Bhagwat Geeta, Class 160 – Chapter 12 Bhakti Yoga Verses 13 and 14

In the first 12 verses of the 12th chapter, Lord Krishna talked about the entire range of sadhanas that should be followed and these sadhanas are bhakti yoga.  Bhakti yoga includes the first two levels and the second two levels of upasana yoga and the last two levels of jñāna yoga.  Bhakti yoga should be culminated by vedanta sravana, manana nidhithyasanam.  If a person has gone through all five stages of bhakti yoga, he would have gone through jñāna yoga, and he will be a jñāni.   A person who has gained this jñānam is called Paramahamsa.  Jñāni is the greatest bhakta.  In advaida, the distance between jivatma and paramatma is zero and the level of bhakti or love is infinite. 

Jñānis praraptha is a mixture of punyam and pavam, because he would have committed pavam when he was an ajñāni. 

From the verse 13th to 19th verse, Lord Krishna talks about the qualities of this Paramahamsa.  We can test ourselves to see how many of the qualities we have assimilated.  But self-judgement should be used for improvement of ourselves.  It should be an exhilarating force and not a retarding force.

Qualities of Paramahamsa or parameters to test myself:

  1. Never justifies hatred because there is no justifiable hatred.  Hatred can never be a sign of disapproval.  I should be able to pray for the benefit of all.  That is the inner non-exclusion of any person. 
  2. A friend to all.  A friend is one:
    1. Who will guide and direct me when I follow the wrong path and tells me what my problems are.
    1. Who puts me in a righteous path.
    1. With whom I can share my intimate secrets and have the confidence that he will not share it with others.
    1. Who shares my virtues with others.

    1. Who is there to help me (with money, moral support etc.) when I am in crisis.

  3. Mind having empathy.  A mind having the ability to place ourselves in the position of others.  When the other person goes through painful experiences, they become my experience.  I go out to help spontaneously, just like I help myself spontaneously.
  4. Give up ownership (mamakara).There are two methods to achieve this:
    1. One method is vedantic method – that  is to recognize atma is asaṅgaḥ like space, not related to or connected to anything.  Free from all relations and associations.

    1. Another method is religious – that is to understand that whatever I have is a temporary gift from the Lord for temporary use and ready to return it anytime.

  5. Give up ahangara – Ahangara is identification with the three bodies (sthūla, sūkṣma and kāraņa śarīram) or  body mind complex (identification with everything else is mamakara).
  6. Be able to treat everything in life is purposeful and endowed with both sugam and duḥkam. The vedantic method is to understand aham sathyam and everything else is mithyā.  The religious method is to understand that everything in creation is given by the Lord and is purposeful.  This conviction must be very strong to understand everything in creation is purposeful.  We must have this conviction for sugam and duḥkam also. 
  7. Shama or titikṣā:  When I face a situation which I consider unfavorable to me the tendency is to change the situation to make it favorable to me.  This conversion is done either by a violent method (verbal or physical) or a nonviolent method.   Our immediate reaction is mostly the violent method.  A person who postpones this method and tries to adopt nonviolent method is shama.  To develop shama, we must understand that violent methods are natural and give more effective results.  But the side effects are worse as the victim of the violence also becomes violent. 

Verse 14:

That devotee of Mine whose mind and intellect are fixed up Me and who is ever content, tranquil, self-restrained and with clear knowledge is dear to Me.

If there is contentment, how would I contribute to the world? But contented people alone can contribute, and the discontented people will not be able to contribute.   The entire life of jñāni is to contribute to the world. 

There is no distance between jivatma and paramatma, because Bhagavän is all pervading.  If I still feel distance, is notional delusion caused by ignorance and the ignorance is removed by jñānam.

Four types of people:  The last two are Jñānis the other two are not Jñānis, but people with samsara.

  1. One who has neither miraculous power or jñānam.
  2. One who has siddhi but no jñānam.
  3. One who has gyanam but without any miraculous power.
  4. One who has both gyanam and miraculous power.