A Study of the Bhagavadgita :13.1. - Swami Krishnananda.
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Sunday, July24, 2022. 19:00.
Chapter 13: The Positivity and the Negativity of Experience - 1.
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Reference was made in the Fourteenth Chapter of the Gita to the three properties of Prakriti known as the gunas – sattva, rajas and tamas. It is on the basis of this distinction of the three properties of Prakriti manifested both cosmically and individually that in the Fifteenth Chapter a further distinction was drawn among Kshara, Akshara, and Purushottama. In a way, this distinction is comparable to the difference that we noticed earlier among adhyatma, adhibhuta and adhidaiva. Adhyatma is comparable with the Akshara Purusha, adhibhuta with the Kshara Purusha, and adhidaiva with the Purushottama.
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Slokam- Gita 15.16 :
"Dvav imau purushau loke ksharash chakshara eva cha
ksharah sarvani bhutani kuta-stho ’kshara uchyate."
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dvau—two;
imau—these;
puruṣhau—beings;
loke—in creation;
kṣharaḥ—the perishable;
cha—and;
akṣharaḥ—the imperishable;
eva—even;
cha—and;
kṣharaḥ—the perishable;
sarvāṇi—all;
bhūtāni—beings;
kūṭa-sthaḥ—the liberated;
akṣharaḥ—the imperishable;
uchyate—is said.
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Translation :
BG 15.16: There are two kinds of beings in creation, the kṣhar (perishable) and the akṣhar (imperishable). The perishable are all beings in the material realm. The imperishable are the the liberated beings.
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Commentary :
Shree Krishna says that there are two kinds of beings; the kṣhar (perishable) and the akṣhar (imperishable). All beings in the material realm are perishable, and those liberated are imperishable.
Although all souls are eternal; in the material realm, Maya binds the individual soul to a material body. From the tiniest insect to the celestial gods, all embodied living entities in the material world are kṣhar (perishable). They have to go through the repetitive cycle of birth and death of their material body.
Whereas, the akṣhar (imperishable) souls possess an immortal body, which is free from the cycle of birth and death. They reside forever in the divine realm; the Abode of God.
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Slokam - 15-17
"Uttamah purushas tv anyah paramatmety udahritah
yo loka-trayam avishya bibharty avyaya ishvarah."
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(Gita15.17).Translation :
uttamaḥ—the Supreme;
puruṣhaḥ—Divine Personality;
tu—but;
anyaḥ—besides;
parama-ātmā—the Supreme Soul;
iti—thus;
udāhṛitaḥ—is said;
yaḥ—who;
loka trayam—the three worlds;
āviśhya—enters;
bibharti—supports;
avyayaḥ—indestructible;
īśhvaraḥ—the controller
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Translation :
BG 15.17:Besides these, is the Supreme Divine Personality, who is the indestructible Supreme Soul. He enters the three worlds as the unchanging Controller and supports all living beings.
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Commentary :
In the previous verses, Shree Krishna spoke about the different worlds and categories of souls. Now he speaks of God - the Supreme Divine Personality called the Paramātma, which means the Supreme Soul. The appellation of Param emphasizes on the fact that Paramātmā is different from ātmā, which is an individual soul, whereas, Paramātmā is the Supreme Soul. He is the transcendental God who controls both the perishable and imperishable worlds. For the non-dualistic philosophers who propagate that individual soul itself is the Supreme Soul, this verse is clear disapproval of their claim.
While the individual soul is very tiny and confined to the material body it resides in; the Supreme Soul is present inside every living entity. He is the constant companion of the individual soul in every life, immaterial of what species the soul gets born into. He sits in their hearts quietly taking a note; keeping an account of their karmas, and gives appropriate results. For example, in a particular birth, a soul has received a dog’s body. The Supreme Soul continues to be inside and gives results based on the soul’s past karmas. This explains why even dogs have different destinies. Some dogs are born on the streets, live a famished life, and die in misery. Whereas, some get to live comfortably as pets in lavish mansions, living a dainty life. This huge difference in destiny is due to the stockpile of karmas from their previous births. The Supreme Soul which accompanies the soul in its various births, in different species, keeps granting results based on its karmas.
The Supreme Soul also exists in a personal form as the four-armed Kshirodakshayi Vishnu, commonly known as “Bhagwan Vishnu”. A popular saying in Hindi goes: “mārane vāle ke do hāth, bachāne vāle ke chār hāth” which means, a killer has two arms, but the savior has four arms. The four-armed personality referred to here is the Paramātmā, the Supreme So
The perishable is the adhibhuta; it is the Kshara Prakriti. The tamasic nature, which is perishable and is visible to us in the form of the objective universe, is what is apprehended in perception and cognition by the Akshara, which is the consciousness that beholds and knows all things. The consciousness that is responsible for the awareness of anything in this world is considered as imperishable in comparison with everything that changes in the world in the process of evolution – namely, Kshara.
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That which changes is known by something which itself cannot change. The evolutionary process is, of course, a continuous movement, a fluxation in time; therefore, it is subject to transmutation from moment to moment. In this sense, the entire universe of objective perception can be regarded as Kshara, transitory, perishable. But one who is aware of it is not perishable because that which is perishable cannot know the perishable by itself. Movement cannot know movement. There must be something which does not move and does not change in order that movement and change can be cognised and become objects of one's perceptual awareness.
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But there is something above both the perceiver and the perceived. As you have noticed in our earlier studies, the perceiver, the subject, the individualised consciousness – Akshara Purusha, so-called here in this context – is also related in some way to the Kshara Prakriti. This relation has been explained in the terminology of the Sankhya and the Vedanta as the adhidaiva, indivisible consciousness, which itself cannot be cognised. That which is responsible for real cognition of things itself is not cognisable. "Who can know the knower?" says the Upanishad. There is a transference of values taking place between the subject and the object at the time of perception, and a peculiar twofold modification takes place, called vritti vyapti and phala vyapti in the terminology of Vedantic epistemology.
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In perception of an object, the mind takes an important part. The mind is cast in the mould of the object of cognition at the time of the knowledge of the object. That is to say, the mind takes the form of the very thing which it is supposed to know. But the mind, being a rarefied form of the gunas of Prakriti and Prakriti being not conscious at all – it is unconscious activity – cannot by itself, of its own accord, independently, know anything. The mould can take the shape of the thing that is cast into it – the crucible can assume the shape or the form of that which is poured into it – but it cannot know that such an event has taken place. Knowledge is a different factor altogether.
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