They Too Attain Me

12.3,4 But those who worship with awareness the imperishable, the unmanifest, that which lies beyond the perception of senses,

the all pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, the non-moving and permanent,

those who worship by restraining their senses, and are working with even mind for the benefit of mankind,

They too attain Me.

Krishna is saguna brahman, the physical cosmos, who showed Himself in this form to Arjuna in His vishwarupa. Krishna is nirguna brahman

as well, the formless Consciousness. In both the form and the formless, He is Krishna, the Divine Consciousness who has all the attributes that Krishna talks about here.

The Divine is imperishable. It is aksharam. Everything else in this material universe may come and go, appear and disappear, while the Divine remains forever. It is unique and incomparable, anirdesyam, and cannot be benchmarked against anything, as it is supreme. It is unmanifest and intangible, avyaktam, and therefore cannot be comprehended by the senses. It cannot be grasped by thoughts and mind, and is achintyam, which is why one's mind-body needs to be transcended to glimpse the Divine. The Divine resides everywhere and is omnipresent, sarvatragam.

When King Hiranyakasipu, the demonic father of Prahlad, the young Prince and great devotee of Vishnu, dares his son to utter the name of Narayana whom he hates, Prahlad says, 'Narayana is everywhere. He is in this twig and He is in this pillar.'

Meanwhile in Vaikunta, Narayana's heavenly abode, Narayana jumps up in a hurry from his dalliance. Irritated, his consort Lakshmi complains, as every wife would, 'Where are you going at this time of the night?' Vishnu responds, 'My devotee Prahlad is about to call me. I do not know whether he will point his finger - to a twig or a pillar. Wherever he points, I must be ready to appear. I cannot let him down!'

The true devotee sees his Lord everywhere. Ramakrishna describes the love of a true devotee this way: 'It is the love of a chaste wife for her husband, the attachment of a miser towards his hoarded wealth, the craving of a worldly person for sensual pleasures, all rolled into one and directed towards the Lord, creating devotion.'

Brahman is also kutastham - unchangeable, achalam unmoving and dhruvam - permanent in aspect, form and the formless. The true devotee who follows either path with awareness, with his senses focused on the Lord, experiences Him and also experiences the bliss of serving the rest of humanity. The devotee sees the Lord in everyone he meets. His experience of His Lord becomes his expression of love to all.

Radha tells the gopikas - women cowherds who were around Krishna all the time, 'I don't know what has happened. I don't know what has come over me. I see Krishna in everybody. I feel that everybody is Krishna. I don't know what is happening.' One of the gopikas answers, 'You have bhakti as the very anjana - black eye liner - in your eyes!'

It is like this: when you wear dark glasses everything appears dark; when you wear green-tinted glasses, everything appears green. In the same way, when you have bhakti anjana in your eyes, whomsoever you see appears as Krishna, appears Divine! Here, Krishna says, the person established in super consciousness and the person who radiates devotion are the same. They are not two different groups.

Krishna does not create two groups. Arjuna presents two groups as the reality he sees: those who are established and those who are radiating. Krishna says

both are the same. He does not divide them into two groups, those who are established and those who radiate. Krishna says, a person who is established always radiates, and the person who radiates is always established. As I said earlier, it is a virtuous circle.

Ramakrishna says, 'When a bell rings, each stroke has a sound form of its own. But even when the bell stops ringing, we continue to hear the sound. That's how God appears, both as form and as formless.'

In Bhaja Govindam, Sankara says,

guru chranambuja nirbhara bhaktah samsrat achirat bhava muktah sendriya manasa niyamat evam drikshasi nija hridayatvam devam

One who controls his senses, focuses his mind and surrenders completely to his Master sees the Lord in his heart. Once again, Krishna makes the point here. When one has realized the formless nature of the Divine, its imperishability and its unmanifest nature with controlled senses, one works for the good of mankind.

Once the experience of the formless divine happens, it is no different from the experience of the form. Both lead to the truth that one is part of collective consciousness. The expression of this realization is one of deep humility and compassion. It is manifested as deep gratitude and surrender. One learns to flow with the energy of this universe. One no longer struggles against the currents of life.

The Chinese philosophy of Tao talks about flowing. The reed that bends with the flowing water survives and flourishes. The sapling that is too rigid to bend disappears. If we are like the reed in complete surrender to what is around us, accepting things as they are, not struggling every moment to fight against nature, we remain blissful.

When we are full of ego we tend to control. We believe we can bring order to an otherwise chaotic world. It takes only a moment to realize that this entire universe and planet Earth function not because of us, but in spite of us. Millions and millions of stars and planets in this universe function in apparent chaos. But understand: the universe is always in order.

We want to be in order but we are truly chaotic. Only when we surrender to the will of the universe, things go well for us. When we give up wanting, we get what we want. When we get what we truly want, it benefits mankind. Because when we surrender, Krishna takes care.

Q: Master, Krishna says my devotee never perishes. But if everything is God, what perishes? Krishna makes it sound like his devotee does not perish and others do. Please explain and remove my doubt.

Understand, the moment you realize that you do not perish, you become a devotee of Krishna. There are no categories like Krishna's devotees and others, or that Krishna's devotees will not perish while others will. Whosoever understands that he will not perish, automatically becomes Krishna's devotee. The moment you understand this concept you become his bhakta. If you understand that everything is God, you understand that nothing perishes.

He says, 'My devotee never perishes.' This is a relative statement. If you understand everything is God, then nothing perishes. When you understand that, if you reach that level, this statement doesn't make sense to you. This statement is for a normal person who is on the path, who is still attempting to understand it. Firstly, if you have experienced that everything is God, you don't need to bother about this statement.

Next, the moment you understand nothing perishes, you become a Krishna bhakta. So Krishna is not making partial statements. He does not show favoritism and say, 'Only My devotees will not perish, and others' devotees will perish.'

No, He doesn't mean it that way. Whoever understands this philosophy will not perish. That is what it means. Whoever understands this science will not perish. If you understand the science and even if you are not devoted to the flute and the peacock feather, you will not perish. So don't bother. If you think that Krishna means the flute and peacock feather, then this question is raised. If you understand that Krishna is beyond the peacock feather and flute, you will not have this doubt. 'My devotee never perishes. When he understands this, he never perishes,' that is what Krishna means.

Part 2: Bhagavad Gita, Commentary by THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM - Chapter 12 - Love is your very Life_English_part_2.md

Krishna is not the Krishna whom you think He is. He is not the single form you are used to. He is the super conscious energy, the cosmic energy, Parashakti.

A group of Krishna devotees, fanatics, attended my discourse and asked me, 'You speak on the Gita so elaborately. Do you believe in Krishna?' I said, 'Of course, I do.' They asked, 'If you do, then how can you talk about other Gods as Divine. We understand that you have a Dakshinamurti temple in your ashram. How can you do that? Krishna says in the Gita that He is everything and no one else matters.'

I explained to them. In Mahabharata after the war, Arjuna and Krishna go for a walk. Arjuna turns to Krishna and says, 'I do not remember much of what you told me before the war started on the battlefield. Can you please tell me again?' Krishna smiles and says, 'Oh! You forgot? I have also forgotten.' Arjuna is bewildered and asks, 'Krishna, how is that possible?' Krishna replies, 'When I was teaching on the battlefield, I was the super conscious, Parabrahma Krishna. Now, I am only Vasudeva Krishna. I cannot remember what I told you in my formless Universal Energy mode.' But compassionate as He was, Krishna did explain once again the Truth to Arjuna in what is known as the Anu Gita.

When the Krishna devotees understood this principle of the Divine Consciousness of Krishna being the same as every other Divinity however much the forms may differ in the way we worship, they were satisfied. The Krishna who says, 'My devotee shall never perish' is Parabrahma Krishna. In that state, He resides in each of us. If we realize that truth, we become His devotee; we too become Krishna, one with Krishna Consciousness; never to perish.