THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 27
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
samam sarveshu bhooteshu tishtthaantam paramesvaram
vinasyatshv avinasyantam yah pasyati sa pasyati
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
samam = equally: sarveshu = (in) all: bhooteshu = in beings: tishtthanatam = existing: paramesvaram = the Supreme Lord: vinasyatsu = among the perishing: avinasyantam = the unperishing: yah = who: pasyati = sees: sah = he: pasyati = sees.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
He sees, who sees the Supreme Lord, remaining the same in all beings, the undying in the dying.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Parameswara is the Chit-aakaasa or Chidambaram or the Screen of Consciousness. It is the persisting Substratum. On this screen, the perishing pictures of the Jagat and Jivatman –the universe and the beings—appear and disappear. As the cinema screen remains ever itself while the projected pictures on it come and go, the Paramatmam is ever Himself unaffected and unmodified by the appearance and disappearance of the phenomenon. The Jnaani takes note of the background, Parameswara who provides apparent life and consciousness to the Prakriti clinging on to Him. In his vision, the universe is not independent of the Paramatman. Whereas to the ignorant man, the phantom of the universe seems real while the Paramatman remains unknown.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The sun is spreading his light equally everywhere and he is visible in all parts of the extensive world. Still, a small patch of cloud hides him from our sight. Similarly, Maya hides the all-pervading Brahman from our cognition. When the veil of Maya is removed the Sat-chit-ananda Brahman is cognized everywhere and in all beings and things.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
He who sees the Universal Spirit in all things sees and becomes himself universal.
“Never perishing when they perish.” If all things are in a continual state of evolutionary development, then there is no unchanging God. Bergson, for example, makes God wholly immanent in the world, changing as it changes. An evolving God who is conceived as a part of the process of development of the world will cease to exist when the universe ceases to move. The second law of Thermodynamics suggests a condition of eventless stagnation and perfect rest. An evolving or emergent God cannot be either the creator or the saviour of the world. He is not an adequate object for religious emotions. In this verse, the Gita assures us that God lives and endures even when the universe ceases to exist.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
He who beholds the Supreme Lord through the inner eye of wisdom, Him who is seated in all beings from the Creator down to the unmoving objects and Who is not destroyed even when all beings are destroyed, he is said to have realised the Self.
In different kinds of fire, the heat is the same. Gold is the same in different form of ornaments. The light from many lamps is the same. So also in all living beings, the soul is the same. The soul or the Self is uniform everywhere. The Self is the same in ants, elephants, kings, beggars, saints and rogues.
The Self is indestructible; all living beings are perishable. It is the Supreme Lord when compared to the body, senses, mind, intellect, the Unmanifested Nature and the individual soul.
Birth is the root-cause of the Bhava-Vikaras or the modifications, viz., change, growth, decay and death. The other changes of state manifest themselves after the birth of the body.
The Supreme Lord is one and changeless as He is birthless, decayless and deathless. He is the one common consciousness in all beings. He sees rightly who sees the Supreme Lord as now described. He is a Jivanmukta. He has knowledge of the knower of the field or the immortal Self. He is the real seer or a liberated sage.
The sage alone sees properly on account of knowledge. The whole world sees erroneously on account of ignorance. He who is suffering from defective vision beholds many moons. He sees erroneously. But he who sees one moon only sees in the proper manner, correctly. Even so he who beholds the one immortal indivisible Self in all beings really sees the Truth. He alone sees. He who sees many distinct selves erroneously does not really see though he sees. He is like the man who beholds many moons. (Cf. VIII.20)
Comments by the blogger:
So the Atman of the Rig-veda is the undying in the dying. When the inner essence leaves the body, it is said the body has died. But nothing untoward happens to the Soul. It leaves the body and then takes another body through which it enjoys the World. Though the Atman in the individual being has no action for itself, It gets confused on account of Maya or Illusion of the Lord and identifies with the body. This is important for the worldly life of Man. It gives place to ahankara or the Iness or the Ego, but for which life on the earth is not possible. Real Atman is utterly actionless. When a man dies the body alone perishes; that is, the gross body alone decays and dies. Then the subtle bodies in the same shape as that of the gross body before death leaves the world to other Lokas or Worlds. Lokas or Worlds are innumerable. Nevertheless, Swami Bhaskarananda says, Hinduism speaks of fourteen lokas including this earthly plane (Bhoorloka). The Lokas, according to the Swamiji, are Satyaloka, Tapoloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Svarloka, Bhuvarloka, Bhoorloka, Atalaloka, Vitalaloka, Sutalaloka, Rasaatalaloka, Talaatalaloka, Mahaatalaloka and Paataalaloka. These Lokas are different types of Consciousness only. Our life on the plane of the earth also is a case of Counsciouness. Among these Lokas the first six are considered the higher lokas, and the last seven are considered the lower lokas. When the human body dies, the Atman or Soul leaves with several subtle sheaths; the subtle body or the astral body consists of the mind, intellect, sense organs, motor organs and vital energy.
The mind leaves with all the impressions and experiences of the being’s body and these impressions become part of the Sanchita Karma. The Sanchita Karma is the accumulated experiences and impressions of all the past lives of the particular individual. From out of these karmas and the thought the man experienced at the time of death gives rise to a new set of the Praraptha Karma and this is how the Praraptha Karma are formed. And according to the Praraptha Karma the individual Self selects a body to work out the latest Praraptha Karma.
As we saw earlier, God’s inalienable part of Soul is present in all beings. So every one of us has the Supreme Lord dwelling in us. All human beings have the one and the only Soul! This notion and knowledge are peculiar to Hinduism. The Christians are addressed at Church Mass “Oh, Sinners!” According to their theology, all human beings are Sinners and they must bear the cross of this Consciousness in their heart of hearts. Mohammedanism is an offshoot of Christianity.
But, according to Hinduism, all human beings are the Possessors of God and as and when they individually realize the Atman or Soul, they become One With God! So theoretically speaking, we are all God indeed!
Who sees God in all human beings sees properly and whoever sees in the human beings the perishable body only sees improperly. His perception is grossly defective and untenable. Nothing could be far from Truth.
THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 28
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
samam pasyan hi sarvatra samavashthitam eesvaram
na hinasty aatmanaa ‘tmaanam tato yaati paraam gatim
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
samam = equally: pasyan = seeing: hi = indeed: sarvatra = everywhere: samavashthitam = equally dwelling: eesvaram = the Lord: na = not: hinasti = destroys: aatmanaa = by the self: aatmaanam = the self: tatah = then: yaati = goes: paraam = the highest: gatim = the goal.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Because he who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere, destroys not the self by the self, therefore he reaches the Supreme Goal.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Ignorance is the cause of all the evils committed by man. And the worst of all evils is the belief that man is the body and not the Atman. For, the continuity of the births is kept up by this belief. As long as he wallows in this delusion, he cannot help meeting with death repeatedly. The indestructible Atman is held by him as being destroyed by death. Due to ignorance man further believes that beings are separate, one from another. That they are all mere modifications of the one Cosmic Entity remains denied by him. Injury is done to the others because of the belief that they are separate. Whereas the knower of Brahman cognizes nothing alien to Brahman. His beholding Brahman in and through all the manifestations is the Supreme Goal that he attains while yet in body.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
When the nest is dismantled the bird flies away in the sky. Similarly, when the body-consciousness is negated and attachment to the world annihilated, the Jivatman flies away into the sky of the Paramatman, only to be merged into Him.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
This is the vision of a liberated sage. The Supreme Self abides in all forms. There is nothing apart from It.
An ignorant man destroys the Self by identifying himself with the body and the modifications of the mind and by not seeing the one Self in all beings. He has a blurred vision. His mind is very gross. He cannot think of the subtle Self. He is swayed by the force of ignorance. He mistakes the impure body for the pure Self. He has false knowledge. But the sage has knowledge of the Self or true knowledge and so he beholds the one Self in all beings. An ignorant man is the slayer of his Self. He destroys this body and takes another body and so on. But he who beholds the one Self in all beings does not destroy the Self by the self. Therefore he attains the Supreme Goal, i.e., he attains release from the round of birth and death. Knowledge of the Self leads to liberation or salvation. Knowledge of the Absolute annihilates the ignorance in toto. If the ignorance is destroyed and false knowledge is also destroyed, all evils are simultaneously destroyed.
Those who have realised that unity of the Self in all these diverse forms is never caught in the meshes of birth and death. They attain the state of Turia (the fourth state beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep) where form and sound do not exist.
The self is everybody’s friend and also his enemy as well. The idea first expressed in chapter VI, verses 5 and 6 is repeated here.
Comments by the blogger:
It has already been uttered by the Lord of Gita that He is present in all; that He pervades the whole universe. God is present in both the sentient and insentient. All these have been already uttered by the Lord. Repetition is one of the Virtues of Bhagavad Gita.
But the Lord adds a different thought in each Sloka or Verse.
In this verse, He says he who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere, DESTROYS NOT THE SELF BY THE SELF, therefore he reaches the Supreme Goal. Are there two Selves in the same human body? Certainly not! One Self fills all the sentient and insentient in this world. Then how can one destroy his self by the self? One's self is capable of doing both according to the individuals’ predominating Guna or Nature. Our Mind is one of the sheaths which cover our Self. We have already seen this. The beauty of the human mind is that it can not only work and oversee the working and happenings in other organs like the eyes, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc., but the human mind can also oversee its own work! The human mind is fully capable of witnessing its own work. Not only witnessing but supervise its own work. It is like the Earth revolving on its axis while going around the Sun! The mind can do both acts; work and supervise its own work.
If that is the case of the human mind, the actionless Soul’s case is more perplexing!
One’s own Soul can be one’s friend as well as an enemy.
One who sees the Lord, seated the same everywhere, the Soul is the Great Friend of One. But if one gives in to the sensual pleasures of the world, of which there is no limit in the world, his own self becomes his chief enemy. It gives free rein to the Mind and the intellect is dimmed because of Mind’s waywardness, and thus one’s own self can be a formidable enemy of one. But if one becomes a disciple of an emancipated Guru or Master and is properly initiated in the art of Meditation and thus regularly meditates under the supervision of the Master, in spite of all hurdles and hiccups the wayward Mind is reined in and the self of the man becomes his own friend and well-wisher and helps one to make great strides in the spiritual path. But the soul of the one who is helplessly given to the constant enjoyment of the sensual things of the World, one’s soul turns one’s staunch enemy. It gives free rein to one and witnesses one’s degradation which results in fetching a very base birth next time if at all one comes back to this world as a human being. But great and heinous sins like murdering and raping send men to take birth as beasts of various kinds and it would tantamount to a great fall from the Graces of the Lord.
He who sees the Lord, SEATED THE SAME EVERYWHERE, destroys not the self by the self, therefore he reaches the Supreme Goal. So God is pervasively present in everyone and everything in this universe. He is present in all and everything. Then why should we go to the Temples, Churches and Mosques? If God is there in all, sentient and insentient in the Cosmos, we need not go to the Temples indeed. But the truth of the matter is that though God is equally present pervasively in all and everyone, He is not manifest equally in all things. This is the reason we need to go to places of worship.
Our supreme Goal is attaining oneness with the Supreme Lord. That is facilitated by the Atmic or Soul culture of seeing the Lord in all and everything.
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