Bhagavatgita- a detailed study-chapter 7-knowledge and experience

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Bhagavatgita– chapter7-knowledge and experience

 

As the first six chapters highlighted the karmayoga the next six chapters elucidate bhakthiyoga while the last six are about jnanayoga. Hence the three shadgas of the Gita consisting of sixcho apters each is also considered to be the highlights of karma, bhakthi and jnana yogas respectively , though all the three are found throughout the Gita in all the eighteen chapters.

 

Sree Bhagavan uvacha

 

1.mayaasakthamanaaH paarTha yogam yunjan madhaaSrayaH

 

asamSayam samagram maam yaThaa jnaasyasi thath SrNu

 

Oh Arjuna, listen how you can know Me without doubt with your mind engrossed in Me and striving for yoga totally dependant on Me.

 

mayyaasakthamanaah refers to one who has withdrawn his mind from all sensual experiences and fixed it only on the Lord.

 

madhaaSrayaH is the one who has become totally dependant on the Lord Himself for his salvation. That is , he follows only the bhakthi marga of total surrender.

 

Yogam yunjan here means the contemplation of the Lord at all times with devotion.

 

2. jnaanam the aham savijnaanam idham vakshyaami

aSeshathaH

 

yath jnaathvaa na iha bhooyo anyath jnaathavyam

avaSishyathe

 

I will tell you about the knowledge along with its experience, once grasping which nothing else needs to be known.

 

Jnana is the knowledge of reality and vijnana is the comprehension of the whole universe as nothing but the Lord. This outlook has been emphasized already in the foregoing chapters as `janma karma cha me dhivyam evam yo vetthi thathavathah,'(Ch.4.9) and `yo maam paSyathi sarvathra sarvam cha mayi paSyathi.(ch.6.30)

 

The foremost among yogis has been described in the sixth adhyaya as the one who worships the Lord as his inner self with full faith Krishna now elaborates on the power and the glory of the Supreme self in the seventh and the next three adhyayas before He manifests in His cosmic form to Arjuna.He says that those whose mind is set on the Lord and practise meditation on Him come to know the real nature of Him. When that knowledge dawns there is nothing more to know. This has reference to the upanishadic statement 'yEna asrutham srutham bhavathi amatham matham avijnAtham vijnAtham,(Chan.6-1-6) That knowledge (about supreme self) through which what is unheard becomes heard, what is unthought of, becomes thought of ,what is unknown becomes known.' This is the promissory statement which precedes the instruction on Brahman which ends with 'thathvamasi, that thou art.

 

The context of the above declaration of the Upanishad is as follows.

Svethakethu, the son of Uddhalaka Aruni, a sage, was sent to gurukula for acquiring knowledge. When he returned he looked a bit arrogant of his learning and his father asked him whether he has learnt all that is to be learned. Svetaketu asked his father what he meant and he said the above sentence `yena asrutham—` When the son told the father that he had not learn it and asked him to instruct it himself Uddhlaka Aruni gave the upadesa which contained the mahavakya .'thath thvam asi.'

 

3. manushyaaNaam sahareshu kaschith yathathi siddhaye

 

yathathham api sidDhaanaam kaschinmaam vetthi

thathvathah

 

One in thousands of men only tries for getting this knowledge and of them only one perhaps knows Me as I am.

 

 

Krishna begins by saying that this knowledge is very rare since there is one in thousand who strives to acquire it among which only one comes to know the reality as it is. Here the words kaschinmAm vetthi thathvathah, only one comes to know Me, in truth' is to be taken to mean the Lord, Brahman of the Upanishads and Narayana of visishtadvaita who is Krishna in reality whose identity only very few had the insight to see.

 

The human life is rare to get as it is said that only after thousand births as other beings one is born as a human. The human life is the only one in which one can aspire for and attain salvation because the effort for yoga is possible on earth only and not in other worlds which are either bhoga bhoomi like heaven where one enjoys the fruits of merit acquired or yaathanaa bhoomi like naraka where one expiates the sins by suffering.

 

Among the humans only it is rare to find one who aspires for salvation because all fall prey for the sensual pleasures and engage in desire motivated activities. Even those who are virtuous they only try to accumulate merit by good deeds and austerities for the fruit of better life here or hereafter. But even among those who strive for yoga, Krishna says that one among them only achieves what he aspire for because there are many a slip between the cup and the lip till the last stage.