THE CHIDAKASHA GITA
OF BHAGAWAN NITYANANDA OF GANESHPURI
Verses 151-175 With Commentary by Kedarji

151. If you keep a seed safe in a box, it will not yield plenty. If you sow it in the earth and cultivate it, one seed yields thousands. From one lamp, you can light a thousand lamps. One tree produces thousands of flowers. Flower is the downward state. The tree is the upward state.

Commentary: It does not take many seeds to create others. Even one seed sown in the earth will yield thousands more. From the flame in one lamp you can light thousands of lamps, just as even one tree will produce thousands of flowers.

In the same way, it does not take many people to change the consciousness of the masses. Even one Siddha can affect transformation in the lives of thousands. We should all become like those saints, those perfected beings, by inquiring as to the true nature of their state inside. Rather than becoming attached to the objects and forms of this world, we should seek to know the upward state that is Supreme Consciousness dwelling inside a human being.

152. If we sow a gold coin in the earth, it will never sprout.

Commentary: A gold coin will not multiply into other gold coins if we put it in the earth. That would be the wrong way to invest it and a waste of time. To make a gold coin multiply, you have to invest it properly.

In the same way, if we invest our entire being in sense pleasures and worldly pleasures, and if we only establish an intellectual understanding of God, these will never transform us. We will never know our true worth, our real value, our own Divinity. In order to experience our own worth, we have to go to the right place inside our own being and merge with the Absolute there. We should invest our time and our entire being in this way.

153. A lifeless thing is soundless. It is gross. A living thing has Shabda-Brahma. The universe is nothing but Consciousness. When you build a house, you must first lay a foundation and afterwards, raise the walls. So also, there is no effect without a cause.

Commentary: Just as something that is dead cannot produce a sound, an object (person, place or thing) has no life without God. In living beings and things, there is the existence of the primordial sound Om, Shabda-Brahma. The Universe is nothing but this Supreme I-Consciousness pulsating as Om.

Contracting to become the sound inherent in living things, Shakti takes all the forms of existence. It is this Spanda Shakti that is the cause. Objects are only reflections or effects of this unifying God-principle. Without Shakti, the energy substratum of everything, nothing can exist anywhere.

Therefore, God himself is inherent in all forms, sentient and insentient. As in the building of a house, society must be built on a solid foundation that is imbued with the recognition of the Supreme Self. Otherwise there can be no real intelligence.

154. Those who are physically blind have no knowledge of forms. To such, light is of no use. Those who have destroyed mental modifications, have destroyed all desires. Such people are not subject to dreams.

Commentary: To the blind, everything and everyone is absent of form. A blind person has no use for light. Similarly, a Siddha who has destroyed all mental modifications and notions of this and that, a spiritually-perfected being who has destroyed all expectations of sense pleasures and worldly pleasures, no longer has use for craving or desire. Such a person is not subject to the manifestations of the restless mind in the waking state or in dreams and is not subject to pleasure and pain.

155. Those who do not breathe through the nose, have no desires of any sort. Their breath is purely internal. They concentrate their breath in the Brahmarandhra where the Ida and the Pingala meet. They have realized the Great Self. They look upon all things as Self. This is Swarajya (Self government). What is Swarajya is Jiva’s true place. The light of life is Prana Vayu. Prana Vayu is the capitol of Swarajya government. Atman is the lord of the Swarajya government. Swarajya is one’s own energy. This energy must be kept under perfect control. What is Swarajya is not a hill; it is not gold. Keeping under control both desire and anger is Swarajya. A man must say what he does and do what he says.

Commentary: A realized being, is one who has mastered Sushumna breathing, also called internal breathing. For such a being, the breath moves upward in the Sushumna automatically. This breathing is not the external breathing through the nose or mouth. It is spontaneous Kumbhaka where Prana is concentrated in the Sahasrar where the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna meet.

One who has mastered this Prana Vayu is a God-realized being. Such a person sees all as her very own Self, as God. This state is the birthright of all souls. It is your place and the goal of all life. This state allows you to govern your mind and your senses so that you are able to maintain Equality Consciousness. This Equality Consciousness is self-governance (Swarajya) and it allows you to keep your ego and senses in check so that you vibrate at the highest level of Consciousness.

156. If you are afraid of water, you cannot cross a river in a boat. If you are afraid of fire, you cannot heat water. Fear must be banished. To accomplish anything worth doing, one must be thoroughly fearless. Mind is the cause of anything we do.

Commentary: Fear prevents transformation and, therefore, should be removed completely. In order to accomplish anything in life, you have to be fearless. In spiritual life also, in order to make progress in Sadhana, you have to destroy your fears. Action is filtered through the mind. For this reason, the mind has to become very focused. It cannot maintain focus when fear exists. So, one of the primary goals of spiritual practice is to remove fear.

With the primary goal of the destruction of the ego-idea attained, you automatically become fearless.

157. On a mango tree, all fruits do not grow at the same time and ripen at the same time. First, we have the tender fruit. By and by, the fruit ripens. The ripe fruit is eatable. So also, men must be like mangoes. In every respect, we must cultivate peace.

Commentary: In Sadhana (spiritual practice), people advance at different rates, depending on their personalities and their discipline in practice. The goal of Sadhana is peace. One’s Sadhana has ripened when one experiences Supreme peace inside and begins to operate from that place of peace in every situation and circumstance. In every respect, we must cultivate peace.

158. The head is the mango. In it, is the sweet ambrosia. This ambrosia is the essence of the five senses. This ambrosia is the supreme energy in man.

Commentary: Like the inside of a ripe mango, the delicious “fruit” of Yoga is in the head, in the Crown Chakra. In this Chakra is the sweet ambrosia of Chit Shakti. This Chiti is the essence and cause of the five senses. It is nectar, the Supreme energy in all human beings.

159. A house in which there is no lamp at night has no beauty. Whatever the nature of a house, the house is perishable. What a lamp is to a house, is Jnana to the body. The light is the light of Kundalini. A thing hidden in mire, fetches no value. When it is recovered from mire, all make use of it. If you discover a diamond in mire, you do not throw it away.

Commentary: If you were to walk around your house at night without light, you would not be able to see the objects there. It’s the light that allows you to see in the dark, not the house with its objects. In fact, without light, nothing would have any value since you wouldn’t be able to see it to attach any value to it.

So, the house and its objects are perishable and really have no value. It’s the Light that has worth. In the same way, the physical body has no value. It is perishable. It only has worth because there is the Light of Knowledge (wisdom) inside it. Without that Jnana, the body would not exist. That Light is Kundalini, the rising Shakti that leads one on the royal road back to God. Like discovering a diamond in the dirt, discover your very own Self inside your being. All can make use of that!

160. A man falls into a well. We should take him up, not allowing him to die. We must not think that a man will always be bad. We must try to correct him.

Commentary: Many sway off the spiritual path and many are completely ignorant of the fact that such a path even exists. We should not think badly of such people. We should have compassion for even the worst in character. Regardless of past deeds, anyone can be transformed by the hand of God. We must try to bring such people to the spiritual path, by way of the living Sadguru.

161. If any powder falls into the eye, our attention is turned on the eye. Similarly, if our outer attention is directed inwards, it is called introversion (internal sight). Ignorance is like a casket of powder. The possessor of a box only knows what is contained in it. Others do not know it. The real wealth is the energy of life. Intelligence is the box. The box is locked after the wealth is stored in it. Locking the box is giving the Manas its proper place in the head. That thing received is the soul in man. Turn your soul to God within yourself. Realize internally your own secret. The universe is in you and you are in the universe. The inner man is the ONE in All. He who is “there” and He who is “here” is the ONE and the SAME.

Commentary: What’s inside is what is of value. A box containing powder owes its value to the powder inside. In the same way, what’s inside a human body is of real value. By turning your entire attention within, through Meditation, you can come to experience your real value, your real worth, by going inside.

Ignorance is the state that most people are in. People walk around not knowing who they really are. The possessor of the powder box is the only one who knows what’s inside it. Similarly, the Supreme Being who created and owns all bodies, all forms, is the only One who knows the real value and purpose of such forms. That Supreme Being dwells inside you and if you turn your mind within by Meditating, you gradually come to realize the secret; that you and that Supreme being are One in the same.

The real wealth is the energy of life known as Shakti. This energy substratum of everything is locked inside your body also. To come to know it is a process of closing off or locking the doors to the outside world so that you can direct that energy inside and keep it focused there. Once your individual intelligence is merged in this Shakti, the mind is trained to focus on it, to see God everywhere at all times.

162. The supreme light is the universal light. O Mind! Abolish the idea of “otherness.” Have the idea of “sameness.”

Commentary: The Supreme Light is the Universal Light that is the cause and substance of every form in this universe. O Mind! Abolish the idea of difference. Abolish the idea of separateness and imperfection. Have the conviction that you and God are one in the same, and that you exist eternally, everywhere and in everyone.

163. When you were born, you were born with breath. When you leave this world, you leave breath only. This body of earth, you never made it nor can you take it along with you. That which Shiva gave us is the same in all beings, both mobile and immobile. All seeds have the same power in them. The subtle in seeds is one. There is difference in their behavior only. The delusion of the mind is not permanent but transient. What can be seen and heard is all transient.

Commentary: When you were born, you were born because the breath, Prana, entered your body. When you leave this world, you leave in the form of the breath that carries The City of Eight from your body to the next realm. You did not make Earth or anything in it and you cannot take any of it with you.

This earthly realm belongs to Shiva (God). Shiva has given all beings, sentient and insentient, the same Shakti, the same Divine Conscious Energy. This Spanda or Chiti is the subtle element common to all living things and inanimate objects.

The only difference is an insignificant one in that, owing to Shiva’s Maya, we perceive that these things have different behaviors and different uses. These perceived differences are actually delusions brought about by thinking and our superimposing from past impressions left behind on the mind. The mind sees and hears and processes experience. It is transient and these experiences are also transient. They are of Maya and are not real.

164. When we call a man “pariah,” it is nothing but mental delusion. A piece of cloth goes equally well into the mouth of a “pariah” or “brahmin.” A Brahmin does not use even the chunam touched by a pariah. He does not sit on the same mat with a pariah. Some one acts like this; another sees it or hears of it and he blindly imitates it.

Commentary: Seeing differences in others is not only delusion but it is stupidity. Considering yourself to be better than others, to be of a superior race, to have a better set of genes, to be of a better quality of ethnicity; these are foolish notions that will keep you separate from God.

In many societies there have been caste systems that place one group or race of people below another. This notion is still prevalent today, even in countries like the USA where racial discrimination and Eugenics are outlawed. The problem is ignorant people are copycats. They see the wealthy and most revered people of the society behaving in this foolish manner, and they blindly imitate it.

Wake up! It is only God staring back at you through the eyes of that person you claim to be inferior. God alone walks among us.

165. Those who call another a “pariah” are themselves pariahs. Suppose there is a bunch of plantains. From the plantains of the same bunch, we prepare various sorts of eatables. The plantain is a fruit. If it is cut into slices and fried, it is no longer called a plantain. It is called “fried slices.” So also, variously named preparations are made from plantains (of the same bunch). In the beginning, there was only one bunch. Preparations are manifold. The original form is one only. So also, in all creatures, the sound of Omkar is the one only.

Commentary: Those who discriminate against others are themselves the lowest of the low. One who knows God has Equality Consciousness and believes this to be the most important. Plantain is a fruit that, when cut up and cooked in different ways, is called by different names. But it is still plantain, no matter what people may call it when it is made into a particular dish.

In the same way, in this Universe there is only God whose existence is first known by the sound of OM. This reverberation of Om, this God, this Shiva is the only thing that truly exists. It is Shiva who becomes this manifold universe. However, although Shiva, the Supreme Self takes many forms, those forms are all Shiva, the Primordial Being whose sound is OM. So, in all creatures, OM is the only one, the ONE in all.

166. There is a station where four railroads meet. One train goes to Calcutta, another to Bombay, a third to Madras. They all start from one station and they reach one station only. Similarly is Maya. Maya is born of us and it disappears in us. It is like butter in milk. Butter emanates from milk and it merges in milk. The sayings of a great sage last long. Even if there is none to hear them, they continue to live long.

Commentary: Like trains that all leave from the same station and then return there at the end of their runs, so too, Shiva’s Maya emanates from that one Spanda Shakti and returns there. Maya, which is this world-appearance or the perception of activity, this Maya unfolds from inside each of us and dissolves there. It is like butter in milk. Butter emanates from milk and it merges in milk. This teaching is the Truth experienced by sages. This teaching survives all the four Yugas (ages of existence). Even when the Universe is dissolved in Shiva for a time, this teaching remains, even if none exist to hear it.

167. There was a bare plain. There a traveler’s bungalow was erected. Scarcely two days had passed, a meeting was held there. Chunam was used to cement the stones. The walls were all white washed. On the very day of white washing, a meeting was held. A certain cooli was appointed to warn the people, attending the meeting, lest their feet and bodies be besmeared with the chunam.

 The meeting was over and all the people dispersed. But the cooli stayed behind. Afterwards, many a meeting was held in the bungalow. There was no body in the bungalow to tell the cooli, “You were engaged with a certain salary a month. Now take your salary up today and go away. From tomorrow, your services are not required.” Yet the cooli continues to do his duty.

 So is a Jnani in the midst of worldly people. There are many people in this world who behave like the people in this bungalow. They are ignorant of the subtle. They are ignorant of what karma is. Hence the comparison of the world to this bungalow.

Commentary: In this story, Sri Bhagawan is comparing the bungalow to the human body and to this world. The cooli is likened to the Siddha who warns people not to become attached to worldliness. The chunam is likened to the dross of worldliness, with attachment to the senses and to worldly pleasures that cause people to believe they are the body and that the goal of life is the pursuit of the pleasure and pain they experience in this world.

The ignorant wander through life like the travelers visiting that bungalow. They return, again and again, to the body to live out their karmas, not realizing that those karmas, that which causes them to return to the cycle of birth and death over and over again, are due to their own ignorance of who they really are. The Siddha, like the cooli in the story, even without compensation of any kind, continues to live in God and to share knowledge of the Truth with others. The duty of those who are God-realized is to lead others.

168. In a similar way, you must understand all matters. One is standing still. Another is working. All are imitating one another. They are ignorant of both justice and injustice. After knowing justice, they will not stoop to injustice. For a just man, it is very difficult to do injustice. Such a man will never tell a lie, even though his tongue were to be torn asunder. An unjust man wants everything. A just man wants nothing. He is not afraid of anyone. The whole world is in him. The minds of the unjust people are in the world. It is the duty of every human being to know what is justice and what is injustice.

Commentary: It is important for you to understand the essence and workings of Shiva’s Maya that is this world-appearance. In this world appearance, people who do not have the direct knowledge and experience of God resort to imitating each other. These people are ignorant of the fact that God’s Will is justice. Because they don’t understand this, they commit actions believing that they each are the doer of those actions.

This ignorance leads to a lack of discrimination that eventually leads to injustice. After becoming absorbed in God, a person will not stoop to injustice. Such a Jnani understands that her thoughts, speech and actions create a vibration that reverberates in this world-appearance and, therefore, she does not want to commit actions that will create a useless or harmful reverberation in Consciousness.

Such a person is also virtuous and will not harm others by lying. A Jnani has no desire for sense pleasures and worldly pleasures. He has no fear either. The entire world is in him. The minds of unjust people are absorbed in worldliness and the pursuit of pleasure and pain. Your life exists so that you can retrace your steps back to God. In this way, you will come to know for yourself what is justice and what is injustice. It is your duty to know these two.

169. Rivers and streamlets enter into the sea and there become one. Similarly, finite things become one in the infinite. Dualism loses itself in monism. Monism is oneness. This realization of the oneness is the most supreme.

Commentary: All forms and creatures in this universe are finite. Duality is transient also. All these are reflections of Supreme Consciousness. Just as rivers and streamlets enter into the sea, all sentient and insentient beings, and all perceived duality emanates from and is reabsorbed back into Shiva, the great ocean of Consciousness. This is Monism. Realization of God in this way is the most Supreme.

170. After a man has realized the oneness, he will no longer be born. Those who are immovably fixed in the idea of oneness die only when they desire to die. Such men are perfectly desireless. Realization of oneness is the most subtle one. What is the samesightedness (the indivisible sight) is realizing the Atman in all.

This equality consists in realizing the one in the many. This is known as introspection. When the next world and this world are realized as one and the same, a man has attained same-sightedness. This is also called the union of Jivatma and the Paramatma. What is Jiva is mental modifications (vrittis). Paramatman is the Great Silence, who is above the three qualities. He knows not good and evil, cold and heat. He is qualityless, formless. He is No-Thing.

Commentary: Once Liberated, a yogi is not born again. Such a person leaves his body only when he decides it is time for him to pass. A Liberated being, a Siddha, is perfectly desireless and has complete samesightedness, seeing God in everything and everyone, everywhere. This is the subtle realization that such a Siddha has attained.

The Liberated yogi has complete Equality Consciousness. This Equality Consciousness consists of seeing God in all things. This is known as true introspection. When you realize that this world-appearance is a reflection of the next world, the inner realm of God, when you realize that all this is contained inside the body of Supreme Consciousness you attain samesightedness with the realization “As there, so here.” This is the union of Shakti and Shiva, the union of the individual intellect with the divine Buddhi or will of God.

The Jiva, the individual bound soul, is a mass of mental modifications, an entity filled with notions and ideas that are limiting by their very nature. Paramatman, God, is the Great Silence who is above the three Gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas). Paramshiva (the formless absolute) does not experience good and evil nor cold or heat as such. The Absolute, Paramshiva has no qualities. That is formless. That is no thing. Shiva Consciousness is the Consciousness or outlook of this formless Absolute, God.

171. If you cover your body, then the more you will feel the cold. Those who decorate their bodies, feel the prouder. It is very difficult to banish the ego from us. Whitewashing is required for the inside of the wall more than the outside. The outer cleaning is to show to others but the inward cleanliness is for one’s own benefit.

Commentary: The ego is very subtle and resists purification. For this reason it is difficult to banish. Attachment to the body, attachment to outer appearances and objects of desire, all these feed the ego and serve to further taint it with impurities. Just as the inside of a wall requires more attention and cleaning, our inner state requires much more attention than our outer appearance. Purifying the ego is for one’s own benefit. This requires Sadhana. It begins with the desire to purge ourselves of ignorance of the Truth. This is an inner process and it is most important.

172. All is He, pervading everything. He is the One, pervading all creatures. Qualityless, the one Omkar, one, whose form is everlasting peace. Blesser of those who have faith in Him. The same being punishes those who ridicule His devotees. He makes the death of His devotees easy. O Shiva! Do not lead me towards hell but lead me towards You. The giver is Shiva.

Commentary: All is Shiva Consciousness (God). The Absolute formless God known also as Paramshiva pervades everything. He is the ONE pervading all creatures. Shiva is the one without qualities. He is Omkar (the reverberation of the Mantra Om). Shiva is everlasting peace. He blesses those who cultivate Faith in him and punishes those who ridicule and harm His disciples. He makes the passing from the body of his disciples effortless. O Shiva! Do not lead me towards hell but lead me towards You. The giver is Shiva.

173. A dead thing is without motion. It is soundless. A living thing has the delusion of sound. It has consciousness. Conscious creatures have impressions and movements. Creatures, conscious of sound, have the delusion of sound. They have the light of Brahma in them. Consciousness of creatures is light.

 Men know the distinction between justice and injustice. Lower animals have no distinction of such a sort. Man stands at the head of all creation. There is nothing impossible for man in this world. Man is in the universe and the universe is in man. Man is the greatest of animals.

 Mind in man is fickle. In man, both this world and the next, merge. Shivaloka is the third (divine) eye. The Shiva nerve is the Sushumna nerve, also called the Brahma nerve. The lord of Shivaloka is nothing but Shiva-Shakti (Shiva’s energy). What is Maya is in Shiva. Shiva is not in Maya. Creation and destruction are both Maya caused by Him. In the Great Self, everything becomes latent-effect, soul, Manas, Brahma, waking consciousness, Taraka, sleep, extreme ignorance, and the whole of the external world.

Commentary: A dead thing is motionless and soundless because Chiti (the energy substratum of everything) has left it. The perception of sound (the delusion of sound), the ability to hear sound where it really does not exist, is caused by Chiti. Creatures have movement and impressions due to Chit Shakti. This energy is the Light of Divine Consciousness inside them. The awareness of forms is also the Light of God.

All human beings are endowed with a Conscience. Therefore, they know the distinction between justice and injustice and are able to embrace Conscience in the absence of the ego. Those with restless minds who are attached to egoism cannot make this distinction.

Human Beings are the greatest of all creatures. Nothing is impossible for them because they have the ability to realize God and become Liberated. The mind is fickle and must be made to dissolve in the highest reality, Shiva. Shivaloka, the plane of existence or abode of Shiva, is the realm entered when one’s Prana pierces the Ajna Chakra (third eye) fully. Entry into Shivaloka dawns on the yogi when Shakti purifies the central nerve (Sushumna) and then merges with Shiva in the Sahasrar.

The Shiva nerve is the Sushumna Nadi, also called the Brahma nerve. The lord of Shivaloka is nothing but Chiti or Shakti (Shiva’s energy). What is Maya (illusion) is in Shiva, the Supreme Self. The Self is the cause of Maya. Maya is not the cause by the Self, God. In Shiva, the entire universe is contained in seed form. All things external are reflections of the Supreme Subject, God, and cannot exist without God, That – the Supreme Self.

174. To probe into truth, requires subtle discrimination. This subtle discrimination is Upadhi. The subtle is hidden in the gross. The seat of Upadhi is the heart space. When the Kundalini is raised to the heart space in the head, then, the breath is single. In this highest state, one sees the universe in one’s Self. Then one sees everything in Him. All the multitudinous changes are seen in oneself. Feeling of duality is hell. Feeling of absolute oneness is Mukti. Absolute Bhakti (love) is Mukti. Perfect peace, never perturbed peace, is the goal of man.

 This is Yogananda, Paramananda. The ocean is bigger than all the rivers. The sea is almost boundless. You cannot measure the water of the ocean. It is not possible to practice Bhakti, leaving off Samsara. Being in Samsara, we must attain Mukti by being “this thing” and by doing “that thing.” What is desire is Samsara. Desirelessness is Mukti. Then, one will enjoy eternal bliss, eternal wisdom bliss. Eternal peace that is the highest bliss, is the goal of man. When the mind is swimming in eternal bliss, it is known as Mukti. Bhakti is the state of eternal bliss.

Commentary: Upadhi is known as subtle discrimination. It actually refers to the seat of all discernment, THAT which has the power to discriminate because it is beyond Shiva’s Maya. This is Upadhi. You have to be tuned in to this place, this Upadhi, in order to understand the Truth.

That which is immanent in the world, also known as the gross, contains within it the Supreme “I” Consciousness of God. It is to this transcendental aspect of existence, residing in the heart of all living beings, that we must turn. The heart space of a human being is in the head, the seat of Upadhi, the last of the three Shiva linghams in the subtle body, where Shiva sits eagerly awaiting his Goddess, Kundalini Shakti. When Shakti is united with Shiva in the head, then by raising the breath to the Sahasrar through internal (sushumna) breathing, you experience the highest state (Turyatita) and experience the entire Universe inside yourself.

In this state, you see God everywhere and in everything. In this highest state, one realizes that the Manifestation, Sustenance and Withdrawal of this world occurs inside ones’ own Self. Perfect peace is the goal of all human life. This perfect peace is attained by merging your individual identity into the ocean of Shiva Consciousness.

This merger takes place by cultivating Bhakti; complete Devotion and Surrender to God. Bhakti cannot be cultivated by removing yourself from the world, nor your worldly responsibilities. The test of true Bhakti is attaining mad Love and Devotion for God and for the Guru, while fulfilling your worldly responsibilities.

This means contact with Samsara, contact with the forms of this world without becoming of the world. It is only in this way that you can relinquish desire and merge with the eternal Bliss of the Absolute. This Bliss is the goal of your life. When you are able to dissolve the mind in this indescribable Joy on a permanent basis, that is Bhakti, that is Liberation.

175. God is in bliss. In God, is bliss. That is the nectar of wisdom. In that nectar, is joy. When we approach that nectar, we experience joy.

Commentary: God is Bliss and Bliss is God. The state of Bliss is Shiva’s very nature and it is the nectar of wisdom. In that nectar is the Joy of the Self. When we approach Shiva, the Supreme Self, we experience pure Joy. This is the purpose of Sadhana.

Verses 1-25, Verses 26-50, Verses 51-75,

Verses 76-100, Verses 101-125, Verses 126-150,

Verses 151-175, Verses 176-200, Verses 201-225,

Verses 226-250, Verses 251-286.