THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 07
JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:
VERSE NUMBER 30
Text in Transliteration:
saadhibhootaadhidaivam maam saadhiyajnaam cha ye viduh
prayaanakaale ‘pi cha maam te vidur yuktachetasah
Text in English:
Those who realize Me in the Adhibhuta, in the Adhidaiva and in the Adhiyajna, they of steadfast mind realize Me even in the hour of death.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
The details of the adhibhoota, adhidaiva and adhiyajna come in the next chapter. The way of the world is to be scared, confused and frightened in the hour of death. But the yogi accepts death calmly and as a matter of course. It has its due place in Nature. A true study of Nature develops into devotion to the Lord. A yogi’s knowledge and devotion reveal themselves best in the hour of death. His God-realization is at its zenith when he drops the body in death.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
We are not asked to remember at the time of departure certain speculative doctrines, but to know Him in all aspects, trust Him and worship Him.
Certain new terms are used and Arnjuna in the next chapter asks for their explanations. The Supreme is to be known not only in Itself but also in Its manifestations in nature, in objective and subjective phenomena, in the principle of works and sacrifice. The teacher explains them all briefly in the next chapter.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
They who are steadfast in mind, who have taken refuge in Me, who know Me as the knowledge of elements in the physical plane, as the knowledge of the gods in the celestial or mental plane, as the knowledge of the sacrifice in the realm of sacrifice, are not affected by death. They do not lose their memory. They continue to keep up the consciousness of Me even at the time of their departure from this world. Those who worship Me along with these three know Me even at the time of death. (Cf. VIII. 25) (This chapter is also known by the names Vijnana Yoga and Jnana Yoga also)
Comments of the blogger:
Death is part of life. It is a release from all our worldly strivings. It is a release. It is a blessing in disguise. Death is an equalizer. It does not leave anyone untouched. But it touches everyone with a golden hand. There is nothing wrong or faulty in the scheme of the Universe. Every time, every micro-second death takes place in our system. We do not even know the fact. That is we do not even conscious of this fact. Unless we are conscious of a fact, we cannot be credited with the knowledge thereof.
Every micro-second tissues die and new tissues replace them.
Up to a certain stage, we call this constant change in us as growth. After thirty or thirty-five years of life, more tissues die that the birth of new tissues. But upto twenty-five new tissues outnumber the number of tissues that die.
Every year, great leaders celebrate their incidence of birth, not the fact of death in store.
We must salute our Master for having given us this innings as human beings. And those who spend a worshipful life or peruse holy Texts like Gita with unassailable and staunch conviction and those who live a life of sacrifice in their own even insignificant ways must of necessary necessity come back here as HUMAN BEINGS ONLY. Ther need not be any doubt about that fact.
But certain people are not afraid of Death itself as they are of the pain related to it. And those who are bedridden before death, have a nightmarish life. And others want to not go like that. They want to go in a flash!
But the great Guru Maharaj of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa went through a period of pain. He used to tell his suffering disciples that there are two entities in his body like in everyone’s, and one is the body and the other is Kali or the Goddess. There is no death or disease for the Goddess in him, but only to his body. Then why should the disciples despair of his bodily condition? Ramana Maharishi also had a wart on his hand. It could be a cancerous one. And if it was, it should have been very painful indeed. But an English man who was present at the time of the great saint’s death, and wrote later about how the sky reacted just before the saint’s death. There were all of the sudden thick banks of clouds gathered in the sky. The sky which was clear and blue and the sun was shining brightly, this clouding over happened! But the saint was to have suffered because of the painful growth on his hand.
Are we greater than them?
And what of the Mahatma Gandhi? All of a sudden into his frail body sent three bullets. And he fell on the ground. But his lips were murmuring, “Hey, Ram” several times. So when the bullets were lodged in his chest the Mahatma had time only to God, and kept chanting, “Oh, Rama!”
Why can’t we chant the name of the Lord at the time of our glorious departure? We can. If we make a practice of chanting His or Her Holy Name, even at the time of death we may chant the Holy Name at the time of death.
The attitude of treating death as an inauspicious one should be changed first. That doesn’t mean that we should be ever in expectation of death. But we should indulge in great action throughout our life. And in between this daily exertions, we should not only allot time for the daily prayer but we should freely chant the holy name of our Lord.
Sri Krishna says death is like changing the old tattered dress for a set of new one. When this body becomes old and utterly useless and even to go to the kitchen to fetch a tumbler of water to drink is like an adventure, we must enjoy our senility. If we are careful, our body may become old and tattered but we could keep a razor-sharp mind.
In recent times I witness this factor in Cho Ramasamy, the late founder of a fine weekly, Thuglak. Before his death, he wrote the editorial column and the section in which he would write answers to the readers' questions. Both had not come from an old and senile mind. Indeed till the last breath, his mind was razor sharp! He was a staunch upholder of devotion to the Lord. He has left behind him numerous books and two of them were bulky volumes on Ramayana and Mahabharata. And another one of great merit is about the Hindu Scriptures.
We have read Geetanjali by Ravindranath Tagore. The author says please I am a flower, honour me with a pain and pluck me! Subramaniya Bharati, the Revolutionary Tamil Poet of the twentieth century writes and sends a memo to Kala or the God of Death to come up to him so that he could tread on Him a little!
By fearing death, we die every time we get gas pain in the chest. But even the real and massive heart attack could be rendered into an adventure by howling one last time His Holy Name: Narayana! Or Namahshivaya!
Iti srimad bhagavadgeetaasoopanisatsu brahmavidhaayaam yogsaastre sree krshnaarjuna samvaade jnaanavijnaana yogo naama saptamo ‘dhyaayah
In the Upanishadof the Bhagavad Gita, the knowledge of Brahman, the Supreme, the science of Yoga and the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, this is the seventh discourse designated: THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION.
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kaviriyinselvan.blogspot.com
raguramkarikalanandthetimemachin.blogspot.com
raguramramayanaforchildren.blogspot.com
myresourcefulaunt.blogspot.com
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