THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 12
VERSE NUMBER 3 AND 4
TEXTS IN TRANSLITERATION:
VERSE NUMBER 3
ye tv aksharam anirdesyam avyaktam paryupaasate
sarvatragam achintyam cha koottastham achalam dhruvam
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
ye = who: tu = verily: aksharam = the imperishable: anirdesyam = the indefinable: avyaktam = the unmanifested: the indefinable: avyaktam = the unmanifested: paryupaasate = worship: sarvatragam = the omnipresent: achintyam = the unmanifested: paryupaasate = worship: sarvatragam = the omnipresent: achintyam = the unthinkable: cha = and: koottastham = the unchangeable: achalam = the immovable: dhruvam = the eternal.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
VERSE NUMBER 03
But those who worship the Imperishable, the Indefianable, the Unmanifest, the Omnipresent, the Unthinkable, the Unchangeable, the Immovable, the Eternal—
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
VERSE NUMBER 04
samniyamye ‘ndriyagraamam sarvatra samabuddhayah
te praapnuvanti maam eva sarva bhoota hite rataah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
Samniyamya = having restrained: indriyagraamam = the aggregate of the senses: sarvatra = everywhere: samabuddhayah = even-minded: te = they: praapnuvanti = obtain: maam = me: eva = only: sarva bhoota hite = in the welfare of all beings: rataah = rejoices.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Having restrained all the senses, even-minded everywhere, engaged in the welfare of all beings—verily they also come unto Me.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Nirguna Brahman is indeterminate Pure Consciousness. It can be arrived at by eliminating all obstructive modifications which are characteristic of Prakriti, aksharam is the Imperishable. The universe of form appears and disappears; where Pure Consciousness is ever Itself.
Anirdesyam means the Indefinable. It cannot be defined by comparison as there is nothing similar to It.
Avyaktam means the Unmanifest. The manifest is that which can be cognized with the aid of the senses. But no sense organ can have any access to Pure Consciousness. As such It is unmanifest.
Sarvatragam means the Omnipresent. A lump of ice buried at the bottom of the sea remains ever unmanifest and uncognized. Is it because of concealment somewhere in this way that Brahman is unmanifest? No, there is nothing to hide It, the Omnipresent. Space is negated in Brahman. A huge mountain perceived in dream exists in the space created by the dreaming mind. But in wakefulness, the dream space is negated. Similarly the space in the universe is negated in Brahman, who is Omnipresent.
Achintyam means the Unthinkable. Mind thinks of the good and bad and feels happy or miserable. Brahman does not lend Itself to be conceived by the mind in this way. It is the Wakefulness throwing light on the mind, but inaccessible to it.
Koottastham means the Unchangeable. The word Kootta connotes the painful and impermanent phenomenal existence. The permanent basis to this changing existence is Koottastha, the Unchangeable Brahman.
Achalam means the Immovable. The moving clouds are supported by the wind which in turn is moving in its own way. But that kind of relative movement is not in Brahman. It is constant.
Dhruvam means the Eternal. Aakaasa (the sky) which is the background of the wind and clouds is constant; it does not move. But in Pralaya this aakaasa does not exist. From the immovable state, it goes into the state of dissolution. Brahman does not suffer from that feature. It is the Eternal.
The sadhaka who is competent to adore the Formless Reality has the following attainments. He has complete mastery over the senses. He neither runs after the pleasant nor recoils from the painful; he remains unaffected by both of them. Does the sadhaka reduce himself then to the position of a corpse which lies unaffected by pleasure and pain? No, he raises himself to even-mindedness which is found in him only who is ethically and spiritually evolved. This attitude again does not mean passiveness. It expresses itself in the form of service to all beings, recognizing Divinity in them. When the sadhaka’s mind flows out in this way, cognizing worship of Brahman.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDHBAVANANDA:
When a bell is rung, each stroke has a sound-form of its own. But the formless sound is also heard for a while after stopping the striking. Similarly, God is both with form and without form.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN FOR THE VERSE 4
samniyamya: restraining. We are asked to restrain the senses and not to reject them.
sarvabhootahite rataah: rejoicing in the welfare of all creatures. Even those who realize their oneness with the Universal Self, so long as they wear a body, work for the welfare of the world. See V, 25, where the liberated are said to rejoice in the welfare of all creatures.
Here service of humanity is declared to be an essential part of the discipline. M.B. has the following prayer: “O who would tell me of the sacred way by which I might enter into all the suffering hearts and take all their suffering on myself for now and forever.”
Cp. also Tukaaraam:
‘That man is true
Who taketh to his bosom the afflicted:
In such a man
Dwelleth, augustly present,
God Himself;
The heart of such a man is filled abrim
With pity, gentleness and love;
He taketh the forsaken for his own.’
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Anirdesyam: That which cannot be actually shown or which cannot be defined—the Akshara or Sacchidananda Para Brahman is beyond the reach of the mind and speech. Why can It not be defined? Because It is unmanifested. It does not have the four qualities of manifested beings, viz., Jati (caste such as Brahmana, Kshatriya, etc.), Guna (attributes such as blueness, whiteness, tallness, shortness, etc.), Kriya (reading, walking, etc.), and Sambandha (like the relation between father and son).
The unmanifest: Incomprehensible by any of the organs of knowledge; not manifest to any of the organs of knowledge.
Upasana (worship) means ‘sitting near’. It is approaching the chosen ideal or object of worship by meditating on it, in accordance with the teachings of the scriptures and the spiritual preceptor, and dwelling steadily in the current of that one thought like a ‘thread’ of oil poured from one vessel to another. It means continuous and uninterrupted contemplation of God.
The imperishable Brahman is omnipresent, pervading everything like the ether. It is unthinkable, because It is unmanifest. Whatever is visible to the senses can be thought of by the mind also. That which can be grasped by the organs of knowledge can be thought of by the mind also. But the Supreme Being is invisible to the senses and so cannot be grasped by the organs of knowledge and is, therefore, unthinkable. All thoughts of God ultimately lead the aspirant to quiescent meditation.
It is Kutastha (unchangeable). Kutastha means ‘remaining like a mass or a heap’. Therefore It is immutable and eternal. Just as the anvil remains unchanged though the iron-pieces which are beaten on the anvil change their shape, so also Brahman is unchanging though the forms are changing. Hence Brahman is called Kutastha. Kuta also means a thing which appears to be good externally but which is full of evil within. Hence it refers to that seed of Samsara, viz., ignorance, which is full of evil within and which is known as the Avyakrita (undifferentiated) in the Svetasvataropanishad.
Mayam tu prakritim vidyat
Mayinam tu mahesvaram.
and in the Gita (Mama maya duratyaya—This illusion of Mine is hard to pierce—VII. 14). Another interpretation for Kutastha is ‘that which is at the root of everything’. He Who is seated in Maya as its witness, as its Lord is Kutastha.
Achalam: Immovable, that which is free from change. Therefore the imperishable Brahman is Dhruvam, eternal. (Cf. VIII.21)
Comments by the blogger:
Brahman is Imperishable, Indefinable, Unmanifest, Immovable, Eternal. The Yogi who restrains all the senses, even-minded everywhere, engaged in the welfare of all beings also go into the Lord of Gita.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMHANSA once said to one of his devotees, Vidhya Sagar, that all of the Hindu Scriptures have been spitled by human saliva except the Scripture about Brahman. All Scriptures have been memorized and re-told by many a man. But nobody has dealt with the subject authoritatively. And no one has defined in human language as to what is Brahman. Since no one has spoken about Brahman it is not spitled by saliva!
It is not definable in human language. The only mode to experience is by observing Jnana Yoga. And even those who have experienced Brahman maintain silence as a mode of explaining Brahman. That is why the adage in Tamil says, ‘Those who found Brahman have not spoken about It and whoever speaks about Brahman have not found Brahman! (kandavar vindilar, vindavar kandilar!).
The greatness of Bhakti Yoga is we are allowed to worship the deity of our personal God who is Saguna Brahman and the senses can experience Him. This is how Vishnu’s all incarnations were seen and touched by devotees and non-believers. This was how people like Arjuna and his brothers and Panjali and Dhuriyodana and his brothers and other folks were able to see, hear and touch Sri Krishna. But Brahman cannot be seen and touched by anyone.
Hinduism allows people to approach God in several ways. The Lord of Gita says that men come to Him from all sides. It means there are different ways of worshipping the Lord. And there are only a few who can meditate on shoonya or nothingness. Absolute Brahman is very difficult to meditate upon. For this kind of meditation one should have the required mental calibre and should not be swayed by this illusory world. When meditating upon the Absolute and Formless Brahman, if the Sadhaha or Practitioner unconsciously attribute one quality or trait to Brahman the Practitioner would fail in his quest of jnana or Knowledge. But there are people who can meditate on the nothingness though they form the minority. It requires a certain type of attitude. The worldly attraction should not be able to sway the Practitioner. Hinduism makes room for all types and variety of people. For it deals not with the whole humanity as in the case of the two major religions of the world but takes into account the individual man and woman and addresses him or her. Hinduism takes into account all types of search. But, as we have already seen, the other two major religions of the world preach Bhakti or Devotion alone. The Holy Qoran insists on the people following that Faith to have fear for Allah, the Great. One should be afraid of God. But the Hinduism does not preach that the worshippers should be mortally afraid of God. God can be looked upon as Father or Mother, Master or Friend. And as we have already seen the immortal Tamil Poet, by name, Subramaniya Bharati, has looked upon as the lover and a Servant or Disciple! Personal choice even in the way of worship is given to each and every Hindu. There is a saying that there are as many religions as are the people!.
We are embodied souls and it is extremely difficult to know the unmanifest state. But all the Bhakti Yogis or Yogis of Devotion must know and understand that apart from the personal God there is a Formless Essence, says Mahatma Gandhi, which our reason cannot comprehend. The devotee of incomparable devotion ends up in merging with the Unmanifest and Indefinable Power. The same goal is achieved by the Jnana Yogis or the Yogis of Wisdom and they also end up in merging with the Formless Essence. So the Lord of Gita says Arjuna that He prefers the Yogi of Devotion. It is comparably easier to attain God and enter into Him for Yogis of Devotion. But in the verses 3 and 4 of this Chapter the Lord of Gita also says that if the Practitioner has the particular type of the mental calibre and can meditate on the Formless Brahman he also goes to Him after the life on the plane of the earth.
While the Holy Qoran comes down heavily on those who worship Saguna Brahman in the form and name of different Gods, the Bhagavad Gita reconciles the belief of all the sects of the Hinduism. All types of worship of the Lord of the Universe is acknowledged as perfectly legitimate. One of my friends is a faithful Muslim and one day he said that the knowledge of the Language in which the Holy Qoran was originally brought to the earth by Prophet Mohammed may not be known to all but it does not matter and even the unlettered one can worship the Holy Quran by seeing the words in print line by line. That would be enough worship of Allah. Immediately I asked if you see with worshipful eyes the printed line of the Holy Quran that is also a Devotion of God with attributes. And that it is as good as attributing name and form to the Formless God and then why wouldn’t the Holy Quran allow the Devotion of Forms and Names!
So the Lord of the Gita advises Arjuna to offer worship to Him with name and Form. All roads lead to Rome. Sincere worship of the Lord in whatever way is acceptable to Hinduism. Hinduism says, ‘be diligent in your worship.’ You would go to God, the Master of the Universe in the end. This is why Sri Krishna utters that even those who worship some gods indirectly worship Him only.
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