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.
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