Verses 16.8–16.9🔗

Please understand, the energy that is within us, the energy that drives us is the same energy that drives this Universe, this solar system and planet Earth. This energy is intelligence, the highest intelligence. Kṛṣṇa says that when we are unable to recognize this energy, we are demonic. We do not believe everything operates out of this energy; instead we believe we make things happen with our greed, lust and desires. We believe we run this world with our puny intellect that we consider intelligence. For years, many religious institutions believed planet Earth was the center of this Universe. They killed millions for believing otherwise. They assumed that they ruled earth, and that there was nothing beyond them.

We need not even be irreligious to be demonic. We just need to be so self-centered that even our God is at our disposal. Then we are demonic. Such a belief is different from the concept of believing that you are God and that God resides in you. This belief arises from deep awareness and completion instead of dark ignorance and is totally selfless. Once you become God, the rest of the world is part of you and you are part of that Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yogaḥ You And Me 1159 world. There is no longer the duality of ‘I’ and ‘You’. Both merge into the non-duality of either ‘I’ or ‘You’; it does not matter.

People who think the world is pure chemistry become demons. Naturally,ifwethinkthiswholeworldisjustinertmatter,wetrytoacquiremore and more by killing everybody, by right or wrong means, and we do what we want to. Only when we understand that this Universe is intelligence, andthatitrespondstoourthoughtsandactions,willweliveinthespaceof completion, and start really living. A small story: A group of scientists thought they could do anything and everything. They challenged God, ‘Now you are unnecessary. Whatever you do, we can do. We can even clone human beings. What do you say? Now we can also develop whatever you have created on earth. Our department has developed everything.’ God was surprised to see all the scientists’ creations—the sizes of the bananas, and other fruits they had created, and so forth!

The scientists then challenged God to a competition. ‘Come face us. We will do whatever you do. We are better than you; you can go and rest. We don’t need you anymore.’ God agreed to face the scientists. God created a plant, and immediately the scientists created the same plant in a better way. One by one, they created the same thing God created. Suddenly, God took a little dust and created a man. The scientists said, ‘This is not a big deal, now that we have the ability to clone.’ They took some dust and were about to create a man. God said ‘Stop. Bring your own dust and create.

Don’t use My dust!’ Whatever we may achieve, wherever science may go, the Divine is alive. God exists and the Cosmic intelligence runs this whole Universe. We cannot create dust! It has to be God’s dust! Listen. There is a pure energy and intelligence that is the Source, the thread of the whole Universe. When a person is living within the limits of the intellect and ‘me’, he cannot experience the Whole. He knows only logic and calculation and with that arrogance thinks he knows everything. 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; the cause and effect is the Divine that is responsible for the Universe. However, when we think it is lust or that we are responsible, we live with the idea of ‘me, me, me’. Kṛṣṇa says firmly that when we believe that we are the cause of this Universe, this Existence, we are so deluded and locked in our own little identities, with small intelliegence, we destroy the world and ourselves as well. Our ancient sages, the great ṛṣis, were not fools. They did not retire to forests because they had nowhere else to go. Many were great kings, rulers of this planet, and they voluntarily left behind all that they had, so that they could understand where they came from.

It was not enough for them to read and listen to the experiences of others; they chose to experience the truth themselves. In the process, they realized themselves and became liberated. As many others over thousands of years have discovered, they discovered that they were part of this cosmic Existence. They realized and experienced that they too were Gods. They found that the same energy that operated in this Universe operated within them. They experienced that every living being on earth came from the same Source, and is the same Source. Now, what do we do when we need water? We dig a well and, as if by magic, water appears.

Now our neighbor wants water; he too digs a well and finds water. Yet are these waters different? The locations are at two ends, but the source is the same. Not merely the source, the water is also the same. Yet, we fight over common resources, thinking that we created Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāga Yogaḥ You And Me 1161 them and therefore we own them. 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 with less than one-sixth of the world’s population, the so-called developed world, the so-called Western world, consumes more than half of the natural resources of this world.

What right do they have to do this? When we are not in the present, 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. This is what we call 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