Bhagavagd Gita - Session 31- Track 3112

Therefore now comes the last word of this entire process of Jnana Yoga, Bhakti yoga, Karma Yoga, or combine together. He says:

yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat |
yat tapasyasi kaunteya tat kuruṣva madarpaṇam ||27|| (IX)

Therefore, the sum total of everything is that whatever you are doing, even whatever you are eating, whatever you are offering, whatever you are giving, whatever you are endeavouring for, O Kaunteya, O Arjuna, tat kuruṣva mad-arpaṇam, you offer to Me.

This is the sum and substance of the entire Bhakti yoga in substance, in brief as it were; mad arpaṇam, offer everything to the Divine. That is why it is the simplest formula in which Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, all is summarised: mad arpaṇam, offer everything to the Divine.

śubhāśubhaphalair evaṁ mokṣyase karmabandhanaiḥ |,

If you do this, then, you will be liberated from all karmabandhan, all bondage of action. All śubhāśubha-phalair, whether the fruits are pleasant or unpleasant, even from this you will be liberated.

sanyāsa yogayuktātmā vimukto mām upaiṣyasi ||28|| (IX)

You will really be endowed with Sannyasa, with renunciation, with Yoga and you will become liberated, and having been liberated, mām upaiṣyasi, you will arrive to Me.

samo ’haṁ sarvabhūteṣu na me dveṣyo ’sti na priyaḥ |
ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā mayi te teṣu cāpy aham ||29|| (IX),

In this world everything is equal to Me. I am omnipresent equally. There is nobody dear to Me, nobody whom I have any special kind of envy; na me dveṣyo’sti na priyaḥ, and still, ye bhajanti tu māṁ bhaktyā, those who worship Me with great devotion, te teṣu cāpy aham, they are very dear to Me and I also return to them great devotion.

As Sri Aurobindo says, ‘the Bhakta of course pursues the Divine, but the Divine pursues the Bhakta even more vigorously, because it is the Divine’s offering and the Divine’s offering is always perfect. Our offering may be imperfect, so when we pursue the Lord, it is an imperfect pursuit, but when He comes to You, He comes with rapidity and with full force, with completion and perfection.

api cet sudurācāro bhajate mām ananyabhāk |
sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ saṁyag vyavasito hi saḥ ||30|| (IX)

Even a man who has been in the direst wickedness, who has been endowed with wicked actions, but if suddenly bhajate mām ananya-bhāk, with one pointed devotion he turns to Me, then he is to be considered to be sādhur eva, he is the right man, a man who is endowed with goodness; saṁyag vyavasito hi saḥ, he is rightly re-organised, the moment he turns to Me with one-pointed attention.

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā, immediately he becomes dharmātmā. This is the magic of turning to the Divine:

kṣipraṁ bhavati dharmātmā śaśvacchāntiṁ nigacchati |,

he attains to eternal peace;

kaunteya, O Arjuna, pratijānīhi, know this, na me bhaktaḥ praṇaśyatī ||31||(IX)

Any one who turns to Me with Bhakti, he never perishes.

Question: What about all durachar, like Valmiki?

All is burnt, that is the meaning of sacrifice. Sacrifice is what? There is a fire in which all that you offer is burnt; therefore you become mukta from action. So that offering basically is the offering to the Lord, whether you do Agni or not, Supreme Himself is the supreme Fire; the moment you turn to Him, everything is burnt.

That is one view, but not the Gita’s view. It is the view of those who believe only in the law of Karma. They believe that any Karma must have its consequence. The real Veda says that you can destroy Karma.

Comment: You can burn it.

You can burn it: the whole path of sacrifice is given, that is the Vedic path that you can burn the actions, you are not anymore bound to it, you can become liberated merely by turning to the Divine. That is why He says that Bhakti yoga is so simple in a sense, although to my mind it is very difficult, but still it is said that if you really turn to the Divine so easily, ananyaḥ, that must be very important, there should be no distraction, your bhāva should be ananyaḥ, it should be without any distraction whatsoever and then if you turn to Him, then shipram bhāvati sudhatma.

māṁ hi pārtha vyapāśritya ye ’pi syuḥ pāpayonayaḥ |
striyo vaiśyās tathā śūdrās te ’pi yānti parāṁ gatim ||32|| (IX)

Even those who are born of the lower origin, they may be not Brahmins, they may Vaishyas, they may be Shudras, they may be women, they all arrive at the highest parāṁ gatim, they reach the Supreme.

kiṁ punar brāhmaṇāḥ, if they can arrive at this what to talk of those who are Brahmanas, those who are already given to knowledge,

puṇyā bhaktā rājarṣayas tathā, what to talk of these who are Brahmanas, who are puṇyā, full of meritorious actions, who are bhaktā, who are devotees, who are rājarṣaya, who are royal personalities turned into illumined minds, therefore:

anityama sukhaṁ lokam imaṁ prāpya bhajasva mām ||33|| (IX)

For one word is bhajasva mām, therefore worship Me; having attained to this particular world which is anityam, which is perishable, asukhaṁ, which is full of misery, lokam imaṁ prāpya, having arrived at this world which is perishable and which is full of misery, give it up, rāpya bhajasva mām, you turn away from it and you worship Me.