Attaining His
Essence
The Lord now describes them who are desirous of boons and material
gains, the class of devotees who have not yet been able to tear asunder the veil
of Maya, being ignorant of the True
nature of God. Deprived and deluded by desires they worship different gods and
goddesses, according to their own nature and disposition. Whatever forms that
these devotees wish to worship with devotion, the Lord Himself grants that
steadfast devotion. With that devotion these devotees worship these gods for the
fulfillment of their desires and obtain these desires through their ardent and
sincere worship, by the grace of the Supreme Lord who is the ultimate recipient
of all worships and who grants all fulfillments.
In another chapter Sri Krishna has declared that verily He
is the enjoyer as well as the Lord of all sacrifices. Therefore all worships,
even though offered to the various divine forms, are ultimately directed towards
the Supreme Being. It is the Supreme Being, who cultivates this devotion or Sraddha amongst the devotees for various
forms, according to their tastes and propensities or nature. He also grants the
boons desiring which the worships are performed. However, these worships are
performed for the fulfillment of desire and hence ignorance, which is the root
cause of all evils, is not dispelled. Fulfillment of worldly desires brings in
more miseries in its wake.
Sri Krishna
said, “The fruits of such boons are, however, temporary. The one, who worships
the gods, goes to those gods, while those who worship Me, the Supreme Being,
come unto Me.”
Fulfillment of desire does not bring in any lasting effect.
Wealth, prosperity, name, fame, fortune and other earthly goods do not last.
They may at best survive the lifetime of the receiver of the boon. Any desire
brings in miseries. Wealth brings anxiety and worry over its maintenance, fame
and fortune bring anxiety of losing honor, prosperity breeds pride and
arrogance. All these worries give way to greed, the desire to get more and more,
and in the end it becomes a self annihilating tool. Man forfeits his eternal
life for the desire of few worldly crumbs. Those who worship individual devas can at best attain the state of
the devas if they follow a virtuous
life and make good of their wealth, i.e. they can ascend to heaven. But Gita points out, esp. in the
8th and 9th Chapters, that even the highest heaven is
transitory, transient. Unless a man sincerely strives for liberation from the
cycle of birth and death, he will have to fall from heaven after the exhaustion
of his merits and will have to reborn in the world to reap the fruits of his karma. Nobody is immune to this
universal law. Only the most sincere devotees of the Lord, who by the grace of
the Supreme Being have been able to dispel the cloud of ignorance, whose only
refuge is the Lord and who has no earthly desire, can attain the Supreme Being
and therefore get Moksha or final
liberation.
In the next few verses the Lord speaks more about His real nature,
which is not perceived by ordinary souls. He says, “Fools, deluded, and being
ignorant of my eternal transcendental Supreme state, regard Me as an ordinary
mortal appearing from the unmanifest nature like all other mortals. I do not
reveal My true Self as the world is veiled by Maya. This deluded world does not
know My true nature, the unborn and immutable Supreme Being. I know the past, present and future of this
universe, but nobody knows Me, oh Arjuna!”
Only the pure hearted devotees can know the true nature of
the God, and that too by His grace. When an Avatara or incarnation comes down to the
world for restoring the harmony and for playing with His devotees, ordinary
people are unable to fathom His greatness because of the thick veil of Maya engulfing the world. They therefore
fail to comprehend that an Avatara is
the pure Atman, unborn and undying, immutable and eternal, unlike any other
living being. Ordinary beings take birth from the nature. From their unmanifest
state, they become manifest and then fades into the unmanifest again in the end.
The Lord knows the past, present and future of all living beings because the
world is His playground and He is devising the scripts for the life stories of
all and sundry.
In another sense an Avatara is a perfect soul, who is
already established in knowledge, and who is able to bring in salvation for many
others. But outwardly He is like any other human being and therefore unless He
manifests His specialties, nobody is able to grasp Him. In other words, He does not reveal Himself to
all and sundry and only to a select few who would be able to emulate His life
and would become beacons for others.
In the last few verses, Sri Krishna identifies them who come to
know of the true nature of the Supreme Being and how that nature can be
known.
He said, “Being driven and deluded by the pairs of opposites like
desire and aversion, all living beings remain ignorant (of My true nature).
Those, whose sins have been destroyed by the virtuous deeds, can get rid of the
delusion of the pairs of opposites and worship Me steadfastly. Those who strive
for taking me as the sole refuge to liberate themselves from the miseries of
decay and death, they come to attain the Brahman, the supreme reality and thus
gain the complete knowledge and also the mastery of all actions. Those who thus
know Me with the Adhibuta, Adhidaiva and the Adiyajna, they, being steadfastly united
with Me, come to know Me even during the moments of their departure (from the
mortal lives).”
All living beings are driven by the pairs of opposites which
are a potent force in the hand of Maya, the illusive divine force. Such
pairs are good and evil, attachment and aversion, love and hatred, hot and cold,
pleasure and pain, sins and virtues, light (knowledge) and darkness (ignorance)
etc. These pairs of opposites bind an individual to the world and deny him the
knowledge of God. One who has been able to gain inner purity can rise above the
tidings of these qualities of nature. Such inner purity can be obtained by a
sincere devotee who cares for only God and no earthly object. His only desire is
to get liberated and he attains that supreme state by which decay and death
cannot affect him as he has surrendered himself completely to the Lord. Miseries
of old age and fear of death cannot affect those who have transcended the
dualities. They are the best of devotees, and they are wise with the knowledge
of that Brahman. Therefore they know
the entire science of knowledge called Adhyatma. They have accomplished the
goal of all work, i.e. realization of God, and therefore have also gained
complete mastery over all forms of work.
They thus know
the true nature of the God by various ways – Adhibhuta, Adhidaiva and Adhiyajna, the meanings of which will be
clarified in the next chapter. They are united in the Lord even at the time of
their death and are liberated from the cycles of life and death by knowing and
realizing Him, the ultimate object of all knowledge.
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