Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 10- Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, December 22,2021. 7:00.PM
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita :
Discourse 40
The Thirteenth Chapter Concludes – Understanding Purusha and Prakriti
POST-10.

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The body cannot be conscious. Consciousness is different from the body; therefore, when there is bodily action—which is nothing but the action of prakriti, because the body is made up of prakriti's three gunas—we begin to imagine, “I am doing something. And because I feel that I am doing something, I also expect a result to follow from that action, and I must enjoy the result of that action. I am doing the action and, therefore, the fruit of that action should come to me.” Hence, karma phala comes as a recompense for the feeling that one is doing. But one who knows that prakriti alone does things, and activity is a part of prakriti's nature, and the knower of that is different from the activity—such a person remains as akarta, a non-doer. 

Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam)

Slokam-30 :

'prakrtyaiva  ca  karmani  kriyamanani  sarvasah, yah  pasyati  tathatmanam  akartaram  sa  pasyati.'

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Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :

Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam)

Slokam-31:

"yada  bhutaprthagbhavam  ekasthamanupasyati,

tata  eva  ca  vistaram    brahma sampadyate  tada." (13-31)

We have attained the Supreme Brahman the moment we are able to see with our own eyes the interconnection of the varieties of creation in front of us and their rootedness in a single sea of force which is Brahman. That is to say, we see only wood in all the trees, we see only water in all the ripples and waves, we see only gold in all the ornaments; and, in a similar manner, we see only Brahman in all the names and forms. 

'yada  bhutaprthagbhavam  ekasthamanupasyati'  means that one is able to see the variety of creation as rooted in the One. 

There may be millions and millions of varieties of living beings or inanimate things, but this multiform creation will not affect us in any way because they are the various limbs of the one root that is universally spread out everywhere. If we can visualise things in this manner, we have attained Brahman at once. 

'yada  bhutaprthagbhavam  ekasthamanupasyati, tata  eva  ca  vistaram brahma sampadyate  tada.' : The cosmic all-pervading Brahman is realised at once by entertaining this vision of everything diverse being rooted in one Universal Existence.

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Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :

Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam)

Slokam-32 :

'anaditvat  nirgunatvat  paramatmayamavyayah,

sarirasthopi  kaunteya  na  karoti  na  lipyate.' (13-32.)

This Brahman, the Universal Atman, has no beginning. 

'Anaditvat' : It has no qualities of any kind as we know qualities here. 

'nirgunatvat  paramatmayamavyayah' : It is imperishable because it is indestructible. 

Such Paramatman, the Supreme Self, though existing in this body as the deepest self in us, does not involve itself in any contamination of the gunas of prakriti. 

'Na karoti na lipyate' : He neither does anything, nor is He contaminated by the fruits of action.

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The kutastha chaitanya, or the witness consciousness in us, is the true self in us. That remains uncontaminated by anything that takes place, just as space inside a vessel cannot become affected by things that we pour into the vessel. 

If we pour something fragrant into the vessel, the space inside it does not become fragrant; or if we put something bitter into the vessel, the space inside it does not become bitter. It is the content that has the quality; space itself has no quality. 

In a similar manner, the content—which is the physical, the astral and the causal bodies—has the characteristics of action and the enjoyment of the fruits of action; but the witness, which is the light of the sun in the sky, as it were, is untarnished by anything that may happen to this body in all these three phases.

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To be continued ...

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