IX
Observing
that Arjuna was a qualified aspirant and endowed with faith,
Now the
Lord proceeds to describe His nature as the eternal, all-comprehensive Truth. He is
everything that is invisible and visible. He pervades everything that exists. He creates
everything, sustains everything, and when final dissolution takes place, absorbs
everything into Himself. He manifests them again when the next creation begins. All beings
who are ignorant of this knowledge are caught helplessly in the cycle of birth and death.
In the midst of this creation, preservation and dissolution of the universe, the Lord
stands as a silent witness, unaffected and unattached. He is the sole director, sustainer
and supervisor of His Cosmic Prakriti.
Ignorant
beings are not able to recognise the Lord in one who has realised Him. Although these
cruel beings assume a human form, their nature is that of demons. The God-realised
Mahatma, on the other hand, is a man of knowledge, and perceives Him indwelling all beings
and creatures. He beholds the underlying unity of existence in all names and forms.
The
Lord’s divine protection is assured to all those who take refuge in Him. Whatever
path a devotee follows, he ultimately reaches Him. He is the goal of the various methods
of spiritual practice. Devotion, Sri Krishna emphasises, is the essence of all spiritual
discipline. If this supreme element is present, then the devotee is freed from bondage.
The Lord observes the motive and degree of devotion. Even the most sinful and diabolical
man, if he takes a radical turn towards the path of righteousness and truth, reaches the
Lord. Whatever vocation one follows, one can attain the Lord if one seeks earnestly and
with loving devotion. The essential thing is to fix the mind on the Lord and dedicate
everything unto Him—one’s body, mind, actions, emotion and will.
The Blessed Lord said:
1. I shall
now declare to thee who does not cavil, the greatest secret, the knowledge combined with
experience (Self-realisation). Having known this, thou shalt be free from evil.
2. This is
the kingly science, the kingly secret, the supreme purifier, realisable by direct
intuitional knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.
3. Those
who have no faith in this Dharma (knowledge of the Self), O Parantapa (Arjuna), return to
the path of this world of death without attaining Me!
4. All this
world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest aspect; all beings exist in Me, but I do not
dwell in them.
5. 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.
6. As the
mighty wind, moving everywhere, rests always in the ether, even so, know thou that all
beings rest in Me.
7. All
beings, O Arjuna, enter into My Nature at the end of a Kalpa; I send them forth again at
the beginning of (the next) Kalpa!
8.
Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless
by the force of Nature.
9. These
actions do not bind Me, O Arjuna, sitting like one indifferent, unattached to those acts!
10. Under
Me as supervisor, Nature produces the moving and the unmoving; because of this, O Arjuna,
the world revolves!
11. Fools
disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of (all)
beings.
COMMENTARY:
Fools who do not have discrimination despise Me, dwelling in human form. I have taken
this body in order to bless My devotees. These fools have no knowledge of My higher Being.
I am the great Lord, the Supreme.
12. Of vain
hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge and senseless, they verily are possessed of the
deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings.
13. 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!
14. Always
glorifying Me, striving, firm in vows, prostrating before Me, they worship Me with
devotion, ever steadfast.
15. Others
also, sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice, worship Me, the all-faced, as one, as
distinct, and as manifold.
16. I am
the Kratu; I am the Yajna; I am the offering (food) to the manes; I am the medicinal herb
and all the plants; I am the Mantra; I am also the ghee or melted butter; I am the
fire; I am the oblation.
17. I am
the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser of the fruits of actions, and the
grandfather; the (one) thing to be known, the purifier, the sacred monosyllable (Om), and
also the Rig-, the Sama- and Yajur Vedas.
18. I am
the goal, the support, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the shelter, the friend, the
origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the treasure-house and the imperishable seed.
19. (As the
sun) I give heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death,
existence and non-existence, O Arjuna!
20. The
knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified of all sins, worshipping
Me by sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the
gods and enjoy in heaven the divine pleasures of the gods.
21. They,
having enjoyed the vast heaven, enter the world of mortals when their merits are
exhausted; thus abiding by the injunctions of the three (Vedas) and desiring
(objects of) desires, they attain to the state of going and returning.
COMMENTARY:
When their accumulated merits are exhausted, they come to this world again. They have
no independence.
22. To
those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no other, of those ever united, I secure what
is not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.
23. Even
those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me only, O Arjuna, but
by the wrong method!
24. (For) I
alone am the enjoyer and also the Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in
essence (in reality), and hence they fall (return to this mortal world).
25. The
worshippers of the gods go to them; to the manes go the ancestor-worshippers; to the
Deities who preside over the elements go their worshippers; My devotees come to Me.
26. Whoever
offers Me with devotion and a pure mind (heart), a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little
water—I accept (this offering).
27.
Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever thou offerest in sacrifice, whatever
thou givest, whatever thou practiseth as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto
Me!
28. Thus
shalt thou be freed from the bonds of actions yielding good and evil fruits; with the mind
steadfast in the Yoga of renunciation, and liberated, thou shalt come unto Me.
29. The
same am I to all beings; to Me there is none hateful or dear; but those who worship Me
with devotion are in Me and I am also in them.
30. Even if
the most sinful worships Me, with devotion to none else, he too should indeed be regarded
as righteous, for he has rightly resolved.
31. Soon he
becomes righteous and attains to eternal peace; O Arjuna, know thou for certain that My
devotee is never destroyed!
32. For,
taking refuge in Me, they also, who, O Arjuna, may be of sinful birth—women, Vaisyas
as well as Sudras—attain the Supreme Goal!
33. How
much more easily then the holy Brahmins and devoted royal saints (attain the goal); having
obtained this impermanent and unhappy world, do thou worship Me.
34. Fix thy
mind on Me; be devoted to Me; sacrifice unto Me; bow down to Me; having thus united thy
whole self with Me, taking Me as the Supreme Goal, thou shalt verily come unto Me.
COMMENTARY:
The whole being of a man should be surrendered to the Lord without reservation. Then
there will be a marvellous transformation. He will have the vision of God everywhere. All
sorrows and pains will vanish. His mind will be one with Him. He will for ever have his
life and being in the Lord alone.
Thus in the
Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the
scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the ninth discourse
entitled:
“The Yoga of the Kingly Science &
the Kingly Secret”