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.