Gita 06.47 – The perfection of yoga is not disconnection from matter but connection with Krishna

Yoginam api sarvesham mat kate nantaratmana shraddhavan bhajate yo ma samaya yukta tamo mataha Krishna speaks in the Bhagavad Gita, last verse of the sixth chapter signifies the topmost position on the yoga ladder of bhakti yoga and those yogis who graduate to the level of bhakti yoga, in the previous verse he has said about how yogis are better than other transcendentalists, and the transcendentalists he had compared with, tapasvi bhyodiko yogi gyan bhyoki matodikah karmi bhyas jyadiko yogi asmad yogi bhavad vinam so he talked about tapasvi, gyani and karmi, this refers to the primary other forms of transcendentalists and after stating that they are all, all of them, the topmost among all of them are the yogis, now Krishna states yoginam api sarvesham, among all the yogis, mat kate nantaratmana mat kate, they make me their gati, they are devoted to their consciousness, moves towards me and is focused on me, antaratmana, within themselves, inside them, shraddhavan bhajate yo mam, shraddhavan, with faith, bhajate yo mam, bhajate, they worship me, they devote themselves to me, so now mat is coming or mervaryams of me are coming, twice here, vinam api sarvesham, mat kate nantaratmana, mat is there and bhajate yo mam, so 6.47b starts with mat and 6.47c ends with mam, so it's emphatic and teme yuktatamo mataham, they are yuktatamo, now Krishna has used the word yukta several times in the bhagavad gita, even in this chapter, yukta ity ucyate yogi samaloshashvakanchenaham, in 6.8 he had said jnanavigyanatruttatma kutastho vijite indriyaham, yukta ity ucyate yogi, so the history of yukta, being well situated in yoga, properly situated in yoga of being connected, harmonized is what yukta means, that was talked about earlier in terms of having equal vision towards material things and then further it was 6.8 and again in 6.19 also it was stated, yada vinyatam chittam, atmanyeva vatishthate nispruhas sarvakame bhyo, yukta ity ucyate tadah, so yada vinyatam chittam, that was 6.18 actually, yada vinyatam chittam, so chitta is restrained, atmanyeva vatishthate, nispruhas sarvakame bhyo, and one is free from all desires, yukta ity ucyate tadah, they are yukta, nakrishna as, these two references, so they come in this chapter itself, 6.8 and 18 and the previous chapter also in 5.23, he has used the word yukta, actually the word yukta comes many times in the Gita, but where a person is called as yukta, that is, that comes many times, in the recent context of 5.23, triva shaknoti hai vayasodum praksharir vimokshanat, kamakrodhod bhavam vegam sa yukta sa sukhina rahav, so one who tolerates desire and anger and is ready to keep tolerating lifelong, such a person is yukta, so although there it is just yukta, here in 6.8 it is yukta ity ucyate yogi, so yukta and yogi both come together, so anyway the point is yukta and yogi are related, yukta is a variant of yogi, so yukta is come several times, but yukta damao, best among the yukta, most connected with me, most connected, me mataha, this is, I consider that they are the most intimately united, now the point is that is yukta damao is a superlative, like good, better, best, yukta, yukta tara and yukta damao, and krishna is saying that who is the yukta damao, whose focus is on me, shuddhavan bhajate yo mam, mat gaten antaratmana, both ways mam, they worship me, they devote themselves to me, and they are fixed internally on me, so earlier when krishna has said about yukta, it is more of, the emphasis was on disconnectedness from matter and material desires and material enjoyment, so solhum, tolerate desires, or samalostrasma kanchi, don't be attracted by worldly objects, or nispruhasarvaka vebhyo, do not entertain desires, so that is, so if one can be disconnected from the world, krishna says such a person is yukta, but if one is connected with him, then krishna says, that person is yukta damao, that means, so it's a higher level of yukta, the highest level of yukta is not just disconnectedness from matter, but it is connectedness with the highest spiritual reality, which is krishna, and this is, this verse is extremely significant, because it conclusively states that the culmination of yoga is not something other than krishna, the culmination is krishna himself, it is krishna who is to be attained through the whole process of shucha udeshe patishthapya sthiram asanatmanah, going out of the forest, yato ito nishcheti manas chanchalam asthiram, wherever the mind does, bring it under control of the self, so this whole process is quite a demanding process, we just talked about in the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita, krishna says that the topmost yogi is one who becomes fixed on, who becomes fixed on him, so the perfection of yoga is not disconnection from matter, disconnectedness from matter, or detachment from matter, it is connectedness with krishna, it is attachment to krishna, and this attachment is the, now there is not just one superlative, yukta tamo mataha, yukta tamo, that is there, and the other sense of the superlativeness of this statement comes from yogina of sarvesham, that among all the yogis, among all the yogis, these yogis, those who are madgatena antaratmana, those who are shatava and bhajitevi omaha, they are yukta tamo, so that means there are not some other yogis that are higher and were not talked about over here, nor is there that there is some other reality which one should meditate on, which is not talked about, no, krishna says that these who, among all the yogis, those who meditated on me are the best situated, they are the most intimately, the most properly, most fully situated in the yukta stage, yukta tamo mataha, in the nipatanjali's yoga sutra, ishwara pramidhan, surrender to ishwara is definitely talked about, but the identity of ishwara is not clearly stated, but here, who is that ultimate object is clearly specified that that ultimate object is krishna, and dhyana vasthita tadgate na manasapashyante yam yogi, no, so dhyana vasthita, the penultimate stage of yoga is dhyana, zamadhi is the ultimate stage and from the dhyana vasthita stage, the yogis start perceiving vishnu or krishna steadily inside them, tadgate na dhyana, this is from the shivad bhagavatam, one of the concluding verses of the bhagavatam, dhyana vasthita tadgate na manasa madgate na taratmana, similar tadgate na manasa, unto him, unto that truth, the mind is directed, what is that truth, pashyante yam yogi, no, the yogis see him thus, that truth is supreme lord, and that supreme lord is not different from krishna, so in this way, the bhagavad gita illuminates what is pointed out in the yoga sutras, the ultimate perfection of yoga is clearly stated here as becoming undistractedly devoted to krishna and by becoming thus devoted to him, one attains the supreme perfection of life, it is not just a passive meditation on the form of vishnu, bhakti in its highest manifestation is a form of dynamic service to the lord, and that service brings supreme ecstasy, and now from the next chapter onwards, krishna will start talking about how that ecstasy can be experienced in an alternative way by the progressive practice of bhakti yoga right from the start, so in this chapter it was by the practice of ashtam yoga gradually rising to the level of bhakti yoga, but here krishna is talking about directly from 7th chapter onwards, krishna will talk about how right from the beginning by practicing bhakti one can come to the perfection of bhakti that is madgatena antaradmanah, as it was stated in 7.1, mayi asattamanah, and this transition from, so the bhagavad gita has been moving upwards from karma yoga to dhyana yoga to bhakti yoga, now krishna will talk in 7th chapter how right from wherever we are we can directly start practicing bhakti yoga, that we will discuss.