Who Is Perfect?

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.