Bhagavad Gita Chapter 6, Verse 47 (BG 6.47) — Meaning, Translation & Commentary

In the previous verse, meditation yoga was established as supreme through a comparative evaluation of spiritual practices. Now in this verse, it is clarified who among all yogis is the greatest yogi. In the initial stages of meditation practice, the seeker must deliberately maintain the flow of mind toward the object of meditation and repeatedly redirect the mind away from extraneous thoughts. It is natural that in the beginning, meditation will require effort and will not come spontaneously. Based on the nature of the object of meditation and the method of steadying the mind, meditation practice can be classified in various ways. From this perspective, our tradition has taught symbolic worship—meditation on the manifest form of the divine with attributes, worship of the guru, meditation on kundalini, or meditation through the repetition of mantras, and so forth. On this basis, it is said that yogis too are of many kinds. Here the Blessed Lord clarifies who among the aforementioned yogis is the supreme and successful yogi. The yogi who is filled with faith, who has become one with Me, and who worships Me—that yogi is the most united. This verse is the essence of all yoga philosophy, and for this reason, many texts could be composed to clarify its profound meaning. This is why the Blessed Lord expounds upon this mantra-like verse throughout the entire following chapter. For the purpose of understanding this chapter, it is sufficient to know here that the purpose of meditation practice is not merely to organize the mind, but rather to merge the inner faculties into the nature of the Self and experience the pure nature of one's being. This work can be accomplished successfully only by that person who, filled with faith, worships Me—that is, the very nature of the Self. The word worship has accumulated many unnecessary meanings, and nowadays it often means elaborate ritualistic ceremonies or mythological worship with great pomp. Such worship holds no special significance for the priest, nor for those devotees who merely stand watching the ritual. Sometimes worship means singing hymns loudly with musical instruments, in which emotionally inclined people find great joy and become excited in their fervor, only to grow weary in the end. Only rarely do they experience even a faint glimpse of the bliss of the Self. In Vedantic philosophy, worship means the service rendered by the individual soul with an attitude of dedication. Through devotional surrender, that seeker experiences the direct realization of the Self-principle beyond the mind. Thus, the yogi who engages in worship as self-inquiry becomes one with the nature of the Supreme Self. Such a yogi alone is called supreme here. In the language of Vedanta, it would be said: The yogi who has recognized the nature of the Self by removing identification with insentient, non-self conditioning is the supreme yogi. Thus concludes the Sixth Chapter, named the Yoga of Meditation, in the Bhagavad Gita Upanishad—the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, which is the science of Brahman and the yoga philosophy. In this way, the Sixth Chapter named the Yoga of Meditation of the Sri Bhagavad Gita Upanishad—which is the science of Brahman and yoga philosophy in the form of the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna—comes to an end.