In life, if you ask what comes first, knowledge or love, I would say it is love

that comes first. But then knowledge follows and where does it culminate? It
culminates back into love. So in the Vishwa Rupa Darshana, seeing this whole
universe as part of oneself, that is ultimate knowledge, seeing everything in terms
of oneself, is now culminating into Bhakti Yoga or devotion or love.

The knowledge that doesn't turn into love is incomplete. The more you know
something, you really fall in love with that. You have to.

Only then it means that you know it. Knowing the self is falling in love with the
self. Knowing anyone, you fall in love with them.

There are many movies about the criminals and people who have fallen in love with
criminals. They come to know about the criminal and they find that inside of a
criminal also there is a good person. It's the circumstances that make them the way
they are.

But deep inside them, they find that innocent child. I would say inside every
culprit there is a victim hiding. And inside every victim there is a child that is
hiding.

You surpass the layer of culprit and then the victim. You'll see the pure being
which is there to play its role. An innocent being, most lovable being.

So knowledge has to culminate in love to find its fulfillment, to find its

fullness. And that's exactly what happened to Arjuna after he saw the glorious form
through his eye of yoga. The special vision.

You know the way scientists see the universe is different from a layman who sees
the universe. To a scientist, the whole universe is atoms, molecules, just
vibrations, wave functions. From a scientist's vision, the world appears energy and
matter.

And such special eye was gifted to Arjuna by Lord Shri Krishna to see the universe
all in terms of himself, beyond time and space. But that knowledge he could not
hold for too long. He says, no I want to come back to my simple self.

And so you show me your simple form. He pleads. I don't want to be the quantum
mechanics anymore.

I want to be in the classical chemistry. I want to see you as a normal human being
like my friend that I always knew. I want to sit with you, talk to you, interact
with you like a human being.

Don't show me this so scary aspect of yours. It's magnificent yet scary. It's so
astounding yet unpalatable.

Don't show me that. I want now to see the most pleasant, friendly, normal, human
form of yours. And so Krishna agreed.

Okay. Now what this has created? A sense of awe. Sense of awe is the foundation for
both yoga and devotion.

While a sense of awe takes you to yoga, devotion leaves you in a sense of wow.
Small things appear very charming. Insignificant appears as something great.

Something irresistible. Something more beautiful.

This is the nature of love.

You would see when grandmothers and grandfathers fall in love with their
grandchildren. They are in love with their grandchildren. They start describing, oh
you know he put his thumb in the mouth like that and then showed me yours.

Something. Small things which others may find it silly but when you are in love
that appears to be something magical, mystical. So Arjuna was left in a state of
wow through knowledge.

Now knowledge as I said is incomplete unless it culminates into bhakti. So now the
bhakti yoga begins,

arjuna uvāca
evaṁ satata-yuktā ye
bhaktās tvāṁ paryupāsate
ye cāpy akṣaram avyaktaṁ
teṣāṁ ke yoga-vittamāḥ
śrī bhagavān uvāca
mayy āveśya mano ye māṁ
nitya-yuktā upāsate
śraddhayā parayopetās
te me yuktatamā matāḥ

The first person, second person, third person. First he said take refuge into that
which is in the heart of everybody. The Lord, the Ishwara is in the heart of
everyone and he's making the whole world go around.

Take refuge in him he says. And then many times he says come on take refuge in me.
First person.

From third person to first person could be very confusing. In the second chapter he
tells you are the self. Though you hear such words it doesn't really mean anything
to you because when you are in misery, when you are so attached to things around
you, someone says you are God.

It doesn't make any sense, doesn't even enter into your mind. When Krishna is
saying he, for Arjuna the third person is also a little difficult to comprehend.
And the first person is even difficult to say I am.

Take refuge in me. So as usual Arjuna very confused. Asks me now what is better? To
worship the unmanifest which is not seen anywhere? God, Brahman or different things
what people say.

Do I worship that? And if people worship what will happen to them? Or should I
think you are God and should I worship you? Which is the right thing to do? There
are two type of people. One who worship see God in all the creation. The tree is
worshipped as Ashwat Narayan, people tree.

Cows are considered sacred. Mountains are worshipped as sacred. This is in all the
aboriginal religions of world.

Aboriginal people worship the rivers, mountains, Sun, Moon. These are all manifest
form of the same divinity. Guru, Gods.

Adoring all these manifest forms some people experience devotion. And some others
see the unmanifest God who has no form, no location which is beyond the
comprehension of all the five senses as a concept in the mind of universal
somebody, universal being somewhere out there maybe in the heaven. Which is the
right thing to do? Who is better? Who would experience the deep love? Then Lord
Krishna says, One who has put his mind into me, with faith, unshakable faith, I
think he is better.

Says because he has something solid in front of him. It's something that he can
hold on to because see love needs a support, an Aadhaar. You can love a person, to
be in love with the space is very difficult, empty space.

So the best Yogi, the best Bhakta is one who has steadfast faith in me. Put the
whole mind in me. Mayy Aaveshya Manoyema Nitya Yukta Upasate.

Upasate means who comes near, sits near, understand. See when there is a distance
there is always chance for miscommunication, misunderstanding. And the distance is
from your own mind not from others.

If you feel distant from someone, whether Guru, God, it is not God's or Guru's
mistake. It's your own fault because you are not mentally not doing Upasana.
Upasana means what? Sitting close, coming close.

It's only one-sided. Usually say love is two-sided. No, here it's only one-sided.

From your side you feel close, that's it, period. There are no words to explain
that. It doesn't matter what the response from the other side.

Upasana means from your side you go sit close, feel close. And that's it, you don't
question whether I am close or not. Mayy Aaveshya Manoyema Nitya Yukta Upasate.

Nitya Yukta means what? Every day united, every moment united. You may feel that
unity all the time. Shraddhaya and having faith.

Because faith is something that can get shaken. In spite of being shaken, doesn't
disappear, stays stronger is real faith. The faith that disappears by a little
shaking is no faith at all.

Shraddhaya Pariyopita, steadfast. You know when you put a, when you build a
building, then you have the load testing. Engineers go and put a process called
load testing.

Does this roof can take the load? They put a lot of weight on that, dead weight and
dead load and see whether this building is strong enough or not. In olden days when
they put the tambus, these pendals, when they put the poles, they would hold the
pole and shake the pole, see whether the pole is shaking or not. It's strong enough
to hold the roof or not.

Life poses many situations where your faith could be shaken. Faith in yourself,
faith in the divine and faith in the goodness of people around. Three type of
faith.

All three could be shaken. When they get shaken, do you lose it? Do you slip into
depression? Then there's no faith at all. In spite of being shaken, the faith
continues to grow stronger, then that's the right track.

Then you are in the right track. The mind is in the right track. That's mayya
avesya manoyema.

The mind with, with your mind immersed in me, connected with me, synchronizing with
me. When your mind is in sync with the universal mind, the divinity, then
everything's flow. That's what your intuition is all about.
It never fails. Nitya yukta upasate, shraddhaya parayo petas, temi yukta tamamata.
That person is one who's really connected.

I feel he's better. Here comes the other side of the story. There are those who
worship God as unseen, un-invisible, imperishable.

God has three qualities. Omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Correct? God is

omniscient.

He knows everything. Individuals cannot know everything. God knows everything.

Omniscient. If he is everywhere, then he can't be in one location. So he is

everywhere.

Omniscient, present, omnipotent, all-powerful. These are the three main definitions
of God. Yes.

Those who worship this unmanifest, all-pervading, all-powerful divinity, again with
faith, restraining their senses. This is very important. When you have no desire to
see, hear, or communicate through your senses, you're restraining your senses and
getting into deep silence, deep meditation.

You know, people say, I had conversation with God. The unmanifest God is
everywhere. How can he even converse with you? Then you must be different from him.

If you're two, then it is not God. It's your own mind which is conversing with you.
If God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, why would he need to communicate
with you? And who are you? You're not different from him.

Correct? You are that. So here, those who really adore the unmanifest divinity,
there is no words and there is nothing you need to see or hear. You restrain all
your senses.

You don't want to touch, taste, smell, or see even. Then you go in a deep state of
samadhi meditation. And Lord Krishna says, when you go to that space of fullness or
nothingness, you still come to me only because I am that.

I'm not the body. I am the imperishable being. So when you restrain your senses and
go deep in meditation, whom do you connect? You connect to that which is nothing
but me.

So they also come to me. And what do they do? They are doing. It's very interesting
here and very important to note.

You are not just going into samadhi and retrieving with the senses. You are also
engaged in working for the welfare of all the beings. Not just my community, my
religion, my people, my state, or my nationality.

It is one who is working for the welfare of all the beings ceaselessly and
restraining the senses and connecting with that eternal emptiness or fullness deep
inside me, restraining the senses. He also attains to me. He also reaches me.

So one is just doing a service, but another is doing the service and really
rejoicing. Sarva bhuta hitherata. Not what what people like, but what is good for
them.

You see what I'm saying? We should make a distinction of this. Hitha, that which is
good, or Ishta, that which one likes. Someone likes something and you know you
think it is service because they like it.
No. You have to see whether they may like something, but is it good for them? Now
again who would decide what is good for anybody? I would say it is common sense.
Not any religious doctrine.

It is just common sense. One who is in service of all beings, willingly, not with
an idea that I will get something doing this service. No.

Or making service as your currency to gain some higher pleasure in the heaven. Many
people do service so that they can, when they go to heaven, they get proper seat
and proper accommodation up there. One lady told me, elderly lady in America, I
have done all this service, hope I get a better accommodation when I go to heaven,

but I'm not used to sleeping in new places.

Will I be okay? This was her question. I said don't worry, you relax. You'll feel
at home there.

There are people take care of you. Not doing service for some brownie points or to
get some benefit out there in the heaven or to get some name here in the society.
No.

You simply do it because you can but do it and you rejoice doing it. Such people
attain to me only, he says. People who worship the unmanifest or in love with the
unmanifest have a lot of difficulties, especially those who are body conscious, who
want something in this world, who want to have a normal life, who finds it
difficult to restrain all the senses and be inward, who are more body bound.

For such people, it is very difficult to be in love with the unmanifest and that
path of unmanifest devotion is filled with misery,

filled with difficulties. Though it is good, it's path, it's not saying that you
don't reach, you do reach, but you reach after a lot of difficulties. There are a
lot of hurdles that would come on the way.

This path, this way of the unmanifest is filled with sorrow, filled with misery. We
find this strikingly in the world. See those religions in the world where people
are worshipping God in the unmanifest form.

The history is full of bloodshed, misery, problem. What happened to the Jews in the
world? A lot of misery. Even today, see in the Islamic world, even the life of
Prophet Muhammad, filled with so much sorrow, so much struggle, it was not an easy
journey for him.

It was not a journey where dance and music were there, celebration were there. It
was a journey of hardship. Same with Moses.

Same with the Sikh religion. Same with the Arya Samajis of the Hindu. Same with
Taoist and Shintoism.

While Buddhism didn't have to face that hardship. Why? They had Lord Buddha. That
was the form.

We should see here, it is not that that path is bad. No, he is not saying you
should not walk that path of unmanifest. He says, but if you are body conscious, if
you are body bound, this path of unmanifest worship is difficult and is filled with
sorrow.

You will have to go through that, but then finally you will definitely reach the
same goal, reach me there. Now, he is talking about the technique here, how to do
it now. How do I worship you? Do I worship you means do I come with the Aarti plate
and keep doing Aarti to you? How do you do that? He says, One who let go of all
karmas, all actions, past, present, future, every type of karma.

My sanyasya, letting it go, offering that to me and being centered. You can get
centered only when you let go of all the karmas. If you are hanging on to this,
this is my karma, then you are not getting centered.

The moment you are centered, you are in deep bhakti, that is bhakti. Or bhakti is
that which takes you away from all the karmas, bondage of karma. Love lifts you up
above all the karmic bondage.

Being with me, one who does not think about the karma, does not hold on to the
karma, but just offers it all to me. Without This is very important. It's not a
part-time devotee.

There are devotees who are part-time devotees. When the problem comes, you remember
devotion. No.

Other times they have other interests. Mind goes into other things, me, me, me. But
when some problem comes, oh God, God, God, God.

When exams come, people line up at Siddhi Vinayaka temple. Only exam times. All
temples become very busy during exams or even before results.

This is part-time devotion. Or you want some comfort, then you say, oh, I have
surrendered everything. Convenience.

Devotees of convenience. I want whatever I want. So my me and my want is more

important.

That is not yoga. I want nothing. There is no other.

There is no other to want or to go or to know. You know, desire to know, desire to

have. These both have to be in one place.

That is ananya. But everything converging into that one, that is ananya. Your
entire personality, your desire, your wishes, and I mean, that's the main thing,
right? Your actions, your wishes, everything centered around one.

That is ananya naiva yoga. What happens if you do that? If I have ananya bhakti,
there is no other. Only one single-minded devotion when it comes to you.

What will happen to you? The next person. Those whose minds are fixed on me, then I
will lift them above the samsara, above this, the world of conflicts. The world of
cravings and aversions.
The world of death. This relative world is the world of death. Here nothing stays.

Everything dies. Here the feelings come and go. Feelings die.

Your ideas, opinions, they come and they go. Your likes and dislikes change. They
all die.

This world is of death. But what is immortal is that being. Which your innate self
knows.

So what is that which is beyond this world of death? That is me. And I will lift
you to that state if you are totally focused on me. Tisha maham samudarta.

Those people who have ananya bhakti, as unflinching, one-pointed, one-focused love
for me, I lift them above the ocean of death. Ocean of samsara. And bhavami dachira
partha.

Mayy avesita cetasam. Oh my dear Partha, oh my dear Arjuna, you be with me. You put
your 100% into me.

Let your consciousness merge into me. Let your mind merge into me. These are two
things that makes us feel separate.

The mind and the intellect. These are the two things that prevail over your ego.
And when ego, for it to sustain, it has to have the intellect and mind separate
from everything.

That's why people who are very egotistic, they can't feel the love. Because they
have this wall around them. Self-created wall.

And this is what is coming in the way of a harmonious relationship with anybody in
any situation in the world. Whether it's in the office or at home. Why you get into
conflict? Because of what? Your intellect and your mind.

Your mind here means your emotions. Though intellectually you find there is
compatibility in a relationship, emotions don't match. Then everything falls apart.

Sometimes emotionally you are very much attracted to people, but then the intellect
says, no, this is not okay. Then also there is always a conflict. So while
intellect creates conflicts, and emotions end up in conflicts, it is the ego which
is suffering.

So here Lord Krishna very clearly says, mayyeva mana-adat mayi buddhim nivesaya.
Okay, you are emotionally attached to somebody, but intellectually you are not
getting the same thinking. You know, this is a common saying in gurukuls in ancient
times.

It said, how you should be with a guru? Chayavat vaset guru sannidhau. It said, be
like a shadow in guru's presence. Be like the shadow.

You don't have to ascertain yourself. I am somebody, you please notice me, give me
attention. No, you are behind.

Only when the light is behind, shadow is in the front. When there is light ahead,
shadow can never be in the front. If you are turning away from the light, only then
shadow looks big and it's in front of you.

If you're facing the light, shadow is always behind. So on the path, be like a
shadow. Can you be a nobody? I want to be this, I want to be head, I want to lead
the team, I want to be in charge, I am the head, I am the head.

This I am the head, you are creating a wall and you become incommunicable with
people around you. Being a nobody, that is what it says. Mayeva mana adatvam, mayi
buddhim nivesaya.

With the masters of the ancient time, you had to guess what they want, you can't
ask them. What do you want, what do you like? You had to guess what they like and
you had to quietly keep doing what they want. Not go and ask them 100 questions.

You know, can I put this, can I take this, can I put a green carpet, blue carpet,
nothing. You do, quietly you understand because you are in sync with the master's
mind. Chhayavat vaset guru sannidhau.

Why you have to be in the shadow of the, like a shadow of the master so that you
can tune yourself with what the master wants, what the teacher wants. This was the
training in the ancient days and that's how, you know, you move into the knowledge.
You become that what you aspire.

So mayeva mana adatvam, mayi buddhim, keep your mind in me, so also your intellect.
If you have put your intellect into me, if you have synced your intellect with
mine, no doubt you will rise above. Nivasisyasi mayeva, atavurdham nasamsya.

There is no doubt. Here Lord Krishna is giving assurance because the intellect
doubts. Okay, I put my intellect, what will happen? Will I achieve what I want?
Will I rise above? For that he needs assurance.

Like you go to a doctor and the doctor says, you take this medicine, I'll give you
guarantee, for sure your cold will go or your headache will go. Then you have
confidence in taking it, you do that. The same confidence he's building him, giving
him guarantee.

Today you want to buy a refrigerator, you want guarantee. You want to buy a
suitcase, you want a guarantee, no? Allah, if it breaks or something, one year
warranty, two year warranty, right? Anything you buy, you get warranty, right? So
you are given this assurance, you will definitely rise up. There is this story of a
Buddhist monk and he had a disciple and he had such strong faith in the master.

The master said, jump, he'll jump. So when master was sitting one day and something
happened, he said, you just jump off the cliff. And he jumped off a cliff and
nothing happened to him.

He came back and master was shaken now. I mean, he was worried, how did you do
that? He said, nothing happened to you? Then the disciple said, you said jump, I
knew you were with me, so I just jumped. But now you said you are shaken, now that
is making me shake.

Now I don't know whether I'll be able to jump again the second time. So if your
faith is so strong and if your mind is really put, doesn't matter who the master
was, what he did or he doesn't do, you will definitely rise above the ocean of
death. If your intellect is attuned with me, if it is in your intellect, if I am
there, if it is in me, you will rise above, there is no doubt about it.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)