Verses 9.1–9.3🔗

Kṛṣṇa assures Arjuna with these verses. He says, ‘My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most confidential knowledge and realization, knowing which, you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.’ śri bhagavān uvāca idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ pravakṣyāmy anasūyave I jñanaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ‘śubhāt II 9.1 Beautiful lines! He says, ‘Because you are never envious of Me.’ Depending on the context, this verse can be taken to mean ‘Because you are not envious of Me’ or ‘Because you have trust in Me.’ We may wonder how Arjuna could be envious of Kṛṣṇa. Please listen, you don’t know the ways in which the human mind works, especially since in our generation, we always think of Arjuna as being human and Kṛṣṇa as Divine.

We accept Kṛṣṇa as God. However, when Kṛṣṇa was alive, when He was in the body, people did not always accept that He is Divine. In addition, Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa were friends. They were close friends, so Arjuna treated Kṛṣṇa as a human and related to Him with human emotions. We should first understand the atmosphere, the background. Only then will we intensely understand this whole chapter as it is expressed. The Ultimate Secret The very idea that Arjuna might be envious of Kṛṣṇa may surprise us. Understand, whenever the Masters were in the body, people never respected them. This problem always existed. Only after they left the body did people accept and worship them.

Actually, it is easy to worship a photograph. There is no sacrifice or transformation required. However, it is never easy to worship a living being. The living person will always be questioned and envied. There is a beautiful one-liner: During his life, the grandfather is forced to live in the family outhouse. After his death, he is brought into the house and respected as a photograph! As long as he is alive, he lives in the outhouse. Especially in India, every villagehomehasafrontporch.Whenheisdead,hisphotoiskeptinsidethe prayer room. When he is alive, he has no place inside the house! However, once he dies, his photograph has a respected place inside the home. It is the same way with the enlightened Master.

When a Master is alive he is never understood. He is never respected and he is never received. When he has left the body, when he is no more in physical form, it is easy to worship him. Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 639 A beautiful incident: A group of devotees from Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s (an enlightened Master, Incarnation from East India) birthplace, Māyāpur, came to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa. They told him, ‘Oh Master, we missed Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We could not see him. If we had that fortune,wewouldhavebecomeenlightened.Wewouldhave experienced devotion to Kṛṣṇa.’ Rāmakṛṣṇa laughed and said, ‘When Caitanya was alive, many people went to him and complained, ‘Oh Caitanya!

We missed Kṛṣṇa. We could not see Kṛṣṇa. If we had seen Kṛṣṇa, we could have enjoyed the devotion, the energy!’ Rāmakṛṣṇa says, ‘Open your eyes and see. Caitanya is here. Just as people went to Caitanya and talked about Kṛṣṇa, you come here and complain that you have missed Caitanya.’ Whenever Masters are alive, it is difficult for people to accept their divinity. However, once they leave the body, people say, ‘We missed Rāmakṛṣṇa,’ ‘We missed Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi,’ and so on. We complain about what we missed. We never realize what we have. HereKṛṣṇasays,‘BecauseyouareneverenviousofMe—pravakṣyāmy anasūyave, I will give you the ultimate secret—idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ (9.1).’ Here, please understand, Kṛṣṇa is giving the ultimate secret, guhyatamaṁ.

Once we know this secret, then there is no difference between the Divine and us. Here He gives us the straight, ultimate secret. In the business world, the leader usually never gives secrets to anyone, whatever they may do, however close they may be. Corporate people maintain secrets. Here Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I am not going to maintain any secrets. I am going to open the whole thing.’ He says that knowledge is free. It is up to us to use it. Now, modern day IT companies declare that knowledge is free. Yet five thousand years ago, Kṛṣṇa declared that knowledge is free. He says, ‘I am opening all the secrets—idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ.’

He decides, ‘I am giving you this secret because you are never envious of Me—pravakṣyāmy anasūyave.’ There is an important thing that people who go near the Master should know, especially people who live around the Master. By and by, these disciples, instead of trying to achieve the state of the Master, they try to achieve the status of the Master. State is different from status. The enlightened state of the Master should be achieved, not the status that His Enlightenment confers. When we work for status, we are in trouble. Once I went to a college for a public lecture. It was a meditation program in Tamil Nadu. One young boy questioned me, ‘Why should you be respected so much?

After all, you are my age.’ Of course, it is true. I am barely a few years older than him. He asked, ‘Why do they shower so many roses at your feet when you come?’ In India, spiritual masters are usually received with flowers wherever they go. The first thing I told him was this: ‘I tried my best to avoid these arrangements. However, they have done it out of devotion. Next thing, you only see the flowers that are showered now. You don’t know how many austerities this body has endured. You don’t know how many thorns these feet had to cross to come to these flowers. So don’t be envious for the status.

Be envious of the state. Try to achieve the same state in which I live. Then, not only will you be showered with flowers, you will be showered with everything. Achieve the state, not the status.’ When you see the status, you will always be caught in jealousy. If you see the state in which I live, I will become a source of inspiration for you Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 641 to achieve the same state. I will be a role model. You will think, ‘When he can achieve this, why not me?’ I become an inspirational source for you! I tell people that the one and only difference between an ordinary person and an enlightened being is that an ordinary man is sleeping while an Enlightened person is awakened; that’s all.

The Consciousness is the same. Again and again I repeat, ‘Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, realize it or not, you are God. You are Divine. You have two choices. You can either sleep as long as you want without experiencing this truth, or you can make the conscious choice to experience your Enlightenment, your Completion. But the truth is, ‘You are That.’ Here, Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Because you never try to achieve My status, I am trying to give you My state.’ The person who never tries to achieve the status of the Master achieves the state of the Master. First, state comes; then status follows.

If we try to create the status, the state will never be achieved. Rāmakṛṣṇa says, ‘First God, then the world.’ The world is like a shadow. Status is like a shadow. Try your best to run after the shadow. Can you catch it? No. If we run after it, we can never grab it no matter how much we chase it. However, if we walk on the path, it simply follows. The outer world is like a shadow. Go towards the state, status will follow you. Here Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Because you are never jealous, never envious of My status and Me, I give you the ultimate secret of this state.’

And I tell you, this is the ultimate secret. Really, this is the ultimate secret. And He says, ‘Knowing which, you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence—yaj jñātvā mokṣyase aśubhāt (9.1).’ What are the miseries of material existence? Whether we have something or not, it is misery. If we don’t have, then the misery is, ‘I don’t have.’ If we have, then we have the misery, ‘I must protect it.’ RĀjavidyĀ, King of All Knowledge Yoga means achieving. Kṣema means protecting. Both are miseries. Whether we have or not, it is misery. Kṛṣṇa says that the miseries of having wealth and not having wealth, both miseries that are caused by material existence disappear by knowing this secret.

And I tell you honestly this is the ultimate secret that needs to be understood. Knowledge of this secret liberates you. He says, ‘This knowledge is the king of all knowledge. The greatest secret of all secrets, it is the purest knowledge and because it gives direct perception of the Self by realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting and it is joyfully performed.’ rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ pavitram idam uttamam I pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ su-sukhaṁ kartum avyayam II 9.2 See, religion or a spiritual path should have three characteristics. First, it should clearly describe the goal of life. Next, it should clearly give you the path to achieve the goal.

Third, it should make you happy to travel in that path. The path itself should be joyful, blissful. A small story: One herbal doctor’s billboard said he could cure all diseases that we know the names of, as well as all diseases that we don’t know the names of. He put up a billboard with all these claims. One person came with a disease. The doctor asked, ‘What is your disease?’ This person said, ‘I don’t know the name. Please diagnose it yourself.’ The doctor tried his best to diagnose. However, he was unable to determine the disease. But he had put up the big advertisement, so he had to cure.

There was no other way. So he gave some medicine. The medicine was: ‘Swallow a crowbar without it touching your teeth and drink three liters of water. You will be cured!’ What kind of medicine is this? The medicine clearly shows that the Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 643 person will not be cured! In the same way, our solution or the path we are shown should not be impractical. If it is impractical, naturally, we cannot practice. There was once a yogi in the Himalayas. When disciples came to him, he gave a technique: ‘Hold your nose for two hours and sit.’ Can anybody sit like that?

He said, ‘If you do that, you will become Enlightened.’ Who can travel that path? Nobody can travel it. The path must not be complicated. It must be simple. So here, Kṛṣṇa says, ‘It is eternal—avyayam’, meaning that the result that we achieve is everlasting. He uses all the advertising terms! And it is joyfully performed—su-sukhaṁ kartum. It is easy. We don’t need to struggle or suffer for it. It is the deepest secret. All we need to do is to realize the secret. Understand the secret. Why is it a secret? If it is going to enrich so much then why is it a secret? Why not let the whole world use it?

Please listen! The ultimate secret, the ultimate knowledge is not for the masses. Masses always get stuck with small things and shallow entertainment. That is why, if we run a cinema theatre, you can see how such a big crowd gathers! Only a few hundred people are here today because we built only a temple. Temples are for the chosen few, not for all. We need intelligence to come to a temple. We need intelligence to enter spirituality. It is not for everyone. Yesterday one lady asked, ‘Swamiji, my husband does not accept or understand the path I am traveling. Coming to this program is important to me. But, it is difficult for my husband to come to terms with it.

Do you have a suggestion to help bridge this gap?’ Honestly, the answer is that it cannot be done. It only has to happen on its own from within the person.’ I can say one thing: Don’t give up on people! Listen. If you have to learn just one thing from me, learn this one thing. I never give up on people. Whether you give up on me or not, I don’t care. I will not give up on you! Understand, I am a person who has no individual family. But thousands see me as their family member! Even on Facebook, I get so many family requests! Don’t give up on people based on their past record.

Earlier your spouse may not have listened to you, because you yourself may not have been integrated and authentic to your spiritual path. Now, bring that integrity and authenticity. And don’t give up on people! Enrich people, enrich people and enrich people. If you give up on people, you will give up on yourself. You will lose your confidence. Not giving up on people is life! People are life. If you give up on them, you are giving up on life. Whenever you give up on people, you commit partial suicide. Enrich him with some intelligence about life. You cannot directly give spirituality. Please don’t ask him to meditate or come to the temple.

Listen, authentically listen to him and don’t give up on him. That’s all. Nothing else can be done. Only by intelligence can a man come to spirituality. That is why this is preserved as a secret. If this spiritual intelligence is given to all, without bothering about the qualifications of the receiver, the person who receives will harm himself and others also. First, he harms himself if he has not completely understood it. For example, what will a criminal do if he is told, ‘You are God?’ He will think, ‘I am God. So let me do whatever I want. I don’t have to bother.’ He misuses the knowledge. He abuses it.

That is why I say he harms himself. A person who experiences God radiates compassion. He radiates simplicity. He radiates innocence. Divine qualities express through him. He never hurts anybody. We see a beautiful innocent shine in him and such simplicity. He never hurts anybody. He never harms anybody. If we are relaxed, blissful, in a good mood, and our employee or co-worker makes a mistake, do we shout at him? No. We will say, ‘Alright, leave it. What can be done?’ However, if we are in a bad mood, an irritable mood, nobody needs to make any mistake. We shout at everyone for no reason. We are waiting to rant and rave.

We are waiting to shout. Our mood, our inner space decides our action. If we are in the space of completion and blissful, we never do anything wrong. If we are in in- Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 645 completion with a hellish mood, we always make mistakes. Please don’t think people go to hell after making mistakes. No! We make mistakes because we are in hell. We do the right action because we are blissful. Someone who experiences that he is God never makes a mistake and never harms anybody. If this knowledge is given to all, including those who don’t have the maturity, naturally they harm themselves and they harm others.

They say, ‘I am God. Come here. I will do whatever I want.’ That is why this knowledge is kept as a secret. That is why He says, ‘this king of secrets is the king of knowledge— rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ.’ Kṛṣṇa reveals the secret only to qualified people. In this chapter Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I am not even God; I am something more than God. Whatever you think of as God rests in Me. All created beings rest in Me.’ He declares, ‘I am God.’ We need to see whether a person is mature enough or not to receive the truth before we share it. Here, Kṛṣṇa says it is a secret, because it can be delivered only to a person qualified to receive it.

You see, in the first two to three chapters, He speaks about śāstra, intellectual knowledge that can be given to anybody. However, these chapters are intimate secrets, delivered only from a Master to a disciple, only to a disciple who is qualified, who is really interested to receive the knowledge and who really wants the knowledge. One person asked me, ‘Swamiji, please teach me about God. Give me Enlightenment.’ I told him, ‘See, it is time for prasād (food offered to God and eaten by devotees with His blessings). Please go and take prasād in the ashram. I will talk to you in the evening session.’ He immediately said, ‘No Swamiji!

I must leave by the next bus. I have half an hour left. In this half an hour please tell me about God.’ In half an hour what can I tell him? What can a person understand in half an hour? Naturally, God cannot be given out like instant coffee! Coffee can be instant, but not God! We cannot have God instantly. We need to realize God; we need a little patience and intensity. The more we hurry, the more we will delay. Please understand that speed is not the technique of the inner world. In the inner world, the more we hurry, the more we delay. The hurrying, the tension, the stress, postpones the process, postpones the experience.

It will not let us relax. That is why Kṛṣṇa says that these secrets can be told only to a person who is really integrated and interested, who is really intimate, and who really desires to know. Beautiful words! All our scriptures are called Upaniṣad. Even Gītā is called Upaniṣad—Śrimad Bhagavad Gītāsu Upaniṣatsu...’ The word Upaniṣad literally means ‘sitting down near someone’. It refers to the teaching style of a traditional Vedic school or gurukul of ancient India where students sat by their Master to learn. Knowledge was transmitted in close groups in a trusted environment. It was knowledge not merely through intellect as verbal communication. It was a communion of beings wherein the experience of one was experienced by the other.

JÑĀna YagÑa-Path to Self-realization In our home we keep everything prepared for our outwardly life. Whatever we need is there: a bed for sleeping, the kitchen for cooking, a dining table for sitting and eating. Then we also collect luxurious things like jewelry. Our jewelry changes according to the color of our sari (traditional clothing of Indian women). Sometimes, the shoes also change! We have everything to match each other. Whatever we need for the outwardly life and comforts, we collect and store. However, we forget an important fact. In the same way that we collect things for outward Existence, for the outer space, we need to collect knowledge for our inner space: life solutions, solutions for our inner space.

If we feel depressed or low, if we face some adverse situation, how are we to react? How are we to handle it? We need this knowledge to Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 647 handle our inner space. Like collecting things for the outwardly life, we need to collect life solutions for a happy, blissful life. Collecting life solutions is what Kṛṣṇa calls jñāna yajña. What is nitya (eternal) and what is anitya (temporary)? What is satya (truth) and what is asatya (falsehood)? Acquiring all this understanding is jñāna yajña. If I literally translate this word jñāna, it refers to higher knowledge or wisdom and yajña refers to the purification process that leads to this higher knowledge.

What Kṛṣṇa means through jñāna yajña is the spiritual path that leads one to Self-realization. It is the path that creates awareness in us about our Divinity. This realization of the deepest truths about oneself happens in many cases through a combination of two things: understanding about similar spiritual experiences by observing others and our own efforts to contemplate upon these experiences so that they are reproduced within. Please focus on the life solutions offered by great Enlightened Masters while gathering knowledge. I request that people to read books that enrich you with life solutions as experienced by Enlightened beings, for at least for half an hour every day: books of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, Vivekananda, etc.

We have the books like ‘Guaranteed Solutions’, ‘Living Enlightenment’, based on my teachings in my meditation programs and daily morning satsangs, and over ten-thousand hours of life solutions available on my YouTube channel. Spend at least half an hour every day reading, watching truths based on the teachings of Enlightened Masters. If we can’t spend half an hour reading, then listen to audio CDs in the car. In the USA and even in Indian cities, we spend at least one hour a day driving. Don’t waste that hour. Always listen to some audio that gives life solutions in the car. It is not that it must be my satsangs (discourses).

Read, watch or listen to anything that enriches you into leading a better, complete life. However, let it come from an Enlightened Source, which experientially gives solutions for your life. Let that hour become your jñana yajña, your spiritual journey. Add more and more life solutions into your inner space. I tell you one thing: A life solution may suddenly come up from your inner consciousness at the time of need and can reduce the depth of depression you experience. That is why I am telling you to make driving your jñana yajña. Whether you understand everything or not, listen, listen and listen! Let listening become your habit. Automatically those life solutions, those powerful words, uttered directly from the enlightened consciousness, stay in your inner space.

You will be surprised how they will come as knowledge weapons to your aid when you need them! If we don’t do that, when we drive we will think about our worries. If we don’t spend time finding life solutions, we spend time finding problems. Even if we don’t have problems, we will create problems! Whether we have problems or not, we worry. Better not to allow the mind to worry and create incompletions. Listen to something that enriches with life solutions. Let that hour become jñana yajña in our lives. Kṛṣṇa says that doing jñana yajña is one step. Understanding that the whole Cosmos is energy is one step.

If we understand that whatever exists is energy, automatically, fear will be taken away from our being. The next question is, ‘How can we say that whatever exists is energy, Swamiji? How can we say whatever exists is God? That is impossible. All these things are good to listen to, but are not practical to practice!’ Our mind never accepts that these things can be practiced and experienced. So Kṛṣṇa continues; He goes on and comes out with the basic secrets. Who Can Know The Ultimate Secret Here Kṛṣṇa gives the qualification of people who can attain Him. He clearly describes the people who can reach Him. When I say ‘Him’, it is not the form named Kṛṣṇa that I speak about.

When I say Nithyānanda, I do not mean this six-foot Nithyānanda. I mean the Universal energy, the cosmic energy called Nityānanda—eternal bliss. In the first two verses He says, ‘It is a great truth that I am going to Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 649 tell and it is a secret that I am revealing to you.’ Now He lets Arjuna know what kind of people can know the secret. He says people who do not have śraddha, faith in dharma or His teachings go back to the path of rebirth without Enlightenment, without attaining Him. He says the qualification required is to have faith in His teachings.

Only those people can come out of the vicious cycle of birth and death. You see, having authentic faith, śraddha is one of the most important things, especially in the spiritual path. Whenever an Enlightened Master speaks, every word he utters is the Absolute Truth. That is why I always add the words, ‘Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, understand it or not’, whenever I talk about some Truth. When I say we are part of the same Consciousness, when I say that we are all one, and each one is infinitely powerful, our mind cannot accept it because it tries to find a logical solution, an intellectual answer to everything.

So you must have śraddha, faith in me to understand what I speak. Śraddha, Authentic Faith in Master There are three possible levels in which you can put faith in what a Master says. With the first level or group, you can have doubt. That is obvious. You doubt what I say, what an enlightened Master says, because you can’t comprehend what I say. See, you can have doubts. In fact, you should have doubts, only then you question what I say. However, you should look-in to find out if those doubts are genuine. If they arise out of ego, then it is your mind playing a game. Your mind creates a wall between you and Me.

As long as your doubts are genuine, as long as you question to know the Truth out of curiosity, it is fine. In my discourses, I encourage people to ask questions and to raise doubts. Only then can you fully internalize. The second group or level is when you believe whatever I say. This is dangerous. Believing whatever I say without intranalyzing, cognizing, and experiencing it for yourself is dangerous. When I say that ‘you are God’, if you just straightaway believe me it is dangerous, because you have not experienced it. If someone questions you on your belief, you will be unabletostandbyit.Youwillstammerandstumbleanddoyourselfharm. I know lots of people who call themselves my devotees.

When I ask whether they watch the daily satsang, meditate, do completion and enrich, they stammer, ‘No Swamiji. There is so much work. There is no time.’ Then they say, ‘But I pray to you everyday, Swamiji. I offer fresh flowers and incense sticks.’ They talk as if they do me a big favor. They are believers. Their foundation is weak. Only when they meditate and do completions, with integrity and authenticity, will they experience what I speak. The third approach is trust. When you trust me, you accept what I say. You still have doubts. However, you are willing to break that wall and try to see and experience what I am saying.

You build your foundation and you make it strong because you trust me. This is the way authentic faith, śraddha should develop. Faith should arise from a strong foundation of integrity and authenticity. First you trust me, then you try exploring the truths I share and when you have a glimpse of the truth, you believe me with a stronger foundation. Now nobody can shake you because you have developed a strong base. You have done the work yourself. Here, Kṛṣṇa talks about faith in dharma, His teaching. You see, we are different from animals because we can have faith in dharma, meaning the higher levels of consciousness. Without dharma, we are the same as any animal.

It is completely controlled by instincts. It does not make a decision consciously, based on right or wrong. However, a human being has one extra power. He has free will to follow dharma, to live with integrity, authenticity, responsibility, and enriching. He has free will to do or not do, to accept or not accept. When Kṛṣṇa says dharma, He means anything that leads us to a higher level of Consciousness. Man without consciousness is an animal, a dānava. In Hindu epics there are two types of people, mānava and dānava, humans and non-humans. The first category has faith in dharma and a higher level of consciousness. Dānava are noth- Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 651 ing but animals.

They do not have faith in any dharma, so their level of consciousness is low. Listen. The only difference between man and an animal is the seed of Consciousness implanted in us. We must water this seed and allow it to germinate. We must nurture this sapling to flower into a fully-grown tree. We need authentic faith, śraddha in dharma for this tree of Consciousness to happen in us. Kṛṣṇa clearly says that if we do not have faith in dharma, we go back to the cycle of birth and death. He gives it straight. aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya parantapa I aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani II 9.3 He says we must allow consciousness to flower in us and in order to do that we must have faith in dharma.

When our faith is complete, when we have internalized His dharma, with integrity and authenticity, in everything that we do, our consciousness automatically blossoms. When we reach that state of consciousness, we merge with Universal consciousness and then we are free from the cycle of birth and death. So, Kṛṣṇa gives a technique. He says, ‘Have śraddha, faith in dharma and it will lead you to the Ultimate.’ All Rest In Me