The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 17.6. - Swami Krishnananda.

Swami Chinmayananda:

Take no pride in your possession, in the people (at your command), in the youthfulness (that you have). Time loots away all these in a moment. Leaving aside all these, after knowing their illusory nature, realise the state of Brahman and enter into it.

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Thursday 22,  Feb  2024  07:00. 

Chapter 17: The Play of the Cosmic Powers - 6.

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Any kind of retributive or animalistic behaviour where values are wrested out of things and centred in one's own self, where people and objects of the world are treated as nothings in comparison with one's self, where we become the sole standard of judgement and everyone else a tool to ourselves, where such is the outlook of our life, we can imagine that tamas is predominant in us. When we want to exploit the world for the satisfaction of our own so-called outlook of life, we are in tamas. When we give equal value to others as we give to ourselves, we are on a higher level of human appreciation. We do not feel it proper for us, then, to transform everything into an instrument for our satisfaction. We become humanistic, charitable, sociable, polite and good-natured.

But when we rise higher still to the diviner level where sattva predominates, we do not regard others as 'others' at all. They are not others, they are just one being appearing in this multifaceted form of ourselves and others; for in the divine level there are no objects. There are only subjects appearing in all forms. In the animal level it is purely the objectivity of things that is taken into consideration. In the human level the subject and the object are taken on a par, as on an equal footing. In the divine level the distinction between the subject and the object is transcended, and everyone reflects everyone else. This is the spiritual realm of Truth, the golden age, or the millennium that people speak of and hope to see with their eyes. When dharma prevails and reigns supreme in the world, where governments are not necessary, when there is no necessity for external mandate or compulsive rule, when everyone reflects truth wholly in oneself, when everyone reflects everyone else as if mirrors are placed one in front of the other, such is the divine realm of  Brahma-loka, the Kingdom of God, which is within everyone. This is the world of sattva, utter purity.

Towards the end of the Seventeenth Chapter we are given the cryptic message of 'Om Tat Sat', a term with which we are all familiar, but the meaning of which is not always so clear. It is said that this is a very holy expression and it has to be employed in every religious performance. We conclude all pious acts with the utterance  Om Tat Sat, which appears to be an invocation of God at the end of a performance. The meaning of these words is not clear, and no commentary on the Gita will perhaps be an aid to us in understanding what these three terms actually signify. We merely say  Om Tat Sat. We do not know what it means.

Well, we may go a little deep into its significance from the point of view of the Bhagavadgita itself, in the light of the great message that has been given to us through its various chapters. And in this light if we look at these terms, it would appear that the three seeds, Om,  Tat, and  Sat signify the total comprehensiveness of the nature of Brahman, ranging beyond the concepts of Reality in the form of transcendence and immanence.

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Continued

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