THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 09, VERSE 16, 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 16

Text in Transliteration:

Aham kratur aham yajnah svadhaa ‘ham aham aushadham

Mantro ‘ham aham evaa ‘jyam aham agnir aham hhtam

Text in English:

I am kratu, I am Yagna, I am Svadha, I am the medicinal herb, I am Mantra, I am also the clarified butter, I am fire, I am oblation.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Kratu is a Vedic ritual while Yajna denotes Vedic and Post-Vedic forms of sacrificial worship. The offerings made to the manes is ‘svadha’. The food that is medicinal and at the same time nourishing is chated humn is ‘mantra’. This stanza supplements the ideas contained in the twenty-fourth stanza of the fourth chapter. Apart from God there is no object, no thought and no act. Holding everything as He is the way to reach Him.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Ausadha or herb stands for the food of all creatures. The Vedic sacrifice is interpreted as an offering of our whole nature, an entire selfgiving to the Universal Self. What we receive from Him, we give back to Him. The gift and the surrender are both His.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Kratu is a kind of Vedic sacrifice.

Yajna is the worship enjoined in the Smriti or the holy books laying down the law and the code of conduct.

I am the Mantra, the chant with which the oblation is offered to the manes or ancestors, and the shining ones (the Devatas or gods).

Hutam also means the act of offering.

Aushadham: All plants including rice and barley; or medicine that can cure diseases. (Cf. IV. 24)

(For the comments by the blogger, please refer to the one to the 24^th stanza of chapter 4—Page Number 317)