Bhagwad Gita - Post 23

Dear All,

Having covered the essence of the second chapter verses dealing with SELF, we move on to the next part - Dharma or action / duties. 

Verse 31

Swadharmam api chaavekshya

na vikampitum arhasi;
Dharmyaaddhi yuddhaacchreyo'nyat

kshatriyasya na vidyate.

Further, having regard to your own duty, you should not waver, for there is nothing higher for a Kshatriya than a righteous war.

Having established the fact that it is not intelligent to lament about the soul of any living entity, Lord Krishna subsequently responds to Arjuna’s supplication on what is in his highest good with the word Swadharma or principles of righteousness. 

Lord Krishna is emphasizing this to Arjuna so that he will follow his duty as a kshatriya and act like a warrior. 

For, to act contrary and hesitate is not in accordance with kshatriya code according to Vedic scriptures and such a deviation by Arjuna, would be considered an act of unrighteousness. 

What then is duty? Righteousness is duty which is not separate from those who are righteous. For a kshatriya there is nothing more welcome than the opportunity to fight a battle to protect righteousness. 

Swa-dharma is one’s duty as an individual, in accordance with the Vedas. There are two kinds of swa-dharmas, or prescribed duties for the individual — spiritual duties and material duties. 

Since a vast majority of humankind does not possess this spiritual perspective, the Vedas also prescribe duties for those who see themselves as the body. These duties are defined according to one’s āśhram (station in life), and varṇa (occupation). They are mundane duties. 

This distinction between spiritual duties and material duties needs to be kept in mind while understanding the Bhagwad Gita and the Vedic philosophy at large.

By occupation, Arjun was a warrior, and so his occupational duty as a warrior was to fight for the protection of righteousness. Sri Krishna is calling this swa-dharma, or prescribed duty at the bodily level.

Krishna tells Arjuna to fulfil his duty as a Kshatriya. A Kshatriya’s obligation is to uphold righteousness, protect the good and ensure that justice prevails. Here is a war that has come to Arjuna unsought. He must display courage, valour and skill. Instead Arjuna is focusing on extraneous issues and getting overpowered by emotion.

Now, let us try to get deeper into this SWADHARMA in spiritual sense.

In Spiritual sense, SWA+DHARMA = Dharma of SELF or ATMA DHARMA.

For example, every nation has its written constitution. We have our constitution in India. 

So, all the legislative laws and decisions have to be in a way that they are within the framework of the constitution. Many a times, laws are challenged in court. In such situations, court decides whether the concerned law is in accordance with the constitution. If the law is within the constitution, it is upheld otherwise, court declares the law as invalid and it is struck down.

So, Atmadharma means - “You shall do nothing, which is against the nature of Atma”.

We all know the story of Sibi Chakravarthy. Once a pigeon seeks refuge in Sibi, saying that it is being chased by an eagle. When the eagle comes, Sibi warns the eagle to leave the pigeon alone. 

The eagle then challenges Sibi and says, 

“O King, you are known to strictly adhere to Dharma. I too follow my own Dharma which is to survive by hunting. You are interfering in my dharma.

You may be right in following your dharma to protect the one (pigeon) who has sought refuge but how about my dharma? Are you not obstructing my dharma?”

The story goes that King Sibi honors the Dharma of the eagle and offers to the eagle flesh from his own body, equal in weight to that of the pigeon.

Paradharma of duty at physical level changes from person to person and in fact, for the same person himself depending upon which ashram he is in. His duties are different in his childhood, in his youth, as a householder etc.

However, irrespective of the varnas, irrespective of diversities in human beings, ATMA DHARMA is the same for one and all.

Continued…

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 22

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.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 21

Verse 23

Nainam cchindanti shastraani

nainam dahati paavakah;

Na chainam kledayantyaapo

na shoshayati maarutah.

(Weapons cut it not, fire burns it not, water wets it not, wind dries it not.)

It could be interjected that just as in a burning house the occupants of the house are burned along with it, so also in the case of the soul if the physical body is burnt or cut might not the soul be burnt or cut as well. 

To annihilate this misconception the Supreme Lord Krishna explains that never can the soul be cut by weapons, never can the soul be burned by fire, never can the soul be moistened by water and never can the soul be withered by air. 

Although only one use of the word na meaning never would have been sufficient to establish the premise of utter futility in trying to destroy the soul, it is used four times to strengthen the emphasis insuring there is not even the slightest vestige of doubt.

WEAPONS CLEAVE IT NOT --- It is very well-known that with an axe one can cut down a thing, but neither can one wound water, fire, air or space with a sword, however sharp it might be. 

The principle is that no instrument can hit or destroy an element subtler than itself. Naturally, therefore, Atman, the Self, the very cause of the subtlest element, space, and necessarily therefore, subtler than space, cannot be cut asunder by the gross instruments.

FIRE CANNOT BURN IT --- Fire generally can burn things other than the fire, but it cannot burn itself. The burning capacity in fire is the very Essence, the Truth in it, and therefore, fire cannot burn its own Essence, viz., its fiery nature. 

Wherever there is fire, it can consume things only in space and yet, space is never consumed by fire. Things are consumed by fire in space. If space itself cannot be consumed by fire, how impotent it must feel when it tries to consume the cause of space, the Self?

WATER CANNOT MOISTEN IT --- Things get soaked only when they have got inter-space in themselves. A piece of bread can be soaked in water or milk, but a piece of iron cannot be soaked, as iron has no inter-space in it.

When the substance is one homogeneous mass containing nothing other than itself to condition it, water cannot enter the substance and, therefore, cannot soak it. 

Another method of destruction observed is either through the quick effects of water, that is drowning, etc., or through the slow effects of moisture, such as corroding, etc. Even these cannot destroy the Truth.

WIND DRIES IT NOT --- Dehydration is possible only when there are some traces of water in the substance dehydrated. Every crystal has its own water of crystallization, which, when removed, causes the crystals to lose their distinct shapes and forms and get pulverized into a fine powder. 

The Supreme Consciousness contains nothing other than Itself and therefore, annihilation through the process of dehydration is not possible.

The unseen is always explained in terms of the seen, and thereby the unknown becomes fully indicated, rather than defined; for, any unknown thing merely defined in itself remains as unknown as before. 

Similarly, here, the Changeless, Immutable, Self is being described by Lord Krishna in terms of the mutable and ever-changing world which is very familiar to Arjuna and all people like us. In the world-of-change, objects come to their annihilation through instruments of death or they are consumed by fire or destroyed by water or dried up by air. 

Say to yourself, ‘weapons cannot cut me.’ But weapons kill your body! Then who are you? If you believe yourself to be the body, mind and intellect you get affected by the world. You become a victim, tossed around by the fluctuations in the world. Shift your focus to Atman. 

The world will no longer torment you. Even the mind, intellect and vasanas are immune to physical changes in the world. When you are engrossed in a book you are oblivious to hunger, thirst and other demands of the body.

The masters emphasize that all suffering is because of wrong identification. The world by itself has no power to disturb you. You become vulnerable when you mistakenly believe yourself to be the body-mind-intellect. 

When you understand you are Atman the world ceases to traumatize you. You may interact with the world and do what you have to but as a master, not slave. Only then can you enjoy the world.

Love.