Gita Satsangh Chapter 15 Verses 4 & 5

[Guest guest]

Dandavat pranams to all! Please allow me on this Ganesha

Chaturthi to wish all members the achievement of the ultimate

goal and the only one which matters, that goal which, having

gone to, none returns again...May all obstacles be removed

through His Grace...

 

Tameva chaadyam purusham prapadye

Yatah pravrittih prasritaa puraanee!!!

 

Gita Satsangh Chapter 15 Verses 4 & 5

 

To listen to Swami Brahmanananda of the Chinmaya Mission

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HbuMyixulQ & feature=related

 

To listen to Meena Mahadevan of KailashMusic

chanting this Chapter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO-zznmflEk & feature=channel

 

 

Tatah padam tat parimaargitavyam

Yasmin gataa na nivartanti bhooyah;

Tameva chaadyam purusham prapadye

Yatah pravrittih prasritaa puraanee.

4. Then that goal should be sought after, whither having gone none returns

again. Seek refuge in that Primeval Purusha whence streamed forth the ancient

activity or energy.

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

4. Thereafter, that State has to be sought for, going where they do not return

again: I take refuge in that Primeval Person Himself, from whom has ensued the

eternal Manifestation.

 

Tatah, thereafter; tat, that; padam, State of Visnu; parimargitavyam, has to be

sought for, i.e. realized; gatah, going, entering; yasmin, where, into which

State; they na, do not; nivartanti, return; bhuyah, again, for worldly life.

 

As to how It is to be sought for, the Lord says: Prapadye, I take refuge; tam,

in that; adyam, Primeval-existing from the beginning; purusam, Person, who has

been mentioned by the word State; eva, Himself. The search has to be carried on

thus, i.e., by taking refuge in Him.

 

Who is that Person? That is being stated: Yatah, from whom, from which Person;

prasrta, has ensued, like jugglery from a magician; purani, the eternal;

pravrttih, Manifestation, the magic Tree of the World.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

 

4. Then that Goal should be sought after, where having gone, none returns again.

I seek refuge in that 'primeval PURUSHA' from which streamed forth, from time

immemorial, all activity (or energy) .

 

In order that the students may not misunderstand this mystic symbolism, and take

the Tree too literally, the Geeta acharya owns that 'ITS FORM, AS SUCH, IS NOT

PERCEIVED HERE.' The Tree-of-life, as described in the previous stanzas,

evidently represents the entire field of manifested life. The subtle Principle

of Life manifests through us, in different planes and in a variety of forms ---

as perceptions of the body; as emotions and feelings of the mind; as ideals and

thoughts of the intellect; and as mere non-apprehension of the causal-body. All

these vehicles and their experiences, manifesting in the Infinite Life, in their

totality, constitute the Ashwatth a-tree spreading out into all quarters.

Naturally, therefore, Lord Krishna says that very few have the comprehensive

vision to see them all as such in one gaze.

 

Not only are the different vehicles and their expressions not recognised as such

in their entirety, but very few of us in the world come to recognise " THEIR END

OR THEIR BEGINNING, OR THEIR EXISTENCE.' The Tree-of-life springs from the

'ignorance'of Reality (Avidya) and it ends on the " realisation of the Self "

(Vidya), and it exists only so long as the mental demands and desires (vasanas)

function. These subjective implications are not generally perceived, or

recognised, or understood, by the majority of men.

 

The manifested world constituting the Ashwattha-tree can be cleft 'BY THE STRONG

AXE OF DETACHMENT. " The world of matter is inert and insentient. The experience

of life gained through it is known and lived only because of the play of

Consciousness upon it. As long as the wheels of a car are geared on to the

machine, the vehicle moves. In case we can clutch the motive-power off from the

moving wheels, the vehicle must necessarily come to its own natural motionless

condition. Similarly, if Consciousness is withdrawn from the body-mind-intellect

vehicle, its play of perception-emotion-thought must necessarily halt. This

clutching off of Consciousness from the inert matter vehicles is detachment.

With the axe of detachment, Krishna advises Arjuna, to cut down the tree of

multiple experiences.

 

At our present level of conscious-existence we are apt to protest against this

advice, because, to us detachment from these three vehicles is a complete

retirement from the worlds of perception, from the realms of emotion, and from

the fields of thought. In fact, we know no other world to tread, and therefore,

intellectually, we reach but a state of utter nihilistic nothingness. This is a

despairing situation indeed. But Krishna adds, almost in the same breath, " THEN

THAT GOAL SHOULD BE SOUGHT AFTER, TO WHICH MEN GO AND DO NOT RETURN AGAIN. "

 

On the whole, the tone of suggestion and the manner of expression in these two

stanzas clearly indicate that the students who seek the Divine in themselves

should learn to withdraw more and more from their usual dissipations with

perceptions, feelings and thoughts, and must, in " the still moments of

meditation, contemplate upon the Higher --- the Source from which the

Ashwattha-tree itself draws its sustenance and nourishment.

 

Had this advice been merely given out and left at that, it would have been, at

best, only a poetic vision, or an impossible suggestion. As a practical

hand-book of instructions to man on how to live nobly and grow out of his

instinctive weaknesses, the Geeta has to show the seekers some practical methods

of self-improvement at every stage. And this is accomplished when the stanzas

are closed with a prayer: " I SEEK REFUGE IN THAT PRIMEVAL PURUSHA WHENCE

STREAMED FORTH THE ANCIENT CURRENT. "

 

The stanza indicates that when our personality has, to a maximum degree, retired

from its extrovert pursuits, the intellect is to be consciously turned, in an

attitude of love and surrender, to the goal --- the goal from which the stream

of Consciousness flows to the matter-vehicles facilitating them to play their

parts. In short, HALT the manifestations of life, and seek the Eternal Life, the

Source of all expressions of life. What this primeval Purusha is and how one is

to conceive It is the theme of the entire chapter.

 

WHAT SORT OF SEEKERS REACH THE GOAL? LISTEN:

 

 

Nirmaanamohaa jitasangadoshaa

Adhyaatmanityaa vinivrittakaamaah;

Dwandwairvimuktaah sukhaduhkhasamjnair

Gacchantyamoodhaah padamavyayam tat.

5. Free from pride and delusion, victorious over the evil of attachment,

dwelling constantly in the Self, their desires having completely turned away,

freed from the pairs of opposites known as pleasure and pain, the undeluded

reach the eternal goal.

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

5. The wise ones who are free from pride and non-discrimination, who have

conquered the evil of association, [Hatred and love arising from association

with foes and friends.] who are ever devoted to spirituality, completely free

from desires, free from the dualities called happiness and sorrow, reach that

undecaying State.

 

Amudhah, the wise ones, who are devoid of delusion; who are nirmana-mohah, free

from (nir) pride (mana) and non-discrimination (moha); jita-sanga-dosah, who

have conquered (jita) the evil (dosa) of association (sanga)-association itself

being the evil; those who have conquered that; adhyatma-nityah, who are ever

devoted to spirituality, ever engaged in reflecting on the nature of the supreme

Self; engrossed in that; [Engrossed in hearing, reflecting and meditating on the

Self.] vinivrtta-kamah, who are completely (vi) free from (nivrtta) desires

(kamah), whose desires have completely gone away without trace (ni), the men of

self-control, the monks; vimuktah, who are free from, have got rid of;

dvandvaih, the dualities-likes, dislikes, etc.; sukha-duhkha-sanjnaih, called

happiness and sorrow; gacchanti, reach; tat, that; avyayam, undecaying; padam,

State, as has been described above.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

5. Free from pride and delusion, victorious over the evil of attachment,

dwelling constantly in the Self, their desires having completely retired, freed

from the pairs-of-opposites --- such as pleasure and pain --- the undeluded

reach that Goal Eternal.

 

Philosophy, in India, is something to live and to practise. Ultimately, it is

fulfilled only when we come to experience its goal. It is natural, therefore,

that in our scriptures and spiritual text-books, we find a wealth of

instructions and elaborate discussions on the theories of Perfection. This

stanza is a typical example of the detailed instructions supplied to guide the

adventurous seekers trying to follow the " path. " Five conditions are explained

herein which are nothing but certain disciplines, adjustments, and re-education

of the vehicles of life; and Krishna concludes that those who have accomplished

these shall reach the Divine experience and live a life enjoying a sense of

supreme fulfilment.

 

FREE FROM PRIDE AND DELUSION --- Both these qualities of pride and delusion

indicate a false, exaggerated estimate, of one-self and of others. Erroneous

estimate of one's own importance is called pride and it brings about an enormous

amount of heavy responsibilities upon oneself to maintain it. There is no time

thereafter to cultivate oneself, or to seek knowledge, or to get truly educated.

Similarly, error in judgement regarding things and beings, happenings and

situations, in the world outside, is called DELUSION. It makes us live in a

false world of our own imagination without actually facing the immediate

problems around us, as they really are.

 

WITH THE EVIL OF ATTACHMENT CONQUERED --- To live in the flesh, seeking our

life's fulfilment only in the joy derived from our contact with the

sense-objects in the world around us, is to live in the outer layer, cheating

ourselves entirely of life's deeper possibilities. Such an ignorant fool gets

extremely attached to the objects of the world, and once this attachment has

grown, all his attentions in life will be irresistibly turned towards those

objects. Shackled by them, ever dancing to their rhythm of change and

destruction, he comes to lay waste his powers, without ever realising the nobler

purpose of the Life-Divine.

 

EVER DWELLING IN THE SELF --- Detachment from the world-of-objects is never

possible without attaching ourselves to something nobler and diviner. The human

mind-intellect-equipment can exist only in the positive contemplation of some

object. It cannot remain in a void of not contemplating anything. For example,

from tomorrow onwards, let us determine NOT to think of a bald-headed man, let

us say, as soon as we wake up; it is absolutely certain that the following

morning, the very first thing which we will remember will be a bald-head. But

supposing we give the mind a positive point to contemplate upon,

" Narayana-Narayana, " we shall find that the mind has totally avoided the

thought. In the same way, in order that the mind may not have the evil

attachment in it, it should live in a spirit of contemplation upon the Self.

 

THEIR DESIRES COMPLETELY AT REST --- Desire is the function of the intellect.

When the intellect desires, the mind starts contemplating upon the desired

objects; as the desire, so the thoughts. Therefore, the intellect should be

disciplined not to desire the finite joys arising out of the ephemeral

sense-objects of the world. When the desires have ended, the mind becomes still.

 

RELEASED FROM THE PAIRS-OF-OPPOSITES, LIKE PLEASURE AND PAIN --- When the body

comes in contact with a sense-object, it is the mind that comes to experience,

as it were, the final result of the contact as pleasure or pain. Once the mind

starts recognising this pair, then it is natural for it to revolt against 'pain'

and instinctively seek 'pleasure.'

 

Unfortunately, in this mad onrush of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, there

is no stability, for the very things that constituted joys yesterday, prove to

be sources of sorrow today. To cater to the whims and fancies of such an

unsteady entity is to barter away our chances to bring about any cultural

unfoldment in ourselves.

 

And the stanza concludes by a positive and optimistic declaration, having in its

force and style, the vehemence of a commandment, when it says, " THE UNDELUDED

REACH THAT GOAL-ETERNAL. " Consciousness expressed through Matter-vehicles is the

miserable man, torn by his own stresses and strains; and the same Consciousness,

gathered from these vehicles and experienced as such, is the Divine moment of

Infinite realisation.

 

THE GOAL IS AGAIN CLEARLY SPECIFIED THUS:

 

to be continued....

 

 

OM Gam Ganapataye Namaha!!!

Hare Krishna!!!