1. isbn 979-8-88572-631-3

Section: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA

Content: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA FROM CHAPTER 1 The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam

Section: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA

Content: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam

Section: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA CHAPTER I

Content: ESSENTIALS FROM BHAGAVAD GITA CHAPTER I Published by KAILASA's Nithyananda Hindu University | Copyright 2021 First Edition: 2021 Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-631-3 Nithyananda Hindu University 9720 Central Avenue, Montclair, CA 91763 USA www.nithyanandahinduuniversity.org All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Nothing written, explained, shared or promoted in this publication should be considered or construed as medical advice or a substitute for medical care. Any instructions, teachings and suggestions contained in this publication are purely in a spiritual capacity and not intended to be any sort of guarantee or definitive statement about one's health or one's past, present, or future. This book is not a platform, guide or instruction for learning or practicing any meditation, siddhi, process, āsana, kriya, diet, or other technique that is described or pictured in this book. Any such technique included in this book is for illustrative and informative purposes only and should be practiced only under the guidance of a trained teacher Acharya, ordained by The SPH Nithyananda Paramashivam. Copyright 2021 Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam. All Rights Reserved.

Section: Essential From Bhagavad Gita - Chapter One

Content: Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture that combines the wisdom of sastra (scripture), the depth of feeling of stotra (devotional song), and the practical reality of a sutra (technique). It is a means to enlightenment for all, delivered by the Master of Masters.

Content: Sastra (scriptures) are like signboards. They explain the basics of life. Stotra (devotional songs) help us surrender to the Divine through expounding its glory. Sutra (techniques) are literature, which gives us techniques to achieve devotion or enlightenment.

Content: Unless we have complete intellectual clarity, even if we believe, our belief will be a pseudo belief. Anyone can shake our faith. Our faith does not have a strong base. Our faith is almost like a building without foundation and if we build without a foundation, the same thing that happens to the building will happen to us, if we don't have the base of sastra.

Content: Unless we have complete intellectual clarity, our faith will remain pseudo faith. Anyone can shake it. It is like a building without a foundation. If our faith does not have the foundation of intellectual clarity, it is in danger of crumbling anytime.

Content: If you study the scriptures, your faith and sincerity will become so strong that nobody will be able to shake you.

Content: Again and again, I tell you: to love the whole world is easy, but to love your wife is difficult! The problem is, you think you love but you don't really. Your faith is not deep enough. This is because you don't have the intellectual conviction.

Content: Bhakti (devotion) is a touchstone. The moment devotion touches us, we simply become God; we become Divine. The problem is, we never allow it to touch us. We never allow it to work on us and penetrate our being.

Content: One guy lived throughout his life as an atheist. One day, he fell from a cliff and was holding, hanging on to a small branch. Slowly, the branch also started giving way. The man started shouting, 'Oh God I never believed in you, but now I do, please save me! Please save me, now that I believe in you.'

Content: He heard a booming voice from heaven, 'Oh my son, don't worry I will save you. Just let go off the branch!'

Content: The man asked, 'Is there anybody else out there who can save me?'

Content: Our faith is just pseudo. God is only one of the many choices for us. If there is no appointment with any friend or the television, we think of going to the temple. Until we acquire intellectual conviction about the purpose of life, God remains just another choice

Content: for us. Like one more shop: Wal- Mart or K Mart, spirituality becomes one more choice in our life.

Content: Understand: Hinduism does not worship idols. It worships through the idol. We don't stand in front of the idol and say, 'Oh stone, grant me this boon!' We think of Existence that is in the form of the idol and pray.

Content: So it is not 'idol worship'. It is 'worship through idol'.

Content: There was once a big, beautiful garden with many trees, with many varieties of flowers, many varieties of fruits. Three friends were walking near the garden and there was a big wall. One friend climbed the wall and saw the garden.

Content: He said, 'Oh my God! Such a beautiful garden', and he just jumped into the garden and started enjoying, eating the fruits. The second friend climbed the wall and saw the garden. He felt it was so beautiful but he had little bit of courtesy. He turned around and said to the third one, 'My dear friend, there is a beautiful garden below, come, I am going'. Saying this he too jumped and started enjoying the fruit.

Content: The third friend climbed the wall and saw the beautiful garden. He also saw his two friends enjoying and he understood the level of joy and the bliss that they were enjoying. Then he said to himself, 'Let me go down and tell all my people that there is such a beautiful garden and bring them all and make them enjoy this garden.'

Content: The man who 'comes down' to tell all his fellowmen about the blissful place that he saw is an incarnation. The man who descends from the Divine is the incarnation. The person who comes back to planet Earth to tell you about divinity, to make you realize what he has experienced, he is the incarnation.

Content: Jagat guru means a person who can help the whole world at all levels. There are intellectual people, emotional people and people who are at the being level. Krishna is a jagat guru who can help all these types of people to experience divinity, to reach the ultimate, to realize the truth in themselves.

Content: To experience the truth, a person who is ready to analyze goes to sastra (scriptures); a person who is ready to believe is drawn to stotra (devotional songs); a person who wants a straight experience, can wait for neither sastra nor stotra; he straight away wants the sutra, the technology or applied science. Sastra are like theory; stotra are like marketing tools; sutra are like applied science that give solutions.

Content: One guy reaches Yama Dharma's court for judgement. Yama says (Yama is God of Death and Justice) 'you have committed some sins and also have some merit. You can be allowed to be in heaven and in hell. You have a choice. You can see both the places and choose which one you want.'

Content: The guy says ‘alright, I’ll first go to both the places and then decide’

Content: He went to hell first. He saw that the people were so beautiful, dancing and singing. It had become completely hi-tech, computers were available, internet was available, they get the news everyday; everything was so new, air conditioned and people serving you everything. He thinks, ‘what is this? What happened to hell?’

Content: People in hell said, ‘all the technology people are coming here, all the techies are here and so we changed the whole setup. Now we have updated the whole system. No more like old times. Now, everything is new.’

Content: Then the man said alright let me go and see heaven as well. There is a chance that some techies would have gone there as well.. There is a possibility.

Content: So, he went to heaven. In heaven, he saw the same old Saints with long beards, sitting on clouds and singing Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Nothing else,nothing new. It is the same heaven, nothing much is happening.

Content: He went to Yama and said ‘I think I’ll go to hell.’

Content: Yama said ‘please be very clear. You cannot change your mind. Are you sure?’

Content: The guy said ‘yes I’m sure I’ll go to hell.’

Content: As soon as he decided, suddenly a door opened and he fell into Hell. There he was shocked with what he saw; he saw the conventional hell, people being tortured by many devils. It was the regular traditional, conventional hell. He was shocked; he asked ‘what is happening? What is this? When I came here half an hour ago hell was different and now the whole thing has changed.’

Content: They said, ‘no, no, that was our promotional feature from our marketing department’

Content: A guy was sitting on the banks of a river trying to meditate. He heard the sound of anklets and opened his eyes and saw a young lady, a young woman walking towards the river to fetch some water. He said, ‘what is this? What kind of disturbance is this?’

Content: Then he closed his eyes and started meditating again.

Content: Next day, at the same time, he heard the sound again. Unconsciously he opened his eyes, saw the young girl and said, ‘what kind of disturbance are you creating?’

Content: Again, he closed his eyes and started meditating.

Section: On the third day, at the same time, he became anxious and started waiting for the sound of the anklets!

Content: On the third day, at the same time, he became anxious and started waiting for the sound of the anklets! Many people ask me, 'Master, should we remember you? Should we take you as our Master?' I tell them never to make that mistake. If I am going to help you, if I am your Master, you will not be able to forget me! If you have to remember me with effort, be very clear, I am not your Master. Try to forget me; carry on doing your work; carry on with your life. Yet if you cannot forget, then I am your Master and only then devotion to me can happen in you.

Content: Krishna appeals to every type of being - the intellectual, the emotional or the being-level one. He has created methods that can give the ultimate experience to the whole of humanity - to people who have come and gone, who are here and who are yet to come. He has created keys to open any lock. He has created the technology for the future generations also! He is nithya ananda - eternal bliss! The Bhagavad Gita is the ultimate scripture which is sastra (scripture), stotra (devotional song) and sutra (technique).

Content: Arjuna's dilemma in the Bhagavad Gita is the dilemma of all humanity. It is an internal conflict between what we perceive as our value system and beliefs, and what we feel we needs to be done. Our value systems and beliefs are the stored memories that drive our decisions. The problem is that these stored memories lie deep in our unconscious. We are not even aware of them. It takes a Master to show them to us.

Content: Every one of us without exception, has inbuilt guilt in having violated what we have understood to be the commandments of religion and society. That guilt is what we term sin, and we are afraid that the unknown, the unseen forces will gang up against us and punish us for these violations. It is time: bring in understanding and liberate yourself from these beliefs.

Content: In a spiritual sense there is no such thing as sin. There is nothing that is totally good or bad. As the Tao very rightly says, good is mixed with bad; there can be no light without darkness, nor good without evil. When you become truly aware, you will realize that there are no sins.

Content: Whatever happens to us happens as a result of natural laws, and the realized ones flow with that realization. When one has compassion for all of humanity, when one feels for every living being the same compassion that one feels for oneself and one's own, there is no possibility one can think of doing harm to another. There can be no sin. And therefore, there is no guilt either.

Content: Arjuna's progress on this path of self discovery is the path of the Bhagavad Gita. That can be our path too, if we internalize the message of Gita. When there is no variation between what we wish to do and what we believe in, when we are aware of our samskara and we act in total fulfillment of these samskara in awareness, we have no dilemma. We are in fulfillment.

Content: Psychological blindness is far more difficult to cope with than physical blindness. Most of the time, you are not even aware that you are blind. Therein lies the problem. You can only look for a solution if you know that you have a problem. If you are unaware, you think you are normal, and that all problems you face as a result are normal too.

Content: Social acceptance is everything for most people. If they lose that, they lose everything. Their entire life depends of another person's recognition and acceptance. People have such a low opinion of themselves or place such a low value on their own judgment that what others may say or think is what they act upon. They dance to other people's tunes.

Content: We establish ourselves in an identity and then get bound by that identity. We dare not question who we really are. The role that we play, the role and position we have either assigned to ourselves or society has assigned to us becomes the most important thing in our lives. To break that is to lose society's respect. That is truly worse than death for many people.

Content: Honor is the code that society lays down for us as part of its control over us through fear and greed. It is a moral code, a code of conscience, a code imposed from outside. It is not a voice from your inner space; it is not a signal from your consciousness. It is a convenient anchor for you to hang feelings of guilt on. If you do not punish your daughter or wife because they are in seeming violating of your societal code, you feel guilty. You justify your inhumanity by your need to absolve yourself of guilt.

Content: It is your responsibility as a human being to be compassionate others, and in that mode of compassion you can never be harmful to anyone or tolerate harm to another.

Content: Allowing whatever happens to happen is the sure sign of an evolved spirit. Ordinary human beings have the freedom to think, act and choose. As a result, they think they are in control of their destiny. In a sense they are; the forks they choose and the paths they decide to follow are theirs to choose and follow. In a sense they are not, as it is their unconscious samskara that drive them into their decisions. These decisions, in turn, mould their mental set-up and reinforce these samskara. Yet, a human being has the choice to break out of this cycle and live in freedom from samskara.

Content: It is our constant conflict with nature that leads to our suffering. We believe we act out of intelligence, when most of the time our actions are driven by instinct - the unconscious - where the samskara reside. The unconscious operates at much higher speeds and stores far more data than our conscious mind. Typically, if the unconscious mind is capable of storing and accessing 60 million images within a short time, the conscious mind during the same period can process 60 at best. This has been designed by nature to cope with life or death issues. Unfortunately, this system gets used for all other issues as well.

Content: The motives, thoughts and actions of an enlightened being cannot be measured by the scales applied to ordinary mortals. Their actions may be seemingly immoral or at least

Content: strange as perceived from the rules and regulations of society. These actions are taken in a no-mind thoughtless state that is constantly in the present, with no expectations of what will happen in the future and no regrets about what happened in the past.

Content: It is as the Tao says, ‘There is no right or wrong; no good or bad; no light or darkness. Everything that is terribly wrong has something right in it for someone. Everything wonderfully right has something wrong in it for someone. Such is the truth of life.

Content: Fundamental, existential truths cannot oscillate between right and wrong. They are absolute and are beyond the boundaries of space and time. From the human standpoint, statements have to be right or wrong at all times and in all space. Unfortunately, in the true existential sense, there is so such definition. This is simply because Existence does not operate that way. Existence is random, truly random. Randomness cannot be differentiated as right random and wrong random.

Content: Anything that you do out of so-called conscience, based on what you have been taught, is right or wrong - is always forced. Because it is forced, you will always want to break away. It is only when you consider something to be the right thing to do in awareness, that you do it in earnestness. You do it because there is something deep inside you that tells you it is the right thing to do.

Content: In every action that we take, we are ruled either by fear or greed. Fear and greed are embedded into our psyche through conditioned mindsets of good and bad. Be very clear, it is not your conscious mind directing you; not at all. It is your unconscious mind driving you through embedded memories, which you have limited access to.

Content: Raise your awareness through meditation, by looking inwards and opening up your consciousness. There is no other way for you to understand and accept the way of nature. There is no absolute right or wrong in nature. Nature just flows. With meditation, you learn to flow too.

Content: Do not worry about what others say about right and wrong, including I myself. That is my awareness - not yours. Go into your inner space and find your own answers through your own awareness. Only then can you be free from the bondage of fear and greed, as well as guilt. You will be liberated.

Content: Quantum Physicists have found that sub-atomic particles do not behave in any predictable manner. You cannot say anything certain about them. In fact, strange and weird as it would seem to yesterday’s scientists, sub-atomic particles behave differently to different observers. The same particle being observed in the same and time and space by two different scientists would seem to be in a different state.

Content: The Hindu philosopher Sankara, who lived only thirty-two years over a thousand years ago, said the same thing. ‘Nothing is real,’ he said. ‘Everything is relative. The interaction between the observer, observed and the observation decides what is perceived.

Content: The truth reveals itself,' he said, 'when all three; the observing person, the observed object or event and the sense of observation collapse into one experience, and all three become congruent. That is the only reality,' he said. 'Reality beyond the illusion.' This illusion he termed maya.

Content: As soon as live under the illusion that you control your life, you live in suffering. So long as you think that in some manner you decide through a logical process and arrive at a decision that you make, based on which you act, based on which things happen, not only are you steeped in total ignorance but doomed to suffering and sorrow. Less than 10% of your mind behaves in a conscious manner that you can follow; the rest of it is deep unconscious.

Content: We have lost the key to metaphorical truths. That is why rituals which were steeped in truth have degenerated into superstition and mechanical repetitive actions. If you were to eat every morsel as if you were consuming the energy of Christ and drink every sip of water as the energy of Christ, you would never need to step into a church again in your life. You would be steeped in Christ consciousness. You would be another Christ!

Content: You asked about the mala, the necklace, my followers wear and my pictures on them. Please understand that many of my followers proudly display the mala when they are in my presence and tuck them into their shirts when they walk out of the gate! They are ashamed of what others would think and say. That is the extent of their belief.

Content: The mala that my devotees wear, are energized by me. They carry my energy; they carry the cosmic energy. They are like batteries which recharge you when you need this energy. There is no need to blindly believe this; we can use scientific instruments and show that they radiate energy. When a person wearing these mala meditates using the techniques I have taught, he or she charges these batteries further. They are inexhaustible sources of psychic energy. You need not believe in them; they will still work. They will heal you.

Content: These mala are made from special organic material. Rudraksha, one of the materials, is the seed of a tree that grows in Nepal. The word means 'tears of Rudra', or 'Shiva'. From time immemorial, these seeds have been prized in India and parts of Asia as sacred and healing. The other material, which looks more polished, is red sandalwood. Both these are energizing on their own, and far more so after I have energized them. They work on your throat and heart energy centers - the visuddhi and anahata chakras, which means they work on your thyroid and thymus glands. Your growth as well as immune functions are boosted.

Content: Arjuna was walking with Krishna. Suddenly Krishna points out to a crow on a tree and says to Arjuna, 'Arjuna, look at that green crow! Can you see it?'

Content: Arjuna responds immediately, 'Yes, Krishna, I do see the green crow.'

Content: They walk a little further and again Krishna points to another crow on another tree and exclaims, 'Arjuna, do you look at that black crow on this tree!'

Content: This time Arjuna says, 'Yes Krishna, I do see that black crow.'

Content: Krishna turns to Arjuna and says, 'Arjuna, you are a fool! How can a crow ever be green? Why did you agree with Me when earlier I pointed out to a crow and said it was green?'

Content: Said Arjuna simply, 'Krishna, when You pointed out to a crow and said it was green, all that my eyes saw was a green crow. What can I do?'

Content: Such was the total surrender of Arjuna to Krishna. Krishna was truly Hrishikesa to Arjuna, one who controlled his senses.

Content: Ramakrishna has said so beautifully, 'When thinking of the Divine or the Master, if you have tears streaming down, be very sure that this is your last birth.'

Content: Compassion - true compassion - which is the hallmark of an enlightened being, is non-discriminatory; it does not differentiate. To the truly compassionate person, the whole animate and inanimate world is an extension of his own self. Anything that hurts any object or being around such a person, also hurts him, and he too would feel the pain .

Content: True compassion arises from a state of absence of ego; from a state of no-mind and no-thought where the feelings of 'I' and 'mine' have disappeared.

Content: True compassion is a state of bliss; one of true surrender to the universe.

Content: True compassion happens out of an awareness of the collective consciousness - awareness that one is part of Brahman, when the self merges with the Self.

Content: Possession leads from and to attachment. There can be no feeling of possessing something unless one is attached to it.

Content: People speak of attachment, liking and love. All these are born out of and valid only as long as possession results. The moment the person who had wanted to be possessed and therefore liked, turns around and displays independence and unwillingness to be possessed, the liking and the love disappear.

Content: Possession arises out of our survival need; from our muladhara chakra. It is a primal feeling that yokes us to Mother Earth by adding our linkage base, our possession base. Out of the need for possession arise feelings of lust, greed and anger. Often, what one cannot possess, one wants to destroy. 'What I cannot have, let no one have,' one would say. Possession leads to violence.

Content: The very reason why we differentiate between two individuals is based on out own conditioning and judgment. Each individual is unique. No human being and no being, living or inanimate, can be evil. Existence, which is compassion incarnate, cannot produce something that is out of its character.

Content: When we are born we are able to see people as children do - without differentiation. If you watch a very young child, that child will go towards anyone, whether that person is holding a gun or a candy. It is immaterial to that child, as the child operates from curiosity. The child makes no judgment.

Content: As children grow up, they are taught by their elders that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. They are taught that people who come from a background similar to their own parents are good people, and people who come from a dissimilar background are bad people. A child does not differentiate; an adult differentiates.

Content: In this day and age, where the entire globe is a village, no man can live as an island. No group or race or country can isolate itself from others and survive. They have to learn to live with one another. Co-operation and co-dependence are the basis for survival and growth in this age - not violent competition and conflicts.

Content: Democracies do not work, however much emotionally we may want them to work. Mass consciousness does not exist; only unconsciousness exists at the mass level. To be conscious you need to get down to the level of the individual. It was not by accident that all great civilizations were developed by individuals, not by democratically elected leaders. Leadership can never be developed to appeal to the masses; those who appeal to the masses are not real leaders; they are manipulators of public opinion.

Content: Time and again we make judgments based on our sensory perceptions and mental interpretations. Please understand, your sensory perceptions are not real. 90% of what you perceive you do not even register in your conscious mind. It is like reading 10 pages of a hundred-page book and deciding about the book based on this reading.

Content: Your unconscious contains emotion-filled memories, samskara, which drive your decisions and actions. You would be shocked to know that there is no rationality to these decisions. Neither your senses nor your mind are dependable. Their judgments are questionable.

Content: You are intelligence, but you never draw upon that intelligence. You choose to rely upon your senses and your mind. The pleasures that your senses seemingly provide you from the external world are your sustenance and you are so addicted to this that you do not wish to go further.

Content: Your fundamental nature is one of awareness and intelligence. That is your core, your very center. But your mind is attracted through your senses towards peripheral attractions which are very transient. From time to time, you realize that the periphery is not your real

Content: home and you move towards the center. Then the periphery attracts you again. So, you oscillate. You are never at the center and never for long at the periphery.

Content: I have said time and again: I needed to experiment with ten thousand keys before I could find the right key to open the door to truth. I now offer you that key so that you do not need to struggle.

Content: Life is very mechanical for most people. One's past is vividly remembered and is extrapolated into the future. If the past event is one of sorrow, it is then avoided in future events. If the past event is one of joy, it is sought to be replicated. Regret and guilt are to be avoided in future, and happiness is welcomed. The problem is that life is not that predictable. The bigger problem is that we are so conditioned by our behavioral patterns, that in spite of all precautions, we keep making the same mistakes. Our samskara, the unconscious, the deep driving desires, ensure this will continue.

Content: Very few stop to think and to question the purpose of what they are doing. Even fewer question why they are here on the planet in the first place. We are all so busy running on the same spot that the action of running seems to be satisfying enough, falsely signifying that we are indeed going somewhere. If one is studying, getting into a school or college is a more important factor than what one plans to study. If one is seeking employment, it is the material benefits that are critical, not whether the work would bring joy, or whether one has any passion for the work.

Content: Sanyasin are very courageous people; they are not cowards. It takes tremendous courage to cut off from all material possessions and relationships and walk away into nothingness, with only blind faith in hopes of discovering inner bliss. It takes enormous courage to escape from the materialism of the world with an attitude of seeking one's true purpose in life.

Content: When the stakes are high in any competitive environment, when they are too high for comfort, we then fantasize about rewards far greater than what could possibly materialize - the more unreal the better, as it is easier than turning them down. Then, we find reasons why even these rewards, though far better, would not be attractive to us, in comparison with the risks we need to undertake. Once we convince ourselves of this imaginary sacrifice of imaginary rewards, we find it easier to walk away from the more realistic and tougher challenge that we have at hand.

Content: There is a folk tale in Tamil in which a jackal offers a crow fruit to eat while trying to entice the bird and capture it. Interested as the crow is, it is smart. It passes the offer by, and consoles itself saying that the fruit would have been sour - otherwise the jackal would have eaten it itself. 'Oh, oh, this fruit is sour', the bird says. 'I don't want it.' Time and again, people play this game with themselves and others. It is a game that everyone plays, and therefore gets accepted.

Content: We cannot face the truth, and therefore cannot tell the truth. Truth is dangerous, both to the one who speaks the truth and to the one who hears it. So, we learn to camouflage the truth, in a more acceptable manner.

Content: We create illusions in our mind about the situations we face, how critical they are to our existence, and then we build castles in the air where we would either live happily ever after or be imprisoned forever. We do everything except to face the present moment.

Content: Over the ages, connection has been broken by religious and societal separation. Contrary to what anyone may say, religion separates, segregates, and destroys. More people have been killed in religious strife over the ages than for other reasons of aggrandizement. As Karl Marx remarked famously, 'Religion is the opiate of the masses.' Opium blunts one's sensitivity to other humans, and allows one to ill treat, maim and kill another. Terrorists are only the modern day representation of what has been done for centuries in many nations in the name of religion; it is nothing new. Destroying one another has occurred through the ages, within religions through artificially created separations, and between religions in the name of my God and your God.

Content: In order to reconnect, we need to realize that 'No man is an island,' as John Dunne so beautifully said. We are all interconnected. We are interconnected at the spiritual level and recent discoveries show that we are also interconnected at the cellular level. Studies in molecular cellular biology by ground-breaking scientists such as Bruce Lipton show that Darwin was wrong when he said we need to compete to survive. In fact, we need to collaborate to survive. That is what cells do. They know intuitively that they are interconnected and that they are part of the collective consciousness.

Content: When we arrive upon this planet earth, we are open to all possibilities. We are centered upon ourselves as children in a very simplistic way, and open to all connections. It is as if we are a large open area that anyone can access. Over time, we build walls believing that these walls will keep us safe within and that the connections inside the walls are ours to keep. Slowly and relentlessly, the open space that we started with becomes a maze. We do not know how to exit, and if we do exit, how to enter again.

Content: People need to communicate and collaborate instead of isolating themselves and competing. At the very basic cellular level, it is now found that cells like to cluster together, and form clumps that can communicate. Cells communicate through their boundary membranes and not through their nuclei as has been assumed. Such discoveries by biologists such as Bruce Lipton stand Darwin's theory on its head. Competition does not ensure survival; collaboration and communication does.

Content: You have choices in everything that you decide upon and act upon. You have no choice only in two things - birth and death. Even in birth and death, your spirit does have a choice. It is your spirit, undying spirit, that decides where and to whom you will be born in the next life. You do decide your parents. You choose your parents the same way you choose your wife and bosses. You do not choose your children. They choose you, in turn.

Content: Think about it. Whenever you make a choice, the grass on the other side is always greener. When you do something without thinking about an alternative , you are safe. However, when you have alternatives and you need to choose, you are in trouble.

Content: At times of crisis when it is most necessary that we stay focused, we slip out into the past and future. The past, which is dead and the future, which is not yet born, seem to be far more important that what we need to address at the present moment. This may seem contrary to you, but remember, nothing of what has happened and what may happen, however concrete it seems to you, are of any relevance to you in your present decisions.

Content: What is in front of you at a given point in time is what you must use to make decisions - not your experience of the past with all its fears, insecurities and negativities. Past experiences will be of no help in making decisions. In the same way, none of your greed and expectations of the future will in any way help you in your decision-making. Do not mistake deliberate intentions of the present with speculative day-dreams of the future. Anything that is arising from the future is a fantasy, where your mind rules you. When you set intention in the present about the future, then you rule your mind.

Content: Rites and rituals, as prescribed in the scriptures, are an expression of one's inner awareness. They become useful when one is aware. Awareness is not created by blind practice of rites and rituals. How many people do we see muttering their prayers and mantra, rolling their prayer beads, while occupied in the behest of thoughts and acts? Their tongues are on God and their mind is with the devil.

Content: There is no hell or heaven. Hell and heaven are in our minds. We are in hell because we are depressed, guilty and in suffering. We are in heaven when we are in love - joyful and grateful. Hell and heaven are spaces in our mind, not locations that we need to aspire to after death. We pass through hell and heaven even as we live, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. We do not have to wait for our death to taste hell and heaven; we are in them right now.

Content: A preacher attracted a large number of disciples promising them that when they died he would take them to heaven. He said, "serve me well, and I shall take care of you in the life thereafter."

Content: One day the preacher died. His two innermost disciples committed suicide. They were sure he would go to heaven, and did not want to miss out on their chance to follow him. So they died too.

Content: All three reached the pearly gates. The preacher saw his two disciples and was immensely pleased. 'See. I told you I shall take to heaven. That's where we are now.'

Content: The person who greeted them took them to a large palatial building. He told them, "Whatever you wish will be available to you. Enjoy yourself."

Content: Preacher and his disciples were beyond joy. All they had to do was to think of something and it was there. Food, music, wine and women, everything came to them even as they thought about them. They indulged themselves completely. Many things that they dared not do back on earth because they had to present an acceptable profile were no longer taboo here. In any case they could not help it; even if they tried to suppress a desire, as soon as it arose it was fulfilled. What couldn't they do!

Content: After a few days they were tired of all this. There was nothing to do, no effort involved. It became a suffering to have things brought to them even before the desire was fully formed. If this was heaven they had enough of it.

Content: They called for the guard. When he appeared they told him politely that they had had enough of heaven for a while and that they would now like to take a look at hell for a change.

Content: The guard looked confused and then he understood. He smiled broadly at them and said, 'where do you think you have been all this while? This is hell!'

Content: Hell and heaven are our perceptions.

Content: Religions and religious authorities have created the concepts of hell and heaven, as factors of inducing guilt and motivation, to control others. They have also created the concept of sin. There is no sin in spiritual terms. Where there is sin there is also merit. It is the principle of Tao; there can be no good without evil, and no evil without good. The only sin we are in, the original sin, is the ignorance of our own divinity.

Content: The culture has become one of dropping parents, spouses, children and other beings that we link with in life, as if they are discarded and used clothing. There is no attachment to beings, to relationships. There is instead detachment as with the dolls that one played with as children. Unfortunately, this detachment arises out of a far deeper and far more dangerous attachment to other material objects and issues. Such people, especially in the Western world today, drop relationships and constantly seek something more meaningful in their lives - constantly seeking that one person that they could be happy with forever after. From one relationship, they go to another; from one job they go to another; from one city they go to another. They constantly seek happiness in the external world.

Content: Every one knew Yogi Maharaj. They knew of him as an eccentric man. So, one day when his friends and neighbors found him walking up and down in front of his house, beneath the street lamp, they did not take any notice. 'That is Yogi', they said and moved on.

Content: But, when they found him there late at night, still walking up and down, they were concerned. Yogi, what are you doing, they asked.

Content: 'Oh, nothing', he said.

Content: 'Why are you walking up and down outside your home, instead of sleeping?' They asked.

Content: 'Oh, I am searching for my gold ring,' said Yogi. 'It is very precious, it is an heirloom from many generations ago. I must find it.'

Content: 'Ok,' they said, 'we will help you, and searched along with him.' Even after several hours they could not find the ring.

Content: His neighbor, who knew Yogi Maharaj well, suddenly had a doubt. 'Where did you lose that ring, Yogi?' he asked.

Content: 'Oh, it was inside a box in my bedroom, but I cannot find it now, that's why I am searching', said Yogi.

Content: 'If you lost it in your bedroom, why are you looking for it under the street lamp?', asked the neighbor. 'Yes, yes', chorused the other friends.

Content: 'Oh, that's simple', said Yogi, 'there is no light in my bedroom. I can only search where there is light. That's why.'

Content: Almost all of us search for happiness in the external world because that is all we know; because that is how we all have been educated all our life. We have only learned how to look outside. We have never learned how to look inside. Happiness comes from within. Eternal happiness that constantly flows as bliss is always from within. You cannot find it outside. You cannot reach it through material possessions, through self-centered relationships, through selfish philanthropy. It is a state of mind that you reach within yourself.

Content: Children are in bliss. Have you ever seen an infant or a young child unhappy, except when it is physically disturbed by hunger, thirst or pain? A young child is forever in bliss, always curious, always seeking. As we grow, as we learn from others, we learn how to move away from that bliss. Our education does not give us anything positive; all it does is to rob us of our bliss. We learn from elders, from teachers, from people around us, who have been at it longer than us, how to stop feeling blissful. Just as we learn how to stop feeling blissful, we can also learn how to un-stop that stopping of bliss. We can re-learn how to feel bliss again. We can learn to become aware.

Content: The truth of the Bhagavad Gita is at many levels. What you read from a translation or even a commentary such as this is still only superficial. It is at the physical level. There are many more energy levels at which the Bhagavad Gita needs to be understood. These can only be conveyed at an intimate master-to-disciple level.

Content: Any personal transformation is dependent on two things. First, you must be involved as the person responsible wanting to be transformed. No master, no book, nothing can be of

Content: help if you do not wish to transform. You must seek to be transformed. The universe is not bothered whether you are transformed or not; it is up to you. Second, you must be in the present moment in order that you may be transformed. You cannot live in the past or fantasize about the future and expect to be transformed.

Content: That is why meditation is such a powerful tool of personal transformation; in fact the only tool of personal transformation. No one can meditate on your behalf. You need to do it yourself. Meditation immediately brings you into the present moment so, you can be transformed, liberated, and enlightened.

Content: The Bhagavad Gita is meditation. Each verse is a sutra that you can meditate upon. These verses, this profound truth will take you deeper into inner awareness in meditation as you contemplate upon them and will transform you as nothing else can. That is why Sankara says even a little reading of the Bhagavad Gita will liberate you.

Content: All I teach you is to experience truth for yourself, and not to believe anyone, even myself. When you experience the truth, that is your truth. That is the truth that liberates you.

Content: Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-631-3