THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 13, 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 OR THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:

VERSE NUMBER 13

Text in Transliteration:

Mahaatmaans tu maam paartha prakrti aasritaah

Bhajanty ananya manaso jnaatvaa bhootaadim avyam

Text in English:

But the Mahatman, O Partha, partaking of the divine nature, worship Me with a single mind, knowing Me as the immutable and the source of all beings.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Daivee prakriti is the divine nature which runs counter to the delusive nature mentioned in the previous stanza. This is born of sattva guna. Beings have all come from Paramatman. Those who know this fact and strive to go back to Paramatman are the Mahatamans, the great-souled ones. Self-control, love of beings, commending themselves to God—noble traits like these are evident in them. How do these great souls occupy themselves? The elucidation comes in the next stanza.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

Deceitful nature, mohini prakrti is contrasted with Divine nature, daivee prakrti is contrasted with Divine nature, daivi prakrti. If we are of the demoniac nature, we live in our separate ego consciousness, and make that the centre of our activities, and get lost in the fruitless cycle of sathsaara and miss our true destiny. On the other hand, if we are of a divine nature, we open out to our true self-awareness, our whole nature is turned towards the Divine and our whole life becomes a continuous adoration of the Supreme. The endeavour to possess the Divine in knowledge and realize It in life succeeds and we act in a dedicated spirit.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Jnatva Bhootadimavyayam: There is another interpretation—knowing Me to be the source or the origin of beings and imperishable.

Daivim Prakritim: Divine or Sattvic nature. Those who are endowed with divine nature, and possess self-restraint, mercy faith purity, etc.

Mahatmanah: Or, the high-souled ones are those whose pure minds have been made by Me, as My special abode. I dwell in the pure minds of the high-souled ones. They have a sincere devotion to Me. Those who possess divine Sattvic nature, who are endowed with a pre mind, and who have knowledge of the Self are Mahatma.

Bhutas: All living beings, as well as the five elements.

Comments by the blogger:

Verse 13 must be contrasted with the verse 12.

Prakriti is not separately available as Mohini Prakriti (delusive nature) and Daivee Prakriti (divine nature).

Prakriti is Nature and in Nature both are available. To use one of the similes of Swami Chidbhavananda, the light coming from the lamp is there. Some persons use the light of the lamp to produce forgery documents or plan to commit murder of a person, while somebody else uses the light to read Bhagavad Gita. The lamp and the light issuing forth do not partake in either activity. It is the nature of the persons who put the light to their own uses.

Prakriti is a school. We are all graduate step by step, and when graduation is complete, we will go to mingle with the Paramatman. Till the graduation, Prakriti will exert its guiles on us. If we are not discriminate enough, we would succumb to that aspect of her known as mohini prakriti. It will delude us and make us feel that the worldly joys are everything to have here. They also want to have enjoyments in swarga or the Heaven also. And to make it possible, they make sacrifices enshrined in the karma kanda of the Vedas. So they are deluded, Rajasic or Tamasi souls for whom apart from crude enjoyment, nothing is left here.

They become enslaved to the mohini aspect of the Prakriti.

But the Mahatmans strive with discrimination. They have sattva guna and they listen to the realized souls’ teaching. For them, this world and worldly pleasures are not the be all and end all. They are wary of the mohini aspects of the Prakriti. They study Scriptures. They discuss with the like-minded people. All this is made possible because of their sattvic nature. And they heard and studied and believed that all the beings have all come from Paramatman. And they naturally blessedly want to go back to Paramatman only. That becomes the driving force. All other things take a second seat.

In this verse, Arjuna is addressed as O, Partha, which means son of Pritha or Kunti. So, the above-said matter can be understood by even the ordinary and average persons. The difference between Rajasic and Tamasa nature and the Sattva nature can be understood by all.