Gita 13.26 Hearing directs us to destination immortality

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 13.26 Bhagavad Gita 13.26 Krishna speaking here he’s talking about another way by which people can gain spiritual perception and realization he’s talked about some ways in the previous verse Bhagavad Gita 13.26 he’s talked about how through dhyana through yoga through karma like that, people can perceive the inner spiritual reality and now in this verse he’s talking about anye, another way to do the same thing anye tu evam ajanantah ajanantah they are not spiritually very knowledgeable shrutva anye bhyavasate but they hear from others the word anya comes twice in this verse but it refers to two different things once it refers to anya as compared to others or others as contrasted with the categories of people mentioned in the previous verse and the second anya refers to others as contrasted with the first with who are mentioned as anya in the first part of the verse that means there are others who hear from others we could say anye tu evam ajanantah shrutva anye bhyavasate and after hearing from others upasate, they start worshipping te pichati tarantyeva they too ati tarantya they go beyond material existence ati tarantyeva mrtyum shruti parayanah they go beyond death because they are devoted to hearing shruti so here shruti refers not to the vedic scriptures shruti like we have this technical classification of shruti, smriti and like that shruti refers to the vedas and smriti refers to the puranas and the itihasas that is not what is being referred to here shruti parayanah shruti here refers to not the textual category of books but it refers to the cognitive function by which that textual category is received that is by hearing so shruti is that which is shruta is to hear so shruti is that set of books which are heard so shruti parayanah means those who are devoted to hearing parayanah means committed dedicated now krishna uses this word parayanah later in the 16th chapter the divine and demoniac nature when he states that kama krodha parayanah he says that demoniac people the ungodly people are addicted to kama and krodha that they have given themselves up to lust and to anger to desire and to anger and here krishna is talking about the same word parayanah but in terms of shruti, shruti parayanah they are devoted to shruti now the point which is being made through this verse is that actually krishna is our eternal lord and he is revealed through hearing the bhagavatam says that he manifests in our heart through the path of the ears, we see him the eyes are able to see him through the ears that’s how he manifests in our heart so the previous verse also used the verse of to see so this seeing refers not so much to seeing with the physical eyes as seeing in terms of understanding and realizing it’s like when we say I see your point so I see your point, it’s not referred to we are not talking about a geometrical entity called a point which somebody is seeing this is actually referring to comprehension, so see can refer to not just vision, it can also refer to comprehension and krishna in the previous verse he said that they comprehend, they realize the spiritual reality atman, krishanti so similarly krishna is saying here another way people can do the same thing and that is by they can do this by becoming devoted to hearing and krishna says they can go beyond they can attain immortality krishna has said a few verses earlier that those who understand this whole knowledge about prakriti and purusha that they will not take birth again krishna has said in 13.24 and that same result that not taking birth again that means going beyond death because where there is death there will be rebirth and if there is rebirth there has been death but when one attains spiritual level of existence then one has gone beyond death to deathlessness so krishna is saying here that one can attain the deathless world, the eternal world by the practice of diligent spiritual discipline that spiritual discipline which he says in this verse to which he devotes a full verse other processes he has compacted them just mentioned them in one verse but here he has devoted one full verse to this process and this is the process of hearing those who become devoted to hearing they also attain this perfection so from the relative amount of time given to this discussion we can understand that actually what is being talked about is something profound something very powerful, something very potent that is by hearing one can move towards liberation अर्ञेतो एवं अजानन्तः although they may not know about all these things but so one point krishna is saying is that some people may not be very advanced in knowledge they may not be very intellectually sophisticated. But just by hearing, if they hear in a way that they understand that they need to worship and they devote themselves to the absolute truth.
Krishna Radhan specifically mentioned what it is that one should worship. This is after all the 13th to 18th chapters, the Jnana section of the Gita. And in this section, the revelation of the personal aspect of the absolute will come later, progressively.
In this chapter, Krishna has not used the maam directly after 13.3. And then he has used it. So, he has not used it directly in the Jnana and Gaya section of the Prakriti and Purusha section. But in this very chapter twice, he has said that the knower, the super knower, we could say the knower of all the bodies is I. And the Jnanis are meant to practice undistracted devotion to me.
So, the object of worship, upasate, it is not a matter of great ambiguity, if we consider the overall chapter of the Gita, what to speak of the full Gita. It is clearly mentioned that it is Krishna who is to be worshipped. But suffice it to say that at this stage, by hearing one starts worshipping.
And if one becomes devoted to hearing, then one will also become devoted to the object about whom we are discussing, the Supreme Lord and thus one will move towards progression and progress and liberation. So, this verse again in the 13th chapter, which is probably the most upanishadic kind of chapter in the Gita, the chapter which focuses on terminology that often sounds impersonalist or at least ambiguous. Even in that chapter, Krishna is stressing bhakti.
Earlier also, he has stated that, my devotees will understand this and this way they will attain my nature. Again, Krishna is saying that by the process of hearing, which is an integral process of bhakti, because in the process of jnana, more than hearing, it is more of speculation, more of naiti naiti, more of internal analysis and speculation, whereas the process of hearing is central to bhakti. So, by hearing, one can move towards perfection.
And Krishna is stressing this very unambiguously by devoting a full verse. And thus he is saying that we can become Shruti Parayanaha to gradually become Krishna Parayanaha and to go to attain Amaratva,