Panchajanyam Hrshikesah-chapter9-adhyaya7

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Chapter9- Knowledge and experience-Nature of Brahman

 

(Adhyaya7)

 

 

 

The foremost among yogis has been described in the sixth adhyaya as the

one who worships the Lord as his innerself with full faith Krishna now

elaborates on the power and the glory of the Supreme self in the

seventh and the next three adhyayas before He manifests in His cosmic

form to Arjuna.He says that those whose mind is set on the Lord and

practise meditation on Him come to know the real nature of Him. When

that knowledge dawns there is nothing more to know. This has reference

to the upanishadic statement 'yEna asrutham srutham bhavathi amatham

matham avijnAtham vijnAtham,(Chan.6-1-6) That knowledge (about supreme

self) through which what is unheard becomes heard, what is unthought of,

becomes thought of ,what is unknown becomes known.' This is the

promissory statement which prcedes the instrcution on Brahman whcih ends

with 'thathvamasi, that thou art.

 

 

 

Krishna begins by saying that this knowledge is very rare since there is

one in thousand who strives to acquire it among which only one comes to

know the re4ality as it is. 'manushyANAm sahasrEshu kaschith yathathi

siddhayE,yathathAmapi siddhAnam kaschinmAm vetthi thathvathah.'(BG.7-3)

Here the words kaschinmAm vetthi thathvathah only one comes to know Me,'

in truth is to be taken to mean the Lord, Brahman of the Upanishads and

Narayana of visishtadvaita who is Krishna in reality whose identity

only very few had the indight to see.

 

 

 

Then Krishna starts elaborating on His nature as Brahman transcient and

imminent. The unmanifest Brahman becomes manifest as stated in the

upanishad 'sadhEva soumya idham agra Aseeth EkamEva advitheeyam,

thadhaikshatha bahusyAm prajAyEya,' that there was only 'sath' Brahman

in the beginning ,one only,without a second and it willed to become

many. So Krushna says 'my nature , that is, the divine manifestation

into unverse is eightfold. ' mE bhinnA prakrthirashtaDHA.' The manifest

nature consisting of earth, water, fire, air and the space along with

mind and intellect , is the lower nature, aparA prakrthi. Here the

elements mentioned do not denote the gross form but the subtle elements,

thanmathras and the mind and intellect likewise denote their cause, the

ahamkara, which is the effect of mahath, the fist evolute of prakrthi.

 

 

 

"Apart from this lower prakrthi," says the Lord ,"is My higher nature.

".The higher self, the essential nature by which the universe is

supported.. The lower nature is the field or kshethra, elucidated in a

later adhyaya while the higher nature is the kshethrajna, the knower of

the field, knowing which nothing else need be known as all beings

originate from and dissolve into it. 'yathO vA imani bhoothAni jAyanthe

yEna jAthAni jeevanthi yasmin abhisamvisanthi thadhvijinjAsava

thdhbrahma,' (Taitt-III-1-1) know that to be Brahman from whom all

beings originate, by whom they are sustained and into which they merge

back.' Therefore ,' says the Lord, 'aham krthsanasya jagathah prabhavah

pralayah thaTHA, I am the source of the world and into Me they enter in

dissolution.'

 

 

 

Since He is the cause of everything, from which all beings came about ,

there is nothing higher or beyond . The upanishadic statement 'sadhEva

soumya idhamagra Aseeth EkamEva adhivitheeyam ,' denotes that Brahman is

both the material and efficient cause of the world. because of the words

'one only , without a second.' All beings are supported by Brahman like

the string that supports the beads strung on it. This example shows the

transcendence and imminence of Brahman. Sankara describes this as

'yasmAth Eva thasmAth mayi paramEsvare sarvANi bhoothAni sarvam idham

jagath prOtham anusyootham graTHitham ithyarTHah ,dheerghathanthushu

patravath,soothrE cha maNigaNA iva.' Since He alone is the cause of the

world all beings and the entire world is strung , woven or held together

as a cloth by the threads or by the string which holds the cluster of

gems together. In BrahdhAraNyaka upanishad Yajnavalkya is asked by Gargi

that by which all these beings are pervaded like the warp and woof of

a cloth and He replies that it is Brahman.

 

 

 

Next Krishna explains the traits by which the Lord is distinguished in

the world which is woven on Him. That is, how can one understand that He

supports everything through perception and inference. Krishna says that

He is the essence of water, the light in sun and the moon, He is the

praNava, the source of all the vedas, the sound which is the essence

of AkAsa, the manhood , pourusha in men. He is the pure odour of the

earth, (the essence of earth is only punyaganDha or pure smell and the

other kinds of smell is due to contact with good and bad things), the

brilliance of fire , life in all beings and austerity of the ascetics.

In short , He is the seed of all beings. Krishna elaborates further by

saying that he is the intellect of the intellectuals, glory of the

glorious , power of the powerful, devoid of desire and attachment and

the desire in all beings not opposed to dharma.

 

 

 

Krishna sums up the description of the nature of Brahman with ' yE

chaiva sAthvikA bhAvAh rAjasAsthAmasAscha yE,mattha EvEthi thAn viddhi

na thvaham thEshu thE mayi, ( BG.7-12) all the beings constituted of the

three gunas are from Me, but I am not in them, they are in Me, says the

Lord.Brahman ia all pervading and hence He is in all things and they in

Him as the AkAsa is in all and all are in it. But the statement 'I am

not in them ,' seems to be a little bit confusing. Actually it is not

so. It only means that Brahman is not conditioned by the qualities like

the individual self in transmigration. AkAsa is in everything but is not

contaminated by them and pervades everything so that everything is in

it. Similarly Brahman pervades all so that they are in Him but He is not

in them in the worldly sense of the term.

 

 

 

The combinations of the three gunas constitute the whole world and the

attiudes of the mind are also the products of three gunas. People who

are deluded into believing that they are real do not understand the

immutble reality behind them. "This," Krishna says," is the deluding

power of my maya whch cannot be transcended. Only those who surrender to

Me are able to cross over it." ' mAmEva yE prapadhyanthE mAyAmEthAm

tharanthi thE.' (BG.7-14)The power of maya can be removed only through

the will of the Lord.

 

'yamEvaisha vrunuthE thEnalabhyathE,' says the upanishad.. Only whom He

chooses to reveal Himself, is able to understand Him.

 

 

 

The question that possibly could come to the mind of Arjuna "if those

who surrender to you can cross over maya then why don't all do so?" was

anticipated by Krishna and He continues;' the base, the deluded and the

evil doers do not surrender to Me.'

 

 

 

T6hen who are those who resrt to the Lord?

 

Krishna says

 

ChathurvidhA bajanthE mAm janaah sukrthinO arjuna

ArthO jignaasurarTHArTHeejnAnee cha bharathrshbha (BG.7-16)

 

 

'Four types of devotees of noble deeds worship Me, Arjuna,the seeker

after worldly possessions,arTHArTHee the afflicted,Arthee seeker for

knowledge, jijnAsu and the man of wisdom,jnAnee., O best of Bharathas' A

man who believes in God prays for the fulfilment of his cherished

objects of the world,wealth or child and so on. When he gets them as a

result of his prayer his devotion is strengthened and develops into

faith.If he has not already acquired faith he will lose belief if his

desire is not fulfilled.This is why we often hear the cry 'I no more

believe in God,' from those who face disappointments in life.

Sugreeva and dhruva can be cited as examples of arTHArTHee type of

devotees, the former devoloped faith after the fulfilment of his desire

while Dhruva had both faith and beliefand became a jnani later, elevated

to the status of dhruva star.

 

The second kind of devotee who seeks God as his sole refuge when in

distress like Droupadi or Gajendra are Arthees with staunch faith that

He alone is their saviour, which is termed as mahAvisvAsam ,among the

five requisites of saranAgathi. They do not seek Him for worldly

pleasures but remain ardent devotees through out their life which alone

will make them call out to Him in earnest.In normal life we do not have

that faith in God eventhough we have belief in Him and therefore we

suffer in consequence

 

Here comes the importance of the word 'sukrthinah' which Krishna uses to

describe the four kinds of devotees. To think of God and yearn for His

mercy requires poorvajanmapunya. There is a story to illustrate this.

 

A man who was a confirmed sinner was sitting on a tree and Lord Siva

happened to pass that way with Parvathi. Siva told Parvathi that the man

is going to fall from the tree and die since it is his fate. Parvathi,

being the divine mother, took pity on the man and said that they should

save him to which Siva replied that it was his karma being a sinner to

die such a death.When Parvathi remonstrated with him Siva said that He

will save the man if he cries out 'appa' and she should save him if he

says 'amma' when he falls. Parvathi was happy without realising the real

purport of Siva's words.The branch on which the man was sitting broke

and he fell down crying'aiyo,' because he did not have the sukrthi to

call God's name at the time of death

 

JijnAsu is one who has pure devotion and does not seek the pleasures of

life nor is he worried about distress because the only thing that could

cause pain to him is being away from the Lord. Uddhava and to a certain

extent Paikshit are the examples of this kind of Bhakthi. A jijnAsu who

has pure devotion and does not seek the pleasures of life nor is he

worried about distress because the only thing that could cause pain to

him is being away from the Lord. Uddhava and to acertain extent

Parikshit are the examples of this kind of Bhakthi. A jijnAsu loves the

Lord for his own sake and seeks to acquire the jnana which the Lord

Himself gives as in the case of Udhdhava or through someone as He did

for Parikshit.

 

The last but not least is the jnani who has realised the truth about

the Lord like Prahlada, Narada and other sages who were both bhakthas

and jnanis.

 

'ThEshAm jnAnee nithayukthah EkabhakthirvisishyathE; priyO hi jnaninO

athyarTHam aham sa cha mama priyah.' (BG.7-17)

 

Of these, says the Lord, jnani, the knower who is ever itegrated and

exclusively devoted, excels. " I am exceedingly dear to him and he to

Me."

 

Then are not the other three dear to the Lord? Krishna clears this doubt

by saying 'udhaaraassarvaevaithe,' all the four are praiseworthy but the

jnani is said to be the dearest in the sense that he is the very self of

the Lord, that is, non-different from Him. The jnani is extolled because

'bahoonAm janmanAm anthE jnaanavAn mAm prapadhyathE, only after several

births one becomes a jnani and reaches Me,' says krishna, and to find

such a great soul to whonm everything is Vasudeva is very difficult,

'vaasudevaassarvam ithi sa mahaathmaa sudhurlabhah.'

 

Those who are deprived of this knowledge resort to other deities, which

means that they propitiate the lesser gods to satisfy their desires.

There are so many disciplines laid out in the veda for fulfilling the

desires like getting wealth, progeny etc. by doing yajnas or japas on

various deities which are all serve the purpose of attaining the worldly

success and prosperity or at the most to go to heaven but not

everlasting good and bliss.But Krishna does not denounce such faiths and

says that He only causes the faith to grow for them wn ho worship other

deities.This is something like approaching the lesser officials for

minor wants instead of the head of the government, while the power to

grant the wishes are given to them only by the head of state.

 

But such finite results will come to an end and the everlasting

happiness can come only through the worship of the supreme self,

paramapurusha. Why do all people resort to the Lord? It is because of

their ignorance , says Krishna.' nAham prakAsah sarvasya yogamAyA

samAvrthah, I am not manifest to all as they are veiled by the delusive

power of maaya.The awareness of a transcendental and imminent reality is

absent on account of ignorance which makes man deluded enough to imagine

the world to be real.

 

How does the ignorance creates the illusion that the world is real?

Without realising that there is one and only reality which pervades all

and which is the innerself of all, man sees the difference everywhere

due to his ignorance and this is the cause of the perception of duality,

whcih causes the delusion. Attachment and aversion , gain and loss, joy

and sorrow are all due to the perception of duality.To one who sees the

self where there is neither delusion nor sorrow. On the other hand those

who are free from the delusion of dualities, dhvandhva

mohavinirmukthaah, have no more sins, anthagatham paapam and all their

actions are of merit. only because they worship the Lord with steadfast

will.Those who strive for release a from old age and death, meaning

immortality through moksha, realise Brahman in entirety. and as the

aDhyAthma the innerself,and they alone understand karma completely,

meaning the significance of karma, akarma and vikarma.

 

The last sloka of the 7th adhyaya hints the forthcoming one by

'sADHibhoothADHidhaivam mAmsADHiyajnam cha yE vidhuh, prayANakAle pi cha

mAm thE vidhuryukthachEthasaha.' (BG.7-30) This means those who