Verses 4.9–4.12🔗

This is a very strange statement. He says, ‘One who understands the nature of My appearance and activities will be liberated from this birth and death cycle.’ How can it be? He says, ‘Understand my transcendental nature of birthlessness and deathlessness.’ Just now He said he is birthless and deathless. Ajopi—I am birth less. Just now He says, ajo’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īsvaro’pi san. He says, ‘I am birth less and deathless.’ Now He says, ‘If you understand the truth of the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities, once you leave the body you will not take birth and death like ordinary humans do. If you understand My transcendental nature, you will also achieve the same transcendental nature.’

Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 287 ‘If you understand that I don’t take the body, you will not take the body either. If you understand I am liberated, you will realize that you are also liberated.’ How can it be? WewillstartwithanincidentfromBhagavānRamaṇaMahaṛṣi’slife,an enlightened saint from India. In the presence of Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi, devotees used to sing some songs. There is a song called ‘Ramaṇa SatGuru,’ which means ‘Praising Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi, an enlightened Master.’ When the song is sung, Ramaṇa himself used to sing along with the devotees! Somebody asked him, ‘What is this? You are an enlightened person, you yourself are singing your own name. What do you mean by this?’

Bhagavān says, ‘Fool! Why are you reducing Ramaṇa to this six-foot body?’ This is a deep, very subtle thing. He says, ‘I see my body just as you all see it. I don’t associate myself with this name and form. That is the reason why, just like you, I enjoy singing this name.’ An egoistic person, at least in public, will not show that he enjoys praise, because if he does, people will see that he is egoistic. He will never be open. Here, Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi is totally open and straight. He says, ‘Just like you, I enjoy this name and form, because I don’t feel this is me. The name is just getting repeated.’

Another incident: One of Ramaṇa’s disciples, Muruganar wrote ‘Ramaṇa Puranam’. It is the stotra (verses in praise) of Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi. He wrote a few lines and somehow he was not able to write further. So he just brought the paper and put it at the feet of the Master and said, ‘Bhagavān, I am not able to write.’ Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi says, ‘Alright, you go, let us look into it tomorrow.’ The next day when the disciple came back, he saw that the poem was completed. Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi himself wrote the whole poem and completed it! The disciple was surprised. Bhagavān himself had written his own praises! Later, when the disciple published it, Bhagavān saw that he had put a small footnote: ‘From this line onwards it was written by Bhagavān himself’, just so that the devotees would know that those particular verses were Bhagavān’s own words.

On seeing the first copy of the book, Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi turned to the disciple and asked, ‘Oh! Were the other lines written by you then?’ Understand, He asks, ‘Oh! Does it mean that the other lines are all written by you?’ When you wrote all those verses, it was ‘I’ who wrote through you. As such, you cannot think about me or write about Me. What do you know about Me? Unless I express Myself through you, you cannot know anything about Me.’ Only a man who has disappeared into the Divine consciousness can write his poem. Lord of All Living Beings! In the Bhāgavatam (life history of Lord Kṛṣṇa,) Kṛṣṇa Himself sings, ‘I am the Lord,’ just like how He now says —bhūtānām īsvaro’pi.

This words are so beautiful: bhūtānām īsvaro’pi—I am the Lord of all living beings! AmerecowherdboyfromBriṇdavansaysthis!Youshouldnotlookat Kṛṣṇa from today’s perspective. You should understand the whole scene as it happened, on the battlefield at Kurukṣetra. Now, because of time, we have accepted Kṛṣṇa as God. But this was said when He was alive, when people could not accept him as God. When Rāma was walking on planet Earth, only the Saptaṛṣis (the energy of seven sages that controls the world) knew He is an Incarnation. Similarly, when Kṛṣṇa was alive in his body, very few people recognized who He is. At least Rāma lived a controlled life; he is easy for people to accept.

But Kṛṣṇa lived such an ecstatic and spontaneous life, it is very difficult to realize who He is! For a so-called religious person, it is very difficult to realize and understand Kṛṣṇa. But He says, bhūtānām īsvaro’pi—I am the Lord of all living entities. Somebody asks Ramaṇa, ‘Why are you expressing your own glory?’ Bhagavān says, ‘If I don’t speak about myself, you can never understand me. Unless I reveal, you can never realize me. Just out of my compassion, I express the truth, I express myself.’ It is like this: You are caught in a traffic jam on the road. You ring up and ask your friend who is traveling ahead of you on the same road, ‘How Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 289 is it there?

Is there a traffic jam? Can I come by the same road or should I take some other road?’ Will he not have the simple courtesy to guide you? With the same basic courtesy, Kṛṣṇa is revealing His truth to all of us. Here, when He says, ‘I am God, I am the Ultimate,’ He says there is a possibility, ‘When I can achieve, why can’t you?’ He shows the space of possibility, He gives us the courage of authenticity, He encourages us. Here He says, ‘When I can achieve, why can’t you?’ It is like a seed is always afraid of rupturing to become a tree. The seed always feels, ‘If I break and the tree doesn’t happen, then what will happen?

I will die.’ But the tree tells the seed, ‘Unless you open, I cannot happen.’ The seed says, ‘No, let the tree happen, then I will open.’ But the tree says, ‘No, no, first you have to open, only then I can happen.’ The problem between the tree and the seed continues endlessly. It is necessary for somebody to give a little courage to the seed. A tree that was a seed once can say, ‘Be courageous. Be authentic to your highest possibility. Don’t worry. You will never perish. Open. Just like me you will become a tree.’ In the same way, Kṛṣṇa gives courage of authenticity to us, ‘You can also become God, like Me.

You can also experience the truth like Me.’ Please listen! Inside the seed, if life is not happening, the tree won’t come out. Inside the seed, life has to happen, the tree has to come out! Inside your body, authenticity has to happen, enlightenment has to come out! Inside your body, if authenticity is not happening, the completion, fulfillment, enlightenment, won’t come out. Add authenticity to your thinking in every step. If life is not continuing to happen in the seed, it is not a seed, it is dead! If authenticity is not continuously happening in you, you are not a possibility, you are dead! Constantly make authenticity happen in you, in your work, in your thinking, in your health!

Defining yourself to you should be done with life, with authenticity. If the seed defines itself saying, ‘I am a seed. I cannot do anything. Ah, my life is over!’, it is dead! If the seed decides to be authentic and say, ‘No, today I will at least just break my shell, I will sprout one small leaf. Now, let me make my second leaf!’ Then life is happening! Our huge banyan tree seed also would have had this dilemma when it was breaking! Because it decided to break and become a tree, today it is standing as a kalpavṛkṣa, a wish-fulfilling tree! When Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I am the Ultimate,’ He expresses the space of possibility.

He reminds us of our potentiality. He enriches us to define ourselves with authenticity as He defines Himself. He inspires us to enter the same consciousness, to experience the same bliss. When Kṛṣṇa reveals this truth, be very clear, Kṛṣṇa is not egoistic. He is expressing His true nature out of basic courtesy to His fellow travelers. The senior tree encourages the junior seed to open up and become a tree. The tree assures the seed. It says, ‘Don’t worry, I have become a tree. You can also become like me. You don’t have to feel you will disappear.’ It is an assurance. A small banyan tree seed is a huge tree in the form of possibility.

In the same way, you are God in the form of possibility! You are the seed for God in the form of possibility! Just as how the banyan seed is a possibility for banyan tree; you are a possibility for God Himself! That is why again and again I tell you, when Kṛṣṇa tells us ‘I am God’, He means, ‘You too are God.’ He gives you the courage of authenticity. Understand, when Enlightened Masters say ‘I’, they don’t have any meaning behind that ‘I’. Only divinity speaks. For you, the word ‘God’ is just a word with no solid meaning. But when you say ‘I,’ you attribute a solid meaning, a solid identity to it, which is supported by solid experience.

You know it. You feel it. If somebody asks, ‘Are you mad?’ you shout at them and prove it! But when you say ‘God’, your understanding is not supported by any experience. With enlightened people, when they say ‘God’, it is based on solid experience and when they say ‘I,’ it has no meaning. Somebody went to a great Enlightened Master, Nisargadatta Maharaj in India and asked him, ‘Master, you say enlightened people don’t have karma. But how can you speak? How can you do all your activities if you Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 291 don’t have karma?’ He said, ‘I am not doing anything!’ The disciple asked, ‘No, you are speaking to me.

How can you speak to me if you don’t have karma?’ Nisargadatta Maharaj said straightaway, ‘I am not speaking to you!’ He was speaking and yet he said, ‘I am not speaking to you.’ It is very difficult to understand! He continues, ‘Because you wanted me to speak, the speaking is happening through this body. There is nobody inside.’ He was just like a hollow bamboo. When a breeze enters a hollow bamboo, it comes out as music. There is nobody inside. That is why whatever goes in comes out as music. When you become a hollow bamboo, whatever words come out of your mouth become mantra, sacred syllables. Your form becomes yantra, the tool of liberation, and your whole life becomes tantra, a technique for liberation.

Your words are śāstras, scriptures. Your form is the center for stotras, devotional prayers. And your very life is the sūtra, the technique. Here, when Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I,’ there is just the Divine that is speaking. There is nobody inside. It is pure emptiness. Just the Divine, the pure Existence speaks through Him. He has become a hollow bamboo. That is why He can courageously declare in a battlefield, bhūtānām īsvaro’pi—I am the Lord of all beings. Sitting comfortably at home where you have all the security and protection and declaring ‘I am God’ is very easy, because there is nothing to risk. You don’t need to prove anything. But Kṛṣṇa is making this statement in a place where He needs to prove it.

He is making this statement in a battlefield, where His life itself is at risk. One arrow is enough to finish His body. Yet He boldly declares, ‘I am God.’ What courage and energy behind His words! It can come only from a solid experience, a deep conscious experience. Understand Death First One of the great disciples of Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita asks him, ‘Swamiji, if I come with you what will you teach me? What will you give me?’ Vivekananda says, ‘I will teach you how to face death.’ That is the ultimate teaching. Here, Kṛṣṇa is giving that ultimate teaching. In these verses, He is saying something very strange: janma karma ca me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattvataḥ I tvaktvā dehaṁ punar janma naiti mām eti so ‘rjuna II 4.9 It means: if you understand the secret of My birth and death, you will be liberated from birth and death, Arjuna.

How? Let us see the secret of the birth and death of Kṛṣṇa, how we all go through the birth and death cycle. Now, just as Kṛṣṇa made the statement, ‘I tell you this because you are my devotee and friend’, now I have to make the same statement to you all again. Here I am going to speak on something, which is beyond logic. It is pure experience. Before speaking, I take an oath: With integrity and authenticity, whatever I speak is the truth. Whenever the ultimate truth is uttered, whenever something beyond our logic is uttered, we never receive it completely. If we are courageous, we fight, we question, we argue.

If we don’t have that much courage, we don’t allow that word to enter into us. Listen! We never believe anybody. It is always an argument, sometimes open, and at other times, in the mind. If we can’t express it openly, we continuously repeat the same words in the mind. That is why, before entering the truths, I tell you what I speak is the truth. If you can, receive it. There is a possibility of transformation, because here I speak the truth that is realized only by experience, which cannot be logically true. Different religions describe the process of death in different ways. Some say if you have done puṇya or merits, you will reach a place called heaven and if you have committed sins, you will be taken to eternal hell.

Each one has his or her own faith. Some say there will be a special pushpak vimānam (aircraft) sent from Śiva’s abode and you will be directly taken to Śiva’s place. The Kaṭhopaniṣad says you will pass through a tunnel and see ‘Anguṣṭha mātra puṛuṣa antarātma—meaning the thumb sized light, which is your soul when it leaves the body. Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 293 There are so many explanations, so many versions as to how death happens and how your spirit enters into the next body. Here, Kṛṣṇa beautifully explains that people belong to different religions only when they are alive. When they are dead, they follow only one path, which is described in the Kaṭhopaniṣad.

See, when you leave the body, the moment the physical body dies and relaxes, that very moment the soul leaves the body. At that time, what you perceived as the highest pleasure in your life surfaces. If you thought eating was the highest pleasure in your life, naturally while leaving the body, you will think, ‘I should take a body which will continuously help me to eat. You go through all the choices and you decide to take a pig’s body. Whatever you think is the greatest experience in your life, whichever experience occupies your maximum inner space, you decide your next birth based on that desire. Please listen, nobody else decides your birth.

It is simply you who chooses. It is clearly the conscious decision of your soul. Here Kṛṣṇa says beautifully, ‘I am telling you the secret of things.’ Kṛṣṇa says, ‘rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam.’ ‘I am telling you the mysterious ultimate science, Oh, my dear devotee and friend, bhakto‘si me sakhā ceti.’ I made a few statements: ‘You take birth based on your desires, based on how you lived in the previous birth. Birth and death are your conscious decisions.’ We will now analyze these statements. Only then will we be able to intranalyze and powerfully live them. Listen. We will analyze to internalize this whole concept, the secret of birth and death, the mysterious science that Kṛṣṇa delivers.

The moment this truth is understood, you will immediately see that Life is a blessing. This life is your decision, please be very clear about it. Including poverty, everything is your decision. Don’t think poverty has been forced upon you. Even that is your decision. When we take birth, we take birth based on our fear and greed. On one side, greed pushes us, ‘Let me become the son of a king, let me become the son of a rich man.’ On the other side, our own fears say, ‘No no, I can’t take on so much responsibility.’ Along with money comes the responsibility of protecting it. That is why goddess Lakṣmī, the goddess of wealth, is handed over to Lord Viṣṇu, the Protector!

Lakṣmī, the goddess of wealth, is neither with the Creator, Brahma nor with the Destroyer, Śiva. She is with the Protector, with Viṣṇu. Along with Lakṣmī who represents wealth, the responsibility to protect Her also comes. Most of the time, we only want the enjoyment, we don’t want the responsibility. A person who is ready to take on the responsibility as well as the enjoyment will never be deprived. If you understand this secret clearly, this very moment you will feel your life is a blessing and not a curse. Usually we always blame life. We do not realize we are responsible for everything happening in and around us. We say, ‘If I am given a chance, I would make the world much better than what it is now!’

We always think we can develop on existing creation. Surely God is much more intelligent than us! Whether it is to do with your life or to do with the whole of Existence, He has done the peak of enriching from His vast responsibility. The one who achieves the peak of responsibility becomes a powerful enlightened being. The one who achieves the peak of enriching is God, an Incarnation. Because we don’t understand the mystery behind our decisions, we continuously blame life and the person who gave this life to us. Incarnation Happens out of Love and Compassion The greatness of God is that He gives you the freedom to be in bondage.

Even if it is the ultimate freedom He offers you, He never forces it on you. He gives you the freedom to be in bondage if that is your choice. Your whole birth is based on your fear and greed. But the Incarnation, the enlightened Master’s birth is based on love and compassion. The whole secret is this. Ordinary man takes birth based on fear and greed. That is why his whole life is driven by fear and greed. Enlightened Masters assume the body out of love and compassion. That is why Kṛṣṇa beautifully says, ‘ātma māyayā, because of My own energy, I take birth. With my own energy, just out of My love and Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 295 compassion, I land on this planet Earth.’

The next question that follows is this: How can we be liberated by knowing this truth? How will it help us? Understand, when I say the words birth or death, I don’t mean just dying at the end of life. I mean, every night’s sleep is your birth and death. Every night when you go to sleep, you die! When you come back in the morning, you take birth one more time. Every day, you assume the body. Every day, you leave the body. When you go to the causal body in deep sleep, you actually die and come back. When you come back, every day you are new. As of now, every morning, how do we come back to life?

How do we take this body? Just look deeply. What happens when you wake up? Usually, the moment you become aware that you are awake, either a thought based on greed or fear hits you. Maybe you want to meet somebody or meet some deadline. Immediately you jump out of bed. If you have analyzed your waking up, how you assume this body every morning, that moment is actually your taking birth. That moment when you take the body matters. These are the basic, very subtle, mysterious secrets of altering the whole consciousness. Whichever thought you enter your body with every morning, will play a major role in your consciousness for that entire day.

But an Incarnation, an Enlightened Master assumes the body out of love and compassion. He comes back just to pour His compassion out, just to share Himself with the whole world. When I say He comes back, I mean His coming back every day, every morning. If you understand this once and alter your thoughts at the time of waking up, you will alter your whole consciousness; the very quality of your consciousness can be changed. It is just like how a camera works. The first moment the lens is opened, whatever scene is there in front of the camera eye, is recorded on the film. That will remain forever.

In the same way, during the first moment of consciousness, the thought that you have while entering into the body, plays a major role on your consciousness for the whole day. When you get up, let the first thought be of love and compassion. Get up only to express your life in bliss. The moment you become aware of yourself, express, ‘Oh Lord, it is so beautiful! You have given me one more day! I am blessed that You have given me one more day’s extension to see Your Existence!’ Please understand, you have no right to any extension. Don’t think Life is your birthright. I have seen many people taking things for granted.

Before they get the job, they say, ‘If I get that $10,000 per month salary, I will be really safe. I will feel blessed.’ The moment they get the job, in one month, they think it is their birthright. Birth itself is not your right. Then how can you say something else is your birthright? The word birthright is completely wrong. You have no right even to your own birth. It is a pure gift. You can’t inhale or exhale for even one single moment unless the Divine allows you, unless the Universal Energy gives the extension. So every day is a blessing. When you get up from bed, assume the body with this gratitude to the Divine.

The quality of your whole consciousness will change and you will become an Incarnation. You too can Happen as Divine Here I am giving you the straight technique to become Kṛṣṇa, how to enter Kṛṣṇa consciousness, how to become an Incarnation. The man who assumes the body out of love and compassion is an Incarnation. If you assume the body out of greed or fear, you are a man. If you assume the body out of love and compassion, you are an Incarnation and you are divine. Your whole life will become pure eternal bliss. Your whole life will be a happening with a different consciousness. Here Kṛṣṇa gives us a technique to attain Him, to experience janma karma ca me divyam.

If we are able to live in such a way as to be free from the attachments born out of anger and fear, then we can be absorbed in Him, we can attain Him. All actions create their own reactions. When we sow a seed, the action, though it may appear to be complete, is in reality not so. We have set into motion a cycle, a chain of events. The seed sprouts and becomes a plant or tree. Thus it is in the order of Existence that every action or cause has its own reaction or effect. It is therefore quite difficult Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 297 to escape from the clutches of the cause-effect cycle.

Here Kṛṣṇa gives a technique to cut these kārmic bonds, to be complete and realize the reality. Actions that are complete and free from fear and anger do not create bonds, vītā-rāga bhaya krodhā. They lead us towards elevated consciousness. Fear and anger that arise out of greed pattern are two of the most provocative emotions, the root patterns that create incomplete action, and lead to bondage. Attachments are our bondage to the future based on experiences of the past. We have unfulfilled desires that we hope to fulfill. We look for results. When the results happen the way we wish them to, there is temporary satisfaction. More wishes arise.

More attachments are formed. When things do not happen the way we want them to, we feel sorrow, we are depressed. We strive again. Either way it is a never-ending cycle that brings sorrow in the end. When we let go of attachments and perform complete actions with no expectations, we enjoy the path of action. There is no stress regarding what must happen, since there is no attachment. Please listen. Completion is stopping the effect immediately and rewinding the effect towards the cause, and merging the effect into the cause! Stopping the effect immediately and rewinding it back to the cause, and the effect merging into the cause is Completion.

Kṛṣṇa offers a way to be in His space of completion. He says, ‘Be drowned in Me, man-mayā mām upāśritaḥ; you will have no anger, no fear. All actions will thus be without bondage. In this manner, you can be purified and realize Me, pūtā mad-bhavām āgatāḥ (4.10).’ He gives the assurance that having followed this path, many people in the past have achieved Realization. He is not saying, ‘if you do this, maybe something good will happen.’ He straightaway gives us positive assurance. ‘Do it, you will achieve! Many people have done so and have realized Me, bahavo jñāna tapasā (4.10).’ Completion directly liberates you from the karmas; completion directly leads you to experience the truth; completion directly makes you experience the reality of life!

Masters are like mirrors reflecting us. If the devotee is praying for wealth, he gets it. If he wants healing for body or mind, he is granted it. To a devotee who says, ‘Oh God, I want nothing except knowledge of Your true reality,’ the God grants him that. He shows him the way to the ultimate reality. If you visit our ashram, you will see that there is something for everyone. We have healing prayers, fire rituals, yoga and meditation-Nithya Dhyana Yoga, Nithya Kriyas, enriching temple etc. for people from all walks of life. For the ones who connect with worship, we have temples. For the ones who wish to attain their reality through yoga, there are various Nithya Yoga programs.

For those on the path of experiential knowledge, there are meditation programs. For those who want to rewrite their future as they want and live enlightenment, we have the Inner Awakening program. Only in this manner can we raise the consciousness of society. We cannot hope to transform society through any mass movement. It can happen only through individual transformation. When such people act together, it will have the same power as a laser beam. Each devotee and each disciple is unique. The way I treat each one is unique. What I tell one person is not applicable to another. I warn my disciples, time and again, please do not advise someone else based on the advice I have given you.

It will only cause more confusion. Here, Kṛṣṇa promises and reaffirms what He has said earlier, that— He will take care of the need of every one of His devotee. Only the most compassionate being who cares for all, will make this statement. Now it is left to the devotee to have some intelligence as to what to approach the Master for. Kṛṣṇa explains here why non-attachment is so difficult. It is in our nature to look for success in whatever we do. It is impossible to embark on an activity expecting it to fail. There is nothing wrong in looking for success at the end of an activity. What creates problems is the illogical attachment to that expectation of success.

What Kṛṣṇa says here shows that our mindset, human nature, has Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 299 not changed in over five thousand years. Even then they were looking for material success. They were looking for instant results. When they prayed to God they were praying to fulfill their expectations of material success. Kṛṣṇa is the greatest psychologist who ever lived and lives. He has measured human nature accurately. What we want is tangible and instant results. In Kṛṣṇa’s days, when saṁskāras, root patterns were relatively fewer, people had a different concept of time. There was much less rush and much less aggression. Yet the Master uses a term ‘kṣipra’, instant.

The master is talking about humanity; past, present and future. He says you normally pray to God not as an expression of gratitude, but to seek unfulfilled material desires and all that you think will bring you happiness. All your actions, Kṛṣṇa says, are based on material success, and He says such activities bear instant results in this world, kṣipraṁ hi mānuṣe loke (4.12).Whether you understand it or not, all these prayers and actions do produce instant results. This does not mean whatever you pray for is instantly granted by the God you prayed to. God, fortunately, has far more wisdom than we have. God uses His buddhi, wisdom, to grant what He deems appropriate.

However, the result of your actions is instant. The karmaphala is immediate. When religions talk of karma (action) and karmaphala (the fruits or outcome of action,) they speak in terms of merits and sins, pāpa and puṇya. They tell you that you will go to hell if you accumulate sins, and you will go to heaven if you gain merits. They try to control you through fear and greed of heaven. There is no hell or heaven. When you think good thoughts, do good deeds, you feel good, you are in heaven. When you think evil, you act evil, you feel evil and you are in hell. That is all there is to karma.

This is the cosmic cause-effect principle. You are what your intent is; you become what your intent is. Karma acts instantly, here and now. Do not blame others for your actions. Karma is in your hands. You are a free spirit; you have the power of thought, the power of words, the power of action, and the power of living. It is not merely guaranteed by your national constitution, but by God’s own constitution. What you sow, you shall certainly reap. Understand And Be Unaffected By Action