Description of Ishvara

Bhagavad Gita with Commentaries / Description of Ishvara

Description of Ishvara

10:8. I am the Source of everything; everything originates from Me. Having understood this, the wise worship Me with great delight.

10:42. … Having enlivened the whole universe with a minute part of Myself, I remain.

10:40. There is no limit to My Divine Power…

11:47. … My supreme and eternal Form… is revealed only in Yoga, in Mergence with the Atman…

7:7. There is nothing superior to Me…

15:18. … I am transcendent to the perishable and even to the imperishable.

9:4. By Me — in My unmanifest form — this entire world is pervaded. All beings have roots in Me…

8:9. He who knows everything about the Eternal Omnipresent Ruler of the world, the One subtler than the subtlest, the Foundation of everything, formless, shining like the Sun behind the darkness,

8:14. … who thinks of Me constantly, having no thoughts about anything else — such a steady yogi… easily attains Me.

11:54. … Only love can contemplate Me in My innermost Essence and merge with Me.

11:55. He who does everything (only) for Me, for whom I am the Supreme Goal, who loves Me, who is detached, devoid of enmity — such one comes to Me…

12:8. Direct your thoughts to Me, submerge yourself as a consciousness into Me — verily, then you will live in Me.

14:27. And Brahman — imperishable and immortal — is based on Me. I am the Basis of the eternal dharma and the Abode of the ultimate happiness.

18:46. By performing his duty and worshipping through this the One by Whose Will all beings come into existence and Who pervades everything, man attains Perfection.

18:55. By Love he cognizes Me in My Essence: who am I and what am I in reality. Having cognized Me thus in My innermost Essence, he submerges into My Beingness.

18:65. Think always about Me, love Me, sacrifice yourself for My sake, seek refuge only in Me — and you will come to Me…

6:15. The yogi who has merged with the Atman and controls his mind enters the Highest Nirvana and abides there in Me.

9:34. Fix your mind at Me, love Me, sacrifice to Me, worship Me! To Me will you finally come being consumed by the Atman if you have Me as your Highest Goal.

One of the aspects of God, as we discussed above, is the Absolute — the Creator coessential with His Creation. As to the practical aspect, meditative cognition of God-the-Creator and God-the-Absolute and merging with Them happen almost in parallel. About cognition of the Absolute Krishna said the following:

7:19. At the end of many births, the wise comes to Me. “Vasudeva is Everything,” says the one of rare Mahatma’s qualities.

18:20. The knowledge that sees One Indestructible Being in all beings, undivided in the separate, — know that such knowledge is sattvic.

11:13. … Arjuna saw the whole universe subdivided into many worlds, but united into one in the Body of the Highest Deity.

6:30. He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me — such one I will never forsake and he will never forsake Me.

6:31. He, established in such oneness, who worships Me present in everything — such a yogi lives in Me whatever his activity is.

6:32. The one who sees manifestations of the Atman in everything and who has cognized through this sameness of everything — both the pleasant and the unpleasant — such one is regarded as a perfect yogi…

Mergence with Brahman, the Creator, and the Absolute is achieved through the meditative methods that allows one to enter the state of “non-I” (total reciprocity) and through other methods of buddhi yoga. At that, not only mental but also meditative replacement of egocentrism with Godcentrism takes place.

7:4. Earth, water, fire, air, akasha, mind, consciousness, and also personality — all this is that which exists in the world of My prakriti, eight in total.

7:5. This is My lower nature. But know… My higher nature, which is that element of Life thanks to which the whole world is sustained.

7:6. It is the womb of everything existing. I am the source of the (manifested) universe, and it disappears in Me.

The ultimate goal of every one of us is Mergence with Him. Let us dedicate our lives to this!