Friday, July 17, 2020

Bhagwad Gita - Post 247


Verse 70


And he who will study this sacred dialogue of ours, by him I shall have been worshipped by the sacrifice of wisdom; such is My conviction.




Verse 71


The man also who hears this, full of faith and free from malice, he, too, liberated, shall attain to the happy worlds of those of righteous deeds.




Verse 72


Has this been heard, O Arjuna, with one-pointed mind? Has the delusion of thy ignorance been fully destroyed, O Dhananjaya?


“If anyone studies this Gita with love and devotion, full of the feeling of the righteousness of God, if anybody studies this conversation between Me and you intently, daily, with concentration of mind, I shall consider that I am worshiped by jnana yajna.” 


The worship of God through knowledge is called jnana yajna. So, the highest knowledge, or jnana, is here embodied in the Bhagwad gita text.


Swami Chinmayananda writes,


In a Yajna, Lord Fire is invoked in the sacrificial trough and into it are offered oblations by the devotees. From this analogy, the term Jnaana Yajna has been originally coined and used in the Gita


Study of the Scriptures and regular contemplation upon their deep significances kindle the "Fire-of-Knowledge" in us and into this the intelligent seeker offers, as his oblation, his own false values and negative tendencies. 


This is the significance of the metaphorical phrase Jnaana Yajna. Therefore, here the Lord admits but a truth in the Spiritual science when He declares that those who study the Gita --- contemplate upon its meaning, understand it thoroughly --- and those who can, at the altars of their well-kindled understanding, sacrifice their own ego-centric misconceptions about themselves, and about the world around them, are certainly the greatest devotees of the Infinite.


When a rusted key is heated in fire, the rust falls off and the key regains its original brightness. 

So too, our personality, when reacted with the knowledge of the Gita, is chastened, since our wrong tendencies, unhealthy vasanas and false sense-of-ego which have risen from false-knowledge (Ajnaana), all get burnt up in Right- Knowledge (Jnaana).”

Whoever studies this lovingly, devotedly, every day, is veritably performing jnana yajna, the wisdom sacrifice. This is My opinion,” says the Lord. 


(Incidentally, Bhagwad Gita Jnana Yagna, which is an integral part of Satsangh / Study circle  in all Chinmaya kendras world over, owes its origin way back when Swami Sivananda entrusted the duty of starting this Gita Jnana Yagna in Hrishikesh to His two dedicated disciple- Chinmaya and Krishnananda. This was before Chinmaya went to Sri Tapovan Maharaj for  his next part of learning, with the blessings of Swami Sivananda)


Śraddhāvān anasūyaś ca śṛṇuyād api yo nara 


Not only those people who study this every day, but even those who listen to this affectionately and with faith, with no prejudice, with no dubious mind, no doubts, and without the evil of faithlessness. 


Śraddhāvān is a person endowed with real faith. Anasūyaś ca: With no doubt in the mind. 


Śṛṇuyād api yo nara sopi mukta: One who hears in this manner, such a person also should be considered as really liberated. One who is united with God is liberated, one who studies the Gita is also liberated, and even one who listens to it is also said to be liberated. Very great compassion indeed! 


Sopi mukta śubhāl lokān prāpnuyāt puyakarmaām: Even such a person who merely listens to this great wisdom and teaching shall attain to the higher regions of the blessed ones. 


“Arjuna, have you listened to what I said with concentration of mind—ekagrena chetasa—or was your mind wandering and you were listening some of the things, and not to everything? 


Did you listen to everything that I said with concentration of mind? Has your delusion gone? Have I dispelled your delusion?” 


Kaccid ajñānasamoha pranaṣṭas te: “Please tell Me whether or not your delusion, with which you began speaking to Me in the beginning, has gone.”



Love.





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