How To Approach God In The Right Way ?
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THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM śrībhagavānuvāca mayyāsaktamanāḥ pārtha yogaṃ yuñjanmadāśrayaḥ asaṃśayaṃ samagraṃ māṃ yathā jñāsyasi tacchṛṇu
Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, Arjuna, Listen to Me, you can know Me completely and without doubt by practicing yoga in true consciousness of Me, with your mind attached to Me.
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.
jñānaṃ te'haṃ savijñānam idaṃ vakṣyāmyaśeṣataḥ yajjñātvā neha bhūyo'nyaj jñātavyamavaśiṣyate
Let Me explain to you in detail this phenomenal and absolute knowledge along with its realization; by knowing which, there shall remain nothing further to be known.
Kṛṣṇa has created keys for all kinds of human beings. Kṛṣṇa fulfills every need of every human being.
manuṣyāṇāṃ sahasreṣu kaścidyatati siddhaye yatatāmapi siddhānāṃ kaścinmāṃ vetti tattvataḥ
Out of many thousands of men, hardly one endeavors or strives to achieve 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.
There are millions of people out there, but only a few hundred are present today to listen to the Gītā. And out of these few hundred, only a few will listen authentically.
bhūmirāpo'nalo vāyuḥ khaṃ mano buddhireva ca ahankāra itīyaṃ me bhinnā prakṛtiraṣṭadhā
Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego all together these eight constitute My separated external energies.
With all these elements, the energy cycle is complete.
apare'yamitastvanyāṃ prakṛtiṃ viddhi me parām I jīvabhūtāṃ mahābāho yayedaṃ dhāryate jagat
Besides these external energies, which are inferior in nature, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is a superior energy of Mine. This comprises all the embodied souls of all the living entities by which this material world is being utilized or exploited.
We are above the energies that constitute us. When we realize our Self, we realize that we are Divine and nothing less.
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.
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.'
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.
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.
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?
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 path to Self-realization is the path of aloneness. It is not a lonely path; it is an 'alone' path. When we are alone, we are not lonely. We are all-in-one; that is what being alone means. From being fragmented, we become whole. From being islands, we become the Universe.
This is the knowledge that Kṛṣṇa offers humanity. Out of His deep compassion He says, 'Please listen to Me and realize your Self and be liberated.' One in a million may heed His words and start on this path.
He then says that only one in a million who starts on this path will eventually find his own Self, and thus find Me. In these verses Kṛṣṇa explains who He is. Kṛṣṇa explicitly separates Himself from His manifested energies in these verses.
What we perceive as manifested energies — the five natural elements that are earth, water, fire, air and ether, and the three inner elements of mind, intelligence and ego — are His energies no doubt, yet they are not Him.
Puruṣa and prakṛti are considered the operative principles of the Universe in the Hindu philosophical systems of Sāṅkhya and Vedānta. Puruṣa and prakṛti are unmanifest energy sources, puruṣa being inactive and prakṛti capable of being active. Everything else arises from these two elements when they operate together. Prakṛti gives rise to the Cosmic and individual intelligence and the five natural elements. The Taittreya Upaniṣad explains that the Cosmic energy gave rise to etheric energy or the energy of space, ākāṣa, which pervades the Universe.
Prakṛti gives rise to the Cosmic and individual intelligence and the five natural elements. The Taittreya Upaniṣad explains that the Cosmic energy gave rise to etheric energy or the energy of space, ākāṣa, which pervades the Universe.
This is the largest and subtlest quantum of energy that pervades the Universe. From etheric energy the energy of air arises. It is this energy of air, or vāyu, that sustains us in our body-mind system as the carrier of pranic or life energy. From the energy of air arises the energy of fire, agni. Many salutations in the Ṛg Veda, the first of the Hindu scriptures, are addressed to the fire. Almost all Vedic rituals are performed for the fire god. Āpas, the energy of water, arose from the energy of fire. Pṛthvī, the energy of earth arose from the energy of water.
The Taittreya Upaniṣad goes on to say that it is from the earth energy that plants, herbs, food were created, from which came humans. Within the human is the intelligence that is a hologram of the Cosmic intelligence. The energy cycle is now complete.
The Cosmic intelligence is reflected in the human as the mind. The mind in turn uses the senses to access the external world. Each of the senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch are related to the natural elements. Ether is linked to sound or the ears; air is linked to touch and the skin; fire is linked to color and form, and hence to sight and the eyes; water is linked to taste and the tongue; earth is linked to smell or the nose.
The mind receives information through the senses of perception, and executes decisions through the senses of action. When the senses are denied access to the external world, which is their sustenance, the mind shuts down. Thoughts cease! Ego is a creation of the mind. It is an illusion because it is not permanent; it is not the truth.
True realization of the Self is achieved when the ego is shed and when the mind stops.
Then, inner intelligence awakens to the Cosmic intelligence. Here, Kṛṣṇa refers to ego as ahaṁkāra. It is our identity that we project outwards, which is always in excess of what we think of as ourselves.
There is another side to our ego, called mamakāra, which we project inwards; what we think of as us inside us. This mamakāra is always lower than what we think ourselves to be. The perpetual gap between this outer projection and inner projection creates self-doubt, stress, suffering and disease within us
Here, Kṛṣṇa refers to ego as ahaṁkāra. It is our identity that we project outwards, which is always in excess of what we think of as ourselves. There is another side to our ego, called mamakāra, which we project inwards; what we think of as us inside us. ```
This mamakāra is always lower than what we think ourselves to be. The perpetual gap between this outer projection and inner projection creates self-doubt, stress, suffering and disease within us.