Selfless in Action
12.16 He who is free from wants, who is pure and skilled, unconcerned, untroubled, who is selfless in whatever he does, he who is devoted to Me, he is dear to Me.
Krishna now moves into higher gear. Once you let go of joy, anxiety and anger, once you transcend these emotions, you reach a state of calmness that takes you close to Him. Now, He moves from 'nissangatvam' to 'nirmohatvam,' from emotional non-attachment to non-attachment to desires.
We need to understand the difference between 'wants' and 'needs'. Needs are necessary for us to survive on planet Earth, like the basic needs of food, shelter, etc. The great Jain Master Mahavira says, 'The moment you are born on this planet, the universe sends everything with you that you need. It provides for all your basic needs.' We just need to trust the universe and we shall get what we need to live. We shall not want anything else.
However, we end up seeking more. Basic needs are no longer enough. We see our neighbor. We cannot bear to see that others are happier than we are. We are happy to see people who suffer. This only shows our own state of sorrow in a better light. We feel better when others are in the same boat as us.
If a neighbor buys a new air conditioner, the temperature in our house shoots up. If the neighbor buys a refrigerator, the foodstuff in our house starts rotting. If the neighbor buys a new car, our car suddenly slows down. Everything we have is a match for what others have. It is a constant cycle of 'what next? What next?' Even before we start enjoying what we have got, we make a plan to get more. There is no joy in having, the joy is in chasing. There is no end point to this chase.
When you become the richest in your family, you need to become the richest on the street and then the richest in the town, then the richest in the country and then the richest in the world. There is no end. Ramana Maharishi says so beautifully and poignantly, 'This universe can cater to the needs of all its people, but it cannot meet the wants of even one person.'
Wants are endless. Wants are suffering. Wants are born out of comparison with others. Needs, our basic needs, carry the energy within them for fulfillment. Wants only carry the seeds of our own suffering.
During NSP, Nithyananda Spurana Program, or LBP 2, we take participants through the seven layers of the energy bodies that the spirit passes through when we die. In this process, the departing spirit remembers all that happened during its time in the body until the point of death. It is like a fast replay of all that has happened, every incident that is stored on the hard disk of our memory.
In one of the sessions, I ask people to make a list of their desires, their needs and wants. They fill pages with it. I ask them to review the list many times. Then they do a certain meditation. At the end of the meditation, I ask them to recollect from memory their list of desires. What they can recollect is usually a fraction of what they have written. It is as if they started with a large tree full of leaves, their desires, and during this meditation the tree sheds almost all its leaves, as if the leaves were dried and dead. What it retained glows like golden leaves.
Whatever is left in their memories, those desires glow like gold. They are the ones that carry the energy for their fulfillment! These desires are the true desires that they carry. If the process is done with awareness, these desires are always selfless desires. They may benefit the individual, no doubt, but they always benefit humanity. Only such selfless desires carry the energy of the universe with them for fulfillment.
When our desires are our own true desires, when they reflect our real needs, when they express themselves in our inner energy, we don't feel any desperation about trying to achieve them. The realization comes that, as a matter of natural course of events, these desires will be fulfilled. We are not driven and we are not troubled. We accept that these will happen. Therefore, Krishna counsels Arjuna, 'Become free from wants, be selfless and you shall be untroubled, liberated and you will reach Me.'
Q: Respected Master, each day I learn beautiful knowledge, and I am so happy. Then I go back home and feel a little confused, even depressed. What is going on?
The right thing is going on. Don't worry! Whatever is going on is the right thing. In the initial level this is the way it happens. Don't count the moments of depression. Instead count the number of blessings. By its own light the moon shows the black patches which exist on it. By its own light it shows the black patches. Similarly, by your own intelligence you understand how you feel depressed and confused. If you realize that you are confused and depressed, that in itself shows you are intelligent. That by itself shows that you are growing in intelligence, and that the light has started radiating.
When you are thoughtless, you have no confusion. You have no clue about the higher purpose of life and you are happy about what you have always been doing eating, drinking, playing, working, whatever. Thoughtless people are happy in their own way. They do not think. They behave like animals. All they seek are the pleasures that an animal would seek. They are satisfied at that level. That is how they live and die.
When you think, you get into problems. You realize that you are not doing what you are here for. You start seeking a purpose. You are confused. You are unstable. One moment you are attracted to the pleasures that have sustained you for so long. Then, you reject them, as they are not what you think will sustain your happiness. You start seeing the light. Gradually, slowly, very slowly, you move from darkness to light.
That is where the guru, the Master comes in. He leads you from the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth and reality. Then you reach the state of no-mind, of no thoughts. It is not the same as thoughtless state. Thoughtless state is that of the animal, of instinct. Nomind, no thought state is that of the Divine, of intuition. Thoughtful state is that of the human, of rational mind.
The entire dialogue in the Gita arises out of the confusion that Arjuna has as a thoughtful human, and this is resolved by the no-thought state of Krishna, the Super Conscious. Doubts and confusion are human. They are the result of the movement from the thoughtless state to the no-thought state.
Humans are eccentric by nature. Our senses constantly draw us to the peripheral areas of our sensory perceptions, exposing us to the outer world. We experience pain and pleasure and we get addicted to both. Suddenly some of us experience a tug inside that pulls us inwards. Not knowing why or how, some of us move inwards temporarily, renouncing the attraction of our senses. But this does not last long. We again get pulled back to the periphery.
So we keep swinging in and out. Not all of us certainly, but a large number of us have experienced in the distant past a taste and a glimpse of our true nature. While swinging in and out, we settle somewhere in between, neither at the center nor at the periphery. We become eccentric!
This is what is happening to you. As you get more and more immersed in the words and truths of the great Master, Krishna, you will find that moving inwards is not only easier but truly blissful. Finally, you settle into your center that is eternal bliss, nithyananda.