A small story:

There was a great enlightened Master. He was always in ecstasy, always in joy.

One of his disciples asked him, 'Master, how are you so blissful? I have never seen you suffering. You are always joyful. How is this possible?'

Master replied, 'Every morning when I get up from bed I ask myself, what do you want today? Do you want to be blissful or do you want suffering today?

Naturally what will the mind choose? It will choose to be blissful. Then, immediately, I tell the mind: alright, be blissful. That's all!'

We may think, 'How can it be so simple?' Be very clear, we know our twenty-four hour routine. Just try this tomorrow morning. Just decide whether you want to face your normal routine with bliss or with suffering, with joy or with the usual long face. Decide for yourself. You have the choice. And whether you go with a long face or with a smiling face, the routine is going to be the same.

I always tell people, 'Pain is inevitable; suffering is a choice.' We have one thing that we can choose—and that is our inner space. Do we want our inner space to be incomplete like the Kauravas filled with hay or do we want our inner space to be fulfilled with completion like the Pāṇḍavas, radiating the light and fragrance of bliss? We have complete freedom to create our inner space. That is purely our own decision with no one to blame. Pain is independent of suffering. Pain is an external thing, suffering is an internal choice.

Hell or heaven is our conscious choice. People always have another question, 'What do I do if my mind says, I want to suffer?' Then suffer, that's all. What is there in it? When our mind wants to enjoy suffering, then even suffering becomes an enjoyment for us.

So when you get up every morning, ask your mind, 'What do you want today?' If your mind chooses bliss, just tell your mind, 'Be blissful. That's all!' This single conscious decision can change the quality of your life. But don't make a commitment to do this for three days or one week. You will forget. Decide every day for just that 24 hours. People will immediately think, 'Let me decide for my whole life today itself.' No! You will forget. You will be back with the same face again tomorrow. No, don't decide for your whole life. Decide only for one day. Only then will you be able to maintain it.

A small story about this natural face:

The head of a monastery, was teaching the young novices to preach. He was giving them tips on how to speak in public.

He said, 'When we speak, our whole body should express what we are saying. Our face should express the idea that we are talking about. When we speak about heaven our eyes should sparkle and our whole body should show the bliss, we should express the joys of heaven clearly. Our face should shine.'

He continued, 'When we speak about hell, we can just remain as we are. People will understand!' At least in our life, let us not maintain the long face as our natural face.

When we conquer the mind, happiness and distress are both one and the same and we are not touched by it. Now, Kṛṣṇa has an important point here. He says, 'For one who has conquered his Self, has already attained the supreme bliss, *jitātmanaḥ praśāntasya paramātmā samāhitaḥ*, for him happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same, *śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu tathā mānāpamānayoḥ* (6.7).'

#### **Throughout this chapter Kṛṣṇa emphasizes this one idea—senses. Kṛṣṇa speaks about the senses. How can happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor be the same for a man? How is it possible?**

The first thing is that when our senses do the work, we decide *'yes*' or *'no'* only based on our past experiences, the experiences with which we have grown or the words with which we have conditioned our mind and memory. Our intelligence decides based on our root thought patterns which are the incompletions of our mind and memory. Please be very clear: something that is tasty for us may be like poison to our neighbour. Why even go as far as our neighbour... Take your spouses for instance. You might like something, but she or he might hate it.

Whenever our mind is caught in dualities, again and again we fall back to our dilemma, to our nature, to our suffering, to our instinct level. Here Kṛṣṇa says the person who has achieved bliss is not affected by heat or cold and joy or sorrow—*śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkheṣu*. How do we reach that state? First, understand that when I say conquering the senses, I don't mean controlling the senses or destroying the senses. If we try to control or destroy the senses, we will only struggle and suffer more and more. If we try to control our body, that is not going to work either.

**Kṛṣṇa says beautifully, 'For one who has conquered the self,** *jitātmanaḥ.***'** When He says self, He means the whole cognition where the decision-making happens. Mind-Intelligence-Ego is the spot where the decision-making is happening. When we just try to conquer the senses, we will fail again and again. If we fail two or three times we will lose the confidence to try again. If we fail in a fight with our senses, we will automatically start thinking that it is impossible, and we will lose confidence. We need intelligence to progress in this path.

We need to learn the science of creating the space of completion to conquer the senses. If we try to work from the wrong side out of incompletion, from the side of the senses, we will never be able to succeed. If we try to create more pressure on the cooker we will not be able to open the cooker lid. First, we need to put out the fire, the energy supply. Putting out the fire is doing completion with our root patterns. The ego or root patterns or the intelligence, the place from where we make decisions, is continuously supplying energy to our senses. So all we need to do is to work at the level of the mind and not at the level of the senses to become *jitātmanaḥ*. If we try to work at the level of the senses, we will create only more and more perverted desires, leading to more and more incompletions.

For example, normally, if we fast for one day, that night in our dreams we will be feasting! Our body has got its own balance, its own intelligence. If we avoid something, it has to supply and rejuvenate itself. If we are hungry, we can't sleep. In order to sleep, our bio-memory itself should be made to believe that we are not hungry. For this, we need to do completion with our patterns of food not suppression of the desire of food. So, the unconscious energy creates a dream as if we are feasting. Whenever we deprive ourselves, our unconscious energy will satisfy itself in the dream state. This is because in the dream state, there is noone to control us; all our incompletions simply come out in the dream. We just project our world and enjoy it.

See, I initiate thousands of people into a powerful spiritual process called *Nirāhara Saṁyama*, liberating them from their food patterns. Listen. It is awakening, rekindling the power of your bio-memory to produce energy and food directly from air, water and space. It is not fasting. An important rule in this process is the moment one feels hungry or tired, one has to start eating. One cannot use his or her willpower. Understand, if you fast, in the dream you will be dreaming as if you are feasting, eating! But, not a single one of my *Nirāhara Saṁyama* participants has a dream of eating food and feasting! Why? Because they are initiated into the most practical method of completing with all the root patterns. They don't suppress their hunger, they just go beyond it, they go beyond their senses!

Understand, if we suppress something, it will automatically express itself in our dreams. Dreams are nothing but expressions of our suppressed desires and fears. Not only that, it expresses itself in a perverted way. If we do completion with our root patterns and out of completion when we enjoy with the senses, we will never become tired. But when we suppress our senses, our being suffers in our dreams.

Now there is a new concept called 'fear stroke'. These are imaginary fears, such as imagining ghosts lurking in dark corners, or the sudden ringing of the telephone, etc. We also get these fear strokes in dreams. Please listen. If we are suffering with incompletions at the dream level, there is something seriously wrong at the mind-intelligence level. We are trying to control the senses instead of conquering the mind. Instead of removing the fire, we are trying to create more pressure in the cooker. All we need to do is to work on the mind, do completion to remove the fire, to stop the supply of fuel to the senses.

**Completion! Again and again complete!** Understand, if you have

dreams, whatever type of dreams they may be, whether they are good or bad, you are not worthy of *sannyās yoga* or *karma yoga*. Sannyāsi is a person who should be in that level of completion where no dreams happen in him. The day you start sleeping without dreams, you have become a real sannyāsi, a real *karma yogi.*

**Dreams are nothing but the incompletions expressing in your inner space when you are unconscious.** Understand, I am defining what is dreaming and thinking.

**Incompletions expressing when you are unconscious are dreams. Incompletions expressing when you are conscious is thinking. Incompletions expressing when you are unconscious is dreaming.**

Arjuna is called *Gudākeśa* by Kṛṣṇa, the one who has not just conquered dreams but who has conquered sleep itself. While addressing Arjuna as *Gudākeśa*, one who is in the light, having conquered sleep, Kṛṣṇa readies Arjuna for liberation.

Here Kṛṣṇa says, 'For one who has conquered the mind, *jitātmanaḥ*.' He means that this applies to one whose mind has learned the right cognition of completion. If our intelligence and memory are filled with past incomplete memories, we cannot make correct decisions. Don't think the mind makes decisions in a logical manner. For example: when you see me, if you have had any problems with any other person who was wearing this same color robe in the past, suddenly that memory will be awakened. Then, the intelligence is not even ready to sit and listen. Immediately, our ego gives the order to leave. This is what we call prejudice.

A man whose senses are complete, meaning one who is not driven by his senses, has the ability to make decisions with clarity from the pure space of completion. Such a being is *jitātmanaḥ*—the conqueror of the mind and the self.

#### **Fountain of Bliss is within you**

We can never achieve bliss by controlling the senses. We can only

achieve bliss by controlling the mind by completing with our root thought patterns, which give birth to the mind. By changing the servants, we can't change the leader. But by changing the leader we can change the servants. The mind is the leader or the master who is making decisions and leading the senses. So all we need to do is work on completing with the mind, not the senses.

Kṛṣṇa says, 'One who has conquered the mind achieves the *Paramātman* (divine Self), *jitātmanaḥ praśāntasya paramātmā samāhitaḥ* (6.7).' We don't need to achieve bliss. It is always there within us. If it has to be achieved, there is every possibility it can be lost. If it can be lost, what is the guarantee it will be there forever? Anything, if it has to be specially achieved, is not worth achieving. But if it is our very nature, then it becomes easy. Kṛṣṇa says that all we need to do is conquer our mind. We don't need to achieve anything.

The fountain of bliss is continuously happening in us. Our very life energy is bliss. Unless we have the bliss energy in us, we cannot inhale and exhale. But we are stopping the bliss fountain again and again. All we need to do is stop the stopping process. That's all. We don't even need to create anything or achieve anything. Kṛṣṇa says that we just have to conquer the mind because the Self has been already achieved and we are with it. All we need is completion with our Self.

Here is a small story to explain how happiness and sorrow are in no way related to the outer world but to the inner world.

> An old man went to a nearby city for some work. When he was coming back to his village, from a distance he suddenly noticed that his house was on fire. He started shouting, screaming and rolling on the ground and weeping.

> His son came to him and said, 'Dad, don't worry. Don't you remember, we sold that house just yesterday?'

> Immediately, the old man sat up and wiped his tears. The sorrow just disappeared. In ten minutes, his other son came

## Bhagavad Gita Decoded

to him and said, 'Dad, yes, we have sold it, but we are yet to get the money.'

Again the man started rolling on the ground and weeping, 'Oh, I don't know what I will do now. I don't know how to save myself.'

Some ten minutes later, his wife came on the scene and said, 'Don't worry, just this morning I saw that the money was deposited in our bank account.'

Again the man got up and wiped his tears and became perfectly normal!

If you notice, it is the same situation and the same person. But when he thinks the house is his, he is suffering, and when he thinks it is not his, he is liberated. So what gives us suffering? It is just this single thing: thinking that something is 'mine'. The habit of thinking, 'mine', 'mine'.

In the same way, there are people who can't enjoy something unless it is theirs.

One day I was going for a walk on the beach.

One of our devotees started saying, '*Swamiji*, I think we should have a cottage here. It would be very nice. We can come out and enjoy the breeze.'

I asked him, 'Are we not enjoying ourselves now? Why do you need a cottage here to enjoy? Just enjoy yourself now!'

But the mind never enjoys unless we are sure it is ours. Unless we possess something, we don't enjoy it. By the time we own the cottage we start worrying, 'I think I should have this kind of furniture, that type of arrangement.' Or we have already started thinking about another cottage in some other place.

> Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi was a great devotee of Arunachala, the sacred hillock in Tiruvannamalai, Śiva's own form, my birthplace. Someone who visited Him for the first time said, '*Master,* what a beautiful place this is! The Arunachala

hill is so beautiful!'

Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi said, 'Just be here for three days, all these ideas will disappear!' In three days, we take things for granted.


# 6.10-6.14 Instructions for the Yogi

- *6.10 A Yogī should always try to concentrate his mind on the Supreme Self; situated in a secluded place, he should carefully control his mind without being attracted by anything and should be free from the feeling of possessiveness.*
- *6.11 In a clean and pure place, one should establish his seat by laying kuśa grass, a deerskin and a cloth one over another, neither too high nor too low.*
- *6.12 Sitting firmly on that pure seat, the yogi should practice the purification of the self by controlling the activities of the mind and the senses.*
- *6.13 Holding the body, head and neck steady, looking at the tip of his nose without looking in any other direction.*
- *6.14 Let him sit with an unagitated mind, free from fear and in tune with Existence, controlling the mind, focusing it on Me and making Me the Supreme goal.*

In these verses Kṛṣṇa gives directions for the practitioner of Yoga, the Yogī. There are instructions about both the state of the mind and the state of the body.

These verses are often quoted and misused with a literal understanding and without grasping the inner meaning and significance. We can sit with closed or half closed eyes, with spine erect, in a sound-proofed dark room, and still be far away from enlightenment. Understand, these are general and practical guidelines given to help us with how we should sit and meditate. These are not essential qualifications for Enlightenment.

Kṛṣṇa repeats the importance of controlling our senses again and again. Why?

Senses are our doors to the external world. As long as they are open and uncontrolled, we are immersed only in the external world. It is impossible to understand our true reality when we are studying the external world. We may become a great scientist or a wealthy businessman by observing the outer world, but never an enlightened person. For this path, looking inwards is the only way.

### Unclutch and Become Liberated

Controlling the senses requires controlling the mind. Controlling the mind requires control of thoughts. Controlling the thoughts requires integrity. When we continuously live integrity, we will become aware of the thoughts and processes happening in our inner space.

And constantly listening to our own inner space is the beginning of integrity. If our inner space says that there is nothing more to listen, if only silence is there, then that is the end of integrity. We have achieved integrity. When we start listening to our inner space, we start integrity and when we listen to only silence from our inner space, we have achieved integrity. As long as we are hearing something from our inner space, it is lack of integrity.

Go on listening. Even while you are sitting, driving, talking or walking, listen to you. Also listen to you, when you are talking! It is listening to you that is going to bring integrity to you! Listen! Listen! Untiringly listen! Intensely bring integrity to your life. If we sit for a few minutes and intensely listen and analyze our thoughts, we will find that there is no connection between one thought and another. There is no logic in our thinking process. By their very nature our thoughts are illogical, unconnected and irrational. Thoughts keep swinging from past to future and back to the past.

We need to do two things to control our thoughts. First, we need to stay in the present moment by refusing to move to the past and future and second, we need to disconnect thoughts. I call this Unclutching. We need to be aware that thoughts are not inherently connected. We connect them into a shaft of joy or sorrow. These shafts do not exist at all. So I say to you, unclutch and become liberated. I am not saying to stay without thoughts. That is not possible; just witness thoughts. Understand that thoughts are unconnected. Detach yourself from the emotional baggage of the thoughts. If we detach ourselves from the regrets of the past and the speculations about the future we will automatically rise into the present.

People again and again ask me, 'The moment I sit for meditation or Unclutching, I have more thoughts! I have more confusion, I have more problems. Next time, I don't want to sit for meditation or Unclutching. *Swamiji,* what should I do?'

How will you not have thoughts or confusion? Unclutching is not like switching off the electricity to your house. It is like cleaning, sweeping and wiping your house. It is not like electricity that you will just switch off and be unclutched. No! It is like cleaning, sweeping and wiping. First, listen to your inner space! That is the first step to meditation, to life. Listen!!

We cannot live without desires. If anyone tells us that we can reach Enlightenment through elimination of desires, it is incorrect. First of all, we are already enlightened. Our inner Self knows it is connected to the Divine. We are just not aware of it, that's all. If we are already there, how can we achieve it? Second, desires are energy. We cannot inhale and exhale without the desire to live. Simply dying will not give us the experience!

That is what Kṛṣṇa talks about here—dropping the attachment and possessiveness to desires, not the desire itself. It is the feeling of 'mine,' the desire to possess, that creates the feeling of 'I,' not the other way around. Our identity is made up of all the things that we want, that we desire, that we are attached to. These constitute our mental make-up. The seeds of desire and embedded memories are the stuff our package of 'I' is made of. Once the feeling of possession, the feeling of 'mine' disappears, it is possible to shed our identity as well. When we are free of the feeling of 'mine' and 'I', when we are not attached or attracted to external objects, when we are not led by our senses, we have steadied the mind and senses. To facilitate this, Kṛṣṇa stipulates the conditions.

We should go to a secluded place. Why? Whatever said and done, in the house, the phone may ring, somebody may knock or some salesperson may call. A secluded place is really just a means to move us away from these disturbances. Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa continuously recommends in his books that every person should retire from the regular activities at least for two or three days a month, or at least once in six months, and re-align himself towards the higher ideals. I also recommend this for all my followers and disciples, at least once in six months, take three or four days off. Come and spend your time in the Bidadi ashram campus, realigning yourself to integrity. Here, you will see and hear the miracles happening just by integrity and authenticity. Only when you see all these miracles with your eyes, you will understand the power of integrity, the power of authenticity. Whatever is happening is the power of *dharma.*

**Buddha means a person who has aligned with** *dharma.* **Sangha means a group of people who are aligning with dharma. But** *dharma* **is the center. It is the power of** *dharma***.** Once in a while, you have to retreat from the regular activities and align yourself to integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching.

The *kuśa* (a grass ideal to sit on and meditate), deerskin and all those things are like insulation, so that the earth will not absorb the energy we create. But now we don't have to bother about that, since we usually sit in a chair, raised a little from the ground. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and it should be comfortable. That's all. The most important thing to be aware of in any meditation is to be relaxed. We cannot meditate in discomfort. *Sthira* (stable) and *sukha* (pleasurable) are the basic essentials of any meditation posture.

Here Kṛṣṇa updates the technique that He gave earlier. Here He gives three more instructions:

- 1. Head, spine and neck should be in a straight line.
2. We should fix our eyes on the tip of the nose. If we look at the tip of the nose, naturally, our awareness will settle on the third eye. Our concentration will settle on the *ājña cakra* (the brow energy center).

3. We should meditate on 'Me' as the supreme goal.

These are simple, commonsense instructions. Keeping the head, neck and spine, all in one line, helps in two ways. Firstly, it prevents us from dropping off to sleep. If we doze, our neck will drop, and we will no longer be steady. Secondly, as long as the head, neck and spine remain steady and vertical, the flow of pranic energy, the life-giving energy, through the energy pathways will be unblocked and smooth.

Whether we close our eyes fully or half close them, it is important that we disconnect from the external world. When the eyes are focused on the tip of the nose, they are not looking at external objects and ninety percent of sensory inputs are cut off. In addition, the focus is on the third eye between the brows, which, when energized, dissolves the ego block.

Finally, Kṛṣṇa says, 'Focus on Me—*manaḥ saṁyamya mac-chitto*. Make Me the Supreme goal—*yukta āsīta mat-paraḥ* (6.14).' He means our true Self. If we like, we can meditate on the form of Kṛṣṇa, with a flute and peacock feather. But I always prescribe going beyond the form. Go into your being. Of course, when we enter into our third eye, automatically we will go beyond the form. We will start meditating on the formless energy that is beyond the form.

# Neither Too Much Nor Too Little

- *6.15 Always practicing control over the mind and established in the Self, the yogi attains peace, the supreme liberation and My kingdom.*
- *6.16 Yoga is neither eating too much nor eating too little; It is neither sleeping too much nor sleeping too little, O Arjuna.*
- *6.17 One who is regulated in food, rest, recreation and work, sleep and wakefulness can reduce misery.*
- *6.18 When the mind is disciplined and one is established in the Self, free from all desires, then one is said to be established in yoga.*
- *6.19 As a lamp in a place without wind does not waver, so also the yogi whose mind is controlled remains steady, engaged in yoga, in the Self.*

Kṛṣṇa talks here about control of the mind and being established in the Self. He talks about the path and the goal of yoga. The first line of *Yoga Sūtras* starts with '*yogaḥ citta vṛtti nirodaḥ.'* It means: Yoga is cessation of the mind. The very first line gives the path and the goal of yoga. The word yoga means uniting with the Divine. To reach the Ultimate, the goal and the path is the practice of Yoga.

**We have two lives in us. One is the life we want to live–the dream. The other is the life in reality–the life we are living. The meeting of these two lives is what I call Yoga**.

You can unite the two either by reducing the depth of fantasies or by increasing the expression of your energy so that reality can come closer to the dream. If you reduce the depth of the fantasy, your expectation, the dream plane and the reality plane will come closer together. On the other hand, if you increase the energy expressed through reality, the reality plane will come closer to the dream plane. The meeting and merging of these two planes is what I call Yoga.

The goal is uniting with the Ultimate or experiencing the ultimate spiritual energy, or the Divine and realizing our inherent nature. The path is dropping the mind, which means going beyond thoughts. We are spiritual beings having a human experience; we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. This is the truth. Bliss is our very nature. All that we need to do is go back to the source and realize our true nature.

The mind pulls us towards the temporary happiness that we experienced by pursuing sense pleasures. For example, we may like a particular sweet. We are attracted to its taste. When we sit down to eat it, for a few minutes our mind seems to stop thinking about it. There is a sense of peace when we are eating the sweet. Actually, we are at peace because the number of thoughts has come down for those few minutes. But we think the peace we experience is due to the sweet itself.

Understand that there is nothing wrong with liking the taste of the sweet. But if we think that the sweet is the cause of our fulfillment, then the problem starts, because the next time the same sweet may not give us the same experience of fulfillment. The experience of fulfillment has nothing to do with the object of experience.

In the same way, if we hold on to an object that we think gives us bliss, we will create an attachment to that object. But the experience of bliss is different from the object. Bliss is beyond attachment to any object, material or spiritual. Bliss is beyond the pairs of opposites. When we are happy due to some pleasurable event or person, the momentary joy comes because the number of our thoughts comes down when we meet the person. When the number of our thoughts comes down, bliss happens in us. But the bliss itself comes only from our own being, not from the person who we met. In fact, it continuously happens within us, irrespective of anything that goes on outside. Then why do we not feel the bliss continuously? It is because we are under the control of the mind, which needs the pairs of opposites to survive. We can go beyond the mind.

When we are completely in reality, in the present, we are complete with Existence and we are in bliss. This is eternal bliss. '*Nitya'* or 'eternal' means the past, present and future all put together, because it is beyond time. Being in the present is what eternity is. The present blissful moment gives birth to the next moment, which will be blissful. But if we try to look for bliss in the future, thinking that we can do various things to create a blissful future, it will never happen. When we are not in reality now, we are creating the blissful future from our fantasies. So come to terms with reality here and now and be blissful; automatically the future will also be blissful.

Bliss is like the water in a river. We can keep our hands open in it and enjoy it. But if we try to hold the water with closed hands, it will simply flow away from us leaving our hands empty. If we want to be in eternal bliss, we need to be blissful this very moment. We should not bother about whether we had bliss in the past or whether we will have it in the future. Just be blissful now.

When Kṛṣṇa talks about the mind and the senses being controlled, He is not talking about suppressing the mind and the senses. That is impossible to do. People who claim to renounce the world and its material aspects still cling to desires. Their efforts result in misery. Instead of directing our senses towards external objects and the pleasure derived from these objects, it is possible to turn our focus inwards and experience inner joy. Once the senses and the mind discover this inner joy, they will give up their attachment to external pleasures. Suppression never works; what works is completion.


Take fear for example. What do we do when we feel afraid of something, whether it is fear of insects or fear of heights? The moment we are faced with the object of fear, we try to escape. Have we tried facing the fear? The next time you are afraid, try this. Instead of running away, just try looking at the fear consciously, go through it fully and declare completion with it. Do not identify with it by trying to suppress it or run away from it. I tell you, when you look at fear with completion, you will see that the fear does not exist as you thought it existed. It simply does not exist because fear is born out of ignorance, when something is unknown to you.

When we bring the light of knowledge upon fear, ignorance is removed and we get the courage to see the object as it is. Because now there is nothing hidden, our mind cannot fantasize about the unknown.

So understand, our fears are nothing but negative fantasies and we can complete with them. The same also applies to greed. Why do we always feel that we need more? We start running after the next desire before one desire is even fulfilled. We are so tuned to running after things. 'What next? What next?' becomes our chant. Have we ever stopped to think what we are running for? After fulfilling a desire, have we stopped to think whether we have achieved what we wanted? Have we stopped to enjoy what we just fulfilled? If we sit and contemplate sincerely over one desire after fulfilling it, by now, we would have gotten out of the vicious cycle of desires.

Can we ever drink water from a mirage? Running after the fantasies created by the mind is just like running after a mirage or running after the horizon. We can never achieve bliss by running behind these fantasies because these fantasies have no existence in reality.

# Be In The Self And See The Supreme

6.25 Gradually, step-by-step, one should become established in the Self, held by the conviction of intelligence, with the mind not thinking of anything else.

6.26 From wherever the mind becomes agitated due to its wandering and unsteady nature, from there, one must certainly bring it under the control of the Self.

6.27 The yogi whose mind is peaceful attains the highest happiness; His passion is pacified and he is free from sins as he is liberated by the Supreme.

6.28 The yogi always engaged in the Self and free from material contamination is in touch with the Supreme and attains the highest happiness.

6.29 The yogi sees the Supreme established in all beings and also all beings situated in the Supreme. One established in the Self sees the Supreme everywhere.

Here Kṛṣṇa says that we need conviction and intelligence to be established in the Self. Why does He talk about conviction? Understand that intelligence cannot happen without a strong conviction, a strong intellectual base

Our Vedic seers, Ṛṣis have created *śāstras,* the foundations of knowledge that give the intellectual understanding, conviction and commitment to this process. Logically, we will be clear about the questions that naturally arise. 'What is the path? What is the goal? Why do we need spirituality?' All these questions are answered logically in the *śāstras.* The conclusions are given to us. *Śāstras* are the scriptures that take away all our doubts completely.

Saṁśaya rākśasa nāshana astraṁ—it means saṁśaya is a rākśasa—'doubt is a devil'. Once a doubt enters our mind, until we clear it, we can't rest. The śāstras help us get rid of these doubts intellectually. Unless we have complete intellectual clarity, even if we believe, our belief will be a pseudo belief.

There are different ways to learn and develop clarity and conviction. We can learn from our experiences as well as from others' experiences. For example, when we touch the flame of a candle, we learn that it burns. When we touch a burning gas stove, we learn again that fire burns. One by one, we can experience and learn that all fires burn. Or, when we touch the first form of fire, immediately we can learn that all fires will burn! Coming to a conclusion and a clear understanding that all fires burn, after just one experience, is intelligence!

We need a strong conviction for spirituality to flower in our lives. Only then can we stay on the path without faltering. If we do anything with knowledge about the science of the whole action, then the activity becomes a meditation. When the science is lost and only the activity remains, it becomes a ritual. When the juice of wisdom is not in the activity, it becomes a ritual, and we become religious nuts. When we add the juice of wisdom, we become spiritual fruits! We need to add 'spirit' to the 'ritual'. Then it becomes 'spirituality'!

We can start with simple things. We can try to infuse completion into simple actions in our everyday life like eating, having a bath, driving. Gradually, when the completion extends to more actions of our life, we can see that such awareness of completion results in bliss. Completion is bliss. We need to bring the light of awareness and completion into everything we do. It is a conviction arising out of our innate intelligence and understanding that we must return to our true nature, that is Divinity.

#### **Persevere and See Me In Everything**

Now, Kṛṣṇa is emphasizing an important spiritual quality—

perseverance. In the previous verse, He spoke about conviction. Now, he talks about persevering with that conviction. What happens most of the time to most of us is that when we realize we need to transform, we try a few times and then we give up on ourselves thinking we cannot do it. We expect the mental setup that we have created and solidified, to be broken and restructured in a few attempts, almost instantly. How is this possible? We need to be more patient and persevere in our efforts for the real change to happen.

So what if we fail sometimes? Why don't we look at the positive side and see that we succeeded a few times? Why do we want to count the failures and feel depressed? We can also look at the successes and feel inspired. Once the conviction is there, nothing can stop us except our own mind. The mind is like a faithful servant. It reproduces whatever it has been fed. All along, we have been feeding the mind negative memories of failure and we have been storing all the past memories related to failure. What will the mind reproduce? It will recollect and present the same instances of only failure. When we want to measure the strength of a chain, we measure the strength of the weakest link in that chain. But we cannot apply the same logic to measure ourselves.

When we measure our lives based on our weakest moments, our failures and our incompletions, we take a wrong reading of ourselves. We cannot do with our lives what we do with the chain. Why can't we give credit to ourselves for the strong, successful moments of our lives? We have been conditioned by society to consider ourselves weak beings, that we are not powerful. We have been taught to feel guilty. Does that help us in any way? No! It only creates low energy and powerlessness.

**Listen. Strength is Life.** We should just decide that we will not be trapped in this cycle of guilt and desire. We need to measure ourselves by our strongest moments, our greatest moments of powerfulness, when we have displayed extraordinary awareness, courage, compassion, love and such other divine qualities. A human being is the sum of his greatest moments of completion. He is not a mechanical device that fails based on its faults. He is a spiritual being who thrives on his strengths.

Understand that you attract 'like' incidents in your life. 'Like attracts like.' The energy of one frequency attracts the similar frequency. When we are angry, the low energy attracts similar low energy. Pain attracts pain. Joy attracts joy. Bliss attracts fortune. If we are joyful, we will create a beautiful community of joyful people around us. It is for us to decide what we want to attract.

We must persevere in our efforts to change our space and we will see the results in front of our very eyes. Failures are merely tests to verify our mettle. Irrespective of how many times we may fail, with complete faith, with integrity and authenticity, we can trust in that inner strength that we all possess. Then we shall succeed. This is what is meant when Kṛṣṇa says the true yogi reaches the state of ultimate happiness, the state of eternal bliss and divine consciousness by his identification with the Absolute.

In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa talks about passion and sins.

**Passion is nothing but a deep attachment to something for the pleasure that it gives.** Usually we associate passion, sin and such terms with deeds that we classify as right or wrong. But here, Kṛṣṇa does not talk about sin in the way society teaches us. It is not morality that He is talking about. I tell you, there is no sin except the sin of connecting thoughts and thinking that we are logical beings.

So, the key is to be in the space of completion every moment. The solution is not to condemn ourselves as sinners and expect some external force to bring completion to us. It is we who choose everything in our lives and how we want to live. But since we do not participate in this process consciously, we call it 'fate'. We are the ones who do the actions, but we don't want to accept that fact when we get the results. Somehow we choose to do whatever we want to do and then blame everyone else for the consequences! When we infuse completion into our actions, automatically the very completion will ensure that we have the integrity to do the right things. Listen! When you are integrated, so many resources which are present in you as a potential, suddenly becomes a reality in you! When we are integrated, we don't need to depend on society and morality to teach us the right things to do.

I tell you, live according to your intelligence and awareness. If you depend on others, even after becoming an adult, it means you are not mature. Anything done out of conscience does not have the conviction of experience to back it. That is why it is never done whole-heartedly, because your energy, your intelligence is not behind the action. Have you seen a child doing anything, like looking at a flower? A child will look at a flower not just with its eyes, but also with its entire body. A child does anything and everything completely. We should try to look at life in a similar way. Many of us have not experienced the joy of enriching someone whole-heartedly. On the other hand, if we are smokers, do we need somebody to convince us to smoke? No! Smoking has become our experience.

When we are in bliss or the highest happiness, we can never commit any sin because we are aware and conscious and we cannot be caught in passion or lethargy. When we are in a 'no-mind' state, we are in bliss and we are not caught in the passion or sin that are products of the mind. When the mind drops, the Divine hand that is orchestrating every single event will guide every one of our actions.

What does it mean to be freed from all past sinful reactions? Our past reactions are nothing but our root patterns, the past memories along with the associated emotions, deeply inscribed in our unconscious space. Whenever we hold on to any past incidents or emotions as root patterns, our actions are bound to be impacted by them. But, if our action is not based on the past but arises from a spontaneous decision based on the present situation, then we are 'responding' to the event or incident or person. When we are in bliss, our actions will be only a response not a reaction, which is based on these past memories that Kṛṣṇa calls past sinful reactions.

Have the courage to complete with your root patterns, to make decisions without referring to these past incidents, because every single incident and moment is a brand new one. How can we compare what is happening now with what happened before? The situation is different, the person is different and so are we. Every moment, each one of us is dying and being born again; we are changing. Our intelligence is being constantly updated. Then how can we analyze the present situation through the lens of the past? We must complete with all regrets and guilt that we might have about the past, and immerse ourselves in the present moment. We don't need the past to live beautifully in present space of completion. In fact, we can't live blissfully in the present if we continue to use the past as a reference point for how to manage our lives.

#### **Realized One Sees the Supreme Everywhere**

Kṛṣṇa says that the realized person, *yoga-yuktātmā*, sees the Supreme in everyone and everything. He sees everything situated in the Supreme and all beings situated in the Supreme. The yogi is in touch with the higher Self and is in bliss.

> *sarva-bhūta-stham ātmānaṁ sarva-bhūtāni cātmani I īkṣate yoga-yuktātmā sarvatra sama-darśarsanaḥ II 6.29*

When we experience the Truth, we see everything in ourselves and ourselves in everything. In fact, in my first spiritual experience at the age of twelve, this is what I clearly saw.

> When I was twelve, I was playing with this technique of just watching where thoughts came from, the source of my thoughts. At that age, I didn't even realize it was meditation. One day, at the foothills of Arunachala, in my hometown of Tiruvannamalai in South Bharat, I was sitting on a rock, just playing with this technique that I had been practicing for two years.

> Suddenly, something happened; something opened within me. I felt as if I was being pulled inside. Suddenly, I could see 360 degrees in all directions. My eyes were closed but I could see everything in front of me and behind me.

*Not just that, I felt that whatever I was seeing, was all me. I could see myself in everything—in the trees, in the rocks, in the ground, in the hills, everything!*

An Enlightened person sees no difference between Himself and the rest of the Universe. He is one with the Universe. His boundary does not end where his physical body ends. In fact, now with Kirlian photography, we can even check the auric body. For ordinary people, the aura just surrounds the physical body but when you are one with the universe, the aura extends infinitely. The *Viśvarūpa Darśan*, vision of the cosmic form, that Kṛṣṇa gives Arjuna is the glimpse of the same Truth, where Arjuna sees that Kṛṣṇa is one with the Universe.

In the ultimate sense, the moment we understand that we are deeply, totally and intensely connected to the whole Universe, not only do we start experiencing bliss, we really start living in the space of completion. Many dimensions of our being start opening. Right now we are stressed out and disturbed continuously because we think of ourselves as individual egos. If we disappear into this collective consciousness, we will experience so many dimensions and so many possibilities that we simply cannot imagine right now!


*6.45 And when the Yogī engages himself with sincere endevour in progressing fruther, being cleansed of all incompletions, then ultimately, achieving perfection \[saṁsiddhi] after many births of practice, he attains the highest state \[parām-gati].*

*6.46 A Yogī is greater than the ascetic \[tapasvi], greater than the wise \[jñāni] and greater than the fruitive worker. Therefore, Arjuna, do become a Yogī.*

*6.47 Of all Yogīs, one who always lives in Me, thinking of Me within himself, who worships Me in full faith, he is the most intimately united with Me in Yoga and is the highest of all Yogīs; that is My opinion.*

Kṛṣṇa is describing the process of the human experience. Why do we assume the body? We think that we can experience bliss through the body and mind; that is why we assume the body. When we realize that bliss cannot be experienced through the body or mind, we know that going beyond the body is the only way to experience it. Then we will not assume the body. Assuming the human body is simply our choice.

People ask me, 'Why do we choose to have the human experience?' That we should find out for ourselves. Why did we assume this body? I asked the question and I got the answer. I know why I chose the human experience. Ask the question yourself and pursue it as a quest and you will get the answer. You will be enlightened.

We claim that we want to experience the ultimate and that we want to be enlightened. But I tell you, if we really want to be enlightened, there is nothing that can stop us. There is no hindrance to our being enlightened except our own self. As of now, actually, Enlightenment is last on our laundry list of items that we want to do in life! When the urge becomes urgent, when the question becomes a burning quest, then we get the answer. There is no other way.

In these verses, Kṛṣṇa promises a few things. He says that whatever we have learned in one life does not get wasted. We do not start from ground zero in the next birth. We start from where we left off. Our *vāsanās*, our mindset in one birth, continues into another. He also promises that if we keep practicing, if we keep trying, we will be cleansed of all sins and reach the highest state. Such a person, Kṛṣṇa promises, will reach Him.

At the end of the day, what Kṛṣṇa implies is this: We need to do our bit. We need to practice yoga, the path that leads to self-awareness, to self-completion, the path that leads to Kṛṣṇa, with dedication, perseverance, with integrity and authenticity. There is no other way. There is no short cut. Once you do your bit, the Master promises deliverance. He promises that you will be one with Him. We will enter into a technique given by Śrī Kṛṣṇa to go beyond the mind, to awaken our senses, to *look in.*

### **MEDITATION**

Now it is time to look in. Now it is time to tune ourselves to that highest teaching given by Śrī Kṛṣṇa in this *Dhyāna Yoga*. Now we will enter into the meditation. If we are ready to sit for the next ten minutes, we will start the meditation.

Please sit straight and close your eyes. Keep your head, neck and spine, all three in a straight line. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible.

Slowly, in a relaxed way, bring your awareness to your *ājña cakra*. Concentrate between the two eyebrows. Bring your awareness between the two eyebrows.

Remember and pray to that Energy that came as Kṛṣṇa, that is guiding us and helping us in our life. Pray to that Energy that gave us the *Bhagavad Gītā.*

Meditate on the pure light energy. If your mind wanders here and there, don't worry. When you remember, bring it back again and relax in your *ājña cakra*, between your eyebrows. Don't concentrate. In a very relaxed way, be aware of the *ājña cakra*, the space in between the two eyebrows.

(a few minutes pass)

Slowly, very slowly bring your mind to your heart and meditate on your heart center. If you want, you can touch your heart center with the hand and feel it. Try to bring your awareness to the heart center. Try to remember the heart center. Forget all other parts of your body; forget your mind. Just become the heart center. Just be in the heart center. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible.

May you experience your pure inner space. May you experience the eternal bliss, *Nityānanda.*

(a few minutes pass)

Om śānti, śānti, śāntihi...

Relax. Slowly, very slowly, open your eyes.

We may wonder how a simple technique like this one can lead us into our Self.

Please understand that we always live in the head. Start living from the heart. We will then start acting from intelligence. We will start acting, not from our head but from our heart. When we start acting from the heart, we don't calculate. The very calculation disappears, the 'I, I, I' disappears. And naturally our senses become sensitive. We don't abuse our senses. We don't destroy our senses. Too much of the energy that is supplied to the heart is taken away by the mind. The fuel supply to the mind will be reduced and the fuel supply to the heart will be increased.

So try to continuously remember this heart region, *anāhata cakra*.

Naturally, we will have awareness in the *ājña* also. In the last session, Kṛṣṇa gave the technique to be in the *ājña*. Today, He says start with the *ājña* and come down to *anāhata*. This is because in the heart, there is a possibility of much more happening. The possibility of reaching is easier and greater in the heart. **Kṛṣṇa says, 'Let you be in the heart.'**

Look in! You will realize 'You are That.' Just look in, you will experience the eternal bliss, *Nitya-ānanda*. Let us pray to that Ultimate Energy, *Parabrahma* Kṛṣṇa to give us all the Eternal Bliss, *Nityānanda.*

> *Thus ends the sixth chapter named Dhyāna Yogaḥ, 'The Yoga of Path of Meditation,' of the Bhagavad Gītā Upaniṣad, Brahmavidyā Yogaśāstra, the scripture of yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna saṃvād, dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.*

# Listen, Cognize And Radiate

All living beings are caught in the duality of attachment and aversion. the greatest Master, Krsna explains how to move out of this bondage. He reveals the knowledge of associating with the Divine to radiate the Divine. ...

# Listen, Cognize And Radiate

Listen! To begin with, let us see why Kṛṣṇa has given us this chapter. Again and again Kṛṣṇa speaks the same Truth. Nothing else is spoken, only the same Truth. Then what is the need for so many chapters?

People can say that Kṛṣṇa is repeating Himself. They may ask, 'How many times must He say that the spirit is indestructible, or that all work must be done with authenticity without expecting returns or that one must surrender to Him to reach completion?'

Understand, if you have already listened even once, Kṛṣṇa will not repeat it again. Anything you listen from Kṛṣṇa, understand you are listening *now*, for the first time! If you had already listened, I will make sure the words do not fall in your ears the second time, because I won't waste your time or my time. I am Kāla (time)!

For a person who wants to begin the life, the first thing he needs to learn is listening! Understand, by 'hearing' you won't understand the Master. Only by 'listening to yourself ' you can understand the Master. I tell you, people who listen to themselves can understand what I am saying, even without any introduction to any spiritual philosophy. People who don't listen to themselves, they do not understand. Listening! Listening to yourself and speaking into the listening of yourself and others, makes our inner space cognize the right declarations.

Many times people come and tell me, 'I am not able to convince myself to drop my incompletions.' This means that they are not able to speak into their listening!

Speak into your listening! There is no shortcut, there is no cross cut. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So, the shortest route for anything is a straight line, a straight path.

**Listen! Please understand, I am defining Completion.**

**Ability to speak into the listening of yourself is Completion. Ability to speak into the listening of yourself is ability to complete. That is the ability to complete.**

It is all about developing your ability to speak into your listening, developing your ability to speak into others' listening, developing your ability to give authentic listening to yourself, and developing the ability to provide authentic listening to others, that's all!

How many ever new words Kṛṣṇa may use, how many ever new words Arjuna may use, it is all about the ability to provide authentic listening to yourself and to to others, the ability to speak into your listening and the ability to speak into the listening of others, that's all!

Kṛṣṇa shows the power of authentic listening and teaches Arjuna the ability to provide authentic listening to himself and to others, and to speak into the listening of himself and others! In the first chapter of Gītā—*Arjunaviṣāda Yogaḥ*, Kṛṣṇa provides authentic listening to Arjuna's dilemma. So complete is Kṛṣṇa's listening that Arjuna is able to listen to himself, his dilemmas and is able to pour out the depth of his root patterns into Kṛṣṇa's listening. Just by His pure, authentic listening, Kṛṣṇa transforms Arjuna's questions into quest, incompletions into completion, and his patterns into possibilities.

Please listen from the space of listening!

If you have authentically listened, if you have done *śravana* listening authentically and *manana*—intranalyzing authentically, you *will* be radiating authentically. Nothing can be done about it! Intranalyzing and radiating! Please listen, your life needs to be constantly powerful. You should be living to do what you want. You should be talking to get the result of what you want. You should be talking to move the other person the way you want. And you should not be talking by fighting with the patterns of the listener. You should be talking into the listening of the listener! When will that happen? If you are established into your listening, you will talk into the other person's listening.

Listen! When Arjuna listens to himself, he becomes a *disciple;* when Kṛṣṇa speaks into the listening of Arjuna, Arjuna becomes enlightened— *Radiating Enlightenment*!

If I have to simply translate the word *'radiating*' or *nididhyāsana* in a very colloquial way, it means: Minding your business! Not wasting your life! Laziness, boredom, diversion, and postponing do not have a place in your life when you are radiating. Radiating means RADIATING! It is straightforward! Live your life authentically. Live your life with strength. Live your life intensely with clarity and powerfulness.

First thing you need to learn to *radiate*, the first thing for *nididhyāsana* is: Learn to think and speak with the same cognition you arrive at by intranalyzing.

Please understand, I am explaining step-by-step:

First, you authentically listen to the great Truths. Whenever you authentically listen, whatever you listen will be converted as great Truths by your inner space. Your inner space has the capability; it has the power to separate the right from wrong.

There is a very beautiful example of Paramahamsa in *Vedic t*radition! Paramahamsa is the supreme swan. If you mix milk and water and leave it, this great bird Hamsa (swan) will separate the milk from the water and suck only the milk and leave the water! The Hamsa bird has that power. The Hamsa bird is said to be the only creature that has the rare capability of separating milk from water.

In the same way, a person who takes the right things inside and leaves the unnecessary things outside is *'Paramahamsa*'. If you bring authentic listening in you, you will become *Paramahamsa*! Anything you listen, you know what to internalize and what to reject. Paramahamsas are actually enlightened Masters who take the bird body. Soaring high in the skies, they express their freedom and enjoy their bliss! They are metaphysical birds, seen only through enlightened eyes or by people who live in the higher consciousness. If you see the emblem of THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM Dhyanapeetam, you will see this Paramahamsa bird is our emblem. I had a beautiful vision or experience, from which I created this emblem.

Authentic listening brings tremendous clarity. See, this clarity is really lacking in the seeker's life. Especially when somebody is interested to be enlightened, to live the life of a *jīvan mukta (*one who lives enlightenment), clarity is a very predominantly important quality. Please listen! Clarity is *Viveka*. Ādī Śaṅkara has written a separate book on clarity called *Viveka Chūḍāmaṇi*.

**Authentic listening,** *śravana* **leads to clarity. And intranalyzing,** *manana* **leads to cognitive shift. If you don't live that cognitive shift powerfully, you will lose it. Please listen! Powerfully living the cognitive shift is what I call radiating,** *nididhyāsana.*

I will tell you, how to find out whether you are radiating or not? Simply life around you will constantly be getting enriched, that is the signal! If the constant enriching is happening, then you are radiating! Around me, whether you are six or sixty, eight or eighty, you cannot go without getting enriched!

#### **Radiating,** *nididhyāsana* **means such powerful body language, such powerful words, such powerful thinking that you go on enriching, constantly winning the game of life!**

Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the personification of all these three—*śravana, manana, nididhyāsana,* powerfully enriching Arjuna to learn authentic listening, authentic intranalyzing and radiating. First, Arjuna learns *śravana* to give his authentic listening to himself and to Kṛṣṇa; getting to the root of his root patterns in the chapters of *Arjunaviṣāda Yogaḥ, Sāṅkhya Yogaḥ, Karma Yogaḥ* and *Jñāna-karma-sannyāsa Yogaḥ*. Once he gets the tremendous clarity through authentic listening, he learns to do *manana,* intranalyzing the great truths in chapters such as *Sannyāsa Yogaḥ, Dhyāna Yogaḥ* and *Jñānavijñāna Yogaḥ*.

Understand, because Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the complete Incarnation, He directly transmits the space of radiating, *nididhyāsana* to Arjuna without the need for *manana,* intranalyzing*.* When you are in the space of authentic listening to an Incarnation, who is also your Master, He can directly transmit the energy and experience of Enlightenment into you. *Parabrahma* Kṛṣṇa does this transmission in *Vibhūti Yogaḥ* and *Viśvarūpa Darśana Yogaḥ* to Arjuna. It is only for enriching the humanity that He continues to take Arjuna step-by-step into deeper levels of completion through the eighteen chapters.


Ultimately, when the cognitive shift happens in Arjuna, he experiences *nididhyāsana*, radiating the same cognition he arrives at by intranalyzing. When Kṛṣṇa enriches him to powerfully live and radiate His very body language and experience Enlightenment, dropping everything and surrendering to Him in *Mokṣa Sannyāsa Yogaḥ*, Arjuna wins the game of life called Mahābhārat war!

People ask me, '*Swamiji*, how many days will it take for us to learn meditation?'

I tell them, 'To learn meditation, two minutes are enough. To learn what meditation is not, you need ten days!' Kṛṣṇa knows that Arjuna is just like us. He represents the sum total of humanity. To explain to a man or woman what needs to be done, and why it is right is not enough. The human mind will find a hundred reasons why ninety-nine other things are just as good. So the Master must also tell why the other ninety-nine things are not the straight path, and why we must stick to what the Master prescribes.

That is exactly what Śrī Kṛṣṇa does. Again and again, the great Master explains patiently why the ninety-nine other options are not really options at all. He does this to prove that the *one* option He outlines sinks deeply into Arjuna's consciousness. As a result, this truth also sinks into the consciousness of every individual who reads the *Bhagavad Gītā*.

When we express the truth logically, our mind always goes to the other end of the logic. So, we need to understand and cognize the truth from both ends. There is a beautiful philosophy in Bharat, *Nyāya Śāstra*, or the scripture of logic. According to this, any statement has two lines of logic. The first line of logic is regular logic; *nyāya* means regular. For example, if I make the statements, 'All men have one head. Sundar is a man,' we can easily conclude that the third statement will be: Sundar has one head. This is simple logic.

There is another kind of logic, a higher-level logic. For example, the first statement says, 'There are two doors.' The second statement says, 'One door is open.' An average person immediately jumps to the conclusion that the other door is closed. However, in this kind of logic we cannot jump to this conclusion. The second door may also be open.

In order that the listener, reader and disciple do not make mistakes in the understanding, the Master ensures that we know which door is open and which door is closed. It is not left to assumption on the basis of the disciple's intelligence. But the Master does not explain for this reason alone. When the truth sinks into us, it should sink in without a trace or resistance. However, when something is not fully explained, our mind moves away from what is being explained. When this happens, instead of being integrated to what is said, the mind gets constantly distracted and becomes tired. A tired mind makes mistakes and falls from integrity.

Usually, in life, we go out of integrity and make mistakes when we jump to incomplete conclusions using the first kind of logic when we should have made those decisions using the second kind of logic. The moment somebody makes a statement, 'You don't have compassion,' we immediately become defensive and say, 'Do you mean to say I am cruel? You mean I am violent?'

We don't have to jump to such an inauthentic conclusion. When we jump to conclusions, we create trouble not only for ourselves but also for others. Many times we make this mistake of lacking integrity in our listening. Don't be in a hurry to cognize what is spoken, because your cognition is so much filled with judgments, opinions, attitudes, personal beliefs, and attributes.

**Listening is life. Non-listening is death**. When we handle our mind without integrity and authenticity, we make this mistake. The totality of words that we repeat inside our system creates our whole life. If our mind jumps to illogical conclusions like this, naturally we create trouble for ourselves and others.

Ordinary Masters express their philosophy or their experience with the second kind of logic, which is why there is so much misunderstanding. There is a possibility of missing listening to their message and concluding with the wrong cognition. However, Kṛṣṇa is a *Jagat Guru*. He is not an ordinary Master. He is the Master of the whole Universe and He knows the minds of all possible types of human beings. He knows the problems of non-listening, non-integrity, and inadequate logic.

Kṛṣṇa is delivering this message in such a way that we cannot miss giving our authentic listening to Him and jump to any inauthentic conclusions, or wrongly cognize any statement in the flow of incomplete logic. He makes all the three statements. He is clear and complete. He says, 'There are two doors, the first door is open, the second door is closed.' He allows no space for us to lack listening because He speaks into our listening. He protects us from ourselves.

That is why He repeats the same truth in each chapter from a different level of logic each time to take us to higher and deeper levels of completion. He takes the complete responsibility for all three *śravana, manana,* and *nididhyāsana*.

In this whole chapter of *Jñānavijñāna Yogaḥ*, Kṛṣṇa speaks about the same message from a different view so that we now learn to listen from the space of authentic listening—*śravana*, we understand and intranalyze to have the cognitive shift—*manana*, and we powerfully radiate the space of completion—*nididhyāsana*.

# One In A Billion Reaches Me

*7.1 Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, Pārtha (Arjuna), now listen to Me, you can know Me completely, without doubt, by practicing yoga in true consciousness of Me, With your mind attached to Me.*

*7.2 Let Me explain to you in full this phenomenal knowledge [jñāna] of the Absolute along with its conscious realization [vijñāna]; by knowing which, there shall remain nothing further to be known.*

*7.3 Out of many thousands of men, hardly one endeavors to achieve the perfection of self-realization; of those so endeavoring, hardly one achieves the perfection of self-realization, and of those, hardly one knows Me in truth or reaches that state of oneness with Me.*

*7.4 Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego, all together these constitute My external eightfold energies.*

*7.5 Besides these external energies, which are inferior or material in nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine. This comprises all the embodied souls of all the living entities [jīvabhūta] by which this material world is being utilized.*

Again and again people ask me, '*Swamiji*, why did you choose to speak on the Bhagavad Gītā? Why didn't you choose books like *Aṣṭavakra Gītā, Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra, Brahmasutra* or the *Upaniṣads*?' I tell them that the *Gītā* expresses the truth in totality. Kṛṣṇa has created keys for all kinds of human beings. Kṛṣṇa fulfills every need of every human being.

He says, '*Listen,* Arjuna, by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, without doubt.' In this statement, Kṛṣṇa uses the word '*Me*' three times. Having read that, a psychologist will conclude that Kṛṣṇa is egoistic. According to psychology, if we use the word 'I' or 'Me' three or more times in a statement, we are egoistic. A person might hate Kṛṣṇa because he feels Kṛṣṇa is egoistic. Again and again, He declares, 'Surrender to Me. I am everything.'

We should understand here that He is expressing His glory. The person who hates Kṛṣṇa thinking He is egoistic, misses the truth or spirit expressed by the *Gītā*. In the same way, a person who loves Kṛṣṇa gets caught in His form and misses the juice of the *Gītā*! Whenever people are caught in the form, when they worship the form, they slowly start saying, '*Gītā* is great. Kṛṣṇa is God. He can express all these things, but surely it is not for us. It is not practical.' In this way, they slowly create a distance between themselves and Kṛṣṇa. They worship the *Gītā* instead of practicing it. If we have a pot full of milk and we worship it but never drink it, will we get the benefit of the milk? Understand, unless we drink the milk, we will never get the benefit of the milk. Unless we imbibe Kṛṣṇa, we cannot get the benefit of the *Gītā*. When we don't imbibe Kṛṣṇa's teachings in our lives, when we don't work towards experiencing Kṛṣṇa, worshipping Kṛṣṇa is nothing but inauthenticity. It's a cunning method of escaping from the truth. Worshipping without intranalyzing and living is the worst form of inauthenticity.

People who hate Kṛṣṇa think He is egoistic. And people who love Kṛṣṇa are caught in His form and think they should surrender to the personality called Kṛṣṇa who came down in human form. Only a person who experiences Kṛṣṇa realizes the *Gītā.*

#### **Approach Divine the Right Way**

This chapter is about how human beings approach the Divine, why they approach the Divine, and at what level they approach the Divine. We approach the Divine in the way we want It. According to our maturity, we approach the Divine.

At what level do we approach the Divine? What do we receive in

return? How do we grow in maturity? Kṛṣṇa gives the answers to these questions in this chapter. Here He says, 'Out of many thousands among men, *one* may endeavor for perfection, and out of those who have achieved perfection, hardly *one* knows Me in truth.'

Beautiful! Here He says, 'out of thousands'. In those days, the population must have been less, which is why He makes the statement 'out of thousands'. Now we should say, 'Out of billions, one may endeavor for perfection.'

> *manuṣyāṇāṁ sahasreṣu kaścid yatati siddhaye I yatatām api siddhānāṁ kaścin māṁ vetti tattvataḥ II 7.3*

'Among millions of men, *one* man may endeavor for perfection, and out of those who achieve perfection, hardly *one* knows Me in truth.'

There are millions of people out there, but only a few hundred are present today to listen to this *Gītā* discourse. And out of these few hundred, only a few will listen authentically, as it is expressed. We may sit here. We may even hear, but never think that we really listen.

I request people to never repeat what I have said to others. If you do repeat it, then please don't say, '*Swamiji* told me these things.' Be very clear, you heard those things. Tell them, 'I heard these things.' Never say, '*Swamiji* said'. Many times we miss much of what is said. Modern scientists say that we observe hardly two percent of the things that happen around us. If a hundred things happen around us, we observe and intranalyze only two!

It is as if you have a hundred-page storybook, and somehow you lose the whole book except for two random pages. If you try to reconstruct the whole novel with only those two pages, how true will it be to the original? In the same way, you remember hardly two percent of what I say. With that two percent, if you try to reconstruct this whole discourse, naturally it will be your discourse, not mine. If you want to tell people what I spoke, please always say, 'I heard THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM say this.' Never say, '*Nithyananda* said…' Because you jump to conclusions, and because of your inner chatter, you miss authentic listening.

The Master is always ready to share and enrich with his experiences. That is his mission in life. The infinite compassion that fills an enlightened being is forever bursting to be let out to share, to teach, to guide, and to enrich. He is available continuously to the whole humanity, enriching with Enlightenment. That is why Kṛṣṇa says that He is now ready to explain.

Listen! You will see miraculous transformations happening in your body and mind. Listening is God! Just by listening, you experience God! The question is whether or not Arjuna is ready to listen. Even if Arjuna was ready to listen and he became enlightened, are we ready to listen today, now?

Why does Kṛṣṇa say that a few even try, and of those who try, very few succeed? Remember that He is talking about Self-realization, about understanding who we are. Why is it so difficult even to try?

We do not want to try because we are afraid. We are restless in any form of silence. If I am silent for a few minutes after I sit down before an audience, the entire audience becomes restless; they start fidgeting. Why do we find it difficult to meditate? After all, all we do in meditation is close our eyes and remain silent. Why is it difficult? We give appointments to everyone else every day of our lives, willingly and unwillingly. Why is it so difficult to give half an hour a day to ourselves?

Why would we rather watch television, knowing fully well that nothing of value will come from it? Why would we rather read the same old newspaper or social media pages again and again? Understand, all these are because we are afraid of being with ourselves. Why are we afraid of being with ourselves? We must ask and answer these questions ourselves. If Self-realization means going back to where we came from, and where we came from is a state of bliss and divinity, then why are we afraid to be with ourselves?

The truth is that we have forgotten where we came from. Nothing in the way we are brought up and 'educated' tells us that we come from Bliss and we can regain that bliss. If we realize how easy it is to be blissful and return to our original state, no one can control us. That is what liberation means. But society, religion, and political and family structures operates on the principle of control.

The moment we realize who we are and we are liberated, these institutions cannot make us do what they want us to do. From childhood we are conditioned to avoid looking too deeply into ourselves because if we do, we may find the truth and be liberated. Most of society doesn't know these deeper truths. This is how society puts generation after generation of people in deep illusion.

The only true love is that of the Divine and that of the Master. Such love comes out of infinite compassion. It expects nothing in return. What can we offer God and our Master? So, if we need to follow the Truth, we must enrich ourselves to enrich others. We must be selfish; selfish to enter into this path of Self-realization. However it is not a selfishness born out of the usual material nature. It is selfishness born out of the desperate need to be *selfless*. When we reach our center or our core, we become *one* with humanity. Then there are no differences among us. That is why even our spouses will be unhappy if we realize ourselves, because they cannot possess us anymore. At that point they must share us with humanity. But they won't understand that the love of Self-realization is infinite, that there is no reduction in sharing, there is only growth in sharing.


The *Vedic Ṛṣis* at least created the community and caste system based upon intelligence and wisdom. In other cultures, the community system was created based upon money and power. The countries where the rulers are *kṣatriyas* (warrior class), are the ones who create the community system based upon power. The more powerful a person is, the more respected he is. In other countries, people who do business, the business class people, control the whole system. There the the wealthy people are respected more.

Bharat is the only country where people who respected intelligence and wisdom created the whole system. The system was created based upon intelligence, based upon wisdom. So that is why, in Bharat, the more wisdom a person carries, the more spiritual he is, the more he is respected.

The whole social system was created based upon sharing from an enriching consciousness. Understand, you can create anything only when you see it and experience it from the state of enriching consciousness. Man must contribute something to enrich the community by doing actions in the enriching state.

Let me describe the spirit with which the whole system was created, and how we abused it. First, the whole system is not based upon our birth. It is based upon our character.

Kṛṣṇa says again and again that it is based upon our *guṇas* (nature), based upon our attitude towards life. A person who works driven by fear, one who works out of fear, belongs to the working class called *śūdra.* A person who works out of greed, belongs to the merchant or business class called *vaiśya*. A person who works to get attention or to prove that he is superior, belongs to the *kṣatriya* community. A person who works out of gratitude from the enriching consciousness, expressing his bliss, is a *brāhmaṇa*. This was how people were categorized in those days.

Everybody must contribute something to enrich the society. A person may enrich by sharing his time if he has nothing else. A person who shares his time is a worker, a *śūdra*. He belongs to the working class. A person who enriches by sharing products, has time and a little bit of intelligence to create products, is a *vaiśya*, a merchant. A person who enriches by sharing confidence, who gives courage to the whole community, is a *kṣatriya,* a warrior! He unites the whole group as a community in a solid way by giving confidence, by sharing his confidence. A person who enriches by sharing his knowledge, bliss or spiritual wisdom, is a *brāhmaṇa*.

This type of division is completely based upon our role, the role we play in the community, which is based on our character. In no way is it related to our birth. This is the spirit with which the whole system was created by the *Ṛṣis*. Here nobody is higher and nobody is lower. In the course of time, one or two mistakes happened. But because of that we can't say that the whole system is wrong.

*caturvidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛtino'rjuna I
ārto jijñasurartharthī jñānī ca bharataṛṣabha II 7.16*

'O best among the Bhārata, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto Me: the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who searches for knowledge of the Absolute.'

Here Kṛṣṇa talks about those who approach the Divine and the ways in which they approach the Divine. Man is centered on seven basic emotions. Basically we live and work based on these seven emotions: greed, fear, worry, attention-need (name and fame), comparison and jealousy, ego and the last one, the seventh emotion, deep discontentment.

These are the qualities with which man lives and he works. Man is centered on these seven different emotions. These seven emotions are seven energy centers that supply energy to us, fuel for us. Everything that we do in life is rooted in one of these seven emotions.

If we are centered on greed, we approach God in the same way. Goddess Lakṣmi (goddess of wealth) appeals to us. Or we continuously run behind Kubera (Lord of wealth) and perform Kubera pūjā (worship of Kubera); we continuously repeat the concept of Kubera. When we feel we are missing something, we try to get fulfillment by creating our own God and approaching Him in that mold. We approach the Divine with the same emotion, the same feeling that we miss in our being.

One more thing: When we become mature, we approach the same Lakṣmi as *Jñāna Lakṣmi* (goddess of wisdom as wealth)! We pray to the same goddess to give us wisdom, to give us knowledge. According to our maturity we project and see the Divine. Understand, there's nothing wrong in approaching the Lord from greed. There's nothing wrong in starting our life with prayers for boons. However, we should not end our life also with prayers. Then there is something wrong. It's a good start, but a bad end!

Vivekananda beautifully says, 'It's good to be born in the church, but not to die there.' Before we die, we should grow out of it. We must become mature; we must realize the other dimensions of the Divine within us.

In prayer, we pray to God; in meditation, we become God! Prayers give us immediate results. Praying to that higher principle or to the Divine is not wrong, yet it is not enough. Whereas in meditation, we become that higher principle or the Divine to which we constantly pour out our prayers. This is permanent.

The Divine is nothing but a mirror; we see our own reflection. And whatever we do to the Divine comes back to us. The more we understand, the more we grow and relate with the Divine in a more mature way. Otherwise we are confused and caught like a drunkard.

A small story:

A man returns home very late, completely drunk. Unable to walk, he somehow makes his way into the house, stumbles over a table and breaks a piece of glass. Not only does he break a piece of glass, the glass cuts him badly. He goes to the bathroom and tries to bandage himself, looking in the mirror. Then slowly, without making a sound, he enters the bedroom and falls asleep.

The next morning, his wife starts her enquiry, 'What happened? What did you do last night?'

He replies, 'I didn't do anything. I am ok.' The wife says, 'No, tell me why you were late.'

He says, 'I went and had a few drinks.' She says, 'That's ok, but did you hurt yourself?'

He replies, 'No, I did not hurt myself.' She asks, 'Then why did you put so many bandages on the mirror?'

Instead of putting the bandages on himself, he put the bandages on the mirror!

If we are drunk, if we are unaware, we land up doing the same thing! We would do everything to the mirror. Catching the mirror and catching the form is one and the same. If we put the bandage on the mirror, we can never be healed. The mirror should be used to find out where to put the bandage on us. In the same way, we should use God or the Divine like a mirror to find out where we have a problem. Don't miss and try to do the healing work on the mirror. If we do that we will miss the whole thing. So be very clear: Starting life with prayers is a good start, but it is not the right place to end.

### We choose God based on our Emotions

At the next level, the person is centered on fear and so he worships gods who will protect him. He does the *Sudarśana homa* (homa refers to making offerings into a consecrated fire; Sudarśana homa refers to the fire ritual done for general protection), or he continuously does *Mṛtyuñjaya homa* (fire ritual done to avoid untimely death, improve longevity) for protection. He continuously goes about worshipping some planet or god. That's why tribal gods have big swords. In many Hindu villages also, you see gods with swords and big weapons. People who are fear-centered worship gods with weapons. All this is ok, nothing wrong, but it is not the place to stop.

The third level is, approaching the Divine because of worry. Again, worry is nothing but mixture of fear and greed. With worry, we approach the Divine in the same way. We pray to the Divine, 'Please help me stop worrying. Please help me come out of these worries.' At this point, we may do yoga or meditation for the sake of peace—not for spiritual Enlightenment, but to calm our mind, to get a little peace.

The next level is based on attention-need. We approach the Divine for the sake of name and fame, for the sake of capturing the attention of people. Not only do we pray to the Divine, we gradually start representing the Divine also. If you go to Bharat, you will see that the people who run temples behave almost like God. It's a big problem.

I tell people: Unless you are mature, never take up the task of running a temple. One person asked me, 'I don't believe in spirituality. But, I want to run a temple as a social service. Shall I do it?' I told him, 'Never make that mistake! If you are not spiritually mature and you enter this work, surely you will trouble yourself and others. By and by, it will become a pure name-and-fame game! And naturally you will not only hurt yourself, you will hurt others too.'

There's a beautiful ritual performed during the installation of a deity in a temple, called *prāṇa pratiṣṭha*. The scriptural instruction is that the person who installs the deity must be enlightened. Otherwise, the person who installs the deity receives the collective negativity of the people who pray in that temple. It may be a frightening idea, but don't think it's a lie. It has meaning. The person who takes up this job without spiritual maturity will naturally end up with name and fame problems. He creates problems for himself and others. He starts representing the Divine and acts on behalf of the Divine.

The people who stand and pray in front of God, the deity, are gullible because they are caught in fear and greed. You can easily exploit them. They are waiting for a solution. That is the reason why repeatedly, it is emphasized that only an enlightened person should run a spiritual organization.

If we give a spiritual project to a person who has only the attitude of a businessman, he turns the whole thing into a business. The Divine cannot be brought under accounts and mathematical calculations! The whole thing loses its spirit. That is why Masters emphasize that we need spiritual maturity before we enter into these activities.

The next is comparison and jealousy. This is an extreme step. People always compare with others, and they feel jealous of the others' position, their status or their wealth. A person who compares and feels jealous can never rest. Look into what makes us run in our lives. Why are we in a hurry? Listen, don't be in a hurry! We don't need to run. If we are centered on jealousy and comparison, again we approach the Divine from that angle and only for that purpose.

#### Expressing the Divine

It is hard to imagine the extent of foolishness people go to if they are caught in jealousy and comparison. One is constantly caught in: this is *mine*; that is *mine*; this is the way I do it, etc. We need to realize that each of us is unique. God is not an engineer; He is an artist. He sculpts each of us with His hands, lovingly and uniquely. Therefore, each one of us is different.

When we approach the Divine with the mentality of jealousy and comparison, we are caught again. People ask me, *'Swamiji,* in our epics, we read about gods and goddesses fighting out of jealousy, greed, and anger. What do you say about that?' Listen, those epics were written for people caught in jealousy, so that they could relate with them. Don't think that the Divine makes those mistakes! But if people think so, it means that they are relating with Him in their own mold!

Even rituals are done only so that people feel comfortable with God and they start coming closer to Him. When people witness the ceremony of Gods getting married, they feel comfortable and safe. To make people feel relaxed, these stories are told and expressed. You see, unless the Divine is expressed in our language, we will not be able to relate with It. That is why these stories are written.

Next is the person who is centered on ego. This is slightly more difficult to deal with! The person who is centered on ego tries to get name and fame for himself. He starts claiming that he is divine without expressing the qualities of the Divine. That is why there's a beautiful Upaniṣad verse that says: If you are divine, express it by your quality. Let people recognize it by your quality, not by your words.

What you do speaks for you; what you speak will not do anything for you. What you do, the way in which you work, speaks for you. Your words will not work for you. There's a short, beautiful *Upaniṣad* called *Paramahamsa Upaniṣad*. It says, a Paramahamsa should not wear the saffron robe. Actually, technically speaking, I am not supposed to wear this saffron robe. They say we are not respected the way we have to be if we wear this saffron robe. By our very quality, because of our Divinity, we should be respected. The divine qualities expressed in our life, that alone should be respected, and not this robe or tradition. It should come because of the enlightened qualities expressed through us.

Yesterday there was a question: How do we know if a person is

egoistic or he is a real spiritual Master? Please listen. A person who is egoistic can only play with words. Only a person who has achieved Enlightenment can radiate the energy to reproduce the same experience in you. If you get the experience, then be very clear your Master is enlightened. He is divine. He is the embodiment of spiritual experience and knowledge. If you get the words but not the experience, be very clear, the person or the path you are following is not the Ultimate.

Words are like the menu card. Experience is like the food. If you go to a restaurant and they give you a menu card and say, 'Here is the menu card, but the food is not available here,' can you call that a restaurant? No! The menu card is not enough to satisfy your hunger. In spiritual life we cannot stop with just the menu card.

The person who has approached the Divine with ego always tries to represent the Divine without having the solid experience himself. That is why the *Upaniṣads* again and again emphasize experience. If we don't experience, there's something seriously wrong with the person whom we are following.

I always tell people, if you have not experienced anything with me, please follow some other person. It is easy to put the responsibility on the disciples and continuously blame them by saying: 'You are not qualified, you are not practicing perfectly, you have not tried, and that is why you have not had any experience.'

This is a cunning way of cheating the disciple and evading the truth. The disciple comes to a Guru because the disciple has not yet experienced. And the Guru says, 'You are imperfect and that is why you do not have spiritual experiences.' To learn this, one doesn't need a Guru: a spouse is sufficient! Anyway, this is what the spouses tell each other continuously.