Introduction

In this series, a young enlightened Master, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM comments on the Bhagavad Gita.

Many hundreds of commentaries of the Gita have been written over the years. The earliest commentaries were by the great spiritual masters such as Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, some thousand years ago. In recent times, great masters such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi have spoken from the Gita extensively. Many others have written volumes on this great scripture.

Nithyananda's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita is not just a literary translation and a simple explanation of that translation. He takes the reader through a world tour while talking about each verse. It is believed that each verse of the Gita has seven levels of meaning. What is commonly rendered is the first level meaning. Here, an enlightened master takes us beyond the common into the uncommon, with equal ease and simplicity.

To read Nithyananda's commentary on the Gita is to obtain an insight that is rare. It is not mere reading; it is an experience; it is a meditation.

Sankara, the great master philosopher said:

'A little reading of the Gita, a drop of Ganga water to drink, remembering Krishna once in a while, all this will ensure that you have no problems with the God of Death.'

Editors of these volumes of Bhagavad Gita have expanded upon the original discourses delivered by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM through further discussions with Him. For ease of understanding for English speaking readers, and to cater to their academic interest, the original Sanskrit verses in their English translation have been included as an appendix in this book.

This reading is meant to help every individual in daily life as well as in the endeavour to realize the Ultimate Truth. It creates every possibility to attain nithyananda, eternal bliss!

You Are God!

It is here that we enter into the real Gita. It is from here that Bhagavan or God starts speaking.

Until now Krishna was speaking as a man, as Vasudeva Krishna, in His human form, but it is only from here that Krishna speaks as the Parabrahma Krishna, as Bhagavan, in His divine state.

An important point we all need to understand is that only an intelligent man will allow the other person to speak. We all speak continuously to each other but a conversation does not really happen. The two are quite different. We don't have conversations. We simply carry out simultaneous monologues with each other. When the other person speaks we do not listen; we are busy preparing our own reply. Similarly, when we speak, the other person is actually preparing his response.

We are polite enough to pretend that we are listening so that we will, in turn, be heard. A conversation does not happen. You need intelligence to allow the other person to speak. Please understand that you do not need intelligence to speak; you need it only to listen.

A small story:

A person was telling his friend that he had not spoken to his wife for a whole week. His friend asked him whether he was angry with her or if he had fought with her.

The man replied, 'No, I am afraid of interrupting her!'

Maybe because Bhagavan is a male, he allowed Arjuna to speak!

We may either speak verbally or mentally, but in any case, we are speaking continuously. Why do you think psychiatrists are paid so well? The professions of psychiatry and psychoanalysis are nothing but the art of listening. A psychiatrist is a person who asks expensive questions and just listens, nothing else! We speak continuously. Even when we keep quiet, we are not listening.

A real incident:

A young trainee in Psychiatry was overwhelmed by the ease with which his experienced mentor counseled patients. They poured their hearts out to him. The trainee was deeply disturbed by these traumatic experiences that were shared. Yet, his mentor went from one patient to another calmly and without being affected.

After a few weeks of this training the younger doctor approached his mentor and said, 'I am not sure I can bear this much longer. I am getting depressed. How can you listen to all these people without getting disturbed? What is the trick?'

His mentor calmly responded, 'Who listens?'

Krishna does listen. He listens carefully and answers compassionately. Of the original seven hundred forty five verses in the Gita, as part of the Bhishma Purana of Mahabharata, He responds in depth to Arjuna's fiftyseven questions through six hundred twenty verses.

In the first chapter Bhagavan does not say a word to interrupt Arjuna. He allows Arjuna to speak fully for one whole chapter. He keeps quiet even on seeing the depth of Arjuna's confusion and depression. He consciously analyzes the origin of Arjuna's thoughts to determine the platform of confusion upon which Arjuna is standing.

It is possible to become a successful businessman just by studying the first few chapters of the Gita. You can reach the peak of your profession just by learning the art of listening. Once you listen clearly, you will automatically be able to answer clearly as well. A devotee once asked me, 'Master, how is it that you are able to answer so many questions?' There is only one secret to this. I know how to listen to the question, that's all. If you know the technique of listening, the reply is immediately ready in your being.

The problem is that we do not trust ourselves and our innate intelligence to respond to a question without preparation. That is why we start preparing the reply even before listening to the question. We do not have the patience to listen to the problem. Before we listen to it, we already start judging the speaker and develop the solution to the query. We are only interested in expressing what we know, not in addressing the real problem or even in understanding what the other person has to say.

We hear mechanically at best; we never really listen.

Here, Krishna is interested in the real problem and not interested in expressing what He knows. The only reason a Master expresses is his endless compassion. He wants Arjuna to have clarity of mind and is interested in helping him find a solution to his problem. He allowed Arjuna to speak so that He could go to the root of the problem and address the issue.

One needs intelligence, or I may say enlightenment, to listen.

Only an enlightened Master like Krishna can listen. In the first chapter He listens fully and completely. Even in the second chapter, He allowed Arjuna to speak in many verses.

He knew that once He allowed Arjuna to express his problems, he would himself find the solution to them.

People come to me and say, 'Master, you know our problems; please give us the answer.' I ask them to state their problems clearly.

They say, 'You are enlightened and already know of our problems; please give us the answer.'

I say, 'Yes, I know your problem even if you don't speak, but you will not know your own problem if you do not speak.'

Even if, in some cases, we may not be able to speak out in detail with clarity, we should be able to think through our problem, so that at least we understand what the problem is. Our mind should be open to possibilities.

I tell people during the Ananda Darshan (energy awakening) part of our programs that they can ask me for advice on problems that they face.

When you speak the Master listens. More importantly, you listen within yourself. Actually, it is not even necessary to speak and hold up people who are queuing up behind you. All that is needed is to keep your mind open so that the transmission can take place. Even if you do not verbalize you can visualize your needs and problems and this will be even more powerful than speech itself.

That is what happens on the Kurukshetra battlefield. People who have the rationality to compute time may wonder, 'Arjuna spoke for so long. Now Krishna speaks for so long. How is it possible for these two to hold such a long conversation in the middle of a battlefield? What were all the others doing? Wasn't Duryodhana fed up or didn't he think that this was a good opportunity to get rid of Arjuna and Krishna, as they talked and wasted everybody's time?'

That's how the logical, rational, unaware mind thinks. Such a mind cannot conceive of the possibility that a conversation can indeed take place in silence. People are not used to visualization. They lose this skill as they grow up. Children can visualize beautifully. That is why they can keep themselves busy talking silently to themselves and talking silently with imaginary friends. Education and logic rob us of this skill.

At the next level of communication your mind needs to be still to allow the grace to move in. This is the subtlest and most powerful of all communication. At this level communication becomes communion.

When they talk of great Masters like Ramana Maharishi communicating in silence, it was indeed true. To communicate, you need not open your mouth. You only need to open up your mind. When the mind is open and free of disturbing thoughts, especially in front of the Master, communication can take place at the speed of light. The presence of the Master will help still your mind. Answers will appear even before your questions are asked.

Seekers, intellectual seekers, with years of questioning and doubting behind them, come to me and ask, 'Master, why is it that when I come to you with hundreds of questions, when I am in front of you, there is no need to ask you about them? I feel as if the answers are already there!'

This is not imagination; this is truth. Questions can only raise more questions. Questions are a reflection of your inner ego, which is violence. When you are in front of the Master, a Master you truly believe in, the first thing that happens is the melting of your ego. The ego just disappears like snow in the sun. Therefore, questions also disappear. In their place the answers that you were already aware of make their appearance, previously hidden by the veil of your ego, your ignorance. You start feeling that magically, miraculously the answers appear in front of the Master.

The truth is that the answers were all there, already there. Our ego would not allow us to accept and be aware of those answers. The Master's presence dissolved the ego and let the answers out.

There is an interesting Zen parable.

A soldier went to the Master - Nansen, with this problem.

A man kept a goose in a bottle, feeding it until it grew too large to get out of the neck of the bottle. Now, how did he get the goose out without killing the goose or breaking the bottle?

Nansen said to him, 'Oh, Officer?'

The soldier responded, 'Yes, Master?'

Nansen exclaimed 'There, the goose is out of the bottle!'

The moment the soldier addressed Nansen as Master, accepted that he was his Master, the goose, the ego, was out of the bottle, his body-mind!

Only when you open up to the Master do you actually come to know your problem clearly and the answers come as if from nowhere. You can do it at three levels. You can converse and convey through words and the Master will listen. At the next level you can communicate from the heart in silence; you can visualize instead of verbalizing in speech. Finally, you can commune in silence and the Master will grasp this even more powerfully.

Here Krishna allowed Arjuna to verbalize, so that to begin with, Arjuna himself has the clarity to understand his problem. Once Arjuna expressed his confusion, he could relapse into silence and commune with the Master.