Read Now - Lifeblissprograms.org

LOOK IN BEFORE COMING TO ANY CONCLUSION

Published by Nithyananda Foundation, Bangalore, India Copyright© 2006 First Edition: July 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use without permission in writing from Nithyananda Publishers. In the event that you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions. All proceeds from the sales of this book go towards supporting Nithyananda Foundation’s charitable activities. Printed in India by W Q Judge Press, Bangalore, India 2

BHAGAVAD GITA

– The Song of God : Chapter 6

Nithyananda Talks given in USA on The Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 6

Whatever good we do in this life passes on to the next. Step by step we can cleanse our negativity and reach Self awareness.

3

BHAGAVAD GITA


CONTENT

Bhagavad Gita: A Background ................................................ 8 Introduction ............................................................................... 13 Look in Before Coming to any Conclusion .......................... 15

Appendix Science and spirituality ................................................ 242 Offerings from Nithyananda Foundation ................... 250

5


! Paaqaa-ya p/itbaaioQataM Baagavata naaraayaNaona svayaM vyaasaona ga/iqataM puraNamauinanaa maQyao mahaBaartM AWOtamaRtvaiYa-NaIM BagavatIM AYTadSaaQyaaiyanaIM Amba %vaamanausandQaaima Bagavad\gaIto BavaWooiYaNaIM Om paarthaaya pratibodhitam bhagavataa naaraayanena svayam Vyaasena grathitaam puraanamuninaa madhye mahaabhaaratam Advaitaamrutavarshineem bhagavateem ashtaadsaadhyaayineem Amba tvaamanusadadhaami bhagavadgite bhavadveshineem

Om Bhagavad Gita, I meditate upon you, the affectionate Mother, the divine mother showering the nectar of non duality and destroying rebirth, incorporated into the Mahabharata in eighteen chapters by sage Vyasa, with which Lord Narayana, the Supreme Consciousness Himself, enlightened Arjuna.

6

BHAGAVAD GITA


vasaudovasautM dovaM kmsacaaNaUrmad-nama\ dovakIprmaanandM kRYNaM vando jagad\gauruM Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanura Mardanam Devaki Paramaanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum

I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacher to the World, son of Vasudeva and supreme bliss of Devaki, destroyer of Kamsa and Chanura.

7


Bhagavad Gita: A Background Bhagavad Gita, or Gita, as it is often called, is considered a sacred scripture, a sruti, that which was transmitted by hearing. As a sruti Gita is clubbed along with the ancient scriptures of Veda and Upanishad which are the expressions of the great sages, the maharishi. Veda and Upanishad, the sruti, were not God given as some people believe. They arose through the insight and awareness of the great sages when they went into a no mind state. Gita is a part of the purana, the epics; it forms part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. Unlike the Veda, which were internalized by the great sages, the maharishi, or the Upanishad, which were the teachings of these great sages, Gita is part of a story narrated by Vyasa, a great sage. 8

BHAGAVAD GITA


No other purana, or part of a purana, has this special status as the Gita. Gita arose from the super consciousness of Parabrahma Krishna, the Cosmic Cobsciousness and is therefore considered a scripture. Mahabharata, literally the Great Bharata, refers to the nation and civilization developed by the descendants of Bharata, a great King who ruled a region, what today is known as India. The story of this epic is about two warring clans, Kaurava and Pandava, closely related to one another. Dhritharashtra, the blind King of Hastinapura and father of the 100 Kaurava men was the brother of Pandu, whose children were the five Pandava princes. Pandu, originally the King of Hastinapura, was afflicted by a curse of a sage and he handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother Dhritharashtra. Vyasa, the sage who tells this story, says that all the five Pandava children were born to their mother Kunti through her union with divine beings by immaculate conception, since Pandu himself was incapable of siring children as a result of his curse. Kunti received a blessing when she was still a young unmarried adolescent that she could at will summon any divine power. Duryodhana, the Kaurava Prince, had no love lost for his five Pandava cousins. Along with his even more wicked brother Dushassana, he made many attempts to kill the Pandava brothers off without success. Karna, Kunti’s eldest son whom she had cast away at birth, since he was born before she was 9


married through her union with the Sun God, by a strange twist of fate joined hands with Duryodhana. On his coming of age, the Pandava Prince Yudhishtra being the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pandu had vacated, was given by his uncle Dhritharashtra half the kingdom. Yudhishtra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha with his brothers Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna, won the hand of Princess Draupadi, daughter of the King of Panchal in a swayamwara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel. To obey the promise that the five Pandava brothers made to their mother Kunti that they would share everything equally, Draupadi became the wife of all five Pandava brothers. Duryodhana persuaded Yudhishtra into a gambling session, where the evil Sakuni as Duryodhana’s representative defeated the Pandava King. One by one, Yudhishtra was made to lose all that he owned, his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself to Duryodhana. Draupadi was shamed in public by Dushassana who disrobed her. Pandava brothers and Draupadi were forced to go into exile for 14 years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito. At the end of the 14 years, Pandava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Krishna, the divine reincarnation of Vishnu in the form of the King of Yadava clan. However, they were rebuffed by Duryodhana. Finally, war resulted, the Great War, the War of 10

BHAGAVAD GITA


Mahabharata. Various rulers of the entire nation, that is today India, aligned with one or the other of these two clans, the Kaurava or the Pandava. Krishna offered to join either of the two clans. He said: ‘One of you may have me unarmed, not taking any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yadava army’. The first offer was made to Duryodhana, who predictably chose the vast Yadava army, in preference to the unarmed Krishna. Arjuna chose Krishna as his unarmed charioteer. The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukshetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day India. All the Kings and Princes were related to one another, often on opposite sides. Arjuna was charioted by Krishna himself. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt and wanted to walk away from the battle. Krishna’s dialogue with Arjuna on the battle field of Kurukshetra is the content of Bhagavad Gita, which literally means Song of the Divine. Krishna persuaded Arjuna to take up arms and vanquish his enemies. ‘They are already dead’, says Krishna, ‘all those who are facing you are dead. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your duty’. Bhagavad Gita has eighteen chapters and is presented as the narration of Sanjaya, Dhritharashtra’s charioteer to the blind king. 11


The Great War of Mahabharata lasted 18 days. All the Kaurava Princes as well all their commanders such as Bhishma, Drona and Karna were killed in battle. The five Pandava brothers survived as winners and became the rulers of the combined kingdom. In this dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, the dialogue is between man and God; nara and Narayana as they are termed in Sanskrit. Arjuna’s questions and doubts are those of each one of us. The answers of the Divine, Krishna, transcend time and space. Krishna’s message is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield some thousands of years ago. Like Arjuna many thousand years ago, you are here in a dialogue with a Master. May the Master’s words resolve your questions and clear your doubts. Nithyanandam!

12

BHAGAVAD GITA


Introduction In this series, a young enlightened Master, Nithyananda comments on the Gita. Thousands of commentaries of the Gita have been written over the years. Amongst the earliest were by the great spiritual Masters such as Sankara, some thousand over years ago. In recent times, great Masters such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi have spoken from the Gita extensively. Many others have written volumes on this great scripture. Nithyananda’s commentary of the Bhagavad Gita is not a literary translation and an explanation of that translation. We have added here, for the sake of the curious reader, all the 13


verses in Sanskrit or Devanagari script along with the Roman or English script transliteration, word by word meaning and a summary of that verse’s meaning. Here the comparison with other commentaries stops. Nithyananda takes the reader through a world tour while talking about each verse. It is believed that each verse of the Gita has seven levels of meaning. What is commonly rendered is the first level meaning. Here, an enlightened Master takes us beyond the common into the uncommon, with equal ease and simplicity. To read Nithyananda’s commentary on the Gita is to obtain an insight that is rare. It is not mere reading; it is an experience; it is a meditation. Sankara, the great Master philosopher said: ‘Bhagavad gita kinchita dheeta, ganga jala lava kanika pita, sakrutapi ena murari samarcha, kriyate tasya yame na charcha’ ‘A little reading of the Gita, a drop of Ganga water to drink, remembering Krishna once in a while, all this will ensure that you have no problems with the God of Death.’ The original discourse delivered by Nithyananda has been further expanded with His inputs into this book version. May this reading help you in your endeavor to attain Truth.

14

BHAGAVAD GITA


Look in before coming to any conclusions We will start with a small story. A Hollywood director was shooting his big budget movie in a deserted area. We know how these films are made. They spend a lot of money building sets and dream sequences, because the whole film is to fulfill our dreams only. They spend enormous amounts of money on the actors and actresses and they cannot afford to waste any time, because time is really big dollars. In the middle of a day’s shooting, when the sun was shining bright, an old native American Indian appeared on the sets, whispered hoarsely to the director ‘tomorrow rain’ and went 15


away. The director took no notice of this guy till it happened that the next day it just poured and no shooting at all was possible. Still, the director did not really link the Indian’s words to the rain. After one week, the same Indian appeared again and said ‘tomorrow storm’ and disappeared. This time too, the director and others took no heed of what this strange guy said. Exactly as he predicted, it happened that there was a big storm the next day. The director had to cancel the shooting. The Indian appeared a couple of times more with his predictions. After noticing that his predictions came true each time, three or four times, the director was really impressed. He told his assistant, ‘We can save a lot of money with that guy. No matter what it costs, get that old Indian, we will pay him and keep him with us’. After three weeks, suddenly, the Indian disappeared and he didn’t come back for more than a month. The director was very upset and sent out search teams who finally located the Indian and got him back to the sets. The director asked him sincerely, ‘Please tell me about tomorrow, I have to shoot an important scene, it is a costly set. I totally rely on you to tell me about tomorrow.’ The old man just shrugged and said, ‘Don’t know about tomorrow; my radio, he is broken.’

16

BHAGAVAD GITA


Look in before coming to any conclusion. This is the message for today. The sixth chapter of Bhagavad Gita starts with Krishna’s sloka first. In this chapter Arjuna is not asking any questions of Krishna. Krishna continues His answers from the previous chapter.

17


¸ÉÒ ¦ÉMÉ´ÉÉxÉÖ´ÉÉSÉ +xÉÉÊ¸ÉiÉ& Eò¨ÉÇ¡ò±ÉÆ EòÉªÉÈ Eò¨ÉÇ Eò®úÉÊä iÉ ªÉ&* ºÉ ºÉÆxªÉÉºÉÒ SÉ ªÉÉäMÉÒ SÉ xÉ ÊxÉ®úÎMxÉxÉÇ SÉÉÊGòªÉ&**6.1** Shri Bhagavan uvacha anashritaha karma phalam karyam karma karoti yaha sa sannyasi cha yogi cha na niragnir na chakriyaha (6.1)

Shri bhagavan uvacha: the Lord said; anashritaha: without shelter; karma: action; phalam: fruit; karyam: obligated; karma: work; karoti: performs; yaha: who; sa: he; sannyasi: ascetic; cha: and; yogi: one engaged in yoga; cha: and; na: not; nih: without; agnih: fire; na: not; cha: and; akriyaha: without work Bhagavan says: One who performs actions without being attached to its fruits is an ascetic. He is a religious performer of purification of mind. One who has stopped performing any actions, one who doesn’t accept the sacred fire and doesn’t perform his rituals is neither an ascetic nor a karma yogi, a sage immersed in action.

18

BHAGAVAD GITA


Krishna continues with what he said earlier in a little more detailed way. He says the person who is not attached to the fruits of his action is an ascetic and he is a karma yogi. Please understand, karma, the state of action or sannyasa, the state of renunciation, is no way related to your doing, it is directly related to your being. Being a sannyasin, a renunciate or a monk, is not a status, it is a state, it is a state of mind. Whether you are doing karma yoga or you remain as a sannyasi is in no way going to affect you. If one is a karma yogi, one goes about doing the work that is allotted to one with non attachment and lack of expectations. This is done even in the middle of one’s life as a householder or a businessperson or an employee. The status is not of any consequence. In the same manner, it is immaterial whether one dons saffron robes to be a renunciate or an ascetic. One can wear all the outer trappings of a monk and still be fully clutched in the samsara maya, the illusion of life. Sankara says beautifully in Bhaja Govindam about the ascetic who is cheating the world and himself: The ascetic has his hair knotted, he shaves his head bald, he pulls out his hair one by one in penance, he wears saffron robes, but he does not see even though he has eyes. The fool, he does all this only to fill his belly.

19


What is one’s attitude, what ever is one’s being, that alone really matters. That ensures the state of one’s being. Here Krishna gives the gist of the last chapter. Again and again people ask me ‘Master, should we renounce everything to achieve enlightenment? How can we lead our day to day life and yet hope to achieve spiritual progress?’ I tell them ‘No! Just renounce what you don’t have. That is enough, you don’t have to renounce what you have.’ I tell them to live with whatever they have and to just renounce what they don’t have. We fantasize about all that we do not have and seek to have. We have thousands of things that we don’t have but we mentally live with them. The problem is not what we have; we have got used to them; they are reality. It is what we do not have that creates problems. Just renounce what you don’t have; that is enough to solve your problems. Then you will start living intensely with what you have; you will enjoy being with what you have so far acquired. One of the major problems we bring upon ourselves is that we chase desires and acquisitions and once we have achieved what we wish, we have no time to enjoy what we have acquired. It is as if the enjoyment is only in the chase and not in the acquisition itself. We then move on to the 20

BHAGAVAD GITA


next chase and so on. We spend no time in enjoying what we have, but waste our time in chasing what we think we should have. The present has no meaning to many of us, which is where true reality is, true enjoyment is. It is the illusion of the speculative future that draws our interest.

There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit: brahmacharya. Just like so many other Sanskrit words, this word has no equivalent word in English. The word has been translated very wrongly as celibacy. But no, celibacy is not the right word for brahmacharya. The word has such a wonderful meaning. In English you don’t have equivalent word because the very idea never existed. The very idea of brahmacharya never existed. Brahma means existence, reality, divine; charya means living like; it is to walk the talk; to move with. Bramhacharya refers to a person who lives like the gods, who lives with existence, who lives with reality. Please be very clear, bramhacharya word does not mean one who is unmarried. In course of time when it was translated as celibacy, we started using that word to denote a person who is unmarried. No! Bramhacharya means one who lives with existence; one who lives with reality. One of the four stages of life as defined in the scriptures is brahmacharya. It is the stage at which as a young student one learns at the feet of the Master; the days that a person 21


spends in the gurukul, the Vedic school system. This training starts as early as the age of seven, when the parents hand the child over to a Master and the child stays with the Master till early adulthood. By the very nature of this system, the child stays celibate till his or her stay at the gurukul. At the end of this period, depending on the child’s aptitude and skills, he or she moves on into life as a grihastha, a householder, or a sannyasin, an ascetic. This period of brahmacharya, under the Master in one’s early years provides the background to shed one’s fantasies and live life in reality. In today’s world most of us live with fantasy. Look in! Look in and you will understand. How much of fantasies are there inside? Our whole life is running behind fantasies because we don’t live with the reality of our existence. From the time we start interacting with the external world, even from our childhood, we are exposed to so many different forms of media. Unlike even fifty years ago, today TV and the internet flood us with information, equally they flood us with fantasies. A young girl of ten came with her parents to my ashram. In fun, I asked her who she would marry when she grew up. She named a popular film actor, who is already married with children. Her innocence had been robbed by fantasies. If Rama and Sita had lived in today’s world, with all the 22

BHAGAVAD GITA


fantasies being thrown at them, even they would have been tempted! In our lives the search for a life partner is a very serious issue. We search for the ideal life partner with great vigor and determination. Nature has intended us to pursue this relationship actively in the interest of the survival of the human race. We spend a lot of time in this activity. A small story: An old man used to sit on the beach and watch all the women who passed by. A young man who saw him doing this for many days became curious and asked the old man, ‘Sir, I see you sitting here everyday looking at the women. That is quite strange at your age. Why are you doing this?’ The old man said, ‘Oh, I have been doing this for many years now. I am searching for my life mate, my soul mate.’ The young man was surprised; he asked, ‘You mean to tell me in all these years you never found one who matched your requirements?’ The old man replied sadly, ‘Well, actually many years ago I did find my ideal mate; but then she was looking for her ideal mate as well!’ Even when we find someone who matches that ideal, soon

23


reality sets in. The template so carefully built over many years does not match reality. Another small story: A man presented a couple with a small pup, as he knew that both bride and groom were fond of animals. After six months, he happened to meet the husband and asked him how his married life was. ‘Well’, said the husband, ‘when we first got married, my wife used to bring me the newspaper everyday with my coffee in the mornings and the pup used to bark. Now the pup brings in the newspaper and my wife barks at me!’ You neither live with the real husband nor do you relate with the real wife. If you look into your life deeply, you will see that you may live in the same house but count how many times you look into each other’s eyes. How many times does the eye contact happen? You don’t need two hands to count. The reason is that there is always the screen of fantasy between you and your spouse. Just like between you and the life, as well. You don’t want to see the life as it is. We are not ready to accept the life as it is. Continuously we are working and developing the life but we are not ready to look into the life as it is. Recently, I read a beautiful book, ‘Men are from Mars and women are from Venus’. There are so many things that the 24

BHAGAVAD GITA


author has expressed which we can see in reality, in our life. If you look around and see what is happening, I feel we should find out some other title for the book: Venus and Mars are too close, they are from the same galaxy! We should find out some thing else. Our life is filled with fantasies; fantasies about how our wouldbe should be and what we should do if reality does not match fantasy. Continuously, we are chiseling the other person and continuously the other person is chiseling us. You have some imagination and according to your imagination, you chisel the real person. All the sounds heard in your house are that of the chisel and the hammer. Continuously we go on chiseling. We can chisel a stone and make a beautiful sculpture and keep it in the house. You can chisel wood and make beautiful furniture and have it in the house. But can you chisel a living being? In Siva Sutra, Devi Parvati asks her husband Siva, ‘Lord, in the bed of a married couple how many are there?’ Siva says, ‘Four’. Seeing Devi’s surprised look, he explains, ‘There is the couple, husband and wife; along with them there are the fantasies of the husband about his wife and of the wife about the husband.’ Such a marriage is not marriage. When husband and wife carry fantasies about how the other should be, can the marriage prosper? 25


When you start chiseling a living being, you create more and more trouble for yourself and for the other person. A person who is matured enough to live with reality has achieved the state of bramhacharya. He is living with the real person or situation. He accepts the present moment for what it is; he does not look for how it should be. Just drop the fantasies. Living with the reality is what I call bramhacharya. Here, again and again Krishna says, just renouncing the sacred fire, not performing his duty does not mean you are an ascetic or sannyasi. In those days fire was the base for everything: whether cooking or doing spiritual practice, for every thing you needed fire. I can replace the word ‘fire’ with ‘cell phone’ for today’s world. In this modern day, we can say: don’t think by sacrificing the cell phone and laptop you become a sannyasi or a great karma yogi. Just like how the cell phone and laptop have become the basic necessity today, in those days, the agni (fire) was the basic need for life. Please be very clear: Just like how you are able to relate with people through the cell phone, our ancient rishis (mystics) knew the techniques of relating with higher energy through fire. We should understand an important thing: Just like how we are using the cell phone and communicating, the same way Vedic Masters knew how to use fire to communicate with 26

BHAGAVAD GITA


the higher energy. The whole science is nothing but using the light particles. The whole science can be reduced to using the light particles whether it is electricity, or atomic energy, or anything. Everything is nothing but handling light particles with different formulae. Whether it is your fan or iron box or a microscope or video camera, laptop, atom bomb, everything can be reduced to that one single thing: the technique of handling light particles. The scientists worked on light energy and created all these objects. Our eastern rishi worked on sound energy and created all these products. We really had the pushpaka vimana (flying chariot) and we did really have the brahmastra (nuclear weapon). Everything was true. But, in course of time we lost the technology, that’s all. The technology of handling the sound waves is lost. But just because the technology is lost, the whole thing is being questioned today. People have started thinking all these things are just mythology; all these things are just purana, epic stories. No, we lost the key and because of that we are not able to open the lock. Just because we are not able to open the lock, don’t think there is no treasure. The entire collection of scriptures, the Veda is nothing but learning the techniques of tuning yourself to work with the sound particles. Just like how scientists work with light particles, the rishi have worked with the sound particles. They were able to relate with higher energies and were able to 27


communicate, through fire just with the vibrations. Whether it was Sanjaya, the charioteer of the Kaurava king Dhritarashtra, seeing the Mahabharata war through telepathy, or the pushpaka vimana, the flying chariot concept or Brahmastra, the ultimate fire weapon, these are all true. Only thing is when the cultural invasion of India happened, the techniques were lost. I myself have seen a sannyasi, who could create fire just by a few words. Out of nothing, with few words, he was able to create fire. Even now, if you go to Kumbhamela, the river festival that occurs once in 12 years in India, you can see hundreds of people like these. They would bury their heads inside the earth for more than 24 hours. There are so many people who can play with sound energy. I myself have seen this in Kumbhamela. Ten years ago, in Haridwar Kumbhamela, I saw with my own eyes, a sannyasi was floating in air and the public was watching this with awe. And I have seen a sannyasi who would sit on a board full of sharp nails. We even have a video recording of that in the ashram on how they sit on nails and how they float. Just with sound energy they are able to do whatever science is able to do with the light energy. So here, Krishna says just by renouncing a fire, a person cannot become a sannyasi. Same way, here I can say just by

28

BHAGAVAD GITA


renouncing your cell phone in life, you cannot become sannyasi. The attitude needs to be changed. To renounce, the mind has to renounce thoughts. Usually, wherever our body is, our mind is not. When we are at home, our thoughts are in the office. When we are in the office, we worry about what happens elsewhere. When we are on vacation, we worry about work and cannot enjoy ourselves. To bring the mind to within where the body is, to renounce the inner chatter is the starting point of renunciation. Thoughts cannot be suppressed. More we suppress thoughts more they erupt. We cannot control the mind in a traditional manner. We need to let go; we need to constantly bring ourselves back to where our body is, to the present, to the here and now, away from the dead past and the unborn future. Renunciation of the past and future, by bringing our mind to focus on the present is renunciation. This renunciation does not happen by giving up what we believe is essential to material welfare such as the fire and the cell phone. It also does not happen by giving up what we think are superficial to spiritual progress, such as rituals. Giving these up, without bringing in the true awareness of consciousness is not renunciation. In the first sloka, Krishna gave the gist of the last chapter, like a follow up. Then He continues: 29


ªÉÆ ºÉÆxªÉÉºÉÊ¨ÉÊiÉ |ÉÉ½ÖþªÉÉæMÉÆ iÉÆ Ê´ÉÊrù {ÉÉhb÷´É* xÉ ÁºÉÆxªÉºiÉºÉRÂóEò±{ÉÉä ªÉÉäMÉÒ ¦É´ÉÊiÉ Eò¶SÉxÉ**6.2** yam sannyasam iti prahur yogam tam viddhi pandava na hy asannyasta sankalpo yogi bhavati kashchana (6.2) yam: what; sannyasam: renunciation; iti: thus; prahuh: they say; yogam: linking with the Supreme; tam: that; viddhi: you should know; pandava: O son of Pandu; na: never; hi: certainly; asannyasta: without renouncing; sankalpah: self interest; yogi: one engaged in yoga; bhavati: becomes; kashchana: anyone O Pandava, renunciation leads to the state of yoga where one is linking oneself with the Supreme. This union with the Divine can happen only when you renounce self interest.

30

BHAGAVAD GITA


Renunciation for the sake of renunciation, renunciation of material things without renouncing desires is of no value, Krishna has already said. They say that all the great sages used to go deep into meditation. Gods above would get terrified. Especially Indra, who forever was getting into trouble with these sages by running after their wives! You see, in those days, sages, the great rishi, were all householders. So, Indra would try and disturb them by tempting them. Even great tapasvi, men with experience of long meditative penance behind them were not immune to these temptations. There is a very famous painting that was published in many calendars. Ravivarma, King of Travancore, had painted the great sage Vishwamitra being tempted by the celestial nymph, apsara, Menaka. In the painting Vishwamitra is holding his hands up shielding his eyes to prevent them seeing Menaka. But the fingers are wide spread so that he can peep! All these are stories and metaphorical stories. There are no celestial nymphs because there is no heaven and no Indra. If Indra were to send down apsara each time someone meditated, all you guys will immediately take up meditation, won’t you! It is your inner fantasies that come out as Menaka. You sit and meditate, and you will see! All the women you have not even seen will come in front of you. You have to renounce the fantasies. These fantasies are creation of your ego, mind, identity and self, whatever be the 31


name you wish to call it. This self conjures up all these visions, unreal fantasy visions so that it can keep you occupied, so that it can keep you in control. You may think you are in control of your mind. That is a fantasy and an illusion. Your mind controls you. This is what Krishna means by sankalpa, self interest; because the mind wishes to satisfy the senses, which it operates and controls. By visualizing, by hearing, by smelling, by tasting, by touching through the sense organs, your mind wants you to experience pleasures that will keep you under its hold. Only when you renounce that mind control by going beyond the senses can you become a true renunciate, this is what Krishna said in earlier chapters. Control your senses and still your mind so that you can reach Me, He says. When Krishna talks about ‘self’, this is the small ‘self’, the external identity, which you confuse with your Self, the real inner core, the Truth. If you can and only when you do renounce this so-called self identity, which is not the true Self, then you perceive yourself as the Supreme Self which is your true identity. An ordinary person sees his own self as being the body, mind, memories, senses and the identities that he creates for himself. These are the antennae through which you can project yourself onto the outer world.

32

BHAGAVAD GITA


You normally create two identities. One identity, called ahankar, is the identity that you project to the outer world. This identity is usually based on your achievements in the society, your professions, possessions, etc. The second identity is called mamakar, which is the identity we project to our inner self. This identity is usually based on our ideas about our attitudes, our beliefs, and self esteem. Through a combination of these two identities, we create an image about ourselves, which we hold on to with deep conviction and belief. Our true Self is beyond this image. Any activity, which the person performs to satisfy this false identity or ego should be renounced, if we wish to not be controlled by the mind. As long as we allow our senses to feed us, we shall be nurtured and controlled by sensory pleasures that satisfy our ego. Our mind will then keep us in its control. Renunciation of these fantasies that we need for self satisfaction is Yoga. Yoga is the state when our desires expressed through sensual pleasures dissolve. We unite with our true Self at this state. In this state, there is no gap between us and the Divine. Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not, want it or not, we are God. We are Divine. All we can do is to accept it, experience it and express it or we can just continue to struggle and fight. That is the truth.

33


A small story: A man is informed that his wife fell into the river. He runs to the river to save her. To everyone’s surprise, this man runs and jumps into the river and starts swimming in the opposite direction, against the current. People watching the scene start screaming and start calling him a fool. They ask him why he is going against the current. They shout at him saying his wife would have been carried with the current downstream. The man in the river says, ‘You don’t know my wife, she is always fighting; even in the river she can only flow against the current!’ You can be like a rock in water, forever resisting the water flow. The river pounds on it and eventually reduces it to sand that settles at the bottom. Or you can be like the reed that bends and flows in whichever direction the water flows. There is nothing that the water can do to the reed. By giving into the water flow, the reed defeats the water. When Christ says ‘The meek shall inherit the earth’, this is what he refers to. He is not saying, be a coward, be scared of your own shadow, I shall deliver the world to you. Meekness here is not cowardice, it is not fear. Meekness is a virtue that allows you to flow with the current. Meekness allows you to flourish. Meekness is your ability to know that you are not in control but the universe is. Meekness is wisdom. The wise shall inherit the earth. 34

BHAGAVAD GITA


In Sanskrit there are two terms ‘drishti srishti’ and ‘srishti drishti’. Drishti srishti means to look at the world as it is and take life as it comes. Srishti drishti is just the opposite. You want to mould the world to how you see it, how you want it to be. You want the world running according to your fantasies, instead of accepting the reality of the world. This is a sure recipe for disaster, the same way that the woman swimming against the current would meet disaster. We have a choice: either we go against the current believing that we shall control our destiny and keep struggling all the time, or we go with the current surrendering to the divine, of which we are an integral part and to be in bliss. Whether we go against or go with the current we are in the water, so whether we realize it or not, we are divine. When our desires for external sensual pleasures are in control, we experience the divinity, which is inside us. This is the state of Yoga that Krishna talks about, the state of true renunciation, where there is no suppression. Instead, there is transformation. The path is no longer towards self or sensory satisfaction. In fact, there is no towards, there is no goal, the goal is the path itself, nothing more. When one leads one’s life with no expectations, mind cannot speculate. It cannot control you through its play with the senses.

35


+É¯û¯ûIÉÉä¨ÉÖxÇ ÉäªÉÉæMÉÆ Eò¨ÉÇ EòÉ®úhÉ¨ÉÖSªÉiÉä* ªÉÉäMÉÉ°üføºªÉ iÉºªÉè´É ¶É¨É& EòÉ®úhÉ¨ÉÖSªÉiÉä**6.3** arurukshor muner yogam karma karanam uchyate yoga arudhasya tasyaiva shamaha karanam uchyate (6.3) aruruksoh: of one who has just begun yoga; muneh: of the sage; yogam: yoga system; karma: work; karanam: cause; uchyate: is said to be; yoga: yoga; arudhasya: of one who has attained; tasya: his; eva: certainly; shamaha: cessation of all activities; karanam: cause; uchyate: is said to be A person who initially wants to start practicing yoga system laid down by the sages, should carry out all activities in line with that system. Activities for all other reasons will cease.

36

BHAGAVAD GITA


This is such a beautiful instruction for anyone doing Yoga. In the present day, especially in the West, the true meaning of yoga is lost; it is lost completely. Yoga is not about physical exercises and sweating out in high temperatures. It is not about breath control. Its purpose is not body fitness. Yoga integrates body, mind and spirit. It is a journey into the inner self, towards the Self. Patanjali, the great sage, who laid down the system for Yoga practice in his Yoga Sutra, laid down an eight-part system called Ashtanga Yoga. Today this is being misinterpreted as eight steps of Yoga. You will not reach anywhere if you practice each step separately and sequentially. That was not Patanjali’s purpose. Patanjali laid down eight limbs or parts that needed to be practiced simultaneously. Not one after another; or piece meal. There is no purpose to practicing Yoga through two parts of asana, physical postures and pranayama, breath control, which are the only two taught by most Yoga teachers today. What is the purpose? Nothing will come out of it. Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga had bliss as its culmination. It is not only the destination but the path itself is bliss, when practiced properly. Have you seen even one Yoga practitioner enjoying what he or she is doing? They are grimacing all the time, forcing their body, controlling their breath, torturing themselves. What for? Patanjali never asked them to torture themselves or their students. 37


Yoga as it is practiced now only breeds one’s ego. Just look at the Yoga masters, how full of pride they are. They have added many components to Yoga: Deluxe yoga, Super deluxe Kundalini Yoga, instant enlightenment Kriya Yoga! There are so many desperate people out there not knowing what to do that these masters have no shortage of students. Patanjali laid down a system, which is a way of life. Starting with inner and outer regulation, yama and niyama, these cleanse your body, mind and spirit. They raise your awareness. Just one part of yama, which is one of the eight limbs, has five parts, one of which is satya or truth; if you practice this sincerely it will lead you into enlightenment. Another part is brahmacharya, which is enlightenment; it is walking in tune with reality. In fact, you need to be in the eight state of samadhi to be really able to practice even one of the yama principles with awareness. The Yoga system is a parallel system, not a sequential system. When each of its parts is acted upon with awareness, every single thing that you do will be in tune with nature. You will automatically surrender to nature. You will attain the true yoga state of samadhi. Ahimsa or non-violence is another part of yama, the first limb. Religion teaches non-violence as a moral injunction: if you are non-violent, you will reach heaven and if you are violent you will reach hell. 38

BHAGAVAD GITA


No morality can be practiced. Advice is one thing everyone is ready to give but no one wants to take. It is very difficult to practice any morality. If we are successful, then we will be schizophrenic. If we master any morality we will be suppressed and eventually depressed. If we can understand and practice, it can never be a discipline. It will be just falling in tune. We will be tuning ourselves. There is no reality to hell or heaven. If we are supposed to follow morality just for fear of hell or heaven then I don’t think we have grown at all. Ahimsa or non-violence can be practiced out of deep understanding, then we will start radiating it in our very walk and talk. Even animals will be attracted to us. Our very being will be a blessing to the planet earth. One of the other rules in yama is truthfulness. Only after you have experienced samadhi which is step number eight can truthfulness happen in you. You can neither understand truth, nor feel the truth, nor live the truth until you experience samadhi, or enlightenment. Until we attain enlightenment, whatever we think as truth is nothing but a fact, a perception, not reality. It is the truth as perceived by our five senses. We all perceive the world with our 120 degree vision and our gathered societal knowledge, conditioning, etc. It is only when we reach enlightenment 39


that we will be able to see 360 degrees in all directions and perceive the Truth as it is. The rules of yama and niyama (moral discipline) will only be established firmly after you have experienced samadhi. Whether we believe it or not, accept it or not we are Divine. To realize our divine nature, our mystics have created this wonderful formula of the yoga system. Yoga in modern days is practiced just for health reasons. Good health is just a by-product of practicing yoga, but it is not the end. The actual reason for our wonderful rishi to create this formula is for the purpose of creating the divine experience in everyone who uses the formula. Yoga is a straight technique for achieving the state of the divine experience. This formula cannot be modified or altered or practiced in parts and pieces. This formula has to be practiced as prescribed for one to realize the divine nature of one’s self. Yoga is a formula in which there are steps that can be practiced to reach the Divine. Once a person intensely gets in tune with the eight-fold formula, it will become such an integral part of his being that it will become difficult to forget it even for a minute during his day. A person who takes up Yoga to meet with the Divine will not treat yoga as an activity to be performed on a schedule 40

BHAGAVAD GITA


during a particular time of day only. He will live and breathe yoga. Any activity that he performs will be influenced by these eight steps. For example, if he is speaking to someone, he will be constantly aware of speaking the truth. If he is performing an activity, his awareness will be completely on that activity. Yoga cannot be treated as a set of principles and exercises to be practiced only for a certain number of hours in a day. It will infiltrate one’s life and will become the way of life and life-style. Even a modern man can become a yogi by applying these principles to every single activity he performs and when this happens, all material activities will automatically cease. I was taught Ashtanga Yoga by a great Master. He picked me up for training when I was barely three, and he was then already nearing hundred. I truly believe he was a descendent of Patanjali, he was so much in tune with the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. I hated a lot of what he made me do then. He made me climb pillars in the Arunachala temple in Thiruvannamalai, that too with one hand kept behind my back! It was this training that allowed my body withstand the rigors of my parivrajaka, the wandering through the country and the Himalayan mountains, when I went in search of enlightenment. Now, I teach the Ashtanga Yoga, as it was taught to me, with the additional insight of Patanjali’s vision that I have 41


gained since then. I call it Nithya Yoga. The path and purpose of Nithya Yoga is bliss. It is bliss arising out of the merger of body, mind and spirit, when the glimpse of what you truly are is experienced by you.

42

BHAGAVAD GITA


ªÉnùÉ Ê½þ xÉäÎxpùªÉÉlÉæ¹ÉÖ xÉ Eò¨ÉÇº´ÉxÉÖ¹ÉVVÉiÉä* ºÉ´ÉÇºÉRÂóEò±{ÉºÉÆxªÉÉºÉÒ ªÉÉäMÉÉ°üføºiÉnùÉSä ªÉiÉä**6.4** yada hi nendriya artheshu na karmasv anushajjate sarva sankalpa sannyasi yoga arudhas tadochyate (6.4) yada: when; hi: certainly; na: not; indriya artheshu: in sense gratification; na: never; karmasu: in fruitful activities; anushajjate: does necessarily engage; sarva sankalpa: all material desires; sannyasi: renouncer; yoga arudhah: elevated in yoga; tada: at that time; uchyate: is said to be Any one is said to be have attained the state of yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in fruitful activities.

43


The word Yoga in Sanskrit means to unite or to become one with. You should understand one important thing about yoga: for whatever purpose, with whatever intention you move your body, you bend your body, that idea, that intention will be completely inserted or recorded into your body and mind. This may appear shocking to you but it is the truth; I can say it is the truth from my experience. With whatever thought you move your body in any way, that samskara gets inserted into you and that samskara will start expressing in your body. For example, if you move your body with the intention, with the strong belief that you will have health, if you move the body in any way with that intention, health will simply happen. Any physical movement, even just sitting, if you strongly believe that you have health, simply health happens in you. This leads us to another important conclusion: the method in which you do asana in yoga is not important. The thought, the idea with which you move the body in the asana is what matters. Understand that the body itself is made out of memories. Whether you believe it or not, you are an expression of your 44

BHAGAVAD GITA


own self-hypnosis. Your memories are recorded in your muscles as well. A simple technique to experience this: In the morning, just for ten minutes, visualize your whole body as a bliss bag in which bliss is filled and move the body in whatever way you want. The body will start working, experiencing and expressing the bliss. When we reach the state of yoga we are in a meditative state of bliss. In this state all the sense gratification desires and activities will cease. It will just be an outpouring of bliss. There will be so much of bliss bubbling from inside that there will be no need to look for an outer object, person or location to influence this bliss. The desire for sense gratification and running behind the goals of the action will automatically drop when you experience this state of bliss which is independent of the external world, which is beyond the body and the mind. The state of bliss can radiate and flow out to touch the external objects but the outer objects will not influence the inner bliss.

45


=rù®úänùÉi¨ÉxÉÉ%%i¨ÉÉxÉÆ xÉÉi¨ÉÉxÉ¨É´ÉºÉÉnùªÉäiÉÂ* +Éi¨Éè´É ÁÉi¨ÉxÉÉä ù¤ÉxvÉÖ®úÉi¨Éè´É Ê®ú{ÉÖ®úÉi¨ÉxÉ&**6.5** uddhared atmanatmanam natmanam avasadayet atmaiva hy atmano bandhur atmaiva ripur atmanaha (6.5)

uddharet: one must deliver; atmana: by the Self; atmanam: the conditioned soul; na: never; atmanam: the conditioned soul; avasadayet: put into degradation; atma: soul; eva: certainly; hi: surely; atmanah: of the conditioned soul; bandhuh: friend; atma: mind; eva: certainly; ripuh: enemy; atmanaha: of the conditioned soul You are your own friend; you are your own enemy. Evolve yourself through the Self and do not degrade yourself.

46

BHAGAVAD GITA


You are your own friend; you are your own enemy. Evolve yourself through the Self and do not degrade yourself. In my discourses if I have quoted any Gita sloka more than twice, it is this sloka. I can say this is the gist of the whole Gita. This single sloka is the gist of the whole Gita. In the last session, we saw how to move from doing and having to being. We are stuck in having. We are constantly focused on our possessions. We are always conscious of our status. It is always ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Loss of possessions affects our ego and identity deeply. A little more intelligent person moves from having to doing; from passivity to activity. Then, from doing you are supposed to move to being, from activity to active passivity. This shift to ‘sattva’, active passivity helps us evolve spiritually, as we move deeper into awareness. We learnt in the last chapter from Krishna the technique for moving from fear and greed into Divine Consciousness and bliss. In this verse, Krishna says: One must deliver himself with the help of his own being and not degrade himself. The being is the friend of the conditioned soul and his enemy as well. You are your own friend and you are your own enemy. If you know the technique of how to lift yourself by yourself, you

47


will become friend of your self. If you let yourself down, you will become enemy of yourself. In our last session (Chapter 5) I had asked you all to practice the technique for 10 days. How many of you were able to follow? When you practice, naturally again and again you will fall. If you have not fallen, then please be very clear, you have not practiced it right. When you practice anything, naturally, you will fall. Suddenly, you will forget and then realize: ‘Oh, I started working out of fear’, ‘I started working out of greed.’ When you start working, naturally, you will see there will be few problems. A small story: There was a big spiritual organization. One monk was sent to a remote tribal area for doing service. Suddenly the headquarters received a lot of complaint letters about that monk. After reading the complaint letters, the president said, ‘We have posted the right person. Don’t worry.’ The secretary was puzzled and asked him why he thought so in spite of the complaints received about the monk. The president replied, ‘If we are getting complaints, it means that he has already started working. At least something is happening.’ Always when you start anything new, you will have three phases: First is resistance. Second is avoidance. You will just 48

BHAGAVAD GITA


avoid, you will neither care nor resist. The third is acceptance. This is the way anything will start. Similarly, when you start doing anything inside your system, the same way you will start growing. First, resistance: again and again, you will fall, you will forget. Your system will resist. It will try to create all complications, all complaints and all possible arguments. Sometimes, if you can’t follow the teachings of Krishna, you will start blaming Krishna. I have seen many people, when they are not able to follow the teachings of Krishna, they will go ahead and start blaming Krishna: ‘What Krishna? He was always flirting. He was always running behind women. What type of man is he?’ Easily, you can escape from Krishna by criticizing Krishna. When you can’t practice these teachings, you have to justify yourself. And naturally, inside your being, your conscience will hurt you. So some way, you have to make your conscience believe you are doing the right thing. You have to find out some argument. So, since you are not able to follow, you start criticizing Krishna. This is the best way to escape and avoid the teachings of Krishna. When your being resists, if you allow the resistance to grow, you are the worst enemy for yourself. This is what Krishna means by saying: ‘May you lift yourself by yourself ’. If you don’t, you will be your worst enemy. It is up to you to help 49


yourself as the best friend or to hurt yourself as the worst enemy. Please be very clear: Nobody can hurt you unless you allow them to. Nobody can help you unless you allow them to. May you lift yourself by yourself. Again and again, these Masters stress the same point. If you have fallen, if you have failed, practicing these words, the teachings or the meditation techniques, if you have forgotten, don’t worry. Again and again, lift yourself. Don’t feel depressed, don’t have guilt. Don’t get dejected thinking you will not be able to do. Again and again, lift yourself. The last teaching of Buddha is: Atma deepo bhava. When Buddha was about to leave his body all his disciples asked him, ‘Master, please give us your ultimate message in one word’. Buddha says: Let you be light, guide unto yourself. Let you be guided by yourself. Let your being guide you. Here Krishna says the same thing. May you lift yourself by yourself. Nobody can do anything unless you lift yourself. Just the other day, in the Internet, I came across an advertisement called super deluxe kundalini yoga for $240. It says, you don’t need to do anything; they have a by-pass circuit by which your kundalini will be raised to sahasrara automatically. All you need to do is to allow them to do the by-pass connection. Then your kundalini will stay in the sahasrara forever. 50

BHAGAVAD GITA


I was just shocked! How can someone else awaken your kundalini? Of course, enlightened Masters can awaken your latent energy but only you can stay in that same state. They can give you a glimpse, satori, but staying in that consciousness and achieving samadhi can be done only by you. Only you can help yourself. Someone goes to Buddha and asks: ‘Master, you know enlightenment is the ultimate thing, why don’t you give that to all of us? Why don’t you make us all enlightened?’ Buddha says: ‘Oh, you want enlightenment? Do you think I should give enlightenment to everybody? Please go around and take a survey on how many really want enlightenment?’ By that evening this guy comes back after taking an extensive survey in that whole city and he says ‘Master, only two people want enlightenment.’ Buddha says, ‘Please bring them, let me give.’ The man says ‘No, they are not ready to come from their house all the way here. If you can send by courier, they are ready to receive.’ Nobody really wants it! Even if you want, you want it as one more item in your showcase. You are not ready to risk anything for enlightenment. You want it as one more item in the showcase. Whenever people 51


come to our house, we can say, ‘This is from Delhi, this is from New York, this statue is from Japan.’ Just like that, you can say, ‘Oh, this enlightenment, you know that Nithyananda Swami? He gave enlightenment. He was giving Gita discourse that I attended and he gave it. How does it look?’ Just as one more showpiece, we are ready to accept but we are not ready to commit or risk anything for it. We are not ready to take the responsibility. Buddha says, Existence is so great it gives you even the freedom to be in bondage. It is your freedom, whether to be in bondage or to be liberated. Even liberation should not be forced. If it is forced, even liberation is not liberation. So, you have 100% choice to be liberated or to be in bondage. It is completely up to you. God is so great that He gives you the freedom even to be in bondage or to be liberated. Here, Krishna says: May you liberate yourself by yourself. Unless you liberate yourself, nobody else can liberate yourself. If you help yourself, you will be the greatest friend for yourself. If you don’t, you will be the worst enemy for yourself. Next Krishna explains the same concept a little more in detail:

52

BHAGAVAD GITA


£ÉxvÉÖ®úÉi¨ÉÉ%%i¨ÉxÉºiÉºªÉ ªÉäxÉÉi¨Éè´ÉÉi¨ÉxÉÉ ÊVÉiÉ&* +xÉÉi¨ÉxÉºiÉÖ ¶ÉjÉÖi´Éä ´ÉiÉæiÉÉi¨Éè´É ¶ÉjÉÖ´ÉiÉÂ**6.6** bandhur atma atmanas tasya yenatmaiva atmana jitaha anatmanas tu shatrutve varteta atmaiva shatruvat (6.6) bandhuh: friend; atma: the Self; atmanah: of the living entity; tasya: of him; yena: by whom; atma: the Self; eva: certainly; atmana: by the living entity; jitaha: conquered; anatmanah: of one who has failed to control the Self; tu: but; shatrutve: because of enmity; varteta: remains; atma eva: the very mind; shatruvat: as an enemy For him who has conquered the self, the Self is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his self will remain the greatest enemy.

53


This is an important sloka. This has to be understood well. Let us see the next two sloka to get the complete context and then we will enter into the meaning of the sloka. A small story: One Sufi master named Abdullah was a great enlightened master. He was always in ecstasy, always in joy. One of his disciples asked him, ‘Master, how are you so blissful? I have never seen you suffering; always you are joyful. How?’ Abdullah replies, ‘Early morning when I get up from bed I ask myself, ‘Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah, what do you want today? Today you want to be blissful or do you want suffering?’ Naturally what will the mind choose? It will choose to be blissful. Then, immediately, I tell the mind, ‘Then, be blissful. That’s all!’ We may think, ‘How can it be so simple, Master?’ Be very clear: you know your 24-hour routine. Just try tomorrow morning: you know the next 24-hours what is going to happen. Accidents or lottery winning are very rare. In a normal routine, you exactly know what is going to happen. Just decide whether to face that routine with bliss or with suffering, whether to face the routine with joy or the usual long face. Decide for yourself. When extraordinary things happen, that is different. But in ordinary regular life, you 54

BHAGAVAD GITA


know the routine. You have the choice. And whether you go with the long face or smiling face, the routine is going to be the same. I always tell people: Pain is inevitable; suffering is a choice. You have one thing that you can choose and that is your attitude. You can choose your inner space. That is your decision only. Abdullah says, ‘When my mind says in the morning ‘I will choose to be happy’, I tell the mind, ‘Then just be blissful. That’s all.’ It is purely your choice. Hell or heaven is your conscious choice. Always, you will have another question, ‘If my mind says, ‘I want to suffer’, what to do?’ Then let you suffer, that’s all. What is there? When your mind wants to enjoy suffering, then even suffering becomes enjoyment for you. That is why you want to enjoy suffering. In a way, suffering becomes enjoyment for you. So, when you get up early in the morning, ask your mind, ‘What do you want today?’ If your mind chooses bliss, just tell your mind, ‘Be blissful. That’s all!’ This single conscious decision can change the quality of your life. Don’t decide for three days or one week. You will forget. Decide every day. People will immediately think, ‘Let me decide for my whole life today itself.’ No! You will forget. You 55


will be back to the same point; you will have the same face again tomorrow when you come back. No, don’t decide for your whole life. Decide only for one day. Only then you will be able to maintain it. Otherwise you will have the same old natural face. A small story about this natural face: The president of a monastery, a Father was teaching the young novices to preach and giving them tips on how to speak in public. He was taking classes about how to preach to the public. He said, ‘When you speak, your whole body should express what you say. You face should express the idea that you are talking about. When you speak about heaven, your eyes should sparkle and your whole body should show the bliss, you should express the joy clearly, the joy of heaven. Your face should shine. The Father continued, ‘When you speak about hell, just be as you are. And people will understand!’ At least in our life, let us not maintain the long face as our natural face. Vivekananda says: ‘If you are depressed, don’t come out of the room. There is enough of suffering in the world. Don’t go around and spread a little more suffering.’ 56

BHAGAVAD GITA


ÊVÉiÉÉi¨ÉxÉ& |É¶ÉÉxiÉºªÉ {É®ú¨ÉÉi¨ÉÉ ºÉ¨ÉÉÊ½þiÉ&* ¶ÉÒiÉÉä¹hÉºÉÖJÉnÖù&JÉä¹ÉÖ iÉlÉÉ ¨ÉÉxÉÉ{É¨ÉÉxÉªÉÉä&**6.7** jitatmanaha prashantasya paramatma samahitaha shitoshna sukkha dukkheshu tatha mana apmanayoha (6.7) jitatmanaha: of one who has conquered his self; prashantasya: who has attained tranquility; paramatma: Supreme; samahitaha: approached completely; shita: in cold; ushna: heat; sukkha: happiness; dukkheshu: and distress; tatha: also; mana: in honor; apmanayoha: dishonor For one who has conquered the self, who has attained tranquility, the Supreme is already reached. Such a person remains in this state in happiness or distress, heat or cold, honor or dishonor.

57


YÉÉxÉÊ´ÉYÉÉxÉiÉÞ{iÉÉi¨ÉÉ EÚò]õºlÉÉä Ê´ÉÊVÉiÉäÎxpùªÉ&* ªÉÖCiÉ