Panchajanyam Hrshikesah-chapter8-adhayaya7

[Guest guest]

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 arjunaArthO 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.

 

Chapter 10-Seven questions and answers-(adhyaya8)

Arjuna became curious about the terms Adhidhaiva etc and asks Krishna to explain them., which was the exactly what Krishna intended, by mentioning them.The really good teacher should incite curiosity in the mind of the pupil which kindles the desire to know. That is what Krishna has done at the end of the seventh adhyaya of Gita and now in this eighth adhyaya he starts explaining the terms and also showing the stages in attaining Brahman.

Arjuna asks six questions:

1..kim thath brahma-what is that Brahman ?

2. kim aDhyAthma-what is the innerself?3. kim karma