Bhagavadgeeta : ( 26/11/2012. )

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-8. Everything is there and nothing is there. The sense in which everything is there and the sense in which nothing can be there has also been explained. “Where something is seen outside, something is heard outside and something is understood outside, that state of affairs is to be regarded as finite,” says the great Teacher Santakumara in the Chhandyoga Upanishad. The Infinite is described in a different manner m: - It is that state where nothing is seen outside, nothing is heard outside and nothing is understood outside. “On what is It rooted?” Narada puts this question to the great Teacher, because we are accustomed to think in terms of rootedness of something in something else. “What is the basis for everything?” he asks, because we cannot think except in terms of basis, the relatedness of the effect to the cause. Everything has to be connected to something else, so Narada asks, “On what is this Absolute rooted?” The...

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-7. But there is a more enigmatic declaration yet to come—na ca mat-sthani bhutani. It also cannot be said that the world is in God, though it may be said in one way that it is in God. Inasmuch as an effect has to have a cause, and the world reveals the characteristics of an effect, it has to be based on a cause that is wider than itself, vaster than its expanse, and we posit the existence of a Creator as the cause of this world, this universe. So in this sense we may say that the world is rooted in God—mat-sthani sarva-bhutani. But the omnipresence of God excludes the possibility of anything getting rooted in Him, because to imagine the rootedness of one thing in another is to assume the difference of one thing from another, an indirect refutation of the omnipresence of the Supreme Being. Nothing external to God exists, He being the all-comprehensive Infinite, and That, external to which nothing is and nothing can be, ca...

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-6. Mat-sthani sarva-bhutani na caham tesv avasthitah is another descriptive epithet which is added to this definition of God’s invisible presence in all things. All things are rooted in God, but the wholeness of God cannot be comprehended by any finite object. That means to say, though everything is in Him, He cannot be wholly contained in anything. All things can be contained in Him, but He cannot be contained in anything exclusively, because while the part can be contained by the whole, the whole cannot be contained by the part. So it is a futile attempt on the part of the human reason, for instance, finite faculty as it is, to imagine that it can know the secrets of the world. The scientific adventures and rational philosophies of humanity are incompetent to fathom the depths and the mysteries of the cosmos, because the wholeness of reality is not capable of being contained in the finitude of human understanding, or in...

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-5. Therefore it is made out that inasmuch as the Supreme Being is above every dualistic concept, inasmuch as He is present unanimously and uniformly everywhere, He has to be impervious to the ken of the senses. The senses are outer expressions in space and time in terms of objects which are hard and concrete, and therefore, to the senses, the Creator of the cosmos is invisible. It is not that He is invisible under every condition; under the conditions in which we are living today God is invisible, just as high voltage and high frequency light waves may be invisible to the condition under which our eyes operate at present. It need not mean that they are invisible under every condition, because if the frequency of our capacity to perceive through the eyes is raised up to the high level frequencies of light, the eyes may perceive and ears may hear such ultrasonic waves. So, the imperceptibility of God’s Being is not a negation...

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-4. The basic dharma is described in this half-verse of the ninth chapter of the Bhagavadgita, which goes as :-  maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina. The Absolute Almighty pervades every nook and corner of the universe. Every nook and cranny is permeated by the presence of the Supreme Being. The consciousness of the presence of the Almighty inseparably in every little thing in the whole of creation is the ultimate constitutional dharma. It is the central constitution of the cosmos, and all local and provincial laws follow from it. Political laws, social laws, family laws, personal laws, physical laws, psychological laws, and what not—all these are expressions according to the requirement of the particular state of affairs of that eternal deciding factor which is the presence of one common Being everywhere, equally, unanimously, perpetually in everything. The presence of God is defined here as an invisible...

YOUNG SWAMI KRISHNANANDA Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-3. Conformity to reality is dharma, and anything opposed to it is adharma. The principle of reality is what determines the nature of dharma or virtue, goodness or righteousness, or rectitude in action, conduct, behaviour, thought and feeling. So a person who does not have a correct idea of what reality is cannot be really virtuous or righteous. Our social forms of goodness and virtue, rectitude and legality are relative to the conditions in which we are placed, and inasmuch as they have no reference to the ultimate reality of things, we have to go on changing our colours like chameleons from day to day. But there can be harmony between the relative forms of dharma and the ultimate form of it. Our daily conduct may vary according to the needs of the hour. Seasons, social circumstances, the state of one’s health and various other requirements of the time may demand a relative expression of conform...

Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-2. The word dharma is now here revealed in its true colours—not as a cult, creed, law, rule, or principle of action in a human world—but a supreme system according to which the whole universe operates. The word dharma is interpreted in the most general manner, and comprehensive enough to absorb into its connotation everything that we regard as right, virtuous or righteous. Now, the great Teacher of the Bhagavadgita takes us right into the heart of the matter when He directly declares at once what this dharma is, on what it is rooted and what it is expected to reveal in the lives of people in the world. Maya tatam idam sarvam jagad avyakta-murtina : - This half-verse is the rock bottom of all expressions of law and rule going by the name of dharma, in one way or the other. Any rule, law, or principle is a method or manner in which we accommodate ourselves into the existing order of things. This capacity of self-accommod...

 Chapter 14: The Absolute Pervading the Universe-1. A direct entry into religion proper is made in the ninth chapter of the Bhagavadgita, where the concept of God assumes a concrete form. A living presence begins to be propounded, over and above the gospel of action and psychological integration which was explained in the earlier chapters, especially up to the sixth. The rise of the consciousness of the human being to the state of perfection, by gradual stages, passes through a phenomenon known as religion, and the ninth chapter devotes itself to the exposition of a universal religion for humanity as a whole. The chapter begins with the words :- "Raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam, pratyaksavagamam dharmyam susukham kartum avyayam." A royal secret, as it were, is going to be expounded. It is the kingly quintessence of knowledge, which is to be acquired by personal experience, and is not capable of acquisition merely by verbal testimony, sensory ...

Chapter 13: Centring the Mind in the Heart-20.  But again, the mind will not accept it. To make it accept and to make it understand is to educate it in the proper manner. The Bhagavadgita is a great instruction, a great education provided to the soul in the matter of enlivening and illuminating it in the direction of what is truly good for us. "Mam upetya punar janma duhkhalayam assvatam, napnuvanti mahatmanah samsiddhim paramam gatah." Great souls, blessed ones who have realised the truths of life, resort wholeheartedly to this fulfilment and performance of the great duty of all duties—the love of God, devotion to Ishvara and a continuous practice of meditation—whereby the whole of us is consecrated as a sacrament at the altar of God. This world is full of sorrow, dukhalayam. Everyone knows what this world is made of. Whatever we touch becomes pitch and coal. We are frustrated at every step; we are defeated in our endeavours to grab the satisfactions of...

Chapter 13: Centring the Mind in the Heart-19. It is foolish to imagine this, because gaining God is not losing all things, but gaining all things. The things of the world are reflections of reality—they are not originals. God is the origin of all things. The trees that we see, the mountains, the sun, moon, stars, you and I are all reflections. And therefore one shadow is running after another shadow, as it were; there is no reality here in this world. The originals are in a superior realm, and the highest original of all things that are reflected here in the form of perceptions and experiences is God the Absolute. So it would be stupid on the part of anyone to imagine that to move towards God would be to lose things in this world. We are losing only stupidities, unreality, shadows, reflections, imaginations and chimeras. But the mind is not tutored and educated properly in this manner, so it clings to phantoms in spite of instructions repeatedly given to it by the...