Path of Devotion-- commentary

When such a person is in pain, the consequent shattering of the ego burns negative karma, thereby forcibly transporting him towards God! Even when such a person pursues materialistic, profit-oriented goals, the self-regulative practices he adopts in order to treat his clients or customers ethically and fairly becomes an indirect spiritual practice. And, when such an ethical person is scientifically inquisitive about natural phenomena, about the physical universe, about the nature of reality, etc., then his curiosity itself strengthens a subconscious will on his part to transcend his narrow self, causing him to unwittingly shift Godward.

All this holds true even if this person is an atheist, provided he is ethical, though indeed faith in the Divine, devotion and prayer can certainly expedite spiritual progress. On the other hand, if a person lacks the ethical fiber, then these mundane actions remain as pure mental activity, devoid of spiritual potency.

In contrast to the above types of such (no doubt, noble) people, whose movement towards God is indirect, wandering and unconscious, the wise man's movement is direct, focussed and deliberate. He deeply adores God as the "I" (Universal Self) behind his own individual "I", and thus as the Supreme Source and Ultimate Destination to Which his individual consciousness will flow back. No wonder that, from God's own perspective, the wise man is non-different from God!

On the other hand, if a person of one the first three types has love for God, it is mainly because he regards God as an all-powerful Master or Father figure capable of protecting him and/or of fulfilling his materialistic desires. This is not wrong, and may be appreciatively accepted as a natural situation for a person at a particular stage of spiritual evolution. For God, however, the wise man is special. These stanzas again demonstrate how Shri Krishna can gently judge, without being judgmental!

Then, as his soul progresses spiritually birth after birth, so does his conceptualization of God. He develops a feeling of love towards God, but this feeling is more like an emotional attachment to a transcendental and indulgent Father figure.

Eventually, many incarnations later, as the desires that power his transmigratory momentum gradually fade away, his consciousness will have become sufficiently refined as to perceive the underlying unity of all things and beings. He now recognizes God as All-That-Is, i.e., the underlying, all-pervasive Reality.

Metaphorically speaking, the individual ocean wave, which earlier wished to experience separateness, now having exhausted its kinetic energy, falls back towards its own Oceanic Source.

It isn't a normative rule-- but instead, simply a statistical observation-- that a number of births elapse before a typical soul attains this stage of enlightened realization. In fact, even a single birth should suffice, if one's free will were exercised correctly.

Somehow, the vast the majority of human souls become karmically trapped in reincarnation cycles, succumbing to the powerful sensory, emotional and materialistic distractions that the mind offers. Shri Krishna is not critical of these people, that fail to pass muster. He tacitly acknowledges that the soul's evolutionary journey across incarnations is not easy, by characterizing as "great" those souls that do complete it successfully.

This misplaced faith is not wrong, and indeed brings its own blessings, but isn't helpful in the long run. At death, these people are led to heavenly planes and experience after-life states consistent with their beliefs, but are unable to graduate beyond the cycle of reincarnations. Only the wise man, whose thinking is not clouded by desires, successfully navigates this psychological quagmire.

Yogamaya is the divine Veiling technology that shrouds the underlying unity of all things, in order that humans and other living beings may experience separateness and individuality. Without this technology's operation, the universe would remain "offline", appearing as a single undifferentiated mass of Light, rather than this dynamic multiplicity. Unfortunately, being weighed down by mental desires, people lose their way in Yoga-maya's sensory wonderland.

The last stanza above is poignant. Apparently, even God wonders how people could mess up so badly. The explanation (if not justification) seems to be that they are so completely deluded by the illusory power of yogamaya, that they fail to recognize the timelessness of the underlying Reality. On the contrary, people tend to focus on the inconstancy in the physical world, which creates a sense of urgency in their lives. As a result, desires, which should have been mild pointers, become the overwhelming drivers of their choices and destiny.