THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 07, JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION, VERSE NUMBER 18

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 07

JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:

VERSE NUMBER 18

Text in Transliteration:

udaaraah sarva evai ‘te jnani tv aatmai ‘va me matam

aasthitah sa hi yuktaatmaa maam evaa ‘nuttamam gatim

Text in English:

Noble indeed are all these; but the wise man, i deem, to be My very Self. For, steadfast in mind, he is established in Me alone, as the supreme goal.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The devotees are all favourites of the Lord. Among them again, he who practises the devotion of non-separation stands foremost. As the fuel consigned to fire becomes itself fire, the Jnanai absorbed Iswara who is a blaze of jnana, becomes one with Him.

 SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

A master is naturally drawn to a servant who serves him whole-heartedly and to the best of his ability. When their mutual love and fidelity get firm-rooted the master may someday entrust the management of his entire property to the servant. Akin to this act of man, the Lord holds His devotee as His own Self.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

udarah sarva evai’te; noble indeed are all these. We pray to avoid emotional suffering (aartah), gain practical advantages (arthaarthi), obtain intellectual satisfaction (jinaasuh) or gain things, turn prayer into a formal routine of use ig as a mascot we recognize the reality of the religious sense. Prayer is the effort Presence in the world. if we ask, it shall be given to us. Through the exercise of prayer, we kindle a light in our consciousness which shows up our silly pride, our selfish greed, our fears and hopes. It is a means for the building up of an integral personality, a harmony of body, mind and spirit. Slowly we feel that it is degrading to pray for luck in life or success in examinations. We pray that we may know the Divine and be more and more like Him. Prayer is a way of life. Slowly it becomes the practice of the presence of God. It is jnana, integral wisdom, divine life. The jnani who know God as He is, loves God for what He is. He lives in the Divine. God is dear to him as he is dear to God. While the first three types attempt to use God according to their ideas, the knowers belong to God to be used according to His will. Therefore they are the best of them all. It is possible that, when we are in deep distress, we may pray with such single-heartedness and intensity, to be relieved of our agony. If such a prayer be answere, it may be thwarting the purpose of God which we are unable to see in our blindness. The jnanai, however, has the purity of heart and singleness of will to see the plan of God and ask for its realization. “Thy will, not mine, be done.”

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Are not the other three kinds of devotees dear to the Lord? They are. They are all noble souls. But the wise man is exceedingly dear because he has a steady mind: he has fixed his mind on Brahman. He does not want any worldly object, but only the Supreme Being.  He seeks Brahman alone as the supreme goal. He practises Ahamgara Upasana (meditation on the Self as the all). He tries to realise that he is identical with the Supreme Self. Therefore I regard a wise man as my very Self. (Cf/ II.49)

Comments by the blogger:

The stanzas 16 and 17 are repeated here. The essence of those two stanzas gets repeated here. Repletion is the key all the philosophers use as a method of inculcating an idea firmly in the mind of the students. Sri Krishna is a great and the best teacher. And Arjuna is His ardent and best and studious student. Still, repletion is resorted to here and there in the Gita Text. Sri Krishna was not speaking to Arjuna alone. Through him, his best student, He speaks to the entire world. In Gita ideas and truth are stacked one by one sometimes it becomes necessary to repeat one or more stanzas for the sake of the crystallization of the Principles being taught.

Some twenty years ago I started to read the Swami Sivananda’s version. I used to read one sloka or stanza for a day. This went on for two years. It was later I came to understand that that was not an ideal one. It was the time when I had been reading Mahatma Gandhi’s Autobiography, by name, “My Experiments With Truth” for the second time. First time reading had been done when I had been a teenager. I came across a passage in  Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography that while he was in South Africa he used to memorize several Slokas while he was getting a shave! This inspired me to not just read one stanza of Gita at bedtime, but I must allow several hours to Gita every day. Then only I came to have the hang of Srimat Bhagavat Gita proper. Soon it became an adventure. I took to the study of one chapter every day. This helped me a lot. But I still had my own doubts with regard to fifty or so stanzas. Then I chanced upon a commentary by Swami Sidbhavananda of Thiruchrapally. Without a second thought, I bought the book in Tamil. I read and re-read and all my doubts had been sufficiently answered in the able commentary. Then, from the same volume, I came to know that it had an English version! I went to Thiruchi for the specific purpose of getting one. For I couldn’t wait for a book post! Several times I read the English version. The beauty of the language made such an impact that I started to read the pages aloud for hours together! Then I made it my purpose to get a new commentary as and when I chanced upon one. Thus Dr.S.Radhakrishnan’s able commentary came to my hand. I am a huge fane of Dr.S.Radhakrishnan. I had read his, “The Hindu View of Life” several times. Now I have a dozen commentaries on my shelf.

Bhagavat Gita, The Upanishads and The Brahma Sutra are called the trinity of Hinduism. These three works form the sum total of the Philosophy of Hinduism. Matters contained in other works must be substituted to these three work.

But those who lead a busy life, and the housewives who work without any weekend holidays need only study the Srimat Bhagavat Gita. Because it is the essence of all the Upanishads. The Upanishads are an improvement of the highly allegorical Vedas. Those who have no time and always busy must allow time for a forty minutes’ walking and forty minutes’ study and perusal of Srimat Bhagavat Gita.

(Today I strayed away for too long a time. I sincerely regret the same)

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