Know Me and Be in Bliss!🔗

5.27, 5.28 Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows,

Suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils and thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence,

The transcendental who is aiming at liberation, becomes free from desire, fear and the byproduct of desire, fear and anger, all three.

One who is always in this state is certainly liberated.

5.29 One who knowing Me as the purpose of sacrifice and penance,

As the lord of all the worlds and the benefactor of all the living beings, achieves peace.

Here, the 'Me' refers to the supreme witnessing consciousness, the Krishna consciousness; it is not the six foot Krishna frame.

I always tell people, the outer guru, the master is needed only to kindle the inner spirit, to awaken the inner guru. Once the inner guru, the consciousness is awakened, the outer guru needs to be dropped. Just like after burning the dead body, the very stick that is used to stoke the wood to burn the body is dropped into the same pyre, so also the outer guru needs to be dropped.

Let us now enter into the technique. For the first time, Krishna gives a beautiful technique to move your energy from fear and greed to divine consciousness, eternal consciousness.

Your fear is rooted in the svādiṣṭhāna cakra. This is the energy center that is situated two inches below the navel. Your greed is rooted in the mūlādhāra cakra, the cakra that is in the root of your spinal cord.

Krishna gives us the technique of how to elevate ourselves from these two chakra to the eternal consciousness, the ājñā cakra at the brow center, where the eternal consciousness resides, where our very being resides. When we have elevated our self to ājñā, we go beyond our ego or mind. We are in tune with the eternal consciousness.

We are all caught in the mūlādhāra and svādiṣṭhāna, fear and greed. That is why, continuously, we can watch and see that we have a sort of a tensed feeling. We will be continuously holding our mūlādhāra and svādiṣṭhāna tightly. Here, now, just look into your being. You will be able to feel yourself near the mūlādhāra area, tightly holding yourself. You always hold yourself in tension.

Krishna explains how to relax that area, how to stop the fuel coming from greed and fear, and get the amṛta-dhāra (flow of nectar) from the eternal consciousness.

Shutting out all external sense objects, keeping the eyes and vision concentrated between the two eyebrows, suspending the inward and outward breaths within the nostrils and thus controlling the mind, senses and intelligence, the transcendental who is aiming at liberation, becomes free from desire, fear and the byproduct of desire, fear and anger - all three. One who is always in this state is certainly liberated.

First, He gives the technique to enter into that state. Then He says, if you can stay in that same state, you are liberated.

Now, at least let us try to have a glimpse of this state that Krishna explains in this verse. I will guide you step by step through this meditation.

Please try to enter into that state.

Please sit straight and close your eyes. Let your head, neck and backbone be in a straight line. Intensely pray to that ultimate energy, Parabrahma (Supreme) Krishna, to give the experience of this meditation to us.

First thing, visualize that all your senses are completely shut. Visualize that your eyes are completely closed. Don’t allow any visualization to happen inside your being. Not only should you close the eyelids, you should close the eyes also, because sometimes even though we have closed our eyelids, we continue to see things from behind the eyelids. Visualize that your eyeballs have become completely dark. You are seeing only darkness in front of you.

Visualize your ears are shut. Visualize your sense of touch is shut. Visualize your smelling capacity is shut. Visualize your face to be shut. Feel deeply that all the five senses have been shut down.

Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible. Slowly, let your nostrils blow the air. Let your consciousness reside between the two eyebrows. In a very relaxed way, let you be aware of the space between your two eyebrows. Don't concentrate; don't tense yourself. Just be very relaxed, have a deeply relaxed awareness.

Let your mūlādhāra cakra located at the base of your spine be relaxed. Let your svādiṣṭhāna cakra located just below the navel center, be relaxed. Let your whole consciousness come up to the ājñā cakra which is between the eyebrows. Let you concentrate on the space between the eyebrows. Let you relax in the ājñā cakra, between the eyebrows.

Visualize cool, soothing light in the ājñā cakra, in the space between the eyebrows. Relax in the ājñā cakra between your two eyebrows.

Forget all other parts of your body. Forget about the body, mind and the world; remember only the ājñā cakra, the space between the two eyebrows. Relax in the same state in your ājñā cakra.

Go deeply into the ājñā cakra, in the space between the two eyebrows. Visualize a beautiful, cooling, soothing light in the ājñā cakra. Let you experience beautiful, blissful light in the ājñā cakra. Don't tense yourself; let your awareness be in the ājñā cakra in a very relaxed way; let your consciousness rest in the space between the two eyebrows.

Let you relax in the same space of eternal consciousness. Let you be beyond the body and mind. Let your intelligence be awakened. Let you work from your eternal consciousness.

Let you have the pleasant awareness of the ājñā cakra.

Let you all have the grace of the divine consciousness. Let you be established in the eternal consciousness. Let you all be in, with and radiate eternal bliss, nityānanda.

Om śanti, śanti, śantihi...

Om tat sat

Relax. Slowly, very slowly, you can open your eyes.

Try to remain in this same mood at least for the next ten days.

Understand: Don't concentrate by force. Have a pleasant awareness. When you keep the pleasant awareness around your ājñā cakra, your whole energy will be directed towards the eternal consciousness. You will receive energy from eternal consciousness, from immortality, amṛtatva. You will not be driven by fear or greed. You will be driven from above by the eternal consciousness. If you are driven from below by fear or greed, you are man. If you are driven from above, you are God.

Let you learn the science of how to connect yourself with the divine energy, how to be driven by the divine consciousness. Let you function through the Eternal consciousness.

Q: Swamiji, how do we know whether a master is enlightened or not?

This is what is known as information on a 'need to know' basis!

The real question is why do you need to know? Your enlightenment does not have to depend on the enlightened state of your master. You can be enlightened by your own self, as it happened to me. You can be enlightened by a deity, a stone, metal or wooden deity, as it has happened to countless others throughout the history of mankind. You can be enlightened by a thief, a sinner, an idiot and by any one who you believe can enlighten you. You can be enlightened by one for whom you have the devotion, to whom you surrender.

Your state is what matters, not the state of the master. If you follow with deep faith and commitment and surrender totally, anything can help you realize the truth of your own Self, which is what enlightenment is all about. You are already enlightened. You don't need to be enlightened. All you need to do is to wake up to the truth.

You cannot know if some one is enlightened or not unless you are in the same state yourself. At your level of awareness, you can only make guesses and the guesses may be quite wrong. Enlightened masters do not follow any standards. There is no international standard laid down, nor will there ever be. All enlightened beings have the same experience but their expressions may be completely different. So you cannot make any comparisons.

Let me tell you one thing though. The sheer bliss of that state should reflect in that person. No enlightened master can be unhappy; nor can he suffer. He may get angry, may seem to get angry, but you will clearly know that it is only a divine play. His core will remain untouched.

An enlightened master sleeps like a flower in bloom, totally free, totally blissful with no stress or tension.

In the presence of such a master your own mind drops and your ego drops. You move into nityānanda, eternal bliss.

Thus ends the fifth chapter named Sannyāsa Yogaḥ 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.