Verses 9.4–9.8🔗

It is time to reveal the secrets. Śrī Kṛṣṇa starts: mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā I matsthāni sarva bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ II 9.4 ‘By Me, in my formless form, this entire Universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.’ Before entering further into this verse, the meaning of the verse should be understood. I want to tell you about my meeting with Charles Townes, a Nobel Laureate and a great scientist. He discovered some secrets related to Laser and Maser. Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 653 I asked him, ‘How did you discover? How did this truth happen in your being?’

He answered, ‘Swamiji, to tell you honestly, I was relaxing in a park in Washington. It was early morning about six a.m. I was supposed to give a lecture on this subject to a group that day at nine a.m. I tried my best to recollect everything. I was completely frustrated because I could not achieve much. Suddenly like a revelation, as an intuition, the conclusion was revealed to me! The whole truth came into my consciousness. I discovered it! I immediately penned down what I got.’ And he says, ‘I then realized I had a difficulty: I knew the conclusion. I knew the truth, however, I didn’t know the logical steps to arrive at that conclusion!

I would not be able to present it unless I knew the steps. So after that, I needed to think and develop the logical steps. Only then could I present it to others. Like an intuition, suddenly, it had been revealed to me.’ Actually, even this experience is not a big thing. The truth, the important thing is this: I asked Charles Townes, ‘How did you feel when it happened to you, when the revelation happened to you?’ Because what he experienced was intuition just as our sages experienced. He said, ‘Swamiji, I don’t know how to exactly express; however one thing is certain: from that moment onwards, I know for sure that the whole Universe is intelligence!’

This is the truth! The whole Universe is pure intelligence. The whole Universe is not dead matter. The Universe is not an accident. It can respond to our thoughts. Please understand, the whole Universe, planet Earth, air, oceans, rivers, earth, fire, or the space, sun, moon, this whole Universe, is intelligence. It can reciprocate. It can respond. It can react to our thoughts. This is an important, basic understanding. The moment we understand that we are this energy that is intelligence, the moment we are aware that we are inside the energy that is intelligence, at that moment, we immediately settle into a deep relaxation. The moment we experience, we understand: we are under the guidance of an intelligent energy.

We are taken care of by an intelligent energy, we are part of the Cosmic intelligence and we don’t need to struggle or stress ourselves. We don’t need to torture ourselves with insecurity problems, unnecessary worries. Actually, all our problems, tensions and stresses arise because we think we do everything. We think the Universe runs because of us. Understand that the Universe runs in spite of us! We should understand that the Universe is intelligent and it responds to our thoughts. If we trust the Universe, we experience how light we are. We can unload all our troubles including the extra responsibility of thinking that we do everything. This does not mean that we just sit and relax and say, ‘Okay, the Universe is intelligence.

It will take care of everything.’ This is laziness and escapism. We must still work; however we can enjoy the process. You see, we think of the result all the time. Our thoughts arise out of fear or greed: fear of whether we will get the results or greed of wanting more and more. However, we never enjoy the process of doing that work. When we enjoy the process and trust the Universal intelligence, thoughts arising out of fear and greed will disappear. We will enjoy the process of doing and we will let the Universe take care of the results. Kṛṣṇa says elsewhere, ‘You do what you have to.

Do it, but surrender the results to Me.’ When He says ‘Me’, He refers to the Universal consciousness or intelligence. This is what Kṛṣṇa means in the next verse when He says that the beings do not depend on Him, nor does He depend on them. Of course, it is clear that the Universe does not depend upon us; yet how can He say that we, the beings created and sustained by the Universe, do not depend upon it? What He means is this: it is not a passive and lazy dependence of letting everything happen while we sit idle. It is an active understanding. One does what one must do as part of his life process but without attachment and ownership.

Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 655 One way or the other, we are in this Universe. Because the Universe is intelligence, it responds to our thoughts. It makes things happen. Since we are part of this Universe, just flow with the energy of the Universe. Do not resist it. If this understanding penetrates our life, it is enough! If we know the Universe is intelligence, we never question how life unfolds. We don’t say, ‘I am moral. But I see people who don’t live morally living luxuriously, happily. Yet I always suffer!’ We never have these frustrations, these incompletions with others and with life, because we know the Cosmic intelligence will take care ultimately.

Whoever is immoral or whoever goes around and disturbs others will naturally face the consequences, because intelligence takes care. In the same way, if we are integrated and authentic, living a spiritual life, we will live a beautiful life. We are rewarded because the whole Universe is run by an intelligence that responds to this. Don’t think the Cosmos is just matter. If we think the Cosmos is matter, we are materialistic. If we understand that the Cosmos is intelligence, we are spiritual, that’s all. The only difference between the materialistic and spiritual person is that the materialist thinks the whole thing is material: ‘Let me acquire more and more material things.’

The spiritual person understands that the whole thing is spirit, energy. If we understand that the whole thing is spirit, energy, intelligence, then a tremendous relaxation and bliss consciousness happens to us. Please understand, bliss is not just a mood. Bliss is our very Consciousness. If it comes and goes as a mood, we are only having one or two experiences. One devotee asked, ‘Bliss comes and goes, what to do?’ I explained, ‘You are having initial glimpses of bliss. Through your mind, you are trying to touch the bliss. Nothing needs to be done; just relax, that’s all.’ Once we understand this secret, a deep relaxation happens to us.

In such a deep relaxation, we straighaway experience bliss consciousness. Once we experience Bliss Consciousness, it is everlasting. The bliss mood comes and stays. Bliss Consciousness is everlasting. Kṛṣṇa declares, ‘By My formless form, this entire Universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me—mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā.’ He speaks of Cosmic intelligence. Be very clear, such a big Universe is moving and happening. All the planets move around the sun. Each planet has its own moons. There are so many suns, moons and planets. Yet, each one travels in its route properly. No traffic police! Accidents are rare. Unless intelligence runs the whole thing, do you think things can happen so beautifully?

And even on this planet Earth, see how the whole thing is beautiful! The whole thing happens in an order, in a complete way. Only wherever human beings live, there is chaos! Except human beings, nobody creates chaos. Even in chaos, the Divine creates order. Understand, the whole Universe is intelligence and it operates out of intelligence. This intelligence responds to our thoughts and we can relate with this intelligence. When we internalize this truth, then we naturally experience a deep peace. Rest, a real, ultimate rest and confidence to live, happens within us. As long as we think the world is matter or material, there is no use living.

Nothing matters. Even if we become the president of one country, other countries will not be under our control. So naturally, we can never achieve the whole matter. As long as we believe the world is material, we create more and more violence because we live materially. Materially means that we must snatch from others. One way or another; violence will exist. Only a person who experiences, who understands that the whole thing is energy, intelligence, only he can relax. Let me repeat the next verse. yathākāśasthito nityaṁ vāyuḥ sarvatrago mahān I tathā sarvāṇi bhūtāni matsthānīty upadhāraya II 9.6 He says, ‘Understand that as the mighty wind blowing everywhere rests in the sky, all created beings rest in Me.’

Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 657 Please understand this principle: He says, ‘Just as the wind rests in the sky energy.’ Please understand how the Earth is energy. We know earth is Energy. Take a stone. If a stone is thrown at us or if we throw a stone, we know the energy behind that stone. Next, consider water. We know the energy of water. Whoever knows about the waters that devastated New Orleans knows the energy of water! Or, if it floods, we know what water does; water is energy, we can understand that. Next is agni, fire. All of us know the power of fire. Next, air: storms, hurricanes, and tornados.

We know the power of air. In the same way, ākāśa (space or ether) is also energy. We do not know the power of ākāśa because it does not directly create impacts and effects in our lives. Ākāśa is disturbed by our collective negative thoughts, collective poison. The collective energy of the Universe is ākāśa. When the earth element is disturbed or poisoned, only one person suffers. For example, if our food is poisoned, we alone suffer, that’s all. If water is poisoned, the whole region suffers. Whoever uses the water supply, suffer. If whatever creates fire in us is corrupted, a big group suffers. We can use medicines as an example for fire because medicines keep the fire inside us alive.

If medicines are corrupted, people who take the medicines suffer. If chemicals pollute the air, the whole country suffers. If air is corrupted, if the air is polluted, the whole society suffers. But if space, ākāśa, is polluted, the whole world suffers. Corruption at higher levels of energy creates suffering for more and more people. The higher the level of energy that is corrupted, the number of people suffering is more. Our thoughts corrupt space. Space is energy. Because ether or space is so subtle and so sensitive, we cannot feel the happenings in the space of ether. We feel the happenings in the other four spaces: earth, water, fire and air, so because of that we can understand the happenings in them.

However, we fail to understand that space, ether, is also energy, a power. It is more subtle and more powerful because the subtler it becomes, the more powerful and energetic it becomes. Levels of Space, ĀkĀŚa There are three levels of space. The first level is when we are limited to what is inside this skin. This is Ghaṭākāśa, what is contained within our body. We limit our whole understanding of everything around us to this body. We become conscious of how this body should look, how it should be maintained. We think we are only this body and nothing else. This is the lowest level. The next level is Cidākāśa.

This space refers to what our mind perceives as the world. Let’s say we are sitting here but our mind is in Los Angeles. Then that (Los Angeles) becomes our cidākāśa, the space perceived by our mind. The next moment our mind shifts to Bangalore. Then that becomes our cidākāśa. The space that our mind operates in is cidākāśa. The third and final level is Mahākāśa. The whole Cosmos, everything that is outside and that is inside forms mahākāśa. This is the ultimate level. This is the level where everything that we see as different becomes One. Please clearly understand these three spaces. Our body, everything that is inside this skin is ghaṭākāśa.

Next, the space governed by our mind, by our thoughts, is cidākāśa. Finally, the whole Universe, the whole cosmos, forms mahākāśa. Now, if something happens inside our body, we immediately feel it. If we are hurt, we clearly see the blood flow. We see a rash or a cut. We clearly see and feel any disturbance or event in ghaṭākāśa at a gross level. When we go to the next level, cidākāśa, events that disturb or change this space are subtle. Our thoughts affect cidākāśa. Listen! Whether we believe it or not, our thoughts have a huge effect on the external world. Whatever thought comes, don’t think that it simply comes and goes.

Every thought is energy. It manifests as something in the external world. The problem is that we are unaware of the effect. The effect is subtle so our mind cannot see that what happens is because of those thoughts we entertained. Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 659 Our mind thinks something. It affects this cidākāśa, our inner space. These changes are projected into the external world, yet our mind is unable to recognize that all it sees is because of itself. So, as we advance one level higher, the changes become more subtle but the effect is more powerful. In ghaṭākāśa, the effect is limited to our body.

In cidākāśa, our thoughts affect the space around us. The effect is seen in a bigger space. The effect is more widespread. Now the highest level is mahākāśa. This level is subtler than cidākāśa. Any change here affects the whole Universe. When something happens in this space, the whole Universe responds. When we enter this space, we realize the ultimate Truth. We merge with everything, with the whole Cosmos. The fifth element, ether, is like mahākāśa. Actually they are the same. Ether is everywhere. Mahākāśa pervades everything. We are just not aware of it. This space takes any shape and any form. Even in vaccum, it is there. Understand this: If water is compressed by a compressor, it becomes energy.

If air is compressed by a compressor, it can even move a train; it becomes energy. In the same way, if ether is compressed in a particular space, in a particular shape, again that becomes energy. An iron piece; if it is a square piece, it is different. If it is an ‘I’ shape, it is totally different and can be used for a different purpose. The same iron, one kilogram of iron, if it is a rectangular bar, the effect or power is totally different. Do you understand? It is a subtle concept, but if we understand, we realize the great gift of the great research that our Vedic Masters accomplished.

They did a great enriching sacrifice by doing all this research and enriching us selflessly with all this wisdom. Like earth, ether, ākāśa can be used to create the space we want. It can be used in different forms and shapes. Certain techniques allow us to use the ether energy at its best, to its maximum level. When ether is put in one particular size – inside that room or inside that space—whoever lives there will be controlled by that ether and the ether is in turn controlled by them. Their thoughts affect the ether and the ether affects their thoughts. This science of using the energy of space or ether is the basis of Vāstu Śastra, an ancient Vedic science related to the science of architecture.

We can live in harmony with the Universal energy by constructing dwellings in a manner that fits in with the spatial energy of the Universe. Vāstu Śastra lays down details for where various activity spaces should be located in a dwelling, as well as the direction. It tells where the kitchen should be located in a house, where fire resides, and so on. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘How the wind rests in the space, in the same way the Universe rests in Me, tathā sarvāṇi bhūtāni matsthānīty upadhāraya.’ Don’t think space is emptiness. It is energy. Just because we are not able to see, we can’t say it is emptiness. It is energy.

Just as the air rests in the space, our being, the whole Universe including our being, we all rest in the Divine. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘All beings rest in Me, mat-sthānī.’ Can you see why Kṛṣṇa calls all that He is speaking of a secret? He is being very careful as to whom He is telling this secret knowledge. He wants to tell all this to a qualified person, Arjuna, who is both a friend and a disciple. He knows now that Arjuna is ready to take in this secret. Actually, till this point Kṛṣṇa has slowly prepared Arjuna. Now He knows Arjuna is ready to take in some truths, some secrets of this Universe.

If Kṛṣṇa had told these strong truths in the beginning of the Gītā, Arjuna would not have understood. In these two verses, Kṛṣṇa talks about the creation and destruction of the Universe. He makes bold statements. Only an Incarnation can make such bold statements because he speaks from experience. Some people do not agree with what I say. They think their own understandings are correct. When they tell me, ‘Swamiji, how can you say that? In so-and-so book, it is written like this,’ I laugh and let it pass. First of all, they did not understand what exactly was written in those scriptures and then they tell me I am wrong.

What can be done? Even if I argue, they won’t listen. All the old people are dangerous! In the first verse Kṛṣṇa says, ‘The whole material manifestation enters into Him when the Universe is destroyed and He projects it again Rājavidyā Rājaguhya Yogaḥ Secret Of All Secrets 661 to create the Universe.’ Understand that when Kṛṣṇa says, ‘The Universe enters Me,’ He refers to the Cosmic Kṛṣṇa, the Cosmic consciousness, and not the Kṛṣṇa we see in human form. Let us understand this very deeply. For a long time, the Big Bang theory was used to explain the creation of the Universe. It said that there was a big ball of fire and an explosion.

After the explosion some smaller parts cooled down to become planets, meteors and asteroids. Bigger parts stayed on as stars and suns. In the theory of evolution on planet Earth, Darwin talks about how life originated. However, modern science disproves these theories. Modern scientific findings go towards what ancient Indian scriptures, the Upaniṣads said thousands of years ago. According to the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, first there was ether. From ether, came air. From air came fire. Then water appeared and finally earth appeared. From earth, other living beings appeared. Actually, this order shows the process of evolution from a subtle form of energy that is ether, to a gross form that is Earth.

We feel gross forms through the senses; however as it goes to subtler forms of energy, we must experience it. Can we hold water like we can hold earth in our hands? Can we feel fire the way we feel water? Can we see air like we see fire? No. As the energy goes from gross to subtle, the way we experience it changes. Earth is tangible matter; ether is intangible energy. The subtlest form of energy is ether, ākāśa and we can only experience this through meditation. Kṛṣṇa says at the end of each age, called a kalpa in Saṁskṛit, the materially manifested Universe with all its creations merges back into Him.IfweanalyzetheBigBangtheory,thefirstquestionweaskis,‘Where did the ball of fire come from?’

The Big Bang theory does not answer this fundamental question. You see, the so-called scientists have no answer to this question yet. Here Kṛṣṇa, the inner scientist, answers this question in these verses. Science has now proven that the vacuum has something in it. The subtlest form of energy, ether, is present in the vacuum. See how science is tending towards spirituality. This whole Universe was created from ākāśa, ether and it goes back into ether again. All that we see outside as the material world is the manifestation of this subtle form of energy. The material world is the gross form of energy that we can see. When Kṛṣṇa says, ‘All material manifestation enters Me,’ He means, it enters the Universal Consciousness.

Everything we see and feel using our senses is part of the Universal Consciousness. The problem is that we see it only as matter. If we see things as matter, we are in the gross level and we run after them. Our mind says, ‘These things will make you happy; go and get them.’ When we get this thought, the rat race starts, and our suffering starts. When we understand that whatever we see and feel are only material manifestations of the subtle energy, we operate in a different plane. We see the futility of the race we are running. We realize that all material things are a projection, a manifestation of our own inner self.

Our desires and thoughts are projected as the materials that we see. In actual fact, there is no such thing as material, separate and independent. Everything is one; everything is energy. Kṛṣṇa says that only He can create and destroy this Universe at His will. This whole Universe is a manifestation or a projection of our own self. Please listen: We make our own world. We create the reality what we want. We create our world through our needs or desires. We don’t see what IS! We are only seeing what we want. Only an Enlightened being sees the real truth, as it IS. Once we understand everything is a mirror image of our own self, we become enlightened.

Once we realize that we, along with everything else around us, are part of the same energy or Consciousness, we become enlightened. In these two verses, Kṛṣṇa says this truth clearly. Every material manifestation is created by Him and goes back into Him. He says only He can create and destroy it at His will, which means the world that we see, the Universe that we perceive, is a projection of our own Self. How To Be Unattached