Krishna Is Present🔗

18.73 Arjuna said: O Lord, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and ready to obey you.

18.74 Sanjaya said: Thus have I heard the conversation of two great souls, Krishna and Arjuna. And so wonderful is that message that my hair stands on end.

18.75 By the mercy of Vyasa, I have heard these most confidential words directly from Krishna, the master of all mysticism, who was speaking personally to Arjuna.

18.76 O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I take pleasure, being thrilled every moment.

18.77 O King, when I remember the wonderful form of Lord Krishna, I am struck with even greater wonder, and I rejoice again and again.

18.78 Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Partha, the supreme carrier of bow and arrow, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.

In these last verses Arjuna and Sanjaya take over.

Arjuna bows down to the master and says, 'All my doubts are gone; I understand. I am ready. I shall obey whatever you say and I shall fight.'

The rest is history. Under the guidance of Arjuna, the Kaurava army is annihilated. All the Kaurava brothers, all the great teachers and all the great warriors perish. The Pandava brothers win and Yudhishtira conducts the rājasūya and other fire sacrifices to signify his ascendance to the throne.

It is also history that in due course all the Pandava brothers die, as does the great master Krishna. He gives up His mortal form. This is the story of life. As long as you are in any form, the form will perish. The energy lives on. That is what Krishna taught in these chapters and verses. Sacrifice your form and gain the formless.

Now Sanjaya comes back into the picture. Neither Krishna nor Arjuna can speak since both of them are in a different mood. Arjuna has disappeared and Krishna is in ecstasy. Both are in no mood to speak. Sanjaya started speaking when Arjuna was in depression and Krishna had nothing to say at that time. Then when Krishna was giving the first experience to Arjuna, Krishna was in the higher consciousness and Arjuna was in ecstasy. Sanjaya came in to speak at that time because both were not in a mood to speak. Now Sanjaya comes back again. Not only are Krishna and Arjuna not in a mood to speak, they are both no longer there. Arjuna has disappeared into the pure consciousness of Parabrahma Krishna. They have nothing to say.

Sanjaya addresses Dhritarashtra, ‘O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous spiritual dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I feel a great joy or ecstasy at every moment.’ Sanjaya is expressing his joy and bliss and says, ‘muhurmuhuḥ, again and again, whenever I recall it, I am filled with ecstasy. This truth fills my being completely. I am showered with divine grace.’

Sanjaya says, ‘By the mercy of Vyasa, I heard these confidential talks directly from the master of all mysticism, Sri Krishna.’ Sanjaya expresses gratitude and joy at hearing this by the grace of Vyasa. Vyasa refers to the guru (master) here. In north India, wherever the scriptures are studied, that place is called a Vyāsa pīṭa. Vyasa is the ādi guru (first master). So he expresses gratitude to the master for giving him the opportunity to listen to the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna. Vyasa is also the author of the epic Mahabharata, of which Bhagavad Gita is a part.

Sanjaya says, ‘O King, as I remember the wonderful form of Lord Krishna, I am awestruck and I rejoice again and again.’ He has nothing much to say! He overflows with ecstasy. He ends the whole thing beautifully with this verse.

‘Wherever there is Krishna, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power and morality. This is my opinion.’ He ends the whole thing with a beautiful auspicious blessing. Wherever the name of Krishna, the divine energy of Krishna is present and wherever Arjuna dwells, there will also be victory, prosperity, wealth and morality. All the divine positive energy will shower there. He concludes with this beautiful blessing, this beautiful verse.

Whenever we read, teach or listen to Bhagavad Gita, Krishna and Arjuna are present. They are present in their formless form. Make no mistake, they are here. They have been here throughout these eighteen days.

You are the fortunate listeners and readers of this mystic dialogue between the two great souls, the master and the disciple. You are blessed with wealth, health and success in whatever you undertake. Go with this Krishna consciousness and you will be in nityānanda, eternal bliss.

Q: Swamiji, I have not understood how surrender and renunciation can be used as a technique. Please explain.

First, understand what I mean by the word 'technique', and then you will understand 'ultimate technique'.

All cultures, religions and spiritual traditions accept one thing: Man has come down from his ultimate level. Man is not as he is supposed to be. The Christian tradition says that Adam and Eve were pure, full of bliss, joy and ecstasy. Once Adam tasted the apple, he came down. Humanity degenerated. The Hindu tradition, the eastern mythology, says there was a time called the satya yuga, the Age of Truth. In the course of time, we became impure; we have fallen from our original level.

Buddhism says humanity lived in the age of dhamma or pure righteousness. In the course of time, we fell from that state. According to every tradition, man is not as he should be. Man has fallen from his conscious level or his level of Self.

A beautiful Upaniṣad mantra says: amṛtasya putraḥ. This means, 'You are children of Immortality. You are the children of God.'

All traditions, religions and masters agree upon one thing: Man has degraded himself. Man has fallen from his true nature. He had been in a higher state. He has descended from his reality.

According to science, man evolved from the animals. According to spirituality, man came down from God. If you understand one thing, you will understand these two concepts. Whatever is presented in your mind, in front of you, as an ideal, your mind naturally goes towards that. All the traditions present the ultimate consciousness, or ultimate Realization, as an ideal. Every religion and spiritual tradition says we have fallen from our original level. We must return to that consciousness.

Each one has its own words, but all of us understand that we are supposed to reach a higher level than where we exist currently.

A technique is the method that takes us to a higher level. That is how I define a technique. A technique is like a ladder that takes us to higher consciousness. It is a higher method. There are thousands and thousands of techniques in the world to elevate the level of our consciousness. Even sitting silently is a technique to go beyond the mind, to enter the higher consciousness and to elevate ourselves from the ordinary plane. There are thousands of methods. Every religion has thousands of techniques. Everything we do in the name of religion is a technique to elevate ourselves from lower consciousness to higher consciousness.

We try to move from man to God, from mortality to immortality, from mundane to divine.

Doing ārati or pūjā is a technique or method to reach God, to approach a higher state of consciousness. From an ordinary breathing technique to pūjā - all are techniques at different levels. Everything is a method to reach the Divine. The way in which we travel, the way in which we move towards consciousness, towards spirituality, is a technique.

In Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives many techniques. He teaches Arjuna various meditation techniques or methods to evolve from the ordinary level to the higher level. They are methods to reach the higher consciousness, to reach the divine consciousness. He speaks about many techniques and methods. Every chapter, every verse, is a technique or method. After listening to so many techniques, Arjuna is totally confused. He asks the master, 'O Lord, after listening to thousands of techniques, after hearing about each and every method, I am more confused. Please tell me, what is the ultimate technique? What is the right technique?'

Even today, we are totally confused because we listen to many methods and techniques. Every master declares his own technique as the best. Every religious leader says his technique is the best. Every enlightened person offers his technique as the ultimate.

There is an interesting saying that if two ṛṣis (sages) say the same thing, we can be sure that one of them is a fraud! It's the truth. If two ṛṣis say the same thing, one is copying the other because no two enlightened beings speak or behave in the same way.

Enlightenment means flowering in a unique way. It is uniqueness. God never creates two things in the same way. He creates one-of-a-kind flowers. When a person becomes enlightened, he is totally unique.

Each master gives his method to humanity. Each person presents his or her technique. There are thousands and thousands of methods, thousands and thousands of techniques and thousands and thousands of ways to reach the Divine.

When Arjuna was confused, he asked, 'What is the best method? What is the ultimate technique? I have listened to so many methods from you.' At least Arjuna received all the meditations from the same master, but today, people listen from thousands of sources. Which is the best way?

In ancient times, meditation or spirituality was more or less a seller's market. Now, it is a buyer's market. In the past, it was a seller's market, the masters used to decide. Now disciples decide which is the best way. Go to the Internet - type 'meditation'. Hundreds of websites will give you the techniques, methods and details. Which one should we choose? What to do? What is the way? What is the method?

With more than ninety percent of the people, when they experience such confusion, they stop entering into spirituality. There is more confusion in this field than any other. Why? What is the actual method? What is the way? A confused Arjuna asks Krishna. 'What is the way? Tell me the final way, the final method, the ultimate technique.'

Finally, Krishna says very beautifully, 'This is the last technique, the ultimate technique: Dropping all the Dharma, dropping all the confusions, surrendering at My feet. I will take care and give you liberation.'

This is the gist of the whole Gita. Gita is the unabridged dictionary of the world's philosophies. You can see the seed of all the philosophical trends, the seed of all traditions and the seed of all spiritual techniques in the Gita. It is an unabridged dictionary of the world’s philosophies.

This is a beautiful verse:

Let me again translate it word by word. ‘Drop all techniques, all methods and all the roots.’ Dharma means the way of living. ‘Drop all roots, all methods and all ways of living. Drop everything. Don’t bother about anything. Surrender everything at My feet.’

Sarvadharman parityajya mamekam sharanam vraja: Don’t carry even a bit; just drop everything, surrender your whole being to Me.

Aham tva sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami ma suchaha: ‘I will remove all darkness, all negativities, and all sin from your being. I will liberate you. I will give you the ultimate enlightenment. Do not grieve.’

It’s the final word given by Krishna. It’s the last word anyone could give. It’s the last word of all great masters. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the Truth and the Life.’ (John 14.6)

In every master’s life, the final teaching is surrender. What is the meaning of surrender?

As soon as we hear the word ‘surrender,’ we think: Oh, this is the easiest technique. This is the easiest method. For surrendering, we don’t need to do anything. In any other method or meditation, we must do something. If it is a pūjā, we need to do something. If it is a fire ritual, we must do something. For every technique, we must do something. For surrender, we don’t need to do anything.’ Hence everyone feels surrendering means doing nothing.

Many people tell me, ‘Swamiji, I’ve surrendered everything, but nothing is happening in me. What should I do?’

The statement, I’ve surrendered everything, but nothing is happening inside me, is wrong. If you have really surrendered, you will not expect that anything should or should not happen. When you say, nothing is happening, be very clear, you have not surrendered. Most of the time, people use the word ‘surrender’. They never understand what it means. Now, let us look into the mechanics of surrender.

What actually is surrender? What do the masters mean by the word surrender? The way they use the word ‘surrender’ is totally different from the way people normally use it.

Let us see what the masters mean by surrender.

There are three levels of surrender:

First: Surrendering the I. Second: Surrendering the Mine. Third: Surrendering the I and Mine, both.

Let me explain step-by-step.

First: Surrendering the I

Surrendering the I is surrendering the ego, the mind, the mental setup. This is surrendering your conditions.

Somebody asked Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, ‘Master, I am addicted to alcohol. How can I give it up?’

He said, ‘Surrender it to goddess Kali. You will automatically give it up. You will become all right.’

The disciple asked, ‘How can I surrender this to Kali?’

He said, ‘Before you drink, remember Kali. Offer the drink to Kali first, and then drink.’

This is a strange situation.

Even so, the man followed the master’s advice. Before drinking, he offered the drink to Kali, and said, ‘O Kali, this belongs to you.’ After that, he drank it as prasād (holy sacrament).

According to the record, three days later the man said, ‘I am unable to drink anymore. I have totally forgotten such things.’

Of course, when you sincerely surrender, a deep transformation happens. The change from mind and matter to energy happens in you. It’s a deep transformation and difficult to explain. You can understand only when you have the taste, when you have at least one glimpse of surrender.

You may be surprised that a man could give up an addiction by offering alcohol to God, to a deity. But when he offered it, his heart began to wonder, ‘How can I offer this alcohol to Devi? How can I offer this to the Goddess whom I love?' Next he began to question, 'If I cannot offer alcohol to the Goddess, how can I drink it? After all, the same Goddess resides in my body. The same Goddess resides in my system. How can I offer that to myself?' Once he realized that he could not give the alcohol to God and that the same God resided in him, he naturally questioned, 'How can I pour it into myself and disturb the system?'

Surrender gave him intelligence. Surrender gave him understanding. This natural understanding made him drop what he had been doing.

One more thing, when you really, intensely offer your mental setup, or mental conditioning at the feet of the master or God, it gets totally disintegrated. The mind in itself is a habit. Your 'I' is a set of habits. Your ego is a set of conditions. When you offer that at the master's feet, when you surrender the 'I', it becomes totally disintegrated.

A small explanation will help you understand.

If you habitually drink coffee every morning at ten o'clock, as soon as it becomes ten o'clock, you don't need to think specially of coffee, the mind will automatically say, 'It is ten a.m. Get me coffee.' It is a habit. It is an addiction. Because of the habit, the mind asks for coffee.

In the same way, even your thoughts are conditioning. Even your moods are conditioning. Even your mind is a record. Just as you have the coffee habit, you also have the habit of worrying. You have the habit of having an excited mood. You have the habit of reacting to every situation. Even if you understand this one example, you can understand what I mean.

If somebody criticizes you, you immediately react. You become disturbed. After that, you criticize him in return or you rebuke him. If somebody praises you, you immediately feel flattered. You give him a good smile and feel great. You respond in a positive way. If he criticizes you, you choose to become disturbed or you decide to rebuke him. If he praises you, you choose to be flattered. Even this choice is your mental conditioning. It is your mental setup.

In the case of coffee addiction, initially it is you who chooses to drink coffee when the time comes. After choosing so many times, you forget that it is you who chooses. You become addicted. Likewise, whenever somebody criticizes you, you choose to be disturbed. Subsequently, after choosing so many times, you forget that it is you who chooses. Whenever somebody criticizes you, you automatically become disturbed. You are upset. You start rebuking him. Your mental setup, your mental responses, your ego, are all your choices. They are your mental habits.

When you surrender the 'I', your mental setup, to the Divine, you can't choose. When you really surrender, even if somebody criticizes you, you can't choose to be offended. You can't choose to feel disturbed. You can't choose to rebuke him.

Whenever you bring in your mental setup, you react in accordance with your mental habits. When this is still the case, you cannot say you have surrendered. Real surrender can and will transform your life.

When you really surrender, whatever you choose is not really your choice. When you have surrendered, you are immune to criticism. You are not bothered by criticism. After being criticized, you cannot choose to be disturbed. You do not feel that you have been criticized. If you feel disturbed after some criticism, you have not surrendered. Again and again check whether you have surrendered or not.

Surrender is such a beautiful word that you can be easily cheated by it. We always say, 'I have surrendered everything to my master, to God. He will take care.' But all our surrender is only lip service. It is only skin deep. Scratch a little bit to see whether you have really surrendered or not.

When you have really surrendered your 'I', the mental setup is totally disintegrated. The egocentric mind becomes God-centric. Egocentric means eccentric. The egocentric mind becomes God-centric. When you surrender your 'I', your mind to God, your ego to God, your thinking system to God, it will be continuously bubbling with joy, because the Divine is always bliss, eternal bliss, nitya ānanda. Whenever you surrender your mental setup, you will be bubbling with joy, life and vibrancy.

Kids are continuously alive, moving around and jumping, especially children under seven years of age. Until that time, they do not have something called 'mind'. They have no mind. That is when their mind is getting prepared by the society's conditioning. Their mind is being created. Have you ever seen an ugly child? In all traditions and cultures, there is no ugliness in children. Even in places like Ethiopia, where war raged and poverty was rampant, children may be thin, lean, but they are not ugly. We always see a grace in children. Have you seen a single child who is ugly? No! Have you seen a single grown man who is beautiful? Why not?

The mind enters.

As long as we are not conditioned, we don’t have a mind. We don’t have an ego. We have a special grace around us. We have joy and ecstasy. We have innocence and simplicity. A man who has surrendered becomes a small child once again. That is why there is a beautiful word in Sanskrit, dvija meaning reborn.

When you surrender, you are re-born.

Our first birth happens from the mother and father. Our second birth happens from the guru and God.

When you take physical birth, you enter the physical body. The first birth is janma. When you surrender your ego at the feet of the guru or God, you take the next janma, the second birth. You are then called dvija. Those who have taken second birth are always called dvija.

When you surrender the ‘I,’ the mental setup, you experience immense pleasure, joy and ecstasy. Pleasure, joy and ecstasy are different layers. Pleasure happens because of sensory objects. Joy happens because of seeing nature, such as a beautiful mountain, snow, ocean or a forest. Ecstasy or bliss is whenever joy happens for no reason; it happens from your inner being. Pleasure, joy, bliss continuously happen in you, whenever you surrender your ‘I’, your ego.

When you surrender your ego, your mind becomes alive and spontaneously joyful. As of now, every moment you are preparing to live tomorrow. You make plans and big lists. Even to meet your friend, you prepare what you plan to talk about. While driving to your friend’s house, what do you do? You mentally prepare what you will say and how you will present yourself. And if you are asked any question on another subject that you are unprepared for, you make a mess of the whole thing. That is why you don’t have the strength to face an unexpected situation. You always make a script and enact the same script. You try your best to safeguard yourself from situations, from the realities, by making a shield — by preparing a script.

When you surrender, you move without a script! Whenever you move like that, in such a simple way, tremendous courage and trust walks through you.

A small story:

A rat entered a king’s palace when the king was asleep. Suddenly the rat jumped on the king’s face. The king was terribly shocked and started shouting. Somehow or the other the rat escaped. When the king came out of his bedroom, he commanded his general to kill the rat. The general entered the bedroom in search of the rat. Again as a coincidence, the rat jumped on the general’s face.

The general ran away shouting, ‘Oh, the rat is huge. It is too big!’

Anyway, he spread the news that there was a rat inside the king’s room that was monstrously big and powerful! Nobody could do anything. Now, the king had to save his face. He started exaggerating the story of how powerful the rat was.

The news spread throughout the country: there is a rat that nobody can kill! Then the palace security commanded the palace cat to kill the rat. They had already brainwashed the palace cat that neither the king nor his army could do anything about this gigantic rat.

In view of that, the cat entered the room slowly since it was full of fear. Again the rat jumped, this time on the face of the cat! The cat was totally shocked. It became frightened and ran away. To save its face, the cat started telling more stories, ‘No, no, no, it is not an ordinary rat. It is almost double my size!’ It exaggerated with all kinds of stories just to save its face.

The news spread fast. Finally almost the whole country became afraid of the rat. The king declared that anybody who killed the rat would be given a sizeable reward. The news spread all over the country.

Finally, one farmer told his cat, ‘If you kill this rat, at least you will have one day’s food. I have nothing to feed you. Why don’t you try?’

The cat said, ‘Alright, why not? Let’s go.’

All the other cats warned this cat, ‘Don’t try. Even the palace cat could do nothing. The palace cat has had lots of training in hunting rats. In spite of all the training, all those methods and techniques, it could do nothing. So, don’t go and try anything foolish.’

But this cat said, ‘Let me see what is there.’

The farmer took the cat to the king's palace. The cat simply entered the bedroom, killed the rat and came out. Subsequently, the king arranged a big celebration to honor the cat and gave it an award.

Somebody interviewed the cat, 'How did you manage? How did you kill the rat? The king could not do anything. The army chief could do nothing. Even the palace cat could not do anything. How did you manage to do it?'

The cat clearly replied, 'What? I 'managed'? No! I am a cat. It is my nature to kill rats!'

Over! One word – I am a cat. It is my nature to kill rats. There is nothing in between.

Our mind makes everything big. A simple statement, 'I am a cat, it is my nature to kill rats, there is nothing else,' says it all! What is there? It is the nature. The cat understood and respected its nature. By its very nature, it could do it. But what do we do? Even to face a friend, we need a script. We don't trust our nature. We don't believe we are spiritual beings and that we can achieve something.

For everything we need a script. We act only with the script. We never feel and do things. We never trust our nature. We never feel confident of achieving anything. The cat said, 'I am a cat. I can kill the rat!' Nothing special is necessary. There is no need for a technique. There is no need for training. 'My nature is to kill rats. That is more than sufficient.'

In the same way, your very nature can make you live in bliss. Your very nature can make you surrender to the Ultimate. It can make you surrender to the Divine. But we try anything and everything we know to complicate it! We know how to complicate. Our conditioning, our mind, and our working method make everything complicated. Even to talk to your wife, you need a script before coming home. You create a script about what to tell her.

One more beautiful point: If you tell the truth, you don't need to keep anything in memory. If you always speak the truth, you do not have problems. Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, can you please help me improve my memory?' Why do people want more memory?

If we look into ourselves, we will realize that we want to remember whatever lies we told the last time! If we speak the truth, we don't need more memory. We have enough memory. God has given us enough memory to live our life. Only to remember the lies, we need more memory! Where did we tell which lie and to whom? Who knows? If we continuously tell lies, we must remember all the lies. That is why we usually struggle or suffer or complain saying, ‘No, I have very poor memory.’ If we speak the truth, we don’t need much memory. If we live based on the Truth, we don’t need a script to live our life.

Q: Why are we afraid to face life?

Every moment we project what we are not. That is the Truth. With everybody we project what we are not. That is why we prepare a big script. Everyday we must project the same personality. On the first day we projected ourselves in a certain way to others, so we must subsequently keep up the projection. To maintain that projection again and again and again, we must create our script.

I travel around the world and speak for hours at a stretch. People around me know that I neither have the time nor the inclination to prepare my discourses. I never prepare. The secretary informs me upon my entering the hall, ‘Swamiji, today this is the subject.’ Over!

Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, how can you speak so many hours without preparation?’

If you live around me you will realize I have no time. Nothing is prepared. How do I speak then? I have only one answer. If somebody asks you, ‘What is your name?’ do you need to prepare? No! You don’t need to prepare. Your name has become your experience. To mention your name, you don’t need any preparation. In the same way, what I speak has become my experience. Whatever is your experience, whatever is your personality, to express it, you don’t need preparation. You need to prepare only when you need to project something that is not in you.

Wherever we go, we carry a large mask to project something that is not reality. That is why we need such a big preparation. Yet even with all the groundwork, we end up making a mess of everything. We are so careful not to make a small mistake, yet we end up making big blunders. A big blunder simply results from living according to our preparation and enacting the drama! Whenever we prepare the script and enact it, we will be only re-living. We will never really live.

We will not live the moment. We will not live reality. We will not live life. We will merely repeat what we have prepared. We will react. We will be enacting our script.

When we really surrender the 'I', the ego, we surrender the mind that continuously prepares the script for our life. We will have tremendous spontaneity and courage. We will trust our intelligence. We will live our life as it is. We will live life as it happens. We will accept and welcome life as it flows into us.

A beautiful verse in the Gita says:

'Continuously merge in Me. Merge in the Divine and all your needs and necessities will be taken care of by Me. Bringing them to you and taking care of them is My responsibility.'

Krishna assures us that He will manage both. We may think, 'How can this be?' Just by our surrendering to Him, how can He take care of our needs? What He means by, 'I'll take care,' is that He will activate or He will let you have the intelligence and courage to have everything and to love everything.

Right now you do not know how to live with whatever you may have acquired because you have continuously lived by your script, not with reality. Only when you surrender do you know how to live with reality. Only then do you live with the reality. Then you can enjoy whatever you have - your physical pleasures and physical comforts. All this happens only when you drop your mind. According to your mind, you have a script for anything and everything. You react according to that. You never respond. You never act from your Being or Self. Only when you drop the mental setup that is already prepared, that social conditioning creates in you, you see the growth that happens in you.

Growth is never evolution. By evolution, how long can growth happen? No, growth happens by revolution. Evolution means growing slowly. Revolution means surrendering. When you try to grow by yourself, only evolution happens. It took five thousand years in the evolutionary process for a chimpanzee to become a man. For a monkey to become a man, it took five thousand years! If you grow in the same way, it will take another five million years for man to become God. We cannot wait that long! So it's never evolution, it is always revolution. Surrender your whole being and you will see the revolution that happens in your being.

Surrendering 'I', surrendering the mental setup, totally changes your being. It shifts you from thinking to the energy, from the mind to no-mind, and from mitya (the temporal) to nitya (the eternal).

Second: Surrendering the Mine

Here comes the big trouble. Mine means possessiveness, to possess the things that we have.

We can surrender the mind, but never our possessions. We always think our ego comes before our possessions. On the contrary, Tantra says, ‘Your ego is only based upon your possessions.’ This is a strange statement but I analyzed it carefully. It is true. Your ego is a byproduct of your possessions, of your ‘mine’. It is from whatever you think of as ‘mine’, that is from your possessions, that your sense of identity as ‘I’ originates. If we look a little deeply, we can understand that our idea of ‘mine’ creates our idea of ‘I’. Our mind is our possession. Even our body is our possession. So whatever we think of as ours, if we think, ‘this is mine, that is mine,’ from that root our ego starts growing.

If ego is akin to a tree, the root is ‘mine’. The tree is ‘I’. From the root ‘mine’, the ‘I’, the ego starts growing. If your ‘mine’ is growing, if your possessions are growing, you feel expanded. You become solid. You become somebody. You feel you have become free. By the expansion of comforts, the outer world possessions, by the expansion of the ‘mine’, you experience freedom. However, this is only freedom to choose your sufferings, and not to choose between joy and suffering!

Yes, you have freedom. Of course, if you have money, you can own a top quality car, home and all such things. You can have more choices. Still, these are choices between only suffering and suffering. They are not between suffering and joy.

To have the freedom to choose between suffering and joy comes from dropping the ‘mine’ and ‘I’. It does not result from possessing the ‘mine’. Even if you enjoy your possessions, underneath the enjoyment and joy, you have a deep fear. It is the fear, ‘when it will be lost.’ The possessiveness, the feeling that it is ‘mine’, does not let you enjoy. The feeling that it is ‘mine’ does not let you enjoy because you have the fear, ‘I do not know when it will be lost.’ The fear of losing your possessions will not allow you to enjoy those things or relationships.

I have seen that the man who is not possessive enjoys the same object more deeply because he does not fear when he might lose it. The person who continuously possesses it, the person who feels possessiveness, who feels it is ‘mine’, will only own it, never enjoy it.

There are two devatas, Hindu deities, related to this: Kubera and Lakshmi.

Wealth has two aspects: wealth with possessiveness and wealth without possessiveness. Wealth with possessiveness is Kubera or yakṣa. Kubera means the person who possesses and never enjoys. Yakṣa is a being that owns wealth, but never enjoys it. He feels so satisfied with possessing that he can never enjoy.

For example, elderly people in the traditional system have everything, but they never enjoy it. I saw a case of this in my village.

An old lady lived a few houses from where I was born and raised. Early in the morning she would call me and tell me to buy her some tobacco leaves. I would ask for some money to pay for it. I was a small boy then. She used to say, ‘No, get the money from your father!’ My father would give me the money and I would buy the tobacco leaves. I thought that she was a poor lady. So I did not mind buying tobacco leaves for her everyday.

On her property there was a large well. It was so big that even if all the wells in the village were to run dry, her well would have water. She was so possessive of her well that she never allowed anyone to take any water from it. Once, the village doctor needed water for a medical emergency. She refused to give even him water.

Suddenly one day she died. It so happened that the same doctor attended to her on her deathbed. At that time he asked her, ‘You didn’t give me water. Can you carry that water with you now?’ Even at that time she didn’t feel that she had made a mistake. She didn’t feel that her possessiveness was wrong.

After her funeral, a box was found under her bed that was filled with so much jewelry and money, you can’t imagine! That lady never enjoyed her wealth.

Such people feel satisfied merely by possessing wealth. When they possess, they feel they are somebody. They feel secure. They have a sense of security when they possess something. Possessiveness never lets you enjoy life. You feel secure only when things are there. For example, the man who possesses continuously counts his money. He feels energized by counting money, not by spending it. He again and again counts his money. After counting it, he hides it under his pillow or under his bed. He never enjoys it. The person who lives with possessiveness is Kubera, a Hindu deity.

Kubera represents richness, whereas another deity, Lakshmi, stands for wealth. Richness means you have but you never enjoy. That is Kubera. Wealth means something that not only do you have, but you also enjoy joyously!

Lakshmi means abundance. The abundance or wealth is there without possessiveness. There is no possessiveness, no sense of 'mine, mine, mine'. That feeling is absent. When that feeling is not there, we really enjoy. We can really live life.

We each decide whether we are a Lakshmi or a Kubera. If we surrender our possessiveness, the feeling of 'mine', we will be continuously joyful, ecstatic and enjoying. If we fear, 'I don't know when it will be taken away,' we will never enjoy.

We work to increase the height of our bed, but we forget to increase the depth of our sleep! If we are possessive about our bed, we never sleep well because we fear that a thief may take it away. We fear we may lose it. When we will lose it, who knows? The underlying fear, the fear underneath our 'mine' never lets us relax. It never allows us to enjoy. If we possess our bed, we never sleep properly. We don't enjoy the relaxed mood! Whenever we drop possessiveness, whenever we relax from the feeling of 'mine', we live even with the material comforts and enjoy life.

Whenever you surrender the 'I' to the Existence, understand this one thing. Never think that the world is running because of you. It is running in spite of you! Fifty years ago none of you was here. Was the world unable to run? It was running perfectly! Fifty years from now, none of us will be here. Do you think the world will stop? No! Even so, we think the whole world is running only because of us.

A traditional proverb from India says, 'The cat thinks that if it closes its eyes, the whole world becomes dark. The cat imagines that if it closes its eyes, the whole world will stop.' That is why when the cat sneaks into the house to steal something it closes its eyes. When the cat drinks milk stealthily, it closes its eyes. It imagines that the whole world has become dark.

Like that cat, you think that the whole world runs because of you. You think, if you close your eyes, the whole world will stop. Never! It never runs because of us. It runs in spite of us.

A small story:

A man wanted to cross a river one day. He was sitting in a boat. The boatman started rowing. After two or three minutes, he shouted to the boatman, 'Hurry up, hurry up.' The boatman put in his best effort. After ten minutes, the man could not contain himself any longer. He started walking inside the boat, up and down, forward and backward, this side to that side. After half an hour, he started running inside the boat.

The boatman said, 'Keep quiet. Sit silently. Sit! Why are you running back and forth?'

The man replied, 'I must hurry. I cannot sit silently. I need to urgently reach the other shore as soon as possible. I must go quickly!'

If you run inside the boat, will you reach the other shore any earlier? Never. Whether you run or sit, the boat reaches the other shore in its own way and in its own time. By running inside the boat, you never reach your destination any earlier. In fact, you may even delay reaching the other shore.

Ninety percent of our life, we are running inside the boat. Whatever we do is nothing but running inside the boat.

At another time, the man was traveling by train. He was carrying his luggage on his head.

A fellow passenger asked him, 'Why don't you keep the luggage in the luggage compartment?'

The man replied, 'No, that would be too heavy for the train. It will be a burden on the train.'

The man did not realize that the train was carrying his luggage as well as him anyway.

So understand that not only you but your whole 'I' and 'mine' are taken care of by the Divine. It takes care in its own way. But we, out of our ego, keep all our headaches, all the loads, upon our own heads.

Ramana Maharshi, an enlightened saint from India used to beautifully say, 'The train is moving and you are sitting in it. Why don't you put your luggage down and relax? At least you will have time to sleep. You will have time to rest.'

Anyway the train will reach its destination. Whether you carry the luggage on your head or put it down, the train is going to take its own time. Whether you run inside the boat or relax, the boat is going to take its own time.

There is a Zen saying: If you want anything to be done slowly or not done at all, hurry up as much as possible.

By hurrying, you will commit blunders. You may not commit mistakes, but you will commit big blunders.

When you rest, when you really relax, when you surrender at the feet of the Divine, ninety-nine percent of your energy is available for positive creativity. Until then that entire ninety-nine percent is wasted in unnecessarily worrying.

The other day I read a beautiful book called How to Know God written by a philosopher. A court of law cannot prove that God exists; yet more than ninety percent of the people believe in the existence of God. Consequently, their creativity improves tremendously. Their life is more joyful and ecstatic. Their life is more flowing. Why? They have stopped spending their energy on worrying. They are creating instead.

Continuous worry creates pressure in your life. When you surrender, when you have faith and trust in the Divine, when you relax in the name of the Divine, the energy that you had been wasting on worrying turns towards creativity and positivity.

Ninety-nine percent of your worries never come true. Whatever one percent comes true is always good for you!

When you surrender your 'I', your suffering is transformed into joy and ecstasy.

When you surrender your 'mine,' your richness becomes wealth.

You start really living with your possessions. You enjoy whatever you have. You start living it, and really feel ecstasy and joy from the things that you have. You go beyond the fear of 'When will I lose them?'

Third: Surrender both I and Mine

When I say both 'I' and 'mine', I mean surrendering your whole life unconditionally.

When you surrender both 'I' and 'mine', your whole life is totally transformed. It becomes completely different. The proof that you have surrendered is that you no longer worry and suffer. If you have really surrendered, you will not have worry or suffering.

To whom you surrender is immaterial. Don't be concerned about that. I have been speaking of surrender but I have not said 'to whom'. There is no need to

bother about to whom to surrender to. It is immaterial whether you surrender to God, the guru, Shiva or Krishna. It is unimportant. It has nothing to do with whom you surrender to. Surrender itself has the power to transform you.

A small story:

A man decided to surrender to a master. Where could he find a master? If he were a modern man, he would have gone on the Internet to see what kinds of masters are available! Of course, in ancient times there were no websites. So where could he go? He went to the forest. He decided, ‘I will sit by this road. The first person who comes along will be my guru. I will surrender myself to him.’

Unfortunately, a thief was the first person to come by. This man jumped up and caught hold of the feet of the thief and shouted, ‘Oh guru, my master, you are my God. You have come to save me. God, I surrender everything to you. Please take care of me.’

The thief had just robbed the palace and was running away. He feared that the king’s soldiers would soon catch up with him. He shouted, ‘No, let me go. Let me alone. I am not your guru!’

The man insisted, ‘No, you are God! You have come to save me. Please don’t say that. Please save me somehow. You are my God, I surrender to you.’

The thief thought, ‘What can I do? What kind of a situation is this?’

Finally the thief agreed, ‘Alright, I am your guru. Now do as I say. Sit. Close your eyes. Don’t open your eyes until I say so.’

The man said, ‘Perfectly alright.’ He closed his eyes and sat silently. The thief thought, ‘Oh, this is the right time!’ He ran away and escaped from the man.

The man was sitting all the time. One day passed. Another day passed. His courage, willpower and his decision were so strong, he thought, ‘Until my guru returns, I will not open my eyes.’

At that time Shiva appeared in front of him. He gave him darśan and said, ‘O my son, I am pleased by your surrender. Please open your eyes and ask me for whatever you want.’

Without opening his eyes the man replied, ‘No, no, no. You are not my guru. My guru is that man who asked me to sit and close my eyes. When he comes, I will open my eyes. I cannot open my eyes until he comes.’

Shiva said, ‘Hey, I am God. I’ve come down to earth. You don’t know it, but that man you consider your guru is actually a thief. I am God and I’ve come down out of compassion for your sincerity. Open your eyes.’

The man said, ‘No, I don’t care whether he’s a thief or God. I have surrendered to him. You must bring him here.’

Then Shiva assumed the form of the thief and spoke to the man in the thief’s voice. Then the man finally opened his eyes.

The story says that Shiva blessed him with spiritual grace.

This story has a beautiful meaning. You don’t need to bother about whom you surrender to. That has nothing to do with liberation. Surrendering itself will do the miracle. Surrender has the energy and the capacity to transform you. Don’t bother about which form or name you surrender to. It does not matter.

A story from Ramakrishna’s parables:

A scholar lived on the banks of the river Yamuna. Everyday a milkmaid supplied him with milk. One day she was late.

The scholar asked, ‘Why have you brought the milk so late? How can I follow my regular routine if you come late?’

The maid replied, ‘I come from the other side of the river. The river has flooded and no boats could bring me here. That’s why I am not on time.’

The scholar casually asked, ‘What flood? People even cross the ocean of life by chanting the name of Krishna. Can’t you cross a small river?’

The maid was an innocent lady. She was neither very intellectual nor logical. The next day she brought his milk right on time. Everyday she continued to arrive without any delay.

After a week the scholar asked her, ‘Now you are coming on time. How? Has the flood receded?’

She replied, ‘No, even now the river is flooded. Boats are still not going across. But you taught me that I could cross the river by repeating Krishna’s name. You said I could even cross the ocean of life that way. So that’s how I am doing it.’

The scholar was amazed! At first he was unable to believe her. He said, ‘How can this be? Come and show me.’

The milkmaid took him to the river and started walking on the river as she chanted, ‘Krishna, Krishna, Krishna...’

The scholar thought, ‘If she can do this, why not me? Let me try.’ He went near the river and lifted his dhoti (waistcloth), and started saying, ‘Krishna, Krishna, Krishna...’

His lips were saying, ‘Krishna, Krishna, Krishna,’ but at the same time he lifted his cloth so that it would not get wet! Such was his surrender to Krishna! He fell into the river and was carried away by the current.

You can learn one thing from this story: You need not bother about whom you learn from or to whom you surrender. The milkmaid was innocent. She surrendered to the idea given to her by the scholar. You don’t need to bother about whom you surrender to, or to whom you offer yourself. The very offering has a tremendous power to transform you.

There is no need to worry about what will happen thereafter, or what will be the effect or next step after the surrender. Most of the time, before surrendering itself, we calculate logically, ‘After surrendering, what will happen to this or that?’ Can we logically calculate what will happen? Never. If we do so, we project our mind beyond surrender.

If you know what will happen after death, only then will you know what will happen after surrender. Surrender and death are the same. When you surrender, psychologically you die. You are re-born. Can you say what will happen after your death? No. In the same way, you can never imagine or visualize what will happen after surrender. If you are imagining, visualizing, be very clear, you are not surrendering.

Someone asked a great master in India, ‘Master, how will I know if I have surrendered or not?’

The master replied, ‘This question itself will disappear. Then you will know you have surrendered.’

This question, whether you have surrendered or not, will disappear. You will have no doubt about whether you have surrendered or not. Your whole being will be flooded and will be bubbling with ecstasy and joy. There is just a feeling of surrendering, utter relaxation and utter bliss. You will not bother about what happens next. You will be totally relaxed from your duties, pains, suffering and responsibilities. The responsibilities will be fulfilled effortlessly. Your body will be doing the right action effortlessly. Your mind will be doing the right thing without your intervention. It's not that you won't go to your office tomorrow morning because you have surrendered. You will go - the body will carry on. Everything will be happening. But you will see utter relaxation in your being, the utter bliss in your 'mind' and the utter 'IS ness' in your life.

When you surrender the 'I', there is utter bliss. When you surrender the 'mine', there is utter relaxation. When you surrender the 'I' and 'mine', there is a beautiful 'IS ness' in your life. This is the scale to measure whether your surrender is merely lip service or it is real. With this scale you can measure whether you have surrendered or not. Surrender is nothing but a clear, conscious decision. Nothing else.

'You will conclude, 'Why can't the energy that can move my body, this sun, this moon and this planet earth, move my life?'

Understand: The bread that we eat becomes blood. It is not an insignificant process. If you are a doctor, you know how big this process is! Bread becoming blood is the biggest industry you can conceive! Still, scientists have not succeeded in converting bread into blood. To be successful in doing this, you need to create an industry that will run for miles. And such a big process happens inside our body! Just six feet high – in such a small system, this big process is happening! Air is taken in, the prāṇa (life force) is separated out, the air goes out - the process is happening inside us. If the Divine can manage so much inside our body, if the Divine can manage so much in this universe, it can well manage our life, too.

Understand: Existence is intelligence. The Divine is intelligence.

I've seen people ask God, 'O God, please give me this. O God, please give me that.'

First, they ask. Next, they bargain! 'If you give me this, I will give you that.' Balaji is the biggest god in India for bargaining with. For anything, bargain with Balaji.

Third, they start blaming God, 'I went to His temple ten times, and every year I climbed up the hill to the temple, but nothing happened!'

First you ask, then you bargain, and next you blame. These three have nothing to do with devotion.

Let me ask you this. Why do you pray? You pray because you think that God has the capacity to give, that God has the śakti (power) to give.

When you pray, you ask, 'O God, give me a million dollars.' You know that God has the śakti to give you, so you ask.

But when you insist, 'O God, give me now, give me right now,' it means you believe that He has śakti, but you don't believe that he has buddhi, the intelligence to decide when to give. That is what it means! You believe that he has śakti, but you don't believe that he has buddhi.

Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, why doesn't God give me what I ask for right now?'

I ask, 'Do you believe that God has the śakti to give?'

They say, 'Yes, I believe.'

Then I ask, 'But you don't believe that He has the buddhi to know when to give. Am I right?'

They say, 'Yes.'

This is because we don't believe that He has buddhi. We believe He has energy, but we don't believe He has intelligence. That is what our prayer means!

When you surrender, you understand that not only does He have śakti, He has buddhi also. Every moment, something will be taught to you. When you surrender, you will not have any pain. You will feel liberated.

Arjuna's mother, Kunti, was a great lady and was devoted to Krishna. There is a beautiful verse in her prayers, 'O God, let the suffering come from all sides to me to give me the understanding, to give me the experience that You are teaching me through the suffering.'

Every suffering is a teacher who comes to give you more intelligence, more understanding and to open one more dimension of your life. But we never receive anything with an open mind and a sense of welcoming. When you surrender, you accept, you recieve everything with a welcoming mood. When you receive your suffering, pain and miseries with a welcoming mood, they become your teachers. They become your masters.

In one of the Upaniṣads, Yama, the god of Death, is called a guru. Death is the greatest suffering. If you surrender, if you welcome death, it becomes a great master to you. If you welcome it with a mood of surrender, anything in your life will change its quality. Whenever you resist anything, it will be felt as a devil. Whenever you welcome anything, it will be faced or felt as the Divine.

It is you who decides whether it is the devil or the Divine.

It is not decided on the outside – it is decided inside.

So whenever you relax, you transform your life from mitya (illusion) to nitya ānanda (eternal bliss). You transform your suffering to a surge of joy. You move from depression to expression, from worrying to wondering. So may you decide consciously. Don’t question once the conscious decision is made. Once you surrender, even after the decision, you will have the feeling, you will have the doubt whether you have surrendered or not, whether you really did surrender or not.

Let me tell you one thing.

First just decide to surrender. Surrender everything at the feet of God, at the feet of Parāśakti who runs this world. You don’t even need to have any name or form in your mind. Don’t have my name and form. Don’t have any name or form. ‘Oh, I surrendered to this god. So what will happen? Will the other god become angry with me?’ Don’t worry. Just surrender to the energy that runs the whole world. Then everybody is included under that title - God, Divine, energy of this whole universe. Just decide to let this run your life.

After that, naturally, you will have a doubt whether you have surrendered or not. Then just say, ‘Even this doubt is a gift from the Divine, the same Divine that is running the world. The Divine gives this doubt also. The intelligence to surrender and to doubt my surrender are both His gifts. Let me offer my doubt also to Him. Let Him take care.’ Surrender your doubt also. Then you will see the transformation happens in you just as you are. Don’t think, ‘First I will change, and then I will surrender.’ No. You cannot do that. Surrender as you are, consciously, totally. Whatever is in your hands, whatever ‘mine’ is in your hands, whatever position is in your hands, surrender completely. Your being will be flooded with a new feeling, a new life, a new energy and a new bliss.

So may you surrender at the feet of the Divine. May you enter. May you be in the energy. May you enter into the divine energy. May this happen to you. May you be in and may you become eternal bliss, nitya ānanda. Thank you.

Here ends the ultimate teaching of Krishna and here starts our enlightened life! Let us take a few minutes to offer our gratitude to the great masters. First, offer gratitude to the great master Sri Krishna who showered these great truths upon the whole universe. Let us give our gratitude to Him. Then come all the masters who preserved these truths so that we can enjoy and experience these truths in our life. Let us give our gratitude to the entire guru parampara, the lineage of gurus. Please close your eyes and remain in silence for a while.

Thus ends the eighteenth chapter named Mokṣa Sanyāsa Yogaḥ of the Upaniṣad of Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of yoga, dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.