Bhagwad Gita - Post 240

Verse 61

The Lord dwells in the hearts of all beings, O Arjuna, causing all beings, by His illusive power, to revolve as if mounted on a machine!

Ishvara, the Supreme Creator of the universe, is residing in the heart of all. He is all-pervading, transcendent, above this creation that He has manifested from Himself, yet residing in all hearts as the ruler of all, and also the Self of all. 

By a kind of power, which is called maya here—an inscrutable force, shakti, that He wields and exerts on everyone—He exercises a permanent control on all things. His rule of law does not require any emendation in the course of time. Once creation was willed, everything necessary for the maintenance of this creation was also simultaneously willed. 

Isavasya Upanishad says, 

The Svetasvatara Upanishad has a verse beginning with 

The Briharanyaka Upanishad has a verse beginning with,

The Taittiriya Upanishad III.IX.II beginning …

A verse from The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad beginning with

The Supreme Lord is the ultimate controller of everything animate and inanimate which are acting under His external energy prakriti the material substratum pervading physical existence from whence arise three gunas or modes of material nature which determines all actions based upon the karma or reactions to previous good and evil actions enacted in a physical body and five senses which is likened unto a machine. The purport is that just as a puppet master controls his puppets so does the Supreme Lord control the jivas.

This rule of law that He laid down at the beginning of creation for the purpose of the origin, the sustenance, as well as the end of all things does not require any change from moment to moment. 

That is to say, omniscience being the quality of God, Ishvara, there is no necessity for His omniscience to get amended from time to time. It does not call for changes under any circumstance. The whole thing is controlled permanently, for ever and ever, right from the beginning, as a machine may be controlled by an operator of the machine.

Behind all the ever changing phenomenon in the creation, there is a changeless Brahman, which, though remaining changeless, lends energy and illumines each and every aspect in this creation.

Shruti reveals at its pinnacle in all its grandeur and splendor in Kenopanishad, thus:- 

What speech cannot reveal, but what reveals speech;

What one cannot feel with the mind; but because of which they say the mind feels;

What cannot be seen by the eye; but by which the eyes are able to see;

What cannot be heard by the ear; but by which the ears are able to hear;

That which one breathes not with his breath; but by which breath is breathed,

KNOW THAT TO BE BRAHMAN

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 239

Verse 58

Fixing thy mind on Me, thou shalt by My Grace overcome all obstacles; but if from egoism thou wilt not hear Me, thou shalt perish.

Having advised Arjuna what to do in the previous verse, Sri Krishna now declares the benefits of following his advice and the repercussions of not following it. 

The soul should not think that it is in any way independent of God. If we take full shelter of the Lord, with the mind fixed upon him, then by His Grace all obstacles and difficulties will be resolved. 

But if, out of vanity, we disregard the instructions, thinking we know better than the eternal wisdom of God and the scriptures, we will fail to attain the goal of human life, for there is no one superior to God, nor is there any advice better than His.

  

Verse 59

If, filled with egoism, thou thinkest: “I will not fight”, vain is this, thy resolve; Nature will compel thee.

Right at the beginning of the Mahabharatha war, when Arjuna asked Sri Krishna whether to fight or not, Sri Krishna could have given the answer right away. But He decided to deliver the discourse of the Gita instead, not just for Arjuna’s benefit but for the benefit of all future seekers. 

Having done so, he now vehemently points out the flaw in Arjuna’s decision. He says, in crystal clear language, that the decision to not fight is wrong. It is purely ego-driven, and not in line with Arjuna’s duty as a warrior.
 
In our personal experience, we come across stories of children who were misfits in their families and communities simply because their prakriti, their nature, their samskaaraas, were completely different. 
 
Parents have a strong sense of mine-ness with regard to their children. They prefer not to think of their children as independent entities. 

Similarly, Arjuna also assumed that he could override his nature as a warrior, and become a monk. Sri Krishna reminded him that his inherent nature as a warrior would compel him to fight, and that he should reconsider his decision.

At the highest level, this verse should be understood in this way,

“Our inherent nature being divinity, even if we undertake actions out of ego and ignore the inner divinity, ultimately, a stage comes in each and every one’s life when he/she turns towards God/ SELF and undertakes sadhana so as to act/think/ exist as per one’s real nature - DIVINE SELF”

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 238

 Verse 56

Doing all actions always, taking refuge in Me, by My Grace he obtains the eternal, indestructible state or abode.

Doing all actions, taking refuge in me

If you do work as a worship of God, whatever be the work that you do—let it be anything, even the littlest of activities of yours—may these activities be dedicated to God as a humble offering. 

Here, Lord Krishna again reiterates the performance of sadhana or internal propitiation. In the phrase sarva-karmany api meaning all types of activities, the conjunction api meaning although denotes that without surrender and devotion to the Supreme Lord no actions should be offered to Him.

In the gayatri mantra talk to a group, in a talk of Prasad, in the affirmation talk on the Karma, the author emphasized and again and again re-emphasized that the intellect, mind, senses that take up the action, the actions themselves, the doer - all must be surrendered to God.

So, it is not about doing the act and leaving the fruits of action to the Lord, when it comes to the path of devotion.

A true devotee is ever in surrender to his Lord. So, all actions, the intellect (efficient cause) which show the approach to the action, the body, mind and senses (the material and instrument cause) – all of them are not surrendered afresh at the time of action but on the contrary, with all of them ever surrendered to the God, actions take place as per requirement of purushartha, depending upon the ashrama in which the devotee exists - Brahmacharya, grahastha, vanaprastha or Sanyasa. 

Such action is often explained with the example of a zoom camera where, the zooming takes place only when a picture is to be captured and immediately after the pic is captured, the zooming is withdrawn!!!!!

By my grace, he obtains the eternal

Given the level of surrender, the devotee does not even demand / aspire for obtaining the eternal, indestructible state (Realization).

The one in him who would cry to the Lord for granting, gracing liberation, has already been surrendered to the Lord.

Since, Lord ever waits for such a devotee with such state of surrender (Atma nivedanam), such an aspirant will  (rather must) receive the grace of the Supreme Lord and by their exclusive devotion to Him and attain His eternal association in the transcendental spiritual worlds.

Verse 57

Mentally renouncing all actions in Me, having Me as the highest goal, resorting to the Yoga of discrimination do thou ever fix thy mind on Me.

Resigning mentally all deeds to me 

Both the ego and the egocentric anxieties for enjoying are to be renounced at the altar of the Lord, and thus to act in the world is the 'path,' through which a man of action reaches the greater cultural climes. This idea of surrender has been discussed in the previous verse, very clearly. This spirit of surrender can come only when the student has infinite courage to maintain a steady aspiration for "having me as the highest goal." 

Resorting to buddhi yoga

The intellect's main function is discrimination. To discriminate the false from the true, and to fix ourselves on the path of seeking the true, is called Buddhi yoga. Controlling life and regulating its movements through discrimination is Karma Yoga. And thus the term 'Buddhi yoga' is an original coined-word, met with only in the Gita, to indicate in essence the "Path – of – Selfless - Action." It has been used in the very early portions of the Gita and there it has been very exhaustively explained.

It is interesting to know from the learning from previous verse that the only duty of a pure devotee is to surrender. Once surrendered, God takes over in such a way that even without any specific focus on undertaking purshartha only with discrimination (as learnt in Karma and in Manas Buddhi Chitta Ahankara sessions / blog posts), MBCA Post Summary (March 4, 2017), all actions get themselves routed through discrimination on their own.

In a recent talk to a group of devotees, talking on devotion with reference to Meera, the author ( from the source within) specifically said , “In Bhakti, in the penultimate state prior to realization / Atma nivedanam, even intellect faculty stands surrendered to the Lord, unlike the path of wisdom where, each and every purushartha is screened through pure intellect ”.

A devotee who has thus come to live all his activities in dedication to his goal, the Krishna- Consciousness, must necessarily come to live as Krishna, and experience the Eternal, Immutable State, of the Self.

Love.