Monday, February 24, 2020

Bhagwad Gita - Post 171


Verse 34

Yathaa prakaashayatyekah
Kritsnam lokamimam ravih;
Kshetram kshetree tathaa
Kritsnam prakaashayati bhaarata.

Just as the one sun illumines the whole world, so also the Lord of the Field (the Supreme Self) illumines the whole Field, O Arjuna!

The exact relationship of Consciousness, the Eternal Principle of Life, with matter and its various expressions is explained here. 

The example given by The Lord for the purpose is the one sun which illumines the entire world at all times. Just as the sun, the Consciousness merely illumines the world of objects, the body, the mind and the intellect. 

Light itself is the very nature of the sun and in his light everything gets illumined. Similarly, the nature of Consciousness is awareness and in Its presence, everything becomes known i.e., illumined. The sun illumines everything, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, virtue and vice etc. 

So too, in our inner life, Consciousness functions through body equipment and illumines them but never gets contaminated by the actions of the body or by the emotions of the mind or by the thoughts of the intellect. 



Verse 35

Kshetrakshetrajnayor evam
Antaram jnaanachakshushaa;
Bhootaprakritimoksham cha ye
Vidur yaanti te param.

They who, through the eye of knowledge, perceive the distinction between the Field and its Knower, and also the liberation from the Nature of being, they go to the Supreme.

Those who are able to distinguish between khetrajña and khetra, between purusha and prakriti, between the Self and its object, and between consciousness and matter shall attain the Supreme Abode. If this distinction is clear to us, then we will be totally unattached to everything in this world, and we will not be reborn into this world of prakriti, this world of the three gunas. We will attain the Supreme Abode—param.


Sri Krishna now concludes that man's life is fulfilled only when he with his discrimination meditates upon and realizes the constitution of and relationship between the Field, the Knower of the Field and the Supreme Self in himself. 

This can be achieved through the eye of wisdom or intuition which is opened up by meditation, study of scriptures or teachings of the preceptors. One who realizes this is liberated and attains eternal freedom. 

Thus it has been very clearly and emphatically laid down in the Bhagwad Gita that the means of deliverance from maya or ignorance are meditation, renunciation and other spiritual disciplines. 

Love.