Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 51-1. - Swami Krishnananda.

 =========================================================================

=========================================================================

Monday, October 24,  2022. 06:00.

Discourse-51. The Eighteenth Chapter Concludes: The Bhagavadgita Concludes -1.

=========================================================================

The Bhagavadgita is coming to its conclusion.

Īśvaraḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ hṛddeśe'rjuna tiṣṭhati, bhrāmayan sarvabhūtāni yantrārūḍhāni māyayā (18.61):

 Ishvara, the Supreme Creator of the universe, is residing in the heart of all. He is all-pervading, transcendent, above this creation that He has manifested from Himself, yet residing in all hearts as the ruler of all, and also the Self of all. From the objective point of view, He is the dispenser of justice—the Creator, Preserver, Destroyer. From the subjective side, He is the deepest consciousness—the Atman.

In the deepest recesses of the heart of all beings, Ishvara, the Supreme Lord, resides. He controls the destiny of everything that is created, and rotates, as it were, the fates of people and all things as if they are mounted on a machine which He is operating—yantrārūḍhāni. By a kind of power, which is called maya here—an inscrutable force, shakti, that He wields and exerts on everyone—He exercises a permanent control on all things. His rule of law does not require any emendation in the course of time. Once creation was willed, everything necessary for the maintenance of this creation was also simultaneously willed.

Yāthātathyato'rthān vyadadhāc chāśvatībhyas samābhyaḥ (Isa 8) is a passage from the Isavasya Upanishad. 

Ishvara, when He projected this universe, also made a law to maintain this universe in a stable form. This rule of law that He laid down at the beginning of creation for the purpose of the origin, the sustenance, as well as the end of all things does not require any change from moment to moment. Those changes that may be required under given conditions in the process of history have already been well thought out at the origin of things. If history is a process of turmoil, and everything seems to be out of control—anything can happen at any time, people seem to be exercising a kind of free will—all this has also been decided in the beginning of things. That there shall be a kind of turmoil, that there shall be an end of a certain epoch in history, and that there shall also be a remedy to it, was willed in the beginning of things. That is to say, omniscience being the quality of God, Ishvara, there is no necessity for His omniscience to get amended from time to time. His parliament is an eternally set organisation. It does not call for changes under any circumstance. The whole thing is controlled permanently, for ever and ever, right from the beginning, as a machine may be controlled by an operator of the machine.

Tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha (18.62). 

Such a Being exists; such a Lord is ruling the whole universe. Resort to Him. Surrender yourself to Him. Seek refuge in Him. Tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha sarvabhāvena bhārata: From the whole of your being, from all sides of your being, go and surrender yourself to that Almighty. Do not surrender only some part of your nature; do not reserve something to not be offered to God. Sarvabhāvena: Every aspect of your being has to be offered. Every aspect, every facet, and in every way is this surrender to be effected—total surrender is called for—and seek refuge in Him: tam eva śaraṇaṁ gaccha sarvabhāvena bhārata.

Tat prasādāt parāṁ śāntiṁ sthānaṁ prāpsyasi śāśvatam: 

By the grace of this compassionate Almighty Lord, Ishvara, you shall attain to the peace that surpasses understanding—that supreme peace which is eternal and untarnished by the process of spatial and temporal history. His grace, please seek it.

*****

To be continued

========================================================================