Day 10: Arjuna's Transformation

Meditation

Now the whole of the pelvic area, as if I place my breath in that area, abdomen, and chest. Chest, right arm, all the way from the shoulder to the fingertips. Left arm. Left arm. And now I shift my attention to the back, the whole of the back.

Sensing the life energy in the back, remaining relaxed. Now the head, everything above the neck, the jaws, eyes, forehead. Now we take three breaths, but as if I am placing my breath into the whole of my body, alive and with a feeling of gratitude, then we'll stop. Thank you.

Talk

So as I have mentioned earlier, really in a way the whole purpose of yoga is a question of transformation of the person. So what is the transformation of Arjuna that has now taken place? So in that context, it's useful for us to first of all look at two remarks of Arjuna. First, I had mentioned it practically in the very first day. This is the seventh shloka in the second chapter where he said, my very being, Swabhava, is afflicted with the flaw of pity and weakness of spirit.

My mind is confused about dharma, which means what is the right action to do here. I am your pupil for I have taken refuge in you, teach me. The fact that he has somebody he can turn to really strictly speaking his own deepest self, but often in our bewilderment or in our crisis or confusion, we may not know what do we turn to. One may turn to a friend or to somebody you regard as wise, which could be a teacher or a priest, whosoever speaks to you, or sit down in quiet meditation, go for a walk in wilderness, just bring some quiet, reminding yourself of something very important, that silence is not absence of sound. Silence belongs to a different level in us.

We can go into the wilderness and if you actually take a sound meter with you, you'll be surprised how many sounds there are. Leaves rustling, wind is blowing, water may be flowing, birds may be chirping, lots of sounds, but you would find silence descending in you. So it's important to understand that real silence that we wish for is not absence of sound. It belongs to a different level in us and that can be slightly initiated by natural surroundings. If in that very surrounding suddenly a truck passes by, the whole silence will be destroyed.

So it's important to understand that natural sounds don't interfere with silence. In any case, then Arjuna at the very end, now this is the 73rd shloka in the 18th chapter, this is what he said, My delusion is destroyed, I have recollected myself through your grace, O infallible one, I stand firm, my doubts are dispelled, I will act by your word. Now this is important to understand that when one says I have recollected myself, we are not talking about a library kind of memory recollection, that he has gathered himself, or sometimes we use other expressions, he has remembered himself. Earlier he felt dismembered, now he's re-membered. So one needs to understand these expressions a little differently, and he's integrated internally.

Earlier, as he said, my very being is afflicted with the flaw of pity. Another remark here may be helpful to make, although I tried to emphasize yesterday that in India the emphasis is less on obedience, but more on now I have understood this, therefore I would do what makes sense. In a way not to be against obedience, for example this very expression of Arjuna here, I will act by your word. Sanskrit expression is karishi vajanam tav, I will carry out your word, or I will act by your word. It could be considered as obedience.

The word obedience in English actually comes from the Latin expression ob ordir, having heard. Arjuna has heard Krishna, not just ordinary thing that's getting into the ear, but something that is deeply understood. So in that sense, to obey somebody who you have heard is not contrary to having understood something and now carrying it out. So one does not get, I know sometimes these words seem, oh well, modern days people don't like to be, they don't want to obey anything, etc. But if we understand the root meanings of these words, it's very helpful.

If I have in fact heard somebody genuinely, deeply, I would naturally wish to carry that out. So you could call it obedience. So this is really the transformation of Arjuna that has taken place. Then very strong suggestion, this is in fact the very last shloka in the Bhagavad Gita, whosoever the author is. In India there is generally a tendency, we don't really know who the author is, so Vyas is more or less the legendary author.

So Mr. Vyas, who has written it, and the way the story is told, that he just wished to dictate something, but he wanted to find somebody who would write it down, but only if somebody who actually could understand what he's saying. So the only person he could find was Ganesha, son of Shiva, with elephant head. Elephant head, by the way, in the Indian context means great wisdom. That is the indication of the elephant. Why he's shown with elephant head is really to indicate that he has enormous wisdom.

So he finds Ganesha is the only one who is able to actually write down because he understands what he's saying, but even Ganesha occasionally asks him to stop, he doesn't understand. So the idea is that it's a very deep teaching, and so Vyasa is apparently the author. In any case, what is the very last shloka in the Bhagavad Gita is, this is my firm conviction that wherever Krishna, the master of yoga is, and Arjuna the archer, there will surely be splendor, victory, prosperity, and righteousness. So very strong suggestion that both Krishna and Arjuna are needed for splendor, for victory. I would like to make even a more general remark, if you like, without God, or if you don't want to use the word God, without higher forces, without God it cannot be done, but without human beings it will not be done.

It is important to emphasize this again and again, I have tried to do this in the past as well, that everything that we do requires some effort from our side, but also some benediction of the devas, benediction from the higher levels, higher forces. So whether we call it God or the angels or the devas, so this remark, the very last shloka as I just mentioned, that wherever Krishna, the master of yoga is, and Arjuna the archer. So, now speaking completely internally, when one is engaged in any kind of a struggle, any kind of action, can I also find that level in me that is a pure witness, not engaged in action, not upset by defeat, or necessarily pleased by victory, it is free. So, or the way my own teacher, Madam Dasalsman said, slightly different way of putting it, that it is important to be both a warrior and a monk at the same time. A warrior knows how and when to fight, but only the monk knows when to put down the arms and to pray and when to fight for the essential.

So, to be both simultaneously is the way she put it. Another way of saying it, to find the actor in me as well as somebody who is above action, a witness, is aware of what is taking place, Arjuna and Krishna. Arjuna is the skillful warrior, Krishna is not fighting, he is there bringing the greatest vision. Then, in the process, one would also, maybe first of all, let me really bring some remarks of Albert Einstein here, because, as I have often said, the greatest philosophers, scientists, artists, earlier we quoted Michelangelo, they come to some real understanding deep down, and of course, each one of them has their unique way of, if you like, praise for God, whether they do it through physics or philosophy or painting or sculpture or music or service. Each one has to find one's unique way, and these remarks of Einstein are worth considering, because we always need to remind ourselves of the grand nature of the universe.

This is what he said, human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, he puts them all together, we all dance to a mysterious tune in tone in the distance by an invisible piper. We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. This is Albert Einstein.

I think it's always good to remind ourselves of the vastness of the universe in which we live, and really to do almost anything. If I wanted to understand something about how my eyes work or how my nose works or my ears, it will take years of study. Therefore, we have experts in all of these things, but then how long effort it has taken on their part. How little we actually know about the whole universe is always a good reminder, and these forces are very much there. So in this connection, Arjuna realizes, as really could be said by anybody, in fact my own teacher occasionally spoke exactly in these words, that whenever we become aware of these large cosmological forces, whether represented by the Buddha, Christ or Krishna mentioning these forces, or in the natural scientific order, then the only choice we have is either to be unconscious slaves of these forces, or to be willing servants.

That's the only choice we actually have. So now what is Arjuna realizing? When Krishna has shown his great form to him, he realizes that he has what choice? He could give up, or he could actually serve. What he sees is required to be done.

So the only choice we have is to be either unconscious slaves or willing servants. And that requires, in a way, freedom from me, me, me. Otherwise I'm not going to be a willing servant of these forces if I am so self-occupied. And that is what of course requires practicing a discipline, in the particular case that Krishna is teaching, practicing the discipline of yoga, Buddha yoga, which includes all of these other yogas that I have been mentioning. So then again and again a reminder, several times he says this in the Bhagavad Gita, that Krishna is in everything, is everything, is in our heart, in our mind, in our body.

So here I just would read one or two remarks of his, this is from the 13th chapter, 2nd Shloka, as well as 26th. Everything is born from the union of the field and the knower of the field. I am the knower of the field in every field. So Krishna is in everything, even in our toenails, if you like. I know one tends to therefore think, oh well, don't put it down so much.

This is why I reminded you the other day, the remark of Shri Andirvan, who was a very great sage. And I think I mentioned this, that I met him for about half an hour. And I was leaving, as I was leaving, he had this quintessential Indian thing to say. When you realize that God is the same as dog, you would know something real. Everything is God, or earlier I had quoted Krishna, this is the 19th Shloka, in the 7th chapter, bahunam jamanam anthe, gyanavana mamuprapadhyate, vasudeva sarvameti, samahatma sadharalabha.

At the end of many births, a wise person comes to me, realizing that all there is, is Krishna. Such a person is a great soul, but very rare. So one also has to remember, this is not a very common understanding. Okay, continuing Krishna really making more or less the same remark. It's slightly different language.

This is the 20th Shloka in the 10th chapter and 15th Shloka in the 15th chapter. I am the self that abides in the heart of all beings. And I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings. I am lodged in the heart of all, from me are memory and sacred knowledge, and also disputation. Verily I am that which is to be known by all the Vedas.

He doesn't exclude this so-called negative side, that is also Krishna. In fact, to continue that particular idea, because I mentioned the other day, that the kind of consciousness that is actually called for is free from thought. It's a very radical revolution in consciousness, including everything, whatever we call good or bad, negative or positive. And this is from the 10th chapter 36 to 38 Shloka. I am the cunning of the cheats and the splendor of the splendid.

I am victory, I am effort, I am the truth of the truth tellers, I am Krishna among the Vrishnis. So even himself, Vrishnis is the tribe in which he is there, and Arjuna among the Pandavas. I am the power of the ruler, I am the policy of the conqueror, I am the silence of the secrets, I am the wisdom of the wise. So he is everything. This is why he says that the wise person realizes that all there is is Krishna, that everything is divine.

I already mentioned that in India we don't actually, strictly speaking, have a creation myth, it's an emanation myth. Brahma did not create the world but became the world. Everything is Brahma. So Brahma is in everything, it is everything. And the question really always is that it manifests at many levels of consciousness and therefore correspondingly many levels of materiality and then to search for the level within ourselves which will be closest to the highest reality, Brahma.

So that then becomes the aim of a searcher. So Krishna is beyond good and evil, beyond time, but also in time. It's not, when we say to be free of anything doesn't mean to be against it. To be free of time does not mean to be against time. It's always very important thing to keep coming back to.

There is the question, there is the level of Krishna. In general that is not where we are, that's not where Arjuna is. Although that is the call, that's the direction, that's the search. But Arjuna is a great warrior and the suggestion then is can Arjuna become the connecting link between usual warriors, skillful to be sure, and Arjuna and Krishna. So here let me first of all remind you when we did not go into those details because that will take us away from the more yoga based teachings in the Bhagavad Gita but especially the 11th chapter Krishna shows his great form to Arjuna.

There are two remarks I like to make there. One is that when Arjuna sees the great form of Krishna he says, although my heart is glad but my mind is afraid. This is very important to understand. Our usual mind always wishes to control anything that it encounters. In fact we have actually institutionalized this idea in scientific knowledge.

We say, we understand something rigorously scientifically when we can control it and predict it. So right away you can see if something is higher or subtler than me I cannot control it. Therefore almost by definition science cannot know in the sense it wishes to know. That rigorous scientific knowledge requires being able to control. So Arjuna recognizes that his mind is afraid.

Then he says something quite interesting. Therefore resume your usual forearmed form. Krishna has just shown his thousand armed form. Here I should make one other general remark. In the biblical tradition, as I have more than once said, that the whole spiritual realm is very large.

We have nine orders of angels, all spiritual. But usual tendency is higher the angel, more the wings. In India the art tradition does not show devas with wings. Usually they will be shown with more arms or with more eyes, more insight and more power. That usually seems to be the general artistic rendering.

So in this particular case, Krishna when he is showing his great form to Arjuna, so Arjuna sees thousand arms of Krishna. Then he says this really rather interesting comment, resume your usual forearmed form. Now this is surprising. I have never heard anybody make a comment on this, because so far Krishna has been showing only his two armed forms. But what is really rather important here, at least that's my understanding, for us to have any serious experience other than the usual experiences, requires for us not only to understand something but to be able to withstand something.

In fact, especially in the 1980s or the end of 1970s, there used to be many, many more cases being reported, people taking LSD. And then some of them might imagine their birds, they could jump out of a window and fly and they would die. Many things like this, that in order to experience something, we not only need to be prepared to understand something, but also to withstand something, that experiences higher than our ability to withstand will do damage. This is an important thing to actually understand this very seriously here. So Arjuna, at least this is my understanding, when he says resume your usual forearmed form, that much he can withstand.

Anything more than that is difficult. So that's one of the remarks. But then another thing I want to say here, Arjuna sees in the great form of Krishna that the very heroes he's supposed to be fighting have already been killed. So then he says to Krishna, what am I supposed to do? So these further remarks here, I will now read, this is from the 11th chapter 32 to 34, Shloka.

Krishna says, even without you, all these warriors who are ranked in the opposing armies shall cease to exist. Therefore arise, win fame, conquer your enemies and enjoy a prosperous kingdom, they have already been slain by me. Arjuna, you become only the instrument. Slay those who have already been slain by me. Do not hesitate.

Fight and you will conquer the adversaries in the battle. I want to take a couple of minutes to speak a little bit more about it. It's a very strong idea actually in all teachings. I will quickly give you an example from the Bible also. That any serious happenings, first of all, take place in the spirit world.

Then appropriate materialization or mechanism or a drama is required for that happening to be manifested in the material world. In the Western world, more than anybody else, it was Swedenborg who very much believed in this. He was a very well-known scientist, by the way, and then he had some mystical experiences and he actually wrote some very remarkable things. And then he again returned to doing science. So he was not against science, but he also had, if you like, beyond science kind of experiences.

And also the great poet William Blake very much believed in this, what I just finished saying. Namely, that the serious events first take place in the spirit world, then the appropriate drama is required for them to be manifested in this world. So in this particular case, Krishna is saying, all these warriors have already been killed by me. But the drama is required. Arjuna has to fight.

He has to, and then he says, you become the instrument. Instrument for what? Not for killing in a way, but instrument for this manifestation from the spirit world to the material world. Now, I would like to remind you that that is very much the idea about the crucifixion of Christ. In fact, in the book in the Bible called The Revelations, you will find this remark.

The Lamb of God, I'm quoting from The Revelations, the Lamb of God was slain from the foundations of the world. But then at a given time, the whole drama is required for him to be crucified in the material world. What is behind that is a very large idea, namely that sacrifice is a continual need for maintaining world order. Remember three or four days ago, or maybe even before that when I was speaking about the word yajja, that dharma cannot be fulfilled without yoga, but yoga cannot be accomplished without yajja. And then I had mentioned that yajja is almost always translated as sacrifice, which is not wrong, but slightly inadequate if we don't take into account also the intervention or the contribution from subtler levels of reality, such as the devas.

So temporarily just using the word as sacrifice, essentially nothing can be sacred, really. That's the root of the word sacrifice until it's related with something higher or subtler. So the Rigveda, the oldest text in any Indo-European language, actually says yajja bhuvanasinabhi. Yajja or sacrifice is the very navel of the cosmos. And that's the whole idea behind why is God sending his only begotten Son?

For what? To be sacrificed, to maintain cosmological order. That's not the language that the Christians tend to use. So in a way, I'm just trying to put it in a slightly different way so that one can understand it differently. Otherwise, what's the point of the book of Revelation saying that the Lamb of God was slain from the foundations of the world?

So that sacrifice is required to maintain the order. It might become simpler to understand that if you remember, this is the first letter of John, God is love. Not that God is loving, that it would be easier to understand, but that the very structure of God is love. And anybody... The reason I'm mentioning this just makes it easier to understand anybody who has ever been in love can easily understand that the maintenance of love requires periodic sacrifice.

Right? It's easier to understand. That's the only reason I'm giving this example, which is why in India marriage is called a yajja. That it is a sacrifice. Which also can mean to make it sacred, remember? You know, people tend to forget all this.

It used to be the standard idea in the Christian marriages that they're not marrying for each other, but for the sake of Christ. That was the expression. These days, people are getting married, jumping off the albatross of some kind or the other, and that's a different thing. So, coming back to what Krishna is saying here, that this has already been accomplished, but you become the instrument for this manifestation. Okay, let me continue with a few of the ideas that I want to really again emphasize.

By the way, if you're interested in actually looking up the particular reference in the book of Revelation, it's the 13th chapter, 8th verse. Because the translations also vary, which is inevitable, these two words, which one of them we have spoken about a fair amount, Nash-Karmaya, always a call, can I be in a state of actionlessness, but it is not a state of inaction. So the call really is, can I become an instrument of action corresponding to Krishna's will rather than my will? And in that context, I won't now try to dwell on it anymore, other than to just draw your attention again and again. I gave the example of Christ, that I'm not the author of the words I speak.

I say what my Father in Heaven tells me to say. Now, this is a very remarkable statement to make. But that is really the call. This is not actionlessness in the sense of inaction, but it is not my action. It's not according to my will.

So as you know, this was one of the definitions of a yogi by Krishna. A yogi sees that I do nothing at all. Then the other word is nashjanya, and I think I mentioned rather quickly the other day, this word is actually not there in the Bhagavad Gita. It is not a state of ignorance, but a state of unknowing, open to be surprised. So I know something, but can I be free from what I know?

Sometimes one might say no or less knowing, not the usual mind knowing it, but something which is far subtler, knows it in me or through me. In fact, if you read the description given by almost any of the great scientists, particularly I'm now thinking of Newton and Einstein, perhaps two of the greatest scientists in the history of humanity, they would say that their own creation was not their doing. It's not coming from their knowledge, somehow, but it came through them. So obviously they have a contribution to make. It's always the case, but it's not their exclusive doing.

So these two words I wanted to emphasize, because we are now just coming more or less to the end here, and another thing that needs to be emphasized again and again is the need for more and more impartial self-inquiry. Again, earlier I had quoted this in one of the talks, it's the 28th shaloka in the 4th chapter, and as you know, yajja, as I said, is a sacrifice. Then Krishna says here, there are some who practice yajja by offering their material goods, others who undertake austere efforts and practice of yoga as yajja, and for still others, with serious vows, yajja consists of self-inquiry and sacred knowledge. Self-inquiry, the word is suadhyay. It can be translated also as self-study, self-knowledge, self-observation.

These are all intimately related with each other, so we don't need to get too occupied about precisely what word. And as I said, in general, the ordinary religious traditions are not too keen about all this, and I think I mentioned to you the whole concordance of the Bible doesn't even have one word for self-knowledge, but that is not the case in any serious teaching within the Christian context. Here, therefore, I decided to bring you a quotation from Gospel of Thomas. It becomes a non-canonical gospel, but it's the second chapter, second and third verse in that gospel. This is what Christ said.

The kingdom is inside you and it is outside you. So Brahma is not only inside me, but it's also outside. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that it is you who are the children of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you live in poverty, and you are the poverty. I personally actually don't know a stronger statement than this, almost anywhere.

So here is a very strong emphasis, and you can read any of the mystics in Islam or Christianity, Buddhism, it doesn't matter where, any of the sages. They all say, this is the fundamental practice. Unless I know what the hell needs to be transformed, what am I going to transform? So, self-inquiry, or you can, Krishnamurthy, probably more than anybody else in contemporary times keeps emphasizing this all the time. In fact, although he says there is no, truth is a pathless land, but this is the path he is always talking about.

I keep pointing out again and again. So, this is a very important idea, and one should not easily dismiss this. And there, I would simply also remind you, the kind of knowing, or studying, or inquiring we are talking about, is something that actually changes the knower, otherwise it's not real knowledge. This is why I again and again keep saying, self-awareness and self-transformation are not two things. They are a spiral thing.

Impartially, as I become aware of what I am, it gradually changes what I am. Plotinus, one of the greatest philosophers, actually put it slightly differently, he said knowing and being are not two things. Knowing and being, the kind of person I am and what I know. So, he put it as knowing and being, which is perfectly fine, or self-awareness and self-transformation. And more than once, I am sure you have heard me say in this series of talks, awareness is the mechanism of transformation.

Whatever I know, changes in its quality and in its effect on me, its relationship with me. In fact, if you become a serious searcher, you will soon begin to realize that the fact that I see is more important than what I see. Because what I see is endless. We would say prakrti or the whole of nature is endless. But if I begin to understand that what the fact that I see would gradually take care of what I see, it will shift it, it will change it.

Then I become more interested in the quality of my seeing, in the quality of my perception or of my awareness. Then if I can always remind myself that everything has levels, however smart or intelligent or impartial I may be, guaranteedly my self-awareness is not at the same level as the self-awareness of Christ or the Buddha. Just a reminder, not that one has to compete with them, but it's a reminder that the journey is very large, and not to be so easily imagined that I have come to the end. So self-awareness or awareness generally becomes more interesting if I take not so much occupied with what I see. This is endless what I can see.

But the fact that I see is actually more significant than I wish to enhance the quality of the seeing. So let's continue this. A couple of general remarks to make. Krishna was very clear that there is no single way to come to Him. People can come in varieties of ways.

This is what he said. This is the 4th chapter, 11th and 12th sutra, not sutra, shloka. By whatever path human beings approach me, accordingly I reward them. It is my path that humans follow from all sides. Those who desire the success of their works sacrifice to the devas for success in the world comes quickly with work.

But then he said there are others who are not so interested in success in the world. They come closer and closer to Him. But even the devas, He's not against them. So it's very important to realize that Krishna includes every kind of activity or work. One can worship anybody, anything.

As long as you do it with pure heart, you're really coming to Krishna. Okay, so this is more or less now summarizing it. Without Krishna the battle cannot be won, but without Arjuna it will not be won. Life is a struggle and none of us has a choice about participating in the battle of life. The real question is how to be a good warrior engaged in the battle and at the same time to discover and connect with the Krishna deep within ourselves, one who is above the battle.

Having said all that, I would like to remind you of a remark of Shankara who is regarded as the greatest philosopher in India because partly I said I'm not a great fan of him, but I really like very many things he said. This is one of his remarks from his very famous book called Vivek Chudamani. He said disease is not killed by saying medicine, medicine, but by taking medicine. Deliverance is not achieved by repeating the word Brahma, but by directly experiencing Brahma. So would you like me to suggest an exercise for you?

Homework

Gita, Gita, Gita. Thank you very much.