“The Supreme Lord said: My dear Arjuna, because you are never envious of Me, I shall impart to you this most secret wisdom, knowing which you shall be relieved of the miseries of material existence.” (Bhagavad-gita, 9.1)

Download this episode (right click and save)

श्री-भगवान् उवाच
इदं तु ते गुह्यतमं
प्रवक्ष्याम्य् अनसूयवे
ज्ञानं विज्ञान-सहितं
यज् ज्ञात्वा मोक्ष्यसे ऽशुभात्

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
idaṁ tu te guhyatamaṁ
pravakṣyāmy anasūyave
jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ
yaj jñātvā mokṣyase ‘śubhāt

“If there is one shloka in Bhagavad-gita which really stands out, at least to me, in providing sort of the parameters necessary for understanding the philosophy, then it is the one containing the Sanskrit word anasuyave. I make this assessment based on how I have witnessed envy tend to manifest across the entire spectrum of the playing field, kshetra, which is the material world.

“I am amazed to see the different areas where envy appears, as if by surprise. It is astonishing to watch, for instance, when parents are envious of their own dependent children. Those children could be young enough that they are still not attending school. The parents are all that the children have. They might as well be living in an orphanage if the parents are going to behave that way.

“Friends are envious over the success of their friends. Family members are not happy that someone else in their group is doing well. The scowling eye is everywhere, if you care to notice. For some reason, I am cursed to notice it everywhere I go. I can only imagine, then, what the same people would think of the Supreme Lord, if they should happen to meet Him.

“And so it makes sense that Arjuna would get to hear sacred, secret, and confidential information, which is the highest knowledge, shared with him by Krishna. This is because Arjuna was not envious. Anasuyave; he was not looking to bring anyone down. Arjuna was not looking for blemishes, flaws, or excuses to cut down attributes, gunas, which are actually transcendental in nature, divyam.

“The question I have pertains to the general availability of Bhagavad-gita itself. Why are the envious able to access that work? If the knowledge was so carefully guarded that only someone of Arjuna’s caliber could hear it, why is the same now available to practically the entire world?”

This is merely a reflection of the current landscape. In the past, in order to accomplish something significant, a person would have to travel. If they wanted to start a popular rock band, for instance, they had to travel to a studio, play shows in front of live audiences, impress record executives, and the like. If someone wanted their knowledge to be heard, they had to reach people, directly.

Nowadays, so much can be accomplished without stepping foot outside of the bedroom. People can see the deities inside of the temples. They can get the mistaken impression that these are falsely created gods, made up on a whim. They will not carry the requisite culture for understanding the merciful nature of the archa-vigraha, in understanding how the life of devotion is merely an external reflection of the internal properties of the individual. The worship is dharma on display.

Rather than lament the access the cheaters have to Bhagavad-gita, we can be thankful that Krishna explicitly included the stipulation when teaching Arjuna. This is the quickest way to identify the cheaters. Those who are envious of Krishna will posit nonsense theories like the absolute equivalence of the individual with God or the metaphorical conception of the entire Kurukshetra scene. They will say that there really is no Krishna, the son of Devaki, or that Krishna is merely an elevated soul, realized in Brahman.

अवजानन्ति मां मूढा
मानुषीं तनुम् आश्रितम्
परं भावम् अजानन्तो
मम भूत-महेश्वरम्

avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā
mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto
mama bhūta-maheśvaram

“Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 9.11)

The knowledge may be available to one and all in terms of the written words. The jnana is like an object to be passed from one person to another. The distinction is that the vijnana will only come when there is the requisite lack of envy. If I am envious of Krishna, then even the written principles of the jnana will not work as intended. It is like being the recipient of an ancient saying or text, whose meaning has long since been forgotten.

तस्य संदिदिहे बुद्धिर्मुहुः सीतां निरीक्ष्य तु
आम्नायानामयोगेन विद्यां प्रशिथिलामिव
दुःखेन बुबुधे सीतां हनुमाननलङ्कृताम्
संस्कारेण यथा हीनां वाचमर्थान्तरं गताम्

tasya saṃdidihe buddhirmuhuḥ sītāṃ nirīkṣya tu
āmnāyānāmayogena vidyāṃ praśithilāmiva
duḥkhena bubudhe sītāṃ hanumānanalaṅkṛtām
saṃskāreṇa yathā hīnāṃ vācamarthāntaraṃ gatām

“Seeing Sita, like trying to decipher knowledge from the Vedas which has become barely perceptible after lack of use, his mind became doubtful. As Sita was not decorated, with difficulty Hanuman could recognize her, like understanding a text which has gotten a different meaning due to a lack of purity.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 15.38-39)

Someone like Arjuna or Hanuman can recognize the words, can decipher the proper meaning, and can pass on the clear image to others who are similarly not envious of God. The stipulation is necessary, because as long as the envy remains, the cycle of birth and death continues.

In Closing:

Even if knowledge to gain,
Forward moving the train.

Because from origin disconnected,
By my foolishness misdirected.

Repeating cycle of birth and death,
Meaning only properly to get.

When envy to set aside,
Truth in Arjuna to confide.

Categories: questions

Tags: bhagavad-gita, dailyprompt, poem, poems, poetry