Gita Satsangh Chapter 15 Verses 12 & 13

[Guest guest]

Dandavat pranams to all!

 

Tatah padam tat parimaargitavyam

Yasmin gataa na nivartanti bhooyah;

Tameva chaadyam purusham prapadye

Yatah pravrittih prasritaa puraanee.

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. (BG 15.4)

 

Gita Satsangh Chapter 15 Verses 12 & 13

 

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

 

Yadaadityagatam tejo jagad bhaasayate'khilam;

Yacchandramasi yacchaagnau tattejo viddhi maamakam.

12. That light which residing in the sun, illumines the whole world, that which

is in the moon and in the fire-know that light to be Mine.

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

12. That light in the sun which illumines the whole world, that which is in the

moon, and that which is in fire-know that light to be Mine.

 

Yat, that which is; aditya-gatam, in the sun, which abides in the sun;-what is

that-the tejah, light, brilliance, radiance; which bhasayate, illumines,

reveals; akhilam, the whole, entire; jagat, world; yat, that ulluminating light

which is; candramasi, in the moon; ca, and yat, which is; agnau, in fire, the

carrier of oblations; viddhi, know; tat, that; tejah, light; to be mamakam,

Mine. That light belong to Me who am Visnu.

 

Or: The light that is Consciousness, which is in the sun, which is in the moon,

and which is in fire, know that light to be Mine. That light belongs to Me who

am Visnu.

 

Objection; Is it not that the light that is Consciousness exists equally in the

moving and the non-moving? Such being the case, why is this particular mention,

'That light in the sun which....,'etc?

 

Reply: This defect does not arise, because, owing to the abundance of the

sattva quality, there can be an abundane [Ast. reads avistaratva (amplitude) in

place of adhikya.-Tr.] (of Consciousness). Since in the sun etc. the sattva is

very much in evidence, is greatly brilliant, therefore there is an abundance of

the light (of Consciousness) in them alone. And so it (sun etc.) is specially

mentioned. But it is not that it (Consciousness) is abundant only there.

Indeed, as in the world, a face, though in the same position, is not reflected

in wood, a wall, etc., but in a mirror etc. it is reflected according to the

degree in which they are more and more transparent, so is it here.

 

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

 

12. That Light which is residing in the Sun and which illumines the whole world,

and that which is in the moon and in the fire --- know that Light to be Mine.

 

We, who are familiar with the modern scientific observations must necessarily

get rattled a bit when we read the meaning of the stanza. But without losing our

balance, if we were to quietly ruminate over the statement, we shall realise

that our confusions are only because of the limitation of our own intellect ---

which we have cultivated by the study of intellectually limited sciences. In the

early classrooms we are told, very scientifically, that the earth is a portion

of the Sun that has got detached from it and got held within the web of mutual

attraction of the planets, and which has now cooled to its present temperature.

But if we ask the question where the Sun itself came from, the teacher of

science is not only uncomfortable, but also positively tickled to a justifiable

bad temper! Science can move only in a field where it can gather the necessary

data to calculate and to prove.

 

But philosophy seeks to satisfy the questionings of the human intellect

regarding the Ultimate Source of all things, even if the necessary scientific

data for such an attempt may not be available in the laboratory. There is a

definite frontier at which the intellect and its observations, its logic and

conclusions, its reasoning and assertions, must necessarily exhaust themselves

and cry halt. And yet, the question is not fully answered, for we find an honest

intellect still left wondering: Why! How!! What!!! There science is silent.

Where science has fulfilled itself, and from where onwards its light fails to

illumine the path, there philosophy starts its pilgrimage towards the Absolute

Satisfaction.

 

Here, the stanza says that the very light which emerges from the Sun and which

illumines the whole world, is the Light that is emerging from Me, the Infinite

Consciousness. Nay, the light that comes from the moon, the light that emanates

from the fire, are all expressions of the Infinite Reality, when It expresses

through the moon and the fire.

 

The manifestations are different because the equipments are different: the LIGHT

in the bulb, the HEAT in the furnace, the MOVEMENT in the fan, are all indeed

different manifestations, because the bulb, the furnace, and the fan are

dissimilar equipments; but the energy called electricity is one and the same. In

brief, Consciousness expressed through the Sun manifests sunlight, expressed

through the moon is the moon-light, and expressed through the dry fuel is the

fire --- and yet, all of them are, in reality, nothing but the Infinite Itself,

in Its varied glorious manifestations. The Infinite manifests Itself in order to

create the conducive environment, in which alone the world can exist, and

wherein, as the Lord, He can come to express Himself and play His game of

plurality!!

 

MOREOVER:

 

Gaam aavishya cha bhootaani dhaarayaamyaham ojasaa;

Pushnaami chaushadheeh sarvaah somo bhootwaa rasaatmakah.

13. Permeating the earth I support all beings by (My) energy; and, having become

the watery moon, I nourish all herbs.

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

13. And entering the earth I sustain the beings through (My) power; and nourish

all the plants by becoming Soma [According to S. and most other translators,

Soma means the moon.-Tr.] which is of the nature of sap.

 

Ca, and; avisya, entering; gam, the earth; aham, I; dharayami, sustain; bhutani,

the beings, the world; ojasa, through (My) power, the power that belongs to God

and is free from passing and attachment, (and) which has penetrated the earth to

support it, and owing to which the heavy earth does not fall and does not

crumble. There is a similar mantra:

 

'By which the heaven is made mighty, and the earth firm' (Tai. Sam. 4.1.8.5),

and also,

 

'He supported the earth' (op.cit., 4.1.8.3), etc.

 

Hence, it has rightly been said, 'Entering the earth I sustain the moving and

non-moving beings.'

 

Moreover, pusnami, I nourish, I make healthy and full of the sweet flavour of

juices; sarvah, all; osadhih, the plants-paddy, barley, etc.; bhutva, by

becoming; somah, Soma; rasatmakah, which is of the nature of sap. Soma consists

of all the juices; it is the source of all juices. Indeed, it nourishes all

plants by infusing its own juice into everything.

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

13. Permeating the earth I support all beings by (My) energy; and having become

the liquid moon, I nourish all herbs.

 

PERMEATING THE EARTH I SUPPORT ALL BEINGS WITH MY ENERGY --- Long before

artificial manure was discovered, the earth had, no doubt, a long history; and

some of those eras in the bygone days were, perhaps, more over-populated than

the present. And yet, the earth continued to sustain life. The capacity of the

earth to sustain life and nourish it, the warmth and the mineral contents, are

all, says the Lord, " MY OWN VITALITY, " meaning, the same Consciousness which,

through the Sun became the necessary warmth of the atmosphere, while expressing

through the earth, became the 'potential fertility' of the soil and the

'life-giving secret capacity' of the earth.

 

HAVING BECOME THE MOONLIGHT I NOURISH ALL THE PLANTS --- The same Eternal

Consciousness, while functioning through the moon expresses Itself as moon-light

and fills each plant with its " essence " content. If this passage was rejected by

members of a previous generation, children of the modern scientific knowledge

will not dare to question it. Modern agricultural science proves that the

planetary organisation, especially the moon, has got some strange connection

with the expected productivity in agriculture! Recent experiments have been

reported where tomato seedlings sown on the full-moon day and plucked again on a

full-moon day were found to yield a better crop.

 

Indeed it is accepted everywhere that the paddy preserved for seeds is not only

to be dried in the Sun, but is must also lie exposed to the moon. The

naturopaths keep some of their preparations --- as also the Ayurvedic physicians

--- exposed to the moon for a certain number of days, and they claim that the

medicines gain certain curative powers thereby. All these above facts, touched

upon lightly here, should prove that the declaration in the stanza is not

totally unscientific.

 

The Sun, the moon and the fire are the Cosmic sources of all energy in the

world, and the very Source-of-the-energy, from where it flows through these

phenomenal expressions, is the Infinite Consciousness. The Consciousness

functions through the earth and gives the fields their special capacity to

sustain and nourish the vegetable world, and when the flora grows up, it is

again the same Consciousness, functioning through the moon and manifesting as

moonlight that fills each plant and fruit with its essential food-value

(Vitamins).

 

MOREOVER:

 

 

to be continued

 

Hare Krishna!!!