Thursday, June 6, 2019

Bhagwad Gita - Post 35


Verse 69

Yaanishaa sarvabhootaanaam
Tasyaam jaagarti samyamee;
Yasyaam jaagrati bhootaani saa
Nishaa pashyato muneh.

That which is night to all beings, then the self-controlled man is awake; when all beings are awake, that is night for the sage who sees.

The sage lives in the Self; this is day to him. He is unconscious of worldly phenomena; this is like night to him. The ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. So, life in the Self is like night to him. He experiences sense-objects; this is day to him.

Swami Sivananda says:

That which is real for the worldly-minded people is illusion for the sage? and vice versa. The sage lives in the Self. This is day for him. He is unconscious of the worldly phenomena. 

They are night for him? as it were. The ordinary man is unconscious of his real nature. Life in the spirit is night for him. He is experiencing the objects of sensual enjoyment. This is day for him. The Self is a non-entity for him; For a sage this world is a non-entity. 

The worldly-minded people are in utter darkness as they have no knowledge of the Self. What is darkness for them is all light for the sage. The Self? Atman or Brahman is night for the worldly-minded persons. But the sage is fully awake. 

He is directly cognizing the supreme Reality? the Light of lights. He is full of illumination and Atma Jnana or knowledge of the Self.”

The worthy disciple of the Sage Sivananda, Swami Krishnananda, says:

For us, this world of sense perception looks like bright daylight with every kind of clarity before it, and all things seem to be very well with us; but actually, we are in darkness in view of the fact that the truth of the universe is not as it is presented to us through the sense organs. 

The daylight of the sense organs is the darkness of the spirit. The true spirit, which is universal, is sleeping, as it were, while the senses are awake and are active in the daylight of their activity.”

Sri Aurobindo writes on this verse:

The status he reaches is the Brahmic condition; he gets to firm standing in the Brahman, brāhmī sthitih. It is a reversal of the whole view, experience, knowledge, values, seeing of earth-bound creatures. 

This life of the dualities which is to them their day, their waking, their consciousness, their bright condition of activity and knowledge, is to him a night, a troubled sleep and darkness of the soul; that higher being which is to them a night, a sleep in which all knowledge and will cease, is to the self-mastering sage his waking, his luminous day of true being, knowledge and power.”

Dear All,

Where all beings are awake that is the night for the sage who sees the Self”: This refers to the physical day light as compared to the spiritual day light for the sage.

Majority of us are awake during day time. It is the time we are involved in various activities that bind us to the world around us. During the physical daytime, the sage is spiritually living in night because he is not attached to the world around him. He is totally immersed in the “Atman” and does not see the world around him. (living in night.)

Physically awake – spiritually ignorant: 

Conditioned by the time of the day and immersed in worldly activities, majority of us are unaware of the Atman within and all around.

Physically sleeping but spiritually awake to the Atman within and all around: this is the way of living of the realized soul.

To sum up, A stitaprajna or a Jivanmukhta is asleep (unconcerned) to all those objects / worldly desires to which the world is awake (indulgent) and He is awake (awakened to the spirit, the atman that He verily exists as) to which the world is asleep (ignorant, filled with avidya, existing far away from their own real identity, the Atman)

Love.

PS - With this, we come to the end of Second chapter. We will take up important verses from the 3rd chapter from the next post onwards.


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