Bhagavad Gita Ch13 part 03 on 23 January 2021

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM VASUDEVASUTAM DEVAM KAMSA CHAANURA MARDANAM DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURUM SARVO PANISHADHO GAHO DOGDHA GOPALANANDANAHA PARTHO VATSHA SUDHIR BHOKTA DUBDHAM GITAM RITAM MAHAT MOOKAM KARUTI VACHALAM PANGUM LANGAYATHE GIRIM YAT KRIPATAMAHAM VANDE PARAMANANDA MADHAVAM We have just now entered into the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita called Kshetra Kshetragna Vibhaga Yoga. Yoga because this knowledge will give us the true knowledge about who we are, that we are Ishwara, God Himself. Aham Brahmasmi, knowledge will come. What is the status of our present knowledge? We see that I and everyone else, those of you who have been listening to this Dakshinamurthy Stotram can very well understand what we have been talking about. In this Vishwam, this whole universe is nothing but I and everything else, nothing but that. The same subject here the Bhagavan Krishna's own words Kshetragna is I, Kshetram is everything else. What's our problem? We keep God separately, we keep our own pure consciousness separately and we make this whole world also separately. How do we keep it separately? By experiencing it. So we divide every experience, every millisecond as I am the experiencer and everything else is the experienced. Let us always remind ourselves, our body, our mind that also constantly, continuously we have been experiencing and at the same time we also identify ourselves with it. I am happy, I am unhappy. This is called identification with every thought either in the form of knowledge or in the form of emotion but at the same time I know that there is a happy thought, I know there is an unhappy thought, I am lucky, I am unlucky and there is a thought of I am lucky, there is a thought of I am unlucky. This is my friend, this is my enemy, I feel happy meeting my friends, I feel unhappy meeting those whom we do not like. At the same time there is a thought of likes and dislikes, love and hate, this duality, this mixture of one minute identifying ourselves with every rising thought in the mind and next moment witnessing it as if we are witnessing something else, somebody else. All these phenomena is going on all this time. So what the Lord wants us to do is have continuous knowledge, I the experiencer and what I experience. I the experiencer is called Kshetragna and whatever I experience is called Kshetram. One word is Kshetram, another word is Kshetragna, one word is Prakruti, another word is Purusham, one word is Gneyam, another word is Gnatha. Remember these are synonymous words. The essence is I and everything else. At the beginning of our sadhana we have to understand I alone is the reality, the truth, the abiding, the eternal and whatever I experience every millisecond it is changing. How is it changing? I see a tree and that tree is real, true so long as I see it. Next minute I see a bird, tree is forgotten. I remember the bird, bird alone is the truth. What I have forgotten has in a way of saying it has become non-existent because we do not even remember that I have seen a tree earlier. Next millisecond we see a human being then tree is forgotten, bird is forgotten thus every fresh thought replaces the old thought. When the old thought is removed then that as if it is dead but then once we experience something that remains permanently imprinted in our one part of our mind called Chittam in the form of memory, Smriti, we call it Smriti and when we remember something actually it is a very interesting phenomena. Supposing I am sitting in front of you and then suddenly some sound I hear until that time I have been seeing you, you are right in front of me and then I forget all about you, I hear that sound and that sound is identified the sound of a cat and immediately I remember this darned cat has come and eaten some of my sweets three days back, ten days back, it is continuing to do it. As soon as that remembrance comes immediately everybody, you are forgotten, whatever I was talking about you everything is forgotten, only that particular thought alone comes remains in my mind for a fraction of a second and that what we call reality. What am I driving at? Every thought that remains for a flash of a second in our mind is what we call reality. This is what is called flashes of reality, snatches of reality, flickerings of consciousness, many words we use. So what is the point? I have seen a man, I have seen a bird, I have seen a tree, I have seen a cat, I remember a cat, whatever be the thought the I is constant, continuous, it never changes. If I can focus my attention on this then everything will be absolutely fine. That's what the Lord wants to say that this entire chapter is devoted to the discrimination between I and whatever else, everything else. I, we can say in one word world, I am pure consciousness and world is just the opposite, inert and I alone am permanent, everything else is flickers of consciousness. I alone is the reality, everything else is unreal. I alone am the happiest person, everything else is completely dead matter. So this kind of discrimination has to go on but how to cultivate this kind of discrimination and then keep it constantly in view so that I never get trapped. This is called spiritual practice, that's what the Lord is going to talk about some of these verses. Then what do I gain out of it? What do I gain? In the last phase, what was the first phase? I and the world, that means I and the body, I am the body, I am the mind, what I am saying indirectly, I am the world. Second stage, no, I am separate, the world is separate. This is the process of discrimination and this attainment of this discrimination which is the result of all this spiritual sadhana. So this is here, we deny any reality to what we experience but this is only a middle stage, not even the final stage but when we approach the reality, my true reality, I am separate from the world, I know I am separate but what am I in reality, in truth, that I am that all-pervading, eternal, unaffected, one without a second, which has no birth, no death, etc., no changes, etc., that is called my identity with the divine Lord and I do not even remember, I was at one time separate from the Lord, now I have become one with the Lord, even these are thoughts in the mind, even the mind itself will get destroyed in the ultimate run, then who is to say even I am Brahman, in that ultimate state, the individual, the world and Ishwara, Ishwara and the world, Jagat and myself, the Jivatma, the Kshetragna, everything becomes absolutely one. Remember, even to say it becomes one is a human language, it is a thought in the mind but when the actual experience occurs, there is no mind, so there would be nobody even to declare that, simply one remains, one abides in that pure consciousness. These are some of the important points if we remember. First of all, there is only one reality that is called Brahman and because of some power which we cannot describe as existence or non-existence, that is called avidya or maya, whatever name we call it, somehow brought about this division through the instrumentality of time-space causation or simply the mind and I feel God is separate, one angle, I am another angle, the world is another angle, this triangle, so the first thing is I try to become one with God, this my second angle becomes identified with the first angle which is called Ishwara or God, there are only two angles now, God and the world and in the final run, that also is subsumed into that one angle. As soon as both angles disappear, the third angle also cannot be thought about it, only from the viewpoint of two separate angles, three angles can be imagined, when there is only one angle, there would be nobody to say there is one angle, even the memory, at one time there were three angles, I eliminated all of them, now there is only me, one angle, call it God, call it Ishwara, whatever, that thought also is a thought, only mentation in the brain, in the mind, that also will disappear, Avaag Maanasa Gocharam, who is to express it. Let us recapitulate what we have done, that there is only one reality, that is Brahma and we somehow imagine, imagination because it is not real, what is not real? This division of reality into God, creator, created and me, a speck of consciousness, this division is artificial, seeming, unreal, momentary, when this division is completely destroyed by right knowledge, then I become free, that is the goal towards which Gita, Bible, Vedas or Tripitaka, Koran, everything is leading us, only people call it by various names, that's all, it doesn't really matter, once we have that knowledge, we will be eternally happy, eternally existent and eternally knowledgeable but these descriptions are also only from the mind, really nobody is there to describe. Now the second point is, now we are living in the separated world as three, God, world and me. Now through the grace of scripture, through the grace of Guru, I have faith that what the scripture is telling is true, my Guru confirms it, therefore God is there, He alone is there, these two are false divisions, the individual soul and the world, they are never separated from God, they are nothing but God and this faith brings us into a state called enquiry, jignasa and the Guru, the scripture indicates certain steps, do this and do not do this, that is called spiritual practice and once we follow implicitly with tremendous faith, then slowly we progress and then the world and the individual soul becomes coalesced and then become transformed, slowly slowly they are absorbed into that divine light and ultimately only the divine light ever conscious, self-conscious, I am, not I am somebody, I am, that becomes the abiding reality and then we become free. This is the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita which is the essence of all Upanishads and which is the very essence of all the scriptures in the world. With this understanding, let us proceed. As I mentioned earlier, Kshetra, Prakruti and Jneyam, these three are synonymous words. Similarly, Kshetragna, Purusha and Jnatha, these are also synonymous terms. We discussed a little bit in my last class about Kshetram. What is Kshetram? That which a cultivator cultivates, that is a Kshetram, a field, a field always is something that needs to be cultivated. This field must have certain qualifications. What is it? It should not be a field which doesn't have any essence in it. It must not be infertile. It must be fertile field. Field is okay, climate is okay, all conditions are okay, water is available, birds and insects are there, everything is in favor. But if somebody is also there, he also knows there is a field and I can cultivate this field but his knowledge stops there, his actions come to a standstill there. That means he doesn't really cultivate it. That is also useless. That's why it is said a field is not only a fertile place where we can cultivate but we must do, we must be intensely active. That is why in this very Bhagavad Gita, the very first thing that we get here Dharmakshetra, it is Dharmakshetra. What is Dharma? Whatever we sow, that alone we reap. If somebody sows right seeds and only good fruits, enjoyable fruits and auspicious fruits only will come. Otherwise they will only be the opposite, evil, unhappiness. That's why it is called Dharma. The very word Dharma means there is justice. Whatever we deserve that we get. This is the basis of the Karma Siddhanta. Dharma Siddhanta has become transformed into Karma Siddhanta in our practical field. What is this field? It's body and mind. Don't say only body. Body plus mind. Both are called field because we have to cultivate the body. Also we have to cultivate the mind and we have to unify body and mind. They should be integrated. There should not be any division, separation. The mind thinks one thing and the body does its opposite or something else. That should never happen. That is why it is said that is Dharmakshetra. But if we do not be very active and we must be consciously active, we must be discriminatively active, we must be intelligently active. That is why Kurukshetra. Kuru means you cultivate, do something physically, mentally. Mentally in the forms of thoughts, in the form of beautiful imaginations. Why? Because it is our capacity to imagine creatively. First a creative person thinks about it and then he completes the picture what he wants to do very creatively. Then only he translates it into actual transformation. Somebody said who is a genius? What are the components of being a genius? 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. It should never be the opposite way. 99% inspiration and most of us fall into that category and only 1% inspiration. That is not going to happen. 99% perspiration should be there. 1% inspiration is more than sufficient. So this combination of thought, speech and action. That is called the cultivation, action, right action and that action must be guided by the scripture. That means we have to listen to the words of the scriptures. Not merely listen but we must be able to use our intellect, our rationality and have a very clear understanding what the real scripture wants us to do or not. Then only we have to put it into practice. That is called Kshetram. Cultivable it must be a land full of fertile land, ready whatever seeds we sow we can reap. If we sow wild seeds then we get only unpleasant evil results. Then Kshetragna, that conscious principle which illumines the entire field that is entire experienced object, the entire universe that is called Kshetra means field, Kshetragna. The word Gna in Sanskrit means knower. So Vijnaha, Isesha, Rupena, knower. Very intensively, very widely understanding person. Agnaha is not at all intelligent person. He is an ignoramus. That's why Vijnana and Agnana and Gnana these are very significant words. Kshetragna means one not only knows that this entire life, opportunity, time, my body and mind, this is the field, the entire world is the field and if I can use this body mind as the scripture or Guru directs me then the person who recognizes and what he recognizes this is a field and I am knower of the field. Then what does he recognize? I am totally separate from the field. I am conscious being. Everything else is inert matter. Such a person is called Kshetragna. Now another point here. I am there. You are there. X Y Z are there. So Rama is there. Krishna is there. John is there. Jane is there. Jack is there. All of us are human beings. So naturally the most rational person also thinks I am a separate conscious being and Rama is a separate conscious being. Krishna is another separate conscious being. Jane all these also separate conscious beings. Everything that is living is a conscious being totally separate from each other. What unites us only what unites us is there is a living thing and there is a non-living thing and we all fall under that living thing. How does this intelligence work? Very briefly we will discuss about it. This is the way it goes. First of all we divided the whole universe of experience into two categories. I and everything else. First step. Second step is in I am the conscious being. Second everything I experience is an inert thing. We do not really come to that conclusion. Whatever I experience I subdivide into two categories. The living and the non-living. Mountains, rivers, the earth, the stars, the wind, the fire, the sun, all these fall under inert. Every living being falls into that a living being. It has got prana. It is alive living thing. So this is how we divide it. Do we stop there? No. In the living beings the lowliest living creature classification. So it is an amoeba. It is a virus. It's a bacteria. Then slowly a small insect and a small ant. Like that the insects and then the viruses, the bacteria, all we divide. Then further evolution is there. These are birds. These are plants. These are birds. These are animals and among the animals then there are highly evolved animals which are called human beings. Among human beings I am, we divide them into, there are men, there are women. So I am a man and there are some women. There are some men are there and then we divide again further and these people are Indians. Rest are non-Indians. Then we divide them. These people belong to Karnataka state. Everybody else is non-Karnataka people, Indians but non-Karnataka people. Then we divide further that I live in Bangalore and everybody else non-Bangalorean. Then further we divide that I live in this particular state. Everybody else is outside. Then I live in this house. Everybody is different. Then I am the only one. Then there is my parents, my brothers, sisters, wife, husband, children. Like that I go on dividing and finally I identify myself with my body. Then I say body is also inert thing, very dumb thing. Then I am the mind because I am capable of thinking. Thus we go on dividing. Division means separation. I go on separating myself. Now we have to reverse the process and say that I identify myself with all men and women are human beings. I am a human being. I am not only an Indian. I am a living human being wherever there is a human being. I am not only a human being. I am a living creature whether there is an insect, a bird, a plant, an animal but I identify myself with all living things. Then finally I identify myself everything whether living or non-living. Then finally I say how do I do that? Anything that is existing, I am also existing. Everything else also is existing. Therefore, there is no separation between one existent thing and the second existent thing. So this should be the line of progress which we have to advance. That is why when we say here is a patriot of a country that means he transcended his limited individuality and then he identified himself with the whole country. But usually patriotism stops there and they become very irrational whether the other countries are doing good or bad. Whatever the leaders say, this is a bad country. Everybody living in that bad country is a bad person. Not only that, there are people in their irrationality go so far, they go so far to say that all these people are made out of mud. Only God has specially made us with his own hands and everybody is made out of cow dung or even if not worse. This is how hatreds, divisions will come. This is the play of Mahamaya. So on it goes on. But if I am practicing, when I say I am a conscious being, I have a body and mind. Earlier I am the body-mind. Then my identity with the body-mind is extremely strong. I can separate myself from everything else including my family members. But because of this closest association, what is the closest to us? The body. Even closer than the body is the mind. That's why almost the identity is complete. When I say in one breath, my hand is aching and I am in pain. My mind is happy, I am a happy person. My mind is very unhappy, I am a very depressed person. So go on identifying with whatever is experienced. This identification of what is called the consciousness with something which is inert is called Maya, Ajnana, Avidya, Ignorance, Delusion. All these synonymous words are used. As we go on increasing in our wisdom, the power of discrimination, slowly this separation is eliminated. Spirituality is nothing but eliminating the separation and to eliminate that separation, we have to go on renouncing. I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not an Indian, I am not a Hindu, I am not merely a human being, I am not merely a living creature, etc. What is spiritual life? Slowly eliminating this differentiation, this separation. That means we have to become identified with the larger whole gradually but definitely. It will take time. In fact, it will take ages together, many lives together. That is why in this very Bhagavad Gita, the Lord has declared, After many many lives of spiritual practice, a man becomes a man of knowledge, true knowledge and then such a person, what does he see? Everything is God. God is everything. Such a person is called Mahatma and such Mahatmas are extremely rare in this world. If we have to believe Swami Vivekananda, at any given age, there will only be four or five such Mahatmas, such liberated souls in this world. Spiritual practice, morality. What is morality? To feel completely identified with the other person and then other animal, other living creature and identifying ultimately with the entire nature consisting of both the living as well as the non-living and ultimately we realize that those two angles, I am the individual soul and here is the world separate from me, that becomes merged and then the knowledge will come that God, everything is God, the world is nothing but God, I am part of the world, I am also nothing but God. So the first stage is that I am one with the entire universe. That is called Dvaita. Then the second stage is I and the world are separate but also united in God. This is called Visishta Dvaita, qualified non-dualism. Then the day will come when a person realizes everything, there is only one thing, there is no everything and that what is called everything is nothing but Brahman Sarvam Kalvidam Brahman. This is the highest formulation of the goal of spiritual life and that is whether we are following devotion or following any other path. This is the process of progress in spiritual life. So what are we talking about? First a man says I am an individual, I am consciousness and there is a I am the body, I am the mind. This is the first stage, that's where we are and then through spiritual practice we go to the next step. What is it? I am Jivatma, I am consciousness, I am the experiencer, I am the cultivator of the field, I am the Purusha, I am the knower, I am the witness. Everything else is the field, the known, the experienced and the witnessed. In the second stage there is a relationship, I am united and that principle which unites me with everything else is called God Consciousness or called God Divinity. This is called Visishta Advaita. We are unity in diversity. There is diversity because my body, your body, bird's body and animal's body are separate but unity we are all united as what? As existence, as knowledge, as bliss. Everything wants to be bliss and you must have heard even the so-called non-living metal, it also if it is used without giving rest it becomes fatigued. That's why many aeroplanes have simply dropped from the skies, many people had died. Upon enquiry of lot of them people came to realize maybe a small bolt, a small screw had become fatigued, it snapped and because it snapped it brought that particular part of the plane into dysfunction and then it affected the balance of the whole plane and it came down. Sir Jagadeesh Chandra Bose had conclusively proved what we call every plant is living, conscious, has feelings like ourselves, has even language. Recently some scientists, biologists have discovered plants have language, of course it is plant language and they can communicate with each other. That is how in Australia after a particular species of plants were over eaten they developed poison. The plants which were still remaining there suddenly the message was conveyed by the dying plants that other kangaroos and other animals are eating us, you develop a strategy and immediately they started producing a kind of venom and these animals which ate those plants started dropping down dead. Then the scientists went to work and found out that through the root system the dead plant is conveying you be careful my brothers and sisters, this danger is coming, I have died because of being eaten and the next to your turn will be there and you protect at least yourself. Who can say rivers do not communicate? Who can say mountains do not communicate? Who can say the stars do not communicate? We have a long distance to go before we realize this entire universe is one living, breathing, conscious, feeling entity and that we realize slowly only when we progress in spiritual life. So what is the next point I am telling? When a person separates himself, I am a conscious being, I have nothing to do with inert thing, that is one step forward in spiritual progress. Then he comes to know really speaking are there different entities, different conscious beings, is there any difference between my consciousness, the consciousness of a plant and the consciousness of an animal or of a bird? Really speaking, truly speaking, anything that is consciousness is only one. It cannot be divided like the space cannot be divided. So when a person comes to that he, what the Lord Bhagawan says here in the very beginning of this Bhagavad Gita, Sarvakshetreshu, Shetragnanjapi mam viddhi, know for certain in every field, everything that is experiential, I am the one unitary consciousness, there are no two or more than two conscious beings, I am only the one. This is what he gets it. Then we have to understand what is Gneyam, what is the right knowledge. So in the 13th to 18th verse Krishna talks about the truth which is to be known. It is beginningless, beyond existence and non-existence, all-pervading, subtle, far from the ignorant and near for the wise. Though it appears to be divided, it is really undivided and it is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of all. It is the light of consciousness which resides in the hearts of all. Being subtle, it cannot be known in its purest form, yet it shines in the body as awareness, as existence, as knowledge, as bliss and in the world, in the experienced, it only manifests as existence. One has to recognize it as pure awareness existence by distinguishing it from everything else. So this method of teaching is called Adhyaropa Apavada. Adhyaropa means first you say this is separate, that is separate, then we say that is not, that and this are not separate at all. This recognition of ignorance is called Adhyaropa or superimposition and negation or removal of this superimposition is called Apavada. How does one do it? For that we need knowledge and what is that from the 8th to the 12th verse Krishna talks about some important spiritual characteristics, qualities which being alone, which being there alone prepare the mind for the obtainment of Atma Jnana, self-knowledge and what are these? Remarkably similar to what Sri Ramakrishna had taught us. Here are a list, humility, simplicity, non-violence, forbearance, honesty, service to the teacher, purity, steadfastness, self-control, detachment from the sense objects, absence of egotism, awareness of the misery, birth is misery, death is misery, disease is misery, developing dispassion, non-identification with family members, uttara, dahara, grihadishu, children, wife, husband, house, servants, fields etc. Being always equanimous under both desirable and undesirable situations, unserving devotion to the Lord and now and then what Sri Ramakrishna calls going to the solitude, non-indulgence in people's company that means we are quite happy even if there is nobody around. This Covid situation is an ideal opportunity for all of us to develop what we call self-happiness. I am very happy in my own company, constant inquiry into the nature of our real self and not losing sight of the fruit of self-knowledge which is liberation. This is the goal one has to have and then come the last pair Purusha and Prakruti. Remember Purusha, Jnayam and the Naira field synonymous words but just Arjuna asked this question so we bring this up. So what is it? Purusha and Prakruti, the consciousness and the field of consciousness. Both are beginningless, only when the consciousness is there the so-called nature can function otherwise not at all. Both are beginningless but both are having opposite nature. What is the opposite nature? The Purusha that means the self, the individual consciousness is conscious, changeless, real whereas everything that is experienced is inert, changing and unreal. A beautiful point, we'll discuss it when the opportunity comes. The body, the mind and all that the body and mind does belongs to Prakruti nature whereas the pure consciousness is a mere witness, a mere illuminator of all these. When this Purusha, individual soul obtains in this body as a Kshetragna, starts identifying, residing as it were inside this body-mind complex then he feels I am the doer, I am the knower, I am the experiencer, Kartha, Gnatha, Bhokta etc. But as the Paramatma, as the Brahman, Absolute, this individual soul even though seemingly affected really is unaffected and remains ever the same. Earlier in the Dakshinamurth Satram whatever be there is an explosion, there is a rain and there is a fight in the city but the reflection also shows all those events but the mirror is never affected. When we are watching a cinema, these facts are going on but if there is rain, the screen doesn't get wet. If there is fire, the screen doesn't turn into ashes and if somebody throws dirty water then the screen doesn't become dirty and if anybody disappears from there, the screen will not become empty. Whatever happens, it remains absolutely the same. How? Because everything is an appearance. So also the entire life is nothing but an appearance. That's why the example, most wonderful telling example of what we call the dream, so long as we are dreaming everything is as real and as true, as effective as in this waking state but the moment we wake up from the dream state, we know it is all false and we are not affected by it. Somebody dies, we do not carry on crying upon waking up. If one person wins a lottery ticket, he doesn't go on cutting a person, jumping up and down with dancing and with joy because he knows this is only an imaginary thought in my brain. His blood pressure remains the same when upon waking up but when the same person while dreaming, he is likely, most likely to go through all these emotions. They can have even what we call heart attacks, coronary heart disease and they can die. Quite a number of people die in their dreams because of nightmarish dreams or whatever it is. Not knowing the highest truth that I am not only, I am consciousness, everything else is also consciousness. How to understand this? To understand the dream again. Before a person goes to dream, he is one waker but as soon as he goes into the dream, in his own mind, he divides, he creates entire dream world, divides himself as if into three, the witness, the participant and everything that is experienced there. The entire world and the individual who is experiencing that world exactly like in the waking state but at the same time completely remaining witness and remembering it. Remembrance, always remember the remembrance, the memory belongs to the witness not to the participant because when a participant participates, he becomes one with the event, there is no question of remembering it. Just like you know, when two people are fighting hand with hand, knife in one hand and they go on stabbing each other, they are not aware what they are doing but a person who is standing nearby and witnessing the whole thing, he remembers what the first person did, what the second person did, like we watch boxing match etc. Just like in a dream, the waking state is nothing but exactly like the dream state, just as the dream, dreamt objects are completely unreal but imaginations, this entire waking state is nothing but imaginations. Just as a person creates his own dream world, so also that same person when he comes back to waking state creates his own world. That is why there is no creator called God. God is only like the grandma who collects all the seeds and when the rainy season comes, takes out all the seeds, puts them in the appropriate field and the rainwater does the rest, is only a passive observer or passive activator without actually doing anything. If we can understand that, we will be really blessed. Not only I am pure consciousness, everybody, every consciousness in every limiting body-mind complex is also exactly one and the same, like the same electricity, it is functioning in various bulbs, various heaters, various fans, various refrigerators, various magnetic elements, it is one pure consciousness and that is how man progresses in spiritual life. But not knowing this at the beginning, when the individual soul identifies with the body and its functions through gunas, then all limitations and the consequent unhappiness experiences, in other words suffering, enjoyment, both arise. But one who has the discriminative knowledge of the separation between Purusha and Prakruti attains immortality, becomes free, realizes I am Brahman. Remember always, first stage I am one with body-mind, I am one with the world. Second stage I am separate from the body-mind, I am separate from the world, I am nearer to God. In the last stage God, world, me, everything will disappear, what remains is that Brahman. A person has awakened and he started practicing spiritual disciplines, what does he get? This is the last subject from 25th to 35th, nearly 11 shlokas. Krishna sums up the teaching and presents it, what is spiritual practice and what is the following result. The wise man is one who always abides in the Self, which is the same everywhere, which is, that is, the Self is actionless, it is unaffected, it is like the space or like the light. The Self, not only the illuminator of everything but also the substratum of the entire universe, just as the waker's consciousness is the substratum of the entire dream universe. In fact, there is no universe either waking or dream or dreamless other than the one Self. One who has understood it, practiced spiritual disciplines, gains this wisdom and knows, I am Brahman, everything is Brahman and there is nothing but only Brahman. Such a person is called a Mukta Purusha, a free soul. So, how to gain this real, final, ultimate knowledge? To gain this spiritual knowledge, one has to do Sadhana, spiritual practice, thereby purify the mind through Karma Yoga, through Bhakti Yoga and through Raja Yoga by one or more and ultimately get established in the knowledge and what is that knowledge? Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. God alone is. These details, if you have understood, this is the summary of the entire 13th chapter. Specially, there are 35 shlokas, as I mentioned in my last class, in many of the versions, many Gitas, the question by Arjuna, which is taken as the first verse, is absent. If we do not take the first verse, the second verse becomes the first verse, in which case there are 34, but if we add the first verse, the entire 13th chapter has 35 shlokas and it is one of the toughest and I have to tell you, Shankaracharya's toughest and largest commentaries in the Bhagavad Gita is one of the sections in the 13th chapter and while discussing in future classes, I am going to refer to some of them and we will resume our talk tomorrow morning. Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagat Kurum May the Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.