Bhagavad Gita, Commentary

Those who enter that space never return to this material world.

Krishna explains the same truth again at a deeper level. He had expressed the same idea in earlier chapters. But Arjuna was unable to understand. At that time, Arjuna was in the questioning mood. In the questioning mood, we miss the whole subject and are busy preparing questions. Now that mood has gone and there are only doubts, no questions.

With doubt, the disciple is open. He is open with his being waiting for the Master to flow into him. Arjuna is ready to imbibe Krishna. He is waiting for the Master's words. His inner chatter has ceased so there are no more questions. He now has the inner space and awareness to receive Krishna. That is why he is now able to understand.

Zen Buddhism calls it a koan, a riddle of sorts. Just one word is given. One famous Zen koans goes like this: 'What is the sound of one hand clapping?' Another says: 'What was your face before your mother and father were born?'

Disciples meditate upon these koans and return to the Master with answers. The Master gives them a whack on their back and sends them on their way. Ultimately they experience the sound of one hand clapping. There is no expressed answer to a koan, only an experience.

Here Krishna throws out Zen koans.

'Those who are free from pride, delusion, and attachment, those who dwell in the Self, who are done with lust, who are free from dualities of joy and sorrow, not confused, and those who know how to surrender to the Supreme Person, attain the eternal Consciousness.'

What wonderful usage of words!

He does not say who have 'renounced' lust. No, because renunciation won't do. Vairagya means beyond attachment and detachment. Raga means attachment. Araga means detachment. Viraga or vairagya means beyond attachment and detachment. It is nonattachment.

Till the age of seven, we are attached to toys. By age eight or nine we are forced to be detached from these. Then at twenty, most people are beyond attachment or detachment to children's toys. With detachment, we might have renounced it externally. But the inner urge for it prevails.

That is why Krishna uses the fitting words: those who are 'done' with lust. In this state, we know what we can afford. We know it is there. We can use it or throw it away based on the need. Similarly, life is like a toy. If this is fully understood, you live like a king, not an ordinary materialistic king, but an enlightened king, rajarishi.

This is a Zen koan. This is not for understanding. This is to be meditated upon. On meditating upon this sutra, these characteristics will start flowering in you and give you a clear-cut idea about the causal body.

Earlier, Krishna explained ways to erase samskaras. Now He speaks on construction of a proper layer. It is about re-programming your causal layer.

Krishna gives techniques for construction of the causal body.

Krishna's words are like Zen koans. Actually Krishna uses the same words again. Not only words and expressions, He uses the same letters again. Earlier He used these words as advice. Now He uses same words as programming techniques. This chapter is about programming our causal layer; programming our samskaras. This program creates positive samskaras in our causal layer. As long as Arjuna was in the questioning mood, these same words were spelt out as advice. When he comes down to the mood of doubts, he receives the same words as techniques. When the disciple is in a questioning mood, the Master's words will be taken as advice. Only when the disciple stops questioning and starts listening, these same words will be techniques.

With advice, you need keys to open the door. Techniques are the keys themselves. They are ready to open the door.

Arjuna receives the gist of earlier chapters. He receives the juice in this chapter. In North Hindu monasteries, this chapter is chanted before food. This 15th chapter must be chanted before meals, since this chapter is a programming tool of the inner space. Mere words of this chapter can do wonders in re-programming your causal layer.

It takes less than five minutes to chant. Anybody can do it. Don't worry about the meaning. If you understand the meaning, it is good. Yet, it is highly useful even if chanted without understanding. Repeating these words can program your causal layer. Especially, when you chant them in a surrendering mood, with due respect to the Master, it directly touches the causal layer.

Arjuna is completely in a receiving mood. He is fully tuned with the Master. If the disciple is completely tuned with the Master, Existence helps him through the Master. Arjuna needs no explanations, no logic. He is ready to imbibe the Master.

Hence, Krishna utters the following words to program the causal layer. He gives techniques to create positive samskaras.

He says:

nirmaana mohaa jita sanga doshaa adhyaatma nithya vinivritta kaamaaha dvandvair vimuktaaha sukha dukhha samjnair gacchanti amoodhaaha padam avyayam tat.

Lust is difficult for a man to shed. Even the greatest of sages have succumbed to lust. Lust is of the body and

as long as body consciousness remains, lust will stay. Only a person who has gone beyond body consciousness can renounce lust.

In pictorial representation of Hindu myths, we see pictures of great sages like Viswamitra trying to resist the advances of celestial maidens such as Menaka. It is said in the purana, the epics, that Indra, God of Heavens, became jealous of these great rishis, sages, because of the spiritual powers they attained from deep meditative penance. Indra is depicted as an arrogant, egoistic and nasty person forever getting into trouble with women, sages and demons.

Indra would then send celestial nymphs that no human could resist. These great sages, however evolved, were still in their human bodies and were subject to contamination by lust. So, even the great Viswamitra succumbed to lust and yielded to Menaka. After his tryst, he realized his folly and cursed her, too late and she was also the wrong person to curse!

The great devotee of Vishnu, Narada, thought no end of himself because of his closeness to Vishnu. Vishnu decided to teach him a lesson. Vishnu sweetly asked Narada, 'Please fetch me some water to drink.'

As Narada searched for water, he saw an attractive woman carrying a pitcher on her head. He approached her seeking water. When he looked at her, he was consumed by lust and decided to stay with her.

Narada lived with this woman. They had many children. Many years seemed to pass. One day a huge storm destroyed their hut. A nearby river flooded. The turbulent waters swept the entire family away. Narada was separated from his wife and children. He cried, 'Narayana, Narayana, please save my family, please save them. I cannot live without them.'

In the distance, he heard the voice of Narayana, Vishnu, 'Narada, where are you? I asked you for water!'

Narada woke up from his reverie, the maya or illusion created by Vishnu. Vishnu explained the concept of maya through a life experience to Narada. Maya, illusion, is that which does not exist yet seems to exist. The most powerful maya is man's lust for woman.

Narada realized that all that happened was unreal, a play of illusion, by the Master magician Himself. Narada realized that however evolved he considered himself to be, he was still captive to lust.

Sankara says in Bhaja Govindam:

nari sthana bhara nabhi desam drishtva ma ha moga vesam etam mamsa visadi viharam manasi vichintaya varam varam

Bhaja Govindam is considered the essence of Vedanta, the end of knowledge. Here Sankara says: 'Do not be overcome by furious desires of delusion by looking at the breasts and the navel of women. Realize again and again that these are only flesh and will deteriorate.'

Suppressing lust externally and not indulging in sex does not and will not make one enlightened. It only turns one insane. Celibacy of the body, without eliminating fantasies of the mind, creates greater suffering than indulging in lust and sex. Enlightenment helps one transcend lust and sex by transcending the reach of the senses and attaining a no-mind state.

The Sanskrit word brahmachari is often misunderstood and wrongly translated. This word comes from two words, Brahma and charya. Brahma is the Ultimate and True Reality; charya means to walk or follow the path. One who follows the path of reality is a brahmachari.

Time and again, this word has been taken to mean being a celibate because the first stage of one's life in the Vedic period was brahmacharya. This was the period when a young boy or girl around the age of seven was placed in the care of a spiritual Master, a guru. The Master decided how the child should be educated based upon the child's aptitude.

At seven, they were taught Gayatri mantra to stabilize their mind and focus it on the inner Self. Children stayed with the Master through adolescence. Given the nature of their training and upbringing, they remained celibate. Thus the term brahmacharya acquired the meaning of celibacy.

Based on their aptitude, these children followed different studies. Those who exhibited strong spiritual inclinations were taught sruti, the Veda, the Upanishad and Brahma Sutra, etc. Those who did not were trained to be householders and were taught the Kama Sutra.

Kama Sutra is not and was not a sex manual. Vatsayana, the author, was an enlightened Master who wrote it when he was sixteen. Vatsayana was enlightened at a young age and went to his mother and told her that he was enlightened. To his mother, he was still a child.

She asked, 'What do you mean you are enlightened?'

Vatsayana said, 'Now I know everything.'

His mother countered, 'you are just a child. If you know so much, tell me about love and sex.'

Vatsayana's teaching to his mother about love and sex when he had no direct material experience of either is the Kama Sutra, the Bible for householders, grihastas.

An enlightened Master transcends sex. He is genderless. He becomes an ardhanariswara, a man-woman, a person who expresses both traditionally male and female qualities or attributes. One key attribute of enlightenment is genderless-ness.

Krishna is direct. He does not believe in giving brain candies to keep you happy. He is brutally direct. He says, 'he who has conquered lust.' Lust is a primal emotion provided by nature for continuation of the species. To go beyond lust, to conquer lust, is the first major step in realizing super-consciousness.

Humans are forever confused between love and lust. They think only animals are lustful. It is true, only animals are capable of pure lust when they mate. Humans, with their rationalization, can neither be lustful nor loving. So, they are forever in the twilight zone, dissatisfied and unfulfilled.

When a man and woman are capable of indulging in sex one hundred percent driven by pure lust, they will find that this lust will turn into love. For that, each needs to be immersed in the other. The act will then be an experience that expresses love.

In ancient times, lust and sex left the householder around the age of forty because they had enjoyed these fully. When a desire is fully experienced it leaves your system. Do you know the mantras chanted at marriage? These days only the priests get married because only they understand the meaning. No one else does.

In Saptapati, the sacred mantras chanted in front of the fire as witness during Hindu marriage ceremonies, the wife says to the husband, 'Become my eleventh son' and husband says to the wife, 'Become my eleventh daughter.' In the eleventh year, their intimacy is so great they become each other's child. There is a deep intimacy; there is a wonderful relationship. These words were not poems. They were living guidelines.

Now marital relationship has become a business for security or material benefits. You may live in the same home, not in a homely way. Remove the imagination and dreams from your lust, both about your partner's body and your own body.

Many of us are ashamed of our body. We hate it. All body pains and chronic skin diseases arise out of low self-esteem and disrespect to our body. We would like to be someone else. We would like to shape our body and dress like someone else. We stop staying within the boundary of our own skin and fantasize about being different.

Whenever we hear our name we think of our face, not our whole body, because we are not comfortable. When we do not accept ourselves fully and copy someone else artificially, we can be beautiful at best, but never graceful. Grace comes from within.

For the next few days, after bathing, watch your body with love. Feel comfortable. Our body oozes bliss all the time. Yet we feel only the pain. If we are relaxed with our body, our mind will not wander. When we are at home, our mind is in the office and when we are working, we wish we were at a party.

We love someone as long as that person does what we say, obeys us. A mother says, 'I loved my daughter deeply till she married someone not of my choice.' Is this love? It is slavery to our ego. As long as the daughter was an extension of the mother's personality, she felt love.

Add friendliness to love. As of now, our lust is deep-rooted violence to own another person, to conquer another person while she resists. It's war. Add friendliness to our relationship. Welcome the partner as she or he is; do not just accept him or her. Welcome and accept the mind, body and being as it is.

Are we friendly? No, we are not. If we watch carefully, we disrespect and abuse our body. We stay up late and watch TV even if our body cries out for sleep. We gorge ourselves with food even if our stomach is full. We smoke even if our lungs cry out. We drink ourselves to unconsciousness. Our body is a garbage dump. We are like a pig that shoves its nose into filth and can no longer smell the filth. We torture our body for what we feel is enjoyment.

We are bothered about terrorism around the globe. Yet we ignore violence at home and violence against our own body. Sadism and masochism do not bother us, terrorism does. We torture ourselves with guilt. We torture others through our perfectionism.

A man told me, 'My life is a lawyer.' I asked, 'Does she go to court?' He replied, 'No Master, she just argues at home.'

Drop your imagination and dreams. Add friendliness towards yourself and others, towards their body, mind and being. Carry words that heal others. Carry your body in a way that heals others. Carry friendliness with you always. This is a spiritual process. Carry the grace and goodwill of Lakshmi instead of undergoing fasts and puja.

The first time you approach others with friendliness, they may not receive you openly because of your past behavior. Persist and persevere. Don't stop even if others do not reciprocate. Carry on till others believe and reciprocate.

Drop all imagination about your body, mind and being and those of others. Add friendliness towards yourself and others and persevere. Lust will turn to love. Your being will be in eternal bliss.

Krishna says, 'That supreme space of eternal Consciousness, My Consciousness, is not illuminated by the Sun or the Moon, or by fire. Those who enter that space never return to this material world.'

These words are not advice. They are for meditation. Advice is the only thing everybody gives and nobody takes. Krishna gives these words to program our causal layer. These are words to contemplate, to meditate upon. They are a dhyana sloka, hymns to be meditated upon.

In the Nithyananda Spurana Program, LBP Level 2, I guide participants through a meditation upon darkness during the passage of the causal layer. This darkness is not mere absence of light. It is energy.

The causal layer of energy is the passage through which the spirit passes on its last leg before it leaves

material world. When the spirit is stuck in this causal layer, one is in coma. One can be stuck in this layer for a long time.

When the physical body cannot bear the pain of the process of death, it escapes into coma. As long as the person is in coma, the spirit is in the causal layer of energy. This means that the spirit can return to its physical body from this causal layer. That's why we come across people who have returned to life after years of being comatose.

All near-death experiences, NDEs, are people who return from the causal layer of energy. For various reasons, the spirit returns to the body it had left, before it reaches the non-return zone. Unlike a coma, this is a quicker journey and return.

Those who go past the causal layer, this layer of energetic darkness, where neither the sun nor the moon shine, nor fire warms, progress onwards to the cosmic layer and then on to the nirvanic layer, which signifies true liberation.

One can meditate upon this sutra, upon this truth expounded by Krishna, through the darkness meditation that acharyas teach in Life Bliss or Ananda Spurana Programs. This meditation, which focuses on darkness, liberates one from fear of death and the fear of loss of ego that causes the fear of death.

Death is not an option. Death of the body is certain. Separation of the spirit from the mind-body is painful. Vivekananda says it is like a thousand scorpions stinging at once.

At death the spirit leaves the body shell and merges into infinite Energy. It then reappears in another shell, another body. As discussed earlier, it is like drawing circles on a whiteboard. The background whiteness is universal Energy and the perimeters of the circles drawn with a pen are the bodies that envelop the individual spirit. These circles separate individual spirit and self from universal Energy and Self.

When we erase these circles, the whiteness within the circles merges into the whiteness of the blackboard. Individual self merges with universal Self. When the spirit goes beyond attachment and lust and is constantly focused on the Self, there is no return for that spirit back into the body-mind.

Krishna points out that death of the body is a certainty, however death of spirit is impossible. The spirit lives on. When the spirit is evolved it doesn't revert back to a mental setup that it transcended in the previous birth.