Daily Readings from the Works of Swami Venkatesananda


Song of God (Bhagavad Gita) - Chapter V: 16-17

April 25, 2025

™jñānena tu tad ajñānaṁ yeṣāṁ nāśitam ātmanaḥ
teṣām ādityavaj jñānaṁ prakāśayati tat paraṁ (V-16)
™tadbuddhayas tadātmānas tanniṣṭhās tatparāyaṇāḥ
gacchanty apunarāvṛttiṁ jñānanirdhūtakalmaṣāḥ  (V-17)

V/16. But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by the
knowledge of the self, like the sun, knowledge reveals
the supreme Brahman.

V/17. Their intellect absorbed in that, their self being that,
established in that, with that for their supreme goal, they go
whence there is no return, their sins dispelled by knowledge.

Swamiji's Commentary

      When one wakes up, his dream with all the dream-objects (pleasant and unpleasant), dream-experiences (happiness and misery), dream-actions (good and bad), dream-creations (heaven and hell) and the dream-personality (bound to a delusion) vanish. Man immediately realizes that he is a cell in the body of God, that his self is the self of all, that by virtue of his oneness with the all, he is the all! Not the deluded and ignorant
‘I’, but God’s nature prevails here, and functions in him, as it functions in the entire universe. This, however, is not mental activity, nor intellectual assent, nor a pious belief. It is realization; one who has it need not intellectualize it or verbalize it.

      The yogi who has this knowledge enters the state of sleepless sleep. In sleep, too, our entire physical organism functions, in obedience to God’s nature. We are at peace and we commit no sin. The man who lets God’s nature or will prevail even during the waking hours is at peace and commits no sin. He lives in the constant awareness that Brahman alone is true, the ‘world’ as such is false perception, and the individual soul is, in essence, one with Brahman. His self realizes its identity with the supreme self. It is not a question of faith or belief, but firm conviction, an unshakable one like the conviction ‘I am a human being’, needing no proof. This conviction, permeating every thought, word and deed, itself is his goal. With ignorance, egoism and self-limitation gone, he is not subjected to limitation (birth) any more!

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