Understanding The Energy

13.19 Thus the field of activities, knowledge and the knowable has been summarily described by Me.

It is only when we can understand the true nature of our supreme Self and the material world with which we have created false identities that we can go beyond this and attain the supreme Self itself.

13.20 Prakriti or the field and its attributes and the purusha or the knower or the supreme Consciousness are both without beginning.

All the transformations of nature that we see are produced by the field or prakriti.

13.21 In the production of the body and the senses, prakriti is said to be the cause;

In the experience of pleasure and pain, purusha is said to be the cause.

13.22 The living entity in the material nature follows the way of life, enjoying the moods of nature.

Due to association with the material nature, it meets the good or evil among various species.

13.23 Yet, in this body there is a transcendental energy.

He who is divine, who exists as an owner or the witness, supporter, enjoyer and the pure witnessing Consciousness, is known as the Paramatman.

13.24 One who understands this philosophy concerning material nature, the living entity and the interaction of the modes of nature is sure to attain liberation.

He will not take birth here again, regardless of his present position.

Krishna delivers this discourse of Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna standing in a chariot on the battlefield of

Kurukshetra. If you look a little deeper, this is a beautiful picture of each of us. Krishna represents the Self, the charioteer, knower of the field, the one who runs the show. If the charioteer does not know how to take charge, the horses start to pull the chariot in different directions.

These horses symbolize the senses and the mind pulling us to different places as they please, thus leaving us in a state of confusion in everything that we do. If we are not ready to control the horses, the horses control us. This is what happens in our lives. Due to our lack of understanding about how to drive the chariot, we conveniently give the horses the authority.

The very understanding about the kshetra, the material things around us, teaches us how to control them. The minute we understand kshetra, body-mind, we realize we are not the kshetra. If we are the kshetra, then how can we understand it? You see, we can read this book because we are not the book. There is a separation between the book and us. In the same way, only when we understand the kshetra, do we understand that we are not the kshetra. This understanding that we are not kshetra brings with it the understanding that we are kshetragna. When we realize that we are kshetragna, we have transcended the kshetra.

How do we understand kshetra? It is important to gain knowledge about our material world or kshetra. Until then, we are in ignorance. When we are in ignorance our senses and societal conditioning drive us. We end up believing that we are the material world or the kshetra itself. We become so engrossed in the material world that we identify with it completely. We become part of it. We attach seriousness with every event that happens in the kshetra because we have forgotten that we are kshetragna watching the kshetra.

Actually, there is no such thing as kshetra. It is a projection of the mind, just like a dream. You see, when we go to bed we know that we are so-and-so, husband or wife of so-and-so, working in such-and-such company, etc. We know our whole identity with solid clarity when we go to sleep. We know that even if we have dreams, they are not real. We will wake up the next day and continue our life at the office, with our children and so on.

But the minute we drift into the dream state, we start to think that the dream is real. The more we get into the dream, the more our identity completely changes to suit the role in the dream. What happens in the dream may not be related to what we do in real life. Yet we start to believe it all. If a lion in the dream attacks us, we feel fear and worry and we may even sweat as though it is really happening to us.

In the same way, we think this life is real. If I tell you now that the life that you are leading is nothing but a creation of your mind, will you believe me? No! You are so immersed in this dream that you think is real.

See, when we wake up from a dream, why do we suddenly understand that it was not real? It is because suddenly we perceive a separation between the dream and us. The understanding that it was merely a dream wakes us into reality. Similarly, the understanding that this world is nothing but a projection of the mind, the understanding that this is not our real identity will wake us into reality.

A small story:

A Zen master woke up crying one morning. His disciples rushed to him. They enquired, 'What happened, Master?' The Master said, 'In my dream last night, I was a butterfly.'

The disciples did not understand. They asked, 'So what, Master? It was a dream and it is over. What bothers you?'

The Master replied, 'You do not understand my problem. I am unable to tell whether I am a Zen Master who dreamed that I was a butterfly, or whether I am actually a butterfly who is dreaming that I am a Zen Master.'

When we are dreaming, we are unaware of who we are because the dream is so real when it happens. For that reason, what makes us assume that the socalled real world that we are living in is real? It could well be another dream. When we dream we create the whole world inside, don't we? The whole setting is created by our mind. We are not creating just our identity, but we create everything that surrounds us also.

Let us say we dream of winning some award in front of thousands of people. The mind is so powerful that it can create the entire picture including every detail of the auditorium, all the thousand people sitting and clapping, the speech and all that we perceive as reality while we are dreaming. The mind is so powerful to be able to give life to the scene around us and not just to our identity in the dream.

This is what the mind does in the so-called real world also. The only difference is that we wake up easily from our ordinary dreams. However, we do not know how to wake up from this bigger dream that we now think is reality. As long as we think this world is real, we suffer. The minute we realize this world is not real, we create a distance between the suffering and us. Only an enlightened Master that has experienced the truth can wake us up to reality. Out of their compassion, these Masters descend on planet Earth to tell us that everything we see around us in a projection of our minds.

The understanding of the kshetra, the illusory world created by our minds, is important in helping us to differentiate between reality and non-reality. Krishna says that we need to understand what kshetra and kshetragna are in order to realize the truth. Until then we blindly believe that the projection of our mind, the drama, is reality. We have created our own drama and are acting in it. By and by, we forget that we created the drama. We forget that we are not the roles or characters we enact onstage. We start judging and reacting to everything about it.

We are so engrossed in the material world that we have no awareness of our true self. This is also due to our upbringing. Parents and teachers don't tell us that we are divine beings having a human experience and that everything around us is a drama. The environment where we are brought up, our families and societal setup, do not encourage us in pursuing the path of Self-realization. This is because they are also caught under the false identities. They do not tell us that we are the kshetragna because they do not know that themselves.

If a child is constantly reminded about the divinity within right from birth, it grows up to be a jivanmukta, liberated while still in the body. This is how children were brought up in the Vedic tradition. That is why the level of consciousness was so high.

Queen Madalasa brought up her son Vikranta this way, by constantly singing and speaking about the divinity within the child and reminding him that he was pure Consciousness. When Vikrant would cry, Madalasa sang words of wisdom to keep him quiet. She sang that he was a pure soul, he had no real name and his body was merely a vehicle made of the five elements. She consoled him saying, 'You are the soul that is eternally free, so why do you cry?' Thus, because of the enlightening words of Madalasa, King Vikrant grew up with a high degree of consciousness, free from worldly attachments.

The prakriti, the material world that we see, is without beginning. The purusha or supreme Consciousness is also without beginning. All changes and transformations are produced by the prakriti.

In a movie theatre, different movies are projected on the same white screen. The screen remains unaffected by the happenings of the movies that are played on it. It remains white and blank before and after the movie. In one scene, there may be happiness, with everyone celebrating. In the next, there may be sadness. Yet the screen is always the same, totally unclutched from the joys and sorrows of the movie. It remains completely unaffected by the different moods that are projected. In the same way, deep down, our core is completely unclutched. This is the purusha that Krishna refers to here. All changing, transient things around us are the play of prakriti.

All the transformations that we see, such as the change in seasons, concepts of time and space, our body, mind or anything that changes are different attributes of prakriti. It is like the ebb and flow of the waves in an ocean. These attributes rise and fall. The time and space of the rise and fall is totally relative. The duration of the rise and fall of these attributes is also highly relative because it is purely a concept created by our senses. Our senses perceive time as moving. Our senses perceive the motion of time with respect to the material world, with relation to the speed of the planets, etc. We have created this concept of time for our sensory perceptions. We have created the space and location also with the concept of comparative reality.

The more we attach ourselves to the outer world and the play of prakriti with respect to events, emotions, ego, body and mind, the more we get entangled in the world of time and space.

Albert Einstein said, 'Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.' This illustrates that modern science is proving and agreeing with what the mystics and rishis have said for thousands of years. Time and space are relative concepts created in our mind. Movement of time and movement of the mind are directly related to each other.

For example, if we are sitting with someone we love, no matter how much time passes, we feel as if we were with that person for a short duration. We will not be aware how time passed so quickly. On the other hand, if we are sitting with a person who bores us or bothers us, we will feel like looking at our watch constantly.

As long as our mind moves, time moves. When we look deeply, we realize that the mind is a constant movement between past and future. Mind is a dilemma; it is constantly reviewing the past and planning for the future. We are constantly pulled towards the past or future and it is never in the present moment. Time is like a shaft. This shaft can be penetrated only when we fall into the present moment. Penetrating the time shaft means falling into eternity, the present moment.

We can try a small experiment. For three days decide to completely stay in the present moment without bothering about the past or future. Surely, if we live in the present for three days, we will not lose all our belongings and attachments. So let's decide to stay in the present moment for three days. We can simply fall into the present moment. When we fall into the present moment, the time shaft becomes a servant for us. We can penetrate the time shaft. This means we will have complete visibility to the entire past and the entire future. Deciding to stay in the present moment for three days means that we must accept whatever we have in the outer and inner worlds.

Whether it is outer world or inner world, any craving is a craving. Any craving means that we are being pulled into the future. A craving for enlightenment is also a craving and a hope for the future. The moment we drop all cravings and all reviews about the past, we fall into the present moment and penetrate the time shaft. Falling into the present moment is called falling into the gap. This is the gap between two thoughts, the kshana.

When we fall into the present moment, we fall into eternity and that eternity is a combination of past, present and future. There is no distinction. In this state we become the witness of all time and space-related happenings. We become the witnessing Consciousness. We become the knower and we witness the field or kshetra with complete detachment. We realize that everything in the outer world is a drama or a dream, and anything that we attempt to do in our lives is housekeeping in this dream.

Any effort that we make is another act in this dream. The whole idea is to not become entangled and emotionally attached to the housekeeping in this dream. The idea is to enjoy it and watch it by becoming one with our true self.

Knowledge about the material world is necessary to help us step back from the dream and realize that we are unnecessarily attached and entangled in the field or kshetra. All transformations in the field are related to time and space, which are in turn related to our mind. When we penetrate the time shaft, time becomes our servant. We also see that the whole time shaft is our projection. When we penetrate the time shaft and become witnessing Consciousness, we completely control our past and future. The past and future are transformations of the material world. All transformations are the play of prakriti or the field. Mind is a part of prakriti.

Becoming the watcher and having complete awareness to become the watcher of the prakriti means dropping preconceived notions, ideas, concepts, ego, attachments of the mind and the mind itself. We become the watcher when we are completely aware of what is happening inside us whenever we perceive information through our senses. We watch the process of how it happens. The moment we put attention on it, the mind ceases. The moment we decide to put our attention, we have decided to become the watcher. It then depends on how long we can remain the watcher without becoming entangled in what is being watched. The more we practice this, the longer we experience being the watcher. We realize that we are purusha.

'Nature is the cause of all material cause and its effects, whereas the living entity is the cause of everything, i.e. sukha (pleasure), dukha (pain) and everything that is of the world.'

Krishna puts us back into our Consciousness through this sutra. This contains the gist of what He has been saying in the previous verses. He makes a clear statement that whatever we see is not us.

He says, 'Go beyond and beyond and beyond and beyond. When you are able to see the body, move beyond. If you are able to witness your thoughts, go further beyond. If you are able to see your moods, go further beyond. If you are able to witness your emotions, go further beyond. You are not that also.'

At one point we cannot go further. We realize that there's nothing beyond. We are not what we witness. Suddenly, at that moment, pure Consciousness starts happening in us.

Ramana Maharishi says beautifully, 'Whatever can be dropped, drop it. At some point we will not be able to drop anything. There will be nothing to drop. Then hold that, that's all.'

Witness the Consciousness that is witnessing. When you watch, detach from the thoughts, sit back, relax and watch. Do not try to create, nourish or destroy them. The ultimate Consciousness that witnesses is beyond Brahma (creator), Vishnu (sustainer) or Shiva (rejuvenator). When we learn to welcome thoughts, they merely come and go.

It's like watching clouds in the sky. The next time that you sit by a window with clouds passing by, try this exercise. Watch the clouds without giving qualifiers to them. Normally, when we watch clouds, we think, 'Oh, that cloud looks like an animal, that cloud resembles a face, the color of that cloud reminds me of my dress,' and so on. If we can watch them without giving them any attributes, in a completely detached manner, only one thought remains in the end: the thought that you are watching clouds. Even this thought should dissolve to be a complete witness.

Even if there is a thought saying that you are witnessing, watch that thought also. Watch the witnessing until that thought also disappears. Go beyond, beyond, deep into your being. Go beyond the thought that you are witnessing. Please be very clear that as long as you think in your mind that you are witnessing, you are not witnessing. When the thought that you are witnessing exists, then no, you are not witnessing. You are now caught in the thought, 'I am witnessing.' Drop that!

This last thought that you are witnessing is like a bridge between you and God, between you and the thoughtless zone. Initially, when you try to witness your actions and your thoughts, it is natural to think that you are watching. Let it be. Having this thought is better than having a hundred thoughts bombarding your inner space.

But go beyond. Do not stop there. Witness the thought that you are witnessing. Then the pure, uncorrupted and untouched inner space happens in you. It is only in the uncorrupted and pure inner space that God manifests and the Divine Consciousness is perceived.

This is the secret or true meaning of the story of the Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus. Understand, when we make our inner space pure like a virgin, we give birth to Christ or the Christ Consciousness. We become divine.

Normally, the space in which thoughts happen in us is filled with conditionings and past memories, what we call engraved memories or engrams. If the Divine is like 24 carat gold in our inner space, copper is added to the pure 24-carat gold because of all the conditioning, making it 18 carat or less. Sometimes there is so much conditioning that what comes out is only pure copper. If we flood this space with awareness, if we flood this space with Consciousness, it gets cleansed. When we cleanse our inner space, we allow 24-carat gold to happen within.

Then, whatever we think, speak or do is directly in alignment with the will of universal Consciousness. Then we become in tune with the Divine. We become a hollow bamboo and allow the Divine to operate through us.

Here Krishna gives us the technique. As of now, we are like 18-carat gold, copper and gold mixed together. When we repeatedly put the18-carat gold into the fire of witnessing Consciousness, eventually it becomes 22-carat gold. If we continue to put that gold into the fire, the 22 carat gold becomes pure 24-carat gold. In the same way, if we put ourselves into the fire of witnessing Consciousness, we become purified to a certain extent. Again and again, if we constantly put ourselves into this fire of witnessing Consciousness, our inner space eventually becomes completely pure, like 24-carat gold.

A real incident that happened when I was in the Himalayas:

I met an elderly naga sadhu, a sect of wandering monks who wear no clothes and have no possessions. He was sitting on the banks of the river Ganga in the forest. He was calm and serene so I felt I should go and spend some time around him. He had a pipe with which they smoke ganja.

He said, 'Baitiye, baitiye,' sit, sit (in Hindi). Before smoking the pipe, he put a few copper coins inside. Then he added the ganja, lit it and started smoking. After smoking, he emptied the pipe. Gold coins fell out of the pipe.

I couldn't believe my eyes. He sold the gold coins and purchased more ganja. Then, again he showed me that ordinary copper coins were being turned into pure gold coins. I stayed with him for one or two days. I saw him do this more than ten times.

The turning of the copper coins into gold is called alchemy i.e., changing lower level metals into higher-level metals. I asked him, 'Baba, how do you do this?' I had never told him that I was from South Bharat and I was speaking in broken Hindi and not in Tamil, my native language.

That sadhu suddenly replied in Tamil, 'Angam pazzhuthaal, thangam pazzhukkum.' It means, 'If your Being ripens, gold can be made to appear.'

This means that when we fill our inner space with witnessing Consciousness, our lower base energy gets transformed into spiritual energy. This inner alchemy makes the outer alchemy possible. Your inner space starts radiating by witnessing the witnessing Consciousness.

The essence of all religions and all spirituality, the whole thing is reduced into this single sloka that Krishna presents. Krishna presents the master key that opens all locks, in this chapter: Witnessing the body and the mind, witnessing your being. Witnessing is the master key.

If we can enter the witnessing technique and experience the witnessing mode for at least a few minutes, we will know the taste of it. However much we hear about witnessing, however much we talk about witnessing or however much we analyze the art of witnessing, we will never benefit. Believing will not do. We must experience.

A small story:

A man is driving on the highway around midnight. A cop stops and asks him, 'Sir, I think you are drunk. Have you been drinking?'

The man replies, 'Yes, I have just had six drinks. Do you want the names? A few cans of beers, a few brandies…' He starts listing the drinks.

The cop says, 'Stop, I need to take a breath analyzer test. Please get out of the car.'

The man says, 'Why do you need a test? Don't you believe me?'

The cop was required to do the test whether he believed the driver or not.

Similarly, you cannot simply take my word. You must do the test. You must test it on yourself. You must test it with your being. Reading or listening will not transform you. Reading or listening is like reading the menu and leaving the restaurant without tasting the food on the menu! If you listen to what I say without testing, it is like going away from a restaurant without eating.

So now since we have read the menu card, it is time to taste the preparation.

Krishna goes one step further. All along He told us how to cleanse our inner space and how to realize that Divine Consciousness within. Now, in the last verse He says that one who does so attains liberation, regardless of his present position.

Every being is moving towards the Divine, whether or not the being is aware of it. We take on this body to fulfill certain desires. If we truly put our energies into dissolving these desires, we have no reason to take another birth to fulfill those desires. The problem happens when we start to lead somebody else's life and forget we are here to live our desires and not others' desires. We constantly borrow other people's desires and accumulate them in us.

Then, before we realize our true nature, we must leave this body. We take with us the entire baggage of unfulfilled desires and take another body again. The universe again and again tries to help us dissolve our desires so that we become free of them. But we resist by not accepting what happens within and around us.

Krishna says that an understanding of kshetra or prakriti straightaway liberates us. We are caught up in pursuing sense pleasures and accumulating desires as long as we associate ourselves with this body. The minute we understand that we are beyond body and mind, we suddenly realize, 'What stupidity to run in this rat race!'

All our problems arise due to the ignorance of our true nature. The understanding that we are beyond all petty things like fighting for name, fame, money or power liberates us from them. A cognitive shift happens and frees us from the bondages of material things. When the understanding happens about the futility of acquiring material possessions and relationships, a sudden shift happens in the inner consciousness.

It can happen any time, to anyone. It is not necessary that you be brought up in an ashram, listening to God's name all the time. You could be anywhere, doing anything. The cognitive shift can happen to anyone at any time. And when it happens, it is a quantum jump in the level of consciousness. It is like pressing a switch and the whole room is lit up in one shot. It does not happen gradually.

There are a number of saints in Bharat in whom this cognitive shift happened. Before a great saint in South Bharat became Purandara Dasa, he was a goldsmith by profession. He was immersed day and night in counting how much he had earned. He was so miserly that he never bothered to share his wealth with the needy.

On the other hand, his wife was generous. She never hesitated to give anything that she had to someone who needed it more than her. However, she did so secretly because her husband objected.

One day she gave her diamond nose ring to someone who asked for money. Purandara Dasa somehow found out about this incident. He disliked the fact that such a precious ring had been given away. He marched home to express his boiling anger to his wife.

In the meantime his wife, not knowing what to do, pleaded to God to help her. By the time Purandara Dasa arrived home, his wife had her ring intact. It was a play of the Divine.

Her husband could not understand what was going on. Suddenly, deep down a shift happened within him. He realized how much he had wasted his energies going after money. It had brought him nowhere. He realized the futility of his life until then. And he set out on a deep quest for self-realization.

So, irrespective of our profession or wherever we may be situated spiritually, simply an understanding of the play of nature is enough to heal us. Just an understanding that we are beyond material pursuits is enough to liberate us.

Q: Master, are we talking about an intellectual understanding here? I understand that none of my material possessions are permanent. In any case, when I die I cannot take anything with me. But as long as I live in this body, I need sustenance and I need to work for material benefits. This work is reality, not an illusion. What is the answer?

You have provided the answer yourself. You are aware that you cannot carry anything with you when you die. You know that nothing you acquire is permanent. This is a good understanding.

All you must work on now is your intellect. Develop this understanding further. It will penetrate you sooner or later.

There are different ways to look at material acquisition. Most of us keep acquiring whether we need the material possessions are not. We do it because it seems to give us status and name and fame since society respects you based on what you have. There is no end to this. This is a competition, a rat race. Even if you win this rat race, you will still be a rat!

This game will end only one way - with you in misery. You do not enjoy what you work for because you are so caught up in acquiring more. There is always someone else who has more than you, so you cannot stop. You are a robot with the stop button removed! You are out of control.

Another way to look at it is with logic, as you are doing now. This is good. You do not acquire for the sake of acquiring but because you need to survive. The problem, however, is that each of us has our own definition of survival. One person can walk to work; another person must drive; a third person must be driven!

You are still working towards a result and you are still attached to an outcome. If the outcome is in your favor, you are happy. If not, you are in misery. You are still in bondage.

There is a third way of looking at this. You have been brought into this world by intelligent energy. You can trust that energy to take care of you. When you pray to God, you pray with an objective. You know that God can give; however, you do not believe that God knows what to give you. So, you make a petition that God can listen to. Why? When the Divine has the power to give, don't you think it has Intelligence to know what to give?

I agree you need to work; no one can remain idle for long. However, you can work without becoming attached to the outcome of work. When you do this, you are in a witnessing mode. You work and yet, you are not attached to the outcome of the work. You know that whatever happens, it will be okay. You know deep within, that the intelligent energy will take care of you.