This is an e-book convertible download.
Return to Vahini.org / Bababooks.org
- SAI BABA GITA
The Way to Self-Realization
and Liberation in this AgeCompiled and edited by Al Drucker
Published by Atma Press
Part One: Path of Devotion
Part Two: Path of Wisdom
Part Three: Path of ActionPart One - Path of Devotion
Foreword
I would like to give you, dear reader, some background on how this book came about. In August and September of 1984, there were extensive riots in South India. There were shootings not far from Sai Baba's ashram and the ashram gates were locked. Armed soldiers were patrolling outside and escorting the college students into the ashram for the evening meetings. For 34 days during the height of the tension, Sai Baba spoke in daily discourses to the students on the Gita. He spoke in Telugu, his native language. These talks form the chapters of this book.
I was living in Baba's ashram at the time and teaching in his university. With Baba's permission, I used these powerful Gita teachings over the years as the basis for my scheduled talks to visitors who came to the ashram from all over the world. It has been my good fortune to work with this material now for almost 9 years. Every moment spent on it has brought new light and depth of understanding, and, as has happened to many others, these teachings have unalterably transformed my life.
Five years ago, I had the chance to publish this Gita in India, from the edited translations of Baba's talks. 12,000 copies in English were printed and distributed, and translations were published in a number of European and Asian languages. The original manuscript was presented to Sai Baba on the stage of the auditorium during the Christmas function in 1987, and he graciously blessed it and signed the title page. That work contained extensive Sanskrit phrases and references to traditional Indian themes, which were familiar to Indian devotees.
In the intervening years, the Indian English edition has gone out of print. With the intention of making these teachings widely available without need for the reader to have an extensive background in Sanskrit or Indian philosophy or prior knowledge of the characters and stories that fill Baba's talks, this book was prepared in the present edition. Here, the majority of Sanskrit terms have been deleted and incorporated in their English equivalents into the body of the text. Also, the chapters have been freely edited to clarify any difficult passages or obscure references and to convert the spoken words into easily readable text. Every chapter has been arranged to stand on its own, with the effect that you can turn to any chapter whose subject matter particularly interests you, without first having to study all the previous chapters in the book.
In editing the text my primary focus was on clarity in conveying Baba's teachings to the Western reader, rather than on literal translation. I acknowledge the grave responsibility of editing the avatar's words and urge scholars to study the tapes of Baba's Gita discourses in Telugu.
Al Drucker,
Crestone, Colorado, October 1993Messages
Suppose you are asked: "Who created all this multiplicity in the world; who is responsible for all this variety?" What will you answer?... The correct response is, "There is no multiplicity at all!"... The one divine self remains the one self forever. You mistake it as many. The fault is in you. Correct your vision. Remove your delusion. The divinity did not change into the world just as the rope did not change into a snake. In the dark you mistook the rope to be a snake but it remains a rope. So also, the divine self remains the divine self though your ignorance of this fact makes you see it as world... The world of diversity stands on one leg called delusion. Cut down that leg and the world falls... I often tell you not to identify even me with this particular body. You do not understand. You call me by only one name and believe I have only one form, but there is no name I do not bear and there is no form which is not mine.
After long searches here and there in temples and in churches, at last you come back completing the circle from where you started, and find that he for whom you have been seeking all over the world, for whom you have been weeping and praying in churches and temples, on whom you were looking as the mystery of all mysteries, is the nearest of the near... your very self... the reality of your life, body and soul. Assert it! Manifest it!
You as body, mind or soul are a dream. But what you really are is pure existence, knowledge, bliss. You are the God of this universe. You are creating this whole universe and drawing it in. To gain the Infinite, the miserable little prison individuality must go.... Follow the heart. A pure heart seeks beyond the intellect. It gets inspired.... Within you is the real happiness. Within you is the mighty ocean of nectar divine. Seek it within you. Feel it. Feel it. It is here, the self. It is not the body, the mind, the intellect. All these are simply manifestations. Above all these you are. You appear as the smiling flower, as the twinkling stars. What is there in the world which can make you desire anything?
- From sayings and writings of Sai Baba
Sai Baba
For the countless millions of devotees who have come into his fold, Sai Baba is the avatar of this age. He is revered as the incarnation of the full power of divinity. Such an auspicious advent has not occurred since ancient days when the divinity came into human form 5000 years ago, in another major age of mankind. Then he came as Krishna, to enact the role of avatar of that particular age. Now, the divinity has come again in the role of world teacher, to guide and uplift mankind at this present critical time in human history.
Just as sweetness cannot be understood through words alone, but must be experienced directly through the taste, so also the Sai phenomenon cannot be understood by merely reading about him or studying his words or even experiencing him first-hand. His truth can be known only by fully living his teachings and practicing them in every thought, word and action of daily life. By transforming our lives in this way, we discover our own truth. This is the rarest of all jewels that this avatar has come to bestow on us. It is the deeper message of the mission for which he has incarnated, namely, that the divinity appears among us in order to remind us of our divinity. "I know who I am," he says. "I have come to help you to realize who you are." In essence, we are no less than he. We are God incarnate. That is the principal teaching of his Gita. He has come as the guide to help us realize our truth and return mankind to its divine source.
The three Incarnations of Sai
Like Allah of the Muslims, or Jahweh of the Jews, or Divine Father of the Christians, or the Buddha Nature of the Buddhists, or Ahura Mazda of the Parses, or the Supreme Self of the Vedantins, or the Great Spirit of the native Americans, Sai Baba is a name for the omnipresent, supreme reality, which in most religions is known as God. The one divinity takes on countless names and manifests itself in countless forms. It has chosen a 250 year period beginning in the early 19th century to manifest successively in three human forms as avatar for this kali age, to restore righteousness to floundering humanity. All three of these incarnations are called Sai Baba, which means divine mother-father.
The present Sai Baba, born in 1926, is the second in a succession of three incarnations of the Sai avatar. He is known as Sathya Sai Baba. The first incarnation was Shirdi Sai Baba, who left his mortal body eight years earlier in 1918. Shirdi Sai Baba lived his life exemplifying the unity of God and the brotherhood of man, by ministering to both the Hindu and Muslim communities of central India, each of which claimed him as their own. For many years, he would spend alternate days living in a Hindu temple and in a Muslim mosque.
The Sai avatar will remain in the present Sathya Sai form until his mid 90's, well into the 21st century. Then, shortly after leaving his physical body, he will be born again in the south of India, appearing as the third and final incarnation. At that time he will be known as Prema Sai Baba and will complete the mission of the Sai avatar to end this kali age and usher in the golden age for mankind.
Sai Baba's Ashram - Prashanti Nilayam
Sathya Sai Baba took birth in the little out-of-the-way hamlet of Puttaparthi in the south of India, near Bangalore. Now, a modern township has sprung up there, called Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of ultimate peace, which is his main ashram. It provides accommodations for thousands of pilgrims from all over India and from all parts of the globe, who come to experience Sai Baba's daily public contacts with the devotees and private interviews for those who are fortunate to be chosen.
The ashram houses a comprehensive educational complex where students come from all parts of India and abroad to live and study together. Small children can come into the residential program starting at the age of five in the primary school, then go on to the high school, college and university levels, and finally on to the postgraduate and doctoral levels, to complete their education twenty years later. The Sai educational system, with campuses in various states of India, is wholly non-denominational and completely cost-free. All the educational costs for thousands of students are borne directly by the Sathya Sai Baba Trust.
Also at Prashanti Nilayam is the central headquarters for the worldwide network of Sai service organizations, engaged in a wide range of community service projects and in bringing education in human values into government and private school systems throughout the world. Recently, the largest specialty hospital in Asia was inaugurated at the ashram. Here patients, no matter how poor, can come from all over the globe for open heart surgery. They stay at the hospital with no charge for doctors, medicine, hospital services, food or room.
Sai Baba, the Human Being and the God-Man
The hub of all this activity is Sai Baba, who from his earliest days has attracted large numbers of people to him through his unique personal presence. He can only be described as the personification of pure, selfless love, the embodiment of perfect peace and bliss, the essence of all goodness. He manifests every noble human quality that mankind admires and he incorporates every divine quality that is characteristic of the avatar. He has the full power of nature in his hand. He has all knowledge at his command. He knows the past, present and future of everyone who comes to him. He manifests himself in many parts of the world for the sake of his devotees. These characteristics, namely omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, are the mark of a full incarnation of the divinity.
In his teachings he befriends all faiths and emphasizes the unity of all religions in the oneness of divinity. In his personal manner, Sai Baba displays a majestic grace, and at the same time, an exquisite joyfulness. In the midst of a splendorous temple and ashram, he lives in a small, simple room, and maintains an austere life style, completely committing his time from early morning to late at night to ministering to the needs of those who come to him.
Not being limited to the physical plane, Sai Baba works in all dimensions, gross and subtle, appearing through visions and dreams and inner experiences, as well as in his physical form. As the divine teacher guiding the spiritual unfoldment of his devotees, he inspires from within and directs from without. He illuminates the heart and transforms the mind and reveals the greatest of all treasures, the immortal atma, the universal self abiding in every heart.
The Sai Advent
These two and a half centuries encompassing the Sai advent are a unique time of great spiritual significance in the history of the world. During this period, many saints and sages are also appearing on the earth in order to advance the divine mission of revitalizing spiritual values and reversing the present downward trend of moral degeneration which is engulfing the world. In the millenia to come, generations will look back with great awe at those of us who lived during this sacred time, much as we might look back at those fortunate ones in other ages, who were the contemporaries of Rama or Krishna, or of Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed or Zoroaster, and who had the unique chance to experience their sacred presence directly.
Very rarely in the long span of human existence, has the divinity taken a human form on earth and allowed itself to be widely recognized by many. And even more rarely has the divinity come in all its fullness and glory as avatar of the age, as is true today in the form of Sai Baba. Now, the full power of God can be directly approached and experienced by all, and his teachings, which have the authority of the source of all wisdom, can be understood by everyone, for he speaks to us in the language and the idiom of our present time.
Introduction to the Gita
Gita means song. But the Gita is no ordinary song. It is the divine song of emancipation. It is given by God to free us of the illusions that have kept us bound. The Gita celebrates our highest truth, the atma.
Atma means self. But atma also means God. Atma is our god-self, our true self. And since God is always one, atma is the one true self of everyone and everything. Illusion makes it appear as the many. Our destiny is to dispel the clouds of illusion so that our truth is revealed and the atma is realized. That is selfknowledge.
When self-knowledge comes, the illusion of separate beings and separate objects goes, and is replaced by unity consciousness. Self-knowledge is the only knowledge that has truly eternal and lasting value, for it enables us to transcend all limitations of time and space, and be immersed in the bliss of the atma.
In every major age, God comes as avatar and teaches the Gita to initiate us into self-knowledge and dispel the veils which hide our divine nature. 5000 years ago, God came as Krishna, to render this song of truth at a time of great moral decline. At that time, he gave the Gita in order to rescue Arjuna, and through him all of mankind, from the fog of illusion and attachment. In this age, he has come again as Sai Baba, to give this sacred teaching at another time of great turmoil and deteriorating values. The malady he is treating is the same, and the remedy he prescribes is also the same, stemming from the same ancient wisdom. But, being the very source of eternal wisdom, he knows how to transmit it in a way which makes it come alive today and be meaningful in this present age.
In his Gita teachings, Baba shows us how to transcend the false perception of our senses and mind, which constantly support the illusion of separate existence. Step by step, he directs us onto the inner path to discover who we truly are. When all illusion is stripped away, we realize that we are not these bodies and personalities, we are not separate beings individualized into name and form. The truth is, and he emphasizes it over and over again, that we are not different from God. Our unchanging reality, which was the same before we took on the limitations of these bodies, and which is the same after we let go of these bodies, is the one divine self, the atma. Inexplicably, atma has become cloaked with the changing names and forms which make up the covering veil of maya, or illusion. But, under the layers of obscuration, hidden from view, atma shines in everyone as the unvarying radiance of divine light.
To realize this requires a purification of consciousness, until only pure awareness, unbefogged by illusory mind-stuff, remains. Baba tells us that when we give up our outer vision and our fascination for the world and, instead, turn our mind inwards to gain the integral vision, we become steeped in unity consciousness. When we give up body-consciousness we gain God consciousness. When we expand beyond our limited human awareness into the fullness of our potential, we become who we truly are. We transcend the illusion of separation of God, man and world and merge into the one divine principle. That is the essential teaching of the Gita.
The Gita is the very heart of the ancient wisdom making up the perennial philosophy of the East. It is the basis of all spirituality. We are told that it had a profound influence on Jesus, as well as on the Buddha, not to speak of the countless spiritual lights who have graced this planet in the millenia since the Gita was given by Krishna on the battlefield.
The Gita has something for everyone at every level of the spiritual path. Baba talks to each of us at the level at which we are ready, pointing us from wherever we are, to our final destination. If we incorporate this Gita into our daily lives, we will never need to read another book nor study another teaching. By following the directions given here, we will be led home to our own unchanging truth. First, however, there are a number of stages we must go through. They are best spoken of in terms of the yogas. The Sanskrit word yoga speaks of union, referring to union with God.
There are three principal yogas which Baba takes up here. They are karma yoga, the path of selfless service; bhakti yoga, the path of devotion wherein we see the divinity in everything we see; and jnana yoga, the path of wisdom, the culmination of the spiritual journey, wherein we dwell constantly on our highest truth. These yogas are the soap which purifies us and strips away the layers of unreality that have covered the atma. For too long, illusion and unreality have posed, bizarrely, but totally convincingly, as the only true reality and kept the bona fide reality, the atma, hidden. These yogas help return us to unity consciousness.
A question may arise as to why, when the verses of Krishna's Bhagavad Gita are freely available, Baba has elaborated this new version of the Gita. Baba explains that this present age is different from Krishna's time and different from Rama's time, as well. In the age of Rama, the forces of darkness were embodied as demonic hordes, external enemies that disturbed the inner peace and tranquillity of the people. Rama, God incarnated as avatar, personally took up arms and went into the forest to destroy this evil. Tens of thousands of years later, in the age of Krishna, the forces of evil were not outside in the forest, but right at home in the same family. Now the avatar did not take up arms directly. Instead, he drove the chariot and galvanized Arjuna to fight the battle and win the victory.
In truth, the divinity had already decided the outcome. To make it clear to Arjuna that he was merely an actor in this drama, Krishna gave Arjuna a vision of the cosmic form of God. Suddenly, Arjuna could see all of time, past, present and future. He saw all the combatants on both sides, engulfed in their inescapable destiny, following the play orchestrated by the Lord. Though he was engaged in fighting all the battles, Arjuna saw that he was merely the instrument carrying out the will of the Lord, and that the ultimate conclusion of the war, the triumph of righteousness over evil, had been decided even before the first battle commenced.
In those days people lived much longer than they do now. Baba mentioned that at the time of the Mahabharata war, Krishna and Arjuna were both in their eighties. Krishna and Arjuna had known each other for over 70 years. They were the closest of friends, spent most of their time together, and were related as brothers-in-law. In all this time spent together, the Gita never came up. For years, Arjuna, along with the other Pandava brothers, had nobly borne every insult and indignity perpetrated by their wicked cousins. But, the forces of evil were unrelenting. The conflict was destined to culminate in war. Preparations for the battle commenced. Now, on the eve of the war, when Arjuna saw his beloved grandfather and his revered teacher ready to fight on the opposing side, and all his other close relations arrayed for battle, he threw down his bow in despondency.
In speaking of this, Baba said that Arjuna had faced many worldly dilemmas in his life and knew how to deal with them. But, at that point, Arjuna was facing a spiritual dilemma. He was overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness that stemmed from the onslaught of his inner enemies, attachment, infatuation, deluded vision, and the rest, which had made him forget his own truth and his commitment to preserve righteousness at all cost. Now, in desperation, he turned to Krishna, knowing that Krishna alone could rescue him from this quagmire. He declared, "Lord, command me. I will do as you say." At that moment, their relationship changed from chums and co-equals to master and disciple. And it was at this point, Baba tells us, that Krishna chose to teach Arjuna the Gita. Surrender of the individual will to the divine will was the key to proper preparation in receiving this age-old wisdom.
Baba said that the sage Vyasa tuned in on their dialogue with his yogic powers of subtle hearing. Vyasa elaborated Krishna's teachings into 700 verses in the Sanskrit poetic form, which have been preserved through time as the Bhagavad Gita. But, Baba said that in the 20 minutes or so, when Krishna spoke to Arjuna on the battlefield, he did not actually expound all these verses or render them in poetic meter. Krishna's goal was very specific.
Krishna who was the divinity incarnate was always unremittingly happy. Arjuna, like the rest of humanity, experienced periods of joy and sorrow. Here, on the eve of the battle, Arjuna was deeply depressed, but earlier that day, Arjuna had been highly elated, eager to fight. Krishna knew that all of these changes of mood were caused by illusion. Arjuna was out of touch with his true nature, the atma, which is synonymous with eternal delight. Krishna resolved to dispel Arjuna's confusion and bolster his courage by teaching him the knowledge of the atma, so that Arjuna would discover his own divine truth and be forever immersed in unchanging inner joy.
In these chapters, Baba gives us an insight into the main points of Lord Krishna's Gita. Since this present book is the Gita for this present age, Baba gives many additional directions for our spiritual advancement, which are particularly applicable to these troubled times and our needs. His goal is the same as Krishna's, namely to establish us in ananda, the eternal delight which is our true nature.
This age is different in many ways from Krishna's age. In this age, the forces of good and evil are not only battling in the same family, but they are battling inside of every being. Baba tells us that if the Lord were to come today, sword in hand, to stamp out all traces of evil, no one alive would escape or survive. He comes, instead, as the inner director. Following his guidance, we must fight our own inner battles, conquer our own inner enemies, and gain the ultimate victory of salvation and awakening.
This kali age, in which we are now living, wherein gross materialism and lawlessness have run rampant and spiritual values have declined, is, in many ways the worst of all ages. But, from the spiritual point of view, this age is the best of all ages for the transformation of the individual. In this age we can most readily throw off the bonds of illusion and realize the atma. But, it requires swimming up-stream against the powerful current and rapids of worldly life, which try to sweep us into the abyss and keep us locked onto the endless cycle of birth and death. Now, the avatar of this age, through his teachings, shows us how to navigate these rapids. He works internally as the indweller in every being, directing us how to confront our own inner enemies and win this war of good and evil inside.
In ages past, Baba points out, the spiritual path was primarily devoted to rituals and religious practices, such as meditation, penances, chanting of mantras, prayers and other worshipful activities. These practices are still important, but they are not enough. Baba often says, "Hands that work in the service of society are much holier than lips that pray." He wants us to do karma yoga and engage in selfless service to mankind. All our work must be pure and done to the full extent of our capacity for excellence. At the same time, we must have no attachment to the fruits of our labors, but instead, offer up all our actions and their results to God.
When we see the divinity everywhere, installed as the indweller in every being, and we serve that omni-present divinity in all we do, then karma yoga automatically becomes bhakti yoga. Our work becomes worship. But in this there is still some separation between ourselves and God; there is still some duality. Baba is not satisfied with our spiritual progress until we become totally immersed in non-duality and reach our highest truth, the realization of the immortal self. That is the final stage.
Baba tells a little story of an old woman who was sewing in her home at night. She was working on her tapestry when she lost her needle. The light being very dim in her house, she went out to the street lamp where the light was bright, to look for her needle. Baba ends the story there. Whenever he tells this story he always seems a little amused by the silliness of it.
We are like that old woman. We have also lost our needle while working on the tapestry of our many lives. Our lost needle is the knowledge of our truth, without which we cannot finish our work. After groping through countless lives caught up in illusion, we now know that there is something vital to our existence that we have lost. We go to great teachers and to ashrams where the spiritual light is intense, hoping to find there what we have lost.
We get great solace being in the light and we gain deeper understanding of what we are looking for, but the final discovery of what we have lost can only happen when we look inside our own heart of hearts. There within, deeper than the body and the mind, deeper than our sense of I-ness which stands at the core of our individual self, beyond all sheaths, subtle and causal, which cover our truth, we find the brightest light of all, the light of atma. When the atma, our true self is realized, the tapestry of our long journey in the world which we have been working on for so many eons and so many lives, is finally complete.
Baba assures us that, just as was true in the vision given to Arjuna showing the final outcome of the war, the outcome of our long trek and our inner war has also already been determined by the divine will. We are destined to return home. Nevertheless, we must still tread the path and fight the battles and win final victory over our inner enemies. We initiate this process by making friends with the divinity in our hearts, keeping it as our steady companion and allowing it to guide our inner journey.
As we proceed on our path the clouds of illusion thin out and we become aware of a great mystery. We realize that the spiritual journey we thought we were on is itself an illusion. We are not individuals on the spiritual path following the direction of the divine inner guru. In truth, we are the totality. We are the divinity itself. We are and always have been the atma. Atma is neither born nor reborn; nor does it ever die. As atma we have not come from somewhere nor are we going somewhere. We have never changed. Only the illusion of individuality and separateness has changed. Ultimately that illusion disappears and we discover the glorious truth that we have always been one with God. Baba tells us, "God if you think, God you are. Dust if you think, dust you are. Think God. Be God. You are God. Realize it."
Some years ago in a public discourse, Baba directed us to repeat several times daily, "I am God, I am God, I am no different from God. I am the infinite supreme. I am the one reality." If we allow this declaration of truth to suffuse our lives and fill us with the consummate love that is God, these powerful words will gradually become our direct inner experience. More and more we will identify ourselves with the divinity, our real self, and less and less with these ephemeral personalities which are but shadow selves. Thus we realize who we are, the immortal self, the one divinity, which is love itself.
That is the inspiring message of this Gita.
The Essence of the Gita
For Western readers who may not be familiar with it, here follows a summary of the tradtional Bhagavad Gita, as set down by the sage Vyasa. That Gita was given by Krishna to Arjuna, just before a great war involving huge armies with millions of combatants, coming from kingdoms scattered all over the Indian subcontinent. In massive encounters that raged daily for 18 days, the forces of good were pitted against the forces of evil. This war proved to be one of the bloodiest of all time. When it was over, only a handful of men survived.
In this war, Krishna, who was God incarnate, took the humble role of a charioteer, to guide Arjuna and the Pandava brothers to victory. But, on the eve of the great war, it looked like the battle was lost before it even started. Arjuna, the foremost warrior on the side of good, had become overwhelmed with doubts; he decided to throw down his bow and not fight. This situation came about after Krishna had driven Arjuna's chariot onto the battlefield between the two armies. There Arjuna saw his beloved grandfather, his teacher and his kinsmen on the opposite side, getting ready to fight and die for their cause. They had allied themselves with the forces of unrighteouseousness.
Filled with a deep despondency, Arjuna said, "O Krishna! I cannot fight! I feel overcome by a sense of helplessness! What good is winning this war when it will lead to the destruction of all these kinsmen, teachers and heroes. I do not know where my duty lies! I beg you to tell me what is right for me! I surrender myself fully to you! I am your disciple! Please teach me!" Then the blessed Lord gave him the great wisdom teachings of the Gita.
Krishna started the Gita teachings with an admonishment, "Arjuna! Shake off this faint heartedness. It is not worthy of you. Do not yield to weakness. You have been preparing so long for this battle to preserve righteousness.
"Even as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on others which are fresh, so the atma casts off bodies and enters into others which are new. Bodies are born, and what is born must die. But the eternal atma is never born. It never dies. Weapons cannot cut it, fire cannot burn it, water cannot wet it and wind cannot dry it.
"This atma is not your perishable body. it is your immortal self, the imperishable self of everyone, once that is known, then what is there to grieve for? the wise never grieve... neither for the dead nor for the living.
"I am that atma, Arjuna. I am the supreme Lord of all, residing in the heart of every being. I am the father of this world and also its mother and sustainer. I am the beginning, the middle and the end. Everything is produced out of me. Everything is pervaded by me. No creature can exist without me. Whatever path men travel, it is my path. Whichever way they go they reach me.
"Though I am eternally birthless and unchanging, yet, I incarnate myself from age to age. Whenever righteousness declines and unrighteousness prevails, I take on a form, to protect the good and to destroy evil.
"Veiled as I am by my inscrutable power of illusion, my maya, the world does not recognize me. Although they do not know me, Arjuna, I know them all. I know their past, present and future. In truth, I am ever unmanifest and imperishable; but not understanding this transcendental nature of mine, the ignorant regard me as a mere mortal.
"Knowing nothing of my reality, they ignore me and become occupied in the world with vain hopes, vain works and vain knowledge. Lost in the maze of maya, they are spun around like puppet-dolls on a merry-go-round.
"This divine illusion of mine is most difficult to overcome. Among thousands of human beings, only a few struggle to know my truth; even amongst these that struggle, only one, perchance, comes to know me in reality. Such a one is a yogi, one steeped in the highest wisdom. Therefore, Arjuna, you should be a yogi! With all your being take refuge in me alone, and by my grace you will attain supreme peace.
"From this moment on, fix your mind steadily on me dwelling in your heart. Be devoted to me, bow down to me, worship me. Know that I am always within you and soon you will become one with me. Yes, truly do I promise this to you, Arjuna, for you are very dear to me.
He who knows my divine birth and work, will not be born again after death. He will not lose sight of me, nor I of him.
"Arjuna, whoever works for me and has me as his supreme goal, whoever is devoted to me and is unattached, bearing no malice towards any creature, will quickly come to me. Such a one sees me everywhere, residing in all beings, as the imperishable amidst the perishable.
"For these, who have me ever present in their mind's eye and serve me steadfastly with affection, I will carry their burdens and I will give them what they need. Talking about me to each other, they are forever satisfied and delighted. Out of my compassion for them, I strengthen their power of discrimination and destroy the darkness of ignorance that beclouds their vision. Bringing their senses under control they transcend the world of death and decay, and attain immortality.
"Arjuna, whoever offers me with love, either a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even some water... such devout offerings coming from a pure heart, I will surely accept. Whatever you do, whatever you eat or sacrifice or give away, whatever austerity you perform, offer that first to me. Then you will be free of the consequences of your actions, and soon your mind will become calm and wise, steeped in renunciation. Endowed with evenness of mind and having abandoned the fruits of your actions, you will be freed forever from the fetters of birth.
"Arjuna, resign every action to me. Fix your mind firmly on me. I will perform all your actions through you and liberate you from all sins. Fear not. By my grace you will overcome all obstacles.
"But if from self-conceit you do not listen to me, you will surely perish. You may think, 'I will not fight!' But impelled by your sense of duty, your own nature will compel you to fight. What out of delusion you do not wish to do, you shall do in spite of yourself. Arise, Arjuna! With the sword of wisdom that I have given to you, cut to pieces this ignorance which doubts the truth that the divinity is everpresent in your heart. Arjuna, stand up and achieve glory! You are pledged to uphold righteousness! The forces of unrighteousness have become rampant. You must encounter them and destroy them!
"Take refuge in me, Arjuna. Think of me at all times and fight! It is not you who will kill these heroes, but I. I am the world's creator and sustainer, but I am also the mighty world-destroying time that devours all. Truly, these warriors in hostile armies have already been slain by me. You are merely the instrument through which I act.
"Here, I give you a vision of my universal form in which you can see the oneness of all existence! Behold my divine power! Behold the whole universe, moving and unmoving, all unified in me!"
Overwhelmed with wonder and amazement, Arjuna bowed his head in adoration and spoke with palms joined, "O supreme Lord! Hail to you! Hail, again and again! If the effulgence of a thousand suns were to blaze forth together in the skies, their glory could compare only a little with your infinite splendor! You are the imperishable Lord, the undying guardian of the eternal dharma. You are everything that can ever be known. Seeing your awesome form, all the worlds are trembling with fear. And so am I. Just as the many rivers flow towards the sea, so do all these heroes in the world of men enter your flaming mouths."
Then the blessed Lord again assumed his usual gentle form as Krishna, and said, "Graciously have I shown to you this infinite, primeval form of mine. It is very rare, indeed, to see what you have just seen. Neither by study of the scriptures, nor by austerities, nor by charity, nor by rituals, but only by single-minded devotion can I be seen thus. This experience of my cosmic form and this sacred knowledge that I have taught you are the most precious of all treasures.
"Arjuna, have you listened to me with full concentration? Has the delusion caused by your ignorance been dispelled? Think over everything that I have said to you, reflect on it fully, and then do what pleases you."
Arjuna answered, "O Lord of the universe! Your powerful and wonderful words contain the highest wisdom, and you have spoken them with so much compassion. Through your grace, my delusion is now destroyed. I stand free of all doubts. Please direct me! I will do as you command!"
Part One
I. Love and Duty - The Path of Perfection
If you want peace and if you want happiness
You must live in love.
Only through love will you find inner peace.
Only through love will you find true happiness.
Love flourishes through giving and forgiving.
Develop your love.
Immerse yourself in love.
These words of Sai are a stream of love
Flowing out to you.
Embodiments of Love,
There are many fields of knowledge but there is only one supreme knowledge. This supreme knowledge is self-knowledge, the knowledge of the immortal self. It is the knowledge of your unchanging reality, your true self that which was never born and which will never die. There are many other types of knowledge. There are the different fields of art, science, commerce and education. But, these will only help you to gain some transitory worldly objectives and worldly pleasures. To realize the eternal bliss that is your own true nature you must have self-knowledge. It is the only knowledge that enables you to know the inner peace and the unending joy which is your own truth, your real identity. When you shine with self-knowledge, you become love itself. You become pure and completely selfless. Then you will always be in perfect harmony with all existence.
Self-Knowledge is God-Knowledge
Self-knowledge is not different from God-knowledge. The sacred knowledge of God and the sacred knowledge of the immortal self are one and the same. They are the one divine wisdom. When you realize the one self everywhere, you become established in unity consciousness. Then you see only the oneness in all the diversity that is around you. From that moment on, you transcend worldly existence and gain the immortality you have been seeking.
What is the basis for this supreme knowledge? Its basis is purity of the mind. To purify your mind you must suffuse your whole life with spirituality. Engage yourself in noble activities. Associate with spiritually-minded people. Observe exemplary conduct in your daily life. Strive to do your duty to perfection. Live your life so that it is one of selfless service and virtuous deeds. And study the wisdom teachings of the ages; put them into daily practice; let these teachings serve as your guideposts. Then your mind will become purified. And with a pure mind you will be able to discriminate between the permanent and the temporary, between that which is beneficial and that which is detrimental to your spiritual progress. Then all your ordinary daily activities will become sacred and God's grace will be showered upon you.
Now, you may be highly learned in secular knowledge, you may be a great scholar or you may be a world-renowned expert in a number of fields. But all your titles and achievements cannot confer on you real wisdom. To be truly wise and remove the grief from your heart, you must know who you really are. You must realize your immortal self. You cannot transcend grief by any other path. Only the knowledge of your true self will allow you to overcome all suffering and misery. This is the only knowledge that can bestow on you all happiness. When you master a worldly field of knowledge you earn the respect of your peers. You may become famous and fulfill your worldly aspirations, but it is only when you acquire self-knowledge that you deserve and earn the grace of God. When you have that, you become ever blissful. You enjoy the ultimate happiness.
Who are those who deserve to learn this sacred knowledge? Is it, as some would contend, exclusively reserved for old people, or does a child deserve to learn it? Is it to be given only to religious initiates or should it be made available also to those who have no previous religious background? Should it be kept for men alone or are women equally eligible? Truly, to gain this wisdom, race, color, age, gender, nationality or social status are of no consequence. The sage Valmiki in his earlier life had been a highway robber, the sage Narada was born of a lowly maidservant; yet, they both became great spiritual lights. Everyone is equally entitled to acquire this supreme wisdom.
The Lord comes to those who have devotion for him; he looks at the heart and not at the outer status. Develop your devotion. Devotion is very important to human life. The Lord said in the Gita, "You become very dear to me when you serve me with a loving heart."
Faith in Yourself and Faith in God
When the Lord counsels you to develop your devotion it does not mean that you should neglect your worldly duties. Prepare yourself thoroughly for all your worldly tasks. Take great care to properly learn the secular knowledge which you need to discharge your duties. Most importantly, always have faith in yourself, faith that you will be able to fulfill the role for which you have taken human life. Faith in yourself and faith in God is the real secret of greatness. In truth, they are the same, for faith in yourself means having faith in your innate divinity.
Worldly knowledge can only give you food and shelter, whereas self-knowledge gives you the greatest treasure of all, the realization of your own reality. Still, without some worldly knowledge, you will not be able to obtain the knowledge of the eternal. You should not be careless in the sphere of worldly knowledge. Spiritual knowledge needs to be balanced with worldly knowledge. The sages Valmiki and Vyasa were honored by everyone. They wrote many holy scriptures, including those timeless epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. They were great spiritual lights, but they were also very well versed in worldly knowledge. Otherwise, how could they ever have written such great classics?
Everything in the world is derived from God. When everything comes from him, what can you possibly offer him? The only thing you can offer him is your love. That is all he expects from you. That is why a great poet sang,
Beloved Lord,
You are the all-pervading reality.
When the entire universe is filled with you,
How can I build a temple to you?
When you are effulgent like millions upon millions of suns,
How can I offer you my small candle light?
When you are the indwelling reality of all beings,
How can I call you by a particular name?
When the entire universe is in your stomach,
How can I offer you a little food in worship?
All I can offer you is my love,
And all I can hope to do is to empty myself in you,
Who are the ocean of divine love.The Formless takes a Form
For the sake of human satisfaction you give name and form to the Lord. But in reality he does not have any form at all. Yet, he will take on a form so that you can express your devotion to him and worship him, and thereby satisfy some of your spiritual yearnings. Whatever form of the Lord you choose to follow, worship him with a loving heart.
Ramakrishna was not a learned man in secular matters; he was barely literate. But his mind was always engaged in worshipping the divine mother. With his heart brimming with love, he dedicated his entire life to the worship of the divine mother. He was living on only five rupees per month; that was enough for all his needs. Through his intense, one-pointed devotion, he became luminous. Today he is well-known throughout the world; you can find Ramakrishna Missions everywhere. He is universally honored.
Similarly, a robber like Ratnakara became the great sage Valmiki because of his love for God. Prahlada was the son of a demon, nevertheless he became luminous and pure with the divine love he had for God. Hanuman, a monkey, by repeating the name of Rama, became a glorious being who is honored throughout India. Jatayu was a bird, who because of his great love for Rama merged in the divine principle when he gave up his life. For devotion towards God, race, creed, gender or any other distinctions make no difference at all. Everyone is equally eligible.
The chapter on devotion is the most important chapter in the Gita. That is why we have started with it today. Devotion is not merely repeating the name of God. It is an undying and pure love for God. It is completely selfless in its nature, bereft of any worldly desires. It is pure, permanent and eternal. This divine love should be practiced constantly in your daily life.
Divine Consciousness
To begin with, you must know who you really are. Are you the body? If you are the body then why do you say, "This is my body"? Since you call it, "my body", you must be something different from the body. When you say, "my heart", then that means that you are something different from your heart. Your heart is an object possessed by you, its owner. You declare, "This is my brother, this is my sister, this is my mind, my body, my intellect". The unchanging element in all of these declarations is my. There is a true I, which stands behind this little my and gives rise to it. It is really the deepest consciousness in everyone and in everything. It is the universal I, the divine consciousness. This divine consciousness is all-pervading. It is within you, around you, below you, above you, and beside you. Truly, it is you.
This divine consciousness can be found everywhere, in everything in the world. But to realize it, the mind must be turned inwards. You must become inner-directed and search out your own truth. You must realize that you are not this, you are not that... you are not the mind, you are not the body, you are not the intellect. Then who are you? The answer comes, "I am I". This is the right path to follow for self-realization. This can only develop when you follow the path of love, the path of devotion. To search for God there is no other way.
Everywhere you look, the formless has taken on forms. God is present everywhere. But in order that you may comprehend him, he has taken on a particular name and form. He is everywhere as the formless divinity, but before you can get that realization, you have to develop your love and devotion for the Lord with form. Therefore, in the beginning, you enter the devotional path at the lowest rung, and worship the Lord with a name and form. Then steadily, inch by inch, you rise to a higher state. You withdraw your mind from the external world and worship the formless, until finally you realize your own reality as the formless divine principle. That is self-realization.
Work, Worship and Wisdom
Without flowers you cannot have fruits. The maturation of the flowers into the unripe fruits and then into the ripe fruits, is the path of self-realization. The flowering stage is the path of service. When it progresses to the unripe fruits it is the path of devotion. When the fruits become ripe and full of the sweet nectar of wisdom, then it becomes the path of self-knowledge. At that point, the flowers of good works and service have transformed themselves through love and devotion into the sweet fruits of wisdom. Therefore, good works lead naturally to worship and detachment, and on to wisdom. On the spiritual path, it is not enough to just worship; you must also engage in good works. But your works become worship when you steep every deed with love for the Lord and offer all your works to him.
As long as you are in this world, you must be engaged in work. Work is very important for human beings. It is through your work and activities that you learn to harmonize thoughts, words and deeds. For great souls, thoughts, words and deeds are always one. At first you will yearn for the fruits of your work. In the beginning, when there is still a great deal of desire, you will not be able to perform your work without a desire to enjoy the fruits. Later, however, you will become totally selfless and unconcerned with the fruits of your work. In that way, gradually, your work becomes converted into worship and, in time, you will be doing everything only for the love of God.
Truth is one, but the sages call it by many names. The divinity is one, but many names are used to speak of this one absolute reality. From the one come the many. When a child is born it is called a baby. As it grows up it becomes a youth. After twenty years it becomes an adult and later a parent. Later still in life, it becomes a grandparent. But these are all one and the same entity. Similarly, the ultimate reality is always one and the same. When you realize this unity and remain firmly established in the one divinity underlying all the changing names and forms, you will have achieved something that is truly worthwhile.
Extinction of Delusion
Have a clear understanding of the Gita in your heart. What is the essence of the Gita teachings? Some say that it is the path of service and action, and others say that it is the path of love and devotion. Still others say that it is the path of knowledge and wisdom. But these are all partial truths. The Gita starts with a verse whose first word is dharma, which means duty or right action. The concluding verse of the Gita ends with the word 'my'. When these words are taken together they become 'my duty' or 'my work'. That summarizes the whole teaching of the Gita. It means you should perform your prescribed duty to the very limits of the human capacity for excellence and perfection, doing the work that is appropriate to your stage of life.
When you are a student study your lessons well. When you are a householder perform your work and family responsibilities properly. When you are retired perform the duties appropriate to that stage, and if you have renounced the world to engage yourself in contemplation of the reality, then stick to that path. When you follow your prescribed duty in the very best way possible, discharging your duty sincerely and conscientiously, then there will be no confusion or misery.
Arjuna had to perform his duty on the battlefield. His calling was to be a warrior and to combat evil and protect the good. But, when he saw his friends and relations arrayed on both sides of the battlefield, he forgot his strong resolve to fight for right, the fight for which he had been preparing for so long. He became full of attachments and delusion, and threw down his bow. He abandoned his duty and became miserable. Krishna taught Arjuna how to free himself from despair by adhering to his prescribed duty. Krishna taught Arjuna the truth of the immortal self, and showed him that his duty was to follow the inner promptings of the Lord, who was enshrined in his heart. When Krishna finished his teachings, he asked Arjuna, "Have your attachments and delusions disappeared?" Arjuna picked up his bow and answered, "My despair has completely vanished. All my delusion is now gone. I will do as you command!"
As long as you have delusion you will be in a state of bondage. When you suffer from delusion and infatuation, liberation is impossible. Liberation has nothing to do with worldly pleasures. It is not an air-conditioned car or a comfortable life. It is the complete destruction of delusion. It is the extinction of all worldly attachments, the incineration of all selfish desires.
From now on, do your duty to perfection and become ideals for mankind. Apply the teachings of the Gita in your daily life and be blessed with grace. Many of you are just wasting your time. Start today to reform yourself. Don't waste time. Time is God. Every day spend some time on these holy teachings and contemplate their inner meaning. Once they are understood, put them into practice. Only in this way will you be able to attain a sacred life, a life of purity and perfection, which is the mark of a true human being.
II. Surrender - Transformation of Man into God
Krishna declared in the Gita, "If you surrender yourself fully to me and take shelter in me, you will be protected by me. I will drive away your sins and guide you towards self-realization." You must treasure this statement in your heart. Steadfastly follow the path of surrender to the Lord and he will look after you and take you to him.
Embodiments of Love,
God's power is immeasurable and unlimited. The huge diversity you see when you look out at the universe is all the result of the illusory power of God. The physical universe visible to your human eyes is just a very small part of the infinite power of the Lord. All the worlds can be covered by a fraction of the foot of the Lord. It is impossible to understand the greatness of the Lord. He pervades the entire universe, gross and subtle. No place exists where he is not.
The Universe
The universe is the body of God. He has embodied himself in the creation. To understand the divine principle on which the universe rests, you can begin by considering the vast size of the universe. The moon is hundreds of thousands of miles away from the earth. The sun is many tens of millions of miles away. Even the nearest of stars is millions upon millions of miles away; and beyond that, in the furthest reaches of the visible universe, there are stars that are still billions of times further away. But, all of this, which constitutes the physical universe, and which to our limited view is so infinitely vast, is only the minutest part of the subtle universe. Compared to this subtle universe, the whole grand physical universe is no more than the size of an atom.
The subtle universe, which is so indescribably huge when compared to the physical universe, is itself only a microscopic part of a much, much vaster aspect of the universe, which can be described as the causal universe. It is known as the causal universe because it is out of this finest aspect that the gross and subtle worlds arise. All of these three worlds, the physical, the subtle (or mental), and the causal, are so enormously big, the scriptures have declared that they cannot possibly be understood by the human mind or depicted in words. They are beyond the imagination, beyond the ability of the mind to grasp. And yet beyond all these, transcending the gross, the subtle and the causal, is the divine principle, the ultimate cause of all.
The Path of Devotion
God is beyond the gross, the subtle and the causal. But, as Lord, he rules over all of them. He is the master of time, past, present and future. Human beings have been given limited capacities and may find it very difficult to understand this divine principle. In that case, the easiest path to follow is the path of devotion. This is what Krishna taught Arjuna. Krishna described the path of devotion in three steps.
- First and foremost is: Work for God! You may not be aware of it, but every bit of work you do is already being done for God. He is the supreme master of this world and everything in this world belongs to him. Knowing this, consciously make every action you undertake an offering to God. Devote all your labors to him, while being ever mindful that God is not outside of you.
- The second step is: For the sake of God alone! Up to this point you have been thinking only about yourself. But who are you? Who is this I that you use to refer to yourself? Krishna said, "It is I who am shining in you." This word I does not belong to the body, neither to your own body nor to Krishna's. This I emanates from the highest self, the immortal self, the atma. This I should not be equated with the body or the mind or the intuitive faculty or any other aspect of the individual. It transcends the limited personal self of the individual. This I relates only to the unlimited, impersonal self, the divine self, which is the real self of everyone.
The limited personal self by calling itself "I", has associated itself with the universal. But the personal self is not the real self. It is merely a reflection of the one immortal, divine self. Whatever you have been doing has been for the satisfaction of the divine self alone. Not realizing this sacred truth, you have been caught up and swept away by delusion. Krishna told Arjuna, "Whatever you do, do it for my satisfaction, for my sake. Do everything you do for me. Perform all your actions on my behalf. Act as my agent." This me or my or I which Krishna is speaking of, is not God outside of yourself. It refers to the atma, your divine self. Do everything you do for the sake of God alone, who is none other than your highest self.
- The third step is: Be devoted only to God! Understand the inner secret of this directive. Devotion is the expression of love, and the emotion which is called love emanates from God, your highest self. Love comes from God and is directed towards God.
Love has nothing at all to do with worldly feelings and secular things. Love, which is just another word for devotion, is the very name of your highest self. This principle of love emanating from the core of your heart must saturate every action, word and thought. This will happen when you think that everything you do, say or think is for the satisfaction of God alone.
Your Highest Self is God
In the waking state, you may think that you are doing everything for the sake of your body and mind. But in deep sleep you are not conscious of your body or your mind. Then for whose sake are you enjoying the rest and peace of sleep? It is for the sake of yourself. Sleeping, taking food, all the various activities of your daily life, are performed only out of love for yourself. You believe that you are doing all these for your personal self which you experience to be separate from God, but the I that you call yourself really emerges from your highest self which is no different from God. Whatever you do out of love for yourself reaches your highest self and, therefore, reaches God. So you must do everything with the awareness that whatever action you undertake, good or bad, will certainly reach God. Devotion means making all your actions sacred and dedicating them to God alone.
In the ancient scripture we find a conversation between a sage and his wife in which the sage explained these inner meaning to his wife. He said to her, "For whose sake are you loving me? If you examine your deepest intentions you will discover that it is for your self. The wife does not love the husband for the husband's sake. It is for herself that she loves the husband and that self is the true self, her highest self. You may think that the mother loves the child for the sake of the child, but it is not so. It is for herself that she loves the child. Again, it is for her highest self. You may feel that the teacher loves the student for the student's sake, but it is really for the teacher's sake that he loves the student. Similarly, the devotee does not love God for God's sake; it is really for himself that he loves God."
When the devotee feels the deep joy of love for God, he believes it is his personal self that is feeling this joy. And so his love for God is tinged with selfishness. But, God's love for the devotee is totally different. God's love for the devotee is not selfish. It is only for the devotee's sake. Herein lies an important hidden truth which can be found behind every spiritual practice. God has no sense of individuality or separation. He does not feel that some things are his and others are not his. When there exists a feeling of difference and individuality, then selfishness and the sense of I-ness and my-ness arise. But God does not limit himself to any particular form. He has no separate feeling of mine and thine. He has no selfishness. These three injunctions, "Work for God!... For the sake of God alone!... Be devoted only to God!..." are given for your sake. They are not given for the benefit of God but for your benefit. They are intended to help you realize your true self by removing all traces of selfishness and separation which becloud your truth and keep you from being one with God.
The Unlimited Power of God
If you want a little breeze you may take a hand-fan and wave it so that you get a little air. On the other hand, when there is a powerful whirlwind you find very big waves crashing against the shore of the ocean and even huge trees being uprooted. The breeze you can get from a hand-fan will be very limited, but the power of God is tremendous; it is unlimited. Consider some other examples. When you try to draw water from a well, you can draw only a very small quantity. But when there is a heavy downpour, streams will become rushing rivers which join together in one great flood. One comes from the limited power of man, the other comes from the unlimited power of God.
Take the example of wanting some light in your house. You may light a candle or switch on an electric lamp. But at dawn when the sun rises, the whole city and forest will soon be flooded with the sun's light. The little light of your lamp is very weak compared to the splendor of the sun, shining magnificently everywhere. Again, this is the unlimited power of God, compared to the limited power of man. How can you reach this unlimited power of God? How can the limited capacity of a human being be transformed into the unlimited capacity of God? The means is surrender.
The Lord has declared in the Gita, "I will destroy all your sins and raise you to the supreme position which is my own." How can that happen? The physical world that you see with your human eyes is the gross aspect of the universe. When this gross aspect takes a subtle form in the mind you have the subtle universe. And when the mental takes a still finer and more subtle form in the heart, then you have the causal universe. The infinite Lord is beyond all these. He is the biggest of the big, but he takes the form of the smallest of the small, and installs himself in the very heart of the devotee, deep in the causal aspect. The wonderful truth is that such a vast, unlimited and powerful Lord allows himself to be imprisoned in the heart of the devotee. Here is a story to illustrate this.
The Devotee is even greater than God
Once upon a time, sage Narada came into the presence of the Lord. The Lord asked him, "Narada, in all your travels through the world have you been able to discover the principal secret of the universe? Have you been able to understand the mystery behind this world? Everywhere you look you see the five great elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether. Which do you think occupies the first place? Of everything that is to be found in the universe what is the most important of all?"
Narada thought for awhile and then answered, "Lord, of the five elements the densest, biggest and most important is surely the earth element." The Lord answered, "How can the earth element be biggest when three-fourths of the earth is covered by water and only one-fourth is land? Such a big earth is being swallowed by the water. What is bigger, the thing that is being swallowed or that which is swallowing it?" Narada acknowledged that water must be bigger because it had swallowed the Earth.
The Lord continued his questioning. He said, "But Narada, we have the ancient tale that when the demons hid in the waters, then in order to find them, a great sage came and swallowed up the whole ocean in one gulp. Do you think the sage is greater or the ocean is greater?" Narada had to agree that without doubt the sage was certainly greater than the water he had swallowed. "But," continued the Lord, "it is said that when he left his earthly body, this same sage became a star in the heavens. Such a great sage is now appearing only as a small star in the vast expanse of the sky. Then what do you think is bigger; is it the sage or is it the sky that is bigger?" Narada answered, "Swami, the sky is surely bigger than the sage." Then the Lord asked, "Yet we know that one time when the Lord came as avatar and incarnated in a dwarf-body, he expanded himself so hugely that he was able to cover both the earth and the sky with his one foot. Do you think God's foot is bigger or the sky?" "O, God's foot is certainly bigger," Narada replied. But, the Lord asked, "If God's foot is so big, then what about his infinite form?"
Now, Narada felt that he had come to the final conclusion. "Yes," he said exultantly, "the Lord is the biggest of all. He is infinite beyond measure. In all the worlds there is nothing greater than he." But the Lord had still one more question. "What about the devotee who has been able to imprison this infinite Lord within his own heart? Now tell me, Narada, who is greater, the devotee who has the Lord locked up or the Lord who is locked up by the devotee?" Narada had to admit that the devotee was even greater than the Lord, and that, therefore, the devotee must rank first in importance over everything, surpassing even the Lord.
You can bind God with the Power of Love
Such an enormous power which can bind even God, is within the scope of every devotee. Whatever be the immensity and capacity of any power, however magnificent it may be, if it is bound by something else, then that which binds it must be considered more powerful. The awesome power of God has been bound by the power of love; therefore, in this path of devotion, you can tie up the Lord himself and keep him locked in your heart.
If you take a drop of water from the ocean and keep it in the palm of your hand, compared with the ocean the drop appears very, very small. But put that same drop of water back into the ocean and it becomes a part of the infinite ocean. If your smallness as a human being is joined together with the vast power of the Lord, you become infinite and all-powerful; you become one with God. In the scriptures it is said, "The knower of God verily becomes God." In other words, the very process of knowing God merges you into oneness with God. This process which joins God and you together is called the path of devotion.
Unfortunately, many people today choose not to even recognize God; instead they prefer to rely only on their own limited strength and to be impressed only by human achievement. They are prepared to bend low before a village officer or a petty government official, but they refuse to show humility and obedience to the all-powerful cosmic personality, who is the master of the universe. God, who is the origin and cause of everything seen and unseen, is being ignored. The reason for this sad state is that very few have been able to understand the underlying truth behind this vast manifested universe. If they were to see that everything is but a reflection of the one divinity, they would never follow the wrong path.
If you have a wish-fulfilling tree in your courtyard why search for wild fruits in the forest? If you have the all-giving celestial cow in your house why wander around the market place looking for milk to buy? If you recognize the unlimited benefits you derive from having the celestial cow, you would never look elsewhere and get caught up in trivial pursuits. For little minds even small things look very big. You get what you deserve; think little and you become little. Little thoughts breed little natures. You are attracted by small things because you think that your power is limited. But truly speaking, your power is unlimited.
From Duality to Non-Duality
You remain small by identifying yourself with the body. You think, 'I am the body'. This thought keeps you in a state of littleness. But expand your view from 'I am the body' to 'I am the soul, the spark of the divine.' In this way rise up from the stage of dualism to the intermediary stage of qualified non-dualism. Then, you must expand further from 'I am the soul, a part of the divine' to 'I am the divinity itself, I am no different from God. God and I are always one.' That is the highest spiritual stage, the stage of complete non-dualism. The feeling you start with, that you are the body, is steeped in dualism; it is the very birthplace of sorrow. As long as you are immersed in duality everything is sorrow and grief. If you identify yourself with the supreme self everything will be happiness and joy.
You must elevate your thinking and always identify yourself with your highest self, thus giving up the false identification with the body. This is the proper attitude for worship. Worship in Sanskrit is called upasana;, which means sitting near to God. But it is not enough to just sit close by and be near. The frog sits on the lotus but does it benefit from the sweet nectar that is in the lotus? Just being near the Lord is of no use; you must also be dear to him. You must be able to taste the honey.
Your neighbors may be very near to you, but you do not get too deeply affected by whatever problems and difficulties they may be experiencing. Compared with this, if your husband or son is half a world away and you don't get a letter for even one week, you begin to worry. In this case the body is far away, but your mutual love makes you near and dear. Your relationship with your neighbors is not charged with the same love, although they are very near. Consider another example. In a house there may be some mice and ants running around. Do you call them your friends? Along with physical nearness there must also be dearness. A deep feeling of love must develop and permeate the relationship. You must be near and dear to the Lord.
Near and Dear
What benefit will you derive by being near and dear? If you sit close to a lamp you get light, and with the help of its illumination you are able to do some useful activities at night. If you sit under a fan you get a cool breeze and the heat that was causing you discomfort will be dispelled. During the cold season of the year, if you sit near a fire you will be protected from the cold which may be bothering you then. In each case, one quality is removed and another takes its place.
Similarly, if you are close to the Lord, if you become dear to him, then you will get his love, and soon all the bad qualities in you will vanish away and be replaced by the good qualities that God embodies. Develop your love so that you may get ever nearer and nearer and dearer and dearer to God. The easiest way to get closer to God is to remember him in whatever you see, whatever you say and whatever you do. Think only of God and how to get nearer and dearer to him.
On the path of devotion it is not enough for you to love God but you must also engage in activities which are pleasing to the Lord, so that you can evoke God's love and feel his love for you. There are a number of characteristics that a devotee should possess which will endear him to the Lord. Treat censure or praise, heat or cold, profit or loss, joy or sorrow, honor or dishonor, or any of the other pairs of opposites, with an equal mind. Do not get dejected when you are criticized or elated when you are praised. Do not be overjoyed by profit or come to grief when there is loss. Treat heat and cold with an equal attitude, they can both be a source of joy to you.
During the winter warm clothing will be desirable and being near a source of heat will give you comfort from the cold. But, during the summer you will want thin clothes and you will welcome the cold. Heat gives joy sometimes, cold gives joy at other times; the way you use them determines whether you experience this joy or not. Heat and cold, profit and loss, and, in fact, all the various pairs of opposites and everything else in the world have their usefulness. Everything has been created for a purpose; but you need to use them in a way which is appropriate to your life and your stage of development.
Show no Hatred towards any Being
It would be utter foolishness to give a golden cup to a child or to give a sword to a madman. A golden cup, which is highly valuable, should be given only to a person who would appreciate its value. Such a person will derive great joy from it and know how to use it. In the same way, the one who knows the value of devotion will use it to fill himself and others with pure joy. Genuine love will never give trouble to anyone, it will never lead one to hate another. In the 12th chapter of the Gita the desirable qualities of a devotee are enumerated; they start with 'Let there be no enmity directed towards any creature in the world.' Repeating parrot-like, "Lord, I love you", "Lord, I love you", while at the same time giving trouble to others cannot be considered devotion.
You become a devotee, filled with love and devotion, when you surrender yourself completely and are ready to carry out every command of the Lord. Arjuna, out of pride and egoism was feeling dejected; but after listening to the Lord, Arjuna fell at the divine feet and said, "Lord, I am your disciple. Teach me what is good for me. I surrender myself fully to you." Up until that time they were treating each other as brothers-in-law. Arjuna was married to Krishna's sister. But once Arjuna said, "I will do as you say. I will carry out your commands!", he became a devotee. The transformation took place in his mind, as he changed the relationship from a brother-in-law to that of a disciple, with the Lord as his teacher. Such a mental transformation is absolutely essential for a devotee. Without this, whatever level of closeness you feel you may have developed with the Lord, your devotion will remain fruitless and useless.
Being aware of these high principles, do your duty in life. Maintain an even mind and make sure that the work you do is good, and that it is always appropriate to the occasion. These verses from the Gita should not merely be memorized but they must be put into practice. When you fully understand their meaning and practice them in your daily life, your worries will soon leave you and all your sorrows will disappear.
III. Earning God's Love
The Lord said in the Gita, "Develop steady and unwavering devotion for me and you will become very dear to me."
Embodiments of Love,
In the world, you can earn money, you can gain wealth and property, you can attain honor and prestige, you can gain position and power. All these are rewards you can attain from your worldly endeavors. But the Lord declared in the Gita that these are but temporary fruits. They are transient and have no lasting value. The only thing you can attain through your life here on earth that is of real value, that remains with you permanently and eternally, is the love of God. This divine love is extraordinary. No price can ever be set upon it. It is a treasure that is valuable beyond all measure. You must make every effort to discover the means for acquiring this precious love of God.
The Love of God
God's love is unconditional. It is the same for all. But what must you do to experience this extraordinary love of God? What path should you follow ? If you sow some seeds without first weeding and properly preparing the field, you cannot expect to get a good crop. In the same way, in the field of the heart, unless all the bad traits of selfishness are first removed, you will not get a good crop. In the Gita it is taught that the principal weed that has to be removed from the field of the heart is the attachment to and identification with the body. Even now, you may imagine that you love God; but merely having this thought will not produce any worthwhile result for you. It is like sowing good seeds on barren, unprepared soil. The most important thing for you to find out is if you are dear to God. Even if you love God, if you haven't transformed your life to become very dear to him and feel his boundless, unvarying love, then your devotion will not have taken you very far.
What, then, is the way to become dear to God? You will find the answer to this question in the Gita, in the chapter on the path of devotion. The chapter on devotion gives a number of human qualities that are very pleasing to God. It speaks of being resolute and making a firm commitment to practice only the spiritual teachings in your daily life. It puts great emphasis on developing steadiness of mind under all circumstances. And it enjoins you to be fully contented and joyful at all times, under all conditions. What is the inner meaning of this last directive?
True Joy
Consider the feelings you get from singing devotional songs at a spiritual function. If a song is being sung that is not very familiar to you or whose melody is not especially pleasing to your ear or if you are not drawn to the particular aspect of the divinity to which it is being sung, you might find that you have very little real feeling towards the song. You merely follow the song perfunctorily with your lips. What a great difference between that and a song which you love, which comes from the very core of your heart, emerging freely, spontaneously, with a great deal of joy, filling you with rapture and devotion for God.
In the same way, there is a vast difference between the temporary joys you derive from this apparent world and its transitory objects and phenomena, and the true joy that emerges from the depths of your heart. The latter joy is totally different from the temporary satisfaction you get from worldly things. This deep joy coming from the heart is associated with truth. It is permanent. It is detached from all transient worldly concerns. It represents the unity of the spirit. For this joy there is no possibility of change. There is nothing that can be added to true joy. It is full and complete in itself.
True joy comes from equanimity. Do not be carried away by or attach any importance to worldly things. Use your time and effort to control the vagaries of the mind and develop mental steadiness. Equal-mindedness; means that you remain unaffected by victory or defeat, by profit or loss, by joy or sorrow. Accept whatever happens, whatever comes your way, as the gift of God, to be enjoyed with great satisfaction, regarding it as a gift of love given to you for your own good. When your heart is not swayed by worldly things, when you treat all people and all things with equal mindedness, then you will experience true joy. Then your heart will be filled with feelings of love and satisfaction, and you will know the true joy of devotion.
Courage and Steadiness
Another important quality that every devotee must possess is to be resolute and courageous. It is completely natural for you to have courage and a firm resolve. You can manifest these qualities in a number of ways in life. You may use these attributes to climb mountains. The same sense of adventure and courage may be used for crossing the ocean or traversing through wild jungles. You may also behave in a courageous and resolute manner in earning wealth, acquiring properties and making a profit. Or, you may be brave and courageous, but manifest these qualities in a merciless manner. You may choose to abandon all the noble qualities of humanity and divinity and, instead, acquire the qualities of a demon. This firmness and resolve may be used either for good or for bad. How you use these God given qualities depends upon you.
Earlier in his life, the great sage Valmiki was Ratnakara, the despicable robber. At that time he was using all his courage, prowess and firmness in an evil way. Thanks to his association with the seven sages, and listening to their teachings advising him to constantly repeat the name of God, he was able to transform his life, and use his strong determination and powers for the good of mankind. Soon he had the name of Rama constantly on his tongue. That is how he became the author of the Ramayana, the great epic recounting the life of Rama. Therefore, you should not use your steadiness and firmness in doing bad things or even for ordinary worldly things. Instead, use your courage and resolve to acquire the grace of God.
Worship of God with and without a Form
In the chapter on devotion, Krishna expounds on the worship of God both with and without a form. The Gita compares these two modes of worship and points out which is better, which is easier and safer for devotees at each stage of their spiritual progress. The Gita declares that it is impossible to realize the formless and attributeless divine principle except by going through the stage of worshipping God with form and attributes.
As long as you have attachment to your body and remain steeped in body consciousness, you will not be able to understand and reach the formless aspect of the Supreme. You attain the necessary qualifications to worship the formless only after you have overcome your attachment to the body, your attachment to the world, and all your other attachments. Therefore, as long as you identify yourself with the body, and think that you have a particular form, then you must also visualize God with a form. So, you start your spiritual journey by worshipping God in a particular incarnation, having certain recognizable divine qualities. Gradually, after following this path for some time, you can change your practice to worshipping the formless aspect of the Supreme.
In truth, the whole world is the form of God. Everything you see everywhere is the form of God. But to begin with, you focus on a particular form of God, one of the avatars or incarnations of God. These divine incarnations are associated with the physical universe. Corresponding to these physical forms there are the subtle forms of the Lord which are in the mental or the subtle aspect of the universe. The physical and mental domains have to do with the senses and the mind. Transcending both the senses and the mind is the causal universe. This causal universe is made up of the subtlest manifestation of matter, containing in potential form the seeds of all names and forms. This causal aspect is experienced every night in deep sleep. Here the formless aspect of the Lord can be experienced.
During the waking state the effect of the mind and the senses will be very strong because they are associated with the phenomenal world. During the dream state, associated with the subtle world, the senses will not hold sway over you, but the mind will be very active. In the deep sleep state, associated with the causal world, the mind gets dissolved and does not comprehend the sense impressions. It is only in such a state, when the mind and senses are totally inactive, that it is possible to experience the formless aspect of the divinity. But, this can be experienced even in the waking state, when the mind becomes perfectly steady and equanimous and the senses are maintained tranquil and inactive. Then, you enter the causal state while awake and experience the formless aspect of divinity.
Many devotees base their spiritual experiences only on God manifest in name and form. The form and the formless are both essential for a devotee. It is like having two legs for walking or having two wings to fly. To reach the final spiritual goal you must have the two legs of form and formless, putting one in front of the other, with the one leg representing form, taking its support from the other, which is the formless. It is important to realize that the manifestation of the Lord with form is only transient, whereas the formless aspect of the divinity is permanent. It is everpresent and unchanging. Here is a small example to illustrate this principle.
Only the Formless is the Permanent Aspect of the Lord
When you come to hear Baba give a spiritual discourse, you will be with about a thousand others seated in the temple. This will be happening in the physical domain, and may last for one to two hours. Associated with this experience is a given time and activity. But this very same experience can be re-experienced even after you go home. Whenever you want to think of it, it will be there in your mind... one thousand people seated in the temple and Sai Baba giving the discourse. In the external vision and in your experience in the waking state, you can see that all of you are sitting in the temple. What happens when you are back in your home? You find this temple will be in your heart and can be recalled to your mind at any time.
You were there for one hour, but this can become a permanent experience for you forever, even after you leave the ashram. Having initially had the physical experience in the phenomenal world, it becomes a permanent record in the subtle universe of the mind, which can then be recalled at some later time. As you repeatedly recollect this experience and ruminate on Baba's teachings, its message becomes permanently embedded in your heart.
Without first having had the actual experience in the hall, there would have been no permanent impression in your heart which you could later re-experience in your mind. Once the impression has been made in the mind, there is no need for actually being physically present in the temple or seeing Baba's physical form. In the same way, once you have experienced God in form, you will certainly be able to get the experience of the formless God later on. The form is momentary whereas the formless is eternal; but the formless will live on as a permanent entity for you only after first having experienced the divine form and imprinted it on your heart through worship and devotion.
Consider another example. Suppose you want to teach the word 'chair' to a small child. If you merely utter the word 'chair' it does not become clear to him what its form is. However, you can show him a chair like this and ask him to look it over carefully. While he is doing this you repeat the word 'chair'. Then later on, whenever he sees a chair he will remember the word associated with the form you have shown him and he will repeat to himself 'chair'. The form of the particular chair you used to teach him the meaning of the word may be impermanent. That chair will change, but the word 'chair' and the type of objects it represents will remain. Unless he sees the impermanent form he will not learn the permanent word 'chair'. The permanent element is understood through the impermanent one. Therefore, though divinity is formless, you first have to associate it with a particular form to understand it.
Steady your Mind by Worshipping the Divinity with Form
To start with, many people do not even have a firm faith in the existence of God. Most of the time their mind will be wavering, and they will ask themselves, "Does God really exist? Is it really true that there is a God?" An iron resolve is most essential to cultivate constant faith in God. You can travel from an unsteady mind to a steady mind with firm faith only through the process of worshipping the divinity with form. Consider one more small example.
Here is a pillow stuffed with loose cotton. What covers this pillow? A piece of cloth. What is the content of this cloth? Cotton. So externally you have a piece of cloth and internally there is the cotton. But, in fact, the internal and the external are both cotton. The formless cotton has taken the form of thread, and this thread has become cloth, and this cloth is covering the formless cotton. Cloth is form and raw cotton is formless. From the formless to the form and then from the form to the formless, these are the transformations that make up divinity. To have a pillow you cannot use the formless cotton alone. So, you must first convert the cotton into cloth and this cloth having form can then cover the formless cotton inside.
In the same way, the divinity in form and in its formless aspect are exactly the same. Both are essential. Through the impermanent form you become aware of the permanent formless. While you still identify yourself in terms of body-consciousness and feel that who you are is related to your body, it will be impossible for you to give up the aspect of form. As your mind becomes steady, rooted in faith, and you move beyond body consciousness, you will be able to experience the permanent formless aspect of the divinity.
Worshipping the Formless God in your Heart
Traditionally, in the worship of the God with form, you may become engaged in many types of ritual worship. You may offer flowers to the Lord, you may bathe his statue with holy water, you may burn incense or use other forms of worship. These will give you some satisfaction. Worshipping the Lord's form externally with various sacred articles yields satisfaction. But, once you establish God inside your heart, then you will worship him through the flowers of your heart. After body consciousness and the delusion associated with it is destroyed, then the divinity that you previously worshipped externally in form, with flowers and various articles of external worship, will now become established in its formless aspect in the depths of your heart, and you will want to worship it with the sweet flowers of your feelings. This will bring true unchanging joy.
As long as you are worshipping the Lord with form, you will use physical flowers such as roses, marigolds and jasmine. These are all impermanent and the body which performs this worship is also impermanent. But if you want to worship the formless God in your heart, then the flowers are different. Those flowers will be permanent. Those flowers are the noble qualities that you develop in your heart and offer to the Lord. They are the flowers of nonviolence, of sense restraint, of truth, of patience and forbearance, of perseverance, of love and compassion, of charity and sacrifice. All these flowers are meant for inner worship. To elevate yourself to the worship of the formless principle, you will have to develop these flowers of the heart and use them in your worship. Then you will experience the ineffable and unchanging joy of the spirit, and enter the path that takes you home to your divine source.
Inner Peace and Contentment
In the 12th chapter of the Gita, Krishna taught the essential characteristics that a true devotee should possess. These are the qualities which you have to develop if you want to be loved by God. To begin with, if you want to be a devotee of God you have to develop inner peace and a firm resolve. You should always be contented. You should never give room to worry and allow any pain to enter and disturb your heart.
The great devotional scripture called the Bhagavatam, gives the example of Prahlada as the ideal devotee who possessed all these qualities. When the demons were troubling Prahlada, who himself was the son of the lord of the demons, Prahlada never allowed any pain to trouble his heart, no matter what trials and difficulties he was passing through. He just kept on repeating the name of the Lord, taking shelter in him as his protector and savior. He never shed one tear in the midst of all these troubles. Therefore, Prahlada has been described as the one who was fully established in union with the Lord. Even though he was living in the phenomenal world and had a form, he did not allow any desires or attachments to enter his heart.
Love All
For a true devotee there should be no evil traits such as hatred, jealousy, anger or greed. These are the main obstacles to devotion which enter your being. You must develop a sense of unity with everyone. If you develop hatred towards anyone, you will be hating the very Lord whom you worship. It is because of your inflated ego that you take action against another, in the course of which, hatred, jealousy and anger arise. Therefore, the primary warning given in the Gita says, "Show no hatred towards any being".
Without uprooting the weeds from the field and preparing it for cultivation, the seeds will not yield a good crop. In the same way, without removing the weed of ego from within your heart, all attempts at spiritual practice will be useless. The most important thing to be learned from the path of devotion is that you should not only love God but you should also love all beings, treating everyone as God. Worshipping God while harming others cannot be called devotion. It only reveals the depths of one's ignorance. Such people will never progress on the spiritual path.
In the days to come you will learn the ways that you can develop your faith, and through your good actions sanctify your life. It is by developing these desirable qualities and practicing them in your daily life that you will call forth the love and grace of the Lord.
IV. Inner Inquiry - The Path of Wisdom
Meditation is the steady, uninterrupted practice of contemplating God. This is the principal spiritual activity taught in the Gita. Thinking of God now and then cannot be called meditation. Meditation is thinking of God at all times, under all circumstances. It is a continuous, unceasing process.
Embodiments of Love,
The constant remembrance of God is the method in which you continuously keep turning the mind inwards to become united with the indwelling Lord. This can correctly be called meditation. Any practice that you engage in periodically is a concentration practice. Such a practice will usually focus on a chosen object and be associated with a particular place and time. True meditation, on the other hand, goes on continuously. It is completely free of all objects and phenomena and completely transcends the element of place and time. Therefore, in the Gita, the ongoing practice of meditation has been described as superior to any type of periodic practice.
But, there is a practice even superior to meditation. The ultimate spiritual practice is the development of wisdom. Wisdom emerges from inner inquiry. It is the spiritual practice of looking deep into the essential nature of everything. If you faithfully pursue this inquiry, you will gradually reach the supreme state of peace and bliss. This is the unique goal of human life, a goal which all mankind will one day achieve.
The three Stages on the Wisdom Path
To reach the state of abiding inner peace, you begin by inquiring into the very heart of everything. This is the process of inner inquiry, the first stage on the wisdom path. Then you must make use of the deep insights you have gained by applying the spiritual teachings to every detail of your daily life. This is the second stage. If you continue with this practice unfailingly, then, in time, you will reach the goal of God-realization and enjoy unending bliss. This is the third and final stage on the wisdom path.
You can compare the first stage to the period of life when you are a student. As a student and spiritual seeker you are most active in acquiring knowledge. While you are in this stage you inquire into the principle which underlies everything in the universe. You try to understand the deeper meaning of the great wisdom sayings, such as that thou art. Here, that refers to the eternal divine principle we call God, and thou refers to the immortal self, which is the one true reality of everyone. In this first stage you try to understand this saying, which states that the highest self and God are one and the same, and you look for this oneness in the core of everything.
So, you start off by seeking the unity underlying everything in existence. Then, having become aware of it, you live your life by applying this great truth to all your daily activities. This second stage can be compared to the period of life when you are employed and busy in your profession. If you have not pursued your education and earned good qualifications, you will not be able to find an appropriate position. Therefore, in the first stage you acquire a good education and develop your knowledge so that in the next stage you can put that education into practice and use it to do your life's work. The third stage can be likened to the later period of life when you are retired and become a pensioner.
You receive a pension only after you have completed your working career. You start your career and gain employment, in the first place, only after you have successfully completed your education and acquired qualifications. These then are the three stages in your path through life namely, first is the stage when you are a student, then there is the stage when you are a professional, and lastly, there is the stage when you are a pensioner.
Similarly, on the path of wisdom, you start out as a seeker, then you become a practitioner, and finally, you become a wise illumined one. In this final stage you enjoy complete peace of mind and realize the unity of all of creation.
To permanently acquire peace of mind and the state of unending inner joy, you first have to enter into the stage of inquiry and give up all attachments to the world. These days, so-called spiritual seekers are first entering into the stage of attachment, and later they try to enter the stage of inner inquiry. They call each other brother and sister and aspire to practice unity, while at the same time taking on new worldly attachments. At best, they can only be described as part-time devotees. The Gita does not condone such part-time devotion. The Gita teaches complete surrender by offering oneself and everything one has to God.
God is the Master of Time
In order to experience the principle of complete surrender you need to become aware of time, and how it exercises total power over all that is changing, and yet, how it is utterly powerless over the unchanging divinity, which is its master. God is not subject to time. He not only is not under the spell of time, but he keeps time under his control. The one who is bound by time is man; the one who transcends time is God. The one who is mortal is man; the one who is immortal is God. Only when you take shelter in divinity will you be able to transcend this element of time. Time consumes man, whereas God consumes time itself. It is time which is responsible for man's progress or man's decline, for the promotion of his good or his fall into evil, for his earning merit or storing demerit. Therefore, in the ancient scriptures we find this prayer:
O God, you are the very embodiment of time. Please, help me to sanctify my life and spend all my time in remembrance of you, so that I may safely reach your lotus feet.The entire world is inextricably enmeshed in the grip of time. It is not possible to fight against this element of time. Time does not wait for anyone. You are bound by time, time is not bound by you. Time can be compared to a great flowing river. All living beings are washed away by this flow of time. If you are washed away by a flood you cannot take protection and shelter in someone or something which is also being washed away. You, as well as the people and objects in which you try to find security, are all being washed away by the flood of time. If you seek to gain protection from something that is itself being washed away, it is like a blind person following another blind person. In the end, they both get lost. But if you were to be helped by someone who is standing securely on the bank, you would surely be saved.
The one on the bank who is not caught up in the flood of time is God. If you take refuge in God you will be able to free yourself from all the troubles and problems associated with time. God has proclaimed the principle of surrender and emphasized its importance by telling man, "O man, you are being washed away by the flood of time. The only one who can shelter you is myself. Take refuge in me, and I will save you." When you obey this divine command and offer yourself, your wealth, your property, your entire family at the Lord's feet and surrender yourself completely, then you will surely be saved.
The Veil of Illusion
At first it is difficult to experience this principle of surrender because there is a very big veil between you and God. Due to this veil, you are easily subject to doubt and confusion, and then you feel yourself unable to surrender completely. This veil is illusion. What is the meaning of illusion? Illusion refers to that which does not exist. When you are under the spell of illusion you imagine that which does not really exist to exist. And you imagine that which really exists to not exist. What never changes really exists and is true. What changes does not really exist and is not true. The one thing which always exists, which is true and unchanging is God, the one without a second. The world, when thought to be devoid of God, will be seen as constantly changing. Since it is changing, it cannot be true and, therefore, cannot really exist. But, in this, you are not seeing the world correctly.
When you are under the spell of illusion, you see the world as separate from God. You do not see the divinity as the principle underlying everything in the world, and as a result, you become afraid and find it impossible to surrender yourself completely. It is like seeing a rope and thinking that it is a snake. But there is no snake there at all. You are subjected to fear and tension by imagining that there is a snake where there really is no snake, at all. What is the reason for this fear? Imagining things which really do not exist, as existing, is the cause of fear. This feeling is responsible for all your troubles. If you were to see all this in total awareness, you would find that there is only a rope; there is no snake. Then you would have no fear whatsoever. You would not be afraid to reach out to it, to hold it and to play with it, because you would realize that all there is, is only a rope.
You are subject to many sorrows because you forget the fact that the entire world is the embodiment of God. It is not just the world as you think it is. You see the world only from the phenomenal point of view; you are not looking at it through the eyes of inquiry. If you were to look at the world correctly, you would realize that it is a stream of continuous change. This ongoing, uninterrupted flow of change is the basic characteristic of the phenomenal world. But within and governing that flow of change, is the one divine principle which is forever unchanging.
It can be likened to a river. The water in the river will flow continuously and give rise to the apparent effect of a steady stream, flowing without end. But at any given period of time, and at any particular place along the river, the particles of water rushing by will all be different; some will be muddy, some will contain rocks, some will be foamy, some will be pure water. Although the flow is continuous, the exact makeup of the water is constantly changing. We see that the river is a combination of both changing and unchanging elements.
In a similar way beings, which are the expressions of life, are born and die. Although they come and they go, there is a continuity of life in the world. Life which goes on continuously can be considered to be truth, whereas living beings which are born and die and are constantly changing, represent untruth. Therefore, the changing expressions of life are untrue, but life itself, which is a steady stream whose essence is the divinity, is true.
The World as a River of Truth and Untruth
That is why the world has been likened to a river, where reality has become associated with unreality, or change. You can consider it a stream of changing truth, a truth which is qualified and not fully true. The world is a combination of pure truth, which remains the same and never changes, and untruth, which deals with things that are constantly changing. The wisdom teachings have described this state as truth-untruth, namely, a mixture or combination wherein both truth and untruth coexist. Spiritual practice is the process whereby you separate the truth from the untruth, and retain the truth. You see the illusion that the world exists separately from yourself and God for what it is, namely untruth. Once recognized as untruth you are no longer deluded by it, and the truth, which is the unity of God, man and world, stands revealed.
Ignorance, nature, world, illusion, mind, maya are all synonymous. They are all the illusory power of God. Thinking that things exist which do not really exist, and coming under their spell, is illusion. A saint summarized this as, "God is true but the world is false". You must understand this statement correctly. What it means is that our mistaken perception and experience of the world is untrue. The world itself, in essence, is true. God is the one, unchanging basis of this world of change. When you examine this in some depth you discover that the world is truly not world, but the divinity itself.
Hold on to God alone
In the Gita, Krishna told Arjuna, "Arjuna, you are subjecting yourself to this element of time. You are getting yourself caught up in its flow, and you are going far, far away from me. Surrender yourself to me and all your sorrows will soon be removed." When you are associated with God, when you are near him, illusion cannot harm you. Here is a small example for this.
In the expensive homes of the wealthy there will often be a watchdog guarding the gate to keep people out. This dog is not like a street dog; it has been brought up by its owners with great affection and has been carefully trained. This dog does not go on barking whenever it sees people walking or moving about. It starts barking only when someone comes near the gate and tries to get in. When they see the dog and hear the barking, most visitors will quickly leave the gate and go away. Others, however, who have taken a firm resolve to meet the owner of the house, will continue to stand there and loudly call out to the owner of the house. Eventually, the owner, hearing all the commotion at the gate, will look out from his upstairs window to see who is standing at the gate. Once the owner recognizes the person waiting there to be his friend, he will come down, go to the gate, let his friend in, and take him upstairs into the house.
When this apparent stranger, who had been waiting at the gate turns out to be a friend of the master of the house and goes with him, the dog will no longer bark at him or try to harm him. The dog now knows that this person is being allowed in by the owner himself. Illusion can be compared to this dog. It guards the gate of liberation and bliss. If a person comes who is not a friend of the master of the house, if he has nothing to do there, but insists on coming in through the gate, the dog will catch hold of him. Fearing the consequences of being accosted by the dog, most people will run away. In a similar fashion, most people, as soon as they experience some difficulties on the spiritual path, will choose to turn away, instead of persisting on their quest, undaunted by difficulties. And so, they do not reach their goal and thus continue to be buffeted by the spell of illusion.
But a real devotee, who in this example is the person with a strong determination to reach the owner of the house, does not mind the dog at all. He remains at the gate and attracts the attention of the master, and stays there until the master comes out. To such a persistent one waiting at the gate, even the barking of the dog, even the pain caused by illusion is helpful, because the pain draws the attention and compassion of the master inside. The master turns his gaze on the devotee, recognizes him, and takes him into the house. Therefore, only the one with courage and a strong resolute nature, who has decided to remain there no matter how ferociously the dog is barking, will get to see the master and be able to enter this palace of ultimate peace.
Conquer your Senses
The five senses and the sense objects we perceive with them represent this dog of illusion which will distract you and keep you from reaching God. It is for this reason that Krishna told Arjuna, "Arjuna, you are attached to so many sense objects; therefore you are ruffled by events. You have not been able to control your senses and you have not been able to develop concentration. Therefore, you have not been able to establish the divinity in your heart. Continue to cultivate your practice of constantly turning your mind back to God dwelling in your heart. Then you will gain concentration of mind. Only when you have concentration of mind will you be able to fully surrender to God. At all times and in all places always think of God. Whatever work you are doing, think of God. Remember God with love. Remember God with faith.
"Even when you are waging a war, think first of God, then fight. This is n