The path of descriminating wisdom (jnana yoga) is described

Those who have the ability to discriminate between reality and illusion can see the ultimate truth which is that God is behind all of creation, that He is equally present in all creatures and exists without end amidst all we see that perishes. That wise person can see that his soul is part of the imperishable Spirit and that all of one’s actions are really a result of the vibratory energy of your created body and mind. Your soul, the image of God within, is a silent witness. The full realization of that truth is accompanied by the conscious recognition, the actual experience beyond intellectual knowing, that the whole variety of creation is existent in God. When that happens, you will understand beyond doubt that your true soul-Self has none of the qualities of creation, that it is deathless and that it is not affected by anything done in this world. You will have reached the ultimate goal of life and will forever more be absolutely free from the bondage of nature’s hypnotizing spell of illusion.

Three Main Paths to God Realization + One

God is, therefore, present in your body and mind. In order to recognize this, i.e. realize this in a conscious way or actually behold this image of God within, some people follow the path of meditation, some develop the wisdom to discriminate between reality and the illusion that the world presents, and still others by living a life of selfless service to others. But even those who cannot follow one of those three main paths for whatever reason will still find God if they take to heart the words of a spiritual teacher and become moved to worship with true devotion, following the edicts of one of the world’s scriptures.

The ocean and the wave

The Gita once again tries to describe the indescribable essence of God. He is both existence and non-existence. He is knowledge itself, that which is to be known, and the goal of all learning. He is both within and without everything making Him simultaneously near and far, yet imperceptible because of his subtlety. God is unmanifested transcendent spirit beyond creation, without attributes that can be categorized. He is consciousness itself, therefore He is aware of all of the thoughts and perceptions of every human being. He is omnipresent to anyone who understands this, yet seemingly nowhere to be found by those who do not believe. God’s manifestation in creation is like a wave in the ocean. The wave is a part of the ocean, but it is not the ocean itself. It is made entirely of the ocean and yet is identifiable as separate from the rest of the ocean. It is from that wave of God that all the qualities of creation exhibit themselves.

Characteristics of the wise

The wise are humble and do not do anything to hurt others in any way. They are forgiving and virtuous. They serve their spiritual teachers with devotion. They maintain purity of both body and mind with steadfastness of conviction and self-control. Wise people are indifferent to what their senses are telling their minds because they understand that their bodies are connected to the painful cycle of birth, suffering, old age and death. They are, therefore, free from their ego identification with their bodies and see their oneness with all of humanity. They do not see their children, spouse or home as being their own and they remain constantly even-minded in the presence of either desirable or undesirable circumstances. They enjoy practicing meditation with devotion to God and naturally seek out quiet places while avoiding the company of worldly people. They persevere in their quest to know the image of God within because they recognize that it is the essence of their knowledge of the truth. To do otherwise is to pursue ignorance.

The "field" and its "knower"

In the philosophical school of thought which developed in India known as Sankhya (a parallel philosophy to classical Yoga), everything that we can know about the created universe is a combination of the following: the five great elements (earth, water, air, fire and ether); the ten senses (a combination of the five senses we know in the West and the five organs of perception) what is known as the “sense mind” (manas) that perceives them; discriminating intelligence; egoism; the five results of the sense mind (desire, hate, pleasure, pain and an aggregation of other diverse emotions); consciousness; and persistent will power.

Remain even-minded in the face of the dualities of the world

Those who want to follow the path of devotion should not disturb the world or be disturbed by the world. Do not be too excited by joy and be free from jealousy, fear and worry. Make your mind pure by being utterly detached from personal desires and worldly expectations. Remain fair to everyone and unconcerned by circumstances. Undertake nothing with ego, pride or vanity in mind. Do not rejoice at good fortune or loathe bad times so you can be free from grief and cravings. Transcend the whole concept of good and evil. Be tranquil in the presence of friend or foe, adoration or insult, heat or cold, pleasure or pain. Relinquish attachments and take refuge in silence. Keep your mind balanced no matter what the circumstances and remain content no matter what happens. Those who take this eternal wisdom to heart will become full of faith and devotion to seeking God as life’s highest goal.

An important reminder

If you have decided to practice the path of devotion to God as your way of realizing Him, renouncing attachment to the results of your actions is even more important than meditation because peace immediately follows renunciation. Hate no one. Be friendly and compassionate to all. Give up your ego, all sense of I, me or mine and don’t think of anything as your own. Remain even-minded when you experience either pleasure or pain because they are both temporary. Be forgiving. Always remain content and steady of mind through meditation. Learn to behave properly while being strong and consistent in your convictions. Offer your heart and mind to God and others. Meditation is certainly better than just having knowledge of these truths or simply observing religious rituals, but the wisdom to put these things into practice is better than either meditation alone or ritual worship.

If you have not developed the ability to keep your mind fixed on God at all times you should do so by regularly practicing meditation. If you do not have the discipline to meditate regularly, you should practice dedicating all your actions to others. And if you can’t even do that consistently, practice giving up your attachment to any selfish gain from the fruits of your actions. Thus, you will be giving up your ego and surrendering to the will of God, taking refuge in Him. This is what the Bhagavad Gita calls performing your actions “like a mastered self.”

Ch 12: Union with God through Devotion

Ultimately it does not matter if you worship God as a particular embodied deity or as the divine Spirit behind all the manifested forms as long as you do so with supreme devotion and dedicate yourself to the good of all beings. It is harder for most people to feel like they have a personal relationship with God if they worship a formless concept like the Holy Spirit, but both ways eventually lead to the realization of the truth. The important thing is that you renounce your attachment to the fruits of your actions, desire to do good above all else and meditate. If you do that consistently you will soon see that this is the way to remove yourself from the pain and suffering of the world and that there is no doubt that you and God are united forever.

Even though studying the scriptures, practicing self-discipline, giving gifts of charity and performing formal religious rituals will provide you with good merit, these alone will not bring about union with God. Only through steady devotion to offering all of your actions to others, thus shedding any selfish attachment to personal gain or feelings of ill will toward anyone will you have the same knowledge of God that Krishna gave to Arjuna in the story of the Bhagavad Gita.

Arjuna, still awestruck and trembling from the overwhelming experience of seeing God in all His forms, begins to praise Krishna now that he knows who he really is. Arjuna humbly explains that because he didn’t know Krishna was God, he must have treated Him disrespectfully at time and implores the Lord to forgive him like a father forgives his child, like a friend forgives a friend and like a lover forgives his beloved. So, in the metaphor of the Gita, the spiritual seeker, upon realizing God’s true nature, still aglow from the experience immediately becomes remorseful at the realization that he or she should have known this all along and asks God’s forgiveness. God is nearer and more real than a friend, a  lover or even one’s own child.

The metaphor contained in the Gita gets explained

Then, Arjuna began to see God’s fearsome side. He saw all those who are slaves to their senses, tied to their satisfaction by habits and full of ego, pride and vanity being swept up and carried into the jaws and teeth of a monstrous God who chewed them until their skulls were crushed to powder. Arjuna begged to know who this monster-God was and the Lord spoke saying, “I am insatiable Time, destroyer of worlds, and I have come to consume all in my burning maw.” It was then that the Lord explained to Arjuna (the spiritual seeker on the battlefield of life) that he really isn’t losing out on anything by fighting a battle that seems like it will kill some of the people he knew as friends and teachers (i.e. forgoing the sensual pleasures that lead to harm or putting his selfish ego aside in favor of helping others) because they were doomed to die anyway. In the metaphor contained in the Bhagavad Gita, the spiritual seeker, having realized God, awakens to the “big picture” of life and sees the uselessness of clinging to the illusion of the world and forever understands that God is the only permanent Reality.

Ch 11: Arjuna's vision of God in His infinite form

In the eleventh chapter of the Gita, Arjuna (who represents all sincere spiritual seekers) is granted divine sight to behold all of the created aspects of God in His multitude of forms. He saw God in heaven, bejeweled with robes and garlands and ornaments of all kinds, shining in every direction and seeing everything with countless eyes facing everywhere simultaneously. In His presence was a fragrance that contained every lovely essence. Then, Arjuna saw the entire universe with all its diverse manifestations residing within God’s infinite being. A thousand suns shining simultaneously appeared dim in God’s splendor. Seeing that God is the supreme unperishable reality, Arjuna’s hair stood on end and, awe-struck, he bowed in adoration before the God of gods. Upon seeing God’s infinite strength contained in a never-ending array of eyes, arms, legs and bodies that reach everywhere without start or end, each with a mouth uttering sounds that when combined speak the cosmic name of God, AUM, Arjuna became overwhelmed and fearful. He begged God to be merciful.

All of Ch 10 in one paragraph

The tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita poetically describes the infinite manifestations of God as the source of everything. No one will ever be able to understand the origin of God’s unmanifested nature, but we can see Him in all the things He manifests. Knowledge of this truth is liberating and brings one wisdom, the ability to discriminate between reality and the illusion that the world projects, freedom from delusion, forgiveness, truth, self-control, equanimity, fearlessness, non-injury, tranquility, contentment, the ability to bear discomfort with an even mind, generosity and honor. But God also generates the opposite; pain, death, fear, ignorance, hate, suffering and dishonor. All these different qualities come solely from God because He is the source of everything. The wise simply understand that God is the unchanging and everlasting Holy Spirit that sustains and permeates the entire cosmos with only a fragment of His being.

God doesn't hate anybody

God is impartial toward all beings. Regardless of any of the social inequalities that societies or individuals place on people, God does not hate anyone, nor is He especially dear to anyone. No matter where or to whom you were born, whether you are male or female, rich or poor, if you take refuge in God and give him your love and devotion, He will respond and you will come to see that you are a part of Him and He is within you. Even the worst of sinners who worships God with sincere devotion and firm resolve will be counted as one of the good. He or she will quickly become virtuous and obtain unending peace until they realize absolute freedom and become united with God. A true devotee never comes to a harmful end. Saints and sinners alike find themselves living in this same transient world of suffering and unhappiness, needing to turn to God for their salvation. Therefore, resolve to bow with humble reverence before God, forgo your selfish desires and devote your life to offering all your actions to others, thinking of God constantly and you will be firmly on the path to realizing the ultimate goal of life, union with God.

The essence of Karma Yoga

Whatever you do, make it an offering to God by doing it for others, without thought of selfish reward. Whether it is eating to sustain yourself so you can do work for others, giving gifts or charity, or even disciplining yourself to be a better person so others will enjoy being around you, dedicate them all as if you were performing a spiritual ritual and they become offerings to God. When you perform your actions in that way, they will not bind you to a good or bad result through karma. Through this practice you become free of personal desires and are not bound to this world. Thus you can achieve total liberation and become one with God.

Anyone who is worshiping with true faith in their beliefs, no matter what they are doing, is really worshiping God, but not in the most optimal way. Those who worship saints or angels or lesser forms of God will see them in heaven. Those who worship their ancestors will see their ancestors in heaven. Those who are honoring the spirits in nature go to be with them. Whatever is offered to God with true devotion, even if it is only a leaf from a tree, a single flower, a piece of fruit or a sip of water, He accepts it because it was given with love.

Those who are still operating on the level of religious ritual and cleansing practices get their reward in heaven. There, sincere devotees enjoy the pleasures of that sacred kingdom. Such beings delight in the glory of that higher realm until their merit earned through good karma on earth runs out and they return to the world. Even though they have sincerely worshiped God, they have not realized the truth about reality and have not reached the ultimate goal. They remain caught in the web of personal desires and therefore must continue to travel the path between heaven and earth. However, for those who meditate on the image of God within themselves, without any thought of reward, and remain united by constantly thinking of Him, God will make up for any deficiencies in their worship and make all their progress towards realizing Him permanent even throughout the cycles of birth after birth.

God is everything

Those with discriminating wisdom see beyond the various religious rituals and know that God is the offering, the sacrifice and the ritual itself. He is that which is sacrificed in the fire and He is the fire as well. He is the potency in the medicinal herb and he is the sacred sound chanted with devotion. He is both the praise given to one’s ancestors and the one who receives it. God is that which is to be known. He is the father and mother of the whole universe as well as its grandfather, great-grandfather and most ancient ancestor. He is the omniscient, omnipresent vibrational energy of absolute existence. He is both the sacred scripture and the wisdom it holds. God sustains everything and established the rules over it. He is the foundation of all that is and is both the origin and the indestructible seed of creation. He is the shelter, the refuge and the one friend from beginning to end. He is the objective witness of all actions and the cosmic storehouse of the results of those actions. God is the heat from the sun and the one who give or withholds rain. He is both death and immortality. God is everything that exists and everything that does not exist.

In whatever way one worships God, he or she is offering it in a way that indicates their current level of understanding about the reality behind the illusion of the world. At first He is seen as being different and varied in name and form, but eventually all will see Him as the one absolute being who embodies the entire cosmos.

People who cannot see beyond the illusion cast by the created world are oblivious to God’s transcendental presence that pervades all things and therefore discount His existence. Deluded by their ego and lack of insight, such people find that their thoughts and desires are full of mistakes and all of their actions are ultimately in vain. But great souls recognize the reality behind the illusion and know that God is the imperishable source of everything and worship Him with one-pointed devotion. With firm resolve, they stick to their high aspirations and humbly bow to God, ever praising His glory.

A difficult paradox to understand: God is in everything, but everything is not contained in God's being

At the end of each cycle of creation, sustainment and dissolution everything created goes back to the unmanifested state that is God’s being. And, at the beginning of the next cycle, He brings forth all of creation once again. Over and over again, God produces the myriad of things that make up creation, all of which are subject to the finite laws of nature. But God is not affected by the actions of His creatures because He witnesses it all from an aloof position of detachment. Even though God pervades the entire universe, He does not abide in creation. Just as the wind exists in empty space but is not the space itself, all of creation has its existence in God, but the created things are not the unmanifested being that is God. Because of God, creation can revolve through these cycles of creation and dissolution.

There are two paths you can take in this life. One leads to absolute freedom and the other leads to eventual rebirth in the world. Those who seek God pursue a path that generates more internal life energy as they awaken to the reality that the light of their lives is God. They remain awake as if in perpetual daylight to their need to find God and thus move their life energy up through the various energy centers in the spine (chakras) toward the brow chakra.

            Those who remain deluded by the illusion created by the world follow a path that leads to mortal bondage. They are asleep to reality as if in perpetual night. Their life energy is constantly flowing outward as they pursue worldly pleasures and it remains bound in the lower chakras at the base of the spine. It lacks sufficient energy to move upward and out the brow chakra at the moment of death. No one who knows the truth about these two paths have gained an advantage beyond mere study of the scriptures or performance of religious rituals such as penance or tithing.

Cosmic day and cosmic night

Just as the day dawns and gives way to night, all of creation arises in its infinite variety out of the unmanifested state and naturally merges back into the oneness of the unmanifest. The cosmic day dawns with its creation and lasts for thousands of ages before the cosmic night sees everything dissolve into oneness for thousands of ages as well. This cycle repeats itself as the oneness remanifests as separate forms again at the dawn of another cosmic day. Beyond these manifested and unmanifested states of phenominal existence is the truly unmanifested reality which exists eternally and remains untouched by these cycles of creation and dissolution. Experiencing this unmanifested state of reality which is infinite and indestructible is the ultimate goal of life. Those who attain this highest state never return to normal life in the world.

Those great souls who successfully reach the ultimate goal of life, union with God, have so perfected themselves that they no longer need to return to the painful realm of mortality to learn more lessons. As difficult as the practice may seem, God-realization is easily and naturally achieved by anyone who whole-heartedly remembers Him daily with his or her mind intensely and continuously focused on nothing but God. Only those who do so transcend the cycle of birth and death.

What happens to your life energy at the time of death?

At the time of death, if someone who has practiced the spiritual techniques of uniting one’s consciousness with God’s consciousness can keep his or her mind fixed on the one Supreme Being whose form is unimaginable, who exists beyond darkness and is self-effulgent like the sun, who is subtler than the smallest particle and supports everything like a great ruler, eternal and omniscient, that person will experience union with God. This happen when, by closing off the nine gates of the body (2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 2 organs of excretion and the mouth) and gathering the life energy in the heart, that life energy goes to the head and fully penetrates the brow chakra. Then by remembering God at the moment this happens one’s life energy merges with the all-pervasive omniscient vibrational energy that is God. This highest goal is reached by those who have led a life of self-discipline and have renounced their attachment to their egos and physical bodies and whose minds, stabilized by meditation are unwaveringly fixed on God.

It is said that a person’s fate after death is reflected in his or her thoughts at the moment of death. These thoughts are formed from our most frequently repeated thoughts during life because our minds become habituated in that direction. So, if you think of God constantly and struggle to do good and be good, our hearts and minds will be given to think of God at the moment of death and you will go directly to Him.

The Bhagavad Gita describes God as the uncreated imperishable absolute that gives rise to all of creation and exists in human beings as the individual soul, the true Self behind the ego and personality. Through the power of His divine will, He causes the birth, sustenance and dissolution of everything by altering the vibration of the very energy that makes up His undifferentiated existence in seemingly infinite ways. This is the single cosmic action which brings into existence all karma (worldly actions and their consequences). The result is that there are three levels of existence; the physical created universe, the spiritual realm and the one absolute state of being that is the origin of the other two.

So, as we seek to avoid the pain and suffering in life as well as strive to deny the reality of decay and death, we begin to take refuge in God. If one chooses to worship steadily and do good in the world, he or she will see beyond the illusion that everything has a dual nature of good and bad to realize that God is the all-pervading reality behind the elements of creation, that He is the object of any kind of worship and that knowing Him is the reason behind your self-sacrifice. Then you will be conscious of God’s presence continually, even at the time of death.

Don't blame those who don't believe in God, it's not their fault

People are born with the innate tendency to be attracted to pleasurable experiences and averse to things that are unpleasant or painful. This causes everyone to see the world in the same way, as being full of good and bad that we react emotionally towards. Being deluded by the way the world appears to someone incased in a mortal body, some people can’t see that that there is an uncreated, unchanging God behind that veil of illusion. God knows about all the creatures of the world that have ever existed or will exist in the future, but His creations cannot see Him as He really is.

If there's nothing but God, how can you worship anything else?

God can be worshiped by any name or form. You can worship Him as the eternal all-pervading Holy Spirit, an incarnation of God such as Jesus, a saint or true guru or any kind of deity. It is the one true God who gave rise to all the various names and forms. You can’t be worshiping anything else. When someone is intent on worshiping any embodiment of God, it is God who makes his or her devotion strong. Then, with that strong and steady devotion, the seeker begins to realize the benefits of a spiritual life. God fulfills his or her longing to know Him and they cease to see Him as a single embodied deity and realize His true nature which is unmanifested, unchanging and all-pervasive.

The four reasons people seek God

Good people seek God for one or more of four basic reasons. The most common is that they are afflicted somehow and seek God to relieve their suffering. Some people look to God for the answers to the big mysteries of life. They want their lives to have more meaning than mere existence so they look for knowledge. Others believe that God has the ability to grant His devotees wealth and power in this world and give them ever-lasting life in paradise in the next. The wisest of the seekers is also the rarest. He or she wants to give their love and devotion to God just because He is all there really is. Everything else is part of the illusion cast by His creation. All four kinds of spiritual seekers have been blessed with noble souls. Still, some sincere worshipers of God let their personal desires lead them astray and their good judgment becomes clouded. They continue to follow their lower nature and are led by their own inclinations rather than the truth.

They call it "maya"

Most people cannot see beyond the tangible aspect of creation because they have been fooled by the way things appear. It is difficult to see reality through the confusion that exists because of the infinite variation that the characteristics of nature present. We are deluded, hypnotized in a way, to believe that our baser instincts of lust, power, greed, etc. is all there is to reality and that seeking refuge in God and being devoted to Him is just a fantasy. Thus, evil is perpetuated in the world.

The relationship between God and nature

Those rare few who have reached the ultimate goal of God-realization while still in their mortal bodies have told us that apart from God there is nothing whatsoever. Everything originates from God’s very essence and from it He creates and dissolves the entire cosmos. He is the fluidity in water, the radiance in the sun and moon, the vibrational energy in all creation, the sound in the ether and the virility in men. God is the wholesome fragrance of the earth, the luminescence in fire, the life in all beings and the purifying force in austerity. Know that God is always present as the seed of all creatures, the understanding in intelligence and the splendor in all that is beautiful. He is the power behind the strength that comes from being free of personal desires and attachments and the power behind the actions of anyone who performs righteousness. These qualities of nature and nature itself come out of God, but they do not comprise all of Him. He is not contained by them, they are manifested from Him

Chapter 7 begins here

Out of many thousands of people, perhaps there is one who really strives for spiritual perfection. And among thousands of those true seekers of God perhaps only one will ever reach the state of complete union with God. But when they do ultimately understand the absolute truth, there is nothing else to know.

No effort to apply these practices is wasted

One should not have any doubts about the benefits of applying these principles. Even if one lapses in his or her practice, just having the theoretical knowledge of these things puts you ahead of someone who only goes to a worship service to practice the rituals of faith. Any effort to diligently follow this path will result in a lasting force that will eventually propel you onward toward the ultimate goal. With earnest effort over many years you will find yourself purged of your karma and free to realize your oneness with God. That purified soul rises above all the mere practitioners when he or she continues to worship constantly with sincere belief and finally achieves union with God.

Those who believe in reincarnation are taught that anyone who strives to achieve union with God by living a virtuous life but fails to reach the ultimate goal will go to heaven and stay there for a long time before returning to earth. When that person is reborn it will be into a good and prosperous home where he or she will be encouraged to continue the quest for God realization.  If you practice long and hard enough you might be lucky enough to be born into a family of already enlightened parents, but that is rare and hard to obtain. That fortunate person will recall his or her former wisdom and be in an environment that will encourage even more earnest efforts than before.

Nothing bad comes from following a spiritual path

So what happens if you decide to follow this spiritual path, that you decide all the ego gratification and indulging yourself in sensual satisfaction really is no good, and you give it all up to practice the things that lead to union with God, but you find out you can’t do it?  What if you either quit practicing after a while or realize that you can’t control your mind and emotions well enough to make it to the ultimate goal?  Won’t you find yourself lost to both worldly pleasures and the promise of bliss with God? What then? Do you just perish like a cloud dissolved by the wind? Will you find yourself disillusioned by the quest for God and alone without support for either way of life, riddled with doubt? Rest assured that anyone who sincerely tried to apply these principles will not suffer a negative outcome. Whether in this world or the next, anyone who tries to do good and be good will not come to an evil end.

All this is hard and seemingly unnatural, but it can be done

All those great things like bliss and peace of mind are wonderful for those who have achieved union with God, but for the average person it seems impossible to get there. If even-mindedness under all circumstances is what it takes, most people would say that it can’t be done. The mind is restless by nature and is as hard to control as the wind. Indeed the undisciplined mind is restless and hard to control at first, but by steadily practicing meditation and non-attachment it can be done. In fact, if you persist in applying the proper methods and earnestly try to remain self-controlled, little by little you will undoubtedly succeed.

Once aware of your oneness with God, you are never separated

Whether in a human body or merged with the eternal Spirit after death, once united with God no one is ever separated.  Anyone who perceives God everywhere and sees that everything is a part of God will never be separated from that Holy Spirit again. That person feels the pleasure or grief of others as if it were his or her own.

God is everywhere and within everyone

The practice of meditation consists of withdrawing one’s consciousness from its attention to the senses and their contact with the things that stimulate them.  With patience, little by little, the mind becomes one-pointed and tranquil.  Then you can completely let go of any desires and expectations so you can identify with your inner soul-self. Whenever your mind wanders away, simply bring it back to rest in that calm identification with your true self. Anyone who masters this will be able to quell all passions and become united with God.  All sins fall away and one experiences the greatest joy.  That person sees the same image of God within everyone and everyone becomes a part of oneself.  God is everywhere and within everyone.

A description of union with God and how to get there

When your mind is completely under control and you turn it inward, devoid of attachment to any desire, towards the image of God within, your individual “self” beholds your true soul-self and it becomes satisfied.  That well-trained mind becomes as steady as a candle flame in a windless place.  Once your mind becomes fixed in that state, you will have achieved union with God.

            There is nothing else to achieve for yourself when you become completely established in that state of union.  You will be immune from even the worst possible grief. Nothing can upset you.  You will have awakened an intuitive intelligence about reality and you will experience an immeasurable bliss that far transcends any pleasure of the senses. You will have discovered the treasure of all treasures and you will never slip from that state again.  This pain-free state is achieved by resolutely practicing meditation and selfless service. Therefore, be determined and practice with a brave heart.

A moderate lifestyle helps with meditation and selfless service

If you want your attempts to reflect God’s attributes in your own life to be successful you should also regulate your lifestyle. Do not eat too much or too little. Do not sleep too much or too little. Do not be too lazy or over-exert yourself. Avoid extremes in everything you do. Combine that with the practice of meditation and selfless service and you will find that it will eliminate all your pain and suffering in this world.

The basics of meditation

These are the basic instructions for practicing meditation: find a clean place to lay out a mat or something to protect yourself from the ground. Put a blanket or towel over the mat and sit on a cushion that isn’t so high that you are unstable or so low that you are uncomfortable. Sit with your body, neck and head all in a straight line.  Don’t look around or let your mind wander. Instead, focus on a point between the eyebrows and concentrate on one thing only.  Be serene and fearless. Your mind and body will gradually calm down. Sit thusly, firm in the vow to ignore the body and its sensations. Meditate with the intent to identify your consciousness with the image of God within. If you have the self-discipline to practice this steadily for a long enough period of time you will naturally attain a state of serenity and peace which will allow you to perfectly reflect the image of God within you.

A spiritual seeker should persevere with meditation in solitude until he or she masters the mind and body and should constantly strive to identify with the soul. That person will eventually be free from the endless effort to satisfy the senses and obtain possessions.

Enduring the pairs of opposites with an even mind

That person who has completely identified him or herself with the image of God within becomes tranquil and content with understanding the wisdom that comes from seeing things the way they really are. The spiritual seeker who is absorbed in that truth, who has firmly established his or her identification with the soul and who has conquered the senses will be unaffected by heat or cold, pleasure or pain, praise or blame. He or she is not disturbed by anything and looks with equal regard on a clod of soil, a stone or a nugget of gold.  That person has equal regard for everyone whether they be a family or strangers, friends or enemies, neutral acquaintances or hateful people, saints or sinners.

An uncontrolled mind is your enemy

You can decide to be your own friend or your own enemy. A person can rise up through the efforts of the mind or similarly be cast downward. As you gain control over your thoughts and feelings through the help of meditation and forsaking your ego, your mind becomes your friend. An uncontrolled mind becomes your enemy.

You cannot really be seeking to reflect the image of God within you if you have not renounced selfish motives and personal desires.  Selfless service to everyone around you is the way to attain union with God.  When you overcome both attachment to fulfilling your sensual desires and to the desire to have your actions yield the results that you want, you will be completely identified with the image of God.  True serenity is the state of mind that results.

Real freedom and supreme peace

When you become perfect in the practice of both non-attachment and meditation things like longing for sensual pleasures, anger and fear naturally drop away and you will realize you are really one with God by virtue of having His image within you. With your mind and body calm and controlled, you will experience real freedom.  You will then understand that these attributes of self-sacrifice and self-discipline are really attributes of God and you will have undoubtedly reached a state of supreme peace

Find joy from within and delight in the welfare of all

When one becomes identified with the image of God within, a person can understand the true nature of reality and therefore has no delusions and can act without having any doubts.  That person who has realized God is not excited by pleasure nor do they suffer from unpleasant circumstances.  He or she is wise enough to remain unaffected by temporary conditions that always come and go.  That attitude combined with persistent meditation yields a state of uninterrupted joy.  That person finds his or her joy solely from within and can then delight in the welfare of all beings.  If you can accomplish this while still in your human body, you are destined for happiness.

Ignore petty differences and see everyone as the same

Those who continuously identify with their true soul-self rather than their ego and its attachment to the body will eventually merge with God and any remaining flaws will then be destroyed.  When that happens, people will call that person enlightened and the darkness of ignorance that misleads all people will be replaced by the light of true knowledge about reality.  Those who reach that state can then see that the image of God within is the same in a humble student, a cow, a dog or in someone who eats cows and dogs.  When you become firmly established in your identity as the reflection of God’s image, you rise above all the petty differences in the world and are unaffected by its constant change.

A little summary

Anyone who meditates with a mind made pure by selfless service to others will soon realize his or her own oneness with God.  When your thoughts are pure and your mind is well-disciplined, the relentless urge to satisfy your senses dies down and you realize that your true self is the image of God within.  By completely identifying with that part of yourself you will no longer be subject to the consequences of your actions even though you keep acting in the world as usual.

All paths lead to the same goal

Ultimately, whichever path one takes to know God, everyone ends up in the same place.  You might have different experiences along the way, but when you get to the end result, union with God, you will all have the same experience.  Regardless of the path, getting to that final state is very hard without performing selfless actions, because the impact that neither hating nor desiring anything just for yourself has on your way of thinking purifies your mind and leads to that state of absolute freedom.

Because they do not understand the real way the world works, some people will sincerely not believe the truth in these teachings.  They will remain skeptical and destined to suffer unhappiness now and in the future.  But those who have an open mind and sincerely devote themselves to taking control over their slavery to their senses will come to understand this wisdom and take it to heart, which will in turn lead to the realization of profound inner peace. When you fully understand this truth, you will never be confused again.  Even if you have been the worst of sinners, the fire of this wisdom will reduce your evil nature to ashes.  You will then begin to dedicate all your work to the selfless service of others and all your doubts will be destroyed.  At that point, you are poised to know your true soul-self.

The real meaning of sacrifice

In ancient times, people sought to please God and atone for their sins by sacrificing various material objects into fire in a formal ceremony. Even then the wise amongst them knew that a true devotee who wants to purely reflect the image of God within must sacrifice their very ego and its attachment to “me” and “mine.”  They will have to sacrifice their slavery to fulfilling their sensual desires and show self-restraint.  They sacrifice their wealth to benefit the poor or, lacking wealth, they offer their knowledge and wisdom to benefit those around them (which is even better than money that can be spent and will be gone). All those who act in that way know it is that kind of sacrifice which destroys their sinful behavior.  Those who sacrifice themselves, each according to his or her own ability, will reach God and become free.  If you find such people, honor them, question them, serve them and seek your own enlightenment from them.  Be open to receiving their teaching.

Freedom and contentment

Thus, the sages of ancient times discovered that a wise person who understands the nature of reality does thing without personal desire.  Because the wise have relinquished their attachment to having things turn out the way they selfishly want them to, they are always contented with the results and are not dependent on anyone or anything to make them happy.  Though he or she appears to be acting in the world like everyone else, the wise do not do anything that binds them to any particular result.  With control over their mind and ego, not considering any possession to be their own, those men and women of wisdom are free from the effects of their actions even when their bodies are acting according to the forces of nature.

The inaction in action and the action in inaction

You will not be disturbed by the effects of your actions when you receive those results, whatever they are, with contentment.  Whatever the result, when you look upon the fruits of your actions from a vantage point above the turmoil of selfishness, jealousy and envy and you learn to accept both gain and loss with a calm mind, you will be free.  A wise person who understands this truth will perform all of his or her actions for the benefit of others and thus has no claim to the results anyway.  This is known as “the inaction in action.”  And when this same wise person sits unmoving in meditation, turning the mind inward toward the soul, this is known as “the action in inaction.”  That person is on the way toward union with God, which is the ultimate goal of all our actions and makes us truly free.

Because we all have to act in this world, the real task becomes learning how to distinguish between right actions, wrong actions and when inaction is the right thing to do.  All the results of our actions are nearly impossible to predict.  Therefore, the only way to avoid any negative consequences of your action is to avoid letting yourself become attached to the fruits of that action.  The way to do that is to be constantly identified with your inner soul-self that has the same attributes that God has.  The sages of ancient times realized that this was the way to perform all your actions in this world because it frees you from the pain and suffering that accompanies them.  Like those sages, you should act that way, too.

No matter what you want to achieve, understanding the laws that God put in place and acting accordingly will help you reach your goals.  Owing to individual natural tendencies, different people will live out their lives in different ways.  Some will aspire to very little, only being motivated by the desire for physical pleasure.  Others will want material success and worldly power.  Still others will have a philosophical or religious inclination and will seek God for the reward they get in this life and the next.   Then there are the rare few who seek God for the purpose of realizing their own true soul nature.  Regardless of the goal, success is only achieved in this world by applying the proper actions to reach that goal.  Wishing and praying for it without acting will get you nothing.

However you seek God, He responds in kind

Those who believe in reincarnation are taught that they can escape the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth by becoming united with God directly.  This union with God can be accomplished by practicing self-discipline to learn control of the senses, by being free of attachment to fulfilling desires, by disengaging from fear and anger, and by taking refuge in the inner peace which results from doing so.  But, not everyone is born into a family or a culture that teaches reincarnation and the ability to unite directly with God.  Because of the differences in religious and individual beliefs within those religions, people use many paths to find God.  In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna reassures everyone that however people sincerely call on God, He responds to them in the way they worship Him.

Ch4 - Yoga of Discriminating Wisdom

            By sitting next to the wisdom of the holy Bhagavad Gita and listening to the discourse between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, which is the scripture of yoga and the science of God realization, thus begins the fourth chapter called Jnana Yoga, union with God through the wisdom to discriminate between reality and the illusion caused by the created world. (OOPS – I let some Hindu religion slip in, but it’s just for some context about what is to follow.)
            The knowledge of how to identify with your true inner self rather than ego-driven desire is said to have come directly from God.  But whatever the source, its wisdom has literally been passed down directly from teacher to student for thousands of years.  The truth in this wisdom is eternal, even when the elements of nature make it appear to be just a delusion.  The result is that this wisdom has been of supreme benefit to humankind.
           Luckily for humankind, when righteousness seems to be in decline and vice predominates, someone always comes along to remind us that there is virtue in this world and there is a reason to be good and do good.

Eliminate your problems with wisdom-guided intuition

Our indulgence in sensual pleasures allows the senses to become dominant over the body.  Therefore your mind, with its ability to exert control over your sensual indulgences, is stronger than your senses.  But the mind itself is restless and seeks out ever-new experiences.  So, your ability to wisely choose what is in your own best interest can potentially be stronger than your mind.  The image of God within you, which is your true self, is the source of the wisdom to discriminate between what your intellectual thinking tells you and what wisdom says is really right for you.  Knowing that your true soul-self is the source of your discriminating wisdom and by constantly identifying with it instead of your ego, you can utterly annihilate the source of your problems in this world.

Just like a fire can be obscured by the smoke it makes or a mirror’s reflection can be covered by dust, so your inner wisdom and true soul-self are covered by your desires.  Our restless minds and insatiable senses are at the heart of those desires.  That desire is what clouds our judgment and leads us to do thing we know are not in our own best interest.

The Gita's answer to Paul's question in Romans 7:15

At some point every spiritual seeker wonders what makes us do things we know are not good for us, even when we sincerely want to do otherwise.  What compels us to sin as if by the force of nature even when we realize that doing the right thing would yield a far better result? It is our restless nature that leads to our desires and that unrelenting unappeasable craving for something new, different, more or better as well as our anger which is the product of our unfulfilled desires.  That is the enemy.  So, the first step is to recognize desire as the sinful one, not you.  Control the thoughts of your restless mind and your attachment to having your senses satisfied and you will destroy those desires and realize your true inner soul-self as being the real “you.”

A famous passage from the Gita

It is not beneficial to try to force yourself to suppress your natural tendencies.  It is far better to follow your innate calling, however imperfectly than it is to try to live the way someone else thinks you should.  Even if following someone else’s way of life would lead to more accomplishments, in the end, at the moment of death, it will be better to die having lived your own life rather than someone else’s.

Non-attachment doesn't mean you don't enjoy life

Even someone who realizes the wisdom of remaining unattached will follow his or her own natural tendencies, just like anyone else.  It is natural to be attracted to pleasure and avoid pain.  Being non-attached does not mean that you don’t enjoy the pleasure that comes your way or that you don’t act to reduce the unpleasant aspects of your life. Just don’t let yourself become dominated by their influence.  If you remain unattached you will be free from disappointment when pleasure inevitably fades and just as free from any negative impact that the equally inevitable presence of discomfort brings.  Those who don’t live by these teachings are left to suffer their own fate. They don’t understand the true nature of the reality that surrounds them.

"You" shouldn't take credit for what you do, or blame yourself for what you can't do

If you dedicate all your efforts to benefiting those around you, without egotism and expectations, free from worry, your mind can rest peacefully and it will identify with the image of God within.  When the mind is deluded by the ego a person thinks “I am the one responsible for doing that!”  The truth is, your actions are completely a function of your God-given qualities combined with the influence of your upbringing, the society around you and the era in which you live.  You haven’t done anything other than what your talent allows and what you have been taught by others.  A person who realizes this can easily remain unattached to whatever the natural outcome of his or her actions are. But a person of realization should not try to convince someone who is still deluded by their attachment to their physical body of this fact.  It will only bewilder them.   Those who are still identified with satisfying their senses (which are subject to natural fluctuations) cling to the results of their activities for their happiness. They are doomed to suffer.

Wise people are a role model for the rest of us

Even when you reach the state of mind where you feel like you have nothing to gain or lose by your actions, you must continue to do what you have to do with integrity.  Whatever a great person does will be copied by others and used as a standard for their own behavior.  Always do what you have to do without attachment because if you were to cease to act others would follow your example. An enlightened person does everything with the same zeal that an unenlightened person does but he or she does so without attachment, thus serving as a role model for others.  A wise person will not disturb the mind of those who are still attached to the fruits of their actions, but by continuously performing their own actions skillfully, without attachment, the wise person influences and inspires all those nearby.

Don't depend on external circumstances for your happiness

Anyone who chooses to live life attached to the pleasure or pain of the mind and body lives in vain.  The person who truly identifies with the image of God within, who is fully satisfied with doing the right things for its own sake, that person will have nothing else to do to become satisfied.  He or she is not disappointed with the lack of personal gain nor does that person fail to act because of the fear of losing something.  That person is not dependent on anyone or anything for their satisfaction.

Becoming free from your karma

Actions that you perform with attachment to getting the results you want are bound to have further implications in your life.  Any selfless act done without attachment will free you from the effects it can have later on.  By sacrificing the desire to have the results of your actions benefit yourself, you will find that you get everything you want out of the experience itself.  Whoever takes the rewards for their actions without giving anything back is like a thief.  Anyone who acts only for selfish gain creates the same things sins do in their life.

Don't our desires motivate us to do everything?

When starting on the spiritual path, it is difficult to understand how one can live life without attachment to desires or how to lose identification with one’s individual ego. After all, our desires drive us to do everything and we do it to benefit ourselves personally, either to fulfill an inner need or to improve our physical circumstances.  It’s natural to seek pleasure and avoid pain.  Won’t giving these things up just make us stop wanting to do anything?

            You cannot avoid acting in this world.   If you really could become actionless you wouldn’t be able to maintain your body.  The truth is, no one is free from some kind of action for a single moment.  Even if you could control your physical body and cease to move, your mind would soon compel you into action.  You are deluding yourself if you think that the way to God realization is to separate yourself from involvement in the activities of the world.  No one reaches the ultimate goal of union with God by forsaking all actions.  You must learn to let go of your attachments and act, not for your own sake, but for the benefit of those around you.

The state known as "being established in God"

True inner peace can be experienced by anyone who is free from all craving and who gives up all identification with his or her personal ego and its notion of “me” and “mine.”  The realization of this state is known as “being established in God” because one is completely identified with the image of God within.  When a person becomes completely identified with that real inner self, there are no longer any questions about what is true and correct.  That person cannot be deluded because he or she intuitively knows the truth.  At the moment of physical death, that person attains the final permanent state of union with God.

When your mind is poised and withdraws itself from the fluctuations that come from attachment to your desires as well as the pleasure and pain of your physical body, you will obtain the wisdom to discriminate between reality and illusion.  When someone has that discriminating wisdom, things that seem important to most people will not matter as much and the things that don’t matter to the average person become valuable.

Peace of mind

If you learn to remain detached from the fluctuations that impact your mind and body you will attain an unshakable inner calmness.  When you become firmly established in that calmness, all grief and sorrow falls away.  The bliss of the soul can then emerge.  The mind that is blown here and there by every wind of change cannot experience that tranquility and will have no peace.  And without peace of mind, how can anyone be happy?

How desires lead to anger which causes faulty thinking

Attachment to having the things you want, getting your way or having pleasurable experiences will just breed a craving for them.  When your cravings are not satisfied you become angry and frustrated.  Anger confuses your thinking process.  When your thinking is confused, it alters the way you remember the events going on around you.  When you remember things incorrectly, it will change the way you reason because you will be basing your judgment on faulty information.  When your reasoning is faulty you are doomed to make the wrong decision.  All this comes from indulging yourself in sensual pleasures instead of learning to control your mind.  Meditation will help with this.

The secret to overcoming attachment

If you allow yourself to become excited by the things that happen to you, you will lose your better judgment, even if you are really striving for enlightenment.  If you dwell on thoughts of doing things that are pleasurable to your mind and body, you will just amplify your attachment to whether you get them or not.  If you abstain from things that over-stimulate your mind and body, they will be physically absent but the longing for them will still remain.  But the spiritual seeker who learns to control his or her senses through meditation will be free from even the longing for them.

How can you recognize this inner wisdom as being true and correct?  How does someone act when they are firmly centered in that wisdom?  A person who is undisturbed by difficulties because they have let go of their personal desires is anchored in this steady wisdom.  This wise person is free of mental attachments to the temporary circumstances of this world and thus does not suffer anxiety when things are difficult.  He or she is free from fear and anger.  Whoever is free of attachment is not overly excited when good things happen nor dejected when things go badly, that person is wise, indeed.

Learn to meditate

People will have differing opinions about what is right and wrong.  When you become confused by conflicting opinions, still your mind and turn it inward towards the image of God within you.  Focusing on that will lead you beyond intellectual reasoning and allow your innate wisdom to come through.  Therefore, by all means, learn to meditate so you can contact the source of that wisdom.

Just because you have given up your attachment to how things turn out, it is not an excuse to stop trying your best and bringing every effort to bear to get the best results.  You actions still have to be just like those who seek to have their desires fulfilled.  It is your mental attitude and your motivation that is different. Do the work that comes your way to the best of your abilities, then let go of the fruits of those actions.  It is your duty to fulfill your role in this drama of life.

The kind of even-mindedness that allows you to express the image of God within you comes from casting aside the desire to have things turn out the way you want them to, getting your way all the time and getting everything you want materially. Therefore, devote yourself to learning how to release your attachment to the fulfillment of your desires.  Act purely for the sake of doing good and you will undoubtedly find yourself beyond all sorrows.

So, always do the best you can and let the results take care of themselves.  Don’t consider yourself to be responsible for things turning out good and don’t blame yourself if they turn out badly.  The first will lead to pride and the latter to apathy.

A mini summary of Ch 1 provided by the Gita

The world’s scriptures are like a well of spiritual knowledge that provides life-giving water to the ignorant.  Those who have no direct experience of applying their spiritual truths are content to hear flowery discourses on the scriptures and focus on the rituals of the church, which they believe will bring them the life they desire.  Focused on heaven as their reward, these deluded people keep their minds full of desires and remain deeply attached to the pleasures and power of this world. They cannot keep their thoughts fixed one-pointedly on God nor can they keep their minds balanced and centered on the reflection of the divine within, which is the true self. Their joy and satisfaction comes and goes with every experience of pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat.  Those who are happy only when the results of their efforts turn out like they want them to are bound to be disappointed. The spiritually wise are free from the interplay of power, lust and greed that dominates the world.  Ever calm and not thinking about being rewarded for their efforts or getting and keeping material things, the wise keep their attention fixed on the divine within.  Those who do the right thing for its own sake do not care if their efforts turn out the way the wanted them to because they know they did the right thing anyway.  When you do everything centered in that equanimity, renouncing all attachments, you will enjoy an undisturbed mind and it will lead to union with God. Those who have already achieved that union with God and who are living a divine life have an intuitive understanding of God’s will that makes the scriptures about as useful as a well that is located right next to a flowing river of pure water.  The written scriptures then become something they can use to confirm their own spiritual experiences.

When you have the resolve to behave properly and really believe that it will lead to a better life, you will always know what to do in any situation. There will only be one decision that is consistent with your values.  For people who lack this, the choices they think they have lead to endless confusion and a lack of one-pointed clarity.

If you believe in sin and God’s judgment, living a righteous life will earn you a place in the kingdom of heaven.  If you don’t believe, you will still enjoy the best possible life on earth.  Resolve to do good and be good no matter how hard it is or how imperfectly you do it.  Remember that no effort at putting this wisdom into practice will go to waste.  There are no adverse effects from doing the right thing.  Even a little effort to avoid doing things that are considered “sins” will prevent a lot of suffering in your life.

Again, even if you don’t believe you have a duty to yourself and to God to do the right things, whether you believe in sin and God’s judgment or not, you will benefit from righteous behavior.  If you disregard doing the right thing for its own sake, people will constantly disrespect you.  For someone who believes that this world and their ego is all there is, disrespect is worse than death because it leads to a miserable life.  Those who think highly of you will eventually see you for who you are and abandon you.  Good people will avoid you and you will make enemies who will slander you.  No one will want to come to your aid and you will continually have to take advantage of those who don’t know you to get what you want.  Therefore, you should strive to live a righteous life whether you believe in God or not.

Since there will always be difficulties to overcome, both pleasurable and painful experiences, material gains and losses, victories and defeats, if you can see both as two sides of the same coin and do your best, not for the sake of reward, but just for the sake of doing the right thing, you will spare yourself a lot of mental and emotional agony.

Even if you don’t believe in God or the image of God within, there is no reason to lament the things of this world.  Everyone who is born will undoubtedly die and everything you have done and everything that has happened to you will eventually be forgotten.  You should not mourn things that are inevitably inconsequential.  But we live in the world here and now so it is our duty to fight on and do our best.

While the things we experience through the body are temporary and will inevitably die just as the flesh dies, that part of you that is the image of God is not killed when the body dies. If you really understand that you are eternal, essentially indestructible, you will also understand that nothing can touch you and there is no reason to worry, get upset or grieve about what happens in this world.  Furthermore, you will find no reason to waiver in your resolve to do good things, since it is inevitable that there will be difficulties and equally inevitable that they will pass away.  Your indwelling spirit is invulnerable to the vicissitudes of life.

The way to avoid the despondency that comes with unpleasant circumstances is to patiently endure the experience with a calm mind, knowing that it is temporary and will come and go like any other experience, whether pleasurable or painful.  If you are not tossed about by these unpleasant sensations, you will find an inner peace and contentment that few realize in this world.

Sometimes it will seem like it is better to give up, give in and let your natural tendencies win.  You might not be able to figure out what the right thing to do really is.  When we struggle with anything we are trying to do it can leave us despondent and longing for an easy way out.  It is then that you have to shake off your perceived weakness and remember that you have a spark of the divine within you that has no weakness.   Your sorrow is sheer delusion with no more substance than you allow it to have.

Initially it might not seem worth it to give up the things you love for the sake of doing good and being good.  Learning how to behave properly is difficult and can often be discouraging, especially at the beginning.  But over time, the life that emerges from it is so much better, you will not regret what you had to let go of.

Ch. 1

When you are trying to live a better life, do good in the world, be a better person to people in general and a better partner in life to those closest to you, it becomes apparent that your parents, friends, relatives, teachers and your natural tendencies have all combined to contribute to both the good and the bad in your life.  Changing your life for the better means giving up some of those cherished relationships, attitudes and beliefs in favor of more beneficial ones.

A few notes about this blog

For those who do not know about the Bhagavad Gita:
Gita means "song" and bhagavad refers to "God", so it means "The Song of God."  It is sometimes called the Hindu Bible.
The Bhagavad Gita, often referred to as just the Gita, is a poem.  It is the last part of an epic poem that tells the story of a great king in India who gave birth to two sons who started separate lineages of their own and eventually became at odds with each other and started the biggest war in India's history. It is at the beginning of the war that the Bhagavad Gita's protagonist, Arjuna, who knows family, friends, teachers and acquaintances on both sides becomes conflicted about fighting, lamenting that there can be no good victory no matter which side wins.  This conflict is a metaphor for the internal struggle that a spiritual seeker faces when beginning the spiritual path.  Not knowing the real end result of the spiritual path, a new seeker finds it hard to leave behind the familiar things of his or her old way of life.  Arjuna, with the help of Lord Krishna, resolves this conflict by learning the truth about his real inner nature, getting a brief vision of God in all forms and finding out how to reach the ultimate goal of identifying with the image of God within himself.

For those who do know about the Bhagavad Gita:
This is just my loose interpretation of its meaning.  I have tried to downplay the religiosity of the Hindu perspective and minimized many of the absolute statements about the nature of God and the soul in favor of a broader, more universally applicable view.  It is the philosophy that I have tried to capture and it is that philosophy that I have found so beneficial in my own life.