Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 28

 Chapter 9 verse 28 

“By dedicating all your works to Me, you will be freed from the bondage of good and bad results. With your mind attached to Me through renunciation, you will be liberated and will reach Me.” 

What happens when through bhakti yoga and karma yoga, the actions performed by person does not bind them. Since the fruits of the action have already been surrendered to the Divine, the person is freed from the bondage of the result of the action. In this verse, Lord mentions sanyasa yoga as the process to attain this state. He doesn’t mean renunciation from life. He just means renunciation from the fruits of the action and renunciation from claiming that the time you are spending on earth is actually yours but belongs to the Supreme. Every second of it belongs to HIM. So why waste it on frivolous worldly pursuits?

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 27

 Chapter 9 verse 27 

“Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as oblation to the sacred fire, whatever you bestow as a gift, and whatever austerities you perform, do them as an offering to Me.” 

I see this verse and previous verse as two paths to reach Him. Earlier verse throws light on the path of devotion and surrender of everything that is you through bhakti yoga. This verse illustrates the method of doing all actions as an offering to Him. Is this not karma yoga? Doing actions with dexterity and sincerity but offering the fruits of the actions to God. This thought process when done every second of every day of our lives would destroy any egoism which we will possess. The sense of doer ship will disappear altogether over time.

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 26

 Chapter 9 verse 26 

“If one offers to Me with devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit, or even water, I delightfully partake of that article offered with love by My devotee in pure consciousness.” 

This multi-verse creation of Lord is full of miracles happening every second of every space. When one becomes aware of the many and mini miracles around us, we feel blessed. One such miracle happened today. I read the Srimad Bhagavatam last night before going to bed and it happened to be chapter on Krishna and Sudhama. This same verse is quoted in Srimad Bhagavatam to Lord Krishna receiving the beaten rice from Sudhama since it is offered with so much love, affection and devotion. Sudhama was so hesitant to give that offering to Krishna but He grabbed it from his upper cloth and ate 2 handfuls of the beaten rice. The message of devotion and surrender couldn’t be drilled into me more clearly from the Lord. What we offer is NOT important, how you offer what you have to LORD is the key!

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 25

 Chapter 9 verse 25 

“Worshippers of the celestial gods take birth amongst the celestial gods, worshippers of the ancestors go to the ancestors, worshippers of ghosts take birth amongst such beings, and My devotees come to Me alone.” 

Lord talks about the different modes of worship and their destination. This verse can be interpreted to mean that all non godliness pursuits results in lesser results different from attaining eternal bliss and riddance from the cycle of birth and death. Whether one worships celestial gods, one’s own clan, ghosts and goblins, there is a particular benefit of those worships but it is not a permanent solution to eternal happiness. Eternal peace and happiness can only result from surrender to the Divine and contemplation of our own Self which is just part of the Supreme Lord. Self realization is realization that we are part of the whole, nothing but the whole and dissolve ultimately into the Whole.

 

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 23-24

 Chapter 9 verse 23-24 

“Even those devotees who faithfully worship other gods also worship Me. But they do so by the wrong method. I am the enjoyer and the only Lord of all sacrifices. But those who fail to realize My divine nature must be reborn.” 

The clear distinction from these 2 verses is that seeking material gains and everything in this world which is NOT permanent by worshipping nature and nature’s conductors such as vayu, agni, indra, brahma etc., who themselves are not immortal or supreme, will yield material gains but will keep us engrossed in this cycle of birth and death. The only way to gain freedom from this material world is to seek the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. What is Lord’s divine nature? He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent and pervades this multi-verse. His real nature cannot be comprehended by ordinary mortal and is beyond imagination. Again, Surrender to Him is the only way either through actions, devotion or wisdom that all is Him.

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 22

 Chapter 9 verse 22 

“There are those who always think of Me and engage in exclusive devotion to Me. To them, whose minds are always absorbed in Me, I provide what they lack and preserve what they already possess.” 

As we have seen in previous verses, there is a limit to merits and demerits of doing our duties and actions based on material and worldly desires. We may attain worldly and heavenly pleasures for a limited period of time. However if we “SURRENDER” to GOD, always in His contemplation and do all actions as an offering to Him, drop our mind and intellect in other energy dissipating activity, Lord protects the spiritual attainment we have gained-Kshemam and provides the benefits of the efforts to unify body, mind, intellect and the Self- Yoga. He protects what you already have and blesses one to the spiritual advancement in path to salvation. TOTAL SURRENDER is key! This is a famous sloka..”Ananya Chintayantah mam…yoga kshemam vaham aham”

Srimad Bhagavat Gita commentary chapter 9 verse 21

 Chapter 9 verse 21 

“When they have enjoyed the vast pleasures of heaven, the stock of their merits being exhausted, they return to the earthly plane. Thus, those who follow the Vedic rituals, desiring objects of enjoyment, repeatedly come and go in this world.” 

Lord continues to expand on his statement from previous verse about what happens when beings pursue material desire based karma such as yagna and other sacrifices with the intent to gain merit. The merit is granted and the being traverses this earthly plane post death to heavenly plane for a limited time per their good karma or other planes for their not so good karma. However to exhaust their vasanas and karma phala, they do need to take another birth on the earthly plane. This explanation is a good setup for Lord to stress on why this focus on materiality of the universe is ultimately a futile exercise.