THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 14, 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 14

Text in Transliteration:

satatam keertayanto maam yatantas cha drdha vrataah

namasyyantas cha maam bhaktyaa nityayuktaa upaasate

Text in English:

Glorifying Me always, striving, firm in vows, prostrating before Me, they worship Me with devotion, ever steadfast.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Mind takes the colouring of what it glorifies; by glorifying God, godly qualities come to it. Further, mind gets to know more of the field in which it strives. Venturing in divine pursuit, it imbibes the divine increasingly. Bu prostrating before God, one gives oneself over to Him; and by worshipping Him with devotion one’s individuality gets merged in God. Because of these varieties of ways of creating link with the Lord, the devotees thus engaged are said to be ever steadfast.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Jnaatvaa (13) bhaktyaa...nitayuktah. These words indicate how the highest perfection is a combination of knowledge, devotion and work.        

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

These great souls sing My glory. They do Japa (repetition) of Pranava (Om). They study and recite the Upanishads. They hear the Srutis (the Vedas) from their spiritual preceptor, reflect and meditate on the attributless absolute (Nirguna Brahman). They cultivate the Sattvic virtues such as patience, mercy, cosmic love, tolerance, forbearance, truthfulness, purity, etc. They control the senses and steady the mind. They are firm in their vows of non-violence, truthfulness and purity in thought, word and deed. They worship Me with great faith and devotion as the inner Self hidden in their heart. As a neophyte cannot see God face to face, he will have to worship his Guru (spiritual preceptor) first and regard him as God or Brahman Himself.

Comments by the blogger:

When we do the right thing we get pleasure. We can feel it within us. Even a child has this feeling. Instead of spending its evening before the TV if it does its homework and finish it, its face is radiant with pleasure. Then it can spend some time before the inevitable TV without any feeling of guilt. And ultimately when it goes to bed it will sleep the sleep of the virtuous. We too get pleasure when we do not postpone our daily duties and do them correctly.

Likewise, when we do some service to others who cannot repay the same, our soul enjoys this pleasure. When we do the usual prayers we get this pleasure. Above all, we get pleasure by glorifying the Lord. We can feel the pleasure is almost tangible. We could not do more than that by way of prayer. Praying to the Lord and sending a list of items we want to be done is all right. But by glorifying the Lord, we get the Ultimate Pleasure because it is the ultimate form of prayer. And by the glorification of the Lord our heart gets cleansed. The love between two human beings is a narrow love. Because it does not allow a third person! But love and glorification of the Lord is not selfish. More the number of people who glorify the Lord we get that much more pleasure. That was why Sat Sang scores the mark. Those who cannot sit individually to glorify the Lord must attend a Sat Sang. Whatever we often think we become that. By glorifying the Lord we come very near to the Lord Master.

Striving here can be taken to mean striving in the path of the divine. We must ever strive and pray to the Lord by glorifying Him. Our forefathers have given us verses glorifying the Lord. Studying Srimat Bhagavadham is a way of glorifying the Lord. We must ever strive and always mindful of our duty to our Lord.

Taking firm vows not only cleanses the mind and make it more receptive to hearing about God and people who have devoted their entire lives in the service of the Lord, it also steels our resolve to stay in the path. Mahatma Gandhi’s mother took firm and severe vows. On such days, she would not take food without seeing the Sun. On such days when the sky was overcast and banks of clouds are seen in the sky obscuring the sun, her children, including the Mahatma would go out to stand outside the house to sight the sun. Sometimes they would sight the sun and run into the house to bring their mother out to see the sun, but lo and behold the clouds would have, by then, come across the sun once more! The mother, who was firm in her vows would just smile and declare, “This is ok, the Lord just doesn’t want me to have food today!” Such firmness in our vows also would steel our resolve.

Prostration before the Lord is an ultimate declaration by act that we surrender our all in front of the Lord and He should make us live a righteous life so we may one day merge in the Lord Himself and thus shrug this cycle of birth and death. Thus we must worship the Lord with devotion and should remain ever steadfast in that.