Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 9

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Friday, December 17, 2021. 7:00.PM
Commentary on the Bhagavadgita :
Discourse 40
The Thirteenth Chapter Concludes – Understanding Purusha and Prakriti
POST-9.

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Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :
Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam)
Slokam-29 :

"samam pasyan hi sarvatra samavasthitamisvaram,

na hinastyatmanatmanam tato yati param gatim." (13-29 )

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Translation of slokam :

"One who sees the Supersoul in every living being and equal everywhere does not degrade himself by his mind. Thus he approaches the transcendental destination."

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Translation :

hi sarvatra = why because, everywhere;

samam sama - svasthitam = equally, equally situated ( just like one );

isvaram pasyan = seeing the Supreme Lord ( Paramatma );

atmana atmanam = by atma ( by the mind ) the atma ( jiva );

na hinasti = will not destroy ( does not degrade );

tatah param gatim yati = because of that, attains parama-padham ( then reaches the transcendental destination ).

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Commentary :

The living entity, by accepting his material existence as just so much suffering, can become situated in his spiritual existence. If one understands that the Supreme is situated in His Paramatma manifestation everywhere, that is, if one can see the presence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead in every living thing, he does not degrade himself, and he therefore gradually advances in the spiritual world. The mind is generally addicted to self-centered processes; but when the mind turns to the Supersoul, one becomes advanced in spiritual understanding.

Lord Krishna now presents the results of the afore stated realisations that of perceiving the Supreme Lord present within all bodies demigod, human, animal, etc. and His imperishable nature present everywhere.

Such a jiva or embodied being na hinasti never degrades atmanam their immortal soul by being attached to material desire and prolonging their imprisonment in material existence.

The essence is one who sees created beings separate from the Supreme Lord and separate from themselves will be compelled to revolve in samsara the perpetual cycle of birth and death in the material existence and continue to perform sinful and degraded activities that keeps them shackled permanently in the prison of material existence.

This is corroborated by Sakuntala's statement in Moksa Dharma that: Such a one who has not realised the atma or immortal soul inherent within all beings; what sinful activity did such a cheater of themselves deign not to commit?

The Isa Upanisad, verse III reveals the resultant consequence due to the greatest ignorance for those that degrade their own atma and the soul of others living entities by engaging in evil activities of unrighteousness beginning: asurya nama te loka andhena meaning such sinful demons oblivious of their inherent divine nature enter the dark, gloomy hellish planets when their life has ended.

Why is such an enlightened person said to see saman or equally?

This is being explained by Lord Krishna.

By seeing the resplendent Supreme Lord everywhere, within oneself, within all beings and within all things; one does not perform any activity that will degrade the atma or immortal soul of themselves nor degrade the atma of others.

This means they have recognised the Supreme Being within all beings and does not deny through capriciousness or ignorance the presence of paramatma or the Supreme immortal soul whose very nature is sat or eternal existence, cit or unlimited consciouness and ananda never ending bliss.

Such an enlightened being is qualified to achieve moksa or liberation from material existence and attain the eternal spiritual worlds which are param gati the supreme destination. But one who is unable to see equally in this manner erroneously looks upon their physical body as being the same as the atma thinking that when the physical body perishes the atma perishes with it and thus mistakenly sentence the to atma to be non-existent.

The Isa Upanisad, verse III beginning asurya nama te loka andhena meaning: The demoniac and the demons degrade the atma, totally ignorant of its eternal divine nature and are forced to enter the dark, gloomy hellish worlds in their next life.

The Supreme Lord Krishna is known as isvara is residing saman equally sarvatra within all beings.

This includes demigods, humans, animals, etc.

The word pasyati here meaning perceives denotes that the atma or immortal soul is recognised wherever it may abide.

By thus comprehending the actual nature of the atma one never degrades themselves and na hinasti never causes harm to oneself.

Contrarily if one insists on identifying the atma in the same way as the physical body in the differentiating light of unlimited bodily forms one injures and degrades their eternal self.

This understanding saves one from acquiring karma or reactions to actions which is the main cause of confinement to samsara or the perpetual cycle of birth and death.

By gaining this basic realisation one achieves the goal of atma- tattva or soul realisation and then becomes eligible for param gatim the supreme destination and highest attainment.

Lord Krishna is explaining that one who perceives and recognises the Supreme Being in every being is one who actually sees reality. The jiva or embodied being practically witnesses death and destruction in material existence everyday along with its associated misery.

The Padma Purana states that as a form of misery the jiva sees itself; yet devoid of misery is the Supreme Lord residing within every jiva equally from Brahma the highest material being down to an ant.

The Supreme Lord expansion as paramatma or the Supreme Soul within all jivas throughout all dimensions of creation does not diminish or degrade His transcendental position whatsoever, whether abiding in a demigod, human, animal etc.

Perceiving the reality of the Supreme Lord in this way one is not subject to illusion.

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Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :

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

Slokam-29.

samam pasyan hi sarvatra samavasthitamisvaram, na hinastyatmanatmanam tato yati param gatim. (13.29) :

Mostly we kill the Self with the self—hinastyatmanatmanam. A kind of atma hatya is going on when the Self is forgotten and only objects are remembered. Only external things are in that person's memory; the Self is completely obliterated from experience. That state of affairs—where the consciousness of the Self being there is completely obscured by intense concentration on objects outside—is called spiritual suicide; it is killing the Self with the self. That is, we do not know that we are existing at all as the Self. We know that there is a world outside, we are busy with things outside, but we are not busy with our Self.

But having known the equally distributed consciousness of the Paramatman, equally distributed Eternity—knowing this, seeing this, beholding it, and contemplating it, one will not be subject to this otherwise common experience of Self-destruction; and knowing this, one attains to the Supreme State, 'yati param gatim.'

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Srimad Bhagavad-Gita :
Chapter-13. ( Kshetra-kshetrajna-vibhaga-yogam)
Slokam-30 :

"prakrtyaiva ca karmani kriyamanani sarvasah,

yah pasyati tathatmanam akartaram sa pasyati."

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Translation of the slokam :

"One who can see that all activities are performed by the body, which is created of material nature, and sees that the self does nothing, actually sees."

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Translation :

sarvasah karmani = all karma-s ( activities );

prakrtya eva kriyamanani = done by prkrati itself , this;

tathatmanam akartaram ca = atma is not doing anything, this;

yah pasyati = one who sees, (this);

sah pasyati = he sees the 'Truth'.

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Commentary :

One who perceives that the atma or immortal soul is only the witness and performs no actions; such a person can realise the Supreme Lord Krishna.

After enacting the effects of one's karma or reactions to previous actions, the Supreme Lord causes the reactions to be experienced by the jivas or embodied beings.

But for the Supreme Lord there exist no enactment of previous actions.

Vedavyasa has confirmed that the Supreme Lord is transcendental to material nature, actions and time.

The Skanda Purana states: From but a single desire of will the entire creation is manifested by the Supreme Lord.

He is the creator of everything but nothing is the creator of Him.

He himself has stated earlier that: I am the Lord of all creation.

I am the progenitor of Brahma.

Everything rests in Me.

It is from me that everything has arisen.

Know that all creation has manifested from Me alone.

These proofs found in the Vedic scriptures and also the absence of any contradictions to this in the Vedic scriptures is corroborated by the words in this verse of prakrtyaiva ca meaning: the material substratum pervading physical existence in the unlimitedly modified forms of bodies with senses.

The adjective ca specifically establishes all forms to be from the Supreme Lord alone.

In the Shabda Nirnaya is stated that sometimes ca is used to show additional embellishments and other times to emphasise association and other times to show detriments.

Since for the inanimate there is no self-motivation as confirmed by Vedavyasa in Vedanta Sutras.

It is clear that prakriti or the material substratum pervading physical existence which is inanimate cannot be the primary cause of creation in any way and the creative impulse to animate from the inanimate is completely impossible and preposturous.

Thus in this instance the adjective ca is applicable only to the Supreme Lord and not prakriti, in any way.

What Lord Krishna has explained in earlier chapters about His being the original seed and everything is connected to Him like pearls on a string is what He is confirming here through association of the ksetra or sphere of activity and the ksetrajna or the knower of the sphere of activity; so there is absolutely no contradiction whatsoever in this regard.

Contrarily, hypothesising that anything inanimate can be the cause of the animate is extremely contradictory and completely erroneous.

The Paigni scripture states: Creation emanating from conscious will can alone be the main criteria. So in conclusion only supra-mundane actions which are not subject to any modification should be considered eternal and of the nature of the Supreme Lord.

It may be postulated that substantial differences can be seen by different jivas or embodied beings in performing good and evil activities so how is it that the atma is equal within all?

Anticipating such a query Lord Krishna states yah pasyati meaning one who sees.

Sees what? One who sees understands that all activites in all respects are factually performed by prakriti or the material substratum pervading physical existence.

This is actualised by the transformations of prakriti being the three gunas or modes of goodness, passion and ignorance which direct and influences the mind, body and senses organs to actions.

Such a one comprehends that the purely spiritual atma or immortal soul is the monitor and witness to these actions only.

Any misconception arising contrary to this reality is due to the erroneous identification of the atma as being the physical body instead of understanding that the atma is imperishable and completely independent of the perishable physical body.

Lord Krishna is making the point that when one does not comprehend that all actions are impelled by the body, mind and senses due to the influence of prakriti or the material substratum pervading physical existence and perceives different living entities and who assume that the performers of good and evil actions are separate from the Supreme Lord; then it is impossible to realise the atma or immortal soul within the etheric heart.

All actions are due to prakriti which is transformed into the body and from which all physical activity depends upon to perform actions and fulfil desires through the medium of the senses. For the atma this does not apply having no material qualities or material attributes it is the witness monitoring all thought and activities of every jiva or embodied being.

Lord Krishna reveals that one who truly perceives understands that all actions proceed from the agency of prakriti or the material substratum that pervades physical existence.

One perceives that for creating effects and instruments insentient prakriti is the cause.

One perceives that the atma or immortal soul although sentient is not the doer.

One perceives that tamas or ignorance in the shape of karma or reactions to actions is the reason for forced confinement in the material existence, the terms and conditions of the confinement and the experiences of pleasure and pain in correlation with the duration of the confinement.

One who comprehends all these truly perceives reality.

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Now the Lord refers once again to the kartrtva and akartrtva aspects of the human individual in relation to prakriti's modes—sattva, rajas and tamas.

"prakrtyaiva ca karmani kriyamanani sarvasah, yah pasyati tathatmanam akartaram sa pasyati." (13.30) :

One will automatically know, without any difficulty at all in knowing this fact, that one is not the doer of any action, provided that one clearly sees that all activity is an activity of the three gunas of prakriti, and that the consciousness of activity is different from activity itself. We have somehow or the other mixed up consciousness and motion (movement) together. By a mixing up of these two elements by a process called tadatmiya abhyasa—which means the superimposition of one thing on the other in the reverse order, or vice versa—consciousness is made to appear as active, and activity is made to appear as conscious. So we ‘consciously do something'.

The whole point is, ‘consciously doing something' is a misnomer. Consciousness cannot do anything, and doing cannot be conscious. So, if this knowledge arises in a person that activity is only the movement of prakriti with its three gunas, and the consciousness thereof is totally independent of the gunas, they will not ever feel that they are the doer of action. That is, their consciousness will always be in a state of witness, or detachment, from the process of action. But our body and our consciousness are so intimate that we cannot distinguish one from the other. That is why we feel that we are doing things, while really there is no such thing.

When a red-hot iron rod is placed before us, we do not see the iron rod; we see only fire, though the fire and the iron rod are two different things. And when we touch it, what are we touching? Are we touching the fire, or are we touching the iron rod? We may say that the iron rod burns. The iron rod does not burn; it is the fire that burns. Yet the two have been superimposed on each other in such a way that the rod looks like fire, and the fire appears to have the shape of a lengthy rod. The fire does not have the shape of the rod, and the rod has no heat; but yet, we mix up two aspects and say that the long rod is hot. In a similar manner, we make a mistake in our own selves by imagining this body is conscious.

To be continued .....

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