THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 12
VERSE NUMBER 20
BHAKTI YOGA OR THE YOGA OF DEVOTION:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
ye tu dharmyaamrrtam idam yathoktam paryupaasate
sraddadhaanaa matparamaa bhaktaas te ‘teeva me priyaah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
ye = who: tu = indeed: dharmayaamrrtam = immortal dharma: idam = this: yathaa uktam = as declared: paryupaasate = follow: sradda dhaanaah = endued with Sraddha: mat paramaah = regarding me as their supreme: bhaktaah = devotees: te = they: ateeva = exceedingly: me = to me: priyaah = dear.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
They, verily, who follow this immortal dharma described above endued with Sraddha, looking upon Me as the Supreme Goal, and devoted—they are exceedingly dear to Me.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Sraddha is the common factor to all the forms of spiritual practices. It is therefore linked here with the path of Bhakti or devotion. On the ground of his holding the Lord as the Supreme Goal, the devotee does not abandon work. He holds fast to the practice of dharma. Mukti and Immortality being the outcome of the practice of dharma, it is here equated with Immortality. It is also called the Sanatana Dharma. He who conforms to dharma never comes to grief or destruction. Being both an ardent devotee and a staunch practicer of dharma, he is the dearest to the Lord.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Bhakti is of two kinds—the Vaidika bhakti and the Prema bhakti. To conform to the injunctions in the Scripture, to chant the name of the Lord as many times as prescribed, to fast and pray to go on pilgrimage, to perform ritualistic worship with the aid of the enjoined materials—all these belong to the former kind. Earnest pursuance of these means leads the devotee ultimately into the latter, the Prema bhakti, in which there is no place for any kind of earthly attachment. The Bhakta gives himself over entirely to the Lord. This whole-hearted offering is graciously accepted by the Lord and the devotee becomes His own.
PS: Srimat Swami Chidbhavananda:
The path of Karma in the first six chapters and the path of Bhakti in the second six get united here. In the following six chapters the path of Jnaana remains to get united with these two.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
sraddhadhaana: (those) with faith. Before the experience arises the soul must have faith, which carries with it consent of mind and life. For those who have experience, it is a matter of sight: for others, it is faith, a call or a compulsion.
When we see the One Self in all things, equal-mindedness, freedom from selfish desires, surrender of our whole nature to the Indwelling Spirit and love for all arise. When these qualities are manifested, our devotion is perfect and we are God’s own men. Our life then is guided not by the forces of attraction and repulsion, friendship and enmity, pleasure and pain, but by the single urge to give oneself to God and therefore to the service of the world which is one with God.
PS: Dr.S.Radhakrishnan:
In the words of Tulsidaas:
“Grant me, O Master, by thy grace
To follow all the good and pure,
To be content with simple things:
To use my fellows, not as means but ends
To serve them stalwartly, in thought, word, deed;
Never to utter a word of hatred or of shame:
To cast away all selfishness and pride:
To speak no ill of others: To have a mind at peace,
Set free from care, and led astray from thee
Neither by happiness nor woe;
Set thou my feet upon this path.
And keep me steadfast in it,
Thus only shall I please thee, serve thee right.”
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The Blessed Lord has in this verse given a description of His excellent devotee.
Amrita Dharma: Amrita is the life-ging nectar. Dharma is righteousness or wisdom. Dharma is that which leads to immortality when practised. The real devotees regard Me as their final or supreme refuge.
A great truth that should not go unnoticed is that the devotee, the man of wisdom and the Yogi have all the same fundamental characteristic.
Priyo hi Jnaninotyartham (I am exceedingly dear to wise man) (VII.12) has thus been explained at length and concluded here thus, Te ativa me priyah (they are exceedingly dear to Me).
He who follows this immortal Dharma as described above becomes exceedingly dear to the Lord. Therefore, every aspirant who thirsts for salvation, and who longs to attain the Supreme Abode of the Lord should follow this immortal Dharma with zeal and intense faith.
iti sreemad bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu brahmavidyaayaam
yogasaastre sree krrshnaarjuna samvaade bhaktiyogo
naama dvaadaso ‘dhyaayah
In the Upanishad of the Bhagavad Gita, the knowledge of Brahman, the Supreme, the science of Yoga and the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, this is the twelfth discourse designated:
THE YOGA OF DEVOTION
Comments by the blogger:
We have seen before about the saying, “If you take one step toward God, He takes ten steps toward you!”
Well, what is the requirement for salvation or emancipation is Sraddha or Faith in God. But the pulls of this illusory world will try its level best to get us astray. Nature is a great con man or woman! Sri Bhagavan Krishna calls the illusory pulls of this world as ‘mama maayaa!’ or in other words ‘My Illusion!’ So in the face of Maya close up we have no defence or we think nothing will save us and we have no choice and we should surrender our self to Maya. So faith in God must arise in us owing to the working out of our Prarabtha Karma. It is Prarabtha Karma which decides our status and position and rank in the society in each and every birth. Prarabtha Karma is the sum total of our Karma we were party to arise. There are other two types of Karma, Sanchita Karma and Agama Karma. Sanchita Karma is the accumulation of Karma in many incarnations and one small part of the accumulated Karma will join us in each birth and we have to work out both Prarabtha Karma and Sanchinta Karma in the current incarnation. On the other hand, Agami Karma is different from Sanchita Karma. We need not work out in one incarnation all the Sanchita Karma in this incarnation. Agami Karma is the karma which arises because of some of our actions and for which we immediately have to pay by working out in the current incarnation itself. Our Swadharma is determined by our Prarabtha Karma in the earlier incarnation. So the guna or attitude or character of a person in the present incarnation is determined by the sum total of the Prarabtha Karma in the earlier or previous incarnation. So Faith is a matter of Prarabtha Karma. If we worshipped God in whatever form in the preceding birth or incarnation, that facet of our character will roll out in the current incarnation so we will pay greater attention towards the attainment of Oneness with our Maker. This is how one person starts to pray to God and conduct himself as a devotee of stronger nature in comparison with one’s preceding birth or incarnation while another person questions with vigour the very existence of God! In the same family, one person is a God-fearing person and his or her brother or sister is fond of calling himself or herself as a Rationalist! So every devotee evolves through many an incarnation. So we all should have been a Rationalist in one incarnation or the other. This is why we cannot and should not disapprove of those who exhibit no faith in God. For the staunchest Rationalist will worship God in some incarnation. For everyone comes here to the earth’s plane for walking the path of any one of the four kinds of Yoga as described in Srimad Bhagavad Gita stoutly towards God realisation. All sensual pleasures are nothing but various rungs in the ladder and the uppermost rung signifies emancipation. This rule is the rule for all irrespective of one’s religious feelings and faith. All should come back here till total emancipation. Simply because one religion says there is only one chance for Man to work out his salvation it will not stop that man’s reincarnation! If there is only one birth as the two major religions of the world posit God would not have given such an illusory pull to Nature or Prakrity. The more you think along this logic the greater is the realisation that Man has to come back to the earth’s plane repeatedly and not one more re-incarnation but hundreds of incarnations till one arrives at self-realisation. If we have the faith of the kind as posited in verse 20 of this chapter so much better it would be to lose ourselves in glorifying and worshipping the Lord.
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