The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

CHAPTER 9: STIRRING TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT

CHAPTER 9: STIRRING TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Till Chapter 6, Krishn made a systematic investigation of yog. Its precise meaning, as we have seen, is the conduct of yagya. Yagya represents that special form of worship which provides access to God, and in which the whole animate and inanimate world is offered as a sacrifice. The immortal essence is known with restraint of mind and ultimate dissolution of the restrained mind itself. The one who partakes of what is generated by yagya at its completion is a truly enlightened man, a realized sage and accomplished teacher who is united with the eternal God.This union, joining together of the individual and the Cosmic Soul, is named yog. The conduct of yagya is called action. Krishn then went on to say in Chapter 7 that the doers of this action know him along with the all-pervasive God, perfect action, adhyatm and adhidaiv, as well as adhibhoot and adhiyagya. He further added in Chapter 8 that this is salvation, which is the supreme goal.

In the present chapter he raises the question of the greatness of the Soul who is endowed with yog. Pervading all, he is nonetheless yet uninvolved. Although he acts, he is yet a non-doer. Besides illumining the nature and influence of this accomplished Soul, the chapter also contains a warning against such hindrances as other gods in the way of the practice of yog; it also stresses the importance of finding shelter under a realized sage, an accomplished teacher, who is possessed of such a Soul.

1. “The Lord said, ‘I shall instruct you well with analogy in this mysterious knowledge, O the sinless, after knowing which you will be liberated from this sorrowful world.’”

By offering to impart this knowledge with “vigyan,” Krishn means that he will illustrate it with the achievements of a great Soul of attainment: how he functions simultaneously at all places, how he enlightens, and how as a charioteer he always stands beside the Self. Knowing this Arjun will be emancipated from this world of misery where happiness is impermanent.

2. “This (knowledge) is the monarch of all learning as well as of all mysteries, most sacred, doubtlessly propitious, easy to practise, and indestructible.”

Substantiated by illustration, this knowledge is the sovereign of all learning. But “learning” here does not mean mastering a language or scholarship in its usual sense. True learning is that which enables the man who has acquired it to go along God’s way until he has won salvation. If he gets entangled in the vanity of his achievements or in the material world while he is on the way, it is evident that his learning has failed. His learning, then, is not knowledge but a veil of ignorance. It is only regal learning (rajvidya), spiritual enlightenment, which is profitable beyond any doubt. It is the king of all “secret teaching[65]” because one can approach it only after the practice of yog is brought to perfection by the unraveling of the knots of both knowledge and ignorance. Holiest of the holy and blessed with excellence, it is also manifestly fruitful. The profit from it is so transparent. No sooner does a man have it than he is rewarded. It is not the blind faith that we will be rewarded in the next life if we are vir tuous in this life. Buttressed by awareness of its operation, this knowledge is indestructible and easy to act upon.

[65]One of the different meanings of the word Upanishad. The knowledge contained in the Upanishads is indeed secret because traditionally it is imparted only to those who are spiritually ready to receive and profit by it.

Yogeshwar Krishn has told Arjun in Chapter 2 that the seed of yog never perishes. Practising it in even a small measure provides liberation from the great fear of repeated birth and death. In Chapter 6, Arjun requested the Lord to tell him the lot of the feeble worshipper who strays from yog and is, therefore, deprived of the perception which is its final achievement. Krishn then said that the primary need is to know the way of this action (yog) after which, if a man just takes a couple of steps on it, the merit earned by them is never destroyed. He carries this sanskar along with him to the next life and by virtue of it performs the same action with every birth. Thus practising yog over many lives, he at last arrives at the state of salvation, the supreme goal. The same point is made again in the present chapter when Krishn says that although the practice of yog is easy and indestructible, faith is its indispensable requirement.