Verses 13.32–13.35🔗

Kṛṣṇa again and again talks about the true nature of the Self. He tells Arjuna that the soul is free from all entanglements. It is eternal and transcendental. Kṛṣṇa says that though the soul has come into contact with the material body, it still is free. In the previous verses, we talked about how the body is the temple of our soul. We saw how the soul takes this body to fulfill the desires of our past birth. The soul actually does nothing. It does not entangle itself in the KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 995 web of greed and fear. It is the mind that continuously adds new desires to the list and keeps the body running after them.

Internally, the soul is always free. It has no bondage. It is like the lotus plant in a lake. Water droplets that fall on the lotus leaves do not get attached to the leaves. They simply roll off and merge with the water again. In the same way, the soul that rests inside this body is completely free from worldly joys and sorrows. It is like the drops of water. The soul, Ātma can simply merge into the Supreme Soul, Paramātma. Only the body is related to the worldly happenings. The soul is not involved at all. Kṛṣṇa uses the word nirguṇa meaning beyond the three attributes— nirguṇatvāt. The three attributes of satva (calmness), rajas passion and tamas (inactivity) are related to the mind and body.

The soul is free from these attributes. It is neither restless nor is it lazy. It is pure. Actually it is beyond purity. When we use the word pure, then it means that the soul can be associated with the attribute of calmness. But the soul is even beyond calmness. That is why I say it is beyond purity. Nothing can circumscribe it. One important thing we should know. Only when something is seen by the mind, do words come out. Words are an expression of the chatter that happens in our mind. When there is no mind, there are no words. When you go to the Himālayas surrounded by mountains, the first thing that happens is awe.

No words come out. We are silent. Our being enjoys the beauty. Our being does not try to relate it to anything. Our mind has not yet associated any word to it. After a few seconds we experience the ‘wow’ feeling; it cannot be expressed. In the same way, Enlightenment cannot be expressed in words. There is no Enlightened Master who can adequately explain what Enlightenment is, in words. Associating the soul with even the word calmness, requires the mind. But the soul is beyond this also. No word can describe it. It just IS, that’s all. All Enlightened Masters are triguṇa rahita meaning residing in a state that is beyond the three attributes.

They know that the soul is free from everything. They know that the body is the temple of the soul. They know that the body does not affect the soul. Kṛṣṇa gives an example to make this point clear. He says the space that is everywhere is unaffected by anything that is in that space. The subtle energy, space or ether, is present everywhere. Every molecule and atom has this subtle energy. Though it is present in everything that we see, it does not inherit the properties of what it resides in. Even if it is in a flower, it does not take up the scent of the flower. In the same way, the soul is not affected by where it resides.

People think that their soul will go to hell if they have committed sins. They think if they have lived a pious life, their soul will go to heaven. They think that the soul is affected by the deeds of the body. Our sins do not affect the nature of our soul. Please understand that by infusing awareness into what we do, we realize that the body does whatever we do. The soul is completely free from it. The soul is not affected by it. Kṛṣṇa says that just as the sun illuminates our whole world, one Supreme Self—Paramātma, that is one kṣetrajña, illuminates all beings in the Universe, whether they are animate or inanimate.

He says everything has the same consciousness. Kṛṣṇa gives more and more examples. The sun sheds light on the surrounding planets. The darkness on the planets is removed by the sun’s light. In the same way, the Supreme Self, kṣetrajña, lights up all beings in the Universe. The ultimate consciousness lights up the entire Universe. All beings of the Universe have this consciousness. We may wonder why Kṛṣṇa says the same thing over and over again. But He is trying to make the concept of kṣetra and kṣetrajñya clear to Arjuna. Kṛṣṇa knows that this is important and He wants Arjuna to understand it completely. Anyhow, Kṛṣṇa says something new here.

He says that just as the sun illumines the Universe, the soul in this body illumines not only this body but also everything surrounding it, the entire Universe. He says: KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 997 yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ kṛtsnaṁ lokaṁ imaṁ raviḥ I kṣetraṁ kṣetrī tathā kṛtsnaṁ prakāśayati bhārata II 13.34 Kṣetri is the Self. This Self illumines all the kṣetra, all the bodies. Not just our body or kṣetra is illumined but all the kṣetra are illumined. The consciousness present in each of us is the hologram of the supreme Self. So there is no separation between the consciousness present in our body and the consciousness present in a plant or a rock.

Everything is the same energy. The sun lights up everything that is around. There is no partiality. It does not discriminate. Whatever comes its way, it removes the darkness from it. In the same way, the supreme Self present in us illuminates everything in the Universe. Our ignorance separates the soul from the Supreme Soul. Actually to even use two different words—soul and Supreme Soul, ātma and parmātma—is not correct. There are no two separate entities called soul and Supreme Soul. There is only soul. There is only one. Everything in this Universe has the Supreme Soul. Our mind draws boundaries. It is like creating borders between two countries. So many countries fight over boundaries.

One country fights with the other to acquire more land. They are drawing and erasing boundaries all the time. We think we can draw boundaries between the Self, which is present in us, and the supreme Self. We try to put our soul in a tight container made of greed and fear. We close the lid and are afraid to open it. Actually, we fear losing our identity. We associate ourselves with our individual ego. We want to show others how different we are. Our mind knows that if it opens the lid, the soul and the Supreme Soul will become one. Our mind knows that the soul in this body and the Supreme Soul are one and the same; there is no difference between the two.

So our mind fears that if it opens the lid, our whole identity will be lost and we will become the same as everyone else. Our mind does not want this to happen. So we continuously hold onto our individual ego. Only when we realize that we are all connected, that everything in this universe is the same universal consciousness, will we break open the container and merge with the Supreme Soul. Here Kṛṣṇa ends by saying, ‘If we can witness as pure consciousness, we will be liberated from the bondages of the body-mind and achieve the eternal consciousness.’ Kṛṣṇa gives a technique to realize the eternal consciousness. Witness and Be Liberated Please know that becoming the witness of the kṣetra is the only way to keep us away from the bondages of the body-mind.

We must witness as the kṣetrajña, consciousness. When we do that we will see the separation of the Self from the body and mind. Understand that all our movements, reactions and emotions are related to the body-mind system. The way we move our body is a reaction by our body-mind system. Our emotions like anger, laughter, sadness and happiness are reactions of our mind. All of them are movements created by our body-mind system. When we witness these movements happening in our system, we separate ourselves from the body-mind system. When we watch them like clouds in the sky, when we watch them like a movie on a screen, without getting attached, we see the truth.

Even the thought of witnessing our thoughts and our emotions is a thought that is controlled by our mind. Even that is our thought and implies that mind is still acting. Only when we go beyond that thought, do we experience the eternal consciousness. Let me explain the technique. The technique may take at least ten minutes. You are going to witness your body movements, breath movements and mind movements: movements of your body, movements of your breath and movements of your mind. You may ask what kind of body move- KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 999 ments do we have? Understand that by inhaling and exhaling, your belly will be moving continuously up and down.

There will be a slight movement of your belly during your breathing. Witness that movement. Next, watch the flow of your breath during inhaling and exhaling, without any attempt to control it. Third, watch your mind. Thoughts will be going on. Please do not judge your thoughts as right or wrong. Don’t be afraid of your thinking. For a few minutes, sit comfortably next to your mind, like a close friend. You can place a mirror in front of you and cognize that the person in the mirror is your incomplete half, your mind who is your close friend. Let it tell you whatever it wants to. Let it speak out loud whatever it wants.

Without speaking, your thinking will not have its clarity, depth and strength. Allow your mind to talk, talk and talk and make it as part of you by befriending it. Witness all these with no attachment. Do not stop, control or go behind anything. This is the self-completion process (svapūrṇatva kriya) with your mind. We continuously fight with our body and mind. We cannot get rid of the body and mind by constantly fighting with them. We can only go beyond them through friendliness. Only if we feel deeply friendly towards them, will we be able to go beyond body and mind. If we have a negative emotion of fear or greed towards the body-mind, we will naturally abuse and only have a violent relationship with it.

Be complete with the body and the mind. Please listen, the Cosmos functions with a mutual law, dharma of—‘don’t give onto others what should not be given to you. If you don’t give to others what should not be given to you, what should not be given to you, will not be given to you by others.’ It is a cosmic law of life. Listen. Please internalize! When you don’t have fear of thinking, thinking will not give fear to you. Both of you, you and your thinking, you and your body and mind, come to a peace agreement—‘till today, we had war. Let us stop the war. Let us come to an agreement.

I will not be afraid of you and you don’t be afraid of me.’ This agreement is what I call as Integrity. You not having fear of thinking and thinking not having fear of you, this agreement is Integrity. Witness the mind like a friend with integrity. Let whatever is inside come out with friendliness. There’s nothing wrong. Neither support nor suppress. If we support, we will go after the garbage. If we suppress, we will end up analyzing the garbage and pushing it aside. Neither approach is going to work. Just witness and be complete. Witnessing acts like fire. All the thoughts are burned away and what remains is the pure space of completion.

Understand, neither suppressing nor supporting your thoughts will work. Only witnessing with integrity works. When we go deep into our being, into our space of completion, the witnessing consciousness automatically creates intelligence. Understand that we don’t need to be in that space all twenty-four hours of each day. Even if we get a few glimpses, that is enough. That energy will guide our whole life. If we understand the silence that happens to us when we are witnessing, even for a few seconds, we will taste it and start acting on it. Only out of these few moments does the energy of great creation and achievement happen. Listen! When we do completion, creation simply happens.

Enriching will just be our lifestyle. When we are in the space of completion, we will simply create and enrich everyone. All great things are achieved from the consciousness and intuition that is beyond the body-mind. They are products of the witnessing consciousness. This is true not only in the field of science but in arts, spirituality or any field. When we are beyond the body and mind, we bring the maximum powers out of our being. We start expressing the power of words through integrity, the power of thinking through authenticity, and KṣetraKṣetrajñaVibhāgaYogaḥ TheFieldAndTheKnowerOftheField 1001 ultimately the powers of feeling and living through responsibility and enriching. The ultimate expression of our being happens when we are Whole.

Whenever we are whole, we are holy. Understand that witnessing consciousness or being in the space of completion is the only path to Wholeness or Holiness. Let us pray to the Parabrahman, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the ultimate Universal consciousness, to give us the inner space of completion or the pure witnessing consciousness; to give us the ultimate experience and establish us in eternal bliss, Nityānanda. Thank you. Thus ends the thirteenth chapter named Kṣetra Kṣetrajña Vibhāga Yogaḥ, ‘The Yoga of Discrimination of the kṣetra, the field and kṣetrajña, the knower of the field,’ of the Bhagavad Gītā Upaniṣad, Brahmavidyā Yogaśāstra, the scripture of yoga dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of Śrī Kṛṣṇārjuna saṃvād, dialogue between Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna.

Find Your Root Pattern And Complete Human Beings have the choice of being ignorant or enlightened, being incomplete or complete. Most often we exercise our freewill and choose to stay ignorant. Krsna explains how to choose to be complete and enlightened! c h a p t e r Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ ... Asmall story: On the last day of the school term, all the students brought gifts to their teacher. The first student presented the teacher with a nicely wrapped gift. The student’s father owned the local bakery. The teacher looked at the package, shook it and asked, ‘Is this a box of pastries?’ The child said, ‘Yes.’ Next, a student, whose father was the owner of a clothing store, presented a beautifully decorated gift and again the teacher shook it close to her ears.

She then asked, ‘Is it a dress?’ The child said, ‘Yes.’ Another girl came up with a nicely wrapped box. Her father owned a liquor store. The teacher shook the box. She noticed that the package was leaking. She dipped her finger in the leaking fluid and asked the girl curiously, ‘Is this some kind of beer?’ The child said, ‘No.’ The teacher dipped her finger again in the fluid, tasted it carefully and asked, ‘Ah, this tastes quite exotic. What is it? Is it some kind of wine?’ The child again said, ‘No.’ Then the teacher said, ‘Alright, I give up. Please tell me, what is it?’ The child said in a worried tone, ‘It is a puppy.’

The moral of this story is simple: Please don’t put anything in your mouth unless you know what it is! What this really means is, don’t make major decisions in your life based on your past experiences. Everything has roots. The way you behave, the way you think, the way you react, the way you respond, the way you cognize and why you behave the way you Find Your Root Pattern And Complete Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1005 behave—everything has a root thought pattern! Whether you feel unhealthy or helpless, or emotionally weak, tired, bored, lazy, agitated or irritated, all these put together is what I classify as powerlessness, feeling powerless.

The good news is that you can live without any of these. The bad news is that you need to work for it! Our past experiences are stored in our unconscious as root thought patterns. They will only mislead you to a space of powerlessness, incompletion. In Saṃskṛit, the right technical word for these root thought patterns is mūla vāsanā or mūla vichāra dhārā. We make incomplete decisions when we make the major decisions through root thought patterns or mūla vāsanā. The teacher thought that the gift was a bottle of wine since the student’s father sold alcohol. In the same way, time and again, we make powerless decisions driven by our root thought patterns.

Before we put anything into our mouth, we should be sure to know what it is, else it can lead to a lot of trouble. Before we make any decisions, we should find the root of our incompletions and complete with it, else it will lead to more and more powerlessness, more and more suffering. When you are in the space of powerlessness, the only decision you have to take is to come out of powerlessness. Let me define ‘root thought pattern’. The first strong cognition you receive in your life, which influences you to continue to function based on the same cognition, is a root thought pattern! When the first attack of any strong emotion happens in you and imbalances your whole cognition of life, giving birth to your mind, the pattern you develop from that moment is the ‘root thought pattern’.

It is a pattern you develop when powerlessness takes you over for the first time in your life. Your pure cognition is imbalanced and that is the root on which the mind is born! I will give you a simple example for root thought pattern. In the young age, if your mother teaches you, ‘Don’t go in the rain. You will catch cold’. Naturally, at that age your immune system is yet to be developed. But even after you are twenty-five, when your immune system is at its peak, you don’t even go in the rain, you just see the rain through the window and you start sneezing, ‘hachoo’. What you internalized, what you cognized in the very young age, which has imbalanced your nature is root pattern.

Your natural existence is root thought pattern. Get out of your root thought pattern and complete with it. Please understand, it may be anything as simple as your mother not giving you the cake and giving it to your brother. It may be as simple as your mother making you sit on the dining table so that you will not run around and make a mess; or you trying your best and failing in your exam or some competition. It can be even that small! Understand, what is a pattern? It is an action that is unfulfilled as per your fantasy, either because of an outside hindrance or an inside hindrance, and is in incompletion.

If your expectations are not met by yourself or by others, it remains as an incompletion. For example, you always wanted to wake up early in the morning and practice yoga, but you never succeeded in that, so it remains as an incompletion. You always wanted your father to be very loving and caring, and he never honored your expectations, this remains as an incompletion. I tell you, the incompletions embedded in you, go on creating more and more incompletions. So, first find the root of incompletions, the root pattern. Please listen! The moment a root pattern enters your system you are dead. After that only the root pattern lives through you.

You don’t live. Your life is over. Your body may be functioning but your life is over. The first thing any human being should do is—learn this science of discovering the root pattern. I tell you, anything you discover is yours. Anything you have not discovered is not yours. When you discover your root pattern and complete with it, your whole being will be filled, your Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1007 being will have the space to live integrity, authenticity, responsibility and enriching. This whole chapter called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, is about the science of completion—discovering your root thought patterns, mūla vichāra dhārā, your guṇas (root attributes) and completing with them to experience the space of completion, pūrṇatva.

Please listen! What is Completion? Completion means consciously reliving the same experience and relieving the powerful impact of the past, which makes you powerless in the present. The powerful impact of the past which makes you powerless in the present should be relieved from your system. Past should not bind you in the present. What we term perception is not the experience we perceive through our senses; perception is how we respond emotionally to the experience. This response is an incomplete, inadequate response based on our root thought patterns. Modern psychology tells us that almost 90% of our mind is unconscious. This means that we typically use 10% of our conscious mind.

In other words, our conscious mind drives only 10% of our thoughts, words and actions. The rest is driven by the unconscious. We have no control over how our unconscious mind functions. Many unconscious memories called root thought patterns are based on fear and pain. They rise up in moments of trauma or difficult situations. They influence decisions with no awareness on our part. All that we perceive is not true; all that we do not perceive is not unreal. It is a simple truth that what you cognize is only a fraction of what our five senses perceive. The rest goes directly into the unconscious as a pattern. Yet this does not mean that these perceptions and the memories of these perceptions are forgotten.

They remain as deep incompletions in us. And these memories strongly drive our actions. You don’t see what IS. You only see what you want. You create what you want. Human beings are in such an unfortunate space, they very strongly believe that only what ‘IS’ is perceived by them. What is your reality? It is just your perception—your perception about what you feel as you —your mamakāra, what you project to others as you – your ahaṁkāra, and what others expect about you—anyakāra. Please understand, all human beings need to know why you behave the way you behave, why you do the way you do, why you do what you do.

You may be a doctor, an engineer in the corporate field, or a politician, or in the field of finance or religion—whatever you may be, whether you act with softness, peace, agitation or irritation, it is your root thought pattern that is responsible for the way you react, the way you function. Understand this. The first strong cognition you go through in your life which influences you to continue to function based on the same cognition is root thought pattern. For example, at the age of three or four, for some reason, somebody tries to attack you. Shivering and frightened, you run and hide yourself. The cognition was so deep in you that your whole inner space was filled with fear for a few minutes.

The possibility for all other cognitions is shut down and this one cognition just fills you for a few moments. Even after that person has gone, you are still shivering in your hiding place. Please understand, if you had this kind of experience at that young age, you literally never came out of that hiding place after that! You may physically come out, but the suffering and shivering continue to happen. Even at the age of ninety-five, you will be shivering just like the three-year-old boy. Once some root thought pattern starts in you, your growth stops. After that, only that pattern grows in you, not you! Listen! Only pattern grows in you, not you.

If you had chosen to attack him back with whatever you got in your hand, even that will be a pattern. Find the root of your happening Listen! How you behave, how you feel, how you respond—this means the cognition that happens in you and fills you at a very young age and overpowers you. Sometimes it is fear, sometimes it is greed, some- Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ FindYour Root PatternAnd Complete 1009 times it is jealousy and sometimes it is the decision to prove yourself. Sometimes it is just being blocked out with confusion and worry! The first thing you need to know is that only when you find your root thought pattern and complete with it, your life as a human being starts.

Otherwise, you go on cheating yourself most of the time. We tend to think that our actions are based on a logical sequence of thoughts. However, almost all our decisions have neither logic nor awareness. One of the worst things is that the root thought pattern becomes so much part of you that you don’t even realize that the root thought pattern and you are two different things! You just listen to your root thought pattern and behave as if the decision is your own. It is like some traitor becoming the power-center of that country! What will happen to that country? In the same way, root thought pattern is your traitor.

It means that it is your enemy. If your enemy becomes part of your decision-making mechanism, your life will be destroyed! Listen! Look in. Unless you find your root thought pattern and complete with it, your independent life does not start. Do not allow root patterns to get rooted in you. Look into the root patterns­ , into why you behave how you behave. Everything in Existence has a root. Everything you do has a reason, a root. There is a reason for every happening in Existence. Find out the root of your happening. When you find your root pattern and complete with it, you will understand your prārabdha, the purpose of your happening.

In this chapter called Guṇatraya Vibhāga Yogaḥ, Kṛṣṇa explains the root of our happening; why we do the way we do, why we perceive the way we perceive. Kṛṣṇa explains the three different guṇas (attributes) to Arjuna. How we act—actually I can’t say we ‘act’, I should say how we ‘react’ to every situation—is based on these three guṇas, the root patterns and how to complete with them. Why Krsna Repeats