THE HOLY GITA. CHAPTER NUMBER 07, JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION, VERSE NUMBER 21

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 07

JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:

VERSE NUMBER 21

Text in Transliteration:

yo-yo yam-yaam tanum bhaktah

       sraddhayaa ‘rchitum icchati

tasya-tasyaa ‘chalaam sraddhaam

        taam eva vidadhaamy aham

Text in English:

Whatever form any devotee with faith wishes to worship, I make that faith of his steady.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Children are very particular to have sweetmeats shaped to their liking, such as a cow, a horse or an elephant. The confectioner supplies them sweets according to their tastes. The way of the Lord is more generous than that. His grace descends suited to the attainments of individuals. The worship of the little gods is not altogether erroneous or sinful as some theologians would have it. It is but a stepping stone to the adoration of the Almighty. The Lord therefore provides the ways and means for the ordinary people to evolve stage by stage in their paths of devotion. Chapter four, stanza eleven and chapter nine, stanza twenty-three may also be looked into for clarification.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The Supreme Lord confirms the faith of each and grants the reward each seeks. Exactly as far as the soul has risen in its struggle does God stoop to meet. Even seers who were so profoundly contemplative as Gautama the Buddha and Shankara did not repudiate the popular belief in gods. They were conscious of the inexpressibility of the Supreme Godhead as well as the infinite number of possible manifestations. Every surface derives its soil from the depths even as every shadow reflects the nature of the substance. Besides, all worship elevates. No matter what we revere, so long as our reverence is serious, it helps progress.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Tanu or body is used here in the sense of a Devata (god).

The Lord, the indweller of all beings, makes the faith of that devotee who worships the lesser divinities, which is born of the Samskaras (latent tendencies) of his previous birth, steady and unswerving.

Comments by the blogger:

It is but natural if you keenly watch the general and unsaid Law of the Universe.

When the whole universe is filled to the brim by the Lord and none other than the Lord, let an ordinary man worship a goat, or a cow, or some electric gadgets like the ceiling fan or some electronic gadgets like a smartphone!

A person came to Sri Ramakrishna and said he could not meditate peacefully even for a minute without his mind straying away. The saint asked him if he has no faith in God and His power to deliver. The man said that he fully believed in the Lord’s power to deliver. But still, he could not concentrate. Day after day the problem was assuming a monstrous proportion. Then Sri Ramakrishna asked the man if there was one being he loved the most. The man immediately answered that he loved his goat. Then the saint said with no hesitation to concentrate on his goat from that day. Within a few days, he returned back, a fully restored person, and said to the saint, “Now I can sit for hours without any problem and meditate on my goat!” After that man went away, the great saint said to others that everyone should learn to meditate on the object most lovable to him. Since this man loves his goat let him meditate on it. “But, sir,” somebody said, “It doesn’t sound good to me. After all, it is a goat!” The saint replied, “Let him meditate on the goat first, and when he has mastered the art of meditation and concentration, the object of meditation could easily be substituted. Instead of the goat, he may be asked to meditate on the Lord who has created that goat!”

It is basically very simple. A man/woman can meditate almost on anything. The only condition is it should not be an object that goads him to anger or lust. Even an innocuous thing like an apple may be taken as an object of meditation. But if a person finds it not easy to meditate on the apple as the moment he closed his eyes and started meditation, he wants to eat the apple! Then the apple is not an ideal object for him.

The whole Universe is the body of the Lord for those who have not improved much on the spiritual path, and a beautiful thought by the ineffable Lord for those who have improved enough on their spiritual quest.

“Whatever form any devotee with faith wishes to worship, I make that faith of his steady,” is one of the central messages of Srimat Bhagavat Gita.

Only the Lord of Gita could say, “But those whose discrimination has been led astray by this or that desire go to other gods, following this or that rite, constrained by their own nature,” in verse number 20 and say, “Whatever form any devotee with faith wishes to worship, I make that faith of his steady,” in the very next stanza!

The reason is not far to discern.

Srimat Bhagavat Gita is not for imbeciles! It is better for the weak-kneed person not to make a study of Gita for he would only become a hypocrite and a defeated and arrogant person.

“Knowledge is strength” is an Upanishadic saying. It is true in converse too: that is, IGNORANCE BREEDS FEAR!

Profound faith is equal to knowledge in some cases, especially with regard to God and worshipping Him. We should have unassailable faith in Gita and develop a strong belief that every syllable therein has come from the Lord’s lips. Then we would have no problem with stanzas like the previous one.

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