SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 9 (Gita.9)
https://youtu.be/S2FIg7DPmFk
SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 9
अथ नवमोஉध्यायः ।
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे ।
ज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेஉशुभात् ॥ 1 ॥
इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे ।
ज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेஉशुभात् ॥ 1 ॥
राजविद्या राजगुह्यं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमम् ।
प्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुमव्ययम् ॥ 2 ॥
प्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुमव्ययम् ॥ 2 ॥
अश्रद्दधानाः पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप ।
अप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि ॥ 3 ॥
अप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि ॥ 3 ॥
मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना ।
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥ 4 ॥
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ॥ 4 ॥
न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ।
भूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावनः ॥ 5 ॥
भूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावनः ॥ 5 ॥
यथाकाशस्थितो नित्यं वायुः सर्वत्रगो महान् ।
तथा सर्वाणि भूतानि मत्स्थानीत्युपधारय ॥ 6 ॥
तथा सर्वाणि भूतानि मत्स्थानीत्युपधारय ॥ 6 ॥
सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् ।
कल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् ॥ 7 ॥
कल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् ॥ 7 ॥
प्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुनः पुनः ।
भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ॥ 8 ॥
भूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् ॥ 8 ॥
न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय ।
उदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ॥ 9 ॥
उदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु ॥ 9 ॥
मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृतिः सूयते सचराचरम् ।
हेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते ॥ 10 ॥
हेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते ॥ 10 ॥
अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् ।
परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् ॥ 11 ॥
परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् ॥ 11 ॥
मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतसः ।
राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिताः ॥ 12 ॥
राक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिताः ॥ 12 ॥
महात्मानस्तु मां पार्थ दैवीं प्रकृतिमाश्रिताः ।
भजन्त्यनन्यमनसो ज्ञात्वा भूतादिमव्ययम् ॥ 13 ॥
भजन्त्यनन्यमनसो ज्ञात्वा भूतादिमव्ययम् ॥ 13 ॥
सततं कीर्तयन्तो मां यतन्तश्च दृढव्रताः ।
नमस्यन्तश्च मां भक्त्या नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ॥ 14 ॥
नमस्यन्तश्च मां भक्त्या नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ॥ 14 ॥
ज्ञानयज्ञेन चाप्यन्ये यजन्तो मामुपासते ।
एकत्वेन पृथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतोमुखम् ॥ 15 ॥
एकत्वेन पृथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतोमुखम् ॥ 15 ॥
अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञः स्वधाहमहमौषधम् ।
मन्त्रोஉहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् ॥ 16 ॥
मन्त्रोஉहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् ॥ 16 ॥
पिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामहः ।
वेद्यं पवित्रमोङ्कार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च ॥ 17 ॥
वेद्यं पवित्रमोङ्कार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च ॥ 17 ॥
गतिर्भर्ता प्रभुः साक्षी निवासः शरणं सुहृत् ।
प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् ॥ 18 ॥
प्रभवः प्रलयः स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् ॥ 18 ॥
तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णाम्युत्सृजामि च ।
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन ॥ 19 ॥
अमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन ॥ 19 ॥
त्रैविद्या मां सोमपाः पूतपापा यज्ञैरिष्ट्वा स्वर्गतिं प्रार्थयन्ते ।
ते पुण्यमासाद्य सुरेन्द्रलोकमश्नन्ति दिव्यान्दिवि देवभोगान् ॥ 20 ॥
ते पुण्यमासाद्य सुरेन्द्रलोकमश्नन्ति दिव्यान्दिवि देवभोगान् ॥ 20 ॥
ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति ।
एवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना गतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते ॥ 21 ॥
एवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना गतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते ॥ 21 ॥
अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जनाः पर्युपासते ।
एषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् ॥ 22॥
येஉप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ।
तेஉपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ॥ 23 ॥
एषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् ॥ 22॥
येஉप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विताः ।
तेஉपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् ॥ 23 ॥
अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च ।
न तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते ॥ 24 ॥
न तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते ॥ 24 ॥
यान्ति देवव्रता देवान्पितून्यान्ति पितृव्रताः ।
भूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोஉपि माम् ॥ 25 ॥
भूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोஉपि माम् ॥ 25 ॥
पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति ।
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः ॥ 26 ॥
तदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मनः ॥ 26 ॥
यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् ।
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ 27 ॥
यत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् ॥ 27 ॥
शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनैः ।
संन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि ॥ 28 ॥
संन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि ॥ 28 ॥
समोஉहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योஉस्ति न प्रियः ।
ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् ॥ 29 ॥
ये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् ॥ 29 ॥
अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् ।
साधुरेव स मन्तव्यः सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि सः ॥ 30 ॥
साधुरेव स मन्तव्यः सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि सः ॥ 30 ॥
क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति ।
कौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्तः प्रणश्यति ॥ 31 ॥
कौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्तः प्रणश्यति ॥ 31 ॥
मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येஉपि स्युः पापयोनयः ।
स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेஉपि यान्ति परां गतिम् ॥ 32 ॥
स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेஉपि यान्ति परां गतिम् ॥ 32 ॥
किं पुनर्ब्राह्मणाः पुण्या भक्ता राजर्षयस्तथा ।
अनित्यमसुखं लोकमिमं प्राप्य भजस्व माम् ॥ 33 ॥
अनित्यमसुखं लोकमिमं प्राप्य भजस्व माम् ॥ 33 ॥
मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।
मामेवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवमात्मानं मत्परायणः ॥ 34 ॥
मामेवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवमात्मानं मत्परायणः ॥ 34 ॥
ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे
राजविद्याराजगुह्ययोगो नाम नवमोஉध्यायः ॥9 ॥
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https://youtu.be/4BoFzm0cDFYIX
The Yoga of the Kingly Science & the Kingly Secret
Summary of Ninth Discourse
Observing that Arjuna was a qualified aspirant and endowed with faith, Krishna declares to him the sovereign knowledge and sovereign secret that is to be known by direct experience. He adds that without faith in this knowledge man fails to reach God and is reborn to suffer.
Now the Lord proceeds to describe His nature as the eternal, all-comprehensive Truth. He is everything that is invisible and visible. He pervades everything that exists. He creates everything, sustains everything, and when final dissolution takes place, absorbs everything into Himself. He manifests them again when the next creation begins. All beings who are ignorant of this knowledge are caught helplessly in the cycle of birth and death. In the midst of this creation, preservation and dissolution of the universe, the Lord stands as a silent witness, unaffected and unattached. He is the sole director, sustainer and supervisor of His Cosmic Prakriti.
Ignorant beings are not able to recognise the Lord in one who has realised Him. Although these cruel beings assume a human form, their nature is that of demons. The God-realised Mahatma, on the other hand, is a man of knowledge, and perceives Him indwelling all beings and creatures. He beholds the underlying unity of existence in all names and forms.
The Lord’s divine protection is assured to all those who take refuge in Him. Whatever path a devotee follows, he ultimately reaches Him. He is the goal of the various methods of spiritual practice. Devotion, Sri Krishna emphasises, is the essence of all spiritual discipline. If this supreme element is present, then the devotee is freed from bondage. The Lord observes the motive and degree of devotion. Even the most sinful and diabolical man, if he takes a radical turn towards the path of righteousness and truth, reaches the Lord. Whatever vocation one follows, one can attain the Lord if one seeks earnestly and with loving devotion. The essential thing is to fix the mind on the Lord and dedicate everything unto Him—one’s body, mind, actions, emotion and will.
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Idam tu te guhyatamam pravakshyaamyanasooyave;
Jnaanam vijnaanasahitam yajjnaatwaa mokshyase’shubhaat.
Jnaanam vijnaanasahitam yajjnaatwaa mokshyase’shubhaat.
The Blessed Lord said:
1. I shall now declare to thee who does not cavil, the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with experience (Self-realisation). Having known this, thou shalt be free from evil.
Raajavidyaa raajaguhyam pavitramidamuttamam;
Pratyakshaavagamam dharmyam susukham kartumavyayam.
Pratyakshaavagamam dharmyam susukham kartumavyayam.
2. This is the kingly science, the kingly secret, the supreme purifier, realisable by direct intuitional knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.
Ashraddhadhaanaah purushaa dharmasyaasya parantapa;
Apraapya maam nivartante mrityusamsaaravartmani.
Apraapya maam nivartante mrityusamsaaravartmani.
3. Those who have no faith in this Dharma (knowledge of the Self), O Parantapa (Arjuna), return to the path of this world of death without attaining Me!
Mayaa tatamidam sarvam jagadavyaktamoortinaa;
Matsthaani sarvabhootaani na chaaham teshvavasthitah.
Matsthaani sarvabhootaani na chaaham teshvavasthitah.
4. All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist in Me, but I do not dwell in them.
Na cha matsthaani bhootaani pashya me yogamaishwaram;
Bhootabhrinna cha bhootastho mamaatmaa bhootabhaavanah.
Bhootabhrinna cha bhootastho mamaatmaa bhootabhaavanah.
5. Nor do beings exist in Me (in reality): behold My divine Yoga, supporting all beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the efficient cause of beings.
Yathaakaashasthito nityam vaayuh sarvatrago mahaan;
Tathaa sarvaani bhootaani matsthaaneetyupadhaaraya.
Tathaa sarvaani bhootaani matsthaaneetyupadhaaraya.
6. As the mighty wind, moving everywhere, rests always in the ether, even so, know thou that all beings rest in Me.
Sarvabhootaani kaunteya prakritim yaanti maamikaam;
Kalpakshaye punastaani kalpaadau visrijaamyaham.
Kalpakshaye punastaani kalpaadau visrijaamyaham.
7. All beings, O Arjuna, enter into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at the beginning of (the next) Kalpa!
Prakritim swaamavashtabhya visrijaami punah punah;
Bhootagraamamimam kritsnamavasham prakritervashaat.
Bhootagraamamimam kritsnamavasham prakritervashaat.
8. Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless by the force of Nature.
Na cha maam taani karmaani nibadhnanti dhananjaya;
Udaaseenavadaaseenam asaktam teshu karmasu.
Udaaseenavadaaseenam asaktam teshu karmasu.
9. These actions do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting like one indifferent, unattached to those acts!
Mayaa’dhyakshena prakritih sooyate sacharaacharam;
Hetunaa’nena kaunteya jagadwiparivartate.
Hetunaa’nena kaunteya jagadwiparivartate.
10. Under Me as supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O Arjuna, the world revolves!
Avajaananti maam moodhaah maanusheem tanumaashritam;
Param bhaavamajaananto mama bhootamaheshwaram.
Param bhaavamajaananto mama bhootamaheshwaram.
11. Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of (all) beings.
COMMENTARY: Fools who do not have discrimination despise Me, dwelling in human form. I have taken this body in order to bless My devotees. These fools have no knowledge of My higher Being. I am the great Lord, the Supreme.
Moghaashaa moghakarmaano moghajnaanaa vichetasah;
Raakshaseemaasureem chaiva prakritim mohineem shritaah.
Raakshaseemaasureem chaiva prakritim mohineem shritaah.
12. Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge and senseless, they verily are possessed of the deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings.
Mahaatmaanastu maam paartha daiveem prakritimaashritaah;
Bhajantyananyamanaso jnaatwaa bhootaadimavyayam.
Bhajantyananyamanaso jnaatwaa bhootaadimavyayam.
13. But the great souls, O Arjuna, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single mind (with the mind devoted to nothing else), knowing Me as the imperishable source of beings!
Satatam keertayanto maam yatantashcha dridhavrataah;
Namasyantashcha maam bhaktyaa nityayuktaa upaasate.
Namasyantashcha maam bhaktyaa nityayuktaa upaasate.
14. Always glorifying Me, striving, firm in vows, prostrating before Me, they worship Me with devotion, ever steadfast.
Jnaanayajnena chaapyanye yajanto maamupaasate;
Ekatwena prithaktwena bahudhaa vishwatomukham.
Ekatwena prithaktwena bahudhaa vishwatomukham.
15. Others also, sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice, worship Me, the all-faced, as one, as distinct, and as manifold.
Aham kraturaham yajnah swadhaa’hamahamaushadham;
Mantro’hamahamevaajyam ahamagniraham hutam.
Mantro’hamahamevaajyam ahamagniraham hutam.
16. I am the Kratu; I am the Yajna; I am the offering (food) to the manes; I am the medicinal herb and all the plants; I am the Mantra; I am also the ghee or melted butter; I am the fire; I am the oblation.
Pitaahamasya jagato maataa dhaataa pitaamahah;
Vedyam pavitramonkaara riksaama yajureva cha.
Vedyam pavitramonkaara riksaama yajureva cha.
17. I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser of the fruits of actions, and the grandfather; the (one) thing to be known, the purifier, the sacred monosyllable (Om), and also the Rig-, the Sama- and Yajur Vedas.
Gatirbhartaa prabhuh saakshee nivaasah sharanam suhrit;
Prabhavah pralayah sthaanam nidhaanam beejamavyayam.
Prabhavah pralayah sthaanam nidhaanam beejamavyayam.
18. I am the goal, the support, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the shelter, the friend, the origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the treasure-house and the imperishable seed.
Tapaamyahamaham varsham nigrihnaamyutsrijaami cha;
Amritam chaiva mrityushcha sadasacchaahamarjuna.
Amritam chaiva mrityushcha sadasacchaahamarjuna.
19. (As the sun) I give heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna!
Traividyaa maam somapaah pootapaapaa
Yajnairishtwaa swargatim praarthayante;
Te punyamaasaadya surendraloka-
Mashnanti divyaan divi devabhogaan.
Yajnairishtwaa swargatim praarthayante;
Te punyamaasaadya surendraloka-
Mashnanti divyaan divi devabhogaan.
20. The knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified of all sins, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the gods and enjoy in heaven the divine pleasures of the gods.
Te tam bhuktwaa swargalokam vishaalam
Ksheene punye martyalokam vishanti;
Evam trayeedharmamanuprapannaa
Gataagatam kaamakaamaa labhante.
Ksheene punye martyalokam vishanti;
Evam trayeedharmamanuprapannaa
Gataagatam kaamakaamaa labhante.
21. They, having enjoyed the vast heaven, enter the world of mortals when their merits are exhausted; thus abiding by the injunctions of the three (Vedas) and desiring (objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.
COMMENTARY: When their accumulated merits are exhausted, they come to this world again. They have no independence.
Ananyaashchintayanto maam ye janaah paryupaasate;
Teshaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemam vahaamyaham.
Teshaam nityaabhiyuktaanaam yogakshemam vahaamyaham.
22. To those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, of those ever united, I secure what is not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.
Ye’pyanyadevataa bhaktaa yajante shraddhayaa’nvitaah;
Te’pi maameva kaunteya yajantyavidhipoorvakam.
Te’pi maameva kaunteya yajantyavidhipoorvakam.
23. Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me only, O Arjuna, but by the wrong method!
Aham hi sarvayajnaanaam bhoktaa cha prabhureva cha;
Na tu maamabhijaananti tattwenaatashchyavanti te.
Na tu maamabhijaananti tattwenaatashchyavanti te.
24. (For) I alone am the enjoyer and also the Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in essence (in reality), and hence they fall (return to this mortal world).
Yaanti devavrataa devaan pitreen yaanti pitrivrataah;
Bhutaani yaanti bhutejyaa yaanti madyaajino’pi maam.
Bhutaani yaanti bhutejyaa yaanti madyaajino’pi maam.
25. The worshippers of the gods go to them; to the manes go the ancestor-worshippers; to the Deities who preside over the elements go their worshippers; My devotees come to Me.
Patram pushpam phalam toyam yo me bhaktyaa prayacchati;
Tadaham bhaktyupahritamashnaami prayataatmanah.
Tadaham bhaktyupahritamashnaami prayataatmanah.
26. Whoever offers Me with devotion and a pure mind (heart), a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water—I accept (this offering).
Yatkaroshi yadashnaasi yajjuhoshi dadaasi yat;
Yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkurushva madarpanam.
Yattapasyasi kaunteya tatkurushva madarpanam.
27. Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practiseth as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me!
Shubhaashubhaphalairevam mokshyase karmabandhanaih;
Sannyaasayogayuktaatmaa vimukto maamupaishyasi.
Sannyaasayogayuktaatmaa vimukto maamupaishyasi.
28. Thus shalt thou be freed from the bonds of actions yielding good and evil fruits; with the mind steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come unto Me.
Samo’ham sarvabhooteshu na me dweshyo’sti na priyah;
Ye bhajanti tu maam bhaktyaa mayi te teshu chaapyaham.
Ye bhajanti tu maam bhaktyaa mayi te teshu chaapyaham.
29. The same am I to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear; but those who worship Me with devotion are in Me and I am also in them.
Api chet suduraachaaro bhajate maamananyabhaak;
Saadhureva sa mantavyah samyagvyavasito hi sah.
Saadhureva sa mantavyah samyagvyavasito hi sah.
30. Even if the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, he too should indeed be regarded as righteous, for he has rightly resolved.
Kshipram bhavati dharmaatmaa shashwacchaantim nigacchati;
Kaunteya pratijaaneehi na me bhaktah pranashyati.
Kaunteya pratijaaneehi na me bhaktah pranashyati.
31. Soon he becomes righteous and attains to eternal peace; O Arjuna, know thou for certain that My devotee is never destroyed!
Maam hi paartha vyapaashritya ye’pi syuh paapayonayah;
Striyo vaishyaastathaa shoodraaste’pi yaanti paraam gatim.
Striyo vaishyaastathaa shoodraaste’pi yaanti paraam gatim.
32. For, taking refuge in Me, they also, who, O Arjuna, may be of sinful birth—women, Vaisyas as well as Sudras—attain the Supreme Goal!
Kim punarbraahmanaah punyaa bhaktaa raajarshayastathaa;
Anityamasukham lokam imam praapya bhajaswa maam.
Anityamasukham lokam imam praapya bhajaswa maam.
33. How much more easily then the holy Brahmins and devoted royal saints (attain the goal); having obtained this impermanent and unhappy world, do thou worship Me.
Manmanaa bhava madbhakto madyaajee maam namaskuru;
Maamevaishyasi yuktwaivamaatmaanam matparaayanah.
Maamevaishyasi yuktwaivamaatmaanam matparaayanah.
34. Fix thy mind on Me; be devoted to Me; sacrifice unto Me; bow down to Me; having thus united thy whole self with Me, taking Me as the Supreme Goal, thou shalt verily come unto Me.
COMMENTARY: The whole being of a man should be surrendered to the Lord without reservation. Then there will be
a marvellous transformation. He will have the vision of God everywhere. All sorrows and pains will vanish. His mind will be one with Him. He will for ever have his life and being in the Lord alone.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Raajavidyaa-raajaguhyayogo Naama Navamo’dhyaayah
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Raajavidyaa-raajaguhyayogo Naama Navamo’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 ninth discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of the Kingly Science & the Kingly Secret”
Swami Sivananda.
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https://youtu.be/_XGiKZVlxDw
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita
by Swami Krishnananda
Discourse 27: The Ninth Chapter – The Kingly Knowledge and the Greatness of God
The Ninth Chapter is something like the Seventh Chapter. Whatever we have been told in the Seventh Chapter by way of a universal religion is explained in a different way, in a more deviated style, with some detailed descriptions. Practically, the Ninth Chapter is a continuation of the very same theme that we had in the Seventh Chapter, with the Eighth Chapter in between with its message of it being necessary for us to know what will happen to us after death even if we are highly religious people. The Ninth Chapter is a highly religious scripture by itself.
Idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ (9.1): “This is the secret of secrets that I am going to tell you.” Pravakṣyāmy anasūyave: “Because you are highly devoted to Me and you are not prejudiced against anything, I shall tell you this secret of secrets.” Jñānaṁ vijñānasahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase’śubhāt. The reference to jnana and vijnana was also made in the Seventh Chapter. Now once again it is repeated: “I shall tell you everything regarding jnana and vijnana—that is, knowledge as well as spiritual experience. Or it can also mean the knowledge of everything connected with this world and the knowledge of the eternal realities. I shall describe to you what these are.”
This is called rajavidya, the kingly science and the kingly secret. Rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ (9.2): “It is as secret as the king’s abode, and as glorious as the king himself. Such is this vidya, this knowledge into which I am going to initiate you. Rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ pavitram idam uttamam: Most sacred is this knowledge; best of all learning is this. Pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ: You will know the result of it by direct experience. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it. You will know what the meaning of all this is by direct experience, and you will rejoice to have that experience. Susukhaṁ: Immense rejoicing—from blessedness you move to blessedness by knowing this truth. Kartum avyayam: It is easy to practise, and the effect it produces is imperishable.”
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya paraṁtapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyusaṁsāravartmani (9.3): “Those who do not have faith in this kind of teaching, and are attached to the objects of sense, come back to this world of mortality and this suffering of samsara because they do not know that I pervade all things. They are mostly motivated by the sense organs; they believe what they see, and their reason is not sufficiently operative. They are people without faith—aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā. They do not know what the supreme universal dharma is. They do not reach Me and, therefore, they come back to this great sorrow-ridden world of materiality and sensuality.”
Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā (9.4): “Invisibly, un-understandably, as it were, I am pervading all things. There is no place, no nook or cranny or corner, where I am not. I bring about an organic relation among all the things in the world, though they are millions of light years away from the point of view of sense perception.” Something may be millions and millions of light years away, yet it is connected with us just here. The moment we sigh here on this earth, it is known in the abode of Brahma that we sighed. Such is the organic relationship of all things, because there is a life principle invisibly operating in all things. “I am present in all things. Everything is pervaded by Me. There is no location where I am not. You cannot hide anything from Me.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā, matsthāni sarvabhūtāni: “All things are located in Me.” This is also a repetition of something that is said in the Seventh Chapter. Matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ: “I am not in them.”
All particulars are in the Universal; the Universal is not in the particulars. The waves are in the ocean; the ocean is not in the waves. We can draw a similar analogy when the Lord says, “I am in everything, but things are not in Me.” Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, or sat-chit-ananda svarupa, is present in every name and form, but name and form are not in sat-chit-ananda. God is in the world, but the world is not in God. This is the reason why the Lord says, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in them. I remain transcendent though, at the same time, I am immanent in all things.”
Na ca matsthāni bhūtāni (9.5): “I said that everything is in Me, but now I am also saying that, in another way, they are not in Me.” This is because the world of dream cannot be sticking to our waking consciousness. “Nothing in the world can be in Me, inasmuch as the world does not exist for Me. Though I said earlier that inasmuch as I am immanent in all things and I pervade all things, all things may be said to be in Me, now I say that I am without externality, without space, without time. Therefore, things cannot be there; and therefore, the question of things residing in Me also does not arise.” Na ca matsthāni—immediately the previous statement is contradicted. “Things are also not in Me, for another reason altogether.”
Paśya me yogam aiśvaram: “Look at My glory; see My majesty.” “Look at Me,” the Almighty says. “How wonderful is this majesty of My abode where I am everywhere. Everything is in Me, and yet nothing is in Me.”
Advanced thought on true religion was briefly delineated in the Seventh Chapter. Many of the ideas occurring in the Ninth Chapter are, to some extent, just expository of the thoughts expressed in the Seventh Chapter.
At the time of the dissolution of the universe, everyone is withdrawn into the cosmic bosom; and all individuals, all jivas, lie there in that state, like unconscious sleepers. When Brahma is dissolved at the end of time, after the period of one hundred years of his regime, the whole universe is dissolved. Not even the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—remain. Everything goes, and all created beings are withdrawn into the causal sheath of the cosmos. In that condition of cosmic sleep, one will not know what ‘is’ and what ‘is not’.
The Manusmirti says: asid asitidam tamobhutam aprajnatam alakshanam apratargyam avijneyam prasuptamiva sarvatah. In the beginning, it looked as if the whole universe was sleeping. Tamobhutam: Darkness enveloped the whole cosmos. Aprajnatam: Unknown to everybody. Alakshanam: Indescribable—all were sleeping.
When another hundred years of sleep pass, there is a rising of Brahma once again; and one does not know whether it is the same Brahma who rises, or another. Evidently, it is not the same. It is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana that the next Brahma will be Hanuman: svayam nava vyakaranarthavetta brahma bhavatyapi te prasadat. Of all the created beings, only Hanuman has been found fit to be Brahma in the next cycle. We are also here, reading so much, but we have not been selected. The selection committee has been very strict, and it finally found Hanuman to be the best person: brahma bhavatyapi te prasadat. There are so many great men, but only Hanuman has been selected. He must be some great genius.
Even according to certain doctrines of modern science, there is the enunciation of this cyclic rotation of the universe, in which the individual patterns remain the same while the spirits indwelling these patterns differ. It is a very strange doctrine, which is parallel in pattern to the Indian doctrines of cycle. Yatha purvam akalpayat: In the same manner as creation took place earlier, once again creation will take place. The same forms will be there, the same mould, the same shape, the same persons, the same avataras—the same Rama and the same Krishna—will recur again and again for millions and millions of times, but the inner soul indwelling these forms will be different. This is the doctrine of some modern thinkers like Alfred North Whitehead, and it is corroborated by Indian thinkers who believe in the cycles of creation.
When we enter into this cosmic bosom, it does not mean that we will be liberated. We will be only in a state of unconsciousness. The dissolution of the universe does not mean dissolution of our karmas. The karmas lie there, as creditors may sleep with us and get up in the morning with us in order to harass us for the dues that we owe them. All the good deeds and bad deeds—in a highly subtle, rarefied form—will stick to us, as they stick to us even in our ordinary deep sleep. Our karmas are not destroyed when we become completely unconscious in the state of deep sleep because when we wake up in the morning, we do not become different persons merely because we were unconscious. We remain the same person when we get up in the morning because what we deserve sticks to us like a fine potency—adrishya—invisible to the eyes. Our deeds cling to us even in the state of deep sleep, and they cling to us even when the whole universe is dissolved. So there is no great point in thinking that we will be absolved of all our commitments when the universe is dissolved and we merge into the bosom of the cosmic prakriti. It is another long, long sleep in comparison with the shorter sleep of ours.
The Lord says: sarvabhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām, kalpakṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmyaham (9.7). At the end of the kalpa (which is the cycle of time I described previously) the whole universe gets withdrawn into prakriti. The Puranas refer to it as the baby Narayana. The Puranas have a fantastic description of all these conditions, where the little baby Lord Krishna, Narayana—we may call him by whatever name—is lying on this cosmic ocean on a little banyan leaf, sucking his own toe as children sometimes do. Vatasya patrasya pute sayanam balam mukundam manasa smarami: That crawling child sleeps on that little leaf. That child is physically very small, but inside that little baby the potentials of the whole cosmos are dancing. He is called anantakoti brahmanda nayaka: the ruler of the endless universes. Thus, this drama of creation goes on endlessly, endlessly, endlessly—without beginning, without end.
Prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ, bhūtagrāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt(9.8): Because of our involvement in the three gunas of prakriti, we neither have the choice whether to enter that ocean or not, nor do we have we the option to come back from that. Avaśaṁ: We are helplessly driven into it, and are also helplessly brought back—as helplessly we go to sleep, and helplessly we wake up. We cannot stop our sleeping, nor can we stop our waking. A miniature cosmic drama is taking place in our own daily life. The universe expands into an endless dimension which includes all jivas. But the Lord says, “I am not doing anything, really speaking.”
Na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanaṁjaya, udāsīnavad āsīnam asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu (9.9). God is a transcendent Being, and therefore, even if He is immanent and actually indwelling in these potential individuals, He is not contaminated. He cannot be said to be doing anything at all. The process of creation and destruction do not seem to affect the original will of the Supreme Being because of its being transcendent and immanent simultaneously. It is involved in every bit of creation, and yet it is not involved in anything. Matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ: “I am in all things, and yet I am not in anything. All beings are in Me, and yet nobody is in Me.” Na ca matsthāni bhūtāni: “The whole creation is due to Me, and yet it is not due to Me.” The gunas of prakriti cannot in any way touch the supreme transcendence of the Absolute.
Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram (9.10): “The whole cosmic dance is due to My presence, of course.” The progenating capacity of prakriti through the three gunas is due to the light of the Cosmic Being that is activating it, as our lives are activated by the light of the sun that rises in the morning. The whole world gets transformed constantly, and never rests in one condition—jagad viparivartate—on account of the restlessness that is inherent in the gunas of prakriti; and their activity is enhanced into a continuous movement by the action of the consciousness of the Supreme Purusha—Bhagavan, the Absolute. But, “People who are limited to their own bodies, and cannot think beyond their skin, cannot know that in My transcendent capacity I incarnate Myself as the adhyatma, or the essential soul of all beings. People who do not have proper understanding, who are involved in the clutches of the gunas of prakriti, cannot appreciate this mystery of Mine that I am transcendentally disconnected from everything that is taking place in the realm of prakriti, though everything is taking place due to Me only.”
Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (9.11): “People imagine that I have got a form.” We say that Lord Krishna was in Brindavan, that he was in Dvaraka, that he was in Kurukshetra, and so on; but his essential nature was nothing of the kind. That which is not human was masquerading in that apparently human form. Otherwise, that apparently human form could not have assumed a non-human Cosmic Form—which it did on various occasions. Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s Visvarupa was shown four times during his life, including once in the Bhagavadgita, and each time the presentation was qualitatively different. The Visvarupa appeared in a particular manner the first time, it appeared differently the second time, was another thing altogether the third time, and was something altogether different the fourth time. It was a Universal manifestation, no doubt, but it looked different according to the conditions or the exigencies of the time. In the context of the Bhagavadgita, it appeared as the Time Spirit that was up and doing for the destruction of all beings, as will be described in the Eleventh Chapter. “People think that I am a human being—walking with two feet, living in a palace with a large family—but nothing of the kind is My nature. My body, My personality, is only a focusing point of a larger existence which is My real nature, which pervades all space and transcends space and time.”
Moghāśā moghakarmāṇo moghajñānā vicetasaḥ, rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ (9.12): People who are infested with the rakshasi prakriti of intense rajas and tamas, who believe in the reality of the external world of matter, who also believe, simultaneously, in the internal world of the physical body—these people who are of a rakshasa nature are deluded by their involvement in these gunas of prakriti. Daivi prakriti is a divine nature, to which reference was made in the Seventh Chapter. It is the higher prakriti, in contrast with the lower prakriti of instincts, sensations, mentations, intellections, etc.
Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajantyananyamanaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam(9.13): “Knowing Me as the Origin of all things, knowing Me as Supreme beyond all things, knowing Me as All-in-all, knowing that in Me everything can be found, knowing that I am the source of immortality, these great souls, mahatmas, resort to Me, being endowed with the highest quality of sattva, which is daivi prakriti. They adore Me in their spirit, they worship Me in their spirit, they praise Me in their spirit, they concentrate on Me through their spirit, and wish that their spirit gets merged in My spirit.” Ananyamanasaḥ: “Those whose mind cannot be distracted in any direction other than My Universal existence, such people I consider as mahatmas, the great souls that inhabit this cosmos.” Such great souls are very few in number, as the Yoga Vasishtha tells us. It is said that they are very few in number because the earth cannot bear the weight of such great people. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajantyananyamanaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam: Great souls are very few in number; wicked people are multifarious. In one of his commentaries, Sankaracharya says that gods are lesser in number than demons.
Mahatmas are very few, and two mahatmas cannot be in one place. It is said that Bernard Shaw was invited to come to India during Mahatma Gandhi’s lifetime. He said, it seems, “I cannot go to India, inasmuch as two mahatmas cannot be in one country. Because Mahatma Gandhi is already there, and I am also a mahatma, and two mahatmas cannot be in the same place, I am not going. One country can have only one mahatma, as only one lion can rule in a jungle.”
Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍhavratāḥ, namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nityayuktā upāsate(9.14): “They dance and sing, and are in a state of ecstasy due to communion with My great, glorious spirit. They always sing about My greatness and glory, and speak of Me wherever they go. In the streets, in the marketplace, in the house, in satsangas, in family circles—everywhere they talk of Me.” An example is Saint Tukaram, who had no other thought wherever he went. Whether it is in a shop, in a marketplace, in a house or in a satsanga hall, it is one continuous, ecstatic thought which compels them to glorify God wherever they go. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍhavratāḥ: “And perpetually striving to come nearer and nearer to Me, so that they become one with Me.”
Namasyantaś ca: Always prostrating themselves in temples, in holy tirthas, near holy trees and to holy saints and sages. Wherever there is a pre-eminence of the manifestation of divinity in this world, to that place and to that thing they resort and offer themselves through deep prostration. These great souls are the humblest people in the world. They prostrate themselves before anybody, even before a child. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was one great example. He would touch the feet of anyone, even a baby; it did not matter. Humility is the prerogative of great mahatmas. The greater they are, the smaller they look; and they do not seem to exist at all in their personality because of their not being in one place as egos. They pervade all places as veritable representations of God’s glory in this world. They are called gods moving in the world, great souls veritably representing God.
“They worship Me not merely by dancing and singing and prostration, but also by an inward communion of their souls.” Jñānayajñena cāpyanye yajanto mām upāsate (9.15): “In this wisdom of the spirit which is jnana yajna, they behold Me in all varieties of forms.” Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: “As I am everywhere, they can behold Me as one Being existing everywhere; or they can behold Me as two realities indwelling as a transcendent element and also as an immanent element; or they may look upon Me as a multifaceted Reality indwelling many souls.” God can be visualised as a manifold manifestation, as the souls of all created beings; or He can be considered as a dual manifestation, transcendent and immanent; or He can be beheld as one only. It is said that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once came to Benares to have darshan of the great saint and sage Trailanga Swami, a great siddha. The greatness of that siddha was such that it drew even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It appears that Sri Ramakrishna put a question to Trailanga Swami: “Maharaj, how many gods are there?” [Swamiji raises three fingers, then two fingers, then one finger.] That was the answer. “Yes I understand you.” The great disciple understood the great Master’s significant gesture: God is threefold, God is twofold, God is single. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: In any form we can worship Him.
This is the great charity of feeling and vision that we develop when we become the greatest of souls. The greatest of souls are highly charitable in their feelings, in their gestures, in their speech, in their behaviour, in their actions. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena: Pṛthakt means double, two; bahudhā means manifold. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham. According to Sankaracharya, there is one reality; according to Ramanuja, there are two realities; according to Madhva, there are many realities. Therefore, all the three Acharyas are satisfied with this half verse that Bhagavan Sri Krishna speaks here, which satisfies all viewpoints, as it were.
Rama asked Hanuman, “Who are you? Please tell me. Describe yourself.”
Hanuman’s replied, Dehabuddhyat daso’ham: “If you think that I am a body, that I am totally different from you, I am your servant.” Jivabuddhyat tvadamshatah: “If you think that I am a soul, I am a part of you.” Atmabuddhyat tvamevaham: “If you think that I am the spirit, I am you only.”
Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: “As totally different from you, I am your servant; as part of you, I am your soul; and as yourself, I am the Atman. I am everything.”
Now the spirit of the teaching rises into a great tempo of expression, preparing the field for the final Universal manifestation in the form of the Visvarupa in the Eleventh Chapter. “I am all the sacrifices that the Vedic seers perform.” Aahaṁ kratur (9.16): “All the yajnas, worships, sacrifices that people perform through the Smritis, or code of ethics such as Manu, Yajnavalkya, Parasara, etc., that is also Me.”
Ahaṁ kratur ahaṁ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadham. Once in a month or once in a year there is the sraddha ceremony, in which rice balls are offered to the ancestors. “The spirit indwelling in that performance also is Myself. I am behind the medicine that you take when you are ill. I am the curing force, the curative element in all the medicines.” Mantro’ham: “The mantra that you chant during your japa, I am inside it.” Aham evājyam: “The ghee, or the clarified butter that you pour during your sacrifice, I am inside that.” Aham agniḥ: “The fire that is blazing forth in the yajna, that is also Myself. The bhasma that comes out after the offering is made, that is also Myself.”
“I am the grandfather of all creation. I am the father of everything.” Pitāham asya jagata (9.17): “I am the father, the Paternal Supreme. This world is my progeny, as it were. I am the father, the Supreme Father in Heaven, of this cosmos.” Mātā dhātā pitāmaha: “At the same time, I am also the mother.” “I am the sustainer, the father and the mother of all beings; and I am the grandfather of everybody, being the father even of Brahma himself. I am the one Supreme Reality that is to be finally known, after knowing which, there is no need of knowing anything else.” Vedyaṁ pavitram oṁkāra: “I am the spirit behind the omkara, pranava. The cosmic vibration is Myself only.” Rk sāma yajur eva ca: “The three Vedas extol Me. The spirit behind the mantras of the three Vedas—Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda—is Myself only.” The one God is praised in all the mantras of the three Vedas—Rig, Yajur, Sama.
Gatir bhartā (9.18): “I am the final resort of all people. When everything goes wrong, finally you have to come to Me only. I am the gati, the final abode, the final resort, the sarana, the home and the resting place of everybody. I am the supporter, the sustainer and the nourisher of all beings. I am the overlord of all beings; all gods are below Me, and none is equal to Me. I am the witness, and yet not involved in all this drama of creation, notwithstanding the fact that nothing can move without Me. I am the abode supreme—nivāsaḥ—and the friend of all beings.” Śaraṇaṁ suhṛt: “As I am the real friend of all created beings, the real friend of every one of you, you have to come to Me one day or the other as a final resort.” Prabhavaḥ: “Everything proceeds from Me.” Pralayaḥ: “Everything is dissolved into Me.” Sthānaṁ: “It rests in Me, finally.” Nidhānaṁ: “The very root of all things.” Bījam: “The essential seed of creation.” Avyayam: “Imperishable I am.”
Tapāmyaham ahaṁ varṣaṁ nigṛṇhāmyutsṛjāmi ca (9.19): “I create heat through the sun. I create rain by the force of my will. I also withdraw the rain when it is my will. I release and I withdraw the forces of nature.” This sometimes looks kind, and sometimes looks very unkind. When God releases His energy through the forces of nature, nature seems to be scintillating, smiling and raining, and everything is green and flourishing; but when He withdraws His energy, it becomes dried up, as in a drought.
“I am the final immortal seat of all souls; I am also the death of all beings. Immortality and death, both are Me. It is I Who transforms all mortal elements into the deathless eternality of My own transcendent Being. It is also I Who destroys everything by the process of the evolutionary advance of nature and the cycle of time.” The many cycles are referred to in the earlier verses. Sad asaccāham arjuna: “I am existence and non-existence.” He has left nothing unsaid.
“I am existence and non-existence, being and non-being, this and that, here and there, now and then. There is nothing which I am not. But very few people realise this glory of Mine.” They go to the sacrificial yajnasalas and temples of worship and externally offer adorations, and perform sacrifices for gaining joy in the heaven of Indra by employing the mantras of the Veda for yajnas like Rajasuya, Asvamedha, Somayaga, etc., as described in the Brahmana portions of the Vedas. They do this because they want to rejoice in heaven, and they expect this to be attained through the sacrifices that they make by means of the mantras of the Vedas. They do go to heaven, no doubt; but the merits produced by the performance of the greatest of sacrifices have a beginning and an end. As these merits originated in the sacrifice, they will also end, by the exhaustion thereof through experience. After we enjoy the glories of Indra’s heaven, we will fall headlong down to the earth. Therefore, there is no point in our asking for Svarga, or heavenly joys, through the performance of Vedic sacrifices or through externally motivated rituals of any kind, even if they be in the form of worship in a temple. Such people who go to Svargaloka, or heaven, enter the abode of Indra and enjoy the divine blessedness of that place. Then afterwards—kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṁ viśanti—when the punyas, or merits, of these people slowly diminish and finally get extinguished, they come to this world once again—evaṁ trayīdharmam.
Traividyā māṁ somapāḥ pūtapāpā yajñair iṣṭvā svargatiṁ prārthayante, te puṇyam āsādya surendralokam aśnanti divyān divi devabhogān; te taṁ bhuktvā svargalokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṁ viśanti, evaṁ trayīdharmam anuprapannā gatāgataṁ kāmakāmā labhante (9.20-21): Those who run after the pleasures of sense, those who want to rejoice through the manifestations of their individual personalities—which persist even in heaven because of the fact of egoism persisting there even in a subtle form—their joys come to an end and they come back, like fallen angels bereft of all glory, suffering once again the turmoil of earthly existence.
Now comes a pendant verse. A pendant is a very significant ornamentation in a garland. Even in a flower garland, there is one big flower in the centre called the pendant, which glorifies and adds beauty to the entire garland, whether it is a gold ornament or a flower garland. Some such thing is this verse that we are hearing now. Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (9.22): “I shall take care of everybody who is undividedly united with Me. I shall provide whatever they do not have, and after providing them with whatever they do not have, I shall also take care to see that it is not taken away from them.” This verse is highly significant, the meaning of which we shall consider a little later.
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The Ninth Chapter is something like the Seventh Chapter. Whatever we have been told in the Seventh Chapter by way of a universal religion is explained in a different way, in a more deviated style, with some detailed descriptions. Practically, the Ninth Chapter is a continuation of the very same theme that we had in the Seventh Chapter, with the Eighth Chapter in between with its message of it being necessary for us to know what will happen to us after death even if we are highly religious people. The Ninth Chapter is a highly religious scripture by itself.
Idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ (9.1): “This is the secret of secrets that I am going to tell you.” Pravakṣyāmy anasūyave: “Because you are highly devoted to Me and you are not prejudiced against anything, I shall tell you this secret of secrets.” Jñānaṁ vijñānasahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase’śubhāt. The reference to jnana and vijnana was also made in the Seventh Chapter. Now once again it is repeated: “I shall tell you everything regarding jnana and vijnana—that is, knowledge as well as spiritual experience. Or it can also mean the knowledge of everything connected with this world and the knowledge of the eternal realities. I shall describe to you what these are.”
This is called rajavidya, the kingly science and the kingly secret. Rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ (9.2): “It is as secret as the king’s abode, and as glorious as the king himself. Such is this vidya, this knowledge into which I am going to initiate you. Rājavidyā rājaguhyaṁ pavitram idam uttamam: Most sacred is this knowledge; best of all learning is this. Pratyakṣāvagamaṁ dharmyaṁ: You will know the result of it by direct experience. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of it. You will know what the meaning of all this is by direct experience, and you will rejoice to have that experience. Susukhaṁ: Immense rejoicing—from blessedness you move to blessedness by knowing this truth. Kartum avyayam: It is easy to practise, and the effect it produces is imperishable.”
Aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā dharmasyāsya paraṁtapa, aprāpya māṁ nivartante mṛtyusaṁsāravartmani (9.3): “Those who do not have faith in this kind of teaching, and are attached to the objects of sense, come back to this world of mortality and this suffering of samsara because they do not know that I pervade all things. They are mostly motivated by the sense organs; they believe what they see, and their reason is not sufficiently operative. They are people without faith—aśraddadhānāḥ puruṣā. They do not know what the supreme universal dharma is. They do not reach Me and, therefore, they come back to this great sorrow-ridden world of materiality and sensuality.”
Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā (9.4): “Invisibly, un-understandably, as it were, I am pervading all things. There is no place, no nook or cranny or corner, where I am not. I bring about an organic relation among all the things in the world, though they are millions of light years away from the point of view of sense perception.” Something may be millions and millions of light years away, yet it is connected with us just here. The moment we sigh here on this earth, it is known in the abode of Brahma that we sighed. Such is the organic relationship of all things, because there is a life principle invisibly operating in all things. “I am present in all things. Everything is pervaded by Me. There is no location where I am not. You cannot hide anything from Me.” Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā, matsthāni sarvabhūtāni: “All things are located in Me.” This is also a repetition of something that is said in the Seventh Chapter. Matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ: “I am not in them.”
All particulars are in the Universal; the Universal is not in the particulars. The waves are in the ocean; the ocean is not in the waves. We can draw a similar analogy when the Lord says, “I am in everything, but things are not in Me.” Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, or sat-chit-ananda svarupa, is present in every name and form, but name and form are not in sat-chit-ananda. God is in the world, but the world is not in God. This is the reason why the Lord says, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in them. I remain transcendent though, at the same time, I am immanent in all things.”
Na ca matsthāni bhūtāni (9.5): “I said that everything is in Me, but now I am also saying that, in another way, they are not in Me.” This is because the world of dream cannot be sticking to our waking consciousness. “Nothing in the world can be in Me, inasmuch as the world does not exist for Me. Though I said earlier that inasmuch as I am immanent in all things and I pervade all things, all things may be said to be in Me, now I say that I am without externality, without space, without time. Therefore, things cannot be there; and therefore, the question of things residing in Me also does not arise.” Na ca matsthāni—immediately the previous statement is contradicted. “Things are also not in Me, for another reason altogether.”
Paśya me yogam aiśvaram: “Look at My glory; see My majesty.” “Look at Me,” the Almighty says. “How wonderful is this majesty of My abode where I am everywhere. Everything is in Me, and yet nothing is in Me.”
Advanced thought on true religion was briefly delineated in the Seventh Chapter. Many of the ideas occurring in the Ninth Chapter are, to some extent, just expository of the thoughts expressed in the Seventh Chapter.
At the time of the dissolution of the universe, everyone is withdrawn into the cosmic bosom; and all individuals, all jivas, lie there in that state, like unconscious sleepers. When Brahma is dissolved at the end of time, after the period of one hundred years of his regime, the whole universe is dissolved. Not even the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—remain. Everything goes, and all created beings are withdrawn into the causal sheath of the cosmos. In that condition of cosmic sleep, one will not know what ‘is’ and what ‘is not’.
The Manusmirti says: asid asitidam tamobhutam aprajnatam alakshanam apratargyam avijneyam prasuptamiva sarvatah. In the beginning, it looked as if the whole universe was sleeping. Tamobhutam: Darkness enveloped the whole cosmos. Aprajnatam: Unknown to everybody. Alakshanam: Indescribable—all were sleeping.
When another hundred years of sleep pass, there is a rising of Brahma once again; and one does not know whether it is the same Brahma who rises, or another. Evidently, it is not the same. It is mentioned in the Valmiki Ramayana that the next Brahma will be Hanuman: svayam nava vyakaranarthavetta brahma bhavatyapi te prasadat. Of all the created beings, only Hanuman has been found fit to be Brahma in the next cycle. We are also here, reading so much, but we have not been selected. The selection committee has been very strict, and it finally found Hanuman to be the best person: brahma bhavatyapi te prasadat. There are so many great men, but only Hanuman has been selected. He must be some great genius.
Even according to certain doctrines of modern science, there is the enunciation of this cyclic rotation of the universe, in which the individual patterns remain the same while the spirits indwelling these patterns differ. It is a very strange doctrine, which is parallel in pattern to the Indian doctrines of cycle. Yatha purvam akalpayat: In the same manner as creation took place earlier, once again creation will take place. The same forms will be there, the same mould, the same shape, the same persons, the same avataras—the same Rama and the same Krishna—will recur again and again for millions and millions of times, but the inner soul indwelling these forms will be different. This is the doctrine of some modern thinkers like Alfred North Whitehead, and it is corroborated by Indian thinkers who believe in the cycles of creation.
When we enter into this cosmic bosom, it does not mean that we will be liberated. We will be only in a state of unconsciousness. The dissolution of the universe does not mean dissolution of our karmas. The karmas lie there, as creditors may sleep with us and get up in the morning with us in order to harass us for the dues that we owe them. All the good deeds and bad deeds—in a highly subtle, rarefied form—will stick to us, as they stick to us even in our ordinary deep sleep. Our karmas are not destroyed when we become completely unconscious in the state of deep sleep because when we wake up in the morning, we do not become different persons merely because we were unconscious. We remain the same person when we get up in the morning because what we deserve sticks to us like a fine potency—adrishya—invisible to the eyes. Our deeds cling to us even in the state of deep sleep, and they cling to us even when the whole universe is dissolved. So there is no great point in thinking that we will be absolved of all our commitments when the universe is dissolved and we merge into the bosom of the cosmic prakriti. It is another long, long sleep in comparison with the shorter sleep of ours.
The Lord says: sarvabhūtāni kaunteya prakṛtiṁ yānti māmikām, kalpakṣaye punas tāni kalpādau visṛjāmyaham (9.7). At the end of the kalpa (which is the cycle of time I described previously) the whole universe gets withdrawn into prakriti. The Puranas refer to it as the baby Narayana. The Puranas have a fantastic description of all these conditions, where the little baby Lord Krishna, Narayana—we may call him by whatever name—is lying on this cosmic ocean on a little banyan leaf, sucking his own toe as children sometimes do. Vatasya patrasya pute sayanam balam mukundam manasa smarami: That crawling child sleeps on that little leaf. That child is physically very small, but inside that little baby the potentials of the whole cosmos are dancing. He is called anantakoti brahmanda nayaka: the ruler of the endless universes. Thus, this drama of creation goes on endlessly, endlessly, endlessly—without beginning, without end.
Prakṛtiṁ svām avaṣṭabhya visṛjāmi punaḥ punaḥ, bhūtagrāmam imaṁ kṛtsnam avaśaṁ prakṛter vaśāt(9.8): Because of our involvement in the three gunas of prakriti, we neither have the choice whether to enter that ocean or not, nor do we have we the option to come back from that. Avaśaṁ: We are helplessly driven into it, and are also helplessly brought back—as helplessly we go to sleep, and helplessly we wake up. We cannot stop our sleeping, nor can we stop our waking. A miniature cosmic drama is taking place in our own daily life. The universe expands into an endless dimension which includes all jivas. But the Lord says, “I am not doing anything, really speaking.”
Na ca māṁ tāni karmāṇi nibadhnanti dhanaṁjaya, udāsīnavad āsīnam asaktaṁ teṣu karmasu (9.9). God is a transcendent Being, and therefore, even if He is immanent and actually indwelling in these potential individuals, He is not contaminated. He cannot be said to be doing anything at all. The process of creation and destruction do not seem to affect the original will of the Supreme Being because of its being transcendent and immanent simultaneously. It is involved in every bit of creation, and yet it is not involved in anything. Matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ: “I am in all things, and yet I am not in anything. All beings are in Me, and yet nobody is in Me.” Na ca matsthāni bhūtāni: “The whole creation is due to Me, and yet it is not due to Me.” The gunas of prakriti cannot in any way touch the supreme transcendence of the Absolute.
Mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛtiḥ sūyate sacarācaram (9.10): “The whole cosmic dance is due to My presence, of course.” The progenating capacity of prakriti through the three gunas is due to the light of the Cosmic Being that is activating it, as our lives are activated by the light of the sun that rises in the morning. The whole world gets transformed constantly, and never rests in one condition—jagad viparivartate—on account of the restlessness that is inherent in the gunas of prakriti; and their activity is enhanced into a continuous movement by the action of the consciousness of the Supreme Purusha—Bhagavan, the Absolute. But, “People who are limited to their own bodies, and cannot think beyond their skin, cannot know that in My transcendent capacity I incarnate Myself as the adhyatma, or the essential soul of all beings. People who do not have proper understanding, who are involved in the clutches of the gunas of prakriti, cannot appreciate this mystery of Mine that I am transcendentally disconnected from everything that is taking place in the realm of prakriti, though everything is taking place due to Me only.”
Avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam (9.11): “People imagine that I have got a form.” We say that Lord Krishna was in Brindavan, that he was in Dvaraka, that he was in Kurukshetra, and so on; but his essential nature was nothing of the kind. That which is not human was masquerading in that apparently human form. Otherwise, that apparently human form could not have assumed a non-human Cosmic Form—which it did on various occasions. Bhagavan Sri Krishna’s Visvarupa was shown four times during his life, including once in the Bhagavadgita, and each time the presentation was qualitatively different. The Visvarupa appeared in a particular manner the first time, it appeared differently the second time, was another thing altogether the third time, and was something altogether different the fourth time. It was a Universal manifestation, no doubt, but it looked different according to the conditions or the exigencies of the time. In the context of the Bhagavadgita, it appeared as the Time Spirit that was up and doing for the destruction of all beings, as will be described in the Eleventh Chapter. “People think that I am a human being—walking with two feet, living in a palace with a large family—but nothing of the kind is My nature. My body, My personality, is only a focusing point of a larger existence which is My real nature, which pervades all space and transcends space and time.”
Moghāśā moghakarmāṇo moghajñānā vicetasaḥ, rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ (9.12): People who are infested with the rakshasi prakriti of intense rajas and tamas, who believe in the reality of the external world of matter, who also believe, simultaneously, in the internal world of the physical body—these people who are of a rakshasa nature are deluded by their involvement in these gunas of prakriti. Daivi prakriti is a divine nature, to which reference was made in the Seventh Chapter. It is the higher prakriti, in contrast with the lower prakriti of instincts, sensations, mentations, intellections, etc.
Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajantyananyamanaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam(9.13): “Knowing Me as the Origin of all things, knowing Me as Supreme beyond all things, knowing Me as All-in-all, knowing that in Me everything can be found, knowing that I am the source of immortality, these great souls, mahatmas, resort to Me, being endowed with the highest quality of sattva, which is daivi prakriti. They adore Me in their spirit, they worship Me in their spirit, they praise Me in their spirit, they concentrate on Me through their spirit, and wish that their spirit gets merged in My spirit.” Ananyamanasaḥ: “Those whose mind cannot be distracted in any direction other than My Universal existence, such people I consider as mahatmas, the great souls that inhabit this cosmos.” Such great souls are very few in number, as the Yoga Vasishtha tells us. It is said that they are very few in number because the earth cannot bear the weight of such great people. Mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ, bhajantyananyamanaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam: Great souls are very few in number; wicked people are multifarious. In one of his commentaries, Sankaracharya says that gods are lesser in number than demons.
Mahatmas are very few, and two mahatmas cannot be in one place. It is said that Bernard Shaw was invited to come to India during Mahatma Gandhi’s lifetime. He said, it seems, “I cannot go to India, inasmuch as two mahatmas cannot be in one country. Because Mahatma Gandhi is already there, and I am also a mahatma, and two mahatmas cannot be in the same place, I am not going. One country can have only one mahatma, as only one lion can rule in a jungle.”
Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍhavratāḥ, namasyantaś ca māṁ bhaktyā nityayuktā upāsate(9.14): “They dance and sing, and are in a state of ecstasy due to communion with My great, glorious spirit. They always sing about My greatness and glory, and speak of Me wherever they go. In the streets, in the marketplace, in the house, in satsangas, in family circles—everywhere they talk of Me.” An example is Saint Tukaram, who had no other thought wherever he went. Whether it is in a shop, in a marketplace, in a house or in a satsanga hall, it is one continuous, ecstatic thought which compels them to glorify God wherever they go. Satataṁ kīrtayanto māṁ yatantaś ca dṛḍhavratāḥ: “And perpetually striving to come nearer and nearer to Me, so that they become one with Me.”
Namasyantaś ca: Always prostrating themselves in temples, in holy tirthas, near holy trees and to holy saints and sages. Wherever there is a pre-eminence of the manifestation of divinity in this world, to that place and to that thing they resort and offer themselves through deep prostration. These great souls are the humblest people in the world. They prostrate themselves before anybody, even before a child. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj was one great example. He would touch the feet of anyone, even a baby; it did not matter. Humility is the prerogative of great mahatmas. The greater they are, the smaller they look; and they do not seem to exist at all in their personality because of their not being in one place as egos. They pervade all places as veritable representations of God’s glory in this world. They are called gods moving in the world, great souls veritably representing God.
“They worship Me not merely by dancing and singing and prostration, but also by an inward communion of their souls.” Jñānayajñena cāpyanye yajanto mām upāsate (9.15): “In this wisdom of the spirit which is jnana yajna, they behold Me in all varieties of forms.” Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: “As I am everywhere, they can behold Me as one Being existing everywhere; or they can behold Me as two realities indwelling as a transcendent element and also as an immanent element; or they may look upon Me as a multifaceted Reality indwelling many souls.” God can be visualised as a manifold manifestation, as the souls of all created beings; or He can be considered as a dual manifestation, transcendent and immanent; or He can be beheld as one only. It is said that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once came to Benares to have darshan of the great saint and sage Trailanga Swami, a great siddha. The greatness of that siddha was such that it drew even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It appears that Sri Ramakrishna put a question to Trailanga Swami: “Maharaj, how many gods are there?” [Swamiji raises three fingers, then two fingers, then one finger.] That was the answer. “Yes I understand you.” The great disciple understood the great Master’s significant gesture: God is threefold, God is twofold, God is single. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: In any form we can worship Him.
This is the great charity of feeling and vision that we develop when we become the greatest of souls. The greatest of souls are highly charitable in their feelings, in their gestures, in their speech, in their behaviour, in their actions. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena: Pṛthakt means double, two; bahudhā means manifold. Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham. According to Sankaracharya, there is one reality; according to Ramanuja, there are two realities; according to Madhva, there are many realities. Therefore, all the three Acharyas are satisfied with this half verse that Bhagavan Sri Krishna speaks here, which satisfies all viewpoints, as it were.
Rama asked Hanuman, “Who are you? Please tell me. Describe yourself.”
Hanuman’s replied, Dehabuddhyat daso’ham: “If you think that I am a body, that I am totally different from you, I am your servant.” Jivabuddhyat tvadamshatah: “If you think that I am a soul, I am a part of you.” Atmabuddhyat tvamevaham: “If you think that I am the spirit, I am you only.”
Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham: “As totally different from you, I am your servant; as part of you, I am your soul; and as yourself, I am the Atman. I am everything.”
Now the spirit of the teaching rises into a great tempo of expression, preparing the field for the final Universal manifestation in the form of the Visvarupa in the Eleventh Chapter. “I am all the sacrifices that the Vedic seers perform.” Aahaṁ kratur (9.16): “All the yajnas, worships, sacrifices that people perform through the Smritis, or code of ethics such as Manu, Yajnavalkya, Parasara, etc., that is also Me.”
Ahaṁ kratur ahaṁ yajñaḥ svadhāham aham auṣadham. Once in a month or once in a year there is the sraddha ceremony, in which rice balls are offered to the ancestors. “The spirit indwelling in that performance also is Myself. I am behind the medicine that you take when you are ill. I am the curing force, the curative element in all the medicines.” Mantro’ham: “The mantra that you chant during your japa, I am inside it.” Aham evājyam: “The ghee, or the clarified butter that you pour during your sacrifice, I am inside that.” Aham agniḥ: “The fire that is blazing forth in the yajna, that is also Myself. The bhasma that comes out after the offering is made, that is also Myself.”
“I am the grandfather of all creation. I am the father of everything.” Pitāham asya jagata (9.17): “I am the father, the Paternal Supreme. This world is my progeny, as it were. I am the father, the Supreme Father in Heaven, of this cosmos.” Mātā dhātā pitāmaha: “At the same time, I am also the mother.” “I am the sustainer, the father and the mother of all beings; and I am the grandfather of everybody, being the father even of Brahma himself. I am the one Supreme Reality that is to be finally known, after knowing which, there is no need of knowing anything else.” Vedyaṁ pavitram oṁkāra: “I am the spirit behind the omkara, pranava. The cosmic vibration is Myself only.” Rk sāma yajur eva ca: “The three Vedas extol Me. The spirit behind the mantras of the three Vedas—Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda—is Myself only.” The one God is praised in all the mantras of the three Vedas—Rig, Yajur, Sama.
Gatir bhartā (9.18): “I am the final resort of all people. When everything goes wrong, finally you have to come to Me only. I am the gati, the final abode, the final resort, the sarana, the home and the resting place of everybody. I am the supporter, the sustainer and the nourisher of all beings. I am the overlord of all beings; all gods are below Me, and none is equal to Me. I am the witness, and yet not involved in all this drama of creation, notwithstanding the fact that nothing can move without Me. I am the abode supreme—nivāsaḥ—and the friend of all beings.” Śaraṇaṁ suhṛt: “As I am the real friend of all created beings, the real friend of every one of you, you have to come to Me one day or the other as a final resort.” Prabhavaḥ: “Everything proceeds from Me.” Pralayaḥ: “Everything is dissolved into Me.” Sthānaṁ: “It rests in Me, finally.” Nidhānaṁ: “The very root of all things.” Bījam: “The essential seed of creation.” Avyayam: “Imperishable I am.”
Tapāmyaham ahaṁ varṣaṁ nigṛṇhāmyutsṛjāmi ca (9.19): “I create heat through the sun. I create rain by the force of my will. I also withdraw the rain when it is my will. I release and I withdraw the forces of nature.” This sometimes looks kind, and sometimes looks very unkind. When God releases His energy through the forces of nature, nature seems to be scintillating, smiling and raining, and everything is green and flourishing; but when He withdraws His energy, it becomes dried up, as in a drought.
“I am the final immortal seat of all souls; I am also the death of all beings. Immortality and death, both are Me. It is I Who transforms all mortal elements into the deathless eternality of My own transcendent Being. It is also I Who destroys everything by the process of the evolutionary advance of nature and the cycle of time.” The many cycles are referred to in the earlier verses. Sad asaccāham arjuna: “I am existence and non-existence.” He has left nothing unsaid.
“I am existence and non-existence, being and non-being, this and that, here and there, now and then. There is nothing which I am not. But very few people realise this glory of Mine.” They go to the sacrificial yajnasalas and temples of worship and externally offer adorations, and perform sacrifices for gaining joy in the heaven of Indra by employing the mantras of the Veda for yajnas like Rajasuya, Asvamedha, Somayaga, etc., as described in the Brahmana portions of the Vedas. They do this because they want to rejoice in heaven, and they expect this to be attained through the sacrifices that they make by means of the mantras of the Vedas. They do go to heaven, no doubt; but the merits produced by the performance of the greatest of sacrifices have a beginning and an end. As these merits originated in the sacrifice, they will also end, by the exhaustion thereof through experience. After we enjoy the glories of Indra’s heaven, we will fall headlong down to the earth. Therefore, there is no point in our asking for Svarga, or heavenly joys, through the performance of Vedic sacrifices or through externally motivated rituals of any kind, even if they be in the form of worship in a temple. Such people who go to Svargaloka, or heaven, enter the abode of Indra and enjoy the divine blessedness of that place. Then afterwards—kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṁ viśanti—when the punyas, or merits, of these people slowly diminish and finally get extinguished, they come to this world once again—evaṁ trayīdharmam.
Traividyā māṁ somapāḥ pūtapāpā yajñair iṣṭvā svargatiṁ prārthayante, te puṇyam āsādya surendralokam aśnanti divyān divi devabhogān; te taṁ bhuktvā svargalokaṁ viśālaṁ kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṁ viśanti, evaṁ trayīdharmam anuprapannā gatāgataṁ kāmakāmā labhante (9.20-21): Those who run after the pleasures of sense, those who want to rejoice through the manifestations of their individual personalities—which persist even in heaven because of the fact of egoism persisting there even in a subtle form—their joys come to an end and they come back, like fallen angels bereft of all glory, suffering once again the turmoil of earthly existence.
Now comes a pendant verse. A pendant is a very significant ornamentation in a garland. Even in a flower garland, there is one big flower in the centre called the pendant, which glorifies and adds beauty to the entire garland, whether it is a gold ornament or a flower garland. Some such thing is this verse that we are hearing now. Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (9.22): “I shall take care of everybody who is undividedly united with Me. I shall provide whatever they do not have, and after providing them with whatever they do not have, I shall also take care to see that it is not taken away from them.” This verse is highly significant, the meaning of which we shall consider a little later.
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Discourse 28: The Ninth Chapter Concludes – Undivided Devotion to God
Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham(9.22): “If you resort to Me, it shall be My duty to take care of you. I shall provide you with all your requirements, and I shall also see that what you have been provided with is secure.” This is a compassionate statement. Not only will we be given what we want, but that which is given will be protected, safeguarded.
Commentators have a question: Is not God kind to everybody, or is He kind only to those who resort to Him in consciousness? Does He not provide food, clothing and shelter to everybody, or does He give it only to those who resort to Him?
Yes, it is true that everyone is taken care of by the Almighty Lord, and that even an ant that crawls is given what it needs. But it is said that in the case of ordinary individuals, the protection is granted through a series of operations. Their karmic bodies are associated with the Supreme Being in a very indirect manner, whereas direct action is different from indirect help that is given through accessories, agents, lesser gods, or through the fructification of karma. In the case of those who are perfectly united with God—like saints Tukaram, Jnanadev, Ekanath and others—God does not merely provide what they need; He becomes a kind of servant, as it were, of these bhaktas.
There was a Brahmin who was fond of this sloka. He devoted himself entirely to this one verse, and trusted entirely in God’s mercy and compassion and capacity to provide him everything. He was a beggar, and had to go for alms every day. He had a family which he had to feed—children crying for food—and every day he had to go about to get enough alms for the maintenance of his family. One day it so happened that even though he had wandered throughout the streets the entire day until sunset, he could not get even one grain of rice. He came back disappointed.
The children asked, “Papa! Where is the food?”
His wife asked, “What has happened?”
He replied, “I do not know. God has deserted me. He has not fulfilled His promise. I tried my best by wandering throughout the day, but I could not get even one grain of cereal.”
He children were crying, and his wife was anxious.
“False is this promise!” the Brahmin exclaimed in anger.
In those days, scriptures were written on palm leaves, as there was no printing on paper. So the verse from the Bhagavadgita—ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham—was written on a palm leaf. He tore that sloka with a nail, thinking that is a false promise, and left the house in disgust.
About an hour or so after he had left, a boy came to the house with a big bag full of cereals and grains, etc., threw it on the veranda, and loudly called to the Brahmin’s wife who was inside, “Here are the rations sent by your husband.” But the boy’s tongue was torn and bleeding.
The wife asked, “Who sent this?”
“Your husband has sent it.”
“My husband? I am very glad. What is the matter with you?”
“He was very angry with me because I was a little late, so he tore my tongue,” replied the boy.
“This is a horrible man! What kind of person is he? You are a servant, you brought the rations, and he has the cruelty to tear your tongue?” As she was saying this, the boy vanished.
When the Brahmin came back, his wife said to him, “What has happened to you? You are a fool. Are you out of your mind? You tore the tongue of the boy who brought the rations which you sent.”
“I didn’t send any rations,” he said. “I didn’t tear the tongue of anybody. Where are the rations?”
She showed him the bag. “The rations are sufficient for a month,” she said, “but blood was pouring from where the boy’s tongue had been torn.”
He fell at the feet of that lady and said, “You are my Guru from today because you had darshan of the Lord. I am a sinner. Because I tore the sloka, I could not see Him.”
There are many stories of this kind. There was an incident that took place in the Punjab sometime back. A railway guard had to be on duty at 8 p.m. in the evening, and before that he happened to go to a satsang. He thought that he would remain in satsang until 8 o’clock and then go to the station. The satsang inspired him to such an extent that he fell into a state of ecstasy. He remained in this state all night, and forgot the time. In the morning, he became conscious that he had not gone on duty at the railway station and thought, “What happened to the train? What is the matter? Now what will happen to me?”
He repented very much, and went to the chief officer and said, “I am very sorry. I could not come on duty. I do not know what happened to the train. I was to be on guard duty.”
“What is the matter?” the officer asked. “You were on duty. I saw you.”
“Don’t talk to me sarcastically. I could not come.”
“What are you saying? The train went on time. You were there. See your signature in the attendance register.”
His attendance was marked, and his signature was also there. He was stunned. It seems he wept before the Almighty and said, “O Lord! If Thou art so kind to me, I shall devote my entire life to you only!” He immediately submitted a letter of resignation, left the service, and spent the rest of his life doing bhajan and kirtan.
The lives of saints are replete with instances of this kind. Another case is Bhadrachala Ramadas, who was put in prison because he could not replace the gold coins of a Nawab, which he had distributed to the poor. Immediately, somebody came with a bag of gold coins and threw it in front of the Nawab.
The lives of saints are standing illustrations of the truth of this great statement of the Almighty, which is applicable not only to saints and sages, but to every one of us. Perhaps we are saints in the making.
Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham. If we are undividedly united with Him in our soul, in our heart, in our spirit, thinking only That, brooding over only That, and every day there is no occupation except this, to those who are ever united in the deepest spirit of their being, to them there is no lack, no penury, no sorrow, no suffering, no fear—because it shall be seen by God that all things are put in order. Eternally awake is the Almighty in His omniscience. Here is a gospel in a single verse, considered by devotees as a precious jewel, an ornament in the middle of the great scripture of the Bhagavadgita.
Ye’pyanyadevatābhaktā yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ, tepi mām eva kaunteya yajanty avidhipūrvakam (9.23). What about those who worship minor gods? They also get their fruits. It has already been explained in the Seventh Chapter that the fruits they get will have a beginning and an end. They worship the Supreme Being unconsciously, through limited concepts of lesser divinities. They do not know what they are actually worshipping. They have only a narrow notion of a localised god, who will give only a prescribed grant of the thing asked for, for the given moment of time. “Unconsciously they are worshipping Me, because even the little blessing that comes from the lesser gods is actually a grant acceded to by Me.” We need not go into the details of this subject, as we already have studied it in the Seventh Chapter.
Ahaṁ hi sarvayajñānāṁ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca (9.24): “I am the Lord of all the fruits of sacrifices, I am the enjoyer of all these offerings made in the sacrifices, and I am also the impeller to the action of the performance of sacrifice; but people do not know that I am that.” Na tu mām abhijānanti tattvena: “In reality, people cannot know Me. They know Me only as invested with form and shape and name and location, according to their capacity to think in terms of space, time and objects. They suffer on account of limited vision, even though I pervade all things and am shining before their eyes as this world. But their inner perceptive insight cannot visualise that what they see with their eyes as this world of manifestation is I Myself, shining through these names and forms. Through all the eyes, I see; through all the ears, I hear; through all the feet, I walk; through all the hands, I grasp. All the activities of all individuals are really My activities. I am doing all things. Even the perception through the sense organs is conducted by Me only, but people do not know this reality.” Ᾱtaś cyavanti te: “Therefore, they fall down into the state of rebirth on account of attachments to limited concepts of what is good and bad for them.”
Yānti devavratā devān (9.25): “If you worship gods like Indra, Varuna, Mitra, etc., you will go to them.” Pitṛn yānti pitṛvratāḥ: “If you worship the forefathers, pitris, you will go to them. Bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā: “If you worship demons, you will go to demons.” There are demoniacal pisachas, etc., who are sometimes considered to be lower divinities capable of granting small rajasic and tamasicblessings. If you worship them, you will become that. Yānti madyājinopi mām: “If you want gods, go to gods; if you want pitris, go to pitris; if you want demoniacal natures to immediately come to your help—okay, do that; but if you come to Me, you are really safe. Those who worship Me in truth—‘in truth’ is the word that has to be underlined, tattvena—not as I appear, but as I really am in Myself, if one can contemplate on Me as I really am in Myself, as the eternal principle not involved in the perishable names and forms, if they can resort to Me by meditating on Me in this way, they shall be really blessed, and they shall not return to a mortal coil.”
“I shall be easily pleased. My worship is not difficult.” We do not require large assets to please God. The samarpana or the naivedya that we have to offer to God is simple. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ(9.26): “You can offer a leaf, I shall be satisfied. You can offer a single flower, I shall be satisfied. You can offer Me a spoon of water with devotion to Me, I am fully satisfied with it. But it has to be offered with devotion.” What is offered is not of consequence in the eye of God. The bhava, or the feeling, or the mode, or the attitude with which it is offered is what counts. God does not want anything from us—not large estates, not many kinds of delicacies. God has enough of these in His Vaikuntha, in His Kailasa, in His Brahmaloka. These are not going to be the means of His satisfaction. But if our heart is there, then of course He will accept it. If our heart is not there, the offering is devitalised. Devitalised offerings are not accepted. And, finally, the vitality comes from us only. If we offer ourselves, that shall be the greatest pleasure to God. If we offer something that is dear to us, that is also a pleasure to God, but a lesser pleasure. But if we offer something that is not dear to us—an old coin or a torn note—that is not going to satisfy God because He knows our feelings, our motives. Even before we think, He knows what we are going to think. So no deception, no trick, can be played here. “I am simple and accessible in a very, very easy manner.”
It is said that Arjuna and Bhima were worshipping Lord Siva. Arjuna was collecting tons and tons of bilva leaves, and offering mountains of these leaves to Lord Siva in worship. Bhima was also worshipping Lord Siva, but he did it only in his mind. He had no physical leaf, and did not bring anything from the forest to offer to Lord Siva. One day, it seems, Arjuna and Bhima were taken to Kailasa for some reason. They saw cartloads and cartloads of bilva leaves being brought by the ganas of Siva, and they were poured at his feet. And some people were also bringing little handfuls of leaves and throwing them.
Arjuna asked, “Who are these people who are bringing little bunches of leaves and offering them, and who are these who are offering cartloads?”
“That little bit is what has been offered by Arjuna, and the cartloads are the offerings of Bhima,” they said.
“Bhima? He never does any worship,” said Arjuna.
“He has done the worship, and Lord Siva is pleased,” they replied.
Bhima offered cartloads because his mind was there; and Arjuna offered a little bit because it was a physical offering.
Tad ahaṁ bhaktyupahṛtam aśnāmi: A leaf, a little particle sticking to the vessel in which Draupadi had her meal, satisfied everyone in the whole universe. Their stomachs started bloating with the satisfaction of overeating on account of the little leaf that went into the mouth of this Cosmic Person, Bhagavan Sri Krishna. “I am easily satisfied if it is offered to Me with devotion. Because you have come to Me with an utter spirit of self-surrender, I shall accept what you give—even a spoon of water or a leaf, or even a thought. I shall be happy even with the thought of your surrender to Me. Forget the leaves, etc.; even the idea is sufficient for Me. Your love for Me is enough for Me, and I know that your heart is for Me, and I shall take care of you.”
“Whatever you do, O Arjuna, offer it to Me.” Yyat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat, yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam (9.27): “If you offer anything in sacrifice, yajna, let it be to My satisfaction. I am the Universal bhokta, or the enjoyer of all sacrifices. If you eat anything—a meal, breakfast, lunch—let it be offered to Me.”
This kind of offering of food which goes into our stomach as a dedication to the Almighty is described in the Chhandogya Upanishad. It is called pranagnihotra. Pranaya svaha, apanaya svaha, vyanaya svaha, samanaya svaha, udanaya svaha—people chant these mantras and sip water five times before they start their meal. This is a ritual known mostly to Brahmins. The idea is that we should not eat our meal like animals, gulping it like pigs or swallowing it like dogs. Our attitude towards food should not be that of an animal. Food is a sacred offering to the divinity inside, who digests whatever we eat through the Vaisvanara fire—pacāmyannaṁ caturvidham (15.14). The pranasare the digesters of the food. If the pranas are not satisfied with the food that we throw into our stomach, it is not going to be received. Disturbed pranas will not receive any kind of delicacy; and if the stomach is not operated by the Vaisvanara agni, the food is not going to be digested.
“Whatever you offer outside in the form of sacrifices, in yajnasalas, that is also an offering to Me, and whatever you offer inside by way of a meal that you take, that is internal yajna that you perform as prana-agnihotra. Therefore, may your actions be devoted to Me, dedicated to Me. Whatever be these actions, whether secular or religious—clerical, military, business, sweeping the floor, or anything that you perform according to the station of your life and your location in society—let it be dedicated to Me, and you shall see that you are taken care of abundantly by the guardians of the earth.”
“If you do tapas, spiritual practice, yoga sadhana, let that also be a satisfaction to Me.” Do not be under the egoistic impression that you are independently doing some yoga for your personal salvation. If you are a spiritual seeker, this ego should not be there in you. You are a humble, simple ray of the Almighty that is seeking unity with it. Therefore, your meditations are actually the highest kind of worship that you perform, the greatest naivedya that is offered, the best gift that you can think of as pleasing to God.
Tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam: “Let all this be given to Me. Let there be no responsibility on your part. Place all responsibility in Me, and I shall feel very happy to take all the burden of the whole world on My head.”
It is said that Dattatreya, the great sage, carries a bag when he goes for alms, and he asks for the sins of people. The alms that Dattatreya seeks from people are their sins. “How many sins you have committed? Bring. I will put them in the bag.” He digests the whole thing. Like that, God will absorb all our errors, mistakes, misconceptions, and even sins; and we will find we are purified in an instant by the repentance for the sins that we committed, the determination not to commit these sins again, and a whole-souled devotion to God in Whom we have such faith that we believe entirely—without any doubt, with all the recesses of our being—that He shall protect us. Whatever we think, that shall take place. Whatever we believe in, that shall materialise. Whatever we deeply expect, that shall be granted to us; and if we expect the grace of God, it shall be poured abundantly upon us.
Śubhāśubhaphalair evaṁ mokṣyase karmabandhanaiḥ, saṁnyāsayogayuktātmā vimukto mām upaiṣyasi(9.28). Sannyasa and yoga have already been discussed in earlier chapters—in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Chapters—and it is mentioned once again here. One who is an adherent to the dharmas of sannyasa and yoga—renunciation and actual practice—such a person is freed from all the results of good and bad deeds. Karmabandha is broken. Karma is supposed to be binding, and no one can be freed from the bonds of karma. But here is a recipe to break the chain of karma; and the laws that usually operate in the world of space and time, the three-dimensional realm, do not operate in the four-dimensional realm. That is the meaning of saying that even sins are pardoned and destroyed. If we commit a mistake in a dream, we are not punished for it when we wake up. Whatever be the mistake that we commit in a dream, it is absolved merely by the fact of our waking. So is the case with any mistake that we commit here. Any error, even any sin, is abolished completely, root and branch, because we have awakened into the consciousness of the eternal four-dimensional Absolute.
Samohaṁ sarvabhūteṣu na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ (9.29): “I have neither friend nor foe. Like sunlight and rain, I pour myself on all people equally. But if you do not open yourself to Me, the light will not shine upon you and the rain will not affect you in any way. I am equally accessible to all.” The basic fundamental reality behind all the names and forms is one and same: sat-chit-ananda svarupa—Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. It is equally present in all names and forms—in inanimate matter, in insects, in ants, in reptiles, in animals, in plants, in human beings, in the gods in heaven. It is equally present everywhere, as the ocean is equally present and at the root of all the ripples, waves, etc., that appear on its surface.
“I am equal to all. I have no friend or enemy, and I do not have any partiality in respect of any person. The intensity of your meditation will be the determining factor of the extent of grace that will be poured upon you automatically, and I do not look upon you as a friend or an enemy. You shall reach Me by the spirit of sannyasa, renunciation in respect of all names and forms, and yoga, which is inner communion that you practise daily as your sadhana.” He is like a judge of the Supreme Court whose dispensation is totally impartial.
Samohaṁ sarvabhūteṣu na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ, ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpyaham: “I am always inside you, and you are inside Me, if you are devoted to Me as Sudama was devoted, as Vidura was devoted, as Draupadi was devoted, as the saints were devoted.” God is so kind as to say that He shall dwell in us and take care of us, and shall put us inside Him and save us from all the sorrows of life.
Even the worst of sinners can be saved. There is no sin that cannot be burnt in the fire of wisdom. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananyabhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (9.30): “He is to be considered as a saint—even though in the eyes of people he is a culprit, a criminal, a sinner—provided he has resorted to Me, and his heart has been purified by the repentance that he has felt in his heart and the devotion that he has shown to Me honestly, sincerely, without any kind of restriction.” There is no sin before God. There is no hell before Him, and there is no heaven before Him. If there was really a hell, God would also see it; and if He saw it, it would be in front of Him. But the Universal Being, Who is bliss and eternity incarnate, does not see hell in front of Him.
The mistakes, the karmas, the sorrows, and the hells and heavens that we speak of are the reactions set up from the forces of nature to our own actions; and these reactions cannot cease as long as we are bound hand and foot through this body in terms of space, time and objectivity. But if our soul rises beyond the limitations of this body and does not get attached to anything that is in space and time, the very concept of sin is destroyed because it is relevant only to the world of space and time. So when we are free from space and time, and our worship is through the soul rather than through the mind or through the hands and feet, then all forces—even the greatest gravitational forces of the planets—are overcome because no law in this world is a law in that eternal realm. The laws of eternity and of temporality which catch us here bit by bit and annoy us, and man-made laws, scriptural laws, or laws made by anybody—every law is completely negated. This is because they are valid only in the three-dimensional world of space and time, and are completely invalid in the waking of the soul into Universal Existence.
As I mentioned, all experiences of dream are invalidated in waking. Whatever be the experiences of sorrow or joy, emperorship or beggary—whatever we have been undergoing in dream—the whole thing is abolished in one stroke merely because we have woken up. Waking consciousness is superior to dream consciousness. A beggar in waking is certainly happier than a king in dream. The point is not whether one is a king or a beggar; the point is whether one’s consciousness is superior or inferior. The superior consciousness of that eternity abolishes all the laws of this temporality of earthly existence. “So he is to be considered as a saint who has resorted to Me whole-heartedly, even if in the eyes of society he has been a very bad fellow, because bhajate mām ananyabhāk—undividedly, wholeheartedly, he is melting his personality. He has poured himself into Me.”
Devotion to God is the subject of Chapters Seven and Nine, and it is difficult to put into words the spirit of the kind of devotion that is expected from us by the Almighty. An ordinary devotion of a ritualistic type, or gauna bhakti, as it is called—a secondary type of devotion—will not do. Only a devotee can have the vision of the Universal, and nobody else. Even with all one’s learning, with all one’s sacrificial merits and all one’s tapasya, one cannot have this vision. “Only bhaktas can see Me,” is the statement in the Eleventh Chapter. But what kind of bhakti is it? What kind of devotion is it that transcends tapasya, transcends charity, transcends Vedic knowledge, and transcends every kind of good thing in the world?
It is not something that we offer by way of scriptural study or a garland or ritualistic performance in a temple or a shrine. Superior to all this is the soul wanting God—not merely our mind or our physical personality feeling pain and expressing a desire to unite ourselves with God. The deepest in us asks for the deepest in the cosmos. That is the highest devotion, which is described here in various forms in the Seventh and the Ninth Chapters. It reaches its culmination in the coming chapters until the Eleventh, where only God is shining, to the exclusion of even the existence of the devotee.
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Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham(9.22): “If you resort to Me, it shall be My duty to take care of you. I shall provide you with all your requirements, and I shall also see that what you have been provided with is secure.” This is a compassionate statement. Not only will we be given what we want, but that which is given will be protected, safeguarded.
Commentators have a question: Is not God kind to everybody, or is He kind only to those who resort to Him in consciousness? Does He not provide food, clothing and shelter to everybody, or does He give it only to those who resort to Him?
Yes, it is true that everyone is taken care of by the Almighty Lord, and that even an ant that crawls is given what it needs. But it is said that in the case of ordinary individuals, the protection is granted through a series of operations. Their karmic bodies are associated with the Supreme Being in a very indirect manner, whereas direct action is different from indirect help that is given through accessories, agents, lesser gods, or through the fructification of karma. In the case of those who are perfectly united with God—like saints Tukaram, Jnanadev, Ekanath and others—God does not merely provide what they need; He becomes a kind of servant, as it were, of these bhaktas.
There was a Brahmin who was fond of this sloka. He devoted himself entirely to this one verse, and trusted entirely in God’s mercy and compassion and capacity to provide him everything. He was a beggar, and had to go for alms every day. He had a family which he had to feed—children crying for food—and every day he had to go about to get enough alms for the maintenance of his family. One day it so happened that even though he had wandered throughout the streets the entire day until sunset, he could not get even one grain of rice. He came back disappointed.
The children asked, “Papa! Where is the food?”
His wife asked, “What has happened?”
He replied, “I do not know. God has deserted me. He has not fulfilled His promise. I tried my best by wandering throughout the day, but I could not get even one grain of cereal.”
He children were crying, and his wife was anxious.
“False is this promise!” the Brahmin exclaimed in anger.
In those days, scriptures were written on palm leaves, as there was no printing on paper. So the verse from the Bhagavadgita—ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham—was written on a palm leaf. He tore that sloka with a nail, thinking that is a false promise, and left the house in disgust.
About an hour or so after he had left, a boy came to the house with a big bag full of cereals and grains, etc., threw it on the veranda, and loudly called to the Brahmin’s wife who was inside, “Here are the rations sent by your husband.” But the boy’s tongue was torn and bleeding.
The wife asked, “Who sent this?”
“Your husband has sent it.”
“My husband? I am very glad. What is the matter with you?”
“He was very angry with me because I was a little late, so he tore my tongue,” replied the boy.
“This is a horrible man! What kind of person is he? You are a servant, you brought the rations, and he has the cruelty to tear your tongue?” As she was saying this, the boy vanished.
When the Brahmin came back, his wife said to him, “What has happened to you? You are a fool. Are you out of your mind? You tore the tongue of the boy who brought the rations which you sent.”
“I didn’t send any rations,” he said. “I didn’t tear the tongue of anybody. Where are the rations?”
She showed him the bag. “The rations are sufficient for a month,” she said, “but blood was pouring from where the boy’s tongue had been torn.”
He fell at the feet of that lady and said, “You are my Guru from today because you had darshan of the Lord. I am a sinner. Because I tore the sloka, I could not see Him.”
There are many stories of this kind. There was an incident that took place in the Punjab sometime back. A railway guard had to be on duty at 8 p.m. in the evening, and before that he happened to go to a satsang. He thought that he would remain in satsang until 8 o’clock and then go to the station. The satsang inspired him to such an extent that he fell into a state of ecstasy. He remained in this state all night, and forgot the time. In the morning, he became conscious that he had not gone on duty at the railway station and thought, “What happened to the train? What is the matter? Now what will happen to me?”
He repented very much, and went to the chief officer and said, “I am very sorry. I could not come on duty. I do not know what happened to the train. I was to be on guard duty.”
“What is the matter?” the officer asked. “You were on duty. I saw you.”
“Don’t talk to me sarcastically. I could not come.”
“What are you saying? The train went on time. You were there. See your signature in the attendance register.”
His attendance was marked, and his signature was also there. He was stunned. It seems he wept before the Almighty and said, “O Lord! If Thou art so kind to me, I shall devote my entire life to you only!” He immediately submitted a letter of resignation, left the service, and spent the rest of his life doing bhajan and kirtan.
The lives of saints are replete with instances of this kind. Another case is Bhadrachala Ramadas, who was put in prison because he could not replace the gold coins of a Nawab, which he had distributed to the poor. Immediately, somebody came with a bag of gold coins and threw it in front of the Nawab.
The lives of saints are standing illustrations of the truth of this great statement of the Almighty, which is applicable not only to saints and sages, but to every one of us. Perhaps we are saints in the making.
Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham. If we are undividedly united with Him in our soul, in our heart, in our spirit, thinking only That, brooding over only That, and every day there is no occupation except this, to those who are ever united in the deepest spirit of their being, to them there is no lack, no penury, no sorrow, no suffering, no fear—because it shall be seen by God that all things are put in order. Eternally awake is the Almighty in His omniscience. Here is a gospel in a single verse, considered by devotees as a precious jewel, an ornament in the middle of the great scripture of the Bhagavadgita.
Ye’pyanyadevatābhaktā yajante śraddhayānvitāḥ, tepi mām eva kaunteya yajanty avidhipūrvakam (9.23). What about those who worship minor gods? They also get their fruits. It has already been explained in the Seventh Chapter that the fruits they get will have a beginning and an end. They worship the Supreme Being unconsciously, through limited concepts of lesser divinities. They do not know what they are actually worshipping. They have only a narrow notion of a localised god, who will give only a prescribed grant of the thing asked for, for the given moment of time. “Unconsciously they are worshipping Me, because even the little blessing that comes from the lesser gods is actually a grant acceded to by Me.” We need not go into the details of this subject, as we already have studied it in the Seventh Chapter.
Ahaṁ hi sarvayajñānāṁ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca (9.24): “I am the Lord of all the fruits of sacrifices, I am the enjoyer of all these offerings made in the sacrifices, and I am also the impeller to the action of the performance of sacrifice; but people do not know that I am that.” Na tu mām abhijānanti tattvena: “In reality, people cannot know Me. They know Me only as invested with form and shape and name and location, according to their capacity to think in terms of space, time and objects. They suffer on account of limited vision, even though I pervade all things and am shining before their eyes as this world. But their inner perceptive insight cannot visualise that what they see with their eyes as this world of manifestation is I Myself, shining through these names and forms. Through all the eyes, I see; through all the ears, I hear; through all the feet, I walk; through all the hands, I grasp. All the activities of all individuals are really My activities. I am doing all things. Even the perception through the sense organs is conducted by Me only, but people do not know this reality.” Ᾱtaś cyavanti te: “Therefore, they fall down into the state of rebirth on account of attachments to limited concepts of what is good and bad for them.”
Yānti devavratā devān (9.25): “If you worship gods like Indra, Varuna, Mitra, etc., you will go to them.” Pitṛn yānti pitṛvratāḥ: “If you worship the forefathers, pitris, you will go to them. Bhūtāni yānti bhūtejyā: “If you worship demons, you will go to demons.” There are demoniacal pisachas, etc., who are sometimes considered to be lower divinities capable of granting small rajasic and tamasicblessings. If you worship them, you will become that. Yānti madyājinopi mām: “If you want gods, go to gods; if you want pitris, go to pitris; if you want demoniacal natures to immediately come to your help—okay, do that; but if you come to Me, you are really safe. Those who worship Me in truth—‘in truth’ is the word that has to be underlined, tattvena—not as I appear, but as I really am in Myself, if one can contemplate on Me as I really am in Myself, as the eternal principle not involved in the perishable names and forms, if they can resort to Me by meditating on Me in this way, they shall be really blessed, and they shall not return to a mortal coil.”
“I shall be easily pleased. My worship is not difficult.” We do not require large assets to please God. The samarpana or the naivedya that we have to offer to God is simple. Patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ(9.26): “You can offer a leaf, I shall be satisfied. You can offer a single flower, I shall be satisfied. You can offer Me a spoon of water with devotion to Me, I am fully satisfied with it. But it has to be offered with devotion.” What is offered is not of consequence in the eye of God. The bhava, or the feeling, or the mode, or the attitude with which it is offered is what counts. God does not want anything from us—not large estates, not many kinds of delicacies. God has enough of these in His Vaikuntha, in His Kailasa, in His Brahmaloka. These are not going to be the means of His satisfaction. But if our heart is there, then of course He will accept it. If our heart is not there, the offering is devitalised. Devitalised offerings are not accepted. And, finally, the vitality comes from us only. If we offer ourselves, that shall be the greatest pleasure to God. If we offer something that is dear to us, that is also a pleasure to God, but a lesser pleasure. But if we offer something that is not dear to us—an old coin or a torn note—that is not going to satisfy God because He knows our feelings, our motives. Even before we think, He knows what we are going to think. So no deception, no trick, can be played here. “I am simple and accessible in a very, very easy manner.”
It is said that Arjuna and Bhima were worshipping Lord Siva. Arjuna was collecting tons and tons of bilva leaves, and offering mountains of these leaves to Lord Siva in worship. Bhima was also worshipping Lord Siva, but he did it only in his mind. He had no physical leaf, and did not bring anything from the forest to offer to Lord Siva. One day, it seems, Arjuna and Bhima were taken to Kailasa for some reason. They saw cartloads and cartloads of bilva leaves being brought by the ganas of Siva, and they were poured at his feet. And some people were also bringing little handfuls of leaves and throwing them.
Arjuna asked, “Who are these people who are bringing little bunches of leaves and offering them, and who are these who are offering cartloads?”
“That little bit is what has been offered by Arjuna, and the cartloads are the offerings of Bhima,” they said.
“Bhima? He never does any worship,” said Arjuna.
“He has done the worship, and Lord Siva is pleased,” they replied.
Bhima offered cartloads because his mind was there; and Arjuna offered a little bit because it was a physical offering.
Tad ahaṁ bhaktyupahṛtam aśnāmi: A leaf, a little particle sticking to the vessel in which Draupadi had her meal, satisfied everyone in the whole universe. Their stomachs started bloating with the satisfaction of overeating on account of the little leaf that went into the mouth of this Cosmic Person, Bhagavan Sri Krishna. “I am easily satisfied if it is offered to Me with devotion. Because you have come to Me with an utter spirit of self-surrender, I shall accept what you give—even a spoon of water or a leaf, or even a thought. I shall be happy even with the thought of your surrender to Me. Forget the leaves, etc.; even the idea is sufficient for Me. Your love for Me is enough for Me, and I know that your heart is for Me, and I shall take care of you.”
“Whatever you do, O Arjuna, offer it to Me.” Yyat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat, yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam (9.27): “If you offer anything in sacrifice, yajna, let it be to My satisfaction. I am the Universal bhokta, or the enjoyer of all sacrifices. If you eat anything—a meal, breakfast, lunch—let it be offered to Me.”
This kind of offering of food which goes into our stomach as a dedication to the Almighty is described in the Chhandogya Upanishad. It is called pranagnihotra. Pranaya svaha, apanaya svaha, vyanaya svaha, samanaya svaha, udanaya svaha—people chant these mantras and sip water five times before they start their meal. This is a ritual known mostly to Brahmins. The idea is that we should not eat our meal like animals, gulping it like pigs or swallowing it like dogs. Our attitude towards food should not be that of an animal. Food is a sacred offering to the divinity inside, who digests whatever we eat through the Vaisvanara fire—pacāmyannaṁ caturvidham (15.14). The pranasare the digesters of the food. If the pranas are not satisfied with the food that we throw into our stomach, it is not going to be received. Disturbed pranas will not receive any kind of delicacy; and if the stomach is not operated by the Vaisvanara agni, the food is not going to be digested.
“Whatever you offer outside in the form of sacrifices, in yajnasalas, that is also an offering to Me, and whatever you offer inside by way of a meal that you take, that is internal yajna that you perform as prana-agnihotra. Therefore, may your actions be devoted to Me, dedicated to Me. Whatever be these actions, whether secular or religious—clerical, military, business, sweeping the floor, or anything that you perform according to the station of your life and your location in society—let it be dedicated to Me, and you shall see that you are taken care of abundantly by the guardians of the earth.”
“If you do tapas, spiritual practice, yoga sadhana, let that also be a satisfaction to Me.” Do not be under the egoistic impression that you are independently doing some yoga for your personal salvation. If you are a spiritual seeker, this ego should not be there in you. You are a humble, simple ray of the Almighty that is seeking unity with it. Therefore, your meditations are actually the highest kind of worship that you perform, the greatest naivedya that is offered, the best gift that you can think of as pleasing to God.
Tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam: “Let all this be given to Me. Let there be no responsibility on your part. Place all responsibility in Me, and I shall feel very happy to take all the burden of the whole world on My head.”
It is said that Dattatreya, the great sage, carries a bag when he goes for alms, and he asks for the sins of people. The alms that Dattatreya seeks from people are their sins. “How many sins you have committed? Bring. I will put them in the bag.” He digests the whole thing. Like that, God will absorb all our errors, mistakes, misconceptions, and even sins; and we will find we are purified in an instant by the repentance for the sins that we committed, the determination not to commit these sins again, and a whole-souled devotion to God in Whom we have such faith that we believe entirely—without any doubt, with all the recesses of our being—that He shall protect us. Whatever we think, that shall take place. Whatever we believe in, that shall materialise. Whatever we deeply expect, that shall be granted to us; and if we expect the grace of God, it shall be poured abundantly upon us.
Śubhāśubhaphalair evaṁ mokṣyase karmabandhanaiḥ, saṁnyāsayogayuktātmā vimukto mām upaiṣyasi(9.28). Sannyasa and yoga have already been discussed in earlier chapters—in the Third, Fourth and Fifth Chapters—and it is mentioned once again here. One who is an adherent to the dharmas of sannyasa and yoga—renunciation and actual practice—such a person is freed from all the results of good and bad deeds. Karmabandha is broken. Karma is supposed to be binding, and no one can be freed from the bonds of karma. But here is a recipe to break the chain of karma; and the laws that usually operate in the world of space and time, the three-dimensional realm, do not operate in the four-dimensional realm. That is the meaning of saying that even sins are pardoned and destroyed. If we commit a mistake in a dream, we are not punished for it when we wake up. Whatever be the mistake that we commit in a dream, it is absolved merely by the fact of our waking. So is the case with any mistake that we commit here. Any error, even any sin, is abolished completely, root and branch, because we have awakened into the consciousness of the eternal four-dimensional Absolute.
Samohaṁ sarvabhūteṣu na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ (9.29): “I have neither friend nor foe. Like sunlight and rain, I pour myself on all people equally. But if you do not open yourself to Me, the light will not shine upon you and the rain will not affect you in any way. I am equally accessible to all.” The basic fundamental reality behind all the names and forms is one and same: sat-chit-ananda svarupa—Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. It is equally present in all names and forms—in inanimate matter, in insects, in ants, in reptiles, in animals, in plants, in human beings, in the gods in heaven. It is equally present everywhere, as the ocean is equally present and at the root of all the ripples, waves, etc., that appear on its surface.
“I am equal to all. I have no friend or enemy, and I do not have any partiality in respect of any person. The intensity of your meditation will be the determining factor of the extent of grace that will be poured upon you automatically, and I do not look upon you as a friend or an enemy. You shall reach Me by the spirit of sannyasa, renunciation in respect of all names and forms, and yoga, which is inner communion that you practise daily as your sadhana.” He is like a judge of the Supreme Court whose dispensation is totally impartial.
Samohaṁ sarvabhūteṣu na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ, ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpyaham: “I am always inside you, and you are inside Me, if you are devoted to Me as Sudama was devoted, as Vidura was devoted, as Draupadi was devoted, as the saints were devoted.” God is so kind as to say that He shall dwell in us and take care of us, and shall put us inside Him and save us from all the sorrows of life.
Even the worst of sinners can be saved. There is no sin that cannot be burnt in the fire of wisdom. Api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananyabhāk, sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ (9.30): “He is to be considered as a saint—even though in the eyes of people he is a culprit, a criminal, a sinner—provided he has resorted to Me, and his heart has been purified by the repentance that he has felt in his heart and the devotion that he has shown to Me honestly, sincerely, without any kind of restriction.” There is no sin before God. There is no hell before Him, and there is no heaven before Him. If there was really a hell, God would also see it; and if He saw it, it would be in front of Him. But the Universal Being, Who is bliss and eternity incarnate, does not see hell in front of Him.
The mistakes, the karmas, the sorrows, and the hells and heavens that we speak of are the reactions set up from the forces of nature to our own actions; and these reactions cannot cease as long as we are bound hand and foot through this body in terms of space, time and objectivity. But if our soul rises beyond the limitations of this body and does not get attached to anything that is in space and time, the very concept of sin is destroyed because it is relevant only to the world of space and time. So when we are free from space and time, and our worship is through the soul rather than through the mind or through the hands and feet, then all forces—even the greatest gravitational forces of the planets—are overcome because no law in this world is a law in that eternal realm. The laws of eternity and of temporality which catch us here bit by bit and annoy us, and man-made laws, scriptural laws, or laws made by anybody—every law is completely negated. This is because they are valid only in the three-dimensional world of space and time, and are completely invalid in the waking of the soul into Universal Existence.
As I mentioned, all experiences of dream are invalidated in waking. Whatever be the experiences of sorrow or joy, emperorship or beggary—whatever we have been undergoing in dream—the whole thing is abolished in one stroke merely because we have woken up. Waking consciousness is superior to dream consciousness. A beggar in waking is certainly happier than a king in dream. The point is not whether one is a king or a beggar; the point is whether one’s consciousness is superior or inferior. The superior consciousness of that eternity abolishes all the laws of this temporality of earthly existence. “So he is to be considered as a saint who has resorted to Me whole-heartedly, even if in the eyes of society he has been a very bad fellow, because bhajate mām ananyabhāk—undividedly, wholeheartedly, he is melting his personality. He has poured himself into Me.”
Devotion to God is the subject of Chapters Seven and Nine, and it is difficult to put into words the spirit of the kind of devotion that is expected from us by the Almighty. An ordinary devotion of a ritualistic type, or gauna bhakti, as it is called—a secondary type of devotion—will not do. Only a devotee can have the vision of the Universal, and nobody else. Even with all one’s learning, with all one’s sacrificial merits and all one’s tapasya, one cannot have this vision. “Only bhaktas can see Me,” is the statement in the Eleventh Chapter. But what kind of bhakti is it? What kind of devotion is it that transcends tapasya, transcends charity, transcends Vedic knowledge, and transcends every kind of good thing in the world?
It is not something that we offer by way of scriptural study or a garland or ritualistic performance in a temple or a shrine. Superior to all this is the soul wanting God—not merely our mind or our physical personality feeling pain and expressing a desire to unite ourselves with God. The deepest in us asks for the deepest in the cosmos. That is the highest devotion, which is described here in various forms in the Seventh and the Ninth Chapters. It reaches its culmination in the coming chapters until the Eleventh, where only God is shining, to the exclusion of even the existence of the devotee.
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Discourse 29: A Summary of the First Nine Chapters
The brilliant thesis of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Chapters of the Gita that we have been studying is a great theology compressed into a series of brief statements rather than a huge magnum opus, but each verse is a pithy seed sown for further consideration and delineation by philosophers, academicians and metaphysicians. The religion of God—we may say, the religion of man—is the real subject here. In the first six chapters, a kind of religion is adumbrated in the form of the impulsion and command to work for the sake of work, duty for the sake of duty, and performance of one’s functions in society as a participation, a necessary cooperation with the scheme of prakriti. That was the emphasis laid in the first six chapters—culminating with dhyana, or meditation, for the purpose of the integration of the individual.
Work performed in the spirit of a voluntary cooperation with the forces of nature is also a religion of some kind, because religion is basically an attitude that tries to transcend itself. Whenever we expect values of life in some things that are above us, we are religious people. But if we consider that we are all-in-all and everything is just for us—the realities of life are centred in our personalities and in the personalities of others who are like us, and there is nothing qualitatively superior to human thought and action—if that is how we feel, we are irreligious people. But if we believe in a reality that is above human society and human individuality, and perform our duties not as a compulsion from an outside mandate but as an impulsion from our own spirit for the purpose of the regeneration of our own spiritual nature, and also as a help given for a similar uplift of people around us—if this sort of attitude is maintained in the work that we perform, work is also religion.
When we bring God into the picture of our existence in the world, we feel that true religion begins. Though it is no doubt true, philosophically speaking, that participation in the universal activity of prakriti is a religion, and it cannot be anything less than true religion, we hanker for God, but do not hanker for work. It is a misreading of the values of life to think that God is outside the range of work. The mind, in its cleavage of psychic operations, creates a distinction between the world and God, and it is difficult for the human mind to believe that anything that is concerning this world has any connection with God.
Hence, we are hard-pressed to accept the doctrine that work is also a divine worship, though we have been told this twenty times, a hundred times, a thousand times. We are inclined to believe it due to our susceptibility to accept a larger reality in human society than our own selves, and also our acceptance of the fact that nature is compelling us to participate in its scheme. Philosophically, and in moments of rationality, we accept its scheme; still, we hunger for something which is not work. The word ‘work’ is an anathema because of our concept of the divinity that we wish to worship, so it has become very difficult for us to see divinity in work.
The Bhagavadgita has tried to dispel this misconception in our minds that activities in the world cannot also be divine worships, which is contrary to the ordinary belief of the sense organs and the mind involved in pleasures of the body and the senses. The Bhagavadgita places tremendous emphasis on the fact that activity is not contrary to divinity, and work is not disharmonious with God. This is so because of the fact that work is connected with God’s creation. Inasmuch as it has a vital relationship with God’s creation, it also has a connection with God; hence, work is also religion.
In order to cater to the higher instincts of a call for God in His transcendent aspect, the Bhagavadgita goes into the essentials of an immortal essence presiding over our participation in religious work—God as we would like God to be, and not God as we would not like Him to be. In our restlessness, in our eagerness for pleasure and leisure, in our boredom with life as a whole, we do not wish God to insist on our performing work in this world. Rather, we very much wish that He asks us to redeem ourselves from any compulsion to work. But God is not of that nature. He wishes us to accept the organic connection between the world and God; therefore, work is religion.
The purely theological, religious doctrine that is presented to us from the Seventh Chapter onwards is a new kind of teaching: Divinity parades as all things in creation; the five elements are the manifestation of God’s lower prakriti; the vitality, or prana, that is operating in the cosmos is the higher prakriti; devotees are of four kinds in nature; everyone is fit to realise God one day or the other, provided that one’s devotion to God is pure. This is the emphasis of the Seventh Chapter.
In connection with this topic of true religion and universal religion, a question automatically arose: “What happens to the religious man after he dies?” Many a time this question arises within our own selves: “What will happen to me tomorrow? I am an old man. One day I will pass away from this world. In what way is my religion going to help me?”
The answer to this question comes in the Eighth Chapter. Life is continuous, and does not end with death, and so whatever religious performance that is to our credit will be carried forward to the next life. Our personality does not die psychologically when it dies physically, and all the things that we did in this world, good and bad, will be carried forward. Therefore, it is emphasised that we must think only of God at the time of death. Inasmuch as it is not easy to think of God as Absolute at the time of passing—on account of the many physical difficulties which may harass us—it is again emphasised that we must live a life of religion throughout our lives. The entire life of the human being should be a transmutation of personality in the form of divine worship; and it is incumbent that, at the time of passing, the thought should not be anything irrelevant, but should be of the supreme Absolute.
The Ninth Chapter continues this theme. An interesting verse which we discussed yesterday says that God takes care of all people personally, as it were, as His near and dear children, and He shall provide us with all that we require. Even the worst of sinners can become highly religious: api cet sudurācāro (9.30); ye’pi syuḥ pāpayonayaḥ (9.32). It is said towards the end of the chapter that even the worst of sinners—very bad people, wicked persons—can also reach God. They do not get damned to hell. Eternal damnation is not the doctrine of the Bhagavadgita. There is punishment, to some extent, meted out on account of erroneous actions performed in this world, with the nemesis following automatically. Action breeds reaction. It is not punishment meted out by somebody; it is a punishment meted out by the action itself as an automatic reaction that comes forth on account of an action—whether it is good or bad, positive or negative, harmonious or disharmonious. Complete rejection of any person is not in the constitution of God’s ordinance. “All are welcome to Me, whether they are high or low.”
The poem Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt describes how the humblest person, who was unknown and unrecorded in human history, received the first call from God. Famous people do not go to God so easily. The greatest sages and saints are unknown persons in the world; the known ones are second-rate heroes. The greatest of beings, who come to redeem humanity by merely their existence or thought, perform no action in the historical or political sense. They merely release some energy—an aura around them, a potential—that pervades the whole earth. We are told in our scriptures that Vyasa and Narayana are residing in the Badarikashrama for the solidarity of mankind, and are invisibly performing miracles by their very existence—and not necessarily by the movement of their hands and feet.
The Ninth Chapter clinches the whole subject by saying that the worst of people are also called. Actually, there is no such thing as the worst of people. As a matter of fact, sin cannot stand before God. There is no such thing as original sin, or Adam’s sin, or my sin or your sin, or imperishable sin; these doctrines are not there. Even hell is a kind of purgatory, like a temporary prison. No one’s spirit is damned forever to an eternity of suffering. On account of the compassionate presence of the immanent God in all things and there being nothing external to God, there is no such thing as an eternity of suffering or eternal rejection. Even hell cannot be outside Him.
Manmanā bhava (9.34): “Concentrate your mind on Me.” Madbhakta: “Be devoted to Me.” Madyājī: “Perform sacrifices for Me.” Māṁ namaskuru: “Prostrate yourself before Me.” Mām evaiṣyasi: “You shall attain Me.” Yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ matparāyaṇaḥ: “Eternally being in the state of yoga, of the unity of yourself with Myself, you shall be in Me and I shall be in you.”
This has been beautifully put in the concluding verses of the Sixth Chapter:
sarvabhūtastham ātmānaṁ sarvabhūtāni cātmani
īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ (6.29)
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati (6.30)
sarvabhūtasthitaṁ yo māṁ bhajatyekatvam āsthitaḥ
sarvathā vartamāno’pi sa yogī mayi vartate (6.31)
Here it is specifically said, “Whatever be your behaviour, if you really surrender yourself to Me, you are redeemed.” Sarvathā vartamānopi: “Whatever be a person’s behaviour, if his spirit is united with the Absolute—sa yogī mayi vartate—that yogi is in Me, lodged in My spirit.”
Ᾱtmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo’rjuna, sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ(6.32). There is a gradual ascent of religious spirit from the beginning to the end of the chapters we have been studying. A distance between God and man is maintained in the earlier chapters, beginning with a very great distance indeed in the First Chapter. Gradually the distance goes on diminishing until we begin to feel that God is a teacher, a friend, a good philosopher and guide, and finally, a redeemer. We are taken to the heights of thought which declares that God is not merely a friend, philosopher and guide in the ordinary sense, as the historical Krishna may appear to the historical Arjuna. The heights become more pronounced in the Seventh Chapter, when we are told that God is much more than our ordinary human friend; He is the Creator of the universe itself. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhava (10.8): Everything proceeds from Me. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid(7.7): Nothing exists outside Me. The creative aspect of God is especially enunciated in the Seventh Chapter. Yet, a kind of distance is maintained between God and the world, because we feel that God created the world and, therefore, He must be a little away from the world. Do we not say that God is in heaven?
While in the earlier chapters, up to the Sixth, there is a great distance indeed between the world and God, in the Seventh Chapter we are given a little comfort by the doctrine that God, being the Creator of the universe, is immanent and, therefore, is with us at all times. God is both within and without us. The distance between God and man again becomes a little pronounced in the Eighth Chapter, which presents the theory that God is reached after death. Antakāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram (8.5); sa yāti paramāṁ gatim (8.13): “If you think of Me at the time of death, you shall reach Me.” It is not mentioned that we can reach God now, in this world. Can we reach God while we are alive? Or do we reach God only after death?
The Creator’s distance as a supernal transcendence, as a Father in heaven, is an idea that may arise in our minds in the Seventh Chapter; and that we can reach God only after death is an idea that may arise in the Eighth Chapter. But God is not to be considered to be reachable only after death. That God can look to our needs even today is especially emphasised in the Ninth Chapter. Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (9.22): God is not transcendent, sitting in heaven and gazing at us dispassionately and unconcerned, but He is greatly concerned. God comes down to the very earth and the kitchen of the human being, and provides us rations and all our needs, and protects us in every way. Thus, in the Ninth Chapter, the religious spirit brings God to the very earth, as it were, and the distance between God and man diminishes very palpably. “I am everywhere,” is the statement made in the Ninth Chapter.
The brilliant thesis of the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Chapters of the Gita that we have been studying is a great theology compressed into a series of brief statements rather than a huge magnum opus, but each verse is a pithy seed sown for further consideration and delineation by philosophers, academicians and metaphysicians. The religion of God—we may say, the religion of man—is the real subject here. In the first six chapters, a kind of religion is adumbrated in the form of the impulsion and command to work for the sake of work, duty for the sake of duty, and performance of one’s functions in society as a participation, a necessary cooperation with the scheme of prakriti. That was the emphasis laid in the first six chapters—culminating with dhyana, or meditation, for the purpose of the integration of the individual.
Work performed in the spirit of a voluntary cooperation with the forces of nature is also a religion of some kind, because religion is basically an attitude that tries to transcend itself. Whenever we expect values of life in some things that are above us, we are religious people. But if we consider that we are all-in-all and everything is just for us—the realities of life are centred in our personalities and in the personalities of others who are like us, and there is nothing qualitatively superior to human thought and action—if that is how we feel, we are irreligious people. But if we believe in a reality that is above human society and human individuality, and perform our duties not as a compulsion from an outside mandate but as an impulsion from our own spirit for the purpose of the regeneration of our own spiritual nature, and also as a help given for a similar uplift of people around us—if this sort of attitude is maintained in the work that we perform, work is also religion.
When we bring God into the picture of our existence in the world, we feel that true religion begins. Though it is no doubt true, philosophically speaking, that participation in the universal activity of prakriti is a religion, and it cannot be anything less than true religion, we hanker for God, but do not hanker for work. It is a misreading of the values of life to think that God is outside the range of work. The mind, in its cleavage of psychic operations, creates a distinction between the world and God, and it is difficult for the human mind to believe that anything that is concerning this world has any connection with God.
Hence, we are hard-pressed to accept the doctrine that work is also a divine worship, though we have been told this twenty times, a hundred times, a thousand times. We are inclined to believe it due to our susceptibility to accept a larger reality in human society than our own selves, and also our acceptance of the fact that nature is compelling us to participate in its scheme. Philosophically, and in moments of rationality, we accept its scheme; still, we hunger for something which is not work. The word ‘work’ is an anathema because of our concept of the divinity that we wish to worship, so it has become very difficult for us to see divinity in work.
The Bhagavadgita has tried to dispel this misconception in our minds that activities in the world cannot also be divine worships, which is contrary to the ordinary belief of the sense organs and the mind involved in pleasures of the body and the senses. The Bhagavadgita places tremendous emphasis on the fact that activity is not contrary to divinity, and work is not disharmonious with God. This is so because of the fact that work is connected with God’s creation. Inasmuch as it has a vital relationship with God’s creation, it also has a connection with God; hence, work is also religion.
In order to cater to the higher instincts of a call for God in His transcendent aspect, the Bhagavadgita goes into the essentials of an immortal essence presiding over our participation in religious work—God as we would like God to be, and not God as we would not like Him to be. In our restlessness, in our eagerness for pleasure and leisure, in our boredom with life as a whole, we do not wish God to insist on our performing work in this world. Rather, we very much wish that He asks us to redeem ourselves from any compulsion to work. But God is not of that nature. He wishes us to accept the organic connection between the world and God; therefore, work is religion.
The purely theological, religious doctrine that is presented to us from the Seventh Chapter onwards is a new kind of teaching: Divinity parades as all things in creation; the five elements are the manifestation of God’s lower prakriti; the vitality, or prana, that is operating in the cosmos is the higher prakriti; devotees are of four kinds in nature; everyone is fit to realise God one day or the other, provided that one’s devotion to God is pure. This is the emphasis of the Seventh Chapter.
In connection with this topic of true religion and universal religion, a question automatically arose: “What happens to the religious man after he dies?” Many a time this question arises within our own selves: “What will happen to me tomorrow? I am an old man. One day I will pass away from this world. In what way is my religion going to help me?”
The answer to this question comes in the Eighth Chapter. Life is continuous, and does not end with death, and so whatever religious performance that is to our credit will be carried forward to the next life. Our personality does not die psychologically when it dies physically, and all the things that we did in this world, good and bad, will be carried forward. Therefore, it is emphasised that we must think only of God at the time of death. Inasmuch as it is not easy to think of God as Absolute at the time of passing—on account of the many physical difficulties which may harass us—it is again emphasised that we must live a life of religion throughout our lives. The entire life of the human being should be a transmutation of personality in the form of divine worship; and it is incumbent that, at the time of passing, the thought should not be anything irrelevant, but should be of the supreme Absolute.
The Ninth Chapter continues this theme. An interesting verse which we discussed yesterday says that God takes care of all people personally, as it were, as His near and dear children, and He shall provide us with all that we require. Even the worst of sinners can become highly religious: api cet sudurācāro (9.30); ye’pi syuḥ pāpayonayaḥ (9.32). It is said towards the end of the chapter that even the worst of sinners—very bad people, wicked persons—can also reach God. They do not get damned to hell. Eternal damnation is not the doctrine of the Bhagavadgita. There is punishment, to some extent, meted out on account of erroneous actions performed in this world, with the nemesis following automatically. Action breeds reaction. It is not punishment meted out by somebody; it is a punishment meted out by the action itself as an automatic reaction that comes forth on account of an action—whether it is good or bad, positive or negative, harmonious or disharmonious. Complete rejection of any person is not in the constitution of God’s ordinance. “All are welcome to Me, whether they are high or low.”
The poem Abou Ben Adhem by Leigh Hunt describes how the humblest person, who was unknown and unrecorded in human history, received the first call from God. Famous people do not go to God so easily. The greatest sages and saints are unknown persons in the world; the known ones are second-rate heroes. The greatest of beings, who come to redeem humanity by merely their existence or thought, perform no action in the historical or political sense. They merely release some energy—an aura around them, a potential—that pervades the whole earth. We are told in our scriptures that Vyasa and Narayana are residing in the Badarikashrama for the solidarity of mankind, and are invisibly performing miracles by their very existence—and not necessarily by the movement of their hands and feet.
The Ninth Chapter clinches the whole subject by saying that the worst of people are also called. Actually, there is no such thing as the worst of people. As a matter of fact, sin cannot stand before God. There is no such thing as original sin, or Adam’s sin, or my sin or your sin, or imperishable sin; these doctrines are not there. Even hell is a kind of purgatory, like a temporary prison. No one’s spirit is damned forever to an eternity of suffering. On account of the compassionate presence of the immanent God in all things and there being nothing external to God, there is no such thing as an eternity of suffering or eternal rejection. Even hell cannot be outside Him.
Manmanā bhava (9.34): “Concentrate your mind on Me.” Madbhakta: “Be devoted to Me.” Madyājī: “Perform sacrifices for Me.” Māṁ namaskuru: “Prostrate yourself before Me.” Mām evaiṣyasi: “You shall attain Me.” Yuktvaivam ātmānaṁ matparāyaṇaḥ: “Eternally being in the state of yoga, of the unity of yourself with Myself, you shall be in Me and I shall be in you.”
This has been beautifully put in the concluding verses of the Sixth Chapter:
sarvabhūtastham ātmānaṁ sarvabhūtāni cātmani
īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ (6.29)
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati (6.30)
sarvabhūtasthitaṁ yo māṁ bhajatyekatvam āsthitaḥ
sarvathā vartamāno’pi sa yogī mayi vartate (6.31)
īkṣate yogayuktātmā sarvatra samadarśanaḥ (6.29)
yo māṁ paśyati sarvatra sarvaṁ ca mayi paśyati
tasyāhaṁ na praṇaśyāmi sa ca me na praṇaśyati (6.30)
sarvabhūtasthitaṁ yo māṁ bhajatyekatvam āsthitaḥ
sarvathā vartamāno’pi sa yogī mayi vartate (6.31)
Here it is specifically said, “Whatever be your behaviour, if you really surrender yourself to Me, you are redeemed.” Sarvathā vartamānopi: “Whatever be a person’s behaviour, if his spirit is united with the Absolute—sa yogī mayi vartate—that yogi is in Me, lodged in My spirit.”
Ᾱtmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo’rjuna, sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ(6.32). There is a gradual ascent of religious spirit from the beginning to the end of the chapters we have been studying. A distance between God and man is maintained in the earlier chapters, beginning with a very great distance indeed in the First Chapter. Gradually the distance goes on diminishing until we begin to feel that God is a teacher, a friend, a good philosopher and guide, and finally, a redeemer. We are taken to the heights of thought which declares that God is not merely a friend, philosopher and guide in the ordinary sense, as the historical Krishna may appear to the historical Arjuna. The heights become more pronounced in the Seventh Chapter, when we are told that God is much more than our ordinary human friend; He is the Creator of the universe itself. Ahaṁ sarvasya prabhava (10.8): Everything proceeds from Me. Mattaḥ parataraṁ nānyat kiñcid(7.7): Nothing exists outside Me. The creative aspect of God is especially enunciated in the Seventh Chapter. Yet, a kind of distance is maintained between God and the world, because we feel that God created the world and, therefore, He must be a little away from the world. Do we not say that God is in heaven?
While in the earlier chapters, up to the Sixth, there is a great distance indeed between the world and God, in the Seventh Chapter we are given a little comfort by the doctrine that God, being the Creator of the universe, is immanent and, therefore, is with us at all times. God is both within and without us. The distance between God and man again becomes a little pronounced in the Eighth Chapter, which presents the theory that God is reached after death. Antakāle ca mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram (8.5); sa yāti paramāṁ gatim (8.13): “If you think of Me at the time of death, you shall reach Me.” It is not mentioned that we can reach God now, in this world. Can we reach God while we are alive? Or do we reach God only after death?
The Creator’s distance as a supernal transcendence, as a Father in heaven, is an idea that may arise in our minds in the Seventh Chapter; and that we can reach God only after death is an idea that may arise in the Eighth Chapter. But God is not to be considered to be reachable only after death. That God can look to our needs even today is especially emphasised in the Ninth Chapter. Ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (9.22): God is not transcendent, sitting in heaven and gazing at us dispassionately and unconcerned, but He is greatly concerned. God comes down to the very earth and the kitchen of the human being, and provides us rations and all our needs, and protects us in every way. Thus, in the Ninth Chapter, the religious spirit brings God to the very earth, as it were, and the distance between God and man diminishes very palpably. “I am everywhere,” is the statement made in the Ninth Chapter.
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