Bhagavad Gita · 18.55 · Yoga through the Perfection of Renunciation and Surrender·55 of 78
भक्त्या मामभिजानाति यावान्यश्चास्मि तत्त्वतः।ततो मां तत्त्वतो ज्ञात्वा विशते तदनन्तरम् ॥
bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaśh chāsmi
tattvataḥ tato māṁ tattvato jñātvā viśhate tad-anantaram
Sanskrit recitation
Toward inner perfection · 18.49–18.55 · Teaching
Translation
By devotion, he knows Me in truth, who and what I am; then, having known Me in truth, he immediately enters into the Supreme.
Meaning
My devotee, O Arjuna, who has attained to union with Me through singleminded and unflinching devotion is verily My very Self. Devotion culminates in knowledge. Devotion begins with two and ends in one. ParaBhakti (supreme devotion) and Jnana are one. Devotion is the mother. Knowledge is the son. By devotion he knows that I am allpervading pure,consciousness he knows that I am nondual, unborn, decayless, causeless, selfluminous, indivisible, unchanging he knows that I am destitute of all the differences caused by the limiting adjuncts he knows that I am the support, source, womb, basis, and substratum of everything he knows that I am the ruler of all beings he knows that I am the Supreme Purusha, the controller of Maya, and that this world is a mere appearance. Thus knowing Me in truth or in essence, he enters into Me soon after attaining Selfknowledge.The act of knowing and the act of entering are not two distinct acts. Knowing is becoming. Knowing is attaining Selfknowledge. To know That is to become That. Entering is knowing or beoming That. Entering is the attainment of Selfknowledge or Selfrealisation. These are all jugglery of words only. Knowing and entering are synonymous terms. It is very difficult to understand or comprehend transcendental spiritual matters. The teachers use various terms or expressions, analogies, similes, parables, stories, etc
After Swami Sivananda
Toward inner perfection· 18.49–18.55→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 18.49He whose intellect is unattached everywhere, who has subdued his self, from whom desire has fled, he attains the supreme state of freedom from action through renunciation.
- 18.50Learn from Me, O Arjuna, in brief how one who has attained perfection reaches Brahman—the Eternal, that supreme state of knowledge.
- 18.51Endowed with a pure intellect, controlling the self through firmness, relinquishing sound and other objects and abandoning attraction and hatred.
- 18.52Dwelling in solitude, eating sparingly, with speech, body, and mind subdued, always engaged in meditation and concentration, and resorting to dispassion.
- 18.53Having abandoned egoism, strength, arrogance, desire, anger, and covetousness, and being free from the notion of 'mine' and peaceful, he is fit for becoming Brahman.
- 18.54Becoming Brahman, serene in the Self, he neither grieves nor desires; he is the same to all beings, and obtains supreme devotion to Me.
18.55By devotion, he knows Me in truth, who and what I am; then, having known Me in truth, he immediately enters into the Supreme.
Word-by-word→
- mām
- me
- tataḥ
- then
- yāvān
- as much as
- bhaktyā
- by loving devotion
- viśhate
- enters
- jñātvā
- having known
- tattvataḥ
- in truth
- abhijānāti
- one comes to know
- tat-anantaram
- thereafter
- yaḥ cha asmi
- as I am
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- 2.25This Self is said to be unmanifested, unthinkable, and unchangeable. Therefore, knowing…