The Bhagavad Gita is the story about life on the path to Brahman Consciousness - it is the song of God, so what else could or would God sing about other than the highest aim of a human life?

There are innumerable brilliant and comprehensive commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, of which the most brilliant and compelling is the one written by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We will not attempt to add to that list today, but rather take a few paragraphs just to point out how the wonderful story of Arjuna and Krishna can encourage us on our path to Brahman Consciousness.

Today I asked Guru Dev why we have found ourselves in the midst of some unfulfilled promises. I inquired why, if Guru Dev is God incarnate and has all the power of the universe at His command, we could not immediately fulfill our common objectives. Here is His answer:

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna told Arjuna to act and not be concerned about the fruits of his actions. He instructed Arjuna to be the best archer by carefully training on the target with a steady hand, and with focused attention and with the goal in sight, release the arrow. Once the arrow has been released, Arjuna's responsibility is over and now Krishna will insure that the arrow reaches its mark.

The analogy of an arrow flying to the target seems to say to us that once we take the initial decision to enter upon the path to Brahman Consciousness with Krishna (Guru Dev) as our charioteer, we should proceed straight to the goal. After all, what could stand in the way of Krishna?

On the battlefield of Kurushetra, Krishna saw His beloved friends and family on the side of the enemy and there were many more of His most dear ones with Him on the side of Dharma. Why engage in this painful and horrible battle at all? Why did not Krishna simply wave His hand at the start of the battle and end it right there?

He allowed the battle to proceed out of love. He knew that Arjuna would triumph in the end and that His great devotee and long-time friend Bhishma would be killed by Arjuna. Yet He did not stop the war but rather encouraged Arjuna to kill the enemy and even to kill his own grandfather Bhishma.

How is it that love pits grandfather against grandson in a duel to the death? Without taking too large of a divergence from our topic we can remind ourselves that for one thing, no one is killed and no one kills, for the jiva is eternal. This is not to say that the jiva does not suffer greatly from being "killed" and that the one who kills suffers greatly from the "killing." Killing is wrong and leads to suffering. Suffering is the lot of the jiva who causes suffering. However, there is a lofty perspective from where one sees the entire playing field and from there the "killing" is seen as a momentary sting, and not a final outcome.

In ignorance, before Brahman Consciousness, the jiva is embedded in a cesspool of its own karma and is constantly suffering from this. The suffering is at times intolerable and always the maze of karma is around it, choking its life and restricting its freedom to act. To such a jiva life is known to be a struggle and full of misery. Even in the brief periods of happiness, which the jiva spends all of its time running after, there is the underlying anxiety that "this too shall pass!" and the suffering will once again overtake. The jiva will often console itself in times of misery with the same phrase - "this too shall pass."

Guru Dev exclaims "life is bliss!" and all this suffering is mâyâ - that which is not. Such is the perspective of one in Brahman Consciousness. He sees clearly the suffering jiva and out of love and compassion offers His hand to save the jiva from its own self-created misery. However, out of love, Guru Dev never forces His hand on the jiva, because to do that would be an act of taking away - taking away the freedom to act that is the birthright of every jiva.

Out of love, Krishna never comes where He is not invited. Walking lightly through the world, Krishna never imposes Himself on others or forces anyone to do anything. He is always there with us as our Âtman (some say the "I AM PRESENCE") and is always watching and waiting for us to come and ask for His help.

Therefore, out of love, Krishna allowed the battle to proceed because to intervene would curtail the freedom of the jivas to act according to their own desires. Even though the jivas want to kill each other and introduce even greater suffering into their lives, it is their free-will choice to do this so how can God interfere? However, Arjuna came to Krishna and asked Him to be his charioteer - to protect him and guide him through the battle - and out of love, Krishna the Supreme God Himself, accepted the position of service to Arjuna, a common man.

This is typical of the relationship between Âtman and jiva - the Âtman is Krishna but willingly and lovingly accepts the role of serving the jiva. At this moment, before the battle when he appealed to Krishna for protection and guidance, Arjuna entered onto the path to Brahman Consciousness. Eventually the jiva realizes what is happening and is overwhelmed by love for the one who is serving him and there begins a competition of love - disciple serving the Guru and Guru serving the disciple - each one trying to out-love the other and neither one succeeding. Soon both are lost in an ocean of bliss created by this love.

When we enter onto the path to Brahman Consciousness and accept Krishna as our charioteer, we do not embark on a straight path that runs slipshod over the lives of others without regard to their freedom to act. No, as we progress on the path we tread more and more lightly, being more and more careful of the rights of others to act according to their desires. At times we appear to suffer from this, but we are not suffering! At times we may appear to be impoverished and hungry, but we are wealthy and fully satisfied!

The appearances of one on the path to Brahman Consciousness are often at odds with the reality of his or her life. As one progresses on the path the life takes on greater and greater wholeness and fulness as the bliss grows and we are buoyed up by this bliss in the ocean of love that emerges all around us from the Guru-disciple relationship.

All of this is not to say that Guru Dev does not feel great sadness and grief over the suffering of His children. When the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade towers hit I was asking Guru Dev some question - worried about some trivial thing in my life - and suddenly I felt this great and overpowering grief coming from Guru Dev. It hit me completely by surprise and I began to choke in this great and powerful grief! I fell into silence and wonder at what was happening - I did not know that a great tragedy had just struck and thousands were suffering, but only that Guru Dev as deeply saddened. In a few minutes, the telephone rang and I learned of the attack.

America had become arrogantly independent of God and many were resisting our creed of "One Nation Under God" - they wanted to strike the "Under God" phrase. This is a sign of complete ignorance when a society wants to go forward without the protection of God. Because we shunned His protection, we suffered greatly under the attack of our enemies. However, after the attack we, as a society, realized that it is a very great blessing to be "One Nation Under God" and we began to sing "God Bless America" again and really mean it.

God will protect us if we ask for it and will leave us to our suffering if we ask for that, by not asking for His protection, because of His love. When we enter onto the path to Brahman Consciousness we are asking for His protection and guidance and it will be there for us. Like Arjuna, we will triumph in the end. Ours is not be a straight path to the goal, but the goal is assured and we will tread lightly along the way. For sure every day the love and bliss will increase and with Krishna as our charioteer we are fearless and invincible.

Jai Guru Dev!