“The seventh chapter of Gita – Jnanavignana yoga.”

The seventh chapter of Gita – Jnanavignana yoga. To begin with let us see, what is the need for this chapter. Again and again and again, Krishna is speaking the same truth. Nothing else is spoken. The same truth. What is the need for so many chapters?

People ask me: Swamiji, how many days it will take for us to learn meditation? I tell them: To learn mediation 2 mins is enough. To learn what is not meditation, you need 10 days.

In life, we are doing so many things, which is not meditation. To unlearn, it takes time. When we express the truth logically, our mind always goes to the other end of the logic. We need to understand the truth from both ends. There is a beautiful philosophy in Bharat. Nyaya shastra or Logic. They explain two kinds of logic, which is used. First kind of logic is the regular logic, regular Nyaya. For e.g.: all men have one head. Socrates is a man. You can easily conclude that the third statement will be: Socrates has one head. This is simple logic. There is another kind of logic, Higher-level logic. For e.g.: Here there are two doors. This is the first statement. Second statement is: one door is open. Any average person will immediately jump to the conclusion that the other door is closed. However in this kind of logic you cannot jump to any conclusions based on the first two statements. Second door also may be open. We don’t know. You cannot come to any conclusions unless you saw the second door closed, or you were told that the second door is closed. Usually, in life, we all make mistakes when we need to take decisions based on the second kind of logic. We jump to conclusions using the first kind of logic. The moment somebody makes a statement ‘You don’t have compassion.’ You immediately become defensive and say ‘you mean to say I am cruel? You mean I am violent?’ You don’t have to jump to such a conclusion. He just made a statement – ‘You are not compassionate’. You don’t have to immediately think – ‘you mean I am cruel? You mean I am violent?’ When you jump to such conclusions you create trouble not only for yourself but also for others. Many times, again and again, we make this mistake. When you handle your mind without awareness, again and again you make this mistake. Please understand: the words, which you repeat inside your system creates your whole life. The words, which you repeat inside your system, are your life. Totality of the words used by you, in your mind, is your life. Your life is nothing but the words or thoughts, which you have in your mind. Now if your mind jumps to conclusions like this, which are not logical, which is not straight, naturally you create trouble for yourself and you create problems for others. When you are not aware, you always jump to these types of conclusions. Ordinary masters express their philosophy, or their experience with the second kind of logic, that is why there is so much misunderstanding. There’s a possibility of missing their message. But Krishna is a jagatguru (Master of the Universe). He’s not an ordinary master. He’s a master of the whole universe and he knows all kinds of human beings. He knows all the problems of logic. He’s delivering this message, in such a way, that you cannot jump to any conclusions, and you don’t have to assume any statement. He makes all the three statements. He is very clear. He says ‘Here there are two doors, first door is open, the second door is closed.’ He himself makes all the three statements, so that there is no need for you to assume. If you are allowed to assume, if you are allowed to jump to conclusions, you miss the truth. Not only do you miss the truth, you miss the whole message. Here Krishna is not allowing us to jump to any conclusions. He himself makes all the three statements. What is supposed to be done, what is supposed to be avoided, why it should be done, why it should not be done. He’s clear with the whole thing. That is the reason why; again and again he’s repeating the same truth in each chapter, but from a different logic level. He makes the same statements, but from a different logic level, so that people who are hearing will not miss the message. So that they will not miss. In this whole chapter Jnanavignana yoga he speaks about the same message – Of course, from a different view.

# Sribhagavanuvaca

# mayyasaktamanah Partha yogam yunjanmadasrayah

# Asamsayam samagram mam yatha jnasyasi tacchrnu

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# Bhagvan says ‘Now hear oh Partha (Arjuna), how by practicing yoga in true consciousness of me, with mind attached to me, you can know me in full. Free from doubt.’

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# Again and again people ask me, Swamiji, why did you choose to speak on Gita, why didn’t you choose the other books like, ashtavakra gita, Patanjali’s yoga sutra, Brahma sutra, Upanishad. Why did you choose Gita?’ I tell them, Gita expresses the truth, in complete totality. I can say that Krishna has created keys for all kinds of human beings. For every kind of person, he has given a key. Krishna fulfills every need of every human being. He says ‘Listen oh Partha, how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of me (means eternal consciousness), with mind attached to me, you can know me in full, free from doubt’. In this statement, Krishna uses the word ‘me’, more than three times. Having read it, a psychologist will come to the conclusion that Krishna is egoistic. According to psychology, if you use the word ‘I’ or ‘me’, more than three times in a statement, you are called an egoistic. You need treatment. Otherwise how will the psychologists make money? They need money. More than you needing treatment, they need money. Anyhow, for a normal man, it sounds egoistic. A person, who hates Krishna, feels Krishna is egoistic. Again and again he declares ‘Surrender to me. I am everything’. Here, he is expressing his glory. For a normal man it may sound egoistic. A person, who hates Krishna, thinks he is egoistic and misses the truth or the spirit expressed by The Gita. In the same way, a person who loves Krishna gets caught up in his form and misses the juice of The Gita. Person, who hates Krishna, thinks he is egoistic and misses the whole juice. Person who loves Krishna, is caught in the form of Krishna, and misses the whole juice of Gita, whole spirit of Gita. Please be very clear, whenever people are caught in the form, when they start worshipping the form, they slowly start saying ‘Swamiji, Gita is great. Krishna is God. He can express all these things, but it’s not for us. Its not practical.’ Slowly you create a distance between you and Krishna. You start worshipping The Gita, instead of practicing it. If you have a pot full of milk and you start worshipping it, but you never drink it, will you get the benefit of the milk? Understand, that unless you drink the milk, you will never get the benefit of the milk. Unless you imbibe Krishna, you cannot get the benefit. That’s why I always tell people, Jews have avoided Christ, by crucifying him, by putting him on the cross and Hindus have avoided Krishna by worshipping him and putting him on the wall. Please be very clear, hanging on the cross and hanging on the wall is one and the same. When you don’t imbibe Krishna’s teachings in your life, when you don’t work towards experiencing Krishna, worshipping Krishna is nothing but crusification. It’s a cunning method of escaping. People who crucified Christ atleast carry the guilt that they did a mistake, but these guys don’t even carry that guilt. Hindus don’t even carry that guilt. In a nice cunning way they escaped from Krishna. Worshipping without following or worshipping without imbibing is the worst form of crusification. People who hate Krishna think he is egoistic, people who love Krishna are caught up with his form and think they should surrender to the man Krishna, who came down in the human form. Only a person, who experiences Krishna, realizes The Gita. Only people who have experienced Krishna understand, The Gita. People who hate Krishna and people who love Krishna, both of them miss The Gita. Only the person, who experiences Krishna, realizes The Gita, realizes the value of The Gita, and experiences The Gita. Otherwise, if you are caught in the form of Krishna, you will become fanatic. You will become fanatic! I have seen so many people who get caught in the form and become fanatic. The next sloka, a beautiful sloka says:

Manusyanam sahasresu kascidyatati siddhaye Yatatamapi siddhanam kascinmam vetti tattvatah.

The gist of this chapter is, how human beings approach the divine, why they approach, in what level they approach the divine. There’s a beautiful saying in the bible ‘God created man in his own mould’. But I tell you ‘Man created God in his own mould’. The truth is, man created God in his own mould. We approach divine, as we want. According to your maturity, you approach the divine. In what level you approach the divine and how you worship and what you receive and how to grow in maturity, the whole thing Krishna explains in this, one chapter. Here he says ‘Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor, for perfection and out of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows me in truth. Beautiful! Here he says ‘Out of thousands’; he should say out of billions. He should change the statement. Those days population was less, so he makes the statement ‘out of thousands’. Now we should say ‘ Out of billions, one may endeavor for perfection’

Manusyanam sahasresu kascidyatati siddhaye Yatatamapi siddhanam kascinmam vetti tattvatah.

Out of millions among men, one man may endeavor for perfection and out of those who achieve perfection, hardly one, knows me, in truth. Out of millions, there are only a few; out of billions there are only a few who enter into the path of seeking. Out of the few, only one or two achieve the ultimate experience. There are millions of people out there, but only a few hundreds are here today, to listen to this Gita, and out of these few hundreds only few will listen, as it is expressed. You may be sitting here, you may even hear me talking, but never think you are listening. Please never ever think, you are listening. I always request people, never go and repeat what I said to anybody. If you do repeat, please don’t say I told all those things. Be very clear, you heard all those things. Tell them, I heard all those things, never say ‘Swamiji said’. Many times we miss. The modern day psychologists say, you observe hardly two percent of things, which happen around you. Hundred things are happening around you. You observe only two percent! You imbibe only two percent. Its like you have got a hundred page novel. Somehow you lose the whole book, except for 2 random pages. All the other 98 pages are lost. With those 2 pages if you try to reconstruct the whole novel, how true to the original will it be? Same way, you will remember hardly 2 percent of what I am saying. With that 2 percent if you try to reconstruct this whole discourse, naturally it will be your discourse, not mine. Please be very clear. You might be sitting here, but it doesn’t mean you are listening. If you want to tell people about what I spoke, please always say ‘I heard Swami say this’. Never say ‘Swamiji spoke’.

Krishna now goes deep. Now he starts talking about the Bharatn community system.

Chatuvidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino’rjuna arto jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha

Before entering into the subject I bow down to the system, which has been created by the rishis (sages), which has made the whole spiritual science, a reality. I bow down to the community system, which kept our scriptures alive, the spiritual science alive. In the modern day, abusing our community system and abusing the social system created by rishis has become a fashion. Bashing our Vedic system, or abusing our Vedic system has become a fashion. Especially in Southern Bharat, abusing the Vedic system and abusing the swamis has become a fashion. If you want to show you are an educated man or that you are an important person just abuse our Vedic system, you can immediately gain popularity. There will be atleast 10 fools around you to listen to what you have to say. It’s a very easy and cheap way to gain popularity. Not only have we not understood our Vedic system, we have also started disrespecting this great system created by our ancient masters. Please understand, only because of our Rishis and because of the system that they created, the spiritual culture in Bharat is alive today. Bharat is still alive! The other day I was reading Paramahamsa Yogananda’s autobiography. There’s a beautiful reference in it, where Abraham prays to God Genesis. He requests God not to destroy a particular piece of land. God says, if I find 10 good people in that land, I will not destroy that land. He tells him ‘If I find 10 good people in that land, I will not destroy that land.’ Only after reading that statement, I understood, why Bharat is still alive. Bharat being alive is the greatest miracle of God. Bharat is still alive and that’s the greatest miracle of God. And it’s all because of these 10 people. No other culture survived or lived for such a long time. All the other cultures, which came into existence after the Bharatn culture; like the Babylonian culture, Rome, Greece etc. all these cultures, they all know how to fight, how to build empires, big big cities in a professional way, they know how to protect themselves. They are great warriors! But they were not able to survive. Today we see only their relics. The culture itself is not alive today. Bharatn culture, Bharatn system, we have atleast 10,000 years of recorded history. We have atleast 10,000 years of recorded history, of the Bharatn culture. There’s a beautiful book written by Prakashananda Saraswathi. The book is a comprehensive history of religion on Bharatn culture. He has recorded the Bharatn history in a beautiful way. According to him, the Bharatn culture is atleast trillions of years old. Anyway, we can be sure of one thing. We have atleast 10,000 years of recorded history of the Bharatn culture. No other country is or has been invaded, as much as Bharat has been invaded. Bharat has been invaded practically by every culture, every country. There is nobody who has not invaded the Bharatn soil. No country has been invaded by Bharat. Bharat has never invaded any other country. It never went out to destroy or to fight with any other country. Bharat has always stayed within its boundaries. Bharat is again and again invaded, but it never went out to invade anybody. At the end of the day, look! This is the only culture, which is still alive. It has not died. It’s still alive! Just because of this community system, the Bharatn culture is still alive today. Another important thing you need to understand when we read about all these things. Man cannot live without creating a community. Man as such, is a social animal. He will create some form of community or other. You cannot say that in the United States we don’t have some form of community system. In other countries also community system is there. But the community system is based on money. Based on, money! When I went to Brazil, I was giving a discourse in Petrobas. One guy got up and asked, ‘how do you justify the community system in Bharat? The high caste people, they look at the low caste people in a disrespectful way. How do you justify this?’ Ofcourse there are a few issues in the Bharatn culture also. Bharatns also did some mistakes. We missed the spirit with which the community system was developed, and started following the letter. Some mistakes have happened. That’s true. But just because of those few mistakes, the whole community system cannot be labeled wrong. For e.g.: if you have a tumor in your body, the tumor has to be operated on and removed. You cannot straight away kill the person. The operation has to be done and tumor has to be removed. You can’t abandon the whole person. And it is we, who committed these one or two mistakes, and now we have started abusing the whole system. I told him ‘Yes one or two mistakes have happened. However look at the developed countries or the so-called cultured countries. If you enter into an airplane and walk to the economy class crossing the first class, just watch how the first class passengers look at you. Have you observed how the passengers sitting in the first class look at you? Just observing them, you can tell, how they look at you. Don’t think there is no community or class system in this country. In every place, every country there is a community and class system. The Vedic rishis atleast, created the community and caste system based on intelligence and wisdom. With rishis, community system was created based on intelligence, based on knowledge, based on wisdom. In other cultures, community system was created based on money, based on power. In some countries, the people who are ruling, kshatriyas (Warrior class), they created the community system. The more powerful you are, the more respected you are. In some countries, the people who are doing business, the business class, control the whole system. There, the more money you have, the more you are respected. Bharat is the only country where the people who respected intelligence and wisdom created the whole system. The whole system was created based on intelligence, based on wisdom. So, that is why, in Bharat the more wisdom a person carries, the more he is respected. More he is spiritual, more he is respected. The whole social system is created based on sharing. Man has to contribute something to the community. He has to contribute something to the community. Let me now describe the whole spirit with which the whole system was created. And how we abused it. Ofcourse we abused it. We have not imbibed the whole spirit completely. If we had imbibed the whole spirit completely, we wouldn’t have fallen into this state. Let us first understand the spirit with which the whole system was created. Then we will understand where we made the mistake. Then we should understand how we can revive it and again practice it in our life. First thing, the whole system is not based on your birth. It’s based on your character. Krishna again and again says in the Gita. It’s based on your Guna (nature), based on your attitude towards life. A person who works based on fear or a person, who works out of fear, belongs to working class. A person who works out of greed, he belongs to merchant or business class. A person who works just to get attention or to prove he is in someway superior belongs to the Kshatriya community. A person, who works just out of gratitude, expressing his bliss, is a Brahmana. Everybody has to contribute something to the society. A person who shares his time; he has nothing else; he’s got only one thing i.e. his time. A person who shares his time is called a worker. He belongs to the working class. A person who shares products; he’s got time and a little bit of intelligence to create products. He creates some products and shares the products with the society. He’s called a vysya, a merchant. These people belong to the merchant or business class. The person, who shares confidence, the person who gives courage to the whole community, who gives confidence to the whole community, who unites the whole group as a community in a solid way by giving confidence, by sharing his confidence, is called a Kshatriya. A Warrior! The person who shares his knowledge, bliss, spiritual wisdom, is a Brahmana. It is completely based on your role. The role you are supposed to play in the community, in the society. It’s no way related to your birth. Please be very clear, this is the spirit with which the whole system was created. This is the spirit with which the Vedic rishis have designed the system. Here nobody is higher and nobody is lower. Nobody is higher or nobody is lower. In course of time, because one or two mistakes have happened, you can’t say the whole system is wrong. You can’t say the whole system is a failure. You can’t say the whole system is a failure just because of one or two mistakes.

Chatuvidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino’rjuna arto jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha

O best among the Bhāratas, four kinds of pious men begin to render devotional service unto me: the distressed, the desirer of wealth, the inquisitive, and he who is searching for knowledge of the Absolute.

Here Krishna is talking about all those who approach the divine and in what ways they approach the divine. Man is centered on 7 basic emotions. Basically we all live and work based on these 7 emotions which are greed, fear, worry, attention need, name and fame, comparison and jealousy, ego which means thinking that your ideology is you and the last one, the 7th emotion, deep discontentment. These are the qualities with which man lives. These are the qualities with which he’s working. Man is centered on these 7 different emotions. At some point or other, you will be working based only on these 7 emotions. Every moment, if scan your life, you will be working based only on these 7 emotions. Either out of greed, or fear, out of worry, attention need, or jealousy and comparison, ego or deep discontentment. Man is centered on these 7 different energy centers. These 7 emotions are 7 energy centers that supply energy for us, fuel for us. We are being fueled only by these 7 emotions. If you analyze and look deep into it, you will see that all the work that you do in life, everything that you do in life, will be rooted in either of these 7 emotions. If you are centered on greed, you approach God in the same way. Goddess Lakshmi appeals to you. You want only Lakshmi, because you are completely centered on greed. Continuously you run behind Gubera (Lord of wealth). Gubera yagna, Gubera yaga, Gubera, continuously we repeat the concept of Gubera. Please understand that when you feel you are missing something, you try to get fulfillment by creating your own God and approaching the divine in the same mould. You try to get fulfillment, by approaching the divine in the same mould, the same emotion, the same feeling which you are missing in your being. If you think you are poor, if you think wealth is the most important thing in your life, you run behind Lakshmi. You run behind, Goddess Lakshmi. Please be very clear, one more thing. When you become mature, when maturity happens to you, you approach the same Lakshmi as Jnana Lakshmi. You pray to the same Devi, the same goddess, to give you wisdom, to give you knowledge. As you grow you approach the same God but in a different way. You approach or create God in your own mould. How mature you are; according to your maturity, you project and see the divine. You approach those Gods that appeal to you more. If you are centered on greed, if all your thoughts are centered on greed, you go to the God who gives you all boons, who makes you feel fulfilled. Who gives you what you want. A person who is centered on greed feels happy and comfortable approaching the Goddess Lakshmi. He doesn’t want any other God. Only goes to Lakshmi. Ofcourse you can approach Lakshmi from various levels, but when you approach with greed, you start at the first step. It’s not that you should not approach the divine through the form of greed. There’s nothing wrong in approaching the lord from greed. There’s nothing wrong in starting your life with prayers. But ending your life with prayers is something seriously wrong. It’s a good start, but a very bad end. There’s nothing wrong with starting at this level. Vivekananda says beautifully: it’s good to be born in church, but not to die there. Before you die you should grow out of it. You must become mature; you must realize the other dimensions of the divine, the other dimensions of your being. Divine is nothing but a mirror; you see your own reflection. You see your own reflection! And whatever you do to the divine comes back to you. The more you understand, the more you grow and in a more mature way you will relate with the divine. The more mature you are in relating with the divine, the more you grow. Otherwise you are completely confused and caught like a drunkard. A small story – a man comes back to the house very late, completely drunk, he’s not even able to walk. He somehow makes his way into the house stumbles over a table and breaks a glass piece. Not only does he break a glass piece, the glass also hurts him badly in the back. He goes to the bathroom, and tries to bandage himself looking at the mirror. Then slowly, without making any sound, enters the bedroom and goes to bed. The next morning his wife starts her enquiry: ‘what happened? what did you do last night?’ He says – ‘what did I do? I am ok’. Wife says ‘no, tell me why you were late’. He says ‘no no, I just went for a couple of drinks’. She says ‘That’s ok, did you hurt yourself?’ He says ‘no no, I did not hurt myself’. She asks ‘Then why did you put so many bandages on the mirror?’ This guy instead of putting the bandage on himself, he has put the bandage on mirror. If you are drunk, if you are not aware, you will be doing the same thing. You will be just, doing everything to the mirror. You will miss where you are supposed to work. Catching the mirror and catching the form is one and the same. Catching the attitude, catching the same form is nothing but catching the mirror. If you put the bandage on the mirror you can never be healed. The mirror should be used to find out where the bandages have to be put, but you cannot heal yourself by putting the bandage on the mirror. Same way, God or the divine should be used to find out where you have the problem, like a mirror, but the healing work should be done on you, not on the mirror. Don’t miss and start doing the healing work on the mirror. Then you miss the whole thing completely. A man who is centered on greed, is stuck with Lakshmi, is stuck with prayers. A small time astrologer used to come to the ashram. Suddenly one day he came to the ashram in a car. In Bharat Car is a luxury, you know. I asked him ‘what happened. Suddenly you got a new car. Did you win any lottery? No swamiji, it’s all the grace of Lakshmi yantra. It’s all because of Lakshmi yantra. I asked him ‘who gave you the yantra? I never heard of something like Lakshmi yantra. Who gave it to you?’ He said ‘nobody gave me swamiji, I started giving to people!’ Whether the person who received the Lakshmi yantra became rich or not, the person who gives became rich. So be very clear: Starting your life with prayer is ok, a good start. But not the right place to end. Next level, where the person is centered on fear always worships Gods who protect him. He’s continuously centered in fear. Continuously he will be doing sudarshana homa; continuously he will be doing mrutunjeya homa for Gods who will protect him. You can see always he will be circling around the navagrahas. Always he will be circumambulating navagrahas. This graha, that graha, this pooja, that pooja, this dosha (defect) that dosha, continuously he will go around navagrahas (The nine planets are collectively known as navagrahas. They are found in most of the Hindu temples either grouped together on a panel or in a separate pavilion.). It’s ok. Nothing wrong, but not the place to stop. Next level is worshipping the divine based on fear. Approaching the divine because of fear. Approaching the divine out of greed is one step. Approaching the divine out of fear is next step. Third: approaching the divine because of worry. Again worry is nothing but fear and greed. The mixture of fear and greed is worry. The mixture of fear and greed is worry. You approach the same way. You try to pray to the divine, please help me to stop worrying. Please help me to come out of these worries. At this point you may go to some yoga or meditation, for the sake of peace. Not for spiritual enlightenment, just to calm your mind. Just to get a little peace and rest to your mind. Next level: based on attention need, based on name and fame. For the sake of name and fame you approach the divine. Not only will you be praying to the divine, you will start representing the divine. I have seen many people; by and by they slowly start representing. In Bharat if you go, the people who run the temples, they almost behave like God. Very big problem. The person who runs the temple starts thinking, he is God. Because he starts thinking ‘I am taking care of the whole thing. Why not?’ He knows the tricks of the trade. He thinks I am everything. When I know the whole thing, why not use the situation. That’s a very big problem. I always tell people. Unless you are matured, never take up this running temple. One person asked me ‘Swamiji, I don’t believe in spirituality, I am not a spiritual person. But I want to run a temple as a social service. I just want to do it as a social service. Shall I do it?’ I told him ‘Never do that mistake. Never do it.’ If you are matured spiritually, if you enter into this work, surely you will trouble yourself and you will trouble others. By and by it will become a pure name and fame game; purely a name and fame game. And naturally, you will hurt yourself and you will hurt others. Never take up the responsibility, unless you are spiritually matured. There’s a beautiful sloka, at the time of pratishta (installation), the instruction says the qualification of the kartha (doer) is enlightenment. It says that installation or pratishta should be done only by an enlightened person. Otherwise, the person who is kartha will receive, all the collective negativity of the people who come and pray in the temple. It’s a frightening idea; a frightening idea. Don’t think it’s a lie. It has its own meaning. The person who takes this type of job without the spiritual maturity will naturally end up with name and fame problems. He will create problems for himself and for others. He will start representing the divine. He will start putting himself in the place of divine and will start acting for the sake of divine. And people come and stand in front of God, the deity and pray. They are gullible, because they are caught in the fear and greed. You can easily exploit them. You can easily make them do what you want them to do, because they are already in trouble. They are waiting for a solution. They are in search of a solution. So naturally, easily you can take them for a ride. That is the reason again and again and again it is emphasized that only an enlightened person should run a spiritual organization. All the major temples of Bharat are run by enlightened persons. Again and again we are told that, if you give a business to a sanyasi (monk), he will destroy it. He will not be able to do. If you give a spiritual project to a grahasta, a business man, he will make the whole thing into a business. He will make the whole thing into accounts. Divine cannot be brought under accounts and mathematics. The whole thing will lose its spirit. The spirit will be lost. The original spirit with which the whole thing was created, the inspiration with which the whole thing is created will not be realized. That is why masters again and again emphasize that you need spiritual maturity before you enter into this type of activities. Spiritual maturity is the basic need. Don’t come to the divine for name and fame. You will miss it and you will mess it. Next: comparison and jealousy. This is an extreme step. It’s an extreme step. People always start comparing, people always feel jealous of their position, their standard, their point. A person, who compares and is jealous, can never rest. See, what makes us run in our lives. Why do you feel continuously like running, running, running? Why are we in such a hurry? Why do you think we are running? That’s what. There is a beautiful sloka which says just like how a monkey charmer makes a monkey dance with a stick, the parashakti or Maya is making us all dance with the one stick called jealousy and comparison. With that one stick, she makes us all dance. We all dance, all kinds of dance, because of that one stick. The moment you think somebody has got more than you, you are in a hurry. You are in a hurry! A small story about the hurry: One man enters a bar and orders 5 drinks. Without pausing, he downs 5 glasses. The bartender asks ‘why are you in such a hurry?’ This guy says ‘you also will be in a hurry, if you have what I have’. The bartender asks sympathetically, ‘What is the problem? What do you have?’ The guy says ‘I have only 50 cents’. Don’t be in a hurry. Don’t be in a hurry! This guy says ‘I have only 50 cents’. If you are in a hurry, please be very clear, you have only 50 cents. You don’t trust yourself. That is why you run, run, run. You don’t think you can achieve by being relaxed. You don’t trust your energy. We are hurrying, because we have only 50 cents. You want to grab and finish everything, before the other person realizes you have only 50 cents. Don’t be in a hurry! You don’t have to run. If you are centered on jealousy and comparison, again you will approach the divine only from that angle; only for that purpose. I have seen in Bharat. People who run temples, they boast: I think only in my temple we have 100 feet tall tower; in my temple we have diamond crowns and 100 carat gold crown. I have this, I have that. With divine also people start boasting and comparing. Why to go to temple? Even in our houses we do that. In San Jose I was visiting a devotee’s house. He took me to his pooja room (prayer room). All he had was some 10 photographs. But for each photo atleast half an hour explanation. And he says no copy of this photograph exists all over the planet earth. And when I asked him how, there must be atleast a few prints he says ‘no no swamiji, all other prints are destroyed. This is the only print available.’ and you cant understand to what extent of foolishness we will go and what type of things we will do if we are caught in jealousy and comparison. One goes on and on and on bragging. This is mine that is mine, this is the way, that is the way I do it and that’s how I do it etc. etc. When you approach the divine, with the mentality of jealousy and comparison, again you are caught. People come and ask me, ‘swamiji in puranas, we read about so many Gods and Goddesses fighting out of jealousy and greed; out of anger. What have you got to say about that? Please be very clear, those puranas were written for the people who are caught in jealousy, so that you will be able to relate with them. Don’t think divine has done all those things. I don’t think the divine would have done all those mistakes. If you think divine has also done all those mistakes, you will be able to relate with him. That is why again and again we do Kalyanotsava; the marriage ritual for God. If you feel, he’s also married, you feel comfortable and safe, and you feel yes I can relate with him now. You feel he’s also like me. Just to give you the comfort feeling, just to make you feel relaxed, all these stories are told and all these things are expressed. So it makes it easier for you to relate with him. See, unless the divine is expressed in your language, you will not be able to relate with him. That is why all these puranas, all these stories are written and given to you. Next: the person who is centered on the ego. This is very difficult. The person who is centered on ego, the person who is centered on name and fame, tries to accumulate name and fame in the guise of the divine. The person who is centered on name and fame starts claiming that he is divine without expressing the qualities of a divine. That is why there’s a beautiful Upanishad which says: if you are divine express it by your quality. Let people recognize by your quality, not by your words. Believe me, what you do will speak for you; what you speak will not do anything for you. What you work, the way in which you work will speak for you, but your words will not work for you. Here there’s a beautiful Upanishad; paramahamsa Upanishad. It says Paramahamsa’s should not wear this kavi cloth (orange robe). Actually technically, I am not supposed to wear this kavi cloth. They say we should not be respected for this cloth. By your very quality, you should be respected. Because of your quality, because of your divinity you should be respected. When you express the divine qualities in your life, that should be respected, not this cloth. Again and again the divine emphasizes; yesterday there was a question, how to find out if a person is an egoistic or if a person is a real spiritual master. A person who is egoistic can only play with words. Only a person who has achieved can reproduce the experience in you. Person who has achieved will be able to create the experience in you. If you get the experience, then be very clear your master is enlightened. Divine. He’s the embodiment of spiritual experience and knowledge. If you get only words not experience be very clear, something is seriously wrong in the path or in the person who you are following. Words are like menu card. Experience is like food. If you go to a hotel and if they give you only a menu card and say food is not available here, can you call that as a hotel? No. Just menu card is not enough. Your hunger cannot be removed. Words are like menu card. Food is the experience. Experience is the food. Be very clear. In the spiritual life don’t stop with a menu card. The person who has approached the divine with ego is always representing the divine, without having the solid experience in himself. That is why in the Upanishad, again and again they emphasize on the experience. If you don’t experience, be very clear there’s something very seriously wrong with the person whom you are following. I always tell you: if you have not experienced with me, forgive me, there’s something seriously wrong with me. Forget about everything. You are not wrong. And it’s very easy to put the responsibility on the disciple and continuously blame them, you are not qualified, you are not practicing it perfectly, you are not practicing regularly, you have not tried, that’s why you have not had any experience. This is a cunning way of cheating a disciple. Postponing it. He comes to you, because he is not perfect and again if you tell him you are not perfect that’s why you are not having experience, for that you don’t need guru, for that wife is sufficient. That’s what she tells continuously. From morning till night, that’s what she tells. You don’t need master. Master is the person, whatever maybe your condition, he will be able to reproduce the same experience that happened in him, in you. Scientist is a person who creates the formula to reproduce the outwordly things. Spiritual master is the person who creates the formula to reproduce the inner world experience. I always tell people if you are not experienced, by attending our meditation programs and meditation camps, be very clear, something is wrong with me, not with you. Forget about me. Carry on with your life. You may meet some master. I am enlightened only if you can experience it. Not before it. Before it, its only a word, a menu card. Menu card will not help you. It cannot remove your hunger. It can create only more hunger. It can only create more trouble. So don’t stop with menu card. What you are hearing, it is only menu card. Don’t stop with the menu card. The person who goes to the divine, who approaches the divine with ego, he gets everything and boosts his ego. He never surrenders to the divine. He becomes more egoistic. He becomes more strong. He strengthens his ego by getting all this knowledge. Be very clear they are the most dangerous people. Most dangerous people. Instead of surrendering their ego to the divine, they strengthen their ego with their knowledge. This knowledge can be used in 2 ways. With this knowledge you can surrender yourself to the divine and with this knowledge you can make others surrender to yourself. For both purposes it can be used. Its up to you. One small story. A king goes to the forest, to hunt. Suddenly he see’s on more than 50 trees, there’s the target mark, that drawing, round, round, round circles. In the center that arrow. There are target marks and exactly in the center the arrow is there. Continuously he see’s so many target marks and exactly in the center the arrow is there. He wants to find out, who is this person who has mastered the art of archery. Who is this person? He must be a great master. He must have mastered the art. He must be like Arjuna. Suddenly he sees a young boy with bow and arrow. The same color arrow. He asked him ‘are you the person who shot all the arrows?’ He says ‘Yes I am the person’ The king said ‘Today onwards I appoint you the senadipathi means my commander in chief. I appreciate your mastery over this bow and arrow. Your power, your capacity. Please tell me how you are able to manage at such a young age, such a high art. How did you achieve perfection at such a young age? The boy said ‘It’s simple. First I shot the arrow, then I mark the circle. That’s all’!

Be very clear, if we approach the divine with ego, we do the same thing. Instead of aiming at the center. You will put your arrow, then you will make circles. Then you will create circles. Instead of aiming at the center, you turn the center to your aim. Here when you approach the divine with ego, instead of surrendering our ego, we strengthen our ego with knowledge.

Next: the ultimate, when you go to the divine with gratitude, with the ultimate gratitude, the whole relationship takes a different turn. It takes a different turn. You start feeling so grateful, so deeply connected with the divine, that your whole life changes. From first level greed, next the fear where Gods who protect, they all appeal to you. That’s why all the tribal Gods you will see they will have big swords. In Bharatn villages you will see Gods with swords and big arrows and weapons. The people who worship them are people who are centered on fear.

Next: worry. Buddha will appeal for you if you are centered on worry. Buddha will appeal more. Who gives you peace, that type of God and Gurus will appeal. The person who is centered on name and fame, the Gods who gives you name and fame will appeal more. In the same way, not only with the Gods, with the masters also you approach from all these levels. I have all seven kinds of disciples. People who approach me out of greed, people who approach me out of fear, people who approach me out of worry, people who approach me for name and fame, people who approach me out of jealousy and comparison, comparison means where they say ‘that guru has one or two ashrams. This guru has more number of ashrams at a young age itself. He must be a big guru. And people approach me out of ego, just to prove their ego, or to feel satisfied, to strengthen their ego ‘you know I am a disciple of Nithyananda Swamiji. I am very close to him. He knows my name. He calls me by name’ Just to have ego satisfaction. There are a few who approach the divine out of gratitude. There's one more problem with the people who approach out of greed. Not only do they have greed, they also have their own idea and their own fantasies about a master; their own frame. They come with a frame and see whether if this person fits in that frame or not. I always face a big problem because of my age. Age is a very big problem. This really happened in the Bharatn ashram: one day I was sitting outside. I was sitting alone without my turban. Nobody was around me. I was sitting alone on a stone, enjoying the cool breeze. Our ashram is actually in the forest area. You will see elephants and cheetah everything come in the forest area. I was sitting there on a stone, enjoying the cool breeze. One well read elderly pundit came and asked me ‘I want me meet swamiji. Where is he?’ I told him ‘please go and sit in the ananda sabha. He will come in half and hour’ He went and sat in the meditation hall. Unfortunately those days, somehow I used to sit alone; there were not many people in the ashram. He went and sat in the hall. After half and hour, I wore my turban, rudraksha and went there and was about to sit in my chair. He said ‘no no no I want the big swamiji. I wanted to meet guruji’. I said ‘Please forgive me. In this ashram I am the Swami. Who do you want to really meet?’ He said ‘No no I heard about Nithyananda Swami. He healed my cousin. I want to see him’. Then I told him his cousins name and the disease he had had and that I had healed him. I told him I am Nithyananda Swami. You will be surprised, he was not ready to believe. He was just looking at me. Then I said ‘See usually, we don’t carry ID card. Usually in Bharat Swami’s don’t carry ID card. Still if you cant believe, look at that photograph. See the name, and see that face. I am that Swami! And I can’t tell anything more. You will be surprised; I tell you, this is the truth. He did not speak to me, but just went away. He went away. He said I am not ready to learn from you. He went away. Strong fantasies. Strong imagination. They are not able to relate. When you have a strong imagination you will not be able to relate with the reality. Very difficult to relate with the reality. And really he went away. He said ‘I have nothing to ask you about, nothing to talk to you about’ and he went away. When you can’t drop your strong imagination naturally you wont be able to relate with reality. The same way with fear, people who come out of fear also will never be able to get rid of that fear. They will always be stuck with that. At different levels people approach the master or God. The more matured you are, you will feel connected to that person who will give you the fulfillment. When you become mature; when you are above fear and greed, please be very clear, you approach the same master, the same God, with lot more maturity. With lot more intimacy. You will feel deeply connected. In Bhagavatha, we have 5 different attitudes. How to relate with master, or how to relate with God. First: dasa bhava, means seeing the God as a lord, as a master. How anjaneya (Hanuman) related with Rama. Seeing him as a master and serving him. Serving is the only sadhana, how anjaneya related with Rama. Next: vatsalya bhava. Seeing the God as a child, as a son. As my own son. How Yashoda saw Krishna. Third: seeing the master as a friend. How Arjuna saw Krishna. How Arjuna related with Krishna. Saka Bhava. Fourth: seeing the God or seeing the master as a father or mother. How Ramakrishna related with Kali. How he felt Kali is his own mother. Ramakrishna used to eat and after eating he used to offer the food to God, to Devi. The temple organizers said no you cannot do this, it is sacrilegious. You cannot give the food after eating to God. He said if you say that I will go away from the temple. I have no problem. But I cannot give food to my mother, food to the divine, unless I taste it. Unless I know its good food, I cannot give for my mother. I have no problem. I will leave the temple and worship from outside. But I will not stop doing what I am doing now. He felt Devi is his mother.

Next: seeing God as a beloved. Madhura Bhava. How Radha, Rajeshwari, Sri Radha saw Krishna. It needs a tremendous amount of maturity. Only if you experience the consciousness which is beyond body you can relate with the divine in the attitude of beloved, attitude of Madhura, Madhura bhava. These are the five different bhavas with which people relate with the divine. With different maturity levels different attitudes suits your mind. According to your maturity, your attitude differs. The more mature a person is more the gratitude starts happening. Less the maturity more you will be filling your life with prayers. Prayer religion is greed; confession religion is fear.

Next when you go beyond prayer and confession you start experiencing gratitude, start experiencing the divine. Krishna starts explaining how you can grow step by step, how you can reach the ultimate maturity, how you can create and experience the divine in the ultimate level. Step by step he explains. Lets see how Krishna explains, what is the technique Krishna has got to offer, to give us to grow in maturity and experience the eternal consciousness.

Krishna starts the next sloka:

Chatuvidha bhajante mam janah sukrtino’rjuna arto jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarsabha

How we approach the divine, based on that the community system is created. How matured you are, only based on that the whole community system has been created. How matured you are, that much you share with the society, with the same maturity only, you approach God also. If you feel you are missing money, you will go to the God who will give you money. If you feel you are missing knowledge, you will go to Saraswathi Devi, who will give knowledge. If you feel you are insecure; you will go to the God who will protect you. You will go to Durga or Kali. If you feel you are missing spiritual experience, ultimate experience, only then you will go to the ultimate divine. You will go to the divine incarnations, the ultimate expressions of divine. Krishna says 4 types of people come to me Chatuvidha bhajante mam. Here he explains clearly the 4 communities: people who are distressed, means the working class, the workers. And people who are the desirer of wealth, means the business people or Vysyas. The inquisitive, means the persons who are continuously enquiring, continuously asking i.e. the Kshatriya. The person, who is always saying Tatha kyam, Tatha kyam, Tatha Kyam (what next, what next, what next). A Kshatriya can never rest, because he is again and again asking, what next, what next, what next. Then the person who is searching for the knowledge of the absolute: Brahman. All the four come to me, all the four reach me, but from a different level. Please be very clear, from a different level all the four go to the same God, but they will not experience him in the same way. They will experience him in a different way. You may go to the same God or a different God but according to your maturity only you will experience the divine. As long as you are caught in the fear or greed you will be going only to that type of Gods. You will be attracted to only those type of Gods. That is why again and again I tell people: it is very easy to go to a temple and pray, but very difficult to go to a master and start meditating. Its only for mature people not for everyone. In the temple you will see thousands, but in spiritual places you willsee only a few hundreds. It is not for all, it’s a luxury. Spirituality is a luxury, only a few intelligent people can afford. The price for spirituality is your sufferings. Only if you had enough sufferings can you afford to get into spirituality. If you have not had enough sufferings or if you have not understood that you have had enough sufferings you cannot enter into spirituality. Its only for the people who have suffered, who have understood that they have suffered. Two things. Not only suffering, but understanding that you are suffering is what I call intelligence. Both are needed to enter into the spiritual life. Spirituality is a luxury. It’s not for all. Religion is for everybody. Only a few mature people can enter into spirituality. In the next Sloka Krishna says:

yo yo yāḿ yāḿ tanuḿ bhaktaḥ śraddhayārcitum icchati tasya tasyācalāḿ śraddhāḿ tām eva vidadhāmy aham

I am in everyone's heart as the Supersoul. As soon as one desires to worship some demigod, I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to that particular deity.

He says: I am in everyone’s heart as the paramathman. As soon as one desires to worship some demi-god I make his faith steady so that he can devote himself to that particular deity. Please understand: when he says demi-god he doesn’t mean small devathas. Even if you approach Krishna out of fear or greed, you are approaching a demi-god. When he says the word demi-god, he means with what approach we approach the divine, with what attitude you approach the divine. With the right approach if you approach the demi-god, he will give you enlightenment. With the wrong approach even if you approach Krishna, you will have only money. There’s a beautiful story in Krishna’s life. The story says there was a rich man who prays to Krishna to become a King. Morning and evening twice he will say ‘Krishna Krishna. Krishna please give me kingdom. Krishna I want to become a king'. There was another one poor lady, who had only one cow. With that milk she would make little butter, and little sweets, and offer it to Krishna. Whole day she would be sitting and chanting Krishna’s name. Suddenly one day Krishna appeared and responded to both of them. This guy who asked for kingdom, he became a king. And this lady who was praying everyday to Krishna, her cow died. Narada asked Krishna ‘What is this oh Lord, that fellow who repeats your name only twice, you made him king. This lady who remembers you 24 hours, you killed her cow. What is this?’ Krishna says ‘That fellow wants only kingdom. He came to me only for that. I am just a utility. So I blessed him for what he wants. But for her, I was her whole life. Only one small hindrance. Only one thing was standing between her and me. I took away that also. I removed that hindrance also. Now she is completely into me. Within me. And now she’s completely become me.’ With what approach you go to the divine, plays an important role in your spiritual progress. If you approach the same Krishna, out of fear or greed, you are worshipping a demi-god. But Krishna says you are not wrong. He’s not here to discourage you. Nothing wrong. But it’s not enough. Not enough. That is not the place to stop. It’s a good place to have visa, but not green card or citizenship. Here, the planets of demi-gods or places of demi-gods are good places to visit but not the right place to stay. And Krishna says ‘Because I am in everyone’s heart as the paramathman, the moment you desire to worship some demi-god, I make his faith steady, so you can devote yourself to that particular deity.’ Let me describe usually how a seeker travels through all these paths and ends up eventually. A normal seeker, when he starts, he hears about all kinds of pooja and homas. This pooja will give you this benefit, that homa will give you that benefit. And he starts doing all these things. For Friday, fasting for Devi, Saturday fasting for Balaji, Sunday fasting for some other God. Monday fasting for Shiva, Tuesday for Skanda, Thursday fasting for Guru and all pooja’s all possible homa’s, wherever things go on, that person will be there. This is the way it will start. Then slowly, you not only start going to all these pooja’s and homa’s you also start going to many different kinds of temples. This is the way it will start. Then slowly, slowly after sometime, he will come to the understanding that these rituals and going to the temples are too much. Why to let somebody else do these things for my sake. Let me directly do and relate with the divine. He himself will start his own shrine in the pooja room, in his house. From morning till night, he himself will start doing. When he becomes little mature, he himself starts doing. He starts thinking that I should feel related. I should feel connected. Let me do it by myself. He himself starts doing. Then after sometime. The first standard is going around, to all the temples, all the pooja’s, all the homa’s. Second standard is starting it yourself, doing it by yourself. Third standard, all Gods are one and the same, same God. I think I feel more attracted towards this one God, this particular God. Having one form and taking all the other things. Doing pooja and homa only for that one form. This is the third standard. Fourth, more than pooja, the mantra is powerful. Let me start repeating the mantra. Surrendering through body is pooja, surrendering through words is mantra and stotra, surrendering through mind is Gnana. So here he thinks, why not do some stotra and japa. He starts repeating the mantra of that same God. In every level different Gods appeal for you, in every level different gurus appeal for you. When you are in the level of pooja and homa, people who do that, they appeal for you. When you are in the level of going around all pilgrimage places, people who guide you to the pilgrims, they appeal to you. When you go to sabarimala, you call somebody as guruswami. The person who leads the trip is called as guruswami. He appeals for you. When you come to level of you yourself doing upasana, you yourself start worshipping, then the person who teaches how to do pooja, he appeals for you. He is your guru. Then when you start repeating the mantra, the person who gives you the mantra, he appeals for you. He becomes your guru. The person who guides you, who can tell you how to repeat the mantra, how to do japa. He appeals to you. Next: after sometime you think, why only repeat this japa, why not do meditation. You will start visualizing his form. Now the person who teaches you meditation will appeal. That is meditation is again, saguna brahma, that means meditating on the form. This is the next standard. First standard, going around and attending rituals and temples, second standard, doing all the rituals yourself, third standard, concentrating on one deity, doing pooja and homa only for that God, fourth standard, why do all these rituals, why not do the mantras, fifth standard, why stop with the mantras, why not start visualizing the form, meditate. Then when you sincerely start meditating, He himself appears, He himself gives darshan and guides you to the higher-level sadhana. He guides you to the right master. Sometimes he gives you darshan and guides; sometimes he automatically makes you feel connected. Only a person who has come to this level can feel directly related to an enlightened master. Till you reach this level, till this maturity happens to you, you cannot straight away completely connected with an enlightened person. You need to go through all these 5 steps, only then you will feel completely connected with a living master. When you have come to this stage where you are meditating on a single form, then the master happens in your life. He happens in your life and guides you. The form on which you are meditating, that form and your form, both are expressions of the same divine energy. He puts you into the real meditation, means turning towards yourself, turning towards your consciousness, turning towards your atman. He gives you the technique to realize your being. The seventh standard, the ultimate standard you experience, you are that. You achieve the enlightenment. This is the usual method seekers travel, starting from first standard, second standard, third standard and end up in experiencing yourself. Now find out in which standard you are, and try to go to the next level. That’s all. That is all you need to do.

Here Krishna says: yo yo yāḿ yāḿ tanuḿ bhaktaḥ. Because I reside in everyones heart as paramathman, when somebody desires to worship a demi-god, I make his faith steady, so that he can devote himself to that particular deity. When you approach the divine even from the first level, he himself helps you. He helps you. Its like a 18 carat gold. 18 carat gold is nothing wrong, but you need to be put a little bit in fire. Slowly, slowly you will become 22 carat. Then you reach the master. A living master. Then slowly slowly you become 24, and you yourself become enlightened. If you throw away the first step, you can never reach the second step. Unless you went round or unless went through all these steps, it will be very difficult to relate with a living master. You will not be able to relate with a living master directly. You will not be able to connect. You will not be able to feel the importance. Today morning one devotee came to visit me and was speaking to me. He expressed his confusions. This happened after reading all the books. He said ‘I am now more confused than before Swamiji’. In the Geetha, Arjuna says the same thing. After a few chapters he says ‘oh Krishna, I am now more confused, than before the Geetha.’ Which means you have really done your sadhana. You really did your sadhana. Understanding this is not helping me, is the right help derived by that sadhana. Buddha teaches meditation to one of his disciples. The disciple tries his best and comes back and says ‘Buddha I am not able to meditate.’ Then Buddha, ‘Don’t worry. You understood properly. That is the purpose of this meditation. Understanding that you are not able to meditate is the purpose of this meditation. You have done it. That meditation has served its purpose. Now forget about it. Now come to the next step. Sometimes these techniques, will make you mature even by the understanding that you are not able to do the technique. That is the big maturity. Nothing wrong in it. So different kinds of maturity, a different level of maturity happens to you when you reach the divine. Approaching the divine is the first step, or the first level. Nothing wrong. But don’t stop there. Here he says, I make his faith steady, so that he can devote himself to that particular deity, means in that particular attitude he can grow. There is the possibility of growth. He say’s I don’t discourage him; I make his faith steady, so that he will slowly come up to the next levels.

sa tayā śraddhayā yuktas tasyārādhanam īhate labhate ca tataḥ kāmān mayaiva vihitān hi tān

Endowed with such a faith, he endeavors to worship a particular demi-god and obtains his desires, but in actuality these benefits are bestowed by me alone.

He says even if you approach with an attitude of fear or greed, I fulfill it. It is my own energy, which is fulfilling you, so that you will grow, you will come up to the next levels. Here through demi-gods if you receive the boons, even that is given by Para Brahman, the ultimate energy, the same existence. But you are not expected to stop there. You are expected to grow. I always tell people, when you approach the divine, first all your dreams will become reality. He will bless you. All your desires will be realized. All your dreams will become reality. Later on he will give you the understanding that reality itself is a dream. First he will give you the Shakti to realize your dreams into reality. Then he will give you the buddhi to realize that reality itself is a dream. Here that is what he says, according to your maturity the way you approach, based on that I bless you. I give everything.

antavat tu phalaḿ teṣāḿ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām devān deva-yajo yānti mad-bhaktā yānti mām api

Men of small intelligence, worship the demi-gods and their fruits are limited and temporary. Those who worship the demi-gods go to the planets of the demi-gods, but my devotees reach my supreme planet.

When he says 'planet' don’t think there is some planet. He is talking about the space and the experience. If you worship some God out of greed, he will never come out of that greed. He will be continuously caught. If you worship some God out of fear, you will be always in that fear. If you worship the divine out of love and gratitude, you experience a different space. Hell or heaven, they are not geographical, they are psychological. Hell or heaven are not geographical, it is psychological. In which mood you are, depending on that, you create your own hell or heaven where you are staying. You all know how to create hell. Now all you need to know is how to create heaven. There’s nothing that needs to be learnt about the art of creating hell. All we need to know is how to create heaven. Now its time for us to learn, how to create heaven. He says: Men of small intelligence – means people who are caught in greed or fear, attention need or worry. They worship the demi-gods. Means of course sometimes you worship the demi-gods, even sometimes you approach Krishna himself or the ultimate God itself in the same attitude. The asking attitude. If you carry the attitude of greed, whether you worship the Gods who gives money, gubera or even if you worship Krishna with that same attitude, you are actually worshipping a demi-god. It is the attitude which makes Krishna as the Para Brahma or demi-god. It is you who is creating the attitude. Its you who is creating the energy. By worshiping demi-gods you attain demi-gods. There’s an important sutra. It says:

antavat tu phalaḿ teṣāḿ tad bhavaty alpa-medhasām devān deva-yajo yānti mad-bhaktā yānti mām api

It says when you get the boons from demi-gods they are temporary. God will bless you to have wealth, when you go and ask him. But you need intelligence to preserve it, to protect it. You need intelligence to protect it. That only you need to do. So be very clear, when you receive anything out of energy, without having maturity, it will be temporary; if you have enough intelligence and maturity to have wealth, naturally you would have created it. Because you don’t have the buddhi you go and ask God to give you the Shakti. If you get only Shakti without buddhi, it will be temporary.

That is what Krishna says: if you get Shakti without buddhi it will be temporary. It will not stay with you. That is why he says boons derived from demi-gods, will be temporary. Not permanent. And if you continue to worship them, you will be stuck with them. You will create only that kind of space in your inner space. You will live only with that kind of energy in your inner being. And he makes one more statement: mad-bhaktā yānti mām api - My devotees attain me. Then he says these words – ‘if you approach me in the ultimate attitude, attitude of love and gratitude. The greatest attitude is gratitude. If you approach me with gratitude, you will achieve me. You will experience me. Again and again people ask me ‘Swamiji when I have so much of problems, how can I be grateful?’ Please be very clear we continuously pray to God ‘oh God, please give me diamond ring’. Do you feel grateful that he gave you finger? We don’t feel grateful that he gave us finger. Be very clear, finger is not our birthright. There are millions of people who don’t have hands. There are millions of people who don’t have finger. Its not your birth right. We continuously pray intensely, in all possible ways, ‘oh God give me this. Oh God give me that.’ But we never feel grateful for the things that are showered on us. The very life is a blessing. Can you say your life is given to you as a salary? For some job which you did in Vykunta (abode of Lord Vishnu) or Kailasa (Abode of Lord Shiva)? No, its not that we worked 100 years in Kailasa, and got a check saying ‘alright, have 70 years of life’ If you go and work in the army they will give you money to study. Its not like that, we did not get life as a salary. It’s a pure blessing that is showered on us. Every breath, the breath that we are inhaling and exhaling it’s a boon, which is given to us. The very life is a blessing. Continuously we feel the things, which are not there around us. But we never experience the things that are showered on us by the divine. There's a big list on one side, which list out the things God has not given you, and there is a big list on the other side, which has all the things that God has given you. How many things are showered on you. If you really take a paper and pen and start writing, it’s an endless list. Every moment of your life is a gift from the divine. Still you are alive, still you are conscious, that itself is a gift from the divine. If you honestly make a list the things which is not given to you. It will be an endless, infinite list. Things, which are given to you, that will also be an endless infinite list. Now its up to us, whether to look at the list which is not given to us and feel continuously miserable and beg ‘oh I do not have this, I do not have that’ and live in hell, or look at the list which is showered on us and feel deeply grateful, and feel ‘oh God you have showered so much on me. Really given me the life’ and feel grateful and create our heaven. Its upto us to create hell or heaven. It’s a pure choice. Its upto you to do what you want. He says ‘these men of small intelligence worship the demi-god. Their results are temporary and you continue to live in that way. And when you feel life itself is a blessing and you approach the divine, with the deep love and gratitude, not only do you experience the divine consciousness Krishna says mad-bhaktā yānti mām api, they achieve ME. They attain ME. There's another one sloka where Krishna says beautifully: ‘If you ask something I will give you that. If you don’t ask anything, I will give you me'. I will give you ME. People say ‘Who wants him? We want him only as a utility, not him. As long as he serves our purpose, things are ok. So we don’t want him. People want only solution. They don’t want the divine.

avyaktaḿ vyaktim āpannaḿ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ paraḿ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam

Unintelligent men, who do not know me perfectly, think that I, the supreme personality of Godhead, the bhagvan, who was impersonal before, has become human being now. They do not know that I am imperishable and supreme, even when I assume the body. Unintelligent men, who do not know my supreme, inimitable and immortal form, assume my inimitable form as manifested.

Here he says another one important sloka. When he says all these things and finally makes another one important sloka mad-bhaktā yānti mām api - My devotees achieve me. Attain me. Naturally Arjuna would have had a doubt – Are you one more demi-god. Naturally Arjuna would have had one more doubt. So Krishna gives explanation – Unintelligent men who are not matured, they think I am just this form. Only an intelligent man understands (avyaktam means, unborn, immortal) that I am immortal. Even when I assume this form, I am that same consciousness. I have not become an ordinary human being by assuming a human form. He declares his divinity openly. He declares I am the same even when I assume human form. Don’t think I am one more demi-god. Don’t think I am one more demi-god. He says I am unborn, immortal, inimitable, even when I assume this form. Even when I assume this form, I am that same ultimate divine. I am not an ordinary man. It’s a very important statement. This statement is made to declare his enlightenment. To express clearly, explicitly, that I am enlightened. I am the embodiment of the ultimate consciousness. The problem is, the person who is receiving is not matured enough. People ask me again and again, why Krishna is again and again declaring he is enlightened? That’s a big problem. Talking about something, again and again, something is wrong with that. There is a proverb in Tamil: if you are wearing a new ring, you will always speak with that hand. Because continuously we will be showing that. If you are wearing a new earring, what you will do, you head will shake. If you are speaking about something again and again, there’s something wrong with that thing. If you are clear about it, why you should speak again and again. If the person, who is receiving, is not matured enough. Arjuna is approaching Krishna out of fear and greed. When the Gita started, Arjuna approached Krishna out of the fear and depression, out of greed, with the what is beneficial for me attitude? He’s asking what will give the maximum benefit. Means greed. Next thing, fear. He is afraid what will happen in the war. The fear and greed, that is the way he approached Krishna. So even Arjuna sees Krishna only as a demi-god in the initial level. In the initial level Arjuna’s approach is also that of a demi-god. That is the reason now; Krishna declares his glory, or his true form. He says: 'All these types of people come to me. I fulfill them in a different level, just to encourage their faith. Just to help them to grow. But only intelligent people will understand, even if I assume this body, I am the ultimate. I am enlightened. Unintelligent people, they think by seeing my body, seeing my form, that I am not the divine. So please be very clear, that I am THAT'. He again and again makes a clear statement, so that Arjuna can understand.

bahūnāḿ janmanām ante jñānavān māḿ prapadyate vāsudevaḥ sarvam iti sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ

Krishna says: after many births and deaths he who is actually in knowledge, surrenders unto me, knowing me to be the cause of all causes, all that is, such a great soul is very rare. This is a very important statement. Only after many births and deaths, you will be able to relate with an enlightened person. You will not be able to relate with an enlightened person, an enlightened master unless you undergo many births and deaths. I was telling you the seven steps. First: going around to many temples, many rituals, many places, pilgrimage, everything. Second: doing it by yourself. Third: concentrating on one God. Fourth: instead of rituals, doing japa, repeating the stotra. Fifth: instead of repeating the japa visualizing his form and meditating. Sixth: instead of meditating on some other form, falling into the same consciousness, realizing that form and your atman are one and the same. God and the atman are one and the same. Seventh: experiencing the reality. These seven steps, don’t think will be done in one janma. People take hundreds of janma’s to achieve the maturity. It is very rare, people achieve this maturity. He says sa mahātmā su-durlabhaḥ – very rare is it to see such souls who have achieved that maturity. It’s very easy to relate with Gods in the temple, because they don’t demand you to be pure. They don’t demand any discipline from you. You can go and pray to him, do whatever you want, and think he has blessed you and go. But relating with enlightened master is very difficult. People ask me, why do all the masters become popular after their death? After death, all masters will become popular, because it’s very easy to cheat yourself with the photograph. It’s very easy to cheat yourself with a photograph. You can put his photograph and do whatever you want and think it is his teachings. And you have no problem. There is nobody to question you. There is nobody to ask you anything. You can do whatever you want and project everything is his blessings. And you can play with a photograph. It is very easy. There is nobody to catch you, nobody to discipline you. It’s very easy to play with the photograph. That is why, all dead masters become very popular. And you don’t have to give up your ego, with dead masters. Just put a photograph, put a garland, do aarati, do whatever you want. Sometimes you can sit under that photograph and start representing him. No problem. Very easy. The whole game is very easy. Nothing needs to be done. The whole game is ego fulfilling. And nice game. Connecting with dead masters is very easy, because they don’t demand your ego. You don’t have to surrender. Nothing needs to be done. That is why with dead masters and temples the crowd will be too much. The crowd will be too much, because nothing needs to be done. All you need to do is just think you have done everything and you are blessed. But with a living master you need to transform your life. You need to transform your life. You need to experience the truth. He will not let you sleep. He will not let you rest. He will haunt you, until you realize the truth. He will not let you do what you want. He will not be fulfilling your ego. I always tell people ‘old masters are dead. Living master is death’. He will be death for you. He will be death for your ego. And you cannot play your games with him. You cannot play all your games with him. You have to grow; you have to become a mature being. Nothing can be done. You cannot do the same old game and put his name in the front. He will make you wake up. He will shake you. Somebody asks Ramanamaharshi: if this whole world is maya, master also I see in the same dream, enlightened person also I see in the same dream, I see you also in the same dream. How is it going to help me? Ramanamaharshi says: if you see a lion in your dream, what will happen? You will wake up from your dream. Same way, if you see a master, be very clear, be very clear you are going to wake up from you dream. Master is a simha swapna (nightmare). He will be a simha swapna. Masters are nightmares. That is why you are afraid. People are afraid to come near masters. With living masters, very difficult. You can’t continue to play your game. You can’t play the same game, whatever you want. The game cant be yours. The game will be his. You cannot play your game. You have to act according to his script. So he is going to be the director. That is why it’s very difficult to fall in tune with a living master. Only a person who has understood, after many many births and deaths, who has matured, who has got enough knowledge, surrenders unto me, surrenders to the living master. In Bharat, kids play with toys, especially in TamilNadu, there are wooden toys. Some 4-5 toys will be there. I have seen kids playing. For one toy they will put sari and say this is mother. The other toy they will dhoti, and say this is father. Another toy they will put a skirt and say this is sister. Another toy they will put a trouser and say this is brother. And they will start their game. Mother is cooking. They will take that mother doll and make it stand near the small kitchen. They will say father is going to office, and put the father doll in a small car, and they will drive. They will make sound also, peem peem, horn sound also, and take the car to the office. And then after a few minutes they will tell, sister is going to school. They will put the sister doll in the car and they will run around. Sister is going to school. They will make sound also, sister is crying, she doesn’t want to go to school. They will do the game. And then they will tell, now it is becoming evening. Sister is coming back from the school. They will bring the sister back. They will bring the father back; father is coming back from office. They will bring the father back. They are playing. Please understand, we are also doing the same game. You catch somebody, and say you are my mother, you are my father, you are my wife, you are my husband, you are my son, you are my sister, and you are my brother. And if that doll doesn’t behave according to your image, you say its not a good doll, this is not a good toy. You throw it away. Sometimes, children hurt themselves with the dolls and then say this doll is hurting me. They don’t realize it’s they who took the doll and poked it in their eyes. They complain: this doll has hurt me. They start crying. Same way, when somebody doesn’t behave according to your frame. Sister means you have an idea, sister should be like this, mother means you have an idea, mother should be like that, wife means you have an idea, wife should be like that. You want all the dolls to play their role. When somebody doesn’t play their role you throw them out of the gate. You don’t want to play with that doll. Suddenly you die. Leave the body. When you go to the other place the next birth, again you catch one more set of dolls. Start the same game, my father, my husband, my wife, my daughter, my son, my brother, my sister, and the game starts. You play the same game. Continuously you play the same game. Sometimes you bring the doll inside, sometimes you throw the doll outside, sometimes you fire them, and sometimes you enjoy them. And if you don’t have enough of dolls, you get 2-3 cats and 2-3 dogs also to play with you. And you have everything. And when you have everything continuously you play, you play, and you play. Suddenly again you die. When you die again you assume another one body. With that body you catch one more set of people and start playing the same game. Again and again and again you are playing the same game. Only a person who is a little mature will start thinking how many times will I play the same game? What am I doing? How many times I will do this same psychodrama? Please understand the whole thing is psychodrama. Whole thing is just a psychodrama. Whether it is a relationship, or whether it is the life everything is nothing but just a psychodrama. You have an agenda, society had taught you. As a father you should behave like this, as a husband you should behave like this, as a son you should behave like this. As long as you follow the agenda, you are called a good citizen. When you don’t follow that agenda, you are not respected. All the other dolls kick you out of the gate. They tell you, you are not accepted in the game, you are not allowed anymore in this game. You are not invited for the parties. That is what is called boycotting. They boycott you and then suddenly one day you realize, how many times again and again and again, I am doing the same drama. Same game. The person who understands again and again I am doing the same drama, same game, he is called the one who achieved knowledge, gnanavan mam prabahdyate. Gnanavan: the person who achieved the knowledge, real intelligence of what is happening, then naturally you surrender – Vasudeva sarvame. You surrender unto me. Understanding the cause of all causes, of all that is, is me. He realizes the ultimate divine and he realizes how many times I am going to do the same drama. How many times I am going to undergo the same drama? How many times I am doing the same mistake. And the whole thing again and again and again repeated without any end, without the experience. The person who has understood, who got the knowledge of this truth, surrenders unto me, surrenders to the master, an enlightened being, knowing me to be the cause of all causes and all there is. Such a great soul is very rare. Only a person who has achieved this knowledge relates with the master in a real sense. Only he sees the master in a real way. Please be very clear, there’s a beautiful sloka, which says: even if you have once seen an enlightened master, you will become enlightened. Some people come and ask me: why still I haven’t become enlightened swamiji? Be very clear: never think that you are seeing me or never think by seeing through your eyes you can see the divine. You can see the masters, not me. Even if you have seen many enlightened masters, never think you have seen them. Just by seeing through your eyes never think you have seen them. If you have seen them, with which attitude you have seen them, that plays a major role. If you went to them with greed, you went to a demi-god not an enlightened master. If you have gone to them out of fear, again you have gone to a demi-god, not to an enlightened master. Only if you go with an attitude of love and gratitude, understanding, maturity, you are seeing a living master, you are seeing an enlightened person. The moment you see an enlightened being AS HE IS, you WILL become enlightened. There’s no doubt about it. Krishna say’s:

teṣāḿ jñānī nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viśiṣyate priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham ahaḿ sa ca mama priyaḥ

Of these the one who is in full knowledge, who is always engaged in pure devotion is the best, for I am very dear to him and he is very dear to me. The person who approaches me out of love and gratitude, he is the best person, for I am very dear to him and he is very dear to me. He ends the whole conversation, the whole concept with this sloka. He says starting at different levels is ok, but don’t stop there. Don’t stop there. It takes janmas (many life times) for a person to understand and achieve this maturity. But there is no need. You should not think: let me take some more janmas and become mature, what is there Swamiji? When I say it takes many janmas, some people think: let me take some more janmas and become mature. It’s a very big trouble, whenever we speak something, we have to make it very clear, otherwise you can't imagine how many different ways people can interpret it. Once a great bhagavat pundit was telling the story of Harishchandra. Everyone knows Harishchandra, who lived for TRUTH, who sold his wife for the sake of truth, to keep up his words. Such a great person. He told the whole story. After that he asked one person, what did you understand from this story? He got up and said: Master I understood, Truth is life. We should give up everything for truth. Truth is ultimate. He said right. He asked the next person: What did you understand? The man said: Master I understood, that at the time of emergency you can sell your wife! From the same story, two different understanding. So be very clear, don’t miss the understanding. If you miss the understanding, you will misunderstand. Here Krishna says: Out of these the wise is always devoted to me. He’s the best person. To start, you can start at any level, but reach the ultimate. One more thing. Don’t think: oh! Krishna himself says, it will take many janmas, let me take some more janmas and become mature. NO! If you can enter into the knowledge this moment, the experience can happen to you. You don’t need to postpone. Every moment is a new birth for you. Every moment is death and every moment is birth. The outgoing breath is death the incoming breath is birth. So be very clear, every moment you die and take birth. This moment can be a new birth for you. The person, who understood this truth, takes a new birth. He is only called as Dwija. In Sanskrit we say, a person who is initiated is called Dwija. Means new born, second born. All sanyasi’s are considered to be the second born. Dwija. They are supposed to be the reborn people. Reborn means not physically, in a being level. In a being level they have taken a new birth. They give birth to themselves. They become newborn beings. So understand: this moment a new birth can happen to you. Krishna says:

teṣāḿ jñānī nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viśiṣyate priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham ahaḿ sa ca mama priyaḥ

He says “sa ca” He is dear to me, and I am dear to him. He is in me and I am in him. Krishna says beautifully: he’s in you and you are in him, the moment you understand this ultimate truth. The moment you approach the divine with the right attitude, you become the divine. All you need to do is just change your attitude. Over. Just change your attitude the whole thing is done.

So, let us pray to the ultimate Para Brahma Krishna to give us all the intelligence and change our attitude, to give us this experience of eternal bliss. Nithya Ananda. Thank You.

Vasudeva vasudam devam. Kamsa Chanura Mardanam. Devaki Paramanandam. Krishnam Vande Jagatgurum.