259. Tapasya with Devotion

 

Krishna says, “This (the Gita) is never to be spoken by you to those who are not austere (a-tapaskaya) or to those who are not devoted (a-bhaktaya). It should also not be spoken to those who are averse to listening and especially not to those who cavil at Me” (18.67).

The spiritual journey toward unconditional love and eternal joy is both adventurous and, at times, lonely. In this path we are expected to shed all the beliefs we gathered in our lives. We are also expected to shed the sense of attachment to our physical possessions, feelings and relationships. That’s why very few reach the destination (7.3). Hence, one should pursue it like tapasya with devotion. On the contrary, when it is pursued out of curiosity, it leads to the illusion of knowledge which increases ahankaar.

Coming as ‘the existence’, Krishna mentioned about not caviling at Him. It is the path of accepting and embracing all the diverse and seemingly contradictory aspects of existence without any cavil, whether we like them or not.

Krishna further says, “He who, with supreme devotion to Me, will teach this supreme secret to My devotees, shall doubtless come to Me (18.68). None performs more priceless service to Me than he. None in all the world shall be dearer to Me than him (18.69). And he who will study this sacred dialogue of ours, by him I shall have been worshipped by the jnana yajna, such is my conviction (18.70). That man also, who listens to this with shraddha, free from malice and liberated, shall dwell in the blessed worlds of the virtuous” (18.71).

Studying or even listening to the Bhagavad Gita with devotion, shraddha and being free from malice is nothing but worshipping Lord Krishna leading to dwelling in the blessed worlds.

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