant, dog, brahmin, lawyer, American, Indian. There’s no distinction; everything is the same. He or she passes through everything, upholding everything like the thread holding on all the flowers sewn into a garland.
    So, when you have the vision to see that one single thing pass through all these things, then you lift the whole thing; everything is the same. Everything that upholds everything is the truth, the Brahman; so, he see’s only the Brahman and rest of the things as a superimposition upon the Brahman like cast, shape, color, time, space, cause, changing elements, . . . everything. It’s all superimposition on that Brahman, on that Consciousness, on that Supreme Reality.
    So once one establishes in that state, highest state of equal vision, then there is no difference between anything. That’s the reason why people cannot judge them, people cannot behold them, cannot see them, understand them. They talk in a different way, they act differently because the way in which they behold is hard to see. They talk about one which is in harmony. What he is experiencing we cannot understand because he’s experiencing something. He has established himself elsewhere. We call them mad, call them this, and that. Those people who know, at least some enlightened people, they respect them; in spite of their craziness, they respect them because they know that it is of their being in the highest state that we cannot understand.
    So intellectually, it is impossible to understand that state; that’s the reason why they worship them. Not only do they not call them crazy, but they try to worship them because it is their grace, without which the worshipers cannot reach that state too. It is something that their mind cannot understand and they know this much. That is a good beginning. So others either follow them or hate them; the wise don’t care because it doesn’t touch them. They are so high, nothing can affect them; they are beyond the reach of any of these unrealities within which we are living. The unreality we have taken as reality where I am happy, then next moment I am unhappy, caught in the web of duality.
    In order to understand this, an amount of confusion is necessary. We cannot understand all things only by the instrument of intellect, by reading books. Nevertheless, reading books will help to find, to sharpen our intellect into that reality; still, intellect fails. We need a little bit of intuition and intuitive knowledge, and only then can we start realizing. Intuitive faculty doesn’t function as long as we block it by depending more and more on our intellect. Intellect will have to end; stretch it and take it to the zenith, this far and no further and then you will know the end of intellect has come. Intellect cannot solve; when you will realize the weakness of the intellect, then you start depending only on the intuition. Then you will rise beyond the intellect; you don’t depend on the intellect any more then. Not that you don’t use your intellect, because in the beginning stages, you need intellect in order digest things, how to discriminate; if you do not have intellect you cannot discriminate. So from that point, it is necessary; intellect is a necessary instrument for particular time frame and for a particular purpose. Once it is achieved, then you have to depend on only the intuition. Once you start exercising that intuitive faculty, then the product is wisdom. You will reach a different height altogether from where you take off so fast, you’ll fly all over. Then you’ll start understanding things in the right perspective.
 




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 36

    We were discussing about actions and their necessity. Activities are necessary, wherever it is, whatever the purpose; in order to achieve the end of the purpose, it becomes essential that we have to act. We also discussed the same action prompted by the desire, attachment, will be different from the actions which are not prompted by them. There’s the whole trick here; the same action can either bind you or release you. When the actions are prompted by the desires, attachment, the actions will become binding. The results are expected to be enjoyed by you whether good, bad, ugly, or whatever it is. Those are the unconscious efforts that you are making. On one side, we are struggling to get rid of this bondage; at the same time, we are doing all kinds of actions which are binding us. Many times, while in an attempt to be freer from the bondage of the rope that is tied around us, in the process, since we do not know, we’ll be tying ourselves tighter and tighter and tighter. That’s what is happening in our unconscious actions.
    So, we should know; we should start with karma, which is action. We should learn how to do actions without the desire and without expectation of the results, the fruits for those actions. And the understanding, the knowledge part of it, the wise knowledge that nobody can withhold actions being prompted by the Nature. Let the Nature do Her work since the body, the senses, the mind belong to the Nature; everything belongs to the Nature except me. Nature belongs to me, but everything else belongs to the Nature.
    What happens is, we have to understand this much, that no matter what we do here, once we are committed into this world, we have taken upon ourselves this birth, this body, senses and all these things. There ought to be actions; there will be actions. Nobody can stop because it is the nature of the Nature to force everything to function, so they are functioning. But, we are a witness; we are there, but you are not involved. You are deep within the being that is what makes the whole body, mind and senses all exist and function. In your absence, even the Nature cannot do anything there. If you are there, the Nature acts there. If you are not there, even the Nature discards this. Then, the other natural things will happen; the body decays and all those things happen. That’s also a process of the same nature.
    The Nature that prompts you to act while you are living is different from the Nature which works after your departure. There’s a different aspect. Here, Nature respects you. Nature recognizes you; you are there. That’s the reason why Nature prompts every part of your body, mind and vital to act. That’s necessary, but only thing is, as long as you are a witness and see these gladiators in the arena, you are all right. The moment that you jump in, then you are bitten. So long as the slaves fight, the lions in the arenas, it’s all right. The moment that you jump in, then you are bitten; that’s why you are crying. “Oh I am suffering, I am this, I am that.” You are identifying yourself and involving in those actions; so naturally, you have to enjoy the results of your actions.
    So what yogi’s do, they do the same thing; they do two things. They assert themselves; they make the body, mind, and the senses know that you are the boss, not they. Slowly they assert and make the mind to function as they want, when they want. They make the vital function as they want, when they want. They make the body function as they want, when they want, so they will have complete assertion, complete control on them. This becomes necessary in the process of karma yoga.
    There are two things, one thing is this assertion, second thing is purificatory process. Actions will lead you to purification of your being. It is necessary before you start meditating. It doesn’t matter how long you close your eyes, how hard you press your eyes. You cannot meditate unless your heart is pure, your mind is pure, is devoid of all kinds of afflictions. Those afflictions that attack, that fill the depressions of the mind and the heart, are purified only by working actively, involving them in the activities without any desire, without any expectation of the fruits, like helping others, serving others. All these things are necessary, but not for recognition, not for the prize, not for any other thing, but for purification of the mind and the senses, the body, everything. Everything necessary has to be purified. The purification process is only Karma Yoga; karma, action, involved in action without any ego, ego, “I am the doer”, “I am doing it”. Also, do not have the subtle part, that is desire. “I am doing this for the sake of this.” No. “I am doing because it is being done.” “I am not doing but it is being done.”
    As I told you earlier, it is the Nature that is functioning; let it function. I don’t know. I do not want to check it, nor do I want to reap any harvest out of that. Let it go. Let the body function, let the eyes see what it wants to see, let the ears hear what they want to, but I am aloof. I don’t want to see what the eye sees, I do not care what ears hear. I do not even care what the mind thinks. I do not want to involve in that. I am sitting here, watching all these things go by without my involvement there. It is necessary.
    Once you achieve this, then you are prepared to sit down for a meditation. What is meditation? Meditation is the suppression of all the activities of everything like physical, mental, and vital. In their absence, in their stillness, you’ll become active and you’ll rise. You’ll rise and you’ll involve yourself in greater self. The drop, trying to reach the ocean, the real source, that’s what happens in meditation. Meditation is not possible unless you purify all the necessary aspects of your being.
    Many times we meditate. By chance, sometimes there’s a split second experience; that’s good. But, you cannot sustain it, retain it, because the mind is filthy, heart is filthy, body is filthy; that’s the reason why it doesn’t last long. You see it going by, but it doesn’t have the retention power. That’s what the meditation should be, retention; what you experience should be retained and build up on that. That is necessary.
    That is not possible. This is what the Fifth Chapter talks about, Jnana Yoga. We must purify and try to sit down, meditate and realize; these are simple factors. But the mind, especially the mind, if you are tired, you can make the body and senses rest, but the mind is so active; it is so active you do not know even how to control it, how to bring rest to the mind. That’s the whole problem.
    So the tactic is this; first, do not fight with the mind. That’s what the mind wants. Like the rebellions do, they want to engage the army, they want to fight. That’s what the mind wants; it wants you to fight with it. You’ll never win anyway, it’s so subtle; do not fight, but you must be a diplomat. You put new thoughts, the thoughts that you want, instead of the mind projecting its thoughts. You project your thoughts into the mind. You can project your own thoughts too; it is not merely the thinking, not merely the product of your mind. Mind thinks; we have subjugated ourselves to the mind. That’s the reason why we have lost the ability to create our own thoughts; so, we go by the thoughts of the mind. Now, we have to distinguish between ourselves and the mind, ourselves and the body, ourselves and the vital.
    Now, in order to control the mind, make the mind understand, you substitute; you keep on substituting the thoughts, one bad thought by another good thought that you want. The thought that perturbs you is replaced by the thought that is pleasant to you. So, you must create your own thought and project, project it into the mind. Mind should accept your thought. Slowly, when you feel it’s your thoughts, when you overwhelm the mind with your thoughts, then the mind succumbs. There’ll be no place for the mind to think. When the mind cannot think by itself, then all the other things, the vital, do not work, do not function and the mind does not control. Mind is supervisor of all this; when the mind doesn’t allow or make these vital function, they don’t function. They become still. Mind is active, but it’s activities are favorable to you. Instead of thinking, “Oh! After meditation, shall we go to that restaurant or get pizza?” Instead of that, you can project your own thought, thought from your Being, good thought. “Let me repeat the name of the Lord instead of pizza. Let me continue what I have enjoyed here, ‘Oh Mind think of this.’” So, keep on thinking of that and slowly it becomes a stream of those thoughts until you enter the mind; mind will succumb. Your pizza is forgotten; even if you pass by a pizza palace, you don’t remember it.
    So thus, what happens is, you’ll be projecting your thoughts into your mind and mind will accept all those thoughts,. Whether it accepts or not, your thoughts are stronger so it will penetrate into the mind and remove all those thoughts that are already there. It is substituted. That will be for a while. Since it is your own thought, you are not perturbed by those thoughts and when you do not entertain even your own thoughts, your mind will slowly empty. Your thoughts have blocked the other thoughts to enter, and it has already pushed all those other thoughts that were there aside for the present and your thoughts are harmonious. They’re what you wanted.
    “Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram.” We sing songs before we meditate and all this. That means the mind will be thinking of Ram and Jesus and Mother and all these things; that mind will be thinking of them and the tune in which we sing, it will be humming that tune and all those things. Mind will be busy with that and when the mind is busy with those things, it is harmonious and helpful; that’s what you want. And, your senses are still; body doesn’t ache. Even if it aches, you don’t feel it because the mind is not there to make you understand the pain. Then, you are free. That’s when you go into deep recesses of your own self.
    Many people think that the enemies are outside themselves. Senses and their objects and causation of the union of these two together are the enemies. We think externally that everything is our enemy. If everything is an enemy to you, how come they are friendly to some others? So this enmity or friendliness is the cause of your own mental attitude.
    There’s no enemy greater than your own self. You’re the enemy of your own self, and there’s no greater friend than yourself. You are the greatest friend of your self. You are God. When you involve in the lower nature, lower mind, that filthy place, while you have an ideal life, you want to reach the spiritual life and all great things, but at the same time the lower mind projects lot of things. They are beyond your control, so they hold you back. The more you want to meditate, the more they try to be detrimental. Vital is a very subtle force. They want to cough. Where are they? Within you! And under who’s control? It is under your control, but you have lost your control. That’s the reason why they are spinning so fast. Thus, they’ve become an enemy. So, you have to decide, “No I do not want this.” You have to deal with the lower nature. You have to create your own will.
    You have lost the will. The will is the product of your higher sense, higher mind. The higher mind should take over the lower mind and remove all those inflictions. Then, there’ll be one mind. When it is one mind, then it is the friendliest; it is harmonious. When I want to meditate, “Yes sir , we’ll keep quiet.” It will help you to meditate. When you want to do certain things, it will help you do good things. All these things will be done.
    So, it is your own. You’re the boss; unless you assert yourself, you cannot control your own. That’s the reason why you call them enemies, because you have lost your control. Exert, assert, bring them under your control, under your will. You have to redeem yourself by your own self. Mind is not going to redeem you, nor the body, nor the senses; they are inert. Because of you, they are there. If you pass away, if you go away, they are called dead. Where is their existence then? There’s no existence for them any more!
    Thus, you must exert in order to redeem your own self. If you think, “Oh my mind is going to help me, mind is going to purify me, my mind is going to uplift me”, forget about it. You have to uplift your mind. You have to uplift your senses and body; it is you, not they. They cannot do it. It is only the self we should try to identify with and rise above all these predicaments: physical, mental and vital involvement. One has to rise above all these things by one’s own effort, by your own effort, by the effort of the self. Self will have to redeem itself because there is nothing there; there’s no other force than the self. Self is the greatest force and which force can help the self? Everything will be helpless. So, you must make your own self redeem your own self. You have to rise by your own efforts; you cannot depend on anything, anybody externally. Neither me nor my father nor your father, neither your mother nor anybody, you don’t depend on any one. They can not help you, but they can inspire you; they can uplift your courage, give impetus, everything, but they cannot redeem you unless you are ready to redeem yourself. They cannot meditate on your behalf. They cannot do things on your behalf, you have to do it by yourself. That’s what the whole thing is. If not, one Sivananda, one Sai Baba, one Rama, one Jesus, one Mother Theresa would have saved the whole world. There would have been heaven here.
    By running to these people, what do we get? We get courage, we get the strength and with the strength we have to work harder ourselves and try to exert in order to take the help they give us. They can only lift you up so much; you have to work out the rest on your own. You cannot expect; as high as their arms rise, they can lift you even if you depend on them. But after that, they cannot lift you any higher; you have to lift yourself up all the way until you reach the pinnacle of life.
    So, don’t depend on anything else. But it doesn’t mean that you should not go to gurus or the temple. All these things are necessary in order to gather the courage, the faith, strength and impetus. All these things are necessary once you realize that you have to look deep within your self. They are within you. All these things will only help turn your gaze within yourself and you’ll realize, you’ll look at yourself and say, “Oh! Yes, I am, I am what I am. I am the strongest, I am the boss, I am here. It is because of me everything is running, so why am I suffering? What am I doing?” It is just to turn your gaze deep within and realize. Once you realize, then you will uplift yourself. You’ll rise slowly, slowly but surely in meditation.
    During meditation, what happens is, your strength will subjugate all these elements, like senses, vital, mental, everything; and at that time, they become quiet and you move. You go deep into yourself, expand yourself. It is the highest; you become one with the Divine. You work out your karmas that you have done. You have to burn it all by your self through Yoga Kriyas automatically. When you do not accumulate anything from the action employed in burning your result of karmas by the extra forces that you employ which can burn away future results, then you’ll be redeemed.
    You can only do that by your own self. You cannot depend on anything, on anybody, anything but your own self. You have to uplift your own self. So long as you think, “Oh, I am just a sinner, I am this, I am that,” all kinds of negativity, you are doomed. No, you are the speck of that, you are the chip of the same old block, the spark of that supreme fire. Realize that. Once you understand it, you will progress well towards redemption.
Thank you very much





 

BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 37

    We were discussing two things, Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga or Dyana Yoga. Dyana means meditation. One is the process of meditation by which we can reach the highest truth and the other one is Karma Yoga which is involved in activities with which we can achieve the same height, same goal. That’s what we were discussing.
    Though they appear to be different, they are not; each one compliments the other. One is the internal process; meditation is an internal process. And the other one is an external process. Since we are all extroverts, we have to work outside in order to go inside; you see, that’s the process. We have to prepare ourselves before we march towards the goal. That is the process by which we start externally and then enter into the internal process.
    Ultimately, everything will have to lead into Dyana. Constantly, if you are working on one thing, you’ll be concentrating, you’ll be working; you’ll become one with that work. You do not know anything other than what you are doing. Even if something happens, you’ll never know because you are so much engrossed in it. You and your work will become one with it, and that oneness is what is necessary there. Ultimately, it is the same process inside; you identify yourself with yourself. Because we are all under the grip of this mind, the body and the senses, they are all extrovert. It is very hard because for ages together we have been involved in the extrovert moment. We have commanded, guided, everything by the mind, senses and the body. So, we are engrossed there; we cannot think anything other than that. That’s the reason why, whether you talk about philosophy, science and other things, everything, then you see how extrovert it is. The knowledge is all right. It is all extrovert, concerned with all the extrovert. That is the reason why when you go deep inside and bring out your experiences and talk about introvert experiences, the people who are involved in the extrovert cannot understand. There is always a confusion; they want to compare their experience in the extrovert world with the experiences that you undergo introvertly. When you try to compare, there is no comparison.
    So, that’s the reason why people are confused whether there is God or not. “If there is God, why did we not see Him or Her or It? What is there to see when there is no God? What are we to see anyway?” So, all these things are happening and that’s the reason why we say, “We have one life to lead, come on enjoy, experience, whatever you want to, die, that’s all. Once you are dead, you are gone.” That’s what the shortsighted people think because they are influenced by the extrovert elements.
    So, your activities start with the extrovert, where you are. You have to start walking on a pilgrimage when you have to go to Badri or Kadar or the Vatican or wherever; you have to start from where you are. That is, wherever you are, that is the starting point; you have to start there. So, karma yoga starts there because you are there in the extrovert world. Start working out from external world; try to see, physically involving in the vital, mental and physical arena. Try to grasp things and you will understand after a long time that it is futile to work through them. You are not interested; you’ll be disinterested, you’ll be disgusted. Then, you’ll take a right about turn, and then you’ll have no desire for that because you lose the desire to live in this extrovert world. That prompting is done by the desire that can’t be fulfilled to the utmost. It is not merely the desire, but it is the quality of the desire, desire for which you desire. The sensual objects, you have eyes, and you want to see only beautiful things. You want to hear only the beautiful music; you want to hear the music which thrills you and you want to do things that makes your body feel comfortable. All these things are all the desires prompted by the needs of your physical, mental or vital, but still you remain constantly unfulfilled.
    When you compare, you have desire also when you go internally. In Dyana also, what do you do? “What do I want to meditate for? What do I meditate on? Why? I want God. I want to realize the Self. I want to know.” These are the things, right? That’s also desire. But the quality of desire, desires are the same things — desire is a desire, is a desire. But of what you desire is important. If you start desiring for the other things, it is binding; the other desire is unbinding. That’s the whole difference. So, unless you are tied completely, and you are suffocated, you will not realize. It is only at that time, “Oh boy! I’m tied. No, I want to get rid of it.” Then, that day the eyes will open. Then, you will start becoming desireless of anything; even desiring for nothing itself is a desire, but still that nothing is important.
    Then, you will start marching. Then, what is the sign of that? Sannyasa. When you come, “Oh! I’m becoming a monk.” Oh! I’m becoming a recluse. I’m not interested in this world. I’m not interested in the society. I’m not interested in politics. I’m not interested in money. I’m not interested in this, no, no, no, no, no. All this, I don’t want, I don’t need.” That is sannyasa. Sannyasa means giving up all the desires. Giving up the desire for either worldly or non-worldly things, whether it is physical, mental or vital, whatever it is, you must give up; so, you start thinking of giving up. When that sense arises, then you naturally give up. You need not make a big ceremony, “Oh! I’m becoming a monk. Oh! I’m doing this. Oh! I’m giving up...” That is ego. “Oh! I’m giving up; I’m becoming a monk.”
    I told you when I became a monk, all the ego came out to attack me. I realized, “Oh! my goodness.” At least, I was humble when I was not a monk. But once I became a monk, I wanted people to salute me, respect me, serve me, instead of me serving; all these things happened. Oh! That opened my eyes too.
    So, what happens is then you become a sannyasi. Sannyasi means giving up all the desires for the worldliness.; you don’t want. Even the death, if it comes, “All right, I don’t want to save myself; it’s all right.” But, I need to know myself. What is it? What is the truth? Then, you become introvert. You have experienced the world, you have known them all well and you have given them up. Then, you have nothing to do with the external world.
    Karma Yoga leads you to that extent. Slowly, steadily, like a mother, it will guide you through. “You want to do this? All right, do this, but have this. You are doing for the sake of the people; you are doing it for the sake of this and that. You are doing it because of God. You are doing this, so get up early in the morning, keep yourself clean, think of good things, All these things.” Karma Yoga tells you, “Eat

good food, put on comfortable clothing and go where you are welcome; don’t go where you are not welcome.”
    All these things, Karma Yoga tells you. It purifies the physical, mental and vital aspects of your being; it prepares you. Karma Yoga does nothing but prepares you for this sannyasa. It will give you experience without any pain. Did you know, it keeps you alert so that you will know? You do the same thing as you always do, but karma Yoga makes you alert and know; it takes away the ego. It makes you humble, so that you can see, because it removes that binding ego and makes you see things as they are. That is important for us to know, “Oh! it’s all right. It’s all futile in this world so let me turn inwards.” That’s what Karma Yoga does, but with all the understanding, with the full experience when you turn towards the inside giving up all the other things that you renounce; you become a renunciate.
    It’s a natural process; Karma Yoga leads you to that renunciation. It will make you renounce everything because you have no interest. You have understood it is futile to work for that, but not according to the religion, according to whatever it is, not giving up your daily routine. Just because you give away your daily routine of offering oblation and all those things, whatever the demand of your religion is, giving up your duties, bounden duties; you are bound to do certain things. “Oh! because I have renounced, I am a sannyasi.” So, if you try to kick the stone, what will happen? You will break your leg. Just because you have renounced, it doesn't mean that you can do and undo things. No. You must continue to do things that are bounden duties: offering oblations or praying to God, singing the name of God, or helping others. All these things should continue, but you have understood through Karma Yoga that ego is the center of all the problem. Here, by the time you realize, you’ll become humble. And desirelessness, when there’s no desire, there’s no ego. In the absence of all these things, whatever you do, it will be beautiful. Whatever you will do, it will be fructified, but you’ll not claim the doership. You’ll not do; you’ll not have that sense of enjoyer, enjoyment. You’ll just do it, do it, that’s all. Because you have the body, you have the mind and you still have the senses, so you have to utilize them, use them as the last installment of payment to this Nature. Keep on doing it; you have to do it, but with the wise knowledge that you are neither the doer nor the enjoyer.
    Just because you give up your worship, give up your offering oblations in the fire and all these things, it doesn’t mean that putting on a garb makes you a recluse. It doesn’t make you a renunciate. Renunciation should come from within; it is a color of the inside, not the outside. There are so many people who are greater renunciates. I have seen; it is my own experience. I’m not commenting on anybody else. A person who could not even have been comfortable in this life, once he thinks that he’s a renunciate, announces he is a renunciate, puts on the garb and goes around, people respect, people love. So, he takes the undue advantage of it and becomes more comfortable. Whereas he cannot even find a job for a minimum wage, now he’ll be having air conditioning, a big house, few secretaries and all that. You are not worthy of that because, “Oh! I am a renunciate; that’s why I have all these things.” No.
    In my own ashram, I tell you there were swamis who wanted air conditioning. They have air conditioner; we are a poor country. And the rules for the sannyasa, the swamis are, you should wait until 12:00 o’clock to go out for begging because by that time everybody has eaten. Children have eaten; everybody has eaten and lady has also eaten. So if there is anything left over, they give it you; it doesn’t hurt anybody. At that time when you go, you must go to three houses, three or four houses, five houses, something like that. You collect whatever they give and go to the river. Make three parts; one for the bhutas, one for the creatures that live in the water and the third part is only for you. And that too you cannot distinguish, “Ah, this is nice salty food; it is hot.” No. They say you must put it in water three times and remove all the water and then eat whatever it is.
    So, you must not be a burden on the society; you should never be. My master, Swami Sivananda, always when we went out, he used to give a little money, “Take this and don’t pounce upon the devotees who come to the ashram. Who knows their condition? It’s a poor country.” Meaning less money and within that, each one will have five children, the relatives and all that. In addition, if you go, what a burden it will be. You didn’t become a sannyasi to become a burden to somebody. You didn’t want to, not only to yourself, but not to be a burden on society. So, take this money and go to hotel if you’re hungry, eat there and don’t bother anybody.” That’s what Swamiji used to say.
    So, sannyasa means that. You must become renunciate; when it comes from within, it automatically does. You don’t need an air conditioner, you don’t need a big room and you don’t need twenty five secretaries; you need not make a big show of writing so many things. “Oh! I’m writing twenty five books and thirty three hundred and seventy five books.” Why did you do it? Even a writer does the same thing. What is the difference between you and all?
     So, that’s not it. First, start with you; realize yourself. You need not say, “I am the bright sun.” The moment that you come out of the clouds, people realize, “Oh! This is the sun. Oh! Look at the brightness, look at that heat.” You need not announce, “Oh! I am giving you heat, I am . . .” No. You need not write three hundred seventy five books in order to announce that you are a realized yogi.
    We are getting influenced by those yogis whom we do not even recognize. It is their grace; it is their rays of grace that is guiding us today, not your books, not the other things. When you sit for meditation, there are hands of those yogis guiding you. Always, I tell you, they are watching you. If you are sincere, if you are receptive, your receptivity is turned towards that; if you are on that equal wave length, you will get tremendous help, especially in spiritual seeking. No help is forsaken. There’s nobody who is so eager to help you than the yogis. They’re always after you, seeking for those people who are doing it. I told you my experiences in Himalayas. They are more interested in you. They are watching you every time, every action; they are more interested in your progress. They want you to grow, succeed . So your books, don’t worry about it. All those things, it is all right when in Karma Yoga, if you cannot meditate even reading a nice book on God or yogis, that itself is a meditation; but here, when you have done all those things, when you turn inside, then Dyana Yoga starts. You have purified your vital, you have purified your mental and physical; you no more live there, you live far deep within yourself, self. Self seeks the self. So, it is there, everything; all the equipments, paraphernalia that are necessary for you to realize the self, it is all there.
    They are contributory to each other, supplementary to each other; and they’re not different, Karma Yoga and Dyana Yoga. In Dyana Yoga you deal with the mind. Everything is merged in the mind, vital, physical, all these things. It is the mind which controls all that, all these organs. Now, you have to deal with the mind. It is the subtlest thing; in Dyana Yoga, it is only in Dyana Yoga that you have to surpass the influence of the mind. It is there you have to control, in Dyana Yoga that you build your will. Without will, you cannot do anything. The will of the self should be stronger than the will of the mind. That will happen as you go further, grow in strength and self will.

    The other day I was just thinking, when I was talking about the last chapter, when we were talking about the learned man, one who has sought and got that glimpse of the Divinity, one who has become wise. It is he who sees only the thread and not the beads. So, he sees only that great Divinity passing through everything and he realizes and respects and loves that. So, when I was thinking of this, I thought of this Unity Church where we sit together; I’m a Hindu. Of course, I don’t have any Hinduism or Christianity or anything now. Nothing is binding me. I am free. I am like the wind. But anyway, since people call me Swami, it is all right. I am a Hindu and he’s a Mormon, he’s a Jew, another is a Muslim. But we all gather here and we take the name of Ram, we take the name of Buddha, we take the name of Theresa who is a Catholic, all these. In spite of all this, and not only this, earlier when we started, there were Jews who used this place after 11:00 o’clock; they used to have their program here. So, Jews used to come. But still, are we under any restriction? I was just thinking, was there any kind of pressure on us? No, we are free. We feel so comfortable, we feel at home and this is the provision made to us, made to all by these people who created this Unity Church when they created this church with such a beautiful idea. What are they? That’s what Krishna has said to Arjuna in those days. They are the wise people, people who have seen that thread, not the beads. They have seen the divine God in every being. They have seen the one God passing through with so many colors, so many shapes, so many types. So, they have overcome those things, limitations and gone beyond. There’s the wisdom. These are the wise people who have built this church. That’s the reason why we have been comfortable; they are doing it. It is going to grow. They had the vision of that one divinity playing through all diversity
    So, that’s what I was thinking. See, the greatest example is the builder, not only the builder of church construction, not only this building, but the one who founded this very thought; thought has taken shape like this. It is the thought. And not only that, the custodians, those who carry on that thought, they also are beautiful. So, it is a group of wise people coming together to do the God’s work. That’s the reason why we are comfortable here for the last so many years. That’s what I was thinking.
    So, this is what I wanted to talk about, this beautiful organization, Unity Church. And they have left us alone. If you go to India, they don’t allow us, even us into the temple sanctum, sanctorium, or whatever you call it, where we can go up, but further than that we cannot go, and all that. But here, we are free; we come here, sit here; nobody supervises us, nothing. They have that faith, they have that trust, they have belief. All of this is a sign of their wisdom. This is the church of wisdom; they should call it Church of Wisdom and Divine Vision instead of Church of Unity. Whether you call it Church of Unity or Church of Wisdom, it is the same thing for me. So, we all pray for their welfare and the growth of this institution. Let it spread on their wing so that many organizations, small organizations like ours, can fly.
Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 38

    Karma Yoga and Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga is necessary because we are endowed with this beautiful paraphernalia for our own redemption, like the beautiful organization of the body, the mind and the senses. Each one of them can contribute to our progress. And, at the same time, it is they, the set of them, who can pull you down also. So, that’s what we have been discussing.
    Karma Yoga is necessary in order to purify our body, mind and senses, because you do not want to live in a filthy house, do you? Your interior and exterior decorate your house because you want to live comfortably, nicely in the house. It is the same way here. You are living in this house. One who lives in this is the Lord, living in a house, palace, with nine doors. You count all these doors: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine; all these are called doors. In this palace lives the soul, what we call soul, individual spirit.
    So, how does He want to live in this? He wants to live nicely, in a clean body, clean senses, clean mind. The whole problem is, when it starts becoming polluted, then He becomes miserable. That’s what is said. You must uplift yourself by your own self because you are the Lord and there’s no external enemy for you. You are your own enemy. If you let the filth accumulate in your body, senses and mind, which is the lower nature, and if you allow them to influence you, then you are to blame yourself. Why did you allow them? You have to assert yourself. If you establish your right to assert yourself on all these phenomenon and exert and hold all these things under your spell, then you’ll be your own friend because there’s no disturbance; nobody bothers you. If you identify yourself with the body, mind, and senses and involve in them, then the result is pain. Though it appears to be something pleasurable, the end of all the pleasure is the pain; pain comes, and then you start worrying. Who are you to be involving in that? And again, these are the instruments to gain knowledge. You should keep the instruments clean and working if you want to use them for your purpose.
    So, that’s the reason why a yogi is expected to rise beyond this pain and sorrow, pain and pleasure and try to extricate himself or herself from involvement with all this paraphernalia. While one wants to make use of them, one should see to it that all this paraphernalia has no influence over her or him. He or she wants to make use of them for the higher purpose, not the lower purpose. He or she must establish, must assert himself or herself upon all these things so that mind will obey him or her; senses will obey and body will obey. One who has done this is called the yogi who has established in that yoga, Yogarudha, one who has established himself or herself in yoga.
    And once you are established there, you go beyond the dualities; the test of this is that you are beyond what these instruments may cause. You are neither happy when you get Nobel Prize, nor unhappy when people throw stones at you. It is the same, and you don’t distinguish between the gold or the mud; it doesn’t matter. Sri Ramakrishna once went and started throwing all the rock and also gold, and he said, “What, what is that? It is all the same.” They don’t see anything different. That is the understanding of the core Nature in them. On the surface, it looks like glitter; it is gold, it is silver, it is this, it is that, it is pleasure, it is pain and all those things. But far deep within, there’s nothing; it is plain, a plain sheet on which all these three dimensional things are projected. The yogi dives deep inside; once she or he understands that, he or she doesn’t care for that. Since he or she doesn’t entertain them, they don’t bother him or her.
    Most of the time we welcome or entertain or involve in the pleasure and pain. The reason why we undergo these emotions is because we identify ourselves and involve in them. That’s the reason why we suffer.
    Yogi tries to keep away from that involvement and once he or she understands all of this, there are two ways of understanding: Jnana and Vijnana. Jnana is what we read in the books and all that, others attending the lectures and talking to others, and others talking to us and all these things. This is a second and third and fourth hand knowledge, but that’s also necessary because mind has to be freed with that. And then, the final mind will start functioning to discriminate. You must have a beautiful power of discrimination; there’s the mental force. The superior mind, or the topmost cream of mind, will do that work. Ordinary mind, lower mind, the region of the mind when we talk, lower mind always involves with dirty things: confusion, all the pain, pleasure, all these things. When it comes slowly by reading and understanding and all, you feed the mind. Instead of all the dirty things, you fill it with positive and good things, and then it accumulates and the discrimination starts functioning. What is good? What is not good? The mind will start thinking about it. This is necessary for you; for a yogi who seeks involvement with the Brahman or God, the discrimination is one of the qualities, one of the necessities. That’s the reason we have a mind, but what has happened is, those who are not yogis become subservient to the mind, and yogi becomes the master of the mind. From below the mind, the yogi goes above the mind. The mind will be under the yogi’s feet. That’s what happens.
    In the process of Vijnana-knowledge, accumulation of knowledge, the yogi discriminates, “Yes, this is this,” and sorts out the weeds and all those things that are not necessary and collects all the needed things. Then the yogi decides, “Now, this is what it is.” This is vijnana, the cream of knowledge.
    Vijnana is that which you actually experience. The knowledge of which you accumulate is redemption. It is that process that redeems you. The yogi does that; the yogi collects all this information, discriminates and tries to sort out things, weeds out and then tries to think, “What I am going to do. Brahman, God, Atman, Nature, whatever it is.” Now the yogi says, “Nature is good, Nature is bad; Nature is whatever it is. God is; God is not. You are Brahman; you are not Brahman. You are a man; you are not a man. You are divine; you are not divine,” all these things. Some books say that, some people say this, all these things. The yogi collects all this information and sits quiet and allows the mind to process that. And when it comes to the surface, it is the portfolio given to the discriminative power, the topmost power of the topmost layer of the mind, power of discrimination. It discriminates, “No, no, don’t worry about this; this is this. What are you? They say you are not Brahman? You are Brahman; you have to distinguish. No, if you want to know, nobody can give you any definite answer. Come on, go ahead.” Then yogi decides, finds out the way. When the yogi sits in meditation, does Karma Yoga, the mind, body and senses are purified. And these things prepare the self to start experiencing.
    So long as the yogi has to gather all this information, the yogi has to clarify body, mind, and everything. He or she should become receptive; on a dirty tape, you cannot record. The yogi has to cleanse the mind; that’s what a yogi does. Karma Yoga does that. The heart and the mind become purified. Indriyas, the sense organs, become purified, the body becomes purified and then in that process the yogi purifies and is ready to internally dive deep into his or her own self. Then, the meditation starts; without purificatory process externally, you cannot dive deep inside and meditate. You may close your eyes, but you are not meditating. Meditation is a process by which you must experience; you don’t experience. That’s why Karma Yoga is necessary; it’s also a part of yoga. That’s the reason why they tell you that you must be careful if you decide to become a yogi; if you have decided to become interested in experiencing what you are, the reality, then start externally. You are extrovert. Start from there. And you must learn what it is. You have to go to doctor and know what food is good and not good. For nutrition, you go to nutrition expert. You go to doctor, what you should do, how much to exercise. Everything is necessary in order to make your body strong and pure, mind pure, senses pure.
    That’s the reason why in yoga, they have told us what to do, what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat, when not to eat, how to eat, how not to eat, how to sleep, how not to sleep, when to sleep, when not to sleep, how much to sleep, how much not to sleep. All these things, how to sleep, what to do, everything has been told. It is not an easy thing, but once you know it’s easy. That’s what the Vijnana is; you accumulate all the information and then you will dive deep into your Self to experience. You have accumulated knowledge, and now you have to experience what the knowledge has told you. It will confirm that knowledge; the knowledge you have gathered by accumulating experience, when you confirm, is Vijnana. You have confirmed it by your own experience, then it is Vijnana, personal experience. It is that which is more important. If not, everybody said, “I am God, I must be God.” “No,” people said to me, and threw stone at me. Why should they throw stones? Just because somebody has told me I am God, I may or may not be, I must realize what I am. That’s what the yogi does. And only then it is done; it is experienced only through the medium of meditation.
    Meditation is only the process, because you cannot push your body into that experience. You cannot push all these things; it is a subtle passage to which only you can go. That subtle force, you are the subtlest force, and only you can go deep into that. So, you have to squeeze yourself out of all this moment, prepare yourself. And, you should not be static; remove all the distractions, everything, cleanse yourself, become quiet, pure. Once you become pure, devoid of afflictions of the mind, senses, body and all that, then you can dive deep into that.
    How it is done is told in this chapter and often it is said, “This is not possible; yoga is not possible for the people who do not have self-control.” One who eats too much, like French parties, gluttons, whose party lasts for weeks and months, all they’re doing is eat, throw up, come back, eat, throw up, that’s all. They cannot do yoga. So for yoga, food is an essential part. I told you once in Badri, somebody sent me sweets. I ate and was miserable for a few days. So, the source from where the food comes, and food is the conveyer of all kinds of vibrations. The person who gives, with what intention one gives and what quality and quantity, everything is necessary. That’s the reason why, when we beg, the food we used to wash. I told you the other day how we used to take it to Ganges, wash it and make three parts. One part was thrown into the water, one part placed on the ground so that all the birds and others can eat and the one part of whatever I begged, I have to put three times in the water, remove the water and eat offering to the Gods. So, the impurities are washed off and also the food’s taste. That’s the reason why they say don’t eat meat. Meat contains many bad vibrations. Do you like dying? Why are we struggling, why are we working hard and all that? We want to live. Everyone who is born here wants to live, but we take away the desire of those living creatures for our pleasure. What a great sadness it is. We are creating pain for them and we enjoy that. So naturally, along with their meat comes the vibration of that sadness, that cry.
    When I was in Phoenix, Arizona, I was very miserable. I could see that grayness and hear the crying voices. I told my friend, I feel very miserable here. There’s much pain there, much crying there. So, you can feel; if you are true to yourself, you can feel it. That’s the reason why yogis give up meat, give up fish, give up all those things and eat Sattvic food. Sattvic means that which is comfortable and doesn’t bother our body, mind and senses. It doesn’t make any disturbance; it doesn’t bring in any pollution. Good food, pure food and in limited quantity. And the rule is, you must fill one third of the stomach with food, fill one third of the stomach with liquid, water, and leave one third empty so that the air would mix, rotate. When you feel like eating one more morsel, you must get up. That’s the healthiest thing. And of course, we used to eat only once in the day. That’s about 12:00 or 12:30, we used to eat once; that’s all for the whole day. That’s because we are not working. We don’t exercise; we don’t do manual work. So, we do not need so much food.
    Also, there are food and exercise rules, and it says you have no right to torture the body. In the name of yoga, many people do many things. “What are you doing?” “Oh, I’m doing yoga.” “What?” “Oh this.” No, yoga should be light; you must enjoy and others who see should also enjoy. You must throw that light, light of comfort, light of peace and joy. If not, nobody wants, “Oh, he is doing yoga, all that, come on, lets go.” That shows that there is something wrong. Yoga should be that. Lot of things, you have no right; it is a God given body. God has given this body, this mind and senses in order to help you to progress, realize. We have no right on your body. It is given to you and you have no right to torture it; in the name of yoga, you cannot torture it. And also, that’s the reason why they say when you say, “Oh! I walked twenty five miles and oh! I’m tired.” “No, you must do that much which is necessary for body to survive, stay healthy, and the senses also, the mind also. Everything should be exercised within a certain limit.” If not, what happens when you are tired? If you exercise too much, you get tired and you cannot even sit for meditation; you’ll be drowsy. How can you meditate? And if you eat too much, “Oh, eating makes me drowsy. I don’t want to eat.” That’s also extreme.
    Buddha did that, it seems. He gave up food. That’s the reason why He could not meditate; He could not. He was more conscious about His health and weakness than He realized. So, that’s what the external realization is. Those who have realized have told us, “This is Jnana.” All these things are Jnana. What I am telling you is what the others have told. All this is necessary. If you do this, then what the experience will give you, brings you, having gone through the understanding of others, will lead you into the Vijnana. “Don’t eat much.” “I don’t know, I am eating but my Master told me don’t eat too much.” Don’t fast too much. Don’t talk too much. Don’t keep silent also.
    I took the garb with Victor; he became Vijayananda. He’s in that picture I showed you, I gave you. He’s from Brazil. He used to work for Brazil Embassy and then he came to our ashram; he too wanted to join our ashram and became a sanyasi along with us. So, when we took the garb, we talked and went to Swamiji immediately after; it was in 1963. We touched the feet of the Master, “What?” he said. “Swamiji, for twelve years we want to observe the vow of silence.” He kept quiet for a while and then asked, “You want to be impotent?” And he explained, “Don’t be stupid. I have seen many people who observe silence. Far deep within, they have a burning desire to talk; they cannot talk. And when people cannot understand them, they become angry. You create confusion; that creates such a hell of an atmosphere. No, talk less. Don’t talk too much, but what you want to convey, convey clearly. And in short time finish, don’t talk too much. That is much better than maintaining silence.”
    Silence means not talking. There are so many people who cannot talk, then there are the Mounis. Mouni means one who observes silence. They are the only people who cannot talk. Are they Mounis then? Mouni is one who controls his or her mind and senses and body, has complete control and makes them still. He or she is called Mouni, one who has established control on all these elements. That is called Mouna. Not merely those who abstain from talking, so that’s what it is. So talk, do everything in moderation. Let the need decide what you should do.
    You must eat a limited quantity, at a particular time for a particular reason; don’t go overboard nor underboard. And, don’t sleep too much and don’t keep awake too much. Both keeping awake and sleeping too much is also against the principles of yoga. Anything that is extreme, either this way or that way, is bad. So, you must find out how, what and the quantity that you want to consume, and for what purpose. And also, don’t walk too much, don’t exercise too much, don’t drive yourself too much. You must be aware, you must be awake when you experience. You must do everything under your active control; you must be able to tell the body to be silent, senses to be silent, mind to be silent when you want so that you can do your own thing. That’s yoga.
    Meditation, it’s not what happens, “Oh! I want to sit, meditate.” When you sit, instead of meditating you’ll be sleeping. You are tired and you think, “Oh, I am, ooooh, I had my steak dinner and now I want to meditate.” What will happen? The saliva will be running out of both sides of the mouth and you’ll be drowsy. Instead of meditating, you’ll be sleeping; you become lethargic. If you sleep too much, it will be lethargic. Lethargy is Tamas, it is like a demon; it is like fighting with Ravana. Khumbhakarna, his brother, used to sleep for six months, wake up, eat and sleep again for six months. That’s what he used to do. So, that’s the reason why the food, the rest, all these things will create the harmonious vibration that is necessary through your body, senses, and mind. That’s the way in which it purifies. Purificatory doesn’t mean cleaning everything out and leaving it blank. No. You must fill it with good things. Take a bath, put on good things.
    And also in meditation, there are hints. This is a very good chapter. I have been talking to you about this even before we started talking about GITA. What happens is, Swamiji told us long ago when we went to him asking for initiation. He told it is not easy because we are a poor country; we cannot afford to have a special place where we can close the door, sit and all that. Those who can afford to have, keep a clean and open place; keep it only for meditation, keep it clean and have a reed floor covering on which you place either the deer skin or tiger skin. I used to carry that deer skin always. All the time, I did all those things; now, I don’t carry anything. On the deer skin, you must spread a cotton sheet because when you sit, you don’t move. You don’t do anything, so the blood has to keep that heat, that warmth. If you sit on the floor, it will suck all your warmth. Your body loses heat. In order to maintain the heat, if you can not find deer skin or tiger skin, you can use what I use, made up of wool. It is also good and maintains that heat. Also, you must clean that space, one corner and make that corner yours. As I told you, I never allowed anybody in my room; the moment I came out of meditation, I left my room. I never went in unless I was ready to meditate and sleep. Sleep was continuation of meditation because my body used to be working the whole day, so it used to lie down, but I could see; I was awake. The moment I woke up, I took the bath and sat for meditation. When I came out of meditation, I left my room. Once Sadashiv Bhatt asked me, “I want to follow you; I want to come to your room. I want to sit there.” “No,” I said. Only once or twice, I allowed him.
    I enjoyed it. It fructified. I know what it is; what Swamiji said, that’s what I did and it is beautiful. So, that’s what you should do. If you find your own room, keep your room under lock and key; use it. If not, you make a corner and make that corner yours. If you have an altar, in front of the altar, that is your place. Don’t go with shoes on; don’t allow anybody put a curtain or whatever it is. Also, that seat should not be either too high or too low. Too low because creatures are there, many bugs. And if it’s too high, also it is not right. The earth also projects many good vibrations. As I told you, the Earth is not merely earth; Earth has many beautiful vibrations.
    Once Rama, Sita and Lakshmana were all moving in the jungle. Lakshmana, the younger brother, used to carry Rama’s bow and arrows. “Rama, I am your servant, how can you carry this? I am here with you because I want to serve you.” “Take,” said Rama. So, he used to carry Rama’s bow and arrows in addition to his own bow and arrow. While in their sojourn, they came across a piece of land. Lakshmana said, “Rama!” He never addressed Rama, like Rama!, but with respect, with all the humility, he used to address him.” Rama said, “What?” He turned back. Lakshmana said, “What do you think I am? That I am your servant? I have to carry your bow and arrow and everything? Come on.” And he threw it, “Take your bow and quiver.” Rama said, “Oh, I’m sorry brother. I didn’t know that you were carrying my bow; it is heavy.” He took it back and they went a few yards and Lakshmana said, holding Rama’s feet, “Oh, Rama what are you doing? I am your servant. I should carry your bow and arrow to serve you. That’s the reason why I have been here; come on, give it to me, please.” Rama said, “Ho ho.” Rama turned back again; they came to that spot and the same thing happened again. Lakshmana said, “Hey Rama!” Rama said, “Oh boy.” So they marched for a while. And also, you remember, in those days there was no technology. Even if fifty miles away, if there was a rishi, monk or a saint, you could feel the direction where they were and all that. And, you could feel with all your body, mind and senses the sensation; everything could feel that joy. So, they could find out, and they could feel, “Oh! There must be some ashram here; some saint must be here.” So they used to find out ways to go. It used to lead. So, that was the case.
    Nowadays, what we feel is nuclear and chemical pollution. We can find the source of pollution, but we don’t know where the saints are or where the ashram is. That is the whole case; that is the reason why we pray. Do you know, your prayers, your meditation, all these things can counteract all this filth that we are talking about, that we see about us? If you are still safe, in spite of all the things that are going the other way round, it is because there are few saints. One saint is enough to destroy in anger the whole planet or he or she can redeem the whole planet. They are capable because somewhere, some saints are still there; they are taking care of us. That’s the reason why, if you can tune yourself with that, you are saved. You may not know their names, you may not know where they are, but all that you have to do is be receptive. Open yourself, and say, “I am here Lord, wherever You are, whatever You are, I am here. I am open to receive Your grace and blessings”
     You’ll see, the moment that you turn to meditation, the moment that you want to be good, the moment you want to be Godward, there are so many hands to push you, help you. That’s the reason why so many people are successful here today. In this world of materialism, there still are many people who are surviving without being influenced by the material world because of their Grace. So, that’s the reason; that’s what is happening.
    In yoga, all these things happen today and tomorrow. When you go deep into meditation, you will locate, you will realize, you will see the light, the helping hand there. You’ll become one with that helping hand. Without your own knowing, you establish contact. That contact will lead you slowly and steadily, step by step. You are without your own knowing, you’ll become a redeemed soul. You will become the beacon light of the universe, without your own knowing. You do not know, but you are already redeemed. That’s what the yoga does; yoga is capable of that.
    Once you prepare this Asana in a particular place and sit, then as I always tell you, sit in a particular posture, lotus posture. When you make a lotus posture, it straightens the spine. That is important. Spinal cord is very important because it is in the center of the Shushumna, that subtle current flows right from the Kundalini. It flows right from the bottom most part of your spine to the crown of your head, slowly by passing through each one of the plexus, chakras. In order to facilitate Shushumna, that is called Shushumna Nadi (Nadi means, pipe like), it passes through all the plexus, to all the plexus right from Muladhara to Sahasrara. There, in Sahasrara, the individual soul becomes one with divine Universal Soul. That’s what happens. In order to achieve, in order to facilitate that, you must sit straight, keeping the spine, neck, head, all that in one line. Make one line. Don’t tilt and stoop your heat, don’t do all these things; that’s what Krishna has told Arjuna, not me. But still I say, it is in what should be followed as per my own experience.
    What He instructed, I did. I put myself in the place of Arjuna; of course, I was not a warrior, but I did this yoga under my Master’s direction. I followed and I can vouch if you do this, you will enjoy it, reap a good spiritual harvest.
    And don’t put any pressure anywhere because your eating habits and all of those things have already taken care of your body, mind, and senses. They are pure, they are ready, they have that much strength and in addition they have created will. Do pranayama in order to allow the breathing. I used to teach you how to concentrate at the tip of the nose. Also, I taught you how to concentrate where the eyebrows meet at the root of the nose. Often, I tell you, “Bring your eye balls and concentrate at the root of the nose and where the eyebrows meet.” You must start meditating there and slowly take it to Ajna chakra. That’s where you bring both the eye balls together at the root of nose and where the eyebrows meet and go deep there. Buddhists call it the third eye. We call it Ajna chakra. Buddhists have one chakra less because they considered Sahasrara and Ajna as one; it doesn’t matter. So, you can concentrate there; this is the spot of will and vision. And when you concentrate at the tip of nose, you can smell many things, subtle smells, divine smells. And you concentrate at the root of the nose and where the eyebrows meet, you strengthen your will; that’s the best spot. Many people see the vision and they are afraid; they never want to close their eyes. That’s what happens, so you must prepare yourself.
    Then, once you go deep within, you must not be afraid. That’s what Swamiji also said, “In meditation, there’s no fear. You need not fear because you are extrovert all the time; you are introvert while meditating. There is no insurance, there’s nothing; you’re depending on your own self while you become introvert. You have been a dependent all this time while you are extrovert; there you become independent, free. That’s the reason why you are terribly afraid there, no support. You are your own support when you go deep within. You cannot carry anybody; you cannot carry any thought, anything. You become devoid of thoughts, you become devoid of every help there; only you are there.”
    All the great saints and sages, under whose guidance you are practicing, lead you there and say, “Bye, see you tomorrow,” that’s all. They don’t follow you there. They can watch you falling through that beautiful tunnel of light; they can watch you there, but they do not follow you there. There is no need beyond that. Sometime, when you come out, oh boy! you will realize how come you felt so small and so shrinking; you feel you have grown. You cannot believe how you feel. You see yourself as great monster; like great, big, huge is the experience that you will have. Many experiences are needed in order to confirm that you are on the right path. Those experiences will keep on expanding, one after the other, until the time when all these subside, even all these experiences; there will be no more experiences. Even if you have experiences, you will never know; you cannot make out. Expansion, that’s what happens at the end of the tunnel. Oh! you’ll loose all identities; beautiful, you do not want to come back. That’s the reason why there are two choices. After the experience, you have to decide whether you want to come back or you want to live there and go further, no coming back at all, and people will bury you.
    So, there are people who have experienced, who experience every time, all the time; still, they are here amongst us. They move amongst us as common people, but they are there. They have a rapport between that and this world; so, that is what their desire is. And some people, they don’t want, “Oh, I am done with this. Neither do I want to redeem the people nor do I want anything; everything is done. It’s all right; now, let me mind my own business.” So, they go and once they are there, finished. They’re gone forever. So, there are two kinds of people; one, Jivanmuktas, while living, they’ve achieved freedom. They have already booked their seat; they have gone there once. They are here; whenever they want, they can go there because of the Prarabdha, what you accumulate from the past karmas. They want to pay back; so, they finish it. Through yoga, you can do payment fast and become free of any obligation to this Nature, the world; then you are free and you can go. That’s the reason why Rama has to be born, Krishna has to be born, Buddha has to be born one after the other because they do something in order to take a birth next time. If not, without any Prarabdha, you cannot take a birth. You have to pay back and stop finally the accumulation of karmas.
    So, this chapter explains it beautifully. This chapter I enjoy because I have gone through that; so, I can enjoy this, especially this. That’s why I carry one seat, wherever I go. I sit on that because sometimes I feel miserable to sit on something even though it is comfortable; even in a plane I used to sit, squat and put on my own seat. Slowly, I am reformed now; I belong to the reformed party. I said it creates confusion. People keep asking and they treat me as a stranger. I don’t want this and that’s the reason why, when I came to Lompoc, I said, “I don’t want the distinguishing clothes and all that.” I wore pants and shirts. I said, I don’t want anybody to know who I am. I want to be what I am. Sometimes it makes me feel guilty also, because Swamiji expected me to do something. Maybe I didn’t do it or whatever it is; if that is the case, he’ll let me know. And also Swamiji has clearly in his commentary said, “In order to become a yogi, you must become humble and you cannot do everything by yourself in the beginning; you must undergo a training under a Master. And you must be sincere and serious to the Master. You must serve the Master. Master can make your work easier, make it easier if you serve.”
    As I told you, Shankaracharya, the great Master, the great yogi two thousand years ago, two millennium ago, what he wrote, we cannot even understand now; even pundits are commenting on that. As a yogi, he went round on foot four times, all over India, right from southernmost point to the northernmost point and established four monasteries in four corners of India. He had only four disciples, that’s all. There must have been many people, even kings, many rajas and maharajas who used to worship him, but as disciples, there were only four. The great Masters always have only a few around them. They may have followers, but disciples only few. How many disciples did Jesus have? Twelve. Buddha? A few, very few. Except Buddha, everybody died earlier, thirty or thirty-two. Within that range, they did such a tremendous job. Buddha lived up to eighty.
    So, one of the four disciples called Throtakacharya loved the Master. He served him so much he didn’t bother about studies or anything; he wanted to serve the Master. Oh, they have written how he served. He used to wash all the clothes of his Master every day. When he took it to dry, he put it on the line. There was no ironing box in those days, so he used to take it and put it line by line, align the whole thing and every end was to be perfect and all this; he made it nice, no wrinkles, nothing like that. He used to take a long time and along with that, he remembered the Master. And he loved his Master and tried to repeat and remember all those things about the greatness of his Master.
    Once he was doing that on the other side of the small river, Tunga. He was drying clothes and on this side, under the tree, the other three were waiting. These three other Acharyas, who were disciples, were keeping quiet; Swamiji, Shankaracharya, was also sitting quiet. Then one of these asked, “Why are we waiting? Why not we start?” Swamiji said, “Let Throtaka come.” A few more minutes, second one asked again to start the lesson. Swamiji said, “Let us wait.” He said, “Anyway, he’s a dull-headed goose, so why should we spend time on waiting for that fellow?” That’s what these three people had in their minds; Shankaracharya knew. But then Shankaracharya turned towards him and called “Throtakacharya!” When he heard Swamiji calling, “Oh!” he said, “Coming.” Then he started; he didn’t care where he was. He started walking on the water. He walked on the water, not on the beach, but water, just on the water. While coming, he was repeating, he was composing something in a different meter; it is called “Throtakachanda”. That particular meter is named after him,.
    So, he was composing it, beautiful poem in that meter which none of these people knew. They all looked aghast and they asked. “Swami, what is that?” “Ask him.” He said, “You, all this time thought you knew everything; well, you’re great and he’s dull. You do not know him.” Ever since then, they understood. They started respecting his friend.
    So, yoga is this. Yogis can play tricks; though they know, they may behave as though they do not know. There’s no ego. That’s the reason why, between Shankaracharya and this disciple, other people were so egoistic, “We know everything. We want to learn; we can learn. So, he doesn’t know anything.” All these things, but in the view of Shankaracharya, all are the same. The same thing and last, he said, “One who has established himself in that wisdom doesn’t distinguish between an elephant and a dog or a pariah or a king or whatever.” They don’t see; they see only the thread, not the beads. That’s what Shankaracharya did. But the others were still not ripe, you see?
    That’s the yoga; yoga does many things. Yoga is only the thing; Jesus did yoga, Buddha did yoga, everybody, they may call it something else, but it doesn’t matter. They all did it; that’s because it is the only way. That’s only the way because being in this limited human world, to enter into superhuman or beyond that nonhuman, divine arena, this is only the way. You can make an effort to go to Mars, you can go to all the planets, everywhere, but to go to Brahman, go to God, yoga is only the way. With yoga, you can go to Mars as if you go home; you can go to Mars and come back. You can have cup of tea, if a cafe is open there somewhere in Venus and return. Nothing in this Nature that can bind you because once you establish yourself in yoga and accomplish, you become the Master of the Nature.
    Now, you are this child of the Nature. Nature is the Mother and you are the son or daughter. There, you become the father or mother and the Nature becomes the son or daughter, child subservient to your will and wish. If there's no rain, yogis can bring rain; they're capable. If there’s no river, they can bring a river here. Moses said, “Give way!” He is a born yogi. Shankaracharya made   Throtakacharya walk on the water, and he didn’t know he could walk on the water. It is the Grace of his Master that made him walk.
    This is the force of yoga. There, the question comes, for the yogi, when will everything be all right. Once he says, “Oh! I have the power and I am a yogi. I have this power, let me start using it”, then it will be a downward journey. Ego, misusing the force; that’s the reason why we should always be careful even in the process of yoga. But, every time that Kundalini is awakened, the consciousness which is dormant, she rises and passes through each one of the plexus, you experience strange things. At the same time, there are siddhas, that is, accomplished ones having superior powers; superhuman powers are given to you, choices are laid out before you. If you start running after that, you are a goner because there are things to use and not to use.
    There was a king and he had a daughter. She said, “I will marry only the person who will win me in the race., but he who loses will have his head chopped off.” She was the fastest in the world, so people were afraid. But, one man said, “I will do it.” He came and told the king, “I will challenge your daughter.” He said, “All right.” The arena was fixed and the day was set. He had three apples in his pocket. Every time she was going to overtake him, he threw one apple and she bent over and picked it up. With three apples, he diverted her and won.
    That’s what the Siddhis do. As you become successful in yoga, there are subtle forces that also do not want you to leave this world, leave them; so, they give you all these Siddhis . You can see the future, the past; you can see all these stupid things. If you once involve, instead of going there, which is your destination, you’ll be going over to somewhere else and you are a goner. You’ll not find your way back then. That’s the reason why we should be careful.
    I remember some nights, at 12:00 o’clock in the earlier days when I was passing through my spiritual experiences, I used to become so hungry. I used to go to my friend, and my friends were all so happy, so understanding; they knew that I was undergoing many of these spiritual experiences. At 12:00 o’clock, I used to knock on the door. They would open it and I would tell them I am hungry; I want to eat. So, Mrs. Kantaben used to wake up and make rottis for me at 12:00 o’clock in the night. Her husband, Gohil, was a teacher, my colleague. Oh my! I tell you the moment that you fall into this God business, God will help with a thousand hands; there will be a thousand hands to support you. And there’ll be beautiful roads for you to walk. Everything will happen; you cannot think how it happens, it keeps on happening. God did everything. So, if I think of all those friends and all those people, they are Gods. God worked through them. I could not see the God, but I could see His work through them, His help. So, that confirmed; if not, it would not have been possible.
    I remember I lived in a hotel room and I could not even walk to bathroom because the moment that I got up, got out of the cot, I could not put my feet on the floor. I used to go up. So, I thought I am going to fall off the balcony. I used to ask somebody to hold me, “Take me to bathroom.” I could not; I was like a balloon. And in the nights, I used to float, fly over all the town of Poona. I could locate all my friends houses, fly all over them and fly all over the area. And even in Bangalore, I remember now, there’s a Shiva Temple, a deep slope. I used to put on a shirt and I used to run. After running, I used to stay and then fly. It continued for a long time. Nowadays, I don’t do it. Run, hold on and fly. That’s what I used to do. So all those things, I don’t know why, how; I didn’t practice. I didn’t do anything. That’s what happens; it so happened.
    In yoga, once you fall in that, like a conveyor, all that you have to do is throw your luggage; the conveyor carries it on and delivers it to the right person. God Bless you.
Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 39
 
    A Yogi does many things in order to purify the self, self in the sense of the mind, because the word self is used many times for mind also. Self means the individual being, prop support of the whole being that is the individual which is sitting in the heart, in the core of our heart, which is unattached, devoid of any other activity and their results. That’s also self. And the same term is used for the mind too because it is also equally important. Though we don’t see the self that is sitting in the heart, we think what we are. And the mind through which we project ourselves — without our mind and the senses and the body, we cannot reveal ourselves, we cannot act, we cannot experience — the mind is the supreme boss there. That’s the reason why it is also called the self sometimes.
    As the self, which is pervading the whole being on which the mind, body and the vital organs depend, in the absence of which none of these things do exist. They all perish. That self doesn’t need any cleansing. It is pure, self-illuminating, self-effulgent, non-dying, non-being born. So long as the self is there and the mind and other things are dependent on it, sometimes they get rusted, especially the mind. We get bad dreams, bad thoughts, bad actions. Because of that, all these things happen. Without the mind, none of these things can happen, so we have to cleanse the whole mind; remove all the dirt in the mind, filth in the mind and clean the mind, and keep it either empty or fill it with beautiful thoughts, productive thoughts, spiritual thoughts.
    That’s what the yogi does. A yogi works by controlling the breath, pranayama, meditation and all such things. He or she tries to do in order to cleanse the mind and also for deep meditation. Successful meditation is not possible unless the mind is pure, unless the mind is either pure or filled with divine thoughts. Often, when you want to go deep into meditation and experience the spiritual aura, the mind doesn’t allow you. It will project some other bad thought; so, it disturbs you, all these things. So, the purification of the mind is essential.
    A part of what we eat becomes the mind, not only the thoughts. Thoughts fill the mind. Without the thought, there is no mind; but, the substance of mind that holds these thoughts is also made up of the food that we eat. That’s the reason why they say you must be careful of what you eat. When you eat, how you eat, where you eat. We don’t care; that’s the reason why you have bad thoughts. In spite of our trying to meditate, we cannot meditate because we have been feeding the mind, keeping it unclean. With an unclean mind, you cannot meditate; the mind needs mental purification. That’s the reason why we should be careful about them.
    The other day, we were discussing about the meat. Of course, BHAGAVAD GITA doesn’t say “Don’t eat meat.” It doesn’t say what we should eat, but it says food is important; you must discriminate as to what you eat, from where you eat, how you eat, when you eat.
    So, all this forms part of yoga. Yoga doesn’t mean only sitting idle in a corner. Yoga, before you get into this core of Yoga, what we call meditation, we have to do many other things outside. The food, sleep, all these things, you must curtail your activity. If not, your activities will pull you down. More you act, more you get the results, the worries and thoughts, success and failure and these things will bother you. That will bother your mind and mind will react and again, you will react; so, it keeps on going. That’s the reason why they recalled all the actions and reactions, emotionally, especially yogis; emotionally, they come to zero. Emotionally, they are not, not at all moved because every time there is a wave in the emotion, it creates a hell of a thing in the mind. And when the mind is perturbed, you cannot meditate for a long time. So, every time you have emotional problems, you get worried, you get a lot of activities. These activities perturb your mind, and mind will not allow you to meditate. Neither can you sit nor meditate nor think, and you’ll go crazy because you want to do one thing and you cannot because the mind is leading you to do certain other things.
    So, you must remember, that’s what we said; whether you eat meat or not, it doesn’t matter. It must be congenial to your mental process. It must be clean. Offer everything unto God before you eat. And the source of food is also important as well as where you sleep, where you sit, what you wear; it doesn’t matter what you wear. You may not put on tuxedo all the time or you may put on one loin cloth; it doesn’t matter, but it should be clean, clean clothes. Many times we say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter, I can be like anything.” That shows that your mind is impure. Your mind doesn’t accept purity. That’s the reason that you act like that outwardly.
    It’s a discipline. Yoga means the discipline: mental discipline, physical discipline, sensual discipline; all these things work together. This discipline is what will lead you into deep meditation. Without discipline, you cannot meditate; you may pretend to meditate, but you cannot meditate. That’s the reason why, because it is hard to take care of all the things, that’s the reason why yogis keep very few things. The body, they don’t want it, but still it’s a means. They want to achieve, so they have to keep the body clean. And the mind, senses, they have, so they have to keep them clean. Except this, they have very few belongings. Maybe one spare loin cloth or a pot, that’s all they used to keep. Sometimes you will find them with one seat. As I told you, they have their own seat, so that they can create that vibration. That’s the reason why wherever they go, they carry their seat. Wherever they are, they sit for meditation on that seat because it will help them. It’s a continuation, so the seat will help you to create that.
    So, all these things are necessary and you should attach more importance to your physical, mental and vital needs that should be pure and not only pure, they should be minimal. That much which is necessary. Neither should you eat too much, nor eat nothing at all; you must eat that much which is necessary. Put on the clothes that are clean, nice, comfortable, all that. All these things are necessary. Yoga doesn’t mean that you should lead only half of your life that way; it’s all discipline, a very well organized life. That is, a yogi means a perfect organized soul.
Thank you very much

    Question by Jacob: When you say the substance of the mind, you are not talking about physical substance, you mean Prana or gunas?
    Swamiji: Yes, physical substance, Prana is a physical substance, a part of which becomes your seminal energy and then a part of it becomes the mind. So the Prana is the subtle force of the mind; it becomes the subtle force of the mind. So, that’s the reason why you must preserve your vital energy, that is seminal energy, which you must convert into spiritual energy by meditation for which you need a lot of energy. That’s the reason why by working, physical exertion and all those things which are necessary, so that you will use them in such a way in which you will convert your seminal energy into spiritual energy which is a dynamic force for you to meditate. You can utilize. When you meditate, you need lot of force. Thank you.

 



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 40

    Most of us know that yoga ends in samadhi. Samadhi means one is immersed in the bliss of the Self, one who has achieved the state of equilibrium; that’s what we think. That’s what everyone wants to hanker after; that’s good. But, everyone wants to just experience or establish himself or herself in a particular experience that is worth thinking about. But what we do not understand is what we see in the final stages of a yogi when he or she achieves all these things. It just didn’t happen in a fraction of a second; but to achieve this, he or she has undergone many things. That’s what Krishna has been talking about. Just because you see a yogi in a picture sitting, his eyes closed or half closed and you can see by his expression he is enjoying the bliss, spiritual bliss, so you too want to be like that, mimic. You don’t get that bliss. Why? Before that, you have to under go a lot of preparations.
    Sri Aurobindo, in the earlier days, used to meet all his disciples, sit together around the table and have friendly discussions. One day, one of them said, “I want to see God”. When it comes to God, seeing God, it is a serious matter; it cannot be taken lightly. Sri Aurobindo looked at him, “You want to see God?” “Yes.” So he thought, “I want to see God,” as if he’s merely somebody else. So with his palm, he hit hard on the table and there was a light; and that man who saw this light could not even bear it. “Oh, please Sir, withdraw that, withdraw the light, I cannot see.” Then Sri Aurobindo said, “See, he cannot even bear this much and what about seeing God?”.
    God is available; God is always available in various kinds of dispositions. He’s available under so many conditions and various ways. But, are we prepared to experience God? We have to prepare. Everything is available; God is available in plenty all the time, everywhere. But, our eyes cannot even see the bright sun or our hand cannot even hold the hot stuff and we cannot even walk ten miles. That’s the state of the physical; the physic gives way. Our senses give way and mind gives way when it is stretched beyond their limits.
    So that’s why, if you want to experience God, you have to prepare: prepare the physic, prepare the vital, prepare the mental. When all these things are prepared and there is harmony and receptivity, then to the degree of your preparedness, you will start experiencing. Very many times it happens, even in my class, people sit and I want them to go deep and experience certain things at that time. They open their eyes; they say, “Oh no.” They are afraid of the serenity, the silence, deep silence, that beatitude, that state. We are used to all humdrum of this life; we are used to this for ages, lives together. Now, suddenly, we want to experience the other thing and the very first glimpse of the first layer of that would shatter ourselves. We cannot bear; we are afraid. So, that’s the reason why we have to prepare; we have to achieve all these things, if you have a good body, through the body, mind and the senses. You have to make them strong enough, prepare them and make them receptive. You have been extrovert all the lives; when suddenly you become introvert, that experience frightens you for a while. Slowly, you should get used to that.
     That’s the reason why we have to have discipline. I talk and you hear; that’s good. If you want to do it practically, it’s a different ball game altogether. It doesn’t happen as we talk. We have to work harder. We have to prepare.
    Discipline, yoga means discipline. The other name for yoga is discipline. Without discipline, you cannot control; you cannot reign over your physic or the vital or the mental. They shatter you. Instead of you holding them in reign, they will hold you, “Hey come on; yoga, forget about it. Come on, lets go to the movies. Lets go here, there.” That’s what happens.
    So once you decide, even after a long time, even to think of God, even to think of yoga, even to think of meditation, doesn’t come ordinarily. It comes after long pause in your life. All of you must remember, it is not by chance that you think of God. You worked hard in your lives; that’s the reason why you are coming to this end. This is the beginning. You have come to the Mayan temple, you know? You have come to the bottom, you are looking up, you want to climb, you want to go. You have come there after a long struggle. You have sacrificed; you have done many things to come there. Now, you must hold on and prepare; discipline, yoga means discipline. Without discipline, nothing can be achieved, especially in this spiritual life. Haphazardly, no, you cannot.
    That’s the reason why you have Yama-Niyama, what Krishna told Arjuna about yoga is further expanded or explained, given a definite shape by Maharshi Patanjali. It is called Astanga yoga, eight limbs of yoga. You have to have discipline in your physic, internal cleanliness, external cleanliness, you see? “Oh, I need not take bath, it’s all right. Even if I look like a skunk, it’s all right.” No, it doesn’t happen. “Oh, I can smoke, I can drink, I can eat and eat and get; I’m a yogi, I can do it.” No, that doesn’t happen.
    So you must prepare, both inside and outside. That’s the reason why you dress right. You don’t need a tuxedo every day, but you have to wear nice clothes. Clothes get dirty; you wash them, simple clothing but comfortable. And you must eat and drink food that is congenial, that does not enrage, that doesn’t contribute either to mental upset or the vital disturbance. Eat food that will help you. You don’t live for eating; we eat just for living. We live for yoga. If you live for yoga, you have to live, but in order to live, you have to eat. We don’t eat for eating. So thus, you must know.
    Krishna has told us, “Everything in its own proportion, eating, sleeping, talking, walking, everything. Your relationship, everything should be in its own proportion. Don’t go overboard.” That will help, that itself. Then slowly, you must withdraw; you must be able to withdraw from all these things. At a given moment, you should be able to disconnect yourself from all these things and sit down and concentrate. In talking to your senses, talking to your mind, talking to your body. Convince them, “Now this is the time I want you to keep quiet.” This you can do only when you have discipline. When you have disciplined your body, your mind and your senses, then it is possible that you can talk to them. They’ll obey. They’ll cooperate with you, not by taxing your body. By the time you want to sit for meditation, “Oh, I am tired; I went to a movie and I’m sleepy”. How can you meditate? And, you want to sit for meditation and your stomach starts churning because you ate some bad food.
    These are all the things and again we have all these senses; the eyes are open, ears are open, our nostrils are open, mouth is open, all these are open. They are all the things that you have to take care of. They all contribute to your disturbance. That’s the reason why you must try to discipline all these things prior to sitting for meditation. Meditation comes automatically once you are done with these things. That’s why it is all in gradual steps. So, you must discipline your body, mind and senses first, clean everything and then do the asanas: Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, then Dhyana which leads to Samadhi.
    Many times we use our body, but there are certain parts of our body that are dormant. We never exercise them and when you want to sit for meditation at that time, they are awake. They will tell you, “You never use me. I am here. Do you know I am here?” In Asana, you take charge; you make every part of your body active, make them alive, give them work to the extent that they want to say, “All right, now we would like to have rest. We are tired.” Then, give them rest in Savannas; in that, your body will just relax. It just relaxes; it is all happy that you are relinquishing it for the present. You’re a task master.
    Another thing, after Asana comes pranayama. Pranayama, Prana means the breath. Who can survive without breath? It is the breath that is constructive and also destructive. If you do not know how to breathe, if you cannot breathe in the way that you want, then your mind cannot be still. How many times you say, “When you are angry, take three deep breaths.”? Why?
    Rama wanted to take the blessing of his Mother before going to the jungle. You know the story? It’s a big story. Anyway, by virtue of having to fulfill the desire of his stepmother, He had to live in the forest for twelve years while His stepmother’s son Bharata, would reign the kingdom. Though legally, Rama should have been successor to Dasharatha, His father; that is the reason why He accepted. Rama was very obedient. He said, “Father, let Bharata be king, I’m happy, I’m prepared to go so long as my stepmother is happy. Whether I stay here or go there, it is the same thing, so I will go.” But, His own mother was unhappy. Anyway the king said, “All right.” The king also didn’t want Him to go, but the king had promised. So in order to keep the promise, Rama said, “I will go”. So, He wanted to take the blessings of His mother before going. When He goes to her and touches her feet, He says, “Bless me.” Mother says, “Rama, just wait. I’ll go and do Pranayama and then come back and bless You because I do not know. My mind is already fluctuating. It is disturbed. I cannot bless You because I do not know for what or why I am blessing You. You see what I am saying? In this moment I may say something wrong, I don’t want to do that, so let me just calm my mind down and everything and then come back and bless You.” So she goes there and does Pranayama and such as that; so, she clears the mind and everything, then comes back and blesses Him. That’s the story.
    In a jiffy, we say anything, nonsense. Our mind is so fluctuating; it is not at all controlled. It never stays in a state of equilibrium. Whenever you are angry, you know what happens, you breathe faster. When there are other disturbances, you breathe unevenly. All these things help only the vital and mind, but not you. If you want to take work from them, especially from the mind, if you control the mind, mind can control all the others. By controlling the body, you cannot control the mind. By controlling the other things, you cannot control mind; if you control the senses, you cannot control the mind. If you control the mind, you can control everything. The mind is the supervisor.
    In order to control the mind, the breath, Prana is used. For meditation, it is said breathing should be even and you should be breathing through both the nostrils until you go deep into the meditation; then the breathing will become lighter, shorter. For a long time, you may not even breathe. Even if you are breathing, nobody knows that you are breathing because you are not working, you are not active. So at that time, you need not breathe; your oxygen requirement is less, so the breath becomes shorter. All these are the processes.
    So in order to do that, if you eat too much fried stuff and all that, you cannot breathe; you cannot breathe, because you’ll be having cold and you’ll be suffering. You cannot breathe. That’s the reason why food is important. You must know what to eat, what not to eat, and then how much to eat, how much not to eat. By practice, you will know and you must understand, and also you cannot say, “At twelve o’clock, oh, midnight snack.” Who wants a midnight snack? As if you are living only for eating. You don’t need; yogi eats only once. Bhogi, that is one who is luxurious, eats twice. Like that, the ones who eat more than that become a rogi; rogi means sick. He’ll be a sufferer.
    There are plenty of things, but you must know how to use, when and where, why, how; all these things are necessary. That’s what Krishna has been saying. In the field of war, it’s in the war front that He’s telling all these things. He need not have told. He told all these things; it was an opportunity so that we could understand. We could do that.
    Then Pranayama, so you must control the anger, the emotions, all these things. And then, you must also try to provide the mind with what you want to do. Give it a job. All these things are necessary before you meditate, then meditation comes last. Meditation is a final step in which you will enter into Samadhi after a long time.
    Samadhi is the state of equilibrium where you enjoy your own self; you will realize. For a long time, you can stay there or you may come back after experience, and then you may stay there; all these things happen. But before that, it’s a subtle aspect; samadhi is a very subtle aspect. It happens beyond the mind, senses and body. So, before that we have to discipline all these things so that you will extricate yourself from these clutches of mind, vital and the body; then, you can enter into samadhi. You cannot carry your body there, you cannot carry your mind there, you cannot carry your senses there. So, they are attached to you; you are attached to them more than they are attached to you. So, you must assert yourself, remove all these things and free yourself for getting into meditation. Then, you will go deep into meditation and you will experience. It is only in the meditation that you will realize many things about which you do not know. Even the intellect cannot establish anything. Any amount of argument, any amount of discussion would not help you in meditation; whatever you experience, it is a direct experience. But, you may not know how to explain it and what the explanation is because explanation means you have to convey to the mind. Mind cannot understand, so intellect fails to explain as to what the experience is.
    So, only you can experience and you will enjoy; you will know but you cannot make others know because intellect fails. It is beyond the words, it is beyond the experience of the intellect, the mind; the property of the mind is the intellect. So they say that place where none of these things can go, only you can go, you as the consciousness, as the awareness. Only you can go there, only you can experience. When you come back, your presence influences the body, mind, and all that, but they do not know what that is. They’re all happy: the body seems to enjoy, mind seems to enjoy, senses seem to enjoy. But, they cannot explain; they cannot tell you what it is. That’s the reason why yogis, when you see them, they’re bright, beautiful to look at and so forth. But it is the body, through body that we are seeing all that. All deep within, we do not know what this ocean of bliss is that they have been enjoying. It’s only a small iota that is sprouting through the physic and the mental. So we will talk about this in the next session too. Thank you.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 41

    We were discussing as to what a yogi is, why one should be a yogi and who’s a yogi; why is it necessary to become a yogi? We have been discussing, on and off, on this topic. It is not a special thing to become a yogi; everyone is a yogi in one’s own way. If you are a yogi, if you want to perceive the whole world, whole population, you can paint the whole world as a world full of yogis. Everyone who is engaged in an activity that takes him or her to a particular goal that one has fixed, that process makes one become a yogi.
    For example, we talk about the scientists, they’ve done a great job; they have realized many things of which we are all beneficiaries. So, what did they do? With one pointedness, they concentrated, they went through and reached their goal; they realized, came out, and told us and we are all using it. Is it not an achievement of a yogi? So, yoga is a process by which you attempt to reach certain things that you select.
    So here, when we talk about yogis and yoga, we talk about something called God. Many times, yogis do not even say God because they don’t want to confine it into a small area that is called God, so they say, “the truth”, “the reality”, “the absolute”; God varies. If I say I am realizing God, I’m trying to realize God, you don’t believe because your conception of God is different and my conception of God may be different. Some other’s view of God is different. So, God becomes a conception of each individual but the Truth doesn’t differ. Truth is the same whether x, y, or z looks at it. If it changes from x to y, y to z, then it is not truth. Truth doesn’t change. The yogi’s say, “We are engaged in finding out the truth”. Truth of what? Truth of what we think we believe in. We believe in this world, we believe in what way the world has become, what way the world is going to be, what we are, what we are not, what we are supposed to be, what we are not supposed to be, what our relationship with this is, what Nature is, why is this Nature, why we should respect Nature or why we should not, all these things. All these things are superstructures based on something called the Truth which we want to find out; we want to dig deep into finding out the foundation on which all these things have been structured. What we are seeing here is the superstructure. What is it which is holding all these things together? That’s what the yogi wants to know. We have our emotions, we have our love, we have our hatred, we have our fight, we have our peace. Somebody talks, somebody is a pacifist, somebody is a warrior, somebody is this ,that and so on. Why all these things? Why, what is the reason?
    So, that’s what one has to see. When you are here, you look around to see the superstructure. That’s why we are talking, as a scientist, as a geologist, as an anthropologist, we are trying to find out about the superstructure, the Nature: the trees, the plants, the sun, the moon and all these things. They’re all great. It needs the same qualification, the concentration, dedication, realization, understanding; all these things are true. But what makes a yogi, a particular type of yogi that we are talking about? These are all yogis, but a particular type of yogi that we are talking about, particularly, we think we are seeking the fundamental truth on which all these things are based. That’s what we are digging deep into.
    And here, we can utilize whatever is given to us, our bodies, our hands, legs, eyes, ears, tongue, teeth, mind and intelligence, all these things to find out the taste of a particular thing or to see the color of the thing or the shape of the thing and to understand; we have mind, the senses and the physique. We use all these things in order to know the superstructure of this. That’s great, but we are tired of it now. Now for some of us, most of the things are known and we are not interested in knowing much more because it’s a repetition; it will be a repetition anyway. In spite of knowing a lot of these things, we are still to know more, endlessly more, and that frustrates.
    So now, we have come to a point where we want to go the other way round. Instead of going this way, we are going to go towards the foundation. But in order to reach the foundation, we don’t need the mind. On the contrary, the mind is a distraction, detrimental force. Eyes, physical eyes, are not necessary. Ears, they may not be necessary. Tongue, the whole physique, whether you have a good or bad physique, mental, or the vital doesn’t matter. Even if you have them, you have to get rid of them and isolate yourself in order to dive deep into the region where you can find this foundation; that is called the Truth. That Truth is known by very many names: Atman, Brahman, or whatever you call it; it doesn’t matter for it is nameless. That’s the reason why it is called Atman.
    So as an attempt, these yogis, instead of going extrovert, they become introvert; they dive deeper. Instead of flying deep into the extrovert, by going deeper inward they will cover the whole area. That’s what yogis do. So, we need to extricate, because we have involved in this. We have involved in the physical, we cannot get rid of the physical, we cannot get rid of the vital, we have too much involved in that, and once again we are too much dependent on the mental. Without them, we feel we are lost; so, we hold on to the mental, physical and vital being without which we cannot exist. That’s what we think.
    It is here that the yogi tries to know and eliminate each one, tries to live without the physique, physical environment and he or she wants to extricate himself or herself from being involved in the vital and the mental. He or she wants to try to survive without the physical or mental and the vital because he or she realizes that with these things he or she cannot do what he or she wants to do. Without hands, eyes and ears and tongue and nose, you cannot realize the Nature; we cannot realize. We cannot do research and try to understand; that is one part of yoga, external yoga. With internal yoga, you have to get rid of all those things and try to realize your own self there.
    Once you realize what you are, that you are not the body but that you are in the body, that you are not the vital but you are in the vital and that you are not the mental but you are in the mental, the mind, then you have realized you are in everything but you are not everything. Now, they say you are everything but you are in everything. As what?
    That’s what the great yogis have realized: as the consciousness, the light, as the awareness without which they cannot exist. If you withdraw completely, they cannot exist, they rot. Once you realize what it really is here, then without them, you can go anywhere; you can expand your awareness. You can expand your consciousness to any extent because there is no limit and there is no obstacle; there's nothing to obstruct you. There's no detrimental force to hold you back; neither the body, nor the mind, nor the senses will hold you back because you are devoid of them. That’s what the yogi does.
    In order to do this, what they do, we have been discussing. You must systematically discipline yourself. It is not easy to get rid of the body; that’s called suicide. Suicide doesn’t help; it doesn’t make you a yogi, it doesn’t make you extricate yourself from the body. It doesn’t lead you anywhere because you’ll still have your body. And you cannot get rid of the senses by chopping off your hands and plucking out your eyes; you cannot get rid of them nor the mind. So they say, “Discipline them.” By disciplining them, you can have them and you can use them when you want.
    So far, we have been under their spell. We have been under the force of our vital, physical and mental. That’s the reason why we feel miserable; far deep within, we know we are not what we are but we do not know what we are at the same time and so we feel miserable. Mind says I am something but I feel I am not what the mind says I am. It suggests to me that I am a man, a woman, a donkey, I am this, I am that, I am black, I am brown, I am tall, I am short. But far deep within I feel, “No, that’s not true.” That’s why we are fighting; black fights against white, white fights this, because each one of them, far deep within knows that they are not. Each one knows that they are the same but outside they are fighting because they have been victimized by the mind, the body, the senses; that’s the reason. We are extrovert, too much extrovert. It is hard for us to collect them and go deep and try to realize that. So in order to do that, we have to discipline the body, the mind and the senses and keep them quiet. When they are asleep, then you are awake; that’s what we discussed long ago. And then it is possible for you to do your research, go deep within.
    For that, we have to have the discipline. Krishna has been talking to Arjuna about how to select a place, a place that is worthy, not the dirty place. Even if it is a small place somewhere, it doesn’t matter but it must be clean; environment should be clean. It should not be stinking because mind and senses are still alive there, so until you get rid of them, they're there; they will not allow you to do what you want to do. So, in order to please them you will select a clean place and there are things that crawl. If you sit naked, then they bite you. So in order to avoid this, they say that you must erect a platform, a small platform or whatever it is, not too high, not too low, and sit. Make the seat comfortable. When you sit for meditation, you have to provide for your body everything that is necessary because you are not outwardly active. Whatever the physique has, the temperature, the warmth should be continued, or maintained, because you are not going to provide anymore warmth. In order to do that, the moment that you step on the earth, it will suck your energy; when you sit, that’s what happens. This is the reason why we have some carpet or something in between the floor and you. So you put a small seat made of elephant grass or reeds and then tiger skin or skin of the deer or whatever it is. There are reasons; significance is also there. When you see Shiva, He is always sitting on the tiger skin. You see some of the Gods sitting on deerskin. Deerskin is the sign of harmony conquering fickle mindedness. Deer, they are very fickle minded. So when one sits on this particular skin, it shows he or she has conquered that fickle mindedness; it signifies that, “I have conquered my mind.” The tiger skin signifies a ferocious animal; so, it signifies that, “I have conquered ferociousness and I am peaceful.” In order to show that, Shiva sits on the tiger skin; and like that, it goes on.
     So the whole scientific reason is it maintains your body heat when you are deeply engaged in your meditation. Because there’s no activity, for long hours you have to sit. And, before sitting, they ask you to systematize, discipline yourself. This is somewhere in the middle; sitting for meditation, preparing the seat and before that, you must prepare yourself also, physically, mentally and psychically.
    You know, doctor tells you, “Oh, you are lacking in this vitamin, take this and then you will be all right.” It shows that we are dependent on the food that we eat. Our health, our mind, our senses, everything depends on what we input, eat. We do not know; we eat what every Tom, Dick and Harry eats. They eat wherever it is available. Yogi doesn’t do that; yogi is a very picky eater. He or she doesn’t attach to food much but whatever the food he or she eats, he or she is careful about it because part of the food is converted into mind. If that food is bad, the mind also becomes bad, mind stuff. It is like a plate which absorbs just like the computer disc. Mind stuff is a disc on which the thoughts enter and it is all recorded. If the disc becomes bad, then it cannot retain anything; likewise, the food that we eat pollutes even the thoughts.

    I told you, I used to feel miserable in those days. I could not eat from anybody else’s food. I could feel the vibration, I could not eat. Many times I had to reject even the water, water, whatever it is. My hand would not reach that. Now it doesn’t matter, it is America. We have to fight, we have to fight a lot and even I try to return a thought of me turning back to India because I could not bear the looking at meat and all those things; the vibrations were so peculiar. So all these things were there. Maybe at that time, it was a different thing.
    So, we should be careful about the food, that’s what they say. That’s why they say that it is the quantity and quality of food which is important if you want to have healthy mind and body, have the right stuff. You become what you eat. That’s the reason why we should be careful; it is all a part of yoga. In the beginning, your fortification is necessary before you sit for meditation. Sitting in meditation is all right, but before that you have to prepare all that. If not, many people say, “Oh, I am sitting in meditation for long hours, but I don’t feel anything.” If you don’t feel anything, you are not meditating; you are thinking that you are meditating but you are not. Your mind is not allowing you because your mind is full of things. So, it is very subtle. If you are serious, you must be careful; you must know.
    Also, whatever you eat, you must offer it to God. Offer it to the higher Self, let It partake, let it be purified; then you take it second hand as a duly purified sacrament. That’s what Sri Ramakrishna used to say. The other day, Jim was also asking about eating meat because nowhere in the BHAGAVAD GITA has Krishna said, “Don’t eat meat, don’t eat fish. Eat good food and offer it to God, to the Divine, offer it to Me and then eat it.” So, the responsibility will be His.
    We were all not born vegetarians anyway and once we were all meat and fish eaters; we all ate all those things. Now as we have progressed, we have decided not to eat, that’s all. Meat eating or not meat eating is not whether it is prohibited, no. I have known some of the yogis who eat meat, but it doesn’t pollute them. They’ve achieved great heights in spiritual life, but still they eat meat or fish and it doesn’t bother them. So, you must be careful as to what you eat and how you eat, when you eat and also they say, when you eat and how to eat.
    For meditation, they say early in the morning, between four o’clock and eight o’clock, those four hours, early in the morning and in the evening, four to eight again. In the Nature, there is some force which is predominant at that particular time and which will help you at that time.
    So, if you want to do that, you must finish all things before you sit for meditation. With a heavy stomach, you cannot sit for meditation or if you are starving, you will be thinking of food while sitting for meditation. So, neither too much fasting nor too much eating would help that. And eating too late or too early is also a disturbing factor. So, you must eat quality food in suitable quantity and pay attention to the time; all these things are necessary.
    And company, apart from food, the company is also important. You are sincere, you have your experiences, you are doing right, but if you have keep bad company who smokes, drinks and all that, they can lead you astray if you are weak. They argue, “Why are you doing all this nonsense, this meditation, nothing is all right and your experiences are only fanciful. This is true; come out and do this, this, and this.” So, you’ll be discouraged; for a few times, you may resist and then slowly, you will succumb, “Yes, that’s true. Why meditation and all that nonsense? Come on, lets go.” So, that’s the reason why you must meet and stay with the company who are like you, who may not be exactly like you, but at least they have the same purpose, same thing, same motive. Then it will be constructive; it will be helpful. If not, you must shun them as cancer; especially in spiritual life, you must be very blunt. Keep them away; it doesn’t matter. They are in any way no use. On the contrary, they are more detrimental so keep them away. So, the company of your own kind and interests is also good. That’s the reason why people go to Himalayas and there even good people they don’t want, leave alone bad people. Even good people, company of good people is also a hazard later. Too many questions, too much of an attachment again for you, and so too much of relationship, too much of involvement.
    That’s the reason why the masters keep only one or two disciples, that’s all. They keep away until they have established completely, then it is fortified; then they are free. Even if the whole world falls upon them, they are free.
    So that way, you have to prepare, all these things. When you are prepared and you are ready, then you’ll have to create the seat and meditate. When you meditate, there are precursors, I told you Pranayama and all those things. You must make the body, mind, and the senses harmonious. When they are in harmony, they’ll help you to have a deep, beautiful meditation. If they are not, then either the legs or the breathing or the mind will give way. So you must understand and exercise them, singing and all these things, thinking of God. Full of beautiful Divine thoughts, mind will take a long time in sorting out and enjoying these things. So fill the mind with these thoughts and breathing.
    It is said, if you want to have a deep meditation, the Prana should flow through both the nostrils. That’s the reason why we do many other things so that when we sit down, breathing in, breathing out through both the nostrils as long as we sit for meditation. And also the asanas make all the dormant parts active. When they are active, they become alert and then they become harmonized with all the other parts of the body and then they relax. You relax them. They are quiet. Body, mind and senses will be quiet. When they are quiet, you’ll be free. Neither the mind wants you, nor the eyes, nor the ears, nor the body; so, you are free. Then you go deep. Even there, when you go deep, one layer, two layers, its that beautiful experience. I don’t want to tell you now but do that, do all these things and then you’ll experience many beautiful things. So instead of extrovert, you will start experiencing something superior when you go introvert. Thank you very much.
    Question (Jacob): “You mentioned physical and vital a lot in the same sentence as if they were distinct. What do you mean by physical versus vital?
    Swamiji: Physical, this is body, physical, that which makes the body move, just like your senses, eyes, ears, you see? These are all the senses. The body by itself doesn’t do anything, it is dead; it doesn’t have any senses, it’s only body. Those faculties which perform through the body are the senses. That’s the vital, especially the vital organs such as the eyes, ears, nose, mouth.
    Question (Jacob): Also Swamiji, what do you mean by the difference between psychic and mental?
    Swamiji: Oh, mental is generally what we think; psyche is something which is acting to your Atman. You see? Consciousness.
    Question (Jacob): Company, I suppose that you mean some people affect you negatively because they have a negative vibration. What about animals?
    Swamiji: Animals are all right but your attachment; anything that involves you in the attachment, you should give up. If not, you’ll be spending more time with the animals than yourself. You have plenty of animals within you: your eyes, your ears, your nose, they’re sufficient animals. You’ve a hard time even training them and you want external animals too? When you cannot have your own pets, you want external pets? No. If you want, you can keep the elephants. Who cares but your attachment? Buddha was attached to a deer, so in the next life, he had to become a deer. Constantly thinking of the deer made Him to be born a deer and He was shot. Attachment, that’s what it is; whether it is father, mother, sister, everything is all right to a limit. If it is too deep, then there may be a problem. That’s the reason why Jesus didn’t want to see His mother; He didn’t want to once again attach to His mother. His whole work would be stopped. Then she said, “Oh Jesus, you are my son; you are my only son and now if you go away, where am I going to go?” All these things moved his heart. And he said, “No.” He had to decide, “No, I don’t want to see My mother. Only God and God, that’s all.”
    Question (Jacob): So, it’s not the thing itself, but the influence it has on you?
    Swamiji: Yes, and your influence on them also. The more you love them, they start attaching to you. They keep on holding onto you when you sit for meditation; they want your company. You don’t want their company, but they want your company so they start howling and oh! you cannot concentrate. Thank you.

PARABRAHMAN AND BRAHMAN
 
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UNMANIFESTED AND MANIFESTED

    This evening, I was going through the regular e-mail that comes from Sivananda’s Ashram; they were talking about Radha, Radha’s personality. Who Radha is and what Radha is. It made me think that there are two ways of looking at these things. On one side is Vedanta, Vedanties, who directly talk about the Brahman, unmanifest Divinity. It is devoid of all kinds of things that we attribute to the manifested Divinity: God is merciful, God is love, God is kind, God is the giver, God is the Mother, God is the friend, God is the Father and God is the creator, God is the destroyer, all these things. So Shiva and Krishna and Rama and Buddha and Jains called Avatars are Masters and Buddha on this side and Jesus, all such things. So we attribute: Jesus is the manifestation, He is merciful; while Jesus is all merciful, Krishna is all love, so, all such things. Now, they’re all Gods. Jesus is God, Rama is God, Krishna is God, Buddha is God, everybody is God. Once you are dead, you are also God. If you want to be God, do it. Do you really want to do it?
    Is it all false or true? If I accept Jesus as God, is Krishna God too? What is the difference? He, Krishna, goes with all the Gopis, He has Radha, He has children, He has wife, and all that. Jesus, He’s a poor man, He doesn’t have a room even to bury His head. We worship Him, we worship Krishna, also. And Rama, He never looked at anyone except Sita; Sita is the only lady that He knew. And, He wanted to establish the Dharma, Code of Conduct. He kills demons; Krishna doesn’t kill, but He did in the beginning. See, He did not kill anybody in MAHABHARATA war. He said, “I’m not going to take any instrument of destruction.” Rama did it. Buddha didn’t; He was a pacifist.
    So, these are all Gods. Buddhists say Buddha is God,  Hindu’s say Rama, Krishna, Shiva and three hundred and thirty million Gods and manifestations of God. For Christians, Jesus is God. And for some Hindus, Durge is Goddess. So, if you keep on thinking, the doubt arises in the mind, “What is it all about, these Gods? Better to be a nonbeliever and discard God and try to live happily without anything. Whether I believe in God or not, I am going to live anyway, right until I die. And afterwards what happens, who knows? Neither I nor those people who believe in God knows, so why should I worry?”
    No, that’s not what it is. These attributes are directed towards all these manifestations. Manifestations are necessary in order to guide the ignorant one in the process of evolution and there are no manifestations in the lower elements. If you go, go to the rocks and ask,  “Who is your God?” They do not know; there’s no God for them and we make rock into our God and we worship. We see God through the rock, but rocks don’t recognize. Go to water, ask the sky and stars, trees, “Which is your God? Is it Redwood, or Banyan, or Bananas?” No. Until you reach certain stage in evolution, you don’t recognize this.
    Even in the beginning, we didn’t recognize any God; we didn’t know any God. Just like our Vice-President invented the Internet, we invented God, superhuman being. So we impose, we superimpose all these attributes on that because, as the humanity started evolving, as the creatures evolved into humanity and humanity started progressing, as they started developing, all the other faculties, especially the mind, thinking, they no longer lived on the instinct, they started living on mind, thoughts, plans, action, all these things. When they started, then they started realizing the Force that is embedded in each and everything in this world. One is stronger than the weaker, one is weaker than the stronger, one lives long, one lives short and one commands and one obeys, all these things.
    So, as the mind started developing, it started thinking. Along with that, the faculty was always there but it wanted a particular instrument or a particular occasion to spring up, the intuition. The intuitive faculty started functioning very brightly. It helped the mind to focus on certain things which mind itself could not see. As the faculty of intuition developed, it directed itself; the purpose of the intuition and the way in which it functions is other than the way mind functions. But, by going, by experiencing, by knowing, it can bring back the results to the mind so that we can understand. The purpose of intuition is to help us; if not, the intuition is not necessary at all, we don’t want the intuition. Why do we want? There are two, mind, through mind we can go to certain extent beyond which we cannot go and intuition has no limit. It can go and come back and talk to the mind. Through the mind, we can grasp as to what the intuition did. Many times we say, “Oh! What is this? I knew it all the time! Why did you not do it?” “Oh! From where did I get this?”
    Something happens and you cannot explain. When you experience certain things at the intuitive plane, you cannot explain; you can only experience for yourself but you cannot explain it because mind is incapable because it has not experienced it. That’s the reason why very many times it is hard to explain about God. “Have you seen God?” It is hard to explain whether I’ve seen God or not. What is God? It is hard.
    However, I try because the very nature of the mind is to doubt. Doubt is the property of the mind because of ignorance. So, that’s what happens through the mind; we have to understand and without the help of intuition, even the mind fails to understand, so it is a circle. Thus, we started understanding things beyond what we see, what we touch, what we feel. And then, in the intuitive plane we compared our experiences in the mundane and there said, “Oh there it is!” “I see a penny here but when I go to the treasury I see the pile of money. I see little gold here; there is plenty of gold there. It is from here it has come.” So, if I recognize this here, the root of this is there. Then, we start comparing and all these things. Then we started recognizing who has more than a penny. I can lift ten pounds, you can lift ten pounds and Krishna lifted a whole mountain and Hanuman lifted the whole mountain. So, if I am a man, if I can do this, he is stronger and can lift that much. So, if that is the case, who is that who lifts the whole world? Then, they went through the reasoning and the mind could not find the answer; the mind failed, so they took the path of intuition and recognized, “Yes, there’s some force.” “Force! If you saw force, how can you understand, mind cannot understand.” So then they said, “All right, let me coin a word, God, it is the God.” These are all what we see, small forces, but all these forces come from one supreme source, treasury, that is God. The same God is there, a piece of it has fallen all over here, scattered; then, they started identifying and comparing. That’s the reason why, “I am that God,” he said.
    Those who went through and they recognized, “Oh! The same thing is in you too. You’re not other than me, you are also God, everything is God. All this world is full of nothing but God, Brahman.” That’s the realization.
    At that time when things were easier, they could bypass the mind. There was not that much tension or stress, there was plenty of time, energy left. All that they had to do was, during the season, grow; and when it rains, they had to sit down and they could not do anything and what?: meditate, eat, learn, these things. So they were happy, a happy moment there. What they could do there, we cannot do now. What we are doing was already done in a different way then, at that time. But they neglected, they didn’t care for this. What we are progressing in is the mundane life, not the spiritual life. Still, we are far away from what they have realized.
    Then they said, “It is the same thing which is manifesting here, what I saw there, it is the same thing in you; it doesn’t have a body, but you have got a body. You have a body, but in you I see the same thing so what is this?” “Oh, all right, this is a place. We’re bound by time, and space and causation, all these things but there there’s nothing, no change at all. It is always there, where there is no night, there is no day, there is nothing, nothing to know about, no death, no starvation, no desire, no fulfillment, nothing there, always blissful state.” “But here, today I am all right, tomorrow I am sick; I’m happy today, I’m unhappy tomorrow. I am born now, I will die tomorrow, all these things happen, what is this?” Then they realized, this seems to be a different aspect. Then they realized, this is the Nature. They called it Nature. They found out what the Nature is; from there, even in the Nature, they said, “Oh! This is the same force, the force that makes you what you are, it is the same force which is making the wind to move and the rain to fall and whatever it is, the same force.” So, they started worshiping those things also.
    See how slowly they developed? And then wherever this force was concentrated, they started recognizing and worshiping and accepting. Nobody needed to say, “I am God.” But the moment they could see, they could visualize, they could recognize the great ones. Then they said, “This is Indra, this is this thing, this is that, this is that, this is Agni, this is Vayu, and so on, concentration of that force.” Thus they started attributing and naming all of them.
    Also, they found that the same force can be concentrated in a human being. That human can even control these, what is that? It is the direct manifestation; sometimes unmanifest becomes manifest, and though it is manifest like us, amongst us, it is not bound as we are bound. Then they realize, then they said it is incarnation, “Same thing that I saw there is what I see here.” That’s what the rishis found out about Rama. “Rama, you are nothing but that.” “Krishna you are nothing but that. What I saw there, I see here. You are the same.” That’s what Sai Baba also says. The difference is, we don’t realize; they realize. They know and we do not know. So, the doors are shut. That’s where Baba and everybody else, whenever they are manifest, they try to ask us, direct us to the door and try to help us to open the door, so that we could behold the Truth, behold this whole panorama of this play and understand and know and realize as to what we are.
    What do we worship? Whom are we worshiping? Why do I worship Krishna? Why do I accept Jesus? Why do I worship Buddha? I cannot see within myself, so I see externally. I enjoy worshiping Buddha. I enjoy worshiping Jesus. I enjoy worshiping Krishna and Rama because I cannot worship myself because I don’t see myself. It is the same stuff, but I cannot become introvert and go deep and see what it is. What makes Rama is the same thing which makes me what I am, but I cannot understand; I cannot go deep and see. Rama has to do that, Krishna has to do that, I have to do this, but I compare and say, “Oh Krishna did that so it is great, but I am also good because I am doing what I have to do. I am born to do certain things, I am doing by myself, that’s all.” That’s what Krishna ultimately told Arjuna, “You are born to do this, that’s why you are here. I am born to do My duty; I know, but you do not know, that’s all. That’s the reason why you want to change; your mind is clouded, your thoughts are clouded,” all this. Krishna says, “Me, I know what it is. I know what I am.”
    Ultimately, everybody will have to come to that stage, everybody. After all, the body goes, everything goes; what remains is you, you, you, you, you, that you, that me, neither there be me, nor you or whatever it is.
    So, once that manifestation takes place here, then naturally you fall into the plan of this Prakriti, and then you have to have the attributes. As the attributes are directed towards a person, we call this person a saint. If he or she is more than a saint, we call him or her a God or Goddess. And if it is less or we don’t recognize, then we say man, woman. Then, when you go beyond all this, don’t call a saint a saint, a sinner a sinner, a man a man, a woman a woman, rock a rock, tree a tree, remove all those attributes and pile up everything and see what it is. It is unmanifested Divinity, that’s what you’ll see. And I told you, “I die,” what happens, I forego my body, that’s all. What happens, I never die. I am as I am. I am Nitya, I am Saswata, that is eternal. You are eternal; we are all eternal. You think you are different. Are we different? We are all connected; just like you make lines in the water, the ripples. Have you seen those ripples? Do they remain? Does it in anyway affect the oneness of the water? We say these lines; this is inner circle, this is outer circle, but neither of them remain so for long.
    In this mundane life, so long as we belong within the scope of this Prakriti, this Nature, we have to identify each attribute and name it God. And we like sometimes one to be full of kindness; if I’m fond of kindness, I go and find out who is kind, “Oh, this is kind. That is kindness; he does this, this and that, acts, talks,” and so on. All these things that makes one particular man kind. Then we say, “Oh, the kindness is manifested in him so he is God.” That kindness and everything, all these things pertain to this Prakriti and nothing else. Beyond Prakriti there is nothing, no God, no one. That’s what Rama also says,  “I have to go,” Rama says, “I have to go.” Where do they go then? They have come from somewhere. Where they have to go means to retire into themselves; they retire into themselves, they repair into themselves. They retreat into themselves, discard all of these manifestations and they become unmanifested. From becoming, they retreat into Being. That’s what, “I have to go back.” We are all going back means where are we going? There’s nowhere; it is not a space, it is not a time, there is no causation there, everything is within the periphery of this Prakriti, Nature.
    Within that Nature, we recognize, we attribute according to our taste. Somebody becomes Christian, somebody becomes Hindu, somebody becomes Muslim because they want to find out where their likings are. I want to love everybody, I then love everybody. “Who did that? Oh, then he’s God.” So, I want to love like Him. I want to be like Mother Theresa. “She did this, Oh, I want to be like that.” It’s a recognition and we try to follow, but nobody does that. Each one is independent, each one has a mission, each one survives to do what one is born to do. No one follows the other. I have expressed this a number of times. Each one tries to imbibe the principles, the impetus, we are born with, thus one gets started. Each one gets a different flower though it belongs to the same stem. Stem doesn’t become flower, flower doesn’t become stem.
    So, God is what we want. We can even have an abstract God. In some of the countries, they have abstract God. They superimpose all these things so God is doing this and God is doing that. Thus, if you have attributes, all these things, then we call it God and we are all right; that is bhakti yoga and all these things. But on the other side, if we push all these things aside, “I don’t care for love, I don’t care for mercy, I don’t care for killing or not killing, saving or service or whatever it is; I want to go beyond that. I am neither doer nor am I enjoyer.” I am different than what? There’s no God, but you are worshiping Brahman. You are identifying yourself with the unmanifest reality or Truth. You surrender to the higher manifestation here and the small idea of God, “Oh, You are Krishna and I am bhakta. I salute.” But there, “No, you are Brahman. I’m also Brahman. What am I? What are you?” So, why do I want anything else between us.
    It is these things, these attributes that keep me away from me. I want to be good, I want to be a saint, I want to be this, I want to be that; no, I don’t want to be anything. I want to keep away from becoming any of these. I want to be what I am. Then naturally one has to be sincere. Have intensity of that feeling and you’ll become a Vedantist. You turn, you meditate, go deeper and establish yourself in that. Then, as I have told you many stories about those people who have reached that stage who take that body; they stick it, it comes and it can do wonders. They don’t do, there is no ego. All these things: love, hate and mercy, all of these things are prompted by ego. It is that ego which plays a trick; either it can make you a saint or it can make you a villain. It is the same, see that ego.
    So without ego, nobody can exist here. Even Krishna says, Krishna has to say “I am.” The moment he says, “I am,” there is ego; but far behind ego there is understanding. Unless he says, “I am,” nobody can understand. It is to make me understand what He has to say, “I am God.” If not, God doesn't want to say, “God.” So, that ego doesn’t affect Him but that ego affects us. We are a mixed lot. Thus, we can think.
    The other day we were talking about peace. I wanted you people to think of peace and let us have a discussion since there’s no time, next time we will ponder over peace and let us talk about peace next time. Thank you.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 42

    I have talked many times to you about the question of will. Why do we need the discipline? Yoga means discipline; discipline is necessary in order to create or strengthen your will before entering into this field of yoga. You are subjugated by your own mind, your own senses, your own body; they are the detrimental factors in seeking the spiritual life. That’s the reason why you have to discipline yourself. Discipline, in the sense of asserting yourself over the mind, body and the senses and take their services, not even their help but the services when and how and why, where you want it. That’s the reason why it is necessary to stick to all these principles that I discussed earlier — about the food, about the involvement, about your attachment and detachment. All these things will strengthen your will.
    You as you are, unknowingly, have forgotten yourself and you have become victimized by your own mind. Mind has got a stronger will than yours. Senses have a stronger will than yours, and body has stronger will than yours and you are neglected even though they know that without you, they cannot survive. That is the reason why they make you hold on to them, hang on to them. They don’t worry about you until the day when you start asserting yourself. You’ll have to face much trouble. The moment that you think of controlling the mind, mind takes you away, misleads you, leads you into all kinds of things, so also the body and the senses.
    The moment that you try to assert yourself, they don’t like it. That’s where you have to have the discipline, slowly and steadily, try to build your will power from within. You have to do it. Until then, you cannot sit down for meditation for a long time. You cannot even sit; even if you sit, you cannot meditate because the mind wants to drag you away, senses want to scratch you, body doesn’t want to sit. All these things happen. So, you’ll become crazy. You want to do certain things, but you cannot. You have to do what they tell you to do until you discipline them. They survive on you and through you they survive through food, involvement, emotions, passion, all these things. Slowly, you have to train them, detach, detach, detach. Don’t eat either too much, nor too less, don’t do too much fasting, don’t do too much eating. All these things are necessary in order to make them obey you, bring them under your control.
    And the second thing is this. Yesterday, I was watching how spiders tie their thread; they weave the web and the small fly flies in or even the small lizard falls in, and slowly the spider attacks. Spider is small; lizard is big but because of the web, lizard cannot move. The spider keeps injecting venom until the time that it becomes numb; it doesn’t move. Then the spider will start eating it. So, that’s what I thought; it is the other way round. That’s what we should do. Our mind, our senses, our

body, that’s what it is. Instead of they injecting us, we should start injecting them, not with venom but with honey.
    That’s what we do in Bhajan. What will we do to the eyes? We look at Krishna, look at Jesus, look at Saint Francis of Assisi, all these great people, great ones. They inspire you. Through the eyes, you behold them; they will inspire through the eyes. You make the mind think; you still the mind with them. And sing the name of God, take the name of Jesus, and fill the ears. Sting the mind with the name of God. And with the hands, serve your Master, serve your elders, serve all the sick people, serve all these things. This will also purify; this is another way of stinging the mind until it dies. Cover the tongue completely with this honey of devotion, love and all these things, then the mind will be overcome; it cannot overcome this stinging from the ears, eyes and nose — all that aroma that you burn, incense — then the mind will say, “All right, I collapse, I surrender.” Then you go deep into meditation. Take the chance, meditate; it is another way. That is the reason why we sing. We don’t allow the mind to wander at all.
    That’s why all these great Saints and Sages used to dance day in and day out. They didn’t sleep; there was no sleep for them. Sleep becomes Tamasic. Always meditation, that’s why they sit till the body’s tired; body, “All right, I want to lay down.” “All right, lay down.” But, they were active; they were singing. Instead of singing aloud, they kept on singing within, far deep within; they have layers of consciousness. It is not only external, it is internal. As you go, you can keep on repeating, repeating, repeating. You can feel that you’re alive there; you are readily there. You can hear your own Om; you can hear, “Om Jesus Om”, or any of the other bhajans you sing. It is not only repetition outside, if you are involved in that, instead of attaching to your pet, attach yourself to this and it will take you there. Even when you’re asleep, you’ll be repeating, constant repetition. That’s what the mantras do.
    That’s the reason why you are initiated into mantra. Mantra will take you there, free you from mind, physical, mental and all that. Mantra takes you there, always aware of yourself. That’s another way. If you are willing to struggle and exercise discipline, you can create your own will; your will that can make your mind and senses and body subservient to your will. If not, sting them. Make them obey through the stinging. Make them dead, completely through this repetition of prayers; keep engaged in prayers, service and all such activities.
    These are all easier methods. You need not sacrifice anything but use everything for the right purpose at the right time; that is your yogic purpose. That’s the summon bonum of yoga.
    Thank you very much for having come. We’re always happy to be here; they have provided the place for us as well as others. I was just reading about religion in the Washington Post. What a difference between here, Unity Church, and some others. There are blind people who follow the religion. And blinded, they make the religion blind and religion makes them blind so it is a cooperation between these two blind things. But compared to that, what a beautiful thing it is whenever we think of Unity Church. They are Christians, but they don’t hate others; they invite everyone to join in the Festival of Celebration of this God. They have realized the freedom. It’s only when you are free that you can realize God; only when you realize God, your views expand. It involves and encompasses everybody unlike what I read the other day about religious fundamentalists. They are so blinded; they want to talk ill of Jews, they want to talk ill of Muslims, ill of Hindus. They want to do all these stupid things. They think they are doing a great service. They are not doing any great service. Nobody is against any religion unless these custodians misinterpret the religion. Then religion becomes non productive and negative.
    These are the people who bring disgrace to the religion. They think it is only a particular religion which can redeem, but it can redeem only when these people are dead; so, they bring disaster to that particular religion. They want to convert, they talk, these fundamentalists, I don’t know. I never knew about these people; I knew only Catholics. And when I came to this country, I learned about Protestants, and now I am hearing about this Evangelists.
    Of all Christian denominations, I like best Unity Church because it practices and realizes that all neighbors are human beings. That’s what Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor.” We are all neighbors; Hindus are neighbors, Christians are neighbors, Muslims are neighbors, Jews are neighbors, Buddhists are neighbors. We are all neighbors in this universe. If you don’t know love, how to love your neighbor, you’re not practicing that religion. Some of these others are namesake Christians because they do not know how to love their neighbors; they do not even know.
    You must be careful. Here, you are talking about yoga. Yoga doesn’t distinguish between Christians and Muslims and Buddhists or Hindus; it doesn’t matter who you are. You may practice any religion; this is only a process or method of reaching what you have chosen to reach, so you must be careful about it. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 43

    Had there been no mind, there would have been no yoga. There would have been no need for yoga, had there been no mind and it’s accessories. Yoga means to deal with the mind.
    The problem is that there are two sides of the mind. One is the consciousness, but undeveloped you or me, whatever you call it, that awareness. It is introvert. That’s the reason why we cannot behold. It is so subtle. Though it is all pervading, we cannot feel, we cannot see, we cannot hear because the instruments by which we have to do all that are all extrovert: mind, the senses, the ears, the nose, eyes. They’re all extrovert.
    And the mind and its intellect, the intellect can only grasp but by itself it doesn’t do anything. It cannot do anything; that’s the whole problem. Though we have a mind, we have intellect, but still it’s of no use because by itself it doesn’t do anything unless that consciousness, the awareness, within is awakened and needs the intellect to turn towards that grasping; it’s hard.
    Mind, it’s always extrovert and it runs hither and thither through the senses to the objects, because the purpose of the mind is also to enjoy; it wants to see, wants to enjoy. It has the paraphernalia, but unfortunately it doesn’t know what to enjoy. All that it knows is what it sees, what it hears, what it touches; so, the senses run to their objects outside in order to please the mind.
    And me, you, as a consciousness, you are introvert. Our pleasure, our happiness, our joy is not running to the objects of the senses and experience by what you are, having identified with the mind and their paraphernalia. For a long time, we have identified ourselves as the part of them, so that’s the reason why we too run; if the eyes see we too run there, along with the senses. Along with the ears, we run there. And there’s a limit to which we can forget ourselves and there'll be a time when we realize, “I’m getting tired. What am I doing?” After awhile, neither the sense of hearing nor the seeing nor breathing whatever it is doesn’t seem to bring that pleasure for you. Though mind enjoys, you don’t enjoy. You go to movie, mind and senses seem to enjoy, but far deep within you are not comfortable. “Oh, did you go to movie? I went but, it’s all right.” Slowly, you’ll start realizing it. You’ll realize that you are in bad company and you have been influenced by them and slowly you’ll develop the detachment to them. But for a while, when you don’t go with them, then the mind will start, “Come on sir, where are you? I have not seen you in a while, come on. Lets go.” So, we succumb. So thus, it is the extrovert

movement of the mind and their organ, senses, with which we are also running.
    That’s the reason why we have not been able to understand the reality of our being, true being. What are we? What should we do? When this question arises far deep within, then it will be the foundation for starting the activity called yoga. Yoga is a process, an activity that tries to find out an answer for this question, “Who am I, what am I?” But mind cannot answer. They may look at the mind of the scientist. They can dissect the whole nature and find out things, but they cannot see God. They cannot see who they are. Whatever is available to the external world, it is beautiful, it is also subtle; though it is gross, far deep within the grossness, there is that subtlety which the scientists are trying to find, but not that which we seek. That’s not the answer to the question, “Who am I?” Because any amount of involvement and search in the external world cannot satisfy our own being about the answer to that question. That’s the whole thing.
    Mind, that intellect can grasp, but as I told you, it cannot by itself do anything. So then, you’ll be helpless; then, you start troubling. You want to try to deal with the mind, you try to strike a deal with mind and its companions, but they do not understand. They cannot grasp, they can only grasp the things outside. If you talk to them about taste, beauty, music, they can give lectures for all the eternity; but, when you talk about Atma, when you talk about God, when you talk about true self, it cannot understand even a bit.
    So, we have to fight, we are fighting, that’s the yoga, “Oh, I have been working through the mind and senses to do that and it’s a failure.” So, the yoga turns to another point. It is no use trying to fight and convert these people, this mind and their retinue.
    So, let us reject them, turn away from them, try to assert yourself and keep the mind and the senses away from you. You detach yourself. In yoga process, when you are tired, you are trying to detach yourself. You as one unit and all the others as one unit. They are the external means of experiencing, but you don’t want it. You have seen the world, you have experience, you have seen the world, you have enjoyed, you have used your body and mind, so you have the experience of everything now, of all the things, is a question, “What am I?” In spite of all that involvement, physical, mental and vital, but still you have been in darkness as to know what I am. That’s the reason why you shun. Now you are tired of it; you try to shun the mind and its activities, senses and their activities, physical and their activities. Now you go deeper and deeper within yourself; you establish yourself in yourself. In the last chapter we were talking about it; you have to take pleasure in being yourself, being yourself or involving yourself in yourself is the same thing.
    So, you dwell within yourself; that’s what the yogis do. This is not as easy as we talk, that’s what Arjuna says, “Krishna, You tell me that I must control the mind and control the senses and all these things. How am I going to do? It is not possible.” How many of us are not experiencing that? We know that mind is fertile being; mind brings pressure on us, “Oh, I have tension and that craziness.” “Oh, I’m not feeling well, my mind is not working.”, all these things. But how many of us are endowed with those experiences? We cannot deal with the mind. We run to psychiatrists and psychologists and this and that, because we cannot deal with it, and neither can they deal. It’s a subtle thing.
    With a smile, Krishna must have said, “Yes, that’s true, that’s the reason why yoga is important. Oh, yoga will take a long time because for age old, for time immemorial you have been connected with that. You too have become extrovert; now, it is good. It’s a good sign that you are trying to detach yourself and you are dwelling within yourself. At the same time, your connections are still there; you are not prepared to disconnect it, even if you want to disconnect it, it is not severing. That’s the whole problem.”
    “Don’t worry, in yoga, it doesn’t happen within one day, one year, in one life. It doesn’t matter, you must have hope, you must have confidence and keep on working, endeavor. You must keep on working slowly and steadily. Don’t become despondent. What happens is, you may lose a battle, you may lose a couple of battles, but ultimately you are going to win the war.”
    “You have to create your will, stronger will. Mind doesn’t know you because it doesn’t enter into your being; it is incapable of entering, but you can enter into the mind. It doesn’t have that capacity. That’s the reason why it doesn’t know; if not, it would have cooperated. So, slowly and steadily instead of allowing the mind to rule over you, you have to create that will and supersede the mind. Make the mind understand, ‘You cannot dwell in me, but at least you can keep quiet. Let me do my work.’ That’s what you can do.”
    And slowly what happens, in the process, as corresponding to the degree of your progress, you’ll be keeping steady for a while. Then slowly, there'll be a crack between your connection with mind and senses and extrovert paraphernalia and you. To that extent, you will start experiencing because there is no influence of the mind and the senses. You are pure Self yourself. Even for a fraction of a second, or two, in the process, slowly and steadily, corresponding to the degree of your preparedness and receptivity, you’ll enjoy it. Once you enjoy, that pure bliss, pure self, that influences even the mind.
    As I told you, that faculty of the mind, its intellect is also greatly receptive. Intellect pursues; intellect grasps. Something has happened but it cannot explain; it doesn’t know what it is, but it enjoys without the means of ears, or whatever it is. The intellect has grasped it, but it doesn’t know. And when the intellect grasps, it understands, it calms down, it influences all the others, the mind and the senses and it will allow. It will succumb to your will. By that time, you’ll be devoid of their superimposition and you’ll create your own will and you’ll be assertive. And instead of fighting, there'll be a cooperation because the intellect has grasped what you are experiencing though it doesn’t know what it is. Just like incense you burn; I smell it, I don’t know what it is, from where it is coming but still, I am enjoying it. That’s what happens. This bliss that you experience is influencing the intellect also. Once it explains, the intellect experiences this, grasps it, then it tries to talk to the others, “Hey, there’s something, don’t worry. When he wants to do this, you keep quiet. When he comes back, we can all enjoy.”
    Slowly and steadily, we can subdue all these elements, the mind, the body and everything when you go out, go deep within yourself and experience, enjoy yourself. When you come back, you’ll be influencing all these and they will enjoy. Once they enjoy, without their own knowing, they all respond positively to you. That’s the reason why yogis are attractive, their bodies are attractive, their eyes, their ears, everything. Why? Because of the influence; they do not know but that influence is there. When Aurobindo died, for three days, the life was there in the body; nobody could say that he was dead. That was the influence, even the physique, every molecule responds. Every molecule, today it is a molecule, tomorrow it may go. It may be somewhere else. It carries that. Even every molecule has to be redeemed, yogi’s every part. That’s the reason why they keep their hair; somebody keeps their skin, they keep this, their nail and all this. Why? Because it is precious; it has absorbed all that you experienced and it radiates, the greatest radiation. That’s the reason.
    And that’s the reason why we are all called human, because we have mind. That’s the reason why when you get rid of the mind and all the senses and you become yourself, you are no more called man or woman. You are called a Saint, you are called something else because you got rid of your mind, you lose your senses, all these things. You are no more influenced by them; you are devoid of them. And Krishna also says, we have to use Krishna because we are talking about GITA, that’s all. If you replace Krishna, you can put Jesus, you can put Buddha, the same thing happens, the meaning is the same. And a yogi is one. Once he or she realizes what he or she is far deep within himself or herself and he or she recognizes same thing in everything, once he or she knows, he or she picks up the thread and follows the thread and he or she will see the same thread passing through everything. And that thread, ultimately where does it lead to? Knowing the divine. Whether you call it Krishna, or Rama or Buddha, Jesus, it doesn’t matter.
    So realizing this means realizing God. Once you realize, you are in God, you are nowhere but within the framework of God which is limitless. And one who sees oneself in God and sees God in oneself never leaves each other. Once it happens, once it takes place, once you realize that this fact, the truth, that you being part of the Divine and Divine being part of you, there is neither you nor me, but it is one. Then you are never away from God or God will never leave you. You are one at the same time. There’s no difference. It is only due to ignorance that I think I am different, there is a partition. Once you remove that, then what happens is you are one with the Divine.
    So whether you call it Divine, or you, it doesn’t matter because you have been calling yourself by name, shape, color; it doesn’t matter. But still, you are the Divine; your color is the color of the Divine, your activities are the activities of the Divine and Divine’s activities are yours. So thus, it becomes one; one who sees God in everything and everything in God becomes one. There’s no difference absolutely, that’s what happens. In the last chapter, He also said, “That man who knows God, complete knowledge of the Divine, doesn’t distinguish between the elephants, the ants, the dogs, and the this and that, black, white, fat, lean, nothing. He sees the same thing everywhere.” And also He said, “Whether it is gold, or the rock or whatever it is, it is absolutely nothing, he see’s only Divinity, only God, only that.” That’s what happens. This is the result of yoga.
    Yoga means patience, you must endeavor, continue and you must discipline yourself as I have said. Many times in my life too, in the earlier days, I said, as a dance teacher, I used to enjoy the class and I used to sit in coffee shop and laugh and enjoy, “What am I doing in this ashram? Standing in a line for a piece of bread and instead of putting on good clothes, I’m putting on this loin cloth and all that.” Sometimes I used to say, “What am I doing? I meditate, I can do everything there, and where am I, what am I doing here? Oh yoga, forget about it.” Several times, it happened in the earlier days. Despondency, we want a result oriented life immediately! Now! No, yoga takes its own time. All you have to do is get into the train and sit. You cannot force the train. Train has to move by itself. That’s what happens. I struggled; that struggle later on became beautiful and yielded the results. That was great. Had I given in to that despondency, I would not have been here. I would not have been talking to you now.
    Discouragement comes; all kinds of things come. The moment that you think of God, the moment that you think of yoga, the moment that you want to do these things, the dark forces are always there, ignorance is always there waiting to attack you. They try to impress upon you, “Oh, come on.” That’s the reason and it is said in Bible also, the Devil trying to tempt Jesus. Ignorance, that’s what happens. The moment that you want to go to God, so long as you do not think of God, you are all right. There’s no hollering; the moment that you think of God, the hollering comes, just behind you. So you must be careful about it. So in yoga, don’t give up, don’t give into despondency, don’t give up your efforts, exercise patience, even if it is not today, tomorrow, maybe another day, maybe next year, maybe next life, it doesn’t matter. Once you are there, you are always there; be there and results will follow.
    Very many times, temptation happens. I was doing all these things. I meditated for some time, Kundalini arose and all that. I got some experiences and all that. And afterwards, I went astray; I got involved in external affairs and forgot about yoga and then I spent my life and died. So what is the result now? Does it mean that I have lost all the fruits of all my efforts in yoga? No. Once you are born as a human, you are going to be born as a human, man or woman; it doesn’t matter, human. And then in that, you have not lost what you have earned in the process of yoga. Very many times, small children, they can repeat Bible whole, right from the first page to the last page. It is only two years old, three years old. From where did it learn? The children, five year old children, who can repeat BHAGAVAD GITA right from the beginning to the end, from the end to the beginning. They can repeat and they can tell you how many times Arjuna has been used, Bhagwan has been used, and what He did in 7th sloka in 7th chapter; they will tell you. From where did it come? Within five years? Can you do it?
    So, these things do prove that it is the past life; life is eternal. You are not going to die; you’ll leave the body but you are not dead. So what can happen? What will happen? Supposing while doing yoga sincerely, somewhere, somehow, you take a wrong step and you fall. Are you going to lose? No, it’s insurance; you don’t lose your premium. You’ll be paid with interest, you’ll continue. What happens is, in the next birth, you’ll be born, like Janaka was born as a king. Or, you may be born in a house, though poor, virtuous, full of God and love is there. There you continue from where you have left. All of a sudden you will realize where you have left, and you will start from there. Wherever you have left without your own knowing, from there onwards you will start working. You might be born as a king, or a Brahmin, or a yogi again, or something but you will never lose what you have achieved in the process of yoga. Even a little, what you have done, that is credited to your account, your account is continued. You’ll come across some teacher who has realized and he will give you a push; he can realize and recognize where you were. From there, he will lift you up and keeps you on the track.
    Somehow in the process, it’s a very curious process, how things happen. I think it was Babaji who revealed this to somebody. On a mountain, a devotee was called, “Come and jump off the cliff.” He falls and takes an immediate rebirth. So because he had jumped like that, he need not wait for complete cycle. Then he was led to that ashram. So what does it mean? That there’s no death, this body, this encumbrance should be gotten rid of so you start fresh, continue our journey.
    And there’s another desire that held back the progress of one of the yogis there. He wanted to live in a big palace and all that. So until he did that, he could not progress. So, he was led into that palace and beautiful wife and all that. Once it was done, then he realized, “What am I doing?” Then that was the end of it. Then immediately he was transferred into a yogi; he continued his journey.
    So it is not imagination, so what happens is, some Kalpa, imagination, thinking, it is that which creates all these haphazard things which you have to bear with. That’s the reason why we should not imagine a lot of things. If you are a yogi, don’t give mind a chance to imagine and desire. That is called Samkalpa. When we do puja, when we sit for puja, I am doing this puja in order to achieve a son or in order to win in the lottery or whatever it is, that is called imagination and desires. “For fulfillment of that desire, I am worshiping You, oh Lord.” Yogi doesn’t do that. Yogi doesn’t have a desire, Yogi doesn’t have any imagination. Imagination is the property of the mind. You are dealing with the mind and if you give vent to that imagination, if you succumb to that imagination, you are welcoming mind back, “Come on, come on, take over.” So neither imagination nor desire. You must give up that. Then the things will be easy; you are the one in the field. Thank you very much.
 



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 44

    We were discussing meditation. Meditation means the lack of mental substance; movement of the mind should be ceased. Seizure of all the movements of the mind will automatically lead you into meditation. Meditation is a process by which you’ll travel into deep space, unknown, where no one has gone before; even if one has gone before, it is unknown.
    We have been able to control the legs, the hands and the head, ears, eyes, everything by closing the eyes or by covering our eyes, but the mind we have not been able to. It is so subtle. The gross existence can be controlled because it is visible; we can do it. But, the mind and the senses are so subtle that it is beyond the comprehension of the intellect to deal with it. Even the mind is controlled by the intellect only, though it is a product of the mind, itself; one supersedes the other.
    So, it is very hard. Meditation will not be a success until you deal with the mind, and you will not be a success in dealing with the mind until you have succeeded in controlling all your senses. And, you’ll not be successful in controlling the senses until you take them away from their objects. The more you try to run your senses toward their objects, greater the problem; they keep on dealing with their objects and bringing them to the mind. Mind will have to deal with them; mind will be busy. Any amount of your intellect to control that mind, the activities of the mind, will be a failure.
    From the grass root, let us start. That’s the reason why people run away from the families, run away from the world into the jungles, into the caves. They do not want the objects of the senses; more objects of the senses means more problem, so they cut off. They cut off the relationship. They try to take away the objects, sensual objects, from their senses so that the senses will be at rest; and slowly, they will come to a state of equilibrium. Their movements have ceased. When the senses are quiet, the mind also will have no trouble. The desk is clean, so mind will also rest. When the mind is at rest, then you, as the consciousness, can deeply engage in your own travel; you can travel in space like no one else, and it happens to be very easy then.
    What is bothering us was what was bothering Arjuna also in those days, forty five hundred years ago; everybody was troubled by the mind. “Oh Lord, Krishna, You say, ‘You must sit quietly in a corner in a room, bring your mind under your control without moving.’” Be still,” He says, “like the candle flame in a windless room; it goes straight, it doesn’t move. Have you seen that? Like that, you must make your mind like that.” Arjuna says, “Oh Lord, You are great. You tell me all those things but have You done it? If You have done it, You know how hard it is. Oh Lord, it is not possible for us. What to do?” Krishna smiled and said, “Yes, it is true. You’re right; but you must remember, you are the supreme most power, like America is supreme most power, you are the supreme most power on your mind, senses and all those things.”
    “You have forgotten your will. You have become weak willed. You have become subservient to them; that’s the reason why it is hard. You have to assert yourself slowly and steadily. You must win over them, assert yourself; make them know that you are their boss. Without you, they cannot survive; make them know.”
    “This doesn’t happen immediately, because for all these lives you have been subjugated by them. You have become subservient to the mind, senses and all that. How can you do it? No, you’re right. So slowly, the stillness comes step by step. Don’t fight; more you fight with your mind, mind is stronger, it is subtler. It has already established it’s control over you. It can ruin you; it can make you crazy. Instead of leading you into meditation, it will lead you into a psychological ward, in institutions. So, don’t fight with mind. Slowly, convince the mind; the mind has the product that is the intellect. Try to take care of the intellect; through the intellect, convince them. Slowly, steadily, even if it helps you for moments, meditation is great. Today it is one moment, tomorrow two, three, after a week, maybe 10 seconds; it doesn’t matter, slowly and steadily. All the results of the yoga will not be achieved within one life span, one day or one lifetime. Once you have entered it, you are succeeding. You are going to succeed, but you have to have the patience. If you do not have the patience, you are a failure.”
    “Yoga means, you must have confidence, perseverance and you must know that you are going to succeed and stay there. Nothing should stop you from movement; sometimes it appears as if you just stand still. No, there’s a movement always and once you embark upon this yoga, yoga will take you to the end; it will never leave you The movement is slow indeed, but progress continues.”
    But what happens, in the process of practicing yoga, things happen. It is a world of incidents. Things happen where a yogi falls from his practices. Before one reaches the end game of this yoga, he or she succumbs somewhere, falls. So what will happen? Has he or she to start again from the beginning? No, you must remember, once you are born as a human, you will never go back into other species, and you will progress from

human to superhuman and superhuman to other things and you become the Divinity ultimately in due course.
    Similarly, once you have become a yogi, you’ll continue to be a yogi. If you succumb to certain circumstances in this life while practicing yoga, you will not lose that. You don’t lose your capital, your investment. This will help you for the next life. You’ll be born in an environment, in a family, in a country, maybe in a village, in a place where you will continue from where you have left off. You might be born into a rich family, maybe as a prince somewhere, or to a Brahmin, pious Brahmin family which are devoted to God from where you will develop your bhakti. Or maybe, into a family of yogis.
    The method of yoga that you have chosen will determine where you will continue your yoga in the next life; you will never lose what you have earned. You will never go a step backward in yoga. You may come to a standstill for a while, it’s ok. But, you will start from there when you are awakened, when you gain your senses, you say, “Oh yes, I did this, I should not have done it; all right, let me continue.” You’ll continue. And it will take you to the end until you reach that state of beatitude, oneness with the Brahman, oneness with the Divinity, understanding, realization of your own self. That’s ultimately the goal. You shun physical, mental, all the aspects and you become your own self, the light, light of your own light. That’s what it is.
    So we should have patience, we should have perseverance, we should have hope, endeavor to keep on trying, never give way to destitution, never become despondent. As I told you, those who have already reached the goal are there to help in your efforts. They have a long hand to push you through. When you are stuck, they will take you there and lift you and put you in the place from where you can walk. They are always helpful.
    There is help that you cannot see, but you can feel. Many times we say, “Oh, by miracle I escaped.” “Oh miracle this.” “Oh miracle that.” Always miracle, that’s what it is; the things that we don’t see, but it is working. So God’s Grace also works same way, is a miracle; God is everywhere. His Grace always surrounds us, touching inside and outside without which we cannot survive. Whether as physically living or dead, it doesn’t matter. If you are dead, are you disconnected with God? No. There is nowhere where there is no God. And even if you are dead, where do you go? Wherever you go there is God.
    So you should remember, it’s only one aspect of our life, that’s all. Living is one aspect of our Being. Death, that’s another aspect, that’s all. But in all the aspects, there is connection with the Divine. God is always there; we are always in connection with the God; God will never forsake us. And we are not going to forsake God either. But, the moment the father and child fight, they have a misunderstanding, but in due course, they’ll come together and they are as father and son or daughter, right? The same connection here, God and us. No matter, you may hate Him, you may dislike Him, you may deny Him, it doesn’t matter; God laughs at you. “My son, without Me where are you?” “My daughter, without Me where are you?” All right, you will realize; there’ll be a day when you realize. That’s the reason why we always say, “Today’s criminal is tomorrow’s saint.” That’s the reason why saints realize there’s no difference between a sinner and a saint. Both are the same; it is one extreme end, the other one is other extreme end. That’s all; it is on the same scale. Thank you very much.





BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 45

    Yoga is the only way to achieve the highest goal in life, nothing else. All the others are means to something else; it pleases your mind, but nothing solid happens unless you practice yoga. And you accomplish through yoga the highest goal of life, that is to know the Truth; Truth as it is, as we say, naked truth.
    So, in order to reach that highest goal in life, there are so many ways in which people try to achieve before taking to yoga. There is asceticism. If you go to India, you will see lot of people standing on one leg and standing on head, topsy turvy, torturing themselves, fasting too much and eating too much, all kinds of things in order to say, “We want to win over the Nature.” Our purpose in life is not to get over the Nature; we are already in Nature. It is only to be in conformity with the Nature, that if we can live, then next step is to become Divine. Living in conformity with the Nature helps you to become a human; and once you become a perfect human, next step is to become Divine, even without your own asking. We need not make an extra effort there.
    So, asceticism is one thing many times Krishna Himself has said, (later we come across that), “We have no right to torture our body in any way; that’s the reason why earlier He said, “Everything in proportion is what is good for yoga, eat little, sleep a little, do this a little, involve in recreation a little, all these things in proportion.” See, the life, the creation, the Prakriti is beautiful. We have a life; we have to experience, live. So, in order to do that, you must experience, enjoy everything in its proportion. At the right time, right thing in right proportion, eat, drink, sleep; involve in life in a particular proportion. Anything other than that, over and above, will yield bad result. If you eat too much, you will get stomach ache. That stomach ache will perturb the whole thing, the mental upset and psychology. Physically you will be upset, mentally you will be upset and that upset will upset the whole lot in life. That’s the reason why we should take care of that. So as such, He doesn’t proclaim that asceticism is a best way to achieve the goal.
    People walk. I have seen when I was beyond Gomukh, 15,000 feet high, coming I saw a person walking barefoot on the cold, icy rocks and even with shoes and two pairs of socks, I used to feel that cold. And people do that penance sitting or standing in the sun for hours. And people piercing their tongues with needles, all kinds of this asceticism. You have to torture your body, torture your mind, torture your senses. Why? If you have to torture it, why should God give you that? Anyway, in the name of God, they want to do it; it’s all right, they think they do it for God’s sake! So, God has to tolerate it.
    So just like when father gives you five dollars, if I go and drink and fall into the ditch, so what does he think next time if I ask for money? He says, “All right my son, I don’t want to give you money because you do not know how to use it.” That’s what will happen. So that’s what the situation is; if you want to take to asceticism, you must think twice. Where does it take you? What are you going to involve in? In involving only in the physical plane, you are going to do and it doesn’t spiritualize you in any way.
    So, yoga is better than this. Yoga doesn’t ask you to renounce everything, give up everything, but to make everything useful for your achievement to the highest, as I’ve told you. Food, you need not give up food; eat little to sustain. Involve everything in it’s own proportion. So, there’s no question of renunciation there. If you have more than what you need, then it is renunciation. So, yoga is better than asceticism.
    Jnana is knowledge, so what happens is, “Well yoga, oh, forget about yoga, let me go to library and read all the books, everything about God, everything about the Nature, everything about the science, everything about the atom, and this and that and all that.” It is not going to help. Who’s it going to help? No. It is like knowing about chocolate doesn’t give me the taste of chocolate, and I can enjoy the chocolate and be happy even without knowing what chocolate is made of and how it is made. And, I need not visit the factory, do I?
    So, yoga once again is better than even that Jnana, Knowledge. Knowledge part is ok if it is supplemental to yoga. There are those who involve in all the rituals according to Vedas, according to their religious dictum, conducting all
kinds of oblations and doing the fire ceremonies and all such things, engaging in all those rituals. Does it in any way help you much? No. So, it will help you only within the Nature. You can involve in the Natural forces, you’ll be pleasing the Natural forces and at the most, you’ll be pleasing the others in the other plane; mundane, all this is mundane, it doesn’t help you in any way in spiritual life. See, it is good; you must do oblations and all that because you want to belong here, you want your family to be protected, you want all these things, it’s all right. You want to please your dead people, all right, go ahead; but pleasing your dead departed souls doesn’t please God. God is not a departed soul; He’s a living soul, so He needs yoga. So it’s only through yoga that you can achieve the highest goal and nothing else.
    So, of all asceticism and seeking knowledge and sticking to the religious rituals, yoga is the best because it is the yoga which takes you directly to the experience; it gives you the experience. You will come face to face with the Reality, with the Truth. That is the reason why He says, “That’s the reason why Arjuna, become a yogi. Don’t bother about all this knowledge you are talking to Me about.”
    The next chapter is Vijnana yoga, the direct perception. Once again, in the next chapter also, God wants to discuss about it. There are two aspects, one is jnana and one is vijnana. One is the knowledge, the other one is vijnana, the direct perception. The knowledge, you get by reading the books. Religiously people study the VEDAS, UPANISHADS, GITA all these, RAMAYANA and MAHABHARATA; just like Catholics read BIBLE and Muslims read KORAN and the Jews read the TORAH and others read their sacred texts. These are all religious things. But once you take to this spiritual life, it is far beyond the religious conception; religious conception is to live within the framework of the Nature in this world, here. It doesn’t take you to the other world. Social or economical situation is what is provided by religion. But spiritual, you have to give up all these things and go beyond all this. It starts on a different plane altogether, different level altogether. That’s the reason why the knowledge part is all right. When you want to do the rituals and how to please all these demi-Gods and get their favors, it is prompted by desires. You have to act; you have to do the rituals, you have to do all these things. In order to do them, you have to know. So in order to know, you have to read; go to library, read all these things. But it doesn’t help me in any way to progress in my spiritual life.
    But, what will help me in spiritual life, is direct perception. Little by little, it doesn’t matter, by meditation. Give up my attachment. See, all the things are prompted by my desires. What is the motivation for my activities? It’s the desire, fulfillment. So, what is my highest desire? God. Do any of these things lead me to that? No. Anything that doesn’t lead me to God, is waste, just like dust growing on things I’ve collected and put in my garage. I do not even know that I have those things because it is of no use. So, Vijnana is that; even if you do a little, you must feel it, you must experience it, you must know it. Knowing directly by your experience is what is called Vijnana.
    We call the science Vijnana because they experiment. They experiment and know and then they prove that this is this. That’s the same process here. How are you going to prove God? Not by reading books, not by doing any other thing than to experience God, you must experience God and establish in Him. Then, when you talk about God, I need not question you; I may not believe, but I’m not going to question you. I’m not going to disbelieve you. I may not believe, but I may not disbelieve your experience, your statement, because it is the force of your experience. You are an authority, so you must take shelter under Vijnana.
    So, Vijnana comes to you only through yoga. It’s only through yoga that you can have a direct perception of the Reality. Everything else, happens in this Nature; and also in this Nature, what we see, we see the gross Nature. All that we see, all that we feel, all that we hear, touch, experience, this is just the gross Nature. You should distinguish between the two aspects of the Nature, Sthula and Sukshma. Sukshma is the subtle Nature which we cannot perceive, which causes this lower Nature in which we are living, all the activities involved in lower Nature. That’s the reason we always say, “Hey, don’t go into that lower Nature, don’t have the desires. Desire, fulfillment and these things.” We can’t enjoy the Godly experience when we hanker after the wealth; we want wealth and we want this, we want that. All these things pertain to this lower Nature. But, what we think, what is necessary is to understand the higher principles on which this lower Nature functions is made up of eight limbs of Prakriti, Nature: like fire, water, air , either, earth, mind, intellect and Ahamkara, this “me” and “mine”, that ego.
    All these eight limbs of Prakriti, that’s what makes lower Nature, but each one of them has two parts. The subtle part of which we are not conscious of, without which we do not function, the Tanmatras. For everything, there is a seed; just like Aum is the seed syllable for all sound, for the five elements, for space. Everything there is that Tanmatra. And it is the strange mixture, five kinds of mixture, that brings in this Prakriti, this gross or lower Prakriti that we talk of.
    So through yoga, you will rise above this Sthula Prakriti, this gross Prakriti, into the level that is the higher Prakriti, subtle Prakriti. And you will learn, you will see the principles, all those subtle principles on which this Prakriti prolongs, the Tanmatras. All these things are understood only by the intuition; that intuitive faculty should be developed. It is developed only by means of yoga. In yoga, you don’t depend on your intellect at all there. You depend on intuition, on the highest individual faculty that functions there in yoga. A man may not have studied, he may not have done anything, but there’s nothing that he doesn’t know; there’s nothing that is beyond his ability to know and do things through yoga. Yoga is the power that brings intuitive faculty into play which is necessary; the intuitive faculty is necessary to understand the higher Nature.
    People say, “Sai Baba materialized a ring the other day, just two days ago, to give it to one person, created ash from the space.” That’s what we say; what we see, the ring and all those things are material. That is what it is; it is the part of this lower Nature. From where did he get it? It’s from the higher five varieties of mixture of these Tanmatras, the seed elements, five ways in which you can mix it and make things. And if you dissect all this Prakriti, all this Nature, there are five elements which all these things are mixed into. That’s the reason why we see this gold and this silver, this wood, this tree, this man, this woman, this and that, all kinds of things.
    So that’s what it is. Once you have that intuitive source of knowledge, you can command those Tanmatras; in a jiffy, you can create. Milarepa was the greatest alchemist; he could turn anything into gold. Many people went to learn that alchemy from him, but I don’t know if he taught anybody anything but yoga. The intuitive knowledge, he conquered, this means it is not conquering, it is understanding, knowing, first hand, all these subtle forces; and, by knowing what makes what, in what proportion, what element, mixing what comes. So, people do that; that’s what Baba does, and that’s what the great Saints do.
    A mother went to Baba, “My child is suffering from a stomach ache, terrible stomach ache.” Baba smiled and gave a hand full of hard Channa, a fried Bengal gram; it is hard. Nobody eats it when one has a stomach ache; it is hard to digest. He gave a hand full. So mother looked. Baba said, “Take this.” And, it cured. Had anybody else given it, the child would have died. So, Channa becomes the means through which the intuitive power works, the means by which he can remove that malady. He can play; these yogis do and undo things, that’s what we call miracle. It is not a miracle; for them it is not a miracle, it is a day to day thing. For us, it is a miracle. What is miracle? Because we don’t understand, we do not know, the Law of the Nature, that’s all. Thank you.






BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 46

    Every week, twice we sing
 
        Asatoma Sadgamaya
        Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya
        Mrityorma Amritangamaya
        Om Shantih Shantih Shantih
 
It is a prayer unto the Divine that we should be taken from darkness to light, “Lead us from darkness to light.” That’s what the Festival is today, all over India, the Light Festival.
    The significance of that is, what is the darkness? Darkness is not merely lack of light, but the lack of knowledge; that’s the reason why we want to stress education. And even in education, not merely the book knowledge that we have been discussing in this chapter, Jnana. We have not worried about Jnana, though it is necessary as long as we want to fill the intellect, keep the intellect active; we need this Jnana, the light.
    Light of wisdom is what we seek, that is Vijnana. That Vijnana only comes by yoga. It is the intuitional wisdom. The wisdom is the property of the intuition, and that you can develop only through yoga. Yoga, consciously, whether you are doing in this life, or you must have done it in the past, they may say, there are people who do not know, who do not even know what yoga is but still they are intuitively capable. And for a short time, for a while, but later on that diminishes; it doesn’t stay on because you have to keep feeding it to the extent that it becomes saturated. Once the wisdom becomes saturated, then whatever you do, it doesn’t get lost; it keeps on growing by itself. Just like some capitalist, what happens? They get money; they keep that much money which is necessary for spending lavishly, but still there is so much money that they invest that money and it keeps on growing and growing and growing, even without their own knowing. Do they lack money for spending? No, in spite of all that, there is money; that’s what happens when wisdom is saturated. That’s the reason why when you go to yogis, they know everything. They have a fund of knowledge, the wisdom; they never went to school, they never went anywhere.
    Until then, we have to depend upon the intellect; intellect is necessary in order to discriminate. Discrimination is one of the virtues, one of the qualifications for a Sadhaka, a seeker. You see, discrimination is necessary to distinguish between the Truth and untruth, what to accept and what not to accept. Discrimination, that comes only through intellect. In order to grow intellect, you have to have Jnana. We need books, we need people to talk, we need people to teach us, all these things. Those who have, they give us; so we build up. And, to the extent that we are tired of Jnana, then we seek the wisdom. Any amount of intellect, a mountain full of intellect may not be compared even to an iota of wisdom. What the intellect cannot solve, the wisdom solves like this. You’ll wonder, “Why?” “How?” That’s the capacity. It is that which removes that darkness, ultimate Vijnana. Vijnana comes only through yoga; that’s the reason why they say you must become a yogi. That’s why Krishna has been telling, “If you want to be yogi, you must adhere to Me and My teachings, what I am telling you now. That’s the greatest thing; attach to Me because I am only the One. By knowing Me, you will know everything: Jnana, Vijnana; everything will follow, everything, material and nonmaterial. Everything comes to you, knowledge of everything and the possession of all these things will be yours when you possess Me.” Me means, that Supreme Knowledge, Supreme Wisdom, Supreme Entity.
    What is God, what is me, what is Krishna? Is it a person as we see in the pictures? There are so many thousands and thousands of pictures of Krishna, each one differs from the other. But which Krishna is true? Through that picture, we imagine the greatness of Krishna. Krishna, what is Krishna? That’s what He is telling. Nobody can define, He’s the Vijnana, He’s the yoga, He’s the ultimate achievement of the yoga also — means and the end, everything is what He is. That’s what He says, “The Nature.” Who’s Nature? “Nature comes from Me. I’m the Nature, but still I am away from the Nature.” So, He distinguishes Nature from lower and higher Nature. “Higher Nature is something which you cannot understand now. All that you are playing with is the lower Nature.”

    And many people say, “He can go beyond the Nature, He can conquer the Nature.” You cannot; you do not even know what the Nature is. You are thinking of conquering the Nature; thinking that what you see and feel is the Nature. It is not so. The cause of what we see and feel is different from what it is. The building, the mountain, the planets, the sky, all these things, what are they, the weather, rain, shine, dirt, death all these things, calamities. We think “Oh, this is the Nature.” This is the lower Nature. This, you think by flying in the air, “Oh, we have conquered this.” You have not conquered, you do not even know what makes the sky. Sky may fall tomorrow. What makes you think there is a sky itself is imagination. There’s nothing like sky. Is there a sky? Space, all these things are lower Nature. The birth, death, everything happens within that shell. This is the lower Nature. It is necessary, even Gods. We talk about Indra, Agni, whatever demigod we talk about, all these thirty three million Gods that we have tried to enumerate. Where do they exist? Within this Nature. They are the custodians of this Nature, the forces of this lower Nature. This lower Nature will have no effect on the higher Nature of which only God, the Divinity, can have an impact on. It is He. “Higher Nature is nothing but Me,” that’s what He says. There’s no difference between the higher Nature and Me.
    So, by the time that you get over this Nature, you’ll go beyond the Nature, then you don’t exist in this Nature. Many people think, “If I am dead, I am gone.” No. Neither is Indra, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera all these demigods are not permanent; they are only custodians. They are chained; they have their own limitation. If one year is long for us, millions of years may be one day for them. It doesn’t matter; it is timelessness that we are talking about when you enter into the higher Nature. So, it is permanent. It is there because it is nothing but the Divinity itself.
    From there, the lower Nature comes and when it is the end, the end comes; the Nature has to end in order to have a new beginning. Where does It go? It is withdrawn again into the higher Nature. It is the play between the higher Nature and lower Nature, but beyond this lower and higher Nature, Nature Itself is what the will of the Divine is. That’s what we call God, we call Brahman, no name, no shape, no place, nothing. It is beyond the conception of anything. Even wisdom cannot behold it, cannot conceive it; it is beyond the reach of anything, but it works. Just merely its “will” creates this higher and lower Nature and it is the play of the Nature within which we are acting out today. And those who have reached there, they are gone.
    Of whom are we talking? Who’s help are you seeking? They are in the higher Nature working as the Divine hand for us, to help, that’s all; they can do it, but once they are gone, even from there, they are gone for eternity. They become nameless, shapeless, colorless, no absconding, no phone number, no address, nothing; you cannot ring them, they are gone. They have become one with the Divine. The drop has joined the ocean.
    But within that, even the lower Nature, on top of the lower Nature, we see the miracles happen. Miracles, because we cannot understand the workings, but those people who know this Nature, the Law of the Nature, they know. Once you know the Laws of the Nature and composition of the whole thing, mixing as we were talking the other day, how, what, what to mix with what and how and when and why and in what proportion, then it becomes things; and it can happen in a jiffy, and it may take a long time. It may take a long time to make a rock and it may take a lot of time to make something else; it doesn’t matter. So it has to combine, it has to come together, fuse, infuse, then only things happen. That’s the reason why the world was not created in one day, two days, three and a half days, four and a half days; it has taken millions of years, that’s what we say, right? And BOOM!, it goes once again and where do those particles go? They go and become something else, somewhere else. Nothing is lost, nothing is gained; everything is in the same quality and quantity ,but it keeps on moving. That’s the play; that is the game of this Nature, but we call it Mahapralaya. It is at that time the whole lower Nature is absorbed into the higher Nature. That’s where Krishna says, “Everything is absorbed by Me. It is Me who cause that.” It’s an embryo state, it is there and again when the time comes, there's nothing like time anyway. Time means His will; when He wants, He wills and this will start things again.
    “So, this is the game that you have to know Arjuna. In order to know, surrender to Me, and here, I’ll make you a yogi. Come to Me, you are still asking Me questions, you are not sure. So remove all of those questions, remove all those doubts, suspicions, everything. Come! Come, and I’ll make you a yogi and through yoga, you will know Me. When you know Me, there’s nothing else to know. Once you know Me, you know everything. There’s nothing else to know; then there’ll be no questions.” Thank you very much.


BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 47

    The whole creation exists within the higher and lower half of the Nature. In the globe of this Nature, half of which is higher, half of which is lower, within which the whole thing exists, and within which God pervades the substratum. This does not limit the pervasion of God outside of it too, for the whole thing is God, unknown, unfelt, unseen, undefined element. What we see, the gross existence, is really speaking the lower Nature. What we seek, what we behold is all Nature; and there is a part of the Nature which we cannot see, we cannot define, but nevertheless, we can feel. And there are two parts for each; one hidden, which we cannot see and when it expresses itself, we can see, we can feel. Like anger and love are the part of the Nature. Greed, we talk about greed, we talk about sickness, we talk about health, we talk about all these things. Where do all these things exist? Within the lower Nature. We all live within the lower Nature. It is here and as you progress, as you become lighter and lighter, you see it is gross; the lower Nature is gross. At least we are not at the bottom, bottom most; at least we have come to the surface a little, we can breath. We are not drowned anymore because we have realized that there is some hand available; there is a saving hand and we have to hold on and will save ourselves. This knowledge has brought us right from the darkest regions of this Nature to the surface.
    That is the reason why we can see, distinguish between the higher and lower Nature also. Though we cannot see the higher Nature, the seers, great saints and sages can see, they live there; they are the part and parcel of that higher Nature. That anger, that killing, sickness, all these things exist within the lower Nature. But there is good, there is bad, the duality, they divide and they come, they go. Something goes up, something goes down, in between they are caught. Sometimes we go down, sometimes we go up, we are somewhere; sometimes, we are fixed. We are in the third stage, third state, mixed Nature. We are good and at the same time we are bad. We do charity, we do all these things, that’s higher Nature. We do offer oblations, we offer worship to God, we celebrate God’s birthday, and we love, we pray, we meditate; all these things are of the higher Nature. And we steal, we kill, we fight, we are greedy, all these things. We make sensual objects our life’s dream; all these things are lower Nature. More you involve in them, more to the bottom you go and lighter you become to the surface from where you’ll see the sky and you want to go there. Just like we are attempting to go to the sky, that’s how you feel if you want to go; I don’t want to live here more in the lower Nature. That’s why people become mendicants, people become sannyasis, people become monks. They run away to the caves; they don’t want any people, they don’t want anything. All that they want is higher life. That is the higher Nature. Attaining higher Nature is not all the goal; it is one of the basic principles which will help you to go beyond.
    But at the same time, just because you are in the lower Nature or higher Nature, are you deprived of His presence? No. God is throughout, and in spite of having witnessed all this greed, all these negative qualities that we cannot even enumerate, there are so many, but all these things are part and parcel and all of them derive their forces from where? One source. That’s the reason why God, in one way or the other, manifests Himself in all these things. He supports everything. There’s a purpose why there are two parts in the Nature; there could only have been one. And you cannot even distinguish which is higher Nature, which is lower Nature. A man can sometimes belong to the higher Nature and lower Nature, both.
    So the Nature is like a twisted rope, it goes on and substratum is God. God is the substratum and in everything God is. Not everything is God, in everything God is. That’s the reason why they survive. The things what we see, what we behold, what we touch, everything is as if they eternally exist, no. They are here, something goes immediately, they vanish immediately after a minute, some after a day, some survive for a month, some for a year, some for a hundred years, maybe thousand years, maybe for a millennium, maybe for a hundred millennium but later on they dissolve. Whatever we see is existence, they will have their end; it is always written on them. But if it is God, then God also should end. God doesn’t end because He is not what we see. He is in them and they are in Him because there’s no where else they can exist. Where can they exist? Everything exists in God, the Nature, whatever the Nature contains, all these things exist in the womb of the Divine. And just because it is in the womb of the Divine, does it mean that womb doesn’t contain the Divine? The whole thing is in the womb of the Divine and the Divine exists in all these things.
    Everything exists in God and God exists in everything. Simply to say, God exists in everything and everything exists only in God and no where else, no where. There is no other place where anything can exist. So that’s what He says, “In what way, how are we to find out that God exists in everything?” Because there is strength in what God is — God is the very existence on Who’s force the existence survives, people survive, creatures survive, trees, the Nature, all these things? Even the wind, water, all these things, on whose strength?
    There is the principle, it’s a subtle principle, by which God pervades in all these things. And because of the pervasion of the Divine, all these things exist and they are blind forces, they are guided, they have their own ways of doing things, they can do only in that way and no way else, nothing else, they are not free. They don’t have that intellect, they don’t have all that. You can divert things, but you cannot be diverted because you have a stronger will, that intelligence, you are smart, you can find God. But ask water; it doesn’t know what God is. Ask the wind, “Do you know God?” He doesn’t know what God is. Ask the tree; it needs intellect, super-intellect. Only the human, or there may be some superior humans somewhere else on other planets, whom indirectly we worship, we do not know. That’s what is necessary; that is, we are endowed with that intellect, that’s the reason why we can talk about God, we can understand. So, we can divert with out intellect, we can modify; we are part and parcel of the Divine so we can direct. Instead of wind blowing this way, we can make arrangements in such a way that it blows the other way. We can dig a ditch and make the water instead of running or not, we can channel it to run east or west. But, can somebody do that to me? Somebody do it to God? No.
    So each one has their own duties to perform. They are blind, they are guided only by that instinct, they do, they keep on doing. Nature is full of instincts. Only few are endowed with that intellect of which we are all proud today. With which that pride is eating away, it is weakening our intellect anyway. So, not only this, in what way does God exist in all these things, not only in us, as the intellect, Buddhi, Chitta, intellect, the wisdom. And who is the light, the light that the sun and the moon and the stars glow, from where do they get their light? And far away from these stars which we cannot even know, which we have not identified, we do not even know they exist. Those stars, they are so bright, that in spite of all the millions millions of years, still we have not been able to receive that light, it is so far. But still, that light is there.
    God is so extensive, we cannot even imagine. So, that is that light, and the symbol of which, symbol of the earth, which is the thumb and the nose. Because of the smell, it is the earth which contains smell, beautiful, pleasant smell; at the same time, you have to close your nose, all that, good, bad, everything. We worship Earth, like Mother, it’s fine, it is beautiful but still it is part of the same inert Nature. Because the good Earth has assumed the status of a Mother, we worship Her. We don’t want to pollute Her, we do not want to hurt Her but does it hurt? No, but still it is the feeling that we have. Because there is God in it, in the form of that smell, in the form of that juice. Earth? “Oh, contains plenty of things.” And good and bad, sometimes you go, “Oh, what a nice aroma.” And sometimes you will swoon, because when I lived in Badari, early in the morning, we used to go to the hot water pool, it used to be full of this phosphorus vapor. They used to advise us, “Dip and come out. If you stay there, you will faint it is so strong.” It comes from the earth and some earth you take, smell, beautiful smell. People take handful of earth from places because of its smell. And all these things are beautiful.
     If you keep on analyzing and trying to understand, meditate through yoga, yoga is only the process by which people have reached this and it is the reason why God says, yoga, yoga, yoga, “Arjuna, forget about all these things, you are a yogi. Unless you think you are a yogi, you will never reach, you will never understand. Become a yogi, then you will know all these things, killing or not killing, this and that and all nonsense you are talking about. You’ll realize the truth.”
    What happens is this, in the past, in our attempts to realize God, we have come across so many things, we have realized and given a shape, given a name, all these things. And we saw that force manifesting somewhere and so accordingly we get to the shape and all that, a name and color and all those things. That’s how the religion was born; the religion needs a motif. Similarly, for Muslims it is Allah. Who is Allah? Allah doesn’t have face. That’s great, that’s what Advaita says, “No form, no name, no color.” That’s the reason why it is hard to pursue God. That’s what the Muslims also do but they fight. They found it, they realized it, now they want that it is only they and nothing else. So if you say that another God, another view, they don’t accept, they fight, they kill; that is the nonsense. That is lower Nature. Higher Nature instructs of God, lower Nature is to fight for God. Not for God, God doesn’t want fight, to understand and then amicably you are all brothers, no, they fight. That’s the other way round. Instead of putting ghee in the fire, they are putting water, so fire extinguishes. So Allah, they call it Allah, and Christians call it Jehovah and Hebrews call is JHVH. Whatever, that’s good. Each one, Buddha, of course, there is no God for them; there’s no God but there is something else. So anyway it doesn’t matter, everybody has tried to identify God in one way or the other, but in Hinduism there are thirty three million, why? There’s a reason.
    Each one of them has seen one ray of the light, they said, “This is this.” But that was not the case. With Hindus, they found, every time they saw a new ray, they realized there are so many rays, each ray when they saw it, beheld it, they gave a name, this is this, this is this, this is this. Rays, God doesn’t mean that it is one full light but it is full of rays. It is so full of rays that you cannot distinguish them unless you have reached that height capable to distinguish. That’s the reason why we see it as a moonlight, that’s all. In moonlight are there no rays? Just like we see all these rainbow colors in one ray; it is all hidden, it’s all molded together. That’s the reason why it has taken a long time for the Hindus to penetrate through this truth, reality of existence of God and found out; it is the light. And in that light there are so many rays; each ray is this, each ray does this. So one Rama, one Krishna, one Buddha, one this and one that, one this, this, it doesn’t matter. That’s the reason why so many names and so many shapes and colors and all that. Each one is a ray and put them all together, it is one Divine. The same Divine, whether you hold on to the ray, whether you follow one ray called Buddha, one called Rama, one called Jesus, one called Jehovah, one called Allah. Hold on to that and keep on walking wherever you go, to the center of the same thing, where everything melts, from where everything comes, where everything goes. That’s the beginning and the end of the whole thing. That’s where it is so why are you fighting?
    And at the same time, he realizes the intellect amongst the intelligent people, wisdom among the wise people, and that the force of that power of asceticism amongst the ascetics. That’s what God says. “I am that in them,  and among the Kshatriyas, among the heroes, and that heroism, that which makes them heroes, that fearlessness and the strength, all these things. In everything I am, because of Me.” This is not from the ego point of view; it is the truth, a statement of truth. How else can He say it? How else can He say to a foolish mind of the man, unless He addresses Himself as “I”? That “I” between what He says and I say is different. When I say “I”, it’s ego, full of ego. There it is devoid of ego. That’s the reason why, in spite of He says, “I, I, I, I am the doer, I am this, I am that,” but still nothing attaches to Him. He’s teflon coated; there’s no ego. Here, the moment that I say “I”, I already marked a scratch on my back. That’s why He says that’s only the way in which He could explain to us, “I am this, I am that and so on.”
    That’s the reason why in the UPANISHADS God says, “I am that” (Aham Brahmasmi). When you meditate, you go deep into that truth of the statement, you keep on shedding, one after another layer and finally, what you come across is that what God is saying, “I am in everything.” That “I am everything in everything” is what you come across and there you dissolve. And you forget, everything about, because it is then that you say, “What are you?” “I am that, that I am, that I am.”
    What Krishna is telling is what you will say, “That I am,” without ego. That’s what the great rishis said, “I am that Brahman (Aham Brahmasmi).” When did they do it? When they shed everything and went so deep, where God said “I am in everything, I am in the heart of everyone.” Where is the heart for the piece of stone? But still, in the stone He is; He is not a stone but He is in the stone. Like that, when you too have reached it, then you will come out and say like they said before you, “Oh Lo, I am that, I am not this body, I am not the senses, I am not this, I am neither of this Nature, nor of the sky, nor of the wind, nor of this no, no, no, no, no, no. I am that, I cannot be defined, Brahman, that I am.” Not only that, after that they looked at all the others, then they said, “Thou art That, you are not different, not only I am That, but you are also That, there’s nothing but That.” “Tat Twam Asi,” that’s what the Guru says to the  Shishya, the disciple when he initiates him, “Tat Twam Asi.” Thou art that, find out. I know that you are That, but you cannot say but you go and find out that you are “Aham Brahmasmi. Go”.
    The initiation means giving the first capital, “Come on invest this five dollars and make money and come back.” The student will go and say, “Oh yes.” He says, “Tat Twam Asi.” Thou art that means I am that. He will go and meditate on Aham Brahmasmi. He meditates; he merges himself in that thought of being one with that Brahman, and he forgets. And Valmiki, when he sat there until ants built an anthill over him. He forgets the whole thing; they merge in that “Aham Brahmasmi,” that Brahman. That’s the whole beauty. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 48

    All this creation doesn’t mean only this planet, or only this country, but the whole cosmos, that of which we know and which we do not know, that physically we have perceived or we may not have perceived. All that, including everything that is seen, unseen, all this, the whole existence is caught between lower and higher Prakriti of which we talk. Lower Prakriti of which we talked about: all this birth, anger, peace, all kinds of things that we talk about, eating, drinking that goes on and on and on. It is here today and tomorrow it is not there; all these things are the existing factors in the lower Prakriti. The aspect of higher Prakriti is God Himself, That which controls the whole thing, that in Whom everything exists and in everything who exists. This Prakriti is born of God Himself, the Brahman (you have to call God a name anyway so that we can understand). If not, it is nameless, shapeless, colorless; it’s an entity that’s only a force, a subtle, supreme force that cannot be pursued with any of the instruments that we are endowed with because we are endowed with all this paraphernalia in order to know this lower Prakriti. In order to know this higher Prakriti, that is, the Divinity itself, we have to give up, we have to go beyond this. But it is not possible because, as God says, “We are all under the spell of that supreme Maya (illusionary force).”
    How does the Prakriti hold us together? How does She control? How does that Prakriti, the Nature, control us with this one supreme force that is Maya, illusion, the delusion and the ignorance, without which everybody would have gone to the higher Prakriti? They would have left, “Oh, I am sorry I cannot live here, I want to go.” No, you cannot.
    Though you feel uncomfortable here, though you do not want to live here, you have to live here because you have no other goal. You have been suppressed; you’re held in abeyance from meeting the Supreme. That Maya is a creation of God himself. Prakriti must have a tool with which She has to rule us, rule the creation, make everything work.
    All this, we talk about Indra, Vayu, Agni, Kubera presiding over their own spheres, like wind, water, everything, all such things. They work as if they are slaves with this tremendous force, Maya. It’s a blind force with which this great Nature rules and makes everything work. We are born; what a great thing it is, but we die. In between we have growth, we fall sick, we grow old; all these things happen, trees grow, fall. We think we have conquered everything if we live for 500 years, thousand years, two thousand years; it doesn’t matter how long we live, we have to die anyway. That’s the Nature’s law, you cannot survive. Great yogis are there who seem to be living for a thousand years; it doesn’t matter, what is a thousand years? Those who shook hands with Jesus may be living here today; it doesn’t matter. What are they doing today? They cannot see, they cannot hear. So thus, it is not important, the Nature rules. Nature keeps us all active, blindly looking for something we do not know.
    Once it happened, early in the days of the British in India, some people who had an education in England came back and were all discussing our nation, “A soul of lazy buggers, they don’t have anything. They poke their nose in everybody’s affair on earth and they don’t do anything; that’s the reason why we are poor and all those things.” So a man said, “No, I don’t believe we are poor because people are looting us, but because we have been hospitable and we invite them. We do all this.” And he said, “No, no not only that, it’s good, you are right, you’ve a point, but I’ll tell you what is happening to us today slowly is because of this. Come on, I’ll show you.” He went to a market square and he said, “You stay there and watch.” So, this man went and started searching, looking down and going round and round and one man came and looked at him. He too started searching. And while these two people were moving, a third person joined and within no time fifteen people were searching. Nobody knew what they were searching for. They have plenty of time; they don’t want to do anything. He started laughing, I said “Why are you laughing,” I said “I’m not searching for anything, I’ve not lost anything.” So everybody started going out, so he said, “See? I could collect all these people, if you had any work, they never would have bothered. If I lost it would be my responsibility; I should have found it, not they. They did not even ask me what I have lost?” That’s the whole situation.
    That’s the Maya. What they are all doing is the same thing; they are all searching for something which they do not know. That’s the reason why, unless there is God’s Grace, we cannot go beyond this Maya. That’s why Sri Ramakrishna used to say, “Cry for Mother, Mother is Maya, it is She, She’s the force. You can go anywhere, nobody can help you, but if you go and surrender to Mother, fall on Her lap, hold her waist and say, ‘Ma, deliver me to God.’ It is easy. She will take you, ‘All right, go!’ She will push you into that room where that Lord is sitting. You can go and pull his beard if you like, but not until you win Her Grace.”
    So, this Maya is what the tool is for the Nature to rule over us. That’s the reason why we cannot escape from the rule of this Nature. For all these years we have found all the technology and all that, but still 30,000 people die in one wind, 120 miles an hour; wind blew the whole thing apart. We build tall buildings and all that, in a fraction of a second, it is down. They are so smart, they are so great; they are not great. That’s what Nature has been proving us. Nobody’s greater than the Nature.
    In spite of it, does it mean we should feel sorry that we are inferior to Nature? Within Nature, we are supreme. Because of all the births of all the creation in the Nature, this human specie is the best. To be human, it is rare. We are complaining, “Oh, we have two billion people, four billion people. We are still minority. What about the ants? What about termites? Have you counted? Compare to them, if they all come together to vote, we would have nothing, it will be their government. Thus to be human means you are endowed with intellect. Unless you become a human, you cannot become a superhuman and thus enter into higher Prakriti.
    It is a pathway. You are from the bottom most in the process of the Prakriti; I have talked to you a number of times about this. From the darkest region of ignorance, from where the man has evolved, that’s why you have become a man, woman, human. All of us are becoming; they are going to be human, if not today, tomorrow; it is in the process. Nothing is going to stop anybody from evolving; even piece of stone you see is evolving from a huge rock, ignorant rock. It has become; it has reduced itself so that it can move faster. Slowly it will do, it will lose it’s inertia and become active. What about the atom? It is inert. When it explodes what will happen? See, we are afraid of it, it’s an inert object. Far deep within that inertia, there is that supreme force; it is harnessed.
    So thus everything has to evolve; everything will evolve and the human has evolved earlier and it is a privilege. That’s the reason why amongst all the births, human birth is endowed to be the supreme most. It doesn’t matter, you may be disabled, may be retarded; once you are human, you will make your way upward. There is no more going downward. Slowly but steadily somebody runs, somebody jumps, somebody jogs, somebody walks, somebody rolls, but nevertheless everybody will be moving towards the highest Prakriti, to the achievement of the Divine, and to involve in their own selves.
    But what happens is, as I told you, the Maya, Maya doesn’t allow you to recognize yourself. In spite of all this, you have evolved here; by instinct, you have evolved. But here, there’s the challenge; it is only in the human level that you have a challenge. You can know Prakriti, you can know the higher Prakriti, you can know Maya but you may not be able to fight, you may not be able to recognize all that but you know. You are endowed with that sense, intellect, mind, all these things, paraphernalia that are necessary for your further evolution into superhuman.
    Now what? What we are doing here as human on the human plane is to be perfect human being; when we were donkeys, we were perfect donkeys, we only acted as donkeys and we never acted as men, did we? When we were birds, we acted only like birds and we never acted like anything else. Did we act like donkeys? No. When we were elephants, we were only elephants; we were ants,  but here that’s not the case. We pretend to be something other than what we are. We have intellect. Because all the time you were what you were, you did what you were supposed to because of the instinct. You didn’t have that intellect; you were endowed with only that much which was necessary. Here, there is a fund; it can grow huge garden of intellect. The poets, the dramatists, the artists and movies, bad movies, good movies, can take you downward, or they can take you upward, all these things. All the abilities, all capabilities are provided in the human life. That is the reason even the demi-Gods have to come here, be born as men and work. Just because they are Indra, Varuna, Vayu and Kubera, they don’t have a direct path there to the realization of the Divine; they have to come here. This is a Karmabhumi (theater of action); there they have to involve in the action and get over with that Maya. They are all under the spell of Maya. Just because we worship Indra and demi-Gods and offer oblations, just like the way we were discussing about offering oblations to those people, just because we offer oblations doesn’t mean that they are great. They are greater than us, just like my elder brother is to me, but nevertheless, he’s an elder brother, that’s all. Still, they are there. Like that, they too have to come here to evolve further. Don’t think they are very smart. Humans can transcend them. That’s the reason why they respect our Saints and Sages; they come to serve them.
    People go to Ganges and Jamuna, great rivers, holy rivers where Krishna bathed, lived by. And Rama lived by Ganges. Every Hindu thinks once in his or her lifetime, he or she should go to Ganges and take a dip and offer his or her oblations; that is the end of it and he or she is certain of going to heaven. Doesn’t matter if he or she goes, where he or she goes, it doesn’t matter. Nowadays, if you go by train, there is possibility of accidents and so going to heaven is to go to burial ground, whatever it is, it is the fate. If you go by plane, you know what happens, in a few seconds you go down 15,000 feet. Anyway, it’s all Maya, everything, all these things if you think, deeply think, are we to attach any importance? No. All these things are supposed to happen, they’re all happening. This is the way in which the world has to exist. It is not going to be a bed of roses; the world is not a full bed of roses. There God said, “All right, you lie down my son; I’ll take care of you.” No! He has put you under the lid, in between superior and inferior Prakriti, kept you there. If you want to come, you make an effort. Go, go off, if not, you hold on. It is for you; that’s what it is.
    We are just there in the center. We have developed a flight from the bottom and come here; it is here we are to realize what it is. That’s the reason why we are talking about Prakriti and God and Maya and suffering and all these things. Others do not know. In all the other life forms, you can not understand this; here, you are endowed with that superior intellect. You can spread it, you can utilize it, you can see it magnified, see beautiful things; that’s what it is. That is what God says, “I am that intellect in human, I am that force of intellect, I am that force in intellect, intellect itself is the light, I am the light of that intellect.” That’s the reason why you have been able to understand, know; without intellect, you cannot. Intellect without His presence is dull.
    There are people that have intellect enough to kill, hide, attack, kill. Then, there’s also intelligence. They plan and they do, they’re intelligent; they’re smart, perfect crime. We thought, “Oh, he did a perfect crime.” We write books on them. They’re also smart, but where does it belong? The lowest possible Prakriti.
    Within this Prakriti, there are three Gunas, three elements: Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas. We discussed about this a while ago also. It is these three Gunas which pervade all throughout; that’s the reason especially amongst human, you can distinguish this very clearly. Even in vegetation, these qualities are distinguished.
    And Maya is one thing. Within Maya, how does the Maya work? Maya works through all these things, inert, ignorant state; it is Tamas through which the Sudras and donkeys and other animals and some of the vegetation they say, like onions, garlic, green chilies and other things, belong to Tamasic level. And then, Kshatriyas, those who fight, warriors and all those things, come under Rajas. And the saints and sages, all the other people, those who talk about peace, practice peace and live their lives very peacefully in helping others and all those things, the enlightened people, they all belong to the topmost, cream of the society, Sattva. There is another state which is beyond these three Gunas which realized saints and sages attain. This is called state of Trigunatita
    And does it mean that we are endowed with only one and we belong only there? No. They all are in us. Sometimes you are Sattvic, sometimes you are Rajasic, sometimes you are Tamasic. Sometimes one of these Gunas, principle of Prakriti, predominates. When it is predominate, you say, “Oh, he’s a good man, next moment, next day, “Oh, he did? Did he do that thing like this?” He did it, why? He was overpowered by that particular aspect, maybe Tamasic. So like this, that’s the whole game of Prakriti.
    Then, they need that power of will, that’s what God says, “You can succumb to all these things if you have lost your will, that’s all. Turn your gaze within and recognize Me. I am everywhere. I am not everything, but I am in everything. Everything sustains because of Me, My purpose. I am in everything but I am not everything because everything is lost, everything goes away tomorrow. It is and it is not tomorrow. But does it mean, I am here today and I am not here tomorrow? No, I am constantly here, there and everywhere. Thus, I am in everything but I am not everything. So, I am in you.” Arjuna already earlier asked “Where are you, Oh Lord?” Krishna said, “I am in the heart of everyone.” “I stay there in a very, very subtle form. It is because of Me you move, you eat, you drink, you do all these things, you understand, you don’t understand, you do all these things. Everything happens because of My presence. I am there, but I have My own purpose, to be when, where, why, what.”
    That’s the reason why if I am good, it doesn’t mean God is always good. In the war, there must be God also, and when He’s there, why should there be a war? People are dying. What is the purpose? We cannot superimpose on God all the good qualities. He is without quality, really speaking, He doesn’t have any quality, no quality, cannot quantify; we cannot even identify and define Him or Her, who knows? Thank God He is not a teacher, if not, School Board would dismiss Him, He or She, who knows? Thus what happens is God is in everything, but is not everything. It is He who gives us the guidance, movement upward. So that’s what He says, “If you want to reach Me, if you want to ultimately, the goal is this, you have to realize yourself, you have to create your own will, turn your gaze, withdraw yourself and then you go and strengthen your will, back with strong self will. When you become strong in self will, you add your will to My will, or you allow My will to be your will, then what happens is there will be light; when there is light, there is no darkness.”
    When God Himself is there, then what can Maya do? Only when He wants that Maya to rule over you, it’s all right. You surrender to Him and He has taken over. And from where does the Maya bother you? Once Maya is gone, from where does these three Gunas come? Sattva, Rajas and Tamas will attack you, you’ll become Gunatita, beyond the reach and influence of these Gunas, these three states, three elements and you are far beyond all this. So, you have become near the God, within the aura of God and slowly you’ll merge and you become One and nobody can identify where this Karl is. “Karl? Who’s Karl? Gone with the wind,” that’s what happens. So the will, you have to create the will; that’s the whole process.
    And in order to reach this, does it mean that Prakriti, whatever we are discussing, it is only for Hindus, only for India, or only for Bangalore where I was born? No. It is all over and was it only yesterday and not today? No. It was, it is and it shall be. It’s a continuous process everywhere. And that’s the reason why everything, no matter whether you are a Christian, or a Hindu or a Buddhist or Jain or whatever it is, you watch. You just try as a seeker, try, watch. Is there no anger in them? Anger is everywhere. He doesn’t get angry, Jim. And anger, hatred, and at the same time, same sainthood, peace, love, don’t we see this amongst Jews, amongst Christians, amongst Muslims, amongst Hindus, amongst Jains? We see. That’s what we are talking about. It doesn’t belong to any religion. That’s what Krishna says, “If you want to realize Me, you have to give up those conditions that is imposed upon you by the religion. If you want to be bound by the religion, go your way, thank you very much. Don’t bother Me, don’t call Me. I am going to change My lock and I’m going to change My phone number. Don’t call Me. If you want Me, you’ll have to give up that because any condition is a condition whether you call it religion, you call it this, you call it that, whatever it is, family, or religion, country, patriotism. All these things, what are they? They hold you back; they don’t allow you to go. And you cannot go back, go farther with all these ties. You have to sever.” He has told us about Dharma, “You have to give up that conditioning religion.”
    Even Krishna knew about it. Had religions been created by God, God would not have told you to give up. As God is telling you, “Hold on to Me, don’t hold on to anybody else,” because it is He who knows. But, did He create the religions? No, man created religion for his own purpose as he created the families, all these things; now we superimpose all these things on God. As I told you, it is the Prakriti, all these things which make us do all these things. This family system, it is not only in us, even instinctively with the tiger. I watch Channel 54 and all that, what a great thing, they raise their offspring, they have their own things and aborigines, I see them. They live, at least we have sweater during winter and naked in the summer but they are naked throughout; they survive. They have been surviving for many thousands of years on the human level. Amongst the human, they’re above the animal level but the lowest amongst the human level. See, they are superior intellect compared to the other animals but they are inferior intellect compared to enlightened human. So thus, they’ve begun, that you can see clearly. From there, they have to evolve. Once they become human, they may be aborigines, or whatever it is, but step by step, step by step, they are going to the most refined human beings; maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow but it is certain.
    So thus, He says, “You have to give up. I’ve been telling you, any limitation, anything that holds you back will not allow you to go towards God.” God belongs to everyone. There is nothing like Christian God, Hindu God, Muslim God. God is God. But everybody belongs to Him and every, just like I say, “Oh, it is my father.” My brother also says, “Oh, it is my father.” And my elder brother also says, “He’s my father.” Father is father, but we are all brothers, all sisters. We all belong to Him and He belongs to us. It doesn’t mean that God is different, but we are different. We are brothers and sisters.
    If you can understand these things, you can greet God earlier for sure. Anything that holds us back, anything that restricts our movement will not help us. If you worship God, directly in whatever the way, you reach God; God will bestow His Grace indeed. But many people do not see upward, do not see that, they belong to certain other levels; then, they start worshiping lower elements. They talk about fire, worshiping the fire or the water or this or that and some people even worship Satan. But God says, “The faith is important. First thing is you must have money then what you do, whether you do bad thing or good thing, you buy rotten thing or good thing, first have money, have faith. Have faith first, that is what I am going to do. Anyone who has faith in whatever it is, I try to make it permanent. I make it grow first. When they grow rich in faith, then they will understand. The faith itself will work out its way and make the man understand what is that.” Sometimes currency doesn’t work well with others, then you’ll have to use that currency only where it is. So this faith will ultimately make you go to only that place where you can convert faith into realization. It doesn’t matter, today you want to be a Satanist, today you want to worship only the Nature or a part of the Nature, an aspect of the Nature as superior to anybody and worship, all right, do it. Doesn’t matter. Still your faith is there. Keep on growing that faith and then all that you have to do is take it from this bank and put it in the other bank, that’s all. There's even more dividend, 5.6 to 10.7. First grow, have faith, create will, give up all these silly ideas. But keep a hold on your faith no matter where it is, how it is; let it grow, let the faith grow. Then, it will pay for you. That’s what God says and it is true. Thank you very much.






BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 49

    We were talking about all of the species. But of all the species, the human species is most valuable. The reason is that it has one beautiful endowment, the intellect with which one can reach even beyond any imaginable limits. That’s the reason why even Krishna seems to say that of all the species, the human species is the greatest. And even amongst them, those who pursue the spiritual life are greater. Because among the animate and inanimate objects that exist in the planes of nature, human also persists, lives and dies. What is the great achievement in that? There’s no achievement. But, even if you do not do anything, simply keep quiet, you look around, Nature has her hands full of things. She keeps on creating things and destroying things. All these things keep on going whether you participate or not. In what way are you superior to anything in that case?
    So, there is the reason why when you try to go beyond the clutches of this Nature, you are said to be greater. It is worth, being a human. To achieve the human life is very great, very valuable and you have to have gone through so many stages in order to achieve this. And now you have to make use of this human life to the best. It’s only here that you have a chance to go beyond all these clutches, all the sufferings, all this death and birth and go beyond the bondage of this ignorance.
    As we talk about the Nature, we are all the part and parcel of the Nature. We do not know what the Nature is; we talk about Nature but with what does She bind us? She holds us all together for Her own purpose. She plays with us in Her own way, by what? By that unseen and unfathomable source called Maya, the power of illusion that nobody has been able to understand. One day we may, even define what gravitational force is, but not what Maya is.
    Maya holds us all together within Her grasp; we are jumping around like monkeys. That’s what it is. We suffer, we are born and we are dead. We keep on going round and round in circles. That’s the force of Maya, and the force of Maya is so great. And at the same time, we have to understand the force of Maya is one which binds us to this Nature, both the higher and the lower Nature, doesn’t matter where. She pervades everywhere. And, it is the same force which is capable of eliminating this bondage and fear also. There are two things. In order to get over this bondage, either you have to surrender unto the unseen force of that Mother or Maya, “Ma, I don’t know you, nevertheless, without you I cannot suffer or enjoy, whatever. But now I am tired of this. It is enough for me to refrain from this circle of death and birth and in between all kinds of sufferings. Ma, even if there’s pleasure, physical, mental or vital pleasure, it is the source of pain. I’m tired, I don’t want them any more, Ma, it is only you who can deliver me, please.” And if She’s pleased with you, if She has accepted your surrender, it is She who will take you out of this fast moving circle of death and birth and sufferings. She will take you out of this so that you are free, you don’t enter into this circle; you’re let off and you can pursue your own. If not, She’s capable of holding on to you for all the eternity; nobody knows in length and breadth of that time.
    There are two ways, one is the surrender, pray to Mother, to lay on her laps and say “Ma, I am tired.” Second thing is to understand, utilize your intellect. God has given the greatest thing, intellect, introspect; thus you utilize all your mental, physical and vital strengths, conserve and try to go deep, understand. So long as you do not understand what you are, then you are in this game of Maya; you are a victim of Maya. Once you know, realize what you are, just like Ramana says, “Inquire, ‘Who am I?’.” “Who am I,” ask this question and keep on your journey, then you will strike that answer to “Who am I.” The moment that you strike that answer, there’ll be no more question, “Who am I?” “I am; I am what I am. I am that I am.” Once you realize it, Maya will just let you off; that’s another way.
    Once you know, in order to reach that state of finding that answer for “Who am I?”, you have gone through that. It is beyond the reach of even Maya, so Maya cannot reach there; you have gone there where no one has gone before. So, Maya cannot reach you, touch you. She looks at you and says, “Oh, you are what put Me here in charge, so how can I bind you? It is you who put Me in charge and how can I touch you, how can I bind you?” So, She keeps away from you because you have realized that you are that, that supreme Brahman, a part of the Brahman, nameless, formless, deathless, you have no reason to be here; you are not here, just like Ramana said, “Where am I going? I am here. Even after death, there is nothing like death; I am here, as I am.” So this is the other way which is to establish yourself in Yourself. When you reach in, when you absorb your individual self in that Supreme Self, you see the source of the force, the strength of this force of Maya. Maya doesn’t touch; Nature doesn’t touch anything. Everyone obeys, you obeying God this time. You have been obeying because you are a victim of your own ignorance. Now you have warded off the ignorance and you enlightened yourself; you are the light. Then once it is done, you are freed.
    And in the other way, as the Lord says, “You accept Me, I am the One and you accept Me and become a part of Me, absorbed in My thought, absorbed in My service, constantly think of Me and do things for Me, then you’ll be a part and parcel of Me. You’ll be a vassal here, working for Me, then Maya will not touch you. On the contrary, Maya will serve you, Nature may serve you, they will come and serve you instead of you serving them; they will serve you because you are but a part and parcel of Me. You are the ray of My Light.”
    So these are all the different ways in which yoga is performed. Whatever you do, that is yoga. So in this way, people influenced by their own position where they are, are prompted to surrender to certain forces. It doesn’t matter, as God says, “Faith is important, create your faith and stick to your faith. Ultimately, that faith will take you to the ultimate end; when you reach the end, you will know, ‘Oh, there’s no further.’” With the same faith, you will change your life and go to the other life because what happens here as long as you are within the grip for this Maya, far deep within there is that faith, little faith; it doesn’t vanish altogether. It is that which burns throughout ever since you fell into the darkest region of this creation, right from the beginning of evolution. That faith is there, it is remains dormant, it wants to try to raise its head but there is no occasion; there's no possibility there. Then as you come here, you will start slowly, allow the head of the faith to save; especially, when you become a human it becomes active, it wants to express itself. Then, once it comes out, out of the shell, it wants to find out whatever it is, there is a chance; then ultimately, things will just be coming out of that ignorance which is still there. That ignorance is still there; that’s the reason why you try to worship Satan, you worship lower elements. You try to invest your money, that faith in these small banks which will fold up early, so you lose your capital. So, it is such. So, you start worshiping all lower entities. Some people find a smaller finer one; they start finding the Divinity in Indra, Agni, Vayu, Kubera and all these demigods, the Nature, the part of the Nature. You accept their force and you start worshiping them and investing your faith there. Then later on, you’ll understand, “Oh no, there’s greater force than this.” Then you shift that faith, withdraw that faith and put that faith ultimately where? In God, Supreme God, though you do not know where God is.
    So all these people are obedient to a certain force that is called Divinity, highest Divinity. Before that, you go through Maya also; surrender to Maya. There’s somebody who commands all these things, Maya, Mother and through Mother. Or directly, yogis accept God as if it doesn’t matter; they are prepared to face. Ultimately, what will happen? How does Maya control you? So long as you are in the body, mind and vital, and you think you are the body, you are the vital and you are the mental, then that is the hold for Maya, for Nature. But the moment that you start withdrawing, “No, I am not the body, I’m not the mind, I’m not the vital, I’m not the senses, I am what I am. I am Shiva, I am this Auspicious One.” When you identify yourself only with yourself and detach yourself from the body, mind and all these things, then Her clutches are there but you are slipping off from them, you see? She cannot find you because you are away. That’s the reason why they say, “Give up your attachment to your body; you’re not the body, you’re not the mind and you’re not the senses. Why are you hanging on to that? So long as you have attachment to them and you identify yourself with them, then Maya and everybody will pounce upon you because you are there. But the moment that you realize what you are, then they cannot touch you because you are the Supreme Boss. All these things happen within you and how can they grab you? You have to grab them. Thus it is the wisest way, the best way is to withdraw, consciously make an effort to distinguish between you and your existence, you and your identification. Then slowly and slowly, you can build.”
    Everybody can not be Sri Ramana to undergo that torture, at once deeply engross and dilute yourself, merge yourself with that inquiry and go there and forget about everything. It is not possible for everyone; that’s why only one Ramana and one Sri Aurobindo and one Swami Sivananda. If not, everybody would have been that. So slowly, within our own limits, we can be one of those Ramanas sometime. Who knows, if you start now. When it become intensified, then the intensity will make you what they are. It is that intensity of inquiry that made Sri Ramana what Sri Ramana is; we worship him.
    So, that intensity is not with us; only on Tuesdays and Saturdays, we are, we intensify for an hour, then we are what we are. So, we are always in the grip of the Maya; Maya doesn’t lose her hold. Though She knows there is something shaking, something is struggling; more you struggle, more She tightens the holds. “Hey, keep quiet!” So, you have to intensify. It all depends upon your requirement, how deeply you want to involve, how soon you want to get out, how tired you are in this world in this repetition of both, suffering and death, it all depends upon each one. So thus, you’ll find a solution; if not today, tomorrow, but have faith. Thank you very much.




BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 50

Part 1

    We are getting to Thanksgiving again. Almost all here have been hearing, Thanksgiving means turkey. I have been talking to so many turkeys and chickens. No. Thanksgiving is to remember the Lord, Who has given us our precious birth as Krishna has said, “To redeem ourselves.”
    So in spite of all of our shortcomings, it is a great merciful Lord Who has always been forgiving. We often say, “God will punish you. God will punish us.” No. He doesn’t know what punishment is; all that He does is forgive us. That’s why God forgives us for which we are grateful. We know our weaknesses; we know we are not very pure. We are not up to the expectation of God, but still in spite of it, He doesn’t punish us; He helps us. He always has greater hope in us and He keeps on pouring His grace upon us, strengthening us every time we fall victims and weaken.
    So that’s the reason why, that is the day on which we have to remember His greatness and it’s an auspicious day to sit down and pray and offer our thanks. And by the way, Muslims have a great thing, before they go to Mecca. They should not have any enemies; so, they go to all their enemies, that is the day when they offer their apologies to everyone, to take their blessings. “I am going to Mecca, without your blessings, if you are cursing me, I cannot go to Mecca, I cannot meet God, so please bless me.” So they’ll be knowing this, when he comes back, he comes like this saint because he has no enemies. So, Thanksgiving is one of those types; you have to forgive, forget and join together with the people who come together to thank the Lord for everything, thank the Nature, thank God in form of my friends and relatives, whoever it is, brothers and sisters.
    These are all the means through which God helps us, takes care of us. As Maya attacks us, also God makes Her take care of us too. So, we have to thank Her also; thank the Mother in all the aspects. God helps us, so we have to remember Her and offer our gratitude; that’s the thanksgiving spirit, not cutting the turkey. Whom should they thank?

Part 2

    When anyone is born, they are all ignorant because they are born into this three-way faceted Prakriti, the Maya. So, they start with that ignorance every time that they are born because the body belongs to this Prakriti, the Maya. And you dwell in that; you are taking your birth and leave in death one. Though you are enlightened, it takes time, you’re asleep still; until you are awakened, you have to undergo that process. So you are born, so you are subject to the pranks of this Maya, but slowly and steadily, because of the force of the past accumulation of your virtues, the knowledge, you slowly break open the shell of this Maya and slowly come out. That’s how you make progress every time; so, it takes time.
    From birth to birth, as you grow stronger and stronger, continue your journey, then the time that you have to live in that dormant period of dormancy becomes less and less. That’s how some people at the age of two can repeat the whole BIBLE; they can repeat the whole thing and can talk to you about Brahman. They can talk to you about Vedas at the age of two, three. Whereas even an eighty years old man can not even talk about a line of it. Why? Because the soul has undergone so many times, it has progressed so much; that’s the reason why though it is born two years ago it can do that wonder, because it has come out of the shell faster, because of the knowledge, accumulation of knowledge. Thus every time it goes, that’s how the Gnanis are born. It is those Gnanas who always recognize the God everywhere, “Everything is nothing but God.” They see God; they identify God. So that’s what happens; this type of life is not very common. Though the human birth is very rare, among such thousands and thousands, one may be like this. And even amongst those who recognize God and all that, knowing God, that Principle — Krishna is God, Rama is God, Buddha is God, Jesus is God. This is the recognition of God. But is Jesus, Rama or Krishna or God as we see? No. There’s a principle which makes Krishna a Krishna, Jesus a Jesus, Buddha a Buddha. So, even amongst such people who recognize God, there is hardly one among millions who can understand God by principle. There are layers and layers of knowing, “Oh, I know God, Oh, I know God.” No, it is hard. We worship. They are celebrating Jesus, Christmas and we celebrate Buddha’s Jayanti; we offer our gratitude to Buddha because he is God. We see the manifestation of God, but we don’t see God. Because what is the principle? We don’t see the principle. On one side it says, “Non-injury, non-insult,” and all that in Buddha, and in Vedas they say, “Offer animals to Agni.” What is this? That’s also God, that’s also God there. Rama comes, Krishna comes, that’s also God. Krishna says, “Kill.” Rama went and killed Ravana. God kills? Buddha doesn’t kill. What is this?
    So there's a tinge of ignorance covering even these Jnanis; even in these great learned knowledgeable people, there is a tinge of ignorance so they cannot understand God by principle. They recognize the greatness, they recognize the light but they cannot understand. Only the seers, those who finished their task, those who sought, who went through this process, know. Among those Rishis who wrote the Upanishads, those who came and said, “All this is Brahman, you are Brahman.” These are the statements which is pure knowledge, pure recognition of the principle of God. They didn’t see all these minor things, they saw beyond which there is nothing, the principle. That’s what they told you, “We are God.” Are you God? Can you do anything like God? No, but what we see is outside, your beard and your glasses and your stature, but far deep within lies dormant, there is that force, that knowledge, that presence. That is common, whether it is in the ant, elephant, man, yogi, sinner or saint. It is the same thing, same thread going through. What we see is the outer cover. Then, we evaluate things. Even the wise people do this. Even among wise people, there are standards. Those who can see, some people have short sightedness, some people are long sighted; all these things are there. Even amongst them, not everybody wants God anyway. Not everybody wants God; so long as they’re ignorant, they are happy to be ignorant. There’s nothing else but today. They eat well, drink well, live well and die. They don’t even expect to die, but nevertheless they die.
    So thus, it is ignorance pervading everywhere. But what happens is there are four kinds of people who seek God. There’s always people bound by ignorance. They don’t seek God, but at the same time not all are ignorant in the world. There are people who seek God, but they do not know where to seek, how to seek, what to seek. That’s why I have been talking to you the other day about those who worship all the minor deities, anything that is superior to their thinking, either physically, mentally or vitally. Anyone who is superior to them, they accept them as Gods and worship them. Though they are crooked, they worship them because they are superior to them; they accept them as God. So they achieve something because their faith is there so God has said, “I will nourish their faith, wherever or however they keep it; it doesn’t matter.” So they worship and they go to get aboard.
    Wise ones say, “Everyone is born with desires.” Without desire, no one is born in this world. Even as a saint, when you are born, you are born with the desire of achieving God, reaching God, that is also a desire. But they are desires which do not yield any result, adverse result. But there are other desires which multiply. So these worldly desires with which people are born will try to seek their desire’s fulfillment. Those who fulfill their desires, they worship them. For the knowledge, we worship Saraswati. We worship Lakshmi for wealth, and when there is no rain, we worship Varuna the God of rains and it is hot and dry wind, we say, “Oh Vayu, where are you? Where are you? It is sultry, please, blow some wind, give us some breeze.” We worship the earth, we worship the stars, we worship Surya, we worship Chandra, the moon. Though they are forces, they are very minor forces. But these minor forces appear to be great when I am zero. When I am a weakling, all these seem to be a great power and we worship and we worship because of faith. We have immense faith in them; and because of that faith, you reach their abode. They will accept you; they take you there, but they’re not compared to highest Divinity. What are they? Nothing. They have three bedroom, maybe twenty bedroom. They allow you to stay in one room as guest for some time and then kick you out. The same thing with heavens. You spend all your lives and please everybody and try to offer yourself and lend all services, then what will happen, you will go to heaven. How long? Only for a short time, then you are kicked back and you are born again somewhere and you’ll have to start again, start business. Thus every time you come, go, you’re tired of it.
    So, Jnanis give up, “I don’t want heaven. If I want any of the worldly desires and their fulfillment, then I have to worship all these things, do all nonsense.” Just like Sri Ramana, see Sri Ramana, “No, I don’t mind, I don’t want.” But he dies, “All right, I don’t want to eat, body dies, let it die, I’m not the body, I’m not the mind, I’m not the senses. Why worry about it?” I want pleasure. I want to seek Indra’s intervention because I want this physical pleasure. I want mental pleasure so I worship from wherever I get that, and all these things. But Jnani is not satisfied. He gives up on that. He’s not satisfied until he mingles himself, he merges himself in the highest Divinity. So, he pursues that and reaches only God and nobody else. And to God, he’s most endeared.
    And there are four kinds of people as God says who seek intervention of God or seek God. One who is distressed completely, suffering with pain, “Oh Lord, oh God, oh Jesus.” How many times we don’t say? We step on burning cigarette and we say, “Oh, oh, Lord, oh Jesus.” Something happens, “Oh, Jesus.” You won’t remember God; you want God’s intervention then because there is pain that you cannot mentally or physically cope with. So you desire God’s intervention; so you think of God. And seekers after truth, it is they who seek God because truth is something which nobody can enlighten you unless it is only the Truth Itself. What is that Truth Itself? God. So only God can give you that highest Truth and they seek that; they seek nothing but God. And another kind of people who want to be rich; they play all the time Lottery. How many times these wrestlers, and tennis players and everybody, they cross their heart and how many times, business people, in several countries. In the day, they cheat, they do everything for the sake of few pennies. But still, they have a picture of a divine aspect and in the morning they burn the incense and flower and then say, “Oh, please give me some more wealth.” Those who seek wealth, money, all kinds of things, not merely the wealth, any kind of luxury, only God can give so they run after God for that. These are all the small desires. And there are wise people, Jnanies; they don’t want any of these things, but they want only God. They are the wise people; so God loves those wise people. Of all these people, they are the only ones who want God without conditions. God offers Himself to all these people to fulfill those desires, but He’s pleased with only wise people because they are devoid of all the other desires but God. So, He manifests in the wise people and wise people become vassals of God. They are the extension of that Divinity, the wise people. That’s why they do miracles in this world, in the name of God they do anything, but they do not know that they are doing miracles but every thing's a miracle for us. But what are they? They are the endeared people, wise people whom God loves. There’s no difference between God and themselves because they are completely merged through their being, but they are not there; they are the wave in that ocean of Divinity. They are the ray in the light of that Divinity; they have become completely one with God. These are the godly people.
    In order to reach that stage, you should always have faith and persevere and keep on praying, day in and day out; it must become your nature to think of God and try to become God. When Mahatma Gandhi was shot, the words that came out of him is not for his wife, his children, his country, his people for whom he worked but Ram, “Hey Ram, Hey Ram.” Because day in and day out he was a devotee of Ram. “Ram, Ram, Ram,” he said time of death. What he remembers is what he becomes. That’s what the last stanza in this chapter says, “If you think of God at the time of your death, you will reach that state.” You must understand, we are covered in Maya; there are so many desires, whether you like it or not, you are torn to pieces, hardly you have time to think of God, hardly, hardly. Though on Tuesdays and Saturdays for an hour or two you think of God, but still all the day, all the time you don’t. But that is the reason why you must make it a second nature; thinking of the Lord, then,  even while we are driving, it becomes a second nature. Like that, we should create that all the time; you must keep on chanting or singing, “Ram Ram Ram Ram.” Hanuman’s every hair repeats, “Ram Ram Ram;” you can hear every hair repeating it. When Bima went to fetch a rare flower to please Draupadi, the wife, Hanuman gives a handful of hair and says, “Take this and drop it whenever there is an obstacle and it will disappear because every hair is full of the spirit of “Ram” — ‘Ram Ram Ram Ram.’” And every time you should keep on repeating whatever the mantra you have. “Ram Ram Ram Ram,” “Narayanaya Narayanaya Narayanaya,” “Om Nama Shivaya Om Namah Shivaya Om Namah Shivaya.” It doesn’t matter, keep on repeating.
    What happens is that what you repeat at the time of last breath is what you’ll become; it will be the opening balance for the next birth. What you have saved will become the opening balance for the next life. That’s how wise people become wiser and wiser until they reach. So, it doesn’t matter how or what you do in all this world, but you remember that at the time of death, even at that time, if you think of God, you will be redeemed; you will get your deliverance. That is why Kashi is a place where people go there to die at the end of their lives. It is said, “At the time of your death, Shiva comes and initiates you into a Ram mantra, Taraka mantra, a mantra which saves you from the miseries of this life. It is Shiva’s place; it seems Shiva comes and initiates at the last moment when you go through the process of dying in Kashi. So at that time, when you are concentrating on what Shiva is initiating, you become one with the Lord.  So, you start with the highest thought for the next life and then you continue; that’s the reason why all these people go to Kashi. They want to go and spend their last days in Kashi; even at the time of last breath, they say, “Please take me to Kashi.” They are taken to Kashi and given a Ganges bath and wait; and everybody sings the name of Lord. They believe Shiva comes and initiates their soul and when the body is dead, they burn it at Manikarnika Ghat and then confine the body to the Ganges.
    Even in BHAGAVAD GITA, Krishna has said, “Even at the end of the life, last breath of your life, if you think of the Lord, you will be delivered of all sins.” But if you think, you cannot repeat, everything has subsided, you see? All that you can do is silently think of the Lord. You do not even say, “Ram,” but think of Ram inside and you’ll reach Ram. You’ll invoke, “Ram,” He’ll come and He’ll bless you. “Jesus,” remember Jesus, Jesus will bless you, He’ll lead you into better life, “Buddha,” . . . it doesn’t matter what form or what as I told you before those who have attained that wisdom, then they’ll think only of Brahman; just like Sri Ramana and others, they didn’t see the lower manifestation of the Divinity, but went directly to the Divine arena. They said, “No, only Brahman. Who am I? I am the Brahman. I am neither Rama nor Krishna nor, anything else or other manifestation or partial manifestation, but I am the whole and soul. I am that.” Thus, when you become wise, there’s nowhere where you cannot but see God — every dust, every molecule is full of vibration of God. That’s what it is.
    In the Times, there was an article they discuss eleven dimensions. But  when we go through the Upanishads, it is not a strange statement of what these people have found out. They are coming to a string theory, it is like a string of a violin, or whatever it is, but it is the vibration that creates the whole world and all that. But that’s what I have been telling. What is Om? It is the word that was with God. What is that? Sound. What is that sound? Sound doesn’t mean only that you hear through the ear, but it is also in the form of silence! What is silence? Silence produces greater sound than anything else. Silence can reach far beyond the sound and everything is full of vibrations. What is vibration? These are the vibrations, the creation. There’s no physical strings, these are full of vibrations. Every thought that you think, every time you talk, everything you must remember is full of vibrations. That’s the reason why we say, “When you talk, think before you talk,” because we are producing those good, bad, vibrations; it is full of them.
    As I told you, when Rama and Lakshmana went to the forest, they came to a place. All the time Lakshmana carried Rama’s bow and arrow. When he came to that place, he said “Rama!” He never addressed Rama like that; with all the politeness and respect, he would address Rama. But he said, “Rama, stop! What do you think I am? Am I your slave and have to carry Your bow and quiver? Come on, take it!” And, he threw it on the ground. Rama said, “Oh, I am sorry brother, I didn’t know that it hurts. He took it and went little further and Lakshmana said, “Ram, Oh my, what a sin I am doing! How can I allow You to carry Your bow and quiver? I came to serve You. How can You carry Your bow and quiver? Come on, give it to me.” And Rama said, “Oh, there’s something.” He turned back and again at the same spot, the same thing happened. So you see, the vibrations; it had absorbed certain vibrations. Some people must have lived there who left that vibration.
     So like this, you must remember that when we sit here, we pray, we say the name of Lord Shiva, Jesus, Shakti, all these names invoke their presence in the form of vibrations, all these beautiful roses, all the flowers, all these things are here. When the people come, that’s what PJ always says on Sundays, “We enjoy this, because you have created that beautiful atmosphere here.” We do nothing; we sing the name of God, we talk about God, we try to remember to merge in the thought of God. It is that which provides this vibration. The whole world is full of these vibrations.
    When you go to the Himalayas, you can experience the vibrations the Rishis left there a long time ago. As I told you my experience there that even two people is too much. You want to walk alone. When you walk alone, you don’t even want to think, even thoughts make you uncomfortable. You don’t want to think, you want to just enjoy the silence, thoughtlessness, it’s a meditation. It becomes automatic. There is a saying, “Even when murderers go into the Himalayas, they become saints.” It is that tremendous vibration. So that’s what happens when you go to Kashi and other places, that’s what happens. Last moment at least, you will turn towards God, you’ll stand face to face with that Divinity and you are blessed. Thank you very much.



BHAGAVAD GITA DISCOURSE 51

    The discussion was that people cannot understand our technical terms and also, the same with Arjuna — What is Brahman? What is Adhyatma? What is Adi Daiva, Adi Yagna and all those things. They’re only technical terms, the meaning of which is very easy to follow because it has been talked about a number of ways. This is another way. Whether you call it God, whether you call it Brahman, whether you call it Brahmatma, whatever it is, it is the same thing. It is just like someone who is called father by those who are born to him and others call him brother, uncle, cousin or husband. What type of relationship you have, by that you are addressed. The same thing with God.
    As we talk of God, God is a manifestation; that is the reason why we see so many Gods. So many people worship so many manifestations. Are they all different? No, they are not different, but to each ones taste, that manifestation differs. The way in which you want to approach God may vary. But by what name, by what shape, by what color, you want to accept God and worship and surrender, offer yourself, is what God allows Himself to be. So it is the nature of Brahman, but Brahman you cannot see, though it is Akshara.
    Brahman is an entity which will never ever perish, and Its nature is the Adhyatma. The Adhyatma is what we were talking about, its manifestation; it’s manifestation as God, number of Gods that we see. Not only that, even it’s nature, nature of Brahman, is to manifest itself in everything without which nothing can exist in all of existence. That’s what Krishna said, “Where is My abode? My abode is in the heart of everyone, that’s where I reside.” So the drop of the ocean becomes Adhyatma and that which doesn’t divide itself and it is full; it is Brahman, that which we cannot see, which we can obtain, but which we cannot see with the gross eyes, we cannot hear with the gross ears. But we can approach, we can reach. Because ultimately what are we? We are all the parts of the one manifestation, same thing. Adi Daiva, the effulgence of the Brahman which manifests in this Adi Bhautika. Adi Bhautika means the existence, all this what we see, that which has come off the Brahman, all this, the whole existence is called Adi Bhautka.
    When we talked about Yagnas some time ago, we were talking, we have to share what we have with Bhutas, which are the part and parcel of this Bhautka which is this manifestation, this creation. This is Adi Bhautka.
    Brahma, Adi Daiva, Adi Bhuta and all these, Deva, this is Adi Daiva and Adi Bhautika, this is the Nature and that which shines forth in this Adi Bhautika this and all over, from where you see this beauty, this light, effulgence. Adi Daiva doesn’t mean only the light from Surya or the Sun, Moon, stars but effulgence is also your intellect, the wisdom. What is that? The Divinity, the Divine effulgence, is what your intellect is, that’s the reason why people appreciate it. Without their own knowing, they are appreciating God; they are experiencing, enjoying that beauty of God. The poets, poetry, the artists, painting, the musicians, songs, all these things are effulgence. All these things are Adi Daivika, that is the manifestation of the Divinity, that effulgence.
    And Yagna, we were talking about yajna, “Lord we talk about Yagna, what is Yagna?” It is Karma. Yagna means to offer, to sacrifice. Sacrifice, I may not have, but what I have I offer; I forego for the sake of the other, in order to appease. That is Yagna, we talked about Yagna.
    See, we accept all these demi-Gods, Indra, Agni, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera. And we always offer, we create the five positions and Agni is the post-master general and through Him we offer, “Please deliver this to Indra, so that He would give us the rain. Give this to Him, Varuna, Vayu, Kubera or whoever it is. Give so that we can have the benefit.” We can benefit from them, reward.
    So, this is the whole arrangement that God has made. and in all these things God pervades; there’s no place where God is not, “Anoraneeyan Mahato Maheeyan” (smaller than the smallest, and bigger than the biggest is what God is). Molecule, even electron and proton, even they have now found out even smaller than the electron and protons. God is even smaller than that. That’s the reason why we cannot see, you see? And also, He is so big we cannot see, we cannot even measure, we cannot weigh, so big. He is both Anoraneeyan and Mahato Maheeyan; that’s what God is, that’s what Parabrahman is. Parabrahman is unmanifest, undivided and that which is divided, which manifests, it becomes Adhyatma. Atma means the soul, soul, all independent souls. Adhyatma means great soul and Gandhi used to be called Mahatma, excellent soul. He did wonders so it is great. There are ordinary Mahatmas; you see we are common atma, atma, Mahatma, Parma atma all those things. And atma means Parabrahman. Parabrahma is also called Bhagavan, Rama, Jesus; all these are called Paramatma and Brahman is the super-most.
    And of course, later on we’ll be discussing all about yogas, that’s what He says. You can understand this, you can understand, you can come in contact with all these things only by yoga. Bhagavad Gita is nothing but yoga, He talks about yoga. Theory, start with theory and He gives you the practical hints and then assures you that if you continue and if you try to do this, you will definitely reach. That’s what Arjuna says, “Oh Lord, You say, ‘At the end of the life, last breath, even at that last breath if somebody remembers You, they will achieve You.’ How can that be? Because at the last moment everything is gone — mind doesn’t work, eyes cannot see, ears do not hear anything and mind doesn’t function. And how can he remember to remember You? Unless I remember, I cannot reach You. So how can I reach You? How can I remember You at that last moment, last breath? So please tell me.” “Ah, My son that’s right; it doesn’t happen in one day. That’s the reason why they say, ‘Regularity.’ You must have regular repetition, constantly repeat, it must become just like second nature like driving. Even drunk, people drive wrong way, right way, doesn’t matter, they drive anyway. That must become your second nature. You must be talking, you must be doing everything but far deep within, you can watch yourself. It goes on repeating like a tape recorder. ‘Shri Ram Jaya Ram Jaya Jaya Ram,’ ‘Om Namo Narayanaya,’ ‘Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya.’ Whatever the initiated mantra, whatever the name you like, it doesn’t matter, keep on repeating. So even at that last moment, you may not remember but the energy, the velocity of that, the force of that practice helps. And when it comes it will lead you there. If you think, ‘Oh my wife, my children or ‘Oh, my bank account,’ you go to bank; you’ll be serving in the bank, that’s all. If you say ‘Ram Ram Ram,’ it d