[On January 13, 2012, at Satyachetana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India, Swamiji revealed the inner meaning of Verse 512 of the Bhagavad Gita.  The recording is one hour and 6 minutes; click below to listen.]

This is the recording of Swamiji’s second Interaction during his 2011 visit to Chicago.  This took place on Saturday, September 17, at the temple within a devotee’s residence in Flossmoor, Illinois.  The total audio time is 1 hour and 14 minutes; click below to listen.

[More of Swamiji's Interactions, including nine from his recent trip to USA, are available for download from Satyachetana Publications.  More are added there regularly.]

This is the recording of Swamiji’s Interaction at the Moksha Festival in Santa Monica, California on 14 August 2011.  The total audio time is 1 hour and 14 minutes; click below to listen.

[More of Swamiji's Interactions, including nine from his recent trip to USA, are available for download from Satyachetana Publications.  More are added there regularly.]

This is the recording of Swamiji’s Interaction at the Sedona Creative Life Center in Sedona, Arizona on 10 October 2011.  The total audio time is 1 hour and 44 minutes; click below to listen.

[More of Swamiji's Interactions, including nine from his recent trip to USA, are available for download from Satyachetana Publications.  More are added there regularly.]

This is the recording of Swamiji’s Interaction at the Conference on the Spiritual State of the World, in Reno, Nevada on September 9, 2011.  The total audio time is one hour; click below to listen.

[More of Swamiji's Interactions are available for download from Satyachetana Publications.]

This is the recording of Swamiji’s opening Interaction during his 2011 visit to Chicago.  It took place on Friday, September 16, in the Vivekananda Meditation Hall at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, in Lemont, Illinois.  Swamiji discussed different paths of yoga and how to apply them in modern life, as well as a number of related topics.

The total audio time is one hour and 34 minutes; click below to listen.

[Note: more of Swamiji's Interactions are available for download from Satyachetana Publications.]

[On 31 August 2011, in the chapel at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco, Swamiji led an Interaction that explored the differences between healing the body and healing the soul, and compared the roles of the medical doctor and the spiritual doctor, or guru.  The recording is one hour and 14 minutes; click below to listen.]

[On 16 August 2011, at the Divine Mission Sacramento Center, Swamiji led an Interaction that revealed the four key concepts of Chapter 12 of the Bhagavad Gita.  Click below to listen to the 44-minute recording.]

[On 21 July 2011, Swamiji led an international, interactive workshop on Chapter Two of the Bhagavad Gita, via Skype, requiring all participants to immerse deeply into their experiential wisdom.  This 23-minute audio sample conveys the essence of the collective exploration.]

                                                  Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Verse 598

This verse is found in the penultimate chapter of Gita, when there is only one more step in the final stage of sadhana.  We refer to Chapters 13-18 as the manifestation part of Gita.  When realization is complete, manifestation is spontaneous, but because this manifest world is controlled by maya, every enlightened person is advised by Lord Krishna to know the principles on which manifestation takes place.

Arjuna asked Krishna to explain the nature of the faith of those people that worship gods without following scriptural injunctions, that is, without following the procedure laid down in the scripture.  At this stage Arjuna is the enlightened being; he is no longer a seeker.  Any question that he asked from the thirteenth chapter onward is the question of a seer.  Realization is complete, but while entering into the whirlpool of manifestation, the necessary guidelines are to be followed.  Thus Arjuna, as the instrument of Divine, is asking certain questions as he observes the functioning of the outer world.

Arjuna actually asked very few questions in the manifestation part of Gita.  Even the first verse of Chapter 13 does not appear in many translations, so it can be said that only Chapters 17 and 18 begin with Arjuna asking a question.  It is very symbolic that the previous four chapters do not begin with his questions.  After merger there is nothing to be asked or known, because you become one with Divine.

Gita does not end with realization.  It issues a command to all seekers to live a complete life even after merger and after transcending the gunas.  Consciously participate in the play of prakriti and purusha.  The outside world is considered a divine play and your role depends on two factors: what you have realized, and the nature of your system.  If you are the system of purusha, you have to collaborate with prakriti; if you are the system of prakriti, you have to manifest the purusha.

Spiritual seekers are divided into two categories.  Some pursue the path of prakriti, the Divine Mother, and once they reach the highest goal, they consciously work for the manifestation of a new force.  Those who consciously pursue the path of purusha attain the highest state of the Supreme Being, and consciously work for the restoration of harmony and the law of nature and evolution.  The first group is comprised of the instruments of the Divine Mother.  The second group contains the emanations of the avatar.  Depending on which system the seeker has, the journey will be different.  Depending on the innate nature—whether you are purusha-dominated or prakriti-dominated—either you merge with the Mother and become an emanation of the Her or you merge with the Supreme Lord and become an emanation of the Supreme.

The best example I can give is Mother and Sri Aurobindo.  Sri Aurobindo remained in a state of stoic neutrality.  People say he was the infinite, the absolute, and in the state of the Supreme Being while remaining in a body.  But look at Mother: getting involved in everything, attached to nothing.  Standing in the dining hall, counting the lemons and measuring how many spoons of sugar are to be put in a little container: “Hey, why are you giving four?  Three should be given.”

The person who was distributing the sugar said, “Mother, that man needs more.”  Mother took the container, poured it back into the sugar bowl, then she herself put only three little spoonfuls and closed the lid.  The person who was doing it has confessed that when Mother supervised, she did it so perfectly that a person would not dare commit the same mistake a second time.  Still she was totally detached.

Whether you are an emanation of the Divine Mother or of the supreme avatar, you reenter the world of maya for ensuring manifestation, so Arjuna’s question is relevant to both.  In the world of maya there are people who are by nature sattwic, rajasic, or tamasic.  How to know them?  Krishna answers that sattwic people worship gods.  I translated it as “worship,” but in Sanskrit the root meaning carries several connotations, including to invoke, worship or pray.  If you are following a religious tradition, the “worship” meaning will apply.  If you are following the path of pure knowledge, the meaning is to invoke, whereas if you are conditioned with the lesser energy, then the word will mean to transmit.

Some people that are more evolved do not need any medium; they can link themselves with the higher forces by invoking or channeling the higher energy.  Those that cannot invoke the higher forces perform worship using a statue or deity, and they derive the force from the object.  Sattwic people invoke, rajasic people worship and tamasic people transmit negative energies.

The celestial beings and higher forces are called gods.  Next come demi-gods and demons.  Demi-gods are half-demon, half-divine.  Demons can swallow everyone and eat everything.  Human beings can also be in the category of demons.  In the West they call them energy vampires.  If you come near them they can suck your energy.  Everything may be fine, but you feel lifeless after remaining with them because your energy is drained.  These energy vampires come in many categories: some suck your sattwic energy, some your vital energy, and some your physical energy.

The demon takes from you whatever he wants by whatever means possible.  Demi-gods will grant your desire, but after a very heavy price, like emaciating the elements.  These kinds of things are done to satisfy demi-gods.

Gods, however, are easily pleased.  The moment you praise or invoke them, you become a channel of these forces.  Gods never tolerate it if a devotee tortures himself to get the blessing of the gods.  This is the reason the more you become divine, the more your compassion increases.  You cannot tolerate the suffering of a fellow human being or a genuine seeker.  You cannot become a witness to a genuine need.  That’s the indication that you have become divine.  Gods will never by happy if you undertake severe austerity or penance, or torture yourself.  The gods actually get angry then.  They turn their faces and run away.  This is the reason in the sixteenth chapter Lord Krishna says, ‘Those that emaciate their elements by torturing Me, the indweller, I throw these haters of divine to hell for perpetuity.  They are the most degraded lot.’  It is a myth when people say that to satisfy the gods you have to fast for 24 hours.  This is complete cruelty, and a perversion of the scripture.  It continues due to this wrong tradition that was imposed in human consciousness during the dark ages.

The whole journey is expansion of your inner consciousness.  This is the reason the higher you go in your spiritual awareness, the less will be your compulsion for doing anything in this gross world.  Gita tells us to participate in action, but participate by responding to the signal from prakriti.  Always be sure that the signal is for you.  If the signal is for the man next to you and you respond, it is actually not responding—you are acting or reacting.  This is very difficult to understand until you have gone beyond your identification.

That is why Krishna says, ‘Arjuna, you will know when you see the natural response of the person.’  Whenever there is a need, sattwic people invoke, worship or ask gods—that is, divine forces.  Like if you need to go to a place five miles away but you do not have any money.  If you are a fully sattwic person, spontaneously you start walking.  If you don’t feel to request somebody to take you nor to compel or expect anyone to give you a vehicle or money, Gita says you are of sattwic disposition.  Conversely, if there is expectation that X or Y will come to your rescue, even if this expectation comes while walking, you are a rajasic person.  If you are commanding, compelling or exploiting someone to take you, you are tamasic.

Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, ‘Look at the spontaneous response of people in the world of maya and you will know who is of sattwic, rajasic or tamasic disposition. That reflects their innate faith.’  This threefold faith actually represents three different levels of attainment.  One day on the board I posted this message: “If you are allowing others to do what you are supposed to do, you are creating a karma for yourself.”  If you feel the prompting to clean the dining table and you expect another person to do it, then a karma is created by you, first by not responding to the signal when the prompting came to you.  Second, when you felt it needed to be cleaned, and you were capable to do it but you told someone else to clean it, a double karma was created.  If the person is not willing but you compel him to do it, a triple karma is created. This occurs at your physical level, because it is a karma in the physical plane.

Here are the consequences.  First, your awareness will be covered and you will not be able to derive the bliss of your attainment.  It is like having a million dollars in the bank, but you have no ATM card and no checkbook and cannot use the money.  The awareness is clouded due to the karmic veil.  Many seekers are unable to experience the joy of their attainment because of such a veil.  So many layers are there on the physical plane and also on the verbal plane.  This is the reason I say if somebody is blaming you, be grateful, because it is neutralizing a karma.  You must have created that karma by speaking ill of others sometime in the past, and opportunity has come for prakriti to neutralize that.

Krishna tells Arjuna that sattwic people invoke, worship and pray to gods.  Rajasic people worship demi-gods and demons. You cannot translate that as invoking, although that same root word means invoking, worshiping, praying, calling and transmitting.  These all are correct, but you cannot invoke a demi-god.  You can become a demi-god or a demon yourself, but you cannot invoke them.  Invoking is only applicable to higher forces of truth, light and love.  Otherwise invocation is not possible.

The third way is the tamasic channeling of spirits and ghosts.  In spiritual groups there are always energy vampires.  Many a time they will be attractive outwardly—very smart, dynamic and beautiful, and they will appear to be genuine seekers—but actually they may demons that suck your positive energy and with that they survive.

These secrets are explained to Arjuna in the seventeenth chapter because he is going to perform his last role before withdrawing from the body.  This is the reason these are given by the Lord himself.  When this is finished, in the opening verse of the eighteenth chapter, Arjuna asks Krishna to tell him the secret of sannyasa (renunciation of desire-prompted action) and tyaga (consciously giving away the results of all types of action).  He does not ask which is higher and Krishna does not mention it.  At that stage, Arjuna, the seeker, channel and avatar, will now prepare for the final stage of how to drop everything and go back to his original abode from where he consciously entered the world of maya.  This second-to-last chapter is very important for manifestation.  The eighteenth chapter is just last-minute packing, but the seventeenth chapter is still in the world of maya.

If you know this, then how will you use the knowledge?  At this stage the seer is only carrying one role: how to guide others.  For example, don’t give an intervention technique to those who are of tamasic disposition.  Don’t make those who are of rajasic disposition the channels of light and truth.  Give the secrets of establishing harmony to those of a sattwic disposition, if you are not going to create karma for yourself.  It is the same when you have a duty in the material plane, and you have to evaluate the nature of the faith of the person.  For example, when someone gives me something, I keep it and wait for the opportunity to use it for a sattwic purpose or give it to a sattwic person, someone who is living for manifestation or for his own realization.

This knowledge of the threefold faith is very important for those who are in the manifestation stage.  “Men with sattwic nature worship gods, rajasic people worship demigods and demons, and tamasic people worship spirits and ghosts.”  How simple is the translation of these two lines, but the inner meaning is much deeper.  This is the reason scripture is to be studied with the help of a seer.  Otherwise it will not make any sense.

[From a 2 November 2010 Interaction at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, India.]