Chapter 12

(Revision 01 Feb 05 09)

BHAGAVAD GITA


CHAPTER 12

Arjuna asks:
12. 1 Those devotees who constantly worship you (with form and attributes), and those who worship your unmanifested, indestructible, aspect (of these two categories) who are the best knowers of yoga ?

Lord says:
12. 2 I consider them as the best Yogis, who endowed with supreme faith, and ever united through meditation with ME, worship ME with mind centred on ME.

12. 3-4 Those, however, who fully controlling their senses, and even-minded everywhere, devoted to the welfare of beings, constantly adore (as their very self), the unthinkable, the omnipresent, indestructible, indefinable, eternal, immovable, unmanifest and changeless (Brahman), they too come to ME.

12. 5 The strain is greater for those who have their mind attached to the Unmanifest, for the Unmanifest is attained with difficulty by those who are centred in the body.


PURPORT:
This doubt of Arjuna is a continuing doubt between followers of various acharyas Monism, Dualism and Qualified Monism and others like Chaitanya Maha Prabhu's followers
Lord has clearly answered in 12 -2 above. It is not the school. Both reach HIM, provided they have exclusive devotion, mind centred on HIM, have Supreme faith, worship with mind centred on HIM
Monism is difficult. Dualism is easier. Chaitanya's school has great advantage of mind totally focused on Krsna


12. 6-7 On the other hand, those who depending exclusively on ME, and surrendering all actions to ME, worship ME, constantly meditating on ME with single-minded devotion. Those, I speedily deliver from ocean of birth and death, their mind being fixed on ME.



PURPORT:

These two shlokas give the secret of reaching HIM.
And HE speedily delivers them from this ocean of birth and death
Action for us, is given in the following shlokas.



12. 8 Therefore, fix your mind on ME, establish your intellect in ME alone; thereafter you will abide solely in ME. There is no doubt about it.
12. 9 If you cannot steadily fix the mind on ME, then seek to attain ME through the Yoga of repeated practice.
12. 10 If you are unable to practice, be intent to work for ME; you shall attain perfection even by performing actions for MY sake.
12. 11 If taking recourse to the Yoga of MY realization, you are even unable to do this then subduing your mind and intellect etc relinquish the fruit of all actions
12. 12 Knowledge is better than practice, meditation is better than knowledge, renunciation of fruit of actions is even superior to meditation; for peace immediately follows from renunciation.

PURPORT:
Fixing the mind and intellect on HIM is the Goal, Can't do it ? Try next
Practice meditation. keep practicing. Can't do it also? no problem. Try next
Be intent to work for HIM, you shall attain the Perfection. Still difficult?
Relinquish fruit of actions in whatever you do,, peace immediately follows.



12. 13-14 He who is free from malice towards all beings, friendly and compassionate, rid of I and mine, balance in joy and sorrow, forgiving by nature, ever contented and mentally united with ME, nay, who has subdued his mind, senses, and body, has firm resolve, and has surrendered his mind and reason to ME, that devotee of MINE is dear to ME.

PURPORT:
We never have malice towards all the billions of people, just a few, handful of them, the wicked ones who seem to be either my neighbours, or my spouses' relatives. Forgot, there are some in my workplace ! Why I am burdened with all these malicious people around such a nice me !!
We are of course friendly with a lot of people outside, in fact with millions of people whom we have not met, no problem with them at all. Friendship in the house is not that important, because we are together and I am the road roller with a veto! That's what I did to my wife; Veto. Why she should be friendly with me now?
Compassion of ours is generally misplaced and invariably in Moha, My community, my caste, and with "I" am doing attitude; name and fame taints the compassion
Watch the I and mine each day in every action. and at the end of the day. That will bring change by reminding us not to use those words and eventually not to even think of them.
One need not be a stone hearted person to be same in joy and sorrow; a tear or two, a 5 minute sorrow, or glee doesn't bring you down from the pedestal of equanimity.
Forgiving: Enemies or, of whose success we are jealous of; In daily prayers and at night when you sleep bring their picture in the mind and their traits or success, and tell the Lord to give them more, mentally prostrate to their feet, send enormous love to them saying you love them. Forgetting from conscious mind will only keep the wound deep within. Bring it out and re-write love on that.
Contentment: New word? we will become useless and good for nothing? All right, from 20 -35 run ambition-marathon, 35-40 stop marathon, start slow running, 40-45 start walking: be satisfied with your achievement, stop manipulations, leave to the Lord results, 50-60 start the retirement goal, start that hobby, avocation into plan of action. If you cannot do this, don't worry some more lives will be there for some of us, anyway. Learn, reflect, meditate on contentment at least on Sunday morning or night. Start a diary and write down together with spouse balance desires.
Subduing the mind: Upper borderline sugar is 137, 11 marks more; stop all sweets,(visualize dislike and vomiting!). Zero compromise, till the line is on the lower range of 110. Winter? take cold water bath to start and mostly and end with a nominal 2' hot water bath. mind is like the child, cajole, and show who is the father/mother.
Subdue Senses: five senses; see where all they go; observe each time, let it go, for 2' and then get up from the TV serial and don't ask what happened in the end! 100 ways, do not indulge in empty talks, but do listen without much participation, and yet without hurting. Control urge to write emails, chats, phone calls, watch and control.
Firm resolve: You are now married to satsangh; work out in such a way that either the husband and of the wife, manage to slowly usher other without forcing, bulldozing. It should be like bringing the bride or groom to the marriage stage.


12. 15 He who is not a source of annoyance to his fellow creatures, and who is in turn does not feel vexed with his fellow creatures, and who is free from delight and envy, perturbation and fear, is dear to ME.

PURPORT:

Annoyance to Fellow creatures: First look at your servant and those who are close to you, husband, wife, children in laws and parents - Zero annoyance to all these.(children till 16 need to be corrected; but not any adult. Correction is criminal unless it is asked. Take care of close relatives; fellow creatures' case will follow.
Fear: is directly related to desire. Take care of desire; convert those into duties and rest of them leave to the Lord; Analyse all 7 major fears and do each fear krishnarpanamastu.


12. 16 He who wants nothing who is (internally and externally) pure, is clever,and impartial and has risen above all distractions, and who renounces the feeling of doer-ship in all undertakings- that devotee of MINE is dear to ME.

PURPORT:

Wants nothing: Look at a dying old man, still expects kidney replacement, or other spares; His own life has been useless, never for a moment suspected that he could have been burden on earth. Expectations, Desires tie us down to rebirth
Who is pure: For body purity, a flood of various soaps, shampoos; some help. Internal purity is what is called here. Watch the thoughts; To improve thoughts, daily read lives of saints, so that we too have direction and example to follow. Noble thoughts will result in noble deeds
Daksha: efficient, clever, Chaanakya: it is not crookedness or cunning-ness. The cleverness of the Lord in defeating the wicked
Impartial: calls for decision based on merit and justice; No 'mine' or 'yours'. Lord's praise of Karna's prowess, upsets Arjuna. or Lord Rama's asking Lakshmana to learn statecraft from dying Ravana. In both instances merit is the only consideration. Democratic president JFK or Obama selecting Republicans as Secretary of State.
Above distractions: Distractions are from the world of objects; They are related to our desires. vairagya or renunciation and practice eliminates them.

12. 17 He who neither rejoices nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, and who renounces both good and evil actions and is full of devotion, is dear to ME.

PURPORT:
Renouncing good and evil actions:
First cleanse the evil thoughts, which will stop evil actions.
Second is to cultivate good thoughts which starts good actions.
This will purify the mind and bring it to a stage of Vairagya or renunciation of the world of objects.
This in turn will lead to Knowledge of Reality, with that takes place total rejection of the phenomenal world
And simultaneous dissolution of the mind and Realization of the Supreme.
One has become now a para bhakta or jnani at the highest level
Such a Realized soul is dear to Lord and in whom Lord stands revealed

12. 18-19 S/He who is alike to friend and foe, to honour and ignominy, heat and cold, joy and sorrow,and is free from attachment. S/He who takes praise and insults, alike and is given to contemplation, and is contented with any means of subsistence whatsoever, entertaining no sense of ownership, unattached to his home, shows firmness in his mind, and full of devotion to ME, that wo/man is dear to ME.

PURPORT:
Alike to friend and foe: Nothing foolish in treating them alike. It only means you do not carry hatred in your heart. Or else there would not have been Mahabharata war, or punishment to criminals, doors of the house would not have had locks, and Visa restrictions to countries would not have been there. Evil doers need to be necessarily deterrently punished. Do you think the executioner hates his victims? The educated may be confused on human rights, but the executioner is never. That is his job
Honour and ignominy: Naturally all seek honour and none ignominy. The world around us has short memories. They will forget what good you have done, but will magnify your faults and bring ignominy on you. Taking in stride without hatred and acrimonious retaliation, especially amidst family, and relatives, is necessary. We need to be like the TV serial's ideal bahu who tolerates a lot of false accusations and finally in the 367th episode stands vindicated! (We might get an earlier release:)
Given to Contemplation: we all know how to contemplate on what we want or on our pet worries. Contemplation here means, on higher spiritual goals, contemplation on the Lord. Naturally, unless we come out of the scum and filth of worldly thoughts, contemplation becomes difficult.
Sense of ownership:We think we own; actually those objects like gold and possessions own us, they were owning earlier our dead ancestors! same is the case of the plot in Bangalore! which was earlier owned by some ruler's concubine! prior to that it was burial ground for animals!! Nothing we can own; not even our body; everything has to be given up here.
Firmness of mind: Those who are wedded to values have firmness of mind. Conviction that this satsangh is a must for us and it is in one's family's interest is firmness of mind.

12. 20 Those devotees, however, who partake in a disinterested way of this nectar of pious wisdom set forth above, endowed with faith and solely devoted to ME, they are extremely dear to ME.

PURPORT:
I don't understand, I can't practice all this. Not to worry just do the following
Keep reading the meaning of this chapter daily
While reading keep and open(disintersted) mind
Understand that this knowledge is pious and it is also highest Wisdom
My friend, have Immense Faith in the Lord's words
Start an Affair de amour with the Lord. Great devotion starts.

DEDICATION:


Commentaries are dedicated to
Mother Ushaji and all the Pujarinis who dedicated themselves in selfless service, who have rarely been appreciated
To the wonderful Mother Satsangh, all other Sathsanghs and noble yogabrishtaas
The All mighty bless you all and all those with you and bless the place you stay