Geeta Dhara – Gurukul

Day and night are used as symbols of knowledge and ignorance in metaphysics. This can be very transparently seen through metaphysical vision of Bhagavad Gita.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Yogi who know the reality of one day of Brahma
which is of the duration of a thousand ages ( yug)
and of one night which is also equal to a thousand ages
know the essence of time.”

Brahma comes into being when the mind is endowed with the knowledge of God (brahmvitt), whereas the mind which has achieved the state of Brahmvidwarisht marks the crowning point of Brahma. The mind which is possessed of knowledge is Brahma’s day. When knowledge acts upon the mind, the yogi makes his way towards God and the innumerable predilections of his mind are suffused with his radiance.

On the other hand, when the night of ignorance prevails, the mind and heart are swamped with the contradictions of maya between manifold impulses. This is the furthest limit of light and darkness. Beyond this there is neither ignorance nor knowledge, because the final essence that is God is now directly known. Those yogi who know this essence know the reality of time. They know when the night of ignorance falls and when the day of knowledge dawns, and also the limits of the dominance of time-the point to which it can pursue us.

The sages of yore described the inner realm as thought or sometimes as intellect. In the course of time, functions of the mind were divided into four categories which came to be known as mind, intellect, thought and ego, although impulses are in fact endless. It is within the mind that there are the night of ignorance and also day of knowledge. These are the days and nights of Brahma. In the mortal world, which is a form of darkness, all beings lie in a state of insensibility.

Roaming about amidst nature, their mind fails to perceive the radiant God. But they who practice yog have woken up from the slumber of insensibility and begun to make their way towards God.

According to Goswami Tulsidas in the Ram Charit Manas, his version of the Ramayana, even the mind possessed of knowledge is degraded to the state of ignorance by evil association. But it is re-imbued with light by virtuous company. This alternation of spiritual ascendancy and decline continues till the moment of attainment. After realization of the ultimate goal, however, there are no Brahma, no mind, no night, and no day. Brahma’s day and night are just metaphors. There is neither a night nor a day of a thousand years, nor even a Brahma with four faces.

The brahmvitt, brahmvidwar, brahmvidwariyan, and brahmvidwarisht, four successive stages of mind, are his four faces, and the four main divisions of the mind are his four ages (yug). Day and night abide in the tendencies and operations of the mind. Men who know this secret understand the mystery of time-how far it pursues us and who can transcend it.

Lord Krishn then goes on to explain the deeds that belong to day as also those that belong to night: what is done in the state of knowledge and that which is done in the obscurity of ignorance.

Lord Krishn adds:

“All manifest beings are born from the subtle body of Brahma
at the outset of his day and are also dissolved in the same
unmanifest body at the fall of his night.”

With the dawning of a day of Brahma’s, that is, with the inception of knowledge, all beings come awake in their unmanifest mind, and it is within the same subtle, unmanifest mind that they lapse into unconsciousness. They are unable to see the Supreme Spirit, but they have an existence. The mind, unmanifest and invisible, is the medium of both consciousness and unconsciousness, of both knowledge and nescience (the lack of knowledge).

“The beings who thus wake up
into consciousness are compelled
by nature to relapse into unconsciousness
with the coming of night and they are then,
O Parth, reborn with the advent of day.”

As long as the mind persists, the succession of knowledge and ignorance goes on. So long as this continues, the seeker is only a worshiper rather than an accomplished sage.

Lord Krishn sings:

“But beyond the unmanifest Brahma there is the eternal,
unmanifest God who is not destroyed
even after the destruction of all beings.”

On the one hand, the mind that is Brahma is imperceptible. It cannot be known by the senses. On the other, there is the eternal, unmanifest Supreme Spirit who is not destroyed even with the destruction of physical beings, or of the invisible Brahma (mind) which gains consciousness with the arising of knowledge and sinks into unconsciousness with the setting of knowledge into the darkness of ignorance.

God exists even after the destruction of inclinations of the mind which wake up in the light of day and fall back into insensibility in the darkness of night. These upward and downward motions of the mind cease only after the attainment of God who is the ultimate abode.

With the realization of the Supreme Spirit, the mind is coloured by him and becomes what he is. This is the point when the mind is annihilated and in its place only the eternal, unmanifest God remains.

“The unmanifest and imperishable God
who is said to be salvation and after realizing whom
one does not come back to the world, is my ultimate abode.”

That eternal unmanifest state is immortal and that is called enlightenment (or attainment) of the supreme goal.

Lord Krishn says, “This is my ultimate abode, after attaining which one does not return to mortal life and is not reborn.”

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

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Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

Lord Krishn has also taken up the problem of rebirth and said that the whole world, from Brahma himself to the lowest of creatures, repeats itself. But even after all of them are destroyed, his (Lord Krishn’s) sublime, unmanifest being and the steady devotion to him never come to an end.

A man who is initiated into yog is provided with two ways by which he may proceed. On the first of these two paths, blessed with the radiance of perfect knowledge, possessed of six fold excellence (discrimination, renunciation, restraint, tranquility, courage and intellect) , in a state of upward motion, and absolutely free from any blemish, the worshiper is assured of redemption. But if there is even the least imperfection about him, and he departs from the body in such a state, he has to undergo yet another birth.

However, since he has been a worshiper, instead of being for ever enmeshed in the vicious web of birth and death, after his new birth he sets himself a new to the task of completing his unaccomplished worship.

Thus, following the path of action in his next birth, the imperfect worshiper too can reach the supreme goal. Lord Krishn has also said that even a partial accomplishment of worship does not cease until it has brought about liberation from the great fear of life and death. Both the ways are eternal and indestructible. The man who understands this is ever steady and in repose.

So Arjun is advised to be a yogi, for yogi transcend even the sacred rewards of study of the Ved, penance, yagya, and charity, and so attain to ultimate liberation.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“All the worlds from Brahmlok downwards are,
O Arjun, of a recurrent character, but, O son of Kunti,
the soul which realizes me is not born again.”

The conception of different worlds ( lok ) in sacred books is an exercise in the creation of metaphor. There is no dark pit in the nether world in which we are stung and tortured by venomous creatures called hell, nor is there a domain in the sky which we call heaven. Man himself is a god when he is imbued with pious instincts and he, too, is a demon when overtaken by impious impulses.

Lord Krishn’s own kinsmen such as Kans, Shishupal, and Banasur were cursed with demoniacal temperament. Gods, men, and sub-humans constitute the three metaphorical worlds. Lord Krishn insists that the Self, carrying with himself the mind and the five senses, assumes new bodies according to the sanskar earned over innumerable lives.

Embodiments of virtue, gods whom we call immortal, are also subject to death. And there can be no greater loss than the destruction of piety in this mortal world. What is the use of this godlike body if it works for the destruction of the earned righteousness? All the worlds, from the highest to the lowest, are worlds of suffering. Man alone can shape the action by which he achieves the supreme goal, after which there is no recurrence of birth and death. By the ordained action man can become God and even achieve the position of Brahma himself, the first deity of the sacred Hindu Trinity to whom is entrusted the task of creation. And yet he will not be spared from rebirth until, with restraint and dissolution of the mind, he perceives God and merges into him. The Upanishads reveal the same truth.

According to the Kathopanishad, the mortal human is capable of being immortal and, within this physical body and in this world itself, he can achieve direct perception of the Supreme Spirit by the destruction of all attachments of the heart.

Is Brahma, creator of the world, himself mortal? Lord Krishn has said in Bhagavad Gita that the mind of Prajapati Brahma is a mere tool and God is manifested through him. It is such great souls who have devised yagya. But it is now revealed that even one who attains to the status of Brahma has to be reborn. After all, what does Lord Krishn really intend to say?

In truth, the realized sages, through whom God is manifested, do not have a Brahma-like mind, but they are addressed as Brahma because they teach and do good. They are not Brahma in themselves, for their mind is at last dissolved, but their mind existing in the course of worship before that stage is Brahma. This mind, constituted of ego, intellect, thought, and feeling, is truly vast and Brahma-like.

But the mind of an ordinary man is not Brahma. Brahma begins to be shaped from the moment when the mind commences approaching the worshiped God. Scholars of great erudition have ascribed four stages to this process.They are brahmvitt, brahmvidwar, brahmvidwariyan, and brahmvidwarisht.

Brahmvitt is the mind that is embellished with knowledge of the Supreme Spirit (brahmvidya). Brahmvidwar is that which has achieved excellence in such knowledge. Rather than just achieving distinction in the knowledge of God, brahmavidwariyan is the mind that has turned into a medium for the dissemination of the knowledge and for guidance to others who wish to go along the way. Brahmawidwarisht represents that last stage in which it is flooded with consciousness of the adored God.

The mind has its existence until this stage, because the God who irradiates it is yet removed from it.The worshiper is yet within the bounds of nature and, although in an elevated state, he is still subject to recurrent birth and death.

When the mind (Brahma) dwells in celestial radiance, the whole being and its current of thought are awake and alert. But they are unconscious and inert when they are beset by spiritual ignorance. This is what has been described as brightness and darkness or day and night. These are but figurative renderings of different states of mind.

Even in this superior, Brahma-like state, blessed with knowledge of God and overflowing with his radiance, the relentless succession of the day of spiritual knowledge (which unites the Self with the Supreme Spirit) and the night of ignorance, of light and darkness, persists. Even at this stage maya is still in command. When there is resplendence of knowledge, insensate beings come to consciousness and they begin to see the supreme goal.

On the other hand, when the mind is submerged in darkness, beings are in a state of nescience (the lack of knowledge). The mind cannot then ascertain its position and the progress towards God comes to a standstill. These states of knowledge and ignorance are Brahma’s day and night. In the light of day the numerous impulses of mind are lit up by God’s effulgence, whereas in the night of ignorance the same impulses are buried under the impenetrable gloom of insensibility.

Realization of the immutable, unmanifest God, who is indestructible and much beyond the unmanifest mind, is effected when the inclinations to both good and evil, to knowledge and ignorance, are perfectly hushed, and when all the currents of will-the sensible as well as the insensible-that disappear from view in the darkness of night and emerge in the light of day are obliterated.

An accomplished Soul is one who has gone beyond these four stages of the mind. There is no mind within him because it has turned into a mere instrument of God. Yet he appears to have a mind because he instructs others and prompts them with firmness. But, in truth, he is beyond the sway of the mind’s operation, because he has now found his place in the ultimate unmanifest reality and won freedom from rebirth.

But prior to this, when he is still in possession of his mind, till he is Brahma, he is subject to rebirth.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

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Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

Let us now see the supreme condition that should be the worshiper’s goal and how that is attained to which the discourse of the Bhagavad Gita reverts again and again.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“I shall tell you briefly of the ultimate state
which knowers of the Ved call the imperishable,
and which is realized by men who aspire for it,
act without desire, and practice continence.”

Continence is uninterrupted concentration on God through a rejection of all external associations from the mind rather than a mere curbing of the sexual urge. Constant meditation is true continence, for it is this that brings about perception of God and the final absolution. Such an exercise is the restraint of not one sense, but of all senses. Men who can do this are true celibates. What Lord Krishn is going to tell Arjun about this discipline is therefore something that is fit to be cherished by all hearts.

“Shutting the doors of all the senses, that is,
restraining them from desire for their objects,
confining his intellect within the Self,
fixing his life-breath within his mind, and absorbed in yog,…”

The necessity of renunciation of desire by a perfect control of the senses is repeatedly stressed. The mind has to be confined within the Self because contemplation and worship are accomplished within the Self, not outside. With the mind so regulating the breath that it is centered between the two eyebrows and, of course, engaged in the practice of yog, for this is an essential prerequisite;-

“He who departs from the body intoning OM,
which is God in word, and remembering me, attains to salvation.”

The sage who dies with the knowledge that the imperishable God is the one reality achieves the state of sublime bliss. Lord Krishn is a yogi, a seer who has achieved awareness of the ultimate truth. As a realized sage, an accomplished teacher, he exhorts Arjun to recite OM, symbol of God, and contemplate him.

All great Souls are known by the name of the entity to which they attain and into which they are finally assimilated. It is for this reason that Lord Krishn prompts Arjun to utter the name of God but remember his own ( Sri Krishn’s ) form.

Let us note that he does not tell Arjun to recite his name. With the passage of time, though, Lord Krishn was deified and men began to recite his name; and they are rewarded but only according to the nature of their dedication. Lord Krishn has told Arjun that it is he who both strengthens the devotion of such worshipers and determines their rewards. But these rewards are destroyed along with their recipients.

It is useful to remember how Lord Shiv, the initiator of yog, insisted on the recitation of the syllable “Ram” that signifies the omnipresent God who can be experienced only as an inner voice.

Sant Kabir is also said to have committed himself to the constant recitation of the two sounds represented by “ra” and “m.” And Lord Krishn here advocates the usefulness of OM. God is known by innumerable names, but only that name which prompts and confirms faith in the one God is worthy of constant remembrance and recitation.

Worshipers are rightly cautioned by Lord Krishn that the name they recite time and again must not be one that might incline or encourage them to believe in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses who are nothing more than a bundle of myth. OM is unique in the sense that it literally betokens that the supreme authority of God inheres in every “me.” So seekers must desist from wandering here and there to find him outside themselves.

The revered Gurudev would often advise his devotees to keep in mind his form while intoning some name like OM, Ram or Shiv: to visualize him and, with him before the mind’s eye, to remember the identical god-the object of their worship. It is an accomplished teacher who is kept in view while meditating. Whether we hold on to a Ram, Krishn, or a hermit who is liberated from all desire and pleasure of the senses, or to any other being according to our inclination, we can know them only by actual experience, after which they disclose to us the way to some contemporary and accomplished teacher whose guidance we should slowly but surely follow to conquer the material world.

Novices utter the deity’s name, but hesitate to do so while calling a sage in human form. They are unable to discard the bias of their inherited beliefs. So they call to mind some other false god instead. But this practice is, as we have seen, forbidden by Yogeshwar Krishn as impious. The proper way is to find refuge in some realized sage, an accomplished or enlightened teacher, who has already gone through the experience.

Fallacious dogmas are then destroyed and the worshiper is enabled to set upon real action as his pious impulses and the capacity to act according to them are rendered sufficiently strong. So, according to Lord Krishn, the mind is restrained and ultimately dissolved by a simultaneous recitation of OM and remembrance of his form.

This is the point at which the accumulated layers of sanskar-of the merits of action- are dissolved and all the relationships of the body severed forever. A man is not rid of the body by just physical death.

Lord Krishn adds:

“The yogi who is firmly devoted to me,
and who constantly remembers me and is absorbed in me,
realizes me with ease.”

Lord Krishn is easily attained to by the worshiper who has no one except him in his mind, and who thinks steadily only of him and always remembers him. The profit of this attainment is portrayed in the next verse.

“Accomplished sages who have attained
to the ultimate state are no longer subject to transient rebirth
which is like a house of sorrows.”

It is only after attaining to the Supreme Spirit that man is not born again.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

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Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

God is beyond thought and inconceivable.
So long as the mind exists,
its urges survive and he is not seen.
He is known only after the perfectly restrained mind is itself dissolved.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“The man who remembers God who is omniscient,
without beginning and end,
dwelling in the Soul that rules all beings,
the most subtle of the subtle, unmanifest, provider to all,
beyond thought, imbued with the light of consciousness,
and quite beyond ignorance….,”

“With unwavering concentration,
with his life-breath firmly centered between his brows
by
the strength of his yog,
such a man attains
to
the effulgent Supreme Being.”

Lord Krishn has clarified that one will doubtless realize Him if,
with his/her mind and intellect dedicated to Him,
he/she always wages war.
It is the worshiper’s contemplation of Him;
and
now he speaks of the contemplation of God.

So the instrument of meditation
is
some accomplished Soul who is imbued
with
the awareness of reality.

The worshiper who always meditates on God
with a steady mind realizes his magnificence
when his mind is dissolved
by the strength of his yog-by the strength gained from undertaking
of
the ordained action-which enables him to center his breath
between the two brows
so that
there is neither inner agitation nor the advent of any will
from an external source.

In brief, the realization comes in the state
in which all properties,
sattwa, rajas and tamas, are perfectly quiet;
the vision of mind remains ready on the self
and
it is achieved by the worshiper
who always keeps it in mind
that
yog is the appointed way of realization.
This way is yog.

Lord Krishn has told Arjun,
“Always remember me.”

As we have seen,
this is done by resting firmly on the precepts of yog.
One who achieves this knows the magnificence of God
and
becomes one with him,
and thereafter
his memory is never obliterated from his mind.

At this point the question
of
how God is perceived at the time of departing
from the body
is
resolved.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

The nature of Brahm, adhyatm, action, adhibhoot and adhidaiv are the five questions of Arjun’s mind and then who is adhiyagya, how is he enshrined in the body: and how does the man with a restrained mind know God at the end?

The words adhyatm, action, adhibhoot and adhidaiv are all mysteries to seekers. It is evident that the doer of yagya is some Soul who is based in a human body. And, at last, how does a man with a fully controlled mind know Lord Krishn at the end?

So there are seven questions in all.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“The one who is imperishable is the Supreme Spirit (Brahm);
abiding in a body he is adhyatm;
and the cessation of properties in beings
which produce something or the other is action.”

The one who is indestructible, who never dies, is the Supreme Spirit. Steady devotion to the Self-dominance of the Soul-is adhyatm. Before this stage everyone is ruled by maya, but when a man dwells firmly in God and so in his own Self, he is infused with the sense of supremacy of his Self. This is the culmination of adhyatm.

The ceasing-the discontinuance-of the will of beings which results in the creation of both good and evil is, on the other hand, the crowning point of action. This is the perfect action which Lord Krishn had spoken of earlier as known to yogi. Action is now complete and henceforth there is no further need of it. Action is perfected when the desires of beings which create sanskar that are propitious as well as unpropitious are stilled. Beyond this there is no further need of action.

So true action is that which brings an end to desires. Such action, therefore, means worship and contemplation that are inherent in yagya.

Sri Krishn sings further:

“Adhibhoot is all that is subject to birth and death;
the Supreme Spirit is adhidaiv;
and, O the unparalleled among men (Arjun),
I (Vasudev) am the adhiyagya in the body.”

Until the state of immortality is achieved, all the transient, destructible desires are adhibhoot, or, in other words, spheres of beings. They are the source of the origin of beings. And the Supreme Spirit who is beyond nature is adhidaiv, the creator of all gods, that is, righteous impulses-the divine treasure that is finally dissolved in him.

Vasudev-Lord Krishn-is adhiyagya in the human body, the performer of all yagya. Thus God himself, dwelling as the unmanifest Soul in the body, is adhiyagya. Lord Krishn was a yogi, the enjoyer of all oblations. And all yagya are at last absorbed in him. That is the moment of realization of the Supreme Soul.

At last, Lord Krishn takes up the question of how he is known at the end and never forgotten thereafter?

Lord Krishn adds:

“The man who departs from the body remembering me
doubtlessly attains to me.”

That accounts for Lord Krishn’s assertion that the man who finally, that is, when he has perfect control over his mind and when even this mind is dissolved, severs his relationship with the body and departs from it with remembrance of him, surely achieves total oneness with him.

Death of the body is not the final end, for the succession of bodies continues even after death. It is only when the last crust of earned merits or demerits (sanskar) has disintegrated, and so also the restrained mind along with it, that the final end comes, and after that the Soul does not have to assume a new body. But this is a process of action and it cannot be rendered comprehensible by just words.

As long as the transfer from one body to another, like a change of clothes, persists, there is no real end of the physical person. But even while the body is yet alive, with control of the mind and dissolution of the restrained mind itself, physical relationships are sundered. If this state were possible after the event of death, even Lord Krishn could not be perfect. He has said that only by worship carried on through innumerable births does a sage gain identity with him. The worshiper then dwells in him and he in the worshiper. There is then not even the least distance between them. But this achievement is made during a physical life. When the Soul does not have to assume a new body-that is the real end of the physical body.

This is a portrayal of real death after which there is no rebirth. At the other end there is physical death which the world accepts as death, but after which the Soul has to be born again.

Lord Krishn sings:

“A man attains, O son of Kunti,
to the slate with the thought of which he departs from the body
because of his constant preoccupation with that state.”

A man achieves what he bears in mind at the time of his death. How very easy, we may be led to assume? All that we have to do is just remember God before dying after a lifelong indulgence in pleasures. According to Lord Krishn, however, it is not like this at all. At the moment of his death a man can remember only that which he has thought of all his life. So what is needed is lifelong contemplation. In the absence of this, there is no remembrance at the moment of death of the ideal state which has to be achieved.

Lord Krishn adds:

“So you will doubtless realize me if,
with your mind and intellect dedicated to me,
you always wage war.”

How are uninterrupted meditation and combat accomplished simultaneously? It is perhaps the practice of warriors: one goes on shooting arrows while at the same time intoning and yelling names of deities. But the true meaning of remembrance (internal recitation of the name) is something else and it is clarified by the Yogeshwar in the next verse.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“Possessed of the yog of meditation and a restrained mind,
O Parth, the man who is always absorbed in my thought
attains to the sublime radiance of God.”

Contemplation of God and practice of yog have an identical meaning. The remembrance, which Lord Krishn has spoken of, requires the worshiper to be possessed of yog and a mind so well subdued that it never strays from God. If these conditions are met and the worshiper then remembers constantly, he attains to the magnificence of God. If the thought of other objects comes to mind, one’s remembrance is still imperfect.

Now, when, it is so subtle that it has no room for any other thought except God and does not countenance any other urges, how can it be possible along with the act of waging war? What kind of war is it?

When the mind is pulled back from all sides and centered on the object of worship, prompted by natural properties, feelings of attachment and anger, of love and hatred appear as impediments in the way. We try to remember and concentrate, but these feelings agitate the mind and do their utmost to force it away from the desired memory.

Overcoming these external impulses is fighting a war; and they can be destroyed only by continuous meditation. This is the war that the Bhagavad Gita portrays.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

Bereft of discernment because of their craving for sensual pleasures, ignorant men are unable to see that the enlightened sage, the accomplished teacher and God alone have real worth.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“Driven by the properties of their nature,
they who fall from knowledge desire worldly pleasures
and in imitation of the prevailing customs,
worship other gods instead of the one single God.”

So, urged by their nature or rather by the merits (sanskar) they have earned and stored through many lives, they resort to current creed and practices, and devote themselves to the worship of other gods.

Lord Krishn adds:

“It is I who bestow steadiness on the faith of covetous worshipers
according to the nature of the gods they worship.”

It is God who imparts the quality of unflinching firmness to the devotion of worshipers who adore other gods because they wish for material rewards. It is God who makes the faith in other gods steady. Had gods really existed, this task would have been accomplished by these entities themselves. But since they are only a myth, it is God who has to render the faith of worshipers in them firm and strong.

“Possessing this strengthened faith,
the worshiper devotes himself to his chosen deity with devotion and,
through this undoubtedly achieves the enjoyment of desired pleasures which are also appointed by my laws.”

Possessed of faith that is propped up by God, the desire – ridden worshiper devotes himself with renewed vigour to the adoration of some unworthy gods, but surprisingly he too is rewarded with the desired satisfaction. But this satisfaction is also a gift from God. So God is also the bestower of enjoyment of worldly pleasures. Mean pleasure rather than divine bliss is the reward for those who worship other gods for satisfaction of their desires. But in a way they are rewarded. So there seems apparently nothing wrong with this form of worship. However, this is what Lord Krishn has to say on the question in next verse.

“But the rewards of these deluded men are finite
because they only attain to the gods they worship,
whereas the man who worships me howsoever he does it -realizes me.”

The prizes won by these ignorant men are destructible. They are impermanent because they are worldly pleasures which have a beginning and an end.
The pleasures that are with us today slip away from us tomorrow. Men who worship other gods acquire powers that are themselves perishable. The whole world, from the level of divinities to that of the lowest creatures, is mutable and subject to death. On the contrary, the man who worships God attains to him and so to the ineffable peace that descends on the Soul after he is united with God.

Yogeshwar Krishn had exhorted Arjun earlier to foster gods, that is pious impulses, through the observance of yagya. Good fortune accrues from an increase and strengthening of these riches. And ultimately, with gradual progress, there is the attainment of perception and supreme peace. In this context “gods” represent forces of piety by which the divinity of God is secured. These godly impulses that have to be fostered are the means for salvation.

The righteousness which garners the sanctity of God within the worshiper’s heart is named “god.” It was at the outset something internal, but with the passage of time people began to visualize these qualities in palpable forms. That is the reason how truth was lost sight of.

Lord Krishn has attempted to refute the misconception about gods and goddesses. Naming “other gods” here in the Bhagavad Gita, he has emphatically said that they do not exist. Whenever faith declines or grows feeble, it is he who supports it and makes it firm, and it is also he who provides rewards for this faith. But these rewards are finite and perishable. Fruits are destroyed, gods are destroyed, and worshipers of these gods are also destroyed. So only the ignorant who are lacking in discrimination worship other gods.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Wanting in wisdom and oblivious of the reality
that I am immaculate and beyond the mind and senses,
men regard my manifestation as a physical incarnation.”

There is nothing like gods and the rewards, too, for their worship are ephemeral. All this notwithstanding, all men are not devoted to God. This is so because men who are bereft of discernment are, as we have seen in the last verse, only inadequately aware of God’s perfection and magnificence. It is for this reason that they deem the unmanifest God as assuming a human form.

In other words, Lord Krishn was a yogi in the body of a man, verily a Yogeshwar, a Lord of Yog. The one who is a yogi himself and has the ability to impart yog to others is called a Yogeshwar, an accomplished teacher.

Adopting the right form of worship, and with gradual refinement, sages also come to abide in that state. Although wearing the apparel of a human body, they at last abide in the formless, unmanifest God. But ignorant men yet regard them as ordinary human beings.

How can they be God, these men think, when they were born just like them?

They are hardly to blame for this, for their deluded minds, wherever they look, see only the external form. Yogeshwar Krishn now explains why they are unable to see the Spirit embodied within the physical body in next verse.

“Hidden behind my yog-maya,
I am not perceived by all and this ignorant man does not know me,
the birthless and immutable God.”

For an ordinary man, maya, the power by which God evolves the physical universe, is like a thick screen behind which God is completely hidden. Beyond this yog-maya, or the practice of yog, there is also another curtain. It is only by a constant and long practice of yog that the worshiper reaches the culminating point of yog where the hidden God is perceived.

Yogeshwar Krishn says that he is hidden by his yog-maya and only they who have secured yog can know him. Since he is not manifest to all, the ignorant and unwise man does not know him-the birthless (who is not going to be born again), eternal (who cannot be destroyed), and unmanifest (who is not going to be manifest again).

Arjun initially regarded Lord Krishn as just another mortal. But after he is enlightened and his vision is enlarged, he begins to plead and beg. By and large it is only too true that we are no better than blind men in the matter of recognizing the unmanifest Soul of sages and great men.

Lord Krishn sings:

“I know, O Arjun, all beings that have been (or will be) in the past,
present, and future, but no one knows me without true devotion.”

Why it is so is explained in the next verse:

“All beings in the world fall into ignorance,
O Bharat, because of the contradictions of attachment and repugnance,
and of happiness and sorrow.”

All men are victims of delusion because of the endless dualities of material nature and so fail to know God. Does it imply that no one will know him?

Lord Krishn adds:

“But they who worship me in every way are selflessly engaged
in good deeds, free from sin and delusion,
arising from the conflicts of attachment and repulsion, and of firm intent.”

Freed from evil and conflicting passions, the doers of virtuous action which brings; the worldly life-of birth and death-to a final end, and which has been variously described as worthy action, ordained action, and the deed of yagya, worship and adore him to achieve redemption.

Here it is evident beyond any doubt that the way to God-realization is according to Lord Krishn only through an accomplished teacher. One who performs the ordained task under the guidance of such a mentor acquires mastery of spiritual capacity as well as perfect action.This is also further illustrated in the next verses.

“Only they who strive for liberation
from the cycle of birth and death by finding shelter under me
succeed in knowing God, spiritual wisdom and all action.”

Knowledge of God, of the kinship of the individual and Universal Soul, and of all action prepares a man spiritually to take refuge in God and seek the ultimate liberation.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“They who know me as the presiding Spirit in all beings (adhibhut)
and gods (adhidaiv), and in yagya ( adhiyagya ),
and whose minds are fixed on me, know me at the end.”

Men who know Lord Krishn also know the Supreme Spirit that animates all beings; all gods, and yagya. They, whose minds are absorbed in him, know the God in Lord Krishn, dwell in him, and attain to him for ever.

Lord Krishn has said that men do not know him because they are ignorant. But they who aspire to be rid of delusion know him along with God, the embodiment of perfection, the identity between him and the individual Soul as well as the material universe, and perfect action: in brief, the immaculate nature of the Spirit that dwells in all beings, gods, and yagya.

The source of all this is a seer : one who has realized the truth. So it is not that this awareness is impossible to acquire. But there is an appointed way by following which alone can a man hope to possess this perfect knowledge.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~