Hello and welcome to episode 60 of The Ask Sri Vishwanath Show. Today I want to talk about who is a great man or woman in the eyes of God.
Today’s question comes from Paul and he says “we all work day and night throughout our lives but what work is really dear to god. What work pleases him and is beneficial to us?”
That’s a really beautiful question Paul thanks for sending it in. Krishna says this of intelligent people, rich people or authors of spiritual texts: they are not the greatest people. It doesn’t matter if you are the richest person in the world or you have solved one of the world’s problems. You are not the greatest person in Krishna’s eyes. Krishna says the greatest people practice dharma.
Krishna says “None indeed in this entire world other than he, the knower of Brahman does a deed dear to me nor is there any deed that is dear to me”
This means only those who know the jiva, the consciousness completely are dear to him. Krishna says that those who practice dharma are great in his eyes. It doesn’t matter whether they are poor or rich, man or woman, intelligent or not. It doesn’t matter as long as they practice dharma. This is the only criteria which God assess. There is no other criteria.
The mould
So what is dharma? We’ve spoken about it before so let’s keep it simple. Krishna says we all have a mould. What is the mould? The mould is the body, the mind, the intellect, the circumstance we were born into, the people we meet and the places we go. Then there is a time. So we all have a body, a mind, an intellect, a circumstance, a place and people who come into our lives. Then there is time. Krishna says this all comes together to form a mould.
Krishna says from this mould we have to form the gold image within. This is the consciousness. We have to see the god within. You need to see it within you like I see you and you see me. The whole purpose of life is to use that mould to make a gold image. That is dharma.
The gold image
All things, whether its meditation or prayer or giving to charity all help to form the gold image which is the complete consciousness. You must see yourself as one with the universe. Really see the god within. This is dharma. Carry this gold image of god within you wherever you go. So the work you are doing will help to fill that mould.
Krishna used to say if god came before you would you say that you want to build ten hospitals for the poor or you want to feed ten million homeless people or would you say that you wanted his grace and that your mind would always be fixed on him. If you have god’s grace you can do anything. Building hospitals and feeding the poor would be very easy if god’s grace descends upon you.
Remember this, this is important. The things which people think are great, like a rich man giving money to charity do not make a person great. This doesn’t make pain disappear. Those acts are great but they are karma not dharma. Giving is written in the karma of that person but he must still understand dharma. With dharma you can make pain disappear before it even rises. This can only happen when you teach people to form the gold image within themselves. When you form the image using the mould any work you do will be gold because you will have god’s grace.
You can do all the good work you like but pain will still exist in the world. Remember the story of the dog with the curly tail. You cannot straighten it for good. It will curl back again. The amount of pain and pleasure will remain the same.
So the only way is to practice dharma and you do this by effortlessly drawing the mind in. Draw the mind in effortlessly to form the old image. It doesn’t matter what place you are in or what circumstance you are in. Your only purpose is to use that mould to form the image.
The sculptor and the potter
Think of a sculptor. He uses the mould to create the perfect sculpture but once he is done and the sculpture is perfect he no longer needs the mould. So use your mould to create the perfect golden sculpture inside yourself. Once that sculpture is formed nothing else will matter. It doesn’t matter what type of work you, where you do it or who you do it with. It will still be god’s work.
Krishna also uses a potter as an example. The potter puts both his baked pots and his unbaked pots in the sun to dry. Then a cow comes running through and some of the pots are destroyed, both the baked and the unbaked ones. The potter knows he cannot do anything with the baked pots. There are already formed and hardened so he cannot fix them. The unbaked ones are still soft and can be moulded again to form perfect pots. This is what happens when our gold image is not yet formed.
When our image gets trampled and we die Krishna says we must come back and work on it again and again. Keep on working on it and moulding it until it is perfect. We are the pots and the potter is the hand of god but we can use the god within us to help mould the perfect image. If you don’t mould the image you will have to return to the potters hand again and again.
The image will always be there. It doesn’t matter if you screw your life up horribly or if you do great things. The image will always be here and you can always work on it. Whether you give a billion dollars to charity or just one. It doesn’t matter. Also giving a billion dollars does not mean you will have a better image than the person who gives one dollar. The gold image is only formed by the knowledge given by the master to the teacher.
Benefits
This is important. Only you will benefit from the work you do and the money you give to charity. Vivekananda says “when a man gives money to the poor know that the giver is benefited more than the receiver.” Remember that you can never out give the universe. It doesn’t matter how much good you do, it will only benefit you.
The gold image will not be formed but it will help you to realise that the whole purpose of life is this gold image. There are two things: the gold image being formed and the knowledge that the gold image has to be formed. People do great things to achieve this knowledge. This is our only purpose in life. He is great in the eyes of god who practices dharma.
Krishna says “all works without exception culminate in the knowledge of Brahman” which is the universal consciousness. This in turn is nothing but the fruit of dharma. All of this knowledge leads to the fact that you must form the gold image and if you don’t you will have to return again and again.
Dharma first
Most people go the wrong way. They go from karma to dharma. They think the great work that they do will lead them to dharma. This is a very slow path and it is not the right path. It will not help you to form the gold image. Karma is only the mould. The gold image is everything. Krishna does not care about the mould. Make the gold image and carry it with you wherever you go. So practice dharma and then joyfully do whatever karma is assigned to you.
I hope I answered your question. Remember you keep asking questions and I’ll keep answering them.
