XVIII. You are the Indweller - You are not the Body or Mind

Krishna said, "Arjuna, I am your very self. Focus your mind steadily on me, and with your mind fixed on me do your duty."

Embodiments of Love,

If you do your work, being aware of your own reality, you will accomplish great things. Actions performed with the awareness of the atma, your true self, are free from bondage. To carry on your work while at the same time, being fully aware of your identity with the atma, requires perfect control over the senses. Sense-control is an essential precondition for being illumined. Once you enjoy complete control over your sense organs you can be described as a person imbued with the highest wisdom.

When you consider all the pairs of opposites, such as joy and sorrow, heat and cold, profit and loss, honor and dishonor, with an equal mind, and are established in your true reality, then you have gained the characteristics of a wise man. It is the nature of the wise to treat everything equally. Once you recognize the nature of the senses, it will be easy for you to follow the path that leads to true wisdom. But if instead of identifying yourself with the atma, you continue to identify yourself only with your body-mind complex, then it will be impossible for you to obtain that exalted state.