समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रिय:।
ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम्।।29।।
samo ’haṁ sarva-bhūteṣhu na me dveṣhyo ’sti na priyaḥ
ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣhu chāpyaham
The same am I to all beings: to Me, There is none hateful or dear. But those who worship Me with devotion, are in Me, and I too am in them.
~ Chapter 9, Verse 29
✥ ✥ ✥
Questioner (Q): After reading the above verse, I feel enchanted. I understand now why God's grace could be felt differently by different people. In the end, I feel it is only myself to blame if I feel victimized. And if someone is in bliss, it is the fruit of their own devotion.
Kindly speak on this more so that it is perfectly clear to me.
Acharya Prashant (AP): The Truth has nothing to do with anybody. Truth and God are very different, extremely different, belonging to two different dimensions.
The concept of God that we have is a very active concept. We have God, the creator. We have God, the manager. We have God, the provider. We have God, the destroyer. We have God who keeps records and dispenses justice. We have God that keeps an eye on everything that keeps happening. We have God that is omniscient, watches everything. We have God that knows everything.
Truth has nothing to do with all this shady business. Truth is perfectly out of everything that carries the stamp of your mind or your world. Truth is the name of a beyondness. Truth is an out-ness.
So, the Truth just is.
Doesn't favour anybody, doesn't disfavour anybody.
Is not spiteful, is not merciful.
Is not ruthless, is not compassionate—and does not respond to prayers at all.
Neither sees nor hears.
Doesn't create, doesn't destroy—does nothing at all.
That's Truth.
God is quite a busybody. I sometimes wonder how he manages all his stuff. Must be having quite an efficient office full of the best managers from the Ivy League institutions.
How do you meet Truth then? When you too are like Truth, you are one with the Truth. Truth has nothing to do with your business. When you too lose an inner interest in all your businesses, then you are with the Truth. Truth doesn’t do this, neither does it do that. When you too start seeing the futility of this or that, then you are with the Truth.
So, the Truth has not much to do with you. But that's half the story because you must have a lot to do with Truth—because it's you who suffers. It's you who is so very caught up in the business, and the business brings suffering. Therefore, you must be the one who must see the falseness of all the hopes that you have from your businesses.
It's you who should be moving towards the Truth.
It's you who should be targeting the Truth.
It's you who should be choosing the Truth.
The Truth really has no business choosing you. You could either say that He is indifferent towards you, or you could say that He has or It has—whatsoever you want to say—given itself so absolutely and completely to you that It cannot choose you anymore. If I have already given everything that I have to you, then can I choose to not give something to you?
So, you could either say that the Truth is so indifferent that it gives nothing to you, or you could say that the Truth has already given everything to you. Now it depends on you; the ball is in your court. Truth has given everything to you in the form of your potential to choose the Truth. But you have alternate plans, it seems, and always your alternate plan is—well the Truth is available, but so is something else. And that something else is quite interesting.
So, you are the one who has to choose the Truth; no point praying. And if you have to pray, then your prayer has to be against yourself. Do not say that you want Him to bless you. Your prayer must be that you do not want ‘you’ to unchoose Him. Rather, your prayer must be that you do not want ‘you’ to choose yourself.
Hey Ram! Mujhe mujhse bachao! (Save me from myself)
And mind you, that's not something that you are asking from some external deity. That is something that you are reminding to yourself. You are telling yourself that you are not worthy of any kind of belief; you are reminding yourself that you are not trustworthy; reminding yourself that you are dangerous to yourself. That's the prayer.
“May I please remember that I am not dependable?” That's the prayer.
“May I please remember that I am very harmful to myself, that all my calculations and conclusions and confidence is always self-defeating?” That's a prayer, right? And that's what is the gist of these lines in this verse.
“To Me,” Krishna says, “All are equal. But to them, it doesn't appear that I am the only choice. My blessings are unconditionally with everybody, but not everybody is unconditionally with Me. So, if you suffer, the fault is yours. And if you get liberated, the credit is yours. You are the one who decides.”
In one of the previous chapters, Shri Krishna made it so obvious. He said, “You are your best friend and you are your worst enemy. I am available. I cannot do anything more to make myself more available. You are the one who decides whether or not to benefit from my availability. You are the one who decides whether to choose me or ignore and disrespect me. And because I have already given all that I can, therefore, now I am so helpless that I cannot even give you a warning.”
Krishna has given himself absolutely to everybody, so he cannot now give even a warning. Everything has already been given. How can now even a warning be given? If there are warnings, they too have already been given. Everything has already been given.
So, if you move in the wrong direction and nobody stops or warns you, do not complain, “O’ Krishna! why didn't you stop or warn me?”
Krishna will say, “But I have already warned you! I am left with nothing to give you any more. I am the Absolute. Therefore, whatever I do, I do absolutely. When I give, I give myself absolutely. You ask yourself, why don't you receive what I give? Because you are smart, because you are very smart, because you are the cool dude. You get your swagger, you get your confidence. Look at the way you strut around! Why do you need Krishna at all?”
