Bg 5.29

bhoktāraṁ yajña-tapasāṁ
sarva-loka-maheśvaram
suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
jñātvā māṁ śāntim ṛcchati

Word for word: 

bhoktāram — the beneficiary; yajña — of sacrifices; tapasām — and penances and austerities; sarva–loka — of all planets and the demigods thereof; mahā–īśvaram — the Supreme Lord; su–hṛdam — the benefactor; sarva — of all; bhūtānām — the living entities; jñātvā — thus knowing; mām — Me (Lord Kṛṣṇa); śāntim — relief from material pangs; ṛcchati — one achieves.

Translation: 

A person in full consciousness of Me, knowing Me to be the ultimate beneficiary of all sacrifices and austerities, the Supreme Lord of all planets and demigods, and the benefactor and well-wisher of all living entities, attains peace from the pangs of material miseries.

 

śāntim ṛcchati – such a person will attain peace who will attain peace, those who will understand that Sri Krishna is the enjoyer of all sacrifices and austerities, Krishna is sarva-loka-maheśvaram, proprietor of everything and suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, and Krishna is well-wisher of all living beings, such a person will attain peace.

Srila Prabhupada had made peace formula using this, get it printed on pamphlet and distribute it, what is the peace formula to accept Sri Krishna as enjoyer, proprietor and well-wisher, now we may wonder what this has got to do anything, how can accepting Sri Krishna as the enjoyer…people think generally if we have to gain peace, then we have to do some negotiations, if these two countries are fighting then peace conference has to be there, some amicable settlement has to be there and grievances has to be redressed, so this is important no doubt at material level but at material level peace is always unstable because there will be always people who are exploitative so real peace has to grow within the hearts of people, when people are internally peaceful then they can radiate peace outwards and how can people become internally peaceful when they can become internally satisfied as long as people are dependent on external satisfaction till that time they cannot have peace as there external situations have disrupted and external situations are bound to be disrupted because externals are unstable, so here Sri Krishna is talking about the inner peace which is only sustainable inner building block for outer peace.

Let us look that what Sri Krishna means when He is talking about these three components, 

Peace Formula (shantim richhati)

1.Enjoyer

2.Proprietor

3.Benefactor

Make peace with God

Before we have to have peace in this world we have to make peace with God.

What is the meaning to make peace with God, who is fighting with God, God is not involved in fighting, someone say that I am not fighting with God, who are fighting with God, but actually we are like we wanted to enjoy separate from Sri Krishna in the sense we are waging war against Sri Krishna we want to enjoy separate from Him and that is unfortunate so we may not be constantly be hostile towards Sri Krishna but sub-consciously we are in a way trying to usurp His position of Supreme Enjoyer and we are meant to be co-enjoyer with Him, we are not meant to be independent enjoyers, if we wanted to become enjoyer, our enjoyment will become limited, whereas when we connect to Sri Krishna our enjoyment will become unlimited because He is unlimited His capacity to enjoy is unlimited, our enjoyment becomes connected with His enjoyment, so therefore we have to make peace with God, and when we make peace with God what happen exactly peace comes within the heart and then we can have peace in the outer world.

When our plan don’t work our resentment can be in 3 direction, outward, inward and upward.

Actually speaking whenever we make some plan I wanted to do like this then it doesn’t work out then we feel so much of resentment why it didn’t work out, this resentment can go in three directions 

It can go towards others, why they come in my way, why that person do like that. Because of that person I cannot do this. And when it go outwards we become hateful, we become vengeful (revengeful), we may or may not hurt the person but that hateful or vengefulness hurts us definitely or that resentment can go inwards and we started blaming ourselves only, I am useless, I can never do anything well and people develop inferiority complex, people develop depression, people develop suicidal tendencies also, so the resentment can go outwards, it can go inwards or it can go upwards. 

Upwards means why God do things like this, that resentment becomes like a wall between us and God and when God helps us we can’t accept that help, because if we are resenting somebody how can we take help of that person, that resentment becomes a wall between us and God and we cannot take His help.

So when we want help, we all need help in this world as this world pose such obstacle and reversal in our path that we all need help, so that help comes through knowledge and faith, so we understand that Sri Krishna is always my well-wisher and whatever He is doing is ultimately for my good so I am not understanding immediately as the patient does not understand how a surgeon’s knife is doing good as immediately surgeon’s knife is causing pain only, same way we will not understand immediately but over a period of time we will understand so we have to have patience, we have to be faithful that is suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, so when we wanted to become bhoktāraṁ and we find that we cannot become bhokta, we make certain plan and think we will enjoy this world, we will not able to enjoy, for enjoying we need things, if we want to enjoy I need property, I need money, I need position, sometimes our positions are taken away or the position we want we will not get that then that resentment comes up, then actually suhṛdaṁ comes up we will understand that Sri Krishna is well-wisher of all living beings

When we understand that Sri Krishna is the well-wisher of all living beings then He is my well-wisher also and others well-wisher also then that resentment comes down that resentment starts breaking down, OK whatever Sri Krishna has planned for me, let me see how best I can continue acting on this world, when we have that attitude of acting in best possible way then we become purified by that and when we become purified more and more our way become clear and the peace becomes deeper and deeper.

So whichever way our resentment goes we should understand that resentment is never a positive emotion, so we should not be having resentment, what is happened is happened, what can’t be changed can’t be changed, what has gone wrong has gone wrong but the present is still there with me and I can change the present so let me do what I can in the best way possible now and for that Sri Krishna is there to guide me, Sri Krishna is there to help me, He is there to empower me. So this faith on suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ can free us from enormous resentment. accept the fact that Sri Krishna is my well-wisher even if I don’t understand how right now Sri Krishna is the well-wisher, accepting that fact once we know that…we will see in our live the things which we think was terribly wrong how they work for our good, suhṛdaṁ sarva-bhūtānāṁ, he is a well-wisher of all living beings, when we understand that He is well-wisher of all living being we will not become unduly possessive, I want this, I want that, people are excessively possessive that is why conflicts come up. Most of the war takes place over wealth, over property, over power and all of it involves possessiveness. Hitler wanted to rule over all world and we have this in a tiny way, we need to serve Sri Krishna and should not try to take His position and I don’t have to become bhokta, I have to become a servant then that will give me enjoyment in its own way, it will give far deeper satisfaction then what I will get by becoming bhokta. When we understand this we will become peaceful śāntim ṛcchati, so the Santi what Sri Krishna is talking here is not the Santi which comes from the absence of war in outer world, war in the outer world will continue but war in the inner world is largely fuels by resentment towards things and people and ultimately towards God, so that resentment can be sent to retirement by the knowledge that Sri Krishna is the well-wisher and I just need to serve Sri Krishna then śāntim ṛcchati.

So this verse is the conclusion of the other verses as it is talking about how Sri Krishna is the ultimately goal of various paths.

jñātvā māṁ

 

  1. 1. bhoktāraṁ yajña: Goal of KK & KY – When Sri Krishna is saying I am Bhokta of all Yajna, Yajna are performed by those who are practicing Karma Kanda and Karma Yoga, these Yajna was discussed elaborately in 3rd Chapter, so they do Yajna so Sri Krishna is revealing that I am the goal of those who practice Karma Kanda and Karma Yoga Yajna
  2. tapasāṁ: goal of JY – Tapasa are performed by Gyanis, austerities to detach from this world. So Sri Krishna is saying I am the goal of Gyan Yogis also.
  3. 3. sarva-loka-maheśvaram: Goal of demigod worshiper – Some of the demigod worshipers aspire to go to the planets of the demigods because they think that those are their worshipable deities and they want to be with them and they think that will make them happy, Sri Krishna has talked about Yanti Dev-vrata Devan in 9.25, here Sri Krishna is telling actually their lokas are also my lokas, they are secondary proprietor I am the primary and ultimate proprietor therefore the implication is come back to me. 
  4. suhṛdaṁ: Goal of AY (Astang Yoga) – Astang Yogis they wanted to turn inwards and meditate on absolute truth..Dhana vaste may ..pasyanti yo…they wanted to meditate on Dhyana and they wanted to turn inwards and fix the consciousness on the supreme Lord, they wanted to perceive inwards the Super Soul, so Sri Krishna is saying that they wanted to perceive the Lord I am that Lord, so suhṛdaṁ can mean well-wisher, it can also mean one who is situated in the heart, Sri Krishna is telling that factually he is situated in the heart as a Super Soul, so this refers that He is the goal of Astanga Yogis.
  5. sarva-bhūtānāṁ: Goal of all – Ultimately He is the goal of all living entities. In 4.11 Sri Krishna is saying all people are on my path, that point is reiterated. He is the goal of all living beings.

In this indicative way Sri Krishna is telling that He is the goal of all paths.

Srila Prabhupada: The Lord is the master of material nature, and the conditioned souls are under the stringent rules of material nature. Unless one understands these bare facts, it is not possible to achieve peace in the world either individually or collectively. This is the sense of Kṛṣṇa consciousness: Lord Kṛṣṇa is the supreme predominator, and all living entities, including the great demigods, are His subordinates.

Sense of Krishna Consciousness means overall Krishna Consciousness is not just activities, I chant Hare Krishna, I study the Bhagavat Gita, I associate with devotees, these are all important but the sense of Krishna Consciousness is Sri Krishna is the master and I am the servant, that is the sense we should have and sense will enable us to move forward in spiritual life 

Srila Prabhupada Purport:  Kṛṣṇa consciousness, however, brings one into spiritual life even while one is within the jurisdiction of matter, for it is an arousing of spiritual existence by practice in the material world.

Normally there are two paths, while practicing Gyana Yoga one is  disconnects from the world so that one become connected with the spiritual reality but in the path of Bhakti Yoga one may stay in the world but one invokes the spiritual reality by devotional intention so it is arousing spiritual existence even while we are in material world and that what makes it so exciting, we don’t have to give up material world entirely for attending spiritual world we can be in this world but we can act in a regulated way in a devotional way dovetailed way then Srila Prabhupada writes.

Srila Prabhupada Purport: There is a gradual process of elevation in the practice of yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi. But these only preface perfection by devotional service, which alone can award peace to the human being. It is the highest perfection of life.

Ultimately after astanga yoga process one comes to Samadhi and in Samadhi one becomes Krishna Conscious because at that time one become conscious of Sri Krishna, and that is what ultimate goal is. So if someone is practicing Krishna Consciousness in alternative way without going into other processes the whole process of astang yoga then that person can more easily achieve same perfection these are only preface they just come before and the real thing is Krishna Consciousness.

 

So in this way Sri Krishna has talked about three things in this chapter:

  • First section 01-06, He has said that, Karma-yoga and Gyana Yoga will lead to same result but Karma Yoga is easier.
  • Then in remaining chapter he has explained how Karma Yoga will lead to liberation.
  • So in 07-16 He stated that by knowing Atma and understanding oneself to be atma one can stay free from bondage,
  • From 17 to 29 by fixing the mind on Parmatma one can attain liberation, so in this way Sri Krishna has told that Arjuna you should practice Karma yoga. Have no doubts that by acting on the world you can attain liberation.

 

Now in next chapter Sri Krishna will describe how when eventually one has to renounce what one do at that time.