klaibyam ma sma gamah partha🔗

naitat tvayy upapadyate

ksudram hrdaya-daurbalyam

tyaktvottistha parantapa

O son of Partha, do not yield to this degrading unmanliness. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise. O chastiser of the enemy.

Just two sloka - the whole gist of Gita is finished, but Arjuna simply missed. And because Arjuna missed, Krishna has to continuously confuse him. Krishna has to completely tire Arjuna. Now unless Arjuna is tired, he cannot be helped; nothing can be done. So the first thing that needed to be done was to get Arjuna tired.

Arjuna was an intellectual person. He has lived with Krishna for more than thirty years. If have you lived around a master for a long time and have not become enlightened, you become a dangerous intellectual. Arjuna has lived around Krishna for a long time, and he has not become enlightened. It's a big problem. When you are an insider, without being an 'in-sider' you will create trouble. Arjuna was an insider; he knows the 'behind the curtain scenes'. But he has not realized the consciousness of Krishna. So naturally he will become a cunning criminal and a dangerous intellectual.

Dangerous intellectuals miss the truth. Always from time immemorial, there are these dangerous intellectuals. With Jesus, Judas missed the truth. I think he had become a dangerous intellectual. With Ramakrishna a man called Hridhay, and with Ramana Maharshi there was another such person. Always few people who live around the masters miss the truth. When they miss the truth, they become dangerous intellectuals.

Here Janaka missed, which was the first blow. That is the reason now Ashtavakra has to give a technique. He comes down to giving a technique.

Sutra:

Do you, who have been bitten by the great black serpent of the egoism, I am the doer

Drink the nectar of the faith, I am not the doer and be happy

Ashtavakra gives the technique. He tells Janaka, 'You think that you are the doer. Now start thinking, I am not the doer.' Please understand, thinking that I am not the doer or having faith that I am not the doer will not liberate you directly. But it will create such a pressure on you, that you will become completely frustrated and drop everything.

People always come and tell me, 'Master, I tried to start meditating; but I am not able to. Please advice me what to do.'

Meditation techniques are given to you just to make you understand that you cannot meditate. Let me be very clear, this is the case with any meditation technique. In the last two and a half years, more than one million people have taken my meditation techniques. But I am boldly declaring, that all meditation techniques are given to you just to make you understand that you cannot do any meditation technique continuously.

I am making another bold statement and if you are offended, I apologize. But it is the truth. No intelligent man can practice any technique for more than twenty-one days with inspiration. He can practice it with perspiration, but never with inspiration. I say that because by your very nature you are intelligent and by your very nature you understand the truth. Techniques are just to make you tired; just to give a blow to the mind, which jumps thinking, 'I am not catching the truth or I do not know.'

Here Ashtavakra is telling Janaka, 'Constantly remember that I am not the doer.' Be very clear, this will not liberate you. This will just make you tired. You will understand that you are not able to remember that constantly. The moment you understand that you are not able to remember 'I am not the doer' constantly, you will be completely frustrated and will just drop. The moment you drop, the truth that you are not the doer will simply become reality. It will simply become reality.

Now I will tell you a few things about my enlightenment. On the first day of the Ashtavakra discourse series, someone asked me if I could talk about my enlightenment. I asked him, 'Do you want an honest answer or a social answer?' He replied, 'honest answer'. I said, 'Then please wait till the third day of the discourse.'

This is because, unless you get the glimpse of the truth, you will not be able to understand that I have achieved the truth, I have achieved realization. Unless you experience the technology created by me, you can never understand that I discovered the truth.

Another person asked me, 'Master, in those days there was only one incarnation during each age. But now a days, how come there are so many incarnations, so many Gurus, and so many enlightened masters?' Modern man has become so complicated. Working with modern man has become so difficult. We need millions of masters. It is because we never listen when the truth is being said.

Never think you are listening to me. As long as I utter the words, which relate with your logic or go with your vested interests, you listen. The moment I say something that goes against it, then you close yourself. If you are courageous enough, you stand up and question me. If you are not so courageous and want to be socially polite, you do not allow the words to enter into your being. Either you stop and question or you do not allow the words to get inside your mind. Be very clear, you are not listening. That is why I told the person who asked about my enlightenment that I would talk about it on the last day.

Let me tell you a few things: I left the house when I was very young, when I was seventeen. I started going to various monasteries, ashrams and was wandering from village to village. I tried so many techniques, so many methods. Of course, the ego and determination that comes at that young age that I can do, helped me do all those things.

To tell you honestly, if I talk about those things now, people call it tapas (ascetic practices) and what not, but actually it was not tapas. I was just enjoying it all. They ask me, 'Master, how did you do such great things, you are great, you are a Mahatma.' I tell them, 'Actually I think you are the Mahatma - to be living in the same house, with the same car, same routine, same wife! I cannot imagine living in the same house for more than few months.'

It was not tapas for me. It was just freedom and I was enjoying the freedom. Everyday I was in a new place. I was experimenting with all these truths. I was playing with all these techniques. I even stayed inside the Taj Mahal for seven days. I related well with the security people there, and lived in their quarters itself. I felt a strong Shiva energy there. Can you imagine this kind of freedom in your life?