The second verse of Ishavasya Upanishad:

कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छत्ग्ण् समाः | एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥

kurvanneveha karmaaNi jijeeviShechChathgN^ samaaH | evaM thvayi naanyaThethoaAsthi na karma lipyathe nare ||

“One should decide to live in this world for a hundred years, hundreds of years, all the while doing his deeds dispassionately as sanctioned by the scriptures. In this way, the deeds done by you shall not cling to you. There is no other way by which a man can free himself from the bondage created by the deeds.”

Listen! Just in the last few days, one of our devotees, a doctor, she asked me a question: ‘How to practically combine all these, Swamiji? We all know the truth. We understand that everything changes, including what we perceive, and even what we don’t perceive. How can we co-exist in Advaitha with our fellow beings, even if, either one of us, myself or others, do not accept the change as something necessary and good for all of us?’ This was the question.

Actually, the second line of the second verse is the answer. Understand:

एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतोऽस्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥ evaM thvayi naanyaThethoaAsthi na karma lipyathe nare ||

When you decide to LIVE, when you decide FOR LIFE based on the understanding “Everything is Consciousness”…..

See, I will just give you a few types of mental setups:

Some people decide AGAINST LIFE. Seeing the SUFFERING IN LIFE and by BECOMING POWERLESS TO FACE LIFE, they decide AGAINST LIFE, I tell you. I can give you an example:

At the age of six, when you are in school, your teacher asks some question – ‘Who is the first Prime Minister of India?’ You put your hands up and jump and shout, ‘Mahatma Gandhi”. The whole class will be laughing at you. And, at that time, you feel naturally, ‘Oh, I have done some something wrong. I should not be putting up my hand and jumping like this. I should keep quiet in a crowd.’ This decision, even after you become forty-seven, when you are sitting in a meeting, you are the CEO, even then, if you have an idea, you won’t speak out directly in the group, you will tell somebody else, and that person will tell the group, and he will get the name. You decide for your whole future based on one incident! Look in.

Thousands of decisions you have done, based on one incident, AGAINST LIFE.

The other day, I was talking to a devotee.

I was telling him, ‘Hey, always remember you are Mahadeva, Shiva, and move the happenings of your life with this understanding.’

He said, ‘No, Swamiji. I just have blood-pressure and sugar (diabetes). I tell myself, “I am Mahadeva! Let this blood-pressure and sugar be healed!” When that doesn’t heal, I lose confidence that I can change the other things.’

Listen!

This blood-pressure and sugar, you would have taken so many thousands of decisions AGAINST LIFE; that is why it came. So, now, when you decide FOR LIFE, decide at least a few times till that whole part starts listening to you.

See, your decisions AGAINST LIFE has become a big chunk in you. You may not need to kill all of them, but you need to create the decision FOR LIFE at least to drive them enough! See, each time, your decision AGAINST LIFE becomes one soldier against you. If there are two million soldiers inside you, each time you create a positive decision – means, “FOR LIFE” – you are creating one soldier in your army. Now you don’t even have to create an army for you to kill the opposite army, but you have to at least create the sound, noise, that they should run away! So, if you have taken one-thousand decisions AGAINST LIFE, at least ten decisions FOR LIFE you have to take. Only then all those one-thousand decisions AGAINST LIFE will be nullified.

Many times you decide AGAINST LIFE just because of a simple incident, for small reasons. So, understand, there is one kind of mental setup which decides AGAINST LIFE because of a few incidents of life. 

Second, there are a set of people, there is a kind of a mental setup, they decide AGAINST LIFE, listen, they decide AGAINST LIFE out of the IGNORANCE that deciding AGAINST LIFE is going to give them peace or liberation. THAT ignorance! People think ‘Oh, instead of living like this let me die’. And you think, if you die, immediately you are released from all this suffering? No! If death is going to be freedom from all these sufferings, I would have started promoting suicide long before! No! It is in no way going to free you. Please understand, if you commit suicide because you are not able to handle your wife, you may have ten wives exactly like this same person with whom you are living, in Hell! From whatever you think you can escape, you will have MORE! And, unfortunately, in Hell you don’t have the choice of committing suicide!

So, out of IGNORANCE, people deciding AGAINST LIFE. 

And, there are some people who want to choose FOR LIFE, decide FOR LIFE, but don’t think that that is what Cosmos wants you to do, don’t sincerely, authentically, stand by it. They say, ‘Alright, now I am deciding FOR LIFE. Let me see how much it goes, how far it goes.’ After two days, one small shaking, immediately they fall back, they collapse! Again they start entertaining the thoughts, ‘I think, instead of this, let me better withdraw.’

Please understand, all withdrawal you did is AGAINST LIFE.

Whether you withdrew from your job thinking that it will be too stressful and responsible, or you withdrew from your love affair thinking that it will not be possible for you to stand and give a fight against the people who are opposing you, or you withdrew from your career or responsibility, or you withdrew from your decision of Sannyas, whatever, whatever withdrawal, WITHDRAWING IS AGAINST LIFE! Listen! Listen! WITHDRAWING IS AGAINST LIFE! See, before you start, spend enough time in analyzing – ‘Is it non-violent? Is it not hurting others?’ All that, do it. Because, anything violent, hurting others, the moment you realize, you should withdraw. That is LIVING ADVAITHA! I am not speaking from that context. Listen! Withdrawing because you became powerless is AGAINST LIFE.

Sometimes you may withdraw to feel more powerful. For example, if you are taking the decision of killing, and withdrawing from it because you feel it is violence, then it is “right withdrawal”. Actually, THIS withdrawal itself is decision FOR LIFE.

So, this is the basic understanding you need to have:

WHATEVER MAKES YOU POWERFUL AND LIVE ADVAITHA, YOU SHOULD DECIDE FOR IT!

Deciding FOR LIFE! Listen! Deciding FOR LIFE! Every time you decide FOR LIFE, immediately it reflects in your being.

I told this devotee who was complaining to me, ‘I tried to cure my blood-pressure and sugar. When that did not change, I got the negative belief. I feel that is not going to work out for me.’,

‘No! Don’t do that!

Understand, the number of times you decided AGAINST LIFE is only sitting in you as disease!

So, you should decide, ‘How many number of times it may take that I have to decide FOR LIFE to drive these diseases out, I AM going to DECIDE, that’s all! This disease HAS to DISAPPEAR! How many times I have to decide FOR LIFE for this to disappear, I don’t care. But I am going to GO ON DECIDING FOR LIFE! Whether these diseases disappear in this birth, in this body, or in the next body I am going to have healthy body, I don’t care about that! But I am going to just STICK to the decision FOR LIFE!’ This is enough. You will see immediately your body transforms!’