Panchajanyam Hrshikesah-chapter9-adhyaya7

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chapter 8

 

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 know the supremeself along with the manifestatations of Him in

elements, divinities and sacrifices will know Him also at the time of

death with their concentrated on Him.