As we have seen, the essence of Bhagavad Gita is Yoga (the perfection of which is Bhakti Yoga).

​

And Bhakti Yoga is the key foundational method to achieve the ultimate goal of Human life which can be summarized as the attainment of complete physical, mental, spiritual Peace and Freedom by permanent release from the cycle of birth & death. This state of existence is God realization or Krishna Consciousness that every spirit soul is ultimately destined for. This is clearly declared by the Lord Himself

​

मन्मना भव मद्भ‍क्तो मद्याजी मां नमस्कुरु ।
मामेवैष्यसि सत्यं ते प्रतिजाने प्रियोऽसि मे ॥ 18.65 ॥

​

सर्वधर्मान्परित्यज्य मामेकं शरणं व्रज ।
अहं त्वां सर्वपापेभ्यो मोक्षयिष्यामि मा श‍ुच: ॥ 18.66 ॥

​

"Remember Me, Surrender to Me, Pray to Me, Salute Me in Devotion and You will surely come to Me, I promise you.

If you seek My refuge I personally will Free you from all your karma, sins and mistakes, so dont worry."

​

These are not random flowery sentimental words. These are the personal direct guarantees of the infinite Lord Himself to the selfless surrendered devotee. What can be higher than that?

Well, nothing can be.

​

But is it so easy to do? 

No. Devotional service may sound like a simple concept but its not easy to practice. Otherwise anyone and everyone could achieve perfection of Yoga in their human birth. But thats not how it happens.

​

The Lord notes: 

​

मनुष्याणां सहस्रेषु कश्चिद्यतति सिद्धये ।
यततामपि सिद्धानां कश्चिन्मां वेत्ति तत्त्वत: ॥ 7.3 ॥

​

"Out of thousands of human births, some aspire for spiritual enlightenment. And of those who try, very few know Me in Truth."

​

One may question why is it so difficult task? The answer is provided by the Lord:

​

दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया ।
मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ॥ 7.14 ॥

​

"This divine energy of Mine known as Maya is insurmountable. Only those who surrender to Me are able to cross over it"

​

The tangible material world is the manifestation of the external energy of the Lord and is separated from the spiritual energy* of the Lord which is a manifestation of His Internal energy by yet another energy of the Lord known as Maya. The Maya curtains the material from the spiritual. And Maya is very powerful, being an energy of the Infinitely energetic Lord. By its power, Maya bewilders the living entity or soul to seek sense gratification. Well, factually although in the original condition (ie before material creation) the constitutional position of the individual soul is to always be in the orbit of the Supreme spirit (Lord), however, during the creation process, the individual spirit forgets this simple fact under the influence of Maya and seeks to enjoy the material creation due to his own ego and desires. Desires are triggered by sense objects (material objects that are seen, touched, tasted, smelled, heard) attracting the 5 senses of the body that the living entity comes to mistakenly believe as Truth when the mind is under the influence of Maya. This delusion of the living entity is the cause of its falldown and entrapment in the material cycle of birth, death, old age and disease. 

​

Every living entity that acquires a body in this material world must one day leave that body through the process of death. At the time of death, based on the karma in its last body, it either is promoted to a higher form of life or a lower form. 

​

यं यं वापि स्मरन्भावं त्यजत्यन्ते कलेवरम् ।
तं तमेवैति कौन्तेय सदा तद्भ‍ावभावित: ॥ 8.6 ॥

​

"As the last thought of a living entity at the time of death, so does that living entity become eligible for that state in next birth"

​

Now it should be understood here that the human form of life is the only form of life whereby the living entity has a chance to exit the entrapment of Maya in the material world based on its karma (in human form). Note that lower species of life dont accrue karma. Only humans acquire karma due to their thoughts words and actions. To be able to attain the human form of life after circuit of millions of forms of lower species -- animals, birds, beasts etc is a very rare chance by grace of Lord. And its only in the human form that the entrapment of Maya can be broken for a permanent relief from the endless cycle. But note that this is possible ONLY IF the soul is spiritualized by lifelong practice of Yoga, in particular Bhakti Yoga, so that at the precise time of death the spirit is in meditation of the Lord.

 

अन्तकाले च मामेव स्मरन्मुक्त्वा कलेवरम् ।
य: प्रयाति स मद्भ‍ावं याति नास्त्यत्र संशय: ॥ 8.5 ॥

​

"At the time of death one who leaves his body meditating on Me, he certainly comes to My abode"

​

But to waste away this rare human birth in material sense gratification is a terrible waste as it means another circuit of millions of lower life forms until the soul has the chance to acquire human form again by grace of the Lord.

​

The question is if human form is so rare then why doesnt every human simply surrender to the Lord to get His grace and break this cycle of Maya? Well the main reason for this is that due to Maya, the soul becomes materially contaminated to think that there is no spirit, no life after death, no God and the end goal of all human birth is to enjoy sense objects. In this state of boastful ego and pride, the soul can even commit bad karma that takes him further away from the Lord. Those who are blinded by lust ego and anger become demonic (wilfully harming others -- especially the devotees, denouncing Gods supremacy or simply engaging in animal propensities -- eating sleeping mating fighting)

​

असत्यमप्रतिष्ठं ते जगदाहुरनीश्वरम् ।
अपरस्परसम्भूतं किमन्यत्कामहैतुकम् ॥ 16.8 ॥

​

"The demonic believe that the cosmic manifestation is Godless, simply a mix of chemicals and for sense enjoyment"

​

एतां दृष्टिमवष्टभ्य नष्टात्मानोऽल्पबुद्धय: ।
प्रभवन्त्युग्रकर्माण: क्षयाय जगतोऽहिता: ॥ 16.9 ॥

​

"Thus blinded the unwise and demonic engage in activities harmful to the world"

​

काममाश्रित्य दुष्पूरं दम्भमानमदान्विता: ।
मोहाद्‍गृहीत्वासद्‍ग्राहान्प्रवर्तन्तेऽश‍ुचिव्रता: ॥ 16.10 ॥

​

"By insatiable lust, ego, delusion the demonic are engaged in unclean, unspiritual work"

​

तानहं द्विषत: क्रूरान्संसारेषु नराधमान् ।
क्षिपाम्यजस्रमश‍ुभानासुरीष्वेव योनिषु ॥ 16.19 ॥

​

"Those demonics, being envious, violent and lowest of humans, I throw them perpetually in wombs of lower species of life"

​

आसुरीं योनिमापन्ना मूढा जन्मनि जन्मनि ।
मामप्राप्यैव कौन्तेय ततो यान्त्यधमां गतिम् ॥ 16.20 ॥

​

"Repeatedly being born in demonic wombs, birth after birth, such souls can never reach Me."

​

त्रिविधं नरकस्येदं द्वारं नाशनमात्मन: ।
काम: क्रोधस्तथा लोभस्तस्मादेतत्‍त्रयं त्यजेत् ॥ 16.21 ॥

​

"The 3 gates to such hell are lust, anger, greed and they degrade the soul. Therefore one ought to curb and abandon those three"

​

So as we can see, Maya deludes and encourages a soul to falldown from the state of eternal grace of Lord. Such a deluded soul forgets its eternal relationship with Lord. Instead it goes about endless sense gratification and thus wastes away the human birth forever. 

​

So is there a way out of this perpetual entrapment of Maya?

​

Short answer is Yes but it needs lifelong training in Yoga.

This is because, as we saw above, the only exit from this entrapment of Maya or permanent circuit of birth-death-oldage-disease is in the human life and that too only when that human engages in lifelong selfless surrender and devotional service to the Lord (Bhakti Yoga) especially at the time of death. In other words, the mind must be trained throughout the life by serious, lifelong, study and practice of Yoga to be detached from sense gratification and gradually uplift the soul from lower to higher states of being. Only then, is there a possibility that at the climactic time of the death the spirit will be in an evenminded, equipoised, equanimous state of mind.

Serious, lifelong, study and practice of Yoga is vital here because if the mind is not trained in this way then how can a frivolous mind be miraculously expected not to be bewildered at the critical moment of death? 

​

And thus the conclusion is if the permanent release from the entrapment of perpetual cycle of birth death old-age and disease (which is the ultimate goal of Human life) is desired, then the pre-requisite first step is to bring the mind to be in SthitaPragya state through lifelong spiritual practice of Yoga as taught by the Lord Himself in Bhagavad Gita. This creates the groundwork for the spirit to be in Meditative state at all times and especially at the time of death, which as we discussed above is the precise moment of release from this entrapment by the Lords grace.

​

​

Haribol !

​

​

​

​

* spiritual energy (or simply spirit or soul) is what brings consciousness to matter; in other words, spirit 'brings' matter to life.