The whole existence, the whole universe is purposeless. — 6 September 2005

The Satsang

The whole existence, the whole universe is purposeless. Of course, it will be very shocking. From the young age we are taught, socially conditioned, that life has got some purpose. Always you are made to run towards some goal, towards some purpose. The more you run towards a goal, the more you are considered as a successful person; the more the speed, the more you are respected; more the speed, more rewards. From your birth, again and again, you are taught - society teaches you - that life has got some purpose, life has goal. The more you run towards the goal, more you miss the life!

Man who is continuously bothered about the goal will never be able to enjoy the life. For example, when you are studying you always think, When I have my job my life will be happy. When you have your job you think, After marriage my life will be happy. After marriage you think, When I have kids and my own house, my life will be happy. After you have kids and your own house you think, When kids grow up and all my responsibilities are over I’ll be happy. By the time your kids are settled, by the time your responsibilities are over, when you want to relax your being is conditioned so much you can’t relax. The tension, running behind something has become a part of your being. It has become part of your conditioning. After that resting will not be rest any more, it will not be a relaxation anymore. It will be a loneliness! When you have rest in the end of your life you will feel lonely because you have been conditioned to run behind something. You have been conditioned to live with something; you have been conditioned to associate yourself with something.

The more you run more titles you receive. You always tell - he is a multi-dimensional personality. You praise people who run more; they are called multidimensional personalities. Please be very clear, they are schizophrenics, not multidimensional personality. Only a person who has deeply experienced himself, who rests in himself, who experiences inaction in action, only he can be a multidimensional personality. Only a Krishna can be a multidimensional personality. A man who completely rests in himself, who knows how to relax within himself can be multidimensional personality. Person who runs for society, by society can never experience the peace. Be very clear, the more you run, more the possibility of becoming mad. But society wants you to run only then you will be a useful member to society. Society doesn’t want you as you are; it wants you as a useful member for it. If you are a doctor, if you are a lawyer, if you are an accountant, some way if you are useful to society then you are rewarded, you are praised. That is why society gives so much of importance to your title. You are respected just based on your title, not as you are. The more number of titles you have, the more respect. The less number of titles you have, less respect. The more you are useful to the society more you are respected.

Again and again you are made to run; you are taught life has got purpose. Please understand: **life is *purposeless***. Look into your life deeply. Whatever you think as the goal of your life, even if everything is fulfilled, you think you will be able to rest? You think you will be able to relax? You think you will be in bliss? You think you will feel fulfilled? No! You will feel only depressed. One guy came and told me, “Swamiji, earlier I was smoking and drinking. My wife continuously used to fight with me. She always blames; anything and everything, she will blame me; she will connect that with my smoking and drinking. If kids are not studying well, she will say, You are a drunkard; you don’t care for your kids, that’s why they are not studying well. If something goes wrong in the house, again she will bring someway and connect it with my smoking and drinking. Continuously I was blamed for this. I am totally disturbed; finally somehow I gave up smoking and drinking”. I asked, Oh! Now she is happy? He said, “No, no Swamiji! Now she is not able to complain about anything, she suffering. She is struggling because she is not able to complain about anything. She is not able to blame me; she is not able to put the responsibility on anything”. When you have something you can always blame and put the responsibility on it and feel comfortable, you can feel relaxed. When you can’t put the responsibility on something, when you can’t put the responsibility on somebody you suffer more.

Just day before yesterday, a young man came to me and asked – “Swamiji, should I marry on my own or should I listen to my father’s words?” I said, listen to your father’s words, go for arranged marriage. He asked me: “Why Swamiji? I will be happy if I marry on my own”. I told him, You see, with arranged marriage, at least you will have somebody you can continuously blame them. (Laughter from audience) If you marry on your own you can’t blame anybody! Better go for arranged marriage. After two to three years, continuously you can blame your parents and be happy; you will feel you are not responsible for the misery. At least you will have somebody on whom you can put the blame. With your own decision you can’t blame anybody. At least if you have somebody to blame, you will be little relaxed. When you have somebody to blame you will feel in some way safe.

Your whole life is purposeless, but again and again and again you are conditioned to run towards something, to go towards something, some goal, something! From the young age, always some goals are put in front of you, whether its material life or spiritual life. Both the way, always some goal is put in from of you. The so called material life or the so called spiritual life, both continuously makes you feel that you are not enough. Just understand: whatever you think as your purpose of life, whether it is money or relations or name and fame, whatever you think as the purpose of your life, even if you have complete fulfillment in that dimension - for example money, if you become a multimillionaire as you want, if you became a person with so many people following you with friends and family, if you become a person who is world famous as you want, you think you will be able to rest? Never! By the time you reach the top rung of the ladder, climbing will become your habit. Climbing will become your habit, you can’t rest within yourself. Please be very clear, climbing, running will become your lifestyle; running will become your trend. When running has become your trend, you don’t even know what for you are running, you will start running. Even if you don’t know what for you are running, you will be running. You will be continuously running, running, running, running, running. What for? You will not know.

Small story: One guy wanted to have one acre land, so that he will do some agriculture and live happily. He prayed to Bhoomadevi, means the goddess of earth: “Oh mother! Please give me one acre land, so that I will do my agriculture and live happily”. Devi appeared and said, “Don’t worry my son, what one acre, from tomorrow morning sunrise to sunset whatever you walk, how much land you cover that land belongs to you”. This is a big problem. Boons create very big problem, please be very clear. Blessing without maturity, the energy without maturity always creates problems. Let me tell you one more story then I will continue this story.

Suddenly one guy won ten million dollar in lottery. This guy had a heart problem, so the wife is having a very big trouble – how to break this news to him? He may have a cardiac arrest and die! She is afraid to break this news to him. She was thinking, thinking… somehow she felt, “It’s very dangerous, I cannot take this risk”. She went to the local priest, the church priest. She asked him, “Father, can you help me?” He said, “Don’t worry, I know your husband for last thirty years, I can surely come and tell the news in a very nice way”. She told, “No, no, it’s too risky, please be very clear. He is a heart patient, you have to be careful”. He says, “I will take care, don’t worry”. He goes and starts the conversation very slowly, “My son, I think you are going to blessed with a great fortune by god”. This guy says, “What are you talking Father? My whole life I have lived in poverty”. Father says, “No, no, no, don’t think so… god is going to bless you. Alright suddenly if you get ten million dollars in lottery what will you do?” He just wants to break the news, before that he is giving a hint. “Suddenly if you get ten million dollars in lottery what will you do?” The guy says, “Ten million dollar? I will give half of it to your church!” The priest fell and died! (Laughter from audience) The priest fell and died. So please be very clear, even if blessing comes without maturity, it will be very difficult to handle it.

Anyway, Bhooma Devi tells him, run as much as you can tomorrow, you will have all the land for yourself. This guy thought, “What is there? Anyhow, alright I will run for ten acres, so that I can do agriculture and have a small farmhouse and live happily”. After half an hour he thought, “Why ten acres if I can walk up to hundred acres? Not only me, my kids also will have enough land” Late night he started thinking, “Why just hundred acres? Why not walk as much as possible, then we can even sell and become multimillionaire. We need naturally money for construction. We can sell little bit of land, why not walk as much as possible?” He has decided next day he will walk as much as possible. Early morning, the moment sun rises, he started. He started his journey, walking… walking…. walking… walking. After five hours suddenly he realized, “why should I walk, why not start running? He starts running. Running… running… running. Around evening three-o-clock his body is asking for some food. His body is hungry, asking for food, he says “No, today I should not waste time in eating, today I will make money, today I will make land, today I will make as much as possible so that tomorrow onwards I can sit and enjoy”. He started running. Running… running… running. Around evening four-o-clock, his body is begging at least for a glass of water. He decided, “Today nothing, I should not waste even a single moment. I cannot waste even a single minute. No water, no food. Today I have to catch as much land as possible”. He is running full speed, running, running, running… by evening 6:30, sun is about to set. By evening 6:30 he has come near a beautiful river. Almost he has covered enough land for one full state. He is near the river and sun is about to set, in half hour sun will set. This guy thought, “If I cross this river also it will be really nice, I will have both sides of the river for myself, in our country”. He started crossing the river, and he crossed the river also. Even after crossing the river, just near by the river he saw a beautiful smashan, burial ground. He thought, “Now I have enough land for people to live, I should catch the burial ground also only then I will have enough land for people who are dead. Now I have enough land for people who are going to live in my state, now I should have enough land for people who are dead.” He wanted to catch that place also. He started running… running… running. Sun is about to set. His body says, “No! Enough! I can’t run anymore, enough, relax”. He says, “No, no, just ten minutes, ten more minutes, let us catch this cemetery also”. He is running, running… his body says, “No! I cannot even put a single step, I’m exhausted”. He says, “No, let me just finish this one part”. He runs and the sun is about to set. Suddenly, he hits one stone, and body is not able to balance, he falls and dies. He just drops and dies!

Exactly the same thing happens in our life. Please be very clear. You may be thinking in your mind, “What fool he is, how he missed the whole life?” Don’t think he is fool, we are also doing the same thing. Maybe, we are doing it in a little polished way. He has done physical way; we are doing in a mental way. But be very clear, we are also doing exactly the same thing. You never relax within yourself. You never settle within yourself, we never sit with our self. That is the reason, in the old age even when you want to relax, you will not be able to relax.

Have you seen a single man above seventy relaxing? Never! At the most he will be sitting with TV. Please be very clear, they can never sit with themselves. If they get somebody, they will start talking about their golden past.

(Laughter from audience)

If they don’t get anybody they will be sitting with TV. Or the same old newspaper, from first line to last line, with a big glass they will be reading! They can’t sit with themselves. I have seen in Bharat elderly people, their sons will be married, daughters will be married, grandsons will also be married. But they will be sitting and reading the matrimonial column in the newspaper. They will be sitting and reading matrimonial columns, not for any purpose, just because they can’t sit with themselves. Man, who can’t sit with himself, misses one of the major dimensions of his being. Continuously running, running, running… thinking that there is some purpose, your whole being is conditioned for tension, conditioned for running. Ego means thinking that there is some purpose in the life. Ego is nothing but social conditioning which gives you the idea there is some purpose in life. Life has no purpose. Even if you achieve whatever you want you can’t take it with you. You can’t carry even a single dollar. Nothing will come with you. There is no exchange offer, please be very clear. If you give 45 rupees in Bharat you will have one dollar here. But how much money you give here, you can’t have a single rupee in heaven. No exchange counter, no exchange offer. Please be very clear, no exchange offer.

A small story: in some remote village, one guy was living. He told his three sons, he gave the property share to his three sons and told them each one of you should put one lakh, one lakh, one lakh rupee in my coffin when I die. Please put one lakh rupee with my body and bury me. All three guys agreed, “Yes we will do, father”. One is accountant, another one is a doctor and third one is lawyer. First guy comes after death, he says “I should be honest; father has given me so much of property”. He puts one lakh rupees. Second guy comes, he says, “I also should be honest, let me put my share”. He puts his share of one lakh rupees. Third guy comes. He just puts three lakh rupee cheque and takes the two lakh rupees, and says, “Let him encash this cheque there and spend.”

(Laughter from audience)

You can’t carry anything, no cheque will be useful, your money will not be useful, nothing can be carried. As on now, this whole world looks in a four dimension, the moment you leave the body the whole thing will become black and white. For example, as on now the dream which you dreamt yesterday night, the dream looks black and white and this looks real world. When you are dreaming, the dream looks like reality and this has become black and white. Please be very clear, when you are dreaming, dream looks like reality and this is black and white. When you are here this looks like reality and dream is black and white. But there is no scale to measure which is reality and which is dream.

A small story: a great Zen master, enlightened master, one day early morning comes out of his bed and suddenly he starts crying, weeping. The disciples are asking, “What master, you are an enlightened man, how can you weep? Why are you weeping, what happened?” He says, “Yesterday night I dreamt that I became butterfly”. Disciples are laughing, “What is there, it’s after all a dream, why are you weeping for that? It’s after all a dream, why do you bother, forget about it”. He says “No, no! Now I have a big problem. Whether I dreamt that I have become a butterfly, or that butterfly is dreaming that it has become a Zen master now, I don’t know the truth!” Please be very clear, there is no scale. There is no scale to prove whether swapnaavastha is sathya or jagrathaavastha is sathya; whether the dream is reality, or what you think as reality is reality, you don’t know. We don’t know!

As on now, the whole thing looks like a 4D, four dimension. Now there are no more 3D movies, now there are 4D movies. In universal studios - they took me there - there is a Shrek 4D. The Shrek movie they show, at the time of some scenes not only you wear the specs to see 3D, they rock your chair also and they sprinkle the water. You really feel its happening around you; you really feel you are given the experience, that’s what is 4D. Now, as on now, when you are here it looks as if it is 4D, and dream looks like black and white. But when you enter in to the dream, this becomes black and white and that looks like 4D. Please be very clear, we don’t know which is true, which is reality. You may be dreaming that you are sitting in a temple and listening to the Gita, we don’t know. There is no scale with which we can measure and say it is dream or it is reality.

People ask me – No, no, Swamiji, everyday when we enter into the dream we are not entering in to the same dream, but everyday when we come to the reality we are entering into the same reality. So with this scale we can say this is reality and that is dream. Please be very clear, in one night dream you live even 20 years life, am I right? In one night dream don’t you live even 20 years life? In that 20 year span, completely the 20 years is consistent, you are having the same dream. Be very clear, this whole life, this whole time which you think may be part of one dream! This whole span which you are thinking, can be part of one dream, so be very clear there is no scale to prove which is reality and which is dream. When you leave the body whatever you see, the whole thing will become black and white.

And nothing can be carried, you can’t take anything with you, you can’t sign your check. You can’t talk to your relatives; if you speak they will run away! Of course, now also people run away when you speak, that is different. That time literally they will run away. Literally they will escape and your car will not be useful anymore. When you are not able to take anything with you, what is the purpose of life?

What is the purpose of life? The moment you understand life is purposeless, the moment you accept the beauty of purposelessness, you will realize the meaning of living.

Life has no purpose, but it has meaning.

Purpose is different, meaning is different. Purpose means the goal orientation. You always think about the goal; running, running, running… suddenly one day you just drop, and drop dead! The more you are goal oriented, the more you will miss the life. Purpose is different, and meaning is different. When I say the word meaning, living itself is meaning. Come to this moment, path itself is the life, path itself is a meaningful thing.

There is no such thing - in the end you will be happy. You always postpone the joy, you always postpone the bliss, you always postpone living. Life is lived in a very superficial way because you think life has got purpose. Be very clear, man who works just for salary, just for money, for him only the payment day will be a beautiful day, he will be happy only on that one day. He is selling his 29 days for that one day. He is selling his 29 days just for that one day happiness. You are selling your life just for one day happiness. Please be very clear, man who is running behind some goal, will never be able to live the life happily. If you are working just for salary, you will never be able to experience the meaning of living. You will be able to run behind the purpose. I don’t say don’t take the salary, but let it not be the only goal. Let it not play major role in your consciousness. That is what Krishna says, that is what Krishna means – karmanye vaadikarasthe maapaleshu kadhachanaha - you can do only your duty, you have no right for fruit. If you think of fruit, you will lose the joy of living. You will lose the joy of living. The meaning of the living is experienced only when you understand the beauty of purposelessness. The beauty of purposelessness makes you realize the meaning of living. Beautiful sloka: karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana ma karma-phala-hetur bhur ma te sango 'stv akarmani

You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.

Two things you need to understand: one, He says, let your inner space be not contaminated by the purpose of life. Please understand, if your inner space is filled, when I say inner space I mean your inner mind, your mind. When you close your eyes, what comes in your mind is inner space. If your inner space is filled with the purposes of life, be very clear you are running behind something which will never give you fulfillment. He says, let your inner space be not disturbed, filled with purposes. One important thing you must understand: by nature your inner space is filled with atman, your inner space is filled with bliss, eternal bliss. The more you fill your inner space with other furnitures, purposes, the more you empty your inner space from bliss. For example, this room is filled with space. The more you put furnitures, the space will leave this room. Please understand this room is not empty, no place is empty, it is filled with space, it is filled with ether. This room is filled with ether. More number of furnitures you bring in, the ether will be taken away, ether will be moved away. It will be less filled with ether; it will be less filled by air. Your inner space, by nature is filled with bliss. The more furnitures you bring in, means the purposes of life, the more you think life has got purpose, the more furniture you will bring and arrange it. The more you furnish the inner space, less it will be blissful. In the outer place, if you furnish your home, it will look very nice. In the inner space, if you furnish your inner space, it will look very ugly.

Don’t furnish your inner space; don’t bring more furnitures into your inner space. Let your inner space be empty. Of course it will never be empty, it will be filled with bliss. The more you create inner space, more your life will be blissful, more it will be ecstatic, more it will be joyful. Your inner space needs to be empty. That is what Krishna means – don’t be attached to the results. Continuously if you think about the money, you will never be able to perform your action completely. You will be always goal oriented; you will never enjoy the path. Not enjoying the path is the greatest hell; worst hell that can happen to any human being! People come and ask me – “Swamiji, again and again you speak of dharma, again and again Krishna says –

paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

I come down to save the innocent good people and to destroy the evil minded people again and again, Krishna says. You also say dharma is the only thing to be practiced, but in our life we see people who are not living according to dharma, are living more happily, they are having more property, they are having more wealth, how is it?” Please be very clear, they may be having more property, they may be having more things in the outer space, but never think they are happy. Never think they are blissful. If somebody is not following dharma means, naturally why he is not following dharma? Ambition. Ambition is the thing that makes you do all the mistakes, all possible sins. Ambition is hell, nothing else needs to be done.

Don’t think you will do some mistakes and go to hell, no. We do mistakes because we are in hell. The very ambitiousness is hell; there is no need for a separate hell. Don’t think we will reach a separate place called hell at the end of life. The very ambitiousness is hell. People do mistakes because they are in hell. If you are happy, blissful, you will never disturb others. If you are unhappy naturally you will vomit that violence on others. Ambitiousness itself is hell. The very ambitiousness is enough punishment, you don’t need to curse him or you don’t need to think that he should be punished. Just because of ambitiousness he misses the whole life. You can easily miss the life by having a purpose for life. If you have the salary as purpose you will miss 29 days of your life just for one day. If you work just for the sake of weekend, you will miss five days just for two days. Unless your life itself becomes joyful, unless your working itself becomes ecstasy, unless that itself becomes bliss, you cannot experience what Krishna says by this sloka: karmany evadhikaras te ma phalesu kadacana

Please be very clear, even if you think you have the right for fruits, even if you acquire the fruits, what can you do? How long do you think you will be able to carry that? Nothing! Nowhere it can come with you. And your life will not be fulfilled just by purposes. Purpose can be fulfilled, but by purposes your life can never be fulfilled. In our life, please be very clear, when you carry purposes in your life, you are not living, purposes are living through you, that’s all. In the young age somebody teaches you some purpose: this is the purpose of your life, you should become a lawyer, you should become a doctor. You are given a purpose, that purpose is fulfilled through your life, but you will never feel fulfilled. Never do the mistake of thinking you will be fulfilled when your purpose is fulfilled. No! Your fulfillment is completely different from the fulfillment of your purpose. If you want to feel the fulfillment you have to work separately in a different direction. It’s a total different achievement. It’s a totally different dimension of your life. Fulfilling your purpose cannot give you the fulfillment. If you want fulfillment of your being listen here what Krishna is saying. Here Krishna starts the karma yoga:

[na](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/n/na) [karmaṇām](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karmanam) anārambhān [naiṣkarmyaḿ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/n/naiskarmyam) puruṣo 'śnute [na](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/n/na) [ca](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/c/ca) sannyasanād [eva](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/e/eva) [siddhiḿ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/siddhim) [samadhigacchati](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/samadhigacchati)

Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection.

Beautiful! I think Krishna is the first and last master, as far as I know - because no statement can be the ultimate, it can only be as far as I know. Krishna is the first and last master who declared the truth as it is. Two thing, always the people who are in the politics, people in the outer world, they know the characters or the truth or the techniques to achieve success in the outer world. People who are in the spiritual world, they know the techniques to achieve success in the spiritual world. But Krishna is both. He is the only master who is enlightened man and a king. He knows how to give a technique to achieve the total success in the outer world and in the inner world. How to furnish your outer space and how to keep empty your inner space? That is the whole life.

The whole Gita is only one idea: How to furnish your outer space to the ultimate luxury level and how to keep your inner space to the ultimate blissful level.

Keeping your inner space in a eternal bliss and keeping your outer space in ultimate luxury - Krishna is the only man who has produced formula for inner space and outer space together. You can’t expect this from a Buddha because Buddha has given up the outer space. He lived with just 3 piece of dress, and he lived the life of a monk. So whatever he produces, whatever formula he creates will lead you only to that state. But Krishna has lived like a king. Krishna has lived not like, as a king. Only Krishna can give practical instruction. Only Krishna can give a manual for practical spiritual living. All other masters, their manual is useful only for monks, who are sitting in monasteries. Only Krishna’s manual is useful for people who are living the life.

Here He says: Not merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from reaction. You can’t achieve freedom from reaction by moving away from the work. I have seen one monk, he was considered as a great Paramahamsa because he will never get angry. His greatness is, people thought, he never gets angry. There is no need because he was sitting in Himalayas!

(Laughter)

He was sitting in Himalayas and people are there to give food for him everyday. Morning somebody brings breakfast, noon time somebody brings lunch, night somebody brings dinner. Somebody gives him clothes. What is the need for getting angry? There is no need. He is respected because he never gets angry. Usually, human beings always respect if somebody does something which they can’t do. If you want to have the respect of the society, just do something which others can’t do, that’s all. Any foolishness! Of course, if you see this Guinness records and all these world records, there are so many foolish things which you can never imagine. Do any thing which others can’t do, you will have the respect. So this person is considered to be a great person, great Paramahamsa because he never shouts at anybody. Of course, nobody thought there is no need; there is no need for him to shout at anybody because he is sitting in Himalayas. Somehow somebody inspired him, “Master let us go for the Kumbh Mela in Nasik. There is a Kumbh Mela program in Nasik. Let us go to that program.” Biggest gathering in the whole humanity happens in Bharat. Every four years it happens.

Every four year biggest gathering in humanity happens in Bharat. Not only spiritual gathering, biggest gathering. The other day, in TV I saw, leader of particular religion died. Some two million people gathered, 20 lakh people gathered. So many TVs are declaring this is the biggest gathering. I thought, What is happening? In my village every year two million people gather. In my village, every year for a local festival two million people gather. I was surprised, even international news channels are saying world’s biggest spiritual gathering. I was just surprised. Every for years, in Kumbh Mela 70 million people gather in Bharat. Seventy million! Last Kumbh Mela is attended by 70 million people.

They convinced him to come to Kumbh Mela. After he came to Kumbh Mela, when he went back all his disciples were left him, because when he came down from the Himalayas, when his routine was disturbed, only then people understood he can also shout at others, he can also get irritated, he also gets angry. Please be very clear, as long as the situation doesn’t come, all are great saints. Everyone is saint till the opportunity is given; till the opportunity is given. Only when the opportunity comes, you can judge whether he is real saint or escapist.

Abstaining from work or moving away from work cannot give you the freedom from reaction. To have the freedom from reaction, your inner space needs to be purified. Your inner space should become empty. You need to remove the furnitures from inner space. Renouncing the furnitures in the outer world is not going to help you. Renouncing the furnitures from the inner world is only going to help you. The idea of purposes, thinking that life has got purpose should be renounced. That is what he says: just by renouncing, just by outer renunciation, perfection can never be achieved; perfection can never be achieved. One more thing, if you renounce the outer world, the more you will be thinking about the outer world. If you renounce the outer world, more you will be thinking about the outer world.

A small story: One enlightened master and his disciple, both of them are walking near a river. They are supposed to cross the river to go to their monastery, their ashram. On the way a young lady was standing, she wants to cross the river, she was afraid. She asked the enlightened master, “Master can you help me to cross this river”. He said, “Why not, please come”. He just lifted her, and crossed the river, left her and said bye and reached the ashram. The disciple was seeing the whole scene. He is not able to digest the whole scene. He is burning (may be jealous!). He is not able to digest. After reaching the ashram he is not able to control himself, he asked, “Master, you are a sanyasi, how can you touch a woman, that also a young woman, and carry her through out the river, how can you do that?” Master just turns, smiles at him and says, “I left her long ago, why are you still carrying her. I left her there itself, why are you carrying her still, why are you bringing her here?”

Please be very clear, renouncing in the inner space, or emptying your inner space is the real thing to be achieved, that is what Krishna says here. This sloka is straightaway addressed to this disciple:

karmendriyāṇi [saḿyamya](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/samyamya) [ya](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/ya) [āste](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/aste) [manasā](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/m/manasa) [smaran](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/smaran) indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā mithyācāraḥ [sa](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/sa) [ucyate](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/u/ucyate)

The meaning goes: One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender and a hypocrite.

A man who keeps his senses under control, but who is not able to keep his inner space under control is called pretender, hypocrite. Please be very clear, the quality of your life will be judged only based on the quality of your inner space, not based on the quality of your outer space. When you leave your body and enter into your next life, nobody is going to see the accounts of what type of car you drove, in what type of house you lived, how much of bank balance you had. No. These accounts will not come with you. How you live, how your inner space was there, what is the quality of your inner space when you live, only that you are going to carry. That is why they say: you are going to carry only the samskara, means the karma, the inner space, with you, not the outer space.

One more beautiful story from Ramakrishna:

… They should come and do their singing and dancing service to the temple in those days. So she used to live opposite to the temple. And this monk will see everyday, who are all entering into the prostitutes house, what time they are entering, what time they are going out, how many are entering; he will keep all the counts because no other work, what to do! No other work. When you don’t have any other work you need to do something. Continuously he keeps the accounts: how many are entering, what time they are entering, how much of time they are spending - the whole thing. I think he was almost like a diary maintainer of that prostitute. He maintains a complete diary of who comes, who goes, who comes regularly, who comes once in a while, rarely; whole day he thinks about what is going on there. And that lady, prostitute, she lives in a different way. She thinks, “My life, my swadharma is this. This has been given to me as life. I don’t know any other profession. I have to live only like this, for my food I have to live this life. Oh lord! But please save me, let my mind and heart be at your feet.” She is deeply devoted to god. Her inner space is filled with divine, her inner space is filled with gods name. Her inner space is filled with the divine love. Life goes. After sometime, suddenly, unfortunately both of them die in the same day. This monk and prostitute both of them die in a same day. Story is beautiful! Both of them reach Yama Dharma’s court for judgment. First she comes, the prostitute comes. Yama Dharma sees the list of sins and merits, and says, “Alright don’t worry, you lived through out your life thinking of the divine, go to the heaven.” She is sent to the heaven. And the monk is coming. The moment monk comes, Yama Dharma says, “This is your list of sin and merit. Through out your life you thought about wrong things, so go to the hell.” And this monk starts shouting, “How dare you send me to hell?” And you know he is a professional preacher, he knows how to shout!

(Laughter)

He starts shouting, “I will sue you”. Maybe, he must be visiting America many times, often. “I will sue you”, he shouts. Yama Dharma says, “Please relax. Here, up in the heaven we don’t bother what you do, we bother how you live. See, through your body you lived a pure life. Look at the planet Earth, how your body is respected.” There the monk saw his body is respected like anything; all the people are falling at the feet of his body. Big, big garlands are offered. Big puja is done. It is being carried to big samadhi, and his body is receiving all the respect.

“Through body you lived a pure life; your body is now getting respect. But through mind you lived an impure life, now go to hell. Same way she lived impure life through body. Look at her body”. Nobody was there even to care. Because she is a prostitute, no husband, no sons, nobody was there even to do last rites, body is stinking. Just the government fellows came, and they dragged the body and dumped it somewhere. “See, through body she lived an impure life, her body is suffering. But through mind she lived a pure life, divine life; she is going to the divine.”

It is more important what you live in the mind. Your inner space is the real achievement. How your inner space is, is the real thing. Please be very clear, again and again Krishna declares:

If you can’t clear your inner space, even if you control your body, even if you control your senses, you are called hypocrite. Your life will not be a blissful life; your life will not be a real life. Not only it will not be a spiritual life, it will not be life at all!

Now please have 10 minute break. We will enter into the next part of the chapter after a small break.

(Short break follows)

Only he can experience the meaning of living. Meaning of living is bliss but there is no purpose. He more you think about purposes, more you will create worries. More you will try to squeeze maximum from life, but when you try to squeeze maximum from life, life is much more intelligent than you. Please be very clear: life is much more intelligent than you. When you try to squeeze maximum from life it just slips away through your fingers. Life is like a river, if you put your hands in the river and keep it open it will always be there in your hands. But if you try to catch it, if you try to hold, you will have only empty hand. You will have only empty hand! Life is a flowing river, if you just allow it to happen it will continuously flow in you. The moment you try to catch it, the moment you try to possess it, you will have only empty hands. You will not be able to have the life itself. You will not be able to have the very life. Be very clear: the moment you understand life is purposelessness, the purposelessness of life, you start experiencing the meaning of living, the bliss. The moment you drop the goal, the very path itself will become beautiful; your whole life will become beautiful. Your whole life will become ecstasy. Nothing to achieve separately, the whole thing is purposeless. The moment you experience in your inner space that nothing is going to be with you permanently, or nothing is permanent, the moment you understand that, a deep healing, a deep cooling breeze enters into your consciousness. Your whole inner space will be healed. You have so many thousands of wounds in your inner space, wounds created by your own desires. Wounds created by your failures and by others, wounds created by your near and dear ones. All these wounds will be healed with this single one medicine. I can say with this single one meditation, it is not medication, meditation. This one meditation of understanding life is purposeless, one meditation of realizing whatever you achieve it is just nothing, nothing is going to be with you.

Alexander, the “so-called great”, I don’t want to say he is great. That is why “so–called great”. Fool who did so many murders can never be called the great. Please be very clear: never teach at least to your kids that Alexander is Great, then you are inspiring them to do murders, you are inspiring them to enter into the wars. Unconsciously you are putting all these ideas in front of them! Never do that. Alexander the so-called Great. Of course, he did one good thing. Unfortunately or fortunately, he met one enlightened master in Bharat. You can say unfortunately only because this guy don’t know how to respect him. Somehow, he got the idea from his guru, “bring one enlightened master from Bharat and Vedas from Bharat, I will change the whole society”. So this guy decided he will take at least one enlightened person from Bharat. Somehow he got the chance to meet one enlightened person. He invites him, “Please come to our country”. The master just laughs, “No, no. I don’t want to come anywhere, I want to be here only”. He says, “No, no, no! Please come, I will give you a big palace. Here you are lying like a beggar without even clothes, without even having enough clothes. Please come there I will give you big palace and all the comforts”. He just laughs, “No I am quite happy here, I don’t want to come”. You know the kings, what is the next step they’ll take. First through greed he tried, because it did not work, he wanted to try through fear. He just took his sword out, “If you are not ready to come you will be killed”. Just in front of the naked sword the master is laughing. Please be very clear: laughing now is very easy but laughing in front of a naked sword is very difficult, especially when person who is holding the sword is a king, if he kills there is nobody to question. There is nobody to question. But in front of the naked sword, he is laughing. He says, “Fool! You are a great liar”. He just says, he straightaway looks into the eyes of Alexander, the master looks into the eyes of Alexander and says, “Fool! You are a great liar”. First time Alexander is shaken. First time he was shaken! He says, “Are you not afraid”. Master says, “You can never kill me. You may destroy this body, you cannot kill me”. The courage or the confidence of experience. The courage which is expressed by the spiritual experience, what we studied in the Gita:

nainam chindanti sastrani nainam dahati pavakah

It has become experience: atman cannot be killed; atman cannot be destroyed; it cannot be burned. It has become experience for him, that is why the courage and confidence. He just laughs. Slowly Alexander starts thinking, “If he can laugh in front of my naked sword, how courageous he must be”. First time he is shaken because he has never seen anybody who can laugh in front of naked sword, who can laugh in front of death. Even he is afraid.

Please be very clear: all so-called great warriors are deep cowards. They kill others before they are killed, that’s all. Continuously they are afraid of death that is why they kill others. Be very clear: warriors are the worst cowards! Just to hide their cowardness or to escape from the fear they start killing others. He was totally shaken, he was shocked to see the courage of this master. Then he asks him, “Please tell me something, how you are so courageous, so bold?” Then master asks: “Why did you come to Bharat?” Alexander says to conquer Bharat. “After that what are you going to do?” I will conquer the next country. “After that what are you going to do?” I will conquer the next country. “After that?” I will conquer the whole world. “After that?” I will relax and enjoy. Master says, “Fool! That is what I am doing now!”

(Laughter)

“Don’t you see, that is what I am doing now? The same thing I am doing now. What for you need to go around and conquer the whole world to relax and enjoy? That is what I am doing now!” Only a man who understood the purposelessness of life can relax and enjoy, I think this master gave a glimpse of truth to Alexander. That is why Alexander says to his ministers, “After my death, when you carry my dead body, please keep my hands out. Please keep my open hands out. Let people know, even the Alexander did not carry anything with him”. Even Alexander did not carry anything with him.

This story is a beautiful story. You need to understand three things. First thing, the courage and the confidence radiated by an enlightened person. Next thing, the purposelessness of our running. What for Alexander is running? To relax and enjoy. This master is already doing the same thing. Third thing, we are not going to carry anything in our life. We are not going to carry anything. Please be very clear: even if the whole world worships you as a king, it is pure foolishness, nothing else!

Two things: mad people also claim they are king, people who are sitting on the throne they also claim they are king. Why somebody is put in asylum and somebody is respected? If this guy is cunning enough to convince others to believe what he says, he is respected and made to sit in throne. People who are innocent, people who are not so cunning, people who are not able to frighten others to believe what they are saying, they are put in the asylum, that’s all. Otherwise, there is no difference between a person who is sitting in the asylum and claiming he is king, and a person who is sitting in the throne and claiming he is a king. Person who is sitting in a throne and claiming he is a king is cunning, or somehow he is able to torture the people, or threaten the people, frighten the people to believe what he says. The person who is sitting in asylum, he doesn’t have that much of cunningness. In existence there is no mad person, there is no king. Both are one and the same. The person who has enough of courage or enough of capacity to frighten the others, who can make others believe what he says is truth, he sits in the throne; who doesn’t have that much of cunningness he sits in the asylum.

A small story: One guy suddenly started thinking, not only thinking he started claiming he is Jawaharlal Nehru, in Bharat. That time Jawaharlal Nehru was the president, he was prime minister of Bharat. He started claiming he is Jawaharlal Nehru. If he just starts claiming that’s okay. He started dressing, that is also okay. He started writing letters to all officials, and started signing like Jawaharlal Nehru. Anyhow, naturally he was taken to asylum; six months he was treated. After all the treatment, he started behaving almost normal. Doctor said, “I think now you can be discharged”. The day he was about to be released, fortunately or unfortunately Jawaharlal Nehru himself visited the asylum. He himself came to the asylum. They brought this patient to Nehru and introduced him, “Sir, he is the person who started claiming he is Jawaharlal Nehru”. After the formal introduction, this patient asked Nehru, “Who are you?” Nehru said, “I am Jawaharlal Nehru”. The patient said, “Please be here for six months, they will make you alright.”

(Much laughter)

He said, “Don’t worry, be here for six months they will make you alright, you will become alright.”

Understand, there is no difference between these two. Somehow one is able to convince others what he is thinking is truth, the other one is not able to convince, that’s all. There is no other big difference. In existence there are no boundaries, in existence there is no post. The person who thinks how he can convince others in a cunning way he becomes king. Even If you become king, that doesn’t fulfill anything, that doesn’t give you anything. Never think having the outer space or having comforts in the outer world will give you inner fulfillment. Never! Never! All developed countries are filled with depression. All developed countries are filled with depression! They have best roads, best dams, best bridges, best infrastructure, but people are depressed. But people are depressed! All developed countries are drowning in depression. Never think the outer space will give you the inner space. If you want the inner space, if you want to achieve the inner space, you need to work for inner space. You need to understand the dynamics of inner space, you need to understand the technology of inner space. Here Krishna is giving you the technology of inner space. Let me give you small diagram, then we will enter into the next sutra, next sloka.

How we work, or how our mind moves:

(Swami draws a picture of quantum spirituality)

This is your being. Material life is horizontal line. Vertical line is spiritual life. Continuously, always we fight, or we try to choose something. You continuously bother whether to choose the horizontal line or vertical line; whether to go in this path, or in this path. You are always stuck somewhere here or somewhere here. You try to move, always you are caught in the dilemma, whether to go this way or this way.

Mind is dilemma. Mind is nothing but dilemma. Whatever thought you choose, whether in the material life or spiritual life, you will always feel you are missing the other part. You will continuously feel you are missing something. One important thing: as long as you think you are mind, as long as you live with the mind, you will have this problem of material life or spiritual life. But if you can just draw into the being, if you can just forget about the goal which is here; this is the purpose. You are continuously running towards it, running towards the purpose. One more thing, just like you have goals in material life people have got goals in spiritual life also. There are so many people who wants, I should meditate for seven hours. I should become enlightened, I should become that, I should do this, I should be that.

Please be very clear: goal in the material life and goal in the spiritual life, both make you mad. If you want to become mad, continuously think of any goal - straight way to become mad, nothing else needs to be done. Simple technique to become mad is remember about some goals. The more you are bothered about the goal, you will not be able to live the path. For example, a teacher, if he is continuously bothered about the salary, he will never be able to see the faces of students. He will be seeing only the face which is printed in the dollar bill. He will never be able to see the face of the student. Same way, the man who is caught in the goal, will never be able to live the life. Man who is continuously bothering, thinking about the goal, will never be able to enjoy the simple things which is around him. He can’t smile at a flower. He can’t stop to see the nature. He can’t live anything, he will be continuously running, running, running… behind the printed paper, dollar bill, which has no value. Money is nothing but a utility. We run behind the utility. We run behind the things for something, we achieve things, but we never achieve what for we want to achieve. The man who is running behind the goals, running behind the material goal, he will always feel he is missing the spiritual goal. One more basic secret, understand - all rich communities will always go to spiritual master. All rich communities, invariably, they will always go to spiritual masters, because deep guilt is there inside them that they are missing spirituality.

All rich communities will always go and will always have strong gurus. See in every society, the community is rich means they will have strong gurus, because deep guilt is there that they are missing spirituality. Same way, the person who took this choice will always be running behind the rich man. The person who took this choice will always be running behind this man. Both fulfilling each other. This guy wants to fulfill this person and the other person wants to fulfill this guy. Please be very clear: that is why the so-called religious men or the so-called rich men, both are always trying to be together. You can always see these two will be together, because this guy needs him, and this guy needs him. Both are feeling they are missing the other. This guy feels he is missing this, and this guy feels he is missing this. Both are trying to fulfill each other cerebrally. His ideal is fulfilled by him; his ideal is fulfilled by him. The person who took this choice, he feels if rich men are around him, what he is missing will be fulfilled. Same way, the person who took this choice, he feels if he goes to a spiritual man or a religious man he will be fulfilled. Both are helping each other. The man who realizes the purposelessness of this goal, the purposelessness of the running, he just falls back into his being. If you realize whatever you kept as purpose or the goal in your life, it is purposeless, it is useless; the moment you realize, the moment the glamour is gone, the moment the inspiration is gone… I can’t say inspiration, it is just a perspiration, because it makes you continuously perspire. The moment the purpose is gone, the moment the respect for the purpose is gone in your life, you will simply fall into your being.

One important thing, the moment you fall into your being, you explode, not only you start flowing in the direction of horizontal and vertical line, you explode in 360 degrees in all dimensions. Whatever you can imagine and what you can’t imagine, you start exploding in all the directions. Only then you become multi-dimensional being. A man who has fallen into his being, means who has dropped the goals, who understood the purposelessness of existence, who has realized, who tasted the beauty of purposelessness, he falls into his being, into his atman, and he explodes in 360 degrees, in all dimensions. He starts experiencing the ultimate bliss of spiritual life and ultimate happiness of material life and something more. Only he enters into the eternal bliss, Krishna consciousness. As long as you are caught with this goal or this goal, goal in the material life or goal in the spiritual life, you travel only in that line, because you think you are body or mind. More you are caught with the purpose, more you will think you are body or mind. The moment you realize the purposelessness, you will straightaway fall into the abyss of your being. You experience your atman, you relax; your inner wounds are healed. The first inner wound is thinking yourself as body and mind. That is the original sin.

Please be very clear: the original sin is thinking yourself as body and mind. Don’t think Adam eating apple is the original sin, no! Why should we suffer for his sin? Why should we suffer for his sin? Surely we don’t have to suffer for his sin! The original sin is not Adam eating apple; it is you thinking yourself as body or mind. When you have the purpose, when you think of the purpose of life, you think you are body or mind. When you realize the purposelessness, you just drop into your being. The moment you drop into your being you explode; your inner wounds are healed. Understand this one thing, if you can understand this one thing, this moment you can become enlightened.

Actually, any single individual to become enlightened, you don’t need the whole Gita. Single sloka is enough. Single Gita sloka is enough to make any individual enlightened. Why I am speaking on all the slokas? Because there are so many different kinds of individuals. This is a key for different individuals, that is the reason I am explaining all the slokas. If you can fall into yourself, just look into yourself, and understand this one sloka for yourself, not for going and explaining to your wife, not for going and explaining to your mother-in-law, not for going and explaining to your friend, not for going and explaining to somebody else. Please be very clear: whenever I speak, understand I am speaking to you.

Don’t prepare notes in your mind to go and repeat it to somebody else. When you prepare notes, I should go and tell this to my friend, I should go and tell this to my husband, when you prepare notes mentally to go and repeat it to somebody you will miss experiencing it. Just allow this one idea to work on you - the purposelessness of life. You can just close your eyes and think, contemplate 2-3 minutes: Really what is the purpose of my life? What for I am doing what I am doing? Where am I going? What is happening? Just if your inner eye opens, if your inner space understands the beauty of purposelessness, that is enough you will fall into your being. When you fall into your being you explode in 360 degrees, in all dimensions. You experience totally different kind of material life and totally different kind of spiritual life. As on now, you can neither experience material life nor experience spiritual life; because when you are here you are looking there, when you are there you are looking here. You can never experience anything in a solid way! Your mind is not with your body; you are not living inside your boundary. Always the other side of the bank looks greener. Always something else is calling you. Only when you experience the beauty of purposelessness you will be able to understand what Krishna says through out the Karma Yoga.

Please take few minutes, close your eyes and look into yourself. Sincerely ask yourself. Let this understanding work on you; let this idea sink into your being. Honestly ask why you are doing what you are doing; where you are going; what do you think as the purpose. Take few minutes and look. Whatever you think as purpose, even if you achieve it is not going to be with you, it is not going to stay with you! The beauty of the whole existence is purposeless!

Let this one idea sink in your being. Let this go deep into your inner space. Let it do this alchemy on you. Relax.

Understand this one thing. Just understanding this one single idea can transform your whole way of thinking, can transform your whole way of working, can transform your whole way of living. When you understand there is no purpose in totality, you will start enjoying every single moment, you will start living intensely every singe inch, every moment will become meaningful. When you think as a whole there is a purpose, every single moment will lose its meaning. If you think your one 30 days of working is worth hundred thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars, you will judge your one month only as fifty thousand dollars. Please be very clear: your life is not fifty thousand dollars worth. For example, you think one month of your life is fifty thousand dollars, if you calculate your whole life, it may come for some 10 million, 20 million or even 100 million dollars. Suddenly, if someone says, I will give you 100 million dollars, give me your life, will you be able to give him? Logically, this is the way you are calculating and working. We are ready to sell our mind, ready to sell our moments, ready to sell our inner space, calculating the value of our life. Logically you fix the rate for your life. Once you fix the rate, only the rate is in your mind, you forget the work itself, or living itself is beautiful. If you think the whole has got purpose, the part loses the meaning. Understand, as a whole, the whole has no purpose. The moment you realize the whole has no purpose, the part will become meaningful. Your very living, everyday itself will become very beautiful. Everyday your life, your living, your sitting, your walking, your standing, everything is a joyful experience. That is why they say sat chit ananda, means bliss of very existence. Your very existence is blissful. You don’t have to think in the end you will have the bliss. No! Your very existence is blissful. The moment you drop the goal, your path becomes blissful. The moment you realize the beauty of purposelessness, your very existence becomes meaningful. The meaning of existence is bliss, eternal bliss, nithya ananda.

The next sloka says:

[na](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/n/na) [hi](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/h/hi) [kaścit](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/kascit) [kṣaṇam](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/ksanam) [api](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/api) [jātu](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/j/jatu) tiṣṭhaty [akarma](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/akarma)-[kṛt](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/krt) [kāryate](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karyate) hy [avaśaḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/avasah) [karma](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karma) [sarvaḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/sarvah) [prakṛti](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/p/prakrti)-jair [guṇaiḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/g/gunaih)

Everyone is forced to act helplessly according to the qualities he has acquired from the modes of material nature; therefore no one can refrain from doing something, not even for a moment.

Usually people ask, Swamiji if you say that life is purposeless, let us lie down. Who will give me food? I tell you, you can never lie down. You may lie down for next four or five days, because you always go to this extreme. Now the pendulum is in this extreme. If you take the hand, it will go to this extreme. Maximum one week you will be able to lie down. After that you can’t lie down. By your very nature you will start doing the work. By your very nature you will start doing the work. All I mean when I say life is purposeless, I am not asking you to just lie down in your house. I’m asking, let your body and mind work without disturbing your inner space. You don’t have to sell your inner space to have outer place. You don’t have to sell you inner bliss to have outer comforts. By your very nature, here Krishna gives the assurance, by your very nature your body and mind will work, just if you keep quiet that is enough they will function beautifully.

Somebody came and asked me, Swamiji to do the right thing what should I do? How should I keep my mind to do right thing? I told him, Just keep quiet, automatically your body and mind will do the right thing, just if you get out of your system that’s enough, divine will get in. All we need to do is just get out, divine will get in. By nature He says, [prakṛti](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/p/prakrti)-jair [guṇaiḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/g/gunaih) – by very nature your body and mind know the right thing. But you never trust your body and mind. You never trust your body and mind; you always trust your ego, it finally dumps you in the dustbin, but you never trust your body and mind. Be very clear: your body and mind by nature will do the work. All you need to do is keep quiet, relax from your ego. Don’t think your inner space is needed for the outer work. The person who understood what is nithya and what is anithya, the person who understands what is eternal and what is ephemeral, and relaxes into the eternal is always in eternal consciousness, he always resides in nithya ananda. Krishna says, a man who relaxes into nithya ananda and does his job, does his work, he is karma yogi. Just relax into your inner space, automatically you will be guided. You always think, if I relax in my mind thinking that life is purposeless, how will I know which is right and which is wrong Swamiji? How will I know which is right and which is wrong? Please be very clear: the more you worry about which is right and which is wrong, you will not do any mistakes, you will commit blunders. The person who worries which is right and which is wrong continuously, he will not make mistakes, he will only commit blunder. The person who doesn’t worry, who never bothers, he may do small mistakes. But the person who continuously worries, he will never do small mistakes, he will commit big blunders. And I tell you, to take this jump of not worrying needs courage. Even if you do one or two mistakes, what is the wrong?

Taking the risk and jumping, and start living without worrying is what I call veerathva, courage; courage of entering into spiritual life. When you take the jump, you will do naturally one or two small small mistakes, don’t worry. Putting up with that mistake is what I call tapascharya. Tapas is nothing but accepting the small mistakes which you do when the conscious transition happens in your being. When you move from ephemeral consciousness to eternal consciousness, when you move from worry to bliss, when you move from asathya to sathya, you will do one or two mistakes. You will fall and rise, just like a small child when it tries to walk. They always fall once or twice, just because of that can you say never start walking? No! Even if it makes one or two small mistakes, it has to stand up and start walking. That one or two small mistakes of falling and trying to stand up is what is tapas done to learn how to walk. Same way, when you start living without mind, in the initial level you may commit one or two mistakes, don’t worry. That is tapascharya. That is tapas. Have courage and just enter into the zone of no mind. Enter into the zone of eternal consciousness. Simply start living, realize the purposelessness of existence. Decide: Today onwards I will live without worrying. Life is too small to be spent in worrying; life is too short to be spent in worrying. Never bother, never worry about the goals, just drop the goals. The moment you understand the beauty of purposelessness, all the wounds which you have created in your inner space will be healed. You will fall into the abyss if eternal bliss.

Next Krishna says, this is one of the important point, one more point he clarifies:

[ye](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/y/ye) me [matam](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/m/matam) [idaḿ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/i/idam) [nityam](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/n/nityam) [anutiṣṭhanti](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/anutisthanti) [mānavāḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/m/manavah) śraddhāvanto 'nasūyanto [mucyante](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/m/mucyante) [te](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/t/te) 'pi [karmabhiḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karmabhih)

The translation goes: Those persons who execute their duties according to My injunctions and who follow this teaching faithfully, without envy, become free from the bondage of fruitive actions.

Here you need to understand two things. He says according to My injunctions - means when you enter into your being, whatever your being says is Krishna’s words. When he says My injunction, he means the injunctions from atman, injunction from the being, the paramatman. When you drop the goals and fall into your being, you will be straight away guided by the divine, you will be guided by the nature, you will be guided by God himself; you will become an instrument in his hand. If you become hollow bamboo without any blockage inside, you will become a flute in the hands of Krishna. Dropping your purposes or dropping your ego is what I call becoming a hollow bamboo. If you become a hollow bamboo, you will become a flute in the hands of Krishna. If you are solid bamboo, you will be used only to carry dead bodies. In Bharat solid bamboos are used only to carry the dead body. Same way, if you drop the ego and fall into the being you will become instrument in the hands of divine, you will become a divine flute. When you become flute the air that enters into you comes out as music. Same way when you become instrument in the divine’s hand, the air that enters into you comes out as shastra or mantra or a music. Whatever comes out of you becomes divine. Your words become mantra, your actions becomes tantra, your form is yantra.

The moment you drop the ego, your words become mantra to guide people, your form becomes yantra to be meditated on, your actions become tantra, technique to realize the atman, you become divine. If you carry your ego, just like a solid bamboo, solid bamboo is used only to carry dead bodies, you will also be carrying this dead body. You will also be carrying this dead body! Now it is up to you whether to become a hollow bamboo and become a flute in the hands of Krishna, or to be a solid bamboo and carry the dead body to smashana. If you drop into your being you will become an enlightened being, you will become an instrument in the hands of the divine. Your words will become mantra, your form will become yantra, your actions will become tantra. Instead if you decide to carry your ego, you will be carrying this dead body wherever you go.

Here He says, Those persons who execute their duties according to My injunctions, according to your inner consciousness, please be very clear, as long as you carry the goal of the society, the purposes conditioned on you by the society, you will be carrying conscience. The moment you drop the social conditioning, the purposes taught to you by society, you will start living with consciousness. Social conscience is different, spiritual consciousness is different. If you live with goals, you will carry the social conscience in your life, if you realize the beauty of purposelessness you will carry the spiritual consciousness in your life. The man who lives according to his consciousness, believing. Having shraddha towards these teachings. Why Krishna is asking for shraddha here? Here is the first place Krishna says shraddha, faithful. Why? śraddhāvanto 'nasūyanto, He says. Of course, the word shraddha cannot be translated as faith. Faith is a very poor word for shraddha. Please forgive me, I have to tell the truth. In English there is no word for shraddha exists, because the very idea shraddha never existed. Let me be clear, the very idea shraddha never existed here, that is why the equivalent word for shraddha doesn’t exist. Shraddha does not mean faith, it means faith plus courage to execute the idea. Courage to experiment with the idea is shraddha. Courage to experiment the idea is what is shraddha. Here Krishna says, śraddhāvanto 'nasūyanto, man who executes the teachings with shraddha, courage to follow. Why we need courage to follow?

A small story: A born blind man goes to the doctor and asks, “Doctor, will you help me to have my eyes?” Doctor says, “Don’t worry, I will do some operation, you can have the eyes, after that you can walk without the stick.” The blind people always carry a stick to feel the road. You can walk without that stick. Now the blind man asks, “Doctor, I understand you will do an operation, I understand I will have my eyes back, but I don’t understand, how can I walk without stick? How can I walk without stick?”

By and by, the blind man forgot the stick is from outside, he started thinking stick is necessary for walking. But till the operation, till he gets his eyes, he has to have shraddha towards the doctor’s words and lie down in the operation table. Same way, I tell you, just live without mind, just live without purposes and goals, you will be able to walk without stick; stick is worrying. But you can never think you can live without worrying. By and by, worrying has become your part. So we can never imagine we can also survive, we can be alive without worrying. When I say you can live without worrying, you will say, No, no, no Swamiji. How can it be possible? If I don’t worry what will happen to my children? What will happen to my house? What will happen to my wife? What will happen to my family? What will happen to my property? What will happen to my lawsuits? Please be very clear: never think because of you, your life is going very smoothly; in spite of you it is going very smoothly. Understand, never your life is going smoothly because of you, in spite of you it is going smoothly! The moment you have the courage, to have shraddha towards these teachings and start living dropping the purposes, only then you will realize you don’t need stick to walk. Once you enter into the being, the depth of your being, you will enter into a totally different dimension. Whatever now you think as spiritual life or material life, both will lose its meaning, you will enter into a new dimension of life. For example, can you explain for a four year old small child, the life of marriage? Can you explain what is life to a four year old child? You can’t; he can’t understand. He can understand only toys, he can understand only dolls, he can only play with toys. Once he reaches the age of 25, naturally he will be able to understand what is life; automatically toys and dolls will drop him. Do you feel that you are missing your toys? Do you feel that you renounced your toys? No! The moment you grow you start experiencing a different dimension of your life. When you experience a different dimension of your life automatically the small small things drops you, and you drop them. Not even you dropping them is important, they dropping you is important. You dropping smoking is not important, smoking dropping you is important.

When you enter into your being, when you enter into the purposelessness of life, the whole so-called material life and spiritual life drops you and you enter into a different dimension of life, a new dimension. That is what I call Quantum Spirituality or eternal consciousness. You reach the eternal bliss; you start living in eternal bliss. Now you may have a serious doubt, How can I live without worrying? I tell you, your doubt is nothing but the same doubt the blind man is asking: How can I walk without stick? You cannot convince the blind man he can walk without stick till he gets eyes. Only after he gets eyes, he will be able to understand he doesn’t need stick to walk. Same way, only when you reach the being you will understand you don’t need worries to live. You don’t need mind, you don’t need worrying mood to live. Till you reach the being you need to have shraddha. Till you get your eyes, you have to have shraddha and lie down in the operation table. You need to allow the doctor to work on you. That is the reason Krishna is saying: śraddhāvanto 'nasūyanto.

Next word, beautiful word: 'nasūyanto, means without envy. It is an important thing. Whatever I said, everyone one of us are able to understand. Really great Swamiji. But suddenly, the moment one thought comes, my brother has purchased two houses, my sister is getting a new big car, how can I live just like this? The moment you get some thought - he is having that, he is having this, what happens? All your spirituality, all your purposelessness, all your spiritual philosophy, everything just disappears. You are again in the same rat race. He says, without envy. Envy is the thing that puts you again in the same rut. One great problem, in the rate race even if you win you are a rat. Even if you win you are a rat, nothing more than that! Please be very clear: the moment envy, jealous enters into your being, the whole thing disappears, you start again running into the social conditioning, you start running behind the purposes, you start running behind the goals. Envy or jealousy is the thing which makes you run like a rat.

A beautiful another one idea from tantra: Maya Shakti. Maya makes us all dance just with this one stick called jealousy. Have you seen the monkey charmers in Bharat? The roadside they will do a small show with monkeys. They will have small stick, they will rotate the stick and shout “aadra rama, aadra rama…”, they will give instructions and according to instructions monkey will do. With a small stick they will make the money to dance and do whatever they want. Same way, the maya shakti is making you run as she wants just with one stick called jealousy, envy, comparison. The moment you compare, you just again jump into the same path, same rut, same routine, which I call the purpose life. Then you become karmi, not karma yogi. Man who lives in the eternal consciousness, nithya ananda, and allows his body and mind to work according to its nature he is centered on eternal consciousness. He is called karma yogi. But the man, out of jealousy, out of envy, out of comparison, who jumps enters into social conditioning, social rut, the same routine of rat race, is called karmi.

The difference between karmi and karma yogi is only one thing: the man who is driven by jealousy is karmi, the man who allows the eternal consciousness to drive him is called karma yogi. All you need to understand is only this one word: without envy, 'nasūyanto, without jealousy. The moment you start thinking, Oh! He is having all those things. He is having all those things, you become mad. If the neighbor brings AC into his house, your house temperature increases. Your house temperature increases! One more thing, when you do things out of comparison, we do all foolish things, our intelligence stops working. Our intelligence completely stops working.

A small story: A priest and a rabbi were staying opposite to each other. Not only they are staying opposite to each other, they are opposite to each other. If the priest brings a rose garden to his house, within 24 hours, the rabbi will bring a new rose garden. If the rabbi paints his house in white, within 24 hours priest’s house will also be painted in white. Suddenly one day, in front of rabbi’s house a new Mercedes Benz was standing. This was too much for priest. Somehow he did something, within 24 hours, not only he brought the Rolls Royce, he started sprinkling holy water on it. Rabbi saw from his house and asked, “Hey! What happened to you? You got a new Rolls Royce, its okay, but till yesterday you were alright, why today morning you started sprinkling water on the car? Priest says, “I am a religious person, I cannot travel in a car which is not Christian, so I am baptizing it”. Now the rabbi is in big trouble! What to do? That day evening he is seen cutting the exhaust pipe of the Benz with a hacksaw blade!

(Much laughter)

If you understand, understand. If you have not understood, ask the people who are laughing. To convert the car into Jew, that day evening rabbi started cutting the car exhaust pipe with a hacksaw frame! If you do things out of jealous, out of enviousness, out of comparison, you will end up doing only this type of foolish things, intelligence will stop working. When you start comparing, intelligence stops working.

Please understand, every one of you are unique, there is no need to compare with other person. You are unique. The main problem is you compare only with the nearest person. Five inch up and five inch low, only with that persons you compare, you don’t compare your selves with Bill Gates, do you? If you compare even God cannot save you, that is different! You don’t. You compare only with your neighbor, you compare only with your colleague, you compare only with your brother, you compare only with your sister. The problem is not even failure, you worry about the failure is the problem. That is why you don’t compare with unreachable goals, you compare only reachable goals, you compare only with immediate persons. Understand this comparison is what is driving you crazy; again and again and again brings the whole social conditioning on you and eats away your whole life. Your whole life is eaten away by this one maya called comparison.

Your whole joy, ecstasy, the very bliss or the ecstasy of living is swallowed by this one maya called comparison. How the whole thing is swallowed at the time of pralaya by the ocean, same way, just this one concept, comparison, one idea envy and jealousy swallows your whole life. Which has no existence; two things, there is something called comparative reality, and something called existential reality. If you build you life based in existential reality you will never suffer. If you build your mind on comparative reality, you will be continuously suffering even at the time of death. Not only at the time of death, even after death. Don’t build your inner space on comparative reality. Let your inner space be built on existential reality. Let you accept the life as it is. If you build your life on existential reality, you will live your life blissfully in eternal consciousness, as karma yogi.

Small story: One guy comes to the bar with a big smile, big grin in his face and asks the bar tender to serve drink for the whole house free, “Give drinks for everybody I will pay”. Bar tender serves and asks, “So nice, I am very happy you did a good thing for everybody. May I know why you did this?” He said, “I am very happy today, I have grown taller than my younger brother. I have become taller than my younger brother. My younger brother used to be taller than me, so always people tease – you are elder or he is elder? So I had a problem. Today, I have grown taller than my younger brother.” Younger brother taller than you is really problem. Elder brother taller can be at least tolerated, but younger brother taller is too much. “Today, I have become taller than him”. He asked, “How? In this age how suddenly you have grown and become taller than him?” “No, no. I have not grown. He met with accident, his both legs have been amputated”.

When you compare, when we live with jealousy, when our life is based on comparative reality, please be very clear, we end up only in this type of things. Let your inner space be built on existential reality, not on comparative reality.

Next Krishna says, beautiful thing:

tasmād [asaktaḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/asaktah) [satataḿ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/satatam) [kāryaḿ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karyam) [karma](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karma) [samācara](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/samacara) asakto hy [ācaran](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/acaran) [karma](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/k/karma) [param](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/p/param) [āpnoti](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/apnoti) [pūruṣaḥ](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/p/purusah)

Therefore one should do his duty without being desirous to the rewards of action, for by working without attachment one attains the supreme.

The whole essence of karma yoga! So understand, because of all these reasons drop your attachment to the purpose. Drop your attachment to the goal, and live the happy life. Live the life blissfully, you will achieve the supreme. He says you will achieve the supreme, you will achieve the eternal consciousness, nithya ananda. So let us pray to the ultimate divine, Parabramha Krishna, to make us all understand His great message, to make us all imbibe Him in our being, let Him guide us, let Him make us experience the eternal consciousness, the eternal bliss, nithyaananda. Thank you.

Vasudeva sutham devam Kamsa chanoor mardhanam Devaki paramaanandam Krishnam vande jagatgurum

Details

The talk

Date: 6 September 2005
Language: English

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Recording: No recording linked to this transcript

The transcript

Status: Live notes
Time-synced: Not time-synced
Length: 14,613 words · 81 min read
Topics: None recorded
Archive reference: uni128

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