10th chapter: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

6th verse: “The seven great rishis, the four great ancestors, and the Manus – they are born from one supreme reality. All creatures in this world emerge from them.”

7th verse: “Anyone who in reality knows Me as the supreme spiritual ideal which is present everywhere – that person will naturally understand the truth. There is no doubt about it.”

Vibhuti means manifestation of divine qualities. They naturally come to a person when he meditates on God. The glory of the ocean is reflected in every pebble and wave in the ocean. Similarly, in all human beings who meditate on God, some unique characteristics manifest. Sunlight falls on water in a pot and the quality of its reflection depends on the cleanliness of the water. Similarly, the degree of manifestation depends on the purity of the person’s mind. Swami Vivekananda said that the difference between an amoeba and a Buddha is only of degrees, not of kind. Buddha is like the clean mirror, in whom the presence of the lord manifests in His full effulgence.

Absolute Reality has two dimensions. One is the unmanifested or impersonal dimension, and the other is the manifested or personal dimension. We should not begin our spiritual journey with the unmanifest. We should begin by focusing on a higher ideal and practice spiritual sadhanas. What we meditate upon, that we become. When we always think of a higher ideal, we begin to imbibe the qualities of that higher ideal. That makes us ready to transcend the personal and practice the impersonal – it is a matter of one’s evolution, not choice.

8th verse: “I am the origin of everything. And everything originates from Me. If a person understands this and recognizes Me with loving consciousness, he will become enlightened.”

When Lord Krishna uses “I” or “Me” he refers to the one supreme reality. 164th sukta of the first mandala of Rigveda Samhita says: “Reality is one; sages call it by various names.”. The full mantra is: इन्द्रं॑ मि॒त्रं वरु॑णम॒ग्निमा॑हु॒रथॊ॑ दि॒व्यः स सु॑प॒र्णॊ ग॒रुत्मा॑न् । ऎकं॒ सद्विप्रा॑ बहु॒धा व॑दन्त्य॒ग्निं य॒मं मा॑त॒रिश्वा॑नमाहुः ॥

Just as electricity manifests through different gadgets, the same divine energy enables different living beings to function. The one who understands this is enlightened.

In the next few verses, Lord Krishna states that wherever we find a unique manifestation that is sublime and beautiful – physical strength, intellectual power, creativity, grandeur of a mountain, beauty of a flower – they are all an expression of the divine reality.

9th verse: In this verse, Lord Krishna explains how a spiritually enlightened person functions in the world. “Those who get this enlightenment, their minds are absorbed in this divine reality. They spend their time talking about this higher truth and discussing spiritual teachings. They always speak about God and this gives them eternal contentment and happiness.”

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has a profound dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi where Maitreyi questions whether wealth can give eternal happiness and immortality. Finally, both of them become spiritually enlightened and spent their lifetime in contemplation, meditation and scripture reading and studying.

10th verse: “Those who are steadfast, who are devoted, who are contemplative – I give them that higher intuition called Buddhi Yoga.”

Buddhi Yoga is the higher faculty of the human mind that enables us to get contentment along with knowledge. Along with knowledge we get the ability to make proper use of that knowledge and avoid the temptation to make improper use of that knowledge.

Intellectual ability alone is not enough to interpret the meaning of life. When we take to spiritual life, our mind becomes pure, it becomes our friend. And along with that, we develop an intuition that gives us a unique clarity of life and its mysteries. That faculty is called Buddhi Yoga. It naturally comes to us irrespective of the spiritual path we follow, such as Bhakti Yoga or Jnana Yoga.

11th verse: “When they become completely devoted to Me, out of mere compassion for them, I enter into their hearts and light the lamp of effulgence, the luminous lamp of knowledge.”

Light is an important symbol in Vedanta. It symbolizes enlightenment and knowledge. The mantra: ॐ असतो मा सद्गमय । तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय । मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय । ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः means “Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. Om Peace Peace Peace.”

God, as light or atma-jyoti, is already within us. When we do our spiritual practices such as japa and meditation with sincerity, compassion and looking upon the whole humanity as one – then our mind becomes pure and this divine light within us reveals itself.

King Janaka asked Sage Yajnavalkya: “Endowed with what light does a person live in this world”. The first answer was sunlight. As each option provided in previous answers was eliminated, subsequent answers were moonlight, agni, and sound. When all four of these options were eliminated, the final answer was Atma-Jyoti, which is in all of us and that is self-revealing. It is the light of all lights - that enables all other lights, such as sunlight, moonlight, agni to function.

When a person identifies with this light, he experiences spiritual freedom, happiness within, and illumined within.