Your body, mind, inner space, consciousness, whatever you feel about you, go on expanding, expanding, expanding! That is the only way life can continue to ooze in you, overflow in you.

Kṛṣṇa says,

Act without attachment. Do not worry about success or failure in results. Center yourself in wisdom of completion that takes you beyond action and the desire for fruits of action. Once you are centered in wisdom of completion you will act wisely. Once you give up attachment to results, you will be freed from the cycle of birth and death and you will be beyond sorrow.’

In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa begins initiating Arjuna into yoga with the second tattva of authenticity or śraddha. Kṛṣṇa is the greatest strategist of life. Here, He begins revealing the truth of authenticity, the strategy of life, the strategy that will make Arjuna succeed and expand!

Every time inauthenticity is allowed in you, it leaves a powerful fear in you

Kṛṣṇa declares, ‘yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam.

Please understand, I first want you to understand these words:

yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam—yoga is authenticity in action.’ Not just ‘perfection in action’ but I am translating it as ‘authenticity in action.’ Continue reading “Your body, mind, inner space, consciousness, whatever you feel about you, go on expanding, expanding, expanding! That is the only way life can continue to ooze in you, overflow in you.”

The entire teaching of Bhagavad Gītā can be summarized in the two verses 2.47, 2.48.

The sheer brilliance of the wisdom of the Universal Master is reflected in these verses. Whenever I get a chance I refer to these verses to explain how one should lead one’s life.

Kṛṣṇa says many, many things in these few words. He says, ‘You have the right and responsibility to work. You have no responsibility or right to the results of that work. Do not focus on the result and make it either a pattern of greed to chase or fear to stay away from. Do what you have to do with a centered mind, a complete inner space without worrying about whether you will succeed or fail.’

karmaṇyevādhikāraste māphaleṣukadācanaI
mā karmaphala hetur bhur mā te saṅgo’stv akarmaṇi II 2.47 Continue reading “The entire teaching of Bhagavad Gītā can be summarized in the two verses 2.47, 2.48.”

Just decide that life is for others! All the best things will be showered on you. You will get back to the space you were in when you were born, the purest space of life, the imperishable space!

Violence and killing are not merely physical acts. They are psychological compulsions acted out of incompletion in the physical realm. The ruler of a country who orders warfare against others is the violent one, even if he hides behind his throne. Violence of the mind carries on as the vāsana or desires; the essence of the spirit, that incarnates from birth to birth. That is the horror that does not end with death. The spirit is violated, degraded, and degenerated by this attitude of violence.

A violent man is always a coward, an inauthentic person who does not have the courage to face the truth. He does not have the sensitivity to treat others as he expects to be treated. He goes out-of-integrity, losing his power of words, isolating himself in a cocoon of lies, using the excuse of defending himself, and commits violence against others. Continue reading “Just decide that life is for others! All the best things will be showered on you. You will get back to the space you were in when you were born, the purest space of life, the imperishable space!”

Intelligence is the ability to respond to a situation or challenge

We think we are very intelligent and so we try to mould our children to become intelligent like us. When we start this process, we first teach the child the logic of running in life driven by either fear or greed. Either he has to do something to achieve more, or he has to do something to prevent what he doesn’t want to happen. When you want something to happen, it is greed. When you are afraid that something will happen, it is fear. Either he has to study so he can get better grades and win admission in a good college, this is being driven by greed. Or he has to study so he is not left behind in his future professional life, this is being driven by fear. The motivation for the child is greed or fear, never inner fulfillment. Naturally, the child gets into the rat race and just keeps running, with no time to even look whether he is running for what he really wants. He does not even know that he can enjoy the run! He has been taught that with any other diversion, precious time will be wasted in reaching the goal.

But how many people have felt fulfilled after reaching the ‘goal’?

When you reach the goal you have set, you realize the goalpost is no longer there. It has moved further, and you want something else now! Just look in. See if you are really bringing up your children or just teaching them to be driven by greed and fear. Take a deep look at yourself and see if simply running the rat race gives the feeling of real fulfillment deep within you. Are you doing what you are doing because that is what you really want to do? Or are you doing it because that is what is expected of you by your family, friends and society? Understand, if you are living your life based on just seeing what others are doing, you are just wasting your precious life. This is what they call ‘herd mentality’ – joining the rat race because everybody else is a part of it. You may even win the rat race, but you are still a rat! Continue reading “Intelligence is the ability to respond to a situation or challenge”

A simple thought to have a cup of coffee can remove the so-called powerful death fear!

A person once came and asked me, ‘I am haunted by the fear of death. I have so much fear about losing my wealth, and about my death. Give me some solution. Please remove my fear.’

I told him, ‘Please have a cup of coffee.’ He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Just think of having a cup of coffee, then have a cup of coffee.’ He was not able to believe me and asked, ‘How can that help me?’

I asked him, ‘The moment you are able to think of having a cup of coffee and decide to have a cup of coffee, the death fear that is haunting your inner space has left your inner space. Am I right? Even if it is only for a split second, the fact that the thought about coffee has entered your system means that the death fear has been pushed aside!’

Unless the death fear leaves his inner space, he cannot think of having a cup of coffee, right?

We have already seen that only one thought can exist in your inner space at a time. If the older thought comes back, it means that you have consciously brought it back, like bringing back a trashed email to your inbox. So naturally, a simple thought to have a cup of coffee can remove the so-called powerful death fear.

The man said, ‘No, it looks too simple! The death fear definitely comes back, what should I do?’ If it comes back, have one more cup of coffee, that’s all! Continue reading “A simple thought to have a cup of coffee can remove the so-called powerful death fear!”

Will we contract another person’s karma when they give advice, or touch them? How vulnerable are we to other people’s karma?

Understand, you cannot get karma from somebody else. You have enough of your own! So do not bother about catching karma from another person.

Either by touching or by giving advice or by close physical contact or physical proximity, karma can never be passed on. You may acquire the mental setup of that person in close proximity, if you are continuously around him, but never his or her karma. Of course, you have to be mentally strong so that you don’t get his or her mental setup! But if you are solid within yourself through the clicks that have happened in you, even this won’t affect you in any way.

Understand one more thing, I do not interfere with your karma. Like how when the sun rises the darkness disappears on its own, in the same way in the presence of the master the karma gets burnt.

Karma, like darkness, has got only negative existence. It does not have a positive existence.

What I mean is that you cannot take it and throw it out like how you can take say a microphone and throw it out. Just like how lightlessness is only called darkness, karma is just lack of inner light in us. It is just ignorance. It is energylessness. Continue reading “Will we contract another person’s karma when they give advice, or touch them? How vulnerable are we to other people’s karma?”

Why do we compare ourselves with others? Because we forgot that all of the confidence, intelligence, and vibrant energy that we need already exists inside us!

Emotions of fear, desire and guilt are subjective emotions. What I mean by this is that you do not need another person or even an object to create these emotions. Imagine that you are in a sound-proofed room with your eyes closed and with nothing to touch, taste or smell. You can still feel the emotions of fear or desire. But to compare yourself with another person and to feel jealous of him, you need the presence of another person.

Jealousy is therefore an objective emotion.

It needs an object to be activated. Jealousy starts from comparison. We always compare ourselves with others in various fields like looks, wealth, knowledge, name and fame and friends to name a few. When we compare ourselves with others we feel that somebody else has something more than what we have and we get caught in jealousy.

Comparison is the seed and jealousy is the fruit! Continue reading “Why do we compare ourselves with others? Because we forgot that all of the confidence, intelligence, and vibrant energy that we need already exists inside us!”

if you take full responsibility of deciding whether it is right or wrong, you can avoid all guilt feelings!

Many times you justify your guilt by labeling it as responsibility. No! How does one differentiate between guilt and responsibility? If you get into a low feeling when you think about it, it is guilt. If you feel intensity and integrity, it is responsibility. This is the clear scale. If you are pulled to low energy at the thought of what you did, then it is guilt. But if you feel good about it, then it is responsibility. Falling into guilt is a clear way of escaping responsibility. Once a man came to me complaining, ‘I am suffering. I have fourteen children.’ I asked him why he chose to have so many children. He replied, ‘Why? God gave me!’ The problem is, we do all that we want to do without taking responsibility for it. After doing it, we feel god made us do it! If we take up responsibility for every action, we will never land up in guilt or trouble.

All guilt related to extramarital affairs comes under this category of sheer lack of responsibility in behavior. Be very clear that extramarital affairs clearly show disrespect to another being, your spouse. You have no right to disrespect another being.

What is the meaning of the relationship of marriage?

Let me explain. Man as such is centered on muladhara chakra or the lust energy center in the body, and woman is centered on the swadhishthana chakra or the fear energy center in the body. That is why man gives in to lust easily and woman gives in to fear easily.

If you see during the traditional vedic marriage ceremony, in front of the sacred fire considered to be a representation of god, the man promises to the woman, ‘I shall give you security and release you from insecurity (fear).’ The woman promises to the man, ‘I shall give you love and free you from lust.’ Both of them decide to liberate the other from their weaknesses. Continue reading “if you take full responsibility of deciding whether it is right or wrong, you can avoid all guilt feelings!”

It is Integrity to your desire which allows the proper conversion of the desire to knowledge and action!

Fear and desire are the fundamental energies that drive our lives. We act either out of a desire to achieve something or reach somewhere, or out of a fear of not wanting to experience something. Attraction and repulsion are not merely forces of molecules, but also essential to human behavior.

One of the major driving forces in human life is desire. If you look into your life, you can see most of the time we are driven by either desire or fear.

We have so many desires and often we feel we don’t have energy to fulfill them. According to the Jain tradition, the Divine sends us with enough energy and capacity to fulfill all our desires. But most of us don’t feel this way. Why? Continue reading “It is Integrity to your desire which allows the proper conversion of the desire to knowledge and action!”

Whenever you have physical pain, whenever you have mental suffering, try this technique to be healed that very moment!

Look into the blue sky beyond the clouds. Normally, we only look into the clouds and pass judgment on them as ‘beautiful clouds’, ‘dark clouds’ and what not. Now, do not get caught in clouds. Clouds are like thoughts, like … Continue reading Whenever you have physical pain, whenever you have mental suffering, try this technique to be healed that very moment!

Pain is always born from resistance to the present moment!

Often, Fear manifests itself as pain. The most frightening thing in the world is pain.

All living beings are afraid of one thing, and that is pain. If you look deeply, you will find that people don’t fear even death as much as they fear the pain and agony they will undergo at the time of death! Many are afraid of poverty, many of relationships, and many others fear disease.

The root cause of all these fears is the pain that happens while going through these things. All these fears are because of the fear of pain.

Pain can be physical, mental or emotional.

Physical pain is a basic necessity for the body. Just imagine, if we could feel no pain in our body we might accidentally hurt ourselves or start styling our faces, hands, and legs the way we style our hair today! Actually, pain is a letter of request, written by the body to the mind, saying, ‘Please pay attention to me!’ because attention is energy. When attention is given to a particular area, that attention becomes energy for that area. When the body communicates pain, it is actually asking for attention or energy, which will help it heal.

Mental or emotional pain is the psychological feeling that arises when you are faced with something you don’t like. Research shows that emotional pain can deeply disturb the physical body. For example, the psychological feelings that arise with sexual repression can result in lower back disorders, or the pain of shouldering too much responsibility can cause pain in the shoulders. Continue reading “Pain is always born from resistance to the present moment!”