The sacred text of Yoga tells us that there are two ways to look at life, from the lower-self called Jeevathma or from the higher-self called Paramathma. This shift of perception from the lower to the higher self is what leads us from Samsara to Nirvana, or to understand it simply from a sense of deficiency to a sense of sufficiency. The Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads tell us there is sufficiency in the world, but the human mindsees deficiency and that is the deficiency we see and feel in the world. When a deficient person looks at sufficiency, sufficiency will always look very deficient. Therefore, it always feels like this Samsara is eating away our life. There is a certain type of madness present in our life. But we seem to think this madness is sane, while the really sanepeople appear to be mad to us! How are we living our lives?! Have you observed how we are living? The Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads and Yoga all tell us that we are living our life like a fool. Shankaracharya’s Bhaja Govindam says this directly – “Bhaja govinda Mbhaja govindaM,- govinda Mbha jamuu Dhamate ,” which means “worship Govinda, worship Govinda, worship Govinda, o fool!” Currently people are living life as though hell is a reality, and heaven is only a hope and fantasy, isn’t it? Can you see this is how our life is really being lived here? This state of unconscious living is what is called Jeevathma. It is a lower state of being. Spirituality tells us the reason behind this is that we are hypnotized. Our great teachers of the past, the rishis and gurus all say that we are hypnotized to wrong thinking. And since we are all hypnotized to wrong thinking, we live in the world as though it is hell, and heaven is only a fantasy. A Hindu is hypnotized to think he is a Hindu. A Christian is hypnotized that he is a Christian, a Muslim is hypnotized that he is a Muslim. This hypnotized state of being is what the scriptures call Nisha or darkness. This simply means that what is night to an unwise person is day to a wise person, and what is day to a wise person is night to an unwise person. In the Bhagavad Gita,Arjuna represents the hypnotized being, whose consciousness is asleep. He is theJeevathma. Lord Krishna represents the Paramathma or higher self in the Bhagavad Gita. He is the one whose consciousness is really awake, whose hypnosis has died, who is looking at life not from the lower center but from a higher center. The whole invitation of the Gita is to look at life from the higher center. It is then that we look at life differently. The whole Bhagavad Gita is thus a dialogue between two states of consciousness. Arjuna represents a person who is sleeping, who is in conflict, who is in tension, but he wants to come out of it. He is a student who wants to wake up. That is why he prays to Lord Krishna, “Shishyasthehamshaadhimaamth- vaamprapannam,” meaning, “I’m a student. I know I’m sleeping, but my intention is to wake up. Therefore, help me, O Keshava.” Swami Sukhabodhananda
