Gita Satsangh: Chapter 7 - God and the Universe (Part I) by Swami Krishnananda

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Gita Satsangh: Chapter 7 - God and the Universe (Part I) by Swami

Krishnananda of Divine Life Society.

 

This summary of chapter 7 is from the book,'The Philosophy of Bhagavad

Gita' by Swami Krishnananda. This summary is quite relevant at this

time of unrest. The advaitic perspective of Gita presumes that the

entire Gita is an xplaination of the the principle: `tat tvam asi.'

The first six chapters of Gita describe the `tvam' aspect of this

principle and the chapters 7 to 12 illustrate the `tat' aspect. Swami

Krishnananda's explanation of God and the Universe is quite excellent

and this will greatly help us to motivate the Satsangis to prepare

them spiritually.

 

By the time we reach the Seventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, we are

touching a new realm of being and the whole perspective that was

presented before us in the course of the earlier six chapters suddenly

changes, as if a curtain has been lifted in the dramatic portrayal of

the Gospel. There is an introduction of the soul of the seeker to the

empyrean of the Creator, a subject which has not been adequately

touched upon during the earlier course of the studies. There has been

a particular emphasis laid in the first six chapters upon the

individual, the duty of the person, the integration of the

psycho-physical complex. There has been an admonition in the earlier

chapters to the individual, or man as such, in his capacity as a soul

which aspires for the realization of higher values, so that this task

of self-integration gets completed when we reach the theme of the

Sixth Chapter wherein we place ourselves in the context of a total

preparation of ourselves to leap into the beyond. The individual is

suddenly set in tune with the universal in the Seventh Chapter. The

great Master tells at the commencement of this section that this

aspiration is a great blessing. And very, few in this world can have

the satisfaction of having received this divine blessing, viz., love

of God, and a complete preparation of oneself in the direction of God.

It is not that everyone will be fit even to contain the idea of the

Absolute in one's mind, let alone have a direct contact with it or an

experience of it. Even the entertaining of the notion of the Absolute

is a grand achievement. It is a great achieve ment indeed if anyone of

us can satisfactorily contain in our minds the nature or structure of

the Supreme Being.

That shall be regarded as an attainment in the practice of Yoga. A

whole-souled aspiration for God even in its initial stage is superior

to all verbal knowledge, intellectual acumen, or scriptural learning.

Very few will be inclined to turn to God. Most people are distracted

in the direction of the objects of the senses. People are in search of

satisfaction which is empirical, physical and egoistic. The bliss of

God is not the concern of the ordinary man, it is impossible even for

thinking and understanding. Not many have this endowment by which the

mind will agree to turn to God in his reality. But even among those

who are truly aspiring for the realization of God, only some will

really succeed in the attempt. It does not mean that everyone who

files an application will be chosen, because success in this path of

the Spirit is hard to attain in the case of the individual who is

lodged in the body and limited to the empirical categories of the

mind. With this cautious introduction the Teacher of the Bhagavadgita

takes us to a picture of the cosmos which is concisely explained in a

few words. The whole universe is constituted of the five Elements and

certain phases of the universal consciousness, the Elements being

grosser than the latter; earth, water, fire, air and » ether, the

Mind, Intellect, Ego. And here the teaching resembles to a large

extent the cosmological explanation offered by the Samkhya system. We

have touched upon this theme earlier on some occasion. The lowest

category of reality that we observe is the earth plane, physical

matter, solid substance, gross objects; all which can be grouped under

the category of the Mahabhutas, or the five elements. Anything that is

perceptible to the senses is regarded as material. The five elements,

so-called, are not five different substances as we might have heard it

said earlier. These elements are rather five degrees of the density of

the cosmic substance. It does not mean that there is a total

distinction of one from the other. According to the cosmology of the

Samkhya, and also their Vedanta, the effect can be resolved into the

cause, so that, ultimately, it can be said safely that space is the

container or the bosom of all things. These physical elements, earth,

water, fire, air and ether,-therefore, form the sum and substance of

the physical universe. But there are subtler realities which are not

accessible to the senses of the individual. The higher we go, the more

imperceptible does the object become because of the rarefaction of its

constituents. The Samkhya tells us that beyond the five elements,

subtler than the five elements, are what are called the Tanmatras, the

subtle essences of the five elements; something like the electrical

constitution of gross objects, though this analogy is not complete;

only we cannot explain it in a better manner. The substantiality of

the gross objects loses its accepted significance when we view it as

an eddy of electrical force, or energy, which is co-extensive with the

other parts of the universe, which are also constituted of similar

waves of force. Thus, there being only a continuum of energy, we are

bordering upon what the Samkhya calls Prakriti. All these details are

not in the verses of the Bhagavadgita, but the reference made is

certainly to these principles. Above the five gross elements, beyond

the Tanmatras or the subtle essences, behind all these, is the Cosmic

Thinking Principle. This is something which we cannot conceive and

cannot perceive. From the practical point of view, the Cosmic Reality

beyond the elements can only be an object of direct realization and

experience, and it can never be come a spatio-temporal object. But we

can infer the presence of the Cosmic Mind, by logical deduction from

facts of present experience. It is certain that the mind con ditions

the objects in some manner. But it is not proper to say that an

individual mind can condition the objects, though it is true that a

large contribution is made by the mental structure in the perception

of an object, so that it can be said that no object is seen as it is

in itself. Yet, at the same time, we cannot be sure that any

individual mind is the creator or a total conditioner of the object of

per ception. There is some sort of a reality in the object, not

withstanding the fact that there is a conditioning of the object by

the perceiving subject. What sort of subject is it that conditions the

object? It is not `my' mind or `your' mind, and there seems to tie a

Total Mind which extends far beyond the ken of the individual minds,

not only in quantity but even in quality,-a subject which is outside

the scope of our present studies. This is referred to in the verses of

the Bhagavadgita when the word "Manah" or the `Mind' is mentioned in

this context. The mind is superior to the physical elements. We would

be surprised to hear that the mind is superior to the elements. And a

little common-sense will tell us that it cannot be `our' mind that is

mentioned here, because nobody can say that our mind is superior to

the whole physical cosmos. Naturally, We have to identify this "Mind"

with the Cosmic Mind. There is, then, the Buddhi, the Cosmic

Intellect, known also as the Mahat in the Samkhya.

There is, again, the Ahamkara; the Cosmic Self Sense. The `Mahat; the

Cosmic Understanding, or Intelligence, is above the Ahamkara;

according to the Samkhya, and beyond that the indescribable continuum,

the Avyakta' as it is called, the `Prakriti' of the Samkhya, beyond

all which is the Supreme Resplendence of the Absolute, call it

`Purusha' or by any other name according to the schools of thought.

These are, broadly speaking, the constituents of the entire layers of

the cosmos. These are the eight forms of Prakriti, according to the

Bhagavadgita, though the Samkhya classification differs here in the

manner of the gradations and specifications of these principles.

Beyond all these forms of Prakriti there is a Higher Element which

regulates the operation of these lower elements, which is the

Principle of God himself working in a mysterious manner. Though

everything is caused by the permutation and combination of these

principles mentioned already, they are regulated and operated by the

will of a Superior Principle, which, in religious or theological

parlance, we call the Power of God; the Shakti of the Creator,

Preserver and Destroyer, the Energy of the Ab solute. Nothing outside

this Being can ever be. Everything is subsumed under this Great

Reality, so that the Samkhya of the Bhagavadgita overcomes the

difficulties of the dualism of the classical Samkhya. The Purusha and

the Prakriti of the Samkhya are subsidiary to the Supreme Being of the

Bhagavadgita. They are like the Attributes mentioned by Spinoza in his

metaphysical theology of the Supreme Substance. They are spiritual

categories and not merely qualities in the ordinary empirical sense.

This is the All-in All Being. The "I-Am-What-I-Am" is God in himself,

and not God as he appears to us. He cannot appear to anybody because

he is not an object of anybody's cognition or per ception.

The-Bhagavadgita is emphatic that God is all-in all and he is not

limited in any manner whatsoever, by anything outside him, because

nothing can ever be outside God. The movement of the soul towards God,

therefore, becomes an inexplicable process under the circumstances of

this superior definition of God. The idea of movement gets ruled out

in the context of the. Omnipresence of the Supreme Being, and yet it

has to be explained. It does not appear that the movement of the

aspiration is in a horizontal manner through space or even in time. It

is not a cover ing of distance as on a road, it is rather an ascent

from the lower degrees of concept and being to the higher ones. When

we travel from dream to waking,. we are not moving on a road by

sitting in a vehicle; yet we travel; it is true. The travel is a

psychological movement, more properly explicable as an ascent or

rising from the lower to the higher than a travel or movement in a

particular direction in space. Describing the possible character of

the movement of the soul towards God, we are told that there are four

types. of aspiring souls, all these aspirations being regarded as

worthwhile and very valuable in their own way. Our love for God is

variegated in its motivation. And the more perfect is the love or

aspiration, the greater is the chance of one's realization of God,

experience of the Absolute. The more we try to consider God as an

outside object, even though in a philosophical sense, the more is the

dif ficulty that we will encounter on the path, because God resents

any kind of a relinquishment of Him to the limbo of an objectivity of

perception. If God tolerates not any thing at all, it is our attitude

towards Him as if He is an object outside. And if God is the Soul of

the Cosmos, the Atman of all this consciousness behind every

experience, it should be impossible, even with the farthest stretch of

our imagination, to conceive Him as an object and to regard Him as

being away from us even by the distance of an inch. If God is not an

object, what should be our attitude towards God? All attitudes are

objective and are movements of the psyche. And if God is expected to

be a Cosmic Soul, the Self of all beings, it is impossible to speak of

any `attitude' or an ulteriorly motivated aspiration towards Him. Yet,

people belong to various categories and degrees of evolution and

experience.

(to be continued)