Bhagwad Gita - Post 110

Verse 15

Jnaanayajnena chaapyanye

Yajanto maamupaasate;

Ekatwena prithaktwena

Bahudhaa vishwatomukham.

Others also, sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice, worship Me, the all-faced,

as one, as distinct, and as manifold.

In this wisdom of the spirit which is jnana yajna, they behold Me in all varieties of forms - “Ekatvena pṛthaktvena bahudhā viśvatomukham”.

As I am everywhere, they can behold Me as one Being existing everywhere; or they can behold Me as two realities indwelling as a transcendent element and also as an immanent element; or they may look upon Me as a multifaceted Reality indwelling many souls.

It is said that Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once came to Benares to have darshan of the great saint and sage Trailanga Swami, a great siddha. 

The greatness of that siddha was such that it drew even Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. 

It appears that Sri Ramakrishna put a question to Trailanga Swami: “Maharaj, how many gods are there?” 

Swamiji raises three fingers, then two fingers, then one finger. That was the answer. Rama Krishna nodded his head and conveyed, “Yes I understand you.” 

The great disciple understood the great Master’s significant gesture: God is three-fold, God is two-fold, God is single.  

Three-fold: God can be visualized as a manifold manifestation, as the souls of all created beings; 

Two-fold: He can be considered as a dual manifestation, transcendent and immanent;

One / Single: He can be beheld as one only.

According to Sankaracharya, there is one reality; according to Ramanuja, there are two realities; according to Madhva, there are many realities. 

Sri Chinmaya writes,

“A man of realization moves about the world, seeing his own

Self, expressed through every movement and action, word and thought that clusters round him at all times. 

Just as one light in the midst of a thousand mirrors comes to provide crores of reflections everywhere, so too, the one centered in the Self, when he walks out into the world, sees everywhere his own Self dancing, shooting glances at him from all around at once, thrilling him always with the homogeneous ecstasy of perfection and bliss.”

Sai devotees should align the above secret with the one expression taken in an Alaap for a song Ram Hare, Hari Naam Bolo where, we sing, “Ik Noor te, sab jag upjyaara”. 

There is only one light, one pure consciousness, which is described as Jnanam Brahman, as it is the source Knowledge which illumines all other knowledge in this creation!!! It is one light, which illumines this entire creation!!!

Love.

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.