The Essence of Dharma: 5. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday 26, January 2025, 09:20.
Article
Srimad Bhagavad Gita,
The Essence of Dharma: 5.
Swami Krishnananda
(Spoken on February 11th, 1973)

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Now I am coming to another aspect of this question which is very intimately connected with the earlier one. The universe is a continuum, an undivided being, according to physical discovery. So is consciousness. Consciousness is a continuity. It is an undivided flow, as it were. It should not be called a flow, but for want of a better word I will call it a flow because it is permeating and pervading every bit of existence. But it does not pervade another object like water permeating cloth in a bucket of water.

Inasmuch as consciousness is undivided, there cannot be externality to it. Even a universe cannot exist outside it, but the universe exists. We are seeing it. So we have two continuities, two continuums – the universal continuum and the consciousness continuum. This double continua of consciousness and matter has led some people to imagine that there is an infinite matter and an infinite consciousness. This is the Sankhya philosophy of India, which says there is an ubiquitous and eternal matter and also an ubiquitous and eternal consciousness, Purusha. But what is that which is between the two? Nobody knows. This is a no-man's land. As there cannot be a no-man's land between consciousness and matter, Vedanta comes to the forefront and says, “Sankhya, you are wonderful. You have gone ahead of the scientists in positing the existence of consciousness. You have won a victory over the ignorance of the scientists. But you are also mistaken inasmuch as you have created an unbridgeable gulf between consciousness and matter. How does consciousness know that matter exists if there is no connection between the two?” If Sankhya is ultimately right, how does the Purusha know that matter is? The very fact that consciousness knows the existence of matter shows that consciousness pervades matter. It is not an unbridgeable gulf between the two.

The universe is such a mystery before us. It is a beautiful blend of object and subject – the object being matter, the subject being the spirit. We cannot as human beings understand what this beautiful blend is. Today I am not going into the subject of the nature of this blend of spirit and matter, as my purpose is something else. But Vedanta prescribes a solution for this enigma of the duality of spirit and matter, to which a hint is given in the Thirteenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, where the Absolute is described. The Absolute is both subject and object.

It is both inside and outside. What a wonder it is! This is the transcendent solution of the mystery between spirit and matter. We cannot understand it because it is subtler than our understanding. It looks very far because it is infinite, but it is very near because it is the Self of the thinker himself.

Though things are divided, it is undivided within the divided being. 

It is inside our very heart. This supreme solution to the mystery and enigma of the dichotomy between spirit and matter is hidden within our very heart. How can we understand it? We cannot see our own eyes; we cannot see our own back. Such is the tremendous significance of our activities, our conduct. This is the nature of dharma.

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Continued

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