Meditation Yoga
Chapter 6, Verse 30
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra
sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi
sa ca me na praṇaśyati
He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost, nor does he get lost to Me.
Here Lord Krishna says, “He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me.” Those who perceive God everywhere in the outside world, knowing that everything forms His cosmic Body, “sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost, nor does he get lost to Me.” A realised soul, a true bhakta sees the Divine everywhere and knows that Krishna is everywhere! One knows that Narayana Krishna is everywhere, in everything, in whatever one does, wherever one goes! There is never separation.
Bhagavan Himself is reminding people, “Why are you running left and right? You should run inside! I am always with you. You are always with Me. We Love each other. We are always in Love! You are Love! This is your true reality. You are the eternal bliss, Satchitananda. Don’t think that I am separate from you. I am always with you in every situation. All is actually only Me. Whoever sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, knows who I am. Then one perceives this unity.”
“He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me.” God works in the world through each person, playing different roles, like an actor who wears many different clothes and speaks in many different voices. Nevertheless, the actor remains always an actor. Like this, God dwells in His creation in different forms. Because humans are so focused on their humanhood, they don’t recognise God in His creation, they don’t see Him, so they feel separation from God. In such a state, they have so many outer distractions and are so busy dealing with different things, they forget that deep within the core of the heart, in the heart of hearts, it is only Him who is the Reality.
Goswami Tulsidas said, “Knowing the whole creation to be a manifestation of Rama and Sita, joining the palms, I offer my salutations to all.”
Do you know the story about Lord Krishna as a boy in Vrindavan and Brahma? After killing the demon named Aghasura, Krishna was sitting with the boys, the young cowherds, and they were enjoying themselves. Each one had a little pack of lunch with him which included cold rice, curd and chapati. They were eating and sharing
their food with Krishna.
At that time, Krishna was only five years old. Lord Brahma had a doubt in His mind. He knew that Krishna was the Lord Himself. But He was wondering if the Lord of the universe was bound by Maya while He was incarnated and if He was fully aware of His divinity. So He decided to test Krishna. While the boys were playing and the calves were grazing on the other side of the field, Brahma, by His power, took all the calves and hid them in a cave. The boys looked all around, but they couldn’t find the calves. Krishna asked them, “Where are the calves?” They started looking everywhere, near and far. Finally, Krishna told them, “Let me go and find the calves. You continue on eating. I’ll go.”
While He was away, Brahma came, took the boys and also hid them in the cave. Meanwhile Krishna had not found the calves and when He came back, He saw that the boys were also missing. The gopas had disappeared! So He was wondering, “What is this? Where have they gone? What has happened to all the boys of Vrindavan?” Then He smiled, “Ah, I know! This is a game of Brahma. He has played a game on Me, thinking that I am limited by Maya. So now, I will play a game on Him.” Thus the Lord who resides everywhere, who is the Jivatma of all and who pervades the whole creation, decided to teach Brahma a lesson.
He manifested Himself into as many calves as had been there before and into all the gopas Brahma had taken away. They all behaved exactly like the calves that had been grazing and the gopas that had been playing there before. Later in the evening, when the boys returned home, their parents embraced them and felt great affection towards them. When the calves returned to the stable, the milk of the cows was flowing by itself and the calves could drink milk all the time. This continued for a whole year. Every day it was the same.
After one year, Balarama started wondering about this and said, “There is something wrong here! Why is everybody loving their own children more than Krishna? They used to love Krishna much more than their own children.” He looked at the cows. The milk was flowing by itself from the cows, and the calves were enjoying the continuous flow of milk. But this would only happen when Krishna was near the cows. So Balarama continued to question this, and think about it. Then He closed His eyes and saw with His divine vision that everything around Him was just Krishna, only Krishna. He looked at the calves and saw that they were all Krishna. He looked at the gopas and saw that they were all Krishna. Then, He knew that everything around Him was only Krishna, nothing else.
Balarama approached Krishna and said, “Krishna, I know who all of them are!” Of course, Krishna was very quiet, listening to Him. Finally, He said, “Well, it has been like this for a while.” Then Balarama realised what Brahma had done and how Krishna had masqueraded Himself as the gopas and the cows to teach Brahma a lesson.
After a year had passed, Brahma started wondering what was happening in Vrindavan and said, “I will go and visit.” It is important to note that divine time is different from human time. A whole human year had passed, since Brahma had taken the boys, and hidden them in the cave. When He arrived in Vrindavan, He was shocked to see that everything was back in its normal place. He saw that the gopas and the calves were all there as usual. He said, “I just took them all away! Why are they here?” Then, as He was looking at them, he saw that all of them were Maha Vishnu Himself: they all had four arms that were holding the Shankha, the Chakra, the Gada and the Lotus. So He became even more shocked and confused. Then He realised His great mistake in doubting the Lord. How could Maya act on Him, the One who pervades everything? How could He be limited?
Brahma felt this great sadness inside of Himself, so He went to Krishna, fell at His Feet, and asked for forgiveness saying, “Lord, please forgive me! I had a doubt and You have cleared up this doubt. Let me praise You! Let me sing Your glory!” Then Brahma returned all the boys and the calves. The boys said to Krishna, “You went looking for the calves and you have not eaten any lunch!” For them also, the period of time that Krishna had been gone was very short. They were clouded by Maya, so they didn’t realise what had happened. Then Brahma sang His praises to Krishna, the Brahma Samhita: īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sat-cidānanda vigrahaḥ…
Krishna is sat-cidānanda vigrahaḥ, the embodiment of supreme bliss! He is īśvaraḥ, the Supreme Reality! He is God manifested. In the Brahma Samhita, Brahma praises Krishna, “You are the Lord of lords. You are the whole manifested creation.” All is only Him! A true yogi perceives the whole manifestation as īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sat-cidānanda vigrahaḥ. Each one is the sat-cidānanda vigrahaḥ of Lord Krishna Himself! Krishna Himself is in each person, just like an actor in different costumes playing different roles.
Krishna also showed to His mother, Yashoda, that He was in everything and that everything was in Him. It happened when He was a little child and He ate some soil. The gopas went to complain to Yashoda saying, “Yashoda, your son has eaten soil!” Of course, Yashoda got worried and asked Him, “Have you eaten soil?” Krishna replied, “I have never eaten soil, soil is always inside of Me!” So Yashoda forced Him to open His mouth, and what did she see? She saw this entire universe and many other universes inside of little Krishna’s mouth! She even saw both of them sitting there in Vrindavan inside His mouth. At that moment, Krishna allowed Maya to cover this Realisation of Yashoda, because otherwise He would not have been able to play His Leela. So the same truth was also revealed in this story: everything is only Him! The true yogi perceives that everyone is only Satchitananda Krishna, nothing else. This supreme reality, Narayana Krishna is the One who is playing every role, in different forms with different names.
In the Ramacharitamanas, there is a story of a saint by the name of Kakabhushundi. When Maha Vishnu incarnated as Rama, Kakabhushundi was there, happily enjoying the Leela of the Lord, in the form of the little Rama. There was a moment when little Rama noticed Kakabhushundi and started running after him, trying to catch him. Of course, he played with Rama, but at a certain point he saw that Rama was not running after him. Only the hand of Rama was running after him! Wherever he went, the hand of Rama was there chasing him! So he changed his aspect; he became a crow and flew to Brahma Loka. And there he also saw the hand of Rama behind him. He flew to Vishnu Loka and Rama’s hand chased him there. He flew to Shiva Loka, to Mount Kailash and Rama’s hand pursued him there. Kakabhushundi still in the form of a crow panicked. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, he saw that he was again back in Ayodhya. The same river, Saryu, was flowing there as before. He was shocked, because he saw that he was still in the form of a crow! Little Rama got hold of him, opened His mouth and swallowed him. When he was swallowed by Rama, he went into His belly.
So what was he doing in the belly of Rama? Kakabhushundi later revealed to Garuda all that happened. He said that when Rama swallowed him, he went into Lord Rama’s abdomen. “Inside His belly, I saw a multitude of universes. There were different spheres. They were all wonderful and each one surpassed the other in beauty. There I found millions of Brahmas and Shivas, countless of suns, moons, and stars, and millions of deities presiding over all religions. Each universe had all kinds of devas, and Indras; all the rishis and siddhas were there and also all the human beings were present. Each universe had all the four seasons. I saw and heard everything. I visited hundreds of universes and sometimes I spent hundreds of years in a universe. Each universe had its own Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. It had its own Manu – the giver of the laws of dharma. Each universe had all the demigods, the animals, the oceans and all the creatures. And in each universe, I saw myself. I saw that each universe had its own Ayodhya, its own men and women; each one had its own Dasharath, Kaushalya, Bharata and all Rama’s brothers. However, each person had a different form in each universe, they didn’t always look the same. For instance, Bharata in our universe was fair, thin, elegant, and beautiful, whereas in another universe, he was big, fat, and heavy.”
Kakabhushundi recognised each person, but in each universe that he found inside the belly of Rama, they were all different. He witnessed the Leela of Rama, the sport of the child Rama, in each universe. “However, there was one thing that I noticed in all these universes: although everything was completely different in each universe, the Dasharath was different, the Kaushalya was different, the Bharata was different, the Shatrughna was different, the Lakshman was different, Rama was not different. In all the universes, in all the Ayodhyas, in all the yugas, only Rama was the same everywhere. I saw great festivities. And all that I saw inside the Lord’s belly was marvellous. Then my mind started to think and confusion arose inside me upon seeing such great wonders.”
As soon as Sri Rama realised the confusion in Kakabhushundi’s mind, He started to laugh in all the universes! Each Lord Rama in every universe was looking at him and laughing; all the Ramas were laughing very loudly. Kakabhushundi became even more confused since he could not understand what was happening. At that moment, as Lord Rama was laughing so much, Kakabhushundi was thrown out of His mouth, and he came out very confused. Such is the state of all human beings. Everything comes from His cosmic Body, from His stomach. When one is thrown out of the union with the Divine, due to the confusion and delusion of the mind, one doesn’t perceive the Reality. When Krishna says, “He who sees Me everywhere and sees all in Me, to him I do not get lost, nor does he get lost to Me,” it means that in this state, there is no separation from the Divine. One sees this Narayana Swarupa everywhere. God is never far away. He is in the core of each being.
Sa ca me na praṇaśyati: He says, “One never gets lost to Me”. In the lives of many saints like Meerabai, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Tukaram, Namdev and many others, due to their love and devotion, due to their bhakti, the Lord manifested Himself in a different form to each of them. A form, an image of the Lord is the Lord Himself, there is no difference. So when one has the inner vision of the Lord within oneself and perceives that vision of the Divine within all the creation, one attains this ocean of beauty, Love, and glory; one realises, one becomes this embodiment of sweetness and bliss. And one doesn’t fall back! Once one beholds such a transcendental form within one’s own Self, the bond between one and the Lord becomes indissoluble and permanent.
During the Raas Leela in Vrindavan, Lord Krishna said to the gopis, “Go away!” The gopis replied, “How can we go away? If You are the source of everything, where can we go that You are not present? You are the core of our lives. How can we live without You?” Then Krishna disappeared and they went into a deep depression. Their depression symbolises the state of human beings, who are always in depression when they don’t perceive the Divine, until their hearts awaken and this longing for God is manifested through seeking reunion with Him. When you go into deep meditation, you perceive that there is no difference between you and the Divine, that He is the only One, the only Reality. There is no other Reality but Him.
In the story of Kakabhushundi, Lord Rama revealed His omnipresence, showing the crow saint that He was the manifestation of everything. In a similar way, Lord Krishna also revealed His omnipresence to Balarama, Yashoda and many others. He revealed that He is the Soul of all, the Master behind everything, that everything is only Him, nothing else. The yogis, the bhaktas, who are serving the Lord and acting with the aim of attaining Him only, become realised.
Bhagavad Gita
