Sacrifice Through Wisdom Is In Every Way Superior To Sacrifices Made With Material Objects, Sings Lord Krishn In Bhagavad Gita….!!!

The yagya of wisdom, made by means of austerity, continence, faith, and knowledge, which brings about a direct perception of God, is the most propitious. All actions are fully dissolved in this knowledge. Knowledge is thus the crowning point of yagya. Thenceforth there is neither any profit in the doing of action nor any loss in abstaining from it.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“Sacrifice through wisdom is, O Parantap,
in every way superior to sacrifices made with material objects,
because O Parth, all action ceases in knowledge,
their culmination.”

There are yagya that are performed with material objects, but they are insignificant in comparison with the yagya of knowledge which enables a man to have direct perception of God.

Even if we sacrifice millions, build hundreds of altars for the sacred fire, contribute money to good causes, and invest money in the service of sages and saints, this yagya is much inferior to the sacrifice of knowledge.

Real yagya is restraint of the vital winds of life, subduing of the senses, and control of the mind.

From where can we learn its mode?

Lord Krishn’s pronouncement is that it can be had from only one source, namely, the sage who has known the reality.

“Obtain that knowledge from sages through reverence,
inquiry and innocent solicitation,
and the sages who are aware of reality will initiate you into it.”

So Arjun is advised to approach seers with reverence, self-surrender, and humility, to be instructed in true knowledge through devoted service and guileless curiosity. These seers will enlighten him on it. The ability to acquire this knowledge comes only with a wholly dedicated service. They are seers who enable us to have direct perception of God. They know the mode of yagya and they will teach it to Arjun.

Had the war been external, what need was there of a seer?

Lord Krishn sings:

“Knowing which, O son of Pandu,
you will never again be a prey like this to attachment,
and equipped with this knowledge you will see all beings
within yourself and then within me.”

After acquiring this knowledge from sages Arjun will be rid of all attachment. Possessed of this knowledge he will perceive all beings in his Self, that is, he will see the extension of the same Self everywhere, and only then can he become one with God. Thus the means of attaining to that God is the sage who has perceived reality.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Even if you are the most heinous sinner,
the ark of knowledge will carry you safely across all evils.”

We should not make the error of concluding from this that we will know salvation even with committing more and yet more sin. Lord Krishn rather intends to say by this that we should not be under the mistaken impression that we are such great sinners that there cannot be salvation for us.

So this is Lord Krishn’s message of hope and courage to Arjun and to everybody: that despite being the doer of sins greater than the sins of all sinners he will sail across sins successfully, by the ark of knowledge acquired from seers.

Lord Krishn sings:

“As blazing fire turns fuel to ashes,
so verily O Arjun,
the fire of knowledge reduces all action to ashes.”

Here we have a portrayal, not of an introduction to knowledge through which one approaches yagya, but of the culmination of knowledge or perception of God, in which there is first the destruction of all unrighteous inclinations and in which then even the act of meditation is dissolved. The one who had to be attained to has been attained. Now who is there to look for by further meditation? The sage with the wisdom that arises from perception of God brings his actions to an end.

But where does this perception of God occur? Is it an external or internal phenomenon?

Lord Krishn adds:

“Doubtlessly nothing in the world is more purifying
than this knowledge and your heart will realize it spontaneously
when you have attained to perfection on the Way of Action.”

Nothing in this world purifies as this knowledge does. And this knowledge will be manifest to the doer alone, not to anyone else, when his practice of yog has reached maturity, not at its inception, not in the middle, not externally but within his heart-within his Self.

What is the required ability for this knowledge?

Lord Krishn sings:

“The worshipper of true faith who has subdued his senses
attains to this knowledge and at the very moment of attainment
he is rewarded with the benediction of supreme peace.”

For realization of God one needs to possess faith, determination, and restraint of the senses. If there is no intensely felt curiosity for the knowledge of God, even taking refuge in a seer will not bring it.

Also, mere faith is not enough. The worshiper’s effort may be feeble. Therefore, the determination to proceed resolutely along the prescribed way is a necessity. Along with this it is also necessary to restrain the senses.

Realization of the Supreme God will not come easily to one who is not free from desire. So only a man who has faith, enthusiasm for action, and restraint of the senses can have this knowledge. And the very moment this knowledge dawns upon him, he is blessed with the ultimate eternal peace, because after this there is left nothing more to strive for. After this he will never know anything other than peace.

Lord Krishn adds:

“For a skeptic, bereft of faith and knowledge,
who strays from the path of righteousness,
there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next;
he loses both the worlds.”

For the man who is ignorant of the way of yagya-for the doubting man who is of devoid of faith and who strays from the path of good, there is no happiness, no next life in human form, and no God. So if there are any doubts in the worshiper, he should go to a seer and resolve them, or else he will never know the reality.

So who is blessed with knowledge?

Lord Krishn sings:

“O Dhananjay, action cannot bind the man
who relies on God and who has surrendered all his actions to him
by the practice of karm-yog and all whose doubts have been put
to rest by knowledge.”

Action cannot enslave the man whose deeds are dissolved in God by the practice of yog, whose doubts have been resolved by perception, and who is united with God. Action will be brought to an end only by yog.

Only true knowledge will destroy doubts.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“So, O Bharat, dwell in yog and stand up to cut down this irresolution
that has entered into your heart because of ignorance
with the steel of knowledge.”

Arjun has to fight. But the enemy-irresolution-is within his own heart, not outside. When we proceed on the way of devotion and contemplation, it is but natural that feelings of doubt and passion will arise as obstacles before us. These enemies launch a fearful assault.

To fight them and overcome them, through the destruction of uncertainties by the practice of the ordained yagya, is the war that Arjun has to wage, and the result of this war for him will be absolute peace and victory after which there is no possibility of defeat.

~ Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans ~
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Even Learned Call That Man A Sage All Of Whose Actions Are Free From Desire And Will, Burnt To Ashes By The Fire Of Knowledge….!!!

With the acquisition of the capacity of perceiving non-action in action, the man who is engaged in action grows into a doer of perfect action in which there is not even the slightest flaw. Restraint of desire and will is a victory of the mind. So action is something that elevates the mind above desire and will.

Lord Krishn sings in Bhagavad Gita:

“Even the learned call that man a sage
all of whose actions are free from desire and will,
both burnt to ashes by the fire of knowledge.”

Sri Krishn tells Arjun that a well-commenced action gradually becomes so refined and sublimated that it takes the mind above will as well as irresolution and then, with the burning out of even the last desire which he does not know but which he was previously eager to know, the worshiper is blessed with direct perception of God.

Direct knowledge of God by following the path of action is called knowledge (gyan): the sacred knowledge that enables the Soul to be united with the Supreme Spirit.

The fire of this direct perception of God annihilates action for ever. What was sought has been achieved. There is nothing beyond it to quest for. Who is there beyond God to search for with further endeavour? So with the attainment of this wisdom, the need for action comes to an end. Rightly have sages called men with such wisdom pandit, men of profound erudition. Their learning is perfect.

But what does such a saint do? How does he live?

Lord Krishn now illumines his way of life.

“Independent of the world, ever contented,
and renouncing all attachment to action as well as its fruits,
such a man is free from action even while he is engaged in it.”

Declining to rest upon objects of the world, utterly contented with dwelling in the eternal God, and discarding not only desire for the fruits of action but even attachment to God because now he is not removed from Him, this sage is a non-doer even while he is diligently employed in the performance of action.

HE adds further:

“He who has conquered his mind and senses,
and given up all objects of sensual pleasure,
does not partake of sin even when his body seems
to be engaged in action.”

It is only the physical body of the man, who has overcome both his mind and senses, renounced all objects of worldly enjoyment, and achieved total freedom from desire, that seems to be engaged in action, whereas, in truth, he does nothing, and that is why he does not incur sin. He is perfect and so he is emancipated from the cycle of birth and death.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Contented with what comes to him unsought,
he who is indifferent to happiness and sorrow,
free from envy, and even-minded in success and failure, is a man of equanimity, unenslaved by action even when he performs it.”

When a man is contented with whatever comes to him without being desired or asked for, indifferent to happiness and sorrow, and love and animosity, free from any negative feeling, and abiding with equanimity in attainment and nonattainment, he is not fettered by action even though he appears to be engaged in it. Since the goal he had aimed at is now achieved and it will not ever desert him, he is freed from the terror of defeat. Looking alike at achievement and non-achievement this man acts, but without infatuation. And what he does is nothing other than yagya, the act of supreme sacrifice.

Reiterating the concept Lord krishn adds:

“When a man is free from attachment,
his mind rests firmly in the knowledge of God,
and when his actions are like the yagya made to God,
he is truly emancipated and all his actions cease to be.”

Performance of yagya itself is action and direct perception of God is knowledge. Acting in the spirit of sacrifice and dwelling in the knowledge achieved from direct perception of God, all the actions of this liberated man who is devoid of attachment and desire undergo a process of dissolution.

Now his actions are of no consequence to the worshiper, because God, the goal he had striven for, is no longer away from him. Now, what other fruit will grow from a fruit? Therefore, such liberated men’s need of action for themselves comes to an end. Yet they act as messiahs, but even while doing this they remain untouched by what they do.

Lord Krishn accounts for this in the following verse :

“Since both the dedication and the oblation itself are God,
and it is the Godlike teacher who offers the oblation
to the fire which is also God,
the attainment, too, of the man whose mind is set
on God like action is God himself.”

The emancipated man’s yagya is God, what he offers as oblation is God, and the sacred fire to which the sacrifice is made is also God. That is to say that what is offered by the Godlike worshiper to the sacred fire that is an embodiment of God is also God himself. That which is worthy of being secured by the man whose actions have been dissolved and stilled by God’s loving touch is also God. So this man does nothing; he only acts for the good of others.

These are attributes of the realized sage who has reached the stage of final attainment.

~ Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans ~
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“I Am Unsullied By Action Because I Am Not Attached To It”…..Sings Lord Krishn In Bhagavad Gita…!!!

Lord Krishn is unattached to the fruits of action. He has taught that the deed by which yagya is accomplished is action, and that the one who tastes the nectar of wisdom generated by yagya merges into the changeless, eternal God.

Lord Krishn sings in Chapter Four, verse Fourteen of Bhagavad Gita:

“I am unsullied by action
because I am not attached to it,
and they who are aware of this are in the like fashion
unfettered by action.”

So the final consequence of action is attainment of the Supreme Spirit himself. And Lord Krishn has overcome even the desire for God because he has become identical with Him. So he is also unmanifest like God. There is now no power beyond for which he should strive. So he is untouched by action, and they who know him from the same level, from the level of God realization, are also not bound by action. Such are the realized sages who have reached the level of Lord Krishn’s accomplishment.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Since it is with this wisdom that men
aiming at salvation from worldly existence have also performed
action in earlier times, you too should follow
the example of your predecessors.”

In the past, too, men desiring salvation had acted with the same realization: that the patterns of action are severed when as the final outcome of his action the doer is one with God, and when he is liberated from desire even for him. Lord Krishn belongs to this state. So he is untainted by action and, if we have what he has, we too will be freed from the bonds of action. Whoever knows what Sri Krishn knows from his elevated position will be freed from action.

So whatever Lord Krishn might have been, the unmanifest God or an enlightened sage, his attainment is within the reach of all of us. It was with this kind of wisdom that earlier men aspiring for salvation had set upon the path of action. It is for this reason that Arjun is told to do what his predecessors have done. This is the only way that leads to the sublime good.

One becomes neither wise by renouncing action nor emancipated from action by just not undertaking it.They who suppress their organs of action with violence are just arrogant hypocrites. So Arjun should act, restraining his senses with the mind.

Lord Krishn told him to do the ordained action, which is performance of yagya, to clarify the meaning of action. And now he has told Arjun that even scholars of great erudition are confounded by the problems of what action is and what actionlessness is. So it is important that action and actionlessness are understood well.

Lord Krishn sings further:

“Even wise men are confused
about the nature of action and actionlessness,
and so I shall explain the meaning of action to you well,
so that knowing it you may be emancipated from evil.”

What are action and the state in which there is no action?

Even men of learning are confounded by these questions. So Sri Krishn tells Arjun that he is going to expound well the meaning of action to him, so that he can be freed from worldly bondage. He has already said that action is something that liberates from the fetters of temporal life.

Now, again, he stresses the importance of knowing what it is?

“It is essential to know the nature of action
as well as of actionlessness,
and also that of meritorious action,
for the ways of action are (So) inscrutable.”

It is of the utmost importance to know what action is and what actionlessness is, as also the action which is free from all doubt and ignorance and which is undertaken by men of wisdom who have renounced all worldly desire and attachment. This is imperative because the problem of action is a great riddle.

Some commentators have interpreted the word ‘‘vikarm’’ in the text (which has been translated here as “meritorious action”) as “forbidden or prohibited action” and “diligent action,” etc. But the preposition vi prefixed to the root karm here denotes merit or excellence. The action of men who have attained to the ultimate bliss is free from all uncertainty and error. For sages who dwell and find contentment in the Self, and love him and the Supreme Spirit, there is neither any profit in accomplishing action nor any loss in forsaking it. But they yet act for the good of those who are behind them. Such action is pure and it is free from all doubt and ignorance.

We have just seen “meritorious action.” So we are now left with action and actionlessness. They are explained in the next verse, and if we do not understand the distinction between the two here, we will perhaps never understand it.

Lord Krishn sings:

“One who can perceive non-action in action
and action in non-action is a wise man
and an accomplished doer of perfect action.”

Action means worship; and the accomplished doer is one who sees non-action in action, that is, who contemplates God and yet believes simultaneously that rather than being the doer, he has only been prompted to action by his inherent properties. Only when this ability to see non-action has been mastered and the continuity of action is unbroken, should one believe that action is proceeding in the right direction. The man with this insight is a wise man. verily a yogi, endowed with the means by which the individual Soul is united with the Supreme Spirit, and a doer of perfect action. There is not even the slightest error in his performance of action.

Briefly, then, worship is action. A man should practice it and yet see non-action in it, that is, realize that he is just an instrument while the real doer is the underlying property. When we know that we are non-doers and there is yet constant and unimpeded action, only then is made possible the performance of that action which results in the ultimate good.

My noble teacher, the revered Maharaj Ji, used to say to us, “Until God turns into a charioteer to restrain and guide, real worship does not begin.” Whatever is done before this stage is no more than a preliminary attempt to be admitted to the way of action. The whole weight of the yoke rests on the oxen and yet the ploughman is the one who drives them, and the ploughing of the field is said to be his accomplishment·

Even so although all the burden of worship is borne by the worshiper, the real worshiper is God because he is always by the devote, urging and guiding him. Until God delivers his judgement, we cannot even know what has been done through us.

Are we yet settled in the Supreme Spirit or are we just roaming about in the wilderness of nature?

The worshiper who thus goes ahead on the spiritual path under God’s guidance, and who acts with constant belief that he is a non-doer, is truly wise; he knows the reality and he is indeed a yogi.

Let us recall briefly, for the sake of better understanding, what Sri Krishn has said about action and yagya, so far. What is usually done in the name of action, he has said, is not action. Action is a prescribed undertaking-the performance of yagya. Whatever else besides it is done is not action. According to Sri Krishn anything apart from this that is done is worldly bondage rather than action. From what Sri Krishn has spoken about the nature of yagya, it is evident that it is a particular mode of worship which guides the devotee to the adored God and effects his dissolution in Him.

For the performance of this yagya one has to subdue the senses, control the mind, and augment pious impulses. Concluding this part of the argument, Lord Krishn said that many yogis depend upon serenity of breath during silent recitation of the deity’s name by restraining the life-winds, in which state there is neither internal volition nor coming into the mind of any desire from the external environment.

In such a state of total restraint of the mind, when even restrained mind is dissolved, the worshiper merges into the changeless, eternal God. This is yagya, the performance of which is action. Therefore, the true meaning of action is “worship;” it means divine adoration and practice of yog. So far only a distinction has been made between action and non-action, awareness of which will guide the worshiper on to the right path and enable him to trend effectively on it.

~ Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans ~
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“yo vetti tattvataḥ”….God, So Inscrutable And Mysterious, Is Perceptible Only To Him Who Has Known The Reality….!!!

God’s incarnation, his gradual manifestation through profound remorse, and his works-eradication of hindrances which generate evil, provision of the essentials of Self-realization, and reinstatement of dharm- are not like the birth and deeds of mortals.

Perceived only as abstractions, God’s incarnation and operations cannot be seen with physical eyes. He cannot be measured by mind and wisdom. God, so inscrutable and mysterious, is perceptible only to him who has known the reality.

Lord Krishn sings in Chapter Four of Bhagavad Gita:

“He who has perceived
the essence of my radiant incarnations and works,
O Arjun, is never born again after discarding his body,
but dwells in me.”

Only he can view God’s incarnation and works, and once he has made this direct perception, he is not born again but dwells in Lord Krishn.

When seers alone can see God’s incarnation and works, why do we have these crowds of hundreds of thousands of men awaiting the birth of God so that they can see him? Are we all seers?

There are many who masquerade as sages, mainly by dressing as holy men, and who claim that they are incarnations, and whose agents resort to publicity to prove it. The credulous rush like sheep to have a view of these “God-men,” but Lord Krishn affirms that only men of perfection can see God.

Now, who is this man we call a seer?

Giving his verdict on the real and the false, Lord Krishn told Arjun that the unreal has no being and that the real has never been nonexistent in all time-past, present and future. This has been the experience of seers rather than of linguists or wealthy men. Now he reiterates that although God manifests himself, only perceivers of essence can see him. He has been united with ultimate reality and become a seer.

We do not become seers by learning to count the five (or twenty-five) elements. Lord Krishn further says that the Soul alone is the ultimate reality. When the Soul is united with this Universal Spirit, he too becomes God. So only a man who has realized the Self can see and comprehend God’s manifestation. It is evident therefore that God manifests himself in a worshipers’s heart.

At the outset the worshiper is not able to recognize the power which transmits signals to him. Who is showing him the way? But after he has perceived the truth of the Supreme Spirit, he begins to see and understand, and thereafter when he discards the body he is not reborn.

Lord Krishn has said that his manifestation is internal, obscure, and luminous, and that the one who sees his radiance becomes one with him. If men do the ordained task, they will find that they too are radiant. What others have the potential to be, Lord Krishn already is. He represents the possibilities of mankind-their future. The day we achieve perfection within ourselves, we will also be what Lord Krishn is; we will be identical with him. Incarnation is never external. If a heart is brimming with love and adoration, there is a possibility of its experiencing the divine incarnation. All the same Lord Krishn provides solace to the common people by telling them that many have realized him by treading on the ordained path.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Free from passion and anger,
wholly dedicated to me,
finding shelter in me,
and purified by knowledge and penance,
many have realized my being.”

Many who have taken refuge in Lord Krishn-with single-mindedness and complete detachment, freed equally from passion and passionlessness, fear and fearlessness, anger and absence of anger, and purified by knowledge and penance, have attained to his state. It is not that only now it is so. This canon has always been in operation. Many have attained to his state before.

But what is the way?

Lord Krishn shapes himself and appears in a heart that is filled with profound sorrow at the predominance of unrighteousness. It is people with such hearts who realize him. What Yogeshwar Krishn had previously called perception of reality he now calls knowledge (gyan). God is the ultimate reality. To perceive him is wisdom. Men with this knowledge therefore realize him. Here the problem is resolved and Sri Krishn now proceeds to distinguish worshipers according to their qualities.

Lord Krishn sings further:

“O Parth, as men worship me,
even so do I accept them,
and knowing this the wise follow me in every way.”

Lord Krishn rewards his worshipers according to the nature of their devotion; he assists them in the same degree. It is the worshiper’s dedication that is returned to him as grace. Knowing this secret, the righteous conduct themselves with single-mindedness according to the way laid down by him. They who are dear to him act according to his way. They do what he ordains them to do.

God shows his favour by standing with the worshiper as a charioteer; he begins to walk along with the worshiper and manifest his glory. This is the form of his loving care. He stands up for the destruction of forces that generate wickedness and to protect righteous impulses that provide access to reality.

Unless the worshiped God acts as the earnest charioteer who alerts at every step, despite his dedication and closing his eyes in meditation, and all other endeavours, the worshiper cannot cope with the adversities of the material world successfully.

How is he to know how much distance he has covered and how much more remains to be covered?

The adored God stands inseparably with the Self and guides him: that he is now at this point, that he should do this, and walk like that. Thus the gulf of nature is gradually bridged and, guiding the Soul ahead by gradual steps, God at last enables him to merge into him.

Worship and adoration have to be performed by the devotee, but the distance on the path which is covered by the devotee is only by God’s grace. Knowing this, men who are pervaded by divine sentiment through and through follow Lord Krishn’s precept. But they do not always do this in the right way.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Desiring fruits of their action,
men worship manifold gods,
for the rewards of action are then earned quickly.”

Desiring accomplishment of action within this human body, men take to the worship of many gods-that is, they cultivate the several righteous impulses. Lord Krishn has told Arjun to perform the ordained action, which is performance of yagya, a way of worship, in which the incoming and outgoing life-breaths are offered to God as oblation and the outward-looking senses are burnt out in the fire of self-restraint, and whose final outcome is the attainment of God.

The true meaning of action is worship. The outcome of this action is oneness with the eternal God, supreme goal: the state of total actionlessness. Lord Krishn says that men who follow his way, worship gods for the attainment of actionlessness, that is, they strengthen the divine impulses within.

Sri Krishn said that Arjun ought to practise yagya to foster gods-to strengthen his righteous impulses. He will progress more and more as these impulses are gradually strengthened and augmented.

Thus, advancing step by step, he will at last achieve ultimate bliss. This is the final stage of the process of spiritual advancement that has to be gone through from the beginning to the end.

Stressing the point, Lord Krishn says that they who follow him, even though aspiring for accomplishment of action in their human bodies, tend the righteous impulses which quicken the advent of the state of actionlessness. Never failing, the process invariably succeeds.

~ Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans ~
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“yadā-yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata”……Expounded Through Metaphysical Vision From Bhagavad Gita!!!

Attainment of the Self is distinct from attainment of a body. Lord Krishn’s manifestation cannot be seen with physical eyes. He is birthless, hidden, and eternal, and yet he is born with a human body. Therefore, they who preach that death of the physical body brings liberation offer, but, a false consolation.

A Soul realizes the ultimate essence while he is yet in his assumed human body. If there is even the slightest flaw, he has to undergo another birth. Arjun has thought Lord Krishn to be a mortal like him.

Is Lord Krishn like other bodies?

Lord Krishn sings:

“Although imperishable, birthless, and God of all beings,
I manifest myself subduing the materialistic world of nature
by the mysterious power of atm-maya.”

Sri Krishn is imperishable, birthless, and pervading the breath of all beings, but he is manifested when he restrains materialistic attachments by atm-maya.

One kind of maya is the moral ignorance that makes one accept the reality of the material world, and which is the cause of rebirth in low and inferior forms. The other maya is that which Lord Krishn calls yog-maya, of which we are unaware. This is the maya of Self that provides access to the Soul and leads to awareness of the Supreme Spirit.

It is by the operation of this yog-maya that Lord Krishn subdues his three-propertied nature and manifests himself.

People usually say that they will have a vision of God when he manifests himself through an incarnation. According to Lord Krishn, however, there is no such incarnation as may be seen by others. God is not born in a corporal form. It is only by gradual stages that he controls his three-propertied nature by the exercise of yog-maya and manifests himself.

But what are the circumstances of such manifestation? We will find this in next verse of Bhagavad Gita which is well quoted and known through out the entire globe.

Lord Krishn sings:

यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत ।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम् ॥

yadā-yadā hi dharmasya
glānir bhavati bhārata,
abhyutthānam adharmasya
tadā’tmānam sṛjāmy aham

“Whenever, O Bharat, righteousness (dharm) declines
and unrighteousness is rampant,
I manifest myself.”

Sri Krishn tells the devout Arjun that when hearts fall into inertia in regard to the Supreme Spirit, the most sublime dharm, and when the pious are unable to see how to cross safely to the other bank, he begins to shape his form in order to manifest himself. Such a feeling of weariness had come to Manu. Goswami Tulsidas has written of his grief-laden heart because his life had passed without contemplation of God.

When despairing tears flow from the eyes of loving worshipers because of their overpowering feeling of helplessness at their inability to steer across unrighteousness, God begins to mould his form into a manifest shape.

But that also implies that God manifests himself to only loving worshipers and only for their well-being.

God’s incarnation comes about only within the heart of a blessed worshiper. But what does the manifest God do?

Lord Krishn answers in next verse:

परित्राणाय साधूनां विनाशाय च दुष्कृताम् ।
धर्मसंस्थापनार्थाय सम्भवामि युगे युगे ॥

paritrāṇāya sādhūnām
vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām,
dharmasansthāpanārthāya
sambhavāmi yuge-yuge

“I manifest myself from age to age to defend the pious,
destroy the wicked, and strengthen dharm.”

God manifests himself as a saviour of saintly men. He, the adored, is the one God after attaining whom there is nothing else to contemplate. Lord Krishn assumes a manifest form from age to age to destroy impediments that obstruct the smooth flow of righteous impulses such as wisdom, renunciation and restraint, as also to annihilate the demoniacal forces of passion, anger, attachment and repugnance, and to reinforce dharm.

“Age”, as used by Sri Krishn here, does not refer to historical ages like the Golden Age (Satyug) or the Iron Age (Kaliyug). It rather alludes to the stages of rise and fall, of the waxing and waning, of dharm through which human nature has to pass. These are stages of dharm and the human heart has to progress through them.

Goswami Tulsidas has written about it in Ram Charit Manas:

The stages of dharm undergo variation in every heart at all times, not because of ignorance but because of the operation of the divine power of maya.

This is what has been named atm-maya by Lord Krishn. Inspired by God, this knowledge is the one which makes the heart a veritable dwelling of God.

But how can one know through which Stage one is passing at the moment?

When virtue and moral goodness (sattwa) alone are active in the heart, when passion and ignorance have subsided, when all fears are stilled, when there is no feeling of repulsion, when there is the necessary strength to rest firmly on the signals that are received from the desired goal, when the mind is overflowing with happiness-then alone is one enabled to enter into the Golden Age.

On the other hand, when the forces of darkness (tamas), combined with passion and moral blindness (rajas), are sweeping through, when there are animosities and conflicts all around, the worshiper is passing through the Iron Age (Kaliyug).

When there is predominance of ignorance and abundance of lethargy, slumber and procrastination, that is the stage of the Kaliyug of dharm. The man passing through this stage does not do his duty even though he knows it. He knows what he is forbidden to do, and yet he does it.

These stages of dharm, of its ascent and descent, are determined by innate properties. These stages are the four ages (yug) according to some, the four classes (varn) according to others, and the four levels of spiritual seeking-excellent, good, medium, and low-according to yet others.

In all the stages God stands by the worshiper. Nevertheless, there is a plenty of divine favour at the highest stage, whereas the assistance appears to be meagre at the lower stages. So Lord Krishn tells Arjun that a worshiper who is earnestly devoted to his ultimate goal is a sage, but he can be saved only when the flow of divine impulses such as wisdom, renunciation, and self-restraint, which provide access to the object, is unimpeded.

Similarly, doers of wicked deeds are not undone just by the destruction of their nonexistent mortal bodies, because they will be reborn with the same wicked impressions (sanskar) they had earned in the previous life, and do the same evil which they had done before. So Lord Krishn manifests himself in all ages to destroy moral perversions and to strengthen dharm.

Installation of the one changeless God alone is the final destruction of evil.

In brief, Lord Krishn has said that he manifests himself again and again, in all circumstances and categories, to destroy evil and foster good, and to strengthen faith in the Supreme Spirit. But he does this only if there is profound regret in the worshipers’ heart.

So long as the grace of the worshiped God is not with us, we cannot even know whether evil has been destroyed or how much of it still remains. From the beginning to the moment of final attainment, God stays by the worshiper at all stages. He manifests himself only in the devotee’s heart.

Doesn’t everyone see him when he manifests himself?
According to Lord Krishn it is not.

~ Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadananad Jee Paramhans ~
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~ mrityunjayanand ~

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What, O Varshneya, is that which drives man, forced against his will as it were and with reluctance, to act impiously?

Why does a man, although like one who is dragged to something which he despises, act in sinful ways? Why does he not conduct himself according to the precepts laid down by Lord Krishn?

Sri Krishn’s answer to the question is provided in the following verses.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Know that desire arising out of
the emotional property of nature (rajas) and insatiable as fire is the same
as wrath; and learn to recognize it as your most wicked enemy in this world.”

Desire and wrath that spring from the natural property of passion have an insatiable appetite for sensual pleasure and are the most sinful. Desire and wrath are the complements of attachment and repugnance. So Arjun is warned that he must regard them as his most dangerous enemies. And now their deleterious effects are dwelt upon in next verse.

“As fire is enveloped by smoke,
a mirror clouded with dust,
and a foetus hidden by the womb,
even so knowledge is engulfed by desire.”

Discrimination is obscured by the mantle of desire and wrath. If we burn damp wood, there is only smoke. There is fire, but it cannot leap into flame. A dust-covered mirror cannot give a clear image. Just so, when there exist the perversions known as desire and wrath, the mind cannot have a clear perception of God.

Lord Krishn adds:

“And, O son of Kunti,
even wise men’s discrimination is engulfed by desire,
insatiable like fire and their perpetual enemy “

So far Lord Krishn has named two enemies, desire and wrath, but in this verse he mentions only one of them, namely, desire. In truth, the feeling of anger lies within desire. When a task is successfully completed anger subsides, but when desire is obstructed anger reappears. So anger resides at the heart of desire. It is important to know where the enemy hides, for knowing this will facilitate a total destruction of the enemy.

Lord Krishn expresses his view on the problem.

“Since the senses, mind, and intellect are the seats of desire,
it is through them that it deludes a being
by clouding-his faculty of discrimination.”

So we have the answer. Our worst foe dwells within our own senses, mind, and intellect. It is through them that desire envelops knowledge and deludes the embodied Soul.

“So, O the best of Bharat (Arjun),
first subdue the senses and kill determinedly this desire,
the heinous destroyer of both spiritual and physical knowledge.’’

Above all, Arjun must control the senses because his enemy lies concealed within them. The enemy is within us and it will be futile to look for him outside. The war that has to be waged is internal; it has to be fought within the mind and heart. So Arjun must subdue his senses and kill this sinful desire which ravages both knowledge of the unmanifest Spirit and knowledge of the physical world. However, he cannot storm them directly; he has first to lay siege to the stronghold of moral perversions itself by vanquishing the senses.

But to restrain the senses and mind is most difficult. The success of this endeavour always appears doubtful. Sri Krishn dispels this pessimistic attitude by pointing out the many weapons at his disposal which a man can use to fight against the enemy.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Above senses there is the mind and above mind there is the intellect,
and the one which lies above all of them is the Soul within,
supremely powerful and yet subtle.”

So man is not so helpless after all. He has an armoury of plentiful arms with which he can wage war with strength and confidence. He can use his mind against the senses, his intellect against the mind, and above all these there is his Soul, all powerful and yet unmanifest. That Soul is the real “us,” and so we are strong enough to subdue not only our senses, but also our mind and intellect.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“Therefore, O the mighty-armed,
knowing the Soul-subtle and in every respect mighty and meritorious,
restrain the mind with your intellect and kill this desire,
your most formidable enemy.”

Possessed of knowledge of the unmanifest and yet mighty Soul that is beyond intellect, and after a due appraisal of his innate strength and restraining the mind with his intellect, Arjun must slay desire, his worst enemy. Arjun has to kill this enemy after a proper scrutiny of his inherent capacity.

Desire is a terrible foe, for it deludes the Soul through the senses. So knowing his strength and with confidence in the might of his Soul, Arjun should kill this desire-his enemy. Of course, this enemy is internal and the war to be waged against it is also internal- of the sphere of the mind and heart.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
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Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~

 

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