Bhagavat gita adetailed study-chapter 9 -Brahmavidya the royal secret

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18. gathiH bharthaa prabhuH saakshee nivaasaH saranam

suhrth

prabahavaH pralayaH sThaanam niDhaanam beejam

avyayam

I am the goal, the supporter, the Lord, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the friend. I am the seat of origin and dissolution, the base for preservation and imperishable seed.

This is just a forerunner of what Krishna is going to say in the next adhyaya (vibhoothiyoga-adhyaya10)

gathiH- the goal. The final goal of all beings is to attain the Lord and realize their real self. The human life is given for the purpose of elevating ourselves and to attain liberation from bondage. But ignorant use this life for degrading themselves following sensual pleasures, pampering their ego aspiring for wealth, power and fame with wrong conception of attaining happiness through them which, in reality are only gateways of suffering and bondage.

bharthaa- bibhrathi uthi bharthaa- One who bears or supports everything. The Lord supports all the worlds which are His body, by being their inner self.

prabhuH – The controller and master of the Universe. The upanishat says that the elements and planets and the deities like Yama function under His rule.

saakshee- He is the witness self, not affected by the actions of all beings which form His body like the soul which is not affected by the activities and the transformation of the body, which fact was confirmed in the slokas (Ch. 4.14 and 9.9)

nivaasam – The abode of all. mathsThaani sarvabhoothaani(9.4) The word Narayana means naaraaH asya asthi ithi all beings are in Him. It is like the aakaasa in which everything exists while it is not in contact with anything. (9.6)

saraNam- The resort of all. maamekam saraNam vraja (ch18.66) Ramanuja describes Brahman in his dhaynasloka of Sribhashya as having taken the diksha, vow of protecting His bhakthas, vinatha vidhitha bhoothavraatharakshaikadheekshe. Bhootha, means all beings, who are Vinatha, surrender to Him and vidhitha, who follow the path of devotion, may it be man bird or beast, as can be seen in the case of Vibheeshana, Gajendhra and Jatayu It is His only vow as Rama says when Vibheeshana surrenders to Him,

Sakrdheva prapannaanaaya thavaasmi ithi yaachathe abhayam sarvabhoothebhyo dhadhaami ithi vratham mama

'It is my vow to give protection to all beings whoever surrenders to me saying, "I am yours." He ultimately gives them moksha also.

suhrth- friend in the real sense of the term. The word suhrth means Sobhanam hrdh asya asthi ithi, one who has good heart. A suhrth is one who does good without expecting anything in return The heart of the Lord is full of daya, mercy and He rushes to help His devotees as He did to Gajendhra and Droupadhi

prabhavaH pralayaH sThaanam- Prabhava means the source, pralaya is the final dissolution and sThanam means preservation. Yatho vaa imaani bhoothaani jaayanthe yena jaathaani jeevanthi yasminabhisamvisanthi thath vijinjnaasasva thath brahma, says the Upanishad, meaning, from which all these beings emerged, by which they are protected and into which they merge back, know that to be Brahman.

niDhaanam is the base or substratum in which all beings exist.

beejam avyayam- the imperishable seed of all. The term imperishable is applied to the word seed because a seed ceases to exist as such when the plant comes out of it. But the Lord remains for ever and does not undergo any change. PoorNam adhaH poorNam idham poorNaath poorNam udhachyathe poornasya poorNam aadhaaya poorNameva avaSishyathe. That is whole;. this is whole; what has come out of the whole is also whole. When the whole is taken out of the whole, the whole still remains whole.

We know that the Lord is everywhere. Does it mean that He fragments himself and is present in all beings? No. He is present everywhere in His complete form only. .For example it is not possible to cut the aakaasa into parts because it is one whole. But the space inside the pot is seen as ghataakaasa while the space outside is mahaakaasa. But both are the same and forms one whole. Similarly the Brahman being one whole is present everywhere as one whole..

 

19. thapaami aham aham varsham nigrhnNaami uthsrjaami cha

amrtham chaiva mrthuScha sadhasat chaaham arjuna

I give heat and hold back and release rain. I am the immortality as well as death , being and nonbeing.

The Sun gives heat and causes rain. The power behind the Sun is the Lord Himself and hence it is He who gives heat and rain. When the rain is withheld it is also the act of the Lord.

He is amrtham , immortality. The amrtha or nectar obtained by the devas was only capable of securing a relative immortality as they cease to exist at the end of the kalpa. It is by the attainment of the feet of the Lord alone one becomes immortal, never to be born again. So He is the amrtha.

mrthyu is death. The Lord is the annihilator as He Himself says in the eleventh chapter, kaalo asmi lokakahsyakrth paravrttho, I am the Kala, the annihilator who destroys all the worlds. Hence He is the mrthyu.

Sath- that which exists. or what is real. Brahman is defined as sath, existence, chith, knowledge and aanandha, bliss in the Upanishat. The sattha, existence in everything is the Lord without whom the whole universe of sentient and insentient will cease to exist.

Asath- that which does not exist. Brahman is existent as well as nonexistent because the things which do not exist as such and hence can be called asath still exist in Brahman in unmanifest form. When the pot exists it is sath and when it does not it is asath. But it is asath only as a pot but sath when we consider it in its causal form as the clay.

In advaita the world is explained as not total asath but as vyaavahaarikasathya, empirical realty as compared to the praathibhaasika sathya which is absolutely unreal. Thus the world is unreal or asath when viewed as the absolute reality, Brahman. But till one has the true perception of Brahman everywhere the world is real and this reality is termed as empirical reality by the advaitin, like the snake in the rope. Their contention is that the rope exists in its true form and therefore real, sath. But it is also unreal when viewed as the snake. Similarly Brahman is real in its true form but when viewed as the world it is unreal.

Ramanuja however explains the term unreal as that which did not exist in the past nor going to exist in future but exists only at present. The pot exists at present but did not exist as pot in the past nor going to exist in future when it is broken. But in the past it had existence as clay and going to exist in future as potsherds. In all the three states it is clay only. Similarly in unmanifest state, the world existed as Brahman and going to exist so after dissolution and exists as the world at present. In all the three states it is Brahman only and hence the Brhaman is both sath and asath.