Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 37 on 23 April 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVYAM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADA PADME DAYO SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU VASUDE VASUDAM DEVAM KAMSA CHARNURAM ARDHANAM DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGAD GURUM SARVO PANISHADO GAVO DOGDA GOPALANANDANA PARTHO VACHA SUDHIR BHOKTA DOGDAM GEETAM RITAM MAHAT MOOKAM KAROTI VACHALAM PANGUM LANGAYATE GIRIM YAT KRIPATAMAHAM VANDE PARAMANANDAMADHAVAM We are discussing the 63rd verse of the Bhagavad Gita. ITITE JNANAM AKHYATAM GUHYAD GUHYATARAMAYA IMRUSHYA ETAT ASESHENA YATHE CHASI TATHAKURU The Lord is beautifully putting forward, thus has this wisdom, more secret than secrecy itself, been imparted to you by me. Fully pondering over it, do as you like. We had discussed many details of this, so I have been giving you this wisdom. What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom? Even though commonly we use the word, O Lord, grant me discrimination, dispassion, and devotion, and knowledge. Knowledge often remains unutilized, not to put to practical use. Intellectually, we understand, but practically, we do not derive any benefit because we do not use it, really speaking, apply it to our day-to-day life situations. And we have to do that. The Lord is claiming, I have spoken to you completely, nothing has been covered, nothing has been hidden, nothing has been stopped by me. I have unveiled everything to you without keeping even a little bit a secret. From where to where? From verse 11th in the second chapter up till now. I have given you the best. And what type of wisdom is that? Guhyad Guhyataram. It is even more secret than secret itself. What is secret? And Bhagawan Shankara comes to our aid in this connection. He says, what is the secret? Secret is, you are looking for something throughout your transmigrationary period, outside you. But you have forgotten, you are the one whom you are seeking. Why am I seeking myself? Because I am the source of eternal life. I am eternal life. I am infinite wisdom. And I am infinite and eternal bliss. But forgetting my own nature, I am seeking as it were. As they say, like the Kasturi Muruga, there is an animal from whose navel a beautiful fragrance comes out and it is searching everywhere, not understanding and it is coming from its own Self. But the moment it comes to know, it will stop all search. This is the most open secret. You are the one whom you are seeking. I am the one whom I want to know and I want to be my own Self. That is the secret of secrets. Somebody told a beautiful story. Two people were travelling in a train. One person was carrying a huge load of money and there was another person who was a thief who decided to steal it. And this person who has this money, he has been nicely asleep. The thief got up, searched everywhere beneath him, underneath him, in his pockets, but he could not find out. So disappointed, he went and slept. The next morning when he got up, he found the merchant counting all his money. This happened consecutively for three days. And at the end of the third day, the thief had confessed everything to him and said, Sir, where are you hiding this money? And this man has said, I am hiding it under your pillow because you will be searching, I know. You wanted to steal that also, I know. So the only place you will never search is under your pillow. Why? Because you know very well that there is nothing under my pillow. That was what you were thinking. So you would never even think of searching there. Man is searching everywhere. Every living creature is searching everywhere. And this search is called search for freedom. Swami Vivekananda says, freedom is the song that every soul is singing from birth to death. I want to be free. I want to be free. But it is searching in the wrong place. But this very search will bring down the grace of God. And then he says, my child has been searching for himself, for me, means for himself, and he is tired. And he doesn't know. Why? Because it is because of my own Maya. I have covered him, his sight, his wisdom, with my own Maya. Therefore, he has directed all his energies outside, not inside himself. The Brahma created every creature with outward looking sense organs. Therefore, all the time he is searching. Perhaps I will get it here. Perhaps I will get it here. But a person becomes wise after some time. Nobody becomes wise from the beginning. Everybody has to go through this rigmarole. And when the person gets tired, wisdom dawns upon him. Perhaps I am searching in the wrong place. I have been searching outside. Let me now try to search within. He directed his entire concentration towards searching within himself. And very soon, he found it. What did he find? Amrutatvam, immortality. Children of immortal bliss. That is the message of Gita. That is the message of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda. Every prophet, every saint, every God-realized soul. So, Arjuna, I have taught you everything. Now, he says, you will have to ponder over it. You will have to think deeply. You will have to make it your own. What I have given belongs to me. But now, I have given it to you. But you have to make it your own. You have to have complete faith in it. You will have to apply it to every situation in life. And then, only that knowledge, that wisdom will be yours. And then, in the end, he says, Now, you do what you like. I explained this in my last class. That means, you just neglect my teaching. No. Once knowledge comes, there is no freedom for us. Once we know this is poison, then it will not allow us to use it. Because nobody wants to die. So, there is no option but to turn inward. That means to turn towards God. And then, there are two ways out there. What is it? Do you want to discharge your duties? Do everything with spiritual attitude or without spiritual attitude? With Karma Yoga or without Karma Yoga? That is the first choice. What is it? Do you want spirituality or not? Man understands spirituality is the only way out. Then, if I want to become spiritual, if I want to know the truth, what shall I do? I must perform, start with not Jnana Yoga but with Karma Yoga. Start with Karma Yoga. Let my heart be purified. Then, there are open four ways. Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Rajya Yoga and Jnana Yoga. Whole life, go on performing Karma Yoga. I want only God. Or, let me adopt the methodology of devotion. Or, let me train, strengthen my will and direct it towards God. Or, let me apply my intellect, uniting it with every thought, every action, every word I speak only towards God. So, you have a choice. It is called very curiously, choiceless choice. Really, there is no choice. We don't have freedom. Supposing a person says, I would like to be a worldly person forever and ever. That's not going to happen because every seed is potentially the future plant. It cannot but help. For a short time, it may lie without doing anything. But, the moment it comes into contact with soil at the right time and it is bound to come, nobody can stop it. Nobody can stop its sprouting, its growing, growing towards the sun and becoming full-fledged tree and yield the fruits which it is supposed to yield. So, from the very mouth of the Lord, it is coming. It is coming. Thus, that means to complete. I have completed this Gita teaching. The highest wisdom without keeping anything back. I have told you in the simplest manner. I have not told you in a manner that you will never understand it. You will understand. Even a child can understand. And you have got the choice. You are definitely going to put it into practice. Everybody is going to put it into practice sooner or later. I have shown you. And what type of thing? It is open. It is available everywhere. But, people's eyes cannot see excepting what they want to see. When we become purified, then we will see. Nowadays, many things are there. These are called optical illusions. You see something, and recently I saw in one animal, there are at least 16 animals hidden there. And when they give the hint, there are many animals. They won't tell you at the beginning. With that idea, Oh, it is not one animal. It is many animals. And then you go on seeing. Slowly, your eyes will get accustomed, focused, and discover a few. But a person must be very intelligent to discover all the 16 meant by the person who created that illusion. This whole samsara is a terrible illusion. In this, everything is there. Many things are there. We see many things. But in this illusion, we miss one thing. And that one thing is the Divine Lord. And that one thing is Brahman. That one thing is my Atman. It is me. I am seeing everything except my real nature. That is why it is called the most secret of all secrets. Maya. I have expounded it. Maya means by me. Who are you? I am the soul of your soul. I am your beloved. Nobody loves you more than me. And it is not one person. I love my knowledgeable people. I love my foolish people. But slowly, I will also train them through the methodology of carrot and stick. And when the stick is there, people do not accept it. But that is the way of the Divine Lord. It is inevitable, inescapable. I have taught you. But on your part, you are supposed to make it your own. Think deeply from every angle and then make it your own. Thereafter, step by step, you must have the discrimination, the wisdom, what is the first step, what is the second step, what is the third step, what is the last step. That is the meaning of Tathe Chasi Tatha Kuru. You decide what you want to do. Not that you have a choice not to do. Not to become spiritual. To become Divine, to manifest one's Divinity, there is no choice. Just as a seed of an apple tree doesn't have any choice excepting becoming no other tree but apple tree. So the Lord says, I exhorted you, Arjuna, to follow any of the several disciplines taught by Me, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, whichever appeals to you. Actually, it is a combination of all, but whichever is dominant. Follow it and purify your heart, become qualified and take up one by one and then you reach Me. You are bound to reach Me even if you don't want. I am not going to leave you a choice that you will be away from Me. I love you so much that I want to make you one with Me. You may not want Me, but I will want you because I know who you are even though you do not know. But when you come to Me, you will recognize this is My real Mother. Now we move into verse 64. The Lord is again telling Arjuna, the quintessence of the whole teaching of the Gita, He is the Lord Krishna. He is practically repeating that which He has said in the 63rd verse. There is nothing much to really think about it. 64th verse. 64th verse. The Lord says, O Arjuna, hear again My supreme word, the most esoteric of all truths. You are extremely dear to Me. Therefore, I shall give you this salutary advice. As I said, repetition in slightly different words is the same idea the Lord has given in the 63rd verse. So what does He say? My words, which are the supreme wisdom. What is supreme wisdom? What is small wisdom? Small wisdom or small knowledge is that which leads to small result, temporary result, very ephemeral result, very unhappy, undesirable result. But My words are Paramam Vachaha, the supreme words. Supreme word is that, supreme teaching is that, supreme wisdom is that, which leads to the supreme. And what is the supreme? Having realized, having become, you will be free for eternity from all troubles. You will be in the ocean of bliss, Ananda, Satchitananda Sagara. Sri Ramakrishna once asked Swami Vivekananda, My child, supposing you are a small fly and you are sitting on the edge, on the rim of a huge cup which is full of nectar, how will you drink? Immediately, Narendra, he said, I will be sitting very tightly, holding on to the edge and I will stretch my tongue as far as possible and I will be sipping the nectar. Immediately Sri Ramakrishna corrected him, My child, this is not an ordinary nectar, it is the nectar of immortality. Suppose you fall in it, what happens? You will not die, you will become immortal. This is called Amruta, this word, beautiful word, Sanskrit word, Amruta. Shranvantu Vishwe Amrutasya Putraaha This Amruta is, Mruta means that which is subject to death, mortality. But this brings in immortality and that is my, the supreme words because even an ordinary mother, when she wants to feed her child, she will feed the best food that the mother knows is the most suitable for my child, for my baby. The same mother, when the baby, as the baby grows, starts growing up, she will change the diet but always she will give what is healthy, what is tasty and what will be bringing good to the child, not only physically but intellectually, aesthetically, morally, of course spiritually. If an ordinary woman can do this, what to speak of the Divine Mother? Divine Mother means all the motherhood in this world that we see combined in one that is called universal motherhood. So that is what the Divine Lord is telling. So Sarva Guhyatamam, what I am going to speak is Paramam Vachaha, supreme wisdom and that supreme wisdom is the secret of all the secrets. Why is it secret? Not because somebody hides it, not because people don't want to give it to you but because it is so secret. We don't want it. Why is it we don't want? Because of Maya, Avidya, ignorance, we have the understanding that if we want God, we will have to give up all that we know. Not understanding, giving up everything we know, that means the entire world is gaining the entire infinity. By giving up finiteness, a person only gains infinity. Without understanding that, he thinks he is going to lose, not to gain. That is why it remains a secret of the secrets. But I have unfolded it to you, unveiled it to you, uncovered it for you, you know it. But you may not care. That's why my child, I am telling, Bhuyahasranu, listen again. Why? Medhridham Ishtaha Asi You are most dear to me. This is a marvellous word. I find a mountain worth of meaning in this particular sentence. A child is sleeping, a baby is sleeping. A baby, the child may not know that mother loves it more than the baby loves. Most of the time, the baby is engaged in playing, in forgetting the mother, and it goes on thinking and it becomes very proud. It is able to take a few steps without tumbling and it is able to run, it is able to kick a ball, it is able to do all these things, it is able to draw an unrecognisable drawing, all these things, but the mother knows. This is how the child will learn and for her, there is no eye of the mother. All her eyes are not on the husband, on anybody else, but on her children, especially the helpless child. So who is dear to us when we are children? Do we know how to love? Do we really love our mother and father? We only know that we can depend upon them. We can lie in their laps and they will take care of us. But that is because we are selfish, we are helpless. We want to be fearless. We want to be protected. So we want to be free from all sorts of imaginary fears and that can come only when we lie. But what is true love? That only the mother knows, the father knows. So who created us? Divine Lord. To whom do we belong? To the Divine Lord. And what are we? We are separate from God because there is a rule. I am most dear to me. You are most dear to you. So everybody is most dear to one's own self. So the Lord has that knowledge. There is nobody separate from me. Everything is me. Therefore everything is the most beloved of me because nothing else is there except me. God is not for us. We think that we are separate. God is separate somewhere and He doesn't listen most often what we pray for, not knowing. He listens even the silent movement of the ant. We don't need to shout. We don't even need to whisper. We don't need to do anything. He knows our past, our present, our future. He knows everything. He knows what is good and He is doing what is good. How hard it is for us to understand the war in Russia, the Russian war in Ukraine. God alone knows how many people are suffering, how many people are dying and in what horrendous ways. But if we accept that there is a God, there is a Creator, He is our Father and Mother, does God know that the war in Ukraine is going on, that Russia is trying to kill, occupy and it is ready to sacrifice any number of lives? Does God know or not? Yes. If He is there, why is He keeping quiet? It is not that I would say boldly. It is not that He is keeping quiet. It is not that He is witnessing. He is actively creating all this. He has declared war. He is trying to teach His children. This looks horrible philosophy. I know that. But from Vedantic point of view, from God's point of view, it is not real. Birth is not real. Death is not real. Suffering is not real. Trying to be happy is not real. To be blissful alone is real. So each soul is potentially divine. Birth and death are illusions. I know this sounds very high philosophy, impractical philosophy, but I know this is what is reality. But here are people who do not know. For them, this is the reality, the tragedy of it. Even after hearing the Gita so many times, even after saying, The Lord sitting in the hearts of every being is making puppets of every being. In other words, He is not making puppets of any being. He is making puppets of Himself. He is manifesting in His own form as each one of us. Because of ignorance, we think we are separate from Him. But He is not having delusions. He is embodiment of knowledge. He knows that the whole world is He, nothing else. Just as when we dream, we create the entire dream world, but we don't call it dream world. While we are dreaming, only upon waking up, looking back, remembering, we know that that is a dream world and created by me, and then we enjoy it. But a realized soul, a man of wisdom, enjoys it even while dreaming. Because even while dreaming, he is in the full waking state. He says, My mind is playing all these tricks and I will teach it how to create many more tricks so that it can enjoy so much more. Had it been reality, it would have been horrible. God is a billion times more than satans put together. But if it is a play, the deeper the play, the more real the play, and the better is the aesthetic enjoyment. And that is the truth. But at this moment, we are people who think everything is real. From our point of view, this philosophy doesn't work. From Vedanta point of view, yes, paramarthika view, from the highest spiritual point, at our avaharika level, transactional level, it is not going to work at all. So we have to say it is His will. Then why is it His will? To justify it, we create what is called what the Hindus do, Buddhists do, the law of karma. It is the law of karma. Anyway, I don't know whether it is. I know that it is the law of karma, but I don't know whether I can convince you of it. But then let me tell you, I don't remember exactly, 1941 or so, Ukraine, more than 32,000 Jews have been mercilessly butchered by German troops, cheered by many Ukrainians. Go back to the internet and refer to this incident. Why am I mentioning it? Maybe the karmaphala is coming back. Oh, you thought that was great fun at that time. Now you will know whether it is great fun or not. That is the most marvelous point we have to understand. So He says, supremely esoteric and the supreme secret, the Lord asks every sincere sadhaka to practice His worship and place Himself under His protection. This is what the Lord seeks to impress upon Him through the words, You are my greatest, most beloved person in this whole world. I am telling you the same truth. Not only am I telling you again, I will tell you again and again. I will not cease to tell you until you turn your face back to Me. I remember, just now I remembered the beautiful poem of Rabindranath Tagore. There was a person and his divine Lord is trying to draw his attention but the man is running away and away. I don't want you. I hate you. I don't like you. And he was trying to run away and with that infinite longing only a mother can have towards her beloved child. The Lord is running and this fellow every now and then looks back and says, Oh, this devil is chasing me. I have to go away. And at last, I fall into a big trouble. I am suffering tremendously and I look back and with even greater love and longing the divine Lord is rushing towards me and then embraces me and protects me and then says, My child, I am so happy to be able to serve you even a little bit. Rabindranath Tagore expressed it in no one can imagine such inexpressible way. Oh Lord, how great You are. Even though I didn't want You, You never left me and when I am in the greatest trouble, You never minded what I did to You. You came. You rushed. You enveloped me in Your love. You protected me and I do not know what to speak. So I surrender myself to You. That is the only thing I can do. There is nothing. The whole idea is we are all beloved of the Lord. Every part is beloved of the clay. There is nothing else. God is never going to abandon us because people think I abandoned God. Yes, you might have abandoned God. You think you can abandon God. Can you? Have you the power? Your very existence is drawn from the divine Lord. Your very knowledge, information or wisdom is drawn from the divine Lord who is of the nature of Chit, consciousness, knowledge and every time you enjoy everything, that is all coming from the divine Lord and if nothing in this world can give you happiness, the Lord has created such a state where for hours together we forget this entire troubling world, most troublesome world and we are immersed in the embrace of the divine Mother forgetting everything, deriving the greatest bliss in Her shadow, in Her body, in Her presence, in Her covering and then again the divine Mother gives us a little freedom. Now my child, in order to appreciate me, in order to long to come to me, you will have to go and play and experience some unhappiness but I am there for you forever. Even if you think that you don't want me, I will not leave you. I am not going to leave you. And in immemorable words, Swami Vivekananda had written to one of His despairing disciples, I don't think I will ever come to your estimate. I am going down and down and I don't know even whether I will accept you, revere you as my Guru. Then Swami Vivekananda said, do whatever you like. You think that you can abandon me. Yes, you abandon me but I am not going to abandon you. You go to the very depths of degradation wherever you are. I will come down, I will catch hold of your hair, the tuft of your hair and I will not rest until I will pull you back into my lap and you are made whole once more and be united with me. This is my promise and this is the promise of the Divine Lord. I will never again abandon you because you are my most beloved one. Therefore, I am going to tell you again and again and again. So, you better come back to me. Take refuge in me. The Lord is leading to that. You are helpless. You don't have any freedom. The only freedom you have is to come back to me. That is what He wants to teach. But how to attain to that complete self-surrender? That is the goal to which the Divine Lord is leading us. In the 65th verse He is telling, Give your mind to me. Offer your mind to me. Fix your mind on me. Be devoted to me. Worship me and bow down to me. Doing so, you will come to me alone. I truly promise you for you are exceptionally dear to me. This is one of the most sacred verses in the entire literature of the Bhagavad Gita. I would say in the entire literature of devotional literature. What is the Lord telling? You have a personality. Your personality has many aspects. There is the mind. There is the emotion. There is the activity. And there is your words, capacity to speak. I have given you everything. And whatever I have given you, use all these faculties. Let me rephrase it. You have got emotion. You have got activity. You have got willpower. You have got intellect. Now direct all these four towards me alone. Even if you direct one of them to me, the other three, it's like a gang, like a four-laned motorway. Whichever lane you might follow, but the other three are running parallel to you. In fact, that is what we do. Suppose there is a person 75 years old. The person wants to drive and he has got an old Buick. And then he will have to take the slow lane because his reactions have become very slow. There is a young man and he has got full control and he has got the latest car and he can take the faster lane. Heavy vehicles can take another lane. And sometimes we change lanes. So these four faculties, action, activity, emotion, willpower and intellect are like the four lanes always together, united. You can never separate them. But which lane most of the time we use depends upon our present capacity. We might change them. So I might change one from the other according to the situation, time and capacity. Or I may continue through one pathway. Ultimately I am going to reach the Divine Lord. So here the Lord is outlining. First of all, there is this restless mind. Secondly, there is this emotional faculty. Thirdly, there is this propensity to activity. And verbally, even symbolically, we have got so many choices. All of them are directed towards me alone. Even if you do, we will illustrate it when we are discussing this particular verse. And that if you can do this to the best of your ability. It's not your botheration, your worry, how much you succeed. I only expect you to sincerely try to do what best you can do. That is all I expect. Your sincerity is what I look at, not how much you have attained. You see, when a mother is walking, just playfully, her children are following it. You see, even when a mother hen is following her smallest chicken, maybe it is weak, it is also trying to fall behind. But the mother, every now and then is looking back, sees that the small one catches up with her, it's not going to abandon. So here you have seen so many of those documentaries there. And this is exactly what happens, the Divine Mother is always looking after us. So let us try our level best. How much we do is not what, how much this calculation doesn't exist in the Divine Lord's calculation. How much sincerely, how much longing the child is trying, and that is what the Divine Lord, Divine Mother looks. And if we can do that, it will be wonderful. This also brings us the lesson, let us not compare ourselves. That person is doing so much of spiritual practice. I do practically nothing. This is counterproductive. This is, really speaking, it doesn't help in any way. If at all it does, it will pull us back. Let us say, O Lord, You have given me this capacity. No, sometimes we regret. I know that I have more capacity, but I cannot do it. And that is also God-given capacity. And say, I know I have more capacity, but I am unable to do as much as I know I can do. That also leave it to God. Just do what little you want to do, sincerely, and the Lord will do the rest. That's what He is telling. That fix your mind upon Me. Turn all your emotions towards Me. You are happy because of Me. You are unhappy because of Me. Everything. Worship Me. Worship Me not only with what we call formal puja articles. Everything that you do, your breathing, your closing and opening your eyelids, and you are eating food, you are drinking water, you are moving your hands and feet, you are moving here and there. Every activity you can imagine, including sleep, you can convert it to a divine worship, provided you unite, you relate all those activities towards Me. I gave the example also earlier. If I am speaking, I am making hymns. If I am moving my hands, I am doing Vesper service to Aratrikam. If my legs are moving from place to place, I am going round and round you, and I am visiting holy places. If I am eating, I am offering things to you. If I am thinking, I am meditating upon you. Every activity, provided we have that spiritual outlook and motive, sincerity, and we can convert them into divine worship. And that is what the Lord is telling. When you are tired of one, take up the other. And when you are tired of the second, take up the third. Then take up the fourth. Then come back to the first. So you will never get bold or monotonous. This is what He is telling. If you try your best, then what happens? You are going to attain Me. That means you are going to become Me. That means you are going to realize, Aham Brahmasmi. I am never separate from Brahman. Not that I have attained to Brahmanhood now. I realize I was never away from my nature. I was Brahman. I am Brahman. And I will be Brahman. I was never away from my true nature. Nobody can be away from their own true nature. And then the Lord says, these are not mere empty words. Satyam te pratijane. And I am promising you that I am telling you the truth. Because truth is God. God is truth. God can never tell what is untruth. And Bhagavan Krishna is not Krishna. Bhagavan Krishna is the Lord Himself. If somebody after trying to study Bhagavad Gita does not realize this fact, then I would say, I will have to pity him. Whenever Krishna says, it is not Krishna we have to remember. It is the Divine Lord. It is the God of everybody. Satyam te pratijane. I promise you. Why do I promise you? Priyosi me. You are most dear. Again, we should not understand. Oh Arjuna, you are alone dear to me. A mosquito is dear to me. An elephant is dear to me. A mountain is dear to me. Whatever I look at, in the eyes of a lover, everything is related to the beloved. In the eyes of God, everything is God. In the eyes of a God-realized soul, what does he become? Brahma with Brahma, Eva, Bhavati. Brahman becomes Brahman. And then everything is Brahman. In his eyes, infinity will be infinity. Even when we keep thinking that it is finite. But it is not true. We realize it later on. And that is why this is the way. And let us explore it a little bit. So what is that manmana bhava, fixing the mind? Knowing the Lord is all-powerful, all-supporting, all-wise, all-pervading, the ruler, the inner control of all, and a veritable ocean of surpassing beauty, love, divinity, and every conceivable virtue. A devotee who steadfastly fixes his mind on Him with exclusive love, that means he doesn't love anything else. He will love only his beloved, the Divine, and cannot bear even a moment's separation from Him. He is said to have given his mind, offered his mind to God. A devotee of the Lord recognizes him as his only supporter, master, guardian, prakshishya-siddhi-vishwa-saha, supreme goal, chief support, and places himself wholly under the Lord's control. He doesn't deserve the least freedom to himself and entirely depends on the Lord. He remains ever contented with every dispensation of the Lord, obeys Him under all circumstances, and loves Him with an undivided heart and with utmost reverence. This is what the Lord expects Arjuna to do when He says, you fix your mind upon Me. What is the next one? Mad-bhaktah, become My devotee, be devoted to Me. What does this mean? A true devotee of the Lord offers worship, not only to His image, external image, with reverence, devotion and love, by means of leaves and flowers. We have come across it. The Lord says there, another marvellous word, you are poor, you don't have anything, you have only a dry amalaki, give it with love and in return, you will get golden amalakis. What am I referring to? As I mentioned it in the Bhajagovindam Stotram. So the Lord says in the 9th chapter, again this particular verse has wonderful connotation with the 34th verse of the 9th chapter. So here 26th verse says, My devotee, with sincere devotion, let him offer to Me a fruit. No, I don't have a fruit. All right, offer Me a small leaf. No, I don't have a leaf. All right, offer Me a little bit of water. That will do. So whether it is water, whether it is a fruit, whether it is a flower, whether it is a leaf, there will be nobody who can say that I do not have even a little bit of water. In fact, there is the story of a person and once he thought Lord Shiva needed some water and he did not have any water nearby. So he just opened his mouth and spat into the Lord's eye. Why did he do it? Not to insult Him, but this is the only water that he has and there is another devotee. So one day this devotee went to his beloved Lord Shiva and like a human being, Shiva has got two eyes. Like a human being, He is patient and suddenly this devotee found that one of His eyes is shedding. Blood is coming out. Then the devotee was pained. He said, the Lord's eye is damaged. Now I have got two eyes. Let me give. So he took up his arrow and cut off his one eye and fixed it. So that eye of the Shiva has become alright. Immediately the other eye started shedding blood and immediately the devotee said, so with the help of touching with his hands, he plucked his second eye and was trying to fix it. Lord Shiva of course was very happy. He revealed Himself and hugged Him and granted Him liberation. What are you going to give to God? Everything has been given to God, but what the Lord wants is not neither fruit nor flower nor leaf nor water because there is nothing that doesn't belong to Him already. So we can only give what belongs to me. Nothing belongs to me. But with sincerity, O Lord, nothing belongs to me. Whatever devotion I have, whatever knowledge I have, it is all Your gift. But with this gift, I am returning back. Returning means gratefully acknowledging that unless You have given me, I should never have acquired this thing. And the Lord is highly, mightily pleased with that. Not only that. Supposing you don't have anything. In the next verse, that is 9th chapter, 27th verse, the Lord is continuing, He says, whatever you do, whatever worship you do, whatever homas you do, whatever you do with your speech, with your thoughts, with your mind, offer it to me and I will gladly I accept it with the greatest love. And then what do I give? Do you want me to give something? No. I cannot give something because I am everything. I can only give everything. This is the maja, tamasha. Then infinity wants to give it to you. It cannot give a small part. But when infinity gives to you, you do not exist. You become infinite. So infinite plus infinite, infinite minus infinite, infinite multiplied by infinite, infinite divided by infinite, what remains is, infinite alone retains. So such is what the Lord, this is how you become a devotee. You have nothing to give, but you give your grateful acknowledgement. Oh, what can the baby give? It just goes, hugs the mother and plants a tiny kiss and the mother's heart would melt like an ocean and there is nothing that the mother cannot do for the baby including sacrifice of her life. So to perceive the Lord's presence everywhere, treating all living beings as His own manifestations, a devotee rendering appropriate service and homage and greets them with due honour and respect. This is all included in that verse, yajna, worship. And the Lord says, Mom. Mom means what? I am inside you. I am outside you. I am the creator. I am the preserver. I am the recycler. I take you back. I am all-powerful. I am the resource in ocean of all virtues. I am everything for you. And you must have that idea, Oh, this is what the Lord is. Then a person understands, the Lord is outside me. He is inside me. Then where is this devotee? Is he in the middle, in between, separating the inner and outer? That is a foolish thought. Everything is the Divine Mother. So it is the Lord again who manifested Himself as Sri Rama, Sri Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Chaitanya, Sri Ramakrishna. Anybody who makes a difference, my prophet alone is the only prophet, real prophet. Everybody is a false prophet. He will fall into the gravest hell. Of course, not for long. Because that ignorance is also the gift of God only. So he will prostrate. This is the most wonderful thing. Prostrate. He will salute, Om Namaskaru. Salute me. Prostrate to me. Prostrate before any image. Prostrate before any picture. Prostrate before the sandals of the Lord. Prostrate before the teacher. Prostrate before other devotees. Prostrate to everybody who is greater to you. Because when you see all around, everything is greater. And this is what David Attenborough had taught one of the lessons. Nature has a purpose. There is no meaningless act in nature. Even the leaves falling and drying, they become manure. And then they produce mushrooms. And they produce millions of other things. And they become a repository of insects, etc. This is the most marvelous thing. So by adopting the course of discipline indicated in the above verse, one is sure to realize the Almighty Lord, who is the Truth, Sathyam, Jnanam, Anandam, Anantam, Brahma. Now Arjuna, the most beloved devotee. But let us not think only Arjuna. We are all devotees of God. As I said, God is the Divine Mother. No one is excluded. We may think that we may not accept God. But God cannot exclude. Infinity cannot exclude anything. He is our beloved. He is our Mother, Father. He is our greatest friend. He is our greatest well-wisher, etc. So with this faith, the Lord is telling, why am I telling all this? May Priya Ashi, your most dear to me, because I know you are none other than me. If a devotee, through spiritual practice, can say Aham Brahmasmi, what to speak of Brahman? What do you think he thinks? Besides me, nothing else exists. So from Brahman's point of view, there is nothing which is not Brahman. Therefore the Lord says, everything is dear to the Atman. Te Sathyam Pratijane, that is, out of my love, I am telling you, whether you want it or not, by whatever path, I am going to bring you to myself. I can promise you this one. But if you want to enjoy it right now, then you fix your mind upon me. All your emotions, turn their direction towards me. Emotions mean not only bliss, are you having anger? Turn it towards me. Are you having jealousy? Turn it towards me. Are you having pride? Turn it towards me. Are you having egotism? Turn it towards me. Everything you turn to me. Relate every emotion to me. And then all your knowledge, all your willpower, direct it towards it. And seeing me everywhere, bow down to me. And in the end, you are going to come to me. This marvellous idea is now leading to the next verse, the 66th verse, which is called in the whole spiritual literature, the Charama Shloka, the central verse in the whole Bhagavad Gita, which is nothing but you completely surrender yourself to me. This we will discuss in our tomorrow's class. May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Ramakrishna.