Highest Wisdom Blog

It is hard to believe, but there was a time when landing on the moon was quite beyond the imagination of man. Before that, there was a time – once again, difficult to imagine – when flying was beyond man’s comprehension. Just about a hundred years ago, people used to laugh at the Wright Brothers and considered their attempts to fly foolhardy. Similarly, before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 or JL Baird invented the television in the 1920s, talking to someone situated miles away or seeing people and events from all over the world, seated comfortably at home would have seemed a mere fantasy. Today we accept all this and much more as a matter of routine.

Mankind is now about to witness a discovery, which could be the most significant of all discoveries made so far. Like all revolutionary discoveries of the past, this, too, will at first have its share of disbelief and opposition. But if this is the truth, that mankind has been searching for since the beginning of time, it will soon come to be accepted quite like the so-called modern day ‘miracles’ such as the airplane, mobile phone, television and computer.

This discovery is a secret science that can free mankind from sorrow, disease, old age and death and make him immortal. This secret science will enable mankind to become worry less, disease less and age less whereby we will remain ever youthful in absolute peace and happiness. This knowledge and science will free man from death, thus enabling him to live forever. This knowledge and wisdom has been lying hidden in our holy scriptures for the past thousands of years, but as its true understanding has not been available, we have not benefited from it.

The truth that all scriptures unequivocally declare and which man has to realise in order to become free from sorrow, old age and death, is that he is not man but God. He is the very God who first created matter and the universe, and then the bodies to live in and enjoy His creation. The same God who pervades all also dwells in all bodies. However the ego or sense of I-ness in the body deludes him and he looks at the body as ‘I’ or man/woman and fails to realise that he is God. This ignorance or lack of self-knowledge is the singular cause of all the problems and sufferings of human beings.

Another facet of the truth that we have to realise is that we, the beings never die or cease to exist, but only change bodies birth after birth. When a body is worn out, the being who is eternal leaves that body and enters a new one. This leads to the inevitable question: If the human being is God and eternal living being, who enters a new body after leaving the old one, why can’t he save his body from perishing and live in the same body forever, free from old age and death?

The Bhagavad Gita, the holy book that contains the teachings of Lord Krishna, elucidates why this eternal being perishes and changes bodies and also shows the way to overcome this cycle of birth, death and rebirth. It reveals that the God, who has assumed the human form, has eightfold nature comprising five gross elements (earth, fire, water, air, ether) mind, intellect and the ego (Verse 7:4). As long as this eightfold nature of the being is intact he remains living and dwells in the body. He perishes when his intellect is lost due to attachment and desire (Verses 2:62-63). The eternal Self or being then leaves the body with the senses and the mind and goes to another body (Verse 15:8).

Revealing the cause of death, verses 2:62-63 of the Gita say that when the being performs actions with his mind on the objects, he develops an attachment to the objects. Attachment gives rise to desire, desire to anger, anger to delusion, delusion to confusion of memory and confusion of memory to the loss of intellect. When the intellect is lost, being’s eightfold form perishes. The eternal Self or being then leaves the body and goes to a new one.

Man, who is in fact God, can save himself from perishing by steadying his intellect. A person, who steadies his intellect will not perish or change the body. He will become a non-perishable being and dwell in the same body. The being can steady his intellect by becoming free from desire and ego and by realising that he is God and an eternal living being, not ‘I’/body – a man or a woman.

Becoming free from the desire and ego does not mean abstaining from the enjoyment of the objects. To steady the intellect and become a non-perishable being, a person does not have to bring any change in his actions or lifestyle. He has to continue to perform all actions and enjoy all the objects as usual. What he has to do is to become free from desire and yearning for the objects. It is not the enjoyment of objects but it is the desire for them that leads to anger, delusion, confusion of memory, loss of intellect and death. A person who frees himself from desire and the ego will become a non-perishable being and yet he will continue to enjoy all objects. As against this a person who abstains from the enjoyment of some objects but keeps desiring them is deluded by untruth and meets with death.

To become free from desire and the ego and to attain eternal peace and happiness, Lord Krishna has declared a way in the Bhagavad Gita, which is called Yog. Yog is a science that was once known to the royal sages. With time this science was lost to the world and was not known to any person when Lord Krishna declared it again to Arjun about 5,000 years ago. This is said to be Dharma or righteousness and is very easy to practise. So far man has not been able to derive any benefit from this sovereign knowledge since it could not be understood. The understanding of Yog is now available, thereby making it possible for a person to practise it and attain freedom from desire, ego and death and live forever in peace. Life on planet earth is destined for a big leap. From a perishable being the humans will ascend to the state of the non-perishable and that of the Supreme Imperishable Beings who can live until dissolution and even beyond. And for this, all they have to do is to understand the words of God, perform actions by Yog and free themselves from desire and the ego and attain the Bhava of alikeness to all, realising that all beings are God.

We are presently living in the era of ignorance, known as kaliyug, where man does not have self-realisation. He does not know that he is God. He does not know that all human beings are fragments of the same self or God that first created the matter and universe and then the bodies for Him to live in and enjoy His creation. He does not know that the all-pervading God that has to be attained by him is the self-knowledge and the wisdom of sameness towards all beings with the realisation that all are God. He does not know that when he becomes free from the ego and realises that he and all other beings are same or God, he will have attained God. He does not know that by attaining self-realization and becoming same to all beings, just like God, he can be free from sorrow, old age and death and become immortal. Having attained self-realisation that he and all other beings are God he will stop changing the bodies in constant births and shall live in the same body forever.

Verses 7:4-5 of the Gita reveal that God has two kinds of nature – lower and higher. The ego in the lower nature of God subjects him to constant births and to sorrow and suffering in each birth. On the one hand, the lower nature of being/God and resultant lack of self-realization is the cause of sorrow, diseases, ageing and death and on the other hand, it is responsible for all the conflicts in the world. The conflicts and crimes take place in the world simply because the beings look at themselves as ‘I’ or different men and women and do not have the self-realization that they are same or God. When the beings will know, understand and practice the science of yog, they will attain self-realization. They will then be freed from sorrow, ageing and death and the world will then enter a new age, known as Satyug, where all beings will live in peace, happiness and oneness, having realized that all are God.