Fwd: Clarification on Bhagavad Gita 9:23

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk

wrote:

 

Namaste

 

The shloka 9.23 has a thought about the worship of 'other Gods' not

being the right thing. (*anya-devatA bhaktAH* and *avidhi-pUrvakaM*).

In order to understand it right one has to go further and do a

research-like analysis of shloka 9.27. I am going to do exactly

this in this post.

 

Shloka #27:

yat karoshi yadashnAsi yajjuhoshi dadAsi yat /

yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat-kurushva mad-arpaNaM //

 

Whatever you do, whatever you consume, whatever you offer (into the

Fire) whatever you give (away) and whatever austerity you do, Oh

Arjuna, do that as a dedication to Me.

 

 

In my humble opinion this shloka seems to be the key shloka in the

entire bhakti yoga message of the Gita. Also this key shloka has the

same characteristic as 11.55, about which I have always been saying

(quoting Acharya Sankara himself) that it contains the entire

teaching of the Gita in one shloka.

 

By that commentary on 11.55 of Shankara himself, I contend that

there are exactly five teachings in the Gita:

1. Karma yoga (and the yajna attitude)

2. Reverence to the One Supreme at all times, in all places and from

all aspects.

3. Equanimity or Brahma-bhava

4. Total self-negating Surrender to the Infinite. and

5. Yoga-sAdhanA or Control of the senses to achieve the above.

 

Now take 9.23.

1. Whatever you do you offer it as a dedication to the Lord. This is

the yajna attitude that is the sine qua non of karma yoga.

 

2. Whatever you eat or experience offer it as a dedication to the

Lord. This means none of our experiences is ours; it is all His.

Because He is the One Truth in us. This is the Bhakti yoga. In fact

it says more. It says 'I am not the Experiencer'. So nothing of the

mundane world can touch me.

 

3. Whatever you offer in the Fire do it as a dedication to the Lord.

This means He is the Ultimate goal. There is nothing as prime or as

important as He. Anything intended to be offered to other deities

has to be finally aimed at Him. Everything has to be directed to

Him. He is the Final Refuge. To Him we should surrender everything

including our very individuality.

 

4. Whatever you give away give it as a dedication to Him. In fact

nothing belongs to us. Everything is His. This means there is no

question of mine or yours. It is all His. This is the Equanimity

that Gita teaches as fundamental. Everything is Brahman. There is

no duality anywhere. This is the Brahma-bhava. Brahma-bhava and

Equanimity are both two sides of the same coin. One does not go

without the other.

 

5. Whatever austerity you perform, perform it as a dedication to the

Lord. This is the yoga-sAdhana the right way. Because otherwise, one

would be aiming at a goal to reach. There is no goal to be reached

since our Self is the goal and it is already here. So the control of

the senses that one performs is again an act of dedication.

 

Once we get the above five concepts right, the meaning of *anya-

devatas* in 9.23 will sprout. Anything that is not a dedication to

the Supreme is against 9.27. So that is not right. That is only a

propitiation of the 'other Gods'. So all mundane pursuits will come

under this. So the *anya devatas* really means any pursuit of the

non-self or any of its accessories like the pleasures of the flesh,

they are all only a propitiation of the Ultimate in the wrong way.

 

I am not sure whether I have explained or confused. But I shall just

stop here and await further questions.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " Sunder Hattangadi " <sunderh

wrote:

 

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk@> wrote:

>

>

> Once we get the above five concepts right, the meaning of *anya-

> devatas* in 9.23 will sprout. Anything that is not a dedication to

> the Supreme is against 9.27. So that is not right. That is only a

> propitiation of the 'other Gods'. So all mundane pursuits will

come

> under this. So the *anya devatas* really means any pursuit of the

> non-self or any of its accessories like the pleasures of the

flesh,

> they are all only a propitiation of the Ultimate in the wrong way.

>

 

Namaste,

 

Some additional thoughts occurred to me while absorbing the

invaluable insights above.

 

The force of the word 'anya' can be multiplied several-fold

when its opposite 'ananya' is also taken into consideration.

 

ananya means 'not separate from oneself, or one's own Self'.

If

we refer to all the phrases in the Gita where the word ananya is

used,

we shall discover its special place in advaita.

 

ananyachetaaH satataM yo maa.n smarati nityashaH .

tasyaahaM sulabhaH paartha nityayuktasya yoginaH .. 8\-14..

 

purushhaH sa paraH paartha bhaktyaa labhyastvananyayaa .

yasyaantaHsthaani bhuutaani yena sarvamidaM tatam.h .. 8\-22..

 

mahaatmaanastu maaM paartha daiviiM prakR^itimaashritaaH .

bhajantyananyamanaso GYaatvaa bhuutaadimavyayam.h .. 9\-13..

 

ananyaashchintayanto maa.n ye janaaH paryupaasate .

teshhaa.n nityaabhiyuktaanaa.n yogakShemaM vahaamyaham.h .. 9\-22..

 

api chetsuduraachaaro bhajate maamananyabhaak.h .

saadhureva sa mantavyaH samyagvyavasito hi saH .. 9\-30..

 

bhaktyaa tvananyayaa shakya ahameva.nvidho.arjuna .

GYaatuM drashhTu.n cha tattvena praveshhTu.n cha parantapa .. 11\-

54..

 

ye tu sarvaaNi karmaaNi mayi sa.nnyasya matparaH .

ananyenaiva yogena maa.n dhyaayanta upaasate .. 12\-6..

 

mayi chaananyayogena bhaktiravyabhichaariNii .

viviktadeshasevitvamaratirjanasa.nsadi .. 13\-11..

 

Finally in:

 

yaanti devavrataa devaanpitR^Inyaanti pitR^ivrataaH .

bhuutaani yaanti bhuutejyaa yaanti madyaajino.api maam.h .. 9\-25..

 

Krishna indicates that anything worshipped as separate from the

Supreme

Reality will result in attaining the corresponding result.

 

As Shankara says in Vivekachudamani:

 

http://sanskrit.gde.to/doc_z_misc_shankara/viveknew.itx

 

........

.........

yasmaannaasti sataH paraM kimapi tat{}satyaM sa aatmaa svayaM

tasmaattattvamasi prashaan{}tamamalaM brahmaadvayaM yatparam.h ..

251..

 

" ....Because there is nothing apart from Sat, that is the True, that

is itself the Atman. Therefore, That Thou Art, the Supreme, the

peaceful, the defectless, the non-dual Brahman " .

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder

 

[P.S. Please forgive me for keeping the message short by not

including

the translations of every verse from the Gita.]

 

--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " dhyanasaraswati "

<dhyanasaraswati wrote:

 

Our most respected Professor-ji observes :

 

(Advaita does not preclude Saguna worship. Great advaitins like

Madhusudana Saraswati and Appayya Dikshidar did Saguna Puja

themselves and were strong advocates of specific ritualistic

worship.))

 

True! Very TRUE ! Adi Shankara Bhagvadapada himself established

the 'Shanmatha ' ( six modes of Saguna worship) so much so he was

called Shanmatha Stapakaacharya. Through the saguna worship of the

six

deities (SIVA, VISHNU, SURYA, SURYA, GANAPATHI ) , our beloved

advaita acharya Sankara Bhagavatpada tried to establish the eternal

truth that all the deities ( in whichever form and name we choose -

our ishta devatas) we worship are but manifestations of one supreme

Self - ParaBrahman! ADI SHANKARA also gave them a solid foundation

through his works like PRAPANCHASARA, which describe the MANTRA,

TANTRA & YANTRA of these deities. .

 

All the sixty four nayanmars and shaiva siddhantins like Appar,

TIRUJNANSAMBANDAR , TIRUVACHAKAR etc were all advaitins at heart but

outwardly they worshipped Lord shiva as their ishta nishta .

Tukaram,

who also realized the oneness of Brahman, worshipped his ishta

devata

Sri Panduranga vittala!Who could be more advaitic than bahgwan sri

ramana ? he also worshipped the Lord of Arunachala hills, Sri

Arunachaleshwar. Our own beloved Thakore , a great addvaitin, was

never tired of doing TRI-KALA SANDHYA PUJA TO HIS ISHTA DEVI , MAA

BHAVATARINI. Sri Arunagiri nathar, a brahma jnani , was also a great

devotee of Lord SKANDA/KARTHIKEYA.

 

Sri Mahadevadvaita makes an interesttng statement .

 

(One reason I asked the question was that the Dvaita

contention is that 9:23 means only worship Krishna or Vishnu.

Personally, I worship Shivlinga but I consider Gita to a great gift

of

wisdom to mankind. I consider the Shivlinga to be a symbol of the

infinity that is our own Self. For whatever reason, I am attracted

to " Om Namah Shivaya " )

 

To this a staunch vaishnavite might say 'no problem '! May i recall

a

sloka in this context ?

 

" Akashat patitam toyam sagaram prati gacchati, sarva deva namaskaram

Keshavam prati gacchati "

 

" Just as all the water fallen from the sky goes to the sea,

salutations to all the gods reaches to the one Lord Vishnu ! "

 

and another verse goes

 

" Ruchinam vaichitryad rijukutil nana path jusham; nrinam

ekogamyastvamasi pyasamarnavmiti "

 

" Due to the differences in individual dispositions, people follow

different paths, but you are the only destination of all of them,

just

as the sea is the destination of all the waters " ).

 

This ia a vaishnava premise !

 

But, our beloved adi shankara bhagvadapada sings in Sivananda lahari

verse 4

 

Sahasram varthanthe jagathi vibhutha kshudra phalada

Na manye swapne vaa thadanusaranam that krutha phalam

Hari brahmadeenamapi nikata bhaja masulabham

Chiram yache shambho shiva thava padombhoja

bhajanam

 

" Oh Sambhu, a thousand gods exist in the world, who are

the bestowers of trifling rewards. Not even in my dreams

do I consider following them nor the benefits conferred by

them. Oh Siva, I beg always to worship your lotus feet,

difficult though it is even for Vishnu, Brahma and (such)

others, who have obtained proximity to you. "

 

In this sloka, Adi Shankara is clearly indicating that worship of

lord

shiva is the best form of upasana ! !

 

and a devi bhakta might argue Upasana of Devi is the best because

she

is the one who takes you to the abode of Brahma jnana ! Remember

that

famous story from the Kena upanishads where Uma, the Goddess ,

revealed the truth to Indra, Agni, VARUNA ETC who could not find the

source of that Shining spirit ?

..

" Who is that spirit, " Indra asked her, " whom we have been seeing

here? "

" That is Brahman, the Supreme Spirit, " Uma . " It is all due

to the power of Brahman that you have had victory over the demons,

and have become great. Don't you know that? "

 

Kanchi Paramacharya says :

 

 

" Uma, the Divine Mother, is the personification of pranava (Om). She

is brightness in light and fragrance in flowers. She has the

illumination of a thousand suns and yet has the soothing coolness of

a thousand moons. Along with Isvara, she is the Paramatma-swaroopa

sung by the Vedas. "

 

The point is in whatever form one worships , god/ess appears in that

form! All names and forms are mere instruments to reach the ultimate

Truth !

 

Aum Tat sat

 

--- End forwarded message ---