Bhagwad Gita - Post 90

Verse 18

Udaaraah sarva evaite jnaanee

Twaatmaiva me matam;

Aasthitah sa hi yuktaatmaa

Maamevaanuttamaam gatim.

Noble indeed are all these; but I deem the wise man as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind, he is established in Me alone as the supreme goal.

Swami Sivananda writes, 

“Are not the other three kinds of devotees (Artha, Artharthi, Jignasu) dear to the Lord? They are. They are all noble souls. But the wise man is exceedingly dear because he has a steady mind. 

He has fixed his mind on Brahman. He does not want any worldly object but only the supreme Being. He seeks Brahman alone as Supreme Goal. He realizes that he is identical with the supreme Self”.

All are good. I am pleased with them, says the Lord. But Lord  considers the jnani as the supreme because he does not expect anything from Lord. He wants only Lord. 

Krishna says,  “I consider the jnani as the best of My devotees, because he loves Me as his own self.” If I love you as my own self, that is showing a greater affection to you than showing my affection in any other way, such as by way of material gifts, by good words, by hospitality. 

Nothing that I can do for you or give to you is real affection in comparison with that affection which considers myself as yourself and yourself as myself. The identity of souls is the highest of devotion and is the highest that we can expect from anybody in this world. 

 “All these devotees (Artha, Jignasu, Arthartha and Jnani) that I mentioned are very good people, yet he stands first who is a jnani, who is Me and is inseparable from Me.” 

He who considers nothing else as the goal of life except God Himself, who day in and day out plants God in the heart of his own personality, who feels God in the soul of his own self, who implants the Universal in his particular individuality and thus melts his individuality into the Cosmic Universality, who exists as the Universal Soul itself in meditation and experience—that person is a jnani. He is veritably God Himself. We can call him a jivanmukta, if we like.

Speaking on Jnana or Jnani, Ramana answers to few questions thus. 

Disciple: Srimad Bhagavatam outlines a way to find Krishna in the heart by prostrating to all and looking on all as the Lord Himself. 

Is this the right path leading to Self-realization? Is it not easier thus to adore Bhagwan in whatever meets the ‘mind’, than to seek the supra-mental through the mental enquiry, “Who am I?”

Maharishi (Ramana): Yes, when you see God in all, do you think of God or do you not? You must certainly think of God for seeing God all round you. Keeping God in your mind becomes dhyana (meditation) and dhyana is the stage before Realization. 

Realization can only be in and of the Self. It can never be apart from the Self: and dhyana must precede it. Whether you make dhyana on God or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the same. You cannot, by any means, escape the Self. You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all is God, are you not included in that all? Being God yourself, is it a wonder that all is God? This is the method advised in Srimad Bhagavatam and elsewhere by others. But even for this practice there must be the seer or thinker. Who is he?

Readers may realize how the answers given by Sri Ramana exactly aligns with today’s verse, though He does not deal exactly with the 4 kinds of Bhaktas while answering to the questions.

As given in the previous verse, from Artha to Jnani, each stage leads to the next and is progressive. This itself proves that Jnani (or Jnana) is the pinnacle stage and that is why, Lord says, "I deem the wise man as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind, he is established in Me alone as the supreme goal."

Love.