How To Save Our Planet? (16.8-9)
The energy that is within us, the energy that drives us is the same energy that drives this Universe. This energy is intelligence, the highest intelligence.
Kṛṣṇa says that when we are unable to recognize this energy, we are demonic. Instead we believe we make things happen with our greed, lust and desires. We believe we run this world with our small intellect that we consider intelligence. People who think the world is pure chemistry become demons.
Only when we understand that this Universe is intelligence, and that it responds to our thoughts and actions, will we live in the space of completion, and start really Living Advaita. God exists and the Cosmic intelligence runs this whole Universe.
People with demonic qualities say the world is produced out of sexual desire and lust. Please be clear that lust cannot be the reason. Intelligence, the Divine energy is the cause and effect of this whole Universe. When we think it is lust or that we are responsible, we live with the idea of 'me, me, me'.
This cognition of selfishness leads only to destruction of everything, kṣayāya jagato 'hitaḥ (16.9)—the environment, the world and all living beings. One part of this world, perhaps less than one-sixth of the world's population, the so-called developed world, consumes more than half of the natural resources of this world.
When we are in a state of low intelligence, alpabuddhi; we become demons. Low intelligence leads to cruel deeds, prabhavanty ugra karmāṇaḥ (16.9). When we have no awareness of who we are, we do not care about anyone else.
All this can be changed. All that is needed is the cognitive shift from the demon to the Divine, from 'I' to 'You'. The environment we live in, the oxygen we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that gives the food we eat, all this is energy. We call this pañca bhūta in Saṁskṛit, the five elemental energies that sustain us. When these are destroyed by our low intelligence, out of our selfishness, the world around us collapses.
How To Save Ourselves (16.10-16.16)
Kṛṣṇa now shows how a person with demonic nature can destroy himself. Out of pride, arrogance and hypocrisy, such a person moves in a path directed by purely selfish and material objectives, that produce suffering.
When we focus on matter, we tend to lose sight of the energy inherent in matter. When we focus on the form, we cannot see the formless that enables the form. Only if man blossoms in his Consciousness, he is God.
Existence is waiting to shower us with all that we need. We are caught in the web of our sensory fantasies and run after what others own; we let our senses lead us.
Once we move from the 'me' focused demonic state into the 'you' based Divine state, we no longer need to worry about creating wealth, developing a power base, establishing relationships or whatever else we have focused on all our lives. Existence takes care of all this. Existence takes care of us. If instead, we are focused on our own self, 'me,' be sure, we are moving towards hell, as Kṛṣṇa says.