Bhagwad Gita - Post 169

Verse 28

Samam sarveshu bhooteshu

Tishthantam parameshwaram;

Vinashyatswavinashyantam

Yah pashyati sa pashyati.

He sees, who sees the Supreme Lord, existing equally in all beings, the unperishing within the perishing.

Samaṁ sarveṣu bhūteṣu tiṣṭhantaṁ

That Being is equally present in all as the Self of all. It is the Self of the ant and the elephant and the human being and the God. 

The distinction among them is due to the appearance of their subtle bodies and gross bodies, but the life that is behind the subtle and gross bodies is common—as sunlight is common and appears to be colored or distorted according to the nature of the glasses that we put on. 

The Supreme Lord exists in an equilibrated fashion everywhere. 

“He sees” is the expression with which the translation of the verse begins. Here, the “seeing” is that Seeing which is not the effect of any other seer, which is not illumined by any other seer. This means, the being referred to in the verse is the Eternal witness, the SELF.

Only when one exists as SELF ILLUMINED SEER, Pure Atman, “can see the Supreme Lord, existing equally in all beings, the unperishing within the perishing.” 

People die, everything perishes, and all things get destroyed.  But in the midst of this destruction taking place perennially, perpetually, right from creation—in the midst of this flux and destruction and movement—there is an unmoving Eternity. 

This apparently ever changing Jagath, has to have a changeless phenomenon, the substratum, which holds the Jagath. And that which holds thus, is and must be changeless, unmoving eternity, i.e., Pure Consciousness or Purusha or Purushottama, as referred in the Bhagwad Gita.

Verse 29

Samam pashyan hi sarvatra

Samavasthitameeshwaram;

Na hinastyaatmanaa’tmaanam

Tato yaati paraam gatim.

Because he who sees the same Lord dwelling equally everywhere does not destroy the Self by the self, he goes to the highest goal.

Mostly we kill the Self with the self—hinastyātmanātmānaṁ. 

A kind of atma hatya is going on when the Self is forgotten and only objects are remembered. 

Only external things are in that person’s memory; the Self is completely obliterated from experience. That state of affairs—where the consciousness of the Self being there is completely obscured by intense concentration on objects outside—is called spiritual suicide; it is killing the Self with the self. 

That is, we do not know that we are existing at all as the Self. We know that there is a world outside, we are busy with things outside, but we are not busy with our Self. 

But having known the equally distributed consciousness of the Paramatman, equally distributed Eternity—knowing this, seeing this, beholding it, and contemplating it, one will not be subject to this otherwise common experience of Self-destruction; and knowing this, one attains to the Supreme State, yāti parāṁ gatim. 

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 168

Verse 17

Avibhaktam cha bhooteshu

Vibhaktamiva cha sthitam;

Bhootabhartru cha tajjneyam

Grasishnu prabhavishnu cha.

And undivided, yet He exists as if divided in beings; He is to be known as the supporter of beings; He devours and He generates also.

Avibhaktaṁ ca bhūteṣu : It cannot be divided into parts—some atman here, some atman there. It is one indivisible sea of Selfhood, yet it appears to be divided into little atmans—my atman, your atman, this self, that self, etc. 

Vibhaktam iva ca sthitam: It looks as if it is divided into several atman across many living beings, while actually it is indivisible—like space appearing to be cut into parts when there are vessels containing little spaces. 

Little spaces are not parts of the universal space. There is only one universal space, though it appears as if they are all divided into many vessels in which we cognize this vast space. 

Let us assume for a moment, the sun as Brahman, with its sunshine all pervading.

And each one of us, as various pots.

And the water contained in each pot, each one us, as our mind/intellect.

Though Sunshine pervades the entire creation, it is only when the pot (we) has the mind/intellect (water in a pot), then the sunshine gets reflected on that water.

You remove the water from a pot fully and keep it there, though the sunshine is always there, you won’t see its reflection on the pot in which there is no water. 

Similarly, pure consciousness, though undivided, it still requires conditioned individual beings through whom / in whom, it shines. 

Verse 18 

Jyotishaamapi tajjyotistamasah

Paramuchyate;

Jnaanam jneyam jnaanagamyam

Hridi sarvasya vishthitam.

That, the Light of all lights, is beyond darkness; it is said to be knowledge, the Knowable and the goal of knowledge, seated in the hearts of all.

Jyotiṣām api taj jyotis (13.17): It is the Light of all lights. 

Na tad bhāsayate sūryo (15.6): Thousands of suns cannot stand before it. The light of the sun is like darkness before it. 

Tamasaḥ param: Beyond the darkness of the world shines that supreme radiance of the Absolute. 

Jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ jñānagamyaṁ: It is knowledge, it is the object of knowledge, and it is also the knower. All three clubbed together is that Eternity which is Brahman, the Absolute. 

Hṛdi sarvasya viṣṭhitam: It is in our own heart. We should not be afraid that this tremendous description is of something that is very far away. It is in the heart of all.

Chinmaya writes, 

“If there is an Infinite Light of Knowledge to be known without which life is impossible, in the presence of which alone all experiences can have a meaning and existence --- then this Infinite Goal is certainly to be acquired and possessed. Where am I to seek it? What pilgrimage must I undertake? Am I capable of making an expedition?

Probably, I am not in possession of it today as it must be something to be experienced yonder in some unknown time and place. To negate all such misconceptions, it is boldly declared here that this Infinite dwells in the hearts of all.

Philosophically, "heart" means the area in the mental zone from where noble and pious thoughts spring forth. In an atmosphere of goodness, when the intellect steadily contemplates upon the "Light" that lies beyond darkness --- the Absolute Non-dual Self that exists, transcending all --- but also immanent in its subtle all-pervading nature --- It can be contacted and realized, and therefore, the "heart" is considered as the dwelling place of the Self.”

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 167

Verse 15

Sarvendriyagunaabhaasam

Sarvendriyavivarjitam;

Asaktam sarvabhricchaiva

Nirgunam gunabhoktru cha.

Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses; unattached, yet supporting all; devoid of qualities, yet their experiencer.

Sarva indriya guṇā bhāsaṁ sarva indriya vivarjitam 

That which we cognize through the sense organs as objects of sense is also a manifestation of this Brahman, conditioned by the sense organs. 

But it is free from all sense organs. It can be cast into the mold of sensory perception in the form of objects, but it is not an object, because it has no relationship with any sense organ.

Asaktaṁ: It has no relation to anything in the world. Transcendent is the Reality. 

Sarvabhṛc caiva: Though it is transcendent, it supports everything by also being immanent at the same time. 

Nirguṇaṁ guṇabhoktṛ ca: It has no quality by itself, because to say that a thing has quality would be to compare it to something else. 

It is blue, it is red, it is tall, it is short—we cannot say anything about it because all these definitions, all these descriptions, require a comparison of it with something else; and because something else external to it does not exist, it cannot be regarded as having any quality at all. Therefore, it is called nirguna. 

Guṇabhoktṛ ca: But all qualities reside in it. Though it has no quality by itself, whatever beauty we see, whatever color we see, whatever sound we hear, whatever sensations we have, everything is on account of its existence. 

Every kind of statue can be found inside a block of stone, but actually there is no statue at all inside a block of stone.

In the brief exposition of Drik Drsya viveka 1^st verse, we learnt various steps in the seer - seen, thus:-

Seer/Illuminor        Seen/illumined

Eyes/ senses          -       Objects of world

Mind/Intellect       -       Eyes/senses

Consciousness       -       Mind/Intellect

And, consciousness is not illumined by any other illumining power.

Thus, in the above flow, it can be understood that it is consciousness, through intellect/mind, illumines senses. 

However, Brahman/Consciousness is just a witness and is not involved in any of the sense perceptions. This is what is emphasized in this verse.

Verse 16

Bahirantashcha bhootaanaam

Acharam charameva cha;

Sookshmatwaat tadavijneyam

Doorastham chaantike cha tat.

Without and within (all) beings, the unmoving and also the moving; because of His subtlety, unknowable; and near and far away is That.

It is everywhere—outside us, as well as inside us, like a pot that is sunk in the ocean has water outside it as well as inside it. 

This Brahman is flooding us: inwardly as the Atman, and outwardly as Brahman. 

Bahir antaś ca bhūtānām: Everywhere it is, outside and inside. 

Acaraṁ: It does not shake or move; and it does not fluctuate like the world of the three gunas. 

Caram eva ca: It moves, and nobody can move faster than it; and yet it is totally immovable. These are the tremendous contradictory qualities of God. Nobody can be faster than He, nobody can be quicker in action than He, and yet He does nothing; He is stable, remaining in His own abode. 

Sūkṣmatvāt tad avijñeyaṁ: Because of its subtlety, because it is subtler than even the mind, subtler than even the intellect, it is impossible to know it through these instruments of mind and intellect. 

Dūrasthaṁ: It is very far. It looks as if it is infinitely far away from us, beyond the stars, because we cannot see it anywhere. We always imagine that the Supreme Being is very far away—many millions of light years away—yet it is very near, in our throat itself. 

Dūrasthaṁ cāntike ca tat: Nothing can be farther than That, because of its vastness and infinitude; and nothing can be nearer than That, because it is the Selfhood of all beings.

Love.