Shrimad Bhagavad Gita,CHAPTER 8

1. "Arjun said, ‘Enlighten me, O Supreme Being, on the nature of Brahm, adhyatm, action, adhibhoot and adhidaiv.’’

The words adhyatm, action, adhibhoot and adhidaiv are all mysteries to Arjun and he wishes to be enlightened on them.

2. "Who is adhiyagya, O Madhusudan, and how is he enshrined in the body: and how does the man with a restrained mind know you at the end?"

Who is a adhiyagya and how is he within the body? It is evident that the doer of yagya is some Soul who is based in a human body.And, at last, how does a man with a fully controlled mind know Krishn at the end? So there are seven questions in all and Krishn proceeds to answer them in that order.

3. "The Lord said, ‘The one who is imperishable is the Supreme Spirit (Brahm); abiding in a body he is adhyatm; and the cessation of properties in beings which produce something or the other is action.’ ’’

The one who is indestructible, who never dies, is the Supreme Spirit. Steady devotion to the Self-dominance of the Soul-is adhyatm. Before this stage everyone is ruled by maya, but when a man dwells firmly in God and so in his own Self, he is infused with the sense of supremacy of his Self. This is the culmination of adhyatm. The ceasing-the discontinuance-of the will of beings which results in the creation of both good and evil is, on the other hand, the crowning point of action. This is the perfect action which Krishn had spoken of earlier as known to yogi. Action is now complete and henceforth there is no further need of it. Action is perfected when the desires of beings which create sanskar that are propitious as well as unpropitious are stilled. Beyond this there is no further need of action. So true action is that which brings an end to desires. Such action, therefore, means worship and contemplation that are inherent in yagya.

4. "Adhibhoot is all that is subject to birth and death; the Supreme Spirit is adhidaiv; and, O the unparalleled among men (Arjun), I (Vasudev) am the adhiyagya in the body.’’

Until the state of immortality is achieved, all the transient, destructible desires are adhibhoot or, in other words, spheres of beings. They are the source of the origin of beings. And the Supreme Spirit who is beyond nature is adhidaiv, the creator of all gods, that is, righteous impulses-the divine treasure that is finally dissolved in him. Vasudev-Krishn-is adhiyagya in the human body, the performer of all yagya. Thus God himself, dwelling as the unmanifest Soul in the body, is adhiyagya. Krishn was a yogi, the enjoyer of all oblations. And all yagya are at last absorbed in him. That is the moment of realization of the Supreme Soul. Six of Arjun’s questions have now been answered. At last, Krishn takes up the question of how he is known at the end and never forgotten thereafter.

5. "The man who departs from the body remembering me doubtlessly attains to me.’’

That accounts for Krishn’s assertion that the man who finally, that is, when he has perfect control over his mind and when even this mind is dissolved, severs his relationship with the body and departs from it with remembrance of him, surely achieves total oneness with him.Death of the body is not the final end, for the succession of bodies continues even after death. It is only when the last crust of earned merits or demerits (sanskar) has disintegrated, and so also the restrained mind along with it, that the final end comes, and after that the Soul does not have to assume a new body. But this is a process of action and it cannot be rendered comprehensible by just words. As long as the transfer from one body to another, like a change of clothes, persists, there is no real end of the physical person. But even while the body is yet alive, with control of the mind and dissolution of the restrained mind itself, physical relationships are sundered. If this state were possible after the event of death, even Krishn could not be perfect. He has said that only by worship carried on through innumerable births does a sage gain identity with him. The worshipper then dwells in him and he in the worshipper. There is then not even the least distance between them. But this achievement is made during a physical life. When the Soul does not have to assume a new body-that is the real end of the physical body.This is a portrayal of real death after which there is no rebirth. At the other end there is physical death which the world accepts as death, but after which the Soul has to be born again. Krishn now dwells upon this:

6. "A man attains, O son of Kunti, to the slate with the thought of which he departs from the body because of his constant preoccupation with that state.’’

A man achieves what he bears in mind at the time of his death. How very easy, we may be led to assume? All that we have to do is just remember God before dying after a lifelong indulgence in pleasures. According to Krishn, however, it is not like this at all. At the moment of his death a man can remember only that which he has thought of all his life. So what is needed is lifelong contemplation. In the absence of this, there is no remembrance at the moment of death of the ideal state which has to be achieved.

7."So you will doubtless realize me if, with your mind and intellect dedicated to me, you always wage war.’’

How are uninterrupted meditation and combat accomplished simultaneously? It is perhaps the practice of warriors: one goes on shooting arrows while at the same time intoning and yelling names of deities. But the true meaning of remembrance (internal recitation of the name) is something else and it is clarified by the Yogeshwar in the following verse:

8. "Possessed of the yog of meditation and a restrained mind, O Parth, the man who is always absorbed in my thought attains to the sublime radiance of God."

Contemplation of God and practise of yog have an identical meaning. The remembrance, which Krishn has spoken of, requires the worshipper to be possessed of yog and a mind so well subdued that it never strays from God. If these conditions are met and the worshipper then remembers constantly, he attains to the magnificence of God. If the thought of other objects comes to mind, one’s remembrance is still imperfect. Now, when, it is so subtle that it has no room for any other thought except God and does not countenance any other urges, how can it be possible along with the act of waging war? What kind of war is it? When the mind is pulled back from all sides and centered on the object of worship, prompted by natural properties, feelings of attachment and anger, of love and hatred appear as impediments in the way. We try to remember and concentrate, but these feelings agitate the mind and do their utmost to force it away from the desired memory. Overcoming these external impulses is fighting a war; and they can be destroyed only by continuous meditation. This is the war that the Geeta portrays. The problem then broached is of the object of meditation and Krishn speaks of it.

9. ‘‘The man who remembers God who is omniscient, without beginning and end, dwelling in the Soul that rules all beings, the most subtle of the subtle, unmanifest, provider to all, beyond thought, imbued with the light of consciousness, and quite beyond ignorance,...’’

God is beyond thought and inconceivable. So long as the mind exists, its urges survive and he is not seen. He is known only after the perfectly restrained mind is itself dissolved. In the seventh verse Krishn spoke of the worshipper’s contemplation of him; and now he speaks of the contemplation of God. So the instrument of meditation is some accomplished Soul who is imbued with the awareness of reality.

10. "With unwavering concentration, with his life-breath firmly centered between his brows by the strength of his yog, such a man attains to the effulgent Supreme Being.’’

The worshipper who always meditates on God with a steady mind realizes his magnificence when his mind is dissolved by the strength of his yog-by the strength gained from undertaking of the ordained action- which enables him to centre his breath between the two brows so that there is neither inner agitation nor the advent of any will from an external source. In brief, the realization comes in the state in which all properties, sattwa, rajas and tamas, are perfectly quiet; the vision of mind remains ready on the self and it is achieved by the worshipper who always keeps it in mind that yog is the appointed way of realization. This way is yog, which Krishn has delineated at length in Chapters 5 and 6. He has just told Arjun, "Always remember me." As we have seen, this is done by resting firmly on the precepts of yog. One who achieves this knows the magnificence of God and becomes one with him, and thereafter his memory is never obliterated from his mind. At this point the question of how God is perceived at the time of departing from the body is resolved. Let us now see the supreme condition that should be the worshipper’s goal and to which the discourse of the Geeta reverts again and again.

11. "I shall tell you briefly of the ultimate state which knowers of the Ved call the imperishable, and which is realized by men who aspire for it, act without desire, and practise continence.’’

As was observed in the exposition of the fourteenth verse of Chapter 6, continence is uninterrupted concentration on God through a rejection of all external associations from the mind rather than a mere curbing of the s*xual urge. Constant meditation is true continence, for it is this that brings about perception of God and the final absolution. Such an exercise is the restraint of not one sense, but of all senses. Men who can do this are true celibates. What Krishn is going to tell Arjun about this discipline is therefore something that is fit to be cherished by all hearts.

12. "Shutting the doors of all the senses, that is, restraining them from desire for their objects, confining his intellect within the Self, fixing his life-breath within his mind, and absorbed in yog,...’’

The necessity of renunciation of desire by a perfect control of the senses is repeatedly stressed. The mind has to be confined within the Self because contemplation and worship are accomplished within the Self, not outside. With the mind so regulating the breath that it is centered between the two eyebrows and, of course, engaged in the practice of yog, for this is an essential prerequisite;-

13. "He who departs from the body intoning OM, which is God in word, and remembering me, attains to salvation.’’

The sage who dies with the knowledge that the imperishable God is the one reality achieves the state of sublime bliss. Krishn is a yogi, a seer who has achieved awareness of the ultimate truth. As a realized sage, an accomplished teacher, he exhorts Arjun to recite OM, symbol of God, and contemplate him. All great Souls are known by the name of the entity to which they attain and into which they are finally assimilated. It is for this reason that Krishn prompts Arjun to utter the name of God but remember his own ( Krishn’s ) form. Let us note that he does not tell Arjun to recite his name. With the passage of time, though, Krishn was deified and men began to recite his name; and they are rewarded but only according to the nature of their dedication. Krishn has told Arjun that it is he who both strengthens the devotion of such worshippers and determines their rewards. But these rewards are destroyed along with their recipients.It is useful to remember how Lord Shiv, the initiator of yog, insisted on the recitation of the syllable "Ram" that signifies the omnipresent God who can be experienced only as an inner voice. Sant Kabir is also said to have committed himself to the constant recitation of the two sounds represented by "ra" and "m." And Krishn here advocates the usefulness of OM. God is known by innumerable names, but only that name which prompts and confirms faith in the one God is worthy of constant remembrance and recitation. Worshippers are rightly cautioned by Krishn that the name they recite time and again must not be one that might incline or encourage them to believe in a multiplicity of gods and goddesses who are nothing more than a bundle of myth. OM is unique in the sense that it literally betokens that the supreme authority of God inheres in every "me." So seekers must desist from wandering here and there to find him outside themselves.The revered Maharaj Ji would often advise his devotees to keep in mind his form while intoning some name like OM, Ram or Shiv: to visualize him and, with him before the mind’s eye, to remember the identical god-the object of their worship. It is an accomplished teacher who is kept in view while meditating. Whether we hold on to a Ram, Krishn, or a hermit who is liberated from ail desire and pleasure of the senses, or to any other being according to our inclination, we can know them only by actual experience, after which they disclose to us the way to some contemporary an accomplished teacher whose guidance we should slowly but surely conquer the material world. At the beginning, I too used to contemplate a huge image of Krishn, but this image was gradually erased from my mind by the advent of perception of my enlightened teacher. Novices utter the deity’s name, but hesitate to do so while calling a sage in human form. They are unable to discard the bias of their inherited beliefs. So they call to mind some other false god instead. But this practice is, as we have seen, forbidden by Yogeshwar Krishn as impious. The proper way is to find refuge in some realized sage, an accomplished or enlightened teacher, who has already gone through the experience. Fallacious dogmas are then destroyed and the worshipper is enabled to set upon real action as his pious impulses and the capacity to act according to them are rendered sufficiently strong. So, according to Krishn, the mind is restrained and ultimately dissolved by a simultaneous recitation of OM and remembrance of his form. This is the point at which the accumulated layers of sanskar-of the merits of action- are dissolved and all the relationships of the body severed forever. A man is not rid of the body by just physical death.

14. "The yogi who is firmly devoted to me, and who constantly remembers me and is absorbed in me, realizes me with ease."

Krishn is easily attained to by the worshipper who has no one except him in his mind, and who thinks steadily only of him and always remembers him. The profit of this attainment is portrayed in the next verse.