GITA FOR CHILDREN
PART 28
(Continued from the previous issue)

Click here to go to the Previous issue > >

To download the audio of the current issue, Please click here. [7.20 MB]

CHAPTER 14

26. Arjuna now has a new doubt and asks, ‘OK, the same God is seated in all. The same God does the digesting in all people, the same God does the blood circulation in all people and so on. In that case, why so much difference between people? Why are some people good and others bad?’

27. Pleased with question asked, Krishna says, ‘Arjuna, have you ever seen the bed of a Himalayan river? If you had observed, you would have noticed that on the river bed there is not only water but also sand and nice smooth pebbles too.’

28. Slightly impatient, Arjuna interrupts, ‘But what has all that got to do with good and bad guys?’

29. Unperturbed by the interruption, Krishna replies, ‘Arjuna, you must learn to be patient! I am coming precisely to that point. Patience is one of the virtues I like. Remember the three Ps? Patience, Perseverance, and Purity? Patience is the first step in the long road to Purity.’

30. ‘Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was talking about sand and pebbles. When the pebble is pulverised, it becomes sand. Now let us say you take two tumblers. You fill one with sand and the other with pebbles. Next, pour some water into both tumblers. In the tumbler containing sand, the water would get completely mixed up with sand while in the other tumbler, the pebble and the water would remain separate; no water would enter the pebble.’

31. ‘Now this is the real point. The good guy is like sand and the bad guy is like the pebble. The former, through his discipline and Sadhana, has shattered his ego and body-consciousness. Hence Consciousness seeps freely into him, raising his awareness of the Divine to a high level. The opposite is true of the bad guy. His ego is intact, and so he is like the pebble; no seepage! In other words, he has not evolved on the ladder of Consciousness.’

32. ‘God is present without fail in all. Some take advantage of the Divine presence within while others do not. Those who do are like the pebble pulverised into sand. Those who do not, are like the pebble that is yet to be shattered.’

33. ‘In the case of people who can be compared to sand, Consciousness saturates every cell of their body and Mind. Consequently, their feelings are full of Love, their thoughts are full of Love, their words convey nothing but Love, and their actions radiate only Love. Obviously, I do not have to describe the situation with respect to the person who has refused to allow God to permeate all over his senses, body and Mind.’

34. Krishna continues and says, ‘Arjuna, I now wish to introduce two important words, Kshetra and Kshetrajna. You know what Kshetra means, don’t you? It means a sacred place. Here is some news for you; the body is a Kshetra!’

35. Puzzled, Arjuna asks, ‘The body is a Kshetra, a sacred place, like Badrinath or Benares?’

36. Krishna replies, ‘Yes indeed.’

37. Arjuna is not able to understand and asks, ‘How come?’

38. Krishna counters with a question of his own. He asks, ‘Tell me Arjuna, why do people call Badrinath and Benares a sacred place? Why do they flock there?’

39. Arjuna replies, ‘That is easy. Devotees throng to those places and go on pilgrimage there because God resides there. That is all.’

40. With a laugh Krishna says, ‘Yes, of course. It is for the same reason that the body is also a Kshetra. Arjuna, imprint this firmly in your Mind. The body is not an ordinary body. It is not just a hunk of meat or flesh and bones. It is the very Temple of God! That is why the body too is a Kshetra.’

41. Continuing, Krishna adds, ‘This Temple is no ordinary temple. It is a live temple, it is a moving temple and built personally by God Himself for Him to occupy. The Wise refer to this resident of Kshetra as Kshetrajna!’

42. ‘I find it very funny that when there are so many temples all over the place built by God, man insists on spending a lot of money, time and energy to build temples of his own. Having done so, he goes there, struggles against crowds, pushes and jostles to have My Darshan. And what happens when he gets to the sanctum of the man-made temple? Does he seriously meditate on Me? Hardly ever. What a tremendous waste, when I am exclusively available and easily too, to each and every person all the time.’

43. Arjuna is stunned by this revelation. Slowly he says, ‘Krishna, I never knew all this! No one ever told me that the body is Your Temple, built entirely by You! What a fool I have been to ignore this temple and think of man-built temples far away! Lord, why are people misguided in this fashion?’

44. Krishna smiles and replies, ‘Very simple. People are all the time so immersed in worldly affairs that they have no time either to listen to or to follow simple truths. Instead, all their time is spent in promoting their ambitions, desires and what have you. They have hardly any time for Me! And even if they think of Me, it is mostly in relation to their problems or their desires.’

45. ‘Arjuna, today you find many people who would parrot-like say, “God is within you,” and all that. But can any one of them honestly declare that they have actually experienced God within? There is an ocean of difference between bookish knowledge and practical knowledge. Since people do not hear and are not bothered about all this, I have to come down again and again, to repeat the very same lesson, not just once, but so many times!’

 

(To be continued...)

To access all the previous issues of this serial please type "Serial Gita For Children" in the search box provided above the article.

– Heart2Heart Team

---