26 Aug 2005
[Krishnashtami is the celebration of the birthday of Lord Krishna, the author of the Bhagavad Gita and God in human form. This festival is celebrated throughout India in different ways. Starting on this day, Swami gave seven discourses for seven consequtive days. These discourses are given in this and the following six chapters. ]
The celebration of Krishnashtami by cooking special food items and sweets is like primary level school education. Some celebrate this festival by singing songs and dancing. In this, the personality of Lord Krishna is remembered and temporary pleasure derived by the devotee. This can be compared to college education. The highest and real celebration of this festival, corresponding to the university level, is the analysis of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the divine knowledge of the Lord, who came down in human form.
The diamond of the Gita
The central diamond of the chain of the Gita is “Manusheem tanumashritam”, which means that the Lord comes in human form. Krishna not only mentioned this concept of human incarnation but also emphasized again and again that He is the Lord in human form. Throughout the Gita, Lord Krishna told Arjuna to worship Him alone. When Lord Krishna declared that nobody can even imagine Him (Mam tu Veda Na Kaschana—Gita) it means that the Parabrahman (Absolute Lord) was speaking through Lord Krishna’s human body. The Vedas say that the only knowledge about the Parabrahman that is obtained so far is that it can never be known (Yasyamatam Tasyamatam—Veda).
Lord Krishna clearly stated that the soul is a part of creation and that it is a modification of His Para Prakriti (also known as Para Shakti or Maya). His Maya is modified as this creation and maintains the creation (Yayedam Dharyate—Gita). Thus He is not the soul, which is a part of the creation. In the second chapter of the Gita, He said that the soul is permanent with reference to the gross body. People have misunderstood this statement and think that the soul is eternal like the Parabrahman and hence the soul is identical with the Parabrahman. People have slipped here in not noting that the permanency of soul was mentioned only with respect to the temporary gross body (Hanyamane Sharire—Gita). Lord Krishna created the souls [of His childhood friends and their cows] again after the creation of the world, when Prajapati (a representative of Brahma) stole His friends along with the cows. If the soul is eternal, its duplicates cannot be created with the same characteristics.
In some references in the Gita, the soul comes under the category of Prakriti (created material; nature). In these cases, the Lord is denoted by the word Purusha (Prakritim Purusham—Gita). If you call the soul as Purusha, then the Lord is denoted by the word Purushottama (Yasmat Ksharat—Gita). [The distinction between the soul and the Lord and the superiority of the Lord over the soul is always maintained]. Maya is the direct cause of creation but Parabrahman being the cause of Maya, is the indirect cause of creation. Thus both statements are given in the Gita. The Parabrahman says that He is maintaining creation (Mayi Sarvamidam—Gita). It is also said that the Maya maintains creation (Dharyate Jagat—Gita). In fact Parabrahman maintains Maya and Maya maintains creation. The mind is based on the dreamer and the dream is based on the mind. Thus the ultimate substratum is Parabrahman or the Lord alone.
Representative worship
The Gita says that the Lord is the sun among the planets (Jyotisham Ravihi—Gita). At the same time it is said that the sun cannot shine before the Lord (Na Tat Bhasayate—Gita; Natatra Suryah—Veda). The point here is that the Lord is the head of this world as the sun is the head of the planets. Thus the sun is used here as a representative model (Pratika). This does not mean that the Lord is the sun (Nedam Tat—Veda). The Gita says that the Lord maintains creation but is not in the creation (Bhuta Bhrut—Gita). This statement is supported by the Veda (Neti Neti—Veda). The Lord says that people who worship inert objects will be born as inert objects and people who worship the human incarnation will be born as human beings (Bhutejyah…Yanti Mat Yajanah—Gita). This does not mean that one should not worship statues at the primary level. It means that one should not limit oneself to worshipping only statues throughout one’s lifetime. The form of the statue indicates the human form alone. With the help of the finger of a person [pointed in a certain direction] you see a flower. The finger is useful in the beginning but once the flower is seen, there is no need of the finger. The worship of statues, which are in human form, is only a training to reduce the repulsion towards the human form of the Lord.
Krishna stopped the sacrifice for the deity Indra. He also asked the wives of the sages to give Him the food that was prepared to be offered into the fire altar. This shows that He was not for burning ghee (clarified butter) and food in the fire. He told them that He was hungry and ate the food that was to be sacrificed. By this He showed them how the real sacrifice is to be done. The fire of hunger is the deity Vaishvanara to whom the food should be sacrificed (Aham Vaishwanaro Bhutva—Gita).
Jnanam and Prajnanam
Krishna is recognized as Lord in human form through His special divine knowledge called as the Bhagavad Gita. The identity card for the Lord is this special divine knowledge called as ‘Prajnanam’ (Prajnanam Brahma—Veda; Jnaneetvatmaiva, Vedaishchasarvaih—Gita). Miracles are not the identity marks of the Lord since they are like removable jewels, which can even be donated to others. Demons got these supernatural powers from the Lord by rigid penance and they too performed miracles. The word Prajnanam means the special divine knowledge, which cannot be explained by anybody other than the Lord. This Prajnanam is like the yellow thread (mangal sutram) around the neck of a married lady which can never be removed and can never be donated to others. Thus even this Prajnanam is not the inherent characteristic of the Lord but is only an associated ornament. However, since it is inseparable, it can be treated as the inherent characteristic of the Lord and can be useful to reach the Lord. Even by getting this Prajnanam, you have not directly touched the Lord and therefore the Lord remains unimaginable and is not touched by words, mind, intelligence and logic (Yatovachah…Manasasaha, Yobuddheh, Naishatarkena—Veda; Mamtuvedana—Gita ).
Knowledge, love and bliss are characteristics of awareness or the life energy associated with the nervous system. This life energy produced by the respiratory system exists even in plants, which do not have knowledge, love and bliss. But the same life energy associated with the nervous system becomes awareness, which is present in animals, birds and human beings. Life energy is like the electricity produced from a turbine, which is like the respiratory system. This electricity enters a light bulb and is converted into light. Thus the life energy produced from the respiratory system is converted into awareness when it enters the ‘light bulb’, which is the nervous system. Therefore knowledge, love and bliss, which are the characteristics of awareness, exist in birds, animals and all human beings. All these are items of creation and not the Creator at all. Therefore no human being is the Creator. When the Creator comes down by entering into a human form, He is recognized by His Prajnanam. Jnanam is the knowledge of a scholar that can be repeated by another scholar. But Prajnanam is the special divine knowledge, which cannot be repeated by any scholar except the Lord. All living beings including the human incarnation have the common identity card, which is awareness. All the identity cards have the same colour, which is love and the same shine, which is bliss. Jnanam (knowledge) is like the name of a scholar printed on this identity card. This name is also common for all scholars. But Prajnanam is the special name that is printed on the identity card of the Lord (human incarnation) and this name cannot be found on any other identity card.
Brahman and Atman
Awareness is also indicated by the word Brahman. Brahman means the greatest. Awareness is the greatest among the items of the creation. The Veda is greatest among the scriptures and therefore is also called as Brahman. Brahman also means the Lord who is greater than the greatest awareness and therefore the Absolute Greatest. Whenever the word Brahman comes, you should not always take it only in the sense of the Lord. You have to take the sense of the word according to the context. Therefore another word, Parabrahman, is specifically used for the Lord. This word means the Lord who is greater than Brahman. Similarly the word Atman means the human body or human being. The human being is a part of the human body itself. The human body is a composite of three components
The word Atman is sometimes used to mean the causal body and sometimes the causal body along with the subtle body. The causal body is like standstill water and the subtle body is like the waves in the water. Sometimes the word Atman even denotes the external gross body as you can find in a Sanskrit dictionary. Therefore the word Atman in general denotes the entire human body or human being. These three bodies are only items of creation and are not the Creator. They are all imaginable items.
The unimaginable Creator enters these three bodies in the case of the human incarnation and He is the fourth item. He pervades all these three bodies like the electric current entering a wire, which is made of three metals alloyed together. The three bodies of the individual are also integrated together and are called as the human being or human body. The human incarnation is different from other ordinary human beings, which are like wires without electric current. Such a human incarnation can also be referred to by the word Atman. Therefore unless you take the sense of the word based on its proper context, confusion will arise. Some words like space (Akasha), air (Prana) etc., have also been used to mean the Lord in certain contexts and this is clearly discussed in the Brahma Sutras.
Pravritti and Nivritti
The Bhagavad Gita is the special spiritual knowledge, which can be told only by the Lord. It is Prajnanam and not simple Jnanam. It stands as the special identity card of the Lord. The Gita establishes justice in this world and simultaneously shows the path for individual liberation. The former path of justice is called as Pravritti and the latter path of the individual liberation is called as Nivritti. Both these fields must be clearly understood, and differentiated (Pravrittimcha Nivrittimcha—Gita). In both fields, the individual aspect and the social aspect exist (Lokasangrahamevapi—Gita).
In Pravritti one has to practice justice at the individual level and propagate justice at the social level for the peace of the world. In Nivritti also, one has to uplift oneself at the individual level and uplift others at the social level. In both fields, the Lord is pleased [with the devotee who practices each path] but the pleasure of the Lord in Nivritti is infinite. In both fields, the obstruction for success is also the same—side attractions (distractions) or attractions towards worldly bonds. When the excess attraction towards these worldly bonds is reduced, one succeeds in Pravritti. When these worldly bonds are completely destroyed due to the intense attraction towards the new bond formed with the Lord, one succeeds in Nivritti. In Pravritti the attraction towards the Lord is not required and here only the knowledge of the unreality of worldly bonds is required. By such knowledge even if the worldly bonds are not completely cut, at least they become weak. In Pravritti there is no need for the complete destruction of these worldly bonds. In Nivritti, the complete destruction of these worldly bonds is essential, but the cause for this destruction should be the new bond formed with the Lord (Eka bhaktih—Gita). In fact the bond with the Lord alone can destroy worldly bonds. The knowledge of the unreality of these bonds can only weaken these bonds and cannot completely destroy them. Therefore the Lord is personally required in Nivritti for the formation of such a new bond. The Lord in human form is the best for the formation of a real and complete new bond as the case of the bond of the Gopikas with Lord Krishna.
Divine Invisible Government
It is the climax of ignorance to think that spiritual knowledge is unrelated to the present worldly affairs. People think that spiritual knowledge is related only to the upper world. This shows their ignorance. The Lord is the simultaneous Ruler of this world as well as the upper world. The Lord can grant any materialistic boon in this world and can simultaneously give protection in the upper world. The Lord is also involved in the social problems of this world because He is ultimately governing this society. There is His government underlying the present human government as its foundation. The present human government is like the castle that is seen above the ground. But the government of the Lord is like the hidden foundation present under the ground. Jesus always referred to this government of the Lord [Kingdom of Heaven]. Lord Krishna also exhibited the existence of this invisible government of the Lord by showing the vision of His cosmic form (Vishwarupam).
Arjuna decided to withdraw from the war and he thought that thereby his grandfather Bishma and his teacher Drona would escape from death. He also thought that by his withdrawal, Dharmaraja would not become the king. In refusing to fight the war, Arjuna refused to carry out both the punishment of evil and the protection of justice. The petitioner was withdrawing his own case [since Arjuna and his brothers had faced injustice and were fighting to get justice]. In such a case Krishna, the advocate of Arjuna, need not have worried. Arjuna thought that he had brought in Krishna as a helper in his own case.
If the petitioner withdraws his own case, the court accepts it and drops the case in the present human government. But the ultimate government [of God] will not accept it. Even if the petitioner does not file his case, the case gets registered in the court of the ultimate divine government. Therefore Krishna turned the tables diagonally opposite. In the Vishwarupam (Cosmic Form) that Krishna exhibited, He showed that He Himself was killing the evil opponents called Kauravas. This vision proved that Krishna was actually the petitioner and Arjuna was His helper. The petitioner will do his work even in the absence of the helper. You may think that the kingdom belonged to Pandavas [brothers of Arjuna] and was taken unjustly from them. So the war was taking place to get their stolen kingdom back. Therefore Arjuna should be the real petitioner and war must be his work. You will misunderstand like this as long as you think that Krishna was an ordinary human being. But Krishna was the Lord in human form and the entire creation is His kingdom. Therefore the society present on this tiny earth is also a small part of His kingdom. Every living being is under the rule of His divine government and therefore any affair of the individual or the society is indeed His concern. Arjuna understood the meaning of this vision and that his grandfather and teacher [who were siding evil] could not live even if he withdrew from the war. Therefore he thought that it would be better to follow the instruction of the Lord (Krishna) and kill them so that at least he would please the Lord.
Psuedo-secularism neglects the divine government
The absence of the realization of the existence of this underlying invisible divine government of the Lord, which was preached by Jesus again and again, as the kingdom of heaven and which was exhibited by Krishna through the divine vision, is responsible for all the present burning problems at the individual level as well as at the larger level of the society. The human government is neglecting to propagate the awareness regarding the existence of this divine government. In fact the human government is also ruled by the divine government. Perhaps the human government feels that its prestige will be lost by propagating the presence of this ultimate divine government. The awareness of the concept of this ultimate government of the Lord can be propagated through academic education at the primary level. But the government, especially in India, feels shy to introduce spiritual knowledge in education due to its policy of so-called secularism.
Secularism really means that the same medicine is present in every cup and that you can take the medicine present in all the cups with equal liking. Secularism also means that you can take the medicine from any cup and respect other cups with equality. But the present secularism has ended in a horrible form in which the medicine is not taken at all, either from a single cup or from all cups. This is misunderstood or misinterpreted secularism. Mahatma Gandhi prayed to Ishwara and Allah equally and that is real secularism. But in the present secularism, you neither pray to Ishwara nor to Allah nor to both with equality. Instead of such pseudo-secularism, it is better not to have secularism at all. Let us like only one cup and take the medicine from that cup. It is better that India remains as a Hindu country and follows the spiritual knowledge of Hinduism sincerely. In the present false secularism, India neither takes the spiritual knowledge from Hinduism nor from any other religion. The government feels shy in uttering even the word God, which is above all the religions like the medicine, which is not related with any cup.
Blind judiciary
In the judicial system also, the emphasis that the Lord is the supreme judge is not given. The statue of [the Goddess of] justice present in the court has its eyes covered with a piece of cloth and is supposed to only keep its ears open. This indicates that the court has not seen the truth but gives the judgement based on hearing the witnesses. This clearly indicates to the people that the judgement can be misled by producing false witnesseses. The statue indicates the human judicial government with its limitations. In olden days, every temple was also used as a court. The statue in the temple has both eyes and ears open, which indicate that the Lord is seeing everything and knows the truth. The third eye on the forehead of Lord Shiva indicates that the Lord Himself is the executive power in implementing the judicial punishment. In olden days, both the parties would present their arguments in front of the statue of God. Then both the parties were left free. Within a month, the criminal side received severe punishment from God. By this the judge would recognize the criminal. In this process, the involvement of God in the judiciary system was from top to bottom. At least now let the statue of human justice be replaced with the statues representing all religions to protect secularism. Let the court be made into a temple. Let the divine ultimate government be fully exhibited. The Lord who is the Supreme Judge knows the truth without any witness (Sarvatokshisiromukham—the Gita).
Economy and social order
Even in the concept of economic equilibrium of society, spiritual knowledge gives the permanent solution. Capitalism is one extreme end and Naxalism [a form of militant extremist communism] is another extreme end. In between these two lie socialism and communism. Capitalism grows industries with the help of a few rich people and by this several poor people earn their livelihood. Naxalism takes away the concentrated wealth of these few rich people and distributes it among the poor people by force. Socialism and communism try to achieve the same result of naxalism without force. But all these systems have not given permanent solutions.
Duryodhana robbed the wealth and kingdom of the Pandavas. Dharmaraja [the eldest Pandava] requested Duryodhana to return at least a little bit of their rightful kingdom to them and that was like socialism. [But Duryodhana refused]. Then the other Pandavas threatened Duryodhana regarding the consequences of war [if he did not return their kingdom] like communism. Draupadi was highly emotional and wanted to kill Duryodhana on the spot, like a Naxalist. But all of them were controlled and guided by Lord Krishna who was the Lord in human form. When Krishna went to the Kauravas as a mediator from the Pandavas, He requested like socialism, threatened like communism and showed His readiness to kill them through the vision of Vishwarupam like Naxalism.
Therefore the decision of the ultimate divine government is final and when the right time comes, the Lord Himself will become the Naxalist. In such a case, the present Naxalists are not necessary just as Arjuna was not necessary to destroy evil in the Mahabharata war. Therefore all people should act under the guidance of a spiritual preacher like Lord Krishna. In fact Lord Krishna was the real capitalist who is the actual owner of this entire creation. Thus the spiritual knowledge alone can bring the real solution since the Lord is the ultimate authority. Duryodhana was supported by his father, King Dhritarashtra, who represents the human government. But still Duryodhana was destroyed by Lord Krishna, who was the ultimate government. The capitalist tries to find new ways to hide his wealth, when his wealth is forcibly taken away. Sometimes even capitalists are discouraged and do not apply their talent towards growth and industrialization. All these paths fail because they beat around the bush. The spiritual knowledge directly hits the bird in the bush.
Worldly bonds
Spiritual knowledge emphasizes the unreality of these worldly bonds. Your family members were not related to you in the previous births and will not be related to you in the future births. These family bonds are present only in this birth and therefore they are temporary. Anything that is temporary is always unreal (Yadanityam tat kritakam—Shankara, (Nasato—Gita). The dramatic bond, which is unreal before and after the drama, is also unreal during the drama. All human beings, whether they are your family members or outsiders, have the only relationship with you of being your co-actors.
You are cheating an outsider and robbing his wealth for the sake of your family members. But both outsiders and your family members are equally related to you as only your co-actors. Why do you then cheat one co-actor and favour another co-actor and earn sin? Your family members will not share your sin. They have not asked you to steal the wealth of others in order to feed them. This was the answer given by the family members of Valmiki, who was a robber and would rob people to feed his family. One day he had tried to rob Sage Narada. Narada had told him to go to his family members and ask them if they would share the sin that he had earned in order to feed them. [Their flat refusal shocked and changed Valmiki forever].
Lord Krishna started the Gita with the analysis of the self. All the family members are related to this gross body alone in which the blood flows. The self, He referred to in the second chapter of the Gita relates to the causal body along with its subtle body. When you fix the word ‘I’ to the causal body along with the subtle body, all the relationships with the gross body vanish. The Lord compared the gross body to an external garment. This again reveals the unreality of the dramatic bonds that exist with these family members.
Only such divine spiritual knowledge can transform the rich people and with it alone does the solution for economic equilibrium become permanent. If you appeal to a rich man to follow economic justice without removing his blind family attractions, it is like reducing the body temperature by applying ice on the body without killing the bacteria, which are responsible for the fever. Now the mere realisation of the unreality of these family bonds cannot make him motivated to continue with his work so that the poor people can be fed. He may become inactive and unmotivated because the ultimate goal is not clear to him even if he finds out that all the human beings are equally related to him. The concept of the existence of God and that He is pleased when you work actively with a broad view, treating all human beings as equal, should exist. By following the path of justice and rejecting injustice, one can please the Lord. Pleasing the Lord gives the encouragement and motivation. Without this concept, the practice of justice becomes dry and useless. It may even gradually lead to the practice of injustice.
Atheistic government leads to injustice
The kingdom or government of atheists which does not recognize God, finally ends in injustice. The atheist will not recognize the underlying divine government. He only accepts the visible human government that has established courts of law and the police department as executive system for implementing the punishments given by the court. Now the atheist will think that if he can mislead the court by false witnesses and intellectual advocates, he need not fear committing injustice, which gives more enjoyment by the accumulation of wealth. He does not fear God or hell. He only fears the courts and police and knows how to escape them.
At present the pseudo-secularism is almost like atheism. In atheism you deny God and in pseudo-secularism you forget God. Both are one and the same as far as the final effect is concerned. The atheist often argues demanding that theists show him the evidence for the existence of hell and heaven. I ask him one question, “Have you shown Me the entire space of this cosmos and it’s boundaries to prove the absence of hell and heaven”? Of course My question also ends with 50% probability for both existence and non-existence of hell. But if you practice the path of justice there is no harm to you even if hell is absent. But if there is a hell and if you do not follow the path of justice you are harmed severely (Nanyadasteeti—Gita). Thus the present system of pseudo-secularism or atheism is a total failure because the divine government is not recognised properly.
Even when we conduct the Independence Day celebrations we are neglecting to acknowledge the help of the Lord in achieving independence. Mahatma Gandhi achieved independence for the country with the grace of Lord Rama and he was always chanting Lord Rama’s divine name. Remembering the freedom-fighters without remembering the Lord is like praising the Pandavas for the victory in the war without mentioning the name of Lord Krishna. When Jesus mentioned about the kingdom of God, a fighter for the independence of the Jews from Roman-rule, misunderstood that the new kingdom meant the independence of the Jews. He approached Jesus for His assistance in such a fight. Jesus clarified to him that the new kingdom was meant for the revelation of the invisible divine kingdom. Only when that ultimate government sanctions, does anything happen in this world. But in every walk of life, the Lord is neglected and forgotten.
Acknowleding God in public life
People think that praising the Lord is an individual activity and not a public activity. A divine atmosphere is not created in public offices due to which, people easily forget God in public places where their activities alone are given importance. Remembering God only at home does not affect their activities because at home they are mainly inactive and take rest. Thus you have to extend the spiritual atmosphere to every inch of the earth in order to remember the government of God that is functioning everywhere and at all times. I was very much pleased to find the printed statement on the US dollar note, which says, “In God we trust”. On currency notes, the familiar pictures of God should be printed, which remind one of the divine administration. The pictures of the heads of human governments and other natural scenes should be avoided.
It is the duty of the human government to propagate spiritual knowledge in the public. They should start training people from childhood. This alone can control the sins in society like robbing the money of others, corruption, nepotism etc. The blind liking for family members, relatives, caste, religion, sex, and nationality are responsible for the various social problems present today. The blind love to the family members is responsible for stealing the wealth of others and corruption. The blind love for one’s relatives is responsible for nepotism. The blind love for a certain caste and sex is responsible for social discrimination and electing undeserving people into the government. The blind love for religion is responsible for criticizing other religions and sometimes killing people of other religions in mass. The blind love for one’s nation is responsible for wars and border disputes among nations. If one realizes the spiritual knowledge and finds that all living beings are like brothers and sisters, that the one God alone is the Divine Father and that this whole earth is one nation under the rule of God, all these problems vanish.
Lord Krishna just quietly witnessed the mutual killing of His relatives in which even His sons and grandsons were killed. Yet He protected the Pandavas from being brutally killed by Ashvatthama even though they were not His sons or grandsons. His protection was based on their merit. He brought back the dead son of Sandeepani to life even though he was not of His caste, while He did not give life to His own nephew Abhimanyu, who died on the battlefield. He gave immense wealth to Sudama who was not related to Him and did not belong to His caste. He took away all the wealth and killed Duryodhana although he was His relative. The favour of the Lord was based on merit and His punishment was based on the crime alone. All the above bonds were unreal and dramatic in His eyes.
Advice to the human government
I repeat again and again that the government should take all the efforts to propagate the spiritual knowledge at every level and in every corner. Any activity in a public office should be done in a divine atmosphere. All the places of public activities must be converted into temples. If secularism is followed, let the temples have statues of all religions. Every citizen should feel that the omnipresent and omnipotent Lord watches his or her activity. If funds are required to propagate such spiritual knowledge, let the funds of the temples be used for such propagation. The temple funds should be spent for such purpose to bring the constant awareness of the Lord and His all-pervading power that controls each and every activity in creation. Such programs can be done only under the leadership of the religious saints who are well aware of the spiritual knowledge. The officials of the government cannot effectively do such programs unless they are well-versed scholars of spiritual knowledge (Jnaninah tattvadarshinah—Gita; Brahmanah sammarshimah—Veda).
The government officials, who do not have any spiritual knowledge, will use the funds for developing public facilities, which should be done only out of the revenue collected. The money of God (coming from temple collections) should be spent only for bringing about awareness of God and His rule everywhere. These funds are meant only for the propagation of spiritual knowledge and devotion. Any misuse of them for any purpose other than this divine purpose is the greatest sin and the Lord will punish the government for it. Religious priests manage the funds of the Vatican church and the government is not putting its finger in it. Those funds are managed for propagating spiritual knowledge and devotion. By this the Lord is pleased and the western countries are blessed with all comforts. India should learn this aspect from the west.
Your duties to the Divine Government
When the government forgets its duty to propagate the spiritual knowledge and devotion, the responsibility falls finally on the underlying ultimate government, of which the Lord is the head. Therefore the Lord comes down in human form to propagate this spiritual knowledge and devotion. The Lord also collects some tax from you for His mission. He has already given some facilities to you, like human birth, longevity, health, wealth etc. The human government collects taxes without caring for your problems. But the Lord asks for tax from all of you, but this tax is only the time, energy or work and money, which you are wasting in illusory entertainments. You can do the sacrifice of your work (karma samnyasa) or the sacrifice of the fruit of work (karma phala tyaga) or both according to your convenience. The liberated souls sacrifice fully, which is impossible for all others and such liberated souls are blessed by the Lord to be His constant associates, which is the permanent result. The former case is Pravritti [partial sacrifice] and the latter case is Nivritti [complete sacrifice]. One should keep Nivritti as the ultimate aim.
Teacher’s tactic
Pravritti is like scoring passing marks in the examination. Nivritti is like achieving the rare gold medal from the university. The teacher who aims that all the students should at least pass, should not advice them to keep passing marks as their goal. He will advise the achievement of the gold medal as the goal of every student. Lord Krishna was such an excellent teacher who taught only about Nivritti throughout the Gita. In the beginning of the Gita, Lord Krishna stated that he had come to establish justice or Pravritti on this earth (Dharma samstapanarthaya—Gita). This is like a teacher stating that his aim is to see that all the students in his class should pass the examination. Then in that case the teacher should stress only on getting passing marks [i.e. Krishna should have stressed on the path of justice]. Had Krishna done this, the Gita would have become another scripture of ethics like the Manu Smriti containing all the rules of justice like a legal constitution. But Krishna emphasized on the path of salvation from the worldly bonds and devotion to the Lord (Nivritti) for achieving the establishment of justice (Pravritti). The teacher is fixing the goal of the achievement of the gold medal by every student, so that every student by putting such hectic effort will at least pass. If you put mere passing marks as the goal, then every student will put in only the minimum effort and may fail. If the total destruction of bonds is put as the goal, at least the bonds will become weak. This is the excellent tactic of Lord Krishna in putting the higher goal to achieve the lower goal.
In the Bible, Jesus also adopted this tactic and He desired that His dearest disciple should hate his family bonds including the bond with his life. Hating means that one should see his family members as his enemies. When such an extreme goal is fixed, at least the blind attraction in the family bonds is reduced. In fact these family members were really your enemies in your previous birth. Since you have robbed their wealth, they have come to you to get back their money with interest. This principle of justice is forcing you to earn money for them and by such force you are doing all the sins and are getting punished in the process. When you rob the wealth of somebody by force, you not only have to pay it back with interest but you should also be punished. Thus your blind love for your family members is responsible for your sins and the consequent punishment.
Mohammed did not mention Nivritti in His scripture [Holy Quran] because He claimed Himself to be only a messenger of God. Nivritti means loving and serving the Lord in person. For that, God in human form is essential. But Islam believes only in formless God and therefore it is not possible to love and serve the formless God directly. Therefore the path of Nivritti has no place in Islam. The Lord is pleased by Pravritti itself and this pleasing the Lord is considered ultimate in Islam. In Hinduism, Christianity and Islam the final enquiry and the punishment of sinner in hell are common aspects. The Gita introduces the teacher and fixes the gold medal as the ultimate goal for achieving at least a total passing in the class. The Bible mentions the existence of the teacher in the class and explains both the goals [passing and gold medal] separately. The Quran also introduces the teacher to the class but shows only the single goal of passing the examination. The scripture of Buddhism does not introduce the teacher and emphasizes on passing the examination and recommends passing the examination by self-study. But the Buddhists must realize that the teacher is Buddha Himself, since they surrender to Buddha (Buddham sharanam). The scripture of Jainism is similar to the scripture of Buddhism but the Jains should know that the teacher is Mahavir Jain Himself. The Jains also salute to the liberated souls, who are the top devotees. God pervades all over the human body in the case of the human incarnation. But God dwells in the hearts of top devotees also and thus the salutations to the liberated souls are salutations to the Lord. All these [Lord Krishna, Lord Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha and Mahavira] are human incarnations and are represented by the word ‘teacher’ here.
The examination of all these scriptures shows how the Gita is an excellent way of teaching spiritual knowledge and how its preacher Lord Krishna, is a full expression of the Lord (Paripurna Avatara).
Krishna the teacher of Nivritti
Whenever we remember Lord Krishna, three defects appear, which attack our faith on Him. Defects of others are clearly seen by the minds of human beings. The three defects of Lord Krishna in the eyes of people are:
Even other religions find fault in these points. People are not analysing the background of the Lord and criticize due to their limited views. These maidens were sages in the previous birth. They prayed to the Lord for full salvation. Salvation means liberation of oneself from worldly bonds. There are three strongest bonds, which are like steel chains (Eshanas) and they are:
They are the strongest attractions and full salvation means liberation from these three strongest bonds. The Lord stole butter, which was the hard earned money of the cowherds and thus the bond of the Gopikas with their money was cut. The bond with their children was also cut because their children were attracted to the Lord and were not following their parents. Their bonds with their husbands were also cut because the Lord attracted them in the dance. The reason for the destruction of these bonds of the Gopikas was the formation of the new bond with the Lord and there was no other reason. This is the path of Nivritti.
When Nivritti is absent, at least Pravritti should be maintained in which these three bonds can remain but one should not have excessive attraction to them. Pravritti is maintaining worldly bonds with reasonable and limited attractions and removing the blind attractions. If you destroy these bonds for any other reason, it is not only useless but is also injustice. You will be punished in hell for such injustice. People sometimes leave these bonds and think that they have achieved spiritual progress and this is not correct. Even a stone does not have any worldly bonds but that is not spiritual progress. The stone does not have a bond with the Lord either. The destruction of these worldly bonds should be a consequence of the formation of the new bond with the Lord. At least, the destruction of the worldly bonds must assist the growth of the new bond with the Lord (Ananyah, Satatayuktanam—Gita). Krishna did all this only in Vrindavanam where the sages were born as maidens. When He left Vrindavanam He never repeated this anywhere because no other soul except those sages requested Him for such full salvation. Since the sages in Vrindavanam got full salvation, He never returned back. Had He done this with lust, He would have repeated this elsewhere or at least He would have returned back to Vrindavanam to do the same again. The maidens became mad after the Lord because in Nivritti, nothing and none can stand before the eyes of the devotee except the Lord in human form (Natat Samah—Veda; Machchittah—Gita).
Once, a lady worshipped Jesus by applying a costly perfume to Him. A disciple of Jesus criticised this and stated that the cost of the scent could have been spent for feeding beggars. Jesus condemned the disciple and accepted her service. The reason for such personal service was that she was in the path of Nivritti. She desired only the Lord and was not interested in social service. The followers of Nivritti will even leave worldly justice for the sake of the Lord (Sarvadharman—Gita). Such souls reach the permanent divine abode of the Lord. One can not compare Jesus with an ordinary rich man, who is also enjoying a similar service. The rich man is not God and has to please the Lord. The final goal is not his selfish pleasure. In the case of Jesus there is no other God whom he should please. The service done to Jesus protected that lady in this world as well as in the upper world. But the service done to the rich man cannot protect anybody. Once a rich man approached Jesus and asked for his future duty in order to enter heaven. Jesus told him that he should give away all his money to the beggars. Jesus did not ask him to bring any costly scent to be applied to Him. The rich man belonged to the level of Pravritti and was interested in his own personal upliftment and personal enjoyment in the heaven. He was not interested in Lord Jesus.
Thus Pravritti and Nivritti should be differentiated. Ignorant people who are unaware of this difference will mistake Jesus to be fond of the application of the scent by the tender hands of a beautiful lady. Dan Brown in his book ‘Da Vinci Code’ writes that Jesus married a lady called Mary Magdelene and also had a child. Krishna and Mohammad had several wives. Buddha was also married. Shankara was a bachelor but Sankara required the knowledge of sex education for the sake of a debate and received the sexual experience practically for the sake of that debate. Therefore it is immaterial whether the Lord in human form is married or not. Some souls love the Lord through such a bond. The Lord just reflects back in the same way, to please His devotees (Ye yatha mam—Gita). The Lord is the fire of knowledge and any stick will burn to ashes.
God is Beyond the Qualities
When the Lord comes in human form, He plays with all the qualities existing in the universe. All the qualities are created by Him (Yechaiva Sattvikah—Gita) for His Divine Play which is meant for His entertainment. Even Satan was created by the Lord. In a cinema the role of a villain also exists and the actor of that role also gets paid. Any quality that is used for the entertainment and pleasure of the Lord is good and sacred. Any quality that is turned towards selfish pleasure and worldly bonds is bad and impure. The ultimate aim of this universe is only His entertainment. Even Satan is sacred, since he is playing his role sincerely by testing the firm faith of the devotees. You must hate his attraction when it diverts you from the Lord but you should not hate Satan himself. Jesus said that you should hate the sin but not the sinner. The Lord is beyond qualities because the qualities constitute the subtle body (Gunateetah—Gita). These qualities are the tools of His divine play and He is not the subtle body. Therefore He is not the qualities and is untouched by them. A human being is the subtle body and is controlled by the qualities. He is a tool in the game played by the qualities (Nanyam Gunebhyah—Gita). The Lord uses the bad qualities as His mask so that the undeserving devotees do not approach Him for any favour. He also uses these bad qualities to test the firm faith of sincere devotees. Apart from these two uses, Lord Krishna used these bad qualities to give full salvation to the sages in Vrindavanam. No human being can understand the human incarnation. Every human being easily misunderstands the Lord in human form.
Krishna loved Radha extensively. He married her secretly. But He left her within two years and never returned even to see her. Moreover He married several girls and lived happily with them. This is the climax of bad qualities. He tested Radha for her jealousy but Radha was never jealous and never uttered a single word against the Lord. In fact she became mad for the Lord and died remembering Him always. The climax of bad qualities was used by the Lord to test the climax of devotion of Radha. The test was not for His knowledge as He knew the truth [of how devoted Radha was] but the Lord wanted to exhibit the height of devotion of Radha to this world as an ideal to be followed by devotees.
You can find Jesus in Krishna while preaching the Gita. You can find Mohammed in Krishna while fighting with the evil forces. You can find Jesus in Mohammed while the latter was preaching the Quran. You can find Mohammed also in Jesus when Jesus stated that He would throw the evil people into the fire of permanent hell. Buddha also was a kind teacher but He also stated that people with desires would suffer with continuous misery in this world. Kindness and cruelty are the two hands of the teacher (Paritranaya…Vinashayacha—Gita).
Ishwara is the Lord present in this huge cosmos. Krishna is the Lord present in a small human body. The Lord in both is one and the same. The size of the reflected object remains one and the same in two mirrors of different sizes. The two mirrors are qualitatively similar but differ quantitatively. Similarly, the cosmos and the human body differ quantitatively but are similar qualitatively. The components of both the cosmos and human body are common, which are the five elements and the four ‘Antahkaranams’. The Antahkaranams are Manas (mind), Buddhi (intelligence), Chittam (memory) and Ahankara (egoism). The activities of these four are called as the qualities. Therefore all the qualities present in the cosmos must exist in the human body of the human incarnation. All these qualities can be categorized under three headings, which are represented by the three divine forms. All good qualities called as Satvam, represent Vishnu. Some bad qualities like jealousy are called as Rajas, which represent Brahma. The remaining bad qualities like egoism called as Tamas represent Shiva. Lord Krishna showed His body as the cosmos in the vision of His Vishwarupam. Each of these three qualities always exists in association with the other two qualities, which may be relatively small in proportion. This means that in a particular context, one of these three is expressed and the other two are hidden. Hidden does not mean absent. They exist without expression.
Therefore every human incarnation is a true representative of the cosmos containing all the three qualities in equal proportion. This is the meaning of Lord Datta having the three faces of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Datta means the unimaginable God donated to the devotees through a visible human body. The six hands of Datta represent the six modifications of the human body, which are existence, birth, growth, change, reduction and death. Therefore the word Datta means any human incarnation with the association of the three qualities and the human body following all the rules of nature. But people expect Datta to be a peculiar form with three heads and six hands to be placed in an exhibition! A scholar will grasp the inner meaning of the pictorial representation. An ignorant person catches only the picture. The Lord is compared to the sun who removes the darkness of ignorance by the light of His knowledge. The ignorant person thinks that the sun is the Lord. The Lord is compared to fire since He burns all the doubts with His flash of knowledge. The ignorant person worships the fire as God! Thus Datta means the usual human form with a single head and two hands into which the Lord has entered. In fact there is also a pictorial representation of Datta with a single head and two hands.
These three qualities mix in different proportions and form the thirty three crores [three hundred and thirty three million] of deities, which are shown in the vision of Vishwarupam. This again represents the various qualities or feelings, which are generated by the combination of these three qualities. The devotees of Vishnu say that Vishnu alone is God due to His good qualities. But anger is the quality of Rajas. Then how do you justify Lord Narasimha who was full of Rajas [Narasimha was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in a fierce form, taken to protect the great devotee Prahlada]? Shiridi Sai [a nineteenth century incarnation] used to scold terribly whenever He became angry. Therefore you should not judge the Lord by His qualities, which are only the three colours of his shirt (subtle body). Only His subtle body or the shirt contains the three colours, and the qualities cannot touch the colourless Lord. One should be very careful about the Maya, which consists of these three qualities. You should not lose your grip on the Lord when He exhibits His Maya.
The Maya is generated from the Lord like electricity from a generator. By analysing the structure of electricity, you cannot get any information about the structure of the generator. Creation is a modification of Maya. By analysing the creation, you can catch Maya because the phase before modification can be easily achieved by analysing the phase after modification. Electricity is modified into light. By analysing the light, you may get information about electricity. Therefore you can touch Maya through the analysis of the creation. Maya is called as Para Shakti or awareness, which creates, maintains and destroys the creation. But when you analyse the Maya, its source called Brahman [more precisely called as Parabrahman] cannot be touched (Brahma Puchcham—Veda) (Mayadhyakshena—Gita). Therefore Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are nothing but the three divine forms created by Maya while the universe is created, maintained and destroyed. The human body, which represents the cosmos, must also contain these three divine forms in terms of these three qualities. The various combinations of these three qualities represent the millions of feelings, which stand for the millions of deities.
The source of Maya called as the Lord [Brahman or Parabrahman] enters into a human body. If the human body is an energetic form [such as a soul in heaven], the gross body is made of one element only called as Agni or energy. If the human body is on the earth, the gross body is made of five elements. The Vishwarupam with several divine heads or the form of Lord Datta with three heads and six hands can only be an energetic body because only in the energetic form are such peculiarities possible. Krishna is the gross body made of five elements. The energetic body belongs to the upper world and only when human beings go to the upper worlds with energetic bodies, can they see such divine energetic forms. But on earth, such peculiarities are not possible in human bodies. Krishna always had just one face and two hands. Arjuna wanted to see the divine energetic form of the upper worlds with his human body [while Arjuna was still in a human body on earth]. Lord Krishna said that it is impossible to see that divine energetic form with these earthly eyes because these eyes would become blind by such powerful radiation. Therefore the Lord gave Arjuna a pair of energetic eyes, which a person can get only when he obtains an energetic body after death. This is the explanation of the highest divine vision given by Krishna during the preaching of the Gita.
All this creation is withdrawn into Maya and Maya is withdrawn into the Lord. This is like the movie on the screen which is withdrawn into the film and the film is withdrawn and hidden in the box. The movie or the film is not destroyed. Both are exhibited again whenever the Lord wants entertainment (Visrijami Punahpunah—Gita). But once upon a time even before the production of the film, neither the film nor the movie existed. This state is compared to the pure monism of Brahman (Ekaki…, Ekameva—Veda; Mattah Parataram—Gita). If the Lord wishes, He can destroy the film and show you that original state. But He need not prove it to you and for that He need not destroy the film like a fool. This hidden state [unmanifest] of the film, is called ‘Avyaktam’ (Dhata Yatha purvam—Veda, Avyaktadini—Gita). Therefore the Maya (film) is hidden (Avyaktam) for sometime and is exhibited (Vyaktam; manifest) for sometime. The Lord is permanently Avyakta (hidden) because He is always unimaginable. Thus the Avyakta (hidden state) is temporary when it refers to Maya and is permanent when it refers to the Lord. This hidden Lord exhibits Himself in energetic forms for the sake of the souls present in the upper worlds. The same Lord exhibits Himself to the human beings on this earth in the form of the human body (Manushim Tanu Mashritam—Gita). This is the God in Flesh of Christianity.
Human Incarnation
How can you argue that the Lord cannot come down in human form? If He is incapable of doing so, He cannot be omnipotent. You also need not argue that even though the Lord is capable, that there is no necessity of such a human form. You may not have that necessity. But are you the only human being on this whole earth? Have you taken the opinion of all the human beings, to say this? There are several devotees, who belong to the path of Nivritti and desire the Lord in human form to see (Darshanam), to touch (Sparshanam), to hear the knowledge and clarify their doubts (Sambhashanam) and to live along with the Lord (Sahavasa) for long periods of time.
The main purpose [of the incarnation of God] is the preaching of divine knowledge and clarifying doubts. The statues, photographs, energetic forms or formless space can not preach the knowledge and thus there cannot be any universal observation [perception] of divine knowledge. Preaching of the knowledge by human forms of the Lord like Krishna, Jesus etc is observed universally and is available to perception. Such universal observation is according to the rules of the nature. When something is possible through a simple way, by following the rules of nature, is it not foolish to do the same simple thing in a complicated way violating the rules of the nature? When water is available in plenty from the tap, what is the necessity of producing water by forcing hydrogen and oxygen to react with the help of an electric arc? To show the production of water by this reaction, this experiment can be performed once but not every time whenever water is required. To show the super power of the Lord, a statue, photograph, an energetic form or even formless space may talk once. But to preach the spiritual knowledge continuously, the Lord need not talk continuously through statues, photographs, energetic forms or space.
Some devotee might have experienced such super power at some place and at some time. Such experience is not supported by simultaneous universal observation. When you see the moon in the sky, others also observe the same moon simultaneously. This universal observation is required to authorize [verify] any experience. When this authorization is absent, your experience might be considered to be true or might have been due to some psychological disorder. Such psychotic experiences are also observed in this world [and hence it is possible that your experience was not real]. Therefore we cannot isolate the possibility of these two cases in your experience. Therefore there is a necessity for the human form of the Lord and since the Lord is omnipotent, He comes down in human form. There cannot be any further argument on this point.
I know that you are worried that the Lord perhaps gets modified into the human body and thus the unchangeable Lord undergoes a change. Do not worry about this point, because the Lord is never modified into the human body. He only enters into the human body. The word ‘Ashritam’ in the verse of the Gita “Manushim tanumashritam” means the entry of the Lord into the human body and not the modification of the Lord into a human body. This is clarified by Lord Krishna in the Gita in the verse “Avyaktam Vyaktimapannam”.
When a person says that he was sent by God as a messenger and that He has brought the message of the Lord, again the same problem appears. When God is giving the message to that person, nobody has seen it. That person is the single witness. Now the only alternative left in order to believe that the knowledge was given by the Lord Himself, is that we have to test the knowledge. Had we seen the transfer of the knowledge from God to that person with our eyes, we need not have tested that knowledge. It must definitely have been divine knowledge. If we have to believe a statement of that person without the simultaneous universal perception, then we have to believe even a fraud person who utters the same statement.
If you give us a piece of metal and say that is gold, since it was given by God, we cannot believe it. Either we must have seen God giving it to you or we must analyse the metal. Moreover the knowledge is not like the piece of metal, which will not change by transfer. When a teacher explains a concept to somebody and asks him to deliver it to his students, it cannot be transferred as it is. The transfer of knowledge consists of not only the concept but also the explanation. The concept might have been transferred but nobody other than that original teacher can give the same way of explanation of the concept by which the concept pierces into the heart. Therefore to propagate the divine knowledge, the Lord Himself comes down in a human form. Arjuna said the same in the Gita “Tvadanyah…” which means that except the Lord, nobody can preach the divine knowledge and clarify all spiritual doubts.
(To be continued..)
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