Avyaktaadeeni bhootaani
vyaktamadhyaani bhaarata;
Avyakta nidhanaanyeva
tatra kaa paridevanaa.
Beings are unmanifested in their beginning,
manifested in their middle state, Arjuna, and unmanifested again in their end!
What is there to grieve about?
All living entities have the unmanifest as
their beginnings, meaning unmanifest in the physical existence because it is
only that which exists in the physical world either subtle or physical that is
manifested.
In the middle, all living entities are
manifested in the period between birth and death known as life, constituting
the state of mortal existence.
Finally, at the moment the body perishes
known as death, all living entities return once more to the unmanifest
state.
It is inevitable that all living entities
must accept the nature of the material existence being embodied in a physical
body so what is the need to lament over the physical body. To lament thus is
like a person lamenting over friends seen drowning in a dream after one has
woken up.
Sage Narada instructed Yudhishtra along
similar lines, in Śrīmad Bhāgavatam:
yan manyase dhruvaṁ lokam
adhruvaṁ vā na
chobhayam
sarvathā na hi śhochyās
te snehād anyatra mohajāt
(1.13.44) [v31]
“Whether you consider the personality to be
an eternal soul or to be a temporary body, or even if you accept it as an
inconceivable mixture of soul and body, you should not lament in any way. The
cause for lamentation is only attachment that arises out of illusion.”
In the material realm, each individual soul
is bound by three bodies — gross body, subtle body, causal body.
Gross body: Consists of the
five gross elements of nature — earth, water, fire, air, and space.
Subtle body: Consists of
eighteen elements — five life-airs, five working senses, five knowledge senses,
mind, intellect, and ego.
Causal body: Consists of the
account of karmas from endless past lives, including the sanskārs (tendencies) carried forward from previous
lives.
At the time of death, the soul discards its
gross body, and departs with the subtle and causal bodies. God again gives the
soul another gross body according to its subtle and causal bodies and sends the
soul into a suitable mother’s womb for the purpose.
After the soul gives up one gross body, there is a transitional phase before it
receives a new gross body. This could be a few seconds in duration or a few
years long.
So, before birth, the soul existed with the
unmanifest subtle and causal bodies. After death, it still exists in the
unmanifest state. It only becomes manifest in the middle. So, death is no
reason for grief.
Going beyond the three Bodies and the soul,
Vedanta declares that whatever we see, perceive and experience in the manifest
creation with our manifest physical existence is NOTHING BUT THE PURE SELF
(UNMANIFEST), filling itself in this entire creation.
“As fire, though one, takes
the shape of every object which it consumes, so the Self, though one, takes the
shape of every object in which it dwells. As air, though one, takes the shape
of every object which it enters, so the Self, though one, takes the shape of
every object in which It dwells” (Katha Upanishad 2:2:9, 10).
So, retracing to the pure canvass pour which
is going to be the reference point for all exposition on SELF in all times to
come in these B Gita posts and aligning the same with the above verse in subtle
manner in our contemplation, we would realize that:
1. Pure canvass IS and will ever be
Unmanifest.
2. While after the starching, outlining and
drawing process on the canvass is over and we exist as those drawings, we have
to be clear that
-
We, as
drawings are manifest, existing in the pure canvass, occupying a part of the
pure canvass.
-
It is our
misapprehension that we are manifest drawing
-
Once in
Spiritual sadhana we transcend the awareness of the three bodies, then, though
physically existing as manifest drawing, yet, in our inward subjective
experience, we verily exist only as pure canvass.
“As
fire, though one, takes the shape of every object which it consumes, so the
Self, though one, takes the shape of every object in which it dwells. As air,
though one, takes the shape of every object which it enters, so the Self,
though one, takes the shape of every object in which It dwells” (Katha
Upanishad 2:2:9, 10).
Exactly in the same way, taking the
Kathopanishad verse, if the object that IT consumes, object that IT dwells,
object which IT enters are discarded in contemplative meditation on the verse,
then what remains is "IT" or "THE SELF".
So, at the highest realm of realizing our
SELF, one can exist in the beginning, in the middle and at the end, as
UNMANIFEST SELF / PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, FOR, PURE CONSCIOUSNESS HAS NEITHER BEGINNING, NOR MIDDLE, NOR END as beginning
and end are all with respect to time factor and SELF is beyond time and space.
Love
