1. isbn 978-1-934364-43-7

Content: Bhagavad Gita commentary by Nithyananda Drop everything and Surrender

Content: Bhagavad Gita

Content: The meditation techniques included in this book are to be practiced only after personal instructions by an ordained teacher of Life Bliss Foundation (LBF). If some one tries these techniques without prior participation in the meditation programs of LBF, they shall be doing so entirely at their own risk; neither the author nor LBF shall be responsible for the consequences of their actions.

Content: Published by Life Bliss Foundation

Content: Copyright 2008 First Edition: July 2008 Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-074-8 ISBN 10: 1-934364-43-6 ISBN 13: 978-1-934364-43-7

Content: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. In the event that you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Content: All proceeds from the sale of this book go towards supporting charitable activities.

Content: Printed in India by WQ Judge Press, Bangalore. Ph.: +91 +80 22211168

Content: Bhagavad Gita Demystified

Content: Nithyananda

Content: Discourses delivered to Swamis and Ananda Samajis of the Nithyananda Order all over the world

Content: Beyond Scriptures

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Chapter 18

Content: AHuman beings have the choice of being ignorant or enlightened. Most often we exercise our freewill and choose to stay ignorant. Krishna explains how to choose to be enlightened

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: CONTENTS

Content:

1. Bhagavad Gita: A Background

Content: 2. Introduction

Content: 3. Drop Everything and Surrender

Content: 4. The Act and the Actor

Content: 5. Duty Without Delusion

Content: 6. Charity Must Be Selfless

Content: 7. Technology of Surrender

Content: 8. Extreme Statement

Content: 9. Components of Action

Content: 10. Meanings of Life

Content: 11. Delusion of Senses

Content: 12. Rightful Conduct Not to Perfection

Content: 13. Instructions for Enlightenment

Content: 14. You Are not the Master of Your Destiny

Content: 15. Samskaras Drive You

Content: 16. Energy Darshan

Content: 17. I Shall Not Leave

Content: 18. Krishna Is Present

Content: 19. Scientific Research on Bhagavad Gita

Content: 20. Kuru Family Tree

Content: 21. Glossary of Key Characters

Content: 22. Meaning of Selected Sanskrit Words

Content: 23. Invocation Verses

Content: 24. Verses of Gita Chapter 18

Content: 25. About Nithyananda 239

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: BhagavadGita:

Content: A Background

Content: Bhagavad Gita is a sacred scripture of the Vedic culture. As with all scriptures, it was knowledge that was transmitted verbally. It was called sruti in Sanskrit, meaning something that is heard.

Content: Gita, as Bhagavad Gita is generally called, translates literally from Sanskrit as the 'Sacred Song'. Unlike the Veda and Upanishad, which are self-standing expressions, Gita is written into the Hindu epic Mahabharata, called a purana, an ancient tale. It is part of a story, so to speak.

Content: As a scripture, Gita is part of the ancient knowledge base of Vedic tradition, which is the expression of the experiences of great sages.

Content: Veda and Upanishad, the foundation of sruti literature, arose through the insight and awareness of these great sages when they went into a no-mind state. These are as old as humanity and the first and truest expressions in the journey of man's search for truth.

Content: Unlike the Vedas, which were internalized by the great sages, or the Upanishads, which were the teachings of these great sages, Gita is part of a story narrated by Vyasa, one of these great sages. It is narrated as the direct expression of the Divine.

Content: No other epic, or part of an epic, has the special status of the Gita. As a consequence of the presence of Gita, the Mahabharata epic itself is considered a sacred Hindu scripture. Gita arose from the super consciousness of Krishna, the Supreme God, and is therefore considered a scripture.

Content: Mahabharata, literally the Great Bharata, is a narration about the nation and civilization, which is now known as India. It was then a nation ruled by King Bharata and his descendants. The story of this epic is about two warring clans, Kauravas and Pandavas, closely related to one another. Dhritarashtra, the blind King of Hastinapura and father of the 100 Kaurava brothers was the brother of Pandu, whose children were the five Pandava princes. It is a tale of strife between cousins.

Content: Pandu was the King of Hastinapura. A sage cursed him that he would die if he ever entered into physical relationship with his wives. He therefore had no children. Vyasa says that all the five Pandava children were born to their mothers Kunti and Madri through the blessing of divine beings. Pandu handed over the kingdom and his children to his blind brother Dhritharashtra and retired to meditate in the forest.

Content: Kunti had received a boon when she was still a young unmarried adolescent, that she could summon any divine power at will to father a child. Before she married, she tested her boon. The Sun God Surya appeared before her. Karna was born to her as a result. In fear of social reprisals, she cast the newborn away in a river. Yudhistra, Bhima, and Arjuna were born to Kunti after her marriage by invocation of her powers, and the twins Nakula and Sahadeva were born to Madri, the second wife of Pandu.

Content: Yudhishtra was born to Kunti as a result of her being blessed by Yama, the God of death and justice, Bhima by Vayu, the God of wind, and Arjuna by Indra, God of all divine beings Nakula and Sahadeva, the youngest Pandava twins were born to Madri, through the divine Ashwini twins.

Content: Dhritharashtra had a hundred sons through his wife Gandhari. The eldest of these Kaurava princes was Duryodhana. Duryodhana felt no love for his five Pandava cousins. He made many unsuccessful attempts, along with his brother Dushashana, to kill the Pandava

Content: brothers. Kunti's eldest son Karna, whom she had cast away at birth, was brought up by a chariot driver in the palace and by a strange twist of fate joined hands with Duryodhana.

Content: Dhritharashtra gave Yudhishtra one half of the Kuru Kingdom on his coming of age, since the Pandava Prince was the rightful heir to the throne that his father Pandu had vacated. Yudhishtra ruled from his new capital Indraprastha, along with his brothers Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva. Arjuna won the hand of Princess Draupadi, daughter of the King of Panchala, in a swayamwara, a marital contest in which princes fought for the hand of a fair damsel. In fulfilment of their mother's Kunti's desire that the brothers would share everything equally, Draupadi became the wife of all five Pandava brothers.

Content: Duryodhana persuaded Yudhishtra to join a gambling session, where his cunning uncle Shakuni defeated the Pandava King. Yudhishtra lost all that he owned - his kingdom, his brothers, his wife and himself, to Duryodhana. Dushashana shamed Draupadi in public by trying to disrobe her. The Pandava brothers and Draupadi were forced to go into exile for 14 years, with the condition that in the last year they should live incognito.

Content: At the end of the 14 years, the Pandava brothers tried to reclaim their kingdom. In this effort they were helped by Krishna, the King of the Yadava clan, who is considered the eighth divine reincarnation of Vishnu. However, Duryodhana refused to yield even a needlepoint of land, and as a result, the Great War, the

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

Content: Krishna offered to join with either of the two clans. He said, 'One of you may have me unarmed. I will not take any part in the battle. The other may have my entire Yadava army.' The first offer was made to Duryodhana, who predictably chose the large and well-armed Yadava army, in preference to the unarmed Krishna. Arjuna joyfully and gratefully chose his friend and mentor Krishna to be his unarmed charioteer!

Content: The armies assembled in the vast field of Kurukshetra, now in the state of Haryana in modern day India. All the Kings and Princes were related to one another, and were often on opposite sides. Facing the Kaurava army and his friends, relatives and teachers, Arjuna was overcome by remorse and guilt, and wanted to walk away from the battle.

Content: Krishna's dialogue with Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra is the content of the Bhagavad Gita. Krishna persuaded Arjuna to take up arms and vanquish his enemies. 'They are already dead,' says Krishna, 'all those who are facing you have been already killed by Me. Go ahead and do what you have to do. That is your duty. Do not worry about the outcome. Leave that to Me.'

Content: The Gita is the ultimate practical teaching on the inner science of spirituality. It is not as some scholars incorrectly claim, a promotion of violence. It is about the impermanence of the mind, body, and the need to destroy the mind, ego and logic.

Content: Sanjaya, King Dhritharashtra's charioteer, presents Gita in eighteen chapters to the blind king. All the Kaurava Princes as well as all their commanders such as Bhishma, Drona and Karna were killed in battle. The five Pandava brothers survived as winners and became the rulers of the combined kingdom.

Content: This dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna is a dialogue between man and God or nara and Narayana as they are termed in Sanskrit. Arjuna's questions and doubts are those of each one of us. The answers of the Divine, Krishna, transcend time and space. Krishna's message is as valid today as it was on that fateful battlefield some thousands of years ago.

Content: Nithyananda explains the inner metaphorical meaning of Mahabharata thus:

Content: 'The Great War of Mahabharata is the fight between the positive and negative thoughts of the mind, called the samskaras. Positive thoughts are the Pandava princes and the negative thoughts are the Kaurava princes. Kurukshetra or the battlefield is the body. Arjuna is the individual consciousness and Krishna is the enlightened Master.

Content: The various commanders who led the Kaurava army represent the major blocks that the individual consciousness faces in its journey to enlightenment. Bhishma represents parental and societal conditioning. Drona represents the conditioning from teachers who provide knowledge including spiritual guidance. Karna represents the restrictive influence of good deeds such as

Content: charity and compassion, and finally Duryodhana represents the ego, which is the last to fall.

Content: Parental and societal conditionings have to be overcome by rebelling against conventions. This is why traditionally those seeking the path of enlightenment are required to renounce the world as sannyasin and move away from civilization. This conditioning does not die as long as the body lives, but its influence drops.

Content: Drona represents all the knowledge one imbibes and the teachers one encounters, who stop short of being to able to take us through to the ultimate flowering of enlightenment. It is difficult to give them up since one feels grateful to them. This is where the enlightened master steps in and guides us.

Content: Karna is the repository of all good deeds and it is his good deeds that stand in the way of his own enlightenment. Krishna has to take the load of Karna’s punya, his meritorious deeds, before he could be liberated. The enlightened Master guides one to drop one’s attachment to good deeds arising out of what are perceived to be charitable and compassionate intentions. He also shows us that the quest for and experience of enlightenment is the ultimate act of compassion that one can offer to the world.

Content: Finally one reaches Duryodhana, one’s ego, the most difficult to conquer. One needs the full help of the Master here. It is subtle work and even the Master’s help may not be obvious, since at this point, sometimes the ego makes one disconnect from the Master as well.

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

Content: Mahabharata is not just an epic story. It is not merely the fight between good and evil. It is the dissolution of both positive and negative samskaras that reside in our body-mind system, which must happen for the ultimate liberation. It is a tale of the process of enlightenment.

Content: Mahabharata is a living legend. Bhagavad Gita is the manual for enlightenment.

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

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Introduction

Content: In this series, a young enlightened Master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda comments on the Bhagavad Gita.

Content: Many hundreds of commentaries of the Gita have been written over the years. The earliest commentaries were by the great spiritual masters such as Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, some thousand years ago. In recent times, great masters such as Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Ramana Maharishi have spoken from the Gita extensively. Many others have written volumes on this great scripture.

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Content: Nithyananda’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita is not just a literary translation and a simple explanation of that translation. He takes the reader through a world tour while talking about each verse. It is believed that each verse of the Gita has seven levels of meaning. What is commonly rendered is the first level meaning. Here, an enlightened master takes us beyond the common into the uncommon, with equal ease and simplicity.

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

Content: Sankara, the great master philosopher said:

Content: ‘A little reading of the Gita, a drop of Ganga water to drink, remembering Krishna once in a while, all this will ensure that you have no problems with the God of Death.’

Content: Editors of these volumes of Bhagavad Gita have expanded upon the original discourses delivered by Nithyananda through further discussions with Him. For ease of understanding for English speaking readers, and to cater to their academic interest, the original Sanskrit verses in their English translation have been included as an appendix in this book.

Content: This reading is meant to help every individual in daily life as well as in the endeavour to realize the Ultimate Truth. It creates every possibility to attain nithyananda, eternal bliss!

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

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Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Drop Everything and Surrender

Content: I welcome you all with my love and respects.

Content: Drop everything and surrender. This is the gist not only of this final chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, but it is also the essence of the entire Bhagavad Gita. In addition, throughout the ages it has been the basis of all spiritual teachings and spiritual Masters.

Content: Krishna concludes the Bhagavad Gita with one subject: drop everything and surrender. Beautifully He says:

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Content: sarvadharmān parityajya mamekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja; aham tvāṁ sarvapāpebhyo mokṣayiṣyāmi mā śucaḥ.

Content: In fact, wisdom and truth are about what we do not know. That is all! What we know cannot lead us to the ultimate truth. Knowledge of the mind that we take so much pride in functions like blinkers that we wear to shut out the truth of Existence. The French philosopher Rene Descartes said, ‘I think, therefore I am.’ Poor man, he did not know how wrong he was. There may be no doubt that he was a human or that he existed because of his mind and thoughts. However, that is nothing to be proud of.

Content: What we are has nothing to do with our thoughts. What we are is beyond our thoughts. If our thoughts alone could circumscribe what we are, we would be nothing more than a biomechanical machine.

Content: Animals have greater innate intelligence than humans. That is because they do not think the way we do. They also think; make no mistake about that. Descartes and philosophers of his ilk have no idea about humans, let alone non human beings. Animals do not clutter their minds with fantasies like humans do. They simply flow with nature.

Content: A lion or tiger hunts for food when it is hungry. It eats when it must eat and sleeps when it is tired. No

Content: wild animal stores food, except in rare cases when dictated by nature. No animal in the wild becomes obese.

Content: Humans think. That is the problem. Our great sages, the ancient rishis, declared the opposite of Descartes. They say, 'Drop your mind and you will be aware. You will realize your true potential as a human.'

Content: Sankara, one of the greatest Hindu philosophers, proclaims this so beautifully in his atma shatakam. To define what he truly is, Sankara negates himself of his body, mind, senses, emotions and all his relationships. He declares his inner divinity boldly and beautifully.

Content: I maintain that we are spiritual beings in human form rather than human beings striving to be spiritual. Our potential is huge. Our intelligence is unlimited. But our intellect is limited.

Content: Knowledge is of three kinds. The first and the least relevant type is acquired through the mind and intellect. Scientific knowledge such as physics, math, medicine, etc., falls into this category. We think we benefit from this knowledge. We believe this knowledge enhances the quality of our lives. In the end, we wonder why we are unhappy despite all this knowledge. The more we acquire knowledge belonging to this first category, the more disturbed we become.

Content: The second type of knowledge cannot be taught in the same way as intellectual knowledge. This type of knowledge must be learned. Creative arts belong to this type. We cannot learn to sing, dance or write by reading

Content: a book. It does not involve mere absorption of information. We must observe. We must internalize. We must imbibe and then we must express. In addition to the head and intellect, one's heart and emotions must be involved. Knowledge based on the heart is based upon intellect plus something more.

Content: The third and highest type of knowledge is from the being. It is conveyed from the being to the being. This is knowledge of the 'aha' experience that happens so rarely. The greatest discoveries and inventions fall into this type of knowledge. This is the knowledge of intuition. This is communion as opposed to communication at the intellectual level and collaboration at the emotional level. Knowledge at the being level is a combination of knowledge of the head, knowledge of the heart plus something more.

Content: Knowledge about God can also fall in all these three types. When we started the Bhagavad Gita series, we learned what sastra, stotra and sutra were. Sastra is knowledge of the intellect. It is acquired by reading and understanding. Stotra is acquiring knowledge through learning, through the heart, i.e., through devotion. Sutra is learning through being, i.e., through meditative techniques that cut to the core of what is essential.

Content: Even knowledge about God creates bondage when it is intellectually based because we will only know about God. That is all! We will not know God. Please understand this. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. Knowing about God is different from knowing God. When we completely surrender everything, we will not even have the idea that we know God. When

Content: that idea does not exist in us, we know God. Otherwise we may know about God but we do not know exactly what the Divine is.

Content: Words do not express God. No expressions can lead to the experience of God. God is when expressions cease. Zen masters say that the finger pointing to the moon is not the moon. It is only a pointer, a reminder. Words about God in any form, however sincere they may be, are mere pointers and reminders.

Content: The problem with religions is that they teach us about God. They do not to teach how to know God. All moral science and related classes do not help us reach God. They are designed to control us through fear and greed. That is the function of religions. Religions are another set of institutions, no different from political and social institutions. In the same manner, religions make rules and regulations focused on ensuring their survival.

Content: Forget about outer worldly things. All our ideas about spirituality and meditation, even so-called noble and non-material issues, are only our ideas of these things. They are dreams. They are waking state daydreams, but dreams just the same. We think they are the truth, but we do not know what truth is. Moreover, all our understanding and so-called spiritual practices are simply within this dream! The whole thing is a dream. Within this dream, we try to practice something. We try to understand something and we try some techniques. How can we expect that these efforts will lead to the Ultimate?

Content: Please be very clear, if our efforts could lead us to enlightenment, there would have been enlightenment

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Content: shops long ago. Our people would have created a clear program: how many days we need to work and what method we must use. They would have created the enlightenment checklist. Practice all this and have it! Long ago we would have had spiritual cybermalls where we could shop for enlightenment through the Internet! All this would have happened. Actually, our effort to acquire knowledge in no way brings the ultimate experience into our life. It is not connected to the destination we seek.

Content: How many religions have helped enlighten people? On the contrary, we find that all wars in the history of mankind have been fought in the name of religion. Millions of people have been massacred in the name of preserving and propagating religions. All colonization happened with religion putting out signposts. Religions caused destruction and death, not enlightenment.

Content: Spiritual Masters never preached that one should kill another to cajole, coerce and convert. No spiritual Master preached violence. If he did, he would be no Master! An enlightened Master reaches Cosmic Consciousness wherein he cannot differentiate between one being and another. He cannot even differentiate between an inanimate being and an animate being, let alone one group of people and another.

Content: Great spiritual Masters come with the mission to raise us to a superconscious state. They aim to awaken individual consciousness so that we become aware that we are part of the Collective Consciousness of this Universe. They come with a mission to make us understand that we must move from the attitude of 'I' to 'you' and 'us.'

Content: The ignorant followers of the great Masters fomented violence based upon their limited understanding of the truths that the Masters expressed. Instead of creating spirituality integrating beings, they built religious institutions that divided people. Unlike spirituality that spreads love amongst one another, religion fosters violence.

Content: Suppose we buy a lottery ticket for one dollar and win one million dollars! Did we earn the million dollars? No! Never can we say that we earned it. It was a pure gift.

Content: In the same way, enlightenment is a gift. It makes no difference what effort we put in. Whatever we may have put in does not matter. We may have stood on one leg for hundreds of years. We may have fasted for thousands of years. We may have practiced meditation or yoga or some other technique. These are equivalent to buying that one-dollar lottery ticket. Anything we put in is comparable to that one-dollar lottery ticket. What we receive in return is a pure gift. Whatever we do is within the material dream. How can that get us something beyond the dream?

Content: Krishna says ‘Drop everything and surrender.’ First let us understand the word ‘surrender’. The word itself frightens people. We must understand that we are not going to lose anything when we surrender. We are only going to gain everything. However, for lack of a better word, we must use this word.

Content: Realize first of all that we have nothing of any value to surrender! We only think we have something to surrender. The truth is that we have nothing to surrender.

Content: surrender. We simply need to open our eyes and see that everything that is, is Divine. It is Existence. Whatever we think is ours does not exist! The 'I' and 'mine' that we hold onto are mere lies. The moment we understand this, we surrender. The moment we surrender, we understand.

Content: When we call something 'mine,' legally it belongs to us, but it is not true existentially. Legally we can fence off a piece of land and call it ours. Legally we can own things. But Nature or Existence does not know that it is ours. When a cyclone hits, it does not care whose property it is. It does not know the law! It does not know that legally a cyclone is not allowed on someone's property! For Existence there is no law.

Content: Your idea of 'mine' is protected by the laws of the society. You cannot truly use the term 'law of the land.' The land has no laws. Only society has laws. Land can have an earthquake at any time. It cannot have laws to govern Nature. Law of the land is beyond your comprehension. As long as you are caught with the concept of 'I' and 'mine,' you will not understand the truth about Existence. You are caught in thinking that something is 'you' and something is 'yours.'

Content: When Krishna tells us to drop everything and surrender, He asks us to open our eyes and see the foolishness of our possessions and expectations. Open your eyes and see the drama that you are playing. Open your eyes and see the game that you are playing. It is one thing if you play the game to cheat others; however,

Content: do not cheat yourself. By and by we forget this and cheat ourselves with this game.

Content: Please understand, there is no 'I,' there is no 'mine.' The person who is intelligent and willing to open his eyes and see reality, will sooner or later wake up to the truth that there is no 'I' or 'mine.'

Content: Can whatever you think of as 'I,' either your body or mind, function without air? Can you say that the air belongs to you? This basic energy, prana, which goes in and comes out, does not belong to you. If prana stops functioning, what you think of as 'you' disappears.

Content: It is like saying that the foundation does not belong to me, but the first floor of the house is mine! You can do that legally. It is impossible existentially. In the same way, the building may belong to you, but the earth that it sits on does not belong to you. The earth can give one small shake, and whatever you thought was yours just disappears!

Content: The very foundation of whatever you think is 'you' does not belong to you. It belongs to the Whole. It belongs to Existence. It belongs to the Universe. It belongs to Nature with whom you are continuously fighting. The base or root of what you think of as 'you' does not belong to you.

Content: We take for granted the air that continuously goes in and comes out. We believe that the air belongs to us. There is no break in this natural supply. Maybe if God called a strike, like a workers' union strike, we would

Content: understand that we cannot take it for granted. Suppose He called a strike for a minute, then we would understand that it did not belong to us. But He is a Karunamurti, God of Mercy. Out of His compassion, He never goes on strike! That is why we take life for granted. Just because certain things belong to us legally, we think that the concept 'mine' is solid. The truth is that both the 'I' and 'mine' have no base.

Content: Anybody who is intelligent enough to open his eyes and see, realizes that 'I' and 'mine' are a drama. Whatever you may think is 'I,' is not under your control. The moment the air that goes in does not come out, it is over. 'I' disappears. Immediately your name will be taken from the gate to your house and put on your tombstone. You will be called a dead body! You will be taken to the place to rest forever! Your house and car will be useless. So, whatever we think is 'I' and 'mine' will be baseless.

Content: When we say a particular piece of property belongs to us, we are saying that it legally belongs to us. Existentally it is not true. One earthquake or hurricane is enough to wipe that out. Earth does not know what belongs to us. Nature does not know. Existence does not know. And they do not care. Only the law of that society knows that it belongs to us. When we look at the land records, we realize many people lay claim to the same piece of land! The truth is that it does not belong to anybody. It is just a lot of paper work!

Content: Our life itself is built on paper work. The moment we have the intelligence to see this, the moment we wake up to this reality, we achieve the state of surrender. The

Content: moment we understand that in Existence nothing called 'I' or 'mine' exists, we immediately experience tremendous relief from needing to continuously protect ourselves.

Content: These two instincts of holding onto 'I' and 'mine' are the reason for physical and mental problems. The instinct to survive and instinct to possess are the root cause of our problems. On the other hand, when we realize that the 'I' and 'mine' do not exist, we laugh at ourselves. We realize how we have cheated ourselves and how foolish we have been in spending our whole life and our energy in building sand castles.

Content: A small Zen story:

Content: Some children were playing on the beach, making sand castles. The whole day they worked hard to build beautiful sand castles. At the end of the day, they jumped on the castles and destroyed everything that they had taken the whole day to make. And they enjoyed that too! A Zen Master sat nearby and watched the whole scene. He merely said: 'This is life.'

Content: A king also watched this scene. Then one child started crying because another child smashed his sand castle. The king laughed and said, 'How foolish to cry over a sand castle.'

Content: The Zen Master laughed at the king. The king became angry and asked, 'Why are you laughing?'

Content: The Master explained: 'At least these kids know that they are playing when they make and break sand castles.

Content: In contrast, when you make and break stone castles, you think you are doing something real. You destroy people. The children are more aware than you; yet you call them foolish. That is why I am laughing.'

Content: The important point here is that the children knew that both the building and the demolishing was a drama. That is the reason they were unaffected. They enjoyed building and destroying. In our so-called real life, we do not understand this truth.

Content: Actually, our life is pseudo-life. The way children live is real life. They understand that it has no value intrinsically. One day it will be built and the next day destroyed. They do not sit and cry. They are not emotionally disturbed. They have no problems. But if our castles are shaken, we have problems. We do not even have the basic understanding that all castles will be shaken and all palaces will be destroyed.

Content: The whole thing is pure fun! We must understand that whatever way we live and whatever we may build does not belong to us. If we do not internalize the out-worldly incidents and if we treat them with the disrespect they deserve, we experience what I call surrender.

Content: There is only one thing to remember: do not internalize sensory inputs and do not take things too seriously. When you take life too seriously, you can be sure of one thing and that is sickness. All seriousness is a form of sickness. When you think the 'I' or 'mine' is the truth, you create trouble for yourself. The moment you believe that there is an 'I' in your being, you start moving away from life.

Content: The idea that you have of yourself has no base, whatever you may think of as you. Sometimes you think you are the body. Sometimes you think you are the mind. And yet another time, you think you are the senses. No matter what you identify as yourself, it is baseless.

Content: There is another critical thing to understand in this regard. Whatever aspect you think of as 'you' will not grow. If you think you are the body, you stop the growth of the body because you do not like change. Whenever you think you are the mind, you stop the growth of the mind. You stop the inputs to the mind.

Content: That is the reason egoistic people cannot listen to new ideas or read about them. They cannot learn because learning is against their vested interests. They think that they already know and have nothing more to learn. When you think that your mind is you, the very attitude of learning, the beginner's mind is lost. Wherever you sit, you destroy it.

Content: If you think you are the body, you do not let the body rejuvenate itself. You do not let your body do its regular work. If you think you are the mind, you do not let it learn anything new. You do not allow anything new to enter. That is a sure way of destroying it.

Content: The same applies to what you consider as 'mine.' This is based on the laws of society. In no way is it related to the laws of Existence.

Content: It is well known to science that of the trillions of cells in our mind-body system, millions of cells die each day

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Content: and millions of cells are reborn. At the end of about two years, not one cell in our body existed two years earlier. Every single entity in the body is new. This means that every so often in our lives there is no 'I' as we knew it before. Yet, we carry that label proudly with all its warts and problems.

Content: All we are is a bunch of memories, value systems and beliefs, collectively known as samskaras. Our samskaras define us. Our samskaras rule us. And our samskaras make decisions for us. That is what this 'I' is all about.

Content: We conduct Life Bliss Programs on meditation to eliminate these samskaras because samskaras rule us and make our decisions unconsciously. We live unconsciously and instinctively, instead of consciously and intelligently. When we are focused on the 'I,' our responses are unconscious and instinctive. They are defensive and protective. Studies have shown that when cells are in a protective mode they cannot grow. As long as we are focused on 'I,' we never grow.

Content: The feeling of 'I' arises from the swadishthana chakra, the spleen energy center, where the Self is established. This is the seat of insecurity. Until we relinquish our fears by energizing this chakra, we desperately grasp the apparent security of 'I'

Content: The feeling of 'mine' is more primal than that of 'I.' 'Mine,' the idea of survival and possession, precedes the identity of 'I.' It arises from the muladhara chakra, the root energy center. All emotional blocks of lust, greed and anger arise through this feeling of possession.

Content: Giving up possessiveness and identity are difficult when we are conditioned the way we are, yet it is not impossible. In the Nithyananda Order, all acharyas, the teachers who take up mission work conducting Life Bliss Programs, must change their names to spiritual names that I give them. Otherwise they cannot be acharyas. We have a few hundred acharyas in our mission all over the world. Because I personally ordain each acharya, the number of acharyas is limited.

Content: Why do they change their names, sometimes even at the age of sixty? They will tell you that for the first time in their lives they feel a sense of liberation and freedom. They feel reborn and they celebrate. Initially people told me that it would be difficult to find acharyas since most people would not like to give up their past identity. The truth is that when you truly understand what 'you' is, you sincerely wish to give up your past identity.

Content: Similarly, when we give up our possessions and attachment to possessions, we feel liberation. When I walked out of my family's home at seventeen, I felt no loss. Today, the whole world is my home.

Content: This does not mean that all of you need to become monks, renunciates and sanyasi. You can happily continue your normal life, but drop your attachments, fantasies, speculations, greed and fear.

Content: You need not renounce what you already have. All you need to do to achieve happiness is to renounce what you do not have.

Content: This one statement has been a clarion call for awakening thousands of people. For the first time in their

Content: lives, they understood the mistakes they were making. By dropping fantasies about the future which had no existence and by dropping regrets and guilt about their past about which nothing could be done, they reached a state of happiness that had thus far eluded them.

Content: Renunciation does not mean sitting cross-legged with a tense look and eyes closed. If enlightenment could happen by shutting off our senses, it would be easy. We would just need to sit in soundproof rooms wear blindfolds and have no contact with anyone. We would emerge enlightened after one week or so. If this method worked, all prisoners in solitary confinement should become enlightened.

Content: Renunciation is a state of mind and not a mere state of the body. It is even more than a state of mind. It is a state of being. We can renounce attachments to relationships and possessions while being involved in material life. On the other hand, we could take sanyas, go to the distant Himalayas, and every time we close our eyes, our inner TV would switch on.

Content: The surrender that Krishna talks about involves dropping fantasies and surrendering to reality. The true reality, the only truth, is that we are part of the universal energy. We are part of the Collective Consciousness. When we have this awareness, there is no room for the individual 'I' and 'mine' consciousness to rule our actions.

Content: Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna talks about renunciation. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa said that the

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Gita is nothing but Ta Gi, meaning tyag, or renunciation. Ramakrishna said, 'Keep repeating Ta Gi and you will understand Gi Ta.'

Content: Again and again Krishna speaks about renunciation: How we should surrender the fruits of action to Him, without renouncing the action itself; and how all knowledge and action should be surrendered at His feet. He prepares Arjuna for this final moment when He tells him that all there is, is to surrender. That is all.

Content: Surrender is of three kinds. The first step is surrender of the intellect. For most people, especially intellectuals, this is the easiest. Your ego must be ripe before it can fall. The more stuff you pack into your thick skull, the more bloated it becomes. You become intoxicated with your own knowledge. You become intellectually arrogant. You are then ripe for surrender.

Content: When someone appears on the scene and proves that intellectual knowledge is a pile of garbage, a person with a truly ripe intellectual ego understands and accepts the truth. Only those with half-baked knowledge who pretend to have intellectual status have a problem understanding such a truth. A true intellectual can understand that all acquired knowledge is a mirage, an illusion.

Content: When this happens, such a person surrenders his intellect to the Master who shows him the way. Many intellectual seekers and spiritual shoppers come to me with loads of questions. After spending time with me most of them tell me with great surprise that they no

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Content: longer have questions. I don't take the trouble to answer their questions. No one can answer such questions. All I do is add more words and confuse them. They struggle with the new words and find their own answers. Once a few questions are answered the rest just drop.

Content: When I do answer, I answer the questioner. I address the person not his question. I look into his being and provide the solution.

Content: The next step in surrender is surrender of the heart. People ask how they will remember me when they go away from the ashram. I tell them that if I am their Master, they will have the problem of forgetting me. Remembering me is not an issue, forgetting me is.

Content: The thought of the Master will melt your heart. You will become emotional. You do not need to be in the Master's physical presence. You do not need to see His picture. You do not need to hear His voice. The mere thought is enough. Tears flow from you. This is a powerful form of surrender. Ramakrishna says, 'Know this for sure: when the mere thought of your ishta devata (favorite deity) or your Master reduces you to tears, you are in your last janma, your last birth.'

Content: What an enlightened Master says is always true. So powerful is this surrender that it can liberate you, enlighten you. This is the power of devotion, bhakti. Krishna keeps repeating that this is the easiest way to reach Him. Do not worry about learning scriptures. Do not worry about performing rituals. Do not worry about techniques. He says, 'Just be devoted to Me and Me alone, and I shall save you.'

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: The third and final form of surrender is surrender of the senses. When the surrender of senses happens, enlightenment happens, and when enlightenment happens, the surrender of senses happens.

Content: Walking with Arjuna after the Mahabharata War, Krishna points to a bird on a tree and remarks, ‘Arjuna, look at that green crow!’

Content: Arjuna responds, ‘Yes, Krishna, I see the green crow.’

Content: Krishna says, ‘What a fool you are. How can a crow be green?’

Content: Arjuna simply says, ‘Krishna, when you told me to look at that green crow, what I saw was indeed a green crow.’

Content: Such was the state of Arjuna’s surrender to his Master. What He said was what Arjuna’s eyes saw. This is the final state of surrender.

Content: It may surprise you that an enlightened Master has no freedom to do what he wishes. His surrender to the Cosmic Energy is so total that every move he makes is dictated by that Energy. Ordinary people have freedom to do what they wish. All this talk about destiny has no meaning. Each of you has full freedom to do what you wish. After doing what you want and suffering, you claim it was because of your destiny. Whatever you do is within your power. In contrast, I have no power to move on my own. Every word I utter is at the command of Parasakti, the Cosmic Energy.

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Content: Krishna's advice to Arjuna and to all seekers is to drop everything and surrender unto Him. That is the only and final solution.

Content: Q: I believe I am a spiritual person. I have met spiritual Masters from whom I have benefited. I seem to be guided by unseen energies. But I am not content to be where I am. I conceive the future and work hard to make that reality. Am I on the right path?

Content: As I said earlier, all of us are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are not mere human beings in search of a spiritual destination. All of us at the core are energy. We are not matter. Therefore, we are driven by energy. Masters can help guide us in how we travel this energy path. But we need to give them the chance. We need to be open.

Content: When you say that you are not content with where you are, it is a reflection of your inner restless state. The rest of the pronouncements that you are spiritual, you are energy and that Masters guide you, etc., arises from a restless ego. It would be an insult to attribute this restless ego to a Master's guidance.

Content: You are in the same state as billions of others. You are in a state of rajas guna, the attribute of restlessness, aggression and passion. There is nothing wrong with being in this state. It just means that you are still in the grip of your senses. It means that your senses control you and you don't control them. It means that you are in

Content: the periphery and not at the center where your spirituality is centered.

Content: In order to be truly spiritual, you need to move to the core. The core is where you understand who you are. You understand that you are not 'I,' but that you are 'we.' Even now you may pretend to be selfless and do charitable services. But they have no meaning as long as you are credited and they give you fame. You will rarely do anything anonymously or be charitable to others when they do not respect you.

Content: Neither the past nor future is relevant when you are truly in the present. You do not make goals for the future and you do not regret or hold grievances from the past. The present moment is the satva guna moment where the action is passive. You are no longer restless but centered. You act, but do not worry about the outcome. Whatever the result is, you no longer measure it as success or failure. What happens is what should happen, that is all.

Content: When you are on the right path, only the path matters, not the destination. If you consider the destination important whereas the path is of secondary importance, it is unlikely that you are walking the right path. When you focus on the path, whatever destination you reach is right.

Content: How do you know which attitude you are in?

Content: Please understand that if you hold grievances from the past, regrets and guilt, you are far from the right path.

Content: People pretend that they are not emotionally connected with past events and that they are no longer disturbed by characters and events that have seemingly wronged them in the past. Yet their blood pressure shoots up when they must face such people and recollect such events. Your body does not lie. Your voice will become shrill and you will complain. These people and events still haunt you; no matter much you deny it.

Content: Self-denial is the sign of being rooted in the past and future. The problem with self-denial is that you will not accept what others tell you. You are blinded by ignorance of your behavior. You are like Duryodhana. The ego is the root cause of self-denial because you feel that accepting that you are haunted by the past is a sign of weakness. Unfortunately, weaknesses do not disappear by suppressing them. Instead, they become more harmful.

Content: When you are in a state of self-denial due to your ego, you will not be receptive to the Master. Even the Master cannot help you.

Content: We teach how to open up these past samskaras and dissolve them in our second and third level Life Bliss Programs. One needs to re-experience and relive these past moments in order to relieve and expunge them. The memories will stay without the emotions. They do not haunt you. You can truly smile when you meet the person against whom you have held the grudge.

Content: I also personally train and initiate our Nithya Healers. Before initiation and before becoming my disciples, they need to complete all three levels of Life Bliss Programs.

Content: They can only practice the meditation that I initiate them into after all their samskaras have been dissolved through these programs. Hundreds of testimonials attest to the transformation that participants no longer hold enmity against another person after these three programs.

Content: In the Nithya Healers’ Initiation, potential healers who become my ordained disciples must take an oath that they will heal whoever seeks their help. They must take an oath that they will heal even their worst enemy. Surprisingly, again and again, these people say that they can no longer consider anyone an enemy. They say very humbly that they no longer hold a grudge against anyone for any reason.

Content: Sometimes when a disciple tells me that he has had an outburst of anger against another person, I ask, ‘Can you smile at that person now? If there is no guilt and no grievance, there is no problem. Then the anger has been expressed as energy.’

Content: But don’t do that ten times each day and shout at people and then say that you can smile at them. Especially if these people are obliged to you or employed by you, they have no choice but to listen to you. Whether you can smile at them or not is not an issue. Can they smile at you? That will be the decider. No energy should be misused.

Content: When you are centered, you allow the future to happen to you. You do not direct the future. You may need to make some chronological plans if you are in business, but you do not become obsessed. You are not

Content: worried whether the result will be one way or another. You may ask, 'How is this possible when I am engaged in business activity? I must plan and be obsessed with the results. I must be with the goal twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Only then I shall succeed.'

Content: Not true. You will only be stressed out and have a heart attack. The wealthiest people in the world are focused, not obsessed. Wealth is created by being focused on the process of creating wealth, not by being obsessed about the end result of money. Someone who is obsessed about making millions or billions will only fantasize about the money. They will neither have the time or inclination to be focused on the process that delivers the wealth.

Content: For a few days, act without obsessing about the outcome. Do whatever you need to do and you are used to doing and as the situations arise. But do not sweat about whether the result will be as you would like it. Focus only on the action. Experiment with this attitude for three or four days.

Content: Nothing disastrous will happen to you in three or four days. Whatever happens will only be for the good. You will find out how relaxed you are and how much more energetic you are towards what needs to be done.

Content: To be focused on the process is to be in the present moment. In the present moment you are in reality. You say that you conceive the future and work hard to make it a reality. Are you in the present moment when you work? Or are you caught in the regrets and grievances of

Content: the past and the fantasies of the future? Whether you are on the right path or not depends on the answer to this question.

Content: Ego combined with grievances and fantasies is a dangerous mix. This was Duryodhana’s state. Personalities like Hitler, Stalin and Saddam caused havoc with this combination in recent history. Others, who may not be labeled as clearly as global villains, can equally harm others as a result of this combination. All these people conceived of a future and worked obsessively towards that future. But they were so focused on their ego and satisfaction of the ego that their mind was in constant movement between the past and future. Their attention was occupied with grievances and fantasies.

Content: This is an area where many so-called fulfillment techniques mislead people and sometimes destroy people’s lives. Many are based on unconscious or subconscious visualization techniques such as using the alpha state of mind. These are positively dangerous since one has no control over the unconscious mind. It is like opening a Pandora’s Box. Along with what one wishes for, a host of unwanted samskaras comes to fruition. This is what they mean when they say, ‘be careful what you wish for, you may get it.’

Content: Others advise you to visualize in the conscious state. If such techniques worked, everyone would be a millionaire. Who does not desire to be rich, healthy and happy? If it is so easy to achieve that by constantly repeating it in your conscious mind through some process, there should be no poor, unhealthy and unhappy people in this world.

Content: All these self-improvement programs make the designers and promoters rich, no one else.

Content: These methods do not work because intents only work when there is no self-contradiction. There are two extremes when self-contradiction does not exist. The first is when one is completely deluded with ego such as Duryodhana, Hitler and Stalin. Their self-obsession was so complete that there was no self-doubt about their own fantasies. There is no reality in this state. There is no intelligence to accept reality. Such people are in complete self-denial. This is their route to self-destruction.

Content: The other extreme where there is no self-contradiction is the enlightened state. The enlightened being is always in reality and aware of oneself. There is no self-contradiction at this level. But unlike the state of Duryodhana, this is an egoless state. In either of these states, intent becomes reality since there is no self-contradiction between what is desired and what is considered possible.

Content: In every other state, there is self-contradiction between the present moment reality and the future intent. This prevents any process, whatever the form of visualization, from working. To make the intent work in reality is to make the intent congruent with reality. This happens only in a Superconscious state of awareness brought about by meditation.

Content: In the meditative state, you are in the energy field of the Cosmos. You are the same energy as the universe. The energy guides you. Whatever you seek will be

Content: congruent with what is to happen. In fact, if you are truly in a meditative state, you will have no desire to seek. Whatever happens is acceptable.

Content: If you truly believe that there is a Super Power, even if you are still unaware that you are an inherent part of this super power, when you pray believing that this Energy has the power to grant you what you wish, why don't you also believe it has intelligence to decide what to give you and when to give it.

Content: This awareness can change the way you seek your future. There is a Supreme Intelligence guiding your life and your fortune. All you need to do is to trust that Supreme Power.

Content: The Act and the Actor

Content: 18.1 Arjuna said, 'Krishna, Killer of the demon Kesi, I wish to understand what the purpose of renunciation is and what being a monk is, and the difference between the two.'

Content: Arjuna speaks now after being silent for a long time.

Content: He will stop speaking soon. He has just a few words. He is not questioning. He just expresses a few doubts. The arrogance or violence in Arjuna's being has disappeared. He has become like a flower due to the experience of the Cosmic Vision that Krishna showered on him. I cannot

Content: even call these words doubts. He just wants to hear the truth from Krishna again and again.

Content: Sometimes after listening to the whole discourse, disciples ask me to repeat a joke or a story once more! They have heard it once but want to hear it again. Especially from the Master, listening to certain things again and again gives great joy.

Content: Words of a Master are energy. These words drill deep into you and transform you. At the time of listening, you may not realize their impact. But they never fail to impact you. Arjuna asks some of these questions in order to hear from Krishna again.

Content: Arjuna says: ‘O Mighty One, I wish to understand the purpose of renunciation and of the monastic life of sanyas. O Hrishikesa (another name for Krishna meaning one who is in complete control of His senses), please tell me the truth.’

Content: As I told you, it is not that Arjuna does not know. He has just heard the whole thing. Still, he wants to listen to it once more. Sometimes we enjoy listening to the same thing over and over.

Content: A small story:

Content: A man calls the lawyer’s office and asks to speak to his ex-wife’s lawyer.

Content: The secretary says: ‘I’m sorry, Sir, but the lawyer passed away yesterday.’

Content: The man expresses the usual condolences and disconnects. Ten minutes later, for the second time, he calls and asks to speak to his ex-wife’s lawyer.

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Content: The secretary says: 'I told you ten minutes ago that he passed away last night.' Once more the man thanks her and disconnects.

Content: Again after another ten minutes, he calls the lawyer's office and asks to talk to his ex-wife's lawyer. Now the secretary becomes a little angry and says: 'I already told you that you cannot talk to him. He died yesterday. Can't you understand?'

Content: The man replies: 'Yes ma'am, I understand. But it gives me such joy to hear it that I am calling again and again!'

Content: So it is not that we do not understand, but it gives us great joy to listen to the same thing again and again! Like that, Arjuna wants to listen to the same truth again and again.

Content: Arjuna wants to know why a person would want to sacrifice everything and what is the process of renunciation.

Content: In India it is often difficult to distinguish a renunciate, a sanyasi, from a common beggar. Both seek alms. Both possess very little. And both are homeless. Many people take the easy path and treat the sanyasi like a beggar and shoo him off. This attitude is far more prevelant in South India, especially Tamilnadu, where there has been a lot of propaganda against the Hindu religion and spirituality.

Content: I tell my disciples, 'When in doubt treat the beggar as if he were a monk. If you have money to give, what harm is there if you give it to benefit another person?' Some people tell me, 'But Master, they are cheating us!'

Content: So what! Get cheated, that's all. When you give, give unconditionally or don't give at all. When you give unconditionally, not expecting anything in return, what difference does it make whether you give to a monk or beggar. If you expect that a monk will bless you if you give and that blessing will have effect, why can't the blessing of a beggar have the same effect? And how do you know that a person wearing a monk's garb is truly leading a monk's life?

Content: Quite often people give to those wearing a monk's garb because they are conditioned to give to them and they are afraid to refuse. They believe that if the monk curses them they will have problems. So, giving alms to a sanyasi is like taking out insurance. You expect that your merits are getting noted down in a cosmic record and will be read on the Day of Judgment to decide whether you go to hell or heaven.

Content: Please understand, there is no hell or heaven. These are illusions used by religions to control you through fear of hell and greed of heaven. No one keeps a list of your merits and offences, your punya and papa. No St. Peter will be at the Pearly Gates waiting for you. Nor will Yama be on a buffalo waiting to pronounce judgment upon you.

Content: I tell people who wish to donate to my mission and ashram, not to do it hoping that they will be guaranteed a place in heaven. 'There will be no Nithyananda waiting to guide you into heavenly suites when you die,' I tell them. There is no exchange offer that you pay now and go to heaven later. When you do good deeds in this world, you

Content: are already in heaven. When you are in hell, you cause problems to everyone and yourself.

Content: Make it simple. Give unconditionally if you can afford it. Give even if you cannot afford it. That is when giving becomes truly effective. When you sacrifice what you cannot afford to sacrifice, by the mere act of giving, you become a renunciate, a sanyasi. How noble it is!

Content: Arjuna is confused about the act and the actor. What is important is the act. Anyone can be the actor.

Content: Q: Master, you said that renouncing one’s ego is the ultimate step in renunciation and that compassion is the outcome. Please explain how this occurs?

Content: Love and compassion are the end results in true renunciation. This renunciation needs great courage since the basic requirement for moving into the world of love and compassion is dissolution of your ego. That is not easy to do.

Content: We cling to our ego like an infant monkey to its mother. We are ready to die for it, but we are not ready to let it die because it defines us. It gives us an identity. It gives us a separate existence. It makes us feel important and significant.

Content: But ego is a false phenomenon and these feelings are rooted in fallacy. Deep down we are aware that the identity and importance that ego gives is bogus. We know that they are phony. They are bondage, not support. We

Content: know it yet we don't want to know it. We are aware of it yet we don't want to know it. We are aware of it yet we want to be oblivious of it. This is the human dilemma.

Content: Life is a misery with ego because we cannot be joyful if we are rooted in something false. Only truth can release the energies of joy in us. Ego is the greatest lie: all other lies are by-products of it. Because it is a lie, it creates a thousand and one problems around itself. It hides behind those problems. It creates such a great facade of misery that you get involved in that suffering and you forget everything about the root cause.

Content: The moment ego is dropped, your life instantly goes through a radical change. It goes through a revolution. All that it requires is only your decision. If you want to drop it you can drop it right now. Nothing prevents you from dropping it except yourself.

Content: Ego is like darkness. It has no substance on its own. You cannot remove darkness physically, can you? You can only remove darkness by bringing in light. The positive nature of light automatically and effortlessly removes the darkness. So it is with ego. It is the darkness born out of the ignorance of our true self. We fail to realize that we are one with the universe because of the illusion of ego. Love for our fellow beings is the light that destroys this ego. You fall in ego and rise in spirituality.

Content: Ego drops when communion happens between a Master and a disciple in total silence and from heart to heart, not from mind to mind. The Master says nothing. The disciple hears nothing. Yet everything is said and everything is heard. Nothing is said. Nothing is heard, yet everything is understood.

Content: The Master-disciple relationship is the most mysterious phenomenon in Existence. It is not intellectually comprehensible. It cannot be proved in a logical way. It is not logical at all. Those who become sanyasins out of a logical conviction by listening to Masters and becoming convinced that what the Masters say is true are only on the periphery. The true disciple has nothing to do with what the Master is saying; the true disciple has something to do with what the Master is.

Content: The true disciple falls in love. It is not a question of conviction. It is something more mysterious and transcendental. Hence, a real disciple cannot explain to anybody what has happened. Everybody will think that he has gone mad, that he has been hypnotized and that he is no longer in control of his senses.

Content: People who think like that are not to blame. The whole fault is the disciple’s, but he cannot explain. What can the disciple do about it? The fault lies with reality itself. Certain things are beyond explanation. They elude rationalization. And in fact, life begins when you come in contact with something incomprehensible, inexplicable, indefinable and unprovable; yet somewhere deep down, your heart says it is so. It is falling totally in love, and it is a love of an entirely new quality.

Content: This love is not limited to the Master but it is experienced toward the entire world. You no longer think in terms of ‘I,’ but in terms of ‘you.’ This is compassion. This feeling of unconditional, uncalled for and uncontrollable love is compassion. This happens when your ego surrenders.

Content: 18.2 Krishna said, the wise say the purpose of sanyas as giving up all selfish work based on desire, and renunciation as the freedom from all attachment to the results of one's actions.

Content: 18.3 Some learned men say that all kinds of result-based activities are sins and should be given up, but there are yet other sages who maintain that acts of service, charity and austerity should never be given up.

Content: 18.4 Arjuna, here is what I say about renunciation; there are three kinds of renunciation explained.

Content: 18.5 Acts of service, charity and austerity are not to be given up; they should be performed. Even the sages are purified by sacrifice, charity and penance.

Content: 18.6 Arjuna, all these actions of duty must also be performed without any expectation of result. That is My considered opinion.

Content: Krishna replies: 'Bharata, now hear my judgment about renunciation. Renunciation is of many types. Let me explain the truth.'

Content: And then He starts:

Content: Bhagavan says that some learned Masters say that giving up activities based on material desires is renunciation. Others say that giving up the results is renunciation, tyag. Hence some say giving up activity is renunciation whereas others say it is giving up the results.

Content: No other Master is as compassionate as Krishna. He is the ultimate Master. He does not merely teach. He knows it is difficult for people to believe. So He gives logic to support His teachings. Again and again, He tries His best to convince Arjuna. Considering the level that He is in, there is no reason to come down to the level of Arjuna. He can say this is the truth. If you want you can follow, otherwise get out! But He does not do that. He is compassionate. Again and

Content: again, He comes down and explains the truths step-by-step.

Content: Some learned people recommend ritualistic actions, such as killing an animal for a sacrifice. Other learned people denounce that act. Thus there are different opinions regarding the same action by different sages. Krishna clarifies these opinions now.

Content: After all, it is Krishna in the form of the Ultimate who originally created the scriptures and laws. Therefore any explanation from Him should be considered the last word. He says that any process of renunciation should be considered within the context in which it is performed. Renunciation can be of three types: sacrifice, charity and penance. These purify even those who are already evolved and pure.

Content: It must be understood that the purpose of performing sacrifices is the purification or upliftment of the human being on the spiritual path. They link Cosmic Energy with individual energy.

Content: Krishna says that any sacrifice done for the welfare of human society is not to be given up. As sacrifices are meant to achieve the Supreme, so performing charity is recommended to purify one’s heart and put one on the path of spiritual progress.

Content: Sacrifice is normally understood to be rituals such as yajna and homa, etc. These are the fire rituals prescribed in Vedic literature to propitiate the deities. When carried out with awareness, these powerful techniques link us to

Content: the Cosmic Energy. In ancient times living beings were also sacrificed to the ritual fire based upon the idea that their spirits would move into higher planes. Those who performed these sacrificial rituals had full understanding and awareness that the body is a mere shell and the spirit cannot be destroyed when offered to the fire. The spirit is thus purified and enhanced in evolutionary terms.

Content: However, these may be inappropriate in modern times when this understanding is absent. Nobody would want to believe that an animal being sacrificed could move up in evolution. Since these rituals have lost their inner meaning and have become mechanized, they can sense the pain involved in the sacrifice but not the purpose.

Content: Here you must understand that Krishna talks about the reality of what existed more than five thousand years ago when these rituals were performed with awareness. In performing an Aswamedha Yajna, a powerful king let loose his prize horse to roam as it pleased in enemy territory and waged war with anyone who dared stop the horse. All the land that the horse covered became his vassal territory and those kings accepted the sovereignty of the owner of the horse.

Content: When the horse returned to its home country, it was sacrificed in front of the fire pit of the Aswamedha Yajna with the belief and awareness that its spirit would move up in evolution. It was considered a blessing for the horse, not a torture. But these things change over time with different understanding and are inappropriate in the modern age.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: This is what we know from the puranas, and the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana that detail these sacrifices. The Upanishads talk about the metaphoric significance of these rituals. In the scriptures reference is made to the inner Aswamedha Yajna, meditating upon the sun that is identified with aswamedha.

Content: In our times, sacrifice refers to any selfless service. Whatever we do for others without expecting anything in return is a sacrifice. Unfortunately, many people engaged

Content: in sacrifice are more interested in seeing their pictures on TV or in newspapers than in the service. That is why their photographs are shown with them smiling into the camera!

Content: Charitable service is giving with no expectation in return. Charity is not giving while posing for a picture that will be published in the tomorrow’s newspaper. That is business. Those who truly are charitable never allow

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Content: others to know what they are doing. That is why it is said that your left hand should not know what your right hand is giving. Only then charity achieves its purpose.

Content: Charity also should involve pain. It is charity when you cannot afford to give it away and yet you do. Charity must become a penance and lead to austerity if it is to be real.

Content: Penance is denying oneself sense pleasures. Ultimately, the purpose of all spiritual exercise is to control the mind and senses. Penance is turning inwards whereas sacrifice and charity are focused outwards.

Content: 'All these activities should be performed without attachment or expectation of the result. They should be performed as a matter of duty and this is my final opinion,' says the Master.

Content: Krishna gives His opinion. Earlier He explained what others said about renunciation, as either giving up the activity or results of the activity. Now He says that His opinion of renunciation is living without attachment.

Content: This must be understood in depth. Whether it is spiritual or worldly activity, as long as you struggle with a purpose and a goal, you can never relax. Please be very clear about this. The person who surrenders to the flow of life, experiences the inner space and outer space at the same time. He enjoys the inner and the outer space at the same time. Whatever Krishna has spoken in these seventeen chapters, He is now giving the gist.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Let me explain what I mean by the word surrender. Then you can understand better. Think of two intersecting lines, axes.

Content: The vertical axis is spiritual life. The horizontal axis is material life. The point of intersection is your being. This is the goal you have. You have some goal in your material life and in your spiritual life. To achieve your goal in your material life, you are continuously struggling and working. You are somewhere on the horizontal axis. To achieve your spiritual goal, you are again working intensely doing yoga, pranayama, pratyahara, etc. You practice spiritual techniques. You are somewhere here on the vertical axis. So when you struggle with material goals. You are on the horizontal line whereas when you struggle with spiritual goals, you are on the vertical line.

Content: As long as you are struggling, you can struggle either in this direction or that direction. As long as you struggle in material life, you avoid the spiritual life. As long as you struggle in spiritual life, you avoid the material life. Both are a struggle.

Content: Krishna says, ‘Relax from both.’ You may think, ‘What is this funny instruction He is giving!’ You think that if you relax in both you will lose both. However, the truth is that when you relax in both, you fall into your inner consciousness, your being or your inner space. When you experience this inner space, this inner consciousness, you will suddenly realize you can explode in all directions. You do not need to choose between horizontal and vertical lines. You can travel on both lines at the same time!

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Content: Not only that, you can explode in all directions. The only difficulty is that you must surrender at least to your own being. You do not need to surrender to somebody else. To whom you surrender is unimportant. Just relax into your own being. Just relax into your inner space, into your inner consciousness. Just surrender to your own inner space. Stop your struggle in the material world and spiritual world.

Content: In the material world, the world of 'mine,' your properties are your goal. You struggle to achieve these goals. In the spiritual world you also have certain goals, such as enlightenment. And you constantly run to attain that goal. Actually, spiritual goals create more ego than material goals. At least with material goals, at some point, you realize that you cannot achieve. It can be tiring. But with spiritual goals you do not even understand what you are doing. Both goals take your being away from your being. When you surrender and relax into your being, you suddenly realize you are neither the body nor the mind to choose between the horizontal and the vertical lines.

Content: As long as you believe you are the mind, you will be forced to choose between the vertical and horizontal lines. You will be in a dilemma because the mind wants to choose. Mind and dilemma are the same thing. Mind ceases to exist once dilemmas vanish. Mind exists as long as you have dilemmas. As long as you have confusion, the mind exists. Has your mind existed without dilemmas? No, never! You may be in a dilemma even to answer this question; that is all! The mind continues to exist only in dilemma. You continuously think whether

Content: this or that is right.

Content: A small story:

Content: A man was sitting at home crying loudly. Usually men do not cry and especially not loudly!

Content: His wife asks, 'Why are you crying?'

Content: He says: 'Do you remember when your father caught us red-handed when we were together twenty years ago? He threatened me that if I did not marry you he would have me put in jail.'

Content: The wife replies, 'Of course, I remember. Why are you crying?'

Content: The man says, 'If I hadn't done what he said, I would be a free man today!'

Content: When you choose, someday you will definitely wonder about the choice you made. Mind is only based on dilemmas. The mind only exists because of dilemmas. As long as you are based in your mind you will be choosing between material and spiritual goals. The people who pick material goals will feel that they are missing spiritual life. And those who pick spiritual goals will feel they are missing material life. This is because you choose between the two.

Content: For the first time, Krishna gives the ultimate technique for Quantum Spirituality. He is the first quantum scientist of the inner world. He says relax and surrender and you will experience the intensity of your inner consciousness. You will understand that you do not need to choose

Content: between the horizontal and vertical lines. You can explode in all 360 degrees. You need not make a choice. You experience choicelessness. Choicelessness does not mean that you do not choose anything. When you stop choosing, you will choose everything.

Content: Similarly, surrender does not mean passive surrender or pretending to give up. Many people claim, ‘Master, I have surrendered everything to God.’ Yet we can see that it is lip service only. It is not reality.

Content: People come up with odd statements. They tell me, ‘Master, I have given up everything, I have surrendered everything to God. Bless me so that I get a better paying job!’

Content: Most of the time, our surrender is false. Before making a statement, please be clear about its meaning. A woman told me, ‘Master, you must take care of me because I have totally surrendered to you. Please give me mental peace.’

Content: I said: ‘Okay, attend the next meditation program and we will see.’

Content: Immediately she replied, ‘I cannot spare two days!’ She had just told me that she had surrendered to me! We sometimes make statements without knowing what reality is.

Content: A small story:

Content: A journalist saw a crowd gathered around an accident on the road. He tried to find out what had

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: happened, but could not get through the crowd. He shouted: ‘Oh! My son has been hurt in the accident. Please move out of the way.’ The people gave way. He moved forward only to see that a car had hit a donkey!

Content: Before making any statement, know the situation. Otherwise, you suffer. With the word surrender you make that mistake. With real surrender you do not exclude anything. You include everything. You experience everything at once. You do not need to choose between horizontal and vertical lines. You experience both and something more. You explode! You experience something beyond your imagination. You experience different dimensions of your being.

Content: Again, when I say surrender you do not need to surrender to any God or guru. God or guru are symbols or representations. Just surrender to your own being, your own consciousness, to your own inner space. The problem is you do not respect your inner space. That is why in the initial level you need an entity called God or guru.

Content: Somebody asked me, ‘Master, I have surrendered to you. What should I do?’

Content: I told him, ‘If you really surrender, you will not have that question! You will be guided from within. When you fully surrender, intuition or Divine Intelligence automatically guides you. As long as you have doubts, you have not surrendered.’

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Content: Q: Master, you said that rituals connect us with the Cosmic Energy. Please explain how.

Content: A: The Isavasya Upanishad says beautifully: isavasyam idam sarvam - From this energy all matter was created.

Content: When Einstein read these words he exclaimed: I had developed the theory that all matter can be converted to energy. Five thousand years ago these great Masters have gone beyond what I have found out by saying that all matter came from energy. Spirituality indeed starts where science stops.

Content: The Taittreya Upanishad says that from the Cosmic Energy came the energy of space. From space came the energy of air. From air came the energy of fire. From fire came the energy of water. From water came the energy of earth. From earth came plant life. From plant life humans were created.

Content: The Taittreya Upanishad goes on to develop the theme of the five layers or sheaths that surround our body, the koshas.

Content: The first and outermost layer is the food layer, the physical or gross layer, annamaya kosha. The next inner level is pranamaya kosha, where the breath energy resides. The next layer is manomaya kosha, or mental layer from which our senses operate and generate thoughts. Further inward is the vigyanamaya kosha, the wisdom layer where our energy centers, the chakras, lie. The innermost layer surrounding the Self or Atman is the anandamaya kosha, the bliss layer. Beyond all this is the Atman, the Self that

Content: is the reflection of the Universal Energy within us, the Divine, God or whatever you name you wish to give this.

Content: In the Atma Spurana Program, you are taken on a trip through these five layers to understand what happens at these levels of sheaths surrounding our inner Self. In the Nithyananda Spurana Program or NSP programs we take you through the seven layers the spirit passes through as it leaves the body. These seven layers are also related to the five koshas. The meditative techniques specifically designed for each layer in these programs provide understanding of how your mind-body-spirit system operates. So these meditative techniques heal physiological, emotional and mental blocks in each layer and provide a glimpse of inner consciousness.

Content: Humans digest four of the five elemental energies described in Taittreya Upanishad: air, fire, water and earth are ingested in one form or other by humans, in addition to the indirect mode of plant life. We breathe air, drink water, cook and warm through fire, and we live and feed off the earth.

Content: The energy of space or ether, akasa, is not directly accessible. The mind or ego layer that surrounds us prevents us from absorbing this energy, the biggest elemental energy source. This creates the illusion of separation from the elemental energy from which we are formed and it insulates us.

Content: Meditation is the only method through which we can drop the mind layer and open ourselves to receive the energy of the Universe, through the energy of space.

Content: Fire rituals, such as homas and yajnas, are mass meditation techniques since they help link a large group to the elemental energy. In a fire ritual, the energy of the space is invoked into the fire through air. It is then transferred to the water in the pots that are kept around the fire. The water is then poured onto idols, humans or the earth, thus transferring the energy into them. Our great sages developed this simple method as the technique to absorb the energy of the Universe.

Content: These original methods have been reduced to mere rituals today. The spirit has been removed from spirituality to leave only 'rituality' behind! When you become aware of the meaning behind these powerful rituals, something opens up within you. The awareness of your inner consciousness expands. That is why Krishna specifically stipulates that these sacrifices should only be practiced with awareness.

Content: Meditation opens us up at the individual level to receive the Cosmic Energy, whereas rituals, such as homas, open us up at the mass level. We had a mass yajna in the city of Salem in Tamilnadu, India in 2006. One thousand yajnas were conducted simultaneously by brahmacharis trained at our ashram. Nearly 10,000 people joined the performance of the ritual over the two days. Effects of such rituals when done in the presence of and by Masters have far reaching effects.

Content: 18.7 Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If one gives up his prescribed duties through the illusion of renunciation, this is said to be in the state of ignorance.

Content: 18.8 Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear, is said to be in the state of aggression, does not benefit from renunciation.

Content: 18.9 But he who performs what is prescribed, as a matter of duty, without expectation or attachment to the results, his renunciation is of the nature of satva, goodness, O Arjuna.

Content: 18.10 Those who neither hate disagreeable work nor are attached to pleasant work are in a state of intelligence, goodness and renunciation, free of all doubts.

Content: 18.11 Human beings cannot give up all activities. Therefore the one who has renounced the fruits of such activity is one who has truly renounced.

Content: 18.12 For one who is not renounced, the three kinds of fruits of action – desirable, undesirable and mixed – accrue after death, but not to one who has renounced.

Content: Krishna says that nithya karma or obligatory duties must be followed with discipline and consistency. Not doing these takes us into the state of tamas, inaction born out of ignorance and laziness.

Content: Nithya karmas vary from person to person. The duties of a householder are different from those of a monk or a student. Each has clear guidelines in terms of what they should and should not do.

Content: Many times the idea of dropping out from our responsibilities and taking up a different role is more attractive than growing in awareness so that we can perform our own duties well and without attachment. Be very clear, without the right attitude and awareness, no role that we take up will work out for us.

Content: Instead of taking up responsibility and expanding, watching TV or daydreaming seems much more pleasant and easy. We would rather do that than meditate or perform puja or whatever is our prescribed duty.

Content: In our ashram routine, everyone must attend Guru Puja at six am. This includes permanent residents and brahmacharis as well as those who stay there for courses or healing. You should see the reluctance with which some outsiders attend. Of course quite a few are asleep and we do not have a police force to find them and wake them up!

Content: Giving up what needs to be done because it is uncomfortable is not renunciation! That is convenient inaction born out of rajas. After attending a course many ask how many meditations they can do each day. I tell them, 'Do at least one properly.' A week later, after the fever has cooled down, if I ask, they sheepishly say, 'I do not have time to practice even one meditation, Swamiji.'

Content: All of us find time for everything except meditation. We find time to give appointments to everyone else except ourselves! Who is the loser?

Content: Krishna says doing what needs to be done because that is what is recommended, without attachment to the action and without desire for any result to oneself is the ideal condition of satva.

Content: Krishna has said this many times in the Gita. He repeats it again so that the message sinks in. Do what must be done. Do what is your duty based on your societal or religious beliefs and codes. However, do it without attachment and expectation of results.

Content: Letting go of attachment ideally means that we should not be aware that we are doing what we are doing. We witness what we are doing. The consciousness of 'I' and

Content: 'mine,' in terms of the performance of the activity should be absent.

Content: Often in traditional homes people chant prayers or mantras, such as the sahasranamas, as a mere chore. They try to concentrate yet a child playing nearby can make them angry. If they were truly absorbed in what they were doing, they would not notice the disturbance. These people are so attached to 'they' doing it and 'their' doing it well that everything disturbs them. On the other hand, watch a child recite a mantra. He plays with it and has fun.

Content: Annamalai Swamigal in Thiruvannamalai initiated me into a meditation technique when I was not even ten. For two years all I did was play with that technique. That is all. In two years the technique had its effect!

Content: Krishna says that a person in the satvic mode of calmness and awareness is undisturbed by external conditions. He is not bothered whether someone appreciates or condemns what he does. He is clear what he should do and he carries on.

Content: A small story:

Content: SadaShiva Sastry was the landlord of a village. He was known as a pious person who was always ready to help others. Whenever there was a temple festival, he undertook all the expenses. If anybody fell ill and needed hospitalization, he met the cost of transport and medicines. Like this, he was well known in the village and so were his acts of kindness. However, he was always in a serious mood, never cheerful or laughing.

Content: One day his daughter asked, 'Appa, why are you always so serious and morose? Are you not well?'

Content: He replied, 'I am fine. There is nothing wrong.' But she insisted in her queries and after lots of cajoling, he finally said, 'See, I am doing so many kind acts for the village people, yet nobody has ever bothered to thank me.'

Content: He was still remembering all that he done and carrying the burden of his good deeds!

Content: Renunciation is in the true spirit and is done out of goodness only when a person renounces the expectation of result.

Content: It is natural that a human being cannot remain still without doing some work. Man must be doing something, anything, all the time. If not physically, at least mentally he does something. Even in sleep, he dreams. If we close our eyes, we see a TV inside. If we plug our ears and close our eyes and stay in an insulated room, we are filled with inner chatter.

Content: Only an enlightened person truly keeps his body and mind still. So the normal man or woman is never without activity. This being the case, the only way man can be comfortable and at peace with himself is by not having any expectation or result of his thoughts or words or actions. This can be achieved by every one of us. Krishna says that one who is not concerned about the fruits of his action has truly renounced.

Content: Attachment to action and to the results of action creates more desires. Even when an action has been completed and the expected result achieved, as long as one is attached to that action and its result, another desire crops up. Even when one action is fulfilled, another unfulfilled desire rises. This is a constant, consistent sequence.

Content: This is what I call karma. Karma is nothing but unfulfilled desires. As long as we have attachment to the action as 'doer,' which in turns creates an expectation of reward or punishment, we are caught in the cycle of karma and samsara. Our concern about whether an action or the result is good, bad or a mix of both, follows us as our mental attitude or vasana after death.

Content: Please understand that no one is up 'there' keeping account of our deeds and misdeeds. Our own spirit does that job. So we can never escape! No amount of propitiation or contribution to 'noble' causes will erase the knowledge from our inner Self of what we have done. When we die, the body perishes but the spirit moves on to another body. That spirit carries its earlier mental attitude, its vasana. There is no exception to this rule. Samskaras are the carried over desires and they cause the cycle of samsara, birth, death and rebirth.

Content: However, we have no unfulfilled desires, karma, samskara or vasana left when we renounce attachment as 'doer' and become a mere witness to what happens as well as what we do. This means we act without expectation and attachment to the result of our action. Such a person breaks through this cycle of samsara.

Content: Q: You said that we are Divine in our Consciousness. Why did we degrade ourselves from God to humans?

Content: If you ask me why did we do that, you must ask yourself, 'Why did I do that?' We are responsible. It is not someone outside of us.

Content: This idea that 'we have degraded ourselves, we must go back' is a technique to make us understand our actual nature. It is not that we have come down. We have simply forgotten that we are Divine Energy. We have forgotten our true nature. That is why we feel that we have fallen.

Content: If you really came down, how could you go back again? If you can come down from that state, you can come down again after some years. Then it is not permanent. If you go up, can't you come down after five hundred years? You may. So that is not a great thing. We have never fallen. We are in the same state. We are continuously connected to the Divine.

Content: The only thing is that we have forgotten that we are Divine. Why?

Content: Vivekananda beautifully explains: 'That question cannot be answered from this plane. The question is from the logical plane, but in the ultimate spiritual sense there is no logic.'

Content: A few questions cannot be explained or understood, unless we experience. This question falls in that category.

Content: These questions, 'How we have forgotten our true nature? How we have degraded ourselves? How have we forgotten that we are God?' can never be answered. When you experience enlightenment, you understand how you have forgotten or how you remembered. Now, from this plane, this question can never be answered. In the dream state, when you are dreaming, you feel as if you have become somebody else. Only when you come out of the dream do you know!

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Technology of Surrender

Content: 18.13,14 Learn from Me Arjuna, there are five causes that bring about the accomplishment of all action, as described in Sankhya philosophy.

Content: These are: physical body that is the seat of action, the attributes of nature or guṇa that are the Doer, the eleven organs of perceptions and action by the life forces and finally the Divine.

Content: 18.15 These five factors are responsible for whatever right or wrong actions a man performs by deed, word and thoughts.

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Content: 18.16 Those who think they, their body and spirit, are the doers, are ignorant and do not see things as they are.

Content: In these verses, Krishna gives the exact technology of surrender.

Content: These two slokas can be called stotra, sastra and sutra. Sastra shows the goal. Stotra is devotion. Sutra gives the technology. So these verses give the technology of surrender.

Content: Krishna lists five factors from Sankhya philosophy responsible for our activities. These are the mind-body system, operator of the mind-body system (i.e., the individual), the senses, different efforts causing the activities and finally the ultimate power of God. All activities, right or wrong, good or bad, are caused by these five factors. If, however, the individual considers himself to be the doer, his body and mind, he is not aware.

Content: Krishna uses the word atman while saying that one who perceives one’s spirit or Self as the agent, the doer, or the performer, does not see and is not aware. Krishna draws a distinction between individual Self and Cosmic Energy. He differentiates between atman and Brahman, manav and Daivam, nara and Narayana, between self and Parasakti.

Content: Krishna concludes that while philosophical discussion mentions five players in all activities, the ultimate controller is the Divine. We are immersed in our mind-body-spirit system and caught in our sensory perceptions and believe that we are the power behind all that we do.

Content: So long as we are in this deluded belief, we are rooted in ignorance.

Content: Whatever you understand as yourself, your body-mind-spirit system is the totality of many things. And individually each is responsible for something. In spite of this, you think that 'you' are responsible for the whole thing. That is where trouble starts. Krishna gives the technology for the deeper levels of surrender.

Content: As we saw earlier there are three levels of surrender. First is intellectual surrender. This means you accept that the Master's intellect is sharper than your intellect; His intellect is of a higher order than yours. This is intellectual surrender.

Content: Next is emotional surrender. This is trusting that the Master's guidance in the emotional plane is more intelligent than your emotions. The third is surrendering the senses, your cognition or the root of cognition itself.

Content: Surrendering the intellect is easy because it continuously tortures you. You have suffered with the intellect for many years. You want to get rid of it. So you surrender it. Surrendering the intellect is easy. When you see somebody more intelligent and with clearer thinking, you just surrender.

Content: For example, when you hire a consultant, you surrender to his ideas. When you take on a lawyer, you surrender to his ideas because you know his intellect is sharper than yours in that field. The same happens when you go to an accountant. In the spiritual field also, when

Content: you see a person who knows more, you surrender your intellect to that person. That is not a big thing. Surrendering intellectually happens easily. Most of the time you want to get rid of your intellect. Finding somebody to dump your intellect on allows you to relax from it.

Content: Next comes emotional surrender. This happens when you feel deeply connected to the Master after experiencing some meditation or understanding. You respect His emotions more than your own. Master’s emotions mean the things He guides you in, the way He wants you to live.

Content: You give more importance to these things than what you think of as life. Slowly He becomes the center of your life. You respect Him more than other emotional attachments. Priorities shift. The Master comes in as the number one priority on your emotional level. Emotional surrender is when you feel totally connected at the emotional level.

Content: Next is a deeper level of surrender. After listening to these seventeen days of discourses, you can understand this deeper level of surrender. This is the level of the senses. The surrender of the senses means that your senses listen to what He says. Normally, when you listen to me, a filter in your mind discounts what you do not agree with. You hear what you want to hear. However, when intellectual and emotional surrender happen, you are ready to surrender this disbelief and unblock your senses.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: During ancient times, a disciple asked his Master, 'Why should I surrender?'

Content: The Master asked, 'How do you know whatever you think you know about yourself?'

Content: The disciple replied, 'I know myself through my senses.'

Content: The Master asked, 'Who do you think you are according to your senses?'

Content: The disciple said, 'As far as I know, I am the body and mind.'

Content: His Master responded, 'You are God, not just body and mind.'

Content: The Master said: 'Only when you surrender your senses, will you realize the truth of what I am saying. The moment you believe me more than your senses, you experience that you are God. You then understand the meaning of tatvam asi (literally 'You Are That', meaning you are Divine).'

Content: The Master again and again tries to show that you are God. I keep saying: 'I am not here to prove that I am God. I am here to prove that you are God.'

Content: The Master stands for the idea that you are the infinite. He shows you various dimensions of your inner self that you have not explored or experienced. He shows you so many dimensions of your being. The Master stands for your multidimensional being. He tries to show

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Content: you that it is possible. He shows that if it is possible for him, it is possible for you also. But as long as you believe your senses, you think that you are the body and mind.

Content: When you trust the Master more than your senses, you understand that the Master's words are the truth and not your senses. Then you experience the truth of the Master's words. When the Master says that you are God, you suddenly realize the truth for yourself. You understand that you are God. You realize that you are not the body or mind as your senses have led you to believe. When you believe the Master's words more than your senses, you experience this truth.

Content: Two voices are speaking from two different levels. On the one hand, your senses tell you that you are the body and mind. On the other hand, Master tells you that you are God: you are Divine and have many dimensions to your being. He tells you to enjoy and experience everything. As long as you listen to your senses, you will not even hear what Master says. When you leave your senses and come to the Master, you hear Him and experience the truth that you are Divine.

Content: In the inner world, the first and last tool you need is complete surrender. Only then can you wake up to the truth. If Arjuna had trusted only his senses, he would have been at best a good warrior and king. Instead he trusted Krishna more than his senses and became enlightened. He experienced the truth of Krishna. When Krishna said that the crow was green, he saw a green crow, such was his faith.

Content: You can experience Krishna Consciousness not just by surrendering the intellect and emotions but also by surrendering the root of the intellect and emotions, i.e., the senses. The senses supply the data. When you surrender them, the source of the data is surrendered.

Content: You receive all information about yourself through the senses. Please understand that you do not know anything about yourself. You respect yourself because of data you collect about yourself through the senses of others. If somebody says, 'You are beautiful,' you put an entry in a notebook that you are beautiful according to so and so. Again, when somebody says that you are intelligent, you make an entry that you are intelligent, as told by so and so. If somebody says that you are tall, dark and handsome, that entry is made and the name mentioned. When you are told that you are dumb, another entry is made.

Content: At the end of the day, you make a survey and assess what everybody said. You see that seventy-two percent of the people said that you are intelligent; twenty percent say that you are dumb and the rest do not know. Based on these statistics you decide about yourself. You decide that if seventy-two percent of the people say that you are intelligent, all of them cannot be fools. What they say must be right. Therefore, you must be intelligent! Thus your conclusion about yourself is based on what others say about you.

Content: The whole day you conduct a signature campaign. You continuously go around asking people to tell you

Content: something about yourself. As a result, the senses give you an idea of what you are. Krishna asks Arjuna to surrender these senses.

Content: When you surrender your senses, the root of your idea of yourself, you lose your identification with body and mind. As long as you believe your senses, you think that you are the body and mind. Only when you believe the Master's words more than your senses, do you realize the truth that you are Divine. On one side, your senses say you are the body and mind. On the opposite side, Master tells you that you are Divine and in eternal bliss. He tells you that you are the Consciousness beyond body and mind.

Content: It is up to you to choose. If you believe the senses, you cannot believe the Master. And if you believe the Master, you cannot believe your senses. Your way of life decides whether you surrender to your senses or your Master. It is for you to decide.

Content: Krishna says that only when you surrender at all three levels do you have the ultimate experience. Let me tell you this, surrender itself is enlightenment. Please do not think enlightenment will be issued to you after surrendering. No! It is not a pycheque you receive through the courier. Surrender itself is enlightenment. At that moment, you experience the truth.

Content: Usually we play with words. At least be aware of it, when you play with words. People tell me that they have surrendered their life to Krishna, Venkateshwara or Shiva. Then they say that their only wish is to be happy.

Content: If they have truly surrendered, surrender is enough. They will not need to ask for anything else. Sometimes people ask if they need to meditate since they have surrendered to God. If they have surrendered, they will have no doubts nor will they need meditation! If they have doubts, they need meditation. As long as doubts remain, surrender has not happened because the moment you surrender, you disappear.

Content: A beautiful verse in Tamil says: When you give your 'I' and 'mine' to Existence, Parasakti or Existence gives Her 'I' and 'Mine' to you. Both bank accounts merge and become one. It becomes a joint account! You have nothing to lose.

Content: When you think of yourself as body and mind, you have sariram rogamayam, manam sokamayam. Sariram rogamayam means that the body is filled with diseases. Manam sokamayam means that the mind is filled with sorrows or depression. Since that is the case, what can we surrender? Absolutely nothing, except a body full of diseases and a mind full of sorrows. When you drop these two at the feet of the Divine, He gives you His body and mind: sariram devamayam, manam sukhamayam, atma anandamayam. What you get in exchange is a Divine body, a mind in happiness as well as a third thing: a soul in bliss. A 'give one, get three free' offer!

Content: Ramana Maharshi, the great enlightened Master, sings a beautiful Tamil song to Lord Arunachala:

Content: thandade enddannai, kondade unddannai, sadurar yaargalo Arunaachala.

Content: He says: 'I gave me to You and received You in return. Who benefited most from this bargain? Who is more intelligent, O Arunachala?'

Content: In surrender, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Surrendering does not mean giving up everything. It does not mean giving up your property. Keep everything; however, take care that you do not internalize them. Do not judge yourself based on your properties. You are far greater than what you think. Do not judge yourself based on your bank balance. Do not judge yourself based on your relationships. Do not judge yourself based on name and fame. Do not judge yourself based on your friends. You are greater than all these things put together.

Content: As long as you judge yourself based on these things, you internalize these into your being. These become the central points in your life. They pull and push you in all directions. You will not have yourself for your being. As long as these are the major factors in your life, these things rule you. Even so, you are higher than all these things put together.

Content: Understand that you are something beyond these things. The moment you wake up to this truth, you will not be put into any frame based upon bank balance, relationships, attitudes or name and fame. These things cannot be used to judge you. The moment you wake up to this truth, you have surrendered. I simply ask you to surrender these small ideas you have about yourself.

Content: In the vast ocean, small bubbles are formed. One bubble starts thinking that it is an individual. It thinks that it must become strong. It lasts for a few moments. Yet within those few moments, it collects other bubbles around it. One bubble is its wife. On the other side, another bubble is its son. Some are called parents or relative. Still others are friends and so on. It collects bubbles on all sides to protect itself.

Content: It collects a few grains of sand from the ocean bed and thinks they are its property. One is its bank balance. Another is jewelry and treasures it has collected. Then it builds a fence to protect its property. How long can the bubble play this game? For a few seconds! Before it can complete its game, it disappears back into the ocean.

Content: The bubble was part of the ocean in all three instances: when it was created, when it existed and when it disappeared. Even though it claimed to be different from the ocean, even though it thought it was an individual and even though it thought many people and things belonged to it, it was part of the ocean and very soon disappeared into it.

Content: In the same way, for a few moments you think you exist as an individual being in this Universal Consciousness. Within those few moments you catch hold of a few people as your relatives and friends. This makes you feel safe. You collect a few things as possessions. You feel secure with these things around you. With these things you form an opinion about yourself. You play the same game as the bubble.

Content: Suddenly the whole thing disappears. Before the game started, while the game is going on and when the game ends, whether you understand or not, realize it or not, experience it or not, you belong to the ocean. You are God. You are one with Existence.

Content: You are playing a game. You register your marriage to another bubble. You register some grains of sand as your property. The registrar is another bubble! A larger bubble is the ruler of the land or that bit of the ocean! And there is an understanding among the bubbles: 'You will not hit me and I will not hit you! You will not take my bubble and I will not take yours!' The whole game goes on in this way. Suddenly within one moment the whole thing is part of the ocean again.

Content: When I say surrender, I mean wake up to the truth that you are in the ocean. When you are born, when you think you are an individual or when you become enlightened, you are in the ocean. Just wake up! Waking up to this ultimate truth is surrender. Surrender these small ideas about yourself and wake up to reality. As a result, surrender automatically happens in your inner space, your inner consciousness. Otherwise you just play with the word surrender.

Content: We use inflated words when we define ourselves. We do not realize that we are beyond these descriptions. One day a follower used exaggerated words about himself in front of me. After he left I told my disciple that he seemed to be suffering from inferiority complex. My disciple was perplexed. He asked how it could be

Content: inferiority complex when he boasted so much. I told him he is God. Hence anything he says about himself is less than what he is.

Content: Any estimation you have of yourself except that you are God is an underestimation! You suffer from an inferiority complex if you think of yourself other than God. Drop your ideas about yourself. Wake up to the truth that you are the ocean.

Content: Some fish swim along with the current. Others swim against the current. Whether they go with or against the current, they are in the water. Whether you flow with Existence or fight it, you are one with it. Whether or not you have realized you are Divine, you are Divine. There is no choice in this. There is only one choice, realize and enjoy or continue to struggle and suffer; that's all! You may try to create stronger fences around yourself or collect more bubbles around you, but can you ask the wave not to come? Whatever you may do, the whole thing is only a drama of a few seconds.

Content: The next problem is what to do if you cannot surrender.

Content: Some people tell me: 'Master, I am unable to surrender. What can I do?' Do not worry because you have nothing to surrender. By understanding that you have nothing to surrender, you have already surrendered. Just relax. Whether you surrender or not, this is the truth. Whether you surrender or not, Existence takes care. Automatically life continues and you will relax. That relaxation itself is surrender.

Content: Relax into the flow of life and wake up to the truth that you are something greater than your body and mind as suggested by your senses. You are led to think that you are something by society. Now wake up to the truth that you are greater than you can think. You are beyond any imagination you can have of yourself. Surrendering will give you a new Consciousness. You will not be the same person. One single moment of surrender transforms your whole life. You are a new being.

Content: There are three levels of birth, three types of garba or wombs, according to the ancient scriptures. The first is the bhoo garba. This is the womb of a woman that gives birth to an infant. This is connected to the muladhara chakra, the lowest of the seven chakras or energy centers in the body.

Content: Next is hrith garba. This is witnessed in the case of real artists. A singer, for example, conceives the song or music in his heart and then delivers it. Likewise an artist or sculptor conceive the concept in their heart first and then deliver it. That is the reason artists get such satisfaction from their work. Their life itself is so fulfilling because they give birth continuously.

Content: A woman feels fulfillment when she births a child and becomes a mother. She overflows with satisfaction. In the same way, when an artist creates a painting, poem, sculpture or song, he feels an overwhelming satisfaction and fulfillment. Here the heart center or the anahata chakra conceives and gives birth to the piece and is called hrith garba.

Content: The ultimate is gyana garba, which happens in the highest energy center, the sahasrara chakra. In gyana garba, all the spiritual ideas are conceived in the head and you work with them. Suddenly one moment you give birth to a new you, to an enlightened being.

Content: So there are three levels of garba. The bhoo garba is the ordinary level, which we are familiar with. The next is hrith garba, which a few artists reach. The ultimate is gyana garba where you conceive the teaching of the Master and His presence into your sahasrara chakra, work with yourself and then birth yourself as an enlightened being.

Content: Receive this concept of surrender, this truth and work on it. Suddenly you will wake up and give birth to yourself as an enlightened being. The moment you understand you belong to the ocean, that you are from it, that you are in it and that you will disappear into it, you realize you will never die because you are the ocean.

Content: As long as you identify with the bubble, you feel insecure. The instinct to survive and the instinct to possess torture you. The moment you realize that you are the ocean, the instinct to survive disappears because there is no death for you. There is nothing to fear, nothing to feel insecure about. Death creates fear as long as you think you are the bubble.

Content: The moment you realize that you are the ocean there is nothing to possess because everything belongs to you. There is nothing to lose and nothing to acquire. Hence,

Content: the instinct to possess disappears. I am not asking you to legally throw away your possessions. You do not need to throw away your actions, whatever you have done for your 'I' and 'mine.' You do not need to throw away whatever you have. Just do not internalize them. Within yourself be aware that you are something greater than anything you can possibly possess.

Content: At the age of seven, your toys are important to you. Do they hold the same importance today? You have neither renounced them nor are you attached to them. They are just there. Do you feel that you must return home because the toys are there? No! Do you feel the toys make your life a torture and that you must renounce them? No! You feel neither attached nor detached. You have grown beyond them.

Content: Raga means attachment. Araga means detachment. Viragya means beyond attachment and detachment. As you grew up, viragya naturally happened towards your toys. So also, when you realize that you are the ocean, viragya happens towards the few sand particles and bubbles that you have collected and gathered around yourself. You have gone beyond these things.

Content: The instincts to survive and possess would no longer be relevant to you. Your property does not suddenly disappear. They are there, but you live them and enjoy them more intensely. You do not take them for granted. You do not feel bored with them. You do not think: same house, same wife and same life! You take them for granted only when you think they are your properties.

Content: The moment you realize that they may be taken from you at any moment, you do not take them for granted. The moment you realize that you are the ocean and that they are also of the same ocean, you value them more. The moment you realize this, you are transformed at the level of body, mind and consciousness. When consciousness is transformed, you birth a new you.

Content: Krishna goes much deeper than these three levels of surrender: surrender of intellect, surrender of emotions and surrender of the senses. He gives Arjuna a glimpse of the greatest surrender. He gives Arjuna a glimpse of the ultimate experience itself. Krishna already gave Arjuna the experience during Vishvaroopa Darshana, the vision of Universal Consciousness or cosmic experience. Even so, Arjuna was unable to establish himself in that experience due to fear.

Content: Always you miss the first experience because of fears. Now Arjuna is more mature and capable of being established in the experience. Krishna gives Arjuna the experience that will stay with him forever. In the next few verses Krishna puts Arjuna into the experience of enlightenment. He wakes him up to the Ultimate Truth.

Content: A small story:

Content: A man asked a Zen Master how to become Buddha. The Master slapped him and in that instant the man became enlightened. He experienced Buddhahood in himself. The slap simply showed him that he already was that. He merely needed to wake up from the sleep.

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Content: Krishna is waking Arjuna up from the long slumber called samsara sagara. This can also be called unconsciousness or tamas. Krishna gives him a good shake by giving him the Ultimate Experience and puts him in that state forever. I was telling you about the three levels of surrender. Krishna puts Arjuna into that final level or the highest level of surrender.

Content: Q: Surrender of ego is true renunciation. But to surrender you need ego, or something like that of the mind. Isn't this a conflict?

Content: Yes, it is and it isn't. There are always different ways of looking at something. There never is one right way, and that all others are wrong.

Content: Buddha was never dogmatic. He said that everything could be right or wrong, right and wrong. There can be right love and wrong love as well as right anger and wrong anger.

Content: Prior to Buddha nobody thought that way. People considered love as always right and anger as always wrong. So it was about will or resolution. A man of will is always right. All cultures up until then had praised willpower. On the other hand, Buddha was tremendously insightful and said that everything that can be right can also be wrong. Nothing can be absolutely right. Willpower is wrong if used by the ego. Then it enhances

Content: the ego. And that's what happens in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred.

Content: Willpower can be right, but one must be alert and aware. Willpower can be right only if it is used for surrender. It is a paradoxical phenomenon. Ordinarily we think will and surrender are polar opposites. In spite of this, there is only one right use of will: surrender to the whole. Call it God, Nature, Tao or whatever you like.

Content: Willpower in the service of the person is dangerous because the idea of the person is false. Personality is illusory. We are not separate entities. The whole universe is one organic unity. We exist together. Even a small blade of grass is connected to the far-away star. Everything is interlinked and intertwined.

Content: It is like a spider's web. If you touch one thread, the whole wave is felt throughout the pattern. Through a slight touch, the vibration is felt throughout the web. So it is in the case of the universe. We are not separate. We only appear separate. Hence, if will is in the service of the person, it is a wrong kind of will. It leads to more and more misery, conflict and violence.

Content: Right will means in the service of God and in renunciation. But then you are no more. Right will means that the will gathers itself and commits suicide. But only a man of will is able to do that. People who don't have any will, who are always lukewarm, half-hearted and wavering, cannot surrender.

Content: Surrender needs a certain kind of integrity and resolution. In fact it needs the greatest resolution possible. Unless you are totally in it, it will not happen. Even if you hold back a little bit, it is not surrender. Through that which you are holding back, everything will return again. You will be the same. Surrender must be irrevocable. One must commit oneself so totally that there is no going back. The bridge is burned and you have thrown the ladder away.

Content: Right will is capable of destroying yourself. It is a strange phenomenon but that's how life is. It is paradoxical. First we must learn to create an ego, then the ego is ripe and strong; next we must learn how to drop it. It would seem logical not to develop it at all. Except then you would never know the joy and freedom of dropping it. A person who has never been imprisoned has no consciousness about freedom. Being in prison is a prerequisite to know the taste of freedom.

Content: Life is full of contradictions. A poor man never knows he is poor. He looks poor to people who are not poor. He does not know that he is poor and has nothing to compare his poverty with. To be really poor, first you must be rich. After that, you will know the pain and agony of poverty. To be a true beggar, first you must be an Emperor. Otherwise you will not know what it is like to be a beggar.

Content: The ego must first be strengthened, only to be dropped later. The will first must be sharpened, only to be surrendered later. Knowledge must first be gathered, only to be unlearned later.

Content: On the day you unlearn whatever you have learned, you become a child again. You are twice born. This is not like the first childhood in which you lacked awareness of being knowledgeable. You now know what it means to be knowledgeable. And in dropping it you feel a great freedom, great joy, such ecstasy and yet you are not attaining anything.

Content: You were the same in your first childhood, yet you were completely unaware of it. This whole process is needed to make you aware. Awareness comes through a dialectical process. So will is good and right, when you are capable of dropping it. If you cannot drop it, if you cling to it, if it becomes your whole life-pattern, you miss the whole point. Then it creates misery and hell. Great willpower is needed to create hell or heaven. If you continue in it, it creates hell. If you jump out of it, it creates heaven.

Content: The only evolution worth calling evolution is the evolution of bliss. If bliss does not grow, you do not evolve. If bliss does not grow, society does not evolve. What people generally understand as evolution and progress is sheer nonsense.

Content: A more complicated technology does not mean evolution. That is superficial. You may have more gadgets, big machines, better airplanes, better trains and better houses, but you are the same person. You can reach the moon or stars one day, but whatever you do on earth, you will also do on the moon. If you smoke cigarettes here, you will smoke there. If you play cards

Content: here, you will play cards there. If you drink beer here, you will carry beer to the moon. What else will you do there?

Content: If mankind remains the same, there is no evolution. In that case, we go on living a substitute evolution that gives the fallacious appearance that we are evolving. For centuries mankind has not evolved. Only a few individuals here and there have evolved. We can come across a handful of people such as a Buddha or a Jesus. Those who have tasted the nectar of bliss are evolved human beings.

Content: A small number of people have experienced evolution. Getting down from the trees and walking on two legs instead of all fours does not make us an evolved animal. It merely makes us erect and vertical; that's all. If we look inside man's mind, he is still a monkey. One need not go far. One can simply close one's eyes and see the mind. We will find all kinds of monkey-like things going on. So what evolution has happened? What is Darwin talking about?

Content: Real evolution is judged by blissfulness. And blissfulness grows with Consciousness. They grow together, simultaneously. They are two aspects of the same coin. You grow in consciousness and you become more blissful or grow more blissful and you become more conscious. Start from anywhere, either consciousness or bliss, and you will grow.

Content: Unless one becomes a Buddha or a Christ, one misses the great opportunity of evolving. All other progress is false. Surrender is an effort in the right direction. It

Content: releases our potential and mankind has infinite potential. Man can reach the ultimate peaks of joy in surrender, not in acquisition.

Content: Gaining knowledge is cheap and easily available. One can sit in a library and collect knowledge. Our memory is so great that some claim a single man’s memory system can contain all the libraries of the world. No computer has yet been invented which competes with man’s memory system. It is almost unlimited and it can create such a great illusion of being wise.

Content: Wisdom is a totally different phenomenon. It comes through love. It grows and flowers in the heart. The ways of the heart are unlike the ways of the head.

Content: Surrender is a search for wisdom. I am not interested in imparting knowledge here. I am not a teacher. A teacher imparts knowledge. A Master imparts being. A Master does not teach. On the contrary, he helps you unlearn. He helps you unburden. He helps you to come from the head to the heart. Once you are centered in the heart, your life pulsates with a new energy. That energy is love. It is not that you become more loving. You become love itself.

Content: Surrender is the transformation of ego into love. It is the transformation of your love for yourself into love for all. Yes, you need the ego to start with. When the ego is dropped, surrender happens.

Content: What if some never had an ego to start with? What about those whose identities had already merged with

Content: the collective identity? You may say that this cannot happen. You are wrong. It is rare, that is true; but it happens. Incarnations come to earth with full Consciousness of their collective identity. They are already in tune with the universe. In my biography, titled Nithyananda, this issue is covered in greater detail.

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Content: Extreme Statement

Content: 18.17 One who is egoless, whose intelligence is not of attachment, though he may kill, is not the slayer and is never bound by his actions.

Content: Very dangerous statement! Krishna goes to the extreme.

Content: No Master except Krishna can make such a courageous statement. Krishna makes a bold statement here. One who is not motivated by ego, whose intelligence is not based on attachment, though he may kill many men in this world, does not kill nor is he bound by his actions.

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Content: Of course, one who has reached that level of awareness does not think of killing. As long as we have the idea of 'I' and 'mine,' we attack or kill. When we exclude, we kill. On the other hand, when we surrender, we learn to include everything.

Content: One thing we need to understand. We kill others only when we feel insecure. We do not need courage to make war. We only need cowardice. Only cowards go to war. They are afraid for themselves and kill others. To kill others, we do not need courage. We simply need cowardice. The person who is courageous never kills others. He is established in non-violence. Only cowards continuously try to hurt others. A courageous person does not try to hurt others. That is the reason Krishna makes this bold statement - one who is not entangled in ego, even if he kills, does not kill.

Content: Krishna emphasizes here: May you be liberated from entanglement. May you liberate yourself from ego. He does not ask Arjuna to kill. One problem is that people give their meaning to words. They have their own understanding.

Content: A small story:

Content: A Zen monk asked the Master a question and was kicked out of the monastery.

Content: Another monk asked, 'What happened? What did you ask the Master?'

Content: The first monk said, 'I asked if I could smoke while I meditated. Master kicked me out.'

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: The second monk called him a fool and asked him to wait. He went in to see the Master and came out ten minutes later smoking a cigarette. The first monk asked him what the secret was.

Content: The second monk said: ‘I asked Master if I could meditate while I smoked!’

Content: We must know how to present our argument. But here, do not give your own meaning to what Krishna has said. He is asking you to be liberated from ego. The person who has realized that he is the part of a whole will not kill even if he kills. Grasp the proper meaning of this. Krishna asks you to experience the truth about yourself. He does not ask you to kill people. Recognize the correct meaning. Krishna inspires you to realize the truth, not to kill.

Content: A small story:

Content: A Jew, an Italian and a Polish man applied for a position at the police academy. First the Jew was interviewed.

Content: He was asked, ‘Who killed Jesus?’

Content: The Jew said, ‘The Romans killed Jesus.’ He was asked to join duty the next day and was sent out.

Content: Next the Italian entered and was asked the same question. He replied, ‘The Jews.’ He was asked to report to work the next day.

Content: The Polish man came next and was asked the same question. He replied, ‘I do not know.’ The

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Content: officer gave him one day to think about it and to come back with the answer.

Content: The man returned home and his wife asked him, ‘What happened during the interview?’ The husband replied, ‘I got the job. The first day itself I have been given a murder case to solve!’

Content: We can give whatever meaning we want to words. Do not give the wrong meaning to Krishna’s words. Krishna asks you to liberate yourself from your ego. He does not ask you to go around killing people. Understand the truth behind the words. Only a Master like Krishna can make such a courageous statement.

Content: Krishna uses killing as an extreme example to make Arjuna think. The focus is on non-attachment arising out of lost ego. When one no longer feels the need to survive, anything that one does is without attachment and without expectation. When a person is in that state, he is truly in tune with Existence. If such a person destroys, it is similar to the destruction caused by nature, which happens at a different frequency and understanding level as I explained earlier.

Content: Krishna makes this statement to drive the point home to Arjuna that it is his duty to stand up and fight instead of running from the battlefield.

Content: Q: Master, your disciples say that you burn them. This makes us afraid. What does it mean?

Content: Of course, my disciples are right. I don’t know in what context they said this, but they should not let out these business secrets.

Content: When you wish to be a gazer, looking at and enjoying my form, I allow that and give you brain candy in addition to the eye candy that you take yourself!

Content: When you become serious, when you see meaning behind my words and when you believe that I can help you move forward spiritually, you become closer to the state of a disciple. I start advising you to drop my form and focus on the formless.

Content: When you become a disciple, I initiate you as a Nithya Healer. You become my responsibility. Your spiritual progress is no longer your responsibility alone; it is mine, too. I can no longer smile and let you go your way. All spiritual progress is about dropping the ego, and the Master’s primary job is to remove that ego. It is surgery and Master is the surgeon.

Content: Please understand this clearly. If you stay with me for sometime, you will know that I am not a shanta swarupa, a calm and smiling visage, all the time. My disciples run from place to place while I shout instructions to them. Outsiders are sometimes shocked at words that I use. ‘How can a Master say such things?’ they wonder. They have not read or understood the Gita; that is why.

Content: When I am seemingly aggressive, that is just the picture I present. Inside me there is no emotion or aggression. It is not even satva. A Master goes beyond

Content: the three gunas. He is a trigunarahita. He transcends the three attributes of satva, rajas and tamas.

Content: Yes, my disciples may have told you that I burn them; yet I am sure they told you that with pride and love.

Content: Otherwise why would they stay with me? I don’t force them. They see the change and transformation that happens within them when their ego drops and bliss rises within.

Content: Why would they want to leave? Very soon they understand my shouting, anger and all this burning is a superficial mask meant for their progress.

Content: They understand that compassion drives the surgery.

Content: In fact, I tell them openly, and it is a danger for me, that the only thing that makes me sad is when a disciple leaves me.

Content: It does not happen often, but it happens. It does not happen because they are unhappy that I shout, but because the path takes them from what they think they want.

Content: I feel sad because their beings brought them to me after having had the experience of running away in previous bodies.

Content: The spirit, the being, hopes that at least in this lifetime it will be redeemed through a Master.

Content: There is nothing to fear from me or any Master.

Content: The Master is driven by one thing: compassion for you.

Content: He needs nothing in return.

Content: There is nothing that you can give him, which is of any value to him.

Content: His compassion for you is totally unconditional.

Content: 18.18 Knowledge, object of the knowledge and the subject of the knowledge, the knower, are the three factors that stimulate action; the senses, the action and the performer comprise the three components of action.

Content: 18.19 According to the guna theory of Sankhya, there are three types in knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them.

Content: 18.20 That knowledge by which one imperishable reality is seen in all

Content: Existence, undivided in the divided, is knowledge in the state of goodness.

Content: 18.21 The knowledge by which one sees different realities of various types among all beings as separate from one another; such knowledge is in the mode of aggression.

Content: 18.22 The irrational, baseless, and worthless knowledge by which one clings to one single effect as if it is everything; such knowledge is in the mode of darkness of ignorance

Content: 18.23 Obligatory duty performed without likes and dislikes and without selfish motives and attachment to the fruit, is in the mode of goodness.

Content: 18.24 Action performed with ego, with selfish motives, and with too much effort, is in the mode of aggression.

Content: 18.25 Action that is undertaken because of delusion, disregarding consequences, loss, injury to others, as well as one's own ability, is in the mode of ignorance.

Content: 18.26 The performer who is free from attachment, non-egotistic, endowed with resolve and enthusiasm, and unperturbed in success or failure is called good.

Content: 18.27 The performer who is impassioned, who desires the fruits of work, who is greedy, violent, impure, and affected by joy and sorrow, is called aggressive.

Content: 18.28 The performer who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, wicked, malicious, lazy, depressed, and procrastinating is called ignorant.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: In these verses Krishna explains the nature of man, the human.

Content: Krishna has already said that the final performer is not man, nara, but the Divine, Narayana. Even so the human is still the subject, the medium that we are dealing with. All the fragilities that we have are inbuilt into our nature. These are the guna or attributes that define our behavior. These attributes control our thoughts, words and actions. One is not all the time, from birth to death, in that one guna or attribute. No. Still, we are in one guna or another most of the time, unless we make the effort to free ourselves from that attribute.

Content: The gunas are of three kinds: satva, rajas and tamas. Satva is defined as calm, peaceful, spiritual and good, etc. This is generally the attribute of spiritually inclined persons. Rajas is translated as aggressive, passionate and active, etc. This is the primary attribute of kings, warriors and business people. Tamas is lazy, ignorant and passive, etc. Tamas is seen as the inactive component that many of us experience at times. It is the active component of those who live to eat and sleep.

Content: In these verses, Krishna beautifully defines in detail the qualities and effects of these gunas upon us. His purpose in doing this is to make us aware of what happens within us. The majority of the time we are ignorant of why we react the way we do. As the Master explains in these words, once we understand how we react, we can move to the next level of understanding and shift to a superior attribute.

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Content: Yes, all of us must be rajasic or aggressive part of the time to accomplish things. Even so, if we can act aggressively without greed, anger or fear affecting us, as well as acting without attachment, we are in a satvic mood, although superficially we seem to be in a rajasic mode.

Content: Krishna defines a satvic person as one who sees the Collective Consciousness, the whole, in parts. He understands that he is not alone and not an island, rather he is linked with everyone and everything in this Universe. He understands his connection with Cosmic Energy.

Content: A satvic person is not focused on himself. He realizes that his survival and possessions, the 'I' and 'mine,' are meaningless. His activities are selfless, without expectation of praise or reward, and without attachment to the process or result. Such a person is not affected by the seeming success or failure of what he undertakes because there is no feeling of 'I' and 'mine' involved in his actions.

Content: It is not that difficult to move into a satvic state. True, you may not be able to stay there all the time, but once you understand how this state liberates you, you try more and more to stay there.

Content: To be in the satvic state is to understand that past and future are mere illusions. They do not exist. Past is gone, never to return. Why worry? Future is a mirage. All you can do is to activate your present moment. That is all you can do. The present moment determines your future. Once you focus on

Content: the present, your awareness increases manifold and you drop expectations and attachment. You just do what is needed. You respond to reality. You respond to the Now. You are in satva.

Content: You fall into a rajasic state when you distinguish between you and I, between this and that. There is no differentiation. Your mind, the ego, creates this differentiation. Your samskaras bring up this differentiation between you and others. A rajasic person does everything expecting a reward. He is selfish, aggressive and impatient. When he does not get what he wants, he is upset. Failure is a blow to his ego.

Content: A rajasic person can never be happy. Please understand, almost all of you are driven by rajas. This is the predominant attribute in modern times. Rich or poor, intelligent or idiot, educated or uneducated, almost everyone compares himself with the next person and wants what the other person has. As long as you are driven by your desires, and not satisfied by having what you need, you are in rajas.

Content: Rajas corrodes you. It eats up your soul. There is no end to greed and no limit to fear. These are the driving forces of rajas. Rajas is about trying to attain what you don't have, not being happy with what you have, not being happy about where you are and not being happy when you are in the present moment. You are either constantly in the future, imagining what you would like to be and like to have, or you are in the past thinking about how you could have done better. Does it make any sense? Rajas is living in a fantasy world.

Content: In tamas one is fully in delusion. One sticks to embedded beliefs, knowledge or conditions without making an effort to verify whether they are right or wrong, appropriate or not, harmful or not. Religious zealots and gangsters are in tamas. There is no difference between them; only their end objectives are different. Both are dogmatic, violent and totally selfish. They adopt any means, even criminal, to achieve their objectives.

Content: Tamas does not just mean inactivity, laziness and procrastination. Yes, it is all that; however, it also includes mindless action without realizing that one is part of a whole. The ego is so enlarged that it believes it is the whole. It believes nothing else of significance exists; others are of no consequence. A Hitler who destroyed millions of people believing that they were inferior was in deep tamas. Tamas is an animal at its worst when it stops heeding the laws of nature. And only a human can be in tamas. An animal can never be in tamas because it is directed by the intelligence of nature. It is an insult to a buffalo or a pig when people compare tamasic people to these animals!

Content: Q: I am a Nithya healer and I meditate regularly. Along with detachment, I find that I become disinclined to do anything. Then I become afraid that I am falling into laziness. What is happening?

Content: You are in the right path. Do not worry. What is happening is what needs to happen.

Content: Society, in the form of political or religious institutions, tries to control you through fear and greed.

Content: These institutions believe that unless you are prodded by fear and greed, you cannot be effective, productive and valuable. To whom are you productive effective and valuable? It is certainly not an advantage to your own Self. Perhaps it benefits these institutions.

Content: Fear and greed make you seek the external world for fulfillment. You seek to act on your thoughts and words. These can never be fulfilled. The same fear and same greed reappear no matter how many times you have experienced them before.

Content: You are in rajas, the mode of aggression, when you act on your thoughts. People ask, 'How can I live without acting on my thoughts? Who will pay my bills?'

Content: Please understand that if Nature provided you with a built-in a system that converts bread to blood, can it not take care of providing you with bread as well? Nature does not trust you with anything that is critical to your living. That is why essential activities such as breathing, growing and digesting, etc., happen without your involvement.

Content: Stop acting on your thoughts. Stop looking for their meaning. Instead seek the source of thoughts. For instance, if you feel hungry, ignore that thought. When your body feels that desperate hunger, it will by itself seek and procure the food to fulfill its needs.

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Content: When you do this, when you stop acting on the meaning of words, you fall into tamas, into inaction. That is what you fear. There is nothing to fear. You will stay in that inaction until your hatred against your restlessness and greed get worked out. Once that happens, you come out of that inaction that tamasic state, purified.

Content: Please understand you do not move from tamas into rajas and then into satva as you may think. You do not move from inaction to aggression and then to peace. You start with rajas, which is the state of your day-to-day activity, when you are in the mode of dorsership, seeking to fulfill the meaning of your thoughts and words.

Content: When you stop seeking meaning, you fall into inaction, tamas, for a brief period, until you start seeking the source of your thoughts and move into satva. You will feel the effect of inner healing and understand that the universe does take care of you.

Content: Your being is always centered. Your mind is always at the periphery.

Content: Your mind constantly seeks the outer and is led by the senses. Your being stays centered at the core and is directed inwards. You are constantly tugged between the center and the perimeter. When you are at the periphery, you are truly mad. You are overcome with fear and greed. You are consumed by lust, the desire for power and wealth.

Content: When you are at the center, you are Shiva. You are in Cosmic Consciousness.

Content: Over time, you develop the capability to stay somewhere in between. You have no choice. You must choose madness because your mind will not let you stay at the center. You become eccentric, moving briefly back and forth between the bliss of your core and the illusions of your periphery.

Content: At the periphery your senses control you. They make merry. Once in awhile, if you are intelligent, you realize that you are getting nowhere. You go wherever your senses lead you and try to enjoy the sense objects presented to you. Over time the enjoyment decreases. You need more and more of the same object whereas enjoyment becomes less and less. You are about to become addicted. Some bit of intelligence in you warns you to get out.

Content: You move away from the periphery and try to move towards the center where you have experienced brief moments of great peace and happiness. Your awareness does not last long. Your mind becomes restless and you return to your old ways. You move back towards the periphery.

Content: Please understand that at the peripheral level, you are in the grip of the need to survive and possess. You are governed by ego, or 'I-based' survival needs and 'mine,' the need to possess. Two strong forces keep you tethered to the periphery: fear of losing your identity and greed to possess more and more.

Content: Your ego reduces when you realize your connectivity with others and understand that you can collaborate with them more effectively than if you compete. Your need to possess more and more decreases when you develop awareness to enjoy what you have instead of rushing to acquire more.

Content: As you move from being eccentric to the center, you move from past and future to the present moment. You move from suffering to bliss.

Content: 18.29 Now hear Me explain, fully and separately, the threefold division of intellect and resolve, based on modes of material nature, O Arjuna.

Content: 18.30 O Arjuna, that intellect is in the mode of goodness that understands the path of work and the path of renunciation, right and wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation.

Content: 18.31 That intellect is in the mode of passion that cannot distinguish

Content: between principles of right conduct and wrongdoing, and right and wrong action, O Arjuna.

Content: 18.32 That intellect is in the mode of ignorance that accepts unrighteousness as righteousness and thinks everything to be that which it is not, O Arjuna.

Content: 18.33 Consistent and continuous determination in controlling mind, breath and senses for uniting with the Divine is goodness, Arjuna.

Content: 18.34 Craving for results of action while clinging to goals of proper conduct, pleasure and wealth is the state of passion.

Content: 18.35 Ignorant resolve that cannot go beyond dreaming, fear, grief, despair and, delusion - such is in darkness, Arjuna.

Content: Here Krishna refers to the approach known as the purushartha or meanings of life.

Content: Dharma, artha, kama and moksha are the four purushartha. These can be translated as righteousness, wealth, desire or lust and liberation. These are the four fold meanings of life. I prefer not to call it purpose of life. There is no purpose to life. Once we install a purpose to life, it becomes a goal post. Attachments and expectations result.

Content: Life is a path without a destination. Once we assume there is a destination, we hurry. The future becomes a stress-inducing factor. Let us say we travel from New York to Washington. Once we fix Washington as our destination, the next issue is, 'When will we reach there?'

Content: Subsequently all that torments us from then on is, 'When will we reach there?' It is a different matter that we may have nothing to do in Washington once we arrive, and therefore there is no need to hurry. In the process we do not enjoy the journey. The journey is an evil that we must cross in order to reach our destination. What a sad way to lead one's life.

Content: In life do not fix a destination. Each journey must be enjoyed. The path and the journey are what life is. Enjoy the people you meet, the experiences you have and what you pick up on the way without being greedy to acquire more. The journey, the path, becomes so enjoyable that whatever destination you reach is the right destination.

Content: People who ascribe a purpose to life are disturbed. Philosophers who have no other work create false purposes to life. Philosophers exist to confuse people whereas mystics solve problems and provide guidance to awaken intelligence. When we let life lead us, when we take life as it comes, we enjoy every moment. We truly live in the present, like a God. We realize our potential.

Content: Purusartha provides four meanings to life. Dharma is right conduct or virtue. Buddha preached this as the middle path and the first of his three great principles of Dharma, Sangha and Buddha. Traditionally it is Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But I feel Dharma and Sangha are the means to reach Buddha, the Divine. Dharma is therefore the road map when we start the journey of life. This roadmap has been charted by great sages who looked

Content: within and brought out the truth of their experience in terms of how one should lead one’s life for it to be meaningful.

Content: Artha is stuff we pick up on our path and journey, the material things we need to sustain ourselves. Kama is the pleasure of senses we experience and enjoy on this journey. These are rightful acquisitions and pleasurable experiences. Do not feel disturbed by the need for these. But do not become caught up in them and forget to move on the path and enjoy the journey to the fullest.

Content: Moksha or liberation is the ultimate meaning to life. This is the culmination of the liberation from expectation, desires, greed and fear and liberation from attachment to desires. This understanding that non-attachment and absence of expectation leads to liberation can fill us with bliss.

Content: Here Krishna gives the essence of how we should lead our lives to make them meaningful. He says that goodness or satva is the state in which there is clarity between right and wrong, and whatever one does with one’s body, mind and senses is done with a view to liberate ourselves from attachment and desires in order to realize that we are Divine.

Content: Q: Master, you said earlier that differentiation between right and wrong is only in our minds. Can you explain why Krishna tells us to have clarity between right and wrong?

Content: In purely spiritual terms, in the definition of Existence, there is no differentiation between right and wrong. God does not sit and judge. Nature and God do not keep accounts. An enlightened Master is beyond your normal understanding of right and wrong.

Content: However, in day-to-day life, in practical terms, there are social guidelines and limits to what you can and cannot do. You cannot live within a society or even outside a society without following accepted norms of behavior.

Content: Krishna makes recommendations throughout Gita for everyday practical life: to be in the flow with Existence while simultaneously being in line with societal norms. He does not talk only about people who move to isolated forests to contemplate the infinite. His advice to Arjuna is practical and valid for each of us, whether a student, scholar, householder or businessperson.

Content: Therefore, He speaks about practicality and spirituality. He takes us to Quantum Spirituality. He advises how to lead a day-to-day life while moving up spiritually into Self-realization. For that reason, He advises to understand right and wrong and to guide our body, mind and senses accordingly, free from attachment and expectations. In this way, we become in tune with our Divine Self.

Content: Another aspect to His advice is born out of His concern for our life beyond. What we do in this life determines what happens after our body perishes. Whatever we do follows us. Intent and result of our

Content: action (karma) follows us from birth to birth through the transitions of death as the mind set (vasana) and recreates us in the same mold as our vasana. We become truly what we do as well as what we think, desire and intend.

Content: That is why enlightened Masters, the rishis, laid down guidelines. This is dharma. Following one’s dharma in the true spirit of moksha (liberation), without fear or favor and without desires and expectations makes life worth living. It makes the journey blissful.

Content: If, on the other hand, we do not differentiate between right and wrong, both in principle and action, the pursuit of material pleasures and acquisitions with attachment and expectations breeds aggression, rajas. This is why businesses often do things that are blatantly antisocial.

Content: The pursuit of wealth so confuses the minds of top executives that the line between right and wrong becomes blurred. If someone points this out or tries to correct them, they are attacked as wrong doers. We observe this often in society.

Content: When we think that the terrible deeds that we do are the best for us and we carry them out with deep emotional attachment to the action and end result, we are in dark ignorance or tamas. This is especially true of political leaders. They convince themselves that wrong is right and execute their nightmares on humanity. The greater the power they wield, the greater the damage they inflict.

Content: You may ask, what can we do? What could anyone do with a Hitler in the past? What can anyone do with

Content: modern day Hitlers who use democracy as a weapon? Unfortunately, we can do little, directly and instantly. We can only transform ourselves first and by the light of our transformation influence others. Each one must internalize the truth and transform. Otherwise it will be another coercion; it will be another dictatorship in the name of spirituality.

Content: The truth is that once we evolve, renouncing our expectations and attachment, we see these events, however nasty they may be, in a different light. We realize, 'Yes, they are bad and should not happen.' We know that we can do little to influence these events. Even so, we know there will be a correction. Existence may not work like lightning; all the same, there will be a payback. We do not become disturbed. We stay still in satva.

Content: This does not prevent us from doing whatever we can to right what has gone wrong. We must do whatever we can. However, do not think we are capable of correction or that we are the corrector, if that is the right word. This will entangle us back into attachment. When we have intelligence, the buddhi, to work this way without ego and expectation, Existence provides us with whatever we need in terms of sakti, the power to do what we need to do.

Content: You may ask, how can we determine what is right or wrong? It is a relevant question. In simple terms, Patanjali's Yoga Sutra lays down straightforward guidelines for right living, as the five yama or disciplines. Patanjali says these are satya, truth; ahimsa, non-violence;

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Content: aparagriha, living simply; asteya, not coveting what others have; and brahmacharya, living in reality. If we use these guidelines for our thoughts, words and actions, we will stay on the right path. I can speak about each of these disciplines for hours; unfortunately there is only limited time here.

Content: In our annual Himalayan trips, those who accompany me do a viraja homa on the banks of the Ganga at Rishikesh: they take these five vows of yama and wear the sacred thread and saffron cloth I give them for protection. I do not monitor to see whether they follow this strictly or not, but they will tell you that these vows make their trip more enjoyable.

Content: 18.36,37 And now hear from Me, O Arjuna, about three kinds of pleasure. The pleasure that one enjoys from spiritual practice results in cessation of all sorrows. The pleasure that appears as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end, comes by the grace of Self-knowledge and is in the mode of goodness.

Content: 18.38 Sensual pleasures that appear as nectar in the beginning, but become poison in the end, are in the mode of passion.

Content: 18.39 Pleasure that is delusion from beginning to end and born out of sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of ignorance.

Content: 18.40 No one, either here or among the celestials in the higher planetary systems, is free from these three states of material nature.

Content: Earlier Krishna spoke about the influence of gunas on the intellect, that in turn defines the way we act. Now He talks about how we respond as a result of our behavior.

Content: Krishna says that spiritual practice that is the state of satva is difficult in the beginning, and it is like poison; however, it becomes life-giving nectar in the end. Sensual pleasures born out of rajas, on the other hand, seem like nectar in the beginning but become poisonous. In the tamasic state, Krishna says one is deluded as if in sleep, laziness and illusion. Every human is in one state or another. Not merely humans, even the celestials who are supposedly more evolved are in the same mode. No one can escape the effect of the gunas, the nature of attributes.

Content: How beautifully the Master summarizes how we become deluded by our senses. It is not easy to begin spiritual practice. In the Vedic tradition, in the gurukulam schools, from a young age children were brought up in a spirit and environment of spirituality. They learned to control their mind and senses at an early age and to focus upon Self-realization. They understood by the example of their Masters that there was something more pleasurable beyond sensory pleasures. This gave them courage.

Content: In today's age, this is impractical. Invading Moguls and the colonizing British destroyed the Vedic culture, especially the gurukulam tradition. This was not accidental or incidental. It was a deliberate strategy. Aurangazeb ordered his men to convert Hindus to Islam or kill them. He advised that it was better to convert. He knew conversion added another person to his religion, whereas killing only eliminated a Hindu. British rulers identified the educational system of gurukulam as the key to Hindu ethos and targeted its destruction so that they could subjugate.

Content: What we have today is a mass of literate Indians who are uneducated. They are totally unaware of the great tradition of our Vedic culture. They think rituals are stupid and meaningless. Hindu philosopher scholars, equally ignorant of our culture, egg them on. We have lost the knowledge of connectivity between these rituals and spirituality. Rituals, when carried out meaningfully, are the basis of spirituality.

Content: If in His era, Krishna says that spirituality is like poison and unpleasant to start with, how much more dangerous and unpleasant will it taste today? Who is concerned about when and how it becomes nectar? I have told you based on what Krishna has said that you must live in the present. Now you will tell me that spirituality is like poison and that is what matters. How can you accept that spirituality is pleasant?

Content: Dangerous isn't it? Logic is dangerous when used half way. Krishna affirms that spirituality is nectar and perpetually life giving. That awareness and understanding

Content: in this present moment will save your spirit from untold hurt and pain. The spiritual path seems unpleasant when you do not realize the bliss that it provides.

Content: When we are in the rajasic mode, only sensory pleasures of the body matter. In the tamasic mode, we don’t even know we are in deep sloth and ignorance beyond caring. Sensory organs are powerful. They are windows to the external world and are conditioned from a young age to what we avoid as pain and chase as pleasure. Bodily pleasure gives mental pleasure and therefore emotional satisfaction. When we are caught in these emotions, the play of the senses, we get lost. It is a constant rewind operation based on what gave us pleasure. Hence, we want it replayed. Our past drives our future. Attachments and expectations drive our actions.

Content: In our Nithyananda Spurana Programs (NSP or Life Bliss Level 2) I take participants through a journey of the death experience. I take them through the process in which at the time of death the spirit travels every inch of your life as you lived it, not missing one thought. At that time, all that you chased and enjoyed as material and sensual pleasures are played back in flashback. Many experiences were in three dimensions and vivid color at the time of enjoyment whereas they play back in monochrome and silent mode. However, the few moments of spiritual experiences that you may have had, such as with a Master, may have seemed irrelevant at the time; yet they play back multidimensionally and in vivid color.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: We may not believe it now, but it is true. What seemed like nectar turns out to be poison. What seemed like poison becomes true nectar.

Content: I am not saying leave your homes and move into my ashram. First of all, I have no space in my ashram. You can lead the life that you have, but lead it with awareness. As long as you look at your sensory perceptions for what they are – an illusory sales promotion – you are safe.

Content: A small story:

Content: A businessman died and was offered the option of hell or heaven. No one had told him he would have options, but then smart as he was, he decided to push his luck further. ‘Can I sample both before I decide?’ he asked. Surprisingly the answer was, ‘Yes.’

Content: He was first taken to hell. It was like a disco. All kinds of people dancing to techno music. He saw many people he knew. He waved to them, but they didn’t seem to notice. Everyone seemed dazed, but having fun. It was so different from the fire and brimstone that his priest had described.

Content: Next they took him to heaven. Here it was somber and serious. It was full of old men with long beards. He did not know anybody there. At the end of the trip, he was asked where he wanted to go. His choice was obvious. He said, ‘Hell, of course.’ The Manager said, ‘Be careful, once you are

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Content: sent there, you can't change your mind.' The businessman was used to taking calculated risks and said, 'I am sure I want to go to hell.'

Content: As he finished saying this, he found himself in a hot and fiery place, with horned devils and all things about hell that we've been told. The man was shocked!

Content: 'What is this? This is not the hell I saw just a few minutes ago! What happened to the hell I saw before?'

Content: The guard replied, 'Oh, that is our marketing department!'

Content: This is what Krishna tells us: don't be misled by the senses. Senses are provided to deceive us for no other reason! All that we can do is look at the outer world and suffer. Either we suffer then and there through painful experiences or we suffer later after going through experiences that we think are enjoyable. Either way it is poison, now or later.

Content: Krishna describes the tamasic person with great insight. He does not use the word poison in describing the state of such a person. A tamasic person is like a drug addict. At least a rajasic person enjoys the experience now, and suffers later. A tamasic person has no enjoyment. He is in suffering, without knowing that he is suffering, his delusion so deep. That is why he passes his suffering on to others with no compunction. That is how ignorant people who rise to become leaders act.

Content: Q: Master, education teaches us that we must think through problems to reach a solution. Yet, you say to stop thinking. What then is the point of education?

Content: Truth can’t be reached by thinking. Thinking can arrive at a theory, a hypothesis; it cannot know truth itself. Truth can be known when thinking ceases, when we become absolutely silent and when we move into a state of utter awareness, but it is a state of utter thoughtlessness, too. That’s why few people arrive at the ultimate truth.

Content: Many have strived, many have struggled and many have desired. All the same, they were working through the mind. The mind can spin and weave beautiful fictions. It cannot give you that which is.

Content: Mind is made of the stuff dreams are made of. Dreams are different from thoughts. Dreams are pictorial thoughts. Dreaming is a primitive way of thinking. That’s the way children think. Children’s books must include many pictures, colorful illustrations because children are less interested in text and more interested in pictures.

Content: Slowly as they grow up, pictures become less and less. By the time they reach their post-graduation in the university, pictures disappear; they are not needed. They have moved from pictures to words.

Content: Thinking is a more sophisticated and evolved way of dreaming. It is more eccentric, more mathematical and more philosophical. Even so, deep down, it is the same process. Whether you think in pictures or words makes no difference.

Content: Ancient languages like Chinese are pictograms. They don't have an alphabet. They are the most ancient languages. They must have been the first languages. Still they carry that ancient primitive mind.

Content: For example, they say if you write 'war' in Chinese, you must make a pictogram: a roof with two women sitting underneath - that means one man and two wives. That is war, when one is enough - two is too much!

Content: Thinking has its own limitations. The greatest limitation is that it can go round and round in circles but it never reaches the center of things. Truth is that which is. We cannot fabricate it. We can't think about it. It is already there. We just need to look at it. If we are trying to think about the truth, we have missed it because we need an unoccupied consciousness.

Content: The whole process of meditation is becoming an unoccupied consciousness. There are no dreams and no thoughts, just a silent awareness. There is nothing to hinder and disturb, nothing to interpret and interfere. Then we see that which is. That is satya, the Ultimate Truth.

Content: Truth is for the courageous. The greatest courage is to drop our mind because we consider it the most precious thing. We don't know anything higher than that. Education teaches us to have more and more refined minds. Education is a process of refining our mental processes. We devote almost one third of our life to

Content: universities. That is the most precious time of our life because we will never be that young again. We will never be that fresh again. We will never be that intelligent again. We will never have that much energy and strength again.

Content: The most precious time of life is devoted single-heartedly to a one purpose: refinement of the mind. Then one day, when somebody says 'drop it,' it seems impossible. We have acquired it through hard effort, years of training, examinations and all the nightmares that we go through in those examinations. Just think of that. And then a Master says, 'Drop it.'

Content: He says, 'It is all rubbish. It is just junk.' It is junk!

Content: The function of the Master is to help us get rid of our own mind. Great courage is needed to drop those twenty-five years and the training and all our degrees, the PhDs and DSCs. Certainly great courage is needed to close that whole chapter. It is becoming innocent again. Losing that grip of intellectual knowledge and losing all that we have learned means we will be in a state of non-knowing again. Even so, that's what is required for knowing truth.

Content: The state of non-knowing is the basic requirement for knowing truth because only the innocent ones can know it. Knowledgeable ones miss it. The knowledgeable ones keep asking, 'Why?' Those who really seek ask, 'How?'

Content: This is the way of the disciple: not to ask, 'Why?' But this certainly requires courage.

Content: Bliss is possible only through great intelligence. Misery needs no intelligence. Any fool is capable of being miserable. That's why there are so many miserable people in the world. It is because there are so many foolish people in the world.

Content: People ask me, 'Why don't we see many blissful people?' The simple reason is few people allow their intelligence to function. They live in ignorance.

Content: Foolishness pays in certain ways. It is a good investment sometimes. Intelligence has always been a problem. If we are intelligent, we are constantly in trouble because unintelligent people surround us. There will be no communication with them. And they are in the majority - we will be alone. They can crush us. They can kill us.

Content: They can force their ideas upon us and manage to torture us in a thousand and one ways. They don't allow individuality. The crowd wants us to be part of the crowd. It wants us to surrender our intelligence to the crowd.

Content: Whatever the crowd believes in, it wants us to follow that whether it is Communism, Christianity, Hinduism or Islam. It wants us to be a believer. Belief is one of the many poisons that kills intelligence. The crowd wants us to become a yes-man to all kinds of nonsense, superstitions and rotten ideas that are meaningless.

Content: For centuries Christianity fought for the belief that the sun revolved around earth. It killed thousands of people

Content: for believing otherwise. Now we look back and laugh at how millions of people could believe such things for hundreds of years. If we ponder a little bit, we laugh, 'How could so many people believe in these untruths?'

Content: It was because of fear of the crowd and fear of what violence the crowd was capable of. The crowd wants us to conform. That's the root cause of peoples' intelligence being destroyed. When intelligence is destroyed, we cannot know bliss.

Content: As the child grows up, it is robbed of the intelligence it brought with it at birth. It is educated and conditioned. All kinds of things are forced upon the child. By the time he is a grown-up man, he has lost his intelligence on the way somewhere. He has become stupid. And he remains miserable.

Content: Religions exploit our misery. First, they make us fools, creating misery. Then they exploit our misery. They say, 'You are miserable because you don't believe in God. You sinned in your past lives and you are not virtuous. You need to confess, pray, come to church regularly, become more religious or become a monk or a nun, so that God can forgive you.' These things appeal to people because they want to get rid of their misery. So they are ready to follow any idea.

Content: On the other hand, an ignorant person cannot understand what he is doing, why he is doing it or where he is going. So first he needs to release his imprisoned intelligence. After that, bliss is simple. It is a

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Content: by-product. Once we know our intelligence, we immediately feel a showering of bliss.

Content: Yes, there is no point to education if it kills intelligence and stops bliss. Education that is designed for conformity is useless. It is dangerous. It corrodes the spirit.

Content: 18.41 Brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are divided in the work they do based on their nature, Arjuna.

Content: 18.42 The nature of Brahmana is characterized by calmness, discipline, austerity, tolerance, honesty, knowledge, wisdom and belief in God.

Content: 18.43 Kshatriya are characterized by their qualities of heroism, vigor, firmness, dexterity, and steadfastness in battle, leadership and generosity.

Content: 18.44 Those who are good at cultivation, cattle rearing, and trade are known as Vaisya. Those who are very good in service are classed as Sudra.

Content: 18.45 One can attain the highest perfection by devotion to one's natural work. Listen to Me about how one attains perfection while engaged in one's natural work.

Content: 18.46 One attains perfection by worshipping the Supreme Being; from whom all beings originate and by whom this entire universe is pervaded through performance of one's natural duty for Him.

Content: 18.47 It is better to engage in one's rightful conduct, even though one may not perform it to perfection, rather than to accept another's conduct and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one's nature are never affected by sinful reactions.

Content: 18.48 Every work has some defect, just as fire is covered by smoke. One should not give up the work that is born of his own nature, even if such work is full of fault, Arjuna.

Content: 'Sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah para-dharmat sv-anusthitat,' says Krishna.

Content: So-called scholars have spoken more nonsense about this verse than all the other verses of the Gita put together. The uneducated have also used this verse in order to condemn our Vedic culture.

Content: Some have used it to justify the Hindu caste system. Others have denigrated the Gita and Krishna by saying,

Content: 'How He can be God? How can this be God's scripture when He condones such a despicable social system as the caste system?'

Content: First of all, one must understand how the caste system originated as well as realize how it became corrupted. In the Vedic culture, under the gurukulam tradition, young children were left in the care of the Master. Most great Masters were married and also had children of their own. This is how Arjuna grew up with Aswattama, Drona's son.

Content: All the children were taught the gayatri mantra at the age of seven to awaken their inner intelligence. All the children were trained the same way until age twelve or so. Then the Master decided what they should be next trained for depending upon their spiritual progress and whether they had any spiritual experiences up to this point.

Content: The Master studied the child and his progress. He also used astrology as a guide to each child's character and aptitude. In this way, the Master was able to separate the children into potential scholars, leaders, traders and workers. He then trained them accordingly. No hereditary preference was used in this selection and training. Of course, it is possible that a scholar's child had a better chance of becoming a scholar due to his genes and predilection, but this was not a limiting condition. Were this to be so, Drona, a brahmana, would have never become a warrior.

Content: Scholars were selected based upon their aptitude to learn, their belief in God, wisdom and their satvic nature.

Content: They were taught the scriptures and became the brahmana. Those who exhibited courage and leadership were taught martial arts and became kshatriya. Those who showed a preference for farming or business were trained in those fields as vaisya. Those who were ready to serve others and showed an aptitude to work with their hands were classified as sudra.

Content: No caste was considered inferior or superior to another. No caste was hereditary. The selection and training was spiritual and done impartially. It served society well since everyone was living and expressing according to their aptitudes and their unique path towards liberation.

Content: This is why Krishna says it is better to do one's assigned work imperfectly rather than do another's work perfectly. It is possible that one can perform elements of another's work well. A brahmana, being a scholar, may excel as a vaisya in commercial calculations; however, he will have neither the heart nor head to be a businessman.

Content: This system also allowed a child to select. It was not a one-way selection by the Master alone. The child was taken into confidence and became a partner in the selection process. After all, the child's life was being structured. The child could express its passion and decide.

Content: Especially in India, many children today are unhappy because they must study what their fathers want them to study, not what they wish to study. What nonsense is

Content: this? It is the job of the parent to explain various options to the child, assess the child's aptitude and then decide the field of study and training. Instead the father says, 'Become an engineer because that fetches the maximum dowry in the marriage market!'

Content: Over time, this classification of selection and training became corrupted. Those who were brahmana wanted their children to be brahmana and so on. People used their influence to bend the system. The varna or caste system that had originally been a selection and training system in education became stratification in society based upon birth.

Content: Before we condemn the caste system, realize that every society has stratification. Wherever equality has been forced on society, as in Communism, it has been a failure. Each person is unique and when similar people form groups, there will be stratification and classification. In Vedic India this classification was based upon intelligence. In modern society it is based on money and power. Which is better?

Content: Without this caste system, without the brahmana being the keepers of knowledge, our Vedic treasures would have disappeared thousands of years ago. Do you know that there is a group of scholars in Chidambaram today, and similarly in other places, who take their traditional job of preserving Vedic wisdom so seriously that they will not travel out of the town limits? They have sacrificed for generations and for thousands of years so that this knowledge could be preserved for posterity. Who will

Content: spend his life staying within a ten-mile radius to safely keep wisdom that was revealed many thousands of years ago? They do not benefit from this. No one pays them. What do we do in gratitude? We make fun of them, revile them and denounce the system.

Content: The people who denounce the system do it for power and money, not for any selfless reasons. They offer no alternative recommendations for preserving traditional knowledge.

Content: I am not a brahmana. Brahmanas have come to me and hinted at their discomfort at being termed brahmanas. They are well-educated people. I tell them, 'Be proud of your culture, your tradition. Without brahmanas, the Vedic tradition would have died long ago.'

Content: This praise is for those brahmanas who have remained true to their scholarship. Those who have succumbed to the lure of mammon have no right to be called brahmanas.

Content: This is where the varna system has failed. From a scientific and efficient work system, it has deteriorated into a power broking system. We need to fix that. Actually, today a brahmana gains nothing by calling himself a brahmana. Those guys who are true to their tradition are poor and disrespected. Only those who use their scholarly skills to become kshatriyas and vaisyas have gained power, money and respect. It is better they continue to be where they are respected and happy!

Content: The problem with society and the societal structure is that they become exclusive; good societies should be

Content: inclusive. Today in the West as well as in other places including India, if we have money or power we belong. Does anyone rebel against that? No! How can we call a society advanced or progressive when the only criterion for respect is how many dollars we have in our bank account?

Content: By that logic I would have been denounced had I been born in any other country except India. For nearly ten years I was homeless. For nine years I traveled the length and breadth of India without carrying money. I never bought train tickets and never paid for meals or lodging. People welcomed me and offered me transport, shelter and food. In the West I would have been locked up in a jail or a shelter.

Content: There is no violence in this Indian system. There is no desperation to reach some place. By comparison, when you see a homeless person approaching your car in the US, you instinctively raise your windows and lock your doors. You are so afraid. In India, is anyone afraid of a beggar coming to stand in front of them? You may shoo them off, but you are not afraid that they will become violent. Why? There is acceptance. People in the West say that acceptance is weakness, not violence. How strange societal values have become? You respect a person only when you are afraid of him.

Content: We cannot evolve unless there is a fundamental change in our thinking. We have come to a stage where negative qualities are the hallmark of respectability. Jesus said,

Content: 'The meek shall inherit the earth,' not the aggressive or violent people. That is true. Violence and aggression and sloth never win. Acceptance and compassion do.

Content: Q: Krishna says surrender is the route to enlightenment, to reach Him. But doesn't surrender and renunciation mean surrender of the desire to be enlightened as well?

Content: A beautiful question.

Content: Ananda was one of the most significant of Buddha's disciples, one of the most intimate and closest disciples. For forty-two years he served Buddha like a shadow. Nobody has served a Master in that way for so long. He served Buddha as if he were absolutely absent. Nobody felt his presence: he moved silently. He did the work silently. By serving Buddha, he became more and more silent and peaceful. He became more and more graceful. Ananda became imbued with Buddha's spirit by being in that close, intimate relationship and remaining constantly under his energy, in his Buddha field. He completely forgot about himself. He even forgot that he had to become enlightened.

Content: Buddha reminded him again and again, 'Ananda, it is good to serve the Master. I am immensely pleased with you, but don't forget that you must become enlightened.'

Content: Ananda would laugh and say, 'To serve you is enough. Who cares about enlightenment?'

Content: Ananda became enlightened when Buddha died. He became enlightened within twenty-four hours. His sacrifice was immense. Ananda’s self-sacrifice is so rare that there is no record of anyone else in the whole history of humanity sacrificing his own enlightenment.

Content: In fact, many times Ananda said to Buddha, ‘Please don’t insist on my enlightenment. When you order something, I must do it and this is one thing that I cannot do because you will send me away if I become enlightened. You will tell me to go to the masses, help others become awakened and spread your message. So let me remain ignorant and continue serving you. Enlightenment can happen later. What is the hurry? I am completely content just being with you.’

Content: Many times Ananda had seen Buddha send a disciple away as soon as he became enlightened when he was ready to become the vehicle and carry the message. Buddha said, ‘Now, you are ready; go to the farthest corner of the world to help people who are fast asleep. Wake them up!’

Content: Every night before sleep, Ananda would pray so that Buddha heard his prayer: ‘My lord, help me to remain unenlightened because I don’t want to go away from you.’

Content: Before Buddha died, he declared ‘Today is my last day.’ Ananda began to cry. Buddha said, ‘Don’t cry and weep, Ananda. Only my death can make you enlightened. Otherwise, you will never become enlightened. When I am gone, there will be nothing left for you to cling to. I am grateful you have served me so long.’

Content: As Buddha predicted, within twenty-four hours Ananda became enlightened. Ananda closed his eyes the moment Buddha died and didn't open them until he became enlightened. People asked him, 'Why don't you open your eyes?'

Content: He said, 'I have seen the most beautiful man of the world. What is left to see? Now I can afford enlightenment. My only attachment was to Buddha. That too has been broken.'

Content: Ananda said, 'Maybe he has died only to help me become enlightened.'

Content: This is a beautiful story of a Master and disciple. This is the story of a rare one who renounced enlightenment out of gratitude for his Master.

Content: Bliss is a by-product of becoming totally conscious. Enlightenment is another name for total Consciousness. It simply means becoming full of light.

Content: Light represents awareness and darkness represents unawareness. Ordinarily, we are like a dark night. Everything is dark inside and it has been that way for many lives. The sun has not yet risen there. Outside there is much light. Inside there is only darkness.

Content: That's why few people venture inwards. They fear the darkness. They don't realize why they should go into the dark tunnel of their being. Why should they bother doing that? They listen to the Buddhas saying, 'Go within,' 'Know thyself,' but they feel puzzled and confused because whenever they look within they don't

Content: find anything resembling what the Masters or Buddhas talk about.

Content: The Buddhas say, 'Inside you will find light,' but they find darkness. The Buddhas say, 'Inside you will find immortality.' Instead, they find themselves surrounded by death. Inside there seems to be no life, only death. In darkness they can feel death becoming almost tangible. The Buddhas say, 'Inside you will find bliss,' but they find suffering and nightmares.

Content: There does not seem to be any silence. All is turmoil and chaos. That's why throughout the ages and across all the cultures, people have concluded: 'The Buddhas of the world belong to a different category. Perhaps they were able to find light inside because they are not human. Maybe they are Divine.' Not so, we are all ordinary beings.

Content: It is impossible to deny that the Buddhas are wrong because we can feel what they say in our own lives. People who have seen Jesus, Gautama Buddha, Zarathustra and Lao Tzu have seen their bliss and luminousness. They have heard their songs. It is impossible to deny.

Content: People witnessed the compassion and love of Jesus even towards the crowd who were killing him. Jesus prayed, 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' He asked that they be forgiven because they were unconscious. What they were doing was expected. What else could they do? They were driven by their unconscious impulses, the fear and greed that controlled them.

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Content: The last words of Jesus are a prayer to God that his tormentors should be forgiven. He prayed that they should not be punished because it was unfair to punish unconscious people. They were not responsible for their actions.

Content: Since it is impossible to deny the Buddhas, people logically create a separate category for enlightened people. They say: ‘We are seeds and He is a rosebud. How can we grow into roses? We are merely weeds. We can bow down to the roses. We can respect the roses but we cannot expect to become roses.’

Content: This is the logic people use to console themselves to accept that this division is natural. This is not natural. This whole division is absolutely ridiculous. They belong to us; they have been as ordinary as us. One day they were ordinary and then another day they became extraordinary. Something happened and that something can happen to everyone. They were ordinary when they were just seeds. When they became aware of their potential, when they started transforming their potential into actuality, they became luminous beings. They appeared to come from the beyond. They became a bridge between this world and that, between this shore and the farther shore. Everyone is entitled to the same. Everyone carries a seed of Buddhahood within him.

Content: Never for a moment think that there are categories. Yes, there is a difference because they are awakened. However, this is simply the difference between somebody who is asleep and somebody who is awakened. And the

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Content: head, but our head is not made to do that. That's how people become upside-down. Their whole life becomes upside-down. They do things they should not do while they do not do things that they should do.

Content: They are interested in things that are futile and meaningless; at the same time, they are absolutely uninterested in anything really significant. People live accidentally. They don't have any sense of direction. They don't have an inner discipline for growth. Besides that, they don't have a specific target. They simply go on living, not even knowing why. Maybe they go on doing this and that because they are restless. Restlessness needs some kind of occupation. Any kind of occupation will do. But any kind of occupation does not help us grow. Growth requires a selective life. Otherwise we don't grow; we die.

Content: Each moment we become less and less and less. Each moment we die a little bit more. Death comes closer with every moment. Time is not something to be killed; time is something to be used. Time is a great opportunity. It must not be wasted. But if we observe people, we are surprised: 99.9% waste their time because they have never given a second thought to what they are doing and why. Others may do it so they just imitate. People are nearly living the life of sleepwalkers.

Content: This is analogous to two drunkards sitting in a car going nearly over the speed limit. One drunkard says to the other, 'Now from the next cross-road, turn left and then you must turn right.' The other drunkard replies, 'Why do you keep telling me these things, you are the one who is driving!'

Content: Nobody is conscious. They neither know who is driving nor who is not driving. In addition, they don't know why people go in a certain direction. Why is everybody interested in money? It is because all others are interested. Why is everybody interested in fame? Simply because everyone else is interested. And we must be in tune with the others because they surround us.

Content: An intelligent person moves consciously moment to moment. He does everything for a specific reason. He has an intrinsic value system. He lives according to an inner discipline based upon his own awareness and not based upon what is imposed on him by others.

Content: In the beginning we may be groping, but soon we become more and more clear. We go astray less and less. Things settle down and we start following the right path towards inner growth. And then it becomes clear to us: as we move closer to our nature, as things are less chaotic in our life and become harmonious, we feel more bliss and peace. That is a clear-cut indication that we are on the right track.

Content: If we feel miserable in life that means we are going astray. Misery is an indicator, but so is bliss. They are real indicators: if people are miserable that shows they are upside-down; if they are blissful, they have formed into an organic unity. They are no more a crowd. They have created an integration. They now have a center. They are rooted and grounded.

Content: The bliss starts happening naturally and simply. It does not come from anywhere else; it arises out of our own inner being of its own accord. It is like a beautiful car's

Content: engine humming. An alert driver knows when something goes wrong with his car; he becomes aware because the engine no longer hums the same way. He detects a disturbing note.

Content: Nobody else riding in the car will be aware, even so, the driver becomes alert: something is wrong, something has gone astray, something is not functioning well, something is not in tune.

Content: Similarly, a conscious person immediately knows that something has gone wrong and he puts it right. Ordinarily people are not aware at all. They keep thinking that others are responsible for their misery. That is simply the mind's strategy for remaining unconscious. Then what do they do? The unconscious person says, 'My wife makes me miserable. My children make me miserable. My neighbors make me miserable.'

Content: We continue throwing the responsibility onto somebody else. We ourselves must take responsibility. We must become conscious. Bliss is a gift of nature for those who live consciously. It can be given only to people who live consciously because they can appreciate and understand it. It cannot be given to fools. They will throw it away. We can't give precious diamonds to children. They cannot distinguish between precious diamonds and colored stones. To understand a precious stone, we need a jeweler.

Content: As we become more and more conscious, we understand the great gift of bliss that nature always has ready for us. Whenever we are ripe, whenever we are ready, it is ours.

Content: 18.49 One whose mind is always free from selfish attachment, who has controlled the mind and who is free from desires, who attains perfection of freedom from selfish attachment to the fruits of work, is one who has renounced.

Content: 18.50 Understand from Me how one can achieve the state of Truth, Brahman, by acting in the way I shall now summarize, Arjuna.

Content: 18.51,52,53 Endowed with purified intellect; subduing the mind with firm resolve; turning away from objects of the senses; giving up likes and dislikes; living in solitude; eating lightly; controlling the mind, speech, and organs of action; ever absorbed in meditation; taking refuge in detachment; and relinquishing egotism, violence, pride, lust, anger, and proprietorship, one becomes peaceful, free from the notion of "I" and "mine," and fit for attaining oneness with the Supreme Being.

Content: These verses are the ultimate sutra, the technique to liberate and realize Brahman. Krishna describes how to reach the ultimate Truth. He tells us to just follow His instructions.

Content: The beauty of Krishna’s advice in the Bhagavad Gita is that there are no half measures. He makes no assumptions. He goes to the depths of Arjuna’s stated and unstated doubts and tells him in such clear words that there can be no ambiguity.

Content: Bhagavad Gita is primarily a sast ra, a scripture that provides knowledge. Even though the author who delivers it is the Divine Himself, He must bring Himself down to the level of Arjuna, a mortal.

Content: Arjuna is full of questions, and so are all of you. Questions are born out of ignorance and never out of wisdom. Questions can never be answered. They raise more questions when they are answered. People keep asking questions without understanding what is being said. They don’t listen. Arjuna is not any different. That is why Krishna repeats the

Content: same words and concepts to answer the same question. His compassion drives Him to ensure that Arjuna understands.

Content: As long as we question why, we never get a clear answer. Especially with Existence, the question 'Why?' has no relevance. As I said earlier, we operate at a different frequency from the Divine so even if it is explained, we will not understand. Why do people die? Why do earthquakes and tornadoes kill so many people? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people?

Content: There can be no explanation to these questions. Spirituality is an inner science, not the outer sciences and that is fortunate. In the outer sciences, we keep asking 'Why?' and when we cannot get answers, we become stuck. In that case, we produce half-baked theories that convince no one. What does the Big Bang Theory of creation mean, when it doesn't answer the question of what happened before the Big Bang?

Content: Spirituality does not concern itself with 'Why?' It is about 'how?' 'Why?' is about logic. 'How?' is about realism. Sastra tries to answer the 'Why?' Sutra answers the 'How?' Once in awhile, the Master delivers the sutra amidst the sastra that He must deliver to keep Arjuna quiet. Here He explains step-by-step how to be liberated so that there can be no doubt at all.

Content: He says, 'Settle the mind and control the senses.' Can you do that while sitting in the middle of a traffic junction? No. That is why He says go into solitude and cut yourself off from disturbances. Eat little, so that you are not

Content: disturbed. Go into meditation and shut your senses to external objects.

Content: These are the clearest instructions on how to meditate. Prepare yourself to be away from potential disturbances. There is no point in meditating when you are sure the phone will ring or a guest will be arriving. You are only wasting time. Fix a time and place when you will be alone and undisturbed.

Content: There are simple ways to reduce sensory disturbances. Closing the eyes is insufficient. Your eyeballs will still move and an inner TV will play. Mentally freeze your eyeballs. Think they are made of stone and still them. At the same time place your tongue on your upper palate and lock it. If there is movement of the tongue, that creates verbalization, then visualization is difficult. These two tools of mentally freezing your eyeball movement and locking your tongue substantially reduce wandering of the mind due to sensory disturbances.

Content: Meditate on an empty stomach. A full stomach makes us sleepy; it will not take us into realization. Ideally one should meditate in the same location regularly to preserve the energy raised in meditation.

Content: These are the physical requirements. Next Krishna repeats what He has been emphasizing all along.

Content: Drop your personality, He says, drop your ego, your attachments, your ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ as well as the emotions that attach you to survival and possession. Then you will be liberated and ready to reach the Supreme Being.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Q: Master, Krishna says to drop attachments and that is the only way. How is this possible?

Content: Good question. This is why earlier Krishna said that moving into satva is like poison in the beginning and like nectar in the end!

Content: The entire message of Gita is about renunciation. It is not renunciation in terms of giving up worldly life and moving into a forest or mountain retreat. It is about staying with the commitments you have undertaken and your assigned duties, while executing them without the feeling that you are executing them.

Content: What is the purpose of this? The moment you are engrossed with the feeling of you doing the job, the feeling that it is 'your' job, you become emotionally attached to the success and failure of what you are doing. Modern management techniques may claim that this is necessary or that passion is needed to execute your duty. They are wrong. Yes, you need passion and commitment, no doubt, but there is no need for the sort of emotional involvement that makes you depressed if the results are not what you expected.

Content: 'Yes, but I am happy if the results are what I want,' you say. But how long are you happy? Human nature is such that you are never satisfied with one thing for long. You move in greed from one to desire to another. Even with a simple understanding of the law of probability that half the time you will fail and be in sorrow. You will

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Content: bounce back and forth from sorrow to happiness, like a roller coaster ride.

Content: You have asked, 'How can I be unemotional? How can I be detached?' These emotions -happiness and sorrow, irritation and excitement, violence and fear - happen when you set goals and expectations and link your future to them. You feel that only if things happen the way you want, your future is secure; otherwise you feel your future is in jeopardy. How many of these life and death situations do you face daily, weekly or monthly? It is unlikely that we face such situations where our life depends on what we do more than a few times in our entire life.

Content: The rest is pure imagination. You build fantasies and feel that unless these fantasies are realized, you will not be happy. Then it is a given: you will not be happy. That is why most of you are unhappy. You simply build fantasies that have no connection with real life.

Content: First, renounce these fantasies about things you do not have. Renounce what you do not have. Live with what you have and enjoy that. We can all do this. It is perfectly human to achieve this, is it not? There is nothing superhuman in accomplishing this, is there? You simply need to reduce your greed. Make an effort to appreciate what you already have. Make a list of everything you have, including your physical and mental faculties; then give gratitude to the Almighty for having been so compassionate towards you. All of you can see and hear,

Content: is it not? Millions of people in this world cannot see or hear. You are not one of them. Has it ever occurred to you that you are special and that you should be grateful to Existence?

Content: Once you get into this mode of being happy with what you basically need and have, the discipline of aparagriha laid down by Patanjali for simple living, you settle down into a mood of non-expectation. You enjoy the present instead of craving for the future.

Content: You are a renouncer by nature. In order to have one thought, you must renounce the previous thought. It is impossible to have two thoughts at the same time. When you decide to stand, you renounce the thought and the action of sitting. A cell inside your body dies and another is born. Constant renunciation goes on within you physically, mentally and emotionally. You are not aware, that is all.

Content: When you move into the present moment, you renounce the past and future. Focus on the present, and what you need to do now without worrying about what should happen. Let what happens happen. Do what you need to do. Focus on the path, not on the destination. The Japanese revolutionized the technology of manufacturing with this simple principle. The Six Sigma Principle that produces defect-free material arose out of the philosophy of focusing on the process, the path instead of the product or the destination.

Content: When you focus on the path, you become emotional in the right way, while enjoying the journey. The path itself

Content: has no goals fixed to it for you to achieve. So, there is no attachment. The requirement is only that you travel that path. Wherever you reach will be the right destination.

Content: Live life the way it is served to you. Enjoy whatever happens. Be in the understanding that the Universe is always compassionate to you. Whatever happens is for our good. Whether we realize it or not at that moment, it is good for us. This is surrender. This is renunciation. When this renunciation happens, when you trust that whatever happens is for your good, the Universe smiles on you. Bliss descends on you!

Content: 18.54 Absorbed in the Supreme Being, the serene one neither grieves nor desires. Becoming impartial to all beings, one obtains My highest devotional love.

Content: 18.55 By devotion one truly understands what and who I am in essence. Having known Me in essence, one immediately merges with Me.

Content: 18.56 My devotee, occupied in everyday life, still reaches under My

Content: 18.57 While being engaged in activities, just depend upon Me, and being fully conscious of Me, work always under My protection.

Content: 18.58 When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish.

Content: Krishna explains how devotion is reached and how He protects the devotee.

Content: Developing the state of non-attachment, being impartial to all beings, being unconcerned by success and failure, fully absorbed in Godhood, one becomes His devotee. In that state alone one understands the essence of Krishna. Once one understands this, one merges into Krishna Consciousness. When one is in Krishna Consciousness, the devotee, even if he is engaged in worldly activities, is protected by the grace and compassion of Krishna. Without any difficulty such a devotee reaches the ultimate Reality.

Content: Recently I expressed this concept to some devotees. When we relax from the instinct that constantly works to protect us, the space created allows the power of coincidence to happen. Krishna says that even though we may be engaged in activities of the world, if we are His devotees, under His protection we experience Eternal Consciousness. If Krishna wanted only to give the spiritual experience, He would not have used the word

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: protection. So Krishna is referring to both the outer and inner world. The person who surrenders gets the experience in both worlds. We simply need to get out and He will get in. Just get out and let Him get in.

Content: A small story:

Content: One day Vishnu was resting on Adhishesha, His bed that is actually a big snake. Lakshmi was pressing His feet known as padaseva. In those days women served their husbands! Suddenly Vishnu called for His vehicle, Garuda. He stood up, ran a few steps, stopped and then walked back. Lakshmi was puzzled and asked what had happened. Vishnu explained that He had seen a man throwing stones at one of His devotees who was meditating. He jumped up, intending to protect him. However, He saw the devotee open his eyes and pick up a stone to defend himself. When Vishnu saw that the man could protect himself, He decided not to go!

Content: Thus, when you protect yourself and your property, He relaxes. Protect does not mean that you should not lock your house. It means that you should drop the instinct of survival. The instinct of survival constantly tortures you. It is the greatest killer. If somebody kills you, you can only be killed once. But the instinct to survive kills you every moment. When you surrender this instinct, Krishna will protect you. Intellectually you cannot understand this, 'How can somebody who made a statement thousands of years ago give me protection?' You think that only you can protect and look out for yourself. You are wrong!

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Content: BhagavadGita

Content: A small story:

Content: A blind man asked a doctor if he could do something to restore the man's vision. The doctor examined him and said, 'I can perform a surgery and you will be able to see. After that you can walk without a stick.'

Content: The man was puzzled. He could understand that a surgery could help him to see. But how could he walk without a stick? He had been walking with the help of the stick for his entire life and believed it was essential for walking itself! It was impossible for the doctor to intellectually convince the man that the stick would be unnecessary. The blind man could only realize this truth once his eyesight was restored.

Content: In the same way, you think that the survival instinct is essential in order to exist. Just allow the surgery to be done on your being and you will realize that fear or the instinct to survive is unnecessary. We wonder, 'How this can be possible?' Just as the blind man cannot be intellectually convinced before the surgery, you cannot be convinced unless you surrender. After that, you will automatically realize that you can live without the instinct to survive or the instinct to possess. You will realize that you can live in the material world without these instincts ruling you. This is what Krishna means when He says that He will protect. His energy takes care. When you surrender, a space is created that allows the power of coincidence to happen. Automatically things fall in line.

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Content: Automatically you are taken care of by the energy of Krishna.

Content: When you believe that you are intelligent enough to use your mind and go your own way, you are asking for trouble. Krishna says you will perish if you follow your mind and senses instead of listening to Him.

Content: We must understand two things. The first is about listening to one’s mind and the second is about not listening to the Master.

Content: Many people have an issue about accepting another human as superior, as someone to whom they should defer, let alone surrender. They think that falling at another person’s feet is disrespecting themselves and quite pagan.

Content: When I heal someone, if the pain is in the leg, I normally bend down and touch the person’s feet. Once someone asked me, ‘Master, how you can touch someone’s feet? You are lowering yourself.’

Content: I said, ‘When I touch someone’s feet, I am raising them to my level. When they fall at my feet, they lower me to their level!’

Content: When you fall at someone’s feet, you surrender your ego. It is good for you. It does not matter to whom you surrender. Whether you surrender to a stone or a human being, surrendering your ego raises you spiritually. This is the absolute truth. You do not need to discriminate, search, filter and go to a lot of effort and time to

Content: surrender to an enlightened Master. Any surrender of ego will do.

Content: Someone asked me, 'What do you mean by surrender?' Surrender is when you find someone that you can unconditionally love and you have no problem if it is obvious that you are in love with that person. Your identity then merges with that person.

Content: I tell them, 'Think of the person whom you would like to be with if God told you that the entire earth is about to be destroyed. Only you and one other person will survive and you can choose that person. Who will that person be? That person is the one you have surrendered to!'

Content: Vedic chants end with the word namaha. What does this mean? It means 'I surrender to You.' Each time you utter a Vedic prayer, you say, 'I surrender to You, my Lord.' Is there another system of prayer that so thoroughly destroys your ego?

Content: So, if you do not want to surrender to a Master or an ishta devata, a favorite deity, because one is human and another is stone, do you think you are the master, free and independent? You surrender to someone else for money, power or lust. One of these will surely happen. People run after someone else like dogs with their tails wagging because that person carries something that they want.

Content: How much more sensible it is to follow and surrender to someone out of intelligence because that person is more aware and can guide you on the path to awareness.

Content: Why are we reluctant to surrender to another person?

Content: It is because we have been captured by our mind and

Content: senses. We are in a jail and we are captive. We fear

Content: losing the identity that our mind and senses have created

Content: for us. We fear letting go of that identity. Our mind fights

Content: against shifting our allegiance from that ego and identity

Content: to someone else. It would then lose its captive slave.

Content: Realize that you are a slave to your senses and not the

Content: master of your destiny as you imagine. Be aware that

Content: your pains and sorrows arise from the belief that you are

Content: the master of your destiny. Once you realize this, you will

Content: look for an alternative.

Content: You then understand what the greatest Master of all

Content: says: if you listen to Me, I shall protect you, whatever

Content: may happen. If you do not, and you follow your mind,

Content: you shall perish.

Content: Q: Master, Krishna says that 'having known Me in

Content: essence, one merges in Me' and refers to this as devotion.

Content: How can knowledge (gnana) be devotion (bhakti)?

Content: Please understand that bhakti and gnana are not

Content: separate. Where there is devotion, there is knowledge

Content: and where there is true knowledge, there is devotion.

Content: Krishna does not refer to dry intellectual knowledge,

Content: even if such knowledge is of the scriptures. Millions of

Content: scholars and philosophers waste their time and

Content: everybody else's time by analyzing the Bhagavad Gita

Content: word by word and compare it to other scriptures. What is the point? This is a pointless, foolish exercise that serves only to boost one’s ego.

Content: The entire purpose of the Gita is to help you drop the ego!

Content: All you need to do is to understand one verse of the Gita, one statement of Krishna, in its entirety. That is enough to enlighten you. This is what Vivekananda meant when he said that the study of one handful of earth can teach you about the entire earth. You need depth, not breadth of knowledge.

Content: Every word of the Gita, ever word of Krishna, is Energy. That is the knowledge that you need to imbibe. That is the Energy that you need to experience. This is the ‘knowing’ Krishna refers to. Once you ‘know’ this Energy, you reach this Energy. You become Krishna. You are not only devoted, you become Krishna.

Content: There are two paths. One way is to ‘know’ so clearly that there is absolutely no doubt about your trust in the Master. There is no doubt that you are the same Consciousness as the Master. Once you know this, there is no duality. You and the Master are the same. This is the height of devotion.

Content: The other way is the deep surrender that happens within, the unbridled love that arises within you and through which you merge with the Master. Along with the merger, comes the knowledge that you are no different. Seemingly, knowledge comes from devotion.

Content: The truth is that both happen simultaneously. Do you think Meera did not know that she was one with Krishna? Do you think she could have drunk poison without knowing that whatever she consumed was being consumed by her Lord and Master, Krishna?

Content: Do you think Sankara was a dry philosopher when he beheld the form of Devi and sang the verses of Soundarya Lahiri? He was possibly the greatest philosopher the world has ever seen and melted in front of Her in devotion.

Content: All this talk about the three approaches to Divinity as dvaita (duality), visishtadvaita (modified duality) and advaita (non-duality) are best left to philosophers to argue about.

Content: Duality happens when you are open. You are open to that Cosmic Energy but you still feel separate. You are like the ocean drop that knows it is part of the ocean but sees itself as separate.

Content: To reach this stage, you need to be open. When you are closed, you do not even accept that there is this huge ocean of which you are a part. You are ignorant. Duality or dviata is the first step.

Content: Next, you become available. Not only do you know that there is this huge Energy around you, but you become aware that you are part of it. You are a part of the whole. You realize that as a drop, you are a part of the ocean. You cannot only taste the salt, the salt is inherent in you. This is modified duality, visishtadvaita.

Content: Then you suddenly realize and know that you are the ocean. There is no difference. There is no barrier between you and the Energy. You are the Energy. You are God. This is non-duality, advaita. You just are. From being open, from being available, you just are.

Content: When you ‘know’ Krishna, there is nothing else to know. Then, you become Krishna.

Content: 18.59 If due to ego you think:' I shall not fight,' your resolve is useless, and your own nature will compel you.

Content: 18.60 O Arjuna, you are controlled by your own natural conditioning. Therefore, out of delusion you shall do even against your will what you do not wish to do.

Content: 18.61 The Supreme Lord resides in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the activities of all living entities, that are acting as machines under the illusive material world.

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Krishna delivers an ultimatum to Arjuna.

Content: 'Whether you like it or not, Arjuna,' He says, 'you will fight. In seeming intelligence, your ego tells you that you should not fight. You are under the illusion of your superficial knowledge that it is not right to wage war against friends, relatives and teachers. But you forget that your nature and your conditioning as a warrior drive you. You are a puppet in the hands of Existence. You will fight.'

Content: These are extraordinary words. Whether we like it or not, whatever our intelligence may be, and whatever our will may be, Krishna says we will be driven by our samskaras. The Divine is like a machine that drives the karmic cycle. There is no escape.

Content: Nothing can be clearer. The law of nature drives us to fulfill our unfulfilled desires. Our past conditioning invokes these desires. Even though they may be in our unconscious, inaccessible to us, they determine what we do. The Master sees this even if we cannot. That is why Krishna makes this bold statement.

Content: Q: So far Krishna has said, surrender to Me and I shall take care. Now He says you have no escape from past conditioning. It makes me feel hopeless!

Content: A wonderful doubt! Krishna has been talking to Arjuna throughout these eighteen chapters to give you hope!

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Content: Yes, samskaras drive you. The Brihadaranya Upanishad clearly states, as are your desires, so are your thoughts. As are your thoughts, so is your will. As is your will, so are your actions. As your actions are, so you become.

Content: It all starts with your mind. Mind creates desires. Mind creates and stores the samskaras. You can refuse to bow down to your mind and refuse to accept these samskaras that control you.

Content: Samskaras can also be dissolved. In our programs like ASP or LBP and NSP, we teach meditation techniques to effectively reduce and remove samskaras. On an ongoing basis our Healers learn special meditation methods to continuously dissolve samskaras. These techniques are an extension of what Krishna has spoken about in the Gita.

Content: All meditation techniques bring you into the present moment. When you are in the present moment, you renounce attachment to fantasies about the future. You detach yourself from the results of your action. This alone leads you into liberation from the bondage of samskara.

Content: Surrender to the Master, surrender to the Universe, is the ultimate technique to rid oneself of all bondages, karma, vasana and samskara, of the past, present and future. I instruct Nithya Healers that they cannot and should not wish that the person they are healing be healed! The affirmation if at all needed will be: Let whatever is good happen! That is all. The Universe has the intelligence (buddhi) to decide how to use its power (sakti). The Healer does not. The Healer is solely the instrument connecting the person to the healing energy.

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Content: When people come to me for help, I usually say one of two things. To those who come purely for material assistance, health and wealth, I say, 'I shall pray to Anandeshwara to help you.' To those who come as sincere seekers, connected to me at the being level, my disciples and devotees, I say 'I will take care.' Ask my disciples about the power of these words.

Content: I say this to those who come in a mode of total surrender. They have such absolute trust in me that they tell me, 'Please say you will take care.' They know at their being level that once they have downloaded their problems and pain to me, it is no longer their burden. It is mine. They know it so deeply that there is not an iota of doubt in their minds that the problem has disappeared. In fact, many no longer feel that they need to come to be in my physical presence. They download their sufferings to me from wherever they are. They also do that with their joys. Such is their surrender and the trust born out of surrender.

Content: I do nothing with them. All I do is to pass their problems on to Parasakti, the Universal Energy; that is all. I have already surrendered to Her. Not one finger of mine can move without Her command. So, what can I do? But such is Her compassion that She responds every time. When the being surrenders, when the ego and mind surrender, She takes over. On the other hand, if you are filled with your ego, there is no place for Her.

Content: So I tell my Healers, when you start healing and go into the healing meditation focusing on the Ananda Gandha

Content: point, get out of the way so that I can come in. This means so that the Universal Energy can come in.

Content: This is what Krishna, the greatest Master of all, the Parama Guru, the Jagat Guru, has repeated throughout the Gita. He does not ask you to surrender to Him out of His ego. He asks you to surrender to Him out of His deep compassion. What can you give Him that He does not have?

Content: Where else would you want to go since only He can grant everything you want? More importantly, only He can grant you what you need to free you from your suffering forever. Who else can do this for you? No one.

Content: Don't lose hope. There is no need to do that. Krishna is a beacon. All you need is trust in Him.

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Content: 18.62 Surrender to Him completely. By His grace you will attain Supreme peace and the eternal abode.

Content: Krishna switches gears and starts giving experience. He starts radiating Eternal Consciousness. He is putting Arjuna into that Consciousness, into the experience of enlightenment.

Content: Just relax for a few minutes. Relax from all the thoughts and ideas going on in your head. There is every possibility that you can also glimpse what Arjuna received by

Content: His grace. We always miss due to our instinct to survive and possess. For a few minutes, relax from thoughts. You can pick them up later. There is no problem in that. Just for a few moments keep them away from your consciousness. Drop them from your inner space so that you may glimpse that Consciousness. There is a distinct possibility that you may experience what Arjuna experienced by the grace of Krishna.

Content: tvameva saranam gaccha sarvabhaavena Bhaarata; tatprasaadaat paraam shaantim sthaanam praapsyasi shaashwatam.

Content: He says Tvameva saranam gaccha. Throughout the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna has been saying surrender to Me. He has been saying 'I' and 'Me,' meaning that He represents the Divine. Now, suddenly, He changes that and says surrender unto Him as a third person. For the first time He refers to the Divine in this way. This means that He has expanded from the body. He now speaks as Parabrahma Krishna. He speaks from the Eternal Consciousness. That is the reason He says surrender unto Him and not surrender unto Me. Earlier He used the word 'I' or 'Me.' This change means that He is in an expanded state to put Arjuna into the experience. In order to give a disciple the experience, the Master must be in the same state, too. That is why Krishna went into that expanded state.

Content: Before a puja, the priest chants the anganyasa karanyasa mantra – Angushtabhyam dashadibhyam – these mantras are chanted in order to expand and go beyond body consciousness. These purify the body and help us go

Content: beyond the body. Actually, purifying and going beyond are the same thing.

Content: So now Krishna says surrender unto Him since He has expanded and He cannot use the word Me. He says, 'Bharata, surrender unto Him utterly. By His grace you will attain Eternal Consciousness and supreme peace.'

Content: He has expanded into that Consciousness and is about to give energy darshan. He is ready to shower His energy on Arjuna.

Content: Q: Master, you referred to the energy darshan that Krishna gives Arjuna. You also give energy darshan. Can you please explain what it signifies?

Content: Yes, the energy darshan or ananda darshan that Krishna gives Arjuna is the same darshan enlightened Masters provide devotees and disciples. The darshan is that of the Universe, Cosmic Energy, and the Parasakti and not of the Master's form in front of you.

Content: When I talk about ananda darshan, I must become an observer and look at me as a witness, since the player is Parasakti!

Content: The word darshan comes from a Sanskrit word, darshana that refers to the experience, the vision that is not just what you see in front of you. This darshana happens with the unseen third eye. The

Content: purpose of the Master giving ananda darshan is to awaken the intelligence and awareness in you by opening the third eye. Darshana is not a physical experience. It is a being level experience.

Content: During the energy darshan, or ananda darshan as I term it, the Master is one with Universal Consciousness. He is the formless in form. He is Existence itself. Through ananda darshan, out of His deep love and compassion, the Master opens Himself completely to everyone so that they experience Universal Consciousness through Him.

Content: The recipient feels the Master’s compassion with tremendous intensity. The Master radiates the Existential energy around Him during darshan. At the time of darshan, He makes Himself available totally in order to instill his Divine Energy into everyone. In each one He plants the root that can flower and radiate His fragrance, the fragrance of Existence.

Content: If you are receptive to the energy, it can penetrate and transform you at the being level. If you can be silent within, free from the grips of mundane logic and free from thoughts and words, you can become a drop in the ocean of bliss that surrounds you.

Content: The only thing expected from the devotee is a trusting, receptive approach. If you drop your mind for a few minutes and fall in tune with the mood that is created, you will pay your deepest gratitude to the whole of Existence that the Master represents.

Content: The joy created during darshan that is supported by kirtans and a general expression of devotion, dissolves the mind and takes one beyond to feel oneness with the Whole. The mind is on vacation, freeing the being of its burden, allowing the being to experience what it had always longed to experience. The mind allows it to experience what it truly is and to revel in the joy of Existence of which it is an integral part. The mind vanishes leaving a void that is filled with an overflowing love for life.

Content: Ananda darshan is when barriers break — social, economic, and so forth. One sees Divinity in everyone and enjoys the liberation of this feeling. All identity of self and of the other disappears and everything and everyone is accepted with sheer bliss. Every being shines forth in its brilliance, radiating the Divinity within.

Content: You can hear the Master’s words at other times. But at darshan, Master does not speak. He bares Himself. It is the greatest, direct gift from the Master to each person. If you are silent and aware, you see it. If you are caught in thinking and verbalizing, you miss it.

Content: If you are analyzing the situation, deciding to accept or reject the scene of darshan, you miss it. If you can just be, without agreeing or disagreeing, without passing judgment, without trying to verbalize and without positive or negative feeling, you catch the thread! If you can be with the love of realization and not the love of any learning, you

Content: experience it. With no exchange of words, something in you starts to respond. Darshan has been a transforming experience for thousands of people.

Content: People from all over the world carry wonderful reminiscences of ananda darshan. People report visions, ailments dissolving, healing and many intense spiritual experiences.

Content: Different people perceive this energy in different ways. There is no need to be greedy for an experience during darshan. Allow whatever happens to happen. Then you will create a space within to receive darshan. Energy is intelligence and knows what to do. There is no need to have expectations. There is no need to expect an experience of light, emptiness or to feel the energy.

Content: Being in a prayerful mood is enough. This transforms you more than words. Prayerful does not mean asking for things. Prayerful means feeling deep gratitude towards everything. Of course, the Master allows you to ask what you wish at darshan. You can ask about any problem for which you seek a solution.

Content: But the moment is so overwhelming and beyond the realms of normalcy that it becomes difficult to ask. The moment you are in an asking mood, you miss the experience. To ask, the mind must step in. And when the mind steps in, you miss the experience.

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Content: Numerous people report that Master places his hand on the area of pain or problem in their body when they go for darshan. They are shocked. He places His hand in the area that needs to be addressed without them telling Him anything. The Master comes out with His love for you and addresses your untold problems.

Content: When questions are asked at darshan, the Master answers with compassion and concern. His answers are unique to each person even if the question is the same. Each being is different. Each person's path is unique. Everyone is connected to the Master radially and independently. The Master looks into the being of the person and answers the questioner, not the question! For those with complete trust, He says, 'I will take care.' People shed anxieties and depression with those words of assurance from the Master.

Content: For those few moments, if we can forget our prayers and place trust in Existence, we can experience. A little faith that Existence knows what is best for us is enough. If we go with this attitude, we receive what the Master tries to give us, nothing else. Nothing more is needed. It is a tremendous moment for everyone.

Content: Darshan is a wonderful opportunity to move from communication to communion with the Master. In the lectures, we ask questions for intellectual clarity. We try to relate with our mind. We collect words and more words at the end of every session. And we

Content: come back with more words and questions! Darshan is the time to relate at the being level.

Content: Allow some experience to happen in you. Leave the mind and be with the heart at least during this time. You cannot become one with Existence through your mind. It happens with your heart or being. Any merging happens with the heart or being. Darshan is when the Master looks directly into your eyes and you can see your reflection in Him. He heals with His look, touch and embrace. With every darshan, you go back a different person, a little more evolved.

Content: Every darshan is different. The whole beauty of Existence, of Nature, is that it never repeats itself. That is why it is said that God is an artist, not an Engineer. Every darshan unfolds in a different way, with a new dimension, a new intensity and a new unknown fervor. Every darshan seems like the best until the next one unfolds!

Content: The Master’s transfer of energy at ananda darshan can put you into the desireless state. If you are loving and open, it can transform you in so many wonderful ways. With effort, you can achieve the desireless state with consistent intellectual understanding and meditation. However, darshan is when you can be directly put into the desireless state purely by Master’s grace.

Content: If you can become completely filled with joy and gratitude and be totally present, the energy can

Content: penetrate you. It can make you fulfill your desires and take you to a desireless state beyond that. Being in complete joy is being in a madly desirous state of nothing in particular! It is intense desire for nothing in particular. In this state, you are receptive and open to the Master. You don't need to make effort. You must drop your efforts; that's all! Then the energy takes care. It does the rest. Energy is Intelligence. The Existential Energy can flow through you and do whatever is needed if you just allow it.

Content: Darshan means getting a clear vision and a flash of clarity. It is seeing without a blur. The Energy that radiates can do miracles at the being level. If you bring in enough awareness at darshan, you glimpse the vastness of the ocean of Existence: a pool of serenity shines forth amidst the fervor created and amidst the music and dance. Even with the noise around, you find the central chord of vibrant silence that runs through the whole show. Then you understand the concept of remaining centered and being all-inclusive. You understand how not to exclude or renounce, but to encompass everything while remaining centered and being a blissful watcher of the whole show!

Content: After darshan, after every touch, one's intelligence increases; desires acquire more clarity and either get fulfilled or simply drop.

Content: You lie completely bare before the Master. He always sees you at the being level. Any attempt to ask anything is a waste of time because you only

Content: express deep confusion and ignorance. You don’t know what you need. He knows what must be done to take you further. You never need to ask. The surrender itself fulfills.

Content: If you allow the experience to enter you and express itself in joyful ways, if you can be total and ecstatic and if you resonate with the energy, forgetting yourselves completely, you are automatically emptied of your accumulated words and thoughts. There will be only emptiness and joy in you when you go near the Master.

Content: In that mood, you are silent inside. You are receptive and loving. You are bubbling with inner silence. At that time, the Energy can enter you like a ray, like a flash. It can go deep and touch you at the seed level. It transforms you in ways that you don’t know.

Content: Simply to watch the Master at darshan is an ecstatic meditation. It is a rare opportunity in one’s lifetime. It is not worth getting caught in any other details. To be present totally with total love and gratitude is enough.

Content: The Existential Energy expresses itself and flows through every inch of the Master’s form. Just watching Him can bring glimpses of the Divinity it beholds. The more you allow yourselves to dissolve in the experience, the more you resonate with it; and the more you can be awakened to the touch and flow of the Cosmic Energy.

Content: This is the time to break your pseudo-identities, to break your social conditionings and celebrate. This is not the time to fasten your seat belts and sit back. The energy will touch you, but you will not be open to receive it!

Content: Just being near the Master at this time can cause you to merge into Him. It can make Consciousness meet. Like a river merging into the ocean, you merge into the Master who is the oceanic Existence, the formless in form, Universal Consciousness. That is why you feel relaxed and rejuvenated after darshan. Sometimes it goes on for long hours throughout the night. Yet, you feel vibrant at the end. A shift in Consciousness lifts you to a higher plane.

Content: When one is near the Master at darshan, unconscious fears, guilt, desires, intense silence, joyful tears and more surface. One might not know why, because these surface from the deep unconscious layers due to being in the Master’s presence.

Content: One need not hold back these emotions or suppress them. Let them surface freely in the presence of the Master. They come out in totality. All that you cannot express in words come out as emotions. These are the deeply engraved unconscious memories that you are unaware of, yet they trouble you. This is a rare opportunity to be free from these engraved memories. All these emotions will be wiped out at the root level. The Master’s overflowing compassion wipes them out. The

Content: repressive structure that you have built over the years can break at this time if you give it a chance.

Content: Whatever happens during darshan happens in totality. You clap your hands, dance, laugh or cry without logic; this results from the totality of feelings swelling from within. Tears or laughter do not arise from specific reasons of joy or sorrow. They are expressions of an overwhelming, deep feeling within. The being is never given a chance to express itself because of the mind. It has been repressed and overpowered by the mind. This is when the being expresses itself. And the expressions cannot be framed within the relations of logic when this happens. Pure totality expresses itself; that's all.

Content: You are not integrated as you may think. You are fragments that fight with each other within you. At one moment you desire one thing; the next moment, you want something else. A particular emotion rises in you at one moment. Opposite emotions surface in the next moment. You are chaotic although you may appear calm on the surface. Darshan is the time to drop this inner struggle and allow the Master to take over and do what is needed. He knows you. And He will do whatever is necessary if you relax and let go. Darshan is the time to put aside learning, collected judgments and conclusions about ourselves and open up to the Master's transforming love.

Content: With every darshan, the Master lights your being. The real transfer from Him happens at this time. He gives the Ultimate to you. He gives you His own

Content: Light. Once He lights you, if you allow, you can carry it as your torch wherever you are, wherever you go, in whatever you do. One touch is enough. It is an opportunity to know without knowledge and experience without explanation.

Content: If the energy touches you deeply, your life can be transformed forever. A space is created in you where awareness enters and dissolves your questions. There are many doors to the Divine. Once you enter, the experience is the same. Darshan opens all possible doors. It is an invitation to the Ultimate Experience. Everyone’s door is different. The door doesn’t matter, as long as you find one.

Content: The energy released during darshan is so intense that it can kindle your intelligence to move from intellect to intuition. Most of the time you are caught up in the deep unconscious mental patterns of your mind. These pull you repeatedly towards familiar patterns of misery and unconscious decision-making. With the power of intuition, you can tap into the energy of your being and harness it in decision-making in any sphere of life. The energy at darshan can open up this intuitive power in you.

Content: You may not understand the depth of what happens during ananda darshan, the tremendous gift given to you. Even so, try to be open, enjoy it and accept it with openness. The rest happens automatically.

Content: Ananda darshan is when you can come close to the Master, feel His Love through physical proximity and feel the direct transfer of energy from Him. Darshan can destroy what you are not: all that causes illusion in you as well as all the borrowed desires that cause misery. Darshan is a tremendous opportunity to become one with Universal Consciousness and dissolve into the Ocean of Bliss!

Content: Ananda darshan, the energy play, is a pure gift from the Master. It is an unconditional offering arising out of deep compassion. You merely need to be open and let it flow in. That’s all.

Content: Krishna was choosy. Of all the people around Him, He chose to impart His energy to Arjuna. I am not like that. All are welcome. Times are different now. Needs are different. The more people that one can direct towards Parasakti and the more people one can energize to have a glimpse of Existential bliss, the greater are the chances to bring peace and happiness to planet Earth. That is my mission. That is what Parasakti directs me to do.

Content: 18.63 I have explained the knowledge that is the Secret of secrets. After fully reflecting on this, do as you wish.

Content: 18.64 Because you are My dear friend, I express this truth to you. This is the most confidential of all knowledge. Hear this from Me. It is for your benefit.

Content: 18.65 Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you

Content: will certainly attain Me. This I promise you because you are My very dear friend.

Content: 18.66 Abandon all principles and concepts of right conduct and simply surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Have no worry.

Content: What powerful words. Only the Divine can speak these words of absolute authority.

Content: Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. This is the way you will come to Me without fail. I promise this because you are My great bhakta (devotee) and very dear to Me.

Content: Now He comes to the ultimate teaching. This is the essence of all His teachings, the quintessential essence of the Bhagavad Gita. He wakes up Arjuna with this sloka and puts him into Krishna Consciousness, the Eternal Consciousness or enlightenment.

Content: Krishna showers Himself on Arjuna, waking him up to the experience of the Whole.

Content: He says, ‘sarva dharmaan parityaya; Give up everything, whatever you know as dharma, the rules and regulations of the outer life and of the inner life. Drop everything that you know and surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from everything. Do not fear.’ Krishna gives him abhaya, complete protection.

Content: sarvadharmaan parityajya maam ekam sharanam vraja; aham twaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shuchah.

Content: He liberates Arjuna by these words. He gives the ultimate experience to Arjuna. With this sloka Krishna makes Arjuna drop everything and liberates him. He gives him a conscious experience of the ocean. He asks Arjuna to drop his ideas about the bubble, relax and realize the truth. Even the idea of the ocean or of God are simply our ideas. Krishna makes Arjuna drop those ideas and makes him explode into Krishna Consciousness, the Eternal Consciousness.

Content: Now Krishna enters into the actual experience.

Content: Krishna liberates Arjuna and gives him the ultimate experience permanently. We cannot call him Arjuna any longer because he has become Krishna. He has achieved Krishna Consciousness. Now only Krishna exists, we cannot say Krishna. As long as Krishna and Arjuna existed, there were two entities. But now that they have become one, neither exists. There is no name for it. It is only energy.

Content: Forget about dharma, the codes of conduct laid down by religions, and turn to Me. I shall be your savior, says Krishna.

Content: Do not misunderstand, misquote and misuse these words. You will do yourself the greatest disservice. The Divine does not care whether you are good or evil. The Divine does not care whether you are a saint or sinner. A saint and a sinner, a celibate monk and a prostitute have equal chances of reaching the Divine. This is the truth. Of course, when you come close to the Divine, the energy transforms you. Negativities will be dissolved. They will be burnt and you will be pure as you were at birth.

Content: Religion is the creation of men. Spirituality is the creation of enlightened Masters who live in the energy of the Divine with total awareness. Krishna, Shiva, Buddha, Mahavira and Jesus were enlightened Masters. They related to no religion. The followers who interpreted them to the best or worst of their understanding created religions. The followers established dharma, the codes of righteous conduct. No God is interested in coming down to tell you how you should behave. They tell you to be in awareness and that will put you on the right path.

Content: Thus, Krishna says with absolute conviction and authority to forget all codes of conduct, give up all religions and come to Me with awareness. This is your salvation.

Content: Krishna is trigunarahita: beyond the attributes of nature and karmic influence. Merging with Him, surrendering to Him takes you beyond all karmic bondages.

Content: If you understand this verse and act accordingly, you will be liberated. That is Krishna’s promise.

Content: Take a few moments now to pray to Parabrahma Krishna who showered enlightenment on Arjuna and gave him the ultimate experience. Pray that He may shower the same experience on us or give us a glimpse of Ultimate Truth. Take a few moments to pray. Please close your eyes and intensely pray to Him. Do not think that He is unavailable now. He is always available to everybody on planet Earth. He may not have the body, but He is available in the form of energy. The statues in the temples are called archavathara. That means ‘incarnation of

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Content: the Divine.' He is available to us all the time, whenever we call Him. Close your eyes and pray intensely to Him to shower us with the same experience He showered on Arjuna.

Content: Relax in silence and listen to the words of Krishna.

Content: Q: Master, is the state of surrender that Krishna talks about in the Gita the same as your concept of 'unclutching'?

Content: Yes. The unclutching is the surrender of thoughts, the surrender of mind. It is the ultimate surrender. When you surrender the connectivity of thoughts, which is what unclutching signifies, you move into the present moment. In the present moment your mind dissolves and your ego disappears.

Content: This is the state of renunciation and surrender that Krishna advises.

Content: We are forever controlled by our senses. What we perceive through our senses and what we perceived in the past through our senses drives us on our path to the future. Sensory perceptions create thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Content: Emotions and thoughts give birth to our mental setup and attitude. Understanding the play of emotions and thoughts is the first and final step towards moving beyond it.

Content: Man by his nature is an unclutched and blissful Being. What do we mean by 'unclutched'?

Content: Every thought that arises within us is like a bubble that forms, rises and dies. Every thought independently rises and dies before the next thought comes up. For example, if you are sitting in a chair and suddenly get up, the moment you decide to get up, the thought of sitting has left you. If you are working on your computer and decide to shut down the machine, the thought that you want to work has died at that moment. So every thought is unconnected and happens in a series, one after the other. One thought must die before the next one comes up. This is our true nature.

Content: Our true nature is to renounce thoughts every passing moment: to allow each thought to rise like a bubble and burst and then allow the next thought to rise. Our thoughts have a vertical existence like rising bubbles.

Content: This process of allowing thoughts to rise and die without trying to connect them is being unclutched. As long as this natural process is allowed to happen, things are all right.

Content: In spite of this, we start connecting thoughts randomly and forming a shaft. By doing so, we convert the vertical and unclutched process into a horizontal one with linear connectivity. The whole problem starts here. As long as each thought is allowed to rise and die, we can take on any load at the physical and mental planes. Our

Content: consciousness will remain light and blissful. Once we start connecting thoughts, our consciousness suffers. We feel burdened. It damages our Being.

Content: Emotions such as worry, lust, discontentment, jealousy, fear, ego and attention-need are connections that we make between independent incidents and between independent thoughts by linking or clutching thoughts together. We create a concept for ourselves and start to relate with that concept. We create an imaginary shaft with our thoughts and we suffer because of this.

Content: These emotions create all forms of violence including religious wars, social conflicts or political unrest. The basis or root of all forms of violence is our emotions and the basis of our emotions is our habit of creating imaginary shafts of our thoughts and empowering them to work on us.

Content: While creating these shafts, the key thing we do is to choose thoughts depending on whether we want pain or pleasure. We pick pleasant thoughts at random and connect them to form a shaft of pleasure or pick negative thoughts and connect them to form a shaft of pain. We create shafts of pain and pleasure alternately for ourselves and keep oscillating between these two emotions. To unclutch from this shaft is the master key to a blissful life.

Content: If we deeply analyze how we connect our thoughts instead of renouncing them, we understand how we create suffering for ourselves. The mind finds the connection. As such, there is no connection between our thoughts.

Content: We have been trained to feed on words and thoughts. That is why we create these shafts. We feed on words because we always operate out of fear or greed. Out of fear or greed, we create connectivity in our thoughts. We are afraid to let go of this process because if we do, there is nothing else to hold onto. We have never experienced an unclutched state of mind where there is no shaft, but only bubble-like thoughts.

Content: In the unclutched state, there is no scope for fear or greed. You will simply BE; that's all. It is a dimension that we rarely experience because we are used to clutching onto the familiar shaft of thoughts.

Content: We wonder how we can exist without clutching onto the shaft of thoughts when the truth is we can live in an unclutched fashion blissfully. We see it as something inevitable!

Content: We fail to see how mythical the whole thing is. Our mind is a myth. We have empowered it and become a slave to it. It is mental slavery.

Content: Watch the thoughts rising in you. Clearly see how each thought rises and dies and the next thought comes up. Observe how you effortlessly connect these thoughts and create ideas and concepts. Watch the play of these concepts upon yourself. You will understand how you create the whole myth. Connecting thoughts is the original sin.

Content: Living in an unclutched fashion is the only way to blissful living. Decide not to connect thoughts and not to

Content: pass judgment on any thought or incident. When you find yourself connecting, unclutch from the connection. Continue to unclutch every time you remember this technique. Your mental setup will automatically be transformed. The psychological revolution will happen in you.

Content: When we work in an unclutched fashion, our capacity expands. We take on more responsibility without becoming stressed. We do not experience mood swings between pain and pleasure. We are blissful all the time. We are accustomed to happiness that comes due to a reason. This reason is another shaft that we create with our thoughts. Once we stop creating these shafts, we are blissful all the time.

Content: The term unclutched, does not mean to be aloof and cold to people and situations around us. Just don’t connect thoughts and start the process of creating shafts; that’s all.

Content: Remember that you are a beautiful and unclutched being by nature. You will stop creating misery for yourself and others.

Content: 18.67 This knowledge should never be spoken by you to one who is devoid of austerity, who is without devotion, who does not desire to listen, or who speaks ill of Me.

Content: 18.68 One who communicates the Supreme Secret to the devotees performs the highest devotional service to Me, and at the end he will without doubt come back to Me.

Content: 18.69 No other person shall do a more pleasing service to Me, and no one on the earth shall be more dear to Me.

Content: 18.70 I say that One who studies this sacred dialogue worships Me by sacrifice of his intelligence.

Content: 18.71 One who listens with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reactions and attains to the planets where those of merit dwell.

Content: 18.72 O Arjuna, did you listen to this with single-minded attention? Has your delusion born of ignorance been completely destroyed?

Content: These words are meant not merely for Arjuna, but for all of humanity.

Content: Krishna says here that we should read, listen and understand this dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna, between nara and Narayana. Nothing more needs to be read or listened to. Everything we need is here.

Content: Only one who is in deep devotion to Me should read this. I have conveyed here that which is most beneficial, the secret of how to live and how to reach Me. One who understands this and drops his mind with his focus entirely upon Me, shall reach Me without a doubt.

Content: This is Krishna’s promise.

Content: He blesses the whole universe with His grace and compassion. He showered His blessing on Arjuna and made him merge with Him. The same Consciousness is being showered on the whole universe. He declares that whoever studies this sacred conversation will achieve the same space or Consciousness as His Eternal Consciousness. He blesses us with His grace and assures us that we can achieve Him through this gynana yajna,

Content: sacrifice of intellect. That is, by offering ourselves into that knowledge, by completely purifying ourselves in that knowledge, we can achieve Him. We can disappear into Him. When we put anything into the fire, it disappears. In the same way, when we immerse ourselves in the study of the Gita, we will not be there as we are. We will disappear into Him. Only He remains, only He exists.

Content: The whole experience of truth has descended on Arjuna. Krishna’s blessings are upon us also. Let us pray to the ultimate Consciousness to put us into that same Energy. Relax into that Energy. May the grace and compassion of Sri Krishna, of Parandhaama, of Parabrahma Krishna that was showered on Arjuna, shower on us.

Content: Earlier Krishna said that He would appear again and again whenever He is needed to restore equilibrium between good and bad. He is the only great Master who has the courage to say that I am not the last Master or that there will be no one after Me. Instead He says, ‘I shall appear again and again, sambhavami yuge yuge.’

Content: Krishna will not reappear in his Vasudeva Krishna form with peacock feathers and a flute! That is the mistake we make. His Energy will reappear. He will reappear in the form of enlightened Masters, time and again. He will come again and again to restore the balance, redeem the good and destroy the evil.

Content: This is the last time Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita. He asks, ‘Arjuna, have you listened to me with attention? Has your delusion disappeared?’

Content: Until the end He is the teacher. He is full of compassion. His concern is only for Arjuna and the rest of humanity. 'Have you understood?' He asks. 'Have your doubts disappeared? Do you need anything more?'

Content: This is the greatness of Masters. Nothing concerns them except the deliverance of their disciples. That is why they have come here. Otherwise why should they waste their time on planet Earth? They can be immersed in the blissful Energy that they are part of without disturbance.

Content: My disciples understand when I tell them that the only time I feel anything like sadness is when a disciple leaves me. It saddens me because he is losing a great opportunity. His spirit brought him to me for redemption. If the body-mind does not cooperate, the spirit must live again and again until it gets the opportunity to be liberated. Each cycle of samsara that the spirit undertakes, it suffers and regrets not having taken that final step.

Content: No one who has crossed my ashram gates can ever leave me. If they leave, I shall not leave them. I shall be with them. That one moment of intelligence that brought them in is enough for me to care for them.

Content: Those who have understood the formless form that resides in me know that I am part of them. Wherever they are, I am part of them.

Content: This is Krishna's promise: Listen to Me, understand Me and come to Me; then you are a part of Me.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Q: How can we surrender the ego, when this desire to surrender is an expression of the ego?

Content: How can you surrender the ego, when it does not exist? Suppose you are sitting in a dark room. You want the darkness to disappear. Can you push it out? Can you fight darkness and force it to leave? No! No matter how long you try, you will ultimately be defeated - and that too by something which does not exist!

Content: The ego is like darkness. It has no positive existence. Just as darkness is the absence of light, the ego is the absence of awareness. Struggling to kill the ego is like struggling to push darkness out of the room. To expel the darkness, you must forget about dealing with the darkness. Focus your energy on light instead. Bring a small lamp into the room and darkness flees on its own! So, forget about the ego. Instead, focus on bringing a lamp of awareness into your being. When your entire consciousness has become a flame, the ego is no more.

Content: The ego is an illusion. You cannot surrender it when you are unaware because you don’t know how. Of course, you cannot surrender it when you become aware either - because then you realize that there is nothing left to surrender! What you have heard, read and been taught i.e., ‘Surrender the ego in order to attain Self-realization’ does not work. It happens the other way round. Self-realization dawns and suddenly you cannot find the ego anymore. The surrender already happened, just like that.

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Content: On the other hand, I am glad that the question has arisen in your being. The ego is the root cause of all your anxieties, sorrows, and tensions. It is your doorway to hell. To actively feel that you want to drop the ego, to feel the need to be rid of this burden is a step towards awareness. You are stirring from your sleep!

Content: 18.73 Arjuna said: O Lord, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and ready to obey you.

Content: 18.74 Sanjaya said: Thus have I heard the conversation of two great souls, Krishna and Arjuna. And so wonderful is that message that my hair stands on end.

Content: 18.75 By the mercy of Vyasa, I have heard these most confidential words

Content: 18.76 O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I take pleasure, being thrilled every moment.

Content: 18.77 O King, when I remember the wonderful form of Lord Krishna, I am struck with even greater wonder, and I rejoice again and again.

Content: 18.78 Wherever there is Krishna, the Master of all mystics, and wherever there is Partha, the supreme carrier of bow and arrow, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.

Content: In these last verses Arjuna and Sanjaya take over.

Content: Arjuna bows down to the Master and says, ‘All my doubts are gone, I understand. I am ready. I shall obey whatever you say and I shall fight.’

Content: The rest is history. Under the guidance of Arjuna, the Kaurava army is annihilated. All the Kaurava brothers, all the great teachers and all the great warriors perish. The Pandava brothers win and Yudhishtra conducts the rajasuya and other fire sacrifices to signify his ascendance to the throne.

Content: It is also history that in the end all Pandava brothers die, as does the great Master Krishna. He gives up His mortal form. This is the story of life. As long as you are in any form, the form will perish. The energy lives on.

Content: That is what Krishna taught in these chapters and verses. Sacrifice your form and gain the formless.

Content: Now Sanjaya comes back into the picture. Neither Krishna nor Arjuna can speak since both of them are in a different mood. Arjuna has disappeared and Krishna is in ecstasy. Both are in no mood to speak. Sanjaya started speaking when Arjuna was in depression and Krishna had nothing to say at that time. Then when Krishna was giving the first experience to Arjuna, Krishna was in the higher Consciousness and Arjuna was in ecstasy. Sanjaya came in to speak at that time because both were not in a mood to speak. Now Sanjaya comes back again. Not only are Krishna and Arjuna not in a mood to speak, they are not there to speak. Arjuna has disappeared into the pure Consciousness of Parabrahma Krishna. They have nothing to say.

Content: Vyaasaprasadaacchrutavaan etadguhyamaham param; Yogam yogeshwaraat Krishnaat saakshaat kathayatah swaym.

Content: Sanjaya addresses Dhritharashtra, ‘O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous spiritual dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I feel a great joy or ecstasy at every moment.’ Sanjaya is expressing his joy and bliss and says, ‘muhrmuhuh, again and again, whenever I recall, I am filled with ecstasy. This truth fills my being completely. I am showered by Divine Grace.’

Content: Sanjaya says, ‘By the mercy of Vyasa, I heard these confidential talks directly from the Master of all mysticism, Sri Krishna.’ Sanjaya expresses gratitude and joy at hearing this by the grace of Vyasa. Vyasa refers to

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Content: the guru (Master) here. In north India, wherever the scriptures are studied, that place is called a Vyasa peetha. Vyasa is the adi guru (first Master). So he expresses gratitude to the Master for giving him the opportunity to listen to the conversation between Krishna and Arjuna.

Content: 'O King, as I remember the wonderful form of Lord Krishna, I am awestruck and I rejoice again and again.' He has nothing much to say. He overflows with ecstasy. He ends the whole thing beautifully with this sloka.

Content: 'Wherever there is Krishna, the Master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power and morality. This is my opinion.' He ends the whole thing with a beautiful auspicious blessing. Wherever the name of Krishna, the Divine Energy of Krishna is present and wherever Arjuna dwells, there will also be victory, prosperity, wealth and morality. All the Divine positive Energy will shower there. He concludes with this beautiful blessing, this beautiful sloka.

Content: Yatra yogeswarah krisno yatra partho dhanurdharah; Tatra sreervijayo bhootir dhruvaneetir matirmama.

Content: Whether we read, teach or listen to the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna and Arjuna are present. They are present in their formless form. Make no mistake, they are here. They have been here throughout these eighteen days.

Content: You are the fortunate listeners and readers of this mystic dialogue between the two great souls, the Master and disciple. You are blessed with wealth, health

Content: and success in whatever you undertake. Go with this Krishna Consciousness and you will be in nithyananda, eternal bliss.

Content: Q: Master, I do not understood how surrender and renunciation can be used as a technique. Please explain.

Content: First, understand what I mean by the word 'technique,' and then you'll understand 'ultimate technique.'

Content: All cultures, religions and spiritual traditions accept one thing: man has come down from his ultimate level. Man is not as he is supposed to be. The Christian tradition says that Adam and Eve were pure, full of bliss, joy and ecstasy. Once Adam tasted the apple, he came down. Humanity degenerated. The Hindu tradition, the eastern mythology, says there was a time called the satya yuga, the age of truth. In the course of time, we became impure; we have fallen from our original level.

Content: Buddhism says humanity lived in the age of dhamma or pure righteousness. In the course of time, we fell from that state. Every tradition has a faith or a belief that man is not as he should be. Man has descended from his conscious level or his level of Self.

Content: A beautiful Upanishad mantra says: Amrutásya putraha. This means,' You are children of Immortality. You are the children of the Gods.'

Content: All traditions, religions and Masters agree upon one thing: man has degraded himself. Man has fallen from his true nature. He had been totally in a higher state. He has descended from his Reality.

Content: According to science, man evolved from the animals. According to spirituality, man came down from the Gods. If you understand one thing, you will understand these two concepts. Whatever is presented in your mind, in front of you, as an ideal, your mind naturally goes towards that. All the traditions present the ultimate Consciousness, or ultimate Realization, as an ideal. Every religion, spirituality and group says we have fallen from our original level. We must return to that Consciousness.

Content: Christians use the word Heaven. Hindus use the word Moksha. Buddhists use the word Nibbhana, Nirvana.

Content: Each one has its own words, but all of us understand that we are supposed to reach a higher level than where we exist at the present time.

Content: A technique is the method that takes us to a higher level. That is how I define a technique. A technique is like a ladder that takes us to higher Consciousness. It is a higher method. There are thousands and thousands of techniques in the world to elevate the level of our consciousness. Even sitting silently is a technique to go beyond the mind, to enter the higher Consciousness and to elevate us from the ordinary plane. There are thousands of methods. Every religion has thousands of techniques. Everything we do in the name of religion is a

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: technique to elevate ourselves from lower consciousness to higher Consciousness.

Content: From Man to God. From Mortality to Immortality. From Mundane to Divine.

Content: Doing aarti or puja is a technique or method to reach God, to approach a higher state of consciousness. From an ordinary breathing technique to puja - all are techniques at different levels. Everything is a method to reach the Divine. The way in which we travel, the way in which we move towards the Consciousness, towards spirituality, is a technique.

Content: In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna gives many techniques. He teaches Arjuna various meditation techniques or methods to evolve from the ordinary level to the higher level. They are methods to reach the higher Consciousness, to reach Divine Consciousness. He speaks about many techniques and methods. Every chapter, every sloka, is a technique or method. After listening to so many techniques, Arjuna is totally confused. He asks the Master: ‘O Lord, after listening to thousands of techniques, after hearing about each and every method, I am more confused. Please tell me what is the ultimate technique? What is the right technique?’

Content: Even in modern life, we are also totally confused because we listen to many methods and techniques. Every Master gives his own technique as the best. Every religious leader gives his technique as the best. Every enlightened person gives his technique as the ultimate.

Content: There is an interesting saying that if two rishis say the same thing, we can be sure that one of them is a fraud. It's the Truth. If two rishis say the same thing, someone is copying because no two enlightened beings speak or behave in the same way.

Content: Enlightenment means everyone flowers in his own way. It is uniqueness. God never creates in the same way. He creates one-of-a-kind flowers. When a person becomes enlightened, he is totally unique.

Content: Each Master gives his method to humanity. Each person presents his or her technique. There are thousands and thousands of methods, thousands and thousands of techniques and thousands and thousands of ways to reach the Divine.

Content: When Arjuna was confused, he asked: 'What is the method? What is the technique? I have listened to so many methods from you.' At least Arjuna listened to all the meditations from one man, but today people are in a worse situation. We listen to thousands of sources. What is the way?

Content: In ancient times, meditation or spirituality was more or less a seller's market. Now, it is a buyer's market. In the past, it was a seller's market, the Masters used to decide. Now disciples decide what is the best way. Go to the Internet - click on 'meditation.' At least two hundred web sites give you the technique, method or the details. Which one should we choose? What to do? What is the way? What is the method?

Content: When more than ninety percent of the people experience such confusion, they stop entering into spirituality. There is more confusion in this field than any other. Why? What is the actual method? What is the way? The confused Arjuna asks Krishna. 'What is the way? Tell me the final way, the final method, the ultimate technique.'

Content: Finally, Krishna says very beautifully, 'This is the last technique, the ultimate technique: Dropping all the Dharma, or dropping all the confusions, surrender to My feet. I will take care and give you liberation.'

Content: This is the gist of the whole Gita. Gita is the unabridged dictionary of the world's philosophies. You can see the seed of all the philosophical trends, the seed of all traditions and the seed of all spiritual techniques in the Gita. It is an unabridged dictionary of the world's philosophies.

Content: This is a beautiful sloka:

Content: sarvadharmān parithayajya mamekaṁ sharaṇam vraja, aham thvā sarvāpebhyo mokshayishyāmi mā suchahā

Content: Let me again translate it word by word. 'Drop all techniques, all methods and all the roots.' Dharma means the way of living. 'Drop all roots, all methods and all the ways to live. Drop everything. Don't bother about anything. Surrender everything at My feet.'

Content: Sarvadharmān parithayajya mamekaṁ sharaṇam vraja: don't carry even a bit; just drop everything, surrender your whole being to Me.

Content: Aham thva sarvapapebhyo mokshayishyami ma suchaha: 'I'll remove all darkness, all negativities, and all sin from your being. I'll liberate you. I'll give you the ultimate enlightenment.'

Content: It's the final word given by Krishna. It's the last word anyone could give. It's the last word of all great Masters. Jesus said, 'I am the Gate, I am the Path and I am the Goal.'

Content: In every Master's life, the final teaching, the last saying will be surrender, just surrender, surrender, surrender. The last word of all the Masters will be 'Surrender.'

Content: Ramakrishna says, 'Who came as Rama, who came as Krishna, is the same person who came down as Ramakrishna. Surrender, I'll take care.'

Content: Every Master in the end finishes with this word. Surrender is prescribed as the ultimate technique.

Content: Sarvam prichchit brahmaapanam ghavatu swaaha

Content: Surrender is said to be the ultimate method. What is the meaning of surrender?

Content: As soon as we hear the word 'surrender,' we think: Oh, this is the easiest technique. This is the easiest method. For surrendering, we don't need to do anything. In any other method or meditation, we must do something. If it is a puja, we need to do something. If it is a yajna, we must do something. For every technique, we must do something. For surrender, we don't need to

Content: do anything.' Hence everyone feels surrendering means doing nothing.

Content: Many people tell me, 'Master, I've surrendered everything, but nothing is happening in me. What should I do?'

Content: The statement, 'I've surrendered everything, nothing is happening inside me,' is wrong. If you really surrendered, you will not expect that anything should or should not happen. When you say, nothing is happening, be very clear, you have not surrendered. Most of the time, people use the word 'surrender.' They never understand what it means. Now, let us look into the mechanics of surrender.

Content: What actually is surrender? What do the Masters mean by the word surrender? The way they use the word 'surrender' is totally different from the way people normally use it.

Content: Let us see what the Masters mean by surrender.

Content: There are three levels of surrender:

Content: First: surrendering the I. Second: surrendering the Mine. Third: Surrendering the I and Mine. Both.

Content: Let me explain step-by-step.

Content: First: Surrendering the I

Content: Surrendering the I is surrendering the ego, the mind, the mental setup. This is surrendering your conditions.

Content: Somebody asked Ramakrishna, 'Master, I am addicted to alcohol. How can I give it up?'

Content: He said, 'Surrender it to Kali. You will automatically give it up. You will become all right.'

Content: The disciple asked, 'How can I surrender this to Kali?'

Content: He said, 'Before you drink, take Kali's name. Offer the drink to Kali first, and then drink.'

Content: This is a strange situation.

Content: Even so, the man followed the Master's advice. Before drinking, he offered the drink to Kali, and said, 'O Kali, this belongs to you.' After that, he drank it as prasad.

Content: According to the record, three days later the man said, 'I am unable to drink anymore. I have totally forgotten such things.'

Content: Of course, when you sincerely surrender, a deep transformation happens. The change from mind and matter to energy happens in you. It's a deep transformation and difficult to explain. You can understand only when you have the taste, when you have at least one glimpse of surrender.

Content: You may be surprised that a man could give up an addiction by offering alcohol to God, to a deity. But when he offered it, his heart began to wonder, 'How can I offer this alcohol to Devi? How can I offer this to the Goddess whom I love?' Next he began to question, 'if I cannot offer alcohol to the Goddess, how can I drink it?

Content: After all, the same Goddess resides in my body. The same Goddess resides in my system. How can I offer that to me?’ So, once he realized that he could not give the alcohol to God and that the same God resided in him, he naturally questioned, ‘How can I pour it in me and disturb the system?’

Content: Surrender gave him Intelligence. Surrender gave him understanding. This natural understanding made him drop what he had been doing.

Content: One more thing, when you really, intensely offer your mental setup, or mental conditioning at the feet of the Master or God, it gets totally disintegrated. The mind in itself is a habit. Your ‘I’ is a set of habits. Your ego is a set of conditions. When you offer that at the Master’s feet, when you surrender the ‘I,’ it becomes totally disintegrated.

Content: A small explanation will help you understand.

Content: If you habitually drink coffee every morning at ten o’clock, as soon as it becomes ten o’clock, you don’t need to do anything. The mind automatically says, ‘It is ten AM. Get me a coffee.’ It is a habit. It is an addiction. Because of the habit, the mind asks for coffee.

Content: In the same way, even your thoughts are conditioning. Even your moods are conditioning. Even your mind is a record. Just as you have the coffee habit, you also have the habit of worrying. You have the habit of an excited mood. You have the habit of reacting to every situation. Even if you understand one example, you can understand what I mean.

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Content: If somebody criticizes you, you immediately react. You become disturbed. After that, you criticize him in return or you rebuke him. If somebody praises you, you immediately feel flattered. You give him a good smile and feel great. You respond in a positive way. If he criticizes you, you choose to become disturbed or you decide to rebuke him. If he praises you, you choose to be flattered. Even this choice is your mental conditioning. It is your mental setup.

Content: Just as in the case of the coffee addiction, you choose to drink coffee when the time comes. After choosing so many times, you forget you are choosing. You become addicted. Likewise, in the mind, whenever somebody criticizes you, you choose to be disturbed. Subsequently after choosing so many times, you forget that you are choosing. Whenever somebody criticizes you, you automatically become disturbed. You are upset. You start rebuking. Your mental setup, your mental responses and your ego are all your choices. They are your mental habits.

Content: When you surrender the 'I,' your mental setup, to the Divine, you can't choose. When you really surrender, even if somebody criticizes you, you can't choose to be offended. You can't choose to feel disturbed. You can't choose to rebuke him.

Content: Whenever you bring in your mental setup, you react in accordance with your mental habit. When this is still the case, you cannot say you have surrendered. Real surrender can and will transform your life.

Content: Now, when you really surrender, whatever you choose cannot become your choice. When you have surrendered, you are immune to criticism. You are not bothered by criticism. After being criticized, you cannot choose to be disturbed. You do not feel that you have been criticized. If you feel disturbed after some criticism, you have not surrendered. Again and again check whether you have surrendered or not.

Content: Surrender is such a beautiful word that you can be easily cheated by it. We always say, 'I surrendered everything to my Master, to God. God will take care.' But all of our surrender is only lip service. It is only skin deep. Scratch a little bit to see whether you have surrendered or not.

Content: When you have really surrendered your 'I,' the mental setup is totally disintegrated. The egocentric mind becomes God-centric. Egocentric means eccentric. The egocentric mind becomes God-centric. When you surrender your 'I,' your mind to God, your ego to God, your thinking system to God, it will be continuously bubbling with joy. Because the Divine is always Bliss, Eternal Bliss, nithya ananda. Whenever you surrender your mental setup, you will be bubbling with joy, life and vibrancy.

Content: Kids are continuously alive, moving around and jumping, especially children under seven years of age. Until that time, they do not have something called 'mind.' They have no mind. That is when their mind is getting prepared by the society's conditioning. Their mind is being created. Have you ever seen an ugly child? In all traditions and cultures, there is no ugliness in children.

Content: Even in places like Ethiopia, where war raged and poverty was rampant, children may be thin, lean, but they are not ugly. We always see a grace in children. Have you seen a single child who is ugly? No! Have you seen a single grown up man who is beautiful? Why not?

Content: The mind enters.

Content: As long as we are not conditioned, we don’t have a mind. We don’t have an ego. We have a special grace around us. We have joy and ecstasy. We have innocence and simplicity. A man who has surrendered becomes a small child once again. That is why there is a beautiful word in Sanskrit, dwija meaning reborn.

Content: When you surrender, you are re-born. Re-Born.

Content: Our first birth happens from the mother and father. Our second birth happens from guru and God.

Content: Whenever you take physical janma (birth), it is called the physical body. First birth is janma. Whenever you surrender your ego at the feet of the guru or God, you have the next janma, second birth. It is called dwija. Those who have taken second birth are always called dwija.

Content: Whenever you surrender the ‘I,’ the mental setup, you reach immense joy, ecstasy and pleasure. Joy, ecstasy and pleasure are different layers. Pleasure is whenever joy happens because of sensory objects. Joy happens because of seeing nature such as a beautiful mountain, snow, ocean or a forest. Bliss is whenever joy happens for no reason; it happens from your inner being. Pleasure, joy, bliss happens from

Content: continuously happen in you, whenever you surrender your 'I,' your ego.

Content: When you surrender your ego, your mind becomes alive and spontaneously joyful. As of now, every moment you are preparing to live tomorrow. You make plans and big lists. Even to meet your friend, you prepare what you plan to talk about. While driving to your friend's house, what do you do? You mentally prepare what you will say and how you will present yourself. And if you're asked any question on another subject that you are unprepared for, you make the whole thing a mess. That is why you don't have the strength to face an unexpected situation. You always make a drama script and act or enact the same script. That is all! You try your best to safeguard yourself from situations, from the realities, by making a shield - by preparing a script.

Content: When you surrender, you move without a script! Whenever you move like that, in such a simple way, tremendous courage and trust walks through you.

Content: A small story:

Content: A rat entered a king's palace when the king was asleep. Suddenly the rat jumped on the king's face. The king was terribly shocked and started shouting. Somehow or the other the rat escaped. When the king came out of his bedroom, he commanded his general to kill the rat. The general entered the bedroom in search of the rat. Again as a coincidence, the rat jumped on the general's face.

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Content: The general ran away shouting, 'Oh, the rat is huge. It is too big!'

Content: Anyway, he spread the news that there was a rat inside the king's room that was monstrously big and powerful! Nobody could do anything. Now, the king had to save his face. He started exaggerating how powerful the rat was.

Content: The news spread throughout the country: there is a rat that nobody could kill! Then the palace security commanded the palace cat to kill the rat. They had already brainwashed the palace cat that neither the king nor his army could do anything about this gigantic rat.

Content: In view of that, the cat entered the room slowly since it was full of fear. Again the rat jumped, this time on the face of the cat! The cat was totally shocked. It became frightened and ran away. When it came time to save face, the cat started telling more stories, 'No, no, no it is not an ordinary rat. It is almost double my size!' It exaggerated with all kinds of stories just to save face.

Content: The news spread fast. Finally almost the whole country was afraid of that rat. The king declared that anybody who killed that rat would be given a sizeable award. The news spread all over the country.

Content: Finally, one farmer told his cat, 'If you kill this rat, at least you will have one day's food. I have nothing to feed you. Why don't you try?'

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: The cat said, 'All right, why not? Let's go.'

Content: All the other cats warned this cat, 'Don't try. Even the palace cat could do nothing. The palace cat has had lots of training in hunting rats. In spite of all the training, all those methods and techniques, it could do nothing. So, don't go and try anything.'

Content: But anyhow this cat said, 'Let me see what is there.'

Content: The farmer took the cat to the king's palace. The cat simply entered the bedroom, killed the rat and came out. Subsequently, the king arranged a big celebration to honor the cat and gave it an award.

Content: Somebody interviewed the cat: 'How did you manage? How did you kill the rat? The king could not do anything. The Army Chief could do nothing. Even the palace cat could not do anything. How did you manage?'

Content: The cat clearly replied, 'What? I 'managed'? No! I am a cat. My nature is to kill a rat!'

Content: Over. One word - I am a cat. My nature is to kill the rat. There is nothing in between.

Content: Our mind makes everything big. A simple statement, 'I am a cat, my nature is to kill the rat, there is nothing else.' What is there? It is the nature. The cat understood and respected its nature. By its very nature, it could do. But what do we do? Even to face a friend, we need a script. We don't trust

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Content: our nature. We don’t believe we are spiritual beings and that we can achieve something.

Content: For everything we need a script. We act only with the script. We never feel. We never trust our nature. We never feel confident to achieve something. The cat said, ‘I am a cat. I can kill the rat!’ Nothing special is necessary. There is no need for a technique. There is no need for training. ‘My nature is to kill the rat. That is more than sufficient.’

Content: In the same way, your very nature can make you live in bliss. Your very nature can make you surrender to the Ultimate. It can make you surrender to the Divine. But we try anything and everything we know to complicate it! We know how to complicate. Our conditioning, our mind, and our working method make everything complicated. Even to talk to your wife, you need a script before coming home. You create a script about what to tell her.

Content: One more beautiful point: if you tell the truth, you don’t need to keep anything in memory. If you always speak truth, you do not have problems. Many people ask, ‘Master, please help me improve my memory.’ Why do people want memory?

Content: If we look into ourselves, we realize that we want to remember whatever lies we told the last time! If we speak the truth, we don’t need memory. We have enough memory. God has given us enough memory to live our life. Only to remember the lies, we need more memory!

Content: Where did we tell which lie and to whom? Who knows? If we continuously tell lies, we must remember all the lies. That is why we usually struggle or suffer or complain, 'No, no, no. I have no memory.' If we speak the truth, we don't need any memory. If we live based on Truth, we don't need a script to live our life.

Content: Why are we afraid to face life?

Content: Every moment we show what we are not. That is the Truth. With everybody we project what we are not. That is why we prepare a big script. Everyday we must project the same. On the first day we projected a certain way to others, we must subsequently keep up the projection. To maintain that projection again and again and again, we must create our script.

Content: I travel around the world and speak for hours at a time. Of course, people around me know that I neither have the time nor the interest to prepare my discourses. I never prepare. The secretary informs me upon entering the hall, 'Master, today this is the subject.' All right – Over!

Content: Somebody asked me, 'Master, how can you speak so many hours without preparation?'

Content: If you live around me you will realize I have no time. Nothing is prepared. How do I speak then? I have only one answer. If somebody asks you, 'What's your name?' Do you need to prepare? No! You don't need to prepare.

Content: Your name has become your experience. To mention your name, you don't need any preparation. In the same way, what I speak has become my experience. Whatever is your experience, whatever is your personality, to express it, you don't need preparation. You need to prepare only when you need to project something that is not in you.

Content: Wherever we go, we carry a large mask to project something that is not reality. That is why we need such a big preparation. Yet even with all the groundwork, we end up making everything a mess. We are so careful not to make a small mistake, yet we wind up making a big blunder. A big blunder simply results from living according to our preparation and enacting the drama! Whenever we prepare the script and enact it, we will be only re-living. We will never really live.

Content: We will not live the moment. We will not live the reality. We will not live Life. We will merely repeat what we have prepared. We will react. We will be enacting our script.

Content: When we really surrender the 'I,' the ego, we surrender the mind that continuously prepares the script for our life. We will have tremendous spontaneity and courage. We will trust our intelligence. We will live our life as it is. We will live life as it happens. We will accept and welcome life as it flows into us.

Content: A beautiful verse in the Gita says:

Content: ananyah shrichintayanto mam yejanah parupaste teshaam nityabhiyuktanam yogakshema vahaamyaham

Content: 'Continuously merge in Me. Merge in the Divine and all your needs and necessities will be taken care of by Me. Bringing them to you and taking care of them is My responsibility.'

Content: Krishna assures us that He will manage both. We may think, 'How can this be?' Just by surrendering to Him, how can He take care of our needs? What He means by, 'I'll take care,' is that He will activate or He will let you have the intelligence and courage to have everything and to love everything.

Content: Right now you do not know how to live with whatever you may have acquired because you have continuously lived by your script, not with reality. Only when you surrender do you know how to live with reality. Only then you live with the reality. Then you can enjoy whatever you have - your physical pleasures and physical comforts. All this happens only when you drop your mind. If you have your mind, you have a script for anything and everything. You react according to that. You never respond. You never act from your Being or Self. Only when you drop the mental setup that is already prepared, that social conditioning creates in you, you see the growth that happens in you.

Content: Growth is never evolution. By evolution, how long can growth happen? No, growth happens by revolution. Evolution means growing slowly. Revolution means surrendering. When you try to grow by yourself, only evolution happens. It took five thousand years in the evolutionary process for a chimpanzee to become a man.

Content: For a monkey to become a man, it took five thousand years! If you grow in the same way, it will take another five million years for man to become God. No, we cannot wait that long! So it's never evolution, it is always revolution. Surrender your whole being and you will see the revolution that happens in your being.

Content: Surrendering 'I,' surrendering the mental setup, totally changes your being. It shifts you from thinking to the Energy, from the mind to no-mind, and from mithya to nithya.

Content: Second: Surrendering the Mine

Content: Here comes big trouble. Mine means possessiveness: to possess the thing we possess.

Content: We can surrender the mind, but never our possessions. We always think our ego comes before our possessions. On the contrary, Tantra says: 'Your ego is only based upon possessions.' This is a strange statement but I analyzed it carefully. It is true. Your ego is a by-product of your possessions: of your 'mine.' Whatever you think of as yours, whatever you think of as 'mine;' from the 'mine,' from the possessiveness only, one's feeling of 'mine' originates. If we look deeply, we can understand that all our idea of 'mine' creates our idea of 'I.' Our 'mine' is only our possession. Even our body is our possession. So whatever we think of as ours, if we think, 'this is 'mine' that is 'mine,' from that root our ego starts growing.

Content: If ego is akin to a tree, the root is 'mine.' The tree is 'I.' From the root 'mine,' the 'I,' the ego starts growing. If your

Content: 'mine' is growing, if your possessions are growing, you feel expanded. You become solid. You become somebody. You become free. But you forget that by the expansion of comforts, the outer possessions, the expansion of the 'mine', you have freedom. However, this is freedom to only choose your sufferings and not to choose between joy and suffering.

Content: Yes, you have freedom. Of course, if you have money, you can own a top quality car, home, accommodation facilities and all these things. You have more choices. Still, these are choices between suffering and suffering. They are not between suffering and joy.

Content: To have the freedom to choose between suffering and joy comes from dropping the 'mine' and 'I.' It does not result from possessing the 'mine.' Even if you enjoy your possessions, underneath the enjoyment and joy, you have a deep fear. It is a fear of when it will be lost. The possession, the possessiveness, the feeling that it is 'mine,' does not let you enjoy. The feeling that it is 'mine' does not let you enjoy because you have fear, 'I do not know when it will be lost.' The fear of losing it will not allow you to enjoy those things or relationships.

Content: I've seen that the man who does not have possessiveness enjoys the same object more deeply because he does not fear when he will lose it. The person who continuously possesses it, the person who feels possessiveness, who feels it is 'mine, mine, mine', and will only own it; he never enjoys it.

Content: There are two devata, Hindu deities, related to this: Kubera and Lakshmi.

Content: Wealth has two aspects: wealth with possessiveness and wealth without possessiveness. Wealth with possessiveness is Kubera and yaksha. Kubera means the person who possesses and never enjoys. Yaksha is a being that owns wealth, but he never enjoys it. He feels so satisfied in possessiveness that he can never enjoy.

Content: For example, grandparents in the traditional system have everything, but they never enjoy. I saw a case of this in my village.

Content: An old lady lived a few houses from where I was born and raised. Early in the morning she called me and told me to buy her some tobacco leaves. I asked for some money to pay for it. I was a small boy. She used to say, 'No, no, no get the money from your father!' Anyhow, my father gave me the money and I bought the tobacco leaves. I thought that she was a poor lady. So I bought tobacco leaves for her everyday.

Content: On her property there was a large well. It was so big that even if all the wells in the city were to run dry, her well would have water. She was so possessive of her water that she never allowed anyone to ever take any. Once, the village doctor needed water for a medical emergency. She even refused to give him water.

Content: Suddenly she died one day. It so happened that the same doctor attended her on her deathbed. At that time he asked her, 'You didn't give me water. Can you carry that water with you now?' Nothing. Even at that time she didn't feel she had made a mistake. She didn't feel her possessiveness was wrong.

Content: After her funeral, a box was found under her bed that was filled with so much jewelry and money that you can’t imagine! That lady never enjoyed her wealth.

Content: These kind of people feel satisfied merely by possessing it. When they possess, they feel they are somebody. They feel secure. A sense of security happens to them due to possessing something. People who are like Kubera and yaksha possess, but they never enjoy. Possessiveness never lets you enjoy life. You feel secure only when things are there. For example, the man who possesses continuously counts his money. He feels energetic by counting money, not by spending it. He will again and again count his money. After counting it, he hides it under his pillow or under his bed. He never enjoys the money. The person who lives with possessiveness is Kubera.

Content: Kubera represents richness whereas another deity Lakshmi stands for wealth. Richness means you have but you never enjoy. That is Kubera. Wealth means that not only do you have, but also you live joyously!

Content: Lakshmi means abundance. The wealth is there without possessiveness. There is no possessiveness, no sense of ‘mine, mine, mine’. That feeling is absent. When that feeling is not there, we really enjoy. We can really live life.

Content: We each decide whether we are a Lakshmi or Kubera. If we surrender our possessiveness, the feeling of ‘mine’, we will be continuously joyful, ecstatic and enjoying. If we fear, ‘I don’t know when it will be taken away,’ we will never enjoy.

Content: We work to increase the height of our bed, but we forget to increase the depth of our sleep! If we have the possessiveness of our bed, we never sleep well because we fear that a thief may take it away. We fear we may lose it. When we will lose it, who knows? The underlying fear, the fear underneath our 'mine' never lets us relax. It never allows us to enjoy. If we possess our bed, we never sleep properly. We don't enjoy the relaxed mood! Whenever we drop possessiveness, whenever we relax from the feeling of 'mine,' we live even with the material comforts and enjoy life.

Content: Whenever you surrender the 'I' to the Existence, understand this one thing. Never think that because of you the world is running. In spite of you, it is running. That's all. Fifty years ago none of you were here. Was the world unable to run? No, it was running perfectly! Fifty years from now, none of us will be here. Do you think the world will stop? No! Even so, we think the whole world is running only on our account.

Content: A traditional proverb from India says: 'The cat thinks that if it closes its eyes, the whole world becomes dark. The cat imagines that if it closes its eyes, the whole world will stop.' That is why when the cat sneaks into the house to steal something it closes its eyes. When the cat tries even to drink milk, it closes it eyes. It imagines that the whole world has become blind.

Content: Like that cat, you think that the whole world runs because of you. You think if you close your eyes, the whole world will stop. Never! It never runs because of us. It runs in spite of us.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: A small story:

Content: Murg wanted to cross a river one day. He was sitting in a boat. The boatman started rowing. After two or three minutes, Murg shouted towards the boatman, 'Hurry up, hurry up.' The boatman put in his best effort. After ten minutes Murg could not contain himself any longer. He started walking inside the boat, up and down, forward and backward, this side and that side. After half an hour, he started running inside the boat.

Content: The boatman said, 'Keep quiet. Sit silently. Sit! Why are you running back and forth?'

Content: Murg replied, 'I must hurry. I cannot sit silently. It is urgent to reach the other shore as soon as possible. I must go quickly!'

Content: If you run inside the boat, will you reach the other shore any earlier? Never. Whether you run or sit, the boat reaches the other shore in its own way and in its own time. By running inside the boat, you never reach your destination any earlier. In fact, you may even delay reaching the other shore

Content: In ninety percent of our life, we are running inside the boat. Whatever we do is nothing but running inside the boat.

Content: At another time, Murg was traveling by train. He put his luggage on top of his head.

Content: A fellow passenger asked him, 'Why don't you keep the luggage in the luggage compartment?'

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Content: Murg replied, 'No, no, no. That would be too heavy for the train. It will be a burden for the train.'

Content: Murg did not realize that the train was carrying his luggage as well as him anyway.

Content: So understand that not only you but your whole 'I' and 'mine' are taken care of by the Divine. It takes care in its own way. But we, out of our ego, keep all our headaches, all the loads, upon our heads.

Content: Ramana Maharshi used to say beautifully, 'The train is moving and you are sitting in it. Why don't you put your luggage on the train and relax? At least you will have time to sleep. You will have time to rest.'

Content: Anyway the train will reach some destination. Whether you carry the luggage on your head or on the train, the train is going to take its own time. Whether you run inside the boat or sit inside the boat, the boat is going to take its time.

Content: There is a Zen saying: If you want anything to be done slowly or not done at all, hurry up as much as possible.

Content: By hurrying, you will commit blunders. You may not commit mistakes, but you will commit big blunders.

Content: When you rest, when you really relax, when you surrender at the feet of the Divine, ninety-nine percent of your energy is available for positive creativity. Until then that entire ninety-nine percent is wasted in unnecessarily worrying.

Content: The other day I read a beautiful book called How to Know God written by a philosopher. A court of law cannot prove that God exists; yet more than ninety percent of the people believe in the existence of God. Consequently, their creativity tremendously improves. Their life is more joyful and ecstatic. Their life is more flowing. Why? They have stopped spending their Energy on worrying. They are creating instead.

Content: Continuous worry adds pressure to your life. When you surrender, when you have faith and trust in the Divine, when you relax in the name of the Divine, the Energy that you had been wasting on worrying turns towards creativity and positivity. Ninety-nine percent of your worries never come true. Whatever one percent comes true is always good.

Content: When you surrender the ‘I,’ your suffering is transformed into joy and ecstasy.

Content: When you surrender your ‘mine,’ your richness becomes wealth.

Content: You start living with your possessions. You enjoy whatever you have. You start living it, and really feel ecstasy and joy from the things that you have. You go beyond the fear of ‘When will I lose them.’

Content: Third: Surrender both I and Mine

Content: When I say both ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ I mean surrendering the whole life unconditionally.

Content: When you surrender both ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ your whole life totally transforms. It becomes completely different.

Content: The proof that you have surrendered is that you no longer worry and suffer. If you have really surrendered, you will not have worry or suffering.

Content: To whom you surrender is immaterial. Don’t be concerned about that. I have been speaking of surrender but I have not said ‘to whom.’ There is no need to bother about to whom you surrender. It is immaterial whether you surrender to God, the guru, Shiva or Krishna. It is unimportant. It has nothing to do with whom you surrender to. Surrender itself has the power to transform you.

Content: A small story:

Content: This story from the Purana has a beautiful meaning. You must understand the meaning.

Content: A man decided to surrender to God or a Master. Where could he find a Master? If he were a modern man, he would have gone on the Internet to see what Masters are available. Of course, in ancient times there was no website. So where could he go? He went to the forest. He decided, ‘I will sit on this road. Whoever comes on this road first will be my guru. I will surrender myself to him.’

Content: Unfortunately, a thief was running through that forest. This man jumped and caught hold of the feet of the thief and shouted, ‘Oh guru, my Master, you are my God. You have come to save me. God, I surrender everything to you. Please take care of me.’

Content: The thief had just robbed the palace and was running from the palace. He feared that some

Content: policeman would soon catch up with him. He shouted, 'No, let me go. Let me alone. I am not your guru.'

Content: The man insisted, 'No, no, no. You are God! You have come to save me. Please don't say that. Please somehow save me. You are my God, I surrender to you.'

Content: The thief thought, 'What can I do? What kind of a situation is this?'

Content: Finally the thief agreed, 'All right, I am your guru. Now do as I say. Sit. Close your eyes. Don't open your eyes until I say so.'

Content: The man said, 'Perfectly all right.' He sat. Closed his eyes and sat silently. The thief thought, 'Oh, this is the right time!' He ran away and escaped.

Content: The man was sitting, sitting, sitting. One day passed. Another day passed. His courage, willpower and his decision were so strong. He thought, 'Until my guru returns, I will not open my eyes.'

Content: At that time Shiva appeared in front of him. He gave him darshan, 'Oh my son, I am pleased by your surrender. Please open your eyes and ask me for whatever you want.'

Content: The man replied, 'No, no, no. You are not my guru. My guru is that man who asked me to sit and close my eyes. When he comes, I will open my eyes. I cannot open my eyes until he comes.'

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Content: Shiva said, 'Hey, I am God. I've come down to earth. You don't know it, but that man you consider your guru is actually a thief. I am God and I've come down out of compassion for your sincerity. Open your eyes.'

Content: The man said, 'No, I don't know whether he's a thief or God. I surrendered to him. You must bring him here.'

Content: Then Shiva assumed the form of the thief and spoke to the man in the thief's voice. Then the man finally opened his eyes.

Content: Then the story says that Shiva blessed him with spiritual grace.

Content: The story has a beautiful meaning. You don't need to bother about whom you surrender to. That has nothing to do with liberation. Surrendering itself will do the miracle. Surrender has the energy and the capacity to transform. Don't bother about to which form or name you surrender. It does not matter.

Content: A story from Ramakrishna's life:

Content: A pundit, a learned man, lived on the banks of the river Yamuna. Everyday a milkmaid supplied him with milk. One day she was behind schedule in delivering his milk.

Content: The pundit said, 'Why have you brought the milk so late. How can I follow my regular routine when you come late?'

Content: The maid replied, 'No, no, no. I must come from the other side of the river. The river has been flooded today and no boats could take me here. That's why I am not on time.'

Content: The pundit casually commented, 'What flood? People even cross the ocean of life by taking the name of Krishna. Can't you cross a small river?'

Content: The maid thought, 'Oh, okay.' She understood. She was an innocent lady. She was neither very intellectual nor logical. The next day she brought his milk right on time. Everyday she continued to arrive without any delays.

Content: After a week the pundit asked her, 'Now you are coming on time. Why? Has the flood receded?'

Content: She replied, 'No, no, no, even now the river is flooded. Boats are still not going across. Even so you taught me that I could cross the river by repeating Krishna's name. You said I could even cross the ocean of life that way. So that's how I am doing it.'

Content: The pundit was surprised. At first he was unable to believe. He said, 'How can this be? Come and show me.'

Content: The milkmaid took the pundit to the river and started walking on the river as she said, 'Krishna, Krishna, Krishna...'

Content: The pundit thought, 'If she can do this, why not me? Let me try.' He went near the river and lifted his dhoti, waistcloth, and started saying, 'Krishna, Krishna, Krishna...'

Content: His lips were saying, 'Krishna, Krishna, Krishna.' But at the same time he lifted his cloth so that it did not get wet. He fell into the river and was carried away by the current.

Content: You can learn one thing from this story: You need not bother about who you learn from or to whom you surrender. The milkmaid was innocent. She surrendered to the idea given to her by the pundit. Do not bother about whom you learn from or the form you surrender to. Or you don't need to bother to whom you surrender or to whom you offer. The very offering has a tremendous power to transform you.

Content: There is no need to worry about what happens thereafter or what is the side effect or next step of the surrender. Most of the time, before surrendering itself, we calculate logically, 'after surrendering, what will happen to this or that?' Can we logically calculate what will happen? Never. If we do so, we project our mind beyond surrender.

Content: If you know what will happen after death, only then you will know what will happen after surrender. Surrender and death are the same. When you surrender, psychologically you die. You are re-born. Can you say what will happen after your death? No. In the same way, you can never imagine or visualize what will happen after surrender. If you are imagining, visualizing, be very clear, you are not surrendering.

Content: Someone asked a great Master in India, 'Master, how will I know if I have surrendered or not?'

Content: He said, ‘This question disappears. Then you will know you have surrendered.’

Content: This question, whether you have surrendered or not, will disappear. You will have no doubt about whether you have surrendered or not. Your whole being will be flooded and be bubbling with ecstasy and joy. There is just a feeling of surrendering, utter relaxation and utter bliss. You will not bother about what happens next. You will be totally relaxed from your duties, pains, sufferings and your responsibilities. The responsibilities will be fulfilled by themselves. Your body will be doing. Your mind will be doing. It’s not that you won’t go to your office tomorrow morning because you have surrendered. You will go – the body will carry on. Everything will be happening. But you will see utter relaxation in your being, the utter bliss in your ‘mine’ and the utter ‘IS ness’ in your life.

Content: When you surrender the ‘I,’ there is utter bliss. When you surrender the ‘mine,’ there is utter relaxation. When you surrender the ‘I’ and ‘mine,’ there is a beautiful ‘IS ness’ in your life. This is the scale to measure whether your surrender is merely lip service or it is real. From this scale you can measure whether you have surrendered or not. Surrender is nothing but a clear, conscious decision. Nothing else.

Content: ‘The Energy that can move my body, this sun, this moon and this planet Earth, can’t it move my life?’

Content: Understand: The bread that we eat becomes blood. It is not an insignificant process. If you are a doctor, you

Content: know how big this process is! The bread becoming blood is the biggest industry! Still, human beings have not changed bread into blood. To be successful in doing this, you need to create an industry that will run for miles. Even so, such a big process happens inside our body! Six feet height - in such a small system, this big process is happening! The air is taken in, the prana is separated, the air is going out - the process is happening inside us. If the Divine can manage so much inside our body, if the Divine can manage so much in this universe, it can well manage in our life, too.

Content: Understand: Existence is Intelligence. The Divine is Intelligence.

Content: I've seen people ask God, 'O God, please give me this. O God, please give me that.'

Content: First thing is they will ask. Next thing is they bargain, 'If you give me this, I'll give you that.' Balaji is the biggest God in India for bargaining with Balaji. For anything, bargain with Balaji.

Content: The third thing is they start blaming God, 'I went to the temple ten times or every year I climbed the hill, but nothing happened!'

Content: First you pray, then you bargain, and third you blame. These three have nothing to do with devotion.

Content: Let me ask you this. Why do you pray? You pray because you think that God has the capacity to give, that God has the sakti to give.

Content: When you pray, you ask, 'O God, give me a million dollars.' You know that God has the sakti to give you, so you ask.

Content: But when you insist, 'O God, give me now, give me right now' means you believe that He has sakti, but you don't believe that he has buddhi, the intelligence to decide when to give. That is what it means! You will believe that he has sakti, but you don't believe that he has buddhi.

Content: Many people ask me, 'Master, why doesn't God give me what I ask for right now?'

Content: I ask, 'Do you believe God has sakti to give?'

Content: They say, 'Yes, Master, I believe.'

Content: 'But you don't believe that He has the buddhi to give. Am I right?'

Content: They say, 'Yes'

Content: This is because we don't believe that He has buddhi to give. We believe He has Energy, but we don't believe He has Intelligence. That is what our prayer means!

Content: When you surrender, you understand that not only does He have sakti, He has buddhi also. In every moment, something will be taught to you. When you surrender, you will not have any pain. You feel liberated.

Content: Arjuna's mother, Kunti, was a great lady and was devoted to Krishna. There is a beautiful verse in her prayers: 'O God, let the sufferings come from all sides to me to give me the understanding, to give me the experiences that You are teaching me through these sufferings.'

Content: Every suffering is a teacher who comes to give you more intelligence, more understanding and to open one more dimension in your life. But we never receive anything with an open mind and a sense of welcoming. When you surrender, you accept, you welcome everything with a welcoming mood. When you receive your sufferings, pain and miseries with a welcoming mood, they become teachers. They become your Masters.

Content: In one of the Upanishads, Yama, the God of Death, is called a guru. Death is the greatest suffering. If you surrender, if you welcome death, it becomes a great Master for you. If you welcome it with a mood of surrender, anything in your life will change its quality. Whenever you resist anything, it will be felt as a Devil. Whenever you welcome anything, it will be faced or felt as the Divine.

Content: You decide whether it is the Devil or the Divine.

Content: It is not decided on the outside - it is decided inside.

Content: So, whenever you relax, you transform your life from mithya to nithya ananda. You transform your suffering to a surge of joy, from depression to expression, from worrying to wondering. So may you decide consciously. Don't question once the conscious decision is made. Once you surrender, even after the decision, you will have the feeling, you will have the doubt: whether you surrendered or not, whether you really did surrender or not.

Content: Let me tell you one thing.

Content: First you decide. Surrender everything at the feet of God, at the feet of Parasakti who runs this world. You don’t even need to have any name or form. Don’t have my name and my form. Don’t have any name or form. ‘Oh, I surrendered to this God. So now what will happen? Will that God become angry with me?’ Don’t worry. Just surrender to the Energy that runs the whole world. Then under that title, everybody comes under that title, from the Energy to the God, the Divine that runs this whole Universe; decide to let them run your life. After that, naturally, you will have a doubt whether you have surrendered or not.

Content: Then you say, even this doubt is a gift from the Divine, the same Divine that is running the world. He also gives this doubt. Intelligence to surrender and to doubt my surrender is His gift as well. Let me offer my doubt also to Him. Let Him take care. Surrender your doubt also. Then you will see the transformation happens in you just as you are. Don’t think, ‘First I will change, and then I will surrender.’ No. You cannot do that. Surrender as you are, consciously, totally. Whatever is in your hand, whatever ‘mine’ is in your hand, whatever position is in your hand, surrender completely. Your being will be flooded with a new feeling, a new life, a new energy and a new bliss.

Content: So may you surrender at the feet of the Divine. May you enter. May you be in the Energy. May you enter into the Divine Energy. May this happen to you. May you be in and may you become eternal bliss, nithya ananda. Thank you.

Content: Here ends the ultimate teachings of Krishna and here starts our enlightened life. Let us take a few minutes to give gratitude to the great Masters. First, offer gratitude to the great Master Sri Krishna who showered these great truths to the whole universe. Let us give our gratitude to Him. Then come all the Masters who preserved these truths so that we can enjoy and experience these truths in our life. Let us give our gratitude to the entire guru parampara.

Content: Let us take these few minutes to offer gratitude to the great masters responsible for preserving these great teachings. First, let us offer gratitude to Sri Krishna, the greatest of Masters, for giving this great experience to us and then to the Masters who preserved this great knowledge.

Content: Thus ends the eighteenth chapter named Moksa-Opadesa Yoga, 'Liberation through Renunciation' of the Upanishad of the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Yoga, dealing with the science of the Absolute in the form of the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Guru Puja

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Content: What is Guru Puja?

Content: The root of the word puja is the Sanskrit word puj, meaning to worship or to adore. Puja is thus an act of worship or adoration. Performed daily, the puja is a strictly personal form of remembering, honoring and thinking of one’s Guru. In addition, it is an avenue through which we can concentrate and focus our thoughts on Him. Puja is an opportunity to express gratitude towards the Guru, to thank Him daily for everything He so compassionately bestows upon us. By consistently recalling and thinking of the Guru, we move forward on our spiritual journey by keeping Him near in our hearts. Through the steadfast practice of Guru puja, one develops a deeply personal relationship with the Guru.

Content: Why do we need to recite this mantra everyday?

Content: When we start the day with remembering the Guru Shakti, i.e., our Satguru who liberates us from this bondage through His words, His presence, His body language or any of His mysterious ways, we offer gratitude to Existence through the feet of the Master. That is the essence of Guru puja.

Content: When we do Guru puja or chant the Guru puja mantra, we tune ourselves to the Consciousness of the Master. Guru puja tunes our consciousness to the Consciousness of the Master by worshipping the Master in our inner space (manasa puja) and worshipping ritually with all the paraphernalia of worship (bahya puja).

Content: By performing Guru puja, we start the day with an ecstatic mood. If we remember the great truths in the mantras used in Guru puja throughout the day, we retain the same ecstatic mood in all activities.

Content: But at night, the connection with the Guru gets disconnected and our consciousness starts expressing old engrams. One kshana takes birth from another kshana. In the morning, if we do Guru Puja, the kshana begins with an ecstatic mood. The next kshana takes birth from this kshana. That is, the next moment takes birth from this moment.

Content: During sleep, the kshana stops and we go back into our causal body, the space where our engrams (engraved memories or samskaras) are recorded. We go into those engrams. So when we get up, we will be in the mood of those engrams. We will once again be controlled by the engrams stored in our unconscious zone. So, the moment we get up from bed, if we remember the Guru puja mantra, the same state of nithya ananda, the ecstatic mood, will replace the engram and we can live in an ecstatic mood throughout the whole day.

Content: To bring ourselves back to the truth through the awakening in our Consciousness, we do Guru puja. We shift our consciousness to that of the Master.

Content: Instructions for Guru Puja

Content: We offer puja to Anandeshwara Murthi or Gurus Paadukas (footwear of the Guru) as a symbol representing the Guru.

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Materials needed for Puja:

Content: Guru Paaduka (Footwear symbolizing the feet of the Guru) on a plate

Content: Flowers (a handful) on a plate

Content: A bilva leaf (offer water, if bilva leaf is unavailable)

Content: Udrani or Kosha Koshi - small water cup (Kosha Koshi has the shape of a fish) with a spoon

Content: Conch

Content: Kamandalu (small holy water jug)

Content: Camphor

Content: Sandal Paste

Content: Kumkum (Vermillion) powder

Content: Two incense sticks

Content: Oil lamp and match box

Content: Small piece of saffron cloth

Content: Food for offering (any fresh/dry fruits, nuts, fresh cooked food, etc.)

Content: 248

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Figure 1: Typical arrangement of Guru Puja items

Content: Next, we invoke the presence of the Guru.

Content: Figure 2: Holding the flower with the Koorna Mudra

Content: 249

Content: Take one flower in the hand with Koorma Mudra (koorma means tortoise). This mudra signifies our inner space. So, we invoke the Guru in our inner space. The flower in the Koorma Mudra in our hand represents the inner space. First we visualize the form of the Master, then drop the form and focus on the Master’s energy so that the energy is contained in the flower.

Content: Guru Dhyaan

Content: nithyaanandam parama sukhadam | kevalam gnaanamoortim | dvandvaateetam gagana sadrisham | tatvamasyadi lakshyam | ekam nithyam vimalam achalam | sarvadhee saakshi bhootam | bhavaateetam triguna rahitam | sadgurum tam namaami ||

Content: Meaning and explanation:

Content: Nithyanandam: Eternal Bliss, or the state of expressing truth, existence and bliss in every moment.

Content: Parama sukhadam: Ordinary sukha (happiness) comes from not doing anything or laziness. Parama sukhadam means supreme happiness that comes from the ability to remain utterly relaxed even in action.

Content: Kevalam jnaanamoortim: Pure knowledge, expression of enlightenment, embodiment of Gynana; whatever He does radiates knowledge. He is the manifestation and complete expression of energy and wisdom in a human body.

Content: Dvandvaateeteetam: Beyond duality; whether duality is there or not, nothing touches Him. His inner space is always blissful and ecstatic.

Content: Gagana sadrisham: All pervading, pure like the sky, filled in animate and inanimate things, whatever you know, whatever you don’t know, whatever you can perceive and whatever you cannot perceive.

Content: Tatvamasyaaadi lakshyam: Again and again, the Satguru makes you realize that He and you are one and the same. He is the embodiment, that goal; you are That, the Atman, Brahman. Again and again, the Satguru enables you to experience or express that understanding. His presence again and again will remind that you are that and that He is that laksha, He is that embodiment and you are Him. Again and again by His body language, He proves that you are that.

Content: There are three levels of progress in us: the first is understanding, the second is feeling and the ultimate is experiencing. Understanding is intellectual, feeling is emotional and experiencing is at the being level.

Content: It is a basic necessity to have intellectual understanding to be with the Master. When you don’t have intellectual understanding, and the flood of devotion happens, all relationships disappear. Your whole being will be frightened.

Content: In Bhagavatam, Shishupala claimed that he was enlightened and he had many girl friends that he called gopis. Somebody asked Vyasa, ‘Whatever Krishna is

Content: doing, Shishupala is also doing. Why do you call his actions immoral, but Krishna’s actions are Madhura bhava and Raasa leelas (Divine play)?’

Content: Vyasa replied, ‘The gopis deeply know Krishna is God. Their whole relationship is based on enlightenment. They are His disciples. They are around Him for the experience of the Divine and to realize. But in Shishupala’s case, it is not so.’

Content: An intellectual base transforms the quality of relationship. The gopis are clear about what they are doing, and with whom they are playing. They have a clear base of intellectual understanding.

Content: If feeling has happened, it will directly go to experience. And if feeling has happened, then we would not be here; we would be enlightened.

Content: If there were no understanding, if we are not intellectually convinced, we would not be here. The moment it becomes a feeling, we will fall into experience. But many times we struggle between understanding and feeling.

Content: At this point we need something called smarana - remembrance: remembering the truth. Injecting the truth in ourselves reminds us of the ultimate Truth again and again.

Content: Whenever we have vested interests, nothing solid happens. This is the truth. If it becomes deep feeling, straightaway it becomes pure experience. If it is not even

Content: intellectual understanding, we will not be at this stage. As of now, we are in between intellectual understanding and feeling.

Content: The word Laksha has deep meaning. It means goal. It is the needle that continuously points towards the goal and embodiment, just like a compass.

Content: Tatvamasi is the Vedic Mahavakya that means: Thou art That.

Content: There was a disciple who asked the Master, 'Master please give me the knowledge. The Master recited the whole Veda. The disciple couldn’t remember all these things. He said, 'Master, please simplify this.'

Content: The Master recited the whole Upanishad. The disciple again said, 'This is also too much. Please teach me the gist of it.' Then the Master recited the Gita. The disciple said 'No, no, this is also too much. Please teach me the simple way.'

Content: The Master recited the Brahmasutra. The disciple said, 'No, no, even this is too much. Please give me the essence.' Then the Master uttered only one word, 'Tatvamasi (you are That).'

Content: This mahavakya is the essence of all spiritual truths.

Content: There are four mahaavakyas given by the rishis:

Content: Tatvamasi

Content: Aham Brahmasmi

Content: Prajnanam Brahman

Content: Ayamatma Brahman.

Content: Aham Brahmasmi: I am Brahman. Brahman is what resides in us as 'I' Consciousness. We usually associate ourselves with the body and mind. Each one of us thinks 'I am body and mind.' If we remove the words 'body and mind' from that sentence, whatever remains is Brahman. What resides in you as I is Consciousness, Brahman, jnana, atman, whatever you call it. Continuously we repeat to ourselves that we are body and mind. We continuously believe I am this or I am that. But if you edit that this and just stop at I am, what remains is pure Consciousness. We are just as we are. We fall back into Consciousness. We become enlightened and liberated.

Content: Ayamatma Brahman: Whatever is my atman is Brahman. Ayamatma means my atma; whatever we feel as soul, the very life itself, is Brahman.

Content: Sarvam khalvidam Brahman: All of Existence is Brahman.

Content: Prajnanam Brahman: Means Consciousness, what I experience as the I feeling is also Brahman or God. Prajna means the I feeling.

Content: The Master is the embodiment of these four mahaavakyas.

Content: The moment you start feeling, it becomes experience. You don't need a billboard. When you don't even have intellectual understanding, you don't need a Master. Suppose you are traveling from Seattle to LA. When you are in Seattle, you don't need an LA signboard. The moment you enter into the suburbs of LA, you also don't need a directional sign because you know where you are.

Content: It is the same with the emotional experience in your life as a seeker. Once you have the emotional experience, you don’t need a signboard.

Content: But in the gap, while you are traveling, you need a signboard. You need signboards to show the way. If you have intellectual understanding but it has not become emotional experience, in that gap you need a signboard. The laksha that reminds you of your real state that reminds you that You are That, is the presence of the Master.

Content: He will remind you again and again. He will not let you forget. His presence will remind you. His presence tells you, ‘Here is an enlightened Master living like a flower among us.’ The presence of the Master is remembrance for you to come up to His level. The presence of the Master is a compass needle to show the path.

Content: Laksha has three meanings. The goal, the needle and the need in idle time, and third, He is the embodiment of that concept. His walking, sitting and living – everything reminds us of enlightenment.

Content: Ekam nithyam: The Satguru is eternal, with neither beginning nor end.

Content: Vimalamachalam: Beyond purity and impurity; no impurity can touch Him. He is the mountain of ultimate purity.

Content: Sarvadhee sakshi bhootam: All of us have the delusion that we will live forever. We don’t believe that we are going to die. Our understanding of the impermanence of

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Content: life is superficial. Have we been shaken by death? Never! Even if we see death on the road, we never stop to think that one day we are also going to die.

Content: There was beautiful incident in Mahabharata. A ghost who was a yaksha, a demi-god, asked Dharmaraja, ‘kimaacharya mitamparam?’ (O Dharmaraja, what is the greatest surprise on planet Earth?)

Content: Dharmaraja replied:

Content: ‘agani agani bhutani gacchantina Yama mandiram shesha stira nichyanti kimaacharya miramparam.’

Content: This means that everyday so many people are leaving the planet Earth and going to Yama’s abode (death). Even after seeing all this, everyone thinks they are going to be here forever.

Content: Shankara says in the Brahma Sutras, that we are a mixture: we are pure Consciousness reflecting on our body and mind. Because of this reflection, our body and mind have their life and are able to work. On one side is the body and mind, and on the other side the pure Consciousness.

Content: Whenever we fall back in pure Consciousness, we feel a deep assurance that we are going to be here forever. But we falsely associate that feeling of permanence or that nithya mood with the body and mind. We somehow think they are responsible for the feeling of immortality.

Content: There is no partition between the pure Consciousness (pure energy) and the body and mind (pure matter). The

Content: quality of pure Consciousness knows, 'I will be forever.' The quality of the body and mind is that it will perish.

Content: We attribute this quality of pure Consciousness to the body and mind. That is the big mistake. If we realize that the body and mind will perish one day, we will be in this Consciousness forever, eternally. Or if we know that pure Consciousness is eternal, we naturally will not be caught in body and mind. The quality of the energy is confused with the quality of matter. Now, in every one of us, the quality of pure Consciousness is present. It never dies. That is eternal Consciousness, eternal bliss, nithya ananda. We are the pure witnessing Consciousness in all the elements. The Master, who is the embodiment of pure Consciousness, is continuously reminding us of this truth!

Content: Bhaavaateetam: Beyond our imagination. You cannot put the Satguru in one frame. He is unpredictable. He cannot be predicted. You cannot predict even this. The moment you predict the Master, you lose Him. You are lost. You will be caught in His reflection. You are no longer a disciple. Arguing with the Master doesn't refer only to the outside. All our related inner chattering is also included. All our inner chattering is arguing with the Existence that is reality. If we have complete, total acceptance, we have no inner chattering. If we have inner chattering, it means that we don't have acceptance. It may be a verbal argument or silent argument. The Master is beyond comprehension and beyond imagination.

Content: Triguna rahitam: Rahitam means flirting with all three gunas, one who plays with all three gunas, satva - pure

Content: intelligence, rajas – dynamic activity and tamas – dullness.

Content: Master is not married to any of the three gunas. He moves with and beyond all three gunas. None of them touches Him and He is not attached to any one guna. He is not in satva. He is not in rajas. He is not in tamas. He plays with all three gunas. When He is lazy, He is completely lazy. When He is in rajas, He is completely dynamic and does multitasking. When He is in satva, He radiates goodness.

Content: The moment you are attached to anything, you will keep that safely and you will not enjoy.

Content: Satgurum tam: There are many gurus such as our mother, father and our teachers, but the Satguru removes all darkness of maya. He is the only one who can do this. The Satguru is the Ultimate.

Content: Namaami: Ma means mine; ami means me. Mine and I, I offer at Your feet. Why do we need to offer the concept of mine? It is proved that children start developing I consciousness when they know what is theirs (mine). Only based on your property, you start developing I. Based on the notion of mine, you develop I. The moment mine is taken away, I will be shaken. Snatch a toy from a child. They will be shaken. They will cry because, according to them, that is their being. They build their I-consciousness on their concept of mine.

Content: We have built our consciousness based on what we have. That is why we surrender.

Content: There is no giving because there is nobody who is taking. There is only offering. You only offer. You surrender everything to Him. You are offering whatever you think is yours and you. From birth you build your personality on mine, i.e., your property or what you think as yours. When the mine is taken away, you are shaken inside. You feel your whole being has been taken away. It can never be taken away. It’s the attitude that matters. Only a person who has surrendered mine and I can utter this sloka. Oh Sadguru!! I offer mine and I at Your lotus feet.

Content: (Offer the flower to the Paduka.)

Content: Maanasa puja (inner worship)

Content: Visualize your inner space to be a seat at your heart chakra (the heart center). Mentally invite the Master to this seat within.

Content: Guru Parampara Stotram

Content: Sadaa shiva samaarambhaam | shankaraachaarya madhyamaam | asmadaachaarya paryantam | vande guru paramparaam ||

Content: Meaning:

Content: Sadaa shiva samaarambhaam: Starting with Sadaa Shiva, the first Guru, the Adi Guru.

Content: Shankaraacharya madhyamaam: Sri Adi Shankara, one of the great Masters in the middle of the lineage.

Content: asmadaacharya paryantam: And to all the other Gurus in the lineage.

Content: vande guru paramparaam: I bow to the entire lineage of Gurus who have spent their lives just for the sake of mankind.

Content: Maanasa Puja

Content: OM hrid padmam aasanam dadhyaat | sahasraarachutaamrutaihi |

Content: paadyam charanayor dadyaat | manastu arghyam nivedayet |

Content: tena amrutena aachamaneeyam | snaaneeyam tena cha smrutam |

Content: akaasha tatvam vasram | syaat gandha syaat gandhatatvakam |

Content: chittam prakalpayet pushpam | dhoopam praanaan prakalpayet |

Content: tejastatvam cha deepaartham | naivedyam syaat sudhaambudhihi |

Content: anaahata dhvanir ghantaa | vayu tatvam cha chaamaram |

Content: sahasraaram bhavet chatram | sabda tatvam cha geetakam |

Content: nrutyamindriya karmaani | chaanchalyam manasasthathaa |

Content: sumeykhalaam padma maalaam | pushpam naanavidham tathaa | amaayaadyair bhaava pushpaihi | archayet bhaava gocharam | amaayam anahankaaram | araagam amadam tathaa | amohakam adambham cha | adveysha akshobhakau tathaa | amaatsaryam alobham cha | dasha pushpam vidurbhudaaha | ahimsaa parama pushpam | pushpam indriya nigrahaha | dayaa pushpam kshamaa pushpam | gnaana pushpam cha panchamam | iti panchadashair bhaava pushpaihi | sampoojayet sadgurum ||

Content: (Offer the flower at the Master’s feet.)

Content: OM hridpadmam aasanam dadhyaat

Content: We offer our heart as a seat for the Master.

Content: Sahasraar achutaamrutaihi

Content: Amruta, which comes from the sahasrara, is offered to the Master. When we understand the purposelessness of life, the healing effect happens and we start enjoying the amruta (nectar of bliss) that makes us deathless. That

Content: amruta we offer to wash the feet of the Master with deep gratitude.

Content: Paadyam charanayor dadyat

Content: Manastu argyam nivedayet

Content: Tena amrutena aachamanaeeyam

Content: Snaaneeyam tenachamshrutam:

Content: Aakaasa tattvam vastram syaat

Content: Gandha syaat gandha tatvakam

Content: Chittam prakalpayeth pushpam

Content: Dhoopam praanaan prakalpayet

Content: We offer the whole prana, inhalation and exhalation, as the incense for Him. The breath that is going inside and outside, we offer as an incense stick for Him.

Content: Tejas tatvancha deepaartham

Content: We offer the intelligence (tejas) that happens in this body as the aarathi (light) to Him. In our body, seven places shine with tejas, such as the eyeballs, the center of the nails, etc. Tejas is the energy that shines in our body. Once the soul leaves the body, at the time of death, tejas leaves the body. The one, the enlightened Master who locks in the tejas, His body never perishes. This tejas tatva we offer as deepam to the Master.

Content: Naivedyam syaat sudhaam buddhihi

Content: We offer the pure intelligence that happens with enlightenment and the constant remembrance of purposelessness or nirvana as naivedhyam (food) to the Master.

Content: Anaahata dwanir ghantaa

Content: The anaahata dwani - the uncreated sound of silence is the bell for the puja. The unheard sound or the sound created when planet Earth or the whole Existence moves is the bell. Ahataa is the sound created with two objects. Anaahata dwani means the sound created without hitting two objects.

Content: Vaayu tatvancha chaamaram

Content: We offer the vaayu element, the breeze or air, as the fan for Him.

Content: Sahasraaram bhaveth chatram

Content: When we become enlightened, our sahasrara blossoms

Content: like a thousand petalled lotus. We offer our sahasrara as an umbrella for Him. Our gratitude is the umbrella for Him.

Content: Sabda tatvancha geetakam

Content: We offer the sabda, the sound principle of the universe, as the music for Him. Sabda tatva means that which makes air into sound. Sabda tatva sits in the area near the throat. The Sanskrit language is created to purify the sabda tatva. There is a mechanism that converts part of air into sound. When we chant in Sanskrit, the remaining part of the air also gets purified. Sanskrit is the only language that vibrates from the muladhara chakra (root center). All other languages come from the lips. If we chant Sanskrit at least ten minutes daily, it completely clears the sabda tatva. Unlike other languages, the vibration created by Sanskrit language goes inwards. We offer that sabda tatva as music at the feet of the Master.

Content: Nrutyamindriya karmaani

Content: We offer whatever our indriyas or five senses do at the feet of the Master. Whether smelling, eating, seeing, touching, listening, they are offered to the Divine as the dance for Him. In other words, we are making our senses dance in front of Him to please the Master. Actually, all these senses function only in the presence of the Master (Universal Consciousness). Our senses cannot function without the Master’s presence. These senses work because of Him. So this is the respect given to the Master by offering these senses back to Him.

Content: Chaanchalyam manasasthathaa

Content: Even the wavering movement of the mind is the dance offered to Him.

Content: Sumeghalaam padmamaalaam

Content: Sumangalam nadi - means the backbone in which the kundalini shakti rises. The backbone is also called meru dhanda. When all the chakras are opened, they are like the flowers on the meru dhanda that we offer as a flower garland at the Master's feet. All the seven chakras are different flowers in the garland offered at His feet.

Content: Pushpam naanaa vidham thatha

Content: We offer these ten flowers at the Master's feet: freedom from delusion, no ego, non-attachment, not being proud of outer world accomplishments, freedom from lust, freedom from bragging, no vengeance, no suffering, no recorded or engraved memories (samskaras) and no miserliness.

Content: We also offer non-violence, going beyond the senses, compassion, always forgiving, and finally, enlightenment, the ultimate flower, at the Master's feet.

Content: These fourteen flowers we offer at the Master's feet, 'We do puja with all these flowers, Oh Master.'

Content: With these slokas we worship the Master in our inner space.

Content: (Take one flower and offer at the feet of the Master.)

Content: Bahya puja (ritual - outer worship).

Content: Now we light the lamp and start the puja.

Content: While chanting the following mantras, do the following.

Content: OM hrim etat paadyam sree gurave namaha

Content: We offer water to wash the feet.

Content: Offer water from the Kosha Koshi (the fish-like vessel) at the Master's feet (symbolizes washing the feet of the Master).

Content: OM hrim eisha arghyah sree gurave namah

Content: We offer water to wash the feet.

Content: Place some water and a flower in the conch. Pour the water on the Guru's paduka (sandals) and offer the flower.

Content: Figure 3: The first step. Offering water to wash the Master's feet

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Offering water

Content: OM hrim esha arghyaha | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Offer water from the conch shell (with flowers placed on the conch) at the Master’s feet. (This symbolizes offering rice, bilva leaf, flowers and arugam pullu - sacred grass). Offer the flower to the Master as well.

Content: OM hrim idam aachamaneeyam | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Offer water from the Kosha Koshi at the Master’s feet (This symbolizes offering water to rinse His mouth).

Content: Figure 4: Offering Water to the Master

Content: 267

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Ceremonial Bath

Content: OM hrim idam snaaneeyam | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Offer water from the kamandalu (holy water jug) at the Master's feet with right hand and ring the bell with left hand (symbolizes offering water for His ceremonial bath).

Content: Figure 5: Ceremonial bath to the Master

Content: 268

Content: Clothing

Content: OM hrim idam vastram | sree gurave namaha |

Content: Offer the saffron cloth at the Master’s feet. This is done by taking water from the Kosha Koshi and circling it over the saffron cloth three times and offering the water at the Master’s feet. (This symbolizes offering clothing to the Master).

Content: Figure 6: Offering clothing for the Master

Content: Sandal and vermillion

Content: OM hrim esha gandhaha | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Figure 7: Offering Sandal paste and Vermillion to the Master

Content: Dab your finger in the sandal paste and kumkum powder. Apply the sandal paste to the Master’s feet first, followed by the kumkum on top of the sandal paste. (Symbolizes offering sandalwood and kumkum to the Master)

Content: Flowers

Content: OM hrim idam sachhandana pushpam | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Take a flower, dip it in the sandal paste and offer it at the Master’s feet. (This symbolizes offering our desires to the Master)

Content: Figure 8: Offering fragrant scented flower to the Master

Content: Bilva leaf

Content: OM hrim idam sachchhandana bilva patram | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Take a bilva leaf, dip it in the sandalpaste and offer it to the Master’s feet. (The bilva leaf is believed to have a cooling effect on the deity to which it is offered. Its three leaves stand for creation, sustenance and destruction. It also symbolizes the three eyes of Lord Shiva)

Content: 271

Content: OM hrim esha dhoopaha | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Ring the bell with your left hand and take the lit incense sticks in your right hand and move the incense in a clockwise circle near the Master’s feet. (In the incense, we see the potential that is in ourselves, just as the incense is worthless until it is put to the flame. We know that our lives are useless unless our potentials are fulfilled. In the incense we also recognize that our lives are as fleeting as its sweet smoke.)

Content: Figure 9: Offering Bilva to the Master

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Incense

Content: 272

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Figure 10: Offering Incense to the Master

Content: Lamp

Content: OM hrim esha deepaha | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Ring the bell with your left hand and take the lit lamp in your right hand and move it in a circle clockwise near the Master’s feet. (The light from the lamp intensifies the glory of the Master’s feet)

Content: Figure 11: Offering Lamp to the Master

Content: 273

Content: OM hrim idam sopakarana naivedyam | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Offer food at the Master’s feet (This symbolizes offering food to the Master).

Content: OM hrim idam paanaarthodakam | sree gurave namah ||

Content: Offer water from the Kosha Koshi at the Master’s feet (This symbolizes offering drinking water to the Master).

Content: OM hrim idam punarachamaneeyam | sree gurave namaha ||

Content: Offer water from the Kosha Koshi at the Master’s feet (This symbolizes offering water to rinse the Master’s mouth).

Content: Figure 12: Offering food to the Master

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Light the camphor

Content: Offer Aarati (lit camphor) to the Master while chanting the following mantra. Ring the bell with the left hand while moving the lit camphor in a clockwise circle near the Master’s feet with right hand. (Camphor burns out completely without leaving a trace. It represents our unmanifested desires. So also, when we take refuge in the Master’s feet to obtain knowledge, these desires will get burnt out. Although the camphor burns out, it emits a nice perfume. On a human plane, it means that we should sacrifice ourselves to serve society, in the process spreading the perfume of love and happiness to all.

Content: Aaaraatrikam

Content: Fold your hands in a namaskar (palms together at chest level)

Content: karpoora gauram | karunaavataaram | samsaara saaram | bhujagendra haaram | sadaa vasantam | hrudayaaravinde | bhavam bhavaani | sahitam namaami || aaraatrikam samarpayaami |

Content: sadguru charana kamaleybhyo namaha ||

Content: Take a flower in your hands. Circle around the lit camphor three times with the flower and offer it to the feet of the Master.

Content: 275

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Meaning:

Content: Karpura-gauram: whitish like the camphor

Content: Karunavataram: the avatara who is the embodiment of compassion

Content: Samsara-saram: helping to cross the ocean of samsara or endless cycle of life

Content: Bhujendra-haram: with a snake as an ornament

Content: Sadaa vasantham: forever and permanently blissful

Content: Hridaya: heart

Content: Aravinde: lotus

Content: Bhavam:

Content: Bhavani: Goddess Bhavani, Parvati

Content: Sahitam: with

Content: Namami: Bow down in surrender

Content: To the Lord of whitish glow like the camphor, the avatara who is the embodiment of compassion, the one who alone helps in crossing the ocean of samsara, to the Lord who wears the snake as the garland, who is forever and permanently blissful, who resides in my heart-lotus, I bow down in surrender to the Lord, who forever is in the company of Bhavani.

Content: Pushpanjalim (An offering of flowers)

Content: Position a few flowers between folded hands and chant these mantras.

Content: 276

Content: gurur bramhaa gurur vishnu | gurur devo maheshvaraha | gurur saakshaat para bramhaa | tasmai sree gurave namaha |

Content: akhanda mandalaakaaram | vyaaptam yena charaacharam | tatpadam darshitam yena | tasmai sree gurave namaha |

Content: agnyaana timiraandhasya | gnyaanaanjana shalaakayaa | chakshuhu unmeelitam yena | tasmai sree gurave namaha |

Content: aneka janma sampraapta | karma bandha vidaahine | atma gnyaana pradaaneyna | tasmai sree gurave namaha |

Content: mannaatho sri jaganaatho | madguruh sri jagad guruhu | madh atma sarva bhootaatma | tasmai sree gurave namaha |

Content: eeshwaro guru raatmeyti | moorti bheda vibhaagine | vyomavad vyapta dehaaya | dakshinaa moortaye / nityaananda gurave namaha |

Content: nityaanandam parama sukhadam | kevalam gnaanamoortim | dvandvaateetam gagana sadrusham | tatvam syaadi laksham | ekam nityam vimalam achalam | sarvadhee saakshi bhootam | bhaavaateetam triguna rahitam | sadgurum tam namaami |

Content: Pushpanjalim samarpayaami | sadguru charana kamaleyobhyo namaha | |

Content: Finally do namaskar at the feet of the Master.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: 279

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Nithya Dhyan

Content: Nithya Dhyan is a complete meditation that is extremely powerful and energizing. The last part of the Nithya Dhyan meditation is the Guru Puja described earlier.

Content: Nithya Dhyan is a guided meditation technique for thirty-five minutes comprising five steps. It has the following sequence.

Content: STEP 1:

Content: Sit in Vajrasana with hands on your hips. Vajrasana is sitting on your

Content: 280

Content: haunches with bottom resting on legs, with spine, neck and head in one line. Close your eyes and breathe chaotically for seven minutes. Breathing should be random and uncontrolled.

Content: STEP 2:

Content: Continue to sit in Vajrasana. Form chin mudra with your fingers. In chin mudra the thumb and first finger of both hands touch and palm is open facing upwards, with the remaining three fingers stretched. Place your hands on your knees in chin mudra and hum intensely for seven minutes. Humming should arise from the navel area during exhalation. Hum as long as possible, as loudly as possible and as deeply from the navel as possible. At the end of each humming cycle, inhale as much as the body needs.

Content: STEP 3:

Content: You may now sit cross-legged on the floor if you wish to or continue to sit in vajrasana and for seven minutes you will take your awareness from the Muladhara Chakra to the Sahasrara Chakra. Dwell on each chakra for a minute with the awareness that

Content: a) the chakra is pure

Content: b) the chakra is filled with energy

Content: c) the chakra is overflowing with bliss

Content: d) the chakra is radiating nithyananda

Content: a. Take your awareness to the Muladhara Chakra located at the base of the spine.

Content: 281

Content: Your Muladhara is pure

Content: Your Muladhara is filled with energy

Content: Your Muladhara is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Muladhara is radiating nithyananda

Content: b. Take your awareness to the Swadhisthana Chakra located two inches above the Muladhara and two inches below the Manipuraka Chakra.

Content: Your Swadhisthana is pure

Content: Your Swadhisthana is filled with energy

Content: Your Swadhisthana is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Swadhisthana is radiating nithyananda

Content: c. Take your awareness to the Manipuraka Chakra located at the navel center.

Content: Your Manipuraka is pure

Content: Your Manipuraka is filled with energy

Content: Your Manipuraka is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Manipuraka is radiating nithyananda

Content: d. Take your awareness to the Anahata Chakra located at the heart center.

Content: Your Anahata is pure

Content: Your Anahata is filled with energy

Content: Your Anahata is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Anahata is radiating nithyananda

Content: e. Take your awareness to the Vishuddhi Chakra located at the throat center.

Content: Your Vishuddhi is pure

Content: Your Vishuddhi is filled with energy

Content: Your Vishuddhi is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Vishuddhi is radiating nithyananda

Content: f. Take your awareness to the Ajna Chakra located in the region between your eyebrows.

Content: Your Ajna is pure

Content: Your Ajna is filled with energy

Content: Your Ajna is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Ajna is radiating nithyananda

Content: g. Take your awareness to the Sahasrara Chakra located in the crown center, at the top of the head.

Content: Your Sahasrara is pure

Content: Your Sahasrara is filled with energy

Content: Your Sahasrara is overflowing with bliss

Content: Your Sahasrara is radiating nithyananda

Content: STEP 4:

Content: For seven minutes simply be unclutched in silence.

Content: STEP 5:

Content: For the last seven minutes sit and chant the Guru Puja Mantra or just sway with the flow of the mantra and offer gratitude to Existence and to the Master who is the mbodiment of the Existential Energy. Offer gratitude with your whole being.

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: OM Nithyanandam

Content: OM Nithyanandam

Content: OM Nithyanandam

Content: CD with voice over instructions is available for Nithya Dhyan.

Content: 284

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Scientific Research on

Content: Bhagavad Gita

Content: Several institutions have conducted experiments using scientific and statistically supported techniques to verify the truth behind the Bhagavad Gita. Notable amongst them is the work carried out by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose findings are published through Maharishi Ved Vigyan Vishwa Vidyapeetam.

Content: Studies conducted using meditation techniques related to truths expressed in the verses of the Bhagavad Gita have shown that the quality of life is significantly improved through meditation. These studies have found that meditators experience a greater sense of peace resulting in a reduced tendency towards conflict.

Content: Meditators gain greater respect for and appreciation of others. Their own inner fulfilment increases resulting in improved self-respect and self-reliance, leading to Self Actualization.

Content: One’s ability to focus along with brain function integration is enhanced. These have resulted in greater comprehension, creativity, faster response time in decision-making and superior psychomotor coordination.

Content: Stress levels have been shown to decrease with enhanced sensory perception and overall health. The tendency towards depression has been clearly shown to decrease.

Content: 285

Content: There is enough evidence to show that as a result of meditation, individuals gain a better ethical lifestyle that in turn improves their interaction with others in the community, resulting in less conflict and crime. Group meditation of 7000 people (square root of 1% of world population at the time of the study) was significantly correlated to a reduction in conflict worldwide.

Content: Meditation leads to higher levels of consciousness. Through the research tools of Applied Kinesiology, Dr. David Hawkins (author of the book Power vs. Force) and others have shown that human consciousness has risen in the last few decades, crossing a critical milestone for the first time in human history. Dr. Hawkins’ research also documents that the Bhagavad Gita is at the very highest level of Truth conveyed to humanity.

Content: We acknowledge with gratitude the work done by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi institutions and Dr. David Hawkins in establishing the truth of this great scripture.

Content: Drop Everything And Surrender

Content: Kuru Family Tree

Content: Step brothers

Content: Dhritarashtra: The blind King, to whom the happenings on the battlefield are being narrated

Content: Gandhari - 1st wife

Content: Dhuryodhana and his 99 brothers

Content: Kaurava Princes

Content: Vaishya - 2nd wife

Content: Yuyutsu

Content: Pandu: the original King who handed over the kingdom and care of his 5 sons to his brother Dhritarashtra

Content: Kunti - 1st wife

Content: Yudhishthira, Bhima, Arjuna

Content: Pandava Princes

Content: Madri - 2nd wife

Content: Nakula, Sahadeva

Content: Draupadi-wife to all five Pandava

Content: Subhadra - Arjuna's wife, Krishna's sister

Content: Abhimanyu- son of Arjuna & Subhadra

Content: Drupadeyah- five sons of Draupadi

Content: 287

Content: Krishna: God Incarnate; Related to both Kaurava and Pandava; Arjuna's charioteer in the war

Content: Drupada: A great warrior and father of Draupadi

Content: Drishtadummna: The son of King Drupada

Content: Shikhandi: A mighty archer and a transexual person

Content: Virata: Abhimanyu's father-in-law; King of a neighboring kingdom

Content: Yuyudhana: Krishna's charioteer and a great warrior

Content: Kashiraj: King of neighboring kingdom, Kashi

Content: Chekitan: A great warrior

Content: Kuntibhoj: Adoptive father of Kunti, the mother of first three Pandava princes

Content: Purujit: Brother of Kuntibhoj

Content: Shaibya: Leader of the Shibi tribe

Content: Dhrishtaketu: King of Chedis

Content: Uttamouja: A great warrior

Content: Kaurava’s Side:

Content: Sanjay: Charioteer and narrator of events to Dhritharashtra

Content: Bhishma: Great grandfather of the Kaurava & Pandava; Great warrior

Content: Drona: A great archer and teacher to both Kaurava and Arjuna

Content: Vikarna: Third of the Kaurava brothers

Content: Karna: Panadava’s half brother, born to Kunti before her marriage

Content: Ashvatthama: Drona’s son and Achilles heel; Said to always speak the truth

Content: Kripacharya: Teacher of martial arts to both Kaurava and Pandava

Content: Shalya: King of neighboring kingdom and brother of Madra, Nakula and Sahadeva’s mother

Content: Soumadatti: King of Bahikas

Content: Dushassana: One of Kaurava brothers; responsible for insulting Draupadi

Content: 289

Content: BhagavadGita

Content: Meaning of common Sanskrit Words

Content: For purposes of simplicity, the phonetic of Sanskrit has not been faithfully followed in this work. No accents and other guides have been used.

Content: Aswattama is spelt as also Asvattama, Aswathama, Aswatama etc., all being accepted.

Content: Correctly pronounced, Atma is Aatma; however in the English format a is used both for a and aa, e for e and ee and so on. The letter s as used here can be pronounced as s or ss or sh; for instance Siva is pronounced with a sibilant sound, neither quite s nor sh. Many words here spelt with 's' can as well be spelt as 'sh'.

Content: [In the glossary, however, letters have been indicated in brackets to facilitate pronunciation as intended in the Sanskrit text.]

Content: This glossary is not meant to be a pronunciation guide, merely an explanatory aid. It is merely a compilation of common words.

Content: A(a)bharana: adornment; vastra(a)bharana is adornment with clothes

Content: Abhy(a)asa: exercise; practice

Content: A(a)cha(a)rya: teacher; literally 'one who walks with'

Content: Advaita: concept of non-duality; that individual self and the cosmic SELF are one and the same; as different from the concepts of dvaita and visishta(a)dvaita, which consider self and SELF to be mutually exclusive

Content: 290

Content: A(a)ha(a)ra: food; also with reference to sensory inputs as in pratya(a)ha(a)ra

Content: A(a)jna: order, command; the third eye energy centre

Content: A(a)ka(a)sa: space, sky; subtlest form of energy of universe

Content: Amruta, amrit: divine nectar whose consumption leads to immortality

Content: Ana(a)hata: that which is not created; heart energy centre

Content: A(a)nanda: bliss; very often used to refer to joy, happiness etc.

Content: Anjana: collyrium, black pigment used to paint the eye lashes

Content: A(a)pas: water

Content: Aarti: worshipping with a flame, light, as with a lamp lit with oiled wick, or burning camphor

Content: A(a)shirwa(a)d: blessing

Content: Ashta(a)nga yoga: eight fold path to enlightenment prescribed by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutra

Content: A(a)shraya: grounded in reality; a(a)shraya-dosha, defect related to reality

Content: A(a)tma, A(a)tman: individual Self; part of the universal Brahman

Content: Beedi: local Indian cigarette

Content: Beeja: seed; beeja-mantra refers to the single syllable mantras used to invoke certain deities,

Content: e.g., gam for Ganesha.

Content: 291

Content: Bhagava(a)n: literally God; often used for an enlightened master

Content: Bha(a)vana: visualization

Content: Bhakti: devotion; bhakta, a devotee

Content: Brahma: the Creator; one of the Hindu trinity of supreme Gods, the other two being Vishnu, and Shiva

Content: Brahmacha(a)ri: literally one who moves with the true reality, Brahman, one without fantasies, but usually taken to mean a celibate; brahmacharya is the quality or state of being a brahmachaari

Content: Brahman: ultimate reality of the Divine, universal ntelligent energy

Content: Bra(a)hman: person belonging to the class engaged in Vedic studies, priestly class

Content: Buddhi: mind, intelligence; mind is also called by other names, manas, chitta etc.

Content: Buddhu: a fool

Content: Chakra: literally a ‘wheel’; refers to energy centres in the mind-body system

Content: Chakshu: eye, intelligent power behind senses

Content: Chanda(a)la: an untouchable; usually one who skins animals.

Content: Chandana: sandalwood

Content: Chitta: mind; also manas, buddhi.

Content: Dakshina(a)yana: Sun’s southward movement starting 21st June

Content: Darshan: vision; usually referred to seeing divinity

Content: Dharma: righteousness

Content: Dhee: wisdom.

Content: Deeksha: grace bestowed by the Master and the energy transferred by the Master onto disciple at initiation or any other time, may be through a mantra, a touch, a glance or even a thought

Content: Dosha: defect

Content: Dhya(a)na: meditation

Content: Drishti: sight, seeing with mental eye

Content: Gada: weapon; similar to a mace; also Gada(a)yudha

Content: Gopi, Gopika: literally a cowherd; usually referred to the devotees, who played with Krishna, and were lost in Him

Content: Gopura, gopuram: temple tower

Content: Grihasta: a householder, a married person; coming from the word griha, meaning house

Content: Guna: the three human behavioural characteristics or predispositions; satva, rajas and tamas

Content: Guru: Master; literally one who leads from gu (darkness) to ru (light)

Content: Gurukul, Gurukulam: literally 'tradition of guru', refers to the ancient education system in which children were handed over to a guru at a very young age by parents for upbringing and education

Content: Homa: ritual to Agni, the God of fire; metaphorically represents the transfer of energy from the energy of A(a)ka(a)sa (space), through V(a)ayu (Air), Agni (Fire),

Content: A(a)pas (Water), and Prithvi (Earth) to humans. Also y(a)agna, yagna

Content: Iccha: desire

Content: Ida: along with pingala and sushumna the virtual energy pathways through which pranic energy flows

Content: Ithiha(a)sa: legend, epic, mythological stories; also pura(a)na

Content: Jaati: birth; jaati-dosha, defect related to birth

Content: Ja(a)grata: wakefulness

Content: Japa: literally ‘muttering’; continuous repetition of the name of divinity

Content: Jeeva samadhi: burial place of an enlightened Master, where his spirit lives on

Content: Jiva (pronounced as jeeva) means living

Content: Jyotisha: Astrology; jyotishi is an astrologer

Content: Kaivalya: liberation; same as moksha, nirva(a)na

Content: Ka(a)la: time; also maha(a)ka(a)la

Content: Kalpa: vast period of time; Yuga is a fraction of Kalpa

Content: Kalpana: imagination

Content: Karma: spiritual law of cause and effect, driven by va(a)sana and samska(a)ra

Content: Kosha: energy layer surrounding body; there are 5 such layers. These are: annamaya or body, Pra(a)namaya or breath, manomaya or thoughts, vigya(a)namaya or sleep and a(a)nandamaya or bliss koshas

Content: Kriya: action

Content: Kshana: moment in time; refers to time between two thoughts

Content: Kshatriya: caste or varna of warriors

Content: Kundalini: energy that resides at the root chakra 'mula(a)dha(a)ra' (pronounced as moolaadha(a)ra)

Content: Maha(a): great; as in maharshi, great sage; maha(a)va(a)kya, great scriptural saying

Content: Ma(a)la: a garland, a necklace; rudra(a)ksha mala is a garland made of the seeds of the rudra(a)ksha tree

Content: Mananam: thinking, meditation

Content: Manas: mind; also buddhi, chitta

Content: Mandir: temple

Content: Mangala: auspicious; mangal sutra, literally auspicious thread, the yellow or gold thread or necklace a married Hindu woman wears

Content: Mantra: a sound, a formula; sometimes a word or a set of words, which because of their inherent sounds, have energizing properties. Mantras are used as sacred chants to worship the Divine; mantra, tantra and yantra are approaches in spiritual evolution

Content: Ma(a)ya: that which is not, not reality, illusion; all life is ma(a)ya according to advaita

Content: Moksha: liberation; same as nirva(a)na, sama(a)dhi, turiya etc.

Content: Mula(a)dha(a)ra: the first energy centre, moola is root; a(a)dhara is foundation, here existence

Content: Nadi: river

Content: Naadi: nerve; also an energy pathway that is not physical

Content: Na(a)ga: a snake; a na(a)ga-sa(a)dhu is an ascetic belonging to a group that wears no clothes

Content: Namaska(a)r: traditional greeting with raised hands, with palms closed

Content: Na(a)nta: without end

Content: Na(a)ri: woman

Content: Nidhidhy(a)asan: what is expressed

Content: Nimitta: reason; nimitta-dosha, defect based on reason

Content: Nirva(a)na: liberation; same as moksha, sama(a)dhi

Content: Niyama: the second of eight paths of Patanjali’s Ashta(a)nga Yoga; refers to a number of day-to-day rules of observance for a spiritual path

Content: Pa(a)pa: sin

Content: Phala: fruit; phalasruti refers to result of worship

Content: Paramahamsa: literally the ‘supreme swan’; refers to an enlightened being

Content: Parikrama: the ritual of going around a holy location, such as a hill or water spot

Content: Parivra(a)jaka: wandering by an ascetic monk

Content: Pingala: please see Ida.

Content: Pra(a)na: life energy; also refers to breath; pra(a)na(a)ya(a)ma is control of breath

Content: Pratya(a)hara: literally ‘staying away from food’; in this

Content: case refers to control of all senses as part of the eight fold ashta(a)nga yoga

Content: Prithvi: earth energy

Content: Purohit: priest

Content: Puja (pronounced as pooja): normally any worship, but often referred to a ritualistic worship

Content: Punya: merit, beneficence

Content: Pura(a)na: epics and mythological stories such as Maha(a)bha(a)rata, Ra(a)ma(a)yana etc.

Content: Purna (prounounced poorna): literally ‘complete’; refers in the advaita context to reality

Content: Rajas, rajasic: the mid characteristic of the three human guna or behaviour mode, referring to aggressive action

Content: Putra: son; putri: daughter

Content: Rakta: blood

Content: Ra(a)tri: night

Content: Rishi: a sage

Content: Sa(a)dhana: practice, usually a spiritual practice

Content: Sa(a)dhu: literally a ‘good person’; refers to an ascetic; same as sanya(a)si

Content: Sahasrana(a)ma: thousand names of God; available for many Gods and Goddesses, which devotees recite

Content: Sahasrara: lotus with thousand petals; the crown energy centre

Content: 297

Content: Sakti: energy; intelligent energy; Para(a)sakti refers to universal energy, divinity; considered feminine; masculine aspect of Para(a)sakti is purusha

Content: Sama(a)dhi: state of no-mind, no-thoughts; literally, becoming one's original state; liberated, enlightened state. Three levels of samadhi are referred to as sahaja, which is transient, savikalpa, in which the person is no longer capable of normal activities, and nirvikalpa, where the liberated person performs activities as before.

Content: Samsaya: doubt

Content: Samska(a)ra: embedded memories of unfulfilled desires stored in the subconscious that drive one into decisions, into karmic action

Content: Samyama: complete concentration

Content: Sankalpa: decision

Content: Sanya(a)s: giving up worldly life; sanya(a)si or sanya(a)sin, a monk, an ascetic

Content: sanya(a)sini, refers to a female monk

Content: Sa(a)stra: sacred texts

Content: Satva, sa(a)tvic: the highest guna of spiritual calmness

Content: Siddhi: extraordinary powers attained through spiritual practice

Content: Sishya: disciple

Content: Simha: lion; Simha-Swapna: nightmare

Content: Shiva: rejuvenator in the trinity; often spelt as Shiva. Shiva also means 'causeless auspiciousness'; in this sense,

Content: Shivara(a)tri, the day when Shiva is worshipped is that moment when the power of this causeless auspiciousness is intense

Content: Smarana: remembrance; constantly remembering the divine

Content: Smruti: literally 'that which is remembered'; refers to later day Hindu works which are rules, regulations, laws and epics, such as Manu's works, Puranas etc.

Content: Sraddha: trust, faith, belief, confidence

Content: Sravan: hearing

Content: Srishti: creation, which is created

Content: Sruti: literally 'that which is heard'; refers to the ancient scriptures of Veda, Upanishad and

Content: Bhagavad Gita: considered to be words of God

Content: Stotra: devotional verses, to be recited or sung

Content: Sudra: caste or varna of manual labourers

Content: Sutra: literally 'thread'; refers to epigrams, short verses which impart spiritual techniques

Content: Sunya: literally zero; however, Buddha uses this word to mean reality

Content: Sushumna: Please see 'ida'

Content: Swa(a)dishtha(a)na: where Self is established; the groin or spleen energy centre

Content: Swapna: dream

Content: Swatantra: free

Content: Tamas, taasasic: the lowest guna of laziness or inaction

Content: Tantra: esoteric Hindu techniques used in spiritual evolution

Content: Tapas: severe spiritual endeavour, penance

Content: Thatagata: Buddhahood, state of being such...a pali word

Content: Tirta: water; tirtham is a holy river and a pilgrimage centre

Content: Trika(a)la: all three time zones, past, present and future; trika(a)lajna(a)ni is one who can

Content: see all three at the same time; an enlightened being is beyond time and space

Content: Turiya (pronounced tureeya): state of samadhi, no-mind

Content: Upanishad: literally 'sitting below alongside' referring to a disciple learning from the master;

Content: refers to the ancient Hindu scriptures which along with the Veda, form sruti

Content: Uttara(a)yana: Sun's northward movement

Content: Vaisya: caste or varna of tradesmen

Content: Va(a)naprasta: the third stage in one's life, (the first stage being that of a student, and the second that of

Content: householder) when a householder, man or woman, gives up worldly activities and focuses on spiritual goals

Content: Varna: literally colour; refers to the caste grouping in the traditional Hindu social system; originally based on

Content: aptitude, and later corrupted to privilege of birth

Content: Va(a)sana: the subtle essence of memories and desires,

Content: samska(a)ra, that get carried forward from birth to birth

Content: Vastra: clothes

Content: Vastra(a)harana: removal of clothes, often used to refer to Draupadi's predicament in the

Content: Maha(a)bha(a)rata, when she was unsuccessfully disrobed by the Kaurava prince

Content: Va(a)yu: air

Content: Veda: literally knowledge; refers to ancient Hindu scriptures, believed to have been received by enlightened rishi at the being level; also called sruti, along with Upanishad

Content: Vibhuti (pronounced vibhooti): sacred ash worn by many Hindus on forehead; said to remind themselves of the transient nature of life; of glories too

Content: Vidhi: literally law, natural law; interpreted as fate or destiny

Content: Vidya: knowledge, education

Content: Visha(a)da: depression, dilemma etc.

Content: Vishnu: preserver in the trinity; His incarnations include Krishna, Rama etc. in ten incarnations; also means 'all encompassing'

Content: Vishwarupa (pronounced vishwaroopa): universal form

Content: Yama: discipline as well as death; One of the eight fold paths prescribed in Patanjali's

Content: Ashta(a)nga Yoga; refers to spiritual regulations of satya

Content: 301

Content: (truth), ahimsa (nonviolence), aparigraha (living simply); asteya (not coveting other's properties) and brahmacharya (giving up fantasies); yama is also the name of the Hindu God of justice and death

Content: Yantra: literally 'tool'; usually a mystical and powerful graphic diagram, such as the Sri Chakra, inscribed on a copper plate, and sanctified in a ritual blessed by a divine presence or an enlightened Master

Content: Yoga: literally union, union of the individual self and the divine SELF; often taken to mean

Content: Hatha yoga, which is one of the components of yogasana, relating to specific body postures

Content: Yuga: a long period of time as defined in Hindu scriptures; there are four yugas: satya, treta, dwa(a)para and kali, the present being kali yuga

Content: ॐ पार्थाय प्रतिवोधितां भगवता नारायणेन स्वयं व्यासेन गृथितां पुराणमुनिना मध्ये महाभारतं अद्वैतामृतवर्षिणीं भगवतों अष्टादशाध्यायिनों अम्व त्वामनुसन्दधामि भगवद्गीते भवद्वेशिनों

Content: OM, I meditate upon you, Bhagavad Gita the affectionate Mother, the Divine Mother showering the nectar of non duality and destroying rebirth, (who was) incorporated into the Mahaabhaarata of eighteen chapters by sage Vyasa, the author of the Puraanaas, and imparted to Arjuna by Lord Narayana, Himself.

Content: वसुदेवसुतं देवं कम्सचाणूरमर्दनम् देवकीपरमानन्दं कृष्णं वन्दे जगद्गुरू

Content: I salute you Lord Krishna, Teacher to the world, son of Vasudeva and Supreme bliss of Devaki, Destroyer of Kamsa and Chaanura.

Content: अर्जुन उवाच सन्न्यासस्य महाबाहो तत्त्वमिच्छामि वेदितुम्। त्यागस्य च हषीकेश पृथक्केशिनिषूदन॥१८.१॥

Content: arjunaḥ uvāca: Arjuna said; sannyāsasya: monkhood; mahabaho: O mighty-armed one; tattvam: truth; icchāmi: I wish; veditum: to understand; tyāgasya: of renunciation; ca: also; hrsīkeśa: O master of the senses; prthak: differently; keśinisudana: O killer of the Kesi demon.

Content: 18.1 Arjuna said, 'Krishna, killer of the demon Kesi, I wish to understand what the purpose of renunciation is and about monkhood, and the difference between the two.'

Content: श्री भगवानुवाच काम्यानां कर्मणां न्यासं सन्न्यासं कवयो विदुः। सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं प्राहुस्‍त्यागं विचक्षणाः॥१८.२॥

Content: sri-bhagavan uvaca kamyanam karmanam nyasam sannyasam kavayo viduh sarva-karma-phala-tyagam prahus tyagam vicaksanah 18.2

Content: sri-bhagavan uvaca: Sri Bhagavan said; kamyanam: with desire; karmanam: activities; nyasam: renunciation; sannyasam: renounced order of life; kavayah: the learned; viduh: know; sarva: of all; karma: activities; phala: of results; tyagam: renunciation; prahuh: call; tyagam: renunciation; vicaksanah: the experienced.

Content: 18.2 Krishna said, the wise say that the purpose of monkhood as giving up all selfish work based on desire, and renunciation as the freedom from all attachment to the results of one's actions.

Content: त्याज्यं दोषवदित्येके कर्म प्राहुर्मनीषिणः । यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यमिति चापरे ॥ १८.३॥

Content: tyajyam dosa-vad ity eke karma prahur manisinah yajna-dana-tapah-karma na tyajyam iti ca apare 18.3

Content: tyajyam: must be given up; dosa-vat: like sins; iti: thus; eke: one group; karma: work; prahuh: said; manisinah: great thinkers; yajna: sacrifice or service; dana: charity; tapah: penance or austerity; karma: work; na: never; tyajyam: is to be given up; iti: thus; ca: certainly; apare: others.

Content: 18.3 Some learned men say that all kinds of result-based activities are sins and should be given up, but there are yet other sages who maintain that acts of service, charity and austerity should never be given up.

Content: निश्चयं श्रृणु मे तत्र त्यागे भरतसत्तम।

Content: त्यागो हि पुरुषव्याघ्र त्रिविधः संप्रकीर्तितः॥१८.४॥

Content: niscayam srnu me tatra tyage bharata-sattama

Content: tyago hi purusa-vyaghra tri-vidhah samprakirtitah 18.4

Content: niscayam: certainty; srnu: hear; me: from Me; tatra: there; tyage: in the matter of renunciation; bharata-sat-tama: O best of the Bharatas; tyagah: renunciation; hi: certainly; purusa-vyaghra: O tiger among human beings; tri-vidhah: three kinds; samprakirtitah: is declared.

Content: 18.4 Arjuna, here is what I say about renunciation. There are three kinds of renunciation explained.

Content: यज्ञदानतपःकर्म न त्याज्यं कार्यमेव तत्।

Content: यज्ञो दानं तपश्चैव पावनानि मनीषिणाम्॥१८.५॥

Content: yajna-dana-tapah-karma na tyajyam karyam eva tat

Content: yajno danam tapas caiva pavanani manisinam 18.5

Content: yajna: sacrifice; dana: charity; tapah: penance; karma: activities; na: never; tyajyam: to be given up; karyam: must

Content: एतान्यपि तु कर्माणि सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलानि च। कर्तव्यानीति मे पार्थ निश्चितं मतमुत्तमम्‌॥ १८.६॥

Content: etani: all this; api: certainly; tu: must; karmani: activities; sangam: association; tyaktva: renouncing; phalani: results; ca: also; kartavyani: as duty; iti: thus; me: My; partha: O son of Prtha; niscitam: definite; matam: opinion; uttamam: the best.

Content: 18.6 Arjuna, all these actions of duty must also be performed without any expectation of result. That is My considered opinion.

Content: नियतस्य तु सन्न्यासः कर्मणो नोपपद्यते। मोहात्तस्य परित्यागस्तामसः परिकीर्तितः॥ १८.७॥

Content: niyatasya: of what is ordained; tu: but; sannyasah: renunciation; karmanah: of duty; na: never; upapadyate: is deserved; mohat: due to delusion; tasya: of that; parityagah: renunciation; tamasah: of the mode of ignorance; parikirtitah: is declared.

Content: 307

Content: niyatasya tu sannyasah karmano nopapadyate mohat tasya parityagas tamasah parikirtitah 18.7

Content: niyatasya: prescribed duties; tu: but; sannyasah: renunciation; karmanah: activities; na: never; upapadyate: is deserved; mohat: by illusion; tasya: of which; parityagah: renunciation; tamasah: in the mode of ignorance; parikirtitah: is declared.

Content: 18.7 Prescribed duties should never be renounced. If one gives up his prescribed duties through the illusion of renunciation, this is said to be in the state of ignorance.

Content: दुःखमित्येव यत्कर्म कायक्लेशभयात्यजेत्। स कृत्वा राजसं त्यागं नैव त्यागफलं लभेत्।।१८.८।।

Content: duhkham ity eva yat karma kaya-klesa-bhayat tyajet sa krtva rajasam tyagam naiva tyaga-phalam labhet 18.8

Content: duhkham: unhappy; iti: thus; eva: certainly; yat: that which; karma: work; kaya: body; klesa: troublesome; bhayat: out of fear; tyajet: gives up; sah: that; krtva: after doing; rajasam: in the mode of aggression; tyagam: renunciation; na eva: certainly not; tyaga: renounced; phalam: results; labhet: gain.

Content: 18.8 Anyone who gives up prescribed duties as troublesome, or out of fear,is said to be in the state of aggression, does not benefit from renunciation.

Content: कaryामित्येव यत्कर्म नियतं क्रियते ऽर्जुन । सङ्गं त्यक्त्वा फलं चैव स त्यागः सात्त्विको मतः ॥१८.९॥

Content: karyam: must be done; iti: thus; eva: thus; yat: that which; karma: work; niyatam: prescribed; kriyate: performed; arjuna: O Arjuna; sangam: association; tyaktva: giving up; phalam: result; ca: also; eva certainly; sah: that; tyagah: renunciation; sattvikah: in the mode of goodness; matah: in My opinion.

Content: 18.9 But he who performs what is prescribed, as a matter of duty, without expectation or attachment to the results, his renunciation is of the nature of satva, goodness, O Arjuna.

Content: न द्वेष्ट्यकुशलं कर्म कुशले नानुषज्जते । त्यागी सत्त्वसमाविष्टो मेधावी छिन्नसंशयः ॥१८.१०॥

Content: na: never; dvesti: hates; akusalam: inauspicious; karma: work; kusale: in the auspicious; na: nor; anusajjate: becomes attached; tyagi: the renouncer; sattva: goodness; samavistah: absorbed in; medhavi: intelligent; chinna: cut up; samsayah: all doubts

Content: 18.10 Those who neither hate disagreeable work nor are attached to pleasant work are in a state of intelligence, goodness and renunciation, free of all doubts.

Content: न हि देहभृता शक्यं त्यक्तुं कर्माण्यशेषतः। यस्तु कर्मफलत्यागी स त्यागीत्यभिधीयते॥ १८.११॥

Content: na: never; hi: certainly; deha-bhrta: of the embodied; sakyam: possible; tyaktum: to renounce; karmani: activities of; asesatah: altogether; yahtu: anyone who; karma: work; phala: results; tyagi: renouncer; sa tyagi: the renouncer; iti: thus; abhidhiyate: it is said.

Content: 18.11 Human beings cannot give up all activities. Therefore the one who has renounced the fruits of such activity is one who has truly renounced.

Content: निःश्रेयसेष्टं मिश्रं च त्रिविधं कर्मणः फलम् । भवत्यत्यागिनां प्रेत्य न तु संन्यासिनां क्वचित्॥ १८.१२॥

Content: anistam: leading to hell; istam: leading to heaven; misram ca: or mixture; tri-vidham: three kinds; karmanah: of activities; phalam: result; bhavati: happens; atyaginam: to those who have not renounced; pretya: after death; na: not; tu: but; sannyasinam: to the renounced order; kvacit: at any time.

Content: work; phalam: result; bhavati: becomes; atyaginam: of the renouncer; pretya: after death; na tu: but not; sannyasinam: of the renounced order; kvacit: at any time.

Content: 18.12 For one who is not renounced, the three kinds of fruits of action—desirable, undesirable and mixed—ccrue after death, but not to one who has renounced.

Content: पञ्चैतानि महाबाहो कारणानि निबोध मे।

Content: सांख्ये कृतान्ते प्रोक्तानि सिद्धये सर्वकर्मणाम्॥१८.१३॥

Content: pañcaitani maha-baho karanani nibodha me

Content: sankhye krtante proktani siddhaye sarva-karmanam 18.13

Content: अधिष्ठानं तथा कर्ता करणं च पृथग्विधम्।

Content: विविधाश्च पृथक्कृष्टा दैवं चैवात्र पञ्चमम्॥१८.१४॥

Content: adhisthanam tatha karta karanam ca prthag-vidham

Content: vividhas ca prthak cesta daivam caivatra pancamam 18.14

Content: panca: five; etani: all these; maha-baho: O mighty-armed one; karanani: cause; nibodha: just understand; me: from Me; sankhye: in the sankhya philosophy; krta-ante: after performance; proktani: said; siddhaye: perfection; sarva: all; karmanam: actuated. adhisthanam: place; tatha: also; karta - - worker; karanam ca: and instruments; prthag-vidham: different kinds; vividhah ca: varieties; prthak: separately; cestah: endeavor; daivam: the Supreme; ca: also; eva: certainly; atra: here; pancamam: five.

Content: 311

Content: शरीरवाङ्मनोभिर्यत्कर्म प्रारभते नरः। न्याय्यं वा विपरीतं वा पञ्चैते तस्य हेतवः॥१८.१५॥

Content: tatraivaṁ sati kartāram ātmānaṁ kevalaṁ tu yaḥ paśyati akṛta-buddhitvān na sa paśyati durmatiḥ॥१८.१६॥

Content: tatra: there; evam: certainly; sati: being; kartaram: of the worker; atmanam: the self; kevalam: only; tu: but; yah: anyone; pasyati: sees; akrta-buddhitvat: due to unintelligence; na: never; sah: he; pasyati: sees; durmatih: foolish.

Content: 18.16 Those who think they, their body and spirit, are the doers, are ignorant and do not see things as they are.

Content: यस्य नाहंकृतो भावो बुद्धिर्यस्य न लिप्यते । हत्वापि स इमाँल्लोकान् हन्ति न निबध्यते ॥ १८.१७ ॥

Content: yasya nahankrto bhavo buddhir yasya na lipyate hatvapi sa imal lokan na hanti na nibadhyate 18.17

Content: yasya: of one who; na: never; ahankrtah: ego; bhavah: nature; buddhih: intelligence; yasya: one who; na: never; lipyate: is attached; hatva api: even killing; sah: he; iman: this; lokan: world; na: never; hanti: kills; na: never; nibadhyate: becomes entangled.

Content: 18.17 One who is egoless, whose intelligence is not of attachment, though he may kill, is not the slayer and is never bound by his actions.

Content: ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं परिज्ञाता त्रिविधा कर्मचोदना । करणं कर्म कर्तेति त्रिविधः कर्मसंग्रहः ॥ १८.१८ ॥

Content: jñānȧṁ jñeyaṁ parijñātā trividhā karmacodanā | karaṇaṁ karma karteti trividhaḥ karmasaṅgrahaḥ || 18.18 ||

Content: 313

Content: jnanam jneyam parijnata tri-vidha karma-codana karanam karma karteti tri-vidhah karma-sangrahah 18.18

Content: jnanam: knowledge; jneyam: objective; parijnata: the knower; tri-vidha: three kinds; karma: work; codana: impetus; karanam: the senses; karma: work; karta: the doer; iti: thus; tri-vidhah: three kinds; karma: work; sangrahah: accumulation.

Content: 18.18 Knowledge, object of the knowledge and the subject of the knowledge, the knower, are the three factors that stimulate action; the senses, the action and the performer comprise the three components of action.

Content: ज्ञानं कर्म च कर्ता च त्रिधैव गुणभेदतः। प्रोच्यते गुणसङ्ख्याने यथावच्छृणु तान्यपि।१८.१९।।

Content: jnanam karma ca karta ca tridhaiva guna-bhedatah procyate guna-sankhyane yathavac chrnu tany api 18.19

Content: jnanam: knowledge; karma: work; ca: also; karta: worker; ca: also; tridha: three kinds; eva: certainly; guna-bhedatah: in terms of different modes of material nature; procyate: is said; guna-sankhyane: in terms of different modes; yatha-vat: as they act; srnu: hear; tani: all of them; api: also.

Content: 18.19 According to the guna theory of Sankhya, there are three types in knowledge, action, and performers of action. Listen as I describe them.

Content: सर्वभूतेषु येनैकं भावमव्ययमीक्षते । अविभक्तं विभक्तेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि सात्त्विकम्॥१८.२०॥

Content: sarva-bhutesu: in all living entities; yena: by whom; ekam: one; bhavam: situation; avyayam: imperishable; iksate: does see; avibhaktam: undivided; vibhaktesu: in the numberless divided; tat: that; jnanam: knowledge; viddhi: know; sattvikam: in the mode of goodness.

Content: पृथक्त्वेन तु यज्ज्ञानं नानाभावान्पृथग्विधान् । वेत्ति सर्वेषु भूतेषु तज्ज्ञानं विद्धि राजसम्॥१८.२१॥

Content: prthaktvena: because of division; tu: but; yat jnanam: which knowledge; nana-bhavan: various situations; prthak-vidhan: differently; vetti: one who knows; sarvesu: in all; bhutesu: living entities; tat jnanam: that knowledge; viddhi: must be known; rajasam: in terms of aggression.

Content: यतु कृत्स्नवदेकस्मिन्कार्ये सक्तमहैतुकम्। अतात्त्वार्थवदल्पं च तत्तामसमुदाहृतम् ॥ १८.२२॥

Content: yat: that which; tu: but; krtsna-vat: all in all; ekasmin: in one; kārye: work; saktam: attached; ahaitukam: without cause; atattva-arthavat: without reality; alpam: very meager; ca: and; tat: that; tamasam: in the mode of darkness; udāhrtam: is spoken.

Content: 18.22 The irrational, baseless, and worthless knowledge by which one clings to one single effect as if it is everything, such knowledge is in the mode of darkness of ignorance

Content: नियतं सङ्गरहितमरागद्वेषतः कृतम् । अफलप्रेप्सुना कर्म यत्तत्सात्त्विकमुच्यते ॥ १८.२३॥

Content: niyataṁ: regulative; saṅga-rahitaṁ: without attachment; araga-dveṣataḥ: without love or hatred; krtam: done; aphala-prepsunā: without fruitive result; karma: acts; yat: which; tat: that; sāttvikam: in the mode of goodness; ucyate: is called.

Content: 18.23 Obligatory duty performed without likes and dislikes and without selfish motives and attachment to the fruit, is in the mode of goodness.

Content: यत्तु कामेप्सुना कर्म साहङ्कारेण वा पुनः। क्रियते बहुलायासं तद्राजसमुदाहृतम् ॥१८.२४॥

Content: yat tu kamepsuna karma sahankarena va punah kriyate bahula-yasam tad rajasam udahrtam 18.24

Content: yat: that which; tu: but; kama-ipsuna: with fruitive result; karma: work; sa-ahankarena: with ego; va: or; punah: again; kriyate: performed; bahula-ayasam: with great labor; tat: that; rajasam: in the mode of passion; udahrtam: is said to be.

Content: 8.24 Action performed with ego, with selfish motives, and with too much effort, is in the mode of aggression.

Content: अनुबन्धं क्षयं हिंसामनपेक्ष्य च पौरुषम् । मोहादारभ्यते कर्म यत्तत्तामसमुच्यते ॥१८.२५॥

Content: anubandham ksayam himsam anapeksya ca paurusam mohad arabhyate karma yat tat tamasam ucyate 18.25

Content: anubandham: future bondage; ksayam: destruction; himsam: violence; anapeksya: without consideration of; ca: also; paurusam: and man’s capability; mohad: by delusion; arabhyate: is begun; karma: work; yat: which; tat: that; tamasam: in the mode of darkness; ucyate: is said to be.

Content: 317

Content: consequences; ca: also; paurusam: distressing to others; mohat: by illusion; arabhyate: begun; karma: work; yat: which; tat: that; tamasam: in the mode of ignorance; ucyate: is said to be.

Content: 18.25 Action that is undertaken because of delusion, disregarding consequences, loss, injury to others, as well as one's own ability, is in the mode of ignorance.

Content: मुक्तसङ्गोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वितः। सिद्ध्यसिद्ध्योर्निर्विकारः कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥

Content: mukta-sango 'naham-vadi dhrty-utsaha-samanvitah siddhy-asiddhyor nirvikarah karta sattvika ucyate 18.26

Content: mukta-sangah: liberated from all material association; anaham-vadi: without false ego; dhrti-utsaha: with great enthusiasm; samanvitah: qualified in that way; siddhi: perfection; asiddhyoh: failure; nirvikarah: without change; karta: worker; sattvikah: in the mode of goodness; ucyate: is said to be.

Content: 18.26 The performer who is free from attachment, non-egotistic, endowed with resolve and enthusiasm, and unperturbed in success or failure is called good.

Content: रागी कर्मफलप्रेप्सुर्लुब्धो हिंसात्मकोऽशुचिः। हर्षशोकान्वितः कर्ता राजसः परिकीर्तितः ॥१८.२७॥

Content: ragi karma-phala-prepsur lubdho himsatmako 'sucih harsa-sokanvitah karta rajasah parikirtitah 18.27

Content: ragi: very much attached; karma-phala: to the fruit of the work; prepsuh: desiring; lubdhah: greedy; himsa-atmakah: and always envious; asucit: unclean; harsa-soka-anvitah: complicated, with joy and sorrow; karta: such a worker; rajasah: in the mode of passion; parikirtitah: is declared.

Content: 18.27 The performer who is impassioned, who desires the fruits of work, who is greedy, violent, impure, and affected by joy and sorrow, is called aggressive.

Content: अयुक्तः प्रकृतः स्तब्धः शठो नैष्कृतिकोलसः। विषादी दीर्घसूत्री च कर्ता तामस उच्यते॥१८.२८॥

Content: ayuktah prakrtah stabdhah satho naiskrtiko 'lasah visadi dirgha-sutri ca karta tamasa ucyate 18.28

Content: ayuktah: without reference to scriptural injunctions; prakrtah: materialistic; stabdhah: obstinate; sathah: deceitful; naiskrtikah: expert in insulting others; alasah: lazy; visadi: morose; dirgha-sutri procrastinating; ca: also; karta: worker; tamasah: in the mode of ignorance; ucyate: is said to be.

Content: 18.28 The performer who is undisciplined, vulgar, stubborn, wicked, malicious, lazy, depressed, and procrastinating is called ignorant.

Content: 319

Content: बुद्धेर्भेदं धृतेश्चैव गुणतस्त्रिविधं श्रृणु। प्रोच्यमानमशेषेण पृथक्त्वेन धनञ्जय॥१८.२९॥

Content: buddheh: of intelligence; bhedam: differences; dhrteh: of steadiness; ca: also; eva: certainly; gunatah: by the modes of material nature; tri-vidham: the three kinds of; srnu: just hear; procyamanam: as described by Me; asesena: in detail; prthaktvena: differently; dhananjaya: O winner of wealth.

Content: 18.29 Now hear Me explain, fully and separately, the threefold division of intellect and resolve, based on modes of material Nature, O Arjuna.

Content: प्रवृत्तिं च निवृत्तिं च कार्याकार्ये भयाभये। बन्धं मोक्षं च या वेत्ति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी॥१८.३०॥

Content: pravrttim: the path of work; ca: also; nivrttim: the path of renunciation; ca: and; karya: work that is to be done; akarye: prohibited action; bhaya: fearful; abhaye: fearlessness; bandham: obligation; mokṣam ca: and liberation; ya: that which; vetti: knows; buddhih: understanding; sa: that; partha: O son of Prtha; sattviki: in the mode of goodness.

Content: 18.30 O Arjuna, that intellect is in the mode of goodness which understands the path of work and the path of renunciation, right and wrong action, fear and fearlessness, bondage and liberation.

Content: यया धर्ममधर्मं च कार्य चाकार्यमेव च। अयथावत्प्रजानाति बुद्धिः सा पार्थ राजसी॥१८.३१॥

Content: yaya; by which; dharmam; right conduct; adharmam; what is not right conduct ca: and; karyam; work; ca: also; akaryam; what ought not to be done; eva: certainly; ca: also; ayatha-vat: not perfectly; prajanati: knows; buddhih; intelligence; sa: that; partha: O son of Prtha; rajasi: in the mode of passion.

Content: 18.31 That intellect is in the mode of passion that cannot distinguish between principles of right conduct and wrong doing, and right and wrong action, O Arjuna.

Content: अधर्मं धर्ममिति या मन्यते तमसाSऽवृता। सर्वार्थान्विपरीतांश्च बुद्धिः सा पार्थ तामसी॥१८.३२॥

Content: 321

Content: adharmam dharmam iti ya manyate tamasavrta sarvarthan viparitan ca buddhih sa partha tamasi

Content: धृत्या यया धारयते मनःप्राणेन्द्रियक्रियाः। योगेनाव्यभिचारिण्या धृतिः सा पार्थ सात्त्विकी॥

Content: यया तु धर्मकामार्थान् धृत्या धारयतेऽर्जुन। प्रसङ्गेन फलाकाङ्क्षी धृतिः सा पार्थ राजसी॥१८.३४॥

Content: yaya: by which; tu: but; dharma-kama-arthan: for the three goals in life, right conduct, sense pleasure and wealth; dhrtya: by determination; dharayate: continuously; arjuna: O Arjuna; prasangena: for that; phala-akanksi: desiring fruitive results; dhrtih: determination; sa: that; partha: O son of Prtha; rajasi: in the mode of passion.

Content: 18.34 Craving for results of action while clinging to goals of proper conduct, pleasure and wealth is the state of passion

Content: यया स्वप्नं भयं शोकं विषादं मदमेव च। न विमुञ्चति दुर्मेधा धृतिः सा पार्थ तामसी॥१८.३५॥

Content: yaya: by which; svapnam: dream; bhayam: fearfulness; sokam: lamentation; visadam: moroseness; madam: delusion; eva: certainly; ca: also; na: never; vimuncati: is liberated; durmedha: unintelligent; dhrtih: determination; sa: that; partha: O son of Prtha; tamasi: in the mode of ignorance.

Content: 323

Content: 18.35 Ignorant resolve which cannot go beyond dreaming, fear, grief, despair and, delusion - such is in darkness, Arjuna

Content: सुखं त्विदानीं त्रिविधं शृणु मे भरतर्षभ।

Content: अभ्यासाद्रमते यत्र दुःखान्तं च निगच्छति।। १८.३६ ।।

Content: यत्तदग्रे विषमिव परिणामेऽमृतोपमम्‌।

Content: तत्सुखं सात्त्विकं प्रोक्तमात्मबुद्धिप्रसादजम्‌।। १८.३७ ।।

Content: sukham: happiness; tu: but; idanim: now; tri-vidham: three kinds; srnu: hear; me: from Me; bharata-rsabha: O best amongst the Bharatas; abhyasat: by practice; ramate: enjoyer; yatra: where; duhkha: distress; antam: end; ca: also; nigacchati: gains. yat: that which; tat: that; agre: in the beginning; visam iva: like poison; pariname: at the end; amrta: nectar; upamam: compared to; tat: that; sukham: happiness; sattvikam: in the mode of goodness; proktam: is said; atma: self; buddhi: intelligence; prasada-jam: satisfactory.

Content: 18.36,37 And now hear from Me, O Arjuna, about three kinds of pleasure. The pleasure that one enjoys from

Content: spiritual practice results in cessation of all sorrows. The pleasure that appears as poison in the beginning, but is like nectar in the end, comes by the grace of Self-knowledge and is in the mode of goodness.

Content: विषयेन्द्रियसंयोगाद्यत्तदग्रेडमृतोपमम्‌। परिणामे विषमिव तत्सुखं राजसं स्मृतम्‌॥ १८.३८॥

Content: visayendriya-samyogad yat tad agre ‘mrtopamam pariname visam iva tat sukham rajasam smrtam 18.38

Content: visaya: objects of the senses; indriya: senses; samyogat: combination; yat: which; tat: that; agre: in the beginning; amrta-upamam: just like nectar; pariname: at the end; visam iva: like poison; tat: that; sukham: happiness; rajasam: in the mode of passion; smrtam: is considered.

Content: 18.38 Sensual pleasures that appear as nectar in the beginning, but become poison in the end, are in the mode of passion.

Content: यदग्रे चानुबन्धे च सुखं मोहनमात्मनः। निद्रालस्यप्रमादोत्थं तत्तामसमुदाहृतम्‌॥ १८.३९॥

Content: yad agre canubandhe ca sukham mohanam atmanah nidralasya-pramadottham tat tamasam udahrtam 18.39

Content: 325

Content: yat: that which; agre: in the beginning; ca: also; anubandhe: by binding; ca: also; sukham: happiness; mohanam: illusion; atmanah: of the self; nidra: sleeping; alasya: laziness; pramada: illusion; uttham -produced of; tat: that; tamasam: in the mode of ignorance; udahrtam: is said to be.

Content: 18.39 Pleasure that is delusion from beginning to end and born out of sleep, laziness and illusion is said to be of the nature of ignorance.

Content: न तदस्ति पृथिव्यां वा दिवि देवेषु वा पुनः। सत्त्वं प्रकृतिजैर्मुक्तं यदेेभिः स्यात्त्रिभिर्गुणैः॥१८.४०॥

Content: na tad asti prthivyam va divi devesu va punah sattvam prakrti-jair muktam yad ebhih syat tribhir gunaih

Content: 18.40

Content: na: not; tat: that; asti: there is; prthivyam: within the universe; va: or; divi: in the higher planetary system; devesu: amongst the demigods; va: or; punah: again; sattvam: existence; prakrti-jaih: under the influence of material nature; muktam: liberated; yat: that; ebhih: by this; syat: so becomes; tribhih: by three; gunaih: modes of material nature.

Content: 18.40 No one, either here or among the celestials in the higher planetary systems, is free from these three states of material nature.

Content: ब्राह्मणक्षत्रियविशां शूद्राणां च परंतप। कर्माणि प्रविभक्तानि स्वभावप्रभवैर्गुणैः॥१८.४१॥

Content: brahmanah: the brahmanas; ksatriya: the ksatriyas; visam: the vaisyas; sudranam: the sudras; ca: and; parantapa: O subduer of the enemies; karmani: activities; pravibhaktani: are divided; svabhava: own nature; prabhavair: born of; gunaih: by the modes of material nature.

Content: 18.41 Brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sudras are divided in the work they do based on their nature, Arjuna.

Content: शमो दमस्तपः शौचं क्षान्तिरार्जवमेव च। ज्ञानं विज्ञानमास्तिक्यं ब्रह्मकर्म स्वभावजम्॥१८.४२॥

Content: samah: peacefulness; damah: self-control; tapah: austerity; saucam: purity; ksantih: tolerance; arjavam: honesty; eva: certainly; ca: and; jnanam: knowledge; vijnanam: wisdom; astikyam: belief in God; brahma: of a brahmana; karma: duty; svabhava-jam: born of his own nature.

Content: शौर्य तेजो धृतिदाक्ष्यं युद्धे चाप्यपलायनम्। दानमीश्वरभावश्च क्षात्रं कर्म स्वभावजम्।१८.४३।।

Content: sauryam: heroism; tejah: power; dhṛtiḥ: determination; dākṣyam: resourcefulness; yuddhe: in battle; ca: and; api: also; apalāyanam: not fleeing; danam: generosity; īśvara: leadership; bhāvaḥ: nature; ca: and; ksātram: ksatriya; karma: duty; svabhāva-jam: born of his own nature.

Content: 18.43 Kshatriya are characterized by their qualities of heroism, vigor, firmness, dexterity, steadfastness in battle, leadership and generosity.

Content: कृषिगौरक्ष्यवाणिज्यं वैश्यकर्म स्वभावजम्। परिचर्यात्मकं कर्म शूद्रस्यापि स्वभावजम्।१८.४४।।

Content: krṣi: plowing; go: cows; rakṣya: protection; vāṇijyam: trade; vaiśya: vaiśya; karma: duty; svabhāva-jam: born of his

Content: सवे सवे कर्मण्यभिरतः संसिद्धिं लभते नरः। स्वकर्मनिरतः सिद्धिं यथा विन्दति तच्छृणु ॥१८.४५॥

Content: sve: own; sve: own; karmani: in work; abhiratah: following; samsiddhim: perfection; labhate: achieves; narah: a man; sva-karma: by his own duty; niratah: engaged; siddhim: perfection; yatha: as; vindati: attains; tat: that; srnu: listen.

Content: यतः प्रवृत्तिभूतानां येन सर्वमिदं ततम्। स्वकर्मणा तमभ्यर्च्य सिद्धिं विन्दति मानवः॥१८.४६॥

Content: yatah pravrttir bhutanam yena sarvam idam tatam sva-karmanā tam abhyarcya siddhim vindati manavah

Content: 18.46 One attains perfection by worshipping the Supreme Being from whom all beings originate and by whom all this universe is pervaded through performance of one's natural duty for Him.

Content: श्रेयान्स्वधर्मो विगुणः परधर्मात्स्वनुष्ठितात्। स्वभावनियतं कर्म कुर्वन्नाप्नोति किल्बिषम्॥ १८.४७॥

Content: sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah para-dharmāt sv-anusṭhitāt svabhāva-niyatam karma kurvann apnoti kilbiṣam

Content: 18.47 It is better to engage in one's rightful conduct, even though one may not perform it to perfection, rather than though one may not perform it to perfection, rather than

Content: to accept another's conduct and perform it perfectly. Duties prescribed according to one's nature, are never affected by sinful reactions.

Content: सहजं कर्म कौन्तेय सदोषमपि न त्यजेत्। सर्वारम्भा हि दोषेण धूमेनाग्निरिवावृताः॥ १८.४८॥

Content: saha-jam karma kaunteya sa-dosam api na tyajet sarvarambha hi dosena dhumenagnir ivavrtah 18.48

Content: saha-jam: born simultaneously; karma: work; kaunteya: O son of Kunti; sa-dosam: with fault; api: although; na: never; tyajet: to be given up; sarva-rambhah: any venture; hi: certainly; dosena: with fault; dhumena: with smoke; agnih: fire; iva: as; avrtah: covered.

Content: 18.48 Every work has some defect, just as fire is covered by smoke. One should not give up the work that is born of his own nature, even if such work is full of fault, Arjuna.

Content: असक्तबुद्धिः सर्वत्र जितात्मा विगतस्पृहः। नैष्कर्म्यसिद्धिं परमां संन्यासेनाधिगच्छति॥ १८.४९॥

Content: asakta-buddhih sarvatra jitatma vigata-sprhah naiskarmya-siddhim paramam sannyasenadhigacchati 18.49

Content: 331

Content: asakta-buddhih: unattached intelligence; sarvatra: everywhere; jitaatma: control of the mind; vigata-sprhah: without material desires; naiskarmya-siddhim: perfection of non-reaction; paramam: supreme; sannyasena: by the renounced order of life; adhigacchati: attains.

Content: 18.49 One whose mind is always free from selfish attachment, who has controlled the mind and who is free from desires, he, by renunciation, attains perfection of freedom from selfish attachment to the fruits of work.

Content: सिद्धिं प्राप्तो यथा ब्रह्म तथाप्नोति निबोध मे। समासेनैव कौन्तेय निष्ठा ज्ञानस्य या परा॥१८.५०॥

Content: siddhim prapto yatha brahma tathapnoti nibodha me samasenaiva kaunteya nistha jnanasya ya para

Content: siddhim: perfection; praptah: achieving; yatha: as; brahma: the Supreme; tatha: so; apnoti: achieves; nibodha: try to understand; me: from Me; samasena: summarily; eva: certainly; kaunteya: O son of Kunti; nistha: stage; jnanasya: of knowledge; ya: which; para: transcendental.

Content: 18.50 Understand from Me how one can achieve the state of Truth, Brahman, by acting in the way I shall now summarize, Arjuna.

Content: बुद्ध्या विशुद्धया युक्तो धृत्याडत्मानं नियम्य च। शब्दादीन् विषयांस्त्यक्त्वा रागद्वेषौ व्युदस्य च॥१८.५१॥

Content: विविक्तसेवी लघ्वाशी यतवाक्कायमानसः। ध्यानयोगपरों नित्यं वैराग्यं समुपाश्रितः॥१८.५२॥

Content: अहङ्कारं बलं दर्पं कामं क्रोधं परिग्रहम्। विमुच्य निर्ममः शान्तो ब्रह्मभूयाय कल्पते॥१८.५३॥

Content: buddhya visuddhaya yukto dhrtyatmanam niyamya ca sabdadin visayams tyaktva raga-dvesau vyudasya ca

Content: vivikta-sevi laghv-asi yata-vak-kaya-manasah dhyana-yoga-paro nityam vairagyam samupasritah

Content: ahankaram balam darpam kamam krodham parigraham vimucya nirmamah santo brahma-bhuyaya kalpate 18.51-53

Content: buddhya: by the intelligence; visuddhaya: fully purified; yuktah: such engagement; dhrtya: determination; atmanam: self; niyamya: regulated; ca: also; sabda-adin: the sense objects, such as sound, etc.; visayan: sense objects; tyaktva: giving up; raga: attachment; dvesau: hatred; vyudasya: having laid aside; ca: also; vivikta-sevi: living in a secluded place; laghu-asi: eating a small quantity; yata-vak: control of speech; kaya: body; manasah: control of the mind; dhyana-yoga-parah: always absorbed in trance; nityam: twenty-four hours a day; vairagyam: detachment; samupasritah: taken shelter of; ahankaram: false ego; balam: false strength;

Content: darpam: false pride; kamam: lust; krodham: anger; parigraham: acceptance of material things; vimucya: being delivered; nirmamah: without proprietorship; santah: peaceful; brahmabhuyaya: to become self-realized; kalpate: is understood.

Content: 18.51,52,53 Endowed with purified intellect; subduing the mind with firm resolve; turning away from objects of the senses; giving up likes and dislikes; living in solitude; eating lightly; controlling the mind, speech, and organs of action; ever absorbed in meditation; taking refuge in detachment; and relinquishing egotism, violence, pride, lust, anger, and proprietorship, one becomes peaceful, free from the notion of "I" and "mine", and fit for attaining oneness with the Supreme Being

Content: ब्रह्मभूतः प्रसन्नात्मा न शोचति न काङ्क्षति। समः सर्वेषु भूतेषु मद्भक्तिं लभते पराम्।।१८.५४।।

Content: brahma-bhutah prasannatma na socati na kanksati samah sarvesu bhutesu mad-bhaktim labhate param 18.54

Content: brahma-bhutah: being one with the Absolute; prasanna-atma: fully joyful; na: never; socati: laments; na: never; kanksati: desires; samah: equally disposed; sarvesu: all; bhutesu: living entities; matbhaktim: My devotion; labhate: gains; param: transcendental.

Content: 18.54 Absorbed in the Supreme Being, the serene one neither grieves nor desires. Becoming impartial to all beings, one obtains My highest devotional love.

Content: भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वतः। ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम्॥१८.५५॥

Content: bhaktya mam abhijānāti yāvan yas cāsmīti tattvataḥ tato mām tattvato jñātvā viśate tad-anantaram 18.55

Content: bhaktyā: by pure devotional service; mām: Me; abhijānāti: one can know; yāvan: as much as; yaḥ ca asmi: as I am; tattvataḥ: in truth; tataḥ: thereafter; mām: Me; tattvataḥ: by truth; jñātvā: knowing; viśate: enters; tat-anantaram: thereafter.

Content: 18.55 By devotion one truly understands what and who I am in essence. Having known Me in essence, one immediately merges with Me.

Content: सर्वकर्माण्यपि सदा कुर्वाणो मद्व्यपाश्रयः। मत्प्रसादादवाप्नोति शाश्वतं पदमव्ययम्॥१८.५६॥

Content: sarva-karmāṇi api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ mat-prasādād avāpnoti śāśvataṃ padam avyayam 18.56

Content: 335

Content: sarva: all; karmani: activities; api: although; sada: always; kurvanah: performing; mat: under My; vyapasrayah: protection; mat: My; prasadat: mercy; avapnoti: achieves; sasvatam: eternal; padam: abode; avyayam: imperishable.

Content: 18.56 My devotee occupied in everyday life still reaches under My protection the imperishable ultimate abode through my mercy, through devotion to Me.

Content: चेतसा सर्वकर्माणि मयि सन्न्यस्य मत्परः। बुद्धियोगमुपाश्रित्य मच्चित्तः सततं भव॥१८.५७॥

Content: cetasā sarva-karmani mayi sannyasya mat-parah buddhi-yogam upasritia mac-cittah satatam bhava 18.57

Content: cetasā: by intelligence; sarva-karmani: all kinds of activities; mayi: unto Me; sannyasya: giving up; mat-parah: My protection; buddhi-yogam: devotional activities; upasritya: taking shelter of; mat-cittah: consciousness; satatam: always; bhava: just become.

Content: 18.57 While being engaged in activities just depend upon Me, and being fully conscious of Me, work always under My protection.

Content: मच्चित्तः सर्वदुर्गाणि मत्प्रसादात्तरिष्यसि। अथ चेत्वमहङ्कारान्न श्रोष्यसि विनङ्क्ष्यसि॥१८.५८॥

Content: mac-cittah sarva-durgani mat-prasadat tarisyasi atha cet tvam ahankaran na srosyasi vinanksyasi 18.58

Content: mat: My; cittah: consciousness; sarva: all; durgani: impediments; mat: My; prasadat: My mercy; tarisyasi: you will overcome; atha: therefore; cet: if; tvam: you; ahankarat: by false ego; na: not; srosyasi: do not hear; vinanksyasi: then lose yourself.

Content: 18.58 When your mind becomes fixed on Me, you shall overcome all difficulties by My grace. But if you do not listen to Me due to ego, you shall perish.

Content: यदहङ्कारमाश्रित्य न योत्स्य इति मन्यसे ।

Content: मिथ्यैष व्यवसायस्ते प्रकृतिस्त्वां नियोक्ष्यति ॥१८.५९॥

Content: yad ahankaram asritya na yotsya iti manyase mithyaisa vyavasayas te prakrtis tvam niyoksyati 18.59

Content: yat: therefore; ahankaram: false ego; asritya: taking shelter; na: not; yotsye: shall fight; iti: thus; manyase: think; mithya esah: this is all false; vyavasayah te: your determination; prakrtih: material nature; tvam: you; niyoksyati: will engage you.

Content: 18.59 If due to ego you think: 'I shall not fight,' your resolve is useless, and your own nature will compel you.

Content: 337

Content: स्वभावजेन कौन्तेय निबद्धः स्वेन कर्मणा। कर्तुं नेच्छसि यन्मोहात्करिष्यस्यवशोऽपि तत्॥१८.६०॥

Content: svabhava-jena kaunteya nibaddhah svena karmana kartum necchasi yan mohat karisyasy avaso 'pi tat 18.60

Content: svabhava-jena: by one’s own nature; kaunteya: O son of Kunti; nibaddhah: conditioned; svena: by one’s own; karmana: activities; kartum: to do; na: not; icchasi: like; yat: that; mohat: by illusion; karisyasi: you will act; avasah: imperceptibly; api: even; tat: that.

Content: 18.60 O Arjuna, you are controlled by your own natural conditioning. Therefore, you shall do even against your will, what you do not wish to do out of delusion.

Content: ईश्वरः सर्वभूतानां हृद्देशेऽर्जुन तिष्ठति। भ्रामयन्सर्वभूतानि यन्त्रारूढानि मायया॥१८.६१॥

Content: isvarah sarva-bhutanam hrd-dese 'rjuna tisthati bhramayan sarva-bhutani yantrarudhani mayaya 18.61

Content: isvarah: the Supreme Lord; sarva-bhutanam: of all living entities; hrtdese: in the location of the heart; arjuna: O Arjuna; tisthati: resides; bhramayan: causing to travel; sarva-bhutani: all living entities; yantra: machine; arudhani: being so placed; mayaya: under the illusion

Content: 18.61 The Supreme Lord resides in everyone's heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the activities of all living entities who are acting as machines under the illusion of the material world.

Content: तमेव शरणं गच्छ सर्वभावेन भारत।

Content: तत्प्रसादात्परां शान्तिं स्थानं प्राप्स्यसि शाश्वतम्॥ १८.६२॥

Content: tam eva saranam gaccha sarva-bhaavena bhaarata tat-prasaadat paraam santim sthaanam praapsyasi saasvatam

Content: 18.62

Content: tam: unto Him; eva: certainly; saranam: surrender; gaccha: go; sarvabhavena: in all respects; bhaarata: O son of Bharata; tat-prasadat: by His grace; param: Supreme; santim: in peace; sthanam: abode; prapsyasi: you will get; sasvatam: eternal.

Content: 18.62 Surrender to Him completely. By His grace you will attain Supreme peace and the eternal abode.

Content: इति ते ज्ञानमाख्यातं गुह्याद्गुह्यतरं मया।

Content: विमृश्यैतदशेषेण यथेच्छसि तथा कुरु॥ १८.६३॥

Content: iti te jnanam akhyatam guhyad guhyataram maya vimrsyaitadasesena yathecchasi tatha kuru

Content: 18.63

Content: 339

Content: iti: thus; te: unto you; jnanam: knowledge; akhyatam: described; guhyat: confidential; guhya-taram: still more confidential; maya: by Me; vimrsya: by deliberation; etat: that; asesena: fully; yatha: as you; icchasi: you like; tatha: that; kuru: perform.

Content: 18.63 I have explained the knowledge that is the secret of secrets. After fully reflecting on this, do as you wish.

Content: सर्वगुह्यतमं भूयः श्रृणु मे परमं वचः। इष्टोऽसि मे दृढमिति ततो वक्ष्यामि ते हितम्‌॥ १८.६४॥

Content: sarva-guhyatamam bhuyah srnu me paramam vacah isto 'si me drdham iti tato vaksyami te hitam 18.64

Content: sarva-guhya-tamam: the most confidential of all; bhuyah: again; srnu: just hear; me: from Me; paramam: the supreme; vacah: instruction; istah asi: you are very dear to Me; me: of Me; drdham: very; iti: thus; tatah: therefore; vaksyami: I am speaking; te: for your; hitam: benefit.

Content: 18.64 Because you are My dear friend, I express this truth to you. This is the most confidential of all knowledge. Hear this from Me. It is for your benefit.

Content: मननना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु। मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे॥ १८.६५॥

Content: man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru mam evaisyasì satyam te pratijane 'si me 18.65

Content: man-manah: thinking of Me; bhava: just become; mat-bhaktah: My devotee; mat-yaji: My worshiper; mam: unto Me; namaskuru: offer your obeisances; mam: unto Me; eva: certainly; esyasi: come; satyam: truly; te: to you; pratijane: I promise; priyah: dear; asi: you are; me: Mine.

Content: 18.65 Always think of Me and become My devotee. Worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will certainly attain to Me. This I promise you because you are My very dear friend.

Content: सर्व धर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज। अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुचः ॥१८.६६॥

Content: sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo moksayisyami ma sucah 18.66

Content: sarva-dharman: all principles of right conduct; parityajya: abandoning; mam: unto Me; ekam: only; saranam: surrender; vraja: go; aham: I; tvam: you; sarva: all; papebhyah: from sinful reactions; moksayisyami: deliver; ma: not; sucah: worry.

Content: 18.66 Abandon all principles and concepts of right conduct and simply surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Have no worry.

Content: इदं ते नातपस्काय नाभक्ताय कदाचन। न चाशुश्रूषवे वाच्यं न च मां योऽभ्यसूयति॥१८.६७॥

Content: idam: this; te: you; na: never; atapaskaya: one who is not austere; na: never; abhaktaya: one who is not a devotee; kadacana: at any time; na: never; ca: also; asusrusave: one who is not engaged in devotional service; vacyam: to be spoken; na: never; ca: also; mam: unto Me; yah: anyone; abhyasuyati: envious.

Content: 18.67 This knowledge should never be spoken by you to one who is devoid of austerity, who is without devotion, who does not desire to listen, or who speaks ill of Me.

Content: य इदं परमं गुह्यं मद्भक्तेष्वभिधास्यति। भक्तिं मयि परां कृत्वा मामेवैष्यत्यसंशयः॥१८.६८॥

Content: yah: anyone; idam: this; paramam: most; guhyam: confidential; mat: Mine; bhaktesu: amongst devotees of; abhidhasyati: explains; bhaktim: devotional service; mayi: unto Me; param: transcendental; krtva: having

Content: done; mam: unto Me; eva: certainly; esyati: comes; asamsayah: without doubt.

Content: 18.68 One who communicates the Supreme Secret to the devotees performs the highest devotional service to Me, and at the end he will without doubt, come back to Me.

Content: न च तस्मान्मनुष्येषु कश्चिन्मे प्रियकृत्तमः। भविता न च मे तस्मादन्यः प्रियतरो भुवि॥१८.६९॥

Content: na: never; ca: and; tasmat: therefore; manusyesu: among mankind; kascit: anyone; me: My; priya-krt-tamah: more dear; bhavita: will become; na: nor; ca: and; me: My; tasmat: than him; anyah: other; priya-tarah: dearer; bhuvi: in this world.

Content: 18.69 No other person shall do a more pleasing service to Me, and no one on the earth shall be more dear to Me.

Content: अध्येष्यते च य इमं धर्म्यं संवादमावयोः। ज्ञानयज्ञेन तेनाहमिष्टः स्यामिति मे मति:॥१८.७०॥

Content: 343

Content: adhyesyate ca ya imam dharmyam samvadam avayoh jnana-yajnena tenaham istah syam iti me matih

Content: adhyesyate: will study; ca: also; yah: he; imam: this; dharmyam: sacred; samvadam: conversation; avayoh: of ours; jnana: knowledge; yajnena: by sacrifice; tena: by him; aham: I; istah: worshiped; syam: shall be; iti: thus; me: My; matih: opinion.

Content: 18.70 I say that One who studies this sacred dialogue worships Me by sacrifice of his intelligence.

Content: श्रद्धावाननसूयश्च श्रृणुयादपि यो नरः। सोऽपि मुक्तः शुभाँल्लोकान्प्राप्नुयात्पुण्यकर्मणाम्॥१८.७१॥

Content: sraddhavan anasuyas ca srnuyad api yo narah so 'pi muktaḥ subhal lokan prapnuyat punya-karmanam

Content: sraddha-van: faithful; anasuyah ca: and not envious; srnuyat: does hear; api: certainly; yah: who; narah: a man; sah: he; api: also; muktaḥ: being liberated; subhan: auspicious; lokan: planets; prapnuyat: attains; punya-karmanam: of those with merit.

Content: 18.71 One who listens with faith and without envy becomes free from sinful reactions and attains to the planets where those of merit dwell.

Content: कच्चिदेतच्च्हुतं पार्थ त्वयैकाग्रेण चेतसा। कच्चिदज्ञानसम्मोहः प्रणष्टस्ते धनञ्जय॥१८.७२॥

Content: kaccit: whether; etat: this; srutam: heard; partha: O son of Prtha; tvaya: by you; eka-agrena: with full attention; cetasa: by the mind; kaccit: whether; ajnana: ignorant; sammohah: illusion; pranastah: dispelled; te: of you; dhananjaya: O conqueror of wealth (Arjuna).

Content: 18.72 O Arjuna, did you listen to this with single-minded attention? Has your delusion born of ignorance been completely destroyed?

Content: अर्जुन उवाच

Content: नष्टो मोहः स्मृतिलब्धा त्वत्प्रसादान्मयाच्युत। स्थितोऽस्मि गतसन्देहः करिष्ये वचनं तव॥१८.७३॥

Content: arjunah uvaca: Arjuna said; nastah: dispelled; mohah: illusion; smrtịh memory; labdha: regained; tvat-prasadat: by Your Grace; mayacyuta: O Achyuta; sthitah: established; asmi: I am; gata: gone; sandehah: doubt; karisye: I shall carry out; vacanam: command; tava: Your.

Content: 345

Content: Your mercy; maya: by me; acyuta: O infallible Krishna; sthitah: situated; asmi: I am; gata: removed; sandehah: all doubts; karisye: I shall execute; vacanam: order; tava: Your.

Content: 18.73 Arjuna said: O Lord, my illusion is now gone. I have regained my memory by Your mercy, and I am now firm and free from doubt and ready to obey you

Content: सञ्जय उवाच

Content: इत्यहं वासुदेवस्य पार्थस्य च महात्मनः। संवादमिममश्रौषमद्भुतं रोमहर्षणम् ।। 18.74 ।।

Content: sanjayah uvaca: Sanjaya said; iti: thus; aham: I; vasudevasya: of Krishna; parthasya: of Arjuna; ca: also; mahatmanah: two great souls; samvadam: discussing; imam: this; asrausam: heard; adbhutam: wonder; roma-harsanam: hair standing on end.

Content: 18.74 Sanjaya said: Thus have I heard the conversation of two great souls,

Content: Krishna and Arjuna. And so wonderful is that message that my hair stands on end.

Content: व्यासप्रसादाच्छुतवानेतद्गुह्यमहं परम्‌। योगं योगेश्वरात्कृष्णात्साक्षात्कथयत: स्वयम्‌॥१८.७५॥

Content: vyasa-prasadat: by the mercy of Vyasadeva; srutavan: heard; etat: this; guhyam: confidential; aham: I; param: the supreme; yogam: mysticism; yoga-isvarat: from the master of all mysticism; Krishnat: from Krishna; saksat: directly; kathayatah: speaking; svayam: personally.

Content: 18.75 By the mercy of Vyasa, I have heard these most confidential words directly from Krishna, the Master of all mysticism, who was speaking personally to Arjuna.

Content: राजन्संस्मृत्य संस्मृत्य संवादमिममद्भुतम्‌ । केशवार्जुनयो: पुण्यं हष्यामि च मुहुर्मुहुः॥१८.७६॥

Content: rajan: O King; samsmrtya: remembering; samsmrtya: remembering; samvadam: message; imam: this; adbhutam: wonderful; kesava: Lord Krishna; arjunayoh: and Arjuna; punyam: pious; hrsyami: taking pleasure; ca: also; muhuh muhuh: always, repeatedly.

Content: 18.76 O King, remembering, remembering this wonderful message between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, I am taking great pleasure, again and again.

Content: 347

Content: 18.76 O King, as I repeatedly recall this wondrous and holy dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna, I take pleasure, being thrilled every moment.

Content: तच्च संस्मृत्य संस्मृत्य रूपमत्यद्भुतं हरेः। विस्मयो मे महान् राजन् हृष्यामि च पुनः पुनः॥१८.७७॥

Content: tac ca samsmrtya samsmrtya rupam aty-adbhutam hareh vismayo me mahān rājan hrsyami ca punah punah 18.77

Content: tat: that; ca: also; samsmrtya: remembering; samsmrtya: remembering; rupam: form; ati: great; adbhutam: wonderful; hareh: of Lord Krishna; vismayah: wonder; me: my; mahan: great; rajan: O King; hrsyami: enjoying; ca: also; punah punah: repeatedly.

Content: 18.77 O King, when I remember the wonderful form of Lord Krishna, I am struckwith even greater wonder, and I rejoice again and again.

Content: यत्र योगेश्वरः कृष्णो यत्र पार्थो धनुर्धरः। तत्र श्रीर्विजयो भूतिर्ध्रुवा नीतिर्मतिर् मम॥१८.७८॥

Content: yaträ yogesvarah krsno yatra partho dhanur-dharah tatra srir vijayo bhutir dhruva nitir matir mama 18.78

Content: yatra: where; yoga-isvarah: the master of mysticism; Krishnah: Lord Krishna; yatra: where; parthah: the son of Prtha; dhanuh-dharah: the carrier of the bow and arrow; tatra: there; srih: opulence; vijayah: victory; bhutih: exceptional power; dhruva: certain; nitiḥ: morality; matiḥ mama: is my opinion.

Content: 18.78 Wherever there is Krishna, the Master of all mystics, and wherever there is Partha, the supreme carrier of bow and arrow, there will certainly be opulence,victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion.

Content: Drop everything and surrender.

Content: Not only is this the gist of the final chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, but it is also the essence of the entire Gita. In addition, throughout the ages it has been the basis of all spiritual teachings and spiritual Masters. 'Drop your mind and you will be aware. You will realize your true potential as a human.'

Content: Krishna concludes the Gita with one subject: Liberation Through Renunciation.

Content: Even knowledge about God creates bondage when it is intellectually based because we will only know about God. We will not know God. Knowing about God is not the same as knowing God. When we completely surrender everything, we will not even have the idea that we know God. We will simply merge with Him.

Content: Lord Krishna gives Arjuna the master key to experience enlightenment. Nithyananda beautifully explains what surrender is and what it isn't!

Content: Special additions to this chapter include step-by-step instructions for Guru Puja and Nithya Dhyaan, the complete meditation cognized by Nithyananda for individual and global transformation.

Content: Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-074-8

Content: PUBLISHED BY LIFE BLISS FOUNDATION