Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

In the beginning, the Ishta Devata will look like somebody standing before us – Lord Krishna, Rama or Devi is standing before us. All right; let them be before us. It looks as if they are only in one place. In the earliest stages of meditation we can feel that God is in front of us – Lord Krishna, Devi, Durga, Surya or whoever he is. Later on, in the advanced stage of meditation, we should be able to recognise that this particular god is present everywhere, as if the Ishta Devata is filling all space. Just as when we look at one tree in the forest we will see only that tree and nothing else, but when we notice that this tree is one tree in the forest, we will find that there are only trees everywhere. Hence, the next stage of meditation may be an attempt on the part of our mind to feel the presence of the Ishta Devata as filling all space so that, as some devotees sing in their poetry, jidhar dekhta hun, udhar tu hi tu: "Wherever I look, I see you, God." It appears that Ravana saw Rama everywhere at the last moment; and at one moment in the war, Duryodhana saw Sri Krishna everywhere. Wherever he looked, he saw only Krishna. This kind of expansion of the location of our Ishta Devata is an advanced stage of meditation, higher than the stage where we saw our god only standing or seated before us. Then, the original location where we thought the Ishta Devata was, gets increased on account of our seeing it everywhere.

There is an even higher stage, where it is not enough if we feel that Lord Krishna is everywhere like a tree being everywhere in the forest. There is only the Ishta Devata everywhere, and there is nothing else. It is not many Krishnas or many Devis or many Narayanas that we are seeing. It is only one Narayana. As we do not see many waves but see only one ocean. The so-called individual conceptual forms of the Ishta melt into the larger liquid of the sea in which they exist, which is the substance of these manifested forms. Now we are in the state of savikalpa samadhi. This stage which I am describing is something like savikalpa samadhi, where we see the light everywhere – but we see the light. This is the penultimate stage of an experience that has to transcend itself further on, because we too should melt into the light. When we perceive the light as being everywhere, it is a great thing indeed. It is a great experience. It is the highest form of experience that we can imagine; but we still maintain an individuality of ourselves as a worshipper, an adorer, an onlooker, etc. When we enter into it, that stage becomes nirvikalpa samadhi – the highest union that one attains in meditation.

So from the internality of the Atman, we conceived the universality of the very same Atman as being present in all individuals; and also we felt the necessity to worship an Ishta Devata through mantra japa, the glorification that we are singing these mantras, and nama japa. We sing like great Hanuman, in great ecstasy. This is a kind of invocation of God. Immense longing for God which will manifest in the loud chanting of a mantra or in musical songs that we sing or even dancing in the glorification of God is supposed to be one of the ecstatic conditions that the devotee reaches in the heights of devotion and a sense of communion with his Ishta Devata. Thus, internal meditation in the light of the Atman being within us may give way to a larger conceptualisation of the Atman being everywhere. This is the philosophical, Vedantic method of meditation. In the devotional, bhakti method, the Ishta Devata concept is prescribed; and there also the Ishta Devata is a transcendent reality and not merely an externally existing object. The god who is the Ishta Devata is not an outside something; it is that which is pervading all things including ourselves. Therefore, it is able to give us light; and it can also receive light and speak to us. There is nothing in the world which cannot speak. Even a stone, even a leaf in the tree, has a selfhood of itself; and when our self pervades all things, things assume their selfhood in themselves and they react by way of a conscious response. Even the trees responded to the call of Vyasa when he summoned Suka, his son. “Oh my son, where are you?” “I am here, my dear father,” was the response that came from every leaf in every tree. That means Suka was not in one particular place. Therefore, the Ishta Devata is our God and becomes the universally inclusive reality which finally inundates us also. Yada viniyatam chittam atmany evavatishthate, nihsprihah sarva-kamebhyo yukta ity uchyate tada.

Yatha dipo nivatastho nengate sopama smrita, yogino yata-chittasya yunjato yogam atmanah (6.19): “As a flame, say a candle flame, flickers not when it is burning in a windless place, so will be the mind concentrating, as it were, at the height of absorption in the Atman.” Yatha dipo nivatastho: that which is located in a windless place. Nengate: does not flicker. Sopama smrita: That is the illustration that is used here. Yunjato yogam atmanah: The Atman reflects itself as an immense steadiness in the mind that is concentrating. The fickleness of the mind which is otherwise a form of distraction ceases on account of the entire Atman reflecting itself in this condition of intense concentration.

Yatroparamate chittam niruddham yoga-sevaya, yatra chaivatmanatmanam pasyann atmani tushyati (6.20).

Sukham atyantikam yat tad buddhi-grahyam atindeiyam, vetti yatra na chaivayam sthitas chalati tattvatah (6.21).

Yam labdhva chaparam labham manyate nadhikam tatah, yasminsthito na duhkhena gurunapi vichalyate (6.22).

These are some illustrations of the condition of intense concentration of the mind. It flickers not. The mind is not anymore distracted, because the steadiness of the Atman is reflected here in this highly concentrated mind. A joy manifests itself from within. The mind ceases.

Uparamate chittam: It melts into the Self, as it were. Niruddham yoga sevaya: Because of the restraint continually exercised on the mind, it melts into the Atman itself. Yatra chaivatmanatmanam pasyann atmani tushyati: Where beholding the self in the Self, one delights within oneself. There is no delight that is equal to this delight. Sukham atyantikam yat tad: This happiness is absolute happiness. It is not a relative happiness that we gain by the contact of the mind with the objects of desire, because when the object of desire vanishes there is no happiness and, therefore, it is not actual happiness. It is a relatively tantalising form of joy. Buddhi-grahyam: This happiness can be experienced only by the higher purified reason, and not by the sense organs. The higher purified reason can reflect the highest reality within itself in the same way as it can infer the existence of God Almighty, though usually such a perception is not possible through the sense organs.

We will not be able to arrive at God by an inductive logic of collecting particulars to arrive at generals. No amount of particulars that we collect in this world will make God. Therefore, inductive logic does not help us here. The ancient masters took resort to an intuitive perception by which they started with the Universal first, and not with the particular first. Thus, they deduced everything from the Ultimate Reality. That is, we may say they followed a kind of deductive logic and not the inductive logic of Francis Bacon, etc. The indubitability of the existence of the Universal Reality is established first. That is, the Universal is taken for granted in the beginning itself by a logic, which we find explained in great detail in commentaries on the Brahma Sutras written by Sankaracharya, etc. The existence of the Universal Reality is established by pure logic, and once this is established as the consequence of the work of the higher reason, everything follows. All creation can be explained in terms of this Universal Reality. It is infinite happiness. All other happiness in this world is relative.

Sukham atyantikam yat tad buddhi-grahyam atindeiyam, vetti yatra na chaivayam sthitas chalati tattvatah: In that state, wee will never be shaken even by the winds of the world. Yasminsthito na duhkhena gurunapi vichalyate: Even the heaviest sorrow cannot shake us from that happiness. Even if the earth cracks and the sun falls on our head, even if such a thing can be imagined, we will not be shaken up at that time because of our entry into the very substance of all things.

Tam vidyad duhkha-samyoga-viyogam yoga-samjnitam, sa nischayena yokttavyo yogo’nirvinna-chetasa (6.23). Anirvinna-chetas means by a non-despondent mind, by a courageous mind, by a heroic attitude of the spiritual seeker. With this bold attitude of spiritual aspiration, one should seek to attain this union of the self with the Self. Tam vidyad duhkha-samyoga-viyogam: At one stroke, it cuts us off from all sources of pain, and we will no longer know what pain is. Tam vidyad duhkha-samyoga-viyogam yoga-samjnitam, sa nischayena yokttavyo: That is called yoga which is the separation of consciousness from all sources of pain. We must definitely attain it, and unite ourselves with it – yogah anirvinna-chetasa – by not being despondent and by total union with the Self, which is the ultimate yoga.