Gita Satsangh Chapter 14 Verses 19 & 20

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Dandavat pranams to all!

 

Gita Satsangh Chapter 14 Verses 19 & 20

 

To listen to Swami Brahmanananda of the Chinmaya Mission

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn3Hro5Ib4U & feature=channel_page

 

To listen to Meena Mahadevan of KailashMusic

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9FyEwbZAOs

 

Naanyam gunebhyah kartaaram yadaa drashtaanupashyati;

Gunebhyashcha param vetti madbhaavam so'dhigacchati.

19. When the seer beholds no agent other than the Gunas, knowing that which is

higher than them, he attains to My Being.

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

Now, it is necessary to state that Liberation follows from right knowledge.

Hence the Lord says:

 

19. When the witness sees none other than the qualities as the agent, and knows

that which is superior [i.e. different from.] to the qualities, he attains My

nature.

 

Yada, when; drasta, the witness, after becoming illumined; anupasyati, sees; na

anyam, none other; gunebhyah, than the qualities that have transformed into the

shape of body, orgnas and objects; kartaram,as the agent-(i.e.) he sees thus

that the qualities themselves, in all their modes, are the agents of all

activities; ca, and; vetti, knows; that which, standing as the witness of the

activities of the qualities, is param, superior; gunebhyah, to the qualities;

sah, he, the witness; adhigacchati, attains; madbhavam, My nature.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

TO DESCRIBE THE PATH OF LIBERATION AND EXPLAIN " MOKSHA " GAINED, FROM A RIGHT

JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD OUTSIDE, THE

LORD SAYS:

 

19. When the Seer beholds no agent other than the GUNAS and knows him who is

higher than the GUNAS, he attains to My Being.

 

The thought that was developed so far has indeed painted a miserable picture of

the Spirit inescapably entangled in the three gunas. A student of the Geeta

would, at this stage, perhaps, feel despaired at a false idea that there may be

no escape at all for him. One who is standing in a running train is himself

constantly on the move even though he is standing motionless! As long as he is

travelling on the train, the movement of the train is also his movement. But the

moment he alights and stands on the platform the train alone moves, and not he.

So too, the Spirit identifying Itself with, and therefore, riding on the

mind-intellect-equipment, dances to the moods of the mind determined by the

three gunas. To stand apart from the mind by ending all our identifications with

it, is to get complete freedom from the thraldom of our thought entanglements.

 

WHEN THE SEER BEHOLDS --- This art of disentangling ourselves from our own

thought-processes within, is the very art of meditation. A meditator, who is

capable of doing so, will BEHOLD, EXPERIENCE SUBJECTIVELY, the State of Pure

Knowledge, uncontaminated by the dance of the thoughts. It is called " seeing, "

not in the sense one is seeing a table or a chair; God cannot be seen; He is not

an " object " of our perception, or feeling, or thought. He is the " SUBJECT, " that

PERCEIVES through us, that FEELS in us, that THINKS with us. But here the word

" behold " is used only to indicate that the subjective experience shall be so

total, so complete and so convincing, as when we have actually " SEEN " an object

--- that afterwards there can be no more any speculations about such an

experience! Having seen a thing, no man can ever have any doubt regarding the

appearance of the thing he has seen.

 

NO AGENT OTHER THAN THE GUNAS --- The experiencer of the Self not only realises

himself to be the Infinite but also understands that his ego, which was

previously claiming to be the agent in all his activities, was none other than

these gunas themselves. Gunas govern and direct the entire thought-life at all

times in everyone of us and, therefore, gunas, here means the very SUBTLE-BODY.

When we say " a crowded assembly of intelligence " we mean intelligent men.

Similarly, please note carefully, gunas here means the MINDS of individuals of

distinct and differing temperaments.

 

AND KNOWS HIM WHO WHICH IS HIGHER THAN THE GUNAS --- The mind cannot function of

its own accord, nor can it perceive by itself its feelings, it being a

by-product of inert matter. Consciousness which functions in and through the

mind, making it brilliant and dynamic must be a principle that is other than the

mind. If a bucket of water looks like molten silver, it must have borrowed the

brilliance from the Sun or the moon, for it to shine forth. Water in itself has

no brilliance. Now, if the reflection dances or breaks up, it must be because of

the nature of the water in the bucket and not because the Sun itself is dancing

in the sky! The Consciousness reflecting in the mind is the " agent, " the

individualised ego (jiva) in us, who suffers the sense of self-shatterings.

 

He who has understood that he is not " the reflection in his own mind " but that

which is reflected therein --- something other than the mind and therefore

something higher than the gunas --- he is the one who has escaped forever the

shackles of all limitations, the tears of all sorrows and the sighs of all

disappointments.

 

HE ATTAINS TO MY BEING --- An individual who has thus transcended his own mind

and intellect and has positively rediscovered himself to be that which was

lending to his own mind the capacity to delude himself, that Man-of-Wisdom

becomes the Self. Lord Krishna is not to be confused with Shri Krishna, the son

of Devaki, or the Divine Flute-player of Vrindavana. He is talking here as the

Life in every one of us and each student of the Geeta must understand that his

own life is talking to the confused ego within himself.

 

A WAKER creates sorrowful situations in himself and comes to fear and weep, lose

and gain, mourn and smile in his dream. All his joys and sorrows belong to the

" dreamer " in himself. When awake, the dream and the dream-sorrows end, and the

" dreamer " himself becomes the " waker. " If, to the " dreamer " in his sorrows, the

waking-consciousness were to manifest and advise, it would have repeated this

stanza to the " dreamer " : " When you, the dreamer, behold no agent other than the

dreaming mind and know in yourself that which is higher than the dreaming mind,

you shall attain to My being --- the waking consciousness. "

 

Similarly here, Krishna, the manifested God-Consciousness is explaining to man

that his ego-centric life and activities, its sorrows and joys, achievements and

despairs --- all belong to the waker-dreamer-sleeper-personality and on

transcending them all, he shall really AWAKE to the Truth, and there BECOME one

with It. A dreamer, on waking, cannot still remain a dreamer but must himself

become the waker. Similarly, Spirit entangled in Matter is man and, man

disentangled from its Matter identifications not only rediscovers but also

becomes the Spirit; " ATTAINS TO MY BEING. "

 

NOW THE LORD PROCEEDS TO TEACH HOW ONE CAN ATTAIN THIS GREAT GOAL:

 

Gunaanetaanateetya treen dehee dehasamudbhavaan;

Janmamrityujaraaduhkhair vimukto'mritamashnute.

20. The embodied one, having crossed beyond these three Gunas out of which the

body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to

immortality.

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

How does he attain? That is being stated:

 

20. Having transcended these three qualities which are the origin of the body,

the embodied one, becoming free from birth, death, old age and sorrows,

experiences Immortality.

 

Atitya, having transcended, having gone beyond-even while living; etan, these;

trin, three; gunan, qualities as have been described, which constitute the

limiting adjunct Maya; and dehasamudbhavan, which are the origin of the body,

which are the seed of the birth of the body; dehi, the embodied one, the

enlightened one; vimuktah, becoming free-even in this life;

janma-mrtyu-jara-duhkhaih, from birth death, old age and sorrow; asnute,

experiences; [some translate this as 'attains'.-Tr.] amrtam, Immortality. In

this way he attains My nature. This is the idea.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

 

20. The embodied-one having crossed beyond these three GUNAS out of which the

body is evolved, is freed from birth, death, decay and pain, and attains to

Immortality.

 

So long as you stand near the open oven in the kitchen, you must necessarily

feel the heat of the fire and the smoke in the atmosphere. To walk out of the

kitchen is to escape both these inconveniences because heat and smoke are the

properties of fire in the oven and not the qualities of the atmosphere. In

burning summer, out in your courtyard, there is both heat and glare, to escape

which, you have only to walk into the shelter of your room. So too, identifying

ourselves with the gunas and thus playing in the mental and intellectual zones,

we suffer the imperfections and sorrows of an ordinary life. But when these are

transcended we shall no more be under the tyranny of these sorrows. Finitude and

agitations, mortality and pangs, change and sorrow are not in the Perfect,

Immortal, Changeless Self.

 

HAVING CROSSED THE THREE 'GUNAS' OUT OF WHICH THE BODY IS EVOLVED --- The three

gunas are the expressions of 'ignorance'or NESCIENCE, which constitutes the very

causal-body. We are experiencing the pure causal-body in our deep-sleep, and

this is nothing other than the gunas. They emerge from the causal-body to

express themselves first as the subtle-body, expressing as qualities of our

thoughts and feeling, and again as the gross-body to express themselves into

good, bad, or indifferent actions.

 

If the art in me is to be expressed in colours, I need the canvas and the

brushes. If I am a musician, I need musical instruments and accompaniments to

express my art. Each artist employs appropriate instruments to express himself.

A violin in the hands of a painter, and a brush with colour and canvas in the

hands of a musician are both useless because they are not the media of

expression for them. If my thoughts are dull and animalistic, it would be sorrow

for me to bear the physical body of man. Thus, each body-plant, animal or man

--- is the exact instrument given for the full expression of its subtle-body.

And the nature and quality of the subtle-body are determined by the texture of

the causal-body, consisting of the gunas.

 

It is, therefore, evident that, those who have gone beyond the gunas, are no

more under the tragedies of the subtle and the causal-bodies.

 

THE EMBODIED ONE IS FREED FROM BIRTH, DEATH, DECAY AND PAIN --- As we said

earlier, the heat and smoke are the qualities of the fire in the oven and as

long as we are near the oven, we suffer from these hardships. Matter changes

forever and these changes have been systematised into definite stages. They are

common to all bodies everywhere. These stages are birth, growth, decay, disease

and death. These five stages are common to all. Each one is a packet of pain;

birth is painful, growth is agonizing, decay is disturbing, disease is

tyrannical and death is terrible indeed!

 

But all these sorrows are only the sorrows of Matter and not of the

Consciousness that illumines them. One, who has realised himself to be the

Awareness, transcends all these sorrows. The Sun may illumine floods, famine,

war, pestilence, funerals, marriages and a million varieties of happenings, and

yet, none of them is IN the Sun. Similarly, the Consciousness in us illumines

the various changes in our matter-envelopments, but they do not appertain to the

Spirit. Therefore, he who has realised himself to be the Spirit, goes beyond all

these struggles.

 

AND ATTAINS TO IMMORTALITY --- Not only does the man of realisation experience

the absence of sorrow but he also lives the positive joy of perfection. This is

indicated by this phrase. In deep-sleep, a man in his sick bed forgets his pain;

the disappointed one escapes his disappointment; the hungry no more feels his

hunger; and the sad is no longer sorrowful. But, thereby, the illness is not

cured, the disappointment is not removed, the hunger is not satisfied, the

sorrow is not mitigated. Sleep is a temporary truce with the existing world of

sorrows within. On waking, the sorrows too return; but the State of Bliss

experienced at the moment of realisation of the Self is not a mere temporary

cessation of sorrows of life, but it is a vivid experience of the Changeless,

Infinite Nature. Hence it is said here that one experiences the State of

Immortality even while living in this very same embodiment.

 

It is, indeed, a rare experience to be a God-man upon the earth. What then are

the marks of such a liberated soul, so that we may understand him and also

recognise this State in ourselves? How will he conduct himself in society and

what exactly will be the relationship of such a Master living the

God-experience, with the world outside?

 

ARJUNA GETS AN OCCASION FOR ASKING THESE QUESTIONS REGARDING THE NATURE AND

BEHAVIOUR OF SUCH A GOD-MAN:

 

to be continued...

 

 

 

Hare Krishna!!!