the end of the Gita, after having already summarized the rest, Krishna then revealed His most secret and confidential teaching. This was not a summary, but a teaching transcending all the others.
It proved to be a teaching that Arjuna could not follow. He was not able to surrender fully, or at least to maintain such a state of surrender. Indeed in the whole rest of Arjuna’s life he did not succeed in such surrender, and he died without achieving it and went to Svarga; he did not attain Moksha in that birth. The rest of the teachings of the Gita were valuable to Arjuna and served him well to the extent that he followed them.
The final teaching of complete surrender is not one that most people are able to follow in a genuine way. It is explicitly not meant for most people. Krishna led into it by saying,
“Hear again my most secret, paramount teaching, which I am speaking for your benefit because you are very dear to me.”
And then following the teaching of complete surrender, literally in the very next sentence Krishna said,
“Never speak this teaching to those who are not established in Tapas; never to those who are not devoted; never to those who do not like to listen to spiritual topics; and never to those who are envious* toward Me.”
* Instead of envious, Adi Shankaracharya interpreted it as “those who speak ill of Me.”
So this final teaching is explicitly not meant for everyone, indeed not for most people. It is not for beginners in the spiritual path. It is an advanced teaching. If you are not already established in Tapas and Bhakti, then it seems to me that Krishna explicitly wants you to ignore this final teaching and focus on the rest of the Gita. Such surrender will come in time, like a flower blooming in its season; do not try to force it.
No comments:
Post a Comment