The Spiritual Import of the Mahabharata and the Bhagavadgita : Ch -18.9

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05/01/2017.
Chapter -18: Fix Your Mind on Me Alone-9.

9.1.1
When we move to the thirteenth chapter, we are entering a more philosophical theme. As a matter of fact, from the thirteenth chapter onwards, we are entering into deeper and deeper philosophical discussions, which are placed before us as methods of implementing the doctrine of the whole of the Gita delineated in the earlier chapters, right from the first to the eleventh.

9.1.2
The whole world of experience consists of the dual action of purusha and prakriti, consciousness and matter, ksetrajnah and ksetra—thus the thirteenth chapter begins. Ksetrajnam cpi mam viddhi sarva-ksetresu is a very important passage at the very commencement of the chapter.

9.1.3
The ksetrajnah mentioned here in the thirteenth chapter, the consciousness, the Atman, the kutastha, the soul inside us, is not merely the individual light that shines in the heart of a particular person. It is the light that is the light in all beings, sarva-ksetresu, and not only in one ksetra.

9.1.4
It is not my self or your self or someone’s self—it is the Soul of all beings.


9.2.1
Thus, the presence of God in an individual implies, at the same time, the omnipresence of God, and this omnipresent Being is the source of this creation. Along the lines of the Samkhya cosmology, the thirteenth chapter mentions the process of the evolution of the various elements in the cosmos.

9.2.2
The Supreme Being is God Himself who condenses Himself into the creative will, known in the Samkhya language as mahat, mentioned here as buddhi in the thirteenth chapter, which becomes possible on account of the presence of avyakta.

9.2.3
Samkhya calles it mula prakriti; Vedanta calls it maya shakti, and so on. The self-delimitation of God in the form of a Creator is explained as an act which is beyond the intelligence of the human being.

9.2.4
This unintelligibility of the manner in which God descends, as it were, into the creative purpose is described as prakriti in Samkhya, maya in Vedanta, and avyakta here in the thirteenth chapter.

Swami Krishnananda
  To be continued  ....

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