1. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 - Lesson 5 of 19

Srīmad Bhagavad Gītā is the ultimate sacred scripture of yoga, Yogaśastra and the pristine glory of the Vedic culture, the eternal living tradition called sanātana-dharma. It belongs to the whole Universe for it is delivered to the Universe by the source and embodiment of

Universe. We salute and bow down to Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who spoke the Bhagavad Gītā out of His infinite love and compassion for all beings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

conflict-free way.

simplicity, in a peace-loving, diplomatic,

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

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

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

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

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

pañcai'tāni mahābāho kāraṇāni nibodha me I sāṅkhye kṛtānte proktāni siddhaye sarvakarmaṇām

Learn from Me Arjuna, the five causes that bring about the accomplishment of all action, as described in Sāṅkhya philosophy.

The Master again and again tries to show that you are God.

adhiṣṭhānaṁ tathā kartā karaṇaṁ ca pṛthagvidham vividhāśca pṛthakceṣṭā daivaṁ caivātra pañcamam

These are: physical body that is the seat of action; the attributes of nature or guṇa, which is the doer; the eleven organs of perception and action by the life forces and finally the Divine.

The Master stands for the idea that you are the infinite.

śarīra-vāṅ-manobhir yat karma prārabhate naraḥ nyāyyaṁ vā viparītaṁ vā pañcai 'te tasya hetavaḥ

These five factors are responsible for whatever right or wrong actions a man performs by deed, word and thought.

tatraivam sati kartāram ātmānaṁ kevalaṁ tu yaḥ paśyatyakṛtabuddhitvān na sa paśyati durmatiḥ

Those who think they, their spirit, are the doers, are ignorant and do not see things as they are.

Final Surrender Itself is Enlightenment.

lists five factors from Sāṅkhya philosophy responsible for our activities. These are the bodymind system, the operator of the body-mind system (that is the individual), the senses, different efforts causing the activities and finally the ultimate power of God. All activities, right or wrong, good or bad, are caused by these five factors. If however, the individual considers himself to be the doer, his body and mind, he is not aware.

Kṛṣṇa uses the word ātman while saying that one who perceives one's spirit or Self as the agent, the doer, or the performer, does not see and is not aware. Kṛṣṇa draws a distinction between the individual Self and the cosmic energy. He differentiates between ātman and Brahman, mānava and Deva, nara and Nārāyaṇa, self and Parāśakti.

Kṛṣṇa concludes that while philosophical discussion mentions five players in all activities, the ultimate controller is the Divine. We are immersed in our body- mind-spirit system and caught in our sensory perceptions and believe that we are the power behind all that we do. So long as we have this deluded belief, we are rooted in ignorance.

Many times the idea of dropping our responsibilities and taking up a different role is more attractive than growing in completion so that we can perform our own responsibilities well and without attachment. Be very clear, without the right cognition of completion, no role that we take up will work out for us. Instead of taking up responsibility and expanding you and your life around you, watching television, sleeping or daydreaming seems much more pleasant and easy. We would rather do that than meditate or perform pūjā or whatever is our prescribed duty.

Whatever you may understand as yourself, your body-mind-spirit system is the totality of many things. And individually each is responsible for something. In spite of this, you think that 'you' are responsible for the whole thing. That is where the trouble starts. Kṛṣṇa gives the technology for the deeper levels of surrender.

As we saw earlier, there are three levels of surrender. The first is intellectual surrender. This means you accept that the Master's intellect is sharper than your intellect; His intellect is of a higher order than yours. This is intellectual surrender. Next is emotional surrender. This is trusting that the Master's guidance on the emotional plane is more intelligent than your emotions. The third is surrendering the senses, your cognition or the root of cognition itself.

Deeper Level of Surrender — Mind or Master? The Master again and again tries to show that you are God. I keep saying, 'I am not here to prove that I am God. I am here to prove that you are God.

The Master stands for the idea that you are the infinite. He shows you various dimensions of your inner self that you have not explored or experienced. He shows you so many dimensions of your being. The Master stands for your multi- dimensional being. He tries to show you that it is possible. He shows that if it is possible for him, it is possible for you also. But as long as you believe your senses, you think that you are the body and mind.

Final Surrender Itself is Enlightenment In the inner world, the first and last tool you need is complete surrender. Only then can you wake up to the Truth. If Arjuna had trusted only his senses, he would have been at best a good warrior and king. Instead he trusted Kṛṣṇa more than his senses and became enlightened. He experienced the truth of Kṛṣṇa. When Kṛṣṇa said that the crow was green, he saw a green crow. Such was his faith.

When you surrender your senses, the root cognition of yourself, you lose your identification with the body and mind. As long as you believe your senses, you think that you are the body and mind. Only when you believe the master's words more than your senses, do you realize the truth that you are divine. On one hand, your senses say you are the body and mind. On the other hand, the Master tells you that you are divine and in eternal bliss. He tells you that you are the consciousness beyond body and mind.

It is up to you to choose. If you believe the senses, you cannot believe the Master. And if you believe the Master, you cannot believe your senses. Your way of life decides whether you surrender to your senses or your Master. It is for you to decide.

Kṛṣṇa says that only when you surrender at all three levels do you have the ultimate experience. Let me tell you this, surrender itself is Enlightenment. Please do not think Enlightenment will be issued to you after surrendering. No! It is not a paycheck you receive by courier. Surrender itself is Enlightenment. At that moment, you experience the Truth.

When I say surrender, I mean wake up to the truth that you are in the ocean. When you are born, when you think you are an individual or when you become enlightened, you are always in the ocean. Just wake up! Waking up to this ultimate Truth is surrender. Surrender these small ideas about yourself and wake up to reality. As a result, surrender automatically happens in your inner space, your inner Consciousness. Otherwise you just play with the word surrender.

Do not worry, because you have nothing to surrender. By understanding that you have nothing to surrender, you have already surrendered. Whether you surrender or not, this is the truth. Whether you surrender or not, Existence takes care. Automatically life continues and you will relax. that relaxation itself is surrender.

Relax into the flow of life and wake up to the truth that you ARE something greater than your body and mind as suggested by your senses. You are led by society to think that you are something. Now wake up to the truth that you are greater than what you can imagine. You are beyond any imagination you can have of yourself. Surrendering will give you a new consciousness. You will not be the same person. One single moment of surrender will transform your whole life. You will be a new being.

Receive this truth of surrender and work on it. Suddenly you will wake up and give birth to yourself as an enlightened being. The moment you understand you belong to the ocean, that you are from it, that you are in it and that you will disappear into it, you will realize that you will never die, because you are the ocean.

As long as you identify with the bubble, you feel insecure. The instinct to survive and the instinct to possess torture you. The moment you realize that you are the ocean, the instinct to survive disappears because there is no death for you. There is nothing to fear, nothing to feel insecure about. Death creates fear as long as you think you are the bubble.

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18 - Lesson 5 of 19_English_part_2.md

The moment you realize that you are the ocean, there is nothing to possess because everything belongs to you. There is nothing to lose and nothing to acquire. Hence, the instinct to possess disappears. I am not asking you to legally throw away your possessions. You do not need to throw away whatever you have done for your 'I' and 'mine'. You do not need to throw away whatever you have. Just do not internalize them. Within yourself be aware and be complete that you are something greater than anything you can possibly possess.

Kṛṣṇa goes much deeper than these three levels of surrender: surrender of the intellect, surrender of the emotions and surrender of the senses. He gives Arjuna a glimpse of the greatest surrender. He gives Arjuna a glimpse of the ultimate experience itself. Kṛṣṇa already gave Arjuna the experience during Viśvarūpa darśan, the vision of His Cosmic form. Even so, Arjuna was unable to establish himself in that experience due to fear.

Kṛṣṇa is waking Arjuna up from the long slumber called saṁsāra sāgara. This can also be called unconsciousness or tamas. Kṛṣṇa gives him a good shake by giving him the ultimate experience and puts him in that state forever. I was telling you about the three levels of surrender. Kṛṣṇa puts Arjuna into that final level or highest level of surrender.

Helping the students understand ultimate surrender.

• 1. What is the deluded belief that Krishna speaks about here?
• 2. What are the three levels of surrender?
• 3. What does the Master stand for?
• 4. What happens when you surrender your senses?
• 5. What stopped Arjuna from establishing himself into the ultimate experience of surrender?
• 6. What is final surrender?

Start by engaging a brief discussion, asking the children how they understand surrender. Then, ask them to close their eyes and to bring their awareness to their third eye. Ask them to connect to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM and to surrender in whatever way they understand. Then, ask them to draw the Viśvarūpa Darśan in their own unique way.

Krishna gives Arjuna a glimpse of the greatest surrender during Viśvarūpa darśan, the vision of His Cosmic form.

Read the following story to the students: Once a disciple asked his Master, 'Why should I Surrender?' The Master asked, 'How do you know whatever you think you know about yourself?' The disciple replied, 'I know myself through my senses. 'The Master asked, 'Who do you think you are according to your senses?' The disciple said, 'As far as I know, I am the body and mind.' His Master responded, 'You are God, not just body and mind.'

The Master said, 'Only when you surrender your senses, will you realize the truth of what I am saying. The moment you trust me more than your senses, you experience that you are God. You then understand the meaning of Tat Tvam Asi (literally 'You Are That', meaning 'you are divine')

Remind the students that the Master shows you various dimensions of your inner self that you have not explored or experienced. Then ask each student to stand in a row/chain. Tell one student to stand in front of the 'first one in the row, to connect to the Master and to reveal one dimension of themselves. Then tell them to move on to the second person in the row and ask them to reveal another dimension of themselves while connecting to the Master and so on until they reach the last student in row. Ask each student to do the same. At the end, ask students to share whether they were able to cognize themselves beyond what their senses perceive, beyond body and mind.

The Master stands for your multi-dimensional being. As you believe your senses, you think that you are the body and mind.

Engage a discussion about the truth that the Master is not here to prove that He is God, but that He is here to prove that you are God.' Then ask the students to write a short essay about how they have personally experienced it in their own life, whether it is by manifesting powers, feeling inspired by Guru's words, doing something that they never thought they would be capable of doing...

The Master stands for the idea that you are the infinite. He shows you various dimensions of your inner self that you have not explored or experienced. He shows you so many dimensions of your being. The Master stands for your multi- dimensional being. He tries to show you that it is possible. He shows that if it is possible for him, it is possible for you also.