CHAPTER 16: Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yogaḥ🔗

HUMAN BEINGS ARE BORN WITH

INNATE DIVINE NATURE; THEY ARE NOT

SINNERS! WHETHER WE ACT DIVINE

(DAIVIC) OR DEMONIC (ASURA), OUR INNER

SPACE IS DIVINE. HOW DO WE AWAKEN

THE SPACE OF DIVINITY WITHIN US AGAIN?

KṚṢṆA REVEALS!

This chapter is traditionally called Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yogaḥ, or the Yoga of divine and demonic nature. Here Kṛṣṇa explains the concept of saṁskāras (root thought patterns) from an even deeper level.

In the 14th chapter, Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yoga, He spoke on satva, rajas and tamas, the three attributes of nature in which all living beings exist. He also explains the three layers of the body-mind system: prāṇa śarīra, manaḥ śarīra and sūkṣma śarīra, which are the physical, mental and subtle bodies, respectively. In the 15th chapter, Kṛṣṇa speaks extensively about deeper body-mind layer, the causal body. That chapter is called the Puruṣottama Yogaḥ or the Yoga of the perfected being. Kṛṣṇa points out how the body-mind system is like a unique tree, with its roots in the physical world, and the branches in the causal world. Here, in the 16th chapter, He moves into the deeper energy layers of the body-mind system and takes us to the Cosmic layer.

Kṛṣṇa speaks about the qualities of the divine, daiva and the demonic, asura. The beauty is that both these words have the same root. Of course, it is not accidental; both qualities are rooted in the same energy. It is just a simple decision. When you choose the word 'you', you become divine, and when you choose the word 'me', you become a demon. That's all.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṁsa speaks beautifully of the same energy. No energy can be destroyed; your love can never be destroyed. It can only be converted. He says that as long as the calf says, ‘ahaṁ, ahaṁ’ (‘me, me’) it must work, suffer, get beaten and tortured. Once it is killed, musical instruments are made out of its skin; then when we beat the instrument, it says, ‘tumi, tumi’ or ‘tum’ (‘you, you’). As long as it says, ‘ahaṁ, ahaṁ’ it suffers, when it says, ‘tum, tum,’ it starts being used for wonderful pur-poses like singing the glory of the divine!

The moment the cognitive shift happens in us, that is when the 'tumi, tumi' ('you, you') happens, we will be a blessing for ourselves and for others.

All the root thought patterns or bio-memories, saṁskāras, are stored in the causal layer. They operate without our control. Decisions are made without our knowledge. However, at the deeper level, in the cosmic layer, we decide consciously: you or me, divine or demon, daiva or asura.

When we make the decision of 'You,' we radiate divine qualities. When we make the decision of 'me,' we radiate demonic qualities.

The decision about 'You' or 'me' is made in the Cosmic layer. If we decide with the attitude of 'you,' the whole thing becomes divine; if we de-cide with the attitude of 'me,' the whole thing becomes demonic. The mind or citta, the inner space is neither negative nor positive. None of these, including the guṇa (attributes) are negative or positive. Even tāma- sic qualities, such as laziness, are neither negative nor positive. Many Enlightened Masters seem passive, not doing anything at all. We can-not differentiate between their attitude and laziness. For instance, Bhagavān Ramaṇa Maharṣi sat throughout his life in one little town, Tiruvannamalai. He never moved out of there. He was mostly in silence. Yet we cannot say he was in tamas since he never made any decision out of 'me.' The whole process was happening with 'you' as a center, not 'me.'

We cannot call the citta, the mind or saṁskāra, the root pattern good or bad. In the superficial layers, they are neither. However, the decisions we make in the cosmic layer, in the deeper layer, determine whether they are good or bad. The energy behind passion and compassion is really one and the same. When we decide based on 'me', it is passion; when we decide based on 'You', it is compassion.

We need to understand one important thing.

If we feel passion strongly in our being, but our compassion has only a little intensity, then our compassion is just a pseudo-expression, perhaps for the sake of name and fame, not for anything else. If we are not integrated to compassion as intensely as our passion, all our activities are based on ego. Even this Gītā discourse can become food for the ego, if the decision is taken out of ‘I’ and ‘me’. When the decision happens out of ‘You,’ even ordinary daily activities can become divine, not just Gītā discourses.

We need not work on the ‘doing’; we need to work on the ‘be-ing’. Doing can never lead us to anything. As long as we believe that doing can lead us to the Ultimate, we have karma. This is called Pūrva Mimāṁsi (those who interpret the Vedic rituals literally). Only when we understand that only being can lead us to the Ultimate, we are called Uttara Mimāṁsi (those who interpret the Vedic scriptures according to vedānta-based non-duality).

According to the Vedas, there are two major types of people: People who believe in doing and people who believe in being. People who believe in transforming the ‘Being’ are Vedāntins, people who believe that the transformation to the Ultimate can be achieved by ‘doing’ are karmakāndis.

Of course, the Ultimate can be achieved only by working on the being, not by working on the doing. If we work on the doing, we either suppress or express. We continuously fight with ourselves; nothing else is achieved. Only a man who transforms his being can achieve the Ultimate.

Whether to be a demon or divine, we decide at that one point. When we receive the data through our senses, process it and deliver the result or command, how is the command delivered? If the command comes out with the thinking, ‘What is there for me?’ then whatever we do, including meditation, will be only ego satisfying, not enriching.

Many people ask, ‘Swamiji, at some point, I felt such deep ecstasy in meditation, such beautiful bliss. But suddenly, within two hours it disappeared, it never came back! Why is this so? How can we get it back?’

Please understand that bliss is choicelessness. When we are absent, when our identity disappears, we experience bliss. The moment we want the bliss back, we have already chosen. We have made the choice! The moment we choose, we will always choose suffering. All choices are suffering, because choice is based on the mind. It is based on duality. Bliss is choicelessness. It is beyond duality, it is Advaita, therefore there is nothing to choose ‘between’. The moment the space of ‘me’ or ‘mine’ appears and decides, it destroys the bliss. We can no longer be Divine. When we are blissful, we have said, ‘No’ to ‘me’; we are relaxed in the ‘You’ idea. The moment we want to possess bliss, we have said, ‘Yes’ to ‘me’.

Listen. We need to understand ‘You’ and ‘me’ properly. The word ‘me’ means ego; the word ‘You’ means the whole of Existence. When our identity evaporates, when our ego dissolves, whatever is left is Existence; it is Divine, daivic. We create the demon by bringing in the idea of ‘me’. The moment we bring in the idea of ‘me’, whatever is there, is demonic. The moment the ‘me’ idea is removed, whatever there is, is Divine.

With the ‘me’ idea, whatever we do, be it meditation, rituals, learning, or knowledge, it will only strengthen the ego. Anything done to strength-en the idea of ‘me’, naturally leads to more ignorance and suffering. Anything done with the attitude of ‘You’, whatever it is, naturally becomes Divine and leads to Bliss.

In Saṁskṛit, we have two words: nivṛitti and pravṛitti. Nivṛitti— looking inwards or liberation or completion—is centered on the idea of ‘You’. Pravṛitti—looking outwards or bondage or incompletion—is centered on the idea of ‘me’. Whatever is done out of ‘You’, leads to liberation; whatever we do out of the idea of ‘me’, leads to bondage.

As long as we are centered in ourselves, we are in the bondage of attraction and aversion, greed and fear. Most people are centered in their mūlādhāra cakra, the energy center in our body associated with the emotion of greed, or in the svādiṣṭhāna cakra, the energy center in our body associated with fears and insecurity.

The mūlādhāra is all about ‘me’—our possessions: ‘What is in it for me? Where do I go from here?’ The svādiṣṭhāna is about ‘I’, our identity, insecurity and fear arising from our need to protect the body-mind system. Both these bind us, block us, and keep us firmly locked in the material world.

As our higher centers of energy get energized and unblocked, and our energy rises from the mūlādhāra and svādiṣṭhāna, to anāhata (heart center) and beyond, we look beyond ourselves. The ‘me’ starts dropping. When the ājñā cakra (energy center between the eyebrows) becomes en-ergized, the ego, the identity, the ‘I’ and ‘me’, disappear and the ‘you’ takes over. The demon becomes the Divine.

When we shed our ego, we become boundary-less. We are no lon-ger limited by selfish thoughts about ‘me’ and ‘mine’, our kith and kin. The whole world is ours to care for. Kṛṣṇa refers to this as Vasudaiva Kuṭumbakaṁ, ‘the whole world is one family’. As long as we feel that our body-mind is our boundary, that we are separate from the rest of the Universe, we will continuously fight with Existence, with the nature, with the Whole. Understand, the part can never succeed when it fights with the Whole.

Whatever we think, speak or do based upon the idea ‘me’, it leads to more and incompletions, more and more suffering.

This whole Universe is God’s will and so are we. However, God has willed that we use our free will. That is why He has given us consciousness, so that we are aware of what we do. If we truly believed in God’s will, we would do our very best and leave the result to Him. This is what Kṛṣṇa declared earlier—karmaṇy evādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana (2.47). Do what you have to do without bothering about the results.

When we move into the space of ‘You’, we move into the attitude Kṛṣṇa speaks about. When we are no longer worried about ourselves and we think of everyone else’s needs as our own, results lose meaning. There is no selfish pressure. There is no identity that directs us towards success instead of failure, based upon how we imagine success looks. Success and failure lose their meaning.

Whether we act demonic or Divine, the inner space in all of us is Divine. The inner space is pure; it is uncontaminated. Whether we are tuned inwards towards that purity or tuned outwards towards gratification is the choice we make through our free will. A Rāvaṇa had the choice of being a Rāma, and a Duryodhana had the choice of being an Arjuna. Through their own free will, they did not exercise that choice.

Here, Kṛṣṇa beautifully explains the demonic and Divine natures. Now in the 15ᵗʰ and 16ᵗʰ chapters, only Kṛṣṇa speaks, Arjuna is practically silent; he is in the space of pure listening, Upaniṣad. All the questions have disappeared and only small doubts are left, which are a means to enrich others. He is asking for clarifications on this sacred science from his Master.

16.1,2,3 Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, Fearlessness, purification of the being, cultivation of spiritual knowledge, charity, and being centered on the being, performance of sacrifices, and accumulation of knowledge, austerity, simplicity, non-violence, truthfulness, freedom from anger, renunciation, tranquility, aversion to fault finding, compassion for all living entities, freedom from covetousness, gentleness, modesty, studied determination, vigor, more forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, freedom from envy and from the passion for honor, these transcendental qualities, O Son of Bharata (Arjuna), belong to Divine men, endowed with Divine nature.’

Kṛṣṇa lists a number of qualities that take us to a higher plane of consciousness; qualities that make us divine.

Now when we listen to these things with the space of ‘me’, what do we usually do? We start practicing all these virtues. Be clear that if we try to practice all of these qualities, one thing is sure: we will become mad. We will not be able to do anything because we will be fighting with ourselves. We will be controlling our senses to strengthen our ego. When we try to understand these ideas with our ego, with the space of ‘me’, we practice them to strengthen the idea of ‘me’, to improve ourselves and become better beings. Again and again, Masters prove that they are not better beings; they are totally transformed beings. There is a difference between better beings and transformed beings.

The other day, I shared the story of the lion and the sheep-lion told by Swami Vivekananda. It is a beautiful story. The sheep-lion does not want to realize that he is a lion. He wants to be a good, strong sheep. He asks the lion to give him a technique for becoming a strong sheep.

Similarly, if we start practicing these qualities listed by Kṛṣṇa, we may have a stronger ego. That is why so-called tapasvi (ascetics, people performing penances), people who repress themselves, have a strong ego. People who perform penances or repress desires, radiate ego. We clearly see that they do these things to strengthen their ego.

When we are in the space of completion, completely blissful and relaxed, austerity, tapaḥ happens. I have seen many Sannyāsais (ascetics), especially in India, who blame householders for not being pure, for being sinners. When we force ourselves to do penance, we continuously burn inside with incompletions; as a side effect we often have self-doubts about our path and ourselves. This self-doubt makes us continuously do some-thing; we then make others guilty about the path that they are following.

Penance is supposed to happen naturally out of completion, joy and bliss. Just as a natural thing. Anything done by force is not going to enrich us or society.

Society teaches us that we are sinners. First of all, this is not true. No enlightened Master who has realized the divinity within is capable of saying this. Secondly, who gains anything at all by calling everyone a sinner?

Kṛṣṇa tells us to be without fear and greed. He also says to be without anger. He says to be truthful, simple, meek, gentle, non-violent, and to be without expectations and to renounce. These are qualities of the Divine; these are qualities that you express when you are focused not on your own self but on others. These are qualities that arise from the heart and not from the mind. These are qualities that arise from love and not from desire. These are enriching qualities that naturally express from completion not compulsion.

God, the very idea of God, should evoke love not fear. God in any religion should be portrayed as compassionate. No Enlightened Mas-ter has experienced otherwise or expressed otherwise. The concept of a fearsome God with vengeance is a manmade myth. It is created by man, to set one man against another, to divide, control and conquer. We are conditioned to believe in them because this is the easiest way to control us, through fear and greed. The greatest fear of any religion is that we might start thinking for ourselves. Worse still, they are afraid that we may stop thinking, and drop our mind!

The very lack of awareness that we are divine, in my opinion, is a sin. When we got into thinking and started clutching onto our thoughts, we became ignorant. If at all there is an original sin, it is that—the clutching onto our thoughts, associating with our incompletions.

God resides in you and me. We know everything that we do. When we do wrong, we know. No one has to tell us. That becomes our sin. The guilt makes our life hell, nothing else.

When we are complete, free and liberated, we are in sheer enjoy-ment and we are in heaven. If we focus on enriching others, on ‘You’, we expand with the power of living. In fact, the more we focus to create the inner space of completion, the more we open up to enrich others. We move from the ‘me’ to ‘You.’ As we move inwards, our higher intelligence awakens. Our higher intelligence is nothing but the Divine. That completion alone makes us God. Completion is God! Completion is Divinity!

Please understand that what we think of as God is not an old bearded man sitting on the clouds, playing on a harp! God is merely that energy of inner and higher intelligence. That same intelligent energy that is within us also drives the entire Universe. The energy that powers us is the same energy that powers the sun. There is no difference at all.

As human beings we have the opportunity to expand into this ener-gy, into this higher intelligence. Unfortunately, animals do not have this ability, this consciousness. Humans do. To ignore this gift, this opportunity, this consciousness, is our original sin. The entire meaning of our life is to discover this truth and become divine. That is why, if we die without realizing this truth, we are born again.

We go through this cycle of life and death again and again because we do not recognize who we are. As Buddha says, that is the cause of our suffering. When we realize our own Self, our true divine potential, we realize the meaning of our life, and there is no need to be born again. We become liberated.

Here Kṛṣṇa 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, abhayaṁ 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.

In the Kaṭhopaniṣad, the beautiful Upaniṣad, which comes from the wonderful system of Vedānta, the essence of the Vedas, 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 exist; they discovered the science of living even after death. However, people who are caught in the material world die each moment, even as they live. This Kaṭhopaniṣad is the science of death.

A young boy, Naciketa, who goes to the abode of Yama, the Lord of death. Yama was not there when Naciketa went to meet Him. Yama receives him after three days. Yama welcomes him.

At this point, we must understand that no one goes to Yama's 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. 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 Naciketa did, fearlessly, death welcomes us! Yama becomes our host!

Here, Yama receives Naciketa with love and care. First thing: He becomes a loving host. Next, He offers him three boons. Naciketa 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, completion with others. After that Yama blesses him with completion with wealth, and shows him how to create wealth, pleasure and comforts. Now, Yama is behaving like a God.

Ultimately, Yama gives him ātmajñāna—knowledge of the Self, completion with the Self. Now, He is behaving like an enlightened Master himself! The third boon He gives because Naciketa asks Him for the secret of death.

Understand, Naciketa is the embodiment of authenticity. Pleased with the boy's integrity and courageous authenticity, Śraddha, 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 Naciketa, 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. He says, 'Welcome! You are the form of Agni, fire.' A guest is considered to be the form of fire that we worship.

Yama tells Naciketa, 'You are my guest and you have come to my house in the form of 'vaiśvānarāgni' (the fire that we worship).’ The vaiśvānara (priest) is considered to be the embodiment of the divine Agni. ‘You have come to my house as the embodiment of the Divine. Let me pay my respects to you. 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 history. Understand this important point. It has a tremendous truth. When Naciketa went to death, death was not there. 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.

Please listen! Listen, I am making a very important statement. Most of your sufferings are because you are afraid to think about some parts of your life, some components of your life. You are afraid of thinking. You always think that because you are thinking, you are getting fear. No! You are actually afraid of thinking. That is why those thoughts may cause fear in you, you think and then you stop thinking!

Listen! Fear of thinking! I am giving an example. Please get it. I am unlocking some of the important self-doubting structures of your being. I am giving you the formulae of life algebra.

If you are afraid of poverty, but you don’t want to think about it logically, it is not that you are not going to think about poverty. You will constantly be afraid of poverty and you will be brooding over poverty unconsciously, wasting all your energy; because that is going to be sit-ting in your unconscious space as a big tumor. Thinking about fire and its after-effects is not going to burn your body! When you have that clarity, you will know how not to be afraid of thinking.

Ironing out your thinking and not being afraid of thinking about anything, taking any thinking to the logical conclusion is Integrity.

Whenever you want to think about poverty or death, you are always afraid that if you think about all that, it may come true in your life. But whenever you want to think about being rich to fulfill your desires, you always have the fear, ‘Even if I think about it, I won’t get it.’ See the funny way your brain functions! See, all the things that you want in your life, you think that you won’t get them, even if you work for it. But all the things that you don’t want, you are afraid that you will get them, even if you just think about them.

Please listen! Life is not that unfair with you. Anything happens only when you take the responsibility of inviting it and making it happen. You should know very clearly and see your own hypocrisy. What a funny belief space we create about life and then we go on blaming life! If you create this kind of space, will life respond to you?

Ironing out your thinking to the logical flow of your thinking, needs to be done as the first step for awakening the divine qualities. First thing you need to do—sit with yourself and list out all the areas of your life that you are afraid of. Whatever you are afraid of, write it down and logically think about it. Allow all of them to surface. Let your mind face the fears. Let your mind speak everything. Think intensely and logically about the fears. Give it half an hour. You may feel afraid, 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. Allow the fear come up to your conscious layer without being suppressed.

Whatever you are afraid of, sit in a very cool and comfortable way and know very clearly that just because you are thinking, you are not going to have it. Millions of things about which you thought, you didn’t have them. You also wanted a private jet, but did you get it? No! So, know very clearly, mere thinking is not going to get you the results. Only cre-ating the space is going to get you the results. Creating the space means, taking the responsibility and thinking.

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. So, sit comfortably and tell yourself clearly, 'Now I am going to allow myself to think to the extreme conclusions, the logical conclusions of any thought-trend which I am afraid of. If I am afraid of poverty, let me sit and think about the extreme possibility of poverty.

I tell you, anything that stays in your unconscious as a weight and makes you brood over it, bring all of them out and consciously think through them to the logical conclusion. With integrity, fear of thinking will disappear, and once fear of thinking disappears, they cannot cause fear to you.

When you lose fear of thinking, thinking loses fear of you. When both of you lose fear of each other, you live happily, blissfully, ever after. Having eternal romance with your thinking is integrity. Integrity takes away the fear component in your thinking. You can think about anything; you will take responsibility for the right thing.

What is demonic nature? Kṛṣṇa 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 Rāvaṇa, 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 Rāvaṇa (King of Laṅkā who abducted Rāma's wife Sītā, in the Indian epic, the Ramāyaṇa). Rāvaṇa 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 history happened to strengthen the 'I' and 'mine'.

Please understand that whatever we do, whether we study the scrip-tures, 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 a complete 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.

One 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 sen-sitive 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 that lack integrity. Let straight integrated words be used. Let us be integrated about what we mean. Let us use the same integrated words to express what we really are and what we really feel. Rāmakṛṣṇa says, ‘Let your words and mind be straightened.’

In our Inner Awakening program, 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 complete.

They say, ‘I have been postponing many things; now I have decid-ed that when I go back, I will complete those things.’ Naturally these people become integrated and authentic when they come out of the death meditation. They understand the value of relationships and do completion with others. 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 an enriching life.

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 with integrity and authenticity. We will realize the gift of life that Existence has bestowed upon us.

Yama gave relationships, wealth, and finally Enlightenment to Naciketa. When people come out of the darkness or death meditation in the program, they tell me that they understand the real meaning of relationships; this means Yama has blessed them completion with others! They know the value of their wealth now; it means Yama has blessed them completion with wealth. They realize that life is the ultimate blessing. They understand that the body may die and that there is some-thing beyond the body and mind that exists in them; that is what I call ātmajñāna (Self-knowledge).

Here, when Kṛṣṇa 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 and experience completion, will we enter the space of fearlessness. Until then it can never happen. You can face and complete with 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 act, speak and think centered on ‘me, me, me’, you will be a demon; you will work out of the instinct for survival and possession. When you work based on the space of ‘You, you, you’, you will radiate a new energy, the energy of enriching.

Try this simple experiment: Try living for others’ sake out of gratitude for just one week. Try to live with the new root-cognition of ‘You’. I am not asking you to give away your property or any such thing. Please catch this principle of root cognition. Basically, what you strongly believe as you is root cognition.

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 new root cognition of ‘you’ instead of ‘me’. Try this with simple, day-to-day life decisions. 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 the root cognition of ‘You’? We live all our life with this ‘āsuri sampat,’ what Kṛṣṇa calls demonic nature, the inauthentic attitude of ‘me, me, me’.

Now, for just 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'.

When you replace your root cognition of 'me' with 'You', a deep inner healing, a deep completion happens in you. Please understand, completing with the root cognition is completing with self-doubt.

What I am talking about is not morality. Please don't think I am teaching you how to live happily. I am not the person to teach 'How-to stuff.' I am giving this as a spiritual practice.

Listen. I am not just teaching you the science of success; I am teaching you the science of deathlessness! I am not just teaching you the science of Ānanda (bliss). I am teaching you the science of Nithya (immortality).

If you thing you are really a seeker, then do this one spiritual practice for seven days. If you think there is any way I can enrich you, take this single statement and forget about everything else. Work based on this single statement: instead of deciding based on the default root cognition of 'me, me, me', decide based on the new root cognition of 'You, You, You'.

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.

Kṛṣṇa further explains step-by-step how to imbibe Divine nature: How to cause the cognitive shift at the deep, subtle level of our root cognitions.

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, Kṛṣṇa gives the technique to change the master, the ego or the root patterns that makes decisions. He gives the straight technique for the cognitive shift to happen. At present, the root 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.

Rāma and Rāvaṇa in the Hindu epic Rāmāyaṇa, are both energetic; both have the brahmāstra (high energy weapon). The only difference is that one is centered on the root cognition of ‘I’; the other one is centered on the root cognition of ‘you.’ That is the only thing that makes one person Divine and the other demonic. Rāma is Divine, Rāvaṇa is demonic.

Please understand, first you need to find out whether your thinking is acting as divine inside you or as a demon inside you. Whether your thinking is acting as a god inside you or as a ghost inside you! Sometimes, many of you are possessed by a ghost. What is that ghost? ‘me, me, me’.

Kṛṣṇa goes further to give subtle techniques to experience the consciousness of ‘You’, the ultimate consciousness, the consciousness of the Whole, the ‘daivika saṁpat’ or divine nature of your being through this root cognitive shift.

Step-by-step Kṛṣṇa explains all these great qualities. As I men-tioned, 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.

Enrich others with the space of ‘You’ which will naturally make you express these divine qualities in life. Enriching will be just your life-style. You will understand that enriching the ‘You’ enriches the ‘I’ back. Enriching others enriches you back. Experientially you will understand that ‘you’ is one with others, others are one with you. Automatically you will become blissful, free from anger and full of dhārmic (righteous) qualities.

Ramaṇa Maharṣi 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 āśram 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 'I', you won't feel like something is being taken away from you. Above all, you will feel tremendous fulfillment, what I call the space of completion. Anything you do with the space of 'you' will make you radiate these beautiful, divine qualities.

Even Yaśodā (the foster mother of Kṛṣṇa) had the idea of 'I'.

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

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

However, when Taraṅgiṇi, a devotee of Kṛṣṇa from a lower caste asked Kṛṣṇa 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 Kṛṣṇa had gone, Taraṅgiṇi would touch the dust in the place where He had stood and played.

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

The next day Kṛṣṇa said, 'Someone has taken My flute.'

He pretended to search for it. He learned that Taraṅgiṇi 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. Yaśodā would ask Him why he had gone there. She would punish Him, since higher caste people did not go to that area. Kṛṣṇa 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! Kṛṣṇa entered the house and asked for His flute.

Taraṅgiṇi was totally shaken to see Kṛṣṇa in her house. She was overwhelmed; she was unable to speak. She ran and brought the flute to Him. Kṛṣṇa continued His divine act, līlā, asking if He should play the flute. And who can refuse when Kṛṣṇa asks?

She replied, ‘My Lord, even Gods and Ṛṣis 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. Yaśodā 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 space of Taraṅgiṇi is ‘you’ and the space of Yaśodā is ‘me’. Due to this, all Yaśodā’s enriching service had no positive result for her. Since Yaśodā disturbed him, Kṛṣṇa stopped playing. The tune that Kṛṣṇa played to Taraṅgiṇi is known as punnagavarali, ‘the broken tune’.

Kṛṣṇa told Yaśodā, ‘You served Me, no doubt, but with the space of ‘I’. Taraṅgiṇi is devoted to Me; you are devoted to yourself. As long as I am your Kṛṣṇa, 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.

Kṛṣṇa continued, ‘You have come all the way here; you are not even giving five minutes of My space to her. Taraṅgiṇi never asked Me to come to her house. She never expected that I would play for her. She is totally dedicated, with only the space of ‘you’.’

Then Kṛṣṇa blessed Taraṅgiṇi uttering, ‘You will have sāmīpya 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:

sālokya mukti, sārūpya mukti, sāmīpya mukti and sāyujya muk- ti. Sālokya means ‘same place’; it means we will be allowed to stay in Vaikuṇṭa, Viṣṇu’s abode. We will have a residence in heaven. Sārūpya 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 ṣaṅkh (conch), cakra (discus), gadā (mace), padma (lotus)—all the accessories of Viṣṇu in the same svarūpa (form).

Sāmīpya (being near) is being in the inner circle; the cakra that Viṣṇu is carrying has achieved sāmīpya mukti! Becoming enlightened oneself is sāyujya mukti. Sāmīpya 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 ṛṣis. For devotees, the ultimate state is sāmīpya mukti. So Kṛṣṇa blessed Taraṅgiṇi 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 Yaśodā and said, ‘Because you served with the cognition of ‘me, me, me’, may you not have any temple on planet Earth.’

Yaśodā served Kṛṣṇa so much, but have you seen a single Yaśodā temple? No! Everywhere you see Rādhā temples. If you go to Vṛndāvan, Rādhā is worshipped more than Kṛṣṇa. Even a milkman when selling milk will call out, ‘Rādhe, Rādhe,’ not ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa.’ Despite all her service, since it was centered on ‘me’, Yaśodā was unable to achieve Enlightenment.

On the other hand, Taraṅgiṇī, being born of a lower communi-ty, was never even close to Kṛṣṇa. She was not allowed to serve Him; however, because she lived with the enriching space of ‘you, you, you’, Kṛṣṇa 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 root cognition of ‘I’ can never reach the Divine, because the Divine runs away from them. If we live with the root cognition of ‘you’, even if we live in a hut with a thousand holes, Kṛṣṇa waits for us at our doorstep.

Many stories illustrate how the ‘I’ drives the Divine away, and the ‘you’ attracts the Divine. One small shift in our inner space, can take care of the cognitive shift. How we are centered and where our inner space 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 root cognition of ‘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 Kṛṣṇa explains that living with transcendental qualities, that is the right space of 'you', one achieves liberation or Enlightenment— nivṛitti. By living with the space of 'I' we create more bondage. The demonic qualities make for bondage, meaning pravṛitti.

Lord Kṛṣṇa 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 hear-ing 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 adhārmic, non-righteous, even if they listen to such dis-courses, think, 'Oh, Swamiji speaks about all these things as though he lives them. Let us see how he lives them.' 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 ham-mer 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 Kṛṣṇa tells him that he is born with Divine nature.

Kṛṣṇa 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 root cognition of ‘You, You, You’, we completely forget ourselves; we disappear into Existence. We are in bliss.

Pleaae listen.

Let me share an important technique that Lord Kṛṣṇa speaks about.

For three days, create a space and think you are somebody else. It may seem funny! For instance, if you are a doctor, for three days think you are a sports person or a divine being with whom you feel connected. Clearly visualize yourself as that divine being, not as a doctor. The moment you change the idea, the root cognition about yourself, a tremendous freedom happens to you. Your tension disappears.

For three days try this meditation. For three days, create the space and think you are somebody else. Whatever you think of as your prop-erty, 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 and completion; 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. Kṛṣṇa 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.

Even if you start with the doubt, 'Perhaps I'm not Divine,' you start moving into that default Divine nature. Caring for enriching 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.

When the focus is on 'you,' as in caring for enriching 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.

When we are in a blissful moment, when we feel blessed by Existence, let us be enriched 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 and we give up on our ourselves. We miss it because we are unconscious, sleepy. We miss it because we are not aware of the great blessing that life is.

16.8 People with such demonic qualities think there is no ultimate ener- gy 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.

Kṛṣṇa 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. They assumed that they ruled earth, and that there was nothing beyond them. 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 and completion 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.

People who think the world is pure chemistry become demons. Natu-rally, if we think this whole world is just inert matter, we try to acquire more and more by killing everybody, 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 actions, will we live in the space of completion, and start really living.

A small story:

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

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 compe-tition. ‘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 cannot create dust! It has to be God's dust! Listen. There is a pure en-ergy and intelligence that is the Source, the thread 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.

People with demonic qualities say the world is produced out of sexual desire and lust. 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'.

Kṛṣṇa 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 little identities, with small intelliegence, 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. As many others over thousands of years have discovered, they discovered that they were part of this cosmic Existence. They realized and experi-enced that they too were Gods. They found that the same energy that oper-ated in this Universe operated within them. They experienced that every living being on earth came from the same Source, and is the same Source.

Now, what do we do when we need water? We dig a well and, as if by magic, water appears. Now our neighbor wants water; he too digs a well and finds water. Yet are these waters different? The locations are at two ends, 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 cognition of selfishness leads only to destruction of everything, kṣayāya jagato 'hitaḥ (16.9)—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?

When we are not in the present, we are in a state of low intelligence, alpabuddhi; we become demons. Low intelligence leads to cruel deeds, prabhavanty ugra karmāṇaḥ (16.9). When we have no awareness of who we are, we do not care about anyone else.

All this can be changed. All that is needed is the cognitive shift from the demon to the Divine, from 'I' to 'You'. 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 pañca bhūta in Saṁskṛit, the five elemental energies that sustain us. When these are destroyed by our low intelligence, out of our selfishness, the world around us collapses.

What Kṛṣṇa 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-completion. Modern day education is based upon logic, science and rules, and is short on self-completion and dharma, righteousness.

When we are caught in the material world, focused on ‘I’ and ‘me’, we are stuck in the mūlādhāra and svādiṣṭhāna 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, Kṛṣṇa 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 con-cept 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 Ādi Śaṅkarācarya'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, Ṛṣis explained that this happens based on our deep root cognitions, which colors our perceptions. When science is sufficiently advanced, it will accept this truth.

Listen! Just as the army tanker has teeth in its wheels, and leaves its footprint when it goes on the road, in the same way, you leave the im-print of the guilt from your past, when you plan your future with fantasy, without responsibility. When you take responsibility, it is no more a fan-tasy. But when you don't take responsibility, it is a fantasy. When you plan for your future without responsibility, you leave the imprint of the guilt from your past!

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

Here Lord Kṛṣṇa 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.

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 saṃskāras, conflicting patterns and root patterns, rather than by conscious application of our rational mind. This is what Kṛṣṇa 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.

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.

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 Kṛṣṇa 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.

Only if man blossoms in his consciousness, he is God; he is Bliss. He is in Nityānanda.

Kṛṣṇa does not let go. He wants Arjuna and mankind to understand how deeply the human psyche is damaged by the ego.

Śaṅkara defines āhāra or food, in one of his commentaries, to mean all sensory inputs, whereas traditionally āhāra is translated as food. Food, as we normally understand it, is what the mouth consumes. This is the sustenance upon which the physical body feeds and grows. Many live only to eat, but a few aware ones eat only enough to sustain them, so that they can live.

Every sensory organ has its own āhāra, inputs, upon which it feeds. Based on these inputs, the eye, ear, tongue, nose and skin develop their desires and convey these desires to the body-mind system. Control of these senses and the desires that they weave is what Sage Patañjali prescribed as pratyāhāra, one of the eight methods of his Aṣṭāṅga Yoga.

Pratyāhāra is not suppression or starving the senses. Just as we need to eat in order to live, the senses need inputs to function. However, these inputs can be regulated so that the fantasies they weave are kept in con-trol.

The average human is led by his senses; he does not lead his senses. His karmendriya, the organs of action that are responsible for movements are driven by these senses without the need for input from the conscious mind. Instinctively, they avoid pain and welcome pleasure.

A small story:

Two friends met in the street. One of them looked sad and almost on the verge of tears. The other one asked, 'What happened? Why do you look so sad?'

He replied, 'My uncle passed away three weeks ago. He left me fifty thousand dollars.' His friend said, 'That's not bad.'

He continued, 'Two weeks ago my cousin died and he left me ninety thousand dollars.'

His friend cried, 'This is great!' He went on, 'Last week my grandfather died. He left me a million.'

His friend asked, 'Then why are you so sad? He replied, 'Because this week, nobody died.'

Understand: Once we allow our mind to get driven away by the sens-es, there is no stopping. We won't know how to make it stop either. So we continue with our fantasies. We fantasize about accumulating wealth. Unfortunately for us, the purpose of gaining wealth is rarely to enjoy it. If that was the reason, all we need to do is to gain some wealth and then spend it on enjoyment. In most cases, the joy of acquisition becomes the drive for the person rather than the joy of using the wealth. It has nothing to do with what one can do with the wealth. It has to do with how much more we have than all the other people that we know.

The day our neighbor buys a new air-conditioner, the temperature in our house goes up! The day our neighbor buys a new car, our car, which till that day ran well, will stall. As soon as we see another woman wearing the latest style shoes, our shoes that had fit absolutely fine, start pinching.

We are driven by comparison and envy. We are not merely fulfilling our needs, we are actually fulfilling other people’s wants and desires. From childhood, we are taught to grab. Nothing we have is enough. Nothing fulfills us. Until death, we are driven by greed.

Existence is waiting to shower us with all that we need. The problem is that we never stop to understand what we need. All the time we are caught in the web of our sensory fantasies, and we run after what others own; we let our senses lead us. After doing the meditation programs and becoming healers, people spend more time meditating, doing completion processes and being aware of who they are and the reality they want to create. They develop an understanding of their real needs. It is no longer necessary to run after empty wants. What they need comes to them; their needs follow them.

I tell them again and again, ‘Do not get stuck in my form. Do not run after me. Do not chase me. Just devote yourself to enrich the mission, which is for enriching the Universe with Enlightenment. Focus only on enriching the mission. Then, I will run after you. I shall chase you to be with you.’ Many quickly understand this. To them it makes no difference where they are and where I am physically. Wherever they are, I am with them. It is not a mere theory or illusion. Ask them. It is real.

Once we move from the ‘me’ focused demonic state into the ‘you’ based Divine state, we no longer need to worry about creating wealth, developing a power base, establishing relationships or whatever else we have focused attention upon all our lives. Existence takes care of all this. Existence takes care of us.

If instead, we are focused on our own self, ‘me,’ be sure, we are moving in a downward spiral that Kṛṣṇa says takes us into hell.

Kṛṣṇa has said in other verses that He will receive anyone with compassion and liberate them. Here He says He will cast them aside into suffering. How do we reconcile these two positions?

Both positions are true! After all, every word that an enlightened Master utters is true. It is our understanding that needs to evolve.

Kṛṣṇa is compassion Incarnate. Anyone who surrenders to Him is liberated. That is the absolute truth. The problem is that we only pretend to surrender. What we have are mere words with no integrity and no authenticity. Our thoughts do not match our words, and our words do not match our actions.

People come to me and say, ‘Swamiji, we surrender to you. Please help us and relieve us of our suffering.’ When I tell them to attend the meditation program the following week, they say they need to check their appointment book!

Is this surrender? Does this have any meaning? It is sheer hypocrisy, trying to involve the Master in a conspiracy of our own making.

As human beings we have free will. The problem is that we feel free, yet we are unwilling to exercise our will. People ask whether they are controlled by destiny or free will. I tell them that no destiny binds them; they are free to exercise their will.

The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad puts it so well:

Destiny is nothing but the end result of how we exercise our free will. The problem is, we have no will; in the morning we want to do one thing, by noon it is something different, by night it is totally different. So, if our will keeps changing, how can it ever be converted into action?

People tell me, ‘Swamiji, you say creating the space by visualizing it in the present helps make things happen in reality; we have tried: nothing happens.’

Nothing happens because you are full of self-contradiction, self-doubt, self-hatred and impossibilities. If we wish to get rid of back pain, and we keep saying, ‘Let this back pain go,’ it will never go. Every time we utter the words back pain, our mind latches more firmly onto the past hangover of pain. If we want to get rid of pain, we must complete with all self-doubts and create the space for health visualizing it in the present; not pain, not getting rid of pain, but feeling healthy.

When you create the space to make something into reality, complete with all the doubts, complete with all the impossible ideas that come to you, complete with your ability to even create the space. Stand up powerfully without listening to any form of impossible shouted by your mind towards you.

When you create a space, first thing itself you will face is depression of past failures and complete distrust. 'How can this be reality? I suffered too much! I know it is not possible!' This is the first thing you go through, and two days you get depressed and lock yourself in the bedroom. So, un-derstand, when you create a space, this is the first thing you face. So, com-plete with that first. Completion with that is the most important thing.

Listen! I am defining Space Creation.

Bringing your past hangover into the present is incompletion. Bringing your future possibility into the present is Space. Please listen! Bringing your past hangover into the present is incompletion. Bringing your future possibility into the present is Space Creation.

Bring your future possibility into the present and decide you will not challenge the power of the space, but you will take the responsibility to fulfill that space.

When we surrender to Kṛṣṇa, our surrender must be total. We must take the responsibility to fulfill the space of surrender. There can be nothing between Him and us. Then, He surely liberates us. Because then we are already liberated, we are in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Here, He talks about people who feel no need to surrender to Him. They are so full of ego, that they feel He is their competitor. He says He will cast them into the material world. In this material world, they can follow their senses, sense objects and what they consider to be sensual pleasures till death. As I said before, it is our decision. Even Kṛṣṇa is helpless to change it, because He has given us the power to decide. He has handed over the decision to us; to decide whether we want to be ‘me’ or ‘You’ focused: demonic or divine.

Saying again and again, ‘I believe in what Kṛṣṇa says,’ has no meaning. It does not help. Faith does not mean belief. Belief is not trust.

Belief is a pseudo-trust, imposed, cultivated out of fear. It is not something that has grown from within us. Rather, it is something that has been implanted by others: society, religion, the state. Believers remain stupid; they never grow in intelligence. And society does not want people to be intelligent.

The ‘yes’ of a man who cannot say ‘no’ is always powerless. First a man must learn to say ‘no,’ only then does his ‘yes’ have meaning.

Faith is different from belief. With faith we grow. We grow in love to a Master and to God. Most of us look to God as a person to pray to, to worship. We feel God is a third person. He is not us. Prayer and worship become important pathways to reach this form. The moment we drop the idea of a person, prayer disappears; instead, meditation becomes significant.

Meditation is going inwards. So, it is more difficult for many who are educated rationally. That’s why meditation never became the central core of religion in the West. In the East all the great masters founded their teachings on meditation. They taught followers to turn inwards. They taught them to be God, not to worship God.

Meditation leads us to surrender. Meditation is the process of creation of the space of completion. Completion is the knowledge that we are one with the Universe. It is then about ‘you’ instead of ‘me’. The feeling of ‘you’ and the absence of ‘me’ dissolve the idea of ‘I’ as identity. This is the foundation of surrender.

Become a servant of love. You then become a master of humanity. One begins as a servant. However, one ends as a master. In this world, you often begin as a master and you end up as a servant. That is the law of the external world. In the inner world there is a totally different law. You begin as a servant and you can end up as a master. You surrender to love, you surrender and love and you shall certainly conquer the world.

Buddha has said: In the outer world everything is sweet in the beginning and bitter in the end; in the inner world, everything is bitter in the beginning and sweet in the end. Only the end matters. Where you begin is not in your control.

Once you understand how to love the people around you, only then can you love God. You cannot hate your neighbor, brother or spouse and love only God. This is impossible. When you start loving those around you, you start loving yourself more. Strangely, you start thinking less about yourself. In your defeat, you win others.

This is what surrender is about: It is asking for your defeat. Let me repeat: Surrender, renunciation of the self, or sannyāsa is a defeat, a defeat of the ego. God is realized the moment the ego is dissolved.

Surrender is the search for the Divine principle. Call it God, truth, freedom, or nirvāṇa. They mean the same thing. The search is for something that is missing in life. We are alive but unaware of what life is about. We exist, but we are completely oblivious to the fact of who we are.

This is what Kṛṣṇa talks about in this chapter. The courage to move from ‘me’ to ‘You’ is the courage to trust, love and surrender. When that happens there is nothing else but Him. We become Kṛṣṇa.

When we are one with the Universe, one with Kṛṣṇa, there is nothing else we need to look up to. There is nothing else to look for. We have reached eternal bliss—Nityānanda.

Kṛṣṇa ends the chapter with this advice: Shed anger, greed and lust and we will be saved. He calls them gates to hell. These are the qualities of the blocked mūlādhāra cakra. These are attributes that bind us to 'me' and 'mine'. We mistakenly believe that these qualities are essential for our life on this planet. Nothing can be more wrong.

As long as we are bound by anger, lust and greed, kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas, what He calls the three gateways to hell, we are in bondage; we are in suffering. We do not need to die and be escorted to someplace called hell. We live in it day after day and suffer.

Kāma, krodha and lobha: lust, anger and greed—when we shed these we are liberated. Rāmakṛṣṇa says again and again, drop kāñcana and kāminī, gold and women, greed and lust, and we will be liberated. Lust for women, and greed for gold, these two desires more than anything else, cause all our sufferings.

Krodha, anger, arises out of the suffering. We feel thwarted and we feel angry. The cycle goes on. When these three combine, they create moha, or delusion. At one level these emotions are desires. Anger, greed and lust are expressions related to desires. Desires are energy. Lust is what drives us into reproduction and it is essential for the survival of species. Greed is the extreme expression of our survival needs. Anger is often the driving force to get things done. They achieve positive results, too.

However, Kṛṣṇa refers to the expression of these emotions in the context of self-gratification. He refers to the gratification of base impulses. The baseness of the impulse is related to the intention, the context. As long as these are expressed with the cognition of ‘me,’ they are base and demonic impulses. There are no liberating features.

Lust can be transformed when it is expressed in an unselfish and unattached way. Lust will then totally disappear. Compassion and caring will be in its place. Lust is one aspect of the broad spectrum of desires. Unending desire is greed. When a desire is truly fulfilled, it leaves us. Karma is unfulfilled desires that goad us into action. We can never fulfill our desires because many of these desires are not truly ours. We borrow these desires from other people. There is never contentment. Each desire is the seed of suffering. That is why Kṛṣṇa calls it a gateway to hell. But how do we get rid of these desires?

This is what we teach experientially at the twenty-one days In-ner Awakening program. We enrich you in completing with your lust, anger, greed, conflicting desires, and help you identify true desires, the prārabdha karma, with which you are born into this world. You are intiated into the science of creating the space to have the energy to fulfill them. Our karma dissolves. Above all, all the non-mechanical parts of your brain are awakened. Many powers which you have inside and you don't know, are awakened. People who attend this program say that they cannot hate or even dislike anyone. The 'I' blossoms into 'you' effortlessly.

At this stage, we shed anger as well. Anger and guilt are byproducts of desires. What we cannot acquire makes us angry. Anger produces guilt. Being angry towards a person is fruitless. Much of the negativity expressed towards others comes back to us. It depletes our energy. Anger or even guilt is also often an expression of one's inability to do something. It is a self-centered emotion born of one's weakness, powerlessness.

Suppression of anger does not help. It can actually lead to chronic diseases like cancer. When we learn to complete with the emotion of anger instead of controlling it, it becomes energy instead of a disability. Anger needs to be completed with and transformed into the positive energy of authentic action.

What Kṛṣṇa asks us to do is to complete with the negative emotions like lust, greed and anger and create the space, with responsibility, to transform them into positive energies. He tells us that these are gateways to hell so long as we use them from the root cognition of 'me.' When we do completion and transform these emotions into energy, by creating the space of 'you', these same emotions become gateways to heaven, gateway to bliss.

Bliss is never an achievement on our part. Whatsoever we do to achieve bliss is doomed to fail. Bliss always comes from the beyond as a gift. We must be passively receptive to it. We are not to be aggressively active for it, just be receptive like a womb. We must be feminine to receive bliss. We must become pregnant with God. When ego or 'I' disappears, anger, greed and lust also disappear. What is left is bliss.

Bliss is a by-product of total trust in Existence or in God. God is not a person but the impersonal presence. The very life or Existence is God and the living energy is God. And to trust in it means to stop struggling against it. Struggling against it creates misery; it is trying to go upstream.

Trust means surrender, going with the stream. And going with the stream is bliss. All misery is because of the ego and its struggle, its resistance. Trust means that resistance has been dropped. You don't think of yourself as separate from the Whole; you are just an intrinsic part of the great har-mony of Existence. Then bliss is natural.

My whole effort here is to help you move towards bliss. The way to bliss is through the heart and through devotion. The real transformation happens when your energy moves from the head to the heart. When you reach the heart, you reach the core of your consciousness.

Listen, remember the most important thing!

God loves us: He has not given up on us, He is not indifferent to us and He is continuously concerned about us, He cares. The deeper this idea enters your heart, the better, because when you feel more loved by God, you will be able to have love for God, and you will have love for others. That's how we are able to love: if we are loved, we can love. If we are not loved, we don't know how to love; we don't know what love is.

God is our substance, our very being. He is not something outside us; He is our innermost core. We do not need to seek and search for Him. Only this has to be remembered: we have forgotten it. God is not lost; only we have forgotten who we are.

Don't be identified with the body. Don't be identified with your mind, country, race or religion. Don't be identified with anything. Don't think, 'I am this' or 'I am that'. Remember, neither 'this' nor 'that'. That is one of the secret teachings of the mystics: neti-neti, neither 'this' nor 'that'. If you can avoid both polarities, day and night, life and death, body and mind, then slowly a third energy arises in you, a third force arises in you. That is consciousness. That's your reality. That is freedom—freedom from fear, anxiety, misery, freedom from the world, freedom from the wheel of life and death. Then you are a witness, watching, a mirror reflecting but not getting caught in any reflection.

When you are a witness, the 'me' and 'mine' drop. What remains is identification with your energy, with your state, not your status. In that state, you are one with all. You are in the space of Living Advaita, oneness—living the truth that everything is 'you' and 'you' are everything. Because 'you' is 'me', 'me' is 'you', 'you' 'me' becomes 'you-me'. It is 'you-me' that becomes the center, no longer 'me'. You become Divine, daivic.

Let us pray to the ultimate energy, Parabrahma Kṛṣṇa, the Divine Consciousness, to bless us all with 'daiva saṁpat' and establish us in eternal bliss, nityānanda.

Thank You.

Thus ends the sixteenth chapter named Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yogaḥ, 'The Yoga of Divine and Demonic Nature,' of the Bhagavad Gītā Upaniṣad, Brahmavidyā Yogaśāstra, the scripture of yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna saṁvād, dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.

C H A P T E R