How To Be Unattached🔗

9.9 O Dhananjaya, all this work does not bind Me.

I am ever unattached and indifferent.

9.10 The material nature of prakṛti works under My direction, O Son of Kunti, and creates all moving and unmoving beings through My energy of māyā.

By its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

9.11 Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form.

They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that is.

9.12 Those who are thus deluded are demonic and atheistic.

In their deluded condition, their hopes for liberation, their result-oriented actions and their culture of knowledge become false and useless.

Being attached or bound to what we do or what we have is a major hurdle in realizing our Self. Krishna says He is not bound to this universe. This is the reason, He says, that keeps Him unaffected when the universe is created and when it is destroyed.

Krishna says He is not at all affected when such a big thing is happening. The whole universe is being born out of Him and it is getting destroyed. Even then He is not affected because He is not bound to the universe. It is because He is a mere spectator.

Let us understand this in the context of daily life. When we start to internalize these great truths in small things that we do, a great change happens in us. Krishna speaks of a divine play. He talks in terms of the universe being created and destroyed from universal consciousness. If we understand His words, we can apply them to day-to-day activities. That is why Bhagavad Gita is a beautiful scripture. It is a technique applicable for any age or generation and which can be easily internalized.

When we understand this truth, we feel a great sense of liberation. You see, we become attached or bound to what we have. We think that all we have is ours. When we create that attachment, we create a strong bond. Be very clear, now the problem has started.

A small story:

A man who was born blind goes to a doctor for a cure. After examining his eyes, the doctor says the blindness can be cured. He tells the blind man a small operation needs to be done and his eyesight can be brought back and then he won't need his walking stick any more. The blind man is surprised.

He asks, 'Doctor, I understand that you will operate on me, and my eyesight can be restored and I will be able to see everything. But I do not understand why I won't need my walking stick.'

You see the attachment the blind man has to the walking stick? He understood that he would be able to see; yet he could not let go of his walking stick. In the same way, we hold onto a walking stick though we have eyes to see. We are not blind; however we are bound to material possessions, relationships and emotions.

Let us discuss in detail how these different kinds of attachments bind us. Our material possessions create greed and fear in us. We are either in fear of losing them or we want to get more and more of them. We run after them. We attach so much importance to them that getting more and more of them becomes our only goal. Naturally when we have so much, we create a fear of losing them.

The problem is we associate ourselves with material possessions. This is what we understand as life. Again and again, we run after them and forget who we are. So many people are in the rat race. They spend their lives accumulating money, bungalows and cars. And at the end of their life, they regret; they wonder what they have done in their lives.

This is what attachment to material possessions does. It creates greed and fear. We create goals to get more and more material wealth. Even if we have enough, we are not satisfied. We want more and more. We run and run till we drop dead. Now when we have so much of it, we fear losing it. We hold onto it as if it were our property. We are in a state of continuous fear.

This is one kind of attachment. There is another kind of attachment. We are attached to people. We create strong bonds in relationships. These are also attachments. We start possessing people. The possessiveness grows so strong that we suffer when someone dies. We become so dependent on persons that our whole life seems to lose meaning when they die.

Actually, what happens in this kind of bondage is that we define ourselves based on the opinions of other people. We know ourselves only by the certificates of others. In other words, we energize ourselves based on others. So we constantly hold on to that relationship because it gives us energy; that relationship helps us define ourselves.

So when a person dies, we feel depressed because whatever we were holding to very tightly was the source of energy for us. That was defining us till now and now it is no longer there. It has disappeared. So our whole system is shaken.

Now there is the third kind of bondage or attachment. It is related to our thoughts and emotions. Whenever something happens, we start linking it with our past and start fantasizing about the future. Be very clear, a thought arises because our mind jumps from the past to the future. When a thought arises, we link up that thought with other thoughts.

Let us say, you see a dog. As soon as you see it, you go to the past when you were bitten by a dog. Then your mind goes somewhere, probably a hospital. Then your mind goes to the doctor who gave you medical care. The doctor has nothing to do with a dog on the road, but this is how your mind associates and takes you with it! You create a chain between two thoughts. You link different thoughts.

Do a simple exercise. Take a piece of paper and write down all your thoughts. Do not edit anything. Note down everything that comes into your mind. Do this for five minutes. Just for five minutes. Then look through that list of thoughts. You will see what a mess is going on inside the head! You will see that none of the thoughts are linked to each other. They are random, unrelated, illogical thoughts.

None of the thoughts are linked to each other; however, we start to link them. We create a shaft binding all these thoughts. Each thought is like a bubble in a fish tank. If you see bubbles rising in a fish tank, they are unrelated, unconnected and disjointed. However we create a shaft and link them up. We attach ourselves with that shaft and start experiencing them. We start participating in the thoughts. We let the thoughts control us.

In the same way, we deal with our emotions also. We create a shaft of all our pains and all our joys. If we see that our pain shaft is longer than the joy shaft, we conclude that we had a painful life; we had a miserable life. Otherwise, we say we have a happy life. Yet if we look deeply, each of the pains is completely unconnected and disjointed.

For example, the headache that you experience today is not related to the headache that you had one week ago. The headache that you had one week ago is not related to the headache that you felt one month ago. But what do we do? We connect all these and say we have always had headaches or migraines. We become migraine sufferers. We fail to see that all the events were independent events. We create a shaft through all these pains and come to a conclusion.

In the same way, if we have a joyful experience, we want to hold onto it. We want to experience that joy again. We look for that source of joy and continuously run after it. This again leads us into the rat race.

Here Krishna says He is neutral. How do we get ourselves unconnected from these attachments? Please understand that being unconnected from material possessions does not mean you leave everything and go away. Being unconnected from relationships does not mean breaking your relationships, forgetting your children, parents and others.

Please understand this very deeply. Being neutral or unconnected has a deep meaning. Being neutral means being a spectator. It is like this: When you watch a movie, you watch something on the screen. Do you become an actor in that movie? No. You watch it and let it go.

In the same way, we need to watch attachments. When we watch them as a spectator, we get detached from them. What do I mean by that? When we watch our materialistic wealth, we will not run after it. We do our job because we love it, not because we want to accumulate wealth. A scientist should do research because he likes to do it, not because he wants something out of it. When that is the attitude, the universe starts showering. The results happen of their own accord. The materialistic wealth comes on its own.

In relationships also, we must be a spectator. When we stop seeing someone as a possession and when we become a spectator to the relationship, our dependency on that person and expectations from that person drop. When dependencies and expectations drop, there is no give and take in the relationship. There is only giving. The relationship becomes stronger.

When we become a spectator to our thoughts and emotions, we feel a great sense of liberation. All we have to do is break the shaft that we create between different unconnected thoughts and emotions. We have to 'unclutch'. When we see thoughts like passing clouds in the sky, we stop associating ourselves with them. We are no longer controlled by them.

Be very clear, being a spectator to thoughts does not mean that we suppress or destroy thoughts. We are not Brahma, the Creator, or Vishnu, the Sustainer, or Shiva, the Rejuvenator. When we become a spectator, we go beyond these three states. We transcend the trinity.

By being a spectator, we remain unaffected and unattached to what happens in and around us. This is the truth. If we can internalize this completely, we will be enlightened this very minute!

Krishna says that although He is a mere spectator, everything happens under His supervision. Here He shows His authority. He says the material world is created and annihilated according to His will through the power of prakṛti, Nature and the energy of māyā, Illusion. Actually Krishna is repeating what He said in the previous verse. He thinks that this concept is important for Arjuna to understand. So He repeats it again and again.

Krishna wants to clearly get this idea across to Arjuna. The whole material manifestation is a projection of the energy of universal consciousness. This is what is reflected within us in our individual consciousness. We create what we see and what we wish to see. We project as reality what we wish to believe. It is like this. You stand in front of a mirror and see yourself. Now all that you see outside you is a projection of what you have inside you.

He says, 'I am the supreme power.' Everything happens under His supervision. What He says is simple. Whatever happens is a drama of creation and annihilation through Nature and Illusion. Krishna, the director and producer of this cosmic drama, stands unmoved as a spectator.

This truth is reflected within us, too. We create and destroy ourselves. Everything, our happiness, our pains, our fantasies, our sorrows, our relationships are created by us. If we see from a higher level, we influence the whole universe. Krishna shows how powerful we are, how powerful our inner Self is. Whether we believe it or not, it is the truth. We create everything that we see, feel and hear. That is the power of our inner Self. Yet we do not stay detached the way Krishna does.

Our thoughts and inner chatter have a tremendous impact. The cosmic consciousness responds to our thoughts. All the enlightened masters have talked about it. What we think and how we think affects what happens around us.

You have seen people who always shout and yell at others. Some people keep shaking their legs. All this happens because of inner restlessness. If something goes wrong, we blame others. We become irritated by small things. All this is because there is so much restlessness inside us. However instead of looking inside, what do we do? We blame others.

We see negativity around us because there are negativities inside us. Because of such thoughts inside us, we project them outside by becoming frustrated and irritated at small things. You see, this is how we create our own world. Because of our thoughts and inner chatter, we create a world full of negativities outside.

When we observe children, they are always blissful. Have you ever seen a child becoming frustrated or irritated? No. You may have seen children build castles with playing cards by stacking them one on top of the other and arranging them in a particular order. They are completely immersed in it. Even if some cards fall, they do not become frustrated or irritated. They once again try to stack them.

In children there is no inner chatter, no conditionings. The world they project or manifest outside is blissful. They create a beautiful world because they do not have negativities inside them. Understand the power of thoughts. A person is blissful not because of what happens outside him; it is because of what is inside him.

One more important thing: There is a difference between being happy and being blissful. Happiness happens inside because of external factors. If we feel joy inside because of something happening outside us, that joy is happiness. The problem with happiness is the source. If suddenly the external source disappears, our happiness also disappears. So our internal state is affected by an external source. The outer world is affecting our inner world.

However, bliss is not like that. Being blissful does not depend on external sources. If we are at peace internally, we express that bliss. No external event or happening affects this state. Bliss is eternal; however happiness is temporary. When we are blissful inside, we project the same bliss outside. When we are in that state, we enjoy everything that happens outside us. We enjoy the external material manifestation because we are blissful inside.

Please understand that as long as we enjoy the external material manifestation of our inner bliss as a spectator, it is fine. However, when we participate in it, when we try to possess that bliss, when we try to hold onto that bliss, that bliss is gone. It disappears because our mind has come in. Be very clear, when we think from our mind, when we enjoy something from our mind, it is not bliss.

So in this verse Krishna tells us clearly that we create our own world. The material manifestation is solely because of our inner Self and nothing external is responsible for it.

In the next verse He says, 'Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My ultimate nature, eternal nature, as the supreme Lord of all that is.'

Here Krishna uses a strong word: 'Fools'. Enlightened masters don't edit their words. They don't edit. They speak the truth as it is. Usually, normal people edit because they fear others' opinions.

See, normally in all your minds, three processes happen: first, words are created, then edited and then finally presented. Creating, editing and presenting. In masters, these three processes don't happen. Straightaway what is created is presented.

One American university professor who attended many of our discourses said, 'Swamiji, you are speaking continuously for hours.' Of course, if you see our website, everyday somewhere in the world there is a discourse. For the last two and a half years, there is not a single day that has gone by without a program. Not a single day! Always somewhere or the other, there is some program happening. Some program, some lecture, something is going on.

He asked me, 'How are you able to continuously speak without notes?' Please be very clear, here also in front of me, only the verses are there. Only the book of verses is here. There are no other notes. I see these verses in front of me so that the original pronunciation is not lost. And the original form should be maintained. We respect the verses. We don't alter the verses. I can say that the Vedas is the purest and most unadulterated scripture. No alteration is allowed, even the tune can't be changed. Even the tune in which they are chanted can't be changed. The chhandas (meter) cannot be changed. The same tune is preserved. It is not learnt by heart by reading. It is heard, ºruti; it is heard. By hearing, they know by heart. That is why the tune cannot be changed. The words cannot be changed and the tune cannot be changed. Just to preserve the purity, I read the verse from the original. I don't have notes.

He asked, 'How are you able to speak continuously without notes, Swamiji?' This is the first lecture where I am keeping something in front of me. If you have attended earlier discourses, whether it is a four-day program or five-day program, I never keep notes. This is the first time I am keeping something in front of me. This is the first time I am commenting on Sanskrit literature. So I keep the Sanskrit verses in front of me.

He asked me, 'How are you able to continuously speak?' I told him, 'Because the process is easy in me. I don't edit. I don't have the three mechanisms: creating words, editing and presenting. Usually, for all people, these three mechanisms have to happen.'

Then he put one more question, 'Swamiji, speaking for hours is different. For me, I must prepare three hours even for a one-hour lecture. If I must speak one hour on the ideas or the concepts I am supposed to present, I must prepare for three hours. I know for sure that you don't have time to prepare for so many discourses.'

In our meditation camps, sometimes the program is eighteen hours long per day. For eighteen hours people listen to the talks and meditate. In Bharat the same program is for four days, about forty hours or more. He said, 'How can you prepare for such long discourses? How do you speak without preparation?'

I told him, 'You prepare because it has not become your experience.' Then I asked him, 'If somebody asks your name, do you prepare? Do you look at your notes and tell them your name?' Your name has become your experience, your being. So you immediately respond. Similarly, whatever I speak is from my experience. So I don't need to prepare. I don't need any rehearsal. Because it is my experience, I spontaneously express it. Nothing needs to be prepared. Preparation is unnecessary.

One more thing, why do people fear public speaking? Why do they again and again prepare and rehearse? They fear that they may speak what they really think! They do not want to express what is going on inside them. They want to express polished words, decent words and clear words. They fear they may express by mistake what is going on inside! They may utter words that they are thinking. That is why they again and again prepare.

Only for a person whose inner chattering has become pure, not only his words, his thinking has also become pure. That person can talk in a relaxed way for hours in public. To speak in public, that too in a relaxed and casual way, we need our inner being to be in a pure way. Only then can we talk whatever comes. We can be in such a relaxed mood. Otherwise, continuously we must edit.

If we edit and speak, within half an hour or one hour, we are tired. We feel drained. We do not radiate the same energy. Speaking is a big job for people who edit and speak. They cannot be relaxed. They cannot be joyful.

Masters don't edit; they express whatever they think. Because their thinking has become so pure, they don't need to edit. Even if they use sharp words, they are spoken to awaken you.

Here Krishna uses the word, 'm¦²haª', meaning 'fool'. 'Fools deride Me.' He gives a jolt to the ego. He gives a jolt. 'Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My eternal nature as the supreme Lord of all that is.' He says, 'When I land in the world in the human form as a master, people, fools, deride me. They don't understand.'

He again and again tells this to Arjuna, 'Don't think that just because I am in the body, I am your friend. Don't think that I am the person who was sitting in Brindavan (the place where Krishna spent his infant years), who is your own friend. Don't think I am that person. I am the energy that takes care of the whole world. I have come down in this form to liberate all of you. So only fools deride Me, fools miss Me. Don't miss, Arjuna, understand the ultimate nature of Me and liberate yourself.'

In these verses, Krishna tells some interesting truths. These were true during His time and they are true today. When an enlightened master is in his body, people do not accept him. When the master lives in his body, people ignore him. In fact, people do not even want to accept that he can be an enlightened master.

People stay away from the master when he is living. However, when the master is no longer in the body, people visit his final resting place, offer flowers, and do all kinds of things. This has happened to all enlightened masters. Jesus was crucified. Ramakrishna was considered a mad priest. When Ramakrishna entered into an ecstatic mood, people said that he was acting.

However now, if you go to Kolkata, thousands of people visit Dakshineshwar, the place where Ramakrishna spent most of His life. Now people from all around the world go to Ramakrishna mission centers. Dakshineshwar has become a pilgrimage center. People worship Ramakrishna; they keep his photo in their home, in their wallets.

You see, over time nothing has changed. In fact, it has become worse. The level of consciousness in people is affected by television and movies. When Ramakrishna was alive in the 19th century, these things were not there. Then he was called a madman. People made fun of him. However now after one hundred years, when we are constantly bombarded with unnecessary things, thousands of people go to Dakshineshwar. They worship him. They call him an incarnation. They call him God.

When THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is in the ashram in Bidadi, many people come with speculation. They have questions about what THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM say, what THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM wear and everything THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM do. They say, 'You are so young. How can you be enlightened?' Some say, 'If you are enlightened, why do you wear a golden rudr¢k¾a necklace? Why do you charge money for courses?' They have questions and questions and questions.

These same people will come to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM's final resting place after one hundred years and offer flowers on it. They will accept THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM as their guru when THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM am not sitting in the ashram in human form.

Krishna says, 'Fools lose Me when I come in human form.' He calls them fools. This is the truth. When an enlightened master is in human form, we do not accept him as a master. Only after the master leaves the body do we pay our respects to the master. What is the reason? Why do people again and again do this?

You see, when the master is in his body, when he is still in human form, our mind sees him as another human being. We see him like anybody else, another person. Then our ego comes between him and us. It reasons, 'He is another human like me. Why should I listen to him? Why do people pray to him? Why is he preaching to me?' All these questions come. That is it. We decide we don't have to follow another human being and go back.

Please be very clear, a simple act of ego makes us miss a living enlightened master. Our mind cannot accept it. It always boosts our ego and keeps us away from an enlightened master. Our being wants it; however our mind and ego create a strong wall of questions between the master and us. We reason out everything that the master says. If there is a continuous inner chatter in us when we approach a master, our mind and ego take over our being. We miss the opportunity.

And one more thing, some people know that a person is a master. They know what he says is good for them; however they escape. They run away or make excuses not to meet him. This is because they know that the enlightened master can see through them. They do not want anybody to know what a mess they have created in themselves. They fear that the enlightened master will read what goes on inside them. They want to escape that transformation.

We should understand why an enlightened master comes to earth. If we know this, we will not be fools. We will not miss or run away. We should understand what an enlightened master is. If we understand, then we can break the wall between the master and us and let our being experience the master's energy.

A small story from Ramakrishna:

Three men walk near a village. They see an orchard. One of them jumps into the orchard to see what is happening. When he goes into the orchard, he sees a big party going on inside. He sees so much joy and bliss inside the orchard. Everyone enjoys, dances in ecstasy. They blissfully enjoy every moment. This man also starts enjoying. He forgets about the two men outside the orchard.

After some time, the two men who stand outside get impatient. The second man says, 'Let me go and see what happened.' He enters the orchard. He sees people dancing, singing, enjoying. However, before he joins the party, this man thinks he should tell the third man standing outside the orchard about what he has seen. He has concern for the third man. So he tells the third man what is going on inside the orchard and runs back into the orchard and joins the party.

Now this third man goes in. He sees the bliss everyone is in. He thinks, 'I should tell everyone in the village about this; everyone should enjoy; everyone should dance in ecstasy.' So he goes out and tells everyone in the village and brings them into the orchard.

Enlightened masters are like the third man. They have experienced the truth, the bliss. They are the embodiments of compassion. They want everyone to know the truth. They are on a mission. Be very clear, the only aim of an enlightened master is to get everyone enlightened. There is no ulterior motive of the master.

People ask THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM lots of questions. Why this? Why that? People look at THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM with suspicion. They think by telling them something, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM make some profit. If THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM suggest to them to attend some course, they think THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM will make money. They run away thinking THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM want to convert them to a sany¢si. They do not understand that an enlightened master is beyond all that. They miss the opportunity of being with a master because of their own ignorance.

A small story:

In a cold and snowy place, a snake lay on the ground frozen like a wooden stick. A passing blind man stumbled upon it and picked it up. Feeling it, the blind man was happy and thought, 'I have a good walking stick.'

An enlightened master, passing that way, saw what he was doing and warned, 'Oh sir, that is not a walking stick; it is a snake and soon there will be sunlight. Once the sun comes out, the snake will be free and become normal and will harm you.' The blind man rejected the master's advice. He thought the master was trying to take away his walking stick. He continued to hold the stick. When the sun came out, the snake bit him and he realized the truth as he was dying.

In the same way, whenever enlightened masters try to save mankind, people make their life hell, due to their ignorance and doubts. We must understand that an enlightened master does not have desires. So he does not have ulterior motives. All he wants is everyone should experience the bliss that he has experienced.

In the case of a normal man, when he takes birth, he carries over desires from his previous birth. These are called v¢sanas. However, an enlightened master does not have desires or v¢sanas; he is in a no-mind state. His spirit can merge directly into the universal energy. Whenever there is a need on planet earth, the energy of the enlightened master is sent down to earth with a mission to fulfill.

Be very clear, nobody can help when we create a wall of doubt between the master and us. The master can help only if we break the wall, only if we allow the master to take charge. As long as we hold onto our ego, we remain a fool. If we meet an enlightened master, that is the best thing that can happen to us. Now it is up to us to take advantage of it or miss it. Krishna tells everyone: if you miss an enlightened master, you are a fool. If we think out of ego that an enlightened master is like any other human, we lose the chance of knowing the truth; we lose the chance for enlightenment.