THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 32, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 32

Text in Transliteration:

mam hi paartha vyapaasritya ye ‘pi syuh ;aa;ayonayah

striyo vaisyaas tathaa soodraas te ‘pi yaanti paraam gatim

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

Maam = me; hi = indeed; paartha = O Partha (Prita or O son of Kunti); vyapaasritya = taking refuge in; ye = who; api = even; syuh: = may be; paapayonayah: = of mediocre birth; striyah: = women; vaisyaah; = Vaisyas; tathaa = also; soodraah: = Sudras; te = they; api = also; yaanti = attain; paraam = the supreme; gatim = goal.

Text in English:

For those who take refuge in Me, O Partha, though they be of inferior birth—women, Vaisyas and Sudras—even they attain the Supreme Goal.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Papa yoni ought not to be misconstrued as sinful birth or wicked birth. It simply means imperfect birth, quite common in Nature. It may be found that in all species the feminine body is less perfect and less majestic than the masculine. And in the human, the mind is more important than the physique. Women as a class are less developed in mind than men, though exceptions may be found. They only are classified as Vaisyas and Sudras who are not fully developed in mind. The inferior birth, therefore, is a statement of fact. Even the mediocre mentioned herein are competent to reach Godhood. No human being is debarred from this birthright.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

When there is a hurricane, it is not possible to distinguish one tree from another. Similarly when there is the hurricane of bhakti in the mind, distinctions such as sex, cast, colour and race vanish of their own accord.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The message of the Gita is open to all without distinction of race, sex or caste. This verse is not to be regarded as supporting the social customs debarring women and Sudras from Vedic study. It refers to the view prevalent at the time of the composition of the Gita. The Gita does not sanction these social rules.(Note:1) The Gita gets beyond racial distinctions in its emphasis on spiritual values. Its gospel of love is open to all men and women, persons of all castes as well as those outside caste. (Note:2)

Note:1

In the early times, there was the tendency to look upon the non-Hindus as barbarians, though this attitude of superiority was not confined to the Hindus. The ancient Greeks looked upon foreigners as barbarians. The Roman general, Quntilian Varus said of the inhabitants of Germania: “It is true, they are men, but except the voice and limbs of the body they have nothing of human beings in them.” The French philosopher, Montesquieu (1689-1755), said of the Negroes: “One cannot well imagine that God who is so wise should have put a soul, moreover an immortal soul, into an entirely black body. It is impossible to think that these people are human beings.”

Note:2

It is a matter of deep humiliation and shame to every sensible Hindu to think that sometimes attempts are made to justify untouchability. The Buddha welcomed antyajas into his sangha. In the Ramayana, one who will now be regarded as an untouchable took Rama across the Ganges in his boat. The great teachers of bhakti, Saiva and Vaisnava, have striven for equality and proclaimed that believers in God, whatever their origin, are the best of the twiceborn. Candaalopi dvijasresthah: hari bhaktiparaayanaat. Among the followers of Caitanya were Hindus and Moslems, robbers and prostitutes.    

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Chandalas or outcastes are of a sinful birth. Women and Sudras are debarred by social rules from the study of the Vedas. What is wanted is devotion. There is no need for family traditions. The elephant Gajendra remembered Me with devotion and attained Me in spite of his being an animal. The lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile can attain Me if they have faith and devotion, if they sing and repeat My Name and if they think of Me always, and think of no worldly object.

Prahlada was a demon and yet by his devotion forced Me to incarnate as Narasimha. Birth is immaterial. Devotion is everything. The Gopis attained Me through their devotion. Kamsa and Ravana attained Me through fear. Sisupala reached Me through hatred, Narada, Dhruva, Akrura, Suka, Sanatkumara and others attained Me through their devotion. Nandan, a man of low caste but a great devotee of Lord Siva, had direct vision of the Lord in Chidambaram in South India. Raidas, a cobbler, was a great devotee. In the spiritual life or in the Adhyatmic sphere all the external distinctions of caste, colour and creed disappear altogether, Sabari, though a Bhilini (a tribe) by birth was a great devotee of Lord Rama.

Hindu scriptures are full of such instances. Hinduism does not restrict salvation to any one group or section of humanity. All can attain God if they have devotion.

Comments by the blogger:

Dr.S.Radhakrishnan in his preface to his “Principal Upanishads” says that any writer however great can only express his thought in the idiom current at the time. Sri Krishna does not discriminate against women. But women being weaker sex and with their beauty, even today are treated as a luxury for men’s enjoyment. In some cases, they themselves think that way. Even in America where the highest form of sexual freedom is available, there are many crimes against women. And their beauty is used in all films belonging to English, American, Indian, and in other countries as sexual objects. In all films certified as Adults Only or ‘A’, only women are used as sexual objects and there is overexposure of the beautiful bodies in such films. Even now if a woman comes up on her own in life, mudslingers are around who connect her to some powerful men. So no one should think women are given the second place along with Vaisyas and Sudras in Gita. Sri Krishna only speaks about what was in vogue at the time. But He gives places for the women, Vaisyas and Sudras along with others who are devoted to Him and promises that they would attain their goal.

So in Gita all are treated as equal before God, which is a good message.

In today’s context, the Lord would not have used the words, women, Vaisyas and Sudras because there are only Vaisyas today. We all have become Vaisyas in today’s context. And women pilots and women strike bombers are there. Women police even in Tamil Nadu are rendering great service to the society. The end of the 19^th century and the earlier part of the 20^th century were marked by the Women’s Lib Movements. Women are no more discriminated against men. But there is much misuse of women in the film world all over the world. Women themselves seem to think they will be satisfied only if they use their beauty and attraction in enslaving their men. Great writers like Jeyagandhan in Tamil and other languages have written about this.

Women should come out of this mindset.

Otherwise, women have found full liberation in the present times and context.

So what is important is there is no bar to devotees. Persons, men and women, belonging to all classes and castes should become great devotees. Thus Devotion like Time is a great Equalizer.

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 31, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 31

Text in Transliteration:

Kshipram bhavati dharmaatmaa sasvacchaantim nigacchati

Kaunteya pratijaaneehi na me bhaktah pranasati

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

Kshipram = soon; bhavati = (he) becomes; dharmaatmaa = righteous; sasvat = eternal; saantim = peace; nigacchati = attains to; kaunteya = O son of Kunti; pratijaaneehi = know; na = not; me = my; bhaktah: = devotee; pranasyati = is destroyed;

Text in English:

Soon does he become a man of righteousness and obtains lasting peace. O Kaunteya, know for certain that My devotee never perishes.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Many a sinner has within the span of a single life-time after conversion changed into the divine. The oldest case known to us is that of the Valmiki. An illustrious recent convert is Girish Chandra Ghose who after contacting Sri Ramakrishna changed quickly from profligacy to purity.

The Pandava brothers themselves bear testimony to the fact that the devotees of the Lord never get lost. All the five of them had unflinching devotion to Sri Krishna. They lost their empire; they were exposed to many dangers; untold trials and tribulations came upon them; the life of long exile in the forest was painful. But they did not falter in their faith in God. Adversity only increased their love of the Lord. They were blessed in the end with sreyas, the best in life.

The case of the mediocre is taken into account in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

 Once we place ourselves in the hands of the Divine, we cannot fall into utter darkness.

Cp. Rama’s statement: “To him who seeks My protection even once and requests help of Me saying ‘I am yours’ I shall give him fearlessness from all beings. This is My resolve.”

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Listen, this is the truth, O Arjuna; you may proclaim that My devotee who has sincere devotion to Me, who has offered his inner soul to Me never perishes.

Comments by the blogger:

O, son of Kunti means any ordinary and average person born of the womb of a woman can turn to me after a stint as a sinner. And any ordinary average person once turned to me shall never perish. There has been a set up in Nature. Even a sinner, or doer of actions that has distanced him from the Lord and the chance of redeeming himself, once turn to me for help and shows undistracted devotion as per the earlier verse, shall never perish. Turning to the Lord for a sinner is not so very easy. And once that happens, the erstwhile sinner is very much devoted to the Lord. And he is repentant. And he always thinks in terms of his having been a sinner. He would be very careful. For example, the minor boy who had pierced the body of Nirbhaya with a sharp instrument; actually he has been released and rehabilitated. This has been done in a way that nobody knows his whereabouts. Let’s take his case for example and assume him having really turned to God, then he would rue the act of raping and killing the wonderful girl. Till the life is left in him he will be like this. Always rueing the way he had acted and how escaped the noose. And if his repentance is real and genuine and not bogus and external only, then there is a real chance for his spiritual rehabilitation. He shall not perish.

The Lord of the Gita has made some promises in the course of his discourse for the whole humanity. Whenever there is an increase of Adharma and decrease of Dharma, to punish the wicked and save the good, He will come to the earth’s plane at every Age.

Here He proclaims that His devotee is never destroyed.

If Nirbhaya’s killer can hope for such protection from the Lord, how much more a chance we stand for our emancipation. These two verses make our faith in God redoubtable.   

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 09, VERSE 30, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OR THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 30

Text in Transliteration:

Api chet suduraachaaro bhajate maam ananyabhaak

Saadhur eva sa mantavyah samyag vyavasito hi sah

Text in English:

Even if a man of the most sinful conduct worships Me with undeviating devotion, he must be reckoned as righteous, for he has rightly resolved.

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

api = even; chet = if; suduraachaarah = a very wicked person; bhajate = worships; maam = me; ananyabhaak = with devotion to none else; saadhuh: = righteous; eva = verily; sah: = he; mantavyah: = should be regarded; samyak = rightly; vyavasitah: = resolved: hi = indeed; sah: = he;

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The dirtiest water can be brought back to its original pure state through distillation. Even while in dirt its innate element is not lost. Man’s case is much more definite than that of water. There is no such thing as eternal damnation to the sinner as some religions would have it. The unpardonable sin is a misnomer. Salvation of mankind is the supreme plan of the Divine. The more man turns to God the purer he becomes. His mind gets action then follows in the trail of his purified thought. He emerges as one reclaimed in virtue.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

How to wean people from worldliness to godliness, thought the twin saints—Nityananda and Gourenga. They struck upon the plan of preaching that the chanting of the Lord’s name would bring in to them more of wealth and earthly enjoyments. Attracted by the offer, people in large numbers joined the saints in singing and chanting the glory of God. The divine ecstasy that emanated from that holy act made people forget all vulgar pleasures and turned their minds more Godward. God is the divine talisman for all worldly evils.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

“By abandoning evil ways in his external life and by the power of his internal right resolution.” Shankara. Cp. also “If he repents after he commits the sin, he is freed from sin; if he resolves that he will never commit the sin again, he will be purified.” The evil of the past deeds cannot be washed away except by his turning to God with undivided heart. Cp. Baudhaayana Dharma Sutra: “Lit one feel daily repentant in mind, reflecting over misdeeds committed and practising austerity and vigilance. By this will he be freed from sin.” Karma never binds completely. The sinner in the lowest depths of degradation has the light in him which he cannot put out, though he may try to stifle it and turn away from it utterly. God holds us, fallen though we be, by the roots of our being and is ready to send His rays into our dark and rebellious hearts. The very consciousness of our imperfection and sin betrays the pressure of the Divine on our hearts. Cp. Tukaram: “Fallen and fallen, thrice fallen I am; but do Thou raise me by Thy power. I have neither purity of heart nor a faith firmly set at Thy feet. I am born of sin. How often shall I repeat it? Says Ruka.” Again: “I am void of understanding, needy and worse than needy. I cannot steady my mind; I cannot stay my wayward senses. I have exhausted effort; peace and rest are far from me. I have offered Thee perfect faith; I have laid my life at Thy feet. Do now as Thou wilt, I can only look to Thee. O God, I trust in Thee, I cling firmly to Thy feet. Tukay says, It is for Thee to deal with my efforts.” The publican, in the parable, prays from the depth of his heart, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

This verse does not mean that there is an easy escape from the consequences of our deeds. We cannot prevent the cause from producing its effect. Any arbitrary interference with the order of the world is not permitted. When the sinner turns to God with undistracted devotion, a new cause is introduced. His redemption is conditional on his repentance. Repentance, as we have noticed, is a genuine change of heart and includes contrition or sorrow for the past sin and a decision to prevent a repetition of it in the future. When once the resolution is adopted, the transformation of the lower into the higher is steadily effected. If we believe in human effort, the growth may be hard. Error, imperfection and self-will are difficult to overcome, but when the soul gives up its ego and opens itself to the Divine, the Divine takes up the burden and lifts the soul into the spiritual plane. Tulsidas says: “A piece of charcoal loses its blackness only when fire penetrates it.” There are no unforgivable sins.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Even if the most sinful worships Him with undivided heart, he too must indeed be deemed righteous for he has made the holy resolution to give up the evil ways of his life. Rogue Ratnakar became Valmiki by his holy resolution. Jagal and Madhai also became righteous devotees. Mary Magdalene, a woman of ill-fame became a pious woman. Sin vanishes when thoughts of God arise in the mind. Chandrayana and Kricchra Vratas will remove only certain particular sins but the remembrance of the Lord, thoughts of the Supreme Being, Japa and meditation, and Abheda Brahma Chintana (contemplation of Brahman with a non-dualistic or Aham Brahmasmi or I am the Absolute attitude) will destroy the sins committed by a person even in hundred crores of Kalpas or ages.

By abandoning the evil ways in his external life and by the force of his internal right resolution, he becomes righteous and attains eternal peace. (Cf. IV.36)   

Comments by the blogger:

As we have seen many times, Samskara is the minute unit of measurement in God’s hands. The action of the whole universe is can be measured by the Lord. It is automatic. God need not necessarily exert Himself. He can easily tell how many hairs we have individually on our heads. Or He can tell how many grains of sands are there on a particular beach. Even the passing thought and imagination are factored in. While a person of horrendous sin takes to God and glorification of Him after a period of utter repentance the heavily loaded negative Samskara units are first, over a period of time, neutralized, and then the continuous prayer and repentance and glorification of the Lord and chanting His all purifying Name starts the accumulation of the positive samskaras. Thus the past sinner has turned into a great soul. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 29, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 29

Text in Transliteration:

samo ‘ham sarvabhooteshu na me dveshyo ‘sti na priyah

ye bhajanti tu maam bhaktyaa mayi te tesu chaa ‘py aham

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

samah= the same; aham= I; sarva bhooteshu= in all beings; na= not; me= to me; dveshyah= hateful; asti= is; na= not; priyah= dear; ye= who; bhajanti= worship; tu=but; maam= me; bhaktyaa= with devotion; mayi= in me; te= they; teshu = in them; cha= and; api= also; aham= I

Text in English:

I am the same to all beings; to Me there is none hateful, none dear. But those who worship Me with devotion, they are in Me and I also am in them.

COMMENTARY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The sunlight falls equally on all things, good and bad; but its effect and utilization vary according to the nature of those things. The very presence of the sun is seen in a mirror because of its fitness. Though the all-pervading Lord is in the hearts of all, His presence is patent only in the pure heart of the devotee. As one gives oneself to God, one gets purified and God’s presence in that one becomes evident.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

God is in all beings; but all beings are not in God. And that is the cause of their suffering.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

God has no friends nor foes. He is impartial. He does not damn any nor elect any by His capricious will. The only way to win His love is by faith and devotion and each must tread the path by himself.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The Lord has an even outlook towards all. He regards all living beings alike. None He has condemned, non has He favoured. He is the enemy of none. He is the partial love of none. He does not favour some and frown on others. The egoistic man only has created a wide gulf between himself and the Supreme Being by his wrong attitude. The Lord is closer to him than his own breath, nearer than his hands and feet.

I am like fire. Just as fire removes cold from those who draw near it but does not remove the cold from those who keep away from it, even so I bestow My grace on My devotees, but not owing to any sort of attachment on My part. Just as the light of the sun, though pervading everywhere,  is reflected only in a clean mirror but not in a pot, so also, the Supreme Lord, present everywhere, manifest Myself only in those persons from whose minds all kinds of impurities (which have accumulated there on account of ignorance) have been removed by their devotion.

The sun has neither attachment for the mirror nor hatred for the pot. The Kalpavriksha has neither hatred nor love for people. It bestows the desired objects only on those who go near it. (Cf. VII.17; XII.14 and 20)

Now hear the glory of devotion to Me.

Comments by the blogger:

The State of Tamil Nadu in India has been ruled by Dravidian Political Parties from the time the Congress Party lost in the election some forty years ago. During the early rule of the Dravidian Political Party, namely, the Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam (the DMK) the colourful picture of Lord Rama garlanded by a string of old chapels and shoes was mounted on a van and taken out on a public procession on the Anna Salai Road, with two persons on either side of the picture giving shoe beatings to the Lord Rama in the Picture. This happened in the erstwhile Madras (now Chennai )! So Lord Rama was given a thorough shoe beating and taken out in a procession in the very capital of the State!

The persons involved in the procession and the organizer of the procession and the people running the then State Government were not punished by the Lord. That procession hurt the sentiments of millions of people in Tamil Nadu. They were not specially favoured by the Lord. As Srimat Swami Sivananda points out, “The Lord has an even outlook towards all. He regards all living beings alike. None He has condemned, none has He favoured.”

According to Srimat Swami Chidbhavananda, the sunlight falls equally on all beings, good and bad; but its effect and utilization vary according to the nature of those things.

According to Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, He does not damn any nor elect any by His capricious will.

The Lord’s graces are available to all and refused to none. But it is the devotees who harvest the blessings. His graces are available just for the asking. But we ask with deep faith and unflinching conviction in His Power of giving greater is the harvest. Then we can scale the spiritual ladder with His Guidance. And ultimately we can shed the body for good and need not come back here to the earthly plane. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 28, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIYDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 28

Text in Transliteration:

Subhaasubhaphalair evem mokshyase karmabandhanaih

Samnyaasa yoga yuktaatmaa vimukto maam upaishyasi

Text in English:

 Thus shall you be free from the bondage of actions yielding good and bad results. With the mind firmly set in the yoga of renunciation and liberated you shall come to Me.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The good and bad results of karma contribute for the continuity of the cycle of births. But when they are all offered to the lord, they become as ineffective as the burnt up seeds, unable to sprout any further. The yogi is in this way freed from bondage.

The conflict between engaging oneself in action and emerging from it gets reconciled in sanyaasa yoga (the yoga of renouncement) all selfishness is renounced; that way it is sanyasa. Work is vigorously done for the sake of the Lord; that way it is yoga. Such a yogi is a Jivan-mukta while yet in body; he becomes a videha mukta when he drops his body.

The way of the world i s to commingle with those drawn together and to be indifferent to the others. Is not Iswara also behaving like the worldly? His real position is herein explained in the next stanza.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

What should you do when you are in this world? You should dedicate your everything to Iswara. You take refuge in Him. Then you will have no misery whatsoever. You will forthwith get to the Lord.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

By such giving and consecration, the whole life of the soul is given to the service of the Supreme and the ego is freed from its barriers and its acts no more bind the soul.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Evam; Thus—when you thus offer everything to Me.

Renunciation of the fruits of all works is Sannyasa. He who is equipped with the mind steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation is Sannyasayogayuktatma. The act of offering everything unto the Lord constitutes the Yoga of renunciation. It is also Yoga as it is an action. With the mind endowed with renunciation and Yoga thou shalt be freed from good and evil results while yet living and thou shalt come unto Me when this body falls.

An objector says, “Then the Lord has love and hatred as He confers His grace on His devotees only and not on others.”

The answer is, “Not so. The Lord is impartial and is beyond love and hatred. His grace flows towards all. But the devotee receives it freely as he has opened his heart to the reception of His grace”.

This is explained in the next verse.

Comments by the blogger:

The Lord says in verse 27, “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you gift away, whatever austerity you practise, O Kaunteya, do it as an offering to Me.”

By addressing Arjuna as Kaunteya or the son of Kunti, the Lord means to say that any ordinary average person born of the womb of a woman can make such an offering to Him.

In Verse 28 the Lord says by offering all acts to the Lord, one will be free from the bondage of actions yielding good and bad results. This action of the consecration of one’s acts to the Lord is known as Sanyasa Yoga or the Yoga of renunciation.

The modern example that readily comes to mind is Mahatma Gandhi’s life.

Right from the beginning, the Mahatma was wedded to Truth and non-violence. But his offering of all actions to Lord Rama can be inferred from many examples from his life. While still young he refused to take the jewelry offered as presents to him while he was leaving South Africa to India. While his wife, Kasturba Gandhi proffered the point that the marriage of their daughters must be taken into consideration and the jewelry were presents for the Mahatma’s good work in South Africa. But Mahatma Gandhi was vehement in refusing to use it for his family.

Another important occasion was when India won independence. At that midnight, when all the important persons belonging to the Congress Party was in New Delhi, Mahatma, the main architect of India’s independence was elsewhere to put down clashes between the Hindus and Muslims! Such was his renouncement of the fruits of his activated actions!

We can by gradation try to offer the day today acts to God. It is not an easy thing. The Prakriti’s main job is to beguile us by exerting on us strong pulls towards worldliness. Sanyasa Yoga is a great thing. But, by calling Arjuna in verse 27 as the son of Kunti, the Lord means to say with some effort it is feasible for all the devotees. Let us try. If we make a beginning in the present birth it would become reinforced in next births and we will be offering more and more of our actions to the Lord with no intent on securing the fruits thereof.

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 09, VERSE 27, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 27

Text in Transliteration:

Yat karoshi yad asnaasi yaj juhoshi dadaasi yat

Yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kurushva mad arpanam

Text in English:

Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever you gift away, whatever austerity you practise, O Kaunteya, do it as an offering to Me.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The panacea for all the evils of earthly life is presented here. To change the secular into the sacred is the only way to metamorphose the human into the divine. Self-seeking ought to give place to self-denial. Making gift is often for self-advertisement. Practising austerity with self-interest may bring in spiritual vanity. But when all these good deeds are done for the glory of the Lord, the doer emerges as the divine. The turning point in life comes in dedicating man’s everything to God, instead of petitioning to Him for things here and hereafter.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

“O Mother, I am an instrument; You are its manipulator. I am the house; You are the resident. I am the chariot and You the charioteer. I move as You make me move. I speak as You direct. My doings are all Your doings. Not I; not I; but You.”

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Self-giving results in the consecration of all acts to God. The tide of the common tasks of daily life must flow through the worship of God. Love of God is not an escape from the harshness of life but a dedication for service. Karmamaarga or the way of works which starts with the duty of performance of prescribed rites concludes with the position that all tasks are sanctified when done with disinterestedness and dedication.

“My self is Thy self, my understanding is Paarvatee (Siva’s wife); my life functions are my comrades, the body is my home, my worship is the varied enjoyment of the sense objects, my sleep is the condition of concentration. My steps are movements round the temple and all utterances are prayers. Whatever act is done by me, every one of them, O Lord, is a worship of Thee.” If you do whatever you have to do in a spirit of dedication, it is God’s worship; nothing separate need be done.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA: 

Consecrate all acts to the Lord. Then you will be freed from the bondage of Karma. You will have freedom in action. He who tries to live in the spirit of this verse will be able to do self-surrender unto the Lord. Gradually he ascends the spiritual path step by step. His greedy nature is slowly dissolved now. He always gives. He is not eager to take. His whole life with all its actions, thoughts and feelings, is dedicated to the service of the Lord eventually. He lives for the Lord only. He works for the Lord only. There is not a bit of egoism now. His whole nature is transformed into divinity. When actions are dedicated to the Lord, there is no rebirth for you. This is the simplest method of Yoga. Do not waste your time any longer. Take it up from today.

All actions, all results and all rewards will go to the Lord. There is no separate living for the individual. Just as the river joins the sea abandoning its own name and form so also the individual soul joins the Supreme Soul giving up his own name and form, his own egoistic desires and egoism. The individual will has become one with the cosmic will.

Whatever thou doest of thy own sweet will, whatever thou offerest in sacrifice as enjoined in the scriptures, whatever thou givest—such things as gold, rice, ghee, clothes, etc., to the Brahmins and others—whatever austerity such as Chandrayana-Vrata (to destroy sin), control of the senses, etc., thou doest, do thou all these as an offering unto Me. (Cf. V.32; XII.6 and 8)

Comments by the blogger:

Life is nothing but Yoga!

We all perform Yoga. Whether you agree or not, whether you are aware or not, we all do Yoga while living. The only difference between the Yogis and the ordinary people is that they do perform Yoga consciously while we indulge in yoga even without being aware of it.

For example, take the well-established Kria Yoga. The performer of the Kiriya Yoga does take in slowly one deep breath and ever slowly exhale. During this time he or she concentrates on Om, the pranava.  In the initial days Om is said in conjunction with the slow inhalation and exhalation and as the days go the Om is heard inside the practitioner. These are the main details of Kriya yoga. One should sit in the lotus pose and the waist, backbone and the head should be straight. One inhalation and one exhalation make one Kriya. The practitioner does ten or so Kriyas initially. And as he or she develops in this more number of Kriyas are added. But this yoga should not be done except under the strict supervision of the Master.

What happens during doing one Kriya is that the Life Energy and consciousness goes through the backbone once. This one Kriya is equal to the one year of normal and healthy human life. In other words, what we experience through our backbone in one normal year of living is done within the span of one minute which is the duration of one Kriya. So when the normal man or woman does yoga in say thirty years of healthy life the Kriya Yogi does and achieves this in just thirty Kriyas or thirty minutes! But nonetheless, we all do Yoga. When we do yoga and travel towards the Lord at a bullock cart speed, the Kriya Yogi travels towards the Lord at the speed of a rocket! This is the difference. But we all are yogis. It takes thousands of births and deaths for us to become perfected in this kind of Yoga. Slowly and gradually we become less and less attracted towards the material things and worldliness. But a conscious Kriya Yogi achieves this height in continuous practice for six years!

But the basic fact remains that we all are Yogis.

Like that we all sacrifice for various causes. The one bedroom dwellers sacrifice their chances of love-making after their son or daughter is married and the young ones are inducted into the bedroom. The older couple takes to sleep separately. This is nothing but sacrifice. The parents restrict their personal wants once their child goes to school. The school fee is heavy and as such the parents sacrifice their individual wants. In so many ways we sacrifice on a daily basis. But we do this for our children, friends and others. The next step is to sacrifice everything to the Lord. This does not mean we do not eat, drink and be merry. We do that, of course. But the Lord of Gita wants us to do everything for His sake and in His Name.

Some persons could do this consciously after reading this sloka, while the majority cannot do it. It will take time and many rebirths. No problem. Go at your own pace. But never leave reading daily the Gita and praying to the Lord. Also, make a sweet practice of chanting His name.

  

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 26, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 26

Text in Transliteration:

patram pushpam phalam toyam

      yo me bhaktyaa prayacchati

tad aham bhakty upahrrtam

     asnaami prayataatmanah

Text in English:

Whoever offers Me with devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I accept that, the pious offering of the pure in heart.

  

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Metaphysical understanding and material abundance are of no avail to gain access to the Lord. It is pure devotion to which the Lord submits Himself. He who has Bhakti(devotion) gains Bhagavan (God) easily. A leaf and such like things are mere tokens of love.

The gruel offered by Vidura was accepted with pleasure by Sri Krishna. The flattened dry rice hesitatingly brought by Sudama was pulled out from him and partaken of with relish by Krishna. The dried fruits offered by Sabari were graciously accepted and eaten by Sri Rama. Lord Siva accepted the tongue-tainted venison and mouthful of water offered by the hunter kannappa. Bhakti (devotion) is all-in-all to the Lord.

What should the devotee do then? The Lord tells in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

However poor the offering, if it is made with love and earnestness, it is acceptable to the Lord. The way to the Highest is not by way of subtle metaphysics or complicated ritual. It is by sheer self-giving, which is symbolized by the offer of a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water. What is necessary is a devoted heart.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

A gift, however small, is accepted by the Lord, when it is offered with profound faith. The Lord is quite satisfied even with a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water when it is offered with single-minded devotion and pure heart. Was He not satisfied with the little parched rice from the bundle of Sudama and the small berries offered by Sabari? You need not build a golden temple for Him. Build a golden temple in your heart. Enthrone Him there. He wants only your devoted heart. But it is difficult to please Indra. You will have to offer valuable (material) objects to him.

A leaf, a flower or a fruit are merely symbols. The true means of attaining the Lord is pure unflinching devotion. All the objects of the state belong to the king. If the servants of the state offer with devotion some objects to the king he is highly satisfied. Even so all the object of the whole world belong to Him. Yet, He is highly pleased if you offer even a little thing with devotion.

Asnami literally means ‘eat’. The indicative meaning or Lashana Vritti is ‘accept’.

Comments by the blogger:

All the worlds belong to the Lord. All the created things belong to him. Swami Chidbhavananda would say that the Lord laughs on two occasions: first, when a man is seriously ill and the doctor says and assures the relatives that he would save the sick man; second, when two sons of a deceased father partitions the land belonging to the father and draw a line saying, this segment is yours and that segment is mine!

All the worlds belong only to God.

We have already seen that even though God has everything, he does not have self-devotion. So only He craves for pure devotion. Moreover, pure devotion purifies the mind and enables the practitioner of Yoga to enshrine God in his heart.

The great Lord says that whoever offers Him with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water—that, so offered devotedly by the pure-minded, He accepts.

In today’s context, a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water may be taken for the whole tree. We can interpret that the Lord wants us to grow trees according to our means and facilities. Everyone should grow at least one tree as an offering to the Lord. We have what is called the carbon responsibility.

In the back of our house, there are at least twelve big trees. They are fifteen years old. But, owing to the financial constraint we are going to sell the house. What would become of the trees can’t be foretold. If the would-be purchaser wants to preserve the trees he would have worshipped the Lord with a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water. But, on the contrary, he might opt to fell down the trees and construct another house on the land. There is enough land available for the purpose.

In today’s context, the tree offering is the highest offering indeed.

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 25, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 25

Text in Transliteration:

yaanti devavrataa devaan pitrrn yaanti pitrvrataah

bhootaani yaanti bhootejyaa yaanti madhaajino ‘pi maam

Text in English:

Votaries of the Devas go to the Devas; the votaries of the Pitrus go to the Pitrus; to the Bhutas go the Bhuta worshippers; My votaries come to Me.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The water in the pipe can rise to the level in the reservoir to which it is connected. Likewise the mind of man rises to the level of the deity whom he adores. The sadhaka(practitioner) should therefore be able to distinguish between the minor deities at various cosmic levels and Iswara, the Ultimate Reality.

The Devas are more evolved than men. Their span of embodied life being great, they are called immortals; but they are also subject to birth and death. By worshipping them men may gain longevity and supernatural powers which are all hindrances to bhakti (devotion), jnana (wisdom) and mukti (emancipation).  

The Pitrus are the manes who form a region of their own. Sending holy thoughts for the welfare of the departed ancestors is good; but drifting into ancestor-worship is not desirable. Priestcraft usually encourages this weakness and credulity in man. The ancestors necessarily get changed with every new birth that man takes. Undue concern therefore for Pitrus is purposeless and detrimental to spiritual growth; it only adds to earthly attachment and bondage.

The bhootaas are, in the scale of evolution, intermediate between men and Devas. By worshipping them the votaries may at best get some psychic power, leading to vanity and greater bondage to mundane life.

It is the worship of Iswara, the Supreme Reality, that is beneficial. It leads to prosperity, perfection and emancipation.

Access to the minor gods is rather easy; but access to Iswara is not so easy. An idea to this effect may rise in the minds of people. But the Lord clarifies this position in the next stanza.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDHBAVANANDA:

A dyer once had a unique method of colouring the clothes. He had a solitary tub into which he would dip the cloths brought in by the customers and give whatever colour they wanted. Red, yellow, blue, green, purple—all these and more colours were produced from the same tub. An intelligent customer who watched these miracles entrusted his cloth to the dyer and requested him to dye it as he liked.

Our mind is the cloth. Iswara is the dyer and the dyeing tub. He gives us what we pray for. The best that we can do is not to ask Him for anything but give ourselves over to Him. He in His turn gives Himself to us.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The shining gods, the spirits of the dead and the spirits in the psychic world all happen to be worshipped by men in different stages of development but they are all limited forms of the Supreme and cannot give the aspiring soul the peace that is beyond all understanding. The result of worship is assimilation to the form worshipped and these limited forms give limited results. No devotion fails of its highest reward. The lesser ones bring lesser rewards while devotion to the Supreme brings the supreme reward. All sincere religious devotion is a seeking after the Supreme Godhead.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The worshippers of the manes such as the Agnistvattas who perform sraddha and other rites in devotion to their ancestors go to the manes. Those who worship the gods with devotion and vows go to them.

Bhutas are ‘elemental beings’ lower than the gods but higher than human beings; they are the Vinayakas, the hosts of Matris, the four Bhaginis and the like.

Those who devote themselves to the gods attain the form of those gods at death. Similar is the fate of those who worship the manes (their own ancestors) or the Bhutas. The fruit of the worship is in accordance with the knowledge, faith, offering and nature of worship of the devotee.

Though the exertion is the same, people do not worship Me on account of their ignorance. Consequently they get very little reward.

My devotees obtain endless fruit. They do not come back to this mortal world. It is also easy for them to worship Me. How?  (Cf. VII. 23)

Comments by the blogger:

I used to be a great devotee of Lord Siva before my father’s death. Before he died, my father used to advise me to not pray so much and for so many hours and the Lord will test those who pray to Him. He used to tell me, “I am telling this out of my experience, son. The Lord will test only those who worship him intensely!” And after some time he died a natural death at the ripe old age of eighty. And his words during his living days affected me to such an extent, that I started to pray to my father! This went on for quite some time. Then on one fine morning, I started to study Swami Sivananda’s commentary to Bhagavad Gita. I was going through a lean patch at the time. That was why I turned to Gita for want of doing something. I was greatly amazed by what I read. After a faithful reading of Swami Sivananda’s commentary, which had opened a new vista in my life, I bought commentaries by Swami Chidbhavananda and Dr.S.Radhakrishnan. I made a regular study of the books. And then I bought some more commentaries. But these three commentaries made my life in the sense that instead of contemplating committing suicide, I became a great person with full of faith in the Lord and the greatness of Gita. All this happened in the years 1998 and 1999. Before the year 2000, I had become such a devotee of Lord Siva and Krishna that I left completely worshipping my deceased father. Instead of that, I would pray for his Atman during my prayers to the Lords. And the perusal of Bhagavad Gita continues even now. It was God’s gift that I became a blogger and write to you about the three most emphatic commentators on Gita!

You also don’t ever worship your manes. This does not mean you should not perform sraddha. Do it with worshipful mentality. And daily pray for your manes. But never come to the level of worshipping them and praying to them. We take many births. There must be hundreds of thousands of manes. We can simply pray for them all within a minute of two. Then pray for you and your family and then for the good of the world. We are not individual islands. We should also pray for the world. Then our stupid selfishness would take leave of us. All our petty-mindedness would leave us. We would be the owner of the whole world. We would come to have a stake in what happens to our earth and the world. That kind of life is a great one. And never pray to your manes. Instead pray for them, Ok?   

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 24, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 24:

Text in Transliteration:

aham hi sarvayajnaanaam bhoktaa cha prabhur eva cha

na tu maam abhijaananti tattvenaa ‘tas chyavanti te

Text in English:

I am verily the enjoyer and the Lord of all Yajnas. But these men do not know Me in reality; hence they fall.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The same food when fed by the nurse has one effect on the body and mind of the baby and quite another effect when fed by the mother. There is no substitute in the world for mother’s love; and this makes a world of difference in the build of the baby. The love of Iswara is the love of the mother and much more too.

The minor gods give their votaries things impermanent and entangle them more in the wheel of birth and death; hence they fall. The effect of the worship of Iswara is different. While granting the devotees the things of the world they pray for, He inculcates in them increased Bhakti (devotion) and Jnana (wisdom) which prepare them for Mukti (emancipation). This power is exclusively with Iswara. He is therefore the Enjoyer and the Lord of all Yajnas (sacrifices). It is incumbent on the sadhaka (Practitioner) to understand this truth and devote himself exclusively to the worship of Iswara.

The Lord’s statemet “I alone am the Adhiyajna here in this body”, in chapter eight stanza four requires to be taken note of.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

They do not know that I, the Suprme Self, am the enjoyer of all sacrifices enjoined in the Vedas and the Smritis (the codes of right conduct) and the Lord of all sacrifices. As I am the inner Ruler of this world I am the Lord of all sacrifices(Vide chapter VIII. 4—Adhiyajnohamevatra: I am the presiding deity of the sacrifice). I am at the beginning and at the end of every sacrifice and yet these people worship other gods. Therefore they worship in ignorance. As they worship other gods without recognising Me, they return to this mortal world after their merits are exhausted from the plane to which they had attained as the result of their sacrifices.

Those who are devoted to other gods and who worship Me in ignorance (Avidhipurvakam) also get the fruit of sacrifices. How? (Cf. V. 29; XV.9)

Comments by the blogger:

The external sacrifices of the Vedic period got internalized during the Upanishadic period.

The Lord of Gita says He is the enjoyer of all sacrifices. Vishnu is an eater of sacrifices. Thus we should make sacrifices for the sake of the Iswara and in His name. Without sacrifices, this world or life in the world cannot be sustained. All the inventors and discoverers sacrificed their time (indeed their lifetime or whole life) so that we can travel by car, train, bus and plane. The telephone is the precursor of the Smartphone. (Even now, the period of smartphone, where telephone and TV got joined in a gadget we can carry in our pockets) TV entertains more people. From the invention of the wheel, every inventor and the discoverer has sacrificed their best part of life for the benefit of the whole humanity. But we too in our infinitesimal ways can sacrifice. We can sacrifice an hour’s time of our daily life in coaching and give tuition to those students who cannot afford to pay any fee. When we come to think of it, there are numerous ways and means in which we can sacrifice our time, money and mental power. An old Tamil poem goes like this, “we can build free boarding houses in thousands, we can build thousands of temples, but greater would be the merit if we devote our time to educate an impoverished child.

We can sacrifice our seat on a bus journey to elderly persons. We can sacrifice by holding our tongue when a tormentor, both at home and workplaces, makes unnecessary comments.

There are indeed any numbers of ways in which we can sacrifice. Many times, sacrificing and loving the tormentor and praying for him or her go hand in hand.

All these kinds of sacrifices we make in our daily life strengthen our willpower and the Lord simply eats such sacrifices, small and big. In the meanwhile, we can make a tremendous stride in our spiritual life.

The Lord, in the beginning, created men and women along with sacrifices, says Gita.

THE HOLY GITA , CHAPTER 09, VERSE 23, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRETE

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 23

Text in Transliteration:

Ye ‘py anyadevataa bhaktaa yajante sraddhayaa ‘nvitaah

Te ‘pi maam eva kaunteya yajanty avidhiparvakam

Text in English:

Even those devotees who, endowed with Sraddha, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O son of Kunti, by the wrong method.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Because these are devotees endowed with sraddha, (faith) they are necessarily believers in God and in His grace. It is not wantonly, but only for want of right understanding that they adopt the wrong method.

A good government has its sound administrative system from which its loyal officers do not deviate. Be it supposed that a citizen has applied to an officer for a favour and he has sanctioned it, coming as it does within the purview of the system. It is a mistake if the applicant fancies that the officer has shown him a concession. The actual position of the minor gods is equal to that of the government officers. As all powers come to them from the government, even so whatever power the other gods have, it has come to them from Iswara. Apart from and independent of Him no deity has any power to bestow any boon. The wrong method consists in getting things done counter to this truth.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The author of the Gita welcomes light from every quarter of the heaven. It has a right to shine because it is light.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

They worship Me in ignorance. Their mode of worship is contrary to the ancient rule. Hence they return to this world.

People worship Agni, Indra, Surya, Varuna, the Vasus, etc. Even they attain Me, because I am everywhere. But their devotion is not pure. It is vicarious. Water should be given to the root and not to the branches. If the root is satisfied, the whole tree must be and is satisfied. Even so, if I (the root of this world and all the gods) am satisfied, all the gods must be and are satisfied. Though the messages from the five organs of knowledge reach the one consciousness, will it be right and useful to place a sweetmeat in the ear and a flower in the eyes? The function of eating must be done by the mouth alone and the function of smelling by the nose alone. Therefore I should be worshipped in My own name. They should know Me as the Self in all beings. They should recognise Me in other worship. I am the root. I am the source of all the gods and of this whole world. (Cf. IV. 11; VII.20)

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 22, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 22

Text in Transliteration:

ananyaas chintayanto maam ye janaah paryupaasat

teshaam nityabhiyuk taanaam yogakshemam vahaamy aham

Text in English:

To those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, who are ever devout, I provide gain and security.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

This is a sublime statement revealing the law of life at the spiritual level. In the economy of nature the distribution of labour is benignly meted out. It is all right for the body-bound man to toil for food and clothing. But he who has completely attuned himself to the Divine loses in calibre when he brings his mind down to the mundane level. The grace of the Lord works in such a way that this downfall does not take place. In every respect, the spirituality of the spiritual man is promoted.

It is ananyabhakti when the love of the Jivatman for the Paramatman takes away all distinctions between the two.

Yoga in the context of this stanza means the provision of the means required for the devotees’ bodily maintenance; and kshema means the protection of what has been provided.

The baby in the womb gets its nourishment from the mother because of the state of non-separation between the two. The boon of ananyabhakti is even greater and more consequential than this. While the mother and the baby will be separated by time, this Jivatman or human being and Paramatman or God will become united for eternity. The grace of the Lord unfailingly facilitates this union. While the seekers of heaven chase the phantom, the genuine devotee of the Lord gains Him, the Incomparable.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

When the devotee takes one stride towards the Lord, He takes ten strides towards that devotee. Such is His grace.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The teacher urges that the Vedic path is a snare to be avoided by the aspirants after the highest.

God takes up all the burdens and the cares of His devotees.

To become conscious of divine love, all other love must be abandoned. If we cast ourselves entirely on the mercy of God, He bears all our cares and sorrows. We can depend on His saving care and energizing grace.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Ananyah; Non-seperate. This is another interpretation. Persons who meditating on Me as non-separate, worship Me in all beings—to them who are ever devout, I secure gain and safety. They consider themselves as non-separate, i.e., they look upon the Supreme Being as non-separate from their own Self; they look upon the Supreme Being as their own Self.

Those devotees who behold nothing as separate from themselves have no selfish interests of their own. They have no desire for life or death. They have taken sole refuge in that Lord. They have nothing to lose, because there is nothing they call their own. Their very bodies become God’s. They have no desire for acquisition because all their desires are gratified by their communion with the Lord. They have eternal satisfaction as they possess all the divine Aishvarya, the supreme wealth of the Lord.

They entertain no other thoughts than those of the Lord. Consequently the Lord Himself looks after their bodily wants, such as food and clothing (this is known as Yoga), and preserves what they already possess (this is known as kshema). He does these two acts. Just as the father and mother attend to the bodily needs of their children, so also the Lord attends to the needs of His devotees.

They direct their whole mind with full faith towards the Lord. They make the Lord alone the sole object of their thought. For them nothing is dearer in this world than the Lord. They live for the Lord alone. They think of Him only with singleness of the purpose and one-pointed devotion. They behold nothing but the Lord. They love Him in all creatures. When they lead such a life, the Lord takes the whole burden of securing gain (Yoga) and safety (kshema) for them upon Himself.

Nityayuktah: those who constantly meditate on the Lord with intense devotion and one-pointed mind. (Cf. VIII. 14; Xviii.66)               

Comments by the blogger:

Those are the people who have evolved over a number of births and deaths into ananya bhktas or Exclusive Devotees. They do not care even about their daily food and clothing. For the Lord Himself takes care of them. The gaining of the basic necessities like food and clothing (yoga) and safety for them in this rudimental wise (kshama) are the lookout of the Great Lord Himself. The devotee has no time for his daily food and clothing, because he worships Him alone, thinking of no other, who is ever devout.

This might come as a call for sanyasihood. No, Sri Krishna does not want all the people of the world to be turned at once into such hermits or ascetics. It is a process in the individual life of a person on the spiritual plane. The Lord Himself has said elsewhere that out of a thousand who desire to attain Him only a few really strive and out of a thousand of such striving devotees only a few stay the course and realize Him. This does not mean that the thousand people who had rightly resolved to attain the Lord lost out in the ultimate analysis. For their incomplete resolve will get strengthened in the next birth and they will rightly resolve this time to attain Him alone as a goal in life, but might lose out in staying the course on the spiritual level. And those persons would come back to the earth after their death, fully resolved to stay the course. So it is a matter of evolution of the devotees. And at one time or another, such evolving devotees will give up everything for the sake of the Lord, with the Lord looking out for his minimum needs of food and clothing and safety and security. Then it would be just a matter of application on the part of such evolving devotees to stay the course and become fully attuned to God. This process might take hundreds of rebirths for all we know.

But it is important to rightly resolve now and try to minimise our needs on the material plane and pray to the Lord on a daily basis and chant His inexorable Name. This plus the constant and continued worship of the Lord’s words in the Gita by making a regular study of the same will turn us into an evolving devotee above-mentioned.

Sri Ramana Maharshi one day ruminated: even as a teenager he could think that one day he would die. And that everyone around him would one day die. The teenager could not bear the mundane life and took four or five rupees and got on a train to Thiruvannamalai. There the teenager would sit in meditation and all thoughts would come tumbling to him in a tumultuous parade. He would sit, clad in a loincloth, unconcerned. At last, he found out a meditation technique for himself. He constantly asked himself in meditation “Who Am I?” This simple and humble question repeated for hours over the years got Him answer from the Universal Soul and one day He attained nirvana or emancipation. All these years, one lady used to bring food for the boy. Thus His ananya bhakti or Exclusive Devotion to Lord alone fetched him the basic necessities like food and minimum clothing. And the devotee was enabled to meditate on the Lord without any hindrance.

This is how an exclusive devotee evolves in the process of so many births and deaths.

All persons at once can’t become such devotees. For Ramana Maharishi stood in need of that old woman to bring him food daily. So the householders are necessary. Always householders are the majority. They are in the varying stages of devotion to the Lord. 

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSES 20 AND 21, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSES  20 AND 21

Text in Transliteration:

VERSE 20

traividyaa maam somapaah pootapaapaa

     yajnair ishtvaa svargatim praarthyante

te punyam aasaadya surendralokam

    asnanti divyaan divi devabhogaan

 Text in English:

The knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified from sin, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven. They reach the holy world of the Lord of the Devas and enjoy in heaven the celestial pleasures of Devas.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

What is mentioned here is the foremost among the heavenly enjoyments to which the three Vedas—the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus—show the path. Indra is the title of the Lord of the Devas. This status comes to the one who successfully performs a hundred fruit-motivated yajnaas or sacrifices.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Many aspirants climb up to a certain height on the ladder of Yoga. They are irresistibly swept away by temptation of the higher planes (the heaven, and the plane of the celestial beings, etc.) They lose their power of discrimination and right understanding and thereby lose themselves in heavenly enjoyments. The dwellers of the higher planes, the shining ones, tempt the aspirants in a variety of ways. They say unto them, “O Yogi, we are very much pleased with your austerities and dispassion, spiritual practices and divine qualities. This is the plane for your final resting which you have obtained through your merit and your austerities. We are all your servants to obey your orders and carry out your commands or behests. Here is the celestial car for you. You can move about anywhere you like. Here are the celestial damsels to attend on you. They will please you with their celestial music. Here is the ‘wish fulfilling tree’ which will give you whatever you want. Here is the celestial nectar in the golden cup, which will make you immortal. Here is the celestial lake of supreme joy. You can swim freely in this lake.” The uncautious Yogi is easily carried away by the invitations of the gods and the sweet flowery speeches. He gets false satisfaction or contentment. He thinks that he has reached the highest goal of Yoga. He yields to the temptations and his energy is dissipated in various directions. As soon as his merits are exhausted he comes down to this earth-plane. He will have to start his upward climb on the spiritual ladder once more. But that dispassionate Yogi who is endowed with strong discrimination rejects ruthlessly these invitations from the gods, marches boldly on his spiritual path and stops not till he attains the highest rung on the ladder of Yoga or the highest summit on the hill of knowledge or Nirvikalpa Samadhi. He is fully conscious that enjoyments in heaven are as much worthless as those of this illusory world. The pleasures of heaven are subtle, exceedingly intense and extremely intoxicating. That is the reason why the uncautious, non-vigilant and less dispassionate aspirant yields easily to the temptations of the higher planes. Even in this physical plane, in the West and in America where there is an abundance of wealth, plenty of dollars and gold people enjoy subtle and intense sensual pleasures. Every day scientists bring out new inventions, new forms of sensual pleasures for the gratification of the mischievous and revolting senses. Even an abstemious man of simple habits of India becomes a changed man when he lives in America or Europe for some time. He yields to the temptations. Such is the power of Maya. Such is the influence of temptations. Such is the strength of the senses. That man who is endowed with strong discrimination, sustained dispassion, good self-analytic power, and burning yearning for liberation, can resist temptations and he alone can be really happy. He alone can attain the highest goal of life, the final beatitude or the sublime vision of the infinite.

Those who drink the Soma juice are purified from sin.

Sacrifices: Such as the Agnistoma, Jyotistoma. They worship Me as the Vasus and other deities. (Rudras and Adityas) by sacrifices such as the Agnistoma.

Indra is the Lord of the gods. He is called Satakratu because he had performed a hundred sacrifices. The divine pleasures are the supernatural pleasures of the heaven.

Divya-Bhoga: An enjoyment that is beyond the reach of man or an enjoyment that can be had only by the celestial body of the gods or an enjoyment given by the gods in the heaven. The term Bhoga indicates sensual pleasures. Though the heavenly pleasures are of a very subtle nature, yet they are sensual pleasures only. (Cf. II.45)   

VERSE 21

Text in Transliteration:

te tam bhuktvaa svargalokam visaalam

      Ksheene punye martyalokam visanti

Evam trayeedharamam anuprapannaa

      Gataagatam kaamakaamaa labhante

Text in English:

Having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they return to the world of mortals on the exhaustion of their merits; thus abiding by the injunctions of the three Vedas, desiring objects of desires they go and come.        

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Just as the men of means are respected in the mortal world, the men of merits are assigned status in the celestial world. But they are not permitted to continue there after their merits run out. They are obliged to return to this world of karma again for a further acquisition of merits. As slaves to enjoyment they are forced to knock to and fro in this manner.

But what about those who have outgrown all desires and have completely made themselves over to the Maker? Their position is explained in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The teacher here refers to the Vedic theory that those who perform the prescribed ritual gain heavenly enjoyments after death and points out how it cannot be regarded as the highest goal. Such men are bound by the law of karma as they are still lured by desire, kaama-kaamaa, and they will return to this cosmic procession since they act from an ego-centre and since their ignorance is not destroyed. If we seek rewards in heaven, we will gain them but we return to mortal existence so long as we do not gain the true aim of life. Human life is an opportunity to develop out of the imperfect material, soul’s divine nature. We operate from the ego-centred consciousness, whether we seek the pleasures of this world or of a future paradise.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

When the accumulated merit (the cause of heavenly pleasures) is exhausted, they descend to this world. they come and go. They have no independence.

The Dharma of the three: Mere Vedic ritual, enjoined by the three Vedas.

Kama-kamah: the people whose minds are filled with Vasanas or Worldly tendencies.

Comments by the blogger:

The Lord of Gita once more refers to the Vedas only to tell us we should not be self-complaisant by a scholarship of the Vedas and performing rituals enjoined in them. But it is not automatic that we can become the knowers of the Vedas so very easily. Knowing Vedas means a deep scholarship in them. How many of us know Vedas in that sense? But without knowing the Vedas people perform Ganapaty Homam and other Homams and sacrifices to propitiate the Devas and the gods. They or we generally do this by appointing the real knowers of the Vedas, persons from the priestly community, and perform various sacrifices enjoined in the Vedas. Anyhow it comes to the same thing and result/s.

So the Lord of Gita once again cautions us from being lured by the flowery words of the Vedas.

It is interesting to note that the Lord of Gita opens his mouth in verse II. 2 thus:

“Whence has this unmanly, heaven-barring and shameful dejection come upon you, at this juncture, O Arjuna?”

So trying to go to the Heaven and enjoy the fruits of actions is not that much a beastly thing. But the Lord’s intention is to wean us away from repeated transmigrations.

A human birth is not an ordinary thing. And it is important that we put the chance to good use. And it is important to note that there is no guarantee that going to Heaven and enjoy all the sensual pleasures there when it is time for us to return to this mortal world, we would return as a human being. There seem to be so many subtleties involved in this.

But we need not be worried about all these things. We make a daily perusal of Bhagavad Gita and pray to the Lord and chant His name at other times. So human birth after a stretch in the Heaven is assured for us! And what is more, we will be born in those families which have great people making a regular study of Gita so that we could pick up from where we will have left off! This is no idle thought or designed to set at naught the Lord’s injunction in the two verses. But anyone reading faithfully Gita regularly should not be too much concerned about what might happen after our death. The chanting of the Lord’s name alone will lead us to think of His name at the time of our death. And the Lord has assured us elsewhere that whoever thinks or sings His name will go to Him. So let us renew our efforts in reading Gita daily and inducing our relations and friends to do the same. Most of the good Commentaries are available at heavily subsidized prices. This is to make all to buy and read Gita. So let’s drink in the words of the Lord of Gita daily and chant His name often.    

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 19, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 19

Text in Transliteration:

tapaamy aham aham varsham nigrhnaamy utsrjaami cha

amrtam chai va mrtyus cha sad asach chaa ‘ham arjuna

Text in English:

I give heat, I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and death; I am being as well as non-being, O Arjuna.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

As the Immanent Reality, the working of Iswara in and through the Cosmos has its glory. As the sun, the Lord gives heat and as sun-rays He is the cause of the rain commencing and ceasing. Based on the fruits of karma, the Lord is the seeming immortality of the Devas and the death of the human beings; the former is in fact, as evanescent as the latter. Both of these transitory states are helpful to train the Jivatman (human being) and make him fit for enlightenment. In His manifested state the Lord is the being of the Cosmos and in His unmanifested state He is the non-being. The non-being should not be construed as nihility.

The effect of the fruit-motivated action is depicted in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. Rig Veda: yasyachaayaa amrtam yasya mrtyuh:

Sat is the absolute reality and asat is the cosmic existence and the Supreme is both. He is being when manifested and non-being when the world is unmanifested.

Ramanuja explains sat as present existence and asat as past and future existence.

The main idea is that the Supreme Lord grants our prayers in whatever form we worship Him.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

I radiate heat in the form of the sun. I send forth the rain in the form of Indra in the rainy season and I take it back during the rest of the year.

Sat: Existence, the manifested world (the effect)

Asat: Non-existence, the unmanifested (the cause)

Non-existence does not mean nothingness. The subtle, unmanifested cause is spoken of as non-existence. The Self or Brahman or the Eternal can never be altogether non-existence. It always exists. It is Existence absolute. If you say that the subtle unmaifested cause is nothing, it is impossible to conceive existence coming out of nothing. The Chandogya Upanishad asks, “How can existence come out of non-existence?” It is simply absurd to conceive that existence has arisen out of non-existence (nothing).

For a Vedantin (student or follower of Vedanta) Brahman (the Absolute) is Sat (existence) because It always exists and because It is unchanging. This manifested world is Asat or unreal. For the worldly-minded people who have neither understanding nor knowledge of Brahman, who are endowed with gross and impure mind, who do not have a sharp and subtle intellect, and who can perceive the gross form only, this manifested world is the Sat and the subtle unmanifested Mula-Prakriti (the primordial Nature), the cause of this manifested world, is Asat. For them Brahman also is Asat. The unmanifested refers to Mula-Prakriti and Para Brahman also because both are hidden.

Every object has three states, viz., the gross (Sthula), the subtle (Sukshma) and the causal (Karana). Mahakarana (the great causeless cause) is Para Brahman. The gross and the subtle states are the effects of Karana. What you see outside is the physical body. This physical body is moved by the astral (the subtle) body made up of the mind, life-force and the senses. The causal body is the seed-body. From this seed-body have sprung the subtle and the gross bodies. Take the case of an orange. The outer skin is its physical body; the inner pulp or essence is the subtle body; the innermost causal body which gives rise to the pulp and the outer skin is the seed. This is only a gross illustration. The orange has got another kind of subtle and causal bodies. The worldly-minded man beholds the physical body only and takes this as the Truth. For him, the astral and the causal bodies are unreal.   

       

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 18, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 18

Text in Transliteration:

gatir bhartaa prabhuh saakshi nivaasah saranam suhrt

prabhavah pralayah sthaanam nidhaanam beejam avyayam

Text in English:

I am the Goal, the Supporter, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the shelter, the Friend, the Origin, the Dissolution, the Foundation, the Treasure-house and the Seed Imperishable.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The goal of life varies with people. But all the divergent goals of all the people can be sorted and brought unmistakably under three classes—striving for long efficient life, seeking after wider knowledge and searching for more happiness. And these three groups are nothing but the modifications of Sat-chit-ananda—Life, Light, Love. This is a comprehensive definition of God. He is therefore the direct or indirect Goal of all beings.

 Because all sustenance comes from God, He is the Supporter of beings.

As the sea is the owner of the waves, Cosmic Life is the owner of the individual lives. He is therefore the Lord.

The universe and the beings appear from and disappear into Iswara; He is therefore the Witness.

Beings rest and reside in the Cosmic Consciousness even as the cinema pictures get themselves expressed on a screen. The Lord is therefore the Abode.

He is the only lasting Shelter to those who want to be freed from the clutches of the cold hand of death.

The Lord is the one fast Friend residing in the hearts of the good and the bad in the form of Conscience and directing them on the right way.

What the ocean is to the wave, the Lord is to the entire Creation. He is therefore the Origin, the Dissolution, the Foundation, the Treasure-house and the Seed Imperishable.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Cp. “I take refuge in the Buddha. He is my refuge.”

buddham saranam gacchaami esha me saranam.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

I am the goal, the fruit of action. He who nourishes and supports is the husband. I am the witness of the good and evil actions done by the Jivas (individuals). I am the abode where all the living beings dwell. I am the shelter or refuge for the distressed. I relieve the sufferings of those who take shelter under Me. I am the friend, i.e., I do good without expecting any return. I am the source of this universe. In Me the whole world is dissolved. I am the mainstay or the foundation of this world. I am the treasure-house which living beings shall enjoy in the future. I am the imperishable seed, i.e., the cause of the origin of all beings. Therefore, take shelter under My feet.

Comments by the blogger:

Verses 16, 17, 18 and 19 could be said as belonging to the same kind. In these verses, Sri Krishna comes out in the open and describes himself as the Kratu, Yajna, Svadha, medicinal herb, the Mantra, clarified butter, fire and oblation. That He is the father of this world, the Mother, the Dispenser and the Grandfather, the knowable, the Purifier, the syllable Om and also the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus. That He is the Goal, the Supporter, the Lord, the Witness, the Abode, the Shelter, the Friend, the Origin, the Dissolution, the Foundation, the Treasure House and the Seed Imperishable. That He gives heat, He withholds and sends forth the rain, that He is immortality and death, that He is the being as well as non-being. At the end of all these four verses, The Lord addresses His disciple as “O Arjuna” which means the pure in nature.

So Arjuna is pure in nature. And he put seven questions in the previous chapter. The Lord answered them all in that order. And Arjuna exhibited full belief in the Lord. He did not cavil, to use the Lord’s own word.

Verses 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 may be compared with the above-said verses. In verse 4, the Lord says that all this universe is pervaded by Him in His unmanifested form. That all beings exist in Him, but He does not abide in them. In verse 5 the Lord states that the beings indeed do not dwell in Him! Bringing forth and supporting the beings, His Self does not dwell in them! And the rest of the verses go almost in this wise.

In verses 4 to 8 and 10, the Great Lord would seem as though He is shy of revealing who He is!

But in verses 16 to 19 the Lord is seen as more forthcoming in revealing as to who He is.

Dr.S.Radhakrishnan has said in his able Preface to the Principal Upanishads, that when a particular disciple in a class in the jungle asks about the real nature of God the master would bid him to come close to him (the master) and whisper the Truth in his ear!

Why this shyness in revealing the Greatest Truth?

Because the unprepared disciples in the class are not ready yet for the revelation! The Guru or Master also will not reveal the Truth that easily. He will teach all but evaluate the students individually. Only that relentless seeker would, at last, be revealed the Truth.

Why?

Take, for example, Lord Buddha; all his arduous quests led him to nothing. He was far from Truth or finding about the Truth. For many a year, he had performed meditation. At last, he became resolved on one particular day that he would not budge an inch till he was revealed the Truth. And at last, after many hours’ arduous inner search, he attained wisdom and found out that the desire was the root cause of all human miseries! Look at the Truth as revealed to Lord Buddha in words. Desire was the root cause. How simple the ultimate Truth revealed to Lord Buddha seems and sounds! And it was not as if he had found out this Truth for the first time! The Hindu sages and saints had already found out this Truth. In Gita too the Lord answers Arjuna when he asks the Lord as to what indeed directs the beings to do things against the good of their own Self, the Lord answers categorically that it is the desire that misguides human beings. So before Lord Buddha the Truth had been found and retold in the Gita in a variety of ways. All the facets of the Truth have been dealt with in the Gita. The Lord speaks about the Dwandvas or Dualities like, like and dislike, fortune and misfortune, heat and cold and sincerely admonishes Arjuna not to become a prey to the Dualities. He asks Arjuna to have a moderate mind and indulge in his self-ordained duty with the mentality that he is doing his duty without expectation of the fruits of actions. So the Truth in its all facets had been found out by the saints and sages of the Hinduism. But Buddha found it for himself individually! Every one of us should find the Truth in all its facets individually. That matters. Bookish knowledge, any amount of it, will never do. Truth must be experienced by each and every one of us individually.

We are digressing.

The Lord of the Gita was very shy of revealing about His own Self in verses 4 to 10. But in verses 16 to 19 He is very very open.

There is a reason. He has come here in the garb of an ordinary human being. Despite so many miracles since his childhood, people have a forgetting mind. Many of them took Him for an ordinary Man. The Lord calls them FOOLS in one verse of the Gita.

The sages Nara and Narayana came to the world as Arjuna and Sri Krishna. While Arjuna has forgotten this truth, the Lord claims in one particular verse that He knows all the past births of them but  Arjuna does not know. It is Narayana Himself who has come to this world as the son of Vasudeva. Ordinary men and women like Duryodhana and others take Him for an ordinary human being, the Lord, calling them fools, does not reveal the Truth as exhibited in verses 16 to 19 so very openly!

But Arjuna has shredha or Faith. We see this throughout Gita. Ever since he surrenders to the Lord in Chapter Two, Arjuna never questions the credibility of the Lord’s sayings. This lasts throughout the Gita. Arjuna does not cavil. For Arjuna is not a fool.

It is because of that one sterling quality, the Lord leads him step by step to the Truth revealed THE SOVEREIGN SECRET in verses 16 to 19.  

      

A PUBLIC NOTICE

Owing to reasons out of my control, dear, readers, I am not able to post anything today. I will try my level best to come up with my next posting tomorrow evening. The inconvenience to the readers is deeply regretted.

THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 17, RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 09

RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 17

Text in Transliteration:

pitaa ‘ham asya jagato maataadhaataapitaamahah

vedyam pavitram anikaara rk saama yajur eva cha

Text in English:

I am the Father of this world, the Mother, the Dispenser and the Grandfather; I am the knowable, the Purifier, the syllable Om and also the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

God being the source of the universe and the beings in it, He is held as the Father, the Mother and the Grandfather. Each individual is rewarded the Lord according to his efforts and therefore He is the Dispenser. Knowing Iswara, everything comes to be known in its perspective; the Lord is therefore the knowable.

The elements earth, water, fire and air have the power to purify the things brought in contact with them. Man gets purified as he contacts God; God is therefore the most efficacious Purifier.

The Rik, the Saman and the Yajus deal with the origin, sustenance and end of the Prakriti. No mention is made here of the Atharva, the fourth Veda, as it does not come up to the level of the other three in orthodoxy.

Languages are all based on the science of sound. In this respect the Vedas may be said to have reached perfection. They are the sacred books which proclaim that sound is the seed from which the universe has come into being. Sound is God, Nada Brahman. He persists eternally as the syllable Om, which is a blending of a+u+m. Sound originates as a, sustains as u and terminates as m. By the Creator uttering Om once, the universe is projected, maintained and withheld. The sadhaka or practitioner who gets fixed in the chanting of Om evolves in Godhood.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Bhagavan, Bhavatam and the Bhaktas—these three are identical. (God, His Life Story and the devotees—these three are identical).

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Dhata: Supporter or sustainer by dispensing the fruits of actions.

Ishvara or the Saguna Brahman is the father. Mula-Prakriti or the primordial Nature is the mother. The pure Satchidananda Para Brahman (Existence-knowledge-Bliss Absolute) is the grandfather.

Vedayam: The one thing to be known. This is the Supreme Being.

Pavitram: Purifier. I am of the form of a bath in the holy river Ganga and the Gayatri Japa which purify the aspirants externally and internally.

Cha: and. This includes the Atharvana-Veda also. (Cf. XIV. 3)

Comments by the blogger:

We may compare this verse with verses 4, 5, 6 and 10.

Swami Chidbhavananda calls this as Arundadhi Nyaya; that is coming from the known to the unknown and arrive at a conclusion.

First the Lord said to Arjuna who does not carp and cavil that all this universe is pervaded by Him in His unmanifested form. And more importantly, the Lord said that all beings exist in Him, but He does not abide in them. That is verse 4. In verse 5 the Lord declares, “Nor do the beings dwell in Me, behold My divine yoga! Bringing forth and supporting the beings, My Self does not dwell in them.” Then the Lord is much more magnanimous and asserts in verse 6 that as the mighty wind moving everywhere rested in the Akasa, so did all beings rested in Him. In this verse Lord’s compassion for our poor selves is palpable. But in verse 10 he becomes much clearer by stating the inexorable fact that because of HIS PROXIMITY, Prakriti produces all this, the moving and the unmoving. Here the Lord is a witness. This fact is the ultimate truth. He is the witness and His Samskara, the minute unit of measurement factors in even the passing thoughts and ruminations in us, beside our open and covert actions. All these are measured and a continuous and panoramic balance sheet is ever being kept updated every microsecond. Thus we write our own fate for the next rebirth and the choice is ours. The driving gunas have a deciding factor in our act of making choices. Everyone makes his or her choices in life according to his or her preponderating guna.

Now, in the stanza 17, the Lord is more open and allegorical in His statement, that He is the Father of this world, the mother, the Dispenser and the Grandfather.

Here the Lord says openly that the mother Nature or Prakriti is the Dispenser. Because the Lord Master created the world or the Prakriti and infused His Spirit and Intelligence as the Cosmic Soul. It is the Nature which presides and schools us in the worldly life. In the beginning, she charms us with her various guiles and attractions for the consumption of our five senses. But when we make a choice not to be craving for this world’s attractions, after some more pulls exerted on us, the Lord’s Prakriti makes our spiritual path rosy. She helps us in every way and pushes us forward toward Self Realisation. Ultimately she frees us completely from her pulls and thus we shed rebirths and comingle with the Lord. Thus it is God’s Prakrity that does everything, with God in the form of the Universal Soul, remaining the inexorable and inexplicable WITNESS.