1. Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by Nithyananda - Chapter 3 - Beauty of Purposelessness

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.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM'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 THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM'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!

Beauty of Purposelessness

The whole of Existence, the whole universe, is purposeless.

Of course, it would be very shocking to hear this. From a very young age, you are taught and socially conditioned to believe that life has got some purpose. Always you are made to run towards some goal, towards some purpose.

'What is life without purpose?' you may ask. You may wonder, 'How can it have any meaning?' Any activity, let alone one's entire life, has to have a purpose, a definition, and an end point.

Then it becomes meaningful. That purpose is what drives us, motivates us and provides spice to our day-to-day activities.

'You are making us confused,' you would say. 'All our lives we have been brought up to believe that we are here for a purpose. As children we are expected to do well at school, and later at college. Once we grow up, we are supposed to get married happily and bring up children. At each phase of our life, at each stage of our life, we have specific templates, specific guidelines that society and our families have set up for us. How can we let them down? How can we believe that all these expectations are wrong, and that there is no purpose to life?'

You would say, 'You are turning our life upside down. You are driving us crazy!'

The more you run towards a goal, the more you are considered a successful person. The greater the speed, the more you are respected. The greater the speed, more the rewards. From your birth, again and again, you are taught, society teaches you, that life has got some purpose and that life has some goal. Life without purpose seems meaningless to us. We cannot even comprehend such a possibility.

Understand that this is what you have been brought up to believe. This is not the truth of Existence. Life does not need a defined goal to make living worthwhile, meaningful and happy. The absence of purpose makes our life meaningful. Absence of goals in life makes living worthwhile.

The universe, nature, has no purpose. It just is. It exists. A river runs downhill towards the ocean because it is its nature to run downhill. It is not because it has a purpose to meet the ocean. Our life, too, has no purpose. We were not born for a purpose. We were born to live, to enjoy life and to be happy. Instead, we set ourselves up for unhappiness; we set goals for ourselves, and almost always these goals are based on fantasies and not on realities. In the process, we stop enjoying life.

The more you run towards the goal, the more you miss life itself!

A person who is continuously bothered about goals will never be able to enjoy his life. He lives in the future and ignores the present. When we are in the present moment, the here and now, we do not need a goal to guide us.

Just the awareness of the present moment will help us decide what needs to be done at that point in time. When the present moment is taken care of with awareness, the future gets resolved on its own. As long as the path is right, whatever destination we reach will be right. We do not need to define the destination; the right path defines its own destination.

However, we constantly worry about the future. We constantly think of the past, relate it to our future and define our expectations based on what we have missed in the past, or what we believe will provide us happiness in the future.

For example, when you are studying you always think, 'When I have a job, my life will be happy.' When you have your job you think, 'After marriage my life will be happy.' After marriage, you think, 'When we have kids and our own house, my life will be happy.' After you have kids and your own house you think, 'When the kids grow up and all my responsibilities are over, I will be happy.' By the time your kids are settled, by the time your responsibilities are over, when you want to relax, your being is conditioned so much that you can't relax!

With this mental attitude, we are constantly running to stay in the same spot. Happiness is where we are. It is not where we think we should be.

A small story:

A very successful investment banker from New York was getting burnt-out. He had been earning millions since young age by constantly running behind goals and targets. Seeing him getting burnt-out, his friends advised him to take a break.

Knowing that the word 'relaxation' was not in his dictionary, they advised him to go to a distant rural spot well known for fishing. They told him that fishing was very good for his health so he could come back even more energetic.

The man agreed and he went out and bought designer gear - clothes, shoes, hat, and, of course, the most expensive fishing gear, including designer bait. He took a flight, flew to the nearby city and then drove from there to the village. He booked himself in the most comfortable place to stay.

Early next morning, he dressed up and with all his gear went to the fishing spot. He sat under a shady tree, made himself comfortable and put his fishing line into the water and waited. He waited and waited. An hour passed. There was no sign of any fish being caught. He was getting impatient but he could not accept that he was not successful at something as simple as fishing when he could handle such complex businesses.

Just then, an old man, a local, dressed in crumpled shorts and a simple shirt came by and sat a few meters downstream from him.

The banker watched this old man with amusement, convinced that this simple man would also not be able to catch any fish. The old man had a fishing rod, which was nothing but a long, sturdy twig and a can of worms for attracting the fish. He settled down and put his fishing rod into the stream.

Within minutes, the old man was catching fish; not just one, but one after another. Without hesitation, the old man was throwing the fish back into the water and laughing. He was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Suddenly, the old man became aware of the young banker staring at him. He turned to him with a broad smile and greeted him, 'Hi', he said, 'Why don't you shift over here? This is a better place to catch them.'

The young banker quickly moved next to the old man who guided him as to where to cast his rod. Soon, the young banker was also catching fish. He was very excited.

The banker was a typical businessman. As soon as he started catching fish, he got the idea about how this could be used to make money. He said to the old man, 'You are so brilliant at what you do. You should come to New York. I can introduce you to rich people who you can teach and you can make a lot of money.'

The old man listened attentively to the banker. He then asked the banker, 'Are you rich?' The banker said, 'Yes, sir. I earn a lot of money.'

The old man asked, 'What do you plan to do now, now that you have a lot of money?' The banker replied, 'I am married to a lovely lady and hope to have a couple of children.'

The old man continued, 'Then?' The banker said, 'Oh, we shall build a lovely house. We shall take vacations. When we need to take a vacation to get relief from my stressful work, I shall come here and fish.'

The old man simply said, 'But that is exactly what I am doing now!'

Most of us need to get stressed out before we can relax. We do not understand what it is to relax. When I tell people to relax during meditation, they ask me, 'Master, please give us detailed guidelines how to relax!' What a sad state of affairs! We feel we need to lose our happiness before we can start searching for it.

The tension of running behind something has become a part of our being. It has become part of our conditioning. After that, resting will not be rest anymore. It will not be relaxation anymore. It will be a state of loneliness!

When we run behind goals, all that seems to matter is the achievement of that goal. Any sacrifice seems to be worth achieving it. We do not feel connected to people around us anymore, even those who we claim we love and care for.

When we have rest at the end of our lives, we will feel lonely because we have been conditioned to run behind something. We have been conditioned to live with something. We have been conditioned to associate ourselves with some activity.

The more you run the more titles you receive. You always say with respect and a trace of envy, 'He is a multi-dimensional personality.' You praise people who run more and call them multidimensional personalities. Please be very clear, they are schizophrenics, not multidimensional personalities!

Only a person who has deeply experienced himself, who rests in himself, who experiences inaction in action, only such a person can be a multidimensional personality. Only such a person understands himself and his many personalities, and is comfortable with all of them.

Only a Krishna can be a multidimensional personality. A man who completely rests in himself, who knows how to relax within himself, can be a multidimensional personality.

A person who runs for society, who is made to run by society, can never experience peace. Be very clear the more you run, the greater is the possibility for you to become mad. But society wants you to run. Only then you will be useful to society.

Society doesn't want you as you are. It wants you as it thinks you should be. It wants you as a useful member of society. If you are a doctor, if you are a lawyer, if you are an accountant, if you are useful to society in some way, then you are rewarded, you are praised. That is why society gives so much importance to your title. It ignores you and belittles you if you are a homeless person or a bankrupt person.

You are respected just based on your title, for what you are. The more titles you have, the more respect you get. The fewer titles you have, the lesser is the respect. The more useful you are to the society, the more you are respected.

Again and again, you are made to run. You are taught that life has got a purpose. Please understand: life is purposeless. Look into your life deeply. Whatever you think as the goal of your life, even if it were fulfilled, do you think you would be able to rest? Do you think you will be able to relax? Do you think you will be in bliss? Do you think you will feel fulfilled? No! You will only feel depressed.

As each goal is fulfilled, another springs up in its place. There is no resting point. There is not even any time to appreciate what you have achieved and enjoy your achievement and acquisitions. You are driven from one goal to another, from one desire to another. In the process, there is no fulfillment. There is always a feeling of discontentment. You are driven not because your being tells you to, but because society drives you so.

One guy came to me and said, 'Earlier I used to smoke and drink. My wife used to fight with me all the time. She always blamed me whenever things went wrong. She would connect anything and everything with my smoking and drinking and blame me. If the kids did not study well, she would say, 'You are a drunkard. You don't care for your kids. That is why they are not studying well.' If something went wrong in the house, again she would find some way of connecting it with my smoking and drinking. Continuously I was blamed this way. I was totally disturbed. So, finally, somehow, I gave up smoking and drinking.'

I asked, 'Oh! Is she happy now?'

He said, 'No, no! Now she is not able to complain about anything. So she is suffering. She is struggling because she is not able to complain about anything. She is not able to blame me. She is not able to put responsibility on anyone.'

When you have something or someone to blame, you can always put responsibility on them and feel comfortable. You can feel relaxed. When you can't put responsibility on something else, when you can't put responsibility on somebody, you suffer.

It is easy to escape reality by putting responsibility on someone else. We look for convenient excuses to hide from reality when we can't handle it. Here, Arjuna is doing the same thing by asking Krishna this question in the third chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Arjuna is shifting responsibility.

3.5 Surely, not even for a moment can anyone stand without doing something.

He is always in action, despite himself, as this is his very nature.

3.6 He who restrains the sense organs, but who still thinks of the objects of the senses is deluded and is called a hypocrite.

3.7 He who begins controlling the senses by the mind and performs

selfless work through the sense organs is superior, O Arjuna.

3.8 Do your prescribed work, as doing work is better than being idle.

Even your own body cannot be maintained without work.

Usually people ask, 'Master, you say that life is purposeless. Then I may as well just lie down and relax. Who will give me food? Who will pay my bills?'

Let me tell you, you can never lie down forever. You may lie down for the next four or five days, because you always go to the extreme, like a pendulum. Now the pendulum is in one extreme.

If you remove your hand, it will swing to the other extreme. For a maximum of one week you will be able to lie down. After that, you won't be able to lie down. By your very nature you will start doing some work. I tell you that by your very nature you will start doing work.

When I say life is purposeless, I am not asking you to just lie down and relax in your house. All I am saying is, 'Let your body and mind work without disturbing your inner space. You don't have to sell your inner space to have outer place. You don't have to sell your inner bliss to have outer comforts.'

'By your very nature,' Krishna gives the assurance here, 'By your very nature, your body and mind will work; if you just keep quiet that is enough; they will function beautifully.'

Somebody asked me, 'Master, what should I do to do the right thing? How should I keep my mind in order to do the right thing?'

I told him, 'Just keep quiet. Automatically your body and mind will do the right thing. If you just get out of your system, that is enough, the Divine will get in.'

All we need to do is to just get out for the Divine to enter.

'By nature,' He says, 'Prakriti-jair gunaiho - by their very nature your body and mind know the right thing to do.' The problem however is that you never trust your body and mind. You never follow your body and mind fully. You always trust your ego and it finally dumps you in the dustbin. Yet you never trust your body and mind.

Be very clear, your body and mind by nature will do the work. All you need to do is keep quiet, relax from your ego. Don't think your inner space is needed for the outer work. The person who understands what nithya, eternal is, and what anithya, transient is, the person who understands what is eternal and what is ephemeral and relaxes into existence is always in eternal consciousness. He always resides in nithya ananda – eternal bliss.

Krishna says, 'A karma yogi (one who follows the path of action) is a man who relaxes into nithya ananda and does his work.'

Just relax into your inner space, and automatically you will be guided. You always think, 'If I relax in my mind thinking that life is purposeless, how will I know what is right and what is wrong?'

Please be very clear, when you worry about what is right and what is wrong, you will not make small mistakes; you will commit big blunders. The person who doesn't worry, who never bothers, may make small mistakes. But the person who continuously worries will never make small mistakes; he will commit big blunders. And I tell you, to take this jump of not worrying needs courage. Even if you make one or two mistakes, what is wrong?

Taking the risk and jumping, and living without worrying is what I call courage, courage to enter into spiritual life. When you take the jump, you will naturally make one or two small mistakes. Don't worry about them.

Putting up with that mistake is what I call penance. Penance is nothing but accepting the small mistakes which you make when the conscious transition happens in your being.

When you move from ephemeral consciousness to eternal consciousness, when you move from worry to bliss, when you move from falsehood to truth, you will make one or two mistakes.

You will fall and rise just like a small child learning to walk. When children learn to walk, they always fall once or twice. But just because of that, can you say they should never start walking? No! Even if they make one or two small mistakes, they have to stand up and start walking. Those one or two small mistakes of falling and trying to stand up are the penance done to learn how to walk.

In the same way when you start living without the ego, initially you may commit one or two mistakes. But don't worry about that. That is penance.

Have courage and just enter into the zone of no-ego. Enter into the zone of eternal consciousness. Simply start living and realize the purposelessness of Existence.

Decide, 'Today onwards I will live without worrying. Life is too short to be spent worrying.'

Don't bother, never worry about the goals - just drop the goals. The moment you understand the beauty of purposelessness, all the wounds, which you have created in your inner space will be healed. You will fall into the comfort of eternal bliss.

A man who keeps his senses under control, but who is not able to keep his inner space under control is called a pretender, a hypocrite, says Krishna.

Please be very clear, the quality of your life will be judged only based on the quality of your inner space, not based on the quality of your outer space. When you leave your body and enter into your next life, nobody is going to see the account of what type of car you drove, in what type of house you lived, how much bank balance you had. No! These accounts will not come with you.

How you lived, how your inner space was, what was the quality of your inner space when you lived, only that you are going to carry forward with you. That is why the scriptures state, 'You are going to carry only the samskara (engraved memories), the karma (unfulfilled desires) and the vasana (mindset) as the inner space with you - not the outer space.'

A beautiful story from Ramakrishna:

A monk was living in the temple area, doing intense meditation and preaching the glory of the Lord. Opposite to his dwelling lived a prostitute who was busy all day long. She was deeply devoted to the Lord. No matter what her business was, she was immersed in the silent meditation of His glory.

As was the tradition in earlier times, she and others from her group would serve the temple by singing and dancing in front of the main deity.

Everyday this monk would see everyone that entered the prostitute's house, what time they entered, what time they left, how many people entered; he would keep track of everything because he had no other work. What to do, he had no other work! When you don't have any other work you will be interested in the other fellows work; you need to do something.

Continuously, he kept accounts of how much time each person spent there, etc. He was almost like the diary maintainer for that prostitute!

He maintained a complete diary of who came, who left, who visited regularly, who came once in a while or often. The whole day he thought about what was going on in there.

And that lady, the prostitute, she lived in a different way. She thought, 'My life, my natural duty is this. This has been given to me in this life. I don't know any other profession. I have to live only like this. For my food I have to live this life. Oh Lord! But please save me, let my mind and heart always be at Your feet.' She was deeply devoted to Krishna.

Her inner space was filled with the Divine. Her inner space was filled with God's name and Divine love. Life went on. After sometime, suddenly, both of them died on the same day. This monk and the prostitute, both of them died on the same day. The story is beautiful!

Both of them reach Yama Dharma's (Lord of Death) court for judgment. First, the prostitute comes in. Yama Dharma sees her list of sins and merits and says, 'All right! Don't worry. You lived throughout your life thinking of the Divine, so go to heaven.' She is sent to heaven.

The monk is next. The moment the monk arrives, Yama Dharma says, 'This is your list of sins and

merits. Throughout your life you thought about wrong things, so go to hell.'

The monk starts shouting, 'How dare you send me to hell!' And you know he is a professional preacher, so he knows how to shout! He starts shouting, 'I will sue you'. He must have visited America many times! 'I will sue you', he shouts.

Yama Dharma says, 'Please relax. Here up in the heaven we don't bother about what you do, we bother about how you live. Through your body you lived a pure life. Look at planet Earth and see how your body is respected.'

There the monk saw his body was respected like that of a celebrity; people were falling at the feet of his body. Big garlands were offered. Big worship was being done to the body. His body was being carried to a big tomb earmarked for holy men and his body was receiving respect.

Yama continued, 'Through your body you lived a pure life; your body is now getting respect. But through the mind, you lived an impure life; now go to hell. Similarly, she lived an impure life through the body. Look at her body.'

Nobody was there even to care. Because she was a prostitute, no husband, no sons, nobody was there even to do the last rites; the body was stinking. The government fellows just came and dragged the body and dumped it somewhere. 'See! Through the body she lived an impure life. Her body is suffering. But through the mind she lived a pure life, divine life. She is therefore going to the divine.'

It is more important how you live in the inner space of your mind. Your inner space is the real achievement.

How your inner space is, is what matters. Please be very clear, again and again Krishna declares:

karmendriyani sanyamya ya aste manasa smaran indriyarthan vimudha atma mithyacharaha sa uchyate

If you can't clear your inner space, even if you control your body, even if you control your senses, you are just a hypocrite. Your life will not be a blissful life; your life will not be a real life. Not only will it not be a spiritual life, it will not even be life at all!

The meaning of living is bliss but there is no purpose. The more you think about purposes, the more will you create worries; the more will you try to squeeze the most from life. But life is much more intelligent than you.

Please be very clear, life is much more intelligent than you. When you try to squeeze the maximum out of life, it just slips away through your fingers.

Life is like a river. If you put your hands in the river and keep them open, it will always be there in your hands. But if you try to catch it, if you try to hold it, you will have only empty hands!

Life is a flowing river. If you just allow it to happen it will continuously flow in you. The moment you try to catch it, the moment you try to possess it, you will have only empty hands. You will not be able to have life itself.

Be very clear, the moment you understand that life is purposeless, the moment you understand the purposelessness of life, you start experiencing the meaning of living, the bliss. The moment you drop the goal, the very path itself will become beautiful; your whole life will become beautiful. Your whole life will become ecstasy. There is nothing to achieve separately; the whole thing is purposeless.

The moment you experience in your inner space that nothing is going to be with you permanently or nothing is permanent, the moment you understand that, a deep healing, a deep cooling breeze enters into your consciousness. Your whole inner space will be healed.

You have so many thousands of wounds in your inner space. Wounds created by your own desires, wounds created by your failures and by others, wounds created by your near and dear ones. All these wounds will be healed with this one single medicine.

This one meditation of understanding that life is purposeless, one meditation of realizing that whatever you achieve is just nothing, and that nothing is going to be with you, is enough.

A small story about Alexander:

Alexander the Great, who committed so many murders, can never be called 'the great'. Please be very clear: never teach your kids that Alexander is great. Then you are inspiring them to commit murders. You are inspiring them to enter into war. Unconsciously, you are putting all these ideas in front of them! Never do that. Alexander the so-called 'Great'! Of course, he did one good thing.

Unfortunately or fortunately, he met an enlightened Master in Bharat. You can say unfortunately only, because this guy didn't know how to respect him. Somehow, he got the idea from his teacher in Greece, 'Bring one enlightened Master and the Vedas from Bharat, and I will change the whole society'.

So this guy decided he would take at least one enlightened person from Bharat. Somehow he got the chance to meet an enlightened person. He invited him, 'Please come to our country'.

The Master just laughed and said, 'No, no! I don't want to come anywhere; I want to be here only.'

Alexander said, 'No, no, no! Please come. I will give you a big palace. Here you are living like a beggar without even clothes, without even having enough food. Please come with me. I will give you a big palace and all the comforts.'

The Master just laughed, 'No. I am quite happy here, I don't want to come.'

You know what is the next step a king will take. First, by attacking the Master's greed he tried; because it did not work, he wanted to try through his fear now. He just took his sword out and said, 'If you are not ready to come, you will be killed.'

Just in front of the naked sword the Master laughed. Please be very clear, laughing now is very easy but laughing in front of a naked sword is very difficult, especially when the person who is holding the sword is a king, because if he kills there is nobody to question. There is nobody to question him.

But in front of the naked sword, he laughed and said, 'Fool! You are a great liar.' He straightaway looked into the eyes of Alexander and said, 'Fool! You are a great liar.'

For the first time Alexander was shaken. For the first time he was afraid! He asked, 'Are you not afraid?'

The Master said, 'You can never kill me. You may destroy this body, but you cannot kill me.'

That is the courage or the confidence of his experience: the courage that is expressed by the spiritual experience that we study in the Gita:

'Nainam chindanti shastrani nainam dahati pavakaha na chainam kledayanti apo na shoshayati marutaha (2.23)'

It means: Atman or the soul cannot be killed; Atman cannot be destroyed; it cannot be burned.

This has become an experience for him. That is why he has courage and confidence. He just laughed.

Slowly, Alexander started thinking, 'If he can laugh in front of my naked sword, how courageous must he be!' For the first time he was shaken because he had never seen anybody who could laugh in front of a naked sword, who could laugh in the face of death. Even he was afraid.

Please be very clear, all the so-called great warriors are deep cowards. They kill others before they are killed, that's all. Continuously, they are afraid of death. That is why they kill others.

Be very clear, warriors are the worst cowards! Just to hide their cowardice or to escape from the fear of death they start killing others. Alexander was totally shaken. He was shocked to see the courage of this Master.

He then asked him, 'Please tell me something. How are you so courageous, so bold?'

The Master asked: 'Why did you come to Bharat?'

Alexander replied, 'To conquer Bharat.'

The Master continued, 'After that what are you going to do?'

Alexander replied confidently, 'I will conquer the next country.'

The Master again asked, 'After that what are you going to do?'

Alexander continued, 'I will conquer the next country.'

The Master persisted, 'And after that?'

Alexander replied as if the answer was obvious, 'I will conquer the whole world.'

The Master questioned further, 'After that?'

Alexander replied, 'I will relax and enjoy.'

The Master said, 'Fool! That is what I am doing now!'

The Master said, 'Don't you see that that is what I am doing now? The same thing I am doing now. Why do you need to go around and conquer the whole world to relax and enjoy? That is what I am doing now straightaway in front of your eyes!'

Only a man who has understood the purposelessness of life can relax and enjoy. The Master gave a glimpse of the Truth to Alexander.

That is why Alexander said to his ministers, 'After my death, when you carry my dead body, please keep my hands out. Please keep my hands out in an open position. Let people know that even the great Alexander did not carry anything with him'.

Even Alexander did not carry anything with him.

This is a beautiful story.

You need to understand three things. The first thing is the courage and confidence radiated by an enlightened person.

The next thing is the purposelessness of our running. For what was Alexander running? To relax and enjoy! This Master was already doing the same thing.

The third thing is that we are not going to carry anything with us from this life. We are not going to carry anything. Please be very clear, even if the whole world worships you as a king, you cannot carry that with you! You have to go empty handed only.

Mad people also claim they are kings, while people who are sitting on the throne also claim they are kings. Why is it that the former are put in an asylum and the latter are respected?

If the guy is cunning enough to convince others to believe what he says, he is respected and made to sit on the throne. People who are innocent, people who are not so cunning, people who are not able to frighten others to believe what he says, are put in the asylum, that's all.

Otherwise, there is no difference between a person who is sitting in the asylum and claiming he is a king and a person who is sitting on the throne and claiming he is a king. The person who is sitting on a throne and claiming he is a king is cunning, or somehow he is able to torture people, or threaten people, or frighten people to believe in what he says. The person who is sitting in the asylum doesn't have that much cunningness.

In Existence, there is no mad person, and there is no king. Both are one and the same. The person who has enough courage or enough of capacity to frighten others, who can make others believe what he says is the truth, he sits on the throne. The one who doesn't have that much cunningness sits in the asylum.

A small story:

One guy in Bharat suddenly started thinking and claiming he was Jawaharlal Nehru. At that time, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister of Bharat.

If he had only started claiming, that would have been okay. He started dressing like him, which was also okay. Then he started writing letters to all officials and started signing them like Jawaharlal Nehru. Naturally, he was taken to an asylum and for six months he was treated.

After all the treatment, he started behaving almost normally. The doctor said, 'I think you can be discharged now.' The day he was about to be released, fortunately or unfortunately, Jawaharlal Nehru himself visited the asylum. He himself came to the asylum.

They brought this patient to Nehru and introduced him. 'Sir, he is the person who started claiming he was Jawaharlal Nehru.' After the formal introduction, this patient asked Nehru, 'Who are you?' Nehru said, 'I am Jawaharlal Nehru.'

The patient said, 'Please be here for six months. They will make you alright!'

Understand that there is no difference between these two. Somehow one is able to convince others that what he says is the truth. The other one is not able to convince, that's all! There is no other big difference.

In Existence, there are no boundaries. In Existence there is no post. The person who knows how to convince others in a cunning way becomes a king. Even if you become a king, that doesn't fulfill anything. That doesn't give you anything.

Never think that having the outer space or having comforts in the outer world will give you inner fulfillment. Never! All developed countries are filled with depression.

All developed countries are filled with depression! They have the best roads, the best dams, the best bridges, the best infrastructure, but people are depressed. People are depressed! All developed countries are drowning in depression. Never think that outer space will give you inner space.

If you want inner space, if you want to achieve the inner space, you need to work for the inner space. You need to understand the dynamics of the inner space. You need to understand the technology of the inner space.

Here, Krishna is giving you the technology of the inner space. This is how we work, or how our mind moves. This is your being. Material life is a horizontal line and spiritual life is a vertical line. Continuously, we fight or we try to choose something. You continuously bother about whether to choose the horizontal line or the vertical line; whether to go in this (horizontal) path, or in that (vertical) path.

You are always stuck somewhere on the horizontal line or somewhere on the vertical line. You try to move but

Material life	Spiritual life

you are always caught in the dilemma of whether to go this way or that way.

Mind is dilemma. Mind is nothing but dilemma. Whatever thought you choose, whether in the material life or in the spiritual life, you will always feel you are missing the other part. You will continuously feel you are missing something.

One important thing is that as long as you think you are the mind, as long as you live with the mind, you will have this problem of material life or spiritual life. But if you can just draw into the being, you can just forget about the goal. You locate a purpose somewhere and you are continuously running towards it, running towards the purpose.

One more thing: just like you have goals in material life, people have goals in spiritual life also. There are so many people who say, 'I should meditate for seven hours. I should become enlightened. I should become that, I should do this, I should be that.'

Please be very clear, goals in material life and goals in spiritual life both make you mad. If you want to become mad, continuously think of some goal. It is the direct way to go mad. Nothing else needs to be done. A simple technique to become mad is to remember some goals!

The more you are bothered about the goal, the less you will be able to live the path. For example, if a teacher is continuously bothered about his salary, he will never be able to see the faces of his students. He will see only the face that is printed on the dollar bill. In the same way, the man who is caught in the goal will never be able to live life.

The man who continuously bothers about or thinks about the goal will never be able to enjoy the simple things around him. He can't smile at a flower. He can't stop to see nature. He can't enjoy anything. He will be continuously running, running, running behind the printed-paper, the dollar bill, which has no value.

Money is nothing but a utility. We run behind the utility. We run behind these things for a reason and eventually we achieve things, but we never achieve what for we wanted to achieve all these things in the first place.

The man who runs behind the goals, the material goals, will always feel he is missing the spiritual goal.

One more basic secret: understand that all rich communities will always follow spiritual Masters. All rich communities, invariably, will always follow spiritual Masters, because inside them there is a deep guilt that they are missing spirituality.

All rich communities will always go to and will always have strong spiritual Masters. You can see this in every society. If the community is rich, they will have strong gurus, because of the deep guilt that they are missing spirituality.

The person who chooses the spiritual path will always be running behind the rich men. The person who chooses material path will always be running behind the spiritual man. Both fulfill each other. The spiritual guy wants to fulfill the material person and the material person wants to fulfill the spiritual guy.

Please be very clear, that is why the so-called religious men or the so-called rich men are always trying to be together. You can always see that these two will be together because the rich guy needs the religious man and the religious guy needs the rich man. Both feel that they miss the other.

The guy who travels on the horizontal line feels he is missing the spiritual life and the guy who travels on the vertical line feels he is missing the material life. Both are trying to fulfill each other cerebrally.

The materialist fulfills the spiritualist's ideal and the spiritualist fulfills the materialist's ideal. The person who chooses the spiritual life feels if rich men are around him, what he is missing will be fulfilled. In the same way, the person who chose the worldly life feels that if he goes to a spiritual man or a religious man, he will be fulfilled. Both are helping each other.

The man who realizes purposelessness of these goals, the purposelessness of the running, just falls back into his being. If you realize that whatever you keep as the purpose or goal in your life is purposeless and is useless, the very moment you realize this and the moment the glamour is gone, that moment the need for perspiration is gone; you stop running.

Mind you, it is not inspiration; it is just perspiration that you give up. The moment purpose is gone, the moment respect for the purpose is gone in your life, you will simply fall into your being.

One important thing: the moment you fall into your being, you explode! Not only do you start flowing in the direction of horizontal and vertical lines, but you also explode in 360 degrees in all dimensions. Whatever you can imagine and whatever you can't imagine will start happening, and you will start exploding in all the directions. Only then you become a multi-dimensional being.

A man who has fallen into his being, one who has dropped goals, who understands the purposelessness of Existence, who has realized, who has tasted the beauty of purposelessness, falls into his being, into his ātman, and explodes in 360 degrees, in all dimensions. He simply radiates in all directions!

He starts experiencing the ultimate bliss of spiritual life and the ultimate happiness of material life and something more! Only he enters into eternal bliss or Krishna Consciousness.

As long as you are caught with material goals or spiritual goals, you travel only in that line, because you think you are body or mind.

The more you are caught with the purpose, the more you will think you are body or mind. The moment you realize the purposelessness of it all, you will straightaway fall into the depths of your being.

You experience your ātman; you relax and your inner wounds are healed. The first inner wound is thinking of your Self as body and mind. That is the Original Sin.

Please be very clear, the Original Sin is thinking of your Self as body and mind. Don't think Adam eating the apple is the Original Sin. No! Why should we suffer for Adam's sin? Surely, we don't have to suffer for his sin. The Original Sin is not Adam eating the apple; it is you thinking of your Self as body or mind.

When you have purposes, when you think of the purpose of life, you think you are a body or a mind, that you are matter. When you realize purposelessness, you just drop into the energy of your being. The moment you drop into your being, you explode; your inner wounds are healed. Understand this one thing. If you can understand this one thing and live in this moment, you can become enlightened.

Actually, for any single individual to become enlightened you don't need the whole Gita. This single verse is enough. This single Gita verse is enough to make any individual enlightened.

Then why am I speaking on all the verses? It is only because there are so many different kinds of individuals. This is a key for different individuals, which is the reason why I am explaining all the verses.

If you can fall into yourself, just look into yourself and understand this one verse for yourself, not for going and explaining to your wife, not for going and explaining to your mother-in-law, not for going and explaining to your friend, not for going and explaining to somebody else, but for your own self.

Please be very clear, whenever I speak, understand that I am speaking to you. Don't prepare notes in your mind to go and repeat it to somebody else. When you prepare notes you think, 'I should go and tell this to my friend, I should go and tell this to my husband.'

When you prepare mental notes to repeat it to somebody, you are sure to miss experiencing it.

Just allow this one idea to work on you: the truth of the purposelessness of life. You can just close your eyes and think, contemplate for two or three minutes. 'Really what is the purpose of my life? Why am I doing what I am doing? Where am I going? What is happening?'

If your inner eye just opens, if your inner space understands the beauty of purposelessness, that is enough. You will fall into your being. When you fall into your being, you explode in 360 degrees, in all dimensions.

You experience a totally different kind of material life and a totally different kind of spiritual life. As of now, you can neither experience material life nor experience spiritual life because when you are here, you are looking there and when you are there, you are looking here. You never experience anything in a solid way.

Your mind is not where your body is. You are not living inside your boundary. The other side of the bank always looks greener. Something else is always calling you. Only when you experience the beauty of purposelessness will you be able to understand what Krishna says throughout Karma Yoga.

Please take a few minutes, close your eyes and look into yourself. Sincerely ask yourself whether you are doing things in totality. Let this understanding work on you. Let this idea sink into your being. Honestly ask why you are doing what you are doing, where you are going, and what you think of as your purpose. Take a few minutes and look.

Whatever you think of as your purpose, even if you achieve it, it is not going to be with you. It is not going to stay with you! The beauty of the whole of Existence is purposelessness!

Let this one idea sink into your being. Let this go deep into your inner space. Let it do this alchemy on you.

Relax! Understand this one thing. Just understanding this one single idea can transform your whole way of thinking. It can transform your whole way of working and can transform your whole way of living. When you understand there is no purpose in totality, you will start enjoying every single moment; you will start living intensely in every single inch of your body. Every moment will become meaningful.

When you think that, in life as a whole there is a purpose, every single moment will lose its meaning. If you think one month of your working time is worth a hundred thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars, you will judge the value of that one month only as being only fifty thousand dollars.

Please be very clear, your life is not just worth fifty thousand dollars. For example, you think one month of your life is worth fifty thousand dollars. If you calculate the value of your whole life, it may come to some 10 million, 20 million or even 100 million dollars.

Suddenly, if someone says, 'I will give you 100 million dollars, give me your life,' will you be able to give him your life? Logically, this is the way you are calculating and working. We are ready to sell our mind, ready to sell our moments, ready to sell our inner space, calculating the value of our lives. Logically you fix the rate for your life. Once you fix the rate, only the rate is in your mind. You forget the work itself, or living itself, which is beautiful. But you miss all that.

If you think the whole has got a purpose, then the part loses its meaning. Understand, as a whole, the whole has no purpose. The moment you realize that the whole has no purpose, the part will become meaningful. Your very living, every day itself, will become very beautiful. Everyday your life, your living, your sitting, your walking, your standing, everything will become a joyful experience.

That is why they say sat chit ānanda, which means the 'bliss of the very existence'. Your very existence is blissful. You don't have to think that in the end you will have bliss. No! Your very existence is blissful.

The moment you drop the goal, your path becomes blissful. The moment you realize the beauty of purposelessness, your very existence becomes meaningful. The meaning of existence is bliss, eternal bliss, nithya ānanda. But you need to take steps towards that bliss.

By nature, man has to work. What I mean is, by their very nature, senses have to be engaged in some action. Even if you try and control and do nothing externally, the very act of restraint is an action in itself.

The choice is really about how to work. Here, Krishna gives the answer to that. He says that we should perform work with devotion and without attachment to the results. Perform work without unnecessarily being bothered about whether or not it will fetch the results that you expect. If when we work, our thoughts are on the future, then we are not in the present moment. Am I right? Then how can we be performing to our fullest potential? How can I say that I am doing my work with full devotion if my mind is not totally merged with the task at hand? It's not possible. And then how can I get the results I want if I'm not working to full potential?

When do you get worried or afraid? It is when you have an expected result, an unwritten expectation, and an unconscious desire to achieve something as the result of an action. Krishna says, 'Drop the very desire, and drop the very expectation.'

We wonder, 'how can we function if we drop expectations?' Be very clear, I am not saying you should not plan and do something without thinking. I am saying, 'Plan, but plan chronologically; not psychologically.'

You see, there are two things: chronological planning and psychological planning.

Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide you will get up at this time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach the office at a particular time, and finish the list of tasks you planned at the office by a certain time, and so on. This is a practical way to organize your work in such a way that it can give the best results. This is fine.

But, what do we do? We don't stop at this. We review the plan in our head over and over, thinking in different ways whether we will be able to manage it. We keep supposing, 'What if this happens? What if that happens?'

In the name of contingency planning, we just worry. A contingency plan should help to come up with alternative solutions. Then it won't sap your energy. But you are thinking how to handle something if the plan does not go as expected. If you apply your awareness to the problem in an objective way, the solution will simply stand out.

But we complicate the whole process. We get worked up about contingency situation and introduce a complex negativity in the whole thinking process. We start hoping unconsciously that such a situation does not arise. We start worrying about what the possible unknowns are that have not been accounted for in the plan and what not!

You keep analyzing your plan and get into a dull state because all your energy goes into analyzing the plan again and again.

Psychological planning boosts your ego. It makes you feel great and worthy. It helps you to stay serious. It makes you feel that you are handling things of great magnitude. It makes you feel that it is wholly in your hands to worry about it and make it happen. This is psychological planning.

Krishna says, 'Devotional work, without attachment and controlling the senses is superior to one who merely pretends to be in control of his senses and acts in renunciation.'

There are intellectual types, vedantis and advaita philosophers, well versed in all scriptures, who look down upon devotional bhakti marg practitioners. Intellectuals believe that their dry understanding of non-duality of the Self and the Divine is superior to those who fall at the feet of the Divine. Krishna firmly says, 'No.'

Krishna says that what makes the difference is your lack of expectations, the sense of purposelessness that defines your state, and not the status of renunciation. The state of renunciation is not a state of doing nothing.

You can never sit without doing anything. Even if you sit still in one place, you are sitting, you are breathing, is it not? The internal functions in your body are happening. Maintaining this very body requires that work be done.

The breath that you take in carries prana, the life energy that sustains your life. Constantly, air is going in, leaving prana inside and coming out. From the cosmos, we are taking prana through air. This is also an action being done to sustain the body. So, you cannot say you are not doing anything.

You may think that it is better not to do any work rather than analyze what work you should do, how to do it, whether it will suit you and all that. You can take this as an excuse for laziness, for your tamas. When Krishna says, 'I am not the doer, it is just the senses doing the actions according to their nature,' you say, 'Why should I even bother to do anything? '

Be very clear, by your very nature, you will act. Your body and mind, the gross body and the subtle mind, are, by nature, forced to do something.

Just try telling your mind not to do any work, not to think about anything. Try to sit with a completely blank mind, no mental activity, not thinking about anything. Just relax and try this simple exercise. You will initially try not to think about anything. You will try to be aware if any thought comes to your mind. But, after a few moments, you will find yourself having some thought, thinking about something from the past or the future. Some thought would have crept into your mind - some random thought about something.

By nature, your mind will think about something or the other. If you try to force silence into your mind, you will be forcing a dead silence, the silence of suppression. How long can you sustain that? The moment you drop your guard, mind will express its nature and start wandering.

So, neither expression nor suppression is the solution. It is better to be aware of the nature of the senses and the mind, and be engaged in work with a sense of devotion. Be aware when you are in action, it is the senses acting. Then you will not get attached to the action or its result. Then you are free; you are liberated from the bondage of action. Action binds you only when you associate yourself as the doer and have expectations about things being a certain way.

Q: Master, is it possible that meditation takes us into inaction? Even though my intention is to energize myself through meditation, I find I lose interest in things after meditation. Why?

This is an interesting and real issue.

Normally, you are in a state of action, which is the state of rajas. When you are in rajas, also described as aggression or passion, you are externally oriented. Your thoughts are focused on action of some sort or another, usually with some goal in mind. This is the state of most human beings, whether in business, academics or just looking after the household. You plan your activities and you plan to fulfill them accordingly.

When you go into meditation and practice seriously, and this happens especially when you are in an ashram kind of environment, you realize the futility of these goal-based actions. All these, all the triggers that activate you, seem to be negativities of some sort. You tend to drop these negativities.

When you drop these negativities and do not want to do anything with them, the state that you move into is tamas, or lazy inaction. Suddenly you find that you are disinterested in everything. You may just want to sleep, that is all. It is not quite depression, but a disinclination to act, because all actions seem negative.

This may last a while, a few days, but not for long. Let it happen. Let yourself go through this process. Let all the negativities work themselves out of you.

Then gradually you will move back into action with awareness, satva. You will act, since you cannot but act, as Krishna says, but now you act without a purpose. The results of your action are no longer of relevance to you. Success and failure no longer bother you.

So do not worry if you slip into what you think is laziness while practicing meditation. It is likely to happen. It is a normal process. Just continue and you will move into purposeless action.

People think that moving from rajas, aggression to satva, calmness is the natural evolution. It does not work that way. When you move out of your normal active and aggressive behavior you first fall into tamas, inactivity. This is the movement of the mind when it moves out of aggression; it moves into inaction. When this shift is caused by meditation, the inaction does not last long. The mind soon moves into a relaxed, calm state.

I have talked about this elsewhere in detail. The mind is constantly looking out through the senses. Its focus is external. It settles on the periphery. However, deep inside there is a longing for it to move inwards. It is constantly getting pulled towards the center from the periphery. It is constantly getting pulled from the material to the spiritual.

Usually it settles somewhere in the middle. That is why I say that all humans are eccentric. Their senses pull them to the periphery and their being attracts them to the center. The mind settles eccentrically in between.

Meditation aids the movement inwards. As attention shifts from the periphery to the core there is a resistance to what was experienced in the periphery. This leads to temporary inaction and detachment to peripheral experiences.

Once a glimpse of the center, the core is achieved there is no detachment or dislike. There is neither attachment nor great attraction for something or detachment or dislike for something. All experiences are viewed nonjudgmentally and with non-attachment. At the core it is always bliss. It is the state of nithyananda, eternal bliss.

3.9 Work has to be performed selflessly; otherwise, work binds one to this world.

O son of Kunti, perform your work for Me and you will do it perfectly, liberated and without attachment.

3.10 Brahma, the lord of creation, before creating human kind as selfless sacrifice said, 'By this selfless service, be more and more prosperous and let it bestow all desired gifts.'

3.11 The celestial beings, being pleased by this sacrifice, will also nourish you; with this mutual nourishing of one another, you will achieve supreme prosperity.

3.12 Satisfied with the selfless service, the celestial beings certainly award you the desired necessities of life. He who enjoys the things given by them without offering to the celestial beings is certainly a thief.

3.13 Those who eat food after selfless service are free of all sins. Those who prepare food for sense enjoyment do grievous sin.

There are two techniques by which one can liberate oneself from attachment to work. One is by telling oneself, 'I am not the doer.' By continuously reminding yourself that it is the senses and not you who are doing something, you distance yourself from the action and you are consciously aware that you are not the doer. This is what Krishna explained in the verse before this one.

The other way is by surrendering the fruits of one's work to the Divine, to the ultimate life force that is conducting this universe. This is the technique that Krishna talks about here. He says, 'Perform your work for Him and you will do it perfectly, liberated and without attachment.'

When you do work as a sincere, humble offering to the Divine, the very attitude of this surrender will make you do the job perfectly well and you will be liberated. In your own life you can see this. Those times when you are excessively bothered about result are the times when you think you are the doer of the action. You then get attached to the work and its results.

This is when you start getting stressed and tensed about results. Naturally, when you get tensed, you are not at your optimum. You are not at maximum efficiency because so much of your valuable energy is getting wasted in getting tensed. How will you then be able to get your job properly done?

I always tell people, 'When you are afraid to make small mistakes and are extra careful not to make small mistakes, you only end up making big blunders.' You waste your entire life trying to avoid making mistakes and attempting to be perfect, and your life becomes a blunder.

I am not asking you to make mistakes deliberately. I am only saying that you should have the courage to make mistakes. Only when you make mistakes, can you learn from them. Only then you have seen both sides of the coin. Then, with experience, when you have learnt from the mistake, you will have that perspective also. Otherwise, just at the crucial time, you will make mistakes. You can have this courage only when you are not attached to ownership of tasks and the results.

When you see that Existence is purposeless and you are living in the loving, caring arms of Existence, you will relax and surrender to that very Existence. When you are in this relaxed mood, you can function at your best and you will enjoy every moment of life. Real surrender happens when this understanding becomes your experience.

A beautiful small story:

A person who faced a lot of troubles in life felt that he had had enough of his life. He ran away to the forest and wanted to find an enlightened Master to achieve liberation. He searched day and night but was not able to find anybody.

Then he decided, 'Whoever comes along this road first, whoever I meet on this road first, I shall accept that person as my Master, that's all. I am going to follow his instructions. Oh God, I know you are here. Send me a proper person and guide me. That's all I ask.'

He sat down and was waiting patiently. After two days, in the evening, a thief came running on that road. The man went and just caught hold of his feet, 'Oh Master, please save me. You are my God. You are my Guru. Please give me instructions on how to be enlightened.'

The thief said, 'What is this? Leave me! I am a thief. Palace guards are behind me; I just robbed the palace.'

The man said, 'No! You are my God. You are my Guru. You have to guide me on the path towards enlightenment.'

The thief said, 'Fool! Don't you see I have all these stolen items with me? I have just robbed the palace. Let me go. Otherwise, I will kill you.'

The man said, 'I don't know all that. You are my Guru; teach me.'

Then, the thief thought, 'Alright. Now, what can I do?' He said, 'Ok. You say I am your Guru. Then listen to me. Will you do whatever I say?'

He said, 'Yes, surely I will.'

The thief said, 'Sit'. He sat. The thief said, 'Close your eyes.' He closed his eyes. The thief told him, 'Don't open your eyes until I come back and tell you to open your eyes.' The man sat with all sincerity, closed his eyes and the thief immediately ran away.

The man continued sitting for hours. Then slowly, days passed, then a week passed; a month passed by. The man sat without food or water, absolutely still. Lord Shiva saw this and seeing the depth of his sincerity, the story says, Shiva appeared before him and gave him enlightenment!

This may look like a story. But please understand it has got a beautiful meaning and a truth behind it: The very sincerity is enough. Nothing else is needed.

Surrender has a tremendous power, a tremendous energy. Whether you surrender to an idol or to a person or your Guru, or even a rock is not important. What is important is the surrender itself.

Vivekananda says beautifully: 'When you pray to God, your prayers actually awaken your own inner potential energy and it showers blessings on you.'

Even if you see logically, surrender helps you to simply relax. When you are relaxed, you can work beautifully with intelligence rather than with your preprogrammed intellect.

A small story:

There was once a bank manager who used to take all the cash to his home everyday and bring it back with him the next morning. He had done this for a month and could not do it anymore.

He found himself trembling all the way while driving back home and was not able to sleep at home with all the money in his custody. He finally asked his boss to relieve him of the job since he could not bear the stress any longer.

His boss told him that even if money were to be lost, he would not be blamed and that he could continue with his job. The manager slept peacefully from that day onwards.

What was the difference in him? He was doing the same job, but why were the fear and tension not there any more? It was because the responsibility had been shifted to a higher authority. That's all. This is surrender. Do your duty, leaving the responsibility of the results to Existence.

Part 3: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 3 - Beauty of Purposelessness

Understand, Existence loves you and understands you better than you understand yourself. See the example of Arjuna; Krishna knew Arjuna better than Arjuna knew himself. The very trust, the very connectedness enabled Arjuna to relate with Krishna, who took him to the ultimate consciousness.

Have simple trust in Existence, in the intelligence of the life force. This is the very life force, the energy that is keeping you alive. This is the energy behind the marvelous functioning of your brain, of your digestive system, of your nervous system.

This is the energy that runs our solar system, all the galaxies and the entire universe so smoothly. Imagine, is it possible for so many billions of stars and planets to move in such beautiful order even if you had the most modern traffic control system in place? Such a beautiful order in what appears to be chaos when seen superficially!

At the same time, life itself is so unpredictable; you cannot predict what can happen the very next moment! So many billions of living bodies on planet Earth, so much diversity! Logically, it should be an unmanageable chaos. But there is a beautiful order in that very chaos. And in that order, the spontaneity and chaos of Existence so beautifully fits in!

A very beautiful story from the Mahabharata:

King Yudhishtra performed a great sacrifice after the battle of Kurukshetra was over. He gave very rich presents to the priests and to the poor. They were all impressed by the grandeur of this sacrifice. They praised him saying, 'We have never seen such a great sacrifice in our life time.'

Just then, a small mongoose appeared. Half of his body was golden and the other half was brown. He rolled on the ground where the sacrifice was performed. He then exclaimed with sorrow, 'This is no sacrifice at all. Why do you praise this sacrifice?'

The priests were aghast and angry, 'What! You silly mongoose! Did you not see the sacrifice? Thousands of poor people have become very rich. Millions of people have been sumptuously fed. So many jewels and clothes have been distributed!'

The mongoose replied, 'That may be a big sacrifice for you. But to me the sacrifice of the poor Brahmin was much bigger.'

'What Brahmin, and what sacrifice are you talking about? We never heard of this,' said the priests.

The mongoose continued, 'There was a poor Brahmin in a small village. He lived in a small hut with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. Once, there was a great famine. The whole family starved for days on end.

One day, the poor man brought some food home. When they were ready to eat, they heard a voice at their door. The Brahmin opened the door and found a guest at the doorstep.' In Bharat, we say, athiti devo bhava, the guest is God Himself.

The Brahmin said, 'O Sir! Please come inside. Please have a seat and have some food.' He gave his portion of the food to the guest. The guest said, 'Sir, I am still hungry. I have been starving for the last fifteen days.'

The wife said to her husband, 'Please give him my share.' The guest ate this portion also, but still he was hungry. The son said, 'Father, please give him my share also.' The guest ate this and yet he remained dissatisfied. The wife of the son said, 'O Sir, everybody has performed the greatest self-sacrifice. Please have my portion too.' The guest ate this portion and was fully satisfied. He then blessed the poor Brahmin and his family and departed in great joy.

These four persons died of starvation the same day. A few grains of rice were found on the ground. I rolled myself on those grains. Half of my body became golden. Since then I have been traveling all over the world to find another sacrifice like that.

Nowhere have I found one. Nowhere have I been able to convert the other half of my body into gold. This sacrifice of Yudhishtra has not turned the other half of my body into gold. That is the reason why I say that this is no sacrifice at all.'

The sacrifice that Krishna refers to comes from a true sense of surrender to the universe. When we give to others what we can afford to give, it is no sacrifice. When we give to others by denying ourselves, then it is sacrifice. That is why all charitable work done by people, even with good intentions, does not fit into the essence of what Krishna says here. Of course, it is better to give others rather than foolishly stuff yourself. You will get sick of indigestion! At least for selfish reasons you must give.

But when you give at your own expense, by denying yourself, by starving yourself, you operate at the level of universal energy. You then operate from the principle of vasudeva kutumbaha, 'The world is my family'; you operate out of compassion.

There is no compulsion to give. There is no moral injunction to give. There is no expectation that you will go to heaven if you give, and you will go to hell if you don't.

That's why time and again, I tell people, 'Do not donate anything to my mission in the belief that I shall help you pass through the gates of heaven. First of all, there is no heaven, and second of all, I am not its gatekeeper!'

You will be in heaven when you donate fully in tune with the principles of my mission. You do not have to think about a heaven after you die. You will die in heaven on earth. That will be your mental attitude.

There is a joy, an eternal joy, and a bliss that enters your being when you act out of sacrifice, selflessly. No, the bliss is always there, and now you are free from the filtering ego and mind, and you start experiencing that bliss. The garbage of expectations disappears and bliss is experienced.

This was the principle with which various sacrificial rituals came into existence in the Vedic culture. These were instruments of mass meditation. The energy of the cosmos, akasa, space, entered the fire of homa kunda, the sacrificial fire pit, through air. It then entered the purifying water that was stored near the fire. This water was sprinkled on bodies, idols and the earth to complete the energy cycle. All five energy points, the pancha bhuta, space, air, fire, water and earth were connected through the ritual to benefit humanity.

It was only a metaphoric offering of all that was sacrificed to the fire. During these rituals, great Kings and nobles who performed the rituals gave away to those who lacked material wealth. These rituals helped to maintain material balance.

But, as the mongoose said, even the rajasuya yaga of Yudhishtra, performed to celebrate his victory, lacked the spirit of sacrifice of the poor Brahmin family. So give away what you need, not what you do not need.

3.14 All beings grow from food grains, from rains the food grains become possible, the rains become possible from selfless sacrifice.

3.15 Know that work is born of the Creator and He is born of the Supreme.

The all-pervading Supreme is eternally situated in sacrifice.

3.16 O Partha, he who does not adopt the prescribed, established cycle lives a life full of sins.

Rejoicing in sense gratification, he lives a useless life.

These concepts are beautiful concepts explained metaphorically. Great truths are conveyed in our scriptures in very few words because our Masters did not depend on communication through words. They imparted knowledge by communion with the disciple.

So, this metaphorical explanation in a few verses actually has a deep meaning about life, about how we connect with and depend on and affect the whole universe. Just this concept that Krishna explains in a few verses here is explained in detail in Chandogya Upanishad.

Our relationship with the activity of nature outside is a very deep one. Our actions are like oblations offered in a fire sacrifice. Our activities are not just movements of the limbs. When we perform a yagna, a fire sacrifice, we pour various offerings into the fire. We do so to tap the cosmic energy and to flow in tune with Existence, with nature.

The subtlest, most powerful and all-pervasive cosmic energy is invoked through the slightly less subtle air when we chant the mantra and we connect to the still, less subtle fire energy through the yagna. Energy is then transferred to water, a grosser energy, and then water in the pots is poured over plants, idols and humans as well as the Earth, which is the grossest form of energy.

A physical action is a gross action, something that can be seen on the physical plane. Thoughts, mental actions, are subtler and they cannot be seen on the physical plane.

When we perform sacrifice, we perform certain invocations to the higher energies. So, we attract corresponding effects for our actions. Our actions are like an offering in a sacrifice; when the actions are in tune with the flow of Existence, it is like offering ghee (clarified butter) into the fire. When we do not flow in tune with Existence, it is like offering mud into the fire. You know what kind of smoke will come out when you offer ghee and also when you offer mud. The effect of action is like the kind of smoke that comes from the fire.

The quality of the end result is based on our input, our offerings.

Krishna says that rains become possible from sacrifice. Rain is a grosser form of energy that is activated by the subtler energies, which are influenced by our actions, thoughts and vibrations.

Rain is the cause for growth of food grains. Food is what we need to sustain our bodies and minds, which give rise to further action.

So you see this cycle now, of how the subtle energy manifests itself in the grosser world and how the actions in the grosser world affect the subtler elements.

If we just understand this, we will realize that everything that we do and experience is caused by our own actions. We invite our destiny. As we sow, so shall we reap.

Our body-mind is very much influenced by our thoughts and words.

Bliss attracts fortune. You may wonder, 'Fortune can bring us bliss but how can bliss bring us fortune?'

In Bharat, when any new activity is started, be it a business or construction or something to do with education, the first thing that we do is sit down for a few moments, close our eyes and be in a meditative mood. We try to bring about some kind of an energy play or transformation inside us.

Of course, over the years, this has become a prayer and a ritual. That is a different issue. But the first thing that we try to do is sit down and try to kindle the energy flow in us.

When the energy flow in us becomes fulfilling, it has the property of influencing the outer world incidents. Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, like it or not, want it or not, you are deeply connected to Existence. You are an integral part of Existence, not an independent island as you think.

Every subtle movement or subtle thought in one part of the universe causes a counter-effect at that same moment elsewhere in the universe.

Our thoughts and energy flow have the capacity to create and attract incidents and people of the same nature.

What I have said here is the age-old truths expounded by our rishis in the Upanishad. It is interesting that modern science is coming up with some startling evidence that reveals some of these truths now.

You should know about this research conducted by Masaru Emoto, a Japanese doctor and research scientist who has published his findings in the book, The Hidden Messages of Water. He conducted extensive experiments on water samples taken from all over the world.

He took similar samples of water and exposed the water to different influences. In one sample, he spoke positive words such as 'love' and 'gratitude'. He recited Buddhist chants. Over another, he spoke words such as 'anger' and 'war'. Then he froze the water so that he could photograph its form.

With the samples that had been exposed to positive energy, beautiful clear crystals formed, like diamonds. With the bottles exposed to negative energies, it did not form crystals; it looked like a tumor: dark, cloudy and without any distinct geometrical pattern.

Over three hundred experiments were conducted to prove the effects of our words, their vibrations, and thoughts on water, on matter. Water being the most common molecule in our bodies (98-99%) we can now see the obvious and dramatic direct effect our thoughts have on us! It doesn't stop there! Our thoughts have the capacity to affect the oceans and the seas.

Some of the latest cutting edge researches by Russian scientists throw an entirely new light on how our DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies. They did experiments where they superimposed certain frequencies onto a laser ray and with it influenced the DNA frequency and thus the genetic information itself!

In quantum physics, there is a notion of a wormhole that is essentially like a shortcut in space-time. It is like a tube that can connect two distant locations in the universe by bending space-time. By going from one end to the other through the wormhole, one can travel from one point in the universe to another without going through the usual space-time. One can even access parallel universes if the two ends of the wormhole are in different universes.

Russian scientists showed that wormholes could be built into the DNA, so that information can be transmitted outside of space and time. The DNA attracts these bits of information and passes them on to our consciousness. They give this explanation for the process of hyper-communication or what we call intuition.

Science is beginning to touch what our Vedic seers have declared thousands of years ago about collective consciousness. What we do in any plane, physical or mental, affects our consciousness. And, since we are all a part of the common fabric called Existence, our consciousness is a part of the collective consciousness, which also gets affected by our thoughts and actions.

Weather is strongly influenced by Earth resonance frequencies, and the same frequencies are also produced in our brains. When many people synchronize their thinking, the individual consciousness synchronizes and affects the collective consciousness. So we can actually even influence the weather by our thoughts.

This is what Krishna means when He says rains are caused by sacrifice. It is a metaphorical statement. When a large number of people synchronize and focus their thoughts with no expectations and with full faith in the abundance of the universe, the universe responds. Rain falls, grains grow, and abundance results.

It has actually been studied that when a number of people focus their thoughts on something similar, like during festival times or a football world championship, then certain random number generators in computers start to deliver ordered numbers instead of random ones!

Be very clear, all the so-called natural calamities are nothing but the effects of global negative thoughts.

From a young age, we have been trained in 'mathematical logic', never in 'existential logic'. Mathematical logic is very straightforward and should be applied only to things where it is appropriate. In matters concerning life and relationships, mathematical logic will only cause chaos. With it, we will always look to conclude with a 'good' or 'bad' judgment. There is something beyond and deeper than this - Existential logic. This comes with a mature understanding and flowering from within.

Your thoughts and energy directly affect your body, your cell structure, your decisions, your capacity to fulfill your decisions, the outer world incidents, and even accidents.

Currently, you are always centered in either greed or fear. Every action that you do is out of either desire or fear. It becomes very easy for others to exploit you because of this. You become very vulnerable. You create a mental setup that creates and attracts similar incidents into your life. You also corrupt your energy flow in this way.

If you can change your mental setup from this type to one of bliss, or ananda, then your energy flow will start brimming and your thoughts will be much clearer and more in the present moment.

When you do this, you have every power to control the outer world incidents because you and Existence have a very deep connection at the energy level. This is the thread that you need to catch in order to understand that bliss attracts fortune. When you are blissful, when your mental setup is not one of worry, fear and greed but one that is in the present, always joyful, you will automatically attract all good things to yourself.

When you throw a pebble into a lake, ripples start from that point to the edge of the lake. So also, your thoughts have a permanent effect on the universe. Imagine if the lake were infinite. Ripples with a continuous effect would be created, even though the magnitude of the ripple would be different.

So also, every action has an effect. Using the same principle, I can say that you can actually create the desired effect by just visualizing it. For example, if you meditate, if you visualize you are bliss, the effect of bliss is bound to happen in and around you as an effect. It would seem that the effect has created the cause. But, in life, cause and effect are actually a cycle, each generating and being generated by the other.

This is the endless cycle that Krishna refers to when He says that work originates with the Creator, who in turn originates from the Supreme Existence, and therefore all sacrifices are from the Supreme to the Supreme.

When we are in a mood and mode of surrender, we no longer retain our identity. We are one with the Existence. Whatever we do, we do by Existence and for Existence. There is no separation.

3.17 One who takes pleasure in the Self, who is satisfied in the Self and who is content in his own Self, for him certainly, no work exists.

3.18 Certainly, he never has any purpose for doing his duty or for not doing his duty in this world.

He does not depend on any living being.

3.19 Therefore, one should work always without attachment.

Performing work without attachment, certainly, man achieves the Supreme.

3.20 King Janaka and others attained perfection by selfless service.

3.21 Whatever action is performed by a great person, others follow.

They follow the example set by him.

3.22 O Partha, there is nothing that I must do in the three worlds.

Neither am I in want of anything. Yet, I am always in action

3.23 If I did not engage in work with care, O Partha, certainly, people

would follow My path in all respects.

3.24 If I do not work, then these worlds would be ruined. I would be the cause of creating confusion and destruction.

3.25 As the ignorant do their work with attachment to the results, O Bharata, the wise do so without attachment, for the welfare of people.

Here, Krishna talks about practical aspects of why a leader needs to act in a responsible manner.

There is a difference between the state of a leader and the status of a leader. Most of us want to attain the status of a leader but not the state. When you achieve the status of the leader, it is ego-fulfilling and you feel great. Most kings and politicians are great examples of what this status is. They will just exert the power of their position on others.

Understand how they got that position of power: they were a little more dominating and a little more convincing than rest of the people whom they were trying to dominate, that's all. It is not that they are more intelligent or more capable. They had more strength of whatever conviction they had and they were more energetic in convincing others about their conviction.

The state of the leader is something totally different. It is the state of the leader that affects people, whether it is people under a political leader or people in an organization in the corporate world under a CEO. Problems of all kinds, ranging from stress to discontentment and violence, result because the leader has achieved the status and not the state.

I always tell my disciples, 'Practice what I teach you. Don't preach what I teach. Only by example can you inspire others to follow you.' It is easy to utter words and intellectually talk about what you have understood from my teachings, but that understanding is very shallow.

True, deep understanding happens only by experience. Only when it becomes your own experience, the understanding becomes complete. Then you are unshakeable in your conviction. Otherwise, if the understanding is just based on words, it is based on somebody else's experience and not on your own. There is always the possibility that somebody can come and shake your belief. The roots of conviction, in this case, are not deep and strong enough to withstand all kinds of questions.

I tell my devotees, there are three types of people: the disciples or the followers, the leaders or the guides and the Masters.

Disciple is the one who has not yet experienced the teachings of the Masters but who is interested and has embarked upon the path. He needs some guidance on the path. He does not yet know how to practice what is being taught.

Master is the one who has had and is in the ultimate experience. He is already in the ultimate state. Out of compassion, he shows the path to his state to all those who would like to be in that state. It is not necessary for the Master to practice what he preaches because it is unnecessary.

A small story:

Once, there was a Zen Master who used to advise people not to smoke. But he himself used to smoke everyday.

One day, a disciple asked him, 'Master, how can you tell people that they should not smoke when you yourself are smoking?'

The Master replied beautifully, 'Understand, I am not in the same state, the same plane, as the person whom I am teaching.'

Masters are not in the same plane as the followers or the leaders. They need not follow what they tell you to do to come to their state because they are in a completely different state. They understand the unreality of the physical plane that their body mind system operates in. Whatever they may seem to be doing physically is out of complete awareness.

I always teach people to be aware and completely present when they eat. But, if you have been around me, you know, I will never concentrate on my food when I eat. Just when I eat, I will be reading something or talking to someone.

For you, you have to meditate to be aware of the food you are consuming so that you eat only as much as is needed and not more, as you usually do. But, for me, if I am aware, I will not be able to eat the amount of food my body needs. I have to distract myself and remove the awareness and only then the food will go inside.

So, followers are on one side of the spectrum and Masters are on the other side.

A leader or guide is someone who is in between the Master and the follower. He has not yet reached the ultimate state of the Master but he has had glimpses of that state. He is not as inexperienced as the follower. He is the bridge to lead the follower to the Master. I always tell my acharyas (ordained teachers) that it is their responsibility to practice what they preach because they are the bridges leading the people they teach to come to me.

One more thing: it is not that you have to practice so that others get inspired. Understand that the very practice will give deep understanding to you. That is the first effect, the actual result. Being an inspiration to others will be just a by-product. It will result automatically from the confidence that you radiate in your body language and words when you preach to people out of the strength of your own conviction.

In these verses, Krishna beautifully explains what walking the talk means through His own example. He says there is nothing in the three worlds, the nether world, earth or heaven, for Him to achieve. There is no duty that binds Him. Even though He has nothing to gain, lose or even to do, He is constantly engaged in action. Why?

Because people look up to Him as God, they would obviously follow the path He sets. They would simply follow what He does. He is now responsible for leading them on the correct path.

So, even though He Himself has no reason to engage in work, He does so for the sake of the people who will follow Him. If He did not engage in action, people would follow His example and fall into inaction or tamas.

Every year, I take people to the Himalaya Mountains. The Himalaya Mountains are an energy field; they are living energy. It is a lifetime experience to be in the lap of nature, to be in the amazing energy field there. It can be a tremendous inspiration, a powerful transformation just seeing and living life in the Himalaya for fifteen days.

In the Himalaya, we do various puja and rituals at various places, at the char dham (the four sacred pilgrimage centers). Of what use are the rituals to me? But I do them for you so that you understand their significance and you get inspired to do them and benefit from them.

The Himalaya is really my home. I feel so ecstatic just being in the Himalaya. After enlightenment, I came from

the Himalaya to be amidst the people. I could have just stayed there happily and blissfully. But I have come here so that I can guide seekers and show them the path.

Seeing me work constantly, being intensely involved in work whether it is administration or giving discourses or planning for upcoming activities or healing people or teaching, whatever the action may be, I inspire people by my example to be engaged in work constantly, blissfully enjoying every moment.

I don't have to give words. You can see me and learn from my body language much more than from my words. I give you words only to silence your mind so that you can absorb my energy. Otherwise, if I don't talk, you will be chattering inside yourself and will miss my message.

As Krishna says, I need to be careful in what I do for the sake of those who follow.

The problem is that what I do is my experience. It is an expression of my experience. Unless you experience it yourself, it cannot become your truth. So the same action will have a completely different meaning and effect when done by a disciple than when done by a Master.

For example, look at a simple teaching by Buddha, 'Watch your breath.' This very simple vipassana meditation technique has led thousands of people to enlightenment.

But look at a seemingly powerful discovery of the principle behind the atom bomb: the Theory of Relativity. A great truth but when it came into the hands of an ignorant person who did not understand the implications of it, it resulted in so many countries piling up so many atomic weapons that the earth can now be destroyed multiple times over!

It is the energy behind the action, the energy of the being that decides the quality and hence, the effect of the action. It is not the external appearance of the action that decides the quality.

You must have seen that there are some people who can get away with anything, even something that would normally appear as a disrespectful action. But somehow, the action does not hurt people. It is because there was no negative attitude or vengeance behind the act.

Children get away with so many things like even hitting you, and you actually enjoy it rather than feel hurt or insulted. Can you imagine feeling like this if an adult hits you? The innocence of the child and the honest simplicity of the child's act is what make even the act of hitting beautiful. The energy of the child, its intelligence, is completely behind the action. This is unlike an adult whose intellect may be behind the act. Mind is behind the act but the intelligence is not there because there is a certain unconscious vengeance in the act.

Masters act out of pure compassion in whatever they do. That is why so many times even when I scold people with seeming harshness, the person does not carry vengeance towards me. Scolding is also for your good, for your ego to be removed. It will seem painful because the ego, which you have been thinking is you, is being pulled out. But your being understands it is for your good that what is not you is being removed. There is pure compassion even in scolding. That is why in the very next moment after scolding, I can be completely different, showering love. There was no vengeance to hold onto in that act of scolding. It was just complete truth at that moment, pure compassionate energy.

But what happens when you get angry with someone and scold him, say your child? The anger takes you over. Instead of you controlling the anger energy, it controls you and you misuse it because you are not conscious during the action.

You are driven by your past perceptions, by your memories of similar incidents in the past when your child did not behave as you expected and you react with more anger than his act deserves. Anger is also energy but you need to handle it with respect. Just like you respect money and hence you never pay someone more than needed, similarly, when you realize the power of the anger energy, you respect it and do not pay the other person more anger than needed.

If you give just the right anger energy, it can be transformational but your negative attitude behind the action creates undesired result and the person carries a certain vengeance towards you which even he may not be conscious of.

Be very clear, this person's vengeance is the result of your very own vengeance, which you did not realize was there in your own action because you were not completely aware when you were scolding.

I always tell people, 'When I am compassionate, I cheat you. When I scold you, I teach you. Either way, you grow.' When I scold you, you are jolted into the present moment. Suddenly, in a flash, you get the awareness that you have been missing. The energy behind my words is purely for your transformation. There is only pure compassion. There is no vengeance for anyone or any vested interest for myself.

3.26 Let not the wise disturb the minds of the ignorant who are attached to the results of work.

They should encourage them to act without attachment.

3.27 People, confused by ego, think they are the doers of all kinds of work while it is being done by the energy of nature.

3.28 One who knows the Truth, O

mighty-armed one, knows the differences between the attributes of nature and work.

Knowing well about the attributes and sense gratification, he never becomes attached.

3.29 Fooled by the attributes of nature, those people with less wisdom or who are lazy become engaged in actions driven by these attributes.

But, the wise should not unsettle them.

An ignorant man says to himself, 'I shall do this action and thereby enjoy its result.' A wise man should not unsettle this belief. Instead, he himself should set an example by performing his duties diligently but without attachment. If the wise man condemns the actions performed with attachment, the ignorant person may simply decide to neglect his duties.

It is like this. Can you explain to a child that his toys are not precious? No! The child will never be able to understand that. It has to grow and automatically its attachment to toys will drop when maturity happens. Similarly, the ignorant person can first do the action with attachment. But upon seeing the wise person being unaffected by his actions and being always blissful, naturally, the ignorant one will get curious and want to know the secret behind happiness. The example of the wise man will automatically pull him towards work with detachment.

Take the example of relating with God. Most of us pray to God to get something. All our prayers to God are asking for this, asking for that, asking God to fulfill some desires or to protect us from something. It is okay to start a relationship with God like this. It is perfectly all right. When you get what you asked for, your trust grows and then you start feeling gratitude to Him. This is important.

In the beginning, it is very difficult to express gratitude and feel grateful to God. Gratitude comes naturally when you feel grateful for all that has been given to you. So if you ask a person who has not eaten food for three days to meditate, will he be able to? No! His needs are different. You will be foolish, not wise, if you try telling this person to meditate. What he needs now is some means to get food and then he can be told about meditation.

Many people ask me, 'God is everywhere. Then, why do we have to pray? Why do we have to go to temples? Why do we have to do rituals?' To reach the state of understanding that 'God is everywhere', if you start by just saying this and not doing anything, then you will only be fooling yourself.

Loving the world is easy; loving your wife is difficult! It is easy to say you love the whole world because you don't have to do anything to prove it. But to love your wife, you have to do something tangible to prove it. So if you just want to sit and tell yourself that you have reached the ultimate truth, you are actually trying to escape from the effort needed to reach it, from the steps needed to realize it.

When a person is doing work and expecting certain results, the wise person should not go and disturb him even though he knows that work should not be done with attachment. At least the person is working and not sitting idle! He is in rajas (aggressive activity), which is better than tamas (laziness). Of course, he needs to be guided from rajas to satva, a state of calmness born out of detached action, action without expectations. That is the job of a Master.

We are all governed by our basic nature, attributes, or guna, as they are termed in Sanskrit. These attributes are defined by the kind of life we have led, in this and past lives. The mental set-up or the essence of the mind, called vasana, carries over from birth to birth and determines what we are and what we do in this birth. We create this mindset by what we did in our past births. So in a sense, we do determine what happens to us in our future births. This mindset determines our nature, our attributes.

The desires born out of vasana carry their own energy for fulfillment. If you are conscious of your vasana, also called the prarabda karma, you will be able to fulfill them. Once fulfilled, these vasana and the karma get dissolved. One who reaches this state of awareness of fulfilled desires also realizes that he is not the doer.

The potter's wheel goes on turning around even after the potter has ceased to turn it and when the pot is finished. In the same way, the electric fan goes on revolving for some minutes after we switch off the electricity. The vasana or desires with which you took this body and mind will make it go through whatever activities it was made for. But the wise person goes through all these activities without the notion that he is the doer of them.

Actually, all your desires to lead life in a particular way are the ones that lead you to that mental setup. You are the one who chooses to live life in a particular way and once you decide this, your body supports this decision of your mind and acts accordingly. You create a mental-setup to aid you in living life the way you desire. This mental setup that you create to live life in a particular way is your vasana, or the seed of karma.

You are the one who chooses, but any choice comes with effects and side effects. Sometimes when you see the side effects, you feel that you don't want this way of life. It is too costly; it is creating more unwanted effects than what you were expecting. Then you say what you are getting is due to fate or destiny. Actually, you are the one who chose it in the first place.

A small story:

Once a man went to a restaurant and ordered some different items: hamburgers, steaks, pasta, drinks, ice cream, and so on. He had a hearty meal and relaxed. The waiter brought the bill.

The man took a look at the long bill and exclaimed, 'I wanted only the food. I did not order this bill!'

When you eat, you don't think about the bill but the bill comes as a result of all that you ate in the restaurant. You don't have to order the bill separately. Similarly, in life, all that you undergo are the effects of your own actions. You are not aware of what those effects can be and therefore you do the actions unconsciously.

To understand, 'I am not the doer,' this concept of 'I' and 'mine' needs to be understood. Shiva says that the concept of 'I' itself comes from the concept of 'mine'. We always think it is the other way around. We think, when the sense of 'I' happens, the sense of 'mine' happens. But, if you look deeply, our idea of what we think of as 'ours' is what defines what we think of ourselves. Just imagine, if your possessions, your status, your wealth, your relations all are taken away, what will you think of as you? How will you define yourself? Your idea of 'I' is also relative, is it not?

There is one of the new theories in quantum physics called 'string theory' where the universe is made up fundamentally of strings of extremely small scale, which vibrate at particular frequencies. So an object is not a particle but it is a vibrating object; energy vibrating in different modes. The different modes appear as different particles.

Many people feel that they are just touching a soft pillow when they hug THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. Sometimes they feel nothing and they are shocked. Basically, we are just energy. In this plane, in these dimensions of space-time, you see me the way you are seeing me in this form. You see me in this six feet form as THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, but in truth, this THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM does not exist. It is the formless energy of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. There is no 'me'.

When you get attached to anything, when you internalize external incidents, you start creating suffering for yourself. When you understand that it is the mind and the senses doing what is in their nature, you become detached from your mind-body and do things with the clear understanding that what is happening is due to the mind, body and senses doing their job.

When you don't understand this, you get caught in what you are doing, you get emotionally attached to incidents and people, and you start living without awareness because your energy is being wasted in getting stressed out and getting emotionally upset over things.

3.33 Even the wise person tries to act according to the modes of his own nature, for all living beings go through their nature. What can restraint of senses do?

3.34 Attachment and repulsion of the senses for sense objects should be put under control.

One should never come under their control as they certainly are the stumbling blocks on the path of selfrealization.

3.35 It is better to do one's own duty, even if it is in a faulty manner, than to do someone else's duty perfectly.

Death in the course of performing one's own duty is better than doing another's duty, as this can be dangerous.

3.36 Arjuna said, 'O descendant of Vrshni, then, by what is man forced to sinful acts, even without desiring, as if engaged by force?'

3.37 The Lord said, 'It is lust and anger born of the attribute of passion, all-devouring and sinful, which is one's greatest enemy in this world.'

Here, it is important to understand what duty means. If I have to do my duty, I need to know how to identify what my duty is.

The idea of duty is different for different people, different countries, different cultures, and different religions. Hence the term 'duty' is impossible to clearly define. We have always been trained by society, by conscience, to consider certain acts as duty: some as good and others as bad. When something happens before us, we have a trained or programmed impulse to react in a certain way.

We are brought up with certain ideas of duty. For example, it is our duty to help elderly people. It is our

duty to follow principles of truth, non-violence, nonstealing and such tenets. We are brought up with these concepts of morality but how many of us have experienced the beauty of implementing them?

Then there are certain principles that get handed down depending on the religion you follow. For example, a starving person who finds a piece of meat has no problem eating it if he is a non-vegetarian. On the other hand, a vegetarian would feel it is his duty not to touch beef even if it means losing his life. In some religions, you can marry only once but in some other religions, you can marry multiple times. These are all socially defined duties.

One thing we should remember is that we should always try to see the duty of others from their eyes and not judge the customs of other people by our standards. No one standard is the standard for the universe. There is no universal scale by which you can measure people and their actions.

What Krishna talks about here is not socially defined duty or about conscience. He is talking about consciousness.

Vivekananda talks about a sage, a yogi in Bharat. He was a peculiar man; he would not teach anyone. If you asked him a question, he would not answer. However, if you asked him a question and waited for some days, in the course of conversation, he would bring up the subject and throw wonderful light on it.

He once told Vivekananda the secret of work. 'Let the end and the means be joined into one.'

When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond that. Do it as worship, as the highest worship and devote your whole life to it for that time. Give it your full attention. The right performance of duty at any point in life, without attachment to the results, leads us to the highest realization.

The worker who is attached to the results is the one who grumbles about the nature of the duty. To the unattached worker, all duties are equally good. He welcomes what he has to do, irrespective of the external nature of the job. He approaches every act with the same enthusiasm and liveliness and becomes completely involved in the task at hand.

In the great epic, Mahabharata, there are actually three versions of Gita: the Bhagavad Gita and the Anugita, both by Sri Krishna; the third and more important one is called Vyadha Gita, the song of a butcher.

A butcher delivered this Vyadha Gita; a man who is considered a sinner or a chandala (low caste person) delivered this great scripture.

There lived a great yogi, a person with special powers but who was not yet enlightened, so he was in the state between the normal and enlightened state; highly egoistic. He was meditating under a tree in a forest. A bird sitting on the tree relieved itself and the droppings fell on him.

He was disturbed and angry and he opened his eyes and looked at the bird. The bird was killed by the power of his gaze. The yogi was feeling very proud of what he had done.

He then went on his daily round of begging for alms. He came to a house and begged for food. The lady of the house called out from inside the house and asked him to wait as she was serving her husband. The yogi was upset. He thought to himself, 'Foolish woman! She is serving her husband, an ordinary man and she is making a great yogi like me wait!'

He was only thinking these thoughts when he heard the lady's voice again as if in answer, 'I am not like the bird in the forest to be killed so easily. Your powers may be used against birds but not against me, so relax!'

The yogi was simply shocked! The lady actually knew not only what he was thinking, but even about what had happened in the forest. The yogi apologized to the lady when she came out to give him food.

He asked her, 'Mother, how did you know what I was thinking? And how did you know about what happened in the forest? Please teach me how I can also achieve this.'

She replied, 'You have attained shakti (power) but not buddhi (intelligence). Go to the butcher who is down the road and he will teach you.' Now, the yogi was even more surprised. He thought, 'How can an ordinary butcher teach me anything about buddhi?'

But what the lady had done was too much for him. So he quietly took the lady's counsel and went down the road to the butcher's shop.

When he reached the butcher's shop, he saw that the butcher was busy cutting the meat of the dead animals that he had just slaughtered. He still could not imagine how he could learn anything from the butcher. But he wanted to have buddhi so he approached the butcher and asked, 'I was told by the lady nearby to ask you about buddhi. Can you explain to me how to attain buddhi?'

The butcher explained how he himself had achieved buddhi, the ultimate experience.

He did his job with complete awareness and was totally involved in his work. He did his job with complete intensity and used the money that he earned to take care of his aged parents, which he did with equal devotion and involvement.

Just the very doing of his duty had liberated him. The nature of his work, the act of cutting animals, was not important. The attitude with which he did it, the sincerity, was what mattered.

You may be doing the best of acts of social service and in the eyes of society you may be a great man. But if the attitude, the energy behind the act is not positive, the action is just hypocritical and insincere.

Each of us is unique in our capabilities and interests. Accordingly, our duties are also different. If you try to

imitate others, thinking that their duty appears more attractive, you will be making the mistake of following somebody else's path, which is not natural for you.

A small story:

A king once went to a Master to attain some magical powers, so that he could become more powerful than his neighboring kings. He sat in front of the Master and started telling him the purpose of his visit.

The Master listened patiently to the king. Then the Master told him to go into his garden, where a rose bush and a citrus plant were growing side by side. He told the king, 'These are your teachers. They can teach you what you need to learn.'

The king went into the garden, saw the two plants and could not understand what he was meant to learn from them. He came back to the Master and asked, 'Master, I am not able to understand how I can learn to be more powerful from the two plants. What exactly do you mean?'

The Master took him to the plants and explained, 'This citrus plant has been next to the rose plant for many years. Never has it aspired to become a rose plant. Similarly, the rose plant has never ever aspired to become a citrus plant. They just attended to their own duties of growing and blossoming everyday.'

The Master continued, 'If a man had been in the place of the citrus plant, he would have compared himself with the rose plant and felt jealous of the attention that the rose plant was getting from people. Or if he was in the place of the rose plant, he would have looked at the citrus and envied it, thinking how peaceful it was that it did not have to bother about people plucking its flowers.'

You see, the two plants prospered because they used all their energy in their own growth. Not even a bit of their energy was wasted on analyzing the other's growth. One hundred percent of the energy that they had was used for their own growth.

This is what is meant by just doing one's own duty according to one's nature and not being bothered about comparing one's duty with somebody else's and without expecting the certain results from our actions.

These verses by Krishna have been misused by some to defend the caste or varna system in the Hindu religion. They say that what Krishna means is that one should not swerve from one's varna dharma, the duty of one's caste. They do not understand the origin of the caste system.

In Vedic culture, a child was taken into a gurukulam school (ancient system of learning at the feet of the Master), at a very early age, much before the age of seven. The Master then took care of the child until the child reached adulthood. He taught the child based on its abilities. Sometimes Vedic horoscopes were used to determine aptitude and potential. If the child seemed to have the aptitude to become a scholar he was trained in scriptures, and became a brahmin. If the child was aggressive and courageous, he was trained in martial arts, and became a kshatriya.

Varna or caste classification was based on one's natural abilities and not by birth. It was a state, not a status. Over time, this practice was corrupted to mean a classification based on heredity, with no attention paid to natural aptitude.

It is in the context of how education was imparted in the Vedic times that one needs to understand Krishna's injunction in these verses.

Arjuna then asks Krishna why even a centered person is led to commit sinful acts, as if forced by unknown powers. Arjuna's question is the eternal dilemma of expression or suppression.

For example, if you see a beautiful woman and you feel attracted to her, you feel this is not correct according to what society has taught you and you try to suppress your feelings. Can this work? If you try to suppress something, it will surface again with more intensity.

We are always conditioned by society, which teaches us that anyone with passion is a lower human. Anyone with lust is a lower person. Understand, there is no lower or higher person. Only a transformation of energy needs to happen.

The people who pretend to be moralists are either afraid to express their lust or they feel guilty to express it. So they go about preaching to others that being lustful means you are a lower person.

The moment you think you are a lower human, you start fighting with that feeling. Then it becomes very difficult to get out of that and for the transformation to happen. Anything that you resist persists. What you need to do is to bring in awareness and allow the transformation to happen.

What needs to be done is to have understanding and awareness, and the base energy of lust can be transformed to the higher energy of love. It is an alchemy process. Alchemy is the process of changing any base metal to a higher metal. Similarly, changing our base emotion, lust, to the highest emotion we are capable of, love, is an alchemical process. It is the ultimate alchemy.

In alchemy, first the impurity is removed from the base metal. Then something is added to it, and finally, the base metal undergoes a process and it gets transformed to the higher metal.

First, impurity should be removed from lust. We all have lust, which is an animal emotion. One more thing: at least animals have pure lust. When they are in a relationship, they forget about the world and are purely in the relationship. But for us, even our lust is not pure. It is contaminated by all kinds of imagination and fantasies that we have picked up from the media.

Because of your fantasy and imagination, you live with a solid cerebral layer with all the imagination collected from all that you have seen on the television, the internet, in books and so on. Even when you are in a relationship, you are relating with this layer. You are not relating with the actual wife or husband. The actual wife or husband becomes a poor substitute for the images in your mind.

Your lust is contaminated by feelings of guilt and desire. Either our conditioning from our past makes us feel guilty and makes us withdraw, or the intense desire to continue makes us indulge more, only to feel guilty again. It is a vicious cycle of pulling and pushing as a result of which lust is simply contaminated.

Always, if you notice, the moment you fulfill your imagination, you are engulfed by guilt. That is why sex makes you feel guilty. Family instills the first sense of guilt in you when you are a child. Then you master the art of creating guilt for yourself!

Understand, anyone who wants to have control over you, first instills guilt in you. They make you feel you are inferior in some fashion. Then, automatically, you follow what they are saying.

Man knows to control only through guilt. I tell you, rules are good for children. It is good to start with rules. But it is important that you grow and be led by your own intelligence.

When you indulge in desires and become prone to guilt, you are caught in a vicious cycle. That is why you don't go deep into your desires for fulfillment and come out of it liberated, but keep coming back with more and more craving. If you go deep into it, you will flower out of it!

In earlier times, people were able to drop their lust at the age of 40. They never had such complicated images in them. They related directly with their husband or wife. They were able to move deeper into lust and come out of it. Lust simply dropped from them and they did not have to drop it.

In Hindu marriages, there is a beautiful verse which priests make the couples recite, 'In the eleventh year of marriage, let the wife become the mother, and the husband the son.' This may sound strange as to how the wife can become a mother to the husband. What it means is let the relationship reach the ultimate fulfillment.

The ultimate fulfillment for a woman is when she expresses the motherliness in her, the creative energy in her. The ultimate fulfillment for the man is when he comes back to the innocence of the child. So, in the eleventh year, let the relation mature to such an extent that both the husband and wife attain the ultimate fulfillment.

First, impurity in lust needs to be removed like impurity in the base metal needs to be removed in alchemy. Then the component of friendship needs to be added. A deep friendship, a relationship at the being level and not just at physical or mental level needs to happen.

When you feel deeply connected to a person, there will be no need for physical proximity to that person. You will feel happy and satisfied with just the feeling of connection with him or her. This connection will not suffer separation or anything else.

Finally, the process needed for final transformation of lust to love needs to go through the process of patience and perseverance. You need to be patient for the other person to accept the transformation you are going through. You need to give time for the other to understand that this is indeed a real change that you are going through and not just a superficial, temporary change. Then he or she will automatically be transformed as well. The energy of your transformation is sure to touch the other person.

Here Krishna refers to lust and anger both born out of passion. Anger is also an emotion that is born out of lust. When the other person rejects your lust, it turns into anger against that person. Anger is again a tremendous energy that we misuse because we do not understand and respect it.

Greed, anger, and lust are all rajasic qualities that arise from passion and aggression. They arise from the blocked muladhara chakra, the root center. These are instinctive emotions that we inherit from our animal ancestors. The muladhara chakra is common to animals and humans; it is the highest of animal energy centers and lowest of human energy centers.

Indulging in these base emotions keeps a human being in bondage to one's sensual and instinctive nature. This is the reason Krishna classifies these as the root causes of sin. A human being is endowed with consciousness that rises above these instincts. The meaning of a human life is not mere survival; it is the realization of one's super conscious nature.

Anything that stands in the way of Self-realization is a sin.

Arjuna uvaacha:

jyaayasi chet karmanas te mata buddhir janardana tat kim karmani ghore maam niyojayasi Keshava 3.1

Arjuna: Arjuna; uvaacha: said; jyaayasi: speaking highly; chet: although; karmanah: action; te: your; mata: opinion; buddhih: knowledge; janardana: Janardana; tat: therefore; kim: why; karmani: in action; ghore: terrible; maam: me; niyojayasi: engaging me; keshava: Keshava (slayer of gthe demon Keshu)

3.1 Arjuna said:

O Janardana, O Kesava, Why do You make me engage in this terrible war if You think that knowledge is superior to action?

vyaamishreneva vakyena buddhim mohayaseeva me tad ekam vada nishchitya yena shreyo aham aapnuyaam 3.2

vyaamishrena: by ambiguous; iva: as; vakyena: words; buddhim: intelligence; mohayasee: confusing; iva: as; me: my; tat: therefore; ekam: one; vada: tell; nishchitya: for certain; yena: by which; shreyah: benefit; aham: I; apnuyam: may have

3.2 My intelligence is confused by Your conflicting words. Tell me clearly what is best for me.