The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 12- 6. Swami Krishnananda.
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Wednesday, September 01, 2021. 7:04. PM.
Chapter -12. God and the Universe - 6.
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God has created and maintains a sort of distance from all the objects which are controlled by Him as His creations. The fear of God is due to the power of God. We have a fear of the ocean, and we would not like to go near it. The reason is the magnitude and the expanse that is there, in front of which we look like puny nothings. We are frightened when we look at the skies above. The expanse seems to be so impossible of even thinking that for a long time we cannot gaze at the distance and be at peace with ourselves.
We are also frightened at the distance of the Sun from ourselves and the largeness of the astronomical universe that is gigantically staring at us as an awesome something. So is the concept of God in one type of devotion, which goes by the name of asvarya-pradhana-bhakti, devotion where the predominant feature is the feeling of the glory, the might and the magnificence of God—His greatness.
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But there is another kind of love which regards God as the reality within one’s own heart, incapable of separation from one’s own self, as the dearest of all dear ones, and the most loveable of all the loved objects, and the sweetest conceivable thing ever. Such a devotion is categorised in the Bhakti schools under the name madhurya-pradhana-bhakti, where the soul surges forth to God in a melting love and affection which is ordinarily difficult to entertain in respect of an almighty power before which we are just nothing, as it were.
Yet, when God is understood in His proper form and relationship with us, we cannot but love Him as our own soul. Often we feel that He is not our own soul, as we are small individuals. And, therefore, we are afraid of God. But if we are also convinced that it is impossible for us to be without Him, and our existence itself is His existence and our soul is He, our love for Him would be identical with our own self, which excels every other kind of love.
The sweetness of devotion automatically follows from our acceptance of the inseparability of God from our own Self, or soul—from everything. These are the implied suggestive aspects of the teachings of the few verses of the Gita concerning the four types of devotees.
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The distance between man and God becomes less as one rises higher in love and devotion, and finally the distance gets abolished altogether, so that the Supreme Object which is God becomes the Supreme Subject which is the Soul of the cosmos. The fearsome distance of God from us gets gradually diminished as we proceed further through the chapters of the Gita, onwards, right from the Seventh. A time will come when we will see nothing but God, and we would be nowhere there, and that time has to come.
Are we fit to realise God in this life?
Can anyone touch one’s own heart and say, “Yes, in this very birth, I am going to be absorbed in God’s Being,” or do we have a suspicion, “Well, this is not for me”?
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This difficulty is taken up in a very beautiful manner at the commencement of the Eighth Chapter. Most of us would feel diffident even about the entertaining of the idea of this all-consuming Absolute. We are terrorised even by the very thought itself. It would mean that we may pass away from this world without having any contact with this mighty Reality.
What will happen to us when we die?
What are the chances available to us in this great path of the soul towards God?
Is it possible for us to have at least a hope of the possibility of such a realisation, or contact with God? Or, are we to die like flies or moths with no hope whatsoever?
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Before answering this question, the Teacher introduces us into another set of cosmological ideas. The direct answer does not come forth immediately. The introduction to the theme comes from the mouth of Arjuna himself, who puts the question as to what all these mean, taking the hint from the suggestive words of the Teacher towards the end of the Seventh Chapter.
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What is Brahman?
What is the Absolute?
What is the universe?
What is the individual?
What is the relationship between these, and what is the way that we are to adopt in order that we may contact Reality at least after the leaving of the body in this life, if it is not possible in this life?
The points touched in the query sweep over almost every philosophical principle. We have no hopes of seeing God in this life; it is an absolutely hopeless affair. Well, then, even afterwards, is it such a hopeless matter? Is there a chance of our beholding God’s glory or contacting Him at least after death? Or, are we to be a miserable specimen even after quitting this physical body here? All these are the suggestions behind Arjuna’s questions at the beginning of the Eighth Chapter; and we have to take a little time to understand the answer that Krishna gives to these basic issues.
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Chapter-12. Ends.
Next : Chapter 13: Cosmology and Eschatology -1.
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