Gita Satsangh Chapter 15 Verses 14 & 15

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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 14 & 15

 

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

 

Aham vaishwaanaro bhootwaa praaninaam dehamaashritah;

Praanaapaana samaayuktah pachaamyannam chaturvidham.

14. Having become the fire Vaisvanara, I abide in the body of living beings and,

associated with the Prana and Apana, digest the fourfold food.

 

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

14. Taking the form of Vaisvanara and residing in the bodies of creatures, I, in

association with Prana and Apana, digest the four kinds of food.

 

Bhutva, taking the form of; vaisvanarah, Vaisvanara, the fire in the stomach,

mentioned in such Upanisadic texts as, 'This fire that is within man and digests

the food (that is eaten) is Vaisvanara' (Br. 5.9.1); becoming that Vaisvanara,

and asritah, residing in, entering; deham, the bodies; praninam, of creatures,

of living beings; aham, I Myself; prana-apana-samayuktah, in association [i.e.

kindled, inflamed, by Prana and Apana.] with Prana and Apana; [Prana-that vital

force which goes upward and has its seat really in the heart (cf. Tai. Br.

3.10.8.5), but it said to be located at the tip of the nose since its presence

is directly felt there.

 

Apana-that vital force which goes downward, below the navel, and has its seat in

the organs of excretion.-Tr.] pacami, digest; the caturvidham, four kinds of;

annam, food-those that are eaten by masticating, swallowing, sucking and

licking.

 

The eater is the fire called Vaisvanara, and the eaten is the food Soma. One

who looks upon all that there is as being these two, fire and Soma, is not

affected by the impurity of food.

 

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

 

14. Having become (the Fire) VAISHVAANARA , I abide in the body of beings, and

associated with PRANA and APANA, digest the four-fold food.

 

ABIDING IN THE BODY OF LIVING BEINGS AS VAISHVAANARA --- The same Supreme

Consciousness expresses Itself as the warmth-of-life in all living creatures.

That physical structure from which all warmth has gone, is dead. Metabolism

creates the body-heat and the functions of the inner organisms continue

automatically without any conscious effort on the part of the individual, so

long as LIFE is pulsating in the body.

 

Here, the Eternal Reality is indicated as that mighty LIFE, which, when

pulsating through the body, manifests Itself as the 'digestive fire'

(Vaishvaanara), which assimilates all the food taken in.

 

I DIGEST THE FOUR-FOLD FOOD --- The digestive power in a healthy living organism

assimilates all types of food. The entire variety of human diet is classified

under four heads in Sanskrit as food that should be (i) masticated, (ii)

swallowed, (iii) sucked, and (iv) licked. Under these four types, we can embrace

all kinds of food, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, prepared and unprepared, raw

and ripe. All things consumed by the mouth are digested, assimilated and

absorbed because of the digestive system and the power in the digestive system

is nothing but a manifestation of the All-present Life Principle.

 

ASSOCIATED WITH PRANA AND APANA --- The two physiological functions of

" perception " and of " excretion " in all living creatures are called Prana and

Apana. Here, however, these terms can be considered in their broadest general

sense. Not only does the Consciousness, as the 'digestive fire,' assimilate the

food that has reached the stomach, but is again Life manifested as the

peristaltic movement (Prana) that receives and rolls down the food swallowed,

through the esophagus into the stomach. After digesting, assimilating and

absorbing food, it is again the same Divine Spark-of-Life that gives the

intestines its capacity to throw out (Apana) the undigested and unnecessary

by-products. In short, it is the Lord that helps us to swallow the food, it is

the Lord that assimilates the food, and it is the Lord again that presides over

the function of eliminating the by-products.

 

MOREOVER:

 

Sarvasya chaaham hridi sannivishto

Mattah smritir jnaanam apohanam cha;

Vedaischa sarvairahameva vedyo

Vedaantakrid vedavid eva chaaham.

15. And, I am seated in the hearts of all; from Me are memory, knowledge, as

well as their absence. I am verily that which has to be known by all the Vedas;

I am indeed the author of the Vedanta, and the knower of the Vedas am I.

 

Sankara Bhashya

(Swami Gambiranda's Translation and Commentary)

 

15. And I am seated in the hearts of all. From Me are memory, knowledge and

their loss. I alone am the object to be known through all the Vedas; I am also

the originator of the Vedanta, and I Myself am the knower of the Vedas.

 

And aham, I, as the Self; san-nivistah, am seated; hrdi, in the hearts, in the

intellects; sarvasya, of all creatures. Therefore, with regard to all the

creatures, mattah, from Me, from the Self; are Smrtih, memory; jnanam,

knowledge; and their apohanam, loss.

 

The knowledge and memory of these creatures who perform good deeds come from Me

in accordance with the good deeds; similarly, the loss, deterioration, of memory

and knowledge of those who perform evil deeds comes from Me in accordance with

the evil deeds.

 

Aham eva, I alone, the supreme Self; am the vedyah, object to be known; sarvaih,

through all; vedaih, the Vedas. I am also the vedanta-krt, the originator of

the Vedanta, i.e., the source of the traditional school of the teachings of

Vedanta; and aham eva, I Myself; am the veda-vit, knower of the Vedas, the

knower of the teachings of the Vedas.

 

In the verses beginning with, 'That light in the sun which....' (12), etc. have

been stated briefly the majesty of God, the Lord called Narayana, which arise

from special limiting adjuncts. Now then, the succeeding verses are begun with

a view to determining the real nature of that very Lord as the Unconditioned and

Absolute, by distinguishing Him from the limiting adjuncts, (viz) the mutable

and the immutable. In that connection, after dividing into three parts [The two

limiting adjuncts-the mutable and the immutable-, and the supreme Self.] all the

teachings of the preceding and the immediately succeeding chapters, the Lord

says:

 

Swami Chinmayananda's Translation and Commentary

 

15. And I am seated in the hearts of all, from Me are memory, knowledge, as well

as their absence. I am verily that which has to be known in all the VEDAS; I am

indeed the author of VEDANTA, and, the " knower of the VEDAS " am I.

 

I AM SEATED IN THE HEARTS OF ALL --- If there be thus an Infinite Omnipotent

Power that manifests Itself as the different things and beings in the world, how

can a seeker make his pilgrimage towards It and meet this Great Divine? Lord

Krishna says that He lives in the Hearts of all living creatures. Here the HEART

does not mean the physiological " heart " but it is the metaphysical HEART. The

term HEART, in philosophy, means " mind which has been trained to entertain

constantly the positive qualities of love, tolerance, mercy, charity, kindness,

and like. " A peaceful, joyous mind, settled in tranquillity, alert and vigilant

to receive higher intimations, is called the " heart. " The Infinite 'DWELLS IN

THE HEART'means, though He is present everywhere the Lord is most conspicuously

self-evident, during meditation, in the HEART of the meditator.

 

FROM ME ARE MEMORY KNOWLEDGE, AS WELL AS THEIR ABSENCE --- The Consciousness

Divine has been declared above as revelling in the heart of every living

creature. This Light-of-Life seems to have no particular justification to exit

since all perceptions are through the body, all feelings are through the mind,

all thoughts are through the intellect. The Geeta here declares what exactly is

then the special grace of Consciousness. It is the light of Consciousness that

illumines all our experiences in Life. From this Supreme alone all memories,

knowledge, as well as forgetfulness, come to us. Memory is constituted of our

experiences of the past, stored away in our understanding which guide our

present and future activities. All education and knowledge that we have at this

moment are memories from the past. Unless we are aware of these memories, they

will not be available in our present life. Reacting properly to the present sets

of stimuli and thereby gaining fresh and vivid experiences, is the process of

widening our field of knowledge. And all these processes are possible only in

the Light of Life.

 

Acquisition of new knowledge presupposes our capacity to give up our earlier

false notions. Imperfect knowledge gets weeded out when a person is cultivating

new knowledge. A capacity to forget is an essential pre-requisite in acquiring

fresh knowledge. This stanza explains that all these subjective activities,

mental and intellectual, arise from and are maintained by the Conscious

Principle, the Lord-Himself.

 

IT IS I THAT IS TO BE KNOWN BY ALL THE VEDAS all the scriptures of the

world, including the various portions of all the Vedas in India, Krishna says,

this Infinite Consciousness is the one common factor that has been extolled and

adored. To realise this is to reach the goal-of-life, the fulfilment of

existence. The Consciousness that revels in the hearts of all living creatures

is the non-dual Immortal Reality, the All-pervading and It is the only

substratum for the pluralistic world of experiences.

 

I AM INDEED THE AUTHOR OF VEDANTA, AS WELL AS THE KNOWER OF THE VEDAS --- Since

Consciousness alone is the Eternal Reality, and everything else is a projection

upon it, the very essence in everything, as expressed in the Vedas also, is this

Consciousness. The seeker who listens to the Vedas reflects upon their wisdom,

and ultimately comes to experience the fulfilment of his life, is also at no

stage anything other than the same Consciousness.

 

In short, it has been said that the Consciousness is the Light in the Sun; it is

the same Consciousness that fertilises the earth; the Consciousness as moonlight

supplies food-value to the plant-kingdom; it is Truth Itself, as the body-warmth

that presides over the assimilation of the food within the body, and supervises

the process of life's transactions with the world outside; and it is the same

Light of Consciousness that makes it possible for us to gain experience, to

store away knowledge, and to replace ignorance with better knowledge.

 

The Eternal Principle which thus expresses Itself as the phenomenal powers ---

which, with their activities make it possible for life to exist on the surface

of the earth, and which helps the higher life to grow and expand into wisdom ---

is the very theme indicated in the Vedas as the Eternal Reality, and to know it

and to bring It under our experience is to know the Infinite.

Till now the earlier verses have enumerated the glories of Narayana, the Blessed

Lord, as manifested through the various vehicles such as the Sun, the moon, the

earth, the body, the mind and the intellect. Now, in the following verses, Lord

Krishna points out the True Nature of the Infinite as the unconditioned

(Niru-padhika), All pervading (Sarva gatah) and Eternal (Nityah). This Infinite

Reality transcends all intellectual concepts, such as the finite and the

infinite --- as the perishable and the imperishable.

 

CONSIDERING THE RELATIVE WORLD OF EXPERIENCE, BHAGAWAN SAYS:

 

to be continued:-)

 

 

Hare Krishna!!!