Bhagavad Gita 4.24

brahmārpaṇaṁ brahma havir

brahmāgnau brahmaṇā hutam

brahmaiva tena gantavyaṁ

brahma-karma-samādhinā

 

“The offering is Brahman, the oblation too,

Into Brahman’s fire, it passes through.

One who sees all as Brahman’s way,

Reaches Brahman, untouched by decay.”

 

My dear Lord, you are never far away from me. In fact, you are present everywhere—outside me and inside me. While I frequently speak this truth in my talks and read it even more frequently in the sacred texts, my Lord, I am still not so close to the realization that you are so close to me. Thankfully, the saints and seers who have experienced your closeness have recommended various spiritual  practices for me to experience a similar closeness. Please, O Lord, let me never downplay the importance of connecting with you through the practices that attune my consciousness to your presence. 

Simultaneously, let me not go to the other extreme of overvaluing these practices and thinking that my diligence and expertise in them is evidence that I am close to you. You are as accessible as you are elusive, O Lord. If my consciousness desires you firmly, you mercifully reveal your presence. And if I start desiring things other than you, you reciprocate by making your presence unmanifest. Then, even if I am beholding you as your deity, I will not see you at all. Please, my Lord, strengthen my desire for you and strengthen my vision of spiritual practices as means of tangibly expressing my desire for you.

***

04.24 A person who is fully absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is sure to attain the spiritual kingdom because of his full contribution to spiritual activities, in which the consummation is absolute and that which is offered is of the same spiritual nature.