THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 08, VERSE 16, AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 08

AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN:

VERSE NUMBER 16     

Text in Transliteration:

aa brahmabhuvanaal lokaah punaraavartino ‘rjuna

maam upetya tu kaunteya punarjanma na vidyate

Text in English:

All worlds including that of Brahma are subject to return, O Arjuna; but on reaching me, O son of Kunti, there is no rebirth.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Different planes of existence are known as the various worlds, the highest among them being the Brahma-loka. But all these worlds are subject to mutation and repetition, because of their being under the sway of time, space and causation. While the beings in all these worlds are compelled by their loka have two alternatives. The liberation-seekers among them work for it in that highest region and gain karma-mukti or progressive liberation when the entire universe dissolves in pralaya or the ultimate destruction of the world. But the enjoyment-seekers among them are forced by their karma to take new births.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

When the boiled paddy is sown in the field it sprouts not. Even so, when a perfected person puts away the body, he is not born again.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

All the worlds are subject to change.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Those devotees who practise Daharopasana ( a kind of meditation on the mystic ‘space’ in the heart) and other devotees who reach Brahmaloka through the path of the gods (Devayana) and attain gradual liberation (Krama-Mukti) will not return again to this world. But those who reach Brahmaloka through the practice of the Panchagni Vidya (a ritual) will enjoy life in Brahmaloka and come back to this world.

All the worlds are subjected to return because they are limited or conditioned by time.

Comments by the Blogger:

In this verse, the Lord of Gita calls His disciple as Arjuna and O the son of Kunti.

While Arjuna means that one who is pure in nature, O, the son of Kunti means, any average man or woman born of the womb of a woman; Arjuna is naturally pure and that is why the Lord hints at the fact that he would go to Him after his death. An average man and woman mean that the knowledge and know-how is not esoteric but open to all.

What is that Knowledge?

Including the Brahma loka or the world of Brahma, those going to any one of the seven lokas or worlds are subject to return. But one reaching Him, the Lord of Gita, will not return back to this world.

By this, the Lord says that all persons can really work and have a potential to succeed in attaining Him.

The specialty in being a human being is that one and all can perform meditation. Theoretically, there is no impediment in meditating for Liberation. Because, while other animals have their backbones on a horizontal level, human beings have vertical backbones! This presupposes that the kuntalini or the serpent power lodged just behind the private parts of both men and women can be raised by all human beings through proper yogic methods, stage by stage until it reaches the crown of the head. That would tantamount to ultimate wisdom and Liberation. Just about anyone, whether he is a Hindu or Muslim or Christian this kind of meditational Release and permanent Liberty is possible.

 Even now folks in the European and Western countries do yoga, though it is to gain good concentration and complete physical fitness. When they do it, they get it. Which is proof enough that they can also perform kundalini meditation! All people are Hindus, in this sense or in the sense of yoga.

Regarding seven Lokas, as both Swami Sidbhavananda and Swami Sivananda point out, they are different planes of existence and those who reach the Brahma-Loka attain gradual liberation.

Even in the Holy Quran, it is stated that Allah, the Great, created the seven skies! In the Holy Bible, the Jesus Christ declares that His Father’s place there are several mansions!