Stories of the Great Bharata - A Retelling

Arc 2 - Bhagavad Gītā Parva - Chapter 12 - The Yoga of Knowledge and Realization (Bhagavad Gītā VII)

Jñāna–Vijñāna Yoga

Vaiśampāyana said:

When the discipline of meditation had been sung, Arjuna longed to know the Lord as He is—seen and unseen, within and beyond. Then, O King Janamejaya, upon that righteous field, Śrī Bhagavān revealed the knowledge and the realization by which nothing further remains to be known.

Knowing the Lord without doubt

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“Fix thou thy mind on Me alone,

Take refuge firm in Me;

I’ll speak the whole of truth to thee—

Both knowledge and what is seen.

“Of thousands, few for perfection strive;

Of seekers who that summit gain,

A rarer one perceives Me whole—

Beyond all thought and name.”

Vaiśampāyana said, “The Lord promises not mere doctrine but vision: jñāna

(principle) with vijñāna (direct experience). Few ascend this peak; rarer still is he who knows the Lord as All.”

The Lord’s lower and higher nature

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“Earth, water, fire, and air,

The heavens vast and mind;

Intellect and ego-sense—

My lower nature bind.

“Other than this, know My higher power—

The living, animating sea

By which the universe is held:

In birth and end, from Me.”

Matter in eightfold categories is His lower prakṛti; the higher is consciousness itself, the life-principle that sustains the whole. Creation and dissolution rise and set in Him.

Immanence and transcendence

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“From Me all beings take their rise;

By Me the worlds are spun.

Higher than Me there is no Truth—

All pearls strung on one string am I.

“I am the taste in waters pure,

The radiance of moon and sun;

The sacred Om in all the Vedas,

The sound in space, the valor done.

“The fragrance in the patient earth,

The brilliance lodged in fire;

The life in every living thing,

In saints, the tapas dire.

“The changeless seed in every being,

Intelligence in the wise;

Strength unmarred by lust or greed,

And righteous will that strives.”

He pervades the cosmos as its essence—taste, light, sound, strength, virtue—yet remains the single thread upon which all forms are strung.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

The three guṇas and the Lord’s Māyā

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“All forms of sattva, rajas, tamas

Arise in Me—and yet,

They dwell in Me, but I in them

Am never truly set.

“By these three strands the world is veiled—

My wondrous Māyā vast;

Hard to cross this shifting sea,

Save those to Me who cast.”

The play of qualities—clarity, passion, and inertia—constitutes the net of illusion. The Lord is its source but not its captive. Only refuge in Him ferries one across.

Who turns and who turns not to the Lord

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“The evil-doer, the dull of mind,

The lowest of mankind,

Bewitched by Māyā’s stolen light,

Seek not My face to find.

“Four kinds of the noble come—

The suffering and the keen,

The wealth-seeker and knower true;

Of these, the wise I mean

To be My very Self in love—

For I am dearest unto him,

And he is dear to Me.”

Sorrow, need, curiosity, and wisdom draw men to God. All are blessed, yet the jñānī, whose love is knowledge and whose knowledge is love, is one with Him in intimacy.

The rare knower and lesser worship

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“After many births of striving,

The wise to Me do come—

‘Vāsudeva is the All’:

Such high-souled ones are rare.

“Desire-beguiled, some turn to gods,

Each following his form;

I steady every seeker’s faith—

Their offerings I inform.

“They gain from those they ardently serve,

The perishable prize;

Who worship gods go unto gods—

Who worship Me, to Me arise.”

All sincere worship is upheld by the Lord, yet its fruit matches its aim: temporal devotion yields temporal gain; devotion to the Eternal yields the Eternal.

The Unmanifest misunderstood

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“I, the Unseen, by fools am thought

To be made manifest;

They know not My supreme abode—

Unborn, undecaying, best.

“By power inconceivable

I’m veiled from mortal ken;

Deluded, this whole world knows not

The Birthless Lord of men.”

Not perceiving the transcendence hidden in immanence, many mistake the Infinite for a finite show. Māyā covers the seeing eye until grace and merit cleanse it.

The Lord’s omniscience and the bondage of duality

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“I know what has been and what is,

And all that is to be;

But none there is who truly knows

My endless mystery.

“At birth all beings fall deceived

By pairs of like and hate;

But merit purges this dark spell—

Then unto Me they straight.”

He knows time entire. Creatures, tangled in desire and aversion, forget their own Self; virtuous action and grace loosen the knot, turning them toward God.

Brahman, Adhyātma, Karma—and the three “Adhi-” truths

Śrī Bhagavān said:

“They who in Me take refuge sure,

From age and death would flee—

They come to know the deathless Brahman,

The Self within (adhyātma) and work (karma)’s sea.

“Who know Me as the adhibhūta—

The perishing in form;

As adhidaiva—luminous law;

As adhiyajña—fire in storm

Of sacrifice within the heart—

With single mind on Me,

They know Me too at life’s last breath

And enter into Me.”

Those who seek liberation learn: Brahman (the Absolute), adhyātma (the indwelling Self), and karma (the law of action). They also grasp the triad of manifestations—adhibhūta (changing elements), adhidaiva

(the divine governance), and adhiyajña (the Lord as the inner Sacrificer). Holding these as modes of Him, they remember the Lord at death and attain Him.

Vaiśampāyana said:

Thus, O King, did Śrī Bhagavān unveil the twin treasures of knowledge and realization. Hearing this, Arjuna’s heart was washed like a lotus after rain; for he beheld the world as pearls upon a single string, and that string—Omnipresent and Unborn—was the Lord Himself.