Lord Krishn pervades all beings in an equal way, but he has a special relationship with his wholly dedicated worshipers, for they live in him and he in them.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Although l abide evenly in all beings and there is no one
who is either dear or hateful to me,
worshipers who contemplate me with loving devotion
abide in me and I in them.”

This is the only kinship he knows. The worshiper’s mind and heart overflow with Lord Krishn’s presence and there is then no difference between the one and the other.

Does it mean, however, that only the most fortunate are privileged to undertake this act of divine adoration?

Lord Krishn adds:

“Even if a man of the most depraved conduct
worships me incessantly, he is worthy of being regarded
as a saint because he is a man of true resolve.”

If even a man of evil deeds remembers and adores Lord Krishn with a single-minded devotion, believing that no object or god besides Lord Krishn is worthy of worship, he is fit to be thought of as a sage. He is not yet a saint, but there is at the same time not even the least doubt of his becoming one, for he has devoted himself to the task with real determination. So everyone, you and I all, whatever be the circumstance of our birth, are entitled to the act of worship. The only condition is that the worshiper is a human, because person alone is capable of true resolve. Bhagavad Gita is meant for the upliftment of sinners.

“Thus he shortly grows pious and achieves eternal peace,
and so, O son of Kunti, you should know beyond any doubt
that my worshiper is never destroyed.”

If engaged in devotional contemplation, even a wicked man soon grows righteous, becomes one with the almighty God, and realizes the ultimate, imperishable repose. Arjun is told to keep it in mind that Lord Krishn’s earnest devotee is never destroyed. Even if the effort somehow grows feeble, in the next life it is resumed from the very point at which it was discontinued earlier and, beginning with what was done before, the worshiper presently attains to the most sublime peace. Therefore, all men of virtuous as well as of unrighteous conduct and all others have the right to contemplate and adore.

Lord Krishn sings:

“Since women, Vaishy and Shudr,
and even those whose births are regarded as inferior ,
attain, O Parth, to the supreme goal by taking refuge in me…”

Throwing light upon demoniacal nature, Lord Krishn points that they who give up sacred precepts and only pray for namesake out of conceit are the most despicable among men. They who make vain prayers which are but only nominally yagya are cruel and sinful. “Vaishy” and “Shudr” stand for, as we have seen, only different stages of the path that leads to God. Women have been sometimes honoured and sometimes denigrated, but they as well as Vaishy and Shudr have an equal right to the performance of yog. So the teaching of Bhagavad Gita is for entire mankind, for all men, irrespective of their conduct and circumstance of birth.

It instructs all of us without any discrimination in what is propitious. The Bhagavad Gita thus embodies a universal message.

Lord Krishn adds:

“It hardly needs saying that since pious Brahmin
and royal sages (rajarshi) attain to salvation,
you should always engage in my worship
after getting the rare human body
which is naturally afflicted with pain and suffering
and is ephemeral too.”

Let alone those men and women in the Brahmin and Kshatriya rajarshi stages, ultimate absolution is within the reach of devotees in the stage of Vaishy, and Shudr as well.

Brahmin is but a particular stage of spiritual growth which is blessed with all the virtues that lead the individual Soul to the Supreme Spirit. That which incorporates the merits of peace, humble beseeching, perception, contemplation, and readiness to follow the signs from the worshiped God is the state of Brahmin.

A Kshatriya who has been elevated to a sage by his pious life and austere devotion is endowed with the spirit of accomplishment, prowess, sense of authority, and a natural reluctance to withdraw from the undertaken enterprise. The yogi who have arrived at this stage of yog, it is needless to say, surely succeed in completing their journey.

So Arjun, too, should engage this joyless and transient human body to devote himself to Lord Krishn’s worship.

Lord Krishn has spoken of the four varn-Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishy, and Shudr. There is no more profitable way than war for a Kshatriya; and subsequently that even dying for one’s inherent dharm is more desirable. He has said that he is the creator of the four varn. It is meant by this, as it has been repeatedly stressed, that he has divided action into four phases on the basis of their innate properties.

Performance of yagya is the one appointed task and they who do it belong to four categories. At the point at which a worshiper is initiated into the way, he is a Shudr because of his inadequate knowledge. When he has developed a partial capacity for accomplishment and accumulated some spiritual wealth, the same worshiper turns into a Vaishy. Ascending yet higher and acquiring the strength to carve his way through the three properties of nature, he becomes a worshiper of the Kshatriya class. And the same worshiper is elevated to the rank of a Brahmin when he is infused with the qualities that unite the Soul with God. Kshatriya and Brahmin worshipers are nearer to attainment than the Vaishy and Shudr. Since even the latter are assured of the final bliss, there is hardly any need to speak anything of the lot of worshipers who have achieved a higher status.

Also, the Upanishad, of which the Bhagavad Gita is an abstract, abound in allusions to women who were endowed with the sublime knowledge of God. Even all the strenuous but futile attempts to codify the rights and prohibitions derived from the spiritually timid and conventional study of the part of Ved known as the Work cannot make us ignore the unambiguous, assertion by Lord Krishn that women as well as men can also participate in the ordained action of performing the worship that is named yagya. So it is but proper that his last words to Arjun here are words of encouragement for carrying out the deed of worship with firm devotion.

Lord Krishn concludes:

“If, taking refuge in and with a total devotion of the Self to me,
you contemplate, remember with humble reverence,
and worship only me, you will attain to me.”

Remembering none except Lord Krishn and restraining the mind from having any thought that is not of him, firm devotion, incessant meditation and recital with humble reverence, and a total absorption of the Soul in him, are the prerequisite for Arjun as well as any other worshiper’s realizing the immutable, eternal Supreme Spirit within him.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~