Don't Torture Me🔗

17.2 The supreme Lord said: The natural faith of embodied beings is of three kinds: Goodness, aggression, and ignorance. Now hear about these from Me.

17.3 O Arjuna, the sincerity of each is in accordance with one's own natural disposition. One is known by one's sincerity. One can become whatever one wants to be.

17.4 Men in the nature of goodness worship the deities; those in the nature of aggression worship the demons and those in the nature of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.

17.5, 6 Ignorant persons of demonic nature are those who practice severe austerities without following the prescription of the scriptures, who are full of hypocrisy and egotism, who are impelled by the force of desire and attachment and who senselessly torture the elements in their body and also Me who dwells within the body.

Krishna explains that the way we worship depends upon our natural disposition, the guṇa, attributes that we are born with.

When we are born, we carry within us the vāsanā, the essence of the mental attitude from our past lives. This comes with the prārabdha karma (unfulfilled ations from past lives) and the saṁskāras (deeply engraved memories), that drive our mental makeup and actions throughout our present lives. In turn, guṇas or the attributes we are born with are determined.

Many believe that there is an avenging angel who sits at the gates of paradise or hell, as the case may be, keeping accounts of all that we have done in our life. It is as if Saint Peter or Chitragupta waits to pounce on us and read out our balance sheet. Do we think they have no other work to do?

All these stories are creations of religious leaders, who wish to control us out of fear and greed. Just as we relate fairy tales to our children to keep them quiet, these priests and scholars tell us these stories. Some fairy tales are really horror stories about witches and monsters that eat humans, especially young children. No wonder children become corrupted by fear. These stories are fed to them at a susceptible age and at bedtime, a susceptible time.

Hell and heaven are merely stories. Our mind is our hell and heaven. We go through hell during this life, not after this life. The fear of what will happen, the guilt that religion imposes upon us, keeps us in hell. Once we let go of this guilt, we shift into heaven.

Our being, our undying spirit, keeps an account of every thought we have and every move that we make. There is no escape from this account keeper. When we reach the end of the road, when our body dies, the spirit plays back all that happened during the journey of life and goes through the pains and pleasures. According to Krishna, the attitude or last thought with which we left our body carries over to our next birth and the next body our spirit moves into.

Do not think that we can do whatever we want during our entire life, and then embrace some wonderfully good thoughts at that last breath before we die. No! However much we try, we cannot be money-minded all our life and switch to chanting ‘Krishna, Krishna’ as we take our last breath. What we have been all our life takes hold of us when we leave the body as well.

If all our life we were behind money, we will only chant dollars and cents as we die. Our attitude will be about making money and that will be the attitude with which we take birth in the next body. Our spirit looks for a body in an environment that fosters the growth of the attitude with which it left the previous body.

If the attitude is to make money, it chooses a family, location, and culture in which it can be reborn in order to be wealthy. If the attitude is to serve people, it similarly chooses an appropriate family, location and culture to make this happen.

Hence we are born with a natural inclination based upon our last life and attitude. Depending on the attitude, we may have the attribute of satva - goodness, rajas - aggression, or tamas - ignorance as our driving nature.

All societies, religions, faiths, castes or creeds are simply translations of these basic natures or traits or mental conditionings; nothing more. After taking birth on planet earth, we adopt the nature into which we are born that is according to our past attitude. In our new birth, we settle into a religious belief dictated by that natural attribute.

However, we do not realize that we are a part of the Whole, a fragment of Existence or the supreme consciousness. We do not realize that our true nature transcends all material associations and conditionings. When this relationship with Existence is forgotten, we give energy to our associations in material life. We develop allegiance to the blind rules of some religion. Such an existence is purely materialistic and the association itself is artificial. To come out of this, we must break out of our material bonds and enter the path of Self-realization.

Śraddha here refers to the faith that comes out of good work. Yet pure goodness goes beyond all material acts. It is transcendental. Hence there is nothing like fully good, completely good in material life.

Please be very clear, only a person whose nature is pure goodness can connect with the Divine, with Existence.

An enlightened master goes beyond the three guṇas of satva, rajas and tamas. He transcends these attributes because he burns out all his vāsanās, saṁskāras and karmas, of which these guṇas are a product. An enlightened master has no bondages. He is not bound by desires, greed, fear or attachment. He is beyond the illusion of material existence. He dissolves into the cosmic energy when he chooses to leave the body and it perishes.

When the energy of an enlightened master is reborn on this planet, when it takes human form, it is imbued with some satva guṇa, since all beings in physical form must by nature have an attribute.

Such a being is an incarnation, an avatār. Upon realization of the being's enlightened state, that incarnation reverts to its transcendental state of being without attributes or guṇa. In some cases, the incarnation continues upon this planet to fulfill the mission that Existence has sent it to accomplish. In other cases, upon realization of its true nature, the incarnation reverts to its original cosmic state.

The classic examples of these two different events are Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. Both were enlightened masters who reappeared upon this planet on the mission of Existence, Parāśakti. Ramakrishna continued after realization of his state of enlightenment. However, Vivekananda, as predicted by his master Ramakrishna, left his mortal body once He realized his enlightened state.

If a tamasic person becomes enlightened, he goes through the stages of rajas and satva before the realization happens. The transition may happen quickly but it must happen. Valmiki (Indian sage) was a robber who terrorized and killed people. His nature was deep tamas with a layer of rajas. When he caught hold of Narada and demanded money, Narada offered him the name Narayana. The moment Valmiki uttered the name of the Lord, he was transformed. He shifted to satva and became the enlightened master who wrote the Ramayana epic.

Krishna says our style of worship depends upon our nature. A person established in satva worships devatas (deities, gods) who are peaceful. A person established in rajas worships yakṣas (supernatural beings) and rākṣasas (demons). A person established in tamas (ignorance) worships pretas (spirits of the dead) and bhūtas (ghosts).

Please understand, whatever is your ideal, whatever you hold in high esteem, whoever you follow, whatever you worship, that is your nature and that decides your quality. To decide the nature of youngsters, observe their rooms. Do they have a Swami Vivekananda poster or an actor's poster? Based on that, we can decide their hero.

If we have Swami Vivekananda's photo on the wall, he is our hero. We continuously think of him. We want to become like him. We want to live like him. If we have an actor's photo, we want our hairstyle to be like his. We want to look like him. We want to dress like him and we will work out to look like him. We do everything to become like him.

If we worship the right ideal, we are established in satva. If we have Swami Vivekananda's poster in our room, we are in satva. If we have an actor's photo or poster in our room, we are in rajas and tamas. Tamas is like watching a violent fighting show. Everyday the shows go on: people fighting with each other, beating and kicking each other like monkeys. I can never understand this. Fighting is a perversion.

Please understand that fighting is a perversion. I cannot imagine thousands of people sitting and watching these fights. How perverted we have become! Please be very clear that if you continuously sit in front of the television and watch fighting, you are established in tamas.

Krishna says that based upon our ideal, our guṇa (attributes) can be described.

In the last verse, He says, 'Please do not punish your body. You not only punish yourself, but you also punish me because I reside in you!'

The scriptures do not recommend severe austerities and penances. Walking on fire and such other things are unnecessary. When I make you do these things once in a while, it is to make you break the pattern that you have always lived your life in. But you should not subject yourself to these as daily rituals, 'Every morning when I wake up, I should walk on ten feet of fire...' No!

Krishna says there is no need for all these things. People perform them out of pride and ego, merely to show, 'I did all these things.' They are done out of pride and egoism. They are done out of lust and attachment. Some people, for example, sit for years on a bed of nails or sit with one hand raised. All these painful contortions are foolish. These people torture their bodies and the material elements as well as the Paramātman (supreme consciousness) dwelling inside them. Beautifully Lord Krishna says, 'Please do not torture the soul inside your body. Don't abuse your body. The body is the temple of God.

By torturing the temple of God, you torture the supreme consciousness residing inside. He says that those who torture the supreme consciousness inside the body are demons. Ravana did penance. He cut off his heads and put them into the fire. This is a demon's penance, torturing the body and torturing the supreme consciousness residing in the body. There is no need to do self-torture. Krishna says, 'Don't torture yourself.' God never asked you to torture yourself. These people wanted to destroy somebody all the time. That is why they did these violent things even to themselves. The entire purpose of this penance and self-torture was to boost the ego, to seek power.

No scripture expects or teaches us how to kill others, torture others or do black magic to others. The other day I spoke to somebody about yantras as a remedy. Yantra is a metal plate with a diagrammatic representation of powerful mantra (chant) that is sanctified through rituals. After that lecture someone told me, 'I bought a yantra, but when I wanted to return it to the person I bought it from, he threatened to curse me.'

You need to understand that only an enlightened being can curse. Only he has that power. But an enlightened person will never curse. Please be very clear that only an enlightened person can make his curse effective. Others cannot. It is not that anybody can curse and it will become reality. No, only an enlightened person can curse, and an enlightened person will never curse. If he curses, he is not enlightened. Nobody can curse you. If he is not enlightened, don't be concerned about it. It will never work because for a curse you need satya-sankalpa, the backing of Truth.

Only the words of a person who has achieved the ultimate energy can become reality. I will say again that only an enlightened person can curse, and an enlightened person will never curse. Because the enlightened person is in universal consciousness, cursing another person is the same as cursing himself!

Never be afraid of curses! Nobody can curse you. One thing is sure, if someone curses, he hurts himself more than he hurts others. So never be afraid of curses.

Spiritual relationships can never exist out of fear or greed. Never be obedient to somebody out of fear. Simply throw things out if it is forced on you out of fear. Never be afraid of anything.

Here Krishna says that there is no need for all this penance. Out of pride and ego you cheat yourself with all this penance but you never really achieve anything. The person who does these things out of ego and pride is a demon, a rākṣasa.

A demon is in deep tamas, in ignorance. All that drives such a person is the boost to his ego without consideration for himself and others. Such a person is a spiritual cipher.

Q: Swamiji, you said that vāsanās make the spirit choose a new body to be reborn in. Why is there a difference in attitude between siblings? One may be money-oriented, another service-oriented, a third may be power-crazy. And all three are different from their parents. Why is this?

An excellent question!

Earlier I shared the story of attempting to heal the autistic child when I was in the USA a few years ago. The parents were from India, but not from Tamilnadu and none of them spoke Tamil. I will mention it again since it's relevant to this question.

As soon as I touched the autistic boy, in crude but chaste Tamil he shouted at me to take my hands off him. He did not want to be healed. I was taken aback both with the vehemence with which he said this and also that he spoke in a language that he was unfamiliar with. I asked the boy why.

He said that he had made a deliberate choice to be an autistic being since he did not want to be caught in life's responsibilities. He wanted to work out his prārabdha karma (unfulfilled actions from the past) without having to exert himself.

I responded by saying, ‘That is fine, but you are troubling your parents who are good people. Why are you making them suffer?’

He immediately replied, ‘Do you think I would enter the body in a family that would not take care of me? I was born to them because they are good people and I knew they would take care of me!’

Of course, I did not attempt to heal the boy against the wishes of his being.

The reasons with which a spirit may decide on a body may not be obvious to us. Following birth, the individual also forgets why he chose his body and he also forgets his prārabdha karmas. It would be convenient if we remembered what brought us here. Then we could work towards fulfilling those desires! Once fulfilled, our karmas would dissolve and our spirit would be free.

Please understand that the entire concept of karma, and about doing good and bad, is nonsense. It is only to keep you on a tight leash. That is all. If you think that by giving money to the poor, donating to a temple fund or a preacher’s hat will earn merit points toward your entry into heaven, you have been fooled.

When people come to the ashram and want to donate money, I tell them, ‘Do not think that this Nithyananda will be standing at the gate when you die to make sure you get a heavenly suite. Nothing like that is possible. There is no exchange offer between what you give now and what you get after death. Only your good attitude follows you if you give with an attitude of unconditional help. If not, even that will not follow you.’

We do not remember why we came here because when we die the spirit passes through the painful and dark Causal layer of energy. In that deep pain, it forgets whatever made it decide on taking the new body. The darkness of the Causal layer as the body dies, the coma state, is equivalent to the dark painful passage that the body passes through as it emerges from its mother’s womb. This is the point at which the spirit leaves the dying body, its previous abode, and enters the new abode.

It is possible to remember why you came here, your prārabdha karma, and to have a conscious birth. It happens to enlightened beings. It is possible for others as well. I am working on this process. The mother must be trained before the child is born.

In our Nithyananda Spurana Program conducted by our ordained teachers, we take you through the journey that the spirit takes as it leaves the body. You get to experience through specially designed meditations each energy layer that the spirit goes through. There are seven layers and seven meditations. When you undertake this journey, all your past saṁskāras which grow from the carried over mindset (vāsanās), get burnt out. You become free. You have a glimpse of the ultimate.

During one of the meditations, you understand why you came here. Your prārabdha karma stands revealed to you. From then on, if you so choose, you can focus on why you came here. You can then work towards liberation.

Remember this, the character of the parents is only partly related to the vāsanās and prārabdha karmas of children. Sometimes it can be supportive in a deeply negative way too.

Devotees come to me from all over the world, from North America, South America, Guadeloupe, France, Australia, Malaysia and so on. I tell them that they would not come had they not been born in India and exposed to the vedic culture atleast once in their earlier lives! They are coming back to their roots; that is all.

The spirit tries to remember why it came into the body, but does not always succeed in remembering. When it leaves this body again, at that point, it again remembers its desire! This happens many times. After many unsuccessful life journeys, the spirit decides, ‘Enough is enough. Now I must seek liberation. I must find my master and savior.’ Sometimes the spirit takes on an incurable ailment that leads it to the master. Many people originally came to me only for healing. Healing was their sole excuse that brought them to me. The Being demands that you be liberated and causes the body to suffer until you reach the master.

Coming back to your question, each sibling may be seemingly different, but a thread underlies their dissimilarities in bringing them into one family. It may be a constructive or a disruptive reason, but the spirit came there for a reason.