seeing through the eyes of scriptures

Bhagavad Gita 15.19

TEXT 19

yo mam evam asammudho janati purusottamam
sa sarva-vid bhajati mam sarva-bhavena bharata

SYNONYMS

yah--anyone; mam--unto Me; evam--certainly; asammudhah--without a doubt; janati--knows; purusa-uttamam--the Supreme Personality of Godhead; sah--he; sarva-vit--knower of everything; bhajati--renders devotional service; mam--unto Me; sarva-bhavena--in all respects; bharata--O son of Bharata.

TRANSLATION

Whoever knows Me as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, without doubting, is to be understood as the knower of everything, and He therefore engages himself in full devotional service, O son of Bharata.

PURPORT

There are many philosophical speculations about the constitutional position of the living entities and the Supreme Absolute Truth. Now in this verse the Supreme Personality of Godhead clearly explains that anyone who knows Lord Krsna as the Supreme Person is actually the knower of everything. The imperfect knower goes on simply speculating about the Absolute Truth, but the perfect knower, without wasting his valuable time, engages directly in Krsna consciousness, the devotional service of the Supreme Lord. Throughout the whole of Bhagavad-gita, this fact is being stressed at every step. And still there are so many stubborn commentators on Bhagavad-gita who consider the Supreme Absolute Truth and the living entities to be one and the same. Vedic knowledge is called sruti, learning by aural reception. One should actually receive the Vedic messages from authorities like Krsna and His representatives. Here Krsna distinguishes everything very nicely, and one should hear from this source. Simply to hear like the hogs is not sufficient; one must be able to understand from the authorities. It is not that one should simply speculate academically. One should submissively hear from Bhagavad-gita that these living entities are always subordinate to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Anyone who is able to understand this, according to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna, knows the purpose of the Vedas; no one else knows the purpose of the Vedas. The word bhajati is very significant. In many places the word bhajati is expressed in relationship with the service of the Supreme Lord. If a person is engaged in full Krsna consciousness in devotional service of the Lord, it is to be understood that he has understood all the Vedic knowledge. In the Vaisnava parampara it is said that if one is engaged in the devotional service of Krsna, then there is no need for a spiritual process to understanding the Supreme Absolute Truth. He has already come to the point, because he is engaged in the devotional service of the Lord. He has ended all preliminary processes of understanding; similarly, if anyone, after speculating for hundreds of thousands of lives, does not come to the point that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that one has to surrender there, all his speculation for so many years and lives is a useless waste of time.

Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Visnuswami

Sridhara Swami's Commentary

The unequivocal result of one who is cognizant of the Supreme Lord Krishna's eternal and paramount position as th ultimate reality is that they no longer are subject to delusion and illusion offerring in all respects themselves and everything they possess unto Him exclusively in propitiation and worship expressing the quintessential truth of all existence.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Madhvacarya

Madhvacarya's Commentary

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Ramanuja

Ramanuja's Commentary

Whosoever who has developed and evolved their consciousness to become spiritually intelligent enough to realise Lord Krishna's paramount supreme position as the creator, maintainer, sustainer and pervader of all that exists knows everything essential which means everything that is to be know as the means to attain Him by the fact that one knows. Such a one serves the Supreme Lord in every way which means whatever ways of worship have been ordained to attain Him such a one has accomplished them by dint of this service. By realising Lord Krishna thus as Purusottama the Supreme Being of all beings and devoted exclusively to Him one is assured His love and protection the same which may be gained by various activities of service and worship to Him that are revealed in the Vedic scriptures. Thus this aforementioned knowledge of Pususottamahas been duly eulogised.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya:

Nimbaditya

Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary

Now Lord Krishna declares the results one acquires by knowing Him as the ultimate, absolute, paramount supremacy to all that exists. Those who are not subject to illusion and delusion, who can discriminate between between the physical body and the atma or immortal soul and have realised that He is Purusottama the Supreme being. These are the jivas or embodied beings that are all knowing for they have perceived the essence as well as the goal of all existence. This is confirmed in the Chandogya Upanisad III.XIV.VI beginning sarvakarmi sarvakamah sarvagandhah sarvarash meaning: The Supreme Lord is the cause of all causes, the supreme divinity, possessing all transcendental qualities and endowed with glorious, blissful accruements, whose immanence is all pervading. In chapter 7, verse 7 Lord Krishna has already revealed that there is nothing higher then Him. Thus the spiritually evolved propitiate and worship Lord Krishna with bhakti or exclusive loving devotion by speech with prayers to Him, by voice with songs of hommage to Him, by sacred actions dedicated to Him and by a mind totally absorbed in love for Him. Except for the Supreme Lord Krishna who exists within the innermost etheric heart of all jivas or embodied beings as Paramatmathe Supreme Soul: there is none else more worthy of adoration then Him. It is stated in the Moksa Dharma known as the Mahabharata that the demigods take refuge in Shiva, who in turn takes shelter of Brahma, who in turn takes refuge in the Supreme Lord; but the Supreme Lord Krishna takes refuge in nothing. The knowers of the ultimate truth do not worship Brahma, Shiva, the demigods or any other god because they cannot equate to the paramount position of the Supreme Lord Krishna in any way. Neither is it possible for any of them to bestow the unequivocal, absolute knowledge that Lord Krishna bequeaths in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.