The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 17.2. - Swami Krishnananda.

Swami Chinmayananda:

Did you know what happens after death?

[after death, what happens after death, karma, good karmas, karma quotes, life, life and death]

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Friday, 02  Feb  2024 07:00. 

Chapter 17: The Play of the Cosmic Powers - 2.

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The soul within is the representative of the Universal in us; and everything else that is in the form of a vesture covering the soul is a representative of the phenomenal complex of names and forms. We should not underrate the powers of the cosmos with the impression that we are souls, because the cosmos derives its energy from the Universal itself. Just as a mirror which does not shine by itself can draw sustenance from the light of the Sun and appear as if it is also brilliant, so do our senses deceive us, distract us and tantalise us by appearing to offer us a satisfaction which they really cannot give. Here, in this awful struggle between these two forces, we are caught in the middle, and it is difficult with the strength of our arms and feet to get over this mire of being pulled equally in two different directions. It is necessary to have the blessings of the Guru. In one place, the Gita itself tells us that the only alternative available for a seeker is to approach a competent guide on this path, and by questioning and self-surrender and service and intimate communion with him, attain wisdom. The Grace of God simultaneously works in the case of every seeking spirit which ardently longs for this enlightenment.

Reference was made to the three gunas of prakriti, in the Third Chapter of the Gita, and these gunas, or properties, are mentioned frequently in the course of the teaching. By the time we reach the Sixteenth Chapter, we come to a novel revelation that the whole universe is a play of two forces, the ingoing and the outgoing, powers that urge themselves forward in the direction of the Centre of the cosmos and those that rush outwardly in the direction of space, time and objectivity.

The traditional names given to these forces of inward and outward movement, Daiva and  Asura, allow themselves to be translated as the divine and the undivine, the godly and the demoniacal impulses. Now, the terms good and evil, divine and undivine are normally associated with ethical values and the moral assessments in life. But the Gita here rises above the ordinary human concepts of good and evil, or even ethics and morality, and takes its stand on a highly philosophical or metaphysical ground, so that what we call good and evil or right and wrong, etc., become the human readings of meaning into the great drama enacted in the cosmos by these impersonal powers which alternately move inward and outward and compel everything, everywhere, to work according to their intentions, as if everything is a puppet in their hands.

Everyone and everything has, thus, a twofold urge within itself. Often, we are inspired and roused into a feeling of self transcendence, a movement towards a comprehensive grasp and a total experience, by an entry into the centre of things. At other times we are also impelled by the other urge, the desire which speaks to us in the language of sense objects, fulfilment or indulgence of passions, working through the sense organs, rather than the power of intuition, running away from the essence to the forms outside, so that the more we move externally, the greater is our involvement in names and forms; and the farther we are from the centre of the universe, the greater also is the sorrow that follows as a consequence. The more we move away from the centre, the more are we heading towards what we call hell, in the language of the religions; and the heavenly regions are those stages of experience which tend towards the Centre rather than the circumference and the space-time objectivity.

These forces work perpetually, without a beginning and an end, and they work everywhere, so that nothing is free from their operations. The evolution and the involution of the universe are the working of these two urges, and no one can humanly understand as to how and why they are operating in this manner. It is a mystery transcending human comprehension, because human beings are already involved in the working of these forces, and how can they understand their intentions? They range above the human intellect and the capacity of the individual in any manner.

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To be continued

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