Chapter 7

In the first volume (Chapter 1 to Chapter 6), Lord Krishna described the way to realize the Self. This realization is an accessory in the service of the Lord. It is achieved by working purely as worship to the Lord, without being driven by desire. Such work has the knowledge of the Self embedded in it.

Worship is the means to reach Lord Narayana, who is always present with Lakshmi, who alone is the creator of the universe, who is flawless, who knows everything, who is present in all beings, whose will is always realized, who pervades everything and is beyond the perception of our sense organs.

Till now, the true nature of the Self, along with the means to realize it was described to be able to explain the worship of the Lord.

In this middle volume (chapter 7 to chapter 12) the nature of the Supreme Lord and His worship, also called bhakti, are described. Several testimonies from the scriptures describe this worship, starting with:

18-46: Any human being attains the goal by worshipping The Lord with his own work.

18-54: Having realized the Self, with a serene mind, he doesn’t get upset and doesn’t yearn. Such a person has equanimity among all beings. He attains the ultimate devotion to Me.

These two Shlokas summarized the achievement of devotion.

Service to the Lord can be a means to achieve Him, only when it takes the form of devotion - as stated in the following sentences of the Vedanta:

श्वेताश्वतर उपनिशत् [zvetAzvatara upanizat] , 3-8: ‘A person overcomes the cycle of deaths only by knowing Him’

पुरुश सूक्त [puruza sUkta] : ‘Knowing Him alone, a person attains moksha’

And further:

बृहदारण्यक उपनिशत् [bRhadAraNyaka upanizat] , 4-5-6: ‘The Self must be seen - it must be realized through focused attention’

बृहदारण्यक उपनिशत् [bRhadAraNyaka upanizat] , 1-4-15: ‘We must perform worship by keeping the Lord as the goal’

छन्दोग्य उपनिशत् [chandogya upanizat] , 7-26-2: Once purified (from desire, anger and laziness), we think of the Lord constantly. By meeting the memory of the Lord, we are freed from all things that mislead us. Then we will achieve moksha .

मुंडक [muMDaka] , 2-2-8: Be it a great being or a lowly creature, when it sees The Lord, it loses all its past deeds. The enemies of the Self (desire and hatred) will be destroyed. All doubts and suspicions are driven out.

In this way, all of these statements convey a single meaning - what we call variously as meditation and worship is an unbroken chain of thought, which is equivalent to seeing the Lord.

Further, it is stated in the कठ उपनिशत्, २-२३ [kaTha upanizat, 2-23] : This Self and the Lord are not achievable by instruction, not by thought, not even by hearing a lot about them. The person who is blessed by the Lord alone will attain the Lord. The Lord will show himself to this person.

Worship is an uninterrupted chain of thought.

By the emphasis laid here, we see that worship is the uninterrupted chain of thought, which makes a person obtain the blessings of the Lord. Since the object of worship is so adorable, the chain of thought called worship itself is lovely.

Devotion is to worship with friendship.

This is called bhakti: ‘When the uninterrupted chain of thought is filled with friendship, it is called bhakti’ -as stated in लैङपुराण​,उत्तरभाग​: [laingapurANa,uttarabhAga:].

Further, there are more statements in the scriptures that convey the same meaning:

The पुरुष सूक्त [puruSa sUkta] says: ‘By knowing Him alone, a person attains moksha. There is no other way to the goal’

11-53, 11-54: The Lord says through these Shlokas: ‘Not through the Vedas, not even by penance, not by donating things, not by performing sacrifice - it is not possible to see Me in the way that you do. Arjuna, through devotion alone, it is possible to know Me like this, to see Me in My true form and finally go into Me.

Here, the seventh chapter describes the true form of Lord, who is to be worshipped in this way. It describes that the Lord’s form is concealed by the environment (‘environment’ includes our body). It speaks about seeking refuge in the Lord to shake off this ignorance. Then, the four types of people who render service to the Lord are described along with the special characteristics of those who know.