Selfless In Action

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.'