Four conditions are laid down for a successful seeker; and to those who have accomplished them all in themselves, an assurance of realisation, “YOU SHALL REACH ME,” is given here. When a philosophy is summarised and enumerated in a few points, it has a deceptive look of utter simplicity, and a student is apt to take it lightly, or ignore it IN TOTO. In order to avoid such a mistake, the teacher invariably endorses his statement that it is indeed all Truth: I PROMISE YOU TRULY.”
To add a punch to this personal endorsement, Krishna guarantees the motive behind His discourses: “YOU ARE DEAR TO ME.” Love is the correct motive force behind all spiritual teachings. Unless a teacher has infinite love for the taught there is no inspired joy in teaching; a professional teacher is, at best, only a wage earner. He can neither inspire the student nor, while teaching, come to experience within himself the joyous ecstasy of satisfaction and fulfilment, which are the true rewards of teaching.
A substantial part of the philosophy and the “path” declared herein have already been taught in an earlier chapter (IX-34). And the same thing is repeated here with the endorsement that what He is declaring is no pleasant compromise but the total unadulterated truth.
WITH THE MIND FIXED ON ME — Meaning “ever remembering Me, ever devotedly identifying with Me” through the process of dedicating all your activities unto Me, in an attitude of reverence unto the All-pervading Life, if you work in the service of the world, the promise is that you will reach the Supreme Goal.
In all other religions the Goal is other than the Prophet; only in the Geeta the Supreme Himself is advising the seeker, and therefore He has to declare: “YOU WILL REACH ME.”
Looking up to Vaasudeva alone as your aim, means and end, “you shall reach Me.” Knowing that the Lord’s declarations are true, and being convinced that liberation is a necessary result of devotion to the Lord, one should look up to the Lord as the highest and the sole refuge.
The maladjusted “ego” in us has, by its own false concepts and imaginations, spooled us all up into cocoons of confusion and has tied us down with our own self-created shackles. Now, it is up to us to snap these cords that bind us and gain freedom from them all. The All-perfect Supreme has been as though shackled by our mind and intellect, and now the same mind and intellect must be utilised to unwind the binding cords. If we lock ourselves up in a room, it is left to us only to unlock its doors and walk out into freedom. Vaasanaas are created by our ego-centric activities (Sa-kaama-Karma) and by self-less work (Nish-kaama-Karma) alone can these vaasanaas be ended. Therefore, Krishna advises us: “Act on with mind fixed on Me. Devotedly work for Me. Dedicate all your activities as a sacrifice, as an offering unto Me.”
An attitude of reverence to the Supreme is necessary in order to re-incorporate into the texture of our own life, the qualities of the Supreme. Like water, knowledge also flows only from a higher to a lower level. Therefore, our minds must be in an attitude of surrender to Him in utter reverence and devotion.
When you work in the world with such an attitude, Krishna says, “YOU SHALL REACH THE SUPREME.”
ACCORDING TO SHANKARA, “HAVING TAUGHT, IN CONCLUSION, THAT THE SUPREME SECRET OF KARMA YOGA IS IN REGARDING THE LORD AS THE SOLE REFUGE, KRISHNA NOW PROCEEDS TO SPEAK OF THE INFINITE KNOWLEDGE, THE FRUIT OF KARMA YOGA, AS TAUGHT IN THE ESSENTIAL PORTIONS OF ALL THE UPANISHADS”:
