1. Those devotees who, eversteadfast, thus worship you, and also those who worship the imperishable, the unmanifested --- which of them are better versed in YOGA?

The philosophical discourses contained in the Divine Song, though written in a conversational style, never overlook the systematic development of its thoughts, not only within the chapter but also from chapter to chapter. The last chapter ended with an assurance from the Lord that any seeker can realise the glory of the Cosmic-Form, if only he can entertain an unwavering devotion. As a prince of royal blood, Arjuna must have felt tickled by this great challenge thrown at him. As a practical man of the world, he enquires here as to the form on which he should meditate. The question is very intelligently put. It is quite well- known that in the world there are two types of seekers, seeking one and the same goal. Some meditate upon the manifested-form of the Infinite and others contemplate upon the unmanifested-Supreme. Both of them are sincere; both progress onwards. But the question is as to which, out of these two types of seekers, is better versed in Yoga? In philosophy, the unmanifest (avyakta) is that which is not directly perceptible to the sense organs (indriya-agocaram). The objects that can be brought within the perceptible powers of our sense organs are called the manifested (vyakta). Arjuna was taught in his early studies of the Vedas that the Supreme was unmanifest and all- pervading. But he had, in the previous chapter, a personal experience of the Divine Cosmic-Form. Naturally, the determined prince, seeking to understand the right Path of spiritual evolution, asks here a pertinent question as to who is the better seeker --- is it the one who devotes himself in love to the Lord-manifest, or he who, with complete detachment from all external stimuli, meditates with ease and poise upon the unmanifested-Infinite? The question expresses the great controversy that exists even today in the world. Can the Lord be meditated upon and realised ultimately through idol worship? Can any symbol represent HIM? Can a wave represent the ocean? EXPLAINING THE PATH OF MEDITATION ON A FORM REPRESENTATIVE OF THE DIVINE, KRISHNA THE INFINITE, STARTS HIS DISCOURSE.

The Blessed Lord said: 2. Those who, fixing their mind on Me, worship Me, ever steadfast and endowed with supreme faith, these, in my opinion, are the best in YOGA.

In this very opening stanza, Krishna points out three conditions that are absolutely necessary in order that devotion unto the Lord may yield its promised dividend. Generally, there is a feeling that the 'Path-of-Devotion' is very easy. It is equally true to say that no chosen 'Path' is difficult for the seeker who has chosen it. 'Paths' are different only because of the vehicles employed; in a boat we can never travel through the grand-trunk road, nor can we sail over the waves in a plane, nor on a cycle dash at 60-miles an hour! There are limitations to each vehicle. But progress is assured to the intelligent and the careful even with any such vehicle. Similarly, for self-development, each type of seeker, according to the vehicle available, chooses either the 'Path-of-Devotion' or the 'Path-of- Action' or the 'Path-of-Knowledge.' To each one of them, his 'Path' is the easiest. FIXING THEIR THOUGHTS ON ME --- Thought is the content of our subtle body. Both the mind and intellect are nothing but thoughts. It is not sufficient if they leisurely wander around the concept of the Lord, but they have actually to penetrate, delve into, merge, and ultimately dissolve themselves to become the very ideal perfection which the Lord represents. The word that is being used here in the stanza (Aveshya) indicates not merely a

"THOUGHT CONTACT" but an actual "THOUGHT

PENETRATION." In fact, human thought takes the form of, gathers the fragrance of, and even puts on the glow of the qualities in the objects of its contemplation. Thus, when a devotee's thoughts gush forward in sincerity, in a newly found urge of irrepressible love towards the Lord, the devotee, as a personality, ends for the time being, and himself acquires the glow and beauty of the Lord-of-his- heart. EVER SELF-CONTROLLED, WORSHIP ME --- The second condition necessary for a devotee to accomplish his evolution through the 'Path-of-Devotion' is that he must have sufficient balance in himself to exercise regular self-control while worshipping the Lord. The mind, by its very nature, will always try to run wild from its objects of contemplation, and the art of keeping the thoughts balanced at its point-of-concentration is called self-control. The Sanskrit term Upasana though it can be translated as 'worship', should not be misunderstood by the superficial suggestion that automatically comes to us when we hear the word 'worship.' True Upasana is an inward act of attunement with the Higher Principle so as to get ourselves completely merged with It. WITH SUPREME FAITH --- Faith is generally understood as "blind belief"... blind belief is not Shraddha. Shraddha is

"MY BELEIF IN SOMETHING I DO NOT KNOW, SO THAT I MAY COME TO KNOW WHAT I BELIEVE IN." Without this faculty developed in him, a devotee may not succeed sufficiently in bringing about a self-divinisation in himself even after years of practice. Thus, three main conditions are enumerated in this stanza as essential and unavoidable for one to become a true devotee, viz., (1) Perfect faith, (2) Ever steadfast in worship and (3) One's mind totally merged with the concept of the Lord. If these are accomplished in anyone, he is considered as the most steadfast devotee by the Lord. THEN, ARE NOT THE OTHERS YOGIS? "WAIT; HEAR NOW WHAT I HAVE TO SAY REGARDING THEM":

3. Those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifest, the omnipresent, the unthinkable. the unchangeable. the immovable and the eternal, . . . 4. Having restrained all the senses, even-minded everywhere, rejoicing ever in the welfare of all beings --- verily theyalso come unto Me. In the previous stanza, the essential conditions under which alone a devotee can practice contemplation upon a Manifest-Form of the Lord to become a steadfast Yogi were described. In these two stanzas, Lord Krishna is trying to describe those who meditate upon the Unmanifest-Form of the Lord.

IMPERISHABLE (Akshara) --- All those that have forms and qualities are substances and all substances are perishable. The Imperishable is, therefore, that which has no qualities. Qualities alone can be perceived, and it implies that it is impossible for the sense organs to perceive the Imperishable. INDEFINABLE (Anirdeshyam) --- Definitions are always in terms of perceived experiences and when a thing is imperceptible, naturally, it cannot be defined and distinguished from other things. ALL-PERVADING (sarvatra-gam) --- The Infinite that has no qualities, that is not manifest, that which is, therefore, Indefinable, should necessarily be All-pervading and existing everywhere. If the Supreme can be indicated as not existing in any place, then the Supreme will have a particular shape. And that which has a shape will perish. UNTHINKABLE (Achintyam) --- That which can be conceived of by a human mind will immediately become the object of feelings and thoughts and since all objects are perishable, the Imperishable must necessarily be Inconceivable, Incomprehensible, and Unthinkable. UNCHANGING

(Kootasthah)

--- The Self, the Consciousness, remains unchanged even though it is the substratum on which all changes constantly take place. ' Koota' in Sanskrit, is an "anvil." Just as the iron block in a smithy's workshop, without itself undergoing any change, allows other pieces of iron to be beaten out on it, and changed into any shape; so too, the Consciousness allows our personalities to grow well or ill in contact with It. IMMOVABLE (Achalam) --- Motion is change in the time- space system. A thing can never move in itself; it can do so only to a point in space and time where it is not already. Here, now, I remain in my chair. I can move to another place to occupy it in the coming minute. But here and now in my own chair, I cannot move in myself, since I pervade the whole of me. The Infinite is All-pervading and there is no point in space or time where It is not, and therefore, the Infinite cannot move. It is here, there, everywhere; It has the past, the present and the future IN it. ETERNAL (Dhruvam) --- That which can change is a thing that is conditioned by time and space. But the Supreme, the Substratum of all, at all times and in all places, is the One that supports the very play of time and space, and therefore, these two factors cannot condition the Infinite. Consciousness, which is the Infinite Self in us, is the same everywhere and at all times --- in our childhood, youth and old age, in all places and at all times --- and in all conditions of joy and sorrow or success and failure. It is only when we come down to the levels of our intellect, mind, and body, that we step into Einstein's world with its Relativity Theory in the play of time and space. The Supreme is unconditioned by time; It is the ruler of time. It is Eternal.

We must note that all these terms used here are expressions borrowed from our Upanishads to indicate that which provides the Eternal substratum for the ever- changing universe of names and forms, behaviours and happenings, perceptions and feelings, thoughts and experiences. Meditation upon the Lord, symbolised-in- the-form, demands three unavoidable conditions. HAVING RESTRAINED ALL THE SENSES --- To dissipate our energies through the sense organs is the vulgar hobby of the thoughtless mortal. A seeker, who is aspiring to reach the summit of Perfection and rule over the state of deathless joy, must necessarily curtail such dissipations and redirect the energies so conserved for the higher flight. The sense organs are the real gateways through which the disturbing world of plurality steals in, to storm our inner bosom and plunge us into destruction. It is again through the organs-of-action that the mind gushes out into the world-of-objects. These two transactions break up our harmonious equipoise and steady balance. Krishna rightly emphasizes here that, if a meditator is to succeed in the 'Path-of-Meditation' he must cultivate a habit of living with his senses in control. ALWAYS EQUANIMOUS --- The second of the conditions that has been prescribed here by the Lord for a successful meditator is his intellectual equanimity in all conditions and experiences. It is very foolish indeed for a thinker to hope for a condition in life, wherein no disturbance from the outer world can reach him to distract his meditation.

Such a perfect condition is impossible. The things of the world in themselves and in their patterns keep on changing. In such a kaleidoscopic design of existence, it is indeed unintelligent to expect any desirable system to remain continuously for the benefit of a seeker's steady practice. Such a thing is impossible. In the world-of- change, therefore, a seeker must discover his own balance and equipoise, by controlling his intellectual evaluations, mental attachments and physical contacts with the world outside. The intelligent relationship maintained by a seeker towards the world outside, whereby he experiences a uniform steadiness in himself, in spite of the mad revelry of things and beings around him, is called the condition of equanimity. He, who has developed the right sense of discrimination, can easily watch for and see the golden chord of Beauty that holds together all that is enchanting and grotesque constituting the outer world. This capacity is called Sama-buddhi. My child may be dirty at one moment, mischievous at another; screaming in the morning, laughing in the noon; bullying in the evening and wild at night! Yet, through all such conditions, the father in me sees but one and the same son, therefore, I give my love equally in all these different manifestations of my own son. This is a loving father's Sama-buddhi. In the same way, true seeker learns to recognise the Lord-of-his-heart in grim tragedies, in the pleasant comedies, in the tremendous successes, in the sighing sorrows and in the disappointing failures in his own day-to-day life. Therefore, he becomes equanimous intellectually. INTENT ON THE WELFARE OF ALL BEINGS --- Enumerating the third of the qualifications necessary for a successful meditator, the Lord says that he should ever be self-dedicated in serving at his best, to all beings. It is impossible for anyone, as long as he is in the embodiment, to give all his mind and intellect, at all times, towards the higher contemplation. He must necessarily come in contact with the world and react to it. In all such activities, a seeker should be, by the very nature of his philosophy, one who is ever devoted in tirelessly serving the entire living kingdom. Love for all beings becomes his creed. Thus, if the meditators, fixing their mind upon the Imperishable, the Unmanifest, are able to control their sense organs, keep themselves equanimous and make it their nature to serve others, they too, "REACH ME ALONE." Krishna declares that they too reach the same goal, the Supreme Self. The question as raised by Arjuna is rather of a controversial nature, while Krishna's answer to it is a declaration of an incontrovertible truth. Here, the great divine philosopher points out how both the Paths take the practitioner to one and the same goal, and the same general rules of conduct in their dealing with the world are here clearly prescribed for both of them. Whether the devotee is seeking his spiritual unfoldment through meditation upon a personal, or an impersonal God, the result achieved, it is shown, remains the same, if the disciplines required of him are all fully and faithfully followed. BUT, GENERALLY SPEAKING TO THE MAJORITY, THE LORD ADDS:

5. Greater is their trouble whose minds are set on the 'Unmanifest' ; for the goal, the 'Unmanifest, ' is very hard for the embodied to reach.

After explaining how the goal reached by all meditators is one and the same Supreme Perfection, Lord Krishna tries to compare the two incomparable 'Paths', both of equal efficacy and merit. He says "GREATER IS THE TOIL OF THOSE WHOSE THOUGHTS ARE FIXED ON THE UNMANIFEST." This declaration, when read as such and in itself, is not only an advocacy of the 'Path-of-Devotion' to a PERSONAL GOD, but almost amounts to a positive condemnation of meditation upon the Formless. Such an erroneous and misleading interpretation will render the Geeta a scripture that contradicts the 'eternal wisdom' of the Upanishads. And yet, there are vocal champions of devotion (Bhakti), who quote this half stanza to beguile the faithful!

The first line is commented upon and elucidated by the following line in the stanza. Lord Krishna explains why it is hard ordinarily for seekers to contemplate upon the Formless. "THE UNMANIFEST IS VERY HARD INDEED FOR THE EMBODIED TO REACH." The crucial word in the stanza is 'embodied.' It is often very directly understood to mean "all those who have a physical structure." The absurdity of such an understanding would become evident if we follow the natural corollary of such an interpretation. If all those who are having a physical body can meditate only upon the form of the Lord, then it follows that pure meditation upon the Formless is to be undertaken only after the body is dropped and the seeker is dead. Shri Shankaracharya, therefore, clearly explains that the

"EMBODIED" means "those who are attached to their bodies." Sunk in flesh, if one personality lives only a life of sensuality and satisfaction of one's body-cravings, one will find it too difficult to take to steady and continuous meditation upon the subtle theme of the Infinite, Formless and All-pervading. An old man whose vision is lost and whose hands are shaky, may find it very difficult to thread a needle; so too, a mind and intellect agitated, panting and restless, suffering from desire-plays, are not vehicles that can successfully fly beyond the frontiers of names and forms to the endless Spiritual Glory. In short, to the majority of us, meditation upon the Lord, as expressed in the Universe, is easier and more profitable.

Man can worship the myriad forms through service undertaken in a spirit of worship and divine dedication. By doing so, the body-attachments and sense-appetites get purged from his inner make-up and his mind ecomes subtle enough to conceive and contemplate upon the Formless and the Imperishable Unmanifest. EVEN THOUGH, LATER ON, WE SHALL MEET WITHIN THIS CHAPTER, THE WAY OF LIFE PRESCRIBED FOR MEN CONTEMPLATING UPON THE 'MANIFEST, ' HEREUNDER WE SHALL FIND THE DISCIPLINES IN LIFE FOR A STUDENT WHO IS TRYING TO STEADY THE MIND THROUGH HIS DEVOTION FOR THE 'MANIFEST-LORD':

6. But those who worship Me, renouncing all actions in Me, regarding Me as the Supreme Goal, meditating on Me with single-minded devotion (YOGA) . . .

7. For them, whose minds are set on Me, verily I become, ere- long, O Partha, the Saviour, (to save them) out of the ocean of finite experiences; the SAMSARA.

Here Krishna prescribes certain definite conditions to be faithfully followed by all meditators upon the Form-of- the-Lord, and concludes that those who are following His instructions fully, will be saved from their mortal limitations, by the Lord Himself, on whose Form they are contemplating. A careful study of these conditions will show us how the devotee grows mentally to stature so divine and high that, thereafter he needs no help from anyone at all. But, in the beginning, a seeker needs some assurances from his teacher in order to instil in him the required self-confidence to start his practices. THOSE WHO WORSHIP ME, RENOUNCING ALL ACTIONS IN ME --- To renounce all our actions to an INSTITUTION, to an IDEA or to a POWER, is to end our individual limitations and identify ourselves with that for which we renounce. Thus, an ordinary man, as ambassador of his country, becomes a mighty personality in the foreign courts, because he talks, acts, thinks and expresses the will of an entire people. Similarly, when a devotee of the Infinite Lord surrenders himself totally at His feet and acts as a messenger, or as a representative of the Will of the Lord, he becomes, not only divinely 'dynamic,' but in and through his own activities, aware of the presence and grace of the Universal Spirit. REGARDING ME AS THE SUPREME GOAL --- A dancer never forgets the rhythm of the drum which accompanies her steps. A musician is ever conscious of the background hum. Similarly, a devotee is advised not take up religion as a part-time entertainment, or as a temporary escapism, but to consider the Lord as the Supreme Goal to be achieved in and through life. In short, we are advised that in order to ascend to the Higher summits of cultural perfection, it is necessary that we direct all our contacts, transactions, and experiences in our life, towards the achievement of this cumulative goal of Self-Perfection, as symbolised in the Lord of our heart. WITH UNSWERVING YOGA --- All attempts with which we develop our mental attunement with any chosen State of Perfection constitute Yoga. To lift our minds from its present agitations and wasteful tendencies towards a greater goal of ampler joy and fuller wisdom is Yoga. This faculty of Yoga is in everyone of us. At all times we are practising it. But the results of Yoga will depend upon the goal towards which we are heaving forward; unfortunately, ours is not generally a Divine Goal; to strive for the sense-enjoyments is called Bhoga. Ordinarily, our goal keeps on changing and we reach nowhere even though our struggle is consistent. If a holiday-maker has two spots in view, and he cannot come to a decision as to which place he wants to visit, then he can reach neither of them. He will be in a helpless state of confusion, travelling up and down the road, reaching nowhere, and wasting his time and energy. 'Anya' means 'other'; 'Ananya' means 'without otherness.' Krishna is advising here Ananya Yoga, meaning a Yoga in which the goal is ever steady and our mind has no sense of 'otherness' about it. It may be noted here that mental disintegration can come both because of the 'otherness' in our goal, and because of the mind wandering into other channels of preoccupations. Thus those (a) who have renounced all actions in Me (b) who regard Me as the Supreme Goal and (c) who, with a single-pointed mind and goal strive, are the best of My devotees, when their striving is constituted of meditation (Dhyana) and worship (Upasana). We have already indicated that Upasana is not merely meditation upon a goal, but becoming, in an active way, one with the Goal contemplated upon. At-one-ment with the goal is the meditator's aim and fulfilment. Enumerating the conditions necessary for a devotee at his seat of meditation, Krishna assures him that he need not wonder how he will go beyond the shores of sorrows, agitations, and imperfections, which are the lot of all mortals. "I SHALL BE THEIR SAVIOUR" is a divine assurance and an infinite guarantee. It is possible that seekers may become rather impatient when even after months and years of practice, they do not come anywhere near any spiritual experience. The Lord's assurance also indicates the time limit; He says that He will save the seeker from his own imperfection 'ere-long' (nachirat). TO THOSE WHOSE MIND IS SET ON ME --- The mind generally takes the form of the object it contemplates upon. When an integrated mind-intellect-equipment of a devotee, through constant practice, gains the capacity of engaging itself entirely on the concept of the Lord, to the exclusion of all agitations and undivine thoughts, the entire mind assumes the stature of the Infinite. It is the mind that gives us the hallucination of our egocentric limitations, and again, it is the mind that rediscovers the Infinitude. Bondage and liberation are both for the mind. The Self is ever free; ever liberated; never bound.

8. Fix your mind on Me only, place your intellect in Me; then, (thereafter) you shall, no doubt, live in Me alone.

Meditation is not a physical act but it is a subtle art developed by the inner personality in man. Every seeker must be experiencing that what his intellect accepts, his heart does not appreciate; and what his heart craves for, the intellect laughs at. To bring both the head and the heart to the same Enchanting Form of thrilled satisfaction, would be the secret of harnessing the entire inner man to the spiritual effort. The technique of this art is beautifully explained in this stanza. FIX THY MIND ON ME ALONE --- The mind cannot contemplate on any theme that cannot be conditioned by the senses. Therefore, by meditation upon the enchanting form of the Immortal Flute-player, the human mind can readily be made to rest entirely at the feet of the form. The Lord, being all-pervading, is at once the Divine Grace behind all names and forms. The mind of a devotee cannot wander to any place where he is not reminded of the smile of the Crowned Cowherd-boy! Merely to ruminate over a decorated marble symbol of the Eternal Child is not in itself sufficient food for the inner personality of man. The intellectual aspect in us is starved, although the heart nestles in satisfaction at the soft feet of the Lord. Any over-development will bring about an ugly situation; perfection is harmony and uniform growth. Therefore, technically, the Geeta rightly advises that the devotee must bring his discriminating intellect to pierce through the stony idol and contact the pulsating Truth it represents. PLACE THE INTELLECT IN ME --- To contact thereby the cosmic total-intellect which is the Lord's equipment. Every one of us, at any given moment, is the sum-total of what we think and what we feel. If our minds are resting on the Lord and our intellects have dived into the very depths of the Infinite, our individualities end and we merge to become one with the Infinite, the all-pervading. Therefore, the Lord says, "THEREAFTER YOU SHALL LIVE IN ME." This statement may look as an exaggeration for the finite mortal, who is standing agitated and shy at the gateway of the Temple-of-Truth. In this habitual concept that he is a finite mortal entity --- pressed under a thousand limitations, suffering from a host of imperfections, and persecuted by an army of despairs --- he fails to accept that he can rediscover himself to be Himself, the ever- Divine. Therefore, as a kindly teacher, Lord Krishna reassures him by affirming directly, "no doubt" (Na-

samshayah).

A TYPICAL MAN OF THE WORLD, ARJUNA, LOOKS UP TO THE LORD, DECLARING HIS ABJECT HELPLESSNESS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE TWO SEEMINGLY SIMPLE, BUT PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE CONDITIONS OF MEDITATION. AS AN ALTERNATIVE, THE LORD SAYS:

9. If you are unable to fix your mind steadily upon Me, then by the 'YOGA -of constant-practice, ' seek to reach Me, O Dhananjaya.

The technique of self-unfoldment was irrevocably declared by the Lord in the previous verse. The seeker has to fix his mind totally at the feet of the Lord and bring his intellect to play upon and rip open the significance of the Form-Divine. This double act needs an extremely subtle intellect and single-pointedness of the mind. Perhaps Arjuna felt, as any average man would, that this 'Path' was almost impossible for him to pursue successfully. The kindly teacher in Krishna, reading this despair from the face of his disciple, tries to give him an alternative method of Self-unfoldment.

IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO FIX YOUR THOUGHTS STEADILY ON ME --- Then the only practical method would be to pursue the Yoga-of-constant-practice (Abhyasa-Yoga). This Yoga-of-practice was earlier described (in VI-26) as: "Wherever the mind wanders, restless, from there let him subdue it and bring it under the sway of the Self alone." In short, whenever a meditator tries to meditate by fixing his mind upon a chosen point-of-concentration, the fickle mind will always try to run wild into dissimilar thought- channels. The advice here is to gather all the rays of the mind, whenever they wander away from their main point- of-concentration, and focus them all again and again on the Divine Form. Every meditator must admit that the mind steadily fails to balance on, for any length of time, totally engaging itself with the theme of its contemplation. That the mind runs away into a wild wool-gathering is not in itself such a tragedy as that when the meditator himself gets abducted by the mind and unconsciously follows it into the fields of ready distractions. The Yogeshwara (Krishna) is only advising us not to get enticed away by the mind from our divine pursuit. In order to gather the dissipated and riotous mental rays and to focus them at the point-of-concentration, the meditator must develop a capacity to stand by himself, and in himself, apart from his wandering mind. If we identify ourselves with the mind, wherever the mind takes us, we also must go. Therefore, in order to control the mind, the meditator must stand apart from his mind, identifying himself with that power in him which possesses the ability to rule over and direct his mental energies. This direct controller and ruler of the mind is the higher faculty in man called the intellect. With our discriminating capacity alone can we rule over the lesser faculties of the mind in ourselves. This alternative method suggested by the Lord is to help those who are not able to accomplish the most direct 'Path' indicated in the previous stanza. By striving hard in Abhyasa-Yoga for a length of time, our mind gets so well disciplined that we will be able to practise the immediate method of self-unfoldment advised in the earlier couplet. IF THIS ALSO IS NOT POSSIBLE, THEN:

10. If you are unable even to practise ABHYASA-YOGA, be you intent on performing actions for My sake; even by doing actions for My sake, you shall attain perfection.

The thoroughness of the Hindu scriptures consists in suggesting varying and exhaustive techniques of self- development. Psychologically, the technique is so analytical that the more one studies it, the more one is convinced of the 'path.' There is no "do it or else to hell" sort of threat ever seen anywhere in our great Shastras. Any young man, open to intellectual conviction and scientific appraisal, can get totally convinced of the Hindu way of life. If a meditator is agitated and wild in his mental personality he will be incapacitated even to perform the" Yoga-of-practice" (Abhyasa-Yoga). Here, Krishna advises him not to struggle hard and thereby bring about avoidable and unnecessary mental repressions and psychological suppressions. The inner personality is a million times more delicate than an unopened flower-bud and to hasten its unfoldment is to ruin for ever its beauty and fragrance. Meditation is only an attempt on our part to create the necessary conditions, most favourable for an early blossoming of the greater man in us. Naturally, therefore, one who is incapable of performing one kind of practice must be given an alternative method of self- development. An individual will find it easy to gather his mind from its chosen fields of dissipation only when the mind is gliding NOW AND THEN into unworthy channels along the impression-routes created by his own past actions. But if a seeker is too full of such impressions and is so extremely extrovert in nature as to make the practice of concentration futile, then he is advised to surrender all his actions unto the Lord in a spirit of dedication. In doing so, even the most extrovert man will remember the Lord all through his day's activities.

This is the method unconsciously adopted and silently pursued by all fathers towards their new-born child. Every son is born to his father as a stranger. But, in a couple of months, the father's love for the child increases, and as years roll by, it gathers itself into a magnitude wherein the father lives literally in the son. This happens because, after the birth of the son, all actions and experiences of the father are influenced by background memory of the son, i. e., an unconscious spirit of dedication towards him. Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, is most practical in showing here the 'Path' to an ordinary average man. It gives a hope even to the most extrovert among us. It is indeed a royal 'Path' to the majority of us. Just as a firm's representative, while talking, always associates himself with his firm and says "we shall try to supply --- we are producing --- we are not responsible," etc., and he identifies himself with the great manufacturers, as if he is one of the directors of the firm, although, in fact, he is only a low-paid local agent. Similarly, if anyone of us were really to entertain in our mind the firm idea that we are the agents of the Divine, executing His will in all our external activities, then, not only will our mind thereby be made to contemplate on the Lord continuously, but we shall be drawing from ourselves miraculous powers of efficiency, organisational dexterity, and confident courage in all our undertakings, big or small.

To a student of the ancient Vedic lore, as Arjuna was, this statement, seemingly so simple, may bring along with it a doubt as to its real potency. The orthodox are always suspicious of an unorthodox declaration, even if it be made by the greatest living man of the era, or even by a Divine manifestation. Therefore, Krishna assures his readers of the efficacy of the 'Path' advocated in the second line: "EVEN BY DOING ACTIONS FOR MY SAKE YOU SHALL ATTAIN PERFECTION." Even while boiling some water, we are apt to call it as

"making tea." Though factually it is a lie, it is the whole truth, for, once the water is boiled it does not take much time, nor great labour to make tea. And therefore, whenever water is boiled with the intention of making tea, we generally name the initial act itself by the final goal. Similarly, by the art of dedicating ourselves totally unto the Lord, in and through all our daily activities and contacts with the outer world, we will be developing, in ourselves, the divine vasanas, and during our actions we will be exhausting the existing impressions. Such a prepared mind gets properly tuned up for the Yoga-of- practice and soon it gains sufficient balance and equipoise to contemplate steadily upon the Truth and get itself merged therein. AND SUPPOSING THERE BE ONE TO WHOM EVEN THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE?

11. If you are unable to do even this, then taking refuge in Me, self-controlled, renounce the fruits-of-all-actions.

In the previous stanza, we were advised to act in the world outside, renouncing totally our ego, or the sense of a separate, individualised existence. To the strongly egoistic and self-opinionated one, this is not an easy task. Such a man is extremely agitated (rajasic), with the force of low impulses (tamas) poisoning his personality-structure. Even to such seekers, belonging to the lowest conceivable type, the Geeta has a 'path' of advise. Ordinarily, such persons would have been a despair to all religions. Even such chronic cases are taken up by the Geeta, treated considerately, with simple methods, and finally elevated to the highest personality-lustre and efficiency. If self-dedication unto the Lord, in all activities, is impossible, such individuals are advised here an equally powerful alternative, viz., at least to "ABANDON THE FRUITS-OF-ACTIONS, AND, TAKING REFUGE IN ME, BE SELF-CONTROLLED" in all actions. Lord Krishna seems to hate all those who are MERE wage- earners. This is not the Bourgeois-contempt for the labourer, or the higher-class vanity that makes some look down upon the sweating wage-earners. In a socialistic pattern of society, especially in an era of the welfare State, any educated man must entertain this Krishna-impatience with every worker in the nation who works only for his wage or profit. In such a socialistic scheme of national life, a worker, who works only for "higher wages, with less hours of work, and with maximum inefficiency" is a criminal who deserves to be punished, in any society. It is this modern attitude, which we see reflected in Krishna's condemnation of all those who work in the world "merely for-the-fruit" --- meaning pay or wages. The "fruit-of-an-action" is the action of the present-moment maturing itself in a future-period of time. Today, if I plough and sow the seeds, the profit in my harvest will come only after a couple of months. And supposing a farmer broods over the amount of profit that he is to get out of the cultivation and thus wastes his time and energy in dreaming over the possibilities of a success or a failure of the crops, he will surely be an utter failure. Even though this fact is very well known, the majority of us waste our PRESENT chances, opportunities and time in brooding over the FUTURE. All our energies get wasted in our anxieties and fears of a horrid future which has not yet come --- and which may not at all materialise! Krishna urges us here only to curb these wasteful imaginations and to live vitally, sincerely, fully and dynamically in the PRESENT, shutting off all negative imaginations regarding the FUTURE. Even this act can integrate our personality and make it single-pointed and strong. The above three verses give us three alternatives which are in fact only three different types of mental medicines to cure the mind of its various distractions. All of us are, to a certain extent, extrovert. We differ from each other only in the thickness of the Vasana-layers that we entertain in our inner-equipment. When a brass vessel is slightly dim, an 'ash-treatment' is sufficient to polish it; if it is with a thicker layer of oxide, some 'acid-dipping' will be needed. Similarly, here, if the mind is thinly coated with Vasanas, the slight distractions created by them can be controlled by the Yoga-of-practice. But if the layer of Vasanas is thick, then it can be treated with the Yoga-of action performed in a spirit of Divine dedication. If the mind is shackled with still thicker layers of Vasanas, then the seeker is advised 'to curb his imagination' and act in the world (Karma-phala- tyaga). As I said earlier, nowhere in the world's spiritual literature do we see such an exhaustive treatment of the different 'Paths' for self-development, as in the Geeta. BUT THEY MUST BE PERFORMED SERIALLY, TO INDICATE THAT THESE ARE NOT TO BE PURSUED TOGETHER. NOW THE LORD EXTOLS THE ABANDONING-OF-THE-FRUITS OF ALL ACTIONS:

12. 'Knowledge' is indeed better than 'practice' ; 'meditation' is better than 'knowledge' ; 'renunciation of the fruits-of-actions' is better than 'meditation' ; peace immediately follows 'renunciation. '

When a divine philosopher gives a discourse for the benefit of a disciple who is confused and broken-down, it is not sufficient if he merely enumerates the dry philosophical truths; he must so beautifully arrange his ideas that the very scheme of the discourse must help the student to gather all the ideas together in a bunch. The stanza, now under review, gives us one of the typical examples in Krishna's discourse wherein he directly makes an attempt to systematise his theoretical disquisitions into a well-arranged pattern of thought. Here we find a sequence of ideas, arranged in a descending order of importance. When once this ladder- of-ideas is brought completely within a seeker's comprehension and when he learns the art of moving up and down this ladder, he will master almost all the salient points so far expounded in this chapter. BETTER INDEED IS KNOWLEDGE THAN PRACTICE --- Spiritual practices are not mere physical acts but are disciplines that should ultimately tune up our mental and intellectual levels. The inner personality cannot be persuaded to toe the line with the physical acts of devotion unless the practitioner has a correct grasp of what he is doing. An intellectual conversion is a pre- requisite to force the mind to act in the right spirit and to gain a perfect attunement with the physical act. A correct and exhaustive knowledge of what we are doing, and why we are doing it, is an unavoidable pre-condition for making our Yoga fruitful. Therefore, it is said here that a knowledge of the psychological, intellectual and spiritual implications of our practices is greater in importance than the very external Yogic acts, or 'devotional performances.' MEDITATION IS SUPERIOR TO KNOWLEDGE --- More important than mere KNOWLEDGE is meditation upon the very 'knowledge' so gathered. The technical explanation --- of the why and the wherefore of religious practices --- can be more easily learnt than understood. To convert our learning into our understanding, there must be necessarily a process of intellectual assimilation and absorption. This cannot be accomplished by a mere factual learning of the word-meanings. The students will have to understand, in a hearty enthusiasm, the very meaning of the Shastra, and this is possible only through long, subjective, independent ponderings over the significant terms in the Shastra-declarations. The process of inward assimilation of knowledge can take place only through meditation. Hence, in the hierarchy of importance,

"meditation" has been give a greater place than the

"KNOWLEDGE OF THE TECHNIQUE." BETTER THAN MEDITATION IS THE ABANDON- MENT OF FRUITS-OF-ACTION --- Meditation is an attempt of the intellect to fly from the fields of its present knowledge to a yonder destination of a better understanding. In this flight to a vaster field, the intellect must have the necessary energy and equipoise. Meditation can never be possible for an individual in whom all energies and steadiness of mind are shattered by the agitations created by his own ruinous imaginations of the future. In our discourses upon the previous stanza, we have already shown how our anxiety for the future generally depletes our vitality to face the present. All fruits-of-actions definitely belong to the FUTURE, and to be over-anxious about them is to invite a lot of idle agitations into our bosom. Stormed by these agitations, we lose all our equipoise and such an individual has no ability to meditate upon and thereby assimilate the silent significance of the great Shastras. Therefore, Krishna here gives a greater place of importance in his ladder-of-ideas to

"THE RENUNCIATION OF THE FRUITS-OF- ACTION." As a foot-note to his own declaration, he adds how renunciation of our anxiety for the future immediately brings about a healthy condition within ourselves.

"PEACE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWS RENUNCIATION." In fact, in Hinduism, renunciation (Sannyasa) is nothing other than "giving up all our clinging attachments to the pleasures arising out of our contact with the external sense objects." As a result of this renunciation, therefore, a dynamic quietude comes to pervade the bosom in which the intellect can meditate upon the knowledge of the Shastras, and thereby understand the ways of self-development as explained therein. And when, with this knowledge, one uses one's seat of meditation, one is assured of definite success and steady progress.

WITH REFERENCE TO THOSE WHO ARE MEDITATING UPON THE IMPERISHABLE, THE INFINITE, THE LORD PRESCRIBES A CERTAIN MENTAL AND INTELLECTUAL CONDUCT WHICH FORMS THE DIRECT MEANS TO PERFECTION:

13. He who hates no creature, who is friendly and compassionate to all, who is free from attachment and egoism, balanced in pleasure and pain, and forgiving . . .

14. Ever content, steady in meditation, self-controlled, possessed of firm conviction, with mind and intellect dedicated to Me, he, My devotee, is dear to me.

In the following seven stanzas (XII-13 to 19), in six different sections, Lord Krishna enumerates the characteristic features of a Man-of-Perfection, and thereby prescribes the correct mode-of-conduct and the way-of-life for all seekers. In these stanzas, the Yogeshwara has very well succeeded in painting the picture of a true devotee for Arjuna's understanding. As a true painter would again and again step back from his canvas to judge his own production and then go forward to it to lay a few more strokes to bring out his theme into a more effective relief on his canvas, so too Krishna is trying in these seven stanzas to paint the mental beauty and the intellectual equipoise of a true devotee, along with his relationship with the world around him. No other part in the whole Geeta can be compared with the beauty of expression that we have in these stanzas, except perhaps, the description of "the Man-of-Steady-Wisdom (II-55 to 68) that we read in the second chapter. Moral rules and ethical codes of behaviour are in Hinduism not arbitrary commandments thrust upon its followers by a Son of God, or by a Messiah. These rules of conduct are copied from the behaviour of God-men who had attained the spiritual perfection and had actually lived among us. Seekers are those who are striving hard to attain the spiritual experience of those Saints and Seers. A devotee who is trying to attune himself with these Masters of Yoga should necessarily start at least copying their external behaviour and mental beauties, which constitute the moral and ethical rules prescribed in our religion. Eleven noble qualities are indicated in the above two stanzas which constitute the OPENING SECTION. Everyone of them declares a moral phase in the character of Man-of-Perfection. One who has realised that the Spirit everywhere is one and the same, and that the Spirit-in-All alone is his own Self, cannot, thereafter, afford to hate anyone, because, from his vision-of-understanding, there is no one who is other than Him! No living man can afford to hate his own right hand because he is in it too. Nobody hates himself! His attitude to all living creatures will be friendly, and he is ever compassionate to all. He offers security of life to all beings. He cannot regard anything as his and he is completely free from the notion of egoism. Even-minded in pain and pleasure, he remains supremely unaffected even when beaten or abused. Always content, he discovers a flawless infinite joy in himself whether he obtains even the means of his bodily sustenance or not. Steadfast in his meditation, self-controlled and firm in his resolve, he lives on joyously, his mind and intellect "ever centered in Me." "SUCH A PERFECT, DEVOTED YOGI," THE LORD SAYS, "IS DEAR TO ME." The truth expressed in the stanza earlier, "I am very dear to the Man-to-Wisdom and he is dear to Me" (VII-17), is being more elaborately elucidated in all these seven verses of this chapter. MOREOVER:

15. He by whom the world is not agitated (affected) , and who cannot be agitated by the world, who is freed from joy, envy, fear, and anxiety --- he is dear to me.

This stanza constitutes the SECOND SECTION in which again Lord Krishna enumerates three more characteristic features of a real devotee.

"HE BY WHOM THE WORLD IS NOT AGITATED" --- A Man-of-Perfection is one who will not create any agitations in the world around him. Where the Sun is, there cannot be any darkness, where the peaceful Master of Equanimity and Perfection dwells, he, by the intrinsic divinity in him, creates, as it were, an atmosphere of serene joy and endless peace around him; and even those, who are agitated in the world, will suffer no more from such agitations when they approach such a master-mind, and enjoy a peace in themselves. In fact, the world irresistibly rushes to such a saint to bask in his brilliance and comes to experience the joy which he wafts all around him!

"WHO CANNOT BE AGITATED BY THE WORLD" --- Not only does a Man-of-Perfection quieten the very world around him, into a dynamic peace, but also the world, however chaotic, revolting, boisterous, and vengeful it may be, cannot create any agitations in him. The world-of- objects will almost always be in a state of flux, and its maddening death-dance cannot bring even a whiff of its storms to disturb the calm serenity of the saint. He is made of stronger mettle and his life is built upon surer foundations. The floating reeds dance on the surface of the sea but the light-house that is built on the rocks beneath stands erect and motionless, watching the smooth sea turning rough with the rise of the tidal waves. The personality of a perfect-man is rooted in his realisation of the deeper substratum of life; and, since he is not attached to the superficial conditions of matter and its playful magic, any amount of wild agitations outside cannot bring any disturbance to his inner equipoise. In and through the battling circumstances, he perceives the changeless ground --- he hears the harmony that runs through the various discordant notes in life around.

"HE IS COMPLETELY FREED FROM" all the usual causes for inward agitations such as "JOY, ENVY, FEAR AND ANXIETY." A devotee of this type, ever peaceful with himself and the world, who rules over the circumstances and never yields to be victimised by them, who has crossed over the usual weaknesses of the mortal heart --- such a devotee "IS DEAR TO ME." CONTINUING THE SAME TOPIC THE LORD DECLARES:

16. He who is free from wants, pure, alert, unconcerned, untroubled, renouncing all undertakings (or commencements) -- - he who is (thus) devoted to Me, is dear to Me.

This stanza represents the THIRD SECTION, which throws more light upon the picture of the perfect-devotee as conceived by the Lord Himself. Already in the above two sections, fourteen indications were given and to that total picture are added in this section six subtler items.

" FREE FROM DEPENDENCE " (Anapekshah) --- A true devotee no more depends upon either the objects of the world outside, or their pattern, or their relationships with himself. An ordinary man discovers his peace and joy only in the world-of-objects available for him, their conditions, and their arrangements around him. When the right type of object is in the right pattern courting him favourably, a man of the world feels temporarily thrilled and joyous. But a real devotee is completely independent of the world outside and he draws his inspiration, equanimity and joyous ecstasy from a source, deep within himself.

"WHO IS PURE" (Shuchih) --- Dirt has no place anywhere within or without a true devotee. One who is aspiring to reach perfection will necessarily be so well-disciplined physically that he will be clean not only in his relationship with others but even in the very condition and arrangement of his belongings around him. It is very well known that the condition of a man's table or shelf, and the cleanliness of his apparel, can give a great insight into the mental nature, discipline and culture of that man. Great emphasis has been laid in India on this physical purity, not only in the person of the man but also of his contacts in the world. Without external purity, internal purification will be but a vague dream, an idle hope, a despairing vision.

"ALERT" (Dakshah) --- To be alert always becomes the second nature of an integrated person. Enthusiasm is the key to success in any undertaking. A dynamic person is not one who slips in his behaviour or action. He is mentally agile and intellectually vigorous. Since there is no dissipation in him, he is ever on his toes to spring forward to activity, once he determines to shoulder any endeavour. If we observe the degree of idleness, carelessness, and ugliness in execution of any work, from which all religious persons are suffering, we can understand how far Hinduism has wandered away from its pristine glory! UNCONCERNED (Udaseenah) --- It is not difficult for one to observe many devotees in this land who have resigned themselves to a state of unexpressed sorrow, because they have been cheated by others, ill-treated by society, and persecuted by the community. The foolish devotees think that they will be unconcerned about these outrages practiced on them and then their own devotion for the Lord must prove to themselves a wretched liability, rather than a positive gain! Philosophy misunderstood can easily end in the suicide of the community. The "unconcerned attitude" is only meant here to economise our mental energies. In human life, small difficulties, simple illnesses, discomforts, wants etc., are but natural. To exaggerate their importance and strive to escape from them all is to enter into a life-long struggle of adjustments. In all such instances, the student is warned not to squander away his mental energies but to conserve them by overlooking these little pin-pricks of life in an attitude of utter indifference towards them. FREE FROM TREMBLING --- The inward tremors are experienced only when any burning desire has conquered us completely. Once victimised by a desire or fascination for an object, the individual personality becomes tremulous in fear that its desire may not be fulfilled. A true seeker is one, who never allows the inner person in him to enter into any such fears or agitations. RENOUNCING EVERY UNDERTAKING --- In Sanskrit

"Aarambha" means "beginning." "To end all beginnings," does not mean "not to undertake anything." This literal translation has made the majority of Hindus incompetent idlers and our religion has been criticized as glorifying idleness as a divine ideal! The deeper suggestions are overlooked. To perceive any definite beginning in an undertaking, the individual actor must have a solid and gross egoistic claim that he had begun it himself. He must have the strong feeling that he is beginning an activity, for the purpose of gaining a definite goal, whereby he will be fulfilling a specific desire of his, or will thereby be gaining a positive profit. One who is a seeker of the Divine, striving to reach the higher cultural perfections, must renounce this egoistic sense of self-importance and work on in the world. No undertaking in our life, in fact, is a new act that has an independent beginning or end. All actions in the world are in an eternal pattern of the total world-movements. If correctly analysed, our undertakings are controlled, regulated, governed and ordered by the available world- of-things and situations. Apart from them all, no independent action is undertaken, or can be fulfilled by anyone. A devotee of Truth is ever conscious of this oneness of the Universe, and therefore, he will always work in the world only as AN INSTRUMENT OF THE LORD and not as an independent agent in the undertaking. Such a devotee who possesses all the six qualifications enumerated above "IS DEAR TO ME." ADDING A FEW STROKES, KRISHNA PAINTS THE PICTURE INTO A MORE REALISTIC VIVIDNESS:

17. He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing good and evil, full of devotion, is dear to Me.

A perfect devotee is one who has lifted himself from the world of his mind-intellect and has awakened to his inner Spiritual Nature. As such, the ordinary experiences of joy and sorrow, of pain and pleasure, which generally give the restlessness of life do not affect him. HE WHO NEITHER REJOICES --- 'Rejoicing' is the feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment that comes to us on attaining a desired object, which is extremely desirable, and extremely difficult to realise. NOR HATES --- The sense of revulsion that comes to us towards undesirable things and circumstances, when they crowd around us, is generally the sense of HATRED. In short, these two terms indicate that there are no objects which he would ardently like to acquire, nor is there any occasion to fret about on coming in contact with things or situations that are undesirable from his standpoint. NEITHER GRIEVES, NOR DESIRES --- Grief is generally experienced while parting with a beloved object, and desires are entertained when one yearns to have and to possess something unattained at present. A Man-of- Perfection is one whose beloved object, the Self, can never be apart from him. And he has no sense of attachment with any other object. Having attained the Self, the inhabitant of his heart, he has such a complete sense of fulfilment that he has no more any desire for attaining anything that he has not attained. The Self being the All, he has attained everything. RENOUNCING GOOD AND EVIL --- The happenings in the world around us can fall under these two categories, according to whether they arouse in us a feeling of joy or sorrow. To any person who is living away from the realm of the dualistic experiences, and who has learnt the art of drawing inspiration from something beyond, none of the happenings, here at the level of the mind and the intellect, can be of any serious consequences. The above terms used in the stanza, for painting a perfect- man, have a secret import. If we consider only the literal meaning, we will think that such a perfect-man is a dead corpse; "NEITHER REJOICES, NOR HATES; NOR DESIRES; RENOUNCING GOOD AND EVIL" --- he lies dead! This is a very striking example of how the literal meanings are not at all what is to be understood in scriptural declarations. Similarly, when a true devotee, being awakened to the God-Consciousness, evaluates life from his new height of experience, he cannot rejoice or hate, grieve for or desire anything in this world and he comes to renounce totally the very concepts of good and evil. The Divine Charioteer (Krishna) declares: "HE WHO IS SUCH A DEVOTEE IS DEAR TO ME." The stanza represents the FOURTH SECTION in which again the Lord has enumerated six more qualities that make up a perfect devotee. So far we have been told of twenty-six subtle traits which are the 'intrinsic qualities of a Perfect Yogi.' IN A LAST WAVE OF ENTHUSIASM KRISHNA ENUMERATES:

18. He who is the same to foe and friend, and also in honour and dishonour, who is the same in cold and heat and in pleasure and pain, who is free from attachment . . .

19. To whom censure and praise are equal, who is silent, content with anything, homeless, steady-minded, full of devotion --- that man is dear to Me.

EQUAL TO FOE AND FRIEND --- The estimation of our relationship with another as foe or friend is generally our own psychological reaction towards another. It belongs essentially to the heart. It is experienced by the PSYCHOLOGICAL being in us. A Man-of-Perfection is one who is not identifying himself with his mental estimation of things, and therefore, he is equanimous and maintains a uniformity of attitude towards his friends and foes. AND SO TOO, IN HONOUR AND DISHONOUR --- A situation is judged by the intellect as honourable or dis- honourable with reference to its own existing values and cultivated habits of thinking. That which is ordinarily considered dishonourable can itself come to be estimated by the same person as honourable in a new pattern of circumstances ordered by a change in time and place. On the whole, these are all different tides in the intellect; and those who are living in that realm are affected by them. WHO IS THE SAME IN HEAT AND COLD --- Heat and cold are only the experiences of the body. By remembering the preparation process of Nitric Acid, my 'thoughts' cannot get corroded; by feeling the smouldering beauty of the burning embers in the fire-place, my 'mind' cannot get blisters. My knowledge or my capacity to love cannot freeze at the North Pole; nor get evaporated in the Sahara desert. Heat and cold affect only the body. And this idiom in Sanskrit, whenever it is used in the context of philosophy, represents all types of experiences to which the physical equipment is the heir.

The above three terms thus comprehend the entire possibility of experiences in life: physical, mental, and intellectual. In all of them, a true devotee is unagitated because he "IS FREE FROM ATTACHMENT". Attachment to and identification with the matter equipments --- body, mind, intellect --- is the cause by which we are helplessly made to dance to the mad tunes which the chance happenings dictate. One who is detached from these equipments is the one who is a master of them all. TO WHOM CENSURE AND PRAISE ARE EQUAL --- Not that he is immune to insults, nor is it because he is not intelligent enough to understand them. To a great devotee, living as he is in a realm of his own, full of transcendental and blissful experiences of the Divine, the worldly censure or even praise has no significance or importance at all. He realises that one who has been praised today will be censured by society tomorrow, and that yesterday's censured man becomes the praiseworthy leader of today!! Praise and censure are in themselves nothing more than the passing fancy of those who express them! HE IS SILENT --- A true seeker of wisdom becomes a man of few words --- not only physically but even mentally. Silence within is real silence (Mouna). Keeping physical silence but letting the mind loose to talk in itself, generally results in a serious type of repression which ultimately drives many to the porch of a mental hospital. Be silent and understand how really silent silence can be!

CONTENT WITH ANYTHING --- Contented with anything that might reach him accidentally, unasked and unexpected, is the motto of all serious seekers of inward growth. To entertain the demands in life and to strive forth to satisfy them would be an unending game, as the mind has a knack of breeding its own demands very fast. The policy of contentment is the only intelligent attitude to be taken up by all sincere seekers or else there will be no time to seek, to strive for and to achieve the diviner goal of life. Self-integration is a reward promised for faithful pursuits and all-out attention. It is said in the Mahabharata "he who is clad with anything, who is fed on any FOOD, who lies down ANYWHERE, HIM THE GODS CALL A BRAHMANA. HOMELESS --- Home is generally that which provides shelter from the external inclemencies of weather, for the resident who is dwelling under its roof. The man of spiritual realisation is one who is trying to pull down all his conditionings and striving to free himself from all sense of possession and material shackles. Living under a roof, in itself, does not make the place a home. To spend a night on a railway station, or in the retiring room at an aerodrome, does not make the place the traveller's own home. It is only along with a sense of possession, reinforced with a sense of happiness and comfort, that the place under a roof becomes a home. A true devotee has for himself a satisfactory shelter only at the feet of the All-Pervading, and therefore, his mental condition is indicated here by the simple pertinent word 'homeless.' Steadfast in his intellectual understanding of the goal, and ever striving to attain his Divine ideal, that the Bhakta dwells on --- "THAT MAN IS DEAR TO ME." There is almost a suggestion, even though by implication, that one who is at least striving to live these values is a full grown man (Nara) to the Geeta Acharya. These two verses represent the FIFTH SECTION which enumerates ten more different qualities. In short, in thirty- six artistic strokes, Lord Krishna has brought about a complete picture of the Seeker-of-Perfection --- his relationship with the world outside, his psychological life and his intellectual evaluation of the world of beings and happenings. THE ENUMERATION OF THE VARIOUS MORAL, ETHICAL AND SPIRITUAL QUALITIES OF A TRUE DEVOTEE IS CONCLUDED WITH THESE:

20. They indeed, who follow this 'Immortal DHARMA' (Law of Life) as described above, endowed with faith, regarding Me as their Supreme Goal --- such devotees are exceedingly dear to

Me. THIS IMMORTAL LAW PRESCRIBED ABOVE --- The Sanatana Dharma is summarised in the above lines. To realise the Self and live in that wisdom at all our personality levels --- physical, mental and intellectual --- is the fulfilment of the life of a Hindu. It is not sufficient that a Hindu understands this, or reads regularly his scriptures, or even explains them intelligently. He must be able to digest them properly, assimilate them fully, and become Perfect. Therefore, Bhagavan says that he must be

"ENDOWED WITH FAITH" here the term 'faith' means

"the necessary capacity to assimilate spiritual ideas into ourselves through subjective personal experience." SUCH DEVOTEES ARE SUPREMELY DEAR TO ME --- This concluding stanza of the chapter constitutes the SIXTH SECTION adding no definite trait to the list of THIRTY-SIX QUALITIES already explained. But it forms a commandment, a divine reassurance to all spiritual seekers that when they accomplish these qualities in themselves they will gain the Supreme Love of the Lord.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad-Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the scripture of YOGA, in the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the twelfth discourse ends entitled: THE YOGA OF DEVOTION Though this chapter is styled as Bhakti Yoga, to read and assimilate it is to cherish true love for the Lord and cure ourselves of the various misconceptions that we have today in our practice of Devotion. The 'Path-of-Devotion' is not a mere sentimental explosion, or an excessive emotional display. It is not a mere frivolous hysteria. It is the blossoming of the human personality through the surrender of our limitations and by acquiring new vitality during the inspired moments of deep contemplation.