A Study of the Bhagavadgita :61 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

SWAMI UDIT CHAITHANYA

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Monday 30, December 2024, 14:40.
A Study of the Bhagavadgita:
Chapter 10: The Hidden Meaning of the Seventh Chapter of the Gita-2
Swami Krishnananda
Post-61.

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Now the Gita takes up this very subject in the Seventh and Eighth Chapters, etc. – the cosmic evolutionary process, the structure of the universe. The description of this reality of the universe becomes necessary for the purpose of enlightening the individual already perfected through the first six chapters for direct communion with the cosmic whole.

Bhūmir āponalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, ahaṁkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā (Gita 7.4). 

In our description of the Sankhya cosmology, we noted there is Purusha, Prakriti, Mahat, Ahamkara, and a threefold distribution of force into the adhyatma, the adhibhuta, and the adhidaiva which is between; the adhibhuta was constituted of the elements, or tanmatras, called shabda, sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha, and the elements prithvi, jala, tejo, vayu, akash – earth, water, fire, air and ether.

This slogam of the Gita says: bhūmir āponalo vāyuḥ khaṁ. 

Bhumi is the earth, apa is water, anala is fire, vayu is air, kham is akasha. These five elements are mentioned here as evolutes from the Supreme Being. Then added to it is mano buddhi ahamkara. They refer to or correspond to ahamkara through the Sankhya system, as mentioned to you, and there is the Mahat, there is the Mulaprakriti. They are almost similar to these three principles mano buddhi ahamkara, which are above the five elements. These are the eight principles. 

Bhūmir āponalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca, ahaṁkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā: 

This is My eightfold manipulative power, Prakriti, the operative force.

But there is something above them. That is the Supreme Purusha. Apareyam itas tvanyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām, jīvabhūtāṁ mahābāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat (Gita 7.5). This eightfold Prakriti mentioned is like a roster. Right from Prakriti downwards – through the series of Mahat, ahamkara,the five tanmatras and the five mahabhutas – may be considered as lower categories of creation, but the vitality, the force, the prana, the energy, the life, the consciousness that is behind these elements is something different, which is the life principle operating in all, which is God Himself. Jīvabhūtāṁ: There is life, purposiveness, longing, desire, restlessness, aspiration in everything. In dead matter you cannot find all these activities.

Etadyonīni bhūtāni sarvāṇīty upadhāraya (Gita 7.6). 

The whole creation is only this much: this operative principle which is consciousness, jiva, and the other eightfold categorisations of Prakriti.

 Ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā (Gita 7.6). 

Here Sri Krishna sums up all his teaching by saying, “I am everything.” This statement has not been made in the Gita up to this time. “I am the beginning and the end of all things.” Who is saying this? Only whoever is the beginning and the end of all things can say that. No individual, no particular manifestation can speak in this extreme. Kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas: 

I am the beginning, the middle and the end – all the universe, in its entirety. That is to say, this peculiar 'I' which is making this statement is immanent, is hidden as the soul of all things throughout the process of creation. There are innumerable evolutes, but through every process of evolution, and in every evolute that is so manifested, the life principle continuously is present as there is a single consciousness continuously operating in the three states of our life – waking, dream and sleep. Waking is different from dream, dream is different from sleep. They are totally different in their character. When you are dreaming, you cannot know that there is any such thing as the waking condition; when you are awake, you do not think of the dream condition at all; and when you are asleep, the other two conditions vanish. It is not possible to distinguish these three states unless there is a continuous consciousness permeating all three. Therefore, you know, “I am awake, I had a dream, and I slept.” It is one 'I' that is speaking, knowing at the same time that all the three states are of one particular entity only.

In a similar manner, the whole of creation is 'I', says the Universal Consciousness. Here we may identify this great 'I' with the Purusha of the Sankhya – infinite in its nature. Only the Infinite can say, “I am everything.” This identification of the Supreme I in the process of creation and all the evolutes causes various difficulties in understanding from the point of view of an ordinary individual. We cannot actually understand in what manner God pervades the world and in what way creation is effected. We have to take it for granted that it is exactly as it has been described in the scriptures. If you wrack your head too much, you will find no answer because the action of the macrocosm, the workings of the Infinite, cannot be comprehended by the faculties available to the individual.

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Continued

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