Chapter 5, Verse 17
tad-buddhayas tad-ātmānah
tan-niṣṭhās tat-parāyaṇāḥ
gacchanty-apunarāvṛttiṁ
jñāna nirdhūta kalmaṣāḥ
Turning their discerning mind to That, directing their whole conscious being to That, making That their whole aim, the sole object of their devotion, their sins are washed by the waters of knowledge and they go to where there is no return.
Krishna says, “Turning their discerning mind to That…” What is ‘That’? Here the first ‘That’ denotes the Atma, the Divine Self. “Directing their whole conscious being to That.” In this context, the second ‘That’ means Tat, Param, the Supreme God: “Making That their whole aim and the sole object of their devotion, they go where there is no return.” They attain full perfection, they attain their spiritual bodies, the light bodies, and when they attain the spiritual bodies there is no return: it’s a one-way ticket! When one attains the supreme stage of God-Realisation, there is no way one will go backwards.
“Their sins are washed by the waters of knowledge.” In the life of Christ, you clearly see how one transcends the outside reality. When one hangs onto the outside reality due to ignorance, one limits oneself. But when one is enlightened by the wisdom of the true knowledge of God, the mind merges into God. Then the truth about God is brought into the intellect and through the intellect, one perceives the true aspect of the Self. “Directing their whole conscious being to That”, through meditation, one makes the intellect lose its identity in the divine state; one loses oneself in the Light of God and becomes one with God.
Through devotion, through service, through meditation, one’s mind is controlled. When the mind is controlled, God reveals the true identity of the soul to the intellect and to the heart. Then one becomes Satchitananda. One attains one’s spiritual body, the ‘Light body’ “where there is no return,” no going back. Such a Realisation, when one attains God Consciousness, makes one identify oneself with God. In such a state there is no oneself, there is only Him! There is not this ‘I’, there is not this difference this separation between you and God.
There is only this full Realisation, there is only One reality, God Consciousness.
“Their sins are washed by the waters of knowledge…” Here again Krishna emphasises that once one attains this state of Realisation, there is no creation of karma. “There is no return,” because one has attained the highest stage of God-Realisation – Tat, Param, the Supreme.
Bhagavad Gita
