“pArthAya pratibodhitAM bhagavatA nArAyaNena svayaM vyAsena grathitAM…”

pArthAya pratibodhitAM bhagavatA nArAyaNena svayaM vyAsena grathitAM purANamuninA madhye-mahAbhAratam advaitAmRtavarshiNIM bhagavatIM ashTAdaSAdhyAyinIM amba tvAm anusandadhAmi bhagavad-gIte bhavadveshinIm

Taught to pArtha (Arjuna) by the Lord nArAyaNa (Krishna) himself, and collated by the ancient seer, vyAsa, during the war of mahAbhArata

Oh Goddess, who showers the nectar of advaita, in eighteen chapters, I salute you, bhagavad-gItA, enemy of transmigratory existence

Vasudeva sutham devam, Kamsa chaanoora Mardhanam Devaki Paramanandam, Vishnum vandhe Jagathgurum

I salute the Lord, Krishna, the world-teacher, the son of Vasudeva, the destroyer of the Asuras Kamsa and Chanura, the very joy of Mother Devaki.

a small story. One Hollywood director was shooting his big budget movie in a deserted area. Suddenly one day, an old Bharatn appears and says to the director ‘tomorrow rain’ and it happens that next day rain pours heavily! After one week, the same Bharatn appears again and says ‘tomorrow storm’ and exactly as he said, it happens that there was a big storm the next day. The director had to cancel the shooting. After noticing the same sort of thing happening three or four times, the director was really impressed and he told his assistant ‘get that old Bharatn, we will pay him and keep him with us’.

After three weeks suddenly the Bharatn disappeared and he didn’t come back for more than a month. Director some how searched and got him back and asks him ‘Please tell me about tomorrow, I have to shoot an important scene, it is a costly set. I totally rely on you to tell me about tomorrow.’ The old man just shrugs and says: ‘Don’t know…because my radio is broken.’

Look in before coming to any conclusion. This is the message for today.

The sixth chapter of Bhagavat Gita starts with the first Krishna’s sloka. In this chapter Arjuna is not asking any questions. Krishna continues his answers from the previous chapter.

sri-bhagavan uvaca: anasritah karma-phalam karyam karma karoti yah sa sannyasi ca yogi ca na niragnir na cakriyah

Bhagavan says: One who performs actions without being attached to its fruits is an ascetic, and is a religious performer of purification of mind. One who has stopped performing any actions who don’t accept the sacred fire and don’t perform his duty is neither an ascetic nor a karma yogi.

Krishna continues what he said earlier in a little more detailed way. He says the person who is not attached to the fruits of his action is an ascetic and he is a karma yogi. Please understand, Karma **or sanyasa is no way related to your doing, it is directly related to your being.**

Whether you are doing karma yoga or you remain as a sanyasi is in no way going to affect you. What is your attitude, what is your being, that alone really matters. Here Krishna gives the gist of the last chapter.

Again and again people ask me ‘Swamiji should we renounce everything to achieve enlightenment’. I tell them ‘No, Just renounce what you don’t have. That is enough, you don’t have to renounce, what you have. Live with whatever you have, but just renounce what you don’t have. You have thousands of things that you don’t have but you mentally live with them. Just renounce what you don’t have that is enough. Then you will start living intensely with what you have.

There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit: bramhacharya. Just like so many other Sanskrit words, this word has no equivalent word in English. The word has been translated very wrongly as celibacy. But no, celibacy is not the right word for bramhacharya. The word has such a wonderful meaning. In English you don’t have equivalent word because the very idea never existed. The very idea of bramhacharya never existed.

bramha means existence, reality, divine. charya means living like. Bramhacharya means a man who lives like god, who lives with existence, who lives with reality. Please be very clear, bramhacharya word does not mean one who is unmarried. In course of time when it is translated as celibacy, we started using that word to denote a person who is unmarried. No! Bramhacharya means one who lives with existence. Most of us live with fantasy. Look in! Look in, and you will understand. How much of fantasies are there inside? Our whole life is running behind fantasies because we don’t live with the reality. You neither live with the real husband nor do you relate with the real wife.

If you look into your life deeply, you will see that you may live in the same house but count how many times you look into each other’s eyes. How many times does the eye contact happen? You don’t need two hands to count. The reason is that there is always the screen of fantasy between you and your spouse. Just like between you and the life, as well. You don’t want to see the life as it is. We are not ready to accept the life as it is. Continuously we are working and developing the life but we are not ready to look into the life as it is.

Recently, I read a book beautiful book, “Men are from Mars and women are from Venus”. There are so many things that the author has expressed which we can see in reality, in our life. If you look around and see what is happening, I feel we should find out some other title for the book: Venus and Mars are too close, they are from the same galaxy! We should find out some thing else. Our life is filled with fantasies.

Continuously we are chiseling the other person and continuously the other person is chiseling us. You have some imagination and according to your imagination, you chisel the real person. All the sounds heard in you house is that of the chisel and the hammer. Continuously we go on chiseling. We can chisel a stone and make a beautiful sculpture and keep it in the house. You can chisel wood and make beautiful furniture and have it in the house. But can you chisel a living being?

When you start chiseling a living being, you create more and more trouble for yourself and for the other person. A person who is matured enough to live with reality has achieved the state of bramhacharya. He is living with the real person or situation. Just drop the fantasies. Living with the reality is what I call bramhacharya.

Here, again and again Krishna says, just renouncing the sacred fire, not performing his duty does not mean you are an ascetic or sanyasi. In those days fire was the base for everything: whether cooking or doing spiritual practice, for every thing you needed fire. I can replace the word ‘fire’ with ‘cell phone’ for today’s world. In this modern day, we can say: don’t think by sacrificing the cell phone and laptop you become a sanyasi or a great karma yogi.

Just like how the cell phone and laptop have become the basic necessity today, in those days, the agni (fire) was the basic need for life. Please be very clear: Just like how you are able to relate with people through the cell phone, our ancient rishis (mystics) knew the techniques of relating with higher energy through fire.

We should understand an important thing: Just like how we are using the cell phone and communicating, the same way our masters knew how to use fire to communicate with the higher energy. The whole science is nothing but using the light particles. The whole science can be reduced to using the light particles whether it is electricity, or atomic energy, or anything. Everything is nothing but handling light particles with different formulae.

Whether it is your fan or iron box or a microscope or video camera, laptop, atom bomb, everything can be reduced to that one single thing: the technique of handling light particles. The scientists worked on light energy and created all these objects. Our eastern rishis worked on sound energy and created all these products. We really had the pushpaka vimana (flying chariot) and we did really have the brahmastra–(atom bomb). Everything was true. But in course of time we lost the technology, that’s all. The technology of handling the sound waves is lost. But just because the technology is lost, the whole thing is being questioned today. People have started thinking all these things are just mythology; all these things are just puranas. No, we lost the key and because of that we are not able to open the lock. Just because we are not able to open the lock, don’t think there is no treasure.

The whole Vedas is nothing but learning the technique or tuning your self to work with the sound particles. Just like how scientists work with light particles, the rishis have worked with the sound particles. They were able to relate with higher energies and were able to communicate, through fire just with the vibrations. Sanjaya (the king’s charioteer) seeing through telepathy, pushpaka vimana concept, or bhahmastra are all true. Only thing is when the cultural invasion of Bharat happened, the techniques were lost. I myself have seen a sanyasi, who could create fire just by a few words. Out of nothing, with few words, you will be able to create fire and even now, if you go to Kumbhamela, you can see hundreds of people like these.

They would bury their head inside the earth for more than 24 hours. There are so many people who can play with sound energy. I myself have seen in Kumbhamela. Ten years ago, in Haridwar Kumbhamela, I saw with my own eyes, a sanyasi was floating in air and the public was watching this with awe. And I have seen a sanyasi who would sit on the Nail board (full of nails). We even have a video recording of that in the ashram on how they sit on nails and how they float. Just with sound energy they are able to do whatever science is able to do with the light energy.

So here when Krishna says just by renouncing a fire, a person cannot become a sanyasi. Same way, here I can say just by renouncing your cell phone in life, you cannot become sanyasi. The attitude needs to be changed. In the first, sloka, Krishna gave the gist of the last chapter, like a follow up. Then he continues:

uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet atmaiva hy atmano bandhur atmaiva ripur atmanah

In my discourses if I have quoted any Gita sloka more than twice, it is this sloka. I can say, this is the gist of the whole Gita. This single sloka is the gist of the whole Gita.

In the last session, we saw how to move from doing and having, to being. We are stuck in having. A little intelligent man moves to doing. Then from doing you are supposed to move to being. We learnt the technique for moving from fear and greed into divine consciousness and bliss.

Here Krishna says: One must deliver himself with the help of his own being and not degrade himself. The being is the friend of the conditioned soul, and his enemy as well.

You are your own friend and you are your own enemy. If you know the technique of how to lift yourself by yourself, you will become friend of your self. If you let yourself down, you will become enemy of yourself. In our last session I had asked you all to practice the technique for 10 days. How many of you were able to follow? When you practice, naturally again and again you will fall. If you have not fallen, then please be very clear, you have not practiced it right. When you practice anything, naturally you will fall. Suddenly you will forget and then realize: ‘Oh, I started working out of fear…I started working out of greed.’ When you start working, naturally you will see there will be few problems.

A small story:

There was a big spiritual organization. One monk was sent to a remote tribal area for doing service. Suddenly the Head Quarters receives a lot of complaint letters about that monk. After reading the complaint letters, the President says, ‘we have posted the right person. Don’t worry.’ The secretary was puzzled and asked him why he thought so in spite of the complaints received about the monk. The president replies, ‘If we are getting complaints, it means that he has already started working. At least something is happening.’

Always when you start anything new, you will have three phases: 1. Resistance 2. Avoidance (you will just avoid, you will neither care nor resist) 3. Acceptance. This is the way anything will start. Similarly, when you start doing anything inside your system, the same way you will start growing.

First, resistance: again and again, you will fall, you will forget. Your system will resist. It will try to create all complications, all complaints, and all possible arguments. Sometimes, if you can’t follow the teachings of Krishna, you will start blaming Krishna. I have seen many people, when they are not able to follow the teachings of Krishna, they will go ahead and start blaming Krishna: ‘What Krishna? He was always flirting. He was always running behind women. He was Radha lola, sthree lola…what type of man is he?’ Easily, you can escape from Krishna by criticizing Krishna. When you can’t practice these teachings, you have to justify yourself. And naturally, inside your being, your conscience will hurt you. So someway, you have to make your conscience believe you are doing the right thing. You have to find out some argument. So, since you are not able to follow, start criticizing Krishna. This is the best way to escape and avoid the teachings of Krishna.

When our being resists, if you allow the resistance to grow, you are the worst enemy for yourself. This is what Krishna means by saying: ‘Let you lift yourself by yourself’. If you don’t you will be your worst enemy. It is up to you to help yourself as a best friend or to hurt yourself as a worst enemy.

Please be very clear: No body can hurt you unless you allow them to. No body can help you unless you allow them to.

Let you lift yourself by yourself. Again and again these masters stress the same point. If you have fallen, if you have failed, practicing these words, the teachings or the meditation technique, if you have forgotten, don’t worry. Again and again, lift yourself. Don’t feel depressed, don’t have guilt. Don’t get dejected thinking you will not be able to do. Again and again lift yourself.

The last teaching of the Buddha is: Atma deepo bhava. When Buddha was about to leave his body all his disciples asked him, ‘Master, please give us your ultimate message in one word’. Buddha says: Let you be light, guide unto yourself. Let you be guided by yourself. Let your being guide you.

Here Krishna says the same thing. Let you lift yourself by yourself. Nobody can do anything unless you lift yourself.

Just the other day, in the Internet, I came across an advertisement called super deluxe kundalini yoga for $240. You don’t need to do anything; they have a by-pass circuit by which your kundalini will be raised to Sahasrara automatically. All you need to do is to allow them to do the by-pass connection. Then your kundalini will stay in the Sahasrara forever. I was just shocked! How can someone else awaken your kundalini? Of course, enlightened masters can awaken your latent energy but only you can do stay in that same state. They can give you a glimpse, satori, but staying in that consciousness and achieving samadhi can be done only by you. Only you can help yourself.

Someone goes to Buddha and asks: ‘Master, you know enlightenment is the ultimate thing, why don’t you give that to all of us? Why don’t you make us all enlightened?’ Buddha says: ‘Oh, you want enlightenment? Do you think I should give enlightenment to everybody? Please go around and take a survey on how many really want enlightenment?’ By that evening this guy comes back after taking an extensive survey in that whole city and he says ‘Master, only two people want enlightenment.’ Buddha says, ‘Please bring them, let me give.’ The man says ‘No, they are not ready to come from their house all the way here. If you can send by courier, they are ready to receive.’ Nobody really wants it!

Even if you want, you want it as one more item in your showcase. You are not ready to risk anything for enlightenment. You want it as one more item in the showcase. Whenever people come to our house we can say: ‘this is from Delhi, this is from New York, this statue is from Japan. Just like that, you can say: ‘Oh, this enlightenment, you know that Nithyananda Swami? He gave enlightenment. He was giving Gita discourse that I attended and he gave it. How does it look?’ Just as one more showpiece we are ready to accept but we are not ready to commit or risk anything for it. We are not ready to take the responsibility.

Buddha says Existence is so great. It gives you even the freedom to be in bondage. It is your freedom, whether to be in bondage or to be liberated. Even liberation should not be forced. If it is forced, even liberation is not liberation. So, you have 100% choice to be liberated or to be in bondage. It is completely up to you. God is so great, that He gives you the freedom even to be in bondage or to be liberated.

Here Krishna says: Let you liberate yourself by yourself. Unless you liberate yourself, nobody else can liberate yourself. If you help yourself, you will be the greatest friend for yourself. If you don’t you will be the worst enemy for yourself.

Next Krishna explains the same concept a little more in detail:

bandhur atmatmanas tasya yenatmaivatmana jitah anatmanas tu satrutve vartetatmaiva satru-vat

For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so; his very mind will be the greatest enemy.

This is an important sloka. This has to be understood well. Let us see the next two slokas to get the complete context and then we will enter into the meaning of the slokas.

jitatmanah prasantasya paramatma samahitah sitosna-sukha-duhkhesu tatha manapamanayoh

For one who has conquered the mind, the Super-soul is already reached, for he has attained tranquility. To such a man happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are all the same.

jnana-vijnana-trptatma kuta-stho vijitendriyah yukta ity ucyate yogi sama-lostrasma-kancanah

A person whose mind is contended because of the knowledge of spiritual science, who has subdued his senses, for him clod, stone and gold are the same. And the one who is satisfied with what he is earning is said to be established in self-realization and is called a Yogi.

Through out this chapter, Krishna speaks about senses. How our senses are functioning and what we are supposed to do. Let me give you a small diagram on how our mind functions and how our senses work. Then we will be able to understand the Gita in a much better way.

Please refer to the diagram below:

Now, we will see how our mind works, how we process information, how we perceive information and how we take decisions. First, for example, you are seeing something through the eyes. Here I’m giving the example of eyes, but you can replace it with any of the other senses like taste, smell, etc. Let us take the example that you are seeing me at this moment. First your eyes will catch the picture or the scene. This will be taken to chakshu. Chakshu is the energy, which is inside the eyes, and is called indriya. Please understand, the eyes are not seeing. Through eyes, the energy is seeing. Sometime your eyes will be wide open if you are intensely listening to some music, even if someone walks in front of you, you will not know. Let’s say you are intensely reading something; you will not hear any sound sometimes. It means you are not hearing through the ears; something else is hearing through the ears or seeing through the eyes. That something else is called chakshu. The whole file goes to chakshu.

The picture or the scene that you are seeing will go to chakshu. In chakshu the important process happens and that is the conversion of the whole file into digital file. It is almost like a DSP: Digital Signal Processor. Inside the computer if you have to process any information, it has to become digital. Whether it is a picture or whether it is sound, it has to be converted into digital file. Similarly inside the mind, for any process to happen, the whole thing has to be converted into bio-signal file or digital file. The file processing happens in chakshu. Whatever scene you are seeing now, that picture will be converted into digital file in chakshu. That file will now go to chitta or memory. In memory the process of negation starts happening. You will start analyzing and negating things. Na iti…Na iti- not this… not this’. First your mind will say, ‘this is not a tree’, ‘this is not an animal’, ‘this is not a rock’. This process of negation will happen in chitta.

Once the ‘this is not.’ happens, the file goes to the manas, the mind. Here the mind starts identifying as, ‘this is it’, ‘this is it’. In mind, the identification process happens. Your mind says ‘I’m seeing a man standing with a kavi (saffron) cloth. He is teaching Gita’. This kind of identification of ‘This is it’ will start happening in the mind. Then the file goes to buddhi, the intelligence. The intelligence does the process of ‘what is there between me and this scene’. ‘What is the connection between this scene and me? In what way am I related to him or this scene?’ You buddhi will start analyzing with all your earlier experiences. The last four of five times that I attended these talks it was really useful. Or you can think this is not worth it. Your buddhi takes some decision. Your buddhi will respond in someway whether it is right or wrong, whether you like it or not. Someway your buddhi will respond and will write in the file yes or no according to the past experience. The whole file will go to the ego and the ego will give the command. If buddhi says ‘yes, I enjoyed yesterday’, the ego will say ‘sit here and continue to listen intensely.’ If buddhi says ‘No, no, yesterday itself I wasted my time. It was boring. This is not for me.’ Then immediately the ego gives the command, ‘Come on, let us move. There is so much of work to be done in the house’. The moment the ego gives the command, automatically your whole being starts executing it. This is the way we receive information, we process and we respond. The information comes through the senses, the processing is done and the response is given. This is the way our sense work.

Now, Krishna says an important point: ‘For one who has achieved the supreme bliss, for him happiness and distress, heat and cold, honor and dishonor are both the same.’

Through out this chapter Krishna emphasizes on this one idea: Senses. How can happiness and distress, how can heat and cold, how can honor and dishonor be the same for a man? How is it possible? First thing, when these senses do this work, you decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’, only based on your past experiences, the experiences with which you have grown or the words with which you have conditioned your chitta and manas. Based on how your mind and memory has been conditioned, your buddhi decides.

Please be very clear: Something that is so tasty for you is poison for your neighbor. Why go for the neighbor- your wife! You may like something, but she may hate it.

There are three ways to do anything. First, hire someone to do it. Second, do it by yourself. If you can’t, just tell your wife not to do that. When you don’t want something to be done, just tell her to do it and when you want something to be done, just tell her not to do!

Whenever your mind is caught in dualities, dhwandhwa, again and again you fall back to your dilemma, to your nature, to your suffering, to your instinct level.

Here Krishna says the person who has achieved the bliss is not affected by heat or cold. How to reach that state? Through out this chapter he speaks about conquering the senses.

First thing we need to understand this: When I say conquering the senses I don’t mean controlling the senses or destroying the senses. If you try to control or destroy the senses, you will only struggle more and more and suffer more and more. Ramana Maharshi says beautifully: ‘Instead of killing the person, you try to destroy the chair’. Destroying the chair will not kill the person. Here your senses are just chairs. Your ego is the person who is sitting there. So, if you try to control your senses, it is not going to work. If you try to control your body, that is not going to work.

Krishna says beautifully, ‘For one who has conquered the mind...’ When he says mind, he means the whole setup where the decision making happens. Mind-Buddhi-Ego is the spot where the decision making is happening. When you just try to conquer the senses, again and again you will fail. And one more thing, if you fail two three times, you will lose the confidence to try again. If you fail fighting with your senses, automatically you will start thinking, it is never possible and you will lose confidence. You need intelligence to progress in this path.

A small story:

One guy wanted to go on a vacation to Juhu beach. He started to travel, he kept going and after one week he came back. His friend asked, ‘Did you go to Juhu beach?’ He said ‘No, I was not able to find it’. His friend asked ‘Did you not see any board on the highway?’ For which he replied, ‘Yes, there was a board but it said Juhu beach left. I thought the beach had left and I came back’

You need intelligence to travel in the path.

If you try to work from the wrong side, from the side of the senses, you will never be able to succeed. If you try to create more pressure on the cooker, you will not be able open the cooker lid. First you need to put out the fire. First you need to remove the energy supply. From the ego or the buddhi, the place from where you take the decisions, from there continuously the ego is supplying the energy to your senses. So, all you need to do is to work on the level of mind and not in the level of senses. If you try to work on the level of senses, you will create only more and more perverted desires.

For example, a man who tries to control his eating, he will dream about having a feast. If you just fast for four days, that’s enough. On the fifth day in your dream, you will be feasting. Your body has got its own balance. Your body has its own intelligence. If you avoid something, it has to supply and rejuvenate itself. If you are hungry, you can’t sleep. If you have to continue to be in the state of sleep, you should be made to believe that you are not hungry. So, unconscious energy creates a dream as if you are feasting. Whatever you deprive, your unconscious energy will satisfy itself in the dream state. This is because in the dream state, there is no police and there is nobody to control you. You just project your world and enjoy it. You can just do whatever you want.

An important thing to note is: If you are suppressing anything, be very clear, in the dream it will automatically express itself. Dream is nothing but the expression of your suppressed desire and fear. Your fear or desire when suppressed gets expression in your dreams. Not only that, it expresses in a very perverted way.

With senses if you enjoy, you will never become tired. But when you suppress your senses, your being will suffer in the dream. You can see very clearly, if you had a nightmare, even after waking up, for hours together you will continue in that same mood and your whole being will be shaken. Now they are coming up with the new concept called ‘fear stroke’. We do get fear stroke in dreams. If you are suffering in the dream level, please be very clear, there is something seriously wrong with the Mind-Buddhi level. You are trying to control the senses instead of controlling the mind. Instead of removing the fire, you are trying to create more pressure in the cooker. All we need to do is to work on the mind to remove the fire, to stop the supply of fuel, to stop the supply of energy.

Here Krishna says, ‘For one who has conquered the mind…’ That means for the one whose mind has learnt the right processing. If your mind and chitta are filled with past memories, you cannot take right decisions. Please be very clear, don’t think the mind takes decisions in a logical way. Sometimes, your buddhi takes decisions in a very funny way. For example, as I was explaining earlier on how you take the decision whether to sit here or not. Sometimes your buddhi does not even think that much. If you had any problems with any other swami or any other person who was wearing this cloth, suddenly that memory will be awakened. And your buddhi is not even ready to sit and listen. Your buddhi is not even ready to give a chance. It is not even ready to think. Immediately your ego gives the order. This is what we call prejudice.

Sometimes, you hear the argument and pass judgment. Many times, your judgment is ready, and you collect arguments to support the judgment. Look into your life. Whenever your judgment is ready and you collect arguments to support your judgment, you are caught in this network and you are creating suffering. A man, whose senses are clear, means one who is not driven, who is not suffering because of the senses has the ability to take decisions with clarity.

If your mind, especially the area of chitta, is clear, if that is intelligent enough, then automatically your senses work properly. You take right decisions. Please be very clear, you can never achieve bliss by controlling the senses. You can only achieve it by controlling the mind. By changing the servants, you can’t change the leader. But by changing the leader you can change the servants. Mind is the leader or the master who is taking decisions and leading the senses.

So, all we need to do is work on the mind and not on the senses.

Krishna says, ‘For the one who has conquered the mind the paramatman (divine self) is achieved.’ You don’t need to achieve bliss. It is always there with you. If it has to be achieved, there is every possibility it can be lost. If it can be lost, what is the guarantee it will be there forever? Be very clear, anything, if it has to be achieved, is not worth achieving. But if it is your nature, then realize it. If it has to be achieved, there is every possibility that after ten days it may be lost! Suddenly it may disappear! So, here Krishna says that all you need to do is conquer to your mind. You don’t need to achieve anything.

I always tell people Ananda Spurana is continuously happening. The Bliss Flowering is continuously happening. Spurana means life energy. Your very life energy is bliss. Unless you have the bliss energy in you, you cannot inhale and exhale. The inhaling and exhaling itself happens because of the bliss energy or the eternal consciousness in you. But you are stopping the bliss fountain again and again. All you need to do is to stop the stopping process. That’s all. You don’t even need to create anything. Just stop the stopping process.

Here Krishna says you just have to conquer the mind, the paramatman is already achieved. jitatmanah prasantasya paramatma samahitah The paramatman is already achieved and you are with it. There is nothing to be achieved.

When you conquer the mind, the happiness and distress are both one and the same and you are not touched by it.

Here’s a small story to explain how happiness and sorrow are in no way related to the outer world but to the inner world.

An old man went to a nearby city for some work. When he was coming back to his village, from a little distance he suddenly noticed that his house was on fire. He started shouting, screaming and rolling on the ground and weeping. His son came to him and said, ‘Dad, don’t worry. Don’t you remember, just yesterday we sold that house?’ Immediately the old man sat up and wiped the tears and the sorrow just disappeared. In ten minutes, his other son came to him and said, ‘Dad, yes, we have sold it, but we are yet to get the money’. Again this man started rolling on the ground and weeping ‘Oh, I don’t know what I will do now. I don’t know who will care for me. I don’t know how to save myself.’ In the next ten minutes, his wife came to him and said ‘Don’t worry, just this morning I checked that the money has been deposited in our bank account’. Again he got up and wiped his tears and was perfectly back to normal!

If you notice, it is the same situation, the same person. But when he thinks it is his, he is suffering and when he thinks it is not his, he is liberated. So, what gives you suffering? Just this single thing: Thinking that it is yours. The habit of thinking mine, mine.

The same way, there are people who can’t enjoy unless it is theirs. One day I was going for a walk in the beach. One of our devotees started saying: ‘Swamiji, I think we should have a cottage here. It will be very nice. We can come out and enjoy the breeze.’ I asked him ‘Are we not enjoying now? Why do you need a cottage here to enjoy? Just enjoy now itself!’ But the mind never enjoys unless you are sure it is yours. Unless you possess it, you don’t enjoy.

Please be very clear, the man who possesses and tries to enjoy will never be able to enjoy. By the time you own the cottage, you will star worrying, ‘I think I should have this kind of furniture. I should have that type of arrangement.’ Or already you have started thinking about another cottage in some other place.

Ramana Maharshi is a great devotee of Arunachala! Someone goes to him and says: ‘Master, what a beautiful place it is! How nice it is to be here!’ Ramana Maharshi says ‘Just be here for three days, everything will become alright!’ In three days you will take the things for granted. It will be beautiful only for three days. Not more than that. The person who enjoys only by possessing will never enjoy. The person who enjoys will never bother about possessing. It is just your mind.

Sometimes, the mind will not allow you to enjoy unless you know for sure that it is yours. And at other times when you know it is yours, it creates suffering. Suffering or enjoying is created only by that one link: mind. If that link is disconnected, the whole process will happen beautifully. The only difference between you and an enlightened man is that one missing link! Don’t think an enlightened man will have two big horns. There is no other difference between you and an enlightened man other than this one link, mind, which continuously decides: ‘What is there for me? In what way am I connected?’ That ‘I, I, I, I’. That link is missing. If you can cut this link, if you can cross that ‘I’, you will become Christ. Don’t start from the senses instead start from the ego, the mind.

We always complain about the senses. Again and again we say that our senses are spoiling us. No, you are spoiling them. Don’t put the responsibility on the senses. You are spoiling them. You destroy them. You abuse them. Look into your life. It will be late in the night and at 2am you will sit and watch baseball. Your eyes will be begging for some rest. When some advertisement comes, your eyes will automatically close by themselves. But you continue to sit and watch the rest of the game. Because you want to enjoy, you abuse your eyes. Same is the case with the Gongura chutney (a spicy chutney that is very chilly- hot). Your tongue burns, and your eyes pour with tears…and not even with finger tip but with your whole hand you put it in your mouth! And now just the mention of it is enough, I can see how many mouths are feeling the taste. We abuse our senses and disrespect our senses.

Please be very clear: Senses are not disturbing us. It is we who are abusing the senses. It is this link: ‘What is there for me?’ that destroys the whole thing. This is where the whole trouble starts. This ‘I, I, I, I’ is where we start abusing the senses. All we need to do is not to control the senses but to control the mind, make it understand what is really happening in your system.

One another simple thing: Hot and sweet tastes are just one and the same. Today just try out this simple experiment: Stretch your tongue and concentrate on the tongue. Visualize as if your tongue is a highway and you are walking on your tongue. Then take a chili and a sugar candy. Touch one corner of your tongue with chili and the other corner with sugar candy. And deeply witness what is happening. Suddenly you will realize, the process, which happens when you touch chili and the process that happens when you touch sugar candy will be one and the same. When you do this experiment, you will understand that if you go a little deeper into your system, t the experience of hot and sweet, both are one and the same. Only when you put a rubber stamp as ‘This is hot, this is not good for me’, or ‘this is sweet, I like this,’ etc., the problem arises. Only when you label it, the trouble starts. As a process, in nature, both are one and the same. You label them based on your belief. Based on your earlier belief system, you dove-hole your experiences. Based on your recorded memory, suddenly you start thinking that this is not good for you. And really you start feeling that it’s not good for you.

And you need to understand one more thing: Your thoughts create your senses. Your mind creates your senses. Don’t think you are living with what you have. You create what you want to have.

Your thoughts are so powerful, and your mind is so powerful, it can just change the whole body. For example: Just think of one thought that creates disturbance in you. Or just think of your enemy. Or think of a person who took money from you and is not giving it back. Or a person who gave you money and is asking for it. Immediately you will see the change happening in your system. The whole chemistry is changing. You blood is boiling, BP is rising, heartbeat is rising, and pulse rate is increasing. Just one thought, and your whole system is changing. A single thought can change the whole chemistry. Or one thought that creates lust, one advertisement hoarding and immediately your body chemistry changes. Your whole body is now ready.

Please be very clear: a single thought can change the chemistry of your body. Your body is again and again created only by your thoughts. It is your thoughts that create the body. In Bharat there is a great science called saamudrikaa lakshana. Just by seeing your face, your body, your way of standing, sitting and walking, they can tell the quality of your mind. They can tell everything about your mind. This is because the rishis know the secret that the mind creates the body. Body is the outer expression of your mind. Mind is the inner experience of the body. So, if your mind changes, your body can be changed, your whole system can be changed.

A man whose mind is clearly reprogrammed according to the spiritual ideas can completely change his senses. As of now, your mind is programmed for misery, towards dukkha. It is looking outward. If you can reprogram your mind to look in, towards bliss, your whole senses can be changed.

Please be very clear: All we need to do is to reprogram your mind to look in. This is the jist of this whole chapter.

And he( ? ) says one more important thing about heat and cold. I don’t know how you will be able to believe this: I have seen people living in the Himalayas with just two pieces of cloth. Let me tell you very clearly, I lived in the Himalayas and I used to sleep on the snow with the same cotton dress. It may be very difficult to believe but you can do it. All you need to do is stop resisting, that’s all. Just try this experiment: the moment you feel the cool breeze, don’t create an idea, it is cold, I may catch cold, I may have wheezing, I may have sinus, I may have asthma. Just don’t create big words. Especially in the West the big problem is, you learnt all these big negative words. The more words you know about diseases, the more is the possibility of getting those diseases in you. Whenever you repeat something, you create that quality in you.

Just a simple experiment you can do: Just close your eyes and repeat ten times: ‘Shanti, Shanti, Shanti’, you will have peace inside you. The only thing is your wife’s name should not be Shanti! If you just repeat the word shanti, you will start experiencing the word shanti in you. The quality of peace will start happening in you. The same way, if you repeat the names of diseases, you will start creating the same diseases in you.

There is a recent research study that I want to let you know. I went to the AAPI (Association of American Physicians of Bharatn Origin) convention. There they showed me a book on their research works. One research says that in medical colleges, if the lessons are being taught about a particular disease, more than 40% of the students start showing symptoms of that disease. I don’t know how you will understand this. The reason is that they are continuously thinking about that symptom. And one more big problem is that whenever you hear about a disease, the first thing you will do is to check with yourself to see if you have those symptoms: ‘Do I have that?’ You will check if you have that symptom. Since the students are continuously meditating on the symptoms, 40% of them express the same symptoms in their life. If the next lesson is about some other disease, they express that symptom. Whatever you think, you express. If you are continuously thinking about the wrong things, your senses will be created in the same way.

Only one thing we need to do is to just work on the mind, just liberate the mind. Then your whole system will be purified. Your senses will be reconstructed. Krishna gives a beautiful technique to work on the mind.

He says one more important thing: Honor and dishonor will also be the same. This is very difficult to believe. Cold and heat can be the same. Hot and sweet can be the same. You can even accept that. But honor and dishonor, how can those two be the same? One word is enough to make us mad. One word thrown on us is enough to make us mad.

Someone asked me the other day, ‘Swamiji, why do we bother so much about others’ opinion?’ You bother about others opinion so much because you don’t know about yourself. You know about yourself only through others words and their opinions. You understand about yourself only from others. If everybody says you are beautiful, you get that certificate. If everybody says you are intelligent, you get that certificate. If everybody says you are great, you get that certificate. You collect all these certificates and with those certificates, you build your personality.

In our Life Bliss Program, the first session is about this. The first session is about why we get depressed. Why again and again we fall into the low energy. It is because the energy source for you is other’s certificates. You don’t have any self-respect. You respect yourself only based on other’s opinions. If others opinions about you is good, you think you are great. If others opinions about you is not good, immediately you fall down in self esteem. Have you seen kids build castles with playing cards? The same way, you build castles with others certificates. Your personality is nothing but a castle built with other’s certificates. If one card is removed in that castle, what will happen to that castle? It just collapses. The same way, if a single person takes away his certificate, what happens to your personality? It just collapses. Again and again, you fall into depression.

Please be very clear, whenever you fall into depression, either somebody would have take their certificate, or you are afraid that somebody may take away their certificate. We have no self-respect. Christ says, ‘Love thy neighbor as you love thyself.’ That is the reason for the wars all around us. You don’t love yourself. That is why so much of hatred. You don’ love yourself. We don’t have any self-respect. We know about ourselves only based on others opinions. We build our personality only based on others opinions. That is why we care so much for others opinions.

The first session of Life Bliss program is about this. I tell people if you want to live, then learn how to stand on your own feet, learn how to be with yourself. As of now, our source of energy is others opinions. If somebody tells you, ‘You are really great’. You will try your best to say, ‘No, no, I’m not’ but what happens inside you. ‘Please tell me a little more’. Outside you feel shy but inside your mind you want them to go on and on.

Continuously we are fueled by others opinions and we work to get others opinions. Just meditate on this one thought. This is a great sutra, which can liberate you. Don’t worry about others opinions. Don’t worry about what others are thinking about you. Because they are also busy worrying what you are thinking about them. If you meditate on this one statement, it will completely liberate you from this problem of honor or dishonor.

Look into your life. Whoever is standing in your consciousness, about whose opinions you are bothered about, all of them are bothered about your opinion. Be very clear, if you are bothered about somebody’s opinion, directly or indirectly, he is also bothered about your opinion. It is just a give and take game.

Don’t bother about others opinions, because they are also bothered about your opinions. Meditate on this one statement and you will be liberated.

Krishna says “A person whose mind is contended, because of spiritual knowledge, Who has subdued his senses, And to whom stone and gold are same, And who is satisfied with what he is having, Is said to be established in Self-Realization, And is called Enlightened Being.

First we should understand why Krishna is speaking all these qualities of the master. Why he is explaining all these qualities.

These qualities are techniques; if you practice them you will reach the same state.

Please be very clear: - Enlightened man’s words are mantras - His life is tantra and his form is yantra to be meditated up on. - His actions, if they are replicated in your life, they will create the same quality of consciousness in your being.

For example, if you listen to the music, which comes from heart, the traditional music like Carnatic music, you will have that same experience. If you listen to the music that comes from mooladhara (sex center), you will have that same mood.

If you meditate on some expression, you will have that same experience. Experience leads to expression and expression leads to experience.

There is a beautiful research report: Now it is popularly known as ‘Art Therapy’! All these mad people are asked to paint. They are given canvas cloth and the paint. And you know how they will paint! They will just roll on the ground and do whatever they want. But the surprising thing is that if they are asked to paint everyday, within 6 months they come out of the madness. Because the catharsis happens, they throw everything out. When catharsis happens, naturally they get healed. And the next beautiful thing is: there was a doctor who was doing research on this art therapy. He says people who have become mad because of money, they all paint and draw in the same way. People who have become mad because of women, they all paint in the same way and people who have become mad because of name and fame, they all paint in the same way. There are so many reasons why you can become mad.

A small story:

One guy went to the mental hospital, just to see what was happening in there. The doctor took him to show him around the hospital. In the first room, he saw one person had written all over the walls the name: “Latha, Latha, Latha...” in blood and he was sitting and chanting the word “Latha, Latha, Latha”. This person asked the doctor what had happened to this guy? The doctor replied that he had wanted to marry some girl called Latha, but he was not able to. That’s why he had become mad. That’s why he was continuously repeating her name. The doctor went around and showed different kinds of people I different rooms. One person was just swimming on the floor and another one was hanging from the ceiling, another one was walking with his hands… the guy sees all kinds of people. In the end, he came to another room, where another person was sitting and chanting “Latha, Latha, Latha…” In his room, all over the walls the word ‘Latha’ was written. The guy asked as to what had happened to him…was he also in love with some Latha? The doctor replied, “No, he married. He married the same Latha!”

So, there are so many reasons why someone can become mad. All men who have become mad because of money paint and draw in the same way. The reason is: what is inside only, comes out. In the process of painting, which is really a form of catharsis, they throw on to the canvas what is there inside their unconsciousness. And another important thing we should understand is that the doctor who was doing research on all these things, he too, became mad.

There are three things we need to understand here:

- First, only experience comes out as expression. - Second, the quality of experience and the quality of expression, both are very closely related or associated. - Third, a very important thing is: if you concentrate on the expression, you will reach the experience.

Here, again and again, Krishna is speaking about how an enlightened man lives, the quality of an enlightened person, so that you will meditate on these ideas, so that you will start imbibing these ideas in your life, so that you will reach the consciousness of an enlightened man. When you contemplate on these ideas, naturally you will start expressing it and it will sink in your very being.

Again and again he says: Vijtendriyah ( what is this?). This whole chapter is just about the senses. If you can understand this one diagram (mind-chitta-manas diagram) and understand where the problem is, Krishna gives a beautiful technique for how to heal the problem. He gives a beautiful method for how to go beyond and how to solve the problem. All you have to do is to understand the problem: where we are caught and where our problems are. Our whole trouble is in the mind, buddhi and ego.

Please refer to the revised diagram below:

Beyond ego we have the atman. Just the presence of the atman or the light of the atman radiates and makes your ego work.

The whole trouble is where you identify yourself, where you start thinking, “What is there for me?” “How am I related?” “How am I going to gain from this”, or “What am I going to lose”. Here is where the whole trouble starts.

If the ego and buddhi are removed from the system, the atman directly starts radiating its energy through the senses. That is the why enlightened people will have sharp senses. Their senses are not contaminated. Whether it is their vision or their hearing, it will be sharp and deep because it is not corrupted by buddhi and ego. They have not lost their sensitivity.

Please be very clear: Only a man, whose Being is clear, will have pure senses. His senses will be sharp and alive. A man, who continuously uses his senses, abuses it. He will not have the energy or tejas in his senses. The first thing, which will happen to, a man who has used and abused his senses is: he will lose his sense of smell. If you have lost your sense of smell, please be very clear that you need immediate emergency treatment. You need to get admitted in the ICU of spirituality. You need meditation immediately. Meditation is the basic need for you.

Krishna continues with the next sloka:

suhṛn-mitrāry-[udāsīna](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/u/udasina)- [madhyastha](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/m/madhyastha)-[dveṣya](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/d/dvesya)-[bandhuṣu](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/b/bandhusu) sādhuṣv [api](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/a/api) [ca](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/c/ca) [pāpeṣu](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/p/papesu) [sama](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/s/sama)-buddhir [viśiṣyate](http://www.bhagavadgitaasitis.com/v/visisyate)

The translation goes: A person is considered still further advanced when he regards honest well-wishers, affectionate benefactors, the neutral, mediators, the envious, friends and enemies, the pious and the sinners all with an equal mind.

This really happens when you get enlightened. When you become enlightened, there is nothing to be achieved; there is nothing to be gained. Automatically your being starts respecting everybody.

Please be very clear: Here they use the word “equal”, but the exact translation should be ‘unique’. You will not treat everybody as an equal; instead you will respect everybody as unique beings. Treating someone as an equal is different, treating them as unique is different. When you understand everyone is unique you respect them. Sometimes when we say we treat everyone equally, we start disrespecting everybody equally. Instead of raising others to a higher level, we bring ourselves down.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is such a humble soul. If anybody comes to see him, he will first do the namaskar (bowing down with hands folded to show respect for the other person) even before they do it to him. One egoistic guy came to see Ramakrishna. Education and ego, especially this spiritual education…a man, who has read all the scriptures and not become enlightened, he is the person who is already in hell. Because he will have so much of ego, he knows the tricks of the trade, but he does not have the capital or courage to do the business. He will be a difficult person. Like this well-read pundit who came to meet him. Ramakrishna, as usual, bowed down. The pundit said: ‘After all, he is younger than me; he can bow down to me’. Then Ramakrishna says: “By doing namaskar I try to bring you to my level. But accepting it in an egoistic way, you try to bring me down to your level.”

So, be very clear when we treat people equally, we may bring them to our level. Let us not do that. Understand that every being is unique. There is no equality. When you understand every being is unique, you will start respecting every being. You will understand every being has its own unique place.

We are not same; we are all unique. God is an artist: that is why he painted each one of us so differently, so uniquely. He is not an engineer. If he was an engineer, he would have just ordered ten thousand pieces of Mr. Bharat; one million pieces of Miss Universe; so, all of us will be looking the same. He is not an engineer to do mass production. He is an artist; he carves every one of us. He paints every one of us. That is why we are all so unique because God is a painter. When you understand each one of us is unique, everybody is unique; you will start respecting every being.

One more thing you need to understand, even your enemy is needed for your life. You would have learnt thousands of things from your enemy. Without enemies you wouldn’t have achieved what you achieved. Even enemies contribute to your life. Please be very clear: when you are in depression you will remember your enemy. You will come out of your depression and start fighting again. You don’t know in what all ways people contribute to your life.

There was a great sanyasi, a very famous sanyasi, who was highly respected all over the world. Suddenly one day, his close disciple somehow finds an important secret about him. In his room he has got his ex-wife’s photograph. And he asks: “Master, I thought you are such a great person, I never expected this from you, why are you still having her photo in your room?” He says: “Whenever I want to leave the sanyas life I just see her photo…immediately I get my viragya (perseverance)”. So, you don’t know who are all playing what role in your life! Be very clear, even your enemy might be playing a role in your being, in your personality, in your growth. You can’t say, somebody is needed in your life and somebody is not necessary. So, just like your friends your enemy also may be playing a role in your life.

When you understand each and every being as unique, you will see everybody with the same mind or in the same way. One more thing here…Krishna says: “the pious and the sinners”. Please be very clear, there is no such thing as sin, except calling human beings as sinners. There is no other sin on the Planet Earth.

A small story:

Once a monk was sitting in a forest and meditating. He had a small hut or ashram. One night, a man came to the hut and begged: “Swami, can you give me little food? And can you allow me to stay here till tomorrow morning.” The monk said, “Why not?” So, he gave food and shelter for that night to the man. Next morning, when the man was about to leave, the Swami asked: ‘Who are you?’ the man replied: ‘I am a thief; just last night I robbed the palace. I tried to escape from the police, and came here. You gave me food and shelter. I thank you.’ So saying he went away. Immediately, this monk started weeping: ‘Oh God, what a big sin I have committed…I gave food and shelter for a thief. Oh god, save me from this sin’. Within a few minutes, he heard a voice from the heaven weeping loudly. The monk was startled and asked ‘Oh, God, why are you weeping?’ God said, ‘you gave food and shelter for one day, and you are weeping. I give food and shelter for him 365 days a year. Where will I go and wash my sins?’ Be very clear God accepts each and every one of us we are. The people who created the society create the idea of sin and merit.

Immediately the next question will rise: ‘Then can we do whatever we want?’ Man, who understands this spiritual science will never disturb others. Again and again I tell people, your sin and merit should not be based on fear or greed. If it is just based on heaven or hell, I don’t think we have become a matured being. Our sin or merit should be out of our understanding, not out of heaven or hell. Be very clear: don’t live a disciplined life thinking of heaven or hell. Let the discipline happen to you as an understanding. If you are afraid of a cop and so are following the rules for speed limits, then whenever you don’t see a police car, there is a small temptation, ‘why not raise the accelerator a little bit? And especially in L.A when there is no traffic, we always try to speed for at least a few miles…like a ten-mile race.

Actually putting one foot wrong is a deep temptation. Trying to escape from rules has its own taste. Especially when something is forbidden it becomes really tasty. The forbidden fruit is always tasty. I don’t think Adam would have eaten the fruit if God had not forbidden it. He ate it just because God said don’t eat. He was living in that garden for how many years we don’t know…He didn’t taste a single fruit. He was living happily. Its actually God who tempted Adam to eat the fruit by saying, ‘Don’t eat’; not the snake. The story is wrong. The story says: God said don’t eat and the snake tempted Adam But it is actually God who tempted Adam by saying ‘Don’t eat’. So, whenever you listen to a rule, automatically you try to go beyond it, you try to break it.

Let you morality be not based on fear and greed. That is why in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras or aphorisms, there is a beautiful word yama. Yama means discipline. It also means death.

If you understand, your life is going to end in death. And if you understand, death is the result of your life. If your consciousness imbibes, starts thinking, meditating about death, automatically you will be disciplined. If you start thinking about death, you will completely restructure your whole thinking and your life. Your whole life will be restructured. **If you start thinking about yama (death), yama (discipline) will happen in your life**. In Sanskrit, for both discipline and death, we use the same word.

If you imbibe that death is going to happen to you, automatically you will imbibe discipline in your life…discipline happens to you when you realize death, when you realize that life is going to end.

Let your discipline happen only out of understanding of death and not out of fear or greed.

Now, let us analyze this truth with our question and answers. After that we will enter into a technique given by Sri Krishna to go beyond the mind, to awaken our senses, to look in…

Question: Dear Swamiji, how can one go about getting closer to the present moment? How can we reduce our number of thoughts per second? Answer: This is from our second day’s session, when I was explaining about the TPS (thoughts per second). The moment you ask how can I start living in the present moment; you already started living in the future. The very question means that you have escaped or missed the present moment. You want an assurance that you must be able to live in the present moment throughout your life. You don’t need anything to live in the present moment. Just live in this moment, that’s all. Nothing else needs to be done. But you don’t feel fulfilled by living in this moment. You need assurance that you will live in the present moment throughout your life. ‘Teach me something so that I will not forget to live in the present moment always’. That’s what you are asking when you ask this question.

The moment you want assurance about the future, you have missed the present. Be very clear, the future can never be assured. Whenever you remember come back to the present, that’s all. And if you live in the present, this moment, then naturally in the next moment also you will be in the present. This is because the next moment takes birth from this moment. This moment is the mother and the next moment is the child. So, if you are in the present moment in this moment, then next moment also, you will be automatically in the present moment. If you are postponing and escaping from this moment, then from the next moment also you will escape. So, be very clear, a simple technique to be in the present moment is to just be in the present moment.

Question: At zero TPS, does the past, present and future exist within that moment? Answer: Yes, when your TPS is zero, past and future both disappear. When the past and future have disappeared, what is, you can’t even call that as a present. Present is present as long as you have past and future. When that too has disappeared, what is, is is. Buddha says ‘Thathata’. ‘What is’, you can’t even call that as the present moment. What Shankara calls as ‘Brahman’.

Question: How do you know the difference between being an intellectual idiot versus the development of the intellectual ability that you speak about in regards to the shastra? Answer: If you are torturing yourself and torturing others with the knowledge, which you have, then you are an intellectual idiot. If you are living happily and giving happiness to others with the knowledge, which you have, you are having intelligence. A man who has got intelligence will increase the peace and joy in his being and in others. Intelligence always creates more bliss. Intelligence is bliss.

Please understand all these four are the same: Intelligence, compassion, energy and bliss. When your Atman expresses through head, it is intelligence. When your atman expresses through heart, it is compassion. When your atman expresses through being, it is energy. When your atman is there without expressing, it is bliss. If you are intelligent, you will be blissful and you will radiate bliss.

Question: Respected Swamiji, committed one asks: how or which key is of greatest importance to get rid of attachment? Answer: Beautiful question! Especially the word ‘committed one asks’. This way I can give the honest answer. Always questions can be answered in two ways: socially polite answer and honest answer. Here I can give an honest answer because the question says committed one asks. That means she is going to go and follow. If the person is not ready to follow, I can give just consolation answers like, ‘Don’t worry, just pray to God,’ etc. It is very easy to give a socially polite answer. But here I will give the real answer. The one and only key to get rid of attachment is meditation or looking in. All your intellectual analysis can only give you courage but it cannot give you solution. The one and only way to get rid of attachment is meditation. Meditation is the one and only key.

Question:** what is the difference between dharma and purpose? Answer: Purpose drives you crazy. With purpose you stop enjoying your life. You start thinking only about the goal. With dharma, you live the very life. You start enjoying the path. Dharma means enjoying the path and purpose means enjoying the goal. **If you are enjoying the path you are in dharma. If you are enjoying the goal, you are living towards the purpose.

Question: Respected Swamiji, of all the koshas, ananda is the greatest. How do we maintain ananda in daily life? Answer: A small story: One Sufi master named Abdullah was a great enlightened master. He was always in ecstasy, always in joy! One of his disciple asked him, ‘Master, how are you so blissful? I have never seen you suffering…always you are joyful. How?’ Abdullah replies, ‘Early morning when I get up from bed I ask myself, ‘Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah, what do you want today? Today you want to be blissful or do you want suffering?’ Naturally what will the mind choose? It will choose to be blissful. Then immediately I tell the mind, ‘Then, be blissful’. That’s all! We may think, ‘How can it be so simple, Swamiji?’ Be very clear: you know your 24-hour routine. Just try tomorrow morning: you know the next 24-hour what is going to happen. Accidents or lottery winning are very rare. In a normal routine, you exactly know what is going to happen. Just decide whether to face that routine with bliss or with suffering; whether to face the routine with joy or the usual long face. Decide for yourself. When extraordinary things happen, that is different. But in ordinary regular life, you know the routine. You have the choice! And whether you go with the long face or smiley face the routine is going to be the same.

I always tell people: Pain is inevitable; suffering is choice. You have one thing that you can choose and that is your attitude. You can choose your inner space. That is your decision only. Abdullah says, when my mind says in the morning ‘I will choose to be happy’, I tell the mind, ‘then just be blissful’. That’s all. It is purely your choice. Hell or heaven is your conscious choice.

Always, you will have another question: If my mind says I want to suffer, what to do? Then let you suffer, that’s all. What is there? When your mind wants to enjoy suffering, then even suffering becomes enjoyment for you! That is why you want to enjoy suffering. In a way suffering becomes enjoyment for you. So, when you get up early in the morning, ask your mind ‘What do you want today?’ If your mind chooses bliss, just tell your mind, ‘Be blissful’. That’s all! This single conscious decision can change the quality of your life. Don’t decide for three days or one week. You will forget. Decide every day. People will immediately think, let me decide for my whole life today itself!. No, you will forget. You will be back to the same point; you will have the same face again tomorrow when you come back. No, don’t decide for your whole life. Decide only for one day. Only then you will be able to maintain it. Otherwise you will have the same old natural face.

A small story about this natural face: The president of a monastery, a Father was teaching the young novices to preach and giving them tips on how to speak in public. He was taking classes about how to preach to the public. He said, ‘When you speak, your whole body should express what you say. You face should express the idea that you are talking about. When you speak about heaven, your eyes should sparkle and your whole body should show the bliss, you should express the joy clearly, the joy of heaven. Your face should shine. When you speak about hell, just be as you are. And people will understand.’

At least in our life let us not maintain the long face as our natural face. Vivekananda says: ‘If you are depressed, don’t come out of the room, There is enough of suffering in the world. Don’t go around and spread a little more suffering.’

Question: Respected Swamiji, what is the difference between Bhagavat Gita and MahaGita referred as Ashtavakra Gita? Answer: Ashtavakra Gita is also a beautiful book! More than 58 Gitas are available. Rama Gita, Shiva Gita, Anu Gita, Vyaadha Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, etc. There are so many Gitas that are available, but nothing can be compared to Bhagavat Gita. This is everything put together and some thing more. Ashtavakra Gita is only for the people who want the spiritual experience. Here Bhagavat Gita is for every being.

If I start speaking from where I am, it will never benefit you. I should start speaking from where you are and not from where I am. Ashtavakra starts speaking from where he is. But Krishna starts speaking from where you are. So, Krishna can give you experience because he starts from where you are standing.

Question: Dear Swamiji, yesterday you said that I am God; I’m not sure about this. I did not find a single quality of God in me. Please explain. Answer: Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, realize it or not, want it or not, experience it or not, you are God! Some fishes go along with the current; some fishes go against the current. There are some people who just float with the existence, who just float with the divine. There are some people who go against the divine, who appose the divine. But one thing you should understand: Whether you flow along with the current or go against the current, the fish is in the water.

The same way, whether you become enlightened or think you are not enlightened, you are enlightened. The choice is not whether you are enlightened or not. The choice is either you can realize and live blissfully or you can suffer without realizing it. So, whether you realize it or not, you are God! In that there is no choice. You being God, in that there is no choice. You have only one choice: If you want you can realize and express it joyfully, or you can suffer. But you have no other choice. Whether you flow along with the current or go against the current, the fish is in the water. So, if you are not divine, you cannot even inhale and exhale. It is the very energy inside your being.

One more thing: Again and again, society creates guilt in you that you are not enough unto yourself. Please be very clear: society sets a standard and it never lets you feel the divinity in you. First thing you need to understand is: You are beyond body and mind. All your guilt is related to body and mind. So, don’t have the standard, which is given by the society to measure whether you are God, or not. The social standard can never be fulfilled. And one more thing: the moment you allow the guilt to happen in you, you are ready to be exploited. Anybody who wants to exploit you first puts the guilt in you. The person, who wants to exploit you in the physical level, makes you believe you are not strong enough. The person, who wants to exploit you in the level of beauty, makes you feel you are not beautiful enough. Only then all the cosmetic products will be sold. Why do you think continuously these cosmetic companies conduct the beauty contests? So that, they will make you feel guilty that you are not beautiful.

Be very clear: you are enough unto yourself. Never run behind anybody’s measurement. Why should you bother about somebody’s measurement? Each one of you is a unique flower. If God were an engineer, he would generate ten billion Miss Universe and ten billion Mr. Universe. But he is not an engineer. You need a little bit of foolishness to be an engineer. God is a painter. That is why every one of your dimensions is different. Every one of you is unique. The moment you start adding the guilt, ‘I am not beautiful’, you are start buying all the cosmetic products, and you try all color paintings on your face. You try all possible make up. The same way, in the spiritual field also, the so-called religious people put guilt in you. They just start putting guilt in you: ‘You are not that, you are not this,’ etc. First, they start giving you the ideas which are impractical. Vivekananda says beautifully: ‘Never teach men to be truthful. Teach them how to be.’ Never give dead teachings. Give them the technology; give them the science that will empower them. The so-called religious people who don’t know the technology, who don’t know to transform the energy by themselves, who have not transformed their energy, like a parrot, repeat morality, the impossible goals from scriptures and create guilt in you.

That is why again and again I tell people: Never listen to a person who is not enlightened. Never listen to a person who has not experienced by himself. He will give you all impractical ideas. As I was telling the other day: Dale Carnegie writes a big book, ‘How to stop worrying and start living’ and he committed suicide. His teachings are impractical because he himself has not experienced. So, be very clear, never take anything from an un-enlightened man. When a person is not enlightened, he creates only complications. Even your so-called moral ideas: a person should never be taught to be good, never. He should be taught how to be good. The technology should be taught the science should be given. When you don’t give the technology and only give them the advice, you only create more trouble for others. The person who receives advice and not the technology, he starts creating deep guilt in himself and he becomes schizophrenic.

Please be very clear, guilt is created in you at three levels. First is at the physical level, ‘you are not strong enough’. Only if you believe you are not strong enough, you will become a slave and others can control you. Second, is at the level of beauty, ‘you are not beautiful enough’, now you are gullible for all the fashion shows and the cosmetic products. Now, they can sell all the cosmetic products and dump them on your head. The third is at the spiritual level, ‘you are not spiritual enough, you are not pure enough, you are not a spiritual being’. The people who are doing these three businesses create these three kinds of guilt in you. Enlightened master will always liberate you from all the guilt. Never carry guilt. The people who are cunning enough to hide their personal life create all the guilt in you. That’s all.

A small story:

Three women die and reach Yama’s abode. Yama Dharma (Lord of Death who gives judgment at the time of death) is sitting there for judgment. He calls the first lady and she comes. He asks ‘Did you live a pure life?’ She says ‘Yes, Lord! I lived a pure life. I was 100% truthful to my husband.’ Then Yama verifies with the record ‘All right, you lived a beautiful life. Have a golden key.’ He gives a golden key and gives first class A/C suite in the heaven. She leaves and the next lady comes for judgment. Now, Yama asks ‘Did you live a pure life?’ She says ‘Almost. Physically I never did anything wrong, but mentally once or twice, when I saw one or two movies, mentally I did one or two mistakes.’ Yama verifies with the report. He says ‘All right, at least you are honest, you agreed! Have the silver key. Second class suite, go and enjoy.’ He sends that person to heaven. The third lady came for judgment. He asks ‘Did you live a pure life’. She puts her head down and says ‘Lord, forgive me, I was an actress. I have done everything; whatever you can imagine and whatever you can’t imagine’. Then Yam Dharma just looks this side and that side. He says, ‘Have my room key, I will be there’.

Understand, all your morality is because of the guilt created in you by the people who have covered their life, who give their room keys. Look into the life clearly. Don’t create guilt in you and suffer. Don’t feel you are not God. The guilt created in you, by these so-called religious people only makes you feel you are not God.

Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, realize it or not, want it or not, experience it or not, you are God! You have only one choice, you can realize it and enjoy or you can suffer without realizing it.

Now it is time to look in. Now it is time to tune ourselves to that highest teaching given by Parabrahma Sri Krishna in this Dhyana Yoga.

Let me recite this sloka given by Sri Krishna and then we will do the meditation technique to go beyond the mind, to awaken your senses.

sucau dese pratisthapya sthiram asanam atmanah naty-ucchritam nati-nicam cailajina-kusottaram

Translation: To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kusha grass on the ground and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place.

tatraikagram manah krtva yata-cittendriya-kriyah upavisyasane yunjyad yogam atma-visuddhaye

One should hold one's body, neck and head erect in a straight line and stare steadily at the tip of the nose. Thus, with an un-agitated, subdued mind, devoid of fear, completely free from sex life, one should meditate upon me within the heart and make me the ultimate goal of life.

Few things to note here: you should go to a secluded place. Why? Whatever you say, in the house the phone may ring, cell phone may ring, somebody may knock, and some ad agencies may call. The secluded place is to really just move away from these disturbances. The kusha, deerskin all those things are like insulation, so that the energy created by you will not be taken away by the earth. But now you don’t have to bother about that, since you usually sit in a chair, a little raised from the ground. The seat should neither be too high nor too low and it should be comfortable. That’s all.

Here Krishna updates the technique that he gave before. Here he gives 3 instructions:

1. Head, backbone and neck should be in straight line. 2. You should fix your eyes on the tip of the nose. If you look at the tip of the nose, naturally, your awareness will settle down on the third eye. Your concentration will settle on the ajna chakra (the brow energy center.) 3. You should meditate on me as the supreme goal. When he says me, he means your atman. If you like, you can meditate on the form of Krishna, with a flute, peacock feather and all those things. But I always prescribe go beyond the form. Go into your being. Of course, when you enter into your ajna chakra, automatically you will go beyond the form. You will start meditating in the energy.

Ram, there is another point which may be of pressing importance to the common man that Swamiji has not dealt on…devoid of fear, completely free from sex life…sure to raise questions if that is left unattended, isn’t it?) Now, we will enter into the meditation. If you are ready to sit for the next ten minutes we will start the meditation.

Please sit straight and close your eyes. May your head, neck and backbone, all the three be in a straight line. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible. Slowly in a relaxed way, put your awareness in your ajna chakra. Concentrate between the two eyebrows. Put your awareness between the two eyebrows. Remember and pray to that Shakti (Energy) which came as Krishna, which is guiding us, which is helping us in our life; the energy, which gave the Bhagavat Gita to us. Meditate on the pure light energy. If your mind wanders here and there, don’t worry, when you remember, bring it back again and relax in your ajna chakra, between your eyebrows. Don’t concentrate, just in a very relaxed way, be aware of the ajna chakra, the space in between the two eyebrows. Slowly, very slowly bring your mind to your heart and meditate on your heart center. If you want you can touch your heart center by the hand and feel. Try to bring your awareness to the heart center. Try to remember the heart center. Forget all other parts of your body; forget your mind. Just become the heart center; just be in the heart center. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible. May you experience your inner space; may you experience the eternal bliss, Nithyananda. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, hi! Relax! Slowly, very slowly, open your eyes.

You may think how a simple technique like this one can lead us into our self. Please understand we always live in the head. Start living from the heart; you will start moving from your intelligence, not from your head but from your heart. When you start moving from the heart, you don’t calculate, the very calculation disappears, the ‘I, I, I’ disappears. And naturally your senses become sensitive. You don’t abuse your senses. You don’t destroy your senses. Too much of the energy that is supplied to the mind is taken away by the heart. The fuel supply to the mind will be reduced and the fuel supply to the heart will be increased.

So, continuously try to remember this heart region, the anahata chakra. Naturally you will have the awareness in the ajna also. In the last session, Krishna gave the technique to be in the ajna. Today he says start with the ajna and come down to anahata. This is because in the heart, there is a possibility of much more happening. The possibility of reaching is easier in the heart. The possibility is much more in the heart. Krishna says, ‘Let you be in the heart.’

Look in! You will realize you are that. Just look in, you will experience the eternal bliss, Nithya Ananda. Let us pray to that ultimate energy, Para Brahma Krishna to give us all the eternal bliss, Nithyananda.

Vasudeva sutham devam, Kamsa chaanoora Mardhanam Devaki Paramanandam, Vishnum vandhe Jagathgurum