SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 12(gita.12)
https://youtu.be/m51lgsDDZLs
SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 12
अथ द्वादशोஉध्यायः ।
अर्जुन उवाच ।
एवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते ।
ये चाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमाः ॥ 1 ॥
एवं सततयुक्ता ये भक्तास्त्वां पर्युपासते ।
ये चाप्यक्षरमव्यक्तं तेषां के योगवित्तमाः ॥ 1 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ।
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः ॥ 2 ॥
मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ।
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मताः ॥ 2 ॥
ये त्वक्षरमनिर्देश्यमव्यक्तं पर्युपासते ।
सर्वत्रगमचिन्त्यं च कूटस्थमचलं ध्रुवम् ॥ 3 ॥
सर्वत्रगमचिन्त्यं च कूटस्थमचलं ध्रुवम् ॥ 3 ॥
संनियम्येन्द्रियग्रामं सर्वत्र समबुद्धयः ।
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मामेव सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥ 4 ॥
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मामेव सर्वभूतहिते रताः ॥ 4 ॥
क्लेशोஉधिकतरस्तेषामव्यक्तासक्तचेतसाम् ।
अव्यक्ता हि गतिर्दुःखं देहवद्भिरवाप्यते ॥ 5 ॥
अव्यक्ता हि गतिर्दुःखं देहवद्भिरवाप्यते ॥ 5 ॥
ये तु सर्वाणि कर्माणि मयि संन्यस्य मत्पराः ।
अनन्येनैव योगेन मां ध्यायन्त उपासते ॥ 6 ॥
अनन्येनैव योगेन मां ध्यायन्त उपासते ॥ 6 ॥
तेषामहं समुद्धर्ता मृत्युसंसारसागरात् ।
भवामिन चिरात्पार्थ मय्यावेशितचेतसाम् ॥ 7 ॥
भवामिन चिरात्पार्थ मय्यावेशितचेतसाम् ॥ 7 ॥
मय्येव मन आधत्स्व मयि बुद्धिं निवेशय ।
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशयः ॥ 8 ॥
निवसिष्यसि मय्येव अत ऊर्ध्वं न संशयः ॥ 8 ॥
अथ चित्तं समाधातुं न शक्नोषि मयि स्थिरम् ।
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ 9 ॥
अभ्यासयोगेन ततो मामिच्छाप्तुं धनञ्जय ॥ 9 ॥
अभ्यासेஉप्यसमर्थोஉसि मत्कर्मपरमो भव ।
मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ 10 ॥
मदर्थमपि कर्माणि कुर्वन्सिद्धिमवाप्स्यसि ॥ 10 ॥
अथैतदप्यशक्तोஉसि कर्तुं मद्योगमाश्रितः ।
सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं ततः कुरु यतात्मवान् ॥ 11 ॥
सर्वकर्मफलत्यागं ततः कुरु यतात्मवान् ॥ 11 ॥
श्रेयो हि ज्ञानमभ्यासाज्ज्ञानाद्ध्यानं विशिष्यते ।
ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ 12 ॥
ध्यानात्कर्मफलत्यागस्त्यागाच्छान्तिरनन्तरम् ॥ 12 ॥
अद्वेष्टा सर्वभूतानां मैत्रः करुण एव च ।
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥ 13 ॥
निर्ममो निरहङ्कारः समदुःखसुखः क्षमी ॥ 13 ॥
सन्तुष्टः सततं योगी यतात्मा दृढनिश्चयः ।
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥ 14 ॥
मय्यर्पितमनोबुद्धिर्यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥ 14 ॥
यस्मान्नोद्विजते लोको लोकान्नोद्विजते च यः ।
हर्षामर्षभयोद्वेगैर्मुक्तो यः स च मे प्रियः ॥ 15 ॥
हर्षामर्षभयोद्वेगैर्मुक्तो यः स च मे प्रियः ॥ 15 ॥
अनपेक्षः शुचिर्दक्ष उदासीनो गतव्यथः ।
सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥ 16 ॥
सर्वारम्भपरित्यागी यो मद्भक्तः स मे प्रियः ॥ 16 ॥
यो न हृष्यति न द्वेष्टि न शोचति न काङ्क्षति ।
शुभाशुभपरित्यागी भक्तिमान्यः स मे प्रियः ॥ 17 ॥
शुभाशुभपरित्यागी भक्तिमान्यः स मे प्रियः ॥ 17 ॥
समः शत्रौ च मित्रे च तथा मानापमानयोः ।
शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः सङ्गविवर्जितः ॥ 18 ॥
शीतोष्णसुखदुःखेषु समः सङ्गविवर्जितः ॥ 18 ॥
तुल्यनिन्दास्तुतिर्मौनी सन्तुष्टो येन केनचित् ।
अनिकेतः स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान्मे प्रियो नरः ॥ 19 ॥
अनिकेतः स्थिरमतिर्भक्तिमान्मे प्रियो नरः ॥ 19 ॥
ये तु धर्म्यामृतमिदं यथोक्तं पर्युपासते ।
श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेஉतीव मे प्रियाः ॥ 20 ॥
श्रद्दधाना मत्परमा भक्तास्तेஉतीव मे प्रियाः ॥ 20 ॥
ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे
भक्तियोगो नाम द्वादशोஉध्यायः ॥12 ॥
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https://youtu.be/Zr8Z3Flb3Y4XII
The Yoga of Devotion
Summary of Twelfth Discourse
The twelfth discourse indicates that the path of devotion is easier than the path of knowledge. In this path the aspirant worships God in His Cosmic Form of the Supreme Personality. He develops a loving relationship with Him, adores Him, remembers Him and chants His glories and Name. He thus effects union with the Lord and attains not only His formless aspect but also the Lord as the manifest universe.
The path of knowledge, whereby the aspirant meditates on the formless Brahman, is more difficult as he has to give up his attachment to the body from the very beginning. He has to have dispassion for the things of the world.
How to practise devotion? Krishna asks Arjuna to fix his entire mind on Him. As often as the mind wanders it should be brought back to the Lord. If this process of concentration is difficult he should dedicate all his actions to Him, feeling that it is His power that activates everything. If this also is beyond his ability, he should offer all his actions to the Lord, abandoning the desire for their fruits. He should take complete refuge in Him. The devotee who surrenders himself to the Lord attains perfect peace.
The Lord goes on to describe the qualities that a true devotee possesses. He neither attaches himself to anything nor does he have any aversion to things. He has a balanced mind under all circumstances. He is not agitated by the happenings of the world, nor does he himself cause any agitation in others. He is perfectly desireless and rejoices in the Lord within. He sees equality everywhere, being untouched by sorrow, fear, honour as also dishonour. He is perfectly content as he has surrendered his entire being to the Lord.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Evam satatayuktaa ye bhaktaastwaam paryupaasate;
Ye chaapyaksharamavyaktam teshaam ke yogavittamaah.
Ye chaapyaksharamavyaktam teshaam ke yogavittamaah.
Arjuna said:
1. Those devotees who, ever steadfast, thus worship Thee and those also who worship the Imperishable and the Unmanifested—which of them are better versed in Yoga?
COMMENTARY: The twelfth discourse indicates that Bhakti Yoga is much easier than Jnana Yoga or the Yoga of knowledge.
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Mayyaaveshya mano ye maam nityayuktaa upaasate;
Shraddhayaa parayopetaaste me yuktatamaa mataah.
Shraddhayaa parayopetaaste me yuktatamaa mataah.
The Blessed Lord said:
2. Those who, fixing their minds on Me, worship Me, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme faith, these are the best in Yoga in My opinion.
Ye twaksharamanirdeshyamavyaktam paryupaasate;
Sarvatragamachintyam cha kootasthamachalam dhruvam.
Sarvatragamachintyam cha kootasthamachalam dhruvam.
3. Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifested, the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the eternal and the immovable,
Samniyamyendriyagraamam sarvatra samabuddhayah;
Te praapnuvanti maameva sarvabhootahite rataah.
Te praapnuvanti maameva sarvabhootahite rataah.
4. Having restrained all the senses, even-minded everywhere, intent on the welfare of all beings—verily they also come unto Me.
Klesho’dhikatarasteshaam avyaktaasaktachetasaam;
Avyaktaa hi gatirduhkham dehavadbhiravaapyate.
Avyaktaa hi gatirduhkham dehavadbhiravaapyate.
5. Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the Unmanifested; for the goal—the Unmanifested—is very difficult for the embodied to reach.
COMMENTARY: The embodied—those who identify themselves with their bodies. The imperishable Self is very hard to reach for those who are attached to their bodies. Their restless minds will not be able to get fixed on the attributeless Self.
Ye tu sarvaani karmaani mayi sannyasya matparaah;
Ananyenaiva yogena maam dhyaayanta upaasate.
Ananyenaiva yogena maam dhyaayanta upaasate.
6. But to those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the supreme goal, meditating on Me with single-minded Yoga,
Teshaamaham samuddhartaa mrityusamsaarasaagaraat;
Bhavaami nachiraat paartha mayyaaveshitachetasaam.
Bhavaami nachiraat paartha mayyaaveshitachetasaam.
7. To those whose minds are set on Me, O Arjuna, verily I become ere long the saviour out of the ocean of the mortal Samsara!
Mayyeva mana aadhatswa mayi buddhim niveshaya;
Nivasishyasi mayyeva ata oordhwam na samshayah.
Nivasishyasi mayyeva ata oordhwam na samshayah.
8. Fix thy mind on Me only, thy intellect in Me, (then) thou shait no doubt live in Me alone hereafter.
Atha chittam samaadhaatum na shaknoshi mayi sthiram;
Abhyaasayogena tato maamicchaaptum dhananjaya.
Abhyaasayogena tato maamicchaaptum dhananjaya.
9. If thou art unable to fix thy mind steadily on Me, then by the Yoga of constant practice do thou seek to reach Me, O Arjuna!
Abhyaase’pyasamartho’si matkarmaparamo bhava;
Madarthamapi karmaani kurvansiddhimavaapsyasi.
Madarthamapi karmaani kurvansiddhimavaapsyasi.
10. If thou art unable to practise even this Abhyasa Yoga, be thou intent on doing actions for My sake; even by doing actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.
Athaitadapyashakto’si kartum madyogamaashritah;
Sarvakarmaphalatyaagam tatah kuru yataatmavaan.
Sarvakarmaphalatyaagam tatah kuru yataatmavaan.
11. If thou art unable to do even this, then, taking refuge in union with Me, renounce the fruits of all actions with the self controlled.
Shreyo hi jnaanamabhyaasaat jnaanaaddhyaanam vishishyate;
Dhyaanaat karmaphalatyaagas tyaagaacchaantir anantaram.
Dhyaanaat karmaphalatyaagas tyaagaacchaantir anantaram.
12. Better indeed is knowledge than practice; than knowledge meditation is better; than meditation the renunciation of the fruits of actions; peace immediately follows renunciation.
Adweshtaa sarvabhootaanaam maitrah karuna eva cha;
Nirmamo nirahankaarah samaduhkhasukhah kshamee.
Nirmamo nirahankaarah samaduhkhasukhah kshamee.
13. He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving,
Santushtah satatam yogee yataatmaa dridhanishchayah;
Mayyarpitamanobuddhiryo madbhaktah sa me priyah.
Mayyarpitamanobuddhiryo madbhaktah sa me priyah.
14. Ever content, steady in meditation, possessed of firm conviction, self-controlled, with mind and intellect dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to Me.
Yasmaannodwijate loko lokaannodwijate cha yah;
Harshaamarshabhayodwegairmukto yah sa cha me priyah.
Harshaamarshabhayodwegairmukto yah sa cha me priyah.
15. He by whom the world is not agitated and who cannot be agitated by the world, and who is freed from joy, envy, fear and anxiety—he is dear to Me.
Anapekshah shuchirdaksha udaaseeno gatavyathah;
Sarvaarambhaparityaagee yo madbhaktah sa me priyah.
Sarvaarambhaparityaagee yo madbhaktah sa me priyah.
16. He who is free from wants, pure, expert, unconcerned, and untroubled, renouncing all undertakings or commencements—he who is (thus) devoted to Me, is dear to Me.
Yona hrishyati na dweshti na shochati na kaangkshati;
Shubhaashubhaparityaagee bhaktimaan yah sa me priyah.
Shubhaashubhaparityaagee bhaktimaan yah sa me priyah.
17. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing good and evil, and who is full of devotion, is dear to Me.
COMMENTARY: He does not rejoice when he attains desirable objects nor does he grieve when he parts with his cherished objects. Further, he does not desire the unattained.
Samah shatrau cha mitre cha tathaa maanaapamaanayoh;
Sheetoshnasukhaduhkheshu samah sangavivarjitah.
Sheetoshnasukhaduhkheshu samah sangavivarjitah.
18. He who is the same to foe and friend, and in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat and in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment,
Tulyanindaastutirmaunee santushto yena kenachit:
Aniketah sthiramatir bhaktimaan me priyo narah.
Aniketah sthiramatir bhaktimaan me priyo narah.
19. He to whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, homeless, of a steady mind, and full of devotion—that man is dear to Me.
Ye tu dharmyaamritamidam yathoktam paryupaasate;
Shraddhadhaanaah matparamaa bhaktaaste’teeva me priyaah.
Shraddhadhaanaah matparamaa bhaktaaste’teeva me priyaah.
20. They verily who follow this immortal Dharma (doctrine or law) as described above, endowed with faith, regarding Me as their supreme goal, they, the devotees, are exceedingly dear to Me.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Bhaktiyogo Naama Dwaadasho’dhyaayah
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Bhaktiyogo Naama Dwaadasho’dhyaayah
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the twelfth discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of Devotion”
Swami Sivananda.
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https://youtu.be/l3XSk2JpvZc
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita
by Swami Krishnananda
Discourse 36: The Twelfth Chapter Begins – The Best of Yogins
Arjuna asks: “Are You the Supreme Person? Sometimes You refer to Yourself as Parama-purusha—Supreme Person. Sometimes You say that You are indestructible, transcendent, and impossible even to conceive. In what way are we to worship You, O Lord? There are people who adore You as the Supreme Mahapurusha, Purushottama. With immense devotion they sing of You, they dance in ecstasy by taking Your name, they adore You day in and day out, and glorify You in all ways; but there are others who are unified in their being with Your indestructible Super Being. Between these two great souls, whom do You regard as the best of yogins?”
The Lord gives a reply. Śrībhagavānuvāca
mayyāveśya mano ye māṁ nityayuktā upāsate
śraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ (12.2)
ye tvakṣaram anirdeśyaṁ avyaktaṁ paryupāsate
sarvatragam acintyaṁ ca kūṭasthaṁ acalaṁ dhruvam (12.3)
sanniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ sarvatra samabuddhayāḥ
te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (12.4)
kleśo’dhikataras teṣāṁ avyaktāsaktacetasām avyaktā
hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate (12.5)
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparaḥ
ananyenaiva yogena māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate (12.6)
teṣāṁ ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārasāgarāt
bhavāmi nacirāt pārtha mayyāveśitacetasām (12.7)
The reply is here in six verses. “I consider those people very near to Me and really united with Me whose mind is fixed on Me, who worship Me ever considering Me as their highest beloved, who have faith in Me only, and centre their faith in nothing else. I certainly consider them as united with Me because their mind is wholly centred in Me in their utter devotion. But there are others who are united with Me in a different way.”
The distinction drawn here is between those devotees who worship the Supreme Being as the Parama Purushottama and those who are devoted to the Universal Inclusiveness, outside which even they do not exist. We may call these two ways of approach as bhakti and jnana, if we like; but the jnana referred to here is actually a kind of bhakti in the highest sense. It is called para bhakti, which is the same as jnana.
In religious parlance, the worship of the Supreme Being as a person is the normal way of adoring God. Whether it is Hinduism or any other religion in the world, we see people worshipping God as some concept cast into the mould of an enlarged personality—not simply a person, but the Supreme Person. Whether we call God the Father in heaven, or Allah-hu Akbar, or Purushottama, or Narayana or Siva or Devi or Brahma—whatever be the definition of our ishta devata, we will observe that we are picturing the Supreme Divinity in some form, though that form is highly enlarged and inclusive. Because the heart of the devotee requires a response from someone who knows what we are feeling, it is necessary for us to know that God is responding to our love and devotion.
The God Who cannot respond does not evoke satisfaction in the heart. The God Who includes us, outside Whom we cannot even exist, need not give any response at all. But our heart says: “I love God. Maybe I love Him as an all-pervading essence, but even then I require a response. I should know that He knows that I love Him.” The question of expecting this kind of response from God, blessing from God, grace from God, or protection from God—anything whatsoever from God—cannot arise if the person expecting this response does not stand outside the One from whom the response has to come. This is the difficulty that perhaps was haunting the mind of Arjuna, and haunts every religious seeker, whatever be the vocation of his religion.
Sri Krishna accepts this twofold way of approach to God because He calls Himself Purushottama. Prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ (15.18): “I am beyond the kshara-akshara prakriti-purusha and, therefore, I am known as the Supreme Being.” He calls Himself the Supreme Purusha—that is, the Highest Person.
Sri Krishna’s reply is: “Those who devotedly worship Me as the Supreme Person are really united with Me because of their love. What about others? In the case of those others who try to feel the presence of this Imperishable Transcendent Essence by a total withdrawal of all the faculties of psychological perception, even devotion does not arise from the operation of their mind. Mostly, devotion is a kind of feeling that arises from part of their psyche, but in the case of those people whose mind has been restrained perfectly—saṁniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ—who have put an end to the activity of all the sense organs, and see one thing only everywhere—sarvatra samabuddhayāḥ—they also reach Me. They also reach Me who consider Me as the Supreme Person and love Me as the Supreme Person. They also reach Me who consider Me as the All-Inclusive Eternal Transcendent Universal Reality.” But the distinction is this: It is difficult to concentrate the mind on non-externalised Universality. Those who have body-consciousness and know that they also exist even when they are in the height of devotion to God are aware that they are at the height of devotion to God. The devotee loves God, but the devotee knows that he loves God; that is what demarcates him from another who loves God but does not know that he loves God.
There is a difference between knowing that we love God and not knowing that we love God. We have united ourselves with God to such an extent that we cannot know that we are actually having affection for God. But those who know that they love God stand outside the Supreme Person; they can visualise Him, pray to Him in words of language, and they can offer themselves in surrender as if they are something to be offered. But in the case of the others, there is nothing to be offered because that which is to be offered has already become one with that to which it is to be offered. Such a kind of sacrifice is very difficult in this world. Very hard is this practice.
Kleśo’dhikataras teṣāṁ avyaktāsaktacetasām, avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate. How on earth is it possible not to know that we are devotees of God? How can we forget that we are existing as worshippers and as students of yoga? Can we abolish ourselves? Those who are embodied as a person, those who have a consciousness of this body, and those who know that they exist as individuals cannot practice this yoga of utter unitedness with the Transcendent Essence. Hard is this practice. But those who are conscious that they love God, and are inundated with affection for God, do not have this difficulty because they have annihilated their ego, and the greatest pain is the annihilation of ego.
In the case of ordinarily accepted forms of devotion to God, as long as the personality of the devotee also persists together with the consciousness of the Supreme Personality of God, a little bit of sattvic ahamkara is present in that devotee. We have to use the word ‘ahamkara’ very carefully here in the case of devotees because it does not mean pride. Ahamkara is not to be taken here as garva—arrogance, self-assertion. It is a very, very sattvic, moderate, subdued self-consciousness, which is what distinguishes these devotees from the person whom they worship. But in the case of the others whose practice is considered to be very difficult, even this little sattvic mode of self-affirmation is completely overcome. They do not worship God; they are inseparable from God. They do not have to praise God, because the person who is to praise has gone into the abyss of the Absolute.
“Both are great. I love both these types of devotees equally. But I am mentioning to you that one type of devotion is very difficult and, therefore, people will certainly resort to the easier one. Whoever lovingly surrenders themselves to Me, and worships Me as the Supreme Person, and thinks of nothing except Me—ananyenaiva yogena—I lift them from the mire of samsara.” Teṣāṁ ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārasāgarāt: “I raise them above this turmoil of samsara, and I shall be ever at their beck and call for their protection.”
From this answer that Sri Krishna gives, it is not easy for us to know which type of devotee he actually prefers. There may be some subtle touch of preference for the devotee who is non-separate from him because when he referred to four kinds of devotees, he said, “All are equally great and I consider them as worthy of endearment, but yet I consider the jnani as supreme because he has become My very soul. The arta, jijnasu and artharthi are also dear to Me because they are devoted to Me—they think of Me, and worship Me, and praise Me, and want Me only—but I consider the jnanias superior.” So, even when he seems to be saying that both are equally good and all the attributes of goodness are to be seen in both kinds of devotees—both will reach him—we cannot deny that there is a preference for the one whose soul has been united with the Universal Soul, in comparison to the soul that continues to maintain an independent existence in spite of its devotion.
Types of practices are described in the coming verses, almost referring to the four yogas—jnanayoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga and karma yoga. The first makes reference to the jnana yoga technique. Mayy eva mana ādhatsva (12.8): “Let your mind be fixed on Me”; mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya: “Let your intellect also be rooted in Me”; nivasiṣyasi mayyeva: “You are already in Me”; ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ: “There is no doubt that you are in Me only, provided that your mind and intellect shake not.”
The same point is also mentioned in the definition of yoga given in the Katha Upanishad. Yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante jñānāni manasā saha, buddhiś ca na viceṣṭati, tām āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim (Katha 2.3.10): When the mind and the intellect are unified, and they do not stand as separate faculties of observation and perception, and this united psyche gets rooted in God Himself, the abode is immediately reached. But, we may find this difficult.
Sri Krishna anticipates the difficulty of the devotee in continuously establishing the unity of the mind and intellect in God always. “If you cannot do this, I shall prescribe to you a lesser method,” says the Lord. That lesser method is almost the same as the raja yoga or ashtanga yoga technique. Abhyāsa vairāgyābhyāṁ tan nirodhaḥ (Y.S. 1.12) is a sutra of Patanjali. Atha cittaṁ samādhātuṁ na śaknoṣi mayi sthiram, abhyāsayogena tato mām icchāptuṁ dhanañjaya (12.9): “Continued practice at concentration on Me may be attempted if whole-souled fixing of attention on Me is difficult. If you can unite yourself with Me wholly, fine; that should be considered as the jnana yoga technique. But if that is not possible, repeated attempts have to be made in fixing your mind on Me by techniques of daily routine—abhyasa yoga.”
Abhyāse’pyasamartho’si matkarmaparamo bhava, madar-tham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi(12.10): “If this is also not possible—neither are you able to completely unite yourself with Me, nor are you able to practise concentration with effort every day—then devote yourself to Me in your daily behaviour.” Here matkarma means ‘all actions devoted to Me’.
The great commentator Madhusudhana Saraswati says that this verse refers to the nine modes of bhakti that are indicated in the Bhagavatam. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātmanivedanam (S.B. 7.5.23). Śravaṇaṁ: always hearing the glories of God through satsanga; kīrtanaṁ: singing the names of God; smaraṇaṁ: always remembering Him; pāda-sevanam: adoring His feet in daily worship; arcanaṁ: worshipping in temples or in our own homes in a ritualistic method by shodashopachara puja, sixteen modes of worship; vandanaṁ: offering prayers through mantras or in our own way; dāsyaṁ: considering ourselves as servants of the Lord Almighty, the Supreme Being, Who is very far away from us because we are servants; sakhyam: considering ourselves as equal to God, as Arjuna considered himself as a friend of Sri Krishna; ātmanivedanam: the final devotion where we do not exist as devotees hearing the glories of God, worshipping God, or chanting His divine name, but we completely offer ourselves to Him.
These kinds of devotion are supposed to be indicated in this tenth verse, where the Lord says that all our offerings should be to him. Madartham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi: “You shall attain supreme perfection, or siddhi, by merely devoting yourself to Me in all your deeds or performances, if the repeated practice that is mentioned in the earlier verse is also difficult for you.”
Athaitad apyaśakto’si kartuṁ madyogam āśritaḥ, sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān (12.11): “If even that is difficult—if you cannot worship Me with devotion, you cannot follow these nine methods of worship, you cannot concentrate on Me by repeated practice every day, you cannot unite your soul with Me—if all these are difficult for you, then what do you do? If all these three methods that I have delineated are also found to be difficult for you, I shall tell you the last method. Do your work as you do. All your duties, all your performances, the daily routines of your life, let them go on. The only thing is, do not expect the fruits of these actions. Do these works that you perform every day as a duty. ‘Duty for duty’s sake; work is worship’ is the motto that you may keep before Me. Do not expect anything from the work that you perform. Let it be an unselfish service that you render to people or to anyone for whose sake you are working.” This is karma yoga: sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān. Thus, in these four verses we have brief indications of jnana yoga, ashtanga yoga, bhakti yoga and karma yoga.
Therefore, jnana is superior to practice, abhyasa. Now Sri Krishna gives a commentary on what he has said. Śreyo hi jñānam abhyāsāj (12.12): “Jnana, or knowledge of your union with Me, is superior to the practice that you attempt for concentration on Me.” That is, wisdom of God is superior to just daily practice. Jñānād dhyānaṁ viśiṣyate: But jnana does not mean merely knowing in an academic or scriptural sense. We may know God through the study of the Bhagavadgita or the Upanishads. Here, jnana is used in two different senses: the higher knowledge, and the lower knowledge. The higher knowledge is that which has no object in front of it. The lower knowledge is that which is a means of knowing something else, a means to the performance of work, etc. In the case where knowledge is of a lower type which has an object in front of it—it may be scriptural knowledge, academic knowledge, learning, whatever it is—it is inferior to meditation. Direct meditation is superior to knowledge which has an object in front of it. Hence, higher knowledge—knowledge which has no object in front of it—is superior. But if we meditate with a desire for the fruits of our actions, this meditation is inferior to our renouncing the fruits of actions because if we meditate with a love for the fruits of action, our selfishness persists.
“So I consider karmaphalatyāga, the abandoning of fruits, or the result of all that you do, as finally superior even to meditation that is coupled with a desire for the fruits of action. From this kind of renunciation of the fruits of action, you will attain peace.” Tyāgāc chāntir anantaram: “You will get peace with these methods that I mentioned.”
Hence, these verses up to the twelfth are actual practical suggestions on sadhana. We have a brief pithy statement here of what spiritual practice is, what sadhana is, what the four yogas are, and how we have to conduct ourselves with proportionate attention paid to the different yogas, according to our capacity and perhaps our stage of evolution.
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Arjuna asks: “Are You the Supreme Person? Sometimes You refer to Yourself as Parama-purusha—Supreme Person. Sometimes You say that You are indestructible, transcendent, and impossible even to conceive. In what way are we to worship You, O Lord? There are people who adore You as the Supreme Mahapurusha, Purushottama. With immense devotion they sing of You, they dance in ecstasy by taking Your name, they adore You day in and day out, and glorify You in all ways; but there are others who are unified in their being with Your indestructible Super Being. Between these two great souls, whom do You regard as the best of yogins?”
The Lord gives a reply. Śrībhagavānuvāca
mayyāveśya mano ye māṁ nityayuktā upāsate
śraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ (12.2)
ye tvakṣaram anirdeśyaṁ avyaktaṁ paryupāsate
sarvatragam acintyaṁ ca kūṭasthaṁ acalaṁ dhruvam (12.3)
sanniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ sarvatra samabuddhayāḥ
te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (12.4)
kleśo’dhikataras teṣāṁ avyaktāsaktacetasām avyaktā
hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate (12.5)
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparaḥ
ananyenaiva yogena māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate (12.6)
teṣāṁ ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārasāgarāt
bhavāmi nacirāt pārtha mayyāveśitacetasām (12.7)
mayyāveśya mano ye māṁ nityayuktā upāsate
śraddhayā parayopetās te me yuktatamā matāḥ (12.2)
ye tvakṣaram anirdeśyaṁ avyaktaṁ paryupāsate
sarvatragam acintyaṁ ca kūṭasthaṁ acalaṁ dhruvam (12.3)
sanniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ sarvatra samabuddhayāḥ
te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūtahite ratāḥ (12.4)
kleśo’dhikataras teṣāṁ avyaktāsaktacetasām avyaktā
hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate (12.5)
ye tu sarvāṇi karmāṇi mayi sannyasya matparaḥ
ananyenaiva yogena māṁ dhyāyanta upāsate (12.6)
teṣāṁ ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārasāgarāt
bhavāmi nacirāt pārtha mayyāveśitacetasām (12.7)
The reply is here in six verses. “I consider those people very near to Me and really united with Me whose mind is fixed on Me, who worship Me ever considering Me as their highest beloved, who have faith in Me only, and centre their faith in nothing else. I certainly consider them as united with Me because their mind is wholly centred in Me in their utter devotion. But there are others who are united with Me in a different way.”
The distinction drawn here is between those devotees who worship the Supreme Being as the Parama Purushottama and those who are devoted to the Universal Inclusiveness, outside which even they do not exist. We may call these two ways of approach as bhakti and jnana, if we like; but the jnana referred to here is actually a kind of bhakti in the highest sense. It is called para bhakti, which is the same as jnana.
In religious parlance, the worship of the Supreme Being as a person is the normal way of adoring God. Whether it is Hinduism or any other religion in the world, we see people worshipping God as some concept cast into the mould of an enlarged personality—not simply a person, but the Supreme Person. Whether we call God the Father in heaven, or Allah-hu Akbar, or Purushottama, or Narayana or Siva or Devi or Brahma—whatever be the definition of our ishta devata, we will observe that we are picturing the Supreme Divinity in some form, though that form is highly enlarged and inclusive. Because the heart of the devotee requires a response from someone who knows what we are feeling, it is necessary for us to know that God is responding to our love and devotion.
The God Who cannot respond does not evoke satisfaction in the heart. The God Who includes us, outside Whom we cannot even exist, need not give any response at all. But our heart says: “I love God. Maybe I love Him as an all-pervading essence, but even then I require a response. I should know that He knows that I love Him.” The question of expecting this kind of response from God, blessing from God, grace from God, or protection from God—anything whatsoever from God—cannot arise if the person expecting this response does not stand outside the One from whom the response has to come. This is the difficulty that perhaps was haunting the mind of Arjuna, and haunts every religious seeker, whatever be the vocation of his religion.
Sri Krishna accepts this twofold way of approach to God because He calls Himself Purushottama. Prathitaḥ puruṣottamaḥ (15.18): “I am beyond the kshara-akshara prakriti-purusha and, therefore, I am known as the Supreme Being.” He calls Himself the Supreme Purusha—that is, the Highest Person.
Sri Krishna’s reply is: “Those who devotedly worship Me as the Supreme Person are really united with Me because of their love. What about others? In the case of those others who try to feel the presence of this Imperishable Transcendent Essence by a total withdrawal of all the faculties of psychological perception, even devotion does not arise from the operation of their mind. Mostly, devotion is a kind of feeling that arises from part of their psyche, but in the case of those people whose mind has been restrained perfectly—saṁniyamyendriyagrāmaṁ—who have put an end to the activity of all the sense organs, and see one thing only everywhere—sarvatra samabuddhayāḥ—they also reach Me. They also reach Me who consider Me as the Supreme Person and love Me as the Supreme Person. They also reach Me who consider Me as the All-Inclusive Eternal Transcendent Universal Reality.” But the distinction is this: It is difficult to concentrate the mind on non-externalised Universality. Those who have body-consciousness and know that they also exist even when they are in the height of devotion to God are aware that they are at the height of devotion to God. The devotee loves God, but the devotee knows that he loves God; that is what demarcates him from another who loves God but does not know that he loves God.
There is a difference between knowing that we love God and not knowing that we love God. We have united ourselves with God to such an extent that we cannot know that we are actually having affection for God. But those who know that they love God stand outside the Supreme Person; they can visualise Him, pray to Him in words of language, and they can offer themselves in surrender as if they are something to be offered. But in the case of the others, there is nothing to be offered because that which is to be offered has already become one with that to which it is to be offered. Such a kind of sacrifice is very difficult in this world. Very hard is this practice.
Kleśo’dhikataras teṣāṁ avyaktāsaktacetasām, avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṁ dehavadbhir avāpyate. How on earth is it possible not to know that we are devotees of God? How can we forget that we are existing as worshippers and as students of yoga? Can we abolish ourselves? Those who are embodied as a person, those who have a consciousness of this body, and those who know that they exist as individuals cannot practice this yoga of utter unitedness with the Transcendent Essence. Hard is this practice. But those who are conscious that they love God, and are inundated with affection for God, do not have this difficulty because they have annihilated their ego, and the greatest pain is the annihilation of ego.
In the case of ordinarily accepted forms of devotion to God, as long as the personality of the devotee also persists together with the consciousness of the Supreme Personality of God, a little bit of sattvic ahamkara is present in that devotee. We have to use the word ‘ahamkara’ very carefully here in the case of devotees because it does not mean pride. Ahamkara is not to be taken here as garva—arrogance, self-assertion. It is a very, very sattvic, moderate, subdued self-consciousness, which is what distinguishes these devotees from the person whom they worship. But in the case of the others whose practice is considered to be very difficult, even this little sattvic mode of self-affirmation is completely overcome. They do not worship God; they are inseparable from God. They do not have to praise God, because the person who is to praise has gone into the abyss of the Absolute.
“Both are great. I love both these types of devotees equally. But I am mentioning to you that one type of devotion is very difficult and, therefore, people will certainly resort to the easier one. Whoever lovingly surrenders themselves to Me, and worships Me as the Supreme Person, and thinks of nothing except Me—ananyenaiva yogena—I lift them from the mire of samsara.” Teṣāṁ ahaṁ samuddhartā mṛtyusaṁsārasāgarāt: “I raise them above this turmoil of samsara, and I shall be ever at their beck and call for their protection.”
From this answer that Sri Krishna gives, it is not easy for us to know which type of devotee he actually prefers. There may be some subtle touch of preference for the devotee who is non-separate from him because when he referred to four kinds of devotees, he said, “All are equally great and I consider them as worthy of endearment, but yet I consider the jnani as supreme because he has become My very soul. The arta, jijnasu and artharthi are also dear to Me because they are devoted to Me—they think of Me, and worship Me, and praise Me, and want Me only—but I consider the jnanias superior.” So, even when he seems to be saying that both are equally good and all the attributes of goodness are to be seen in both kinds of devotees—both will reach him—we cannot deny that there is a preference for the one whose soul has been united with the Universal Soul, in comparison to the soul that continues to maintain an independent existence in spite of its devotion.
Types of practices are described in the coming verses, almost referring to the four yogas—jnanayoga, raja yoga, bhakti yoga and karma yoga. The first makes reference to the jnana yoga technique. Mayy eva mana ādhatsva (12.8): “Let your mind be fixed on Me”; mayi buddhiṁ niveśaya: “Let your intellect also be rooted in Me”; nivasiṣyasi mayyeva: “You are already in Me”; ata ūrdhvaṁ na saṁśayaḥ: “There is no doubt that you are in Me only, provided that your mind and intellect shake not.”
The same point is also mentioned in the definition of yoga given in the Katha Upanishad. Yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante jñānāni manasā saha, buddhiś ca na viceṣṭati, tām āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim (Katha 2.3.10): When the mind and the intellect are unified, and they do not stand as separate faculties of observation and perception, and this united psyche gets rooted in God Himself, the abode is immediately reached. But, we may find this difficult.
Sri Krishna anticipates the difficulty of the devotee in continuously establishing the unity of the mind and intellect in God always. “If you cannot do this, I shall prescribe to you a lesser method,” says the Lord. That lesser method is almost the same as the raja yoga or ashtanga yoga technique. Abhyāsa vairāgyābhyāṁ tan nirodhaḥ (Y.S. 1.12) is a sutra of Patanjali. Atha cittaṁ samādhātuṁ na śaknoṣi mayi sthiram, abhyāsayogena tato mām icchāptuṁ dhanañjaya (12.9): “Continued practice at concentration on Me may be attempted if whole-souled fixing of attention on Me is difficult. If you can unite yourself with Me wholly, fine; that should be considered as the jnana yoga technique. But if that is not possible, repeated attempts have to be made in fixing your mind on Me by techniques of daily routine—abhyasa yoga.”
Abhyāse’pyasamartho’si matkarmaparamo bhava, madar-tham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi(12.10): “If this is also not possible—neither are you able to completely unite yourself with Me, nor are you able to practise concentration with effort every day—then devote yourself to Me in your daily behaviour.” Here matkarma means ‘all actions devoted to Me’.
The great commentator Madhusudhana Saraswati says that this verse refers to the nine modes of bhakti that are indicated in the Bhagavatam. Śravaṇaṁ kīrtanaṁ viṣṇoḥ smaraṇaṁ pāda-sevanam arcanaṁ vandanaṁ dāsyaṁ sakhyam ātmanivedanam (S.B. 7.5.23). Śravaṇaṁ: always hearing the glories of God through satsanga; kīrtanaṁ: singing the names of God; smaraṇaṁ: always remembering Him; pāda-sevanam: adoring His feet in daily worship; arcanaṁ: worshipping in temples or in our own homes in a ritualistic method by shodashopachara puja, sixteen modes of worship; vandanaṁ: offering prayers through mantras or in our own way; dāsyaṁ: considering ourselves as servants of the Lord Almighty, the Supreme Being, Who is very far away from us because we are servants; sakhyam: considering ourselves as equal to God, as Arjuna considered himself as a friend of Sri Krishna; ātmanivedanam: the final devotion where we do not exist as devotees hearing the glories of God, worshipping God, or chanting His divine name, but we completely offer ourselves to Him.
These kinds of devotion are supposed to be indicated in this tenth verse, where the Lord says that all our offerings should be to him. Madartham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi: “You shall attain supreme perfection, or siddhi, by merely devoting yourself to Me in all your deeds or performances, if the repeated practice that is mentioned in the earlier verse is also difficult for you.”
Athaitad apyaśakto’si kartuṁ madyogam āśritaḥ, sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān (12.11): “If even that is difficult—if you cannot worship Me with devotion, you cannot follow these nine methods of worship, you cannot concentrate on Me by repeated practice every day, you cannot unite your soul with Me—if all these are difficult for you, then what do you do? If all these three methods that I have delineated are also found to be difficult for you, I shall tell you the last method. Do your work as you do. All your duties, all your performances, the daily routines of your life, let them go on. The only thing is, do not expect the fruits of these actions. Do these works that you perform every day as a duty. ‘Duty for duty’s sake; work is worship’ is the motto that you may keep before Me. Do not expect anything from the work that you perform. Let it be an unselfish service that you render to people or to anyone for whose sake you are working.” This is karma yoga: sarvakarmaphalatyāgaṁ tataḥ kuru yatātmavān. Thus, in these four verses we have brief indications of jnana yoga, ashtanga yoga, bhakti yoga and karma yoga.
Therefore, jnana is superior to practice, abhyasa. Now Sri Krishna gives a commentary on what he has said. Śreyo hi jñānam abhyāsāj (12.12): “Jnana, or knowledge of your union with Me, is superior to the practice that you attempt for concentration on Me.” That is, wisdom of God is superior to just daily practice. Jñānād dhyānaṁ viśiṣyate: But jnana does not mean merely knowing in an academic or scriptural sense. We may know God through the study of the Bhagavadgita or the Upanishads. Here, jnana is used in two different senses: the higher knowledge, and the lower knowledge. The higher knowledge is that which has no object in front of it. The lower knowledge is that which is a means of knowing something else, a means to the performance of work, etc. In the case where knowledge is of a lower type which has an object in front of it—it may be scriptural knowledge, academic knowledge, learning, whatever it is—it is inferior to meditation. Direct meditation is superior to knowledge which has an object in front of it. Hence, higher knowledge—knowledge which has no object in front of it—is superior. But if we meditate with a desire for the fruits of our actions, this meditation is inferior to our renouncing the fruits of actions because if we meditate with a love for the fruits of action, our selfishness persists.
“So I consider karmaphalatyāga, the abandoning of fruits, or the result of all that you do, as finally superior even to meditation that is coupled with a desire for the fruits of action. From this kind of renunciation of the fruits of action, you will attain peace.” Tyāgāc chāntir anantaram: “You will get peace with these methods that I mentioned.”
Hence, these verses up to the twelfth are actual practical suggestions on sadhana. We have a brief pithy statement here of what spiritual practice is, what sadhana is, what the four yogas are, and how we have to conduct ourselves with proportionate attention paid to the different yogas, according to our capacity and perhaps our stage of evolution.
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Discourse 37: The Twelfth Chapter Concludes – The Supreme Devotee of God
The highest devotee has certain qualities. He may be a jnani, he may be a yogi, he may be a bhakta, he may be a karmaphala-tyagi—whatever he is, finally he is devoted to God. What are the characteristics of the supreme devotee of God? The verses that follow are considered to be a scripture by themselves—eight verses that pour nectar into our ears. People have translated these eight verses into Hindi poetry, and they sing it. There was a very learned man, a great mathematician from Bihar, who sang this during Gurudev’s time in beautiful Hindi poesy, calling it Amritashataka—the eight nectarine streams flowing from the teachings of God.
Who is this great devotee? What are his qualities and characteristics? The qualities of the devotee have also been mentioned elsewhere in the Bhagavadgita—for instance, at the end of the Second Chapter when the sthitaprajna lakshana was explained. A sthitaprajna is one who is established in superior understanding. He is also a devotee of the jnani type. And the qualities of a yogi were also mentioned towards the end of the Sixth Chapter. To some extent, we also have the description of the devotee of God towards the end of the Eleventh Chapter. And in the Thirteenth Chapter there is once again a description of a sage and saint who has transcended the gunas of prakriti, who is called gunatita, as we will see. So there are varieties of descriptions of the sage and the saint, according to the way in which he approaches the Almighty. The descriptions of a devotee given herein and in different places of the Gita actually correspond to the characteristics of a jnani, bhakta, karma yogi and yogi proper in the ashtanga yoga sense.
Here, in these eight verses, there is a summing up of the qualities of a devotee—not in one sense only, but in every sense. Whether he is a jnanin or a yogin or a bhakta or a karma yogin, whatever be his nature, how would he behave, what are his special qualities, how would we recognise him, and what kind of behaviour would we expect from him? The details of the wondrous, beautiful, charming behaviour of a lover of God are described in the coming verses.
The nature of those who seek God, either as a Supreme Person or as an Impersonal Universal, has been described in the beginning of the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. These great geniuses of the spirit, whether they are devotees of the Almighty and visualise Him as a Supreme Person or as a Transcendent Eternal, have a characteristic in common. Their behaviour is of a uniform nature, though their internal methodology of attunement with the Supreme Spirit slightly varies because of the distinction that we are obliged to make between the personality of God and the universality of God. The common features among all these great saints and sages are now delineated in the coming verses, from the thirteenth onwards.
Adveṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca, nirmamo nirahaṁkāraḥ samaduḥkhasukhaḥ kṣamī(12.13): Eternally free from hatred towards any living being, they extend love and compassion to all creatures. Dislike and hatred, in any manner whatsoever, is unknown to them. That characteristic is here mentioned in the word ‘adveṣṭā’. Sarvabhūtānāṁ: It is not absence of hatred only towards some; it is absence of dislike and hatred towards anyone. That is the universal compassionate outlook of these great spiritual heroes.
Maitraḥ: They are very friendly with persons of any category whatsoever, whether high or low. Karuṇa eva ca: They are compassionate at all times. They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. They never believe that they exist independently outside the supreme beatitude of God. Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God. In either case, it is an abolition of personality—either by self-surrender or by inner communion of spirit with Spirit. That is nirahaṁkāraḥ: No sense of ‘I’-ness. ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only one ‘I’ that can exist—the Supreme ‘I’—and, therefore, nothing belongs to me. Nirmamaḥ: Neither have they any sense of existing independently by themselves, nor have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. They are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness: nirmamo nirahaṁkāraḥ.
Samaduḥkhasukhaḥ: Whether pleasure comes or pain comes, they accept both with equanimity. Mātrāsparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkhadāḥ, āgamāpāyino’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata (2.14) was said in the Second Chapter. Pleasures and pains are due to the reactions set up by the qualities of the elements in respect of the constitution of our body. Knowing that pleasures and pains are only reactions to certain prevailing conditions, one is not perturbed either when there is a pleasurable sensation or when there is a sensation which is contrary. Samaduḥkhasukhaḥ: Pleasure and pain are equal. Kṣamī: They are quick to forgive, and never get irritated or angry.
Yadṛcchālābhasaṁtuṣaḥ (4.22): They are always contented with whatever comes. If something comes, fine; if nothing comes, fine. Saṁtuṣṭaḥ: Always in a contented state, they are never greedy, and never ask for anything. ‘All is well’ is their motto. Santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī yatātmā (12.14): Always contented, they are yogis whose self is united with God. Dṛḍhaniścayaḥ: Determined to realise God in this birth, they take a vow that “In this birth itself I shall realise the Almighty.” That determination counts very much in actually attaining success. If we are diffident—“I may not even pass, so where is the question of attaining first class?”—if this kind of feeling is there in the beginning itself, nothing is going to be attained. We must have a determination: “I shall be first.” Then we will be at least second. Here is the determination of the spirit of the seeker: “Everything is well with me. I am not doing anything wrong. My technique of meditation is perfectly all right. I shall attain God in this birth itself.” This determination, or dṛḍhaniścayaḥ, is what characterises all yogis. Mayy arpitamanobuddhiḥ: As already mentioned, their mind and intellect are dedicated to the Supreme Being. Madbhaktaḥ: They are the supreme devotees. They are dear to God.
Yasmān nodvijate loko lokān nodvijate ca yaḥ, harṣāmarṣabhayodvegair mukto yaḥ sa ca me priyaḥ(12.15): They do not shrink from anything, nor do they behave in such a way that the world will shrink away from them. It is possible that we may not shrink away from anything, but how can we expect the world not to shrink away from us? This is a difficult thing. We may have no dislike or disgust towards anything in the world, but the point is that the world should behave towards us in a similar manner. This is possible in heightened forms of self-expansion. When the moods of love and compassion rise to a sufficiently high pedestal, the aura of this great yogi touches everything in the atmosphere around, and the world will behave in respect of that person in a similar manner as the person behaves in respect of the world. That is to say, our behaviour towards the world largely conditions its behaviour towards us. So if we do not shy away from the world, the world will not shy away from us. That is the meaning of yasmān nodvijate loko lokān nodvijate ca yaḥ.
Free from exhilaration, free from anger, free from fear, and free from agitation of any kind—such a person is harṣāmarṣabhayodvegair mukto. Harṣāmarṣa means getting exhilarated when something pleasant comes and becoming angry when something unpleasant comes, bhaya is the fear that something may come and hinder our path of pleasure, and udvega is agitation caused when all these are present. One who is free from harsha, amarsha, bhaya and udvega is dear to God: sa ca me priyaḥ.
Anapekṣaḥ (12.16): Wanting nothing at all, and expecting nothing even for tomorrow. If something comes today, okay; tomorrow will take care of itself. Śuciḥ: Inwardly and outwardly contented, free from any kind of expectation and desire. Therefore, he is pure, inwardly and outwardly. Dakṣa: Very able in the performance of his duties. Whether they are spiritual duties in the form of meditation or external duties in the form of relations with society, he is expert, adroit and very precise in his behaviour, and he will not bungle in his attitude. But he looks like an uninterested person. He does not talk much. He does not take any initiative, and keeps quiet as if he is not interested in anything in this world. Yet he is very able, a very great expert, and when he starts doing a thing, he will do it in a more expert manner than anybody else. But mostly he will not interfere with things; that is the meaning of udāsīna.
Gatavyathaḥ: Free from grief of every kind. He has no sorrow, no grief, no feeling that something has come which he does not want, or something that he wants has not come. This grief does not touch him because there is nothing that he wants, and there is nothing that he does not want.
Sarvārambhaparityāgī: He does not take initiative. If something happens, he acts in accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet. He does not plan what he will do tomorrow or the day after that. He remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist. But if occasions arise when he has to take a step in a given direction, he does it in a most expert manner. Otherwise, he does not take initiative in any direction. Yo madbhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ: Such a devotee is dear to God.
Yo na hṛṣyati na dveṣṭi na śocati na kāṅkṣati, śubhāśubhaparityāgī bhaktimān yaḥ sa me priyaḥ (12.17): “Who is dear to Me? He who is neither happy nor unhappy, neither likes nor dislikes, neither wants nor does not want, asks neither for pleasant things nor unpleasant things, and does not even make a distinction between good and bad—such a person is the true devotee of God.”
Samaḥ śatrau ca mitre ca tathā mānāpamānayoḥ (12.18): He is equal in attitude towards friend and enemy. It does not mean that he hugs the friend and hates the enemy. His internal spirit that has communed itself with the Universal Spirit sees the same light scintillating in both of what are called friend and enemy. Whether he is praised or insulted, it makes no difference because for him, words are only vibrations in the air and they make no sense. Only if we make sense of the vibrations, they seem to affect us. But vibration is vibration—and if we let them go, they vanish into thin air. Hence, neither praise nor insults make any difference to him. He is totally unaware of anything happening at all. They are empty words, with no sense or meaning for him.
Śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkheṣu samaḥ saṅgavivarjitaḥ: Heat and cold, hunger and thirst are the usual concomitants of a human being embodied in a physical sheath. They have to be borne somehow or the other. We cannot ask why there should be hunger, why there should be thirst, why there should be heat and cold. They are natural, and have to be borne with fortitude as long as the physical body continues. Saṅgavivarjitaḥ: He does that. He is attached to nothing.
Tulyanindāstuti (2.19): The same thing is again repeated. Ninda and stuti mean the same thing to him. “You are the worst of fellows”—okay, all right. “There is nobody like you in the whole world”—that is also good, fine. He takes both of them as prasad. Tulyanindāstutir maunī: Talking not, saying nothing. Santuṣṭo yena kenacit: Whatever comes, he is satisfied with it. Aniketah: Having no abode of his own. He stays here and there; any place is equally good for him. He does not have an attachment to any particular land and property. He has no particular homestead, no location, and feels that all is well at any place. Sthiramatiḥ: He is not agitated, and is established in understanding. Such a devotee is the beloved of God.
Whoever listens to this advice is also dear to God. Whoever devotedly hears this glory of the devotee of God is also a devotee of God.
“I consider all of them as very, very dear to Me who devotedly, intently, with concentration, listen to these glories of the great Masters of the spirit—which are like nectar for the ears—full of faith and intent on Me only. I consider them as most dear to Me”: tetīva me priyāḥ (12.20). With these words, we conclude the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.
The highest devotee has certain qualities. He may be a jnani, he may be a yogi, he may be a bhakta, he may be a karmaphala-tyagi—whatever he is, finally he is devoted to God. What are the characteristics of the supreme devotee of God? The verses that follow are considered to be a scripture by themselves—eight verses that pour nectar into our ears. People have translated these eight verses into Hindi poetry, and they sing it. There was a very learned man, a great mathematician from Bihar, who sang this during Gurudev’s time in beautiful Hindi poesy, calling it Amritashataka—the eight nectarine streams flowing from the teachings of God.
Who is this great devotee? What are his qualities and characteristics? The qualities of the devotee have also been mentioned elsewhere in the Bhagavadgita—for instance, at the end of the Second Chapter when the sthitaprajna lakshana was explained. A sthitaprajna is one who is established in superior understanding. He is also a devotee of the jnani type. And the qualities of a yogi were also mentioned towards the end of the Sixth Chapter. To some extent, we also have the description of the devotee of God towards the end of the Eleventh Chapter. And in the Thirteenth Chapter there is once again a description of a sage and saint who has transcended the gunas of prakriti, who is called gunatita, as we will see. So there are varieties of descriptions of the sage and the saint, according to the way in which he approaches the Almighty. The descriptions of a devotee given herein and in different places of the Gita actually correspond to the characteristics of a jnani, bhakta, karma yogi and yogi proper in the ashtanga yoga sense.
Here, in these eight verses, there is a summing up of the qualities of a devotee—not in one sense only, but in every sense. Whether he is a jnanin or a yogin or a bhakta or a karma yogin, whatever be his nature, how would he behave, what are his special qualities, how would we recognise him, and what kind of behaviour would we expect from him? The details of the wondrous, beautiful, charming behaviour of a lover of God are described in the coming verses.
The nature of those who seek God, either as a Supreme Person or as an Impersonal Universal, has been described in the beginning of the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. These great geniuses of the spirit, whether they are devotees of the Almighty and visualise Him as a Supreme Person or as a Transcendent Eternal, have a characteristic in common. Their behaviour is of a uniform nature, though their internal methodology of attunement with the Supreme Spirit slightly varies because of the distinction that we are obliged to make between the personality of God and the universality of God. The common features among all these great saints and sages are now delineated in the coming verses, from the thirteenth onwards.
Adveṣṭā sarvabhūtānāṁ maitraḥ karuṇa eva ca, nirmamo nirahaṁkāraḥ samaduḥkhasukhaḥ kṣamī(12.13): Eternally free from hatred towards any living being, they extend love and compassion to all creatures. Dislike and hatred, in any manner whatsoever, is unknown to them. That characteristic is here mentioned in the word ‘adveṣṭā’. Sarvabhūtānāṁ: It is not absence of hatred only towards some; it is absence of dislike and hatred towards anyone. That is the universal compassionate outlook of these great spiritual heroes.
Maitraḥ: They are very friendly with persons of any category whatsoever, whether high or low. Karuṇa eva ca: They are compassionate at all times. They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. They never believe that they exist independently outside the supreme beatitude of God. Neither the devotee of the Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or herself as existing independent of God. In either case, it is an abolition of personality—either by self-surrender or by inner communion of spirit with Spirit. That is nirahaṁkāraḥ: No sense of ‘I’-ness. ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only one ‘I’ that can exist—the Supreme ‘I’—and, therefore, nothing belongs to me. Nirmamaḥ: Neither have they any sense of existing independently by themselves, nor have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. They are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness: nirmamo nirahaṁkāraḥ.
Samaduḥkhasukhaḥ: Whether pleasure comes or pain comes, they accept both with equanimity. Mātrāsparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkhadāḥ, āgamāpāyino’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata (2.14) was said in the Second Chapter. Pleasures and pains are due to the reactions set up by the qualities of the elements in respect of the constitution of our body. Knowing that pleasures and pains are only reactions to certain prevailing conditions, one is not perturbed either when there is a pleasurable sensation or when there is a sensation which is contrary. Samaduḥkhasukhaḥ: Pleasure and pain are equal. Kṣamī: They are quick to forgive, and never get irritated or angry.
Yadṛcchālābhasaṁtuṣaḥ (4.22): They are always contented with whatever comes. If something comes, fine; if nothing comes, fine. Saṁtuṣṭaḥ: Always in a contented state, they are never greedy, and never ask for anything. ‘All is well’ is their motto. Santuṣṭaḥ satataṁ yogī yatātmā (12.14): Always contented, they are yogis whose self is united with God. Dṛḍhaniścayaḥ: Determined to realise God in this birth, they take a vow that “In this birth itself I shall realise the Almighty.” That determination counts very much in actually attaining success. If we are diffident—“I may not even pass, so where is the question of attaining first class?”—if this kind of feeling is there in the beginning itself, nothing is going to be attained. We must have a determination: “I shall be first.” Then we will be at least second. Here is the determination of the spirit of the seeker: “Everything is well with me. I am not doing anything wrong. My technique of meditation is perfectly all right. I shall attain God in this birth itself.” This determination, or dṛḍhaniścayaḥ, is what characterises all yogis. Mayy arpitamanobuddhiḥ: As already mentioned, their mind and intellect are dedicated to the Supreme Being. Madbhaktaḥ: They are the supreme devotees. They are dear to God.
Yasmān nodvijate loko lokān nodvijate ca yaḥ, harṣāmarṣabhayodvegair mukto yaḥ sa ca me priyaḥ(12.15): They do not shrink from anything, nor do they behave in such a way that the world will shrink away from them. It is possible that we may not shrink away from anything, but how can we expect the world not to shrink away from us? This is a difficult thing. We may have no dislike or disgust towards anything in the world, but the point is that the world should behave towards us in a similar manner. This is possible in heightened forms of self-expansion. When the moods of love and compassion rise to a sufficiently high pedestal, the aura of this great yogi touches everything in the atmosphere around, and the world will behave in respect of that person in a similar manner as the person behaves in respect of the world. That is to say, our behaviour towards the world largely conditions its behaviour towards us. So if we do not shy away from the world, the world will not shy away from us. That is the meaning of yasmān nodvijate loko lokān nodvijate ca yaḥ.
Free from exhilaration, free from anger, free from fear, and free from agitation of any kind—such a person is harṣāmarṣabhayodvegair mukto. Harṣāmarṣa means getting exhilarated when something pleasant comes and becoming angry when something unpleasant comes, bhaya is the fear that something may come and hinder our path of pleasure, and udvega is agitation caused when all these are present. One who is free from harsha, amarsha, bhaya and udvega is dear to God: sa ca me priyaḥ.
Anapekṣaḥ (12.16): Wanting nothing at all, and expecting nothing even for tomorrow. If something comes today, okay; tomorrow will take care of itself. Śuciḥ: Inwardly and outwardly contented, free from any kind of expectation and desire. Therefore, he is pure, inwardly and outwardly. Dakṣa: Very able in the performance of his duties. Whether they are spiritual duties in the form of meditation or external duties in the form of relations with society, he is expert, adroit and very precise in his behaviour, and he will not bungle in his attitude. But he looks like an uninterested person. He does not talk much. He does not take any initiative, and keeps quiet as if he is not interested in anything in this world. Yet he is very able, a very great expert, and when he starts doing a thing, he will do it in a more expert manner than anybody else. But mostly he will not interfere with things; that is the meaning of udāsīna.
Gatavyathaḥ: Free from grief of every kind. He has no sorrow, no grief, no feeling that something has come which he does not want, or something that he wants has not come. This grief does not touch him because there is nothing that he wants, and there is nothing that he does not want.
Sarvārambhaparityāgī: He does not take initiative. If something happens, he acts in accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet. He does not plan what he will do tomorrow or the day after that. He remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist. But if occasions arise when he has to take a step in a given direction, he does it in a most expert manner. Otherwise, he does not take initiative in any direction. Yo madbhaktaḥ sa me priyaḥ: Such a devotee is dear to God.
Yo na hṛṣyati na dveṣṭi na śocati na kāṅkṣati, śubhāśubhaparityāgī bhaktimān yaḥ sa me priyaḥ (12.17): “Who is dear to Me? He who is neither happy nor unhappy, neither likes nor dislikes, neither wants nor does not want, asks neither for pleasant things nor unpleasant things, and does not even make a distinction between good and bad—such a person is the true devotee of God.”
Samaḥ śatrau ca mitre ca tathā mānāpamānayoḥ (12.18): He is equal in attitude towards friend and enemy. It does not mean that he hugs the friend and hates the enemy. His internal spirit that has communed itself with the Universal Spirit sees the same light scintillating in both of what are called friend and enemy. Whether he is praised or insulted, it makes no difference because for him, words are only vibrations in the air and they make no sense. Only if we make sense of the vibrations, they seem to affect us. But vibration is vibration—and if we let them go, they vanish into thin air. Hence, neither praise nor insults make any difference to him. He is totally unaware of anything happening at all. They are empty words, with no sense or meaning for him.
Śītoṣṇasukhaduḥkheṣu samaḥ saṅgavivarjitaḥ: Heat and cold, hunger and thirst are the usual concomitants of a human being embodied in a physical sheath. They have to be borne somehow or the other. We cannot ask why there should be hunger, why there should be thirst, why there should be heat and cold. They are natural, and have to be borne with fortitude as long as the physical body continues. Saṅgavivarjitaḥ: He does that. He is attached to nothing.
Tulyanindāstuti (2.19): The same thing is again repeated. Ninda and stuti mean the same thing to him. “You are the worst of fellows”—okay, all right. “There is nobody like you in the whole world”—that is also good, fine. He takes both of them as prasad. Tulyanindāstutir maunī: Talking not, saying nothing. Santuṣṭo yena kenacit: Whatever comes, he is satisfied with it. Aniketah: Having no abode of his own. He stays here and there; any place is equally good for him. He does not have an attachment to any particular land and property. He has no particular homestead, no location, and feels that all is well at any place. Sthiramatiḥ: He is not agitated, and is established in understanding. Such a devotee is the beloved of God.
Whoever listens to this advice is also dear to God. Whoever devotedly hears this glory of the devotee of God is also a devotee of God.
“I consider all of them as very, very dear to Me who devotedly, intently, with concentration, listen to these glories of the great Masters of the spirit—which are like nectar for the ears—full of faith and intent on Me only. I consider them as most dear to Me”: tetīva me priyāḥ (12.20). With these words, we conclude the Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.
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