Love Within
The Mysteries of the Real Self- Part III
LOVE WITHIN
Having explained the real identity of a living entity as a spiritual spark (soul), its position as servant of the Supreme, and its purpose to serve in accordance with the Supreme will, Krishna now elucidates about His own Supreme nature. He reveals His ultimate, infallible position as the Absolute Truth, the Supreme Person. He describes His unlimited qualities, infinite glories, and eternal relationship with the living entities. As a part and parcel of Krishna, every soul has a loving relationship with Him. Krishna urges us to remember and reestablish that forgotten relationship, to reawaken the lost love for Him, and to achieve perfection of life.
Let us explore the ‘Love Within’ as detailed in the next six chapters of the Bhagavad Gita:
Chapter 7: Love through Wisdom
Science of God
Here, Krishna explains His position as the cause of all causes and the source of everything. He is the supreme divine person who creates, maintains, and annihilates this physical world.
Krishna enables the functioning of material creation through unlimited energies and several deputies working under His supervision and direction. He exerts control through unlimited energies (omnipotent), He knows past, present, and future (omniscient), and He is pervaded into everything, everyone, and everywhere (omnipresent).
The souls, which are spiritual sparks, are His parts and parcels, yet they are inexplicably trapped in the temporary, phenomenal world of dualities and miseries. It is an extremely perplexing situation as neither the entrapment is easy to break out from nor the soul has any inclination to break free from this prison house. They are here to reform themselves, work in service with the mood of sacrifice, give up this body made of material elements, and go back to Him. Yet, they become deceived by the sophistry and misconceptions created by the physical world and tend to create a comfortable home in the temporary, illusory residence of distress.
The wise souls that attempt to understand these higher truths, practice this spiritual science, and work in servitude will be able to understand their position and Lord’s supreme nature perfectly. But wayward souls that tend to exert their lordship on the world will defy His authority and be encaged here for a long time.
Chapter 8: Love through Union
Art of Living and Leaving
Having realized that Krishna is the Supreme, Absolute truth and not an ordinary human, Arjuna enquires how to realize Krishna at the time of death.
Death is a critical moment of transition for the soul when the soul gives up the current body and hopes for reunion with the Lord, its father, source of joy, love, and eternal refuge. But this reunion will not be possible for most souls who have wasted their lives in futile, self-serving bodily pursuits.
However, those who have lived in genuine service, humility, and surrender will be able to meditate on the Lord in their last moments. One’s desires, passions, and deepest motivations practiced during the life span will determine the content of one’s mind at the time of death. A soul that spent its life in spiritual pursuits, in remembrance of Krishna, detached from bodily affairs, will be able to fix its consciousness on Him at the time of departure.
Thus, while giving up the body, their consciousness will be cleansed of material contamination and entirely focused on the supreme lord, who will then claim these souls back into His fold. These souls enter into the higher, eternal realm from where they never take rebirth and enjoy a life of perfect bliss, truth, and knowledge in the supreme state of immortality.
Chapter 9: Love through Relationship
The King of Kings, His Royal Secret, and Majestic Promises
Krishna then tells Arjuna about the beautiful, eternal, loving relationship between souls and Himself, the Supreme Lord. The goal of human life is to realize that relationship, and until this is done, the soul keeps circulating in the cycle of birth and death.
The obstacles to achieving this purpose are: Some people misunderstand His human forms and activities with devotees and consider Him a limited human. Many others, motivated by their self-centered desires, pursue worship of subordinate deities or follow ritualistic religion ordained by scriptures. None of these paths lead to ultimate reality or the supreme goal of life. One must approach Krishna as one’s only refuge, one's only true friend, the object of love, and the goal of life. The process of awakening selfless love for Krishna and establishing a loving relationship with Him is highly potent and joyful. It has been historically proven to lead one to the perfection of life.
Such souls that understand Krishna as the Absolute truth and ultimate goal of life serve and worship Him with one-pointed attention, complete absorption, and exclusive service. Krishna grants His special mercy to such souls and reciprocates with them in love. They live in complete union with the will of Krishna and offer everything to Him with love. They are promised complete freedom from sinful reactions, peace, protection, and love of the Godhead. This is the most confidential knowledge, the royal secret that Krishna revealed to Arjuna.
Chapter 10: Love through Splendor
Greatness of God
Krishna now starts revealing His grandiose divinity to Arjuna. He establishes Himself as the most prominent, the most wonderful, the topmost quality noted within any entity- living or non-living that lends merit and eminence to them.
All worthy and boastful qualities that anyone possesses are just a tiny spark of His infinite splendor. He is the superlative within any category of people or things. He gives an exhaustive list to Arjuna, e.g, He is Ram amongst warriors, Prahlad amongst demons, Ganga amongst rivers, Meru amongst mountains, mind amongst senses, Indra amongst demigods, Arjuna amongst Pandavas, etc. He is the distinction held by a great warrior, a celestial body, a wonderful mountain, roaring ocean, or a ferocious animal. Being the Ultimate, supreme reality, He is the source of virtue, power, and unmatched qualities depicted by great personalities.
It is the connection with Krishna that lends beauty, strength, talents, and prowess and can render anyone glorious. Thus, recognizing Him as the supreme source of everything, wise people take up His worship, remembrance, and discussion of His divine nature and qualities. To such learned souls, He gives the intelligence, inspiration, and wisdom from within the heart by which they can achieve Him. He reveals His divinity only to the dearmost devotees who are sincerely engaged in His service and truly aspire for His love and compassion.
Thus, Krishna teaches Arjuna to perceive the divine presence of the Supreme everywhere in this world, which is uniquely manifested through great people, wondrous objects, and their monumental qualities and achievements. Ultimately, Krishna concludes that there is no need to know all the infinite glories of the Supreme; rather, one should recognize that all the magnificence in this world comes from just a spark of Krishna’s unlimited splendor.
Chapter 11: Love through Power
Power of God- His Universal Form
Krishna then reveals His extremely vast, incredible, inconceivable, and astounding ‘Universal Form’ to Arjuna. This particular form of the Lord is extremely fierce, with numerous arms, heads, legs, and ferocious teeth.
Arjuna was used to seeing His dear friend Krishna in His original form as the most attractive person with the most beautiful lotus face, a gentle smile, playful conduct, enormously charming demeanor, delightfully pleasant manners, extremely friendly persona, and ever-present wit and humor. Now, Arjuna was most astonished at the sight of this extraordinary, formidable Universal form, which was quite fearsome. He had numerous blazing eyes, deathlike faces with fearful teeth and dreadful mouths into which Arjuna’s enemies were entering. All the demigods, varieties of living entities, planets, and universes were contained in this form. He was brilliantly effulgent with a glaring fire emanating from Him- ready to devour the entire manifestation.
This form of Krishna represents His control over the entire cosmic manifestation through His Time Factor (Kaala). Time, being one of the energies of the Lord, inevitably degrades and destroys everyone and everything. Arjuna felt quite disturbed and disconcerted with fear. He offered the Lord numerous prayers and finally implored Him to return to His original, most beautiful, and loving form, which is the object of love and worship by His dearmost devotees.
In this way, by displaying this ferocious form, Krishna assured Arjuna of His Supremacy, Absolute Nature, His control, and His proprietorship. He also affirmed that all the irreligious, sinful entities engaged in this war are already destroyed as this is the Supreme will of Krishna to establish order and harmony in the world. Arjuna can rise to the task of fighting this battle and act as a mere instrument in achieving this outcome for the pleasure of the Supreme.
Chapter 12: Love through Service
Best practices of Love
Arjuna is now convinced of Krishna’s position as the Supreme Lord and understands that the ultimate goal of life is to please the Lord through one’s body, mind, words, and actions.
Krishna explains to Arjuna that pleasing the personal form of the Supreme Lord is a more joyful and effective process than approaching His Impersonal feature, which is difficult to access and requires more effort.
One can engage their whole existence in devotional service- Mind- in meditation, Body- in services, Intelligence- in acquiring knowledge, Words- in chanting of Holy names and reciting His pastimes. This way, a dedicated routine practice of regulated, disciplinary activities should be established. One uses all their bodily faculties and God given resources to serve the Supreme person. Thus, we are recommended to restructure our lives, realign our activities with His will, and work for His pleasure and satisfaction.
While practicing devotional service, one must simultaneously cultivate divine values and virtues, establish righteous conduct, and rise above our lower nature. This is extremely pleasing to Krishna. Such people become very dear to Krishna; they slowly develop affection and attraction for Him and gradually climb the ladder of devotional service to achieve complete absorption in Him and detachment from the world.
Hence "If the mind is in control, then everything is in control — just like it's said, 'Man ke jeete jeet, man ke haare haar. Rigjt ?
Okay thanku 😊