Part 3: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 3 - Beauty of Purposelessness🔗

Understand, Existence loves you and understands you better than you understand yourself. See the example of Arjuna; Krishna knew Arjuna better than Arjuna knew himself. The very trust, the very connectedness enabled Arjuna to relate with Krishna, who took him to the ultimate consciousness.

Have simple trust in Existence, in the intelligence of the life force. This is the very life force, the energy that is keeping you alive. This is the energy behind the marvelous functioning of your brain, of your digestive system, of your nervous system.

This is the energy that runs our solar system, all the galaxies and the entire universe so smoothly. Imagine, is it possible for so many billions of stars and planets to move in such beautiful order even if you had the most modern traffic control system in place? Such a beautiful order in what appears to be chaos when seen superficially!

At the same time, life itself is so unpredictable; you cannot predict what can happen the very next moment! So many billions of living bodies on planet Earth, so much diversity! Logically, it should be an unmanageable chaos. But there is a beautiful order in that very chaos. And in that order, the spontaneity and chaos of Existence so beautifully fits in!

A very beautiful story from the Mahabharata:

King Yudhishtra performed a great sacrifice after the battle of Kurukshetra was over. He gave very rich presents to the priests and to the poor. They were all impressed by the grandeur of this sacrifice. They praised him saying, 'We have never seen such a great sacrifice in our life time.'

Just then, a small mongoose appeared. Half of his body was golden and the other half was brown. He rolled on the ground where the sacrifice was performed. He then exclaimed with sorrow, 'This is no sacrifice at all. Why do you praise this sacrifice?'

The priests were aghast and angry, 'What! You silly mongoose! Did you not see the sacrifice? Thousands of poor people have become very rich. Millions of people have been sumptuously fed. So many jewels and clothes have been distributed!'

The mongoose replied, 'That may be a big sacrifice for you. But to me the sacrifice of the poor Brahmin was much bigger.'

'What Brahmin, and what sacrifice are you talking about? We never heard of this,' said the priests.

The mongoose continued, 'There was a poor Brahmin in a small village. He lived in a small hut with his wife, son and daughter-in-law. Once, there was a great famine. The whole family starved for days on end.

One day, the poor man brought some food home. When they were ready to eat, they heard a voice at their door. The Brahmin opened the door and found a guest at the doorstep.' In Bharat, we say, athiti devo bhava, the guest is God Himself.

The Brahmin said, 'O Sir! Please come inside. Please have a seat and have some food.' He gave his portion of the food to the guest. The guest said, 'Sir, I am still hungry. I have been starving for the last fifteen days.'

The wife said to her husband, 'Please give him my share.' The guest ate this portion also, but still he was hungry. The son said, 'Father, please give him my share also.' The guest ate this and yet he remained dissatisfied. The wife of the son said, 'O Sir, everybody has performed the greatest self-sacrifice. Please have my portion too.' The guest ate this portion and was fully satisfied. He then blessed the poor Brahmin and his family and departed in great joy.

These four persons died of starvation the same day. A few grains of rice were found on the ground. I rolled myself on those grains. Half of my body became golden. Since then I have been traveling all over the world to find another sacrifice like that.

Nowhere have I found one. Nowhere have I been able to convert the other half of my body into gold. This sacrifice of Yudhishtra has not turned the other half of my body into gold. That is the reason why I say that this is no sacrifice at all.'

The sacrifice that Krishna refers to comes from a true sense of surrender to the universe. When we give to others what we can afford to give, it is no sacrifice. When we give to others by denying ourselves, then it is sacrifice. That is why all charitable work done by people, even with good intentions, does not fit into the essence of what Krishna says here. Of course, it is better to give others rather than foolishly stuff yourself. You will get sick of indigestion! At least for selfish reasons you must give.

But when you give at your own expense, by denying yourself, by starving yourself, you operate at the level of universal energy. You then operate from the principle of vasudeva kutumbaha, 'The world is my family'; you operate out of compassion.

There is no compulsion to give. There is no moral injunction to give. There is no expectation that you will go to heaven if you give, and you will go to hell if you don't.

That's why time and again, I tell people, 'Do not donate anything to my mission in the belief that I shall help you pass through the gates of heaven. First of all, there is no heaven, and second of all, I am not its gatekeeper!'

You will be in heaven when you donate fully in tune with the principles of my mission. You do not have to think about a heaven after you die. You will die in heaven on earth. That will be your mental attitude.

There is a joy, an eternal joy, and a bliss that enters your being when you act out of sacrifice, selflessly. No, the bliss is always there, and now you are free from the filtering ego and mind, and you start experiencing that bliss. The garbage of expectations disappears and bliss is experienced.

This was the principle with which various sacrificial rituals came into existence in the Vedic culture. These were instruments of mass meditation. The energy of the cosmos, akasa, space, entered the fire of homa kunda, the sacrificial fire pit, through air. It then entered the purifying water that was stored near the fire. This water was sprinkled on bodies, idols and the earth to complete the energy cycle. All five energy points, the pancha bhuta, space, air, fire, water and earth were connected through the ritual to benefit humanity.

It was only a metaphoric offering of all that was sacrificed to the fire. During these rituals, great Kings and nobles who performed the rituals gave away to those who lacked material wealth. These rituals helped to maintain material balance.

But, as the mongoose said, even the rajasuya yaga of Yudhishtra, performed to celebrate his victory, lacked the spirit of sacrifice of the poor Brahmin family. So give away what you need, not what you do not need.

Q: Master, what is suffering? Why do we suffer?

In Buddhist tradition the entire life is considered a suffering. This is at variance with what I say that life is bliss and meant to be lived blissfully.

Buddha talked about how we live our lives. I talk about how we can lead our lives.

Buddha does not talk about sins and merits. His code of conduct is the middle path, one of balance. He implies that there is no real right and wrong and as long as you lead a balanced life it is fine.

Buddha also says that desires are the root cause of all suffering. I would like to add a condition. Unfulfilled desires are the root cause of all suffering. When a desire is fulfilled, when it brings with it the energy to fulfill itself, it leaves no traces. This is the case with the desires that the energy body brings with it to the body it is born in. These are the desires that each one of us are born with. This is what we call prarabdha karma.

Prarabdha karmas are the real needs we are born with. They are the opening energy account balance in the body at birth. They arise out of the mindset, the vasana, with which the energy, the soul or atman, leaves the previous material body mind system.

To this opening account we keep adding unreal wants which do not arise from our core. We see what others have or are influenced by the media and our list of desires grows. We want to be happy and we think that by adding more and more to our lives we'll somehow accomplish it. But we have got the energy reserve to fulfill only our natural desires, our prarabdha, and not these acquired desires, agamya karmas. These agamya are our unconscious desires, our samskaras that cause suffering.

These are the desires that Buddha refers to which he says lead to suffering in our life. These desires create expectations of fulfillment and when these are not fulfilled they create suffering and linger on within our body mind system.

It will help you to realize that suffering is not an event in your life – it is a response to an event.

Whether or not you suffer in a particular situation depends entirely upon your reaction to that situation. When do you undergo suffering? Is it when you fall ill? When your neighbor improves their situation? When your partner leaves you for someone else?

Well, suppose you decided to just accept these situations without anger or resentment. Just as they are, so be it. Would you still suffer as much? After all, there is nothing inherently painful about your neighbor advancing. Even if there is pain in the moment, as when a loved one leaves, you cannot wish it away.

Try to accept the inevitability of the moment, without reaction. It is only your negative response to an experience that allows it to hurt you. Don't you see: no one or

nothing can make you suffer without your silent permission? When we have certain expectations or fantasies that aren't fulfilled, we suffer. If we don't learn from the situation and drop the expectations, we go on suffering.

Make a habit of witnessing experiences minus your personal judgment. Learn to recognize with clarity the causes of your suffering - the obvious and the subtle. The ability to do this will come, not in a day but certainly through practice.

One of the most deeply hidden reasons for suffering is that you could be enjoying it! For example, falling ill can become a source of pleasure if it brings you the attention and care you have been craving. It can also be a means to escape a situation that is distasteful to you. Examine why it sometimes gives pleasure to inflict yourself with pain or inflict it upon others.

Is there a better channel through which you can receive the same pleasure - without the suffering? Become aware this is the first step. The second is to accept totally the here and now - without questions and without reaction.

Awareness with acceptance - this is the only way out of suffering.

The second part of the question - is suffering essential? Yes, in a way it is.

Suffering can be a powerful catalyst to growth. Just like a seed that has to first rupture before a plant can grow and blossom, intense suffering can break down the defenses of your ego, leaving you open and vulnerable to Existence.

With your usual thought patterns shattered, you begin to see things as they actually are. You begin to recognize a subtle distance between you and the pain - that it is not 'your' pain, something intrinsic to you. In fact, pain is simply the response you've chosen for that particular situation. And once you see that, how can you suffer anymore? In consciously accepting your pain, you truly let go of it.

Suffering is not necessarily the key to bliss. But if you learn your lessons well, suffering can certainly open your eyes to the choice of suffering. It can teach you how unnecessary it is to suffer at all and how you can move out of it.

This is what I call 'necessary suffering'!