Gita summaries - chp 13

With this chapter we are entering the third section of the Bhagavad Gita and in this section Lord Krishna deals with jivatma-paramatma ikyam. The essential nature of the jiva and the essential nature of paramatma; that is the truth of the microcosm and the truth of the macrocosm are non-different. They are one and the same. We call these verses of ikyam as “mahavakyam” and we find this idea in the 13, 14, and 15^th chapters. But it is only in this chapter we get the essence of the Upanishads very clearly. Arguably the 13^th chapter is the most important chapter in the entire Bhagavad Gita.

            This chapter deals with mahavakya vichara; another part of the chapters deals with values or ethics. In our culture the philosophy is never separate from values. Both go hand in hand. There dharma or ethics is an important limb of philosophy. Vedanta will not work if one does not follow an ethical life. Without ethics Vedanta will only be information; only with ethics will an individual go through a transformation. Another theme Krishna emphasis in this chapter is spiritual enquiry under a guidance of a guru. We don’t accept intuition or meditation as a means of knowledge; only a systematic study can be a means of knowledge. If a person is not ready for knowledge Vedanta allows postponement of knowledge but there is no going away from sravanam, manamam, and nidhidhyasanam.

            For convenience I will divide the 13^th chapter into three portions. The first part is mahavakya vichara or who am I? And the analysis of Ishwara? Through that analysis we should conclude that the essential nature of the individual and Ishwara is the same. There would be superficial difference in name, form and function but the essence is the same. Example; wave and ocean; water is the essence of both.

            The next portion is preparatory disciplines or Jnana Yogyatha for mahavakya vichara. In Sanskrit vichara is enquiry, in Tamil it means worry. I am using the Sanskrit meaning. And the third and final section is the benefit of this enquiry, jnana phallam.

Theme one: Mahavakya Vichara

This subject is called technically kṣetra-kṣetrajña viveka or popularly called athma-anathma analysis. Even though an individual appears as one entity in reality he is a mixture of two parts. When I use the word “I” there are two aspects so well entwined as though like milk and water. Sankaracharya says every individual is an intimate mixture of two parts; so intimate we don’t perceive the parts. Krishna calls one kshetra and another ksetrajna; one is anathma and another is athma. In English it translates to a mixture of matter and spirit. Consciousness and matter put together is a jivatma. What is consciousness? This is the debate among different systems of philosophy. The Vedantic definition of C is:

a)      Consciousness is not a part, product or property of the body

b)      Consciousness is an independent entity which pervades the body and enlivens it

c)      Consciousness, which is independent of the body, is not limited by the boundaries of the body. It is not limited by the size of the body; colour or gender etc. They all belong to the body but not to the consciousness

d)     Consciousness, which is independent and boundless entity, continues to exist even after the disintegration of the body. It is not destroyed even when the body is destroyed. Consciousness is not limited spatially or time wise.

This consciousness principle Vedanta calls athma or chaitanyam etc. Vedanta appreciates the difficulty of understanding this concept. Krishna gives two examples to help us understand; one is space (akasha) and another is light (prakasha). I shall take the “light in this hall” to explain. You will say that my hand is here; you will mention everything but the light. The hand is visible only due to the pervading light. So as I show this hand you see a mixture of light and hand. Now you apply all the four points: light is not a part, product, or property of the hand. Light is independent entity pervades and illumines the hand. Light which pervades the hand is not limited by the size of the hand; it extends beyond the periphery of the hand. So when I move my hand, you can see the movement. Light continues to exist even after I remove the hand; you’ll appreciate light better when the hand is there. When it is manifest it is called vyakta chaitanyam when it does not manifest it is called avyakta chaitanyam. Though un-manifest the consciousness continues to exist. The chaitanyam is called ksetrajnam and body-mind complex is called ksetram. Krishna says everyone is mixture of chaitanyam and body-mind complex (which is matter). Mind is also matter; it is subtle matter. Like energy which is subtle matter. Lesson number one: every individual is a mixture. Lesson two: If I am this mixture which one should I claim as the real “I”? Which one should I claim as my incidental being? Whatever is incidental and subject to arrival and departure cannot be my real I. Whatever is enduring, permanent, and intrinsic is consciousness. Take hot water. The intrinsic nature is not heat but water. Your physical personality, emotional personality, and intellectual personality is subject to arrival and departure. When you go to sleep; your physical personality is dropped (you don’t say I am fat or lean or I am having fever), the emotional personality is resolved (you don’t have raga-dvesha) and you drop your intellectual personality also. Even in sleep you are aware that you are a conscious entity. That consciousness is never dropped at any time; I am aware of my sleep experience and I talk about when I wake up. I have dropped everything but consciousness remains in and through. So of these two – matter and consciousness – consciousness is your real nature and everything else is incidental. In fact Vedanta says that your body and your mind are tools for worldly transactions. It is like my spectacles. I use the spectacles but they are not me. If you go to sleep in this class; your transactor I and experiencer I is dropped off but you continue to exist in the form of consciousness. I have own up this consciousness as my real nature and body-mind as an incidental medium for my transactions. Therefore Vedanta says: SHIFT YOUR VISION. Generally I say that I am the body and I have a consciousness. Now reverse the order. I am the consciousness and I have a body. An American writer expresses this beautiful. You are not a human being having spiritual experiences but you are spiritual being having an incidental human experiences. You may drop your human body and pick up an angelic body or animal body but you continue to be a spiritual being.

            To help own up this consciousness Vedanta gives a law. You are different from anything you experience. Whatever you experience is an object while you, the experiencer, is the subject. Subject is eternally different from the object. For example, the eyes can see everything in the world except itself. Your telephone can dial every number in the world except itself. Imagine you are in a country where there is no mirror or shining nature then you’ll not be able to see your face! The subject is never subject to objectification. The knower is never known, the experiencer is never experienced, the subject is never the object. Vedanta says “If you want to know who you are then go on negating what you experience.” Since I experience the world, it cannot be me. I experience my body, I experience the mind intimately that is why I am able to talk about my emotional condition. I experience the world, the body and the mind and therefore I, the experience, is distinct from them. This method is called druk-dhrishya vivekah. Subject-object discrimination. Using this method we must arrive at: I am consciousness with a temporary body-mind complex. This body will go away one day, I will stop the transactions then as in sleep but the end of transaction is not the end of me. Then who am I am? na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin nāyaḿ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaḿ purāṇo na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre. Even when the body is destroyed I, the consciousness, is not destroyed.

            Krishna says,” O Arjuna. Your body is an object of experience and you are handling this body, it has come from the five elements and it will go back. You are using the body but you are not the body. You are the experiencer of the body.” This is jiva analysis. Now we have to go to Ishawara vichara, analysis of God. Just as jiva is a mixture of shektra and shektragnya, Ishwara is also a mixture of two principles. HE gives another name purusha and prakruthi. Both are beginningless, uncreated and original principle; anadi. We will see four differences between purusha and prakruthi for our consideration. The all pervading consciousness principle is called purusha, or chattana tattvam; prakruthi is basic matter principle. It is this matter out of which the whole universe has evolved. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; even a millimeter of matter cannot be created even by God. The definition of omnipotence is YOU can only create what is possible. Therefore the expression God created the world is an illogical explanation. That is why we never ask the question; why God created the world? HE should have kept quiet instead HE created me along with the mosquito! Vedanta says all these questions are wrong, for a wrong question they cannot be a right answer. God created the world is based on an erroneous assumption that something can be created; this supposition is totally wrong. The world is matter and since matter cannot be created the world was, is and will be in the future. One explanation is the world was in unmanifest seed form before; and the seed can become manifest. Similarly matter can have two avasthas (states); karana avastha in seed form and karya avastha in sprout state. So the world is compared to a tree. What is not there cannot be created, it always existed in seed form. This potential world is called prakruthi or maya or shakti or avidya. Vedanta says before the origination of this creation (before manifestation) there were two basic principles: the all pervading consciousness principle and another basic matter principle, prakruthi. This purusha + prakruthi mixture is called Ishwara. That is why we have artha-nageshwara; this ying yang. There are differences between purusha and prakruthi. a) Purusha is chattanam while prakruthi is achattanam. One is conscious principle, another is inert principle. b) Purusha the conscious principle is not subject to any modification; it does not undergo any change at all. It is beyond time-space mechanism. It is nirvakram; matter is savikaram. c) Conscious is indivisible like space, light. I cannot cut a piece of light and take away. It is nirvikalpam while matter is savikalpam (subject to division). d) Conscious is satyam, independently existent, self-proving, self-evident where as matter requires consciousness to prove. This mike will not say I am here; it needs a conscious person to make itself felt.

            Before creation there was only God; then the creation came into being as prakruthi started to manifest according to its karma. Purusha only blesses this without undergoing any change while prakruthi keeps changing. First the five subtle elements are born, then gross elements – space, air, fire, water, earth. Physical body is the example of gross creation while mind is the example of subtle creation. Both are evolutions of prakruthi. In the meanwhile purusha continues to be there just like space in this room before the construction of this building; now, and later when it is destroyed. Before creation we had consciousness + unmanifest matter; after creation it is consciousness + manifest matter. After expansion Vedanta says there will be contraction; everything will go back to unmanifest form again. Like in sleep; you withdraw all the knowledge, emotion, body in sleep. That is why the world is called God’s sleeping and waking up.  Creation is not a linear process but a cyclical process; there is no beginning or end to creation. Prakruthi alone has become the body and mind.

            You say the world is a mixture of purusha and prakruthi. Now where will you find that purusha? We said prakruthi is savikaram, subject to modification and purusha is nirvikarah. To discover the prusuha, the original consciousness, then go on negating all the things that change. The whole creation is prakruthi; then negate. Then negate the body, negate the mind for it keeps modifying all the time. Where is purusha? When you have negated everything, nothing is there. But I don’t see the purusha; that changeless eternal principle. Vedanta says that you never look for purusha; whatever you come across is prakruthi the one who wants to “come across” is the purusha. The searcher is the searched for; the seeker is the sought, the discoverer is the one to be discovered. Purusha is nothing but you the consciousness principle. The Lord is very much there behind you body-mind complex as the experiencer principle. The very same purusha as Ishwara is available behind every body and every mind as the very experiencer! What is our problem? Instead of claiming ourselves to be experiencer, the purusha, we claim ourselves to be the experienced prakruthi. To conclude; what is God? Purusha + prakruthi. What is jiva?  kṣetrajña + ksetra. Krishna says: Purusha = ksetrajna.

The consciousness in God is the same as the consciousness in the individual. The differences only as the matter level only but essentially both are the same. Thank God, your body is different from my body. We are all different in the body and mind level; but at the conscious level we are all the same including Bhagawan. This Krishna reveals in the second verse kṣetra-jñaḿ cāpi māḿ viddhi sarva-kṣetreṣu bhārata. The consciousness behind you the microcosm is the same as the consciousness behind ME the macrocosm. Therefore I and YOU are the same at the spirit level but not at the matter level. If I don’t recognize this fact that I am the eternal conscious principle I will treat myself as the mortal body. Then all kinds of problems will come.

            The first problem is I cannot accept mortality for my real nature is immortal. Mortality is toxic to my system. Just as a virus enters the body the body will reject it. Then I cannot accept my wrinkles, old age. Physical immortality is impossible and we struggle against it. Life becomes miserable. There is only one way to be immortal and for that SHIFT YOUR SELF-IMAGE. Shift your identification from the incidental body to the intrinsic consciousness. All the problems are due to body identification. One has to necessarily gain this knowledge to be free. This is the mahavakya vichara part of this chapter.

            The next topic is preparatory disciplines for attaining this knowledge. Krishna gives a lot of values like amānitvam adambhitvam, ahiḿsā kṣāntir ārjavam, ācāryopāsanaḿ śaucaḿ sthairyam ātma-vinigrahaḥ. But I will only take a few important ones. The first preparatory discipline is “I should diagnose the problem very clearly” that the problem is wrong identification of myself. As Swami Dayananda says beautifully: the problem is you, the solution is you. My misconception about myself is the problem. This is vivekah. If I we don’t recognize this problem then we keep on taking the wrong medicines. We try to attain limitlessness by acquiring limited things. Previously I was miserable with Rs.1000 now I am miserable with Rs.1,00,000. The bigger beggar is the richer person! By changing my job or house or even one’s spouse one is trying to overcome this limitation. Krishna says self-ignorance is the problem, then the solution is self-knowledge.

            The second value is vairagyam – if you consider self-knowledge as the top priority then all the worldly goals will become secondary.  I will not spend my entire life earning more money or spend all my time on entertainment (careful; nobody is saying that money or entertainment is bad. They are required but those cannot be one’s life purpose). For a Vedantic student his focus is very clear; everything else are the means to goal of self-knowledge. This is prioritization or vairagyam.

            Then one more I will highlight. Krishna says you must have the grace of the lord for this grand pursuit of life. Always seeks the help of the lord; even to get a proper guru you need the grace of the Lord. So you need Vivekah, Vairagya, and Bhakti. There are more values which we shall see in the sixteen chapter.

            The last topic is vichara phallam. What is the benefit of this Vedantic vichara? Once I realize I am purusha then I look at prakruthi very objectively. I look upon my own body and mind objectively. I accept the laws of prakruthi, the material universe, without resistance. I accept my body’s old age, sickness, decay and death with grace. Even when the body resolves to five elements I don’t complain as I don’t have identification with it. The greatest advantage is I use prakruthi, I enjoy prakruthi without any problem. I give this example of swimming pool. Is it a sorrow of joy or sorrow? It depends on who enters. It is the source of joy for one who knows how to swim; if I don’t know how to swim then it can become my graveyard. With this knowledge I enter the world then everything is a sport you can enjoy. Otherwise the world will fill you sorrow and misery everywhere. As Krishna says kṣetra-kṣetrajñayor evam antaraḿ jñāna-cakṣuṣā bhūta-prakṛti-mokṣaḿ caye vidur yānti te param. Life is not a struggle or drag for those you have attained this knowledge. You can enjoy the world not posthumously but even when alive by gaining this knowledge. Life is a sport that they enjoy. So Arjuna do this maha vakya vichara, gain this knowledge and be ever free.