Senses And Sins🔗

3.14 All beings grow from food grains, from rains the food grains become possible, the rains become possible from selfless sacrifice.

3.15 Know that work is born of the Creator and He is born of the Supreme.

The all-pervading supreme is eternally situated in sacrifice.

3.16 O Partha, he who does not adopt the prescribed, established cycle lives a life full of sins.

Rejoicing in sense gratification, he lives a useless life.

These concepts are beautiful concepts explained metaphorically. Great truths are conveyed in our scriptures in very few words because our masters did not depend on communication through words. They imparted knowledge by communion with the disciple.

So, this metaphorical explanation in a few verses actually has a deep meaning about life, about how we connect with life, how we depend on the universe, and how we affect the whole universe. Just this concept that Krishna explains in a few verses here is explained in detail in the Cāndogya Upaniṣad.

Our relationship with the activity of nature outside is a very deep one. Our actions are like oblations offered in a fire sacrifice. Our activities are not just movements of the limbs. When we perform a yajña, a fire sacrifice, we pour various offerings into the fire. We do so to tap the cosmic energy and to flow in tune with Existence, with nature.

The subtlest, most powerful and all-pervasive cosmic energy is invoked through the slightly less subtle air element when we chant the mantra and we connect to the still, less subtle fire energy through the fire ritual. Energy is then transferred to water, a grosser energy, and then the water in the pots is poured over plants, idols and humans as well as the earth, which is the grossest form of energy.

A physical action is a gross action, something that can be seen on the physical plane. Thoughts, mental actions, are subtler and they cannot be seen on the physical plane.

When we perform sacrifice, we perform certain invocations to the higher energies. So, we attract corresponding effects for our actions. Our actions are like offerings in a sacrifice. When the actions are in tune with the flow of Existence, it is like offering ghee (clarified butter) into the fire. When we do not flow in tune with Existence, it is like offering mud into the fire. You know what kind of smoke will come out of the fire when you offer ghee and what kind of smoke will come out when you offer mud. Like how from the quality of the smoke you can determine the quality of the offering you gave to the fire, the result of your actions can be determined from the quality of your actions.

The quality of the end result is based on our input, our offerings.

Krishna says that rains become possible from sacrifice. Rain is a grosser form of energy that is activated by the subtler energies, which are influenced by our actions, thoughts and vibrations.

Rain is the cause for the growth of food grains. Food is needed to sustain our bodies and minds, which give rise to further action.

So you see this cycle now, of how the subtle energy manifests itself in the grosser world and how the actions in the grosser world affect the subtler elements.

If we just understand this, we will realize that everything that we do and experience is caused by our own actions. We invite our destiny. As we sow, so shall we reap.

Our body-mind is highly influenced by our thoughts and words.

Bliss attracts fortune. You may wonder, 'Fortune can bring us bliss but how can bliss bring us fortune?'

In India, when any new activity is started, be it a business or construction or something to do with education, the first thing that we do is sit down for a few moments, close our eyes and remain in a meditative mood. We try to bring about some kind of an energy play or transformation inside us.

Of course, over the years, this has become a prayer and a ritual. That is a different issue. But the first thing that we do is sit down and try to kindle the energy flow in us.

When the energy flow in us becomes harmonious, it has the property of influencing external incidents. Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, like it or not, want it or not, you are deeply connected to Existence. You are an integral part of Existence, not an independent island as you think.

Every subtle movement or subtle thought in one part of the universe causes a counter-effect at that same moment elsewhere in the universe.

Our thoughts and energy flow have the capacity to create and attract incidents and people of the same nature.

What I have said here is one of the age-old truths expounded by our ṛṣis, sages in the Upaniṣad, vedic lore. It is interesting that modern science is coming up with some startling evidence that reveals some of these truths now.

You should know about this research conducted by Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese doctor and research scientist who has published his findings in the book, The Hidden Messages in Water. He conducted extensive experiments on water samples taken from all over the world.

He took similar samples of water and exposed the water to different influences. To one set of samples, he spoke positive words such as ‘love’ and ‘gratitude’. He recited Buddhist chants to another. Over another set, he spoke words such as ‘anger’ and ‘war’. Then he froze the different water samples so that he could photograph their crystal form.

In the samples that had been exposed to positive energy, beautiful clear crystals were formed, like diamonds! The water exposed to negative energies did not form into crystals; they looked like a tumor: dark, cloudy and without any distinct geometrical pattern.

Several hundred experiments were conducted to prove the effects of the vibrations created by our words and thoughts on matter. Water being the most common molecule in our bodies, we can now see the obvious and dramatic effect our thoughts have on ourselves and others! It doesn't stop there. Our thoughts have the capacity to affect the oceans and the seas.

Recent research by Russian scientists throw an entirely new light on how our DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies. They did experiments where they superimposed certain frequencies onto a laser ray and with it influenced the DNA frequency and thus the genetic information itself!

In quantum physics, there is a notion of a wormhole that is essentially like a shortcut in space-time. It is like a tube that can connect two distant locations in the universe by bending space-time. By going from one end to the other through the wormhole, one can travel from one point in the universe to another without going through the usual space-time. One can even access parallel universes if the two ends of the wormhole are in different universes.

Russian scientists showed that wormholes could be built into the DNA, so that information can be transmitted outside of space and time. The DNA attracts these bits of information and passes them on to our consciousness. They give this explanation for the process of hyper-communication or what we call intuition.

Science is beginning to touch what our vedic seers have declared thousands of years ago about collective consciousness. What we do in any plane, physical or mental, affects our consciousness. And since we are all a part of the common fabric called Existence, our consciousness is a part of the collective consciousness, which also gets affected by our thoughts and actions.

Weather is strongly influenced by earth resonance frequencies, and the same frequencies are also produced in our brains. When many people synchronize their thinking, the individual consciousness synchronizes and affects the collective consciousness. So we can actually even influence the weather by our thoughts.

This is what Krishna means when He says rains are caused by sacrifice. It is a metaphorical statement. When a large number of people synchronize and focus their thoughts with no expectations and with full faith in the abundance of the universe, the universe responds. Rain falls, grains grow, and abundance results.

It has actually been reveled by various studies that when a number of people focus their thoughts on something similar, like during communal celebrations or a football world championship, then certain random number generators in computers start to deliver ordered numbers instead of random ones!

Also understand, that all the so-called natural calamities are nothing but the effects of global negative thoughts.

From a young age, we have been trained in 'mathematical logic', never in 'Existential logic'. Mathematical logic is very straightforward and should be applied only to things where it is appropriate. In matters concerning life and relationships, mathematical logic will only cause chaos. With it, we will always look to conclude with a 'good' or 'bad' judgment. There is something beyond and deeper than this

Your thoughts and energy directly affect your body, your cell structure, your decisions, your capacity to fulfill your decisions, the outer world incidents, and even accidents.

Currently, you are always centered in either greed or fear. Every action that you do is out of either desire or fear. It becomes very easy for others to exploit you because of this. You become very vulnerable. You create a mental setup that attracts similar incidents to your life. You also corrupt your energy flow in this way.

If you can change your mental setup from this type to one of bliss, or ānanda, then your energy flow will start brimming and your thoughts will be much clearer and you will be more in the present moment.

When you do this, you have every power to control external incidents because you and Existence have a very deep connection at the energy level. This is the thread that you need to catch in order to understand that bliss attracts fortune. When you are blissful, when your mental setup is not one of worry, fear and greed but one that is in the present, always joyful, you will automatically attract all good things to yourself.

When you throw a pebble into a lake, ripples start from that point to the edge of the lake. So also your thoughts have a permanent effect on the universe. Imagine if the lake were infinite. Ripples with a continuous effect would be created, even though the magnitude of each ripple would be different.

So also every action has an effect. Using the same principle, I can say that you can actually create the desired effect by just visualizing it. For example, if you meditate, if you visualize you are bliss, bliss is bound to happen in and around you as an effect. It would seem that the cause has created the effect. But in life, cause and effect are actually a cycle, each generating and being generated by the other.

This is the endless cycle that Krishna refers to when He says that work originates with the Creator, who in turn originates from the supreme Existence, and therefore all sacrifices are from the Supreme to the Supreme.

When we are in the mood and mode of surrender, we no longer retain our identity. We are one with Existence. Whatever we do, we do by Existence and for Existence. There is no separation.

Q: Swamiji, how can we surrender the ego when this wanting to surrender is itself an expression of the ego?

A question to you: How are you going to surrender the ego, when it does not exist?

Suppose you are sitting in a dark room. You want the darkness to go out. Can you push it out? Can you fight darkness and force it to leave the room? No! No matter how long you keep trying, you are ultimately going to be defeated – and that too by something which does not exist!

Ego is like darkness; it has no positive existence. Just like darkness is simply the absence of light, ego is nothing but the absence of awareness. To struggle to kill the ego is like struggling to push darkness out of the room.

To really expel darkness, what you need to do is forget all about dealing with darkness. Focus your energy on light instead. Just bring a small lamp into the room, and you will find that the darkness has fled on its own!

So, I tell you to forget all about the ego. Instead, focus on bringing a lamp of awareness into your being. Bring the light of your consciousness to your unconscious zone. When your entire consciousness has become a flame, you will find that the ego is no more.

Ego is an illusion. You cannot surrender it when you are unaware – because you don’t know how. Of course, you cannot surrender it when you become aware either - because then you realize that there is nothing left to surrender!

What you have heard, read, been taught – ‘Surrender the ego in order to attain self-realization’ – is an utterly impractical idea. It can happen only the other way round. Self-realization dawns, and suddenly you cannot find the ego anymore. Surrender has already happened, just like that.

However, I am glad that the question has arisen in your being. Ego is the root cause for all your anxieties, sorrows and tensions. It is your doorway to hell. To actively feel that you want to drop the ego, to feel the need to get rid of this burden is in itself a step towards awareness. It shows that you are stirring from your sleep!