ENERGY

ENHANCEMENT MEDITATION

MEDITATION HEAD

 HOME PAGE

 

GAIN ENERGY APPRENTICE LEVEL1

THE ENERGY BLOCKAGE REMOVAL PROCESS

LEVEL2

THE KARMA CLEARING PROCESS APPRENTICE LEVEL3

MASTERY OF  RELATIONSHIPS TANTRA APPRENTICE LEVEL4

 

STUDENTS EXPERIENCES  2005 AND 2006

 

MORE STUDENTS EXPERIENCES

 - FIFTY FULL TESTIMONIALS

2003 COURSE

Krishna

THE MAN AND HIS PHILOSOPHY

Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself

Question 1

 

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Question 1

QUESTIONER: AS YOUR DISCOURSE GATHERS MOMENTUM WE ARE CARRIED AWAY WITH IT, WE GIVE UP RESISTING IT, RATHER WE TRY TO FLOW WITH YOU. BUT OUR DIFFICULTY IS THAT YOUR ENERGY IS SO POWERFUL THAT WE CANNOT KEEP PACE WITH YOU. IN THE BOOK NAMED "THE WAY OF THE WHITE CLOUD" IT IS SAID, "SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE MAN, THE SUBJECT, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, THAT IS OBJECT. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE MAN. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY BOTH THE MAN AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES. AND SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY NEITHER THE MAN NOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES." YOU SPOKE ABOUT SHREE ARVIND THIS MORNING. I AGREE WITH YOU TO A LARGE EXTENT, BUT I HAVE SOME RESERVATIONS IN REGARD TO YOUR INTERPRETATION OF ARVIND SEEING VISIONS OF KRISHNA. THEN YOU SAY IT IS MEANINGLESS TO QUOTE SCRIPTURES LIKE THE VEDAS AND THE UPANISHADS IN SUPPORT OF WHAT ONE HAS TO SAY, BECAUSE IT REFLECTS ONE'S INFERIORITY COMPLEX. BUT KRISHNA THINKS DIFFERENTLY. HE SAYS TO ARJUNA, "I TEACH YOU THE KNOWLEDGE, THE WISDOM THAT IS AVAILABLE TO ME FROM ANADIKAL OR TIME INFINITE." KRISHNA ASSERTS THAT THE WISDOM HE BRINGS TO THIS EARTH BELONGS TO INFINITY. BUT BUDDHA CLAIMS THAT HIS WISDOM IS FOUNDED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, ALTHOUGH HIS CONCEPT OF NIRVANA OR ULTIMATE FREEDOM IS THE SAME AS IS FORMULATED BY THE FIRST UPANISHAD AND THE BHAGWAD GEETA. AND DR. RADHAKRISHNAN SAYS THAT BUDDHA'S TEACHINGS ARE NOTHING BUT EXTENSIONS OF UPANISHADIC PRINCIPLES. UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, IT IS DIFFICULT TO VOUCH FOR ONE'S AUTHENTICITY. WE FIND OURSELVES IN DIFFICULTY IN REGARD TO YOUR STYLE, THE WAY YOU SPEAK. IT SEEMS YOU OVERWHELM US WITH YOUR LOGIC, BUT WHEN YOU COME TO FACTS THINGS BECOME EASIER FOR US. WHEN I CAME HERE I HAD A FEELING THAT COMING IN CONTACT WITH RAJNEESH, THE ICE OF MY EGO WILL MELT AND DISAPPEAR. AND IT IS TRUE THAT MY EGO HAS DIMINISHED TO A LARGE EXTENT. PLEASE COMMENT.

Truth is beginningless.

The UPANISHAD'S word anadi does not mean old, it means beginningless. Anadi means that which has no be ginning, the beginningless. It does not mean ancient as you seem to think. However old and ancient a thing may be, it has a beginning, but truth has no beginning. And that which becomes old cannot be truth, because truth is now, in this moment.

Truth is neither new nor old. What is called a new truth is going to become old in the future. What is now called old was new sometime in the past, and what is new today will grow old tomorrow. It is in the nature of things that everything new becomes old. Truth is neither of the two; truth is eternal. Or you can say that which is eternal is truth. So anadi means the eternal, not old and ancient.

When Krishna says, "I teach the truth that is ANADI," it does not mean that he is talking about some old and ancient truth. Krishna means to say that which is, is truth. He says, "I teach you the eternal truth." Those who knew it in the past -- if they really knew it -- knew the truth that is eternal. And those who know it today -- if they really know it -- know the same eternal truth. And those who will know it in the future, if they really know, it will be the same truth that is without beginning and without end. Only falsehood can be old and new; truth cannot be new or old.

Of course, there are two ways of saying the truth.

When Buddha speaks about truth he does not refer to all those who have known truth in the past, there is no need. When he knows truth on his own, he need not produce witnesses in his support; that would make no difference whatsoever. What he knows he knows; witnesses are not going to add anything to it. Even a thousand names of people who have known truth will not add one iota to the measure of Buddha's truth, nor will they add to the glory and grandeur of truth itself. That is why Buddha says it directly as he has known it.

And Buddha does so deliberately; there is a good reason why he does not mention the names of the old seers. In Buddha's time these authoritative names were being misused and they carried a danger with them. Remember, whenever Buddha said something he always asked his listeners not to accept it just because somebody else knows and says it. He always warned his listeners against authority. Throughout his life, Buddha insisted that unless someone knows truth on his own, he should not accept it as true on the authority of others -- including Buddha.

Buddha is speaking to seekers; his listeners are all seekers of truth. They are very different from Krishna's solitary listener, Arjuna. It is essential for a master to ask his disciples, the seekers of truth not to accept anything, not to believe just because he says it. If they believe something as true, they cannot go on the quest for truth. And if Buddha cites authorities in his support he is laying a precedent for coming generations to cite him as an authority. So he steers clear of all previous authorities and says plainly, "I say to you what I have known, but don't accept it until you know it for yourselves."

But Krishna speaks to an altogether different kind of person, his listener is not a seeker of truth, he is not on an adventure to find truth. Arjuna is quite different from the disciples of Buddha. Arjuna is not seeking truth, he is confused and deluded. The situation of imminent war has overcome him with weakness and fear. So Krishna is not interested in unveiling and exposing truth to its roots -- he only tells him what truth is.

Arjuna has not come to him for truth; he wants Krishna to dispel his confusion and fear. There fore Krishna says that what he is saying has been said by many others in the past. If Arjuna happened to be a seeker. Krishna would certainly ask him to prepare himself for an encounter with truth. But Arjuna wants only to understand what reality is; he is not prepared to go in search of truth. He is not in an ashram or a monastery to learn truth from a master; he is preparing to wage war. And being confronted with the special conditions of the Mahabharat he is frightened and depressed. So Krishna, in order to dispel his despondency and bolster his morale, tells him that what he is saying has the support of many wise men of the past, that it is the eternal wisdom.

This kind of teaching has relevance and meaning for Arjuna. If Arjuna had come to him on his own with a desire to find truth, it would have been altogether different. But this is not the case. That is why Krishna explains to him the long tradition of truth so that Arjuna can grasp it properly.

There is yet another reason for Krishna's taking this approach.

If a person goes to Buddha, he goes as a disciple, as one surrendered to him. Arjuna is Krishna's friend, he is not surrendered to him. Much depends on particular situations and relationships. While Buddha's disciples accept what he says, his own wife refuses to take him at his word. When Buddha returns home after twelve years -- during which time he is widely known as the Buddha, the awakened one, and people from all over have come to his feet in search of the truth he has known and proclaimed -- his wife Yashodhara, on meeting him, refuses to accept him as Buddha. She takes him to be the same person who had left his home stealthily in the dead of night twelve years ago. And she resumes the argument from that very point. She is as angry as she was the following morning when she had come to know how her husband had deserted her, and she vehemently accuses Buddha of betraying her.

Buddha's wife has her own characteristics. If Buddha tells her straight off that he is now a Buddha, she would say, "Don't talk nonsense, I know who you are. Nobody is a Buddha." If Buddha has to communicate with his wife he will do it very differently, because she is altogether different from his devotees and other seekers. There is a sweet story related with this episode.

When Buddha initiated Ananda into sannyas, because he was his elder cousin, Ananda exacted three promises from him. At the time of initiation he said to Buddha, "Before I become your disciple, I would like to have a few assurances from you. Since I am your elder cousin brother, I am your senior and am in a position to command you to do certain things. Once I become your disciple, your junior, I will lose that status; then you will be in a position to command me and I will do your bidding. Right now you are my younger cousin brother, so give me three promises." Buddha asked him what his desires were.

Ananda said, "Firstly, I will always be with you from morning to morning; you will never send me away from you on an errand. Secondly, if I bring any visitors to you -- even at odd hours of the night -- you will never say no to them. And you will answer every question I will put to you at any time and place. And thirdly, I will attend, if I want to, even your very private and confidential discussions with your visitors." Being the younger brother, Buddha not only accepted Ananda's conditions, he honored them throughout his life. He never felt any difficulty about it.

But when he returned to his home town after twelve years and was going to visit his wife, Yashodhara, these promises given to Ananda years ago came in the way. Ananda, as usual, wanted to be with him during his meeting with his wife, but for the first time Buddha felt embarrassed. He said to Ananda, "Just think, I am going to visit her after twelve long years. And for her I am not Buddha, but the same old Gautam Siddhartha, her husband who left her in the dead of night without informing her. And you know she is a proud woman and she will take offense if you come with me; she will think it is a strategy to prevent her from expressing all her bottled-up resentment and frustration. sorrow and suffering. I am aware of my promise, but I beg of you not to insist on it for once."

This is a very sensitive and delicate moment and Buddha's response to it is so human and beautiful. When Ananda reminds him that he has transcended all associations and attachments -- no one is now a wife or a son to him -- Buddha tells him, "This is quite true, Ananda, as far as I am concerned. But for Yashodhara I am her husband, and it is not in my hands to undo it."

Ananda keeps out of Buddha's way. 'When Buddha meets Yashodhara the expected happens. She bursts out crying; all the pent-up anger and pain and agony she has silently suffered for twelve years comes out in a torrent. Her outburst is quite justifiable. Buddha listens to her very silently. When she quiets down and wipes away her tears, Buddha says to her very gently, "Yashodhara, look at me attentively. I am not the same person who had left you twelve years back. I don't come back to you as your husband, the husband is no more. I am altogether different. You talked so long to the departed one; now you can talk to me."

The relationship between Krishna and Arjuna is radically different; they are friends. They have played and gossiped together as intimate pals. If Krishna tells him only this much, "I speak about the truth that I have known," Arjuna will retort, "I know you and your truth." So he has to say, "What I say is the same truth that has been said by many other seers. Don't take it amiss because it comes to you from a friend. What I say is really significant."

The GEETA is the product of a particular situation; and this has to be borne in mind, otherwise there is much room for misunderstanding. Buddha's situation is different from Krishna's. He can afford to say, "What I say is truth; I am not concerned with what others say about it. And I also urge you not to accept it on my authority. You need to come to it on your own." And it is not an egoist's statement. An egoist would insist on being accepted as an authority. Buddha is simply stating his individual experience to stimulate the thirst for truth in his listeners. He tells them again not to take it as a belief, but go on their own search for truth. But he is also clear that what he says is his own experience. This is simply a state, ment of fact.

We are aware that what Buddha says has been said by others too. We know that the Vedas and UPANISHADS have already said what Buddha says. But why doesn't Buddha say so? There are reasons for it, and the reasons are inherent in the conditions of Buddha's time. By the time of Buddha, the tradition of the Vedas and UPANISHADS had completely degenerated and decayed, it was really corrupt and rotten. To say a word in favor of these old scriptures was tantamount to providing support to a decadent and rotting tradition. Knowing well that the Vedas and the UPANISHADS contained the same truth, Buddha could not take their support. Because it was with their support that a monster of falsehoods, superstitions and crass hypocrisy was stalking the land, mercilessly exploiting and oppressing the people. That is why he kept quiet about them.

It is not that Buddha is not aware that the Vedas and UPANISHADS contain the truth. But it often happens in history that when a new Buddha comes he has to fight and uproot many old truths, because being old they get so badly mixed up with falsehoods that to support them would automatically strengthen those lies.

Krishna did not have to face such a situation. In his time the tradition of the Vedas and the UPANISHADS was very much alive. It was really at the height of its glory, absolutely unpolluted and pure. For this very reason we say Krishna's Geeta is the quintessence of the Vedas and the UPANISHADS. In fact, we can say Krishna himself is the embodiment of the great culture which had come out of these scriptures. Krishna reflects all that is essential and basic to that culture; he comes at a time when the Vedic civilization was at its zenith. Buddha comes when it had touched its nadir. It was the same culture, but Buddha had to witness its utter decadence and degradation, when the brahmins had ceased to be knowers of truth and instead were busy exploiting people in the name of God and religion. Every conceivable filth and ugliness, corruption and depravity had entered this culture, which now had nothing to do with religion.

Krishna represents the summit of UPANISHADIC teachings. In his times the UPANISHADS have touched the pinnacle of attainment and splendor. The light of knowledge emanating from them is spreading in all directions, and their perfume is everywhere in the air. The UPANISHADS are not a dead thing, they are fully alive and youthful and their music can be heard even in the bushes and shrubs of the land. So when Krishna talks about them, he is not talking about something old and dead; he is talking about something which is in the prime of its youth.

But by the time Buddha comes, twenty-five hundred years after Krishna, the whole tradition is dying and rotting, only its corpse is Lying before him. Clearly, Buddha cannot invoke their support. It is not out of any arrogance that he declares his truth on his own.

At the same time there is nothing egoistic about Krishna when he seeks the support of the old seers and their sayings.

 

Next: Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 2

 

Energy Enhancement           Enlightened Texts            Krishna            Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy

 

 

Chapter 17

 

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 1
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 1, AS YOUR DISCOURSE GATHERS MOMENTUM WE ARE CARRIED AWAY WITH IT, WE GIVE UP RESISTING IT, RATHER WE TRY TO FLOW WITH YOU. BUT OUR DIFFICULTY IS THAT YOUR ENERGY IS SO POWERFUL THAT WE CANNOT KEEP PACE WITH YOU. IN THE BOOK NAMED 'THE WAY OF THE WHITE CLOUD' IT IS SAID, 'SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE MAN, THE SUBJECT, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, THAT IS OBJECT. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY THE CIRCUMSTANCES, BUT DO NOT TAKE AWAY THE MAN. SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY BOTH THE MAN AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES. AND SOMETIMES I TAKE AWAY NEITHER THE MAN NOR THE CIRCUMSTANCES.' YOU SPOKE ABOUT SHREE ARVIND THIS MORNING. I AGREE WITH YOU TO A LARGE EXTENT, BUT I HAVE SOME RESERVATIONS IN REGARD TO YOUR INTERPRETATION OF ARVIND SEEING VISIONS OF KRISHNA at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 2
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 2, KRISHNA, IN CHAPTER TEN OF THE GEETA DESCRIBES HIMSELF TO BE THE GANGES AMONG THE RIVERS, THE SPRING AMONG THE SEASONS, THE LION AMONG THE BEASTS, THE GARUDA OR EAGLE AMONG THE BIRDS, THE EIRAWAT AMONG THE ELEPHANTS, THE KAMDHENU AMONG THE COWS, VASUKI AMONG THE SNAKES, AND SO ON. DOES IT MEAN THAT HE IS TRYING TO DECLARE HIMSELF TO BE THE BEST AND THE GREATEST IN ALL CREATION? DOES IT ALSO MEAN THAT HE REFUSES TO REPRESENT ALL THAT IS LOWLY AND BASE? WHY DOES HE EXCLUDE THE MEANEST OF US ALL? AND WHERE DOES THE MEANEST BELONG? at energyenhancement.org

  • Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 3
    Krishna, Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy Chapter 17: Don't Imitate, Just be Yourself, Question 3, THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THE LIFE OF EVERY GREAT MAN. WHILE ONE SIDE IS PERSONAL AND PRIVATE, THE OTHER IS OPEN, PUBLIC. THESE FEW DAYS THAT YOU HAVE BEEN TALKING TO US ABOUT KRISHNA, WE HAVE BEEN HELPED TO UNDERSTAND SOME FEATURES OF HIS LIFE WHICH ARE SUCH THAT IF WE TRY TO IMITATE HIM TODAY WE WILL AT ONCE BE OSTRACIZED BY THE SOCIETY. WE CANNOT PLAY PRANKS WITH OUR GIRLFRIENDS IN THE STREETS; WE CANNOT RUN AWAY WITH THEIR CLOTHES WHILE THEY ARE BATHING IN A SWIMMING POOL; WE CANNOT DANCE WITH OUR RADHAS AS KRISHNA DANCES WITH HIS RADHA WHO IS HIS GIRLFRIEND, NOT HIS WIFE -- EVEN IF WE ARE DEEP IN LOVE WITH THEM. BUT ANOTHER SIDE OF KRISHNA'S LIFE IS ABOVE-BOARD. HIS SAYINGS HAVE TREMENDOUS RELEVANCE FOR ALL TIMES -- PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE. AND IT IS IN THIS CONTEXT THAT WE REQUEST YOU TO SHED LIGHT ON HIS PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE, ON HIS DISCIPLINE OF WORK, KNOWLEDGE AND NON-ATTACHMENT, AND HIS ART OF LIVING, SO THAT WE CAN EMULATE HIM IN OUR DAY TO DAY LIFE at energyenhancement.org

 

 

 
ENERGY ENHANCEMENT
TESTIMONIALS
EE LEVEL1   EE LEVEL2
EE LEVEL3   EE LEVEL4   EE FAQS
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
NAME:
EMAIL:

Google

Search energyenhancement.org Search web