THE CHIDAKASHA GITA OF
BHAGAWAN NITYANANDA OF GANESHPURI
Verses 26-50
With Commentary by Kedarji

26. When a seed is fried, it cannot sprout. When a lamp contains no oil, we do not call it a “lamp.” When the sun is shining, a gaslight becomes dim. It is the sun that gives light to the whole world. If Manas is regarded as the king, Buddhi may be regarded as the prime minister. When a tree does not bear fruits, it has no beauty. There is no effect without cause. In darkness light persists. Darkness is ignorance. Light is Jnana (knowledge). One must see the inner Self. One must return to the place from whence one started. One must follow a path and Master that will allow him to realize this completely. Only then can one go home.

Commentary: This entire Universe manifests, is sustained and withdrawn due to the existence of the Supreme Subject, the One Shiva-Shakti power. Without this light of God nothing shines and nothing can exist either. Can you see yourself if there is nothing to reflect your form? No. In the same way, all objects in this Universe are reflections of that Supreme Subject. Without the Supreme Subject, the object cannot exist and, in fact, objects (people, places and things) do not simply reside here in this world. They exist inside the body of Supreme Consciousness. Even darkness needs Divine light to be recognized as darkness. The form we are in is on loan from Supreme Principle. We must follow a path and Master that will allow us to realize this fact completely. Only then can we go home.

27. A Guru (spiritual teacher) will lead any sort of man from a thorny path to the royal road. Such preceptors are of two kinds. One is the primary preceptor and the other, the secondary preceptor. Mind is the primary preceptor and the other, the secondary preceptor. One is not the preceptor of the other. He is only the secondary preceptor. The secondary preceptor is one who shows the water in the well. The guru who exists in the heart of all beings is the Jagad-Guru (universal preceptor).

Commentary: On the spiritual path, the living Master is the means. A Shakta Adept who has the power to bestow Shaktipat can lead any person from the ignorance of his/her own delusion to the royal road to Self-realization. The Shiva-Shakti power is the primary Guru. This Supreme Principle exists in the heart of all living beings. The living Master is not the Guru to the Shiva-Shakti power. The cosmic mind, Shiva-Shakti, is the primary preceptor. The preceptor in the physical form of the Shakta Adept is the secondary preceptor. The secondary preceptor is spiritually-perfected Love being who has become the perfect reflection of the inner Self, and gives you Shaktipat and guides you in spiritual practice, until you are set on your own path. The secondary preceptor is that living Master who shows you the Self. The One Absolute Supreme Being takes the form of that Shakta Adept to bring you to Him.

28. People generally think that a teacher’s body is guru. A man does not become a guru by simply wearing sandals and counting beads on a rosary. One who talks “Brahma Jnana” and gives stones to his disciples is not a guru. Whatever a guru speaks in words, he must show it in action. First one must practice and after realization, he must begin to teach others.

Commentary: The Sadguru (true living Master) is not the physical body, but rather the Grace-bestowing power of God at work through the Master. Someone who has been ordained a monk and wears the clothes of a Sanyasi should not automatically be considered a Sadguru. Someone who teaches from the scriptures and tells you that he/she is all knowing, but cannot give you a direct experience of God and the guidance necessary for complete Liberation, must not be considered a Guru. Know the true living Master by the fact that his/her own actions are in alignment with his Liberated state and the teachings he espouses to you. The spiritual companion in the Self-Realized Love being is one who has attained the final state through his own spiritual practice, having followed the instruction of a Sadguru. Once Liberated, this person has an obligation to teach others and offer the guidance that will help people attain the same state of union with the inner Self.

29. One who has thoroughly wiped off the idea “I am the body” is fit to be called a guru. There is none higher than such a one. There is no God above such a Guru. Such a Guru is God, and God is such a Guru.

Commentary: The true living Master is one who has risen above body-consciousness and remains in a state of total ecstasy, in a state of complete intoxication with the Self. Such a being is one who has merged his identity in the Absolute. For a Sadguru, only God exists and this world does not exist, separate from that Supreme Principle. A Sadguru has risen above the limitation of the ego by the destruction of the false notion of individuality. Such a being knows from direct experience, that the body is merely a covering, a vehicle by which God comes and goes in this world-appearance. A Sadguru is not attached to his/her body, nor the senses. A spiritually-perfected being such as this is God. God expresses herself through such a being to bring His children back to Him.

30. If you keep sugar apart from us, we cannot have experience of its sweetness. If we eat it, then only we know its taste. A man cannot get Mukti if he simply repeats “Rama, Krishna, or Govinda” for a thousand years. He must repeat it heartily (knowing the secret).

Commentary: Sugar, apart from its sweetness, has no taste. We can only experience sugar and know what it is by tasting, and not by repeating “sugar, sugar” over and over again. Likewise, it is not possible to experience Mukti (Liberation) by simply repeating “Rama, Krishna, or Govinda” for even a thousand years (if this were so, Liberation could be had from simply reading a book, something we already know is not so). No matter how hard we try, we will not attain Liberation unless we are able to realize the potency of these mantras and the secret to their power. The potency of the Mantra is understood through Shaktipat and the instruction of a Shakta Adept in the use of Mantra. And the secret to the power of Mantra is Devotion to the deity of the mantra and complete identification with the deity of the Mantra when repeating it. These are easily understood through the instruction of a Sadguru.

31. Cow milk can never be bitter. The stone fixed in the earth cannot speak. By visiting places of pilgrimage like Benares and Rameshvaram, a man cannot attain Mukti. What is essential is keeping the mind steady for a moment by introversion. Seeing earthen and stone images is not seeing God. It is mind’s hallucination when you regard images as God. Without true Jnana, Mukti cannot be attained. Our taking the human birth is the effect. Giving it back is the cause. We must know the cause and effect. Likewise, we must know the good and the evil; the right and the wrong. Knowing all, peace must be attained.

Commentary: Everything is ordained by God. God’s law dictates how things work. The Will of the Supreme Being is evident in the manifestation of this world-appearance. Cow’s milk has its own taste which is recognized by the fact that it is not bitter. Stones can’t talk. In the same way that God has ordained that cow’s milk is not bitter and stones don’t talk, God has also laid down the means and approach for attaining Him. God cannot be known by worshipping an object without the knowledge of the Self, the higher power contained in the reflection we call ‘object.’ Likewise, pilgrimage to holy places is useless without direct knowledge of the inner Self.

The true pilgrimage, the real Dhyan and worship is the act of fixing the mind steadily on the Supreme Being inside yourself. This practice causes the mind to become quiet, and eventually to dissolve. Once this occurs on a constant basis, one merges with his/her natural, free to state of being inside and such a person becomes the place of all pilgrimages, the holiest of places. Taking a human birth is the effect of our past Karmas. The purpose of a human birth is to retrace our steps back to God. When we do this, we return to the Cause, the source of all that is. The purpose of life is to realize our oneness with That Shiva-Shakti power. Through this understanding you begin to cherish righteousness and Dharmic behavior. This is the way that peace is attained.

32. If a building has no doors, we cannot call it a “house.” Without fire, we cannot heat water. Without air, fire cannot burn. Without food and sleep, a man can live for a few days but without air (breathing), a man cannot live even for a few seconds.

Commentary: Just as a building without doors cannot be called a house, just as water cannot be heated without fire, and just as a fire cannot burn without air, a person cannot live without Prana (breath). This Prana is the means by which the Supreme Being comes and goes in the body. It is spiritual energy. Awareness of this Prana Shakti is the basis for the spiritual path. It cannot be said that you treading a path that will cause you to return to your primordial home, until Prana Shakti is awakened within you by the receipt of Shaktipat. This Shaktipat is given by a Shakta Adept or Shaktipat Guru. Having received this essential spiritual awakening, a yogi, by the Grace of that living Master, learns the true Pranayam. Only such a person can be said to be truly alive.

33. Destruction of the world means transforming it into Vayu (air with its blue color). Raja Yoga is the place of indivisible monism. If you enter the ONE, you lose sight of the MANY.

Commentary: When you dissolve your mind in Pranayam by directing Prana into the Sushumna Nadi and upwards to the Sahasrar, the world dissolves. This is what is meant by transforming the world into Vayu. True Pranayam is Raja Yoga. To have this experience and make it consistent, you have to receive and master instruction in Pranayam so that your mind becomes steadily absorbed in the Abode of the Heart. When your mind merges with the Absolute in this way, you lose all distinctions of “mine” and “yours.” You see only the One Universal Experient in everything and everyone, everywhere. And then you realize that the Self alone exists.

34. In the infinite, there is no finite. To a Jnani, there is no Ajnani. To an Ajnani, there is no Jnani. If all the children beat a mother, she does not throw them away.

Commentary: In Truth, God alone exists. All objects (people, places and things) in this world are mere reflections of the Supreme Subject, the One, Universal Experient. Because God alone exists, there is no limitation, nothing finite, in this Universe. How can that which has no beginning and no end be finite? One who has become absorbed in this Reality is a Jnani. Such a being sees only God in everything and everyone, everywhere. This is what is known as Equality Consciousness.

To one who is ignorant of the Truth (Ajnani), only ignorant people exist. One who is impure sees only impure people everywhere. The Ajnani does not know that God exists inside himself and he does not believe the spiritually-perfected Love beings (Sadgurus) to be real. Still, like a mother who shows compassion for all her children, even those children who abuse her, God accepts and embraces both the Jnani and the Ajnani as the same, and loves them both equally, as does the living Master. This provides the Ajnani with an open door, an open invitation to address his/her ignorance by embracing God.

35. You must not leave the feet of a Guru. Your mind should not flicker like the reflection of the sun in the shaking water.

Commentary: Once you have chosen your spiritual Mentor, the living Master, keep both your feet in his world. Once you have made the commitment to become Liberated from the bondage of ignorance, do not allow your mind to sway from the path and practices as instructed by the Master. Vigilance is an absolute necessity on the path to Self-realization.

36. The sea water is boundless. The tank water has a boundary. Our mind must be like the tank water. Mind is the cause of good and evil. A man may be good and bad according to his good or bad thoughts. God does not do good or evil to any man. The reason is, intelligence and knowledge are the divine faculties in man. A man protected by good thoughts, cannot be harmed even by a cannon shot. Without yoga, liberation from karma is impossible.

Commentary: Don’t take refuge in your mind. Take refuge in that One God, that ocean of Divine Consciousness that is beyond the mind. This is the only way to purify your mind. It is the only way to bring the restless mind under your control (like water in a tank) so that you can begin to master all the energies of your life. The mind is the cause of all good and bad actions and, therefore is the cause of all Karmas. These Karmas bind you to the cycle of birth and death. Within your being there is a Supreme Intelligence that is superior to your individual intelligence. It is superior to your mind because it is the witness to your mind. When your mind comes into contact with that Intelligence, it desires to become pure (Sattva Guna) and then merges into the Absolute. Such a pure mind will protect you from all harm. This is Yoga. Without Yoga, liberation from the cycle of birth and death is not possible.

37. Without knowing the secret (truth), if we simply decorate the exterior skin, our karma will not leave us. One cannot be a Sanyasi by external signs if he is internally a hypocrite. What you think, you must speak. What you speak, you must show by your acts. Do what you say. Say what you do. Such a man is a Jnani. He is a Paramahansa. He is a Yogi. He is a Sanyasi. One who has conquered desire is a true Sanyasi. Only a desireless man is fit to be a spiritual teacher.

Commentary: One should understand what Sanyas truly means. The world is full of monks who have taken vows and where orange or red robes (not to negate their worth, some who have taken the vows of monkhood are very great beings). This alone does not make them Sanyasins. True Sanyas occurs when one becomes a Liberated yogi. When you attain the state of Shiva Vyapti, the state in which you experience Bliss, Joy, Peace and total Freedom on a constant, uninterrupted basis, that is Sanyas.

Only then are you a Sanyasi. That is the secret. Such a being sees only God in everything and everyone, everywhere. Only a being like this can be called a Jnani, a Yogi a Paramahamsa. Whether wearing a loincloth, ochre robes, a business suit, a dress or moving about with no clothes on, a Sanyasi can be recognized by these qualities alone. Such a person is free from attachment to people, places and things. This freedom from attachment and worldliness is the way in which you can recognize a Sanyasi. Only a person like this can be a spiritual teacher, a Guru.

38. What is served for others should not be eaten by us. We must place a separate leaf for us and eat our food.

Commentary: Keep good company inside and out. This is the law for yogis. The beliefs, values and concepts perpetuated by those who are ignorant of the Truth should not be embraced by those who seek permanent spiritual transformation. For those on the spiritual path, you should “eat” the “food” that will take you to the opposite shore; you should embrace the values, beliefs and practices (and the lifestyle) that will take you to the inner Self.

39. There is nothing like “this one” has more and another has less. The power of thought, the ears, the nose, the hand, the eye, etc. are the same to all.

Commentary: No one is higher and no one is lower. That Shiva-Shakti power exists equally in everyone, everywhere. Shiva’s Chiti or Shakti expresses herself through a body that is the same for all.

40. The nose is not the place where the eye is. Walking should be done by the legs only. Work done by the hands cannot be done by the head.

Commentary: Everything has its time and place. In one stage of life, habits and desires for things from previous stages of life are naturally surrendered. This is the understanding of those who take complete refuge in God. In complete surrender to Shiva-Shakti, your own Divinity, this understanding comes easily and the mind becomes a serene place of peace.

41. The head is the ocean of Ananda (Bliss). In it is situated the Prana Linga, the seat of Liberation. This cannot be learned from books. It is inherent in the brain. The book consists of parts, but Jnana is the indivisible one. A book consists of chapters, but Jnana is single chaptered. For those who have not realized, a book is necessary. But to a man of realization, there is only one undivided being. When a man takes birth, he is not born with a book in his hand but he is born with the Supreme intelligence of the inner Self. While coming (to this world) and going away (from this world), a man has no book in his hand. Only in the middle period he takes a book.

Commentary: Books are born of the fluctuations in the mind. Some books, like scriptures and sacred texts, can be useful in directing the attention of the unenlightened to God. This is the purpose those books serve, to create understandings that, in turn, cultivates the desire for permanent spiritual transformation. In truth, all that is required for you to become liberated from ignorance of the inner Self is already contained within you.

The seed of Liberation and the destination of all spiritual practice is something you bring with you into this life and take with you when you die. The Prana Linga, the Lingam that is the form of the Shiva-Shakti power, is situated in the Sahasrar, the highest spiritual center. In this Chakra is a vibration that takes the form of a sound known as Bindu Nada. That sound also reverberates inside your brain. When Shakti merges into this spiritual center and takes up residence there, the uninterrupted state of rapture that is the nature of pure Bliss is attained. Purnaham Vimarsha, the state of Liberation, then dawns. This state cannot be taught in books and is beyond the reach of any language used in an attempt to describe it.

42. When a man is born, he is perfect. When he goes away then also, he is perfect. In the middle, he is subject to Maya. That which pervades in all directions is ONE, indivisible. That which is limited is divisible. 

Commentary: Maya is the illusion that a world actually exists. Maya is the plane of limitation that is subject to cause and effect, time and space and the limitations created by the false notion of individuality that give rise to the energy of egoism, attachment, attraction, aversion and the bondage created by the senses. A human being is only subject to these limitations while in the body. Karma is played out only after you have taken a form. Maya is limitation and, therefore, divisible. The Supreme Principle or inner Self, that which creates sustains and withdraws this entire Universe, is the One indivisible principle that pervades everything in all directions.

Chiti or Spanda Shakti is the cause of Shiva’s Maya. When you are born, you are perfect. At birth, you enter this field of Maya, ignorant of your Natural, Free state of Being. Due to this ignorance, your thinking and actions become tainted and you become imperfect. When you die, the thinking that produces this ignorance also dies, temporarily. You enter into that which is perfect, temporarily, and then your soul transmigrates to different realms, based on your Karmas, before returning here to take another form.

When, through the Grace of a Sadguru, you develop the constant awareness that you, yourself pervade the entire Universe, that you are That Shiva-Shakti power, you become perfect while still in the body. You leave this world Liberated, never to return to the cycle of birth and death.

43. At the place where there is running water, there can be no mud. The place is quite clean. Ignorance (Ajnana) is mud. The current of water is Bhakti and Jñana.

Commentary: Where there is complete knowledge and direct experience of the Supreme Principle, ignorance cannot exist. The ocean of Bliss that is Divine Consciousness is like running water that washes away mud. Mud is ignorance of the Truth (Ajñana). Bhakti, complete Devotion for God; and Jñana, the knowledge that rises from within after Shaktipat, as one practices the teachings of the living Master, these two are like the current of water that washes the mud away.

44. It is not Bhakti to give a man some money or to give him a meal as charity. Bhakti is universal love. Seeing God, in all beings, without the least idea of duality, is Bhakti.

Commentary: Seeing and experiencing this world, this Universe, as nothing other than a Play of Divine Consciousness where all people, places and things are that one Shiva-Shakti, seeing the entire Universe in this way is true Bhakti, true Love. This is a Love without distinctions. If you give someone a meal or money in an attempt to dissolve your own guilt or to make yourself feel good about the fact that you have given, if your ego is engaged in this way, it cannot be called Love. If, on the other hand, you give someone a meal or money with the understanding that it is God giving to God, then there is no duality in it and only Love is experienced. Ultimately, the greatest thing anyone can give to another is the example of seeing God in everything and everyone.

45. Without the control of breath (Pranayama), a man cannot be a yogi (a perfect man); nor is he a Sanyasi (saint). Without a rudder, it is impossible to steer a boat or ship.

Commentary: Pranayama, the process of directing the breath inside the Sushumna, is like the rudder that propels a boat. Without a rudder, the boat cannot move. Without Pranayam, as instructed by a Sadguru, one cannot practice Yoga properly nor become Self-realized. Awareness of the breath, along with the Mantra it sounds, is essential for guiding Kundalini Shakti to union with Shiva in the Sahasrar. One who has not perfected Pranayam cannot be a yogi and is not a Sanyasi either.

46. To a good man, every man is good; everything is good. A man can be good by his own exertion.

Commentary: For one who has experienced God everywhere, in everything and everyone, all people are good and all belong to God. To have this kind of Equality Consciousness, one must engage in spiritual practice (exertion) with discipline, under the direct guidance of a living Master.

47. We drink the juice of the sugar cane and throw away the refuse. Similarly, this body is a house for the Atman. When it is spoiled, we build a new one.

Commentary: To get sugar, we take what’s inside the shell of the sugar cane and we throw the shell, the empty cane stalk, away. We value what’s inside the shell and not the shell itself. In the same way, the body is merely a shell to house the Self, the All-Pervasive Consciousness. It is Shiva who comes and goes in this body. Therefore, the body is the temple of God. When the body withers and dies, we take another body and return to this plane of existence. The yogi should inquire into the nature of this process. Who has the power to come and go in this way?

48. It is the nest that perishes, not the bird. The nest is built of earth. The blood vessels and nerves are earth. In the blood vessels are the blood and semen. This body made of flesh is subject to death. If it is not washed for a single day, it stinks. We cannot trust the human body.

Commentary: This earth does not exist separate from the Self. It is really just a plane of existence. Like a bird’s nest, after a while, the body is abandoned by that Supreme Principle, but that Shiva-Shakti power, the one occupying it, remains. The body, too, is like the bird’s nest. It is subject to decay and dies, but the Supreme Principle that occupies the body remains untouched and is imperishable. Because the human body is a mere illusion, a shell that is fashioned into form and then destroyed over and over again, it cannot be trusted. One who is smart will place his/her trust in that which is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. God alone exists.

49. Mind is the creator of ideas. When the gross ideas are suppressed and the man lives in the subtle, this state is called “Nirvikalpa Samadhi” or Samadhi without ideas. Just as we teach a bird how to talk, keeping it in a cage with its feet bound, we must keep our mind in our Buddhi. A man must learn for himself.

Commentary: The mind weaves a countless number of fantasies and thoughts. By Meditation, you can remove all thoughts and notions from your mind. This thought-free state is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Just as one trains a bird to do what one wants and keeps the bird under control in a cage, one must also tame the restless mind and bring it under one’s control by immersing it in the Self. One should experience this for oneself.

50. Holding the nose with the hand, with eyes turned upwards and holding the breath in tight as if winding a clock spring with a key are similar to circus feats or a cinema show. These are not what is called “Samadhi.”

Commentary: A seeker of the Truth should exercise caution in how he/she goes about spiritual practice. There are many techniques that promise samadhi. In actuality, they are not only empty practices but some can be quite harmful. The state known as samadhi is a state of complete rapture and uninterrupted Bliss. It is a state in which the yogi’s identity with Shiva-Shakti is constant. It is a state in which there are no thoughts, no cravings, no desires and no expectations of sense pleasures or worldly pleasures. It is a state in which you experience the Bliss of the Absolute in all the objects of this world-appearance. It is Meditation in action, while going about all the mundane activities of your life. This state is attained through the Grace of a living Master, and the vigilant spiritual practice of the devotee, after receiving Shaktipat. One should choose such a Guru carefully.

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.