विवेचन सारांश

The top secret knowledge will purify us and liberate us from the cycle of life and death

By using the word ‘idam’ (this), Bhagavān is implying that HE has already explained about this knowledge, and HE is going to repeating it again here, Bhagavān Shankaracharya ji says in Shankarabhashyam that the entire crux of Bhagavad Gītā is covered in the 3rd and 4th chapters. The remaining chapters are explanations of the concept mentioned in the two chapters. Further he says that the 55th shloka of 11th chapter is the gist of the entire Gītā.

mat-karma-kṛin mat-paramo mad-bhaktaḥ saṅga-varjitaḥ
nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣhu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava

The 18th chapter is considered as the summary of the entire Gītā. Thus, each chapter and each shloka has its own specific identity and significance. However, Sri Krishna assures Arjuna that once he obtains this most secret (guhyatamaṃ) knowledge, he doesn’t need any other knowledge.

Arjuna is referred to as ‘Anasuya’- a person without jealousy. There are three types of jealousy: Irshya, Matsarya, and Asuya. Jealous people focus their energy on finding faults with others, and are not focused on their own development. Bhagavān is saying that such people are not eligible to receive this secret knowledge. HE is willing to bestow this knowledge to Arjuna because he is Anasuya. Arjuna does not find faults in others. Although the Kauravas were wrong, he was against killing them. He asks in the first chapter

sva-janaṁ hi kathaṁ hatvā sukhinaḥ syāma mādhava
How can we kill our own people and be happy?

He has compassion and attachment for his family members, in contrast to the evil Duryodhana. Hence, he is regarded as the Hero of Mahabharat. Bhagavān also acknowledges in the 16th chapter that he has all the 26 divine quaities. Our scriptures advocate that knowledge should be given only to the deserving. In the 18th chapter Sri Krishna asks Arjuna not to share the knowledge of Gita to those who are not inclined to believe it.

idaṁ te nātapaskāya nābhaktāya kadāchana
na chāśhuśhrūṣhave vāchyaṁ na cha māṁ yo ‘bhyasūyati

Bhagavān says that the knowledge should not be shared with those who don't have any interest in it. Even our vedantas insist that a person should have certain qualities to become eligible to obtain the knowledge of the vedantas. One who has studied the vedas and vedangas, either in this birth or previous births alone gets the adhikara or eligibility to learn the advance knowledge explained in our vedantas. A small child cannot aspire to learn subjects of higher classes, because he doesn’t have the basic knowledge to understand the complexities explained in the higher classes. Bhagavān has chosen Arjuna as the Adhikari eligible to receive the Gītā upadesha. HE also chose Arjuna as the nimitthamatra (medium) through whom the knowledge can be shared with the world. We are fortunate that Bhagavān thinks that we are worthy of getting the Gītā knowledge. Hence, we are getting the divine opportunity to learn Gītā and teach Gītā to others.

Jñānaṃ refers to the knowledge gained either by guru’s or by reading scriptures, vedas and vedangas. vijñāna refers to practical realization of the jñānaṃ that was obtained. Saints like Mirabai and Kabirdas did not have any formal education, yet they were well aware of the scriptures, and followed the principles in their daily lives. Pujya Swami Govind Dev Giri Ji Maharaj says one must ‘learn geeta, teach geeta, live geeta’. Learning and teaching Geeta are comparatively easy, but living it is very difficult. Trying to implement the principle of even a single shloka of Gītā may take this entire lifetime or even several lifetimes. One needs to have knowledge of the vedangas to get the true knowledge. The Bamathi commentary of Brahmasutra explains this with an analogy of describing the taste of a sweet to a person who has never tasted it. No amount of explanation would help him experience the taste, unless he practically tastes it.

Shankaracharya ji in his bhashyam has explained how the impact of knowledge of Gītā varies from a jnani and vijnani. For a jnani, knowledge of Gītā  is like any other scripture but for vijnani, it is wonderful beyond the limits. It creates Aascharya  (surprise) to the vijanani because he has got the realisation of the yoga called Gītā.

āśhcharya-vat paśhyati kaśhchid enan
āśhcharya-vad vadati tathaiva chānyaḥ
āśhcharya-vach chainam anyaḥ śhṛiṇoti
śhrutvāpyenaṁ veda na chaiva kaśhchit (2-29)

In this context, Arjuna is the adhikari for vijnana called Gītā and so it is like a surprise to him. A lot of people are learning /chanting Gītā. Some listen to it a thousand times but still cannot understand even a bit of it. So knowing the vijnana is very important.

Bhagavān assures Arjuna that he would be free from this Asubha world. HE considers this samsara as "asubha" because people are sad most of the times. We are always having one or the other desire cropping up in our mind. We lose our peace of mind running after our dersires and trying to satiate them. There is no fulfilment in our lives. We are never satisfied. If we know the reality of the samasara, then we will be free from the thoughts of samsara. Bhagavān says by knowing this vijnana one will be very happy and free from this entangled desires of the samsara. HE talks about the samsara as "Asubhat" in an optimistic way because he wants us to move beyond the three gunas which govern the world, and reach the Supreme.

The supreme Paramātmā is called Satchidananda - ananda swaroopa; we are all ananda swaroopa. But unfortunately due to the tri gunas in this samsara, we are not able to realize the satchidananda in us. Two powers cover the satchinanda swaroopa present in us. Avaran Shakti which covers the anand swaroopa Nikshep Shakti which super imposes over the Aavaran Shakti. Bhagavān also says that the samsara is made up of Maya, Ajnana and Prakṛti, which are synonymous and are quite powerful to drag a sadhak into the illusionary samsara. Only by constant practice of holy scriptures like Bhagavad Gītā, we will be able to defeat the illusions of the samsara and attain liberation. To get detached from the worldly things we need to follow karmayoga, bhaktiyoga and finally jnana yoga. The practice of these yoga is possible through Sravanam, Madhanam and Nidhi dhyasam.

Bhagavān is glorifying the knowledge and by this he is trying to implement interest in the same. Sri Krishna Paramātmā says this vijnana should be learnt with śradda. According to the Bruhadaranyaka upanishad, If we know this truth about the illusionary world then nothing is remaining to be known. When asleep, we enjoy the good dreams and get frightened by bad dreams. But on waking up, the fear is no more there because we know the dream was an illusion. After obtaining the supreme knowledge there is nothing left to know about this illusionary world as we will realise it is not real.

This is the top-most secret knowledge, and cannot be understood in one-go. We need to study several times, and do our Sādhanā by attending parayana conducted by Geeta Pariwar, and continue doing our karma. While doing these daily rituals our mind will be purified and we can control our impurities such as anger, jealousy etc. Sri Krishna Bhagavān says that we should practice Sādhanā /practice jap, tap and dhyana for developing śradda. These are essential to follow as per the Sāṃkhya, vedas and vedanta. 

Bhagavān is imparting this pure, secretive and most important knowledge to Arjuna because he is HIS best friend and devotee. HE says that this knowledge is the greatest purifier. There are 3 purifiers in the samsara - Air, Fire and Water. These purify our surroundings and body.  But Knowledge purifies our mind and also our karmas. There are 3 types of karmas - Sanchit (previous births), Prarabhdha (this birth) and Kriyamana. Sanchit karmas cannot be completely deleted but can be withstood with a strong spiritual mind. Prarabdha karmas cannot be controlled because they are formed due to our sanchit karmas. When we are spiritually strong, we can withstand our sanchit karma phalas and we can control our emotions to a great extent. How can we be spiritually strong? By reading and practicing spiritual scriptures like Bhagavad gītā and implementing it in our daily lives.

Sanchit karma is infinte. we should come into this samsara again and again, and bear all the results of our previous karmas. This cycle of birth and death can be broken only by reading Scriptures like Bhagavad Gītā. The effect of both birth and death is painful and to overcome this pain the jnana of Gītā is very useful. Many lives were lost due to Covid; however, those sadhaks engaged in the spiritual Sādhanā  of learning Gītā were able to overcome the pain of losing dear ones.

We come across the word tattvamasi which means we are same as God . But we do not realize that we are God unless and until our Guru preaches us so. We doubt about the state of being tattvamasi and it is most difficult to realize it. To realize it we need to do Sādhanā and purify our mind. Once our mind is purified the realization comes and we can understand the state of tattvamasi. By obtaining this knowledge and practicing dharma & Sādhanā through jap, tap and dhyana, sages like Meerabai and Kabirdas  got realization easily and got connected with the Paramātmā. Once you imbibe this knowledge and put into practice, it becomes easy to understand the supreme knowledge. If we learn how to drive a car or to ride a bicycle but don't put that into practice, our knowledge will be destroyed. However, this supreme knowledge once acquired with proper Sādhanā is impossible to destroy.

Bhagavān explains the importance of the śradda in this sloka. Gurus and Śāstras are Parama pramana. śradda means having faith or complete trust in the Guru and the scriptures. If one reads a lot of spiritual scriptures without any belief in them, then the sadhaka will not realise the Paramātmā, but will fall into the cycle of birth and death. śradda is the most important character for a sadhaka.

For developing śradda, we should always be alert, conscious and have firm belief in the Guru and sashtras. If we believe in Guru and not study the scriptures, then also we will not realise the Supreme. If we want permanent happiness and want to be liberated from this cycle of birth and death, we should purify ourselves with both Sādhanā and śradda. We need to adopt Bhagavad Gītā into our lives by developing shraddha through continuous efforts, by being vigilant and walking in the right path. 

Thus, in these three slokas, Bhagavān has glorified the knowledge, imparted the supreme knowledge to us and told that if we don’t have any shraddha we will not be reaching HIM, but will repeatedly face the life-death cycles and the painful circumstances.

The vivechan concluded with a Question and Answer session.

Question and Answers:

Kolati Madhavi ji
Q: Inspite of practicing the principles given in Bhagavad Geeta, in daily situations I’m unable to control my anger or my anxious life.
A: Trying is important but as Sri Krishna says in the sloka “Karmanaye Vadhikaraste ma phale kadacana” only doing actions are in our hands. We need to leave the end results to the Paramātmā. We need to do a lot of practice to free ourselves from the sanskaras that we carried from our previous births. Try to reduce the time and intensity of your anger or anxiety gradually. 

Murali ji
Q: How can I be a great person like Ashu bhaiya or Kavitha didi? Although I’m trying I’m unable to become like you.
A: Try to be a better person of yourself instead of becoming the person you’re trying to emulate. Everyday you need to try to be a better person. We can have our role models like Gandhi ji, Vivekananada ji etc. but we dont have to become them. Every person is unique. Our present lives are affected by many previous lives. If we have 80% of some vikara, try to reduce it by 20% each day. 

Ashwanee Dubey ji
Q: How can we sustain the principles? I slip every time even though I try to become better.
A:  When we started to learn how to ride a bicycle we fell many times, but finally we won over riding a bicycle. Similarly, we need to practice the principles till we succeed. We know we have succeeded when our family members notice our changes.