Bhagwad Gita - Post 87

Verse 7

Mattah parataram naanyat

Kinchidasti dhananjaya;

Mayi sarvamidam protam

Sootre maniganaa iva.

There is nothing whatsoever higher than Me, O Arjuna! All this is strung on Me as clusters of gems on a string.

In this verse, very emphatically the Lord says, “Nothing outside Me can exist, not even this universe.” He transcends the universe by saying, “Even this universe that I have been describing to you cannot be there without Me; and higher than Me, nothing can be.” 

Parataram can mean ‘external to Me’ or ‘higher than Me’. “Beyond Me, there is nothing. Outside Me, there is nothing. There is nothing either as the fourteen worlds, the gods in heaven or what is called prakriti; nothing of that kind can be outside Me.” 

Now the Sankhya has been transcended. The Purusha Supreme is speaking: “Prakriti cannot be outside Me.” But the Sankhya says that Prakriti is immortal, that it is as indestructible as Purusha itself. 

If that is the case, there is a predicament regarding the relationship between consciousness and matter, purusha and prakriti, which is transcended here in the Vedanta of the Bhagwad Gita. 

“I transcend everything, even prakriti, and it cannot exist without Me. It cannot even be outside Me, let alone without Me.” If that is the case, if the whole cosmos is not outside God, then it is permeated by the immanence of God, and every atom in the cosmos dances with the power of the Soul which it assumes from the Almighty Himself. 

Shri Krishna addresses Arjuna as the Dhananjaya, the conquerer of wealth, and makes a bold statement. He says that other than Purusha, there is nothing in this universe. This means Purusha alone exists in the universe. Other than him, there is nothing else.

Mayi sarvam idam protam sutre maṇigaṇa iva: “As beads are strung on a thread, the whole universe is strung on Me.” The beads cannot become a garland or a mala unless there is a thread. 

“There would be no cohesion, no principle, no meaning, no future, and no sense in anything if there was no thread underneath to connect the little bits of creation. I am that thread—the Supreme Soul—and, therefore, I am everything.”

Sri Krishna says that Purusha  pervades the entire universe just like this string pervades the entire necklace. When we apply our intellect, the necklace and the beads disappear, as it were, and only the string remains. 

Each bead contains the string, but the string contains all the beads. In other words, the string is all-pervading. With the knowledge that Shri Krishna imparts in this chapter, we should strive for piercing through the world of names and forms and only seeing Purusha.

Sveta Ashvatara Upanishad says,

Tam isvaraṇaṃ paramaṃ mahesvaraṃ

Taṃ devatanaṃ paramaṃ ca daivataṃ

Patiṃ patinaṃ paramaṃ parastad

Vidama devaṃ bhuvanesam iḍyam  (6.7 )

We know Him who is the Supreme Lord of lords, the Supreme Deity of deities, the Ruler of rulers; who is higher than the imperishable prakriti and is the self-luminous, adorable Lord of the world.

All these adjectives are used to emphasize the uniqueness of Brahman. He is the supreme among all gods. He is self-luminous and the God of all gods, the Ruler of all the rulers. He is higher than Brahma. He rules the world and is the sole object of worship in the world. He is to be known as our own self.

In the teachings given through other blog posts etc. (creation of universe, veda and vedanta etc), this Purusha is understood as the Pure canvass described in the Panchadasi 6th chapter, Brahman or Pure consciousness described in various posts. 

When we come across commentary given by any Dvaitin, the entire declaration by Krishna is given by the Dvaitins as about the Neela mega Shyamala Krishna. 

But a careful understanding of even this verse where He declares that He is beyond this creation, then we can understand that it is not about the form, but it is about THAT which is beyond all forms, beyond creation and beyond even Prakriti.

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 86

Dear All,

In the upcoming posts, we will deal with few important verses from chapter 7.

Verse 4

Bhoomiraapo’nalo vaayuh

Kham mano buddhireva cha;

Ahamkaara iteeyam me

Bhinnaa prakritirashtadhaa.

Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egoism — thus is My Nature divided eightfold.

Lord Krishna says, “My prakriti, the material out of which I have created this cosmos, can be classified under eight principles.” Earth, water, fire, air, and ether are five well-known physical elements; they are known as bhūmir āpo’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ. 

These are the gross manifestations of the subtle substances behind them, which are known as tanmatras: sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa and gandha. These five elements are the principal building bricks of the cosmos. 

Then there is the mind, which is the subtle, rarefied matter which reflects consciousness through it as a mirror reflects one’s face. Then there is buddhi which understands, decides, and logically concludes, and ahamkara which is self-conscious. So, earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect and egoism are the eight categories out of which the whole cosmos has been manufactured, as it were, by God.

In the blog, there is a specific theme -  “Manas,Buddhi, Chiitta and Ahankara”. Out of these 4, 3 are covered above. Chitta is a part of Ahankara in the context of this verse.

Verse 5

Apareyamitastwanyaam

Prakritim viddhi me paraam;

Jeevabhootaam mahaabaaho

Yayedam dhaaryate jagat.

This is the inferior Prakriti, O mighty-armed (Arjuna)! Know thou as different from it My higher Prakriti (Nature), the very life-element by which this world is upheld.

Sri Krishna proceeds further and says, “What I have mentioned to you up to this time as the eightfold constituents of the cosmos are lower categories; but there is something which is higher — through which, by which, I sustain the cosmos.” 

It is not enough if we have only these categories, just as building material does not make the building. It has to be synthesized, organized, given a living touch by a mason or an architect; only then the building material becomes a house to live in. 

 

So, all these that have been mentioned as the eight constituents are the building bricks of the cosmos. They are the material. 

But who will build the house? 

“I myself build it by entering into it as the mason, as it were, and giving life to it.” 

Unless there is a cohesive force, there cannot be the coming together of the discrete items which are prakriti’s constituents. 

Jīvabhūtāṁ mahābāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat: “I become the cosmic jiva. I, as the jiva tattva of the cosmos, the vitality of the cosmos, keep all these elements in unison so that you see a universe rather than chaos.” 

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 85

Verse 3

Manushyaanaam sahasreshu

Kashchidyatati siddhaye;

Yatataamapi siddhaanaam

Kashchinmaam vetti tattwatah.

Among thousands of men, one per chance strives for perfection; even among those successful strivers, only one per chance knows Me in essence.

In this verse, the word siddhi has been used for perfection. This is a word loaded with numerous connotations and meanings. 

Here are a few meanings of the word siddhi from the Sanskrit dictionary: attainment of a supernatural power, accomplishment, success, performance, fulfillment, solution of a problem, completion of  a task, healing, hitting the mark, maturing, supreme felicity, beatitude, an unusual skill or faculty, perfection. 

Sri  Krishna uses the word for perfection on the spiritual path, and says, “Arjuna, out of innumerable souls, only a tiny proportion possess the human form. Amongst those who have attained the human birth, only a few strive for perfection. 

Even amongst thousands of perfected souls, those who are aware of my paramount position and divine glories are very rare.”

In modern age, with science reaching its peak sophistication, with man getting so much of comforts / luxury at his beck and call, with 1000s of avenues for man’s monkey mind to jump and to cling for (so called) happiness, where does he stand with respect to the spiritual instructions / discourses of  Upanishads, Bhakti treatise, with respect to  teachings given by avatar / continuous downpour of sessions / discourses given by  realized masters ?

·       Amongst the sea of humanity, few  (may be 100 in a vast majority) actually have interest to read / listen to spiritual   teachings. 

·       All others  are satisfied with ritual prayers / temple visits on occasions etc.

·       For these  human beings, God is the one who may bestow them money / health etc., and for the same, they offer God something in return. 

·       So, it is like, "God,  you give me this thing and I shall give you such and such thing". 

·       Out of the 100 human beings mentioned above, may be around 10 of them actually feel that they should seriously reflect upon what they read / listen in their spiritual journey.

·       Other 80 feel good while reading / listening to the discourses but as soon as they get up, within no time, they are caught up in Samsara. 

·       The glitter of objective world is so strong that almost like slave, they  get carried away. 

·       Lacking conviction in the spiritual path, they often get carried away by the pulls and push  of this Samsara.

·       Out of the 20, around 5 or so actually contemplate seriously  on  such teachings. 

·       And, at last, chances are that 1 or 2  among those  5 may actually  take the goal of God-Realization as the only purpose and give  their heart and soul for pursuing sadhana with dedication  to achieve that goal. 

·       It is about such a person that Sri Krishna has given assurance in a verse in last chapter  that he will be born in a noble family, get a conducive environment, start from where he left in the previous birth, proceed to realize SELF at the earliest, if not in the same birth.

Author can present a case study in this present life in the last 9 years where, almost around 50+ devotees / beings would have come to him to take up spiritual sessions. 

Out of them, now, after 9 years, less than 5 remain, who are steadfast in  spiritual sessions, imbibing all the sessions imparted to them and engaged in non-stop, wholehearted spiritual sadhana.

He lovingly keeps  prompting  devotees about contemplating on spiritual teachings, as he knows, any forcing in this path is never going to work. 

Sometimes, he looks up to Sai and asks, "You engaged me in this mission and now, You do not send Your devotees to take the lessons (which flows through me but essentially given by You only), what do I do?"

Sai,  (as though), smiles at Him and says, "How many  have taken my teachings from 1940 to 2010 seriously, so why do you worry if you are not able to give to others, what I have bestowed upon you?"

When a student tells Swami that during vacation, he is going to spread Swami's Leela, Swami's glory in and around his native place, Swami looks at him and says, "O I see, you will spread My teachings / glory in just  2 months? I myself have been trying for 60 years and have not succeeded".

When Swami says so, He points out that even if incarnation comes and wakes up human beings, it is not necessary that all will wake up to His divine call, take His teachings seriously!

Sri Chinmayananda writes, 

“It is not sufficient that we know how to eradicate our weaknesses and cultivate our inward strength, but we must also live up to those ideals and try to bring about the necessary readjustments in ourselves. 

Very few can discover in themselves this necessary urge to evolve. Of the thousands that hear intelligently, and perhaps understand all the theory and text of Vedanta, only a few sincerely apply themselves to live fully the Vedantic way of-life.

Even among a thousand such sincere seekers, only a rare-few "come to know me and my real nature."

Love.