Verses 8.19–8.22🔗

Kṛṣṇa explains how transient this material world is. During a single ‘blink of Brahma’—the Lord of creation, so many things change. In our concept of time, we see things as permanent, but when we operate in a different zone of space and time, all this becomes temporary. Our ignorance makes us think that all that we see is real and permanent. Once we understand that this entire life and the world around us is impermanent, we see everything from a completely different space. Why do we run behind material things? Why do we again and again want to possess things? In our concept of time and space, we see material things as permanent.

We think we can control them. We want to have ownership over everything that is available. And the problem is everyone wants the same thing! Everyone fights to take charge of the same thing. We are like cats fighting over a piece of bread. Please listen, we fight to catch hold of this body. We want to hold onto this body for as long as we can. Even at sixty or seventy, many people go in for plastic surgery. They do things to look young. Why? They do not want to accept the truth that the body is impermanent. When you look around, you see that the Earth is stationary.

It is not moving. When you look from the moon, you see the earth moving. When you go beyond the moon, you see that the moon also moves. Once we raise ourselves to higher dimensions, we see the actual truth. As long as we limit ourselves to this space, we think the earth is stationary. When we change our concept of space and time, when we change our reference point in space and time, we realize that all we think of as permanent, all that we think is ours is not permanent. It is continuously being created and destroyed. This is what Kṛṣṇa says. We believe in a concept of finite time and limited space and we cling to that without realizing what is beyond this dimension.

We are greedy to accumulate more and more material pleasures because we see them as real and permanent. We think they will stay with us forever. That is one side. On the other side we fear that they will be taken away from us. We are always in a state of fear. Both these—greed and fear—are the main sources of our misery. When we live in bondage to fear and greed, we continuously build saṁskāras. We create more and more desires. First of all, we are not trying to fulfill our true desires or prārabdha karma. Then on top of that, we build a whole new set of desires. In our concept of time and space, we think things are permanent.

We think we own them and we should take care of them and control them. When we understand that at higher dimensions, all that we see is destroyed and created continuously, we realize the futility of holding onto Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 625 things, even our own body. Kṛṣṇa says that in all this creation and destruction, only one thing is neither created nor destroyed and that is the ‘Ultimate Consciousness’! What we think of as an age is a fraction of a second to Brahma and everythingweseeaspermanentisbeingmadeanddestroyedeverytimeBrahma blinks. Do not analyze the literal meaning of this. Do not analyze how it is possible. Do not worry about how many hours, how many seconds make one day of Brahma?

Do not worry about what is Brahma’s time or what is Śiva’s time or Kṛṣṇa’s time. Kṛṣṇa refers to the concept of time and space as it exists in the Ultimate consciousness and as an Enlightened Master experiences it. Appreciate and intranalyze the deeper meaning. Understand that whatever we see is transient. Nothing is permanent. It is like putting our hand in a river and trying to hold the water in our hand. What happens? The river flows past, and our hand is empty. Once we realize this truth, our whole idea about time and space will change. We will see everything around us in a different way and understand the futility of the rat race.

I mentioned the seven layers that the spirit travels through at the time of death. The first four layers are related to the physical body-mind system. They store emotionally laden memories: patterns related to desires, guilt and pain experienced during that lifetime. The fifth layer is experienced during deep sleep and when leaving the body. The sixth layer is associated with happy memories and the seventh layer is beyond sorrow and happiness; it is the Ultimate consciousness. Please understand, even attachment to happy memories brings us back into the cycle of birth and death. It is not enough if we transcend pains and sufferings alone. Understand that happy incidents are also temporary and try to move beyond them.

The Abode Of No Return The secret to liberation is what Kṛṣṇa gives here—‘One who attains My abode will never return, yaṁ prāpya na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama (8.21).’ The abode where one will not return to refers to the state of the being when it transcends joys and sorrow. Kṛṣṇa again and again talks about focusing one’s thoughts on the Divine. The only way to think of the Divine at the time of our death is by thinking about Him all the time. At that time, we suddenly cannot think of God. In such pain and suffering, we suddenly can’t think of God if we have always been thinking about money and food in our life.

It is impossible. ThatiswhyKṛṣṇainsistsuponcontinuousdevotiontotheSupreme— bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā (8.22). When we live in a state of continuous devotion, our last thought will be of the Divine. Please be very clear: Our last thought determines our next birth. There is no doubt about it. When we continuously think about God, we understand the truth that everything around us is Him. When we are continuously in that meditation, we see Kṛṣṇa in everything around us. You see, thousands of thoughts come to us every minute. Let as many thoughts as possible be of God. We do not need to reduce the number of thoughts. Let the thoughts be of God. Let us immerse ourselves in thinking about the supreme soul.

This purifies our inner space. Throughout the day, how many times do we think of God? Maybe before a meal, or before going to bed. Otherwise, it is only when we face some problem, that we think of God! But how many times do we think of some film actress or actor? Everything in the newspapers, on television or on the internet is about something with which we are not really connected. Out of thousands of thoughts, less than one percent is probably related to God. Everything else is related to something external. Please listen, every thought is energy and we waste more than ninety nine percent of our energy on something that is not really needed for us.

If we can channel this energy to look inward, to see the source of our existence, we explore a new dimension of our Self. We are ready to do anything other than think about God or our Self. Why? We think it is a waste of time. We always make business plans. Akṣarabrahma Yogaḥ The Art Of Leaving 627 We do something only if we feel we will get something from it. But if we analyze our thoughts carefully, we are not thinking of anything productive. Our thoughts are simply completely illogical. Most of the time, we justify ourselves when someone asks us to think of God. We say, ‘Why think of God?

What will we get? I have better things to think about like work and my studies.’ However these are mere justifications. If we sit and write down our thoughts, we will see that we are not thinking about work or anything productive. Our thoughts are completely illogical and random. So why not think about God? We feel thinking about God does not give us any immediate results. But be very clear, when we are completely immersed in thoughts of God, our inner space is purified and transforms into the space of completion. Completion is God! We are preparing our Self. At the time of death, these thoughts will liberate us. Constantly thinking about God enriches us when our soul passes through the energy layers at the time of death. Passing In Light