Bhagwad Gita - Post 170

Verse 32

Anaaditwaan nirgunatwaat

Paramaatmaayam avyayah;

Shareerastho’pi kaunteya

Na karoti na lipyate.

Being without beginning and devoid of (any) qualities, the Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Arjuna, neither acts nor is tainted!

Anāditvān: It has no qualities of any kind as we know qualities here. 

Nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ: It is imperishable because it is indestructible. 

The Supreme Self, though existing in this body as the deepest self in us, does not involve itself in any contamination of the gunas of prakriti. 

Na karoti na lipyate: He neither does anything, nor is He contaminated by the fruits of action.

In an earlier talk, it was explained that consciousness remains uncontaminated by anything that takes place, just as space inside a vessel cannot become affected by things that we pour into the vessel. 

If we pour something fragrant into the vessel, the space inside it, does not become fragrant; or if we put something which smells foul into the vessel, the space inside it does not become bitter/foul smelling. 

Similarly, the witness consciousness in all of us, which is the light of the sun in the sky, as it were, is untarnished by anything that may happen to our Gross body (physical) or Subtle body (mind/intellect/vasanas etc.)

Verse 33

Yathaa sarvagatam

Saukshmyaadaakaasham nopalipyate;

Sarvatraavasthito dehe

Tathaatmaa nopalipyate.

As the all-pervading ether is not tainted because of its subtlety, so the Self seated everywhere in the body, is not tainted.

The subtlest reality is consciousness, and all things that are external to it, of which it is conscious, are gross. Everything in the world is gross; therefore, consciousness — which is the subtlest of being — cannot actually get involved in anything in this world, the two being dissimilar in nature. 

The subtle cannot enter into the gross, and the gross cannot affect the subtle. 

Because of the subtlety of the Supreme Being and its all-pervading nature—sarvatrāvasthita—it is not affected by anything that takes place in creation, either by evolution or involution. 

As the waters of the mirage cannot drench the desert, the world of plurality - the domain of matter and its activities - cannot contaminate the Eternal. 

The Self, though permeates and pervades the whole body, is not soiled by its virtuous or vicious actions just as space is not dirtied by the things accommodated under it. 

  

Love.

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.