Verses 17.2–17.6🔗

Kṛṣṇa explains that the way we worship depends upon our natural disposition, the guṇa, attributes that we are born with. When we are born, we carry within us the vāsanā, the essence of the mental cognition or bio-memory from our past lives. This comes with the prārabdha karma (unfulfilled actions from past lives) and the saṁskāras (root thought patterns), that drive our mental makeup and actions throughout our present lives. In turn, guṇas or the attributes we are born with are determined. ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1197 Our being, our undying spirit, keeps an account of every thought we have and every move that we make. There is no escape from this account keeper.

When we reach the end of the road, when our body dies, the spirit plays back all that happened during the journey of life and goes through the pains and pleasures. According to Kṛṣṇa, the attitude, the space or the last thought with which we left our body carries over to our next birth and the next body that our spirit moves into. Hence we are born with a natural inclination based upon our last life and attitude. Depending on the attitude, we may have the attribute of satva, goodness, rajas, aggression, or tamas, ignorance as our driving nature. All societies, religions, faiths, castes or creeds are simply translations of these basic natures or root thought patterns or mental conditionings; nothing more.

After taking birth on planet Earth, we adopt the nature into which we are born that is according to our past bio-memories. In our new birth, we settle into a religious belief dictated by that natural attribute. However, we do not realize that we are a part of the Whole, a fragment of Existence or the supreme consciousness. We do not realize that our true nature transcends all material associations and conditionings. When this relationship with Existence is forgotten, we give energy to our inauthentic associations in material life. We develop allegiance to the blind rules of some religion. Such an existence is purely materialistic and the association itself is artificial, inauthentic.

To come out of this, we must do completion and break out of our material bonds and enter authenticity, the path of Self-realization. Śraddha here refers to the faith that comes out of authenticity in action or good work. Yet pure goodness goes beyond all material acts. It is transcendental. Hence there is nothing like fully good, completely good in material life. Listen! If you don’t bring authenticity, inauthenticity is waiting to take you over. Because you trained yourself for so many years with inauthenticity, inauthenticity is waiting to take you over. Bring authenticity continuously; go on expanding, go on expanding. Authenticity is the possibility of Life in you. One of the biggest mistakes you make in your life is thinking that you are still a possibility, but your life is a reality!

That is why you feel weak. Your life is not a stone wall that is already built. It is a wax model that is getting ready! Understand, the reality you experience is not a stone wall that is already built. It is only a wax model that is getting ready. Authenticity is the intelligence to alter your possibility consciously, in the right way. Authenticity is a great possibility for you to alter your life in the right way. Whatever you perceive about you is only a possibility. If you think you are a good person, a Swami (saint), even that is only a possibility for a greater saint to happen.

If you think that you are filled with jealousy, dirt, disease, depression and what not, that is also not reality. It is a possibility for greater disease, depression, and disorder to happen! Now, almost all of us experience our self as a mixture of both. You experience your self as a mixture of both—a little health and a little disease, a little goodness and a little badness, a little satva, rajas and a little tamas, a little joy and a little depression, a little fight and a little reconciliation, a little wealth and a little poverty. So you are a possibility for any extreme. You are a possibility for any possibility.

When you are in the state of possibility for any possibility, you are called a seeker. Please be very clear, only a person whose nature is pure goodness can connect with the Divine, with Existence—yajante sāttvikā devān (17.4). An Enlightened Master goes beyond the three guṇas of satva, rajas and tamas. He transcends these attributes because he burns out all his vāsanās, saṁskāras and karmas, of which these triguṇas are a product. An Enlightened Master has no bondages. He is not bound by desires, greed, fear or attachment. He is beyond the illusion of material existence. He ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1199 dissolves into the cosmic energy when he chooses to leave the body and it perishes.

When the energy of an enlightened Master is reborn on this planet, when it takes human form, it is imbued with some satva guṇa, since all beings in physical form must by nature have an attribute. Such a being is an Incarnation, an Avatār. Upon realization of the being’s enlightened state, that Incarnation reverts to its transcendental state of being without attributes or guṇa. In some cases, the Incarnation continues upon this planet to fulfill the mission that Existence has sent it to accomplish. In other cases, upon realization of its true nature, the Incarnation reverts to its original cosmic state. The classic examples of these two different events are Rāmākṛṣṇa and Vivekananda.

Both were Incarnations who reappeared upon this planet on the mission of Existence, Parāśakti. Rāmakṛṣṇa continued after realization of His state of enlightenment. However, Vivekananda, as predicted by his master Rāmakṛṣṇa, left his mortal body once He realized his enlightened state. If a tāmasic person becomes enlightened, he goes through the stages of rajas and satva before the realization happens. The transition may happen quickly but it must happen. Vālmīki, the great sage, was once a robber who terrorized and killed people. His nature was deep tamas with a layer of rajas. When he caught hold of Nārada and demanded money, Nārada offered him the name Nārāyaṇa. The moment Vālmīki uttered the name of the Lord, he was transformed.

He shifted to satva and became the enlightened Master who wrote the Ramāyaṇa epic. Kṛṣṇa says that our style of worship depends upon our nature— sattvānurūpā sarvasya śraddhā bhavati bhārata (17.3). A person established in satva worships devatas (deities, gods) who are peaceful— yajante sāttvikā devān. A person established in rajas worships yakṣas (supernatural beings) and rākṣasas (demons)—yakṣa-rakṣāṁsi rājasāḥ. A person established in tamas (ignorance) worships pretas (spirits of the dead) and bhūtas (ghosts)—pretān bhūta-gaṇāṁś cānye yajante tāmasā janāḥ (17.4). Please understand, whatever is your ideal, whatever you hold in high esteem, whoever you feel connected to, whatever you worship, that is your nature and that decides your quality. If we worship the right ideal, we are established in satva.

If we have Swami Vivekananda’s poster or Śiva’s photo in our room, we are in satva. If we have an actor’s photo or poster in our room, we are in rajas and tamas. Tamas is like watching a violent fighting show. If you continuously sit in front of the television and watch fighting, you are established in tamas. Kṛṣṇa says that based upon our ideal, our guṇas (attributes) can be described. Do not abuse your body, I reside in you In the last verse, He says, ‘Please do not punish your body. You not only punish yourself, but you also punish Me because I reside in you— mām caiva antaḥ śarīra-stham’. karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ I māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ tān viddhy āsūra-niścayān II 17.6 The scriptures do not recommend severe austerities and penances.

Walking on fire and such other things are unnecessary. When I make you do these things once in a while, it is to make you break the pattern with which you have always lived your life. But you should not subject yourself to these as daily rituals, ‘Every morning when I wake up, I should walk on ten feet of fire...’ No! Kṛṣṇa says there is no need for all these things. People perform them out of pride and ego, merely to show, ‘I did all these things.’ They are done out of pride and egoism. They are done out of lust and attachment. Some people, for example, sit for years on a bed of nails or sit with one hand raised.

All these painful contortions are foolish. These people torture their bodies and the material elements as well as the Paramātman (supreme consciousness) dwelling inside them. ŚraddhatrayaVibhāgaYogaḥ Authenticity:StraightwayTo Liberation 1201 Beautifully Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Please do not torture the Soul inside your body. Don’t abuse your body. The body is the temple of God. By torturing the temple of God, you torture the Supreme Consciousness residing inside—mām caiva antaḥ śarīra-stham.’ He says that those who torture the supreme consciousness inside the body are certainly demons—tān viddhy āsura niścayān (17.6). Rāvaṇa did penance. He cut off his heads and put them into the fire. This is a demon’s penance, torturing the body and torturing the supreme consciousness residing in the body.

There is no need to do self-torture. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Don’t torture yourself.’ God never asked you to torture yourself. These people wanted to destroy somebody all the time. That is why they did these violent things even to themselves. The entire purpose of this penance and self-torture was to boost the ego, to seek power. No scripture expects or teaches us how to kill others, torture others or do black magic to others. The other day I spoke to somebody about yantras as a remedy. Yantra is a metal plate with a diagrammatic representation of powerful mantra (chant) that is sanctified through rituals. After that lecture someone told me, ‘I bought a yantra, but when I wanted to return it to the person I bought it from, he threatened to curse me.’

You need to understand that only an Enlightened being can curse. Only he has that power. But an Enlightened person will never curse. It is not that anybody can curse and it will become reality. No, only an enlightened person can curse, and an enlightened person will never curse. If he curses, he is not enlightened. Nobody can curse you. If he is not enlightened, don’t be concerned about it. It will never work because for a curse you need satya-saṅkalpa, the backing of Truth. Only the words of a person who has achieved the ultimate energy can become reality. Because the enlightened person is in Universal Consciousness, cursing another person is the same as cursing himself!

One thing is sure, if someone curses, he hurts himself more than he hurts others. So never be afraid of curses. Spiritual relationships can never exist out of fear or greed. Never be obedient to somebody out of fear. Simply throw things out if it is forced on you out of fear. Never be afraid of anything. Here Kṛṣṇa says that there is no need for all this penance. You cheat yourself with all this penance out of pride and ego but you never really achieve anything. The person who does these things out of ego and pride is a demon, a rākṣasa. A demon is in deep tamas, in ignorance. All that drives such a person is the boost to his ego, his inauthenticities without consideration for himself and others. Such a person is a spiritual cipher. Trust And Practice Authenticity