Fragrance Of Godliness – In Gita Verse 10.20 I am the Supersoul, O Arjuna, seated in the hearts of all living entities. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings.
When Krishna is saying – I am the beginning, the middle and the end of all beings – it will be difficult for us to understand from our limited mind. But we can understand through our observation. Can you say seed is beginning, middle or end of the tree? We cannot say that it is beginning, middle or end but we know that seed is the beginning of the tree, in the middle of the tree and the end of the tree.
Seed is the process, continuous or we can say continuum. Because the seed is a process it is always fresh in the different forms and formless. In the different forms as seed, leaf, branches, flowers and formless as fragrance. You will be able to experience it in its form and the formless. This is the quality of a non-doer.
In my Bhagavad Gita Verse 10.6, blog I wrote we are born from Manus and Manus are born from Krishna, Universe.
They are the seed within us. If we become non-doer and don’t interfere in the process of existence then again through our action the fragrance of Godliness which we have brought as seed within us can manifest.
The mind is not ready to accept that godliness can be attained here and now. Why can’t it accept it? It can’t accept it because if godliness is available here and now and we are not attaining it, then what could be causing this? How can we explain it? If it can be attained here and now, why are we not attaining it? A great uneasiness arises: it can be attained here and now, but we are not attaining. How to explain it? It becomes a great frustration. To relieve the frustration you say godliness can be achieved but that you need to be worthy.
Intellect always manages to find a way. Whatever complication arises, the mind finds a solution. It says, “The way has to be sought, worthiness has to be sought, you will have to become purified: then you will attain. And if Ashtavakra says it can be achieved here and now, certainly he must have a reason for it. He says it so we will start making intense efforts. But we will have to make an effort.” Mind is very clever.
Ashtavakra’s statement is absolutely clear. Godliness can be found here and now, because it is not an achievement, it is your nature. His whole emphasis is simple: You are it. The very idea of attaining is wrong.
When we say godliness can be attained here and now, it simply means it is already attained. Just open your eyes and see!
The very language of attaining is wrong. In attaining it seems that you and existence are separate. You are the seeker and it is the objective to be sought. You are the traveler and it is the destination. No, that it can be attained here and now simply means you are that which you are seeking.
Know thyself.
Open your eyes and see – or close your eyes and see. But see!
It is a matter of insight, not of worthiness.
Worthiness means that even the divine is a business deal. When you go to the market something is sold for a thousand rupees, something for one hundred thousand rupees, something for a million rupees. Everything has its price. Worthiness means that godliness also has its price. Whosoever pays the price by proving his worth will get it. You want to make even godliness a commodity in the market: “Renounce, do austerities, then you will attain it. Pay the price and you will get it. Where can you get it for free?” You drag the divine into a shop, seal it in a box, stick on a price tag, and put it on the shelf. You say, “Do this many fasts, that many meditations, this much austerity; stand in the sun, suffer cold and heat, then you will attain it.”
Have you ever thought about what you are saying? You are saying that realizing godliness is related to your doing something. Whatever you do will be your doing, and your doing cannot be greater than you. Your austerity will be yours – as low as you are, as dirty as you are. Your austerity cannot be greater than you. And whatever you attain through your austerity will be limited, finite, because through the finite only the finite can be obtained, not the infinite. Through austerity you will find a projection of your mind, not the divine.
To find divine you need to be no doer. As in the Ishavasya Upanishad is referring to exactly this kind of person. It is speaking about someone who has completely left being the doer to the whole, to existence. It is speaking about someone who says, “I am not at all, existence alone is. If there is a doer, it is an existence. At the most, I am only a pawn in its game. I am willing to go wherever it directs the move; I am willing to be what it wishes, I am willing to do whatever it commands. If it wishes to defeat me, I am willing to be defeated; if it makes me the winner, I am willing to win. Neither victory nor defeat is mine. Defeat belongs to existence and so does victory.”
Such a man, whose surrender is total, who attributes everything to existence – “I also belong to existence, all actions belong to it” – such a man will do all that is necessary in life, living, breathing, walking, standing, sitting, doing his duties, eating his food and sleeping at night. All these activities will be there, but there will be no doer within. And this is the only way.
I also affirm that the sage of the Ishavasya Upanishad is perfectly correct when he declares that this is the only way. And on the whole earth up to now the people who have truly passed through this life unscathed, untouched, always fresh and new, as innocent as when they were born, are the people who have never nourished any sort of ego during their journey; who have lived without an ego.
Ego means a sense of being the doer and to be egoless means surrendering – in the sense of surrendering everything at the feet of existence.
When you are no doer, egoless you allow your seed of godliness which is in your heart, to grow. Krishna says that with you I also took birth, you as form and Universe, Krishna as formless. We are not separate, but united.
Tags: Fragrance Of Godliness
