Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

“Are You the Supreme Person? Sometimes You refer to Yourself as Parama-purusha – Supreme Person. Sometimes You say that You are indestructible, transcendent, and impossible even to conceive. In what way are we to worship You, O Lord? There are people who adore You as the Supreme Mahapurusha, Purushottama. With immense devotion they sing of You, they dance in ecstasy by taking Your name, they adore You day-in and day-out, and glorify You in all ways; but there are others who are unified in their being with Your indestructible Super Being. Between these two great souls, whom do You regard as the best of yogins?”

Sri bhagavan uvacha: The Lord gives a reply.
Mayy avesya mano ye mam nitya-yukta upasate, sraddhaya parayopetas te me yuktatama matah (12.2).
Ye tv aksharam anirdesyam avyaktam paryupasate, sarvatra-gam achintyam cha kutastham achalam dhruvam (12.3).
Samniyamyendriya-gramam sarvatra sama-buddhayah, te prapnuvanti mam eva sarva-bhuta-hite ratah (12.4).
Klesho’dhikaras tesham avyaktasakta-chetasam, avyakta hi gatir duhkham dehavadbhir avapyate (12.5).
Ye tu sarvani karmani mayi sannyasya matparah, ananyenaiva yogena mam dhyayanta upasate (12.6).
Tesham aham samuddharta mrtyu-samsara-sagarat, bhavami na chirat partha may avesita-chetasam (12.7).

The reply is here in six verses. “I consider those people very near to Me and really united with Me whose mind is fixed on Me, who worship Me, ever considering Me as their highest beloved, who have faith in Me only, and centre their faith in nothing else. I certainly consider them as united with Me because their mind is wholly centred in Me in their utter devotion. But there are others who also are united with Me in a different way.”

The distinction drawn here is between those devotees who worship the Supreme Being as the Parama Purushottama and those who are devoted to the Universal Inclusiveness, outside which even they do not exist. We may call these two ways of approach as bhakti and jnana, if we like; but the jnana referred to here is actually a kind of bhakti in the highest sense. It is called para bhakti, which is the same as jnana.

In religious parlance, the worship of the Supreme Being as a person is the normal way of adoring God. Whether it is Hinduism or any other religion in the world, we see people worshipping God as some concept cast into the mould of an enlarged personality – not simply a person, but the Supreme Person. Whether we call God the Father in heaven, or Allah-hu-Akbar, or we say Purushottama, or we call Him Narayana or Siva or Devi or Brahma – whatever be the definition of our Ishta Devata – we will observe that we are picturising the Supreme Divinity in some form, though that form is a highly enlarged and inclusive form. Because the heart of the devotee requires a response from someone who knows what we are feeling, it is necessary for us to know that God is responding to our love and devotion.

The God who cannot respond does not evoke satisfaction in the heart. The God who includes us, outside Whom we cannot even exist, need not give any response at all; but our heart says: “I love God. Maybe I love Him as an all-pervading essence, but even then I require a response. I should know that He knows that I love Him.” The question of expecting this kind of response from God, blessing from God, grace from God, or protection from God – anything whatsoever from God – cannot arise in a case where the person who expects this response cannot stand outside the One from whom the response has to come. This is the difficulty that perhaps was haunting the mind of Arjuna, and haunts every religious seeker, whatever be the vocation of his religion.

Sri Krishna accepts these twofold ways of approach to God, because He calls Himself Purushottama. Prathitah purushottamah (15.18): “I am beyond the kshara-akshara prakriti-purusha and, therefore, I am known as the Supreme Being.” He calls Himself Supreme Purusha – that is, the Highest Person.

Sri Krishna’s reply is: “Those who devotedly worship Me as the Supreme Person are really united with Me because of their love. What about others? In the case of those others who try to feel the presence of this Imperishable Transcendent Essence by a total withdrawal of all the faculties of psychological perception, even devotion does not rise from the operation of their mind. Mostly, devotion is a kind of feeling that arises from part of our psyche, but here in the case of those people whose mind has been restrained perfectly – samniyamyendriya-gramam – who have put an end to the activity of all the sense organs, and see one thing only everywhere – sarvatra sama-buddhayah – they also reach Me. They also reach Me who consider Me as the Supreme Person and love Me as the Supreme Person. They also reach Me who consider Me as the All-Inclusive Eternal Transcendent Universal Reality.” But the distinction is this: It is difficult to concentrate the mind on Non-externalised Universality. Those who have body-consciousness, those who know that they also exist, even when they are in the height of devotion to God, they are aware that they are in a height of devotion to God. A devotee loves God, but the devotee knows that he loves God; that is what demarcates him from another who loves God but does not know that he loves God.

There is a difference between knowing that we love God and not knowing that we love God. We have united ourselves with God to such an extent that we cannot know that we are actually having affection for God. But those who know that they love God stand outside the Supreme Person; they can visualise Him, pray to Him in words of language, and they can offer themselves in surrender as if they are there as something to be offered. But in the case of others, there is nothing to be offered, because that which is to be offered has already become one with that to which it has to be offered. Such a kind of sacrifice is very difficult in this world. Very hard is this practice.

Klesho’dhikaras tesham avyaktasakta-chetasam, avyakta hi gatir duhkham dehavadbhir avapyate. How on earth is it possible not to know that we are devotees of God? How can we forget that we are existing as worshippers and as students of yoga? Can we abolish ourselves? Those who are embodied in this person, those who have a consciousness of this body, and those who know that they exist as individuals cannot practice this yoga of utter unitedness with the Transcendent Essence. Hard is this practice. But those who are conscious that they love God, and are inundated with affection for God, do not have this difficulty – because the greatest pain is the annihilation of ego.

In the case of ordinarily accepted forms of devotion to God, as long as the personality of the devotee also persists together with the consciousness of the Supreme Personality of God, a little bit of sattvic ahamkara is present in that devotee. We have to use the word ‘ahamkara’ very carefully here in the case of devotees, because it does not mean pride. Ahamkara is not to be taken here as garva – arrogance, self-assertion. It is a very, very, sattvic, moderate, subdued self-consciousness, which is what distinguishes these devotees from the person whom they worship. But in the case of the others whose practice is considered to be very difficult, even this little sattvic mode of self-affirmation is completely overcome. They do not worship God; they are inseparable from God. They do not have to praise God, because the person who is to praise has gone into the abyss of the Absolute.

“Both are great. I love both these types of devotees equally. But I am mentioning to you that one type of devotion is very difficult for people and, therefore, people will certainly resort to the easier one. Whoever lovingly surrenders themselves to Me, and worships Me as the Supreme Person, and thinks of nothing except Me – ananyayogena – I lift them from the mire of samsara. Tesham aham samuddharta mrtyusamsarasagarat: “I raise them above this turmoil of samsara, and I shall be ever at their beck and call for their protection.”

From this answer that Sri Krishna gives, it is not easy for us to know which type of devotee He actually prefers. There may be some subtle touch of preference to the devotee who is non-separate from Him, because when He referred to four kinds of devotees He said, “All are equally great and I consider them as worthy of endearment, but yet I consider the jnani as supreme because he has become My very soul. The arta, jijnasu and artharthi are also dear to Me because they are devoted to Me – they think of Me, and worship Me, and praise Me, and want Me only – but I consider the jnani as superior.” So, even when He seems to be saying that both are equally good and all the attributes of goodness are to be seen in both these kinds of devotees – both will reach Him – we cannot deny that there is a preference for the one whose soul has been united with the Universal Soul, in comparison to the soul that has still managed to maintain an independent existence in spite of its devotion.