Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 16.2 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, January 23, 2022. 20:00.

Chapter -16. The Supreme Person -2.

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But to us, it is all a mystery. We do not know where it begins and where it ends. We cannot know the origin of it, we cannot know the culmination of it, and we cannot know the middle of it. Infinite is this universe, and the infinite universe emanates from the infinite Brahman. Infinite are also the varieties it manifests before us, and infinite is even the mystery that is hidden in the way in which it expresses itself. The whole process of creation is a marvel, and is not capable of being understood by any individual, at any time. Not one can say that he can comprehend the mystery of the cosmos. All knowledge, all activity, everything objective, is within this tree of the universe, and whatever we are and whatever we know is phenomenal, relative and is conditioned by the growth of this tree. Hence, we are not in a position to grasp its super-phenomenal Source, the Creator.

Referring to the image of the birds, I mentioned a description that occurs in the Veda and in the Upanishad. The birds that are supposed to be living on the branches of this tree are God and the individual. These birds are of different categories altogether. Generally, the birds sitting on the tree are eager to eat the fruit of the tree. We have seen parrots jumping from one branch to another in a tree in search of fruits which they want to eat with avidity. There are two birds living in a nest, in the same tree, and one of the birds is busy eating the fruits of this tree of the universe. So much busy is it that it cannot even be conscious of anything else; it is not even aware that there is another friend sitting near. When we are treated to a delicacy in a gorgeous meal or a feast, we are likely to forget even the next person near us because the concentration is wholly on the food that we eat. Such is the attraction that the senses have for their objects. So, the bird of the individual is wholly engrossed in the enjoyment of the sweet fruits of life, is unconscious totally of the other bird which simply gazes at everything without involving itself in any form, sweet or otherwise.

These two birds, God and the individual, are in the same place. And this tree can be the cosmos; it can be this body; it can be the society of people; it can be even an atom. Every little thing in the universe has the characteristic of everything else. So, God and the individual as essentially different principles are present in every speck of space and every item of the universe. The bondage of the individual is in the engrossment of it in the eating of the fruit of life, and the liberation of the individual is in its becoming conscious of the other bird that is sitting near it—God. The one that merely gazes on without enjoying anything but is present immanently in all things is the liberated spirit. The other one is the bound soul. Both these are in this body. God is within us, and we are also here. The two are present everywhere in the whole creation. The eating of this forbidden fruit is the entanglement of the individual. And as long as the tree is visible, the fruits are also there, and the desire for the fruits cannot be avoided wholly.

The Bhagavadgita admonishes us that this tree has to be felled down by cutting it at its root with the axe of non-attachment. The tree grows by attachment, and it withers away by detachment. The universe is a bundle of egoisms, centres of self-affirmation, which well up into avid activity and strength by the fulfilment of desire through the indulgence thereof. And when desire dries up, the universe also is parched out, and it cannot exist any more, even as when the threads of the cloth are pulled out the cloth also ceases to be.

The universe, ultimately, is not made up of substances, but of desires. The warp and woof of this universe are the desires of the individuals that constitute it. In a way we may say that the universe does not stand outside the individuals, even as the cloth does not stand outside the threads of which it is constituted or formed.

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To be continued ...

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