Conversation With Lord Krishna - Iv (Fiction) Poem by Varanasi Ramabrahmam

I: You said in Bhagawadgita,

Karmanyevaadhikaraha te
maa phaleshu kadaachana
maa karmaphala hetur bhoohu
maa te sango stva karmani

Meaning: You only have qualification to perform your duties, you are not qualified to guess about the fruits of your actions; do not try to be either a cause to the fruits of your actions or be attached to your actions.

I have something to say and ask about the above utterance of You.
I want to do my bit in all my endeavors. But I can not stop myself from thinking about the result of my action. But You forbade such thinking and asked us to just do our bit without thinking about the fruits of our doings and leave everything to You without getting entangled ourselves with the actions we perform. When we do not have attachment to our actions or fruits can we have motivation to act at all? I, of course, know that we need Your grace for everything to give fruits to our actions. Please resolve this dilemma in me.
Some how I am not able to leave everything to you and I feel that as
irresponsibility.

Lord Krishna: You follow your intuition. Thoughts, feelings, volition, and the like are generated by samskaara – the inbuilt tendencies which are genetic and previous karma - i.e., earlier actions.

I: Even though You said in Bhagawadgita,

Vaasaamsi jeernaani yathaa vihaaya
Navaani gruhnaatu naro aparaani
Tathaa sareeraani vihaaya jeernaani
Annyaani samyaati navaani dehee

Meaning: Just as the humans dispose of torn clothes and get into new ones, so similarly the Atman (Self or Soul) leaves the aged and degenerated bodies and enters new ones.

I intuitively believe that there are no further births and rebirths. Then from where this previous karma (action) is accumulated.

Lord Krishna: What do you mean by births and rebirths?

I: When this body dies the soul transmigrates and attains a new body as torn out clothes are shed and new ones are worn- and this is the meaning of your utterance “vassamsi jeernaani..” quoted by me above.

Lord Krishna: Your understanding about births and rebirths is not proper
.
Birth means, rise of ego, or self-consciousness in the form of me, mine, identifying falsely the “I” with the body and associated mental traits, gender, nationality and social status etc., and associated thoughts; death means absorption of this ego in Atman or Brahman and cessation thoughts about false “I”. Then the ego sets. Soul is not correct translation for Atman or Brahman. “Self” is the correct translation which represents and signifies the word Atman fully and completely.

Rise of ego when we wake up from sleep is birth. Absorption of ego in Atman in deep sleep is death. Again rise of ego when we wake up is rebirth. That is all. There is no transmigration of Atman as many believe.

Like this rise and set of ego happens for all the duration of the body living. Only these are births and deaths. Indulging in or engaged in or involved in feelings, thoughts, moods and the like is living. Cessation of these is dying.

All this happens in the observation of Prajnaanam, i.e., My Self. I am Prajnanaghana and am the witness and seer of all happenings within and without the body.

Human beings normally have to live for hundred years. Some may die earlier and some later. Once the body becomes inert, that is, dies, everything ceases to be. We can perform all our duties and actions as long as the body is alive.

All your learning, knowing, perception, reasoning, , intellectual functions, experience, understanding, urges, volition, teaching, communicating, feeling pains, hurts, joys, ecstasies, and indulging in all kinds of actions happen through the energy generated from Me.

Thus all your living and dying before the body actually dies takes place in My presence and observation. And everything, ego, self-consciousness, occurrence of mental functions and their cessations, dissolve in Me daily and absorption of ego in Me while the body is alive is Liberation, or Jeevanmukti. Nothing outlives death of the body.

I: But many interpreted it in a different way and also You are contradcting Your own “vaasaamsi jeernaani…” statement!

Lord Krishna: You have faith in Me and My present Utterance and listen to me. Ignore every other interpretation.

I: Some say that Your devotees are identical with You and are even superior to You. What do You say about this?

Lord Krishna: Anything in limits is alright.

I: What is progress in life and what is living?

Lord Krishna: One will not get in life what all one aspires for. But one must continue living cheerfully and this continuance is progress in life.