Seeing The One in All | Essence of the Geeta | Episode 91

You are listening to the essence of the Gita. In this episode, Swamiji explores why seeing others as ourselves is the foundation of goodness and ethical living. He reflects on how this understanding changes the way we treat others. Now Bhagawan points out, and here and now we find that this is the base of all ethics, morality, goodness. And what is that, Bhagawan says? It is only with this vision that you and I are one, that there is any meaning to our being good. Because, whosoever, O Arjuna, sarvatra samampashati, everywhere sees the same. Same how? Atmaupam yena sees everyone the same as one's self. Then sukhamva yadi vadukham, whether in pleasure or in pain, yogi param matah. That yogi is called as Supri. Because when you see everyone as your own self, about yourself you don't have any likes or dislikes. Let us take it this way also, not even yourself, your body, which is made up of so many different parts. No two fingers are alike. No two fingers are alike. Look at any of these fingers. Any of them are alike. None of them have the same function. Similar function but not the same. Do you know? Do you say, you know what? This little finger, you are a spoiled brat. You are too short. Thumb, you are too fat. Middle finger, you are a bit too long. You two are the same. But still the ring looks nice in this finger. That's why you know, you are alike. You all... Do you even think like that? Even if one of your fingers has got an infection, you treat it. But do you say, I am going to cut you off? Do you do that? Now come to your family. You have got three children. Each of your children are different. And in every house there is a Vibhishan, a Ravan and a Kumbhakaran. There are female versions of them also. You will find every house has all of them. Every society has all of them. But in society we cannot accept. But in your own house, your own children, you accept or not? Why? Because you see them as your own. You see them as your self. The whole basis of goodness in this world is that when you see the other as your self, then what will you do with them? Do you want someone to hurt you? Do you want someone to be rude to you? Do you want someone to help you? Yes, no? Do you want someone to be kind to you? Do you want someone to kill you? Do you want someone to eat you up? So also, all the creatures have the same feeling like you. If you see the whole world as your self, then how will you behave with others as you would want them to behave with you? This is the basis of Dharma, of values. Otherwise it is not possible. Otherwise the list of do's and don'ts can be so big. Do to others what you want them to do to you. Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you. But unfortunately whatever is done to me, I want to do to others. Because why should others get away from it? If I don't see the other but see myself, then I say I wish this never happened to me. I don't wish this for anybody. I wish this was never done to me. I should never do it to anyone. Because as it hurts me, so does it hurt everyone else. Such a person has got no likes and dislikes. And therefore, sa yogi paramo mataha. Such a person indeed is param. In the last verse Krishna said, sa yogi mai vartate. When he sees the one in everyone, sa bhajati mam. Such a person worships me, loves me, serves me. Everything is for me only because everyone is me. Every action of his becomes my worship. Every thought of his is my remembrance because he sees me everywhere. Whatever he knows is me and me alone. And whatever he is or whatever he sees is me and me alone. They are merged in me. A question and you must be wondering by now, that a question I had in my mind, Krishna answered it. Not Swami. Swami is not answering anything. Krishna answered it. What? Can he read our minds? I am telling you we used to go to the forest and there we are sitting and discussing and any confusion we have or even any joke we cracked or we thought about something, you know, just fun. Next moment we have just walked into the class, even a bird cannot come and whisper about it. And Guru Deva is telling us the same thing, cracking the same joke, making fun of us in the same way. And wonder how did he find out? The two three of us were together. So nobody came before and told, no bird could have reached faster than us. That's the beauty of the Gita. After all it's given by who? Jagadguru Krishna. And to whom? Arjuna who is like us. So we are so predictable to the Guru. We are so predictable to Bhagawan. Because after all one who has mastered his mind knows exactly what he went through to master his mind. You can't be very different. That's why when people used to ask Guru Deva, Swami Ji, what were you before you became a Swami? He said, just like you. Atma upam ye na. Therefore the Guru knows every thought of the disciple, every behaviour of the disciple. And therefore Krishna spoke this to Arjuna 5,000 years ago and 5,000 years afterwards, the same questions pop in our mind. When we were having our discussions in our Yuvakendra class, one question out of curiosity just pops up. And some of you have been asking this question and feeling very restless that why is Swami Ji not answering my question? Because I said, I don't have to answer. Krishna is going to answer. You may not have faith in Krishna, but I have. There's no question that can come in your mind that Krishna has not anticipated and answered. We just have to be patient to listen and we have to know that he has explained everything already. He has explained everything. Because with this verse really speaking, even how to get there, he has explained. What is there that also he has explained? Everything. But one question popped up in our mind because we always want to jump the gun. What is realization? We imagine. So realization is that you recognize that I alone am. How can I alone be there? Because the world is only an appearance and even our finitude, this Jeeva-hood, is only an appearance. So what is realization? I realize when the world is an illusion and I am not this body-mind intellect, then even the Upanishad puts this question. Kim Ichan Kasyakamaya Shariram Anusvajnaryad Desiring What? For Whom? And Krishna had said in the third chapter that action is not necessary for one who has got nothing to lose, who has got fear of nothing, and who wants nothing. Why? Because in the Self, he is satisfied, he is contented, he is reveling in the Self. Atmani eva atmana tuṣṭah Atmani eva atmana san tuṣṭah Atmat rati revasyād Atmat rīptāś ca manavah Atmani eva san tuṣṭah Tasya kāryam na vidyate There is nothing for that person to do or to achieve. So the question came in our mind, then for whom? For what? Even a realized master comes to this world. There is a contradiction in our question. Comes to this world. What is he come? You say to help the world. You say to save the people in the world. But he is realized that the whole world is an illusion. Then for whom? Or for what does he come? Same question I had. So evening, Gurudev would sit outside and we would sit around him. And we never just sat around. We asked some questions. Not the same mundane questions, you know. But we asked questions and this question was that for what? Will the realized master come into this world? Now even in Gurudev's commentary, that there is no compulsion, there is no need for the realized master to do anything. And even if he doesn't do anything, he doesn't loses anything. Then for a lot of explanation is given that as long as the body is there, and therefore some people think that as long as the body is there, a person cannot be totally realized. But when the body falls off, then he realized. But what is the body to do with realization when you know that you are not the body? So body has got nothing to do with it. Then what do we see the body of the realized master? The masters only say, the scriptures also say that you know this body which is born out of past destiny, prarabdha, continues, it continues. This is also to say that a man had three wives. One's name was Sanchita, other's name was Agami, and the third name was prarabdha. Now since you are not allowed three wives and those who allowed three wives will never use this language, you have three karmas from your past that which would manifest in the future and the present. You mean to say, when this person dies, Sanchita becomes a widow, Agami becomes a widow, but prarabdha is still sumangali. Is it possible? When the ego is gone, all your karmas, including your destiny, is no more. Then for what? Will the realized master, who has got no ego, that I am the saver and these people need to be saved? Why will he come? Gurudev has given all these explanations that the scriptures have given, but we went on questioning. So the realized master doesn't work out of like or dislike, doesn't work for this person or that person. That person does not work out of any selfish desire, but works for the welfare of humanity and therefore it's an expression of his love, sounds wonderful. But where is humanity? So everything Gurudev was explaining to shut our intellect down so that we can see the reality rather than question, why does he do it? You become one and then see, but no, we want to become, before we want to become, we want to know, we'll be sure what's going to happen. So there were two of us and we went on questioning Gurudev and at that moment, finally, that moment of revelation comes. He also explained that and that he's explained in Takvabod and other places also. In Gita it's an expression of your love, which is also true. But again when you're talking from the highest standpoint, where is the world for him to even come and show love? But are we seeing the world or not? Even if it's an appearance, a dream, we are seeing or not? It's obviously an appearance and dream created by someone and that some is only one, that one's creation is this entire dream world, is it not? So he said, Ishvara's creation is there, no? Yeah, but the realized master knows that even this is a dream. So why will he come back? And then those rare moments of revelations, those who understood, understood. He just looked us into our eyes and said, my children, the meditator who meditated is merged and gone. It is Narayana functioning through this body. He just said this, got up. That individual, that ego, giving up is her identification or attachment out of likes and dislikes of the world. We drew to start inquiring who am I and found that I cannot be this body which is made up of matter. I cannot be this mind which I am observing. I cannot be this intellect whose thoughts I know and when gives up this identification with the body, mind and intellect is no longer the perceiver, feeler, doer, enjoyer, this individual, the ego. Then what is he? The one only. And that one is playing with his creation. Not the Chinmaya he said, that meditated. It is Narayana only. Aap maal aur aap khazana Aap hai kharchanwala Aap gali mein Bikshamaange Haath mele ke pyaala sadho Hari ko har me deka Kabir Das Ji says, O sadho, Hari ko har me deka You only are the rich one, whether rich in knowledge or rich in wealth. You alone are the knowledge and the treasure house. You alone are the wealth and you are the one only begging on the street. You are the giver, you are the receiver. This play of the Lord is going on. You, the meditator is gone. You do not come back. It is Narayana playing with his creation. This oneness is too difficult to understand. It's okay, at least there is a powerful God I can pray. He is going to protect me. That is enough. Baki ye kya chalna ya? One, one, one, I am breaking my head. I don't want all these things. Bhagawan says that also fine. You can do that if you want. Come to the seventh chapter, I will do it. But until and leave, see this oneness. There can be no goodness in this world. And where there is no goodness, there can be no peace in anybody's life while living. Now when you say even, suppose you don't understand the supreme oneness, your mother, my mother, her mother, his mother may all be different. Yet don't each of us love our mothers? Tell me. And whenever any one of us speaks about our mothers, in general I will say, we seem to be speaking about the same person. Loving, kind, forgiving, sometimes irritating, but still we cannot live without them. Universally you ask everyone about their mother. Besides some superficial differences, all of us speak of our mother to be the most loving, the best thing in our life. Don't we? See father also. Yet each one's mother is different. But the motherhood in every mother is the same or not. Tell me. The fatherhood in every father is the same or not. Then the godhood in everybody is the same or not. The humanity in each one is the same or not. Each human might be of a different race, but whether you go to the west or the east, whether you go to the north or the south, if there is a person living his humanity or her humanity, it is the same. A good person with a white, brown or black, wherever you go, is the same. That goodness in everyone is the same. And if you see that, then you will respect the love that she has for her mother and he has for his mother, daughter-in-laws, because motherhood is the same in your mother and his mother. Your sister-in-law cannot see it in your mother, just as you cannot see it in your mother-in-law. Motherhood is the same. Therefore, if you see this sameness, when two warriors are fighting in the battlefield as enemies, why in olden times they would respect each other, even though they were killing each other? If you love your mother, you will understand the affection that everyone's mother has for them or even attachment for them, and they have for their mother. If you have had the blessings of a guru in your life, you will not go around telling people, don't listen to your guru. My guru alone is great because the guru tattva, the love and the knowledge given out of welfare, even the knowledge given to the students sometimes may be different, but the welfare is the same. If you love your religion, that's why we are taught to respect the love of others for their religion. And this is possible only when you see oneness, not distinctions and differences. Interfaith dialogue cannot be uttered unless you accept the fact. And conversions will not be there if you accept the fact that God or truth is one. And if you don't, then there will be wards even in the name of religion. And in such a religion, there can never be peace, there can never be goodness. See? It is only with this vision of oneness. The moment we see oneness, all conflict. Vijukuppsa, which is called this separateness, this incompleteness, this loneliness, this depression, this hatred, this sorrow can come to an end. Otherwise even in the name of religion, people only create war. Why? Because my path is better than your path. Your Krishna says something different than my Krishna or Rama. You have to bring Rama in between of Krishna. Now you know you'll be surprised. You think that you had this question, but Krishna already knew the answer. He is already explaining it to you. Why? Because Arjuna is like us. That's the problem with this mind. The day before yesterday inspired, today expired. Bhagawan said that one who sees me in everyone at all times. And how does he see me by keeping his mind totally balanced in joy and sorrow, pleasure or pain? And how to do it? He taught this yoga from karma yoga, through bhakti yoga, through gyan yoga and through gyan yoga. All four he has explained step by step. So when Krishna says that this yoga, this union that you have pointed out with the one, how is it gained by this knowledge that there is only one? And only when you know it is one, will you not have likes or dislikes for anything? You know once Guruji was sitting with one little girl on the table. Normally Bhiksha's, they offer first to the guest, to the Swami and then they eat afterwards. But little children, parents also sit down with Swamiji and eat. So now, the Swami's diet very often would be just some dal, some karela which they think they should get. So Guruji just smiled at this little girl and said, you don't have to eat everything because you know that children just will not eat any bitter goat karela. But you know what this little girl says? How can I hate this food? Because in Bavyaar I have been taught that this is Brahman. And once I eat it, it is going to be part of me. How can I hate it? This is called like childlike mind can understand this truth so easily. Arjuna whose child likes straight forward whatever come to his mind he just expresses it. So he says, hey Madhusudana, yo yam yoga stvaya prokthah. This yoga that has been taught by you, what about equanimity, sameness, oneness? Etasya ham na pasyaami. I don't think so. It is possible. It is not possible. It doesn't make any sense. How can it be possible? It cannot be. It doesn't say that there is no such thing as the one. But to remain steady in that one to be continuously steady. I don't see that this state, now in that meditation you can feel that. But this enduring continuity in meditation, it has got nothing to do with you Bhagawan. It's my mind. And with my mind I have to meditate, no? Because chalattvaad. Because my mind is always restless. Whose mind is not? You think only Arjuna's mind is? Arre, movement of the mind. Thank God your mind moves. If it was only like one thought, you'd have fixation of thought. It is not fixation of thought that is called as meditation. One doubt comes in your mind and your mind is suddenly steered up a fog. Now you cannot think. So he says that because I do not see it's continually. And he says because of the very restless movement of the mind. If you want to listen to more of such content, please follow Chinmeya Mission channel now. Hariyam.