Bg 18.56
sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ
mat-prasādād avāpnoti śāśvataṁ padam avyayam
Bg 18.57
cetasā sarva-karmāṇi mayi sannyasya mat-paraḥ
buddhi-yogam upāśritya mac-cittaḥ satataṁ bhava
Translation
56. Doing all actions, always taking refuge in Me, by My grace he obtains the Eternal, Indestructible State or Abode.
57. Mentally renouncing all actions in Me, having Me as the Highest Goal, resorting to the YOGA -of-discrimination, ever fix your mind in Me.
Commentary
The philosophy of the Geeta is extremely dynamic. The Song of the Lord is an innocent-looking magazine of power which can be detonated by correct understanding. The warmth of living makes it explode, blasting the crust of ignorance that has grown around the noble personality and its divine possibilities in the student.
Devotion to the Lord (Bhakti), in the Geeta, is not a mere passive surrender unto the ideal, nor a mere physical ritualism. Lord Krishna insists, not only upon our identification with the Higher through an intelligent process of detachment, from both the senses, of "AGENCY" and "ENJOYMENT," but also upon the understanding and the inner experience positively brought out in all our contacts with the outer world, in all our relationships.
Religion, to Lord Krishna, is not fulfilled by a mere withdrawal from the outer world of sense objects, but in a definite come-back into the world, bringing into it the fragrance of peace and joy of the yonder, to brighten and beautify the drab, inert objects that constitute the world. Therefore, after describing one who can be considered as the higher devotee, in this stanza, Krishna now adds another condition to be fulfilled by all seekers.
The Geetaacharya never wants to receive any devotee at His gate, nor will He give an audience to anyone, unless the seeker caries the passport of self-less service to society --- "PERFORMING CONTINUOUSLY ALL ACTIONS, ALWAYS TAKING REFUGE IN ME."
In order to serve without the "sense-of-agency," the practical method is "TAKE REFUGE IN ME." Such a seeker, who is constantly working in fulfilling his obligatory duties to society and towards himself has "My grace" (Mat prasaada).
The Supreme has no existence apart from His Grace; He is His Grace, His Grace is He. The Grace of the Self, therefore, means more and more the play of divine Consciousness in and through the personality layers in the individual. In an individual, to the extent his mind and intellect are available, in their discipline to be ruled over by spiritual truth, to that extent he is under the blessing of His Grace.
HE ATTAINS THE ETERNAL IMMUTABLE STATE --- When thus working in the world, without the sense of agency and enjoyment, the existing vasanas become exhausted and the ego gets eliminated. Awakening thus from the delusory projections of the ego, the individual attains the State of Pure Consciousness and comes to live thereafter the Eternal, Immortal State --- THE KRISHNA-STATE OF PERFECTION.
In the preceding three stanzas the "Paths" of Knowledge, Devotion and Action are indicated, and in all of them the same goal of realising the seeker's oneness with the Supreme has been indicated. Integral saadhanaa is the core of the Geeta technique. To synthesize the methods of Work, Devotion and Knowledge is at once the discipline of the body, mind, and intellect. For, all disciplines PURSUED AT THE BODY LEVEL, in order to control the mind and turn it towards the ideal, are called Karma Yoga; all methods of channelising emotions in order to DISCIPLINE THE MIND to contemplate upon the Higher are called Bhakti Yoga and all study and reflection, detachment and meditation, PRACTISED AT THE INTELLECTUAL LEVEL, whereby, again the mind is lifted to the realm of the silent experience of its own Infinitude are called Jnaana Yoga. To practise all the three during our life is to discipline all the three layers in us. Thus, the philosophy of total spiritual transformation of the perceiver, the feeler and the thinker, all at once, is the prime contribution that the Geeta has to make to the timeless tradition of the Hindu culture, as available for us in the Upanishads.
THEREFORE:
RESIGNING MENTALLY ALL DEEDS TO ME --- Both the ego and the ego-centric anxieties for enjoying are to be renounced at the altar of the Lord, and thus to act in the world is the 'path,' through which a man of action reaches the greater cultural climes. This idea of surrender has been discussed earlier, very exhaustively. This spirit of surrender can come only when the student has infinite courage to maintain a steady aspiration for "HAVING ME AS THE HIGHEST GOAL." The mind needs a positive hold upon something, before it can be persuaded to leave its present props.
RESORTING TO BUDDHI YOGA --- The intellect's main function is discrimination. To discriminate the false from the true, and to fix ourselves on the path of seeking the true, is called Buddhi yoga. Controlling life and regulating its movements through discrimination is Karma Yoga. And thus the term 'Buddhi yoga' is an original coined-word, met with only in the Geeta, to indicate in essence the "Path-of-Selfless-Action." It has been used in the very early portions of the Geeta and there it has been very exhaustively explained.
PLEASE EVER FIX YOUR MIND UPON ME --- One who has fixed Krishna - Tattwa as the goal of his life, one who surrenders himself mentally at all times at this altar, and serves all His creatures, one who ever discriminates and avoids all undivine thoughts and ego-centric self-assertions --- such a one alone can naturally come to fix his thoughts constantly upon the Lord.
It is an eternal law of mental life that "AS WE THINK SO WE BECOME." A devotee who has thus come to live all his activities in dedication to his goal, the Krishna-Consciousness, must necessarily come to live as Krishna, and experience the Eternal, Immutable, State of the Self.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
sarva-karmāṇy api sadā kurvāṇo mad-vyapāśrayaḥ
mat-prasādād avāpnoti śāśvataṁ padam avyayam
Bg 18.57
cetasā sarva-karmāṇi mayi sannyasya mat-paraḥ
buddhi-yogam upāśritya mac-cittaḥ satataṁ bhava
Translation
56. Doing all actions, always taking refuge in Me, by My grace he obtains the Eternal, Indestructible State or Abode.
57. Mentally renouncing all actions in Me, having Me as the Highest Goal, resorting to the YOGA -of-discrimination, ever fix your mind in Me.
Commentary
The philosophy of the Geeta is extremely dynamic. The Song of the Lord is an innocent-looking magazine of power which can be detonated by correct understanding. The warmth of living makes it explode, blasting the crust of ignorance that has grown around the noble personality and its divine possibilities in the student.
Devotion to the Lord (Bhakti), in the Geeta, is not a mere passive surrender unto the ideal, nor a mere physical ritualism. Lord Krishna insists, not only upon our identification with the Higher through an intelligent process of detachment, from both the senses, of "AGENCY" and "ENJOYMENT," but also upon the understanding and the inner experience positively brought out in all our contacts with the outer world, in all our relationships.
Religion, to Lord Krishna, is not fulfilled by a mere withdrawal from the outer world of sense objects, but in a definite come-back into the world, bringing into it the fragrance of peace and joy of the yonder, to brighten and beautify the drab, inert objects that constitute the world. Therefore, after describing one who can be considered as the higher devotee, in this stanza, Krishna now adds another condition to be fulfilled by all seekers.
The Geetaacharya never wants to receive any devotee at His gate, nor will He give an audience to anyone, unless the seeker caries the passport of self-less service to society --- "PERFORMING CONTINUOUSLY ALL ACTIONS, ALWAYS TAKING REFUGE IN ME."
In order to serve without the "sense-of-agency," the practical method is "TAKE REFUGE IN ME." Such a seeker, who is constantly working in fulfilling his obligatory duties to society and towards himself has "My grace" (Mat prasaada).
The Supreme has no existence apart from His Grace; He is His Grace, His Grace is He. The Grace of the Self, therefore, means more and more the play of divine Consciousness in and through the personality layers in the individual. In an individual, to the extent his mind and intellect are available, in their discipline to be ruled over by spiritual truth, to that extent he is under the blessing of His Grace.
HE ATTAINS THE ETERNAL IMMUTABLE STATE --- When thus working in the world, without the sense of agency and enjoyment, the existing vasanas become exhausted and the ego gets eliminated. Awakening thus from the delusory projections of the ego, the individual attains the State of Pure Consciousness and comes to live thereafter the Eternal, Immortal State --- THE KRISHNA-STATE OF PERFECTION.
In the preceding three stanzas the "Paths" of Knowledge, Devotion and Action are indicated, and in all of them the same goal of realising the seeker's oneness with the Supreme has been indicated. Integral saadhanaa is the core of the Geeta technique. To synthesize the methods of Work, Devotion and Knowledge is at once the discipline of the body, mind, and intellect. For, all disciplines PURSUED AT THE BODY LEVEL, in order to control the mind and turn it towards the ideal, are called Karma Yoga; all methods of channelising emotions in order to DISCIPLINE THE MIND to contemplate upon the Higher are called Bhakti Yoga and all study and reflection, detachment and meditation, PRACTISED AT THE INTELLECTUAL LEVEL, whereby, again the mind is lifted to the realm of the silent experience of its own Infinitude are called Jnaana Yoga. To practise all the three during our life is to discipline all the three layers in us. Thus, the philosophy of total spiritual transformation of the perceiver, the feeler and the thinker, all at once, is the prime contribution that the Geeta has to make to the timeless tradition of the Hindu culture, as available for us in the Upanishads.
THEREFORE:
RESIGNING MENTALLY ALL DEEDS TO ME --- Both the ego and the ego-centric anxieties for enjoying are to be renounced at the altar of the Lord, and thus to act in the world is the 'path,' through which a man of action reaches the greater cultural climes. This idea of surrender has been discussed earlier, very exhaustively. This spirit of surrender can come only when the student has infinite courage to maintain a steady aspiration for "HAVING ME AS THE HIGHEST GOAL." The mind needs a positive hold upon something, before it can be persuaded to leave its present props.
RESORTING TO BUDDHI YOGA --- The intellect's main function is discrimination. To discriminate the false from the true, and to fix ourselves on the path of seeking the true, is called Buddhi yoga. Controlling life and regulating its movements through discrimination is Karma Yoga. And thus the term 'Buddhi yoga' is an original coined-word, met with only in the Geeta, to indicate in essence the "Path-of-Selfless-Action." It has been used in the very early portions of the Geeta and there it has been very exhaustively explained.
PLEASE EVER FIX YOUR MIND UPON ME --- One who has fixed Krishna - Tattwa as the goal of his life, one who surrenders himself mentally at all times at this altar, and serves all His creatures, one who ever discriminates and avoids all undivine thoughts and ego-centric self-assertions --- such a one alone can naturally come to fix his thoughts constantly upon the Lord.
It is an eternal law of mental life that "AS WE THINK SO WE BECOME." A devotee who has thus come to live all his activities in dedication to his goal, the Krishna-Consciousness, must necessarily come to live as Krishna, and experience the Eternal, Immutable, State of the Self.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
