Commentary on the Bhagavadgita : 4 - Swami Krishnananda

=======================================================================

======================================================================

Sunday, November 21, 2021. 8:00.PM

Commentary on the Bhagavadgita :

Discourse 40

The Thirteenth Chapter Concludes – Understanding Purusha and Prakriti

POST-4.

=========================================================================

Prakriti and purusha may be said to be anadi, or beginningless, if we are to go according to the original doctrine of the Bhagavadgita, which does not expect us to think of  purusha and prakriti as two different things but as potencies, powers, or manners of working of God Himself—Ishvara, Purushottama. On the one hand, prakriti is extension, spacetime; and on the other hand, there is purusha, or consciousness. 

Consciousness and extension constitute the principle of the immanence of God in the universe. I am going a little ahead of the ordinary commentaries on this verse, which are very brief—not to contradict them, but to elucidate them a little more. My intuitive insight, as it were, makes me feel that prakriti and purusha can be beginningless in the same sense as  God is beginningless, because of the fact that they are powers of God: vikārāñś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛtisaṁbhavān.

Kārya kāraṇa kartṛtve hetuḥ prakṛtir ucyate (13.20): Prakriti is the cause of the origin of the causal chain. The cause-and-effect relationship is operative only in the realm of prakriti, whereas pain and pleasure are experienced by purusha: purushah sukha-duhkhanam bhoktrtve hetur uchyate. The contact of purusha with prakriti is the reason behind the experience of pleasure and pain. Experience is not possible unless there is consciousness, and consciousness is available only in the purusha. Purusha is inactive consciousness, whereas prakriti is blind activity. They somehow get juxtaposed, and it appears as if there is conscious activity. 

When we walk, when we do anything, it appears that we are consciously acting. Actually, there is no conscious action. Action is always unconscious because it is connected with the movement of  the gunas of prakriti, who have no self-consciousness. But the purusha does not act; it is conscious. So there is a peculiar jumble—a juxtaposition of the consciousness that does not act with the prakriti, which acts but does not know—and this results in the appearance of conscious activity. For instance, we seem to be doing something consciously. This ‘seeming to be doing consciously’ is due to a mix-up of the purusha and prakriti principles in us—our body being the prakriti, and our Atman being the purusha. 

Puruṣaḥ prakṛtistho hi bhuṅkte prakṛtijān guṇān, kāraṇaṁ guṇasaṅgo’sya sadasadyonijanmasu (13.21): Purusha located, or lodged, in the prakriti appears to enjoy the qualities of prakriti. When water moves, the sun that is reflected in it also appears to move. When the water is stable, the reflection of the sun in it appears to be stable; and if the water is turbid, the reflection appears to be turbid. But really, the sun, which is the cause of this reflection in the water, is not affected in any way whatsoever. The sun does not shake, and does not get turbid.

Similarly, this contact of consciousness with matter—purusha with prakriti—makes it appear that there is enjoyment, and that there is an agency in action. Purusha does not enjoy, because it itself is bliss; but the sorrow that is the fate of the purusha seems to be the outcome of its contact with prakriti.

 

Here again, we have to bring the analogy of the Sankhya that a pure crystal appears to be coloured, or disfigured, by the colour of the object that is brought near it. Thus, one enjoys and one suffers. Really, consciousness does not enjoy and does not suffer. But the movements of prakriti in this manner or that manner—as sattva or rajas or tamas—makes the consciousness, the purusha, feel as if it is transparent and happy when it is in contact with the sattva of prakriti; it is disturbed, agitated, angry and passionate when it appears to be reflecting through the rajoguna of prakriti; and it is very slothful, lethargic and static when it is in contact with the tamasic quality of prakriti. 

To be continued ...

=======================================================================