- Yoga of Supreme Knowledge
- The Most confidential Knowledge
- Nature of God
Summary of chapter
The Lord & his creation are one : no duality, Advaita
All are creations of God. The example of Gold seen in different ornaments & coins and used by many people over the years. The melting and changing form does not affect the Gold!
When we consider God different from what God created its Dvaita, Duality
Cycle of creation & destruction, is an ongoing process
God loves all, and those who remember him often get closer to him and feel his love. Acknowledgement of God and praising his wonderful creation makes us think of God more often
Worshiping God, via his deity forms
Shlokas references
- 34 shlokas
- 9.1 - 9.3 : Devotion is the noblest. Without that one cannot be relieved from cycle of birth & death. Those without faith remain in the material world in the birth and death cycle.
- 9.4 - 9.10 : The divine mystery. The vastness of God. God is in everyone but they function based on their Gunas
- 9.11- 9.19 : Those who know about me worship and constantly engage with God. Some worship by spreading knowledge about the spiritual path & God.
- 9.20 - 9.28 : Worshipping deities and rivers is worshipping God. Rituals and ingredients not essential, only devotion essential. Fruit, flowers or even a leaf and water offered with a pure mind are accepted by God.Whatever one does needs to be an offering to God
- 9.29 - 9.34 : All are equal for God. However some have a closer relationship with God as they cling to and are constantly engaged with God. Just like one feels warmer when sitting closer to the fire.
Key message from the chapter
Everything is God . God is the Sun, Moon, Sky, air , water, wind, breeze, people, plants, animals. God made everything. Its his manifestations. Just like all ornaments and objects made of gold are eventually gold seen as different items
- Living with knowledge that everything is God and submitting / offering everything to God is way to liberation
Summary in poetry
Secret of Truth I will share
It is the Royal Science, I declare
Actions in this path easy to perform
Pure and pleasant in its form
Those who cavil all the while
Will return to their path of vile
I am the cause and the effect
Everything possesses my divine aspect
Nature’s various manifestations
Are born under my directions
I am the father and the mother
And the supporter and purifier
I am the origin and dissolution
And the shelter and foundation
Only ME, who think and serve,
Their need, I secure and preserve
A leaf, flower, fruit or just water
Whatsoever my devotees offer
With all the delight, I accept
It is the intent that I respect
Whatever you do, eat or give
You submit to ME, it is the way to live
On the path to your noble goal
A stories related to the message
A Boy Who Fed God
A noble man used to worship his family’s deity everyday with food offerings. One day he had to go out of his village for the day. He said to his son, Raman: Give the offering to the deity today. See that God is fed.
The boy offered food to the deity in the shrine, but the image would neither eat nor drink nor talk. Raman waited a long time, but still the image did not move. But he totally believed that God would come down from His throne in heaven, sit on the floor and eat.
Again and again he prayed to the deity, saying: “O Lord, please come down and eat the food. It is already very late. Father will get angry if I did not feed you.” The deity did not say a word.
The boy wept and cried: “O Lord, my father asked me to feed you. Why won’t you come down? Why won’t you eat from my hands?”
The boy wept for some time with a longing soul. At last the deity came down smilingly from the altar in human form and sat before the meal and ate it.
After feeding the deity, the boy came out of the prayer room. His relatives said: “The worship is over. Now bring the Prasādam for us.”
The boy said: “God has eaten everything, He did not leave anything for you today.”
They entered the prayer room and were speechless with wonder to see that the deity had really eaten every bit of the offering.
The moral of the story is that God does eat if you offer food with full faith, love, and devotion. Most of us don’t have the faith Raman had. We don’t know how to feed Him! It is said that we must have faith in God like a child or we shall not enter the supreme abode, the house of God.
The Great Highway Robber-Sage
We have two very popular epics or historical tales. The first one is the Holy Rāmāyana. The other one is Mahābhārata. The Bhagavad-Gita is a part of the Mahābhārata. It was written about 3,100 years B.C.E. Originally, the Holy Rāmāyana may have been written about 1.75 million years ago, according to latest findings of NASA. The original writer of Rāmāyana was a sage named Vālmiki. After Vālmiki, many other saints such as Tulasidas have written Rāmāyana, the story of Lord Rāma that all children should read. The legend is that Vālmiki was given the power by sage Nārada to write the entire episode before the event actually happened.
In the early part of his life, Vālmiki was a great highway robber. He made a living by robbing travelers. One day, the great celestial saint Nārada was passing by when Vālmiki attacked him and tried to rob him. Nārada asked Vālmiki why he was doing that. Vālmiki said that this is how he supported his family.
The sage told Vālmiki: “When you rob a person, you commit sin. Do your family members want to share that sin also?”
The robber replied: “Why not? I am sure they do.”
The sage said: “All right, go home and ask everyone if they will share your sins along with the money you are bringing home.”
The robber agreed. He tied the sage against a tree and went home and asked each member of his family, saying: “I bring you money and plenty of food by robbing people. A sage told me that it is sinful to rob people. Will you share my sins?”
No one in his family was willing to share his sin. They all said: “It is your duty to support us. We can’t share your sin.”
Vālmiki realized his mistakes and asked the sage what to do to atone for his sins. The sage gave Vālmiki the most powerful and the simplest “Rāma” mantra to chant and taught him how to worship and meditate. The highway robber gave up his sinful activity and soon became a great sage and writer by the grace of guru Nārada, the power of mantra, and his sincere spiritual practice.
The Footprints
One night, a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky he saw scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand; one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life came before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him, and he questioned the Lord about it.
“Lord, You said that there is no one hateful or dear to You, but You are always with those who worship You with love and devotion (Gita 9.29). I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You most, You left me alone.The Lord replied, “My dear child, you are my own soul. I love you, and I would never leave you, even if you leave Me sometimes. During your time of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, that was because then I carried you. When you have trouble, it is caused by your own Karma. That is when you are tested and can grow stronger.”
Related posts on this blog
The Lord Krishna said in the Gita: “I personally take care of the needs of devotees who always remember and love Me.” (Gita 9.22).
- Duality
- Love
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