Yog of Knowledge and Action
Chapter 4, Verse 3
sa evāyaṁ mayā te’dya
yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ
bhakto’si me sakhā ceti
rahasyaṁ hyetad-uttamam
This same ancient and original Yoga has today been declared to you by Me, for you are My devotee and My friend; this is the highest secret.
“This same ancient and original Yoga has today been declared to you by Me.” Krishna says, “It is the same yoga which I gave to the Sun-god, billions of years ago. It is the same yoga, which, right now, without any change, I am revealing to you. This yoga, which has been handed down from generation to generation and which had disappeared for some time, I am revealing to you this day, here on this battlefield, Arjuna, ‘for you are My devotee and My friend.’” This is so beautiful. Krishna addresses Arjuna saying, “You are My devotee.” This shows that Arjuna had all the qualities of a devotee. He is surrendered to the Lord. He is well-qualified as a devotee to receive the true knowledge, to receive this supreme blessing, this Grace: if Arjuna was not qualified, Krishna would not call him His devotee. He would not call him a disciple. He is referring to this high quality inside of Arjuna saying, “You are fully surrendered. You have this sincerity, this truth.” Here Krishna also reveals that He has never before given this supreme knowledge directly to a human being. Of course, Arjuna is sitting there, looking at the Lord thinking, “Oh my goodness!” He is getting anxious to know more of what Lord Krishna is going to say.
Lord Krishna praises Arjuna saying, “In the heart, you have this truth. You are now qualified! Never before were you qualified. You are ready, so I can reveal to you this deep secret, the supreme, the highest secret.” This secret was only given to people by their Gurus when they were ready. If you give this Brahma Jyaan to people who are not ready to grasp it with their hearts, they will not know what to do with it; if their minds are too focused on the outside world, it will not make any sense to them; to them, it will just be, “Blah blah blah blah.”
Krishna sees this quality of a bhakta inside of Arjuna, this longing! That’s what the Guru, the Teacher, the Master looks for in the devotees, in the disciples. He checks to see if the ‘soil’ is ready, if all the wild grass has been removed and if the disciples are ready to do their dharma or not. If people are in a state of confusion, if they are given such knowledge and such blessing, they will fall into deeper confusion. But if one is wholeheartedly surrendered to the Guru, one doesn’t need to worry about anything. Everything will be taken care of. Like this story of Dukhi Krishna that shows how the Grace of the Guru takes care of the one who is surrendered.
The story is told of Dukhi Krishna:
Dukhi Krishna was a young boy who was longing to find his Guru. When he finally met his Guru, he fully surrendered to him. The Guru gave him a task saying, “You will water the plants in the ashram. You will have to carry this heavy water pot on your head, while walking back and forth to the river. You just have to look after the plants.” Dukhi Krishna didn’t ask the Guru why he had given him this task, or why he had to carry this heavy pot on his head. He was just very, very happy to serve his Guru. He carried this water pot on his head, day after day, year after year. He was so dedicated, so surrendered, that he didn’t realise that by carrying this heavy water pot, he got a bump on his head, which became inflamed. It was pretty nasty; there were even worms in it! But he didn’t realise it, he didn’t feel any pain, he felt nothing, because he was completely focused on his teacher. One day when he was carrying the pot and chanting his Guru’s Name, the Guru passed by, looked at him and said, “You wounded your head! Let me see!” Dukhi Krishna didn’t realise that his head was wounded until then. The Guru healed his head and gave him Diksha saying, “Listen! Your service here is finished! Go to Vrindavan and you will find your service there.”
Dukhi Krishna went to Vrindavan, where he was sweeping the road that leads to Nidhivan, and chanting the glory of God and Guru. He was just happy doing what he was doing, not asking why his Guru had sent him to Vrindavan to sweep the road. One day he found a very beautiful anklet on the road. He looked at it and saw that it was an anklet that might belong to a queen, to someone royal. He thought, “Here in Vrindavan, there is only one Queen and that’s Srimati Radharani.” He took the anklet, kept it and continued sweeping the road. In the other dimension, Radharani missed Her anklet and realised that She had lost it while dancing at night with Krishna. She sent Lalita to Vrindavan, in this earthly dimension, to look for Her anklet. Lalita came disguised as a simple, village girl and started looking everywhere for the anklet. She saw Dukhi Krishna chanting the glory of God and Guru, and he seemed to be carrying something sparkling. She approached him and said, “If you have found a beautiful anklet, please give it to me, because it belongs to my Mistress.” Since Dukhi Krishna was so devoted to the Lord and to his Guru, he was able to realise that this village girl was not just a normal girl. He said, “Tell your Mistress, that if she wants her anklet, she has to come and get it herself!” Lalita tried to persuade him to give her the anklet, but he said, “No way! Tell your Mistress to come here!” So Lalita went back and told Radharani, “This crazy man sweeping the road there has your anklet. I saw it, but he refused to give it to me. He asked for you to go there and get it directly from him.” Radharani went to Vrindavan, also in disguise, not in her full glory, and asked Dukhi Krishna to give her anklet back saying, “Listen, you asked for the Mistress, so here I am! Please give me my anklet.” Dukhi Krishna said, “I’ll give you your anklet if you show me your true form!” Radharani was a bit hesitant, but when She saw the love that Dukhi Krishna had for the Lord, and the surrender that he had for Her, She had no other choice than to reveal Her true form. Even more, She allowed Dukhi Krishna to put the anklet on Her ankle. With the anklet on Her Foot, Radharani touched his third eye. He got a mark on his forehead which stayed there his entire life. (Due to that incident, this mark became the dot that we put in the asana of the tilak, which represents the Guru.)
Dukhi Krishna hadn’t asked his Guru why he had to carry the water pot or why he had to go to Vrindavan to sweep the streets. But in the end, due to the Grace of the Guru, he received the Darshan of Srimati Radharani in Her full glory.
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This is how Dukhi Krishna surrendered to the Will of the Master, knowing that inside the Master was Krishna Himself. Here Krishna says to Arjuna, “My devotee, My dearest one, now these outside things don’t bother you. Now you don’t see the war that you are going to fight as something painful.” In that moment, the mind of Arjuna is in a state of complete surrender to the Lord. He doesn’t look at the outside world, at what he is losing or not losing. He only wants to grasp and understand with his heart what Krishna is telling him.
“My devotee and My friend...” There are different kinds of relationships that one can have with God. Some people love God as a devotee. Some people love God as a friend. Some devotees, like Hanuman, love God as a servant. For Meerabai and many others, like Tukaram and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, God is loved as their lover. The gopas loved the Lord as their friend, so they could play with Krishna, they could beat Krishna up, and of course Krishna allowed them to do it. In this relationship, they knew deep in the core of themselves, that He was the Supreme Lord Himself, God incarnated; yet because He was their friend, they could embrace Him, hold Him, carry Him, beat Him up, tell Him whatever they wanted.
Bhagavad Gita
