Gita 09.03 – Bhakti harmonizes the temporary with the eternal
Joyfully, thank you ashraddhana purusha dharmasyasya parantapa prapya mam nivartante bhakti samsara vartmani Krishna says over here, ashraddhana purusha, ashraddhana that one who is not having fate purusha, such a person dharmasyasya parantapa that person doesn't have fate in this process of dharma aprapya mam that person cannot attain nivartante, will come back mrityu samsara vartmani to the path of repeated birth and death mrityu samsara vartmani so in the eighth chapter repeated theme has been anavrtti and punaravrtti that anavrtti that he says that in 8.16 Krishna said that from the highest to lowest planets one has to come back from there but if we become devoted to him, to Krishna we don't come back Krishna is reiterating that point here when he says aprapya mam nivartante that if we don't want to come back to this world, the way is that we become purified, we become devoted to Krishna and if one does not become devoted to Krishna, one doesn't attain Krishna then nivartante, one has to come back and mrityu samsara vartmani, mrityu samsara samsara, this material existence is from a philosophical perspective defined by death so mrityu samsara, why? because whatever else we do in this world we become famous, we become powerful we become very beautiful but it's all going to be terminated by death and wise people are conscious of this and they try to work towards dealing with that situation now suppose, when a person has no job then the person gets a contract labour ok you do this project, you help in this work and you will get this much money but while doing that contract labour job well, the person also is taking care that is always aware that I have to get a permanent job, I can't give up this job because this is giving me some my livelihood right now but at the same time this is not stable so a wise person while working on the present job doesn't neglect the attempt to get a permanent job and at one level we can say that nothing in life is permanent but still there is, there are lesser and greater degrees of of you could say persistence or durability or of existence so for example a contract labour, contract job which now we may call as freelancer say, ok somebody gets a job for 6 months, that's good but that's not enough if somebody has a job which is going to last for 3 years that's better but if somebody has got a job that is going to last for you know 30-40 years that's even better so we are aware of the temporariness of things from within this world's perspective but when things are beyond this life's perspective, even within this world we tend to become oblivious of those things somehow the same people who while preparing who while working at one job are also preparing for a longer job they are the most intelligent now still that actually causes that causes a split of one's energies and that causes overload because say a person is right now studying, right now working in software and that person wants to become and wants a long term career as an IAS officer that is not going to work because it's very difficult to make it work because software requires one kind of knowledge study application and IAS requires a different kind of knowledge study application so a person's energy will be split but if that person is working right now in software as a say on a freelance or a contract basis but if that person works that job itself well then they can make that job permanent and that will be a much stabler career where the energies are harmonized rather than split so doing the temporary job well and seeking a permanent job both go hand in hand and that is the beauty of the process of bhakti that it enables us to actually harmonize our material with the spiritual there are materialists who are who are so caught in the temporary job that they are so caught in the temporary pleasures of life that they don't think of anything beyond these pleasures they just think only of the here and now and the sense pleasures available here and there are the renunciates in contrast who consider at least there are some renunciates who consider that everything material is bad and they think to become spiritually advanced everything material has to be rejected so for such people life becomes they are like a person who is having one job and who is while doing that job trying to maintain that job trying to get a whole new different career it is demanding so like that if one is all of us have a material body right now at the same time if we think of liberation purely in terms of negation of matter rejection of matter first of all we just can't live without matter and not only can we not live without material things but also we can't think about we can't even how much can we conceive anything spiritual right now but bhakti is like the process where good performance in the temporary job can be used to get a permanent job. If we see this world as the property of Krishna rather than focusing on the fact that this world is material and therefore to be rejected devotee focuses on the fact that this world is belongs to Krishna and is meant to be engaged in his service with this understanding when we strive to move closer to Krishna with this understanding when we strive to practice bhakti even in this world seeing material things as his resources meant for his service so it's not that the devotee is materially irresponsible or materially rejecting things a devotee uses material things in Krishna's service and to the extent that we can use the material things in his service to that extent we can progress onwards in our bhakti of course it's not that the more we use material things the more we will progress actually our progress is our connectedness with Krishna so we don't have to acquire more material things to use in Krishna's service rather we use more and more what we have in Krishna's service and Krishna will give us more and more that way so here so one who does not have this inclusive vision of God as the not just someone who exists in his own abode but as one to whom even this world belongs to the extent we have that inclusive understanding of God to that extent we can serve him in this world and those who think that God doesn't exist or God is not connected with this world that one who does not have faith that devotion to God can liberate one one who disconnects in one's own conceptions God and the world and sees the world as an independent reality who does not have faith in Krishna's words describing how he is intimately and inseparably connected with this world and especially is intimately connected with us all as his part one who does not see this connectedness one who is not faithful enough to accept this connectedness such a person will inevitably live materialistically and by living materialistically that person will be bound in material existence not attaining Krishna अशिद्धधाना पुरुच धर्मस्यासे परंतप that person who will not be able to practice this dharma and firstly अप्राप्यमा those who don't have faith in Krishna cannot attain Krishna निवर्तन्ते मृत्यु संसार वर्तमने those people will return back to this material world मृत्यु संसार so indirectly Krishna tells us that by having Shraddha in him we can attain him and thus go beyond निवर्तन्ते मृत्यु संसार the explicit theme he will talk about in the twelfth chapter when he will say 12.6 and 7 तेशामहमसमद्धर्ता मृत्यु संसार सागरात भवामिनचिरात पार्थमयावेशित चेतसाम so there also the same word निवर्तन्ते मृत्यु संसार is used but there he says that he will become the safe deliverer for those who put faith in him and devote themselves to him.