1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 - Lesson 4 of 10

Srīmad Bhagavad Gītā is the ultimate sacred scripture of yoga, Yogaśastra and the pristine glory of the Vedic culture, the eternal living tradition called sanātana-dharma. It belongs to the whole Universe for it is delivered to the Universe by the source and embodiment of Universe. We salute and bow down to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who spoke the Bhagavad Gītā out of His infinite love and compassion for all beings.

Whenever unrighteousness, adharma becomes predominant and dharma, righteous living declines and the Yoga of Enlightenment is lost,

Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Consciousness appears again and again to revive this sacred yoga, to protect and to enrich the devoted beings; and destroys adharma to re-establish the pure and everlasting dharma. Song

Gītā is also called Brahmavidyā the Knowledge of Brahman, the supreme absolute truth; it is Jīvan Mukti Vijñāna the Science of Living Enlightenment.

As with all scriptures, it is the knowledge and experience that is transmitted verbally as Śri Krṣṇārjuna Saṁvād, an intimate dialogue between Master of the world, Jagadguru Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa and His dear devotee and disciple, Arjuna. It is called śruti in Saṃskṛit, meaning something that is heard.

Gītā, as Bhagavad Gītā is generally called, translates literally from Saṃskṛit as 'Sacred Song of God'. Unlike

the Vedas and Upaniṣads, which are stand alone expressions of Truth, the Gītā is written into the greatest Hindu epic, the Mahābhārat, called a purāṇa, an ancient historical happening. It is part of the recorded history of the greatest tradition, the paramount civilization in all its Divine grandeur and its human complexity, so to speak.

No other epic or part of an epic has the special status and space of the Gītā. No other book but the Gītā gives a scientific, systematic, applied science of living joyfully in completion, while empowering the human actionfield with authenticity to evolve into a responsible Divine play-field.

Called the royal supreme knowledge rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ (9.2), this one sacred book conveys the essence of knowledge contained in all written and oral vedic truths to enrich the simplest to complex humans at all planes. It holds within itself the direct key to every possible human enquiry, the solution to every dilemma of emotions, and the sublime righteous path and goal of every quest of rising or falling civilizations for every age, time or geography. As a consequence of the presence of the Gītā, the Mahābhārat epic itself is considered a sacred Hindu scripture.

Gītā arose from the super consciousness of Śri Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme God, the complete Incarnation Purṇāvatār, and is therefore considered Gītāśastra—the essential scripture, knowing which, one is liberated from all incompletions, yaj jñātvā mokṣyase asubhāt (9.1) and Gītopaniṣad—the essence of all Upaniṣads, the purest and highest knowledge to be ever known and cognized because it gives the direct experience of the Self pavitram idam uttamam pratyakṣāvagaṁ dharmyaṁ (9.2).

Gītā is the ultimate practical teaching on the inner science of spirituality that expresses as outer victory and success in life now and after. It is not, as some scholars incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about the impermanence of the mind and body, and the need to go beyond the mind, ego and logic.

The answers of the Divine, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, transcend time and space. Śrī Kṛṣṇa's message is everlasting and joyfully performed, and is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield over five thousand years ago. The science of Gītā is the eternal technique of living in completion; the song of Gītā is the eternal life-enriching nectar, having no expiry date, time or age!

Mahābhārat, literally meaning the great Bhārata, is a grand narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as Bharat. It was then a nation ruled by king Bhārata and his descendants.

Your whole life is nothing but the Mahābhārat War. The Mahābharāt should be read again and again to understand the intricacies of life, the complications of life, and the ability to handle life. The true story of this perfectly recorded epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pānḍavas, closely related to one another. Dhṛtarāṣṭra, the blind king of Hastināpur and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pānḍu, whose children were the five Pānḍava princes.

It is a tale of strife between cousins and ultimately between dhārmic and adhārmic,

Since Dhṛtarāṣṭra was blind, Pānḍu was made the king of Hastināpura. Pānḍu was cursed by a sage that he would die if he ever entered into a physical relationship with his wives.

He therefore had no children. Vyāsa says that all the five Pānḍava children were born to their mothers Kuntī and Mādri through the blessing of divine beings. Pānḍu handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother.

Kuntī, who is the embodiment of tapas, spiritual penance, had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun god, Sūrya appeared before her.

Karṇa was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhiṣṭra, Bhīma and Arjuna were born to Kuntī after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Mādri, the second wife of Pānḍu. What happened during the MahabharatA?

Yudhiṣṭra was born to Kuntī as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the god of death, dharma and justice, Bhīma by Vāyu, the god of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, god of all the divine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pānḍava twins, were born to Mādri, through the Divine Aśvini twins.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra had a hundred sons through his wife Gāndhārī. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pānḍava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Duśśāsana, to kill the Pānḍava brothers. Kuntī's eldest son Karṇa, whom she had cast away at birth, was found and brought up by a chariot driver in the palace, and by a strange twist of fate, joined hands with Duryodhana.

Dhṛtarāṣṭra gave Yudhiṣṭra one half of the Kuru kingdom on his coming of age, since the Pānḍava prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pānḍu had vacated.

Yudhiṣṭra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bhīma, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva.

Arjuna won the hand of princess Draupadī, daughter of the king of Pāñcāla, in a svayaṁvara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel.

In fulfillment of their mother Kuntī's desire that the brothers share everything equally, Draupadī became the wife of all five Pānḍava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhiṣṭra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Śakunī defeated the Pānḍava king.

Yudhiṣṭra lost all that he owned—his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Duśśāsana shamed Draupadī in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pānḍava brothers and Draupadī were forced to go into exile for fourteen years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito or ajyāta vāsa.

At the end of the fourteen years, the Pānḍava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the king of the Yādava clan, who is the eighth divine incarnation of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.

However, Duryodhana refused to yield even a needlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the War of Mahābhārat ensued. In this war, various rulers of the entire nation that is modern Bharat aligned with one or the other of these two clans, the Kauravas or the Pānḍavas.

Kṛṣṇa offered to join with either of the two clans. He says, 'One of you may have Me unarmed. I will not take any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yādava army.'

When the offer was first made to Duryodhana, he predictably chose the large and well-armed Yādava army, Nārāyaṇī Senā, in preference to the unarmed Kṛṣṇa.

Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose his dearest friend, his life mentor and his Guru, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa, to be his unarmed charioteer!

This whole history is such a beautiful happening. Mahābhārat is actually your life! Every character in the Mahābhārat teaches so much! We don't need to go anywhere for our life success or fulfillment or for anything else that we may desire. We don't need to study any other book to learn the human psychology or the science of living and leaving. Whether we seek righteous living—dharma; or we want to learn business or administration, economy or abundance—artha; or we want to create the best rich lifestyle—kāma; or we want to be a leader and want the enriching life of being enlightened mokṣa, for all these purposes, we don't need anything other than the Mahābharāt!

Study each character. We will not find any more characters in our life than the characters described in the Mahābharāt!

Any character we see in our life is mapped to Mahābharāt's one character. They are either half or full representation of some character.

To know how to handle them and even handle yourself, just see how Śrī Kṛṣṇa handles them and handle them the same way. The Mahābharāt war is a representation of life as it was lived in that age.

Vyāsa, its author is an unbiased historian who recorded the whole history as it happened without trying to apply any makeup. People ask whether the Mahābharāt war happened at all!

If the Mahābharāt was a story and not history, Vyāsa should receive multiple Pulitzer prizes for his highly creative work! The Mahābharāt is the longest literary work in the whole world with hundred thousand Saṃskṛit verses—the longest poem ever written with such delicate harmony of unmatched poetic perfection. It is larger than the Greek epics. Vyāsa had no computer, no tape recorder with speech-to-text capabilities. He dictated and Bhagavān Ganeṣa wrote it down!

• Yudhiṣṭra is embodiment of Integrity the power of words, vāk śakti.
• Bhīma is embodiment of Authenticity the power of thoughts, mano śakti.

Arjuna is embodiment of Responsibility—the power of feeling, prema śakti.

• Sahadeva is embodiment of Enriching the power of living, ātma śakti.
  • Nakula is embodiment of causing reality for others.

• Śakuni, the maternal uncle of Duryodhana embodies the pattern of self-hatred, which is cunningness personified.

• Droṇa represents all the best knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who guide us but are unable to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the Enlightened Master, the incarnation steps in and guides us.

• Duryodhana, represents one's ego or root-pattern, the most difficult to conquer as it leads one to self destruction. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master's help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes us deny and disconnect from the Master as well.

• Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion.

Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities and all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic, conflict-free way.

Karṇa is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own Enlightenment. Śrī Kṛṣṇa has to take the load of Karṇa's puṇya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The Enlightened Master guides one to drop one's attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and the experience of enlightenment is the ultimate Till now everyone blames Bhagavan Sri Krishna for this Kurukshetra war but that's the greatest sacrifice Bhagavan Sri Krishna did to save the planet Earth. If Kurukshetra was not conducted at that time under the controlled conditions and direct supervision of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, planet Earth would not have survived more than three years.

act of compassion that one can offer to the world. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa, the 8th most powerful purnāvatar of Ṃaha Viśnu, is the embodiment of pure celebration, boundless love, compassion, and completion. Bhagavan Ṣri Kṛṣṇa is the only incarnation demonstrating and expressing Ṣarva Ṃangalatva all the auspicious qualities a nd all dimensions of an avatar during His physical happening. The līla Bhagavan Ṣri Krsna is one of sheer innocence and The wide spread availability of the Astra shastras without Shastra, without the knowledge and vision, was posing a huge threat to the whole of humanity and planet Earth, and for life itself. The greatest achievement of Bhagavan Sri Krishna is destroying all the weapons in one controlled condition and saving planet earth, eliminating the nuclear weapons and the knowledge of these nuclear weapons to save humanity from total annihilation.

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

Bhagavad Gītā appears in the heart of Mahābhārat in Bhīṣma Parva, the sixth chapter of its eighteen chapters. Veda Vyāsa, the narrator, in glorifying the Gītā sings, 'the one who drinks the water of Ganges (the sacred river for Hindus) attains liberation, what to speak of the one who drinks the nectar of Gītā?

Gītā is the essential nectar of the Mahābhārat, bhāratamṛta sarvasvam as it is directly spoken by Nārāyaṇa, Bhagavān kṛṣṇa Himself.'

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukṣetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day Bharat. All the kings and princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle out of total powerlessness unbecoming an invincible warrior among warriors.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukṣetra out of His utmost concern and love for him and humanity is the content of Bhagavad Gītā. Of its seven hundred and forty-five (745) verses, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa sings the Gītā in six hundred and twenty (620) verses responding to Arjuna's fifty-seven (57) enquiries.

Śrī Kṛṣṇa persuades Arjuna to give-up his powerlessness unfitting an Ārya—the spiritually evolved one who understands human life and urges him to raise himself again as Parantapa—the conqueror of enemy, and take up arms and vanquish his enemies. They are already dead,' says Śrī Kṛṣṇa, 'All those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your responsibility. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

jñeyaṁ yat tat pravakṣyāmi yaj jñātvāmṛtam aśnute anādi matparaṁ brahma na sat tan nāsad ucyate

I shall fully give you the understanding about the knowable with which one can taste eternal bliss or the being or the consciousness that has no beginning. A life beyond the cause and effect and the material world

Our Consciousness is eternal. It will continue to manifest itself and return to the Source and it will always exist

sarvato 'kṣiśiromukham sarvataḥ śrutimalloke sarvamāvṛtya tiṣṭhati

With hands and feet everywhere, with eyes, heads and mouths everywhere, with ears everywhere, He exists in the worlds, enveloping all. The Paramātman (supreme spirit) is all pervading

the Universal Energy connects every being.There is no difference in this space of consciousness between you and me. Here, all are various forms of God, all are manifestations of the same divinity.

sarvendriya-guṇābhāsaṁ sarvendriya vivarjitam asaktaṁ sarva-bhṛccaiva nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca

The Paramātman is the original source of all the senses. Yet, He is beyond all the senses. He is unattached. Although the consciousness is the maintainer of all the living beings, yet He transcends the modes of the nature and at the same time He is the master of the modes of our material nature

We depend on Him, who is the Cosmic intelligence, for anything to happen. At the same time, without getting involved, the Universal energy is a witness to all activities and all life forms.

bahir antaśca bhūtānām acaraṁ carameva ca sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat

The supreme truth exists both within and without, it is present in everything mobile or immobile. It is not knowable through the senses as it is very subtle. Though far, yet it is the nearest

The supreme truth is inside and outside all living entities. It is moving and non moving on account of being subtle. It is near and far. Everything is included in this space.

They said that a tiny mass of fire exploded and gave rise to our Universe. What they could not answer was, 'What existed before that?' Kṛṣṇa says that this universal energy, the ultimate consciousness, always existed. It manifested in various forms as planets, as humans and so on, but it is eternal. It will continue to manifest itself and return to the Source and it will always exist.

the Big Bang theory.

Our mind associates a time and space

an inner reference chart and all incidents

Modern science asks questions like,

with every incident or event. The mind

'How

can only think chronologically. It is like

are placed in this chart of time and space.

did this happen? What was there before

this? What came after this? What triggered

this?' When they asked about the creation

of this Universe, they explained it with

The concept of time and space that we have is based on our mind and senses. Whatever we perceive is a projection of our mind. He measures time in terms of kṣaṇa. Kṣaṇa is the time between two thoughts. It is the space between two thoughts. Buddha referred to this time and space as śūṇya. Ādī Śaṅkarācārya referred to it as pūrṇa. It is the no-mind zone, the mindful zone, the space of completion in which we touch base with ourselves. It is the present moment, in which we come face to face with the divinity within, by which we recognize the Cosmic energy that is our essential nature.

When we are caught in chasing one material pleasure after another we have so much stress, tension and worry bombarding our heads very second. Our kṣaṇa is very small because of the high number of thoughts inside us. This is why we get a suffocated, panicking feeling. We constantly feel time is running out. We are greedy for more and more experiences before this body dies and we are afraid that we might lose whatever we have come to possess. We feel this way because we associate ourselves with the kṣetra, the temporary body and mind. The body and mind are made up of the five elements and they return to their source once they have served their purpose.

On the other hand, an enlightened Master knows he is kṣetrajña. He knows that he is not the body-mind system. He has realized that he is the ultimate consciousness. He has no urgency to run in the rat race because he knows that life goes on, even if this body perishes. He has become a witness to the mind. Any thought that springs up will be only an action oriented authentic thought, never an unproductive thought. He expresses the power of words, vāk śakti. The moment the thought happens, it immediately expresses itself as an action. No thoughts accumulate inside him. He experiences eternity because of this thoughtless zone that he stays in. This is the beginninglessness of the consciousness that Kṛṣṇa explains here.

When we are in front of an Enlightened Master, one who is in a no-mind state of completion, the number of thoughts in us also comes down and our kṣaṇa becomes longer. The gaps between thoughts increase. So without even trying, we become calmer, more peaceful, and more aware! The knowable that Kṛṣṇa explains is beyond any changes. It is eternal because it does not follow the laws of creation and destruction like other objects around us. It has always been there and will always continue to exist. Whatever physical matter we see around us follows a particular cause-effect relationship. However, our deepest core is untouched by these changes.

Every thought inside us affects the functioning of the whole Cosmos. Whether we want to accept it or not, we do not operate as separate islands. Thoughts that are present in the space that we live in affect our mental setup, that is the way we think and operate.

This positivity and negativity, creation and destruction, are all properties of the changing world around us, of the kṣetra that we live in. The minute we

know that we are not this changing kṣetra but the eternal and unmoving kṣetrajñya (the consciousness that runs the kṣetra), we are liberated.

Kṛṣṇa calls this eternal bliss jñeya, knowable. When the knowing happens, the knowable (jñeya), knower (jñātā), and the knowledge (jñāna) merge. In this experience, the knower, known, and knowledge become one. No separate experience, experiencer or object of experience eexists. It is called triputi, where no difference between the three entities exists.

Kṛṣṇa explains that His eternal nature, the eternal Self, is not bound by time. Now He says that He exists everywhere, sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati and He is not bound by space. Normally we understand the presence or absence of an object or person in terms of physical attributes. We function in our lives based upon what we see, smell, touch, taste and hear. If our pañca indriya, five senses, cannot sense anything, we think nothing exists.

One important and surprising thing is that an Enlightened Master is more present in his absence than in his physical presence. This means that his energy never dies nor does it know any barriers. When you are in the energy field of an enlightened Master who is no longer in his body, as in a jīva samādhi, the final resting place of the Master's body, without even making an effort, you become calmer and experience that space of peace within. Many great temples such as Tirupati, Tiruvannamalai, Mantralaya and Pazhani in Bharat are built around the final resting places of Enlightened Masters. That is why these places serve as powerful energy centers today, drawing millions of people every year. Although physically the Master is no longer in the body, we feel his presence. Why? Because he is not bound in space by the body. The cosmic energy that he manifests transcends space and time. Only we know physical barriers.

Here, Kṛṣṇa uses the phrase, 'Hands and feet everywhere, sarvataḥ pāṇi- pādaṁ, eyes, heads, faces, ears everywhere, sarvato akṣi śiromukham (13.14).' What does He mean

by this? This diagram shows the seven energy bodies or layers that we have in us. The outermost layer is the physical layer, with which we associate ourselves all the time. We know this body as having a pair of eyes, hands, legs, one nose, head, etc. Now let us take a few points on that layer.

Let us call them ' you' , 'me' , ' your neighbor' , 'Kṛṣṇa' , 'Buddha' etc. So, at the gross layer, you are different from your neighbor; your neighbor is different from me and different from the various forms of God. You can see each point being distinct from the others. We are so rooted in this physical gross layer and so we see many barriers between us and everything around us, because everything appears to be different from the other in this layer.

Now, for each point, if we follow the corresponding points in the inner layers, as we go deeper and deeper, we suddenly realize that we all merge in the nirvanic layer. It is here that the Universal Energy connects every being. There is no difference in this space between you and me. This is the space of consciousness that Kṛṣṇa talks about. Here, Kṛṣṇa and Buddha are no different. All are various forms of God, all are manifestations of the same divinity.

The supreme truth is inside and outside all living entities. It is moving and non-moving on account of being subtle. It is near and far. Kṛṣṇa uses all these terms and concepts such as moving and non-moving, near and far, inside and outside because these are the only terms we can understand. He is giving us an idea to tell us that Supreme Consciousness is beyond these concepts and terms that we know.

There are three spaces we can live in: The space that is covered by the body, the space that is covered by the mind, and the space that cannot be covered by body and mind. The first is ghaṭākāśa, or the space enclosed by this physical body. Most of us live in this space nearly all the time. The next is cidākāśa, the space that you are aware and conscious of. Right now, if you are aware of this hall it is your cidākāśa. This is the space of the thoughts and mind. The third is mahākāśa. This is the whole space, cosmos, everything put together.

The ghaṭākāśa is made up of the five elements that are: earth, water, fire, air and ether. These elements become subtler as we move up, from earth, to water, to fire, to air, to ether. None of the first four reflect consciousness. Ether, the subtlest element, connects with consciousness. It reflects consciousness. And that is the reason why we are alive. The problem is, we think consciousness is bound by ghaṭākāśa. We think it is limited to this body.That is why we make this body the reference when we view the outer world. We think this body is the 'I' that sees the rest of the world. You see, all science had this as its basic foundation: we are separate entities defined by physical boundaries. Enlightened Masters who have moved beyond ghaṭākāśa into mahākāśa understand that all this division of space is due to our ignorance.

Space can never be divided. Yet we divide it into boundaries and associate terms: within, inside, outside, near, far, etc. because of our limited understanding. This is the cause for our suffering. First of all, we divide the space because of our ignorance. Second, we try to possess the space that we think is in our control. And third, we fear that the space might be taken from us. All fears, including the fear of death, happen because we constantly try to protect the space covered by our body and mind.

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 13 - Lesson 4 of 10_English_part_2.md

To understand that the universal energy, the ultimate consciousness, always existed. It manifested in various forms as planets, as humans and so on, but it is eternal. It will continue to manifest itself and return to the Source and it will always

exist.

• What is kṣaṇa?
• Explain why we feel suffocated?
• In what situations would the kṣaṇa become very small?
• Where does the Master exist?
• Why is it that when we are in front of an Enlightened Master, we become calmer?
• What are the three spaces we can live in?
• What are the seven energy bodies?
• What is the cause of our suffering?
• What is the understanding we need to be liberated of this suffering?

• 1. Colourful papers
• 2. Scissors
• 3. Glue or other adhesive
• 4. Markers
• 5. Pen
• 6. Pencil
• 7. Eraser

Pair up the students and ask them to create a short presentation to explain the different energy bodies and how we all merge in the nirvanic layer. Ask them to create a nice visual. They can cut different shapes circles in glue them on top of one another or come up with another way to represent the diagram.

The outermost layer is the physical layer, with which we associate ourselves all the time. We know this body as having a pair of eyes, hands, legs, one nose, head, etc. Now let us take a few points on that layer. Let us call them ' you' , 'me' , ' your neighbor' , 'Kṛṣṇa' , 'Buddha' etc. So, at the gross layer, you are different from your neighbor; your neighbor is different from me and different from the various forms of God. You can see each point being distinct from the others. We are so rooted in this physical gross layer and so we see many barriers between us and everything around us, because everything appears to be different from the other in this layer. Now, for each point, if we follow the corresponding points in the inner layers, as we go deeper and deeper, we suddenly realize that we all merge in the nirvanic layer

• 1. Swamiji's guided meditation
• 2. A Gadget

Simply follow the meditation and ask students to write a short paragraph about their experience which they can share at the end.

Please listen! Every thought inside us affects the functioning of the whole Cosmos. Whether we want to accept it or not, we do not operate as separate islands. Thoughts that are present in the space that we live in affect our mental setup, that is the way we think and operate.

"A hunter in a forest came across a clearing where there were many birds. He took a twig and tied a rope at the center of the twig. Then he took the two ends of the rope and tied them firmly to a pole on each side. Now the twig was hanging by the rope. He sprinkled a few grains around the setup. He was a clever hunter. Happily, he went away for a nap. After some time, a bird was attracted by the grains and sat on the twig. The minute it sat on one side of the twig, the whole twig turned upside down due to the bird's weight. The bird now saw the whole world upside down and became frightened. It thought it was trapped! It clasped to the twig harder than ever and prayed to God to be set free. After an hour, the hunter returned leisurely and caught hold of the bird. After that, you know what happened.

Ask the students to share their understanding of the story. How they relate it to their own lives. You can ask them questions such as:

• What does "clutching" mean?
• Why do we believe our mind?
• Why are we afraid to let go?

Vaakyartha sadhas

Then you can share the following:

This is what we do in our lives. The bird did not realize that it was always free! All it needed to do was let go of the twig and fly away. We do the same thing. We grasp and clutch onto our past. We clutch onto the pains and joys and keep missing the space of completion. We miss eternity. We miss our Consciousness inside. You must relax. You must realize that you are already on the summit. You are beyond the ups and downs. But no, we don't want to believe it. Our mind tells us, 'No. What is he saying? I have important things to do in life. How can I relax?' We love our tensions and problems too much. We like to clutch onto our lives. We do not want to let go because we think this is all there is. We do not realize that if we relax, we can fly.

The supreme truth is inside and outside all living entities. It is movingandnonmoving on account of being subtle. It is near and far. Kṛṣṇa uses all thesetermsandconcepts such as moving and non-moving, near and far, inside andoutsidebecausethese are the only terms we can understand. He is giving us anideatotellusthatSupreme Consciousness is beyond these concepts and terms that weknow.workshop of the day: