Verses 12.3–12.4
ये त्वक्षरमनिर्देश्यमव्यक्तं पर्युपासते | सर्वत्रगमचिन्त्यञ्च कूटस्थमचलन्ध्रुवम्
ye tv akṣaram anirdeśyam avyaktaṁ paryupāsate / sarvatragam acintyaṁ ca kūṭa-stham acalaṁ dhruvam / / 12.3
But those who worship with awareness the imperishable, the unmanifest, that which lies beyond the perception of senses, the all pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, the non-moving and permanent, those who worship by restraining their senses, and are working with even mind for the benefit of mankind, they too attain Me.
सन्नियम्येन्द्रियग्रामं सर्वत्र समबुद्धय: | ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मामेव सर्वभूतहिते रता:
sanniyamyendriya-grāmaṁ sarvatra samabuddhayaḥ / te prāpnuvanti mām eva sarvabhūta-hite ratāḥ / / 12.4
But those who worship with awareness the imperishable, the unmanifest, that which lies beyond the perception of senses, the all pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, the non-moving and permanent, those who worship by restraining their senses, and are working with even mind for the benefit of mankind, they too attain Me.
Kṛṣṇa is saguṅa brahman, the physical Cosmos, who showed Himself in this form to Arjuna, in His viśvarūpa, Cosmic form. Kṛṣṇa is nirguṇa brahman as well, the formless consciousness. In both the form and the formless, He is Kṛṣṇa, the Divine consciousness who has all the attributes that He talks about here. The Divine is imperishable. It is akṣaram. Everything else in this material Universe may come and go, appear and disappear, while the Divine remains forever. It is unique and incomparable and cannot be benchmarked against anything, as it is supreme. It is avyaktam, unmanifest and acinytam, inconceivable, and therefore cannot be comprehended by the senses. It cannot be grasped by thoughts and mind, which is why one’s mind-body needs to be transcended to glimpse the Divine.
The Divine resides everywhere and is omnipresent. The true devotee sees his Lord everywhere. Rāmakṛṣṇa describes the love of a true devotee this way: ‘It is the love of a chaste wife for her husband, the attachment of a miser towards his hoarded wealth, the craving of a worldly person for sensual pleasures, all rolled into one and directed towards the Lord, creating devotion.’ The true devotee, who follows either path with completion, with his senses focused on the Lord, experiences Him and also experiences the Bhakti Yogaḥ Love Is Your Very Life 873 bliss of enriching humanity. The devotee sees the Lord in everyone he meets. His experience of His Lord becomes His expression of love to all.
Kṛṣṇa’s beloved Radhā tells the gopīkās (cowherdress who were around Kṛṣṇa), ‘I don’t know what has happened to me. I see Kṛṣṇa in everybody. I feel that everybody is Kṛṣṇa. I don’t know what is happening.’ One of the gopikās answers, ‘You have devotion as the very black eyeliner in your eyes!’ It is like this: When you wear dark glasses everything appears dark; when you wear green-tinted glasses, everything appears green. In the same way, when you have devotion as your very eyeliner, whomsoever you see appears as Kṛṣṇa, appears divine! Here, Kṛṣṇa says, the person established in super consciousness space of completion and the person who radiates devotion and lives for enriching are the same.
They are not two different groups. Formless or Form? Kṛṣṇa does not create two groups. Arjuna presents two groups as the reality that he sees: those who are established and those who are radiating. Kṛṣṇa says both are the same. He does not divide them into two groups, those who are established and those who radiate, or those who are complete and those who enrich. Kṛṣṇa says, a person who is established always radiates and the person who radiates is always established. As I said earlier, it is a virtuous circle. Rāmakṛṣṇa says, ‘When a bell rings, each stroke has a sound form of its own. But even when the bell stops ringing, we continue to hear the sound.
That’s how God appears, both as form and as formless.’ Once again, Kṛṣṇa makes the point here. When one has realized the formless nature of the Divine, its imperishability and its unmanifest nature with controlled senses, one works for the enrichment of mankind. Once the experience of the formless divine happens, it is no different from the experience of the form. Both lead to the truth that one is a part of collective consciousness. The expression of this realization is one of deep humility and compassion. It is manifested as deep gratitude and surrender. One learns to flow with the energy of this Universe. One no longer struggles against the currents of life.
When we are full of ego we tend to control. We believe we can bring order to an otherwise chaotic world. It takes only a moment to realize that this entire Universe and planet Earth function not because of us, but in spite of us. Millions and millions of stars and planets in this Universe function in apparent chaos. But understand, the Universe is always in order. We want to be in order but we are truly chaotic. Only when we surrender to the will of the Universe, we fall into the cosmic order. Things go well for us. When we give up wanting, we get what we want. When we get what we truly want, it enriches mankind.
Because when we surrender, Kṛṣṇa takes care. Kṛṣṇa is not the Kṛṣṇa whom you think He is. He is not the single form you are used to. He is the Super conscious energy, the Cosmic Energy, Parāśakti. Formless Is Difficult