You are seeing this drama as the Witness Consciousness
The drama unfolds a chain of causation in space time
These are the events happening before you
And you plunge deep into these events but actually don’t suffer
Once you can comprehend your presence as Primordial Consciousness which is Being with no-objective reality then you are awakened truly
That you have to do whilst you are in this body-mind
The body-mind doesn’t dissolve immediately until your present karma is exhausted
But you have a new sense of reality which is your eternal presence forever untouched by the vicissitudes of life
The cyclones will come, the war will be raged, tornadoes and tremors will wreck the ground beneath your feet
But you can be the still presence – the witness to all these
There is no birth and death for you….the cycles only appear in you the consciousness
The outside universe has no independent existence apart from you the consciousness
You are pure being-awareness – santam shivam adwaitam chaturtham manyante sa atma sa vijneyah (Madukya Upanishad)
You are the turiam – the fourth – neither the waker, the dreamer and the deep sleeper
But one which powered these mutable states without itself getting identified with any one of them
This is to be realised – you are the undifferentiated consciousness the true I which is no-thing
Once you stabilise yourself – once you are centered in your Luminous Presence
Which is the Clear Light of the Void – then you understand that Knower and Known these entangled pairs appear and dissolve in you – they are all empty
You are eternal existence consciousness and bliss
You are Sat-Chit-Ananda
It’s not that you become it
There is no-doing that will make you what you already are
It’s only non-doing but practically doing is essential to go through the various stages to figure it out your own way
Since you are conditioned by the body-mind complex, by the dualities of life – the process of doing is essential to exhaust you
When you understand no doing will make you what you are – then you are still point on the dancing wave
Life ticks on but you remain unruffled
In the midst of all action you are the luminous presence
This is therefore not a call to inaction but to understand that you never are the doer
This is to understand what Krishna says to Arjuna in the Gita
To find action in inaction and inaction in action
When the paradoxes are understood properly through the light of non-dual knowledge then you can do any action and still be free from causation
The paradoxes are used because the witness consciousness is beyond neurocognitive understanding through written or oral symbols
The paradoxes are pointers to that deeper reality which you already are
There is no way to understand it or experience than this way
You can’t technically experience it because then what is experienced becomes immediately an object and an experiencer who experienced it….it is not a recursive function
You have to get it intuitively
Once you are awakened
The world remains as it is – the scream of the butterfly, the surge of the oceans and the cracking of earth
You see this as part of your own reality – the other is now yourself appearing in myriad name form and function
The essential reality remains unchanged
Then what engenders in you is Maha-Karuna
The great compassion
For all sentient beings , for even the rocks and stones and the quasar and the quarks and leptons
Because you have apparently become that as part of the Lila
This is called maha-uddharan – the great salvation
The stage is set for the world
Ananta-nantamay
Eternity in time is -I-ternity
All becomes easy when you know –wei-wu-wei
The idea of doing-without-doing
And no doing at all
Your still presence have fashioned gleefully the formation of stars and microbes
Sing the song of your presence
The peacocks are dancing, the rain clouds will fulfil the lotus pond
And all children will be playing the fiddle in the land of the golden sun
This is the message of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri
All life is then Yoga
Hari Om Tat Sat
Jay Jesus
Jay Maa
Jay Prabhu Jagatbandhu Sundor

-Joy

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

Srimad Bhagabwat Gita – the Constitution of the Cosmos – article by my colleague K. Jana

Srimad Bhagabat Gita is a Spiritual, Philosophical, Intellectual and Practical scripture which has been enlightening people throughout the world since Her inception. “Gita Mahatmyam”, the glory or the greatness of the Gita, is described in the Baraha Purana where Lord Vishnu explains the greatness of the Gita. He says – “Gita jnaanam upaashritya treen lokaan paalayaamyaham.” – I govern the three worlds with the knowledge of the Gita. The three worlds in this verse symbolically refers to the entire Cosmos – the gross, the subtle and the causal layers of the Cosmos. The same knowledge that Lord Vishnu uses to govern the Cosmos had been taught to Arjuna to enlighten his conscience to sacrifice emotional bondage towards him family and fight against his kith and kin for a greater cause towards humanity.

So the applicability of the knowledge of the Gita covers a wide spectrum – from governing the conscience of an individual to the governance of the Cosmos. Starting from an individual, it is the constitution of a society, a country and the whole humanity. But what is the foundation of this governance model? The foundation is karma (action), viewed as worship to the divine or as yajna – offering to the divine. The Gita proclaims – the whole creation is a yajna, performed by the Supreme, through which He has manifested within everything in the Cosmos. The Sun is continually burning or performing yajna and providing energy for appearance, existence and evolution of life on the Earth. Hence all our actions should be performed in the spirit of yajna.

The Gita Says.
“Brahmarpanam Brahma havir Brahmagnau Brahmanahutaṃ,
Brahmaiva tena gantavyamBrahmakarma samadhinah.”

The act of offering is Supreme. The oblation is Supreme. By the Supreme it is offered into the fire which is Supreme.Such persons, who view everything as the Supreme and carry out actions, attains the essence of the Supreme. Every action performed by the actor with the spirit of yajna contributes to the purpose and goal of the creation, irrespective of how small or big it is, or how simple or complex it is. A sage, a warrior, a farmer, a scientist or any other person serving the society with this spirit is actually performing worship to the Supreme and it paves the way to realizing the ultimate reality and a state of perpetual bliss.

Krishna says
“svakarmana tam abhyarchya siddhiṁ vindati manavaḥ”

By devotion to one’s natural activity, a person worships the Supreme and attains the state of perpetual bliss.
The context of The Gita is The Mahabharata war field. Just before start of the war, Arjuna, the most acclaimed Pandava warrior of the era refused to take part in the war. His conscience prohibited him from destroying his own kin. Since most people view war as an act of destruction, it is often asked and criticized by many, whether a spiritual scripture such as The Gita should have emanated from the war field. A serene and more harmonious time in history could have been more suited for the birth of The Gita. Or in other word how a Cosmic Constitution supports a war! Let me present my view.
All wars which have already taken place or will happen in the future can be categorised into following three types,
• Tamasic War – Tamasic Wars are primarily driven by ruthless aggression of powerful groups on comparatively weaker sections to impose their perceived supremacy of war power, wealth, religious thoughts etc. Such aggressive groups, just by virtue of their power, want to establish supremacy by any means, even mercilessly kill innocents.
• Rajasic War – Rajasic Wars are primarily driven to resolve a conflict between more or less equally powerful groups. The loser group has to accept post war terms and conditions put by the winner group and normally the war ends there.
• Sattvic War – Sattvic Wars is that war that takes place to keep the overall system in tune with its purpose and goal. Cell inside the human body are constantly fighting and sacrificing themselves to keep the body from harmful elements. The same is true is for human civilization also. As the civilization progresses, time and again situations arise when the human values take a back seat. People get driven by self-centricity, greed for power and wealth and establish ruthless supremacy at the cost of innocent lives. Such acts rip apart the society and become malignant in nature. It becomes essential that drastic measures be taken to prevent the potential catastrophe. Sattvic war is the essential Surgery that saves the society from further decays and gifts it a new life.
The Kurukshetra war was a Sattvic war for establishing righteousness in the society by eliminating tamasic forces. Sri Krishna – the epitome of extreme wisdom and Arjuna – the highest form of extreme war power – joined hands to perform the most critical Surgery to the society. They removed the malice through this Dharama-Yudh to establish a unified country, then known as Bharata. Before the commencement of the war, Arjuna got torn apart in his internal conflict. On one hand he had the option of not engaging in this heinous crime of killing family members and on the other hand his duty towards the society urged him to take part in the act, an act that would need the death of all the attachments he had towards his family. This conflict between moral values and emotional attachments was probably the toughest the world has ever seen. It was powerful enough to tear apart even the strongest warrior of the era. It is unimaginable to think of a conflict that is as devastating as this. Krishna, the wisdom, enlightened Arjun with his views through this discourse based on Duty, Knowledge and Devotion and left the decision on Arjuna. The hardest internal conflict of the most the powerful warrior at his highest crucial moment needed the guidance from the wisest person for its resolution. In my view, the perfect context for this fascinating discourse – The Bhagavat Gita. Though any form war is undesirable, to put the system in right path, a realistic constitution should support Sattvic War. Let us analyze the present scenario of human civilization.
Last four hundred years of scientific exploration of the material world has discovered the a few mysteries of its gross and subtle properties. The application of these discoveries has given unprecedented ease of survival, comfort luxury to human. This material advancement has a cost in terms of devalued mind which the humanity is paying now. It has generated limitless greed to accumulate wealth, power, and superiority within the individuals, communities and countries. Unfulfillment of the desire is causing anger and frustration which further directing human mind to put all time and energy towards achieving it. Another outcome of the greedy mind is the destruction of the ecosystem which is like the mother’s womb that causing appearance, existence and evolution of life. Human activities driven by population growth, demand for limitless comfort and luxury, supported by the industrial revolution, usage of scientific and technological research for establishing supremacy and many similar activities for advancing the civilization have created profound impact on the health of the ecosystem through reduction of biodiversity, increase in emission of greenhouse gases, reckless exploitation of natural resources, dumping of waste into water bodies and many more. Scientists have already alerted us about the harmful consequences of this degradation and if it continues like this, the planet may not remain habitable for life forms. We are heading towards what? The Gita, Cosmic Constitution, has alarmed us thousands of years ago.
“dhyayato visayanpumsah, sangastesupajayate
sangatsanjayatekamah, kamatkrodhobhijayate
krodhad bhavati sammohah, sammohat smrtivibhramah
smrti bhramsad buddhinaso, buddhinasat pranasyati”

While contemplating on wealth(material world), one develops strong attachment to it, such attachment gives rise to a strong desire to acquire it, un-fulfillment of this desire develops anger which gives rise to delusion. Delusion causes loss of knowledge about what is righteous and what is unrighteous, causing bewildered intelligence to drive for unrighteous or unconstitutional action to acquire it. This paves the way towards destruction. The message is not only for an individual, but for a community, a country and for the whole humanity. Vedic framework never disregarded the material world or wealth or advised one to stay away from it. They advised of the process of acquiring or using wealth by renunciation of lust, greed, anger, delusion and envy which are attributes of dissonance and isolation.
An action of an individual can be categorized in three types, a selfish action, a reciprocative action and a selfless action. A selfish action is driven by greed where the actor(s) wants accumulate something by any means even causing harm to other individuals, to the society, to the whole country and even to the whole ecosystem around us. In a reciprocative action, the actor respectfully reciprocates the service receives from others. As an example, the ecosystem nourishes human and hence as a reciprocative action human also should nourish ecosystem to keep it healthy. A selfless action is a yajna where actor spontaneously acts for welfare of all without any hope of receiving something. Such actions can be well represented by a sloka from the Rig Veda – “atmano mokshartham jagat hitaya cha” – for the salvation of one’s individual self and for the well-being of all on earth. Though the Gita stresses selfless actions, the starting point is reciprocative actions for welfare of each other. The Gita says, “parasparam bhavayantah sreyah param avapsyatha” – nourishing one another, there will be prosperity for all. Our present actions are mostly selfish and if it continues, it may lead to the path destruction of the humanity. So are heading towards annihilating ourselves through our deeds?
The answer is known to the Supreme! But the path of any evolution is apparently a continual friction between virtuous and evil and in the long run virtuous wins over evil. More than 3 billion years (1 billion = 1000000000) ago, life on our planet appeared through single cellular organism and through billions of years of evolution, a complex life form with trillions of interconnected cells (1 trillion = 1000000000000) appeared on the earth. The life form is human, having potential to search for its origin and explore to find answers to the questions like; why this creation? , what is life all about? , what is the purpose of existence? The questions are esoteric but very fundamental. Though modern science avoids answering such questions, Rishis in the Vedic age explored and found answers to these questions and explained scriptures like the Upanishads, the Gita and others. According to Vedic view, there is a conscious (consciousness of the Supreme) will behind the creation (contrary to the modern scientific view that the creation is random phenomena) and the evolution of life in our planet is a consciously designed activity to evolve the consciousness of the life forms to a level so that it can attain the level which is similar to that of its origin or the consciousness of the Supreme. The Gita proclaims it through the verse,
“bahavo jnana-tapasa puta mad-bhavam agatah”
Many purified by wisdom and austerity have attained to my state of being.
Hence there may be a grand plan behind the creation. Though it appears that present actions of humanity could lead to the annihilation of human, a delightful planet with peace, harmony and bliss could the future of the planet. But for that to happen, human needs a transition from the asuric view life to the devic view. In the Gita, cognitive attributes like mind, intelligence are categorized into types; devic and asuric. Devic attributes like worship, love, respect, empathy reciprocation, sacrifice etc are attributes of harmony that drives actions of the people to create and maintain environment of harmony. Whereas asuric attributes like greed, mistrust, anger, hatred etc that drive actions of the people to create an environment of dissonance. I hope, the readers will agree with me that, asuric attributes have become the driver of present humanity. But for transition from the asuric view of life to the devic, humanity needs a framework or constitution that is philosophical, rational, practical and implementable. Starting from an individual, the framework should encompass a community, a country and the humanity as a whole. In my view, that framework or constitution is the Gita. Eighteen chapters of the discourse between Krishna and Arjuna are like eighteen steps of staircase that transforms Arjuna from a state of self dejection to the state of self realization. In this journey, Krishna gives a holistic view of the Cosmos, explains purpose of life, synthesizes different philosophical perspective of life and details out artistry of performing actions that can lead an individual to the path of self realization as well as remove negative energy sources from the society for harmonious coexistence of all. A discourse that took place more than five thousand years ago has influenced sages, philosophers, intellectuals and practitioners since her inception. Even at this present time when matter has become the driver of human consciousness, influence and acceptance of the Gita is increasing day by day in various spheres of the society.
The time of transition from the asuric view of life to the devic view of life may not be very far! (This is personal view only.) But there is a price to be paid for every transformation. Possibly, the present humanity would have to go through many surgical events, either manmade or natural or a combination of both for the greedy their actions that have poisoned this beautiful planet. Such events would compel to establish a framework, applicable to an individual, to a country and to whole human civilization. That framework is the spiritual, intellectual and practical knowledge of Gita that can establish “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, the world is one family.
The knowledge of the Gita should spread among all. In this context, I respectfully appreciate the holly initiative take by Acharya Debananda Sastriji through Learn Gita, Live in Gita.
Hari Om
Khagendra Nath Jana
+919831559449
khagendranathjana@gmail.com