Gita 04.09 – Attainment of Krishna is not rebirth, but release from rebirth

Thank you jana karma chame divyam jana karma jana karma chame divyam this is bhagavad gita 4.9 my appearance and my activities chame divyam divyam means divine transcendental evam yo vetti tattvata evam yo one who knows them to be in truth what does he know them to be in truth tattvata he knows them to be divyam tattva deham on giving up the body that person will not take birth again mameti so arjunam but will attain me now there are many significant points in this verse this is the first time in the bhagavad gita that Krishna says mameti this person will attain me Krishna has talked about an eternal destination once before in the second chapter when he has stated that they will attain that destination which is which is actually free from all misery so that was 2.51 now what that abode free from misery is what that what that destination is Krishna has not mentioned but that destination is indicated here in mameti they come to me and how that coming to me is not just coming to some heavenly abode which is a better material abode but temporary that is indicated by the point that there is no rebirth over there rather this is a the attainment of Krishna is not a rebirth but it is religious from rebirth even when somebody attains the devatas abodes so there also that attainment is temporary as Krishna will tell in the 7th chapter but attainment of Krishna is an eternal attainment and understanding this is vital for keeping our heart's devotion fixed on him so now what is it that we have to do to attain this extraordinary thing release from rebirth what do we have to do for that we have to know we have to know in truth so now when we say know in truth that usage indicates that there is something which is knowing in untruth or knowing in semi-truth so we have to avoid those such partial knowing or pseudo knowing and along with that we have to know instead of that we have to know properly and what is that proper knowledge Krishna told that also divya that to understand my janma karma my appearance and activities as divya it indicates some higher truth essentially it means transcendental the word divine can be used but divine can also be used to refer to anything of a higher level so devatas activities can also be called as divine sometimes although specifically the word divine refers to connect with god but in the context where there are demigods also sometimes the Indra's celestial abode celestial is generally used to refer to the heavenly the spiritual or transcendental is used to refer to Krishna's abode and divine is can be used for both sometimes the divine delights refer to heavenly pleasures and sometimes it can refer to spiritual happiness also so either way the important point is that Krishna is eternal and we have to understand him to be eternal so here divine refers to transcendental and when we understand that his activities and his appearance is not ordinary now why is Krishna talking about janma karma chame divyam actually Arjuna asked Krishna how did you give this knowledge to the sun god so in response to that question Krishna told how both of us have gone through many births and then he started speaking this knowledge so he continued to answer that question and he said that so first he said that both of us have gone through many births I remember them and then he says that I am the lord of all beings and I come by my maya so I am not under that maya then he describes why he comes in two verses that is 7 and 8 and now in 9th verse he is stating that when he comes his purpose is primarily to elevate people to educate people to eliminate their material existence by elevating them to to terminate their material existence by elevating them to spiritual existence and the prize for it is to understand Krishna's appearance and activities are transcendent so Arjuna don't think that the beginning of my power or beginning of my existence was when I was born if you think that if you think that my appearance was when was just recently that I am your contemporary such an understanding is erroneous but if instead you understand that I am eternal and I descend to this world to enable people to become elevated to enable people to become liberated to enable people to attain me so I descend into this world for that purpose I order them of course he comes to destroy dharma in this world let's mention the previous verse but the ultimate purpose of ordering this world is to take us out of this world so 8th and 9th in that sense are connected in organic progression Krishna comes to establish order and the purpose of order is to help us get out of the world which is always prone to disorder and to get out of this to get out of the disorderly world we have to attain his we have to get an orderly proper understanding of his position so now the bhagavatam describes how even Krishna api appeared as a fully clothed baby with hair and ornaments and not just ornaments which ordinary child can wear or clothes which ordinary child can wear that itself is difficult for that itself is impossible for a child to do no child appears like that but Krishna appeared as more than what a child could be even after the child was dressed and ornamented because Krishna also appeared with his manifested in Vishnu form that no child can do and no parents can decorate the child also to be like that so Krishna's appearance was divine it indicates that he remains in a liberated position and because he remains in a liberated position he has the position he has the position to liberate us also and he will liberate us if we turn to him and offer our hearts to him so the next verse will tell what we need to do what does tattvataha understanding require but this itself is a very significant verse because the glory of knowing Krishna is talked about and it is talked about how Krishna is not an ordinary person in a most dramatically relevant way for us now many people may say that Krishna is this and Krishna is that but understanding Krishna's extraordinariness has extraordinary spin-offs extraordinary benefits for us that it will liberate us why because when we understand him in tattvataha when we understand him in truth then that understanding will naturally lead to loving how wonderful is this God that he has so much love for me that he descends into this world to try to establish dharma and to ultimately deliver me by the establishment of dharma and how wonderful is this Lord that he performs such wonderful pastimes with his devotees in which he subordinates his divinity for the sake of intimacy though he is the rightful order giver of everyone he carries out the order of his parents just for the sake of reciprocating love so how wonderful is this Lord who loves conditioned souls so selflessly and liberated souls so selflessly the selflessness in loving conditioned souls is that he comes again and again even if those souls are neglecting or rejecting him and his selflessness in loving the liberated souls is that he subordinates his supreme position so that there can be a wonderful uninhibited loving reciprocation between him and his devotees so when we understand how loving this Lord is we naturally feel inspired to reciprocate love with him redirect our love towards him and to attain a level of reality where we can love him eternally and relish his love eternally and such a redirection of our heart naturally it takes us back to him that is how when we know Krishna in truth then we love him and Krishna sees that we love him then he naturally takes us to a place where we can keep loving him.