Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru.

I am speaking for Muktisudhakaram. I am now discussing the ninth chapter of Bhagavad Gita. Upto the six chapters, you find Sri Krishna discusses life, the human personality, the world, the interaction between these and what are the consequences or outcomes that generally get born, how to harmonize them, integrate them, sublimate them, for everything you depend upon your own knowledge, your own will, your own resolution, viveka is the most important part.  Go to a sad-guru, listen to him and ruminate over whatever he has said and let the rumination be a very important part of your sādhana following which you can sit in a place and try to collect your mind, meditate and get absorbed. All this was the emphasis upto the six chapters.

Thereafter Krishna makes a very important shift in which he goes on explaining what is this creation, what is this world? He began to say that the world consists of five factors or constituents. The pancabhūtās – matter and energy outside perceived by the senses, then mind, intelligence and ego inside the body which can only be felt supra-sensorily.

So he says, there is something still greater. That is what we called jīva which keeps a balance between these five and maintains the whole universe. Everything in this world is born of these and preserved by these. What do you mean by that? The entire world has its own making, its own rhythm, its own chartered course. Understand that it is so and don’t fight against it. Don’t be ruffled by anything.

This world is not ours. We are somehow in this. There are physical laws, chemical laws, biophysical and biochemical laws and biological laws and processes. Like all these things, all of them are inevitable, inexorable. You will find there are some spiritual laws also. By understanding them, you can get into your mind and make it better, purify it, get into your intelligence and make it more and more illumined.

He goes on explaining that you should not have any kind of an ego. Consider everything to be the wonderful creation and that creation rests with its own support, genesis and author. And he says, “I am the author.” What does it mean? Krishna was a person like us. He refers to the “I”, the self. The self is the author of the whole creation. It is not that the world is just functioning just as an accident. There are smaller and bigger cycles governing creation.

One huge cycle that we are able to think of is a kalpa. It runs into many, many years. “At the beginning of the kalpa, I breathe out this universe, create this universe. It goes on remaining for a kalpa. At the end of it, I breathe it in, I dissolve it. The evolution and dissolution depends upon me. You only have to work as a cog in the wheel of creation.” This kind of a thought will make you see God in everything.

It is not a question of getting absorbed into yourself. Here, no absorption is mentioned. Become a lover and devotee of the supreme power and potential that is at the back of the entire creation. Think about it, glorify it, remember it, praise it if you like, be wedded to it, be loyal to it. The puṇya karma is the karma by virtue of which you become fond of the creation.

The creation may have a number of anomalies, contradictions, conflicts. That is none of your lookout. There are herbivorous animals, carnivorous animals, everything has its food. Some take vegetables, grass and the like; others take the flesh of the herbivorous animals. Their bodies also fall and decompose and that becomes a fertilizer for the growth of vegetables and herbivorous kingdom. Everything is moving in a cycle.

Jīvo jīvasya jīvanam. Any life form is depending upon another life form and that in turn becomes a prey for another. Do not worry about either the cruelty or the gentleness of creation. It makes everything. It needs everything to make the world. So leave the world in its own manner. I am at the back of it. And the whole world is evolving and dissolving. This evolution and dissolution go on consistently. You can hardly do anything about it. Don’t question it, appreciate it. Don’t fight with it, be in harmony with it.

There may be good people, there may be bad people, even in your own family sometimes children may not be listening to you. Anything can happen, do not get disheartened. Understand that the great God is at the back of everything. He is at the back of good, at the back of bad, at the back of gentleness, at the back of cruelty, at the back of compassion, at the back of intolerance. Everything is a part of this wonderful wholesome creation. So get away or take away your mind from all kinds of conflicts. Try to find the harmony in everything.

We have a simple statement “Find God in everything.” The idea is to sublimate your mind and its flair for conflicts and contradictions. To find contradictions is immaturity. It is ignorance and delusion. After all, the world is a whole and the whole remains a whole. There cannot be a part, it will remain the whole. Ultimately if you ask, everything is an illusion as in the case of a dream. We feel riches have a value. But there are instances when people are fed up with riches and they want to have the grace of poverty, austerity, simplicity and ascetic life. You know, our country is one where right from the beginning we have been opting for dharma, artha, kāma and moksha through brahmacharya, gārhastya, vānaprastha and sannyāsa.

So sannyāsa is the ashrama, the fourth, the crowning of human life. There we don’t depend upon the material things. We look for the mind, the heart, their purity and the inner ecstasy they can deliver, produce and bestow. Now this is the goal of human life, understand it. Now we want to be enriched and sublimated by poverty, we want to take to austerity and be benefited by it, this is what we should understand. So see God in everything, do not entertain conflicts and contradictions, remember Him, think of Him, have an attitude of surrender and attunement no matter what comes and what goes.

Do not try to be judgmental about whatever takes place in this universe. We have accidents, upheavals, earthquake, volcano, many things might take place. They are taking place not on your head. They take place in the world which is not ours. Accept it and be in harmony with it. This is the message of the ninth chapter of Bhagavad Gita. Ultimately he drives Arjuna to a position of being very, very humble, looking at the whole creation, appreciating it without any reservation.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.