Gita 04.10 – Overcome 3 obstructive attitudes for taking shelter of Krishna

Forever and ever Raga attachment, bhaya, fear krodha, anger manmaya, mamupashyata manmaya, fixing your mind on me mamupashyata, taking shelter of me bahavo gyan tapasa many in the past many, bahavo by the austerity of knowledge gyan tapasa, puta having become purified madbhavamagataha they have attained my abode so here Krishna is providing an intriguing repetition which also shows how context can shape meaning so vitaragabhaya krodha the same phrase had come earlier in the Bhagavad Gita in 2.56 dukheshu anudvikna manah sukheshu vigatas pruhah vitaragabhaya krodha siddhadhir munir uchyate so there Krishna had talked about becoming free from attachment fear and anger as the necessities for being a siddhadhir munir so now the question comes up that here Krishna is talking about the same three things as prerequisites for manmaya mamupashyata for being able to take shelter of him wholeheartedly so if you look at the point these three are essentially three kinds of attitudes towards the material world so some people can have an attitude of devotion some people can have an attitude of infatuation to the material world others can have an attitude of fear infatuation is clear enough oh this is the world where I'll become happy I just need to make some things right get some objects and then I'll enjoy that attachment naturally creates agitation of the mind so that cannot lead to a person being siddhadhir munir but that attachment also distracts us from Krishna and for any spiritual purpose in general Krishna has talked about that in 2.44 he has stated how attachment to bhoga and aishwarya can distract one from Krishna from vyavasaya atmika buddhi from one-pointed intelligence that is required for any higher spiritual purpose and what to speak of the higher spiritual purpose? Krishna so raga, bhaya and krodha now at one level we could say just bhaya refers to that if there is too much anxiety about material enjoyment then one can also be distracted from Krishna of course sometimes that bhaya can make people go closer to Krishna also because when people are fearful they will go to God so here the point is the bhaya can be a more philosophical kind of fear also where by experiencing the repeated futility of material enjoyment which is essentially the pursuit of material forms and material sense objects one may start thinking that all objects are all material objects are futile sorry all forms are illusory and all enjoyment is illusory and therefore one needs to go beyond form beyond personality to a formless personality less quality less bliss just a transcendental existence shanti shanti shanti so that actually is an erroneous understanding because the problem is that such an understanding can keep us away from Krishna because we will start thinking that Krishna is also one such form and I have to go beyond that form of Krishna that philosophical kind of bhaya which the materialists which the impersonalists have of form and personality that also prevents them from taking shelter of Krishna and then there is krodha krodha can mean anger at one level now when one is very angry because one has not got material enjoyment one may take that anger out on God and say that God doesn't help me I don't care for God also so that is at one level possible another level it is also possible that we may actually not recognize at a deeper level another level the krodha can be that inability to ascertain the absolute truth so frustration because of coming about with of encountering so many different philosophies and so many different doctrines that one feels that there is no absolute truth and therefore one doesn't even endeavor to find the absolute truth and one becomes nihilistic rejecting all attempts to find the absolute truth so that also keeps one away from turning towards Krishna and taking shelter of Krishna so in this way a person stays bound in material existence and so these three are the obstacles excessive attachment towards the material world fear of forms and frustration and inability to ascertain the absolute truth all these can keep a person away from Krishna so when one gives up all these three things vita, raga, maya, krodha then when these three phases of distraction are put aside one becomes free from them we can fix the mind in Krishna and not just fix the mind but ma upashita one can actually take shelter of Krishna many people may think of Krishna in the sense of wanting to enjoy some sense gratification in the sense of hearing some just playful pastimes or in the case of Krishna's rasleela of enjoying some sexually titillating or at least romantically titillating stories so the sort of fixing the mind in Krishna is not involving taking shelter of him that is not the kind of shelter which will lead to lasting benefit many in the past by jnana tapasa by the austerity of knowledge have become purified austerity of knowledge means that understanding Krishna thus as a supreme enjoyer it requires tapasa normally jnanis think that actually meditating on the absolute truth is formless and personality less that is actually very difficult and sentimental people can't do it and that's why bhakti marg is good for them but actually to understand Krishna as the person how somebody can be all pervading and still be a person how somebody can be omnipotent and still be manifesting as a child this is far more difficult to understand and to understand that requires jnana tapasa that requires far greater austerity of knowledge but somebody can do that austerity of knowledge and Krishna says many have become purified and by this so bhava has many meanings it can refer to nature they attain my nature that means they attain the spiritual nature bhava can also refer to an emotion it is the penultimate stage in the 9th stage progression towards prema so when we take shelter of Krishna like this then we can attain love for him that is also life's great perfection so in this way this verse helps us to understand how we can get the tattvataha understanding that is mentioned in the previous verse and how that tattvataha understanding can lead to the fruit this verse says that when we become free from attachment frustration and fear and we take shelter of Krishna then the resulting knowledge of Krishna understanding that receiving that that is austerity and many have become purified so Krishna is trying to assure Arjuna many in the past have become purified and have attained me and similarly you too can attain me.