The Bhagavad Gita (11 page)

41-43  “According to the law of
karma,
souls reincarnate in environments befitting their spiritual attainments. Good people (even those who have veered from the spiritual path) go, when they die, to the heaven of those who do good deeds. They dwell there for a number of years and then take birth again, this time into a home that is pure and prosperous. A few of them will be born into a family that is spiritually advanced, but such births are difficult to obtain. When this happens, the good environment draws out their latent spirituality and leads them rapidly toward liberation.

44  
“The ones born into the pure and prosperous houses have the opportunity at first to enjoy the relatively tame desires they held in their former bodies. But as soon as those pleasures are done they feel irresistibly drawn to spirituality by the force of the good habits they strove for in the previous life. Even those who showed only a faint interest, merely inquiring about spiritual matters, progress further than the ones who merely follow the rites and ceremonies of their belief systems unthinkingly, and thus stall their true spiritual advancement.

45  “Through constant spiritual effort over many lifetimes a person becomes purified of all desires and achieves the ultimate goal of becoming one with God. Being a
yogi
means that one is seriously on the path but not necessarily at the end of it. One is a
‘yogi’ during
the process of becoming and should persist birth after birth, until fit for merging with the Supreme Godhead.

46-47  “The
yogi
moving toward Divinity is deemed more highly evolved than ascetics who practice severe penance, higher than the learned ones who know the scriptures, and above the ritualists who perform their rites seeking favors. All of these are to some extent still entangled in desire. So be
a yogi,
Arjuna!

“Know that the
true yogi
has chosen a great yet attainable ideal in life: to turn Godward, to constantly and consciously move toward Divinity — to not simply know about God, but to know God in the fullest sense, to literally become one with the Divine!

“This is the profound plan and purpose of creation that is hidden from most people. Arjuna, be the one who gives Me his whole heart. That
yogi
will be My very own.”

^*
Some details of the ancient methods have of course changed over the years, but the principles are the same.

  1  Krishna says, “LetMe be very clear, Arjuna. It may seem impossible to you, but a mere human can indeed come to know God — not merely
about
God, but to really
know
God. Listen while I explain how to do that: Through devoting your whole mind to Divinity (Me), loving only Me, meditating on Me, and depending wholly on Me as your only refuge, you will, without any doubt, come to know Me in My entirety.

  2  “For this, you will need both knowledge of Divinity
(jnana)
and wisdom of Divinity
(vijnana).
I will give these to you. The difference between them is this: one learns knowledge through the senses and mind — that is,
through sight and thinking; one gains wisdom through direct grasp, through insight and intuition. Knowledge ‘knows’ it at an intellectual level; wisdom ‘realizes’ it fully and is able to apply it in daily living. Once you combine both of these there is nothing more you need to know in this world.

  3  “Only one person in many thousands seeks full God-knowledge. And of these, only one in many thousands truly gains it. Despite these odds, it is the intent of God that all beings are, in the fullness of time, destined to reach this degree of perfection. The rare ones who do attain this level of knowing become indistinguishable from Divinity (Me), and thus achieve liberation.”

4-5  “Listen closely and I will explain the essence of Divinity. First, know that I have two aspects, a lower and a higher. My lower self is the realm of nature
(prakriti).
According to the ancient system of knowing, this is comprised of eight basic components: earth, water, fire, air, ether (space), mind, intellect (higher mind,
buddhi),
and ego. Note that these basic components are arranged in ascending order from gross matter (physical and chemical elements) to the more subtle and refined: mind, intellect, and ego (which is the basic sense of being a physical self). And note that all eight of these components, even the very subtle ones, belong to
prakriti,
the cosmos, the world of nature.

“Beyond this world of nature I have a second, higher aspect that is distinct from all of nature and yet interacts with it. This is My spiritual realm
(Purusha). Purusha
is the life force, the source of consciousness in all beings, and the animator of all life. This mysterious power supports and sustains the entire universe.

6  “The commingling of these two realms, nature (which is inert matter) and spirit (which is life consciousness), is the womb of all beings. Life itself originates in this union of nature and spirit. The entire universe evolves from these two aspects of Me, and will finally dissolve into Me.

7  “I am Pure Consciousness, Arjuna, the underlying essence of all elements and beings. Nothing whatsoever exists separate from My Divinity. There is no power in the cosmos that does not emanate from Me and belong to Me. The entire universe is suspended from Me as if I were the string in a necklace of jewels. The gems may differ vastly, but the force holding them all together, the central thread, is Me, Divinity.

8  “I am the innate nature of everything. In pure water I am the sweet taste. In the sun and moon I am the radiance. In the very center of human beings I live as virility and courage. I am the sacred word
Om,
which designates the Divine, and I am the sound of it heard throughout the universe.

9  “I am the slight, delicate scent, the sweet fragrance of the earth. I am the brilliance in both fire and sun. I am the light of Divinity in all beings. I am the subtle spirit in spiritual practices that gives them their existence — I am the love in the devotee, for example, or the austerity in the ascetic, or the sweet sense of charity in the giver.

10  “I am the primordial seed of all entities, the power of discrimination
(buddhi)
in those who are intelligent, the splendor within all resplendent beings and things.

11  “Of the strong, I am their might and vigor. As I am beyond all attachments, I am the power in unselfish
desire. I am the subtle force in good actions that puts them in harmony with the welfare of humanity. I am the innate urge to help others.”

12  “Arjuna, all of nature consists of three characteristics called
gunas.
The first is goodness
(sattva),
the second is passionate activity
(rajas),
the third is darkness, indolence, inertia
(tamas).
All these come from nature, which is My lower nature. I put on the appearance of this natural world but am separate from it. These three qualities of nature are contained within Me, Divinity, but I am not
in
them in the sense that I need to rely on them in any way. I do not rely on nature, it relies on Me.

13  “The three basic qualities of nature (goodness, passion, and darkness) are like the three primary colors, which combine in an infinite number of ways to create all hues in the universe. These
gunas
likewise combine endlessly to create all of the variety in nature. It all seems ‘real,’ but as it is constantly changing, it is not Real. Due to this
maya
mentality (the illusion that the world is Real), people do not look beyond the veil of illusion to Me, the unchanging consciousness, the Absolute Reality beyond all the worldly; they do not see beyond to Me, the very basis of it all.

14  “This curtain of illusion
(maya)
is hard to see through, Arjuna. Only those who love and depend completely on Divinity are eventually able to see through it.

15  “Those who are unable to see beyond the veil cannot, in effect, discriminate between Real and not-Real. Oblivious to the Reality of their own higher nature (the
True Self Within), they sink to their lower nature and do evil deeds, committing acts that turn them away from Divinity. Not knowing the holy from the unholy, they are of course not devoted to Me, Divinity.”

16  “Four types of people seek a connection with Me: One, the world-weary — people who worship God for the alleviation of physical or mental agony, or to be released from fears and adversity; two, the seekers of happiness through worldly things — people who pray to God to obtain wealth, family, power, prestige, and so forth; three, the seekers of spiritual advancement — people whose motive for connecting with Divinity is to gain knowledge and experience to aid their self-realization; four, the wise — people who truly know the
Atma
(Self), who know that God alone exists, and whose only impulse is for the Divine and nothing else.

17  “Of these, the last is the highest because they know My Truth and are devoted to Me. As I am supremely dear to them, they are very dear to Me. The first three are attached to the worldly objects or mental states they desire.

18  “But certainly all four types are noble, because any reason for turning Godward will in due time lead to spiritual transformation and is therefore ultimately good. The wise ones of the last category, however, are My very Self. They know Me as the essence within themselves and are always with Me. Their devotion stands foremost. As fuel thrown into the fire becomes fire, the wise, absorbed in Me, actually become one with the Godhead, their own Divinity, their one and only goal.

19  “After many a long life of meditation on Me, these wise ones come to Me. They see that all this world is indeed their innermost Self, and realize that God alone puts on the appearance of all phenomena. Such great souls are rare indeed.

20  “Others, hoping to fulfill worldly desires, drift to lesser gods and offer rituals and rites. It is quite easy for them to get to those limited deities but the rewards are correspondingly small. Healing disease, winning litigation, acquiring a position, and other trifling psychic powers are alluring to worldly-caught people. True devotees of the Supreme Godhead give no thought to worldly things. The question of other gods does not even arise in them.

21  “And yet, Arjuna, whatever form of God people choose to worship in good faith, it is I, the Godhead, who makes their faith steady and unwavering. I do this to help them evolve stage by stage along their spiritual paths.

22  “Endowed with that steady faith, they get what they pray for. The objects they receive are, in reality, dispensed by Me. The needs of all beings are fulfilled only through Me, the Cosmic Source.