Dayananda:
ananyāścintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (22)
ye janāḥ – those people who; ananyāḥ – (see themselves as) non-separate from me; māṁ cintayantaḥ – recognising me; (mām) paryupāsate – gain me; teṣāṁ nitya-abhiyuktānām – for these who are always one with me; yoga-kṣemam – what they want to acquire and protect; ahaṁ vahāmi – I take care of those people
This is a very famous and often quoted verse. It has an important location. It is about the middle of the ninth chapter, which is in the middle of the eighteen chapters.
These are individuals, and how can they be non-separate from Īśvara, the Lord? Śaṅkara says that it is possible due to the fact that the Lord is the ātmā of all of them. When this is so, naturally those who recognise the ātmā as Parameśvara are non-separate from him.
The ātmā of Īśvara is the ātmā of jīva, and it is caitanya, eka, one, advitīya, non-dual, and which is satyam jñānam anantam brahma. Those who recognise themselves as such are called ananyas.
It is because of the word ananya that Śaṅkara has said in his introduction that these are people of clear vision, samyag-darśīs. The others are also non-separate from Īśvara but they do not recognise it. The only difference between samyag-darśīs and others is recognition and non-recognition, knowledge and ignorance. And that is a vast difference.
The mind cannot go away from Parameśvara because the mind itself is Parameśvara. It is like someone who wants to get away from space. Where will the person go? There is no such place. This is the way in which these people recognise Īśvara.
Look at this. Cintayantaḥ mām, enquiring into me, māṁ paryupāsate, they also seek Īśvara. Then what do they get? Let us consider a mumukṣu who wants liberation. He also prays to the Lord, but what is the object of his prayer? It is Īśvara. He wants nothing else but to know Īśvara. He says, ‘My object is only to find you and so I pray to know where you are, what you are.’
After finding Īśvara what does he want? He says, ‘Nothing; only to know that I am one with you.’ Such mumukṣus do not look upon Īśvara as really separate from themselves. There is a sense of separation for the time being because of ignorance. To resolve it, they are constantly enquiring into the svarūpa of Īśvara.
They also have doubts, ‘If he is non-dual, he is one with me. How can it be? I am such an insignificant being. How can I be Parameśvara, the Lord?’ These doubts are there because there is no knowledge, only śraddhā. So they seek, paryupāsate. How? By śravaṇa, manana, and nididhyāsana, with devotion and commitment.
Mokṣa is only through knowledge of ātmā being Brahman, which is the cause of the world. To know this you must enquire and to enquire you must have an appropriate pramāṇa, means of knowledge. How are you going to enquire into Īśvara?
Through the pramāṇa which is in the form of words. Therefore, enquiring into Bhagavān is enquiring into the words of the śāstra. Thus they seek me, they worship me by enquiring into who I am. That is the best form of worship.
From the standpoint of māyā-upādhi, there is Īśvara. But the ātmā of Īśvara is nothing but the truth of the jīva, the caitanya ātmā. And the jīva’s ātmā is nothing but Īśvara. There is only one aham, the limitless ātmā, which is the truth of both the Lord and the individual.
~edited from BG6 9:22
