Verse 9.1

Verse 9.1: “This, however, is the profoundest mystery that I am about to expound unto thee that art listening with appreciation: this knowledge accompanied by realisation, by understanding which thou wilt be released from Unweal. (34)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

“Oh Arjuna, I speak to you again about the very root of all knowledge, which is a profound secret hidden in the depth of My heart. Well, a doubt may haunt you as to the need that makes Me open the secret door of My heart and speak to you of the mystery hidden in it. So hear, oh you wise one; you are the very incarnation of “eager desire” (āsthā) to know truth and will not be remiss about precepts enjoined on you. Therefore, shall the great mystery be unriddled, and the unutterable truth be spoken, by which the great secret in My heart may, once for all, illumine your soul. Oh, ye look here, the milk is hidden in the breasts, and yet it is not food to the breasts: let it then quench the thirst of anyone with unswerving love if such a one needs it. Grain kept for seed is taken out from a Muda (ricestraw case—muḍā) and is sown in fistfuls in a seed plot tilled and prepared for sowing.

Could it be said that it is wasted? Therefore, to one with pure mind and clear discerning power, and to one who is free from cavil, and to one with unflinching devotion, this secret shall be freely spoken. And at present, I see none such, except yourself, and it will not be proper to keep back that secret from you. You may be feeling tired of hearing the word “Secret—Secret” oft-repeated; therefore, I preach to you openly knowledge of true being along with its special branches. Counterfeit and genuine coins mixed together, must be distinguished, by scrutiny, and kept apart: even so, I am going to show you, knowledge and its special parts separated from each other, as the swan separates milk from water with its beak: and then just as in the sweeping wind, the chaff cannot sustain itself (but is blown away) leaving behind only a heap of solid grain, in that way, when knowledge and its special branches are distinguished in full realised vision, the cycle of births and deaths is dissolved into the state of name and form only and that Supreme Knowledge of true Being enthrones you as the glorious majesty of emancipated existence.