Gita 04.11 – Appreciate the profundity of Krishna’s reciprocity and universality

Thank you ye itha mam as they unto me prapadyante surander tam stathaiva unto them similarly bhajamyaham I reward them mamavartmanuvartante my path follow mamavartmanuvartante my path they follow manushyaha partha sarvashyaha all living beings all people all human beings so in the previous verse Krishna has stated that ninth verse he has stated that those who know him attain liberation from rebirth and tenth he has said that how one can love him how to overcome misconceptions and take shelter so after describing the tapasa gyan tapasa you know him tattvata he then now describes that ok then why is it that all people don't know him don't attain him how does he reciprocate with others who don't do that so how does he respond to them so Krishna talks about two principles in this verse his reciprocity and his universality so 411 a and b the first two lines talk about reciprocity and c and d talk about universality so first verse says that first two lines a and b say that as people surrender accordingly he rewards so here the first time in the bhagavad gita the word prapadyante surrender is used a similar word sharana was used earlier in 2.49 so surrender with your intelligence surrender to your intelligence the idea is that who is the object of surrender that that is not necessary that in that case it's definitely not Krishna Krishna has not introduced himself as the object of surrender over there but here Krishna because he has already talked about how he is the transcendental lord and how he descends to this world to reestablish dharma so now it's clear that he is the ultimate object of surrender also so he rewards different people accordingly according to their mode of approaching him their mode of surrendering to him the acharya explained that when somebody considers Krishna's form to be temporary Krishna consider him to be just like another ordinary human being and Krishna reciprocates by letting them live as ordinary human beings in the material world at the material level of consciousness when somebody consider understands Krishna's form to be eternal then Krishna reciprocates by granting them an eternal form and eternal activities he elevates them to his abode as was mentioned in 4.9 and those who consider his form to be a product of illusion a temporary covering material covering material covering accepted by the impersonal transcendental brahman Krishna says that similar their activities in that analysis also becomes illusory this will be elaborated further in 9.11 and 12 essentially this verse talks about how Krishna is reciprocal and in that and in his reciprocity reciprocity is the tangible demonstration of his personality a living loving person will naturally be reciprocal will not be just dead or neutral in a emotionless sense if somebody expresses appreciation somebody expresses affection actually that person reciprocates somebody doesn't pay much attention that person will not pay much attention if a living loving person had the same response to everyone irrespective of whether that person was insulting or neglecting or appreciating then we might appreciate that person's stoicism or that person's stolidness but that would not make that person very lovable then reciprocity of Krishna is what makes him supremely lovable and the reciprocity also indicates that Krishna doesn't say here that I reject all those who don't surrender to me he says no they surrender to different degrees and I respond accordingly to them and that means if somebody surrenders to different ways of surrendering or different objects of surrendering that will be discussed in the 7th chapter when Krishna will talk about those who don't surrender to him in 7.15 those who surrender to him in 7.16-19 and those who surrender but to something else other than him to demigods we will talk in 7.20-23 and to the impersonal Brahman in 7.24 and Krishna describes that even those who are demigod worshippers he rewards them and the reward that the demigods give are actually given by Krishna Krishna mentions that section so in that sense he rewards people depending on what they surrendered now what does the second part mean all living beings are on my path a common mistranslation of this verse is that all paths lead to me but Krishna is not saying that over here in fact just after this he will say that those who worship the demigods prior to that he has talked about those who devote themselves to him and after that he talks about those who worship the demigods so Krishna contrasts between the two and that contrasts between various paths and their destinations various objects of worship and their destinations that is highlighted several times in the Bhagavad Gita most prominently in 9.25 so the worshippers of the demigods go to the demigods worshippers of the pretas and bhutas go to the pretas and bhutas worshippers of the ancestors go to the ancestors and worshippers of Krishna come to him so certainly all paths do not lead to the same goal but all paths, all people are on and his path was the same in fact the same phrase, the same sentence the same wording has been used by Krishna in 3.23 but there it was literally in the sense that Krishna is walking a path and others are following his path others will follow his path, so if Krishna does not do his duty others will also neglect their duty but here the same wording is used but what it means here is quite different so its mamvartama is not his path in the sense the path that he follows but it is his path in the sense that the path that leads to him so all people are on the path to him and to understand this we need to look at 10.41 in the Bhagavad Gita which states that that everything opulent, attractive reflects the spark of Krishna's splendor so few people may be attracted to Krishna directly so few people may be attracted to Krishna directly but everyone without exception is attracted to something and whatever it is that they find attractive the attractiveness of that comes from Krishna and in that sense because they are attracted to the spark of Krishna so they are on the path to Krishna however depending on what they are attracted to and in what mode of nature in what disposition that particular manifestation is situated their attraction to that object will take them towards Krishna or away from Krishna for example if somebody is attracted to a devotee who sings nicely, speaks nicely charismatic and compassionate then that attraction to the devotee will help the person to come closer to Krishna because the devotee speaks about Krishna and guides others to Krishna on the other hand if somebody is attracted to the taste of alcohol now even the taste of alcohol its attractiveness ultimately comes from Krishna but that taste of alcohol relishing the taste, enjoying the taste of alcohol doesn't elevate one upwards towards higher modes but rather that takes one downwards deeper into the modes of darkness and ignorance so that person is also the alcoholic is also on the path to Krishna but is going away from Krishna now in this way whatever a person is attracted to whoever a person adores some people may consciously worship someone like say somebody worships a demigod or some people may implicitly do that by making some people into role models icons like we have icons of pop culture film stars, sports stars sometimes even politicians the way their hoardings are put the way they are glamorized its almost like they are being made into gods, pseudo gods so whatever a person is attracted to that attractiveness within that attractive object comes from Krishna in that sense they are all on the path to Krishna but to the extent they have a positive attitude towards Krishna to that extent they will go closer to Krishna otherwise depending on their disposition towards him depending on the mode of approach to him Krishna will reciprocate and they may despite being on the path to Krishna go away from Krishna instead of coming close to him so this verse describes in this way the reciprocity and the universality of Krishna that he reciprocates with people according to how they approach and whatever they are approaching they are on the path to him but depending on what they are approaching they may be coming closer to him staying where they are in their distance to Krishna or going further.