A Study of the Bhagavadgita :10.10 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, April 18, 2022. 20:00.

Chapter 10: The Hidden Meaning of the Seventh Chapter of the Gita-10.

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"Udarah sarva evaite jnani tvatmaiva me matam

asthitah sa hi yuktatma mam evanuttamam gatim."  (Gita 7.18). 

BG 7.18: All those who are devoted to Me are indeed noble. But those in knowledge, who are of steadfast mind, whose intellect is merged in Me, and who have made Me alone as their supreme goal, I consider as My very self.

Why do I consider the jnani as the highest of beings? Because he does not exist at all apart from Me. The other devotees exist as recipients of the bounties and abundances that they expect from Me. The jnani does not exist at all. He has vanished into thin air and become Me, so he stands as the I of the Supreme Lord.

With this description of the devotees and the nature of the jnani, Bhagavan Sri Krishna gives the secret of how you have to adapt yourself to God's outlook of life. The reason why the Supreme Form, the Universal Form, said that nobody can behold this except under special conditions is because of the fact the outlook of that Almighty is not always possible for anybody else to adopt. If you can think like God, feel like God, work like God, and have attitudes to things as perhaps God has, that would be a fitness on your part. But who on earth can think like God? We do not even know how He will think and what He expects us to think. The difficulty in envisioning the very structure of God's consciousness makes it hard for us to become really fit for that vision unless, with His mercy and compassion, He thrusts His own outlook on our head, as perhaps He did in the case of Arjuna. Arjuna had to be perforce made a good disciple by shakti pada, as it is called, a forceful entry of the Guru, the Lord Himself, into the mind of the disciple.

"Jara-marana-mokshaya mam ashritya yatanti ye

te brahma tadviduh kritsnam adhyatmam karma chakhilam." ( 7-29 )

BG 7.29: Those who take shelter in Me, striving for liberation from old-age and death, come to know the Brahman, the individual self, and the entire field of karmic action.(Gita 7.29); 

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"Sadhibhutadhidaivam mam sadhiyajnam cha ye viduh

prayana-kale ’pi cha mam te vidur yukta-chetasah." (7-30.)

BG 7.30: Those who know Me as the governing principle of the adhibhūta (field of matter) and the adhidaiva (the celestial gods), and as adhiyajña (the Lord of all sacrificial performances), such enlightened souls are in full consciousness of Me even at the time of death.(Gita 7.30). 

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Who is a jnani? 

He who contemplates the Almighty as identical with his own self. As I mentioned, there cannot be two selves, or so many Purushas. The Atman cannot be manifold because if there are many Atmans, there will be a contradiction of one subject having an attitude of any kind with another subject because the other subject will become an object, so another subject cannot be there. There can be only one subject. That subjectness of a universal nature is the object so-called of the contemplation of the jnani. Even at the time of passing from this world – even when you are dying – if you can manage to centre your consciousness in this great concept, you shall not be reborn. There will be no rebirth. You shall attain salvation, and enter into God.

Jarāmaraṇamokṣāya: for the sake of freedom from old age and the sufferings of life; mām āśritya yatanti ye: whoever resorts to me for this purpose. Te brahma tad iduḥkṛtsnam: They know the Absolute in its integrality, and also its manifestations as adhyatma, adhibhuta, adhidaiva. Te brahma tad viduḥkṛtsnam adhyātmaṁkarma cākhilam: all things.

Sādhibhūtādhidaivaṁ māṁ sādhiyajñaṁ ca ye viduḥ, prayāṇakālepi ca māṁte: The compassion of God is infinite. You would certainly expect to be devoted to Him throughout your life, not treating Him only as a second-hand or third-hand item which you can think of sometime later at leisure. But even then, it is good. “Even if you forget Me throughout your life but at least remember Me when you are dying, I shall be pleased with you.” This is great kindness indeed! You have forgotten your friend for your whole life, and only for one moment when you want something from him you are calling him and saying, “Hello, how are you?” Such a friend you cannot find in this world. He will say, “You never thought of me. Now you want me to come and help.” But God is not a man. He is not selfish. He does not expect anything from you. He does not love you because you love Him; He loves you because He is you. So even at the time of passing if you can maintain this consciousness of the divinity, of the adhyatma, adhidaiva, adhibhuta and the Supreme Absolute Brahma as operative in this universe of activity which is called adhiyajna, then yuktacetasah: such united beings know Reality in fact.

Very great is the hidden meaning of this Seventh Chapter. I have gone through it very rapidly, giving you only the essence of it in different places. The cosmological, theological and spiritual secrets of the Gita you will find in a seed form in the Seventh Chapter. With this, we now proceed to the Eighth Chapter for a different view altogether of what has already been said.

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Next - Chapter 11: Beholding God as He Beholds Himself

To be continued ....

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