Bhagavat gita adetailed study-chapter 9 -Brahmavidya the royal secret

[Guest guest]

15. jnaanayajnena chapi anye yajantho maam upaasathe

ekathvena prThakthvena bahuDhaa viSvathomukham

 

Others offering knowledge as sacrifice worship Me as one, distinct, many and multifaced.

 

Eko dhevaH sarvabhootheshu goodaH sarvavyaapee sarvabhoothaantharaathmaa. Says the upanishat.

There is only one Brahman who is hidden in all beings, all-pervading and the self of all. This is the idea expressed in the above sloka.

This jnana is the awareness that everything is in God and God is in everything. Jnanayajna denotes the way to acquire this jnana and consists of the yogic disciplines like learning the scriptures, practising the self control and cultivating viveka, discrimination and vairagya, detachment.

Sankara explains the sloka as meaning that some look at the Lord as being one with their self, some as different, some as having different manifestations and others as existent everywhere. The view that the Lord is one is described by him as ekameva param brahma iti, the supreme Brhaman is one only. The view that the Lord is distinct or different means aadhithyachandhaadhibhedhena sa eva bhagvaan vishNuH avasThithaH, the same Lord Vishnu is taking different forms as the Sun and the Moon etc. bahuDhaa and viSvatho mukhaH are treated as one by sankara as meaning bahuDhaa avasThithah sa eva bhagavaan sarvatho mukhaH viSvaroopaH, the same Lord existed as many with face turned everywhere in His cosmic form.

Ramanuja however takes this sloka as a continuation of the previous one describing the great souls who worship the Lord with singing His praise etc., by saying that they also worship the Lord through the knowledge that He is one as well as many. He says bahuDhaa prThakthvena jagadhaakaareNa viSvatho mukham, viSvapraakaaram,avasThitham maam ekathvena upaasathe.

bahuDhaa- in various forms as all beings sentient and insentient, which are His body, thath aikshatha bahu syaam prajayeya.(Chan.up) The one Brahman willed to become many.

viSvathomukham, with faces everywhere denotes the all pervading nature., the cosmic form.

prthkthvena- The Lord is seen as different entities with distinctname and form. anenaroopeNa aathmanaa anupraviSya naama roope vyaakaravaaNi, says the upanishat. "I will enter into these beings as their inner self and give them name and form."

Ekathvena- Those with knowledge and devotion see Lord Vasudeva everywhere . Vaasudhevasssarvam ithi as mentioned earlier (ch.7-19) But also they know that he is one, not many.

The potter knows that it is only clay , yet he also sees the various forms like pot, jar etc. Similarly a goldsmith is able to distinguish between various ornaments though he knows that they are nothing but gold. So too a devotee with knowledge sees the Lord everywhere but is also aware of the different entities as such. But he has the samabuddhi, equal-mindedness in all and is not affected by their differences. He knows that all of them are only the Lord in their essential nature. Sukabrhamarshi was sent to Janaka for acquiring brahmajnana by his father, sage Vyasa, as he himself could not instruct his own son. When he went inside the palace Janaka asked him "What all have you seen on the way to the palace.?" Suka replied that he saw shops, people and roads etc all made of sugar. That is , even though he was aware of the differences in their forms, to him they were all of one essence, sweetness, denoted by sugar because he was full of the joy of Brahman and he saw only that reflected outside. Then Janaka understood that Suka was already a brhamajnani and he took instruction from Suka instead. This is the jnanayajna described in the sloka.