Sunday, March 07, 2010

Gita satsang 7.1 (mayyasakta manaah)

mayy asakta-manah partha
yogam yunjan mad-asrayah
asamsayam samagram mam
yatha jnasyasi tac chrnu || 7.1

Now hear, O son of Prtha [Arjuna], how by practicing yoga in full consciousness of Me, with mind attached to Me, you can know Me in full, free from doubt.


मय्यासक्त मनाः पार्थ यॊगं युंजन् मदाश्रयः ।
असंशयं समग्रं मां यथा ज्ञास्यसि तच्छृणु ॥ 7.1


So far, Krishna explains the ways to procure j~jaana, knowledge.
1) Do your duties without thinking about the fruits, etc., from 3-5 chapters
2) dhyaana - meditation
one is external and the other internal path to reach knowledge.

Now, starting from the 7th chapter, Lord starts explaining the fruit of knowledge! and that is the Lord Himself!!
He starts explaining His greatness, His mahima.

1. यॊगम् युंजन्
While doing yOga - doing yoga in this way - dhyaana yoga and karma yoga, as explained in the previous chapters.
One does his duties; but how?
- does them for the Lord
- without thinking about fruits
- by submitting all his works to Lord
And meditates on the Lord. Everyday and everytime, one is thinking about the Lord.

and how does one meditate?

2. आसक्तमनाः
With a love filled mind, a devoted mind; yoga with a devoted mind
Kamsa and Shishupaala kept thinking about the Lord always - meditated on Him. But how? It was with enmity in their minds.
They used to think about Krishna while sleeping, while waking, while walking and all the while! But it was not through devotion but through hatred and fear.
So, 'yogam yunjan' - perform dhyaana/karma yoga, but with a love-filled, devoted mind - aasaktamana

3. And, मदाश्रयः - One should think that the Lord is the one who is getting all the works done by me, by taking refuge in the Lord, because He is the one who protects.
The person who prays thus and does his dhyaana/karma yoga, will know Him..

4. यथा ज्ञास्यसि तच्छृणु
'Such a person will know Me!'
and how will he know? how much will he know?

5. असंशयं समग्रं
One who does his duty, thinking about the Lord always, with a devoted mind and taking shelter in the Lord, such a person will know Him completely, thouroughly without any doubt!

samagram - Here 'thorough' does not mean that a person can know God thoroughly and completely in the literal sense.
No person can know the Lord completely. Only the Lord can Himself know Him thoroughly.
Here, it means that, one will know the Lord, thorough to his capability, not more.
- One can take the example of the ocean. Can anybody know the ocean thoroughly?
We can take a small spoon to the ocean. Drink and taste the water.
Or we can take a bucket, or a tanker and can fill the container with the water.
The water in the ocean never reduced. But we got an idea of the water in the ocean. We can get an idea of the ocean.
We get water, but, only as much as our container can hold.
- whatever is our capability, our yogyata, only that much is the knowledge.

So, when Lord says, 'you will know Me thoroughly', it means only as much as your capability is!

6. And the Lord says one more thing - असंशयं
'You will know Me beyond doubt, beyond suspicion and disbelief'
We should know the Lord beyond doubts, the way it was known to Prahlada.

While Hiranyakashipu, asks Prahlada, with a sword in his hand, 'Is there a God, other than me?!'
'Yes, for sure'
'Is He here, in this pillar?'
'Yes, for sure'

But, we have only doubts and suspicion regarding God. It starts with
'which God?'
'is He pure bliss? is there no misery?'
'But, as Lord Rama, He has undergone misery!'
'He prayed to God Shiva and installed a Shiva-linga'
Full of disbelief.

It should not be thus. Thats the reason, Krishna says, 'asamshayam', beyond doubt and suspicion.

Madvacharya repeats in His Dwadasha stora, whatever was told by Lord Vedavyasa.

शृणुतामल सत्य वचः परमं शपथेरितमुच्छ्रित बाहुयुगम् ।
I take a solemn oath with both my arms raised high (and say this)
न हरेः परमो न हरेः सदृशः परमः सतु सर्व चिदात्मगणात्॥
There is none superior to Hari, there is not even one similar to Hari. He is the greatest amongst all chethanas.

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