BHAGAVAD GITA - CHAPTER 9

THE YOGA OF KINGLY SCIENCE AND KINGLY SECRET

Observing Arjuna to be endowed with faith, free from the fault-finding nature and qualified to receive the sacred divine knowledge, Krishna will disclose the sovereign knowledge and sovereign secret known in direct experience. This knowledge is imperishable, knowing which one will become free from the evil of worldly existence. As a result of their lack of faith in this knowledge, most people fail to reach God and experience suffering.

Krishna says that all beings are pervaded by Him. Even though He is the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the world, He stands as a witness, indifferent and unattached to these processes. The ignorant, i.e. those who have no idea of God, regard Him as a mortal being. They do not behold God in the universe and have no knowledge of the Self which dwells in all. They do not see the unity in diversity. They run after transient objects and miss the eternal. They have no discrimination or right understanding. The knowers of Truth feel oneness with all. They worship Him with the wisdom sacrifice. Krishna explains His identity with the universe.

He is the father and mother of the world, the dispenser of the fruits of action, the one thing to be known, the syllable OM. He is the medicinal herb and all the plants. He is the worshipper and the worshipped. He is being as well as non-being, immortality as well as death. The devotees who constantly think of and love Him alone, without any desires, God gives full security and attends personally to their needs. God is not concerned with the article offered by the devotee; He watches only their motive and devotion. Even the vilest of sinners, if they worship Him with devotion, will be regarded as righteous, for they have rightly resolved.

Chapter 9 teaches that every action should be done as an offering to the Lord. All actions become a symbol of devotion. God is not in need of the objects of the world. The entire world exists in Him but He does not dwell in them. The waves are in the ocean; but the ocean cannot be said to be in the waves. In this discourse Krishna reveals the secret that nothing can exist apart from Him. He is both the manifested and unmanifested reality of the universe. He who is aware of this secret of reality and existence, in all states and stages of life, will surely reach Him alone.

IMPORTANT VERSES OF CHAPTER 9

2. This is the kingly science, the kingly secret, the supreme purifier, realizable by direct intuitional knowledge, according to righteousness, very easy to perform and imperishable.

8. Animating My Nature, I again and again send forth all this multitude of beings, helpless by the force of the nature.

11. Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of (all) beings.

26. Whosoever offers Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or a little water - that, so offered devotedly by the pure-minded, I accept.

27. Whatever thou doest, whatever thou eatest, whatever though offerest in sacrifice, whatever thou givest, whatever thou practices! as austerity, O Arjuna, do it as an offering unto Me.

34. Fix thy mind on Me; be devoted to Me; sacrifice unto Me; bow down to Me; having thus united thy whole self to Me, taking Me as the supreme goal, though shalt come unto Me.

Question:

1. Why can some people not see the Divine?
2. What is the best type of offering to the Lord?
3. How can the 'kingly science' be a 'secret' when discussed in the world's most read book?
4. What is the 'secret'?