Bhagavad Gita · 9.11 · Yoga through the King of Sciences·11 of 34
अवजानन्ति मां मूढा मानुषीं तनुमाश्रितम्।परं भावमजानन्तो मम भूतमहेश्वरम् ॥
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣhīṁ tanum āśhritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśhvaram
Sanskrit recitation
How people reach for God · 9.11–9.25 · Teaching
Translation
Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of all beings.
Meaning
Fools only find fault with My pure nature, just as a man with jaundiced eyes finds all objects to be yellow. The man who is suffering from fever finds even milk as bitter as the essence of neem. Those who wish to behold Me by means of the physical eyes cannot know Me. If anyone takes the mirage for the Ganga, can he find any water thereFools who do not have discrimination and right understanding despise Me, dwelling in the human form. I have taken this body to bless My devotees. These fools have no knowledge of My higher Being. They do not know that I am the great Lord, the Supreme SElf, the luminous, omniscient, pure, ever free, immortal, wise, the Self of all. These fools take Me for an ordinary mortal and despise Me always. The wise know both My transcendental nature and the glory of My manifestation.I pervade, permeate and interpenetrate the universe. I am the support of this world, body, mind, lifeforce and the senses and yet there are some miserable fools, who say that I do not exist. There is thus not a place anywhere where I am not, and yet these people are not able to see Me. Look at the misfortune of these people. Pitiable is their lot (Cf.IV.6VII.24)
After Swami Sivananda
How people reach for God· 9.11–9.25→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
9.11Fools disregard Me, clad in human form, not knowing My higher Being as the great Lord of all beings.
- 9.12They are possessed of the deceitful nature of demons and undivine beings, filled with vain hopes, vain actions, and vain knowledge that is senseless.
- 9.13But the great souls, O Arjuna, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single-minded devotion, knowing Me as the imperishable source of all beings.
- 9.14Always glorifying Me, striving, firm in their vows, prostrating themselves before Me, they worship Me with steadfast devotion.
- 9.15Others also, sacrificing with the wisdom-sacrifice, worship Me, the All-Faced, as one, distinct, and manifold.
- 9.16I am Kratu; I am Yajna; I am the offering to the manes; I am the medicinal herbs and all plants; I am the Mantra; I am also the ghee or melted butter; I am the fire; I am the oblation.
- 9.17I am the father of this world, the mother, the dispenser of the fruits of actions, and the grandfather; the one thing to be known, the purifier, the sacred monosyllable (Om), and also the Rik, Sama, and Yajur Vedas.
- 9.18I am the goal, the supporter, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the shelter, the friend, the origin, the dissolution, the foundation, the treasure-house, and the imperishable seed.
- 9.19As the sun, I give heat; I withhold and send forth the rain; I am immortality and also death, existence and non-existence, O Arjuna.
- 9.20The knowers of the three Vedas, the drinkers of Soma, purified of all sins, worshipping Me through sacrifices, pray for the way to heaven; they reach the holy world of the Lord of the gods and enjoy the divine pleasures of the gods in heaven.
- 9.21They, having enjoyed the vast heaven, enter the world of mortals when their merit is exhausted; thus abiding by the injunctions of the three (Vedas) and desiring objects of desires, they attain to the state of coming and going.
- 9.22For those men who worship Me alone, thinking of no one else, for those ever-united, I secure what they have not already possessed and preserve what they already possess.
- 9.23Even those devotees who, endowed with faith, worship other gods, worship Me alone, O Arjuna, but by the wrong method.
- 9.24For I alone am the enjoyer and Lord of all sacrifices; but they do not know Me in reality, and thus they return to this mortal world.
- 9.25The worshippers of the gods go to them; the ancestor-worshippers go to the manes; the worshippers of the deities who preside over the elements go to them; but My devotees come to Me.
Word-by-word→
- mama
- my
- mām
- me
- param
- divine
- tanum
- form
- bhūta
- all beings
- bhāvam
- personality
- āśhritam
- take on
- avajānanti
- disregard
- ajānantaḥ
- not knowing
- mānuṣhīm
- human
- mūḍhāḥ
- dim-witted
- mahā-īśhvaram
- the Supreme Lord
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