Bhagavad Gita- 108 Talks by Swami Sandeep Chaithanya

75. Devotees do not have Complaints or Expectations.

Lord Krishna explains the characteristics of the devotees who are dear to Him. Those who are devoid of hatred or disgust toward anyone and anything; those who are compassionate and are friendly with all; those who are impartial to all; those who are unselfish; those who are patient; those who are ever contended; those who submit their unwavering mind and intellect unto Him, are all dear to me. World is not getting agitated because of any true devotees. World is not giving agitation in the devotees mind either. There should be no conflict between the nature and man. Don’t judge anything to be better than the other. Such judgements are all mistaken mental imaginations. Devotees are free from happiness, anger, fear and anxiety and worry. They will not have any complaints or expectations. When one realizes that everything is Lord, there is no need for expectations. Silence is the state of mind devoid of expectations. Annihilation of enemies (shatru samharam) for a devotee is to eliminate ignoble emotions. There are no other enemies for a devotee.

“Those who do not have any needs and therefore no desires to be fulfilled, intelligent people who have not gone under the influence of blind beliefs, people who are clean in their thoughts and actions, those who are impartial to all, those who are not swayed by worries and those who have sacrificed the attitude of doer-ship are all My devotees. They do not rejoice in temporary pleasures and gains and they do not accuse anyone. They do not have any differentiation between the noble and the ignoble, or good and the bad. They see friends/enemies; honour/dishonour; hot/cold and pleasure/pain etc. with equanimity. They are happy with what they get. They do not need a specific place to stay as they see the whole universe as their abode. There is no ‘me and mine’ attachment for them. They are capable of directing others also to follow this path. Their minds are steadfast in the Lord.

74 Live Revelling in Reality

Worshipping the Lord without a form is revelling in Brahma that is devoid of any modifications. But know that It helps others to move; It is imperishable, in comprehendible and omnipresent. It is motionless as It covers the whole space. In this worship, one controls his senses of action, knowledge and the mind. He develops the sense of equanimity and he is interested in the wellbeing of all. For those who are body conscious, this worship is difficult to pursue.

Those who mediate by submitting all actions unto Him (that is to have the mind and the intellect aligned with the hands and legs, i.e, actions) without wishing for results, but with ultimate care will escape from the ocean of death and the worldly trials and tribulations (samsara). Gita advises many methods to meditate on the Lord.

Keeping the mind and intellect attached steadfast in Him is one method. Take everything in the universe and observe them in two ways- one that is with ‘me’ and the other without ‘me’ in it. If the vision is with ‘me’ in it, it will be incomplete and that is the duality – the nature and ‘me’ are different in this notion. When ‘I’ perish, then there is only the world and in this notion of complete surrender everything gets purified. This is meditation.

Gita advises us not to withdraw from the pursuit just because we are unable to control our mind. He assures us that by regular practice, this can be overcome. If that is impossible, do all actions for the Lord’s sake. Do actions that will enable us to fulfil our own life’s purpose. If one is incapable of doing this, act well in the world with restraint, but sacrifice the fruits of actions. Now in this concept, there is no ‘doer’; there is only witness. This is living life in the real sense. Our mind travels from the real to the unreal. Accept all experiences –good and bad- with the knowledge that none of these are really ours.

It is noble to get knowledge through exercise; but nobler is the meditation resulting from the knowledge. Meditation leads to sacrificing the fruits of action and from there emanates peace. If we have experienced peace any time, that must have been associated with some sort of sacrifice.

73 Those who Love do not Perish

When eating a sweet fruit, tell it: “I am taking your sweetness, but dear fruit, you will not perish. I assure you that you will live on as sweet words I give to others”. This is submission, meditation and love. In love, there is no death. There is no buying and selling; no one is eloping and there is no marriage. We mistake lust for love. Lust can lead to destruction where as love is devotion. We develop care from love. Care is the attitude a mother has toward her child who is playing in the yard even while she is busy working in the kitchen. From this comes inquiry. We all must become god-inquirers, not believers. An inquirer will keep his pursuits on until he attains the goal.

One can worship anything in nature as the Lord. Be it a piece of stone, wood, fire, tree, water, sun, or soil – anything is fit for worship. The object we selected is of no significance – sun itself or a bit of soil, doesn’t matter- but with what care do we worship, is the significant question. An Idol (vigraha) is something that gives us a clear grasp on the essence it conveys. Temples are the keys to the lock that is Iswara. Concepts of temples have come forth from the depths of human consciousness and no one is capable of negating their validity. A temple should, through reflection, resonate the mantra sound in the atmosphere thereby eliminate stray thoughts from the devotees mind to lead him to one pointed concentration. In the old days people went to temples to attain God consciousness- not merely for getting a job, for getting married or for getting cured of a disease. Such trivial visit to the temple is being careless in our pursuits.

Worshipping the Lord in some form is Saguna worship. There is no one in the world, who can say that he is not a saguna-worshipper. In the national flag, the nation is represented. In party flags we see the party and instead of chanting mantras, we chant party slogans. Instead of temples, we build memorials for the fallen comrades. Those who ask what is wrong in destroying temples do not want their party flag destroyed even though it is only a piece of cloth. Even to say good morning (suprabhatam) and bidding goodbye (subhayatra) in sanscrit is considered religious by some ‘modern’ folks! Everything is about projecting our own beliefs on to some object to worship that entity. If one is considered a ‘blind belief’, everything is so. There is no rational mind needed when we can see and believe something. Rationalization is required in order to ‘see’ something beyond the obvious and visible. One can achieve God through worship in ether way – by meditating on the Lord with a form or without a form. There is no need of temples and rituals to realize God. Having them is not a hindrance either. There is no conflict between the two approaches. Both are noble indeed.

72 We Must ‘See’ the Ultimate as well as the Apparent Truth

We learn history as the journey of mankind from the period of ignorance to the time of know-how that is today. That is, the stone age to the modern age. But the sages had a different way of learning the history all together.

The Upanishads say: son, there existed the knowledge and the truth alone and from there the journey has been towards ignorance. Lord didn’t create the world out of nothing- as nothing can be created out of nothing. When that noble ‘stuff’ desired to become many, it occurred so. Because many things came out of the one, it appears that many creations have occurred. This treatment of the subject matter is available only in the upanishads and the Gita, not in the scriptures of other traditions. Universal vision is to ‘see’ the real in everything.

We must see the truth that is apparent and the Truth that is ultimate. We must be able to enjoy the sunrise with the full understanding that it is an unreal phenomena, because the sun never rises or sets. It just exists. Sunrise and sunset are the illusions of the people living in this world. The main hindrance to see the Lord is the burden of desire we carry along with us. When we see a flower with the desire of owning it, we loose the vision of the flower itself.

Only with the unwavering devotion can one see and realize the Lord. A real devotee is always vigilant, but the modern devotees tend to leave everything to the Lord and do nothing. Those who act for Him, those who have Him as the only goal and those who have no enmity towards all will attain Him. (when we have different aims and when desire for ‘other things’, we will not attain that blissful state) We are afraid that if we keep our ultimate goal as the Lord we may not ‘get’ all the ‘other things’. But the fact is that, once we attain the Lord, all ‘other things’ will fall in place properly. Lack of clarity in our goals is the problem here.

Arjuna asks Krishna: who is the nobler? the saguna (through deities, temples and rituals) worshipper or the nirguna (treating Lord as the formless ultimate reality with no attributable qualities) worshipper ? The Lord tells Arjuna- just as a loving mother would tell her child holding his hands: “you are my precious son”. He says that a little child requires a lot of care and guidance, but those who worship me without any attributes is nobler indeed. They meditate without limiting Me, in any name, form, or space.

71. Remove the Lord from all Names and Forms

Arjuna prayed to the Lord to pardon his indiscretions. By omission, he called Him a friend, by the name Krishna, comrade and Yadav. This is the realization in Arjuna that the Lord is not an individual. It is also the realization that the individual I considered as my father, mother, wife, friend, child, husband, etc. so far is not that person in the real sense. There can be dialogue only between individuals. He is not an individual, and all our arguments are irrelevant. He is a presence – experience it, remove Him from all boundaries of names and forms.

All rituals are meant for developing concentration through submission for arriving at a meditative state of mind. These rituals are not to be done by others for you. They are to be done by you without any compulsion from outside. Arjuna is addressing Him as Viswa moorthe (Oh! the one with the universal form!). Only when we remove Him from all imageries of individual forms would HE become the Viswa moorthy. If we ‘see’ Him in one form; we are limiting Him to just that one form. He has thousand hands; we also have thousand hands and that many possibilities.

Krishna assures Arjuna that no one else would be able to see the Viswa roopam, even if they do scriptural studies, charity work or penance. Here Arjuna represents us, who are keen and anxious to know. The Lord consoles Arjuna by telling him not to be scared or mesmerized by His terrible form. Then he assumes the noble form of Sri Krishna. In the universe there are two forms- one that we like and the other, we don’t. Some people see only the drawbacks and problems in life. Only when we work with the attitude of ‘everything is Lord’ would our knowledge turn into wisdom. In that wisdom, the Lord becomes the Father of the universe, guru, air, death, fire, god of the seas, Varuna, Moon, creator, ancestor, etc, etc. Bow down and prostrate to the earth by submitting own body unto it. Think of the path you traversed. With this attitude of humility, we should see the universe. Then each of us will find and develop our own explanations for the Gita.

70 Rules are Caged Boundaries

Lord Krishna revolted against rules in his life and he didn’t approve traditions for the sake of accepting them. But He gave fullness to everything He touched. Gita is giving us the complete freedom, and it enables us to open up our own path. Gita urges us to break out of all the shackles and get out of the cages so that we can walk on your own. You would not need the help of any priests or middlemen when you stand on your own.

After beholding the wonderful, terrible and gigantic universal vision of the Lord, Arjuna says: Oh Lord, I bow unto thee. This is the attitude we should develop. We typically curse the Lord at tragic circumstances. When facing complex situations, and dealing with situations that are beyond our control, what we should develop is not an attitude of judgement, but a mentality that “I want to know Him, who is behind everything”. This will lead to better clarity in our life. With the attitude of the universal vision (attitude), even ugly sceneries will become beautiful. There, good and bad, real and unreal, and all dualities end. Lord is the time that is ‘destroying’ the world every moment of passing. But this is the way of sustaining the world as relentless change is the basis of existence itself.

Lord Krishna says that “these warriors will die even if you are not there to kill them. Death is also a definite thing born with a birth. You are only playing a part”. Act out in the world with this attitude and enjoy the world with all its prosperity. It is said that by seeing the universal vision, all ran hither and thither to indicate that all continue to act in the world relentlessly in presence of the Lord. Through the Viswaroopa Darsana, Arjuna relaized that Lord Krishna is the ultimate truth that is beyond the real and the unreal.

69. All Scenes are Universal Vision

Lord’s universal vision is not all-blissful. Understand that everything is part of it. Good and bad. Blooming of a flower and the most pitiful incident are in it. We should be able to see both with the same attitude as life will pose in front of us many experiences, including many heart-breaking incidents. Gita provides us strength to deal with such situations. Frightening scenes are also part of the universal vision.

Lord fills everywhere- sky, earth and the space between. Arjuna says that by seeing this wonderful frightening form, every one in the three worlds was petrified. ‘He’ had numerous mouths, eyes, thighs, hands, feet, stomachs and canine teeth. It was a horrifying scene indeed. It had no beginning or end, it had huge eyes, and the mouth was spewing fire. The people from the clan of Kaurava and Pandawa, the grand sire Bheeshma, Perceptor Drona and the warrior Karna were all fast approaching that terrible mouth of fire. Some were seen with broken down bodies stuck between His teeth. It was like flies falling in to the fire and several rivers flowing unto the ocean. All are moving closer to the mouth of death. The same energy field is the cause behind the sun and the moon giving effulgence to the whole world by extending His infinitely long arms. All actions and plans of the external world are included here in the depiction of the universal vision.

Arjuna, having held this vision, realizes that the Lord is the ultimate Brahman. He is the substratum of everything. It is imperishable and the soul of the universe and is in charge of implementing all natural and righteous laws. This is the wisdom one should get through the universal vision (viswaroopa darsanam). The Lord is not sitting in one place as He is everywhere. He is everywhere we look and see and not see. No one can give you special divine eye to see Him nor you can accept it from some one else. It is the maturity one develops to find the self through ultimate love and surrender. Any one can have this level of vision. Then he can ‘see’ an ocean in a drop of water and the whole forest within a seed.

68 Priests Hinder the Universal Vision

Lord is ‘claiming’ that He is the game of dice among gambling and the whipping among punishments to indicate that He is everything, noble and the ignoble. There is no end to His vast and omniscient glory. The whole world is but a small part of Him and He shows Arjuna His Universal form. That vision is as bright as if a thousand suns had risen at once in the sky. Arjuna sees many things that he had never seen before. As this vision is impossible to perceive with the ordinary human eyes, Lord Krishna gave him the divine eyes to behold the Universal Vision.

Innumerable faces; eyes; wonderful scenes; divine ornaments and weapons adorn that form. The whole world is in it along with its many divisions, forms and colors. It encompasses the first cause of the universe, divine beings; movables, immovables and the nature itself. The Lord is giving an indication to us that we also should be able to ‘see’ the universal vision when we see others. The viswaroopa (universal vision) episode should not be taken as a story about someone in history getting a divine gigantic vision. No Calendar can portray it. No lines in a drawing can depict it. Each one will get his vision in his own unique way. If we are able to get the vision of unity in diversity, that is, no doubt the universal vision. One cannot see it with the ordinary eyes- it takes the inner eyes of wisdom to behold it.

Once we get the universal vision, there will be no more religions. All priests will end up removing their robes and retire. Priests insist that these are ‘old stories’ and ordinary people cannot see the vision. They also discourage all kinds of enquiries. At present, our vision is limited as if seeing a palace through a key hole- seeing bits and pieces of the magnificent building. What we should do is to open the doors widely to get a complete vision.

67. There is no difference between an atheist and a believer.

An atheist and a believer are standing in one place! The atheist negates the energy behind the world, but accepts the world as real. A believer accepts the God, but negates the world as real. Both leads to division. Gita does not ask you to think against the world. Gita enables you to know the Lord and the world simultaneously. We have been learning the universe using many measures that we have devised over the time, none of these measures will be able to assess the universal truth.

Glory of the great ladies, prosperity, words, memory, courage and patience are all Lord himself. We should give god-level respect to what the women have to say because they are more patient and courageous than men. The Lord is Gayatri Mantra among the hymns. Gayatri is not any one religion’s property. By chanting that hymn we meditate upon the ultimate truth that is the substratum of everything. May that divinity be the guiding light that inspires our mind which has been matured through righteous thoughts and actions. It is said that if a pregnant lady chants and meditate on Gayatri, her offspring will become bright and intelligent.

Do not accept knowledge without the maturity to imbibe it because that will cause many misunderstandings. It is like warning some one not to enter a nuclear reactor without the necessary precautions! That is why in the old days, it was insisted that only a ‘qualified’ person should enter the temples. Now it is doubtful if even the priests are well qualified. They are concentrating more on the rituals. Anyone who has realized the universal energy- Brahma Chaithanya- can become a priest and thus make the temple an avenue to know god. Otherwise it will degrade itself and become something else.

In sama songs, He is brahat sama; in months, He is dhanu (December); He is the spring in seasons; effulgence in those who have it; endeavour and winning; nobility of the noble people; Vasudeva among Vrishni Clan; Arjuna among the Pandawas; Vyasa among sages; Sukra among poets; law and order of the winners; silence in the secrets and knowledge of the wise are all the Lord (Bhagavan) Himself.

66. Vision within a Mirror house
We should realize the Lord’s glory as we see ourselves in the myriad of reflections as we enter a mirror house. All are our own images; but they are all Lord’s as well. When we bark like a dog at those images, they will also bark back at us until we are tired of these futile utterances. The whole activity has taken place because of the ignorance that the image is indeed our own. Once we realize that it will be a blissful experience.

The Lord explains His most significant glories by taking the most special in each category of things and beings. Each of those embodies the greatness of the particular category. Once we know that it is the Lord Himself, there is no need to talk about the others. The Lord is thus giving a goal for each of us to behold and pursue. He is show casing all the possibilities that can be achieved and guiding us as to what we should all try to become unto like Him. Those greatnesses explained by the Lord are highly inspirational and worth meditating upon.

He is Vishnu among the adityas; He is Sun among the glowing objects; He is marichi among the maruths; He is the moon amongst the stars; Sama in Vedas; Indra amongst the Devas; Mind among the senses, Energy in living beings; Sankara among Rudras; Kubera among yakshas, Fire among the vasus; Meru among mountains; Brahaspati among Gurus; Lord Subrahmanya among warriors; Ocean in water bodies; Brugu among sages; Omkara in words; Japa in yagnas; Himalaya among the unwavering; Banyan in trees; Narada in celestial sages; Chitrarathan in Gandharvvas; Sage Kapila among siddhas; Ucchaisravas among horses; Iravatham among elephants; kings among men; Vajra among weopons; Kamadhenu among cows; Kamadeva among the progenitors. Vasuki among serpants; Anantha among snakes; Varuna among water-based beings; Aryama among the forefathers; Lord Yama among the implementers of the law. Prahlada among the demons; Time among concepts; lion among animals; Garuda in birds; Wind among the cleaning agents; Sri Rama among the weapon wielders. Makara among fishes; Gamga among rivers; Spiritual virtue among knowledge; dialogue among the debaters; Letter ‘A’ among the alphabets; dual conjugates among sandhis; time among that which are imperishable; All encompassing ruler and lawgiver, etc. are all Lord’s glories. These are all highly inspirational indeed.

65. Treat the Nature as our Guru
The nature knows everything and it is waiting to impart wisdom to us. If we sit down in a corner with a sincere question churning in our mind, even a mosquito will be able to impart the truth- “Brahma-sathyam - Bhaman alone is Truth”. We can understand everything from the humming of a mosquito. Go to a garden, flowers will impart knowledge to you. Nature is not blessing us enough because we think that saffron-clad monks are the only ones capable of teaching the eternal Truth. What is God and how are we to ‘know’ Him? The Lord explains them in detail in the “vibhoothi yoga”. His explanation is inexhaustible but here we try to look at the most important sections only. Soul – the atma- within everything is the Lord. He is the beginning, middle and the end.

The best imagery for someone to meditate upon is Sun. Sun blesses the whole universe by giving life and nourishment to all. He imparts light that is capable of removing the darkness of ignorance. We should also become Sun-like, spreading the light of wisdom to the surroundings. Sun in the macrocosm is like the intelligence in the microcosm. When our intelligence is hot, our mind should be cool. Moon is the mind and no conflicts should be allowed to raise there. We should keep in us always the Sun and the Moon as they significantly influence us. Ignorance is the only thing that the Lord destroys in us. Darkness of the ignorance is removed by the wisdom of light. God is bliss, but many people search for it in vain without knowing how to attain it. Everything that is noble as well as ignoble has come from the Lord. Bhagavad Gita doesn’t discriminate the noble things and beings as godly, nor the ignoble things and beings as satanic.