The Dearest Devotee to God
Divine Life
Society Publication: Discourse 37: Commentary on the
Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
Yo
ha hrshyati na dveshti na sochati na kankshati, subhasubha-parityagi bhaktiman
yah sa me priyah (12.17): “Who is dear to Me? He who is neither
happy nor unhappy, neither likes nor dislikes, neither wants nor does not want,
asks neither for pleasant things nor unpleasant things, and does not even make
a distinction between good and bad – such a person is the true devotee of God.”
The great geniuses of the
spirit, whether they are devotees of the Almighty and visualize Him as a
Supreme Person or as a Transcendent Eternal, have a common characteristic
between them. Their behavior is of a uniform nature, though their internal
methodology of attunement with the Supreme Spirit slightly varies because of
the distinction that we are obliged to make between the personality of God and
the universality of God.
What is the nature of those
who seek God, either as a Supreme Person or as an Impersonal Universal?
Universal Compassionate outlook:
Eternally free from hatred towards any living being, they extend love and
compassion to all creatures. Dislike and hatred, in any manner whatsoever, is
unknown to them. It is not absence of hatred only towards some. It is absence
of dislike and hatred towards anyone.
Friendly and compassionate at all
times: They are very friendly with persons of any category whatsoever,
whether high or low.
Free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness:
They have no sense of ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness. Neither the devotee of the
Supreme Person nor the devotee of the Universal Being ever considers himself or
herself as existing independent of God. In either case, it is an abolition of
personality – either by self surrender or inner communion of spirit with
Spirit. That is no sense of ‘I’-ness. ‘I’ does not exist, because there is only
one ‘I’ that can exist – the supreme ‘I’ – and, therefore, nothing belongs to
me. Neither they have any sense of existing independently, by themselves, nor
have they a sense of possession of any article whatsoever in this world. So
they are free from ‘I’-ness and ‘mine’-ness.
Pleasure and Pain are equal:
Whether pleasure comes or pain comes, they accept both with equanimity. Knowing
that pleasures and pains are only reactions to certain prevailing conditions,
one is not perturbed either when there is a pleasurable sensation or when there
is a sensation which is contrary. Pleasure and pain are equal. They are quick
to forgive, and never get irritated or angry.
Being content: Always in a contented state; never greedy, never asking for anything. Always contented, they are yogis whose self is united with God.
Determined to realize God in this
birth: Determination counts very
much in actually attaining success. If we are diffident – “I may not even pass;
where is the question of attaining first class?” – if this kind of feeling is
there in the beginning itself, nothing is going to be attained. Here is the
determination of the spirit of the seeker: “Everything is well with me. I am
not doing anything wrong. My technique of meditation is perfectly all right. I
shall attain God in this birth itself.” This determination, or dridha-nischayatva, is what characterizes
all yogis and their mind and intellect is dedicated to the Supreme Being. They
are the supreme devotees. They are dear to God.
No dislike or disgust towards
anyone or anything: They do not shrink from anything, nor do they
behave in such a way that the world will shrink away from them. We may have no
dislike or disgust towards anything in the world, but the point is that the
world should behave towards us in a similar manner. This is possible in
heightened forms of self-expansion. When the moods of love and compassion rise
to a sufficiently high pedestal, the aura of this great yogi touches everything
in the atmosphere around, and the world will behave in respect of that person
in a similar manner as the person behaves in respect of the world. That is to
say, our behavior towards the world largely conditions its behavior towards us.
So if we do not shy away from the world, the world will not shy away from us.
Free from exhilaration, anger, fear, and from agitation of any kind: Getting exhilarated when something
pleasant comes and becoming angry when something unpleasant comes; the fear
that something may come and hinder our path of pleasure, and udvega - agitation caused when all
these are present. One who is free from all these is dear to God.
Free from any kind of expectation
and desire – inwardly and outwardly: Wanting nothing at all, and
expecting nothing even for tomorrow. One who is inwardly and outwardly contented,
free from any kind of expectation and desire, he is pure and is able to perform
his duties to the utmost. Whether they are spiritual duties in the form of
meditation or external duties in the form of relations with society, he is an expert,
adroit and very precise in his behavior, and he will not bungle in his
attitude. He does not talk much; he will not interfere with things; he does not
take any initiative, and keeps quiet as if he is not interested in anything in
this world. Yet when he starts doing a thing, he will do it in a more expert
manner than anybody else in the world.
Free from grief of every kind:
He has no sorrow, no grief, no feeling that something has come which he doesn’t
want, or something has not come which he wants. This grief does not touch him
because there is nothing that he wants, and there is nothing that he does not
want.
Remains quiet and does not take
initiative in any direction: If something happens, he acts in
accordance with that happening. If nothing happens, he keeps quiet. He does not
plan what he will do tomorrow and what he will do the day after that. He
remains quiet, as if nothing is happening and the world itself does not exist.
But if occasions arise when he has to take a step in a given direction, he does
it in a most expert manner. Otherwise, he does not take initiative in any
direction. Such a devotee is dear to God.
Equal in attitude towards a friend
or an enemy. Whether he is praised or insulted, it makes no difference
because, for him, words are only vibrations in the air and they make no sense.
Only if we make sense of the vibrations, they seem to affect us. But vibration
is vibration – and if we let them go, they vanish into thin air. Hence, neither
praise nor insults make any difference to him. He is totally unaware of
anything happening at all. They are empty words, with no sense or meaning for
him.
No attachment to the physical body:
Heat and cold, hunger and thirst are the usual concomitants of a human being
embodied in a physical sheath. We cannot ask why there should be hunger, why
there should be thirst, why there should be heat and cold. They are natural, and
have to be borne with fortitude as long as the physical body continues. He does
that. He is attached to nothing.
Ninda and stuti mean the same thing to him.
"You are the best" and "Nobody likes you in the whole
world" –mean the same to him and he takes both of them as prasad. Tulya-ninda-stutir
mauni: talking not, saying nothing. Santushto
yena kenachit: Whatever comes, he is satisfied with it.
Having no abode of his own:
He stays anywhere and any place is
equally good for him. He does not have an attachment to any particular land and
property. He has no particular homestead, no location, and feels that all is
well at any place.
Mind is still and not agitated: Sthira-matir- He is still, not
agitated and is established in understanding. Such a devotee is the beloved of
God.
Whoever listens to this advice
is also dear to God. Whoever devotedly hears this glory of the devotee of God
is also a devotee of God. "I consider all of them as very, very, dear to
Me who devotedly, intently, with concentration, listen to these glories of the
great masters of the spirit – which is like nectar for the ears – full of faith
and intent on Me only. I consider them as most dear to Me". With these words, we conclude the
Twelfth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita.
Excerpts from:
Discourse 37: Commentary on the
Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
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