Bhagwad Gita - Post 247

Verse 70

And he who will study this sacred dialogue of ours, by him I shall have been worshipped by the sacrifice of wisdom; such is My conviction.

Verse 71

The man also who hears this, full of faith and free from malice, he, too, liberated, shall attain to the happy worlds of those of righteous deeds.

Verse 72

Has this been heard, O Arjuna, with one-pointed mind? Has the delusion of thy ignorance been fully destroyed, O Dhananjaya?

“If anyone studies this Gita with love and devotion, full of the feeling of the righteousness of God, if anybody studies this conversation between Me and you intently, daily, with concentration of mind, I shall consider that I am worshiped by jnana yajna.” 

The worship of God through knowledge is called jnana yajna. So, the highest knowledge, or jnana, is here embodied in the Bhagwad gita text.

Swami Chinmayananda writes,

“In a Yajna, Lord Fire is invoked in the sacrificial trough and into it are offered oblations by the devotees. From this analogy, the term Jnaana Yajna has been originally coined and used in the Gita. 

Study of the Scriptures and regular contemplation upon their deep significances kindle the "Fire-of-Knowledge" in us and into this the intelligent seeker offers, as his oblation, his own false values and negative tendencies. 

This is the significance of the metaphorical phrase Jnaana Yajna. Therefore, here the Lord admits but a truth in the Spiritual science when He declares that those who study the Gita --- contemplate upon its meaning, understand it thoroughly --- and those who can, at the altars of their well-kindled understanding, sacrifice their own ego-centric misconceptions about themselves, and about the world around them, are certainly the greatest devotees of the Infinite.

When a rusted key is heated in fire, the rust falls off and the key regains its original brightness. 

So too, our personality, when reacted with the knowledge of the Gita, is chastened, since our wrong tendencies, unhealthy vasanas and false sense-of-ego which have risen from false-knowledge (Ajnaana), all get burnt up in Right- Knowledge (Jnaana).”

Whoever studies this lovingly, devotedly, every day, is veritably performing jnana yajna, the wisdom sacrifice. This is My opinion,” says the Lord. 

(Incidentally, Bhagwad Gita Jnana Yagna, which is an integral part of Satsangh / Study circle  in all Chinmaya kendras world over, owes its origin way back when Swami Sivananda entrusted the duty of starting this Gita Jnana Yagna in Hrishikesh to His two dedicated disciple- Chinmaya and Krishnananda. This was before Chinmaya went to Sri Tapovan Maharaj for  his next part of learning, with the blessings of Swami Sivananda)

Śraddhāvān anasūyaś ca śṛṇuyād api yo naraḥ 

Not only those people who study this every day, but even those who listen to this affectionately and with faith, with no prejudice, with no dubious mind, no doubts, and without the evil of faithlessness. 

Śraddhāvān is a person endowed with real faith. Anasūyaś ca: With no doubt in the mind. 

Śṛṇuyād api yo naraḥ sopi muktaḥ: One who hears in this manner, such a person also should be considered as really liberated. One who is united with God is liberated, one who studies the Gita is also liberated, and even one who listens to it is also said to be liberated. Very great compassion indeed! 

Sopi muktaḥ śubhāṁl lokān prāpnuyāt puṇyakarmaṇām: Even such a person who merely listens to this great wisdom and teaching shall attain to the higher regions of the blessed ones. 

“Arjuna, have you listened to what I said with concentration of mind—ekagrena chetasa—or was your mind wandering and you were listening some of the things, and not to everything? 

Did you listen to everything that I said with concentration of mind? Has your delusion gone? Have I dispelled your delusion?” 

Kaccid ajñānasaṁmohaḥ pranaṣṭas te: “Please tell Me whether or not your delusion, with which you began speaking to Me in the beginning, has gone.”

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 246

Verse 69

Nor is there any among men who does dearer service to Me, nor shall there be another on earth dearer to Me than he.

I have no friend dearer than this person who is intently thinking of Me, and who glorifies Me wherever it is possible by teaching this wisdom to those who are really devoted. 

I consider that person as very dear to Me indeed. No one is equal to that person in devotion to Me.” 

Krishna again takes up, in this stanza, the glorification of the teacher who teaches the Gita-knowledge. 

Not only is there none to compare with him amongst the present generation, but there shall  never be (Bhavita-Na-Cha) anyone, even in future times, so dear to Him, the Lord says, as such an individual who spends his time in spreading the knowledge of what little he has understood from the Gita.

The essence of this verse can also be extended to sharing the knowledge of Shrutis with the world of spiritual seekers.

In Ashtavakra Gita, Janaka asks his Guru, “The transcendental knowledge you have bestowed upon me is so precious that I feel deeply indebted to you. What can I give you in return?” 

Guru Ashtavakra replies, “There is nothing you can give that will relinquish you from your debt. The knowledge I gave was divine and all that you possess is material. Worldly objects can never be a price for divine knowledge. 

But you can do one thing. If ever you find someone who is thirsty for this knowledge, share it with him.” 

(That is what precisely the author has been doing all along through the blog, through satsangh, through talks, through messages etc. as per the command received from his own Sadguru and God, Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)

Dearest to God is one who is always considering God as his dearest. If to us God is the dearest, then God also will consider us as the dearest. 

“No one is equal to him. No one in the world can compare with this devotee whose soul is rooted in Me and who is spending his entire life in communicating this wisdom to others who are truly devoted to Me.”

 
Why does Ishvara love such a preceptor so much? The teacher assists Ishvara in His mission to rid the world of ignorance. 

Swami’s words to the author on 13.3.2005 in vision,

(“Swami needs you, Swami has a definite task for you in His mission, He has chosen you, lifted you to use in His task at some point of time”)

A teacher can assess the needs of the seeker, and give him the guidance from the Gita / from Shrutis needed for that particular situation of the seeker. 

Only a qualified teacher is able to do that, as opposed to someone randomly reading shlokas from the Gita. Furthermore, very few people are able to teach the true meaning of the Gita and convey to the student exactly what Ishvara wants to convey, without distorting anything.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 245

Verse 68

He who with supreme devotion to Me will teach this supreme secret to My devotees, shall doubtless come to Me.

The Lord's Song has a special appeal to those who have the mysterious spiritual thirst to live a fuller and more dynamic life. Hence it is said: "This deeply profound philosophy" (Paramam Guhyam) must be imparted to "My devotees" (Mad-bhakteshu). 

Swami Sivananda writes,

“Why is it called a supreme secret? 

Because it helps one to attain immortality or freedom from the wheel of birth and death. He alone who has devotion, is qualified to receive the teachings of the Gita. 

Teach with the faith that you are thus doing service to the Lord, the Supreme Teacher”

The opportunity to engage ourselves in devotion is a special blessing of God, but the opportunity to help others engage in devotion is an even bigger blessing, which attracts the special grace of God. 

Whenever we share something good with others, we benefit from it too. When we share whatever knowledge we have with others, by grace, our own knowledge increases as well.

“Wealth does not decrease by giving in charity; a river does not become narrow, though people take water from it. I am not saying this without basis; see it yourself in the world.” 

Devotion to the Lord (Bhakti) means the capacity to identify with the ideal, and therefore, the philosophy of the ideal way of life can profitably be imparted only to those persons who have a capacity to identify themselves with the ideal and thereafter live up to it.

It is not sufficient that the student alone has this capacity to identify himself with the higher ideal, but the teacher also must have (Bhakti) "perfect attunement" with the Supreme God Reality. Such an individual, who is himself rooted in his attunement, and who tries to impart this knowledge to others and thereby constantly occupies himself in reflections upon the philosophical ideals of the Geeta --- "shall certainly (Asamshayah) come to Me alone."

Dear all, 

Once again, when the Lord says, “to me”, it is directly aligned with the exposition on “Mamekam” in the talk on an earlier verse, which has been uploaded in the blog in previous post.

Thus,  only the teacher who has supreme devotion to the Un-manifest Lord, who is birth less, change less, and has merged in such a devotion with the Lord, is qualified to teach the secret (Secret of immortality, as Swami Sivananada  says) to his worthy student.

One cannot give what one does not have. 

Only when one has entered the gate way of God realization, roamed around, got very familiar, met, communicated and merged with the lord can teach the secret of immortality, the secret which he himself has discovered, to his student!!!

 Love.