THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 12
VERSE NUMBER 02
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
sri bhagavaan uvaacha
may aavesya mano ye maam nitya yuktaa upaasate
sraddhayaa parayo ‘petaas te me yuktatamaa mataah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
sri bhagavaan uvaacha = Sri Bhagavan said:
mayi = on me: aavesya = fixing: manah = the mind: ye = who: maam = me: nitya yuktaah = ever steadfast: upaasate = worship: sraddhayaa = with faith: parayaa = (with) supreme: upetaah = endowed: te = these: me = of me: yukta tamaah = the best versed in yoga: mataah = (in my) opinion.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
The Blessed Lord said:
Those who have fixed their minds on Me, and who, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme Sraddha, worship Me—them do I consider perfect in yoga.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The Lord is having the cosmos for His physical body. He is Parameswara, Saguna Brahman. He rules remaining immanent in the universe. He is the Lord of the yogis, the Omniscient. His devotees are they who have dedicated themselves to His worship. They are free from attachment, aversion and angularities. The thought of the Lord alone dominates their hearts day and night. They live for the service of the Lord. They are therefore perfect yogis.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
It is quite all right to meditate on God viewing Him as formless. But do not entertain the thought that only your own conception of God is correct and that the beliefs of the others are erroneous. To meditate on Him as with form is also a method. You persevere staunchly in your path until you reach the realization of God. After that, you will come to know that all paths lead to the same goal.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
The teacher answers decisively that those, who worship God in His manifested form, have greater yoga knowledge.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Those devotees who fix their minds on Me in the Cosmic Form, the Supreme Lord and worship Me, ever harmonised and with intense and supreme faith, regarding Me as the Lord of all the masters of Yoga, who are free from attachment and other evil passions—these, in My opinion, are the best versed in Yoga.
They spend their days and nights in worshipping Me. They have no other thoughts except those of Myself. They live for Me only. Therefore it is indeed proper to say that they are the best Yogins.
Are not the others, those who contemplate the imperishable, formless, attributeless, qualityless Supreme Brahman, the best of Yogins? Listen now to what I have to say regarding them.
Comments by the blogger:
The reason why the Lord of Gita eulogises Bhakti Yoga against Jnana Yoga is not far to seek; Bhakti Yoga comes naturally to all. Even an unlettered and ignorant man can indulge in it if he has come to this world with the suitable karmic effect.
Why do I say that men and women must have a suitable karmic effect to indulge in adoration of the Lord?
For every motive and urge, we have deepset at heart are the result of the suitable karmic effect.
There is great joy and peace of mind in surrendering everything to the Lord and seek His company for the sake of itself!
In this Universe, there are too many things and phenomenal happenings which go to prove the contention of both the Believer and Non-believer! For us to seek the feet of the Lord we must have had the inclination in our previous birth. If we indeed had had such yearnings for the society of the Lord of the Universe in our previous birth the Samskaras (mental impressions) to that effect will force us to surrender to the Lord and daily offer worship to Him and find joy in such things on the spiritual side.
For a believer, even the daily happenings like the sun-up and sun-down are enough to force the devotee into rapturous Samadhi! Everything and happening, for such a blessed man, is in glorification of the Lord. A staunch devotee can easily asunder the thick cobwebs of ajnana or ignorance and see God and God alone in everything in this Universe. For such devotees, there is a law of Nature that forces everyone to act in a particular way in their life. They see a set pattern to the flux of this Universe. The true devotee surrenders his all for the sake of the Lord. He does not covet any worldly thing and for him, every day dawns so that he could offer uninterrupted homage to the Lord of the Universe. For he has fixed his mind on the Lord of this Universe. His faith in the Lord is unshakable and steadfast. The sun-up and sun-down, the breeze and the hurricane, the day and the night, wealth and poverty, the beings and non-beings, famine and abundance, good and bad, every happening of this Universe carry the message that God is in every one of them and the true devotee does not need any other justification and or proof about the existence of the Lord of the World and every happening carries His ineffable signature and impression. Because there is God we are able to have the conviction at the time of going to bed that we will come out of the sleep to witness the glory of the Lord in yet another sun-up. The whole world is the body of the Lord. God fills up and pervasively inheres in everything, being and non-being. So the true devotee does not go around the world seeking proof of the existence of God.
On the other hand, for the non-believer, everything about this world is an abundant proof that it is foolish to consider there is a god or God behind the happening of this world. The non-believer calls himself a Rationalist! He is full of human pride and goes around the world trying to teach the Believers how everything in this Universe happens naturally! There is no need for a God, he says, to run the world. The world and the teeming number of planets in the sky and innumerous stars came into being as an accident. Life on the Earth goes on its own. Life itself started on the earth by way of an accident. It is foolish to say the planetary conjunctions and other Cosmic Acts like the thunder, the earthquake, tsunami and other colossal happenings and occurrence in Nature happen for which there is scientific reasons and explanations. The Big Bang was the First Accident and all the planets of the Universe were the result of the Big Bang and the innumerous planets are stationed in the wide limitless sky by mutual attraction and force exerted by them. The believer is a dreamer and a fool. There is no justification for the existence of a God. There are well-laid scientific reasons and explanations for each phenomenal happening in the Universe. THIS IS HOW THE RATIONALISTS’ ARGUMENT GOES.
The Lord of Gita wants to fill the hearts of the Believers with peace and spiritual poise; He says that the Yogi who has fixed his mind on Him, and who, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme Sraddha, worship Him—him the Lord considers as a perfected Yogi.
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