Jñāna–Vijñāna Yoga
Vaiśampāyana said:
When the discipline of ditation had been sung, Arjuna longed to know the Lord as He is—seen and unseen, within and beyond. Then, O King Janajaya, upon that righteous field, Śrī Bhagavān revealed the knowledge and the realization by which nothing further remains to be known.
Knowing the Lord without doubt
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“Fix thou thy mind on alone,
Take refuge firm in ;
I’ll speak the whole of truth to thee—
Both knowledge and what is seen.
“Of thousands, few for perfection strive;
Of seekers who that summit gain,
A rarer one perceives whole—
Beyond all thought and na.”
Vaiśampāyana said, “The Lord promises not re doctrine but vision: jñāna
(principle) with vijñāna (direct experience). Few ascend this peak; rarer still is he who knows the Lord as All.”
The Lord’s lower and higher nature
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“Earth, water, fire, and air,
The heavens vast and mind;
Intellect and ego-sense—
My lower nature bind.
“Other than this, know My higher power—
The living, animating sea
By which the universe is held:
In birth and end, from .”
Matter in eightfold categories is His lower prakṛti; the higher is consciousness itself, the life-principle that sustains the whole. Creation and dissolution rise and set in Him.
Immanence and transcendence
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“From all beings take their rise;
By the worlds are spun.
Higher than there is no Truth—
All pearls strung on one string am I.
“I am the taste in waters pure,
The radiance of moon and sun;
The sacred Om in all the Vedas,
The sound in space, the valor done.
“The fragrance in the patient earth,
The brilliance lodged in fire;
The life in every living thing,
In saints, the tapas dire.
“The changeless seed in every being,
Intelligence in the wise;
Strength unmarred by lust or greed,
And righteous will that strives.”
He pervades the cosmos as its essence—taste, light, sound, strength, virtue—yet remains the single thread upon which all forms are strung.
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The three guṇas and the Lord’s Māyā
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“All forms of sattva, rajas, tamas
Arise in —and yet,
They dwell in , but I in them
Am never truly set.
“By these three strands the world is veiled—
My wondrous Māyā vast;
Hard to cross this shifting sea,
Save those to who cast.”
The play of qualities—clarity, passion, and inertia—constitutes the net of illusion. The Lord is its source but not its captive. Only refuge in Him ferries one across.
Who turns and who turns not to the Lord
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“The evil-doer, the dull of mind,
The lowest of mankind,
Bewitched by Māyā’s stolen light,
Seek not My face to find.
“Four kinds of the noble co—
The suffering and the keen,
The wealth-seeker and knower true;
Of these, the wise I an
To be My very Self in love—
For I am dearest unto him,
And he is dear to .”
Sorrow, need, curiosity, and wisdom draw n to God. All are blessed, yet the jñānī, whose love is knowledge and whose knowledge is love, is one with Him in intimacy.
The rare knower and lesser worship
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“After many births of striving,
The wise to do co—
‘Vāsudeva is the All’:
Such high-souled ones are rare.
“Desire-beguiled, so turn to gods,
Each following his form;
I steady every seeker’s faith—
Their offerings I inform.
“They gain from those they ardently serve,
The perishable prize;
Who worship gods go unto gods—
Who worship , to arise.”
All sincere worship is upheld by the Lord, yet its fruit matches its aim: temporal devotion yields temporal gain; devotion to the Eternal yields the Eternal.
The Unmanifest misunderstood
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“I, the Unseen, by fools am thought
To be made manifest;
They know not My supre abode—
Unborn, undecaying, best.
“By power inconceivable
I’m veiled from mortal ken;
Deluded, this whole world knows not
The Birthless Lord of n.”
Not perceiving the transcendence hidden in immanence, many mistake the Infinite for a finite show. Māyā covers the seeing eye until grace and rit cleanse it.
The Lord’s omniscience and the bondage of duality
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“I know what has been and what is,
And all that is to be;
But none there is who truly knows
My endless mystery.
“At birth all beings fall deceived
By pairs of like and hate;
But rit purges this dark spell—
Then unto they straight.”
He knows ti entire. Creatures, tangled in desire and aversion, forget their own Self; virtuous action and grace loosen the knot, turning them toward God.
Brahman, Adhyātma, Karma—and the three “Adhi-” truths
Śrī Bhagavān said:
“They who in take refuge sure,
From age and death would flee—
They co to know the deathless Brahman,
The Self within (adhyātma) and work (karma)’s sea.
“Who know as the adhibhūta—
The perishing in form;
As adhidaiva—luminous law;
As adhiyajña—fire in storm
Of sacrifice within the heart—
With single mind on ,
They know too at life’s last breath
And enter into .”
Those who seek liberation learn: Brahman (the Absolute), adhyātma (the indwelling Self), and karma (the law of action). They also grasp the triad of manifestations—adhibhūta (changing elents), adhidaiva
(the divine governance), and adhiyajña (the Lord as the inner Sacrificer). Holding these as modes of Him, they rember the Lord at death and attain Him.
Vaiśampāyana said:
Thus, O King, did Śrī Bhagavān unveil the twin treasures of knowledge and realization. Hearing this, Arjuna’s heart was washed like a lotus after rain; for he beheld the world as pearls upon a single string, and that string—Omnipresent and Unborn—was the Lord Himself.
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