Lord Krishna, in essence, says: “By your thoughts, renounce all your activities in Me.” All activities in the world are only expressions of the Divine Conscious-ness flashing Its brilliance through the body. In all activities be conscious of the Lord, without Whom no action is ever possible. Keep Him as your Goal. Make your intellect constantly aware of this “Lord of all actions.” Gradually, the mind and the body will begin to work under the command of such an inspired intellect.
How will this constant remembrance of the Lord help? This is now being answered. Krishna says: “HE, WHO HAS COMPLETELY FIXED ALL HIS THOUGHTS UPON ME, WILL CROSS OVER ALL DIFFICULTIES BY MY GRACE.” Most of our obstacles in life are imaginary — created by false fears and deceitful anxieties of our own confused mind. The “grace” referred to here is “the result accrued in our mind when it is properly tuned up to and peacefully settled in contemplation upon the Infinite.” It does not mean any special consideration shown by the all-loving Lord to some rare persons of His own choice. The Grace of the all-pervading is present everywhere because Grace is His form. Just as the ever-present sunlight on a bright day cannot illumine my room as long as the windows are closed, so too, the harmony and joy of life of the Infinite cannot penetrate into our life, as long as the windows of discrimination in us are tightly shut. To the extent the windows of my room are opened, to that extent the room is flooded by the sunlight; to the extent a seeker pursues his saadhanaa and brings about the above-mentioned adjustments, to that extent the Grace of the Self shall flood his within.
In the second line of the verse, the Lord warns against all those who, in their utter ignorance, disobey this Law of Life. Natural laws are irrevocable; they have neither eyes, nor ears. They just continue in their own rhythm and that man is happy who discovers the law and obeys it implicitly.
BUT IF, FROM EGOISM, YOU WILL NOT HEAR ME, YOU SHALL PERISH — This is not a threat hurled down upon mankind by a tyrannical power, to frighten the human beings into obedience. This is not comparable with the threat of hell held out by other religions. This is a mere statement of fact; even if Newton himself were to jump from the third floor balcony of his house, the gravitational force would indeed, act upon him also! There is an inevitability in nature’s laws. Man is free to choose freedom or bondage. The path of freedom is described above, and in this open and sincere statement, the Lord is only showing great anxiety, not to mince matters, but to be callously frank in His expressions.
Guidance to this true “way-of-life” always comes to us from the depth of our nature, expressed in the language of “the soft, small voice of the within.” But man’s ego and ego-centric desires force him to disobey the ringing voice of the Lord and such a one pursues a life of base vulgarity, seeking sense-gratification and ultimately bringing himself down to be punished by his own uncontrolled emotions and unchastened ideas. Hence the warning: “YOU SHALL PERISH.”TO WEAVE THE IDEA INTO THE VERY WARP AND WOOF OF ARJUNA’S LIFE, THE LORD SAYS:
