Follow That Man!🔗

2.55 Sri Bhagavan said:

O Partha, A man who casts off completely all the desires of the mind and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, He is said to be one of steady wisdom.

Arjuna is now curious and wants to know more. He asks Krishna, ‘Fine, you are telling me all this, that is great. You tell me that I must perform without expectations and attachment and that I must be centered in wisdom. Sure, I would like to live that way and move in the path of wisdom. Pray, tell me what kind of a person is this, the one who is always in awareness in the present moment? How does he behave, walk and talk? Let me model myself after him.’

For the first time in this dialogue Arjuna expresses serious interest in what Krishna is saying. Arjuna knows well that whatever he has said earlier arises from his confusion. Arjuna is intelligent enough to know that he does not know. When Krishna tells him to behave in a manner befitting the code of the warriors, this piece of advice certainly makes good sense to Arjuna, since this is the conditioning that he has been brought up in.

However, what Krishna says further confuses Arjuna. Krishna says to do what you have to do without being concerned about the outcome. This is news to Arjuna. He has rarely done anything in his life without first thinking about what is going to happen as a result of his action.

Arjuna is the greatest of marksmen. Once he fixes his bow on a target, he never misses. He is used to aiming at targets. He is conditioned to first define his target and then act. Krishna has confused him totally now. Krishna says, 'Release your arrow; where it lands that is my business.' At least, this is how Arjuna understands what Krishna says.

Arjuna has enough trust in Krishna not to ignore this instruction from the Divine. So, he asks, 'Tell me who is it that acts without any interest in the outcome. Who is he that is not concerned about the result, whether it is good or bad, painful or joyful, and how do I identify such a person?'

There is a branch of behavioral psychology called NLP or Neuro Linguistic Programming. In NLP, the basic belief is to model our activities based on those people we wish to emulate. If you talk, move, walk like Gandhi, you too can become like Gandhi, says NLP. There is some truth in this. When you immerse yourself in the mould of another person, imitate him completely, you start thinking like that person and become a lot like that person. Arjuna is asking Krishna for the specifications of the person he should emulate so that he too can become what Krishna wants him to become.

Krishna responds, 'This man is free from desires and emotions. He has neither greed nor fear. He is always centered in himself. Pleasures through the senses do not interest him. He has withdrawn his senses from the external world and has focused them inwards, directed towards that Supreme Truth which is beyond all pleasures, attachments, emotions and sense objects. Once he realizes that truth, even the longing for that truth leaves him.'

Krishna thus describes the realized Yogi to Arjuna so that he too may emulate him and realize himself.

Once again Krishna teaches through simple steps. 'Nirmohatve nischalatatvam,' says Sankara, taking a cue from the Master. Absence of desires leads to a clear and still mind, steeped in wisdom. Dropping expectations, letting go of attachments, moving away from the regrets of the past and the fantasies of the future, if one brings the mind to the present, the mind stops and desires drop. When there are no desires, there are no emotions that normally arise from the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of such desires, such as joy, elation, depression, sadness, anger, disappointment, jealousy and so on.

When the mind is without fear and anger, without expectations of success and failure, the unattached mind seeks that which is unattached. It seeks the ultimate truth, which is beyond all desires, emotions and attachment. The mind and the senses that the mind directs move away from the external objects of attraction to within. First the objects drop, then the desire for the objects disappears as truth dawns.

This may sound complicated, but is as simple as counting ‘1, 2, 3’.

This universe is responsible for all of us. We exist not because of ourselves and our actions but in spite of such. When we let go, when we listen to the universe, it gives us all that we need to live with abundance, but the problem is that we don’t listen. We do not stop with our needs but get greedy with our wants as well. There is no way all our wants can be fulfilled without taking away the needs of other beings in this universe.

The law of the jungle operates beautifully without man. Animals act based on needs and not on wants. A lion kills because it has to eat, not because it sees another lion killing. It would kill only to appease its own hunger or when its own life is threatened. Once the human being enters the scene, this equation changes. Man engages in wanton killing, without caring about what he needs. Man no longer expresses his innate intelligence, unlike animals.

Once we choose to live based on our real needs, we choose to live on present needs and not futuristic wants. We rise into the present moment. Desires based on past and future dissolve. We start understanding our role in our relationship with the universe. We realize that we too are the universe and that we can have all that we need without desire, emotions, fear and greed, and most importantly without suffering.

Krishna aptly provides the example of the tortoise to illustrate how to withdraw one’s senses inwards. The tortoise follows its instincts to obey nature; it lives in the present moment. It moves when its sensors report that there is no danger, and it withdraws completely when it senses threat. It lays its eggs, wading out of the sea onto the beach and moves back in when the hatching is done. Its entire cycle of life is tuned to the wisdom of nature. It is not an active and adventurous living being but it is celebrated in all ancient cultures for its longevity and steadiness. So Krishna gives the analogy of the tortoise withdrawing itself completely from the external world into its shell, to explain how man should withdraw from the dictates of the senses and be centered in his Self.

The human is an obviously different being compared to the rest of the animals. He alone of all living beings has the capability to think and act. He alone has the power to decide whether he follows the wisdom of nature endowed in him as in all other beings or rejects it and decides to be ‘unintelligent’. An animal, when it indulges in any act, whether of mating, caring, killing or saving its own life, does all and any of these, with tremendous focus. When it mates, all it does is mate; it does not engage in conversation or watch television out of the corner of its eye. Its lust is all fulfilling. It consumes its attention and therefore energy of that moment. The animal always lives in its present moment. Not so the human. For the human, where his body is his mind never is.

Corporate people ask me how to make right decisions. It is simple. When you focus intensely on the job at hand and make a decision based on the information of that present moment, your decisions will always be right. The universal energy guides you in your decision when you settle into yourself, focus inwards and withdraw your senses as the tortoise does.

What do you all do instead? Half the time you postpone decisions because you are afraid of the consequences of the decision. So things happen without your control and which do not favor you. The other half of the time you are led by greed and prejudices based on past experiences and future fantasies and you decide with no relevance to issues of that moment.

Do you even eat properly? When have you last eaten, when you can say with your hand on your heart that you focused only on the food that you ate, instead of chatting, reading, watching someone or something? When have you last done anything whatsoever with one hundred percent focus on what you did?

You may say that we are only human, we wish to enjoy life and we wish to enjoy sensual pleasures. Please do! However, when you enjoy, enjoy fully. Be fully focused on that object of enjoyment and with all your senses focused only on that activity.

When you do whatever you do with one hundred percent focus, you are in awareness. You become God!