"By your very Nature, You are Inclutched
Being ‘Unclutched’ is the state where you are free and liberated. Let me expand on the word
‘Unclutching.’ If you observe your mind keenly, you will see that you are constantly connecting all your
thoughts and creating links in your mind.
For example, the headache that happened ten years ago, five years ago and yesterday are all independent
experiences. For easy reference, you categorize all these into ‘headache,’ just like you file documents in your
office. By and by, you start believing all these experiences are connected. When you start believing they are
connected you create a shaft.
You connect all painful memories, create a pain shaft and conclude, ‘My life is suffering, my life is pain.’
Now when you start believing your whole life is suffering, you have created a pain shaft and you are waiting
only for painful incidents in your life so that you can elongate that shaft. First understand, whatever you believe
is what you create within you and outside you. You will see that manifesting in your life over and over again.
That is why vedic ṛṣis, sages, say that you create what you want. By seeing, you create. You will wait
unconsciously for painful incidents to strengthen that belief, that life judgment.
Second thing, whenever you add the painful incidents unconsciously, you will be elongating that shaft, even
though you may want to consciously end the pain by breaking it. If you believe your whole life is a shaft of
joyful experiences, which we do very rarely, constantly you are in fear about whether the joy will continue. If
you believe life is a shaft of painful incidents, you do two things: Unconsciously you gather more and more
incidents and strengthen your faith about how your life is painful, and consciously you try to break the pain
shaft! If you believe life is a chain of joyful incidents, unconsciously you will be in fear that it will end, and
consciously you will try to prolong it. Understand these are two big dramas we are continuously enacting with
ourselves.
You forget that you can neither break the shaft nor elongate it because the shaft itself does not exist! The
shaft itself is your own imagination. Just try this experiment:
Sit down for ten minutes with a pen and paper. Now, just start jotting down whatever thoughts come to
your mind. Please do not edit your thoughts; write them down as they are. Do not judge yourself and do not
try to control what comes to your mind. If you try to judge, you are playing a hypocritical game with yourself.
Now, read whatever you have written. You can see for yourself how unconnected and illogical your thoughts
are! One moment you would think, ‘I think I should go to my office tomorrow,’ then the next minute, ‘No I
should just wake up and decide then,’ then, ‘What should I do about dinner tonight?’
Have you seen how the bubbles rise up in a fish tank? There is a gap between one bubble and the next.
But the gap is so small that it looks like a continuous stream. Similarly, there is a gap between one thought
and the next thought in your mind. Your thoughts are independent like the bubbles. By their very nature, your
thoughts are independent.
For example, if you see a dog in the street, suddenly you remember the pet you used to play with as a
child. Then you will remember the teacher, then the place where your teacher used to stay, and so on! The dog
and the teacher are not connected in any way, but your mind simply flows. Look a little deeply, you will
understand that your thoughts are illogical, independent and unconnected.
When you believe that your mind is logical, you have created the first ‘original sin’ for yourself. Understand,
by your very nature you are unclutched. Every moment you are renouncing the thoughts by your very nature.
A new thought can appear only when the old thought has been renounced. But even after renouncing them
you try to pick up the thoughts from the dustbin and try to create a shaft with them.
Listen, first understand consciously that you are creating a shaft of pain or a shaft of joy and trying to fight
with it, by either trying to elongate it or break it. Second, you don’t even have to unclutch yourself from the
shaft because the shaft is imaginary. By your very nature, if you stop creating a shaft, you are Unclutched.
That is what Kṛṣṇa means by action, karmaṇi and inaction, akarmaṇi. You cannot be inactive by nature.
You will daydream, clinging on to fantasies. You will try to escape from reality by deluding yourself, because
your mind is clutching onto a soft and easy dream shaft.
When you truly Unclutch, without any attachment to the past and future, you will realize that you are full of
energy. You will have to do something. That ‘something’ will be dictated by your present moment
completion, not by fantasies. What you think of as ‘you’ is not necessary to run your day-to-day life. This is
the basic truth.
In the process of Unclutching, you transcend both action and inaction, karmaṇi and akarmaṇi. You
successfully destroy the false cognition of the connection between the thoughts and rest in the present
moment, the space of completion, the state of no-mind, the state of dropping thoughts. In this unclutched
space, you are active and yet not attached to any activity. You are truly in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
That is what Kṛṣṇa says here: Be involved completely in the action yet be detached, independent and satisfied
within. Then you can function spontaneously, flowing in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a
celebration. Every single thing you do is an act of joy and an expression of the loving energy in you.
4.21 The person who acts without desire for the result; with his consciousness
controlling the mind,
giving up all sense of ownership over his possessions and body and only working, incurs
no sin.
4.22 He who is satisfied with profit which comes of its own accord and who has gone beyond duality,
who is free from envy,
Who is in equanimity both in success and failure, such a person though doing action, is never
affected.
4.23 The work of a liberated man who is unattached
to the modes of material nature and who is fully centered in the ultimate knowledge, who
works totally for the sake of sacrifice, merges entirely into the knowledge.
4.24 The offering, the butter offered to the Supreme in the fire of the Supreme is offered by the
Supreme.
Certainly, the Supreme can be reached by him who is absorbed completely in action.
4.25 Some yogis worship the gods by offering various sacrifices to them,
While others worship by offering sacrifices in the fire of the Supreme.
This very prāṇa, the life breath going inside your body is not your property. It is the property of Existence.
Your very life is a sheer gift to you from Existence. When you realize this, you will immediately see that all
your fears and worries and greed are so baseless.
The space you carry, the attitude, the intention, and the thoughts behind the action actually decide the energy
behind the action. The power of space and thought is immense. In fact, some of the latest research shows how
our DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies.
If you can complete with your greed and fear patterns, which is what we have normally, and create the space
of bliss or Ānanda, then your energy flow will start brimming and your thoughts will be authentic, your words
will be integrated and you will be more in the space of completion. When you do this, you have every power
to control outer world incidents because you and Existence have a very deep connection at the energy level.
When you are blissful, when the space you carry is not one of worry, fear and greed but one that is in the
present, always complete and joyful, you will automatically attract all good things to yourself.
When you practice Integrity with integrity, Authenticity with authenticity, Responsibility with
responsibility, and Enriching with enriching, you will simply have the four great powers—the power of
words—vāk siddhi, the power of thinking—mano siddhi, the power of feeling—prema siddhi, and the
power of living—ātma siddhi.
When you unlock the power of words, you will have the spontaneous intelligence to use the right and
most effective words towards yourself and others. Next, what is Authenticity? The decision of
authenticity has to come from your very soul. Your soul has to awaken. Till then, you may be
practicing a little authenticity in your yoga, or in your waking hours. But that is not completely
authentic. When your soul wakes up, only then do you become a completely authentic soul. When
you start practicing authenticity, your soul wakes up. Your being wakes up. When you discover
the power of thinking, you will be able to focus on your thoughts to achieve success in your job,
relationships, education, finances and life itself!
Authenticity is nothing but remembering that all powers are at your disposal. You can just
possess and express any power you want. With responsibility, the power of feeling, you will
learn to express these powers. The power of feeling teaches how to launch yourself to the next
level of life through empowered responsibility. And with enriching, you will truly be enjoying the
power of living when you realize that the greatest rewards come when you live your life for others.
Kṛṣṇa says here, ‘One who works for the sake of enriching sacrifice, merges into the knowledge—
yajñāyācarataḥ karma samagraṁ pravilīyate (4.23).’ Enrich just for the sake of enriching. All these parasite
patterns of jealousy and envy come when you think life has a goal and somebody else has been given
something more than you to reach the goal. When you understand that you are unique and Existence has
equipped you with all that you need to fulfill all your desires, you will actually be able to live life in completion
and work sincerely for the sake of enriching. Otherwise, you will only be running behind some goal or the
other. You will envy others who you think are closer to that goal towards which you are running. You will be
caught in this roller coaster of success and failure.
4.26 Some sacrifice the hearing process and other senses in the fire of equanimity. And others offer as
sacrifice the objects of the senses, such as sound, in the fire of the sacrifice.
4.27 One who is interested in knowledge offers all the actions due to the senses, including the action of
taking in the life breath into the fire of Yoga, and is engaged in the yoga of equanimity of the mind.
4.28 There is the sacrifice of material wealth, sacrifice through penance, sacrifice through yoga and
other sacrifices, while there is sacrifice through self-study and through strict vows.
4.29 There are others who sacrifice the life energy in the form of incoming breath and outgoing breath,
thus checking the movement of the incoming and outgoing breaths and controlling the breath.
4.30 There are others who sacrifice through controlled eating and offering the outgoing breath, life
energy. All these people know the meaning of sacrifice and are purified of sin or karma.
4.31 Having tasted the nectar of the results of such sacrifices, they go to the supreme eternal
consciousness.
This world is not for those who have not sacrificed. How can the other be, Arjuna?
4.32 Thus, there are many kinds of sacrifices born of work mentioned in the Vedas.
Knowing these, one will be liberated.
‘Sacrifice’, it is not just the act of giving, but the attitude of giving. Otherwise, you may do
everything, following all rituals according to the scriptures, but you will miss out on the real
intent for which the act had to be done.
Kṛṣṇa mentions many forms of sacrifice here. He talks of sacrifices of material wealth, yoga and
penance—a combination of material, physical, mental and spiritual sacrifices. When a person does
these at some cost and pain to himself, they would be genuine sacrifices. Otherwise they would
merely be meaningless rituals. However, even that which is given away by someone who can
afford what he is giving, if done with good intentions of enriching, would result in gains to that
person. His very intention to enrich will alter his mindset and liberate him. A person who does not
believe in sharing his wealth will not only suffer in future births as a result of his mental makeup,
but he will also be unable to enjoy his own wealth in his present birth.
4.33 O Parantapa (conqueror of foes), the sacrifice of wisdom is superior to the sacrifice of
material wealth.
After all, all activities totally end in wisdom.
4.34 Understand these truths by approaching a spiritual Master, by asking him your questions,
by offering service.
The enlightened person can initiate you into wisdom because he has seen the truth.
4.35 O Pāṇḍava, knowing this you will never suffer from desire or illusion,
You will know that all living beings are in the Supreme, in Me.
4.36 Even if you are the most sinful of all sinners,
You will certainly cross completely the ocean of miseries with the boat of knowledge.
Kṛṣṇa advises the seeker to sacrifice one’s knowledge and one’s intellect at His feet, at the feet of the
Master, to experience the ultimate Truth. Beautifully He says, ‘tad viddhi praṇipātena
paripraśnena sevayā (4.34).’ A Master is one who has experienced the truth and who can simply
transfer his experience of truth to you. He communes with you.
In Saṃskṛit, there are three beautiful words to describe this. You are born in the bhū garbha, the
womb of the mother; this signifies your physical birth. The teacher with his love and teachings
gives birth to you in the hrid garbha, the womb of the heart. The master gives birth to a completely
new you, a transformed being in the jñāna garbha, the womb of knowledge. You then become re-born, dvijā!"
-Bhagavan Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam – (Jeevan Mukti Bhashya)
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