1. Devotion Above Action
5.5 He who knows, knows that the state reached by renunciation and action are one and the same.
State reached by renunciation can also be achieved by action, know them to be at the same level and see them as they are.
5.6 Renunciation without devotion afflicts one with misery, Oh mighty-armed one. The wise person engaged in devotion attains the Supreme without delay.
5.7 The person engaged in devotion, beyond concepts pure and impure, self controlled and who has conquered the senses is compassionate and loves everyone. Although engaged in work, he is never entangled.
5.8, 5.9 One who knows the truth, though engaged in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, going, dreaming, and breathing knows that he never does anything. While talking, evacuating, receiving, opening, closing, he considers that the senses are engaged in gratification.
yat sāṅkhyaiḥ prāpyate sthānaṃ tad yogair api gamyate I ekaṃ sāṅkhyaṃ ca yogaṃ ca yaḥ paśyati sa paśyati II 5.5
One who knows that the position reached through sāṅkhya yoga and karma yoga are both one and the same, and that the position reached by sāṅkhya yoga can also be achieved by karma yoga, sees both of them in the same level and sees things as they are.
Beautiful verse!
One more important thing: All of us are not always karma yogi or doers and all of us are not always sanyāsis or monks. No sanyāsi is for 24 hours a sanyāsi. When he surrenders himself to the greed, he is a doer. No karma yogi is for 24 hours a doer. When he surrenders to fear, he is a sanyāsi.
So be very clear: Whenever we make an optimistic decision, we are a karma yogi. Whenever we make a pessimistic decision, we are sanyāsi. It is we who play both the roles. Who is an optimist and who is a pessimist? An optimist is a man who created the airplane. A pessimist is a man who created the seat-belt.
In life you always play both the roles. Sometimes, you are an optimist and sometimes, you are a pessimist. Here, both can lead to the same goal if the attitude is pure, if the attitude is perfect. One important thing we need to understand: Anything created out of greed will create more greed. Anything created out of fear will create more fear, that's all.
Technique to liberate from the emotions
Please be very clear: Whenever we move our body, whenever our body is moved by a particular emotion, that emotion gets settled inside our system. That will become part of our system and that emotion will be created again and again in our system.
Jiddu Krishnamurti, an enlightened master from Bharat made a wonderful statement about emotions arising in the human body. He says beautifully, 'If you can, try to remain centered, silent, without moving your body when a particular emotion rises in you, without co-operating with it.
Within eleven times, or I can say within eleven emotional upsets, if you have managed to be this way, you will be liberated from that emotion.' Vivekananda, another enlightened master from Bharat says beautifully, 'Enlightened masters and enlightenment is the greatest gift given to planet earth by
Bharat.' But the problem is we have given it away as a gift. We are not using it ourselves! While gifting it to others, we forgot how to use it. It started with Swami Vivekananda, and all the masters who followed have been given away to the world. Hindus have forgotten to use what they gave as a gift.
Understand, it is an important thing: If you are caught by an emotion, for example if you are caught in lust, or if you are caught in fear, just eleven times, whenever that emotion rises, whenever that emotion comes up in your being, don't allow your body to co-operate. Don't allow your body to flow with that emotion.
Don't allow your body to move with that emotion. Within eleven times, I assure you, you will be liberated from that emotion.
You may think, 'What is this, Swamiji? Just eleven times! Is it so easy?' It is easy. All great things are easy. Only we complicate them. We complicate because we don't believe anything that is easy.
A small story:
A person goes to the doctor and asks, 'Doctor, how much will you charge to pull this tooth out?' The doctor says, 'Ninety dollars.' This person asks, 'Ninety dollars just for a two minute job?' The doctor says, 'I can do it more slowly if you like!'
We don't believe in simple things. We want to complicate things. Actually, eleven times is too much. I think with all the 'factor-of-safety' idea, Krishnamurti has said eleven times. He might have been afraid of lawsuits, so he might have included the factor-of-safety! If somebody practices for fewer times and they don't get the result, they may sue him! May be that is why he says eleven times.
But I tell you honestly, eleven times is too much. When that emotion rises in you, don't cooperate. Let your body not go behind that emotion. Let you not be taken away by that emotion, whether it is anger or irritation or depression or lust or fear or anything.
Just decide, 'I am not going to be taken away by this emotion.' I tell you, within three or four times, you will be liberated from that emotion because you will learn the technique. You will have the key now in your hand: How not to be taken away by that emotion, how to be centered, rooted in your Self, in your being. Whether it is anger or fear or greed, it gets more power and strength if your body also cooperates with it.
With whatever emotion your body moves, that emotion gets recorded inside your system. And that emotion will happen again and again, many more times, and much more intensely. Both frequency and intensity of that emotion will increase.
There is a beautiful movie, 'What the Bleep Do We Know?' If you find time you should see that movie. In that movie, they beautifully show this very idea that I have just now conveyed to you. Don't think I have some contract with the movie makers to promote it! No! Once, two of our devotees invited THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM to come for a show in New York called 'Bombay Dreams'. They invited THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM said that THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM can sit for fifteen minutes. If it will finish in fifteen minutes, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM will come. They said that no show would finish in less than three hours. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM said, 'Then it is not for THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM.' Fifteen minutes is the maximum time THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM can watch any show. So THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM didn't watch that. But somehow THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM watched this movie 'What the Bleep Do We Know?' THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is surprised how these people sit in front of the television for hours together.
Real couch potatoes! Something is being shown there on the television and they sit and watch sometimes not even knowing what they are watching! And they will continuously be eating something while watching. The snack box will be full before the program starts. When the program is over, that box will be empty and the stomach will be full. This is such a dangerous habit. It will lead to obesity.
An important thing we should know: Ramanujacharya, Hindu philosopher says beautifully, when it comes to 'āhāra-śuddhi', 'purity of food', when you eat something, you digest not only the food that you eat but you also digest the thoughts which you think while you are eating. So please be very clear: Your eating should be done like worship. The problem is now the worship is also corrupted!
Eating should be done with a deep sincerity. Never ever eat watching the television or reading the newspaper. It will make you dull. When I say dull, understand that we already have enough of tamas - laziness - in our system. With this habit, the laziness energy will be significantly enhanced.
Never eat with negative thoughts. And those of you who cook or serve the food, please don't complain at that time.
In Bharat, usually only at the time of serving, the wife will start saying, 'This is not available in the house; that is not available in the house. You are not giving my monthly allowance properly. This has not come to the house properly. That is not here…' They will start the whole story. Never start the house story when you serve or when you cook because the thoughts will also enter the food. Your thoughts and emotions go and settle down into your system.
Anyway, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM can never watch anything for more than fifteen minutes. Somehow, this one movie, 'What the Bleep Do We Know?' THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM sat throughout and watched. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM really enjoyed it.
THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM will explain a concept from that movie. It is the truth, not just projected by them. It is truth from Vedānta. They have explained it visually in a very nice manner.
They say that whenever some emotions happen within your system, it is like a shower of rain. The emotion pours like rain. It happens inside your system, in your being. There are particular cells that catch these emotions. For example, if you think with anger, there are particular cells that catch that anger emotion. Not only do they just catch and remain, they start reproducing as well. Each cell will create at least four or five more cells that can catch this emotion.
An important thing we should know is that the basic quality of life is reproduction and expansion. This is the survival instinct. The survival instinct is governed by the svādhiṣṭhāna cakra, the fear energy center within our body.
Reproduction is governed by the mūlādhāra cakra*,* the sex energy center in our body. Both these are closely associated. Fear is associated with the svādhiṣṭhāna cakra and reproduction is associated with the mūlādhāra cakra; both the cakras are found very close to each other in our body.
These cells that catch the anger emotion start reproducing and each cell creates five or six more cells. Next time, when the anger shower happens, when the anger rain happens, all these cells will also catch the same emotion. They become the size of the original cells. They grow to the same size. Now these cells also start reproducing. The third time, when the shower happens, all these cells catch the emotion and start storing it.
That is why, every time when we are showered with the same emotion, it becomes stronger and stronger. We are addicted to that emotion. We will not be able to control that emotion. The first time, if anger is showered on us, if we are affected for ten minutes, then the next time, it will surely become twenty minutes. The third time, it will become half an hour. This is how the emotion becomes stronger and stronger.
In our being, again and again, when we cooperate with these negative emotions, we create the same type of mood, the same type of lifestyle in us. One more thing: Not only will this emotion get recorded in us, but the big problem is that we will express the same thing on others also. What we have within us is what we will vomit on others also.
Liberating from fear and greed
If we are working to strengthen our greed, we will be caught by the emotion of greed and we will radiate that emotion of greed. We will vomit that emotion of greed on others.
Next, if we strengthen our fear, again, we will be caught by that emotion of fear and express that emotion of fear and torture others with it. Be very clear: Warriors are caught in fear. That is why they torture others. They give fear to others. Warriors are the most cowardly people. A real warrior is a person who has conquered his being, who has won his being. Only he can be the real warrior.
If out of fear we are doing anything, we will reproduce the same fear in others. Now, take a few minutes to sit and analyze, 'Throughout this life, all these years I was driven by greed and fear. What have I achieved? What have I got? Where am I standing? What has really happened?'
Consciously think about it. Consciously allow this Idea to work on you. Decide, 'From today, I will not do anything out of greed or out of fear.' Immediately the fear will rise in you, 'What will happen to my bills? Who will pay them? What will happen to my house? Who will repay the mortgages? What will happen to my car? What will happen to my kids? Who will feed them? What will happen to my social prestige and name and fame? Who will maintain it?'
Please be very clear that you have enough energy and strength to maintain yourself without fear and greed. The important thing you need is trust that you don't need energy from fear or greed to run your life. That is the first thing you need to understand. You have enough potential energy to live your life and to achieve what you want.
Mahavira, another great enlightened Jain master from Bharat says, 'When you come down to this planet earth, when you take up the human body and come, you bring enough of energy to live all your desires or to achieve whatever you want to achieve in this life.' You have already brought enough fuel. You don't need fuel from fear or greed.
You always think, 'If I stop fueling myself with fear or greed, I may stop working.' No. There is enough reserve of fuel in you. Enough fuel is available but psychologists can never believe that unmotivated action is possible because they have never seen a Buddha.
Again and again the people who are working in the field of psychology come to a conclusion, 'Only with motivation a man can work.' What motivation have birds got to sing? But the modern day psychologists are so focused on sex that even for that, they have started giving a meaning! They say that the bird is calling for its partner. They have started interpreting even birds' singing! They can't see anything as it is. That is why here, Krishna says:
yaṁ paśyati sa paśyati
The man who is beyond the pull of fear and greed is the only one who can see things as they are. If you are caught in fear or greed, you will see things only as you want, never as they are.
For example, if there is a beautiful, tall building, a man who is caught in greed will have one thought the moment he sees it, 'If I have at least one building like this, how nice it will be!' The man who is caught in fear will think, 'I should not see all these things. They stress me out. I should go and stay in the forest.'
The man who is caught in fear thinks in a particular way. The man who is caught in greed thinks in the other way. But only a person who is liberated from these two emotions will see it as it is.
yaṁ paśyati sa paśyati
What IS, he will see that.
Now, decide strongly, 'Throughout my life, I lived either pushed by fear or pulled by greed. Do I want to continue doing that?' As I said earlier, Mahavira says beautifully, 'You don't need energy from greed or fear.' And I tell you, for a person who is trained by society, who is conditioned by society, it will be very difficult to believe this truth that you don't need energy from greed or fear to live.
I know you are all sitting here out of politeness, thinking, 'He is speaking. Let us listen. What can be done?' Just because you are sitting, it is not that you are able to believe what I am saying or you are able to trust my words. I know that thousands of questions are arising in your mind.
But I tell you: Your whole past, whatever your age is, maybe 30 or 40 or 50 or 60, that many years, you lived only fueled by fear and greed. Just give ten days for Mahavira.
Decide, 'For the next ten days I will trust the words of Mahavira.' Mahavira says, 'You don't need fuel from fear or greed because you have brought enough energy. When the Divine sends you to earth, when you take birth, God sends you with whatever you need.'
In Bharat, when the daughter is given away in marriage, they send a whole set of household items, from a broomstick to a car. They send everything with the daughter. And they give a dowry also.
I don't know when Bharat will understand and come out of the idea of dowry. If any of you have taken dowry and if you really want a spiritual life, the first thing you need to do is, tomorrow itself, give it back. Give back whatever things you took from your in-laws' house. If your in-laws are not alive, give it to your wife.
I tell you honestly, if you keep dowry in your house, Lakshmi, the goddess of riches, will never fill your house with Her full blessing. You see, there are two things. Lakshmi has got two manifestations in your life. One is just outer comfort. The other one is inner bliss. The man in whose house dowry is kept, I can assure you that he will never have the inner Lakshmi. He may think he is having the outer Lakshmi. What is the difference between the poor man and the rich man? The poor man sits on the ground and worries. The rich man sits on the sofa and worries; that's all, nothing else. The size of the sofa is a little bigger, nothing else.
Anyway, like how a daughter is sent with everything to the in-laws' house, in the same way the Divine sends you with everything to this planet. In Vedanta that is what we call prārabdha karma. When you come down you bring enough of energy for your senses and body to run and acquire whatever it needs, enjoy whatever it needs and live life blissfully. You have brought everything. The only problem is you don't trust that you have brought everything. And one more thing: After coming down, you accumulate more and more desires from others.
If you have come down with ten desires, you have got enough energy to fulfill those ten desires. But after coming down here, you collect some more desires from your friends, brothers, sisters and others and then you try to work out all those desires also.
Please be very clear: Work out only your desires. Let you not waste your life in working out others' desires. You are wasting your life if you start working out others' desires. When we go into the chapter about desires, we will go deeply into desires - how they are created and how we run behind them. For now, this much of understanding is enough.
Decide clearly, 'Let me not be fueled by fear or greed.' And I tell you, just giving ten days for this one idea is enough. Decide, 'For the next ten days, I will work only out of my joy and bliss. I will do everything out of my pleasant mood, out of my joy.' I can assure you, it will transform your life. Anyway, I am going to be here even after ten days. If it does not work out, come and catch me! I tell you, just living ten days out of joy and bliss rather than fear and greed will transform your whole life.
This one single idea can liberate you straightaway from all bondages. One more thing: When you practice this, for the first few days you will feel a little unsettled. Whenever any desire comes up, say 'No.' Whenever any fear comes up, say 'No.' For the first few days you will feel a little unsettled because a new inner space is created. You will feel some emptiness, a vacuum. Don't worry.
In a few days you will beautifully settle with the new system. You will settle with that emptiness. That emptiness is what Buddha calls śūnya or nirvāṇa – working from śūnya consciousness, working from bliss consciousness, not being driven, pulled or pushed by fear or greed.
Just for ten days decide, 'I will work only out of joy. I will not let fear or greed enter my mind.' Of course, in ten days, you may fail a few times. Don't worry about it. Starting this way is much better than staying in fear of failure. See, when you have the fear of failure you will never start. Start! Even if you fail, it is ok. You will know the trick of the trade. At least you know the technique and you know where you are a failure. If you don't even start, you will not even know where you are a failure.
I tell you honestly, if you start and continue, it will transform your whole life. It will give you such great strength and courage that invariably you will be liberated. Don't be bothered about the initial feeling of emptiness.
It is like this: When our mother-in-law dies, we will feel empty for a few days! Or if one of the people with whom we are living dies, for a few days we will always feel that we are missing something. If we don't have anybody to nag us we will feel that we are missing something! This desire and fear continuously nag us. So for the next ten days when you practice this, you will feel that you are missing somebody who was continuously nagging us. Don't worry. You will settle into that new consciousness. Your whole being will become new. You will be a new personality.
This is an important thing: Trust that you have enough energy to run without fear and greed. Only small kids need candy. For you, trust should be enough. Kids will work only when you show the candy. And they will keep quiet if you threaten them that you will discipline them.
Only when you are a small child, you need fear or greed to make you work. Now, you are all grown-up. Still, why do you need fear or greed? Still, if you need fear or greed, you are mentally retarded! Please be very clear that you have grown physically but not mentally.
One more thing: In just ten days, you will not lose your wealth. Is there anybody who thinks, 'If I practice for ten days, I may lose all my wealth?' I tell you, if so, that wealth is not worth having. It is better you lose it. In ten days if you can lose it, do you think it is worth having it? If it can be lost so easily, then it is not worth having. The earlier it is lost, the better it is for your being.
Let you remove the tremendous stress and load from your inner space. Decide, 'For ten days, I will do all my action out of deep bliss, out of a settled mood.' If you practice this, a constant irritation that remains in you without your knowledge, will disappear. Knowingly or unknowingly, you carry constant irritation in you. That is why all of us are just waiting to burst, explode. Any small thing, we just shout, vomit words. We are waiting for reasons to shout. Any small thing happens, we get irritated. We shout, 'Don't you know? Don't you have sense? Why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?' From morning to night, constantly, even for small things, we always shout, explode.
Look into yourself: How many of you can honestly understand and agree that you carry that constant irritation in you? Raise your hand. (A few raise) Others are not honest! Don't think you are not carrying it. Everyone carries it. This irritation we carry in our inner space is because of fear and greed.
Let you be liberated from it from today. There is uneasiness between you and your being. That uneasiness expresses continuously on others. That uneasiness is what I call dis-ease. That dis-easiness between you and your being is what I call disease.
We carry this dis-ease because we are putting the wrong fuel in our engine. If the wrong fuel is added into our engine, we know that a different type of sound will come out and a different type of smoke will be emitted! If the fuel is not pure, the engine will create a different type of sound.
A small story:
Husband and wife were traveling by car. They stopped at a signal. Suddenly, next to them they saw a Mercedes Benz car. The husband said, 'Last night, in my dream, I was driving a beautiful Mercedes Benz car like this.' The wife said, 'Yes, yes, I heard the engine sound!' Sound sleep: Sleep for them and sound for others!
Be very clear: If the fuel is not pure, we will have a different sound and a different smoke. If we are carrying the constant irritation in us, the fuel is not pure.
So decide that just for ten days, you will not put the fuel of fear and greed in your vehicle. You will suddenly feel a new energy coming up from your being - pure enthusiasm, causeless auspicious energy. Causeless auspicious energy is what we call Shiva. In Sanskrit 'Shiva' means causeless auspiciousness, reasonless energy.
I tell you, it is possible to live with that reasonless energy, the unmotivated energy. Only two things are needed for that. The first thing is trust that you have that energy. Next thing is, starting to live it. Only these two things are needed to reach the divine consciousness.
When we start working with the causeless auspicious energy, we become Shiva. Otherwise, we are śava (dead body).
What is real renunciation?
Here, Krishna does not refer to renunciation the way we traditionally understand it. Normally we think renunciation is giving up everything, especially responsibility. Just by so-called renunciation, if we just go to the Himalayas and try to sit and meditate, we cannot become a sanyāsi.
When we use the word 'renounce' the way we understand it, we exclude something. Exclusion can never be the solution. When we say 'I should give up or avoid something', we exclude some creation of Existence.
When we try to renounce the world, we are renouncing the creation of Existence. We are trying to prove that we are more intelligent than Existence. Our renunciation then becomes a show of our ego, even though this may not seem to be very obvious to us.
Actually, we try to renounce because we want to escape from the situation. We just see what is creating the trouble and decide what we should be renouncing. What is creating trouble for us can never be the outer world things like situations or people around us. How can they control us? It is our attitude of fear and greed, the projections of our mind that are really the cause of all the trouble. Our mind continuously creates subtle expectations every moment of how things should be, how people should be, how your life should be.
The mental setup needs to change from running away from something due to fear of it to facing the reality. Running away from material pleasures due to fear of facing reality or fear of facing the guilt imposed by society, cannot be called renunciation.
Just sit down for five minutes and be aware of how you perceive situations in those five minutes. Just look at everything that you think, feel and do with awareness, and you can understand what I mean.
When we come to a deep awareness and understanding of our own self and are able to live as a witness to everything that goes on around us, unaffected by situations and people around us, we become a realized soul.
A small story:
A young sanyāsi lived across the road from a beautiful courtesan. The sanyāsi was all the time trying to meditate. The courtesan, on the other hand, carried on with her way of earning money. Many men came and went from her house.
The sanyāsi used to try his best to concentrate on his meditation, but his attention was more on the young woman and he kept cursing her for the kind of immoral life that she was leading. The courtesan, on the other hand, was not even aware of the sanyāsi staying across the street.
Even though the courtesan was involved with her lifestyle, with her way of earning money, she was immersed in her love for Lord Krishna and spent as much time as she could in praying to Him and playing with His image.
The sanyāsi and the courtesan died on the same day and reached the gates of Lord Yama, the Lord of Death. On reaching the abode of Yama, the courtesan was sent to heaven. The sanyāsi was shocked but thought that if the courtesan can be sent to heaven, he would get the ultimate royal treatment. To his surprise, Yama sent him to hell.
The sanyāsi expressed anger at the unfairness of the whole justice of Yama. Yama calmly explained to the sanyāsi, 'All your life, under the guise of meditating, you were harboring lust for the courtesan. She, on the other hand, despite whatever she was doing, was totally focused on God.'
If we try to do things due to the conditionings and morality imposed by society, we will become hypocrites. Even renunciation will be just a farce. It will also lead to misery just like the life of material pleasures leading to pain due to the push and pull of desires.
Brahmacārya literally means living with reality. It does not mean celibacy, as you understand it. When we are ecstatic unto ourselves, when we live completely in the moment, flowing spontaneously in tune with the wonderful symphony of Existence, we are true brahmacāris.
When we are completely in the present, totally involved in what we are doing, that we become the action itself, we no longer exist as the doer. That is when we have truly renounced. We have then renounced the sense of 'I am doing', the ego.
Then we are true sanyāsis. But we don't want to renounce our mind that continuously creates fantasies and gets us worked up when reality does not match our imagination. All we need is to experience that behind the shallow emotions that exist in the periphery, at the very core of our being is a solid, silent center in us that is absolutely unaffected by the external incidents. It is a pure witness to everything that goes on and that is eternal and eternally pure.
Don't try to go to the Himalayas to escape from the world. Create the Himalayas within you. Realize the silent center in you. Look at the cause and address the issue rather than addressing the symptoms.
You see, renunciation is going beyond desires and when I say desires, I mean all desires, including desirelessness. We think desires include the usual desires for money, power, prestige, relations and all such material things. I tell you, the desire to be spiritual and the desire to attain God is also a desire. The moment we say, 'I want to achieve liberation, renunciation,' we are holding onto a desire. The only thing is that the desire is not in the standard list of material desires. It is still a desire; it is still a product of the mind. The mind always hankers after something in the future. It can never exist in the present.
When we desire something, be very clear that we are working in the plane of the mind, whatever the desire may be. Only when we drop all desires, when we are completely at ease and ecstatic in the very present moment, we have gone beyond the clutches of the mind and we can see reality as it exists here and now.
Otherwise, whatever may be the desire, we will always live in our world of illusion, of māyā, because the future is unreal, it is an illusion.
The real, the present, can never be comprehended by the mind because it is way beyond logic. That is why Existence can never be understood by the mind. The mind can only philosophize. It cannot experience. And the truth can only be experienced.
All that we can imagine about God is still an imagination. God or Existence is beyond all that we know because Existence is beyond the small purview of the mind. How can the limited mind even come close to understanding the vastness and the splendor of Existence? Vivekananda said that, to him Ramakrishna was greater than God Himself. God was just a concept in Vivekananda's head. Ramakrishna, the guru, was a living entity, a living master who showed Vivekananda God, who gave him the experience of God. The guru is therefore even greater than God Himself because the guru is the bridge for man to experience God.
How can we desire that which cannot be even known? All our desires can be based only on what we know or what we can imagine based on what we have seen and known, right? How can we desire God whom we have never known? How can we desire enlightenment? We can always desire enlightenment in a way that fits the limited understanding we have of it based on what we have read or heard about enlightened masters. But understand, that is still our imagination. It is based on what our mind has come up with as to what enlightenment could be.
Beyond purity and impurity
I tell you, you can never possess, you can never achieve enlightenment. Only enlightenment can possess you. It happens to you when you drop all desires. Actually, our true nature is neither pure nor impure. It is something beyond purity and impurity. This is what we call visuddhi - beyond purity and impurity.
When your visuddhi cakra*,* the energy center in the throat region is awakened, we start nearing our true nature. Whether we accept it or not, believe it or not, we are bliss. Our very nature is bliss.
Our true nature itself is self-control. When we realize and experience that our being is pure bliss, the other emotions automatically drop. Until that point they mask our true nature. When we allow ourselves to be our true nature, to be bliss, we live spontaneously. We respond with intelligence instead of through programmed unconscious responses. Then it is not a problem to control the senses because they are under the control of the ultimate Existence. There is no question of having to control them.
In the Mahabharata war Krishna drives Arjuna's chariot. The horses represent the senses held beautifully in control by the divine charioteer. He drives the being represented by the warrior, in the body represented by the chariot towards victory, towards bliss. When the individual consciousness surrenders control to the Divine, the Divine controls the body-mind-spirit and steers one towards one's true nature, bliss.
Society teaches us from a very young age what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. So, we have programmed reactions, fixed perceptions about everything. The moment we see a situation, we react in the manner we have been taught. Note that we only react, not respond. With conscience, we can only react. We can only react by looking up our database of the past, what we did in a seemingly similar situation, what was the reaction of people then.
If what we did was appreciated, endorsed, we will react in the same fashion that we did before. If people around us did not like what we did, we will feel uncomfortable and to remove the discomfort, we will now react in a manner that we think will be acceptable to others. This is what happens all the time. It may not be very obvious to us because reacting like this has become a way of life for us.
We have forgotten what it is to respond with intelligence. Please be very clear: No situation can be exactly the same as before. How can it be? Can a river flow in exactly the same way at two different points? No! The very water would have changed from the time it flows from one point to the other even if the two places look exactly the same when seen from outside.
Life is like a river. It is continuously changing, continuously in flux. Existence is energy. It can never repeat itself. Every moment is unique. Because we see it from the limited perception of our mind, because the mind tends to always analyze and categorize, we categorize life as well into different categories. We say, 'These are pleasant situations, those are unpleasant situations, this is good, that is bad, this is right, that is wrong, this should happen, that should not.' It is not Existence that makes these distinctions but us.
If we can just understand this much, if we can allow this understanding to penetrate us, we can simply relax. We will then allow our consciousness to respond. Understand: Conscience is a very poor substitute for consciousness.
Have the courage to live life with intelligence, with consciousness and awareness, with spontaneity. See what a wonderful difference it makes to every moment of your life! Just this small change in attitude can do wonders for you; every moment will then be a celebration!
When the intelligence happens, the compassion also descends. Compassion for the whole world automatically happens in you because you see yourself in each and every one. How can you feel anything but compassion then? That is why masters can only feel compassion to everyone and that is why they feel responsibility towards the whole world.
When we flow in tune with Existence, we become a channel for the divine energy to flow through us. If the bamboo can remain hollow, it will become a beautiful flute and simply the air from the lips of the Divine will come out of the flute as heavenly music, as beautiful notes. Instead, if the bamboo is blocked with dirt in the form of ego, it will remain dead and can only be used for carrying a dead body!
These verses of Krishna are very powerful, but often misinterpreted. Many people use them conveniently to justify their actions. It is like you commit a murder and then claim you didn't do it but your hands did it! Be very clear: Not being the doer does not mean we give up responsibility for our actions. It means exactly the opposite. When we are so involved in the action, when we are completely relaxed, we are overflowing with compassion and love, and we just do out of the blissful energy in us.
You must have noticed in your life, when certain people act in what would normally be seen as disrespectful manner, they still don't come across as disrespectful. The energy behind the action is what decides the effect and the perception of the action.
Even in our ashram, I sometimes seem to be harsh with the residents and when I fire them it will be just open, direct firing. But not a single person has left the ashram because he or she was fired! When masters scold, the energy behind the firing is only of compassion; they do everything only for our growth. The energy behind the words of firing carries a tremendous power of transformation and if we are just open to receiving it, it will simply rid us of the blocks and tumors in our system and we can simply flower.
When we are complete and total in what we do, our whole intelligence, our whole energy will be behind the act. When we are truly involved in any action, we become the action. The action and we are no longer separate. On the other hand, if we do something without being fully involved, our energy is not completely behind the action. Energy is intelligence. So, when our energy is not total, be very clear, our intelligence is not completely behind the action.
When the energy behind the action is total, whatever we do will always propagate the blissful energy that is behind the action. That is why even a simple technique like watching the breath given by Buddha can be so powerful. But even a seemingly big action of moral good does not have the desired energy and effect.
Another very important understanding from this verse is this: Every moment, every action, whether it is talking or breathing or seeing, should be done with awareness. That is true meditation. I always tell people, meditation is not something you do for a fixed amount of time during the morning or the evening. It is not a quantity that can be added to your life.
I have seen so many people who claim that they have been meditating for 30, 40 or 50 years. What they mean is that they have been sitting with closed eyes, doing some breath control, trying to concentrate and all such techniques. But even after so many years, the person inside remains exactly the same. Absolutely no transformation has happened.
Meditation is actually a quality that needs to be added to our life. It should permeate the very way in which we view life, the attitude with which we perceive everything. When we infuse awareness into every action, we are in meditation.
So how to be in complete awareness? We can be aware only when we can distance ourselves from what is happening. When we can witness the scene without getting involved in it ourselves, only then can we watch the scene clearly.
Otherwise we assume some role in the scene. When that happens, we create some vested interest in it. We have some expectation that things should happen in a certain way that we consider beneficial to us. The moment we get involved, the distance between the scene and us has dropped and we can no longer be the witness. Then we can never see things as they are.
It is just like when we are in a dream. When we are in the dream, we don't realize it is a dream. We think everything that is happening is reality. The moment we wake up from the dream we realize in a flash that it was just a dream. It has no basis, no significance whatsoever.
The way we are living life now is exactly the same. We are living life in the dream of the future and the past. And we think that the dream is reality. We are caught up in the dream, thinking it is reality.
The reality is actually in the present. When we realize this, we simply wake up to the true reality from the dream of illusion. Then, we understand that the senses, body and mind are not us. We are something much beyond these. With this awareness we become blissful.
Q: Swamiji, I am confused by the word bliss. All I understand is that it is the same as happiness or joy. But you say it is not. Please explain.
Bliss is the state of being spontaneous, being in the present, responding, and not reacting to what happens around you. To be spontaneous means to live moment to moment, to respond to that which is, with no prejudice, with no mind, with no past and no future, with no time at all. Then suddenly there is a meeting, a meeting between you and Existence. That meeting is bliss, that meeting is God.
To be spontaneous means to be responsible to the present moment. People are ruled by their past. Life goes on changing every moment but the mind remains clinging to the past. There is a gap between the mind and life now. Anything that comes out of the mind is never going to be a real response. It is only a reaction.
And it always falls short. It can't reach the target. It either goes above or goes below the past, as it knows nothing of the present. Bliss is a totally different phenomenon from joy, pleasure and happiness. It is not pleasure, because it has nothing to do with the body. It is not happiness; happiness is of the mind and is very momentary. It just comes and goes and keeps you in turmoil. You can never trust it. It is bound to betray you. That is its very nature.
Bliss is not even joy, because joy is of the heart. Bliss is beyond all three; it is of the spirit. It is not something you choose. It has to happen. It chooses you. To experience it a person has to stop identifying himself as the body, mind and heart. It is eternal. Once it comes, it is forever.
Then one can trust, relax and rest. It can't be stolen, it can't be taken away, and it can't be burned. Even death is impotent as far as bliss is concerned. One who has known bliss has known something deathless.
The search is to find something that is eternal, that is bliss. And the way to obtain it is through meditation. Meditation takes us beyond the body-mind, because meditation is not identifying with all that which we have become identified with: I am not the body or the mind or the heart. When this understanding arises in us meditation has flowered. In that flowering is bliss.
Why do so many people choose to be in misery while few choose to be in bliss? All of us claim that we want to be in bliss. Then why do we end up in misery? The reason is that the more miserable we are, the bigger our ego becomes. The ego feeds on misery, on negativity, on darkness; that is its food and nourishment. If we choose to be blissful, if we choose to be a song, we will have to risk one thing, only one thing: the ego, because that is the only discordant note in our being. We will have to drop the idea that 'I am'. We will have to learn a totally different language – that 'God is and I am not'. 'I' and God cannot exist together. That is impossible. Either 'I' can exist or God can exist.