Krishna! If I have to put in one word, the life, legacy, or message of Krishna – I’ll use the word “life!” Just intense life! It is expressed in the body as an ever-youthful … healthy person. It is expressed in intellect as an amazing strategist. It is expressed in emotion as a most beautiful pure romance. It expressed … in the dimension of length – the knowledge; the dimension of breadth – amazing artistic expression. Even when he is teaching the greatest truths, it was done in a very poetic form. His book is called Song – Gita because it is more poetic than anything else. Singer, dancer, musician, strategist. A beloved for everyone. In length, he expressed knowledge, in the breadth – pure art, in the depth – the power he manifested. In every action the responsibility he has shown. Life! Actually, only those who know life, can understand anything about Krishna. Not otherwise. Not otherwise at all!
Just the other day I was talking about one of the important messages of Sri Krishna.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana |
Do your duty, don’t worry about the results.
It is always interpreted by the bloody beggar fellows It is always interpreted by the bloody beggar fellows … as “Ooh, don’t worry about the result. Just work, work, work.” Do you want to say we should not get the salary and just work? Such stupid impractical interpretation, understanding! Never the sloka means, “Ooh, even if you get just ten rupees, you go on be working for ten thousand rupees.” No! That is not!
I tell you, understand this story. You need to understand this story. Ramakrishna tells Vivekananda, “You have to go all over the world and teach, take my message.” Vivekananda is shaken to the core. He shivers and says, “Not me! No! No! Not so much work! I just want to be in samadhi. That’s all. I just want to be in samadhi.” Actually, Ramakrishna fires him, “I thought you will be a banyan tree for the whole world and, you are behaving so cheaply … that you want to rest in samadhi! Be in samadhi.” I tell you, but once Vivekananda cognized his responsibility as a cognition, not as a work … the amount of work Vivekananda performed, still nobody is able to beat the record. Still, nobody is able to beat the record! Nine years of public life. What he did? Oh, God! Still, nobody is able to beat the record.
Don’t think, that if you work for ten thousand rupees, you will get ten rupees, this “karmaṇyevādhikāraste mā phaleṣu kadācana” – do your duty don’t expect results is given to you as a consolation, for a poor beggar to control himself not to feel injustice is done to him, and, just to be consoled and not to rebel. No. No. Hinduism is very clear, it has nothing to do with poverty or celebrating poverty! No! Listen carefully. This sloka, this truth is not uttered as political support; most religions are political supportive mechanisms. When the ruler cannot control the mass through political ideas and strategies, he lets loose these religious lunatics and they utter stupid controlling, suppressing life’s negative ideas and keeping the mass sober. Hinduism has nothing to do with it.
In Hinduism, religious heads ruled the kings. Kings always sat down and received the strategy and orders, they were only executives. It is Gurus who were constitutional heads. Kings were only executives, never constitutional heads. It is Gurus who have been visionaries, and constitutional heads. Understand, Hinduism has nothing to do with … spreading the ideas to keep the mass under the control of the executive. No! Keeping the executive straight to the integrity of the interest of mass was Hinduism!
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन |
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि || ४७ ||
karmaṇy-evādhikāras te mā phaleṣhu kadāchana |
mā karma-phala-hetur bhūr mā te saṅgo ’stvakarmaṇi || 47 ||
Understand, “Do your duty, don’t expect the results” is not told from that context. That if you work for ten thousand rupees, you may get only ten rupees but console yourself, don’t rebel, don’t feel unjust … injustice is done to you. No! Fool. Life is such if you work for ten rupees, you will be showered with ten billion rupees, but if you think you are going to be getting ten billion rupees and you need to work for that, you will be overwhelmed and never start the work!! Listen! Listen once more! Because Vivekananda thought such a huge result he has to cause means, so much he has to work as per his logic … he got overwhelmed about the work, understand. Results are caused by the cognitive shift, not by the work.
I need to tell you about an incident in my life! Surely … many of you cannot even think, I did this! I was sixteen. Vibhunanda Puri, Kuppammal, my Guru calls me, and says, “I wanted to write my house,” she had a house. Her house and the ashram she built for me in the enlightenment place – my enlightenment rock near. That ashram and this house, both she wanted to give it to me legally. Of course, at that time I was a minor so she has to do a legal arrangement, certain legal arrangements, that I inherit. Do you know what I responded? “Ahh! Running an ashram?! I cannot do it! I have to pay the electricity bill! I have to buy groceries! I have to sweep, clean, and take care! No, no no, no. Nothing doing. I want to go on parivrajaka yatra, live under the trees, eat what I get by begging.” Understand, I tell you with all my integrity I told this! “Running an ashram!! I can’t do that.”
Understand, I want to tell you. I want to tell you. If you understand this, straight you will manifest Sadashivatva! When I said to Kuppammal, “I cannot run the ashram!” I told her, “That still you have not got the intelligence, renunciation has not happened to you. Holding on to this house, how much you are suffering you see!” Because all the sons, daughters, and everyone wants the share in that house. In that ashram, a small team used to be with her, like her gang. That gang was trying to grab that ashram. She laughed and told, She told in Tamil, “Ah! I am doing everything for you na. I want this house also and more!”
Understand, listen! Listen to the truth behind this whole incident. That time if I was told, I am going to be the head of an organization with thousands of temples, ashrams, adheenams. Listen! I am going to be the head of an organization with thousands of temples, ashrams, adheenams, and universities of this size, I would have started planning from my logic for this much work, this much result, and how much work I have to do? Then I would have naturally been overwhelmed by my idea of the work I need to do and I would have collapsed. That is what has happened. But I tell you, the logic of life is not you work for ten thousand and get ten rupees. The logic of life is your work for ten rupees, ten billion is showered on you.
You have a six bag (Swamiji showing a big tummy with his hands) and you see somebody’s photograph of a six-pack, and you think, “Me six pack. No.” From your logic, you think for this result, “I may have to work this much. First I have to reduce my food from here to here, and do my work from here to here.” And you don’t understand.
Listen. The snowballing effect of responsibility cognition. I am using the word “the snowballing effect of responsibility cognition.” You are underestimating the snowballing effect of responsibility cognition! You need to know that great results are caused not by great actions but by great cognitions. Listen. If Kuppammal has told me … but she told me one thing. She told me in Tamil, She told me very clearly, “I will not give this house to my err … sons because this is a very important kshetra for your life!” She told me, “Later, “Lakhs will stand in a queue in this street, to have a glimpse of this house and the rock on which you become enlightened. And you are not listening to me!” And of course, now I am repenting. We are really repenting. All the struggles we are going through in the Adi Nithyananda Peetham are just because I did not listen to her. She made the statement, “When the time comes, you will understand.” And she said, “I will not give it to my family. I’ll give it to Arunachaleswarar Temple, and later on, you do what you want.”
Understand … before the cognitive shift of responsibility happens, you think, “If I work for one hour, I am going to get ten dollars. But if I am looking for a ten billion dollar result, then how many hours do I have to work and is it going to happen in this birth? Will I ever be able to achieve?” It is called stupidopati logic. Understand … if you think about the result, you will do the reverse calculation. The effort you need to put in for the sake of this result, and you will get overwhelmed about the effort you need to put in, and you will never start. You will never have the powerfulness to begin is the problem. Because till the responsibility cognition happens, the logic which calculates “one hour ten dollars” will never be understood as faltu logic. Only if the responsibility cognitive shift happens, you will understand, “Eh! The result I need to cause need not even be remembered. Let me start moving, acting, taking the responsibility, making that action.”
I tell you if I was told … if I was told … that this is what I’ll have, I’ll have to create and manage … a city planning official will resign his job, and come and assist you in planning your city! “Aah!” I would have, “Oh, I am a village boy, how will I talk to them? I don’t even know them. Will they all talk to me? Will they …?” I would have been afraid, thinking of talking to them. Even now I am afraid, that is different. Graduate from the prestigious U, U, UIC, UIUC University … is going to resign the job and come and assist me in building my own city! Understand, if I was imagining the result, I would have done the reverse calculation and felt overwhelmed about the effort I need to put in and would have never started.
Fortunately, even though my Guru left the body, she did not die. She made sure that a cognitive shift happens in me. Now I understand. This result did not get caused by my action, it got caused by my cognitive shift of responsibility. It’s not that I have not done actions! Yesterday when we were sitting and seeing all the autobiography pictures, I can see every, every sss … brick, I built it. From scratch how I work and make the whole thing. We are collecting the photographs and uploading them. We have solid evidence, almost twenty hours a day I was working. We have solid evidence. It’s not that I was not working, but I never felt I was working because of the cognitive shift of responsibility.
I tell you … this is what exactly Krishna means, work, don’t think about the result because the result will be huge, and if you are thinking about the result you will do the reverse calculation; how much effort do you need to put for causing the result. Then you’ll get overwhelmed by the effort you need to put and you’ll never start. There are two states – Ishvara and U-shvara. Ishvara is taking responsibility and making it happen. U-shvara is getting overwhelmed about the actions you need to perform for the result you need to cause, and never move anything. And if you are forced to move, take a u-turn! Understand. Catch this one verse and its real meaning. Catch this one verse and its real meaning. You will manifest Sadashivatva.
The essence of Krishna’s life, message, and legacy is life! Intense life! It is expressed as health, beauty, grandeur, romance, knowledge, responsibility, and power in multiple dimensions, in multiple ways, but life. Intense life.
Enjoy Krishna Janmashtami with this message of life!