Gita 08.15 – Attaining Krishna is the eternally inalienable attainment
Thank you Bhagavad Gita 8.15 Bhagavad Gita 8.15 birth again Bhagavad Gita 8.15 in this miserable world which is also temporary na apnavanti they don't come back mahatmanaha those great souls samsiddhim paramam gatha samsiddhim they have attained paramam gatha the supreme destination so here Krishna is talking about the eternality of spiritual attainment Krishna is stating that those who attain him attain him forever well that is the thrust of this verse along with that the verse is saying several other things too it says that those who attain me they do not take birth na punar janmana na apnuvanti so those who are such people are mahatmas Krishna has said who are mahatmas the word mahatma comes four times in the Bhagavad Gita first time it came in 7.19 when it stated that bahunam janmanam ante jnanvan mam prapadyate vasudevas sarvamiti samahatmas durlabhaha that those who understand, those who are related to Krishna is everything he is everything, such people jnanavan are mahatmas here we have the second reference so the word mahatma refers to those who are utterly devoted to Krishna, the word mahatma will come again in the 9th chapter, in the 13th verse when Krishna says mahatma nastumam partha daivim prakritim asritah bhajan tenanya manaso jnatva bhuta di maudhayam, there also he is giving a similar description of mahatmas those who are those who are sheltered in the potency, those who are totally devoted to him, they are mahatmas bhajan tenanya manaso they worship him with undistracted devotion going further after Krishna completely speaking the Bhagavad Gita so mahatma the word comes again after Krishna has finished speaking the Bhagavad Gita and Arjuna has surrendered to him in 18.73, 18.74 he says that thus have I heard this great conversation between the two great souls, mahatma Krishna and Arjuna so Krishna is of course God so in that sense he is the great soul and Arjuna because he surrendered to Krishna yes daivim prakritim asritah he can shelter the internal potency by surrendering to Krishna, so he has also become a mahatma as per the definition of the Bhagavad Gita so then he goes on to glorify the conversation, but the point is that here Krishna when he uses the word mahatma it is clear that he is talking about his devotees and that of course is evident from the point of view that they worship me so mam upetya is paramam gatha what is the supreme destination? that is to attain Krishna so this was also counters any lingering notions that some people may have that is there something higher than Krishna no, Krishna is saying that he himself is the supreme destination that those who attain him they attain perfection but there is nothing more to attain for one who has attained him because paramam gatha two verses earlier Krishna has used the same words paramam paramam gathim, the supreme destination and here in 8.15 Krishna is saying paramam gatha paramam gatha so except for the slight grammatical change in form because of the context in which the words are used, paramam gatha and paramam gatha, the words are practically the same and Krishna says that such people they attain so one who attains Krishna's abode will not fall back this is a great fear and danger that is there in every endeavor towards success somebody may become a millionaire or a billionaire but money is so fickle that the money that is there today may just go away tomorrow and a person may be left with nothing so Krishna says that like that sort of fall from grace to ignominy will not happen for those who have attained him for other sadhakas also as we structure spiritual life we often fall from high standards of bhakti to low levels to of consciousness where we indulge also in some wrong things but such falls don't happen when one has attained Krishna so there are all these details all these important points in this verse the devotees are mahatmas and here Krishna's abode is the supreme abode and that those who attain that abode do not fall back to this world and while making these important points especially the point that this is one attainment that having attained which we will not be lost, we will not lose after having attained this abode Krishna makes the additional point here, so Krishna has talked about earlier also yam labdhvacha param labham manyate nadhikam patah yasmisto dukh gurnapin pichalyate, in 6.22 he said that having attained this one thing there is no greater gain and being situated thus one doesn't let misery distract even grave misery devastating misery distract one from one's spiritual position so that is the state of enlightened samadhi and Krishna is also talking about a state of such enlightenment from which one will not fall back and he says those who have attained my abode will not attain me, will not fall back again now along with that in passing the verse also makes the point that dukkha lemashy asvattham that this world is miserable and it is temporary so we might need to be reminded this and told this again and again but in the cultural context in which Krishna spoke to Arjuna it was widely understood that the material world is a place of misery so Krishna does not need to give any elaborate reasoning to he does not have to list how old age, disease and death are unavoidable Krishna does not have to say that look at adhyatmika, adhibhautika, adhyatmika look at how one or more of these miseries are afflicting all of us constantly and thus we can understand this world is actually a place of misery no, it's a given it's something which is a part of the cultural GK of people at that time of the overall general knowledge of people that they knew that Krishna that this world was a place of misery and it's interesting that Krishna is not qualifying it by saying oh, it's a place of misery for poor people Krishna is generally saying, generically, universally saying that this world is a place of misery some western philosophers or western thinkers or western observers when they came to India and they found in Indian literature references, repeated references this theme of how this world is a place of misery they thought that oh, because Indians are in so much poverty so they imagined a world renouncing philosophy wherein even if they were in indigence in scarcity in this lifetime they would attain abundance in a previous life in a future life but the fact is Krishna is saying that even for the Pandavas the Pandavas were royalty they had been exiled for some time but they had also lived in royalty and the Bhagavad Gita is spoken primarily to Rajya Rishis imam rajya rishiyo viduhum Krishna said in 4.2 so Krishna is here speaking not just to people who are because of their material circumstances in a distressed or afflicted or miserable condition Krishna is speaking in general a universal truth for everyone that this world is it is temporary so the Bible says don't make your treasure in this world because here things may break in make your treasure in the kingdom of God and where your heart is that's where your treasure will be so this way we can attain Krishna by as was mentioned in the previous verses by fixing our consciousness on him and by becoming devoted to him and if we attain him then we go beyond this miserable temporary material world thank you.