By virtue of Lord’s spirit that permeates the whole world, this maya (the three-propertied nature, in both its eightfold insensate and conscious forms) shapes the animate and inanimate world. This is the inferior kalp and it is because of this that the world moves in its cycle of birth and death-of coming and going.
Lord Krishn sings:
“In association with me, O son of Kunti,
my maya shapes this world of the animate and the inanimate,
and the world revolves like a wheel of recurrence for the aforesaid reason.”
This lowly kalp that nature brings about, mutable and destructive, is accomplished by maya by virtue of Lord Krishn’s innate property. It is not made by him, but the kalp which marks the commencement of the Supreme goal, is a creation of the sage himself. In this kalp he himself is the doer who creates with special care, but in the other kalp, nature is the agent which by mere reflection of its might creates the state of transience in which there is change of bodies, of time, and of ages. But although Lord Krishn is so all-pervasive, the deluded do not yet know him.
Lord Krishn adds:
“The deluded who do not know my ultimate being regard me
in the human form as but an inferior mortal.”
The ignorant who do not know his identity with the Supreme Spirit, the God of all beings, regard Lord Krishn as human and therefore paltry. He dwells in the exalted state of that Supreme Spirit who is the God of all beings, but ignorant men do not know it because he is in mortal form. They address him as a man. And they are hardly to blame. When they look at Lord Krishn, they see only the body of the great Soul. How then are they to know that he dwells in the being of the great God?
It is now explained why they are unable to realize the truth.
“The ignorant are , like evil spirits,
afflicted with the property of darkness
and so their hopes and actions and knowledge are all futile.”
The unaware are possessed of futile hope which can never be fulfilled, futile action which binds, and futile knowledge which is really ignorance. Lying in the chasm of unconsciousness and characterized by the gullible nature of devils and demons, by demoniacal nature, they believe Lord Krishn to be but a man. Demons and devils merely represent a property of the mind which has nothing to do with any caste or class. Men with such an inclination are unable to know the reality of Lord Krishn, but sages know him and adore him.
“But, O Parth, they who have found shelter in divine nature
and know me as the eternal, imperishable source of all beings,
worship me with perfect devotion.”
The sages who take refuge in pious impulses, the treasure of divinity, and regard Lord Krishn as the primal source of all beings, unamanifest and eternal, always meditate upon him with devotion only to him and without permitting the thought of anyone else into their mind.
The next verse dwells upon the mode of this worship.
Lord Krishn sings:
“Always engaged in the recital of my name and virtues,
ever-active to realize me, and constantly offering obeisance to me,
devotees with a firm determination worship me with undivided faith.”
Abiding firmly in the observance of the act of devotion, bowing low to Lord Krishn in homage and dwelling in him, men who know the truth endeavour to realize him and worship him with staunch devotion. They are constantly engaged in the act of remembrance and recital, which is nothing else than the yagya that has already been illumined. The same rite is here restated in brief.
“While some worship me by gyan-yagya
as the all-encompassing Supreme Spirit with the feeling that I am all,
some worship me with a sense of identity,
some with a sense of being separate from me,
while yet others worship me in many a different fashion.”
Men who are aware of reality worship Lord Krishn by practicing the appointed Way of Knowledge after a due appraisal of their assets and liabilities as well as of their own strength. Some others worship him with a feeling of being identical with him-the feeling that they have to be one with him by dissociating themselves from everything that is other than him; and they devote themselves to him with the total dedication of the Way of Selfless Action.
Similarly, there are many other forms of worship. In fact, however, these are all only the higher and lower phases of the same spiritual observance that is called yagya. Yagya begins with reverent service, but how is it performed? By his own admission, Yogeshwar Krishn is himself the doer of yagya.
If the sage does not act as the charioteer, the successful accomplishment of yagya is impossible. It is only by his guidance that the worshiper is able to know the stage of spiritual accomplishment at which he stands and the point on the way he has reached.
~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©
_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~
