Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 51-4. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, November 05, 2022. 07:00.

Discourse-51. The Eighteenth Chapter Concludes: The Bhagavadgita Concludes-4.

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Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priyakṛttamaḥ (18.69): 

“I have no friend more dear 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.” 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. Na ca tasmān manuṣyeṣu kaścin me priyakṛttamaḥ, bhavitā na ca me tasmād anyaḥ priyataro bhuvi: “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.”

Adhyeṣyate ca ya imaṁ dharmyaṁ saṁvādam āvayoḥ, jñānayajñena tenāham iṣṭaḥ syām iti me matiḥ (18.70): 

“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 worshipped by jnana yajna.” The worship of God through knowledge is called jnana yajna. So, the highest knowledge, or jnana, is here embodied in the Bhagavadgita text. “Whoever studies this lovingly, devotedly, every day, is veritably performing jnana yajna, the wisdom sacrifice. This is My opinion,” says the Lord.

Śraddhāvān anasūyaś ca śṛṇuyād api yo naraḥ (18.71): 

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 understood what I said? Has something entered your head?” Kaccid etacchrutaṁ pārtha (18.72): 

“Have you listened to what I said with concentration of mind—ekagrena chetasa—or was your mind wandering and you were listening to 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.”

Now Arjuna says, “My delusion has gone, O Lord!” Naṣṭo mohaḥ (18.73): 

“I have no more confusion about duty now. I understand what is proper and improper.” Smṛtir labdhā: “I have recollected, my memory is restored as to what is good for me and in what manner I should conduct myself in the fulfilment of this ultimate goodness. I had lost my highest memory earlier. I did not recollect my higher nature, and I considered myself as an ordinary individual, related to the Kuru family, fighting the battle of life. Now I remember. My memory has been raised to the status of my relationship with the higher realities, with Your own Self also, finally.” Tvatprasādān mayācyuta: “All this is by Your grace, O Lord! O Imperishable Being, with Your blessing and kindness I have regained my true consciousness. Now I am steadfast, without any kind of doubt.” Sthito'smi gatasaṁdehaḥ: “I have absolutely no doubt about anything now. I am steadfast in my duty, and I shall do what You say.” Kariṣye vacanaṁ tava: “Here am I as Your disciple and Your servant, ready to do whatever You ask me to do.”

Here is the final word of Bhagavan Sri Krishna, and also the final word of Arjuna, where the whole subject of the Bhagavadgita is clinched.

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To be continued

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