Whenever the characteristics of a wise person are pointed out, they are to be followed by a mumuksu along with vicāra - enquiry and prayers as part of his sādhana to become prepared for self-knowledge.
Next Lord Krsna tells the means for one to be a guṇātītaḥ.
māṁ ca yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevate | sa guṇān samatītyaitān brahmabhūyāya kalpate ||14.26||
And the one who with unswerving devotion worship/seeks Me, he is fit for being brahman, having properly crossed these guṇa.
sa guṇān samatītyaitān - the one who has transcended guṇa, brahmabhūyāya kalpate - is fit to be brahman. Even though the nature of every being is sacchidānanda brahman alone, but we don’t own up this fact. What is the means for him to transcend guṇa? yo ’vyabhicāreṇa bhaktiyogena sevate - he worships / seeks Me with unswerving devotion. We have understood from chapter twelve that bhakti is not an independent means. The entire spiritual pursuit is bhakti itself. From a jñānī who sees himself as not different from brahman, a karma-yogī whose karma is done for gaining Īśvara, to one who does karma for fulfilling one’s own desire which in keeping with dharma, they are all bhakta. Without bhakti towards Īśvara, spiritual pursuit is impossible, since it is a pursuit of knowing myself is pūrna-ātmā which is brahman himself.
Therefore the culmination of bhakti - seeking is in the form of clear knowledge. Pursuing the Lord can only be in the form of enquiry since he is always existent and never away from us. We are not searching for Bhagavān here, but we are trying to see what is. A real bhakta is not pursuing Bhagavān as someone separate from one self but as one self alone.
brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham amṛtasyāvyayasya ca | śāśvatasya ca dharmasya sukhasyaikāntikasya ca ||14.27||
I am the basis indeed of Brahman which is immortal, not subject to change, the eternal dharma, the basis of everything, and which is of the nature of happiness that is not subject to negation.
It was said that the one who recognises ātmā is free from guṇa and is fit to become brahman. That is because, the meaning of the word “I” is the basis of brahman - brahmaṇo hi pratiṣṭhāham, I am lone is brahman. Brahman as it is revealed by śruti, has no pratiṣṭhā, as it is not one of the objects in the world where only exist in time and space. From the individual standpoint, I the consciousness has no pratiṣṭhā, is not depended on anything to be evident, also makes others to be evident. This brahman which is talked about by śtuti is equated to me, thus it is said that “I am the basis of brahman”. This “I” shouldn’t be I which is associated with guṇa. This I which am amṛta - never dead, not subject to destruction. Though it doesn’t get destroyed, perhaps it is changing all the times. No, I am avyaya - never undergoes any change. śāśvata - always there, there is not a time in the past, present or future I am not. This timeliness me sustain everything - dharma (dhriyate iti dharmah). My svarūpa is sukha - free from any sense of want. Aikāntika - which is never negated because it is satya. Everything else which mere name and form will change, being mithyā.
One who own up this nature of oneself is called brahma-bhavana, the condition of being brahman without the implication of any process of becoming. You cannot become brahman because you are the very basis pratiṣṭhā of brahman.
om tat sat
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