The Teachings of the Bhagavadgita : 8.4 - Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission

On 11th June, the annual Bala Vihar graduation event took place at Chinmaya Mission in London, Canada. The event was attended by 150 children ranging from J-K to Grade 12, along with their parents. Notably, five students from Grade 12 graduated out of Bala Vihar on this occasion. The gathering included a total of over 350 attendees.

The event was a showcase of presentations and skits by students from six different classes. These presentations centered around the values, messages, and self-development lessons rooted in Sanatana Dharma that the students had learned throughout the past year. Graduation speeches, acknowledgments, and a special message by the resident Acharya, Vijay Ji, were also part of the event. Furthermore, attendees had the opportunity to give Guru Dakshina, followed by a delightful multi-cuisine dinner.

As the event concluded, it was announced that the new academic year would commence on September 10th, and registrations would open in August.

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Saturday, 29 Jul 2023 06:30.

Chapter 8: Creation and Life After Death-4.

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There is an indubitable existence of ourselves; there is the individual existence of ours:

I am there, you are there, there and we are many people here in this world.

There is this world outside.

There is a Creator of this world.

There is a relationship between this Creator and this world.

There is a relationship between you and the world.

There is a relationship between you and the Creator.

And, number 7, number 8. Many other involved questions arise concerning the mutual relations of these categories mentioned: the Supreme Creator, the universe created, the individual, including human society, and the mutual relationship among them.

This is the commencement of the eighth chapter, which concludes with a short enunciation, a narration of the life beyond this world, studies which are comprehended in what is called eschatology – life after death. The world is involved in a cosmical relationship, as you and I are. These terms are differently explained by different interpreters and students of the Bhagavadgita. There is no uniformity among the understanders of these terms. Brahma, karma, adhiyajna, adhibhuta, adhidaiva, adhyatma are intriguing terms into which we can read any meaning from our philosophical, predilection point of view. And if we read different commentators, they will tell different things to us – all of which may be right in their own way, and yet there are more things to be said about them than perhaps are available in existing commentaries. There is an interrelationship of everything. The world is a structure of interrelated constituents. Everything is connected to everything else. In this sense we may say that everything is everywhere.

A very homely and easily intelligible analogy that I may place before you to understand this interconnectedness is the organism of our own personality, the sarira, which is the illustration given by such theologists and philosophers like Sri Ramanuja. God is sariri, and the whole creation is sarira. The relationship between the universe and God is sarira-sariri-sambandha. What is the relationship between the body and the soul? There is some sort of a very clear, intelligible relationship between the body and the soul, though we may not identify one with the other. The body is not the soul, but we cannot keep the body here and the soul there; they are so much related that even the word 'relation' is a poor word to describe what sort of association is there between the soul and the body. 

They are one, as it were, yet they are not one. A kind of non-separate existence is enjoyed by the soul and the body, notwithstanding the fact that we cannot say that the one is the other. This is, perhaps, the viewpoint of Ramanuja – the theologians who hold that the universe is organically related to the Supreme Being, call Him Vishnu, Narayana, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva or the Supreme Being, or any name we would like. I do not wish to stretch this point too much to the breaking apotheosis of it, and for all practical purposes it will be enough for us to know that there is a non-separate relation of the whole of creation with God, which includes our relationship also. The words adhidaiva, adhyatma and adhibhuta are interpreted, as I mentioned, in many ways. In a subtle way, the Bhagavadgita itself gives the definition of these principles.

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To be continued

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