Many People, Many Paths🔗

In this verse, Krishna gives various techniques for the path to Self-realization. He says various methods or paths may be used to realize our true Self. People say ‘As many masters, so many paths.’ Actually it should be ‘As many disciples, so many paths!’ Each disciple can have his own path. This is what Krishna says. We can attain the ultimate consciousness through different paths.

Krishna says that through meditation or yoga or knowledge or contemplation or surrendering to the Divine, you can attain liberation. All the different methods lead to the same goal. Each chapter of the Bhagavad Gita gives a different technique to realize the Self. Krishna talks about jñāna yoga, union through knowledge, in Chapter 4. Then He talks about bhakti yoga, union through devotion, in Chapter 12.

Whatever be the path, the ultimate goal is the same. Ramakrishna proved this truth by practicing different religions and different techniques. If you read his biography, you will see that he practiced Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Tantra.

He concluded that all these paths lead to the same ultimate consciousness. He also preached different paths to different disciples. He asked Vivekananda to read books on advaita, non-duality. He asked other disciples to be immersed in devotion to Devi (Divine Mother). He suggested different paths depending on what kind of a person the disciple was. If someone was logical, if someone had lots of questions like Vivekananda did, he asked them to read books. If someone was devoted, he suggested the path of bhakti or devotion.

After our second-level meditation program, Nithyananda Spurana Program, I give spiritual names to those who ask for it. I give the names based on the energies of the devotees. The names depend on how they connect to the cosmic Nithyananda. If I see that individuals act at an emotional level like devotion, I give names that suit that particular energy. The second category is intellectual people. Intellectual people are those who connect at a mental level. They need logical explanations for everything. The third category is of those who connect at the being level.

When I ask for their names, I meditate on their energies and give them the spiritual names. The spiritual name gives them a path, and the path is different for each one. The name has significance. The name reminds you of your path. We generally associate ourselves with our name. So whenever you utter your name or when somebody calls you by your spiritual name, it rings a bell in your head. It guides you to the destination.

Krishna tells Arjuna about the paths. He gives options. Krishna gives alternatives: meditation, yoga, chanting mantra, learning and acquiring knowledge and surrendering to the cosmos.

One important thing is that you should know which path is good for you. Lots of people take up a spiritual path without knowing what it is. You should understand what your path is. Many people attend meditation courses in the ashram. They enjoy those few days in the ashram being around me and they decide to join the ashram. They don’t know what their path is or if ashram life is their path. They just want to join, that’s all. They ask me, ‘Swamiji, I want to join the ashram. Please tell me what I should do.’

There are other people who simply follow what others are doing. If the parents are followers of a particular guru, the children also follow that guru. There is nothing wrong in following someone for a start. You can have a starting point but you should find out if you are on the right path. You should not blindly follow someone because someone you know is following that guru.

A small story:

On a dark night, a man discovered that the headlights of his car had failed. He decided to follow the car in front of him. It was dark outside and he could not see anything. If the car in front took a turn, he also took that turn. He managed quite well using the light from the car ahead of him.

After some time, the lights of the lead car switched off and came to a sudden halt. The second driver bumped into the car and shouted at the driver of the first car, ‘Why did you stop?’

‘I’ve reached my house. What do you expect me to do?’ replied the other driver.

You see, if you follow something or someone blindly, you will not reach the correct destination. You must know your own path.

There are lots of people who go to meditation programs offered by one guru. Then they go to another guru and attend all his courses as well. They keep hopping. Like island hopping, they do guru hopping. Actually nowadays this has become a fashion. People ask each other, ‘How many courses have you attended?’ You start collecting certificates from all the gurus.

There are different paths to realize the truth. However, we must understand what our path is. This is where a true enlightened master can help. He knows exactly what the path is for you. He corrects you when you are on the wrong path. He corrects your mistakes and your techniques according to what your path is. In our Advanced Healers Program, disciples sit on the stage and answer the audience’s questions. When they answer the questions, I know what mistakes they are making and I correct them.

In this verse Krishna gives different techniques, like meditation, yoga, knowledge. Lots of people do these things. Some people ask, ‘Swamiji, I am meditating daily for 21 minutes. I am still unable to feel anything. Why is it?’ I ask them, ‘Tell me honestly, are you meditating with full intensity and full awareness? When you are meditating, is your mind with your body or are you thinking about the office?’ Naturally, they do not say anything after that.

You see, all the techniques must be done in the correct manner. If you fall asleep while meditating, even if you sit for 21 minutes for 21 days, there will be no proper result. Let me tell you something that happened in one of our meditation classes. This meditation technique is meant for the anāhata cakra - the energy center located in the heart region. At the end of this meditation, we keep our focus on the anāhata or heart. One person sat straight and started the meditation very well. Then towards the end, he started feeling sleepy and started dropping to one side. During the last 10 minutes, I called to him and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ He said, ‘I am doing anāhata meditation, Swamiji.’

I asked him, ‘Are you doing the meditation on your anāhata or on your neighbor’s anāhata?’

You see, meditation must be done with awareness. Everything you do can be meditation if you do it with awareness and intensity. Lots of people chant mantras. Daily they wake up early, take a bath and sit in the prayer room and chant. If they chant with awareness it is fine. But what do they often do?

If the milkman calls from outside the house at that time, they shout back, ‘Okay, put the milk near the door. I will take it later.’ Then they resume chanting! Next, the maid comes and starts gossiping about the neighbors. Immediately, though they continue to chant, they will be hearing the gossip! Sometimes they will even give their expert opinions on whatever they are hearing!

This is not meditation. In the same way, there are lots of misconceptions about yoga. People go to yoga classes for exercises. Today yoga has become a fashion. There are so many types of yoga: Power yoga, Deluxe yoga and Super-deluxe yoga. A yoga studio is like a fashion-shopping complex. If someone says, ‘I am doing yoga,’ it is like saying, ‘I have a Mercedes car.’ That is what yoga has become now. Yoga was meant to be much more than a body and status building exercise. Krishna gives it as a path to attain the ultimate consciousness.

In this verse Krishna talks about sāṅkhyena, through knowledge or philosophical discussion. You should understand one thing. Gathering knowledge and philosophical discussions can be done in two ways. Many people read lots of books. They have a big library with philosophical books, religious books, spiritual books and biographies of masters. They collect books and knowledge. When someone says something, they quote from the books and have long discussions.

These people are the intellectuals. They collect knowledge like others collect stamps or coins. But if you look deeper, the knowledge will be just another manifestation of their ego. They would just show off their superiority in front of others. They would not have really assimilated the knowledge. They would have have not really internalized it for themselves.

Krishna says you can attain the goal using knowledge. We must understand that reading and collecting knowledge alone is not enough. We must experience in order to know. As long as we are collecting different philosophies, we are basically only collecting. We are not adding value to ourselves. We must practice and internalize the great truths. When we internalize them, transformation happens in us. If we discuss for the sake of showing our knowledge and ego, we have made no use of that knowledge. Knowledge and discussions can be a powerful tool only if we know how to use them for our growth.

At the end of the verse, Krishna gives a wonderful technique. He gives the ultimate technique, the technique of surrendering. He says, ‘Surrender the outcome of your actions to Me.’ This is the most effective technique. He talks about it throughout the Gita.

Just surrender the fruits of your actions to Him, the universal consciousness. Most often, we take responsibility for our actions. That is when our tensions and problems start. Just surrender everything to the cosmic energy of Krishna. Once we do, we will feel liberated. We will feel free. This is the easiest path to reach the truth.

Are there any prerequisites to attain the truth or to start on a spiritual path? Krishna tries to answer this question. So many people attend one meditation course and think they have become enlightened. They can feel happy about doing something like meditation, but the problem is they start preaching to others without really experiencing it themselves. They start looking down upon or even intimidating others who do not meditate. Krishna answers this question. A person need not have any spiritual knowledge to start on a particular path. There is no prerequisite. Even if the person is totally new to spirituality, he can follow a spiritual path.

Only a cognitive shift must happen. It is like this. A man who is blind from birth does not know what light is. He does not know what colors are. He has never seen them. He does not have any prior experience of light. If he is left to himself where there is no one else living, he will think darkness is all that there is in the world. If somehow the sight energy or cakṣu is activated in him, he sees everything in front of him. He enjoys light and colors. He did not know what they were before he got his eyesight, yet immediately, he can enjoy them.

That shift must happen. That’s all. So many enlightened masters did not have any prior knowledge about spirituality. Let me tell you about the enlightened master Valmiki from India who wrote the great epic Ramayana.

Before enlightenment, he was a highway robber. He waited by the roads in the jungles. Whenever wealthy people crossed that jungle, he robbed them.

One day the sage Narada was passing through that jungle. Narada is known for his devotion to Vishnu, one of the Hindu trinity. All Narada had was a small stringed instrument that he played while constantly singing the praises of Vishnu. When Valmiki saw him, he stopped him and said, ‘Give me everything you have, otherwise I will kill you!’ Narada told him, ‘I don’t have anything with me except this small instrument and God’s name. So I can’t give you anything.’ Valmiki thought he was bluffing. He asked Narada, ‘How can you not have anything?’

Narada smiled and asked, ‘What do you do with all these things that you rob from others?’ Valmiki told him, ‘These are for my family, my children, my wife and my parents.’

Narada asked, ‘You do all this for your children, wife and parents. Do you think they will stay with you forever?’

Valmiki told Narada, ‘Yes, of course, they will be with me. I get them wealth. I provide them with food to survive. They will always be with me.’

Narada once again asked him, ‘Are you sure they will always be there for you?’

Valmiki became irritated. He replied, ‘Can’t you understand? I am sure that they will always be there for me.’

Actually Narada was only buying time asking him such questions. He kept Valmiki engaged in a conversation and made him look at life from a different perspective.

Finally Narada asked, ‘Okay, you have lots of trust that your family will always support you; they will always be there for you. Will they be there when you die? If you ask them to die with you, will they agree?’

Valmiki confidently answered, ‘I am sure at least one of them will come if I ask them. I am robbing people only to support them. They are surviving because I get them this wealth. I am sure if I ask, they will die with me.’

Narada said, ‘Okay, if you think they will do that for you, go and ask them and come back to me. If any one of them agrees, you can kill me. I will not go anywhere. I will stay here.’

Valmiki agreed and went home. He asked his wife first if she would die with him. His wife said, ‘Dear, it is true that I am your other half, but I don’t think it is fair to ask me to die with you. When it comes to your death, it is your death only.’

Valmiki was shocked. Anyway, he thought his children would surely go with him, as they loved him very much. He asked his children, and they said, ‘Father, we are young. We haven’t seen the world yet. You have seen everything but we haven’t. How can we die with you?’

Valmiki became depressed. His wife and children were saying they wouldn’t be there with him when he died. He then thought his parents would surely go with him as they had taken care of him and had raised him. So he went up to them and asked them the same question. But to his surprise, they said, ‘Why should we die with you? We are enjoying our life with our grandchildren. Why should we die with you?’

This shocked him. He went back to Narada and told him what had happened. Narada listened and told him, ‘The only person who can be with you always is God.’

This statement changed the whole life of Valmiki. He realized the futility of what he was doing. He sat in the forest and meditated so deeply and for so long that an anthill formed on top of him. That is how he got his name Valmiki, which means ‘born from an anthill’. When he came out of meditation, he was enlightened!

Valmiki did not have any knowledge about spirituality. He was a robber. That one statement by Narada made all the difference. He started looking inward after that, and became enlightened.

One important thing to note is that just because someone has spiritual knowledge, it does not mean that he is actually a seeker. I have seen people read lots of books and discuss spirituality even when it is not needed. They think they have great spiritual knowledge. They think they are superior.

Actually, all they have is intellectual knowledge, not spiritual knowledge. When they speak, they do not speak out of experience. That is the difference between an enlightened master and a normal person. When an enlightened master speaks about spirituality, he speaks from his experience of the truth. He has experienced the truth. When a normal person speaks, it is his ego that is speaking. His so-called spiritual knowledge comes from the intellect, from the ego.

People ask me, ‘Swamiji, do you think I should attend this course? Do you think I am capable of doing this course?’ I tell them, ‘If you are stable and available, I shall make you able.’ That is the only prerequisite. If you are stable and available, you are capable of attaining the ultimate truth.

There are two requirements: be stable and be available. You must be stable first. If you are restless, if your mind continuously jumps here and there like a monkey, you will not be able to focus on the path. You will not be able to spend time with yourself. That is the first thing you must have, stability. Next you must be available. This does not mean simply being physically present. You should be present in mind, body and being. You should be available to learn. You should be open.

Many people think they know everything about spirituality. When they attend my courses, they ask scores of questions. I immediately know why they ask so many questions. Their cup is already full. There is no space for anything new to enter. They are not available. Simple! Actually, the best thing that can happen to anyone is to not know anything about spirituality. Then when they hear something, they immediately catch it. That is really the best thing because then, no unlearning needs to be done.

That is what Krishna says. You do not need prior knowledge about spirituality to embark on a path. Even if someone simply tells you about it and you start following a path, it is enough. But be very clear, you should know what you are doing. Don’t do anything blindly. In the previous verse, we have talked about it. We should understand what our path is. That’s all.

Whatever you see is a combination of matter and energy. The whole universe is seen as kṣetra and kṣetrajña, māyā and ātman, prakṛti and puruṣa, matter and energy, body-mind and consciousness. Existence as we see it cannot be with only one of them. If we believe that what we see is simply matter, we are in illusion or māyā.

Kṣetra is the body that we associate ourselves with and kṣetrajña is the consciousness. What we see as a human body is a combination of both. If there is no consciousness, the body is useless. The matter that we call a body comes to life because of consciousness. Both must be there.

Prakṛti is the manifest and puruṣa is the unmanifest. Kṣetra is like prakṛti. It is the manifested, that which we can see. Along with what you see, there is something behind its existence. It is puruṣa or the unmanifest, the energy behind the matter, which we do not normally see.

We have seen in the earlier verses that all the millions of stars, planets and other celestial bodies exist in perfect harmony. There are so many galaxies. They are moving in space that has no bounds. How are they moving in such order? Look at our solar system. All the planets move in perfect paths. If we think they are rocks, dust or ice, if we think they are simply matter, how is such an order maintained in the universe?

They are not solely matter. There is something behind the existence of that matter. There is so much chaos; yet there is a beautiful order in that chaos. Order is present because of kṣetrajña. If it were solely matter or kṣetra, there would not be any intelligence. There is intelligence in that matter. That intelligence or consciousness creates this existence. So the combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajña is necessary.

Modern science has shown that matter and energy are the same. They are interchangeable. The outer-world scientists proved this recently. However, the inner-world scientists proved it thousands of years ago. Matter and energy coexist to create existence.

I mentioned earlier how every cell of our body has intelligence. Science has proven that every cell in our system has embedded intelligence. Each cell is not made up of simply some chemicals. Each cell also has intelligence or energy. This combination creates the body-mind system.

We should understand that kṣetra and kṣetrajña are not separate entities when we analyze them at a deeper level. Kṣetra and kṣetrajña are comprised of the same thing. Kṣetra is the gross form of the energy that also makes up the subtle form of the kṣetrajña. For existence to happen, both the subtle and gross forms must be there.

How we look at things around us defines our lifestyle. We again and again look at things as only matter. When we see only this gross level, fear and greed creep into us. We then want to get more and more of this matter. We live a materialistic life when we think that all we see is solely matter. When we live at the kṣetra level, we live in an illusion or māyā. That is the problem. When we live in this illusion, we define ourselves based on all these things which we think of only as matter. Because of this, we run after matter and want to acquire more.

We want to possess the matter. We want to get more and more. But when we realize that it is energy also, we think, ‘How can I possess energy? Is it possible to possess it?’ No. We can't hold energy in a bag. When this realization happens, we recognize the futility of running after different things that we think are only matter.