Day 16 - Sep 19, Mon

Chapter 16 - You and me

Krishna speaks of the deeper layers of samskaras (engraved memories). He talks of the qualities of the Divine and Demonic. As long as you have the idea of ‘me’, you will be demonic for yourself and others. Once the cognitive shift takes place from ‘me’ to ‘you,’ you will be a blessing for yourself and others. It is in the cosmic layer that you decide between ‘you’ or ‘me.’

We need to understand how data is processed in the mind and how this cognitive shift happens. In the mind, in the decision making process, it is the ego that ultimately decides if something will happen or not, based on whether you are centered on ‘me’ or ‘you.’ You may have decided up to this point that you do not want to do something in all the other processes of the mind, but if the ego ultimately decides that there is something in it for you, then it will be executed. This needs to be understood. So if you decided based on the ‘you’ attitude, the whole action becomes Divine. It doesn’t matter what you are doing, it is the attitude that determines everything. The decision you make in the deeper cosmic layer determines whether the action is Divine or Demonic.

Compassion and passion are the same thing. Passion is experienced intensely in our Being. If we don't experience compassion with the same intensity, it is just pseudo and out of ego. We don't have to work on the doing. It is the Being we need to focus on. Even bliss is choicelessness. When you experience bliss, you are relaxed in the ‘you’ attitude, in the Divine. The moment you want it back, you choose and this leads to suffering. The moment you try to possess it and grab it, you are deciding based on ‘what is in it for me?’ And this destroys the bliss, as you are no longer Divine. This is why we lose the bliss after a couple of hours after a meditation or spiritual experience. This is what happens.

The attitude of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ comes from the instinct to survive and possess. Both are illusions. As long as you carry the instinct to possess or survive, you will have fear. Surrendering to Existence is the only way to achieve fearlessness.

There is a great story in the Katopanishad: Nachiketa, a little boy goes in search of Lord Yama, the Lord of Death. He goes to the abode of death itself and Yama is not there. So he waits for him to come. When Yama comes, he welcomes the boy and blesses him with Enlightenment.

If you understand this story, you will understand death. When you face death, you will not find death as you imagined. We try to escape death out of fear. And because of this, death chases you. When you face death, you will realize that it actually welcomes and blesses you.

In the same way we can face fear. The problem is we allow fear to frighten us. Allow the fear to arise in you. Let the fear happen in you. You may cry, your body may shake. Give yourself just half an hour of conscious process with your fears. Suddenly you will see that the fear leaves you and you become more responsible, more intense. You will stop taking life and the people in our life for granted. You will face reality as it is. You can’t escape reality.

A small story: a king lived in great comfort and luxury and after 45 years, he became very bored and depressed. He had all the comforts and wealth that life could offer him. All the excitement had gone out of his life. If you don't have something, at least you have the excitement and hope of attaining it. He had everything he could want. Never imagine that when you have everything you will be happy. You will be in hell. The king was so depressed he would not even come out of his room. All his ministers tried everything; they brought him all the best things from all over the country to try to tempt him out of it. Finally they told him about an Enlightened Master who lived in the forest. They begged, “He has helped all kinds of people to come out of depression, please meet with him.”

The king agreed and he went to the Enlightened Master with all his doubts and questions. He asked, “Can you give me something to get me out of depression?” The Master said, “If you can give me all your wealth in a gunny bag, I will tell you.” That night the king started thinking, “Why should he ask for all my wealth? Yet there is a certain grace about him that is beyond my doubt.” If a person is Enlightened he penetrates your Being. He gets past your intellect and doubt. He wondered, “Why did he ask; shall I try it?” He starts doing a calculation: “I am not happy with all this wealth.” So he converts all his wealth to diamonds and takes them to the Master. Without saying a word the Master grabs the gunny bag and runs. The king couldn’t catch him because the Master knew the forest well. The king blames himself and visualizes himself being a beggar. Poverty already enters his mind. When he was rich he suffered, now he is poor and even now suffers. When the king stopped, the Master stops. The king jumps on him and grabs the bag back. The Master says, “Fool, now take this and enjoy.” Suddenly the king feels like a rich guy and is happy!

In our life, when we let the insecurity consciousness happen to us, we will never take our life for granted. The moment you experience insecurity, you live intensely. We are never happy living just for ourselves. For one week, try living for others. Give others their preferences. We may think people will exploit or cheat us or take us for granted. But we have never tried living this way, sincerely. When we live for others and drop the ‘me and mine’, we will feel so relaxed. We will have so much bliss. As long as we have attention on ‘me’, we will be ‘at tension.’ Take this single statement and forget everything else. Just live this spiritual practice for 7 days. You will see something happen in your Being. You will become a hollow bamboo - a flute in the hands of the Divine. Then, whatever happens to you, you will imbibe the Divine.

Krishna gives the technique to achieve this: how to replace the ‘me’ with ‘you,’ to make the cognitive shift. He gives the subtle techniques to experience the Consciousness of you – the Divine nature of your Being. When you don't act out of the idea of ‘I’, you will not feel as if anything is taken away from you.

Tharangini was a great devotee of Krishna and there is a beautiful story that expresses the deep love and devotion she had for Him. Within 12 hours of His birth, Krishna was brought to Yasoda who brought Him up and took care of Him. Tharangini was from a lower community. She wasn’t even allowed to serve Krishna. She would just sit humbly away from Him and enjoy His Presence.

One day He left the flute close to where her home was. He just creates this whole drama of forgetting it so that he has an excuse to return. Tharangini takes the flute and keeps it in her home for Him. Krishna pretends as if He is searching for His flute. He arrives at her hut and asks for it. Her home is very small and humble. It suddenly has one thousand rays of the sun shining through the roof. She is totally shaken and overwhelmed. She is not even able to speak.

Then He starts the next drama. He asks her if she would like Him to play the flute for her. She is not able to refuse, so He plays for her beautifully. She sits in the corner and is completely filled with ecstasy.

Suddenly, Yasoda comes and she is furious. She says, “I take care of you, I bring you food, you won’t play for me but here you play for this girl.”

Yasoda is in the ‘I and mine’ attitude. Tharangini is in the ‘you’ attitude. Krishna blesses Tharangini because she has the attitude of ‘you.’ He blesses her with the ultimate liberation: Krishna says: “Let you be a flower in my garland and be with me forever.”

When you have the attitude of ‘you’, you disappear into Existence. For three days, imagine that you are someone else. Drop everything - your property, problems, issues and relationships; everything that your identity is based on. Only when we break completely from our identity, we will understand that the whole thing is intelligence and start to really live.