THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 07, JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION, VERSE NUMBER 05

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 07

JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:

VERSE NUMBER 05

Text in Transliteration:

apare ‘yam itas tv anyaam prakrtim viddhi me paraam

jeevabhootaam mahaabaaho yaye ‘dam dhaaryate jagat

Text in English:

This is My lower prakriti, but different from it, know, O mighty-armed, My higher prakriti—the life element by which this universe is upheld.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

All the five elements and the three internal organs put together form the inferior constituent of the Lord. The cosmic life principle or the sum total of the Jivatman (human being) is His superior constituent. An example elucidates this truth. The smoke that emanates from fire is its lower nature, and the spark its higher nature. The characteristics of the fire are in the sparks, while its action in the smoke. Technically put, the smoke is the tatasth lakshanam—accidental definition of thefire and the spark, the svaroopa lakshanam—innate definition. Knowing of the spark is equivalent to knowing of the fire. Pure Consciousness which is the Paramatman is inherent in the Jivatman also. The spark is that which has separated itself from the fire. But the Jivatman is not and cannot be dissociated from the Paramatman. As a wave in the ocean, the individual soul is ever in the Cosmic Soul, though with its limiting adjuncts.

The Jiva-prakriti or the kshetrajna or Nature with life is utilizing the Jada-prakriti or the kshetra as its body and upholding it too. This act of the conscious principle is like the Akasa containing in itself all the other four elements.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The Supreme is Ishvara, the personal Lord of the Universe who contains conscious souls (ksetrajna) and unconscious nature (ksetra). The two are regarded as His higher (paraa) and lower (aparaa) aspects. He is the life and form of every being. The Universal Being of God includes the totality of the unconscious in His lower nature and the totality of the conscious in His and understanding gives us the ego, which uses the material setting for its activity. Each individual has two sides, the soul and the image, ksetrajna and kshetra. These are the two natures of Ishvara who is superior to them both. The Old Testament teaches creation out of nothing. Plato and Aristotle assume a primitive matter to which God gives form. God is an artificer or architect rather than a creator, for primitive substance is thought of as eternal and uncreated and only form is due to the will of God. For Christian thinkers, God creates not from any pre-existent matter but out of nothing. Both matter and form are derived from God. A similar view is set forth in this verse. The jiva is only a partial manifestation of the Supreme. The integral undivided reality of the Supreme appears divided into the multiplicity of souls. The unity is the truth and multiplicity is an expression of it and so is a lower truth but not an illusion.

COMMENTARY OF SWAMI SIVANANDA:

The eightfold Nature described in the previous verse is the inferior Nature. It constitutes the kshetra or the field or matter. It is impure. It generates evil and causes bondage. But the superior nature is pure. It is my very Self, Kshetrajna (knower of the field or Spirit) by which life is sustained, and that which enters within the whole world and upholds it. It is the very life-element or the principle of Self-consciousness, by which this universe is sustained.

Comments by the blogger:

There are two elements for this world. The eightfold prakriti or Nature enumerated in the previous verse is the basic material and the Lord’s life element is of Higher Nature which upholds the eightfold elemental Nature. There is room for good and evil, and light and darkness and pain and pleasure in the lower Nature. Jivan or Man generally takes this eightfold aspect of the lower Nature as the be all and end all. They perform yagya or Sacrifices and performs rites and observes religious ceremonies only to obtain the Heaven and satisfy the Heavenly pleasure and then when they come back here they want to enjoy much more out of the eightfold Nature of inferior character.

But the Lord’s life element forms the higher nature and it serves to uphold this eightfold inferior Nature.

But we need not slight the eightfold Nature sans God’s life element. God Himself depend upon this inferior Nature of eightfold Nature to make the beings wrought out their karmic effects. While upholding one the other need not be slighted. But when the life element of the Lord joins with the inferior Nature then the inferior Nature becomes full of scintillating knowledge and serves as a school for the graduation of the ordinary men and women so they might shed their gross nature and realise their soul.