Shloka 14
The Lord in the Heart and the Discipline of Yoga-Bhakti
यावन्न जायेत परावरेऽस्मिन् विश्वेश्वरे द्रष्टरि भक्तियोग: । तावत् स्थवीय: पुरुषस्य रूपं क्रियावसाने प्रयत: स्मरेत ॥ १४ ॥
yāvan na jāyeta parāvare ’smin viśveśvare draṣṭari bhakti-yogaḥ tāvat sthavīyaḥ puruṣasya rūpaṁ kriyāvasāne prayataḥ smareta
جب تک پر اور اَپر جہانوں کے دَرشن کرنے والے وِشوَیشور بھگوان میں بھکتی یوگ پیدا نہ ہو، تب تک مقررہ اعمال کے اختتام پر کوشش کے ساتھ بھگوان کے وِراٹ روپ کا سمرن و دھیان کرے۔
The Supreme Lord is the seer of all worlds, both material and transcendental. In other words, the Supreme Lord is the ultimate beneficiary and enjoyer of all worlds, as confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā (5.29) . The spiritual world is the manifestation of His internal potency, and the material world is the manifestation of His external potency. The living entities are also His marginal potency, and by their own choice they can live in either the transcendental or material worlds. The material world is not a fit place for living entities because they are spiritually one with the Lord and in the material world the living entities become conditioned by the laws of the material world. The Lord wants all living entities, who are His parts and parcels, to live with Him in the transcendental world, and for enlightening conditioned souls in the material world, all the Vedas and the revealed scriptures are there — expressly to recall the conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead. Unfortunately, the conditioned living entities, although suffering continually the threefold miseries of conditioned life, are not very serious about going back to Godhead. It is due to their misguided way of living, complicated by sins and virtues. Some of them who are virtuous by deeds begin to reestablish the lost relation with the Lord, but they are unable to understand the personal feature of the Lord. The real purpose of life is to make contact with the Lord and be engaged in His service. That is the natural position of living entities. But those who are impersonalists and are unable to render any loving service to the Lord have been advised to meditate upon His impersonal feature, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form. Some way or other, one must try to reestablish one’s forgotten relation with the Lord if one at all desires to gain real happiness in life, and to reclaim his natural unfettered condition. For the less intelligent beginners, meditation on the impersonal feature, the virāṭ-rūpa, or universal form of the Lord, will gradually qualify one to rise to personal contact. One is advised herewith to meditate upon the virāṭ-rūpa specified in the previous chapters in order to understand how the different planets, seas, mountains, rivers, birds, beasts, human beings, demigods and all that we can conceive are but different parts and limbs of the Lord’s virāṭ form. This sort of thinking is also a type of meditation on the Absolute Truth, and as soon as such meditation begins, one develops one’s godly qualities and the whole world appears to be a happy and peaceful residence for all the people of the world. Without such meditation on God, either personal or impersonal, all good qualities of the human being become covered with misconceptions regarding his constitutional position, and without such advanced knowledge, the whole world becomes a hell for the human being.
FAQs
This verse advises that until bhakti-yoga naturally arises, one should deliberately remember the Lord’s manifest personal form—especially at the completion of one’s daily duties—so the mind becomes purified and steady.
Because a conditioned mind needs a tangible focus; contemplation of the Lord’s visible personal form supports concentration and gradually matures into spontaneous devotion to the all-seeing Supreme.
After finishing work or daily responsibilities, set aside a short time for focused remembrance—such as visualizing the Lord’s form, chanting His names, or offering a simple prayer—so spiritual consciousness becomes the day’s concluding priority.