Gita for Youth - Yoga of Great Secret Wisdom (Raja Vidya Raja Guhya Yoga) - God Behind Everything

Various Manifestations

“I am the sacrifice and the performer of the sacrifice, I am Swadha, the respectful offering to the ancestors, I am the medicinal herbs, I am the magical chants or mantras, I am the clarified butter, I am the sacrificial fire, I am the oblation.  I am the father of the universe, the mother, the preserver, the grandfather. I am the knowledge to be gained, I am the pure Omkara, I am the three Vedas – Rik, Sama & Yajur. I am the destiny of all beings, protector and sustainer, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the refuge, the dearest, the places of origin and dissolution, the destruction, the eternal seed. I am the One who scorches, I am the One who alleviates suffering like rainfall after a hot dry summer, I procreate and take back (lives), I am the immortality and I am death, I am both existence and non existence, Oh Arjuna!”

In Chapter eight the Lord declared Himself to be the Adhiyajna. Now He proclaims that He is everything that a sacrifice comprises of. The same concept was discussed in Chapter four when a sacrifice and its components were described to be consisting of nothing but Brahman, the eternal being. He is the one to whom the sacrifice is directed to, He is the end result, He is the material offered as oblation, He is the means (fire, chants, libation) of performing the sacrifice. He is the father, mother and grandfather of the Universe because He created all beings and he protects them. He is the only One to be known and thus the ultimate knowledge, the Supreme Truth. He is the noblest sound in the form of the Omkara resonating this Universe and the sound form of the Supreme Being. He is the revelation in the form of the Veda. He is the all in all. He is the all merciful Lord who is also the sole refuge and the sustainer. He is also the inactive witness, present as Atman in every being. He is the One in whom rests the entire Universe and He is the supreme abode. He is the One whom all the devotees look up as the protector, bestower of boons. He is the nearest relation to everybody, nobody is dearer then Him. He not only creates (from unmanifest) but He also destroys and takes back all beings into the unmanifest, in the twin processes of involution & evolution. He is the eternal seed from which originates this entire Universe.

He is the seasons. He is present in the form of hot summer and He is the One who brings much joy in the form of rain. In other words He is the cause of suffering and He is the one who alleviates the sufferings and miseries. He is death and He is immortality, He is the existence and He is also the non existence.

The persons who engage themselves in rites and rituals as prescribed in the Vedas, aspiring after heaven, worship Him through the sacrifices and the oblation of Soma juice. They get their desires fulfilled and enjoy the bounties and luxuries in heaven. At the end of the enjoyment period, when their merits have exhausted, they return to the earth assuming new bodies to reap the fruits of their Karma. Thus by following the rites in the three Vedas they keep on transmigrating (from heaven to earth) led by a life of enjoyment and fulfillment of material desires. They do not get the Supreme Lord and the associated bliss, nor are they liberated.