March 29 – Bhagavadgita Chapter 4; Verses 4.9 (Day 89) Karma Yoga

 March 29 – Day 89

Verse 4.09

जन्म कर्म च मे दिव्यमेवं यो वेत्ति तत्त्वतः ।

त्यक्त्वा देहं पुनर्जन्म नैति मामेति सोऽर्जुन ॥ ४-९॥ 

janma karma cha me divyam evaṁ yo vetti tattwataḥ
tyaktwā dehaṁ punarjanma naiti mām eti so ’rjuna (4.09) 

ஜன்ம க¹ர்ம ச¹ மே தி³வ்யமேவம் யோ வேத்¹தி¹ த¹த்¹த்¹வத¹: |
த்¹யக்¹த்¹வா தே³ஹம் பு¹னர்ஜன்ம னைதி¹ மாமேதி¹ ஸோ‌ர்ஜுன ||4.09||  

9. He who thus knows in true light My divine birth and action, after having abandoned the body is not born again; he comes to Me, O Arjuna! 

Commentary: The Lord, though apparently born, is always beyond birth and death; though apparently active for firmly establishing righteousness, He is ever beyond all actions.  He who knows this is never born again.  He attains knowledge of the Self and becomes liberated while living.

The birth of the Lord is an illusion.  It is Aprakrita (beyond the pale of Nature).  It is divine.  It is peculiar to the Lord.  Though He appears in human form, His body is Chinmaya (full of consciousness, not inert matter as are human bodies composed of the five elements). 

Commentary by Swami Venkatesananda:

At this stage it is necessary to remind ourselves that the first person singular used in this scripture does not refer to the personality ‘Kṛṣṇa’, but to the godhead revealing itself through him. The speaker could well have been Kṛṣṇa, Christ, Buddha or Allah. The meaning and the significance will not suffer in the least.

It is in this light that we should take the declaration of lord Jesus that he is ‘the light, the truth and the way and that no one goes to the Father but through “me”.’ We can realise the unmanifest godhead only through the manifest divinity.

There is, however, no harm in the followers of Kṛṣṇa regarding him as their only way, and the followers of Christ adhering to his feet with equal zeal. What is harmful, however, is running others down, which is a waste of time anyway. It is absurd, too, to say: “Only my mother is a woman capable of giving birth to human children, yours cannot be.” We all have only one mother, but motherhood is not restricted to that woman – it is common to all women.

The manifest divinity is more easily accessible to the embodied being than the unmanifest transcendental being. In fact, that is the very purpose of manifestation or avatāra: God symbolically descending to our level in order to accept, redeem and uplift us. When we learn not to cavil at these avatārā, but to accept, adore and worship them, knowing their true divine nature, we shall have attained enlightenment and liberation.

 It is equally important to remember that ‘knowing their true nature’ implies recognition of the essential divine nature of oneself and the urgent need to shake off the dust that covers it. Such recognition is an avatāra, too! 

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