The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-11. Part-4.

-





Chapter 11: God Present Within Us :


Part-4.

Every object has infinite relationships, but this infinitude of relationship is incomprehensible to the mind of the observer of the object.

The object is taken as an isolated, localised something, cut off from all other objects, and this idea that the object is absolutely independent of all other objects, especially independent of the observer himself, is the basic defect in the knowledge process.

This is usually called ‘the fallacy of simple location’. That objects are simply located in a particular place is a fallacy, and this fallacy is at the root of all our knowledge.

While we extend our knowledge to the supreme object, God, who is supposed to be the object of our contemplation and meditational processes, we no doubt try our best to free this object, which is God, from the common defects of the usual empirical perceptional process—but still God stands before us as a tremendous object.



The Bhagavadgita  endeavours to free our minds from this obsession that God is an object, because the term ‘object’ has certain implications.

It stands outside the subject.

The adhibhuta is outside the adhyatma.

The adhyatma is the subject; the adhibhuta is the object.

But as these terms in these verses of the Bhagavadgita would point out, God is not merely the adhibhuta.

He is not an object, though He may be the supreme object, transcending all other limited objects.

Still He stands before us as an object.



But the Gita tells us that this adhibhuta, the supreme object, is inwardly related to the adhyatma, the subject.

So the field of operation of the object extends beyond its conceived location and permeates the very subject itself, which endeavors to conceive this object.

So much so, it is impossible to raise the mind to the status of the concept of God unless there is an equal rising up of the status of the subject himself.



Not merely this, there are other aspects also mentioned in these slokam-s. It is not merely the adhibhuta or the object, or the adhyatma or the subject that is the concern here.

The other terms used are adhidaiva and adhiyajna. Adhiyajna is the field of action, activity, operation, relationship and any kind of external dealing in human society in general, to put it in plain terms


Swami Krishnananda

To be continued  ....



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-5. Part-5.( Last Part)

-
Image
5: God is Our Eternal Friend-5. ( Last Part ) We are filled with doubts in our minds—we can prepare a dictionary of all our doubts—they are endless. Everywhere we have a suspicious attitude about the world, about things, about people, about ourselves, about the past, about the present, and about the future. These doubts cannot be dispelled until knowledge arises, and we know what knowledge means, an insight into which we have been given in the second chapter of the Gita. Knowledge is the knowledge of God ultimately, and as a result, knowledge of the nature of the world in its reality, as mentioned in the third chapter. This is true knowledge, and when we are awakened to this real knowledge, all doubts get dispelled. Then what happens? Atmavantam—we become truly possessed of the Self that we really are. We are people who have lost ourselves and are in pursuit of things outside. Yes, this is what has happened; we have grasped the world and lost our own selves, and we are
Read more

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad gita : Ch-10. Part-3.

-
Image
Chapter 10: The Imperishable Among All that is Perishable : Part-3. We are told in the Puranas that Narayana or Vishnu takes incarnations for the preservation of creation. Vishnu is regarded as yajna itself. It is the highest sacrifice—God sacrificing himself every moment of time for the sustenance of His creation. As adhiyajna He is the administrative power and the methodology of the working of the cosmos. All activity is comprehended under this yajna of the cosmos. Therefore God is present in all activity when it is considered as a passage to God, when it is regarded as a manifestation of God as rays emanating from the sun. Those wise souls who envisage God as adhibhuta, adhidaiva and adhiyajna, which means to say, who encounter God as a comprehensive Absolute and not merely existing only here or there, such devotees are true knowers. They can entertain or maintain this consciousness even at the time of passing from this world—they are not deprived of th
Read more

The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch-9. Part-8.

-
Image
9: The Unity of the Lover and the Beloved : Part-8. The distressed souls seeking God are of one type. One who is baked in the fire of samsaram,who is tortured in this hell of earth, suffering through various sorrows, seeks riddance from the grief of the world by resort to God under the impression that God is like a parent—a father or a mother or a supreme saviour. The intention behind this devotion is redress—freedom from sorrow, the inability to bear suffering. This is the reason here behind the devotion to God. Whether this could be an adequate reason, anyone can contemplate independently for oneself. Can we love God merely because He is the only source of redemption from our sorrows? Do we want freedom from sorrow, or do we want God? That is a different question that will come up later on. Swami Krishnananda To be continued  ....
Read more