Omm Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Yoga means striving, yoga means putting constant effort, even when there is repeated failure.  Yoga means trying to find from within why something is happening.  Yoga is not what is happening.  Yoga is why it is happening.  When someone is not putting effort, and is asking me repeatedly what, instead of finding out why, then I say to that person, “Don’t do it.”  If I will go on explaining but you all will not apply it to your day-to-day experience, then we will convert vidya into avidya.  Vidya is that which takes you towards liberation from this ignorance.  As long as there is a prompting to ask something, the person is ignorant about that thing.  If I ask someone to teach me how to drive the car, that means I am ignorant about driving.

Material ignorance is natural.  Spiritual ignorance is unnatural, because man is spirit, man is the spark of divine.  It is that spark, that spirit that consciously entered into this inconscient matter.  Nobody compelled the soul to enter.  Because man by nature is the spark of divine, freedom is our natural state.  We are unlimited, unbound, the imperishable, immutable self.  This natural state we left behind and consciously entered into a state which is not natural to us, knowing fully well what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Prakriti is the field of experience; purusha is the field of awareness.  Eternally remaining in the plane of awareness, the purusha out of its sweet will wanted to experience its other part.  This Brahman wanted to experience the non-Brahman.  Brahman is pure awareness, no experience, so this Brahman wanted to experience what is the other side of the Brahman – north pole, south pole.  In between these two opposites lies the highest state of satchitananda.  The sat that entered into the chit must find some place where it will experience the chit without losing an ounce of the sat.  That is the state of satchitananda.  All experience is coming but no awareness is leaving.  That’s the state.  Reaching that stage is the yoga of Gita.

The other yoga is this sat who entered into the chit out of curiosity to know how beautiful or how horrible is chit, got trapped in the attributes of chit and then got fed up with this trap, this veil, this bondage, this torture, this misery, and one day aspired, “Oh, enough is enough, let me run away.”   This “Let me run away without looking back” is the path of liberation, the traditional yoga.  But Gita does not show that path.  Gita shows how to reach that mysterious mystic plane inside the chit where the sat will not lose its awareness even by an ounce, but will experience the chit fully.  The goal of the yoga of Gita is to reach the state of satchitananda – sat as well as chit.  Yasmätksharam atïtoham  prathitah  purushottamah.  “I am beyond the kshara, higher than the akshara.  That is I, the Supreme Being.”  That is the state to which Gita is guiding a seeker.  When you realize this, you have reached the highest state.

Why do we get identified with each other?  Because each human being carries a little of the whole creation within him.  We get identified with this creation because you are anything and everything.  You are the dust, you are the mountain, you are the drop, you are the ocean, you are light, you are darkness, you are the truth, you are the untruth, sat and asat, both you are.  You are the seeker, you are the seer, you are the wise man and you are the foolish man.  This is the reason you get identified with everything.

Slowly you will transcend some of it, then some more of it.  If a dog will bark outside, you will be a witness until the barking is so persistent that you can no longer be a witness.  Then you will open the door and go to see why the dog is barking.  But if Swamiji will suddenly scream, you will instantly come to find out what has happened because your identification with Swamiji is much more than your identification with the dog.  But even if this swamiji is shouting, a man who is passing by on the road will just look and then he will go, because his identification with this swamiji is much less than your identification.

We get affected to a greater or to a lesser degree with persons, places, incidents, events, actions, opinions, ideas, feelings and reactions because we are the creation.  The wave rises from the ocean and falls back on the ocean.  Similarly, every human being is carrying within him this vast, infinite prakriti and he is identified with anything that happens in the prakriti plane.  Everything happens in the plane of chit, nothing happens in the plane of sat.  If the ocean rises due to tsunami, it will affect the land nearby the ocean but it will not affect the sky above it.  If your house is near the ocean it may be submerged, but if your house is far away from the reach of the tsunami, you will not be affected.

The gunatita state is to remain in such a height that prakriti’s tsunami cannot touch you.  Contrary to what many people believe, it is not a difficult thing to attain.  Had it not been possible, Arjuna would not have asked what are the signs and symptoms of one who has reached the gunatita state, and Krishna would never have explained to Arjuna how to reach that stage.  God is wiser than man, so how can God explain to man something that man can never attain?  This is a great myth that is perpetuated by those who are learned but not wise.   Learned men cannot make an ignorant man wise.  To make an ignorant person wise, the learned man must attain wisdom, and wisdom is knowledge applied to life’s situations.

Wise men know how to transcend, when to descend, how long to remain, and when to withdraw.  This capacity is given to man; it is not given to gods.  The man who knows this secret is higher than the gods.  His place is above the god plane, in the unity plane of consciousness, although he is dwelling on Earth.  That secret is revealed in Gita, and Verse 533 very symbolically, in a cryptic way explains the sequence of how to transcend.  I have not explained this because there must be someone who is capable to apply it into life’s day-to-day situations.  Situations and opportunities are happening constantly, but unless you have reached that state, you cannot see it.

I am transmitting wisdom every moment.  I am speaking nothing but pure wisdom, and my action is nothing but pure wisdom.  If you have that inner vision you will always see why I am doing something; next you will see what I am doing.  Because I am able to see, I am not shouting or punishing or getting identified with who did what.  This is the secret.  This is the difference between you and me.  I am able to see why first, who next.

There is a beautiful verse in this chapter.  Krishna says,

Nänyam  gunebhyahkarttäram   yadädrashtä  nupashyati;

Gunebhyashcha  paramvetti   madbhävam  sodhigachhati.    (Verse 542)

When a person is able to see that there is no doer other than the gunas, he has come to the stage when he is just few steps away from attaining my state, madbhävam  sodhigachhati.  How close?  As close as Chapter 14 is to Chapter 15.  How to reach that stage, what’s the necessary preparation, what are the necessary precautions, and what are the signs and symptoms whether one is actually on the right track or not – the key is Verse 533.  The secret is nänyam  gunebhyahkarttäram  yadädrashtä  nupashyati.  Drashta, means the seer, not the onlooker, drashta means one who has reached a stage when he can see through prakriti’s veil.  If you are not able to see through the veil, how can you transcend the veil?  You should be able to see; there should be no need for somebody else to show you.  That’s the time when you are ready.  But if you are expecting me to show you what I am seeing it will not be possible.

A living human being who is with you every moment is showing you the path, not a philosopher who comes to give a discourse for one hour, then runs away.  That’s the difference between a sadguru and a teacher.  A sadguru is with you every moment so that through his action, reaction, impulse, ecstasy, depression, frustration, his shouting and his embrace, you are able to see.  Such a stage has been reached by the yogi by the time he comes to the fourteenth chapter of Gita, the fourteenth step.  This is the reason the fourteenth chapter began with Bhagavan uvacha, the Blessed Lord said.  What is the Blessed Lord saying?

Parambhüyah  pravakshyämi    jñänänäm  jñänamuttamam;

Yajjñätwä  munayahsarve   parämsiddhi   mitogatäh.     (Verse 524)

Now I shall reveal to you the supreme secret.  This is uttama, higher than the highest jñäna, jñänänäm  jñänamuttamam.

The soul will feel, ‘Why are you going to reveal it to me, Lord?’  The Lord answers, Yajjñätwä munayahsarve parämsiddhi mitogatäh.  The munayah (or muni) are those who are completely established in the pure state of sat.  Absolute inner silence has come.  What to talk of desire, not even a thought is rising.  That’s the state of the muni.  They have attained the highest siddhi.  These munis will never get distressed when there is dissolution, nor do they ever feel the compulsion to come when there is new creation.  That’s the state I am going to show you, Arjuna.

The entry point is Verse 533.  Don’t look at the whole universe, look at your system.  In this system, which I call the ocean, the waves are rising and falling, but all these waves are classified into three basic types: rajasic, sattwic and tamasic.  These triple waves are constantly rising and falling back into the same ocean from where they are rising.  Where is the ocean?  Your system is the ocean.  Who is the ocean?  Prakriti is the ocean.

Your system is prakriti.  You and your system are two different entities.  Your system is the prakriti, you are the purusha.  In the thirteenth chapter this was very clearly explained.  You are the purusha, your system is the prakriti.  Always remember that.  Anger is coming, you are saying, “I got angry.”  Ecstasy is coming, you are saying, “I had gone through ecstasy.”  That’s not correct.  When you are inside a boat on the ocean and the waves are rising, do you say, “I am rising?”  No, you say, “The boat is rising.”  Why?  Because the water in the ocean is rising.  It is so simple; you understand that much.  But when your understanding will be pinpointed, like Swamiji’s, you will also be able to say, “Now this rajas is rising.  Maybe it will be very difficult for me to maintain my tranquillity, so you be careful.  I am in a very high rajas voltage now.  The way you are talking, the way you are working, maybe I will not be able to handle my rajas.  Maybe I will shout at you if you don’t do the work perfectly.”

When your normal dialogue, feeling and thinking will change to this type, you are able to see.  I conceptually understood this but it took me ten or twelve years to be able to see what is happening.  I was able to see that it is prakriti, it is sattwa, it is rajas that is rising.

Every human form is an un-insulated electric wire.  If you touch it there will be current, there will be transmission of energy.  If you are a sattwic person, you are transmitting sattwa energy, and if I come close to you I will receive sattwa.  If you are radiating tamas, I will receive tamas, if you are radiating rajas, I will receive rajas.  This is the reason you maintain a gap.  In the initial stage this should be a physical gap, because that is where you are, in the gross.  If I will embrace each one of you now, nothing will happen to me, but there was a time, what to think of embrace, by merely thinking the energy will come to me.  Thought is also an opening for receiving the energy.  Not only purusha is all-pervading, prakriti is also all-pervading.

Just as we put on warm clothes to protect our body from cold, so also we should put on something to protect our system from contamination by this energy which is contrary to our dharma.  Now what is my dharma?  I am in a gunatita state most of the time, beyond the gunas.  If I don’t stay in that state I will die physically but I have to function in the world of prakriti, so I should consciously be with those people who are radiating sattwa energy, because sattwa is least harmful.  I should consciously avoid close proximity with tamasic people, and I should always be alert as to how much time I will expose myself to rajasic people.

How can the yogi practice it until he is able to see what is happening within him?  That is why the fourteenth chapter is so important, and this is the beginning verse of that process.  What happens, why it happens, how it happens, how long it will continue – that whole secret is revealed in the fourteenth chapter, and this is the entry point.

It says rajas, tamas and sattwa try to subjugate the others, rajastama schäbhibhüya sattwam bhavatibhärata.  Sattwa tries to overpower rajas and tamas, rajas tries to overpower sattwa and tamas, tamas tries to overpower sattwa and rajas.  This battle is constantly going on.  Why are they fighting with each other?   Because prakriti is attached to purusha and purusha is attracted to prakriti.  Sattwa, rajas and tamas are attributes of prakriti.  That means prakriti’s attributes are fighting against each other.  Why?  Because prakriti is attached to purusha, and each of these prakritis wants to say, like children, “This is my purusha.”

Whatever is happening in the prakriti plane, I have always said, “Prakriti is always right.  Simply from our angle we are not able to see that.” 

You have to reach that stage where you understand that everything in the prakriti plane is being done by prakriti.  I am supposed to be linked to the purusha in you, not the prakriti in you.  Being a sadguru, my role, my responsibility is to lift the purusha in you from the clutches of prakriti in you.  If I am not seeing the purusha in you, if I am getting identified with the prakriti in you, how can I save you, how can I liberate you, how can I guide you?

Here Gita is saying that, by defeating rajas and tamas, sattwa predominates.  This is the entry point.  Cling to Gita word by word.  Don’t disturb the sequence.  This means it is natural for the human system to have more sattwa, less rajas and even less tamas.  The permutation combination differs in each system.  The amount of sattwa in my system may be more or less than the amount of sattwa in your system.  Every system is different, but the dominant energy in every human form is sattwa, so every human being, every yogi, should make a conscious effort to prolong the cycle of sattwa.  This is the entry point.

Depending on your system, the sattwa phase may continue half an hour, forty minutes, twenty minutes, one hour; first find out when the sattwa phase is beginning and how long it lasts.  In my system the sattwa phase begins around two o’clock at night, so I made it a habit to get up at two-thirty and sit in meditation.

Find out when your sattwa phase begins, note it down and watch it for a week.  When you find it is continuously correct for seven days, that’s the beginning point for you to track your guna cycle.  The gunas come in a regular consistency, so once you find out when sattwa begins, then remember what Gita says: sattwa will rise, defeating rajas and tamas.  So before sattwa in your system, there will be rajas.  This is the reason we experience dream before we get up from bed.  Dreaming leads to sleeping, and waking from sleeping is preceded by dreaming.  This is the natural stage.  We have tamasic dreams and sattwic dreams, but dreaming itself is a rajasic activity.  Without rajas, there is no dream.  It is natural for the system to have rajas prior to sattwa.  Prior to rajas is tamas.  You cannot change this sequence.

Once you find out when your sattwa phase is rising, then find out how long it remains.  During the day, these gunas change many times, depending on your elemental composition and your guna cycle.  When I began my study I found that my sattwa was remaining longer because I was basically a sattwic person.  Then after sattwa it was rajas, then tamas.  I found the sequence, but due to my non-yogic lifestyle, what happened?  I was fond of eating fish and meat and Indian mixtures and fried foods, and tamasic drinks like Coca-Cola.  These are all tamasic foods.  I noticed that in my system, after my sattwa phase, my tamas easily overpowered my rajas.  I was procrastinating by nature, and because of my jñäna I knew procrastination is a tamasic habit and was coming to me because tamas was dominating.  For example, I would know something was important and had to be done, but I was not able to do it.  Then I would repent, “Oh, it should have been done.”  That I knew it should have been done was because of the sattwa.  The will is there so that means there is rajas, but if effort is not there it means tamas has overpowered sattwa and rajas.  Constant pending work is a warning signal for the yogi.

Find out how prolonged is the tamas in your system.  If tamas is your constant companion, what you should do?  Your goal is sattwa, but if you suddenly inject sattwa into your system which is dominated by tamas, you will be a spiritual hypocrite, giving empty advice that will carry no force.  Sattwa on the foundation of tamas builds hypocrisy and falsehood, so you should inject rajas.  Expose yourself to rajasic persons, a rajasic environment, and take up rajasic action.

Sattwa pushes the being to sukha, happiness, the happiness that comes from the state of self-awakening, that comes from pure jñäna.  You all are in a state of pure happiness now because you are receiving jñäna.  Why are others not coming although they know an interaction is going on?  Okay, five o’clock morning they were sleeping, I understand, but it is seven o’clock now.  Their system is not allowing them to be pulled here because tamas will not be attracted to pure jñäna.

So find your sattwa phase, your rajas phase, and your tamas phase.  Then find out how long each cycle lasts in your system.  If your tamas is longer than rajas and sattwa, you will find that you are procrastinative and you will have a pull for gross tasty food, and for a companion.  Children always feel the pull towards the mother’s or father’s lap.  Why?  Because tamas feels the pull for a physical companion.  Animals want to be near their master’s feet, because tamas wants to cling.  Animals are basically tamasic.

Once you understand, then prolong your cycle.  If you are in tamas, prolong your rajas cycle; if you are in rajas, prolong your sattwa cycle.  And if you are in sattwa, keep the sattwa cycle unbroken; you will go beyond sattwa.  Sattwät sanjäyatejñänam, if you prolong sattwa it will push you to jñäna, to awareness.  This push will come little by little, drop by drop.  Five minutes, then ten minutes, half an hour, one day, three days.  When you first go beyond sattwa you will have a crash, because until you achieve full stability you cannot remain in a gunatita state always.

When you are beyond sattwa all the secrets will be revealed.  When you are in sattwa, one symptom is the pull to read spiritual literature.  In rajas you will feel a pull for action drive, for ambition, ego, achievement, success, and you will get identified with failure.  When you have tamas, the symptoms will be sleep, sloth, heedlessness and pull for physical company.

Gita is full of this crystal-clear guidance.  Man gives what you can carry, but God gives so much that you will be carried away by it.  So much light comes that you become light itself.  That is why it is called enlightenment.

Cling to Gita, and if you are not able to cling to Gita, cling to the guru.  That’s the only way to become gunatita.  Cling to Gita, be linked with my force, the gunatita, transcendental force that is manifested through the form.  That’s the secret.  I am determined that during my lifetime some of my people will reach the stage where I am.  The guru is capable to push you beyond prakriti, provided you are linked.

Verse 533 is the entry point to the gunatita state.  The master must be able to show you how to enter, where to begin, how to sustain and what to do if a crash is about to occur.  All my interactions are directed towards this.  Step by step I am decoding Gita and showing you this clear, eternal path, the path that was shown to mankind long ago by the Supreme Lord himself.

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