Omm Namo Bhagavate
Two messages from Swamiji on the morning of his 71st birthday, 18 June 2022, spoken at Satyachetana Ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India.
Early morning:
After Guru Puja:
Swamiji’s Birthday: 2022
Gita Verses 509, 510 and 511
Omm Namo Bhagavate
Prakriti is said to be responsible for cause and effect and the sense of doership, while purusha is said to be the cause of the experience of pain and pleasure.
Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Verse 509
This verse can be interpreted as discussing action and the cause of action, or action and the different means or instruments that are needed for performing it. The source of both action and its cause is prakriti, or nature. Purusha, the soul, has nothing to do with action, nor with the factors responsible for the success or failure of the action. However, purusha is responsible for the experience of happiness and sorrow, because purusha experiences the result of action.
Since purusha is the enjoyer of the result, or the fruits of action, purusha experiences sorrow or happiness, success or failure, fame or defamation, and gain or loss. Prakriti does not experience any of these, because prakriti herself is the experience. Purusha is the experiencer. The title of this chapter means, the difference between prakriti and purusha, or the difference between the field and the knower of the field.
Anything that happens in the material plane is governed by the law of nature—the law of prakriti. Prakriti, not purusha, decides what will be the nature of the action, and prakriti’s responsibility is to ensure that the action is successful. Thus, prakriti will arrange all the factors that are necessary for the accomplishment of the action. Purusha is always a non-doer; purusha’s action begins only when prakriti’s action ends.
Prakriti’s role is to activate the process of action and then to ensure that the result comes. When this process is completed, purusha experiences the result and pronounces the judgment as to whether it is good or bad. Pronouncing this judgment is not necessarily a problem. The purusha gets clouded only when it gets identified with the process of prakriti. If purusha is not getting identified with the result—that is, what the purusha is experiencing—and is not identified with the process of how prakriti is doing it, then purusha can maintain his state of equanimity.
As a result of the action, purusha goes through happiness and sorrow. These come when the purusha attributes some qualification to this experience: “I should experience it more; I should experience it less; I should not experience it at all.” When any qualification is added to the experience, it no longer remains as experience—it becomes enjoyment and the purusha becomes contaminated. That is, the awareness gets contaminated with experience, and instead of only experiencing the result, the purusha also experiences sorrow and happiness. The root of all clouding, veiling, and contamination comes when the purusha begins to enjoy rather than experiencing. As a result, purusha falls one step further below. This is revealed in Verse 510.
Prakriti is the agency. She decides what will be the action and the nature of the result. This is done for purusha because purusha, the pure awareness, the being, wanted to experience the becoming. The being is awareness; the becoming is experience. The awareness wanted to experience the manifest part. The unmanifest purusha wanted to experience its manifest attributes. That is how the whole process starts. While experiencing it, the purusha gets identified with the attributes, and the veiling mechanism begins.
Experience itself is not bad. Getting identified with the experience is the root of all problems. Gita does not say, ‘Don’t experience.’ Gita says, ‘Experience but don’t get identified with the experience, and don’t qualify or quantify it.’ If you do, you will become stuck up with the triple veil of sattwa, rajas and tamas. You will be trapped; you, the awareness, will lose your awareness and be identified with experience. The coating will begin, and a time will come when you will be experience only, without awareness. The way out was shown to the yogi long back in the fourth chapter, when the Lord said in Verse 214, ‘Keeping your consciousness fixed on the Absolute, if you are only responding and experiencing, not enjoying, then your awareness will not be contaminated. You will float like the lotus leaf floats on water.’
Prakriti is always eager to activate the desire process within the purusha and ensure that the purusha gets trapped by his desire. All the signals to purusha come from prakriti. The moment purusha shows a special interest, prakriti is ready to fulfill it, and grant the desire. That is how prakriti wins. The whole process of yoga is nothing but understanding this play. Prakriti loves to veil the purusha; purusha loves to maintain his awareness. If purusha remains in pure awareness, prakriti is miserable because she feels she has no purpose, so prakriti will want the purusha to be fully veiled. Whereas purusha struggles to maintain its awareness so that prakriti will be under control. Once purusha gets identified, prakriti traps the purusha and awareness gets clouded. This clouding, veiling and contamination with the attributes of prakriti is the cause of purusha repeatedly taking birth in good or evil wombs.
The secret of how purusha can maintain its neutrality even while ensuring total involvement in prakriti’s play is revealed in Verse 511. The origin appears in 509 and the process of veiling is explained in 510. The solution comes in 511, which says the purusha should always remain a perfect witness: remaining very near but retaining the state of witnessing. This witnessing state is possible when there is a distance between the subject and the object, that is, a gap between the senses and the object of senses. Purusha is witnessing, while prakriti is watching purusha, because it is just a matter of time before purusha will be completely caught in her web. Prakriti watches how purusha enters into the trap.
Gita says purusha should develop the strength to witness prakriti’s play while remaining very near. In yoga, when somebody is heading towards Self-realization, the first attainment that comes is the witnessing state. The second is giving consent. As prakriti is preparing the rope to bind the purusha, purusha is remaining very near and watching—neither interfering, nor asking why prakriti is doing this. Purusha simply gives consent without opposing in any way: “Yes, prakriti, what you are doing is fine. Do it.”
The third quality is to support prakriti. Suppose prakriti is not capable, and needs help to prepare the rope. Now she will look at the purusha and the purusha should give her the strength. Here, purusha is the sustainer. When the purusha is able to complete these three stages, prakriti will complete her work. She does it all for purusha, and offers everything to the purusha only. If there is no purusha then prakriti has no purpose: “Without him I exist not…” Wherever there is prakriti there must be the purusha.
Prakriti means action, and action must have a purpose and a cause. Prakriti’s only purpose is to offer it to purusha. That is why every action in the ultimate stage is nothing but an offering at the feet of the Lord. The more one proceeds towards perfection in yoga, the less he feels the prompting to do anything. A time comes when he becomes the perfect non-doer. He just lives like a statue because the prakriti within is completely swallowed up by the purusha; that is, the experiential urge is completely swallowed by awarenessional height. The more you reach awareness, the less you will feel the need to perform any action. The reason these saints and great souls don’t perform material action is not because they are lazy, but because the urge is not there. The prakriti within is completely encircled by the awareness.
Prakriti’s purpose is to prepare it, perfect it and then offer it. Until it is offered, prakriti is not at peace. Once it is offered, the purusha is supposed to experience it, so you cannot refuse anything that is coming to you from prakriti. You should respond, because whether it is happiness or sorrow, profit or loss, fame or defamation, good or bad, pleasure or pain, it came to you because you wanted it. Everyone is responsible for what he gets. There is no third person. Find out from within why something is happening to you. Instead of finding the cause outside, the seed must be located inside. That is the highest state of jñana. If you have transcended maya, you will be able to clearly see that the signal is not directed towards you, it is directed to someone else and prakriti just wants to use you as a postman to deliver the news.
From witness to consent-giver to sustainer or giver of strength. Next is accepting it. In the second chapter the Lord says to endure these experiences in a state of perfect calmness, because through that prakriti is pushing you beyond everything. Only a jñani can see that. If you pass through these four stages and you are still able to retain your awareness, then instead of being the slave to your prakriti, you become the Lord of your prakriti. Ultimately you reach the state of the Supreme Being: capable of retaining the state of pure awareness even while experiencing everything. When you become the Lord of prakriti, in traditional yoga you are called a Swamiji. That means you are capable to witness, give consent, support and go through all experience, without losing your awareness. A perfect Self-realized being is called a Swami. As a mark of respect the suffix -ji is added to make it Swamiji.
The first part was sadhana for realization; the next part will be the struggle for manifestation. When the yogi is able to withstand the holocaust of the outer prakriti then he becomes the Supreme Being. Gita’s sadhana is these steps: witness, consent-giver, sustainer, enjoyer, and then the Lord of the individual prakriti. Last is the Supreme Being. This purusha, this embodied being, should pass through all these stages while remaining in this body. Gita does not accept that sadhana is finished after attaining Self-realization. All five of these stages must be completed. Then only will the purusha will become the supreme purusha, the Supreme Being.
The first challenge is reaching the witnessing stage. Remaining very near to the object of enjoyment but not jumping into it is possible only if the yogi has perfect control of the senses and the mind. That is why practice is necessary. If the senses are completely disciplined, they will not run towards the object because the mind will keep them under control. Mind will be under control if it is under the command of the intellect, or buddhi. Intellect will be stable only if it is linked with the being. When the intellect is linked with the being, and becomes constantly stable like the being, that is called equanimity. Whatever may be the outer turmoil or outer attraction, one is able to retain the awareness that, “No, I am not supposed to descend beyond this limit.” When a yogi knows how much to descend and where and when to stop, it means some level of the equanimity state has been attained. Otherwise it is not possible. Without attaining equanimity the yogi will completely fall.
The yogi should always focus on reaching the state of the Supreme Being in this life, before dropping the body. This should be the goal, not liberation, nor Self-realization. The yogi must be mentally prepared that to reach the state of the Supreme Being, he has to go through these five stages.
The witnessing state will come if there is constant sense control. Sense control will come only if you are remembering your goal. If you do that you will be able to discriminate how much to experience and when to stop this experience. This is how the senses will be brought into moderation, mind will be linked with the intellect, and the intellect will guide you. Mind does not give you clear-cut direction. It is like a monkey. Don’t rely on the mind; rely on your intellect’s sense of reasoning. Intellect will guide you correctly if it is linked with the being. If intellect is linked with the becoming, that is, the outer world, then you can never receive inner guidance.
The yogi must focus on the goal. The witnessing stage must give way to the state of consent-giver. Then the supporter gives strength to prakriti. Remember always, prakriti has only one role: to veil you, trap you and contaminate you. However, prakriti needs support because purusha is the strength of prakriti. Without purusha, prakriti is crippled, so you give the strength to enable prakriti to accomplish her task. Then prakriti will offer it. Offering is not an action; it is a transmission. If you are offering to me, I must feel it. No need of me knowing it. Offering will not come until there is reverence, a feeling from the heart. Until then, it is an act of giving, and through every act of giving comes the rope of binding.
If you view yoga from a serious perspective it is like walking on the razor’s edge. How you see it depends on the state of your evolution in spiritual consciousness.
Before you reach the state of the Supreme Being and attain the goal of Gita, you must first reach the state of the being, that is, the swami state. Prior to that, you are experiencing everything without enjoying anything. Except for the forms of the guru and the enlightened ones, every other form in this creation is first the instrument of yogamaya—whether it is your mother, wife, children, friend or well-wisher. Otherwise this game cannot be so prolonged that life after life the being keeps getting veiled and trapped. When the yogi understands this he runs away from society. That is called dispassion, when one runs away from passion. But that is only a stage. That stage may then be neutralized, because remaining inside a jungle or a cave you may again develop passion for something or someone.
It is of utmost importance to remember the five stages one has to go through, and you must pass through these while you are in this body. Those who say they are doing yoga to attain liberation don’t know what they are saying. Liberation means to first be liberated from the clutches of your individual prakriti, like desire, anger, greed and faultfinding, then to be liberated from prakriti’s triple veil of sattwa, rajas and tamas. When you become liberated you will reach a state of perpetual delight. If it is a static delight you are simply ananda, not having anything to do with anyone in this world, simply existing in a state of pure bliss. However if it is a dynamic delight, you have everything to do with everyone in this world. That’s the state of satchitananda: you are living in the body for ensuring the welfare of the whole creation. Whether you have anything or nothing or everything, your state of inner bliss remains.
Verses 509, 510 and 511 deal with the cause and process of veiling and the secret of how to be released from this veil. The cause of veiling comes in 509, the process of veiling appears in 510, and the key to unveiling is revealed in 511. The cause of veiling is that the purusha, instead of experiencing, begins to enjoy. Next the process of veiling begins, because by enjoying rather than experiencing, the purusha feels identification with the gunas of prakriti. Then the veiling process intensifies. The veiling process began with 509 and intensified with 510, and the unveiling process begins with 511. When the purusha reaches the state of the great Lord, the veil falls apart. Finally, the state of the Supreme Being means consciously putting on the veil but playing the role. That is the secret.
Chapter 13 contains the entire secret of manifestation. That’s why from Chapter 13 to 18 is the manifestation part. It has to be contemplated word by word. Go deeper and deeper. Then you can know where you are stuck up.
[From a December 2010 Interaction at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, India.]
Audio: Minimizing Rajas
Omm Namo Bhagavate
with all 700 verses printed on the wall tiles.
Audio from a 2012 Interaction at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, India:
Updated Gita Translation: Now Available
Omm Namo Bhagavate
Swami Sri Atmananda’s newly revised translation of the Bhagavad Gita is now available as an eBook here. This is Swamiji’s sixth published English translation, and a major revision of the previous editions. For more than 25 years, Swamiji has been clarifying the meaning of these 700 verses, to provide for contemporary yogis the actual guidance revealed by Lord Krishna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.
The paper version will soon be ready for worldwide orders via Satyachetana Publications. To receive an email announcement when the new book is available, write to SatPub.
Audio: Gita Chapter 2 Workshop
Omm Namo Bhagavate
Excerpt from a 2012 workshop regarding the concepts of attachment and discrimination in Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita.
New Release: “Life and Yoga” eBook
Omm Namo Bhagavate
Announcing the eBook release of Swamiji’s latest book, Life and Yoga, now available at Smashwords, Apple Books, Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and more. First page preview:
Peace, Love or Truth is not outside.
It is within you.
Find it, you will know what is silence
Experience it, you will know what is joy
Realize it, you will know what is enlightenment
Manifest it, you will know what is God.
Gita Path and Sannyasa Path
Omm Namo Bhagavate
[This Interaction came after a discourse from a visiting Swami, who conveyed with joy and delight the perspective of the traditional yoga path of renunciation. After that, Swami Sri Atmananda said he would share the following, “Not to contradict anything Swamiji has said, because Swamiji represents a tradition which is honored in India from the Vedic time. After listening to him, I just feel to say a few words about the path we are following.”]
The traditional path of yoga emphasizes how this karmic world is a place of sorrow and misery, and the best sadhana we can do is find out how to get out of it. The Gita as we have understood gives us a different message. Although both paths justify their stance by quoting from the Gita, we see it from a different angle than the other paths.
Verse 371 is often quoted by those who follow the path of renunciation, or sänkhya. It says that you have come to this earthly plane, which is transitory and full of sorrow: “Therefore, Arjuna, you should always pray to Me.” The whole teaching of Gita is to show Arjuna, who represents all human beings, the path to quickly enter into Him who is the essence the whole creation.
When Krishna says, “Because you have come to this transitory, unhappy world,” he does not say to escape from here. Krishna always says, “You have entered into the misery of this transitory existence, Arjuna. Therefore enter into Me.” Thus it is not an issue of how soon we get out of this world but how soon we get into it. That refers not to this projected world, which is continuously changing, and not this shadow, which is the reflection of the reality, but to the reality itself: how soon we can enter into it. That is, how soon can we enter into the consciousness of Krishna.
Krishna is in this this transitory world. The very first verse of the Vishnu Sahasranam says, vishwam vishnu, Vishnu is inside this this universe: present everywhere but found nowhere. Our problem is how to find Him. When we do, we can merge in Him, and after that we can manifest Him. The secret is this Vishnu who is inside this creation. He has to be found through the act of invocation. That is why Vishnu Sahasranam begins by stating that through the act of invocation, we can find this Vishnu, the Creator Himself. Where? Krishna says, “Arjuna, you can find Me everywhere and anywhere.” In the tenth chapter He says, “Whatever is glorious, excellent, beautiful, admirable, or commendable, that is I.” If you cannot find Him in that way, then there is a simple method as expressed in Verse 411: “This whole manifest creation is just a portion of me.” That means the magnitude of the eternal consciousness is bigger than this creation, and bigger than the imagination of the human mind. He is so big he cannot hide anywhere. This is the approach through which we enter into this yoga.
Krishna has said only one thing: “Arjuna, attain Me. I am everything. Anything you can think, see, conceive or feel—everything is I. Attain me.”
If all is He, the Lord, then one may wonder why the Lord himself said in several places in Gita that certain things are transitory and not real. It may seem like a contradiction. This question puzzled me for many years, until I found that He has never contradicted Himself. He says, “I am both the unmanifest and the manifest. As manifest I am the maya; as the unmanifest I am the reality. What is seen in the outer universe is a reflection of the reality, so Arjuna, quickly attain me, the reality. The most direct way is by simply loving me. With the love of your heart, you can find Me, enter into Me, and you can be I in that form.”
This is the reason the twelfth chapter, The Yoga of Devotion, is the crest jewel in the garland of Gita. Here Lord Krishna explains, ‘Simply by pure love you can find Me, recognize Me, enter into Me, mingle in Me, and manifest Me. As you are searching for Me in every form, but not getting Me in any form, a time should come—and it must come in this life itself—when I will manifest through you, and all the forms of this creation should be able to recognize that.’
When Krishna is repeatedly telling Arjuna, “Attain Me, worship Me, think of Me and meditate on Me,” this “Me” is not the manifest form. It is the unmanifest force. How can we attain, find, mingle in, recognize and manifest that force if we constantly pray to the Lord to take us away from this transitory and unhappy world? To find the force, be one with the force, wither away in it and ultimately manifest it, we have to retain our bodily form, and thus we have to take care of it. To do that, we enter into this play of prakriti. We must learn the rules of the play so that prakriti will not trap, veil and bind us.
This prakriti is the Lord himself. As manifest He is known as the maya; as unmanifest He is known as the Supreme. We have to find the approach to enter into Him without running away from Him. Krishna repeatedly urges, “Arjuna, before you become crippled, attain Me. Don’t wither away in Me. That’s not the purpose for you taking up so much pain as am embodied being. For several lifetimes you have come and gone just for this one purpose. Once you attain Me, I will manifest through you.” That’s the central message of Gita.
Krishna has shown eighteen techniques to attain Him. One is through extreme sorrow, if you have the strength to endure your torture. That’s why the sorrow, dejection or despondency of Arjuna became the entry point to yoga in Chapter One. When we experience sorrow, hardship or difficulty, we pray to God. Great devotees have even prayed to the Lord to give them sorrow and problems, because they know that those situations link us with the Creator, whereas affluence, abundance, happiness and enjoyment take us away from God.
Another technique is to pray to God for pure philosophy. This is the sänkhya path. Sänkhya says that prakriti derives all power from purusha. Prakriti has no power by herself, but the purusha wrongly thinks that prakriti is the mistress and he is the slave. Sänkhya constantly reminds a seeker that you are purusha, the real source of power; prakriti is only deriving power through you, so get back your sovereignty.
Gita rejects this. In Verse 86, Krishna says, ‘What you just heard is from the angle of sänkhya. Now I will speak from the angle of buddhi yoga, the yoga of intellect. Prakriti has no power; she derives all her power from purusha, but prakriti has been powerful for many births. Scripture says it is 8.4 million births, while the purusha has been powerless. Don’t think that you can now make her powerless in a single birth; don’t waste time on that, Arjuna. Just because you now know that you are the source of power and you ask prakriti to give it back, she will not listen to you. Rather she will declare war against you, smash you and throw you. Then you will again have to come back and this awareness will be gone.’
Lord Krishna continues, ‘Listen to Me. I am showing you the intelligent way to get back your power without challenging prakriti. Prakriti is attached to purusha; purusha is attracted to prakriti. Prakriti has only this one weakness: because she is attached to purusha, whatever this purusha is asking for, she provides. Therefore, apply your intelligence. Don’t challenge her; she is mightier than you—the crippled, blinded purusha, who are devoid of all your awareness and strength. She is the mother. Be the intelligent child. The first priority is, don’t be attracted to her at all. Don’t create curiosity in her. Allow her to do whatever she wants to do. Never ask anything, because that is action. Action always brings result, and through the result prakriti will bind you. Next, never react to her, because reaction will make prakriti angry and she will smash you.’
Verse 511 says the purusha should deal with prakriti in five different ways. First, remaining very close to prakriti, this purusha should always be a calm witness, never even whispering, “Why are you doing what you are doing?” When this is achieved, one obstacle is gone. Not only do you become the witness. Next, you also give your consent to prakriti for whatever she wants to do. If she wants to smash you, allow her. Then if you become a real consenter and are not raising any objections, a second hurdle is gone. There is a third hurdle, as the supporter. Whenever you feel prakriti does not have enough strength, you give yours. “My beautiful, loving mother, can I assist you, or do anything for you? You want to trap me—okay, here is the rope.” Become the supporter of prakriti and the third hurdle is gone.
Next, become the enjoyer without raising any questions. Whatever result she gives, accept it. The last verse of the fifth chapter says that if you want to become the Supreme Lord of all the worlds you have to be the enjoyer of what prakriti is giving to you. You cannot choose. If you do, you cannot become the Lord of prakriti. When you become the silent enjoyer, the fourth hurdle is gone. If all four obstacles are overcome, then prakriti will see that you have overpowered her, not once but four times. She will come and completely surrender before you, and you will become the great Lord of prakriti within you.
Here is a very small example. Look at your own life. I am becoming a close witness to what you are doing, never objecting or challenging. I know what rubbish thing you are going to do, or what rubbish you are talking about me, but I never ask why you do what you are doing. Next, I’m giving consent: “If she is doing that then let her do it. That’s fine.” Then I’m giving you the strength to do it and I am also calmly enduring the result of your actions. Due to these four, you are surrendered to me. Look at your life and you will see. This is the reason; this is the secret.
If this is possible through a formal relationship, imagine what will happen if you apply this as a yogic technique: you are the great Lord and the prakriti within you will surrender to you, and then you will become supreme Self.
The purusha inside this body is verily the Supreme Purusha that has been completely attracted to prakriti’s attributes: her strength, beauty, knowledge and talent. Anything that you can think, imagine, comprehend, feel—everything is prakriti. Purusha is completely free from all these attributes. If you still are not clear, read the seventh and tenth chapters of Gita.
When you stop being attracted to prakriti, you are overcoming prakriti. When this is fully achieved, then this prakriti—who as Yogamaya was the cause of your bondage and your veiling—will take the role of Mahamaya. Then she, the Mother, will work to manifest you, the Supreme Purusha.
Krishna taught this secret technique to Arjuna. How Arjuna can go beyond each of his attractions and attachments is the yoga of Gita. When Arjuna overcomes everything, then he finally says to Krishna, the Lord of yoga and the Supreme Purusha, “Lord, my attachment is gone; I have gotten back my awareness.” By recovering that awareness, Arjuna gained what Krishna told him at the beginning of the fourth chapter: “You and I both have passed through many births. You are Nara; I am Narayan. In every transition we have come. You are forgetting because you are coming through prakriti’s law, but I am remembering because I come due to my law.” When Arjuna got that awareness back, it was a rebirth in consciousness, the rebirth without physically dying. He realized that he was no longer bound by prakriti’s law, and then he said, “Now I shall do as directed by Thee.”
Is Arjuna now prakriti or purusha? That’s the million-dollar question. Krishna is the Supreme Purusha; Arjuna is definitely not the bonded purusha or the witnessing purusha. So is he the prakriti, Yogamaya, Mahamaya—which form is he now? The mission of the incarnation must wait until the collaborator is ready. Arjuna has now become the collaborator, and it is Mahamaya, not Yogamaya, that collaborates with the Supreme for manifestation. Arjuna is now the pure embodiment of Mahamaya, the Supreme Prakriti. With the help of the Supreme Prakriti, the Supreme Purusha will reestablish dharma.
The message of Gita to us is, don’t be fed up with this world of transitory existence. Don’t be identified with this realm of sorrow and misery. Accomplish the mission of your life. The opportunity has come to you after 8.4 million births. After getting this human body, finding the path, knowing the secret, having all the physical strength to do yoga, and receiving the beautiful environment for perfection in yoga, if you cannot accomplish this mission, then the second option is better: get away from this. Get out of this world of sorrow, misery and transitory existence and attain the bliss. There are only these two ways. No third option.
Each chapter of Gita shows us one exit point. Through sorrow or through discrimination; if not discrimination, then through action; if not action, then through knowledge; if not knowledge then through inner renunciation; if not inner renunciation, then through meditation; if not meditation, then through the process of knowing the Self and the Supreme; if not that, then through devotion. It goes on and on. God has shown so many paths to run away from the clutches of His maya, but He has shown only one way to find Him, merge in Him and manifest Him before your hair turns gray—that is the state of becoming liberated while living. Traditional yoga will say that after leaving the body you can go to this or that plane, but what’s the guarantee that you will definitely go to these theoretical destinations? Alternatively, Gita says very clearly that verily when you are in the body—not after leaving the body—you can manifest Me, the Supreme Consciousness.
In Verse 84, Krishna told Arjuna, “If you win, you will enjoy the earth.” If you attain supreme consciousness, you become another Krishna in a form, and you will enjoy everything that the whole earth has to give. Whereas in the traditional path, if you are dead to passion, lust, greed, and anger, then in this life itself you will enjoy unending happiness and bliss. But you have to be dead. If you want to live and really experience everything, like Krishna experiencing everything, there is another way. With Lord Krishna’s grace, we are aspiring to reach dynamic delight, so that we sing and dance and eat and sleep and do everything, but get contaminated with nothing.
[From May 2010 Interaction at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, India.]
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