Commentary on the Srimad Bhagavad Gita- Discourse 6.6 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday,January  23, 2021. 10:32. AM.

Discourse 6: The Third Chapter Begins – The Relation Between Sankhya and Yoga -5.

Post-6.

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We cannot consider any human being as a means to an end. Nobody is a means to an end; everybody is an end in itself. The whole universe is a kingdom of ends—which is to say, the whole universe is filled with Self. The end is nothing but that to which everything gravitates. The servitude that we are imposing upon some lesser individual is nothing but the manner in which we are trying to assert ourselves as an end, and using the other person as a tool. But that person is not really a tool; that person is also a self. The person has become a servant due to unfavourable social conditions; but when favourable conditions prevail, the self will rise up and assert itself as an end, and will want you to be a servant. So there can be an evolution and a revolution taking place in nature.

Therefore, Prajapati, when he created human beings, made it necessary for us to be in a state of harmony with other people, with the things in the world, and also with the gods in heaven. The gods in heaven are actually a theological point that Sri Krishna introduces into the concept of sacrifice—that is, we will not be able to extend a servicing hand to others, nor will we be able to recognise the value in other persons and things, unless the gods in heaven permit us to have this consciousness.

What are these gods in heaven? This is very difficult to understand. The Vedanta philosophy tells us that every limb of the body is controlled and directed by some god. There are nineteen principles operating in the body. There are the five organs of perception or knowledge: the eyes, ears, nose, taste and touch. There are also five organs of action such as the hands, feet, speech, etc. The five organs of knowledge and the five organs of action total ten. Then there are the five pranas—prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana—which are the fivefold various functions of the breath in us which function in various ways in the body. So ten plus five is fifteen. Then we have the psychological organs—manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta—which perform a fourfold function. Manas merely thinks, chitta remembers, ahamkara arrogates, and buddhi understands. Fifteen plus four is nineteen—the nineteen principles operating in the body.

Ekonavi?sati-mukha? (Ma.U. 3) is the word that is used in the Mandukya Upanishad. This god that is operating through the individual has nineteen mouths—ekonavi?sati is nineteen—so it is with these nineteen mouths that we come in contact with things in the world. That is, the sense organs, which are mentioned as nineteen, are the operating media conducted by higher divinities. The Vedanta Shastra tells us that the eye is conditioned by Sun, the nose by the Aswinis, the tongue by Varuna, the tactile sense by Vayu, the ears by the Dik Devatas, the speech by Agni, the mind by Moon, the chitta by Vishnu, the ego by Rudra, the buddhi by Brahma, and so on. So what remains in us apart from the contributions made by these gods? Considering the fact that even the physical body is made up of the building bricks of the five elements, and the sense organs being conditioned by these gods, where are we existing individually? We are living a borrowed existence, as it were—physically, psychologically, socially, and in every way.

To be continued ...

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