The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita - 9.4. Swami Krishnananda.
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Sunday, June 13, 2021. 7:25. AM.
Chapter 9 : The Majesty of God-Consciousness - 4.
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Srimad Bhagavad Gita : Chapter-9, Slokam-22.
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"Ananya's chintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate
tesham nityabhiyuktanam yoga-kshemam vahamyaham."
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Translation of the Slokam : (Tatvam - Essence)
BG 9.22: There are those who always think of Me and engage in exclusive devotion to Me. To them, whose minds are always absorbed in Me, I provide what they lack and preserve what they already possess.
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Commentary :
A mother never thinks of deserting her newborn helpless child who is entirely dependent upon her. The supreme and eternal mother of the soul is God. In this verse, God offers motherly assurance to souls who surrender exclusively to Him. The words used are vahāmi aham, meaning “I personally carry the burden of maintaining My devotees,” just as a married man carries the burden of maintaining his wife and children. God promises two things. The first is yog—He bestows His devotees the spiritual assets they do not possess. The second is kṣhem—He protects the spiritual assets that His devotees already possess.
2.
However, the condition He has placed for this is exclusive surrender. This can again be understood through the same analogy of the mother and child. A newborn baby is fully dependent upon its mother, who takes care of the baby’s welfare entirely. The baby simply cries whenever it needs anything; the mother cleans it, feeds it, bathes it, etc. But when the baby becomes a five-year old child, it begins doing some actions for itself. To that extent the mother reduces her responsibilities. And when the same child becomes a youth and assumes all responsibilities, the mother relinquishes her responsibilities further. Now if the father comes home and asks, “Where is our son?” the mother replies, “He has not returned home after school. He must have gone for a movie with his friends.” Her attitude is now more neutral toward him. But when the same boy was a five-year old, and had gotten delayed by ten minutes in returning home from school, both the mother and father would begin worrying, “What has happened? He is a small child. Let’s hope he has not met with an accident. Let us phone the school and find out.”
3.
In this way, as the boy keeps assuming more responsibilities, his mother keeps relinquishing her responsibilities. God’s law is exactly the same. When we act from our independent will, thinking that we are the doers of our actions, and depend upon our own prowess and abilities, God does not bestow His grace. He merely notes our karmas and gives the result. When we surrender partially to Him and partially depend upon material crutches, God also partially bestows His grace upon us. And when we offer ourselves exclusively to Him, māmekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja, God bestows His complete grace and takes full responsibility, by preserving what we have and providing what we lack.
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God protects us, and the succour which we receive from God's presence is an immediate consequence that follows from an inward union with Him. This verse that I quoted just now is immensely important in our religious studies because that discloses the deeper relationship that is there between man and God. In fact, the word 'relationship' is a poor word; there is no relationship – they are inseparables. Two birds perching on the same tree – say the Upanishads, say the Veda – these two birds are actually not two different birds. The higher self and the lower self may appear to be two birds sitting on the same tree no doubt, but we know very well that the higher and the lower are not two distinct birds. The lower is included in the higher, and thus the other bird does not stand spatially away from the bird which is the bound soul. But here we have only a symbology of a psychological and logical distinction that seems to be there between man and God. There is no spatial distance, and there is no chronological history of the distance.
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2.
There is immediate action following from deep meditation on God – 'immediate' is the word. Timeless is God's existence, and timeless, therefore, is God's action in His operation. Timeless is He because He is also spaceless. Hence, the grace of God is a non-spatial and non-temporal gift. Inasmuch as it is non-temporal, it is instantaneous – just here and now. There is not the time-gap of even a second, because there is no time in God. So when the soul, the seeker, the yogin, the aspirant, the devotee timelessly, spacelessly unites itself with this timeless, spaceless Being, there is a timeless and spaceless consequence that follows. There is an immediate fulfilment of all that is essential; there is a flood of all that one needs. This verse has been understood in many ways by different types of understanding. God provides us with every kind of need and necessity – not even a thousand mothers can equal Him in compassion and in love for us.
The mothers of the world are nowhere before this Supreme Parent, because the love that proceeds from God in respect of us is the love that emanates from every corner of the universe. It is not one person like another person. A mother is one person, and even if there are ten-thousand mothers, they are only in some place. But this is a single mother who works from every corner; every nook and cranny, every particle of creation responds when God speaks.
3.
Chandogya Upanishad.
"Yastadveda sa veda sarvaṃ sarvā diśo balimasmai haranti sarvamasmītyupāsita tadvrataṃ tadvratam || 2.21.4 ||
|| iti ekaviṃśaḥ khaṇḍaḥ ||
" He who knows Sāma knows everything, and gifts come to him from all quarters. His vow will be to constantly say to himself, ‘I am one with all’.
Word-for-word explanation:
Yaḥ tat veda, he who knows that [Sāma]; saḥ veda sarvam, he knows all; sarvāḥ diśaḥ, all the quarters; balim, gifts; asmai, for him; haranti, bring; sarvam asmi, I am all; iti upāsīta, this is how he will meditate; tat vratam tat vratam, this is his vow, this is his vow. Iti ekaviṃśaḥ khaṇḍaḥ, here ends the twenty-first section.
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Commentary:
Sāma is the inmost being of all, and he who knows it as such becomes like Sāma—that is, he becomes the inmost being of all, and he knows everything. People come from everywhere with gifts to show him their respect.
‘I am Sāma, the inmost being of all’—this is how Sāma is to be worshipped. One should constantly repeat this to oneself. In fact, it should be treated as a vow.
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The quarters of the world begin to pour upon us the tribute which God sends to us. A single thought, which is the total surrender of the whole of one's personality to this God-Being, evokes a response which is eternal and non-spatial, and an abundance follows – which the mind of man cannot contain, which the intellect of man cannot describe, and all the treasuries of the world cannot find place to keep – such is the wealth that God can pour upon us. All the lockers in the universe cannot contain this treasure, if God pours upon us this wealth that He has, which is unending, unthinkable, most glorious.
Can we find a more solacing, comforting message in any vision than this great Slokam:
"Ananya's chintayanto mam ye janah paryupasate
tesham nityabhiyuktanam yoga-kshemam vahamyaham."
I shall provide you with a cup of tea; I shall give you a spoon of sugar.
To be continued ....
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