Gita Satsangh: Swami Dayananda: Part III: Gita Chapter VII Verses 27 to 28

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Namaste:

 

Poojya Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the founder of Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

studied under the guidance of Swami Chinmayanandaji and he is a great

Vedantin. Swamiji's commentary and explanation are from the Advaita

Philosophical point of view. Let me take this opportunity to thank

Swamiji for granting permission to post his Homestudy Gita Notes to

the list. The Gita Homestudy Gita Notes along with chanting of the

entire Gita verses are available at

Arshavidyagurukulam.(.http://www.arshavidya.org/)

 

Part III: Gita Chapter VII Verses 27 to 28

 

WHEN ISVARA IS NOT KNOWN

In any theology, Isvara is accepted as the efficient cause, the author

of the entire world. And the creation, in most theologies, is looked

upon as real. That is the problem. Certain theologies confound this

further by claiming that Isvara has created this world, which is real,

out of nothing. How something has come out of nothing is not

intelligible. A variation on this is that Isvara has created the world

out of his power.

Not only has he created the world, he has created each individual —

every body, every mind and every soul. Among the theologies that hold

this view, some contend that only human beings have a soul. Animals

and other creatures do not. That is why even a very religious person

will have no qualms about killing animals and eating meat. His

theology tells him that they have no souls and are meant for food.

Thus each human being has a soul and each soul has to seek God —

because God loves him. First he creates me, condemns me to this body

with all its problems, creates all kinds of difficulties for me, and

then asks me to believe that he loves me, because he is my father. If

he loves me why should he create all these irritants — some of which

are not even visible? At least if I can see them I can deal with them.

But no. I simply innocently breathe in, because I was made that way,

and inhale all sorts of germs. Then when I breathe out, the germs

remain inside and cause disease in me. And I am told he loves me! When

this is so, every individual has to seek the mercy of Isvara — through

a mediator, of course, because he is a sinner. This is an erroneous

conclusion, and as long as it is there, there is no way Isvara can be

known. He is, by the very definition, eternally remote, nitya-paroksa.

If Isvara is other than me, I have to assign a place for him somewhere

in this creation. Suppose he is in heaven, and suppose I go there and

get very near to him. After all he must have a body of his own, his

own atma, mind and senses etc. No matter how near I am, I will only

see that he has a body and he is right in front of me — still paroksa.

I will not know the truth of Isvara. Even though, I am standing before

Isvara and saying that he is all-knowing etc., with my limited

knowledge, how am I going to understand that? I will still know only

as much as my limited understanding will allow. How am I going to

understand omniscience? It can never be understood by someone with

limited knowledge, an alpajna can never know what omniscience is.

All-knowledge will remain only with the one who is all-knowing.

Every contention of this sort was covered by Bhagavan himself in the

simple statement, `avyaktam mam vyaktim apannam manyante abuddhayah —

those who lack discrimination consider Me, the one who is unmanifest

as one endowed with a particular form. So, they do not know Me.' This

is what Sankara is talking about here — the absence of knowledge of

the truth of Isvara. Because of that, all these beliefs arise.

THE TRUTH OF ISVARA

The truth is that Isvara is consciousness, Brahman, conditioned by

maya — maya-avacchinna-caitanya. Maya is the upadhi for Brahman. At

this point, one may ask as to what is the difference between Isvara,

which is Brahman conditioned by maya-upadhi, and Brahman? Maya does

not exist apart from Brahman. It depends upon it entirely. Being

mithya, maya's reality is Brahman, so, maya is also Isvara. And Isvara

is nothing but Brahman.

The sruti points out and my own experience confirms that when I look

at this world, I find any given thing is nothing but a name and a

form. No matter what I analyse, I find it reduced to something else

which is in turn reduced to something else. I cannot say categorically

of anything that it exists of its own accord. Everything is reduced to

its constituent reality. The constituent reality of the table is

nothing but its substance, wood, which itself is reduced to particles

and so on. Everything is reducible; so, we have a world whose reality

is mithya; it exists but not independently.

To create this mithya world, Isvara requires some material, a mithya

cause. That is maya, the factor responsible for making that same

limitless consciousness appear as all-knowing, sarvajna; all-powerful,

sarva-saktiman, the author of this whole world, sarva-srs¶i-karta, and

so on. The authorship, and so on, belong only to what is conditioned

by maya, Brahman. That Brahman, consciousness, atma, with reference to

maya becomes the author of the creation. Because he is sarvajna, he

does not have doership. He knows himself. Omniscience, and so on, is

with reference to maya-upadhi. With reference to himself he is satyam

jnanam anantam brahma, pure consciousness. He is not ignorant of this

fact.

The material, because of which he is called Isvara, his maya-upadhi,

becomes the material cause for the whole world. As a material cause,

maya must undergo changes to become this variegated world and is

therefore, as we have seen, parinami-upadana-karana, a material cause

that undergoes modification. Maya changes to become space, air, fire,

water, earth, plants, food, a physical body, etc. The whole world is

maya. And maya is Isvara. Therefore, the world is Isvara who, in

reality, is nothing but consciousness, Brahman. Brahman, however, does

not undergo any change and is therefore, as we have seen,

vivarta-upadana-karana, something that does not undergo any change,

and yet makes all changes possible. From the standpoint of

consciousness, Brahman is vivarta-upadana-karana. Whereas maya is

parinami-upadana-karana. Thus Brahman is the material and also the

efficient cause for this entire world because Isvara is nothing but

Brahman.

HOW ISVARA IS APAROKâA

When one talks of the entire world, one generally excludes one's own

body. That is the whole problem. Everything that is created has to be

included — your physical body, prana, senses, mind, and the entire

subtle and gross world have to be included. All this you can now say,

is Isvara. That Isvara is nothing but Brahman. Now between Isvara and

the world what is the difference? There is none at all. And between

Isvara and Brahman there is no difference. Therefore, all this is

nothing but Brahman — sarvam khalu idam brahma, there is nothing else

here — neha nana asti kincana.

Right now, I as an individual am discussing all this about Isvara. And

the physical body of this individual as well as your physical body is

included in the Isvara-upadhi. The prana, sense organs, mind,

intellect, memories are all included. Only atma, consciousness is left

out. Now it is very clear how Isvara is aparoksa. When you say, `I

am,' that `I' is Brahman, consciousness. There is no other `I.'

Consciousness is Brahman and Brahman is Isvara. This entire world,

including the body, the mind, the senses etc., is Isvara. And what is

behind it all is consciousness, Brahman. Therefore, all this is you.

So, where is Isvara? You, consciousness, are the only Isvara; there is

no other. Everything is Isvara and therefore, everything is you. This

is what we call jiva-Isvara-abheda, the non-difference between the

individual and Isvara. Isvara is nothing but Brahman, consciousness,

and that consciousness is yourself. This is aparoksa.

PAROKâA-ISVARA IS A CONCESSION

There is no paroksa-isvara in reality. Only the one who does not have

this knowledge looks upon Isvara as paroksa. He is only interested in

an Isvara who is paroksa. And this is because he has not understood

that there is no such thing as paroksa-isvara.

Bhagavan has said however that even if they invoke Me as

paroksa-isvara, still I will establish their sraddha by giving

appropriate results for their actions. The hope is that one day,

because of their good karma, they will also come to know him. A

devotee will never go to a bad lot, whatever be his religion. And one

day, he will realise the truth because good karmas have their results.

But why do they worship these other devastas? Why don't they seek you

directly? It is because they do not know; they not even suspect the

truth of Myself. In fact they establish a theology, which is against

it. That theology may draw out of them a certain emotional commitment,

which does not allow them to analyse the theology objectively. They

cannot even acknowledge the possibility of knowing the Lord. If that

is so, how can they recognise him as aparoksa i.e., as oneself?

Obstructed by yoga-maya, people do not understand the truth of the

Lord and therefore, do not know him. What are these obstructions? The

expression, yoga-maya, indicates these very broadly but now these are

given in some detail in this verse.

icchadvesasamutthena dvandvamohena bharata

sarvabhutani sammoham sarge yanti parantapa Verse 27

bharata — O the one who is born in the Bharata race! (Arjuna);

parantapa — O Scorcher of enemies! sarge — in the world;

iccha-dvesa-samutthena — born of desire and aversion; dvandva-mohena —

due to the delusion of opposites; sarvabhutani — all beings; sammoham

yanti — go to total delusion;

O Bharata, O the Scorcher of the enemies, all beings, due to delusion

of the opposites arising from desire and aversion, go into a state of

total delusion in this creation.

Sarva-bhutani sammoham sarge yanti. All beings in this creation, from

the beginning of creation, go to a state of total delusion. Sarge, in

creation, means they have this delusion even when they are born. What

is that delusion and how is it caused? It is a delusion, which is born

of dvandva, the opposites dvandva-mohena. What are those opposites and

where do they come from? They arise from desire and aversion —

iccha-dvesa-samutthena. Likes and dislikes create opposites, committed

opposites, out of which, delusion, moha, is born.

THE PROBLEM WITH OPPOSITES

The opposites themselves are not a problem. Heat is not a problem nor

is cold. Similarly success or failure is not a problem. In fact, even

labelling something a success indicates that there is already a

problem. How do you label something a success? It is purely from the

standpoint of your expectation. Suppose you are a cook and tasting the

food you have prepared, you decide it is a failure. But the person you

have prepared it for thinks it is wonderful. You think it is failure

because it is overcooked. But that is exactly the way he likes it. So,

is it a success or a failure? There is no such thing as success and

failure; it is all our own creation. We set arbitrary goals for

ourselves and then judge ourselves as a success or failure. The very

word success has an element of subjective judgement. And so does the

word failure.

These opposites are all created by our own iccha and dvesa. Iccha is

raga —what you want. Dvesa is what you do not want. Some opposites are

created by Isvara; like hot and cold, night and day. What you do and

do not want are created only by you. Suppose you want the day to be

lengthened and the night to be shortened. This is a dvandva created by

you. Isvara only created day and night. It is your own likes and

dislikes that make it a set-up for you in terms of opposites. You want

one; you do not want other. This is what we call being caught between

the horns of the opposites. You can only get caught if you have

powerful likes and dislikes. Only then will you have a delusion about

success, failure, gain-loss etc. These consume your attention, keeping

you busy and worried either about the previous failure or the imminent

failure.

It is because we want to control everything that we have all these

problems. With two hands and legs and five senses, some of which do

not function at all well, and a mind, which has very limited

information, we want to control the whole world. We cannot even

control the bugs. How are we going to control the entire world? In

this attempt to control, we fall under a great spell of delusion.

Sankara says that the iccha and dvesa themselves are the opposites,

opposed to each other like heat and cold. One is the cause of

pleasure, the other of sorrow. An iccha has as its object something

desirable, something capable of giving you pleasure. A dvesa has

something undesirable, something capable of giving you pain. In their

own time, Sankara adds, meaning now you have one set of likes and

dislikes, later they may be different. They are connected to the

individual. As they arise in one's mind, they create delusion, moha.

Strong likes and dislikes control the discriminative faculty causing a

multifaceted delusion. This obstructs the rise of knowledge of the

reality of the jiva and Isvara. In the Gita, all of psychology is

brought under iccha and dvesa; and it is adequate to explain all the

problems. If you are able to manage your likes and dislikes, you have

the right mind for this knowledge. But this moha, born of the

opposites, completely deludes people.

WHAT IS A DELUSION?

A delusion obstructs even the desire for this knowledge, leave alone

the knowledge. In a mind which is possessed by likes and dislikes,

even correct knowledge of external objects is not possible. For

example, I once knew a man who was possessed by greed. To save money

he always purchased the cheapest items. Once he bought a bag of coffee

for only three rupees when its normal price would be ten rupees. When

he got home, he discovered that only the top half-inch was coffee; the

rest was sawdust. Because of iccha, his greed, his vision was blinded.

Iccha-dvesas also include anxiety and fear. Iccha produces anxiety and

dvesa, produces fear. A person with fear will see a snake in every

rope, a thief in every post. When they are powerful, likes and

dislikes cause a variety of mental conditions producing an inner

torpor that does not allow you to see things as they are. That is

moha. It is like a veil that partially blinds the intellect and as a

result things, are not seen properly. What has no value seems to have

an overwhelming value. If even external objects are not very clear,

one will not be able to discern between what is proper and improper.

Purusartha will definitely not be clear and priorities will be all

confused. Where is the question of knowledge of atma?

In the verses 18 and 19, of this chapter, Bhagavan had talked about

the jnani, the one who knows him. Who are these people who come to

know Bhagavan directly?

yesam tvantagatam papam jananam punyakarmanam

te dvandvamohanirmukta bhajante mam drdhavratah Verse 28

tu — but; yesam— for those; punya-karmanam jananam — people of good

actions; papam antagatam — papa has come to an end; te — they;

dvandva-moha-nirmuktah — being released from the delusion of the

opposites; drdha-vratah — being of firm commitment; mam bhajante— seek

Me

But people of good actions, for whom papa has come to an end, being

released from the delusion of the opposites, being firm in their

commitment, they seek Me.

The word tu meaning `however,' is to distinguish these people from

those in the previous verses. Yesam jananam punyakarmanam means `for

those people who have done good karmas.' They refuse to be under the

spell of their likes and dislikes and instead use their free will to

do good karma and refrain from papa-karma. In doing good karma they

neutralise the old papa by creating adrs¶a. And they insulate

themselves against doing new papa-karma by daily prayers and adherence

to dharma. These are punyakarmas, that is, these are people whose

actions are good and are done with a proper attitude. Sankara defines

punya-karma as karma which causes purification of the mind. And the

person who has done such actions is called a punyakarma. And also

these are those for whom the papa-karmas have reached their end —

yesam papam antagatam. This means the tendency to do wrong actions is

no longer there. It is not necessary for them to use their will to

avoid papa-karma. These are mature people. They are free from

papa-karma because they no longer have even the tendency to do them.