Attain Peace

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.