Bhagavad Gita Summary – How to work with higher motives (part 4)

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Hello and welcome to episode 152 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today is part 4 of how to work with higher motives.

If you haven’t the three episodes I highly suggest you read and watch them so you can really benefit from this one. I will give a quick recap but I suggest that you watch and read it in full.

In episode 149 we spoke about destroying lower motives. These motives are money, passion, fame and power. This is natural. It is not your fault. It is because of the gunas leaving impressions on you. The great ones focus on the higher motives. Instead of money they want to offer value. Instead of passion they focus on purpose which never fades. Rather than seeking fame they seek to make others happy. Instead of craving power they seek to empower others. The lower motives involve taking whereas the higher motives all involve giving.

To make others feel good you first have to feel good and you do that by falling back on the consciousness and going back to the shore. That will be the only way you will discover your real purpose.

We spoke about Krishna said that the great ones are serene in the midst of action and in the midst of serenity they can still operate at a higher level. They do this by controlling their reaction before the event happens by withdrawing the gunas. They are always seated at the shore like Krishna on the chariot in the midst of war.

In episode 150 we spoke more about fruits and how Krishna tells us the fruits of labour only accrue after death. We spoke about how going after the lower motives of money, fame, passion and power will sow the seeds that will bear fruit in the next life. That these lower motives are what cause us to come back again and again.

We heard very powerful words from Ramana Maharishi on how we cannot control destiny so we need to be detached from the script.

We spoke about giving up those lower motives by giving up the fruits. Giving up these fruits will allow you to be serene in the midst of war and highly active in the midst of serenity. We do this by going back to the shore and dissolving the gunas. This in turn will allow us to manifest the karma. We manifest the Karma daily by asking ourselves the three most important questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What should I be doing while I am here? This will bring both happiness and success.

In episode 151 we told a great story about a notebook which showed that desiring fruits only doubles our desire for that fruit. We sometimes mistake desires for fruits with actually receiving them.

We spoke about the seed and how it already comes with the intelligence to grow and bear fruit. We learned that it has the intelligence but it needs the gifts of sunshine water and the right environment to grow. We saw that for us time space and circumstance is a gift.

We know that life is an invisible circle pushed by the gunas and the script and instead of staying on that never ending circle we need to learn to move to the center. The circle is already made and you cannot do anything to change it. It’s like Vivekananda says that the best teachers are the ones who do not teach, but instead guide their students. We need to be guided back to the shore because the intelligence is already there in the consciousness.

The moment you point someone towards the center you know there lens has changed and they can withdraw their gunas and dissolve the desires.

Today I want to get a little bit deeper into this. Krishna says you cannot draw a circle without a center. That center is your consciousness. Just outside that is another circle which is the gunas. The one outside that is the script. Then the very outer circle is the one that is the thought action and event. When you are born you move away from the center and then start to go around this outer circle.

All we need to do is give up the circumference and move towards the center. Krishna says “works on all sides are done by the constituents of Prakarti. He who is deluded thinks I am the agent.” The deluded ones think they are the ones moving the circle but that is not true. We think we have the power to make these things happen but the reality is that all that power comes from the consciousness.

It is a complete illusion which is why it is called maya. This illusion causes us to stay on this circle and it keeps forming circles for us again and again because of the gunas. It’s only when the gunas is dissolved that there will be no need for the script or the thought, action and event. Only then can we merge with the universal consciousness.

Krishna says that too much work in this world is not done in the name of sacrifice. We have become too attached to objects and this prevents us from going back to the shore. The moment you give up attachment to objects and fruits you become the center.

I want to share an example with you. There was a survey conducted in Australia. There was a whale who would eat small fishes and one day they put a glass wall in between the whale and the small fishes. When it was time for the whale to eat he kept banging on the glass. It was getting really angry because it could not move the glass. After three days they moved the glass but the whale did not try to past. The glass wall was still there in its mind.

We are like the whale and we have lost contact with the center. When we were children we had contact but as we grow we lose it. The body mind and intellect start to get away and we get blocked again and again. We just need to realise that this block is only the mind. It is maya.

The ignorant cling to the works of the constituents whereas the wise ones give them up and they have freedom. That’s all there is too it. It’s very simple. If the fruits are destined for you they will come. No one on earth can create them. It is gifted to you by the laws of karma. It is a gift from a previous life based on our gunas and our script. Your whole life is a fruit so all you need to worry about is moving towards the center.

We should never be worried about what other people have. Their circle is already determined and no matter how good it seems it is still only this outer circle. If we could only get back to the shore we would realise how much better it is to be at the centre. It is greater than anything on the outer circle.

If there is only one word you remember out of all these episodes then make it this one: Grace. This is the only fruit you should ask for. Ask for God’s grace and you shall receive it. Once you have God’s grace anything is possible. You will be at the center and the center never fears and always prospers. Never ask for the power to do one or two things. This is how you will fail. Always ask for God’s grace.

Krishna says “surrendering all works to me knowing me Krishna to be of all. With a concentrated mind fix your mind on me. Fixing your mind on me you will overcome all obstacles due to my divine grace but it ego is tickling your purses you will perish.”

So if you fix your mind on Krishna and offer all your works to him he will bestow his grace on you and you will be able to overcome anything.

I want to share a story with you. Shiva and Parvati were in their abode when someone on earth was in trouble. The man called Shiva and he told Parvati that he was going to help the person that called on him. After 30 seconds he came back and Parvati asked him what happened. Shiva said that the man thought he could solve his problem on his own so Shiva turned back.

We need to ask God by giving our problems to him and he will take care of them for us. To do this we need to move to towards the center. When we give up our egos and learn to ask God for his help and grace we will be happy and successful. Remember God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere and whose center is everywhere.

I hope I answered your questions. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.

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