Gita 4.24

Sadhak: "Guruji, this verse seems to just repeat 'Brahman' over and over. What is it really saying?"

Guru: "Precisely that! The repetition is the teaching. When you see five separate things—the spoon, the ghee, the fire, the priest, the deity—you live in duality. When you see Brahman, Brahman, Brahman, Brahman, Brahman—you live in truth. The repetition hammers at our habitual fragmentation until unity cracks through."

Sadhak: "But I can clearly see differences. The spoon is not the fire. How can they all be Brahman?"

Guru: "Can you see the difference between a wave and the ocean? The wave has a distinct form, a name, a particular movement. Yet what is the wave made of? Only ocean. Is there a single drop of 'wave' that is not 'ocean'? Similarly, every form in existence is a wave in the ocean of Brahman."

Sadhak: "So this is a philosophical view? A way of looking at things?"

Guru: "At first, yes—a view to be cultivated. But views are still mental. The goal is direct perception. When you bite an apple, can you taste both apple and Brahman? Most taste only apple. The jñāni tastes Brahman appearing as apple. The apple is fully there, but its essence is recognized."

Sadhak: "Why is this verse recited before meals?"

Guru: "Because eating is the perfect teaching opportunity. Three times a day, we engage in consumption—taking something 'other' and making it 'self.' The verse reveals that this division is illusory. The food is Brahman, the eater is Brahman, the eating is Brahman, the nourishment is Brahman. When you eat with this awareness, the meal becomes meditation."

Sadhak: "If everything is already Brahman, why do anything at all? Why not just sit and say 'It's all Brahman'?"

Guru: "Because that would be using non-duality as an excuse for laziness! The wave doesn't stop waving because it knows it's ocean. It waves more freely, more joyfully, because it knows it can't be destroyed. Similarly, the jñāni acts more fully—not less—because they know there's nothing to lose."

Sadhak: "What is 'brahma-karma-samādhi'?"

Guru: "It's absorption in Brahman while engaged in action—the seeming paradox of doing and non-doing united. Usually, samādhi means stillness without action. But Krishna speaks of samādhi in the midst of action. This is the highest state: complete absorption in the Absolute while the hands serve, the mouth teaches, the feet walk."

Sadhak: "How do I move from understanding this intellectually to actually perceiving it?"

Guru: "Through sustained inquiry and purification. First, understand the teaching clearly. Then, contemplate it until it becomes intuitive. Then, practice seeing Brahman in simple things—this cup, that sound, your own breathing. Finally, the practice dissolves and only seeing remains. But don't try to skip steps. Intellectual clarity is the foundation."