Verse 6.10

Verse 6.10: “The man of Discipline should continually exercise his self, abiding in sequestered spot, all alone with controlled mind and body, rid of all cravings and divested of all attachments. (105)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

One in whom dawns the never-setting Sun of the eternal undivided Being abides forever steadied in the true being of the absolute Self, O Partha, he is the Soul the one without a second, who experiences real being of things as undivided unity, since pervading entirely all the three worlds, he himself abides free from all the paraphernalia of individual selfish possessions. In this way, Lord Krishna extolled the visible marks which show the perfect one, and in doing this the Lord showed the perfect one’s glory to be even greater than his own divine glory.

(Lord Krishna further went on),

“The Yogin is the very elect among the seers, nay, the very light of their vision, and the very Almighty Power whose will brings the universe into being. The fine literary garment of the Vedic lore woven in the marketplace of “Omkar”, falls short adequately to clothe his glory: the power of his light moves the Sun and the Moon in their daily rounds and so the universe will be reduced to inert mass of dead matter without his brilliance. Not only this, but the wide sky looks small by the side of the vast glory of the name of the Yogin. How will you (then) be able to grasp individually each one of his best qualities? Enough therefore of this praise of the perfect one: I do not myself realise whose marks I was extolling and why I avail myself of this occasion to narrate these qualities. Were I to disclose clearly to you the Brahman-lore, which wipes out clean the very last trace of plural existence, that would put an end to the very sweet experience in the idea of Arjuna being my darling. This talk of mine is not thus a true account of the real, undivided, unitary experience; but there is left some loophole in it, the motive being that my mind should have a little separate existence to be able to enjoy the happiness of your love and devotion. Alas! how I wish that evil eye (dṛṣṭa) of those that are hankering after release and are lost in meditation of the form “I am myself the Brahman” does not pollute and snap, the delicate tie of love between yourself and myself”.

Lord Krishna thought,

“Should the I-ness in Arjuna vanish and he were to get one with the essence of my divine being as the result of this talk as the highest experience of the one undivided being, what could I, alone and single handed, do? Who else would be left, on seeing whom I could have peace of mind and with whom I could hold free talk, or whom I should hold in fond embrace? Were Arjuna to get absorbed in myself, with whom I could talk over the good things that may overflow my heart?”

Overcome with such feelings, Lord Krishna on the pretext of talking on other topics of advice, while discoursing on the non-dual true being, attracted Arjuna’s mind towards his own. This sort of description might be jarring to the ears of hearers, but it must be remembered that Arjuna was the very embodiment of the Divine Love and happiness of Lord Krishna. At this unique moment

Lord Krishna found himself in the very enviable position of a barren old woman, who being blessed into a mother (at such too advanced a stage) dances with the pure joy of maternal love; certainly I could not have given such a description, had Lord Krishna’s love for Arjuna, not burst in exuberance. Oh how wonderfully unique the situation! There is the roar of violence and carnage of battle-field threatening to envelope the world! And in the midst of it the high theme of divine experience rolls on and we see before us the dance of a doll of love incarnate! How else could one meet with pairs of opposites like love and shame, vice and exhaustion, waywardness and state of awakening? Where there is love, shame must make its exit, exhaustion must disappear where there is vice, while there could be no place for the state of awakening where there is waywardness. In short, Arjuna was the very repository of the Lord’s love, or the mirror (reflecting) the interior of Lord Krishna’s heart fully blown with happiness. Because of his great and holy merit, he became eligible like fertile soil into which was to be sown the seed of devotion through Lord Krishna’s favour: or Arjuna was the very deity of the eighth kind of worship named ‘Sakhya’ (fellowship or familiar intercourse) which lay at the foot of the 9th and last of the nine kinds of worship named ‘Atmanivedana’ (ātmanivedana—consecration of one-self into). Arjuna was such a favourite of Lord Krishna, that He (Lord Krishna) permitted the singing of the praise of his servant Arjuna instead of his own praise being sung, although himself abiding close by. Just see, a loyal wife serves her husband with exclusive love, while the husband holds her in great honour. Is not such a loyal wife praised more than her husband? In that way I am led to praise Arjuna specially, since he alone possessed the merit of all the three worlds. The Supreme Lord, although formeless himself had to assume human form for the sake of his affection for Arjuna, to whom he had surrendered himself. (Thus) he, who was perfect by himself, was pursued by intense longing for Arjuna.

Hearing all this the hearers said,

“What a luck for us? What unique excellence is stored in these words of secret meaning of beauty? Its elegance exceeds in sweetness even the melody of the seven notes in music. What a wonderful thing it is? This excellence and grandeur of words is hardly to be met with in the common man’s tongue. See how in a discourse even on a (dry) subject like oneness of being, it spreads out a network of different colours in the form of diverse metaphors of exquisite art. Even in this Marathi language the moonlight of divine knowledge is shining all white, while the pleasant coolness in the form of mystic meaning is spread out all over, with the result that the lotuses in the form of the Gita-teachings show themselves in fully blown natural perfection”.

The great import of the words made the saintly hearers full of desire and their souls became enrapt with internal bliss.

Perceiving the state of the hearers the disciple of Nivritti said,

“Be attentive: what a wondrous glory! The Sun of Divine Krishna’s grace has burst into a dawn of the morning for the Pandava family. Devaki bore Lord Krishna in her womb, Yeshoda brought him up with great exertions, and ultimately his divine personality happened to be at the service of the Pandavas! Luckily he (Arjuna) had neither to serve long nor to wait for a suitable occasion for making a request (to secure the Lord’s favour). I now end this digression and proceed with the original story.”

Hearing Lord Krishna’s talk, Partha said fondly

“None of the marks of a saint you talked of are found in me. In truth I feel myself unworthy of that task of securing even the first essentials of these marks, yet I shall (try to) be great and able to secure these through your words of grace. And I am certain I shall be the Supreme Brahman myself, should you will it to make me so; I shall act up to your words. When I praise the history (description) you narrated, without even knowing to whom it referred, there would be no limit to my happiness, were I myself to be like him (that person). Therefore, Oh you good Preceptor, do tell me about the path that should make me reach the level of this perfect person.”

Lord Krishna smiled at this and said,

“Very well, I shall do as you desire! Indeed, so long as one does not live in the ecstasy of divine contentment, he must feel the hankering after happiness. Once he secures that contentment, there remains nothing wanting and nothing to be desired. Similarly, one who lives the life of devotion to the Supreme, easily reaches the state of absorption into the Brahman.”

But see, how Arjuna’s good luck has borne abundance of fruit. Words cannot describe the abundance of divine grace by which Arjuna had at his service the mighty power of the Supreme Being, whom a thousand lives of Indra and others could not bring nearer. God, Lord Krishna, fully heard what Arjuna said, asking to be transformed into the Supreme Being.

Lord Krishna thought to himself,

“Since Partha is having an intense longing—similar to the longings of women particularly during the period of conception, for being likened unto the Supreme itself, in the womb of his intellect, renunciation is being conceived. Even though the foetus of asceticism is not yet fully developed, yet with the advent of the spring season, it has overgrown with the blossom in the form of mental feeling that “I am the Supreme Brahman”, and consequently it would not take him long to bear the fruit in the form of the attainment of Supreme Brahman, since he has fully mastered the spirit of renunciation”.

Thus Lord Krishna felt confident about Arjuna and thought that (now that he had attained perfection), whatever he (Arjuna) would think of, would in advance come to fruition and that any advice on the study of Yoga preached to him would not be fruitless.

Thinking in this way Srihari then said,

“Hear, O Arjuna, about the royal road to the study of Yoga. Here at the foot of the tree of activity can be seen bunches of fruit of absolute quiet and peace. It is the path of Yoga, on which even God Mahesha (God Shiva) is still a pilgrim. In the beginning many other Yogins went astray on wrong by-paths, but ultimately followed this well-trodden path after gaining experience. They left other ignorant misleading ones, and went straight by the way of self-realisation and reached the highest goal. After them the great sages followed the same course and reached perfection through the stage of seekers. Great seekers after ‘the Self’ attained greatness also by following the same course. One forgets even hunger and thirst, once he sees the royal road to the study of Yoga. There is no distinction of time such as day or night on this road. Wherever one sets his foot while proceeding along the road, there opens out a mine of liberation, and should there arise any obstacle in the way, at least the attainment of the heavenly bliss is guaranteed. One may move in any direction; his journey on the road is sure of being peaceful and unerring accomplishment, O Dhananjaya. Once one reaches the destination along this road, he himself becomes one with that place of destination and this need not be told to you, since you will come to know of it later on by personal experience.”

Arjuna said on this,

“Oh God, when that ‘later on’ would be? I want it. I am sinking in the ocean of ardent wish and should you not take me out?”

Lord Krishna then said,

“How do you talk so wildly? I am, of my own accord, going to tell it to you and yet you interrupt me and ask (questions) !”