(Gita-27) Krishna's Warning to Arjuna: Everyone is Making This Mistake

Acharya Prashant: The nature of, the process of Liberation is peculiar. You feel a certain angst within, a silent hollowness and to begin with, you venture out in search of something that can plug the hollow. The beginning will always be towards the external. That is inevitable. That is a rule, because that's how we are made. The eyes, all the senses, including the mind, they are by birth biologically programmed to look outside at the world. When you are in need or in trouble, you wave towards the world and the throat cries out for, ‘Help, help,’ again towards the world.

If something troubles you at one place, you do not run inwards, you do not run to your insides. You run towards another external place. Whatsoever has attracted you has always been a subject of the senses. So that's how we are configured. Hence it is inevitable. We said that the beginning will be in the outward direction.

That's also how the Vedas begin. They look outwards and that will always happen. That is not really a weakness. That is not a fault, not something to be ashamed of. That's a constitutional compulsion, the way we are constituted. So that's how we said the Vedas also begin. They look at the world.

If you look at the oldest of the Vedas, I have been revisiting it these days. Every few years or so I returned to the Vedas, this would be my sixth or eighth or tenth, I don't know, some return to the Vedas. I was in Mumbai and this time I purchased fresh copies of all the Vedas even though I already have two or three copies. That's my way to make a fresh beginning. And I'm revisiting the Rig Veda. And every time you go to them, there are fresh insights.

What happens is that we look at the whole road from the point of view of the destination. We look at the climb, standing at the summit, and then the climb will always look a little inferior, a little useless, a little abhorable, lowly climb. What we forget is that without the climb, all the ups and downs, all the meandering, the summit wouldn't have been possible. So those who are exposed to Vedanta, when they look at Karmkand, it is a bit Prakritik that the approach sometimes is of condensation. With a condescending eye, we look at the Karmakanda part, which is both understandable and also childish.

It's understandable because indeed Vedanta is the summit. The philosophical rigor of Vedanta cannot be matched by the Sangita or the Brahman part. So, in that sense it's understandable. But what is also to be understood is that the Vedas are an organic growth. You look at Prakriti, you look at all its elements. And whenever you initiate the journey with Prakriti the approaches of desire. So you look at Prakriti with desire. To the various forces and forms and effects of Prakriti, you give very different, very interesting names and you associate charming stories with them.

That's what the initial part of the Vedas is about. And because the whole thing will come from desire. Man is a creature of desire, is he not? So therefore, to each of these names, forms, forces, you go and you ask for things. What things? The same things that we today ask for. Nothing has changed and that's why spiritual literature from ancient times remains relevant even today. So the things that you ask for today are the same things that are being asked for in the mantras of Rigved.

10,000 mantras are there, in more than a thousand suktas, 10 mandals, and more than 95% of them are about desire. Some natural force you pick up: Indra, Vayu, Agni, even the famous Gayatri mantra is addressed to Surya, Savita. So some natural force. And then what do you ask? Please more crops. Please longer life. Disease free bodies for me and my family and my clan. Please wreak destruction on that other tribe, destroy them fully. Agni, can you do that for me? So these things. And these things, once you go deeper into them, the depth itself enables you to surpass them.

Because when you initiated the journey, the purpose was very clear. We said there was an internal angst. In Indra or Vayu or Varun or Agni or Surya, they are incapable of healing the angst. And then, only then you are forced to turn inwards. That's what happens in the Vedas. And that's also what happens in the life of every seeker. The initial movement is always towards the outside, right? And your life can become like the Vedas. It can mirror the Vedas, it can resemble the Vedas. If you can do what the Upanishads do, the Upanishads take a very courageous flight. While the Karmakand part is busy with nature worship, offering sacrifices and asking for favors, the Upanishads suddenly then, it's not really sudden, but in the text it does appear a bit abrupt. The Upanishads suddenly declare nothing doing. If I keep asking for fulfillment of desires from Prakriti, I am never going to have it.

I will forever remain dissatisfied. And I don't want to just end up discontented. I will have to look inwards. I will have to ask myself, who is the one who is always begging? No, that's a tremendous change. From the initial plane where you are continuously saying, ‘Oh! please deity you come over. Here is the Yagna sacrifice. Can you come over and sit here and accept my offering? Here is the somras for you. I know you love it. Please take this. Please take that and bless me in return.’ The Upanishads just move beyond all that. No nature worship there. No effort to extract any kind of favor from Prakritik forces. We should say, I have understood who am I and why do I relate to Prakriti in such and such ways. Are you getting it?

Now both these parts are very, very important. I cannot even say one is more important than the other. Boarding is important and so is debording. Checking in is important and so is checking out. How do I declare that checking out is more important than checking in? How will you check out if you never checked in? Are you getting it?

Though when you are checking out or deboarding, it appears that this is the higher act. Because this is the final thing. This is what completes and culminates. But that's not so. It's like taking a ferry to the other shore. A boat ride. Obviously, when you reach there, then you leave the boat. And it will appear that leaving the boat is the final thing that helps you land at the destination and that's true.

If someone were to take a snapshot, he would say, see, this is the final thing. This man is stepping out from the ferry, right? You got into the boat and then you got out of the boat. Getting out of the boat is the moment when you land on the destination. So it appears great. But what is also true is that you needed to get on. You also needed to cover the entire distance across the river. Are you getting it?

But the problem occurs when one gets so enamored with the boat ride that he refuses to leave the boat. Obviously, I am assuming that first of all you took the boat. The vast majority of people are so satisfied at their own shore that they will just refuse to accept any boat or the overtures of any boatman. It would be, it would be sensible, logical, we can only guess, but probably factual to say that it would have been difficult to reach the Upanishads without the nature worship part. You need to be disillusioned before you get disentangled.

Remember Nirasha, Nirashi nirmamo. How will you, how will you get disillusioned, free of hope; if first of all there is no hope. Now, we all do remain hopeful since birth itself, that's right. But the, But the beauty, the courage of the Vedas lies in the fact that they said fine, if Prakriti is where we are to get our satisfaction from, let's go the whole distance. If Prakriti is what gives us what we want, then let's accept the forces of nature as gods and goddesses. No, no hypocrisy. If I live for the sake of my desires, then let me turn the objects of my desires into gods and goddesses. Now this is a very honest approach and a bold one.

We all do want stuff, but we never have the rigor and the courage to simply accept that the object that we want is indeed our God. Right? You might be dying after something, but will you ever openly accept that the stuff that you are dying after is your de facto God? You will not accept, right? Inwardly, yes that thing is indeed your God and is ruling you, commanding you. But you will never accept it, not to others, not to yourself, that the thing is your God. The Vedas just honestly accept. They say, okay, fire is so important, it gives us protection. Think of those times, Think of those times.

Fire used to be so important. And fire used to be the vehicle for fulfillment of so many desires. Food, protection, illumination, come on, everything. Plus man was not entirely savage. By the time we came to the Rigveda, there was a fair degree of civilization. So we had started dealing with metals, we had started getting into construction. And in all of that fire played an important role. Even medicines. Fire was needed for all of that.

So fire fulfills so many desires. So what do I do? I will say, fire is God. Fire is God. Now that's very, very innocently honest, is it not? Cute, cute. I wish we had the honesty to simply say mother Pizza. Because that's how it is for many of us, No? Is it not? In the dead of the night you are worshiping her, invoking her, dialing her up and then that Farishta from, yes, comes with the word of the Goddess and whispers in your ear, Margarita. And that's the mantra. We are not honest enough to accept that these things are our gods and goddesses, no? Look at someone, I mean, if he were honest, he should be found worshiping the pillow. The pillow should be hoisted, hung from the roof or something, Ceiling. An offering should be made, please, because the pillow is where this fellow's desires are most fulfilled.

We are hypocrites in that sense. There we said there is a certain innocence. They said if we get our sustenance from sun, we will worship the sun. And that's so fair. They could see that everything is coming from the sun. So why not worship the sun? And then when you honestly devote yourself to whatever you think is fulfilling your desire, only then is when disillusionment can set in. Why do we not get disappointed fully? Why are our hopes not and never dashed fully? Because we never commit ourselves fully to the object of our desire.

We are smart people. We'll chase something and yet not admit to ourselves that we are chasing that thing. In comparison, the Vedic seers are extremely innocent and very honest. So they say, ‘The cow, she is giving us so much. We'll worship the cow.’ Simple. You also extract so much from the cow, but you don't really worship the cow, do you? Some plant is giving them something. There is the Somaras, which is most probably a drink of intoxication, but it used to give them pleasure, the same kind of dopamine rush that you also rush for. And they said, ‘It's a wonderful thing.’ There are so many mantras praising just the Somaras, you prepare it this way and then you offer it to Indra and Indra would be just delighted, and after Indra is delighted, you can have it. Are you getting it?

We hide. We pretend. They don't hide, they don't pretend. And that is also the reason why some of the mantras, they have been used by detractors to present the Vedas as abominable. They say, you see what kind of stuff is being talked of here? Because there are references even to sexual activity in a very innocent way, in a very childlike way. So people come and say, you see, these are the Hindus religious scriptures and they are talking of sex in this way. No, they are talking of everything that is there in the Prakritic universe. So they are talking of sex also. Because when you think of fulfillment, one of the directions you rush towards is sex. So they are talking of sex as well.

They are talking of crops, they are talking of the soil, they are talking of the clouds and animals, forests, of course, rivers. I am principally referring to the Rig Veda here, may be because of the recency effect. I am with the Rigveda these days. Are you getting it?

So that's a wonderful thing, a thing of honesty. You find yourself drawn to something. Don't be a hypocrite. Just declare, I am drawn towards this thing and I am moving towards this thing. Only then will you meet disappointment. And without that disappointment there can be no liberation. The reason why we are never liberated is because we double deal. Are you getting it?

You binge and then you fast. And that's why you will never stop eating the nonsense that invites you to binge. If that pizza or rasgullah or whatever is indeed so charming that it captures your entire mind, devote yourself fully to it. And then you will be liberated. If money is something that you think will redeem you, go: 24 hours. Eat, drink, think, sleep, money. And then you will be liberated. Liberated not because you will earn enough of it, but because you will realize this is not that. And that kind of liberation seems to have happened in the process of the Vedas.

You find that man or woman so fascinating, go spend 24 hours. I mean not only 24 hours. I mean all 24 hours. Today's 24 hours as well as tomorrow's. Go spend 24 hours and you will run. I mean run away. Distance from the object of desire maintains the charm. It's a very dirty trick. We never allow ourselves to know the object of desire fully. We at least postpone the knowledge. Sooner than later, that knowledge will come to you uninvited, unwanted. But we want to postpone it. And we postpone it to such a point that when, even when the knowledge comes, it's already too late. It's not that you will never learn the reality of that man or woman. But by that time you will already have three kids. Now what can you do? It's too late to learn. And this thing that you are learning after thirty years, you could have learnt in three days. Had you allowed yourself to ask the right questions, it could have been learnt, very simple.

But those simple questions that can be asked over just an ordinary evening, it takes may be two hours, three hours of a discussion. We do not let those questions be asked even over three decades. However, reality has a way of catching up with our nonsense. Facts will show up. But as we said, by that time it's too late.

The Rishis didn't allow it to get too late. They got into it fully. They said, we are doing it. As you say, I'm into it these days. So they were totally into Prakriti. I am into Prakriti. And that is why they were redeemed. And even then it didn't happen over a fortnight or a month. The Rigveda is understood to contain mantras that span many centuries. Minimum of three to four hundred years. It could be longer.

That's the kind of time, disillusionment takes to come, even to a person with honesty, innocence and courage. And one lifetime is just maximum hundred years. So how much time do you have? But we find enough time to deceive ourselves. There is not enough time even to honestly explore. How do you manage to have time to deceive yourself? Even if you get into honest inquiry, you might find even hundred years is a little too less. Even the fastest ones take several decades. How do you manage to just keep telling lies to yourself? That includes everyone. Me, you. We all stand at the same plane. Getting it?

So the Vedas move on. They start with nature worship and then they move on. And it's such a tremendous moving on. The world has never seen anything like it. In fact, some people say that the Upanishads are against the Vedas, that magnitude of dissonance. They do not understand that the Upanishads would have been difficult to come to sans the Vedas, but indeed, to be charitable to them, if you just read the mantras pertaining to nature worship and then you go to some of the most philosophical, philosophically acute verses of the Upanishads, you find no similarity.

And therefore one could be forgiven for thinking that the Upanishads actually oppose the Vedas. They really do not. There is an organic linkage, but the difference is similar to the difference that newbie would find between, let's say, a piece of the root of a mango tree and fruit of the mango tree. Let's say there is someone who does not know the process of the mango tree. He does not know how the seed yields the whole tree. And to that person you show a part of the root or a part of the guthli, the seed. And then you also show a full, luscious, ripe, juicy fruit. And you say, you look at this and look at this. You will say, this is totally opposite of this. The root looks dry and dark and this is full of bright colors. And there is such juice and aroma and flavor and all that can attract you. And the root is so lifeless. That's a matter of appearance. The fact is that the fruit could not have come without the the root. So that's the relationship. Are you getting it?

The one thing that will again and again strike you about the Vedas is honesty. They don't pretend and they give two hoots to what you will think about them. Like a naked child, totally naked. You feel scandalized looking at what he is doing, but he is the least worried, looks at you and yeah, here. What? Yeah, you two have it hanging there. What are you gaping at? Get lost.

Hypocrisy, self deception. They nip the process right in the bud. You don't even get to start. If you will not acknowledge your desires, how will you ever know your desires? And that's why I rate psychoanalysis so highly. Unearthing the content of the unconscious mind, where all your primitive and suppressed desires are lying. If you will not know that you have been desirous since ages, if you will not face, acknowledge, encounter your desires, there is no way of getting liberated from them. But social sanctions and religious morality, they prevent us from acknowledging that we desire so much and so many objects.

What has morality taught you? Desire is evil, but that's not so in the case of the Rigveda. Here you see the very dance of desire. Mother river, can I ask for one more thing? I'll worship you more, but please give me this thing. As I said, like a naked child, unafraid to ask, constantly inviting the gods, you please come. The feast is ready. And this time we have some special butter for you. Gods, please come. And they really believe that the gods are coming and enjoying the meals. And now that the gods are satisfied, they'll say, you know, can I have one more wife? Not that it's just about asking for desires.

There is philosophical content as well. The philosophy of the Upanishads couldn't have just suddenly exploded. You find the germs the genesis of that philosophy in the earlier parts as well. But predominantly it's about desire fulfillment. As Shri Krishna says in the Gita “kaamya karm, kaamya karm.” So the first part is about exploring desire. Sakaam, Sakaam. And then you come to the Upanishads, and that's about seeing desire and getting free of desire. That's nishkam. So that's the journey. You begin from Sakamta and you come to Nishkamta.

Now, this does not mean that you have to run after your desires. Why? Because you are already at the peak of your desires. Is there anybody here whose mind is not full of desires? So you don't need to add to the list of your desires. Because there have been teachers in the past who have advanced this argument. They have said, you know, unless your desires get huge and big and they reach a critical mass and they explode, you will never be liberated. No, sir, you don't need that. Why? Because your desires have already reached a critical mass. You don't need to add to the mass that you have. We are already slaves of desire. But we like to hear when somebody says, you know, you must pursue your desires and at the peak of your desires you will get desirelessness. So you say, fine, that's a good kind of sanction. A very liberative License, let me consume more and more. And now even Guruji has allowed. Not Guruji, Babaji. I have him here. Getting it?

I am so sure that at least a few of you must have been wondering, ‘That right! This session is telling me why I am not advancing in my spiritual way. Because I have not been running after, running fully after my desires. No, you are already running fully after desires. You are just in a hypocritical way, not acknowledging. The difference between you and the seers of Rigveda is not that they were desirous and you are less desirous. The difference is that they were innocent and you are not. They were innocent, honest and they just acknowledged that, yes, I do want protection. I do want a long life. I do want a disease free body. I do want my clan, my tribe to expand. I do want victory over my adversaries. They acknowledged it, that they said, you know, this is what I want.

Interestingly, the initial parts of the Vedas do not talk of liberation. They say, these are the things that I want. Good life, healthy body. I must live very long. I must have lots of milk and butter to consume. And also meat. There are places where the Vedas talk very liberally of meat of all kinds. They say, you know, I want all these things like the common man. They don't say that I want liberation. So the difference is not that there is desire over there and there is lesser desire over here. The difference is that we are hypocrites.

We desire and yet we pretend that we do not because we are afraid. They are not afraid, they are real dudes. They said, if I want something, I'll go out and announce. If I want something, I'll go out and announce, yes, I want it fine. And that's the reason why ultimately they saw their wants getting dissolved. Whereas most of us, inwardly there are just so many desires. Boiling, boiling, boiling, melting pot of desires. That's what our being is. Desires coming from all kinds, melting, fusing into one. But outwardly, we pretend that we are religious, spiritual, moral, what not. And that has happened with all the indic religions. That's the case with in fact religions in general. Everywhere is the same case.

It's difficult to find a bigger hypocrite than the religious man. He wants all the things that the irreligious man or the atheist does, but he pretends that he does not. So what does he create? He creates back doors and underground tunnels to fulfill his desires in the dark of the night. Pakhand: wanting the same thing but not having the guts to acknowledge. Self observation, Atma Vidya is about having guts to to see what lies within. It's not difficult to see. It's difficult to acknowledge. Do you understand this? It's not difficult to see. How is it difficult to see? These are your own insides. How can it be difficult to see? You are the experiencer of all your desires, are you not? If you do not know, who does?

Nobody knows better than you, the kind of desires that keep swarming within. We are not blind, we are just dishonest. We know, we do not acknowledge, that acknowledgement is everything. And that's why I ask you to post your reflections on the community. And that's why you dread posting reflections. Because you know that your fact is too terrible to be posted. Do you understand why there is such a low rate of your posts on the community? And several of you are so smart that they have found ingenious shortcuts. They take my words and post there. That's their reflection. Some of them don't even bother to take my words. They simply take my posters and put there. And they say now we are unblocked.

You might be unblocked on the community. You will not be unblocked in life. Some say, sheer genius, the fellow says posting for unblocking, genius. That's where you are stuck, you know, the hell whole that your insides are. I just want you, I request you to be bold enough to accept that. If you will not accept that you are stuck in hell, there is no way you can move out. It's not at all coincidental that you do not want to reflect. And it's not just about, you know, members of the community, the general members, even people within the foundation. Rarely do they post anything of any consequence.

On the other extreme are people who appear like pouring their hearts out. But that too is a way of deception. Because you are writing so much just so that the writing substitutes for being. I have written so much and that is enough. Now I don't need to change. See, I have done so much. What have you done? Written, and that suffices. There are those who block change by not writing at all. And there are those who substitute change with writing too much. Maya Maha thagni ham jani, now what do I do?

I am helpless in this regard. Sometimes I just chuck it all away and say fine, let me just thrash someone and have a good time and go to sleep. How much can one waste oneself on people who just are determined to stay where they are? Getting it? The more you are inwardly conscious of your internal rot the more you will be afraid of opening up to life, the more you remain guarded. It's not that you are an introvert. The bigger reason is that you have secrets to hide.

And the society has said, you know, if you tell the others about your weaknesses and the rot and all the disease and everything, then that person will look unfavorably at you. So your social standing, your self worth is gone. And that's the problem. The Lok Dharm, the Lok Sanskriti, the culture we are brought up in, it places too much value on the way people look at us. The reason why we become dishonest. Not that we are liars, an environment is created in which lying becomes necessary. If the fellow in front of you is someone who cannot stand the facts, what is he incentivizing you to do? He is incentivizing you to lie. And that's the kind of environment that exists in the society. If you just expose the facts, there will be disdain and discarding and disapproval. Whereas you are considered respectable and acceptable, if you just keep presenting pleasant lies.

Is that not what most youngsters do to their parents? I mean, come on, when you speak to your parents on phone, do you disclose facts? Really? Not that you really want to lie. It's just that the fact would be unacceptable there. Even though it's such a harmless fact nothing. I'm there in the shopping mall. The fact is this. But it's 10pm and mumma, coming from a Vaishnav of background, thinks that you know, the girl should be back maximum by 4pm. 10pm is Armageddon, worse than World War 3? So she will ask, what is this loud music blaring in the background? No, no, Mumma, it's my roommate. Nothing. He is sitting at an eatery, that's all. Now what's so scandalous about an eatery? But mumma cannot accept it. So you are forced to lie and continuously lying to others others, others, others. It becomes a habit to lie to yourself. And that's why I become so angry at parents. The ones who do not know life and yet try to bring one more life to this world. They teach you to lie, though they will ostensibly tell you always speak the truth. But through their sanctions and beliefs and rigid opinions, they are the ones who train you into all kinds of lies. And you become a habitual liar. And then that habit of lying turns inwards also.

You just forget, continuously you are telling others continuously. You didn't take the shower in the morning, but since the morning, 40 times you have told 40 respectable persons that you have taken a bath. By the time you reach evening, you'd have forgotten that you have not taken a bath. And you will start believing actually within yourself, that you did take the shower in the morning. That's how it happens.

One of the markers of good company is you don't have to lie there. Good company is where even your worst part is not frowned upon. If anything is frowned upon, it is dishonesty. If you lie about something that you did, then the other might frown, and that is okay. But he will not frown upon what you did. He will frown upon the fact that you hid what you did. These are two very different things, right? One is doing something what you can call as bad, and the other is hiding it. A good relationship is where you are not supposed to hide things.

The articles of association of the partnership do not include a clause that says, we will present agreeable faces to each other. You can present your most disagreeable self to the other. And all that the other would say is, I will help you in overcoming it. He will not say, no, no, no. If it exists, hide it. I am not strong enough to accept that you have a face like that. The fellow says, I am strong enough to accept whatever follies you carry. And then I'm also strong enough to lend you a hand to overcome all that. I'm not saying that the fellow should say, okay, fine, I have seen your ugly and evil face and let it remain that way. He's not saying this. What is he saying?

He's saying, first of all, yes, like a doctor, I'm all right with you exposing the disease to me, right? You go to a doctor and you expose some rotten part of your body to the doctor. And the doctor says, what nonsense rascal, bastard, get lost. What kind of doctor is that? And anything can be there. You know, we are very colorful people. You go to a gynecologist and the gynecologist just explodes. He says, what have you done? Where have you done? I'm not a doctor, I'm a priest. Doctor first of all is fine with looking at your reports. Your body, whatever it is, even if your numbers are way off the mark, something should be within some three units of something. And your report says it is, instead of three units, it is 3,000 units. The doctor will not run away, nor will the doctor shoot you in the head, nor will he call the police. The doctor will say, fine, I have seen this, now I will treat you. That's the marker of a good relationship.

You can come and be naked in front of me. You don't need to hide or pretend. And after that, it's not that I will say, remain this way. Now that I have known your weakness, your suffering, I'll assist you in overcoming it. Are you getting it? The right relationship with desire. And it is because of this right relationship that the Vedas finally climax into the Upanishads. Had they not had the right relationship, the Upanishads would have been difficult to come. It is possible that posterity will remember only the Upanishads. It is very much possible that the Vedas will be remembered only through the Vedanta and as Vedanta, it is possible.

But still we must remember that the credit belongs to the entire process, not just the fruit. The credit belongs to the entire tree, not just the fruit. Though obviously no one brings the entire tree home. What do you bring home? Just the fruit. That's fine. That's fine. Bring home the Upanishads, but also maintain a certain gratitude to the Vedas. That's fine.

Now that's the context in which the current verse reveals itself. Shri Krishna is saying that the Knower, the Gyani, the Brahmagyani, the Brahmagya, who is being represented as the Brahman here, Brahman, not as a particular varana or caste, but as Brahmagya, the Knower of Brahma. He does not have much to do with the Vedas. That's what this verse is saying today.

In a poetic flourish, Shri Krishna puts it this way. He says, you know, if the entire surface of the whole planet were covered with water, how much would a sane person have to do with a limited pool of water? If there is an infinite supply of water on this planet, how much would a sane person or a Gyani have to do with a small pool or pond? How much? Not much, he says, that's how much the Knower must have to do with the Vedas. But this is addressed to the Knower, the Jnani. The Jnani. Are you getting it?

I'll read it aloud. If the earth is completely drowned in water obviously, then the kind of use one has of small wells, lakes, pools, etc.; the self-aware the atma-gyani has only that much concern with the Vedas. Now this verse is set at the point of deboarding. It applies only to those who boarded, completed and now they must deboard. It does not apply to those who have not even reached the airport, who are still snoring in their beds. This does not apply to those.

He said once you have totally taken in the Upanishads, so much so that the Upanishads have gone in and reduced you, dissolved you, you have become the Upanishads. Then things that deal with fulfillment of desire. And all these gods and goddesses and Prakriti, you are left with not much to do with them. Do you get this? You are beyond that now. That's the whole, whole thing about the path of knowledge. Knowledge, meaning self-knowledge. Once you know what lies within, then what lies outside does not remain as significant, as important, as compelling, as charming and as overpowering and overwhelming anymore. And that is freedom. Who wants to be overpowered?

Desire is actually when an object overpowers you, it takes control of you. It starts deciding, dictating your steps, your moves and maneuvers. That's desire. An object getting totally on top of you. So you have your life. You have your life that is full of desires. Right? Now your purpose is to go to the Upanishads. The Karma Kaand part won't teach you much. Why?

Because what you find there is something that you already have. What do you find there? Poetic play of desires. Can I get this? Can I get that? But that is something that you already have. That's the point you already are at, no? Are you not doing the same things? Are you already not doing the same things? So what kind of spiritual progress can you get by repeating what you are already doing?

The Upanishads stand at a point that's higher than you. They will be of help. No kind of nature worship is going to help you. No kind of ideation, meditation, image worship is going to help you. Because that is something that you are already doing. Are you not worshipping images? Come on? One day I'll be the CEO. What are you worshipping? Think the image of the CEO. Because you are not the CEO right now. But what do you have? An image of the CEO? So image worship is something you are already doing. What can you gain by worshipping a few more images?

Nature worship is something you are already doing, are you not? Everything is Prakriti. So even that palace of your dreams is Prakriti. So that's nature worship. And for young people, everything is Prakriti. So the body of your beloved again is. And that's what you worship, right? In the name of love, the body. So we are already nature worshippers. Be it money, be it prestige, or be it sex, what are we worshipping? Prakriti.

If you are already doing that, no point repeating that. So that cannot be religion then. Because religion is supposed to take you from a point where you are to a point where you are not. Religion is not about circumambulating your own current place. If you are here and your Lok Dharmic processes are about, Babaji is nodding again and getting offended. You are here, right? And if your Lok Dharam is about, how will it help you? You are already here. So the religion that you need is of the Upanishads, not of Karmakand. That's what Shri Krishna is teaching Arjuna here. Arjuna, what will you do with the Vedas? And when Shri Krishna says Vedas, what does he mean here? Karmakand.

In fact, you know, still there is a school of thought that does not include the Upanishads in the Vedas. They say only the mantras are the Vedas. In fact, chances are if you go and if you buy a copy of the Vedas, it may not include the Upanishads. Because in the popular mind the Upanishads are separate. So if you go and if you say fine Rigveda, they'll give you Rigveda without the Upanishads. So when Shri Krishna is saying how much can you have to do with the Vedas, he is discarding the Karmakand part because that is what is typically called the Ved. Are you getting it?

Ved to you should mean Vedanta, Upanishad. And that's coming from no lower a source than Krishna himself. Shri Krishna himself is saying, and you have seen this being addressed earlier as well where he was saying, if your mind is full of all the verses of the Vedas that deal with desire fulfillment, you will never come to understand what I am telling you Arjun, remember that verse?

Who are the people who never understand Shri Krishna? The ones whose minds are full of Karmakand. If your mind is full of Karmakand, Shri Krishna himself has very clearly said, you will never understand the Gita because Karma Kand deals with desire. Whatever you do, you do for the sake of desire. So you are going, right? And circumambulating a tree. Parikrama, is that Nishkam ever? Let's say all those women who are doing it, ask them why are you doing it? And they'll tell you the reason is this will give me something. My husband will get some long life from this. There is desire. There is no ritual, not a single ritual that is not associated with desire. And the central message of Gita is desirelessness. And that's why Lok Dharm and Gita do not go together. Because Lok Dharm is all about desire fulfillment.

You create gods who are supposed to fulfill desires full stop. Think of a single God who does not fulfill desires. God or Goddess. Therefore Gita does not talk of Gods and Goddesses. Gita talks of your self, Aham and says the Aham has to look into itself and be gone. You can take this as a community exercise. Ten rituals that you know of and the desires they are supposed to fulfill. Ten rituals that are practiced at your place or region, house, locality, religion, whatever. Take ten rituals and in front of each write the desire that they are supposed to fulfill and you'll be amazed not a single ritual is about desirelessness. Clear?

The next verse is one of the juiciest we can get in the Gita. So I resisted my temptation to come too early to it. Though the current verse we had taken up in some way in the previous session also. The next verse is special. We'll come to it in the next session.

show_less