Bhagwad Gita - Post 109

Verse 14

Satatam keertayanto maam

Yatantashcha dridhavrataah;

Namasyantashcha maam

Bhaktyaa nityayuktaa upaasate.

Always glorifying Me, striving, firm in vows, prostrating before Me, they worship Me with devotion, ever steadfast.

The qualities of the Mahatmas or great souls are perceived in the different ways they offer worship to the Supreme Lord as being stated by Lord Krishna in this verse and the next. The word satatam meaning always is noteworthy for it applies to all the activities. 

They dance and sing and are in a state of ecstasy due to communion with My great, glorious spirit. They always sing about My greatness and glory and speak of Me wherever they go. In the streets, in the marketplace, in the house, in satsangas, in family circles—everywhere they talk of Me.” 

Always praising, glorifying and worshipping the Supreme Lord by devotional hymns and sacred syllables are the ways of some Mahatmas, as described in this verse.

Such devotees of Lord sing the glory of Lord with choked up voices and tear-filled eyes from ecstatic feelings of joy and love due to meditating upon His form and attributes within their hearts. 

An example is Saint Tukaram, who had no other thought wherever he went. Whether it is in a shop, in a marketplace, in a house or in a satsanga hall, it is one continuous, ecstatic thought which compels them to glorify God wherever they go, and, perpetually striving to come nearer and nearer to Me, so that they become one with Me.” 

Namasyantaś ca: Always prostrating themselves in temples, in holy tirthas, near holy trees and to holy saints and sages. Wherever there is a pre-eminence of the manifestation of divinity in this world, to that place and to that thing they resort and offer themselves through deep prostration. 

The purpose of life for the Mahatmas is to attain the Supreme Lord as their only goal and they bow down to Him always again and again upon the ground in temples and in courtyards, falling down outstretched like sticks with the eight parts of their body being the head, the two hands, the two feet, their heart, their intellect and their ego. 

The greater they are, the smaller they look; and they do not seem to exist at all in their personality because of their not being in one place as egos. 

They pervade all places as veritable representations of God’s glory in this world. 

They are called gods moving in the world, great souls veritably representing God.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 108

Verse 13

Mahaatmaanastu maam paratha

Daiveem prakritimaashritaah;

Bhajantyananyamanaso jnaatwaa

Bhootaadimavyayam.

But the great souls, O Arjuna, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single mind (with the mind devoted to nothing else), knowing Me as the imperishable source of beings.

Lord Krishna describes the mahatmas  or great souls whose hearts are not full of trivial, mundane desires. This is because all their sins have been eradicated by the multitudes of meritorious deeds performed in thousands of previous lifetimes and thus their hearts have been cleansed of all dross and impurities and they possess the divine nature.

These mahatmas have naturally qualified themselves for contemplation and meditation on the ultimate absolute truth associated with the Supreme Lord. 

Exclusive devotion of the mind denotes that exultant state of consciousness where one is imbued with ecstatic waves of love for the Supreme Lord where if without such a mood and feeling of worshipful devotion not only in the mind and by the external senses but from the  atma as well then life would become without support and untenable. 

Such great souls worship the Supreme Lord with such intense one-pointed focus that this worship alone constitutes their sole aim and complete goal.

The great souls are those who have woken up from their ignorance and brushed aside material consciousness like a bad dream.  

Released from the grips of the material energy, Maya, they are now under the shelter of the divine Yogmaya energy.  Such enlightened souls have woken up to the spiritual reality of their eternal relationship with God. 

Just as God has both aspects to His personality—the formless and the personal form—His Yogmaya energy also possesses both aspects.  It is a formless energy, but it also manifests in the personal form as Radha, Sita, Durga, Lakshmi, Kali, Parvati, etc.  

All these divine personalities are manifestations of the divine energy of God, and they are all non-different from each other, just as Krishna, Ram, Shiv, Narayan, etc. are non-different forms of the one God. 

Krishna says, “Knowing Me as the Origin of all things, knowing Me as Supreme beyond all things, knowing Me as All-in-all, knowing that in Me everything can be found, knowing that I am the source of immortality, these great souls, mahatmas, resort to Me, being endowed with the highest quality of sattva.

They adore Me in their spirit, they worship Me in their spirit, they praise Me in their spirit, they concentrate on Me through their spirit, and wish that their spirit gets merged in My spirit.” Ananyamanasaḥ:

Those whose mind cannot be distracted in any direction other than My Universal existence, such people I consider as mahatmas, the great souls that inhabit this cosmos.” 

Such great souls are very few in number, as the Yoga Vasishtha tells us. It is said that they are very few in number because the earth cannot bear the weight of such great people. 

Great souls are very few in number; wicked people are multifarious. In one of his commentaries, Sankaracharya says that gods are lesser in number than demons. 

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 107

Verse 1

Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:

 Idam tu te guhyatamam

Pravakshyaamyanasooyave;

Jnaanam vijnaanasahitam

Yajjnaatwaa mokshyase’shubhaat.

The Blessed Lord said:

I shall now declare to thee who does not cavil, the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with experience (Self-realization). Having known this, thou shalt be free from evil.

Sri Krishna says, 

This is the secret of secrets that I am going to tell you.” Pravakṣyāmy anasūyave: “Because you are highly devoted to Me and you are not prejudiced against anything, I shall tell you this secret of secrets.” Jñānaṁ vijñānasahitaṁ yaj jñātvā mokṣyase’śubhāt. 

The reference to jnana and vijnana was also made in the Seventh Chapter. Now once again it is repeated: “I shall tell you everything regarding jnana and vijnana—that is, knowledge as well as spiritual experience. Or it can also mean the knowledge of everything connected with this world and the knowledge of the eternal realities. I shall describe to you what these are.”

Verse 4

Mayaa tatamidam sarvam

Jagadavyaktamoortinaa;

Matsthaani sarvabhootaani

Na chaaham teshvavasthitah.

All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist in Me, but I do not dwell in them.

Sri Krishna reveals through this verse, thus:-

 

Invisibly, un-understandably, as it were, I am pervading all things. There is no place, no nook or cranny or corner, where I am not. 

I am present in all things. Everything is pervaded by Me. There is no location where I am not. You cannot hide anything from Me.”

Mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā, matsthāni sarvabhūtāni: “All things are located in Me.” This is also a repetition of something that is said in the Seventh Chapter. 

Matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ: “I am not in them.” 

Verse 5

Na cha matsthaani bhootaani

Pashya me yogamaishwaram;

Bhootabhrinna cha bhootastho

Mamaatmaa bhootabhaavanah.

Nor do beings exist in Me (in reality): behold My divine Yoga, supporting all beings, but not dwelling in them, is My Self, the efficient cause of beings.

All particulars are in the Universal; the Universal is not in the particulars. The waves are in the ocean; the ocean is not in the waves. We can draw a similar analogy when the Lord says, “I am in everything, but things are not in Me.” 

This was explained in detail through a talk posted to a group recently, as this revelation was too much to be absorbed as such. I am in everything- This revelation was easy to comprehend but , “ Things are not in me” was too much to understand and absorb, as it appears contradictory to the revelation. “ I am in everything”.

Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, or sat-chit-ananda svarupa, is present in every name and form, but name and form are not in sat-chit-ananda. God is in the world, but the world is not in God. 

This is the reason why the Lord says, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in them. I remain transcendent though, at the same time, I am immanent in all things.”

Na ca matsthāni- The previous statement , “matsthāni sarvabhūtāni”, I am in everything’  is contradicted. “Things are also not in Me, for another reason altogether.” 

Paśya me yogam aiśvaram: “Look at My glory; see My majesty.” “Look at Me,” the Almighty says. “How wonderful is this majesty of My abode where I am everywhere. Everything is in Me, and yet nothing is in Me.”

Love.