lifeblissprograms.orglifeblissprograms.org/e-books/pdf/bhagavad_gita_digital_ch4.pdfPath of Knowledge 5 CONTENTS 1. Bhagavad Gita: A Background 7 2. Introduction 15 3. The Path of

The meditation techniques included in this book are to bepracticed only after personal instructions by an ordainedteacher of Life Bliss Foundation (LBF). If some one triesthese techniques without prior participation in the meditationprograms of LBF, they shall be doing so entirely at theirown risk; neither the author nor LBF shall be responsiblefor the consequences of their actions.

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Bhagavad Gi ta Demystified

Logic can never lead you to Self-realization.Dissolution of logic will.

Discourses delivered to Swami’s and Ananda Samajisof the Nithyananda Order all over the world

CHAPTER 4

N i t h y a n a n d a

Path Of Knowledge

BhagavadGitaGitaGitaGitaGita

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CONTENTS

1. Bhagavad Gita: A Background 7

2. Introduction 15

3. The Path of Knowledge 19

4. I Am Reborn Age After Age 49

5. To Know Me Is to be Liberated 65

6. Understand and be Unaffected by Action 100

7. Action in Inaction and Inaction in Action 110

8. Equanimity in Success and Failure 130

9. Know the Meaning of Sacrifice and Be Purified 152

10. You are No Sinner 162

11. Doubt Destroys 178

12. Scientific Research On Bhagavad Gita 198

13. Kuru Family Tree 200

14. Glossary Of Key Characters In TheBhagavad Gita 201

15. Meaning Of Selected Sanskrit Words 203

16. Invocation Verses 216

17. Verses Of Gita Chapter 4 217

18. About Paramahamsa Nithyananda 245


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BhagavadGita:A Background

Bhagavad Gita is a sacred scriptureof the Vedic culture. As with allscriptures, it was knowledge that wastransmitted verbally. It was called srutiin Sanskrit, meaning something that isheard.

Gita, as Bhagavad Gita is generallycalled, translates literally from Sanskritas the ‘Sacred Song’. Unlike the Vedaand Upanishad, which are self-standingexpressions, Gita is written into theHindu epic Mahabharata, called apurana, an ancient tale. It is part of astory, so to speak.


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As a scripture, Gita is part of the ancient knowledgebase of Vedic tradition, which is the expression of theexperiences of great sages.

Veda and Upanishad, the foundation of sruti literature,arose through the insight and awareness of these greatsages when they went into a no-mind state. These are asold as humanity and the first and truest expressions in thejourney of man’s search for truth.

Unlike the Vedas, which were internalized by the greatsages, or the Upanishads, which were the teachings ofthese great sages, Gita is part of a story narrated byVyasa, one of these great sages. It is narrated as thedirect expression of the Divine.

No other epic, or part of an epic, has the special statusof the Gita. As a consequence of the presence of Gita, theMahabharata epic itself is considered a sacred Hinduscripture. Gita arose from the super consciousness ofKrishna, the Supreme God, and is therefore considered ascripture.

Mahabharata, literally the Great Bharata, is a narrationabout the nation and civilization, which is now known asIndia. It was then a nation ruled by King Bharata and hisdescendants. The story of this epic is about two warringclans, Kauravas and Pandavas, closely related to oneanother. Dhritharashtra, the blind King of Hastinapuraand father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother ofPandu, whose children were the five Pandava princes. Itis a tale of strife between cousins.

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Pandu was the King of Hastinapura. A sage cursed himthat he would die if he ever entered into physicalrelationship with his wives. He therefore had no children.Vyasa says that all the five Pandava children were born totheir mothers Kunti and Madri through the blessing ofdivine beings. Pandu handed over the kingdom and hischildren to his blind brother Dhritharashtra and retired tomeditate in the forest.

Kunti had received a boon when she was still a youngunmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divinepower at will to father a child. Before she married, shetested her boon. The Sun God Surya appeared before her.Karna was born to her as a result. In fear of socialreprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river.Yudhishtra, Bhima, and Arjuna were born to Kunti afterher marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twinsNakula and Sahadeva were born to Madri, the secondwife of Pandu.

Yudhishtra was born to Kunti as a result of her beingblessed by Yama, the God of death and justice, Bhima byVayu, the God of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, God of alldivine beings. Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngestPandava twins were born to Madri, through the divineAshwini twins.

Dhritharashtra had a hundred sons through his wifeGandhari. The eldest of these Kaurava princes wasDuryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his fivePandava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts,along with his brother Dushashana, to kill the Pandavabrothers. Kunti’s eldest son Karna, whom she had cast


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away at birth, was brought up by a chariot driver in thepalace and by a strange twist of fate joined hands withDuryodhana.

Dhritharashtra gave Yudhishtra one half of the KuruKingdom on his coming of age, since the Pandava Princewas the rightful heir to the throne that his father Panduhad vacated. Yudhishtra ruled from his new capitalIndraprastha, along with his brothers Bhima, Arjuna,Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna won the hand of PrincessDraupadi, daughter of the King of Panchala, in aswayamwara, a marital contest in which princes fought forthe hand of a fair damsel. In fulfilment of their motherKunti’s desire that the brothers would share everythingequally, Draupadi became the wife of all five Pandavabrothers.

Duryodhana persuaded Yudhishtra to join a gamblingsession, where his cunning uncle Sakuni defeated thePandava King. Yudhishtra lost all that he owned - hiskingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, toDuryodhana. Dushashana shamed Draupadi in public bytrying to disrobe her. The Pandava brothers andDraupadi were forced to go into exile for 14 years, withthe condition that in the last year they should liveincognito.

At the end of the 14 years, the Pandava brothers triedto reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helpedby Krishna, the King of the Yadava clan, who isconsidered the eighth divine reincarnation of Vishnu.However, Duryodhana refused to yield even aneedlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the

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War of Mahabharata ensued. In this war, various rulers ofthe entire nation that is modern India aligned with one orthe other of these two clans, the Kauravas or thePandavas.

Krishna offered to join with either of the two clans. Hesaid, ‘One of you may have me unarmed. I will not takeany part in the battle. The other may have my entireYadava army.’ The first offer was made to Duryodhana,who predictably chose the large and well-armed Yadavaarmy, in preference to the unarmed Krishna. Arjunajoyfully and gratefully chose his friend and mentorKrishna to be his unarmed charioteer!

The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukshetra,now in the state of Haryana in modern day India. All theKings and Princes were related to one another, and wereoften on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and hisfriends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome byremorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from thebattle.

Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield ofKurukshetra is the content of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishnapersuaded Arjuna to take up arms and vanquish hisenemies. ‘They are already dead,’ says Krishna, ‘all thosewho are facing you have been already killed by Me. Goahead and do what you have to do. That is your duty.Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.’

The Gita is the ultimate practical teaching on the innerscience of spirituality. It is not as some scholars


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incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about theimpermanence of the mind, body, and the need todestroy the mind, ego and logic.

Sanjaya, King Dhritharashtra’s charioteer, presents Gitain eighteen chapters to the blind king. All the KauravaPrinces as well as all their commanders such as Bhishma,Drona and Karna were killed in battle. The five Pandavabrothers survived as winners and became the rulers of thecombined kingdom.

This dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna is a dialoguebetween man and God or nara and Narayana as they aretermed in Sanskrit. Arjuna’s questions and doubts arethose of each one of us. The answers of the Divine,Krishna, transcend time and space. Krishna’s message is asvalid today as it was on that fateful battlefield somethousands of years ago.

Nithyananda explains the inner metaphorical meaningof Mahabharata thus:

‘The Great War of Mahabharata is the fight betweenthe positive and negative thoughts of the mind, called thesamskaras. Positive thoughts are the Pandava princes andthe negative thoughts are the Kaurava princes.Kurukshetra or the battlefield is the body. Arjuna is theindividual consciousness and Krishna is the enlightenedMaster.

The various commanders who led the Kaurava armyrepresent the major blocks that the individual

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consciousness faces in its journey to enlightenment.Bhishma represents parental and societal conditioning.Drona represents the conditioning from teachers whoprovide knowledge including spiritual guidance. Karnarepresents the restrictive influence of good deeds such ascharity and compassion, and finally Duryodhanarepresents the ego, which is the last to fall.

Parental and societal conditionings have to be overcomeby rebelling against conventions. This is why traditionallythose seeking the path of enlightenment are required torenounce the world as sannyasin and move away fromcivilization. This conditioning does not die as long as thebody lives, but its influence drops.

Drona represents all the knowledge one imbibes andthe teachers one encounters, who stop short of being toable to take us through to the ultimate flowering ofenlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since onefeels grateful to them. This is where the enlightenedmaster steps in and guides us.

Karna is the repository of all good deeds and it is hisgood deeds that stand in the way of his ownenlightenment. Krishna has to take the load of Karna’spunya, his meritorious deeds, before he could beliberated. The enlightened Master guides one to dropone’s attachment to good deeds arising out of what areperceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions.He also shows us that the quest for and experience ofenlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that onecan offer to the world.


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Finally one reaches Duryodhana, one’s ego, the mostdifficult to conquer. One needs the full help of the Masterhere. It is subtle work and even the Master’s help maynot be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the egomakes one disconnect from the Master as well.

The Great War was between one hundred eightymillion people - one hundred ten million on the Kauravaside representing our negative samskaras – storedmemories - and seventy million on the Pandava siderepresenting our positive samskaras – stored memories -and it lasted eighteen days and nights. The numbereighteen has a great mystical significance. It essentiallysignifies our ten senses that are made up of gnanendriya -the five senses of perception like taste, sight, smell,hearing and touch, and karmendriya - the five sensesinitiating action like speech, bodily movements etc.,added to our eight kinds of thoughts like lust, greed etc.All eighteen need to be dropped for Self-realization.

Mahabharata is not just an epic story. It is not merelythe fight between good and evil. It is the dissolution ofboth positive and negative samskaras that reside in ourbody-mind system, which must happen for the ultimateliberation. It is a tale of the process of enlightenment.

Mahabharata is a living legend. Bhagavad Gita is themanual for enlightenment.

Like Arjuna many thousand years ago, you are here ina dialogue with a living enlightened Master in this book.This is a tremendous opportunity to resolve all questionsand clear all doubts with the Master’s words.

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IntroductionIn this series, a young enlightened

Master, Paramahamsa Nithyanandacomments on the Bhagavad Gita.

Many hundreds of commentaries ofthe Gita have been written over theyears. The earliest commentaries wereby the great spiritual masters such asSankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, somethousand years ago. In recent times,great masters such as RamakrishnaParamahamsa and Ramana Maharishihave spoken from the Gita extensively.Many others have written volumes onthis great scripture.


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Nithyananda’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita isnot just a literary translation and a simple explanation ofthat translation. He takes the reader through a worldtour while talking about each verse. It is believed thateach verse of the Gita has seven levels of meaning. Whatis commonly rendered is the first level meaning. Here, anenlightened master takes us beyond the common into theuncommon, with equal ease and simplicity.

To read Nithyananda’s commentary on the Gita is toobtain an insight that is rare. It is not mere reading; it isan experience; it is a meditation.

Sankara, the great master philosopher said:

‘A little reading of the Gita, a drop of Ganga waterto drink, remembering Krishna once in a while, all thiswill ensure that you have no problems with the God ofDeath.’

Editors of these volumes of Bhagavad Gita haveexpanded upon the original discourses delivered byNithyananda through further discussions with Him. Forease of understanding for English speaking readers, andto cater to their academic interest, the original Sanskritverses in their English translation have been included asan appendix in this book.

This reading is meant to help every individual in dailylife as well as in the endeavour to realize the UltimateTruth. It creates every possibility to attain nithyananda,eternal bliss!

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Path Of KnowledgeThe human psyche longs for continuance. Continuation

and perpetuation of one’s identity is ofthe utmost importance to us.

We trace our lineage back as far aswe can go back in memory andrecords, so long as we can ensure thatsomething noteworthy is there. Wewould like to be sure that our heirs arewell taken care of. The moreinsignificant we are, the more importantthe lineage becomes. The more unsurewe are of the quality of our offspring,the more important it becomes toprovide for them.


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Arjuna has been driven by the same dilemma. Todefend the fears he has about his own identity, he citeshistorical moral codes that discuss how one’s ancestorsand descendants are affected by one’s deeds in this life. Itis a simple transference of his present uncertainty to thepast and future.

People ask me, ‘When was this universe created? Howand why?’ I tell them that the next time God calls for aconference, if I am invited, I shall ask this question andfind out the answer!

As far back as I can see this universe has existed. Asfar into the future as I can see this universe continues toexist. I can see no beginning and no end to this universe.It has been there forever and will be there forever. Thehuman form as we know now may change, but theuniverse will continue to exist.

The form and identify that we are familiar with isperishable. It is matter. Like all material things, it issubject to creation, destruction and recreation. Theuniverse is energy. It is formless energy. As it sees fit, ittransforms into matter and again back to energy. Thatenergy is imperishable.

This is what Krishna explained earlier to Arjuna. Thisenergy, which is the energy of the universe, is the sameenergy that is within us. This energy is indestructible. Itcannot be destroyed by a weapon, burnt by fire, dried bythe wind or wet by water. Whatever we see asdestruction to the body-mind system is actually theconversion of the matter back into energy.

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All religions may not accept this principle of energy inman and universe as eternal and continuous. That isimmaterial. Views of religions change and have to changeas new knowledge arises. Scientists are now in agreementthat matter and energy are the same and convertible intime and space. Advances in Quantum Physics have shownthat sub atomic particles can appear in different forms andshapes depending on when they are viewed, how theyare viewed and who views them.

This is a real incident that occurred in my life.

After my Self-realization I returned to the South ofIndia. People used to come to me for healing and out ofrespect offered me food and shelter. Once I was stayingin the house of a person whom I had healed. He had ayoung son who became fond of me and used to runerrands for me.

One day at noon, as I was alone in the room that Iwas staying in, someone came for healing. This boy ranup to my room and barged in without knocking. He thenran out screaming incoherently. His father was concernedthat something had happened to me and rushed up. Thedoor was open and I received him smiling.

By now the boy had calmed down but was stillshaken. He stammered that when he came into the room,he found that my body was cut up into pieces andfloating all over the room. He got the shock of his lifeand ran out. When he saw I was fine, he was happy.

I later explained to the father and others what hadhappened. When I am in deep meditation, my bodyfrequency changes. Human eyes can only see some


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frequencies. Different parts of my body are in differentfrequencies, some visible to the eye and some invisible.Therefore, my body appeared to the boy as if it wasdismembered.

There was no magic or miracle. It is just a natural lawthat is now being understood.

It is the same with materialization of objects. Peoplethink it is magic, miracle or trickery. It is none of these. Itis simple science. It is converting matter into energy,moving it in energy form and converting it back tomatter. I can demonstrate this scientifically with the helpof modern technology such as Kirlian photography.

I showed my ashramites how this can be done. I madethem count the number of rudraksha necklaces that theyhad in stock in a cupboard. I produced one from there asif miraculously and showed it to them. Then, I sent themback to count the number of necklaces in the cupboard.They found there was one less in the cupboard!

Anyone can do this. All that they need is to know how.

No matter can be produced from nowhere. It can onlybe produced out of energy. Fortunately this energy sourceis infinite in the universe. This universe is known to beconstantly growing. There is not even a known theoreticallimit to its size.

The very first verse of the first Hindu scripture,Isavasya Upanishad, says that ‘out of energy arises allmatter.’

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Isa vasyam idam sarvam

Upon reading this verse Einstein said, ‘It is only nowthat I could establish that energy arises from matter.Thousands of years ago these sages knew more. Theyknew that matter arises from energy. We are yet toestablish this. The last frontier of Science is the thresholdof Spirituality.’

It is important to understand that the constant factor inus as well as in the universe is this energy that is eternal.Once we understand this and understand further thatthere is no separation between the universe and us, allour confusion will be at rest. There will no longer be anyfear of death, and there will no longer be the greed toacquire and hoard.

After all, the energy that is who we are is forever.Once we understand and accept this, we are in eternalbliss, nithyanandam!

4.1 The Lord said:

‘I taught the Sun God, Vivasvan, the imperishablescience of yoga and

Vivasvan taught Manu, the father of mankind andManu in turn taught Ikshvaku.’

4.2 The supreme science was thus received through thechain of Master-disciple succession and the saintly kingsunderstood it in that way.


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In the course of time, the succession was broken andtherefore the science as it was appears to have been lost.

4.3 That ancient science of enlightenment, or enteringinto eternal bliss, is today taught by me to you becauseyou are my devotee as well as my friend.

You will certainly understand the supreme mystery ofthis science.

You need to understand that Krishna is just thirty-twoyears old when He makes this statement. He is justthirty-two years old. Physically His body is only thirty-two years old. But He says, ‘I gave this knowledge toSurya, the Sun God.’

Of course, this is very difficult to understand!

With logic, you cannot understand this statement. Withordinary logic, which you use in your daily life, youcannot make any meaning out of this statement. ButKrishna goes on to say other things.

In the next statement He says:

The science as it was appears to have been lost.

These two verses should be understood clearly. Firstthing to be understood is that the truth is not new. It iseternal. It is neither new nor old. It is eternal. Eternalmeans it is there forever. It never becomes old. It wasnever new. Eternal means that which is beyond time.

Anything that is described based on time, only suchthings can be said to be new or old. Anything new will

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become old one day. Anything old was new at one time.Eternal means it is beyond the new and the old. It isthere from time immemorial. But it has never become old.That is what is meant by the word eternal.

Here, this science, the science of enlightenment iseternal or nithya. It is neither new nor old. The sciencethat we learned in chapter three, the same ‘science’ isgoing to be explained further.

I gave the first glimpse of this in the previous chapterof the Gita. The first thing that needs to be understood isthis first glimpse. If you allow those words to penetrateyou, if you open yourself to those words, thenstraightaway those words can give you the first glimpseof enlightenment. They can lead you to the first step ofultimate liberation.

Understanding the purposelessness of life will washaway all its stresses, pressures and burdens from yourbeing, whether they are physical or mental. You areliberated in that same moment.

Krishna doesn’t give you any technique that worksover lengthy periods of time. There are techniques thatwork over long, lengthy courses of time. You will have topractice forever. Your son or your daughter may get theresult!

Krishna says, ‘No!’ He says, ‘Now, here or nowhere!’Either have the result now, here, or nowhere. All Histechniques straightaway give you the experience. If youcan allow that one idea of purposelessness, the beauty of


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purposelessness, into your conscience, that very momentthe breeze of enlightenment enters your heart. That verymoment, the healing of your being starts. Healing ofbhava roga, emotional diseases and healing of samsara roga,the disease of birth and death, start.

Five thousand years ago, Krishna says, ‘I gave thisscience to Surya, to the Sun God and the Sun Godinstructed Manu. Sun God is Vivasvan. Vivasvaninstructed Manu, the father of mankind. Manu passed thiswisdom on to Ikshvaku.

Here, Krishna gives the succession, the lineage throughdisciples. He gives the parampara (lineage), the guru-shishyaparampara (Master-disciple lineage). In course of time,yogonashta, the science of yoga is lost, He says.

You should understand why this science is lost.

When a disciple who listens is not sincere, if he is notcompletely ready, naturally the technique becomes aritual. Understand that there is only one differencebetween technique and ritual. When it is done sincerely,even an ordinary ritual becomes a great meditationtechnique that leads you to enlightenment. When it isdone without any sincerity, as a routine, withoutunderstanding, then even a meditation technique becomesa ritual. The only difference between a meditationtechnique and a ritual is sincerity. It is just sincerity.

‘In course of time, the science is lost.’ He has used abeautiful phrase, ‘the supreme science was taught, and thesupreme science was delivered.’ You don’t lose thatsupreme science in just one generation. In one generation,

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it never gets lost. In course of time, somebody or theother, even a single un-enlightened disciple is enough todestroy the whole science. Even a single person in thatchain is enough to break the succession of disciples.

The problem is, when your Master creates a bigmovement and if you come to his seat without having thequalification, you are the most dangerous person. I haveseen people who simply come into the throne as asuccessor; they are the most dangerous people. They haveeverything except enlightenment.

A person who creates a movement, creates it only outof energy and enlightenment. If he doesn’t have theenergy, no movement will be created around him. Forthe person who succeeds the founder, it is just a gift. Thewhole movement is a gift. He has got a completeinfrastructure and setup, all ready and gifted to him. Hedoesn’t have anything to add.

A person who writes just because he is a writer is adangerous person. But if a person writes because hegenuinely has got something to write, that is okay. Onlysuch a person can be called as a writer.

A small story:

One guy said, ‘Only after writing five best sellersdid I realize that I don’t know anything!’

His friend asked, ‘Then did you stop writing?’

This guy replied, ‘No! By then I became toofamous! I couldn’t stop!’


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When you get somebody’s throne as a successor, youwill be filled with ego. The successors have everythingexcept enlightenment. I always tell people never to go tosuccessors. That is because the whole setup was createdby somebody else and the successor just represents. Theydon’t have anything from their own experience. They aregood librarians, but not Masters.

We must be very clear in the difference between alibrarian and a Master. Librarians are good. They preservebooks. But they can only preserve the books, nothingmore than that. The successor is also a good librarian, agood parrot. He can repeat the whole thing.

A small story from Zen Buddhism:

A disciple of a great Master sits and talks aboutZen to his followers. An enlightened Master comes tohim and says, ‘You have yourself not becomeenlightened. What right do you have to teach others?’

Out of ego he says, ‘Don’t you know? I am thedisciple of the great Master.’ The Zen Master laughs.

He just laughs and says, ‘If you wash the cup inwhich you have kept tea, will that water have thesame taste as tea?’

Can you say that the water that is used to wash thecup in which the tea is kept, is equivalent to tea itself?What relationship can be there between the tea and thewater that is used to wash the cup that had contained thetea?

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Imagine that a cup of tea is here. Another cup containswater that was used to wash a used teacup. What willbe the relationship between the tea and the water thatwas used to wash the used teacup? There will be norelationship. You can hardly smell the tea in the water!

So, if a person is not enlightened and is just asuccessor, he will be dangerous. He will create damage.He carries just the book and not the knowledge.

That is why Zen Masters always destroy their bookswhen they leave the body. Before leaving the body theydestroy the books. They say that if you have got Zen inyour life, if you have achieved enlightenment, you canteach. Otherwise keep quiet. At least you will not disturbsociety. At least you will not create more trouble insociety. If you are a successor without the experience, youare the most dangerous person.

A small story:

In South India, there was a big traditionalmonastery. Everyday the worship of Shiva used tohappen there. The Master had a pet cat. He used tolove animals. The cat being so affectionate towardshim, used to come and disturb him when he sat forprayers.

When he prayed, the cat would come and jump onhim and run around him. So finally, he asked hisdisciples to cover the cat with a basket before hestarted prayers. Accordingly, they caught the cat andcovered it with a basket and the prayer started.


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Everyday before they started the prayer, they wouldcatch the cat, put it in a basket, cover the basket andthen start the prayer.

After some time, it had almost become a ritual.Before starting the prayer, even if the cat was notinside the ashram, they would search for the cat! Evenif the cat had gone outside, for a walk maybe, theywould go, search for it, catch it, cover it with thebasket and then start the prayer!

In the course of time, the Master passed away.Now the disciples were in a very confused state.What to do? Who would conduct the prayer?Anyhow, a successor came. Because the Master passedaway, the cat also ran away from the monastery.Maybe it was not treated properly, so it ran away.

The successor, before starting the prayer, called thedisciples and asked, ‘What happened to the cat?Unless we get a cat, how can we start the prayer?’

So the disciples went all over town in search of acat. Finally somehow, they got a cat. They brought it,covered it with the basket and the prayer started.That cat also ran away. They had to catch a new cat.After a few months it became very difficult to catchcats. Where to get the cats from?

So they said, ‘Master, it is very difficult to get cats.You have to do something now, please help us.’

The Master said, ‘Alright, if there is no cat, thenlet us stop the prayer!’

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In course of time, because there was no cat, theystopped praying!

If you are not enlightened, this is what happens. If thedisciple is not enlightened, this is what happens. The truthis lost. The spirit is lost.

If you want to destroy any law, all you need to do isjust follow it to the letter and miss the spirit. That isenough. You just follow it to the letter and forget aboutthe spirit, you will end up doing exactly the opposite towhat the law intended. You just go against the veryreason why the law was created.

In course of time people who had not becomeenlightened and those who were not sincere, entered intothis field and corrupted the science. Because of that thescience was lost. That is why time and again ourUpanishads insist upon going to a living Master.

All our books are only manuals. Vedas are the onlybooks that are courageous enough to declare that theycannot give you enlightenment. Vedas are the only booksthat are courageous enough to declare that they are notthe ultimate. They say very clearly that they are onlymanuals.

If you want the ultimate reference, you have to go toa living Master. What do all medical books say in theend? Consult your family doctor! They end with this oneline! All these things are only manuals. You can’t takemedicines just by reading a medical book. You can’t takemedicines from a person who is not a doctor.


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In India, compounders, that is to say, doctors’assistants as they were known there, guys who preparemedicines like pharmacists, would learn the trick of thetrade by and by. In course of time they would knowheadache meant you had to take a yellow tablet, forstomach pain, green tablet, back pain, black tablet and soon. They would know the color of tablet for a particulardisease. If you go and take medicines from acompounder, you may sometimes get healed. You may getthe cure. But it is very dangerous.

Taking medicines from compounders and learning fromunenlightened Masters are one and the same. Going to anunenlightened person and taking medicines from acompounder are one and the same.

Please be very clear, a compounder at the most maydestroy your body, your one life. But unenlightenedMaster can destroy you lives after lives. He can destroy,misguide you, and create trouble, for lives after lives. Thisis because the whole thing is lost if you have missed evena single crucial point.

Here Krishna says,

Evam parampara praptam imam rajarshayo viduhasa kaleneha mahata yogo nashtaha parantapa

One important thing, He says, ‘rajarshayo viduha’. Thisscience is given to rajarishi, (raja: king, rishi: saint), not tojust any rishi.

If you have attended yesterday’s lecture, you wouldknow that the science He taught is Quantum Spirituality,

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which gives you both the material world as well as thespiritual world. That is why He says, ‘rajarshayo viduha’.

If this had been only for rishis, he would haveemphasized only on the inner world, inner space. Had itbeen only for kings, he would have emphasized on theouter world and wealth. Here He says, ‘rajarshayo viduha’.

‘Evam parampara praptam imam rajarshayo viduha’, thescience is delivered to the kings, enlightened Masters;enlightened Masters who are kings. Only they canpreserve the science as it is.

Be very clear, only an enlightened person who is kingor a king who is an enlightened person can know thetotality of spirituality.

People again and again ask me, ‘What should we dofor the poor?’ I say, ‘Give food and medicines for thepoor. Serve them.’

Only a rich man who has enjoyed material wealth canunderstand the meaning and relevance of spirituality.

Be very clear, I am telling the honest truth. Poor menwho have not seen the outer world wealth canunderstand only religion. They can go and beg in front ofGod. They can never understand the ultimate spirituality.

Only a person who has seen the outer worldcompletely, who knows there is nothing in the outerworld, only such a person can enter into the inner world.Only he can enter into the inner space.

If you still have hope about the outer world, youcannot experience the ultimate spirituality. You cannotexperience the ultimate enlightenment.


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Only a king can be utterly frustrated. Only a king canbe completely qualified to enter into enlightenment,because he knows there is nothing in the outer space thatcan fulfill him. He has seen everything. He has seen allpossible comforts, all possible sense enjoyments and allthe so-called pleasures. He is ready to enter intospirituality with earnest honesty.

If somebody who has not experienced the depressionof success enters into spirituality, he will stand in front ofGod and beg, ‘God give me this, give me that’; he maybe a good religious person. From morning to night, hemay sit and do rituals. But he will never be a spiritualperson.

There is a very big difference between a religiousperson and a spiritual person. When you know God hasgot the shakti (power) to give whatever you want, yourreligion starts. When you understand he has got the shaktito give what you want and the buddhi (intelligence) as towhen to give, then you enter into spirituality!

We all believe God has got the shakti to give what wewant, but we don’t trust that he has got buddhi also togive it at the right time! We don’t believe that. That iswhy we beg and beg! Only a person who trusts that Godhas got shakti and buddhi can enter into spirituality,trusting implicitly He knows when to give and what togive.

Spirituality is the ultimate luxury. Please be very clear,I always tell people, a person who is poor, meaning, whohas not experienced the comforts of the outer world, he

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can be a good religious person. He can stand in front ofGod and beg and pray. But only a person who has seenthe outer world to the extreme and who is completelyfrustrated with it, who has completely experienced thedepression of success, can turn towards the inner world.Only he can become a healer.

I always say that only a person who understands thepurposelessness of life can heal himself and others. Onlyhe can be a healer. Only he can be a spiritual person.Only he can be a real spiritual being.

Here, Krishna uses the word raja rishi. A person whohas lived fully both in the inner space and outer space,only he can experience the truth of the totality. Ofcourse, when a person who is not sincere enough torealize this truth enters into the system, he corrupts. Andhis very presence spoils the system. So, Krishna says, ‘Incourse of time, the science is lost.’

In the next verse, Krishna says:

Sa vayam maya tedya yogaha protkaha puratanahabhakto asi me sakha cheti rahasyam hryetad uttamam

He says, ‘I am telling you about this very ancientscience of the ultimate enlightenment or entering intoeternal bliss, and being my devotee and my friend, youwill understand the supreme mystery of this science.’

This has to be understood very deeply. One cannot tellthis truth, this ultimate truth, to a person who is notready. I repeat, this truth cannot be delivered to a personwho is not ready. And truth told to a person who is notready, creates danger for himself and for others as well.


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Again and again, people ask me during my meditationprograms, in many of my meditation programs, peopleask me, ‘Master, please talk about your enlightenment,talk about your spiritual experience.’ I never open mymouth and speak about my personal experience orspiritual experiences, unless I know them or unless theyare associated with me for at least six months. I wait.People ask me, ‘Why don’t you talk about this, Master?Why don’t you tell us about your spiritual experiences?’ Ifintimate experiences are shared when you are not ready,you always doubt and spoil the whole thing for yourself.

There are two angles to this. If we have courage, wewill straightaway question the experience. You willstraightaway question what is being shared. You will say,‘It is just a lie. This is a story. What are you talking about?This cannot be the truth.’ You will straightaway oppose.

Or the other angle: if you don’t have that much ofcourage, you will just think, ‘Alright, this is one morestory! I have heard one thousand stories. Here is onemore story. Leave it. Anyhow, after all, it is free!’

Either one of the two will happen. The spiritualexperiences cannot be shared and cannot be opened justfor nothing. If it is shared it should become an inspirationsource for you. It should become a force that transformsyour life. Then it is worth sharing.

By sharing the spiritual experience, if it inspires you toenter into the space, if it gives you the courage to takethe same jump, if you also feel, ‘I think I should alsoexperience the same joy, I should experience the same

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bliss, I should not postpone it’, if it becomes an inspirationsource for you, then it is worth sharing. Otherwise it isnot worth sharing.

There was a great Master in South India. He wrote aset of poems on Shiva. He did not even write, he justsang the verses. He sang a set of poems on Shiva. It wasnever recorded in writing.

Close disciples who lived around him requested him topublish it as a book, or to put it in writing, so that itcould be useful to society. He said, ‘No, they are myintimate love letters to my Lord. How can I release thisto the public? It is my intimate expression. It is mypersonal relationship. How can I publish it? How can Ibring it out to the public?’

If, for example, you see somebody for the first timeand he straightaway starts asking you personal questions,how would it be? Would it not be rude? It is too rude!And Indians are the only people who do that mistake. Itis too rude. They don’t bother to introduce themselves.They don’t bother to understand. They tend to beabrupt. If you ask personal questions straightaway,without even getting acquainted, how will the otherperson feel?

I heard that somebody met one of my disciples in theUSA ashram and straightaway started asking, ‘Where areyou staying? Who is paying for your apartment? What ishappening? Who are the people staying with yourMaster?’

I was surprised. How could this happen? How cansuch a thing happen? I don’t think any intelligent man


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would do this. It takes a little intelligence to understand.You can’t talk or ask straight away. It is very impolite.You need to understand that you can’t share yourpersonal experiences straightaway with anybody andeverybody. It is very difficult.

In the same way, this Master says, ‘If somebody comesand asks you about your personal life, you can’t share it.Only if you become intimate with him, it is possible toopen up.’ Only then conversation happens. See, for aconversation to happen, you need a certain intimacy. Ifboth are filled with their own ideas and arguments, aconversation can never happen. If both are filled withtheir own words in their minds, if both are prejudiced, aconversation can never happen.

I always tell people, in marriage, in the first year, theman speaks and the woman listens. In the second year,the woman speaks and the man listens. The third yearonwards, both of them speak and neighbors listen! Theconversation never happens! Only arguments happen.

As long as the other person is in a mood forarguments, truth cannot be shared. The satya (truth)cannot be shared; satya can never be expressed.

The Master says, ‘It is my personal relationship and itis my intimate relationship with God. How can I sharethat with the public? I cannot.’

Then one disciple, who considers himself intelligentasks, ‘Why? You are sharing with us. When you can sharewith us, why can you not share with the world?’

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Then, the Master says, ‘By becoming a disciple, youhave become a part of me. Only a person who hasbecome a part of me can share this poem. Only with himI can share these poems. Physically you may be anotherone body, but mentally, you have fallen in tune with me.You are completely ready to receive me. You have becomelike a womb, ready to receive the divine energy. This isthe reason I share my experience with you.’

Unless you enter into a deep receptive mood, unlessyou become a complete, total, simple innocent being, youcannot receive the ultimate truth. Please be very clear, theultimate truth is beyond logic.

Initially when you start to teach the truth, it alwaysstarts with logic. Your logic is always addressed first.Words go logically. But after some time, you have toleave the logic behind. Otherwise, you can’t reach theDivine.

You can’t talk to God through logic. In prose, youcannot relate with him. Only in poetry you can relate withGod. That is why, all over the world, whenever it comesto prayer, it is only through songs and poems.

Whether it is Eastern or Western culture, any culture,whether it is Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity,any religion, when it comes to relating with God, it isalways poetry, because, you can’t relate with the Divinelogically. You can’t relate with the Divine through logic.Prose is not useful anymore to relate with the Divine.

If you want the divine relationship to happen, youneed love. You need the language of poetry. Here, only a


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person who understands, only a person who has becomea part of the Master, only he can receive the Master’sexperiences. That is the reason the Master says, ‘I sharemy songs with you, because you have become me. Icannot share this with the public.’

There was another great saint called Manickavasagar inwhat is today known as Tamilnadu in South India.Throughout his life he sang about Shiva. But he neverwrote. He never recorded his poems. He only sang. Heused to just sing but he had never recorded it.Manickavasagar never wrote his poems. He used toalways recite, that’s all.

Once, Shiva himself came down as an old man andsaid, ‘O Manickavasaga, I have heard that you singbeautiful songs of Shiva. Why don’t you recite them forme? I am your disciple.’

Manickavasaga was in an ecstatic state. So in thatecstasy, he started singing everything. Shiva himselfrecorded the songs. Shiva himself recorded, put the songsin writing.

After recording, Shiva signed the palm-leaf document,‘Recited by Manickavasaga, written by Ambaravanan’,Shiva Himself!

He placed the leaf at the entrance of the temple anddisappeared. The next day morning, the priests saw theleaves. Suddenly, they realized, the signature said,‘Manickavasagar recited and I myself recorded this.’

Until the end, till his death, he never recorded hissongs. Then all the disciples went and asked him, ‘Oh

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Master, please give us the meaning. Please explain themeaning to all these songs.’

He straightaway walked into the temple and said, ‘Heis the meaning for all the songs.’ He pointed to the Lordand said, ‘He is the meaning,’ and walks into the deityand disappears into the God, into the Divine.

This is a beautiful symbolic representation. This story isa beautiful symbolic representation. He becomes one withthe Divine. Till the end he never recorded his songs. Onlysomebody else recorded them. They were so beautiful.God himself came down and recorded.

Unless you become part of the Master, it is verydifficult to understand his message. That is why Krishnasays, ‘Arjuna, this supreme science, the technique ofentering into the eternal bliss is today told by me to you,because you are my devotee as well as my friend. Youare my devotee as well as my friend and can therefore,understand the transcendental mystery of this science.’

This cannot be told to a person who is not ready. Andone more thing: when you speak the ultimate truth to aperson who is not ready, it leads to many troubles. Notonly does he not understand, but he also misunderstandsand starts creating trouble for others.

With the right person even a lie told by him will begood for society. In the wrong hands even truth will doharm to society. To whom it is delivered is important,rather than whether it is the truth or a lie.

With a wrong person, even a great truth like Advaita(non-duality), ‘I am God’, may make him think, ‘I am


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God’ and make him start doing all nonsensical things.With a wrong person, great truths will become harmfulthings.

And one more thing, a wrong person can neverunderstand the truth told by Krishna. For example,Krishna says, ‘I am God. I am everything. Surrender untome.’ If the person is not completely devoted, if the personis not in tune with Krishna, if he has not understoodKrishna, what will he think? ‘What an egoistic fellow he is!How dare he tell me to surrender to him?’ Naturally theperson, instead of understanding Krishna, will create moretrouble for Krishna. He will only create more trouble forKrishna.

Here, the qualification to receive the truth is devotion.If you have heard all the things I have said in the otherthree chapters of the Gita, it is okay, because it isexpressed logically. Until this point, I am able to bringboth logic and spirituality together.

Now the time has come when I have to give the puretruth as truth. Please be very clear, great things can neverbe expressed by logic, because logic is not sharp enough.Logic is not so sharp as to express the ultimate truth.

Somebody asked me, ‘Master, why don’t you proveGod logically?’ I told him, ‘If I can prove God logically,then logic would become God!’ Logic will become greaterthan God. God is great because He cannot be proved bylogic. He is beyond logic. He is beyond your logic.

Here, Krishna is going to speak about something thatis beyond logic. This is where you leave your logic

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behind, become completely open, sit in a totally passivemood, open up your being and be ready to receive.

One thing, with logic, either you will understandeverything or you will not understand anything. That’sall. There is no other danger. When it comes to thedeeper level teachings, either you understand, or youmisunderstand.

The teachings which Krishna is going to deliver noware much deeper. They are much more subtle than theteachings which were delivered in the last two or threechapters.

That is why He says, ‘Now I am telling you thesesecrets just because you are my devotee and friend, justbecause you are near and dear to me. You are my own.’That is the reason He uses the word bhaktosi. He says,‘You are my devotee, me sakha cheti, and you are myfriend.’ Sakha means friend. He says, ‘That is the reason Iam expressing this truth to you.’

The person who is not completely in tune withKrishna, the person who is not ready to trust the Master,cannot receive the message. He cannot understand it. Notonly will he not understand, he will misunderstand.Misunderstanding always leads to complications.

Understand that now Krishna enters into the deeperlevel truths, where you need to relax a little from yourlogic, where you need to come down from your head tothe heart, where you need to sit with your whole beingand listen to the truths.

So, Krishna gives a warning. Here, Krishna gives awarning, rahasyam hryetad uttamam. ‘I am giving you these


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secrets, the mysterious science of realizing the ultimate, Ohmy dear friend and devotee, Arjuna.’

So, now let us enter into the science that is taught byKrishna.

Let us begin with a small prayer to Krishna:

Vasudeva sutam devamKamsa Chanura mardanam

Devaki paramanandamKrishnam vande jagat gurum

We enter into the path of knowledge. Great truths thatcan straightaway transform your life, if only you areready to understand, are now about to be told.

Understand, Vedanta always emphasizes on threethings: shravana, manana and nidhidhyasana. Shravana meanslistening. Manana means meditating, contemplating on it.Nidhidhyasana means expressing it in your life, orexperiencing it in your life.

Here, these truths do not need these three steps. Justlistening is enough. Just listening is enough for it tobecome an experience. Shravana is enough; proper shravanabecomes nidhidhyasana. Nothing needs to be done. All youneed to do is to sit with a complete open being, with acomplete openness, with a complete relaxed feeling.

These words are uttered for your sake, not for thesake of the Master.

So we will just take a few minutes to meditate on SriKrishna, the great, enlightened Master. Let us pray toHim to let Him allow His words to penetrate our being.

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Let Him reside in our consciousness. Let Him lead us toeternal bliss.

Just take few minutes, close your eyes and intenselypray to Him: Oh Master, lead us to the experience. Giveus the understanding.

Let Him raise our inner space by His presence. LetHim be in our inner space and enlighten ourconsciousness.

I salute you Lord Krishna, teacher to the world, son ofVasudeva and supreme bliss of Devaki, destroyer of Kamsa andChanura.

Q: Master, you had said somewhere that rituals are notconsidered relevant now because we have lost the code tounderstand them. Is Krishna talking about the same thingwhen He says that the science has been lost?

You are right, that is what Krishna is talking about.

Whatever the great Masters, including the incarnations,taught based on their experience was not in such formwhether verbal or non-verbal, that anyone couldunderstand. First of all, the concepts behind theseexperiences were not relevant to all. Secondly, in order totransmit the experiences to others, which was theintention of the great Masters, it was necessary to preparethe recipients.

Both these considerations reduced the number ofpersons to whom these truths and these experiences could


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be conveyed and taught. When the disciples weresufficiently trained there was no need for verbalcommunication. It could be communicated in silence. Itwas an energy transfer between the Master and thedisciples, which was the most efficient and most effectiveway. For this to happen, the disciples had to be at thesame energy level as the Master; at least when theteaching had to be imparted.

This is possible, as my disciples know. The Master caninitiate and train his disciples to be at his energy level, sothat they can imbibe his messages better.

At the earlier stage, and sometimes later as well,Masters did use words; but these words had differentmeanings at different energy levels. Often these werecoded as metaphors. They were coded as rituals.

When Jesus said that the bread he gave was his bodyand the wine he gave was his blood, he did not intendhis chosen few to become cannibals. It was a metaphorabout sharing his energy with them. Over time this wasinstitutionalized as a ritual, which had meaning as long asthere was readiness by the followers to accept the ritualwith deep faith. When this became a routine, it lost itsoriginal energy and meaning.

The reason Masters were secretive about the truths theytransferred was because of the tremendous power ofthese truths. If misunderstood, the energy of these truthscould have been misused, as indeed they have been fromtime to time, even with all their precautions. At the firstlevel, they could harm the user and at next levels they

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can be used to harm others. Intelligence is needed to usesuch energies.

For instance, when your third eye center is opened andenergized, you can get the power to make anythinghappen. The third eye center, ajna, is represented by atwin leaved lotus. One leaf represents shakti, power orenergy, and the other buddhi, intelligence or wisdom.When this chakra, this energy center is energized, one getsthe power to do anything along with the wisdom to usethat power. All your dreams can be realized; at the sametime you will know that all that you realized are onlydreams.

Only disciples with awakened ajnas were entrustedwith the secrets of the experiences of these Masters. Asany one who has tried would know, awakening the thirdeye is not easy. It is the control point of all energy in themind-body-spirit system and your entire system must beenergized correctly for the ajna to be awakened. Morethan anything else, this needed the guidance and grace ofthe Master.

The great enlightened Master Ramana Maharishi taughtmostly in silence. His teaching was seemingly simple. Hesaid, ‘Keep asking Who am I, and you will realize thetruth.’ I was initiated into this when I was very young bya disciple of Bhagavan Ramana, and I played around withthis method, which was called self-enquiry. I had my firstspiritual experience as a result by the age of 12.

One of my disciples had been practicing this methodfor many years on his own after reading about it. He was


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very serious and tried hard, but with no result. He metme after many years of this practice and was initiated asa Nithya Healer, which is when I accept a disciple. Hetold me that it was then for the first time, without anyseeming effort, he was able to understand what self-enquiry was about.

The lineage of the Master-disciple system is a sacredone. When it is continuous, consciousness prevails in theplanet; when it is broken, darkness descends.

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I Am Reborn, AgeAfter Age!

4.4 Arjuna said:

‘Oh Krishna, you are younger to theSun God Vivasvan by birth.

How am I to understand that in thebeginning you instructed this science tohim?’

4.5 The Lord said:

Very many births both you and Ihave passed.

I can remember all of them, but youcannot, O Parantapa!


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4.6 Although I am unborn, imperishable and the lordof all living entities,

By ruling my nature I reappear by my own maya.

4.7 When positive consciousness declines, whencollective negativity rises,

Again and again, at these times, I am reborn.

4.8 To nurture the pious and to annihilate the wicked,

To re-establish righteousness I am reborn, age afterage.

Krishna starts His message.

Here is a question by Arjuna to which He responds.Krishna delivers the message as a response to Arjuna’squestion.

This shows that Arjuna still needs to have thematurity.

He asks, ‘The Sun God is elder to you by birth; he isso much your senior. How am I to understand that inthe beginning you instructed this science to him?’

Arjuna and Krishna are almost equal in age. Suddenly,Krishna says that thousands of years ago He gave thisscience to Surya. This is very difficult to understand.Moreover, Arjuna lived with Krishna for a long time. Heknows and has seen the human side of Krishna, all of

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Krishna’s leela (plays), all of Krishna’s dramas, all ofKrishna’s moods. He has seen Him more as a humanbeing. So now, it is very difficult for Arjuna to believeKrishna’s words.

This is exactly the same trouble all disciples undergo.Disciples who live around enlightened Masters undergoexactly the same troubles. It is very difficult tounderstand the Divine descending and walking on theplanet Earth in a human form.

Arjuna struggles to understand. Arjuna is not able torelate. How can the Divine descend? What is happening?How can Krishna declare, ‘Thousands of years ago, I gavethis science to Surya?’ It is very difficult to understand.

Suddenly, for example, suddenly if I tell you, ‘Ahundred years ago, I was the person who taught all thesesciences to some enlightened Master!’ How will you feel?It will be very difficult to understand, to grasp, is it not?

If I suddenly make a statement, ‘A hundred years ago,I taught all these things to the Masters who were there.’It is very difficult to believe. And naturally questions willrise.

Here the same thing happens. Arjuna thinks, ‘How canhe say this? How can I understand?’ But of course hehas become a little polite. That is why he says, ‘How canI understand?’ He does not say, ‘How can you say this?’

In the second chapter, when Krishna says, ‘Arjuna, goand fight,’ Arjuna asks, ‘How can you say this? How canyou tell me to sin?’ But now, he has become more polite.


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He has understood a little bit of the truth. He hasbecome a little intelligent. He says, ‘How can Iunderstand? Please tell me.’

He is ready to believe, but he wants a littleexplanation. This is ok. But there are a few people whoare prejudiced,They are clear. They say, ‘No. We are notbothered. We don’t believe. We don’t want it.’ In thatcase, nothing can be done.

Here, Arjuna says, ‘I am ready to believe, but how amI to understand? Please instruct me. Please show me theright thing.’

Always, when enlightened Masters descend on theplanet Earth, whenever they come down, they face thistrouble. Again and again and again, they face this trouble.When Ramakrishna declared that who came as Rama andwho came as Krishna, the same person has come down inthe form as Ramakrishna, he was called mad. He wascalled mad! People did not receive him. People did notrespect him. But there were a few qualified people whoreceived his words and transformed their lives. Theyestablished the truth of his statement.

See, all philosophies or all movements can be started intwo ways. One is the political movement, which startswith huge crowds and huge followers. For the personwho leads, the more the numbers in the crowd, thegreater number of persons in attendance, the morepowerful he feels and starts making all kinds ofstatements and claims. These movements start with a hugenumber, but over a period of time, they slowly dwindlein quality and quantity. Once the founder dies, themovement dies.

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The second type of movement is the spiritual mission.When the Masters declare the truth, the quantity may notbe there, but the quality will be there. Only a fewindividuals, a few selected individuals listen to thosetruths, those proclamations.

When Ramakrishna declared, ‘The one who came downas Rama and who came down as Krishna is present herein this body as Ramakrishna,’ hardly a few actually heardhim! Hardly a few were ready to trust. In those few, thequantity may not have been there, but the quality wascertainly there. They transformed their own lives. Itstarted as a very slow, small thing, but expanded,exploded into an international mission, a spiritualmovement.

When it started, only sixteen disciples were there.Ramakrishna had only sixteen disciples. Today, millions ofpeople worship him as God. Millions of people haverealized the truth of the words that he uttered. Thesespiritual missions start in a very small way, but expandand explode.

Political movements start in a very big way, butcontract and die down. When the founder dies, thefoundation also collapses. But in spiritual missions, themoment the founder dies, things start happening. It startsexpanding.

For a political speech you need quantity. The more thenumber of people present, the stronger the speech. Butfor a spiritual discourse, you need quality. The moreintense the persons, the more deep the truths that comeout!


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For a political person, the inspiration is in numbers.How well was it covered on the television? In how manynewspapers have the reports come in? It matters to himas to how many newspaper cuttings he can collect. But fora spiritual person what matters is how many ego-cuttingshe can do! How many people’s egos he can cut andliberate.

For a political person it is the paper cutting, for aspiritual person, it is the ego-cutting. For a spiritualdiscourse, how many people are intense, the quality of thepeople present, these are the things that matter. The moreintense a person, the higher the level of the truths thatcome out.

I always tell people, my best discourses are givenalways to small, close circles. The best truths are spokenonly to a small, close circle. Because when you speak thetruth to an intimate group, it will be straight. It will shakethe whole being. It will transform your whole life. Thosewho are not yet ready cannot receive it.

That is why Ramakrishna, whenever he wanted tospeak high truths he would close the doors and call hissannyasi (monk) disciples and he would speak only tothem. He would not speak to the public.

This very Gita is delivered to only one person. WhenKrishna delivered the Gita, only one person heard. Buttoday, millions and millions, not even millions, billionsread and practice.

For all Hindus, this is the basic book. For a billionHindus, this is the basic scripture. Only one person heard

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Krishna. Today the whole world uses it. So, to express thetruths, the quality of the person who hears is important,not the quantity of persons.

Now Krishna starts to answer this question:

Let me repeat this beautiful verse:

Bahuni me vyateetaani janmani tava cha arjunatanya aham veda sarvani na tvam vettha parantapa

Bhagavan says, ‘O Arjuna, many, many births both youand I have passed. I can remember all of them but youcan’t.’

Krishna first says, ‘We have both passed through manybirths that I remember, and you do not.’ Then He says,‘Although I am unborn, imperishable and the lord of allliving entities, I reappear in my original maya bycontrolling my nature.’

Ajo api san avyaya atma bhutanam ishvaropi sanprakritim svam adhishthaya sambhavamyatma mayaya

I think this is the first time where He declares hisdivinity. All this time, Krishna was only playing the roleof acharya (teacher), intellectually convincing Arjuna of thetruth and intellectually giving the knowledge to him.

For the first time now, He opens up. He declares thetruth about His nature. He shows the divinity of Hisnature. I think this is the point where Krishna starts tospeak the ultimate truth as it is. Till then, I think He wasa little shy to open up to Arjuna!


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When a disciple is not ready, you can’t open up, youcan’t tell the truth. Now, the disciple is ready. So Krishnaopens up.

He says, although I am unborn and my transcendentalbody never deteriorates and although I am the Lord of allliving entities, here He says very clearly, bhutanam ishvaro:I am the Lord of all the living entities; I still appear inevery millennium in my original transcendental form.

Three things we need to understand. First He says, ‘Iam unborn. I never take birth. I am the ultimateParabrahma (Cosmic divine energy). I am the ultimateenergy.’

Krishna clearly declares this. I don’t think any one elsehas declared so clearly, even Jesus says I am the Son ofGod. Here, Krishna straightaway declares the truth. ‘I amGod,’ He says.

Of course, it does not mean Jesus is not God. At onepoint he says the Father and the Son are one and thesame. At one point, maybe to some close disciple, hedeclares, ‘The Father and the Son are one and the same.’Please be very clear, when the disciple is mature, theMaster is understood.

Here, straightaway Krishna declares, ‘I am unborn,ajopi, I am unborn, eternal consciousness, eternal bliss andmy transcendental body never deteriorates. You canalways relate with me. I never die. I am unborn and Inever die.’

One important thing you should know is this: thatwhich never takes birth can never die; that which takes

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birth, only such can die. Here Krishna declares, I nevertake birth and I never die. I am the Lord of all livingentities, bhutanam ishwaro.

Somebody asked me, ‘Master, can dead Masters teachus? Can we relate with the Masters who left the body,like Paramahamsa Yogananda, Mahavatar Babaji etc.?’ Oneperson came and asked me, ‘If I pray to them, can theyshow me the path? Can they show me the truth?’

I told him: be very clear, dead Masters are not deadas you think. They are not dead. When they are alive,their presence had a body. When they are dead, theirpresence has no body, that’s all.

Having a body or not having a body is in no waygoing to affect their presence. They are available to youalways. They are eternally available to you. All you needto do is just turn towards them, that’s all. They areeternally available. When they are in their physical body,their presence has got a physical body. When they are nomore, their presence has no physical body, that’s all. Butthey are always available. They are alive.

When normal human beings die, the soul leaves thebody. When it comes to Masters, they leave the body. Thevery wording is different. For a normal person, the soulleaves and we say, the soul left, or he leaves the soul, hedies; life has left him. For Masters, they leave the body.So having a body or not having a body is in no wayconnected to their presence. They are available to theplanet Earth always. They are always available to thewhole of humanity.


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I always tell people, it is very difficult to understandMasters. Because whether they have the body or not, theirpresence is unchanged.

With intensity, if you reach out, even if they don’thave the body, you will be able to relate with them. Youcan get the message. You will be able to talk to them.You will be able to relate with them.

When you don’t have intensity or sincerity, even with aliving Master you will miss him. With sincerity, even witha dead Master, you will be able to have the truth, youwill be able to achieve. Without sincerity, even with aliving Master, you will miss him.

Understand, He says, ‘I am the Lord of all the entities.But I still appear in every millennium in my originaltranscendental form, sambhavami atma mayaya; taking myown maya. Because of my maya, I assume the body andcome down. I assume the body and incarnate myself.’

He means He happens on the planet Earth again andagain in so many forms to guide the people. Ordinaryhuman beings are under the clutches of maya or illusiondue to which they take birth. But Krishna has maya itselfunder His control and takes birth due to His own wish!But again and again we miss him. We are all conquerorsof Buddha, conquerors of Krishna. We are conquerors ofRamakrishna. That is why we are here again and againon this planet Earth.

Please be very clear, we conquer them. We conquerRamana Maharishi. We conquer Ramakrishna. Even theycan’t do anything to us. That is why again and again we

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are here. Again and again we miss them. That is whyagain and again He has to come down. He has to comedown again and again to planet Earth to lift us, to showus the way, to guide us.

The next statement, I can say, the next two verses, ifunderstood, then not only the whole Gita but all thespiritual scriptures can be realized. Here He declares:

Whenever there is a decline in individualconsciousness, whenever the collective unconsciousnessincreases, Dharma samsthapanarthaaya, to establish therighteousness of the eternal consciousness, science ofEternal Bliss, sambhavami yuge yuge, I myself appear,millennium after millennium.

Only a Master like Krishna can declare the truth soclearly.

Here Krishna declares, ‘I come down again and again,to right the wrong.’ He keeps the whole thing open forthe future. He keeps the generation of enlightenedMasters for the future, the possibility of enlightenmentfor the future. He keeps the whole science open for thefuture. Only a courageous man like Krishna can declarethis truth.

People come and ask me, ‘Master, are there manymore enlightened Masters on the planet Earth?’ I tellthem, ‘Surely.’ There are hundreds of enlightenedMasters. Don’t think I am the only one. There arehundreds, hundreds and hundreds. I can say, eventhousands. Thousands of Masters are available.


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Only a courageous man can declare the truth as it is. Ifyou are in business, you cannot accept there are othersimilar shops in your city. If you own any business, youwould not give the address of similar shops in the city.Only if you are honest, you can declare, yes, there are somany things available.

Again and again people ask me this question, ‘Master,if I take initiation from you, can I go to another Master?’

I tell them: ‘Not only you can go, I also encouragethat you should go. Pluck flowers from all the beautifulgardens and make a beautiful bouquet for yourself!’

And your ego is such, even if thousands of people beatupon it, it will not die. How can you expect your ego todie at the hands of just one person? How can you expectthe ego to die by just one blow? So go wherever it ispossible and learn the best things. Pluck flowers from allthe gardens and make a beautiful bouquet for yourself.

Only a courageous person like Krishna can declare thetruth; sambhavami yuge yuge, which means He keeps thepossibility open for the next generation. He keeps thepossibility of enlightenment open for planet Earth.

This one single idea if understood, can straightawaymake you enlightened.

This verse is a promise; it is deliverance to all ofhumanity. In science, the principle of entropy states thatthe energy level of every system, including the universe,degrades with time. So it is with consciousness. Over timeindividuals start losing their positive consciousness andcollective negativity builds up. Of course, this does not

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imply that every single person becomes evil intentioned,but it does mean that on an average, spirituality,awareness, righteousness and consciousness of individualsdeteriorate over time at certain periods of time.

One must understand that consciousness is alwaysindividual. When one is conscious, one accepts all ofhumanity in the same manner as oneself; yet, eachindividual needs to be aware of his own consciousness.On the other hand, negativity or the unconsciousness canbe collective. A whole nation can become collectivelyunconscious as Germany did under Hitler, and othercountries such as Italy and Japan followed.

In history, over many thousands of years, each timesuch collective unconsciousness has built up, there hasbeen deliverance. It is as though there is a cycle ofpositivity and negativity, up and down, over time.

In science there may be entropy, but in spiritualitythere is none. Righteousness is restored eventually. This isKrishna’s promise.

Q: Master, this verse ‘paritranaya sadhunam…’ is oneof the most quoted from the Gita. If this were to be true,Krishna should be on this planet all the time and thereshould be no evil. However, this is not the case. Can youplease explain again what this verse means?

Krishna does not say there would be no evil; He saysHe will be reincarnated again and gain to reducecollective unconsciousness and to destroy the evil.


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As long as humankind lives upon this planet, bothgood and bad will exist; both good and evil will existtogether. What Krishna talks about here is the excess ofbad over good.

In a spiritual sense, from Krishna’s point of view, thereis no good or bad. There is no evil as such, spirituallyspeaking. As in nature, all these seemingly contradictoryqualities coexist. What Krishna says to Arjuna, is for theconsumption of mankind. Mankind has created thisdifferential between good and bad, and can onlyunderstand behavior in these separate modalities.

When I tell you that in spiritually there is nothinggood or bad or that to an enlightened Master there is nosuch difference, what will your first response be?

You will think: ah, now I have it! I can do whatever Iwant because this Master has said that there is nothingeither good or bad. I can cheat, I can kill and I can domany things that I thought were bad and that I thoughtwould affect me spiritually.

Please understand that you are as yet in a state wherethere is a material difference between what is good andwhat is bad. Your own conditioning makes thatdifferentiation. When you are completely free of thatconditioning, that samskara, the very awareness andconsciousness that caused the conditioning to disappearwill provide you the direction as to what you should do,without any differentiation of good or bad.

In addition, for its own preservation, society laysdown rules and regulations, and religions lay down

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commandments. These are moral codes not spiritual. Theyarise from conscience not consciousness.

When you are in tune with yourself, when you areSelf-realized, you shed all your boundaries. You are nolonger a spirit bounded by your body, bondaged in yourbody, but you are a universal spirit, one with theuniverse. That was the first feeling I had when I had myfirst spiritual experience at the age of 12. I could relate toeverything around me as myself. There was no separationfrom anything.

When there is no separation, you cannot think ofharming anyone else, because then you will be harmingyourself! With this awareness, you do not have toconstantly worry about doing good or bad. Yourawareness itself will lead you on a path that is right foryou as well as for others.

It is the creation of this awareness and the awakeningof one’s consciousness that Krishna talks about first. Butit is simpler for a mortal to understand this in terms ofgood and bad, so Krishna elaborates, saying that He willcome again and again to protect the good and to destroythe evil.

This destroying the evil is not a one-time job!Otherwise why should Krishna promise that He wouldcome again and again? It is in the nature of existence tobe in many forms, some of which we understand as somegood and some as bad. Inherently there is no difference.

However, this state of awareness is the realization ofone’s true Self, one’s true nature. This is the state that we


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belong to. Krishna, the ultimate Master, out of His infinitecompassion, wants us to reach that state. This promisearises out of His compassion to enhance our state and notout of an outraged expression of anger to destroy evil.

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To Know Me Is to BeLiberated

4.9 One who knows or experiencesmy divine appearance and activitiesdoes not take birth again in thismaterial world after leaving the body

But attains me, O Arjuna.

4.10 Being freed from attachment,fear and anger, being filled with meand by taking refuge in me,

Many beings in the past havebecome sanctified by the knowledge ofme and have realized me.


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4.11 I reward everyone, I show myself to all people,according to the manner in which they surrender untome,

In the manner that they are devoted to me, o Partha!

4.12 Men in this world desire success from activitiesand therefore they worship the gods.

Men get instant results from active work in thisworld.

This is a very strange statement. He says, ‘One whounderstands the nature of My appearance and activitieswill be liberated from this birth and death cycle.’

How can it be? He says, ‘Understand mytranscendental nature of birthlessness and deathlessness.’Just now He said he is birthless and deathless. Ajopi: I ambirthless. Just now He says, ajopi san avyaya atma bhutanamishwaropi san. He says, ‘I am birthless and deathless.’

Now He says, ‘If you understand the truth of thetranscendental nature of My appearance and activities,once you leave the body, you will not take birth anddeath like ordinary humans do. If you understand Mytranscendental nature, you will also achieve the sametranscendental nature.’

‘If you understand that I don’t take body, you willalso realize and you also will not take the body. If youunderstand I am liberated, you will realize that you arealso liberated.’ How can it be?

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We will start with an incident from RamanaMaharishi’s life. In the presence of Ramana Maharishi,everyday they used to sing some songs. There is a songcalled. ‘Ramana Satguru’, which means ‘Praising RamanaMaharishi, Ramana is the true Master.’ So when the songis sung, Ramana himself used to sing along with thedevotees.

Not only would he be sitting and enjoying, he wouldalso be singing along with the devotees. Somebody askedhim, ‘What is this? You are an enlightened person, youyourself are singing your own name. You are also singing,Ramana satguru Ramana satguru. What do you mean bythis?’

Bhagavan says, ‘Fool! Why are you reducing Ramana tothis six feet body? Why are you reducing me to this sixfeet body?’

This is a deep, very subtle thing; difficult tounderstand. He says, ‘Just as you are all seeing this bodyfrom a distance, in the same way, I am also seeing thisbody. For you Ramana is somebody. For me also Ramanais somebody! I am not associating with this name andform. That is the reason why just like how you all canenjoy singing the name, I also enjoy, because I have notassociated myself with this form.’

I tell you, an egoistic person, at least in public will notshow that he enjoys, because, if he shows, people will seethat he is egoistic. An egoistic man will make otherspraise him. He will never be open. Here, RamanaMaharishi is totally open. He is straight. He says, ‘Justlike you enjoy, I also enjoy this name, enjoy this form,


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because I don’t feel this is me. I don’t feel associatedwith it. The name is just getting repeated, that’s all.’

Another incident: one of his disciples, Muruganathanwrites ‘Ramana Puranam’. It is the stotra (verses in praise)of Ramana Maharishi. He wrote a few lines and somehowhe was not able to write further. So he just brings thepaper and puts it at the feet of the Master and says,‘Bhagavan, I am not able to write.’ Bhagavan says,‘Alright, you go, let us see tomorrow.’ The next daywhen the disciple comes back, he sees that the poem iscompleted.

Bhagavan himself wrote and completed it. He wrotethree hundred lines and completed the whole poem. Thedisciple was surprised. Bhagavan himself had writtenabout himself; his own stotra, written by himself!

Later, when the disciple published it, when it came outas a book, the author put a small footnote: ‘From this lineonwards it was written by Bhagavan himself’, just so thatthe devotees would be aware that those particular verseswere Bhagavan’s own words.

The first copy of the book was taken to Bhagavan.Bhagavan just saw the book, saw the footnote: ‘From thisline onwards it was written by Bhagavan himself.’

He turned to the disciple and asked, ‘Oh! Were theother lines written by you then?’

Understand, he asks, ‘Oh! Does it mean that the otherlines are all written by you?’

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Bhagavan said, ‘When you wrote all those verses, itwas I who wrote through you. You cannot think aboutme. You cannot write about me. What do you knowabout me?

Unless I express myself through you, you cannot knowanything about me.’

Only a man who has disappeared into the divineconsciousness can write his poem.

In the Bhagavatam (life story of Lord Krishna),Krishna himself sings, ‘I am the Lord,’ just like how Henow says, bhutanam ishwaropi.

Here, He says beautifully, this word is such a beautifulword: bhutanam ishwaropi: I am the Lord of all livingbeings.

A mere boy from Brindavan, a cowherd boy fromBrindavan, says this! See, you should not look at Krishnafrom today’s perspective. You should understand thewhole scene as it happened, when this happened on thebattlefield at Kurukshetra.

Now, because of time, we have accepted Krishna asGod. But this was said when He was alive. When Hewas alive, people could not accept him as God. Hardly afew people realized that He was God.

When Rama was walking on planet Earth, only thesaptarishis (the energy of seven sages that controls theworld) knew He was an incarnation. Nobody else knew.In the same way, when Krishna was alive, very few


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people recognized who He was. At least Rama lived acontrolled life; he is easy for people to accept. ButKrishna lived such an ecstatic and spontaneous life; it isvery difficult to realize Krishna!

For a socially intellectual person, or a so-called religiousperson, it is very difficult to realize Krishna, very difficultto understand Krishna. But He says, bhutanam ishwaropi, Iam the Lord of all living entities.

Naturally, it is difficult for them to understand. It isvery difficult for people to understand. Somebody asksRamana, ‘Why are you speaking about yourself? Why areyou expressing your own glory?’

Bhagavan says, ‘If I don’t tell about myself, you cannever understand me. Unless I reveal, you can neverrealize. Unless I express, you can never understand. Justout of my compassion for all of you, I express the truth, Iexpress myself.’

It is like this: you are going somewhere and you see atraffic jam on the road. You know one of your friends istraveling ahead of you on the same road. You ring upand ask him, ‘How is it at that place? Is there a trafficjam? Can I come by the same road or should I take someother road?’ Will he not have the simple basic courtesy toguide you? He will surely have that basic courtesy.

He will tell you, ‘No, no, this route is okay, youcome. In ten minutes everything will become alright. Inthis area there is no traffic jam.’ He will give you someinstructions. He will guide you.

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With the same basic courtesy, Krishna is revealing histruth towards you. He is revealing his truth to all of us.He is revealing his truth to us. It is just a simple basiccourtesy of help for fellow travelers.

Here, when He says, ‘I am God, I am the ultimate,’He says there is a possibility - when I can achieve, whynot you?’ He shows the possibility, He gives us thecourage, He encourages us. Here He says, ‘When I canachieve, why not you?’

It is like a seed always afraid of rupturing to becomea tree. It always feels, ‘If I break and the tree doesn’thappen, then what will happen? I will die.’ But the treetells the seed, ‘Unless you open, I cannot happen.’ Unlessthe seed opens, the tree cannot happen. The seed says,‘No, no, no, let the tree happen; then I will open.’ But thetree says, ‘No, no, first you have to open, only then I canhappen.’ The problem between the tree and the seedcontinues endlessly.

It is necessary for somebody to give a little courage tothe seed. A tree that was a seed once and now hasbecome tree, one such tree comes and says, ‘Oh seed,don’t worry, open, I was also a seed. I opened and todayI have become a tree. Be courageous. Don’t worry. Youwill never perish. Open. Just like me you will also becomea tree.’

In the manner how the tree gives courage to the seed,in the same way Krishna gives courage to us. You canalso become God, like me. You can also experience thetruth like me.


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When He says, ‘I am the ultimate,’ He expresses thepossibility. He shows us the possibility. He again andagain reminds us of our potentiality. He inspires us toenter into the same consciousness. He inspires us toexperience the same bliss. He shows us the way of thetruth, which we need to experience.

When Krishna reveals this truth, be very clear, Krishnais not egoistic. He is expressing His true nature out ofsimple basic courtesy to fellow travelers.

The senior tree encourages the junior seed to open upand become a tree. The tree assures the seed. It says,‘Don’t worry, I have become a tree. You can also becomelike me. You don’t have to feel you will disappear.’ It isan assurance.

That is why again and again I tell you, when He tellsus ‘I am God’, He means, ‘You too are God.’ He givesyou the courage; He encourages you to enter into thesame experience.

And one more thing we need to understand, as I wastelling you, as Ramana says, ‘Why do you reduce Ramanato this six feet body?’ Ramana is far superior, far greaterthan his six feet body.

When enlightened Masters say ‘I’, they don’t have anymeaning behind that ‘I’. Only the divinity speaks. For anormal man, take yourself for example, when you say theword ‘God’ it is just a word. There is no meaning behindit. At the most, you will have some imagination aboutGod, that’s all. There is no solid meaning behind that

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word when you use it. But when you say ‘I’, youattribute a solid meaning for it, you have a solid identity.You know clearly what you mean. But when you say‘God’, you don’t know what you mean. The emotion orthe understanding is not supported well with anyexperience. The word is not supported by an emotionalunderstanding or experience.

But with enlightened people, when they say ‘God’, it isbased on solid experience and when they say ‘I’, it has nomeaning. It is just for utility sake that they use the word‘I’. It is an empty word for them. Because they can’t useany other word, they use the word ‘I’. They have to usesome word; there is no other way. That is the reasonthey use the word ‘I’.

There was a great enlightened Master. His name wasNisargadatta Maharaj. He lived in India. Somebody wentto him and asked, ‘Master, you say enlightened peopledon’t have karma. But how can you speak? How can youdo all your activities if you don’t have karma?’

He said, ‘I am not doing anything!’ The disciple asked,‘No, you are speaking to me. How can you speak to meif you don’t have karma?’ Nisargadatta Maharaj saidstraightaway, ‘I am not speaking to you.’ He said, ‘I amnot speaking to you!’

He was saying the words and yet he said, ‘I am notspeaking to you.’ It is very difficult to understand!

Then Maharaj says, ‘Because you wanted me to speak,the speaking is happening through this body. There isnobody inside.’ He was just like a hollow bamboo. When


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the breeze enters a hollow bamboo, it comes out asmusic. There is nobody inside, just empty hollow bamboo.That is why whatever goes in comes out as music.

When you become like a hollow bamboo, whateverwords come out of your mouth become a mantra, asacred syllable. Your form becomes yantra, the tool ofliberation, and your whole life becomes tantra, a techniquefor liberation. Your words are sastra, scriptures. Your formis the center for stotra, devotional prayers. And your lifeis sutra, the technique. Your very life is sutra.

Here, when Krishna says, ‘I’, there is nobody inside. Itis just the Divine that is speaking; just the emptiness thatis speaking.

Then the disciple asks Nisargadatta Maharaj, ‘Thenhow do you say I am not speaking to you?’ What do youmean by the word ‘I’?

Maharaj says, ‘Because there is no other word, I haveto use the word ‘I’.’ But this ‘I’ has got no meaning likehow your ‘I’ has. Your ‘I’ is supported by experience.When you say the word ‘God’, it is an empty word. It isnot supported by experience.’

When you say the word ‘I’, it is supported by solidexperience. You know it. You feel it. If somebody asks,‘Are you mad?’ you shout at them to prove it! Whensomebody asks, ‘Are you a dog?’ you just bark at themand prove it! You know, the ‘I’ in you is solid. It has gotmeaning.

But when you utter the word ‘God’, it has nomeaning. It is superficial, some imagination which you

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created through what you read in some books; somethingwhich was taught to you in some discourse; which youheard when you were a small child from your mother.That’s all.

But when enlightened people, like enlightened Masters,say the word ‘I’, it has no meaning. How the word‘God’ is empty for you, the word ‘I’ is empty for them.There is no meaning. But when they say the word ‘God’,there is a solid experience for that word.

Here, when Krishna says ‘I’, there is nobody inside. Itis pure emptiness. Just the Divine speaks through him.Just pure Existence speaks through him. He has become ahollow bamboo. He has become pure energy. That is whyHe can courageously declare in a battlefield, bhutanamishwaropi, I am the Lord of all beings.

Sitting in a home, comfortably, where you have all thesecurity, safety, all insurances, all the protection, anddeclaring ‘I am God’ is very easy, because there isnothing to risk. There is no risk. You don’t need to takeany big risk. You don’t need to prove anything. Justmake the statement, what is there in it? After all it is free!Say whatever you want!

But Krishna is making this statement in a place whereHe needs to prove it. He is making this statement in abattlefield, where all the risky things are there, where hislife itself is at risk. One arrow is enough to finish hisbody. He will be dead. But He is making this statementin that space. In the battlefield He declares, ‘I am God.’


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What courage and energy has to be there behind Hiswords! It can come only from a solid experience, a deepconscious experience.

Earlier I told you the story of Alexander threateningan enlightened Master with his sword, and the Masterlaughing at Alexander. ‘Fool’, he said, ‘what will youdestroy? What is in me is indestructible!’

Only an enlightened man can laugh in front of asword. Alexander is standing with a naked sword andthe Master is laughing. He is not bothered. Just imagine,on the street, if somebody is holding a gun towards you,and asking for your wallet, will you be able to laugh?Impossible!

But here, this person is able to laugh, in front ofAlexander’s sword. The courage that comes out of satya,truth, is the courage that comes out of solid experience.One important thing that the Vedanta scriptures can giveyou is courage; courage to live, courage to face life anddeath; courage to see the whole Existence, courage to facethe whole Existence.

One of the great disciples of Vivekananda, sisterNivedita asks him, ‘Swamiji, if I come with you what willyou teach me? What will you give me?’

Vivekananda says, ‘I will teach you how to facedeath.’ That is the ultimate teaching. Here, Krishna isgiving that ultimate teaching.

In these two verses, He says,

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Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharataAbhyutthanam adharmasya tada atmanam srujamyaham

Paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya cha dushkrutamDharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

Then the next statement is very strange:

Janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatahaTyaktva deham punarjanma naiti mam eti so Arjuna

It means: if you understand the secret of My birth anddeath, you will be liberated from birth and death, Arjuna.

How? Let us see the secret of the birth and death ofKrishna, how we all go through the birth and deathcycle.

Now, just as how Krishna made the statement, ‘I tellyou this because you are my devotee and friend’, now Ihave to make the same statement to you all again.

Here I am going to speak on something which isbeyond logic. It is purely experience. Before speaking, Itake an oath: whatever I speak is the truth.

Whenever the ultimate truth is uttered, wheneversomething beyond our logic is uttered, we never receiveit completely. Please be very clear: a silent listener is aperson who is thinking about something else! A silentlistener is a person who is thinking about something else.Whenever something which goes beyond our logic is told,we never receive it.

If we are courageous enough, we fight, we question,we argue. If we don’t have that much of courage, we


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don’t allow that word to enter into us. To tell youhonestly, we never believe anybody.

Please be very clear: we never believe anybody. It isalways an argument. It is always an argument, sometimesopen, and at other times, in the mind. If we can’t expressit openly, we continuously repeat the same words in themind.

That is why, before entering into the truths, I tell youthat what I speak is the truth. If you can, receive it. Thereis a possibility of transformation, because here I speak thetruth that is realized only by experience, which cannot belogically true.

There is a website on NDE, Near Death Experience(http://www.nderf.org). If you find time, try to gothrough that website. A doctor has done researchspending 30 years, just on this NDE, Near DeathExperience. Just on this Near Death Experience, he hasdone research for 30 years.

Let me first describe what Near Death Experience is.People who are declared clinically dead, after four or fivehours, sometimes come back to life. Especially thesemothers-in-law! They don’t leave! And, after four or fivehours, they come back! I was just joking.

The doctor who created this website went around allover the world, meeting only those types of people; onlythe people who came back to life after four to five hours,people who are declared medically dead by doctors. Hewas interested only in those who have come back to lifeafter the doctor’s declaration that the person is dead.

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He traveled all over the world and met about 10,000people. He has recorded and collected the reminiscencesof over 10,000 people. If you find time, try to see thewebsite. He has collected so many different kinds ofexperiences from different kinds of people - experiencesfrom Buddhists, experiences from Christians, experiencesfrom Hindus, experiences from Muslims, and so on.

So many religions describe the death process in somany ways. Some say, if you have done punya or merits,you will reach a place called heaven, and St. Peter will bestanding at the pearly gates, and only then you will betaken in; if you have committed sins, you will be taken toeternal hell. Each one has got his or her own faith.

Some say there is no hell or heaven and you directlygo to Vaikunta (place where Lord Vishnu lives). Some saythere will be a special pushpaka vimanam (mythologicalaircraft), special aircraft, sent from Kailash (place whereShiva resides), where Ramba and Menaka (celestial dancers)will be serving you and you will be directly taken toShiva’s place. There are so many different versions as towhat happens after death or what happens at the time ofdeath.

The Katopanishad says you will enter through a tunneland see the Angushta matra purusha piranam, meaning thelight that is thumb sized, which is your soul. You will seethe light when the soul leaves the body.

There are so many explanations, so many differentkinds of versions as to how death happens, and howyour spirit enters into the next body.


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This researcher has categorized and explainedeverything. In the end, after doing research for so manyyears, he makes one important statement. He says, ‘I havestudied so many Near Death Experiences. Now I can tellone thing: only when people live, they are Christians,Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. That is to say, theybelong to different religions. When they die, all of themundergo the same experience.’

He says very clearly, all of them undergo the sameexperience, and this is the experience that is described inthe Katopanishad.

Here, Krishna explains that beautifully. In a muchdeeper way He explains later in the chapter onPurushottama Yoga. We will see that subject when we cometo that chapter. We will study that then. Now I just wantto give you an introduction. I just want you to know thescience into which we are entering.

He says people belong to different religions only whenthey are alive. When they are dead, they follow only onepath, which is described in the Katopanishad.

Exactly what happens at the time of leaving the body?When you leave the body, the moment the physical bodydies and relaxes, the moment the physical body says, ‘Icannot hold the soul anymore, I am tired,’ that verymoment the soul leaves the body.

You decide what you think of as the highest pleasurein your life based upon how you have lived in the 70-80years. If you think eating is the highest pleasure in your

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life, naturally you would have spent the whole life ineating. Then at the time of leaving the body, eating isthe highest pleasure.

You will think, ‘I should take a body which willcontinuously help me to eat, eat, and eat. Which is thebest body?’ You see through all the choices. Then youdecide: pig body is the best body. Let me take that life!

If you have that thought that sleeping is the greatest,happiest and most joyful experience in your life, if youhave lived your whole life in sleep, tamas (inactivity), thenyou would think, ‘I think sleep is the best experience inmy life. Why not take the buffalo body? I can then spendmy whole life in sleeping.’

Whatever you think is the greatest experience in yourlife, which senses you have spent the most energy on, themaximum time and maximum part of your inner space,you decide your next birth based on that desire, based onthat point.

Please be very clear, nobody else decides your birth, itis you who decides. It is simply you who chooses. It isclearly the conscious decision of your individual soul.

I am ready for any of your questions. Naturally this isa very controversial subject; very difficult to understand.But after this, any question you ask, I will surely. Butyou need to understand the science of birth and death,the mystery, the secret and mystery behind birth anddeath.

Here Krishna says beautifully, ‘Here I am telling youthe secret of things.’ Krishna says ‘rahasyam hetuduttamam’.


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‘I am telling you the mysterious ultimate science, Oh mydear devotee and friend: Bhaktosi me sakha cheti rahasyamhetuduttamam: I am telling you the ultimate mysteriousscience.’

We need to understand one thing: how we take birth.Let us analyze this concept with questions and answers.Understand, now I made few statements: ‘You take birthbased on your desires, based on how you live in theprevious birth. ‘Birth and death are your consciousdecisions.’ These are all the statements that I have made.

We will analyze these statements with questions andanswers. Only then we will be able to internalize it. If youjust hear these words and go away, they will not goinside you. I always encourage people to ask questions.Because it is only when you question that you will be ableto relate with the idea.

Never think that by asking questions everyone aroundwill look at you and you will look like a fool. If you aska question you may look like a fool. If you don’t, you willbe a fool! Better to look like a fool than to be a fool.

We will analyze this whole concept - the secret ofbirth and death, the mysterious science that Krishnadelivers, through our question and answers. Then youwill be able to internalize this truth. The moment thistruth is understood, you will immediately see that life is ablessing.

This life is your decision, please be very clear about it.Including poverty, everything is your decision. Don’t

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think poverty has been forced on you. Even that is yourdecision. When we take birth, when we assume the body,we take birth based on our fear and greed. On one side,greed pushes us, ‘Let me become the son of a king, letme become the son of rich man.’ On the other side, ourown fears say, ‘No no, I can’t take on so much ofresponsibility.’ Please be very clear, along with money, abig responsibility of protecting it comes. Along withmoney, the big responsibility of protecting the moneycomes. That is why Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess ofWealth, is handed over to Lord Vishnu, the Protector!Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, is neither with theCreator, Brahma, nor with the Destroyer, Shiva. She iswith the Protector, with Vishnu.

Along with Lakshmi who represents wealth, theresponsibility to protect Her also comes. Most of the timewe don’t want to take the responsibility. We only wantenjoyment. We only want the enjoyment, we don’t wantthe responsibility. That is where the trouble starts. Aperson who is ready to take on the responsibility as wellas the enjoyment, will never miss and will never bedeprived.

If you understand this secret mystery clearly, thismoment you will feel that your life is a blessing and not acurse. Usually we always blame life. ‘If I am given achance, I would make the world much better than whatit is now!’ We always think we can develop on theexisting creation.

Be very clear, surely God is much more intelligent thanus! Whether it is to do with your life or to do with the


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whole of Existence, He has done the maximum of whatcan be done. Because we don’t understand the mystery ofour decisions, we continuously blame life and the personwho gave this life to us.

Let me narrate to you a small incident. It reallyhappened. It happened in America. A small boy hadautism. He was a small boy who was about seven oreight years old. He was brought to me for healing. Thefather and mother requested of me, ‘Master, please healhim, help him to become alright.’ I put my hand on hishead and started healing.

Immediately, the boy started talking to me in Tamil,my mother tongue. The family doesn’t know Tamil. Eventhe boy doesn’t know even a single word of Tamil.

The parents were shocked. They said, ‘We don’t knowhow he is speaking Tamil, because we don’t know Tamil.’The boy simply started talking in Tamil with great clarity.They said that normally, even in English he does notspeak that fluently. He would utter only one or twowords. But that day, straight away he started speaking tome.

And he said, ‘Stop healing.’ Using Tamil slang, he toldme very crudely, ‘Stop healing.’ I was shocked to first ofall hear him speak in Tamil in clear words, and then in acrude rough manner, ‘Stop healing!’ I was shocked.

Then I asked him, ‘Why are you asking me to stophealing?’ I thought some evil spirit is there inside hisbody, maybe some other spirit. So I started asking, ‘Whoare you? Why are you asking me to stop?’

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Then he said, ‘I took this decision consciously. I don’twant to take the responsibility of leading a regular life. Idon’t want to take the responsibility of attending school,making money and leading a regular life. That is why Itook this affliction. I took this decision of autismconsciously.’

The whole thing he spoke to me in Tamil, in mymother tongue. I don’t know how you will be able tobelieve this. Because this is personal, I am not able to givehis name and reference. But I tell you honestly that thisreally happened.

Straightaway he started addressing me: ‘I don’t wantto take the responsibility of life. I am not interested indoing all these regular things, going to school, goingthrough life. That is why I took this type of body. Iwanted somebody to take care of me. I want to justenjoy.’

Then I asked him, ‘Alright, that is okay, beautiful, butwhy did you take birth with such nice people?’ They aresuch nice people, why did you take birth through them?Why did you come down as a son for them?’

Then he replied, ‘I took birth in their family becausethey are nice people! They will take care of me. They willnot abandon me. Had it been someone else, they wouldhave abandoned me. They wouldn’t have taken care ofme. That is the reason I took birth in their family.’

All the while, he spoke to me in Tamil. I was shocked.And in the end, by force he removed my hand from hishead. Then I said, ‘Alright, I cannot interfere in the


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decision of any individual.’ I cannot interfere in anybody’slife.

The greatness of God is that He gives you the freedomto be in bondage. Even if it is the ultimate freedom Heoffers you, He never forces it on you. He gives you thefreedom to be in bondage if that was your choice. And inthe end, I did not heal him.

The whole thing, your whole birth, is based on yourfear and greed. But the enlightened Master’s birth isbased on love and compassion. The whole secret is this.Ordinary man takes birth based on fear and greed. Thatis why his whole life is driven by fear and greed. Hiswhole life runs based on fear and greed. EnlightenedMasters achieve the body out of love and compassion.

That is why Krishna beautifully says: atma mayaya,because of my own energy, my own shakti, my own maya,I take birth. Sambhavyam atma mayaya prakritim svamadhishthaya sambhavami atma mayaya. ‘With my own energy,just out of my love and compassion, I land on this planetEarth.’

The next question that follows is this: how can we beliberated by knowing this truth? In what way is it goingto help us directly in our life?

Please be very clear, when I say the word birth ordeath, I don’t mean just dying at the end of life. I meanevery night’s sleep is your birth and death. Every nightwhen you go to sleep, you die! When you come back, inthe morning, you take birth one more time. Every day,you assume the body. Every day, you leave the body.

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When you go to the karana sareera (causal body), when yougo to sleep, when you fall asleep, every day, you die.When you come back, every day you come back to life.

Now, as of now, every day morning, how do we comeback to life? How do we take this body? Just look deeply.What happens at the time you get up from bed?

First thing, usually, the moment you get the awarenessthat you are awake, either a thought based on greed or athought based on fear hits you. A thought based ongreed - maybe you wanted to meet somebody, you havegot something to do, or a thought based on fear - youhave to go to office, you have to do finish some deadline.Some thought based on fear or greed hits you.Immediately you jump out of your bed. Am I right? Ifyou have analyzed your waking up, how you assume thisbody every morning, that moment is actually your takingbirth.

Please be very clear, that moment that you take thebody matters. These are the basic, very subtle, mysterioussecrets of altering the whole consciousness. Early morning,with whichever thought you enter into the body,whichever thought makes you assume the body, thatthought is going to play a major role in yourconsciousness. The first thought is going to play a majorrole in your consciousness for that entire day.

But an enlightened person, an enlightened Masterassumes the body out of love and compassion. He comesback just to pour his compassion out, just to sharehimself with the whole world. When I say he comesback, I mean his coming back every day, every morning!


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If you understand this once and alter your thoughts atthe time of waking up, you will alter your wholeconsciousness; the very quality of your consciousness canbe changed.

It is just like how a camera works. The first momentthe lens is opened, whatever scene is there in front of thecamera eye, is recorded in the film. That will stay thereforever. In the same way, during the first moment ofyour consciousness while assuming the physical body, thethought that you have while entering into the body playsa major role on your consciousness for the whole day.

When you get up from bed, let the first thought berelated to love and compassion. Let it be related to adeep, divine spiritual thought. Get up only to expressyour life in bliss. Get up just out of joy. The moment youcome to consciousness, the moment you become aware ofyourself, express, ‘Oh Lord, so beautiful! You have givenme one more day! I have come back to life once more justto see Your Existence. I am blessed that You have givenme one more day extension!’

Please be very clear, you have no right to have anyextension. Don’t think life is your birthright. I have seenmany people taking things for granted. Before they getthe job, they would say, ‘If I get that $10,000 per monthsalary, I will be really safe. I will feel blessed.’ Themoment they get the job, in one month, they think it istheir birthright.

Birth itself is not your right. Then how can you saysomething is your birthright? The word birthright is

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completely wrong. Birth itself is not your right. You haveno right even to your own birth. It is a pure gift. Youcan’t expend even a single breath thinking it is your own.

You can’t inhale or exhale for even one single momentunless the Divine allows you, unless the Parasakti gives theextension. So every day is a blessing. Every day is anextension. When you get up from the bed, get up, comeout of the bed and assume the body with this gratitudeto the Divine. The quality of your whole consciousnesswill change and you will become an incarnation.

Here I am giving you the straight technique on how tobecome Krishna, how to enter into Krishna Consciousness,how to become an incarnation. The man who assumes thebody out of love and compassion is an incarnation. If youassume the body out of greed or fear, you are man. Ifyou assume the body out of love and compassion, you arean incarnation and you are Divine. Your whole life willbecome pure eternal bliss. Your whole life will happenwith a different consciousness.

I was explaining the secret of birth and death: how wego through, how it is our conscious decision, how it isour choice.

Please be very clear, your whole life is purely yourresponsibility. Nobody has forced anything on you! It iscompletely your responsibility. It is you who is taking theresponsibility of your whole life. It is your decision.

People always ask me, ‘Then why do we get intoaccidents, Master?’ Please be very clear, everything,including accidents is your choice. I am making a bold


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statement: everything, including accidents is your choice.You can send me your questions. I will explain theanswers tomorrow when I see the questions. Then youwill understand this truth in a much deeper way.

Here Krishna gives us a technique to attain Him. If weare able to live in such a way as to be free from theattachments born out of anger and fear, then we can beabsorbed in Him, we can attain Him.

We have to understand, all actions create their ownreactions. When we sow a seed, the action, though it mayappear to be complete, is in reality not so. We have setinto motion a cycle, a chain of events. The seed sproutsand becomes a plant or tree.

Thus it is so in the order of existence, that every actionor we can say, cause, has its own reaction or, we can say,effect. It is therefore quite difficult to escape from theclutches of the cause-effect cycle. Here Krishna gives atechnique for how to cut these karmic bonds. How toescape and realize the reality.

Actions that are free from fear and anger do notcreate bonds. They lead us towards elevatedconsciousness. Fear and anger that arise out of greed aretwo of the most provocative emotions that create action,and lead to bondage.

Attachments are our bondage to the future based onexperiences of the past. We have unfulfilled desires thatwe hope to fulfill. We look for results. We get attachedto the possibility of these results. When the results happen

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the way we wish them to, there is temporary satisfaction.More wishes arise. More attachments are formed.

When things do not happen the way we want them to,we feel sorrow, we are depressed. We strive again.

Either way it is a never ending cycle that bringssorrow in the end. When we let go of attachments andperform actions with no expectations, we enjoy the pathof action. There is no stress of what must happen, sincethere is no attachment.

Krishna offers a way out. He says, ‘Be drowned in Me;you will have no anger, no fear. All actions will thus bewithout bondage. In this manner, you can realize Me.’

He gives the assurance, the valid proof, that havingdone so, having followed this path, many people in thepast have achieved.

He is not telling us, if you do this, maybe somethinggood will happen. No! He straightaway gives the positiveassurance. ‘Do it, you will achieve! Not only one or twopeople, many people have done so and have realizedMe.’

Masters are like mirrors. They are a true reflection ofus. Devotees get whatever they ask for. If the devotee ispraying for wealth, he gets it. If he wants healing forbody or mind, he is granted it. To the devotee who says,‘Oh Lord, I want nothing except knowledge of Your truereality,’ the Lord grants him that. He shows him the wayto the ultimate reality.


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If you visit our ashram, you will see that there issomething there for everyone. No one goes back emptyhanded. We have prayers, fire rituals, devotional songs,yoga, meditation, etc. for all kinds of people. People fromall walks of life, from all cross-sections of society, from allkinds of economic strata, can find their place here.

For the devotee who has faith in worship, there arethe temples. For the devotee who wishes to attainthrough yoga, there are various yoga programs. For thoseon the path of knowledge, there are enough and moreavenues and meditation techniques. Only in this mannercan we lift the consciousness of society.

I always say we cannot hope to transform societythrough any mass movement. It can happen only throughindividual transformation. The mass has to be made up ofsuch transformed people. When such people act together,it will have the same power as a laser beam.

I always say that each devotee and each disciple isunique. The way I treat each one is unique. What I tellone person is not applicable to another. I warn mydisciples, time and again, please do not advise someoneelse based on the advice I have given you. It will onlycause more confusion.

Vivekananda once lectured another disciple ofRamakrishna and made him believe that all his devotionalbeliefs were nonsense. Such was the powerful personalityof Vivekananda that he convinced this disciple that hemust follow the advaitic, non-duality route thatVivekananda himself espoused, instead of the bhakti or

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devotional path that Ramakrishna had chosen for thatdisciple.

Ramakrishna called Vivekananda immediately, withoutanyone telling him what had happened. He saidsorrowfully to Vivekananda, ‘What have you done to thisdisciple of mine? I have been working on him based onhis nature and being. Now, with your words, you haveset him backwards in his spiritual progress. It will takeme years to bring him back on his path.’

Here, Krishna promises and reaffirms what He has saidearlier, that He will take care of every need of hisdevotee.

Only the most compassionate being, only such a personwho cares for all, will make this statement. Now it is leftto the devotee to have some wisdom, some intelligenceas to what to approach the Master for.

Krishna explains here why non-attachment is sodifficult. It is in our nature to look for success in whateverwe do. It is impossible to embark on an activity expectingit to fail.

There is nothing wrong in looking for success at theend of an activity. What creates problems is the illogicalattachment to that expectation of success. We become soobsessed with what we desire that the expectationconsumes us.

What Krishna says here shows that our mindset,human nature, has not changed in over five thousandyears. Even then they were looking for material success.


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They were looking for instant results. When they prayedto God they were praying to fulfill their expectations ofmaterial success.

Again, I must say that Krishna is the greatestpsychologist who ever lived. He has measured humannature accurately. What we want is results, material,tangible results, and instant results. In His days, inKrishna’s days, when samskaras were relatively fewer,when the cerebral pollution was much less, the word‘instant’ itself must have been rarely used. People had adifferent concept of time. There was much less rush andmuch less aggression.

Yet the Master uses a term ‘kshipram’, instant. TheMaster is talking about humanity, past, present andfuture.

He says you normally pray to God not as anexpression of gratitude and not for spiritual benefits, butto seek unfulfilled material desires. You go to a templeand pray to the idol so that you may have more money, abeautiful spouse, more children, better jobs and all thatyou think will bring you happiness.

All your actions, Krishna says, are based on materialsuccess and He says such activities bear instant results.Please note that they bear instant results. Whether youunderstand it or not, all these prayers and actions doproduce instant results.

This does not mean that whatever you pray for isinstantly granted by whichever God you prayed to. God,fortunately, has far more wisdom than we have. God

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uses His buddhi, wisdom, to grant what He deemsappropriate.

However, the result of your actions is instant. Thekarmaphala is immediate. When religions talk of karma,which is action and karmaphala, the fruits or outcome ofsuch action, they speak in terms of merits and sins, papaand punya. They tell you that you will go to hell if youaccumulate sins, and you will go to heaven if you gainmerits. They use these concepts only to control you.They try to control you through fear and greed; throughfear of hell and greed of heaven. That is all.

There is no papa and punya, spiritually speaking. Noneof it is accumulated and presented to you at the pearlygates by Chitragupta or St. Peter. There is no hell orheaven. Hell and heaven are both states of your mind,not locations in some distant future in God’s own land.

When you think good thoughts, when you do gooddeeds, you feel good you are in heaven. When you thinkevil, you act evil, you feel evil and you are in hell. That isall. That is all there is to karma. This is the cosmic causeand effect principle. You are what your intent is; youbecome what your intent is.

Karma acts instantly. It is here and now. It is not someslow grinding of the wheels of God. You live in thetormented mindset of a sinner or the blissful mindset of asage depending on what you choose to think and do.Remember that. Do not blame your actions on somemisunderstood principle of karma.


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Karma is in your hands. You are a free spirit; you havefree will and you have freedom of thought and action. Itis not merely guaranteed by your national constitution,but by God’s own constitution. What you sow, you shallcertainly reap.

Q: Master, you say that we decide our rebirth, in termsof what we shall be born as, to whom, where etc. Whyare so many desperately poor and sad people out there?Why would they ever want to be born that way? Peoplesay that is their karma, which to me seems moreacceptable.

Yes, we do decide on our rebirth. Rebirth is decidedby the mindset of your previous life. It is theaccumulated effect of all the experiences that you havehad in your earlier life, the samskaras. These samskaras leavea subtle footprint in your spirit that it carries when itleaves the mind-body system. This is called the vasana.

If vasana is a seed, samskara is then a partly grown plantand karma is a fully grown tree. All these are to do withyour desires. As long as you do not move out of yourdesires, vasana, samskara and karma bind you. Karma is notcause and effect as you think. It is not as if you dosomething, your religion or society labels as bad and youare born a pig, or if you do all good things, you will goto heaven. No.

There is no heaven and hell. These are what you createin your own mind. You live in hell throughout your life

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if you have a bad mindset. If you are always happy andcarefree, you live in heaven.

Krishna says elsewhere that you are reborn as whatyour last thoughts are. He means that you are reborn inline with your vasana, or mindset. You may think, ‘Ok,that is good, I shall think good thoughts when I die andI shall be reborn comfortably.’ I tell you, if you havelived a miserable life fighting with everyone throughoutyour life, your last thoughts can be no different. In anycase, you cannot plan your death and if you know youare going to die, you will not be able to think differentlyjust because you are going to die.

If you were a miser all your life, your last thought willbe of money. It will not even be positive; it will be onlyabout hoarding money. If you had been a playboy allyour life, your last thought will be on sensual pleasuresonly. There is no way you can avoid that.

So your question is, ‘Why would any one want to beborn a beggar?’ You remember the autistic boy I told youabout, the one that I didn’t heal? Why was he bornautistic? His spirit had decided that he had had enoughresponsibilities in his previous life. He just did not wantany responsibility in this life. He would rather be a non-responsive person with no responsibilities and beingtaken care of.

A wealthy man in his previous life may have hadenormous burdens and miseries that his spirit did notwish to repeat in its next body. He may have regrettedaccumulating wealth. He may have had money but may


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have been cast aside by his family and friends. He mayhave been generally feeling miserable, so much so that hewould not wish to be wealthy again. So, he is born poor.

Why do you assume that to be poor is to be unhappy?This is not at all true. I have met many people who arepoor as it relates to money and do not know where theirnext meal is coming from, and yet are wonderfullyhappy. It is the mindset. Material wealth does notguarantee happiness. Your state of happiness depends onhow you treat wealth and poverty.

You may ask, ‘Ok, I can accept your theory on beingpoor; but, then why would anyone want to be bornterribly unhealthy and with painful diseases. Surely, thiscould not have been brought about by any desire.’

You can ask my disciples. Many of them have come tome with chronic and life threatening illnesses, some, justdays before meeting me have been told by doctors thatthey were going to die. But they have lived on. Thesepeople if you see are the sincere seekers. They all wouldhave had the same quest - Self-realization. In theirprevious births they must missed the experience. For onereason or another, they would not have been able to findand stay with a Master, which would have helped them intheir spiritual paths. After many such failures, their spiritwould have decided that it would be born in a condition,desperate enough, that it would lead to a Master. Whatbetter than an incurable disease that only a Master cancure? That is how we say even diseases are our choice!

So, you do decide your rebirth, as what, how, where,and to whom.

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In our second level meditation courses LBP 2 –Nithyananda Spurana Program, we take participantsthrough the energy layers that the spirit passes through atthe time of death. This program is in a sense a re-creationof one’s death, and the participant literally feels reborn. Inone of the sessions the participants work through whatthey think are their desires at that moment. When theygo through the meditation that takes them through thatenergy layer, they understand that most of what theyassumed as their desires were not real. They realize theirtrue desires, the vasana, the prarabda karma, with whichthey were born into this world.


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Understand and BeUnaffected by Action

4.13 Depending upon thedistribution of the three attributes orgunas and action, I have created thefour castes.

Yet, I am to be known as the non-doer, the unchangeable.

4.14 I am not affected by any work;nor do I long for the outcome of suchwork.

One who understands this truthabout me also does not get caught inthe bondage of work.

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4.15 All the wise and liberated souls of ancient timeshave acted with this understanding and thus attainedliberation.

Just as the ancients did, perform your duty with thisunderstanding.

4.16 What is action and what is inaction, even thewise are confused.

Let me explain to you what action is, knowing whichyou shall be liberated from all ills.

Now, we come to the controversial topic of the so-called caste system. Krishna says, ‘I have created the fourcastes depending upon the distribution of the three gunasor attributes.’

We have to understand a bit about the gunas. Theword ‘guna’ can be roughly translated to mean ‘attribute’or ‘quality’ that we are born with. It is like a state ofmind and it is also a reflection of the prarabda karma, thevasana, and the mindset with which we are born into thisworld. All people have all or at least one of the gunas inthem. There are three basic gunas and they are: sattva orpurity, rajas or activity and tamas or inactivity.

So many people have quoted this one verse out ofcontext for such a long time. People quote this versewhenever they want the support of religion for makingthe caste system more solid.

They say, ‘Krishna himself has sanctioned it’ or, ‘thissystem has been given by the incarnation Himself.’ We


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should try to see and examine what Krishna actuallymeant. If we look a little bit more deeply into Krishna’swords, we can see that He uses the words, ‘dependingupon the distribution of the three gunas.’ He does not say,‘depending upon the birth.’

It is a fact, I can even say a truth - and there is a lotof difference between fact and truth - that no two personson this planet Earth can be the same. By the same token,all persons are unique and possess unique ratios of thethree gunas.

Again, we have to note that Krishna does notdiscriminate. He does not say that this caste is superior,the other one is inferior and so on. He merely states thatthere are basically four kinds of people, the character ofthe person will be of that guna which is more in him,which is more dominant in him.

The same way that guna does not come by birth, varna(caste) too does not happen by birth. Guna, the mentalattribute, is an inherent part of one’s nature, carried overwith the vasana from previous births. Krishna says, ‘Basedon the guna one is born with, I decide on his varna, one’scaste.’

In the traditional Vedic Hindu system of education, aguru, the Master, took charge of children at an early ageand trained them. He was not only the disseminator ofknowledge to these children in what was known as thegurukul system, but he was also the decider of the careerand future of each child. The guru evaluated the aptitudeof each child under his care based on the child’s mentalattitude and attributes, the gunas, and then decided on thevocation that the child should pursue. This decision was a

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very scientific process based on an evaluation of theattitude, aptitude, likes and dislikes of the child,supported by astrological studies.

The varna system was four-fold. Brahmanas were thescholars and priests, intellectually inclined, mostly satvaguna based people. Kshatriyas were the soldiers, noblesand kings, aggressive, ambitious, physically strong, andrajas guna based people, with a mix of satva. Vaisya wasthe business community, traders and businessmen, withstrong commercial acumen, with a mix of rajas and satvaguna. Sudras were the workers, physically able and skillful,with a predominance of tamas guna.

Based on these skill sets, the children were trained;based on their gunas not birth, they were trained for theirvocations, their varna or caste. It was similar to anassessment of aptitudes and streaming the children, butfar more scientific than what is done today in the name ofstreaming.

Over time, as happens, this system was manipulated.Those who believed that they had a better varna, caste,decided they should make it a hereditary right, abirthright. This was an imposition of social and politicalevil, a misuse of power. A system that did not allow theson of a brahmana to be a priest if he was unsuitable or theson of a kshatriya to be a warrior if he was inadequate,was corrupted to allow that to happen.

Krishna never condoned the system as it exists today.

Krishna states very clearly that only he whotranscends these three gunas can reach His state, can reachthe higher levels of consciousness. To reach Krishna one


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has to be a triguna rahita, beyond the three gunas. Then,one becomes a non-doer, a no varna, no guna person.

In the next verses, He elaborates on this aspect.

When a desire is fulfilled, it no longer creates ripples inthe mind. Desires that get fulfilled are the basic needsthat one is born with, which are the result of the carryover vasana, the prarabda karma. We acquire all otherdesires by comparing ourselves with others. These arewants, not needs. Existence has no way of fulfilling suchwants.

Ramana Maharishi says beautifully: The universe canfulfill the needs of all its inhabitants, but it cannot fulfillthe want of even one person. Wants never stop. Theygrow and grow. Want and greed only stop with death.Even then they continue to haunt as the mental attitude,the carried over vasanas.

When one works out of basic needs, he acquires nokarma, since the desires get fulfilled and do not recur.Look at a poor man with just one pair of footwear. He ishappy that he does not have to go barefoot. Till thatfootwear is exhausted, he has no need for another one.In comparison, many of us acquire dozens of shoes, manyof which we rarely wear. These purchases are born out ofyour wants, which can never be fulfilled. Nor will weever get joy out of these possessions. Once acquired, theylose value and then we seek the next acquisition. Thecycle goes on.

Have you ever seen a rich man sitting at a five starrestaurant enjoying his meal in the same manner as a

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hard working manual laborer eating his sandwich? Therich man will be more worried about the various illnesseshe has and what he should not eat than the quality of thefood in front of him.

A person who has taken a conscious birth, and only aperson who has a conscious birth, is aware of his prarabdakarma, the list of needs he is born with. Only he canextinguish his karma by fulfilling this list. Such a personhas no attachment to his needs or the results of his actionto fulfill these needs. These needs carry an energy oftheir own that gets them fulfilled. Once fulfilled, theyleave no karma trace.

Krishna, the ultimate Master, is always conscious. Heof course has no karma, no unfulfilled desires, and noattachment. So it is with every enlightened Master. His socalled desires get fulfilled as they arise.

When I desire food, it appears. When I feel the needto sleep, I rest. There is no gap between my desire andits fulfillment. There is no trace of that desire after it isfulfilled. The fulfillment is complete. The attachment iszero. Therefore, there is no karma.

This is the lesson every Master tries to teach hisdisciples. Work from your needs, not from your wants.Act without attachment. You shall attract no karma. Youshall be liberated.


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Q: Master, even though Krishna may not have meantthe caste system to develop the way it has developed inIndia today, it has become an evil practice. How can oneaccept this? It needs to be eliminated. Is it not?

If you are looking for a socially acceptable answer, Iam not the person to address this question to. If you arelooking for a politically acceptable answer, I won’t be ableto satisfy you.

If you are looking for the truth, the truth is this.

Each of us is unique. We all have different strengths,and along with them some weaknesses as well. Allsocieties are based on this differential uniqueness. That iswhy every society, every political structure and everyreligious organization has a leader to take decisions andto make that effective. If each of us were to lead anindependent life, totally separate from each other’s, allliving in forests and mountains, such structures may notbe needed. In such a case the race will not survive either.The moment man and woman start living as husband andwife to build a family, you start institutionalizing a familystructure, with hierarchy and inequality.

Every society has its norms on how the hierarchyworks. What you call a democracy is not equality. Thereare rulers and the ruled. The ruled may live under theillusion that they appoint the rulers, but they are notequals; the same rules do not apply to both. Even incommunism, there was no equality between the rulers andthe ruled; there was only forced equality amongst theruled. The rulers were dictators.

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In Western countries today, you say you are ademocracy and everybody is equal. But some people aremore equal than others. There are the rich and the poorand various shades in between. So your society is basedon the power of money. In another country it may bebased on power of land ownership; in yet another, it isbased on the power of connections or the power ofeducation and so on. There is always an underlying basisto differentiate one person from another. Without thisdifferentiation, organized society does not function.

In the Vedic culture that prevailed in ancient India, thisdifferentiation was based on aptitude. At an early age inthe schooling system, called the gurukul or the Master’senvironment, children were tested for aptitude andtrained accordingly. It was not, as I mentioned before,based on birth, but it was based on aptitude. This is thebest method I can think of, far better than bringing up ageneration based on birth, or parents’ wealth or familyconnections and so on.

If it had not been for this caste system, the Vedicculture would not have survived till today in India evento the extent it has. It is the brahmana communities invarious locations, who even at the risk of their lives,protected and nurtured this culture and preserved theknowledge. If centers like Chidambaram in the south andVaranasi in the north are repositories of Vedic culture, it ismainly because of the brahmana community who acted inaccordance with what they were taught to be theirrighteous duty.

Today, these people are vilified in parts of India. Dopeople remember the contribution that they have made?Do they acknowledge the contribution made by the caste


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system to the preservation of the Vedic culture? Do theyrealize that it is this Vedic culture that will be India’sdifferentiation and success factor in the world, now andin future?

It is said that Lord Macaulay, who visited India almosttwo hundred years ago on behalf of his Queen ofEngland, declared after traveling through the wholecountry that he could not find a single beggar or thief.He recommended that to conquer India, the British hadto destroy her culture and education system. He saidthat Indians would lose their self-esteem, start thinkingthat the English culture was superior and allowthemselves to be ruled.

Whether this incident is true or not, this man wasprophetic and that is what happened. The Britishdestroyed the cultural base of India, far more definitivelythan the Mughals before them. The British planted theseeds of hatred towards the caste system so that theycould divide and rule. ‘Educated’ Indians gladly followed.

Let us not judge based on political and socialprejudices, incited by some who have vested interests. Inevery form of society there will be some who feeldisadvantaged. They will need something in that societyto blame for their seemingly disadvantaged position.

In the USA for instance, can you ban wealth creationbecause the society is differentiated based on wealth andnot all can be wealthy? That is what Russia and Chinatried for many decades and we now know the result.

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I do not think abolishing the caste system is asolution. Removing the selfish motives that have beenadded to it is one solution. Building the Vedic tradition ofeducation is another solution. The Vedic culture did notprejudice anyone based on caste. It enhanced one’scapability to serve society based on this caste system. Oursociety can benefit from a proper understanding of thissystem, instead of trying to eliminate it. Even if youeliminate this there will be another form of differentiationthat will be neither different nor better.


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Action in Inaction andInaction in Action

4. 17 The complexities of action arevery difficult to understand.

Understand fully the nature ofproper action by understanding thenature of wrong action and inaction.

4.18 He who sees inaction in actionand action in inaction, is wise and ayogi,

Even if engaged in all activities.

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4.19 He who is determined and devoid of all desiresfor sense gratification, he is of perfect knowledge.

The sages declare such a person wise whose actionsare burnt by the fire of knowledge.

4.20 Having given up all attachment to the results ofhis action, always satisfied and independent,

The wise man does not act, though he is engaged inall kinds of action.

Here, Krishna says that the person who sees inaction inaction and action in inaction has attained transcendence.When you see that it is not the ‘I’ in you that is doingthe activities but it is the senses following their nature,when you see that it is the mind that is creating the falsesense of identification of you with the action, then youhave realized; you have attained transcendence becauseyou are now no longer in the clutches of the mind.

It is the mind that makes you attached to somethingand repulsed by something else. When you are not in theclutches of the mind, you are free. You do actions becausethe senses by nature have to perform their functions. Forexample, the eyes see, the ears hear, the tongue tastes,the nose smells and the skin feels. Yet, you are free fromthe bondage of action because you do not have anyidentification with the action; you do not have anyemotional attachment to anything. So naturally, you arefree and you are liberated and you can do what you aredoing most beautifully without expecting any particularresult or being bothered by the results of the action.


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This is what it means to be ‘un-clutched’. Being ‘un-clutched’ is the state where you are free and liberated.Let me expand on the word ‘un-clutching’ and what Imean by it.

Constantly you are connecting all your thoughts andcreating connecting links in your mind. For example, theheadache that happened ten years ago, the headache thathappened five years ago, the headache that happenedthree years ago, the headache that happened yesterday,are all independent experiences that happened in your life.

For the sake of easy reference, you categorize all theseexperiences in your mind into one category of ‘headache’.It is archived just for utility purpose, to serve asreference. It is just like how you file documents in youroffice in various categories, in various files. But whathappens? By and by, you start believing that all theseexperiences are connected.

The suffering that happened ten years ago happenedfor a different reason, in a different place. It was a totallyunique experience. The suffering that happened five yearsago happened for a totally different reason. It was acompletely different experience. The suffering thathappened three years ago was again for a differentreason.

Initially for the sake of ease, you archive them in thesame place, for easy reference. By and by you startbelieving they are connected. When you start believingthey are connected you create a shaft.

If you connect all the painful memories, you create apain shaft and conclude, ‘My life is suffering, my life is

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pain.’ You start believing your whole life is a chain ofsuffering, a long chain of suffering. When you startbelieving that your whole life is suffering you havecreated a pain shaft and you are waiting in your life onlyfor painful incidents, so that you can elongate that shaft.

One more thing you should understand, whatever youbelieve, that is what you expand also within you. If youbelieve something, you will again and again see that inyour life. That is why Vedic rishis, sages, say that youcreate what you want. You create what you desire. Byseeing you create. What ever you believe you will createand expand.

Once you start believing that your life is a pain, youare waiting unconsciously for painful incidents tostrengthen that belief, to strengthen that judgment. Wedon’t usually collect arguments to pass judgments; wecollect arguments to support our judgments. Thejudgment is ready. We only collect arguments to supportit. When you are clear that your life is a pain shaft, a bigchain of pains, you are waiting for more judgments tosupport your faith, more judgments to support yourbelief.

Second thing, whenever you are adding the painfulincidents unconsciously, constantly, you will be elongatingthat shaft, even though you may want to consciously endthe pain by breaking it. If you believe your whole life is ashaft of joyful experiences, which we do very rarely,constantly you are in fear about whether the joy willcontinue. You wonder, ‘Will it continue in the same way?’


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If you believe life is a shaft of painful incidents, youdo two things: unconsciously you gather more and moreincidents and strengthen your faith about how your life ispainful and consciously you also try to break the painshaft! If you believe life is a chain of joyful incidents,unconsciously you will be in fear that it will end andconsciously you will try to prolong it. Understand thatthese two big dramas we are continuously enacting withourselves.

But the big difficulty, the important thing that weforget is that you can neither break the shaft nor elongateit, because the shaft itself does not exist. The shaft doesnot exist. You can neither elongate it nor break it. Whenyou started archiving all the incidents in your life for thesake of easy reference, by and by you started believingthat they are really existentially connected.

When you start believing that they are existentiallyconnected, you believe your life as a pain shaft or a joyshaft. When you start believing life as a pain shaft youtry to break it; when you believe it as a joy shaft, you tryto elongate it. But one important thing you forget, youcan neither break it nor elongate it because the shaft itselfdoes not exist.

Just try this experiment:

Sit down for ten minutes with a pen and paper. Now,just start jotting down whatever thoughts come to yourmind. Please do not edit your thoughts; write them downas they are. Do not judge yourself and do not try tocontrol what comes to your mind. If you try to judge,

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you are playing a hypocritical game with yourself, that’sall. Just write down whatever comes.

Now, read whatever you have written. You can see foryourself how unconnected and illogical your thoughts are!You will be sitting here and thinking, ‘I think I should goto my office tomorrow’, then the next minute, ‘No, nono, I should just wake up and decide then’, then, ‘Whatshould I do about dinner tonight?’

Have you seen a fish tank? Have you seen how thebubbles rise up in a fish tank? There is a gap betweenone bubble and the next. But the gap is so small that itlooks like a continuous stream. Just like the bubbles in afish tank, there is a gap between one thought and anotherthought in your mind as well. If you look a little deeplyyou will realize that your thoughts are independentthoughts like the independent bubbles. By their verynature, your thoughts are independent.

For example, if you see a dog in the street, suddenlyyou remember the pet you used to play with as a child.Then you will remember the teacher you studied with asa child, then, where your teacher used to stay, and so on!If you look at it logically, you will see that the dog inthe street and the teacher are not connected in any way.There is no logical connection, but your mind simplyflows. If you look a little deep you will understand thatyour thoughts are illogical, independent and unconnected.

When you believe that your mind is logical, when youbelieve that your mind has got its own logic, you havecreated the first original sin for yourself. That is theoriginal sin. Believing your mind is logical is the first sin.


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Understand, by your very nature you are un-clutched.By your very nature you are unconnected.

Connecting thoughts and seeing is like trashing all youremails and picking up some emails from the trash backagain. When I say trash mails, I mean the thoughts thathave left you already. Every moment you are renouncingthe thoughts by your very nature. A new thought canappear only when the old thought has been renounced.But even after renouncing you try to pick up the thoughtsfrom the dustbin and try to create a shaft with it. Youfeel that some valuable thoughts have been dropped inthe dustbin, so you pick up some thoughts here andthere. You pick up these thoughts from the dustbin, putthem near your bed, spray a little perfume on them andkeep them nice and pretty!

All you need to do is a few things. First, have a clearunderstanding that you are creating a shaft, shaft of pain,or shaft of joy and trying to fight with it, by eithertrying to elongate it or by trying to break it. Secondthing, you don’t even have to un-clutch yourself from theshaft because the shaft is imaginary. By your very nature,if you stop creating a shaft, you are un-clutched. Youdon’t need to un-clutch.

Then we start asking, ‘If I un-clutch, how will I do myjob? How will I take care of my things? Will I not just liedown in my bed and waste my life? If I am un-clutched,why should I go to my job?’ I ask you, why should younot go to your job?

The moment you say you will not go for your job, itmeans you have a little hatred or a little vengeance

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against the job. That is why the moment you get someexcuse you want to escape from your job. By saying allthese things, you are expressing your anger, your violenceagainst your routine, nothing else.

I always tell people, ‘Fine, don’t do anything; just beun-clutched; for how many days will you be lying in yourbed?’ Maybe ten days, until your inactivity (tamas) getsexhausted. See, you have a certain amount of tamas inyou. Tamas is one of the three attributes of purity, activityor inactivity. Until your tamas gets exhausted you will liethere, but after that what will you do? Naturally, you willstart working and you will start moving! So do not beafraid; do not be afraid that if you are un-clutched, youwill not do your daily routine.

That is what Krishna means by action and inaction.You cannot by nature be inactive. You will day dream ifnothing else. You will clutch on to fantasies. You will tryto escape from reality by deluding yourself, because yourmind is clutched onto a soft and easy dream shaft.

When you truly un-clutch, when you are in the presentmoment, without any attachment to the past and future,you will realize that you are full of energy. You justcannot keep quiet. You will have to do something. That‘something’ will be dictated by your present momentawareness, not by fantasies. I tell you, what you think as‘you’ is not necessary to run your day-to-day life. This isthe basic truth. What you think as you is not necessary torun your day-to-day life. This truth hurts us.

See, if somebody is happily independent of us, wecan’t tolerate it, it is too much. Constantly we need to feel


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we are needed. That is why we expect people to projecttheir sufferings on us and we too project our sufferingson them, so that we feel important. What you think as‘you’ is not necessary to run your day-to-day life.

People come and ask me, ‘Constantly I repeat positiveaffirmations, ‘I should stop smoking, I should stopsmoking,’ but it is not working. Why, Master?’

All these creative visualizations create more and moretrouble. Because in the very words, ‘I should stopsmoking’, the word ‘smoking’ is contradicting the ‘Ishould stop’. You land up empowering the word‘smoking’ as much as you are empowering the words ‘Ishould stop’! Instead you should say, ‘Let me have onlyhealthy habits’ or something totally positive without eventhe word ‘smoking’ in it.

Similarly, if you have a headache, instead ofempowering the thought of the headache, you can do avery simple thing like deciding to have a glass of water.The moment you decide to have a glass of water, itbecomes a fresh thought. The old thought of theheadache has to disappear because the new thought thatis water has to come into play, right? Once you keepreplacing the thoughts, you break free from the headachebased thought patterns and eventually expel the headachefrom your system itself.

You ask me, ‘How can it be so simple, Master?’ It issimple. Constantly you are taught that it is not so simple.It is simple. If you really understand, it is so simple. Butsoon after doing this, the thought of headache may come

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back, then what do you do? Understand: your faith in itis what brings it back. This is the basic problem. You areso faithful towards the thought about the headache, thatyou forcefully drag it back into your system; you beingback a trashed file, that’s all.

And one more thing: if it comes back, it can go also,is it not? Why don’t you celebrate those moments inwhich it left you? Why do you constantly remember themoments it came back?

People ask me again and again, ‘I fail when I try to un-clutch Master.’

I ask them, ‘Why are you connecting your past failurewith your present failure?’ When you connect all the pastfailures, you create one more word, ‘failure’. The failurethat happened nine years ago, the failure that happenedeight years ago, the failure that happened yesterday areall independent incidents. Why do you connect all ofthem and create the next experience also as a failure?

Just relax and stop connecting and suddenly you willsee such a deep inner healing happening in you; suchdeep peace happening in you. Suddenly you will see thatyou have dropped out of the war, the constant running.Just relax. I tell you when you become a drop out, whenyou drop out of this war, when you drop from thiswhole game, suddenly you will realize that the wholething is just a psycho drama happening. Because you areconstantly supporting it, you are creating these shafts,that’s all!

Try this simple meditation:


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Just close your eyes and sit. Whatever words arerising in you, just let them rise. Just do not connect themwith any other thought, that’s all. Just don’t create a shaft;simply un-clutch.

If you feel bored, or if your mind asks what to do,just un-clutch from that thought as well. Do not evenconnect with that thought. Just sit, be un-clutched. Ifyour mind connects with a thought, just un-clutch. Do notcreate, maintain, or destroy any thought.

Try this for a few minutes and you will see the effectfor yourself. Krishna says that to understand what actionis, you need to understand what inaction is. In myprograms, this is what I tell people. To understand whatmeditation is, you need to understand what meditation isnot.

I spend a day and a half explaining what meditation isnot and less than half a day about what meditation is. Itis the same thing with healing too. For two full dayspeople are taught what healing is not with the help of adetailed manual! Then I come in and ordain the healers,which takes only half an hour!

When you un-clutch, you are seemingly in inaction.However, the removal of the various shafts of pain,pleasure, fantasies etc, releases so much of energy withinyou that you are now actively passive. You are at theheight of potential energy, ready to release that energyfor whatever purpose you decide in that present moment.

If instead, you are actively daydreaming, caught in theweb of your shafts of fantasies and pleasures intermingled

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with sorrow and pain, you are seemingly active, verybusy, but totally and uselessly busy. In fact, you arecounterproductively busy as you are then digging yourselfinto more suffering.

In the process of un-clutching, you transcend bothaction and inaction. You successfully destroy the falsenotion of connectivity of thoughts and reach the state ofthe present moment, the state of no mind, and the stateof dropping thoughts. In this present moment of un-clutched condition, you are active and yet not attached toany activity. You are truly in Krishna consciousness.

All suffering and pain arise when we associateourselves with the senses and the mind. The real Self inyou is eternal, timeless, never changing. It is like this:when you see the clouds drifting in the clear sky, is thesky actually changing? No! The sky is like the canvasover which clouds of different forms and shapes driftacross, sometimes completely covering the sky behindand sometimes drifting apart to reveal the sky behind.

When you travel in a train, have you looked outthrough the window? All the objects outside - the trees,the rocks, the buildings - everything seems to be inmotion. It is relative motion that gives you this effect,this feeling that everything around you is moving. Justlike this is a maya, delusion, because of the effect of mayaalso, it appears as if the Self is being affected by theemotions and the perceptions of the senses.

Just like when the clouds go over the clear blue sky itappears that the sky is being covered by different types


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and colors of clouds, so also the Self is like the clear skyover which the clouds of different emotions go over.

If you see yourself in a clear lake or a mirror, whatyou see is a reflection of what is being projected, right?Just like that, in the lake of the Self, of the being,whatever quality is projected on, it is what you will seereflected in the lake. Does it mean that the lake hasbecome dirty? No! The reflection has no reality, no solidexistence.

Actually, the Self is permanent. The Self in you, in me,in the person next to you is all the same. Wheneverything is you, what is there to fear? Where is thequestion of conflict, jealousy, fear or greed?

Everything is you. Enjoy this world in its many formsand manifestations. Enjoy it in all these forms. However,enjoy without getting caught in attachment. Our senses aretreacherous. They create addictions that overwhelm us.The more we have, the less we enjoy, and yet we cannotdo without them. True wisdom is to step back from whatthe senses tell you, for they never tell you the truth.

Have you seen a person sell something, say a painting?You can see the seller would be busy trying to convincepeople, trying to get the best bargain. But see someonewho is standing witnessing this whole scene, someone,who is neither interested in buying the painting nor inselling it. Only he can completely enjoy the painting!

This world is like a poem written by the Great Poetand all that comes in the poem are verses of infinite bliss.

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A small story:

There was once a father stag that was standingwith the young stag in front of a lake. The stag waslooking at its own reflection in the water of the lakeand telling the young stag, ‘Son, see how powerfulwe are! Look at what we have been endowed with -long horns, strong feet, and sharp eyes. We are trulypowerful.’

Just as the stag was talking, a dog jumped in frontof the stag. The stag, in a split second, just leaptand ran instinctively out of fear.

Then the child stag asked its father, ‘Father, whatis the use of being powerful if we have to run awayfrom the dog?’

When we are faced with a testing situation, we forgetall our truths that we have taught ourselves asphilosophy. Now, that does not mean that we do notaccept the truth. It is just that we feel we are not strongenough to experience it. We need to persevere, fill themind with the highest thoughts, the highest truths. Then,it can become an experiential reality in our lives.

See, without the right ideals, you may reach the goalbut it will take much longer. But, if you have the rightideals, you will reach the truth much faster. When youtake the help of those who have seen the truth, it is moreintelligent to experiment with the techniques that theyadvocate.

We are taught that we are weak human beings, sinners.But the Vedic rishis have time and again declared, ‘We are


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the children of immortality.’ Let us be open to positive,affirmative thoughts rather than continuously repeatingnegative and self-defeating thoughts to ourselves. Theseare not just positive thoughts or statements. Understandthat these are great truths that our rishis haveexperienced, which they declare to us, encouraging us toexperiment and experience as well. They are not merewords trying to convey an idea. With them come theenergy and power of the experience that is possible forevery one of us.

Here is a very simple example of how our perceptionis what decides everything including our attachment: ifthere is a baby and a pot of gold lying next to it, supposea thief comes and steals the pot of gold, would the babybe bothered about it? Do you think it will be upset aboutit?

No! The baby would not even know that the thief hasdone the act of stealing the pot of gold. The babywouldn’t be upset about any loss of wealth. But supposean adult were to be in the place of the baby. Surely hewould be upset and angry with the thief stealing the potof gold, is it not? What we have inside decides what wesee outside. The child, being blissful and centered withinitself, would never see anything disturbing outside,whereas an adult sees things in a different light becauseof his conditioned attachments and greed.

That is what Krishna says here: be involved completelyin the action yet be detached, independent and satisfiedwithin. Then you can function beautifully, spontaneously,

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flowing in tune with the ultimate energy of Existence. Lifethen becomes a celebration. Every breath that you take,every single thing that you do is an act of joy and anexpression of the loving energy in you. Your joy is nolonger dependent on what society says or thinks aboutyou or your actions, because you are completely centeredin yourself.

Whatever we do, whatever we think, we aresubconsciously seeking concurrence and approval from thepeople around us in some subtle way. We are very keenthat we should earn a good name from everyone. Youmay not accept this but if you analyze deeply, you willnot be at ease without the appreciation and endorsementof the people around you. If you just sit and note down,in a day, how many things you do to get a good name,to maintain your reputation in society, you will realizewhat I am saying.

It is like a signature campaign that you are involved infor your whole life. All your activities, all your efforts areto get the signature of the others around you. In a bigregister, you make a column, ‘Good Father’ and then youdo whatever is expected of you from your children andyou ask for their signature under the column of ‘GoodFather’. Then you go to your wife, to your boss, to yourfriends, you make the respective columns like ‘GoodHusband’, ‘Good Employee, ‘Good Friend’, and then youdo all the things that they expect you to do and ask fortheir signature under their columns. Of course, all thesepeople also come to you for your signature in theirregisters under the columns meant for you.


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Why do we bother so much about others’ opinionsabout us? Why are we trying to derive strength fromothers all the time? The reason is, one, we don’t knowanything about ourselves. We know ourselves onlythrough others’ opinions of us. Second, when others giveus their approval and attention, they are actually givingus energy. Attention is energy.

Be very clear, when you are dependent on externalsources for energy, it only means that you arepsychologically handicapped. When you need physicalsupport, you are physically handicapped. When you needpsychological support, you are psychologicallyhandicapped, that’s all. With physical handicaps, youknow that you are handicapped because you can see itclearly, but with psychological handicaps, you don’t evenknow that you are handicapped.

If you have seen children at play you might have seenthem build castles with cards. They will place the cards ata certain angle to each other and build several layers ofsuch patterns in a pyramid shape. They happily build thepyramid and equally happily remove one card from thecastle and watch the whole thing collapse! In fact, theywill delight in that aspect just as much as the building upof the card castle.

Just like this, we build our own self-image like a castleout of people’s opinions of us and arrange all thesecertificates and signatures and build a castle to form ourself-image. The image looks beautiful until even oneperson withdraws their certificate. Then what happens?The castle simply collapses! You start feeling miserable

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and unfit. You see, at least in the case of the children,they build their castles with their own cards. But webuild our castles with others’ certificates. So what do wedo? We start working hard to maintain our ‘castle’. Westart behaving in a way such so that people don’t removetheir certificates, so that people will think well of us. Thisis how we get enslaved.

Because you don’t know anything about yourself, youturn to society for an answer. And society happily putsits labels on you, ‘you are good-looking’, ‘you are afailure’, and so on. It is like how a parcel without aproper address is pushed from place to place. We movearound, collecting all the stamps that society puts on us.By and by we forget our true nature, and the fact thatwe are not the labels but the stuff inside the parcel.

Never invest so much in others’ opinions to the pointthat they become the center of your life. Don’t makeothers the source of your energy. Don’t depend on othersfor your psychological survival. Be your own source ofenergy and inspiration!

Ashtavakra says beautifully, ‘Bondage is when themind longs for something, grieves about something,rejects something, holds on to something, is pleased aboutsomething or displeased about something. Liberation iswhen the mind does not long for anything, does notgrieve about anything, does not reject anything, does nothold on to anything and is not pleased about anything ordispleased about anything. Bondage is when the mind istangled in one of the senses and liberation is when themind is not tangled in any of the senses. When there is


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no ‘me’, that is liberation, and when there is ‘me’ there isbondage. Consider this carefully and don’t hold on toanything nor reject anything.’

Q: Master, what you say is very difficult to practiceeven if we accept it. For instance, if we are injured andfeel the pain now, it is the reality for us in this presentmoment. I do not need to link it to the past experiences.So how will I break out of the connectivity with pain?

Treat the pain of the present as the pain of the hereand now. Do not link it to pains that you had in the pastand with the sufferings that you experienced then. Theyhave no relevance to the present pain.

In Quantum Physics theories of today, they say thatwe collapse events that happen separated in space and intime into a current experience. These events are separateevents. They may or may not have been sequential. Thatdoes not matter. But the logical connection is somehowestablished in your mind.

If you feel pain, you normally would like to wish thatpain away. You keep thinking again and again, ‘I do notwant this pain.’ This does not work because your mindgets caught in the word ‘pain’. It does not let go. So thepain does not go.

If you wish the pain to dissolve you need to focus onwellness. Do not associate the experience with the word

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‘pain’ which has negative connotations in your mind.Instead, think about being well.

Better still, focus your attention on the pain. Watch thepain intensely but without ascribing the word ‘pain’ andthe meaning ‘suffering’ to it. For a brief moment the painmay seem to intensify but then it will dissolve. Try it thenext time you have any pain.

Pain is caused by the absence of attention to yourbody-mind system. It is your system telling you that itneeds to be looked after. Pay attention, close attention toit. It will feel better and the pain will go away.

Another thing is that pain and suffering are twodifferent things. Pain affects the body. Suffering affectsthe mind. You can have pain in your body and yet haveno suffering. Body pain cannot be avoided, as it isphysical, but mental suffering is your own creation.

When you un-clutch, when you stop linking with thepast, what disappears is the suffering. Each experience isviewed as a new one with no past association. You willfind that this is not so difficult to do. You need somepractice, that’s all.

Equanimity in Success andFailure

4.21 The person who acts withoutdesire for the result; with hisconsciousness controlling the mind,

Giving up all sense of ownershipover his possessions and body andonly working, incurs no sin.

4.22 He who is satisfied with profitwhich comes of its own accord andwho has gone beyond duality, who isfree from envy,

Who is in equanimity both in success and failure,such a person though doing action, is never affected.

4.23 The work of a liberated man who is unattachedto the modes of material nature and who is fullycentered in the ultimate knowledge,

Who works totally for the sake of sacrifice, mergesentirely into the knowledge.

4.24 The offering, the offered butter to the supreme inthe fire of the supreme is offered by the supreme.

Certainly, the supreme can be reached by him who isabsorbed completely in action.

4.25 Some yogis worship the gods by offering varioussacrifices to them,

While others worship by offering sacrifices in the fireof the supreme.

A sense of ownership over possessions and over yourbody is the same thing. What can you say are yourpossessions? You came with nothing at all. Can you claimthat you were born with anything that is your ownproperty? In the same way, you are going to leave thisworld also empty-handed. Can any of you say that allyour possessions and wealth and luxuries will go withyou when you leave this body? No!


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People ask me, ‘Master, why do you wear sherwani(North Indian dress) and jewelry?’ I normally wear thistwo-piece saffron clothes and the only jewelry I wear isthese rudraksha (sacred seed) beads. But when I am goingfor some discourses or for a specific event, maybe acorporate event, to adjust to the occasion, I wear sherwani.I tell them, ‘This body itself is a covering, a cloth for me;how does this second covering of clothes matter?’

This very prana, the very life breath that is goinginside your body through the air that you breathe itself isnot your property. It is the property of Existence. Yourvery life is a sheer gift to you from Existence. When yourealize this, you will immediately see that all your fearsand worries and greed are so baseless. You are runningbehind something, thinking it is yours but of whatrelevance is it really? When your very life is a gift to you,how can you claim that anything else is your possession?

One more thing: real knowledge comes by experience,not through words; not just by talking about it. Let metell you, the moment you imbibe a single point of truth orany single dimension of truth in any way, if you catch asingle idea and imbibe it honestly, truthfully, it can dowonders to you.

Vivekananda says beautifully, ‘Even if you memorizeall the books in all the libraries of this world, it will nothelp you in any way other than increasing your ego overthe bookish knowledge that you have. Instead of havinga whole library in your head, just know five concepts inyour heart.’

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I tell you, use only one idea and try to imbibe it inyour being, experience it in your life. Your life will betransformed by even a single idea, just one idea.

In Tamilnadu, South India, they describe beautifully thelives of 63 enlightened Masters in a book. The name ofthe book is Periapuranam. If you study the lives of theseMasters in this book you will find that there are someMasters who did not really do anything; nothing reallyhappened in their lives. They would have just pluckedflowers and offered them to God, nothing else. Yet theyachieved enlightenment! It is not what you do that isimportant. How honest you are with the act is whatreally matters. When they did the act of offering flowers,they were true and honest to the action.

We also offer flowers everyday and do all possiblethings, but we are not enlightened. The only thing we getis the extra expense of maintaining the garden or buyingthe flowers! The problem is, we are not honest. Whenthese Masters plucked flowers to offer to God, they werethinking of Him to whom they were offering the flowers.They were totally devoted to the thought of the Lordand there was nothing else that was distracting them.

When we pluck flowers, even if it is to offer to afavorite deity, we are thinking of something else,somebody else. I have seen these people who do ritualsregularly. Whenever they are doing any rituals, theywould be thinking of something else. Their thoughts arein either their office or in their home. I have seen thesepeople who regularly chant the 1000 names of the Godsand Goddesses, the Vishnu sahasranama and Lalitha


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sahasranama. The moment they start chanting, they startlooking at the index number of the verse that they havereached. They are desperate to see how far they haveread and how much else remains to complete thechanting.

The attitude, the intention, and the thoughts behindthe action actually decide the energy behind the action,however it may look externally. The power of thought isimmense. In fact, some of the latest research shows howour DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by wordsand frequencies. It has actually been studied that when anumber of people focus their thoughts on somethingsimilar, like during Christmas or the football World Cup,certain random number generators in computers start todeliver ordered numbers instead of the random ones.

I tell you, all the so-called natural calamities arenothing but the effects of global negative thoughts. Yourthoughts and energy directly affect your body, your cellstructure, your decisions, your capacity to fulfill yourdecisions, the outer world incidents, even accidents. Youcreate a mental setup that creates and attracts similarincidents to you.

If you can change your mental setup from greed andfear, which is what we have normally, to one of bliss, orananda, then your energy flow will start brimming andyour thoughts will be much clearer and more in thepresent. When you do this, you have every power tocontrol the outer world incidents because you andExistence have a very deep connection at the energy level.When you are blissful, when your mental setup is not

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one of worry, fear and greed but one that is in thepresent, always joyful, you will automatically attract allgood things to yourself.

One more thing: all our minds are not individuallyseparated pieces of the universe. They are all one and thesame. All our minds are interlinked. Not only interlinked,they directly affect each other. This is what I call the‘collective consciousness’. Though each one is independentin his consciousness, when one is truly conscious of one’strue nature, one feels as if one is part of the wholeuniverse.

Each one’s thoughts straightaway affect the othersaround. Your thoughts are more infectious than yourcold. If you catch a cold from someone, you may sufferphysically for a few days and then get over it. But whenyou catch thoughts from people, not only do you suffermentally but you suffer forever also; not just once.

Not only are those who are staying around youtouched by your thoughts, everyone who is living on theplanet Earth is touched by your thoughts.

The next truth: not only in the mental level are youconnected; even in the deeper conscious level you areconnected to every other being. See, your body is not justone body. Actually, there are seven layers of bodies.

The first layer is the physical body. The second is thepranic body. There are seven such energy layers of thebody. These energy layers can be represented asconcentric circles with the physical layer as the outermostcircle and the seventh layer, the nirvanic body as theinnermost.


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We go into complete detail of these seven layers ofbodies during the Nithyananda Spurana Program (NSP),our second level meditation program, now called LifeBliss Program Level 2 or LBP 2.

Now, in a physical layer, you, God and I can berepresented as three different points in the outermostconcentric circle. In the physical level, the distance is somuch. If you come down a little, to the pranic level, thedistance is reduced. If you come down deeper, to themental level, the distance between you and I is stillreduced and so is the distance between you, God and I.

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When you go deeper and deeper, these three entitiesfinally merge into one at the inner most nirvanic layer.Please be very clear that at the deep end of all theselayers, God, you and I are one. There is no distancebetween the thre.

Once you become aware and realize that you are a partof collective consciousness, that you don’t have anindividual identity, you realize that you do not have aseparate ego.

You think you own your individual identity. InExistence, there is no such thing as a separate individualidentity. Once you know this truth, you go beyond pain,sufferings, depressions and diseases.

Understand this: as long as you are individuallyconscious, you will be continuously suffering. Why do youthink you are continuously resisting nature? Whatevernature offers, you resist.

There is a beautiful saying:

Mind as a rule is a foolWhen it is hot, asking for coolWhen it is cool, asking for hotAlways asking what is not!

When it is cool, you resist. You think you are differentfrom Existence. I have seen sanyasis, monks, living in theHimalayas, living almost nude in the cold, in the snow. Ihave myself lived in such conditions, but the body wasnever disturbed. I never had a problem. I never thoughtthat I was different from the atmosphere, never had the


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feeling of separation from nature. When you start thinkingthat you are different from the atmosphere, from the airthat is around you, you start resisting it.

The other day I read an interesting interview of thisman who survived his jump into the Niagara Falls. If youhave been to the Niagara Falls, you can understand theenormity of the fact that someone survived jumping downthe Niagara Falls. I cannot imagine someone surviving thatNiagara Falls. He says beautifully, ‘When I jumped, Ibecame a part of that Niagara Falls. I felt like I was a partof it. I never felt that I was different from the falls.’

When you are in tune with the collective consciousness,when you become a part of the collective consciousness,nature is with you, nature is your friend and nature willprotect you. Nature will not harm you. As long as youthink that you are an individual consciousness differentfrom nature, nature will protest. As long as you are intune with collective consciousness, nature protects you.

A very simple thing that you can practice now.

If you are feeling cold, just relax, identify the areawhere you are feeling cold, witness that area. In thatarea, don’t resist the atmosphere, don’t resist the air,don’t resist the temperature, don’t resist nature and don’tresist Existence. Just say to yourself, ‘I am not going toresist nature, I am not going to resist the temperature. Iam not going to resist Existence. Let me relax.’ Beconscious and decide. With this you will see the bodyrelaxing and the idea of cold disappearing from that partand you become completely comfortable. When you think

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you are something different from nature, you aredisturbed by nature.

The Whole, the universe, is a hologram of which youare a part. Just as in a hologram every single part reflectsthe totality of that hologram even if it is a split. Youreflect the totality of the Whole that is the universe.

Another example; when a living person falls in a welland dies, the dead body floats. The dead body is heavierthan water. Yet, it floats. But a living body, which maybe lighter, does not float. It drowns. Why do you thinkthis is so? As long as you are living, you are not able torelate with water. Your ego prevents that. Your mindprevents that. In a dead body there is no mind and noego and so it floats.

Wherever you want to achieve success, in a social orin an economic context, only when you feel in tune withthe whole group and fall in tune with the collectiveconsciousness, will you be able to achieve what you wantto achieve. As long as you feel you are an individual, aslong as you want to have an idea that you aresomebody, an identity, be very clear that you will beresisted and you will be resisting. Whether it is in thehome or at the office or workplace or industry, this willhappen.

If you disappear into the collective consciousness, youwill be again and again protected and taken care of. Youwill attain complete success, not only socially andeconomically, but you will experience it as a deep feelingof fulfillment.


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As long as you resist the current, whether it is yourworkplace or your house or your company or any placefor that matter, as long as you do not disappear into thecollective consciousness, you will be continuously creatinghell for yourself and for others.

Even if in the physical layer, if you think you aresomething separate, be very clear, you will be invitingdiseases. One more thing, in the mental layer, if you thinkyou are something separate, if you think you are anindividual, again and again you will be sowing the seedsof violence. The seeds of violence will be created whenyou feel you are an individual. With collectiveconsciousness, you unify but with individual consciousness,you dissect, you cut things into pieces.

Logic always breaks while intuition always unites. Atthe soul level, if you think you are an individual, there isno possibility for any spiritual growth.

First thing, at the physical level, you are not anindividual. Your body and the body of the Sun arestraightaway connected. Any small change in the body ofthe Sun can make changes in your body. Any smallchange in your body can change the body of the Moon.Even if you are not able to logically relate to this, it istrue.

In the mental layer also, you are not alone. Anythought which is put in anyone else’s head comes andtouches you and any thought created in your mind goesand touches someone else. Any thought sowed bysomeone can touch you and affect you.

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It is like ripples created in the water in a lake. If youare creating a strong wave, you will be creating animpression with your thought. You will be leading andinspiring others with your thought. If your thoughts arenot solid enough, other waves will impress you.

Either you live like a leader or you will be a follower.There is no in between. You always think, I will not be aleader, I cannot do that much; I will not be a followereither; I shall maintain my own stand. This is simplyimpractical. There is no such thing as my own stand.Either you lead or you follow.

In the mental level also, again and again, if you thinkyou are an individual, you will be resisted. The momentyou understand that you are a part of the collectiveconsciousness, you will not be resisted but will be actuallywelcomed and accepted.

In the ultimate way, at the spiritual level, the momentyou understand that you are deeply connected, totallyconnected, intensely connected to the whole universe, notonly do you start experiencing bliss, but you start reallyliving, opening many dimensions of your being.

See, with just this one body, you can think so much,enjoy so much. If you disappear into the collectiveconsciousness, you will experience so many dimensions, somany possibilities, you cannot imagine.

Now that you feel you have just one body, you areenjoying this much. Imagine what you can do if you havetwo bodies. And just imagine what you can do when youhave so many bodies! Imagine three different bodies indifferent countries enjoying different cultures. Similarly if


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the multitudes of bodies increase, so would the joy, thebliss. This same thing you will experience when you are apart of collective consciousness.

During the Indian festival day of Holi, raas purnima,Radha and the gopis (women devotees of Krishna)experienced the collective consciousness of Krishna. This isreferred to as raas leela when Krishna gave them theexperience of collective consciousness. We have a verywrong idea about this raas leela. We think that this raasleela is something where Krishna had a relationship withso many women. This is a wrong concept. Krishna wasjust ten years old then!

We have not read the original scriptures and havecome up with our own conclusions. We pick up andsupport what we want. We just want some support fromsome scripture and some Master so that we can dosomething behind his back. So we just start blamingKrishna. What happened actually was that He gave theexperience of collective consciousness to the whole groupof gopikas and Radha. This collective consciousness is whatI call God.

Throughout LBP 2 course, you will realize that you area part of the collective consciousness. Not only that youare a part, but that you are the collective consciousness.You are not an individual consciousness as you think.Layer by layer when we go deeper and deeper, you willrealize that you are just one with everything. Soautomatically the diseases disappear. You start feeling thewellbeing in the mental layer, the pranic layer, the ethericlayer, the physical layer and all the other layers.

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You are like an onion. If you peel the onion layer bylayer, what is inside? Just emptiness! The onion thinks ithas got something solid but when it is opened layer bylayer, it is empty. Similarly, you think that you are anindividual consciousness, but if you peel the individuallayers, you will experience you are nothing but the cosmicconsciousness, the collective consciousness!

In LBP 2, that is what we do, opening of your minds.You are asked to write for yourself, about your pains,desires, guilt and pleasures. You will not be showing yournotes to anyone else. People ask me why I ask them towrite all this when they already know it. I tell peoplethat by writing them down, they are opening their mindsin my presence. When they open their minds, I can healtheir minds.

First of all you should understand that I do not heal.My presence heals. When the Sun rises, the lotus bloomsby itself. The Sun need not go and open the petals of thelotus. Similarly, in the presence of the Master, healinghappens. Healing is not done, it simply happens. I canheal your body as it is in my presence.

In the same way, if you open your mind, it can behealed. If you open it, the Sun can heal it; the energyheals all the wounds. LBP 2 is about opening up yourenergy layers one by one. Your pains, pleasures, guilt anddesires are opened up. When they open up, youexperience God. Not only do you search for God, butyou experience God as well. Pure mind is God itself andnot something separate from it.


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We are all taught from childhood that there is apurpose to life. We are guided that we should all worktowards goals in life, which are almost always materialgoals. We are expected to live up to the expectations ofour parents, later our teachers, much later our spousesand finally our children.

Understand, there is no purpose to life, except to live.The purpose of life is to enjoy life. How can we enjoy lifeif we get saddled with a bagful of goals that bind usdown to duties, responsibilities and obligations? We aretoo stressed out by all that is expected of us that we haveno time to enjoy what we are doing. This should be ourgoal instead.

Life is not about purpose; life is not about goals. Lifeis not lifestyle. Life is not about impressing people abouthow rich or how clever, or how beautiful or how skilledyou are. Life is about enjoying the journey of life. It is notabout the stress of looking for the destination. When thepath is right, when you enjoy the path, the destination isalways right, it will always be enjoyable.

Only the person who realizes the purposelessness of lifecan be satisfied in any action with whatever profit comesof that action and of its own accord. Understand: life hasno purpose but it has a meaning. All the time, we aretaught that life has a goal, a purpose, and we run behindvarious goals hoping to achieve satisfaction in life. But lifehas no goal; the very life, the very path itself is the goal.When you realize this, you relax into the present and arenot affected by success or failure.

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All this jealousy and envy also comes when you thinkthat life has a goal and somebody else has been givensomething more than you to reach the goal. When youunderstand that you are unique and Existence hasequipped you with all that you need to fulfill all yourdesires, you will actually be able to live life. Otherwise,you will only be running behind some goal or the other.You will envy others who you think are closer to that goaltowards which you are running. You will be caught inthis roller coaster of success and failure.

Understand that the goal of life is like a mirage. Itdoes not exist in reality, but it continuously createsillusions of its existence. Live life every moment in bliss;enjoy it from moment to moment and you can see thetremendous difference it makes to the very quality ofyour life.

A small story:

This has happened according to the mythologicalstories in my native place, Tiruvannamalai, a spiritualnerve center in India. I call that place a spiritualincubator. Just like how premature babies need anincubator to supply air and all the basic things, for anenlightened being to land on planet Earth, you need aspiritual incubator to protect and help them.

The story says that Brahma, the Creator had tofind the Lord Shiva’s head and Vishnu, the Sustainer,was asked to find Shiva’s feet. The story is beautifuland it has a beautiful meaning. Who is Brahma? He isthe husband of Saraswati, the Goddess of Knowledge.


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Who is Vishnu? He is the husband of Lakshmi, theGoddess of Wealth. The story says that Brahmastarted searching for the head. Vishnu startedsearching for the feet. Vishnu came back after sometime and accepted, ‘I am not able to find Your feet;please forgive me.’ Brahma also realized he would notbe able to find Shiva’s head. But instead of acceptingthe fact, he decided to cheat. He took a flower as afalse witness to testify that he had touched andbrought it from Shiva’s head.

You need to understand the story: Vishnu is theembodiment of wealth. Brahma is the embodiment ofintellect. Neither by wealth or intellect can you achieveenlightenment. That is the truth of the story. Neither bywealth nor by intellect can you achieve enlightenment.

One more important thing: if you dig in the line ofwealth, you will get frustrated, you will understand, youwill face depression of success and you will really becomehumble. You will fall and you will understand. But if youdig in the line of intellect you will never accept you aredefeated.

If you travel in the line of ahankara or externallyfocused ego, or the path of material success in the outerworld, at least at one point you will understand. You willexperience depression of success. You will say, ‘Enough!Let me rest. I understand that enlightenment can never beachieved in this line.’

But the person who travels in the line of mamakara,internally focused ego or the line of intellect, not only

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does he never achieve, he will not even be able tounderstand that he cannot achieve. The intellect, the egobecomes so sharp, so subtle; he brings false claims andfalse techniques to say that he has achieved it. Those falseclaims are only those false flowers, the false witness.

The ultimate knowledge can be reached only throughsincerity, not through intellect or wealth. Then you arenot caught in running behind the senses, behind the innerworld or outer world.

Now, Krishna talks about the different kinds ofsacrifices:

This is a beautiful sloka similar to the Upanishad verse:

Om Poornamada poornamidam Poornad poornamudachyatePoornasya poornamadaya Poornameva vasishyate

The Whole is full. From the Whole, if the Whole isremoved, what remains is still the Whole.

In mathematics, there is a similar analogy: from infinity,if you remove infinity, what remains? What remains is stillinfinity!

People ask me often, ‘Who created the universe?’ I tellyou, the universe itself is the creator. The creation,creator and created are not three separate things. Theuniverse itself is the creator, the created and the creation.

See, if there is somebody creating the universe, thenthat means the creator is intelligent and the created andthe creation are not. But the universe is intelligence. Theuniverse, the cosmic energy is intelligence and that itselfpervades the universe.


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You and I are manifestations of this cosmic energy. Weare creations of the cosmic energy. But what does‘manifestations of the cosmic energy’ mean? Theintelligent cosmic energy pervades our very beings. Thecosmic energy is the creator, so, we are the creator aswell. The creator, the creation and the created are all thesame; they are not separate identities.

Earlier I had talked about this Tamil scripture calledPeriapuranam. Periapuranam describes the lives of 63nayanmars. These nayanmars were great Shiva devotees.They were more than devotees; they were disciples ofShiva, though Shiva was not physically present to teachthem. The energy of Shiva was enough to teach and fulfillthem.

One of these nayanmars did nothing in his life except topluck flowers and offer to Shiva. Another sang songs. Inwhatever they did they offered themselves to Shivacompletely. They sacrificed themselves and their actions totheir beloved Shiva. They were so completely absorbed inthat activity, whether it was gathering flowers or singingsongs or whatever else it was, that nothing else remainedin their mind and thoughts.

Even the physicality of Shiva was not relevant to thesenayanmars. They were consumed by the energy of Shiva.They sacrificed themselves in the fire of Shiva. They wereone with Shiva. For them, the creator, creation andcreated were one and the same.

In the same manner, the gopis of Brindavan immersedthemselves in Krishna. Nothing but Krishna was visible to

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them. Radha, the epitome of all gopis, asks a friend. ‘Whyis it that wherever I look, and what ever I look at, I seeonly Krishna?’

Says the friend so beautifully, ‘Radha, that is becauseyou wear Krishna as your eye shadow. What ever you seeis only that eye shadow that is Krishna.’ A true devoteenot only sees God in everything, but is also ready tosacrifice anything for His sake. We shall see the variouskinds of sacrifices in the next few verses.

Q: Master, you said that at the inner most energylayer, the nirvanic layer, God, you and I are all one, andthat one realizes one’s divinity. In the LBP 2 course, youteach this as a part of one’s death process. Can oneachieve this state while still alive?

A very good question and the answer is, of course,you can.

In the LBP 2 course - the Nithyananda SpuranaProgram, we do teach techniques to go through each ofthese seven energy layers. These are the layers that thespirit passes at the time of death. The first four layers arestill within this life span. Even part of the fifth is. Everyday you move from the gross body through your subtlebody into your causal body.

The gross body is the physical body in the wakingstate. The subtle body is your dream body, where youare when you dream at night. The causal body is where


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you are when you are in deep sleep. The Causal bodylayer is close to death. Every day you do travel to deathand come back. This is the process that refreshes you,rejuvenates you and revitalizes you. In fact, if you losethis for a few days you will die of tiredness.

When the spirit crosses the causal layer, it cannotreturn. Causal layer is a dark passage that is the transitionpoint between this world and the reality beyond. Thisdarkness of the causal body corresponds to the darknessof the mother’s womb, which is where the departingspirit travels as it seeks and assumes a new body.

We take you through this journey to rid you of thefeeling of fear of death and to dissolve all your engravedmemories that condition you. At the end of the LBP 2course, you are rid of all your samskaras, the engravedmemories that cause you all the suffering. You lose allyour negativities. You are born anew. So you may opt fora new spiritual name at the end of the program as well.

At the next level, when you come for the Healer’sInitiation program, I teach you how to reach the layersbeyond the causal layer while you are still alive!

All our Nithya Healers, when they go into theirmeditation, the Ananda Gandha meditation, reach thehighest level of energy, the seventh layer of nirvanicenergy. They do this every time they meditate. They canbe in meditation all the time. So they can be in thenirvanic layer of energy all the time!

At the time of initiation, I open an energy point calledthe ananda gandha, the fragrance of bliss. This is the

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convergence point of all the seven energy centers, thechakras, in your mind-body system. When you focus onthis point after initiation, it leads to a deep experiencethat holds you in the present moment. You can be in thisstate and function normally. Many of our Nithya SpiritualHealers stay in this state at work as well, not merelywhile healing.

At this state, the Healer is at the level of the cosmicenergy and at the energy level of their Master. That iswhy they are able to heal. The healing energy of thecosmos flows through them and heals. All that is neededis that they drop their mind, which they do when theygo into meditation.

So you don’t have to die to reach the nirvanic layer ofenergy. All that you need to do is to open your mind-body system to allow the energy to come into you.

So don’t die! Just become a Nithya Spiritual Healer andreach the nirvanic energy, that’s all.


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Know the Meaning ofSacrifice and Be Purified4.26 Some sacrifice the hearing

process and other senses in the fire ofequanimity

And others offer as sacrifice theobjects of the senses, such as sound, inthe fire of the sacrifice.

4.27 One who is interested inknowledge offers all the actions due tothe senses,

Including the action of taking in the

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life breath into the fire of yoga and is engaged in theyoga of the equanimity of the mind.

4.28 There is the sacrifice of material wealth, sacrificethrough penance, sacrifice through yoga

And other sacrifices while there is sacrifice throughself-study and through strict vows.

4.29 There are others who sacrifice the life energy inthe form of incoming breath and outgoing breath,

Thus checking the movement of the incoming andoutgoing breaths and controlling the breath.

4.30 There are others who sacrifice through controlledeating and offering the outgoing breath, life energy.

All these people know the meaning of sacrifice andare purified of sin or karma.

4.31 Having tasted the nectar of the results of suchsacrifices, they go to the supreme eternal consciousness.

This world is not for those who have not sacrificed.How can the other be, Arjuna?

4.32 Thus, there are many kinds of sacrifices born ofwork mentioned in the Vedas.

Thus, knowing these, one will be liberated.


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In all these verses, Krishna talks about the varioustypes of sacrifices. You should know that when we say‘sacrifice’, it is not just the act of giving, but the attitudeof giving. This understanding is important. Otherwise,you may do everything, following all the rituals accordingto the scriptures, but you will miss out on the real intentfor which the ritual or the act had to be done.

A beautiful story from the Bhagavatam:

Once, Krishna was playing with his friends. Afterplaying, his friends were tired and they askedKrishna, ‘O Krishna, we are feeling hungry. Please tellus where we can go for food.’ Krishna replied, ‘Go tothe nearby hall where learned brahmanas (priests) areperforming a great ritual to attain heaven. Tell themthat you have been sent by me and request them togive you some cooked rice.’

Krishna’s friends went as directed by Krishna tothe brahmanas and asked them, ‘Krishna sent us here.We are hungry and Krishna asked us to seek foodfrom you.’

The brahmanas were all caught up in the rituals andsacrifices according to the prescribed procedures. Theydid not, however, know the intent of the sacrifice.The very divine energy for which the sacrifice wasbeing made was asking for an offering, but thebrahmanas could not see that.

Krishna’s friends returned disappointed and cameback and told Krishna what happened. Krishna, onhearing about the foolish brahmanas, just laughed and

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said, ‘Now, go to the innocent wives of thesebrahmanas and ask them the same thing.’

The friends now went to the wives of thebrahmanas and told them, ‘O ladies, we have been senthere by Krishna who is playing with us nearby. Weare hungry and have come to you for food.’ Theladies, on hearing that they had been given such awonderful opportunity to serve, gathered all the foodfrom their houses and rushed to feed Krishna and hisfriends.

The very act of service, the welcoming attitude is whatis important.

There is a beautiful verse in the Mahabharata that says,‘A guest comes with all the Gods. If the guest is honored,so are the Gods; if he goes away disappointed, the Godsare disappointed too.’

That is why in Sanskrit, we say, ‘atithi devo bhava’, theguest is God. ‘Tithi’ means date and the prefix ‘a’ negatesit. Therefore, one who arrives unexpectedly without priordate or appointment is the guest.

When somebody comes unexpected also, serve him.That is a real welcoming attitude. The word used forritual giving in Sanskrit is ‘dana’, which means sharing,imparting.

Ayurveda speaks of four kinds of defects which canafflict cooked food: the defect of time (kala dosha) whichaffects it when the food has been kept for too long, thedefect of flavor (rasa dosha) which causes the food to lose


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its taste, the defect of company (samsarga dosha) when it istouched by unclean hands, or in which some insect hasfallen and the defect of sentiment (bhava dosha) whichaffects the food when it is offered with ill grace orwithout affection. Such food is not food; it is poison andis the worst out of the four categories.

The true meaning of sacrifice lies in the meaning withwhich it is done. Look at the trees. They live for thewelfare of others, themselves facing the stormy winds,heavy showers, heat and snow, all the while protecting usfrom them. They never turn away anyone coming tothem. They don’t turn their back even on the man who iscoming to fell them down. They still give shade andfruits and flowers to that man as well. All of their manyparts, leaves, flowers, fruits, shadow, roots, bark, woodand fragrance, are useful to others.

In the Mahabharata, after Yudhishtra had won theGreat War, he celebrated it by performing theAswameda yagna (horse sacrifice). A reigning monarchwould let his champion horse loose to wander as itpleased, and all the land it covered would becomehis. If any other king tried to stop the horse, therewould be a war. In Yudhishtra’s case after the defeatof the Kauravas, he was the unchallenged monarch.

After the rituals were over, a mongoose came intothe ritual space and rolled around on the ashes of thesacrificial fire. All those who watched wereperplexed. This mongoose seemed to be no ordinarymongoose. One side of it was all golden. The otherside was normal brown. Having rolled around, the

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mongoose looked up with a disappointed look andannounced, ‘This sacrifice is nothing compared to thatof the Brahmana!’

Yudhishtra, the Pandava prince was startled. Beinga gentle soul, he enquired of the mongoose, ‘what doyou mean?’

The mongoose recited its experience.

Once there was a brahmana, his wife, his son andhis daughter-in-law who lived in Kurukshetra. Thisbrahmana was very poor and subsisted on alms heobtained every day. He would never stock any food,and would live on what he got each day. One day allthat he managed to get was some corn flour. Overthe previous few days he had received nothing, andthe family has not eaten at all. His wife cooked thisflour and made four portions. As they sat down toeat, a stranger knocked on the door seeking food.

The brahmana invited him in, gave him water towash and drink, and requested him to sit with them.He gave the guest his own portion. The guest atethat portion and looked unsatisfied. Immediately, thebrahmana’s wife gave her portion to the guest. Theguest ate that too with relish and seemed hungry still.In turn the son gave his portion too, though he toowas famished.

The guest ate all that was offered to him. He thenblessed the brahmana and his family. ‘You had nothingfor yourself except this little cooked flour. You hadnot eaten for days, yet you sacrificed it to a stranger


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when he walked in hungry. Hunger destroys a man’sawareness, and leads him astray. You, despite yourhunger, maintained your awareness and dharma. Yoursis the greatest of all sacrifices. Your sacrifice hasearned you all and all your ancestors the right toheaven.’

So saying this, the guest disappeared. A chariotcame down to take the brahmana and his family toheaven. I was in that house when this happened.There was a beautiful fragrance that arose from theflour that the brahmana’s wife had cooked. Attractedby that fragrance, I rolled on a bit of the flour thatwas scattered. Immediately, my body that touched theflour turned golden. But, alas, there was not enoughflour left to cover my entire body.

Since then I have been to all the great sacrifices ofall the great kings, and I have failed to convert myother half to golden. Not even one amongst thesegreat sacrifices matched the sacrifice of the brahmana’sfamily.

So saying, the mongoose disappeared.

No sacrifice is truly a sacrifice, if one could ‘afford’ togive away what is being sacrificed. A wealthy man givingaway alms is not sacrificing anything. He may be doing agood deed; that is all.

Krishna mentions many forms of sacrifice here. Hetalks of sacrifices of material wealth, yoga and penance - acombination of material, physical, mental and spiritualsacrifices. When a person does these at some cost and

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pain to himself, they would be genuine sacrifices.Otherwise they would merely be meaningless rituals.

However, even that which is given away by someonewho can afford what he is giving, if done with goodintentions, would result in gains to that person. His veryintention would alter his mindset and liberate him. Aperson who does not believe in sharing his wealth willnot only not enjoy his wealth in this life, but will alsosuffer in future births as a result of his mental make up.

When one sacrifices whatever is dear and whatever isdifficult to give away, that one enters a completelydifferent plane of sacrifice, one that liberates the person.Such a person enters a plane of true non-attachmentleading to liberation.

Q: Master, many rich people may give with selfishintents, but those who benefit do not see the intent. Theysee just the benefit. If one insists on noble intentionswhile giving, very little may then be given. This will onlyaffect those who need it most. What to do then?

Whether now or in Krishna’s time, what you say hasbeen true. Most givers give to boost their ego, or give sothat they can receive more than what they give. All thegreat kings of Krishna’s age conducted sacrifices as rituals,more to enhance their status than from any deep sense ofselflessness.


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Nothing can be done about this. That is the way theworld is. Before he gives away any money to anycharitable purpose, the CEO would like to make sure thatthe photographer is ready and waiting and that thepicture is published in the next day’s papers.

The entire meaning of sacrifice is lost in the process.What is there to sacrifice then? What is happening is abusiness deal. Let us say you practice yoga purely forhealth reasons, for being fit. It is not the sacrifice ofbreath or life force that Krishna is talking about here.When each breath is surrendered to the cosmic energy,from where it actually originates, with a completeawareness and understanding of this truth, it becomes asacrifice.

Krishna is guiding those who wish to advance in theirpath to Self-realization on what to do. He is not stoppingthose who give with selfish reasons. He outlines howthose who give selflessly benefit in moving towardseternal consciousness.

Ramakrishna has said that if you keep repeating theword Gita you end up saying taag or tyaag, which meanssacrifice. The entire focus of Gita is sacrifice or non-attachment. This is the key issue here. Giving withoutexpecting something in return leads to doing everythingthat you do without expecting anything in return. In turnthis leads to doing what you have to do withoutworrying about issues like what you can get out of it,what will happen if you don’t do it, and how I can getmore out of it.

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By learning to give without expectation, you break abondage; the bondage of expectations. This liberates you.

Do not worry about other people or how the rest ofthe world will survive. This universe has survived foreternity, not just some billions of years as scientistsestimate it. It will survive such people also. When youunderstand Krishna’s words, try to follow them. Givewithout asking, sacrifice without intent. This will upliftyou. It will take you into nithyananda, eternal bliss.


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You Are No Sinner

4.33 O conqueror of foes, thesacrifice of wisdom is superior to thesacrifice of material wealth.

After all, all activities totally endin wisdom.

4.34 Understand these truths byapproaching a spiritual Master, byasking him your questions, by offeringservice.

The enlightened person can initiatethe wisdom unto you because he hasseen the truth.

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4.35 O Pandava, knowing this you will never sufferfrom desire or illusion,

You will know that all living beings are in thesupreme, in me.

4.36 Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners,

You will certainly cross completely the ocean ofmiseries through the boat of knowledge.

We spoke about the story of Brahma and Vishnu tryingto reach Shiva’s crown or head. Vishnu was able toaccept that he failed, whereas Brahma could not. Thissymbolically indicates that a wealthy person (symbolizedby Vishnu) realizes the limitations of wealth, whereas aperson of knowledge (symbolized by Brahma) becomesarrogant and refuses to acknowledge the limitations ofknowledge. Sacrificing knowledge is far more difficultthan sacrificing wealth. For a scholar to admit that hedoes not know is similar to committing suicide. He islosing his identity.

Krishna advises the seeker to sacrifice one’s knowledgeand one’s intellect at His feet, at the feet of the Master toexperience the ultimate truth.

A Master is one who has experienced the truth. Ateacher, on the other hand, is one who teaches knowledgeby just communication. A Master is one who can simplytransfer his experience of truth to you. He communeswith you.


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In Sanskrit, there are three beautiful words to describethis. You are born in the bhu garbha, the womb of themother; this signifies your physical birth. The teacherwith his love and teachings gives birth to you in the hridgarbha, the womb of the heart. The Master gives birth toa completely new you, a transformed being in the gnanagarbha, the womb of knowledge. You then become re-born,dvija.

All you need to do is be open to the guru, the Master.When you open yourself to the Master, his presencesimply heals you. He can elevate you to the sameexperience as his. This is what the vishwarupa darshan is.Vishwarupa darshan refers to Krishna revealing His cosmicform to Arjuna in order to show him who He really is.Krishna elevated Arjuna to the same level of consciousnessin which He himself was.

Understand, Masters have no vested interest forthemselves; they have no karma to exhaust. They descendinto this planet Earth out of sheer compassion forhumanity.

Just like a low pressure region attracts the winds, soalso when a depression is created in this world, whenpeople desire for a Master to descend, the formlessenergy of Existence descends in a form. This energy iswhat is known in different forms as Krishna, Christ,Buddha etc.

Buddha says,

Buddham sharanam gacchamiDhammam sharanam gacchami

Sangam sharanam gacchami

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This means,

I surrender to Buddha, the enlightened MasterI surrender to Buddha’s teachingsI surrender to Buddha’s mission

Actually, the Master, his teachings and his mission arenot three different entities. The Master lives in all three,the body, his teachings and his mission. Masters come todispel the ignorance of seekers, to show them the path.Only one third of the Master’s energy is in the physicalbody. The other third is in the teachings and anotherthird is in the mission.

Nithyananda is nithya-dhyana-ananda all in one. Nithya,the Master in the body as Nithyananda, dhyana, myteaching and message of meditation and ananda, mymission of bringing forth the fountain of bliss that islying latent in you, all the three together constitute theenergy called Nithyananda. Understand that.

It is easy to follow the Master in his physical formbecause Masters are so alluring and attractive by natureand they do not expect you to give them anything isreturn.

The next level is to follow the teachings of the Master.This is slightly more difficult because other than gazing atthe beautiful form of the Master, now you have to actuallydo something. You have to not just listen to his teachingsbut also follow his teachings, practice them. Then, youreally internalize what the Master teaches but it requiressome effort for you. Though it is only for your owngrowth, your laziness (tamas) causes you to not to dothis.


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The final level is where you give your life to themission and to spreading the Master’s teachings. This isthe most difficult since it requires from you the ultimatecommitment for life.

People think ashram life is very easy and it is meantfor retired people who can just sit and eat and have aneasy life. No! Ashram life is a life of work because youare constantly implementing the Master’s teachings andyour whole mission is to spread his words.

When you surrender to the Master, you surrender tohis mission and to his teachings as well. When yousurrender at the physical level, you surrender yourphysical self, your comforts to the Master, to imbibe andspread his teachings and mission.

On the physical level, you sacrifice your comforts, likedesires for luxury, wealth, food or sleep. I cannot call itsacrifice because you will feel from your very being thatthis is what you really want to do and this is the best useof your time and energy.

And I tell you, when you take up the responsibility ofthe mission, you will realize that what seemed to you as aload, as a responsibility, is actually a blissful experience.How can the mission of the Master give anything otherthan pure bliss? The moment you surrender to the Masterand his mission and you stand up to take up theresponsibility, you will find that the divine energy simplyflows through you and you just flow effortlessly andexpress yourself most beautifully.

All you need to do is to be stable and available andthe divine energy will make you able!

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On the mental level, you surrender your intellect toserve the Master and the mission. You surrender yourmental faculties, mental pursuits to serve the missionaccording to the needs of the mission. You become like aliquid, flowing into the shapes and moulds created by theMaster. The Master knows the best way in which you cangrow. He creates the moulds for each of you according toyour needs and abilities. Trust him, drop your solid egoand become fluid so you can fill in the spaces he createsfor you.

At the being level, when your very being surrendersto the Master, your being clearly recognizes the call of theMaster. You become a part of the Master. You no longercarry any separate identity.

This process of transformation automatically happenswhen you surrender to the Master, his teachings andmission. The water is converted into formless steam. Likesteam, you now explode in all directions. There are nolimitations because all boundaries and limitations existonly in the mind. You now transcend the mind andexpress your potential. The Master tirelessly andcompassionately pushes you in different ways so you canalso experience and be in the same state of eternal blissas he is.

Masters are established in the truth. Out ofcompassion, they emote with you in a manner that youcan understand. But, the only emotion that a Masterknows is love. All other emotions are just affectations toteach you in the language you understand. I always tellpeople, ‘When I show compassion to you, I cheat you.When I fire you, I teach you. Either way, you grow.’


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The Vedas also clearly declare that a Master is needed.You may have access to all the books, the recordedteachings of all the great Masters. But, you have only thewords; where is the body language?

For example, look at yoga. Yoga as it is taught nowhas been reduced to just a form of physical exercise. Ofcourse, it has physical benefits but physical health is justone of the benefits. Yoga as taught by Patanjali is muchmore than a bunch of postures. It is a means toenlightenment. The way Patanjali conceived it was as ameans to enlightenment. But the body language ofPatanjali is no longer there for us; only his words arethere. Words can only convey so much; you need a livingMaster who is in the same consciousness, the same state,to convey the underlying essence behind the words.

There is a beautiful verse in the Guru Gita which says,‘The guru just wipes off with the big toe of his left footyour fate which Brahma has written on your forehead.’The Master can change your very destiny. He can simplytake you to a new dimension, which you could not evenhave imagined. An astrologer may be able to predict yourfuture, but a Master can simply change your future. He isone with Existence, which is operating this whole universe.Can the energy which runs the planets and stars not havethe power to handle your life?

The big problem is that it is very difficult to relatewith a living Master. You see, it is very easy for peopleto relate with dead Masters. You can look at him as God.You can project all your imaginations about God on him.

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See, during the great Master Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’stime, there were people who were lamenting to him, ‘Oh,how we wish we had been alive at the time of SriKrishna! We would have been so lucky to just catch aglimpse of him; we would have been blessed!’ The peoplecould not relate to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the livingMaster! They wanted to just escape saying that theymissed Krishna, who was no longer in the body at thattime!

In the same way, during Ramakrishna’s time, therewere people saying, ‘Oh! How lucky we would have beenhad we been born in Chaitanya’s time!’ They had anywaymissed Chaitanya; now, by saying this, they actuallymissed Ramakrishna as well.

When Krishna promises that He descends again andagain, what He means is the Krishna energy will descendon Earth again and again. People think Krishna will comedown in the same form - with the yellow dhoti, the flutein hand and the two peacock feathers in the head. Againand again, Krishna happens on planet Earth, but we areso cunning, we manage to miss all the Masters.

Another thing: it is easy to fool yourself, escaping froma living Master and just worshipping a Master who hasleft the body. It is easy to escape by just worshipping.You think nothing else is needed and you can just saywhatever you want to the idol of the Master, do somerituals and get away with it. You escape all possibilities ofany transformation happening. You can just say, ‘Amayamanahankaram aragam amadam tatha…’; ‘I offer my non-attachment to you’, ‘I offer my ego to you.’


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You can say that to an idol and that idol will be there,just standing. But, if you tell me that, what will I do? Iwill simply catch your neck, ‘Hey! Where is your non-attachment? Give it here. Where is your ego? Surrenderit!’

With the living Master, he will be constantly workingon you, to cut your ego and to show you your true Self,which is much higher than your small ego. But the ego isafraid to die at the Master’s hands, so you try to escape.

Just be open to the Master’s energy and you can seeyourself being transformed in front of your very eyes. Justbeing in the Master’s presence can heal you. Just beingopen to his energy can get rid of the biggest cancer inyou, your ego. Even the closest disciple or devotee mayhave this egoistic feeling of being close to a Master.

Narada is considered to be the most dedicateddevotee of Vishnu, whose incarnation Krishna is.Narada once asked Krishna what maya or illusion is.Krishna put him through an experience to make himunderstand maya.

Krishna told Narada, ‘I am thirsty, Narada. Canyou bring me some water to drink?’ Naradaimmediately said, ‘Yes, my Lord. I will get you apitcher of water right now.’ Narada rushed to getKrishna water. He reached a house and knocked onthe door desperate to get water.

A beautiful lady opened the door. As soon as sheopened the door, Narada was so struck by her

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beauty he forgot his question itself. He fell in lovewith the lady and proposed to her instead. The ladyaccepted his proposal and Narada married her. Yearspassed and they had children and lived very happily.

One day, a huge flood came and swept away allthe neighboring villages. The flood reached Narada’svillage as well. Narada, desperate to save his familyand himself, took his family and tried to get away tohigher land.

But the flood was huge and as they were trying towade through the waters, holding hands, a current ofwater swept and took away Narada’s son whom hewas holding in one hand. His son was swept awayby the waters.

As he struggled to grab his son, the water pulledNarada’s wife also away. She was separated from himand the water simply swept her away.

Losing both his son and wife, Narada wascompletely overcome by sorrow and started cryingaloud. Just then, Krishna appeared on the scene andasked, ‘Narada, what happened to you? You went toget water for me. Where were you?’

Suddenly, it occurred to Narada in a flash that thewhole thing that passed by in front of his eyes wasnothing but a dream. The whole scene passed beforehis eyes and Narada understood what maya was. Heunderstood the meaning of illusion, the attachment tothe ephemeral, which is bound to perish one day orthe other.


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When you realize your true Self, that is when you starttalking like Ashtavakra, who declares beautifully,

‘I am infinite like space and the natural world is like ajar. To know this is knowledge and then there is neitherrenunciation, nor acceptance, nor cessation of it.

I am like the ocean and the multiplicity of objects iscomparable to a wave. To know this is knowledge andthen there is neither renunciation, nor acceptance, norcessation of it.

I am like the mother of pearl, and the imagined worldis like silver. To know this is knowledge, and then thereis neither renunciation, nor acceptance, nor cessation of it.

Alternatively, I am in all beings, and all beings are inme. To know this is knowledge, and then there is neitherrenunciation, nor acceptance, nor cessation of it.’

When you realize the truth that you too are one withthe universe, there is nothing more to desire; there isnothing to be attached to. There is no longer anydifferentiation between who you are and what theuniverse is. Maya, the illusion of that separation,disappears. That is why the Master is called guru, onewho leads you from gu, which is darkness, to ru that islight; one who leads you from ignorance to bliss.

A Master does not differentiate between who is goodand who is bad. He is not bothered about what you do,whether what you do is considered meritorious bysociety or sinful. This whole concept of sin and virtue issocietal. In some societies, it is a sin to marry more thanonce while in some others it is not. In some societies

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animal sacrifice is a sin while in some others it is areligious ritual.

Knowledge makes the whole difference. Here, Krishnasays beautifully, ‘Even if you are the most sinful of allsinners, you will certainly completely cross the ocean ofmiseries through the boat of knowledge.’

At the spiritual level, the concept of sin does not exist.It is a creation of man, of man-made institutions, ofreligious, societal and political organizations to controlothers through fear. In all such institutions you will finddifferent sets of rules apply to those who rule and tothose who are ruled. All are not judged by the samestandards. A king will be immune to any sin andpunishment whereas his subjects will be at the king’smercy to be judged and punished.

There is a common understanding, or shall I saymisunderstanding that Eve committed the Original Sin byeating the apple at the persuasion of the snake. Thisunderstanding did not come from Christ, as this lore ispart of the Old Testament, which predates Christ bythousands of years. This legend of Adam and Eve andcreation is common to Judaic, Christian and Islamictraditions.

If this were true, we should not be eating applestoday.

The Original Sin is merely one of forgetting our truenature, our true, divine nature. Animals do not carewhether they are animals or divine. They flow withnature. They eat when they are hungry, mate when


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nature guides them, and sleep when they are tired. In thatsense, they are one with nature, one with divinity. Theyare not confused like us humans.

Humans eat when they don’t have to, and becomeobese. They watch television long after they are tired andeyes are closing. Sex is no longer for perpetuation of thespecies, but a form of entertainment. We have corruptedour true nature through misuse of our intellect. That is thesin we have committed.

When you have the true knowledge, the intent, theunderstanding of what you are doing, the very intent andknowledge will make the action divine, the act will nolonger be just a ritual but it will be a means to reach theultimate. Automatically, you will cross the ocean ofmiseries because misery itself is a result of ignorance ofyour true self.

When ‘spirit’ is added to a ‘ritual’, it becomes ‘spi-rituality’. When wisdom is blended into the ritual, it trulybecomes the prayer.

Q: Master, even if you say that ignorance of our truedivinity is the original sin, it still means that we are allstill sinners, as we have all forgotten our true nature. So,religions that label all of us as sinners are in fact correct,aren’t they?

Ignorance is not a sin; it cannot be a sin. I am referringto this as a sin to put it in perspective to show that what

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has been told to you about Adam and Eve is incorrect. Iam trying to tell you that sex is not sin, and never canbe. I am telling you that the Original Sin has nothing todo with an apple and a serpent. These are metaphorswhose truth is not literal.

The story of Adam and Eve is to show that humanityhas forgotten its origin and its true nature. As a resulthumanity suffers. It may be a sin because you suffer,because you do not have to. You are a creature of blissand you have no reason to suffer.

Sins are your own creation. They are creations of yourmind. The word sin and the word forgiveness should beeliminated from our dictionary, if we are to be happyand blissful. There is nothing called sin in spirituality.There is nothing called hell. Both reside in your mind, oneas an action and another as a location. That is all.

You are being controlled by this word ‘sin’ and youare promised redemption through another word called‘forgiveness’. Both are manipulative words that have beencreated solely to control you, to rule you. They aredesigned so that you cannot be free. How can religionsand society rule you otherwise? You will also be like themystics, the Sufi saints, the Gnostics, and the yogis whodo not care about sins and forgiveness because they arealready established in the right knowledge.

These religious leaders who control you through thefear of sin are the sinners; they are the ones whoExistence would punish, if Existence were to punish


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anyone. They make the rules and then make sure thatthe rules do not apply to them.

Lenin said religion was the opium of the masses. Hewas being too mild. At least opium leaves you with aeuphoric feeling. Religion leaves you with depression. Allreligion can do is to make you feel small, inadequate anda sinner. Its only purpose is to control you by fear.

No Master who founded the concepts on which thesereligions arose later ever said that man or woman is asinner. They all uniformly talked about the divinity thatresides within each individual. Time and again they said,search within and you shall find the truth. If all humansare sinners, were these Masters also sinners? If they werenot, how did they become exceptions?

We are all born with a divine spirit. Please understandthat you are not a human being in search of a divineexperience. You are indeed a divine being having a humanexperience. When you are born, a veil of ignoranceprevents your perception of this truth. Unfortunatelysociety and religion, instead of removing that veil,reinforces that veil, so that they can control you. Once ina while, you suddenly wake up realizing that there issomething deep within that you are missing. The searchbegins.

If you are lucky and if you are sincere, you find aMaster who leads you upwards. He raises you in love.He helps you find that truth within, the realization thatyou are divine. You are then released of all yourbondage. If you are not that fortunate, your spirit, at the

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point of death, longs for that release and realization. Youare born again and again, with the sole meaning ofrealizing yourself. Once you realize the truth of your owndivinity, you no longer are governed by the cycle of lifeand death and rebirth, which is called samsara in Sanskrit.

Be sure that you are no sinner! You are indeed divine!


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Doubt Destroys

4.37 Just as a blazing fire turnsfirewood to ashes, o Arjuna,

So does the fire of wisdom burn toashes all actions, all your karma.

4.38 Truly, in this world, there isnothing as pure as wisdom.

One who has matured to know thisenjoys in himself in due course oftime.

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4.39 A person with shraddha (courageous faith)achieves wisdom and has control over the senses.

Achieving wisdom, without delay, he attains supremepeace.

4.40 Those who have no wisdom and faith, whoalways have doubts, are destroyed.

There is no happiness in this world or the next.

4.41 O winner of riches, one who has renounced thefruits of his actions, whose doubts are destroyed, who iswell situated in the self, is not bound by his actions.

4.42 O descendant of Bharata, therefore, stand up, besituated in yoga.

Armed with the sword of knowledge; cut the doubtborn of ignorance that exists in your heart.

A beautiful story that you may have read as a child:

Once, there were four blind men. They weretraveling through a forest. They came across anelephant. But none of them had ever seen an elephantin their lives. All that they had known in their liveswas through the four senses of hearing, touch, tasteand smell. So, when they came across the elephant,each of them started touching and feeling it and triedto figure out what it was.


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The first man touched the elephant’s trunk andsaid, ‘Oh, this is a tree trunk in front of us.’ Thesecond person touched the legs and said, ‘No, this isa stump of wood!’

The third person touched the tail and said, ‘Noway! This is a rope!’ The fourth person who wastouching the body said, ‘This is a boat!’

When you follow sensory inputs and come toconclusions, you are no different from the blind men.Even if you are not blind, almost all of what your sensesfeed into you can be false and interpreted based on yourinclination. The filter of your ego interprets whatever youperceive through your senses. Your ego decides as to howyou understand what you see, hear, touch, taste or smell,and thereafter how you act.

There is only so much you can see through the lens ofyour ego. Whatever you see will be tinted because youare seeing it through your mind, through your biasedperceptions based on past memories. To see the truth,you need to really ‘see’ beyond your ego, mind andsenses. When you do that, you can see the infinitedimensions of the ultimate.

The words that you gather cannot give you theultimate knowledge. When you just gather words withoutdigesting the meaning, either indigestion sets in or youstart vomiting out those words on others.

A small story:

Once, a blind man went to a doctor to see if hehad any hope in getting back his eyesight. The doctor

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checked him and said, ‘Yes, I can do an operationand you can get back your eyesight. Then, you candrop your stick and start walking.’

The man replied, ‘Doctor, I understand I will getback my eyesight, but how can I walk without thestick?’

The blind man could not understand that he can walkwithout a stick! He does not even know what it means tobe able to see. The doctor has to do the operation to givehim back his eyesight, then automatically he will drop thestick.

When I tell people to drop their mind, they look at meas if I am a mad man. ‘How can we drop the mind?’they ask. ‘It is easy for you, you have renouncedeverything, you have no wife, no responsibilities, and ontop of it you are enlightened. So, you can talk. How canwe, living in this ocean of bondage, the samsara sagara, bein no-mind and yet survive?’

It is only when you drop the mind, it is only whenyou stop connecting your thoughts to form a shaft, thatyou really start ‘seeing’. Your ego stops interfering withthe truth of what you see. It stops filtering and addingtones to what your senses experience. Your baggage ofvalue systems and beliefs, your embedded memories,your samskaras, dissolve, and the new ‘you’ is born. Youare reborn.

All your actions then arise out of intuition, from thesuper conscious state, the state of truth, where no mindcan exist.


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In the next verse, Krishna uses the word ‘shraddha’again. Actually, shraddha cannot be translated as faith.Shraddha does not mean faith, it means faith plus courageto execute the idea; courage to experiment with the ideais shraddha. Courage to experiment with the idea is whatis referred to as shraddha.

When you have the knowledge and at the same time,you have courage to follow the teachings, then you canachieve the ultimate.

Many people do not have the courage to follow theirresults through. When Galileo declared that it is the Earththat goes around the Sun, while the Christian belief atthat time was that everything revolves around the Earth,he was persecuted. In his writings, he actually has afootnote: ‘We can deny this but since the Earth and Sunare not Christians, they will continue to move the waythey do, irrespective of Christian beliefs!’

If you see our eastern rishis, they did so much innerworld research. Millions of rishis have done full-timeresearch for thousands of years using their bodies andminds as laboratories. This knowledge of the inner worldis the result of their courageous experiments and studies.They were true inner scientists who had not only thecuriosity and the perseverance to know but also thecourage to follow their findings.

Look at Patanjali: he boldly declares all that he says inthe Yoga Sutras is completely open to experimentation andverification. He says, ‘You are free to try this and if youfind anything more to be added or edited, you are free to

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do so.’ He has experimented and presented his researchreport. He invites you to try out these in your life and ifyou learn something more from that, his work is open toediting. That is the beauty of our system; it is a livingsystem open to being updated.

Our Masters have declared that it is the truth thatmatters, so they present their research reports based onwhat they have learnt from experience. If by practicingthe truth one loses something, it is better to lose it.Whatever cannot stand the test of truth, let it get washedaway. It is better for our being that it gets lost as earlyas possible.

Of all religious and spiritual doctrines, it is only thescriptures of the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal path ofrighteousness, as the Hindu philosophy is called, thatallow themselves to be updated. The Vedas and theUpanishads, which we believe are the voices of Nature, arenot rules and regulations. They are truths to beunderstood and followed only in awareness. There are nopunishments if one does not follow them, nor is onecondemned a sinner if one doesn’t follow them.

The rules and regulations, which followed in laterdays, came clearly with the injunction that they can bemodified if there was need. Nothing was sacred justbecause it was uttered. All what we follow blindly todayas traditions, came through societal interpretation. It isfor us to sift through these truths with consciousawareness.

Once tested, proven and accepted, we need to have thecourage to practice these truths. Mere knowledge is


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insufficient. That is what shraddha is about. With shraddha,faith combined with courage, you make the effort toconquer your senses, and direct your mind towards thetruth, instead of your mind and senses leading youwherever they wish to.

Many people in this world are blessed by Lakshmi(Goddess of Wealth), Saraswati (Goddess of Knowledge)but very few people are blessed by Kali (Goddess ofCourage). When Lakshmi and Saraswati join with Kali,your liberation is assured!

In the next few beautiful verses, Krishna says thatthere is no happiness for those who always have doubtsand who have no knowledge and faith. He uses the word‘always’. He does not say that from the beginning itselfyou should not have any doubts. Having doubts isnatural; as long as you have the mind, doubts will bethere. But you can go beyond it.

In the Shiva Sutra, Devi asks, ‘Oh Shiva, what is yourreality? What is this wonder-filled universe? Whatconstitutes the seed? Who centers the universal wheel?What is this life beyond form, pervading forms? Howmay we enter it fully beyond space and time, names anddescriptions? Let my doubts be cleared.’

Beautifully she expresses her whole state of mindthrough these few words. The last words are, ‘Let mydoubts be cleared.’ She never says, ‘Please answer myquestions.’ If she had made that mistake by asking‘answer my question’, she would have produced onemore Gita through Shiva.

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See, in the Gita, Arjuna is not ready to surrender toKrishna completely. That is why in the beginning Krishnahas to give him all the intellectual answers. Arjuna thinkshe can solve his confusion through these answers; hedoesn’t know that these are much deeper doubts thatneed to be cleared through experience of the truth. Thatis why Krishna has to give more than 700 verses to firstconvince Arjuna that he does not know. When Arjunafinally gives up saying ‘I don’t know’ then Krishna revealsHimself! He reveals the truth and makes Arjunaexperience it because that is the only way he will realizethe truth.

If you say ‘let my questions be answered’, you wantonly intellectual answers. But Devi says, ‘Let my doubtsbe cleared, whether you give words or energy ortechniques, I am not bothered, but let me be free fromdoubts.’

When questions become a quest, you start speaking inthis language. When the urge becomes urgent, you startspeaking in this language.

Devi starts with beautiful words, ‘Let my doubts becleared.’ This shows a deep surrender of Devi. A deep,passive, waiting, without knowing what is going tohappen, is passive surrender. That is what I call totalsurrender.

Actually, the moment you decide ‘I will wait forever’,things will simply start happening for you! As long as youare in a hurry and agitated, you stop things fromhappening in you. It is like you trying your best for thelotus to blossom. What will you do? You open out the


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petals by hand. Will it be a flower? It will never be alotus flower. A lotus can be called a lotus flower onlywhen it blossoms by itself. Give it a little space and time.

The moment you decide to wait, things will simplystart happening, and you don’t have to wait anymore.You have to wait till you decide to wait. The momentyou decide to wait, you don’t have to wait anymore.

When you ask ‘why’, you cannot reach the truth,because you are not even ready to see ‘what’ and youask the ‘why’ before that. Just allow the Master to do theoperation and give you back your true Self, andautomatically you will drop what you are not.

Krishna refers here to the stages in the Master-disciplerelationship. There are many levels. The first level ispurely intellectual, doubt-based. ‘Doubt-based’ refers tothe negative doubts, which are purely intellectual. It islike you are telling yourself on seeing the Master, ‘Eh!What is this guy going to sit and do? Let us see. How isthis fellow able to mobilize such a big crowd at such ayoung age? He seems to be hardly 30. He doesn’t seemto be trained in marketing and doesn’t seem to be veryintelligent either. How is this fellow mobilizing such a bigcrowd around him? What is going on here?’

The next step is intelligence; from intellect tointelligence. You tell yourself, ‘Why not attend thisprogram and see what this fellow is really doing?’ By thistime, it has changed from, ‘What this fellow is doing!’ to‘Oh I think he means something. But I neither believe nordisbelieve. Ok let us see.’ The intellect is becomingintelligence. You are giving a little space for the Master.

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Then, next, if you continue to start looking in, firstfrom intellect to intelligence, then from intelligence tointelligence combined with emotion, like 60% intelligence,40% emotion, that is the time you will feel like a friendtowards the Master.

After that, it becomes 60% emotion and 40%intelligence. That is the time you will feel like the Masteris like an elder, like a father or mother or lord orteacher. You feel respectful towards him. And then, therelation becomes pure emotion. You will feel a deepconnection like a mother and son.

Then, after that, it is neither emotion nor intellect norintelligence. It is a being level relationship. It is the deepconnection of a beloved, the madhura bhava.

And suddenly, you will see, he is not even thebeloved, he is beyond the beloved. You start experiencingthe mahabhaava, what I call the guru-disciple experience,experiencing yourself as the Master. That is what I call‘Tat tvam asi’. ‘Tat tvam asi’ means ‘That art thou’. Itmeans you are the Master.

First it is just intellect, where you have doubts. Butyou have to go beyond that. If you are stuck in this levelof negative doubts, naturally you will suffer with thedoubts and misery. The next level is intelligence, then60% intelligence and 40% emotion, then 60% emotion and40% intelligence, then pure emotion, then 60% emotionaland 40% being level, then pure being level and then allthese and something more.


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When you go beyond doubts and beyond faith, into therealization of the formless energy that is you, then youfind yourself.

I am presenting this secret science as a hypothesis.Now you are welcome to analyze this with yourquestions.

Q. Master, how to find out whether somebody isenlightened or not?

Arjuna asks the same question. I think in the secondchapter, Krishna answers this same question. Let me giveyou the verse.

Arjuna asks:

Sthitaprajnyasya ka bhasha samadhisthasya keshavaSthitadheeha kim prabhasheta kim aseeta brajeta kim (II. 54)

Arjuna says, ‘Krishna, what are the symptoms of thosewhose consciousness is thus merged in transcendence?How does he speak and what is his language? How doeshe sit and how does he walk?

This is a question from the second chapter. Of course,in the second chapter, Arjuna is not ready to even relatewith Krishna. That is why Krishna is explaining aboutenlightenment.

Immediately Arjuna asks how to find out whethersomebody is enlightened or not; how an enlightened manwould walk and sit. Actually he is addressing this

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question to find out whether Krishna is enlightened ornot!

For example, when Krishna says that these are thequalities of enlightenment and explains about it,immediately, Arjuna asks, ‘How does an enlightened manbehave, tell me’. What does this mean? First thing, hedoubts Krishna, Krishna’s authority. He wants some scalewith which he can measure Krishna.

But one important thing, even though, out ofcompassion, Krishna tries here to answer logically, youcannot logically measure enlightenment. That is theultimate truth. Just out of compassion, Krishna tries togive some idea. Actually, Krishna is just postponing thequestion, He does not answer. There are two or threemethods to deal with questions.

A person came to me and he asked me, ‘Master, pleasetell me how to realize God. How to achieve God? Teachme something about God, something about atman andbrahman.’

I started talking to him, ‘Yes, how are you? Where areyou from? What are you doing? What is your wifedoing? How is your family?’ I started a politeconversation. And he also started talking. Theconversation went on and on. After that he was with mefor three hours but he didn’t raise the same question evenonce!

He forgot the very question. He did not evenremember the question that he had asked. He did noteven come to the subject. Then understand how importantthis question was for his life!


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He asked just because he had to ask something. Whenyou see the Master, you feel you have to show that youhave some spiritual interest. In some way you have torelate with him. And you have to show that you alsoknow a few words.

One guy came and told me, ‘Master, tell me the mantra(chant) to relate with the eighteen-handed Kali.’ He wasasking me to give him the mantra to worship theeighteen-handed Kali. He said, ‘She should listen to whatI say. Give me the mantra for it.’

I told him, ‘First learn the mantra to make your two-handed wife listen to your words! First learn how tohandle two-handed women! Then you can go aboutlearning how to work with eighteen-handed women!’ Youdon’t know the basic science of life, how to live withyour wife! You want to learn big words. We alwayswaste our life with big words, with big terminology.

So this guy who wanted to know about God forgotthe question itself! After that he spent two or three hourswith me, but he did not even remember the question. Heasked the question just because he had to speaksomething. It was not his quest. Questions are answeredin one way; quest is addressed in another way.

Please be very clear, questions are answered in oneway, quest is addressed in another way. One person cameto me, a young man, and he asked me, ‘Master, have youseen God?’ It seems he had read lot of Ramakrishna andVedanta literature. And I could see that he was wearingthe Vivekananda medallion around his neck.

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He asked, ‘Have you seen God?’ I asked him, ‘Haveyou read Ramakrishna and Vivekananda’s life?’ He said,‘Yes! I am asking you like how Vivekananda askedRamakrishna. In the same way I am asking you. Haveyou seen God?’

I just caught hold of his shirt, so that he would notrun away. Then I said, ‘Ramakrishna said that he hadseen God. And Vivekananda simply followedRamakrishna. Throughout his life he was withRamakrishna. Now I tell you, not only have I seen, I willshow you, come! Once I show you, you have to be withme for your whole life.’

The fellow ran away! He just disappeared. He escapedand ran away.

Then I said, ‘Don’t ask the question if you cannot takeup the responsibility. Don’t ask just because you readabout Ramakrishna and Vivekananda’s lives.’ Vivekanandaasked Ramakrishna, true. But he had the courage, he hadthe guts to follow Ramakrishna after that. WhenRamakrishna said, ‘Yes, I have seen God,’ he followed. Itold him, ‘Not only have I seen Him, I can also showyou, come.’ The fellow just escaped!

We always waste our lives with empty words.Questions will be addressed in one way, while quest willbe addressed in a different way. Here, Arjuna is asking aquestion. It is not a quest.

How to find out whether it is a question or quest? If itis a quest, you will have only one word, you will put onequestion and stop. You will then wait for the answer.


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If it is just an intellectual question, you willcontinuously speak out at least ten words. Here he isasking ten questions: how does he speak? What is hislanguage? How does he sit and how does he walk? Thatmeans he is not even interested in the answer!

If you are interested in the answer, you will stop withthe first question. You will wait for the answer. Then youwill put the next question. But here he goes on posingquestions, purely intellectual. Arjuna is in the process. Heis in the process. Then Krishna starts.

Of course, please be very clear, Krishna is notanswering. He is just postponing the question. He knowsthat answering this question is in no way going to help.So He answers in such a way that Arjuna would neitherfeel he did not receive the answer, nor would he be ableto come to a conclusion with the answer!

Here He is giving an answer:

Prajahati yada kaman sarvan partha manogatanAtmany evatmana tushtaha sthithaprajnyas tadochyate

He says, ‘Partha, when a man controls all types ofdesires and selfish deeds that arise from the mind andwhen he remains satisfied with himself and hisconsciousness, in his eternal bliss, then he is said to havea stable mind and life.’

Alright, how many of you can find out with this scale,whether somebody is enlightened or not? Tell me. HereHe has given the answer. Can any of us use this answer?

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After the answer, you will have more problems thanbefore the answer!

Actually, sometimes, by giving an answer, you willcreate more questions than what existed before thequestion was posed! Originally, if Arjuna had tenquestions, after this answer, he would have had havetwenty questions! Because the answer says, ‘Who iscompletely established in his own consciousness, who issatisfied in his own consciousness, he is said to have astable mind and life.’

And He says, ‘He is said to have’. He is not givingfrom his experience. He could have said, ‘He is’ But He isnot saying that. ‘It is believed, or said to have a stablemind and life’; He is just trying to escape, putting theblame on the tradition. He is not directly coming in thefront. He is not confronting the question directly. He isjust passing it away. He is just pushing it away.

Ramakrishna, whenever the close disciples asked forsome boon, he would say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take care.’Whenever he wanted to avoid the question or boon forthe present, he would say, ‘Go to Kali and pray. Go toKali and pray!’ He would say, ‘No, no, go there to theKali mandir (temple), Kali is there, go there and pray!’ Hewould not put himself in the front. He would just avoid.The same thing Krishna is doing here. He is saying, ‘It isbelieved’ so that if some more questions come, He canalways escape.

Next verse:


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Dukheshvanu dvignamanaha sukheshu vigataspruhahaVeetaraga bhaya krodhaha sthiradheer munir uchyate (II.56)

The translation goes: one whose mind remains freefrom emotional agitation even in miseries, and does notsearch for pleasure, and who is free from attachments,fear and anger, is called an enlightened man - who is ineternal bliss, eternal consciousness.

If your inner space is not filled with too much ofemotional attachments, it can freely flow in life. It canfreely flow in life.

Many people ask me, ‘Master, how are youcontinuously able to quote from the scriptures? Fromwhere are you able to get so much information? How areyou able to speak so many things?’ I tell them, ‘It’s a verysimple secret.’ So many people ask, ‘How are you able tohave such a sharp memory? Give us a technique to havesharp memory.’

This is the ultimate important technique for a sharpmemory. How to have a sharp memory? Just drop theemotional attachments.

It is just like how a computer works. If your hard discis filled with high-resolution photographs, what willhappen? It will crash! If it is filled only with worddocuments, it can handle any amount of memory. Youremotional attachment makes word documents into high-resolution photographs. Word documents are transformedinto high-resolution photographs, high-resolution pictures,by your emotional attachment to it.

When you are emotionally attached to it, again andagain you remember only that. That portion takes away

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the majority of your inner space. Your whole inner spaceis swallowed, taken away, by that one particular picture.

If at all you can do surgery in your inner space andpeer inside, you will see that most of your inner space isfilled with four or five big-sized photographs. Your wifeor family or your kid; only those four or five pictureswould be there in high resolution. Ninety percent of yourhard disc is filled with these four or five high-resolutionpictures. That is why you don’t have memory space leftfor any other work. Your whole memory space is alreadyoccupied. No memory space is left.

But if at all you can bring it down, if at all you canreduce the emotional attachment for these few high-resolution pictures, you will be able to handle moreword documents, and therefore have more memory.

That is the secret Krishna is giving here. Whose innerspace is completely free, whose hard disc is completelyclean, he who can process any information at any time,whose inner space is open, free and sharp, is calledsthithaprajna. He is called the person who is in eternalconsciousness.

These are all the few answers Krishna gives forArjuna. But I tell you, with this scale, you will never beable to find out who is enlightened or who isunenlightened; by using this scale intellectually it is simplyimpossible.

If you want an honest answer I can tell one thing: youcan never find it logically. If somebody is enlightened,when you see him, something will simply happen inside


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your heart. Beyond your intellect, your whole heart willfall in tune with him. You will not be able to forget him.

You will be pulled. Your whole being will be attractedto him. He will automatically fill your whole being. Youwill not know what is happening to you. You yourself willnot be able to understand or analyze logically.

You will be just waiting, thinking, ‘When can I see himnext? When can I see him next?’ Your heart will simplyfall in love. I can say, with Masters, you rise in love; withordinary people, you fall in love! Something will happenin your space. Beyond your control, beyond your logic,your heart will know, he is enlightened. You will not beable to say ‘no’ to him.

Be very clear, if that happens, that person is going tohelp you. That person is going to show you what life is.That person is your Master. If that doesn’t happen, don’tbother, continue your search. You will meet the rightperson. Continue your search, you will meet the rightperson.

Don’t bother about who is enlightened, who is notenlightened. Intellectually you cannot find out. Ifsomebody is going to help you, your heart will simply fallin tune with him. If it falls in tune with him, even if heis not enlightened, he will help you. You will be helpedby him. Even if he is not enlightened, you will be helpedby him.

If your heart has not fallen in tune, even if he isenlightened, he is not for you. Forget about him. So you

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don’t have to use your head at all. Just relax. Your heartknows how to show you the right path, how to guideyou in the right path. Your heart is the judge, which willguide you, automatically, in the right time, in the rightmoment, towards the right person.

So, let the divine Parabrahma Krishna guide us all to theright energy, to the right attitude and the rightexperience. Let Him shower eternal bliss. Let Him makeus experience and radiate eternal bliss, nithyananda. Thankyou.

Thus ends the fourth chapter named “Path ofRenunciation Of Action and Knowledge” of theUpanishad of the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Yoga,dealing with the science of the Absolute in the formof the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.


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Scientific Research onBhagavad Gita

Several institutions have conducted experiments usingscientific and statistically supported techniques to verifythe truth behind the Bhagavad Gita. Notable amongstthem is the work carried out by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,whose findings are published through Maharishi VedVigyan Vishwa Vidyapeetam.

Studies conducted using meditation techniques relatedto truths expressed in the verses of the Bhagavad Gitahave shown that the quality of life is significantlyimproved through meditation. These studies have foundthat meditators experience a greater sense of peaceresulting in a reduced tendency towards conflict.

Meditators gain greater respect for and appreciation ofothers. Their own inner fulfilment increases resulting inimproved self-respect and self-reliance, leading to SelfActualization.

One’s ability to focus along with brain functionintegration is enhanced. These have resulted in greatercomprehension, creativity, faster response time indecision-making and superior psychomotor coordination.

Stress levels have been shown to decrease withenhanced sensory perception and overall health. Thetendency towards depression has been clearly shown todecrease.

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There is enough evidence to show that as a result ofmeditation, individuals gain a better ethical lifestyle thatin turn improves their interaction with others in thecommunity, resulting in less conflict and crime. Groupmeditation of 7000 people (square root of 1% of worldpopulation at the time of the study) was significantlycorrelated to a reduction in conflict worldwide.

Meditation leads to higher levels of consciousness.Through the research tools of Applied Kinesiology, Dr.David Hawkins (author of the book Power vs. Force) andothers have shown that human consciousness has risen inthe last few decades, crossing a critical milestone for thefirst time in human history. Dr. Hawkins’ research alsodocuments that the Bhagavad Gita is at the very highestlevel of Truth conveyed to humanity.

We acknowledge with gratitude the work done by theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi institutions and Dr. DavidHawkins in establishing the truth of this great scripture.


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Glossary of Key Characters in theBhagavad Gita

Pandava’s Side:

Krishna: God Incarnate; Related to both Kauravaand Pandava; Arjuna’s charioteer in thewar

Drupada: A great warrior and father of Draupadi

Drishtadummna: The son of King Drupada

Shikhandi: A mighty archer and a transexualperson

Virata: Abhimanyu’s father-in-law; King of aneighboring kingdom

Yuyudhana: Krishna’s charioteer and a greatwarrior

Kashiraj: King of neighboring kingdom, Kashi

Chekitan: A great warrior

Kuntibhoj: Adoptive father of Kunti, the motherof first three Pandava princes

Purujit: Brother of Kuntibhoj

Shaibya: Leader of the Shibi tribe

Dhrishtaketu: King of Chedis

Uttamouja: A great warrior


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Kaurava’s Side:

Sanjay: Charioteer and narrator of events toDhritharashtra

Bhishma: Great grandfather of the Kaurava &Pandava; Great warrior

Drona: A great archer and teacher to bothKaurava and Arjuna

Vikarna: Third of the Kaurava brothers

Karna: Panadava’s half brother, born to Kuntibefore her marriage

Ashvatthama: Drona’s son and Achilles heel; Said toalways speak the truth

Kripacharya: Teacher of martial arts to both Kauravaand Pandava

Shalya: King of neighboring kingdom andbrother of Madra, Nakula andSahadeva’s mother

Soumadatti: King of Bahikas

Dushassana: One of Kaurava brothers; responsible forinsulting Draupadi

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Meaning of common Sanskrit Words

For purposes of simplicity, the phonetic of Sanskrit hasnot been faithfully followed in this work. No accents andother guides have been used.

Aswattama is spelt as also Asvattama, Aswathama,Aswatama etc., all being accepted.

Correctly pronounced, Atma is Aatma; however in theEnglish format a is used both for a and aa, e for e and eeand so on. The letter s as used here can be pronouncedas s or ss or sh; for instance Siva is pronounced with asibilant sound, neither quite s nor sh. Many words herespelt with ‘s’ can as well be spelt as ‘sh’.

[In the glossary, however, letters have been indicatedin brackets to facilitate pronunciation as intended in theSanskrit text.]

This glossary is not meant to be a pronunciation guide,merely an explanatory aid. It is merely a compilation ofcommon words.

A(a)bharana: adornment; vastra(a)bharana is adornment withclothes

Abhy(a)asa: exercise; practice

A(a)cha(a)rya: teacher; literally ‘one who walks with’

Advaita: concept of non-duality; that individual self andthe cosmic SELF are one and the same; as different fromthe concepts of dvaita and visishta(a)dvaita, which considerself and SELF to be mutually exclusive


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A(a)ha(a)ra: food; also with reference to sensory inputs asin pratya(a)ha(a)ra

A(a)jna: order, command; the third eye energy centre

A(a)ka(a)sa: space, sky; subtlest form of energy of universe

Amruta, amrit: divine nectar whose consumption leads toimmortality

Ana(a)hata: that which is not created; heart energy centre

A(a)nanda: bliss; very often used to refer to joy, happinessetc.

Anjana: collyrium, black pigment used to paint the eyelashes

A(a)pas: water

Aarti: worshipping with a flame, light, as with a lamp litwith oiled wick, or burning camphor

A(a)shirwa(a)d: blessing

Ashta(a)nga yoga: eight fold path to enlightenmentprescribed by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra

A(a)shraya: grounded in reality; a(a)shraya-dosha, defectrelated to reality

A(a)tma, A(a)tman: individual Self; part of the universalBrahman

Beedi: local Indian cigarette

Beeja: seed; beeja-mantra refers to the single syllable mantrasused to invoke certain deities,

e.g., gam for Ganesha.

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Bhagava(a)n: literally God; often used for an enlightenedmaster

Bha(a)vana: visualization

Bhakti: devotion; bhakta, a devotee

Brahma: the Creator; one of the Hindu trinity of supremeGods, the other two being Vishnu, and Shiva

Brahmacha(a)ri: literally one who moves with the truereality, Brahman, one without fantasies, but usually takento mean a celibate; brahmacharya is the quality or state ofbeing a brahmachaari

Brahman: ultimate reality of the Divine, universal ntelligentenergy

Bra(a)hman: person belonging to the class engaged in Vedicstudies, priestly class

Buddhi: mind, intelligence; mind is also called by othernames, manas, chitta etc.

Buddhu: a fool

Chakra: literally a ‘wheel’; refers to energy centres in themind-body system

Chakshu: eye, intelligent power behind senses

Chanda(a)la: an untouchable; usually one who skins animals.

Chandana: sandalwood

Chitta: mind; also manas, buddhi.

Dakshina(a)yana: Sun’s southward movement starting 21st

June

Darshan: vision; usually referred to seeing divinity


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Dharma: righteousness

Dhee: wisdom.

Deeksha: grace bestowed by the Master and the energytransferred by the Master onto disciple at initiation or anyother time, may be through a mantra, a touch, a glance oreven a thought

Dosha: defect

Dhya(a)na: meditation

Drishti: sight, seeing with mental eye

Gada: weapon; similar to a mace; also Gada(a)yudha

Gopi, Gopika: literally a cowherd; usually referred to thedevotees, who played with Krishna, and were lost in Him

Gopura, gopuram: temple tower

Grihasta: a householder, a married person; coming fromthe word griha, meaning house

Guna: the three human behavioural characteristics orpredispositions; satva, rajas and tamas

Guru: Master; literally one who leads from gu (darkness)to ru (light)

Gurukul, Gurukulam: literally ‘tradition of guru’, refers tothe ancient education system in which children werehanded over to a guru at a very young age by parents forupbringing and education

Homa: ritual to Agni, the God of fire; metaphoricallyrepresents the transfer of energy from the energy ofA(a)ka(a)sa (space), through V(a)ayu (Air), Agni (Fire),

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A(a)pas (Water), and Prithvi (Earth) to humans. Alsoy(a)aga, yagna

Iccha: desire

Ida: along with pingala and sushumna the virtual energypathways through which pranic energy flows

Ithiha(a)sa: legend, epic, mythological stories; also pura(a)na

Jaati: birth; jaati-dosha, defect related to birth

Ja(a)grata: wakefulness

Japa: literally ‘muttering’; continuous repetition of thename of divinity

Jeeva samadhi: burial place of an enlightened Master, wherehis spirit lives on

Jiva (pronounced as jeeva) means living

Jyotisha: Astrology; jyotishi is an astrologer

Kaivalya: liberation; same as moksha, nirva(a)na

Ka(a)la: time; also maha(a)ka(a)la

Kalpa: vast period of time; Yuga is a fraction of Kalpa

Kalpana: imagination

Karma: spiritual law of cause and effect, driven by va(a)sanaand samska(a)ra

Kosha: energy layer surrounding body; there are 5 suchlayers. These are: annamaya or body, Pra(a)namaya orbreath, manomaya or thoughts, vigya(a)namaya or sleep anda(a)nandamaya or bliss koshas


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Kriya: action

Kshana: moment in time; refers to time between twothoughts

Kshatriya: caste or varna of warriors

Kundalini: energy that resides at the root chakra‘mula(a)dha(a)ra’(pronounced as moolaadha(a)ra)

Maha(a): great; as in maharshi, great sage; maha(a)va(a)kya,great scriptural saying

Ma(a)la: a garland, a necklace; rudra(a)ksha mala is a garlandmade of the seeds of the rudra(a)ksha tree

Mananam: thinking, meditation

Manas: mind; also buddhi, chitta

Mandir: temple

Mangala: auspicious; mangal sutra, literally auspiciousthread, the yellow or gold thread or necklace a marriedHindu woman wears

Mantra: a sound, a formula; sometimes a word or a set ofwords, which because of their inherent sounds, haveenergizing properties. Mantras are used as sacred chants toworship the Divine; mantra, tantra and yantra areapproaches in spiritual evolution

Ma(a)ya: that which is not, not reality, illusion; all life isma(a)ya according to advaita

Moksha: liberation; same as nirva(a)na, sama(a)dhi, turiya etc.

Mula(a)dha(a)ra: the first energy centre, moola is root;a(a)dhara is foundation, here existence

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Nadi: river

Naadi: nerve; also an energy pathway that is not physical

Na(a)ga: a snake; a na(a)ga-sa(a)dhu is an ascetic belongingto a group that wears no clothes

Namaska(a)r: traditional greeting with raised hands, withpalms closed

Na(a)nta: without end

Na(a)ri: woman

Nidhidhy(a)asan: what is expressed

Nimitta: reason; nimitta-dosha, defect based on reason

Nirva(a)na: liberation; same as moksha, sama(a)dhi

Niyama: the second of eight paths of Patanjali’s Ashta(a)ngaYoga; refers to a number of day-to-day rules of observancefor a spiritual path

Pa(a)pa: sin

Phala: fruit; phalasruti refers to result of worship

Paramahamsa: literally the ‘supreme swan’; refers to anenlightened being

Parikrama: the ritual of going around a holy location, suchas a hill or water spot

Parivra(a)jaka: wandering by an ascetic monk

Pingala: please see Ida.

Pra(a)na: life energy; also refers to breath;pra(a)na(a)ya(a)ma is control of breath

Pratya(a)hara: literally ‘staying away from food’; in this


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case refers to control of all senses as part of the eight foldashta(a)nga yoga

Prithvi: earth energy

Purohit: priest

Puja (pronounced as pooja): normally any worship, butoften referred to a ritualistic worship

Punya: merit, beneficence

Pura(a)na: epics and mythological stories such asMaha(a)bha(a)rata, Ra(a)ma(a)yana etc.

Purna (prounounced poorna): literally ‘complete’; refers inthe advaita context to reality

Rajas, rajasic: the mid characteristic of the three humanguna or behaviour mode, referring to aggressive action

Putra: son; putri: daughter

Rakta: blood

Ra(a)tri: night

Rishi: a sage

Sa(a)dhana: practice, usually a spiritual practice

Sa(a)dhu: literally a ‘good person’; refers to an ascetic;same as sanya(a)si

Sahasrana(a)ma: thousand names of God; available formany Gods and Goddesses, which devotees recite

Sahasrara: lotus with thousand petals; the crown energycentre

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Sakti: energy; intelligent energy; Para(a)sakti refers touniversal energy, divinity; considered feminine; masculineaspect of Para(a)sakti is purusha

Sama(a)dhi: state of no-mind, no-thoughts; literally,becoming one’s original state; liberated, enlightened state.Three levels of samadhi are referred to as sahaja, which istransient, savikalpa, in which the person is no longercapable of normal activities, and nirvikalpa, where theliberated person performs activities as before.

Samsaya: doubt

Samska(a)ra: embedded memories of unfulfilled desiresstored in the subconscious that drive one into decisions,into karmic action

Samyama: complete concentration

Sankalpa: decision

Sanya(a)s: giving up worldly life; sanya(a)si or sanya(a)sin, amonk, an ascetic

sanya(a)sini, refers to a female monk

Sa(a)stra: sacred texts

Satva, sa(a)tvic: the highest guna of spiritual calmness

Siddhi: extraordinary powers attained through spiritualpractice

Sishya: disciple

Simha: lion; Simha-Swapna: nightmare

Shiva: rejuvenator in the trinity; often spelt as Shiva. Shivaalso means ‘causeless auspiciousness’; in this sense,


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Shivara(a)tri, the day when Shiva is worshipped is thatmoment when the power of this causeless auspiciousnessis intense

Smarana: remembrance; constantly remembering the divine

Smruti: literally ‘that which is remembered’; refers to laterday Hindu works which are rules, regulations, laws andepics, such as Manu’s works, Puranas etc.

Sraddha: trust, faith, belief, confidence

Sravan: hearing

Srishti: creation, which is created

Sruti: literally ‘that which is heard’; refers to the ancientscriptures of Veda, Upanishad and

Bhagavad Gita: considered to be words of God

Stotra: devotional verses, to be recited or sung

Sudra: caste or varna of manual labourers

Sutra: literally ‘thread’; refers to epigrams, short verseswhich impart spiritual techniques

Sunya: literally zero; however, Buddha uses this word tomean reality

Sushumna: Please see ‘ida’

Swa(a)dishtha(a)na: where Self is established; the groin orspleen energy centre

Swapna: dream

Swatantra: free

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Tamas, taamasic: the lowest guna of laziness or inaction

Tantra: esoteric Hindu techniques used in spiritualevolution

Tapas: severe spiritual endeavour, penance

Thatagata: Buddhahood, state of being such…a pali word

Tirta: water; tirtam is a holy river and a pilgrimage centre

Trika(a)la: all three time zones, past, present and future;trika(a)lajna(a)ni is one who can

see all three at the same time; an enlightened being isbeyond time and space

Turiya (pronounced tureeya): state of samadhi, no-mind

Upanishad: literally ‘sitting below alongside’ referring to adisciple learning from the master;

refers to the ancient Hindu scriptures which along withthe Veda, form sruti

Uttara(a)yana: Sun’s northward movement

Vaisya: caste or varna of tradesmen

Va(a)naprastha: the third stage in one’s life, (the first stagebeing that of a student, and thesecond that ofhouseholder) when a householder, man or woman, givesup worldly activities and focuses on spiritual goals

Varna: literally colour; refers to the caste grouping in thetraditional Hindu social system; originally based onaptitude, and later corrupted to privilege of birth

Va(a)sana: the subtle essence of memories and desires,


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samska(a)ra, that get carried forward from birth to birth

Vastra: clothes

Vastra(a)harana: removal of clothes, often used to refer toDraupadi’s predicament in the

Maha(a)bha(a)rata, when she was unsuccessfully disrobedby the Kaurava prince

Va(a)yu: air

Veda: literally knowledge; refers to ancient Hinduscriptures, believed to have been received by enlightenedrishi at the being level; also called sruti, along withUpanishad

Vibhuti (pronounced vibhooti): sacred ash worn by manyHindus on forehead; said to remind themselves of thetransient nature of life; of glories too

Vidhi: literally law, natural law; interpreted as fate ordestiny

Vidya: knowledge, education

Visha(a)da: depression, dilemma etc.

Vishnu: preserver in the trinity; His incarnations includeKrishna, Rama etc. in ten incarnations; also means ‘allencompassing’

Vishwarupa (pronounced vishwaroopa): universal form

Yama: discipline as well as death; One of the eight foldpaths prescribed in Patanjali’s

Ashta(a)nga Yoga; refers to spiritual regulations of satya

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(truth), ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (living simply);asteya (not coveting other’s properties) and brahmacharya(giving up fantasies); yama is also the name of the HinduGod of justice and death

Yantra: literally ‘tool’; usually a mystical and powerfulgraphic diagram, such as the Sri Chakra, inscribed on acopper plate, and sanctified in a ritual blessed by a divinepresence or an enlightened Master

Yoga: literally union, union of the individual self and thedivine SELF; often taken to mean

Hatha yoga, which is one of the components of yogasana,relating to specific body postures

Yuga: a long period of time as defined in Hindu scriptures;there are four yugas: satya, treta, dwa(a)para and kali, thepresent being kali yuga


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Invocation Verses! Paaqaa-ya p/itbaaioQataM Bagavata naaraayaNaona svayaM

vyaasaona ga/iqataM puraNamauinanaa maQyao mahaBaartMAWOtamaRtvaiYa-NaIM BagavatIM AYTadSaaQyaaiyanaIMAmba %vaamanausandQaaima Bagavad\gaIto BavaWooiYaNaIM

Om paarthaaya pratibodhitaam bhagavataa naaraayanena svayamVyaasena grathitaam puraanamuninaa madhye mahaabhaaratamAdvaitaamrutavarshineem Bhagavateem ashtaadashaadhyaayineem

Amba tvaamanusandadhaami bhagavadgeete bhavadveshineem

OM, I meditate upon you, Bhagavad Gita the affectionateMother, the Divine Mother showering the nectar of nonduality and destroying rebirth, (who was) incorporated intothe Mahaabhaarata of eighteen chaptersby sage Vyasa, the author of thePuraanaas, and imparted to Arjuna byLord Narayana, Himself.

vasaudovasautM dovaM kmsacaaNaUrmad-nama\dovakIprmaanandM kRYNaM vando jagad\gauruM

Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa ChaanuraMardanam

Devakee Paramaanandam Krishnam VandeJagadgurum

I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacherto the world, son of Vasudeva andSupreme bliss of Devaki, Destroyer ofKamsa and Chaanura.

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Verses Of Gita Chapter 4

¸ÉÒ ¦ÉMÉ´ÉÉxÉÖ´ÉÉSÉ

<¨ÉÆ Ê´É´Éº´ÉiÉä ªÉÉäMÉÆ |ÉÉäCiÉ´ÉÉxÉ½þ¨É´ªÉªÉ¨ÉÂ*Ê´É´Éº´ÉÉxÉÂ ¨ÉxÉ´Éä |ÉÉ½þ ¨ÉxÉÖÊ®úI´ÉÉEò´Éä%¥É´ÉÒiÉÂ**4.1**

Shri Bhagavaan uvaacha:

Imam vivasvate yogam proktavaan aham avyayamVivasvaan manave praaha manur ikshvaakave abraveet 4.1

Shri Bhagavaan uvaacha : the Lord said; imam: this;vivasvate: to the Sun God; yogam: the science of yoga;proktavaan: instructed; aham: I; avyayam: imperishable;vivasvaan: Sun God; manave: to Manu, the father ofmankind; praaha: told; manuh: Manu; ikshvaakave: to KingIkshvaaku; abraveet: said

4.1 The Lord said:

‘I taught the sun god, Vivasvan, the imperishable scienceof yoga and

Vivasvan taught Manu, the father of mankind and Manuin turn taught Ikshvaku.’

B´ÉÆ {É®ú¨{É®úÉ|ÉÉ{iÉÊ¨É¨ÉÆ ®úÉVÉ¹ÉÇªÉÉä Ê´ÉnÖù&*ºÉ EòÉ±ÉäxÉä½þ ¨É½þiÉÉ ªÉÉäMÉÉä xÉ¹]õ& {É®úxiÉ{É**4.2**


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Evam paramparaa praaptam imam raajarshayo viduhusa kaaleneha mahataa yogo nashtaha parantapa 4.2

evam: thus; paramparaa: Master-disciple succession;praaptam: received; imam: this science; raajarshayah: thesaintly kings; viduhu: understood; sa: that knowledge;kaalena: in the course of time; iha: in this world; mahataa:by great; yogaha: the science of yoga; nashta: lost;parantapa: subduer of the enemies

4.2 The supreme science was thus received through thechain of master-disciple succession and the saintly kingsunderstood it in that way.

In the course of time, the succession was broken andtherefore the science as it was appears to have been lost.

ºÉ B´ÉÉªÉÆ ¨ÉªÉÉ iÉä%t ªÉÉäMÉ& |ÉÉäCiÉ& {ÉÖ®úÉiÉxÉ&*¦ÉCiÉÉä%ÊºÉ ¨Éä ºÉJÉÉ SÉäÊiÉ ®ú½þºªÉÆ ÁäiÉnÖùkÉ¨É¨ÉÂ**4.3**

Sa eva ayam mayaa tedya yogaha protkaha puraatanahaBhakto asi me sakhaa cheti rahasyam hy etat uttamam 4.3

Sa: that; eva: only; ayam: this; maya: by Me; te: to you;adya: today; yogaha: the science of yoga; proktaha: spoken;puraatanaha: very old; bhaktaha: devotee; asi: you are; me:My; sakhaa: friend; cha: also; iti: therefore; rahasyam:mystery; hi: because etat: this; uttamam: supreme

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4.3 That ancient science of enlightenment, or enteringinto eternal bliss, is today taught by me to you becauseyou are my devotee as well as my friend.

You will certainly understand the supreme mystery ofthis science.

+VÉÖÇxÉ =´ÉÉSÉ

+{É®Æú ¦É´ÉiÉÉä VÉx¨É {É®Æú VÉx¨É Ê´É´Éº´ÉiÉ&*EòlÉ¨ÉäiÉÊuùVÉÉxÉÒªÉÉÆ i´É¨ÉÉnùÉè |ÉÉäCiÉ´ÉÉÊxÉÊiÉ**4.4**

Arjuna uvaacha :

Aparam bhavato janma param janma vivasvatahaKatham etat vijaaneeyam tvam aadou proktavaan iti 4.4

Arjuna uvaacha : Arjuna said; aparam: of recent origin;bhavatah: Your; janma: birth; param: very old; janma: birth;vivasvatah: of the Sun God; katham: how; etat: this;vijaaneeyam : can I understand; tvam: You; aadau: in thebeginning; proktavaan: instructed; iti: thus

4.4 Arjuna said:

‘Oh Krishna, you are younger to the sun god Vivasvanby birth.

How am I to understand that in the beginning youinstructed this science to him?’


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¸ÉÒ ¦ÉMÉ´ÉÉxÉÖ´ÉÉSÉ

¤É½ÚþÊxÉ ¨Éä ´ªÉiÉÒiÉÉÊxÉ VÉx¨ÉÉÊxÉ iÉ´É SÉÉVÉÖÇxÉ*iÉÉxªÉ½Æþ ´Éänù ºÉ´ÉÉÇÊhÉ xÉ i´ÉÆ ´ÉäilÉ {É®úxiÉ{É**4.5**

Shri Bhagavaan uvaacha :

Bahooni me vyateetaani janmaani tava cha arjunataany aham veda sarvaani na tvam vettha parantapa 4.5

Shri Bhagavaan uvaacha: The Lord said; bahooni : many;me: of Mine; vyateetani: have passed; janmaani: births; tava:yours; cha: also; arjuna: O Arjuna; taany: all of those; aham:I; veda: do know; sarvaani: all; na: not; tvam: yourself;vettha: know; parantapa: O scorcher of the foes

4.5 The Lord said:

Many many births both you and I have passed.

I can remember all of them, but you cannot, OParantapa!

+VÉÉä%Ê{É ºÉzÉ´ªÉªÉÉi¨ÉÉ ¦ÉÚiÉÉxÉÉ¨ÉÒ¶´É®úÉä%Ê{É ºÉxÉÂ*|ÉEÞòËiÉ º´ÉÉ¨ÉÊvÉ¹`ÉªÉ ºÉÆ¦É´ÉÉ¨ªÉÉi¨É¨ÉÉªÉªÉÉ**4.6**

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Ajo api san avyaya aatma bhootaanaam eeshvaropi sanPrakritim svaam adhishthaaya sambhavaamy aatma maayaya

4.6

aja: unborn; api: also; san: being so; avyaya: instructible;aatma: spirit; bhootaanaam: living entities; eeshvaraha:supreme Lord; api: also; san: being so; prakritim: nature;svaam: of Myself; adhishthaaya: keeping under control;sambhavaamy: I come into being; aatma maayaya: by Mydivine potency.

4.6 Although I am unborn, imperishable and the lord ofall living entities,

By ruling my nature I reappear by my own maya.

ªÉnùÉ ªÉnùÉ Ê½þ vÉ¨ÉÇºªÉ M±ÉÉÊxÉ¦ÉÇ´ÉÊiÉ ¦ÉÉ®úiÉ*+¦ªÉÖilÉÉxÉ¨ÉvÉ¨ÉÇºªÉ iÉnùÉ%%i¨ÉÉxÉÆ ºÉÞVÉÉ¨ªÉ½þ¨ÉÂ**4.7**

Yadaa yadaa hi dharmasya glaanirbhavati bhaarataAbhyutthaanam adharmasya tadaa aatmaanam srujaamyaham

4.7

Yadaa yadaa: whenever; hi: well; dharmasya: ofrighteousness; glaanih: decline; bhavati: takes place; bhaarata:O descendant of Bharata; abhyutthaanam: predominance;adharmasya: of unrighteousness; tadaa: at that time;aatmaanam: self; srujaami: bring forth; aham: I


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4.7 When positive consciousness declines, when collectivenegativity rises,

Again and again, at these times, I am reborn.

{ÉÊ®újÉÉhÉÉªÉ ºÉÉvÉÚxÉÉÆ Ê´ÉxÉÉ¶ÉÉªÉ SÉ nÖù¹EÞòiÉÉ¨ÉÂ*vÉ¨ÉÇºÉÆºlÉÉ{ÉxÉÉlÉÉÇªÉ ºÉÆ¦É´ÉÉÊ¨É ªÉÖMÉä ªÉÖMÉä**4.8**

Paritraanaaya saadhoonaam vinaashaaya cha dushkrutaamDharma samsthaapanaarthaaya sambhavaami yuge yuge 4.8

Paritraanaaya: for the protection of; saadhoonam: of thepious; vinaashaaya: to destruction; cha: also; dushkrutaam: ofthe wicked; dharma: righteousness; samsthaapanaa arthaya: toestablish; sambhavaami: I manifest; yuge yuge: age after age

4.8 To nurture the pious and to annihilate the wicked,

To re-establish righteousness I am reborn, age after age.

VÉx¨É Eò¨ÉÇ SÉ ¨Éä Ênù´ªÉ¨Éä´ÉÆ ªÉÉä ´ÉäÊkÉ iÉk´ÉiÉ&*iªÉCi´ÉÉ näù½Æþ {ÉÖxÉVÉÇx¨É xÉèÊiÉ ¨ÉÉ¨ÉäÊiÉ ºÉÉä%VÉÖÇxÉ**4.9**

Janma karma cha me divyam evam yo vetti tattvatahaTyaktvaa deham punarjanma naiti maam eti sorjuna 4.9

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janma: birth; karma: work; cha: and; me: of Mine; divyam:divine; evam: so also; yo: anyone whoever; vetti: knows;tattvataha: in reality; tyaktvaa: after leaving aside; deham:body; punah: again; janma: birth; na: never; eti: attains;maam: unto Me; eti: does attain; sorjuna = sah( he) + arjuna(Arjuna)

4.9 One who knows or experiences my divine appearanceand activities does not take birth again in this materialworld after leaving the body

But attains me, o Arjuna.

´ÉÒiÉ®úÉMÉ¦ÉªÉGòÉävÉÉ ¨Éx¨ÉªÉÉ ¨ÉÉ¨ÉÖ{ÉÉÊ¸ÉiÉÉ&*¤ÉÉ½þ´ÉÉä YÉÉxÉiÉ{ÉºÉÉ {ÉÚiÉÉ ¨ÉnÂù¦ÉÉ´É¨ÉÉMÉiÉÉ&**4.10**

Veeta raaga bhaya krodhaa manmayaa maam upaashritaahabahavo jnaana tapasaa pootaa madbhaavam aagataaha 4.10

veeta: free from; raaga: passion; bhaya: fear; krodha:anger; manmayaa: fully absorbed in Me; maam: unto Me;upaashritaaha: taking refuge; bahavah: many beings; jnaana:wisdom; tapasaa: by penance; pootaa: sanctified; madbhaavam:My nature; aagataaha: attained

4.10 Being freed from attachment, fear and anger, beingfilled with me and by taking refuge in me,

Many beings in the past have become sanctified by theknowledge of me and have realized me.


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ªÉä ªÉlÉÉ ¨ÉÉÆ |É{ÉtxiÉä iÉÉÆºiÉlÉè´É ¦ÉVÉÉ¨ªÉ½þ¨ÉÂ*¨É¨É ´Éi¨ÉÉÇxÉÖ´ÉiÉÇxiÉä ¨ÉxÉÖ¹ªÉÉ& {ÉÉlÉÇ ºÉ´ÉÇ¶É&**4.11**

ye yathaa maam prapadyante taans tathaiva bhajaami ahammama vartmaanuvartante manushyaaha paartha sarvashaha

4.11

ye: whoever; yathaa: wharever way; maam: unto Me;prapadyante: seek; taan: unto them; tathaa eva: in the sameway; bhajaami: I approach; aham: I; mama: My; vartmaa: ofthe path; anuvartante: follow; manushyaaha: people; paartha:son of Pritha; sarvashaha: in all respects

4.11 I reward everyone, I show myself to all people,according to the manner in which they surrender untome,

In the manner that they are devoted to me, oh Paartha!

EòÉRÂóIÉxiÉ& Eò¨ÉÇhÉÉÆ ÊºÉËrù ªÉVÉxiÉ <½þ näù´ÉiÉÉ&*ÊIÉ|ÉÆ Ê½þ ¨ÉÉxÉÖ¹Éä ±ÉÉäEäò ÊºÉÊrù¦ÉÇ´ÉÊiÉ Eò¨ÉÇVÉÉ**4.12**

kaankshantaha karmanaam siddhim yajanta iha devataahakshipram hi maanushe loke siddhirbhavati karmajaa 4.12

kaankshantaha: desiring; karmanaam: of activities; siddhim:success; yajanta: worship; iha: in this world; devataaha:gods; kshipram: quickly; hi: for; maanushe loke: in humansociety; siddhihi bhavati: success comes; karmajaa: born ofaction

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4.12 Men in this world desire success from activities andtherefore they worship the gods.

Men get instant results from active work in this world.

SÉÉiÉÖ´ÉÇhªÉÈ ¨ÉªÉÉ ºÉÞ¹]Æõ MÉÖhÉEò¨ÉÇÊ´É¦ÉÉMÉ¶É&*iÉºªÉ EòiÉÉÇ®ú¨ÉÊ{É ¨ÉÉÆ Ê´ÉnÂùvªÉEòiÉÉÇ®ú¨É´ªÉªÉ¨ÉÂ**4.13**

chaatur varnyam mayaa srishtam guna karma vibhaagashahatasya kartaaram api maam viddhi akartaaram avyayam 4.13

chaatur varnyam: the four divisions of human society;mayaa: by Me; srishtam: created; guna: attribute; karma:work; vibhaagashaha: in terms of division; tasya: of that;kartaaram: doer; api: although; maam: Me; viddhi: know;akartaaram: as the non-doer; avyayam: immortal

4.13 Depending upon the distribution of the threeattributes or gunas and action, I have created the fourcastes.

Yet, I am to be known as the non-doer, theunchangeable.

xÉ ¨ÉÉÆ Eò¨ÉÉÇÊhÉ Ê±É¨{ÉÎxiÉ xÉ ¨Éä Eò¨ÉÇ¡ò±Éä º{ÉÞ½þÉ*<ÊiÉ ¨ÉÉÆ ªÉÉä%Ê¦ÉVÉÉxÉÉÊiÉ Eò¨ÉÇÊ¦ÉxÉÇ ºÉ ¤ÉvªÉiÉä**4.14**


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na maam karmaani limpanti na me karma phale spruhaaiti maam yo abhijaanaati karmabhirna sa badhyate 4.14

na: never; maam: Me; karmaani: work; limpanti: affect;na: not; me: My; karma phale: in fruits of action; spruhaa:longing for; iti: thus; maam: Me; yah: one who; abhijaanaati:understands; karmabhih: by the action; na: never; sah: he;badhyate: is bound.

4.14 I am not affected by any work; nor do I long forthe outcome of such work.

One who understands this truth about me also does notget caught in the bondage of work.

B´ÉÆ YÉÉi´ÉÉ EÞòiÉÆ Eò¨ÉÇ {ÉÚ´Éê®úÊ{É ¨ÉÖ¨ÉÖIÉÖÊ¦É&*EÖò¯û Eò¨Éê´É iÉº¨ÉÉk´ÉÆ {ÉÚ´Éê& {ÉÚ´ÉÇiÉ®Æú EÞòiÉ¨ÉÂ**4.15**

evam jnaatva krutam karma poorvair api mumukshubhihikuru karmaiva tasmaat tvam purvaihi poorvataram krutam

4.15

evam: thus; jnaatva: knowing well; krutam: performed;karma: work; poorvaihi: by the ancient people; api: also;mumukshubhihi: by those seeking liberation; kuru: perform;karma: prescribed duty; eva: only; tasmaat: therefore; tvam:you; poorvaihi: by the predecessors; poorvataram: as in thepast; krutam: as performed

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4.15 All the wise and liberated souls of ancient timeshave acted with this understanding and thus attainedliberation.

Just as the ancients did, perform your duty with thisunderstanding.

ËEò Eò¨ÉÇ ÊEò¨ÉEò¨ÉæÊiÉ Eò´ÉªÉÉä%{ªÉjÉ ¨ÉÉäÊ½þiÉÉ&*iÉkÉä Eò¨ÉÇ |É´ÉIªÉÉÊ¨É ªÉVYÉÉi´ÉÉ ¨ÉÉäIªÉºÉä%¶ÉÖ¦ÉÉiÉÂ**4.16**

kim karma kim akarmeti kavayopi atra mohitaahatat te karma pravakshyaami yat jnaatvaa mokshyase ashubhaat

4.16

kim: what; karma: action; kim: what; akarma: inaction; iti:thus; kavayah: the wise; api: also; atra: in this matter;mohitaaha: confused; tat: that; te: unto you; karma: action;pravakshyaami: I shall explain; yat: which; jnaatvaa: afterknowing; mokshyase: be liberated; ashubhaat: from ills

4.16 What is action and what is inaction, even the wiseare confused.

Let me explain to you what action is, knowing whichyou shall be liberated from all ills.


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Eò¨ÉÇhÉÉä ÁÊ{É ¤ÉÉärù´ªÉÆ ¤ÉÉärù´ªÉÆ SÉ Ê´ÉEò¨ÉÇhÉ&*+Eò¨ÉÇhÉ¶SÉ ¤ÉÉärù´ªÉÆ MÉ½þxÉÉ Eò¨ÉÇhÉÉä MÉÊiÉ&**4.17**

karmano hi api boddhavyam boddhavyam cha vikarmanahaakarmanash cha boddhavyam gahanaa karmano gatihi 4.17

karmanah: of action; hi: for; api: also; boddhavyam: shouldbe understood; boddhavyam: to be understood; cha: also;vikarmanaha: wrong action; akarmanaha: inaction; cha: also;boddhavyam: should be understood; gahanaa: mysterious;karmanaha: of action; gatihi: way.

4. 17 The complexities of action are very difficult tounderstand.

Understand fully the nature of proper action byunderstanding the nature of wrong action and inaction.

Eò¨ÉÇhªÉEò¨ÉÇ ªÉ& {É¶ªÉänùEò¨ÉÇÊhÉ SÉ Eò¨ÉÇ ªÉ&*ºÉ ¤ÉÖÊrù¨ÉÉxÉÂ ¨ÉxÉÖ¹ªÉä¹ÉÖ ºÉ ªÉÖCiÉ& EÞòiºxÉEò¨ÉÇEÞòiÉÂ**4.18**

karmany akarma yaha pashyet akarmani cha karma yahasa buddhimaan manushyeshu sa yuktaha krutsna karma krut

4.18

karmany: in action; akarma: inaction; yaha: one who;pashyet: sees; akarmani: in inaction; cha: also; karma: action;yaha: one who; sah: he; buddhimaan: wise; manushyeshu:among men; sah: he; yuktaha: yogi; krutsna karma krut:engaged in all activities

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4.18 He who sees inaction in action and action ininaction, is wise and a yogi,

Even if engaged in all activities.

ªÉºªÉ ºÉ´Éæ ºÉ¨ÉÉ®ú¨¦ÉÉ& EòÉ¨ÉºÉRÂóEò±{É´ÉÌVÉiÉÉ&*YÉÉxÉÉÎMxÉnùMvÉEò¨ÉÉÇhÉÆ iÉ¨ÉÉ½Öþ& {ÉÎhb÷iÉÆ ¤ÉÖvÉÉ&**4.19**

yasya sarve samaarambhaaha kaama sankalpa varjitaahajnaanaagni dagdha karmaanam tam aahuhu panditam budhaaha

4.19

yasya: one whose; sarve: all kinds of; samaarambhaaha: inall situations; kaama: desire for sense gratification; sankalpa:purpose; varjitaaha: devoid of; jnaana: of perfectknowledge; agni: fire; dagdhaa karmanaam: whose actionshave been burnt; tam: him; aahuhu: declare; panditam: wise;budhaaha: the wise.

4.19 He who is determined and devoid of all desires forsense gratification, he is of perfect knowledge.

The sages declare such a person wise whose actions are burntby the fire of knowledge.

iªÉCi´ÉÉ Eò¨ÉÇ¡ò±ÉÉºÉRÂóMÉÆ ÊxÉiªÉiÉÞ{iÉÉä ÊxÉ®úÉ¸ÉªÉ&*Eò¨ÉÇhªÉÊ¦É|É´ÉÞkÉÉä%Ê{É xÉè´É ÊEòÎ\SÉiEò®úÉäÊiÉ ºÉ&**4.20**


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tyaktvaa karma phalaa sangam nitya trupto niraashrayahakarmany abhipravruttopi naiva kinchit karoti saha 4.20

tyaktvaa: having given up; karma phalaa sangam:attachment to results of action; nitya: always; truptah:satisfied; niraashrayaha: without shelter; karmany: in action;abhipravruttah: being fully engaged; api: although; na: doesnot; eva: verily; kinchit: anything; karoti: does; saha: he

4.20 Having given up all attachment to the results of hisaction, always satisfied and independent,

The wise man does not act, though he is engaged in allkinds of action.

ÊxÉ®úÉ¶ÉÒªÉÇiÉÊSÉkÉÉi¨ÉÉ iªÉCiÉºÉ´ÉÇ{ÉÊ®úOÉ½þ&*¶ÉÉ®úÒ®Æú Eäò´É±ÉÆ Eò¨ÉÇ EÖò´ÉÇzÉÉ{xÉÉäÊiÉ ÊEòÎ±¤É¹É¨ÉÂ**4.21**

niraasheeryata chittaatmaa tyakta sarva parigrahahashaareeram kevalam karma kurvan na aapnoti kilbisham 4.21

niraasheehi: without desire for the result; yata:controlled; chitta atma: mind and consciousness; tyakta:giving up; sarva: all; parigrahaha: sense of ownership;shaareeram: body; kevalam: only; karma: work; kurvan: doingso; na: never; aapnoti: acquire; kilbisham: sin

4.21 The person who acts without desire for the result;with his consciousness controlling the mind,

Giving up all sense of ownership over his possessionsand body and only working, incurs no sin.

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ªÉoùSUôÉ±ÉÉ¦ÉºÉxiÉÖ¹]õÉä uùxuùÉiÉÒiÉÉä Ê´É¨ÉiºÉ®ú&*ºÉ¨É& ÊºÉrùÉ´ÉÊºÉrùÉè SÉ EÞòi´ÉÉÊ{É xÉ ÊxÉ¤ÉvªÉiÉä**4.22**

yadrucchaa laabha santushto dvandvateeto vimatsarahasamaha siddhaavasiddhau cha krutvaapi na nibadhyate 4.22

yadrucchaa laabha: what is obtained unsought; santushtaha:satisfied; dvandva: pairs of opposites; ateetah: surpassed;vimatsaraha: free from envy; samaha: equal; siddhau: insuccess; asiddhau: in failure; cha: also; krutvaa: after doing;api: even; na: never; nibadhyate: bound

4.22 He who is satisfied with profit which comes of itsown accord and who has gone beyond duality, who isfree from envy,

Who is in equanimity both in success and failure, sucha person though doing action, is never affected.

MÉiÉºÉRÂóMÉºªÉ ¨ÉÖCiÉºªÉ YÉÉxÉÉ´ÉÎºlÉiÉSÉäiÉºÉ&*ªÉYÉÉªÉÉSÉ®úiÉ& Eò¨ÉÇ ºÉ¨ÉOÉÆ |ÉÊ´É±ÉÒªÉiÉä**4.23**

gata sangasya muktasya jnaana avasthita chetasahayajnaayaacharataha karma samagram pravileeyate 4.23

gata sangasya: unattached to the modes of materialnature; muktasya: of the liberated; jnaana: knowledge;avasthita: established; chetasaha: of such spirit; yajnaaya: forthe sake of sacrifice; aacharataha: practice; karma: work;samagram: in total; pravileeyate: meltas away.


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4.23 The work of a liberated man who is unattached tothe modes of material nature and who is fully centeredin the ultimate knowledge,

Who works totally for the sake of sacrifice, mergesentirely into the knowledge.

¥ÉÀÉ{ÉÇhÉÆ ¥ÉÀ½þÊ´É¥ÉÇÀÉMxÉÉè ¥ÉÀhÉÉ ½ÖþiÉ¨ÉÂ*¥ÉÀè´É iÉäxÉ MÉxiÉ´ªÉÆ ¥ÉÀEò¨ÉÇºÉ¨ÉÉÊvÉxÉÉ**4.24**

brahmaarpanam brahma havirbrahmaagnau brahmanaa hutambrahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma karma samaadhinaa 4.24

brahma: Supreme; arpanam: offering; brahma: Supreme;havihi: oblation; brahma: Supreme; agnau: in the fire of;brahmanaa: by the Supreme; hutam: offered; brahma:Supreme; eva: only; tena: by him; gantavyam: to be reached;brahma: Supreme; karma: action; samaadhina: by completeabsorption

4.24 The offering, the offered butter to the supreme in thefire of the supreme is offered by the supreme.

Certainly, the supreme can be reached by him who isabsorbed completely in action.

nèù´É¨Éä´ÉÉ{É®äú ªÉYÉÆ ªÉÉäÊMÉxÉ& {ÉªÉÖÇ{ÉÉºÉiÉä*¥ÉÀÉMxÉÉ´É{É®äú ªÉYÉÆ ªÉYÉäxÉè´ÉÉä{ÉVÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ**4.25**

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daivam evaapare yajnam yoginaha paryupaasatebrahmaagnau apare yajnam yajnenaiva upajuhvati 4.25

daivam: gods; eva: only; apare: others; yajnam: sacrifices;yoginaha: yogis; paryupaasate: worship; brahma: Supreme;agnau: in the fire; apare: others; yajnam: sacrifice; yajnena:by sacrifice; eva: only; upajuhvati: offer as sacrifice.

4.25 Some yogis worship the gods by offering varioussacrifices to them,

While others worship by offering sacrifices in the fire ofthe supreme.

¸ÉÉäjÉÉnùÒxÉÒÎxpùªÉÉhªÉxªÉä ºÉÆªÉ¨ÉÉÎMxÉ¹ÉÖ VÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ*¶É¤nùÉnùÒÎx´É¹ÉªÉÉxÉxªÉ <ÎxpùªÉÉÎMxÉ¹ÉÖ VÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ**4.26**

Shrotraadeeni indriyaany anye samyamaagnishu juhvatishabdaadeen vishayaan anya indriyaagnishu juhvati 4.26

shrotraadeeni: organ of hearing; indriyaany: senses; anye:others; samyama: self discipline; agnishu: in the fire; juhvati:offers as sacrifice; shabdaadeen: sound vibrations; vishayaan:objects of sense gratification; anya: others; indriya: of senseorgans; agnishu: in the fire; juhvati: sacrifice

4.26 Some sacrifice the hearing process and other sensesin the fire of equanimity

And others offer as sacrifice the objects of the senses,such as sound, in the fire of the sacrifice.


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ºÉ´ÉÉÇhÉÒÎxpùªÉEò¨ÉÉÇÊhÉ |ÉÉhÉEò¨ÉÉÇÊhÉ SÉÉ{É®äú*+Éi¨ÉºÉÆªÉ¨ÉªÉÉäMÉÉMxÉÉè VÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ YÉÉxÉnùÒÊ{ÉiÉä**4.27**

Sarvaani indriya karmaani praana karmaani chaapareaatma samyama yogaagnau juhvati jnaana deepite 4.27

sarvaani: all; indriya: senses; karmaani: actions; praanakarmaani: activities of the life breath; cha: also; apare:others; aatma samyama: self control; yoga: yoga; agnau: inthe fire of; juhvati: offers; jnana deepite: kindled bywisdom.

4.27 One who is interested in knowledge offers all theactions due to the senses,

Including the action of taking in the life breath into thefire of yoga and is engaged in the yoga of theequanimity of the mind.

p´ªÉªÉYÉÉºiÉ{ÉÉäªÉYÉÉ ªÉÉäMÉªÉYÉÉºiÉlÉÉ{É®ä*º´ÉÉvªÉÉªÉYÉÉxÉªÉYÉÉ¶SÉ ªÉiÉªÉ: ºÉÆÎ¶ÉiÉμÉiÉÉ:**4.28**

dravya yajnaastapo yajnaa yoga yajnaastathaa aparesvaadhyaaya jnaana yajnaashcha yatayaha samshita vrataaha

4.28

dravya: material wealth; yajnaah: sacrifice; tapah: penance;yajnaah: sacrifice; yoga: yoga; yajnah: sacrifice; tathaa: and;apare: others; svaadhyaaya: self-study; jnaana: knowledge;yajnaah: sacrifice; cha: and; yatayaha: striving souls; samshitavrataaha: those of strict vows.

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4.28 There is the sacrifice of material wealth, sacrificethrough penance, sacrifice through yoga

And other sacrifices while there is sacrifice through self-study and through strict vows

+{ÉÉxÉä VÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ |ÉÉhÉÆ |ÉÉhÉä%{ÉÉxÉÆ iÉlÉÉ%{É®äú*|ÉÉhÉÉ{ÉÉxÉMÉiÉÒ ¯ûnÂùv´ÉÉ |ÉÉhÉÉªÉÉ¨É{É®úÉªÉhÉÉ&**4.29**

apaane juhvati praanam praane apaanam tathaa aparepraanaapaana gatee ruddhvaa praanaayaama paraayanaaha 4.29

Apaane: in the out going breath; juhvati: sacrifice;praanam: life energy; praane: in the life energy; apaanam: theoutgoing breath; tathaa: thus; apare: others; praana: inhaling;apaana: exhaling; gatee: movement; ruddhvaa: afterrestraining; praanaayaama: breath control; paraayanaaha: soinclined

4.29 There are others who sacrifice the life energy in theform of incoming breath and outgoing breath,

Thus checking the movement of the incoming andoutgoing breaths and controlling the breath.

+{É®äú ÊxÉªÉiÉÉ½þÉ®úÉ& |ÉÉhÉÉx|ÉÉhÉä¹ÉÖ VÉÖ¼´ÉÊiÉ*ºÉ´Éæ%{ªÉäiÉä ªÉYÉÊ´ÉnùÉä ªÉYÉIÉÊ{ÉiÉEò±¨É¹ÉÉ&**4.30**


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apare niyata aahaaraaha praanaan praaneshu juhvatisarve apy ete yajnavido yajna kshapita kalmashaaha 4.30

apare: others; niyataa: controlled; aahaaraha: eating;praanaan: vital energy; praaneshu: in the vital energy;juhvati: sacrifice; sarve api ete: all of these; yajna vidaaha:those knowing sacrifice; yajna kshapita kalmashaaha: thosedestroying their sins through sacrifice.

4.30 There are others who sacrifice through controlledeating and offering the outgoing breath, life energy.

All these people know the meaning of sacrifice and arepurified of sin or karma.

ªÉYÉÊ¶É¹]õÉ¨ÉÞiÉ¦ÉÖVÉÉä ªÉÉÎxiÉ ¥ÉÀ ºÉxÉÉiÉxÉ¨ÉÂ*xÉÉªÉÆ ±ÉÉäEòÉä%ºiªÉªÉYÉºªÉ EÖòiÉÉä%xªÉ& EÖò¯ûºÉkÉ¨É**4.31**

yajna shishta amruta bhujo yaanti brahma sanaatanamna ayam loko asty ayajnasya kuto anyaha kurusattama 4.31

yajna shishta: left over of sacrifice; amruta: nectar; bhujah:one who enjoys; yaanti: attain; brahma: Supreme;sanaatanam: eternal; na: not; ayam: this; lokah: world; asty:is; ayajnasya: to one who does not sacrifice; kutah: where;anyaha: other; kurusattama: O Best among the Kurus

4.31 Having tasted the nectar of the results of suchsacrifices, they go to the supreme eternal consciousness.

This world is not for those who have not sacrificed.How can the other be, Arjuna?

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B´ÉÆ ¤É½ÖþÊ´ÉvÉÉ ªÉYÉÉ Ê´ÉiÉiÉÉ ¥ÉÀhÉÉä ¨ÉÖJÉä*Eò¨ÉÇVÉÉÎx´ÉÊrù iÉÉxºÉ´ÉÉÇxÉä´ÉÆ YÉÉi´ÉÉ Ê´É¨ÉÉäIªÉºÉä**4.32**

evam bahu vidhaa yajnaa vitataa brahmano mukhekarma jaan viddhi taan sarvaan evam jnaatvaa vimokshyase

4.32

evam: thus; bahu: many; vidhah: kinds of; yajna: sacrifice;vitataah: explained; brahmanah mukhe: in the words of theVeda; karma jaan: born of actions of mind, sense andbody; viddhi: know; taan: those; sarvaan: all; evam: thus;jnaatvaa: after knowing; vimokshyase: will be liberated

4.32 Thus, there are many kinds of sacrifices born ofwork mentioned in the Vedas.

Thus, knowing these, one will be liberated.

¸ÉäªÉÉxpù´ªÉ¨ÉªÉÉtYÉÉVYÉÉxÉªÉYÉ& {É®úxiÉ{É*ºÉ´ÉÈ Eò¨ÉÉÇÊJÉ±ÉÆ {ÉÉlÉÇ YÉÉxÉä {ÉÊ®úºÉ¨ÉÉ{ªÉiÉä**4.33**

shreyaan dravyamayaat yajnaat jnaana yajnah parantapasarvam karma akhilam paartha jnaane parisamaapyate 4.33

shreyaan: superior; dravyamayaat: material wealth; yajnaat:sacrifice; jnaana yajnah: sacrifice in wisdom; parantapa: Osubduer of foes; sarvam: all; karma: activities; akhilam: intotality; paartha: O son of Pritha; jnaane: in wisdom;parisamaapyate: ends in


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4.33 O conqueror of foes, the sacrifice of wisdom issuperior to the sacrifice of material wealth.

After all, all activities totally end in wisdom.

iÉÊuùÊrù |ÉÊhÉ{ÉÉiÉäxÉ {ÉÊ®ú|É¶xÉäxÉ ºÉä´ÉªÉÉ*={ÉnäùIªÉÎxiÉ iÉä YÉÉxÉÆ YÉÉÊxÉxÉºiÉk´ÉnùÌ¶ÉxÉ&**4.34**

tat viddhi pranipaatena pariprashnena sevayaaupadekshyanti te jnaanam jnaaninastattva darshinaha 4.34

tat: that; viddhi: understand; pranipaatena: byapproaching a spiritual master; pariprashnena: byquestioning; sevayaa: by offering service; upadekshyanti: willadvise; te: unto you; jnaanam: knowledge; jnaaninah: theenlightened; tattva darshinaha: the spiritual seers.

4.34 Understand these truths by approaching a spiritualmaster, by asking him your questions, by offeringservice.

The enlightened person can initiate the wisdom unto youbecause he has seen the truth

ªÉVYÉÉi´ÉÉ xÉ {ÉÖxÉ¨ÉÉæ½þ¨Éä´ÉÆ ªÉÉºªÉÊºÉ {ÉÉhb÷´É*ªÉäxÉ ¦ÉÚiÉÉxªÉ¶Éä¹ÉähÉ pùIªÉºªÉÉi¨ÉxªÉlÉÉä ¨ÉÊªÉ**4.35**

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yat jnaatvaa na punar moham evam yaasyasi paandavayena bhootany asheshena drakshyasy aatmany atho mayi 4.35

yat: which; jnaatvaa: after knowing; na: not; punah:again; moham: desire; evam: thus; yaasyasi: shall attain;paandava: O son of Pandu; yena: by which; bhootaani: livingentities; asheshena: totally; drakshyasi: will see; aatmani:within yourself; atho: then; mayi: in Me

4.35 O Pandava, knowing this you will never sufferfrom desire or illusion,

You will know that all living beings are in the supreme,in me.

+Ê{É SÉänùÊºÉ {ÉÉ{Éä¦ªÉ& ºÉ´Éæ¦ªÉ& {ÉÉ{ÉEÞòkÉ¨É&*ºÉ´ÉÈ YÉÉxÉ{±É´ÉäxÉè´É ´ÉÞÊVÉxÉÆ ºÉxiÉÊ®ú¹ªÉÊºÉ**4.36**

api chet asi paapebhyaha sarvebhyaha paapa kruttamahasarvam jnaana plavenaiva vrjinam santarishyasi 4.36

api: even; chet: if; asi: you are; paapebhyaha: of sinners;sarvebhyaha: of all; paapa: sins; kruttamaha: greatest sinner;sarvam: all; jnaana plavena: by the boat of knowledge; eva:only; vrjinam: the ocean of miseries; santarishyasi: you willcross.

4.36 Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners,

You will certainly cross completely the ocean of miseriesthrough the boat of knowledge.


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ªÉlÉèvÉÉÆÊºÉ ºÉÊ¨ÉrùÉä%ÎMxÉ¦ÉÇº¨ÉºÉÉiEÖò¯ûiÉä%VÉÖÇxÉ*YÉÉxÉÉÎMxÉ& ºÉ´ÉÇEò¨ÉÉÇÊhÉ ¦Éº¨ÉºÉÉiEÖò¯ûiÉä iÉlÉÉ**4.37**

yathaidhaamsi samiddhognirbhasmasaat kurute arjunajnaana agnihi sarva karmaani bhasmasaat kurute tathaa 4.37

yatha: as; edhamsi: firewood; samiddhah: blazing; agnihi:fire; bhasmasaat: ashes; kurute: does; arjuna: O Arjuna;jnaana: knowledge; agnihi: fire; sarva: all; karmaani: actions;bhasmasaat: ashes; kurute: does; tathaa: in the same way.

4.37 Just as a blazing fire turns firewood to ashes, oArjuna,

So does the fire of wisdom burn to ashes all actions, allyour karma.

xÉ Ê½þ YÉÉxÉäxÉ ºÉoù¶ÉÆ {ÉÊ´ÉjÉÊ¨É½þ Ê´ÉtiÉä*iÉiº´ÉªÉÆ ªÉÉäMÉºÉÆÊºÉrù& EòÉ±ÉäxÉÉi¨ÉÊxÉ Ê´ÉxnùÊiÉ**4.38**

na hi jnaanena sadrusham pavitram iha vidyatetat svayam yoga samsiddhaha kaalena aatmani vindati 4.38

na: not; hi: certainly; jnaanena: with knowledge;sadrusham: similar; pavitram: pure; iha: here; vidyate: exists;tat: that; svayam: himself; yoga: in devotion; samsiddhaha:purified; kaalena: in course time; aatmani: within self;vindati: acquires.

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4.38 Truly, in this world, there is nothing as pure aswisdom.

One who has matured to know this enjoys in himself indue course of time.

¸ÉrùÉ´ÉÉÄ±±É¦ÉiÉä YÉÉxÉÆ iÉi{É®ú& ºÉÆªÉiÉäÎxpùªÉ&*YÉÉxÉÆ ±É¤v´ÉÉ {É®úÉÆ ¶ÉÉÎxiÉ¨ÉÊSÉ®äúhÉÉÊvÉMÉSUôÊiÉ**4.39**

Shraddhaavaan labhate jnaanam tatparaha samyate indriyahajnaanam labdhvaa paraam shaantim achirena adhigacchati 4.39

shraddhaavaan: faithful person; labhate: achieves; jnaanam:knowledge; tatparaha: attached ; samyata: controlled;indriyaha: senses; jnaanam: knowledge; labdhvaa: havingachieved; paraam: Supreme; shaantim: peace; achirena:without delay; adhigacchati: attains

4.39 A person with shraddha (courageous faith) achieveswisdom and has control over the senses.

Achieving wisdom, without delay, he attains supremepeace.

+YÉ¶SÉÉ¸ÉqùvÉÉxÉ¶SÉ ºÉÆ¶ÉªÉÉi¨ÉÉ Ê´ÉxÉ¶ªÉÊiÉ*xÉÉªÉÆ ±ÉÉäEòÉä%ÎºiÉ xÉ {É®úÉä xÉ ºÉÖJÉÆ ºÉÆ¶ÉªÉÉi¨ÉxÉ&**4.40**


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ajnashcha ashraddhaanashcha samshayaatmaa vinashyatina ayam loko asti na paro na sukham samshayaatmanaha 4.40

ajnah: ignorant; cha: and; ashraddhaanah: one having nofaith; cha: and; samshayaatma: douting soul; vinashyati:perish; na: not; ayam: this; lokah: world; asti: is; na: not;parah: next; na: not; sukham: happiness; samshayaatmanaha:of the doubting soul.

4.40 Those who have no wisdom and faith, who alwayshave doubts, are destroyed.

There is no happiness in this world or the next.

ªÉÉäMÉºÉÆxªÉºiÉEò¨ÉÉÇhÉÆ YÉÉxÉºÉÆÊUôzÉºÉÆ¶ÉªÉ¨ÉÂ*+Éi¨É´ÉxiÉÆ xÉ Eò¨ÉÉÇÊhÉ ÊxÉ¤ÉvxÉÎxiÉ vÉxÉ\VÉªÉ**4.41**

Yoga sannyasta karmaanam jnaana sancchinna sanshayamaatmavantam na karmaani nibadhnanti dhananjaya 4.41

yoga sannyasta karmaanam: on who has dedicated hisactions to God according to Karma yoga; jnaana sanchinnasamshayam: who doubts have been cleared by knowledge;aatma vantam: self possessed; na: not; karmaani: actions;nibadhnanti: bind; dhananjaya: O Dhanañjaya

4.41 O winner of riches, one who has renounced thefruits of his actions, whose doubts are destroyed, who iswell-situated in the self, is not bound by his actions.

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iÉº¨ÉÉnùYÉÉxÉºÉÆ¦ÉÚiÉÆ ¾þiºlÉÆ YÉÉxÉÉÊºÉxÉÉ%%i¨ÉxÉ&*ÊUôk´ÉèxÉÆ ºÉÆ¶ÉªÉÆ ªÉÉäMÉ¨ÉÉÊiÉ¹`öÉäÊkÉ¹`ö ¦ÉÉ®úiÉ**4.42**

tasmaat ajnaana sambhootam hritstham jnaanaasinaa aatmanahachittvainam samshayam yogam aatishthottishtha bhaarata

(4.42)

tasmaat: therefore; ajnaana: ignorance; sambhootam: bornof; hrit stham: situated in the heart; jnaanaasina: by thesword of knowledge; aatmanaha: of the self; chittvaa:having cutting off; enam: this; samshayam: doubt; yogam: inyoga; aatishtha: be firm; uttishtha: stand up; bhaarata: Odescendant of Bharata

4.42 O descendant of Bharata, therefore, stand up, besituated in yoga.

Armed with the sword of knowledge; cut the doubt bornof ignorance that exists in your heart.

Documents

lifeblissprograms.orglifeblissprograms.org/e-books/pdf/bhagavad_gita_digital_ch4.pdfPath of Knowledge 5 CONTENTS 1. Bhagavad Gita: A Background 7 2. Introduction 15 3. The Path of