From the seventh chapter onwards Krishna’s focus is on devotion, its wholesome cultivation. In the first six chapters, he exposed the truth of the immortal Soul. He assumed the role of the Teacher in response to the submission and enquiry by Arjuna.
Arjuna had confessed that he was thoroughly confused, unable to think rationally and arrive at the norms of propriety about what he must do (dharma-sammudha-cetah). He submitted that he was only a student and seeker – to be precise, a disciple of Krishna. Placing Krishna on the pedestal of his Guru and Instructor, in all humility, he sought instruction to get rid of his delusion and weakness.
Recognizing Guru as the Supreme
The dialogue that followed was thus between a Teacher and his disciple. The context should not be forgotten.
For a seeker of the supreme Truth, the ultimate Reality, the only source of guidance and redress for his difficulties and confusions, is the Knower. The Knower excels in his knowledge and realization. He exemplifies it. The place of the Teacher cannot be over-emphasized in spiritual seeking. It is indeed holy and wholesome! The devotional fervour, hope and confidence, the discipleship would instill in the seeker, are ineffable.
When one takes to spiritual wisdom and wholesome sadhana, all religious practices and compulsions would cease abruptly, and all religious concepts would undergo a thorough transformation. In the place of religious practices, will reign devotion to the Guru, thoughts and reflections on him. The surrender to the Guru becomes a great refuge – in fact, the only source of strength and confidence. In all instances of doubt and indecision, the personality of the Guru, the sovereign power of his words, would alone come to the mind of the disciple, providing him inspiration, reliance and hope.
This ‘mat-paratva’ (regarding Me, the Guru, as the Supreme), Krishna referred to for the first time in the 2nd chapter, is not anything unique with Krishna and Arjuna alone. It is a general note found in the relationship between a great Master and his excellent disciples. Holding the Teacher as the Supreme and finding refuge in him, is the essence and content of spiritual seeking.
Whenever the seeker finds it difficult to understand and practise some concepts, develop some attitudes or orientations, due to his own mental and intelligential resistance, the best for him will be to invoke his allegiance to the Guru and find the necessary strength, compulsion and inspiration. Such identification and fondness will make the pursuit easy for him and speed up his advancement.
Even today, the progress a seeker makes all by himself, is far different from what he achieves in close association of his Guru. The effects of Guru-bhakti and Guru-sanga on the sadhaka and his sadhana are inestimably great and invaluable.
In the 3rd chapter, Krishna asks Arjuna to depend wholesomely on the Teacher in order to free the mind from the clutches of prakrti’s gunas (natural tendencies). He said: “Renounce all actions to Me, the Teacher. I stand to accept them, and absolve you (3.30).” Whenever faced with difficulties and doubts, the seeker should bring in the Teacher to the mind, as the ultimate refuge and source of inspiration. Without such a support and anchor, the spiritual effort may prove hard, prolonged.
But when he concluded the 3rd chapter, Krishna’s exhortation was purely Self-based, independent and wholesome: “Knowing clearly the Soul, which is superior even to the intelligence, gain the strength to contend the enemy of desire and all its creations, like anger and fear.” He did not make any reference to the Teacher at the time.
With the 3rd chapter, the message of Bhagavad Gita was complete. How to fight the war without incurring sin, how to attain mental clarity, freedom and fulfillment, despite the severest interactional involvement, was made clear to Arjuna. In fact, nothing further was required for the Kurukshetra event. As concluding remarks after the exposition, Krishna began to narrate how the spiritual wisdom and message he was delivering, originated. In other words, he was citing the vamsa-parampara – the lineage of instructors.
But Arjuna expressed doubt about the sequence Krishna referred to, in tracing the lineage. Naturally Krishna had to clarify. So the narration about the lineage became a prelude to the further discussion, the 4th chapter.
In the 4th chapter there is a mixture of pure philosophy and personal refuge. All the contradictions and conflicts of the world are indeed complementary. The gentle and the cruel, the meek and the valiant, the good and the bad – all have their distinct place in the overall complexity of the world. The benevolent notes do not cause alarm. But the opposites do, sometimes desperately. So a special assurance and empowerment will be needed for the seeker to face the difficulties and hazards.
Krishna thus said that despite the upsurge of the evil, threatening the harmony of existence, the good and the noble too would assert themselves from time to time. The needed balance for the preservation and prevalence of creation will be ensured. As ascend the good, so too may evil arise sometime. This is inevitable. But the law and process of Nature will contend such upsurges to restore order and harmony. Remember, the world and creation have existed for countless millennia.
Even on hearing about this unfailing law of balance and harmony, some minds do not feel confident and assured. To help and strengthen the disciple’s mind, to facilitate seeking, Krishna as an effective Teacher comes out with his Godly or divine assurance: “I myself will come and do the task of protecting the noble and destroying the ignoble.”
In fact, it is the responsibility of the creative and preservative forces to ensure this balance. What Krishna promises to do, will be done by the laws of Nature. He puts the stamp of “I” in the statement, only to make it more consoling to his disciple. It is not anyone in particular doing anything. Instead it is the overall process and sequence that bring about both rise and fall of these forces.
The spiritual laws and truths have no objective verification. They are subjective. Some minds with the requisite depth and dimension alone get to know these in the spiritual levels of perception. To know them is equally to stand as proof and testimony for them. For, there cannot be any other way to access these truths and laws.
Thus, when the Teacher reveals a spiritual law or truth, it equally means that his perception or realization of it is itself the evidence for it. To say, “This is the law, ” is as much to say, “this is the law I stand for, I implement and live”. This is how the spiritual Teachers themselves become the Personification of what they reveal to the seekers.
Such statements can be made by any Spiritual Knower and Teacher. It is quite common and usual in spiritual communication. To highlight these personal Godly assurances in their simple devotional meaning, and to ignore the more important messages in the exposition, would be gravely wrong and disastrous. Students and readers of Bhagavad Gita must understand this fundamental point.
Hindu Dharma is unlike the world-religions. It is not at all a religion in its usual sense. Neither does it revolve on any one teacher, prophet or proponent. It evolved as an elevated way of living, long before humanity elsewhere on earth knew anything like religion.
Approaching the Knowers of Truth
Krishna also said that the knowing process is something very subtle. Often the seeker may have doubts and contradictions and he looks for timely clarity and insight. Whenever so required, he should, Krishna says, approach the Knowers of Truth (tattva-darsi), ever available in our land. Without such Knowers, the spiritual wisdom and pursuit would not be possible at all. Krishna’s words in this regard are:
To know That, go to a Knower – the Seer of Truth; prostrate before him, inquire from him with humility, and serve him fondly with all attention. The Knowers of Truth will then instruct that supreme Knowledge to you.
This is a clear statement that there will always be Knowers of Truth to guide the seekers and students, as does Krishna in the case of Arjuna. The scene may not be of war. The seeker may not be a warrior, nor the instructor another warrior. Like Vasishtha, Angiras, Uddalaka, Yajnavalkya, Valmiki, Vyasadeva and the rest, it may be Knowers of various levels, kinds and predilection. But someone or the other will be there at all times. As arises the need, so will be the means to fulfil it.
At the end of the 5th chapter, Krishna strikes a fuller note. He stands as the Lord of all yajnas (bhoktaram yajna-tapasam), the Lord of the world (sarva-loka-mahesvaram), the Friend of one and all (suhrdam sarva-bhutanam). Only when one feels a Lordly dimension, and finds the whole universe, however various and complex it be, as an extension of the Self, his declaration as a friend and refuge of all, will be meaningful. This is where the narrow, individual mind sheds all its constrictions to beget a universal dimension and vision. In fact, this is the supreme gift of spiritual sadhana and enlightenment.
Such Lordly dimensions can be owned only by a great Teacher, the Guru. None else can represent these. Besides such a Teacher, no visible, personal God will materialize any time. God has never come down to be visible, except as the Guru, Knower and Teacher.
In the 6th chapter, Krishna made a thorough discussion on sannyasa and meditation as the means to gain the loftiest spiritual vision. While describing in terms of the Self, how this vision works (6.29), he touched a personal note. “To see Me everywhere, and everything in Me, is the pinnacle of spiritual vision, ” he said. Who except the Teacher can make such a reference? To encourage, console and inspire the seeker, Krishna assures (6.30): “I do not get lost (for the devotee), nor does he get lost for Me”.
Thus you will find that Krishna represents an excellent saintly Teacher. Now and then he also strikes the Godly dimension to give additional inspiration and strength. But till the end of the sixth chapter, by and large, he has taken the Teacher’s position and status alone, which he verily is. From the 7th chapter, the note changes. In the first six chapters of Bhagavad Gita the emphasis is on karma and yoga. The next six chapters display a dominant devotional note. Each chapter from the seventh onwards reveals progressively loftier notes of devotion and piety, climaxed by the Godly dimension of ‘visvarupa-darsana’ in the 11th chapter, and the ‘ananya-bhakti’ and ‘bhakta-lakshanas’ in the 12th chapter.
When Guru displays Godly dimension
Propounding spiritual truths and laws, from the third person level, is the first phase of a Teacher and Guide. The next phase is to describe and explain the same with the Godly note of First person. The first may appeal to some. But the second has its need and appeal, perhaps to more people.
Right in the first verse of chapter 7, Krishna makes this timely ascent, from the Teacher dimension to the Godly dimension, pronounced. The intention is quite clear – Arjuna and those like him must feel sufficiently inspired and strengthened by the instructions. From now on what Krishna speaks is to suit and fulfil this additional enriching mission. He says:
Arjuna, know well how the seeker with his mind riveted to Me, pursuing Yoga depending and relying upon Me wholesomely, comes to know Me in all entirety without any doubt.
Krishna does not speak of the Soul. On the other hand, he points to himself. He asks Arjuna to make his mind rest upon him, the Teacher, and then pursue the yoga. The aim of the Yoga, he now says, is to know the Teacher himself in all his fullness. What does this mean?
It is a clear clue that the Teacher represents the supreme Reality, otherwise called God. For one committed to the spiritual path of enquiry and enlightenment, there need not be any other focus. The devotional exclusiveness directed towards the Teacher will itself have its wholesome effect. It will quicken the seeker’s progress and enlightenment.
Any worthy scripture has to take note of the divergent needs and compulsions of the human mind. Even now, it is the promises and assurances of the Bhagavad Gita that sustain devotees and seekers, perhaps more than the direct, subtle, revelations, however clear and forceful they are. This point needs introspection. Only then the great dialogue will have its meaning and purpose.
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(From Essential Concepts in Bhagavad Gita - Volume 4)
