1. Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by Nithyananda - Chapter 12 - Love is your very Life

In the last chapter, Arjuna asks for and receives the viswarupa darshan, the vision of the Universal Form of Krishna. Krishna very patiently resolves Arjuna's doubts and answers, all his questions. Arjuna then wishes to see the true reality of Krishna, the Form behind the formless, the Imperishable, the Eternal. Krishna obliges his friend and disciple, Arjuna, the true representative of the human being, Nara.

Seeing this cosmic form of Krishna, and unable to withstand the energy, Arjuna begs Krishna to show him the benevolent four-armed form of Vishnu that he is used to worshipping with devotion. Finally, Krishna reverts to His normal human form as Arjuna's charioteer, and the King of Yadavas. After showing His cosmic form and having given the experience of cosmic consciousness to Arjuna, Krishna now speaks about bhakti, devotional love.

Krishna's universal form, as displayed to Arjuna, is His cosmic consciousness, which is our collective consciousness. Arjuna understands from Krishna that he too is a part of this cosmic consciousness, and at the same time he is aware that what he could see of Krishna is a mere fraction of His eternal cosmic Self.

Arjuna's experience of the divine form of Krishna raises further questions in his mind.

Is this form that he just witnessed the glorious reality of the cosmos? Is this the true reality that he should focus on? Or is the formless Self that Krishna had talked to him about earlier more important?

Usually people think a spiritual experience happens only after bhakti, devotional love. However, bhakti only happens after a spiritual experience. Real bhakti cannot happen to you before a spiritual experience.

Western religions believe that social service leads to spiritual experience. No, never! Without our own inner transformation we can never hope to help others. If we do that, whatever we do will be only skin deep, just superficial. We do it to boost our ego, to hear others speak of our kindness and how good we are.

Only when our ego disappears can we relate to others as part of a collective consciousness. Only in this case, do we feel we are one with everyone else, rich or poor, black or white. Then we can engage in a meaningful contribution to others.

Only when a person experiences every being as part of the cosmic consciousness can he radiate love. Only such a person knows what love is. Nobody else knows what love is. Others think that they love, or act as if they love. Be very clear, so many people act as if they love. Sometimes by acting, they think that they love. Never can we love by acting!

Love must flow from our being. Love happens when we experience cosmic consciousness, when we have a spiritual experience, when our ego disappears. Krishna lays out the whole technique for us step-by-step.

After a spiritual experience so much gratitude flows from our being, so much love overflows from our being, that we start radiating it. We need not make an effort, it just flows. We cannot stop it. No one can show or experience love, unless they have had a spiritual experience.

Unconditional love cannot be forced to happen. It flowers inside us when our mind is silenced and cleansed. What we commonly call love is conditional. We negotiate with our love, with what we perceive to be the power to provide approval to us from others. In return for that certification of approval from another person, we give the emotion that we call love.

We talk about loving other people. We are proud of loving the whole world. In practice, however, we find it difficult to love even our neighbor, especially if he is wealthier than us. There are times when one would gladly lose one's eye, so that his neighbor may lose both eyes, such is the negativity arising out of jealousy and greed. How can we love the world when we cannot love our neighbor? How can we talk about doing service to humanity when basic charity to one's kith and kin is lacking?

People ask me, 'Master, you tell your devotees to meditate, meditate, and meditate. What is the use? Isn't it a selfish practice? Why don't you tell them to do service? That will benefit a lot of people.'

There are many so-called spiritual organizations and organized charities that are caught in social service, just for name, fame and social prestige.

The people running these organizations, the people involved in these organizations, are always preoccupied and busy being photographed for newspapers and magazines. Organized charity is a beautiful way of cheating yourself and others.

Charity can never be organized. It just has to flow. It is not an external expression. It is an internal conviction. The moment we try to organize that conviction, the whole thing takes on a different quality, a different color, and a different purpose. Only when it flows after an experience, is it a solid expression of love.

Our inner transformation must happen before we help others transform. Unless we feel that we are part of the Whole, unless we feel that every other person is irretrievably linked to us, it is impossible for us to contribute with true love. We will only be hypocrites.

We are part of the cosmic ocean. Each of us is a mere drop. As long as we remain droplets and do not understand the reality of being part of the same ocean, we remain separate; our feelings will be driven by 'I' and 'mine'. As long as this separation remains, there can be no true love. There can be no expression of unconditional love.

Zen Buddhism beautifully says, 'Whatever Buddha does, whatever an enlightened being does, even if he kills someone, it will only do that person good. It will do Buddha as well as the other person good, because Buddha is driven by the cosmic consciousness. Therefore it will always be good for everyone.'

However, whatever an unenlightened man does, even if he does great service, it will do ill to him and society. Good or bad is not decided by doing. It is decided by the being!

When an enlightened man acts, even small things lead to great results in the world. When an unenlightened person acts, even great truths lead to misery and destruction.

Think about the simple words uttered by Buddha, 'Watch your breath, witness your inhaling and exhaling.' Buddha discovered this simple truth through which thousands of people have become enlightened. Through this vipassana meditation technique, the lives of thousands have been transformed. As a result, the entire universe has benefited.

When Buddha uttered an ordinary truth, a simple truth, it led and continues to lead thousands of people into a state of higher consciousness. Yet when an unenlightened person discovers even a great truth, it leads to destruction. For example, the Atomic Theory is a great truth. The Theory of Relativity is a great truth. Yet when it comes from an unenlightened mind, it leads to destruction.

Researchers are now engaged in scientific work related to cloning and stem cells and so on. Whatever results and benefits humanity may receive from this work will be more dependent upon the quality of the being of the researchers. The effect will not depend on the quality of their minds. Minds are always driven by ego. The being is driven by consciousness and awareness of universal love.

If a single person with the wrong attitude is allowed to sit in a seat of power, he can endanger the whole of humanity. Everything is ready. All we need is someone to press the button. If he is mad enough and sadistic enough to press the button, global homicide will happen. So many atomic weapons have been piled up.

See, atomic fission is a great truth. Atomic fission says that atoms can be split and thereby made to release massive amounts of energy. It is such a great truth, yet it is an expression of an unenlightened mind. It can be put to many constructive uses. This truth can change the world for the better. However, as long as it is evolved from and operated by unenlightened beings rooted in their ego, it will naturally lead to destruction.

Deeds or words by themselves don't do good or bad. They do good or bad based upon the consciousness from which they are emitted, based upon the consciousness from which they are expressed. This consciousness, this awareness, is related to the feeling one has for others. The quality of our awareness decides whether the end result benefits or destroys humanity.

Only after a spiritual experience, do we feel gratitude at the being level. If it is our solid experience that every living being is God, we radiate love and our Being becomes love. We cannot help ourselves. Bhakti and love are expressions that flow from that spiritual experience.

Krishna's discourse on bhakti yoga starts after Viswarupa Darshan Yoga. After the experience, He talks about the expression, bhakti yoga. He talks about the expression of devotional love.

2.1 Arjuna asked, 'Who are considered perfect, those who are always engaged sincerely in Your worship in form or those who worship the imperishable, the invisible formless You?'

Arjuna now speaks in a totally different manner. The trend is different now. He asks, 'Which of these two types of people are considered to be better - those who are always engaged in your bhakti – devotional love to wards to you - or those who merge in the Brahman, the unmanifest, formless, cosmic consciousness?'

Please be clear, Arjuna is not asking for himself. From here, the discourse becomes a simple discussion. It is more like trying to record the truth for future generations.

The questions from here onward are neither doubts nor enquiries. Arjuna tries to put the whole thing down in the expression form, so that it will be a useful reference for future generations. A flow of Arjuna's love for humanity, an expression of his divine experience, prompts him to seek answers to these vexing questions and record the answers from the Godhead Himself.

Arjuna asks, 'Who will be established in You totally? Will it be a devotee or a person who is enlightened?'

Religious people, or so-called religious people, confuse others with this verse about Arjuna's question as to whether worshipping the form or worshipping the formless is right. These people are so confused that they do not know right from wrong. They use their intellectual arrogance and misunderstanding to confuse others. Let me tell you, this is not what Arjuna meant by asking this question. If we look at Krishna's answers, we will understand.

Arjuna asks, 'Is it good to be established in the experience of the divine consciousness, just to stay in it and enjoy the eternal bliss that flows from that experience? Or is it better to express that love and gratitude created by the conscious experience towards the whole world and every living being? Which is correct? Which one is preferred?'

See, when we have a spiritual experience, some people stay in that experience with closed eyes, that's all. Only with eyes closed, they can see God. They do not wish to open their eyes. They do not seek to use their senses since the bliss within is so great and beautiful that absolutely no sensory input remotely matches that bliss.

However, there are others who are impelled to open their eyes, as it were, by the universe to communicate that blissful experience through their expression to others.

The so-called scholars enter into endless debates on savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi. Savikalpa samadhi is the state where the experience of samadhi continues. Nirvikalpa samadhi is when the expression of samadhi starts. Savikalpa samadhi is supposed to be a lower state, and one is supposed to work towards the second and higher state of nirvikalpa samadhi. But it is not an ironclad rule.

In my own case, both happened together. I did not go through two stages. I went through just one, and reached the state where the experience was allowed to be expressed. It was the will of the Divine, Parashakti. Please understand that this is not a choice that people make. An option is not presented to those who have such experiences.

Ordinary human beings have freewill to decide what they wish to do, and their karma follows. Karma refers to the fruits of their own actions – good or bad. Those who experience the Divine transcend that point of freewill. They are driven wholly in each step that they take by Parashakti, the Universal Energy, by Krishna, the super conscious Godhead. They have no choice whether to sit with their eyes closed or open their eyes and benefit humanity.

It is not that Arjuna does not know this. Arjuna understands that he and others who have had an experience of the Divine, face the choicelessness. He knows that Krishna decides what he should do. Yet, he asks because he wants everyone to understand. This is why the Bhagavad Gita is a living scripture. Its words resonate 5000 or 10,000 years after Krishna spoke. This dialogue answers every possible question of a seeker. Arjuna's role is to represent the spiritual seeker.

Arjuna asks, 'What type of a person is greater? Is it a person who closes his eyes and sees God within himself or a person who opens his eyes and sees God in every being? Who is greater?'

Please understand, he is not asking whether worshiping the form or worshipping the formless is greater. Yet socalled religious people have interpreted it that way, and created problems between the teachings of the great Masters Sankara and Ramanuja.

Sankara followed gnana, the knowledge path, and Ramanuja followed bhakti, the devotion path. Gnana focuses on the formless through intellectual queries. Bhakti focuses on the form, sheer devotion, as if the Divine were alive and kicking, as It indeed is. However, those who have studied Sankara and Ramanuja in depth know that there was much bhakti in Sankara's approach and much gnana in Ramanuja's approach! Both approaches converge. One without the other never works.

No one who has read Sankara's Soundarya Lahiri will be unmoved by the expression of love of this Master for the Mother Goddess. It is true, that there is tremendous metaphoric significance in philosophical terms to this work and other devotional works of Sankara. Still he is moved primarily by his devotion to the form that he describes so beautifully.

He describes the Goddess from head to toe as he sees Her in front of him. It is a graphic, loving description, an aware and devotional rendering of his expression.

On the other side, the depth of philosophical wisdom and insight provided by Ramanuja in his commentaries, the bhashyam, on the sutras and scriptures, easily rivals that of Sankara, who is considered the pinnacle of religious philosophy. True gnana cannot exist without bhakti and true bhakti cannot exist without gnana.

The argument goes on and on and on. But if we see the answers, it is clear that this is not what Arjuna asks. He asks, whether he should be established in that divine experience or whether he should express the gratitude happening within him?

Expressing the gratitude that happens because of the experience is bhakti. Having that experience and rejoicing, staying in that experience is gnana; that's all.

Krishna's answer is that both paths are the same. The paths are intertwined. The first one leads to the second one, and the second one leads back to first one. We must have heard the term vicious circle. First one leads to the second and the second one leads back to the first one.

Now I want to introduce another word, virtuous circle. Vicious circle leads to low energy or lower level of consciousness. Virtuous circle leads to high energy, a higher level of consciousness! Bliss leading to devotion and gratitude, devotion and gratitude leading to bliss these two form the virtuous circles that lead us to higher consciousness.

Bliss means the experience that leads us to the expression of gratitude and service. Again, the expression, the gratitude of service, leads us to bliss. One leads to the other and therefore it is a virtuous circle. Usually we are caught in the vicious circle. Fear leads to greed and greed leads to fear. More fear leads to more greed, and more greed leads to more fear. This is the vicious circle. Here Krishna introduces the virtuous circle. Virtuous circle is what He calls dharma, righteousness, that which must be followed in the path of truth.

Dharma means virtuous circle, that which leads us to live and express higher and higher levels of consciousness. That in turn leads us to higher and higher levels of blissful experience. Consciousness and bliss lead to expression of that consciousness and bliss, which in turn lead to higher level experiences.

12.2 Lord Krishna said, 'Those who fix their mind on Me eternally and those who are steadfast in worshipping Me with supreme faith, I consider them to be perfect in yoga, ready to be united with Me.'

Bhagavan says, 'Those who are established in their consciousness, that expresses devotional gratitude, bhakti, are always engaged in Me. Those who focus on the transcendental faith, meaning the experience that they undergo at the time of cosmic experience, they are engaged in Me. Both are ultimate. Both are united in Me.

Sanskrit is a beautiful language. We can make any meaning out of any word. That is why thousands of commentaries on the Gita are possible, yet the Gita is still new. No book has been commented upon by so many Masters, as much as the Gita has been. Each Master gives his own meaning.

Again, I insist that if a person who has not had a spiritual experience starts expressing and lecturing, he will naturally be in trouble and create trouble for others as well. In the same way that the blind leads the blind, both are led into trouble. Similarly, a person without any spiritual experience, when he translates or talks, he automatically does only text torturing.

Only a person who has had a true spiritual experience and one who is free from inner chatter is true to himself and others. Only then a person can transparently and honestly bare himself without thinking of others. Until then, there is inner chatter and an effort to filter. There is an effort to rehearse. We dare not bare the truth of the inner chatter to the outside world. We fear that what may spill out will be unacceptable, so we filter and replace what we feel inside us with lies. We make our lives into lies.

Understand this small example: let us say I draw a diagram and explain the concept of an experience that I have had to you. After a few days, you present only an audio CD of this session to a friend who did not attend this lecture. You have not had the experience. You are merely translating my experience. How much can you explain? How well will you explain? How much can the other person grasp? He will not grasp much. He will miss many details that are in the diagram. He will miss my body language completely. You cannot explain accurately either, because you are not the one who had the experience.

I am explaining through a picture. If you are here seeing and listening to me you will understand. Even then, it is difficult to grasp the truth, to understand it. So if you just give the audio CD to a friend who has not attended the program, how much will he understand? In the same way, if he tries to understand through the CD and gives a lecture on this subject to someone else, how much of it will be accurate?

A person who has not attended the lecture, who just has the audio recording or a copy of the book, cannot understand much. Like that, the Bhagavad Gita is a transcription of the audio recording. If the Gita were an audio recording, at least you would comprehend a bit more from the voice modulation. However, the voice modulation is not there. It is a transcription of an audio recording. How much can you translate or interpret?

That is why Vivekananda emphasized again and again not to read or listen to anything expressed by a person who has not personally experienced the Truth. Most importantly, he said, 'Bother about who is speaking, rather than what he is speaking.' He emphasized the personal experience. He added, 'All the books in the libraries in this world cannot lead you to the Truth. Once you have realized the Truth, you do not need books.'

Intellectual understanding is not experiencing. Understanding is a phenomenon of the mind. It is a byproduct of our ego. The filters of our mind and ego, color our understanding. Only then can the mind perceive and understand.

Experience is the Truth felt by the Being. Spiritual experience transcends mind and ego. It is pure, uncolored and permanent. By expressing an understanding of someone's experience, one may express a fact or an opinion at best, but never the Truth. Truth must be experienced to be expressed.

Here Bhagavan says,

mayy aavesya mano ye maam nitya-yuktaa upaasate sraddhayaa parayopetaas te me yuktatamaa mataah

Those who express their experience as devotion see the world upaasate. The word upassana can be translated in many ways. When we see the the Divine in everybody, when we express the truth of the spiritual experience, whatever we do is upassana. Please be very clear, when we can't see the Divine in people around us, we cannot see the Divine in any statue or any Master either. If we don't see the Divine in living beings, we cannot see the Divine in a God or a guru.

If it were not for the great Master Ramanuja, South Bharat would have completely lost its spirituality. Sankara settled in the north even though he was born and brought up in the south. He spent most of his time in North Bharat. Because of Ramanuja, devotion and spirituality thrived in South Bharat. Until his end, Ramanuja stayed in South Bharat. Not only that, Sankara lived until the age of thirty-two. Ramanuja lived on planet Earth for a long time and inspired thousands of people in the path of spirituality and meditation.

One young man asks Ramanuja, 'Master, please tell me how I can achieve bhakti, achieve God, achieve devotion?' Ramanuja asks, 'Have you ever loved anybody in your life?' This man was shaken. He said, 'I am a pure brahmachari, celibate. How can you ask me this question? I came to learn about God, and you ask me this question?' Ramanuja says, 'First go and love somebody. See how you feel when you love somebody. Then come back and I will teach you about God. I will teach you about bhakti, devotional love.'

This man was naturally taken aback. He could not understand Ramanuja. However, unless we love the person whom we can see, how will we love an entity that we have never seen? If we can't love Hindu beings whom we see everyday, how can we love the form of God whom we have never seen? What Ramanuja says is true. We should also understand that unless we radiate love in the space where we stay, we can't love the whole world.

Again and again I tell people, loving the whole world is easy. Loving your wife is difficult. Loving the whole world is easy because we don't need to do anything. All we must do is to say, 'I love the whole world, and I love the whole world.' But when we love our wife, we must change our attitude. We must change our mind. And we must change our words. We must do something.

To truly love someone whom we spend our life with, to prevent familiarity and breed contempt, we need to drop our 'I' and 'mine'. As long as we consider our spouse as a possession, what arises in our mind and heart is violence, not love. We will feel we must control the other being and we will feel we must prove that we are the owner. To even comprehend the meaning of true love, we need to drop the feeling that we possess.

The Lebanese philosopher and poet Khalil Gibran speaks on love in his celebrated book, The Prophet: share your bread with your beloved, but do not eat from the same loaf. Share what you drink with your beloved, but do not drink from the same cup. You do not own one another.

What many of us say to our spouse and feel we have the right to say is often what we would not dare to say to a stranger. We would be highly offended if we were told we have no right to behave like that to our spouse. We feel that social courtesies do not apply to spouses because we feel that we love them. Contemporary children do not put up with the kind of words spouses routinely use on each other.

How many can say with the hand on the heart that even 50% of the time, what you say to your spouse springs from true unconditional love? understand, it is only when you love your wife, can you begin to comprehend how to love the world. That is the entire purpose of marriage rituals and why that relationship is considered sacred. By developing that bond, that love between two people who are united for the rest of their lives, it is possible to develop that experience which is the Truth, which in turn leads to the expression of that same Truth as love to the rest of humanity.

Being established in that consciousness or expressing it towards the universe are the same. When a person is merged, when a person is established, he automatically radiates. If the love is not happening, if the expression is not happening, the person has not experienced. When the real experience happens, it automatically expresses. Experience is not something we can possess and keep in our cupboard. No! Experience will possess us and it will sink through us.

A disciple asked a Zen Master, 'Will an enlightened Master speak?' The Master said, 'No, an enlightened person never speaks. Only a person who doesn't know speaks.' Then the disciple asked, 'Will an enlightened Master keep quiet?' The Master said, 'No, an enlightened Master never keeps quiet. If he keeps quiet, then he is not enlightened.' The disciple was puzzled, 'You say he neither speaks nor keeps quiet. What does he do?' The Master replied, 'He sings. His Being sings. He neither speaks, nor keeps quiet. His very Being sings.'

This is because we cannot possess an experience. Only the experience can possess us. When experiences possess us, whatever we do will be a song. Any word that comes out will be a song. Our being will be so light. We will simply float. Our walking will be a dance. Our body language will radiate grace. All our expressions will be a great service to humanity.

The Zen Master says beautifully that an enlightened man never keeps quiet nor does he talk, he just sings. That is why the Gita is given in the form of a song. The Gita is not prose. It is poetry. Great truths can never be expressed in logic. They can only be expressed through poetry. Prose is logic. It is bound. It is rigid. But poetry is emotion. It is love and it flows.

Krishna says that a person established in the Consciousness is great; however, the person who expresses, who shares, who automatically radiates, is as great as the one who is established. The truth is that if a man is established in consciousness, he will radiate and he will sing.

Let me tell a small story from a great devotee, a bhakta, who lived in Varanasi.

This man was a great devotee of Krishna. He owned a small copy of the Bhagavad Gita. That was his entire possession, his only wealth. Every morning he bathed in the Ganga while reciting the Bhagavad Gita with devotion. He spent the whole day sitting and meditating on Krishna. He was continuously in the ecstasy of Krishna. He radiated Krishna bhakti, devotional love towards Krishna.

Of course, we see these types of souls only in Bharat. Society does not disturb people who just sit in ecstasy. Society takes care of them. In any other country such people would be called homeless, hounded by police and the public, put in a shelter and disrespected. Hindu culture is beautiful. If we sit in ecstasy, we are respected and worshipped!

This person was in ecstasy, always singing Krishna's name, in Krishna dhyana, in Krishna meditation, in Krishna smarana, repeating Krishna's name. He was lost in Krishna Consciousness. One day a beggar came and asked, 'Oh Swami, please give me something. For the last three days I have not eaten.' Now this posed a big problem to the bhakta. He himself was a beggar and had only one possession, the Gita. He owned nothing else. If someone gave him food, he ate. Otherwise he just sang Krishna's name. His only property was the Gita.

When this beggar asked for food after not having eaten for three days, he felt bad. He looked to see if there was something to give. There was only the Bhagavad Gita, which he had preserved and worshiped for many years. That was his sole possession, akin to God for him. It was everything to him.

Suddenly, he gathered courage and took hold of the book and said, 'I have nothing. I have only this book. However, if you go to the city and tell people that this book was my possession, you will be able to auction it. Surely someone will buy it. Many people respect me. To some extent, they feel devoted to me. So Krishna's blessing is there. Go to the market and auction this book. Take the money and eat and fulfill yourself and be happy.'

The beggar took the book and went away. The next morning, when he was about to chant the Gita, the bhakta said, 'Oh Krishna, I have given away your words to keep your words. What is your word? Your word is to radiate bhakti, to radiate devotion, and to radiate service. I gave away your word to keep your word.'

This bhakta was a true bhakta. He had seen the Truth. He had experienced it. So he was able to express it. He translated his devotion to Krishna as love and service to his fellow men. Keeping Krishna's word was more important than keeping Krishna's book. Actually, if we honestly keep the book and use it, we will have the experience. We will radiate His words. Only when we miss keeping His book, we miss keeping His words as well.

Q: I have read and known people who have had near death experiences, out of body experiences. All of them have described them as beautiful. Why do you describe death as painful, like a thousand scorpions biting you?

Please understand, I was talking about a normal man's death experience. Here you say, 'I have read and I know people who have had near death experiences.' The moment you say I have read, it means you have read about their experiences. You have heard from them, meaning that they are, in some way or the other, meditators or spiritual people. That's why they have had the experience and have come back.

I was explaining about leaving once and for all. You are speaking about having an experience and coming back. Having an experience and coming back means the experience is spiritual. It is not a death experience. I was talking about actual physical death, not conscious transformation.

Ramana Maharishi experienced a conscious experience of death. But I was describing the actual death of a normal human being, the physical death of a normal human being. Understand the difference.

In my experience of the truth, at the time of death the spirit passes through seven layers of energy. The entire life that one has lived is played back with no details omitted. The being relives the pains, pleasures, guilts, desires and all such emotions that it experienced when it was alive. That is how you pass through hell and heaven. The pain of that process is like a thousand scorpions stinging all at the same time. It is like the body being ripped open from head to toe. The only way to escape this pain is to have a glimpse of truth, at least once in one's life. That is possible only through meditation.

In the THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Spurana Program (NSP), that is what I do. I take you through the journey that your spirit will pass through at death and meditate upon your samskaras at each stage in order to dissolve them. This opens the possibility of painless death and no rebirth.

12.3,4 But those who worship with awareness the imperishable, the unmanifest, that which lies beyond the perception of senses,

the all pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, the non-moving and permanent,

those who worship by restraining their senses, and are working with even mind for the benefit of mankind,

They too attain Me.

Krishna is saguna brahman, the physical cosmos, who showed Himself in this form to Arjuna in His vishwarupa. Krishna is nirguna brahman

as well, the formless Consciousness. In both the form and the formless, He is Krishna, the Divine Consciousness who has all the attributes that Krishna talks about here.

The Divine is imperishable. It is aksharam. Everything else in this material universe may come and go, appear and disappear, while the Divine remains forever. It is unique and incomparable, anirdesyam, and cannot be benchmarked against anything, as it is supreme. It is unmanifest and intangible, avyaktam, and therefore cannot be comprehended by the senses. It cannot be grasped by thoughts and mind, and is achintyam, which is why one's mind-body needs to be transcended to glimpse the Divine. The Divine resides everywhere and is omnipresent, sarvatragam.

When King Hiranyakasipu, the demonic father of Prahlad, the young Prince and great devotee of Vishnu, dares his son to utter the name of Narayana whom he hates, Prahlad says, 'Narayana is everywhere. He is in this twig and He is in this pillar.'

Meanwhile in Vaikunta, Narayana's heavenly abode, Narayana jumps up in a hurry from his dalliance. Irritated, his consort Lakshmi complains, as every wife would, 'Where are you going at this time of the night?' Vishnu responds, 'My devotee Prahlad is about to call me. I do not know whether he will point his finger - to a twig or a pillar. Wherever he points, I must be ready to appear. I cannot let him down!'

The true devotee sees his Lord everywhere. Ramakrishna describes the love of a true devotee this way: 'It is the love of a chaste wife for her husband, the attachment of a miser towards his hoarded wealth, the craving of a worldly person for sensual pleasures, all rolled into one and directed towards the Lord, creating devotion.'

Brahman is also kutastham - unchangeable, achalam unmoving and dhruvam - permanent in aspect, form and the formless. The true devotee who follows either path with awareness, with his senses focused on the Lord, experiences Him and also experiences the bliss of serving the rest of humanity. The devotee sees the Lord in everyone he meets. His experience of His Lord becomes his expression of love to all.

Radha tells the gopikas - women cowherds who were around Krishna all the time, 'I don't know what has happened. I don't know what has come over me. I see Krishna in everybody. I feel that everybody is Krishna. I don't know what is happening.' One of the gopikas answers, 'You have bhakti as the very anjana - black eye liner - in your eyes!'

It is like this: when you wear dark glasses everything appears dark; when you wear green-tinted glasses, everything appears green. In the same way, when you have bhakti anjana in your eyes, whomsoever you see appears as Krishna, appears Divine! Here, Krishna says, the person established in super consciousness and the person who radiates devotion are the same. They are not two different groups.

Krishna does not create two groups. Arjuna presents two groups as the reality he sees: those who are established and those who are radiating. Krishna says

both are the same. He does not divide them into two groups, those who are established and those who radiate. Krishna says, a person who is established always radiates, and the person who radiates is always established. As I said earlier, it is a virtuous circle.

Ramakrishna says, 'When a bell rings, each stroke has a sound form of its own. But even when the bell stops ringing, we continue to hear the sound. That's how God appears, both as form and as formless.'

In Bhaja Govindam, Sankara says,

guru chranambuja nirbhara bhaktah samsrat achirat bhava muktah sendriya manasa niyamat evam drikshasi nija hridayatvam devam

One who controls his senses, focuses his mind and surrenders completely to his Master sees the Lord in his heart. Once again, Krishna makes the point here. When one has realized the formless nature of the Divine, its imperishability and its unmanifest nature with controlled senses, one works for the good of mankind.

Once the experience of the formless divine happens, it is no different from the experience of the form. Both lead to the truth that one is part of collective consciousness. The expression of this realization is one of deep humility and compassion. It is manifested as deep gratitude and surrender. One learns to flow with the energy of this universe. One no longer struggles against the currents of life.

The Chinese philosophy of Tao talks about flowing. The reed that bends with the flowing water survives and flourishes. The sapling that is too rigid to bend disappears. If we are like the reed in complete surrender to what is around us, accepting things as they are, not struggling every moment to fight against nature, we remain blissful.

When we are full of ego we tend to control. We believe we can bring order to an otherwise chaotic world. It takes only a moment to realize that this entire universe and planet Earth function not because of us, but in spite of us. Millions and millions of stars and planets in this universe function in apparent chaos. But understand: the universe is always in order.

We want to be in order but we are truly chaotic. Only when we surrender to the will of the universe, things go well for us. When we give up wanting, we get what we want. When we get what we truly want, it benefits mankind. Because when we surrender, Krishna takes care.

Q: Master, Krishna says my devotee never perishes. But if everything is God, what perishes? Krishna makes it sound like his devotee does not perish and others do. Please explain and remove my doubt.

Understand, the moment you realize that you do not perish, you become a devotee of Krishna. There are no categories like Krishna's devotees and others, or that Krishna's devotees will not perish while others will. Whosoever understands that he will not perish, automatically becomes Krishna's devotee. The moment you understand this concept you become his bhakta. If you understand that everything is God, you understand that nothing perishes.

He says, 'My devotee never perishes.' This is a relative statement. If you understand everything is God, then nothing perishes. When you understand that, if you reach that level, this statement doesn't make sense to you. This statement is for a normal person who is on the path, who is still attempting to understand it. Firstly, if you have experienced that everything is God, you don't need to bother about this statement.

Next, the moment you understand nothing perishes, you become a Krishna bhakta. So Krishna is not making partial statements. He does not show favoritism and say, 'Only My devotees will not perish, and others' devotees will perish.'

No, He doesn't mean it that way. Whoever understands this philosophy will not perish. That is what it means. Whoever understands this science will not perish. If you understand the science and even if you are not devoted to the flute and the peacock feather, you will not perish. So don't bother. If you think that Krishna means the flute and peacock feather, then this question is raised. If you understand that Krishna is beyond the peacock feather and flute, you will not have this doubt. 'My devotee never perishes. When he understands this, he never perishes,' that is what Krishna means.

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 12 - Love is your very Life_English_part_2.md

Krishna is not the Krishna whom you think He is. He is not the single form you are used to. He is the super conscious energy, the cosmic energy, Parashakti.

A group of Krishna devotees, fanatics, attended my discourse and asked me, 'You speak on the Gita so elaborately. Do you believe in Krishna?' I said, 'Of course, I do.' They asked, 'If you do, then how can you talk about other Gods as Divine. We understand that you have a Dakshinamurti temple in your ashram. How can you do that? Krishna says in the Gita that He is everything and no one else matters.'

I explained to them. In Mahabharata after the war, Arjuna and Krishna go for a walk. Arjuna turns to Krishna and says, 'I do not remember much of what you told me before the war started on the battlefield. Can you please tell me again?' Krishna smiles and says, 'Oh! You forgot? I have also forgotten.' Arjuna is bewildered and asks, 'Krishna, how is that possible?' Krishna replies, 'When I was teaching on the battlefield, I was the super conscious, Parabrahma Krishna. Now, I am only Vasudeva Krishna. I cannot remember what I told you in my formless Universal Energy mode.' But compassionate as He was, Krishna did explain once again the Truth to Arjuna in what is known as the Anu Gita.

When the Krishna devotees understood this principle of the Divine Consciousness of Krishna being the same as every other Divinity however much the forms may differ in the way we worship, they were satisfied. The Krishna who says, 'My devotee shall never perish' is Parabrahma Krishna. In that state, He resides in each of us. If we realize that truth, we become His devotee; we too become Krishna, one with Krishna Consciousness; never to perish.

12.5 For those whose minds are set on the unmanifest, the formless, it is more difficult to advance; attaining the formless unmanifest is difficult for the embodied.

Krishna says here what many of us know to be true. Intellectuals find it more difficult to comprehend the Divine.

Brahma and Vishnu had an argument as to who was greater. They could not agree and so they went to Shiva for mediation. Shiva took the form of a shaft of light without ends that spanned the universe and said to them, 'The one who finds either of my ends is greater.'

Vishnu assumed the form of a boar and dug through the earth searching for the lower end of this light shaft. Brahma flew up as a swan to reach the upper end. After a long, long time, Vishnu realized that he was getting nowhere. He returned and sought Shiva's forgiveness for attempting to look for His beginning.

Brahma continued regardless. On his way up, he found a flower floating down. The flower said that it was falling from Shiva's head and it had been falling for many lifetimes of Brahma. Startled, Brahma realized there was no way he would reach the end of the shaft. He forced the flower to go with him to Shiva and support his claim that he, Brahma, had picked the flower from Shiva's locks. Hearing Brahma's lie, Shiva became furious and cut off one of Brahma's heads and forbade him from being worshipped. He also cursed the flower, saying that it would never be used in His worship.

There is metaphoric meaning to this legend. Vishnu represents wealth and Brahma represents intellect. One who has wealth finds it difficult to reach God, no doubt. However, he may have the humility to accept his shortcomings and drop his attachment to his wealth to seek the truth. However, an intellectual person finds it impossible to shed his ego in his search for the truth. Therefore he never finds it.

In one's search for the Truth, the Divine, the Unmanifest, nirguna Brahman, which is what the intellectual seeker is focusing on, the intellect, the mind or ego will be the block that makes the path difficult to traverse.

The individual human being carries not only the body but the mind as well. And with the mind, it carries the ego. Unless the mind-body is transcended, spiritual advancement is difficult, as Krishna points out.

Shedding the ego is the most difficult thing for the mind-body system. Ego provides the mind-body with its identity, with its existence. The French Philosopher Rene Descartes' famous quote, 'I think, therefore I am' is an example of this identification with the intellect.

Whether now or in Krishna's time, the world revolved around the power of thought, the power that seems to provide knowledge and skills. It was essential for one's recognition and status in life. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an incarnation. Yet, in utter humility, he accepted three people in his life as his Masters. The truth though, was that Ramakrishna was the means for their liberation by helping them shed their egos!

Bhairavi offered to teach Ramakrishna tantric techniques and stayed as a disciple. It took years before she could shed her ego. Only with Ramakrishna's help, did she achieve it.

Totapuri, the great advaitic scholar had never stayed in one place for more than three nights. He wanted to teach Ramakrishna the non-dual nature of Existence. Ramakrishna left saying he had to ask the Mother. A surprised Totapuri followed him and found him conversing with the idol of Mother Kali.

When Totapuri forced him to meditate upon the formless, Ramakrishna objected saying he could not let Mother go. Furious, Totapuri placed a shard of broken glass between Ramakrishna's eyebrows, on his third eye point, and commanded him to cut his Mother Kali into pieces. Ramakrishna went into samadhi for three weeks. Rarely has anyone survived that long in samadhi and returned. After Ramakrishna returned to mind-body consciousness, Totapuri stayed on for many more months.

Then there was Jatadhari, a devotee of Vishnu who came to Ramakrishna with Ramlala, an idol of Lord Ramachandra in the form of a child. To Jatadhari, this idol of child Rama was a living being. He bathed, fed and talked to Ramlala everyday, all the time. After a few days of staying with Ramakrishna, Jatadhari found that Ramlala started spending more time with Ramakrishna. He would come searching, disturbed that his darling Ramlala had now decided to play with another person.

Jatadhari stayed at Dakshineshwar for a long time because he knew Ramlala wanted to be with Ramakrishna. One day finally, Jatadhari came to bid goodbye to Ramakrishna. 'Ramlala said that he wants to be with you. He loves you. I am fulfilled that he has at last revealed Himself to me because of you. I am happy to leave Him with you and go away. I am full of bliss.' Ever since, Ramlala stayed on with Ramakrishna.

It took the no-mind simplicity of a great Master to provide guidance to the learned scholars and to teach them to drop their egos. Dropping the ego is the most difficult thing for the mind-body, especially for one who is focused on the intellect.

12.6,7 But those who worship me with single-minded devotion, renouncing all activities unto Me, regarding Me as their supreme goal,

whose minds are set in Me, I shall deliver them soon from their ocean of the birth and death cycle.

Bhagavan makes a promise here. Krishna says unequivocally, 'I shall deliver them from their material existence, the ocean of samsara, the cycle of life and death. All that the Lord asks is that the devotee be devoted to Him.

Krishna says, 'If you surrender to Me, surrender all your actions and the fruits of those actions to Me, do my service, meditate upon Me, remain single-minded upon My Consciousness, I shall then redeem you, provide you salvation and liberate you. I shall make sure you never need to be reborn again.' It is the roar of a lion. It is the roar of the King of this Universe. 'Surrender to Me and I shall redeem you. Serve Me and I shall liberate you.'

An atheist, a true nonbeliever, fell off a steep cliff and as he was falling he grabbed the branch of a small tree and was holding onto it desperately. He was past caring whether he should worry about God's existence or not. All he wanted was to live, to be saved. He shouted out, 'God, if it is true that You exist, please save me.'

In response a voice rang out, 'Yes, I do exist and I shall save you. Just let go of that branch. You will then be saved. I shall hold you.'

The atheist shouted out in desperation, 'Is there anyone else out there who can save me?'

All our belief in God is skin deep. First of all, to most of us, God is only a concept and we worship that concept. Most of the time, we beg of that concept. We pray, 'Give me this oh Lord, give me that oh Lord.' When we have one prayer answered, we begin the next. As long as God answers our prayers, as long as the Master provides us with what we ask for, our faith in Him lasts. The moment the prayer goes unanswered, our faith dissolves. We move on to another God or Master. We say, 'Is there anyone else out there who can give me the answer I want?'

We do not realize that often God does not answer our prayers out of sheer compassion, out of sheer love for us. In our ignorant state, we keep asking, we keep begging without a break. We do not fully understand the implications of what will happen if our prayers get answered, whether our situation would become better or worse. That is why they say, 'Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it!'

From time to time, God in His infinite wisdom turns down our requests such as wanting to become rich, wanting to be well, wanting to have children, and so on. We then move away from Him. Surrendering to the Divine is not conditional. It must be total. There can be no 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'. It cannot be, 'If you grant my prayers, I shall be devoted to you.' That is business. Most of our relationship with God is business.

There are three kinds of surrender. First, there is surrender of one's intellect. For many, this is possible. Once we understand that there is a universal energy far greater than us, most of us can accept and surrender intellectually to that Supreme Power. At least we can say, 'I surrender.' That's how many of us prostrate in a temple or before a Master. The entire body touches the ground signifying our surrender. For that moment, our ego takes a vacation.

Surrender at the next level is emotional. One can melt at the thought of God or Master. There is love, there is gratitude pouring out of our hearts and we feel tears streaming down. We become bhaktas, devotees. Ramakrishna said, 'If you have tears in your eyes when you think of God or your Master, be very clear, this is your last birth. You are ready for liberation.' We are ready, but not liberated until we reach the last and third step. This step of surrender is the surrender of one's senses. Our surrender is total at this stage - unconditional, spontaneous, instant and natural.

In the Mahabharata, Vyasa talks about an incident when Arjuna is walking with Krishna.

Krishna suddenly points to a crow sitting on the branch of a tree, and says, 'Arjuna, can you see that green crow?' 'Yes Krishna, I do see that green crow,' says Arjuna. They walk a little further. Krishna points to another crow on a different tree, 'Arjuna, look at that black crow.' Arjuna says, 'I see that black crow, Krishna.' Krishna turns to Arjuna and says, 'Arjuna, you are a fool! How can there be a green crow? Why did you say that the first crow was green, when that too was black? Were you trying to please Me?'

Arjuna said, 'My Lord, when You pointed at that first crow, and asked me to look at that green crow, I saw a green crow. Krishna, what can I do? I did not see a black crow. My senses deceived me.' Arjuna's senses did not deceive him. They had surrendered to the Master, to the Divine. Once that stage is reached, there is no coming back. It is a point of no return. It is total and absolute surrender.

Krishna says, 'When you surrender to Me, I shall liberate you.' To reach Him, we must surrender totally. Our senses must be surrendered to Him. Our entire consciousness, our complete awareness must only be of Him and nothing else. Nothing else needs to be done. The technique is so simple. 'Surrender and I shall save you,' says the Master. 'I shall save you without delay, immediately.' But we query, 'Is there someone else out there to help me?'

The Lord has made it so simple. Yet, we find it so difficult to believe Him.

12.8 You fix your mind on Me alone, establish your mind in Me. You will live in Me always. There is no doubt in it.

'Just fix your mind upon Me, the supreme personality of the Divine and engage all your mind, body and senses in Me and you will thus live in Me always, without a doubt.'

'Na samshayah, without a doubt,' He says. Now He comes to the technique. At one point the virtuous circle must begin. First, He explains the virtuous circle of the ultimate experience and expression. Now He comes to the technique.

Please understand that love is not a mood. It is not a mere emotion. It is our very Existence. As long as it is our mood, it will come and go.

There are two kinds of love, horizontal love and vertical love. Let me explain. Horizontal love is like a horizontal line, flat. It is related to time, it starts and ends. Anything that starts must end. If it takes more time to end, don't think it is permanent. Anything that starts must end. It may take a few years or a few months, but it ends. It is impermanent and time bound. This is horizontal love. Horizontal love is related to time.

Vertical love is related to consciousness. Vertical love neither starts nor ends. It does not discriminate. It is our very quality. It flows. If we discriminate and love, it cannot be love. It is an infatuation. As long as the other person fits into our frame, our love grows. The moment the other person doesn't fit into our frame, our love disappears.

In the first session of our meditation camp, I ask people to make an honest list of at least one or two persons in their lives that they really love. Usually, in the beginning, people come up with a big list: husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister and so on. They include people whom they would like to please or need to please in order to be happy and undisturbed themselves.

When I begin the discourse, people start crossing out names of people from their list, one by one. Understand, if you cross out something, then it was not love even in the first place. However, people get stuck when they come to the names of their sons or daughters.

I say that all your love is for some reason. Whether it is for economical benefit or psychological support, you hang onto these relationships. You have somebody as your family or as your community so that at the time of trouble they may support you psychologically or materially.

The next reason we love is to receive good certificates, positive recognition. Sometimes we share love and show love. We may not do so for economical benefits or psychological support, but we may expect a good certificate or attention for being loving and kind. Some need for attention is always present. There is always some dependent need in us that motivates us to express love. It is never unconditional.

People say, 'No Master. I don't love my son or daughter for any of these three reasons.'

I ask them, 'Alright, if suddenly your son starts to decide things on his own, if he doesn't fit into your frame, if he doesn't follow your guidance, if he doesn't live according to your rules, will your love be the same? Enquire honestly.'

Naturally people say, 'No, it will not be, the love will reduce a little.'

What does this mean? We love our next generation as long as they are extensions of our life. We fulfill our desires through them. We fulfill our lives through them. Whatever we couldn't accomplish, we try to accomplish through them. As long as they act and live as an extension of our life, the relationship is beautiful. But the moment they start deciding on their own, the moment they feel we are suffocating them, the moment they stand up and say 'no', the relationship takes a different turn.

Children feel they are adults only when they say 'no' to their parents. It is a basic instinct. When they say 'no'; they feel they are established as an individual. They don't bother about what you say. All they know is one word, 'no'. They do not know anything else. They feel strong when they say 'no'. That is why, all over the world youngsters always rebel. Whether it is in the West, or in the East, in all countries all over the world, in all cultures, the youth say 'no'. When they say 'no', they feel they are strong. The word 'no' gives a certain kind of strength to them.

But our love is dependent only upon 'yes'. As long as we receive 'yes', our love also is 'yes'. When we get a 'no', we too start saying 'no'. This is horizontal love. That is why it ends with some reason. Vertical love never ends because it never starts. Suddenly, at some point we realize, we are living inside everybody just as we live inside our own body.

There is a beautiful example given in the Upanishads.

A Master asked a disciple, 'Do you enjoy all your five senses'? The disciple said, 'Yes.'

The Master asked, 'What if one of your senses was missing, would you have the same amount of joy?'

The disciple replied, 'No, it would be twenty percent less, and if two of my senses were missing, it would be forty percent less.'

The Master suddenly said, 'What if you had five more senses?' The disciple answered, 'Naturally my enjoyment would be a hundred percent extra. If I am given one more body, naturally I will enjoy everything twice as much. Or if I am given five bodies, naturally I will enjoy things five times as much.'

If we experience that we are living in all the bodies of this world, how much joy or ecstasy would we experience? It would be immeasurable, eternal and ultimate. That is what enlightened people experience all the time! When they experience themselves as the whole universe, or as being in everybody, they experience tremendous ecstasy, pleasure or bliss. That is why they don't need anything from the outer world.

One elderly person came to one of our programs. Afterward, he said to me with a lot of sympathy, 'You have become a Master and an ascetic at such a young age. You have missed life.' He expressed his compassion. He felt that I had missed out. I told him, 'Don't be sympathetic towards me. Actually I should feel sympathetic towards you. Even after sixty years, you are unable to liberate yourself. Even after sixty years, you are suffering in samsara, the illusion of worldly life. Don't be sympathetic towards me. I should be sympathetic towards you!'

When we experience ecstasy and bliss inside, we don't feel we are missing anything from the outside world. We don't feel we need something. Real renunciation is not about our renouncing the world. It is about the world renouncing us. When we have that joy, ecstasy and bliss, we automatically radiate that bliss. We never feel that we miss anything or that we have lost something.

I tell people not to renounce the world unless they feel ecstasy inside. Never renounce. Work towards ecstasy. When that happens, renunciation automatically happens. If you renounce the outer world without having established the inner world, you will fall into depression.

I have seen many sanyasis who have taken this path without achieving the inner experience. They are caught in social service and then fall into depression. Around the age of forty to forty-five, they become depressed. They counsel the whole world while they are depressed. So many monks have fallen prey to depression. Never renounce the world unless you have a solid experience inside.

When you have the experience, you don't need to renounce. Automatically renunciation happens. All these things drop you. Instead of you dropping them, they drop you. You dropping these things always creates problems. When they drop you, it is the right thing. When you have that joy inside, when you start experiencing the joy in you, nothing needs to be renounced, automatically renunciation happens.

Here, Krishna gives techniques to start the virtuous circle. 'Fix your mind on Me. Establish your intelligence in Me. In this way, after acquiring the boundary-less consciousness, you will live in Me always.'

How should we establish our intelligence in Him? Continuously try to put these thoughts and ideas that Krishna teaches, inside you. Ramakrishna says that what we belch depends upon what we eat. For instance, if we eat some kind of vegetable or fruit, the smell of that comes out when we belch.

In the same way, if we add these ideas continuously into our mind and consciousness, we naturally radiate them. They start shining through our Being. When He tells you to let your intelligence be established in Him, it means that when we are in trouble, the solution should automatically come to us based upon these ideas.

As of now we run and refer to a book, which means we have a guru only in the outer world. If we try and digest these ideas, even when we don't have problems, they will lodge themselves in us and take us to higher and higher levels of awareness. When we have problems, they will guide us.

If you read books only when you are in trouble or when you are seeking a solution, you will not digest the ideas because your mind will be confused. How will you receive them? How can you digest them when you are troubled and confused? It can't happen this way.

When your mind is in the normal state, receive these ideas as a regular habit. Let it became your normal life style. Just as you eat and bathe everyday, in the same way, absorb these ideas regularly.

In his commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, Sankara has written beautifully about the sutra on ahara sudhi, purification of food*.*

ahara suddho satva suddho dhruvaa smrutih

When our ahara, food, is purified, our memory is purified.

Please understand that ahara doesn't mean just the food that we eat. It refers to whatever we take in through the five senses. Television programs that we watch are ahara. Music that we listen to is ahara. The food that we eat is ahara. The smells that we smell are ahara. The touch that we enjoy is ahara.

So, all that we take in through the five senses should be pure. Only then can we radiate purity, can we radiate bliss, can we radiate ecstasy, can we radiate divine intelligence. Unless we purify the ahara that is ingested through the other senses as well, we cannot expect purification of our memories. I feel blessed that when I was born and brought up, there was no television in my village.

People ask me, 'Master how do you grasp things so easily?' Of course, I somehow pick up things easily, quickly. One small fact: only a few years ago I started speaking English. I studied a little bit of English in school but that was through my native language, Tamil, in which I learned everything. I started speaking English regularly only when I came to America in August 2003.

I was asked how I grasp things so quickly. It is because I continuously read. People frequently ask me, 'How do you read so many books?' I never watched television when I was growing up. Television directly destroys our consciousness. Please understand, it affects not only our eyes, it straightaway destroys our consciousness.

Let me tell you an important thing. Understand this example. You are traveling in a vehicle. If you are moving at forty miles per hour, you can see everything on the road, billboards and signboards. Whatever there is to see on the road, you can see them clearly. However, if you drive at 100 miles per hour, will you be able to see anything? You can't. You will not see anything clearly. This is because you are now seeing an increased number of frames per second. That's why you can't see anything clearly. You can't discern the images.

Normally, your eyes can receive, analyze, process and file information as long as the given speed is up to six frames per second. If there is change in front of your eyes up to six frames per second, your eyes take that message, analyze it, categorize it and put it in your consciousness, put it in your memory. But if there are more than six frames per second, your logic loses its balance.

On television, you witness at least sixteen frames per second. Information is immediately forced upon you into your unconscious zone without the control of your logic. This is analogous to having a security guard outside your home when a thief turns up.

Logic is your guard on duty. He stands guard. Whatever information comes to you, your logic analyzes it and says, 'This is true. This is a lie. That is a toy, this is a real man. This is a fake, and this is a doll.' The information is analyzed and recorded. When you watch a movie, when sixteen frames per second are flowing, when the information is forced upon you, your logic loses its ability to analyze. The frames are like the thief who attacks the security guard, your logic. When the logic is put to rest, without delay the frames reach your unconscious zone and gets recorded. The thief enters directly into your unconscious zone. Straightaway your unconscious is exploited. The information simply penetrates you. It is like a robber walking straight into your bedroom after killing the guard on duty.

Another important point about this is that because the information reaches you right away, you not only lose your logical and analyzing capacity, you lose your emotional balance as well. That is why, even when you know that the actor is still alive in real life, you weep when you see the actor killed in the movie! Automatically, you start weeping. Tears start rolling even though you know that it is not real, that it is not true. When they laugh, you laugh. When they cry, you cry.

According to the scenes, your moods also change. If you see a depressing scene, you feel depressed. Why? You are an educated person. You know it is a drama. You know the person is alive. You may have seen the actor a few days ago in person, but when you watch the movie and he dies, you experience grief. Why? Because the logic that analyzes this as a truth or lie is put to rest or pushed aside and information is directly flooded into your system. It is carried straight to your unconsciousness. So, never watch a program that creates depression or misery in you.

Of course, if you watch a program that gives joy, which makes you laugh, that does not hurt your consciousness directly. At the most, you may waste a little time or you may eat a little bit extra while watching the movie. Only the threat of obesity is present. Otherwise there's no problem. Surveys indicate that 80% of people eat while they watch television, and face weight problems because of this. This is only a small problem. But never watch anything that creates depression or brings your mood down. Then it becomes a big problem.

Let me answer one important question. People always ask me, 'Master is there anything such as spirits or ghosts?' Let me tell you clearly that there is no such thing as ghosts, spirits, demons, and no such thing as a devil. You may have one thousand references that say the opposite. I know your minds collect references from movies, and books. Your mind is always collecting references. Once your unconscious believes there are spirits, you project it and actually start seeing spirits. Whatever your unconscious believes, you project and see that.

Especially after a lot of research on hypnotism, they are coming up with great truths. If a person is hypnotized and given a hot object to hold and told by the hypnotist, 'You are holding a flower in your hand, you are holding a rose,' not only does his hand not get burned, but after the hot object is removed, the hand smells like a rose!

Hypnotism has so much power, which means your unconscious has so much power. You are unconsciously hypnotized and taught that things like ghosts exist. You end up projecting and seeing ghosts. When you have an experience, it becomes a solid faith.

There is an even more disturbing fact that they have discovered. In the US at least, in the last decade or so, many cases of childhood trauma have come up with children claiming sexual abuse by parents. These discoveries are usually made when as adults these depressed people go to psychiatrists and such traumatic happenings are discovered under hypnotic states. Cases are reported and investigated by police and regulatory authorities.

In a significant number of these cases, such abuses never really happened. It has been found that the patients developed these ideas under hypnosis as a result of judgmental probing by the psychiatrists. Treatment that was meant to cure people of their traumas ended up inducing traumas.

If you watch some horror movie continuously for three days, you will start seeing ghosts! Even a screen moving will look like a ghost. Even if your wife walks into the room…! Whatever happens around you, you will connect it with the impression of ghosts that was left on your unconscious.

For example, right after watching a horror movie, let us say you feel like drinking some water. You walk into the kitchen and suddenly the cat jumps on you. Now the whole scene is completed! You know for sure that ghosts exist. But it is purely your unconsciousness. Because you start believing it, you start projecting it. Once you start projecting it, your faith is strengthened. It is a vicious circle and you are caught in it.

Another thing, ghosts as such don't have a physical body. As ordinary humans, you have three bodies physical, subtle and causal. Even if spirit bodies exist, they don't have a physical body. Of course, first of all, they don't exist. But for argument's sake, if I collect all of your arguments and if I must argue and accept that they do exist, they exist only in the subtle body and causal body. They don't have a physical body.

No ghost comes to you with a physical body except your spouse! If at all it were true that ghosts exist, it means they have only 66% of your capacity since their energy can be only in the two bodies. You have three bodies that equal 100%. They have a maximum of two bodies, only 66%. It means they are less powerful than you. Even if they exist, you don't have to be afraid of them.

Understand this logically: even if they exist, you don't need to be afraid of them. They are lower level beings. They are lower level entities. Firstly, they don't exist. But even for argument's sake, if I must argue, they are still lower level entities. You don't have to be afraid of them. So all this talking to ghosts, mediums, your dead relatives and such are purely stories. One story is built upon another story. The next story is built upon the third story. Purely fictional, nothing but fiction!

A small story:

A lady goes to a medium to talk to her recently departed husband. At first the medium waits, starts to mumble, and then starts to speak, 'Oh honey, I am here, ask me whatever you want.' At which point the wife asks, 'Please give me the names of all those who owe us money and where have you invested your money?' He replies, 'The milkman owes us thirty five thousand rupees, and I have deposited two hundred thousand in this bank, please take it. And our neighbor owes us one hundred thousand.' One by one the husband tells the names of all those who owe them money, and where all he had invested money. The lady dutifully notes down everything. All of these accounts go on when suddenly the husband says, 'Honey, I must tell you one more thing. I owe my friend a million rupees, please return that to him.' Suddenly the wife says, 'I don't think this is my husband. Is there anybody else there?'

As long as things support you, all these ideas are okay. Otherwise, it is a big danger for you! So I tell you, it is better not to believe in mediums and all such things. Don't waste your time talking to people who are dead. We barely have time to talk to people who are alive. Why waste time talking to people who are dead? Let us first talk to people who are directly related to our business and to our lives. Talk to them first. Work with them first. Why should we waste time with other things?

Never allow these horrible things that cause suffering, into your consciousness. If you don't allow these things into your consciousness, your intelligence will automatically be established in the Divine. The thoughts that you take in play a major role in the expression of your consciousness. Just take in this one concept that Krishna speaks of, 'Establishing your intelligence in Me.' Please understand that whatever you take in as your ahara, you establish your mind only on that. So let your ahara be purified. Let ahara shuddhi – purification of your sensory inputs - happen to you. Your consciousness will automatically be established in the Divine.

Again and again, try to absorb these ideas. Let these ideas penetrate you. Don't go behind ideas that make you feel low and that put you into depression. For example, for the last eleven days you have been listening to these ideas. Now, when a problem arises, you will automatically remember, 'Master said this. I heard this idea. I think this is what I must understand now.' This will start arising from your Being. The truth will begin to support you from within yourself.

If it starts coming up, you have heard what I have said. Otherwise, you are just a silent listener. A silent listener who is sitting here and seriously thinking of something else. Whether you are a silent listener or somebody that heard the discourse can only be determined by how much these words get repeated in you.

I tell people that when the source of the words is enlightened Consciousness, the words simply penetrate you and automatically come into your mind whenever you need their help. People ask me, 'Master, how can we remember these ideas and practice them?' I tell them, 'Never bother remembering them. Just listen, that's enough. These words are from my experience. So naturally they will penetrate your Being.'

Whenever it is necessary, you won't need to remember these words. The words will remember you. Without effort, these words will stay in you and surface. Automatically they will come up when needed. They will erupt in your consciousness, like a popup. Similar to the popup on your computer monitor, they come up in your consciousness and guide you. You don't need to do anything. All you need to do is listen as a means to put them into your Being. Listen to these words repeatedly. Naturally your consciousness will be established in the Divine.

Krishna says, 'Immerse your mind completely in Me. Focus your entire attention upon Me. Without a doubt you will reach the blissful state.'

Q: Respected Master, is shavasana okay for meditation or should we sit to meditate?

A: If you lie down, you will sleep. Even when you sit, you sleep! So naturally when you lie down, you sleep. Please don't lie down and meditate. See, when you sleep, you can meditate. However, when you meditate, you should not sleep. There is nothing wrong if you meditate when you are asleep. But if you sleep when you meditate, there is something seriously wrong. Don't do shavasana and meditate. But meditate when you do shavasana!

I normally recommend that you sit on the floor crosslegged. If you cannot be comfortable on the floor, sit on a chair. For Nithya Dhyaan meditation, I recommend the vajrasana posture of sitting on your haunches. What is important is that your head, neck and lower back should be aligned and you should not slouch. Slouching makes you drowsy and you will sleep while sitting. You do not need shavasana to sleep. Even padmasana and vajrasana can lead determined people to sleep!

When you are sufficiently adept, you do not need any particular posture to meditate. These instructions are necessary at the initial stages. When you are initiated as a Nithya Spiritual Healer into the ananda gandha meditation, you can learn to do it all the time with eyes open.

Meditation is awareness, that is all. Once you learn how to stay in the present moment, the awareness automatically happens. All these things that you do sitting in a specific posture is to bring your mind to the present moment. Meditation should become part of life instead of segregating it as a thirty-minute chore in your daily routine.

12.9, 10 If you are not able to fix your mind upon Me, then Arjuna, with the constant practice of Yoga you try to

attain Me. If you are not able to practice even this yoga, then performing your duties and surrendering all your actions to Me, you will attain perfection.

Here Krishna talks about abhyasa yoga. What is abhyasa yoga? Abhyasa yoga is the practice or method of yoga of holding the mind constantly in a state of union with Divinity. It is the state of complete immersion in the Consciousness of Krishna.

Why does Krishna speak about abhyasa yoga? In the last chapter,

Krishna gives Arjuna a glimpse of the Universal Consciousness, viswarupa darshan yoga. However, Arjuna is unable to stay in that state permanently. Arjuna comes out of the experience because of fear or old samskaras, old embedded memories of past desires. He slips from that state of consciousness. Therefore, Krishna speaks about abhyasa yoga, how to establish oneself in that Consciousness. That's why He speaks about abhyasa, which is practice.

'Oh Arjuna, if you cannot fix your mind upon Me without deviation, then follow the regulatory principles of bhakti, devotion. In this way, through this abhyasa, you will be established in Me.'

He gives a solid path, or a solid solution to take care of our whole life, to establish ourselves in that Consciousness. Continuously, again and again, in our daily life, let us receive these ideas, digest these ideas in our consciousness and let our inner space be filled with these ideas. Let us not waste a few moments. Let our whole inner space be filled with these great thoughts. That is the way to establish us in that Super Consciousness.

Krishna continues and gives more tips for establishing ourselves in that Consciousness and radiating bhakti. Krishna instructs continuously over the next four verses*.* He gives various options, step-by-step. He says: if we can't do this, do that. If we can't do that, do this. Krishna gives us various options and instructions. The first thing He says is, 'Oh Dhananjaya, fix your mind upon Me. With constant practice, try to attain Me. If you are not able to practice, then perform actions for Me.'

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had advised a lady to meditate upon the form of Goddess Kali. She said that however much she tried she was unable to meditate on Kali. She tried time and again and she was always distracted. She came to Ramakrishna upset that she could make no spiritual progress.

Ramakrishna enquired whether the lady's attention was diverted to someone or something else. The lady confessed that she was thinking of a young nephew, a child, whom she was fond of. Immediately, Ramakrishna advised her, 'Focus your attention on this child whom you love. Meditate upon him.' The lady came back after a few weeks satisfied. Having started her meditation upon the child whom she loved, she could meditate. And once she could meditate, she could transfer her focus to Goddess Kali!

The mind can be trained. What is important is concentration. Once we learn to focus our attention completely on something, single pointedly, we can train the mind to be like a laser beam. That laser beam can then be transferred to any object with equal facility and success.

Vivekananda has said, 'Once you learn all that there is to be known about a handful of clay by focusing your complete attention on it, you will know about all the clay everywhere in the world.'

Discipline and constant practice are essential for perfection in any endeavor. We are willing to accept this for material goals and undergo difficulty to achieve health and wealth, but not for spirituality. We usually think two things about spiritual experiences. First, that it isn't possible for us; that it is only for some rare saints in some far off cave in the Himalayas. Second, if at all we realize it is possible for us, we wonder how it can really be useful in our life. And supposing we feel that it can be of some small help, we conclude to let it happen naturally over the course of time; there's no need to bother about it now. No!

We now have God's word to tell us that it is not so.

Krishna refers to controlling the mind through constant practice of meditation, dhyana, which is part of the yogic path. Meditation is not about sitting down with eyes closed for half an hour every day or every other day or when we get time. Meditation is incessant and obsessive focus upon the Divine. Meditation is a way of life.

Since He knows that we may not be able to lose ourselves in devotion to Him, He offers this as an alternative. 'If the mind cannot be focused on Me,' says the Lord, 'try this. Practice again and again uniting with Me through meditation.' When neither seems possible, Krishna offers one more way. 'Do whatever you must. Do your duty as you need to and are able to. But then, surrender what you do to Me. Do what you do for My sake.' By performing whatever we do with total faith in Him, and with a deep feeling of surrender to Him, we reach Him.

Krishna implies two things through His statement. First, the results of whatever is done with an attitude of surrender to Him, belong to Him. Our responsibility is to do, and to do it well. We have the right to 'doer-ship' not 'owner-ship'. The Lord is the owner of the fruits of actions that we perform on His behalf.

When we learn to do this, we automatically imbibe the concept of non-attachment to the end result. What happens is in His hands, not ours. We then start focusing on the path, not the goal. We focus on the process, not the product. And when we do this, our performance gets better because we no longer are stressed by what the end result might be. We are no longer worried since the outcome is in safe hands. Whatever happens is right and for the common good. If we travel with this awareness, whatever path we take is the right path. Whatever destination we reach through this right path is the right destination.

The Tamil epic, Periapuranam, describes in detail the lives of sixty-three great saints, all enlightened Masters. If one studies their lives, one finds that many of them did nothing great. They went about their daily chores like many of us do, but they worshipped the Divine with a fierce awareness. If they picked flowers for the deity, they did so with single-minded focus and devotion. Noting else mattered. When they prayed or sang, their mind, heart and being were immersed in the delight that they experienced. Their very bodies felt the form of the formless. Idols of stone and metal spoke to them. Such was their awareness.

When we offer prayers, our worship turns into a chore, work. In the case of these Masters, their work became worship. If you watch people who spend time in rituals, you find that they are in a hurry to finish and move on. Move on to where? Where can they go away from the Divine?

The worst culprits can be found in places of worship. For them, worship becomes a commercial operation. God is for sale and they are the merchants. The amount one deposits in the collection box determines the attention one gets. The kingdom of heaven comes in economy, business, and first class rates. If you search well, you can also get discount fares to heaven.

People on the island of Bali follow the Hindu faith as well as the caste system. However, in their system the priest is not a priest by birth, but by his qualification. A priest need not be born a brahmin to qualify. On this island, worship is a way of life. Everyday men and women offer flowers and food to deities whom they house inside small home shrines, at the sea and at the communal temples. Religion and spirituality is part of their life.

When worship becomes a way of life, when spirituality becomes a part of daily life, there is an attitude of surrender to the Divine. One feels intuitively that whatever happens will be for common good, and whatever happens for the common good is good for oneself. It does not matter if our neighbor has more than what we have. In fact, we rejoice that the neighbor has more than what we have. We no longer have expectations. We have no expectations of what we hope to get. When surrender happens, there is no end-point that

one strives for. Wherever the path leads is the right destination. With focus only on the path and not on the goal, expectations of what may happen drop. Whatever happens is good. This non-attachment and lack of expectations is the hallmark of a karma yogi, one who has surrendered his actions to the Divine.

Krishna implies one more thing. He wants us to do His service. He wants us to work on His mission. He says, 'Engage yourself in activities on My behalf, and you will attain Me.'

I tell people, 'Do not worry about whether I am here physically with you or not. Do not feel unhappy when I leave for another location. If you chase Me, you will never be one with Me. Work on My mission. In whatever way you can, work on activities that benefit humanity. Work on My behalf. Then, instead of you chasing Me, I shall chase you. I shall always be with you.' Working on the mission of the Divine is a sure guarantee to reach Divinity.

12.11 If you are not able to work even this way, surrendering unto Me, give up all the results of your actions to Me without ego.

Krishna gives various options to Arjuna, one after another. His compassion for Arjuna's spiritual evolution knows no limits. 'If you cannot do this, do that. And if you cannot do that, do at least this,' Krishna continues. In the last four verses, He continuously gives options to Arjuna.

Krishna says, 'Fix your mind upon Me alone. Live in Me.' Then He felt that He had to give Arjuna an option, in case

Arjuna could not succeed. 'If you cannot fix your mind upon Me, steadily, practice and practice again,' He advised. He relented further, 'If you cannot do this repetitive practice, if this is too much for you, then work on My mission. Whatever you do, do it for Me.'

Krishna now says, 'If you are unable to do even this, which is work for My sake, then just abandon your ego and turn over the results of your actions to Me.' Krishna relents from His standpoint that Arjuna should work only on those activities that are Krishna's. He feels that there may be conditions that may prevent Arjuna from devoting all his time only to those activities that are Krishna's.

See how relevant Krishna's advice is, even by today's standards. None of us can hope to sit idle and be taken care of. We must do something to occupy ourselves. In our day-to-day reality of life, not all may be able to work on God's mission alone, all the time. We may be able to spend only some time on activities that are selfless activities that benefit humanity overall, and activities that are spiritual. We may be constrained, based on material realities to spend time, perhaps a lot of time, on activities that are of material benefit to us and to others related to us. Nothing is lost, assures Krishna, and He provides the bridge between material pursuits and spiritual pursuits.

Krishna brings in the core concept of Gita, that of renunciation. He says, 'Do what you must do with an attitude of surrender to Me and sacrifice the results of your actions to Me, with complete control over your self, your ego.'

We feel responsible for the results of our actions. Whether we succeed or fail in what we do, we feel responsible, either proud and happy, or guilty and sad. Our ego makes us feel responsible. We identify ourselves with what we do and the results of what we do. Success or failure in what we do makes a huge difference to us. They make a difference in how others perceive us. They make a difference to our relationships and material status, or so we feel.

Krishna says, 'If you cannot do whatever else I have told you to do, do this. Drop your ego. Drop the fruits of your actions and renounce them to me.' The freedom that results from what Krishna advises is true liberation. Once we realize that we no longer are the masters of our destiny, decision makers of the results of our actions, we feel a weight lifting off our shoulders. It is He who is now responsible for the results of our action. We still are the 'doers', but no longer the 'owners'.

One may wonder, how can I survive in this dog-eatdog world? How can I succeed in this rat race? Remember that if you are the winner in this rat race, you are still only a rat!

It is an illusion of our minds that we decide the results of our actions. In each one of our activities, there is so much interdependency with others and what they do, on which we have little or no control. It is pure fantasy to believe that we decide the result of our actions. We cannot even guarantee that we will survive our next breath. Our life is not in our hands. What arrogance, therefore, to imagine that activities in the

outer world are subject to our control. There is a power higher than us that decides the results of actions. Once we realize this and start believing in the wisdom of that higher power, strange mystical things happen to us.

We just need to let the universe, Parashakti, Krishna, the Divine, decide what is best for the rest of humanity and us. Let us surrender the results of all that we do to this sacred power. Whatever then happens to us is for the good, for our good and the good of everyone in this universe.

This may seem strange, even weird, to our intellectual minds, having all our life been 'educated' to believe that we alone are responsible for our actions and the results of our actions. Are we copping out? No, we are copping in. We are going in with the universe and surrendering to the cosmic power that surrounds us. Without Its grace we cannot live or take our next breath. Say, 'Do what you think is best for me' with deep awareness and see what happens. Not merely does the end goal materialize, but an immense spiritual relief will overtake you.

'Renounce unto Me,' says Krishna, 'surrender yourself to Me, and I shall liberate you.'

12.12 Knowledge is better than mere practice. Meditation is superior to knowledge. Renouncing the fruit of actions is better than meditation. After renunciation of fruits of actions, one immediately attains peace.

Krishna gives so many instructions. Step-by-step, He gives options. Actually, these are not only for Arjuna's mind. These are for all kinds of minds.

Let me tell a small story from Ramana Maharishi's life:

Somebody goes to Bhagavan and asks, 'Bhagavan, what

spiritual technique should I use?' He says, 'Do ātmavicāraṇa, Self-inquiry. Start questioning Who am I?'

After a few days, the devotee comes back and says, 'It is difficult to do Self-enquiry, can I just meditate?' Bhagavan says, 'Alright, do meditation.'

After a week, the person returns and says, 'Meditation is also difficult. Can I do japa, repetition of mantras and recitation of verses?' Bhagavan says, 'Alright, do that.'

A few days pass and he is back again saying, 'Japa is also difficult. Can I do puja, the ritual worship?' Bhagavan says, 'Alright. Do puja.'

Within a week the man is there asking, 'Puja is also difficult. Can I start going only to the temple?' Bhagavan says, 'Alright, do what you want.'

Masters do not want to close the doors for anybody. Please understand, they give options for everybody. Here, in these verses, Krishna gives options to everyone.

We need to have tremendous spontaneity to understand this. Only with spontaneity, will we be able to handle these instructions. For example, if you don't feel like meditating and are in a low mood, don't try sitting in a room with closed doors, forcing yourself to meditate. Just go out, go to the temple. Spend some time freely walking and moving around. It will relax you. Then you can enter meditation. And if you are not able to do that also, do something else. Do something that helps keep you in a relaxed mood that makes you feel relaxed. Then, you can enter into meditation.

Part 3: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 12 - Love is your very Life

Here, Krishna tries to give step-by-step instructions up to the ultimate and last step. The last step is being in the Consciousness, being in bliss. But just because you can't do that, don't stop trying altogether. Do something at least. I have seen people speak about meditation, about ātma-sādhana and all sorts of complicated things. But when it comes to practice, just thinking of meditating makes them stop their puja rituals, everything. In the end they do not even meditate. They say, 'I don't have enough time, Master. My mind won't concentrate Master. I cannot sit quietly, Master.'

First they stop everything in the name of meditation. Then they drop meditation because of other reasons! Then they have neither this nor that. Krishna doesn't want that to happen. We need spontaneity to decide what we need and what to do at each moment.

Whenever I utter the word spontaneity, I remember this personal experience. This is not a story. This happened in my native place. It was a small village, now it has become a district headquarters, a town. They used to stage plays based on the epic Mahabharata every year. In Bharat, every traditional village would have the recitation of the Mahabharata once a year. They believed that if they recited the Mahabharata, it would rain. So they had the habit of reciting the Mahabharata. In North Bharat, they recite Bhagavatam. In the South, recitation of either Mahabharata or Ramayana takes place. In my village, every year they recited Mahabharata continuously for sixty days. During the day they recited the story. At night they enacted a small drama based on the story. People from the village staged the drama. More than the drama, their mistakes were most entertaining!

People would gather to watch the drama, not for the drama's sake, but more for the mistakes that were made. The props were limited and what was used as a veena (musical stringed instrument) for Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge, would be reused as a gadha (mace) for Arjuna, or Hanuman, the monkey God! Hanuman would use the same device for gadhayudham (mace weapon), while Saraswati would return with the same thing, using it as a veena! It was funny to see and only four or five people would play all the roles! The casting was hilarious as well, with Krishna being played by an eighty-five year old man, with one stick in his hand and being quite incapable of walking. He would be assisted onto stage where he would come and say, 'Oh Arjuna, stand up!' By the time he would say, 'Arjuna, stand up' he himself would fall. It was entertaining to watch the whole drama with all their mistakes.

I would watch the drama every night. Only males were allowed to act in the plays. It was also done as a ritual. People who participated wore sacred threads on their wrists, as it was being done as a ritual. They recited the verses in full and only males participated in it. Even female roles were played by male members.

One day the scene was about the disrobing of Draupadi, one of the most moving scenes in the Mahabharata. The man playing the role of Draupadi had donned make-up and wore seven thin saris. In the scene, Dushassana, the Kaurava prince, insults Draupadi, the Pandava princess, and attempts to disrobe her in public. He is supposed to pull off six saris and by the time he pulled off the sixth sari, he was expected to act tired and then fall. As soon as Dushassana pretends to fall, Draupadi is supposed to shout, 'Krishna, Krishna, save me.'

On this occasion when the scene started, Dushassana forgot to count. He was supposed to pull totally six saris. By the time he came to the sixth sari, he was supposed to fall. As he fell, Draupadi was supposed to call out for Krishna and then Krishna would appear on stage. This was the scene. The actor Dushassana somehow forgot to count and started to pull the seventh sari also. Draupadi kept trying to indicate through her eyes, 'Hey, seventh sari, seventh sari.' Dushassana didn't understand. He thought Draupadi was acting well, so he kept pulling the sari!

Then all of a sudden, Draupadi started beating Dushassana, shouting, 'Hey leave my sari alone. Leave my sari! It's my sari, my sari.' Straightaway Draupadi attacked Dushassana on stage. All of us were surprised! In the morning, the story read something else and in the evening drama, things were totally different.

But Krishna, in this case, was waiting behind the screen smoking a bidi (local version of a cigarette). He was smoking a bidi waiting for the call to jump onto the stage. He was standing behind the stage, waiting for Draupadi to call. And Draupadi was shouting, 'Hey Dushassana, let go of my sari'. She didn't call Krishna. So the actor playing Krishna thought that the scene was still going on and that the sixth sari had not yet been pulled. He never arrived on the scene!

This, Dushassana didn't understand even after Draupadi kicked him, which made him so angry, that he pulled the sari off completely. Suddenly, he saw Draupadi standing in a blouse and a pair of men's shorts. Below male, above female with complete makeup, long hair and blouse. Luckily the actor playing Draupadi had spontaneity. He quickly turned to the audience and said, 'Krishna, You are great. Because You couldn't come to save me, You turned me into a male and saved my dignity!'

Through his spontaneity, he managed the situation, and covered up for Dushsassana's and Krishna's mistakes. When you are spontaneous, you can manage any situation. Whenever I remember the word spontaneity, I remember this story.

Actually spontaneity is a spiritual quality. Only a man who is not caught in his past, who is able to slip away from his past, can be spontaneous. We can only be spontaneous if we don't have a vested interest in our past decisions. This means that we are open to understanding the mistakes we have made in the past and we are ready to update and improve ourselves.

If we have vested interests in the past, we may think, 'No, no, no, all these years I have lived believing this idea, and understanding things this way. Today just because something is said to me I will not change. I cannot! I am not going to change. For the last fifty years of my life, I have lived my life based on this concept, I cannot change it now.' Then we can never be spontaneous. We will miss life and miss it miserably.

The quality of life updates itself. It can be called intelligence only as long as it updates itself. When it stops updating itself, it is intellect. It can no longer be called intelligence. Intelligence is living energy.

The Sanskrit word dhī means 'that which is alive'. In Sanskrit, the word for intelligence is dhī. Dhī is energy that is alive, which continuously updates itself. In the Gayatri mantra that is central to Hindu worship, we seek to enhance this energy when we pray to the Divine.

Only if we don't have a vested interest in our past, the decisions of our past, or the way in which our past was lived, the way in which we lived our past life (not a different birth, but our life before this moment), only then will we be spontaneous. Spontaneity is a great spiritual quality.

Another incident about spontaneity: Once I was giving a discourse on the Isavasya Upanishad. An elderly person, who looked like a well-read scholar, walked into the hall. After the discourse, without any basic courtesy, he stood up and said, 'All these fools have not read anything, which is why you can make them listen to you. Can you make me listen to you?' I said, 'Please come nearer Sir. I cannot hear what you are saying.' When he came nearer I said, 'Please come to this side and repeat what what you said Sir.' He moved to that side. Then I said, 'I think there is a table in the way, please move to the other side Sir.' He moved and came nearer. Then I

said, 'You have already listened to me three times. Now sit and listen to what I have to say. You seem to be a good person. Just sit and listen!'

You can never escape from spontaneity. After this incident, sometime later, I was reading a book about the same incident that occurred in a Zen Master's life. I was surprised to see how history repeats itself! When you have spontaneity, nothing can stop you. Spontaneity is a great spiritual quality.

Here Krishna gives four different instructions. Either you can establish yourself in bhakti- yoga – path of devotion, or live a regular life of spiritual routine, or sacrifice all the fruits of action to God, or live in Consciousness and act. You can do whatever you want.

He says, 'If not this, do this. If not these, then that…' Now all that we need to understand is that we should not limit ourselves at one of the lower levels of Krishna's instructions. We should always try to move or expand to a higher level. When you can't reach a higher level, at least stay at the lower level and keep trying without renouncing all efforts completely. Keep at it. You will be surprised what happens when you put in your sincere effort.

Somebody asked me, 'Master, why do we have so many Gods in Bharat or in the Eastern religions?' All Eastern religions have many Gods, whether you consider Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism. They all have many Gods, so many saints and so many gurus, while Western religions have only one God. Why?'

Vivekananda puts it across beautifully in one discourse. Freedom is the basic condition for growth. In any field, if growth has to happen, freedom is the basic condition. In the East they have had inner freedom. No one disturbs your religion here. Spiritual practice is an option. That is why we have the concept of Ishtadevata, your favorite God. Ishtadevata means you can worship whatever form suits your mind.

The scriptures mention 330 million devatās, demigods or Gods. Actually I think that was probably the population size at that time! They wanted each person to have his own customized God. That is why they say 330 million Gods! If the scriptures were to be written now, they would say six billion Gods. Each one has the freedom to choose one's path. Each one has the freedom to choose one's own God. Each one has the freedom to consider himself as God as he realizes the divinity in himself.

People have inner freedom, which is why the East has grown so much spiritually. In the West, you can't have your own God. In Bharat, anyone can declare himself to be a saint overnight. All you need is ten rupees to print a poster or somebody to sponsor the ten rupees. Nothing more is necessary. You can declare yourself a saint, no problem. But in the West, you can't. Only after your death, you can be declared a saint by the religious institution. The institution decides who will be a saint.

The attitudes are totally different. Of course, both have their good and bad.

In the freedom of the East, many good things happen. Tremendous research happened in the inner world because of that freedom. Much research has been done in the inner world and many truths related to the inner world have been brought to light, brought to humanity, because so many people have entered into it. There will always be a few fakes. When so many millions of people take the path, and so many millions of things are expressed, one or two superstitions come about as well.

You may think superstitions exist only in relationship to spirituality. A lot more superstitions exist in science. At least in spirituality the Masters do not have any vested interests in declaring something. Nothing significant will be added to the personal lives. They are still going to eat only that much and are going to wear only those few pieces of clothing.

But when it concerns scientists, whatever they declare is going to give them name and fame, money, and additional comfort in their lives. So naturally they have vested interests. With spiritual people, the more they renounce and the less they enjoy the outer world comforts, the more they are respected. So naturally, whatever truths they declare, whatever research they do will not add anything new to their personal lives. The respect they are given is based upon their lives, not their words. With scientists, it is based on their words. So in science, there is a greater possibility for superstitions than in spirituality. And when more and more people take to this spiritual life, there will always be one or two superstitions that result. Just because of this, we can't say that religious freedom is wrong, or that spiritual freedom is wrong. There is a lot of good also.

The West has social freedom. You can marry as many times as you want to. You can change your house to your taste. You can change your profession any number of times. You can dress as you wish. Nobody will be bothered. Nobody will mind. Even now, I know people in Bharat who obey family traditions, who have not left their family homes. They don't even shift their houses. They don't change professions and they don't change lifestyles. In the East, they don't have social freedom. They have spiritual freedom. In the West, they have social freedom but not spiritual freedom. For any growth to happen freedom is a basic necessity.

Here, with these four options, Krishna is expressing spiritual freedom. He gives spiritual freedom to us. He says that there are so many paths, and tells us to choose whichever one suits our mentality, and to practice it. He tells us to practice at least one option. It is not so important which option that we choose. It is essential only that we choose something!

In Bharat, at least seventy percent of the population regularly visits a religious place of worship. It might be a nearby temple on their street or something in their neighborhood. Seventy percent of the population is in the habit of visiting a spiritual place regularly. They manage somehow.

Eastern traditions offer many choices. If you are an intellectual person, then Shiva could be your choice and you can continuously sit and meditate. If you are inclined towards devotion, then Vishnu could be your choice. The path includes singing and dancing like the great Masters Chaitanya and Meera. Just sing the glory of the Lord like the azhwars, devotional saints of Tamilnadu, related with Vishnu. If you are inclined towards yoga, if you are a yogi, then Devi is the one for you. Meditate on her, do puja and tantric practices.

There are many different kinds of techniques, and the options are many. So you are repeatedly given many options. You have customized ways, customized paths for your personal growth. Thus, naturally wherever one is, one can grow and reach the level one is supposed to reach. There are all sizes of ladders, all kinds of steps. You are continuously given choices, given options. Naturally, one tends to take up something or the other.

The East has explored and done much research on the inner space because of spiritual freedom. The West has achieved so much at a social level because of social freedom. Of course, Bharat has struggled because of the lack of social freedom, but it has gained tremendously because of spiritual freedom. Here Krishna gives many choices in spiritual freedom. One cannot expect any Master, other than the Eastern Masters to be so compassionate, concerned, caring, and generous as to give so many options. In the West, the law is compassionate as it gives a lot of options. In the East, the spiritual system is compassionate as it gives a lot of options.

The West has a few areas where you are respected and every individual is respected, such as areas of customer care and other such domains. Many options are given within the social scenario as well. If one is unable to live with their spouse, they can say goodbye. Socially one is not bound. One has freedom.

But in Bharat, spiritual freedom is given more importance. These four options are representative of the spiritual freedom given to society. Here Krishna gives Arjuna the spiritual freedom to choose and of course, not only to Arjuna, but through Arjuna, to all of us.

abhyaasepyasamarthosi mat-karma-paramo bhava mad-artham api karmaan#i kurvan siddhim avaapsyasi

If you cannot practice the regulations of bhakti yoga, try to work for Me because by working for me, you will come to the perfect stage, siddhim avapsyasi. Then one by one He gives all options and finally says,

sreyo hi jnaanam abhyaasaaj jnaanaad dhyaanam visisshyate dhyaanaat karma-phala-tyaagas tyaagaac chaantir anantaram

'If you can't follow these practices, engage yourself in the cultivation of knowledge.' He says, 'At least collect all these life solutions.' Cultivation of knowledge means collecting solutions to life's mysteries, such as how to avoid depression, how to be more courageous, how to be strong, how to avoid desires and how to prevent emotional blocks. This kind of knowledge that you can collect as life solutions can help and protect you.

In the USA you are familiar with earthquake kits and hurricane kits. You are taught that water bottles and other vital things should be a part of the kit and present in the cars in Los Angeles. On the fire department's website, there is a big list of things that one must do in order to be prepared in the event of an earthquake. They call it the earthquake kit.

Western society prepares people for these eventualities. But we also need to prepare people to face the earthquakes that happen within, the emotional imbalances that occur within. Just like preparing for an earthquake, one needs to be equipped with an inner earthquake kit. This inner earthquake kit is what I refer to as 'life solutions' or knowledge.

Collect these things now so that when you face depression, you will be prepared. All of us will face some sort of inner earthquake at some point in time. If one dies, there is no problem because when one is dead there can be no earthquake. As long as one is alive, naturally at some point, some friends will die, some relatives will die, or some near and dear ones will fall sick or die. All these things are inevitable.

The inevitability of each moment must be understood. Understanding the inevitability of life and collecting knowledge, collecting the tools to support us at those moments, collecting the ideas to balance ourselves at those moments, is gnana, knowledge. We need to prepare 'earthquake kits' for our lives. Otherwise we will be unable to recover. The aftermath will be terrible.

Because authorities never expected category five hurricanes, the aftermath has been terrible in the Gulf Coast of the US. People are struggling and it is difficult. In the same way, if we don't expect life's eventualities, and if we don't anticipate now that inner earthquakes or inner storms will occur, the aftermath will be terrible. Please prepare for the aftermath now. It will lessen the damage.

The Eastern system continuously prepares people for inner hurricanes, inner tornadoes and inner earthquakes. Gnana or knowledge is the earthquake kit. Knowledge is the earthquake kit for the inner space. People are prepared. They do not have to choose between inner and outer spaces. Have an outer earthquake kit in your car, and an inner earthquake kit in your heart. We don't need to choose one or the other. Now we can have both! Because of the worldwide communication systems, even here in the West, we can have both.

Someone asked me, 'Master, Buddha enlightened ten thousand people. What is your aim?' I replied, 'Without newspapers, without telegrams, without the internet, without airplanes, if Buddha could enlighten ten thousand people, then with all these amenities, we should be able to enlighten at least one million people. Only then is it worth having all these amenities.'

Now we can have everything in the inner world and the outer world. We can have an earthquake kit in our cars and an inner earthquake kit in our hearts or inner space. Never take inner earthquakes lightly. Taking inner earthquakes lightly means we are acting out of ignorance. It means we are inviting big trouble, without preparing for the aftermath.

When quakes come in the outer world, we can blame government officials, directors and politicians. We can blame somebody and be rid of the responsibility. We can put the responsibility on someone else's shoulders. But when it comes to the inner world, we can't blame anybody. Each of us must take responsibility.

As Krishna says in an earlier chapter:

uttare atma natmanam atmanam ava sadhaye admam yeva bhanduhu aram tribuh pratmai vaha

You must help yourself ascend. If you can help yourself ascend, then you are your best friend. Otherwise you are your worst enemy. He gives options, among the different paths like practicing, cultivation of knowledge, meditation or renunciation of the fruits of actions, karma phala yaga.

Among these paths, one is better than the other. First, He mentions that the path of meditation is better than knowledge. Better than meditation is offering everything at the feet of God. He says that by renunciation of the fruits of action one can immediately achieve peace. As long as we think that 'everything is mine,' we suffer. The moment we surrender, the moment we hand the whole thing over to the Divine, inner healing happens. Our inner space experiences the breeze of divine healing.

Often people think that surrender is some sort of loss of control. Giving up is an expression of weakness. Letting go is irresponsibility. Understand that control is an expression of ego. All control arises out of the need for 'I' and 'mine'. Control seeks power. Power corrupts.

Surrender is liberation. Surrender is the expression of choicelessness, of leaving the decision to the Divine after doing what one can do. Unless we let go of our expectations and our attachment to the results of our actions, we will continue to build unproductive stress and tension within us that will reduce and not enhance our performance.

When we learn to focus totally on what we need to do and work on the process, walk the path without worrying about the destination, whatever we do is done better, faster and more effectively. Krishna's teaching is not merely spiritual. It is highly practical. It is not only afterlife enhancing, but it is present-life enabling.

Shanti anantaram - He says that for the person who renounces the fruits of action, eternal peace is the immediate result. When we renounce ownership to what we do and hand over the ownership to the Divine, peace and bliss descend upon us. There is true liberation in giving up attachment to the results of what we do. This liberation comes from not having expectations of any kind. We are detached from the results of our actions. That allows us to focus totally on what we have in hand, what we have in the present moment. Staying in the present is peace, bliss, liberation, or moksha.

Q: Dear Master, if someone spends his life thinking of money, what kind of life will he have in his next birth, that of a rich man or a poor man?

You should be concerned about what happens in this life, in this birth. Why ignore this present moment and worry instead about what will happen after death? What happens depends on how you lead your life now.

But to answer your question, what happens beyond this lifetime depends on whether the money brought you as well as others around you genuine happiness or whether it brought suffering.

It is mainly based upon your intelligence to take responsibility. If you are intelligent enough to take responsibility, don't bother about your next life. In this life you will lead a rich man's life. If you are not intelligent enough to take responsibility and work for it, you will not only not lead a rich man's life in this life, but will also miss it in any other life. If you are ready to add the ingredients needed to lead the life of a rich man, you will do so now.

By way of comparison, you need to add the necessary ingredients to properly cook a particular dish. Otherwise things work out differently. A woman was preparing the evening meal. Her husband came into the kitchen and asked her, 'What are you cooking?' She replied, 'I have not decided what to call it yet. Once it is ready, I can give it a name.'

So sometimes, even if you put all the ingredients together, things don't turn out as they are meant to, and that's different. In most cases, in order to make a particular dish, one must add certain ingredients and the end result is predictable. Similarly, in order to lead a rich man's life, you need to add ingredients such as responsibility, ability to make decisions and the courage to face life. If you have these ingredients, you can make your life rich today. You don't need to wait for the next life.

People sometimes ask me, 'No one would want to be born a beggar. That is impossible. Then why are there beggars?' During one's life as a wealthy person, the experiences are such that the soul has no desire to accumulate wealth again and wants to take no responsibility. That is the vasana, the mindset that accompanies the spirit as it leaves the body. It may decide to be a beggar with no responsibilities in the next life.

Many rich people pour their hearts out to me recounting their problems. Almost without exception, these problems are brought about by their attitude towards wealth. Their wealth alienates them from other people rather than bringing them closer together. Such people will depart this life with a deep hatred towards wealth. Their wealth has brought them only suffering in this life. If they leave their body with this mindset, they will reenter this planet with the desire not to do anything related to wealth thereafter.

What decides the happenings in your next birth has nothing to do with your material status in this birth. Instead, it is your attitude towards that material status. It does not matter whether you were rich or poor in this birth, but it does matter a lot whether you were happy or sad. Your mindset decides your next birth.

12.13,14 One who has no dislike or envy for any being, who is friendly and compassionate to everyone, free from

the sense of I and mine, the ego, maintains equanimity of mind both in joy and sorrow, forgiving, ever satisfied, united with Yoga, has a strong commitment to Me and has fixed his mind and intellect upon Me, such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.

In all the previous verses, Krishna tells Arjuna to do this or do that. Now, He is not saying do this or do that. He says, 'Those who do all these things are very dear to Me. If you don't do these, that too is okay.

However, if you do them, you will be very dear to Me.' In other words, it is emotional black mail, not directly but indirectly, but all for a good cause.

'One who is not envious, but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think of himself as a proprietor, and who is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, with intelligence fixed on Me, such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.'

Understand here, He says, 'Who is not envious and a kind friend to every living entity.' These are important qualities. Let us analyze our minds. When we honestly analyze our mind, we realize that if somebody came to you and told you he loved you, you wouldn't believe it. The first thing you would do is figure out what he wants from you. You don't believe you are worthy of being loved. Next, you don't believe that somebody can honestly love you, because you don't love anybody. Because you are calculative, you expect the other person to also be calculating. All our love is skin deep and you know how deep skin is!

Here, He says, 'A person who is a kind friend of everyone, who honestly serves, feels the friendliness in everybody and who is free from false ego.'

Now we should understand the term 'false ego'. Ego not only means showing what you don't have, but also hiding what you have.

There are two types of ego: active ego and passive ego. Active ego is showing what you have and passive ego is characterized by these kinds of thoughts, 'Oh, what can I do, I am a simple person, I cannot achieve anything, and I cannot do anything.' Hiding oneself is an outcome of the passive ego. An inferiority complex is a manifestation of the ego.

At least there is one positive point regarding the superiority complex. With a feeling of superiority, wherever one goes, one gets a big beating. Society tries to cut you down to size. You may then try to play down your superiority complex. But with inferiority complex, society does not attempt to correct you. It is a cunning way of hiding yourself from life. You will not even know that you have a problem. So a person hiding in the inferior ego suffers more deeply than someone who hides himself in the superior ego.

A person who looks for fame and name, and a person who doesn't want fame and name are both egoistic. If you ask for name, you are egoistic. And if you don't, it shows passive ego. Whereas a person who lets things happen and a person who allows things to flow, lives in reality.

Krishna makes a comment, 'After all, who is going to know who you are? Why do you think you are a big person and your name is so great and that everybody knows your name? You thnk you are great, that is why you don't want name and fame. Nobody knows your name, relax.' Krishna says clearly, 'Nobody knows your name, relax.'

Nobody knows our name. Asking for name and fame and saying, 'I don't want name and fame,' are different aspects of ego, different varieties of ego. The inferior ego is also ego, which is why he says 'false ego'. You are not only supposed to be free from ego, you are supposed to be free from false ego as well. You shouldn't hide yourself in inferiority complexes.

A small story:

A Master asks a disciple, 'Please press my feet.' The disciple says, 'Oh, I am a sinner, how can I touch Your feet?' He does not want to do it because he is lazy. So he says, 'I am a great sinner. How can I touch Your feet; how can I do that?'

Later, a devotee brought fruits and prasad, offerings. The Master put a little in his mouth and left the rest. The next day, he saw nothing on the plate. He asked his disciple, 'What happened to the fruits and prasad?' The devotee answered, 'It was guru prasad, offering to the Master. I could not let it go waste. I finished the whole thing because it was guru prasad.'

Look at the mind, how nicely it handles situations and different concepts! Wherever we want, we insert whatever is convenient. When he didn't want to work, he said, 'No, how can I touch Your feet. I am not qualified enough. I am not a pure soul.' When he wanted food, it was guru prasad and he finished it!

We collect concepts to support our ideology. That is why it is said that the devil quotes the Bible. Only the

devil quotes the Bible. When you quote only specifics, you become the devil. But when you understand the essence of the Bible, you become God. You don't need to quote the Bible then. People will quote your words. When you have digested the Bible, you don't need to quote it. People will quote your words. When you have not digested the Bible, whenever you quote it without digesting it, you are the devil. The devil quotes the Bible, not a person who understands it.

The moment you understand the futility of your goal and wealth, that nothing is going to be with you forever, all of these divine qualities radiate through your Being. You will be transformed into a person who is established in forgivingness, who maintains equanimity of mind, who is satisfied and united with yoga. Actually, when you are blissful inside, you radiate these qualities. A man who is totally blissful inside radiates pleasantness for absolutely no reason.

We continuously carry a sense of slight irritation in our Being; we are waiting to pounce on people. The moment we get a chance, we scream, shout and throw tantrums. We don't know what we are doing. We jump and bite people at the slightest provocation, because we carry some irritation within us. We continuously vomit upon others the suffering and misery that we feel.

This irritation arises within us out of constant worry and constant inner chatter. We feel we may not get what we are planning for and what we want. All worry is about the future based upon what happened in the past. Worry is about expectation of what the future holds for us. Worry arises as a result of the gap between what we expect and what we think we are capable of getting. So we become anxious about whether things will unfold the way we expect them to.

Worry is futile because there are many factors other than our capability that determine the outcome of what we do. The expectation of the outcome is futile since the future is speculative. We cannot control our own breath. We cannot say with certainty whether we will take the next breath. What arrogance it is then to think that we can determine our future or the outcome of our actions!

Worry, anxiety and irritation dissolve once we settle into the present. Only in the present are we in a position to influence our actions and the immediate outcome of those actions. When we settle into the present, thoughts cease and worry and irritation disappear. We realize how irrelevant and unproductive worry is.

In meditation courses, I ask people to write down whatever they are worried and irritated about at that juncture in their lives. Many write volumes. I tell them to keep the papers and tell me after six months how many of these worries materialized. You will be surprised, less than twenty percent of these worries actually materialize.

Worry and irritation are pointless. Once you understand the futility of irritation, however irritated you are, whatever you create by that irritation or tension will not stay with you. Only how you live, how consciously you live, with what consciousness you choose to live remains with you. When you understand the importance of your state of being, you automatically start radiating pleasantness and joy.

I give people a simple meditation technique to experience bhakti yoga – the path of devotion. Just practice the technique of radiating pleasantness. How does one do it? From morning till night whenever you remember, inhale, inhale, and inhale only the pleasant qualities of bliss. Visualize you are inhaling bliss and exhaling bliss. Your whole Being is filled with joy. In the beginning you will be visualizing, imagining. But in a few days you will realize it is your quality.

One more thing you should know is that imagination and visualization are two different things. Imagination translates into kalpana in Sanskrit, while visualization translates into bhavana. Bhavana is different from kalpana. Kalpana means imagining things that are not there. For example, if you think of an elephant with ten trunks, that is imagination, kalpana, that which is not there. But bhavana means visualizing that which is present but maybe eluding you.

If you sit during the day and visualize stars in the sky, that is not imagination. It is visualization. Because stars are in the sky even though you are unable to see them. So visualizing stars is not imagination. Perceiving what is there but what you are unable to see at this moment is visualization. Trying to perceive what can never exist is imagination.

So understand that meditating on Gods and Goddesses is not imagination. It is visualization. They are there. You cannot see them; that is all. You are supposed to fall in tune with them, like tuning your television. If you tune your television, you can immediately watch many programs. Similarly, visualization is tuning yourself . Just continuously visualize inhaling and exhaling bliss. visualise prana – the life giving energy - going inside and coming out. Prana is energy and bliss. Please understand that prana is not merely air. Prana is the energy that goes through air. For example, a truck comes up to your house and unloads luggage and leaves. The truck is air and the luggage is prana. Prana is not just air. Using air as a medium, prana enters. Prana-shakti is the subtle part of air. Prana-shakti is bliss energy, ananda-shakti.

So whenever you inhale, visualize yourself inhaling bliss. When you exhale, visualize yourself exhaling bliss. Inhale light and exhale light. Think that your whole body is a beanbag filled with light. Imagine your body is a beanbag filled with bliss and light. You will automatically start radiating bliss instead of irritation. Instead of vomiting the poison of anger and jealously on others, you will radiate love and bliss.

'Such a devotee of mine is very dear to Me.' Krishna says that if somebody lives in this manner, that devotee is close to Him. He doesn't say 'Do or don't do.' He does not want to make more rules. He is tired of making rules. He has reached a point where his attitude is, 'If you can, do it, otherwise, what can be done?' He is in a relaxed mood.

I think this happens to all Masters. All Masters come to this point after some time. After some time they say, 'Alright, do whatever you want, what can be done?' We can guide or show you only to a certain extent. Beyond that if Masters persist, people start thinking that the Masters have some vested interest in making people enlightened. It is as if that if I make ten more people enlightened, I will have a special place in heaven, or God will increase my salary. Understand, we just share what we have, out of joy and bliss.

A small story:

A blind man was walking in the Himalayas. Suddenly his hands fell upon a snake that was frozen because of the cold. The frozen snake felt like a stick lying in the snow. The blind man thought, 'Oh good, a walking stick.' He picked it up and started walking.

A sanyasi (ascetic) saw the blind man with the 'stick' and shouted, 'Oh blind man, drop that which is in your hand. It is not a stick as you think. It is a snake. In two hours the Sun will come up and the snake will return to life and bite you. It will kill you.'

The blind man answered, 'No, I know everything. Keep quiet. You do your work.'

The Master tried again, 'Understand that the stick is a snake. It will bite you, and you will die.'

The blind man retorted, 'I think you don't have a stick. You are asking me to drop my stick so that you can pick it up. I am not going to drop this stick. I know about people like you.'

Then the Master said, 'Fool, understand it is not going to help you. It is going to take your life.' He tried to snatch the stick from the blind man, while the blind man tried to beat the Master with the same stick.

This is exactly what happens in life.

When the Master says drop 'I and mine,' people are afraid that the Master may pick them up and take it with him! He may take it away. What to do? They think he is in need of it, which is why he asks them to drop it. They think, 'He is asking us to drop it, so he can take it.' People are suspicious. That is why Masters sometimes say, 'This is the right way, but do as you want to do.'

'One who has fixed his mind and intellect upon me,' says Krishna. It is difficult for the devotee and disciple to have this attitude of surrender to the Master or the universe. As long as things go the way the person wants, as long as the Master allows the devotee to do what he wishes, the Master is a great Master and worthy of celebration. But once the Master turns serious and takes up his responsibility of spiritual surgery on the disciple, the disciple wants to run away.

I tell people, 'Decide well in advance whether I am your right Master.' A Master takes his responsibilities seriously. His major responsibility is surgery; it is the surgery of the cancer of ego. Once the disciple makes a commitment, the Master makes his commitment too. It is dangerous to run away from the operating table. You lose your whole life by running away. You may have to wait many births before you get another chance.

Here, Krishna is in the same mood and He says, 'Such a devotee of Mine is dear to Me,' that's all. He is talking about the commitment that the devotee makes to Him. He says, 'One who makes that commitment to Me and fixes his mind and intellect upon Me, he is dear to Me and he will be liberated.' So says the great Master.

12.15 He, by whom the world is not affected adversely, and who in turn does not affect the world adversely, and he, who is free from joy, anger, and anxiety, he is dear to Me.

Krishna says, 'He who is not affected adversely or agitated by the world and who in turn does not affect or cause agitation in this world.'

Only the person who is centered on his being, centered on the ultimate consciousness, does not create havoc in the world. Just by being in the presence of an enlightened person, our minds calm down. We become steady. I can say that not only is the world not adversely affected by such persons, the world is blessed by their presence.

Once a person realizes that they are one with the Divine and all of Existence, how can there be any fight? How can there be any drama? There can't be! There is only the experience of intense love and compassion on its own and towards all beings.

How can there be any small enjoyments or agitations when someone is continuously experiencing eternal bliss? It is impossible. For the enlightened one, it has all become a game, a leela. And he sees that the game exists in him and not that he exists in the game.

Here Krishna is saying that the persons who are expressing from their core, unaffected by the happenings around them, are dear to Him because they are centered on Him.

For most of us, that isn't the case. We live on the periphery of our personalities and make a mess of things wherever we go. To most of us, joy is a period between experiences of sorrow and unhappiness. It is like a period of quiet between two battles that we call peace, just as impermanent and just as unreal.

Joy and temporal pleasure from sensory experiences invariably lead to sorrow. Joy is the by-product of fulfillment, of an expectation. When the expectation is fulfilled this time, we feel happy. Most likely, this may not happen the next time around. So instead of joy, sorrow follows.

Joy can only be experienced internally if it is to be long lasting. Such joy is more accurately called bliss. Bliss is eternal, unlike joy, which is transient. Bliss is eternal. It arises when we drop expectation, when we stay centered on our being, when we are in the mood and mode of non-attachment.

'Nissangatve nirmohatvam…nirmohatve nischalatatvam… nischalatatve jeevan muktihi,' says Sankara in Bhaja Govindam. Non-attachment leads to the elimination of desires. A 'no desire' state leads to a calm and peaceful mind, a mind full of bliss. A blissful state leads to liberation.

When Krishna refers to a state of not being in joy, He refers to this temporary transient joy, which is a byproduct of our desires*,* the joy that comes and goes. It is powered by our illusions and fantasies. Only when one goes beyond this joy with its peaks and valleys can one truly reach a blissful state. Both joy and sorrow must be transcended for us to experience bliss.

Anxiety is the cancer of our spirit. From the moment we are capable of thinking, we are in anxiety. We worry. We worry all the time. Worry, anxiety and the resultant stress are our crutches in life. Our anxiety comes out of our fear that we may not be able to fulfill expectations. We have our desires and hopes. We have our capabilities that we are generally aware of. Very often our desires and capabilities don't match. There is a gap. This gap creates the worry.

If we close our eyes and try to focus on an object or event, after a few seconds we see that we can't continue. No thought or idea can control our inner space eternally. Always there is another thought that comes along to replace the last thought. This is the inner chatter of our mind. Buddha refers to it as the 'monkey mind'.

This chatter is the constant jumping of our mind between past and future. It is the journey that our mind undertakes between what it has experienced and stored as memories and the unknown, which is full of expectations and speculations, also based upon the past. This jumping, this journey, is what we call thoughts.

Anxiety builds as our ego realizes that what it desires may not happen. This loss of something that has not even happened, the product of pure speculation, causes intense emotions within us. Long before anything happens we anticipate with great anxiety that the worst can happen. Then we wait with bated breath for the event to pass. Quite often you would have experienced a sense of relief when the worst you had imagined had actually come to pass. There is no longer any anxiety when the future has moved into the present.

Anxiety lives and breeds in thoughts about the future. Its source is our ego. Ego creates expectations. Expectations related to 'I' and 'mine', 'identity' and 'possession' create the fear that what is expected may not happen. To move out of anxiety, we must move into the present moment. That is the only point at which our inner chatter stops and anxiety disappears.

When Krishna says, 'He who is without anxiety will reach Me,' He says that he who is in the present moment will reach Me. In the present moment our thoughts cease and we can see with clarity the truth of our Existence, Krishna Consciousness, and then we are one with Him.

'Let go of anger,' says Krishna. 'He who is without anger shall reach Me.' By the literal understanding of this verse, none of us can reach Krishna. All of us express anger at one time or another. Anger is a positive energy. Expressing anger can be positive, both for the person expressing the anger and the one receiving it. This may sound strange but it is true.

Anger is often the product of guilt. We get defensive when our spouse points out something we did not do in the way that they wanted. We move into a defensive position. We feel guilty when we realize we did wrong. But instead of accepting the wrongdoing, we become angry. We would like our wrongdoing to remain our secret and we dislike the other person for bringing it out into the open. It is like a leper not wishing to see his own sores.

In a sense, this anger is also directed at ourselves. The guilt we feel is the result of the internal rage against our own weakness. Guilt is the biggest sin we commit. Whatever we do at a point in time, we do with the knowledge and awareness we possess at that time. Once we have done what we have done, there is nothing within our power to change it.

'The moving hand writes and moves on,' says Omar Khayyam in Rubaiyat, 'having written, it moves on. Neither your tears nor all your piety can make it move back.' The past cannot be undone. But guilt can be undone. Guilt can be dropped. You can accept what you have done and move on. You can even accept that you cannot accept and move on. You can let go of your guilt.

When we let go of guilt, then we can let go of anger. When we let go of guilt, we let go of our suppressed emotions of anger, regret, defensiveness and the internal fury. Repressed anger can cause cancer. People who appear calm on the surface, controlling the anger that they feel without expressing it, are sitting on a time bomb. Either it can explode unexpectedly causing grave danger to themselves and others, or it can lead into selfdestruction through cancer. It is perfectly possible.

In the Malayan culture, from childhood onwards one is taught not to express negative emotions of grief, anger, irritation and so on. Everyone is supposed to be calm and collected. Suddenly, however, the fuse blows. They call this 'running amok'. This word is now part of the Oxford dictionary. It means that someone is going totally out of control, creating havoc; trying to control results in total loss of control.

One may then ask, what about road rage? What about havoc created by violent expressions of anger? If one learns to let go of anger as it arises, there will be no rage, road rage or home rage. We bottle up emotions and they burst out. Inner anger keeps building up from childhood for various reasons. We build up all the negatives we can think of about society. We are unable to express these for societal reasons since they are not considered appropriate, cultured and civilized. Then it must blow sooner or later.

We should learn to direct anger at issues rather than at people. When anger rises against people, divert it to issues instead of towards a person. The person is only the perceived cause as you see it. The deeper issue remains covered if you direct the anger against the person. It comes back more dangerously. Anger breeds anger. It is a vicious cycle. If however, we express anger and express it fully against the incident, event, or issue, without personalizing it, we can let go of that anger without harm to others and us. It is possible. You need to practice, that's all. When the emotive memory of that anger is expressed, the memory dissolves. No anger remains. Over a period of time, the anger disappears even before it rises. Krishna says that one must reach this state beyond anger in order to be able to reach Him.

12.16 He who is free from wants, who is pure and skilled, unconcerned, untroubled, who is selfless in whatever he does, he who is devoted to Me, he is dear to Me.

Krishna now moves into higher gear. Once you let go of joy, anxiety and anger, once you transcend these emotions, you reach a state of calmness that takes you close to Him. Now, He moves from 'nissangatvam' to 'nirmohatvam,' from emotional non-attachment to nonattachment to desires.

We need to understand the difference between 'wants' and 'needs'. Needs are necessary for us to survive on planet Earth, like the basic needs of food, shelter, etc. The great Jain Master Mahavira says, 'The moment you are born on this planet, the universe sends everything with you that you need. It provides for all your basic needs.' We just need to trust the universe and we shall get what we need to live. We shall not want anything else.

However, we end up seeking more. Basic needs are no longer enough. We see our neighbor. We cannot bear to see that others are happier than we are. We are happy to see people who suffer. This only shows our own state of sorrow in a better light. We feel better when others are in the same boat as us.

If a neighbor buys a new air conditioner, the temperature in our house shoots up. If the neighbor buys a refrigerator, the foodstuff in our house starts rotting. If the neighbor buys a new car, our car suddenly slows down. Everything we have is a match for what others have. It is a constant cycle of 'what next? What next?' Even before we start enjoying what we have got, we make a plan to get more. There is no joy in having, the joy is in chasing. There is no end point to this chase.

When you become the richest in your family, you need to become the richest on the street and then the richest in the town, then the richest in the country and then the richest in the world. There is no end. Ramana Maharishi says so beautifully and poignantly, 'This universe can cater to the needs of all its people, but it cannot meet the wants of even one person.'

Wants are endless. Wants are suffering. Wants are born out of comparison with others. Needs, our basic needs, carry the energy within them for fulfillment. Wants only carry the seeds of our own suffering.

During NSP, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Spurana Program, or LBP 2, we take participants through the seven layers of the energy bodies that the spirit passes through when we die. In this process, the departing spirit remembers all that happened during its time in the body until the point of death. It is like a fast replay of all that has happened, every incident that is stored on the hard disk of our memory.

In one of the sessions, I ask people to make a list of their desires, their needs and wants. They fill pages with it. I ask them to review the list many times. Then they do a certain meditation. At the end of the meditation, I ask them to recollect from memory their list of desires. What they can recollect is usually a fraction of what they have written. It is as if they started with a large tree full of leaves, their desires, and during this meditation the tree sheds almost all its leaves, as if the leaves were dried and dead. What it retained glows like golden leaves.

Whatever is left in their memories, those desires glow like gold. They are the ones that carry the energy for their fulfillment! These desires are the true desires that they carry. If the process is done with awareness, these desires are always selfless desires. They may benefit the individual, no doubt, but they always benefit humanity. Only such selfless desires carry the energy of the universe with them for fulfillment.

When our desires are our own true desires, when they reflect our real needs, when they express themselves in our inner energy, we don't feel any desperation about trying to achieve them. The realization comes that, as a matter of natural course of events, these desires will be fulfilled. We are not driven and we are not troubled. We accept that these will happen. Therefore, Krishna counsels Arjuna, 'Become free from wants, be selfless and you shall be untroubled, liberated and you will reach Me.'

12.18,19 One who treats friends and enemies the same, who faces in the same manner honor and dishonor, heat

and cold, happiness and sorrow, fame and infamy, one who is always free from attachment, always silent and satisfied with anything, without a fixed home, who is fixed in mind and who is devoted to Me, such a person is very dear to Me.

12.20 Those who truly follow this imperishable path of righteousness with great faith, making Me the supreme goal, are very dear to Me.

Part 4: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 12 - Love is your very Life

Again Krishna says, 'Such a person, full of devotion is dear to Me.' He is not ready to put down any more rules, which means He is almost ending His instructions. He is almost saying, 'This is the way, if somebody is like this then I love him, that's all. I am not interested in anything else.' He says, 'One who is neutral towards friends and enemies, who is the same in honor and dishonor, heat and cold, joy and pain, free from attachment to the fruits of action, who remains the same in criticism and praise, who is thoughtful, who is content with whatever he gets, who does not care for any house and is resolute in mind, such a man, full of devotion is very dear to Me.'

Here is a beautiful phrase, 'One who does not care for any house and who doesn't bother to build a house for himself.'

Let me tell you a story. Ravana lived for one kalpa (many thousands of years). Vyasa lived for four kalpas. Ravana was building Lankapuri, his capital in Sri Lanka. He got Lankapuri as a gift from Shiva and he was developing it. When Vyasa came to the city, Ravana asked him, 'Oh Vyasa, did you see my palace, and my country? How grand they look.' Vyasa replied, 'Yes, I have seen them.'

Ravana showed him everything with pride and asked, 'Why don't you build a house for yourself?'

Vyasa smiled and says, 'My life is just four kalpas. I have no time to waste building houses. After all, I am going to live here for only four kalpas, why should I waste time building houses?'

Ravana lived for only one kalpa, for which he built such a big house. Vyasa whose life was four times as long, thought it was unnecessary to waste part of his life building houses! 'One who is not concerned about owning a house is full of devotion and he is near to Me, dear to Me.' Krishna concludes this chapter on Bhakti Yoga, Union through Devotion, saying that one who lives in righteousness is devoted to Him.

Dharma is spiritual righteousness. It is not, and has nothing to do with rules and regulations laid down by society and religion. Human tendency is always to break rules. If there is a speed restriction, the driver will speed, especially when he feels there is no cop around. Rules, especially societal rules, seem to restrict one's freedom of expression and movement. Rules are always needed for others but not for us.

Religious rules and commandments are even worse. They are based on principles of greed and fear and designed to control, totally control. Unlike societal leaders, religious leaders know that they have no constitutional powers to control. Therefore, they must devise subtler techniques of control. So they came up with the concept of sins. Along with sins, religions created heaven and hell.

But religions must survive and to survive they must control. If they lead you to believe that you are divine, how will they survive? So they must brand you as a sinner, a sinner from birth. You must be led to believe that only religion can give you salvation. They teach you from the start that you cannot redeem yourself because your nature is evil.

Understand that you are no sinner! Divinity resides within us. Our only sin, the original sin, is in not recognizing that we are Divine. Therefore we don't need to strive to attain salvation. We just need to become aware of our inner divinity. In Hindu scriptures, spiritual truths are called yama and comprise the following: satya, ahimsa, asteya, aparigraha and brahmacharya. These are not very different from the Ten Commandments.

Satya is truth. It is truth in thoughts, words and action. What is inside is shown outside. Truth can only be expressed when one is living in awareness in the present, when mind and ego are disengaged, when whatever is felt is expressed without being filtered by the ego.

Ahimsa is non-violence, again in thought, words and action. Ahimsa arises from the realization of the cosmic consciousness, that we are one with the universe, that we are one with every being in this universe. When this realization dawns, what 'other' exists to harm? Violence dissolves and compassion blossoms.

Asteya is not coveting, not just possessions but qualities, attention and the like. It is to realize one's own uniqueness in the context of the cosmic consciousness, and to realize that Existence is showering equally and uniquely on all of us. So then what need is there to seek what is rightfully someone else's? Just decide: what Existence gives them is good for them and what Existence bestows upon me is best for me and my overall expansion.

Aparigraha means to live simply and minimally within one's needs and not to develop and chase desires based on greed.

Brahmacharya is living in and with Reality. This word is often translated incorrectly as celibacy. What it actually means is to drop one's fantasies, illusions and expectations about life and oneself. It means living with spontaneity and intelligence in the present moment.

In this day and age it is humanly impossible to follow these ideals implicitly. Sanyasis who take these vows have a tough time fulfilling them. For those in day-to-day material life, these are almost impossible to achieve.

In my experience, I would say that these rules of yama, of spiritual conduct, are a product of enlightenment and not a path to enlightenment. In this modern age, the path of righteousness that Krishna talks about leading to Him is the path of meditation. When we follow meditation, one automatically gets into the virtuous circle of conscious awareness that takes us to Krishna Consciousness.

Meditation is a process of shutting the mind down. In this process of reaching the no-mind state, the ego drops. The barrier to the realization that our true nature is divine disappears. We become who we are. We realize we are one with the Divine.

Q: How does one let go of attachment? It seems inseparable from living.

A: When I stay at devotees' homes, they ask me, 'Master, did you sleep well in this new place?' I tell them, 'Only when you have attachment to a house, does another house become a new place and you struggle. When you don't have an attachment to any house, you feel at home wherever you go.'

Our ashram records show that I visited homes during the last two years. In Bharat, each day I used to visit homes. I have stayed in hundreds of homes around the world, but I never feel that someplace is new. I feel totally at home anywhere.

People ask me on the following day, 'Master did you sleep well? Are you comfortable?'

I say, 'What is there in this? If I stretch my hand out, I get food. If I stretch my leg out, I sleep, that's all!' That's life. There is nothing else. If you don't feel attached to one home, you feel at home in the entire world. You are totally relaxed anywhere in the world.

People ask me, 'Master, how can you travel continuously?' This question comes from people who travel for business. They say, 'If we go to one or two places and come back, it takes one week to recover, to settle down again and get back to our routine, our life, for us to feel comfortable, to feel ourselves. How can you travel continuously?' I stay for a maximum of one week in any place. Now, because we have an ashram here, I have been staying for more than a week. Otherwise, never more than a week.

The secret is not feeling connected to one house. Then you will feel connected to the whole world. You will

have a deep feeling of being at home with the whole world. Wherever you go, you will experience a deep, relaxed bliss and ecstasy. As Krishna says here, 'One who does not care for any house, such a man full of devotion is very dear to Me.' When one is not fixed in a physical location, only then one can be fixed in mind.

When people asked Ramana Maharishi to suggest a form of meditation, he advised them to walk around the Arunachala Hill and focus on the Hill. They wondered, 'Why is he saying this? How can we meditate while walking? All meditations must be done while sitting cross-legged with eyes closed.'

No. Understand, when the body is moving, it is easier to keep the mind stationary. In our Chakra energization programs, the Life Bliss Programs, we have a meditation on the vishuddhi, the throat chakra. This meditation involves active movement, actually running, while keeping the mind focused on the vishuddhi chakra. This is a powerful meditation that infuses energy. It is easier to focus with the mind if the body is moving.

When one is truly in the present, when one is aware, when one's consciousness is awake, there can be no duality. Our self merges with the Self; we are one with the Divine. Everyone is us. Then where is the question of friends and enemies? We are one with nature. Where is the question of feeling hot and cold? When we are one with the universe, when all is the same, where is the question of feeling honor or dishonor, from whom to whom and by whom? The experience and the experiencer become the same. The expression and the experience become the same. Krishna takes us into that state, the state of Krishna Consciousness, being one with Him, the Divine, where all these dualities merge.

Om paarthaaya pratibodhitaam bhagavataa naaraayanena svayam Vyaasena grathitaam puraanamuninaa madhye mahaabhaaratam Advaitaamrutavarshineem Bhagavateem ashtaadsaadhyaayineem Amba tvaamanusandadhaami bhagavadgeete bhavadveshineem

OM, I meditate upon you, Bhagavad Gita the affectionate Mother, the Divine Mother showering the nectar of non duality and destroying rebirth, (who was) incorporated into the Mahaabhaarata of eighteen chapters by sage Vyasa, the author of the Puraanaas, and imparted to Arjuna by Lord Narayana, Himself.

Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chaanura Mardanam Devakee Paramaanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum

I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacher to the world, son of Vasudeva and Supreme bliss of Devaki, Destroyer of Kamsa and Chaanura.