Tag: ayurvedic medicine

Karma Yoga

Chapter 3, Verse 10

 

saha yajñāiḥ prajāḥ sṛṣṭvā 

purovāca prajāpatiḥ 

anena prasaviṣyadhvam 

eṣa vo’stviṣṭa kāmadhuk

 

In the beginning, the Lord of all beings, created humans along with the sacrifice, saying: ‘By this shall you prosper; this shall be the cow of plenty granting all your desires.’

 

In the beginning, when God created the human being, He placed inside of him this quality to help others, this quality of offering to God. He put the qualities of charity, austerity, and service inside of each human being. He said, “By this shall you prosper; this shall be the cow of plenty granting all your desires.” If people have this attitude, it will be a blessing to themselves. They will become like the wish-fulfilling cow, Kamadhenu – so they don’t even need to ask for anything. Everything will be provided! Everything will be given! The Lord looks after the ones who are surrendered, and takes care of their every need. You don’t need to worry, if you are doing your duty in a state of sacrifice, charity, and austerity. 

 

When one is doing one’s sadhana through pranayama, when one is doing Atma Kriya Yoga, when one is trying one’s best to control the senses, when what one receives as knowledge is given to help other people, and not just for oneself; when one uses the body to serve others – this is called sacrifice. God also said, “It is through this – through you – that I am acting in this world.” Realise that! And do your dharma, do what you have to do, by first accepting that this is your swadharma, your ultimate duty. You shall prosper! And you will be the most joyful. You will have bliss!

 

“In the beginning, the Lord of all beings, created humans along with the sacrifice.” This also means, “I created you in My own image for My own pleasure and I give you the state of serving.” The Bible also says that God created the human being in His  

own image. Here the image of God means the state of sacrifice, the state of serving. And if one awakens this state of complete surrender and serving, one should not worry, because everything will be given! And if one does every action with the state of mind of surrender, one will suffer no more. One will rise to the superior level of consciousness, of existence: one will attain the divine state, the spiritual body will be revealed. Even if you carry on doing your earthly duty within this body, these divine qualities will awaken and the Divine will manifest through you.

 

Once Lord Shiva said to Parvati, “The glory of the Chapter of Karma Yoga, which Lord Krishna has given, dissolves all one’s sins and one realises the essence of sacrifice.” Sacrifice doesn’t only mean the rituals like the yagna ceremony. Sacrifice also means doing one’s work with the attitude of surrendering, the attitude of serving. Then, Lord Shankara said to Goddess Parvati, “Listen to the story I am going to tell you!”

 

In a certain village lived a man by the name of Jara. Due to his past karma, Jara was born in a very wealthy family. But he was wicked and very selfish. Even though he had gotten a good education, his mind was greedy and he always wanted more and more. He would pray to get more material things. Whatever he would do would be for his own personal and he amassed lots of money.

 

There were some thieves who were observing him so they could steal all his wealth. So, one fine night, they came in his house and killed him, stabbed him to death. Jara died but his soul had terrible pain, his soul was not free.

 

Jara had a son called Mada. Mada was not in the village when his father died. When he came back, he saw his dead father. He was so sad, he started crying, and lamenting. With a heavy heart, he performed all the religious rites for the peace of his deceased father. But his father’s soul didn’t have peace. He would come in Mada’s dreams. Mada would always dream that his father was crying, and in a terrible state, dark! He was always asking for help. So Mada wondered, “I did all the ceremonies for you, to save you, to free you. Why are you not free. What is your problem ?”

Mada had a friend who was very dedicated to this chapter of the Gita. One day they were talking and Mada said, “You know, I dream of my father and he is always in a very pitiful state, in a state you can’t imagine! His soul is suffering so much! What can I do?” The friend said, “Listen, let’s meditate and read the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita. Let’s read what Lord Krishna says about how one has to live life in surrender.” So they read and meditated on this chapter every day for 21 days.  

After the twenty-first day, there was a bright light in the house. The son saw his father’s soul beaming with light, radiating light and he was shocked and said, “Father, what has happened to you? I saw you in my dream, you were always terrible and now you are shining with light!” The soul of the father said, “Yes, my child. Reading and meditating on this chapter which Lord Krishna has given, has freed me from all the sins which I did in this life. But I request one thing. In this life, I did not do anything good, so I want you to do one thing for me: carry on reading this chapter to free all your ancestors from Hell!” Mada had this vision of his father and was overtaken with so much love, he felt free inside of himself and said, “Yes, father! I will fulfil your request, I promise you!”

 

So from that day on, Mada completely changed his life. He let go of his father’s business of gaining a lot of money and meditated on this chapter of the Gita. Every day he would pray and would read the Gita, especially this chapter where the Lord said how one has to surrender to the Lord; how one has to perform one’s duty with an attitude of surrendering, as sacrifice. At the end of the chapter, at the end of each day, when Mada finished, he said, “I offer the good punya, the good merit of this to my ancestors who are in Hell.” He did this every day with this attitude.

 

Meanwhile, one fine day, the guards of Narayana appeared in front of the gate to Hell. Yamraj did not understand why the Lord’s servants had come there. Because he had great respect for the Lord, he asked them, “Dear servants of Narayana, tell me why you are here? The people who are here deserve to burn! Why are you here?” Then the servants of Narayana said, “Listen, we have come to free all the people from Hell. We have come to take them to Heaven, to Vaikunta, to Vishnu Loka, because they have received the Grace of the Lord. The Lord has forgiven them all the sins that they have committed in their lives.” Yamraj was wondering, “How is this possible?” They explained to him, “The punya which Mada offered to the Lord, has erased all the sins, has washed away all the sins of these people; their souls are free from sin.” This confused Yamraj and he could not understand it. So he asked Chitragupta, the bookkeeper of Hell, what was happening. Chitragupta opened his book. He was shocked and his mouth fell open, “Ahh!” He looked at Yamraj. Yamraj looked at him and said, “There is something wrong here! Chitragupta, why don’t you talk? Talk! Talk! Why are you looking so shocked and pale?” Chitragupta said, “Lord, there is no sin! All the sins have been forgiven by the Lord! The merciful Maha Vishnu has forgiven all the sins due to the good merit which Mada has offered, and they will all go to Heaven.” Yamraj, of course, could not say, ‘no’ to that. So he went there and completely emptied Hell.

 

As confused as he was, he knew that this had happened due to the mercy, the compassion and the Love, that the Lord has in His Heart for all humans, for each soul. This punya had not only released Mada’s ancestors from Hell: when his ancestors were transformed and became sinless, it also helped all the other souls – the sins of all the other souls were erased. Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “When you do your action as a sacrifice, you become a blessing to everyone!” When you are completely surrendered to the Divine, you are a blessing to humanity! You are a blessing for everyone around you! Through that, you also become a salvation for other people. You become an instrument of God.

As a Vaishnava, you become an instrument to free and help others to liberate themselves. A Vaishnava is not just born all of a sudden. You cannot say, “Oh, I am following this Guru. Now I am a good Vaishnava!” That’s just a title! It is not like this! You have received the Grace to know His Grace, to know His Love, to hear His katha! You have been born to receive the Grace of being a Vaishnava because of the previous good deeds you have done. You are sitting here because of the good merit, the ‘good’ you did in your previous lives. To wear this mark on your forehead, which is the footprint of the Lord, is a blessing! Each one of you is an instrument of Lord Narayana for the salvation of the people, for the salvation of the world! Your duty is to help other people so that they can free themselves from the bondage of Maya! That’s the eternal duty of a Vaishnava: to help others to be free. Not by aggression, but by the love that you have inside of you, you show people how to love God, how to serve God, even while living in the outside world.

 

As for Mada’s experience – he had freed his ancestors and the ancestors had freed everyone else who was in Hell. So confused was Yamraj that he rushed to Vaikunta, to the Milky Ocean. As he approached, of course, Narayana was lying down with Maha Lakshmi. They welcomed him. Yama praised Lord Narayana, saying, “You, Bhakta Vatsala! You, who are the protector of Your devotees. You, who always puts Your devotees first. You, who does everything for the sake of the people. How wonderful are Your deeds! How wonderful and great is Your Love and compassion! I bow down to You, Lord of the universe! Even though you are the Lord, you chose to be their servant, to show humility to humanity!” This was the prayer that Yamraj, bowing down, offered to the Lord. Then, he returned back to Hell, to his duty. And he offered his work as a sacrifice to the Lord.

 

Somebody said to me, “I don’t agree that God created human beings for His own pleasure.” I would like to clarify why I said that God created humans for his own pleasure. It’s not how the mind usually understands pleasure. It is not for the pleasure of enjoyment; but it’s for the pleasure of manifestation. You see, God has two aspects: the Absolute unmanifest aspect, which is without any form, without any physical qualities, and is called nirgun Brahman, and the manifest aspect, which has many forms and qualities, and is called sagun Brahman. God has these two aspects: one is unmanifest and the other is the manifestation. That’s why I said, “He created human beings for His own pleasure.” 

At the beginning of the Bible, it is said that God created human beings by taking earth to make man. This is the pleasure of manifesting Himself into His own creation. He said, “I have created everything, but I have yet to create something greater, which  

is manifesting Myself into this world.” He said, “I created this and now I want to enjoy My creation.” What wrong is there in this? God is not masochist. He did not create humans to whip them or whatever. No! Here in verse 10, He said, “I created humans and gave them the instrument of sacrifice, the instrument to awaken and attain Realisation.” But how many fall back into illusion? God didn’t say, “I am creating you to trap yourselves in illusion!” That’s why I said at the beginning, “In the core of yourself is only God, who is not touched by anything.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Karma Yoga

Chapter 3, Verse 9

 

yajñārthāt karmaṇo’nyatra 

loko’yaṁ karma bandhanaḥ 

tad-arthaṁ karma kaunteya 

mukta saṅgas-samācara 

By doing works other than for sacrifice, this world of men is in bondage to  

these works; perform your actions as sacrifice, O Arjuna, becoming free  

from all attachment. 

Krishna says to Arjuna, “Do your duty efficiently without any attachment, and do it for the sake of sacrifice alone.” Sacrifice here doesn’t mean that you should go and sacrifice somebody! Do your duty in a detached way, with an attitude of sacrifice. Do it in a way that will not bind you to this world. Do your action in such a way that even the past merits or the sins, which you have from past lives, won‘t affect you! And do your meditation, not to gain something, but to attain the Lord inside of you. 

“Perform your actions as sacrifice,” in the state of surrender. Bhagavan Krishna sees that Arjuna is still confused. Arjuna don’t understand what He is talking about. Krishna wants to remove the confusion from the mind of Arjuna and says, “Remove the confusion from the mind and from your heart itself! Purify your heart! Remove all these sins from the past and the present which you have created! If you don’t do the duty which God has sent you here for, if you don’t do your dharma, it will be very sinful. Your dharma is to rise and do your duty in an attitude of sacrifice.” That means, “Whatever you do, surrender it to Me! Do your work, but give Me the result. Don’t hold to it. Whatever you do, your work is not for you, it is for Me.” Do your work remembering the Divine. Even if it is just for a short time, even if it is just at the end of the day, remember Him! And offer everything to Him saying, “Krishna Arpanam”. Like this, you will be free from the karma of doing whatever you did during the day.

 

“This world of men is in bondage to these works.” As I said earlier, human beings have discrimination and thus superiority over all other creatures, over all other beings in this world. Why then work and be a slave to work? Why do you trouble yourself? Why, when you do your sadhana, do you attach yourself to your own limited experience? Be free! And how will you be free? Know that you are doing it for God! 

If you love God, it is like when you are in love with somebody. When you are in love with somebody, what are you thinking about? Only the person that you love. You eat, sit and drink, and you always wonder, “Oh, my beloved, where are you?” It is like the gopis. The gopis were such a good example! Day and night Krishna was everything to them. Whatever they were doing – eating, drinking, sleeping, dancing, cooking, looking after their children, attending to their husbands, doing their duties – everything was for Krishna! They didn’t let go of their duties, but there was not a single moment that Krishna was not in their minds. Krishna even praised them saying, “Such is the greatness of the gopis. They are great yogis.” During the Rās Leela, Krishna told them, “Go away from here! Go, you have your duty to do!” They said, “All that we do is to gain You! You are the cause of everything! You are the aim of that work what we do! We look upon our children as You.” This is a state of sacrifice. 

Here Krishna reminds Arjuna, “Do your duty like the gopis.” The gopis were doing their domestic duties, but every moment they were chanting the Name of Krishna. Every time they closed their eyes, Krishna was dancing in their minds. Krishna advises all to reach Him through the yoga of single-pointed devotion, so that everywhere there will be only Him. Like this, whatever you do, it will be for Him. If during the day you are so busy doing your daily chores that you don’t think about Him, find time, even if it is just for two minutes. Make an excuse! Find excuses! Go to the toilet or whatever! Find a little place where you can find Him inside of you. The two minutes that you spend with Him are far important than anything else. That will also help you to be free.

You have many excuses for not doing your sadhana. You have many excuses for not following your spiritual path. Some people will say, “Okay, today there is a nice movie. I will not do my meditation. I will not do my sadhana. I will do it afterwards.” But later on, when you do your sadhana, your mind is still in the movie. You have interiorised the movie. But if Krishna is everything, when you close your eyes, you will see only Him, no matter what you are doing. You could be watching a horrible movie, but when you close your eyes, you will see only Krishna. The movie won’t touch you at all. The outside won’t have any effect on you. That’s why Krishna says, “First start by doing all your actions with an attitude of sacrifice.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 8

 

niyataṁ kuru karma tvaṁ 

karma jyāyo hy akarmaṇaḥ 

śarīra-yātrā’pi ca te 

na prasiddhyed akarmaṇaḥ

 

You must perform your obligatory duties, for action is superior to non-action (meditation). For not even the maintenance of the body is possible by inaction.

 

“You must perform your obligatory duties; for action is superior to non-action.” If you become lazy you are useless! Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Wake up!” In the other verses, He says, “Don’t be a hypocrite in whatever you do! Do your duty! There is no point in not doing your duty.” When you do your duty, when you do what the Divine wants you to do, when you learn to accept what God has given you to do, then you even perfect the “non-action (meditation). 

 

If you have not perfected your actions outside, how will you perfect the inside? There will be great difficulties. The mind will always tend to run outside anyway, true? Do your sadhana! Do your meditation! Do your practices! Do your japa! First make the mind focus on the Divine. Then when you sit in your sadhana, when you sit in your meditation, you will dive deeply into that ocean. The mind will not be running left, and right. It will not go, “Ah, World Cup!” or “What is my favourite athlete doing?” No! You  

will be present in your meditation. You’ll enjoy the moment. Let go of the past! Let go of the future! Because only now is important. You must perform your obligatory duty now. And how you do your duty? “You must perform your obligatory duties” with an attitude of surrender, with an attitude of sacrifice. 

 

“For not even the maintenance of the body is possible by inaction”. The human being is the only creation of God which has the capacity of performing ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and one is bound by this. Other beings don’t have the quality of discrimination. That’s why the animals just do what they have to do. They can’t really do anything new in their lives. An animal will not say, “We always walk with four legs everywhere, but today I will take the car!” Humans can put the animals in the car and make them travel this way. But animals don’t have this desire, they don’t have this choice. So, animals are free from creating karma. They simply go through the natural processes of creation. However, human beings have the quality of discrimination: they always have the choice – where to focus their attention. 

 

Due to this choice, one can create pain, one can bind oneself to pain. Due to this choice, one can cause binding, attachment, to this life.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 7

 

yastv-indriyāṇi manasā 

niyamyārabhate ’rjuna 

karmendriyaiḥ karma-yogam 

asaktaḥ sa viśiṣyate

 

But one who, subduing the senses by the mind, O Arjuna, begins to practice Karma Yoga through the organs of action and who is free from attachment, excels.

 

“…subduing the senses by the mind.” By controlling the senses from the root itself, the mind, one is free: then true Karma Yoga starts. In the Bible it says that the left hand should not know what the right hand is giving. Otherwise, it is better to cut off  

your hand and throw it away. Here Lord Krishna says the same thing that Christ would say 3000 years later. He just changed the words, “Cut off the hand and throw it away! It is better than praising yourself.” When you have helped others, then don’t run after praise, saying that you have done this, and that you have done that. Help others and then forget about it! In whatever you do, be free from that action, whether it is positive or negative.

 

“He who begins to practice Karma Yoga through the organs of action and who is free from attachment – excels.” If one does an action and does not attach to any fruits of it, one is free. Here Krishna is portraying the yogi who does his duty in the world, yet his mind and senses are fully under control. They don’t just pretend to act. They act in the world, but they are free! Whether the action brings positive or negative results, they don’t care. A person might say, “But then we won’t care.” But this is not an attitude of not caring. The yogi’s mind is fully focused on the Divine. He doesn’t care about the outside things, but he cares most about God – he is centred in the Divine, the Divine is acting through him, is guiding him. But one has to first control the senses, control the mind.

 

“But one who, subduing the senses by the mind…” niyamyārabhate. You can’t stop the senses. You can’t stop the natural tendency of the senses, but you can control it. Even if you try to stop it, how would you do your Karma Yoga? How would you do your action outwardly? It would never happen, because any form of action is through the senses. However, if the senses are under control, if the mind is under control, then one excels, one rises above the senses. But the first thing, is to control the senses, to control the mind. This is why we do japa. The easiest way to control the mind is to do japa. Chant the Name of God continuously, not only when you are sitting, when you are doing your sadhana, but throughout the day. This helps you put God first. This helps you remember God, even during your daily activities. You see, if you train your mouth to chant the Name of the Lord, in whatever you do, there will be always the humming of it; you will always have the Divine Name in the back of your mind. Your mind itself will start chanting the Name of God.

 

Krishna says that the karma yogi is superior to ordinary people. Here I am not talking about Karma Yoga, I am talking about the karma yogi. Whatever a karma yogi does in this world, the mind is always fully focused on the Divine. The one who has the indriyas under control is the best karma yogi. 

 

Lord Krishna says, “Don’t pretend to be spiritual. Be spiritual!” When you pretend, you are being fake with yourself. When you are fake with yourself, you feel it. You always feel guilty and ask yourself, “Am I correct?” There is self-judgement, self-pity. Your mind is always focused on the outside, on comparing yourself with others. Is that what spirituality is about? No, it is not! The core of spirituality is not elsewhere, it’s in you! In simple words, Lord Krishna says, “My dear Arjuna, be sincere in whatever you do.” Don’t just be sincere to others, but be sincere towards yourself. This will free you! To have this sincerity, learn to control the mind and learn to control the senses. And do this with an attitude of sincerity.

Bhagavad Gita 

Karma Yoga

Chapter 3, Verse 6

 

karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya 

ya āste manasā smaran 

indriyārthān vimūḍhātmā 

mithyācāraḥ sa ucyate

 

Who controls the organs of action, but continues in his mind to remember  

and dwell upon the objects of sense, such a man has bewildered himself  

with false notions of self-discipline.

 

This is what we were talking about earlier. Krishna says, “Whoever pretends to let go of the outside or pretends to do their sadhana, pretends to meditate or pretends to listen, but deep inside, they are not doing it – they are like hypocrites, because they are being fake with themselves.”

 

Karmendriyāṇi saṁyamya, “one who controls the organs of action…” Controlling the organs of action includes controlling the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. But this doesn’t only mean to control what one is seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or smelling. No. You have to come to the point of controlling all ten indriyas: 

 

1. The five sense organs of knowledge, the Jyaana-Indriyas are: Sabda – sound; Sparsha – touch; Roopa – sight; Rasa – taste; and Gandha – smell.

 

2. The five sense organs of action, the Karma-Indriyas are: Vaak – speech (mouth); Paani – lifting (hands); Paada – walking/running (feet); Paayu – excretion; and Upastha – procreation.

 

Controlling these from the root itself, not by pretending to do so, is sincerity. Lord Krishna says to have these ten organs of the senses, under control, but carry on with your activity. Have them under control. Even force them to be under your control! It’s very important that you are not under their control. If you look at the world nowadays, it is like that. Maybe in Krishna’s time, it was also true because Krishna talks about it. Everyone has always been in the game of the indriyas, in the game of the senses. Krishna says that the mind itself has to renounce this game. You have to force the mind to not run after these senses objects. You have to bring the mind under control and concentrate and focus it on the Divine.

Don’t let the mind wander around! Don’t let it hang onto the outside. But bring it under control, tame it through your sadhana. Be sincere in your sadhana! Be sincere when you chant the name of God! Don’t be a hypocrite. The ones who are hypocrites are sitting there, appearing to be in deep meditation, but they are not even present. They are somewhere else. Here Krishna is reminding Arjuna of the importance of sadhana, the importance of forcing the mind. You may say, “Oh, I can’t do that,” or “I can’t do this.” “Oh Swamiji, you have told me to do this – Aha, it is very difficult!” Or you may say, “I will try. I will do it for a little while and see how it works.” But then after that, back again to the same pattern. Even if you are doing the sadhana, but you see the same pattern coming back again, you fall into weakness and say, “Oh my goodness, it is still there!” But it is true! It will still be there, because you have not yet let go of it. I was explaining in the previous chapter that you have created an illusion about yourself and you have to fully let go of it. When you sit for meditation, your mind wanders around because you are still hanging onto samskaras from many past lives. You allow these samskaras to take over! When they are there, you enjoy them. And then, when you sit for meditation, you complain about it! So how can you be free?

 

Focus your mind! If the mind is not centred, if it is not deeply rooted in God, you will be dancing in the game of the indriyas, and you will still be a slave to that. The one who has controlled all his senses from the beginning can’t be a hypocrite, because he doesn’t dwell on the outside. When he sincerely goes inside, his full focus is on the Lord Himself. Then he has peace of mind in his sadhana.

 

Merely renouncing the outside will not help. Krishna says, “Become focused! Don’t let yourself be fooled or deceived about yourself.” He was talking about the importance of realising what one has to do in one’s life. Don’t create a self-image of what you are not.

Learn to accept yourself! But don’t hang onto self-pity, because you have also a Higher Self inside of you. Whatever you see outside, is just pretend. 

 

When people come and say, “I love you,” this doesn’t mean anything! But when one is sincere with oneself, even if one doesn’t say anything, one will spread that Love. You don’t need to express it on the outside. If one has true Love, it doesn’t matter how or where one is, because we are always connected, heart to heart. When we find this true Love, when we find God, then we realise that we live continually in His heart and He lives in our heart! There is no time or space.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 5

kaścit kṣaṇam-api 

jātu tiṣṭhaty-akarma-kṛt 

kāryate hy-avaśaḥ karma 

sarvaḥ prakṛti-jair guṇaiḥ

 

For none stands even for a moment not doing work. Everyone is helplessly made to do action by the modes born of Prakriti

. 

“For none stands even for a moment not doing work.” Do you remember, what we were talking about in the previous chapter that there is not a single moment when one is not working. Even while you sleep, you are working! So, there is a constant creation of karma. I will go as far as to say that each breath that you take creates karma. That’s why, when you learn Atma Kriya Yoga, we tell you, “Know how to breathe!” You can use what God has given you, the breathing practice in this sadhana, to actually reduce your karma, to burn off your karma. 

 

Prakṛtair-guṇaiḥ means the gunas, which are born of Prakriti. Everybody is bound by the three gunas, but one has to be centred in equal-mindedness. The eternal and prime nature of God, is the cause of this physical world. Everything which is created from the Divine, is the manifestation of the Divine, is the action of the Divine, and is affected by the three gunas. No one can get away from the influence of the three gunas, even while sitting or sleeping. As long as the mind is active, you are trapped in the game of the three gunas. Even the yogis are not out of it, but because they are fully centred in the Self – where the three gunas originate – even they can use them for the advancement of creation; it doesn’t have any effect on them, it doesn’t create any karma for them. Nothing!

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 4

 

na karmaṇām anārambhān 

naiṣkarmyaṁ puruṣo’śnute 

na ca saṁnyasanād-eva 

siddhiṁ samādhigacchati

 

No one achieves freedom from karma by abstaining from works, and no one ever attains perfection by mere renunciation of works. 

 

It is very important to understand this. One may say, “Oh, I will not do this work, because there will be no profit in it.” But here the mind is still hanging onto the work. Krishna says, that if the Karma Yoga is done with such an attitude, there is no freedom. He says, “No one ever attains perfection by mere renunciation of works.” If one is fake with oneself, if one is not in truth towards oneself, freely and happily renouncing work, one will not be free. One will not do the work outside, but it will still play very much in the mind, saying, “I have renounced this, I am a great yogi. I do my meditation properly. My back is straight.” But the mind always continues to play. This is not really doing meditation! And this is not really doing the job properly, focused on the Divine. It is not the outside that matters, it is God that matters. It is to find God in everything. Put Him first! If He is first, it is easy. But if He is not first, it is very difficult to let go – even if you pretend to let go! The ones who are only pretending are hypocrites! Here, Krishna speaks in a very soft way, very nicely – not using my words – and says, “These people will not even attain perfection.”

 

If one reaches the state of a true bhakta, where all the activities of the body, mind and senses, are completely surrendered, one sees that one is not the doer. One attains the Self; one becomes the Great Observer. One sees that one is the witness of all these activities. The devotees who practice the path of knowledge, instead of giving up the performance of their duties or stage of life; in place of running away, what they must renounce is the sense of doership, the sense of possession, and attachment to that desire. Lord Krishna says, “One will not reach perfection by renouncing the act, but by transcending it, transforming it into service to the Lord, service to God, in whatever one does; and by being separate from self-gratification, self-glory.” Be humble. Remove all this egoism inside of you. Remove all this pride inside of you and be free.

 

You see this in the life of hermits. People often think that hermits are just sitting in a cave and doing nothing. They say, “Oh, these poor hermits are just sitting in a cave. This is not for me!” When you read about the lives of the saints, when you read about the lives of the hermits, you see that in reality they were doing lots of work. They were away from the glory of the world, but they were working on themselves to attain the supreme perfection, that God is the only One, the only Reality.

Here Krishna is also talking to the people involved in the world, saying, “Don’t think that in what you do, it is you who are doing it. Know that I am doing it! So why do you take the credit for it?” If this gets anchored inside of you, that God is doing everything, there will be no trace of egoism or pride. Then whatever you do, you are free! 

In the previous chapter I was telling you about the lives of the saints. Sometimes they appear crazy, completely mad! People ask, “Is that a saint?” The saint is fully surrendered to the Divine; in every action, they are guided by the Divine. In one of his poems, Tukaram says, “Lord, where is Tuka? It is only you in all! You make Tuka dance. You sing the glory of Your own Self through Tuka. So, where is this Tuka? And who is this Tuka? There is no Tuka. There is only You, my Lord.” Lord Krishna says, “This is about sincerity, not about pretending, but being sincere.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 3

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

loke’smin dvividhā niṣṭhā 

purā proktā mayā’nagha 

jñāna-yogena sāṅkhyānāṁ 

karma-yogena yoginām

 

The Lord says: In this world there is a two-fold path as I have said before, O sinless one: Jyaana Yoga for the sankhyans and Karma Yoga for the yogis.

 

Loke’smin: this word refers to the human world, this world of duality. In this world of duality, only man is qualified to adapt disciplines of Jyaana Yoga and Karma Yoga. Krishna says that of all the species, only the human being has the capacity of transcending these two yogas. He says to Arjuna, “‘O sinless one’, you are above this. You are a Maha Yogi, whatever you do will not have any sin in it.”

 

Krishna says that there are two modes of sadhana, two principle states in which one attains the Divine. The first is, “Jyaana Yoga for the sankhyans” – jñāna-yogena sāṅkhyānāṁ. In this state, one believes in the identity of the soul and Paramatma. One knows that God, Paramatma, the Absolute is the doer, the creator, the protector and the destroyer. He is not outside one, rather He is acting through one’s body. In this state, one is humble. One is always obedient to the Master, to the Guru, to God.

 

The second yoga is Karma Yoga for the karma yogis – karma-yogena yoginām. 

The karma yogi moves among the gunas and he moves in the outside world, but he doesn’t have any connection to them. He disclaims that it is he who is doing anything. The first yogi, the sankhyan yogi, is aware that the Lord is in everything. The second  

one, the karma yogi, is also aware that the Lord is in everything. He is realised in a similar way. He does what he has to do in the outside world with the same attitude – that it is not he who is doing it, but it is God doing it through him. He doesn’t take credit for his actions. He doesn’t take credit for the actions, the thoughts, or the senses. So, He is free from egoism, the sense of possession, attachment, and desires. That’s the path of knowledge. When one attains that state of a yogi, one transcends joy, grief, and desire. Then one is centred within one’s Self. One sees the All-pervading Lord within oneself and the universe.

 

Karma Yoga here also means doing your sadhana, your meditation, on the glory and reality of God. It means praying that whatever one does, is for the worship of the Lord and serving Him. Through this, one attains the Divine.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 2

 

vyāmiśreṇaiva vākyena 

buddhiṁ mohayasīva me 

tad ekaṁ vada niścitya 

yena śreyoham-āpnuyām

 

You seem to bewilder my intelligence with a confused and mingled speech of contradictions; tell me then, decisively, the one way by which I may attain the highest good.

“You seem to bewilder my intelligence with a confused and mingled speech of contradictions.” Here, you see the state of Arjuna. He is confused. No doubt that this confusion arose in his mind as soon as he heard the Lord say that knowledge is superior to Karma Yoga. “Tell me then, decisively, the one way by which I may attain the highest good.” Arjuna is completely surrendered to the Lord. He just wants to understand. He wants to take every opportunity to get rid of this confusion which is inside of him so that he can attain the highest good.

 

Arjuna says, “You are confusing me with these words. It is too much for me! I can only understand one way; here there are many ways! I am bewildered by what you are saying.” This doubt is still in his mind. Here the Lord is playing with Arjuna’s mind. Arjuna is still looking at the yoga of the Self from the point of view of the mind. He has already forgotten that God had told him, “You should rise above duality! Only when you rise above duality, can you become a true yogi.”

 

Arjuna says, “There is a lot of contradiction in all the knowledge that you have given to me.” He can’t determine what his duty is. He can’t make up his mind whether Lord Krishna wants him to fight or to renounce all action.

 

In the last two verses of Chapter 2, Lord Krishna says that a yogi can do anything! He is free, because his mind is not focused on the fruit of the action. In his mind, Arjuna doesn’t know what to do: “Do you want me to renounce all action, or do you want me to fight?” He carries on thinking – if God wants him to renounce action, what can he do after such renunciation? Like we were saying in the previous chapter, the mind always thinks ahead.

 

In order to stop the mind from thinking ahead, to not feed the mind so that other unwanted thoughts arise, Arjuna surrenders to the Lord. He is humbly submitting himself to the Lord and is willing to change himself. If the Lord tells him to renounce fighting, he will do it. If the Lord tells him that he has to fight, he will do it. But here, what he can’t understand with his mind is – how can the mind be calm? He is still hanging onto the mind – but with attentiveness, with willingness to change. Arjuna is removing his own will, little by little. Yes, he is renouncing, little by little, his own will so that his inner will, which is in accordance with the Guru, which is in accordance with Sri Krishna Himself, will free him. He asks, “Lord, what is the highest good?

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 3, Verse 1

 

arjuna uvāca 

jyāyasī cet karmaṇaste 

matā buddhir-janārdana 

tat kiṁ karmaṇi ghore māṁ 

niyojayasi keśava

 

Arjuna says: If You hold intelligence (buddhi) to be greater than action  

(karma), O Krishna, why then do You, O Keshava, urge me to engage in this  

terrible deed?

 

Here you see that Arjuna is listening with deep attention to Lord Krishna. He understands what Krishna is saying, but there is still a certain doubt inside of him. He wants to grasp what the Lord meant by saying that knowledge is greater than action. He starts to wonder, “How can I understand that?” People with a mind focused on the  

outside, always think that whatever they do is right. In such a state, if one doesn’t have the knowledge of the Self, one is filled with pride, one is filled with the ego.

 

Krishna says, “Take in my words! The words that I am saying will bring Enlightenment to your mind. When the mind is pacified, when the mind is single-pointed towards God, then every action is purified. One is free from that action, free from the karma which is generated by that action.”

 

In Chapter 2 we saw that when Krishna used the term ‘action’, He showed that every action, whether big or small, creates karma. So, if one does any action with the right knowledge, that’s far superior. That’s why here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Hold intelligence (buddhi) to be greater than action (karma).” Everybody looks at whatever they do with the mind. Here Arjuna is completely confused about what the knowledge is and what action is.

 

In this state of confusion, he says, “O Keshava, Lord of the three gunas! O Lord, you have control over creation, protection and destruction! Why then, did you before urge me to fight?” Arjuna takes refuge at the Lotus Feet of Lord Krishna and says, “Janardana, you are the fulfiller of all the prayers. So why did you urge me to fight? You just now told me that knowledge is superior to action and that it is better that I become a Jyaana yogi than do Karma Yoga. This doesn’t make any sense. Let me fill my mind with your knowledge!”

 

But what is the dharma of a warrior? To fight! You see, life is a constant fight. But how we live life is very important. This Karma Yoga, which Arjuna is referring to here, is the outside action. It is true that buddhi, knowledge, is more important. Without knowledge, one can’t do anything. Here, Krishna is not just talking about the knowledge that you read in a book or that you hear from others. He is also talking about the inner knowledge: how to attain God Consciousness. He calls this inner knowledge, “The yoga of equal-mindedness.”

 

Arjuna says, “Now I want you to guide me, to instruct me! Oh, Lord of the universe, give me advice! How can I transform this Karma Yoga, which you are asking me to do in the outside world, and do it in a state of surrender? How can I do the work, which you have given me?” This is your life, my dear! This is life itself! You protest, “Oh Swamiji, I can’t chant or think of God throughout the day, because I am so busy at my work.” You are engrossed so much in your work that you forget about the Divine, you forget about God.

 

This chapter is about how one can work in daily life, accept what God has given, do one’s Karma Yoga outside, yet be separate from it; be focused and be free from that action. This chapter will allow you to realise that all the work that you have to do here, can help you participate in your salvation, in your Realisation.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 72

 

eṣā brāhmī-sthitiḥ pārtha 

naināṁ prāpya vimuhyati 

sthitvā’syām antakāle’pi 

brahma-nirvāṇam ṛcchati

 

This is brahmi sthiti, O Arjuna. Having attained it, one is no longer bewildered; fixed in that state at the hour of death, one can attain the Brahman itself.

 

He who succeeds in attaining Brahman during this lifetime is the best flower of humanity. He enjoys the bliss of the Divine while living a liberated life: he is a Jivan Mukta. Even he who succeeds at the last moment of his life, suddenly, as a reward for his sadhana, or as a Grace from his Guru, if he is fixing his mind unshakably on the image of the Divine, free from egoism, attachment, and desires, he will enjoy a blissful state of existence in the next world. He will enjoy God’s Heaven, enjoy the existence of Narayana, eternally. However, if one has not done one’s spiritual practices, it will be quite difficult to focus the attention on the Divine at the last moment. If you are very much into the outer routine, if you are very attached to the outside world, then at the last moment, your mind will focus on what you’re attached to. So how will it be possible to focus on the Divine at the last moment? It will be very difficult!

 

Krishna says that for people who are focused on the outside material world, it will be very difficult to attain God if they have not practised focusing the mind, if they have not practised yoga, if they have not practised meditation, if they have not practised japa. How could they, who are centred in the ego which always wants more and more, how could they who are centred in all the negative qualities of the outside world, how could they attain God? How could they overcome all this egoism, possession, attachment, and desire at the last moment? When one at last succeeds in reaching God-Realisation, all this delusion, which has existed from the beginning, gets eradicated, gets removed and it will never re-appear again. This is “brāhmī-sthitiḥ. O Arjuna”. Having attained the state of a yogi who has overcome delusion, one becomes a blessing to humanity. One who has awakened the Divine within the heart, who has awakened Bhakti within the heart, who sees the Lord, who worships the Lord, who has surrendered to the Lord, is a great blessing to humanity. 

 

Bhagavan Krishna says that one who is centred in spirituality is a blessing for this world, because wherever that person goes, he carries the Divine’s blessing with him. Wherever they go, whether they know it or not, they bring a positiveness with them. It’s like a flower: if a flower is put in the middle of a place where everything else is not beautiful, everyone’s attention will focus on that flower. Be like a flower in the middle of this world of ignorance. Spread the sweetness, the fragrance, and the beauty which God has given you! In this state, you are a blessing to humanity, you are a blessing to the world. Realising this state, you become a Jivan Mukta. You walk in this world  

being free.

 

“Fixed in that state at the hour of death, one can attain the Brahman itself.” Here Krishna says that even he who succeeds at the last moment of his life, either suddenly, or as a reward for his sadhana, to fix his mind strongly on the Divine, on God, he becomes free from egoism, attachment, possession, and desires. Grace can transform everybody, even at the last minute. Even if throughout your life, you have practised your sadhana, yet you still perceive all these negative qualities inside you, don’t be distressed about it. Even with doing all the spiritual exercises, all the prayers, all the japa, you don’t feel that you have reached the state that we have been talking about – don’t worry! Because at the time of passing, at the time of leaving this world, all this becomes good punya! All this will help you; it will become like a blessing! At that moment, whatever you have done, if you have perceived results in your life or not; if you have been doing your practice mechanically or not, all this will become a help.

This will help you at the time you are dying, at the time you are leaving this world. The sadhana that you have done will become a blessing for your Realisation: it will open up your eyes, even if it is just for a second! Even if it is just for a moment, the moment you depart from this world – you are delivered. 

 

This is the sweetness of the Lord. Nothing is done in vain! Even the little that you do, will bear its fruit. This is His compassion: He does everything for the sake of mankind. Krishna says that you don’t need to be discouraged when you don’t see any results from your spiritual practices, because all these results are being collected. This  

is what Christ also says: “Work for the kingdom of Heaven.” This good punya, even if you don’t see it here, it is in Heaven, in the bank account which you have made in Heaven. And this will help you. Even if you don’t feel anything throughout your whole life when you do your sadhana, just do it! Don’t think about it. Enjoy it when you are doing it! Don’t compare yourself with anybody to see if you are superior or inferior; don’t worry about that.

 

Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Your duty as a warrior is to fight. Fight! Don’t think about it. The whole problem starts when you start thinking. When you start thinking, you start comparing. When you start comparing, you lose everything. There is no peace of mind. And when there is no peace of mind, everything is destroyed.” This is what Lord Krishna teaches in this chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.

 

Here ends the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita on the knowledge of the Self.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 71

 

vihāya kāmān yaḥ sarvān 

pumāṁś-carati niḥspṛhaḥ 

nirmamo nirahaṅkāraḥ 

sa śāntim adhigacchati

 

He who abandons all desires and lives free from longing, who has no “I”  

or “mine”, and has extinguished the sense of egoistic self-importance,  

attains peace.

 

So when the big, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, and ‘mine’, ‘mine’, ‘mine’, and ‘this belongs to me’ – when all these are removed from the mind, one becomes peaceful. The feeling of ‘I want this,’ and ‘I want that,’ brings pain to the people of the outside world. Here Krishna says that the one who has great expectations in life, who desires many things, in a very egoistic way, doesn’t have peace of mind. Even if one wants to be peaceful, it’s very difficult, because this self-importance, this egoistic feeling, will eat one up. What you need is humility. Because of your own self-importance, you will never be able to respect others.

 

Arjuna has asked Krishna, “How does a realised soul walk in the world?” Krishna says, “The realised soul walks in the world, but they don’t do it for their own self-gratification, they don’t say, ‘I want this, I want that.’ They accept everything and when things are not there, they don’t bother about it. So let go of this ‘I’ and ‘mine’, because this is the cause of misery! This will be the cause of your downfall! Because of this egoistic self-importance which you give to yourself, you will never attain peace, you will not be peaceful.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 70

 

apūryamāṇam acala pratiṣṭhaṁ 

samudram āpaḥ praviśanti yadvat 

tadvat kāmā yaṁ praviśanti sarve 

sa śāntim āpnoti na kāmakāmī

 

One into whom all desires enter, as rivers enter the fullness of the ocean  

which remains undisturbed, attains peace, and not one who craves after  

objects of desire.

 

Krishna says that, even if every desire, even if the whole world presents itself to the true yogi, it makes no difference to him. It’s like the river entering the ocean: when the river enters the ocean, the ocean doesn’t bother about it; it doesn’t change anything in the ocean. Like that, the yogi who is self-controlled always remains calm in every situation. He is unshakably established in God Consciousness. He still has concerns for the world, but he has discrimination and is undisturbed. He is ever-peaceful. He doesn’t want more: he is satisfied with whatever God provides for Him. One has to be in that state, like the ocean. Whatever you have, be happy. God always gives you what you need. He also knows best when is the right time to give you what you need. If you learn to accept this, no matter what God will give you, it will be for your spiritual growth. Even all these desires will not have any effect on the person who is fully centred in the Divine, whose aim is clear. Nothing will affect his mental state. If he’s peaceful, there will be nothing to worry about. He knows that all is the Will of God. He knows that all comes from God. It is He who gives, and it is He who takes.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 69

 

yā niśā sarva bhūtānāṁ 

tasyāṁ jāgarti saṁyamī 

yasyāṁ jāgrati bhūtāni 

sā niśā paśyato muneḥ

 

The self-controlled one is awake during what is ‘night’ for all beings; when  

all beings are awake, that is the ‘night’ to the enlightened one.

The experiences of the ignorant man of the world and the man of knowledge are very different. It’s like ‘day’ and ‘night’; but here it’s has nothing to do with actual day and night. Here, the ‘day’ refers to the awakened, the enlightened one, the one who is out of darkness. “The self-controlled one is awake during” the night. Here, the ‘night’ means all the excitement of the outside world. The self-controlled one is awake, which means he is vigilant, he is guarding: the Self is observing and controlling, so that one doesn’t go into temptation. Such a person is wise. Whereas when one is ignorant, it is like one is in darkness: it is ‘night’ for those beings.

 

For the enlightened, the one who is centred in the Self, the one who is finding the Divine in the Self, ‘day’ and ‘night’ are not seen as different from each other. During the ‘night’ one doesn’t see, whereas a yogi sees, even in the ‘night’. 

 

When one’s mind has been darkened by the cloud of the senses, one doesn’t see, one doesn’t perceive anything. Only when the Light of God-Realisation, the Light of the yogi awakens, does one perceive the nature of God inside oneself and everywhere else. Although every enjoyment in this world and the next is perishable, momentary, transient and full of suffering, enveloped in the darkness of ignorance since the beginning of time, the worldly-minded man regards these enjoyments as everlasting and full of joy. 

 

People who are in the darkness of the mind and are so attached to self-enjoyment, create the illusion of being happy. They are still in darkness; they are still in the ‘night’. But the self-controlled, the one who is awake, finds joy: they find God-Realisation, they find the wisdom of the Divine, embodied within the core of the heart. Then within them is the awakening. They’re not in the state of sleep, they’re not in the state of unawareness: they have the true knowledge of Brahma Jyaan. They realise that it is God who is working through them, that they have Satchitananda inside of them; they have the Truth of God, the knowledge of God, and the bliss of God within themselves. They are in the world, they can use everything in the world, but they aren’t attached to the world. They utilise every action, every thought and everything which comes from the senses, yet they remain separate from the world. They are in the Light, not in the darkness of ignorance.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 68

 

tasmād yasya mahābāho 

nigṛhītāni sarvaśaḥ 

indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas 

tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

 

Therefore, O mighty-armed, one who has utterly restrained the excitement  

of the senses by their objects, his intelligence sits firmly founded in calm  

Self-knowledge.

 

Again Krishna says, “One who is fully focused is centred in the Divine within oneself, and sees the Divine within oneself.” 

 

Krishna addresses Arjuna as ‘mahābāho’: “He who possesses long, stout, and powerful arms.” He says, “You are not weak, you are a great hero and a great fighter! It should not be difficult for you to subdue your mind, to have your mind under control. It should not be difficult for you to have your senses under control and tame them. So control the senses, Arjuna! Control the senses – sound, touch, taste, sight and smell – without any weaknesses. So move! Grow out of this excitement of the senses!”

 

The soul has enjoyed the senses throughout many lifetimes. The mind has kept the soul trapped due to this long uninterrupted enjoyment of the objects of the senses. Since the beginning of time, the senses have developed a natural attraction for their objects. So get the senses under control! Change them so that you can free yourself! Don’t let your mind be distracted by these impulses. They have always been there trying to stop you. Now move on! You are not alone. God is with you. When you focus your mind and your mind becomes stable, you will see that the Divine is there  

with you.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 67

 

indriyāṇāṁ hi caratāṁ 

yan mano’nuvidhīyate 

tad asya harati prajñāṁ 

vāyur nāvam ivāṁbhasi

 

When the mind follows the senses ‘experiencing’ their objects, the  

understanding is carried away by them, as the wind carries away a ship on  

the waters.

 

When the mind is happy, you should be careful! It is not true happiness, but short-term happiness! “The understanding is carried away by them, as the wind carries away a ship on the waters.” (In the Gita, Krishna is already talking about ships. It’s amazing, you know? Much later, in the dictionaries of the west, you will find references to ships. But the ship was already mentioned five thousand years ago in Krishna’s time!) “When the mind follows the senses…”: if a man’s mind and senses are not disciplined, are not focused on the Divine, his senses will drag his mind along with them; it may affect the intellect. Drawing away from God, one will pursue the outside and automatically one will degrade oneself.

 

“… ‘experiencing’ their objects, the understanding is carried away.” This is true, especially when one doesn’t get attention. Take a wife who is fully in love with her husband and she doesn’t get the attention she wants. How does she become? This is not only true of women – it is true of everyone! The mind is carried away, the understanding is carried away. Deep inside, the heart is saying, “Yes, this is wrong.” You have the feeling that you are doing something wrong, but the reason is not clearly functioning. You can’t even think, you become stupid. If somebody tells you, “You are stupid,” you will not even see it, because there’s no reason. There’s no understanding! This will automatically lead to one’s downfall. 

 

“As the wind carries away a ship on the waters.” A strong wind may affect a boat proceeding towards its destination. The boat may be diverted from its proper course and be tossed about in the high seas, with huge breakers washing the deck and then sink. In such a state, you will drown yourself. But if an expert sailor knows how to sail, he can use the wind to sail his boat and keep it on course. He can use the wind to reach his goal. It is the same for an elevated soul. An elevated soul is above good and bad. He is still in the world, he is a Jivan Mukta, but he uses everything around him as God’s instruments to attain God-Realisation. He doesn’t sit and cry, but uses the experiences of life to attain God. He sees God’s hand in every aspect of life.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 66

 

nāsti buddhir-ayuktasya 

na cāpyuktasya bhāvanā 

na cābhāvayataḥ śāntir 

aśāntasya kutaḥ sukham

 

For one who is not in yoga, there is no intelligence, no concentration; for him without concentration, there is no peace; and for the restless, how can there be happiness?

The man lacking self-control can have no peace of mind and can’t think of God. He’s always running to the outside world; so how can he think and concentrate on the ocean of the supreme bliss? How can he become calm and tranquil? He will not be able to concentrate, because he doesn’t even know what peace is. The mind of the worldly man remains ever-distracted and his heart remains constantly burning and agitated under the impulse of love and hate. He can’t concentrate, because he is busy either loving or hating. He is always concentrating always on lust and anger, greed and jealousy. 

Krishna says to Arjuna, “Centre yourself in equal-mindedness. Try your best to become equal-minded, so that you can free yourself.” You can control your emotions. An uncontrolled mind has no peace and is always aggressive. Without peace of mind, there can be no true happiness. One can create a certain illusion of happiness and think that one is happy. How many people do that? Many! You ask people, “Why are you happy?” They say, “I don’t know why I’m happy. I’m happy because of this. I’m happy because of that.” Anyone who doesn’t have spiritual knowledge, the knowledge of the Self, who is not on the way to loving God, doesn’t know real happiness. 

 

When people talk about love, they have no clue what love is. What they call love is actually just infatuation. They long for caring or being looked after. When you look at how people love in the outside world, you see that all these relationships are fake! All this happiness which people create in the outside world is not true! It’s only true for the mind, because it’s feeding the mind. It makes one feel happy: “Oh I am happy, if someone is pleasing me to be happy. But if I am alone, I am depressed.” It’s true! “Oh, I am terrible Oh oh…” It’s always about oneself, always about craving for attention! This is what people call happiness. These self-pitying people crave attention. The world revolves around this.

  

Krishna says to Arjuna, “Don’t feel sorry for yourself! What happiness can come of this? What true joy can come of it? This will reduce you to a very pitiful state, to an animal state! So don’t go into that. Be free from that!” In that state, you will never have peace. You will be restless and unhappy! Even if you create an illusion of being happy, the moment this illusion is removed, you will again be unhappy. Wake up! God is the most important thing! He is the main object of enjoyment. He is the Ultimate – not this illusion that you call happiness. When your heart itself is truly happy, then you will always be happy. But when your mind is happy, you should be careful!

 

Nāsti buddhir-ayuktasya: here Krishna says “The stupid mind! It is not intelligent!” People call this state of non-intelligence, intelligence.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verses 64-65

 

rāga-dveṣa viyuktais tu 

viṣayān indriyaiś-caran 

ātma-vaśyair vidheyātmā 

prasādam adhigacchati

 

prasāde sarva-duḥkhānāṁ 

hānir asyopajāyate 

prasanna-cetaso hyāśu 

buddhiḥ paryavatiṣṭhate

 

It is by moving among the sense-objects, but with the senses subjected to the Self, freed from liking and disliking, that one attains a large and sweet clearness of soul and temperament in which passion and grief find no place; the intelligence of such a man is rapidly established (in its proper seat). 

 

“It is by moving among the sense-objects, but with the senses subjected to the Self, freed from liking and disliking, that one attains a large and sweet clearness of soul.” Here Bhagavan is not saying that one should not enjoy what one has. Everything has been given by God. One should enjoy it.

But one should not become a slave to it. One should not be attached to it! Krishna says that if the God-realised soul comes into contact with the senses and sense objects, or with like and dislike, these are instruments of advancement. He is not subject to the negativity of these instruments. He can utilise these instruments because he has no attachment to these instruments and he seeks no personal gain with them. Because of the process of controlling the senses, he is free. Even if these qualities of like and dislike awaken inside of him, even if they appear for him, it doesn’t mean anything.

 

Since the realised soul is centred in the Self, since he is centred in God, nothing bothers him. Whatever he does, he is like a child. A child doesn’t bother about things. Christ says in the Bible that if one wants to enter into the kingdom of Heaven, one has to be like a child. A child can ‘like’, and then, the next moment, he ‘doesn’t like’. Children don’t keep grudges; they don’t take revenge. Krishna says, “First you have to discipline the senses.” If the senses are not disciplined, you will be reduced to an animal state. But a realised soul, with a disciplined mind, overcomes everything. By chanting the Divine Names, practising japa and meditation, one is ever remembering the Divine in the daily activities. 

 

Like this, one remains free, because whatever one is doing, one is not attached to it. It will not create more attachment. Even if realised souls move among men, even if they are near people who are negative, it doesn’t affect them. No matter what happens, they are fully centred in the Divine: they are free. They are free firstly from the sense of like and dislike. They are renounced from within.

 

“… and temperament in which passion and grief find no place; the intelligence of such a man is rapidly established (in its proper seat).” Here Lord Krishna says, “When the senses are disciplined and when there is no way of liking or disliking, then the heart of a devotee, the heart of a sadhak, becomes transparent, becomes innocent, becomes pure.” In that state, one enjoys spiritual bliss. One becomes peaceful in every situation: one stays in the calmness of the Self. The purity of the heart is a direct cause of joy and calmness. The prasad that we offer to God, is the purity of the heart. When one works on oneself and becomes calm, this becomes a prasad which is offered to the Divine. Whatever one does, it is all prasad. It is all a prayer, and it is constantly bringing one to higher and higher states.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 63

 

krodhād-bhavati saṁmohaḥ 

saṁmohāt smṛti-vibhramaḥ 

smṛti-bhramśād buddhi-nāśo 

buddhir-nāśāt praṇaśyati

 

Anger leads to bewilderment, from bewilderment comes loss of memory, and by that the intelligence is destroyed; from destruction of intelligence, one perishes.

 

When anger arises in the heart of man, it deprives him of his power of discrimination. He is unable to think, so he will not heed the consequences of whatever he does in a fit of anger. He doesn’t realise what he is doing. When the anger grows, one’s memory starts to get confused, and when the brain starts to get confused, one loses all control. One forgets about relationships; one forgets about everybody around. One also forgets what one has to do, or not to do. In this state, one is unable to plan; one doesn’t have any determination. One loses all reasoning. When one doesn’t control the senses, one is reduced to this state. And when a man is reduced to this state, it becomes easy for him to abandon the path of duty, the path of dharma. It becomes easy for that person to lose himself in different paths.

 

A person who has anger also has qualities such as harshness, violence, greed, and stupidity. His mind is always focused on doing evil behaviour: he is always wanting to harm people. This is wickedness. When a person is angry and can’t control himself, he reduces himself to the state of existence where he has no chance of being reborn as a human. He lowers himself to the level of the animal species or he is born in a very low, infernal degree of the creation.

 

Here Lord Krishna says to Arjuna that if someone doesn’t take advantage of this human life to realise and attain God-Realisation, attain the Grace of God, or receive His Vision, this life is wasted. Krishna says that if this animal-like quality arises in the mind of a man, he will become like this animal. This includes how you think, all the food that you eat, and the food which we were talking about earlier, the food of the senses. People are so attached to what they eat! People are so attached to how they think! People are so attached to what they do in their actions! If they have not profited in this lifetime to attain God’s Grace, in the next life, they will be born as an animal. 

 

In this life, God has given them a human body to attain Him; but they have refused the Grace of God, they have refused the gift of God and this is a great sin. People who eat meat, who can’t let go of meat, in their next life, they will surely be re-born as the animals which they have eaten, because it is a curse to eat animals. If there is one thing that can degrade a person, it is a curse which one puts on oneself. If one doesn’t have the chance to renounce all these things, one will be reduced to the state of animal existence. 

 

It is asked in the Upanishads, “regarding the meat eaters, with what attitude do they eat meat?” This is very important. When an animal is being eaten, you are taking in all the sadness, the aggression and other emotions of this animal. When you are putting the meat inside of you, you are also taking in this karma of the animal. You are putting this inferior state inside of you. So in your next life, you will be born again to burn this karma. You will be born in the group of animals that you have eaten the most. But, of course, God is merciful: He will always allow you to remember – because animals also can have the perception of realising that they should change. Even if you have reduced yourself to this degraded state, God is with you. He will give you an experience to remind you. He will say, “You don’t need to do this. You don’t need to go to the infernal regions. You don’t need to reduce yourself and ruin yourself like this.”

 

In this lifetime itself, you can attain God. This is mercy. God loves you! God cares for you! God incarnates! God traces your life and makes everything possible for you to realise Him! But He can’t force you to do it. He shows you the way to come to Him, through His Love.

He says, “I am waiting for you! Please come, realise, awaken! First do your effort, control yourself! I will help you.”

 

Lord Narayana told a story to Maha Lakshmi. “There is a story I will tell you, Devi, about how the sacredness of the Self, the knowing of the Self is very important. I will tell you the story of Deva Sharma. Deva Sharma was born in Shampur and had a great desire to have the knowledge of God. He had this deep desire, so he prayed to Me, ‘Please send me to the right person who will help me get out of this mundane life, so that I can realise myself and attain the perfection of life.’ 

 

“One day, Deva Sharma had a visit of a brahmin, a sage. He offered some prasad to the sage and said, ‘Please, reverend sir, tell me, who can guide me so that I can fully surrender to God? Who can guide me so that I can control my senses and my mind can fully focus on the Divine?’ The sage said to him, ‘Go to a certain village and there you will meet your Guru. On the outskirts of the village, there is a Guru by the name of sage Nithyananda. Go to him! He will give you Enlightenment and will free you from the illusion of this life.’ So Deva Sharma started on his way to the village. 

 

“Meanwhile in this village, there was a shepherd who had a goat. Every day the shepherd would take the goat to graze in the field. One day as he was going to the field, a tiger jumped out of the forest and roared terribly! But when the tiger jumped in front of the goat, instead of eating the goat, he just looked at it, got scared and ran away. Then the goat was walking very proudly, ‘Din din dun dun.’ The shepherd was shocked and thought, ‘What happened? Why?’ He went to his Gurudev, Nithyananda Maharaj, and revealed to him all that had happened and asked, ‘Why was this? Normally a tiger would eat the goat or would eat me, but it didn’t do anything. It ran away, frightened.’ Of course, with his inner vision, the sage could see the past lives of the goat, and tiger, and the shepherd. Looking into this vision, he said, ‘Ah! The tiger got frightened of the goat because in its last life, this tiger was a handsome man and this goat was a terrible witch. In that last life, the witch had eaten him! The tiger was going to eat the goat, but then saw that it was the witch who had eaten him before. Fearing that also in this life the goat would eat him, he ran away. Due to the witch’s bad karma, she had been reduced to being a goat.’

 

“Some days later, Deva Sharma arrived at the ashram looking for his Guru. He sat in the ashram waiting to speak to his Guru who was there reading the Bhagavad Gita. Then, the shepherd came to the ashram bringing his goat with him. The shepherd also sat there listening the Bhagavad Gita and it was like this every day. The shepherd would bring the goat there, because he knew that his goat had been a witch and thought that it would be good for the goat to hear the Bhagavad Gita. Hearing the Bhagavad Gita would purify the goat. So he brought the goat to listen to the Bhagavad Gita to free it from its pitiful state in this sub-human species – which was due to the goat’s past karma. 

 

“One day the tiger also came to the ashram, scaring everybody. The Guru called to it and said, ‘Hey, come here!’ He patted it saying, ‘Sit here!’ He started reading the glory of the Gita to the tiger. So all three of them, the shepherd, the tiger, and the goat were sitting there, listening to the Bhagavad Gita. Then the Guru revealed to them who they had been in their last lives. He said, ‘You shepherd, were a brahmin, you had the knowledge. But you just practiced it mechanically. As you didn’t apply this knowledge inside of you, you have been reduced to being a shepherd. You used to be very wise and learned, but it was only for your personal gain. Since you were always running after personal gain, you were born here, poor and miserable.’ And the other two, you know who they were in their past lives.

“So the Guru advised the three of them, ‘Concentrate and listen with deep faith to the Gita. And try your best to change.’ The eyes of the tiger and the goat started to shine and whenever they listened to the Gita, there was no enmity between them: they had reached that state of perfection. Even if in their last lives they had not reached it, by the Grace of the Lord, by hearing the Gita, they came to this point of Realisation. So finally they attained salvation, all three of them.”

 

Here Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, “Don’t waste life! Take every opportunity! Don’t be stupid! Don’t be silly! Don’t let this negative quality take control of you. You are the Atma, you are the Great Observer. You are far better than all this! Don’t go into your  

weakness. Arise!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 62

 

dhyāyato viṣayān puṁsaḥ 

saṅgas teṣūpajāyate 

saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ 

kāmāt krodho’bhijāyate

 

In him whose mind dwells on the objects of sense with absorbing interest, attachment to them is formed. From attachment arises desire. From desire, anger comes forth.

 

Here Krishna doesn’t say that you must let go of everything: he is talking about how to let go. This is very important. He says that by constantly dwelling on the objects of enjoyment, the human being develops an intense form of attachment to them. This is true. When the senses dwell on things, like lust and drugs and other things, when the mind and the senses dwell on these many things, you become attached to them and you are not free. This creates more desire to gain even more things.

When one dwells on even one enjoyment in the mind, one gets attached to it and finds it very difficult to let it go. And then you create not one, but many more desires. Krishna says, “All these people who are in front of you on the battlefield, Arjuna, these are all the qualities which arise due to desires. And it takes only one desire to create many more attachments.” Duryodhana doesn’t want to let go of his attachment to the kingdom. From his attachment to the seat of Hastinapur have arisen so many desires to gain more and more. That is why the Kauravas also took Indraprastha: they wanted to conquer everything. This is also true in our daily life, when we become obsessed or controlled by greed, pride, and the ego. From one desire, more desires arise. It is never enough. One becomes greedy. This is how attachment gives rise to desires, and when a hindrance appears in the fulfilment of these desires, one becomes angry. “Why didn’t I get this? Why did my neighbour get that? Why not me?” This anger then becomes hatred.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 61

 

tāni sarvāṇi saṁyamya 

yukta āsīta matparaḥ 

vaśe hi yasyendriyāṇi 

tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

 

Having brought all the senses under control, he must sit firmly in yoga, wholly given up to Me; he whose senses are mastered, his intelligence is firmly established (in its proper seat).

“Having brought all the senses under control, he must sit firmly in yoga, wholly given up to Me.” Here Lord Krishna says, “Fully concentrating on Me, ‘he whose senses are mastered, his intelligence is firmly established.’” One has to sit in yoga, in meditation. Giving oneself fully unto Him, with a controlled mind, with a mind which is not distracted, the sadhak has to concentrate on his spiritual growth. He has to go deeper, seeking God-Realisation, seeking the Grace of God, seeking to attain Him. This must be his aim. Here Lord Krishna says that one has to first completely surrender and control the senses. After subduing the senses, if the mind is also brought under control, one must sit in silence and dive within one’s own Self to find Him. Krishna says, “Then one is ‘given up to Me!’ The Self of all the selves is only Me. I am the One who is seated in all the bhaktas, in every human heart.” A sadhak, a devotee, should find the Divine, should find the Guru within his own Self. That will make one fully realised. But if the mind is scattered all around during your daily activities, then even while you sit for meditation, it will be dancing around. That is why whenever you tell people to meditate, they find it very difficult. And this is why japa is important.

 When you start chanting the Name of God, you train yourself to control your mind, your heart, and your senses. “Having brought all the senses under control,” having renounced all attachment, all-desires, and controlling the mind, the intellect should focus on Krishna, on God. For a bhakta, for someone who is really longing for God, the mind should not be on anything else; it should dwell on the Master, and God.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 60

 

yatato hyapi kaunteya 

puruṣasya vipaścitaḥ 

indriyāṇi pramāthīni 

haranti prasabhaṁ manaḥ

 

Even the mind of the wise man who labours for perfection is carried away by the vehement insistence of the senses, O son of Kunti.

 

Here Lord Krishna speaks about wise men, the wise people, who have the full knowledge of what is ‘good’ and what is ‘not good’. These people “who labour for perfection” are doing their daily sadhana and are very focused and intense, but they can’t let go of the senses of sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch. Even the wise ones are bound by these objects of the senses. The sense objects may withdraw, but not the taste for the enjoyment of them. As long as an attachment to the enjoyment of sense objects remains in the heart of man, his senses will lead him to the enjoyment of sense objects. His mind, his intellect, cannot rest stable in God, because of the senses which are carrying away the mind. God, Krishna says that one must control all the senses. He says, “Devote the mind to the service of God alone. Practice meditation!” Focus on His Supreme form within the core of one’s heart. Lose oneself in this deepness; then the turbulence, the insistence of the senses will not tempt or bewilder the mind. Thus the mind will enter into this stability. The mind may still churn, but there will be only one aim: to attain the vision of God. 

Krishna says to Arjuna, “O son of Kunti, become like the yogi who has a stable mind and makes a special effort to control his senses by totally renouncing attachment to the objects of the world.” Bhagavan is also saying that when you serve the Lord, you should not expect anything in return – not even the blessing of God, because you can’t make a deal with Him. You can’t say to God, “I love you, I’m doing this for you, but in return I want you to bless me or love me back.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 59

 

viṣayā vinivartante 

nirāha‌rasya dehinaḥ 

rasa-varjaṁ raso’pyasya 

paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate

 

If one abstains from food, the objects of sense cease to affect one; but the taste for the sense objects remains. The taste also ceases when the Supreme is seen.

 

Here, food doesn’t only mean the food that we eat. And taste doesn’t only mean the taste of food. Through the renunciation of food, only one object of the senses is renounced. Each of the senses has a different food. Each sense has its own taste. The food of the ears is sound; the food of the nose is smell. If all of these are renounced, automatically all our concentration will be focused on attaining one food – the divine nectar of the Supreme God Himself. And once the Supreme has revealed Himself, the aspect of the supreme reality which is inside oneself awakens – Amrit. Then one doesn’t need anything outside, then one doesn’t need anything secondary. One won’t need any secondary object to live, because God Himself will become the all-pervading reality for that person. God will be one’s food. All one’s actions will be pervaded by only this One Reality. 

 

Krishna says that the only thing that one has to have is God-Realisation, the vision of God. Without the vision of God, nothing is possible. Otherwise one will always run and hide behind worldly objects. Yogis who possess a stable mind obtain the direct vision of God, the ocean of the supreme bliss. In this state, the yogi ceases to have any trace of attachment to worldly objects or to the senses. All the attachment to worldly things totally disappears when there is a direct vision of God. It is through complete surrender and longing for the Divine, that God will reveal Himself. If one is centred in the object on the outside or controlled by the senses, the Divine will never reveal Himself. If one is limited to the duality of ‘good’ and ‘bad’, the Divine will not reveal Himself. It is only when one becomes like a yogi who is above this, that the Divine vision is revealed within the core of your own Self, not outside. The true yogi firstly perceives this divinity within himself. Then, through that Divine vision, he sees the same divinity equally everywhere in all God’s creation.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 58

 

yadā saṁharate cāyaṁ 

kūrmo’ṅgānīva sarvaśaḥ 

indriyāṇīndriyārthebhyas 

tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

 

He who withdraws his senses from the objects of sense, as the tortoise withdraws his limbs into his shell, his intelligence sits firmly founded in wisdom.

 

This verse speaks of withdrawing the senses from all objects of self-enjoyment at the time of meditation, thus depriving them of their power to distract the mind and the intellect. Like a tortoise pulls all his limbs inside, leaving only the shell outside, like that, one has to dive within oneself. You can’t pull your hands inside you, but by entering into the cave of the heart, being aware, and sitting in deep, full concentration within oneself, this is true wisdom. But if one is sitting in meditation, yet one is not there, one is somewhere else, that is not true meditation. How many people sit to meditate, but the moment they close their eyes, they ask themselves, “Where am I? I don’t even know where I am!” They are somewhere else.

 

Once there was a yogi who invited all his students to sit for meditation. As they were all sitting, he told them, “Okay, now go into the Self.” Everybody closed their eyes, started breathing and went within. When the meditation was over, the yogi asked, “Who was really here during this meditation?” Everybody was thinking, “Oh, I was in America”; “Ah, my parents!” “I was here,” and “I was there.” They were not fully focused. They were all over the place. Even here, how many of you are really listening to me? If I scream, of course, this will bring you back here. But some of you are elsewhere, even though you appear to be listening and watching. You are watching, but you are not seeing anything, because your mind is somewhere else. When the mind is focused in the Self, that is true wisdom. Then it can’t be elsewhere. Nothing can distract it; nothing can move it.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 57

 

yaḥ sarvatrānabhisnehas 

tat tat prāpya śubhāśubham 

nābhinandati na dveṣṭi 

tasya prajñā pratiṣṭhitā

 

He who has no attachment anywhere; he who, when encountering the agreeable or the disagreeable, feels neither attraction nor aversion – his wisdom is firmly established.

 

Earlier we saw that Arjuna asks Krishna, “How does a yogi speak?” Here Krishna says that when a realised soul encounters what is “agreeable or the disagreeable, he feels neither attraction nor aversion.” This is true wisdom. Many people have lots of wisdom in many things, but when you encounter them and you say something they don’t want to hear, what do they do? They fight back, no? They rebel! 

 

In the mind of a true yogi, there is no rebelling. Someone who is fully dedicated to his path, should disregard all negativity and fully focus on his path: if one does this, nothing can move one – neither praises nor insults. When wisdom or knowledge is given by such a great saint and yogi, one should drink from it, one should dive into that wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 56

 

duḥkheṣv-anudvigna-manāḥ 

sukheṣu vigata spṛhaḥ 

vīta-rāga bhaya krodhaḥ 

sthita-dhīr munir ucyate

 

He whose mind is undisturbed in the midst of sorrows and pleasures is free from desire; he from whom liking, fear and wrath have passed away, is the sage of settled understanding.

 

Here Krishna says that when the mind is steady and calm, when the mind of a God-realised soul has no thirst for pleasures of the world, when he takes pleasure and pain alike and remains ever-balanced, in whatever kind of experience, he is a Muni. Even more, this intelligence makes him a Muniraj. He is worthy. Because he is settled in understanding, he is allowed to give knowledge, he is allowed to share his experiences of God. Because of his self-controlled and balanced mind, he is allowed to help others. Because of the stability in his state of mind, because he is pure in his actions, he is not bound by anything. He has full control of his speech, like a Muni. When the mind is fully absorbed in the Divine and when one’s speech is for the greater good of the people, one becomes like a Muni, a great sage.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 55

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

prajahāti yadā kāmān 

sarvān pārtha manogatān 

ātmany-evātmanā tuṣṭaḥ 

sthita-prajñās tad-ocyate

 

The Lord says: When a man expels, O Paartha, all desires from the mind, and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then is he considered stable in intelligence. 

After the total cessation of all desires in the mind, then the sadhak, the bhakta, perceives the true nature of the Eternal, the true nature of God within the Self: within himself, the Supreme Self awakens. The supreme intelligence awakens. The intelligence which Krishna talks about before is the intelligence which the mind understands. Here Krishna is saying that in the one who is satisfied in the Self Itself, what arises is wisdom, Brahma Jyaan, the knowledge of the Divine, through the continued and devoted practice of attaining the Divine. When the mind is unshakably fixed on God, then one becomes stable, of stable mind. When one finds God within oneself, this is true intelligence, true wisdom.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 54

 

arjuna uvāca 

sthita-prajñāsya kā bhāṣā 

samādhisthasya keśava 

sthita-dhīḥ kiṁ prabhāṣata 

kim āsīta vrajeta kim

 

Arjuna says: What is the mode of speech, O Krishna, of one of steady wisdom, who is established in the control of the mind? What does one of steady wisdom say? How does he sit? How does he move?

 

Arjuna has by now gained profound knowledge. He says, “My friend, here in front of me, is not just a mere mortal. He is Bhagavan Himself, He is God Himself incarnated.” Arjuna addresses Krishna as Keshava, Ke-sha-va: ‘Ke’ as Brahma, the creator; ‘Sha’ as Vishnu, the preserver; ‘Va’ as Shiva. He says, “You are the Creator, the Protector and the Destroyer of this entire universe: thus I address you as Keshava, my Lord.” The tune has changed: Arjuna is not talking to Krishna the same way as before. He is addressing Him with great humility, because he has realised that He is the controller of all three aspects of the Trimurti – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He addresses Him as the Almighty God, saying, “It is only You, my Lord, who can give me the true answer.”

 

“What is the mode of speech, O Krishna, of one of steady wisdom, who is established in the control of the mind? What does one of steady wisdom say?” Arjuna asks, “You are the Lord of lords, you are the God of creation, preservation and destruction. What will you say? How does a yogi who is realised sit? How does he move? Please tell me all these qualities of a true, realised soul.” Arjuna now desires to know the signs of one who has attained Realisation, of one who is perfectly and unshakably stable in God Consciousness. Krishna has said that He is not attached to anything. So how does one who is not attached to anything walk, how does he talk? How does he eat? 

Bhagavan explains, “The perfect souls who have realised God, exhibit special characteristics in all their ways of life.” In whatever they do, they have their own way. They are Siddha Purushas. They are not bound by their actions; they are not bound by their words. By nothing! Today they can say one thing; tomorrow they can say something else. Today they can say, “This is blue!” Tomorrow they can say, “This is red!” Krishna says that realised souls are not attached to anything. Even if they do an action which is inappropriate in the minds of society, they are free from every karma related to it. Their ordinary speech, their modes of sitting and walking have a special characteristic: it is all through the vibration, and it is all for the sake of others, it is not for their own sake.

Realised souls don’t do anything for themselves, but for the sake of others. The intention of Arjuna in asking about the modes of speech of a self-realised man, is to know how he should speak to the Lord. He wants to know, “How is my action with the Lord? Am I correct or not?” This is self-introspection. By asking this question, he starts to look at himself and to ask himself, “How is my action? How is my speech? Did I ask properly? How do I engage in any form of action? How am I?” He starts to think about how he walks and how he acts: he becomes very aware of this. Krishna has been talking about becoming a great yogi. “Krishna says to rise to Self-Realisation, but how will I become that?” Only by self-introspection can one attain Self-Realisation. That is why in Atma Kriya Yoga we say, “Do daily introspection so that you can transcend and transform yourself.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 53

 

śruti vipratipannā te 

yadā sthāsyasi niścalā 

samādhāv-acalā buddhis 

tadā yogam avāpsyasi

 

When your intellect, well-enlightened by listening to Me and firmly placed, remains unshaken in a concentrated mind, then you will attain the vision of  

the Self and attain yoga.

 

 In this state of yoga, the intellect has crossed the mirror of delusion and fully recoiled from the enjoyments of this world and the next. You are not bothered about this life, or the next. You have wholly freed yourself from the fault of distraction, you are fully concentrated, and you take to the practice of meditation on God. 

 

Krishna says, “When your mind is calm, when your mind is not attached to the outside, let your mind be focused on God.” He doesn’t say, “When your mind is controlled, just leave it like that.” He says that the mind must be focused on the Divine form of God, the Divine form of Narayana Himself. So practice meditation on God and be unshakably and firmly concentrated on God alone.

  

When your mind has changed its state and its way of viewing life, it must be focused on something new. Otherwise the mind will jump back into the past activities. Bhagavan Krishna says, “Focus your mind on God.” It’s like a child: when a child is naughty, you have to give the child a toy to play with so he can entertain himself. This mind is like a child who is naughty. You have to make the child be very good; you talk nicely with the child, but you also have to give the child a certain instrument. And the instrument is this deep concentration, this meditation on God alone. This is where the mind must rest, steady and undistracted: the mind “firmly placed, remains unshaken in a concentrated mind, then you will attain the vision of the Self, and attain yoga, tadā yogam avāpsyasi.”

 

It is through that yoga that you will attain this perpetual and complete union with God. This union will only happen when the mind is free from the three gunas, which are impurity, distraction, and obscurity. When you are endowed with the power, and energy of discrimination and dispassion, then you are fully concentrating on God.

 

These are the seven types of yoga related to the yoga of the mind: yoga of action, yoga of meditation, yoga of even-mindedness, yoga of the Divine glory, yoga of devotion, Ashtanga Yoga consisting of the eight limbs, and Sankhya Yoga.  

The first yoga is the yoga of action, Karma Yoga. Here the action is performed by one who seeks to climb to the highest level of yoga. It is the action of making the effort to attain the union between the Atma and the Paramatma and realising the oneness in this equal-mindedness. 

 

The second yoga is the yoga of meditation, Dhyaana Yoga. The mind of the yogi is as steady as the flame of a lamp kept in a windless place (Ch. 6, v. 19). When the mind enters this state of steadiness and is not flickering, not jumping left and right, one has attained the goal of Dhyaana yoga. 

 

The third yoga is the yoga of even-mindedness, Samatva Yoga. Practicing this form of yoga, one performs his duty while established in yoga (v. 48). Do your duty, but be centred! Establish yourself in yoga, renouncing attachment and viewing  

success and failure alike. 

 

The fourth yoga is the yoga of the Divine glory. In this verse, Bhagavan Sri Krishna asks Arjuna to behold His wonderful power. He says, “Behold, see God’s glory in everything.”

The fifth yoga is the yoga of devotion, Bhakti Yoga. In this verse, Krishna says that the yoga of bhakti is when one worships God constantly and exclusively. In this form of yoga, one places God first and does everything for the sake of God’s Love. 

 

The sixth yoga is of the eight limbs, Ashtanga Yoga. This yoga is mentioned as a sacrifice. It is a mixture of Sankhya Yoga and Karma Yoga. This is the yoga of physical expression. Lord Krishna says that one should not be attached to doing physical yoga.

One should do it in a state of non-attachment. This will keep you in a healthy state. It will develop a certain energy and vibration that will help you advance in your sadhana. 

 

The seventh yoga is Sankhya Yoga, which is explained by Krishna throughout this Chapter.

 

Later on, Arjuna asks, “What is a yogi?” We have been talking about the yogi here. To become a yogi, you have to be centred in all the forms of yoga. When one has mastered these seven steps of yoga, one automatically becomes a yogi. The first kind of yogi is called a Maha Yogi: a Maha Yogi is God Himself. The second kind of yogi is a knower of the Self. When Krishna speaks about this yogi, He is talking about the one who knows one’s Self. The third kind of yogi is one who has surrendered the body, mind, and intellect to God: this is a bhakta. A bhakta, who has surrendered the body, mind and intellect to God, is a true yogi. The fourth kind of yogi is a Karma yogi. A Karma yogi is one who performs all actions without attachment, only for the sake of self-purification. A Sankhya yogi is a yogi who realises and identifies with Brahman. A Bhakti yogi is completely and constantly in meditation on God, with an undivided mind. He practices in depth the forms of Bhakti, devotion and action, without any personal interest or any personal aim. A Dhyaana yogi is a hermit who retires to caves to seclude himself. Hermits are in constant meditation. Focusing on the Divine is the most important thing to them. 

 

So you can see that yogis have different qualities. Later on Krishna explains more to Arjuna about the different aspects of yoga and yogis.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 52

 

yadā te mohakalilaṁ 

buddhir vyati-tariṣyati 

tadā gantāsi nirvedaṁ 

śrotavyasya śrutasya ca

 

When your intelligence crosses beyond the whirl of delusion, then you will become indifferent to scriptures already heard and to scriptures you are yet to hear.

 

Here Lord Krishna says that when all this has been eradicated from your mind, when all the negative qualities have been discharged, when your mind has been purified of all impurities, and when your intellect is focused on the Divine, then you realise that there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Even when you hear somebody flatter you or not flatter you, it doesn’t make any difference. 

 

In this verse, Lord Krishna refers to what the scriptures say you should do or should not do. In the scriptures there are always many things that tell you – you have to do this and you have not to do that.

 

 Krishna says that when your mind is completely focused on the Divine, what you read in the scriptures or what you hear from the scriptures, doesn’t make any difference to you. You perceive the Divine everywhere, not only in saintly people, but in everyone – wherever you go and in whatever duty you do. And you do your duty with such devotion, you do it with such eagerness, solely to serve and please God. You renounce any merit that the mind is thinking it may gain by serving the Lord. Some people say, “We pray, we pray, we love,” yet behind this there is always a certain expectation.

 

In this verse, the Lord tells Arjuna that after the disappearance of attachment, his mind would regain its natural state of transparency. He would then develop genuine indifference towards all, towards the ephemeral objects of this world and the next.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verses 50-51

 

buddhi-yukto jahātīha 

ubhe sukṛta duṣkṛte 

tasmād yogāya yujyasva 

yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam

 

karmajaṁ buddhi-yuktā hi 

phalaṁ tyaktvā manīṣiṇaḥ 

janma bandha vinirmuktāḥ 

padaṁ gacchanty-anāmayam

 

Endowed with wisdom of equanimity, one discards here and now the fruits of good and evil deeds. Therefore, devote yourself to yoga. The performance of actions with a balanced mind is true yoga. The sages who have united their reason and will with the Divine, renounce the fruit which action yields and, liberated from the bondage of birth, they reach the status beyond misery.

 

Here, in verse 50, Krishna says that, “A true yogi, endowed with equanimity, easily lets go of good and evil in this very life.” A true yogi is not attached to anything. What he receives, he can give away, without having any remorse. He is free. He does this because he is established in this equanimity. The residue of all virtues and sinful deeds from one’s past lives, persisting in the form of tendencies, are stored in the Brahma Nadi. A true yogi sees this and lets go of it. He removes all these tendencies; he renounces them from the mind itself; he breaks the connection with these actions which he has performed in this life, or in a past life. From the mind itself, he removes them. He doesn’t just sit and enjoy this. When he does something good, he doesn’t sit there and feel good about it and keep praising himself. He removes even that feeling.

 

Christ says this: “What is the use of loving the one you love already?” It doesn’t make any sense to just love the people you already love. You should learn to go beyond that and love everyone. You have to come to the point of this equal-mindedness. Like the yogi who sees all in the mind, who sees the connection with his action in the mind itself, from the beginning. Whatever arises inside the mind, how much attention do you give to it? Krishna says, from that moment on, you remove it from your mind so it cannot bear fruits in the form of rebirth. If you renounce all fruits of action from the mind itself, the mind is purified. There is no creation of any new karma for later on. You start to burn it! That’s what Atma Kriya Yoga does: it burns the karma, releasing you from past tendencies which had been stored inside you. Through the performance of this disinterested action for the good of the world, all the actions of the yogis are neutralized. With this attitude, there is no attachment to personal gain.

When you help people, there is always an expectation – for a ‘thank you’, for a gratification, for praises. You see this in daily life, you see it everywhere; wherever you go, the world runs on expectation. When you don’t expect anything from the mind itself, all is purified, all is transformed; you stop this creation of karma. Similarly, the virtues and sinful deeds of this current life will also stop having any effect. Lord Krishna is advising Arjuna to commit to exerting himself through the yoga of equanimity. The Lord reminds the mind of Arjuna, that such a yogi gets liberated in this very life itself. He says that you can liberate yourself, now and forever, in this very life. How? You have to transform; you have to do all your actions without any expectation – and if that is done, you are free! Otherwise you will become a slave of the mind, and you will become as crazy as the mind.

 

In verse 48, Krishna tells Arjuna, “Fixed in yoga, do your actions.” Every action which one does in life, whether it’s big or small, always creates karma, because the very nature of action leads to bondage, to attachment. People can’t really stay inactive, even for a moment. They are always busy. The mind is always busy engaging itself, jumping from one thought to another, going from one action to another. It’s not possible to not do action. Even when you are sleeping, you are doing action: you are breathing in and out, you are moving left and right. So there is action in every aspect of your life.

Krishna says in such circumstances, “Practice the yoga of equanimity.” If you train your mind to see this equality, it is very easy. And it’s the best practice to relieve one from bad karma, to relieve one from the bondage of karma. Therefore, practice this and become equal in failure and success. For it is equality that is the essence of yoga. It’s only through this equal-mindedness that one will attain the state of perfection.

 

“The sages who have united their reason and will with the Divine, renounce the fruit which action yields and, liberated from the bondage of birth, they reach the status beyond misery.” So Krishna says that the sages “have united their reason and will with the Divine.” They are not attached to the mind which is thinking always of, ‘I’ and ‘mine’. Through their wisdom, the truly wise and learned are established in the state of equal-mindedness, and they have attained the goal of their human existence: they have become sages, they have become yogis.

 

A human birth is the doorway to salvation. Here Lord Krishna says, “One who attains a human birth should realise how important it is.” This human birth is not here to create karma. You have not been given this human body to dance to the tune of Maya. You have not been given this human body to enjoy an attachment to this world. You are not here to be bound yourself to this reality. You are here to elevate yourself. You are here to liberate yourself, to detach yourself, to rise to the Divine’s virtues, to God Consciousness. You are not here to rebuild karma, but to be free from karma, to be free from misery. Because it is through the creation of karma – firstly in the mind – that misery arises. But you make yourself miserable!Nobody is responsible for your misery! You yourself are responsible for your misery, because in your mind you choose to be miserable, you choose to be poor, you choose to be sad, depressed, terrible, and so on. 

 

Krishna is saying to Arjuna, “Rise, My dear! Be wise! If you are wise, you will not attach yourself to all these human qualities and miss the opportunity in this very life. If you miss this opportunity and remain immersed in worldly enjoyment, then you are not wise, you are like the outside world.” Through the stability of the yoga of equal-mindedness, one ceases to have any connection with the fruit of action performed in this current life, as well as with the fruit of action performed in countless past lives. This automatically liberates one from the cycle of birth and death. One is released from this bondage when one renounces the fruit occurring from action. 

Krishna says that the sage who is liberated from misery, who is liberated from all the pain of Maya, will automatically obtain the Supreme Abode of God. If one is freed from the mind, liberation is automatically attained. One attains the Lotus Feet of the Lord and one is totally surrendered. One rises, one goes beyond the power of Nature itself and the divine qualities start to manifest through that person. The one who is totally above all the negative qualities, becomes identical with the Supreme Brahman, with Narayana. Then the qualities of Narayana start to manifest through that person. With the attainment of the Supreme Abode of Lord Narayana, with the Realisation of the supreme state of Brahman, one awakens and Satchitananda manifests through that person. All the attributes of the Divine start to shine through this person. And one goes even beyond the reality where Heaven is present: this state is beyond Heaven itself. One goes beyond the dualistic state in the mind: and this breaks all the bondage to birth and death. When the bondage to birth and death is broken, one rises above even the heavens. One becomes a true yogi.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 49

 

dūreṇa hyavaraṁ karma 

buddhi-yogād dhanañjaya 

buddhau śaraṇam anviccha 

kṛpaṇāḥ phala-hetavaḥ

 

Works are far inferior to the yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya. Rather, desire refuge in the intelligence; poor and wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their actions the object of their thoughts and activities.

 

“Works are far inferior to yoga of the intelligence.” Here Krishna says that when one has selfish motives, when one is doing things in a very selfish way, one is devoid of this knowledge of yoga or equality. But when one doesn’t concentrate on the fruit of the action, one attains the Divine. In this context, Krishna is saying that whatever you do, do it with a selfless motive – because if you do it with a motive of attaining something, “wretched souls are they who make the fruit of their actions the object of their thoughts and activities.” This is the pride. This is the ego. People will always claim that they have done this or they have done that and brag about it saying, “Oh, we have done this”, “We have done that.” Even if this action appears good, it is not good. Then they start comparing, “If I do that much, I will get that much.” They work like normal people who are doing Karma Yoga in the outside world. It will not free them.

 

Krishna says we should pity people with such minds because they will damn themselves. He says, “O Arjuna, instead of focusing on that, gain the true knowledge of yoga and surrender.” Because when you have the true knowledge of yoga, God reveals Himself; this Love awakens, because you go through this purification. Then you let go of what is ‘mine’ and ‘I’. The ego is not present, saying, “I am doing this”, “I am doing that.” These evil ways of thinking will disappear. He is advising Arjuna, “If you go into this wretched state of mind and hang onto these objects of action, it’s a pity.” He advises Arjuna not to be poor and wretched like these people and says, “You are wise.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 48

 

yogasthaḥ kuru karmāṇi 

saṅgaṁ tyaktvā dhanañjaya 

siddhy-asiddhyoḥ samo bhūtvā 

samatvaṁ yoga ucyate

 

Fixed in yoga do your actions, having abandoned attachment, having become equal in failure and success; for it is equality that is the essence of yoga.

 

Here Krishna is saying, “Fixed in yoga do your actions, having abandoned attachment…” This is what Christ teaches in the Bible that when your right hand is doing something, the left hand should not know about it. It is better to cut if off and throw it away. 

In this verse Krishna says that when you do yoga, it will help you to rise above expectations. Yoga will unite you with the Divine. Whatever you do is yoga, when you’re not attached to the fruits of the action. But whatever you do with expectation, will never free you. You will damn yourself, you will get yourself attached to the world. Christ says, “What is the use if you do a service, and then you go around talking about it?” When a person who is practising Karma Yoga lets go of attachment to his own actions and the fruits of those actions, when he ceases to have likes and dislikes, then he is free from joy and sorrow. The essence of equality awakens and then one attains the Divine. As long as there is judgement, this is not possible. 

 

Through the constant practice of indifference to success and failure in action, a human being reaches the ultimate state of unshakeable stability in equality. This is the culmination of Karma Yoga. Therefore, Bhagavan Krishna tells Arjuna to perform his duty established in yoga. Krishna is trying to remind Arjuna that the practice of equality in failure or success is important. You have to be equal in both failure and success. You have to have equanimity in the performance of your daily duties in your every act, by being free from like and dislike, with reference to every object, every being, every fruit of that action itself. Krishna says that this is the essence of yoga: to free yourself, to rise above attachment to the fruits of your actions. Yoga is this equanimity. He shows that one can become a yogi and attain this equanimity, through any discipline, or through any sadhana whatsoever. That’s why He says to Arjuna, “Establish yourself in this equality. Establish yourself in that yoga. Become a yogi.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 47

 

karmaṇy-evādhikāras te 

mā phaleṣu kadācana 

mā karma phala hetur bhūr  

mā te saṅgo ’stv karmaṇi

 

You have the right to action, but only to action, never to its fruits; let not the fruits of your works be your motive, neither let there be in you any attachment to inactivity.

 

As I said earlier, if you work, if you do your duty, but your mind is only focused on what you want to gain, you will never be free. And that work will not be fully effective, because there will always be doubt about whether you will do it properly or not. There will always be doubt about whether you will achieve your goal or not. Because of this deep fear of unknowing, this fear of not doing it properly enough, you will not do it effectively. Here Krishna says that you have the right to action, meaning you have to do your dharma. But you only have the right to do your dharma – the action, the work.

 

“Let not the fruits of your works be your motive.” Don’t be attached to the results, to the fruits of your actions. The result doesn’t depend on you, it depends on Him. In life it’s like this. You have a big plan to do something. And you plan it, maybe for days and for months, but when it happens, it happens the opposite way! What is your reaction? Even if the result is good, you are sad, because it’s not how you planned it. But if it is not good, you’re also sad. There’s no freedom in this.

 

In work, Krishna says, “Let not the fruit of your actions be your motive.” “You have the right to action, but only to action.” You have the right to action only. Krishna gives a certain freedom here: the freedom of choice – a freedom that human beings alone have. When you are attached, you become ineffective, because when you are only focused on trying to do things properly, you are not free! You don’t have any freedom inside of you, because you are tense. Krishna says, “If you do your action with the aim of serving the Lord, if you renounce this attachment to the result of the action, you will attain God-Realisation. You can’t renounce your actions, but do your actions with a selfless motive. Do them without egoism.” 

 

If you try to renounce your actions by force, you will not succeed. Everything which is done by forcing, will not lead one to freedom. One will not be free, but will be under pressure, and always be thinking, “Oh my goodness, am I doing it right or wrong?” When you sit in meditation, you say, “When will I finish?” When you’re doing your japa, you say, “How many malas have I done? Where am I? Oops I missed one!” You’re sitting and doing your Atma Kriya Yoga and instead of enjoying the practice, you are thinking, “Which chakra am I on? Am I on the fifth chakra? No, I guess I was on the fourth one.” Isn’t it like this? You’re doing your pranayama, and thinking, “How  

many did I do? One more or one less?” You’re not free. But if you do your duty, if you do your sadhana – just do it and be happy that you’re doing it! It doesn’t matter whether you breathe five or ten times. You will gain the fruit of the sadhana. Your intention is very important. That is why Krishna says, “Let not the fruits of your works be your motive, neither let there be in you any attachment to inactivity.” By this He means that if you do your action being free, everything good will come to you. But if you do it with tension, nothing good will come to you. Then you will be disappointed and you will be miserable afterwards.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 46

 

yāvān artha udapāne 

sarvataḥ saṁplutodake 

tāvān sarveṣu vedeṣu 

brāhmaṇasya vijānataḥ

 

As much use as there is in a well with water flooding on every side, so much  

is there in all the Vedas for the brahmin who has the knowledge of the Self.

 

In this verse ‘brahmin’ doesn’t mean Brahmin as a caste: a brahmin here means a realised soul. A realised soul who is standing at the brink of a lake overflowing with sweet, life-giving and wholesome water, has no use for a small well. If you are standing by a whole ocean, why would you even want a small bottle of water? You already have the whole source. You don’t need the bottle since you have the source. What use would be a well, when there’s a flood all around it? What use would be all the water of a well, if you have a whole lake? Even so, a brahmin renounces every attachment to the objects of enjoyment and realises God. That brahmin, that realised soul, when he has the Realisation of God Consciousness, when he has the Realisation of Narayana Krishna Himself, then even that ocean, which is called the Vedas, becomes of no use. Then one attains the supreme bliss. The Vedas are only talking about the Divine; but when you have the Divine Himself, what would you do with all this talking? You don’t need it, you have Him. 

 

Krishna says, “Those who attain this ocean of supreme bliss, in the form of Narayana, don’t depend on any happiness or gratification, or on objects of enjoyment. One doesn’t even need any ritual which is recommended in the Vedas, because the desire for whatever is needed, is not there anymore.” There is no desire to get fulfilled. Everything has been fulfilled in the deep ocean of supreme bliss. To attain this state, one must let go, one must renounce all the desires, one must abandon all the desires for worldly enjoyment. All the other earthly things are the fruits of the Vedas, the rituals, and so on. When one is attached to any kind of thing, one is bound by the three gunas. You can take whatever you need from the Vedas which will benefit your advancement towards God-Realisation. But if it doesn’t help your advancement towards God-Realisation or help you attain the Grace of God, then it’s of no use.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 45

 

trai-guṇya viṣayā vedā 

nistrai-guṇyo bhavārjuna 

nir-dvandvo nitya satvastho 

nir-yoga kṣema ātmavān

 

The Vedas deal with the three gunas, O Arjuna. You must free yourself from the three gunas and from all duality. Abide in pure sattva; never care to acquire  

things or to protect what has been acquired; be established in the Self.

 

“The Vedas deal with the three gunas,” which are sattva, rajas, and tamas. “You must free yourself from the three gunas and from all duality.” Here Lord Krishna says that everything in this world functions because of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. Even the Vedas talk about these three gunas. But Krishna says, “If you want to rise, you have to go above the three gunas.” If you are trapped in the game of the three gunas, you will always have judgement. The tamas is always judging the sattva and the sattva is always judging the rajas, and so on like that. Each one is thinking, “Oh, I am sattvic.” The tamas always hate the sattvic and rajasic. 

 

Recently somebody was talking with a friend about some food and asked, “Can I eat this?” The other one said, “That’s very rajasic!” There is always a fight between rajas, tamas, and sattva. These three gunas, these three qualities, are the three qualities of the mind. It’s not the outside thing that we are eating or drinking. No! It’s the attitude of the mind, how one perceives things and how much one is hanging  

onto judgement. One is continuously judging, “This is like this and this is like that.” 

“Abide in pure Sattva.” Sattva is the state of the Self. Whoever abides in the Self, “never cares to acquire things or to protect what has been acquired, but is established in the Self.” The one who is free from this game of the three gunas, the one who has risen above these three gunas, is fully centred in the Atma. Here the word, Atma, means the Divine, God, Narayana Krishna Himself. As long as one has not controlled the mind, one is in the body consciousness. Here the Lord says, “Move from the body consciousness: focus, centre yourself, establish yourself in the Self.” If these three gunas, these three qualities are under control, one can rise above them. Know that God is above these qualities. And God is in all, everything: sattva, rajas and tamas.

 Slowly, slowly, Krishna is bringing Arjuna out of his depression. He is revealing to him the Atma. Later on, He will reveal to him God Himself.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verses 42-44

 

yām imāṁ puṣpitāṁ vācaṁ 

pravadanty-avipaścitaḥ 

veda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha 

nānyad astīti vādinaḥ

 

kāmātmānaḥ svarga-parā 

janma-karma-phala-pradām 

kriyā-viśeṣa bahulāṁ 

bhogaiśvarya gatiṁ prati

 

bhogaiśvarya prasaktānāṁ 

tayāpahṛta cetasām 

vyavasāyātmikā buddhiḥ 

samādhau na vidhīyate

 

Flowery speech, O Paartha is uttered by the unwise who rejoice in the words  

of the Vedas, declaring, “There is nothing superior to this!” They are full of desires and have Heaven as their goal. They teach rebirth as the result of actions and engage in various specific rites for the attainment of pleasure and power. Those who cling to pleasure and power are attracted by these teachings and are unable to develop the resolute will of a concentrated mind.

 

Many people say that the world is unreal. These people who believe that the only goal of life is to attain Heaven are ignorant of the Truth. They are so attached to the teaching of the four Vedas, that they use this teaching for their own personal gain. Krishna says, “People often talk, talk and talk using flowery speech. Don’t be bewildered when somebody just, ‘blah blah blah’. In this world, there are many wise and very knowledgeable people, but their knowledge is only based on books. They think that they know everything, just because they have mastered the books.” Here, Lord Krishna says, “O Paartha, the words which these people are saying are unwise, because they don’t really know about the Vedas. They are just taking what they have read in books and then they put it in nice words. But if they don’t have devotion, if they don’t have love and surrender to God, this is nothing. Whatever these people do, they do it for their own selfish gain. They only desire to reach Heaven.”

 

Do you know the saying, “an empty drum makes lots of noise”? Lord Krishna is referring to this. Many people can talk, talk, talk, but they don’t even know what they are talking about. They are very educated and intelligent, but they are not realised. They can give big lectures and use flowery speech. They can go on for hours talking, but their goal is completely different. Lord Krishna says, “These people are unwise. Don’t listen to them. They do not have single-pointed devotion to God. They are just here to criticise others. They are here to point their fingers at others. This is due to their own ignorance and their own imbalance. This is because they don’t have full faith in their own religion. That’s why they use words to divert the mind. And people who have similar interests will follow their advice.”

 

“They teach rebirth as the result of actions and engage in various specific rites for the attainment of pleasure and power.” Here you see that these are very self-centred and egoistic motives. When people are not doing things for God-Realisation, but only to attain material pleasures, they are not really wise. They are ignorant. These people  

will always say that there is nothing higher than Heaven. They don’t even talk about God. They don’t even know God; they want only the fruits, the gifts which God will give them. But they don’t want God Himself. True knowledge is when you desire God  

Himself. You look beyond the pleasures of the world. You look beyond the reality of this world. You do your dharma in this world, but you remain untouched by this world. This is what brings salvation and this is what men should strive for – to attain the Divine, attain the supreme goal of life.  

When one becomes focused on realising God Consciousness, one is free. But if one hangs onto these words and desires worldly enjoyments and power, then the mind is far away from God. One can’t attain the Divine. There are so many people in the world – sometimes they can fill an entire stadium with people. But what are

their minds focused on? What are their goals? People who have this kind of mind will always run to the people who speak flowery words and attach themselves to the world of enjoyment; and they will lose themselves. For them it’s very difficult to realise God. Due to their ignorance, they will always be looking at outside things. But one has to look for the Divine within oneself. 

 

“Those who cling to pleasure and power are attracted by these teachings and are unable to develop the resolute will of a concentrated mind.” Those people who are always focused on the outside goals, will only attain the goals of the outside. But the one who is seated within himself through yoga, through sadhana, through the love for God, will serve Him, love Him, develop this relationship with Him, first of all inside the heart. This one will be free.

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 41

 

vyavasāyātmikā buddhir 

ekeha kuru-nandana 

bahu-śākhā hyanantāśca 

buddhayo’vyavasāyinām

 

In this practice, O Arjuna, the resolute mind is one-pointed; the thoughts of  

the irresolute are many-branched and endless.

 

Bhagavan Krishna says, “Because you are not attached to your actions, and you are not attached to the results of your actions, the mind becomes one-pointed. The intellect which determines only one thing, remains unshakeably fixed on it.” The mind becomes one-pointed on God and on God alone. Remaining steadfast in God, nothing can shake that person. Vyavasāyātmikā buddhir. The resolute mind is single-pointed. When the mind is settled for meditation, when the mind is calm and is focused on one goal, nothing can move its single-pointed devotion. The same is true when one surrenders to one spiritual path and looks only to that path; when one has found his way, his path in life, there’s no need to look elsewhere. Then one becomes strong. But if following one path, one still puts his nose in many places, he won’t move anywhere. Lord Krishna says that “the resolute mind is one-pointed.” The one who has found his way, the one who has surrendered to his spiritual path, will find Satchitananda within, will find the Divine in one’s path itself, because the mind has fully given itself to this path.

Vyavasāyinām refers to those who do not possess this resoluteness, whose minds are deluded by feelings of diversity, and ignorance, and are deeply attached to enjoyment of the world. These people will never find peace, because they are always moving, shopping from left to right, jumping from one boat to the other, from one enjoyment to the other. They engage themselves in so many things that they can’t focus themselves anymore. Someone who does hundreds of mantras in their sadhana, doesn’t get the benefit of the mantras, because each mantra vibrates differently. Whereas when you take one mantra, and focus on one mantra, it becomes more powerful. Then you have the full benefit of that mantra, which is much more than 100 mantras. Then the Guru Mantra or the Paramparam Mantra can help you. 

 

Krishna says that “the irresolute are many-branched.” They don’t know this. They have so many things to do: today I’m here, tomorrow I’m there; I’m in this way, I’m in that way; I take this teaching from here, I take that teaching from there. Then there is a big mishmash of everything, a biryani of everything, and they don’t know anything. But the wise one is single-pointed. Even if there is a big mishmash of everything, the wise one will be able to take it and separate everything. This is yoga! Yoga doesn’t mean to sit down and do some exercises. To the western mind, yoga means physical stretching exercises, doesn’t it? No! That is why Atma Kriya Yoga is not based on what you do on the outside, but what you do on the inside.

 

Atma Kriya Yoga is to rediscover the Atma, focus on the Atma, focus on the Self, focus on the Divine within the Self. If you are focused on this Consciousness like this, then it’s much better. It will bear its fruits. It’s much stronger than having hundreds of paths which will not lead you anywhere. I always give this example – there are two boats next to each other. One boat says, “I am going to England.” The other boat says, “I am going to France.” You are standing on both boats and the boats start going. Sometimes you can continue on both boats together. But when the boats start going their separate ways, what will happen? Either you choose one boat or you fall down! This is what Krishna is saying to Arjuna, “O Arjuna, when your mind becomes single-pointed towards God Consciousness, it’s not jumping on this and on that. When the mind is focused, you have control of the mind. You will not be able to destroy the mind, but you can control it. You can focus it! And that is yoga. Learn to focus the mind.”

The mind of Arjuna is not aiming to get something, like an object; it is not aiming to get other people’s recognition. Krishna is very happy to see this in Arjuna, “Now you are ready for even greater things.” If somebody has this kind of determination, spirituality becomes very easy. If you have expectations on the spiritual path or on any path, it always brings sorrow. Because you expect, “Ah, I will get this,” “I will do that”, “I will do this”, “I will do this meditation and it will bear this fruit.” But when you don’t get what you expect, what happens? You become miserable. Then you don’t have any more faith. Single-pointed devotion is also taught in the Bible. It’s so beautiful. Christ says, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can do wonders.” Isn’t it true? Christ doesn’t ask much! He just asks you to have faith. Have this determination. Have this focus! He doesn’t ask you for a lot, just be single-pointed! Don’t jump left and right. 

 

Often people put many other things first in life. Sometimes they put love. Then other times it becomes hate. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they don’t agree. They are always moving from one thing to another. These people have ‘cañcala’ – restlessness. (v. 25) Cañcala is a Hindi word describing somebody who is not stable, who is always flickering. You should not trust these people. Sri Krishna sees this single-minded devotion in Arjuna and He is very happy. He says, “This is good determination! Let’s strengthen this determination.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 40

 

nehābhikrama-nāśo’sti 

pratyavāyo na vidyate 

svalpam apyasya dharmasya 

trāyate mahato bhayāt

 

On this path, no effort is lost, no obstacle prevails; even a little of this  

practice delivers one from great fear.

 

“On this path, no effort is lost.” This is Karma Yoga. Krishna says that regarding whatever you do in this world – when you sow a seed in the land, there will be the result of the seed. Even if you fail to protect the seed, it will grow. So on this path of Karma Yoga, there is no loss of any effort. Nothing is lost.

 

“… no obstacle prevails; even a little of this practice delivers one from great fear.” Here Bhagavan Sri Krishna says that if you do a little effort, if you have first shown interest, even just a little interest, and done a little practice – you have shown the willingness to advance. This will help bring liberation, salvation to your soul. “No obstacle prevails.” There are no rules that will stop you. There are no rules for specific times, because salvation is beyond time. Krishna says, “a little of this practice” brings a big help. 

 

The effort that you do in life has a great impact on your life. It delivers one from great fear, from not attaining one’s goal. Even if you are doing your duty, without even knowing why you are doing it, it will help in contributing to your advancement towards God Consciousness. It is said that when you start to do a little practice, there will be no problems. Because even if a test comes, you will not perceive it as a problem. You will embrace it and you will go through it. Like infinite waves in the ocean, countless waves of life and death; appear and disappear, you will move without fear; you will prevail. This is the knowledge that I want to give you.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 39

 

eṣā te’bhihitā sāṅkhye 

buddhir yoge tvimāṁ śṛṇu 

buddhyā-yukto yayā pārtha 

karma-bandhaṁ prahāsyasi

 

O son of Pritha, this knowledge which has been taught to you so far concerns Sankhya. Hear now the teachings concerning yoga, for if you are in yoga, by this intelligence, you shall cast away the bondage of karma.

In this verse here, you can see that Arjuna is progressing from one step to another. Krishna sees that Arjuna is ready for the next step. He says, “I have been teaching you the yoga of the Self. I have just talked about how you will realise yourself: what you have to do, what you have to let go of, how you have to accept. Now I’ll talk about something greater, because I see that you have the attitude of equanimity inside of you. Now, we can move to the next teaching. Due to this attitude which you have cultivated, Arjuna, now we will talk about the yoga of equal attitude.” 

 

Yoga means equanimity. Due to ignorance, one perceives the duality of this world, one perceives difference or diversity. But looking at it from the soul’s point of view, through Realisation, one gains true Knowledge. One will perceive no difference between one’s soul, the Atma and Paramatma. One will see that one is just a part of Paramatma, the Supreme Soul. The only difference which the soul will perceive, is in the quantity. But more than that, no. Because all the qualities which are in Paramatma, are in the Atma. One who is completely absorbed in this Divine Self, in God Consciousness, finds this unity everywhere. There is no trace of ignorance. Krishna says, “Hear Me! Now is the time to teach you how to attain this unity. Now I see that you have this interest and that you want to go deeper to possess this knowledge of the soul; and you are willing to do it. You have no conflicting feelings of heat and cold, or pleasure and pain. You don’t desire heaven and you don’t desire the kingdom. You are ready to know that, beyond all this, there is something greater.” Krishna advises Arjuna, “This attitude of equanimity which you have, is your spiritual discipline. Now I start telling you about the Jyaana Yoga and the Karma Yoga.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 38

 

sukha-duḥkhe same kṛtvā 

lābhālābhau jayājayau 

tato yuddhāya yujyasva 

nainaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi

 

Make grief and happiness, loss and gain, victory and defeat equal to your soul and then turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.

Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “Awake, My dear! Realise, that all this is just a drama put on by Me.” Later on, He will say, “I am the One who does everything, not you.” Here He is just telling Arjuna to awaken, “See it from the point of view of your soul. Don’t see only what your mind perceives.” The Lord again tells him, “Fight Arjuna! ‘Turn to battle; this way you shall not incur sin.’ Treating pleasure and pain alike, O Arjuna, get ready and do your dharma!” He says, “Don’t bother about whether you want to gain the kingdom of Heaven. You don’t desire the kingdom, so you want to run away from the kingdom. So if you don’t desire all these things, if you don’t want the kingdom, then it is easy for you, no? Just fight! And, cultivate the feeling of equanimity. You shall engage in this fight. I’m not telling you to fight to gain something. I’m not promising you anything, but just fight! Don’t think about how you fight. You already know you don’t desire anything. That’s good! That’s the first thing. Very good! Just please, fight! Lift up your weapon and fight. That’s the only thing I am asking you. If you just do what I tell you, it will bring everlasting and supreme peace.”  

Here, Krishna is saying, “My dear, I am the Guru and you are the disciple. Your duty is just to listen. As the Guru, I am ordering you to fight, so don’t even think about it. You have already decided that you don’t want anything. In your mind, you have thought about it and you know you don’t want anything. This is good! Then just do what I am guiding you to do. I am showing you the path to supreme peace.” Bhagavan Sri Krishna continues, “If you fight, if you fight in this spirit, no guilt from committing any sin will arise in you.” This is Krishna’s reply to Arjuna’s question in the first chapter. He says, “There will be no sin involved if you do your dharma. If you participate in the battle, treating pleasure and pain, ‘victory and defeat equal’, with this attitude, you will not be bound to the results of the battle. No karma will be created. You will not be responsible. There will be no slight trace of karma arising when you do your dharma. You will be completely released from the bondage of action.” Karma arises due to expectation; when one expects in whatever one does, one creates karma. Karma binds and makes one suffer. But if one does one’s duty, if one does anything in the spirit of serving the Lord, one doesn’t create any karma.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 37

 

hato vā prāpsyasi svargaṁ 

jitvā vā bhokṣyase mahīn 

tasmād uttiṣṭha kaunteya 

yuddhāya kṛta-niścayaḥ

 

If slain, you shall win Heaven, if victorious, you shall enjoy the Earth;  

therefore, arise, O son of Kunti, and resolve to fight.

 

As you saw earlier, Arjuna is confused in his mind and even wants to run away from fighting. Here Krishna says, “Your state of confusion has been removed, which means that you will now win the battle, you will conquer the Kauravas. You will be victorious.” He says, “You shall enjoy the Earth, – therefore arise, O son of Kunti, and resolve to fight. You will be victorious in this battle and you will also be victorious in Heaven. You will win both ways.” So this removed Arjuna’s worry about whether he would be victorious or not. Here Krishna says it, “You will be victorious!” Because He knows that Arjuna will have full victory over the Kauravas. This is a tricky point. Krishna says, “You shall win Heaven.” He doesn’t say, “You have already won Heaven.” He is saying this in a way that shows that He already knows that they will win. He says to Arjuna, “You are the victorious one. Because this war has already begun, this war has already ended.” 

 

Physically, the war has not yet ended; but spiritually, Krishna has already revealed the future to him. Krishna says, “If slain, you shall win Heaven, if victorious, you shall enjoy the Earth.” Here Krishna uses the word “if.” He says, “If you die, you will go directly to Heaven.” That’s good! It’s a passport! A visa! He tells Arjuna, “If you meet your death on this battlefield, you will not be a loser. You will get a direct passport to Heaven. Whereas, if you win the battlefield, if you don’t die, you will inherit all the sovereignty of the Earth. You will be the king of this Earth.” Again Krishna says, “Shake off your faint-heartedness! Take up your position in this chariot and be determined to fight!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 36

 

avācya vādāṁśca bahūn 

vadiṣyanti tavāhitāḥ 

nindantas tava sāmarthyaṁ 

tato duḥkhataraṁ nu kim

 

Many unseemly words will be spoken by your enemies, slandering your strength; what is worse grief than that?

 

You see, Krishna is using the feeling of guilt, the knife, and putting it inside again. He says, “If you run away from your enemies, the infamy of the public scandal will cause acute distress. It will be terrible. Duryodhana and the other Kauravas will use this; they will enjoy this. They will ridicule you and not only you – they will also ridicule your whole family. They will say to your other brothers, ‘Your brother, Arjuna, ran away.’ They will start calling your family, even your mother, many names. They will speak words of reproach and defame you. If you lose fame, Arjuna, how would you take this?”

 

You see, the Pandavas also cared very much about their fame. Krishna says, “This will bring great suffering to you, Arjuna. Whereas these enemies who you are concerned about will be joyfully happy; they will plot and use this to do more mischief. They will use it for their own purpose. They will say that Arjuna was not a warrior.” Krishna reminds Arjuna, “They will even dishonour your holy bow. They will say many disrespectful things about it. How could you bear that? If they talk badly about your Gandiva, could you bear this? You know how powerful your Gandiva is! How strong it is! You will not be able to bear this disrespect to your Gandiva.” Pointing to his bow, He says, “There is nothing worse than running away. So look Arjuna, open your eyes! See that when you accept what God is giving you to do, it will bring you great honour to you. But the opposite of that, what will it be?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 35

 

bhayād raṇād uparataṁ 

mansyante tvāṁ mahārathāḥ 

yeṣāṁ ca tvaṁ bahu-mato 

bhūtvā yāsyasi lāghavam

 

The mighty men will think you fled from the battle through fear, and you, whom all think highly of, will allow a stain to fall on your honour.

 

This verse is also about Arjuna’s honour, about how people will look at him. Krishna says, “‘The mighty men’: Bhima, your brothers, Bhishma, Duryodhana, Drona and many others – they all have great esteem for you. If you run away, they will have an extremely low image of you. They will be broken! They will be shocked if you run away out of fear!”

Raising the question of fear on the battlefield, Lord Krishna says, “In this state of mind, Arjuna, you are being disgraceful, because a warrior should not have fear. These people will look at you and say, ‘My goodness! Where did this fear come from?’ They will never believe that your motive in fleeing battle was to protect them. How could they know that? For them, you ran away because of cowardice. They will never know your true motive. When the other Pandavas see you sad and running away out of fear, they will be pitied by the Kauravas and will also develop compassion for them, and then this whole war will be completely different. This war is to be a dharmic war and restore balance. But there will be no dharmic war. Automatically there will be adharma.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 34

 

akīrtiṁ cāpi bhūtāni 

kathayiṣyanti te’vyayām 

saṁbhāvitasya cākīrtir 

maraṇād-atiricyate

 

Besides, men will recount your perpetual disgrace, and to an honourable man, dishonour is worse than death.

 

Here Krishna is using reverse psychology, talking about guilt in another way. He says to Arjuna, “If you don’t do your duty, you will lose your reputation and you will be exposed to sin. People will talk badly of you, but not only that, the rishis and the celestials will all look at you in a questioning way. Your ancestors will also be crying. So, get up and fight! Don’t let people talk ill of you. You are from the warrior clan!”

 

“…dishonour is worse than death.” It is very important to understand that, during this time, people were very concerned about their honour and about giving their word. When they gave their word, they kept it. They would rather have died than not have kept their word. The Lord reminds Arjuna, “It will be painful to lose people’s respect and be dishonoured: better death than dishonour.” 

 

Krishna tells him that if he runs away, he will not be able to walk in this world because everybody in every corner will be saying nasty things about him. Krishna doesn’t leave it there. He says that even in Heaven, they will say bad things about him. He says, “Forget about your honour here on Earth: ‘men will recount your perpetual disgrace.’ For time immemorial, people will remember it. And this will not only react here, it will also react in Heaven. Imagine that one day you will go to Heaven, and there they will also nag you! When you are dying here, you think you will go somewhere and be free, but this will continue with you there.”

 

Know that this is very important to understand. To run away from certain things, people often kill themselves, they commit suicide. They think, “Ah, I have escaped!” Yes, in this life, people have run away. Do you think that their problem has left them? No, it has not left them! It will continue and become even worse! Krishna says, “They will also be nagging you in Heaven.” This means that in the next life, it will be worse.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 33

 

atha-cet tvam imaṁ dharmyaṁ 

saṅgrāmam‌ na kariṣyasi 

tataḥ sva-dharmaṁ kīrtiṁ ca  

hitvā pāpam avāpsyasi

 

But if you do not fight this righteous battle, then you have abandoned your  

duty and virtue and your glory, and you shall incur only sin.

 

Here Lord Krishna reminds Arjuna, “If you don’t learn to accept what God is giving you in life and run away from your duty, run away from your dharma, then you are committing a big sin.” If you don’t first accept what God is giving you to do in life, and you don’t realise your dharma, you will fail in life, and you will ‘incur only sin’.

 

It is because of the fear of sin that Arjuna wants to run away from fighting. But here Krishna turns it around and says, “No, My dear! You will commit sin if you run away.” First Arjuna wants to run away, fearing the sin and the guilt that will come upon him. But Krishna says, “No way, don’t do that! It will be not virtuous to do such a thing. If you run away, you will not awaken.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 32

 

yadṛcchayā copapannaṁ 

svarga dvāram apāvṛtam 

sukhinaḥ kṣatriyāḥ pārtha 

labhante yuddham īdṛśam

 

Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Arjuna, to whom a war such as this comes of its own accord; it opens the gates to Heaven.

 

Here again, Bhagavan Sri Krishna tells Arjuna, “Happy are the Kshatriyas, O Arjuna, to whom a war such as this comes of its own accord;” He says, “Look! You should be rejoicing! You have not come here to make the war happen, but it came to you! It gives you the opportunity to do your dharma. You should welcome this opportunity to do your dharma. You should accept it! Welcome it!”

 

“…it opens the gates to Heaven”: when you do your duty in life, accepting what God is giving you to do, it draws you closer and closer to God-Realisation. By accepting what God is giving you in your daily life, you are opening the gates to receive more. By showing that you are doing your duty; by accepting what God gives you in life – you are showing God that you are ready for a greater purpose in this life, for greater work. Krishna says, “If you run away from this, it will not bring you any good. It will pain you. It will be unrighteous. Especially on such an occasion, where doing this duty will help you open all the doors to Heaven.”

He says, “Accept life. Accept whatever God gives you. Declaring this war will open the gates of Heaven.” 

You know, in war, they often check how you died – whether you were running away from the war or you were facing the war. They check this in a war, no? To see if you got the bullet from the front or from the back. If the bullet came from in front of you and the enemies were in front of you, then you will get lots of praise. But if the bullet came from behind and the enemy was behind you, that’s a problem. Your name will not even be mentioned – because that means that you were running away. When one meets one’s death in a righteous war, one obtains direct access to Heaven. This is Karma Bhumi, Punya Bhumi, so because of all this good merit, one will go to Heaven. Happy are the Kshatriyas who have such an opportunity! Not all Kshatriyas get the opportunity to fight in a righteous war. Only the fortunate ones get to do such a duty. 

When I refer to a righteous war, I am not talking about a religious war. Don’t mix these up. Righteous is beyond religion. Nowadays war is due to religion: one religion claims it is better than another. Then they make a war and each side says that it is fighting for the right cause. No! This has nothing to do with a righteous war. A righteous war, a holy war, is the dharma that one has to do in life. That’s why Krishna says here, “If you run away, you will not do your swadharma, you will not do your duty. Especially when it is coming to you. You are not making the war, you are not the cause of the war, but this war has been given to you to fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 31

 

sva-dharmam api cāvekṣya 

na vikampitum arhasi 

dharmyāddhi yuddhāc-chreyo 

‘nyat kṣatriyasya na vidyate

 

Looking to do your own duty, you should not tremble; there is no greater  

good for the Kshatriya than righteous battle.

 

Krishna again reminds Arjuna of his duty as a Kshatriya, as a soldier. He says, “There is no greater thing for a soldier to do, than to fight. You should not divert yourself from your aim. Knowing now that the soul is immortal and that the body is separate from the soul, why do you lament? You should go and fight! Don’t just stand there and think! Don’t continue to analyse the problem from many different points of view. You are from the warrior caste, so do your duty! This is the natural duty of a Kshatriya – to not run away from a battle. If ‘the Kshatriya’ starts running away from the battle, all is finished! Then all that you have worried about will happen. It will not happen because you are fighting, but because you are running away from fighting.”

 

In Chapter 1, Arjuna says to Lord Krishna that society will be destroyed and so on, and so on, and so on, if there is a war. Here Krishna says, “Hey listen! Society will not get destroyed because of this war. It will get destroyed if you run away, if you don’t  

do your duty as a warrior.” Imagine you are at the doctor’s and the doctor puts you on the operating table. He has already put you to sleep, then he cuts you open and in the middle of the operation he says, “Oh, no, I can’t look at it! I am running away.” You can’t run away from doing your dharma, your duty. God has given each person their dharma to do in life. You have to do your duty! My duty is to sit here and talk to you, so I am sitting here and I am talking to you. Your duty is to listen, so you are listening. Your duty in the outside world is to do what God has given you to do as your daily duty in life. You have to learn to accept it. That’s why Krishna says, “You have to accept your duty as a Kshatriya. There is nothing more wonderful and righteous than to do your duty.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 30

 

dehī nityam avadhyo’yaṁ 

dehe sarvasya bhārata 

tasmāt sarvāṇi bhūtāni 

na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

This dweller in the body of everyone is eternal and indestructible, O Bharata, therefore, you should not grieve for any creature.

 

Here Krishna explains that the soul, the dweller in the bodies of all living entities, can never be killed. The Lord says that in the bodies of all human beings in this world, there resides only One Supreme Soul. It is only due to ignorance that one sees differences in the diverse bodies. In reality, there is no diversity: there is only One Supreme Soul which we are all connected to, and which we are all part of. What is in me, is in you. It is in Arjuna. It is in Krishna. Lord Krishna reminds Arjuna, “I am in everyone as the Supreme Soul, Paramatma.” Every Atma is part of Paramatma: every Atma is part of this cosmic body which makes Paramatma, the only One Reality. He uses the word ‘indestructible’: this ultimate reality, the soul, can never be destroyed. It can never be destroyed by anything or by anyone. Again and again Krishna says, “Don’t grieve. Arjuna, prepare yourself to fight!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 29

 

āścaryavat paśyati kaścid enam 

āścaryavad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ 

āścaryavac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti 

śrutvāpy-enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit

 

One sees it as a mystery or one speaks of it or hears of it as a mystery, yet none truly know it. That Self, which we look on and speak of and hear of as that which is wonderful, beyond our comprehension, no human mind has ever known this Absolute.

 

Here Krishna says that the soul is something wonderful and that it’s very rare to meet an individual in this world who has perceived the true wonders of the soul. The soul is not a worldly object. He says, “None truly know it,” because the soul cannot be perceived by the senses, the mind or the intellect. To know something, you usually need the mind, no? But how can the mind perceive something that is beyond the mind? The soul is transcendental and unique. It is the only reality that abides eternally within the consciousness of every human being. The only eternal reality is the Atma. How can one even marvel at the wonders of the soul if one is so much focused on the outside world? And to just describe the soul, does not mean that one is truly perceiving the wonders of the soul. 

 

“That Self, which we look on and speak of and hear of as that which is wonderful, beyond our comprehension, no human mind has ever known this Absolute.” Here Krishna says that all words are limited. We are using beautiful words to describe the soul, but the soul can’t be comprehended by words. We can only use words to explain. But the one who has truly realised the soul, doesn’t even talk about it, because there are no words to describe it. The moment you start talking about the soul, it becomes unreal. Krishna says that to perceive the soul, one has to go deep inside and enter into the quietness. Then one can see the brightness of the soul and one can marvel at the wonders of the soul. Whoever has experienced this knows that you can see it. You don’t need to talk about it. It’s emanating from deep within you to the outside. This Realisation of the soul emanates from the person who is in this Reality. So it’s not about words. Yet one can feel the soul, one can see it. 

 

There are a few special people in the world who possess such virtue and purity of heart, that when they hear a description of the soul, they spontaneously experience the true wonders of the soul. Because of their faith in God, their reverence for God, just hearing about the wonders of the soul creates a great bhav inside them. This is very rare. Krishna says, “No human mind has ever known this,” because it is beyond the mind.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 28

 

avyaktādīni bhūtāni 

vyakta-madhyāni bhārata 

avyakta nidhanānyeva 

tatra kā parivedana

 

Beings are unmanifest in the beginning, manifest in the middle, unmanifest likewise are they in disintegration. What is there to be grieved at, O Bharata?

 

In the beginning, before birth, the soul has no connection with this body. “In the middle”, when the body gets manifested, the soul still doesn’t have any connection to the body. And after death, the soul will maintain no connection to the gross body. The soul manifests in a body to do its karma, to finish the karma which had been created in past lifetimes, yet it remains untouched by anything. Then the soul frees itself upon passing from this body: it doesn’t hang onto the body. The Atma goes through this process. Lord Krishna says that this is like a dream world: the dream world is non-existent before and after the dream. It is only during the dream that the dreamer seems to have a relationship with the body. It is only during the dream that you feel that everything is real. But in reality, it is not! You don’t have any connection to that dream. So why do you lament? A dream is only for a short period of time.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 27

 

jātasya hi dhruvo mṛtyur 

dhruvaṁ janma mṛtasya ca 

tasmād aparihārye ‘rthe 

na tvaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

Death is certain for those who are born, and birth is certain for those who die; therefore what is inevitable ought not to be a cause of your sorrow.

 

There are many people and schools of thought who don’t believe in liberation, in salvation. They always think that they have to be reborn, that they can’t attain the Lord. They bind themselves to this wheel of life and death. They are in ignorance of liberation, in ignorance of attaining the Grace of God. 

 

Krishna asks, “Why are you crying, Arjuna? Birth and death are conceived only in ignorance.” If one is in ignorance about liberation, one will never attain it. People who believe that they can’t run away from birth and death – because of their belief – they are stuck in that reality. If people want to believe that, why should you grieve? The drama of birth and death has nothing to do with the soul. The only aim of the soul is to attain the greatest perfection, to attain the Supreme Lord, Narayana Himself. Nothing else matters. Krishna says, “Whoever wants to go into this drama of birth and death – it is their choice!” Some of the Kauravas had the knowledge of the Self: Bhishma Pita knew, Dronacharya knew, Kripacharya knew. But they willingly chose to play their roles in the drama and be on the Kauravas side. Krishna says, “If they have personally chosen this side, why are you grieving? They are fully aware of their choice to be on the Kauravas side. So don’t grieve for that.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 26

 

atha cainaṁ nitya jātam 

nityaṁ vā manyase mṛtam 

tathāpi tvaṁ mahābāho 

naivaṁ śocitum arhasi

 

Even if you think of the Self as being constantly subject to birth and death,  

still, O mighty-armed, you should not grieve.

 

Here the Lord explains that the soul is not “subject to birth and death”, what dies is only the body. But you as the soul, you are eternal. He says, “Don’t grieve, My dear, because grieving makes you weak.” Learn to accept this as the Will of God. And when you learn to accept life – everything that happens in life as the Will of God, as a present from God – then you will be free from grief.

 

Krishna says, “Grieve not, ‘O mighty-armed’.” Again Krishna is addressing Arjuna as the, “mighty-armed,” mahābāho. He means, “You are strong! You are not weak.  

Don’t go into weakness.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 25

 

avyakto’yam acintyo’yam 

avikāryo’yam ucyate 

tasmād evaṁ viditvainaṁ 

nānuśocitum arhasi

 

It is unmanifest, it is unthinkable, it is immutable, so is it described;  

therefore, knowing it as such, you should not grieve.

 

Here Krishna asks Arjuna, “Why are you grieving, My dear? Why are you crying? The soul ‘is unmanifest, it is unthinkable’”. The soul can’t be conceived by the mind, the mind can’t comprehend it. The mind can’t understand the soul, because the soul  

is beyond the mind.

 

If you are looking at the soul only from the point of view of the mind, do you think that the mind can understand the soul? A mind which is always moving around is, ‘cañcala’, “restless,” dancing and jumping like a monkey, from one thought to the other. How can the mind, which is in constant movement, be still and perceive the unmovable? The mind will always move from one thing to another until one has gone deeply into the sadhana, deeply into meditation and calmed the mind. Only then will the soul reveal itself. But before that, if the mind is still jumping around, the soul is unknowable.

 

Krishna says that the soul “is immutable.” Everything which is mutable is bound by the mind, and whatever is from the mind is bound by Maya Prakriti, bound by the laws of Nature. The soul is completely separate from Prakriti. It undergoes no transformation, in any circumstance. When one realises the soul itself, one knows that it is eternal, omnipresent, immovable, everlasting, unmanifested, unthinkable and immutable. So, Krishna asks, “Arjuna, why are you grieving?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 24

 

acchedyo’yam adāhyo’yaṁ 

akledyo’śoṣya eva ca 

nityaḥ sarvagataḥ sthāṇur 

acalo’yam sanātanaḥ

 

It cannot be cut, it is incombustible, it can neither be drenched nor dried.  

Eternally stable, immobile, all-pervading, ever-existing.

 

Krishna continues explaining that the soul cannot be destroyed by any weapon because it is indivisible, unmanifest, constant and immutable. Krishna says that weapons don’t have any power to destroy this reality. Here the word ‘weapons’ also refers to karma: Krishna means that karma has no power to destroy the soul. Krishna uses the words ‘stable’, and ‘immobile’ to describe the soul. The soul is still and motionless. The soul is ever focused in the stillness. Whatever is moving, whatever is bound by vibration, is in constant change, and whatever is in constant change, has a limited existence.

 

“All pervading.” This means that there is no place where the soul is not present. The cosmic Soul is present everywhere. If you are realised, you don’t need to move from one place to another; you don’t need to dance from left to right. This is why the saints don’t need to go around to ten places: just by sitting in one place, they observe everything within the Self. This is the story of Maha Vishnu, explaining about the Gita and why He always stays in one place with His eyes closed. While His eyes are closed, He is in His eternal, true aspect, one with everyone, and everything. In that state of oneness, He is constantly energising the word of the Gita. Like that, one who is centred in the Atma, perceives the oneness – not out there, but inside oneself.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 23

 

nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi 

nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ 

na cainaṁ kledayanty-āpo 

na śoṣayati mārutaḥ

 

Weapons cannot cut it, nor the fire burn it, nor do the waters drench it, nor  

the wind dry it.

 

Overtaken by his feelings for his relatives, Arjuna asks, “How can I kill them?” He starts to worry and grieve, thinking, “How could I do that?” Lord Krishna reminds him that weapons cannot cut the soul, nor can fire burn it. Referring in this verse to fire, water, and wind, He explains that the elements don’t have any effect on the soul: neither fire, water, or wind, can do anything to the soul. He says, “Even if the body is cut into pieces by a weapon, the soul is not. Even if the body is burned, the soul will not be burned. Even if water dissolves the body, the soul is not touched by it.” 

 

During the time of the Mahabharat War, the elements were used as weapons.  

Here Krishna says that even if a weapon of water is thrown at the body, it will never dissolve the soul. Even if the weapon of air, the Vayu Astra, is thrown at the body, it will not dry up the soul. The soul will always remain untouched by these elements. Krishna explains why the soul is superior to the elements. The body is made up of the five elements. Since these elements are already present inside the body, how can these elements destroy the soul? Even if you throw a fire, a bomb, or a missile at the body of a realised person, this won’t affect him. If you send a water or wind weapon at a realised person, it will have no effect on him. You will often see this in the lives of saints. For example, there is a beautiful story of Saint Haralambis who lived in Greece. 

 

During World War II, the Nazis went there and the local people told him, “Don’t light the candles of the church, they will kill you.” He didn’t listen and completely ignored them. So one fine day, what did he do? The soldiers waited for him near the church and after he had finished lighting all the candles, they started shooting at him! At that moment, Haralambis was laughing like crazy! He ran towards them and took from his pocket all their bullets and threw them at the soldiers. Fire didn’t have any effect on him. Nothing can affect one who is centred in the Self. The same was in the life of the Greek Saint, Papa Nicholas Planas. When he was walking outside and it was raining very much, he always stayed completely dry. This shows that the qualities of the soul can also affect the physical body. The soul has full power over the elements. It is beyond the elements. The soul is the great controller.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 22

 

vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāya 

navāni gṛhṇāti naro’parāṇi 

tathā śarīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇāny 

anyāni sanyāti navāni dehī

 

The embodied soul casts away old bodies and takes up new bodies, as a  

man changes worn-out clothes for new.

 

Here Lord Krishna says, “When one’s clothes get old, one changes them for new ones. Like that, when your body becomes old – but you still have karma to work out, and you are not yet fully realised – you will take another body. You will come back again into this material field to continue to advance, until the full Realisation awakens.” But then, one will ask, “What is the full Realisation?” Is it the Realisation of the Atma or of the mind? It is the Atmanivedam: the Atma Itself surrenders to the Supreme. Krishna refers to the body as old worn-out clothes. The body will go through the same cycle of birth, life, and death, again, again and again. This kind of suffering is because you are trapped in the game of Maya. But, you are meant for something greater.

 

When the body gets old and it is time to take a new body, it is like when a mother changes the clothes of her child and the child cries. I have seen this with my niece. She cries crazily when her clothes are dirty; but afterwards, when she has new diapers, she is relaxed. Isn’t it like this? A baby will cry when he has dirty diapers, but when the mother changes them, the baby is again happily quiet. When the body gets old, when you have finished with the changes, this means that you are advancing towards a new body, which will be even better! This is preparing you for a better life in the next body, where you will be free from certain dirt and be fine.

 

The mother stays indifferent through the cries of her child because the mother is concentrating on the welfare of the child. Even so, God, for the good of the Atma, for the good of the Jiva, cares little for the tears of the body, because He knows what is best for each person. That is what Christ also means when He says that when one asks the Father for something, will the Father deny it? The Father will give, but according to what is needed to be given. Death can be very terrible sometimes for someone and one will ask, “Oh my goodness! Why this and that?” But the Eternal Father knows that when life has come to an end, when the game of life in this body is finished, one has to move on to the next body – until one fully attains the Divine.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 21

 

vedāvināśinaṁ nityaṁ 

ya enam ajam avyayam 

kathaṁ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha 

kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam

 

Who knows it as immortal, eternal, imperishable, spiritual existence, how  

can that man slay, O Paartha, or cause to be slain?

 

In this verse, Bhagavan Sri Krishna brings to Arjuna’s attention that the one who has the true knowledge of the soul, can never think of harming anyone, or cause anyone to be killed. The thought of harming another person will never arise in the mind of one who has realised Brahma Jyaan or Atma Jyaan – because he is aware. If one has the knowledge that one is not the body, mind or intellect, rather the soul, one will never identify oneself with what one sees on the outside, and believe that one can kill. Krishna is saying that there is only one Consciousness that remains – the existence of the Spirit only, everywhere. And this Spirit can neither die nor harm anyone or anything. Krishna is reminding Arjuna again and again: look, if you come to the Realisation of the Self; if you come to the Realisation that there is only one Divine Spirit, then who is killing who? If you are ignorant of the Atma, the soul, of course then you will see everything from the point of view of the outside world. But if you have the knowledge of the Self, and if you realise the Self, then you rise above this. Krishna says, “Knowing this truth, why are you grieving? Why are you crying? Why are you going into this weakness?” Remember that Krishna is talking to a soldier on the battlefield. Know that Krishna is also talking to each spiritual seeker. Why do you fear to let go? Why do you fear to transcend the outside reality? Devote yourself completely to your sadhana! Embrace life and let the Divine reveal Himself to you.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 20

 

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin  

nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ 

ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo 

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

 

This is not born, nor does it die, nor is it a thing that comes into being once and passing away will never come into being again. It is unborn, ancient, everlasting; it is not slain with the slaying of the body.

 

This part is so wonderful. Krishna says that the soul was never born: we can’t even say that we are born from God. All we can say is, “We come out of Him.” The soul is never born, nor does it die. Krishna is saying that the soul is not something which is passing by or has modifications with birth and death. Death doesn’t have any grip on the soul: even birth doesn’t have any grip on the soul. It is ever-free.

Modifications are only for the body. Krishna says that all that is “passing away will never come into being again,” meaning that what one has gone through before, it won’t happen again. These modifications, these changes which happen to the body, once they are finished, they are gone! You were a baby, then you are middle age, then you get old: can you reverse the process? No, you can’t. But the Atma, is separate from that.

 

There are the six modifications which the body goes through: birth, becoming, growth, transformation, decay, and destruction. These modifications have nothing to do with the soul. The soul is ever-free from them, “It is unborn, ancient and everlasting.” ‘Unborn’: the soul was never born. We can’t say that the soul is born from God. No, it came out of God. You can say that you are born from someone, like a child is born from the mother. But the Atma is an everlasting image of God, an ever-lasting drop of Himself. It was never born. It is everlastingly present inside. It’s not something which is separate from God; it’s eternally a part of God Himself – whether one thinks about it or not, whether one is aware of it or not. ‘Ancient’: the soul is beyond time. We can’t say, “You are a young soul,” or “You are an old soul.” You hear this very often in the esoteric world. “This person is an old soul, he is very wise.” But this kind of wisdom is based on the outside, or what one hears, or perceives only with the mind. Here Krishna is reminding Arjuna that the soul is eternal – it’s not young or old. It doesn’t decay. Usually when the body dies, it decays, is destroyed and is finished! The soul doesn’t go through these kinds of transformations. It is everlasting; it is never destroyed. Even if the body is slain, the soul is not.

 

Here Krishna again explains that even if you cut the body, nothing will happen to the soul. Again and again, He is repeating this to remind Arjuna that the Satchitananda is inside of him. But here, Krishna is not using the word ‘God’. He is not using the word ‘Paramatma’. He will use these words later on. Here He is just trying to reason with Arjuna and explains that within this body, there is something greater, which we call the Atma. That is why the yoga of Chapter 2 is called the yoga of the Self. The only thing that you have to do is to realise the soul, the Atma, the Self. This body has been only given to you to realise this truth.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 19

 

ya enaṁ vetti hantāraṁ 

yaś cainaṁ manyate hatam 

ubhau tau na vijānīto 

nāyaṁ hanti na hanyate 

 

He who regards this (the soul) as a slayer, and he who thinks it is slain, both of them fail to perceive the truth. The soul does not slay, nor is it slain.

  

The Atma is in the killer, and the Atma is in the one being killed. But the Atma is not perishable. Those who think that the soul of the slayer or the soul of the slain are limited or perishable, are in deep confusion.

 

Krishna says that an ignorant man attributes the functions of the body to the soul. He says, “Look, you should not mix up the body and the soul. Your soul is the Great Observer, it observes things; it comes here and does its dharma, but it remains separate from the mind, the intellect, and the body. It is something apart from who you are. The one who thinks that the slayer is the soul is completely mistaken, and the one who thinks that the soul is killed, is completely mistaken.” This does not mean that now that you can think, that, “We are eternal. It’s okay to go and kill people!” No, it doesn’t mean that one can start killing others. Here Krishna is talking from the point of view of a warrior, a yoddha. He was on the battlefield. He says, “Look, how can you kill the soul? The soul is eternal, it’s not perishable. How can you say that the killer is the soul, or the person? Which one is the killer? The soul or the person? Neither. The killer is the body; but the soul has nothing to do with the body. The soul doesn’t kill; it is separate from this reality.” 

 

Here Krishna explains that the soul doesn’t go through any modifications. The soul in itself is pure and is not even modified by the effects of karma. Even if it is always moving from one body to another, the soul is ever-free. Last week, someone asked me, “Are we liberated or not?” I said, “The Atma of everybody is realised. Everybody is free, because you are part of God. And that part of God which is present inside of you, is forever realised. It is ever-lasting and is fully realised.” In your sadhana, what you do is, you polish the outside to get rid of all the karma. Later on, Krishna explains this with an analogy: “If a mirror is covered by dust, the mirror is not touched by the dust; the mirror always stays behind the dust. But when the dust is cleaned away, then the mirror appears clear.”

 

This is the beauty of the Gita: here Krishna describes the soul as being like a mirror. This shows that people already knew about mirrors at that time. It’s true! In the west, they say that mirrors were invented 2000 years ago. They don’t know that 5000 years ago, Krishna had already spoken about mirrors in the Gita. Five years ago, scientists discovered a piece of glass that was 2000 years old. They came to the conclusion that this was the oldest glass that had ever existed. But in India, glass existed 5000 years ago! Imagine how advanced this culture was! In Krishna’s time, in Dwapara Yuga, people had a certain knowledge. That was why Krishna could talk about the Self. Arjuna knew about the Self; he had the knowledge that he was the Atma, that the Atma and the body were completely separate. Krishna was only there to remind him of this truth.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 18

 

antavanta ime dehā 

nityasy-oktāḥ śarīriṇaḥ 

anāśino’prameyasya 

tasmāt yuddhyasva bhārata

 

Finite bodies have an end, but that which possesses and uses the body is infinite, illimitable, eternal, indestructible. Therefore, fight, O Bharata (Arjuna).

 

“Finite bodies have an end,” Krishna says, “All bodies, which have been created from matter, from the five elements, ‘have an end’.” Everything which is matter, will return to matter. Here the Lord is saying that the mind, the senses, and the physical body are all perishable. Whatever you see outside is perishable, has its limit and will have its end. But you are here to use these limitations to do your duty, to do your dharma. This infinite, the Atma, which is present inside of you is the Reality. He says, “Don’t be in ignorance. Know that you are eternal. Know that you are indestructible. So fight!”

 

Here Krishna is not only talking to Arjuna, He is talking to everybody, “Don’t go into your weakness, My dear children. It is Me who is seated within you. Look at life. Face it! Be strong! Know that I am with you. And know that we have this deep, eternal relationship together, that we are always next to each other. You are not alone because I, the Supreme Spirit, am ever-present with you.” Don’t look at the outside and become miserable! Don’t look at the effort that you are putting into your sadhana; just do it! Do your maximum! Don’t go into your weakness when you do your sadhana, but be in your power! Only then will you realise your Self. Only then will God reveal Himself to you. Don’t look at the outside world. Don’t listen to ‘x, y, z’. Go with your feeling. Open your heart and be powerful! Be strong! So Krishna says, “Arjuna, don’t show any hesitation or unwillingness to engage yourself in the fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 17

 

avināśi tu tad viddhi 

yena sarvam idaṁ tatam 

vināśam avyayasyāsya 

na kaścit kartum arhati

 

Know that to be imperishable from which all this is extended. Who can slay the immortal spirit?

 

Whatever is perishable, like the body, the senses, the mind, all these objects of enjoyment, and pleasure – all these are under the control of Prakriti. And Prakriti is under the control of the Spirit, which means under the control of the Consciousness, the life principle.

 

“Know that to be imperishable from which all this is extended.” All matter, everything which is created, comes from the non-created: all emerges from only One Reality, God, the Immortal One, the Supreme Spirit. Everything comes from Him. Everything is just an extension of Him. The one who is realised in this immortality, attains the true Self. He sees that the same Narayana Krishna that is outside, is also inside. And not only in himself, but everywhere, in everything. The seers, the yogis, and the saints know and see this Truth. They know that everything which is created, everything which is on the outside, is an extension of only Him, and it is only Him that is present in everything. 

 

Krishna says to Arjuna,“No one can bring about the destruction of the indestructible.” How can you kill the Atma? You can’t. At that moment, Arjuna is very worried about what will happen to the Atma of Bhishma. Will he go to Hell? Krishna says, “No. How can he go to Hell? He can’t.” It’s not because of his actions on the outside that he will go to Hell: his essence is only the Supreme Spirit. The soul, which is under the control of the Immortal Spirit, how can it be destroyed? It is not a material object. The soul is not something material that you can cut with a sword.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 16

 

nāsato vidyate bhāvo 

nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ 

ubhayor api dṛṣṭo’ntas 

tvanayos tattva darśibhiḥ

 

That which really is, cannot go out of existence, just as that which is non-existent cannot come into being. The end of this opposition of ‘is’ and ‘is not’ has been perceived by the seers of essential truths.

 

This means that everything which is limited, will be destroyed. And what is not limited, the Atma, cannot be destroyed; it is ever-existent. You will realise the eternity of the soul only when you rise above the duality of the real and the unreal. Why would non-existence exist? Non-existence is not real. By non-existence, Krishna is referring to the body and referring to all the people on the battlefield. He says, “These people are not real. They appear to exist, but they are not real. The only reality behind all this is the Self. Look beyond this duality. Perceive that which is beyond what your mind is showing you. The soul doesn’t go through these changes; in all circumstances, it never ceases to exist.” It is unchangeable.

 

Arjuna is feeling much grief that he will have to attack Bhishma Pita. His grief is not so much for the other Kauravas. The most important thing to him is his relationship with his great uncle. He fears that if he kills him, what will happen to his soul? In the first chapter, Arjuna says, “The ancestors will go to Hell.” So he fears that the soul of Bhishma, who is a great being, will go to Hell. Krishna tells him, “No. Bhishma Pita is as pure as the river Ganga. The purpose of his existence here is to do what I have commanded him to do. Nothing can exist without Me willing it that it exists. Everything exists because I will that it exists. But you have to see that it is My Will. If you don’t see that it is My Will, you are stuck in the real and the unreal; and you can’t distinguish between the real and the unreal. The saints and the seers, the wise ones have always reached this conclusion: everything else outside changes; but everything comes from only One Reality, which is God. There is only One Reality, My Reality, nothing else. This is the Truth. This is the essential Truth.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 15

 

yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete 

purus‌aṁ puruṣarṣabha 

sama duḥkha sukhaṁ dhīraṁ 

so’mṛtatvāya kalpate

 

The man who these do not trouble or pain, O lion-hearted among men, the firm and wise who is equal in pleasure and suffering, makes himself apt for immortality.

 

Krishna addresses Arjuna as lion-hearted among men. He is reminding Arjuna, “You are like a lion! You are strong! You are not weak. You are powerful! Be firm and wise.”

 

“The man who these do not trouble”, yaṁ hi na vyathayantyete, means the one who is not troubled by pleasure and pain. The best and most excellent of men are beyond pleasure and pain. It is easy for them to rise above these opposite qualities, to rise above these dual experiences.

 

The realised soul doesn’t go into the drama of life. He sees pleasure and suffering equally. The one who makes himself ready becomes ripe. He becomes aware to receive the knowledge of the Self.

 

Krishna is pushing Arjuna. He says, “Don’t just talk about what is right and not right. Make an effort to change. See it from another point of view, so you can rise above this limitation. Make an effort to see that these objects of the senses, these objects of pain and pleasure are just limited. Today they are here; tomorrow they are not here. If you can change this feeling in the mind, if you can rise above it, from then on, you will see everything as equal. Only then will the immortality of the soul be revealed to you. But if you are attached to the duality, you are not ready for it.” You see, here it is very important to know that people may talk a lot about Realisation, but if they are not realised, what good is that?

 

Krishna says, “Make yourself ready. You have been given a life here to make yourself ready to receive the Grace of God.” Krishna doesn’t only talk about the immortality of the Self: He also talks about attaining the Grace of God. But in this verse, He is not talking about attaining the unlimitedness of God; rather He says, “Make yourself apt for immortality.” However, Arjuna is so focused on the outside reality, that it is difficult for him to think about anything else.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 14

 

mātrā sparśās tu kaunteya 

śītoṣṇa sukha-duḥkhadāḥ 

āgamāpāyino’nityās 

tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata

 

The interaction of senses and objects, O son of Kunti, give cold and heat,  

pleasure and pain, transient things which come and go. Endure them, O Arjuna.

 

Mātrā sparśās means ‘the contact of the senses with material objects’. Whatever comes into contact with the senses, into contact with the mind – heat, sound, touch, colour, taste and smell – these are the products of the senses. Heat and cold, pleasure and pain, are always part of our experience. If one gives attention to the outside, to the sense organs, and the sense objects, one becomes bound by the opposites of duality, like cold and heat, pleasure and pain. Whoever is focused on living only in the external world, will attain only limited things. One will not be aware of the greatness, the eternity of the soul. This duality of experience, also brings joy, grief and so on. This is not for realised people. When you realise that the object is just passing by and changes, you should not allow the mind to dwell on this. It is unhealthy to dwell on this.

 

Describing the contact between the senses and the object which naturally comes and goes and the limitations of Nature, Prakriti, Krishna asks Arjuna to ignore this: “this will only bring pain.” He advises Arjuna to not concentrate on them, to not rejoice in them or grieve over them. Know that these experiences are there, but don’t go into them. If you start feeding them, if you feed the negative qualities, if you go into them – you are trapped. You are trapped in the drama of the mind. And the mind will make you dance to its tune. And once you are dancing to the tune of Maya, all is finished!

 

Here Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, “Overcome pleasure and pain. Go out of this drama of duality and remind yourself that you are eternal.” Again and again He is repeating the same thing: the eternity of the soul. Sometimes you have to repeat something ten times for somebody to get it. The mind is like this. Until it accustoms itself to a certain reality, that reality is easily forgotten and the mind jumps around.

 

In Chapter 1, again and again Arjuna is reminding Krishna of his grief and sadness and so on – he is finding many excuses not to fight. The Lord is doing the same thing with Arjuna, but in a reverse way, reminding him that, “All that you have been talking about is not real, is not the reality. It is just passing by. You are here to witness this. You are the great witness.” It is only when you realise that you are the Great Observer that you can observe life and not be trapped in the drama of it. When you are apart from it, then you observe. When you are in your sadhana, when you are sitting in meditation, who is perceiving everything? When you are doing your Atma Kriya Yoga, of course, the mind is perceiving the physical state; but when you look deeper inside, on the inside there is somebody else watching. Who is watching? That is the great Self. The great Self is always watching; the Great Observer is always watching and observing life, how life is going. Now it’s observing and hearing in this body; before it was observing and hearing in another body. And those who have not yet attained the Grace of the Lord, will later be in another body. Of course you will go through an evolution.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 13

 

dehino’smin yathā dehe 

kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā 

tathā dehāntara prāptir 

dhīras tatra na muhyati

 

As the soul passes physically through childhood, youth and old age, so it  

passes on to the changing of the body. The self-composed man does not  

allow himself to be disturbed or blinded by this.

 

Krishna says, “It is unwise to suffer, thinking that by changing one’s body, everything is lost. Why are you grieving? Why are you sad about this? Childhood, youth, and old age don’t belong to the soul.” When are you growing up, what is growing? The body. Once you were a baby; maybe now you are in youth; later you will be in middle age; and later on, you will become old… some of you are already old now. But these changes are not for the soul. Your Atma is eternal! The Atma is still the same. For all which is created, change is only on the outside. The body changes. Nature, Prakriti changes. The soul itself never changes.

 

When the body dies, the soul goes and takes another body. The one who is unaware of this truth, the unwise, grieve over this transition from one body to another. The wise never do so. The one who is wise, “the self-composed man”, the one who is longing for Realisation, the realised one, sees the world completely differently. Krishna says, “Arjuna, you are realised. Don’t see the world in a low state of mind. Don’t be blinded by how everybody else sees the world. Let this knowledge which is inside of you awaken. See that the soul is eternal. Even if the soul moves from body to body, this eternity of the soul – that’s what is the Reality.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 12

 

na tvevāhaṁ jātu nāsaṁ 

na tvaṁ neme janādhipāḥ 

na caiva na bhaviṣyāmaḥ 

sarve vayamataḥ param

 

There was never a time that I did not exist, nor you, Arjuna, nor these kings  

of men; nor is it true that any of us shall ever cease to exist hereafter.

 

“There was never a time…” This is so beautiful. Here Bhagavan Krishna reveals to Arjuna the quality of the eternity of the soul. He says, “There was never a time when you nor I did not exist. We all existed even before our birth, before we manifested in these bodies. And we will carry on existing even after these bodies disappear. Even though the body dies, the soul is eternal, it will carry on living. So Arjuna, you should not grieve for these relatives or fear their destruction.”

The soul is eternal: one has to come here; one does one’s duty, one’s dharma; and then the body dies. But the soul remains eternal. Before this lifetime here, you were somewhere else in another body; but now you are here in this body. You will continue in this cycle of birth and death until you finally attain the Lord Himself. Krishna is pacifying Arjuna saying, “They all existed before. Even you. Even Me, I always existed. We are just playing this game, this drama. When this body is finished, we will still carry on living afterwards. So why do you grieve for that? Awake! Realise yourself! The nature of the soul is eternal.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 11

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

aśocyān anvaśocas tvaṁ 

prajñāvādāṁśca bhāṣase 

gatāsūn agatāsūṁśca 

nānuśocanti paṇḍitāḥ

 

The Lord says: You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom. The enlightened man does not mourn for either the living or for the dead.

 

Now is the beginning of the Gita. The real Gita starts now with the smile of the Lord. All that came before was just a preparation for this. 

The Lord says, “You grieve for those who should not be grieved for, yet you speak words of wisdom.” You see, Bhagavan Krishna has been watching and observing Arjuna all the time. The Great Observer always observes life and sees life. He observes how life is going on. Your true Self, the Atma, is always observing life from within you. Krishna says, “You grieve, ‘yet you speak words of wisdom’. You know about life, you have the right feeling inside but when you speak, you say something stupid.” You have the deep feeling inside that you should not do something! But you do it anyway! And then afterwards you say, “Oops, terrible! I did it again!” Learn this great wisdom. You have the wisdom, you have the knowledge, you have the feeling inside you.

 

“The enlightened man does not mourn for either the living or for the dead.” Krishna says, “There is no beginning and there is no end. There is no birth, there is no death.” Krishna is going slowly with Arjuna, saying, “Let Me give him the knowledge step by step.” He is gradually taking Arjuna from the state he is in before. The utmost thought in Arjuna’s mind, at that time, has been about the destruction of the family, the destruction of the race and the inevitable consequences of the war. In Chapter 1, he says that the war will bring confusion; it will cause the downfall of the castes; and the ancestors will go to hell. Krishna has said, “You are wise. Mourn not.” That is what Christ says in the Bible. When the disciple came to Him and says, “First let me go and bury my father, then I will come,” Christ says, “Let the dead bury themselves.” 

 

If you want true wisdom, know that there is no birth and no death. You are the Atma, you are eternal. For the Atma, there is no beginning, there is no end. So why do you mourn? You have come here to attain a higher reality; you have come here to do a higher work than what you realise. Krishna tells Arjuna that the wise never grieve in this way. The one who has the knowledge of the Self, the realised one, the Jivan Mukta knows that the Atma is eternal and that there is no point in mourning or grieving. The wise person, the paṇḍitāḥ, knows that God is the embodiment of true knowledge, Satchitananda. The wise person knows that it is only Him who is abiding in everything. He is the Self of all. He is the indestructible Absolute. Whatever is created – the body or whatever you see in the outer world – is not permanent. He says, “Do ‘not mourn for either the living or for the dead.’ Whatever is created, will be destroyed.” Everything in this world keeps changing. The only one who is not changing is God. The body is temporary, it goes through changes and dies. It doesn’t stay.

 

The association, the link between the body and the soul, is like a dream. Sometimes you dream of something and in that dream, everything appears so real: you are running, you are very active and very busy in that dream; you feel it! But when the dream ends, you wake up, and realise, “Oh, it was a dream.” When you are in that dream, you don’t see reality. But when you are out of that dream, you are back in reality. Krishna is talking about birth and death, about living and not living. This is similar to dreaming. When you are in a dream, everything is imaginary; but when you come back to reality, you realise that it was just a dream. So awake! An awakened man, enlightened man knows that a dream is only a dream and he stays out of that dream.

Krishna says, “So Arjuna, why are you in these circumstances in grief? You are wise, you should not be in grief. In your words when you speak, you are grieving. But there is much Truth inside you; there is much wisdom inside you. You are not just stupidly saying all these words. You have great compassion for others; you care deeply for others. But do you really want to help others? First help yourself! If you help yourself and become strong, then it will be much easier to help other people.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 10

 

tam uvāca hṛṣikeśaḥ 

prahasann iva bhārata 

senayor ubhayor madhye 

viṣīdantaṁ idaṁ vacaḥ

 

To him thus depressed and discouraged, Krishna, smiling, O king, speaks these words between the two armies.

 

Here, Sanjaya is expressing interest in seeing the Lord smile. The smile of the Lord is saying, “Hey, now you are ready!” It has been Arjuna himself who has requested Lord Krishna to bring the chariot between the two armies. Arjuna has first been in the spirit of challenging: but when he sees the two opposing armies, he falls into a depression. He becomes very disturbed and grief-stricken. It is this Arjuna who now asks the Lord to guide him and to remove from him the pain which is overwhelming his mind. So Krishna smiles.

 

When the Guru sees that the disciple is really ready, he has the same smile! The disciple can ten thousand times ask, ask, ask, ask, and the Guru will give whatever He has to give. But when the disciple is truly ready, even without asking, all will be given. This is the smile that Lord Krishna gives to Arjuna. He says, “Ah! I see that now you are  

ready.”

 

When one is confused, there is only one thing one has to do: hold tightly to the Feet of God. This is a natural state, you know? Whenever something goes wrong, who do you call? You say, “Oh my God!” You don’t say, “Oh my mother! “Oh my father!” or “Oh my friend!” You don’t do that! When your mind is battling, when you see that you are confused, when you see that something inside is coming up, the first thing you say is, “Aaaahh! My God!” This is a natural reaction – you just do it; maybe you don’t even realise that you are doing it. But this is when the soul reacts and says, “God, you are the creator! This is a reminder that You are the Ultimate. In every situation, You are the Ultimate! In good situations, You are the Ultimate! In bad situations, You are the Ultimate! And beyond that, You are still the Ultimate!” This is the state that Arjuna is expressing. The Lord is looking at this mental state of Arjuna and laughing. He says, “Yes, My dear, I can now see that you are ready to receive the greater knowledge of the Self. You are ready to fight and transform yourself.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 9

 

sañjaya uvāca 

evam uktvā hṛṣīkeśaṁ 

guḍakeśaḥ paraṅtapa 

na yotsya iti govindam 

uktvā tūṣṇīṁ babhūva ha

 

Sanjaya says: Gudakesha (Arjuna), terror of his foes, having thus spoken to Krishna, then says to Krishna, “Govinda, I will not fight!” and becomes silent. 

 

Here Arjuna makes his decision, and says, “I’m not ready to fight! I’m happy with my normal, mundane life. I don’t want anything else. I don’t want to go deeply into spirituality. I don’t want to discover my true Self. I’m happy living life; waking up in the morning; having my breakfast; going to work; coming back from work; enjoying the TV and sleeping.” Again, next day the same routine. “Then I look forward to the weekend: I will go to the pub, I will drink; I will lose my mind; I won’t even know what happened. I will go completely into delusion; then I will come back home,” – if you come back home, or maybe you will sleep on the road; or wake up in somebody else’s bed or somewhere else, not even knowing what has happened. Sunday, I will relax; Monday, the same routine – and, “I’m happy with that.” This is the delusion in the world. Who wants to change when people have created their own reality of happiness? No one wants to change.

 

So here, Arjuna says, “I don’t want to fight! I want to listen to you.” That’s why he becomes silent. He is praying to the Lord. Sanjaya says to the king, “After taking refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, after surrendering to the Lotus Feet of the Lord, Arjuna waits for His guidance and instruction. And he becomes silent.” This is what Krishna has been waiting for, that Arjuna silence himself a bit and be ready to listen.

 

Here Sanjaya refers to Krishna as Govinda. The truth about God is known only through the Vedas. Krishna is Govinda, the Lord of the Vedas. He is the incarnation of the Vedas, the living Vedas. It is through the study of the Vedas that He is to be known. The study of the Vedas has only one aim: to attain the Grace of Narayana Krishna. 

 

Arjuna has become silent. He has made himself ready. Sanjaya is excited inside and is eagerly waiting to see what will happen next. He says, “Okay, now Arjuna is in silence after expressing himself and going through all this delusion.” Sanjaya himself is getting excited. You know, it’s like when you are watching a nice movie and you’re wondering what will happen next and at that moment they put on a big advertisement and you have to wait. Such is the state of Sanjaya. He has been closely watching this big movie, he sees the climax coming soon and asks, “Ah, what will be next?” He has very deep anticipation; he is waiting for what will come next.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 8

 

na hi prapaśyāmi mamāpanudyād 

yacchokam ucchoṣaṇam indriyāṇām 

avāpya bhūmāv-asapatnam-ṛddham 

rājyaṁ suraṇām api cādhipatyam

 

Even if I should attain rich and unrivalled kingdoms on Earth or even the sovereignty of the gods, it would not take from me this sorrow that dries up my senses.

 

Here Arjuna asks, “What am I doing in this battle where I will gain only earthly things? Even if I attain ‘sovereignty of the Gods’, lordship over the Gods, and become like Indra, that will not remove this grief, which is drying up my senses. Please Lord, help me! Remove this grief! Give me everlasting happiness and bliss. That’s what I’m longing for. I’m not longing for material gain and I’m not longing for Heaven. I long to hear You. I long to be out of Maya. I want to be free from this delusion.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga

Chapter 2, Verse 7

 

kārpaṇya doṣopahata svabhāvaḥ 

pṛcchāmi tvāṁ dharma samūḍha cetāḥ 

yacchreyaḥ syān niścitaṁ brūhi tan me 

śiṣyas te śādhi māṁ tvāṁ prapannam

 

It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me, my (true heroic)  

nature; my deluded mind is bewildered in its view of right and wrong. I ask  

You which may be the better – tell me decisively. I take refuge in You as a  

disciple. Enlighten me.

 

The first word here, kārpaṇya, means “poorness of spirit.” “It is poorness of spirit that has smitten away from me, my (true heroic) nature.” Arjuna knows that his noble nature, his powerful nature, has fled.

“…my deluded mind is bewildered in its view of right and wrong.” He is seeing what is right and what is wrong from the point of view of the mind. His mind is showing him what is right and what is wrong – not his heart, not his consciousness.

 

“I ask you which may be the better – tell me decisively. I take refuge in you as a disciple. Enlighten me.” Here Arjuna is making himself ready. He says, “Look, I am truly confused. I feel terrible. I don’t know where I stand.”

 

In the Gita, Krishna often calls materialistic people who are attached to the world ‘kripana’. They miss the purpose of life and depart from this Earth without knowing God, without Realisation. Arjuna is neither greedy nor miserly. It is not out of greed that he is in this state of confusion. His attachment to the world is not for his personal benefit. When you want to find God, if it is for personal gain, and done with pride, it will not lead you anywhere. But if it is to surrender to a greater cause, even if it is not done correctly, if it is not for your personal gain, it will bear its fruit. Arjuna had a great nature. He didn’t want to enjoy himself. He was not thinking, “Oh, I will fight this war for my own enjoyment.”

 

Here he is saying, “I don’t know what is right, You are Krishna, You are God Himself! But You are telling me the opposite of what I am thinking.” Very often the Guru says something which is the opposite of what the devotee thinks, and the devotee says, “Ah! How is this possible?” But then you must ask: who is the Guru and who is the disciple? Here it’s the same thing. Arjuna is expressing something and expecting Krishna to say nice words to him. But Krishna doesn’t say any nice words to him, so he is taken aback, he is shocked! This also humbles Arjuna so that he is able to accept the Lord as his Guru. He surrenders to Lord Krishna and says, “Enlighten me.” This shows that Arjuna is very wise: but he is not yet enlightened.

 

Arjuna was Krishna’s best friend. Both saw each other as, “We are best friends.” They always had great respect for each other, but it was mostly as friends, as cousins. They did not have a Guru-disciple relationship. But now Arjuna has changed. In the past, Arjuna always felt equal to Krishna. When they sat and ate, even when they slept, they would sleep in the same room, on the same bed, for they were friends.

However, Arjuna’s confused state makes him realise that even if one thinks of one’s self as being equal to God, God is superior. Even if His actions are the same, in all His actions, He is far superior to the human way of understanding. That’s why Arjuna says, “I take refuge in You as Your disciple.” Arjuna doesn’t say, “Because You are my best buddy, I am going to listen to You now!” No! To take refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Lord, to take refuge at the Lotus Feet of the Guru, one has to put away one’s own pride and one’s own thinking. Arjuna says, “Advise me! Counsel me now! Instruct me! Before I was thinking of You as being the same as me, but now I realise that You are far superior to me.” That’s why Lord Krishna also says, “My devotees, who are completely surrendered to Me, are far superior, because I live in them, and they live in Me.”

Arjuna has now realised that Krishna’s advice is very important and that he needs to be guided by a true guide: and this true guide, is Krishna Himself. Only through that, will he be taken out of his grief and be able to attain the Divine, be able to attain this inner strength so that he can move fearlessly and fight. Who else there can be his best teacher? It is not Dronacharya, not Kripacharya, not Bhishma. It is God Himself. 

Even though Krishna has been Arjuna’s best friend, now He becomes his Guru. The instruction of the Guru is like a seed which is planted in fertile land. If the disciple’s heart is like a stone, nothing will grow from it. Do you know the parable in the Bible of the sower? Christ says, “If you throw seeds and they fall on dry land, nothing will grow; if they fall on stones, nothing will grow; but if they fall on fertile land, then they will grow and will bear fruit.” 

 

Here, Arjuna and the Lord are playing the drama of the Guru and the disciple. When one is ready deep within one’s heart, when the heart becomes like fertile soil, then one is ready to receive: before that, no. Therefore Arjuna says, “Lord, I am Your disciple. Take me as Your disciple. I take refuge at Your Feet.”

 

There are many types of disciples and many types of devotees. It also depends on one’s self-effort and how one is centred: is one centred in the ego, is one centred in pride, or is one centred in the spirit? This verse also says that whoever is not ready will  

look elsewhere for things to please themselves. They will not look for the Satguru. But when they are ready, they will look for the Satguru. And once they find the Satguru, they will have the benefit of having the Guru always with them.

 

Here, therefore, Arjuna declares his discipleship and surrenders to Krishna. He says, “I am not only Your disciple, but I have taken refuge, I have surrendered to You.” What does it mean, ‘to surrender’, ‘to take refuge’? You can be a disciple, or you can even be a part-time disciple who is not surrendered. But Arjuna says, “More than just as a disciple, more than just as a devotee, I surrender myself to You.” In the last part of the verse, the word ‘prapannam’, means to take refuge, to surrender to God. It is  

not just the willingness to surrender, it is also accepting that He is greater. When a disciple takes refuge in the Guru, the disciple must completely accept the superiority of the Master. This is what Arjuna is accepting. He says, “I am surrendering to You, and I accept Your superiority: only You can take me out of this ignorance. I throw myself at Your Feet. You are God.” With this, Arjuna’s eyes are brightened and his mind is completely transformed. His whole attitude has changed. With folded hands, he knows that by taking this role of the disciple, that the Lord, the God Almighty, the omniscient and the knower of all hearts, has taken the form of the supreme Master. And that He, who is full of Love, greatness, virtue, knowledge, He who is non-attached,who can’t be touched by karma, by anything, is his dear friend. And from being his best friend, He has become the supreme Guide and the supreme Divinity.”

 

This is the greatness of the Guru. The Guru does not have just one role. He is not just a teacher. He takes different forms, a multitude of aspects. Because the life of the Guru is not for Himself, but for others. The help and support, the knowledge, the power, the affection that the Guru has for the devotee is amazing and exquisite.

 

Here Arjuna is also expressing his desire to know more, and he also has in his heart the attitude of surrender to the Lord. When one has this desire to know more, to go deeper and deeper, to not just know in the mind, but deep within the heart, one will happily surrender their life to God. One knows that the only aim in life is Him, is to completely surrender to Him. Then one is ready to receive the true knowledge.

When one is not ready, when one still dwells on the outside knowledge, when one still dwells on things which one thinks are good for oneself, one will always say, “I want this, I want that; I want this and I want that.” They will never ask, “What does God want from me?” In their delusion, they will always think that they are right and that it is  

God’s Will for them. But this is just an image that one creates in one’s mind. 

Later on, we will see how Krishna enlightens Arjuna and makes him receptive so that he can receive this gift of surrender. He explains to Arjuna what it means to surrender all his duty to Him.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 6

 

na caitad vidmaḥ kataran no garīyo 

yadvā jayema yadi vā no jayeyuḥ 

yān eva hatvā na jijīviṣāmas 

te’vasthitāḥ pramukhe dhārtarāṣṭhrāḥ

 

Nor do I know which is better for us, that we should conquer them or they  

conquer us. Before us stand the sons of Dhritarashtra, who if we slay, we  

would lose all desire to live.

Here again Arjuna is showing that he is in a state of confusion, because he is still very attached to the outside. You see, if somebody is not fully dedicated, they always go into a state of confusion. They are not making themselves ready. Arjuna is in this state and says, “I don’t yet know if we will be the winners or they will be the winners. Here are the sons of Dhritarashtra on the battlefield in front of us.” He is still trying to find ways to not fight them. He is indicating that he has the choice: either to fight or not to fight. If he doesn’t fight, it will be a great offence of a Kshatriya, of a fighter, to not fight and to run away from the battlefield. How will he face his family? How will he face his people? If he runs away and doesn’t fight, it will also be a great sin and an evil act. This state of confusion makes him unsure.

 

In the next part of the verse, Arjuna says, “Before us stand the sons of Dhritarashtra, who if we slay, we would lose all desire to live.” Arjuna knows what to do, but at the same time, he is expressing confusion. In the state of confusion there are always two parts in it. There is a knowing, there is a self-confidence, that, “Yes, I feel what is right to do!” The feeling of the heart is there and you know that it is right. But then the mind starts to reason. There is a fight between what you feel in your heart and what your head is saying to you: this makes the state of confusion. If your feet are more in the outside world, of course, then the mind will win. But if the feeling is stronger, then you will try to take the right decision. The state of confusion is the beginning of one’s path, the beginning of one’s search. In our confusion, we keep asking, “Am I right to be on this path or not? Am I right to do this or not?” Even the word of the Guru, at that moment, won’t mean much to the disciple, because he is still searching. He is still wandering. And the outside samskaras are still very powerful. The attachment to the outside world is still so strong that one can’t really think or see.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 5

 

gurūn ahatvā hi mahānubhāvān 

śreyo bhoktuṁ bhaikṣyam apīha loke 

hatvārtha kāmāṁs tu gurūn ihaiva 

bhuñjīya bhogān rudhira-pradigdhān

 

It is better to live in this world even on alms than to slay these high-souled  

gurus. Slaying these gurus, I would only taste blood-stained enjoyments in  

this world.

 

Here Arjuna is referring to Kripacharya, and Dronacharya: “These people are worthy to be praised and worshipped.

How will I slay them? How will I be free from that sin? Even though these noble characters have fallen low, I can’t dishonour them. Even though I am a Kshatriya, even though I am a warrior, I would rather live on alms than commit this great sin for enjoyment and pleasure.”

 

Here, we have to see that Arjuna had very high knowledge. For one who is realised, the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ become one. However, Realisation also means that one has to let go of everything. Arjuna was wise, because he knew this. But here he is saying,

“How can I let go of all this? I can’t let go of it! It’s not right, if out of revengefulness, I massacre these elders who are worthy to be praised. How will I enjoy what I gain? I will not get salvation or good merit from this and will not even enjoy the kingdom which afterwards will be mine. I will feel guilty.”

 

As in Chapter 1, Arjuna is still continuing to try to reason with Krishna. He is still very attached to the world, though not just blindly. He is saying, “I want to fight and I don’t want to fight.” He is still in this unsettled state of mind, with, one foot in and one foot out of the war.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 4

 

arjuna uvāca 

kathaṁ bhīṣmam ahaṁ saṅkhye 

droṇaṁ ca madhusūdana 

iṣubhiḥ pratiyotsyāmi 

pūjārhāv-arisūdana

 

Arjuna says: How, O Madhusudana, shall I strike Bhishma and Drona with  

weapons in battle, they who are worthy of worship?

 

Kathaṁ means ‘I am surprised’. Arjuna says,“I am surprised! How can I kill these people? They are not demons! They are not really my enemies! On the contrary, they are the great elders who are worthy to be put on the altar and be worshipped. This is terrible! It would be a big sin if I attack them! We should have respect for our elders.” As I said in Chapter 1, the elders were well-respected at that time. When you talk to elders, you should speak to them respectfully. Using harsh or abusive words is a sin. That’s why Arjuna says, “These elders are worthy to be worshipped and we shouldn’t do anything disrespectful. We don’t even dare look in their eyes!”

 

Here again, Arjuna addresses Krishna as Madhusudana, “the slayer of enemies.” He says, “How powerful and great You are! How will I pierce them with my arrows?” He is surprised that the Lord Himself is telling him to fight them – because he knows that these people were the gurus, the teachers. Arjuna says, “We can’t attack them!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 3

 

klaibyaṁ mā sma gamaḥ pārtha 

naitat-tvayyupapadyate 

kṣudraṁ hṛdaya daurbalyaṁ  

tyaktvottiṣṭha parantapa

 

Fall not from the virility of a fighter and a hero, O Paartha! It does not befit you.  

Shake off this paltry faint-heartedness and arise, O scourge of your enemy!

 

Lord Krishna addresses Arjuna as Paartha, which means son of Pritha (Kunti). He says, “You are the son of a brave lady. You are the son of Kunti, who is a true Kshatriya, a true warrior. Your mother is so strong! You are a hero! So don’t go into this state of cowardice; don’t let yourself be overtaken by weakness. You possess great valour and are skilled in fighting. Let go of this ‘faint-heartedness and arise!’ You strike fear into the hearts of your enemies; you strike terror into the hearts of great heroes. The moment they hear of you, they are scared! The moment they think of you, their hair stands on end! ‘Scourge of your enemy!’ The moment they hear your Gandiva, they have a powerful image of you. But if you are trembling and your Gandiva is falling from your hand, what will they think of you? This is not worthy of you, My dear.”

 

Then Krishna addresses Arjuna saying, tyaktvottiṣṭha paraṅtapa, “Attack them!”  

Here Krishna did not only mean to attack the outer enemy. He also meant to attack and remove one’s negative inner qualities. The enemy is not only outside; it is inside each of us. Look at your inner enemy. Remove it! Attack it! Don’t be afraid or weak. Remove all this stuff inside! Be in your power! Krishna addresses Arjuna as paraṅtapa. Arjuna had this name because in the past he had killed many demons. Krishna says, “All the demons you have killed, all the other big, big baddies – you have terrified them all. So get up! Stand up! Arise! This is not the place for weakness! Fight!”

Here Krishna is going very slowly with Arjuna. When one goes on the spiritual path, one always looks at what one will lose, and thinks, “Okay. I’m losing this and I’m losing that.” But if you want to go deeper to attain God Consciousness, to attain the Grace of God, there should not be weakness in your spiritual sadhana. You have to go forward with strength, with full trust; and with that trust, you know that God is with you. Here, God Himself is reminding Arjuna, “I am with you, all the time. And not only now. I was always with you – even when you were killing all the big, big demons, all the evil people. I was there with you. I am ever with you. You are My creation. You are in Me, and I am in you. We are not separate. We are never far away from each other.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Sankhya Yoga 

Chapter 2, Verse 2

 

śrī bhagavān uvāca 

kutas tvā kaśmalam idaṁ 

viṣame samupasthitam 

anāryājuṣṭam asvargyam 

akīrtikaram arjuna

 

The Lord says: When did this dejection come to you, this stain and darkness  

of the soul, in the hour of difficulty and peril, O Arjuna? This is not the way  

cherished by the noble man: this mood came not from Heaven, nor can it  

lead to Heaven, and on Earth it is the forfeiting of glory.

Here Lord Krishna Himself starts speaking. He says that Arjuna’s heaviness of heart and low spirits are due to over sentimentality. He says, “You have made yourself weak. It is your willingness to become weak!”

 

Krishna continues, “I am taken aback! I am shocked to see that here, in the middle of the battlefield, you are in such a state! This state is very dangerous and difficult! We are in the middle of the battlefield and now you feel like this? If you would have felt like this before coming on the battlefield, I would understand. But now we are here. This is not a noble feeling. It is not the feeling of a noble man. There is no place for sadness, cowardice or pain on the battlefield. Elsewhere, yes! There is a place for everything. But this is completely out of place here! How can you fight all these great heroes if you are so faint-hearted? With a heart like this, it is very difficult to fight. Where did you get this faint-heartedness? Where did it come from?” Krishna has never known Arjuna to be like this – very sentimental and soft-hearted. Calling this dejection and faint-heartedness of Arjuna unworthy of a noble soul, He says, “If you are like this, how can you even talk about gaining Heaven?” If you are weak, you can’t expect God-Realisation! If you are weak, you can’t expect God to act through you! He will not reveal your dharma to you! God knows that there is no use in throwing pearls to pigs. They will not know what to do with them. They will trample over them; they will not value them. Arjuna’s faint heartedness is not worthy of a warrior on the battlefield.

 

If you are weak on your path in life, you can’t do anything. If you are weak on your path towards God-Realisation, how can you attain God? Krishna says, “I am really amazed. O Arjuna, this is not the way cherished by the noble man: this mood came not from Heaven, nor can it lead to Heaven. This weak kind of mood, this weakness will not lead you anywhere. You are noble.” “Noble” here doesn’t mean that one is of the noble or royal class. By saying to Arjuna, “You are noble,” Krishna means, “You are strong, you are powerful! You are dharma! You have the knowledge of the Self. This is not the place for weakness. This kind of thing will not inspire others. All know you as a great warrior.”

 

Do you remember before the war, when King Virata’s son was going to fight the Kauravas? Arjuna was still disguised as the woman, Brihannala. Though he was dressed as a woman, everyone was always talking about how strong he was. When Arjuna told the son of King Virata, “Go and get my bow, my Gandiva,” he asked, “How will I know what your bow looks like?” Arjuna said, “There is a tree in front of me. Go! You will find my bow there. It is as tall as a palm tree.” That’s how tall the bow of Arjuna was! So you can imagine how tall the Pandavas were! How strong and powerful they were! 

Lord Krishna continues, “This weak kind of mood will not lead you to Moksha. There are four types of noble qualities in life: Moksha (salvation); dharma (virtue);artha (wealth); and kama (enjoyment). This is not how to achieve them! To attain these noble qualities, you have to be strong in life! How can you talk about attaining salvation when you are in this pitiful state? Especially at this odd hour, when you are on the battlefield, My dear!” In Chapter 1, I said – what if you go to the doctor and the doctor just starts crying with you – how can the doctor help you?

Here Krishna becomes the Guru and says, “Look at this world! These excuses are nothing. Your dharma is to fight!” This could appear very terrible! Some people would say, “But Krishna is God, He could change everything!” Of course He could change everything! He can change everything by His will. But, no. He planned to give this knowledge to the world, to remind the world of this knowledge.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 2, Verse 1 

 

sañjaya uvāca 

taṁ tathā kṛpayāviṣṭaṁ 

aśā-pūrṇā-kulekṣaṇam 

viṣīdantam idaṁ vākyam  

uvāca madhusūdanaḥ

 

Sanjaya says: To him thus invaded by pity, his eyes full and distressed with  

tears, his heart overcome by depression and discouragement, Krishna speaks these words.

 

In this state, Arjuna is completely distressed and overtaken by faint-heartedness.  

Looking at his friends and relatives, he starts to cry. He is not just talking, he is crying terribly. He is overtaken by grief and fear that the family will be destroyed. That will bring great sin and negative karma to him, to his family, and to their descendants. It will be complete destruction. In this verse, it is very important to understand why Sanjaya doesn’t call the Lord, ‘Krishna’. Instead he refers to Lord Krishna as madhusūdanaḥ, which means the slayer of Madhu. Madhu was a very fierce demon who was killed by  

Krishna.

 

Sanjaya is reminding Dhritarashtra, the evil-minded, blind king, that Lord Madhusudana Himself, Sri Krishna Himself who had slain the demon Madhu, is there as Arjuna’s charioteer. He is warning Dhritarashtra saying, “He killed this terrible demon – so what about your sons who are on the battlefield? They’re nothing compared to the demon Madhu! This great demon had been terrorising not only the people, not only the world, he had even been terrorising the devas in Indra Loka! How powerful Krishna is! And look at your sons, what are they? Sorry, they are a bunch of idiots. Even when Krishna went to see them as a messenger of peace, they chose to be blind. They have such stupidity, they don’t see. They don’t see that the great Madhusudana is here as Arjuna’s charioteer.”

 

Everybody, including the Kauravas, knew what Krishna had done in His youth in Vrindavan. They knew about all the demons He had killed. But they still chose to be ignorant. Sanjaya continues, “The slayer of that great demon is here. Surely the Pandavas will be victorious! The Pandavas will win! Don’t count on your sons to win!”  

It is this Lord – the One who killed the demon Madhu – it is Him, who will now talk to Arjuna, who is depressed and unwilling to fight. Sanjaya warns, “Dhritarashtra, be ready, because all these tyrants, all these persecutors, will be removed. If the Lord Himself has chosen to be present here, how could your sons be victorious? They can’t  

be!” Sanjaya is reminding him that even if Arjuna is overtaken by distress and faint- heartedness, Krishna is there to change everything.

 

Sanjaya was revealing this to Dhritarashtra after the tenth day of the war. He said, “If you want peace, tell your children to stop. There is still time! Your hundred sons have not yet been slain. As long as Bhishma Pita was still fighting, nothing could happen to any of them, because he was a big shield for them. But now, what will happen? Now it’s imminent that your hundred sons will die.”

 

You see, when people start on the spiritual path, when they feel this inner strength, even if they look outside and feel pity for others, the negativity of the outside will not affect them. They will be strengthened; they will have a shield around them and feel protected.

Bhagavad Gita, 

Chapter 1, Verse 47 

sañjaya uvāca

 

evam uktvā’rjunaḥ saṅkhye 

rathopastha upāviśat 

visṛjya saśaraṁ cāpaṁ 

śoka saṁvigna mānasaḥ

 

Sanjaya says: Having thus spoken on the battlefield, Arjuna sinks down on  

the seat of the chariot, casting down the divine bow, his spirit overwhelmed  

with sorrow.

 

Sanjaya sees Arjuna fall down into the seat of his chariot, overwhelmed with  

sorrow, in a state of complete dejection. Arjuna puts down his bow and loses himself, miserably concentrating on all this negativity, and feeling pity for himself. When one  

has self-pity, one looks for many excuses to not do one’s duty. This is true for Arjuna.  

He has created all this fantasy inside his mind: the horrible picture of the destruction of the family, the horrible scene of the ancestors. The film, the drama, which is turning inside his brain, makes him feel terrible, completely depressed. Here ends the first chapter of the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita: the chapter on Arjuna’s Dejection.

Here you have seen that Arjuna expresses all the qualities that one has in oneself. Arjuna doesn’t represent only himself, he represents everyone. Every day, every person goes through these states. Arjuna here is not just Arjuna; he is each one of you. He shows each state that you go through in life. In Chapter 2, we will see what Bhagavan Krishna has to say to Arjuna. Because in such a state, one forgets that God is there in front of you. In that state, one sees oneself as alone, and even forgets about God. Though God is there in front of you, the mind is so clouded, the mind is so blind, that one can’t think and one can’t see.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 46

 

yadi mām apratīkāram 

aśastraṁ śastra-pāṇayaḥ 

dhārtarāṣṭrā ran‌e hanyus 

tan-me kṣemataraṁ bhavet

 

It would be better for me that the sons of Dhritarashtra, armed as they are,  

should slay me as I am, unarmed and unresisting.

 

Even before the war has started, Arjuna says, “I will give up my arms. I will not  

fight. I will offer myself as a sacrifice to the opposition. I offer myself unarmed to them, unresisting. If they kill me, such a death will be a blessing for me. And we will not get the sin of slaying the family or killing the sons of Dhritarashtra. If they kill me first, there will be no war; the war will end now. This will save the lives of our friends  

and family.”

This is the supreme state of sacrifice, sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. That is what Christ also teaches , “A true friend will give his life for the sake of a friend.” Arjuna feels this out of compassion, not out of weakness. For it is due to compassion that we all have a relationship with each other. Due to this compassion, Arjuna says, “I will offer myself. And if I offer myself, if I sacrifice myself, it will also create good punya and I will attain heaven.” He knows that the Lord of lords is sitting in front of him, that he is talking to the Lord of lords. But the mind of one in that state doesn’t perceive clearly. That’s why Krishna remains quiet and thinks, “It’s of no use talking to him now.”

 

Still Arjuna continues, “At least my mind will be at peace.” If he gives himself to them, it will appease the army of the Kauravas. If he goes there without resistance, it will bring good punya, good blessing to the family. It will be a great act of heroism. 

 Later on Krishna puts him down saying, “What heroism are you talking about? This is cowardice!” 

 

Sanjaya has been narrating all this. He looks at Arjuna who is in complete depression and has terrible chaos inside himself. Sanjaya is very eager to hear what the Lord, Bhagavan Krishna, will say to Arjuna.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 45

 

aho bata mahat pāpaṁ 

kartuṁ vyavasitā vayam 

yad rājya sukha lobhena 

hantuṁ sva-janam udyatāḥ

 

Alas! We were engaged in committing a great sin, we who were endeavouring  

to kill our own people through greed for the pleasures of kingship.

 

Arjuna says, “Alas!” Out of wonder and great sorrow, he expresses himself as if this sin has already happened: “We were engaged in committing a great sin.” This shows that Arjuna and the Pandavas have great knowledge and virtue and that they are very careful about doing anything which will bring bad karma to them. They are aware of the effect of karma. He says, “We will have to repay the karma. We will also have to suffer for that karma. And not only in one life, but for many lifetimes we’ll have to come again and again to repay this great sin which we will be committing. This karma will be very dreadful. We will not be free!” 

 

“Greed for the pleasures of kingship”, here Arjuna is saying that one becomes blind and commits dreadful sin because of greed for the kingdom, for the throne. He says, “We will be enjoying the throne; and this enjoyment will be like lust, which will destroy us. It will bring us really terrible karma later on.” Because Arjuna is aware of the effect of the karma, he says, “It is better that we don’t fight.”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 44

 

utsanna-kula-dharmāṇāṁ 

manuṣyāṇāṁ janārdana 

narake’niyataṁ vāso 

bhavatīty-anuśuśruma

 And men whose family morals are corrupted, live forever in Hell.  

Thus have we heard.

 

Here Arjuna says that those who have lost their family tradition and live in vice, fall into Hell. These poor souls will suffer the torture of Hell for an indefinite length of time. So, be careful! If you do bad, your ancestors will also roast in Hell for a long period of time! This Hell is similar to Hell described in Christianity. But the difference is that in Christianity, you’ll stay in Hell forever. Whereas here, you are sent to Hell – for a holiday. 

 

You have to understand that in the pitris tradition, we do Shraddha ceremony to the ancestors. The gratitude that we show to our ancestors is very important. By doing  

good in this world, our ancestors also profit; in return everybody profits, because the ancestors give us their blessing.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 43

 

doṣair etaiḥ kula-ghnānāṁ 

varṇa-saṅkara-kārakaiḥ 

utsādyante jāti-dharmāḥ 

kula-dharmāśca śāśvatāḥ

 

By these misdeeds of the destroyers of the family, leading to the confusion  

of the castes, the eternal laws of the clan and moral law of the family will  

be destroyed.

In that moment, Arjuna is just seeing his own fear. Out of fear, out of sadness, out of guilt, he doesn’t want to take this responsibility upon himself. He has already created a certain drama inside of himself: that the Varna Dharma, which is taught in the Vedas will not be respected; the eternal law of the clan and the moral law of the family will not be respected; the duties of the castes and the elders will not be respected. The elders of the family were the ones who were strict about maintaining family customs and they were respected. 

Arjuna says, “Bhishma is here in front of us. He is Dharmaraj. He is the one who has kept the clan strong. If he is dead, who will keep this clan relationship tight and strong? Who will keep this tradition?”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 42

 

saṅkaro narakāyaiva 

kula-ghnānāṁ kulasya ca 

patanti pitaro hyeṣāṁ 

lupta-piṇḍodaka-kriyāḥ

 

This confusion leads the family and the destroyers of the family to Hell; for  

their ancestors fall, deprived of pinda (rice offering) and libations. 

As I said earlier, the pitris were very important in the tradition at that time. Arjuna asks, “To whom shall we offer pinda? A pinda is a rice ball. In the Christian orthodox tradition, in the ritual for the departed ones, you always offer wheat, koliva, to the departed souls. In the Hindu tradition, it is similar, but the offering is made of rice. This is offered to the departed people along with water, tilatarpana. Before the Navaratri celebrations, we do the Shraddha ceremony to the ancestors. Arjuna asks, “But if there is a mixture of cultures, to whom shall we offer the Shraddha? Each culture comes from a certain family lineage. If this lineage is broken, to whom shall we offer?  

If all the families are mixed, the race will be of completely mixed blood. There will be no dharma at all. There will be disrespect for the scriptures. The ancestors on the other side will be very sad and that will create much unhappiness in this world.”

In his confusion, Arjuna tries to find all kinds of excuses not to fight. He sees that Krishna is just looking at him, not bothered about these things. Arjuna is using all kinds of words to please Krishna, to make Krishna agree with him. Like I explained earlier, when one is in a depressed state, he will look to everybody else to acknowledge  

his depression. Arjuna is depressed and trying to make Krishna say, “Poor you! We will not fight.” He is trying to make Krishna acknowledge that whatever he is saying is right. He is in a state of deep confusion and the Great Doctor is sitting there with him! Do you think that the Great Doctor would just sit there, start crying with him and  

say, “Oh, my God! Oh, Arjuna, you are right, let’s go back!” No, no, no, no, no! Not a chance, not a chance! 

Arjuna continues on and starts talking about the women. He says to himself,  

“Let me use this approach now. Maybe this will have an effect on Him.” He knows that Krishna loves to protect women and children, “He is the protector of women, so let me use this excuse.” So he says, “When the family is destroyed, the women will be corrupted!” Krishna just looks at him and says, “Okay, yes. Okay, fine. Move on.” Arjuna continues, “The children will be corrupted! They will not know which bloodline they come from!” Krishna says, “Poor Arjuna, you are a super-confused man!” Arjuna sees that this is not working.  

“So let’s try another approach.” Arjuna incontinues trying to make Krishna feel  

guilty, so He will say, “Okay, fine, let’s go!” Arjuna has used the excuse of the women, he has used the excuse of the children, and finally he uses the excuse of the ancestors.  

Krishna says, “Oh, My goodness! These people have already died. Move on, finish with that!” But Arjuna persists, “The ancestors will be deprived of pinda and liberation.” At that moment, Krishna is probably thinking, “You don’t know anything: these people  

are already dead! They have moved on with their lives. So, move on!” Arjuna thinks, “Maybe there is still another card I can play. Let’s try it!”

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 41

 

adharmābhi-bhavāt kṛṣṇa 

praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ 

strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya 

jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ

 

Owing to the predominance of lawlessness, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt; women corrupted lead to the confusion of the  

varnas (castes).

 

With the disappearance of family tradition, men and women will lose restraint in  

their activities, and be tempted by vices.  

There are different kinds of families. ‘Family’ means not only the individual family,  

it also means the spiritual family. ‘Family’ means a gathering, where you spend most  

of your time.

 

Arjuna says, “Through unrestrained activities, vices will arise and this will result  

in sin. Sin will spread throughout all of society. The moral values will be thrown out:  

the respect between men and women; the respect of children for their parents; the  

respect between all people.” People who have no moral values will make fun of  

others. That’s why, when you are on the spiritual path, people make fun of you saying, “Ah, look at this person. He is stupid because he has become spiritual.” They call you  

all kinds of names. They can’t respect others. The world is nowadays like this – not  

always, but most of the time it is like this. When you are on the spiritual path, it doesn’t  

matter which religion you are, other people make fun of you because those people  

have turned towards materialism. People’s minds have turned towards the outside  

and they don’t bother about respect. They don’t care.

Arjuna is still trying to find excuses to stop the war. He says, “Krishna, if there is war, women will be corrupted. They will not be faithful. The social conduct which holds the family together will not be there anymore. Women used to carry the responsibility of holding the family together. If the women themselves are corrupted, then the whole family, everything is finished.” This is greatness: here Arjuna is praising the important role of women. How important it used to be at that time! The mothers and sisters were the ones who maintained this tradition. Arjuna says, “If these women get corrupted and start mixing, adultery will take over.” Here he is also talking about the purity of the different castes: when all the castes start to mix, there is a mixing of blood. The purity of the race is changed.

 

At that time, the tradition of the pitris was very important: the tradition of the  

‘ancestral fathers’ was strictly kept. Even Krishna Himself strictly respected this  

tradition. How they worshipped the ancestors was very, very important. Arjuna asks,  

“Whom will we worship? Each person’s ancestors will be different. If this gets changed, what will be our path?” Krishna says, “You should not bother about all these things. This is not about that: it is about dharma!” Arjuna’s mind is completely confused. He is still trying to find many excuses not to fight.

Bhagavad Gita 

Chapter 1, Verse 40

 

ula-kṣaye praṇaśyanti 

kula-dharmāḥ sanātanāḥ 

dharme naṣṭe kulaṁ kṛtsnam 

adharmo’bhibhavaty-uta

 

In the annihilation of the family, the eternal traditions of the family are  

destroyed; in the collapse of traditions, lawlessness overcomes the  

whole family.

 

There was a custom handed down from generation to generation which helped  

to maintain a high standard of conduct in the family and prevented men and women  

from going astray. Here is this verse, Arjuna says that it’s important to hold tight to that  

custom, otherwise “lawlessness overcomes the whole family.”

 

You see, in ancient times, the elders of the family were treated with great respect.  

Whenever people had any questions, they would always go to the elders of the family.  

Since there was great respect, whatever the elders said was always accepted. Arjuna  

continues, “This tradition will end and there will be corruption in the family. There will  

be no virtue. The incentives which compel man to stay on the path of virtue and avoid  

sin will be gone. These virtues are: fear of God; command of the scriptures; fear of  

violation of the family traditions and state laws; fear of physical injury. When these  

traditions end, even the respect for God is not there! And if we don’t show respect  

to others, how will we expect others to respect us? If we can’t respect the law of the  

country, then the whole country will be in chaos. If out of fear of injury, one starts  

killing, where is the good in this? Everything starts with the family.”

 

Arjuna is focusing on how important it is for everyone in the family to do their  

duty. “If one person is doing adharma, it also affects all the people around you. And  

when the people around are affected, it affects all the surroundings.”

 

Once there was a man giving a discourse. He was talking and he had a great  

regret inside of him. They asked him, “Why do you have this regret?” He said, “I  

regret one thing in my life: I have not changed myself. When I was young, I was very enthusiastic and in this enthusiasm, I wanted to change the world. So I tried to change my town. I tried, tried, and tried, but after some time, I could not. For years, I tried to change my friends, but I could not. Then I tried to change my family. I tried for many  

years, but I could not. Finally, I was left completely alone.

 

“In my loneliness, I realised that I couldn’t change anybody but myself. Now that I  

have seen this, I am looking at the world and see that time is running out. I don’t have  

much time left. If I would have first changed myself, this would have automatically  

made an impact on my family, it would have made an impact on my friends, on the surroundings and on the town. I wanted so much to change everybody else, but not  

myself.”  

You can’t change others. Once you change yourself, everybody else will change.

Bhagavad Gita