Our Mind Is Like A Muddy tank
By way of comparison, let us say we want to remove the dirt from a muddy water tank. If we put our hands into the tank and try to take away the mud, what happens? We make it muddier, that's all. All the dirt that is settled below will come up to the surface. Instead, if we sprinkle a handful of lime powder inside the tank, it will absorb the dirt and we can have clean water in the tank. Our mind is also like a muddy tank. If we try to suppress it and fight with it, we will create more incompletion. Instead just add a little meditation process of completion which is like the lime powder, and relax. Just put in your awareness to complete and relax.
Automatically the impurities will settle down. The moment we become aware and complete, and the witnessing consciousness starts operating, the whole thing settles down. The witnessing consciousness is the lime powder that purifies our being Rāmakṛṣṇa says that if the straight line of integrity connects your mouth and mind, you will be liberated. We cheat ourselves if we engage in an activity because it is appreciated by society and not because we feel it from within. This constant mismatch of internal and external, of what we feel deep within and what we do is inauthenticity, it creates problems.
Instead of creating consciousness, we start creating the activity. Instead of working on our being, we work on our doing. Our doing is in no way going to help us. Only our being is going to help us. So work on the being and not on the doing. A person who works on his doing may continuously chisel, chisel and chisel his doing; however, his being will face the same old struggle, suppression, suffering, and fighting. Instead, if we work on our being, we will flower and automatically radiate the right energy, the right consciousness!
You Are Unique
If we practice these qualities just because Kṛṣṇa say that we should, the qualities will never really develop in us. They will remain skin deep. When true non violence happens, our very being will radiate love, no matter what. Even if an enemy were to stand in front of us, no other emotion but love would remain in us, and that is what Kṛṣṇa really wants.
Divine love does not consider whether a person is a friend or enemy. If we are centered in our being, qualities of love and non-violence happen. All the things that Kṛṣṇa has mentioned in these five verses are an outcome of the flowering of that consciousness, and not things to be practiced. If we practice them to please somebody else, we would become slaves to the people around us.
Normally we believe others' opinions about us. We accept their scale as a standard for measuring ourselves. Then we get into trouble. This is what I call 'guilt'. Guilt is reviewing our past decisions with updated intelligence. If we use our present intelligence to review our past decisions, we create guilt and suffering. Understand, we are updated every second. We are not the same as what we were a few hours ago. Our intelligence is continuously updated. So naturally when we look back and analyze what happened in the past we feel certain things could have been avoided
The problem is that we think we run the show. We take everything upon our shoulders and allow emotions like guilt and worry to come in. If we remember that the Universe is pure Intelligence that knows how to take care of our lives, we will simply relax. Also, when we allow the cosmic intelligence to operate, we spontaneously express the beautiful qualities that Kṛṣṇa enumerates. The same cannot be achieved by doing anything.
Kṛṣṇa first talks about humility or amānitvaṁ. Humility can never be achieved by effort. If it is attempted through effort, it looks ugly. Humility happens when we feel that every being is unique. It does not come by thinking that everyone is equal. There are no equals! If we deeply understand that every being is unique, we automatically respect everyone. Every being has something that he contributes to Existence, to life.
When we understand that every being is a unique creation of the Universe, that the same divinity that is in us is in them also, we automatically radiate humility and the absence of pride. All these qualities that are supposed to be radiated by a seeker should simply happen from within. This is what Kṛṣṇa explains.
Another important thing: How should we approach an Enlightened spiritual Master or ācāryopāsana? He talks about this in another verse also—tad viddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā (4.34). It means that we should approach the Master with questions and request him to answer the questions.
Especially in Vedānta, the Vedic system, the Master plays a major role. Why? Unless we see someone continuously living in the consciousness and continuously expressing that consciousness, our unconscious refuses to believe it is possible.
When we see a living Enlightened Master, our emotions also automatically start experiencing it. Our unconscious, which continuously questions, becomes silent when we see a living Master. With books we learn through verbal language; with a Master we learn through his body language. He is a living example that proves the truth can become a reality for us in our life.
Meeting an enlightened master
Three things happen when we meet an Enlightened Master: First, we see in front of our own eyes that it is possible to live in eternal bliss or in bliss consciousness all 24 hours of the day. The assurance and inspiration to achieve that state is there. We understand the possibility. Next we ask, 'All right, it is possible for the Master. But is it possible for me?' That assurance is also given when we reach the Master. The Master instills the confidence in us by showing us, 'If I can achieve, why not you?'