Bhagavad Gita- Chapter 7 verses 14 & 15- Recitation only

#tuningwithGita
The Mahabharat is divided into eighteen sections. The timeless hashtag#BhagavadGita is set in the sixth section, which is called the Bheeshma Parva. This journey I started more than a year ago is to explain some of the significant verses of this life manual.
We are now in chapter 7 which begins with Shree Krishna describing the material and spiritual dimensions of God’s energies. He explains that similar to beads strung on a single thread, all these energies have originated from Him and rest in Him. The entire creation begins and dissolves into Him. Although it is very difficult to overcome His material energy Maya, those who surrender to Him can easily cross over it by His grace.
The explanations of the verses are from “The Bhagavad Gita” By Swami Chidbhavananda and is a Ramakrishna Tapovanam publication dated 1975.
Sri Ramakrishna explains the Maya of the three Gunas by saying, “Iswara plays at assuming the human forms. He is a great magician. The Universe and the beings in it are all His magic, created by His inscrutable powers called Maya. The magician is real while his magic is a mere phantom.”
How one gets out of this delusion is what is explained next:
दैवी ह्येषा गुणमयी मम माया दुरत्यया |
मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते || 14||
Verily this divine illusion of Mine, made up of the Gunas, is hard to surmount; but those who take refuge in Me alone, they cross this illusion.
Daivi Maya, the Divine illusion , is the c.of Vishnu. Maha Maya is one of the appellations, meaning, an expert at creating illusion. He has hidden His Reality in the garb of Nature. He also chooses to reveal Himself to those who take refuge in Him. The Reality in Him being known, the assumed garb of Maya vanishes. It is like the disappearance of the phantom of the snake when the rope is perceived in its reality.
Those who alienate themselves from Iswara are marked thus:
न मां दुष्कृतिनो मूढा: प्रपद्यन्ते नराधमा: |
माययापहृतज्ञाना आसुरं भावमाश्रिता: || 15||
The evil doers, the deluded, the lowest of men, deprived of discrimination by Maya and following the way of the Asuras, do not seek refuge in me.
Evil deeds hide the noble traits in man and expose the base ones. The perpetrators of wickedness become progressively deluded. They are not able to discern between the Divine and the unholy.They are therefore the lowest of men. The question of pursuing any good path and pulling up in ethical life does not arise in their case. Their understanding gets completely distorted. That it is Iswara who manifests Himself is beyond them to understand. They detest everything pertaining to the Divine. The deluded have therefore no alternative to self destruction.
Sri Ramakrishna explains this beautifully with the analogy of a sieve. "The way of the sieve is to let the fine things pass through and hold the coarse things to itself. Likewise, the way of the wicked is to let the merits go and hold the evils fast. "
hashtag#india