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.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 89

Verse 16

Chaturvidhaa bhajante maam

Janaah sukritino’rjuna;

Aarto jijnaasurartharthee

Jnaanee cha bharatarshabha.

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna! They are the distressed, the seeker of knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise, O Lord of the Bharatas.

Humans who are sukritino meaning righteous and virtuous surrender to the Supreme Lord, are of four classes distinguished by their different grades of virtue. 

In the order they are given, each succeeding class is more superior to the preceding one due to being more elevated and exalted making it more meritorious. The four are:

ARTHA

When we are in distress, when we are in a state of utter poverty, when we are in a dying condition, when we are suffering from an incurable disease, when we are harassed up to the point of death, and when there is no help coming from anywhere and sorrow is hanging on our heads, we cry to God for help. 

These are one kind of devotee: they love God and cry to God because they are in grief, and they want God to redress all the sorrows in which they are sunk. 

Perhaps if they were well off — very healthy, wealthy, and all was well with them in this world — the idea of resorting to God might not have arisen in their minds. Nevertheless, God is very kind, compassionate and so gracious as to accept that even these people are His devotees, though they have come to Him only for material gains in the sense that they want only redressal of sorrow, and if they are free from sorrow they shall be highly satisfied. 

Draupadi and Gajendra are examples of Artha-Bhaktas. When Dussasana dragged her before the court of the Kauravas and pulled her sari, Draupadi cried for Krishna in order to guard her respect. 

Gajendra called on Narayana when a crocodile was dragging him in water.

JIGNASU

There are other devotees who do not cry for God to remove their suffering in the world. They are the jignasu—those who want wisdom of life. 

Learning sometimes evokes a desire to worship Saraswati and such other Goddesses. Those who want power, domination and might worship Lord Siva and such other Gods, and so on. 

Those who are jignasus are lovers of knowledge — of insight into the reality of things. We may even say they are lovers of spiritual knowledge. They crave that God should bless them with this wondrous wisdom.

It is described in the Devi Mahatmya that there were two devotees of Devi. One was a king and the other a Vaisya, a trader. When Devi appeared before them and asked them what boon they wished for, the king said, “I want to regain my kingdom, which I have lost.” But the Vaisya said, “I want wisdom of life.” Devi blessed both of them with the purpose for which they had worshipped her. 

Hence, there are devotees who are jignasus — who want wisdom, knowledge, acumen, intelligence, genius, and spiritual realization, and for that purpose they worship God. 

Uddhava was a Jignasu. He was dissatisfied with the world and got wisdom from Sri Krishna. This is recorded in the Bhagavatam.

ARTHARTHI

These devotees want material gains — wealth, prosperity in this world socially or even politically. 

Artha means material value. But some interpreters of the Bhagwad Gita feel that here, perhaps, artha has some other meaning, because there appears to be a gradual ascent in the sequence of the devotional spirit that is mentioned; and as a jnani is supposed to be the best, he would be mentioned last. The distressed is mentioned first, and the one who seeks knowledge is supposed to be the second.

Naturally, we cannot say that the seeker of knowledge is inferior to the one who asks for redressal of sorrow. So, there seems to be a superiority of the grade of devotion in each succeeding stage, especially as the last one is supposed to be the best. 

Thus, we should infer from this sequence that the third type, which is artharthi, cannot be a person who seeks material gains, because that would be inferior to the previous type, who seeks knowledge. 

Sugriva and Dhruva were Artharthi-Bhaktas. Sugriva wanted to drive away Vali. Vibhishana wanted to put an end to Ravana.   

If we carefully observe, these bhaktas are not the one who pursued God only for material wealth. Though their purpose might be a little selfish at surface level, yet, the ultimate motive was only to destroy evil.

JNANI

But the Lord says that the jnanis are the best of the devotees because he does not want anything from God. He has ceased to have any kind of expectation from the world and does not have any kind of ulterior motive. 

The devotee / Sadhaka who wants only God / Self-realization, and wants nothing else  from God or through God, is the jnani. Anybody who wants something from God or through God is a lesser devotee. 

The Jnanis are the one who approach the sanctum sanctorum  of the temple of the Spirit, demanding nothing, expecting nothing, carrying with them only themselves as their offerings. 

Suka-Maharshi was a Jnani-Bhakta. He was a Brahma-Jnani of the highest type. He realized that everything was his own Self. He taught the Srimad-Bhagavatam to Parikshit.

They offer themselves as an oblation in a pure spirit of love-inspired total self-surrender. The only cry in their heart is that the Spirit should end their sense of separation and accept them back into the embrace of the Lord, to be made one with Him. 

Ramana says on  Self-surrender,

"If one has entirely surrendered oneself, is there any part left to ask for Grace. Surrender yourself unreservedly and the Higher Power will reveal itself. Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root thought ‘I’ or one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher Power. These are the only two ways for realization. 

......One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and also require a Higher Power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the source and merge into the Self. Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered."

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 88

Verse 12 

Ye chaiva saattvikaa bhaavaa

Raajasaastaamasaashcha ye;

Matta eveti taanviddhi

Na twaham teshu te mayi.

Whatever being (and objects) that are pure, active and inert, know that they proceed from Me. They are in Me, yet I am not in them.

The qualities of Pure, Active and inert (sattva, rajas and tamas) are the activities of prakriti — which correspond to light or radiance, desire, and torpidity of nature — and are various degrees of the manifestation of the Supreme Absolute. 

For instance, the Absolute exists in stone. Stone exists, but it cannot think. There is no consciousness in it. It cannot even know that it exists. The existence aspect of the Absolute is manifest in inanimate things like stone.

The life principle, which is vitality, is manifest in plants and trees, which breathe and feel hunger and thirst. The consciousness aspect in a translucent—not transparent—form manifests itself in animals in the form of instinct.

And, in a more perspicuous way, consciousness, chit, manifests itself in the intelligence of the human being. 

Thus, in the process of evolution, existence gradually becomes consciousness. But bliss is not fully manifest in the human individual. 

We have existence, we have consciousness, but we are not happy people. That is because our consciousness is mixed with a little of rajas and tamas. 

We are overactive in an externalized sense, taking the world as a total reality that is external to us. This causes distraction of the mind and senses to such an extent that the integral bliss of the Absolute cannot manifest itself in us.

Thus, the human being, though called the image of God, is only an image to some extent in the existence and the consciousness aspects. 

The bliss aspect of the Absolute is manifest in some way in the deep sleep state, where the mind and the sense organs do not operate. 

Therefore, whether these manifestations are sattvic, rajasic or tamasic, or even the so-called evil things in the world, they can exist only if there is an existent aspect to them. 

Matta eveti tān viddhi na tvahaṁ teṣu te mayi: “Know that everything—sattva, rajas, tamas, and all their permutations and combinations—manifests from Me. They are in Me, but I am not in them.” 

Addressing the deluded who has mistaken a post to be a ghost,  the post can only explain, "the ghost of your vision had risen from me alone, inasmuch as, I alone lend to it its existence; but I, the post, am not in the ghost." So, too, shall the ocean cry, "the waves rise, stay and dissolve away in me; but I am not in the waves."

Existence-consciousness is present in name and form, but name and form are not in existence. God is in all things, but things are not in God. This is a peculiarity which we have to note when God says, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in anything.” 

This is because all particulars hang on the Universal. The particulars cannot exist unless the Universal is there, but the Universal can exist without the particulars. 

Hence, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in them” — na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi.

Love.