gita-chapter-9-en

{ "title": "Chapter 9: Rāja Vidyā Yog", "chapterIntro": "In the two previous chapters, the Supreme Lord Shree Krishna declared that among all, bhakti is the highest, yet the simplest path of attaining Yog, or union with the Supreme. In this chapter, He reveals His supreme glories that inspire reverence, devotion, and awe. Although Shree Krishna stands in front of Arjun in His personal form, it should not be mistaken to possess human personality.\nAt the beginning of creation, the Supreme Lord creates innumerable life-forms with His material energy. And at dissolution, He absorbs them back into Himself, and in the next cycle of creation, He manifests them again. Similar to the mighty winds that blow everywhere yet always stay within the sky, all living beings’ dwell within God. However, He remains ever aloof and detached from all these activities as a neutral observer by His divine Yogmaya power.\nTo resolve the apparent confusion of the Hindu pantheon, Shree Krishna explains that there is only one God, who is the sole object of worship. For all living beings, He is the true friend, the support, refuge, and the final goal. Therefore, those souls who engage in exclusive devotion towards the Supreme Lord go to His abode and remain there. Those influenced by the ritualistic ceremonies described in the Vedas also attain the celestial abodes. However, when their merits are exhausted, they must return to earth.\nSaying this, Shree Krishna exalts the superiority of pure bhakti solely directed toward Him. Such a devotee lives in complete union with God’s will, doing everything for Him and offering everything to Him. Their pure devotion helps devotees attain the mystic union with God and releases them from the bondage of Karmas.\nShree Krishna asserts that He is impartial towards all creatures; He neither favors nor rejects anyone. Even if despicable sinners come to His shelter, He accepts them willingly and very quickly makes them pure and virtuous. Shree Krishna then says that He is seated within His devotees and will not let them perish. He preserves what they possess and provides them what they lack. Hence, we should dedicate our mind and body to Him, worship Him, always think of Him, and make Him our supreme goal.", "verseList": [ { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.1", "verse": "1", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "श्रीभगवानुवाच |\nइदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे |\nज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात् || 1||", "text": "श्रीभगवानुवाच |\nइदं तु ते गुह्यतमं प्रवक्ष्याम्यनसूयवे |\nज्ञानं विज्ञानसहितं यज्ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसेऽशुभात् || 1||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_001.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "The Supreme Lord said: O Arjun, because you are not envious of Me, I shall now impart to you this very confidential knowledge and wisdom, upon knowing which you will be released from the miseries of material existence.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-01.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.1.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "At the very beginning of the topic, Shree Krishna declares the qualification for hearing these teachings.  Anasūyave means “non-envious.”  He tells Arjun that He is revealing this knowledge because Arjun is non-envious of Him.  Lord Krishna clarifies this because God is going to glorify Himself profusely here.  Anasūyave also has the sense of “one who does not scorn.”  Those listeners who deride Shree Krishna because they believe He is boasting will not benefit from hearing such a message.  Rather, they will incur harm, by thinking, “Look at this egotistic person.  He is praising His own Self.”\nSuch an attitude is born of arrogance and pride and it robs a person of devotional reverence.  Envious people cannot grasp the simple fact that God has no need for anything, and therefore everything He does is for the welfare of the souls.  He only praises Himself to enhance devotion in the souls, and not because He has the material defect of conceit as we do.  When Jesus of Nazareth said, “I am the path and the way,” he was saying it motivated by compassion for the souls listening to him, and not out of vanity.  As a true Guru, he was telling his disciples that the path to God is through the Guru.  But the envious-minded do not understand the compassion behind these statements and attribute them to self-conceit.  Since Arjun is magnanimous and free from the defect of envy, he is eminently qualified for the profound knowledge that Shree Krishna is going to reveal in this chapter.\nIn the second chapter, Shree Krishna explained the knowledge of the ātmā (soul) as a separate and distinct entity from the body.   That is guhya, or secret knowledge.  In the seventh and eighth chapters, He explained knowledge of His powers, which is guhyatar, or more secret.  And in the ninth and subsequent chapters, He will reveal knowledge of His pure bhakti, which is guhyatam, or the most secret." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.2", "verse": "2", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "राजविद्या राजगुह्यं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमम् |\nप्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुमव्ययम् || 2||", "text": "राजविद्या राजगुह्यं पवित्रमिदमुत्तमम् |\nप्रत्यक्षावगमं धर्म्यं सुसुखं कर्तुमव्ययम् || 2||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_002.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "This knowledge is the king of sciences and the most profound of all secrets. It purifies those who hear it. It is directly realizable, in accordance with dharma, easy to practice, and everlasting in effect.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-02.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.2.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Rāja means “king.”  Shree Krishna uses the metaphor rāja to emphasize the paramount position of the knowledge He is going to reveal.\nVidyā means “science.”  He does not refer to His teachings as creed, religion, dogma, doctrine, or belief.  He declares that what He is going to describe to Arjun is the king of sciences.\nGuhya means “secret.”  This knowledge is also the supreme secret.  Since love is only possible where there is a choice, God deliberately hides Himself from direct perception, thereby providing the soul the freedom to exercise the choice of loving Him or not.  A machine cannot love, for it is devoid of choices.  God wants us to love Him and so He gives us the option to choose Him or not, as we wish.  He merely makes us aware of the consequences of what we choose, either way, and then leaves it to us to decide the path we wish to follow.\nPavitram means “pure.”  Knowledge of devotion is supremely pure because it is untainted by petty selfishness.  It inspires sacrifice of the self at the altar of divine love for the Supreme Lord.  Bhakti also purifies the devotee by destroying pāp, bīja, and avidyā.  Pāp is the stockpile of past sins of endless lifetimes of the individual soul.  Bhakti burns them up as a fire burns up a bundle of straw.  Bīja refers to impurities of the heart, which are the seeds of sinful activities.  If the seeds exist, then destroying the results of past sins will not suffice, for the propensity to sin will remain in the heart and one will sin again.  Bhakti purifies the heart and destroys the seeds of sin, which are lust, anger, and greed.  However, even the destruction of the seeds is not enough.  The reason why the heart becomes impure is that there is avidyā (ignorance), because of which we identify with the body.  Because of this misidentification, we think of the body as the self, and hence create bodily desires thinking they will give happiness to the self.  Fulfillment of such material desires further leads to lust, anger, greed, and all the other impurities of the heart.  As long as the ignorance remains, even if the heart is cleansed, it will again become impure.  Devotion ultimately results in realized knowledge of the soul and God, which in turn destroys the ignorance of material existence.  The benefits of bhakti are described in the Bhakti Rasāmṛit Sindhu as follows:  kleśhas tu pāpaṁ tadbījam avidyā cheti te tridhā  (1.1.18)  “Bhakti destroys the three poisons—pāp (sins), bīja (the seed of sins), avidyā (the ignorance in the heart).”  Only when the three are completely destroyed, does the heart become truly and permanently pure.\nPratyakṣha means “directly perceptible.”  The practice of the science of bhakti begins with a leap of faith and results in direct perception of God.  It is not unlike the methodology of other sciences, where we begin an experiment with a hypothesis and conclude with a verified result.\nDharmyam means “virtuous.”  Devotion performed without desire for material rewards is the most virtuous action.  It is continuously nourished by righteous acts such as service to the Guru.\nKartum susukham means “very easy to practice.”  God does not need anything from us; He is attained very naturally if we can learn to love Him.\nWhen this is the sovereign science and it is easy to practice, then why do people not apply themselves to learning it?  Shree Krishna explains this next." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.3", "verse": "3", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अश्रद्दधाना: पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप |\nअप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि || 3||", "text": "अश्रद्दधाना: पुरुषा धर्मस्यास्य परन्तप |\nअप्राप्य मां निवर्तन्ते मृत्युसंसारवर्त्मनि || 3||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_003.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "People who have no faith in this dharma are unable to attain Me, O conqueror of enemies. They repeatedly come back to this world in the cycle of birth and death.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-03.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.3.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "In the last two verses, Shree Krishna promised knowledge and then qualified it with eight merits.  It is mentioned here as “this dharma,” or the path of loving devotion to God.\nNo matter how wonderful the knowledge and how effective the path, it remains useless to one who refuses to walk on it.  As explained in the previous verse, direct perception of God comes later; initially, a leap of faith is required to begin the process.  The Bhakti Rasāmṛit Sindhu (1.4.15) states:  ādau śhraddhā tataḥ sādhusaṅgo ’tha bhajanakriyā  “The first step in the path to God-realization is to have faith.  Then one begins participating in satsaṅg (spiritual programs).  This leads to the personal practice of devotion.”\nOften people say that they are only willing to believe in what they can directly perceive, and since there is no immediate perception of God, they do not believe in Him.  However, the fact is that we believe in so many things in the world too, without direct perception of them.  A judge delivers judgment upon a case concerning an event that took place many years in the past.  If the judge adopted the philosophy of believing only what he or she had directly experienced, then the entire legal system would fail.  A President administers a country on the basis of reports from all over the country.  It is impossible for him to visit and see all the villages and cities within his domain.  Now, if he was not willing to believe these reports, on the grounds that he had no direct perception of what was happening, how would he be able to administer the whole country?  So, even in material activities, faith is required at every step.  The Bible states this very nicely:  “We walk by faith, and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)\nThere is a beautiful story regarding perception of God.  A king once accosted a sadhu with the statement, “I do not believe in God because I cannot see Him.”  The sadhu asked for a cow to be brought to king’s court.  The king obliged and ordered his servants to bring a cow.  The sadhu then requested that it be milked.  The king again instructed his servants to do as the sadhu wanted.  The sadhu asked, “O King!  Do you believe that this milk, freshly taken out from the cow, contains butter?”  The king said he had full faith that it did.  The sadhu said, “You cannot see the butter in the milk.  Then why do you believe it is there?”  The king replied, “We cannot see it at present because the butter is pervading the milk, but there is a process for seeing it.  If we convert the milk into yogurt, and then churn the yogurt, the butter will become visible.”  The sadhu said, “Like the butter in the milk, God is everywhere.  If we cannot immediately perceive Him, we should not jump to the conclusion that there is no God.  There is a process for perceiving Him; if we are willing to have faith and follow the process, we will then get direct perception of God and become God-realized.”\nBelief in God is not a natural process that we as human beings just follow.  We have to exercise our free will and actively make a decision to have faith in God.  In the assembly of the Kauravas, when Dushasan endeavored to disrobe Draupadi, Lord Krishna saved her from shame and embarrassment by lengthening her sari.  All the Kauravas present saw this miracle, but refused to have faith in the omnipotence of Shree Krishna and come to their senses.  The Supreme Lord says in this verse that those who choose not to have faith in the spiritual path remain bereft of divine wisdom and continue rotating in the cycle of life and death." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.4", "verse": "4", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना |\nमत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थित: || 4||", "text": "मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना |\nमत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थित: || 4||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_004.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "This entire cosmic manifestation is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All living beings dwell in Me, but I do not dwell in them.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-04.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.4.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "The Vedic philosophy does not accept the concept of God creating the world and then peeping into it from the seventh heaven to check whether His world is running all right.  They repeatedly propound the theme of God being all-pervading in the world:\neko devaḥ sarvabhūteṣhu gūḍhaḥ sarvavyāpī   (Śhwetāśhvatar Upaniṣhad 6.11)\n“There is one God; He is seated in everyone’s heart; He is also everywhere in the world.”\nīśhāvāsyam idam sarvaṁ yat kiñcha jagatyāṁ jagat   (Īśhopaniṣhad 1)\n“God is everywhere in the world.”\npuruṣha evedaṁ sarvaṁ, yad bhūtaṁ yachcha bhavyam   (Puruṣh Sūktam)\n“God pervades everything that has existed and all that will exist.”\nThis concept of God being everywhere is understood subjectively.  Some Eastern philosophers claim that the world is a pariṇām (transformation) of God.  For example, milk is an unadulterated substance.  In contact with acid, it transforms to yogurt.  Thus, yogurt is a pariṇām (effect or product) of milk, when it is transformed.  Similarly, the protagonists of pariṇām vāda state that God has transformed into the world.\nOther philosophers claim that the world is vivarta (to mistake one object for another).  For example, in the darkness a rope may be mistaken for a snake.  In the moonlight, a shining oyster may be mistaken for silver.  Similarly, they say that there is only God and no world; what we are seeing as the world is actually Brahman.\nHowever, according to verses 7.4 and 7.5, the world is neither pariṇām nor vivarta.  It is created from the material energy of God, called Maya śhakti.  The souls too are the energy of God, but they are His superior energy, called Jīva śhakti.  Therefore, the world and all the souls in it are both God’s energies and are within His personality.  However, Shree Krishna also says that He does not dwell in the living beings, i.e. the infinite is not contained by the finite beings.  That is because He is far more than the sum total of these two energies.  Just as an ocean throws up many waves, and these waves are a part of the ocean, but the ocean is much more than the sum total of the waves,  similarly too, the souls and Maya exist within the personality of God, yet He is beyond them." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.5", "verse": "5", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् |\nभूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावन: || 5||", "text": "न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् |\nभूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावन: || 5||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_005.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "And yet, the living beings do not abide in Me. Behold the mystery of My divine energy! Although I am the Creator and Sustainer of all living beings, I am not influenced by them or by material nature.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-05.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.5.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Beyond the two energies mentioned in the purport to the previous verse—Maya śhakti and Jīva śhakti—there is a third energy of God.  This is called Yogmaya śhakti, which He refers to in this verse, as divine energy.  Yogmaya is God’s all-powerful energy.  It is called kartum-akartum-samarthaḥ, or “that which can make the impossible possible,” and is responsible for many of the amazing things we attribute to His personality.  For example, God is seated in our hearts, yet we have no perception of Him.  This is because His divine Yogmaya power keeps us aloof from Him.\nSimilarly, God also keeps Himself aloof from the influence of Maya.  In the Bhagavatam, the Vedas praise the Lord:\nvilajjamānayā yasya sthātumīkṣhā-pathe ’muyā   (2.5.13)\n“Maya feels embarrassed to even stand before God.”  Isn’t it a wonder that although God pervades Maya, the material energy, yet He is aloof from it?  This is again by the mysterious power of Yogmaya.\nIf the world could influence God, then when it decays or is destroyed, His nature and personality will also deteriorate.  But despite all modifications in the world, God remains established in His personality.  Accordingly, the Vedas call God by the name Daśhāṅgulī, or “ten fingers.”  He is in the world, and yet ten fingers beyond it—untouched by it." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.6", "verse": "6", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "यथाकाशस्थितो नित्यं वायु: सर्वत्रगो महान् |\nतथा सर्वाणि भूतानि मत्स्थानीत्युपधारय || 6||", "text": "यथाकाशस्थितो नित्यं वायु: सर्वत्रगो महान् |\nतथा सर्वाणि भूतानि मत्स्थानीत्युपधारय || 6||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_006.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Know that as the mighty wind blowing everywhere rests always in the sky, likewise all living beings always rest in Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-06.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.6.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Shree Krishna has used the term mat sthāni three times, from the fourth verse to the sixth verse.  It means “all living beings rest in Him.”  They cannot be separated from Him even though they transmigrate in different bodies and accept affinity with matter.\nIt may be a little difficult to conceive how the world rests in God.  Greek mythology shows a picture of Atlas holding up the globe.  In Greek folklore, Atlas fought with the Titans in the war against the deities of Mount Olympus.  As punishment, he was condemned to forever bear the earth and the heavens on his back with the great pillar that supposedly separates them on his shoulders.  This is not what Shree Krishna means when He says that He is upholding all beings.  The entire cosmos exists in space and space is created by God’s energy.  Thus, all beings can be said to be resting in Him.\nThe Supreme Lord now gives an analogy to enable Arjun to grasp the concept.  The wind has no existence independent from the sky.  It moves incessantly and furiously, and yet, it rests within the sky.  Likewise, the souls have no existence independent of God.  They move in time, place, and consciousness, through transitory bodies, sometimes rapidly and sometimes slowly, and yet, they always exist within God.\nFrom another perspective, everything that exists in cosmos is subordinate to the will of God.  It is created, maintained, and annihilated in accordance with His will.  In this way also, everything can be said to be resting in Him." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.7 – 9.8", "verse": "7-8", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् |\nकल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् || 7||\nप्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुन: पुन: |\nभूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् || 8||", "text": "सर्वभूतानि कौन्तेय प्रकृतिं यान्ति मामिकाम् |\nकल्पक्षये पुनस्तानि कल्पादौ विसृजाम्यहम् || 7||\nप्रकृतिं स्वामवष्टभ्य विसृजामि पुन: पुन: |\nभूतग्राममिमं कृत्स्नमवशं प्रकृतेर्वशात् || 8||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_007-008.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "At the end of one kalp, all living beings merge into My primordial material energy. At the beginning of the next creation, O son of Kunti, I manifest them again. Presiding over My material energy, I generate these myriad forms again and again, in accordance with the force of their natures.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-07.mp3", "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-08.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.7.mp3", "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.8.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Shree Krishna explained in the last few verses that all living beings dwell in Him.  This statement may bring up the following question: “When mahāpralaya (the great annihilation) takes place and the entire world is wound up, then where do all the living beings go?”  The answer to this question is being given in this verse.\nIn the previous chapter, verses 8.17 to 8.19, Shree Krishna explained how creation, maintenance, and annihilation follow a repetitive cycle.  Here, the word kalpa-kṣhaya means “the end of Brahma’s lifespan.”  On the completion of Brahma’s life of 100 years, which is equal to 311 trillion 40 billion earth years, the entire cosmic manifestation dissolves and goes into an unmanifest state.  The pañch mahābhūta merge into the pañch tanmātrās; the pañch tanmātrās merge into ahankār; ahankār merges into mahān; mahān merges into prakṛiti, the primordial form of the material energy; and prakṛiti goes and rests in the divine body of the Supreme Lord, Maha Vishnu.\nAt that time, all the souls within the material creation also go and rest in the body of God, in a state of suspended animation.  Their gross and subtle bodies merge back into the source, Maya.  However, the causal body still remains.  (The three kinds of bodies have been described in detail in the commentary to verse 2.28)  After dissolution, when God creates the world again, the material energy unwinds in the reverse sequence prakṛiti—mahān—ahankār—pañch tanmātrā—pañch mahābhūta.  Then, the souls that were lying in a state of suspended animation with only causal bodies are again placed in the world.  In accordance with their causal bodies, they again receive subtle and gross bodies, and the various life forms are created in the universe.  These life forms vary in nature amongst the different planes of existence.  In some planetary systems, fire is the dominant element in the body, just as in the earth plane, the dominant bodily elements are earth and water.  Hence, the bodies vary in their subtleness and the functions they can perform.  Shree Krishna thus calls them myriad life forms." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.9", "verse": "9", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय |\nउदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु || 9||", "text": "न च मां तानि कर्माणि निबध्नन्ति धनञ्जय |\nउदासीनवदासीनमसक्तं तेषु कर्मसु || 9||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_009.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "O conqueror of wealth, none of these actions bind Me. I remain like a neutral observer, ever detached from these actions.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-09.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.9.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "The material energy is actually inert and insentient.  It is devoid of consciousness, which is the source of life.  How then, one may wonder, does it perform the wonderful work of creating such an amazing world?  The Ramayan explains this well:\njāsu satyatā teṅ jaṛa māyā, bhāsa satya iva moha sahāyā.\n“The material energy is insentient by itself.  But when it receives inspiration from God, it begins to act as if it were sentient.”  This is like a pair of tongs in the kitchen.  They are lifeless by themselves.  But in the hands of a chef they come to life and do wonderful things such as lifting red-hot bowls.  Likewise, by itself, the material energy does not have the power to do anything.  When God wishes to create the world, He glances at the material energy and animates it.  The main idea to keep in mind is that although the process of creation goes on by His will and inspiration of God, He remains unaffected by the work of the material energy.  He remains ever-blissful and undisturbed in His personality, by virtue of His hlāndinī śhakti (bliss-giving power).  Hence, the Vedas call Him ātmārām, meaning “He who rejoices in Himself, without any need for external pleasures.”  Having explained that He is unaffected, God now explains that He is the non-doer and the Supervisor." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.10", "verse": "10", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृति: सूयते सचराचरम् |\nहेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते || 10||", "text": "मयाध्यक्षेण प्रकृति: सूयते सचराचरम् |\nहेतुनानेन कौन्तेय जगद्विपरिवर्तते || 10||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_010.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Working under My direction, this material energy brings into being all animate and inanimate forms, O son of Kunti. For this reason, the material world undergoes the changes (of creation, maintenance, and dissolution).", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-10.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.10.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "As explained in the last verse, God does not directly engage in the work of creating life forms.  His various energies and souls appointed by Him for the purpose do it under His dominion.  For example, the President of a country does not personally do every task of the government.  He has various departments under Him, and officials appointed for performing the different functions.  And yet, the accomplishments and failures of the government are attributed to Him.  This is because He sanctions the government officials for performing tasks under His jurisdiction.  Similarly, the first-born Brahma and the material energy accomplish the tasks of creation and manifestation of life forms.  Since they work under God’s sanction, He is also referred to as the Creator." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.11", "verse": "11", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् |\nपरं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् || 11||", "text": "अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम् |\nपरं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् || 11||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_011.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "When I descend in My personal form deluded persons are unable to recognize Me. They do not know the divinity of My personality, as the Supreme Lord of all beings.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-11.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.11.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Good teachers occasionally use strong words to jostle their students out of the complacence of shallow thinking, into a deeper state of thoughtfulness.  Here, Shree Krishna uses the word mūḍha, which means “dim-witted,” to describe those who deny the divinity of His personal form.\nThose who say that God is only formless and cannot manifest in a personal form, contradict the definition of God as being all-mighty and all-powerful.  The Supreme Lord has created this entire world full of forms, shapes, and colors.  If He can do such an amazing feat of creating myriad forms in the world, can He not create a form for Himself?  Or is it that God says, “I do not have the power to manifest in a personal form, and hence I am only formless light.”  To say that He cannot possess a personal form makes Him incomplete.\nWe tiny souls also possess forms.  If one holds that God cannot possess a form, then the corollary is that He has even less power than us a human beings.  For God to be perfect and complete, He must have both attributes to His personality—a personal aspect and a formless aspect.  The Vedic scriptures state:\napaśhyaṁ gopāṁ anipadyamānamā(Ṛig Veda 1.22.164 sūkta 31)\n“I had the vision of God as a boy who is never annihilated, and who appeared in a family of cowherds.”\ndwibhūjaṁ mauna mudrāḍhyaṁ vana mālinamīśhwaram(Gopāl Tāpani Upaniṣhad 1.13)\n“The Lord, wearing a garland of forest flowers, plays His flute, enchantingly forming the mauna mudrā with His hands.”\ngūḍhaṁ paraṁ brahma manuṣhya-liṅgam(Bhagavatam 7.15.75)\n“The deepest knowledge is that God accepts a human-like form.”\nyatrāvatīrṇo bhagavān paramātmā narākṛitiḥ(Bhagavatam 9.23.20)\n“At that time, the Supreme Lord, who possesses all opulences, descended in a human-like form.”\nīśhwaraḥ paramaḥ kṛiṣhṇaḥ sachchidānanda vigrahaḥanādirādir govindaḥ sarvakāraṇa kāraṇam(Brahma Samhitā 5.1)\nIn this verse, Brahma prays to Shree Krishna, “I worship Lord Krishna whose form is eternal, all-knowing, and blissful.  He is without beginning and end, and is the cause of all causes.”\nHowever, in regard to the personal form of God, we must keep in mind that it is a divine form, which means it is devoid of all the defects found in material forms.  The form of God is sat-chit-ānand—it is eternal, full of knowledge, and constituted of divine bliss.\nasyāpi deva vapuṣho mad-anugrahasyasvechchhā-mayasya na tu bhūta-mayasya ko ’pi(Bhagavatam 10.14.2)\nIn this verse, Lord Brahma prays to Shree Krishna, “O Lord, Your body is not made of pañch mahābhūta (the five great elements); it is divine.  And You have descended in this form by Your own free will, to bestow Your grace upon souls like myself.”\nIn chapter four of the Bhagavad Gita, Shree Krishna stated: “Although I am unborn, the Lord of all living entities, and have an imperishable nature, yet I appear in this world by virtue of Yogmaya, my divine power.” (4.6)  This means that not only does God possess a form, but He also descends in the world as an Avatar.\nSince we souls have been taking births in the world from time immemorial, it is plausible that we were present in the human form on the earth when a previous descension of God was present on the earth.  It is even possible that we saw the descension.  However, the limitation was that God’s form was divine and we possessed material eyes.  So when we saw Him with our eyes, we were unable to recognize the divinity of His personality.\nThe divine nature of God’s form is such that His divinity is perceived by each person only to the extent of his or her spiritual power.  When those who are influenced by sattva guṇa see Him, they think, “Shree Krishna is a special person. He is very competent but is definitely not God.”  When those under the spell of rajo guṇa see Him, they say, “There is nothing special in Him.  He is very much like us.”  When those dominated by tamo guṇa see Him, they think, “He is egotistic and characterless, much worse than us.”  It is only the God-realized saints who can recognize Him as God, since they have received divine vision by His grace.  And so, Shree Krishna says that the unaware materially conditioned souls do not know Him when He takes an avatar in the world." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.12", "verse": "12", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतस: |\nराक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिता: || 12||", "text": "मोघाशा मोघकर्माणो मोघज्ञाना विचेतस: |\nराक्षसीमासुरीं चैव प्रकृतिं मोहिनीं श्रिता: || 12||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_012.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Bewildered by the material energy, such persons embrace demoniac and atheistic views. In that deluded state, their hopes for welfare are in vain, their fruitive actions are wasted, and their culture of knowledge is baffled.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-12.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.12.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "There are many strands of atheistic views relating to the personal form of God that are prevalent in the world.  Some people declare that God cannot descend in the world in a personal form.  Consequently, they say that Shree Krishna was not God; He was merely a yogi.  Others say that Shree Krishna is Māyā-viśhiṣhṭ brahma, i.e. a lower grade of the Supreme Divinity, due to contact with the material energy.  Yet others say that Shree Krishna was a characterless loafer who roamed around with the cowherd maidens of Vrindavan.\nAccording to this verse, all these theories are incorrect, and the intellects of those who subscribe to them are deluded by the material energy.  Shree Krishna goes to the extent of saying that those who embrace such ungodly philosophies possess demoniac natures.  Since, they do not harbor divine sentiments toward the personal form of the Supreme Lord, they cannot engage in bhakti toward Him.  And since devotion to the formless aspect of God is exceedingly difficult, they cannot do that either.  As a result, they remain bereft of the path to eternal welfare.  Bewildered by the transient attractions of the material energy, their hopes for eternal well-being are in vain." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.13", "verse": "13", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "महात्मानस्तु मां पार्थ दैवीं प्रकृतिमाश्रिता: |\nभजन्त्यनन्यमनसो ज्ञात्वा भूतादिमव्ययम् || 13||", "text": "महात्मानस्तु मां पार्थ दैवीं प्रकृतिमाश्रिता: |\nभजन्त्यनन्यमनसो ज्ञात्वा भूतादिमव्ययम् || 13||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_013.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "But the great souls, who take shelter of My divine energy, O Parth, know Me, Lord Krishna, as the origin of all creation. They engage in My devotion with their minds fixed exclusively on Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-13.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.13.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Shree Krishna’s style of discourse is that He drives the point home by making starkly contrasting comparisons.  After describing the ways of the deluded and confused, He now talks about the great souls.  Material life is a prolonged dream, which is being experienced by the souls who are sleeping under the sway of the material energy.  In contrast, the great souls are those who have woken up from their ignorance and brushed aside material consciousness like a bad dream.  Released from the grips of the material energy, Maya, they are now under the shelter of the divine Yogmaya energy.  Such enlightened souls have woken up to the spiritual reality of their eternal relationship with God.\nJust as God has both aspects to His personality—the formless and the personal form—His Yogmaya energy also possesses both aspects.  It is a formless energy, but it also manifests in the personal form as Radha, Sita, Durga, Lakshmi, Kali, Parvati, etc.  All these divine personalities are manifestations of the divine energy of God, and they are all non-different from each other, just as Krishna, Ram, Shiv, Narayan, etc. are non-different forms of the one God.\nBrahma Vaivarta Purāṇ states:\nyathā tvaṁ rādhikā devī goloke gokule tathā\nvaikuṇṭhe cha mahālakṣhmī bhavati cha sarasvatī\nkapilasya priyā kāntā bhārate bhāratī satī\ndwāravatyāṁ mahālakṣhmī bhavatī rukmiṇī satī\ntvaṁ sītā mithilāyāṁ cha tvachchhāyā draupadī satī\nrāvaṇena hṛitā tvaṁ cha tvaṁ cha rāmasya kāminī\n“O Radha, You are the Divine Goddess of Golok (Shree Krishna’s divine Abode) and Gokul (Shree Krishna’s Abode in the material realm, when He descended on earth 5,000 years ago).  You exist in Vaikunth (Lord Vishnu’s Abode) as Mahalakshmi.  You are the consort of Lord Kapil (one of the descensions of God).  You reside in Dwaraka as Rukmini (the wife of Shree Krishna).  You manifested as Sita in the city of Mithila.  The wife of the Pandavas, Draupadi, was like a manifestation of Your shadow.  It was You who was kidnapped by Ravan in the form of Sita, and You are the wife of Lord Ram.”\nIn this verse, Shree Krishna mentions that great souls take shelter of the divine energy of God.  The reason is that divine grace, knowledge, love, etc. are all God’s divine energies, and are all subservient to the divine Yogmaya energy, which is Radha.  Hence, by the grace of Yogmaya, one receives the love, knowledge, and grace of God.  Great souls, who receive divine grace, become endowed with divine love, and engage in uninterrupted devotion toward God." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.14", "verse": "14", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "सततं कीर्तयन्तो मां यतन्तश्च दृढव्रता: |\nनमस्यन्तश्च मां भक्त्या नित्ययुक्ता उपासते || 14||", "text": "सततं कीर्तयन्तो मां यतन्तश्च दृढव्रता: |\nनमस्यन्तश्च मां भक्त्या नित्ययुक्ता उपासते || 14||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_014.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Always singing My divine glories, striving with great determination, and humbly bowing down before Me, they constantly worship Me in loving devotion.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-14.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.14.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Having said that the great souls engage in His devotion, Shree Krishna now explains how they do bhakti.  He says that devotees become attached to kīrtan as a means of practicing their devotion and enhancing it.  The chanting of the glories of the Lord is called kīrtan, which is defined as:  nāma-līlā-guṇadīnām uchchair-bhāṣhā tu kīrtanam (Bhakti Rasāmṛit Sindhu 1.2.145)  “Singing glories of the Names, Forms, Qualities, Pastimes, Abodes, and Associates of God is called kīrtan.”\nKīrtan is one of the most powerful means of practicing devotion.  It involves the three-fold devotion of śhravaṇa (hearing), kīrtan (chanting), and smaraṇa (remembering).  The goal is to fix the mind upon God, but it becomes easier when done alongside with hearing and chanting.  As stated in chapter six, the mind is as restless as the wind, and naturally wanders from thought to thought.  Hearing and chanting engage the knowledge senses in the divine realm, which helps in repeatedly bringing back the mind from its wanderings.\nKīrtan has many other benefits as well.  Often when people practice devotion through japa (chanting of mantra or Name of God on rosary beads) or plain meditation, they find themselves overwhelmed by sleep.  However, kīrtan is such an engaging process that it usually drives sleep away.  Also, chanting blocks out distracting sounds from the environment.  Kīrtan can be practiced in groups which enables mass participation.  In addition, the mind desires variety, which it gets through the medium of kīrtan in the form of the Names, Virtues, Pastimes, Abodes, etc. of God.  And since kīrtan involves loud chanting, the divine vibrations of the Names of God make the entire environment auspicious and holy.\nFor all these reasons, kīrtan has been the most popular form of devotion amongst saints in Indian history.  All the famous bhakti Saints—Soordas, Tulsidas, Meerabai, Guru Nanak, Kabir, Tukaram, Ekanath, Narsi Mehta, Jayadev, Tyagaraja, and others—were great poets.  They composed numerous devotional songs, and through them, they engaged in chanting, hearing, and remembering.\nThe Vedic scriptures particularly extol kīrtan as the simplest and most powerful process of devotion in the present age of Kali.\nkṛite yad dhyāyato viṣhṇuṁ tretāyāṁ yajato makhaiḥ\ndwāpare paricharyāyāṁ kalau tad dhari-kīrtanāt   (Bhagavatam 12.3.52)\n“The best process of devotion in the age of Satya was simple meditation upon God.  In the age of Tretā, it was the performance of sacrifices for the pleasure of God.  In the age of Dwāpar, worship of the deities was the recommended process.  In the present age of Kali, it is kīrtan alone.”\navikārī vā vikārī vā sarva doṣhaika bhājanaḥ\nparameṣha padaṁ yāti rāma nāmānukīrtanāt   (Adhyātma Ramayan)\n“Whether you are full of desires or free from them, devoid of defects or full of them, if you engage in kīrtan of the names of Lord Ram, you will attain the highest destination.”\nsarva dharma bahirbhūtaḥ sarva pāparatasthathā\nmuchyate nātra sandeho viṣhṇornamānukīrtanāt   (Vaiśhampāyan Samhitā)\n“Even those who are deeply sinful and bereft of religiosity can be saved by the chanting of the names of Lord Vishnu; of this, there is no doubt.”\nkalijuga kevala hari guna gāhā, gāvata nara pāvahiṅ bhava thāhā   (Ramayan)\n“In this age of Kali, there is one means of salvation.  By engaging in the chanting of the glories of God, one can cross over this material ocean.”\nHowever, one must remember that in the process of kīrtan, hearing and chanting are helpers.  The essence is to remember God.  If we leave it out, the kīrtan will not purify the mind.  Thus, Shree Krishna says here that His devotees do kīrtan, while constantly engaging the mind in thinking of Him.  They practice this with great determination for the purification of the mind." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.15", "verse": "15", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "ज्ञानयज्ञेन चाप्यन्ये यजन्तो मामुपासते |\nएकत्वेन पृथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतोमुखम् || 15||", "text": "ज्ञानयज्ञेन चाप्यन्ये यजन्तो मामुपासते |\nएकत्वेन पृथक्त्वेन बहुधा विश्वतोमुखम् || 15||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_015.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Others, engaging in the yajña of cultivating knowledge, worship Me by many methods. Some see Me as undifferentiated oneness that is non-different from them, while others see Me as separate from them. Still others worship Me in the infinite manifestations of My cosmic form.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-15.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.15.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Sādhaks (spiritual practitioners) follow different paths of spirituality to reach the Absolute Truth.  Shree Krishna previously described those who are devotees.  They surrender themselves with devotion at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord, in the attitude of being His eternal parts and servants.  He now describes some of the other paths that sādhaks follow.\nThose who follow the path of jñāna-yog consider themselves to be non-different from God.  They contemplate deeply on sūtras such as:  so ’haṁ (I am That), śhivo ’haṁ (I am Shiv), etc.  Their ultimate goal is to attain realization of the Supreme Entity as the undifferentiated Brahman, which possesses the attributes of eternality, knowledge, and bliss, but is devoid of forms, qualities, virtues, and pastimes.  Shree Krishna says that such jñāna yogis also worship Him, but in His formless all-pervading aspect.  In contrast, there are varieties of aṣhṭāṅg yogis etc. who see themselves as distinct from God and relate to Him accordingly.\nStill others worship the manifest universe as God.  In Vedic philosophy, this is called viśhwaroop upāsanā (worship of the cosmic form of God).  In western philosophy, it is called “Pantheism” from the Greek words pan (all) and theos (God).  The most famous exponent of this philosophy has been Spinoza.  Since the world is a part of God, keeping a divine sentiment toward it is not wrong, but it is incomplete.  Such devotees do not have knowledge of the other aspects of the Supreme Divine Entity, such as Brahman (God’s undifferentiated all-pervading manifestation), Paramātmā (the Supreme Soul seated in everyone’s hearts), and Bhagavān (the personal form of God).\nHow can all these divergent approaches worship the same God?  Shree Krishna answers this in the following verses." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.16 – 9.17", "verse": "16-17", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञ: स्वधाहमहमौषधम् |\nमन्त्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् || 16||\nपिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामह: |\nवेद्यं पवित्रमोङ्कार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च || 17||", "text": "अहं क्रतुरहं यज्ञ: स्वधाहमहमौषधम् |\nमन्त्रोऽहमहमेवाज्यमहमग्निरहं हुतम् || 16||\nपिताहमस्य जगतो माता धाता पितामह: |\nवेद्यं पवित्रमोङ्कार ऋक्साम यजुरेव च || 17||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_016-017.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "It is I who am the Vedic ritual, I am the sacrifice, and I am the oblation offered to the ancestors. I am the medicinal herb, and I am the Vedic mantra. I am the clarified butter, I am the fire and the act of offering. Of this universe, I am the Father; I am also the Mother, the Sustainer, and the Grandsire. I am the purifier, the goal of knowledge, the sacred syllable Om. I am the Ṛig Veda, Sāma Veda, and the Yajur Veda.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-16.mp3", "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-17.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.16.mp3", "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.17.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "In these verses, Shree Krishna gives a glimpse into the various aspects of His infinite personality.  Kratu means yajña (sacrifice), such as agnihotra yajñas mentioned in the Vedas.  It also refers to the yajñas, such as vaiśhva deva that are described in the Smṛiti scriptures.  Auṣhadham refers to the potency in medicinal herbs.\nCreation emanates from God, and hence He is its Pitā (Father).  Before creation, He holds the unmanifested material energy in His womb, and so He is also its Mātā (Mother).  He maintains the universe and nourishes it, and thus He is its Dhātā (Sustainer).  He is also the Father of Brahma, who is the creator, and hence, He is the Grandfather of this universe.\nThe Vedas have emanated from God.  The Ramayan states:  jākī sahaja svāsa śhruti chārī  “God manifested the Vedas by His breath.”  They are the knowledge potency of God, and hence an aspect of His unlimited personality.  Shree Krishna states this truth dramatically by saying that He is the Vedas." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.18", "verse": "18", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "गतिर्भर्ता प्रभु: साक्षी निवास: शरणं सुहृत् |\nप्रभव: प्रलय: स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् || 18||", "text": "गतिर्भर्ता प्रभु: साक्षी निवास: शरणं सुहृत् |\nप्रभव: प्रलय: स्थानं निधानं बीजमव्ययम् || 18||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_018.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "I am the Supreme Goal of all living beings, and I am also their Sustainer, Master, Witness, Abode, Shelter, and Friend. I am the Origin, End, and Resting Place of creation; I am the Repository and Eternal Seed.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-18.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.18.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Since the soul is a tiny part of God, its every relationship is with Him.  However, in bodily consciousness, we look upon the relatives of the body as our father, mother, beloved, child, and friend.  We become attached to them and repeatedly bring them to our mind, thereby getting further bound in the material illusion.  But none of these worldly relatives can give us the perfect love that our soul yearns for.  This is for two reasons.  Firstly, these relationships are temporary, and separation is unavoidable when either they or we depart from the world.  Secondly, even as long as they are alive, the attachment is based on selfishness and so it fluctuates in direct proportion to the extent by which self-interest is satisfied.  Thus, the range and intensity of worldly love varies from moment to moment, throughout the day.  “My wife is very nice….she is not so nice…she is ok….she is terrible,” this is the extent of fluctuation of love in the drama of the world.  On the other hand, God is such a relative who has accompanied us lifetime after lifetime.  From birth to birth, in every life-form that we went, God accompanied us and remained seated in our heart.  He is thus our eternal relative.  In addition, He has no self-interest from us; He is perfect and complete in Himself.  He loves us selflessly, for He only desires our eternal welfare.  Thus, God alone is our perfect relative, who is both eternal and selfless.\nTo understand this concept from another perspective, consider the analogy of an ocean and the waves that emerge from it.  Two neighboring waves in the ocean flow together for some time, and play mirthfully with each other, creating the impression that they have a very deep relationship between them.  However, after travelling some distance, one subsides into the ocean, and shortly after, the other does the same.  Did they have any relationship between themselves?  No, they were both born from the ocean and their relationship was with the ocean itself.  Similarly, God is like the ocean and we are like waves who have emanated from Him.  We create attachments amongst our bodily relations, only to leave everyone upon death, and journey alone into another birth.  The truth is that the souls are not related to each other, but to God, from whom they have all emanated.\nIn this verse, Shree Krishna takes us above bodily consciousness and its concomitant attachment to worldly relatives.  From the platform of the soul, God alone is all our relationships; He is our Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, Beloved, and Friend.  This theme is reiterated in all the Vedic scriptures:\ndivyo deva eko nārāyaṇo mātā pitā bhrātā suhṛit gatiḥ\nnivāsaḥ śharaṇaṁ suhṛit gatirnārāyaṇa iti  (Subāl Śhruti, mantra 6)\n“Lord Narayan alone is the Mother, Father, Beloved, and destination of the soul.”\nmore sabai eka tumha swāmī, dīnabhandhu ura antarajāmī.   (Ramayan)\n“O Lord Ram, You alone are my Master, the Savior of the destitute, and the Knower of the heart.”  Knowing the magnitude of our eternal relationship with God, we must endeavor to attach our mind to Him alone.  Then, the mind will be purified and we will be able to fulfill the condition of māmekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja, or complete surrender, which is necessary for receiving God’s grace.  To achieve this single-mindedness, we must cut all the present attachments of the mind and replace them with attachment to God.  Hence, the Ramayan states:\nsaba kai mamatā tāga baṭorī, mama pada manahi bāñdha bari ḍorī.\n“Cut all the strings of worldly attachment of your mind; make a rope of these strings, and tie it at the lotus feet of God.”  To help us tie our mind to Him, Shree Krishna here explains to Arjun that the soul’s every relationship is with God alone." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.19", "verse": "19", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णम्युत्सृजामि च |\nअमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन || 19||", "text": "तपाम्यहमहं वर्षं निगृह्णम्युत्सृजामि च |\nअमृतं चैव मृत्युश्च सदसच्चाहमर्जुन || 19||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_019.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "I radiate heat as the sun, and I withhold, as well as send forth rain. I am immortality as well as death personified, O Arjun. I am the spirit as well as matter.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-19.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.19.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "The Puranas describe that when God first created the universe, He manifested the first-born Brahma and entrusted him with the work of further creation.  Brahma was bewildered by the task of creating the materials and the life-forms in the universe from the subtle material energy.  Then God revealed knowledge unto him, which is called the Chatuḥśhlokī Bhāgavat (the four-versed Bhagavatam), on the basis of which Brahma proceeded to create the world.  Its first verse states very emphatically:\nahamevāsamevāgre nānyadyatsadasat param\npaśhchādahaṁ yadetachcha yo ’vaśhiṣhyeta so ’smyaham   (Bhagavatam 2.9.32)\nShree Krishna tells Brahma: “I am all that is.  Prior to creation, I alone existed.  Now that creation has come about, whatever is in the form of the manifested world is my very self.  After dissolution, I alone will exist.  There is nothing apart from Me.”\nThe above truth implies that the material with which we worship is also God.  When people venerate the holy Ganges, they immerse the lower half of their body in the river.  Then they lift water in their palms and pour it into the Ganges.  In this way, they use the Ganges water itself to worship it.  Similarly, when God is all that exists, then the material for worshipping Him is also non-different from Him.  Thus, as previously stated in verses 16 and 17, Shree Krishna reveals that He is the Vedas, the sacrificial fire, the syllable “Om,” the clarified butter, and the act of offering.  No matter what the form and sentiment of our devotion, there is nothing apart from God that we can offer to Him.  Nevertheless, it is the sentiment of love that pleases God, not the material of the offering." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.20", "verse": "20", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "त्रैविद्या मां सोमपा: पूतपापा\nयज्ञैरिष्ट्वा स्वर्गतिं प्रार्थयन्ते |\nते पुण्यमासाद्य सुरेन्द्रलोक\nमश्नन्ति दिव्यान्दिवि देवभोगान् || 20||", "text": "त्रैविद्या मां सोमपा: पूतपापा\nयज्ञैरिष्ट्वा स्वर्गतिं प्रार्थयन्ते |\nते पुण्यमासाद्य सुरेन्द्रलोक\nमश्नन्ति दिव्यान्दिवि देवभोगान् || 20||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_020.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Those who are inclined to the fruitive activity described in the Vedas worship Me through ritualistic sacrifices. Being purified from sin by drinking the Soma juice, which is the remnant of the yajñas, they seek to go to heaven. By virtue of their pious deeds, they go to the abode of Indra, the king of heaven, and enjoy the pleasures of the celestial gods.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-20.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.20.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Previously, in verse 9.12, Shree Krishna described the mentality of the non-believers and the demoniac, who embrace atheistic and ungodly views, and the repercussions that such people face.  Then, He described the nature of great souls, who are engaged in loving devotion to Him.  Now, in this verse and the next, He mentions those who are not devotees, but are not atheistic either. They perform the ritualistic ceremonies of the Vedas.  This science of karm kāṇḍ (Vedic rituals) is referred to as trai-vidyā.\nPeople who are fascinated by the science of trai-vidyā worship the celestial gods, such as Indra, through the performance of yajñas (fire sacrifices) and other rituals.  They worship the Supreme Lord indirectly because they do not realize that it is He alone who sanctions the gifts that the celestial gods bestow.  Ritualistic ceremonies are considered good deeds, but they are not counted as devotion.  The performers of ritualistic ceremonies do not get released from the cycle of life and death.  They go to the higher planes of existence within the material universe, such as abode of Indra, the king of heaven.  There, they enjoy exquisite celestial delights that are thousands of times more pleasurable than the sensual pleasures available on the earth.  In the following verse, Shree Krishna points out the defect in celestial pleasures." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.21", "verse": "21", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं\nक्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति |\nएवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना\nगतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते || 21||", "text": "ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालं\nक्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति |\nएवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्ना\nगतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते || 21||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_021.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "When they have enjoyed the vast pleasures of heaven, the stock of their merits being exhausted, they return to the earthly plane. Thus, those who follow the Vedic rituals, desiring objects of enjoyment, repeatedly come and go in this world.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-21.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.21.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Shree Krishna explains in this verse that the celestial delights of the heavenly abodes are temporary.  After people who have been promoted there have fully enjoyed heavenly pleasures and exhausted their merits, they are sent back to the earthly plane.  Thus, attaining promotion to the heavenly abodes does not fulfill the eternal quest of the soul.  We have all been there many times in endless past lifetimes, and yet the hunger of the soul for infinite Bliss has not yet been satiated.  All the Vedic scriptures support this belief:\ntāvat pramodate swarge yāvat puṇyaṁ samāpyate\nkṣhīṇa puṇyaḥ patatyarvāganichchhan kāla-chālitaḥ   (Bhagavatam 11.10.26)\n“Residents of heaven enjoy the celestial delights until their merits have been exhausted.  Then they are reluctantly forced to fall back to the lower abodes by the passage of time.”\nswargahu swalpa anta dukhadāī   (Ramayan)\n“The attainment of heaven is temporary, and is followed by miseries.”\nJust as a football gets kicked all over the field, Maya is kicking the soul around in forgetfulness of God.  Sometimes it goes to the lower abodes, while sometimes to the higher abodes.  Amongst these multitudes of forms it receives, across the lower and higher abodes, only the human form offers the facility for God-realization.  Hence, the scriptures state that even the celestial gods pray to be given birth as a human being, so that they may rectify their previous mistake of going to heaven, and strive toward God-realization.\ndurlabhaṁ mānuṣhaṁ janma prārthayate tridaśhairapi   (Nārad Purāṇ)\n“The human form is exceedingly rare.  Even the celestial gods pray to attain it.”  Thus, Lord Ram instructed the residents of Ayodhya:\nbaṛeñ bhāga mānuṣha tanu pāvā, sura durlabha saba granthanhi gāvā   (Ramayan)\n“O people of Ayodhya, you all are extremely fortunate to have been bestowed a human birth, which is exceedingly rare and is desired even by the residents of heaven.”  When the celestial beings long for a human birth, then why should we humans seek promotion to the celestial abodes?  Rather, we should aim for God-realization by engaging in devotion to the Supreme Lord." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.22", "verse": "22", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जना: पर्युपासते |\nतेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् || 22||", "text": "अनन्याश्चिन्तयन्तो मां ये जना: पर्युपासते |\nतेषां नित्याभियुक्तानां योगक्षेमं वहाम्यहम् || 22||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_022.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "There are those who always think of Me and engage in exclusive devotion to Me. To them, whose minds are always absorbed in Me, I provide what they lack and preserve what they already possess.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-22.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.22.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "A mother never thinks of deserting her newborn helpless child who is entirely dependent upon her.  The supreme and eternal mother of the soul is God.  In this verse, God offers  motherly assurance to souls who surrender exclusively to Him.  The words used are vahāmi aham, meaning “I personally carry the burden of maintaining My devotees,” just as a married man carries the burden of maintaining his wife and children.  God promises two things.  The first is yog—He bestows His devotees the spiritual assets they do not possess.  The second is kṣhem—He protects the spiritual assets that His devotees already possess.\nHowever, the condition He has placed for this is exclusive surrender.  This can again be understood through the same analogy of the mother and child.  A newborn baby is fully dependent upon its mother, who takes care of the baby’s welfare entirely.  The baby simply cries whenever it needs anything; the mother cleans it, feeds it, bathes it, etc.  But when the baby becomes a five-year old child, it begins doing some actions for itself.  To that extent the mother reduces her responsibilities.  And when the same child becomes a youth and assumes all responsibilities, the mother relinquishes her responsibilities further.  Now if the father comes home and asks, “Where is our son?” the mother replies, “He has not returned home after school.  He must have gone for a movie with his friends.”  Her attitude is now more neutral toward him.  But when the same boy was a five-year old, and had gotten delayed by ten minutes in returning home from school, both the mother and father would begin worrying, “What has happened?  He is a small child.  Let’s hope he has not met with an accident.  Let us phone the school and find out.”\nIn this way, as the boy keeps assuming more responsibilities, his mother keeps relinquishing her responsibilities.  God’s law is exactly the same.  When we act from our independent will, thinking that we are the doers of our actions, and depend upon our own prowess and abilities, God does not bestow His grace.  He merely notes our karmas and gives the result.  When we surrender partially to Him and partially depend upon material crutches, God also partially bestows His grace upon us.  And when we offer ourselves exclusively to Him, māmekaṁ śharaṇaṁ vraja, God bestows His complete grace and takes full responsibility, by preserving what we have and providing what we lack." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.23", "verse": "23", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विता: |\nतेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् || 23||", "text": "येऽप्यन्यदेवता भक्ता यजन्ते श्रद्धयान्विता: |\nतेऽपि मामेव कौन्तेय यजन्त्यविधिपूर्वकम् || 23||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_023.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "O son of Kunti, even those devotees who faithfully worship other gods also worship Me. But they do so by the wrong method.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-23.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.23.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Having described the position of those who worship the Supreme Lord, Shree Krishna now explains the situation of those who worship the lower gods for material gains.  They are also endowed with faith, and they may have their supplications answered by the celestial gods, but their understanding is incomplete.  They do not realize that the celestial beings receive their powers from God Himself.  Hence, they also worship the Supreme Divine Personality, albeit indirectly.  For example, if a government officer redresses a complaint by a citizen, he is not credited with being benevolent.  He is merely utilizing the powers in his jurisdiction that have been bestowed upon him by the government.  Similarly, all the powers of the celestial gods come from the Supreme Lord.  Thus, those with superior understanding do not go by the indirect route; they worship the source of all powers, which is God Himself.  Such worship that is offered to the Supreme Lord automatically satisfies the entire creation:\nyathā taror mūla-niṣhechanena\ntṛipyanti tatskandhabhujopaśhākhāḥ\nprāṇopahārāchcha yathendriyāṇāṁ\ntathaiva sarvārhaṇam achyutejyā   (Bhagavatam 4.31.14)\n“When we water the root of a tree, its trunk, branches, twigs, leaves, and flowers all become nourished.  When we put food in our mouth, it nourishes the life airs and the senses automatically.  In the same way, by worshipping the Supreme Lord, all His parts, including the devatās are also worshipped.”  However, if we begin watering the leaves of a tree, while neglecting its roots, the tree will perish.  Likewise, the worship offered  to the celestial gods certainly makes its way to the Supreme Lord, but such devotees do not get spiritual benefits.  This is elaborated in the next verse." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.24", "verse": "24", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च |\nन तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते || 24||", "text": "अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च |\nन तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते || 24||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_024.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "I am the enjoyer and the only Lord of all sacrifices. But those who fail to realize My divine nature must be reborn.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-24.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.24.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Shree Krishna now explains the drawback in worshipping the celestial gods.  By virtue of the powers bestowed upon them by the Supreme Lord, they do possess the ability to grant material favors, but they cannot liberate their devotees from the cycle of life and death.  They can only offer to others what they themselves possess.  When the celestial gods themselves are not liberated from samsara, then how can they release their devotees from it?  On the other hand, those whose understanding is proper offer their entire veneration at the feet of God Himself, and when their devotion reaches the stage of perfection, they go beyond the world of mortals to the divine Abode." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.25", "verse": "25", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "यान्ति देवव्रता देवान्पितॄ न्यान्ति पितृव्रता: |\nभूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोऽपि माम् ||25||", "text": "यान्ति देवव्रता देवान्पितॄ न्यान्ति पितृव्रता: |\nभूतानि यान्ति भूतेज्या यान्ति मद्याजिनोऽपि माम् ||25||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_025.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Worshippers of the celestial gods take birth amongst the celestial gods, worshippers of the ancestors go to the ancestors, worshippers of ghosts take birth amongst such beings, and My devotees come to Me alone.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-25.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.25.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Devotees can only be elevated to the level of the entity they worship, just as water in a pipe can only rise to the level of the reservoir to which it is connected.  In this verse, Shree Krishna explains the implications of worshipping different entities by revealing the varieties of destinations attained.  He gives this knowledge to help us conclude that to reach the highest level of spiritual evolution we must worship the Supreme.\nThe worshippers of Indra (the rain god), Kuber (the god of wealth), Agni (the god of fire), etc. go to the celestial abodes.  Then, when their account of good karmas gets depleted, they are sent back from heaven.  The Pitars are the ancestors.  It is good to harbor thoughts of gratefulness toward them, but undue concern with their welfare is detrimental.  Those who engage in the ancestor worship go to the abodes of their ancestors after death.\nThose in the mode of ignorance worship ghosts and spirits.  In the Western world, there is witchcraft; in Africa, there is black magic; in India, there are vām-marg tāntrics, who invoke ghosts and spirits.  Shree Krishna says that persons who indulge in such things take birth amongst ghosts and spirits in their next life.\nThe highest devotees are those who attach their minds to the Supreme Divine Personality.  The word vrata means resolve and undertaking.  Such fortunate souls, who firmly resolve to worship God and engage steadfastly in His devotion, go to His divine Abode after death." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.26", "verse": "26", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति |\nतदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन: || 26||", "text": "पत्रं पुष्पं फलं तोयं यो मे भक्त्या प्रयच्छति |\nतदहं भक्त्युपहृतमश्नामि प्रयतात्मन: || 26||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_026.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "If one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even water, I delightfully partake of that item offered with love by My devotee in pure consciousness.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-26.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.26.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Having established the benefits of worshipping the Supreme, Shree Krishna now explains how easy it is to do so.  In the worship of the devatās and the ancestors, there are many rules to propitiate them, which must be strictly followed.  But God accepts anything that is offered with a loving heart.  If you have only a fruit, offer it to God, and He will be pleased.  If there is no fruit available, offer Him a flower.  If it is not the season for flowers, offer God a mere leaf; even that will suffice, provided it is a gift of love.  If leaves are also scarce, make an offering of water, which is available everywhere, but ensure again that you do it with devotion.  The word bhaktyā has been used in both the first and second lines of the verse.  It is the bhakti of the devotee that is pleasing to God, and not the worth of the offering.\nBy making this wonderful statement, Shree Krishna reveals the merciful divine nature of God.  He is not concerned with the material value of our offering.  Rather, He values, above everything else, the love with which we make the offering.  Thus, the Hari Bhakti Vilas states:\ntulasī-dala-mātreṇa jalasya chulukena cha\nvikrīṇīte svam ātmānaṁ bhaktebhyo bhakta-vatsalaḥ   (11.261)\n“If you offer God with sincere love, just a Tulsī leaf and as much water as you can hold in your palm, He will offer Himself to you in return because He is endeared by love.”  How wonderful it is that the Supreme Master of unlimited universes, whose glorious qualities and virtues are amazing beyond description, and by whose mere thought multitudes of universes come into existence and disappear again, accepts even the most humble offering of His devotee that is given with genuine love.  The word used here is prayatātmanaḥ, implying, “I accept the offerings of those whose hearts are pure.”\nThe Shreemad Bhagavatam contains exactly the same verse as the above verse of the Bhagavad Gita.  While eating dry rice at the house of His friend, Sudama, Shree Krishna said:\npatraṁ puṣhpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayachchhati\ntadahaṁ bhaktyupahṛitam aśhnāmi prayatātmanaḥ   (10.81.4)\n“If one offers Me with devotion, a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even water, I delightfully partake of that article offered with love by My devotee in pure consciousness.”\nWhenever God descends upon the earth, He exhibits this quality in His divine Pastimes.  Before the Mahabharat war, when Shree Krishna went to Hastinapur to explore the possibility of fashioning an agreement between the Kauravas and Pandavas, the evil Duryodhan had proudly prepared for Him a meal with fifty-six different items.  However, Shree Krishna rejected his hospitality and instead went to the humble hut of Vidurani, who had been longing deeply for the opportunity to serve her beloved Lord.  Vidurani was overjoyed on receiving the Supreme Lord at her home.  All she had to offer was bananas, but her intellect so benumbed with loving sentiments that she did not even realize she was dropping the fruit and putting the banana peels in His mouth.  Nevertheless, seeing her devotion, Shree Krishna blissfully ate the peels, as if they were the most delicious food in the world." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.27", "verse": "27", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |\nयत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् || 27||", "text": "यत्करोषि यदश्नासि यज्जुहोषि ददासि यत् |\nयत्तपस्यसि कौन्तेय तत्कुरुष्व मदर्पणम् || 27||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_027.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as oblation to the sacred fire, whatever you bestow as a gift, and whatever austerities you perform, O son of Kunti, do them as an offering to Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-27.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.27.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "In the previous verse, Shree Krishna stated that all objects should be offered to Him.  Now He says that all actions should also be offered to Him.  Whatever social duties one may be engaged in, whatever vegetarian food one may be eating, whatever non-alcoholic beverages one may be drinking, whatever Vedic rites one may perform, whatever vows and austerities one may observe, should all be offered mentally to the Supreme Lord.  Very often, people separate devotion from their daily life, and look on it as something that is only to be performed inside the temple room.  However, devotion is not to be restricted to the periphery of the temple room; it is to be engaged in at every moment of our life.\nSage Narad defines bhakti in this manner:\nnāradastu tadarpitā khilāchāratā tadvismaraṇe paramavyākulateti\n(Nārad Bhakti Darśhan, Sūtra 19)\n“Devotion means offering your every activity to God, and feeling intense separation if ever you lose remembrance of Him.”  When works are dedicated and mentally delivered to God, it is called arpaṇam.  Such an attitude metamorphoses the mundane activities of material life into divine service of God.  Swami Vivekananda expressed this attitude toward work when he declared: “No work is secular.  Everything is devotion and service.”  Saint Kabir stated this in his couplet:\njahañ jahañ chalūñ karūñ parikramā, jo jo karūñ so sevā\njaba sovūñ karūñ daṇḍavat, jānūñ deva na dūjā\n“Wherever I walk, I feel I am circumambulating the Lord’s temple; whatever I do, I see it as service to God.  When I go to sleep, I meditate on the sentiment that I am offering obeisance to God.  In this way, I remain ever united with Him.”  Without realizing its significance, many people say the following verse in temples:\nkāyena vāchā manasendriyair vā buddhyātmanā vānusṛita-svabhāvāt\nkaroti yad yat sakalaṁ parasmai nārāyaṇāyeti samarpayet tat\n(Bhagavatam 11.2.36)\n“Whatever one does with body, words, mind, senses, and intellect, in accordance with one’s individual nature, should be offered to the Supreme Lord Narayan.”  However, this act of offering is not to be done at the end of the work by merely reciting mantras, such as śhrī kṛiṣhṇāya samarpaṇam astu, etc., as is done in the Vedic rituals.  It is to be done while performing the action itself, by maintaining the consciousness that we are working for the pleasure of the Lord.  Having stated that all works should be offered to Him, Shree Krishna now lists the benefits of doing so." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.28", "verse": "28", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनै: |\nसंन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि || 28||", "text": "शुभाशुभफलैरेवं मोक्ष्यसे कर्मबन्धनै: |\nसंन्यासयोगयुक्तात्मा विमुक्तो मामुपैष्यसि || 28||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_028.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "By dedicating all your works to Me, you will be freed from the bondage of good and bad results. With your mind attached to Me through renunciation, you will be liberated and will reach Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-28.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.28.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Every action has defects, just as fire is covered by smoke.  When we walk on the earth, we unknowingly kill millions of tiny living entities.  In our occupational duties, no matter how careful we are in the fulfillment of our duties, we still end up harming the environment and hurting others.  Even if we eat a cup of yogurt, we still incur the sin of destroying the living entities that reside in it.  Some religious sects try to reduce this involuntary killing by tying a cloth over their mouth.  Even this does not fully eliminate the destruction of living entities in our breath.\nWhen we perform our actions with the intention of fulfilling our self-interest, we are culpable for the sins we commit, knowingly or unknowingly.  In accordance with the law of karma, we have to reap their karmic reactions.  Good works can also be binding because they oblige the soul to go to the celestial abodes to enjoy their results.  Thus, both bad and good karmas result in the continuity of the cycle of birth and death.   However, in this verse, Shree Krishna gives a simple solution for destroying all karmic reactions of work.  He uses the word sanyās yog, meaning renunciation of selfishness.  He says that when we dedicate our actions for the pleasure of the Lord, we are freed from the fetters of both good and bad results.\nThose who establish themselves in such consciousness are called yog yuktātmā (united in consciousness with God).  Such yogis become jīvan mukt (liberated in consciousness) even in this body.  And, upon leaving their mortal frame, they receive a divine body and eternal service in the divine Abode of God." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.29", "verse": "29", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रिय: |\nये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् || 29||", "text": "समोऽहं सर्वभूतेषु न मे द्वेष्योऽस्ति न प्रिय: |\nये भजन्ति तु मां भक्त्या मयि ते तेषु चाप्यहम् || 29||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_029.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "I am equally disposed to all living beings; I am neither inimical nor partial to anyone. But the devotees who worship Me with love reside in Me and I reside in them.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-29.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.29.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "We all intuitively believe that if there is a God, He must be perfectly just; there cannot be an unjust God.  People suffering injustice in the world make statements such as, “Mr. Billionaire, you have the power of money on your side. Do what you like.  God will settle our dispute.  He is watching and will definitely punish you.  You cannot escape.”  This sort of statement does not indicate that the person making it is a saint, possessing absolute faith in God, for even common persons believe that God is perfectly just.\nHowever, the previous verse by Shree Krishna creates the doubt that God is partial toward His devotees, because while everyone is subject to the law of karma, God releases His devotees from it.  Isn’t this symptomatic of the defect of partiality?  Shree Krishna feels it necessary to clarify this point and begins the verse by saying samo’ ham, meaning, “No, no, I am equal to all.  But I have a uniform law in accordance with which I bestow My grace.”  This law was previously stated in verse 4.11: “In whatever way people surrender unto Me, I reciprocate accordingly. Everyone follows my path, knowingly or unknowingly, O son of Pritha.”\nThe rainwater falls equally upon the earth.  Yet, the drop that falls on the cornfields gets converted into grain; the drop that falls on the desert bush gets converted into a thorn; the drop that falls in the gutter becomes dirty water; and the drop that falls in the oyster becomes a pearl.  There is no partiality on the part of the rain, since it is equitable in bestowing its grace upon the land.  The raindrops cannot be held responsible for this variation in results, which are a consequence of the nature of the recipient.  Similarly, God states here that He is equally disposed toward all living beings, and yet, those who do not love Him are bereft of the benefits of His grace because their hearts are unsuitable vessels for receiving it.  So, what can people do whose hearts are impure?  Shree Krishna now reveals the purifying power of bhakti." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.30", "verse": "30", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् |\nसाधुरेव स मन्तव्य: सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि स: || 30||", "text": "अपि चेत्सुदुराचारो भजते मामनन्यभाक् |\nसाधुरेव स मन्तव्य: सम्यग्व्यवसितो हि स: || 30||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_030.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Even if the vilest sinners worship Me with exclusive devotion, they are to be considered righteous because they have made the proper resolve.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-30.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.30.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Devotion to the Supreme Lord is so potent that it can reform even the most fallen.  In the scriptures, the classical examples of this are Ajamil and Valmiki, whose stories are commonly sung in all Indian languages.  Valmiki’s impious deeds were so overbearing that he was unable even to enunciate “Ra..ma,” the two syllables in Lord Ram’s name.  His sins were preventing him from taking the divine Name.  So, his Guru thought of a way of engaging him in devotion by making him chant the reverse, “Ma Ra,” with the intention that repetition of “Mara Mara Mara Mara…” will automatically create the sound of “Rama Rama Rama…”  As a result, even such a fallen soul as Valmiki was reformed by the process of ananya bhakti (exclusive devotion) and transformed into a legendary saint.\nulaṭā nāmu japata jagu jānā, bālmīki bhae brahma samānā.  (Ramayan)\n“The whole world is testimony to the fact that Valmiki attained sainthood by chanting the syllables of God’s Name in the reverse order.”  Therefore, sinners are not condemned to eternal damnation.  On the strength of the transforming power of bhakti, Shree Krishna declares that even if the vilest sinners begin worshipping God exclusively, they should no longer be designated as sinners.  They have made a pure resolve and should thus be considered righteous due to their sublime spiritual intention." }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.31", "verse": "31", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति |\nकौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्त: प्रणश्यति || 31||", "text": "क्षिप्रं भवति धर्मात्मा शश्वच्छान्तिं निगच्छति |\nकौन्तेय प्रतिजानीहि न मे भक्त: प्रणश्यति || 31||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_031.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Quickly they become virtuous, and attain lasting peace. O son of Kunti, declare it boldly that no devotee of Mine is ever lost.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-31.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.31.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "How can devotees be considered venerable, merely for having made the correct resolve?  Shree Krishna explains that if they continue the process of exclusive devotion with unflinching faith in God, their hearts will become purified and they will swiftly develop saintly virtues.\nDivine virtues emanate from God Himself.  He is perfectly just, truthful, compassionate, loving, merciful, etc.  Since we souls are His tiny parts, we are all naturally drawn to these godly qualities.  But the process of becoming virtuous remains an elusive mystery.  From childhood, we have heard that we must speak the truth, serve others, be free from anger, etc. and yet we are unable to put those teachings into practice for the simple reason that our mind is impure.  Without purification of the mind, blemishes of character cannot be eradicated fully and permanently.  Jagadguru Shree Kripaluji Maharaj declares the irrefutable truth regarding developing divine virtues:\nsatya ahinsā ādi mana! bina hari bhajana na pāya\njala te ghṛita nikale nahīñ, koṭina kariya upāya   (Bhakti Śhatak verse 35)\n“Oil stains on a cloth cannot be removed by water, no matter how much we try.  Similarly, truthfulness, non-violence, and other virtuous qualities cannot be acquired without engaging in devotion to God.”  These qualities manifest when the mind is purified; and the purification of the mind cannot take place without attaching it to the all-pure God.\nFurther, Shree Krishna asks Arjun to boldly declare that His devotees will never perish.  He does not say, “The jñānī (person of knowledge) will not be lost.”  Nor does He say, “The karmī (performer of rituals) shall not perish.”  He makes His promise for His bhaktas (devotees), saying that “they shall never come to ruin.”  Thereby, He reiterates what He had stated in verse 9.22, that He personally carries the burden of maintaining those who depend upon Him and engage in exclusive devotion unto Him.\nIt may seem intriguing why Shree Krishna asks Arjun to make this statement, instead of declaring it Himself?  The reason is that under special circumstances the Lord sometimes breaks His word, but He never permits His devotees’ word to be broken.  For example, Shree Krishna had resolved that He would not lift weapons during the Mahabharat war.  But when Bheeshma, considered the perfect devotee, resolved that he would either kill Arjun by sunset the next day or make the Lord lift weapons to protect him, Shree Krishna broke His own vow to protect the vow made by Bheeshma.  Thus, to reaffirm the strength of His statement, Shree Krishna here says, “Arjun, you declare that My devotee will never perish, for I shall guarantee that your word will be kept.”" }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.32", "verse": "32", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्यु: पापयोनय: |\nस्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम् || 32||", "text": "मां हि पार्थ व्यपाश्रित्य येऽपि स्यु: पापयोनय: |\nस्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम् || 32||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_032.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "All those who take refuge in Me, whatever their birth, race, gender, or caste, even those whom society scorns, will attain the supreme destination.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-32.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.32.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "There are souls who have the good fortune of being born in pious families, where they are educated in good values and virtuous living from childhood.  This is a consequence of their good deeds in past lives.  Then, there are also souls who have the misfortune of being born in families of drunks, criminals, gamblers, and atheists.  This is also the result of sins committed in past lives.\nHere, Shree Krishna states that irrespective of birth, gender, caste, or race, whoever takes complete shelter of Him will attain the supreme goal.  Such is the greatness of the path of devotion that everyone is eligible for it, whereas in other paths there are strict criteria for eligibility.\nFor the path of jñāna-yog, Jagadguru Shankaracharya states the eligibility:\nvivekino viraktasya śhamādiguṇa śhalinaḥmukukṣhoraiva hi brahma jijñāsā yogyatā matāḥ\n“Only those who possess the four qualifications—discrimination, detachment, disciplined mind and senses, and a deep yearning for liberation—are eligible for practicing the path of jñāna-yog.\nIn the path of karm kāṇḍ (Vedic rituals), there are six conditions to be met:\ndeśhe kāle upāyena dravyaṁ śhraddhā samanvitampātre pradīyate yattat sakalaṁ dharma lakṣhaṇam\n“Six criteria must be fulfilled for the fruition of ritualistic activities—the proper place, the correct time, the exact procedure and correct enunciation of mantras, utilization of pure materials, a qualified Brahmin who performs the yajña, and staunch faith in its efficacy.”\nIn the path of aṣhṭāṅg-yog as well, there are strict regulations:\nśhuchau deśhe pratiṣhṭhāpya   (Bhagavatam 3.28.8)“Perform haṭha-yog in a pure place, while seated immovably in the proper asan.”\nIn contrast, bhakti-yog is such that it can be done by anyone, at any time, place, and circumstance, and with any material.\nna deśha niyamastasmin na kāla niyamasthathā   (Padma Purāṇ)\nThis verse states that God is not concerned with the time or place where we perform devotion.  He only sees the love in our heart.  All souls are the children of God, and He is willing to accept everyone with open arms, provided they come to Him with genuine love.”" }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.33", "verse": "33", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "किं पुनर्ब्राह्मणा: पुण्या भक्ता राजर्षयस्तथा |\nअनित्यमसुखं लोकमिमं प्राप्य भजस्व माम् || 33||", "text": "किं पुनर्ब्राह्मणा: पुण्या भक्ता राजर्षयस्तथा |\nअनित्यमसुखं लोकमिमं प्राप्य भजस्व माम् || 33||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_033.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "What then to speak about kings and sages with meritorious deeds? Therefore, having come to this transient and joyless world, engage in devotion unto Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-33.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.33.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "When even the most abominable sinners are assured of success on the path of bhakti, then why should more qualified souls have any doubt?  Kings and sages should be even more reassured of attaining the supreme destination by engaging in ananya bhakti (exclusive devotion).  Shree Krishna thus beckons Arjun, “A saintly king like you should become situated in the knowledge that the world is temporary and a place of misery.  Engage yourself in steadfast devotion to Me, the possessor of unlimited eternal happiness.  Else the blessing of birth in a kingly and saintly family, good education, and favorable material circumstances will all be wasted, if they are not utilized in the pursuit of the supreme goal.”" }, { "verseTitle": "Bhagavad Gita 9.34", "verse": "34", "chapter": 9, "lang": "en", "shloka": { "speaker": "", "sanskrit": "मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु |\nमामेवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवमात्मानं मत्परायण: || 34||", "text": "मन्मना भव मद्भक्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु |\nमामेवैष्यसि युक्त्वैवमात्मानं मत्परायण: || 34||", "audioLink": "https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/public/audio/009_034.mp3" }, "wordMeanings": "", "translation": { "text": "Always think of Me, be devoted to Me, worship Me, and offer obeisance to Me. Having dedicated your mind and body to Me, you will certainly come to Me.", "hindiAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Tejomayananda/chapter/C9-H-34.mp3" ], "englishAudioLinks": [ "https://www.gitasupersite.iitk.ac.in/sites/default/files/audio/Purohit/9.34.mp3" ] }, "commentary": "Having stressed bhakti, the path of devotion, throughout this chapter, Shree Krishna now concludes it by entreating Arjun to become His devotee.  He asks Arjun to unite his consciousness with God in true Yog, by worshipping Him, engaging the mind in meditation upon His divine form, and offering obeisance in pure humility to Him.\nNamaskuru (the act of humble obeisance) effectively neutralizes vestiges of egotism that may arise in the performance of devotion.  Thus, free from pride, with the heart immersed in devotion, one should dedicate all one’s thoughts and actions to the Supreme.  Shree Krishna assures Arjun that such complete communion with Him through bhakti-yog will definitely result in the attainment of God-realization; of this, there should be no doubt." } ] }