Verses 4.4–4.8🔗

Kṛṣṇa starts His message as a response to Arjuna’s question. This shows that Arjuna still needs to have the maturity. He asks, ‘The Sun god is elder to you by birth; he is so much your senior. How am I to understand that in the beginning you instructed this science to him?’ Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa are almost of the same age. Suddenly, Kṛṣṇa says He gave this science to the Sun god thousands of years ago! Moreover, Arjuna lived with Kṛṣṇa for a long time. He knows and has seen the human side of Kṛṣṇa, all of Kṛṣṇa’s līlā (plays), all of Kṛṣṇa’s moods. So now, it is very difficult for Arjuna to believe Kṛṣṇa’s words.

This is what all disciples who live around Enlightened Masters undergo. They find it difficult to understand the Divine descending and walking on the planet Earth in human form. Arjuna struggles to understand. How can the Divine descend? Arjuna is shocked when Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Thousands of years ago, I taught this science of Enlightenment to the Sun God, Vivaṣvān.’ For example, suddenly if I tell you, ‘A hundred years ago, I was the person who taught all these sciences to some enlightened Master!’ How will you feel? Naturally questions will arise. Here the same thing happens. Arjuna thinks, ‘How can I understand?’ He has become a little polite and intelligent.

In the second chapter, when Kṛṣṇa says, ‘Arjuna, go and fight,’ Arjuna asks, ‘How can you say this? How can you tell me to sin?’ Now he says, ‘How can I understand? Please tell me.’ He does not say, ‘How can you say this?’’ He is now ready to believe, but he wants a little explanation. Kṛṣṇa Declares His Divinity Whenever enlightened Masters descend on the planet Earth, they face this trouble, again and again. When Rāmakṛṣṇa declared that the same being who came as Rāma and Kṛṣṇa had now come down in the form of Rāmakṛṣṇa, he was called mad! People did not receive or respect him. But a few qualified people received his words and transformed their lives.

See, all movements can be started in two ways. One is the political movement which starts with huge numbers of followers. The bigger the crowd, the more powerful he feels. He makes all kinds of claims. These movements, over a period of time, slowly dwindle in quality and quantity. Once the founder dies, the movement dies. The second type of movement is the spiritual mission. When the Masters declare the truth, the quantity may not be there, but the quality will be there. When Rāmakṛṣṇa made this declaration, hardly sixteen disciples were ready to trust Him. These few transformed their lives. It started as a very slow, small movement but expanded into an international mission.

Today, millions worship him as Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 281 God. These spiritual missions start in a very small way but expand and explode. For a political person, the inspiration is in numbers. How well is it covered in media? It matters to him how many newspaper cuttings he can collect. But for a spiritual person what matters is how many ego-cuttings he can do and liberate? For a political person it is the paper cutting, for a spiritual person, it is the egocutting. I always tell people, my best discourses are always given to small, close devotees. Because when you speak the truth to an intimate group, it will be straight.

It will shake your whole being and transform your whole life. Those who are not yet ready cannot receive it. For a spiritual discourse, what matters is the quality of the people present. This very Gītā is delivered to only one person. When Kṛṣṇa delivered Gītā, only one person listened to it. But today, millions and millions, not even millions, billions read and practice it. For a billion Hindus, this is the basic scripture. Only one person listened to Kṛṣṇa. Today the whole world uses it. To express the truth, the quality of the person who listens is important, not the quantity of persons. Now Kṛṣṇa starts to answer this question.

Let me repeat this beautiful verse: śrī bhagavān uvāca bahūni me vyatītāni janmāni tava cārjuna I tāny ahaṁ veda sarvaṅi na tvaṁ vettha parantapa II 4.5 Bhagavān says, ‘O Arjuna, many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them but you can’t.’ Then He says, ‘Although I am unborn, imperishable and the Lord of all living entities, I reappear by my original māyā, by controlling my nature.’ ajo’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īsvaro’pi san I prakṛtiṁ svām adhiṣṭhāya sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā II 4.6 I think this is the first time He declares His divinity! All this while, Kṛṣṇa was only playing the role of ācārya (teacher,) intellectually enriching Arjuna of the truth and giving him knowledge.

For the first time, He opens up. He declares the truth about His nature. He shows the divinity of His nature. I think this is the point where Kṛṣṇa starts to speak the ultimate truth as it is. Till then, I think He was a little shy to open up to Arjuna! When a disciple is not ready, you can’t open up, you can’t tell the truth. Now, the disciple is ready. So Kṛṣṇa opens up. He says, although I am unborn and my transcendental body never deteriorates and although I am the Lord of all living entities, I still appear in every millennium in my original transcendental form. Three things we need to understand here.

First He says, ‘I am unborn, ajopi. I never take birth. I am the ultimate Parabrahma. I am the ultimate energy.’ I don’t think anyone else has declared it so clearly. Here, Kṛṣṇa straightaway declares the truth. ‘I am God, bhūtānām īsvaro’pi san,’ He says. Please listen, when the disciple is mature, the Master is understood. Here, straightaway Kṛṣṇa declares, ‘I am unborn, ajopi, I am unborn, eternal consciousness, and my transcendental body never deteriorates, avyayātmā. You can always relate with me. I am unborn and I never die.’ Understand, that which never takes birth can never die; only that which takes birth can die. Here Kṛṣṇa declares, I never take birth and I never die.

I am the Lord of all living entities—ajo’pi sann avyayātmā bhūtānām īsvaro’pi san. Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, can dead Masters teach us like Paramahamsa Yogananda, Mahavatar Babaji etc.? If I pray to them, can they show me the path?’ I told him: dead masters are not dead as you think. When they are alive, their presence had a body. When they are dead, their presence has no body, that’s all. Having a body or not having a body is in no way going to affect their presence. They are eternally alive and available to you. All you need to do is just turn towards them. When normal human beings die, the soul leaves the body.

In the case of masters, they leave the body! The very wording is different. So having a body or not Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 283 having a body is in no way connected to their presence. They are available to the planet always, to the whole of humanity. It is very difficult to understand Masters. With integrity and authenticity, if you reach out, even if they don’t have the body, you will be able to relate, connect, and talk to them. When you don’t have integrity and authenticity, even with a living Master you will miss him. Understand, He says, ‘I am the Lord of all the entities.

But I still happen in every millennium in my original transcendental form; using my own māyā (Illusion). Because of my māya, I assume the body and and incarnate Myself, sambhavāmy ātma-māyayā.’ Kṛṣṇa means that He happens on the planet Earth again and again in so many forms to guide and enrich the people. Ordinary human beings are in the clutches of māyā or illusion due to which they take birth. But Kṛṣṇa has māyā itself under His control and takes birth due to His own wish! But again and again we miss Him. We are all conquerors of Buddha, conquerors of Kṛṣṇa. Conquerors of Rāmakṛṣṇa. We conquer Ramaṇa Mahaṛṣi. That is why we are here again and again!

Please listen, we conquer them. Again and again we miss them. That is why again and again He has to happen on planet Earth to lift us, to show us the way, to enrich us with Enlightenment. Kṛṣṇa Promises to Happen Again and Again The next two verses, if they are understood, then not only the whole Gītā but all the spiritual scriptures can be realized. Here He declares: yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānir bhavati bhārata I abhyutthānam adharmasya tadātmānaṁ sṛjāmyaham II 4.7 paritrāṇāya sadhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām I dharma saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge II 4.8 Whenever there is a decline in individual consciousness, whenever the collective unconsciousness increases, to establish the righteousness of the eternal consciousness, the science of eternal bliss, dharma saṁsthāpanārthāya, I Myself appear, millennium after millennium—sambhavāmi yuge yuge.

Only a Master like Kṛṣṇa can declare the truth so clearly. Here Kṛṣṇa declares, ‘I come down again and again, to set right the wrong.’ He keeps the generation of enlightened Masters open for the future, the possibility of enlightenment open for the future generations on planet Earth. He keeps the whole science open for the future. Only a courageous being like Kṛṣṇa can declare this truth; sambhavāmi yuge yuge. People often ask me, ‘Swamiji, are there more Enlightened Masters on the planet?’ I tell them, ‘Surely. There are hundreds of Enlightened Masters. Don’t think I am the only one.’ If you own any business, you would not give out the address of similar businesses in the city.

Only if you are authentic, you can declare—yes, there are so many other things available. People ask me, ‘Swamiji, if I take initiation from you, can I go to another master?’ I tell them: ‘Not only can you go, I also encourage that you should go. Pluck flowers from all the beautiful gardens and make a beautiful bouquet for yourself!’ The human ego is such that it needs to be beaten by more than one person for it to die! So go and learn the best things. This verse is a promise; it is deliverance to all of humanity. This one single idea, if understood, can straightaway make you enlightened.

In science, the principle of entropy states that the energy level of every system, including the Universe, degrades with time. So it is with consciousness. Over time individuals start losing their positive consciousness and collective negativity builds up. Of course, this does not imply that every single person becomes evil intentioned, but on an average, spirituality, awareness, righteousness and consciousness of individuals deteriorate at certain periods of time. Understand that the consciousness is always individual. When one is conscious and complete, one accepts all of humanity as an extension of oneself; yet, each individual needs to be aware of his own consciousness. On the other hand, negativity or unconsciousness can be Jñānakarmasannyāsa Yogaḥ The Path Of Knowledge 285 collective.

A whole nation can become collectively unconscious as Germany did under Hitler and Lankāpurī under Rāvaṇa. In history, over many thousands of years, each time such collective unconsciousness built up, there has been deliverance. It is as though there is a cycle of positivity and negativity, up and down, over time. Dharma, righteousness is restored eventually. This is Kṛṣṇa’s promise. To Know Me Is To Be Liberated