THE HOLY YOGA
CHAPTER NUMBER 07
JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:
VERSE NUMBER 24
Text in Transliteration:
avyaktam vyaktim aapannam manyante maam abuddhayah
param bhaavam ajaananto mamaa ‘vyayam anuttamam
Text in English:
Men of poor understanding think of Me, the unmanifest, as having manifestation, not knowing My supreme state –immutable and unsurpassed.
COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:
A benevolent and charitably-minded millionaire may be in rags occasionally just for the fun of it. If a beggar misunderstands him as one in rags and passes by without availing himself of the rich man’s charity, the poor man becomes poorer for his ignorance. Such verily is the lot of those ignorant of the glory of Iswara.
An incarnation of God, like Sri Krishna, assumes a human body, just as the bound souls do. But he is no more bound in the manisfested body than the sky seen through a window is bound within the frame of that window. The manifested body of Sri Krishna is mutable; but in reality He is immutable and unsurpassed by the ordinary human beings. His supreme state remains unknown to the people of poor understanding. They do not therefore seek to worship Him.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
The forms we impose on the Formless are due to our limitations. We turn away from the contemplation of Ultimate Reality to contemplate upon imaginative reconstructions. All gods except the One Unmanifest Eternal are forms imposed on Him. God is not one among many. He is the one behind the ever changing many, who stands beyond all forms, the immutable centre of endless mobility.
COMMANTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The ignorant take Lord Krishna as a common mortal. They think that He has taken a body like ordinary human beings from the unmanifested state on account of the force of Karma of the previous birth. They have no knowledge of His higher, imperishable and self-luminous nature as the Highest Self. They think that He has just now come into manifestation, though He is self-existent, eternal, beginningless, endless, birthless, deathless, changeless, infinite and unmanifest.
Comments by the blogger:
I would like to say that Lord Krishna here in this stanza does not make out a good case!
Swami Sidbhavananda has given us an illustration. According to it, a millionaire occasionally dresses himself in rags. And if a beggar passes him thinking the millionaire is a fellow but nicely fed and so fortunate beggar, whose fault is it.
Remember, in the beginning it was not us who begged the Lord to be born in the illusion-filled world. It was the Lord Himself suo moto takes the decision and indulges in creation for his own sport. It is just a sport to the Lord. But for us, to have been tossed into the Samsara (worldliness) which is like an ocean and we are infested by maya (illusion)which presupposes our forgetting all about our former state as God Himself or a little pin-point expression of the Lord Himself, and this Maya of the Lord has the power to give us desire (kama) for the worldly objects. So we indulge in action with no choice open to us. Either we are beings with a preponderance of Sattva(the light and knowledge pure) or we are imbued with a preponderating tendency towards Rajas (passion) or we are imbued with a preponderating tendency towards Tamas (the darkness and lack of knowledge and understanding), we have to indulge in action. We are thoroughly forgetful of our former lordly state. Then how can the Lord who has come up this world as a human being, who drinks, eats and sleeps like anyone, blame the fellow human beings for their so-called ignorance. It was the Lord’s Maya to blame. We are but piteous creatures indulging in never-ending action as though we were automatons.
HAVING SAID THAT, IF A PERSON FOLLOWS THE LORD OF GITA WHEN HE SAYS THAT EVERY SENTIENT AND INSENTIENT BEINGS AND THINGS IS FILLED WITH HIM ONLY, THEN WE MIGHT BE IN A POSITION TO WORSHIP THE LORD ALSO IF AND WHEN HE COMES UPON THIS WORLD!
That said, it is very interesting to note the difference between the Lord of Gita and Rama, both being the incarnations of the Lord Vishnu.
While Lord Krishna knows his Lordly state during his entire sojourn in the world. Lord Rama was quite oblivious of His real Self and thought Him to be a human being. But Visvamitra knows the Godly state of Rama. When Rama and Lakshmana are taken by him to slay the Rakshasas who were pouring blood and flesh on the sacrificial fire, they stay at an Ashrama where Mahadeva had once done His austerities and reduced kama to ashes. On the early morning, Visvamitra comes to wake up the princes and he goes into an ecstatic condition when he sees the SLEEPING GLORY OF LORD RAMA. WE TOO ARE TRANSPORTED ALONG WITH THE SAGE AT THE SLEEPING GLORY OF THE LORD.
{Dear Readers, I’m writing four other blogs along with this one. I would appreciate it much if you take the time and trouble to visit them;
myresourceful.aunt.blogspot.com
kaviriyinselvan.blogspot.com
raguramramayanaforchildren.blogspot.com
raguramkarikalanandthetimemachin.blogspot.com}
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