The Natural Dharma
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Each of us is unique in our capabilities and interests. Accordingly, our responsibilities are different. If you try to imitate others, thinking their responsibility appears more attractive, you will be making the mistake of following somebody else's path. Comparison literally rules our lives. When we use our energies with authenticity for our peak growth without comparing ourselves with others, we do our responsibility according to our nature.
The Alchemy of Possibility into Reality
These four principles of integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching exist in our very DNA.
As of now, man is only a possibility. Only when these four principles become reality do you experience your actuality. Then the base energy of lust can be transformed into the higher energy of love. It is an alchemic process of changing any base metal to a higher metal. Similarly, changing our base emotion, lust, to the highest emotion we are capable of, love, is alchemy. First, the impurity, an animalistic emotion, should be removed from lust. Your lust is contaminated by all kinds of fantasies, feelings of guilt and desire we have picked up from the society and media. First, the impurity in lust needs to be removed so that a deep friendship at the being level and not just at the physical or mental level can be added. When you feel deeply connected to a person, there will be no need for physical proximity to that person. You will feel happy and satisfied with just the feeling connection. For the final transformation of lust into love, the relationship needs to go through the process of patience and perseverance. You need to be patient for the other person to accept your transformation. Then he or she will automatically be transformed as well. Here Kṛṣṇa refers to lust and anger, both born out of passion. Anger is also an emotion born out of lust. When the other person rejects your lust, it turns into anger towards that person. Anger is a tremendous energy we misuse because we do not understand and respect it. Greed, anger and lust are all rajasic qualities that arise from passion and aggression from the blocked mūlādhāra cakra, the root center.
As fire is covered by smoke, as a mirror is covered by dust, or as the embryo is covered
by the womb,
So also, the living being is covered by lust.
The knowledge of the knower is veiled by this eternal enemy in the form of lust,
Which is never satisfied and burns like fire, O Kaunteya.
The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the locations of this lust, which confuses the embodied
being and veils the knowledge.
Therefore, O Bharatarṣabha, chief amongst descendants of Bhārata, in the very beginning, control the
senses and curb the symbol of sin, Which is certainly the destroyer of knowledge and consciousness.
It is said that the senses are superior to the body. The mind is superior to the
senses.
The intelligence is still higher than the mind and the consciousness is even higher
than intelligence.
Knowing the Self to be superior to mind and intelligence, by steadying the mind by
intelligence, Conquer the insatiable enemy in the form of lust, O Mahābāho (mighty-armed
one).
Once a person reaches physical or sexual maturity at adolescence, it is very difficult to control the effects of lust arising out of the mūlādhāra. One needs to be spiritually awakened before sexual maturity so that the energy can flow upwards towards the sahasrāra or the crown cakra. The mūlādhāra cakra is the seat of all fantasies, primarily sexual fantasies. These fantasies are the ones Kṛṣṇa says are like dust on the mirror, completely clouding our judgment.
We live by templates that we carve out in our mind based on these fantasies, and live towards fulfilling these fantasies.
Completion in the present moment is the key to unlocking the mūlādhāra and dissolving lust. It is only completion that brings you in touch with reality as it is and dissolves your fantasies.
Kṛṣṇa closes his dialogue with Arjuna in this chapter with these words, ‘Be aware that you have a higher intelligence. Use that intelligence to control your senses and curb your lust, which is your most dangerous enemy on the path to completion.’ Please note that Kṛṣṇa does not say, ‘Arjuna, come here, I shall help you dissolve the lust in your body and mind. You can then be at peace.’
Arjuna started the dialogue saying he was confused by Kṛṣṇa’s words about action and inaction. Kṛṣṇa then told him to carry out his own responsibility with authenticity and without worrying about the result of his actions. He guides Arjuna to lead a purposeless life, free from obsession with the final goal and to be detached from the result of action. ‘Authentic action is our nature,’ He says, ‘not inaction. Act, work, but surrender the result of action to Me.’
Now, Kṛṣṇa says clearly, ‘Control your senses, be aware, be complete living in the present moment and give up lust.’ Lust, here, not only refers to sexual desire but also to all desires related to the outer world. It is our sense of identity, the sense of possession that drives us to acquire and enjoy. The truth, however, is that acquisition only leads to the desire for more acquisition, not to enjoyment and fulfillment.
When we realize that life has no purpose, that the meaning of life is to enrich others and ourselves and to enjoy the path, we learn to give up attachment to end results. We drop expectations. We move into the present moment and live in the space of completion.
This is the whole essence of Karma Yogaḥ. Be complete and drop your attachment to the goal and the fruit of your actions, and live an enriching life with integrity in words, with authenticity in thinking and action, and with responsibility in feeling. Live life blissfully. You will achieve the Supreme. You will achieve the space of Enlightenment.
Kṛṣṇa says, ‘You will achieve the Supreme.’ You will achieve the eternal consciousness, Nityānanda, eternal bliss.
