तस्मात् 'therefore';
सर्वेषु कालेषु, at all times;
मामनुस्मर, think of me;
अनु, means Continuously;
मामस्मर, 'think of Me'.
I am the Self behind your own little self,
I am the Infinite One,
I am that Akṣara Puruṣa, that Imperishable Reality hidden within You.
So,
तस्मात्सर्वेषु कालेषु मामनुस्मर युध्य च।
& carry on the battle of Life!'
These two will have to go together. Thinking of the Divine, carrying on the battle of Life.
You are active in Life;
You have got plenty of work to do;
that cannot be an excuse for not remembering
the Divine.
Remember,
The Divine is Within You.
He is the Self of your Self.
He is the Inner self of all Beings.
That Divine Consciousness must be there at least a little bit in everyone;
along with it, There must be the hard work going on in this World,
the Struggle, the Endeavour, that wonderful 'Battle of Life'!
युध्य च
So, this is a very important exhortation in The Gītā :
मामनुस्मर युध्य च।
'Meditate upon Me & carry on the battle of Life'.
That is the language.
अनुस्मर, 'continuous remembrance';
स्मरणम्, is 'remembering'.
Like Oil poured from one vessel to another; that oil flows in a continuous stream.
That is the example given by our spiritual teachers to have an understanding of this अनुस्मरणम्;
Đ Mind flows towards the Divine continuously.
A portion of the Mind is always devoted
to this Consciousness.
Śrī Rāma Krishna Paramāhamsa gave the example of a person suffering from Toothache.
Such a person is busy with the day-to-day Work,
But a part of his or her Mind is always on that Ailing tooth.
Similarly,
मामनुस्मर युध्य च।
'Meditate upon Me & carry on
the battle of Life'.
They are not opposed to each other. They can be carried on together.
That is the Special message of The Gītā.
That is why it is a message for all people.
We are all working people.
In the midst of Work can we Realize the Divine?
Yes, We can.
The Divine is our own Nature
Realizing Him is our Birthright.
Everybody can Realize Him.
That is how the Supreme Divinity has been presented in The Gītā.
मनो बुद्धि र्मामेवैष्यस्यसंशय।
'one whose Mind is fixed on Me, whose Buddhi is fixed on Me',
मय्यर्पित र्मामेवैष्यस्यसं, 'reach Me only';
न संशय, 'there is no doubt on this question'.
As your thoughts are, so will your Life be.
Thought very much modifies Life, influences Life;
It is a Great Truth,
&
In this case, it is Perfectly True.
Thinking of the Divine,
we become Divine.
As Śrī Rāma Krishna Paramāhamsa said,
'One who always thinks that he or she is a Sinner, He or She will become a Sinner;
One who thinks that He or She is a child of the Divine, such a one will become Divine.'
Mind plays a great part in building up your Life one way or the other. You go on suggesting to Yourself,
'I am Sick, I am Sick', & one day you will fall Sick,
because you are suggesting that to Yourself.
Mind has the great Power to shape our Destiny.
Therefore,
Never think of Negative thoughts;
take always to Positive thoughts.
&
Đ Greatest Positive thought is of the Divine hidden in d Heart of all,
Đ Imperishable in the midst of d Perishable.
In the Śloka here, #Aṣṭāvakra points out the subtle distinction between the two higher states in Meditation.
येन दृष्टं परं ब्रह्म सोऽहं ब्रह्मेति चिन्तयेत्।
किं चिन्तयति निश्चिन्तो द्वितीयं यो न पश्यति॥
"He, who sees the supreme Brāhmaṇ, Meditates upon ‘I am Brāhmaṇ.
(1/9)
He who has transcended all thoughts and when he sees ‘no second’,
What should he meditate Upon?"
At the earlier stage the student, as a result of his deep study & long reflection,
becomes intellectually convinced of the one Infinite immutable Reality which is the Substratum
for the illusory play of names & forms that constitute the Universe.
Here,
The student ‘sees the supreme Brahman’ meaning,
He intellectually conceives the Existence & Understands the nature of the supreme Reality.
At this stage the student should strive to Meditate on,
As one ever established in Brāhmaṇ, Sukacharya did not accept any ignorance whatsoever in Parikshit.
As Darkness is not real to the Sun, to the Knower of Đ Self,
Ignorance has no existence.
(1/9)
Hence, in the 7 days that followed, Sukacharya leisurely expounded upon the Bhagavāta Purāna without any anxiety whatsoever.
Even though Parikshit lamented that he had only 7 days left to live,
Sukacharya consoled him
& said,
वरं मुहूर्तं विदितं घटते श्रेयसे यतः।
ŚB 2.1.12
'One moment is all you need to attain d Highest. Have No fear at all.
But for You,
सप्ताहं जीवितावधिः।
You have 7 long days to Live!
Once You come to know your real Nature, You will wake Up to d Immortal,
Bodiless Nature of Đ Self.'
सनत्सुजातीयम्~Sānatsujātiyam : ii
An Unusual Parallel :
A little digression is Worthwhile here.
Sānatsujāta has listed the 6 most fundamental Virtues that any seeker should have,
before even embarking on the Spiritual path Upward.
(1/21)
In the same #Mahābhārata ., there is another context occurring very much earlier in the Chronology of events,
Which lists for Us the 6 most Fundamental Evils one should Avoid.
Đ Scene is in Sabha Parva, (the 2nd one out of 18 Parvas) where Yudhishthira has just been crowned the
prince of Indraprastha.
Đ Divine roving Rṣi Narada appears on the Scene & in his blessings to the Newly crowned prince,
gives pieces of advice in the form of some Rhetorical Questions.
One of these Questions is whether as a King & Adminstrator He has avoided certain 6 Evils.
Among musical Instruments,
Đ bamboo Flute is considered d most Organic.
Now the Question is,
How did this Flute get d blessed fortune to be with Śrī Kṛṣṇa all the time?
Bhagavān’s love for His flute was such that,
Never would He leave it Here & There.
(1/11)
Đ Bhagavān’s Flute received the touch of the Bhagavān’s nectarean lips,
Which everyone longs for, for lifetimes together.
The Gopīs, or women of the cowherds,
were ever Jealous of the Bhagavān’s Flute,
talking to it & chiding it, saying, “You are Stealing our right.
The Bhagavān’s lips are Our right. So long as you are seated on His lips,
We will not get to touch them.”
Someone once asked,
“O Flute,
What Meritorious deeds did You perform,
that the Bhagavān always keeps You with Him & places You on His lips?”
Like Vineyan,
The Student has another name "अन्तेवासि~Antevāsi" which means "one who lives with".
Just as "Upanayana" (leading near) means "leading near the Guru",
Antevāsi (living with) must be taken to mean "one who lives with the Guru".
(1/12)
Strictly speaking "ante" does not "with or by the side".
It means "in" or "Within" in the same way as it means in the words in
"Antaranga",
"Antarātman",
"Antaryāmin".
Đ "anta" here means "in the Mind".
Đ ācārya must, in keeping with this meaning, harbour the student in his Mind
so to speak, which suggests that he must have deep affection for him.
The ācārya has a great responsibility towards his student. If He does Not Fulfil it,
He will himself come to great harm.
Teachers nowadays say :
"What does it matter whether or not the student is doing well?
People normally find a hundred excuses for Not performing,
doing Spiritual practices like Pūjā, or
Visiting the Mandirā.
‘I am unwell’,
‘I cannot afford rituals’,
‘I have no time’,
‘I do not know the chants’,
there is no place at home where I can worship’
& So on.
Normally,
people feel Pūjā is a mechanical action,
Which has to be ‘got over & done with’ as part of one’s daily routine (Dinacaryā).
People say,
‘pūjā kar ḍālī’ (Hindi),
or
‘pūjā karī nākhī’ (Gujarati),
which indicates, that one has finished it with a sense of relief that it is over, rather than with a sense of fulfilment of having done it well.
Our attitude should be ‘Pūjā kar lī’ ~ completed (with good feelings derived from it).