Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Udarah sarva evaite. God’s kindness is greater than the kindness of anybody. Most merciful is God that He considers even the littlest devotion to be a very wonderful thing. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to be so kind to people. He considered even the blabbering of a child to be a great lecture and presented the child with a tin of biscuits, praising the wonderful lecture even though the child was just babbling nonsense. If anyone danced, even with crooked movements, it was praised as a wonderful dance and a present was given. And if anyone sang, even with a hoarse voice and without any melody, they were given a present of a tin of biscuits and fruit. That is, encouragement was given in every line which a person wanted to pursue, even in the littlest, humblest way.

Draupadi cried to God because she was in distress, and her cry was immediately responded to. She was not asking for knowledge, she was not thinking of the purusharthas, nor was she thinking of communion with God. She was in intense distress, unimaginable distress; and there was an immediate response. So even the lowest category of devotion calls God with equal force as do the higher types of devotion. The way of God is a very great mystery indeed. He says the jnani is the best, which implies that the others are naturally the second and the third categories, but He responded immediately to the call of Draupadi. Instantaneous, timeless, action was taken, even if she did not fall into our definition of jnani So God’s ways, only God knows. We cannot say anything about His wonderful ways.

However, Lord Krishna says tesham jnani nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir visishyate (7.17): “Because of his unstinted, concentrated, whole-souled, communion-like devotion to Me, I consider the jnani as the best; the jnani is me and I am the jnani, whereas other devotees stand apart, and they are individuals expecting something from God.” Tesham jnani nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir visishyate, priyo hi jnanino’tyartham aham sa cha mama priyah (7.17): “I am dearest to the jnani and the jnani is dearest to Me” – because what can be dearer than the self? If we love the self of God as our own self and God loves us as His own self, there is a communion of the so-called two into a single existence. That love is the greatest love which needs no object before it. That love is the greatest which does not want any kind of recompense. That love is not love which expects a response from the beloved. “If I love you, then you should also love me; but if I have no response from you in spite of my affection for you, then you are not worthy of my affection.” This kind of affection is no affection. The soul has to commune with the soul, and this happens only in the case of jnana and not in the other cases, notwithstanding the fact that God is immensely merciful to consider even a child like Prahlada or Dhruva to be as great devotees as Suka, Vyasa or Vasishtha.

Udarah sarva evaite jnani tv atmaiva me matam, asthitah sa hi yuktatma mam evanuttamam gatim (7.18): “All these devotees that I mentioned are very good people. Yet he stands first who is a jnani, who is Me and is inseparable from Me.” He who considers nothing else as the goal of life except God Himself, who day in and day out plants God in the heart of his own personality, who feels God in the soul of his own self, who implants the Universal in his particular individuality and thus melts his individuality into the Cosmic Universality, who exists as the Universal Soul itself in meditation and experience – that person is a jnani. He is veritably God Himself. We can call him a jivanmukta, if we like.

It is very difficult to achieve this kind of devotion. Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate; vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah (7.19): It is difficult to love God. The love of things is so attractive, so promising and rewarding that the invisible God may not be as attractive to the senses. We take a series of incarnations – millions of births – to come to the human level, and then only is it possible for an individual to think in terms of pros and cons and entertain logical judgments, which is not available in the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms. After taking many an incarnation and passing through many bodies of various species, we become human beings. Even as human beings, it is not easy for everybody to reach God because there are categories of human beings. There are demoniacal human beings, selfish human beings, cut-throat human beings, tit-for-tat human beings, so they are not in a position to attain God. It is a blessed one who has polished his personality through austerity, by means of the practice of the various stages of yoga in the different incarnations that he has taken. Bahunam janmanam ante: “After the completion of many, many lives – then only the jnani attains to Me as the only goal, resorts to Me as the only purpose in life.”

Vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah – such a person is indeed rare in this world who has the conviction that God is all, that Narayana is all, Vasudeva is all, the Almighty is all. Such a conviction cannot arise in ordinary people. After many millions of births, such a conviction may arise. The sense organs will not play havoc with that person who knows in an integral manner that God is all, because their feeling and understanding merge into a kind of intuition; and then there is no use of expecting anything from this world. “The world merges in God as I myself also merge in God.” Bahunam janmanam ante jnanavan mam prapadyate, vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah.

Sri Aurobindo says that when the British put him in prison due to a bomb case and he was summoned by the magistrate, suddenly in the courtroom he had the vision of Narayana. He saw the police as Sri Krishna, Narayana. He saw the magistrate as Narayana; he saw the doors, the windows and the iron bars as Narayana. Everything was Narayana shining everywhere, and even the prosecutor standing there was Narayana. Narayana was flooding the entire court, right from the policemen and the prosecutor, to the magistrate sitting there. He mentions this experience in a beautiful and powerful style in his speech called the Uttarapara speech. Vasudevah sarvam iti sa mahatma sudurlabhah. Such an experience is rare.

Kamais tais tair hrita-jnanah prapadyante’nya devatah, tam tam niyamam asthaya prakritya niyatah svaya (7.20): “Not knowing Me as the All, people resort to so many gods.” The ‘so many gods’ are to be considered as influxes and emanations of the Supreme Being. We may worship Ganesha, Devi, Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Vishnu, Siva, Surya, Kartikeya, Skanda, or any god, provided we do not consider them as individual gods standing independently in their own sphere; otherwise, we will receive from them a blessing that is completely limited. A limited god can bless us only in a limited way. There is no harm in worshipping these gods, but we should consider them as a hand or a finger of the one Almighty. Whether it is Siva or Vishnu or Christ or Buddha or Mohammed or anyone, they are facets of the single crystal of the Supreme Being. Any facet of the crystal reflects the whole crystal. Therefore, there is no harm in worshipping individual gods. But if we consider them as independent gods – Mohammed is different from Christ, Christ is different from Krishna, Krishna is different from Devi and they have no connection with one another, we want something from Devi and something else from Krishna – if that is the case, we will get what we want. Kamais tais tair hrita-jnanah prapadyante’nya devatah: With desires which are discrete and diversified in nature, people run to all sorts of divinities – a stone, a snake, a tree, a symbol, a diagram. Everything is a god for a person with desires of various types. Such people who have multifarious desires of a rajasic and perhaps tamasic nature and who worship varieties of divinities independently, as it were, will have their own result granted to them. Tam tam niyamamasthaya prakritya niyatah svaya: “In My ordinance, I have arranged that these people also shall be given whatever they want.” If we ask for a handful, we will get only a handful. If we ask for a bucketful, we will get a bucketful, and if we ask for the whole earth, we will get the whole earth; but we will get only what we want, not more than that. If we ask for a sword, we will get a sword.

There was a person who wanted that any thought that arose in his mind should materialise, and he was blessed with that boon. Whenever he thought something, it would materialise. He was very happy, and felt that now the whole world was under his control. He sat under a tree and thought, “Let there be mangoes in the tree.” Immediately mangoes dropped from the tree. “Let there be cool water for me to drink,” and immediately cool water flowed in front. “Let there be many servants to massage my feet,” and servants came. “Let me have a good bed to lie down on and rest,” and a bed immediately appeared. While he was lying down, he thought, “This is a forest. Suppose a tiger pounces on me; what will happen?” Immediately a tiger came and pounced on him, and he was finished. This is what happens if we have desires which are uncontrolled by real knowledge, wisdom. Therefore, we should not propitiate small deities in order to fulfil petty desires when we have the Great Master who can grant us all that we want with His oceanic mercy. Anyway, in His goodness and mercy He says: “Even if the little gods are worshipped, you will get something. Don’t bother yourself.” Immensely merciful is God. He knows the futility of our efforts and the foolishness of our worships, but in spite of that He says, “I’ll give you what you want.” So kind is God!

Kamais tais tair hrita-jnanah prapadyante’nya devatah, tam tam niyamam asthaya prakritya niyatah svaya: The Universal Religion of the equality of worship and the equality of the vision of all faiths, cults and creeds is a way to God. Whatever be the way in which we approach the Ultimate Reality, that is a religion, no matter how devious and circuitous that way may be, provided we are conscious that every other path also equally leads to the same goal and all religions merge into a single religion of man’s desire for God. This is the gospel of Universal Religion.