In our earlier post, we discussed, how a yogi who manages to keep his mind calm and restrain his passions, lust, desire and anger, naturally gets the happiness of God realization and becomes one with God. When the yogi becomes God realized, he sees the self in all beings and sees all beings in the self. He is able to have the same attitude to all people irrespective of their caste, creed or color.
Once a postman was delivering a letter to a house and saw a dog standing outside. Seeing a little boy inside the house, he kept his distance and asked the boy, “Does your dog bite? The boy said, “No, my dog does not bite”. So the postman went near the dog bravely, but as soon as he went close, the dog caught hold of his leg. The postman told the boy, “You told me your dog did not bite?”. The boy said, “Yes, but that is not my dog!!”. This is how most people behave. They do not have any compassion or sensitivity to the needs of their fellow human beings. All that they are bothered about is their own selves and how to safeguard themselves. This Sloka describes how a realized soul behaves with respect to everyone around him.
यो मां पश्यति सर्वत्र सर्वं च मयि पश्यति ।
तस्याहं न प्रणश्यामि स च मे न प्रणश्यति ॥६- ३०॥
yo maaM pashyati sarvatra sarva.n cha mayi pashyati .
tasyaahaM na praNashyaami sa cha me na praNashyati .. 6.30..
He who sees Me in all beings and sees all beings present in me, never loses sight of me and I never lose sight of him.
yaH – who : sarvatra – in all beings, everywhere and at all times : maaM – Me : pashyati - sees : cha – and : sarvaM – all beings : mayi – existing in me : pashyati - sees : tasya - to him : ahaM - I : na pranashyaami – am never out of sight : cha – and : me - to Me : na pranashyati – never goes out of sight : saH – he
In our Dasavataram Quiz, I made a passing reference to 
Kamal Hassan who is a very versatile actor. He has acted in so many different roles including 10 different roles in the same movie. He has also acted as a dwarf, a very old man and even as a woman in different movies. If a casual observer sees these movies, he might think that these are different actors, but if we watch the movie closely, in spite of all the efforts to change himself, we all know that it is the same actor in all the different roles. Every time he appears differently, we realize that it is the same man and recognize him. When an actor disguises himself in many roles, we are able to recognize him because we have the knowledge that he is just an actor and that we are watching a movie.
In reality, we take a little more time to recognize that God is the ultimate actor. He has taken on all the different roles each different in appearance, behavior and interaction. We look at all the people around us and each person looks different, talks differently and has different beliefs. So, we forget that it is the same God who is present in all of them because we are deceived by the appearances. But once we get the knowledge that it is God who is present in all the roles, then we will never lose sight of Him. Whether he comes in the role of a friend or an enemy, as a boss or a servant, we will be able to realize that it is the same God in a different role.
Similarly, we should realize that God is present in all beings and our attitude towards all beings should be one of compassion and love. We should cultivate the ability to see beyond the mask of appearances and interaction and see the God within each and every person. The Lord also says that once a person becomes aware of the fact that God is present in all beings, he never loses sight of this fact and he will never go back to the self centered state, or act selfishly for his own interests. . When a person recognizes that all the differences in color, caste, creed are all only external and acts with interest in the welfare of everyone, then, the Lord will never lose sight of such a person. He will always take care of him.
We might now say, a person who is realized and is staying away from the world in isolation might be able to have such an attitude. But when a person lives in this world, Will he not become tainted by all the evil qualities and selfishness of the people around him? Will his attitude not change when he comes in contact with the world? Will he not become once more subject to desire and other such qualities? The Lord answers this question in the next verses.
Moving to the management lesson embedded in the verse, one can describe the attitude as “keeping sight of the Big picture”. Very often, when we are involved in our work, we get so carried away by the various micro tasks that are in front of us. Although it is said that “the devil is in the details”, one can rephrase and say that “God is in the Big Picture”!
Ever so often, it is important for us to stand back and take a look at the Big Picture. Are we doing something that makes sense? Does the big picture makes sense? Only if the answer is “Yes”, we can rest assured that we are moving in the right direction. This helps us shift focus to our “long term” as well as immediate goals rather than the processes required to achieveing it. It lets us check whether we are indeed using the right processes and we are on track. If we have moved off-road, then it lets us see what we need to do to come back on road.
For all-round success, we need to see the “Big Picture” not only in our career paths, but also in our spiritual quest and make sure that our life is liberally sprinkled with compassion and love!
Do you think that God is in the Big Picture, or that he controls the Big Picture? If everything is in his hands at the end of the day, isn’t focusing on the mundane, micro or small picture details all that we are left in control of?
You are right and there is no question that we have little control over the results – i.e, God is not only in the Big Picture, he also controls the Big Picture.
Even the fact that we are left to perform the tasks doesnt imply control since this still does not ensure or influence results – for eg., a doctor can sometimes do his/her best in a surgery and yet a patient may or may not live.
However, this post is not discussing who is in control as much as our need to evaluate the progress of our tasks to benchmark against our goals. Goals first need to broken down to tasks – this can be compared to the strokes of a painter. While these need to be performed to achieve the goal, once in a while the painter has to stand back and look at the progress of the Big Picture. Similarly, as we perform these tasks, we need to evaluate whether these are taking us towards the goal or not.
Although the ultimate achievement of the goal is not in our control, working our best towards it, is left to us and we need to do it to the best of our ability.
Just accidently went through the site.
Very interesting explanations quite apt in making it simpler to the reader of modern times.
If one is in the practice of systematic practices of meditation understanding the subject matter becomes very easier. Even the breath that we breathe is not our own. Is it not influenced by destiny? Difficult to comprehend. But there are subtle truths in the breath itself. Is not the properties of the breath change during morning, evening and night times. The breath that we breathe also changes based on the movement of the sun and moon. Is not our breath getting influenced by our anger, emotions etc. Medical science has proved today that majority of the known diseases are pyschosomatic in nature other than viral diseases. It is high time humanity wakes up and witness, observe, reflect the teachings of Krishna the greatest scientist. Good website. Keep motivating. May peace be with you all.