The Supreme Secret

The Supreme Secret: Bhagavad Gita Chapter Nine

In chapter nine of the Bhagavad Gita the teacher reveals to the pupil and to us all a ‘supreme secret’. The first verse of the chapter says:

To you who do not cavil, I shall declare the highest secret, a combination of knowledge and discernment that will set you free.

We notice that the teaching can be revealed to an enquirer with the right outlook, that is, who wants to learn and does not argue unconstructively. And evidently, the secret to be revealed is not a fact or bit of information: it is the kind of knowledge that gives discernment, the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood and make balanced judgements. The teaching goes on:

This royal knowledge, royal secret, is the supreme purifier. It is in front of your eyes, easy to understand, righteous, pleasant to follow, unchanging. [9:2]

What does it mean to say that this secret is the supreme purifier? The way to inner illumination, according to the non-dual and other wisdom traditions, includes practices which have the effect of making the mind a more sensitive and refined instrument of knowledge. This process may be called ‘purification’. These are steps on the way. The final and ultimate purification is the rise of the certain knowledge that one is not the limited mind and ego, when all traces of narrow selfishness are dissolved.