(Image Courtesy Mahanidhiswami)

Bhakti Involves Focusing One’s Mind On God In All Of His Divine Forms, Qualities, Pastimes, And So On

कविं पुराणमनुशासितार
मणोरणीयांसमनुस्मरेद्य: |
सर्वस्य धातारमचिन्त्यरूप
मादित्यवर्णं तमस: परस्तात् || 8.9||

kaviṁ purāṇam anuśhāsitāram
aṇor aṇīyānsam anusmared yaḥ
sarvasya dhātāram achintya-rūpam
āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt|| 8.9||

Shloka Translation
BG – Ch. 8- Ver. 9:

He who is omniscient, timeless, the commander, subtler than the subtlest, guardian of everything, unfathomable, dazzling as the sun, beyond darkness, (one) contemplates (him).

Explanation

God can be contemplated in a variety of ways. God’s Names, Forms, Leelas (Pastimes), Associates, and Abodes are all listed here. There is no distinction between these facets of God. As a result, one can focus on any or all of them. Such meditation, in which we join our minds with the Supreme Divinity, transports us to the divine realm and purifies us.
God is omniscient, like a poet who knows everything about his creation. God is the most old, and nothing predates Him. He is the seer who knows the past, present, and future. He is the source of everything in the physical and spiritual worlds, but He did not come from anything. There is no beginning or end to God. God is the ruler or governor. He carries out His regime either through the celestial gods He has anointed or directly. He is the creator, and everything in the universe is subject to His command and governed by His laws.

God is thought to exist in the most subtle or subatomic form in this place. The soul is more subtle than matter, but God, who is housed within every soul, is even more subtle. God is the source of all nourishment. In the same way that an ocean sustains the waves and its huge marine ecosystem. God’s entire creation is supported by Him. God manifests himself in incomprehensible ways. Our intellect and mind are material in nature, whereas God is divine and so beyond our comprehension. Only through His grace can one comprehend Him. By His Yogmaya power, He bestows His divine grace and makes our minds divine; only then can we know Him.

Aditya is one of the sun god’s names. God is considered to be as bright as the sun here. God’s effulgence, like the sun’s, destroys ignorance. The sun is not visible on a foggy day, yet it is an optical illusion for us. The sun is where it is, undisturbed by the earth’s atmosphere’s clouds. Similarly, God’s material energy, Maya, may appear to cover Him during His Leelas or pastimes. He, on the other hand, is untouched by it. He is unaffected by darkness or ignorance.
According to our sanskrs (tendencies) from innumerable lives, we all have various options and natures. The Vedic books also provide a variety of spiritual paths from which we might pick based on the level of sadhana we have achieved in previous lifetimes. They do, however, emphasise bhakti, or devotion to God, as a common thread that connects all of these ways.

The Bhagavad Gita gracefully accommodates a wide range of sadhanas in order to serve a big audience with various backgrounds, upbringings, and personalities. Bhakti entails focusing one’s mind on God in all of His divine forms, qualities, pastimes, and so on. Bhakti is known as Shuddha bhakti in its purest form. When combined with ashtanga yoga, however, it is known as yog-mihra bhakti, or a synthesis of devotion and ashtanga yoga sadhana.

yog-miśhra bhakti The life energy, or prana shakti, is channelled through the sushumna nadi of the spinal column and then lifted toward the third eye region between the eyebrows in ashtanga yoga. He declares in this verse that whomever practises this with deep devotion and entire focus on the Divine Lord would undoubtedly achieve Him at the time of death.

Verse & what we can learn

Ishvara is described as someone who transcends space and time. Because Ishvara is omniscient or all-knowing, there is nothing we can keep hidden from him. He’s also known as “puraanam,” which means “old” and “eternal.” Puraanam implies he transcends time, whereas Kavi indicates he surpasses space.

Ishvara is characterised as “anushaasitaaram,” which translates to “one who has final dominion over everything.” He is also known as “sarvasya dhaataaram,” meaning “one who preserves and ordains everything,” and “one who distributes the results of everyone’s activities.” To put it another way, Ishvara is the system of laws that hold the universe together.

Shri Krishna also warns us against placing too much emphasis on Ishvara’s physical aspect. Ishvara is “anoraaneeyaamsam,” which means he is smaller or subtler than the tiniest particle we can understand. He is invisible to the naked eye and even the most powerful microscopes. He’s also known as “achintya roopam.” His physical appearance is inexplicable. Because he is our own self, the subject, he can never be transformed into an object. Shri Krishna symbolically compares Ishvara to the sun (“aaditya varnam”), implying that our senses are incapable of comprehending Ishvara’s splendour.

We should strive to think about this image of Ishvara throughout our life so that we can remember it when we pass away.

To acquire knowledge and to implement that knowledge in life one needs to be mentally and physically active and healthy and for that daily meditation is a great tool.

There are various types of meditation like Buddhist meditation, heartfulness meditation, mindfulness meditation, meditation for stress, and each meditation benefits are countless. There are also numerous meditation techniques for beginners which help in practicing daily meditation so go ahead and start your journey towards a peaceful and balanced life.

In the Next verse, Shri Krishna tells Arjuna how one attains the divine.

Let’s learn to live with “The Gita” via Meditation Affinity…