Bhagavad Gita: ~ "Those who have achieved 'Self-Knowledge are free from conflicting dualities have merged in Brahman.+

Bhagavad Gita: ~ "Those who have achieved 'Self-Knowledge are free from conflicting dualities to have merged in Brahman. 

Advaitic Sages restrained themselves parting the Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana to the mass and only selected a few.   It was hidden from the mass who were not qualified and receptive to it. Self- knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana was not written down but was imparted orally to the chosen few.  Thus, religion was given to the mass and knowledge of the spirit is given only selected few.  Thus, we find traces of the knowledge of spirit in religious books in the form of parables.

Dewdrops of spiritual insights in Bhagavad Gita: ~

Bhagavad Gita: ~ Brahmano hi pratisthaham ~ Brahman (God) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (14.27)

Bhagavad Gita itself says God (Brahman) is considered the all-pervading consciousness, then why worship Lord Krishna as God, who is limited to the domain of the form, time and space. From the ultimate standpoint the form, time and space are merely an illusion. Lord Krishna can exist only in the domain of dualistic illusion. The consciousness is real and eternal. Whatever is real is the ultimate truth and the ultimate truth is Brahman or God.  Thus, by worshiping Lord Krishna as God is meant for the ignorant populace that is incapable of grasping the truth beyond the illusory form, time and space.

That is why Bhagavad Gita says: ~ “Don't unsettle the minds of ignorant by revealing the esoteric truth."

Bhagavad Gita: ~ It says "Yoga is for purification." This means it is not for truth but discipline. (Chapter 6 verse 11 and 12, which deals with meditation)

Bhagavad Gita says throughout the book, not to rely on Yoga, but to rely on reason (Buddhi) (discrimination between real and unreal). (Chap.5 deals with renunciation)

Bhagavad Gita: ~ Reason as a means to reality. (Chap.18 verse 37)

In chap. 10 of in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: ~ I cannot save you, but I can give you Buddhi (reason). (chap. 10)

In chap. 10 of in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says: ~ "I have given you the most secret teaching, now reflect over it all" Krishna plainly says reflect, think. (Verse 63 of Chap. 18)

The consciousness is the cause of the dualistic illusion and it itself is uncaused. The consciousness is real and eternal.   Thus, consciousness is the ultimate truth or Brahman or God. Thus it is necessary to realize the difference between the ordinary belief of God and the truth about God.

That is why Lord Krishna says: ~ “Those who know the Self in truth.". The last two words (tattvataha) are usually ignored by pundits, but they make all the difference between the ordinary concept of God and the truth about God. (Ch~ V)

The one who is in search of truth has to accept only the truth nothing but the truth.

Bhagavad Gita suits everyone because there is something in it for everyone. People love the Bhagavad Gita because it is very easy to extract one's own meaning from it.   It is a hodgepodge containing everything; hence it is difficult to find any tradition whose voice is not found in the Bhagavad Gita.

It is difficult to find anyone who does not take solace from the Bhagavad Gita. But for such people to acquire Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana will prove very difficult. 

Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is not for synthesis. Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is the knowledge of the truth beyond the form, time and space.

Reading Bhagavad Gita,  a devotee extracts something of which he can make a belief because Bhagavad Gita speaks on bhakti, devotion.

Bhagavad Gita speaks on karma yoga; the karma yogi extracts his belief. The believer Gnana yoga finds what he wants because Bhagavad Gita speaks on Gnana as well. Somewhere Bhagavad Gita says bhakti-yoga is the ultimate, somewhere else it says Gnana yoga is the ultimate, again elsewhere it says karma yoga the ultimate.

There are two kinds of audiences ~ the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know the truth beyond the form, time, and space. The Bhakti yoga and Karma yoga is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. The Gnana yoga, with its emphasis on the Advaitic wisdom, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.

Lord teaches us in the Gita and in it, he lashes out against the karmakanda. It is generally believed that the Buddha and Mahavira were the first to attack the Vedas.

It is not so. Lord Sir Krishna himself spoke against them long before these two religious leaders. At one place in the Bhagavad Gita, he says to Arjuna:-"The Vedas are associated with the three qualities of sattva, rajas, and tamas.

 You must transcend these three qualities. Full of desire, they (the practitioners of Vedic rituals) long for paradise and keep thinking of pleasures and material prosperity. They are born again and again and their minds are never fixed in samadhi, these men clinging to Vedic rituals. “In another passage Lord Krishna says: "Not by the Vedas is Self to be realised, nor by sacrifices nor by much study . . . .”

Bhagavad Gita caters and includes many things to suit and please diverse mindset. This is why the Bhagavad Gita suits everyone, why there are thousands of commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita.

The populace is not concerned with the Advaitic wisdom because to accept Advaitic truth one has to drop all accumulate dualistic knowledge.  One cannot bring the dualistic knowledge in the Gnana Yoga.  In the path of Bhakti yoga, there is no need to transform oneself; he can fit just as he is.

The founders of each sect and tradition have written commentaries on Bhagavad Gita. Each has extracted his own meaning.

Remember:~

Bhagavad Gita expresses things in such a way as to allow multiple meanings; hence Bhagavad Gita is like a poem. People can draw out any meaning as they like from a poem.

Bhagavad Gita is just like this ~ one will be able to see whatever way he imagines. So Gnani sees knowledge, the religious believer sees bhakti, Karma Yogi sees action ~ and each is happy thinking that what Bhagavad Gita says is the same as his belief.

Lord Krishna confesses that the oldest wisdom of India (our true Advaita wisdom) has been lost: people misinterpret and falsify it today as they did then. It is not yoga but the philosophic truth. But nobody knows it. The teachers of philosophy and leaders of mysticism or religion do not want to inquire into truth and have no time for it. (Gita –Chap- IV-v.2)

In Gita Chap.IV where Lord Krishna says: ~ "This yoga has been lost for ages" the word yoga refers to Gnana yoga, not other yogas: the force of the word this is to point this out.

Lord Krishna describes some of the other yogas but devotes this chapter separately to Gnana Yoga. So one sees even in those ancient days people did not care for Advaita; they wanted religion; hence Gnana got lost. That is why Krishna calls it "the supreme secret." Lord Krishna points out that yoga must-see "Brahman in action."

Gita Chap.IV: "He who achieves perfection in Yoga finds the Self in time." This means that after his yoga is finished, he begins the inquiry into ultimate truth, and in due course this inquiry produces the realization of the universal spirit as the result.

No dualities, no differentiation. Only Atman exists. Let us see in the words of Lord Krishna: ~

Bhagavad Gita: 4: 22:~ ".....who has gone beyond the conflicting dualities like the good (happiness) and bad (sorrow)....."

Bhagavad Gita: 4: 42:~ ".....cut all such conflicting dualities (doubts) by the sword (weapon) of knowledge. ....."

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 18:~ “The learned men (who have come out of delusions (Māyā), got rid of Avidya) see no differentiation have equal vision for a revered Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a cāndāla (outcaste, rogue, mleccha, demonic person etc)"

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 19:~ "Those who have achieved the true knowledge i.e. the 'Self-Knowledge' or the 'knowledge of Atman' and see no difference, are free from conflicting dualities have merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad Gita: 5: 20:~ "One who does not get excited out of happiness on getting good and does not get depressed on getting bad is situated in Brahman i.e. is merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 9:~  "The one who has equal vision for a Selfless do-gooder, a friend, a foe, an unbiased, a well-wisher, a depressed and jealous man, relatives, a righteous and a sinner is the best (as he sees no duality and differentiation but sees everything as Atman)"

Bhagvad Gita: 6: 32:~ “.....as one seeks and treats oneself with equal vision, the same way one who has equal vision for good and evil, for everybody is the best of all"

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 8:~ "For whom soil, a pebble, and gold are alike, he is merged in Brahman"

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 27:~ ".....people are getting entangled in the primordial ignorance (Avidya) of the conflicting dualities like good and evil, happiness and sorrow caused due to attachments, desires, and hatred....."

Bhagavad Gita: 6: 28:~ “.....who have cut-off conflicting dualities (like good and evil) is determinedly in my service. ...."

Bhagavad Gita: 7: 19:~ "Such a man who has attained true knowledge, the knowledge of Self, the knowledge of Atman, in the last birth in the series of many births worships Me as~ Atman alone exists~ everything is Atman, there exists nothing except Atman. Such a man is extremely rare"

Bhagavad Gita 4:22-23:~ They live in freedom who have gone beyond the dualities of life. Competing with no one, they are alike in success and failure and content with whatever comes to them. They are free, without Selfish attachments; their minds are fixed in knowledge. They perform all work in the spirit of service, and their karma is dissolved.

Due to the diverse paths prescribed in Bhagvad Gita the suspicion and confusion often arise to the person who reads the Bhagvad Gita which path he has to take. Centuries have passed and commentaries on Bhagvad Gita keep on coming. Each era finds its own meaning; each person finds his own meaning.

 One has realized the individual God propagated by the belief systems, are mere imaginary Gods based on the false self (ego) within the false experience (waking). :~Santthosh Kumaar