Devotion Above Action

5.5 He who knows, knows that the state reached by renunciation and action are one and the same.

State reached by renunciation can also be achieved by action, know them to be at the same level and see them as they are.

5.6 Renunciation without devotion afflicts one with misery, Oh mighty-armed one.

The wise person engaged in devotion attains the Supreme without delay.

5.7 The person engaged in devotion, beyond concepts pure and impure, self-controlled and who has conquered the senses is compassionate and loves everyone.

Although engaged in work, he is never entangled.

5.8, 5.9 One who knows the truth, though engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, dreaming, and breathing knows that he never does anything.

While talking, evacuating, receiving, opening, closing, he considers that the senses are engaged in gratification.

Yat sankhyaiha prapyate sthanam tadyogairapi gamyate Ekam sankhyam cha yogam cha yaha pashyati sa pashyati

One who knows that the position reached through sankhya yoga and karma yoga are both one and the same, and that the position reached by sankhya yoga can also be achieved by karma yoga, sees both of them in the same level and sees things as they are.

Beautiful sloka, beautiful verse!

One more important thing: All of us are not always karma yogi or doers and all of us are not always sanyasis or monks. No sanyasi is for 24 hours a sanyasi. When he surrenders himself to the greed, he is a doer. No karma Yogi is for 24 hours a karma Yogi. When he surrenders to fear, he is a sanyasi.

So be very clear: whenever we make an optimistic decision, we are karma Yogi. Whenever we make a pessimistic decision, we are sanyasi. It is we who play both the roles.

Who is an optimist and who is a pessimist? Optimist is a man who created the airplane; pessimist is a man who created the seat-belt.

In life you play both the roles. Optimist is a man who created the airplane; pessimist is a man who created seatbelt. You always play both the roles. In life, sometimes, you are optimist and sometimes, you are pessimist.

Here, both can lead to the same goal if the attitude is pure, if the attitude is perfect. One important thing we need to understand: anything created out of greed will create more greed. Anything created out of fear will create more fear, that's all.

Please be very clear: whenever we move our body, whenever our body is moved by a particular emotion, that emotion gets settled inside our system. That will become part of our system and that emotion will be created again and again in our system.

Jiddu Krishnamurti made a wonderful statement about emotions arising in the human body. He is a great enlightened Master from Bharat, one who is not recognized widely in Bharat!

He says beautifully, 'If you can, try to remain centered, silent, without moving your body when a particular emotion rises in you, without co-operating with it. Within eleven times, or I can say within eleven emotional upsets, you will be liberated from that emotion.'

Vivekananda says beautifully, 'Enlightened Masters and enlightenment is the greatest gift given to the planet Earth by Bharat.' But the problem is we have given it away as a gift. We are not using it! While gifting it to others, we forgot how to use it. It started with Swami Vivekananda, and all the Masters have been given away to the world. Hindus have forgotten to use what they gave as a gift.

Understand, it is an important thing: if you are caught by that emotion, if you are caught in lust, if you are caught in fear, just eleven times, whenever that emotion rises, whenever that emotion comes up in your being, don't allow your body to co-operate. Don't allow your body to flow with that emotion. Don't allow your body to move with that emotion. Within eleven times, I assure you, you will be liberated from that emotion.

You may think, 'What is this, Master? Just eleven times! Is it so easy?' It is easy. All great things are easy. Only we complicate them. We complicate because we don't believe anything that is easy.

A small story:

A person goes to the doctor and asks, 'Doctor, how much will you charge to pull this tooth out?' The doctor says, 'Ninety dollars.' This person asks, 'Ninety dollars just for a two minute job?'

The doctor says, 'I can do it more slowly if you like!'

We don't like simple things. We want to complicate things.

Actually, eleven times is too much. I think with all the 'factor-of-safety' idea, Krishnamurti said eleven times. He might have given this discourse here in the USA; he must have been afraid of these lawsuits! So that is why he gives this number of eleven times with a factor of safety. If somebody practices for fewer times and they don't get the result, they may sue! That is why he says eleven times, just to make sure.

But I tell you honestly, eleven times is too much. Eleven times is not necessary. When that emotion rises in you, don't cooperate. Let your body not go behind that emotion. Let you not be taken away by that emotion, whether it is anger or irritation or depression or lust or fear or anything.

Just decide, 'I am not going to be taken away by this emotion.' Eleven times is too much. I tell you, within three or four times, you will be liberated from that emotion because you will learn the technique. You will have the key now in your hand: how not to be taken away by that emotion, how to be centered, rooted in your Self, in your being. Whether it is anger or fear or greed, it gets more and more power and strength if your body is also cooperating with it.

With whatever emotion your body moves, that emotion gets recorded inside your system. Please be very clear. And that emotion will happen again and again, many more times, and much more intensely. Both frequency and intensity of that emotion will increase.

There is a beautiful movie, 'What the Bleep Do We Know?' If you find time you should see that movie. I am not promoting it. I don't have any contract with them! Don't think I have some contract. I really enjoyed that movie. Of course, I don't have that much patience to sit for any movie.

Once, two of our devotees invited me to come for a show in New York called 'Bombay Dreams'. They invited me. I said that I can sit for fifteen minutes. If it will finish in fifteen minutes, I will come. They said that no show would finish in less than three hours. 'Then,' I said, 'it is not for me.' Fifteen minutes is the maximum time I can watch any show. So I didn't watch that. But somehow I watched this movie 'What the Bleep Do We Know?'

Really, sometimes, I am surprised, how these people sit in front of the TV, hours together; really couch potatoes! I am just surprised how they can sit for hours together! Something is being shown there on the TV and they sit and watch! And they don't even keep quiet; continuously they will be eating something. The whole table will be full before the program starts. When the program is over, that table will be empty and the stomach will be full. And it is dangerous. We don't know what we are eating. That is another problem.

An important thing we should know: Ramanujacharya (Vaishnavite Philosopher Circa 11th Century AD) says beautifully, when it comes to 'aahar-shuddhi', the purity of food. He says that when you eat something, you digest not only the food that you eat. You digest the thoughts which you think while you are eating. So please be very clear: your eating should be done like a puja (worship). The problem is now the puja is also corrupted!

Eating should be done with a deep sincerity. Never, ever eat watching the television or reading the newspaper. That will make you dull. When I say more dull, understand already we have enough of tamas (laziness); already we have enough of tamasic energy. The tamasic energy will be significantly enhanced.

Never eat with the negative thoughts. At the time of eating, you should never be supplied negative thoughts. And women, please be very clear: when you cook or when you serve, don't complain.

In Bharat, usually only at the time of serving, the wife will start, 'This is not available; that is not available in the house. You are not giving my monthly allowance properly. This has not come to the house properly. That is not here…' They will start the whole purana, epic story. Never start the house purana when you serve or when you cook because the thoughts will also enter into the mind. Thoughts also will be digested. Understand that your emotions go and settle down into your system.

Anyway, I can never watch anything more than fifteen minutes. Somehow, this one movie, 'What the Bleep Do

We Know?' I sat throughout and watched. Really, I enjoyed. I wanted to explain a concept from that movie. And it is satya (truth); it is not only just projected by them. It is a truth from Vedanta. But they have visually explained it nicely.

They say that whenever some emotions happen to your system, it is like rain. The emotion is poured like rain. It happens inside your system, in your being. There are particular cells that catch those emotions. For example, if you think about anger, there are particular cells that catch that anger emotion. Not only do they just catch and stay, they will start reproducing. This cell will create at least four or five more cells that can receive this emotion.

An important thing we should know is that the basic quality of life is reproduction and expansion. This is the survival instinct. The survival instinct is governed by the swadishthana chakra. Reproduction is governed by the muladhara chakra. Both these are closely associated. The fear is associated with swadishthana chakra and reproduction is associated with the muladhara chakra; both the chakras are very close to each other.

These cells that catch the anger emotion start reproducing and each cell creates five or six more cells. Next time, when the anger shower happens, when the anger rain happens, all these cells will also catch the same emotion. They become the size of the original cells. They come to this same, original size. Now these cells also start reproducing. The third time, when the shower happens, all these cells catch the emotion and start storing.

That is why, every time when we are showered with the same emotion, it becomes stronger and stronger. We are addicted to that emotion. We will not be able to control that emotion.

The first time, if anger is showered on us, if we are affected for ten minutes, then the next time, it will surely become twenty minutes. Third time, it will naturally become half an hour. That is how the emotion becomes stronger and stronger.

In our being, again and again, when we cooperate with these negative emotions, we create the same type of mood, the same type of that lifestyle in us.

One more thing: not only will this emotion get recorded in us, but the big problem is that we will express the same thing on others. What we have is only what we will vomit on others.

If we are working to strengthen our greed, we will be caught by the emotion greed and we will radiate that emotion greed. We will vomit that emotion greed on others. We will torture others also with that same emotion.

Next, if we are working out of fear, again, we will be caught by that emotion fear and express that emotion fear and we will torture others with that same emotion fear.

Be very clear: warriors are caught in fear. That is why they torture others. They give fear to others. The warriors are the most cowardly people. A real warrior is

a person who has conquered his being, who has won his being. Only he can be the real warrior.

If out of fear we are doing anything, we will reproduce the same fear in others. We will create the same fear in others.

Now, take a few minutes to sit and analyze, 'Throughout this life, all these years I was driven by greed and fear. What I have achieved? What have I got? Where am I standing? What has really happened?'

Consciously think. Consciously allow this idea to work on you. Decide, 'From today, I will not do anything out of greed or out of fear.' Immediately the fear will rise in you, 'What will happen to my bills? Who will pay? What will happen to my house? Who will repay the mortgages? What will happen to my car? What will happen to my kids? Who will feed them? What will happen to my social prestige and name and fame? Who will maintain it?'

Please be very clear that you have enough energy and you have enough strength to maintain yourself without fear and greed. The important thing you need to trust is that you don't need energy from fear or greed to run your life. That is the first thing you need to understand. You have enough potential energy to live your life and to achieve what you want.

Mahavira, one more great enlightened Master, says, 'When you come down to this planet Earth, when you take the body, you bring enough of energy to live all your desires or to achieve whatever you want to achieve in this life.' You have already brought enough fuel. You don't need fuel from fear or greed.

You always think, 'If I stop fueling myself from fear or greed, I may stop working.' No. There is reserve in all your vehicles. Enough fuel is available but psychologists can never believe that unmotivated action is possible because they have never seen a Buddha.

Again and again the people who are working in the field of psychology come to a conclusion, 'Only with motivation a man can work.' I tell you, 'No!' No. What motivation have birds got to sing? But these Freudians are so focused on sex that even for that, they have started giving a meaning! They say that the bird is calling for its spouse. They have started interpreting even birds' singing! They can't see anything as it is.

That is why here, Krishna says: