THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 07, JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION, VERSE NUMBER 06

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 07

JNANA VIJNANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF KNOWLEDGE AND REALIZATION:

VERSE NUMBER 06

Text in Transliteration:

etad yoneeni byataani sarvaanee ‘ty upadhaaraya

aham krtssnasya jagatah prabhavah pralayas tathaa

Text in English:

Know that these two are the womb of all beings. I am the origin and dissolution of the whole universe.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Life has its origine in the conjugation of the sentient and the insentient. The body bereft of life becomes a corpse; life without the instrument of the body becomes ineffective. The act of living ensues from the union of the sentient and the insentient, the kshetragna and the kshetra. The commingling of these two prakritis (Natures—higher and lower)—the conscious principle and the unconscious matter—is evident all over the universe. The cloud has its origin and sustenance in the Akasa, and ultimately dissolves itself in the Akasa. Likewise, Iswara is the source, support and destinity of His prakritis, high and low.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

During those days when I was subjecting myself to spiritual discipline, I wished to know what Maya, the deluding power, was like. I saw a drop of water slowly evolving into a girl who further evolved in to a maid. She begot a baby and strangely enough swallowed it too. This act of hers repeated several times. I concluded from that vision that it was Maya or illusion.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

The world with all its becomings is from the Supreme and at the time of dissolution is withdrawn into him. Cp. Taitteetia Upanishad, III. God includes the Universe within Himself, projects it from and resumes it within Himself, that is, His own nature.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

These two Natures, the inferior and the superior, are the womb of all beings. As I am the source of these two Prakritis or Natures also, I am the cause of this Universe. The whole universe originates from Me and dissolves in Me.

In the Brahma Sutras (chapter 1, Section 1 aphorism 2) it is said, “Janmadyasya yatah” meaning that Brahman is that omniscient and the omnipotent cause from which proceed the origin, subsistence and dissolution of this world.

Just as the mind is the material cause and also the seer (Drasshta) for the objects seen in a dream, so also Isvara is the material cause of this world (Upadana-Karana) and also the seer (Drashta). He is also the efficient or the instrumental cause (Nimitta- karana). (Cf. XIV. 3)

Comments by the blogger:

“Know that these two are the womb of all beings” says the Lord.

The Bhagavat Gita takes the essence of all the Principal Upanishads. The Upanishads variously hold light and prana, water, etc, to be the origin of this Universe. They all are individually correct from their philosophic standpoints. So the question of origin of the Universe is wide open for questioning by those who want to criticise the Scriptural Text. Here Sri Krishna puts a full stop to all the questions regarding the origin of this Universe. While various Upanishads hold one or two of the five elements, Sri Krishna takes all the five elements and adds to them the mind, intellectual and egoism and says they form His lower prakriti or Nature. And to them is added His life principle or essence and as a result, the Universe came into being.

“I am the origin and dissolution of the whole universe” says the Lord.

When He has made it clear that He is the origin of the coming into of this Universe, He also wants to puts a full stop to all questions about the dissolution of the Universe. It is He indeed who dissolves the Universe.

What is created anew must of necessity come to an end. And the author of the dissolution is the Lord. He is the creator and the destructor of this mighty Universe.