Thirdly, it draws
our attention, in various places to the four important forms of God, viz.,
- The Avatar
form, described as the guardian of Dharma on earth .
- The Antaryamin form which is the
spirit immanent in all objects of creation .
- The Isvara form who pervades and rules the
entire universe and
- The absolute Brahman who transcends time and space as well as all
our anthropomorphic conceptions of Him.
Fourthly,
as it is the Avatar himself who is the teacher in this gospel, the assurances, which He
gives in verses like the following, have given great comfort and encouragement to millions
of people:
- "But those who meditate on me and worship me and no
other, and who are ever devoted to me-the responsibility of their welfare rests in
me." (IX-22).
- "Proclaim it bodily, O son of Kunti,
that my devotee never perishes." (IX. 31).
- "Fixing thy thought on me thou shalt surmount every
difficulty by my grace." (XVIII. 58).
- "Abandoning all rules of Dharma come unto me alone for
shelter. Do not grieve. I will release thee from all sins." (XVIII. 66).
And these assurances are given to all without any distinction
of caste, creed or sex. It is one of the glories of the theism of the Gita that it -does
away with all the social distinctions insisted on by the traditional teachers of the Veda.
Fifthly, it may be noted that the Avatar of the Gita demands of his followers no such
difficult exercises as are mentioned for instance, in Patanjali's Yoga system and in some
forms of Tantric Sadhana. Far from doing so he says: - "Yoga is not for him who eats
too much, or for him who eats too little. It is not for him, O Arjuna, who sleeps too much
or for him who keeps vigil too long." |