Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 6
ajo’pi sann-avyayātmā
bhūtānām īśvaro’pi san
prakṛtiṁ svām-adhiṣṭhāya
saṁbhavāmy-ātma māyayā
Though I am the unborn, though I am imperishable in My Self-Existence, though I am the Lord of all existences, yet I stand upon My own Nature and I come into birth by My Self-Maya.
Here Krishna reveals Himself to Arjuna as birthless and deathless. He tells him that He has never taken birth or died as an ordinary human being, even if it appears so. Though the Supreme Lord, the Ultimate, creates everything, He also manifests Himself on Earth and appears as ordinary as all humans. But He’s not born, He manifests Himself. People think that whenever the Lord incarnated as Matsya Avatar, Kurma Avatar, or Varaha Avatar, He disappeared at the end of His incarnation and it was finished! No. There is no beginning or end to Him: all Avatars are just manifestations of Him.
“... yet I stand upon my own Nature and I come into birth by my Self-Maya.” Here He says, “By My Self Will, I manifest Myself. By My own Maya, I veil Myself willingly. I allow My Maya, My Yogmaya, My Maha Maya, to veil Me, so that even yogis who have transcended one Maya, will not see who I am.” People can’t understand the Ultimate, God Himself, the Lord of all creation, the One who is ever-pure, who is awakened and ever-free, who is doing every role in His creation. It is too difficult for the mind to understand. Even if one tries to understand it, it’s far beyond the mind. He says, “Even if you become a great yogi, even if you are centred in the Self, you will realise only one step of Realisation. My True Nature, the Self of the Self, can’t even be realised by yogis. That’s why He says, “I am veiled. I came into birth by My Maya: when I will it, I manifest. I’m ever-free to take any form, at any time. I am not bound by time or by space. I am not bound by anything, not even by the scriptures.”
God is ever-free, He can do whatever He wants. Some people would ask, “How can this be possible? This is just a human being, how can He be God?” Arjuna is asking the same question: “How can He be God?” Here you see the doubting human mind. But God is beyond that. Even if He appears to be very human, He is not human. The saints and sages can only have a glimpse of that Reality. What He shows to the sages is only a little aspect of Himself. This raises them to a very high degree of spirituality, but not to the Ultimate Himself.
When the devas want to speak to Narayana, even they can’t enter Vaikunta. It is sealed off from them. Even they can’t enter that ultimate state, they can’t reach Vaikunta. They go to the Milky Ocean and there, the Lord manifests Himself in whatever form is most appropriate for them.
In this verse, Krishna is reminding Arjuna that whatever form of the Divine you call, He will take that aspect and come to you. He’s not bound by Nature or by what people may think they know about Him. When you hear people talking about God, they say, “God is like this” or “God is like that”. They attribute so many qualities to Him. But He’s beyond these qualities. He is beyond Satchitananda Itself. All this is just His play. These qualities are just His manifestation, His ‘sport.’
“I come into birth by my Self-Maya.” Krishna says, “I manifest Myself from time to time, taking various forms, appearing in different places. Sometimes I remain unknown to the world, incognito. Yet whatever I do, I do it for the sake of uplifting mankind.”
The Lord manifests Himself through His Yogmaya. He utilises His own Will power, His Will-Shakti. This Will-Shakti brings the world into being, brings creation into being. The Will-Shakti of God is part of Him, yet it is separate from Him. He has power over His Will-Shakti. This Will-Shakti of God, this Divine potency and transcendental power of God, makes everything manifest. However, whenever the Lord manifests Himself, the Supreme who has created everything, remains omnipresent. Even if He incarnated in the form of Krishna, He remained also ever-present in Vaikunta.
There was never a time when He left Vaikunta to incarnate on Earth. As He is there, He is also here.
When we look at the life of Krishna, we see that He didn’t go through the normal birth process as an ordinary human being. This was just a manifestation of Him. A light appeared inside the womb of Devaki and, miraculously, her stomach grew bigger. She didn’t need to give birth to Krishna as an ordinary mother gives birth to her baby. In the Shreemad Bhagavatam, it is described very clearly, “Devaki saw a light and she perceived the Chaturbhuja, the four-armed Maha Vishnu standing in front of her. She addressed Maha Vishnu saying, “Lord, I desire you to be like a child.” At that moment, Chaturbhuja, the four-armed Maha Vishnu, appeared before her as a baby. Here I am not using the word ‘Narayana’, because it was ‘Maha Vishnu’, the Tattva of Narayana that was manifested.
God manifests Himself of His own accord from time to time, keeping Prakriti, Nature, under His control. He comes and does His various works. He’s not bound by any karma, in fact, nothing binds Him; ordinary people are bound by karma. He reveals to Arjuna, “You were saying that you know me as Vasudeva Krishna, who was born a few years ago. No. Don’t be mistaken about that! This is just one manifestation of who I am! And even that manifestation is just a play. I am here doing My duty, but I am beyond that duty. I am eternal. I existed even before creation. And creation happened through My own Will, through My own Maya.”
Humans are blinded by one Maya which we call illusion. You are blinded by this Maya until you are ready. When you make yourself ready through sadhana, the veil of Maya is removed. Through your sadhana, when you’re surrendered to your sadhana, you are moving away from external desires and the objects of senses which hold you back, drag you down, and root you here to this world.
By doing your dharma and by doing your sadhana with the aim of attaining the Lord, the Lord allows this first veil of Maya to be removed from your eyes. Then you see differently, and you perceive the glory of the Lord everywhere. However, you are not perceiving Him everywhere because by His own Will, He veils Himself by another Maya, Yogmaya, so people won’t recognise Him and realise who He is. This is due to God’s humility. He says, “I veil Myself with another Maya, Yogmaya, so that even if you do your sadhana, even if you try your best to see who I am, until I will it, you will never see Me. You can try as much as you want, you can be the greatest yogi, but you will not know Me until I will it.”
Here He reveals that this Yogmaya is different from the Maya that covers mankind. Yogmaya is Maha Shakti, the power of the Will of God. That’s why Parvati who is Maha Shakti, Maha Devi, is represented as the sister of Narayana. Other names of Maha Shakti are Devi Bhagavati and Durga. When Lord Krishna incarnated, He asked Maha Shakti, “Go and incarnate in the house of Yashoda and Nanda.” By that He meant, “First I will cast this Maha Maya, this great Maya into the world, so that no one will see who I am. I will come and play my drama, I will play my Leela, yet they will not recognise Me. If they recognise Me, they will not be able to do what they have to do.” In this way, He veiled Himself. He allowed His own Maya to cover Him; by His own Will, He took a cover and covered Himself. Here you see how humble He is. Even being the Lord of the whole universe, He humbles Himself for the sake of humanity, so that He can uplift humanity. This is wonderful. He willingly chooses to veil Himself. He chooses to put a limitation to Himself in order to incarnate, but He is not bound by any limitation. He appears to be limited, but He is not.
In the Bible, you see that when He manifested Himself as Jesus, He chose to be the Son of God. In that incarnation, Maha Vishnu reveals Himself saying, “I am the Son of God.” However, He also says, “I and My Father are one.” In that passage He is revealing that He was from the beginning One with the Father.
There was no difference between Him and the Father. But the one who is blind can’t see. Even His own disciples knew that He was the Master, but they saw Him only as a messenger. Even when He says, “I and my Father are one,” this didn’t make any sense to them, because they didn’t see that Jesus was God Himself incarnated. The human mind can’t comprehend God’s manifestation in a human body. Krishna says, “I am beyond this. Even if I act in this world, in a very normal way, I am just showing you what I want you to see. But in my true state, I am Narayana Himself, the Ultimate. I am not ruled by the laws of man. I am not even ruled by the laws of Nature. I am beyond Nature. Nature dances to My Will. Everybody perishes, everybody goes through changes, but even if it appears that I go through changes externally, I stay ever in my true Self.
Nature doesn’t bind Me, it doesn’t have any effect on Me.” In the Mahabharat, it is mentioned that Krishna had grandchildren, yet He stayed ever youthful. He didn’t allow Nature to make Him look old, whereas all the others did look old. That’s why I said earlier that there are three major stages of Krishna’s life: the Bala Krishna, where you see Krishna growing up; the Dwarka Krishna, where you see Krishna doing His kingly duty; and here, where you see Krishna giving the Gita, revealing that He’s the Ultimate Krishna. All are only Him.
Krishna says, “I have come to Earth, but I am not bound by anything. Nothing can control Me.” Normal people are compelled by their own karma, so they take birth and die. Sometimes people come and say, “Swamiji, in your next life, will you also be with us?” You will incarnate, but Me, I will incarnate whenever I want. I have said this many times. That’s why one has to take advantage of the opportunity to surrender to the spiritual path. When one meets the Satguru, one has to make the most of it! Because this opportunity doesn’t come in many lifetimes. This Grace of being near the Satguru, doesn’t happen in every life. You will go through many lives, until one day, we will meet again. But you can attain this state completely of being with Narayana, by fully surrendering yourself in this life itself.
Bhagavad Gita
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