Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 31
yajña-śiṣṭāmṛta bhujo
yānti brahmā sanātanam
nāyaṁ loko’sty-ayajñāsya
kuto’nyaḥ kurusattama
They who enjoy the nectar of immortality left over from the sacrifice, attain to the eternal Brahman; this world is not for him who does not sacrifice, how then any other world?
Krishna says that the one who doesn’t live in this world in a state of surrendering to the Divine, the one who doesn’t offer all his actions with an attitude of sacrifice, will not gain Heaven. If one is too attached to this worldly reality, one imprisons oneself in this world. Even if one is doing all kinds of yoga, sadhana and service, but is not doing it with an attitude of surrendering everything to God – all of this becomes useless, it doesn’t bear any fruit. It will not lead that soul to eternally enjoy the presence of Narayana Himself. Whereas whoever does everything with an attitude of surrender, will “enjoy the nectar of immortality left over from the sacrifice.” This means that the one who does all his dharma, all his duties, and is not attached to the fruit of action; whose mind is always focused on God, he attains the supreme reality: he attains the spiritual body.
Here, Krishna showed that within this body, there is another body, the spiritual body. Do you remember the story I told you in the previous chapter? It was about Mada and his father Jara. Jara attained the spiritual body just due to the good punya (Ch. 3, v. 10). But the good punya is due to the surrender, the sacrifice of offering everything to the Divine. It doesn’t matter what you do in this world or where you are, but the attitude with which you do it is very important. If you are doing everything as a service to God, and your mind, body, and spirit are focused on Him only, then you will attain the eternal Brahman, you will attain the spiritual body due to this sacrifice. Then this world is not for this person, because one comes here to Karma Bhumi (Earth), to work on one’s own karma. But if there’s no karma, it’s not about this world anymore, it’s about Vaikunta. So work for Vaikunta! That’s what Christ says in the Bible. Work for the eternal bank! Once you are with the Lord, there’s nothing else that matters. Forget about coming back again and again. The duty of everyone, of every soul is to realise the eternal Brahman and to attain Him. And that’s where our true home is – our true home lies in Narayana.
Once Parvati asked Shiva, “Tell me, my dear! The glory of Lord Narayana is sublime. Even You, my Lord, You sit and meditate on Him. How will normal people in the outside world attain His Grace?” Parvati was asking Lord Shankara to reveal how one can be freed. Lord Shankara revealed the following story.
There was a saint, who lived in Varanasi, in Kashi. He was always meditating on the Lord. He always focused his attention, his pranayama, everything, only on Bhagavan Vishnu, Narayana. Once while travelling, he went into a forest. As night was falling, he started looking for shelter where he could sleep. But deep in the forest there was nothing, so he lay on the ground to sleep. While he was lying there, his head was touching one tree, his feet were touching another tree, and his mind was focused on Narayana. In each breath, while he was sleeping, he was meditating on Narayana. In the middle of the night, there was a big noise and the two trees collapsed. Pow! Shocked, the saint was taken aback, “What has happened? What is this?” In the morning, he went back to his ashram and of course, carried on with his daily activities and meditated on the Shreemad Bhagavad Gita.
These two trees which had collapsed were actually two saints, who had been cursed to be born as trees, but due to the touch of the saint, they were freed from that curse. In their next lives, they were born as the daughters of a Brahmin, and they could remember their past lives due to the touch of the saint. When they grew up, they went to say ‘thank you’ to this saint.
They went to the ashram of the saint and when they saw him, they fell at his feet saying, “Oh learned, wise man, in our last life you saved us, so we have come here now to surrender to you. Save us! Free us again as you freed us in our last life.”
The saint could not understand why these two ladies were saying such things. He was probably thinking, “These crazy ladies! What are they talking about?” He said, “I have never saved you. I have never delivered you. I don’t remember.” The two girls started revealing their experience to him, saying, “Do you remember once, when you were returning to your ashram, it was late and you lay down in the forest? Your head was touching one tree and your feet were touching another tree, and all of a sudden, both trees fell down? We were those two trees! Due to a curse, we had incarnated as those two trees, but by your touch, we were freed and now we have received this human body. Please instruct us! Tell us how to be free! We don’t want to be trapped again in this cycle of birth and death. Please, free us! We are surrendering to you.”
Hearing this, the saint was really amazed. He said, “What have I done? I didn’t do anything. I don’t have great knowledge, nothing. The only thing I do, is that constantly – in my mind, and my breathing – my attention is only on Krishna, nothing else.” He said, “Let’s meditate on the nectar which Lord Krishna gives. This will save you. This will free you, as He freed you in your past life through my touch. Even though I was not aware of it, the Lord guided me there for you to be freed. Focus your attention deeply, drink the nectar of the Lord and through His Grace, you will be freed.”
So they went deeper into their sadhana; they started practising the sadhana with only one aim, to attain Lord Krishna, nothing else. Finally, they were freed in a very short time. They attained their spiritual bodies and went to eternally enjoy the presence of the Lord in Vaikunta.
So it doesn’t matter what you do. If your aim is to attain the Lord, whatever you do will be like a sacrifice, like a yagna to Him. By doing this yagna, you will receive your spiritual body, so that you can attain Him, so that you can be in His Grace, in His Love. This was what happened in the life of Barbarika.
Barbarika lived during the time of Krishna. He only had one aim, and that was to be killed by the Lord. He knew that being killed by the Lord was an easy way to enter Vaikunta, to attain the Lord Himself. So he became the enemy of Krishna. In reality, Barbarika had been a great devotee of Lord Krishna since his childhood. Throughout his childhood, his grandma, Yamba, had always told him about the glory of Lord Krishna and when he grew up, he wanted only one thing: to attain Krishna, to love Him. He had developed this love for Krishna. Without meeting Krishna, he had just loved Him. But it wasn’t enough for him to just love Him, he constantly wanted to be with Him.
He asked his grandma, “How will I fully and completely attain Krishna and eternally live with Him?” At that, the grandma start laughing, and said, “My dear, to attain such a state is not even possible for the yogis. It’s not even possible for the saints to attain that state. But only Him, the Lord Himself, can give this to you. Nobody else can give this to you.”
Only few have attained Him, and merged into Him. Here I am using the word ‘merged’ because to merge into Krishna is possible only through His Will, not through the will of man. The will of man can perceive Him. But to attain Him, to merge into Him, to be one with Him, is only possible through His Will. The grandma said that only a few have had the chance of merging into Him. When Lord Krishna killed Shishupala, at that moment, there was a light which left the body of Shishupala, and entered into the body of Sri Krishna. Many enlightened yogis eternally enjoy the presence of the Lord, and serve Him in Vaikunta. But to merge into Him is not possible even through the state of complete renunciation. This is possible only through His Grace.
Barbarika’s grandma revealed, “There’s only one way to achieve that state, and it’s to be killed by Krishna Himself.” He said to his grandma, “Okay, I will go and fight Krishna, I will make Krishna my enemy with the aim of eternally dwelling within Him.” With this intention, he did his penance for many years: he meditated on Maha Devi, on Durga. He had the vision of all the Devis, one by one, and all the Devis gave him great boons, blessings, gifts, and siddhis. But his aim was not about the siddhis: it was not about what he was gaining from the Devis. His aim was for the Ultimate One. It was to eternally be with Krishna.
At the end of his penance, he received the blessing of Devi Siddhidatri: Siddhidatri gave him three special arrows. Of course, Krishna knew that he was doing this penance and with what aim he was doing the penance. So one fine day, as Barbarika was meditating, Krishna came to him and said, “Barbarika, you’ve been meditating very intensively. I heard that Maha Devi is quite happy with you and that She has greatly blessed you. Is that so?” Barbarika replied, “Yes, my Lord, the Devis have been very generous.” Krishna said, “Show Me one of the boons which you have been given. Show Me how it works.” Barbarika showed some arrows to Krishna and said, “Look, I have three arrows. These arrows are so powerful that if I think of any enemy, and I shoot an arrow, wherever the enemy is, whether he is hiding or not, he will be killed. Even if he is in Heaven or Hell, this arrow will go there and kill that person; it will kill whomever I am thinking about.”
Krishna was very impressed and inquired, “Does it really work? Since you have three arrows, you can show Me how it works.” Barbarika looked around, his head turning left and then right, and he said, “But I don’t have any enemies, who should I shoot? At whom should I target this arrow?” Lord Krishna said, “All I want to see is the greatness of these arrows. Do you see the tree under which you are doing your penance? Imagine that each of its leaves are your enemies, okay? Shoot this arrow and let me see if it can kill all the leaves on the tree.” So Barbarika started to meditate to manifest an arrow. Meanwhile, Krishna plucked one leaf from the tree and hid it under His Feet so that Barbarika wouldn’t know about it. Barbarika shot the arrow at the tree, the arrow went completely around the tree, and all the leaves fell off it. But then the arrow changed its direction. It went towards Krishna and hit the Feet of Krishna, it pierced the Feet of Krishna! Seeing that, Lord Krishna was very pleased, but Barbarika was shocked. Barbarika said, “My Lord, it was not my intention to shoot Your Feet. I don’t know why the arrow went there.” Krishna removed His Feet and showed him that there was one leaf under His Feet. The arrow had pierced His Feet because of that leaf, so Krishna knew that this arrow was very dangerous.
After that, Krishna went to Kurukshetra, and Barbarika was very happy to have had the Darshan of Lord Krishna. Barbarika knew that now was the time to attain Krishna. He decided that the only way to fight Krishna was to be on the opposite side of Krishna in the war, on the side of the Kauravas. He made the resolution that he would go and fight in Krishna’s army, with the Kauravas, because the Kauravas were being killed, one by one. Sometimes even more, even hundreds were being killed: all the brothers of Duryodhana were being killed. Barbarika took his chariot and started going towards Kurukshetra.
Krishna knew that he was on his way to Kurukshetra and appeared to him as a Brahmin. In the form of a Brahmin, Krishna asked him, “Where are you going in such haste My dear Barbarika?” He said, “I am going to Kurukshetra to fight for the Kauravas.” Krishna asked, “Why are you taking the side of the Kauravas? You should be with the Pandavas!” He said, “No, I have made my resolution.
I have taken a vow that I will side with the ones who are losing.” Still in the disguise of a Brahmin, Krishna tried to reason with him, but Barbarika said, “No, I will not switch sides.” Of course, Barbarika knew who was in front of him. Krishna insisted more, but Barbarika would not change mind.
Finally, Barbarika stated, “If you don’t let me go to the Kurukshetra, I will shoot this arrow and kill all the Pandavas.” Krishna had already seen the power of these arrows which had been given to Barbarika by Devi herself, so He said, “Are you a fool?” Barbarika took the bow and arrow and was ready to shoot the arrow into the sky to kill the Pandavas. Krishna said, “You don’t know who I am. Please stop, don’t do such a thing. Don’t be so stupid.” At that moment, Krishna appeared in His true form with the Sudarshana chakra and threw it to chop off Barbarika’s head. Barbarika’s head and body hit the ground simultaneously, and disconnected from each other. At that moment, Barbarika started to sing the praises of Lord Krishna. Krishna approached him and said, “My dear, you didn’t know what you were going to do, what adharma you were going to do.” Barbarika said, “No, my dear Lord, that was my aim. Did You think that I didn’t notice You? I knew it was You disguised as a Brahmin. Who else would try to stop me if it was not You? It was only You who knew the power of this arrow.”
He explained, “My Lord, I wanted this. There’s no greater blessing than this. I’ve longed for this since the day I was born. This has been my eternal aim, to attain You, to merge with You, to be one with You.” Then he continued, “I have only one more wish. My desire is to go to Kurukshetra: just to see You, I would like to see the war.” Krishna was very pleased with him and said, “I bless you so you will not die, you will not attain Me, you will not merge into Me until the war is finished.” Krishna ordered the Pandavas to place the head of Barbarika on the highest pillar there so that he could see the war on both sides. There, Barbarika watched the whole Mahabharat for eighteen days.
When the war ended and the Pandavas won, each Pandava was filled with pride. They were all very proud of themselves. They were thinking, “Now that we have killed all the Kauravas, we have proven that we are very powerful, very strong.” They were flattering themselves. Hearing this, Lord Krishna said, “Listen, we have to go see Barbarika; he had a wonderful view from the top of the pillar. Let’s ask him to tell us a little bit about what he saw.” Arjuna was very proud of his Gandiva and Yudhishtir was proud that he was now a great king. They were all very proud of themselves. They walked up to the pillar and said, “Hey Barbarika, how are you doing up there? Hope you are fine…did you enjoy the fight?”
When Barbarika saw them coming, he started laughing like crazy. They wondered, why is he laughing? You see, only the head was laughing, he’d probably gone a bit nuts up there. Barbarika said, “I am laughing just looking at all of you.” They were taken aback, they felt offended: they were such great warriors and this head was laughing at them. They were thinking, “Who are you? We just won a big war and we can kill you like nothing.” Well, he was already dead, he was just a head. Barbarika said, “I will tell you why I am laughing.” Then he started to say in a very loud voice, “You are all fools!” They were shocked! He said, “Now you are singing your own glory. You are all proud that you have done this. Arjuna is proud of his Gandiva and Bhima is proud that all of the Kauravas have been killed, proud that Duryodhana has been killed! Do you think that you have done all this? No, you have not killed anybody in this war.”
They were stunned! They said, “But we killed everybody.” Arjuna was very offended, he said, “I shot Karna! I shot Bhishma Pita! I shot Dronacharya! Why are you saying that we didn’t kill anybody?” Krishna was laughing, because He knew the state that they were in. He laughed wholeheartedly, listening to how Barbarika was talking to the Pandavas.
He laughed till his stomach hurt. Barbarika continued, “You foolish Pandavas, you have not done anything in this war. All that has been done, has been done by Krishna. It is He who killed everyone. He made you see only your arrows, but behind each arrow, under each arrow, was a Sudarshana Chakra. It was not your arrows, but the Sudarshana Chakra that killed them. Don’t be fooled.”
Now, they were speechless. They all looked at Krishna, and Krishna said, “Yes.” Behind all these weapons that had been used was only Krishna, was only the Sudarshana Chakra that Krishna had put there. That’s how the Kauravas were killed, otherwise the Pandavas would never have been able to kill them. The Kauravas were great warriors, they were superhuman. By killing them, Krishna had also liberated them. Barbarika was very happy and said, “Lord, if I had my body, I would bow down to you, I would salute you, but I don’t have it. So I’m doing it in my mind, ‘manas’. In my mind, I’m bowing down to you, my Lord.”
Krishna was very pleased with him and blessed him. Then the head of Barbarika became light and merged into Krishna. This is the state of surrender, when one is fully surrendered. By His Grace, He Himself allows one to return to one’s place inside of His cosmic Body and eternally enjoy His presence. When one has merged into Him and eternally attained Him, one will never leave Him again.
Bhagavad Gita
