Lessons From The Gita

Bhakti or devotion is the only path for reaching the Divine destination. Bhakti is the only panacea for all the ills of this world. Bhakti is the only method for making you realise the truth. Students, who are ‘Premaswaroopas’ or who are essentially embodiments of Prema, I believe that there will be scarcely any Indian who has not read through the text of Bhagawad Gita; that there would be none who has not heard and is not aware of Bhagawad Gita. Bhagawad Gita means ‘The song of God’, words which have come to us as His flowers, as His ‘prasad’. Vyasa has woven these flowers, the words of God, into a beautiful garland and has gifted it to us. God is the basis for this world. Bhagawad Gita consists essentially of three parts, namely Karma Kanda, Upasana Kanda, and Jnana Kanda. These are also being referred to as the six-chapter contents in each case. People say that through these three parts, Bhagawad Gita has been teaching us various spiritual aspects, such as Bhakti or devotion, Jnana or knowledge, and Yoga or meditation, and so on and so forth. But, Bhagawad Gita, in addition to these, has really also given us the great saying, “TAT TWAM ASI,” meaning ‘That Thou Art’. This is the essence or the key-note of Bhagawad Gita. The first six chapters teach us about the Jiva or the Soul that resides in this body and, through that, the nature of Jiva. The next six chapters, while teaching us the path of Bhakti, also show us the nature and content of what we call ‘Tat’ or ‘THAT’. The last six chapters, while giving us the content and the meaning of the third word ‘Asi’, also tell us about how to realise the identity of the self, the Jivatma with ‘THAT’, the Paramatma and also teach us how to give up things, how to sacrifice and reach ‘Moksha’ or liberation. If we study Bhagawad Gita in the proper way and enquire into its contents, then we will understand the true nature of the saying ‘TAT TWAM ASI’.

This morning, the concept of surrender or ‘Sharanagati’ and how the concept of surrender has been described in Bhagawad Gita has been conveyed to you. It appears to me that the real meaning of the word Sharanagati or surrender has not been properly understood. Our elders, by the study of many scriptures and texts, have conveyed to us the meaning. Despite this, we get the impression that the word surrender means putting at the disposal of God our body, our mind, all our powers, and all that we have. We take it that ‘placing these before God’ as the true meaning of the word surrender. This is not the correct and proper meaning of the word surrender. Our body is not in our control at all. Our body, under some circumstances, is posing to us several problems. Under such circumstances, when the body is not under our control, it is not understandable how we say that we will take such a body and surrender it to God. When we look at the mind, it is even worse. It leads us to many distorted meanings. While we are not only not in control of our mind even for one moment, we are even slaves to our mind and we foolishly enjoy the mind’s wanderings. Under such circumstances, to say that you are surrendering your mind to God is something quite un-understandable. When you have to struggle so much to control your own mind even for a short while and when your attempts in that direction are often futile, to take such a mind and to put it at the feet of God and say that, “I am surrendering my mind to you,” seems to Me to be ridiculous. Let us take the case of your various organs. When the situation is that the mind, which is the ruler, which is the controller of all your organs, is in such a condition, what is the point in talking about the organs and surrendering all your organs to God? So, when you say that you are surrendering to God, your thought, your word, your deed, it is simply a kind of trivial satisfaction to yourself. This cannot represent the truth and the meaning of the word surrender. God also never wants you to surrender and hand over to Him everything that you own. In fact, God has never asked for such a thing. If you make a proper enquiry to understand the true meaning of the word Sharanagati or surrender, you will understand that Sharanagati really relates to another aspect and it should be interpreted in the background and context of Divinity only. It is only when you accept and when you believe that the Divine is present in every human being and in every living thing that Divinity is omnipresent, then only can you understand the meaning of saying surrendering in thought, in word, and in deed and you will also become one with God. There is some justification in your talking of Sharanagati or surrender, when you are fully in control of your mind, fully in control of your word, and fully in control of your body. As soon as you are able to recognise the aspect of omnipresence of God and the aspect of omnipotence of God, then the feeling of ego, the feeling that there is an ‘I’, which is a distinct thing, will disappear. In other words, when we enquire and try to understand this teaching of Bhagawad Gita, the aspect which explains to you the meaning of the word Sharanagati or surrender, you will note that in the beginning, Arjuna started asking questions of Lord Krishna, thinking that he is using his own intelligence, his own capacity of enquiry, and his own ability of distinguishing right from wrong. He is thinking that he is using his own strength. Because he has relied heavily upon his powers and thought, felt that his own powers are capable of excelling and exceeding God’s powers, he landed himself into a difficulty and he was not in a position to decide what he should do and what he should not do. As soon as Arjuna found it not possible to go ahead or even to go back, in fact when all his actions came to a stop, to a standstill; it was then that he turned to Lord Krishna and said, “I will take Your orders, I am not in a position to decide what I should do. I am ready to obey You and carry out whatever You want me to do and I will do so with my full heart.” Thus, he surrendered his thought, word, action, and all entirely to God. Such surrender is the lesson of Bhagawad Gita.

It is not correct to say that even this is complete surrender. A situation has arisen when he is ready to take whatever order God gives and obey it implicitly. In this situation, the position is that God gives orders and another individual is willing to execute them. In other words, there is a duality here, in that the One, Who gives the orders, is God and the one, who wishes to execute them, is man. So long as there is this distinction in the mind of the individual, between God on the one hand and ‘I’ of the individual on the other hand, this cannot be accepted as complete surrender. So long as this duality is evident, one cannot accept the situation as complete Sharanagati or surrender. There is bliss and happiness in unity. There is no bliss and happiness in duality. So, when we are looking at the word surrender or Sharanagati in common parlance, in the ordinary way of doing routine things and interpret it by telling yourself that God has given you the order, God has told you what to do and you will accept that and will follow that, this meaning of surrender is alright only in a limited sense.

Of course, there is one other thing, which we have to recognise and take note of. We know that Krishna and Arjuna were living together for well over eighty years, were meeting each other very often, and talking to each other like friends. But, at no time in those eighty and odd years did Lord Krishna ever try to teach anything of Bhagawad Gita to Arjuna. It was only after eighty years of their living together and that too in the battlefield, and that again under some special circumstances, that the Lord wanted to give him the contents of Bhagawad Gita and give Arjuna a position of authority and competence, from where he could do something. We have to enquire into the meaning of all these things. In Bhagawad Gita, He has also taught that we have to recognise what is called ‘Adhikara’, or worthy of being entrusted with a task. He has also taught us that unless one acquires the qualification, merit, and worth, there is no point in teaching Bhagawad Gita to him. Conveying the contents of Gita to someone, who does not deserve it and who has not yet acquired that merit, has no meaning. We know that it is only the hungry man, who has the right to ask for food. It is only the man, who has the money, who has the right to spend that money. It is only the man that is poor and needy and deserving of charity, that is to be given such help. In this way, each individual gets the right to do something. The recognition of this right or qualification before action is initiated is an aspect, which is contained in Bhagawad Gita. The Lord has shown in the Gita that you could preach only after recognising the merit or qualification and worthiness of the recipient. It is explicit that there is no point in teaching such a good thing to one, who has no belief. You must see whether he has faith and belief or not. You must also see that the recipient has fear of sin and reverence for God. Unless he has these qualities, the recipient has no right to receive the good and great teaching that is contained in Bhagawad Gita. Not only that, your teaching may become irrelevant, if you go and teach one, who has not got these qualities.

It is God’s word that if you have devotion to God, He will look after all your future. He will look after all the welfare that is due to you. Yes, so did the Lord say in the Gita. But, when would this be? He said that this would be done, provided the devotee spends all his time in the thought of God, provided he accepts God to be all pervading and as present in everything. But, the Lord never said that He will look after the welfare of a devotee all the time, in spite of the devotee spending only a little while, now and then, in the thought of God and if he goes on doing all kinds of evil and harmful things in the name of God and so on. There are three things, which one should keep in mind, namely, I will not think of anything else except God, I will not do anything else without the permission of God, and I will have my attention completely fixed in God. It is only when you accept and put into practice these three things, that the Lord said, He will look after your welfare. God has told us that if you respect and observe these three conditions and show your acceptance thereof by practice in your life, He will bear the entire burden of your welfare. Today, we are not bothering about the injunctions, which God has given us, but instead, we are arguing with God and asking Him why He is not looking after our welfare and our safety. It is true that God said, “If you want to deserve My love and you want to get My affection, then you should think of Me, you should do obeisance to Me, you should put your faith in Me, and you should trust in Me. Then, of course, you can claim and will get in full measure My love and affection.” By simply reading and repeating the text of Bhagawad Gita, by merely thinking about the contents of the text, we are not going to get any benefit out of it. It is only by understanding the meaning of the text, by ruminating over the meaning in your mind, and digesting it completely and making It part and parcel of your life, only can you get the benefits out of it.

You have been told about the path of a monkey and the path of a cat. The relationship between the baby monkey and its mother monkey is such that no matter where the mother goes, no matter even if the mother is jumping hither and thither, the baby holds fast and clings safely to the mother, going wherever the mother goes. The child has implicit faith in the mother. In this way, just like the young monkey clinging to the mother under all conditions and under all circumstances, we should attach ourselves to God under all conditions and under all circumstances. That is the kind of behaviour we should accept. In this, there is no responsibility of any kind on the part of the mother monkey. The entire responsibility for this conduct rests on the young one. On the other hand, when we come to see the life of a cat and the kitten, the mother cat takes the entire responsibility of taking the kitten from place to place and looking after it. This was explained to you with a view to convey to you the meaning of Sharanagati. There is a significance here, which we can see; that if you stay where you are, then God Himself will take the responsibility of looking after you.

While the two paths, the path that has been described in the context of a monkey and the path that has been described in the context of a cat, seem to be alright in common parlance and so far as ordinary persons are concerned and in their daily life, they are not so in the case of a person, who is devoted and who wants to know the real inner meaning of Atma or the Soul. For that person, he will have to find a path, which is different from these two and superior to these two. To give you the meaning and the character of this devotion, Vivekananda had a good example. Every person wants and desires that he should get ‘Moksha’ or liberation, that he should attain that place of Moksha. We may say that liberation is synonymous with Freedom. When we desire Freedom, it implies that at the moment, we are in some kind of bondage. What is that bondage? The bondage is in our own family, in our own home, in which we are tied up and entangled. Your own affection and your people is the bondage. That is the chain, which has bound you. This is what you may call affection with some kind of an attachment. When you are tied up with the chain, the chain of affection and attachment in the family, there are two ways, by which you can free yourself from this chain. One way is to get the strength, by which to break the chain. There is a second way and that is to make yourself tiny, smaller and smaller that you can just slip and get out of the chain, which is binding you.

With the exception of these two alternatives, if you want to reach freedom and if you want to get out of the chain, there is no way of doing it. These two can be described as ‘Bhakti’ or devotional path and ‘Jnana’ or the path of knowledge. Bhakti or devotion means you recognise that there is a master, that you have to put yourself in a humble position and be subservient to the master. You also recognise that your conduct should be such that you please Him and get His grace. This is the procedure for Bhakti. This is referred to as an attitude of ‘DASOHAM’ or behaviour, which by implication proclaims ‘I am your servant’. When you are bound by a chain, within that chain if you can tell yourself ‘DASOHAM’, ‘DASOHAM’, that means you are humble, you are developing humility, your ego is becoming less and less, it shrinks you so much that your humility grows, that you can slip and get out of the chain. The other path, which is the path of Jnana, is the way of getting out of the chain by telling yourself ‘SIVOHAM’, ‘SIVOHAM’; I am Siva, I am Siva – that means you are expanding, becoming bigger, finally you become so big that you can break the chain and get out. So, to break the chain and free yourself, one is the path of Jnana and the other is the path of Bhakti.

The word Bhakti is sometimes also known as ‘Prema’ or love. To this word Prema, we are attributing many different meanings. We are also inferring for ourselves many different meanings. Sometimes, a meaning for the word Prema is given by describing it as synonymous with Kama. This creates an impression in your minds that Prema and Kama to some extent mean the same thing. Although Prema and Kama may look synonymous, we have to recognise that the experience of the path, the ways and methods of Prema on the one hand, and the experience of the path, the ways and methods of Kama on the other hand are different from each other. Kama is tying you up in bondage. Prema is bestowing on you happiness. Prema is a pure quality, whereas Kama is an impure quality. We should make an enquiry as to what the reason is for Kama becoming impure and what the reason is for Prema remaining pure. The water that flows and keeps flowing remains pure. The water that is stagnant and does not flow becomes impure. A stage will come when even worms can breed and thrive in stagnant water. In the same manner, prema, which moves, flows from one heart to another, from one place to another, from one person to another, ultimately reaches the destination which is called the Grace of God; such prema is pure. But, the kind of prema or love, which gets tied up to one individual by saying, “Oh! He belongs to me, he is mine,” does not flow, but gets tied up to one individual. Such prema will be called Kama or will be prema with an attachment to that particular individual. That kind of prema, which has a limitation, which is narrow and is confined to one place, cannot be called prema in the real sense.

Although both prema and kama look synonymous in a limited sense, they are being experienced in different ways and by different processes. Prema, which has got this feature or which is confined to one or a few persons, will land you in difficulties, sometime or other. For instance, we have a rose plant. On the plant, there are some rose flowers, but right below the rose flowers, you also have got some thorns. When you are seeking only the roses, then you do not have to touch the thorns. But, because there are thorns, you are not going to give up asking for the roses. Our life is like a rose plant. On one side, there are flowers, there are roses, which give us the happiness and which give us the fragrance. On the other side, immediately below the roses, there are also the difficulties, the thorns. It is the same relationship that exists between the roses and the thorns. This is also the relationship, which exists between prema and kama. Love is a flower; Lust is a thorn. Prema can be truly called prema, only when it recognises the Divinity and only when it realises that we should love the Divine. That kind of prema alone can deserve to be described as true prema.

What is the special quality or what is the position of authority or merit, by which Arjuna deserved to be taught the Gita by the Lord? Arjuna’s brother Dharmaraja had all the good qualities, in fact he had many more good qualities than Arjuna. Then, how did Arjuna get the right to get the teachings from the Lord? Why did not Dharmaraja get the right to get that teaching? If we are taking into consideration the physical strength, then we should remember that there is another brother Bhima, who had much greater physical strength than Arjuna. While on one side, there is a brother Dharmaraja, who is intellectually far superior and while on the other side, there is another brother Bhima far superior in physical strength, how did Arjuna acquire this right, in spite of the fact that he was arguing and himself raising questions? Even if we wish to ignore these two brothers, assuming that they do not deserve it in spite of their strength and power, then what about Bhishma, who can be regarded as one, who has no equal in the matter of his spiritual knowledge? Bhishma was a great person, highly mature and vastly experienced. Why is it that Bhishma also did not have the right to get the Lord’s teachings? Arjuna himself had this doubt.

At one time, when the battle was all over, Arjuna himself asked the question to Krishna. Krishna replied in a very quiet and casual way, in a very soft tone to this question and said, “Let us take your elder brother Dharmaraja, yes, he is a very good person, he has got many good qualities, but look at him, he never had any forethought. He is having an afterthought, he is feeling now after the whole thing is over and asking himself why he entered this battle. He is asking himself why we killed so many people. This is a kind of feeling, which has come to him as an afterthought. This afterthought, by which to feel the guilt of some action after it is over, is the nature of man. Everybody will feel guilty and sorry after the thing is over. Such human quality is characteristic of Dharmaraja and therefore, he does not deserve to be taught the Gita.” If we consider the case of Bhishma, the great experienced scholar, valiant son of Ganga, he is in a very different situation. On the one hand, he realises and states that righteousness or Dharma is on the side of Pandavas. On the other hand, contrary to what he has been saying, he is the head and the chief of the Army of Kauravas. This is a contradiction and a paradox in his life. Thus, in Bhishma’s case, what he says is one thing and what he does is a different thing. Thus, he is riding a chariot with horses running in different directions. He does not deserve to be taught Gita.

Let us take the case of Arjuna. He had the forethought; all the suffering and all the miseries that are likely to accrue if he fought this war, were thought of even before he commenced the war. He asked the question, why do I kill all my relations and all my elders? He said that he would rather go out and beg for his food, rather than ask for the kingdom after killing all these people. He further said that not only does the kingdom, which he would get if he won this war, but even if he is promised the heaven if he won the war, he would not be willing to enter the war and kill all his relations. He would rather give up both. Thus, he prayed to Krishna to get him out of this mess. Thus, Arjuna gave up all desires, was prepared to sacrifice all the pleasures of this world, was also prepared to give up all desires for the pleasures of the other world, and he surrendered completely to the Lord. Thus, we can recognise in him a person, who deserves to be taught the Gita.

In other words, we have to understand that what earned for Arjuna the right to be taught by the Lord, is the fact that he stood in complete and total surrender and was prepared to take whatever instructions the Lord would give. It is to such a person and under such circumstances that one can give the sacred meaning of the Shastras or the sacred significance of the Divine. Every one will have to deserve this, earn this by good conduct, by good behaviour, and by doing good things. Whether you are in difficulties or in joyous circumstances, whether you are in pain or in pleasure, it is only when you have faith in God and accept Him as your very life-breath, you will be in a position to derive real peace and happiness. Our own conduct is responsible for and is the root cause of all our pleasures and pains. We cannot say that God is causing us either pleasures or pains. He is only a witness. For our pains and for our pleasures, for our sorrows and for our joys, our own actions are responsible. If we spend our life with good ideas, with good conduct and good deeds, then we do not have to ask anybody, in fact, we have not to ask God to give us happiness. That will come of its own accord as a result of our good deeds.

I will give you another example, which is coming out of the good qualities and virtues, which the Pandavas had. The two armies were standing poised against each other in the battlefield. In the centre, Arjuna was standing; on both sides, these armies are ready for battle. In a few minutes, each one will raise his own individual war cry. In this circumstance and in such a perilous situation, Dharmaraja, who was standing on his chariot, removed his armour, removed all the protection, removed his shoes, and got down the chariot, and was attempting to walk right into the centre of the enemy’s army. The people, who were in the Kaurava army, looked at Dharmaraja, who was removing his armour and who was walking towards them in this unprotected manner, and all raised a cry of joy, thinking that Dharmaraja was walking to them already in a spirit of weakness and defeat and wanting to surrender to them. No one understood why Dharmaraja took this course of walking barefooted into the army of the enemy. There was one person, who understood it, and it was Krishna. On one side, Bhima was very much upset with the behaviour of his brother. He was wondering why his brother is doing like this at this critical moment and he got very angry and excited. On the other hand, Arjuna was also feeling very much upset. He was looking at Lord Krishna in his chariot and his eyes were like two balls of fire. But, Krishna just signalled to both these people and told them, “Look here! You have been following your brother in everything all your life; it is good for you to follow him and accept what he does even at this moment.”

The eldest brother Dharmaraja was showing this path, which they could not understand. He has given up his armour and when they turned to Krishna, the latter gave them the advice that they, too, should follow their brother. Though they could not make anything out of it, but with a view to follow the brother, every one of them had laid aside their armour and began to walk barefooted behind Dharmaraja. Looking at this sight, the Pandava army also lost heart and they began to feel despondent. But, there was confidence and there was faith in the Pandava army that Dharmaraja is not the man, who will do something without an appropriate reason for it. When all were looking at Dharmaraja, he straight went to Bhishma, the old warrior. He touched his feet, made obeisance to him, and addressed him and said, “We, who have not had our father, had been looked after by you like your own children. It was your love and care that nourished, nurtured, and brought us up. You, a person who has been everything to us and who has been a father to us! Please give us the permission to enter the war today. You are in the place of our father, you are equal to our father. It is not possible to fight with one, who is in the place of our father, unless you yourself give us permission. Unless you bless us, we cannot fight with you.”

Bhishma, who listened to these words of Dharmaraja, was very much moved and was astonished that even at such a critical time, even under such difficult conditions, Dharmaraja was not swerving from the righteous path and was behaving in the most faultless manner. Bhishma was so much moved by the situation that he lovingly patted Dharmaraja all over the body and praised his strict adherence to righteous behaviour and said, “Yes, you will be victorious.”

Then, Dharmaraja went to his guru, Drona. He touched Drona’s feet and said, “It is the greatest sin to fight against one’s own guru. However, if I have to fight, it is only after getting your permission. Then only can I fight with you. Please give us permission to enter the battlefield.” At the conduct of Dharmaraja, Drona’s heart melted away. He was deeply touched. Drona felt so much that he even revealed the secret of his life to Dharmaraja and told him how he could be put to death.

The moral of it all is that if we shape our conduct and choose our path in consonance with propriety and truth, then they in turn will not only protect us, but will even show us ways of winning victory. Just because it so happens to be that the time was critical or that the time was one with difficulties or you happen to be in the midst of sorrows, by that reason you should not deviate from the moral path, you should not swerve from truth. Even if it is going to lead you to defeat, you must adhere to the correct path. Just because you want to avoid defeat and get victory, you should not deviate from the right path and take the wrong path. Even if we are doing a small thing, we must enquire into whether it is right or wrong. It need not be a big thing to call for such an enquiry. Leaving the right path and resorting to wrong path will put you completely out of the game. Even if you are going to be defeated, provided you have accepted and followed the right path, then you will have a chance of joining the game once again. If you swerve from the correct course and if you play a foul game, then you will create a situation by which you will have no place in future in any of the games.

You may have committed, knowingly or unknowingly, some wrong. Having committed a wrong, if you now go and tell the untruth, that would not be the right thing. On the other hand, having committed a wrong, if you go and tell the truth to your father or to your mother, or to your guru, then you will be getting their grace. On the other hand, with a view to cover up the wrong that you have done either knowingly or unknowingly, you tell untruth and if you want to hide it away from your father or mother or guru, then you will simply harm yourself for all the future.

The first thing, therefore, to do is to promote self-confidence in yourself. Today, a situation has arisen when self-confidence has completely disappeared amongst the students. An individual, who has no self-confidence, cannot achieve victory in anything whatsoever. It is only when you have self-confidence that you will attain self-satisfaction. Today, we do not find any individual having self-satisfaction. When a small bird goes and perches on a small plant or a small branch of a tree, then on account of the weight of the bird, that branch moves up and down. But, the bird is not going to be upset by such a movement. What is the reason? The bird, which is sitting on the branch, is not depending for its safety on the branch. It is depending on its own wings. Even if the branch moves up and down or even if the branch breaks, because the bird is depending on its own wings, it can fly away. It does not worry at all. Even that small bird, which is sitting on the branch, has got so much confidence in its own wings and in itself that it is fearless. 

On the other hand, a youth of today, who claims that he is very well educated, who claims that he is highly clever, who claims that he has got all the good qualities, is having no confidence at all in his own capacity. When he wants to do something, he gets into terrible doubt whether he should do it this way or that way. One, who has no confidence in himself, whom is he going to trust? His whole life will become a bundle of doubts. He is not going to blossom into a complete, integrated, and sound personality. Therefore, we should enter the path, by which we can clear the doubts and not enter the path, by which we accumulate all the doubts in our hearts. So that you may get rid of all these doubts, you should have cleansed your mind and your heart.

In order to cleanse and achieve the purification of yourself, you have to control your sight, you have to control your tongue, you have to control your senses to some extent. As a prelude to your doing something wrong or something unworthy, there will have been an initial action, by which your eyes must have seen something bad, or you must have heard some words, which had excited you to do something bad, or you must have gone through an experience, which will have made your mind wander and excited. This is the way, by which one becomes mad all through one’s life. If you, the youth of today, take great care that your sight does not become impure, that your hearing does not become impure, that your words do not become impure, then you will be able to attain the purity of mind and the purity of your thought.

Today, we know that there is a material world and in that material world, there are all kinds of material attractions. We think that because of the existence of those material attractions, we are having pleasure and happiness. It is not so. So long as these material desires and material attractions do not reach your eyes, do not reach your ears, and you do not participate in them, they cannot affect you in the least. I will give you a small example and bring this discourse to a close. Now, you are standing here. Your ears are with you. Somebody behind the gate is talking about you in a good way and praising you. Thus, some good talk about you is outside the gate; your ears are here. So long as the ears are away and not listening to what is being talked about you, there is no pleasure. In the same manner, if behind the gate, somebody is talking about you in a bad way and you are not hearing, there is no reaction, either elation or depression. It is only when this particular talk falls on your ears, or when somebody comes and tells you that so and so had spoken ill of you that it is possible that you may have some reaction; you may become angry or you may be hurt to some extent. It is only when the contact is established between the appropriate sensory organ and the action, which we have been talking about, that there can be any reaction and experience in our mind.

The distortion that follows your thought is even more fearful. Many people may be raising doubts and may be saying, “Oh! Swami is calling a large number of experienced people and experienced scholars here and a large number of students are sitting and these experienced people are talking to them. Just by talking of their experiences and of their scholarship and the students merely listening to all these, are the students going to improve? Are they going to change?” This kind of talk will go on, these kinds of doubts are raised by many people. There are 99 out of 100 persons, who have such doubts. Of course by talking, the mind can be changed to a great extent. Because the whole world is filled with sound, sound can achieve many wonderful things. There is nothing in this world, which cannot be achieved through sound.

Here is a small example. One teacher, having about 10 students, is teaching them some good things. To such an ashram came one, who had some position and power. This teacher did not go to the door to welcome and receive him. This man, who came there, because he had some position and authority, felt somewhat hurt and he went right into the class and asked the teacher, “Why is it you didn’t care for me? You have not come and received me. What are you doing?” The teacher said, “I am busy teaching the children some good things.” The person, who came in, asked, “Just because you are teaching them some good things, are the hearts of these children going to be changed and become more sacred?” The teacher took some courage and said, “Yes, of course, there is every opportunity of their mind changing by my teaching.” The intruder said, “No, I cannot believe it,” and the teacher replied, “When you cannot believe it, it simply means that you have no faith in it. Because of that, I cannot give up teaching these boys some good things.” Then, this person, who felt somewhat important, started arguing and said there is no possibility of changing a mind merely by words. The teacher, who is clever and who has known these things, asked one of the youngest boys to stand up. To the hearing of this visitor, the teacher told the young boy, “Look here, my dear boy! You just get hold of the neck of this visitor and throw him out of the door.” Immediately on hearing these words, the visitor became completely excited and his eyes were red and he was very angry and he came to beat the teacher. Then, the teacher asked, “Sir, what is the reason for your becoming so angry? We did not beat you, we did not throw you out. The only thing that has excited you to this stage of anger are the words, which I conveyed to this young boy. You, who said that you do not believe in changing the mind by mere words, what is the reason by which these mere words, which I have uttered to this young boy, have changed your mind so much that you are so excited? So, it is very wrong to say that with mere words, you cannot change the mind. With mere words, you can cause any excitement. With mere words, you can cause any amount of affection. With mere words, you can earn the grace of anyone else.”

So, if in this world, you want to promote friendship, you can do so by using sweet words, by talking in a very sweet manner, and by speaking about sacred things. On the other hand, if you use harsh words, if you use painful words, you are not going to promote friendship in this world. I am hoping that you will be able to follow this path and use sweet words, in all your conversations with others. You will notice that the eyes have only one capacity and that is to see, the ears have only one capacity and that is to hear. Similarly, the nose has only one capacity and that is to smell, the skin has only one capacity and that is to touch and feel. But, the tongue has got two capacities; this is very different – one is to feel the taste and the second one is to utter the words. This double capacity of the tongue should enjoin on you, that you should take great care by which to control your tongue. With words alone, by using sweet words, you can melt the Divine and you can earn the grace of the Divine. Therefore, you should not have in your life any feeling of hatred and take to things, which are bad. Bad sight should be avoided. All evil has to be avoided. By doing this, I am sure you will be able to earn the grace of the Lord and you will develop ideally in such a way that you will reach the goal of victory and that you will be worthy citizens of this country. I am hoping that you will be able to do that and I bless you.