Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita : 17.3 - Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, February 20, 2022. 19:00.

Chapter 17. The Play of the Cosmic Powers-3.

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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.



But, the Bhagavadgita emphasises that it is the duty of everyone to get out of the clutches of these outward going urges which lodge the consciousness in name and form, and to endeavour to the best of one's capacity to move towards the Centre which is one's essentiality, rather than the name and the form. The more we go towards the Centre—and this Centre is everywhere—the less is the involvement of consciousness in the name-form complex, so that, in the ultimate reality of the universe there is no name and form.



This Centre of the universe is not a point as the centre of a circle in geometry. These are words we use for the purpose of human understanding, but because our language is limited, words are feeble, they cannot convey the inner significance of these divine messages. Great mystics run into raptures and go beyond the significance of ordinary language when they say, for instance, that this Centre is everywhere with its circumference nowhere. When it is said that we have to move towards the Centre of the universe, it means we have to move to That which is everywhere, a thing which is enough to make us go crazy, because, what on earth does one mean by saying that the Centre is everywhere? How could a centre be everywhere? It is an absurd statement for all practical purposes. But here is a deep secret which is beyond human grasp and capable of appreciation with a little exertion on the part of our endowments.



To move towards the Centre which is everywhere is to merge oneself in all things, to get united with the whole of creation. By the Centre, here, we mean the Self, the Rootedness of all things in the All. The quintessential essence is the Centre.

 Do not we all regard ourselves as the centre of evaluations in life? 

Do not we consider, somehow, overtly or covertly, that the whole world is an accessory to our own self? 

Though we are afraid to speak in this manner, lest it should be interpreted as a gospel of utter selfishness, this so-called selfish, distorted interpretation of our own self as the centre of all things is a reflection of a greater meaning which is hidden in ourselves, viz., the universality of these particular centres we call the selves.



This little self of ours, which arrogantly asserts itself as the all-in-all in this world, is an upstart child of a larger significance which it carries within its own bosom, but which it cannot understand. It is like an ass carrying a treasure on its back, not knowing its worth! 

Our individual self is like a donkey, but it carries a tremendously weighty wealth of universal meaning and connotation, so that, even on the back of this donkey, we will find something important, and perhaps all that is important. 

Here, in our own little self, we have the secret of the cosmos; the key to unlock the mysteries of the universe lies within our own selves, within our own hearts, notwithstanding the fact that we are behaving like fools and wrongly consider our own psychophysical individuality as the centre of all interpretation and evaluation. 

So, there is the devil and the divine essence working together within our own being. The two urges are working together, one competing with the other.

To be continued ......


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