Verse 22
Ananyas cintayanto mam
Ye janaḥ
paryupasate,
Teṣam
nityabhiyuktanam
Yogakṣhemam
vahamyaham
To those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, of those ever
united, I secure what is not already possessed and preserve what they
already possess.
Commentators have a question: Is not God kind
to everybody, or is He kind only to those who resort to Him in consciousness?
Does He not provide food, clothing and shelter to everybody, or does He give it
only to those who resort to Him?
Yes, it is true that everyone is taken care
of by the Almighty Lord, and that even an ant that crawls is given what it
needs. But it is said that in the case of ordinary individuals, the protection
is granted through a series of operations.
Their karmic bodies are associated with the
Supreme Being in a very indirect manner, whereas direct action is different
from indirect help that is given through accessories, agents, lesser gods, or
through the fructification of karma.
In the case of those who are perfectly united
with God — like saints Tukaram, Jnanadev, Ekanath and others — God does not
merely provide what they need; He becomes a kind of servant, as it
were, of these bhaktas.
(Author recalls an incident narrated by
Bro Hari where, when a devotee said to Swami, "All that I want from
you as a boon is to allow me to serve you all my life, Swami replied, "You serve in My mission and I shall serve you in return")
There was a Brahmin who was fond of
this shloka. He devoted himself entirely to this one verse and
trusted entirely in God’s mercy and compassion and capacity to provide him
everything. He was a beggar and had to go for alms every day.
He had a family which he had to feed — children
crying for food — and every day he had to go about to get enough alms for the
maintenance of his family. One day it so happened that even though he had
wandered throughout the streets the entire day until sunset, he could not get
even one grain of rice. He came back disappointed.
The children asked, “Father, where is
our food?”
His wife asked, “What has happened?”
He replied, “I do not know. God has deserted
me. He has not fulfilled His promise. I tried my best by wandering throughout
the day, but I could not get even one grain of cereal.”
His children were crying, and his wife was
anxious.
“False is this promise!” the Brahmin
exclaimed in anger.
In those days, scriptures were written on
palm leaves, as there was no printing on paper. So this verse from the
Bhagwad Gita was written on a palm leaf. He tore that sloka with
a nail, thinking that is a false promise, and left the house in disgust.
About an hour or so after he had left, a boy
came to the house with a big bag full of cereals and grains, etc., threw it on
the veranda, and loudly called to the Brahmin’s wife who was inside, “Here are
the rations sent by your husband.” But the boy’s tongue was torn and bleeding.
The wife asked, “Who sent this?”
“Your husband has sent it.”
“My husband? I am very glad. What is the
matter with you?”
“He was very angry with me because I was a
little late, so he tore my tongue,” replied the boy.
“This is a horrible man! What kind of person
is he? You are a servant, you brought the rations, and he has the cruelty to
tear your tongue?” As she was saying this, the boy vanished.
When the Brahmin came back, his wife said to
him, “What has happened to you? You are a fool. Are you out of your mind? You
tore the tongue of the boy who brought the rations which you sent.”
“I didn’t send any rations,” he said. “I didn’t
tear the tongue of anybody. Where are the rations?”
She showed him the bag. “The rations are
sufficient for a month,” she said, “but blood was pouring from where the boy’s
tongue had been torn.”
He fell at the feet of that lady and said,
“You are my Guru from today because you had darshan of the
Lord. I am a sinner. Because I tore the sloka, I could not see
Him.”
The lives of saints are standing
illustrations of the truth of this great statement of the Almighty, which is
applicable not only to saints and sages, but to every one of us. Perhaps we are
saints in the making.
If we are undividedly united with Him in our
soul, in our heart, in our spirit, thinking only That, brooding over only That,
and every day there is no occupation except this, to those who are ever united
in the deepest spirit of their being, to them there is no lack, no penury, no
sorrow, no suffering, no fear — because it shall be seen by God that all things
are put in order.
What does this verse mean, in the path of
Jnana??
Sri Chinmaya brings about a unique
interpretation for this verse and writes,
“Those who, with a single-pointed mind, thus
meditate upon Him as the One and the Only Reality behind the entire universe,
Krishna promises here that "To them ever self-controlled, I bring
YOGA and KSHEMA "meaning more and more spiritual vigor (Yoga)
and the final experience of Beatitude (Kshema) which is liberation resulting
from the fulfilled Yoga.”
Thus, Chinmaya gives an entirely new dimension and says,
Yoga = Our self efforts / Purushartha
and
Kshema = The result / culmination of our intense, single pointed efforts towards the only goal -
SELF/GOD
realization.
When Sri Krishna says, "To those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, I secure what is not already possessed", it is an assurance from Divine that if we pursue the Goal of Self-realization with single pointed focus, then we are bound to get the reward one day, for, God only wants us to reach Him, merge with Him / The essence and exist as Him / The essence which is SELF / ATMAN.
Love.
