One more thing ! ......

Aham nasyaami !.. .. I destroy...!!

contributed by Turaga Rajendraprasad

(Bhagavad Gita – chapter 10 verse 11)

‘Out of mere compassion for them, I, abiding in their hearts, destroy the darkness (in them) born of ignorance, by the luminous lamp of knowledge.'

A wonderful verse. Krishna telling Arjuna:

Tesam eva' , ‘to all such people'; ‘ anukampartham' , ‘out of compassion to them'; what do I do? ‘ Aham ajnanajam tamah nasayami' , ‘I destroy their darkness and delusion born of ignorance';

aham nasayami' , ‘I destroy'. How do I do that? ‘ Atma bhavastho' , by establishing myself in their hearts' or ‘I begin to manifest in their hearts, helping them to achieve this tremendous transformation'.

All that is dark, all that is delusive, are washed away. The bright light of knowledge comes. Everything becomes clear. “That is the blessing that I confer on the devotee without his or her knowledge ‘by entering into them'.

‘ What do I do there?' That is a wonderful idea conveyed by the next phrase. Jnana dipena bhasvata , ‘by the lamp of knowledge, brightening up everything'. This is the service the Lord does to His devotee, to the spiritual seeker. Then, he or she will be always on the right path, moving always towards the Divine and towards friendship and love for all beings in the world. That is the type of human transformation that takes place through this type of bhakti combined with jnana as was taught earlier in the ninth chapter, and as taught now in the tenth chapter.

This is a very great verse: lighting the jnandipa . Now these are all spiritual ideas. We have symbolic acts to express these great ideas. You enter a house; you light a lamp. What a great spiritual significance we attach to it! For a Hindu home, lighting a lamp in the front is of a great significance. Its counterpart is here light within. This – lighting the outside is what we can do now. That is a symbol of a greater light we have to get lit in our own hearts. Nobody loves darkness. We want light; the heart also cries for light and not for darkness. And therefore, in the brhadaranyaka Upanishad , another universal prayer of the human heart is found:

asato ma sad gamaya , ‘Lead me from the unreal to the Real';

tamaso ma jyotir gamaya , ‘lead me from darkness to Light';

mrutyor ma amrtam gamaya , ‘lead me from death to Immortality'.

This is the prayer from the human heart not only from the brihadaranyaka Upanishad but also from many spiritual books of the world – this human craving for life, light and knowledge. Light up jnanadipa ; it is our own responsibility; we struggle and at the last point, the Lord comes and helps us. Only when we struggle, can He help. If we are careless, it means that we don't know its value. Suppose God lights the lamp in our hearts and if we say, ‘we don't want it, then it means we are not fit for it, we are not ready for it. But when we become sensitive, we struggle, then this great help comes from the Divine. So, grace comes from being grace-worthy. We prepare ourselves for the touch of that grace. But grace comes. That is how the higher religions of the world have expressed human progress in spirituality; your own effort, and the grace of the Divine, blending beautifully in all high spiritual developments.

Om Tat Sat.

  The above contributed by Shri T rajendraprasad is from the book (Volume 2, Pages 418, 419) : Universal Message Of The Bhagavad Gita (3 Volumes) By Swami Ranganathananda, 1474 Pages, Hardcover. A verse by verse exposition of the Gita by Swami Ranganathananda, 13th President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.