Verse 12
Ye
chaiva saattvikaa bhaavaa
Raajasaastaamasaashcha
ye;
Matta
eveti taanviddhi
Na
twaham teshu te mayi.
Whatever being
(and objects) that are pure, active and inert, know that they proceed from Me.
They are in Me, yet I am not in them.
The qualities
of Pure, Active and inert (sattva, rajas and tamas) are
the activities of prakriti — which correspond to light or radiance,
desire, and torpidity of nature — and are various degrees of the manifestation
of the Supreme Absolute.
For instance,
the Absolute exists in stone. Stone exists, but it cannot think. There is no
consciousness in it. It cannot even know that it exists. The existence aspect
of the Absolute is manifest in inanimate things like stone.
The life
principle, which is vitality, is manifest in plants and trees, which breathe
and feel hunger and thirst. The consciousness aspect in a translucent—not transparent—form
manifests itself in animals in the form of instinct.
And, in a more
perspicuous way, consciousness, chit, manifests itself in the
intelligence of the human being.
Thus, in the
process of evolution, existence gradually becomes consciousness. But bliss is
not fully manifest in the human individual.
We have
existence, we have consciousness, but we are not happy people. That is because
our consciousness is mixed with a little of rajas and tamas.
We are
overactive in an externalized sense, taking the world as a total reality that
is external to us. This causes distraction of the mind and senses to such an
extent that the integral bliss of the Absolute cannot manifest itself in us.
Thus, the
human being, though called the image of God, is only an image to some extent in
the existence and the consciousness aspects.
The bliss
aspect of the Absolute is manifest in some way in the deep sleep state, where
the mind and the sense organs do not operate.
Therefore,
whether these manifestations are sattvic, rajasic or tamasic,
or even the so-called evil things in the world, they can exist only if there is
an existent aspect to them.
Matta eveti
tān viddhi na tvahaṁ teṣu te mayi: “Know that everything—sattva, rajas, tamas,
and all their permutations and combinations—manifests from Me. They are
in Me, but I am not in them.”
Addressing the
deluded who has mistaken a post to be a ghost, the post can only
explain, "the ghost of your vision had risen from me alone, inasmuch
as, I alone lend to it its existence; but I, the post, am not in the ghost."
So, too, shall the ocean cry, "the waves rise, stay and dissolve away
in me; but I am not in the waves."
Existence-consciousness
is present in name and form, but name and form are not in existence. God is in
all things, but things are not in God. This is a peculiarity which we have to
note when God says, “Everything is in Me, but I am not in anything.”
This is
because all particulars hang on the Universal. The particulars cannot exist
unless the Universal is there, but the Universal can exist without the
particulars.
Hence,
“Everything is in Me, but I am not in them” — na tv ahaṁ teṣu te mayi.
Love.
