Become A Yogi🔗

6.44 Due to the practice in his previous life, he certainly gets attracted automatically to yoga and he is inquisitive about yoga and transcends the scriptures.

6.45 A yogi by trying and practicing, after many births, is cleansed of all sins and achieves the highest state.

6.46 A yogi is greater than the ascetic, than the wise and the person who works for the fruit of action. So, become a yogi, O Arjuna.

6.47 Of all yogis, one who always lives in Me, thinking of Me, who worships Me in full faith, he is considered engaged in Me.

Krishna is describing the process of the human experience. Why do we assume the body? We think that we can experience bliss through the body and mind; that is why we assume the body. When we realize that bliss cannot be experienced through the body or mind, we know that going beyond the body is the only way to experience it. Then we will not assume the body. Assuming the human body is simply our choice.

People ask me, 'Why do we choose to have the human experience?' That we should find out for ourselves. Why did we assume this body? I asked the question and I got the answer. I know why I chose the human experience. Ask the question yourself and pursue it as a quest and you will get the answer. You will be enlightened.

We claim that we want to experience the ultimate and that we want to be enlightened. But I tell you, if we really want to be enlightened, there is nothing that can stop us. There is no hindrance to our being enlightened except our own self. As of now, actually, enlightenment is last on our laundry list of items that we want to do in life! When the urge becomes urgent, when the question becomes a burning quest, then we get the answer. There is no other way.

In these verses, Krishna promises a few things. He says that whatever we have learned in one life does not get wasted. We do not start from ground zero in the next birth. We start from where we left off. Our vāsanās, our mindset in one birth, continues into another. He also promises that if we keep practicing, if we keep trying, we will be cleansed of all sins and reach the highest state. Such a person, Krishna promises, will reach Him.

At the end of the day, what Krishna implies is this: We need to do our bit. We need to practice yoga, the path that leads to self-awareness, the path that leads to Krishna, with dedication, perseverance and conviction. There is no other way. There is no short cut. Once you do your bit, the master promises deliverance. He promises that you will be one with Him.

Now, let us analyze this truth with our questions and answers. After that, we will enter into a technique given by Sri Krishna to go beyond the mind, to awaken our senses, to look in.

Q: Swamiji, you talked about Nithya Yoga, which is being taught by teachers trained and ordained by you. Can you tell us more about it?

I had the great blessing to be around a great yoga master called Raghupati Yogi. I tell you honestly, only now I feel happy about it. In those days I used to hate him because in the morning, at around six or seven o'clock, he would start the yoga training. I used to feel that it was torture! Any beginner in yoga would know what I mean!

He would make me bend this way and that. The temple where he used to teach me yoga has a beautiful hall with stone pillars. He would make me climb up all the stone pillars. I had to climb up and down twenty to thirty pillars continuously. I am still not able to find any reference to support why I was made to climb the pillars. In no yoga book does it say one is to climb any pillars! He would make me climb using only one hand. I wasn't allowed to use two hands. I had to use only one hand and climb up and come down. And then he would make me swallow a long cloth to clean the intestines.

Until the age of thirteen he prepared my body and my mind to enter into the experience of enlightenment and to stay in the experience of enlightenment. Entering into the experience of enlightenment is not a big thing. As I have said, to have a glimpse of the ‘no-mind’ state, to have satori, to have one experience of unclutching is not a big thing. But to stay in that - not only to stay in that, but to express that energy through the body, our body and mind need to be prepared. That is the real thing.

Just having one glimpse is not a big thing. Anybody can have it. To stay in that same space, staying in the same consciousness and expressing it needs a little preparation. I think he prepared my body to hold and radiate the energy of enlightenment.

Raghupati Yogi was from the lineage of Patanjali. Patanjali is the founder of the yoga system. Patanjali is the first master who created a clear, scientific, logical system to reproduce the experience of enlightenment. Until Patanjali, enlightenment was an accident; by chance a few people attained it. It was more like gambling. You have to play, but there is no guarantee.

Patanjali was the first master, I can say the spiritual navigator, who really did the mapping and gave the complete directions. He created clear-cut directions, the step-by-step formula to reproduce the experience of enlightenment. Just like how scientists create a formula to reproduce their understanding of the outer world things, Patanjali created a beautiful formula and technology to reproduce the experience of the inner world, enlightenment.

This yogi, Raghupati Yogi, had mastered the whole science and not only the physical aspects of yoga like bending the body, what we call āsana, or Hatha Yoga, but also the other aspects of yoga like working with prāna (life giving energy), working with the mind, working with the visualization power and emotions. He mastered all the other dimensions of yoga, all the other aspects of yoga. He gave me a deep insight into the core truths.

These insights were sometimes revealing, sometimes shocking. Sometimes they even looked very contradictory. I used to ask sometimes, ‘I am able to understand what is written in the book by Patanjali, but I am not able to understand your commentary.’ Then he would explain, ‘In the books or Yoga Sutra, it is only the verbal language of Patanjali that is recorded. It is not the body language. What he wanted to convey was not recorded. Naturally, much was lost. That is what I am explaining to you now.’

For example, now I say, ‘Be unclutched.’ Somehow, fortunately we have the video recorder and everything else to record whatever I am saying and the purpose of what I am saying, and the ambience in which I am saying all these things. If you just take only the verbal message and convey it to the next generation, after two hundred years, and let us say that only the words ‘Be Unclutched’ are delivered, what will happen?

If someone asks, ‘What is the message of Paramahamsa Nithyananda?’

The other person would say, ‘He always used to say, Be Unclutched. This means that you should not drive any car that has a clutch. Stop using cars!’

Then another person might say, ‘Not only cars but anything with clutches, we should not use. That is the meaning of Nithyananda’s teachings.’

The truth behind the words ‘Be Unclutched’ is very different, is it not? When only the verbal language is recorded, when the body language is not recorded, when the purpose for which the word is uttered is not recorded, we don’t know what type of interpretation will be given after 100 or 200 years. Only the person who has experienced the consciousness of Patanjali can bring Patanjali back to life. I had the great fortune to be with a master who had experienced that consciousness. He experienced and lived in the inner space of Patanjali. That’s the reason he used to reveal the deeper truths of the yoga science.

I will try to share a few of those things with you all, a few revelations. The foundation of Patanjali’s Yoga is called Ashtaanga Yoga. People translate that as the eight steps to Yoga. It is not eight steps; it is eight parts. All eight parts should be practiced at one time, not in sequence.

The first step is yama. The next step is niyama. If we decide that we will go to the second step only after doing the first step, we will never be able to go to the second step. We will never be able to go to the second step because the first step can happen in us only when we have attained samādhi, the eighth stage! The first rule in yama is truthfulness. But only after we have experienced samādhi can real truthfulness happen in us. Until then, whatever we talk about will be only a fact. It will not be the truth.

Fact is not truth. Fact is truth as understood by our senses. Whatever part of the truth we understand with our senses is what we call fact. We can neither understand the truth, nor speak the truth, nor live the truth until we experience the eighth limb which is samādhi. These are the eight paths or limbs of enlightenment. So they can't be the steps of yoga, they have to be only the parts or paths or limbs of yoga. There are so many other beautiful revelations I had from him.

Once I asked him, 'Why are you making me climb all these pillars? I don't find any books saying, 'climbing pillars is yoga.'

He said a beautiful thing. He said, 'For whatever purpose you bend your body or move your body, that memory, that idea will become completely inserted or recorded into your body and mind.' This is one of the important revelations I had from him.

This is a very startling revelation. He says that with whatever intention we move our body, bend our body, or make our body active, that intention, that purpose will be recorded into our body. That purpose, that idea, that saṁskāras will start expressing in our body. He means that the way in which we bend, the method in which we stand up, or the method in which we do yoga is not what becomes embedded in us. The method in which we do yoga postures or breathe, all these things are not too important. He says if we have an intention to have health, and do whatever we want for that intention, move our body any way with that intention, health will simply happen in us.

There is too much of an association between diseases and postures that remedy those diseases, especially in the West. 'For this disease, we have to do that posture, for that disease we have to do this posture. For this problem we have to do that technique.' This connection is too much in the West. Raghupati Yogi gave me this revelation that any posture practiced, not merely the postures, any movement, any physical movement practiced for some purpose or having some intention, will create that effect in our body. He said that if we strongly believe that ordinary sitting can give us health, that is enough. We can sit just for health. We will see health happening in us. I asked how this could be. He said, 'That is the way it is!'

When I posed that question I expected an intellectual explanation. But he said, 'That is the way it is.' It is because our body itself is made out of our memories. We are an expression of our own self-hypnosis. Any way we move our body with the faith that this or that will happen in us, the same effect will simply start expressing in us. Every memory is recorded in our muscles. So when we change the memories, we can just change our system also. Our system can respond to the memory that we are creating.

He is the master who gave birth to the new system that I am introducing to the world as Nithya Yoga, yoga for eternity. We are trying to bring in all the basic truths of yoga as revealed by Patanjali; not from Patanjali's verbal language that everybody has access to, but from Patanjali's body language, which can be expressed by only the person who has experienced the inner space of Patanjali, the consciousness of Patanjali.

Trying to express yoga according to Patanjali's body language, according to Patanjali's inner space is what we call Nithya Yoga. The purpose is to experience bliss. It is aimed at working towards bliss, experiencing bliss, and expressing bliss. The capacity to experience bliss will just explode in our inner space. The capacity to radiate bliss will start happening in our body. Our system is not prepared to stay in that same space. Our system is not ready to radiate that same experience continuously.

Nithya Yoga prepares our body to experience and stay in and radiate the inner bliss, the eternal bliss. Ordinarily our mind is not capable of staying in bliss or excitement. Our system is not capable of staying in that high excitement. It is neither trained, nor is it capable enough as yet.

Through Nithya Yoga, I am trying to train seekers not only to experience the bliss, but also to stabilize the experience in themselves, and to radiate that experience in their life. The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to help people unclutch and experience the eternal bliss. The physical healing may be a side effect.

Be very clear, yoga cannot be reduced to a physical exercise. Meditation cannot be reduced just to a technique to give us a little peace. These have deeper and more sacred meanings. Yoga is for much more than just physical health. Physical health is just one side effect happening through yoga. In the same way, meditation is not just for mental well-being. Mental well-being is just one side effect of meditation. So yoga and meditation cannot be reduced to techniques for creating physical and mental health. They are meant for a deeper purpose and to experience a totally different inner space. They are the pathways to experience eternal bliss, nityānanda.

We are trying to bring this truth to life through Nithya Yoga, through this new system, or I can say the oldest system. I can't say it is a new system since it is the oldest system, as Patanjali wanted. We are trying to bring to life the same experience that Patanjali expressed.

Q: What is the difference between dharma and purpose?

Purpose drives us crazy. With purpose we stop enjoying our lives. We start thinking only about the goal. With dharma, we live the very life. We start enjoying the path. Dharma means enjoying the path and purpose means enjoying the goal. If we are enjoying the path we are in dharma. If we are enjoying the goal, we are living towards the purpose.

Q: Respected Swamiji, what is the difference between Bhagavad Gita and Maha Gita referred to as Ashtavakra Gita?

Ashtavakra Gita is also a beautiful book! More than fifty-eight Gitas are available, including Rama Gita, Shiva Gita, Anu Gita, Vyaadha Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, etc. There are so many Gitas that are available, but nothing can be compared to the Bhagavad Gita. This is everything put together and something more. Ashtavakra Gita is only for people who want the spiritual experience. Bhagavad Gita is for every being.

If I start speaking from where I am, it will never benefit all of you. I should start speaking from where you all are and not from where I am. Ashtavakra starts speaking from where He is. But Krishna starts speaking from where we are. So Krishna can give us the experience because He starts from where we are standing.

Q: Dear Swamiji, yesterday you said that I am god; I am not sure about this. I did not find a single quality of god in me. Please explain.

Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, realize it or not, want it or not, experience it or not, we are all god!

Some fish go along with the current. Some fish go against the current. There are some people who just float with Existence, who just float with the Divine. There are some people who go against the Divine, who oppose the Divine. But one thing we should understand, whether it flows along with the current or goes against the current, the fish is in the water! In the same way, whether we become enlightened or think we are not enlightened, we are enlightened. The question is not whether we are enlightened or not. The choice is, either we can realize it and live blissfully or suffer without realizing it.

So, whether we realize it or not, we are god! In that there is no choice. We have no choice in being god. We have only one choice. If we want, we can realize it and express it joyfully, or we can suffer. There is no other choice. Whether the fish flows along with the current or goes against the current, it has to be in the water only. If we are not divine, we cannot even inhale and exhale. It is the very energy that is inside our being.

One more thing is that again and again society creates guilt in us that we are not sufficient unto ourselves. Please be very clear, society sets a standard and it never lets us feel the divinity in us. The first thing we need to understand is that we are beyond body and mind. All our guilt is related to body and mind. So, don’t use the standard that is given by society to measure whether we are god or not. The social standard is never right and can never be fulfilled either.

The moment we allow guilt to happen in us, we are ready to be exploited. Anybody who wants to exploit us first puts guilt into us. The person who wants to exploit us at the physical level makes us believe we are not strong enough. The person who wants to exploit us at the level of beauty makes us feel we are not beautiful enough. Only then can all the cosmetic products be sold. Why do you think these cosmetic companies conduct beauty contests? Just to make us feel guilty that we are not beautiful, so that we will buy their products and beautify ourselves.

Be very clear, we are enough unto ourselves. Never run after anybody else’s measurements. Why should we bother about somebody else’s measurements and standards? Each one of us is a unique flower. If god were an engineer, He would generate ten billion Miss Universes and ten billion Mr. Universes. But He is not an engineer. God is a painter. That is why every one of our dimensions is different. Every one of us is unique! The moment we start thinking, ‘I am not beautiful,’ we start buying all the cosmetic products and try painting our face. We try all possible makeup methods.

In the same way, in the spiritual field also, the so-called religious people put guilt into us. They say, ‘We are not that, we are not this.’ First, they start giving us ideas that are impractical. Vivekananda says beautifully, ‘Never teach men to be truthful. Teach them how to be.’ Never give dead teachings. Give people the technology. Give them the science that will empower them. The so-called religious people who don’t know the technology, who don’t know how to transform the energy by themselves, who have not transformed their own energy, are like parrots. They repeat morality and impossible goals from scriptures and create guilt in us.

That is why again and again I tell people, ‘Never listen to a person who is not enlightened. Never listen to a person who has not experienced the truth himself. He will give us all impractical ideas.’ As I was saying the other day, people write big books about how to really start living joyfully, and they themselves live unhappy lives! Their teachings are impractical because they have not experienced what they are preaching. So be very clear, when a person is not enlightened, he creates only complications.

Even your so-called moral ideas are just problems. A person should never be told or advised to be good, never. He should be taught how to be good. The technology should be taught. The science should be given. When we don’t give the technology and only give them the advice, we only create more trouble for others. The person who receives the advice and not the technology starts creating deep guilt within and becomes schizophrenic.

Please be very clear, guilt is created in us at three levels. The people who are cunning enough to hide their personal lives are the ones who create guilt in us. First, at the physical level, the guilt given to us is, ‘We are not strong enough.’ Only if we believe we are not strong enough, we will become slaves and others can control us. Second, at the level of beauty, ‘We are not beautiful enough.’ We are gullible and go for all the fashion shows and the cosmetic products. Now, they can sell all cosmetic products and dump them on our heads. And the third is at the spiritual level, ‘We are not spiritual enough, we are not pure enough, and we are not spiritual beings.’ The people who are doing these three businesses create these three kinds of guilt in us. Enlightened masters will always liberate us from all the guilt. They always work towards dissolving our guilt.

A small story:

Three women died and reached Yama’s abode. Yama Dharma (Lord of death who gives judgment at the time of death) was sitting there for judgment. He called the first lady and she came. He asked, ‘Did you live a pure life?’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord! I lived a pure life. I was one hundred percent faithful to my husband.’ Then Yama verified with the records and said, ‘Alright, you lived a beautiful life. Have the golden key.’ He gave her a golden key and a first class, air-conditioned suite in heaven. She left and the next lady came for judgment.

Now, Yama asked, ‘Did you live a pure life?’ She said, ‘Almost. Physically I never did anything wrong, but mentally once or twice, when I saw one or two movies, mentally I made one or two mistakes.’ Yama verified with the report. He said ‘Alright, at least you are honest, you confessed! Have the silver key. You have a second class suite, go and enjoy.’ He sent her to heaven.

The third lady came for judgment. Yama asked, ‘Did you live a pure life?’ She put her head down and said, ‘Lord, forgive me. I have done everything that you can imagine and that which you can’t imagine.’ Then Yama Dharma just looked this way and that way. He said, ‘Here, this is my room key, I will join you there shortly!’

Understand that all our morality is taught to us by people who have hidden their lives, who have given their room keys! Look into life clearly. We should not create guilt in ourselves and suffer. We should not feel that we are not God. The guilt created in us by these so-called religious people only makes us feel that we are not God. Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, realize it or not, want it or not, experience it or not, we are gods! We have only one choice, we can realize it and enjoy ourselves or we can go on suffering.

Now it is time to look in. Now it is time to tune ourselves to that highest teaching given by Sri Krishna in this Dhyāna Yoga. Now we will enter into the meditation. If we are ready to sit for the next ten minutes, we will start the meditation.

Please sit straight and close your eyes. Keep your head, neck and spine, all three in a straight line. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible.

Slowly, in a relaxed way, bring your awareness to your ājñā cakra. Concentrate between the two eyebrows. Bring your awareness between the two eyebrows. Remember and pray to that energy that came as Krishna, that is guiding us and helping us in our life. Pray to that energy that gave us the Bhagavad Gita.

Meditate on the pure light energy. If your mind wanders here and there, don’t worry. When you remember, bring it back again and relax in your ājñā cakra, between your eyebrows. Don’t concentrate. In a very relaxed way, be aware of the ājñā cakra, the space in between the two eyebrows.

(a few minutes pass)

Slowly, very slowly bring your mind to your heart and meditate on your heart center. If you want, you can touch your heart center with the hand and feel it. Try to bring your awareness to the heart center. Try to remember the heart center. Forget all other parts of your body; forget your mind. Just become the heart center. Just be in the heart center. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible.

May you experience your pure inner space. May you experience the eternal bliss, nithyananda.

(a few minutes pass)

Om Śānti, Śānti, Śāntihi

Relax. Slowly, very slowly, open your eyes.

We may wonder how a simple technique like this one can lead us into our Self. Please understand that we always live in the head. Start living from the heart. We will then start acting from intelligence. We will start acting, not from our head but from our heart. When we start acting from the heart, we don't calculate. The very calculation disappears, the 'I, I, I' disappears. And naturally our senses become sensitive. We don't abuse our senses. We don't destroy our senses. Too much of the energy that is supplied to the heart is taken away by the mind. The fuel supply to the mind will be reduced and the fuel supply to the heart will be increased.

So try to continuously remember this heart region, the anāhata cakra. Naturally, we will have awareness in the ājñā also. In the last session, Krishna gave the technique to be in the ājñā. Today, He says start with the ājñā and come down to anāhata. This is because in the heart, there is a possibility of much more happening. The possibility of reaching is easier in the heart. The possibility is much greater in the heart. Krishna says, 'Let you be in the heart.'

Look in! You will realize 'You are That.' Just look in, you will experience the eternal bliss, nitya ānanda. Let us pray to that ultimate energy, Parabrahma Krishna to give us all the eternal bliss, nityānanda.

Thus ends the sixth chapter named Abhyāsa Yoga of the Upaniṣad of the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.