sloka 14 in 1st chapter of bhagvadgita {Part 1}

[Guest guest]

Jai Srimannarayana,

 

> "ramlal chandraganti"

> i would like to request you to mail me a writeup

> of the excellent commentary deliverd

> by swamiji on sloka 14 in 1st chapter of bhagvadgita

 

 

With complete surrender to our Acharya,

here is an attempt to present HH Sri Sri Sri Tridandi

Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami's kalakshepam on 14th Sloka of

Srimad Bhagavad Gita (SBG).

 

 

Upanishads have tremendous, fantastic power in them.

They convey the knowledge that we need to be aware of

in a lucid manner. Sa:stras have such terrific messages

to convey. The subject is conveyed in a nice form of

story. If we delve deeper out of interest and curiosity,

they teach us a moral. If we delve deeper they teach us

the values that define a living as a human being. Furthur

deeper are the greatest of all secrets, the most

scientific, spiritual and the science of spirituality

and lot more. All these are contained in one. But

superficially they seem like ordinary, simple stories but

these are actually wonderful divine secrets.

 

 

If there are some secrets that have to be revealed, no one

tells them directly and in a straight forward manner. All

secrets are encrypted, could be https, IPSec, could be

triple DES or could be some wireless encrypting technology

and special password mechanisms, but they are encrypted

according to proper standards and correspondingly we need

to develop the decrypting skills via a proper pipe, channel,

who is Guru(acharya), who inturn gets the decrypting key

passed on to him by the Purvacharyas.

 

In Srimand Bhagavad Gita(SBG) there are numerous such

secrets. If we try to understand on our own without the

proper key then there is a danger of mis-interpreting

and mis-representing the truth.

 

 

In SBG 1st Adyaya, 14th sloka is such fantastic, encrypted

capsule with lot of secretive directives.

 

On the exterior the slokam sounds simple and words being

used unnecessarily. SBG is summary of all the Vedas.

Vedavyasa Bhagawan primarily divided Vedas into four parts-

RugVeda, YaurVeda, SamaVeda and Atharva Veda. Each one of

them have several parts (sa:ka:s) and many subdivisions

(upa sa:ka:s). Sama Vedam has 1000 sub-divisions. Yajur

Vedam there are sukla yajur and krishna yajur vedas. Rig

and Yajur have again several sa:ka:s. Totally there are

1131 saka:s it seems.

 

 

Vedas tell us about what we need to know perfectly.

To gain knowledge ourselves we have indriyas. Through

eyes we can see the figures around us, Through ears

we are able to differentiate the various sounds,

through nose we identify smells, through tongue we

identify taste, skin lets us identify various touches.

But all cannot be identified by our indriyas. What

ever indriyas identify may not be the reality or the

truth.

 

Sometime back we might have been able to see things

perfectly with our eyes, but later on as we see, people

are foced to wear spectacles to see the objects and

furthur down their life they lose their vision. So

whatever gyanam that human beings get with these indriyas

cannot be 100 percent truth. Example is we might hear a

sound and immediately we associate this sound with a few

things. We might hear a huge sound some place and imagine

it to be an aeroplane flying in the air, but it might turn

out to be a powerful vacuum clearner being used somewhere

close by. We might hear a sound and imagine that to be

someone trying to start an engine. But in reality it might

be some kumbakarna's cousin snoring in the next room :-)

 

Thus due to the defeciencies with the capcity of our

indriyas we may not get to know about things and knowledge

perfectly.

 

 

Inside we have one more commodity called manas. Using

indriyas we might see a few things and associate them

with some features and correspondingly if we see some

features we might immediately associate this with some

object. We might see sunlight outside. Earlier we have

experienced and seen that when the sun comes out there

is sunlight. Consequently we will conclude that because

we see the sunlight there must be Sun. This science of

inference is called 'Anuma:nam' in Sanskrit. In Telugu

'Anumanam' means doubt which is entirely different.

 

Anumanam may not be always right and tell us things

perfectly. Morning we might wake up and see a lot of

smoke around, outside. We might think that there must

have been a tremendous fire, but it can turn out to

be a late morning fog.

 

If we see a macintosh i-mac, with special fish like

shape we identify such shape and display with a Mac.

We might see some other computer similar in shape and

immediately conclude that it is a Mac. But it could a

new HP machine bought out recently. We might see Linux

operating system with new interface and think it is

Windows Operating system.

 

 

Knowledge acquired via Indrivyas is called Pratyaksham.

Aksham means Indriyas and knowledge gained via akashas

is called Pratyaksham. 'Anuma:nam', the science of

inference , is another vehicle. We may not be able to

realize a few things with 'pratyaksh' and 'anumanam'.

We need some source which can tell us about things which

cannot be grasped either by Pratyaksham or Anuma:nam.

Only VEDA can tell us such things.

 

Pratyakshe:na anumitya:va yasthupayo nabudhdyate:

There are so many things which we dont know and cannot

know using the pratyaksham and anumanam. Around Moon there

is glow an aura which is formed which is called Parivesham.

Why is it formed? Why is atmospehere spread across only to

certain extent? Why is air flowing in certain directions in

certain seasons? Why are the waves of ocean which are so

powerful dying down as they reach the shore?

 

There are several things which are beyond our comprehension.

We started off by entering the womb of a woman and turn out to

become huge people. From such small shape our body grows into

massive forms. How are all this huge trees formed from such a

small seed?

 

Knowlege which cannot be grasped by us can be found in Vedas.

Vedas are called apaurusheyas. Purusha means Jiva. This can be

a man or a woman. When the soul is in the body we normally keep

calling that person in regular day to day life as Purusha. This

body is called 'puri'. One who stays in the body is the soul.

Hence the soul is called purusha. People (purushas) who write

various literature are called paurusheyas. These paurusheyas

have certain defeciencies. "brama, prama:da, vipralambha,

asaktata" are the four deficiencies which can creep into the

paurusheya:s. Vedas are apaurusheyas, nirdhustas, nityas,

ananta:s. Hence they do not have these negative deficiencies

in them.

 

SBG is means that Lord Krishna uses to convey the essence of

faultess Vedas which inturn is Bhagavan's va:kku. This is

conveyed beutifully in the 14th Sloka of SBG.

 

To be continued.......

 

Jai Srimannarayana

Raghuram Mudumbai

Ramanuja Dasa

_________

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