THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 09
RAJAVIDYA RAJAGUHYA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE SOVEREIGN SCIENCE AND SOVEREIGN SECRET:
VERSES 20 AND 21
Text in Transliteration:
VERSE 20
traividyaa maam somapaah pootapaapaa
yajnair ishtvaa svargatim praarthyante
te punyam aasaadya surendralokam
asnanti divyaan divi devabhogaan
Text in English:
The knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified from sin, worshipping Me by sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven. They reach the holy world of the Lord of the Devas and enjoy in heaven the celestial pleasures of Devas.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
What is mentioned here is the foremost among the heavenly enjoyments to which the three Vedas—the Rik, the Saman and the Yajus—show the path. Indra is the title of the Lord of the Devas. This status comes to the one who successfully performs a hundred fruit-motivated yajnaas or sacrifices.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Many aspirants climb up to a certain height on the ladder of Yoga. They are irresistibly swept away by temptation of the higher planes (the heaven, and the plane of the celestial beings, etc.) They lose their power of discrimination and right understanding and thereby lose themselves in heavenly enjoyments. The dwellers of the higher planes, the shining ones, tempt the aspirants in a variety of ways. They say unto them, “O Yogi, we are very much pleased with your austerities and dispassion, spiritual practices and divine qualities. This is the plane for your final resting which you have obtained through your merit and your austerities. We are all your servants to obey your orders and carry out your commands or behests. Here is the celestial car for you. You can move about anywhere you like. Here are the celestial damsels to attend on you. They will please you with their celestial music. Here is the ‘wish fulfilling tree’ which will give you whatever you want. Here is the celestial nectar in the golden cup, which will make you immortal. Here is the celestial lake of supreme joy. You can swim freely in this lake.” The uncautious Yogi is easily carried away by the invitations of the gods and the sweet flowery speeches. He gets false satisfaction or contentment. He thinks that he has reached the highest goal of Yoga. He yields to the temptations and his energy is dissipated in various directions. As soon as his merits are exhausted he comes down to this earth-plane. He will have to start his upward climb on the spiritual ladder once more. But that dispassionate Yogi who is endowed with strong discrimination rejects ruthlessly these invitations from the gods, marches boldly on his spiritual path and stops not till he attains the highest rung on the ladder of Yoga or the highest summit on the hill of knowledge or Nirvikalpa Samadhi. He is fully conscious that enjoyments in heaven are as much worthless as those of this illusory world. The pleasures of heaven are subtle, exceedingly intense and extremely intoxicating. That is the reason why the uncautious, non-vigilant and less dispassionate aspirant yields easily to the temptations of the higher planes. Even in this physical plane, in the West and in America where there is an abundance of wealth, plenty of dollars and gold people enjoy subtle and intense sensual pleasures. Every day scientists bring out new inventions, new forms of sensual pleasures for the gratification of the mischievous and revolting senses. Even an abstemious man of simple habits of India becomes a changed man when he lives in America or Europe for some time. He yields to the temptations. Such is the power of Maya. Such is the influence of temptations. Such is the strength of the senses. That man who is endowed with strong discrimination, sustained dispassion, good self-analytic power, and burning yearning for liberation, can resist temptations and he alone can be really happy. He alone can attain the highest goal of life, the final beatitude or the sublime vision of the infinite.
Those who drink the Soma juice are purified from sin.
Sacrifices: Such as the Agnistoma, Jyotistoma. They worship Me as the Vasus and other deities. (Rudras and Adityas) by sacrifices such as the Agnistoma.
Indra is the Lord of the gods. He is called Satakratu because he had performed a hundred sacrifices. The divine pleasures are the supernatural pleasures of the heaven.
Divya-Bhoga: An enjoyment that is beyond the reach of man or an enjoyment that can be had only by the celestial body of the gods or an enjoyment given by the gods in the heaven. The term Bhoga indicates sensual pleasures. Though the heavenly pleasures are of a very subtle nature, yet they are sensual pleasures only. (Cf. II.45)
VERSE 21
Text in Transliteration:
te tam bhuktvaa svargalokam visaalam
Ksheene punye martyalokam visanti
Evam trayeedharamam anuprapannaa
Gataagatam kaamakaamaa labhante
Text in English:
Having enjoyed the vast world of heaven, they return to the world of mortals on the exhaustion of their merits; thus abiding by the injunctions of the three Vedas, desiring objects of desires they go and come.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Just as the men of means are respected in the mortal world, the men of merits are assigned status in the celestial world. But they are not permitted to continue there after their merits run out. They are obliged to return to this world of karma again for a further acquisition of merits. As slaves to enjoyment they are forced to knock to and fro in this manner.
But what about those who have outgrown all desires and have completely made themselves over to the Maker? Their position is explained in the next stanza.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
The teacher here refers to the Vedic theory that those who perform the prescribed ritual gain heavenly enjoyments after death and points out how it cannot be regarded as the highest goal. Such men are bound by the law of karma as they are still lured by desire, kaama-kaamaa, and they will return to this cosmic procession since they act from an ego-centre and since their ignorance is not destroyed. If we seek rewards in heaven, we will gain them but we return to mortal existence so long as we do not gain the true aim of life. Human life is an opportunity to develop out of the imperfect material, soul’s divine nature. We operate from the ego-centred consciousness, whether we seek the pleasures of this world or of a future paradise.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
When the accumulated merit (the cause of heavenly pleasures) is exhausted, they descend to this world. they come and go. They have no independence.
The Dharma of the three: Mere Vedic ritual, enjoined by the three Vedas.
Kama-kamah: the people whose minds are filled with Vasanas or Worldly tendencies.
Comments by the blogger:
The Lord of Gita once more refers to the Vedas only to tell us we should not be self-complaisant by a scholarship of the Vedas and performing rituals enjoined in them. But it is not automatic that we can become the knowers of the Vedas so very easily. Knowing Vedas means a deep scholarship in them. How many of us know Vedas in that sense? But without knowing the Vedas people perform Ganapaty Homam and other Homams and sacrifices to propitiate the Devas and the gods. They or we generally do this by appointing the real knowers of the Vedas, persons from the priestly community, and perform various sacrifices enjoined in the Vedas. Anyhow it comes to the same thing and result/s.
So the Lord of Gita once again cautions us from being lured by the flowery words of the Vedas.
It is interesting to note that the Lord of Gita opens his mouth in verse II. 2 thus:
“Whence has this unmanly, heaven-barring and shameful dejection come upon you, at this juncture, O Arjuna?”
So trying to go to the Heaven and enjoy the fruits of actions is not that much a beastly thing. But the Lord’s intention is to wean us away from repeated transmigrations.
A human birth is not an ordinary thing. And it is important that we put the chance to good use. And it is important to note that there is no guarantee that going to Heaven and enjoy all the sensual pleasures there when it is time for us to return to this mortal world, we would return as a human being. There seem to be so many subtleties involved in this.
But we need not be worried about all these things. We make a daily perusal of Bhagavad Gita and pray to the Lord and chant His name at other times. So human birth after a stretch in the Heaven is assured for us! And what is more, we will be born in those families which have great people making a regular study of Gita so that we could pick up from where we will have left off! This is no idle thought or designed to set at naught the Lord’s injunction in the two verses. But anyone reading faithfully Gita regularly should not be too much concerned about what might happen after our death. The chanting of the Lord’s name alone will lead us to think of His name at the time of our death. And the Lord has assured us elsewhere that whoever thinks or sings His name will go to Him. So let us renew our efforts in reading Gita daily and inducing our relations and friends to do the same. Most of the good Commentaries are available at heavily subsidized prices. This is to make all to buy and read Gita. So let’s drink in the words of the Lord of Gita daily and chant His name often.
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