1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 - Collection

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, righteous and unrighteous civilizations.

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.

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 selfdestruction. 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.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

conflict-free way.

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.'

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

śrībhagavānuvācaparaṁ bhūyaḥ pravakṣyāmi jñānānāṁ jñānamuttamam yajjñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṁ siddhimito gatāḥ

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa says: I will declare to you again the Supreme wisdom, The knowledge of which has helped all sages attain Supreme perfection.

By repeating the truth again and again, Krisha shows his persistence and compassion towards his disciple. He patiently waits for his disciple to create compassion towards his disciple. He patiently waits for his disciple to create the right inner space needed to completely absorb the ultimate knowledge.

idaṁ jñānamupāśritya mama sādharmyamāgatāḥ sarge'pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti ca

By becoming fixed in this knowledge, one can attain the transcendental nature, like my own, and establish in his Eternal Consciousness, that one is not born at the time of creation, or disturbed at the time of dissolution

When the inner space of a person is devoid of root patterns of suffering, devoid of agitation, and completion, it experiences eternal peace and in restful awareness.

mama yonir-mahad-brahma tasmingarbhaṁ dadhāmyahaṁ saṁbhavaḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata

The total material substance, called Brahman, is the source of birth, It is that Brahman that I impregnate, making possible the births of all living beings, O son of Bhārata.

Krishna is the source of the whole of creation. We can establish ourselves in the state of Krishna Consciousness through knowledge about the science of enlightenment and our conscious decision to create the space of completion.

sarvayoniṣu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ saṁbhavanti yāḥ tāsāṁ brahma mahad yonir ahaṁ bījapradaḥ pitā

Arjuna, understand that all species of life are made possible by birth in this material nature, and I am the seed-giving father.

Krishna's message is an inspiration, that plants within us a seed of seeking for answers to our philosophical questions, which can only be answered by self discovery.

By repeating the truth again and again, Kṛṣṇa tries to create the right inner space of completion in Arjuna. Please understand why Kṛṣṇa repeats Himself. He literally uses the same words again and again. Why? Why should Kṛṣṇa repeat? Kṛṣṇa is a Master who is resultoriented. He persists with what He wants. He is the embodiment of Enriching, which is the constitution of life. His whole life is a play from the space of enriching. He is radiating the power of not giving-up on people with His uncompromising compassion. He is not easily satisfied with the attitude, 'I said whatever I had to say; whether he wants to listen or not is up to him.' No! Kṛṣṇa takes the responsibility to make Arjuna responsible.

Any transmission of knowledge, energy or experience happens between us only when you give your listening! In the Upaniṣads, it is told that when the young seeker Śvetaketu was initiated by his Guru, his Guru said to him only nine times, 'Tat Tvam Asi! Tat Tvam Asi! Tat Tvam Asi!' (You are That!) Śvetaketu became enlightened just by hearing those words! Then how come you don't become enlightened even if you listen to 'Tat Tvam Asi!' nine thousand times? You have to be carrying the right inner space! Listen. On the rock, seed cannot sprout as a tree.

In the right fertile ground only, the seed can become a tree. In the right inner space only, the teachings can become reality. Let me define exactly what is the right inner space! Right inner space means where all the root thought patterns of suffering are destroyed. All the root thought patterns are destroyed where your inner space is fertile for experiencing the higher ideal and ideas.

Listen! Inner space means when you close your eyes and look inside, how you feel and what you feel as you, that is your inner space.

In that inner space, if you suddenly feel as if you have taken bath in the cold water and the whole thing inside is in eternal peace, and there is no agitation; it is all completely in peace, in restful awareness, in completion, that is what is called inner silence or the right inner space. It means the space where all your root patterns of suffering are destroyed. You may wonder, 'When will I experience the right inner space or inner silence?'

It is actually you who needs to feel tired of wandering around. Unless you feel tired of wandering around or if I have to use a strong term fooling around, your mind will continue to go on fooling around, being in incompletion.

Instead of the real source of joy, you will just go around and try to taste everything. Your mind needs to be a little tired of roaming around, only then will it look in and decide to find and destroy the root patterns and create the fertile ground of the right space. Whether we believe it or not, man by nature is a mechanism.

Not only at the body level, he is a mechanism even at the level of the mind. At most, we can call it a bio-mechanism, yet he is still a mechanism. He works based on memories, the root patterns or what we call mūla vāsanā in Saṃskṛit. If you have a certain pattern in you as a compulsive disorder, it is a bio-memory. It is just a dead memory. If you get frightened,

You will run away. If you have some thoughts or doubts that a person doesn't love you, that person doesn't care for you, all other thoughts will immediately wake up, and you will be in depression. Please understand, memories which stay in you and make you continuously respond unconsciously in the same pattern again and again, is bio- memory. If you learn the essence of the lessons you need to catch from the biomemory, and live spontaneously based on that essence, it becomes bio-energy.

For example, you see a snake and you know that you may die if the snake bites. This situation can become a bio-memory in you that even if you see the photograph of a snake, you may step back. I have seen people who don't even touch a snake's photo on the TV screen or computer screen! This is biomemory. See, I am not saying that you should not have bio-memory of snake fear or go and catch the snake! No! If you learn just the intelligence from that incident, you are clear that snake bite can lead to death, so you don't go near the snake, but you don't have the compulsive patterns related to snakes and snake fear. You only have the intelligence. Then, that same thing becomes bio-energy.

Understand, in every situation, if you catch bio-memory, you will miss the bio- energy. If you function on just biomemories, you are a bound soul. You are a baddha jīva, entangled soul. Living in bondage! Not only that, when you are living here, you also accumulate more and more muscle-memory. All the patterns you accumulate and continue to accumulate are muscle-memory

The confusion between muscle-memory and bio-memory is a confused memory! So for every act, you will not know the right reason; if you know the reason, you do not know how to act. It is a kind of chaos. Listen! Man is continuously caught in the web of these confused memories in his mind and his being, because he works based on root patterns that have been stored in his biomemory, and accumulated as his musclememory. So,

So do not know the reasons for the act you performed! Muscle-memory is the memory you accumulate in this janma (life time). Biomemory is the memory you bring from the past births. Even in this birth, the muscle-memory can become bio-memory. When you psychologically collapse, with whatever ideas you elevate yourself and stand up, those ideas will become bio-memory in you, even though you accumulated them in this body

Does God exist? Many religious rituals are designed to build the right musclememory and bio-memory in us. Going to a temple or a satsang (spiritual gathering) reinforces our desire to move forward spiritually. They create the right space the environment, the mood for the right decision to happen. These actions cannot liberate or enlighten us.

However, they can create the right inner space in us and program our unconscious mind, the muscle memory and bio-memory to work in a particular way.

They can rewire us. In the Vedic tradition, the power of sound is used. Vedic chanting is nothing but becoming It just by declarations. Every morning you declare, 'Aham Brahmāsmi Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi, Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi (I Am That)! Śivo'ham Śivo'ham Śivo'ham (Śiva I Am).' Just the declaration! Such a powerful declaration. Especially the collective declarations. You are in that right inner space.

cience is about facts that can be recorded. Spirituality is about the truth that needs to be experienced. That is why our scriptures never bothered about historical accuracy and factual details. They dealt with issues that affected our consciousness. To understand our scriptures, we cannot use logic

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14 - Collection_English_part_2.md

you as per the space you carry. Everything—your reality of God, society and reality of universe is experienced by you as per the space you carry. Whether it is the great realities of cosmos or realities of mind, the space you

God can only be experienced when we drop our root patterns and create the space of completion. How can we prove His existence through the logic of our mind? If we can comprehend Him through our mind, our patterns, how can He be in any way superior to us? How can He then be God? God can only be experienced. He cannot be proved or disproved. He cannot be believed or disbelieved. If you wish to experience God, come to me and be in the space of listening. If you have courage, find your root thought pattern and complete with it. You will experience God in you.

Kṛṣṇa is the first Master who showed how to achieve Enlightenment. He showed the exact Science of Enlightenment. We can experience it through our conscious decision to create the space of completion. He says one can attain it, meaning that anybody can attain it. It means that when you understand the inner space of Enlightened beings, without even missing a single step, now you know the method to reach that space. Personality of the enlightened being is not a person, it is personification.

When you grasp the personality of an enlightened being, suddenly you know why you are the way you are, why you behave the way you behave. You know all the possible confusions and incompletions. And you will see, you will simply know the methodology to experience completion, pūrnatva.

In Saṃskṛit, Śiva means 'causeless auspiciousness'. The present is the most auspicious; whatever happens in the present is auspicious. We should develop the attitude of accepting what happens in the present as auspicious.

Understand, the impact of the past enters as a perverted inadequate cognition in your present and destroys your future. Listen! Your inner space experiences the past and future in the same language, in the same way.

Incidents, your perceptions and your selfassessments are the pillars on which your past is built. If you complete yourself now, if you complete your perception and self-assessments, sixty percent of your past will be burnt! So, your past will lose its power over you.

Your past will be transformed. By declaring that you are complete, just once in the present, you can finish off all your millions of declarations in the past. Because when time and space cross, the declarations you make are alive and powerful! Time and space always cross in the present moment. In any legal system, the latest order will be the order that will be executed. Even in your life, only your latest declaration will be executed. Śiva is completion. Completion is auspiciousness. If you declare completion now, you are complete. When you complete, you transcend the past and the future. Wherever you go, you are going to be carrying this auspiciousness, radiating it. You will be a moving auspiciousness.

The Great 'why' Kṛṣṇa is trying to answer philosophical questions that can never really be answered: How is the whole Universe created? If everything is God, why is the Universe created? How are we born? Whoever tried to answer these questions just created another philosophy.

When it comes to Cosmic questions, unless you discover your answer, you will never be in peace. 'Why' related to the outer world can be answered by the law of the land or the outer world science. But all the 'whys' related to cosmic law, all the 'whys' related to life can be answered only by yourself by discovering it

The Great 'why' Kṛṣṇa is trying to answer philosophical questions that can never really be answered: How is the whole Universe created? If everything is God, why is the Universe created? How are we born? Whoever tried to answer these questions just created another philosophy.

When it comes to Cosmic questions, unless you discover your answer, you will never be in peace. 'Why' related to the outer world can be answered by the law of the land or the outer world science. But all the 'whys' related to cosmic law, all the 'whys' related to life can be answered only by yourself by discovering it

The religion you discover is your religion, not the religion you are born in, is your religion. Answer you discover is your answer! For this great 'why' you have to discover an answer. If you accept my answer for 'why', you will be living for my answer. At the most, my answer should be an inspiration for you to find out the answer for 'why'. Kṛṣṇa tries to answer these questions as an inspiration for Arjuna to find his own answer for his 'why'.

However, this answer is not the ultimate Truth. He says, 'Please wait until the teachings are over.' Normally when we don't receive an answer for our philosophical question,

We will be stuck with that 'why'. Kṛṣṇa says, 'I am the seed-giving father, the pitā, I am the root cause for everything ahaṁ bīja pradaḥ pitā (14.4).' 'Why', this 'great why' is Kṛṣṇa's seed put inside you and sent, so that you won't rest until you become a tree. Understand, each seed has an energy called 'vīrya' that does not rest until it produces more seeds.

Until then, it cannot rest. Even if you destroy the seed or eat the seed, that vīrya goes into your body and does its job in some other way! Here, Arjuna also comes back to the same great 'why' again and again and gets stuck.

I am the seed-giving father, the pitā, I am the root cause or everything—ahaṁ bīja pradaḥ pitā (14.4).' 'Why', this great why' is Kṛṣṇa's seed put inside you and sent, so that you won't rest until you become a tree. Understand, each seed has an energy called 'vīrya' that does not rest until it produces more seeds.

Until then, it cannot rest. Even if you destroy the seed or eat the seed, that vīrya goes into your body and does its job in some other way! Here, Arjuna also comes back to the same great 'why' again and again and gets stuck

For the sake of inspiration or just for the sake of giving him an understanding, Kṛṣṇa gives an answer. Listen, Kṛṣṇa's words can be fully understood only when we experience the consciousness of Kṛṣṇa. Until then, it is just a cognition. Even if it is a cognition, it is okay. Proceed with this new cognition into the next chapters, into the next verse.

Suddenly, when you see the result, we will understand that whatever you have cognized is the truth. Kṛṣṇa makes this declaration so that you can understand the truth. You can discover the root cause based on which you cognize your whole life, based on which your consciousness functions.

Impress upon the students that transmission of ultimate knowledge, cosmic energy or higher dimensional energy experience can happen between the Master and disciple only when the disciple is completely receptive, in deep silence, complete, focused inwards and witnessing his inner space.

• ❖ Why does Krishna repeat the same words and ideas again and again?
• ❖ How does one experience his/her inner space?
• ❖ What is the right inner space?
• ❖ What is bio memory, muscle memory and bio energy?

• 1. Paper
• 2. Pen
• 3. Pencil
• 4. Color pencils

Draw a painting depicting "Shiva" meaning "causeless auspiciousness"

Śiva is the Lord of the present. He is the Master of the here and now. Śiva is the Rejuvenator, not just the Destroyer. The present always rejuvenates. The present is the most auspicious. We should develop the attitude of accepting what happens in the present as auspicious.

MATERIALS NEEDED: Notebook and pen.

Let each one of us write down our most favorite Sanskrit chant or mantra along with its meaning. Let us then share it with the rest of the group. Each child should recite his favorite mantra out loud and explain its meaning in his/her own words for the benefit of the rest of the group.

Vedic Chanting is an oral meditative practice that integrates body, voice, mind, heart and soul. Reciting and listening to Vedic chants creates vibrations that have a positive effect on the bio memory and muscle memory of the orator and the listeners. These vibrations help release pleasure-causing endorphins, stimulate the immune system, and restore holistic health. Additionally they are known to increase learning ability, enhance creativity, sharpen memory and increase the power of concentration in both the reciter and the listener.

Our topic of discussion is "Philosophical Questions on life can be answered by self discovery only"

Persons who carry the space of completion, find everything auspicious and transcend creation and dissolution, past and future and become centered in the present. They become a jīvan mukta, and start living enlightenment. Krishna's message is an inspiration, that plants within us a seed of seeking for answers to our philosophical questions, which can only be answered by self discovery.

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

sattvaṁ rajastama iti guṇāḥ prakṛtisaṁbhavāḥ nibadhnanti mahābāho dehe dehinamavyayam

Material nature consists of the three modes—goodness, passion and ignorance. When the living entity comes in contact with nature, it becomes conditioned by these modes

The science of completing with these roots thought patterns is the owner's manual for life. This is the basic life science!

tatra sattvaṁ nirmalatvāt prakāśakamanāmayam sukhasa�…gena badhnāti jñānasa�…gena cānagha

O Sinless One, the mode of goodness, satva, being purer than the others, is illuminating, and it frees one from all sinful reactions. Those situated in that mode develop knowledge, but they become conditioned by the concept of happiness.

rajo rāgātmakaṁ viddhi tṛṣṇāsa�…gasamudbhavam tannibadhnāti kaunteya karmasa�…gena dehinam

Kaunteya, know that the mode of passion, rajas, is characterized by intense craving and is the source of desire and attachment. Rajas binds the living entity by attachment to work.

once we go in and complete with our root patterns, and associate ourselves with powerfulness, we move into bliss.

tamas tv ajñānajaṁ viddhi mohanaṁ sarvadehinām pramādālasya-nidrābhis tannibadhnāti bhārata

Know, O Arjuna, that the mode of ignorance, tamas, the deluder of the living entity is born of inertia. Tamas binds the living entity by carelessness, laziness, and excessive sleep

Be integrated to your Soul. The Soul can never have tiredness, consciousness can never have tiredness. That is the truth.

Material nature consists of three modes or attributes: goodness, passion and ignorance. These are called Guṇas in Saṃskṛit. Kṛṣṇa explains how we are operate through three different types of root thought patterns. One is satva, the other is rajas and the third is tamas. These are translated as goodness, passion and ignorance; however, these are not exact translations

Root patterns that lead to ecstasy and bliss form satva. Root patterns that lead to restlessness, anger and emotional imbalance form rajas. Root patterns that lead to depression, dullness and low moods form tamas. Those root thought patterns that automatically arise and imbalance our cognition, and lead to depression are called tamas. Sātvic patterns do not disturb us. Patterns that lead us to peace, bliss and ecstasy are sāvtic patterns.

The science of completing with these roots thought patterns is the owner's manual for life. This is the basic life science!

Kṛṣṇa calls it Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga. Mūla vāsanas are living bio-memories and musclememories, not dead memories. Another important point is that because these memories are living energies, they can be used for creating powerlessness, the space of incompletion or powerfulness, the space of completion.

Understand, how the science of completion and incompletion work, how powerfulness and powerlessness work, how the space of satsaṇga and nissaṇga work. When you associate yourself with powerfulness, you are in satsaṇga. When you associate yourself with powerlessness, the wrong association, you are in nissaṇga.

If we entertain powerfulness, if we complete, the same way completion will raise us so quickly! Once the cognitive shift takes place, we receive data, process it and go inside instead of outside.

We respond from the complete cognition we carry inside and create more and more completion outside also.

As long as we operate from incomplete cognition, we react externally and we work towards depression, powerlessness. However, once we go in and complete with our root patterns, and associate ourselves with powerfulness, we move into bliss.

Cognition is the process of receiving information through our five senses, processing that information internally, relating with it based on our root patterns, and responding to life based on our patterns. There are five jñānendriya and five karmendriya (senses of action) that are the means of communication between the external world and us.

Jñānendriya are the senses of perception, the five senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing. The karmendriya are five actions of elimination, procreation, locomotion, grasping and speaking. Each sense is related to one of the energy centers (cakras) in our body-mind system.

Let us say in a scene of a discourse happening. You see Swamiji talking to you. First your eye captures this whole scene like a picture and this picture goes to the cakṣu (the energy behind the eyes).

Understand, we don't see with the eye, we see through the eye. There is an energy that is inside or behind the eye that actually sees. There is an energy inside or behind the ears that hears. The ears by themselves cannot hear. That is why when we are engrossed in a book, we may not hear the alarm or doorbell ring. So, there is an energy inside the eyes that sees. We call this energy cakṣu

The whole scene is converted into a file like in a digital signal processor in a computer so that our mind can process the data. The cakṣu is almost like the digital signal processor or DSP in electronics. In a computer, whether it is an audio or visual file, it must be converted into a digital file. In the same way in our inner space whatever we see or hear is converted into a bio-signal file like a digital file. Then the file starts moving up, step-by-step.

The file goes to citta, the place where past biomemories are collected. Citta means mind, inner space. This area is where the work of excluding happens as — 'Na iti, Na iti' — this is not, this is not. Upon seeing this file, our citta starts eliminating whatever the object is not. Take the example of this scene: First you see me, the whole scene is photographed. It goes to cakṣu and becomes a bio- signal file. The file is then taken to citta, bio-memory. Citta says, 'This is not a tree. This is not an animal. This is not a plant. This is not this. This is not that.'

Next, the file goes to manas, another part of the mind. The manas tries to positively identify, 'This is a human being. He is wearing a saffron robe. He is standing on a stage.' The identification process, 'iti, iti' (this is it, this is it) identification process happens in manas.

Once this positive identification happens, the file goes to a third part of the mind called buddhi or intelligence. buddhi is where the trouble starts. Here the analysis starts, 'How am I related to this file? How am I connected to this scene? How is it relevant to me? How should I respond to this scene?'

If past bio-memories about me have been good or pleasant according to your intelligence, you cognize and respond in a positive way. You immediately refer to those past memories and review, 'It was so good at yesterday's discourse.' Your

intelligence refers to the past biomemory and muscle-memory and makes a decision based upon your cognition of

these experiences. If your cognition about the past experiences with me has been positive, your intelligence tells you to stay and listen. If your cognition of the past experiences has been inadequate, unpleasant and you felt bored, your intelligence tells you that this is not the place for you and that you should leave.

These are logical decisions based on conscious memories retained by your mind. Up to this point, your cognition, the transmission of what is perceived by the senses and what is the response based on that pattern is relatively straightforward. It is a conscious process.

From the conscious mind, the information is passed to the unconscious space of the mind, the ego.

This unconscious space of the mind as the ego, not because it is arrogant, but because it provides you the identity of who you are. Your identity stems from your unconscious incompletions which are your root patterns. You project who you wish to be, never who you are. You do not even know who you are. Who you are is deeply buried in your unconscious. All the major decisions that shape your life are consigned to

This unconscious space. This is the repository of all those emotionally-filled memories, the root thought patterns and beliefs about yourself; which constitute what you believe as you, what you project as you, what others expect you to be, and what you expect others or life to be for you and therefore, create your identity.

Identify your root pattern! Root pattern means the first time in your life when your cognitions were imbalanced, disturbed by some external force; and your terrorized being started defining yourself with a disempowering word and started defining the world in that disempowering powerless state; and to compensate from this death, the disempowering inner identity the inner image, you create a pseudo alternative compensating cognition — the outer image.

Completion takes away the agitated confusion and the alternative compensating image we create in our life. Because we have a very disempowering cognition about ourselves, we go on creating an alternative compensating cognition to compensate with our inadequate cognition. To compensate the inadequate cognition which got created unconsciously inside you, which is your inner image, mamakāra, you create an alternative compensating cognition which is your outer image, ahaṁkāra. Till the end you never feel satisfied, because you feel the guilt you showed, which is not true, without realizing your true identity is much more than what you can imagine and show.

The conscious mind does not make important decisions. It makes a few decisions that can be reached by its limited intellect. Anything important moves to the unconscious ego or root patterns. Our unconscious handles all life-threatening situations with the disempowering cognitions, the socalled fight-or-flight decisions.

The effects of your root pattern are your conflicting patterns Conflicting patterns are the branches which sprout from the root pattern. When the file reaches the ego, the ego comes to a conclusion based on all the 'yes' responses and all the 'no' responses based out of your conflicting patterns. Yes or no is not a problem; however, we have wasted so much time and energy on this small decision. Not only that, any decision you take out of powerlessness, restlessness, will lead you to more and more powerless space. Powerless moments in life create more and more powerless moments in life. All restlessness is powerlessness.

The first truth you need to know about completion—do completion just to be in the space of completion. All other reasons lead to more and more incompletions. Completion done in the space of completion transforms your personality, transforms your being; the intense, constant agitated violence you carry towards you and others due to rajas patterns. Continuously completing for the sake of completion leads you to the experience of Enlightenment.

When you try to push your incompletions into your unconscious mind, unfortunately, it reaches deeper and goes closer to your consciousness. Anything closer to consciousness becomes powerful. That is why a small incompletion that happened in your life when you are young or a small incompletion which you are suppressing without completing it, it explodes in you as a dangerous imbalance of your rājasic guṇa patterns.

Many times, your imbalance is such that you do not care about your destruction. You go on waiting in anger and expecting the other person's destruction. Once we do completion with the rajas patterns, we can make one thousand decisions without any stress, violence or suffering.

That is why Kṛṣṇa says that when we don't expect the result, when we don't think of karma phala (result of the work done). we can do the work intensely. When we don't expect or worry about the result, we work beautifully because there are fewer patterns. We will not suffer or be tortured by root thought patterns. We will be in the space of completion, which will lead to more and more completion.

If there are more vāsanas or patterns, the file does not reach the ego easily or even fully. A powerful pattern may make the decision on the way.

This unconscious space is filled with negative bio-memories, and powerlessness, restlessness. All our past bio-memory or root thought patterns are stored in your inner space as files without any logical connection between them. When the file takes a quantum leap to this space, it does not reach the ego properly for a decision. Like that, when your unconscious is loaded with past root thought patterns and memories, it becomes inadequate, inefficient, and incomplete and makes superficial, illogical decisions..

Work does not need to make you tired. It is the wrong idea taught to you by the society. The only two enemies human beings have are boredom and tiredness. When you entertain them, you build wrong patterns.

Be integrated to your Soul. The Soul can never have tiredness, consciousness can never have tiredness. That is the truth. Whether you realize or not, you are Soul and Consciousness.

Impress upon the students that it is essential to identify our root patterns and complete with them. It is equally essential to make a conscious effort to move from tamas and rajas towards satva, by giving up powerlessness and creating a powerful inner space.

Part 3: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

• ❖ Differentiate between Satvik, Rajasic, and Tamasic root patterns?
• ❖ Why is Powerlessness more dangerous than Alcohol or Poison?
• ❖ What is Cognition?
• ❖ Name the five karmendriya (sense of actions) ?
• ❖ Name the five Jñānendriya (senses of perception)?

• 1. Colored rice
• 2. Colored sand
• 3. Quartz powder
• 4. Flower petal

Rangoli is an art form, originating in the Hindu subcontinent, in which patterns are created on the floor or the ground using materials such as coloured rice, coloured sand, quartz powder or flower petals. Rangoli is considered auspicious and forms an integral part of festival decor.

If we make satva inducing devotional activities our lifestyle, our pastimes and hobbies, it will automatically lead us to enlightenment.

• Chart paper
• Color pens
• Pencil colors.

Divide the class into five groups. Each group is asked to choose any one sense organ. For example, eyes, ears etc.

Each group will draw a flowchart or diagram on a chart paper to show our decision making process, graphically explaining how the chosen Jñānendriya (sense of perception) receives a certain input from the external world, (for example, seeing a person, hearing a song, deciding whether or not to smoke etc) and transmits that input to the part of the mind called chitta (inner space of stored bio-memories where elimination process happens), then to the manas (inner space of stored bio-memories where identification process happens), then to the Buddhi (inner space of stored bio- memories where analysis by reference to old experiences happens), to the unconscious mind (repository of negative bio-memories); and finally to our Ego (unconscious mind where our identity stems from root patterns), in order to form our decisions.

Cognition is the process of receiving information through our five senses, processing that information internally, relating with it based on our root patterns, and responding to life based on our patterns. Upon understanding the way our mind works, we will now cognize how we make decisions, opinions, likes and dislikes based upon our flawed root thought patterns, and consequently suffer.

The topic of discussion is "All restlessness is powerlessness"

Our unconscious space is filled with negative bio-memories, and powerlessness, restlessness. When your unconscious is loaded with past root thought patterns and memories, it becomes inadequate, inefficient, and incomplete and makes superficial, illogical decisions.

When there are no patterns, there will be no need for the file to drop into the unconscious inner space for a decision. It straightaway meets the buddhi and ego after the mind.

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

sattvaṁ sukhe sañjayati rajaḥ karmaṇi bhārata jñānamāvṛtya tu tamaḥ pramāde sañjayatyuta

The mode of goodness conditions one to happiness. Passion conditions one to fruits of action, and veiling the knowledge, tamas binds one to carelessness.

Continuously add thoughts of completion that give power, bliss and peace.

rajas tamaś cābhibhūya sattvaṁ bhavati bhārata rajaḥ sattvaṁ tamaścaiva tamaḥ sattvaṁ rajastathā

Sometimes the mode of passion becomes prominent, defeating the mode of goodness, O son of Bhārata. And sometimes the mode of goodness defeats passion, and at other times the mode of ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way there is always competition for supremacy.

If we are complete about what we do, we will enjoy what we do. Whatever we do will be wonderful and successful

sarvadvāreṣu dehesmin prakāśa upajāyate jñanaṁ yadā tadā vidyād vivṛddhaṁ sattvamityuta

When the light of Self-knowledge illumines all the senses (or gates) in the body, then it should be known that goodness is predominant.

We should keep our five senses carefully guarded by illuminated knowledge. We should be conscious about what input we take in and what inputs we must avoid, so that we can reside in satva forever.

obhaḥ pravṛttirārambhaḥ karmaṇāmaśamaḥ spṛhā rajasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe bharatarṣabha O

Bharatarṣabha, chief of the Bhārata, when there is an increase in the mode of passion, the symptoms of great attachment, uncontrollable desire, hankering, and intense endeavor develop

Ask: Do I wish to be a donkey driven by a carrot dangling in front of me all my life? When we decide, 'No, this is not what I want,' it is time to break away from rajas and move towards bliss, nityānanda.

Kṛṣṇa further explains the three modes. 'O Bhārata, sometimes the mode of goodness, satva, becomes prominent, defeating the modes of passion and ignorance, and at other times, ignorance defeats goodness and passion. In this way, there is always competition for supremacy.

All of us are not completely caught in satva or rajas or tamas. We swing between satva, rajas and tamas. Sometimes we get up in the morning and feel fresh. We feel as if all our questions are answered; we are fresh, alive and we think we have become almost enlightened! Everything goes beautifully until evening. Suddenly we become restless. The very next day, we are in tamas. We don't want to do anything. These mood swings take place continuously

Obesity and mood swings are closely related. When we allow these mood swings to happen, we torture ourselves. Sometimes we are restless, sometimes we are peaceful and sometimes we are in tamas. When we are in tamas we don't want to do anything; we want to escape from everything and run away. We are caught in these three modes of nature: sometimes in instinct, sometimes in intellect and sometimes in intelligence.

Why? This happens if we have collected too many patterns about something over many years. For example, the pattern of drinking develops if, from a young age, you were repeatedly taught not to drink and that drinking is a sin. This raises your curiosity to taste alcohol at least once. Never give a law to children. Instead give them understanding and the spirit behind the law.

If we want to bring up children blissfully, we need to bring them up without guilt. Breaking rules creates guilt. to give understanding, we need two things. First we need to be intelligent enough to understand the meaning behind the rules we are trying to enforce. Next we need patience to explain it all to them. Even though it takes more time and energy, focus on giving them understanding.

Before deciding to have children, find your root thought pattern and become complete, enlightened. That is the only qualification we need. Unless we are in the space of completion, we will not have any clarity how to guide them, and we will go on creating more confusion, guilt and incompletion in them. Till we learn the science of completion, we should not plan to have children.

Understand, without completing your root thought pattern, your DNA layers are not awakened, mitochondria cell energy is not awakened. For common human beings, two layers of DNA are awakened. If you find your root thought pattern and complete, six layers of DNA, your Kuṇḍalinī (potential energy) will be awakened in you. If six layers of DNA are awakened, your child will be an enlightened being! If you decide to have children, have the intelligence to give them the right cognition behind all that you tell them.

Never enforce rules on kids. We are suffering from rules given to us by our parents. The rules given by our parents are in our rajas and tamas layers. They lead us to restlessness and deep depression again and again. They create more and more incompletion, powerlessness for us.

Desire and guilt are two forms of the same energy. One is related to the future. The other is related to the past. Desire is related to the future. Guilt is related to the past. 'I should have done that' plays a major role in our 'I should do this.' 'I should do this' is determined by 'I should have done that.'

Guilt that is created by rules handed down to us by our elders creates hell in our life and leads us to tamas. Kṛṣṇa says we are led to antaḥ (the end). We fall into ignorance or into the end.

Kṛṣṇa says the manifestations of the modes of goodness can be experienced when all the gates of the body are illuminated by knowledge. This is the technique. The gates of the body are the gates through which we cognize: we receive knowledge or information through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the sense of touch or physical pleasure. These are the files through which we receive information from outside. He says that we should keep these five carefully guarded by prakāśa (illuminated knowledge). We should ensure security at these gates and knowledge is that security.

We should have knowledge about what should be taken in and what should not be taken in. Knowing this, we will reside in satva forever. We will reside in bliss forever. He says we should appoint a guard for the gates of our body. There is no security system for our body. We have security for our home. If someone breaks in, automatically the call goes to 911. We reside twenty-four hours every day in this house called our body, yet we don't have a security system!

Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi sings in beautiful homage to the sacred Aruṇācala Hill in Tiruvannamalai in his famous song 'Aruṇācala Akśaramaṇamalai', 'When these thieves, the five senses, have entered into the house, Oh Aruṇācala, were you not at home? How did they enter?' He asks Śiva, 'When these five senses entered the house (body-mind), were you not there? Why did you let them enter?'

Please do not infuse your consciousness with powerless thoughts that create suffering in you. Continuously add thoughts of completion that give power, bliss and peace. We may think this is impractical. We may think, 'How can we live in society without knowing what's going on in the world?' Be very clear, knowing what's going on in the world is a disease. Collecting information is a disease.

The other day, someone said, 'Swamiji, we should watch television to get an idea of the culture.' However these television shows are trash. They are nonsensical. The more we watch, the more negative patterns we imbibe. We simply suffer. We put ourselves into rajas and tamas again

and again.

Life is much too valuable and too short to be spent worrying. Do not allow powerless thoughts that create depression, low mood and longing,

into your system, especially at sandhyā time - the twilight time at which day and night meet. Our ancient masters knew that sandhyā time, when day and night meet, is a critical time. There are two sandhyās, dawn and dusk. Our masters knew that whatever thought-seeds are sown inside our being at sandhyā come out as full-blown trees. That is why the masters insisted that at sandhyā time, one should spend time in a temple, praying, listening to prayers, reading devotional material. Meditate or go to a temple and do something spiritual at this time. These spiritual ideas go inside as seeds and become a valuable complete tree in our life.

Kṛṣṇa gives one technique, one suggestion: Protect the five senses from negative ideas of powerlessness, the incompletions and infuse positive ideas of completion through the five senses. Whatever we feed upon becomes our being and we radiate that energy.

Next, Kṛṣṇa says that attachment, greed, craving, and restless actions are indications of rājasic behavior.

Instead of enjoying the path, we worry about the goal and constantly live in incompletion. We worry about when we will reach, where we will reach. In the process, we do not notice how we are traveling. We miss the beauty of the path. The goal that we are chasing will be a mirage, an illusion. As soon as we reach that goal, we will be forced to chase another goal. Acquisition becomes the goal, not enjoyment. That is why people who are successful have both passion and patience for what they do. They do not care about what happens in the end as long as what they do is from the space of completion.

If we are complete about what we do, we will enjoy what we do. Whatever we do will be wonderful and successful. We can never be happy in rajas. It drives us like a donkey until we are exhausted and we collapse with our incompletion. We need to decide whether or not this is the way we want to live. Ask: Do I wish to be a donkey driven by a carrot dangling in front of me all my life? When we decide, 'No, this is not what I want,' it is time to break away from rajas and move towards bliss, nityānanda.

Try to impress upon the students that we must try to encourage satva guna within us by being very selective about the type of sensory inputs we intake from our external world. We must reserve our twilight time in the mornings and evenings to our spiritual practices.

• ❖ What are the three Gunas? Explain what are the attributes attached to each Guna?
• ❖ What is the difference between desire and guilt?
• ❖ Why is it important to keep us in goodness or Satva guna during the twilight time in the mornings and the evenings?

• 1. Modelling Clay, or paper and charcoal pencil.

Make a clay statue or draw a sketch that expresses the following theme "Do not see Evil! Do not talk Evil! Do not hear Evil!"

We should keep our five senses carefully guarded by prakāśa (illuminated knowledge) to be in sattva forever.

Notebook and pen.

Make a list of any six (6) statutory laws, social etiquettes or organizational rules that you know of. What is the purpose of these laws/rules? Are these rules/laws in the form of personal rights, duties towards others or are they punishable crimes? Let us share our list with the group and let's brainstorm on what is the true spirit behind each of these laws or moral values

Never give a law to children. Instead give them understanding and the spirit behind the law. If we want to bring up children blissfully, we need to bring them up without guilt. Breaking rules creates guilt.

The topic of discussion is: Do not allow powerless thoughts that create depression, low mood and longing, into your system, especially at sandhyā time - the twilight time at which day and night meet. Our ancient masters knew that sandhyā time, when day and night meet, is a critical time. There are two sandhyās, dawn and dusk. Our masters knew that whatever thought-seeds are sown inside our being at sandhyā come out as full-blown trees. Encourage the students to discuss what they are doing at dawn and dusk, and how they can protect themselves against powerless thoughts during that time.

We should have knowledge about what should be taken in and what should not be taken in. Knowing this, we will reside in satva forever. We will reside in bliss forever. He says we should appoint a guard for the gates of our body.

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

aprakāśo'pravṛttiś ca pramādo moha eva ca tamasyetāni jāyante vivṛddhe kurunand

O son of Kuru, when there is an increase in the mode of ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness are manifested

Let the light and wisdom of Kṛṣṇa, the Jagadguru, dispel your darkness and tamas.

yadā sattve pravṛddhe tu pralayaṁ yāti dehabhṛt tadottamavidāṁ lokānam alānpratipadyate

When one dies in the mode of goodness [satva], He goes to the highest of worlds

When a person who is steeped in the attributes of satva dies, he becomes divine.

rajasi pralayaṁ gatvā karmasa�…giṣu jāyate tathā pralīnas tamasi mūḍhayoniṣu jāyate

When one dies in the mode of passion [rajas], he takes birth among those engaged in activities. When he dies in the mode of ignorance [tamas], he takes birth in the space of the ignorant.

The meaning of life is to be in the space of completion; to be in restful awareness, to realize our inner Divinity

karmaṇaḥ sukṛtasyāhuḥ sāttvikaṁ nirmalaṁ phalam rajasastu phalaṁ duḥkham ajñānaṁ tamasaḥ phalam

By acting in the mode of goodness, one becomes purified. Work done in the mode of passion results in distress, and actions performed in the mode of ignorance result in foolishness

When we are steeped in satva, we live in restful awareness

sattvātsañjāyate jñānaṁ rajaso lobha eva ca pramādamohau tamaso bhavato'jñānameva ca

From the mode of goodness, real knowledge develops; from the mode of passion, greed develops; from the mode of ignorance develops foolishness, madness and illusion.

Satva drives our journey towards our core, our true self, ātma.

Part 4: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

We act like a wind-up toy when we are steeped in rajas, and like a battery- operated toy with a dead battery when we are in tamas.

Kṛṣṇa uses powerful words to drive home how desperate that state is: ignorance, madness, illusion, inertia and darkness. It is surprising how quickly one can slip from rajas to tamas. To slip from restless activity into inactivity and inertia is simple.

Activity without meaning, activity with tension and stress and activity totally focused on sensual satisfaction quickly leads to deep fatigue. The activity without any meaning that we find in tamas is not the same as activity without a purpose and goal that we experience in satva. Please do not confuse the two.

The real danger of rajas is that we are constantly focused on a goal and we forget to be in completion and enjoy the path as we pursue a meaningless purpose. Life has no purpose. It only has meaning. The meaning of life is to be in the space of completion; to be in restful awareness, to realize our inner Divinity.

To be divine and to realize that inner divinity is our true meaning in life. Anything less than that is meaningless. Being aggressive, being restlessly active, or being constantly on the move does not help us understand or realize this meaning. We will be running after one thing or another. We are just plain greedy

If we are driven by mere possessive obsession, we are bound to become tired sooner or later. Aggression results in deep depression. This is what is called as the 'depression of success'.

People struggle to increase their material wealth, disregarding everything else. People change cars every year, houses every third year

People run after material possessions and trophies without knowing the right context of 'why they are doing, what they are doing'. One day when they have acquired and reacquired so many things and still feel incomplete, unhappy, uneasy and listless, they wonder why they acquired the things that they struggled for. They go into deep depression, deep incompletion or what we call tamas.

The depression of success is difficult to address. To experience failure when we have always been successful and worked so hard is difficult to accept. What results then is depression, tamas. Tamas is generally born out of the ignorance of our true Self. Sometimes tamas can arise out of an effort to move out of that ignorance. A highly rājasic person, one who has been aggressively pursuing material gains, when moving into a spiritual path can easily move into tamas for a while.

Life happens to you inside and outside, both. If you think it is only inside and not outside, you don't know the outside. If you think it is only outside, you don't know the inside. If life is not happening to you inside, it is depression; if life is not happening to you outside, it is inefficiency. If life is happening to you inside, it is responsibility; if life is happening to you outside, it is success.

Tamas is darkness. It is negative. We can only remove darkness by bringing in light. In the same way, we dispel ignorance by bringing in awareness of the science of completion, pūrṇatva. The Upaniṣad says—tamaso mā jyotiṛgamaya—meaning, let my darkness be removed by light.

Let the light and wisdom of Kṛṣṇa, the Jagadguru, dispel your darkness and tamas.

In these verses, Kṛṣṇa tells us where the person goes after death when steeped in these attributes of satva, rajas and tamas. A sātvic person becomes divine. A tāmasic person chooses a lower life. A rājasic person continues to suffer due to greed.

In another verse in the Gītā, Kṛṣṇa tells Arjuna that a person is reborn based on the last thought before death. Here Kṛṣṇa explains how that last thought is not an accident. It is based on one's guṇa, nature, his patterns. The mental setup, the conditioning, the mūla vāsanā with which we led life and with which we leave our life as well. When we are reborn, our spirit finds another body to occupy

Every birth is your declaration of completion. You decide, 'Come on! I declare completion. I will now work from the space of completion.' During the birth you declare completion and start the whole think anew; and if you fall from the space of completion, you bring some of those past incompletions back. That is what is prārabdha karma. Karma which you bring back from the past incompletions is prārabdha. Whatever bio-memory you brought with you when you assumed the body is prārabdha. The muscle-memory you are accumulating is agāmya, and all collective bio-memories is sañcita. If you come to planet Earth only with bio-energy, without bio-memory, you are an Incarnation.

Only when you have found your root thought pattern and removed it and regained your consciousness, you will understand, 'Oh, God! I have literally wasted my whole life!'

Kṛṣṇa says that a person living in satva goes to higher spaces, the abodes of the realized sages. He becomes divine, tadottama vidāṁ lokān amalān pratipadyate (14.14). When we are steeped in satva, we live in restful awareness, the space of enlightenment. We live in the present moment. We are no longer attached to the results of our action and we are no longer controlled by fear and greed root patterns. We stop thinking about ourselves and we start living for others.

When one is in tamas, in deep ignorance and darkness, one sinks lower in rebirth. Kṛṣṇa says such a person is reborn as an animal. The lowest energy center of a human being is the mūlādhāra cakra, the root center. Human beings are provided with intelligence to move upward in consciousness. We have the freedom to make mistakes and we do make mistakes. When Kṛṣṇa talks about being reborn in ignorance and as animals, it is not to denigrate animals. He means, a human being who behaves instinctively, out of a blocked mūlādhāra cakra, and out of an animalistic nature, is ignorant of his potential as a human.

We are not human beings striving for a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings enjoying a human experience. That is the truth. We can be in this state only when we are in satva. When we are in tamas, we forget our spiritual nature. When we are in rajas, we have a vague idea; however, even that spiritual experience becomes an attachment, another pattern, goal and desire. We become attached to something that is beyond attachment. Kṛṣṇa says that we are reborn into this human form, back into this cycle of life and death, this cycle of saṁsāra, with all its suffering.

It is our choice to be instinctive and unconscious, in deep tamas, like an animal, or to be logical and chasing objects out of rajas. The third choice is to be beyond attachments, in a super conscious state of completion, in an intuitive state, in tune with our sublime satva nature. This choice determines our next birth. In fact, it determines whether we will even be born again.

Kṛṣṇa, the Master psychologist is right on the mark: Purification and knowledge are from satva, distress and greed are from rajas, and foolishness, madness and illusion are from tamas!

Our center is our true nature. Our true nature is divine. We are one with the universal energy, God, Parāśakti or whatever we want to call it. We cannot describe it. We can just experience it. We experience bliss when our focus is in that central core and not out at the edges of our personality. Throughout life we run away from that center, that core of bliss, that space of completion.

Completion is removing the delusion of incompletion, which makes you cognize the other is separate from you; the delusive cognizance, the delusive cognition.

Our senses lead us towards the periphery where incompletions are, where material objects are. Our inner core is empty: it is śūṇya. But it is also pūrṇa, complete by itself with nothing else needed to top off the bliss. However, the outer periphery of incompletions is forever changing. Nothing is eternal about it. Even when objects are the same, our perceptions keep changing. This periphery is māyā, illusion, tamas, ignorance. Understand, incompletion has no existence. Incompletion is the delusive cognition that stands between you and the Whole. Complete with everything

Our rājasic nature, the restless activity that strives to introduce purpose into something that is essentially without purpose, keeps driving us away from the center of completion into this peripheral darkness of incompletions, tamas and māyā. Rajas always drives us into tamas. Aggression, passion, attachment and aversion eventually take us into delusion and ignorance.

But from time to time we get that spark of intelligence that says— there is more meaning to life than fantasies. We start searching. When we seek our true nature, we move towards our center, the core of bliss. Then something in the external space attracts us and we move out to the periphery.

We keep moving in and out, from center to periphery, from periphery back to center. That is why human beings are called eccentric! They can neither be in the center nor in the periphery. They settle in between and keep oscillating. They are eccentric. They are neither in complete madness nor in completion with their divine consciousness.

The movement towards our core, our true self, ātma is driven by satva. The movement outwards is driven by rajas. When we are fully settled in the periphery, we are caught in tamas. We are no longer human. When we settle into the center which is the space of completion, we go beyond the three guṇas. We become the triguṇa rahita, the Divine one who is beyond the three attributes, who is pūrṇa—complete.

Help the student understand: We can move towards our core, true self, atma only when we are in satva. When we are in tamas, we forget our spiritual nature. When we are in rajas, we have a vague idea; however, even the seeking for spiritual experience becomes an attachment, another pattern, goal and desire. When we settle into our core which is the space of completion, we go beyond the three guṇas

• ❖ Why is the depression of success difficult to address?
• ❖ What causes tamas when we move towards the spiritual path?
• ❖ What are the dangers in being predominantly Rajasic?
• ❖ How does one's gunas or predominant qualities affect our afterlife?
• ❖ What are the benefits of being predominantly satvic?
• ❖ Who is a triguṇa rahita or one who is beyond the three guṇas?

• 1. Camera (mobile phone with camera would do as well).

Click a photo based on the theme "Life happens both inside and outside." Here are some clicks to inspire you:

If life is happening to you inside, it is responsibility; if life is happening to you outside, it is success. If life is not happening to you inside, it is depression; if life is not happening to you outside, it is inefficiency.

• Notebook
• Pen

Let's undertake the three gunas assessment test. The three gunas are tamas, rajas, and sattva. These 3 qualities exist, in different proportions and combinations, in each person and lead them to behave, react, conceptualize, and comprehend the nature of your surroundings differently. The proportion of each Guna may rise or fall anytime. Write down your own qualities in your notebook and gauge which is Guna or Guna Combination currently predominates in you.

The class coordinator shall then discuss the fact that the Gunas are transient and our true nature lies beyond the three Gunas.

Purification and knowledge are from satva, distress and greed are from rajas, and foolishness, madness and illusion are from tamas. We must go beyond all three gunas! Your True Nature is PūrṆa Beyond TriguṆa. Our center is our true nature.

Let's discuss the topic you choose:

Option 1: "Life has no Purpose. Life has only Meaning. To be divine is our real meaning."

Option 2: "We are not human beings striving for a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings enjoying a human experience."

To be divine and to realize that inner divinity is our true meaning in life. Being aggressive, being restlessly active, or being constantly on the move does not help us understand or realize this meaning

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattvasthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ jaghanyaguṇavṛttisthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattvasthā madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ jaghanyaguṇavṛttisthā adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

if we are complete, unattached and undisturbed by all that is happening in and around us, we act out of satva guṇa.

nānyaṁ guṇebhyaḥ kartāraṁ yadā draṣṭānupaśyati guṇebhyaśca paraṁ vetti madbhāvaṁ so'dhigacchati

When we see that there is nothing beyond these modes of nature in all activities and that the supreme Lord is transcendental to all these modes, the seeker can know My spiritual nature.

Only the presence of super-conscious energy, the Enlightened Master can dissolve saṁskāras, the root patterns and burn out our vāsanas, the conflicting patterns developed through these root patterns and establish us in satva.

guṇānetānatītya trīn dehī dehasamudbhavān janma-mṛtyu-jarāduḥkhair vimukto'mṛtamaśnute

When the embodied being is able to transcend these three modes, he can become free from birth, death, old age and their distresses and can enjoy nectar even in this life.

Those who go beyond the three guṇas, beyond the activity-producing attributes, beyond the root thought patterns and become complete, free of bondages, enjoy bliss in this world.

Kṛṣṇa provides the key to liberation here. Those who go beyond the three guṇas, beyond the activityproducing attributes, beyond the root thought patterns and become complete, free of bondages, enjoy bliss in this world. This is the assurance of the Master. This is a guarantee.

These words are a great technique.

• 1. Step one is when we realize that each of our thoughts, words, and activities arises from one of the three root patterns, guṇas—satva, rajas and tamas.
• 2. Step two is the understanding about which guṇa, root pattern it is and exactly what that guṇa is doing to us; what disempowering cognition that guṇa is building about our inner image (mamakāra), our outer-image (ahaṁkāra), others' image (anyakāra), others' expectation about us, and life's image (svānyakāra).
• 3. Step three is to do the completion and the creation process; do completion with that guṇa or root pattern and do creation of the satva guṇa, the right inner space to create the reality that we want. Finally we transcend satva guṇa and enter into nirguṇa or 'no guṇa state'.

Whatever we are doing, whatever is happening to us, we need to become aware of the attribute, the guṇa, the pattern that is driving us and complete with it. If it is a fantasy, we work out of tamas. If it is fear and greed, we work out of rajas. And if we are complete, unattached and undisturbed by all that is happening in and around us, we act out of satva guṇa.

Here Kṛṣṇa assures, 'Those situated in the mode of goodness gradually go upward to the higher planes ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā (14.18).' A continuous tireless completion process creates the basis for higher level practices, for higher planes.

We have talked about the saṁskāras or root thought patterns that are buried in our unconscious. They drive us through one of these attributes (guṇas). Conscious, logical and analytical procedures cannot easily identify them, let alone remove or repair them. That is why so-called catharsis processes that aim to rid us of negative emotions give only temporary relief. The basic negativity remains buried.

Visualizing consciously or unconsciously does not take us out of rajas and tamas. We can be dragged deeper into the fantasyland of tamas. Those moments are the most dangerous moments you are spiritually vulnerable.

Crying out of powerlessness due to rajas or tamas is not okay. When your immune system is down, any wrong negative spiritual concepts can infect you. Infection by the root pattern can happen in you during those powerless moments. When the infection of negative patterns happens in you, it is almost incurable. Only an Enlightened Master can do the surgery and cure it. That surgery is called Inner Awakening..

The only way to move into satva and dissolve saṁskāras is to move into a super-conscious state through powerful meditations processes on root pattern completion. There is no other way that we can achieve it ourselves. Only the presence of super-conscious energy, the Enlightened Master can dissolve saṁskāras, the root patterns and burn out our vāsanas, the conflicting patterns developed through these root patterns. It is the only way. All other techniques do only one thing; they make money for those who promote them and put those who are seeking help into deeper trouble.

So first bring integrity to your thoughts and actions. Identify which guṇa they come from. If it is a fantasy, rooted in tamas, complete and drop the fantasy and move into the present reality.

Every one of you has a fantasy deep down about you becoming all- powerful, all-knowing, sarvajña, that's all. Living as per the expectations of you, behaving as you expected about you, is the greatest joy you can experience in life. Completion does that to you! Nothing else can do that to you.

This realization and awareness that completion helps you move out of the zone of fantasies and creates your reality as you want, can only come as a result of learning the Science of Completion.

Impress upon the students that we must all strive to go beyond the three guṇas, beyond their activity-producing attributes, beyond the root thought patterns and become complete, free of bondages, enjoy bliss in this world.

• ❖ What is meant by inner image (mamakāra)?
• ❖ What is meant by outer-image (ahaṁkāra)?
• ❖ What is meant by others' image (anyakāra)?
• ❖ What is meant by others' expectation about us and life's image (svānyakāra)?

• 1. Paint
• 2. Brushes
• 3. Water
• 4. Paper
• 5. Pencil

Draw your fantasy about you.

As you paint, think about how your fantasy is different from your reality. Understand that your Tamas is the root cause of this difference. Evaluate your fantasy. Is it the ultimate you can be i.e. all-powerful, all-knowing, sarvajña? Finally, as you give finishing touches to your painting, pray to the master and drop your Tamas at his feet and be complete with it. You can move out of the zone of fantasies and create your reality as you want

• Notebook
• Pen

Let's practice the technique to complete with our root patterns and cultivate satva guna.

Step 1: List down your most recurring thoughts, most revisited memories, your belief about yourself, words you most often use to describe yourself, and your longstanding habits.

Step 2: Try to recognize which one of the three root patterns, guṇas satva, rajas and tamas, the thoughts and actions you listed arise from. Contemplate on what disempowering cognition that guṇa is building inside us about our inner image (mamakāra), our outer-image (ahaṁkāra), others' image (anyakāra), others' expectation about us, and life's image (svānyakāra).

Step 3: Do the completion and the creation process; do completion with that guṇa or root pattern and do creation of the satva guṇa, the right inner space to create the reality that we want.

If we are complete, unattached and undisturbed by all that is happening in and around us, we act out of satva guṇa. Finally we transcend satva guṇa and enter into nirguṇa or 'no guṇa state'.

Part 5: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14

The topic of our debate is "Only the presence of an Enlightened Master can dissolves GuṆas."

The saṁskāras or root thought patterns that are buried in our unconscious drive us to perform various thoughts, words, and activities. Various catharsis processes, Conscious, logical and analytical procedures aimed to rid us of negative emotions give only temporary relief and cannot easily identify them, let alone uproot or repair them completely. The only way to move into satva and dissolve saṁskāras is to move into a super-conscious state through powerful meditations processes on root pattern completion.

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

arjuna uvāca kair li�…gais trīnguṇān etān atīto bhavati prabho kim ācāraḥ kathaṁ caitāṁs trīnguṇānativartate

Arjuna inquires: O my Lord, by what symptoms is one known who is transcendental to those modes? What is his behavior? And how does he transcend the modes of nature?

One who is beyond the three guṇas is unaffected by their play, he has an attitude of total detachment.

śrībhagavānuvāca prakāśaṁ ca pravṛttiṁ ca mohameva ca pāṇḍava na dveṣṭi saṁpravṛttāni na nivṛttāni kā�…kṣati

Śrī Bhagavān says: He who does not hate illumination, attachment and delusion when they are present, nor longs for them when they disappear; who is seated like one unconcerned,

He is beyond the play of emotions. Whatever happens is right for him. Success and failure mean the same. Friend and foe make no difference. Poverty or richness has no influence on him.

udāsīnavadāsīno guṇairyo na vicālyate guṇā vartanta ityeva yo'vatiṣṭhati ne�…gate

being situated beyond these material reactions of the modes of nature, who remains firm, knowing that the modes alone are active; He who regards alike pleasure and pain,

He has completely surrendered to the Universe and trusts that whatever happens is what needs to happen and is totally detached.

sama-duḥkha-sukhaḥ svasthaḥ samaloṣṭāśma-kāñcanaḥ tulya-priyāpriyo dhīras tulya-nindātma-saṁstutiḥ

looks on a lump of earth, a stone and a piece of gold with an equal eye; who is wise and holds praise and blame to be the same;

He is devoid of root patterns, our conditioned muscle-memories and bio- memories, that create in us pain and pleasure, light and darkness, good and bad, right and wrong

mānāpamānyos tulyastulyo mitrāripakṣayoḥ sarvārambha-parityāgī guṇātitaḥ sa ucyate

who is unchanged in honor and dishonor, who treats friend and foe alike, who has abandoned all result based undertakings—such a man is said to have transcended the modes of nature

One who has transcended the three guṇas, one who has gone beyond his natural attributes, one who has completed with his root patterns is liberated.

Kṛṣṇa explains the nature of one who has transcended the three guṇas, one who has gone beyond his natural attributes, one who has completed with his root patterns. He explains what we need to do to become a triguṇa rahita, to become liberated from the influence of the three guṇas. One who is beyond the three guṇas is unaffected by their play. He is beyond the play of emotions. Whatever happens is right for him. Success and failure mean the same. Friend and foe make no difference. Poverty or richness has no influence.

Such an attitude of total detachment requires one thing: complete trust. When we trust that whatever happens is what needs to happen and we accept whatever happens as it arises, we are totally detached. Then whatever happens will be right. Such trust can only come from surrender.

I tell my disciples that because I have no home, every home that I visit is my home. Anywhere and everywhere I stay, whether it is under a tree or out in the open, is my home. Four walls, a door and a lock do not create a home for me. There is neither attraction nor aversion. Just as people admire the clothes or accessories on a mannequin, I admire the clothes and jewelry on this body. They have no connection to me.

Every movement I make is at the order of Existence. I cannot move a finger without the permission of that universal energy. When we are one with Existence, one with nature, nothing affects us. I walked tens of thousands of miles barefoot across the length and breadth of Bharat. People ask, 'How is it your feet are so soft, not calloused and broken as ours would be, if we walked barefoot even ten miles?' I tell you: If we trust Nature, Nature looks after us.

We create pain and pleasure through association with powerlessness, through conditioning. We create greed and fear through association. Our root patterns, our conditioned muscle-memories and bio-memories, create pain and pleasure.

Light and darkness, good and bad, right and wrong are based on root patterns. Our inadequate cognitions, the civilized education and refinement tells us that a person dressed in a particular manner is acceptable in society and another dressed differently is not. No scripture ever said that one person is inferior to another. All scriptures affirm that every human being is a spiritual being; all of us carry the seed of Divinity in us.

When you complete with everything, animate or inanimate, you will experience the space of non-duality, Advaita. Relationships are nothing but your own extensions. Relationships are not outside; they are just your own extensions. The you extended outside you are your relationships. Completing with all your extensions, you learn to complete the incomplete you present in the other. Your negative cognitions disappear and from the space of completion, all that one can see is the Divinity in others, the space of non-duality, Advaita.

Impress upon the student that we must acquire an attitude of total detachment trusting that whatever happens is what needs to happen and happens for the ultimate good.

• ❖ Who is a triguna rahita?
• ❖ Describe the attitude of total detachment or surrender?
• ❖ How do we create fear and greed through association with conditioned memories ?
• ❖ What determines the quality of our relationships?

• 1. Colorful satin lace
• 2. Woolen thread
• 3. Scissors
• 4. Glue
• 5. Decorative beads Ex: Rudraksha beads

Make a rakhi for your brother, by stringing the rudraksha and/or decorative beads with the satin lace or woolen threads. Use your imagination to make it as visually appealing as possible. Keep the string long enough to tie on your brothers/friends wrist. In the alternative, you can make a friendship band for your friend.

Raksha Bandhan, is a popular, traditionally Hindu, annual rite, or ceremony, wherein sisters of all ages tie a talisman, or amulet, called the rakhi, around the wrists of their brothers, symbolically praying for their wellbeing and seeking their protection. This annual event is an opportunity to celebrate completion in the brother sister relationship

• Notebook
• Pen

Make a list of Three of your least favourite relatives or family members. Also jot down five points on why you dislike each of them or how their words or actions have hurt you. Now visualize that they are an extension of you and are mirroring your incompletions within yourself to you. Think about the reasons for dis-harmony between the two of you from their point of view. Write down your thoughts on how they see you. You will see that a new found wisdom will descend you.

Next write about how you wish things were different. Looking back, think about how you wish you had done or said things differently.

Now keeping the master as witness seek forgiveness or grant forgiveness to the other and complete the innerspace you hold for them.

When we are complete within ourselves, we rarely get into conflicting situations inside. It is as though our inner state decides our external experiences.

The topic of debate is "Relationships are nothing but your own extensions."

When we complete with all persons who are part of our lives, you learn to complete the incompleteness in you that gets reflected through the other. Your negative cognitions disappear and the Divinity in others is revealed. With completion we enter into the space of non-duality, Advaita.

Authored by

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

maṁ ca yo'vyabhicāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevate sa guṇān-samatītyaitān brahmabhūyāya kalpate

One who engages in full devotional service, who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman.

Through devotion to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM one is able to transcend the three gunas or natural qualities and attain our true nature or cosmic consciousness.

brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham amṛtasyāvyayasya ca śāśvatasya ca dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya ca

And I am the basis of Brahman, which is the rightful state of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal.

The transcendental state beyond the three attributes of nature, guṇas, is Brahman, the ultimate Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate space of Completion.

Kṛṣṇa concludes the chapter by saying that the transcendental state beyond the three attributes of nature, guṇas, is Brahman, the ultimate Cosmic Consciousness, the ultimate space of Completion. He says you reach this through devotion. Kṛṣṇa speaks as Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the supreme energy and not as Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa, the individual. He is in the expanded consciousness of Brahman, and beyond the three guṇas. He is the Source of the guṇas.

What is the difference between Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa (Ultimate Consciousness) and Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa? In the case of an ordinary human being, even though he has the potential of Divinity, he has not realized it. That is the difference between you and an Enlightened Master, an Incarnation. Both of you are Divine to the same extent. Yet you are unaware of your Divinity, whereas the Enlightened Master, the Incarnation is fully aware of it.

In the case of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, He is the Master, the Complete Incarnation. Why then the difference? The difference is not to do with Him. It is to do with us.

In Vedic tradition, we narrate hundreds of Purāṇas, the recorded historical happenings, where Māhadeva Himself comes, where Kṛṣṇa appears to give victory and protection, to their devotees.

What is the gap between the life during Vedic times and now? Surely, our Masters are very logical, scientific people, never spreading superstition. But, in the modern days, all these things are thought to be superstitious. Why is it that all which happened at that time, is not happening now? Why is there so much gap? The only gap, why it was happening then and why it is not happening now, the answer is — Incompletions!

and complete, then everything what you read in the Vedic tradition becomes reality. It can be reality. Completion is the bridge to reach the Vedic tradition, to reach extraordinary powers, to experience Divine expressions in your life. Completion is life at every level. The only difference between you and Śrīnivāsan Rāmānujan, the genius mathematician is the level of completion. The only difference between you and Ādī Śa�…kara is the level of completion. The only difference between Arjuna and Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa is the level of completion. With completion you start living with God directly!

When you complete, complete,

The frequency of Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa is not visible to and approachable by mortals. That is why Arjuna had to be given the Divine vision to perceive Parabrahma rūpa or viśvarūpa. In order for humans to perceive Him and interact with Him, Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa must become Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa. To a certain extent He must subject Himself to the play of the guṇas. When an Enlightened being has merged with the Universal energy and incarnates in human form, that Incarnation must have some satva guṇa infused into Him in order to take human form. Within some time, this satva guṇa also disappears, leaving the being beyond the three guṇas and once again in an Enlightened state.

Each Enlightened Master, each Incarnation is unique in His expression of the experience as the Divine. Some express experiences and some don't. Our scriptures say that if two enlightened masters say the same thing, one is a fake! The experience is the same, yet the expression is different. Kṛṣṇa is different from Buddha and Śiva. Each has the same theme of compassion, yet the way the compassion is expressed is different. Buddha expressed it as contemplation and Kṛṣṇa in joyous loving completion. So we choose a Master based upon how we vibrate to

His expression. If our path is devotion, we gravitate to Kṛṣṇa; He is lovable. If we are the meditative type, we go to Śiva, the Master who teaches in vibrating, alive silence.

It does not matter who our Master is. What matters is our faith, trust and the attitude or space of surrender. Our Master can be an unenlightened being. If we trust him, we can become enlightened, even though he may not be. What matters more is our attitude and feeling connection based on the level of our completion, our guṇa, and not the Master's state. Even if we worship a stone and surrender to it from a complete inner space, cognizing it to be our ultimate savior, we will be liberated. It is true.

When you practice the right reason, right results come. When you practice even the same values with smaller reasons, only the small results come. More than what actions you do, what matters is the space from which the actions are done. If you do not have the right context, even when you worship a deity or a God, it is useless. Because even while you pray, if you strengthen the space that you are poor, you are weak, if that gets strengthened more and more, even your prayer will make you weak.

Understand, humbleness as a fact not as a quality is the right context, the right space. Humbleness as a quality can bring ego, incompletion. 'I am very humble, I am very humble'. No! Humbleness as an effect of the space of completion, this is the way—'I am in humbleness without feeling humiliated.' These are different qualities, guṇas.

I can surrender in front of any stone, I have no problem at all. Not just here, at any temple, anywhere, any deity, any stone. You can see very clearly, that is one job I do very sincerely. Because I have the space of surrender, I can surrender to Śiva, I can surrender to Viṣṇu. I can surrender to my own Pādukas (sacred foot-sandal of master)

• THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM

So, don't even bother to whom you are surrendering. It is the joy of surrender, the celebration of surrender.

In Vedic tradition, we can surrender to even a tree or a tulasi plant (holy basil plant). In Hindu houses, even doorframes are worshipped, one lamp is worshipped.

The faith and the surrender help us transcend the nature of all activities. We surrender the result of our actions to that Master, whomsoever He may be, whomsoever It may be. We do everything meditating on that Master and surrender it all at His feet. That space of completion alone liberates us.

This is what Kṛṣṇa means by devotion, which is unfailing in all circumstances. Nothing more is needed. Kṛṣṇa is not talking about the fluteplaying, yellow-robed Kṛṣṇa. Anyone that we surrender to totally, is Kṛṣṇa and we then fall into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Consciousness of Completion.

Impress on the students that through devotion, surrender and faith one is able to transcend the three gunas or natural qualities and attain our true nature or cosmic consciousness.

• ❖ What is the difference between Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa (Ultimate Consciousness) and Vāsudeva Kṛṣṇa?
• ❖ What is the difference between a seeker and an Enlightened Master?

• 1. Paper
• 2. Pencil
• 3. Eraser
• 4. Crayons

Let us draw a picture based on one of the following themes: Krishna expressing joyous love; or Shiva's alive silence.

Each Enlightened Master, each Incarnation is unique in His expression of the experience as the Divine.

Let us narrate to you a short story from the Epic Ramayana to understand the concept of Surrender. In Rāmāyaṇa, the great Hindu epic history of Lord Śrī Rāma's incarnation, Lakṣman is the younger brother of Lord Rāma, who devoted his whole life in selflessly serving the feet of Śrī Rama and Mātā Sītā.

When Sītā is kidnapped by Rāvaṇa, some of the vānaras (monkeys) who went in search of her, gathered some of the jewels thrown by her as she was being taken away and bring it back to Rāma for identifying them. Lakṣman could only recognize the anklets of Sītā.

Rāma asked, 'why are you not able to recognize the jewelry?' Lakṣman said, 'No. I have never seen Mother Sita above her feet. I look at both of you only when I do nāmaskār (surrendering salutation), but I never looked directly or intensely.'

Lakṣman never ever saw the upper jewelry of Mātā Sītā. Lakṣman did not even know whose feet he was falling at, he just saw the feet. He was clear in his realization that he was not that big; he felt humbleness without humility the power of concentration in both the reciter and the listener.

Lakṣman's surrender to Rama and Sita rose out of his completion.

The topic of discussion is: "It does not matter to what we surrender but the attitude of surrender leads us to liberation".

What matters is our faith, trust and the attitude or space of surrender. If we can surrender to anyone or anything totally, it takes the form of Kṛṣṇa for us and we then fall into Kṛṣṇa consciousness, the Consciousness of Completion