The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita : 8.5 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF)

#Throwback to the 10-day Spoken Sanskrit Shivir at the CIF campus 🗣️

The special programme was inaugurated by Swami Sharadananda and the CIF Academic Director, Prof. Gauri Mahulikar, and was attended by nearly 40 students. Participants included CIF and CIFSS staff, along with residents from nearby areas, and children across age groups from near and far!

Dr. P.N Sudarshanan, CIFSS Director, warmly welcomed the participants, with Dr. G. Rajashekhara Reddy delivering a vote of thanks. 

Dr. P.K. Sankaranarayanan from Samskrita Bharati, conducted the sessions enthusiastically, prompting and guiding everyone to converse in Sanskrit. Gradually, all participants were inspired – effortlessly using Sanskrit words in their daily conversations in a fun way!

The Shivir concluded with a valedictory ceremony presided over by Swami Advayananda and Dr. P.N. Sudarsanan. The participants shared their experiences and demonstrated their insights through recitiations and performances.

Swami Advayananda emphasised the many benefits of knowing Sanskrit, and encouraged everyone to continue conversing in Sanskrit to perfect their skills.

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Thursday, 03  Aug 2023 06:30.

Chapter 8: Creation and Life After Death-5.

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BG 8.3: 

Sri bhagavan uvacha

"Aksharam brahma paramam svabhavo ’dhyatmam uchyate

bhuta-bhavodbhava-karo visargah karma-sanjnitah."

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Sri-bhagavan uvacha = the Lord said;

aksharam = indestructible; 

brahmam = Brahman; 

paramam = the Supreme; 

svabhavah = nature; 

adhyatmam = one’s own self; 

uchyate = is called; 

bhuta-bhava-udbhava-karah = actions pertaining to the material personality of living beings, and its development; 

visargah = creation; 

karma = fruitive activities; 

sanjnitah = are called.

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Translation

The Lord said: The Supreme Indestructible Entity is called Brahman; one’s own self is called adhyatma. Actions pertaining to the material personality of living beings, and its development are called karma, or fruitive activities.

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Commentary

The Vedas address God by several names; Brahman is one of them. In this verse, Shree Krishna says to Arjun that the Supreme Entity is called the Brahman. Time, space, the chain of cause and effect, etc., are all characteristics of the material realm. However, the Brahman is beyond these, as He is transcendental to the material plane. He is described as aksharam or indestructible because He is unaffected by the changes in the universe. 

The Brihadaranyak Upanishad 3.8.8 states, “Learned people speak of Brahman as akshar (indestructible).  It is also designated as Param (Supreme) because It possesses qualities beyond those possessed by maya and the souls.”

The word adhyatma has two meanings in Sanskrit. One is the science of the soul, and the second is the path to spirituality. However, here Shree Krishna has used it for one’s own self that includes the body, mind, and intellect.

Karmas are fruitive activities performed by a person. It is these karmas that forge every individual’s distinct conditions of existence in various lifetimes. They keep the soul circling in samsara or the cycle of material existence.

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Aksharam brahma paramam (Gita 8.3) – 

the Imperishable Eternal is the Supreme Brahman, the Absolute, Creator Supreme, the Infinite Eternal. This is Brahman, in Sanskrit language. Brahman is the total, all-comprehensive Absolute-Being, aksharam, and it is imperishable – svabhavo'dhyaatmanuchyate. Here, interpreters differ from one another in what they mean by the terms 'svabhava' and 'adhyatma'. Adhyatma is the pryatyak chetana or the internal consciousness, the subjective awareness we may say, literally understood. Svabhava is natural disposition. The natural disposition of a being is the adhyatma or the subjectivity of that being. I am giving you a non-committal definition without going into the details of it because you can read any meaning into them according to your theological standpoints, or rather, philosophical predispositions. Or more properly, to make it more clear to you as novitiates in this study, we may say that adhyatma is the individualised consciousness – consciousness locked up in the individuality of the person, which is the determinant of our svabhava, and which decides our svadharma also. Our duty as svadharma will be decided by our svabhava, or our essential nature as adhyatma, the individual principle in a particular location in the scheme or stage of evolution, a point to be underlined.

Bhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasanjnitah (Gita 8.3) – 

karma is understood to be action, Everybody knows what this word means – action. Karma, karma, karma – it is understood in a thousand ways. "Oh, it is my karma," people say when they wail, weep over something, by which they mean their fate, or rather, more properly, the effect of what they did in the past, or what they do, what they have done, and so on. But more profound thinkers have understood by this word 'karma' here in this context – visarga, or the very process of the emanation of things from the Supreme Being. Visarga karmasamjnitah – the cosmic action, the original, universal impulse to diversify and project itself into this multiplicity of creation, this original creative will, as it were, may be said to be the visarga, the coming out of beings that is the karma, the original yajna, the first action. This is one interpretation, and I am not trying to go into the other interpretations which may not be necessary for us – 

bhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasasjnitah. Adhibhutam 

karo bhavam (8.4):

All the perishable forms in creation are the kshara. Kshara means perishable, transient, passing. Adhibhutam karo bhavah purushas cadhidaivatam. Here again there are varieties of understanding of the meaning of this statement. Adhidaiva is the superintending principle, the divinity transcending the subject-object relationship, the consciousness that is the connecting link between us and the world outside, the seer and the seen. These are all very difficult things to understand and will not be grasped merely by a single utterance of them. However, let them be told at least once so that a vibration may be produced for further studies. This is perhaps the most knotty point in the Bhagavadgita as far as the cosmology of it is concerned.

Bhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasasajnitah, adhibhutah karo bhava purushas cadhidaivatam adhiyajnoham evatra. 

Here again we have a difficulty in understanding what adhiyajna is. Sometimes it is held that the whole field of performance in any manner whatsoever is adhiyajna – the divinity presiding over, superintending over, transcending, controlling, deciding, determining and judging. All activity in the universe is God as adhiyajna, the Supreme Being who receives the fruits of all our actions. This whole world is the field of activity. It is dharmakshetra-kurukshetra, and this field of action is the field of the performance of duty – svadharma. It is, therefore, a field of performance of sacrifice, yajna, and therefore it is holy land, the whole creation, this cosmos, this universe, this world, this society, this area which we are occupying is a sacred, sanctified dharmakshetra cosmically, where we perform our devout worship to the Almighty in the form of our duties, functions – whatever they be, whatever the shape they take. These are very difficult things to understand, but very essential, so that a correct understanding of the mutual relationship of these principles among themselves will give us a strength to face the world and provide us with that internal inner energy by which we can direct our soul-consciousness in the direction of the object of our meditation. We are thrilled, enthused, stirred and stimulated by these descriptions because we know we are a cosmical citizen. We are not a man or woman living in a corner somewhere, in some state of India – we are a citizen of the whole of creation. We have, therefore, the support of the angels in heaven and the gods everywhere and the Supreme Being Himself. Thus, meditation becomes a cosmic activity. Yoga is a universal performance on our part, and this is the message of solace that the Bhagavadgita gives us.

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To be continued

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