Look Within – Talks on the Bhagavad Gita by Swami Venkatesananda

[Guest guest]

So now we have some sort of an idea of what `I' is, what the

world is and what God is.

 

Between I and the world, there is a very intimate relationship, there is

only an arbitrary division – the only division being that the mind

says that this is my body, and this is my carpet.

 

It means the same thing.

 

You say that this is my body, this is my carpet and this is my room, and

basically and fundamentally the three are the same – you will

immediately see why!

 

If you hit my body, I am hurt.

 

If you smash this wall, am I hurt or not hurt?

 

I am hurt if I think that this is the wall of my house, that I climbed

up and painted it – if you merely throw something and mark the paint

work, I am hurt.

 

To the extent that I feel that this carpet is mine – I cut it, I

laid it – I am hurt when you trample it and bring dirt on to it.

 

To the extent that I feel this is mine I am hurt, it doesn't matter

what it is.

 

There may be a difference in degree – but there is a difference in

degree in my own body!

 

If someone cuts my hair, I am grateful; if someone cuts off my ear, I

may not say `thank you'; and if someone cuts my throat, I

don't survive to say so!

 

So, you see, there is a difference of degree even in the injury that can

be sustained in this body.

 

When the hair is cut, I am pleased, but if someone forcibly cuts the

hair of a young man who likes it long, he is hurt – not physically,

but psychologically.

 

So that, I am hurt to the extent I think I am.

 

To the extent that I think that this is me and this is mine, I am

disturbed.

 

If all my idea about myself extends only to this body, I am not hurt

whatever happens to this carpet.

 

If somehow I extend my mind, my concept of myself to cover the carpet, I

am hurt there also.

 

If I extend my consciousness to cover India (my country), whatever

happens to it, I am also affected.

 

Therefore it is very clear – it is pure and simple commonsense to

see that there is no real difference between the world and me.

 

The difference is made by the mind, and the non difference is also made

by the mind.

 

So the world and I are one – totally one – we are not different

at all.

 

If I visualise this whole universe as cosmic consciousness, infinite

consciousness, then what I call my soul is a cell in this infinite body

of the God, or cosmic consciousness.

 

When I realise this, there is absolute total freedom. Nothing can ever

destroy the truth and therefore there is no cause for sorrow.

 

If I am foolishly thinking that I am this or that, this is mine or that

is mine, the foolish idea will get a knock sooner or later, and sooner

it gets the knock, the better.

 

If we are hugging an illusion that this world is eternal, that I am

eternal, I am so and so and you are so and so, (which is certainly an

illusion) then sooner it goes the better.

 

One doesn't grieve for the death of illusion, and the reality is

never going to disappear.

 

One who knows this is freed from foolishness, from anxiety, from sorrow.

To be continued..