You Are A Demon If🔗

16.4 Pride, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness or cruelty, and ignorance - these qualities belong to those born with demonic nature, O Son of Pritha

16.5 The transcendental qualities are conducive to liberation, whereas the demonic qualities make for bondage. Do not worry, Pandava, you are born with divine qualities.

16.6 Partha, in this world there are two kinds of created beings, one is divine and the other, demonic. I have explained at length to you the divine qualities. Now hear about the demonic qualities also, so that you will understand and live your life blissfully and happily.

16.7 Persons with demonic nature do not know what is bondage and what is liberation; nor what is cleanliness; truthful behavior is not in them.

What is demonic nature? Krishna says that all actions done out of arrogance, out of pride, out of ego, for name and fame, and for power, are demonic in nature. As in the case of Ravana, they benefit neither the person himself nor others. Their actions are performed out of ignorance, and ultimately lead to their own downfall.

I have seen many people do penance like Ravana (King of Lanka who abducted Rama's wife Sita, in the Indian epic, the Ramayana). Ravana did penance; however, his powers neither helped him nor others. He became a demon for others and for himself. He killed others, and finally destroyed himself. His penance was done with the attitude of 'me' and 'what is there in it for me?' The whole story happened to strengthen the 'I' and 'mine'. Please understand that whatever we do, whether we study the scriptures, do charity or social service, or perform pūjā (prayer), rituals or meditation, if they are done to strengthen the 'I' and 'mine', they always lead to suffering.

Focusing on the ‘I’ is instinctive. It is a call for survival. It is a call for our survival based on our conditioning and insecurities. The instinct to survive is what is called ‘I’, and the instinct to possess is what is referred to as ‘mine’. The person who understands that both are illusions is an aware person. Such a person realizes that the instinct to survive does not help, and no matter what one may have, one still cannot survive forever.

The instinct to survive is pure illusion. At the most we can survive perhaps for 70 to 80 years. Sometimes a person lives to be 90 to 100 years with the same identity. Yet the instinct to survive tries to extend itself. It wants to make life eternal. No one wants to die. Naturally we are then walking towards suffering. As long as we carry this instinct to survive, we repeatedly hurt ourselves.

This morning an ashramite complained that she is hurt by small and well-meaning criticisms from others. She said she is sensitive. I asked her to stop using that word. I said, ‘You are not sensitive. A sensitive person is porous; he allows the words to pass through him. Only arrogant people get hurt. If we are hurt, please understand that we are arrogant. We are impenetrable like stone, which is why words come and hit us. Don’t say that you are sensitive.’

A sensitive person lets words pass through him. He never suffers. Suffering is from arrogance, never from sensitivity. A person who is sensitive never suffers. We suffer from words when we stop them, when we resist them, when we make our own meaning out of them. When we do not make meanings out of words, we do not suffer. It is like playing with words. We choose nice words to support our ego. We do not say, ‘I am hurt because I am arrogant.’ We use polished words such as, ‘I am hurt because I am sensitive.’

Please don’t cheat yourself with words. Let straight words be used. I hear many polished words around the world. People easily cheat themselves with such words. Don’t cheat yourself with polished words. Let things be straight and clear. We can use polished words to cheat others, but let us please not use them to cheat ourselves.

Let me tell you a small story...

A contractor wanted to donate a sports car to an official.

The official refused, saying, ‘I am an honest person and I cannot think of accepting this gift.’ The contractor asked him, ‘In that case, how about if I sell this car to you for ten dollars?’

The official replied immediately, ‘In that case, I will buy two cars!’

Be clear and do not play with words. Let us not cheat ourselves with words.

Let us be clear about what we mean. Let us use the same honest words to express what we really are and what we really feel. Ramakrishna says, ‘Let your words and mind be straightened.’ Whatever is, let it be expressed with straight words. At least we will know that we have a problem. When we use colorful, polished words, by and by, we forget we have a problem. When we play with words we forget that we have a problem. And this is very dangerous.

Understand, when we know that we don’t know, at least we know that we don’t know. When we don’t know that we don’t know, then we don’t even know that we don’t know! We then have a problem. Be very clear. At least let us know that we have a problem.

Let us use straight words. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. To achieve anything, the shortest way is straightforwardness. Nothing else can work.

Here Krishna gives all the divine qualities, one by one. It is not necessary to explain all the qualities. Let us take a few. Let us take fearlessness, for example.

As long as we carry the instinct to survive, we have fear. Fear can never be taken away from our being, as long as we want to survive. Surrendering to Existence, surrendering to death is the one and only way to achieve fearlessness.

There is a beautiful Upaniṣad (part of the Hindu scriptures), the Kathopanishad, that you must read. It is from the wonderful system of vedānta (essence of the Vedas including the Upaniṣads), founded by the vedic ṛṣis (sages). They have gone deep into the science of death. The West has dedicated its entire energy to understand life, whereas the East has dedicated its energy to understanding death! That is why ṛṣis live even after they die. They live after death, too. They exist; they discovered the art of living even after death. However, people who are caught in the material world die each moment, even as they live. This Kathopanishad is the science of death.

There is a beautiful story of a young boy, Nachiketa, who goes to the abode of Yama, the Lord of death. Yama was not there when Nachiketa went to meet Him; His servants try to receive him, but the boy insists on waiting for Yama. Yama receives him after three days. Yama welcomes him. At this point, we must understand that no one goes to Yama's abode; only He comes to our abode! Always it is He who comes! When we try to escape from Him, He is death as we know it ordinarily; He will take away our 'I' and 'mine' - all our possessions and relationships; we cannot sign our check or drive our car once He takes us. We cannot have our relations anymore. Whatever we think is ours will be taken away: wealth, relationships, bank balance, everything. What we think is 'I' - the body, even that will be taken away. When death comes to us, everything is taken away. On the contrary, when we go to death like Nachiketa did, fearlessly, death welcomes us! Yama becomes our host!

In this story, Yama receives Nachiketa with love and care. First thing: He becomes a loving host. Next, He offers him three boons. Nachiketa first asks for good relationships. He says, 'When I go back to my family, my father should accept me, love me and take me back.' Yama blesses him with good relationships. After that Yama blesses him with wealth, and shows him how to create wealth, pleasure and comforts. Now Yama is behaving like a God. First He behaved like a loving host, and then He behaves like a God. Ultimately, Yama gives him ¢tmaj@¢na - knowledge of the Self; Now, He is behaving like an enlightened master himself! The third boon he gives because Nachiketa asks Him for the secret of death. Pleased with the boy's sincerity and courage, Yama blesses him with enlightenment itself.

Look at the paradox of life: When we run away from death, Death or Yama chases us, wherever we are. Death takes away all our wealth, our relationships, whatever we think of as 'I' and 'mine'. But here, with Nachiketa, the whole situation is just the opposite! When we surrender to Yama, when we go to Him, He is a loving host. He is not something terrible as we imagine Him to be. We always portray Yama as a huge form, black in colour, with a big moustache, traveling slowly on a buffalo, with a rope in His hands and with a terrible, arrogant and egoistic demeanor!

Here the whole scene is different. He says, 'Welcome! You are the form of Agni, fire.' A guest is considered to be the form of fire that we worship.

The vedic culture says, 'Atithi devo bhava' - the guest is God. In vedic culture, the guest or atithi is respected as God. A-tithi means a person who arrives without telling us in which thiti (time or date) he will come. Not the person who sends us an email, then a phone call, a fax, and then expects that we pick him up at the airport! Such a person is not an atithi. No! He is our relative! We must take care of him. He must be received; it is pure business. But atithi is different. Please understand that all our relationships are more or less business relationships. Atithi means a person who comes straightaway into our lives with an openness. The big problem is, today the atithi concept is lost. People cannot believe that in Indian villages, the doors of all homes are kept open in the daytime. At least in the village in which I was brought up, all the doors of all the houses were open. I could go to any home on that street and eat. A child can go to any house and eat! The very idea of atithi, the unannounced guest, has disappeared in most places. When people call India a poor country, I tell them, ‘No. You don’t know the value of Indian culture.’

For example, when we travel to a developed country and go to a new city for business purposes, how much can we afford to spend on hotels and lodges? On the contrary, at least in India, if we have one friend, just a phone call is enough, and all arrangements are taken care of! There too, due to the cultural invasion, this hospitality is diminishing. At least in the villages where vedic culture is alive, this atithi culture is alive. Atithi devo bhava is where we respect any guest as God.

Yama tells Nachiketa, ‘You are my guest and you have come to my house in the form of ‘vaisv&nar&gni’ (the fire that we worship). The (priest) is considered to be the embodiment of Agni, the divine Agni. You have come to my house as the embodiment of the Divine. You are here. Let me pay my respects to you. I was not here to receive you when you arrived. Please forgive me for not being here for three days to receive you.’

Usually we postpone Yama (death). Usually we try to escape from Him. But when we go in search of Him, He will not be there, as we feared! That is the essence of this whole story.

Usually He chases us. We run away from Him, and He is behind us! But when we turn and go towards Him, we suddenly find that He is not there! For three days, Nachiketa could not find Yama. Understand this important point. This story is significant; it has a tremendous truth. When Nachiketa went to Death, Death was not there. This means when we turn towards death, we will not find death as we imagined it to be. Whatever imagination we have about death will not be there when we surrender to death. Now, because of our fear, we try to escape; because we try to escape, He chases us.

It is like a vicious cycle. If we understand that, at the moment we surrender, He will not be there as we imagined Him, as we expected Him to be, we will get tremendous courage. That courage makes us face Him more clearly. When we face Him more clearly, we get more courage. When we follow this circle, it is called a virtuous circle; what we experience presently is the vicious cycle. Let us turn our vicious cycle into a virtuous circle.

If we can understand this Kathopanishad story, our whole idea of death will be transformed. First of all, when we seek Him, He is not there. Second, when He appears He is not as we imagined Him to be. Rather than being an arrogant, terrifying form, waiting to take our possessions, He is a humble host, welcoming us graciously. He then behaves like a God and blesses us with relationships, wealth and ultimately ¢tmaj®cna, knowledge of the Self, enlightenment.

We may ask how to go towards death, for example, ‘Should we commit suicide?’ Please understand that committing suicide is not facing death. Be very clear that people who commit suicide are not fearless. They are the most cowardly people. They commit suicide because they are unable to live this life. Rather than facing death, they escape from life. Suicide is not facing death but escaping from life. Escaping from life is one thing; facing death is another. These two are very different from each other.

When fear is created in our system or when fear happens, the only way to face the fear is to just go through it. Don’t allow it to frighten you. Some people tell me that they are afraid of their fears. Fear is enough trouble, why be afraid of fear as well? Don’t allow the fear to overshadow you. Sit with yourself; be with yourself. Let the fears come up; how long can you postpone your fears? How long can you control your fears? How long can you escape from your fears? Allow them to surface. Your whole being will shake, tears may roll, and you may have a deep depression. Let everything happen. Whether you consciously allow the fear to happen or not, the fearful incidents will happen. So it is better to face it with clarity and courage.

Our fears can be classified into five major categories. The first is the fear of losing wealth and comforts. The second is the fear of losing some part of our body due to an accident or disease. The third is the fear of losing our near and dear ones. The fourth is the fear of losing our mental well-being. The fifth is the fear of the unknown – that is the fear of death, ghosts, God, hell, heaven, and such things. These are the five major categories of fears we face in life. All our fears can be brought under these five categories.

Allow all of them to surface. Sit with yourself. Let everything come out; let your mind face the fears. Let your mind speak everything; let everything come out. Give it half an hour. Let it happen. You may feel depressed, tears may roll and your whole body may shake. Let everything come out. What can be done? If you could do anything, you would have done it. Very clearly, your very existence proves that you are not able to do anything. That is why you are just keeping quiet. Allow the fear to happen. Let the fear come into your being.

Let the fear come up to your conscious layer without being suppressed. Accept that there is a possibility for all these fears to come true: your wealth may be stolen, you may have an accident, a near or dear one may die, or you may die. All these possibilities are real. Yes. What can be done? This is life. This is what is called facing reality as it is.

Only small kids need fantasies and imagination to face reality as it is. However, we need to understand the truth as it is. We can't escape from reality; we can't escape from the truth. The more we try to escape, the more it haunts us; the more it chases us. When we allow the fears to come out, suddenly we will see that they leave us, and we become more responsible, more intense.

In our second level meditation program, called Nithyananda Spurana Program or LBP Level 2, we have a meditation replicating the 'death experience'. It is based on my personal experience of death. People feel frightened to enter into the meditation, but on coming out of the experience, they feel completely reborn and clear.

They say, 'I have been postponing many things; now I have decided that when I go back, I will do those things.' Naturally these people become intense when they come out of the death meditation. They understand the value of relationships. Many people report that after that meditation, they began respecting their spouses; they do not take them for granted anymore. When we think of the possibility of death, we will never take life or our spouse for granted. We will start really living.

Similarly, when there is a possibility that our good health may be taken away from us, after this meditation, we will not take our health for granted; we will start living life intensely. We will not take things for granted when the possibility of death, of life being taken away from us, enters our being. We will realize our responsibility and the gift of life that Existence has bestowed upon us.

Let me tell you a small story to show how we take things for granted.

There was a king who felt completely bored after forty-five years of the good life. He had whatever he wanted: wealth, luxuries and other pleasures. Whatever was there to enjoy, he had it all. There was nothing for him to do. All the excitement was lost; he was bored.

Let me tell you, when you have all material comforts, when you have everything that you wanted in the material plane, tremendous boredom will happen within you.

If we don't already have everything, we at least have the excitement of something left to achieve; we work for that. There is a need for continuity. There is a need to live. We will have some goal. When we have everything, what should we live for? Nothing! So never imagine that when we have everything, we will be happy.

This king entered hell simply because he had everything. He was totally depressed, bored. He didn't wish to come out of his room; he was lying there the entire day through the year. His ministers tried their best to bring him out, to enliven him, and to give him a little excitement. They brought the best comforts and luxuries from all over the country, all possible pleasures. Nothing worked on the king. He said, 'No, I don't care for anything.'

Finally they decided to do one thing. They said, 'O King, there is an enlightened master in the forest. He may be able to help you. Why don't you meet him? He will bring you out of your depression. Many have been helped by him.'

The king said, 'I am not interested in going anywhere.' The ministers asked him to try just once. He agreed saying, 'You are telling me so much about him, let me give him a try.'

He went to meet the master. The king was full of doubts and questions and unwilling to trust the master. He thought, 'Who knows if he is enlightened or not?' He asked the master straightaway, 'Can you help me come out of my depression?'

That is the way people question when they come just to check a master out. They don't come to learn; they come to verify. Many people ask me, 'Can you show us some path to achieve God?' I tell them, 'I will try, why don't you be seated?' They question me as if they have come to check me out!

Similarly, the king just wanted to check out that enlightened master. He asked straightaway, 'Can you do something to get me out of this depression?'

The master told him that if he could bring all his wealth in one bag, he could teach him. Immediately the king decided that this master had nothing to do with enlightenment. ‘He is a cheat, a bogus fellow, he is asking for my wealth.’

He went away without giving a reply. However, that night he wondered why the master asked for his wealth. ‘Inspite of my doubt about him, there is some grace, there is something about him working on me,’ he thought.

People ask me how to find out if someone is enlightened. We can never find out using the intellect. Always try your best to suspect the person. If he is really enlightened, then his form, his very being, will impress us! We will not be able to forget him. That is the scale to check if a person is enlightened or not. People ask me if they should remember me all the time. I say, ‘No. Try your best to forget me, to doubt me. If you have been really touched by me, you will not be able to do so, try as you might!’ My presence will work beyond your intellect. If you are going to be helped by me, you will simply fall in tune with me.

Let me state very clearly: You will simply fall in tune! Through intellect we can never analyze or understand. With your intellect, try your best to say ‘No.’ If you always say ‘No,’ you will never be cheated; so that is the best thing to do. If the person is enlightened, he will be able to penetrate you beyond your intellect. He will be there in your being. He will be there in your mind in the day and in your dreams in the night. He will be haunting you. You cannot escape from him.

So this king felt hewas being haunted by the master. The king was lying on his bed, rolling from side to side. ‘Shall I try? If he takes away my wealth, I can easily catch him. After all, it’s my kingdom.’ He did all the calculations. ‘In any case, I am not happy with this wealth; if he takes it away, what is there to lose? It is not useful to me, so let him have it.’

So the king decided to take the risk. The next day he converted his wealth into diamonds, put them all in one bag, and brought the bag to the master. He stood in front of the master. Without saying a single word, the master suddenly snatched the bag and started running. The king understood that this master really was a cheat. He started chasing the master.

We cannot successfully chase someone who lives in the forest since he knows the secrets of the forest. That is why professional people never catch bandits. Not only in this country, but all over the world, professional police never catch bandits. The bandits know the secrets of the landscape. The master ran this way and that, since he knew the forest very well. The king was new to the forest and tried his best to follow. This chase went on and on. The king wondered why he had taken such a risk. He was blaming himself and suffering. 'When I return to the country, I will have nothing. I will be a beggar, I will need to beg in order to eat,' he thought. He visualized scenes of his poverty. He began suffering his poverty. Poverty had already entered his mind. When he was rich, he was suffering; now he was suffering due to poverty. That is the paradox of money: When it is there, it gives suffering; when it not there, again it gives suffering.

When it became evening, the king was about to give up. He thought, 'Now I cannot do anything. This master knows the forest too well.' At this point, the master stopped running. The moment the king saw that the master had stopped, he quickly caught up with him and grabbed the bag.

The master laughed. The king could not understand what was going on. The master said, 'Fool, now take this and enjoy.'

Suddenly, the king felt that he had become rich! Just because he had missed his wealth for one day, he felt he had become rich!

The master said, 'Fool, you were depressed because you took everything for granted. Now the same wealth that you lost for one day, you have back again; go and enjoy it.' The king came out of his depression just by being made to miss his wealth for one day!

In our life also we undergo the same thing when we allow the 'insecurity consciousness' to happen to us. Please understand that I am using the word 'consciousness'. The feeling of insecurity is a consciousness; it is the truth. If we allow this feeling to happen in us we will never take life for granted. We will start enjoying life intensely. If for just one day we intensely miss what we have, we will never take life for granted again.

For example, try to live for even twelve hours without opening your eyes. Keep them closed. You will then never take your eyes for granted! Similarly, we will never take our life for granted if we know it will be taken away from us. We forget that it will be taken away from us one day, that is the problem. We suppress the fear, the insecurity about losing our lives; that is why we never enjoy life, and we take it for granted.

The moment we experience insecurity, when we understand that life might be taken away from us any moment, we start living intensely! If we are depressed or bored, and we lose everything for just twelve hours, we will suddenly understand this truth. We will never again take life for granted.

The king felt bored because he took life for granted. When we face death, when we face insecurity, immediately we understand how we have been taking life for granted, and we start living intensely. That is what this story means.

Yama gave relationships, wealth and finally enlightenment to Nachiketa. When people come out of the darkness or death meditation in the NSP, they tell me that they understand the real meaning of relationships; this means Yama has blessed them! They know the value of their wealth now; it means Yama has blessed them with wealth and now they will start living. They realize that life is the ultimate blessing, and naturally Yama has showered that blessing on them. They understand that the body may die and that there is something beyond the body and mind that exists in them; that is what I call ātmajñāna (Self-knowledge).

We have the blessings of relationships, wealth and enlightenment when we face fear and death with clarity. Here, when Krishna speaks of fearlessness, He means, ‘Face it, face the fear; only then fearlessness can happen.’ Only when we face the instinct to survive and the instinct to possess, will we enter the zone of fearlessness.

Until then it can never happen. You can face the instinct for survival or the instinct for possession only by making decisions based on the concept of ‘You’, not on the concept of ‘me’.

As long as you work, act, speak and think centered on ‘me, me, me’, you will be a demon; you will work out of the instinct for survival and the instinct for possession. When you work based on the concept of ‘You, you, you,’ you will radiate a new energy.

Try this simple experiment: Try living for others’ sake for just one week. I am not asking you to give away your property or any such thing.

Usually we think, ‘What is there in this for me?’ For example, if your wife calls you up to see a movie, you say, ‘No, I want to go to the beach.’ You always force your preference. Just for one week, in your office, in your house, wherever you go, decide and be with the attitude of ‘you’ instead of ‘me’. Try this with simple, day-to-day life decisions, not things like giving away your property. Immediately the mind thinks, ‘If I start thinking based on ‘you’, people will take me for granted, people may exploit me, people may cheat me.’

Alright, that is fine. Now nobody is cheating you. You are living centered on the idea of ‘me’. You are protecting yourself. Are you happy? Come on, be frank, are you happy? Not really! So why not then give a chance to be centered on ‘You’? We live all our life with this ‘āsurī sampat,’ what Krishna calls demonic nature, the attitude of ‘me, me, me’.

Now just for one week, why not try this? These workshops and your time in the ashram is such a great chance to practice this. At present, when you come back into the hall for the next session, what do you do? You grab your seat. You leave your kerchief also to block the seat! First, you grab your seat. When prasād (blessed food) is given, you first grab your plate. For one week, take your plate after another person receives the food. See that the person next to you is comfortable. When you get up in the morning, ask the other person, ‘Are you okay? Why don’t you use the bathroom first, then I will use it.’ We always say, ‘Wait, I have to go first, I have some urgent work.’ Instead of that attitude, try this experiment of letting others use or talk first with simple, small things. ‘Please go ahead and use that. I will use it after you.’ Or, ‘You have been working continuously; let me help you with this small task.’

For one week, put that ‘You’ into your being. You will not know from where the bliss suddenly comes! Suddenly you will feel that your whole being is relaxed. When you don’t give attention to ‘me’, you will never be ‘in tension’. As long as you are giving attention to ‘me’, you will be continuously in tension.

When you replace ‘me’ with ‘You’, a deep inner healing happens in you.

What I am talking about is not morality. Please don’t think I am teaching you how to live happily. There are many who write books like, ‘How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.’ I am not the person to teach ‘How-to stuff.’ I am not giving this as morality; I am giving this as a spiritual practice. If you are working towards spiritual growth, if you are a ‘professional seeker’, please try this one practice. I use the term ‘professional seeker’ because there is always a group of people who are professional seekers. If any swami (holy man) comes, they attend his programs. Any swami, any book, any spiritual event - they will always be present. People come to me and say, ‘Swamiji, for the last thirty years, I have been seeking.’ Don’t feel proud about that.

Don’t be proud that you are a professional seeker. Please be clear that if you have pride that you are a professional seeker or that you know some swami or the other, or that you have attended some discourse or the other, some meditation program or the other, you are not on the true spiritual path; you are just window shopping, that’s all. If you are really a seeker, if you think you are seeking spirituality, then do this one spiritual practice. Try this single spiritual practice for seven days. If you think there is any way I can help you, take this single statement and forget about everything else. Work based on this single statement: instead of deciding based on 'me, me, me', decide based on 'You, you, you'.

I am not asking you to give away or renounce anything; just try this with simple, day-to-day decisions. You will see something happening in your being. The tension, that solid weight in you will melt, loosen up; you will experience inner healing and a tremendous and cool, blissful breeze will happen in you. Naturally when you get a glimpse of this mood, you automatically start expressing this attitude in day-to-day life, everyday and every moment.

We always choose words and actions based on 'me'. For instance, when we shout at somebody, we say, 'I am doing it for his good, for his sake.' When someone is angry, we say, 'See, he is like a demon, he is mad at others, he is shouting.' When someone else is angry, we say he is a demon; when we get angry, we say it is for that person's good! 'If I don't teach him, who will teach him? I am doing it only for his good.'

Please understand, don't play with words; be straight. Experiment with this for the next week, not longer. After that you can become your old self. You can't become, that is a different issue! Try it on simple things. Instead of deciding based on 'me', decide based on 'You'. The irritation that you continuously carry will disappear. The instinct to survive, to possess, will disappear. You will become an empty being.

You will become a hollow bamboo. Whenever you become a hollow bamboo, you are a flute in the hands of the Divine. Whatever happens through you will be divine; you will imbibe the divine nature.

Krishna further explains step-by-step how to imbibe divine nature: How to cause the cognitive shift at the deep, subtle level.

Please understand that working at the level of satva (equanimity), rajas (aggression), or tamas (slothfulness) is difficult. It is akin to changing all the servants in order to change the master. We will never be able to do that. Just change the master and all the servants will be transformed.

Here, Krishna gives the technique to change the master, the ego that makes decisions. He gives the straight technique for the cognitive shift to happen. At present, cognition happens in us keeping the 'I' as the center; He gives a simple technique to replace the 'I' with 'You' so that the cognitive shift happens. This same system will be used for the divine nature.

Rama and Ravana in the Hindu epic Ramayana, are both energetic; both have the brahmāstra (high energy weapon). The only difference is that one is centered on 'I'; the other one is centered on 'you.' That is the only thing that makes one person divine and the other demonic. Rama is divine, Ravana is demonic.

Krishna goes further to give subtle techniques to experience the consciousness of 'You', the ultimate consciousness, the consciousness of the Whole, the 'daivika sampat' or divine nature of your being through this cognitive shift.

Step-by-step Krishna explains all these great qualities. As I mentioned, please don't try to practice these qualities as a separate effort. The more we try to practice these separately, the more schizophrenic we will become. We will be fighting with ourselves. Do something that will make you express these qualities in life. Automatically you will become blissful, free from anger and full of dharmic (righteous) qualities.

When we do anything including charity, by force, or social conditioning, merely because we have been told that we will go to heaven, we will have trouble. Never do dāna (charity) if you feel something is being taken from you. The word dāna, giving or donating, is wrong; sharing is the right word. Because we feel we have enough, we share with others. With the word dāna, there is ego, the thought, 'I am higher, the giver; you are lower, the receiver.' With sharing, the idea of donation does not exist. The thought is, 'We have got it, let us share.'

Sharing is the right attitude. If we do charity with the attitude of 'I', we will later check whether our name has appeared on the plaque! 'Has my name been spelled correctly? Is it the right size? Is the font larger or smaller than that of someone else's name?' Especially in India, even if a tube light is presented to a temple, it will be inscribed with the words 'Ramanathan, son of Somanathan, in the memory of his mother, Saundarya Lakshmi, who passed away on this date, presented this to this temple on this day.' It will be painted with black paint. When we switch on the tube light, we will just see a black line on the wall – no light!

Ramana Maharshi says beautifully, 'When you don't ask, you will be given.' I tell people, 'When you don't tell what good things you do, I will tell.' When people do things for the ashram but do not tell anyone about them, I tell the whole world about them. However, when they tell, I keep quiet. When you don't do from the attitude of 'I', you won't feel like something is being taken away from you. Above all, you will feel tremendous fulfillment. Anything you do with the attitude of 'you' will make you radiate these beautiful, divine qualities.

Even Yashoda (the foster mother of Krishna) had the idea of 'I'.

Let me tell you a lovely story. It is about a great devotee named Tarangini. It is a wonderful expression of love; the 'I' and 'you' are expressed truly here.

The story goes that within twelve hours of Krishna's birth, He was handed over to Yashoda. He took birth at midnight, and before sunrise, He was brought to Yashoda. This was because of a prophecy that Kamsa, His uncle, would come to kill Him at sunrise. Yashoda brought Him up until He left his home, Vrindavan. Despite her bringing Him up, when Yashoda asked Him to sing or play the flute, He would not play.

However, when Tarangini, a devotee of Krishna from a lower caste asked Krishna to play, He would play for her. She would stand in a corner and would not come in front of Him. She would quietly enjoy His presence and music from a distance. Once Krishna had gone, Tarangini would touch the dust in the place where He had stood and played.

One day Krishna forgot the flute and went away. Of course, He did not forget, He must have pretended to have forgotten it. Would Krishna forget? He would make others forget, but He would never forget anything! He pretended to have forgotten the flute. Tarangini noticed the flute and with love and care, kept it in her home to hand over to Krishna.

The next day Krishna said, 'Someone has taken My flute.' He pretended to search for it. He learned that Tarangini had the flute and went to her house. Since He was from a higher caste, He needed a reason to go to the area of the lower community people. Yashoda would ask Him why he had gone there. She would punish Him, since higher caste people did not go to that area. Krishna went to the area which was full of mud, dirty roads, and a hut in which a thousand suns were shining, meaning that there were a thousand holes in the hut! Krishna entered the house and asked for His flute.

Tarangini was totally shaken to see Krishna in her house. She was overwhelmed; she was unable to speak. She ran and brought the flute to Him. Krishna continued His act, asking if He should play the flute. And who can refuse when Krishna asks? She replied, 'My Lord, even Gods and "&is come down to listen to Your music, how can I say no?'

He sat on the steps, and started playing; she sat in a corner filled with ecstasy. Yashoda arrived at that moment. She felt terribly upset because He had never played the flute for her.

She said, 'I take care of you; I give you food and look after you completely. You never play for me. Yet you come and play here for this urchin girl!'

Please understand that the attitude of Tarangini is 'you' and the attitude of Yashoda is 'me'. Due to this, all Yashoda's service had no positive result for her. Since Yashoda disturbed him, Krishna stopped playing. The tune that Krishna played to Tarangini is known as punnagavarali, 'the broken tune'.

Krishna told Yashoda, 'You served Me, no doubt, but with the attitude of 'I'. Tarangini is devoted to Me; you are devoted to yourself. As long as I am your Krishna, you take care of Me; that means you are devoted to yourself, you are centered on yourself and not on Me. That is why you are unable to digest five minutes of separation.'

This is the instinct to possess. Krishna continued, 'You have come all the way here; you are not even giving five minutes of My space to her. Tarangini never asked Me to come to her house. She never expected that I would play for her. She is totally dedicated, with only the attitude of 'you'.'

Then Krishna blessed Tarangini saying, 'You will have s&m&pya mukti; you will become a shanbaga flower and reside in My garland. You will stay with Me forever.'

There are four muktis or levels of liberation: s&lokya mukti, s&r&pya mukti, s&m&pya mukti and s&yujya mukti. S&lokya means 'same place'; it means we will be allowed to stay in Vaikunta, Vishnu's abode. We will have a residence in heaven. S&r&pya means we will have the same form as the Lord. For example, we can see Jaya- Vijaya, the gatekeepers of heaven; they have the same &ankh (conch), cakra (discus), gada (mace), padma (lotus) - all the accessories of Vishnu in the same svar&pa (form).

S&m&pya (being near) is being in the inner circle; the cakra that Vishnu is carrying has achieved s&m&pya mukti! Becoming enlightened oneself is s&yujya mukti. S&m&pya mukti is the best enlightenment because we can enjoy Him forever! It is like an ant forever enjoying the sugar candy. Sāyujya mukti is like becoming the sugar candy. This is for all the jñānīs. For devotees, the ultimate state is sāmīpya mukti. So Krishna blessed Tarangini with sāmīpya mukti.

He said, 'May you become a flower in My garland and be on My body. May you be on Me.' He then turned to Yashoda and said, 'Because you served with the attitude of 'me, me, me', may you not have any temple on planet earth.'

Yashoda served Krishna so much, but have you seen a single Yashoda temple? No! Everywhere you see Radha temples. If you go to Vrindavan, Radha is worshipped more than Krishna. Even a milkman when selling milk will call out, 'Radhe, Radhe,' not 'Krishna, Krishna.' Despite all her service, since it was centered on 'me', Yashoda was unable to achieve enlightenment.

On the other hand, Tarangini, being born of a lower community, was never even close to Krishna. She was not allowed to serve Him; however, because she lived with the attitude of 'you, you, you', Krishna went to her home, blessed her with eternal closeness to Him, and gave her liberation.

Even if they run after the Divine, people with the attitude of 'I' can never reach the Divine, because the Divine runs away from them. If we live with the attitude of 'you', even if we live in a hut with a thousand holes, Krishna waits for us at our doorstep. Many stories illustrate how the 'I' drives the Divine away, and the 'you' attracts the Divine. One small attitude change can take care of the cognitive shift.

Let me tell you one more small story. It is about the fight between the śaṅkh (conch), cakra (discus) and pādukā (sandals) of Vishnu.

Vishnu has a śaṅkh, cakra and pādukā. One day He returns home after having gone out. Vishnu is blissful energy, and likes to go around and enjoy!

Vaikuṇṭha, Vishnu's abode is totally different from Shiva's abode. It is a fun place; continuously dance goes on and all varieties of food are served!

Anyhow, Vishnu returns and leaves his sandals outside His bedroom and goes in to rest on his beautiful serpent bed, Adisesha. The conch and discus look at the sandals and laugh. 'See, you may carry Vishnu all day long, but when He comes into the room, you must stay out. Only we can enter with Him. You have not really achieved sāmīpya mukti (close to the Lord). We are with him twenty-four hours a day. For the twelve hours of the night, you are outside. So you have half sāmīpya mukti; we have full sāmīpya mukti.' The sandal replies, 'Alright, what can I do? Whatever Vishnu wants, let it be.' The next morning when Vishnu comes out, the sandals ask Him, 'Lord, the conch and discus are making fun of me. Is it true that You are unhappy with me? Is it true that I have only fifty percent sāmīpya mukti? What mistake have I made?'

Lord Vishnu laughs and tells the sandals, 'Attitude and time does not mean that you are unimportant or they are important. Attitude and time do not show favoritism, I have no favoritism; each of you has a different place, work and things to do.'

He then adds, 'By worshipping the conch and discus, people cannot get liberation. However, by worshipping you, they can get liberation! The sandals when worshiped can give enlightenment. The discus kills; the conch declares victory in war. These are their roles; worshipping them cannot give liberation. Your duties are different. Your place is different. Only by holding you, people can attain liberation. Since they have made funs of you, let them be born on planet earth and worship you for fourteen years. The conch and discus will take birth as Bharata and Shatrughna (brothers of Lord Rama, in the Indian epic, Ramayana) and worship the sandals of Lord Rama for fourteen years when He is exiled to the forest. Let them worship you and understand that only you can liberate them.'

We must understand that people around the master have different responsibilities. If we think that some are important and others unimportant, we will face difficulties. The person who thinks he is important will be made to kneel in front of the person whom he thinks is unimportant.

The conch and the discus started thinking 'me, me, me' and so naturally they had to suffer. The sandals thought, 'You, You, You' and were therefore worshipped. Vishnu blessed the sandals saying, 'Let the conch and discus worship you and attain liberation, and then they will never talk about you like this.'

How we are centered and where our attention is focused is what makes our life demonic or divine. Divine or demon is determined only by one concept: 'You' or 'me'.

Now, here is another important point. After hearing about 'You' and 'me', the next thought that may come to our mind is, 'Swamiji, I do not know whether I am working based on 'You' or based on 'me'. I am worried about whether I am a demon or divine. Please guide me, tell me, based on which quality I am working.' Let me assure you that if this fear arises in you, you are divine. The person who is ready to look into his mind, the person who is afraid about whether he is living rightly or wrongly, always lives rightly. Only the person who is arrogant is demonic. The person who is demonic never considers whether he does right or wrong. He thinks that he is always right.

Arjuna also has that fear, 'Bhagavān, am I living with divine or demonic nature?' He is not expressing that feeling, but his face reveals his fear.

Now Lord Krishna explains that living with transcendental qualities, that is the attitude of 'you', one achieves liberation or enlightenment - nivritti. By living with the idea of 'I' we create more bondage. The demonic qualities make for bondage, meaning pravritti.

Lord Krishna assures Arjuna that he is born with divine qualities.

If we have ever contemplated whether we were living with 'You' or 'I', if the doubt ever arose, if we have suffered, if we have felt fear or guilt, be clear that we are born with divine nature. On the other hand, if we feel that we are living properly, and that we came here because we had no other entertainment, with the thought, 'Let me listen to whatever master is saying,' if we have that attitude, then we know our nature!

If we have looked once into our being, considered and thought, 'Am I living with demonic nature? Or am I living with divine nature? What is my nature?' If we looked even once into our being and tried to measure ourselves with this scale, we are in the position of Arjuna. Be very clear that we too are born with divine qualities. So if you are worried after hearing the qualities, then be sure, you are born with divine qualities and you don't need to worry about it any further.

When a person who is righteous listens to such words, he will try to verify his own nature, since he is centered on dharma, righteousness. People who are adharmic, non-righteous, even if they listen to such discourses, think, 'Oh, Swamiji speaks about all these things as though he lives them. Let us see how he lives them. Let us see if his living is in tune with his ideas.' A person who is divine tries to chisel or correct himself, whereas a person who is demonic tries to correct others. With demonic nature, the person holds the hammer and chisel towards others, whereas with the divine nature, he holds the hammer and chisel towards himself.

When we carve ourselves, we become God. If we have ever looked within ourselves, then we are born with the divine nature. Now Arjuna has become mature; the moment he hears these truths, he looks into his being. Naturally then Lord Krishna tells him that he is born with divine nature.

Krishna describes the qualities of a person who lives based on ‘I, I, I.’ I don’t think we need to understand these qualities because we already have these qualities which is why we still feel we are suffering. There is no need to read these qualities, because we know enough of them. All that we need to know is how to live with the attitude of ‘You, You, You’.

Please understand that when we live with the attitude of ‘You, You, You’, we completely forget ourselves; we disappear into Existence. We are in bliss.

Let me share an important technique that Lord Krishna speaks about. For three days, think you are somebody else. It may seem funny! For instance, if you are a doctor, for three days think you are a beach freak. Clearly visualize yourself as somebody else, not a doctor. The moment you change the idea about youself, a tremendous freedom happens to you. Your tension disappears.

Before taking sanyās, aspirants undergo a meditation called 'bhūta śarīra visərja' meaning they are giving up their entire past. They perform the death ceremony of their parents, śrāddhā, even if their parents are alive. This is because if the parents die after the person takes sanyās (renunciation), who will do the death rituals for them? Therefore they do it now itself. They also do their own śrāddhā (death rituals) since they will have no children and there will be no one to do it for them!

After the śrāddhā, they must lose their identity, whatever they may have been - doctor, lawyer or engineer. To do that they smear their entire body with sacred ash, and like a ghost, they put on rudrākṣamālā (necklace of the holy rudrākṣa seeds) and celebrate! Their identity is completely lost and they beg for alms. They do not associate with their identity. They completely break their identity. For three days, they meditate that they are somebody else. Only if they pass this meditation and break from their identity for three days, are they given sanyās.

This is 'bhūta śarīra visərja', breaking away from our past identity.

For three days try this meditation. For three days, think you are somebody else. Whatever you think of as your property, forget it; whatever you think are your problems, throw them out; whatever you think of as your profession, give it up. You can pick it up later, but for three days throw it all away.

You will see a new consciousness rising in you. If you throw away the ‘me’, that alone liberates you, and if you start working on ‘You’, you experience tremendous bliss. When you drop ‘me’, you experience peace; when you start working with ‘You’, you experience peace and bliss. This is the straight path to peace and bliss.

A demon is not one with horns on his head, with protruding teeth, with six hands and a fearsome look. Krishna says that one with a demonic nature is not aware of what bondage is and what liberation is. People of this nature are so deeply immersed in their attachment and aversion that they no longer feel themselves separated from these qualities. They are so much in bondage to their senses that they can no longer know they are in bondage.

To a madman in an asylum, the rest of the world is mad, not he. He is the only sane person in an otherwise insane world.

Once a famous actor went for a public relations visit to an institution for the mentally disabled. This man was so well known that everyone recognized him. As he was taken on a visit around this asylum, an inmate asked him curiously, ‘Who are you?’

The actor was surprised since he thought everyone recognized him. He said quite pompously that he was so and so, the famous actor.

The inmate signaled him aside and whispered, ‘You know, that is what I said to them when I came here. They cured me in six months. You also stay here six months and you will be alright!’

Many of us are like this! We do not see a prison wall around us, that’s all. However, we are led exactly the same way through greed and fear, through attachment and aversion.

We can excuse rats for constantly running in a maze without knowing how to get out. How can we excuse a human being who has been given the gift of cognition and discrimination? Why don’t we use the higher intelligence provided to us to at least understand where we are going wrong?

A small story:

A preacher attracted many disciples because he promised that he would take them to heaven after they died.

One day the preacher died. Two disciples committed suicide so that they could follow him to heaven. They did not want to miss the chance, in case he forgot what he had promised them. The preacher was happy that two disciples followed him in death. The three reached the gates of this beautiful palace and the guard seemed to be aware of their coming, and let them in. The preacher turned around and said to the disciples, 'See, whatever I told you is coming true. All those fools who did not follow you missed their chance.'

Three beautiful women received them and served them delicious food and wine. They told them, 'Whatever you wish for will be yours to enjoy. All you need to do is merely think of what you want.' For the next few days, they thoroughly enjoyed the palace with its comforts. Even before they thought of something, what they wanted materialized before them.

In a week's time, they became bored. The preacher said, 'This is a wonderful place, yet I am homesick.' His disciples said, 'Yes, master, we too are homesick; this is no fun anymore. We cannot even fantasize. Even before we fantasize and finish, it becomes reality. We never thought we could become bored of heaven, but that has happened.'

Looking around, they noticed a few windows. However these windows were locked and they could not see anything outside. Even when they wished that these windows would open, they would not. Instead, the guard came in. He explained, 'Sir, your desires only apply to the space within the four walls of this palace. You cannot open these windows.'

The preacher said, 'Look, we are bored. We are homesick. We want to look at planet earth where we came from. Even if we cannot go there, can't we at least look?'

The guard said, 'Sir, no, you cannot.'

The preacher became annoyed, 'Can we then at least go to hell?'

The guard turned to him surprised, 'Where do you think you have been all this week?'

We get ourselves so comfortable in our own hell, in our own demonic nature, that we can no longer differentiate between hell and heaven! We cannot tell demonic and divine nature apart. We do not know the difference between bondage and liberation.

Q: Swamiji, from what I hear, our default state is the divine, and we slip into demonic nature. Does caring for others keep us in this divine state? You are right. As I said, even if you start with the doubt, 'Perhaps I'm not divine,' you start moving into that default divine nature.

Caring for others, focusing on the 'you' instead of 'I,' automatically takes you to the path of the Divine. The problem with most people however, is that their caring is a business transaction. They care when there is something in it for them. Whether the transaction is with mother, father, spouse, son, daughter, relative or friend, there is a 'What's in it for me?' attitude.

The care arises not out of real love, but out of attachment or aversion. We care because something may happen if we do not, or we care so that something good happens to us. It is like providing any other service. It becomes contractual.

When the focus is on 'you,' as in caring for someone with no expectation, with no conditions, we slip into a state of bliss. This state of bliss is our natural state. When you are focused on 'I', you invite suffering and misery.

Remember one thing: God is closest when we are blissful; when we are in misery we are farthest from God. The dilemma is that most of us remember God when we are in misery and that is the moment when we are farthest away also! Even if we shout from a place of misery, our voice cannot reach Him. When we are blissful, we need not even whisper. Without saying a single word, our prayer is understood. Even our silence is eloquent.

This has been the problem throughout the ages: Man remembers God only when he is miserable, which is the wrong moment to remember Him. When you remember God in misery, that means you want to use Him. And God cannot be used as a means to some end. That is sacrilege. It is using God as a tool. To use another human being as a means is immoral; what shall we say about using God as a means to another end?

When we are in a blissful moment, when we feel blessed by Existence, let us savor that moment. That is when we are closest to God. Let that moment be of gratitude, prayer, and meditation. In that moment, remember God existentially, not verbally. Let your whole being feel the vibration and become overwhelmed with the beyond. Don't lose that moment. It is precious.

Everybody is born ready for divinity. If we miss it, it is totally our responsibility. We miss it because we never look within. We miss it because we never use the opportunity that life gives us. We miss it because we are lazy. We miss it because we are unconscious, sleepy. We miss it because we are not aware of the great blessing that life is.

# How To Save Our Planet

16.8 People with such demonic qualities think there is no ultimate energy or intelligence, which is running this planet earth, which is running the universe, and that this whole creation is produced out of lust and desire, and is unreal.

16.9 Following this material view of creation, these degraded souls with small intellect, lost in themselves and committing cruel deeds, are engaged in the destruction of the world.

Please understand, the energy that is within us, the energy that drives us is the same energy that drives this universe, this solar system and planet earth. This energy is intelligence, the highest intelligence.

Krishna says that when we are unable to recognize this energy, we are demonic. We do not believe everything operates out of this energy; instead we believe we make things happen with our greed, lust and desires. We believe we run this world with our puny intellect that we consider intelligence.

For years, many religious institutions believed planet earth was the center of this universe. They killed millions for believing otherwise. Though they may have believed in some form of God who created this universe, they seemed to think that this God was situated on this planet.

They assumed that they ruled earth, and that there was nothing beyond them, so they could destroy people who did not share such a belief. We need not even be irreligious to be demonic. We just need to be so self-centered that even our God is at our disposal. Then we are demonic.

Such a belief is different from the concept of believing that you are God and that God resides in you. This belief arises from deep awareness instead of dark ignorance and is totally selfless. Once you become God, the rest of the world is part of you and you are part of that world. There is no longer the duality of 'I' and 'You'. Both merge into the non-duality of either 'I' or 'You'; it does not matter.

Even to this day, there is no logical explanation for the creation of this universe. There are theories; that is all. All of them are only theories. The Big Bang theory says that the universe was created in one huge cosmic explosion or Big Bang. But it cannot answer the question, 'What caused that explosion?' What was there before or who struck the match or what created that explosion is unknown. If there was something that led up to the Big Bang, how can the Big Bang be the cause of creation?

More intelligent and aware scientists understand and are creating new concepts. They too, like our sages, suggest that a cosmic intelligence runs the universe. The universe is not dead; it is not just matter. They say that the world is not just pure physics and chemistry.

People who think the world is pure chemistry become demons. Naturally, if we think this whole world is just inert matter, we try to acquire more and more by killing everybody, by hook or by crook, by right or wrong means, and we do what we want to. Only when we understand that this universe is intelligence, and that it responds to our thoughts and activities, will we live properly, or start really living.

A small story:

A group of scientists thought they could do anything and everything. They challenged God, 'Now you are unnecessary. Whatever you do, we can do. We can even clone human beings. What do you say? Now we can also develop whatever you have created on earth. Our department has developed everything. We can do anything.'

God was surprised to see all the scientists' creations - the sizes of the bananas, and other fruits they had created, and so forth!

The scientists then challenged God to a competition. 'Come face us. We will do whatever you do. We are better than you; you can go and rest. We don't need you anymore.'

God agreed to face the scientists.

God created a plant, and immediately the scientists created the same plant in a better way. One by one, they created the same thing God created. Suddenly, God took a little dust and created a man. The scientists said, 'This is not a big deal, now that we have the ability to clone.' They took some dust and were about to create a man.

God said 'Stop. Bring your own dust and create. Don't use My dust!'

Whatever we may achieve, wherever science may go, the Divine is alive. God exists and the cosmic intelligence runs this whole universe. We may create man out of dust, but where will we get the dust from? We cannot create dust! It has to be God's dust! Be clear that there is a pure energy and intelligence that is the source, the underpinning of the whole universe.

When a person is living within the limits of the intellect and 'me', he cannot experience the Whole. He knows only logic and calculation and with that arrogance thinks he knows everything.

Many young people come to me with their parents who force them to prostrate at my feet. I never like people being forced to fall at my feet. If these young people want they can leave, but they stand there and ask questions such as, 'Why should I fall at your feet?' I tell them, 'I have not asked you to. Why should you stand here and argue?' Yet their arrogance is so much that they stand and argue. I think to myself, 'They should probably get married.' After a year when they return as married people, without prompting they simply do a saṣṭanga namaskar, a full prostration, because in one year they would have been completely trained to surrender!

What we cannot do in ten years can be done in one year of marriage! Those same people fall flat on the ground and know how to listen. They are polite. They say, 'Yes, Swamiji!' They know the power of the 'Yes' mantra!

That is what should be done to demonic people: Simply get them married and the demonic qualities will disappear. Perhaps that is why God created the institution of marriage!

People with demonic qualities say the world is produced out of sexual desire and lust. Lust is the reason for the whole universe, they say.

Please be clear that lust cannot be the reason. Intelligence, the divine energy is the cause and effect of this whole universe; the cause and effect is the Divine that is responsible for the universe. However, when we think it is lust or that we are responsible, we live with the idea of 'me, me, me'. Krishna says firmly that when we believe that we are the cause of this universe, this Existence, we are so deluded and locked in our own identities, we destroy the world and ourselves as well.

Our ancient sages, the great

ṛṣis, were not fools. They did not retire to forests because they had nowhere else to go. Many were great kings, rulers of this planet, and they voluntarily left behind all that they had, so that they could understand where they came from. It was not enough for them to read and listen to the experiences of others; they chose to experience the truth themselves.

In the process, they realized themselves and became liberated. What they realized in one sense was simple. As many others over thousands of years have discovered, they discovered that they were part of this cosmic Existence. They realized and experienced that they too were Gods. They found that the same energy that operated in this universe operated within them. They experienced that every living being on earth came from the same Source, and is the same Source.

If we studied elementary geography in school, we know that at the core of the earth there is molten magma, not very different from what there is in other planets. Around the core the earth has cooler layers and finally there is the topsoil on which plants grow and we live.

Now, what do we do when we need water and there is no river nearby? We dig a well and, as if by magic, water appears. Now our neighbor wants water; he too digs a well and finds water. Our well and his well may be in two different houses and owned by two different people, yet are these waters different?

They come from the same source, whether you dig a well in India or whether you dig a well in the United States. The locations are at two ends of the world, but the source is the same. Not merely the source, the water is also the same. Yet, we fight over common resources, thinking that we created them and therefore we own them.

This attitude of selfishness leads only to destruction of everything - the environment, the world and all living beings. One part of this world, perhaps with less than one-sixth of the world's population, the so-called developed world, the so-called Western world, consumes more than half of the natural resources of this world. What right do they have to do this?

Not only do they consume more than half the resources, they cause such pollution that the earth trembles. Gradually all the glaciers of this world will disappear, the poles will melt, the oceans will rise and a large part of the world will be under water. However, the underdeveloped world, the poorer parts of the world will be under water, because the people will not have the means to get themselves out of trouble.

We actually waste a lot of water. Why do we need forks, spoons and knives to eat when we have hands and fingers? Also, to clean the crockery and utensils, we need more water and detergents. Detergents pollute the water in our streams. We think our fingers may be dirty; have we ever looked at the utensils we eat with? If you look under the microscope, you will find more bacteria than you can ever imagine.

Then we need to sterilize those utensils. We use chemicals to do that. Those chemicals can lead to cancer. Doctors in the West have warned that reheating food in plastic containers in microwave ovens can lead to cancer. Soon, they will find that eating food stored in refrigerators leads to other complications.

It was said by our Eastern forefathers long ago that food should not be eaten four hours after it is cooked. It becomes non-satvic then and it is unfit for our energy. That's why most people are demonic. Who eats food within four hours? Not even those who cook it. So, we descend into tamas, ignorance, by eating non-satvic, de-energized food, and convert ourselves into demons.

Everything adds up. The Hitlers of this world do not happen by accident. They are created by society. When Krishna says alpabuddhi, low intelligence, He is not referring to our IQ; He is referring to our emotional and spiritual quotient. He refers to the absence of higher intelligence and awareness.

How can we be aware when we are being rushed from one activity to another? How can awareness arise when we are brainwashed into a belief that we can multi-task? We constantly look at what results we must get, rather than focusing on what we are doing.

How many of us think about a job when we are engaged in that job? We drive listening to the news or music. We eat while working on the computer. We talk to another person while watching the television. Even in the shower, we argue with ourselves! What do we do in a focused manner, while staying in the present? No wonder we cannot sleep well, because all the demons of the day chase us in the night.

When we are not in the present, we are in a state of low intelligence; we become demons. We become Hitlers or worse. Hitler became one of the greatest demons the modern world has known because of his insecurities. He was conditioned by society to fear and hate. His fears were magnified so that the whole world feared him.

Low intelligence leads to cruel deeds. When we have no awareness of who we are, we do not care about anyone else. Not even about our parents. We are so self-centered that we will harm our mother if we feel in our imagination that she stands in our way.

All this can change; all this can be changed. All that is needed is the cognitive shift from the demon to the divine, from ‘I’ to ‘You’. There must be an understanding from childhood that this planet is common property and it cannot be owned and exploited or used by playing one against another. It can only be cared for together and shared.

Everyone must be educated to understand that anything that harms the environment harms everyone on planet earth. No one is protected. What is done in the USA affects people across the globe, in China and India, and vice versa.

We are not talking about the power of manmade weapons of mass destruction that can be set to destroy large numbers of people by pressing a button. We are talking about everything that we do, the way we eat, the way we dress and the way we live, everything affects all of us as these affect the environment we live in.

The environment we live in, the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that gives the food we eat, all this is energy. This is what we call panca bhūta in Sanskrit, the five elemental energies that sustain us. When these are destroyed by our low intelligence, out of our selfishness, the world around us collapses.

O’m is the sound that is heard in one’s own being when all other noise in the mind has stopped. When there are no thoughts floating in the mind, when there is nothing to disturb, one senses a deep vibration in the being. This is the sound of O’m.

We don’t make this sound. We cannot make this sound. It must happen by itself. It is not a mantra to be chanted. We must be utterly silent and receptive. We must listen. We must learn to listen, not merely with our ears but with our whole being. Something then happens within us. Then we hear it. It is what the sages call the still, small voice within. Zen masters call it the sound of one hand clapping, and vedic tradition terms it prá’ava mantra and calls it OM.

O is the soundless sound. It is the anata sound, the sound that is not created. We teach a meditation called the Mahmantra in our first-level Life Bliss Programs. This meditation energizes the anata cakra or heart energy center. Anata means that which is uncreated. O is that sound which is creation itself; it was not created. When you practice this meditation to energize your anata cakra, the O sound is created within you. That is why this meditation is called the Mahmantra, or great mantra. It is a tremendously powerful self-healing meditation.

Typically all invocations to deities begin with O as the first word or prefix. There are mantras that are chanted in prayers called a
ottaras (108 names) or sahasranamas (1008 names). These mantras are descriptions of the deities, each mantra extolling one or another feature of the deity. Usually these are prefixed by the word O. They are suffixed with the word nama
. Nama
literally translates as, ‘I am not,’ signifying surrender to the deity.

The first verse of Vishnusahasranama, the 1008 names of Vishnu, is ‘O achyutya namaha’. It means ‘Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu’. The Vishnusahasranama is Bhishma’s prayer to Krishna, as Bhishma lay awaiting death on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. As such, it is part of Mahabharata.

# How To Save Ourselves

16.10 Filled with insatiable desires, hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance; holding wrong views due to delusion, they act with impure motives and for impermanent objectives.

16.11,12 Obsessed with endless anxiety lasting until death, considering sense gratification their highest aim, and convinced that sense pleasure is everything; bound by hundreds of ties of desire and enslaved and filled with anger, they strive to obtain wealth by unlawful means to fulfill sensual pleasures.

What Krishna says here is applicable to a vast majority of people today.

Times have changed since the days of the vedic educational system where, from childhood, one was guided toward self-awareness. Modern day education is based upon logic, science and rules, and is short on self-awareness and dharma, righteousness.

When we are caught in the material world, focused on 'I' and 'me', we are stuck in the mūlādhāra and svādhiṣṭhāna cakras. Greed and fear rule us and we are forever in the bondage of attachment and aversion. Whatever we do is with selfish and impure motives, and results in consequences that are mostly illusionary.

In the earlier verse, Krishna explained how a person with demonic nature could destroy this world. Here, He shows how such a person can destroy himself. Out of pride, arrogance and hypocrisy, such a person moves in a path directed by purely selfish and material objectives, and derives results that produce suffering.

When we focus on matter, we tend to lose sight of the energy inherent in matter. When we focus on the form, we cannot see the formless that enables the form. What is permanent in both cases is the formless energy that drives the form and matter. Science has moved a long way from the Newtonian model based on matter and form. This model is no longer relevant. From the days of Einstein, when matter and energy were linked inextricably, the concept has changed. Today all sciences accept that matter and energy not only co-exist, but also that the same object or event can be perceived or experienced by the observer as matter or energy or both.

So, we are back to the Indian master Adi Shankaracharya’s theory that the observer determines what is being observed. We may think this is fanciful. However, this is an accepted theory in the most advanced form of Quantum Physics today. Elementary subatomic particles, when observed in identical conditions with identical tools, appear differently to different observers. As yet there is no explanation for this phenomenon.

Our ancient sages explained that this happens based on our deep-rooted conditioning, which colors our perceptions. When science is sufficiently advanced, it will accept this truth.

Events that happen around us, as well as objects that surround us can be viewed in different ways. Everything depends upon our conditioning, our saṁskāras.

A couple with young children was driving along the beach one warm summer evening. A young woman in the convertible ahead of them stood up and waved. She had no clothes on!

The parents pretended nothing was amiss.

A small shrill voice piped up from the backseat, ‘Mom, Dad, look! The lady is not wearing a seat belt!’

Perceptions differ based on our experience bank. A child’s perception is innocent and without negativity. It is totally objective. Over time, we accumulate feelings of guilt, shame, fear, arrogance, hypocrisy, greed and irritation that our responses to situations are tinged by these negative emotions.

As I have explained before, most humans live in their mūlādhāra cakra, unable to rise beyond their survival needs. Their entire focus is on survival and their emotions are anger, greed and lust. Everything is physical, material and self-centered. It is all business.

A few are caught in their svādhiṣṭhāna cakra and stay there bound by insecurities. Fears of various kinds control them. Men are more prone to stay blocked in mūlādhāra and women in svādhiṣṭhāna. Both are unfulfilling. Both are unreal from a spiritual perspective. In m¡l¢dh¢ra, we are caught in fantasies. Our entire life is based on how we wish it were, rather than enjoying it as it is. This only leads to suffering.

A step further into sv¢di¼ªh¢na is still unreal, because no fear is real. All fears are created by the mind. All we need to do is face the fear, and it disappears. The most serious fear is death. This fear exists because we do not know how to live. It is linked to the blocked m¡l¢dh¢ra, because of which we do not live our life; we only fantasize about our life. We fantasize about our life with greed and we fantasize about our death with fear.

Once we know how to lead our life without fantasies, the fear of death disappears. Then suffering and misery dissolve automatically. We move from the demonic into the divine realm.

Here Lord Krishna explains the same concept in a deeper way, and gives a beautiful punchline.

Many take shelter in pleasures and pain that end only with their death. With some, even at that time, it doesn't end. They think of the money they paid for insurance, casket, marble gravestone, etc. They regard gratification of desires as the sole objective in life.

Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, in the Gita, Krishna says that the last thought before death determines how we are born in the next birth. Can we find a way to have good thoughts at the time of death?'

I agree that this is a practical question. Unfortunately, there is no practical answer. There is a word called v¢san¢ in Sanskrit that refers to our mental attitude. V¢san¢ is built up over our entire life from childhood, some of it even from before birth. It is the accumulated software of our mind that drives us; it is our operational system, the Microsoft Vista equivalent in our mind-ware.

V¢san¢s are the compilation of all our value systems and beliefs that define our mental attitude that in turn drives our actions. Unfortunately, v¢san¢s, along with their counterpart sa¼sk¢ras, memories, are part of our unconscious mind and we have no easy way to access them. Therefore, we have no means to control them and make things happen the way we want them to. It is as if we are on autopilot, with our v¢san¢s and sa¼sk¢ras driving us through life until we die.

The nature of the unconscious mind is to react to the senses. We may think we respond consciously. But almost all the time our reactions are instinctive, decided by vāsanās and saṁskāras, rather than by conscious application of our rational mind. This is what Krishna refers to as the nature of a demonic person. Instinct is the nature of animals, and because it is their nature, it works well for them. They flow with nature.

Instinct is not the nature of humans. Human consciousness can rise to the intuitive level, in which awareness results in high action. This is the potential of the Divine inherent in all of us. Instead of rising to the intuitive level, the super conscious level, most people find it easier to descend into the instinctive or unconscious level.

Adi Shankaracharya says beautifully in Bhaja Govindam,

'The body is worn out, hair has turned grey; the mouth has become toothless and in old age a stick is needed for support; yet the person is still full of desires. There is truly no end to desires.'

The problem is that we do not know how to fulfill desires. We go through peaks of emotions goaded by our desires and then slip into valleys of depression and guilt. Our emotions are not authentic because they do not touch our inner core. If we intensely experience these events born out of desires and perceived by our senses, we find that neither the peaks thrill us nor the valleys sadden us. We don't need to suppress or ignore these emotions; we can experience them fully without differentiation and move on.

How many times have we found that what we see and hear turn out to be not what we understand them to be? Our senses interpret what they sense in the light of vāsanās and saṁskāras. There is nothing real about what we see. Different people perceiving the same object or event have different interpretations based upon their conditioning. So it is with pleasure and pain. What is pleasure for one person can be pain for another. What is pleasure for one person causes pain to another person.

We rush towards pleasure and away from pain. We are so eager to fulfill our desires that we go to any length to amass wealth and do any deed, however questionable it may seem. As Krishna says, this goes on until we die. If we expect that we will suddenly be filled with thoughts of the Divine at death, even though our whole life we chased only pleasures, this is another foolish fantasy. If all our life we have been chasing money, at the point of death also, we will be obsessed with money, even if we realize that we can't take it with us. If all our life we have been obsessed with lust, we will die in lust. If we live as a demon, focused on ‘me’, we cannot suddenly take the leap to ‘You’ at the point of death. That does not happen.

Q: Swamiji, the cow is considered sacred and divine in Hindu religion. If it is based on ahi¼s¢ (non-violence), then no animal should be killed. Why the cow alone? Why not other animals?

All life is sacred, whether human, animal, plant or whatever else. In vedic times, it was primarily a pastoral lifestyle and the cow was an important part of day-to-day life. It was also a measure of wealth. The cow was seen to be giving itself selflessly, leading a ‘You’ focused existence. Based on these factors, it was given a place of honor and considered holy and sacred.

In a sense, the cow was given a special place of protection. Such protection was not available to all animals. Even if we extended that protection to all animals, what about other living beings, plants, fish and so on?

Only a person who is aware can practice ahi¼s¢, nonviolence. The same is true of satya, truth. We are not referring only to nonviolence and truth in action, but in thoughts and words as well. Such nonviolence and truth require purity of thoughts, words and action. This can only be done at a high level of conscious awareness.

We are not talking about the moral issue of whether an animal can be killed for food or whether a plant can be consumed as food. It is a conscious awareness when working with nature. For a wild animal like a tiger or lion, it is natural to hunt, kill and eat a deer. There is nothing immoral about it. That is the law of Existence. A lion or a tiger needs to kill other animals to survive.

That is not the case with humans. When a person is aware and conscious, he will not have the desire to consume meat. Nonviolence lives in that person. If one extends that logic to plants, the practice in ancient times was to use plant material only when it was ready to fall, like a fruit from a tree and so on. So, in ancient times, the concept of nonviolence was extended to plant life as well.

In our present day lifestyle, this may not be possible. We do not live nearby trees. In a few generations from now, children may ask, ‘What is a tree?’ In the same way, modern city children ask about a cow. They have never seen one! This is where the concept of aparigraha or living within one's basic needs, comes into application. When we limit our consumption to real needs, minimal needs, we stay within nature's tolerance limits. However, as a rule, man is greedy. What rules him are his wants, not his needs. While nature can meet the needs of all beings, it cannot meet the wants of even a single person. We need to live with the higher consciousness that respects nature.

People ask why we insist on Nithya Spiritual Healers being vegetarians, teetotalers and so on. We insist on this only for their good. The meditation through which Nithya Healing works cannot tolerate the energy of meat, alcohol, tobacco and such substances. They act negatively on our energy.

These restrictions are not based on moral considerations. My recommendations are based purely on energy considerations. These substances such as egg, meat, alcohol, tobacco and other toxic substances act adversely on our energy system.

When we meditate and grow in awareness, our need for these substances drops. In the USA, we conducted a special program for those who wanted to pursue meditation for self-healing, yet did not want to give up meat, alcohol, etc. After following the meditation practice, many found that they no longer wanted to consume these substances! They then returned for advanced healing programs, fully prepared and committed to the conditions of no meat, no alcohol, etc.

This is what happened. With meditation, body awareness increased. They started listening to their body. Constantly our body cries out to us to stop abusing it with these toxins. The problems begin when we do not listen to its calls. Now these healers have listened and stopped consuming these toxins. Their consciousness has blossomed.

If man blossoms in his consciousness, he is God; he is bliss. He is in nityananda.