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Before we come to ‘our only mistake’, let us look at some of our other mistakes:
Presuming that God is separate from us. Treating God and His words (as recorded in the scriptures) as two different entities. Stating that there is no meeting ground for science and spirituality. Ignoring the power that resides within the bodies. Persisting in thinking like man, instead of thinking like God. Not realising that God is doing everything.
Sure enough, these shortcomings in us—I am even tempted to refer to them as our fatal errors—all arise from one fundamental disbelief: our non-acceptance of God’s words. It is indeed surprising that the great thinkers, philosophers and scientists of all times looked everywhere for answers to metaphysical riddles, that continue to baffle us even today, but failed to go to the source: God, and His words. It almost appears to me that we were all stuck in a quagmire of our thinking; that we were caught in black holes of our own making. We were so engrossed in our thinking that we completely ignored the words of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita:
Having crossed over these three attributes arising from the body, the
dweller in the body is completely freed from birth, death,
old age and sorrow and attains immortality. Chapter 14:20
A fact that is revealed in the Bible as well:
That whatsoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:15
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in Me hath everlasting life. John 6:47
Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death.
John 8:51
The Guru Granth Sahib also says:
One who has the knowledge of God, depends on God alone.
Such a knower of God never dies.
The very fact that man has not been able to free himself from death and attain ‘eternal life’ means that he has not believed the words of God or he has not understood the scriptures.
It really is so very simple. Where does one look for the answers to the mysteries of this universe? To whom does one turn? Who will guide us and give us the correct answers? The creator of this universe, obviously. And, let us be more specific here, His words. God said it all, but who was listening?
He showed us the path to life and death; to living and attaining perfection; to the Self and Self-realisation; to a world free of diseases and death; towards harmony and well-being. The answers were all there, for us to read and understand; to absorb His wisdom and to make it our strength. But, no. We were so very busy with our lives that we persisted in overlooking the obvious, as stated in the holy books. We lacked faith in God, because we refused to accept His words as the Absolute Truth. We also did not love God, for, if we did, why did we not listen to Him?
I am the origin of all, from Me all evolves; understanding thus, the intelligent worship Me, endowed with Bhava. Chapter 10:8
At last after many births, one who has attained Gyan reaches Me, realising that All is Vasudev [Supreme Reality]. Such a great soul is very difficult to find.Chapter 7:19
He who sees the Param Ishwar [Supreme God] abiding equally in all the beings as the Imperishable among the perishables—he sees.Chapter 13:28
Bhagavad Gita
There is but one in this universe; and that one is God. All that is seen, heard, smelled, tasted and felt is God. And He is Himself enjoying His creation by the senses. Here we can actually let our imagination loose—is God a scientist sitting in His laboratory, conducting cosmic experiments? Or, is He a spiritual being, someone who looks after humankind at all times? Or, is He actually Us?
A fragment of Myself having become an eternal living being in the living world, draws to Himself the six—the senses and the mind—that abide in Prakriti. Chapter 15:7
When Ishwar [God] acquires a body and also when He leaves it, He takes these [the senses and the mind] and goes as the wind carries the scents from their seat.Chapter15:8
Presiding over the ears, the eyes, the organ of touch [skin], of taste [tongue], of smell [nose] and also the mind, this God enjoys the objects of the senses. Chapter 15:9
Departing or dwelling or enjoying, attached with the attributes, the deluded do not perceive; those with the eye of Gyan perceive. Chapter 15:10
Bhagavad Gita
Had we but read the scriptures with this in mind, we would have been able to see things in a totally different light. Our single mistake, then, is that we failed to understand what was said, again and again, by God—that God alone exists in the world or there is none besides God here. There was only God here before creation. He transformed Himself into matter and universe. All that exists including mankind is the manifest form of God. What we really need to understand is that there is no ‘I’, that ‘I’ does not exist, that we are not ‘I’ or different men and women but we all are forms of God or we all are God. Comprehend this, and you will be able to look at things around you with an entirely different perspective. For, if there is none besides God here, then who or what are we?
‘I’ and ‘Mine’, ‘You’ and ‘Yours’—this is maya [delusion], which has
captivated all human beings. Wherever the senses and the mind go,
O brother, consider all that as maya.
Lord Rama
We have to get out of this web that is spun by delusion, and thereby reach our true Self, that is, God or the holy spirit or wisdom—whatever name we may choose to use for the soul that dwells within all bodies. Bodies die and wither; they are burnt or buried. But the soul lives on. We are not the bodies, we are the souls—the eternal fragments of God that live in the bodies. Our ‘I’ deludes us, the souls, and does not let us have the Self- realisation that we all are one or God.
“If the new physics has led us anywhere,” writes Gary Zukav in The Dancing Wu Li Masters, “it is back to ourselves, which, of course, is the only place that we could go.” Yes, taking a full circle, we come back to the beginning. But where does one go from there?
Here lies the eternal paradox: It seems to us that ‘I am’, but the ‘I’ does not exist…But if this ‘I’ does not exist, then what lies inside the bodies?
Know it indeed to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded; none can cause the destruction of this Imperishable. Chapter 2:17
These bodies which embody the indestructible, immeasurable and eternal are said to have an end. Therefore fight, O Bharat. Chapter 2:18
Bhagavad Gita
Your thought is what makes you. I am because I think I am. You are because you think you are. And once you accept this Truth, that you do not exist, that there is no ‘I’, that it is God who is living in the bodies, you attain enlightment. It is only the single thought of God that has the power to free us from delusion and death and make us immortal. All that we have to do is to follow the path of wisdom laid down by God.
Your right is to action only, never to the fruits. Let not the fruit of action be your motive nor let your attachment be to inaction. Chapter 2:47
Firm in Yog, perform actions, O Dhananjay, renouncing attachment, having become the same in success and failure; this sameness is called Yog. Chapter 2:48
All actions are performed by the Gunas of Prakriti [attributes of Nature]; he who is deluded by the ego thinks, ‘I am the doer.’ Chapter 3:27
Renouncing all actions to Me, with consciousness of self-knowledge, free from hope and egoism, fight without mental fever. Chapter 3:30
Bhagavad Gita
God had asked us to mentally renounce all fruits and actions to Him since this renunciation is the secret science of Yog, the practice of which can free us from sorrow, old age and death and give us eternal peace and happiness. But we did not pay heed to the words of God and chose to remain subject to sorrow, old age, death and re-birth. As long as we consider that the fruits of action are ‘mine’ and ‘I am the doer’, we will not be able to free ourselves from the delusive ‘I’. We will fail to attain the wisdom, that is, the all-pervading Supreme God. We will remain attached to the attributes of Nature and keep taking births in different bodies.
Know that Prakriti [Nature] and Purush [God or Being] are both beginningless and know also that Vikars [desire, anger, greed, attachment and the ego] and Gunas [attributes of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas] are born of Prakriti. Chapter 13:20
Prakriti is said to be the cause behind the act, its instrument and its doer, while Purush is said to be the cause behind the experience of joy and sorrow. Chapter 13:21
Purush, seated in Prakriti, enjoys the attributes born of Prakriti. The attachment with attributes is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs. Chapter 13:22
Bhagavad Gita
As I said before, our only mistake is that we failed to comprehend the words of God. We did not understand that we all are Purush, the beginningless God that existed before creation along with Prakriti, Nature with the three attributes of Sattva (purity), Rajas (passion) and Tamas (delusion). We did not believe that we the Purushas are only the experiencers of joy and sorrow, but we are not the doer of any action. Though God said it again and again that all actions are performed by Nature, our ‘I-ness’ ignored the words of God.
Albert Einstein is said to have observed: “The only incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” If he were alive, I am sure he would have, sooner rather than later, invented a ‘spiritual formula’, something on the lines of:
Man – I = God
Though the being living in the body is God, he is unable to realise this due to the ego, and perceives him as ‘I’ or man/woman. The being who sees that all actions are performed by Nature (not ‘I’) and the fruits of action are of God (not ‘mine’) will know or realise that he is God. He will attain the Bhava of God, instead of man. He will become God.
He who sees all actions as performed by Nature alone and also the self
as actionless, he sees. Chapter 13:30
Bhagavad Gita
I have, however, often debated whether we are ready to become God. Is it not so much easier to think of God, our Creator, as a benevolent, benign presence in our lives? Someone whom we can never reach. Even the non-believers among us find it very comfortable to turn to Him in prayer and meditation. As long as man thinks about God, he cannot become God; no, he has to think as God. He has to transform his thoughts and make them one with the thoughts of God.
When the seer perceives no doer other than the attributes and knows beyond the attributes, he attains My Bhava. Chapter 14:19
Having crossed over these three attributes arising from the body, the dweller in the body is completely freed from birth, death, old age and sorrow and attains immortality.Chapter 14:20
Bhagavad Gita
That is how it was meant to be. That was the divine cosmic plan. No, God does not play dice with the universe. He had everything sorted out. It is humankind who tried its utmost, collectively and persistently, to thwart this grand scheme of things. We kept referring to ourselves as ‘I’, failing to grasp or accept that there is no ‘I’, that ‘I’ is a delusion. We kept thinking that we were doing everything, that we were the doers of all actions. We are still not prepared to accept that Brahm is everything; that only Brahm is functioning in this world. We are not able to comprehend that if all this is Brahm or God, who am ‘I’?
Earth, water, fire, air, space, mind, intellect and also ego [I-ness]—this is My Nature, divided eightfold. Chapter 7:4
This is the lower nature. But different from it, O Mahabaho, know My higher Nature, the life principle by which this world is sustained.Chapter 7:5
Bhagavad Gita
Ego or ‘I’-ness is only a Bhava or perception in the lower nature of God dwelling in the body. ‘I’ is the Maya or delusion, the Ravan in the body of Ram. Until Ram, that is the embodied soul, destroys this Ravan in the form of the ego, He cannot unite with His lost consort, Sita in the form of self-realisation. Self-realisation is the supreme power of the embodied Ram, attaining which He will be freed from sorrow, old age and death and attain immortality. He will then stop changing the bodies but live in the same body forever, having realised that he is God and so are all other beings. He will neither hate nor love any being but attain the Bhava of sameness to all.
The same am I to all beings, there is none hateful or dear to Me; but those who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I am also in them. Chapter 9:29
The Pundit views equally a Brahman endowed with learning and humility, a cow, an elephant, a dog and even a lowborn.Chapter 5:18
Even here birth is overcome by those whose mind rests in sameness; Brahm is indeed without blemish and equal, therefore they [whose minds rest in sameness] are established in Brahm. Chapter 5:19
He who keeps the same intellect towards the good-hearted, friends, foes, the holy and also the sinners, he excels. Chapter 6:9
Bhagavad Gita
Stephen Hawking concluded A Brief History of Time by suggesting that we should all, “philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.”
Ah, the mind of God. As against the mind of man. But do God and man think alike? If not, then what differentiates man’s mind from God’s mind? For an adequate explanation, we will have to go to the very heart of creation. There are secrets and mysteries lying there that need to be unraveled and explored.
In the beginning was the ‘Word’, and the ‘Word’ was with God, and the ‘Word’ was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
Saint John
Let us, then, go back to the beginning of time. When none existed, save God. God was there in the form of the Word or Wisdom. This ‘Word’ or ‘Wisdom’ first transformed Itself into matter, and became the universe. Then It came to Planet Earth, and became man and woman. Physical bodies, in the guise of a male form and a female form. He inhabited these bodies, and they came to life. He gave them the Self-knowledge and asked them to perform actions for the sake of Yagya or sacrifice, without attachment. He also asked them not to eat the fruit of action but renounce the fruit to Him. The scriptures say that man and woman remained happy until they obeyed God. When the ego and desire arose in them, they could not resist eating the fruit. They started thinking that they were the doers of actions and the successes and failures were theirs. They forgot the words of God that all actions arise from Brahm, the all-pervading Bhava without any sense of ego and desire, and these are performed by Nature, and not by them:
This world is bound by actions other than those performed for the sake of Yagya [sacrifice].O Kauntey, perform actions for that, free from attachment. Chapter 3:9
In the beginning the Creator, having created beings by Yagya [sacrifice], said, ‘By this [Yagya] shall you propagate, let this be the Kamdhuk [divine cow that fulfills all desires] of your desired objects.’ Chapter 3:10
Know that action arises from Brahm and Brahm arises from the Imperishable. Therefore, the all-pervading Brahm is ever established in Yagya [sacrifice]. Chapter 3:15
Bhagavad Gita
With the passage of time, the ‘I’ in us assumed gigantic proportions. I am a successful banker; I am a Pulitzer-winning writer; I am rich; I am a New Age guru; I am good; I am bad. There was this ‘I’ all around us, and the stranger part of it was that each one of us was quite comfortable with this concept of ‘I’. Atheist and theist; Gnostic and agnostic; scientist and spiritualist alike—we were all quite happy trying to solve the puzzle of ‘Who am I?’ Nobody pointed out that there is no ‘I’—but all are God—a fact that is repeatedly stated in the books of God. Books that we have eagerly devoured and tenaciously digested; tomes that we have studied and researched, from the Bible to the Bhagavad Gita; we can narrate the stories of Lord Krishna or Lord Rama as if we were witness to them. The Mahabharata excites us; the crucifixion of Jesus Christ hurts us. But, tell me, did we bother to delve into the words of these books, beyond the message and the myth, and really try to grasp what God was saying. Did we believe Him when He spoke, say, on eternal life?
And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Saint Matthew
While we did not believe His words, we believed the sages and saints who tried to teach us the Truth. The spiritual path shown by them fascinated us, we kept our fasts and our Sabbaths, we attended congresses that discussed all questions related to God, creation and beyond. But we ignored the words of God who said that we cannot know or reach Him by these devotions.
Neither by Vedas, nor by penance, or charity, nor by sacrifice can I be seen like this as you have seen Me.< Chapter 11:53
But by exclusive devotion (to Yog) I may be seen like this, O Arjun, and also known and truly entered, O Paramtap. Chapter 11:54
He who performs actions for Me, regarding Me as Supreme, is devoted to Me, free from attachment, without enmity towards any being, he reaches Me . Chapter 11:55.
Bhagavad Gita
Though, according to Lord Krishna, we cannot reach or attain Brahm by the Vedas, sacrifices, charities and austerities He does not advocate abandoning these acts.
The acts of sacrifice, charity and austerity are not to be relinquished, but should be performed; for these are indeed purifiers of the philosophers. Chapter 18:5
But even these actions should be performed relinquishing attachment and fruit. This, O Arjun, is My firm and final view. Chapter 18:6
Bhagavad Gita
A person who performs the acts of sacrifices, austerities etc. for gaining some fruit and with attachment, thinking that he is the doer, he may get the desired fruit but he will become bound by the actions. Having become attached to the attributes he will fail to reach Brahm, and take birth in a new body.
There has also emerged this belief that the world does not exist, that it is an illusion. I disagree. The world does exist; what is illusory or delusive is the fact that we think of ourselves as ‘I’ and of this manifest form of God as the world. The delusion is that these are our bodies; rather than of one power, God. The delusion lies in the fact that we think that we are seeing, listening, breathing, eating, drinking, walking, sleeping, working and so on. Thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘Mine’, of ‘You’ and ‘Yours’, create separateness, and that separateness leads to delusion. There is but one power residing in all of us. That power is using the bodies to see, listen, breathe, eat, drink, walk, sleep, work and so on. We the beings are fragments of that power, which is God. In other words we are ‘He’ but we think we are ‘I’.
He who is united and knows the truth thus thinks, ‘I do nothing at all’ and in seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, walking, sleeping, breathing, speaking, releasing, seizing, opening and closing the eyes, believes that only the senses are moving among the objects of senses. Chapter 5:8-9
Bhagavad Gita
‘I’ belongs to God or the eternal being dwelling in all bodies. ‘I’ has deluded that being. When the being leaves the ‘I’, he will be able to know himself or realize that he is God—and that is what we call Self- realisation. And that is what Saint Kabir wanted us to understand when he said:
Jab main tha, to Hari nahin
Ab Hari hain, main nahin
(When ‘I’ existed, God was absent; now that God is present, ‘I’ do not exist.)
As long as we regard ourselves as ‘I’ we do not have the Bhava that is Hari (God). And when we realize that the being is Hari (God), there is no ‘I’.
Since there is no ‘I’ and no ‘You’, only God exists, we can rightly infer that there is no man. Man does not exist; he has never existed. It was God alone who existed before the creation of the universe, it is God alone who exists even now.
Aad Sach, Jugaad Sach, Hai bhi Sach, Nanak hosi bhi Sach
(Before creation, there was only God, after creation there is only God, even today there is only God, and only God shall always be there.)
Guru Granth Sahib
Till we realise ourselves, till we come to understand that we are not separate from God but we are God, we will never be able to realise God. Till you realise that all beings are forms of God, you will never know yourself. The absence of this understanding is what is preventing us from grasping the simple fact that God did not create man; instead, He became man.
The ignorant do not know Me dwelling in human form, not knowing My Supreme Bhava, the highest God of all beings. Chapter 9:11
Bhagavad Gita
Had we but accepted these words of God, the supreme power who created all this and whose fragments we are, we would have known that we are God. Then there would have been neither space nor reason for ‘I’ to exist. And we would have been saved from the folly of committing ‘Our Only Mistake’.
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