He Is Very Dear To Me

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.