Bhagwad Gita - Post 139

Chapter XII

The Yoga of devotion

Verse 1

Arjuna Uvaacha:

Evam satatayuktaa ye

Bhaktaastwaam paryupaasate;

Ye chaapyaksharamavyaktam

Teshaam ke yogavittamaah.

Arjuna said:

Those devotees who, ever steadfast, thus worship Thee and those also who worship the Imperishable and the Unmanifested—which of them are better versed in Yoga?

Verse 2

Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:

Mayyaaveshya mano ye maam

Nityayuktaa upaasate;

Shraddhayaa parayopetaaste

Me yuktatamaa mataah.

The Blessed Lord said:

Those who, fixing their minds on Me, worship Me, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme faith, these are the best in Yoga in My opinion.

Verse 3

Ye twaksharamanirdeshyamavyaktam paryupaasate;

Sarvatragamachintyam cha

Kootasthamachalam dhruvam.

Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifested, the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the eternal and the immovable,

Verse 4

Samniyamyendriyagraamam

Sarvatra samabuddhayah;

Te praapnuvanti maameva

Sarvabhootahite rataah.

Having restrained all the senses, even-minded everywhere, intent on the welfare of all beings—verily they also come unto Me.

Verse 5

Klesho’dhikatarasteshaam Avyaktaasaktachetasaam;

Avyaktaa hi gatirduhkham

Dehavadbhiravaapyate.

Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the Unmanifested; for the goal—the Unmanifested—is very difficult for the embodied to reach.

Verse 6

Ye tu sarvaani karmaani

Mayi sannyasya matparaah;

Ananyenaiva yogena maam

Dhyaayanta upaasate.

But to those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the supreme goal, meditating on Me with single-minded Yoga.

Verse 7

Teshaamaham samuddhartaa Mrityusamsaarasaagaraat;

Bhavaami nachiraat paartha Mayyaaveshitachetasaam.

To those whose minds are set on Me, O Arjuna, verily I become ere long the saviour out of the ocean of the mortal Samsara!

Verse 8

Mayyeva mana aadhatswa

Mayi buddhim niveshaya;

Nivasishyasi mayyeva ata

Oordhwam na samshayah.

Fix thy mind on Me only, thy intellect in Me, (then) thou shait no doubt live in Me alone hereafter.

Verse 9

Atha chittam samaadhaatum

Na shaknoshi mayi sthiram;

Abhyaasayogena tato

Maamicchaaptum dhananjaya.

If thou art unable to fix thy mind steadily on Me, then by the Yoga of constant practice do thou seek to reach Me, O Arjuna!

Verse 10

Abhyaase’pyasamartho’si

Matkarmaparamo bhava;

Madarthamapi karmaani Kurvansiddhimavaapsyasi.

If thou art unable to practice even this Abhyasa Yoga, be thou intent on doing actions for My sake; even by doing actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.

Continued…

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 138

Chapter XII - The Yoga of devotion

Brief introduction

Arjuna asks: “Are You the Supreme Person? Sometimes You refer to Yourself as Parama-purusha—Supreme Person. 

Sometimes You say that You are indestructible, transcendent, and impossible even to conceive. In what way are we to worship You, O Lord? There are people who adore You as the Supreme Mahapurusha, Purushottama. 

With immense devotion they sing of You, they dance in ecstasy by taking Your name, they adore You day in and day out, and glorify You in all ways. 

There are others who are unified in their being with Your indestructible Super Being. Between these two great souls, whom do You regard as the best of yogins?”

Krishna replies, “I consider those people very near to Me and really united with Me whose mind is fixed on Me, who worship Me ever considering Me as their highest beloved, who have faith in Me only, and center their faith in nothing else. 

I certainly consider them as united with Me because their mind is wholly centered in Me in their utter devotion. But there are others who are united with Me in a different way.” 

The distinction drawn here is between those devotees who worship the Supreme Being as the Parama Purushottama and those who are devoted to the Universal Inclusiveness, outside which even they do not exist. 

We may call these two ways of approach as bhakti and jnana, if we like; but the jnana referred to here is actually a kind of bhakti in the highest sense. It is called para bhakti, which is the same as jnana.

The Lord goes on to describe the qualities that a true devotee possesses. He neither attaches himself to anything nor does he have any aversion to things. 

He has a balanced mind under all circumstances. He is not agitated by the happenings of the world, nor does he himself cause any agitation in others. 

He is perfectly desire less and rejoices in the Lord within. He sees equality everywhere, being untouched by sorrow, fear, honor as also dishonor. He is perfectly content as he has surrendered his entire being to the Lord.

The path of devotion communicated during the conversation between Sri Arjuna and Lord Krishna is highlighted by providing answer to the following key questions:

1.    Should One Worship a Personal or an Impersonal God?

2.  What are the four Paths to God Realization explained in this chapter?

3.  Why Karma-Yoga is recommended to be the Best Starting Point for God Realization?

4.  What are the Key Attributes of a true devotee?

5.   Finally, why One Should Sincerely Strive to develop Divine Qualities?

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 137

Verse 54

Bhaktyaa twananyayaa shakyam

Aham evamvidho’rjuna;

Jnaatum drashtum cha tattwena

Praveshtum cha parantapa.

But by single-minded devotion can I, of this form, be known and seen in reality and also entered into, O Arjuna!

Word ‘ananya’ comes many a time in the Bhagwad Gita. 

We are all devotees of God in some way; but are we ananya? Ananya means undivided, non-separate, non-externalized, whole-souled love. 

Now, many of us may not be able to entertain such a thing. We have loves of different types which are connected to this world and, therefore, these devotions are secondary in their nature. 

Because our devotions are more ritualistic in their nature, externalized in their nature, we express our devotion in some form outside.

Most of our affections are psychological. We use only our mind in thinking of God, and even in loving God. 

The soul, the spirit, does not always come up. We are temporarily possessed by certain emotions, but these emotions are not devotion. 

We may be intensely stimulated for some time when we hear charming, stirring, devotional music, or when stimulating sankirtan is going on in a group. Yet the pulls of the earth, which limit this devotion that has temporarily taken possession of us through emotion, will manifest themselves after the satsangh is over, and we will be the same so-and-so. It would not have made much difference in our practical daily life. 

However, in Ananya Bhakti, when the soul rises into action, the mind and the body cannot stand it. In deep sleep we are possessed by our soul, and so we are immensely calm, quiet and happy. In the state of deep sleep, there is a subdual of all distraction for the time being. 

There are three processes: knowing, implementing, and materializing the love of God. 

First of all it is a vision and a knowledge—ñātuṁ draṣṭuṁ. To know and to visualize, to see and to understand, has been bequeathed to Arjuna. He understood because of the explanation given by the Lord Himself as to what it is. He saw it, but he did not enter into it. He was standing outside it, as it were. He was looking at it. 

But it has to be borne in mind that the fulfilment of God-consciousness, or God-realization, consists not merely in having the vision of God or knowing Him in a special characterization as described here. We have to merge ourselves into it. The Atman becomes Brahman. The soul enters into the Maker of all things. 

“This devotion, which is the supreme means of knowing Me, will enable one to know Me, to visualize Me, and finally to enter into Me, which is the salvation of the soul.”

Verse 55

Matkarmakrinmatparamo

Madbhaktah sangavarjitah;

Nirvairah sarvabhooteshu yah

Sa maameti paandava.

He who does all actions for Me, who looks upon Me as the Supreme, who is devoted to Me, who is free from attachment, who bears enmity towards no creature, he comes to Me, O Arjuna!

 “O Arjuna! Such a person will reach Me who performs all action and duty for My sake—matkarmakṛin;

who regards Me as supreme above all things anywhere—matparamo;

who is intensely devoted to Me throughout the day and night for all time—madbhaktaḥ;

who is not attached to anything and is free from contamination by anything in the world—saṅgavarjitaḥ; 

who has no enmity with anybody and doesn’t hate anyone, and no one is an enemy of that person—nirvairaḥ sarvabhūteṣu: no living being is antagonistic to that person and he is not antagonistic to any living being. Such a person reaches Me.”

The lowest pedestal on which the soul was standing was the condition in which Arjuna found himself in the battlefield — everywhere fear, everywhere animosity, everywhere uncertainty, everywhere suspicion and agony, and everywhere strife and conflict. 

Kaliyuga manifested itself in full force in that picturization of the Mahabharata battle. No one loved another. Everyone hated the other. From that samsaric mire of intense antagonism, conflict and fear, the soul had to be taken gradually, stage by stage. 

I am seeing You here in front of me. You said You are manifest in various excellences, as You have mentioned to me earlier. Which way of contemplating You would You regard as better, or superior? Should I try to contemplate You as the indeterminate, infinite, transcendent, Absolute Brahman? Or, may I adore You as a manifest Bhagavan Sri Krishna or any of the forms that You have taken in these excellences? With form or without form—which way is the better one for me to contemplate You?” 

Next chapter starts with the above doubt raised by Arjuna and Sri Krishna answers and clears the doubt in the 12^th chapter.

Love.