In the next verse, Kṛṣṇa says:

sa evāyaṁ mayā te ‘dya yogaḥ proktaḥ purātanaḥ I

bhakto ‘si me sakhā ceti rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam II 4.3

He says, ‘I am telling you about this very ancient science of the ultimate Enlightenment or entering eternal bliss, and being My devotee and my friend, you will understand the supreme mystery of this science.’

This has to be understood very deeply. One cannot tell this ultimate truth to a person who is not ready. I repeat, this truth cannot be delivered to a person who is not ready to listen. And truth told to a person who is not ready creates danger for everyone.

People ask me in my meditation programs, ‘Swamiji, please talk about your Enlightenment.’ I never speak about my spiritual experiences unless I know them well. I wait. If intimate experiences are shared when you are not ready to listen, you always create a self-doubt and spoil things for yourself. If you have courage, you will straightaway question the experience. If you don’t have that much courage, you will just think, ‘Alright, this is one more story! I have heard thousands of stories. Leave it!’ The spiritual experiences cannot be shared just for nothing. If it is shared it should become a source of inspiration that transforms your life. By sharing the spiritual experience, if it gives you the courage to take the same jump, if you also feel, ‘I think I should also experience the same joy, the same bliss, I should not postpone it,’ if it becomes an inspiration for you, then it is worth sharing. Otherwise it is not worth sharing.

With logic, either you will understand everything or you will not understand anything. There is no other danger. When it comes to the deeper level teachings, either you understand, or you misunderstand.

Listen.

There was a great Master in South India. He sang a set of poems on Śiva. He did not even write, he just sang the verses.

Close disciples who lived around him requested him to put it in writing so that it could be useful to society.  He said, ‘No, they are my intimate love letters to my Lord. It is my personal relationship. How can I publish it?’

If, for example, you see somebody for the first time and he straight-away starts asking you personal questions, how would it be? It is too rude! You can’t share your personal experiences straightaway with anybody.

In the same way, the Master says, ‘If somebody comes and asks you about your personal life, you can’t share it. Only if you become intimate with him, it is possible to open up.’

For a conversation to happen, you need a certain intimacy. If both sides are filled with their own ideas and arguments, a conversation can never happen.

I always tell people, in the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. The third year onwards, both of them speak and the neighbors listen! The conversation never happens! Only arguments happen.  As long as the other person is in a mood for arguments, the satya (truth) cannot be expressed.

The Master says, ‘It is my intimate relationship with God. How can I share that with the public?’ Then one disciple, who considers himself intelligent asks, ‘Why? When you can share it with us, why can’t you share it with the world?’ Then, the Master says, ‘By becoming a disciple, you have become a part of me. Only with a person who has become a part of me can I share these poems. Physically you may be another body, but mentally, you have fallen in tune with me. You have become like a womb, completely ready to receive the divine energy. This is the reason I share my experience with you.’

Unless you enter into a deep receptive mood, unless you become a simple, innocent being, you cannot receive the ultimate truth.

The ultimate truth is beyond logic. Initially when you start to teach the truth, it always starts with logic. Words go logically. But after some time, you have to leave logic behind. Otherwise, you can’t reach the Divine. You can’t talk to God through logic. You cannot relate with him in prose. Only in poetry you can relate with God. That is why, be it Eastern or Western cultures, whenever it comes to prayer it is only through songs and poems. If you want the divine relationship to happen, you need love. You need the language of poetry. Here, only a person who understands, who has become a part of the Master can receive the Master’s experiences. Unless you become part of the Master, it is very difficult to understand his message.

When you speak the ultimate truth to a person who is not ready, it leads to many troubles. With the right person, even a lie told by him will be good for society. In the wrong hands even truth will do harm to society. To whom it is delivered is important, rather than whether it is the truth or a lie. With the wrong person, even a great truth like advaita (non-duality) —‘I am God,’ may make him think he is God and make him do all nonsensical things. A wrong person can never understand the truth told by Kṛṣṇa.

For example, Kṛṣṇa says, ‘I am God. I am everything. Surrender unto me.’ If the person is not completely devoted to Kṛṣṇa, if he has not understood Kṛṣṇa, what will he think? ‘What an egoistic person he is! How dare he tell me to surrender to him?’ Naturally the person, instead of understanding Kṛṣṇa, will create more trouble for Kṛṣṇa. Here, the qualification to receive the truth is devotion. If you have heard all the things I have said in the other three chapters of the Gītā, it is expressed logically. Until this point, I am able to bring both logic and spirituality together. Now, the time has come when I have to give you the pure truth as Truth. Understand, great truths can never be expressed by logic, because logic is not sharp enough!

Somebody asked me, ‘Swamiji, why don’t you prove God logically?’ I told him, ‘If I can prove God logically, then logic would become God!’ Logic will become greater than God. God is great because He cannot be proved by logic. He is beyond your logic.

Here, Kṛṣṇa is going to talk about something that is beyond logic. This is where you leave your logic behind, become completely open, sit in a totally passive mood, and be ready to receive. With logic, either you will understand everything or you will not understand anything. There is no other danger. When it comes to the deeper level teachings, either you understand, or you misunderstand. The teachings which Kṛṣṇa is going to deliver now are much deeper, much subtler than the teachings delivered earlier. That is why He says, ‘Now I am telling you these secrets just because you are my devotee and friend, just because you are near and dear to me. You are my own, bhakto’si me sakhā ceti rahasyaṁ hy etad uttamam (4.3).’ That is the reason He uses the word bhaktosi. He says, ‘You are my devotee and you are my friend.’ Sakhā means friend. The person who does not have a connection with Kṛṣṇa, cannot receive the message.

Now Kṛṣṇa enters deeper level truths where you need to come down from your head to your heart, where you need to sit with your whole being and listen to the truths. Here, Kṛṣṇa gives a warning, rahasyaṁ hyetad uttamam. ‘I am giving you these secrets, the mysterious science of realizing the Ultimate, my dear friend and devotee, Arjuna.’ So, now let us enter into the science that is taught by Kṛṣṇa. Let us come to the space of listening.

Let us begin with a small prayer to Kṛṣṇa:

vasudeva sutaṁ devaṁ kamsa cāṇūra mardanaṁ I

devakī paramānandaṁ kṛṣṇam vande jagad guruṁ II

Understand, Vedānta always emphasizes on three things: śravana, manana and nididhyāsana.

• Śravana means integrated listening.
• Manana means meditating, contemplating on it with deep active thinking.
• Nididhyāsana means expressing and radiating it powerfully in your life, or experiencing it in your life.

Here, these truths do not need these three steps. Just listening is enough for it to become an experience. Śravana is enough; authentic śravana becomes nididhyāsana. Nothing more needs to be done. All you need to do is to sit with a complete open being in the space of listening, with a complete relaxed feeling. These words are uttered for your sake, not for the sake of the Master.

So, we will just take a few minutes to meditate on Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the greatest Enlightened Master, Jagatguru. Let us pray to Him to allow His words to penetrate our being. Let Him reside in our consciousness. Let Him lead us to eternal bliss.  Just take a few minutes, close your eyes and intensely pray to Him: Master, lead us to the experience. Give us the understanding. Let Him raise our inner space by His presence. Let Him be in our inner space and enlighten our consciousness.

source: chapter 2, Bhagavadgita Decoded verses, 4.1 – 4.3