THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 15
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA ADN THE KSHETRJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
bahir antas cha bhootaanaam acharam charam eva cha
sookshmatvaat tad avijneyam doorastham chaa ‘ntike cha tat
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
bahih = without: antah = within: cha = and: bhootaanam = of beings: acharam = the unmoving: charam = the moving: eva = also: cha = and: sookshmatvaat = because of its subtlety: tat = that: ajneyam = unknowable: doorastham = is far: cha = and: antike = near: cha = and: tat = that.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Without and within all beings; the unmoving and also the moving; because of His subtlety He is incomprehensible; He is far and near.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
How the Cosmic Consciousness remains undivided has to be comprehended through a few similes. In a block of ice immersed in the sea, water is present within and without. Again aakaasa (the sky) remains undivided in and through all things with form or formless. Similarly Paramatman is all-pervading and undivided by the manifest forms. There is movement on the surface of the sea while it is all stillness at the bottom. There is movement in Paramtman modified as the Prakriti. As Nirguna Brahman, He is all stillness. The sea water transformed into vapour becomes subtle and invisible. Nirguna Brahman who is all Awareness and all Intelligence remains incomprehensible to those who have not purified the mind. To the ignorant one, God is far away somewhere in heaven. But to the knowing one, none is nearer than God, He being the innermost Self.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA
The symptoms of egoism are found in the one come down from Samadhi to wakefulness. Such an enlightened one sees himself, all the beings and the universe as the various manifestations of Iswara. When there is egoism in you, there is no alternative to your holding Iswara as with form. The Nirguna Brahman cannot be comprehended by the embodied one. Again the Saguna Brahman is not a fiction of the mind. The body, mind and the world may be viewed as mere projections. But Iswara or the Saguna Brahman is as real as the Nirguna Brahman.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Brahman is subtle like the ether. It is incomprehensible to the unillumined on account of Its extreme subtlety. It is unknowable to the man who is not endowed with the four means of salvation (see page 66). Brahaman is known or realised by the wise. It is realised by the first class aspirant who is equipped with these means. It is near to the wise man or the illumined because It is drowned in worldliness or sensual pleasures. It is not attainable by the ignorant or unenlightened even in millions of years.
Near and far away: This expression is found in the Isavasya Upanishad (5) and the Mundaka Upanishad (3.17)
Comments by the blogger:
Once again Brahman is defined in a roundabout method. It is not because Sri Krishna does not have the capacity to define and delineate Brahman, but the subtlety of Brahman, if defiend by the Lord of Gita, cannot be understood by the human beings. Secondly, human languages, even the revered Sanskrit, is not a perfect medium of expression of the inner experience which is the way to attain the state of Brahman. Something about Brahman must be explained. Something about Him must be elucidated. Something about Brahman must be strongly experienced. Strong intuitive power is a must for the sadhaka or the practitioner. Thus there is so much inbuilt inefficiency to all languages of human beings and other methods of expression like the fine arts. The Universe is full of amazing things besides beings and Man should try to form a vague idea as to the attributeless, formless and Nameless (Brahman is the Name given by the Vedic and Upanishadic Saints for the purpose of expression of the Turiya). We the human beings are so much given helplessly to view It through the medium of expressions, especially through the fine arts. But something of the spiritual field can definitely be experienced through all the classical music and dance forms of the world. But, howsoever elevated the music and songs and dance might be, nothing can give full expression to Brahman. There are other fine arts like sculpting and painting. Some of the Art critics have said that the fine sculpting of certain sensitive sculptors is so very evocative that one could hear the ‘music’ emanate from the statutes. But, all said and done, from the viewpoint of the subtlety of Brahman, It is utterly incapable of expression.
Dr S. Radhakrishnan says that when a student asked his Master or Guru about Brahman, the Master would bid the sadhaka or practitioner to come and sit near him (the Guru) and the Guru whispered about Brahman in the ear of the disciple! Because of Its inexplicable nature, Brahman cannot be made a subject of a speech or powerpoint presentation! And, incidentally, the sitting near the feet of the Master on the part of the disciple means Upanishad. And in course of time, the word came to be associated to the Texts also.
But to the one who has purified his mind so much that not even a trace of worldliness or materialistic tendency is to be found in his mind and he has also shed all tendencies and proclivity to enjoy the sensual things of life, who lives like the pebbles of water on the surface of the lotus leaf, he can, if he takes to meditation as explained in the Gita, under the continual supervision of a spiritually accomplished Guru, attain the phenomenal experience of Brahman!
So Brahman could not be said as utterly unattainable for human beings. Indeed the very idea of re-incarnations as believed by Hindus and proclaimed in Hindu Scriptures is for this very purpose of purification of the minds through many a re-birth so as to become a sadhaka or practitioner in some incarnation out of thousands of the re-births, and experience Brahman here and now, on the earthly plane which is declared to be the sat chit ananda, or Brahman.
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