The Essence of Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta - Aniruddha Banhatti (great reads txt) 📗

me.

I am the father and the mother of all universe. I am the sustainer and the Supremo of this universe. For those know me in my entirety, I look after their worldly life.

Whatever is offered to me with devotion I accept with love. I do not discriminate between my devotees based on caste and birth and elevate them all to a higher state.

My devotee never is destroyed. Hence, O Arjun, you stabilize your mind in contemplating me and worship me, thence you will finally merge with me.”

Thus ends the part known as ‘The Yoga of Supreme Education and Supreme Secret’ or ‘Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga’.

Part Ten

Lord Shrikrushna said, “Arjun, I shall tell you some more secrets. You listen to these. Even many Gods and many great sages do not know how I originated. I am birthless and without beginning. I am the creator of the entire universe.

To those devotees continually concentrating their mind on me and getting lost in my contemplation, I impart divine intellect and complete knowledge and thence they merge in me.”

Then Arjun said, “Shrikrushna, I know that you are the supreme absolute and eternal being. O the best of men, tell me the divine forms through which you occupy the entire Universe.”

According to Arjun’s request, after telling his forms such as –
I am Vishnu in Aditi’s sons, I am SamaVeda among the four Vedas, I am the Banyan tree among the trees, I am the month of Margasheersha among the months, among the seasons I am the Springtime –
and many more similar, Lord Shrikrushna said, “ O Arjun, I have but told you a very small part of my myriad forms. There is no end to my forms. Wherever there is wealth, brightness, power, there is a little of my being.

Know that an infinitesimal of my part occupies the entire Universe.”

Thus ends the part known as ‘The Yoga of Divine Forms’ or ‘Vibhutee Yoga’.

Part Eleven

Arjun said, “O Shrikrushna, you revealed to me the secret knowledge of Adhyatma. Hence my ignorance is destroyed. Now I want to see that form of yours that permeates the entire Universe.

O Yogeshwara, if it is possible for me to view you in that meta-form, kindly show me that.”

Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, the moving and non-moving universe unified in myself, and any other things you wish to see, I show you now. See the wonders you had never seen before.

But you won’t be able to see all this with your ordinary vision. Hence I give you super sight temporarily with my Yogic powers. With that you will be able to see my Universal form.”

All these happenings on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Sanjay, who also had the powers of seeing happenings at long distance, was telling Dhrutarashtra.

Sanjay said, “O King Dhrutarashtra, saying thus, Shrikrushna gave Arjun the special power of vision and appeared before him in the gigantic divine form.

In that gigantic person there were myriads of mouths and eyes and arms and limbs and the entire Universe appeared to be contained in his chaotic body.

If there be effulgence of a thousand suns bursting forth all at once in the heavens, even that would hardly approach the splendor of the mighty Lord.

The myriads of mouths gave forth fire and entire universes and planet systems were emerging from some mouths and being sucked in at other mouths.

Seeing this wondrous, divine and fearsome form, Arjun was astonished. He paid obeisance to Lord Shrikrushna in his Universe permeating form, described to Shrikrushna all that he was able to see, and expressed a desire to see the Lord in his usual benevolent, friendly form.

Then, Lord Shrikrushna said, “ I am the Universe destroying Kaala, i.e., Time, and these Drona, Bheeshma, Karna and others I have already killed. Hence you just become mere cause and hit them with weapons. Go into battle and be the victor.”

Hearing this Arjun tremblingly bowed to Krushna with joined palms, and bowing again in extreme terror, requested in faltering accents, to come back to his four armed, crowned benevolent form.

Lord Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, this supreme, effulgent, primal and infinite cosmic form of mine, even beyond Gods, cannot be seen through study of the Vedas, or of rituals, or again through divine gifts, actions of austere penances. It can only be seen through devotion. And the one who knows me through devotion, such a devotee finally merges with me.”
Thus ends the part called ‘Yoga of Field and Knower of the Field’ or ‘Kshetra Kshetradnya Yoga’.

Part Twelve

Arjun said, “O Shrikrushna, of those devotees of yours who are the superior and correct? The ones who contemplate your material form, or the ones who contemplate your non-material ethereal form?”

Lord Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, both kinds of devotees finally merge with me. Still, those who contemplate me in my physical or material form with great faith and offer me devotion; I consider those as superior Yogis.

Contemplation of and devotion to my ethereal form is very difficult. Thence who give up all actions unto me and adulate me with undivided devotion, to them, I immediately can give salvation.

O Arjun, concentrate your mind on me and anchor your intelligence in me, and you will reach me and attain my state. Practice, knowledge, meditation and renouncing the fruits of your deeds unto me, these are the tools to stabilize your mind and intellect unto me.”

Saying thus, Shrikrushna told Arjun the characteristics of the supreme devotee. He said, “A true devotee hates no one. Friends and foes are the same to him. Pleasure and sorrow, respect and insult, praise and disdain, the true devotee treats as same. The true devotee is untouched by anger, joy, mourning or fear. The devotee is desireless, humble and clean.

The true devotee does not hanker for the fruits of the actions, and is always satisfied in the existing condition whatever that may be.”

Lord Krushna revealed these and many other characteristics of the true devotee and said again, “O Arjun, I very much love the true devotees showing the above characteristics.”

Thus ends the part known as ‘The Yoga of Devotion’ or ‘Bhakti Yoga’ as it describes the nature of true devotion.

Part Thirteen

Lord Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, made up from lust, desires and the basic five elements, the human body is known as ‘The Field’, and the living soul
is known as ‘The Knower of the Field.’ The knowledge about the field is known by the ascetics and is described in the Vedas”

After this, while explaining what ‘Knowledge’ is and what things are contained in the term ‘Knowledge’, Lord Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, the study of spirituality, philosophy and the four attainments, and the correct ideas about these is indeed ‘Knowledge’. Whatever is not included in this is indeed ignorance. After knowing which, the human being attains the state of immortal being is the irreducible absolute or Brahma.”

After telling this, Lord Shrikrushna again explained what is Prakruti and what is Purusha as defined in the Sankhya philosophy.

He said, “O Arjun, Prakruti gives rise to this immobile and mobile Universe, and Purusha, residing within the Prakruti experiences the sensations, the joys and sorrows. To understand and perceive this symbiosis of Prakruti and Purusha, or the Field and the Knower of the Field, is the Supreme Knowledge.

This knowledge can be obtained by meditation, by learning Sankhya Yoga, by Karma Yoga or by a course of devotion as prescribed by a spiritual guide, a Guru.

One who attains this knowledge goes to an excellent state and is freed forever from the cycle of rebirths.”

This chapter is known as ‘The Yoga of Field and the Knower of the Field’ or ‘Kshetra – Kshetradnya Yoga’.

Part Fourteen

After discussing the field-knower of the field or the Prakruti-Purusha duality, follows the discussion of the nature of Prakruti and her three properties.

Lord Shrikrushna said, “O Arjun, the entire animate and inanimate universe is created from the Prakruti. There are three properties of Prakruti, namely, Sattva-balance, Raja-desire or activity and Tama -ignorance, darkness or inertia.

But in any being or entity, these three properties are not in equal proportions. One property is predominant and suppresses the other two.

The predominant property of a being makes the path of that being related to that property. Also, the property predominant at the time of death decides the state reached after death.

Thus the one who dies with the Sattva property predominant, attains the paradise, the one who dies trapped in the fetters of desires or the Raja property, gets rebirth as a human being attached to worldly life, the one who dies in complete ignorance or Tama property gets an even lower form of rebirth.

The one individual who has knowledge, realizes that all actions are done by the interplay of the three properties of Prakruti, realizes that there is no separate doer except these three properties. The knowledgeable person realizes the supreme principle beyond these three properties and becomes one with that supreme principle, that is me.

O Arjun, that person who transcends beyond the three properties, which are the cause of the birth of body, is known as ‘Gunateeta’ or ‘Beyond Properties’.

That person, treating adulation-disdain, pleasure-sorrow, friend-foe equally and renouncing all actions pays devotion to only me and becomes eligible for merging with the eternal irreducible absolute Brahma, and O Arjun, that eternal Brahma is nothing but me.”

This part is called ‘The Yoga of Three Properties’ or ‘Trividha Guna Yoga’.

Part Fifteen


Shrikrushna said. “O Arjun, this world is like a great and eternal Peepal tree. Its roots are in the heavens and branches are spread on earth. No one can see the beginning, the end and the present state of this tree. Unless and until the hurdle of this tree is removed, knowledge of the supreme God is not possible. For this, using the weapon of non-attachment, this tree of worldly life must be destroyed from the roots and then begins the search for a way to reach the place from where one need not come back, that is, the state of Brahma. Those stabilized in spiritual knowledge and free from desires of pleasure or pain, those persons of knowledge surrender to the supreme being and find out the way to the eternal state and reach there.

Sun, moon and fire do not light that place, and once there, the Yogis need not ever return from there, such is that eternal seat of mine. Ignorant people do not know this, but knowledgeable persons know this and see this with their inner vision.
O Arjun, it is my essence which fills all living world. The light in Sun, Moon and Fire, is mine. I enter the earth and sustain the elements. I become the Moon and sustain the plants. I become the fire, the hunger, in the stomachs of living beings and digest the food.

I inhabit the hearts of all. All scriptures are an attempt to understand me. I am the compiler and doer and knower of the end of scriptures

I am the one who occupies all three worlds and sustain them. I am famous among people as the Supreme Being. The one who knows me in the form of Supreme Being is the person of Knowledge. That person knows everything and revers me