The Vedic view of God

(Based on Swami Paramarthananda’s Gurupurnima talk, 2017)

Lord Krishna classifies Bhakthas into four groups, aartha, artharthi, jijnasu and jnani in Gita (7-16). Of these aartha bhaktha is one who turns to the Lord only when he is in stress and distress.  He is not interested in knowing about the nature of God; any God, any mode of worship will do and if this doesn’t yield results, there is always another God or a different mode of worship or both to turn to.  Artharthi bhaktha is a steady bhaktha whose prayers and worship are mostly for success in material and worldly pursuits. Some of the arthathi bhakthas become disenchanted with wealth and worldly success and turn to spirituality and start enquiring about the nature of God.  They have the basic idea of God as one residing up in the heaven, far away from the universe, is omnipotent, omniscient, compassionate and is the srishti, sthithi laya karanam for the universe.  He now turns a jijnasu bhaktha, who is not praying for worldly wealth but for spiritual knowledge. When his quest for knowledge takes him to a Guru who comes in Vedic tradition, Vaidhika parampara, he learns that knowledge of God can be gained only by the study of scriptures like Gita, Upanishads and Brahma sutras under the guidance of a Guru.  As a teevra Jijnasu bhaktha, he starts the study of Gita and upanishads sincerely under the Guru. When exposed to the scriptural teaching the jijnasu bhaktha learns about the Vedic view of God. With the new knowledge gained his view of the world changes initially and later the view of self as well undergoes a change as he blossoms into a Jnani bhaktha.

Isavasya Upanishad in its opening mantra states “Isavasyam idagam sarvam yatkincha jagatyam jagat “ meaning “All this whatsoever moves on the earth (and those that moves not)  should be covered by Iswara.”  Iswara is Supreme Brahman that is God, is the Creator of this Jagat, the constantly changing universe. So He has karanam status in respect of this Jagat and the universe is the karyam.  Karanam pervades the karyam and karyam is only karanam plus nama, rupa, i.e. name and form and nama, rupa have no substance.  So the real nature of the universe is only Iswara.  Purusha Suktham states “Purusa evedagam sarvam yadbhutam yacca bhavyam” meaning “All that is past, present and future is His manifestation”.  Further the sthuthi Vishnu sahasranamam starts the thousand names with ‘Viswam’ and ‘Viswam’ means ‘the universe’.  So whatever one sees as objects of the universe are all manifestations of Iswara only, in the vision of the Veda. So one need not go in for any mystic experience to have Iswara Darsanam but only have the attitudinal change training oneself to look at all things one encounters with Iswara bhavana discarding the prapancha bhavana. This Iswara dhrishti, vision of Iswara, is what is indicated in the Isavasya Upanishad mantra quoted earlier by the term ’covered with Iswara’.  Lord Krishna as Iswara also declares in Gita (6-30); “He who sees Me everywhere (and in everything) and sees everything (everywhere) in Me, he never becomes separated from Me, nor do I become separated from him".

The artharthi bhakthas’ idea of triangular format; Self, world and Iswara undergoes now a change to binary format; Self and Iswara only, world merging in Iswara. This change in view involves other changes as well as indicated in the latter part of the Isavasya mantra quoted which runs as “Tena tyaktena bhunjitha ma grdhah kasyasviddhanam” meaning “Enjoy that through renunciation.  Do not covet (anybody’s wealth), for whose is wealth?)”.  Tena tyakthena means with a sense of detachment.  When one enjoys the world with Iswara Dhrishti only, one enjoys the world treating whatever one partakes of the world as a blessing of Iswara and with a sense of gratitude to Iswara. As everything is of Iswara only, one doesn’t entertain any sense of possession with regard to persons and things.  In short one functions in this world without getting attached to objects or persons.  As a corollary one does not have a desire for other’s possessions as well, whatever that may be. Dhanam stands for all possessions.  The person may be involved in worldly karmas but then his attitude will be one of detachment and inner renunciation.

Seeing the world as manifestation of Iswara, leads one to Viswarupa Iswara bhakthi as seen in Dhyanaslokam of  Vishnusahasranamam which runs as:

bhuh padau yasya nabhir-viyada-suranila-candra suryau cha netre

karna-vasah siro-dyauh mukhamapi dahano yasya vasteyam abdhihi

antas-stham yasya visvam sura-nara-khaga-go-bhogi-gandharva-daityaih

chitram ramramyate tam tribhuvana-vapusham vishnum isam namami.

[I bow to Lord Vishnu who has the three worlds as His body. The earth is His feet, and the sky His navel.  Wind is His breath, and the sun and the moon are His eyes. Directions are His ears, and the Heaven is His head. Fire is His face and ocean His abdomen. In Him is situated the universe with diverse kinds of Gods, men, birds, cattle, serpents, gandharvas and daityas (demons), all sporting in a charming way.]

Appreciation of Iswara as totality and everything else as belonging to Iswara leads to renunciation of mamakara, the idea that I am the owner of certain things with the new-born understanding that everything belongs to Iswara and I am only the current user of what I regard as my possessions. I am only the present lease-holder using the possessions for a temporary period.   One’s view of ownership is replaced by usership and idea of controllership changes to contributorship.

Next change comes when one absorbs Lord Krishna’s words in Gita (7-5&6):

bhumirapo analo vayuḥ kam mano buddhir eva cha
ahankara itiyaṁ me bhinna prakṛitir aṣhṭadha (7.4)

(Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egoism thus is My nature divided eightfold.)

apareyam itas tvanyam prakṛitim viddhi me param)
jiva-bhutam mahabaho yayedam dharyate jagat (7.5)

(This is the inferior prakriti(nature), O Arjuna; know thou as different from it My higher prakriti, the very life-element, by which this world is upheld.)

Iswara has two fold nature, Para prakrithi, the higher nature, and apara prakrithi, the lower nature. The pancha bhuthas; earth, water, fire, air, ether, and mind, intellect, ego in short the world that is matter including one’s sthula, sukshma sareera, constitutes apara prakriithi.  Para Prakrithi is the Chaitanyam or pure Consciousness that makes the matter sentient by its blessing.  Iswara is Para prakrithi plus apara prakrithi i.e. Brahman plus maya.  Vedas through Mahavakhya teach one that the Para prakṛthi, the higher nature of Iswara, called Brahman, the Consciousness, is present in all beings in the form of  'I', the very Self, the witness-experiencer of everything.

Thus, the vedic view is: The whole material universe, including the body and mind, is apara prakṛti, the maya part of Iswara; and 'I', the Consciousness principle, which is not an object of experience, that 'I', the sakṣi chaitanyam is, Para prakṛti.  Para prakrithi plus apara prakrithi is Iswara, the God.  And whatever one experiences, is the lower nature of Iswara; material, changing and mortal.  Whereas, 'I', the experiencer, is the higher nature of Iswara, sentient, unchanging and eternal.  In other words  ‘I' am Brahman, the Para prakṛti;  what I experience is maya, the apara prakṛti.  Both the 'experiencer' and 'experienced'  put together is the 'total' Iswara, God.  In brief, the experiencer 'I' is sentient Consciousness Iswara, the experienced world is insentient matter Iswara and as everything is Iswara you can put it any way; Sarvam Vishnumayam Jagat or Sarvam Sivamayam Jagat, Sarvam Devimayam Jagat etc.  Swami Dayananda saraswathy puts it as:  ‘இருப்பதெல்லாம் இறைவனே (Iruppadellam Iraivane)’  meaning ‘whatever is, is only Iswara’  

-------------------------------

Lord's final advice

Gita essays 36

After a brief reference to Karma-yoga with emphasis on swadharma and swabhava, Lord Krishna made a short reference to Jnana yoga highlighting the role of nitidyasanam. When one gets established in Athma Jnanam, one remembers his identity with Brahman spontaneously which Lord described as entering Brahman. Then Lord takes up a brief revision of Bhakthi yoga with emphasis on surrender for receiving Lord’s Grace.  For not all are comfortable in pursuing Jnana yoga with its disciplines of mananam and nitidyasanam, even though they may start enthusiastically with sravanam.  Surrender to Lord is not out of fear or weakness but out of love for the Lord, the highest form of selfless pure love which Lord reciprocates as His Grace to His devotees. Surrender is not a passive act of physical prostration but a constant continuous remembrance of God  in all contacts and transactions to the accompaniment of mental renunciation of ‘I’ness and ‘My’ness in all activities. Lord prescribes different modes of saranagathi for different types of devotees of which first one is propounded in verse 56 as:

Doing all actions ever taking refuge in Me, one obtains the eternal, indestructible state or abode by My Grace(18-56).

The above prescription of surrender is made keeping in view aartha bhakthas and artharthi bhakthas.  They are not interested in Jnanam but have devotion to God and are also devoted to their material pursuits which take priority over devotion to God.  Lord does not want them to change their physical ways, only he wants the change in their mind setup. They should accord devotion to God priority always substituting ‘I’ consciousness with God consciousness at all times.  Giving up their ahamkara and selfish motives, they must work selflessly seeking His Grace.  In short, what they do, they should do as a service to God and what they get they should accept as the blessing of God.

He then assures Arjuna that one can overcome all obstacles and achieve peace and success while doing his swadharma without ego and without sense of doership, surrendering himself to Lord.  But at the same time He also strikes a note of warning that if because of ego one abandons the path shown by the Lord, and strikes a different path driven by his egocentric desires then he will perish without achieving anything worthwhile. He applies this to Arjuna’s life itself and warns him that if out of ahamkara, he decides not to fight and leave the battlefield to take up a life of renunciation, this may not be possible.  It will turn out to be a temporary mental aberration only as his Kshatriya swabhava will not let him stay away from the battlefield deserting his fighting brothers and may force him to join the battle rather helplessly, when it may be too late either for his or their good.

After cautioning Arjuna, Lord reminds him of Iswara tatvam.  Iswara as the Supreme power lives in everyone’s heart and guides everyone’s development.  The relations of one’s inborn nature and fateful compulsion are in His hands.  As puppets are moved by a string-puller seated behind the scene, so also the created beings move and act on the stage of the world under the control of the Lord seated in the hearts of all.  So we must be conscious of the Divine on all the planes of our existence.  Arjuna is called upon to understand the will of God and do his duty. He must surrender unto Him and put himself totally at the service of the Lord without any reservations. Then by His grace Arjuna’s delusion will be dispelled and he will attain inner harmony and peace.

With these words Lord wants to end His advice to Arjuna and give him a free rein to decide on the best course of action in the light of this advice and act freely as per his decision.  But then His love for Arjuna is so strong that he feels like adding a few more touches before calling it a day.  And He again emphasises saranagathi in two more verses before proceeding to sum up the benefits that these words of advice can confer on one and all. The first of the two verses runs as:

Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, offer worship to Me, bow down to Me. you shall come to Me alone; I truly promise to you (for) you are dear to Me.(18-65)

This can be seen as an advice of surrender to Jijnasu bhakthas for whom God is a priority goal. They do not have the Ikya Jnanam but are committed to acquire Iswara Jnanam. Lord advises them to make Him as the only goal, surrender to Him their ego and body consciousness and act without the sense of doership in all their activities. This can also be seen as a final summary of Karma/Bhakthi yoga.

The second of these verses is the final advice coming from Lord.  This can also be seen both as a prescription to surrender for Jnani bhakthas and also as the gist of Jnana yoga. The verse runs as:

Renouncing all actions, take refuge in Me, the non-dual; I will liberate you from all sins; Do not grieve.(18-66)

This is the final teaching verse of Gita as the later verses are only winding up verses; and therefore Sri Ramanujacharya calls this the ‘Charama-Sloka’ meaning the final verse.  The teaching that started from the verse 11 of the 2nd chapter concludes with this verse and this verse is considered to be a very important one and also a confusing one as this is open to several different interpretations. All actions relate to body-mind complex and so renouncing all actions is possible only when one gives up mentally one’s identification with the body-mind complex. One non-dual Lord is the Advaitic Nirguna Brahman and surrendering to Him is through Athma Jnanam realizing one’s oneness with the Nirguna Brahman as Athma.  This in turn leads to the realization that as Athma  one stands liberated always, as Athma is ever untouched by Punyam as well as Papam and it is only through adhyasa mistakenly saddled with Punyam, Papam and bondage.  So Lord’s advice can be interpreted as “ Realize through Jnanam your true identity as Athma, that is the non-dual Nirguna Brahman and shed your false identification with the body-mind complex; thereby freeing yourself mentally from all the notions of punyam-papam and Dharmam-Adharmam, be a liberated Self here and now.”

After concluding the advice Lord makes a few general remarks concerning the study and teaching of Gita and also the phalam.  He first advises that one who has no faith, discipline, devotion and desire to know should not be given this knowledge. Then He declares that one who imparts and the one who receives this wisdom will attain the Lord Himself   And even the one who merely hears this with faith will also attain higher worlds. Then Lord Krishna asks Arjuna whether his delusion is gone to which Arjuna replies positively with grateful acknowledgement and promises to abide by the Lord’s teaching.

Sanjaya who had been so far broadcasting the happenings in the battlefield to Dhridharashtra now tells the blind king how fortunate he was to hear this advice direct from the Lord and how thrilled he feels to have had Cosmic vision of the Lord, Viswarupa darsan.  Sanjaya concludes his remarks with the declaration:

Where there is Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, and where there is Arjuna, the wielder of the bow, there will be permanent wealth, victory, prosperity and justice. (18-78).

---------------------

Vision of God

(based on Swami Paramarthananda’s Guru Purnima lecture 2017)

Lord Krishna classifies bhakthas into four categories In Gita (Ch.7 verse 15). They are Aartha, Artharthi, Jijnasu and Jnani bhakthas.  Aartha bhakthas are the devotees in distress who worship God seeking freedom from their problems.  Artharthi bhakthas are the devotees who worship God seeking success in their various material pursuits. Both see God as a means for achieving their material goals and their prayer is aimed at getting things they want or getting rid of things they don’t want.  To this end they choose any means of worship to any form of God and they don’t mind shrine shopping and temple hopping with no interest in enquiring about the nature of God and the underlying philosophy about His/Her form.  For these bhakthas God is different from them and also distant from them having His/Her abode in heavens.

Jijnasu bhakthas are those who want to understand the nature of God they worship and also seek the vision of God.  To this end they seek guidance from spiritual books and spiritual Gurus.  Most of them speak of the path of meditation and mystic experiences.  Those who follow it expect the vision of God to bless them in meditation or in dreams or God to appear in guise as is depicted in various stories.  But there are a few who seek guidance from a traditional Guru who has himself undergone training and studied the scriptures under a Guru of Vaidhika parampara  and also lives according to it.  This blog only deals with such Jijnasu bhakthas.

Scriptures teach that God is not only intelligent cause but also the material cause for this Universe.  That means that God not only created the Universe but also pervades the Universe as gold pervades all golden ornaments. The ornaments are only gold with different names and forms.  Same way everything in the Universe is only God with various forms and names. When once this idea is imbibed, jijnasu bhaktha’s attitude to the world undergoes a change.  Now he understands that vision of God as per the scriptures involves only a change of attitude towards the objects of the world and not a vision of God in any particular form.   In short, he understands that the vision of God only involves Iswara bhavana  replacing  prapancha bhavana i.e.God perception displacing world perception.  
Isavasya Upanishad opens with the line which echoes this idea.

ईशा वास्यमिदँ सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।(Ishaavaasyam idam sarvam,Yad kincha jagatyaam jagat.)

Whatever moves here in this world, everything is pervaded or covered by God.

Everything in this world is pervaded by God. Whatever we see is manifestation of God alone. God here means the Supreme Brahman who is of the nature of pure Consciousness.  So whatever a person sees is only pure Consciousness with a name and form. 
A verse in Thirumandhiram, tamil work of saint Tirumoolar illustrates it beautifully.

மரத்தை மறைத்தது மாமதயானை (Maraththai maraithathu maamadha yaanai)

மரத்தில் மறைந்தது மாமதயானை  (maraththil marainthathu maamadha yaanai)

பரத்தை மறைத்தது பார்முதல் பூதம் (paraththai maraithathu paarmudhal bhootham)

பரத்தில் மறைந்தது பார்முதல் பூதம் (paraththil marainthathu paarmudhal bhootham)

The elephant (toy) hides the wood (with toy vision).  The elephant (toy) disappears in wood (with wood vision).  Pancha bhuthas hide the supreme (with world perception).  Pancha bhuthas disappear in the Supreme (with God perception)

Thirumular gives the example of toy elephant made of wood here.  A child is given a toy elephant made of wood.  The child only sees the elephant and not the wood and enjoys playing with it as elephant. But a carpenter who comes there sees only the wood and comments on the quality of wood and he has no eye for the elephant.  In the same way when you have the world vision you see only play of Pancha bhuthas and not the Supreme pervading it, while with God vision you see only the Supreme pervading the world and not the pancha bhuthas that make up the world. So if one replaces prapancha bhavana with Iswara bhavana, world vision is replaced by God vision.  Then that Jijnasu bhaktha sees God in every object of creation itself.

As the Jijnasu bhaktha blossoms into Jnani bhaktha with the study, doubt-free understanding and absorption of import of Mahavakhyas, he realises that for his vision of God he does not look elsewhere apart from himself  as his true Self is God, and  it is His prescence as Athma that makes him sentient as revealed in Kenopanishad (mantra 1-2)

श्रोत्रस्य श्रोत्रं मनसो मनो यद्वाचो ह वाच्ँस उ प्राणस्य प्राणः । चक्षुषश्चक्षुः----  (strotrasya strotram manaso mano yad vacho ha vacham sa u pranasya pranaha I Chakhusas chakshuhuh--)

He (God) is the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind, the Speech of speech, the Prana of prana, and the Eye of the eye.

As Athma, God i.e Brahman animates all senses. For the indriyas, prana and mind which are made up of pancha bhuthas are material only as the pancha bhuthas themselves are material only. Kenopanishad goes on to point out in 2-4, प्रतिबोधविधितं मतं (pratibodhaviditaṃ matam)  meaning It (Brahman) is realised in every state of mind.  That means knowledge of Brahman is the knowledge of the factor which is common to all experiences which again means knowledge of the pure Consciousness that is present in all three states of Jagrat, Swapna and Sushupthi.  So a Jnani knows that wherever he is and whatever he is doing he is always experiencing God.  In other words all his actions, physical and mental constitute Brahmanubhava only.  So with this understanding and realisation “இருப்பதெல்லாம் இறைவனே.” (iruppathellam Iraivanae) i.e. whatever is there is God only, he now realises that God as Nirguna Brahman cannot be seen, as one cannot see one’s own eyes except as a reflection, while God as Saguna Brahman can be seen in every object of creation.

                                                            -------------------------

 

Bhagavad Gita

Prasthana Thraya – 3

 

One of the Dhyana slokas for Bhagavad Gita written by Madhusudhana Saraswathi praises Bhagavad Gita thus:

sarvopaniṣado gavo dogdha gopala-nandanaḥ|

partho vatsaḥ sudhirbhokta dugdhaṃ gitamṛtaṃ mahatII

All the Upaniṣhads are the cows. Krishna is the milker. Arjuna is the calf. The pure-minded are the enjoyers (of the milk).  The supreme nectar of Gita is the milk.

Bhagavad Gita which is thus praised as containing the essence of Upanishads constitutes one of the trio of Prasthana Thraya along with Upanishads and Brahma Sutras. Consisting of 700 slokas spread over 18 chapters, Gita ,as we shall refer to it hereafter, comes in Bhisma Parva of Mahabharatha and is set in the framework of a dialogue between, Arjuna, the armed warrior and disciple, and Sri Krishna, his unarmed charioteer and Guru, in the battle field of Kurukshetra.  Arjuna who arrogantly asked Sri Krishna to take the chariot to the front, turned sad and depressed seeing his Guru, elders and relatives assembled on the other side and surrendered to Sri Krishna seeking his advice and guidance on his eleventh hour dilemma “fight or pullback.”  Sri Krishna’s elaborate advice encompassing all the four yogas of Karma, Bhakthi, Raja and Jnana that dissolves Arjuna’s delusion and drives him to action is the subject matter of Gita. So Gita presents a synthesis of the four paths of Karma Yoga, Bhakthi Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana yoga. 

Each chapter in Gita is titled one Yoga or the other.  Yoga means a topic and also as  that which unites the seeker with the destination. As per Swami Paramartananda the destination here is “Security, Peace and Happiness” and seekers are ourselves. We seek these outside ourselves from external objects and relations, not knowing that we ourselves are the source for our ‘Peace, Security and Happiness’; as our minds are  covered with Malam(impurities); Vikshepa(extrovertedness) and Ajjanam(ignorance).  Malam is the six fold impurities; the six fold obstacles to discover our inner joy.  And those impurities are kamaḥ, (desire), krodhaḥ, (anger); lobhaḥ (greed); mohaḥ (delusion); madaḥ (arrogance or vanity); matsaryaḥ (jealousy or competitiveness).  Vikṣēpaḥ, mental extrovertedness, is the mental restlessness and wandering. Ajjanam is ignorance of the fact that I am the one and only source for the “Happiness, Peace and Security” that I am seeking from external objects and relations. Karma Yoga rids the mind of impurities and makes it pure, giving Chitta Suddhi.  Bhakthi and Raja Yogas discipline the wandering mind making it focussed and one-pointed, giving one Chitta Ekagratha.  Jnana Yoga imparts to such a pure focussed mind the true knowledge of the Self as Brahman of total peace and happiness and security.  Swami Sivananda considers the eighteen chapters of Gita as having a progressive order, by which Krishna leads "Arjuna up the ladder of Yoga from one rung to another".  It is not only Arjuna but all of us as well through Arjuna.

Swami Vivekananda remarks “This Kurukshetra War is only an allegory. When we sum up its esoteric significance, it means the war which is constantly going on within man between the tendencies of good and evil.”  Man can overcome the tendency for evil only through the disciplines of Karma Yoga and Bhakthi/Upasana Yoga. As Gita speaks of them equally as Jnana Yoga, Swami Chinmayananda writes, “Here in the Bhagavad Gita, we find a practical handbook of instruction on how best we can re-organise our inner ways of thinking, feeling, and acting in our everyday life and draw from ourselves a larger gush of productivity to enrich the life around us, and to emblazon the subjective life within us”.  He viewed the Gita as a universal scripture to turn a person from a state of agitation and confusion to a state of complete vision, inner contentment, and dynamic action. Mahatma Gandhi also emphasises Gita being a practical guide with his own example with these words “When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavadgītā. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies – and my life has been full of external tragedies – and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavadgita”.  Not only Mahathma Gandhi but other leaders of freedom struggle like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinobha Bhave etc., have found Gita a source of inspiration in their personal and public lives. 

Let us see one instance of the all-embracing practical approach i.e. in the case of obtaining Mukthi, given to us all through Arjuna.  In ch. 7 Sri Krishna classifies bhakthas in four groups Artha, Artharthi, Jijnasu and Jnani through verse 16, and we will be mostly falling in one or the other of the first three groups:

chaturvidha bhajante maṃ janaḥ sukṛtinorjuna

artho jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarṣabha

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna! They are the Artha (distressed), Artharthi (the seeker of security and pleasure), Jijnasu ( the seeker of knowledge of Me), and the Jnani (one who knows Me) 

Artha bhaktha thinks of the Lord only periodically; as and when he is faced with a crisis or a problem and then he prays to Him with all fervour but slowly forgets Him after the crisis fades or blows over under the pretext he does not want to disturb Him.  He is a sakama bhaktha as his sporadic devotion is for selfish needs and desires.  For such a sakama bhaktha also Sri Krishna offers a way for Mukthi in the closing verses of the last chapter ie. Ch 18 in verse no. 56:

Sarvakarmaanyapi sadaa kurvaano madvyapaashrayah;

Matprasaadaadavaapnoti shaashwatam padamavyayam.

Doing all actions, always taking refuge in Me, by My Grace he obtains the eternal, indestructible state or abode.

The prescription is to do all nitya, naimithika karmas as well along with other laukika karmas but without forgetting the Lord all the time and also His words that fruits of all actions, good, bad or mixed, come through His Grace only. In short perform all your actions, material and spiritual, karma yoga way completely surrendering to Lord and He will guide you to Mukthi

Artharthi bhaktha remembers Him always no doubt but he has also one material demand or other always. He is also a sakama bhaktha but unlike Artha bhaktha he regularly thinks of the Lord. To him Sri Krishna offers a way for Mukthi in verse no. 65 of ch.18:

Manmanaa bhava madbhakto madyaajee maam namaskuru;

Maamevaishyasi satyam te pratijaane priyo’si me.

Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. You will come to Me; truly do I promise unto you, (for) you are dear to Me.

The prescription here is to surrender to one’s Ishta Devata, Bhakthi Yoga way totally, converting his sakama bhakthi into nishkama bhakthi. ‘Me’ stands for Ishta Devatha only and not for Vasudeva putra.Krishna.  

A Jijnasu bhaktha is a nishkama bhaktha. His devotion is not out of material desires or wants but out of deep thirst for knowing Him. So his devotion to Lord is for Lord’s sake. Only he also has not got the Jnanam and  to Him Sri Krishna’s advice is contained in sloka 66. This is also called Charama sloka as this is the last sloka of Upadesa.

Sarvadharmaan parityajya maamekam sharanam vraja;

Aham twaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shuchah.

Giving up all dharmas (dharmas and adharmas ie. all actions), take refuge in Me alone; I will liberate you from all sins; grieve not.

Giving up actions implies not giving up actions as such but giving up the Kartrutva buddhi ie, doership and also Bhokthrutva buddhi ie. enjoyership. With Karthruthva bukthi and Bhokthrutva buddhi goes Ahamkaram, Mamakaram i,e. ‘me, my’ thought and with that Dehabhimana also. So shedding ego and Dehabhimana, surrender to the Ishta Devata meditating on It and being always aware of It as the One without a second is the prescription.  ‘Mamekam’ stands for looking upon Ishta Devata as the one Saguna Brahman whose manifestations only are all other Devatas.  As there is no sense of doership, no fruits of action will attach to him. Though he may not be equipped with Nirguna Brahma Jnanam he surrenders the Jnana Yoga way to his Ishta Devata for Mukthi.

For the Jnani Bhaktha Sri Krishna does not offer any advice as with attainment of Jnanam, he has already attained Jivanmukthi and for all purposes he is one with Him though he may continue in the body to exhaust Prarabhdha karma.  This Sri Krishna  has hinted earlier in ch, 7 sloka 18:

Udaaraah sarva evaite jnani twaatmaiva me matam;

Aasthitah sa hi yuktaatmaa maamevaanuttamaam gatim.

Noble indeed are all these (all the bhakthas); but I consider Jnani bhaktha as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind, he is established in Me alone as the supreme goal.

It is no wonder that with its practical approach, Gita has been highly praised not only by eminent Indians like Mahathma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Abdul Kalam, etc. but also by eminent foreigners like Aldous Huxley, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, and Herman Hesse.

-------------------