The Blessed Lord said: 1. With the mind intent on Me, Partha, practising YOGA and taking refuge in Me, how thou shalt, without doubt, know Me fully, that do thou hear.

It would be, naturally, the doubt of all seekers, especially before they enter the seat of meditation, as to how it is possible for a limited mind to understand or embrace the unlimited. This doubt can come to such seekers, who try only for intellectual appreciation of the philosophy of Vedanta; but all seekers could only be, in the beginning, mere scholarly students of the Vedantic literature. This is an unavoidable state in the Path of knowledge. The Science of Vedanta exhaustively deals with this problem and tries to explain how the mind, when made to meditate upon the Infinite, comes to transcend its own limitations and comes to experience the Infinite. Here Krishna, introducing the theme to be dealt with in the next six chapters, assures Arjuna that He would explain the entire science and technique, which will clearly show how a meditator, by fixing his integrated mind upon the contemplation of the NATURE of the Self, can come to experience the Divine. From this chapter onwards the term 'mind' is to be understood, not as a debilitated and disintegrated mind, but as an integrated mind properly tutored to walk, implicitly obeying the will of the discriminative intellect. When such a mind is firmly established in full concentration upon the divine nature of its Godly potentialities, the seeker evolves double quick. The logic of this inward development, it is promised, will be the theme of this section. NOW LISTEN TO WHAT I AM GOING TO SAY AS TO HOW YOU ALSO, THUS ACTING, WILL, WITHOUT DOUBT, KNOW ME IN FULL, POSSESSED OF INFINITE GREATNESS, STRENGTH, GRACE AND OTHER APPARENT ATTRIBUTES:

2. I shall declare to thee in full this knowledge combined with realisation, which being known, nothing more here remains to be known. According to Shankara, speculative knowledge is Jnana, and actual experience of the perfection is Vijnana. Here Krishna is promising that he would not only deliver to Arjuna the theoretical explanation of the Art of Divine Life, but also, during the very discourse, take him to the highest peak of Self-rediscovery. This may look rather unbelievable but unlike Yoga and other types of philosophies in India, Vedanta is not an indirect process, inasmuch as, after the study of this Shastra, it is not necessary for A FIT STUDENT to retire into the jungles to practise and bring the experience of perfection into his cognition. During the very discourse, if the student is mentally fit to walk along with the teacher step by step and follow carefully the logic and significance of his explanations, he can gain glimpses of realisation during the very hours of his study. It is because of this that Vedanta is taught only to a student who has been made fit for this flight to the beyond. If an individual student is perfectly integrated inwardly and if he can continuously maintain his adventurous thirst to experience the Reality, then he, in his attempt to identify himself with the thought and the spirit of his teacher's discourses, can ultimately come to revel in the experience of the very goal that is indicated by Vedanta. Self-realisation is instantaneous, during the study and understanding of scriptures, gained through the teacher-taught discussions. IF VEDANTA IS THUS A COMPLETE SCIENCE, AND THE EXPERIENCE OF THE DIVINITY OF THE SELF CAN BE HAD EVEN DURING THE VERY TEACHER- TAUGHT DISCUSSIONS, HOW IS IT THAT SELF- REALISED MASTERS ARE SO RARE IN THE WORLD? LISTEN:

3. Among thousands of men, one perchance strives, for perfection; even among those successful strivers, only one perchance knows Me in essence.

The idea that Vedantic realisation and knowledge can come into the experience of only a rare few has been repeatedly emphasised in different portions of spiritual literature in India, by different Masters, in different expressions. We were told previously (II-29) how the very theoretical side of Vedanta is heard and understood as marvel. In the Upanishads also, the same idea has been very clearly expressed by the Rishis. Here, however, Krishna shifts the entire responsibility for not realising the Self upon the individual seeker himself and attributes it entirely to the sadhaka's lack of self- application. Vedanta being a subjective science, it is not sufficient that we know how to eradicate our weaknesses and cultivate our inward strength, but we must also live up to those ideals and try to bring about the necessary re- adjustments in ourselves. Very few can discover in themselves this necessary urge to evolve. Of the thousands that hear intelligently, and perhaps understand all the theory and text of Vedanta, only a few sincerely apply themselves to live fully the Vedantic way- of-life. Even among a thousand such sincere seekers, only a rare-few "COME TO KNOW ME AND MY REAL NATURE." The chances are that when this Vedantic way of life is perfectly explained by a Sad-Guru to a student, who is seemingly attending with all enthusiasm, with sincerity and concentration, he may raise himself up to, perhaps, the very gates of Truth, but there, he himself may come to bar his own entry into the sanctum 'within.' There, some imperceptible vanity, or unsuspected desire, is sufficient to exile him from himself. In this sense, there is a wealth of meaning in Lord Christ's declaration that a camel can pass through the eye-of-a-needle more easily then a "rich" man through the gates of heaven --- the RICHES here are not the 'worldly wealth,' but the individual's mental vasana- wealth. Unless the mind is perfectly naked, it has no entry into the Bliss of Truth. Viewing the stanza in the light of the Krishna-spirit, it only means that rare indeed are people who come to study sincerely and get a true glimpse of the Vedanta- literature, and only a low percentage of these again can discover in themselves the necessary mental stamina, the intellectual vision and the physical forbearance to live that life of truth and purity in the world. Since Arjuna and all the students of the Geeta are such rare souls, they represent the community of evolvers. To them Krishna promises that He can, through His Divine Song, not only deliver the speculative part of the philosophy of Vedanta but also practically hand over chances to live subjectively the vital moments of vivid inner experience of the Self. HAVING PREPARED THE HEARER FOR THE TEACHING, BY INDUCING IN HIM A TASTE FOR IT, THE LORD PROCEEDS THUS:

4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, egoism --- these are My eight-fold PRAKRITI. In an attempt to explain the world outside as a marriage between matter and spirit, great thinkers of the Vedic period had exercised their philosophical acumen and had given us the Sankhyan Philosophy. According to them, the Spiritual Factor (Purusha) presiding over a given matter envelopment, dynamises the inert matter and makes the insentient mineral assembly to act, as though it is intelligent and vital. This idea becomes clear to us when we take an example from the modern world. With steel and iron, the manufacturer completes a steam- engine and when the cold engine is harnessed to steam, at high pressure, it does work. Steam by itself can never express its dynamic capacity and strength; on the other hand, when it is made to work through a given equipment, it is capable of adding motion and performance to the inert iron assemblage. Thus, one of the schools of philosophy in India tries to explain scientifically, how the Eternal and the Perfect Self comes to express Itself as the world-of-plurality, in the embrace of matter. This also explains the relationship between Spirit and matter. The technical terms used in the philosophy for those two items are: Prakriti, for the

"matter-envelopments," and Purusha for the "Spirit-factor."

Krishna explains in this and the following stanza, all the items that together constitute the matter and those that constitute the Spiritual Entity within a living man. Once the individual comes to understand clearly the distinction between matter and Spirit he will indeed come to understand that the Spirit identifying with matter, is the cause for all Its sufferings and when It is detached from Its identifications, it rediscoveres for itself its own essential nature as Perfection and Bliss Absolute. The spirit identifying with matter, and sharing the destinies of the inert equipment, is called the "ego" (Jeeva). It is the "ego" that comes to rediscover itself to be nothing other than the Spirit that presides over matter. In order to make Arjuna realise how exactly one is to understand the true nature of the Self, in all Its divine might and glory, Lord Krishna tries to enumerate the matter-aspect, as distinct from the Spiritual-Truth in each individual. The five great elements, mind, intellect and ego constitute, according to the Geeta, the eight-fold Prakriti that has come to be superimposed upon the Truth through ignorance. The five great cosmic elements are represented in the microcosm by the five sense-organs by which the individual comes to experience and live in the world of sense-objects. Thus, the list making up Prakriti is nothing other than the subtle body and its vehicles of expression are constituted of the sense-organs. The sense-organs are the channels through which the world of stimuli reaches within, and the inner point of focus of the five sense- organs is called the "mind". The impulses received by the mind are rationally classified and systematised into the knowledge of their perception by the intellect. At all these three levels of sense perception, mental reception, and intellectual assimilation, there is a continuous sense of I- ness, which is called the "ego". These constitute the equipments through which, at the touch of Life, man functions as the intelligent being that he is. WHAT THEN IS YOUR HIGHER NATURE? LISTEN:

5. This is the "lower" PRAKRITI; different from it, know thou, O mighty-armed, My "Higher' ' PRAKRITI , the very Life- element, by which this world is upheld.

After enumerating in the above stanza the "lower" nature of the Self, Krishna says that this is not all. The Self possesses, besides these equipments, a Higher-Nature which is constituted of Pure Consciousness, or Awareness. It is this Spiritual Entity that makes it possible for the body, mind and intellect, made up of mere inert minerals, to act as if they were in themselves so vitally sentient and intelligent. The Spiritual Factor is the entity by whose contact the equipments function, and without which the equipments become dull and insentient. If Consciousness were not in us, we would not be able to experience either the world outside or the world within us. It is the Consciousness that maintains, nourishes, and sustains all the possibilities in us. Without this Spiritual Spark functioning in us, we would be no more intelligent or divine than the "stone- world". Even by a more material consideration, we can logically come to accept the conclusions declared in this stanza. I am standing on the floor of my house; the house is supported by my piece of land; the land is protected by the city Corporation; the city is supported by the country; and the country is supported by the world; the world is supported by water --- the waters of the ocean; water is held in position by the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is a part of the planetary system! The universe stays in space, and this space rests upon the "concept of space" that is in our mind! The mind gets its support from the judgement of the intellect. Since the decision of the intellect is known and realised by the Consciousness in us, this Spiritual Entity is, indeed, the ultimate support for the entire world-of-change (Jagat)!!! In philosophy, the term Jagat means not only the world of objects perceived by us though our sense-organs, but it includes in its concept, the world experienced through and interpreted by the mind and intellect also. Thus the world-of-objects, the world-of-feelings, and the world-of- ideas that we experience, together, in their totality, constitute the Jagat. This is supported by the Conscious Principle with Its grace showering upon them all. In this sense also, Krishna's declarations are scientifically true, when He says that the "Higher" Prakriti, the Principle of Consciousness, is that

"BY WHICH THIS ENTIRE WORLD OF EXPERIENCES IS SUSTAINED." HOW IS THE SELF THE CREATOR, SUSTAINER AND THE DESTROYER OF THE WORLD? LISTEN:

6. Know that these (two PRAKRITIS ) , are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe.

The above-mentioned Higher and lower-nature, each functioning in the embrace of the other, cause all the manifestations of the world of plurality. If matter were not there, the latent dynamism in the Spirit will not find a field for Its expression. Matter, by itself, in its inertness, will not be able to express the similitude of Consciousness unless the Spirit were there to dynamise it. Electricity, expressing itself through the filament in the bulb, manifests as light. Without the bulb, the light in the electricity cannot manifest itself, nor can the bulb smile forth in light without the electrical current flowing through it. The bulb is the equipment, functioning through which, electricity expresses itself as light. Similarly, the Spirit, when it comes to function through the five layers of matter, discovers for Itself a field to express Its own potentialities.

Keeping this idea in mind, Lord Krishna declares here:

"THESE TWO ARE THE WOMB OF ALL BEINGS." It is not very difficult for an intelligent student to understand what it actually means. Not only does the pluralistic world of objects, feelings, and ideas rise from, and stay in the Spirit, but it dissolves into It, again to become the Higher-Nature. Thus, the lower-nature is, in its essential constitution, nothing other than the Higher. The Higher, forgetting Its own divinity, identifies Itself with the lower and comes to the ego-centric sorrows and imperfections. The Higher seemingly suffers, at present, in Its own delusions, the sorrows of the lower. Its own rediscovery of Its native divine glory is the redemption of matter. The idea that the lower has arisen from the Higher is likened to the way in which pots of different shapes and colours have all arisen from the mud. Just as the mud is the truth in all the pots, the Higher is the essential Reality in all the objects of the sense-organs, mind and intellect which the lower procreates. THEREFORE:

7. There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, O Dhananjaya. All this is strung in Me, as clusters of gems on a string.

There are two possible points of view of life, if the above- mentioned theory is accepted. There is a point of view from the lower and distinctly different from it, there is a point of view from the Higher also. Just as in mud there are none of the different shapes and colours of the pots, so too in the Pure Consciousness there is none of the worlds- of-objects, or feelings or ideas. "BESIDES ME THERE IS NAUGHT." After waking up, to the waker, there is nothing of the dream-world for his recognition. In the endless waves that rise in the ocean there is nothing other than the ocean itself. None of the waves can rise, nor stay, nor ultimately reach anywhere but the ocean itself. In short, nothing can remain ever totally divorced from its own essential- nature. The first line indicates that each one of us has a "lower- nature" which is married to our own Self, but still, the doubt might come into the minds of the students of the Geeta, "that the Self in me is different from the Self in all others." This logic of thinking may, as a result, take us to the conclusion that there are as many different Selves as there are different bodies in the world. To show that the Self is one and the same in all forms, it has been said here that the Lord is the common factor in all forms in the universe. He holds them all intact as the string holds all the pearls in a necklace. These words have deep significance. Not only is it beautiful in its poetic suggestion, but it has also a very exhaustive philosophical implication. The pearls in the necklace are necessarily uniform and homogeneous, and its thread, which is generally unseen, passes through the central core of every pearl, and holds them all, the big and the small, into a harmonious ornament of beauty. Again, the substance of which the pearls are made is totally different from the constituents that go to make the thread. Similarly, the world is constituted of an infinite variety of names and forms, which are all held together by the Spiritual Truth into a complete whole. Even in an individual, the mind, the intellect, the body, each different from the others, can harmoniously work and unitedly give the music of life for him because the same Conscious Principle works through all those different and varying matter-envelopments. Here is an instance wherein we see Shri Veda Vyasa typically expressing himself as the poet-philosopher of the world. This example is not only poetical but also deeply philosophical. FURTHER:

8. I am the sapidity in water, O son of Kunti, I am the light in the moon and the sun; I am the syllable OM in all the VEDAS, sound in ether, and virility in men;

9. I am the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire, the life in all beings, and I am austerity in the austere.

How the Supreme Self can be the "thread" upon which the 'pearls' consisting of individual elements of plurality are strung together to become the 'necklace' of the harmonious universe, is described in these two verses. It has already been said, "MY HIGHER PRAKRITI, THE PRINCIPLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS," is the womb of all beings, and that

"BEYOND ME THERE IS NAUGHT." What can be this Eternal Factor, which is common in every one --- and yet not readily perceptible to all --- is the doubt that has been cleared here. That which remains in a substance from the beginning to the end, constantly, and without which the thing cannot ever maintain its identity, is called its Dharma --- which is its LAW OF BEING. The examples of 'sapidity in water.' 'radiance in the sun and the moon,' 'OM in all Vedas,' 'sound in Akasa,' sweet smell in earth,' luminosity in fire, 'manhood in man,' and 'austerity in the austere' --- all clearly indicate that the Self is that which gives each individual phenomenon its own existence. In short, as the stanza declares, the Self is the LIFE IN ALL BEINGS. AS A MORE VIVID EXAMPLE, FOR THE READY GRASP OF GROSSER INTELLECTS, THE LORD GIVES THE FOLLOWING SET OF EXAMPLES:

10. Know Me, O Partha, as the eternal seed of all beings; I am the intelligence of the intelligent. The splendour of the splendid (things and beings) , am I.

Not satisfied with the above enumeration --- which can truly indicate its full significances only to those who have a fairly well-developed subtle intellect --- the Lord is compelled to indicate the same Truth through a set of more obvious examples. He says in the stanza, "I AM THE ANCIENT SEED OF ALL BEINGS." Not satisfied with this statement, as an artist would mix more colours afresh and paint, again and again, to bring out his theme more vividly to the perception of the on-lookers, Bhagawan gives here two more beautiful instances by which we can get an insight into the relationship between the gross perceivable matter and the subtle imperceptible Spirit. I AM THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE INTELLIGENT --- The intelligent man constantly expresses a greater amount of divinity in his thoughts and ideas. In that intelligent man, the Self is the intelligence, that subtle-power, because of which the individual is capable of manifesting such brilliant comprehension. Similarly, it is also said that the Self is that which beams out through the beautiful and the energetic. In other words, through the instrument of our intellect, it is the Consciousness in us that expresses itself as an intelligent individual. As a parallel we can say that electricity is the "light in the bulb", is the "heat in the heater", is the "music in the radio." YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE IS GIVEN IN THE FOLLOWING VERSE:

11. Of the strong, I am the strength --- devoid of desire and attachment, and in (all) beings, I am the desire --- unopposed to DHARMA, O best among the Bharatas.

Having thus served with different samples the seekers of the average intelligence and the dullest in this stanza the Lord is trying to indicate the Eternal Self to the MOST INTELLIGENT students, who have the capacity to do subtle reflection upon such philosophical ideologies. I AM THE STRENGTH IN THE STRONG --- This statement is evidently as easy of comprehension as the example given in the previous stanza. But the statement out-shines the above set of examples when here, Krishna gives the phrase qualifying "Balam." Generally, an individual expresses his might and strength only when he is goaded by his desires or attachments. Without these two inner urges it is impossible for us to see any expression of might or strength. Desire (Kama) and attachment (Raga) are generally considered by students of Vedic literature as almost synonyms; but Shankara, in his commentary, has very thoughtfully given us the distinction between these two powerful impulses. He says Kama is 'desire for what is absent' at present in the scheme of our life, and Raga is 'affection for what one already has.' These are the two emotions, lashed by which, individuals or communities, or societies or nations, generally express their might and strength (Balam). Riots and agitations, battles and wars, are all ever motivated by these two dangerous urges. In the subtle definition of the Self, the Lord brings a new life of thought here for the contemplation of the seeker. He says, the Self is not merely the strength in the strong but "I AM THE STRENGTH DEVOID OF DESIRE AND ATTACHMENT." As though not satisfied with his own definition, the Lord gives yet another example. "I AM DESIRE IN BEINGS, UNOPPOSED TO DHARMA." We have already explained the term Dharma as the 'LAW OF BEING.' The essential factor in man is the Divine Consciousness. All actions, thoughts and ideas entertained by him which are not opposed to his essential Divine Nature constitute his Dharma. All actions and thoughts that hasten the evolution of man to rediscover his essential Divine Nature are considered righteous action (Dharma), while all activities of the mind and intellect that take him away from his true Divine Nature and make him behave like an animal and degrade him in his evolutionary status, are called unrighteous behaviour (A-dharma). With this understanding of the term Dharma, the second line of the stanza becomes very clear. "ALL DESIRES

THAT ARE NOT UNRIGHTEOUS FOR THE BEINGS," therefore means the glorious urge in the EVOLVERS to meet their own inner weaknesses courageously and bring out a complete consummation of their evolutionary urge to seek and to discover the goal of Self-perfection. This is the subtle power that is indicated here. The Lord says: 'I am not the Sadhaka, but I am the burning aspiration in him, to discover and become one with the Immutable Self.' BY THE ABOVE EXAMPLES, DOES IT MEAN THAT THE SPIRIT HAS BEEN REALLY CAPTURED AND JAILED IN BY MATTER? HOW CAN THE LIMITED LIMIT THE UNLIMITED? LISTEN:

12. Whatever beings (and objects) that are pure, active and inert, know them to proceed from Me; yet, I am not in them, they are in Me.

In this stanza, the Lord concludes the topic of His discussion, which He undertook while commenting upon. His own statement, "ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME AS A ROW OF PEARLS ON A STRING." The term Maya, as used in Vedantic literature, is nothing other than the different impulses under which the mind and intellect of the living kingdom act. The infinite varieties of thoughts and ideas that rise in the heart of the living kingdom have been observed and classified under the three main moods, governed by which alone do the instruments of feeling, thinking and action come to play their parts everywhere. These three characteristics, the eternal moods of the "subtle-body," are called 'unactivity' (Sattwa), 'activity' (Rajas), and 'inactivity' (Tamas). With this knowledge of the three gunas, as they are called, when we try to understand the stanza, it becomes very easy reading. "Whatever states pertain to these three natural temperaments of the heart and the head, they all rise from the Self." This is a statement which is only a re- interpretation, in philosophical terminology, of what has already been explained. The Infinite Consciousness is the Supreme Reality, the Spirit, upon which matter, constituting Its lower-nature, is but an APPARENT experience. They all rise from the Truth, inasmuch as all the waves rise from the ocean, all mud-pots rise from the mud, all ornaments made of gold come from gold. This verse concludes with a beautiful statement which reads like a conundrum. The use of such arresting statements is an art deliberately indulged in by Hindu philosophical writers. It has the charm that invites an independent, intellectual investigation by the student, all by himself, upon the declaration, in order that he may find the sweet secret of its true import and significance.

"STILL, I AM NOT IN THEM, THEY ARE IN ME." Such a statement would necessarily be false in any situation because, if A is not B, the latter cannot be in the former --- if "I am not in them, they CANNOT be in me."

This sweet paradoxical statement clearly indicates that the relationship between Spirit and matter is not in terms of cause and its effect, but it is only as a super-imposition of matter upon the Spirit. Addressing the deluded, the post can only explain, "the ghost of your vision had risen from me alone, inasmuch as, I alone lend to it its existence; but I, the post, am not in the ghost." So, too, shall the ocean cry, "the waves rise, stay and dissolve away in me; but I am not in the waves." As Shankara would have it, the Self declares here that even though matter depends entirely for its existence upon the Conscious Principle, yet the Divine Spark is in no way under the thraldom of matter. Matter ekes out its existence from the Spirit; but, the Spirit is --- in no way at no time, howsoever little --- controlled, contaminated, or shackled by the sad lot of the finite, imperfect matter. IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA, LORD KRISHNA REGRETS THAT THE WORLD DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HIM IN HIS TRUE NATURE. WHAT IS THIS IGNORANCE ON THE PART OF THE WORLD DUE TO? LISTEN:

13. Deluded by these natures (states or things) composed of the three GUNAS (of PRAKRITI ) all the world knows Me not as Immutable and distinct from them.

If there be such a Divine Factor, beyond the usual cognition of the ordinary mortals, how is it that they are not in a position to understand, at least the presence, if not a complete realisation of this great Truth? This question is answered here in this verse. DELUDED BY THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE THREE gunas, the worlds of living creatures become blind to the divine possibilities in themselves, and live totally a life of mere identification with the matter-envelopments. The post is covered by the ghost --- vision for the deluded. It is a fact that as long as the ghost is viewed, not even a portion of the post will be available for the perception of the deluded! Similarly, identifying with the Maya-products, the Self comes to play the tragic role of the ego, and the ego, in its preoccupations with the outer-world and with its idle imaginations, finds itself incapable of knowing its own true nature. This play of hide-and-seek --- ourselves with ourselves in ourselves --- is the strange and mysterious play of the ego, creating the universal sorrow and the endless mental squalor therein. THIS "POWER OF VEILING" IN EVERY ONE OF US IS DEFINED AND DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING STANZA:

14. Verily, this divine illusion of Mine, made up of GUNAS (caused by the qualities) is difficult to cross over; those who take refuge in Me, they alone cross over this illusion.

Lord Krishna himself admits that it is not easy for any ego-centric individual to transcend this delusion in himself which is caused by "My Maya." If a doctor were to come and diagnose a disease and declare that there was no cure for it, nobody will have the faith to follow that doctor's prescription and advice carefully and cheerfully. Similarly here, if Krishna's diagnosis of the world's sorrows and problems is to be defined by the term Maya, and if the Doctor of the Universe declares that this Maya- disease is difficult to cure, nobody would faithfully follow such a sad pessimistic philosophy. Krishna realises these defects and therefore, immediately removes any such misconception from the minds of the students of the Geeta. Sometimes a doctor will have to use strong words in describing the illness to the patient in order to bring home to the sufferer the seriousness of his malady; so too, Krishna is here only bringing home to us, by a direct merciless thrust, the seriousness of the mental tragedy into which the Supreme has seemingly fallen, to become the finite mortal ego! After declaring the seriousness of the disease and after giving the prescription, He hastens to guarantee a complete cure for this painful malady of man.

THOSE WHO DEVOTE THEMSELVES TO ME ALONE shall cross over their subjective delusion, which has created for man the objective worlds of sorrows and imperfections. How to do this has been already explained while discussing the technique of meditation, in the last chapter. With single-pointed mind, to contemplate upon the Self is the direct path; and in order to walk this narrow-way, the mind is to be made steady and concentrated, through the processes that have already been discussed. (in Chapter VI-14). THEN WHY ALL THOSE WHO MEDITATE UPON THEE ARE NOT EXPERIENCING THE GLORY?

15 The evil-doers, the deluded, the lowest of men, do not seek Me; they, whose discrimination has been destroyed by their own delusions, follow the ways of the demons.

The last stanza talked of those that can successfully transcend their own subjective delusion, and here, naturally, Krishna is trying to talk about the negative nature in those who cannot overcome this delusion to realise the Divine in themselves. Unless the contrast of ideas is given, the student will not be in a position to understand properly what exactly are the mind's tendencies and appetites that are the true symptoms of delusion.

LOW MEN, DELUDED AND INDULGING THEMSELVES IN EVIL ACTIONS FOLLOW THE PATH OF THE DEVIL (ASURA) AND GET DEPRIVED OF THEIR DISCRIMINATION --- We all know that the insignia of the higher evolution in man is his rational intellect, which can discriminate between the good and the bad, the high and the low, the moral and the immoral. This discriminative awareness is the subtle instrument by which individuals are rendered capable of awakening from the dream of their imperfections to their own Essential Nature of Absolute Divinity. This faculty can function effectively only in a bosom that is unagitated by sense-impulses. The more an individual misunderstands himself to be only a mere mass of flesh, and continuously pants for self-gratification through sense indulgences, the more is he considered a sinner. Sin, in this sense, is but a devolutionary action which is not appropriate to the dignity and status of the highest evolutionary glory in man. Sin can be perpetrated only by those who have deluded themselves, believing that they are masses of flesh, with minds hungry for emotional satisfactions and intellects trying to assert and express their own ideas. Such people are here called by the Geeta, as deluded (Moodhah). The way-of-life, in such "deluded men" (Asura bhava) has been exhaustively described to us by indicating the opposite good qualities of the "perfect one" (Daivi bhava), later in the Geeta (XVI-3).

PEOPLE REACH ME THROUGH FOUR DIFFERENT APPROACHES; LISTEN:

16. Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna, the dissatisfied, the seeker of (systematised) knowledge, the seeker of wealth, and the wise, O best among the Bharatas.

Since the Self is the source of all existence and energy, all other apparent activities that are seen at the level of matter, must come from the same great, grand motive force. Every part of a railway engine is made up of cold iron, and if the engine can run forward carrying along with it a train-load of passengers and goods, there must be something other than iron that is giving it the power to move. Similarly, when ego-centric deluded men, considering themselves to be their body or mind or intellect, act in the world outside, they express a kind of seeming dynamism through their matter vestures. When those who are living in the matter-outskirts of the Palace of Truth, struggle hard to eke out satisfaction and happiness, fulfilling their desires, they too act invoking all their energies from the Spirit. Even when the deluded ego-centres want to live in their realm of ignorance and sorrows, they must necessarily invoke the required energy and sentiency from the Pure Consciousness, the Self. Whether they seek consolation in moments of distress, or whether they are mere seekers of satisfaction for the demands of the body, for the urges of the mind, for the questions of the intellect, or whether they be mere men of desires, striving hard to fulfil their desires or to satisfy their emotions --- they all need the energy to function, the capacity to feel and the ability to act. This dynamic motive power can reach the inert matter and vitalise it, only when the Spirit is invoked and contacted. This invocation of the required type of energy to flow into a particular channel and act therein is called prayer (Bhajana). In all true prayers the ego surrenders itself to the Spirit with a demand to its Lord to manifest and function in any given scheme of activity. As an analogy we may take the example of how we make use of an electric plug on the wall. The various equipments such as the fan, or the heater, or the toaster, or the refrigerator --- all are in themselves mere iron and steel gadgets which have no capacity of their own to perform any work. Only when the electric current is flowing through them, can these machines serve society. If I plug a fan into the wall-socket, it is an act where the fan is, as it were, invoking the dynamic "current" to flow through it. If the right instrument is contacted with the

"current," I will be served by the required manifestation. But supposing, in winter, I switch the fan on, I have no right then to complain that the electricity is cruel to me. If, unintelligently, I invoke the Truth to play through my mind which is mal-adjusted with wrong tendencies, the

Spirit flowing through such an instrument can bring about nothing but sorrows for myself and disturbances to others. With this scriptural idea that the Self has the total monopoly of all sentience and life, Krishna says here that everyone, be he a sinner or a saint, foolish or wise, dull or energetic, cowardly or courageous, must "invoke Me" (Bhajana) and "I express Myself through the individual mental composition as the one who has the above qualities." "Each individual must approach Me," be it consciously or unconsciously, ere he can express himself at the intellectual, mental, or physical level of his personality. If everyone must thus invoke the Self in expressing himself, or in fulfilling his ideas and emotions, then everyone is "sacred" and "virtuous," for, all of us, without an exception, are devotees at the Temple of the Spirit. Lord Krishna, the Self, now expounds how the numberless persons that reach him with endless prayers, can all be classified under four distinct groups:- (a) Men who are dissatisfied with even the best in life (Arttah) approach this Life Energy in themselves, for fighting against and for gaining a total relief from the spiritual distress that is threatening them in their within. They turn to Me, the Lord.

(b) Seekers of knowledge and understanding, from a mere idle curiosity to study and come to know My Nature, ever invoke the grace of the Spirit. (c) All men, throughout their life-time, spend themselves irresistibly in some field of activity or the other, under the whip of their desires. Fulfilment of desires is the urge under which every member of the living kingdom acts restlessly, all through his lifetime. The inert materials of the body and intellect cannot act unless the Spirit is invoked to play through them. (d) We have yet a rare few, who approach the SANCTUM SANCTORUM of the Temple of the Spirit, demanding nothing, expecting nothing, carrying with them only themselves as their offerings. They offer themselves as an oblation in a pure spirit of love-inspired total self- surrender. The only cry in their heart is that the Spirit should end their sense of separation and accept them back into the embrace of the Lord, to be made one with Him. These Jnanis constitute the last type who try to invoke the Spirit. OF THESE FOUR TYPES WHICH IS THE BEST?

17. Of them the wise, ever steadfast and devoted to the One, excels; for, I am exceedingly dear to the wise, and he is dear to

Me.

Comparing and contrasting these four above-mentioned groups among themselves, the Lord declares here that the Jnani, who with a steadfast mind, surrenders himself to the Self, with an integrated heart of total devotion, which is not dissipated by other parallel aspirations, represents the best. Single-pointedness of mind can be gained only when the goal of the meditator is fixed and steady. The unbroken and all-out aspiration of the seeker to reach his own Real Nature, the Self, is called single-pointed- devotion (Eka bhaktih). This is possible only when one withdraws oneself totally from all other extrovert demands of the lower nature in him. In the case of a Jnani, therefore, the Spirit is invoked not for the acquisition of anything, but for the annihilation of all the self-destructive channels through which his spiritual dynamism gushes out day-to-day, only to get wasted on the dry rocks of the world of hallucination. Naturally, therefore, the Self, as a personification in Krishna, declares in the Geeta that the Jnanis are the highest and the best among the living kingdom who reach the PORTALS OF TRUTH with their individual demands and aspirations, to experience their final merger in the Self. To the truly wise "SUPREMELY DEAR AM I." Love is measured by the amount of identification the lover has gained with the beloved. Self-surrender is the tune in which the song of love is truly sung. Selfessness is the key in which the duet of love is played. Love demands "giving without expecting any return," at all times, in all circumstances. With this understanding of the nature of true love, when one tries to understand the attitude of the Jnani towards the Self, it is true that a Jnani alone knows how to love wholly, completely. One-sided love never culminates in any consummation. Man may approach the Spiritual Centre in himself in an attitude of discrimination and surrender --- with all his aspiration and love --- but if it is not reciprocated by the Spirit, it might become as tragic as the case of the Greek boy who fell in love with his own reflection. Here, when Krishna declares, "AND HE IS DEAR TO ME," a great psychological truth has been expounded. It is the Eternal Law that love, with no strings attached to it, can not only order its own fulfilment, but can also convert even the base into the noble by its silent persuasions and mysterious charms. Scientifically viewed, it is an observable fact that if a mind is powerfully charged with a certain emotion --- be it sorrow, hatred, jealousy, love or kindness --- it can bring about sympathetic vibrations of similar emotions in the chambers of the hearts that come near it. When one full of hatred approaches us, he can influence and fill our hearts to the full with hatred. So too, if we can give the required dose of pure and sincere love, unmotivated by any desire or selfishness, it is a law that even the bitterest enemies, with their hearts full of hatred, can be forced to reflect nothing but love towards us. This psychological truth, in all its implications, has been brought out vividly when the Geeta states that even the Infinite and Eternal Truth has, helplessly, to come under the charm of pure and selfless courting of the meditator with Eka bhaktih. THEN, ARE NOT THE THREE OTHERS, THE DISSATISFIED AND THE REST, DEAR TO VASUDEVA? NOT SO. THEN HOW IS IT?

18. Noble indeed are all these, but the wise man, I deem, as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind he is established in Me alone as the Supreme Goal.

With the large-heartedness of a master-mind, Lord Krishna declares here that all creatures living the life of intelligent seeking and industrious efforts are blessed, inasmuch as they all are, in their own way, approaching the same fountain of the Infinite for tapping out their required energies. Although some are invoking the Eternal Spiritual Strength for the purposes of reducing their distress, or for fulfilling their desires, they all are, for one reason or the other, approaching the Self, and therefore, relatively, diviner than the insentient 'mineral world.' However, comparing and contrasting them with the Jnanis, the Lord says: "BUT, THE MAN OF KNOWLEDGE, I REGARD AS MY OWN SELF."

It is very well-known that there is a lot of difference between maintaining one's friendship with the minister, and oneself becoming a minister. No doubt, to be a friend of a minister is to gain some amount of influence and power in society; but the entire might and glory come to the man when he himself becomes the minister. Similarly, to be capable of invoking and directing the Spiritual Strength is certainly divine; but a man of Knowledge is one who, courting Truth in a spirit of total identification with It, successfully attains the total transcendence of his individual mind-and-intellect, whereby his ego rediscovers itself to be nothing other than the Self. He becomes one with It. Such a Jnani, thereafter, ever remains in the divine sense of identification with the self. This emphasis of extra preference to the status of a Man-of-Wisdom, is according to Krishna, his personal opinion (Matam).

19. At the end of many births the wise man comes to Me, realising that all this is Vasudeva (the innermost Self) ; such a great soul (MAHATMA) is very hard to find.

That such pure Men-of-Wisdom are necessarily few in the history of the world, is the declaration here, which, in decadent Hinduism, we have learnt to consider as an extremely pessimistic assertion (VI-45). A little thought should clearly make the fallacy of this wild conclusion quite evident to us. The entire human kingdom is, indeed, a very negligible and small proportion of the total sentient creatures in the world. In the community of man, not all have a fully developed instrument of rational thinking and divine emotion. Even among those who have fully developed mental and intellectual capacities, it is a rare few that seriously take up the study of the scriptures. All those who STUDY scriptures do not LIVE the scriptures, but they come to feel fulfilled in a mere understanding of its contents. Therefore, it becomes evident that only a rare few can ever reach the goal of evolution and come to discover their true Divine Nature of Perfection. Like Darwin in our own days, the ancient Rishis also had observed in their times, that this development can take place only when, in the flood of time, the different circumstances have rubbed down and polished the imperfect into the shape and beauty of the perfect. It takes trillions of years for an organism to evolve from one given form of existence into a higher form of life. Naturally, it becomes quite clear that for rational being of subtlest potentialities, it should take an indefinitely large number of lives in different manifestations to scrape off all his ignorance, and thereby, ultimately reach the Perfect Realm of all Knowledge. This DOES NOT MEAN that none among us, now striving so hard, has any chance of reaching the goal of life in this very birth. It is not in any pessimistic hopelessness and total despair, that this statement is made by the Lord in the Geeta. On the other hand, it is solely for bringing into the recognition of the student the urgency of his faithful pursuit of the higher life. The very fact that a seeker has come to feel a disappointment with his present state of existence, and the fact that he has discovered enough intellectual capacity to appreciate and comprehend the subtle thoughts of the Upanishadic lore, clearly shows that he has reached the very archway to the temple of the Self. A little more sincere and steady self-application can take him to the highest state of his evolution. NOW IT WILL BE SHOWN WHY THE PEOPLE ARE NOT GENERALLY AWARE THAT THE SELF, OR VASUDEVA, ALONE IS THE ALL:

20. Those whose wisdom has been looted away by this or that desire, go to other gods, following this or that rite, led by their own nature.

Desire for the sense-objects of the world and the urge for sense-gratification are the great factors which cloud the discriminative potentialities in the human intellect. It is impossible that an individual is not made conscious of his own Self, in the light of a powerful and strong discrimination. Earlier, we were told that the deity for whose propitiation we performed the Yajna was none other than "the productive potential in any given field of activity." Reading the stanza in the light of this interpretation we may say that the deity mentioned here denotes nothing other than the various joys contained in the different sensuous fields which are courted by us, when we get lashed by desires, in order that we may gain a complete and exhaustive satisfaction from them. Desires are the springs from which thoughts continuously gurgle up to flood the mental zone, and disturb the glorious reflection of Truth in it. When the mind is thus disturbed, the discriminative capacity in the intellect is rendered dull, and naturally, that individual becomes incapable of distinguishing in his understanding, the Real from the unreal. When the brilliance of the human intellect has been clouded with the vapours of desire, the owls of negativity and delusory attachments start hooting in the jungles of that mind. It is not the mere appearance of desires in the mind that causes the fall of man. No individual can resist the compelling charm of the desires rising in his bosom. But when he comes to identify himself with them, the thoughts rising in him are directly governed by his desires. When once a given desire has been identified with, the desirer himself, unconsciously, comes to lend an uncontrollable amount of dynamism to the upsurge of the flood of thoughts.

Thoughts themselves are inert matter, inasmuch as they are the by-product of food, being constituted of the subtlest aspect of the food consumed. These inert thought- waves gather a momentum and force by borrowing their strength and vigour from the Self, through the individual's enthusiastic identification with those desires. The urge of thoughts determines the action. The actor in the field, for the time-being, is rendered incapable of discriminating whether the action undertaken can, or cannot, ultimately bring to him a permanent and an enduring satisfaction. Drunk with the idea that he will be at least temporarily appeased, the individual struggles hard and strives intensively to invoke and propitiate THE PRODUCTIVE POTENTIAL OF ANY GIVEN FIELD OF HIS ACTIVITY (DEVATA). In thus invoking the Devata of a given field, the individual has to strive in a proper and fitting fashion. The methods of assembling the required instruments, the techniques of their application, the time intervals necessary for maturing the results, and the type of gains accrued from the different kinds of application... all these differ from field to field in the world. Therefore, each one will have to

"FOLLOW THIS OR THAT RITE," according to the type of his desires. The reason why different persons thus struggle hard so differently, leaving aside all sincere struggles to realise the Self, as "VASUDEVA IS ALL THIS," is explained here in the second line. Each individual helplessly functions in the different fields of his temporary fascinations, according to the mental impressions, gathered in his earlier moments of activity and thought. To conceive that "the Creator is putting ideas into each one of us because of which one is good and another vile," is a philosophy of the defeatist, of the impotent, of the sluggard. True men of action, with the daring of a well-developed intellect, can very easily see through men and their behaviours and come to this bold conclusion that each man acts as per the schedule, maintained and ordered by himself, during his own past actions. In short, a deluded person strives hard, running after the mirage of sensuality, vainly hoping to gain therein a satisfaction that is at once infinite and immortal, while another is found to have the subtle discrimination to discover for himself the hollowness and futility of sense- pursuit. This latter type withdraws from all these ultimately unprofitable fields, and with avidity seeks the path to the Real. WHAT THEN IS THE FUNCTION OF THE ATMAN, THE GUARDIAN ANGLE IN EACH ONE OF US?

21. Whatsoever form any devotee desires to worship with faith -- - that (same) faith of his I make (firm and) unflinching.

In the very opening of this chapter (VII-7), discriminating the Self from the not-Self, it was shown how Krishna is the

Spiritual Principle, the Common Truth that holds together the multiple universe of names and forms. It was also said (VII-14) that the three-fold mental temperaments (gunas), that work up the "divine illusion," hoodwink the individual from right cognition of the Divine Self within him. But for the Conscious Principle thrilling the inert matter walls that seemingly encircle the spirit, neither our physical, nor mental, nor intellectual personalities can ever come to function, as they do now. It is very well- known that all men do not worship at the same altar. Each one approaches the same Truth by worshipping the idol of his own heart. Krishna here declares the sacred truth that in all Churches, Mosques, and Temples, in public places, or in private institutions, in the open, or on the sly, in the quiet huts, and in the silent caves --- wherever and in whatsoever form, any devotee seeks to worship with Shraddha, "HIS FAITH DO I MAKE UNWAVERING." A faithful follower of the Geeta can never be contaminated by sectarianism or intolerance. At the foot of every altar, it is Krishna, the Self, that constantly supplies more and more faith to water the expanding fields of devotion in the sincere devotees. Applying this general statement to the subjective worship in the human bosom, we can very easily understand the greater import of this stanza. In the world outside, it is very well-known that the greater the consistency with which an idea or an attachment is maintained by an individual, the greater does he become fixed in that temperament or relationship. The more often a particular type of thought is entertained in the mind, the deeper becomes that thought channel, strengthening that very mental impression. These deep-cut patterns of thought, ploughed along the valleys of the mind, indicate the pattern of desires which the individual had entertained. In the law that governs this psychological rule, we can spy and detect the Spiritual Reality and Its infinite and glorious might. In short, the Lord says that "as we think so we become," and the more we become, the more we think in the same given pattern. Applying this principle of psychology, it becomes clear, beyond all doubts, why everyone of us is bound by our own habits, and how we get chained by our own peculiar type of thinking. The sensuous are not to be condemned, and equally so, the divine need not be congratulated! Both of them are the exact products of their individual types of thinking. Thought belongs to the realm of nature (Prakriti); thoughts create the world and the all-pervading Self is the Essential Substratum (Purusha) that provides the world-drama with its stage and scenario. WITH THIS EVER-GROWING FAITH, HOW DOES THE MAN-OF-THE-WORLD GAIN HIS PARTICULAR DESIRE?

22. Endued with that faith, he engages in the worship of that 'DEVATA' and from it he obtains his desire-fulfilments; all these being ordained, indeed, by Me (alone) .

Imbued with this faith he invokes the Devata of his choice and gains the fulfilment of his desires. And, Lord Krishna adds that in all cases these desires are "BEING VERILY DISPENSED BY ME ALONE." The Self is the source of all activities, gains, fulfilments and despairs. The sense of joy or sorrow, of success or failure, is but a mental thought- wave; but for the Conscious principle illumining it, we would not have any such experience. Faithful activity in any given field of action, brings about complete success, but the very existence of the field, the capacity to act, the fervour of faith that supplies consistency to all efforts --- all these are possible only in the medium of the Changeless, the Actionless, the Attributeless, Eternal Self. And Krishna, identifying Himself with this Spiritual Centre of the Universe, rightly declares here, that He alone is the one that supplies an ever-growing faith in all activities, and ultimately, when the laws of action are fulfilled to the last bit, both in their intensity and application, it is He alone who dispenses the exact result of each action. When a well-adjusted radio is plugged onto the current, the Electric Current says that it alone is the 'dispenser' of the programme available at the Station for the listeners!

SINCE THE DELUDED ONES DESIRE THE FINITE SENSE OBJECTS, THEY DO NOT COME TO THE ALL- SATISFYING PEACE; AND HENCE, IT IS SAID:

23. Verily the "fruit" that accrues to those men of little- intelligence is finite. The worshippers of the DEVAS go to the DEVAS but My devotees come to Me.

The fruits accruing to "THESE MEN OF LITTLE UNDERSTANDING ARE LIMITED." Fleeting desires for finite objects, even when fulfilled through the impermanent activities, must surely prove to be ephemeral. Out of gold whatever ornament is made, it also must be gold alone; when chocolate is made out of sweet things, the resultant stuff cannot be bitter. The effects entirely depends, for their nature and quality, upon those of the causes. Finite actions undertaken in finite fields, employing finite instruments, cannot but produce --- whether joy or sorrow --- finite "fruits." Joy arrested or ended is sorrow; and therefore, in each instance of a sensuous desire satisfied, though there is a joy and a fulfilment, the sense-of- satisfaction soon putrefies to provide the sourness of dissatisfaction, or more often, the bitterness of sorrow. This statement of the Lord is supported by the following general rule that, "THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE DEVAS REACH THE DEVAS." Those who are invoking a desired

'profit potential,' in any given field of activity, can, even when completely successful, gain only THAT profit. The above statement is declared as a contrast to a pure philosophical truth, when the Lord, says: "THOSE WHO DEVOTE THEMSELVES TO ME, COME TO ME." Seekers of happiness in the world of sense-objects, as a result of their strife and struggle, can gain their insignificant success in the field of sense-enjoyments. If the same effort is applied by them in the right life of constructive living, they can come to discover their identity with the Eternal Absolute, the Self. Due to the extrovertedness of the deluded ego, it comes to identify itself with its finite matter-envolopments, and revels in a world of its endless number of objects, called in Sanskrit as the Jagat. Discriminative and careful seekers, understanding the utter uselessness of the pursuit of finite pleasures, detach themselves from their false ego-centric lives, and through the process of meditation upon the Self, as advised in the previous chapter, come to rediscover their own Real Nature in the sunny fields of Bliss that lie unrolled beyond the thorny by-lanes of all physical, psychological and intellectual quests. In the language of the Geeta, the first person singular stands always, at all places, for the Infinite Reality which is the Substratum for the individual as well as for the whole. Therefore, "MY DEVOTEES COME TO ME," is not the assertion of a limited historical figures as the son of

Devaki, but the Singer of the Geeta, in His divine inspiration, entirely identifies Himself with the Principle of Consciousness that is the core of the pluralistic dream of the mind-intellect equipment. Thus, to understand the above statement, without its seeming limitations, is to understand the Geeta, the Scripture of Man, as declaring that the seekers of the Self discover themselves and become the Self. THEN WHY DO PEOPLE IN GENERAL FAIL TO REACH THE SELF? LISTEN:

24. The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having come to manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable and peerless nature. Men who lack discrimination and the capacity to perceive the subtle Truth that shines in and through the vast disturbances of the endless plurality, fail to realise the immutable and the peerless Self. In their extreme preoccupation with the ever-changing glory of the perceivable, the Prakriti, (VII-4 and 6) they do not understand that "ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME AS A ROW OF PEARLS ON A STRING." This fundamental Reality, that is the beam of brilliance in which like dust-particles the Universes dance about, is termed as the "Unmanifest." This term is to be understood in all its philosophical implications. That which is called the MANIFEST is available either for the perceptions of the sense-organs, or for the feelings of the mind, or for the understanding of the intellect. That which is not available for any one of these instruments of cognition, feeling or understanding is considered as the UNMANIFEST. The Self, indeed, should then be considered as the UNMANIFEST, for it is the VITALITY behind the sense- organs, the FEELER --- potential in the mind and the very LIGHT that illumines the intellect. The distorted intellects of the extroverts, in their miscalculations, come to the false judgement that the physical glory of the Prophet, or of the incarnation, is all that is the Eternal Truth. The point-of-concentration (Upasya) is to be considered, no doubt, as the symbol of the Truth which the devotee is seeking, but it cannot IN ITSELF be the Truth. If it were the Truth, then after carving out an idol, or after approaching a Guru, the devotee has nothing more to do, since he has gained the Truth! Idol worship is only a convenience for gathering true concentration, for getting an initial momentum for the final flight into themselves, to reach the Self and discover therein their own oneness with It. This stanza gives us a clear insight into the futility of mistaking the bottle for the medicine, the physical form for the Guru, the idol for the God! All white-wood is not the fragrant sandal-wood. Any bright light high up in the sky, however resplendent it might be, is not a star. Some men of incomparable foolishness may come to declare that the light from a tower is the Sun, but no wise man of the town will accept it. The idea of Divine Incarnation is accepted in Hinduism, and according to its theory, EVERYONE IS AN INCARNATION-TO-A-DEGREE! The same Truth pervades all, and is in each. It expresses through the enveloping layers of the mind-and-intellect. The clearer the mind and the purer the intellect, the greater is the effulgence of the Divine that beams out through them. When the Self in anyone beams out through the steadied and purified mind and intellect completely sublimating his lower nature (Prakriti), he becomes a Prophet, a Sage. Krishna, Rama, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira are some of the examples. These Men-of-realisation, discovering their Self, understood and lived every moment of their lives in the Self, as the Self of all. To mistake their physical structure, or the lingering traces of their mind, or the film of their intellectual personality, for the very Essence of Truth, which these God-men were, is to make as miserable a mistake as taking the waves to be the ocean! Naturally, therefore, Krishna uses here a severe term, to indicate such deluded men of superstitious false understanding, as

"UNINTELLIGENT FOOLS" (A-

Buddhayah).

WHAT CAUSES THIS PREVALENT IGNORANCE OF THE TRUE NATURE IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:

25. I am not manifest to all (in My Real Nature) veiled by Divine- 'MAYA. ' This deluded world knows not Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.

If there be such a glorious Essential Truth, which is the core of everything, why is it that it is not freely known and experienced by everyone at all times? In short, "what stands between me and my Self?" Why is it that we behave as though we are but limited ego-centric entities, incapacitated as we are, to comprehend that in essence we are the Infinite, the Immortal? These questions are unavoidable to an intelligent seeker, when he, in his aspirations, comes face to face with the staggering revelations contained in Vedanta. THIS DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT, THE UNBORN AND THE IMMORTAL because their own

"ILLUSION, BORN OUT OF THE THREE 'GUNAS,' VEILS ME." "Maya" is the most difficult theme of all for elementary students of Vedanta, when they try merely to understand this Science of Life objectively. The moment a student tries to experiment with this "Knowledge" upon himself subjectively, the explanations contained in the theory become evident. Maya is the conditioning through which, when the Non-dual Truth expresses Itself, the One

Reality seems to fan out as the spectrum of the multiple universe. The principle of Maya functioning in the individual is termed ignorance (Avidya). This subjective malady, which provides in its wake, the dreamy hallucinations of a sorrowful world of change and imperfections, has been very closely observed, and the Rishis of old have declared that it is caused by three types of "moods" in man's inner personality. These three temperaments (gunas), called Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, provide a prism, viewed through which, the kaleidoscopic world seems to dance, flashing its infinite patterns. Rajas creates 'mental-agitations" (Vikshepa), and Tamas creates the "intellectual-veiling" (Avarana). To him who becomes confused and confounded by the play of these triple temperaments, the Self is not available for direct experience. Special instructions from teachers and diligent practice on the part of students are both necessary in order to make one realise one's own Real Nature. To an ignorant man of the jungle, electricity is unmanifest in the bulb and in its incandescent filament. In order to perceive the electrical current that flows through the equipment, theoretical knowledge and experimental confirmation are essential. After having gained the knowledge of the electrical energy and its properties, when the student happens to see the very same bulb, he comes to cognise through the perceived bulb the imperceptible, the unmanifest electrical energy!

Similarly, when through self-control, listening, reflection, and meditation, the agitations of the mind are quietened, and when the veiling has been pulled down, the seeker re- discovers "ME THE UNBORN, THE IMMUTABLE." As long as the agitations of the mind veil the intellect from its awareness of the Self, so long the limited ego (Jeeva) pants to fulfil itself and to gain the Infinite among the gutters of its sensual cravings! Such frenzied hearts reeking with desires and lacerated with disappointments, crushed by dissatisfactions and smothered by the fear of their own annihilation --- can never have the integrated equipoise to live even a moment of still-awareness to experience the Pure Consciousness.

"THE DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT" as it is steeped in "THE ILLUSION BORN OUT OF THE THREE- FOLD gunas." Screened off by this universe of names and forms, which is but an apparent projection of the Self, the sense-organs, mind or intellect fail to perceive It. The ghost veils the post! The mirage-waters clothe the desert!! The waves screen off the ocean!!! THE PRESENT CONDITION OF IGNORANCE AND CONFUSION IN THE LIMITED FINITE EGO IS BROUGHT OUT VERY VIVIDLY IN THE FOLLOWING, BY CONTRASTING IT AGAINST THE BACK-GROUND OF THE SELF, WHICH IS OF THE NATURE OF ALL KNOWLEDGE:

26. I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, and present and the future, but no one knows Me.

The idea that God is Omniscient is common to all religions of the world, but a satisfactory explanation of this concept is given only in Vedanta. In the Geeta too --- as a Bible of the Hindu religion, as a hand-book of easy reference for the students of the Upanishads --- we find a wider hint as to what we mean by the Omniscience of the Self. The Self, as the Pure Consciousness, is the illuminating principle that brings the entire field of the mind and intellect under the beam of Its clear awareness. Even the world-of-objects is brought within our understanding only when it enters, through the sense-organ-doors, and reaches the mental lake, and makes therein its characteristic thought-waves; the thought-waves make the intellect function in classifying and determining them. Both these mental and intellectual disturbances are illumined for us by the ever- wakeful Consciousness, the Self in us. Sunlight illuminates all the objects of the world. When my eyes or ears illumine a given form or sound, I say that I see or hear that particular form or sound. In short, to be aware of a thing is to know that thing; and to know is to illumine. Just as the Sun can be considered as the "eye of the world," inasmuch as without the Sun all organs-of- vision will be blind apertures, so too, the Self can be considered as the knower of everything, in everyone, at all times, and in all places. This Omniscience of the Supreme is vividly hinted at here, when Krishna declares, "I KNOW THE BEINGS OF THE PAST, OF THE PRESENT, AND OF THE FUTURE." It must be noted that the Eternal Self is not only the Awareness that lights up all bosoms at this present moment, but it was the awareness that illumined the objects, feelings and thoughts in all bosoms from the beginningless beginning of creation and it shall be the same Principle behind every knower that knows anything in all the future generations till the endless end of time! Electricity revolves the fan; but the fan can never fan the electricity! The gazer surveys the heavens through a telescope, but the telescope can never survey the gazer! The Conscious Principle vitalises the food-made mind and intellect and makes them capable of feeling and thinking. Without the Self dynamising them, they are incapable of sense-perceptions; but neither the mind, nor the intellect, can perceive, feel, or comprehend the Subjective Principle, the Self. The Lord declares here that, though he knows everything, at all times, in all places, He is known by none at any place or at any time --- "BUT ME NONE KNOWS." According to the strictest Vedantic philosophy, the Self is not a "knower," just as in the strictest logic of thought it would not be correct to say that the Sun "illumines" the world. From our standpoint, contrasting with the hours of night when things are not illumined, we may rightly attribute the function of illuminating things during the day to the 'principle of light' called the Sun. However, from the standpoint of the Sun, which is ever brilliant, there is no moment when he is not blessing the objects with his shining touch. Therefore, it is as meaningless to say that the Sun "illumines" the objects, as to say that "I am too busy now-a-days breathing"! 'Knower-hood' is a status gained by Self when It functions through the equipment of Maya; and the Self, that functions in and through delusory Maya, is called the God-principle, termed in the Vedantic literature as Ishwara. Here Krishna is pictured by Vyasa as the divine embodiment of Truth, and an Incarnation of the Self, and therefore, it is perfectly right if He arrogates to Himself the nature of Omniscience and declares Himself as "THE KNOWER OF EVERYTHING IN ALL THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME." But unfortunately, an ego-centric mortal viewing the universe through the pin-hole of his congested, constricted and limited mind-and-intellect, fails to see the harmonious rhythm in the macrocosm. He who can rip open his own self-made bondages of ignorance and rise to attune himself with the macrocosm, can certainly come to experience the Krishna view-point. Anyone who successfully comes to live thus in unison with the cosmic mind, is the Krishna of that age and for ever thereafter.

IF THE SELF IS THE ETERNAL KNOWER OF ALL CONDITIONED-KNOWLEDGE, THEN, WHAT VEILS THIS ESSENTIAL NATURE FROM OUR REALISATION? LISTEN:

27. By the delusion of the pairs-of-opposites arising from desire and aversion, O Bharata, all beings are subject to delusion at birth, O Parantapa (scorcher of foes) .

A highly scientific and extremely subtle philosophical truth has been suggested in this stanza. In his attempt to explain why and how the ego-centric personality in man fails to cognise His all-full nature, the Lord touches, by implication, the very fundamentals discovered and discussed by modern biologists in explaining the evolution of organisms. The instinct of self-preservation is the most powerful urge under which the individualised ego tries to live its life of continuous change. This instinct of preservation expresses itself in the intellectual zone as binding desires for things that contribute to the continuous welfare and well-being of the individual's mundane existence. When the impulse of desire, flowing from a bosom towards an object of attachment, gets half-way bumped upon an object or a being that stands between the bosom that craves and the object-of-craving, the refracted desire- thoughts express themselves as aversion (II-52, 53). In the tug-of-war between these two forces of desire and aversion, the hapless ego gets torn asunder and comes to suffer the agonising pain of lynching tensions within. Naturally, its mind-and-intellect become fully preoccupied with its pursuits of the things of its desire, and with its efforts at running away from the objects of its aversion. Soon the ego-centric personality becomes endlessly preoccupied, totally confused and completely exhausted. The host of thought-disturbances that are thereby created in the mental, and in the intellectual zones, breed among themselves and add day by day to the chaos within. The 'agitation' (Vikshepa) is that which veils (Avarana) the Truth from the direct cognition of the individual. Therefore, the only way by which we can come to rediscover our equipoise and tranquillity as the Eternal Self, is to arrest, control and win over the agitations of the mind. All spiritual practices in all religions of the world are techniques --- either emotional, or intellectual or physical --- that aim at bringing about at least one solitary moment of perfect mental poise. Such a moment of poise is the moment of perfect mental illumination, the auspicious hour of Self-re-discovery and fulfilment of the reunion. But unfortunately, adds the Lord in a divinely pathetic note, "ALL BEINGS FALLS INTO THIS DELUSION AT THEIR VERY BIRTH." This is not a pessimistic submission as to the sorrowful destiny of a man, to escape from which he is incapacitated from birth. Unlike the Christ-religion, our Krishna-religion does not conceive a man as "a child of sin." The Master-optimist, the Teacher of Hope, the Joyous Dancer of the Jamuna banks, is expressing here only a philosophical truth, that the very birth of an individual into a given embodiment, with its available environment, is the tragedy that he himself had planned out elaborately for the fulfilment of his own deep cravings and secret desires. To get out of these delusions and gain the right knowledge constitutes the Sacred Goal of Life, and the Geeta is the Song of the Self that enchants the erring souls away from their confusions to the inviting fields of the joyous Perfection. TO SHOW THEN WHAT THE QUALIFICATION OF THOSE WHO SEEK THE TRUTH ARE, THE FOLLOWING IS GIVEN:

28. But those men of virtuous deeds whose sins have come to an end, who are freed from the delusion of the pairs-of-opposites and steadfast in vows, worship Me.

"MEN OF VIRTUOUS DEEDS," as a result of their actions,

"COME TO CLEANSE THEIR SINFUL NATURE" --- is a declaration that needs to be correctly understood. Sin is not the nature of man; according to Vedanta, it is only the tarnish that has come to dim the brilliance of the Self, due to an error of judgement in the individual. The craving of the mind-and-intellect, to live in subservience to the calls and appetites of the grosser outer world, is the root-cause for the negative values entertained by us, which ultimately result in 'sins.' He is called a sinful-person in whom his body makes the heaviest calls on his time and attention. In such a person, the body becomes the dominant partner, and it 'enslaves' the self. An extrovert life --- a life spent in pursuing the satisfaction of his sensuous desires, to comfort and console every one of his paltry emotions --- is the way of the sinful. Such a passionate animal-life leaves gross impressions upon the mind and intellect. Impressions (vasanas) decide the future flow of thoughts. As the thoughts, so the actions, and the action deepen the vasanas. To break this 'vasana-thought-action' chain which is now digging the grave of the individual's peace and tranquillity, it is advised that he start a new life of meritorious actions. Merit (punya) is a contrast to sin (papa) and therefore, it is constituted of actions, feelings and thoughts, dedicated to the godly and the divine. All introvert actions undertaken in the cognition of "THE SELF I AM," would create in their wake new impressions. In the long run, the patterns of sin that existed in the bosom are wiped out and new divine designs are created therein. Such a prepared mind-intellect, from which almost all its negativities have been rubbed off is "FREE FROM THE

DELUSION OF THE PAIRS-OF-OPPOSITES." It then becomes an instrument that can, with a single-pointed steadfastness and firm resolve, meditate upon the Self. WHAT WOULD BE THE MOTIVE IN THE HEART OF THOSE WHO ARE THUS MEDITATING UPON THE SELF AFTER THEIR MINDS HAVE BEEN READJUSTED BY LIVING THE LIFE-DIVINE? LISTEN:

29. Those who strive for liberation from old age and death, taking refuge in Me --- They realise in full that BRAHMAN, the whole knowledge of the Self and all action.

Those who thus strive diligently to cleanse their hearts of their wrong tendencies and bring their minds so purified for higher contemplation upon the Self, do so in order to gain "FREEDOM FROM OLD AGE AND DEATH." But the modern world is also striving to discover methods of arresting death and avoiding old age. However, this physical continuity of existence in the world is not the goal that has been hinted at here in the Science of spiritual evolution. Birth, growth, disease, decay and death are the natural modifications that come to every man, or being, living in a given manifestation to the ripe old age of its full existence. Such modifications as experiences of change are the agonising sources of all pains in life. But for this change, a complete and unbroken happiness could be our lot. The attempt of a spiritual seeker, in his meditation upon the Self, is to get over all his identifications with the realm of change, and the entire province of change is indicated by these two familiar terms "OLD AGE AND DEATH." Such a true meditator, meditating upon the Self, comes to realise his identity with the Conscious Principle in him, the Self. The Self in the individual (Atman) is the Eternal Truth, which is the Substratum for the whole universe (Brahman). To realise the Self is to become Brahman, since the Self in the individual is the One Self everywhere. This non-duality of the Truth is implied here in this stanza when it declares that "THOSE WHO MEDITATE UPON ME, THE SELF, COME TO 'KNOW BRAHMAN." That the man of realisation is not therefore an impotent fool in worldly transactions, has been clearly brought out here, when Krishna says that the Perfected One not only realises the All-pervading Self, but at once comprehends

"THE WORKING OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES (ADHYATMA) IN HIM AND BECOMES PROFICIENT IN ALL ACTIVITIES (KARMA)." It is very well realised by all men of experience, that he alone can serve the world who has a full and complete knowledge of the psychology of the world, and also has a perfect control over his own mind. A man of harmonious perfection is the fittest instrument to sing the Song of Truth, and such an individual must be the best integrated personality, smart and efficient in all activities.

CONTINUING THE SAME IDEA AND EXPRESSING HOW A MAN OF WISDOM IS A MAN OF ALL KNOWLEDGE AND ALL EFFICIENCY, KRISHNA DECLARES:

30. Those who know Me with the ADHIBHUTA (pertaining to elements; the world-of-objects) , ADHIDAIVA (pertaining to the gods; the sense-organs) and the ADHIYAJNA (pertaining to the sacrifice; all perceptions) , even at the time of death, steadfast in mind, know Me.

Not only that the man of realisation understands all the vagaries of the mind and the nature of all activities, but he also gains a perfect knowledge of the world-of-objects (Adhibhuta), the secrets behind the workings of the sense- organs, mind, and intellect (Adhidaiva), and the conditions under which all perceptions --- physical, mental and intellectual (Adhiyajna) can best take place. The common idea that a man-of-God is an impractical man, inefficient to live a successful life in the world, may be true as far as a dedicated devotee of a particular god- form, or a prophet, is concerned. The Upasaka is one who is so fully engrossed with his emotions and thoughts, dedicated to the Lord of his heart, that he has neither the interest nor the capacity to know the ways of the world. But the man-of-Perfection, as conceived by the Science of Vedanta, is not only a man of experience in the realm of Spirit, but he is also, at all times, on all occasions, under all situations, a master of himself, and a dynamic force to be reckoned with. He essentially becomes the leader of the world, as he is a master of his own mind, as well as the minds of the entire living kingdom. To him, thereafter, everything becomes clear, and such a Man-of-Perfection lives in the world as God in his Knowledge of the worlds, both within and without. In short, the chapter closes with a total assertion that "HE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS EVERYTHING"; he is the man who will guide the destinies of the world, not only in his own times, but in the days to come, as Lord Krishna Himself did. These two closing stanzas of this chapter do not of themselves explain all the terms used in them. They represent a summary of the following chapter. In a Shastra this is one of the traditional methods in the art of connecting two consecutive chapters together. In the form of mantras, these two stanzas indicate the contents and the theme of the following chapter.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the Scripture of YOGA, in the dialogue between Shri Krishna and Arjuna, the seventh discourse ends entitled: THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM

Vedantic ideologies, preached in the Upanishads had become, by the time of Vyasa, mere speculative narrations of poetic perfection, divorced from the actualities of life. The Hindus, thus estranged from the essential glory and strength of their culture, were to be resurrected by showing them the particular beauty and fire that lie concealed in the philosophical speculations. In this chapter, Krishna has emphasized and indicated beyond all doubt, how Vedantic perfection can be achieved and lived to the glory of the successful seeker and to the blessing of the generation in which he lives. It is most appropriate, therefore, that the chapter is entitled "THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM." Mere knowledge is of no particular use. Wisdom is the glow that knowledge imparts to the individual. The fulfilment of knowledge in an individual is possible only when he becomes a Man-of-Wisdom. Knowledge can be imparted, but Wisdom cannot be given. The philosophical portion of all religions provides the knowledge, the instructional section of all religions provides techniques by which knowledge can be assimilated and digested into the very texture of the devotees' inner lives, and thereby every religion seeks to create Men-of-Wisdom, who have fulfilled their lives, justified their religion, and blessed their generation.