Chapter 18 Shloka 66

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज।

अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच:।।६६।।

The Lord directs Arjuna:

Renounce all other duties

and seek refuge in Me alone.

I shall liberate you from all sins.

Do not grieve!

Chapter 18 Shloka 66

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज।

अहं त्वा सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा शुच:।।६६।।

Having imparted knowledge in its entirety, the Lord directs Arjuna:

Renounce all other dutiesand seek refuge in Me alone. I shall liberate you from all sins. Do not grieve!

Little sadhika, beloved of the Lord! The Lord has just enjoined Arjuna:

1. Affix your mind in the Lord.

2. Establish your devotion in Me.

3. Offer your deeds performed in the spirit of yagya at the Lord’s feet.

4. Offer your obeisance to the Lord.

Now He says, “Resign all your duties unto Me.”

The meaning of sarva dharmaan parityajya (सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य)

1. If the Lord becomes the mainstay of your life, only then will you be able to take support of the divine qualities in your life.

2. If the Lord becomes your witness every moment, only then will devotion blossom.

3. Then your attention will be continually fixed on His qualities.

4. Then you will surrender every action of your life at His altar.

5. You will then offer your obeisance only to His divine qualities.

–  You will then give your all to protect virtue and saintliness, and you will never bow before evil.

–  You will only make use of the Lord’s qualities in your interactions with others.

–  You will seek to become like the Lord.

What did the Lord mean when He said, ‘Sarva dharmaan parityajya’? Understand first that:

1. Lord Krishna also discharged His duty in life – then how can He bid us to escape ours?

2. The Lord Himself is proof of dharma in life – He can never advise us to renounce duty.

3. How can He, whose very birth took place for the establishment of dharma, advise us to renounce our dharma?

4. He can never support the renunciation of dharma.

5. How can He, who has established duty as all-important all through the Gita, now speak of abandoning it?

6. He who has always eulogised the purity of yagya, cannot suggest the renunciation of that yagya!

7. He who has always declared selfless deeds to be purifying cannot ever suggest their relinquishment.

8. He who has upheld a life of selflessness as the mark of purity cannot now advise us against dharma.

9. He who has explained to us the importance of the qualities cannot now suggest that we renounce our dharma.

10. He who has recommended the accumulation of the wealth of divine qualities cannot recommend the renunciation of dharma.

11. He who has advised us to attain the state of a gunatit cannot suggest the relinquishment of dharma.

12. He who has urged Arjuna to fight this war of dharma is surely not suggesting that Arjuna renounces his dharma!

13. He who has imparted the knowledge of the sarvarambha parityagi,or one who abstains from the initiation of any project, can surely not speak of the renunciation of dharma!

14. He who has been constantly elucidating the attribute of detachment cannot advocate the relinquishment of dharma.

15. He who has bestowed the knowledge of inaction in action cannot advise the relinquishment of dharma!

16. He who has revealed the knowledge of the renunciation of the fruits of action cannot now advise the renunciation of dharma.

17. He who has always spoken of the renunciation of doership, and not of abstinence from action, cannot now say “Do not do as I have said!”

Now understand what one must abstain from.

1. Let not this thought, “I am established in dharma” or “I fulfil all duties”; prevail in you.

2. “I am the upholder of dharma” – give up this attitude of doership.

3. “This is superior, this is inferior” – give up such feelings.

4. Relinquish your pride in your attributes.

5. Renounce the pride of knowledge.

6. Give up your pride in the good deeds you have performed.

7. Renounce all attachment with your lacunae and shortcomings.

8. Renounce attachment with the ascendant and the descendent paths, the shreya and the preya.

9. Give up attachment to nivritti and pravritti – abstinence from action and engagement in action.

10. Give up this attitude of always treading cautiously in life.

11. Learn how to retain your equanimity towards acclaim and humiliation.

12. Cease to fight your own or another’s attributes.

–  The relinquishment of mental attachment is indeed renunciation.

–  The relinquishment of attachment with the fruits of one’s deeds is indeed renunciation.

–  The relinquishment of attachment with the situation or one’s circumstances is indeed renunciation.

–  The relinquishment of attachment with the body-self is renunciation.

13. Engage in action with the belief “This is worthy of being done.”

14. Relinquish attachment with the idea of doership because it is the qualities that are the doers of all deeds. Qualities interact with other qualities and deeds are performed.

15. Cease to be attached to the idea that you are the enjoyer, because it is the qualities that enjoy other qualities.

16. Renounce the ‘I’ and ‘mine’ because the ‘I’ can do nothing.

17. Renounce the body idea because in fact, you are not this body – like the Lord, you too are the Atma.

“Seek refuge in Me” – in these words lies the secret of the Gita.

The Lord says:

1. Do as I tell you to do.

2. Become like Me and then interact in the world.

3. Live in this world even as I do.

4. Adopt My perspective in life.

5. Do not retain any attachment with this body, just as I am detached from the body-self.

6. Live your life in the spirit of yagya just as I do.

7. Live with an attitude of selflessness just as I do.

8. Act as I do – without any selfish motive, fulfilling all duties.

9. Engage in action as I do – acting as do the ignorant amongst the ignorant.

10. Just as I act with the ignorant – persuading them into action as well, so also must you act.

11. Become indifferent to yourself just as I am indifferent to Myself.

12. As you would make plans for your own establishment, aid others in making plans regarding their establishment just as I do.

13. Just as my life is extremely ordinary, so also must you learn to live.

Little one, one who has resigned his body to the Lord will necessarily fulfil all his duties as the Lord Himself would have done.

When he seeks refuge in the Lord:

1. He will act in every situation in the same manner as the Lord Himself would have done, had He been there.

2. He will act in accordance with the Lord’s injunctions; however, he will apply the Lord’s injunctions to his present situation.

3. Shyam’s Word will be a command for him.

4. Shyam’s own life will be a live example for him to mould his life by.

–  Just as the Lord retains His equanimity in the face of acclaim and abuse, such a one will remain impartial as well.

–  Just as the Lord, when required, becomes a humble charioteer, such a one will not hesitate to perform a similar role when the situation demands it.

–  Just as the Lord is ever indifferent towards himself, such a one will remain detached from himself.

–  Just as the Lord remains impartial towards both victory and defeat, so also will the one who has sought refuge in the Lord.

The Lord’s Essence

1. The Lord is Bliss Itself.

2. The Lord is the epitome of indifference to self.

3. The Lord is ever untouched and uninfluenceable.

4. He is blemishless.

5. He is eternally detached.

6. He is completely devoid of aberrations.

7. He is uninfluenced by all attributes.

8. He is adorned by the attributes of divinity.

9. He is the eternal sthit pragya or one possessed of an intellect of equanimity.

First understand how this is so:

1. He is devoid of the body idea even whilst dwelling in the body.

2. He is devoid of the body related intellect even whilst dwelling in the body.

3. He is ever unmanifest even whilst abiding in the body manifestation.

4. He is devoid of selfishness and ever engaged in the welfare of all beings.

5. He has transcended all hopes and expectations, yet he fulfils the expectations and the dreams of others.

How does He do all this? In order to know this, one has to understand the Lord’s view point. First understand the Lord’s perspective towards life.

1. Understand His interaction with different people.

2. Understand His perspective towards His own body-self.

3. Understand His attitude towards the fame or slander accorded to His body-self.

4. Understand His approach towards the joys and sorrows encountered by Him.

5. Understand His attitude towards His friends and enemies.

6. Understand His viewpoint towards the life or death of His own body.

Little one, he who does not consider his body to be his own:

1. Which body is then his?

2. Which birth can we consider as his birth?

3. What would constitute his acclaim or his insult?

4. What will be the loss and gain of such a one?

Such a one has no point of view of his own. Nor can fame or calumny be ascribed to him.

When the body is no longer his own, no act of that body can be attributed to him. Thus the Lord advises, “Renounce attachment with all deeds. Relinquish attachment with the body and become like Me, free of attachment.”

O fortunate one, look! The Lord is cajoling His dear friend for the latter’s own benefit and peace. He assures his friend, “I shall liberate you from all sin.”

‘Ma shucha’ (मा शुच:) – ‘Do not grieve’ – its connotation and process

1. When the devotee takes the name of the Lord, then the Lord Himself becomes witness to all his deeds.

2. When devotion in the Lord grows, the body belongs to the Lord.

3. When the body belongs to the Lord, all deeds of that body are offered at the Lord’s feet.

4. When the body is offered to the Lord, all the deeds of that body become akin to the Lord’s deeds.

5. When the body belongs to the Lord, the devotee’s mental deeds are also instilled with the Lord’s dharma.

6. Then that spiritual aspirant’s life becomes the channel for the Lord’s qualities to flow out to others.

7. He pays obeisance to the attributes of divinity through his life’s deeds.

8. Believing the Lord’s attributes to be the most superior, he surrenders his very being at their altar.

a) Then that one gradually forgets himself and begins to lose himself in identification with the other.

b) He remains unaffected by negative attributes.

c) He remains unaffected even by his own attributes.

d) Thereafter, he begins to transcend the body idea.

e) He transcends the fetters of name and form.

Little one, no sooner did he engage his mind in the Lord, that his beloved Lord began to rule that body in place of the ‘I’. The dominion of the ‘I’ ceased and Ram ruled there in its place.

The consequence of voidance of the ‘I’

When the ‘I’ no longer remains, then virtue and sin can no longer be attributed to that being. When the body is no longer his own, such a one becomes eternally liberated.

This is the method whereby one can gain union with the Supreme. Such a one will inevitably transcend all dharmas.

1. Then the body will no longer belong to the ‘I’ – it will belong to all.

2. One will not restrict oneself to one dharma – all dharmas will belong to that one.

3. One will not be confined to merely one name – one identifies with all names.

4. Such a one does not identify with the relationships of only one body – all relationships are his own.

5. He adopts the relationship that anyone claims with him.

6. His duties do not pertain only to his relations, but to all.

7. No one is then ‘mine’ or ‘yours’ – all are ‘my very own’.

8. He is not bound only to one – he maintains relationships with all.

Actually, such a one has attained union with the Lord.

1. He becomes Love Itself.

2. He becomes Sincerity Itself.

3. He becomes Compassion Itself.

4. He becomes Forgiveness Itself.

5. His very life is yagya embodied.

6. His very life is an unbroken string of duty.

Such a one becomes completely identified with the Atma and transcends all actions of the body-self.