Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 28 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, April 03, 2022. 19:00.

Discourse 43: The Fifteenth Chapter Concludes – The Greatest Secret Revealed :

POST-28.

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BG - Chapter-15, Slokam-14.

"Aham vaishvanaro bhutva praninam deham ashritah

pranapana-samayuktah pachamy annam chatur-vidham." 

Translation :

BG 15.14: It is I who take the form of the fire of digestion in the stomachs of all living beings, and combine with the incoming and outgoing breaths, to digest and assimilate the four kinds of foods.

Commentary :

When the prana and the apana conjointly act at the root of the naval within the stomach, they operate in a different manner  altogether, and go by the name of samana; and that creates a kind of heat in the stomach, which is necessary for the digestion of food. This heat is known as Vaisvanara-agni, the Universal Fire. It is the energy of God that operates through the metabolic process of individuals and causes the digestion of the four kinds of food—pachamyannam chaturvidham.

There are six kinds of taste, and four kinds of food. If I describe all these, your tongue will water. That which is swallowed, that which is chewed, that which is licked, and that which is drunk—these are the four varieties. “I actually digest these four varieties of food in your stomach by bringing the prana and the apana together for action, and generating the heat inside as Vaisvanara-agni—the Universal Vaisvanara operating through all individual stomachs as the energy of metabolism.”

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BG - Chapter-15, Slokam-15.

"Sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishto

mattah smritir jnanam apohanam cha

vedaish cha sarvair aham eva vedyo

vedanta-krid veda-vid eva chaham."

Translation :

BG 15.15: I am seated in the hearts of all living beings, and from Me come memory, knowledge, as well as forgetfulness. I alone am to be known by all the Vedas, am the author of the Vedant, and the knower of the meaning of the Vedas.

Commentary :

Sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishto : “I am in the hearts of all.” 

mattah smritir jnanam apohanam cha : “Memory and loss of memory are also 

due to My presence or withdrawal.” 

vedaish cha sarvair aham eva vedayo : “After all, I am the only Being that is to be 

known through all the Veda Samhitas.” 

vedanta-krid veda-vid eva chaham : “That which is glorified in the Vedanta 

Shastra also is Me and, finally, I am the one who really knows the meaning of the 

Vedas.”

This is a summing up of the essence of the earlier teaching that God pervades all things. 

Sarvasya chaham hridi sannivishtah : “In the deepest recesses of the heart of all 

beings, I am present. Both knowledge and ignorance are there onaccount of My 

manifestation or absence of manifestation.” 

The Vedas are supposed to be the glorification of the magnificence of God; and that God who is glorified in the Vedas is this One God who is speaking the Bhagavadgita. And that Supreme Brahman who is glorified in the Upanishads is this great God who speaks this Gita. And, finally, the meaning of the Veda and the Vedanta can be known in its entirety only by God.

eda-vid eva chaham : Nobody can fully know it.

 

A student studied all the Vedas from Brihaspati, and he was very confident that he knew their meaning. He went to Indra and asked, “How much do I know, O Master?” Indra pointed to the sand dunes on the shore of the ocean and said, “You have learnt so much, and what is yet to be known is as large as this big stretch of sand dunes on the shore of the sea.”

Disciples went to Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa and said, “Please teach us the Vedas.” He said, it seems, anantā vai vedāḥ: “The knowledge of the Veda is infinite, so I will take infinite time toexplain to you what the meaning of the Veda is.” The idea is, only God knows God.

That there is a conjoint action between purusha, which is imperishable, and prakriti, which is perishable, has been mentioned again and again in several contexts. This is also a valid position cosmically because prakriti is perpetually in a state of mutation on account of the instability of its three gunas—sattva, rajas and tamas. Hence, the characteristic of prakriti—which is constituted of the three gunas—is perishability, fluxation, instability and, finally, unreality. 

Purusha is infinite consciousness and, therefore, it is imperishable in its nature. Individually speaking, the kutastha chaitanya—the witnessing consciousness in us—is imperishable, but the body is perishable.

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Next :

"Dvav imau purushau loke ksharash chakshara eva cha

ksharah sarvani bhutani kuta-stho ’kshara uchyate." ( BG-15-16.)

Translation

BG 15.16: There are two kinds of beings in creation, the kṣhar (perishable) and the akṣhar (imperishable). The perishable are all beings in the material realm. The imperishable are the the liberated beings.

To be continued ...

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