Why do you love someone


Do you love someone, because they are great or unique?I tell you - you are hopeless!

Why do you love someone? Is it because of their qualities or is it because of a sense of kinship or intimacy?

You can love someone for their qualities and not feel a sense of kinship. This type of love gives rise to competition and jealousy. Such is not the case when love arises out of kinship.

If you love someone for their qualities, then when the quality changes or you get used to the quality, love also changes. However, if you love someone out of kinship, because they belong to you, then that love remains for life-times.


People say "I love God, because He is great". This is no big thing. If God is found to be ordinary, just one of us, then your love for God collapses! If you love God, because He is yours, then however God is, whether He creates or destroys, you still love Him. The love for kinship is like the love for yourself.

Three Types of Intellect


This whole creation is made up of one energy. Everything is made up of just one thing.
Whenever anything bothers you, if you come back to this one principle - there is only one energy which everything is made up of, so there are a lot of possibilities; that brings great relief. Are you getting what I’m saying?

There are three types of intellect.

One is an intellect which is dormant or doesn’t function at all; sleepy, in slumber and only into negativity. This is Tamasic Intellect.

Then there is Rajasic Intellect. Most people have a rajasic intellect. Rajasic intellect means seeing everything as different – This person is different, that person is different, this person behaves that way, that lady behaves this way; dwelling on these differences. Thinking there are so many people, so many personalities, and seeing that as reality. Doing this sometimes you go very high and sometimes you go down. This is rajasic intellect.

Then there is Sattvic Intellect, which is the goal of evolution.
Sattvic intellect sees there is only one thing that is underlying all other differences. That is the reality.

There is one underlying truth. That one thing has come up in so many forms.

Let me give you an example. Have you seen a puppet show?
A rajasic intellect is seeing all the puppets as different characters. A sattvic intellect says there is only one person who is making all these dolls dance. Actually it is a Mono Act.
One person who is behind the curtain, is making with his ten fingers all these different stories happen on the screen and is making them dance.
Have you seen those puppet shows? They tie one thread to each of the ten fingers and they make all the puppets run around.

So a sattvic intellect is seeing that there is only one thing, one truth, one reality, one consciousness that is underneath the whole creation. When this truth is well lodged in the mind, though you see the differences, dwell in differences, you will be unshaken.
A house that has a very good foundation does not collapse in an earthquake. It has a shock absorber. A real shock absorber is deep inside knowing that all this is made up of one consciousness.
All of matter is one consciousness. I am that one consciousness and everything is that one consciousness. One who knows this is free. It is called freedom. ‘I’m so free. Nothing bothers me.’

On terrorism


Terrorists are cowards. Whenever terror has struck in any part of the world, we have heard people say it is an act of cowardice. A coward runs away from action but harbours all negative feelings and does it surreptitiously.
This is exactly what happened to Arjuna. Arjuna was angry, upset, sad and wanted to run away. In the Bhagvad Gita, Lord Krishna said not to be a coward. So, it is an antidote to terrorism. Lord Krishna said bravery is the way - face the war when it is inevitable and do your duty.
A terrorist is stuck in his identity - he hides it, has no rationale and inflicts pain. Whereas Bhagvad Gita helps one to transcend one’s identity, encourages reason and infuses wisdom. In this sense, it could be called the antidote to terrorism.
The duty of a policeman, a soldier or a king is to be impartial for the sake of the nation, whether it is their mentors or relatives. Terrorists are never impartial.
A soldier is brave and a terrorist is a coward. A soldier is protecting and preventing violence and a terrorist is inflicting pain and suffering. The Bhagvad Gita is the scripture of bravery in both realms of physical and metaphysical.
Terrorism is deeply steeped in hatred. An act without hatred is what Bhagvad Gita propounds. The Bhagvad Gita epitomizes the correct action - of righteousness, of upliftment of spirit and an action or duty that ought to be performed even in the most compelling situation.
In the last 5149 years of the existence of the Bhagvad Gita, there is no evidence of someone becoming a terrorist after reading it. In fact, Mahatma Gandhi wrote commentaries on the Bhagvad Gita and it was an inspiration for his non-violent movement. The Bhagvad Gita is a unique scripture which caters to the entire range of human evolution, comprising every level of this vast existence.
Bhagvad Gita stands for poise and equanimity and for performing one’s designated duty. Lord Krishna does not encourage everyone to take the weapons and fight but a soldier cannot sell bananas in the market. He has to take his weapon to bring security to his people.
If Bhagvad Gita is a terrorist scripture then all military academies in the world are nothing but terrorist organizations. Doesn’t this sound strange? Would the courts ban Lenin, Marx and Mao Tso-Tung, who to stay in power inflicted terror on millions?
A terrorist or a coward hides and inflicts pain on others whereas a soldier sacrifices his own life to bring security and peace to people. They both may take the gun but their intentions are poles apart.
Bhagvad Gita encourages reasoning and dialogue while terrorists are blind to any reasoning and are closed to any form of dialogue.
Interestingly, in any military training all over the world, the soldiers are asked to see the enemies as dangerous objects which need to be eliminated. The psychology behind indoctrination of such an idea is that when they think the enemy is a human being the soldiers are unable to raise their arms. There are many such survival tactics where the army men are desensitized.
A similar situation happened to Arjuna.
Lord Krishna went step by step to deal with Arjuna’s emotions, ego, mindsets and concepts. He finally touched on the nature of his spiritual being; revealing him the highest knowledge and making him realize his eternal nature. This brought him enormous strength and then propelled him to perform his worldly duties. A doctor cannot be taken as a dacoit just because he opens up the stomach of the patient.
Lord Krishna says, ‘no sin begets him whose intellect is unattached and free from cravings and aversions, even if he kills the whole world.’
Now, the condition of an intellect free from cravings and aversions itself counters terrorism. Terrorism is done when the intellect is deeply attached and is hateful. The metaphors and the high standards of humanism exhibited in the Bhagvad Gita are unparalleled.
Jesus had said, ‘I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.’
In the Quran, there are many verses which talk about striking terror in the hearts of the infidels and cutting off their fingers. By these standards if you still call the Bhagvad Gita a terrorist scripture then you have to precede such statements by Bible and Quran.
The fact is that it is not the scriptures that inflict terrorism; it is the mis-interpretation of an ignorant and stressed mind which justifies their actions quoting scriptures.

Freedom And Discipline


Freedom and discipline are opposites and complementary. The purpose of defense is to protect freedom. But is there freedom in defense? Do soldiers have freedom? No, they are totally bound, not even allowed to put the right foot down when told the left foot. Their steps are measured and they are unable even to walk with a natural rhythm. There is total lack of freedom in defense. That which has absolutely no freedom is protecting the freedom of the country! So it is with the police; they protect the freedom of the individual. But are they free?
Discipline protects freedom. They both go hand in hand. Understand this and go ahead in life. You have some restrictions and it is this that allows you freedom. You can choose to focus either on freedom or discipline, and this makes you happy or unhappy. Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense.
Fences should be fences; a fence cannot be built all over the property. If your fence is all over, how can you build on the property? That state of high absolute freedom is too difficult; we need to be very practical. Yes, there is a state of unlimited bliss, the freedom Advaita talks about. The Advaita Knowledge has been totally misused or used according to one's own fancies and conveniences.
There must be awareness in the mind, love in the heart, and righteousness in action.
Love and fear are two possibilities that put you on track. The Jewish religion put fear as the main thing so that life could improve. Nature induces fear at a certain age in a child. When a child is very young, it gets 100 percent time and love of the mother. The child has no fear. As the child grows more independent it becomes cautious. Nature brings in an iota of fear. With freedom, the child starts walking carefully. Fear of losing freedom also brings defense. The purpose of defense is to eliminate fear.
On this path Knowledge is your Freedom and also your Defense.

The Cause Of All Causes Is The Guru Principle




It so happened once, a lady went to a Guru and said, "I have two questions". The Guru said, "Okay, ask me".
The lady asked, "Why did God make this world? Why couldn't he just be happy with the way it was? And having created it, why did he make it so miserable?"
The Guru said, "I have only one answer for this! He created this world for me, and he made it miserable so that I don't get caught up in it".
When your mind is miserable, you try to look for the cause of the misery. And then you see that the cause of your unhappiness (or happiness) is a situation, or a person, or an attitude, isn't it? This is the cycle of ignorance, and this is how it goes on — the cause of unhappiness (or happiness) is: a situation, an attitude or a person.
We want to immediately find a cause of our misery because unanswered questions is an irritant in the mind. So we want to find a cause for our unhappiness and hang on to something. Just look into your mind and observe, this is happening all the time. And when you find the cause of your unhappiness, you immediately want to eliminate that cause, or correct it, or do something about it. Does this make sense to you?
You are unhappy, you think that it is because the other person did this and now you want to correct them or do something about it. No! That is not the cause. The cause of all causes is something else. Those people and those situations were just postmen, or the laptop which got you a bad email. If you get a bad email, you don't throw the laptop, or change your password. Changing your password is not going to help in any way. The true cause is ignorance; ignorance of your true nature. When we are ignorant of our true nature, we become miserable. The relevance of the Guru is to bring you back to your true self. That's why it is said, 'Tatvamasyaadilaksham', the goal of the Guru is to give you that idea that 'You are THAT'.
Now what is THAT? THAT is: Brahmanandam parama sukhadam kevalam jnanmurtim, dvandvathitam gaganasadrisham tatvamsyadi lakshyam. Ekam nityam vimalamachalam sarvadhee sakshibhutam, bhavatitam trigunarahitam sad gurum tam namami.
Brahmanandam - the greatest bliss; the abundance of bliss for which our heart, our soul and our mind yearns all the time.
Parama Sukhadam - infinite happiness. Happiness which transcends all words and all worlds.
Kevalam jnanmurtim - it is just pure knowledge.
Ekam nityam vimalamachalam - the one thing that you can eternally depend on.
Sarvadhee sakshibhutam - it is a witness to all types of mindsets and all types of thoughts. It is a witness to everything.
Bhavatitam - it is beyond the three gunas; beyond the three states of consciousness (waking, dreaming & sleeping), and yet being with all the three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) - trigunarahitam sad gurum tam namami.
This is the self, the being; this is wisdom, and this is the Guru Principle.
Our identification of our self with the limited thought patterns, emotional patterns, or any limitation for that matter, is the cause. And so instead of latching on to the cause of sorrow (as some event, attitude or person), you say it is because of my forgetfulness of my real identification, of who I am.
So what did the Guru say? He said, "God made the world so miserable so that I don't get caught up in it".
If this world was more joyful, you would never look for something higher, you would never look for something different. When you get so caught up in small things, then the Divinity tells you, "Hey, wake up and see who you are!"
What is the meaning of life? This questions seldom arises in people's minds. When this question comes up, then something else has happened. A spark has come into our life. Something higher and something more beautiful starts happening.
You know, there are two types of masters in the tradition.
1. Those who would give you boons, "Okay, what is it that you want? Some little thing here and there? Okay, have it, but rise above it". Granting boons, giving blessings, and getting you out of the maya (illusion or ignorance).
2. The other type of masters are a little different. They are very tough. If you want something, that's it, you will never have it. If you say that you want to go to Italy, finished, you will never be able to go to Italy. They will see to it that you drop your desires, you drop your passion and everything that you cling on to, and then you will rise above it.
The previous generation of masters used to do that. They would make you realize, "Hey, my dear, you are much more than your mind, why are you so caught up in this little mind all the time".
Attaching the cause of our misery to this, this, and this, makes it concrete. This is ignorance. If you go a little deeper into something that you find as the cause, you will find that the cause is not there but it is a little further down. Have you noticed this? (Many in the audience raise their hands)
For a particular situation you think that 'this' is the cause, but when you go a little deeper, you will find that the cause is not there but it is somewhere else. So the cause keeps jumping. And believing that is the real cause makes our ignorance more concrete.
So when the whole universe is so complex, every event is complex, mind is even more complex, to get over this they brought this principle of Karma. And there is a lot about Karma — there is good karma and bad karma. And the karma that you do, you take the responsibility onto yourself, instead of blaming it on an event, situations, or people.
Now, how do you get out of karma? That is where knowledge come in. The knowledge of the Self burns karma, which means, it brings you to the real cause (cause of causes), which is the being. And the being is all pervading, it is in every particle of the creation. Knowledge raises you above the name and form, and gets you onto this pedestal of the reality of true existence. That is the very solid ground; the ultimate ground. So the cause of all causes is the Guru Principle.

Friendship for a Cause


Examine your friendships, they are often for a cause. There are several reasons for your friendships:
  • You make friendships because you have common enemies. Fear and threat to survival can bring people together.
  • You make friendships because you have a common problem. You talk about your problems and become friends. For example, sickness, job dissatisfaction, etc.
  • People get together because they have common interests. For example, through business or a profession (doctors, architects, social workers, etc.)
  • You make friends because you have common tastes. You have similar tastes in sports, movies, entertainment, music, hobbies, etc.
  • People become friends because of compassion and service. Out of compassion and pity for someone, you become friends with them.
  • People become friends merely because of long-term acquaintance.
Brave are those who nurture friendships for only friendship’s sake. Such friendships will never die nor become soured for it is born out of one’s friendly nature. Only through wisdom can one become friendly by nature.