The Gita's Four Basic Conflicts of Life: END) - Swami Krishnananda.

=================================================================================================

Saturday 25, April 2026, 07:20.
Article
Scriptures
The Gita's Four Basic Conflicts of Life: 3.
Swami Krishnananda.
Spoken to a French-speaking group on December 28th, 1972).

==================================================================================================

Now, the Bhagavadgita tells how this can be achieved. In the beginning, you have an aspiration for the Supreme Being or the Absolute. That is why you have come to India, for example. But you cannot get this so easily because it requires a long period of training and discipline. When you undergo this discipline for a long period of time, you will become frightened and feel that it is impossible. If I ask you to stay here for one year and practise this discipline, you will be afraid of it and want to go home as early as possible. This condition is described in the first chapter of the Bhagavadgita, when you feel like doing something but you cannot really do it. The majority of people in the world are in this condition only. They want truth but cannot get it because the subconscious mind revolts against their higher aspirations.

The second chapter of the Gita says that this mood of fear and anxiety can be overcome if there is a master or a guide or a spiritual teacher. The spiritual path is difficult to tread without a proper guide. We cannot tread this merely by studying books because we need the guidance of a person who has already walked this path. The second chapter introduces us into the great teaching which the master of yoga, Sri Krishna, gives, and here the master tells us that all our efforts should be based on knowledge. Actions not based on knowledge will not lead to success. What succeeds is not activity, but knowledge of activity. As a matter of fact, the whole gospel of the Bhagavadgita is nothing but the technique of the blending of knowledge and activity. We have a wrong notion about both knowledge and activity. We usually think that knowledge means not doing anything, and activity means working without knowledge. Sri Krishna tells us that knowledge does not mean understanding without work, nor does work mean activity without knowledge. It is very difficult to understand what knowledge and action are. Action is the outward expression of knowledge, and knowledge is the inner reality of action. Now, this may be said to be the central theme of the Bhagavadgita.

When action is based on knowledge, then we gain an inner strength to conduct ourselves properly in the outer world. From the second to the sixth chapter of the Gita we are told how the individual personality can be disciplined in the process of the blending of knowledge and action. In this blend of knowledge and action, we enter into the stage of meditation. The sixth chapter of the Gita explains what meditation is. In our meditations we cannot ignore the outer universe. Many people think that meditation is a personal, private activity of the individual. From the seventh chapter onwards, the Gita tells us that meditation is an activity of the coordination of the individual with the universe. So meditation does not mean our private work in our room, but a universal activity of the mind. From the seventh to the eleventh chapter of the Gita we have an exposition of the gradual unification of the individual with the universal. As a matter of fact, when the individual unites itself with the universal, the spiritual automatically manifests itself. So the individual, the universal and the spiritual ultimately mean one and the same thing in this sense.

In the twelfth chapter of the Gita, we are given the technique of various processes of spiritual practice to bring about this unification, and from the thirteenth chapter onwards until the end of the Gita we have a beautiful exposition of how we can live in this world with this universal knowledge. It is only with this knowledge that we can redeem the world and do social work. It means to say, we cannot do any good work in the world unless we are a superman. Just as we cannot get a good job or a high post in the government or in society unless we are properly educated in a college or a university, we cannot have success in social life and in the world unless we are trained in the field of the spirit. The Bhagavadgita gospel, therefore, prepares us for living a universal life in this world. So the yoga of the Bhagavadgita is inclusive of social work, social service, individual peace, as well as God-realisation. This is the most complete exposition of yoga anywhere in the world. To know this truth you have come from France to India. Please let me know if you have understood this or not. Anyone can speak to me if they have not understood what I said. I have given you an ocean and don't know whether you have understood it. It is an ocean wherein you can drown or swim happily.

So, you're coming to India is in one sense successful because you have heard such interesting things. You have understood the whole thing but you cannot practice it on account of your old habits persisting. To overcome the old habits you have to sit for meditation every day. Please make a note of what I have told you and think of these points every day in your meditation, without break. You should sit for meditation at least for one hour every day. You should not say, “I have no time.” You must find time. You can select any time that is convenient, morning or evening, but one hour of sitting is absolutely essential. If you have undesirable habits, give them up. Give up three things: smoking, drinking and eating meat. This itself will be 25% of success. Then your mind will become calm; otherwise, it will be disturbed in meditation. You should not tell lies. You must always tell truths. Don't do harm to anybody either in thought or word or deed, and control your senses as much as possible.

There is a Sanskrit word called brahmacharya, which means control of all the senses and conservation of energy of the system. Without practising these things, meditation will not be successful. Otherwise, it will be like building a house on the surface of the ocean; it will sink in. Brahmacharya means all-round control of the senses, conservation of energy, not telling lies, not hurting others, not eating meat and not smoking or drinking. These are essential before meditation; otherwise, your meditation will be like putting on a beautiful shirt when you have got typhoid fever inside. You will be suffering in spite of your meditations because you are not following the techniques.

Now I have told you everything. Nothing is left in outline. The Gita wants you to think of the world as you think of your own self. The whole of Indian culture and philosophy centres around a single term called the Self or the Atman, and the whole of the culture of India, including its social and political setup, is contained in this single term 'Self'. This word Self includes everything that is conceivable by the human mind – economic progress, social progress, political progress, personal, philosophical, moral, intellectual and spiritual progress. But you will be surprised as to how this concept of Self can include so many things. This doubt arises in the mind because we have a wrong notion of what the Self is. The term Self that is used in this context is different from the grammatical connotation of the word 'self'. We generally use the word 'self' when referring to our own self as yourself, myself, himself, herself, etc. This common notion of the self seems to be connected with the bodily individuality of people. That is why I refer to myself, yourself, himself, herself as the self. This would mean that there are many selfs, like myself, yourself, himself, etc., but the Self is not manifold as we usually imagine.

The metaphysical concept of the Self is different from the grammatical connotation of it. The term Self does not imply individuality or bodily personality, but a peculiar state of consciousness. The Self as the centre of consciousness implies absence of externality and objectivity. You can imagine how this can be because when you say you are a particular self, you refer to yourself as incapable of being externalised into an object. Consciousness cannot be externalised because consciousness is indivisible. If you imagine that consciousness can be divided, you have also to imagine that there is a gap between one part of consciousness and another part of consciousness. Now the question is, who is it that is aware of the gap between two parts of consciousness? Naturally, consciousness alone is conscious of the gap between the two parts of itself. That means consciousness is present even in the gap between its two parts. This is another way of saying that there is no gap at all in consciousness. If consciousness has no gaps, or it is indivisible, naturally it is universal.

Everyone in the world refers to himself or herself as the Self. This Selfhood is applicable not only to conscious beings but also to inorganic material entities, and if the Selfhood can be attributed to everything in the world, it means the whole world is filled with Self alone. Since this Self is inseparable from consciousness, it is implied that the whole world is filled with one conscious Self, but on account of an ignorance or a misconception in the mind we imagine that there are objects outside the Self.

END.

============================================================================================================