Day 4 - Sep 7, Wed

Chapter 4 - Path of knowledge

The fourth chapter of the Gita starts with a beautiful sloka. We need to understand that you can’t understand this statement with logic. First thing: the Truth is not new. It is eternal. It is neither old nor new. Eternal means that it is forever. Eternal is beyond time. The science of enlightenment is eternal. The supreme science was lost through the course of time.

In yesterday’s discourse I gave the first glimpse, the first thing to be understood. If you allow these words to penetrate you they can lead you to enlightenment. If you let these words sincerely into your Being, the healing of bhavaroga, of birth and death will commence. Sincerity makes all the difference.

A small story: after writing 5 bestsellers, one author confessed that he knew nothing about what he was writing. 'Are you going to stop writing?' he was asked. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I am too famous now!’

Another small story: There was a monastery where Lord Shiva was worshipped. The Master there had a cat and it was so close to him that it would jump on him and disturb the pooja. He would then instruct his disciples to hold on to the cat before pooja started everyday. In the course of time the Master passed away. The new successor did not care for the cat and it ran away. The successor asked where the cat was. 'We cannot do pooja without the cat' he declared. They tried to catch other cats but did not succeed. So eventually they stopped performing the pooja!

If you are not enlightened this is what happens. The Truth is lost. The words may be followed but the spirit is missed. This is why the Upanishads have always instructed to go to a living Master. The Vedas are the only books that are courageous enough to declare that they are not the ultimate knowledge. They say that they are only a manual not any substitute for the experience of the living Truth that is embodied in an Enlightened Master.

Only an Enlightened Master who is also a king can teach the ultimate science of spirituality. Only a man who has totally filled the outer space can have the inner space also. Spirituality is the ultimate luxury. If you still have some hope about the outer world you cannot enter the inner world.

You cannot tell this Truth to a person who is not ready for it. It will create danger for himself and disturb others also. When you are not ready, if intimate experiences are given, there is always the doubt. If you have courage, you will oppose or question it outwardly. If you lack courage you will just see it as one more story, that's all. If shared, intimate spiritual experiences should serve as the ultimate inspiration. They should inspire you to enter into the same space. They should give you the courage to take the leap.

A great Master poet sang a set of verses on Shiva. His close disciples requested him to publish them as a book. He said, ‘No, how can I publish these. They are my intimate expression, my love letters to the Lord.’ He explained, ‘I can share these with you because you have become a part of me, you are ready to receive me.’ Unless you enter into the deep reciprocal mood, until you become a simple innocent Being, you cannot receive the Truth.

You can’t talk to God in logic or prose. You cannot relate. Only in poetry can you relate with God. You need love, the language of the heart. If God can be proved logically then logic will become God.

The teachings that are going to be delivered now are very subtle and deep. Krishna says to Arjuna, 'You are my devotee and friend. This is the reason I am going to express the Truth to you.' Not only will Arjuna not understand but he will misunderstand.

There was this Mother Superior who was giving a farewell speech to all the graduating students who were leaving. She was giving them her blessings one by one. She asked one girl, 'Dear, what will you do when you leave here?' The girl replied, ‘I will become a nurse and start serving in a mission hospital.’ She asked the next girl the same question and the girl told her, "I am going to become a nun and start a mission of God." She then asked the next girl and she said, ‘I am going to become a prostitute.’ She just faints and drops. Slowly they manage to revive her and she asks the girl, ‘What did you say?’ The girl tells her, 'I am going to become a protestant.’

If you don't understand the words, you will misunderstand the Truth. You have to come down from your logic to the heart and listen to the Truth with your whole Being. Now we are entering into the path of great Truth.

Arjuna asks how Krishna has given this science to the Sun God. We have to remember that Krishna is just 32 and Arjuna is His friend and that now He is declaring His Divinity. This is the first time He opens up and declares the Truth of His Nature. Krishna speaks the ultimate Truth as it is. When a disciple is ready, you can open up and tell the Truth as it is. Each Master is just a hollow bamboo for the Divine.

There was a great Enlightened Master Nisargadatha Maharaj. One of his disciples questioned him, ‘Master, how can you say that Enlightened Masters don't have karma.’ The Master says, 'See me, I am not doing anything, that is why.’ The disciple says, ‘But you are speaking to me.’ Nisargadatha says, ‘I am not speaking to you. It is because you wanted to speak that you are hearing these words.’ There is no one inside. It is just the Divine speaking through him.

When a normal man says I, his I is supported by his solid experience. When he says God, it is not supported by any solid experience, it is just an empty word supported by some imagination of what God is. When Krishna declares, ‘I am God’ the word God is supported by His solid experience and the ‘I’ has no meaning, it is just an empty word. Krishna says, ‘I have come down again and again.’ He keeps the whole science of enlightenment open for the future. If you understand the Truth in the transcendental nature of activities and appearances, once you leave the body you will also be liberated.

He shows the possibility: if I can achieve enlightenment so can you. Krishna is one of the few Enlightened Masters courageous enough to declare that He has come down again and again. Many claim that they are the last or the only, yet Krishna clearly states here that not only can it be done, but it can be done by anyone also! It is like a tree telling a seed to have the courage to open. The seed is afraid of disappearing, of being no more. Yet the tree is the assurance to the seed. In the same way Krishna gives courage to us. He encourages us to enter into the same Consciousness. We don't have to fear that we will disappear.

Arjuna struggles to understand how the Divine can descend and walk the earth in human form. This is the whole struggle every disciple goes through. If he can receive these words he can establish the Truth of the statement. This Truth will shake his whole Being, it will transform him.

Krishna shares the whole mystery of birth and death. Birth and death is a conscious decision of your soul. If you are ready to receive this, then you see your life as a blessing. Every night is a death and when we awaken we come back to life. The very first thought that we think determines the whole quality of our Consciousness that we live with that day. For most of us it is fear and greed. An Enlightened Being assumes the form just to share His love and compassion. Each day is a gift from God, a blessing.

If you assume this attitude you will become an incarnation. This is the straight technique to become Krishna!