THE HOLY YOGA, CHAPTER NUMBER 08, AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN, VERSE NUMBER 03

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 08

AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN:

VERSE NUMBER 03

Text in Transliteration:

                           The Blessed Lord said:

aksharam brahma paramam svabhaavo ‘dhyaatmam uchyate

bhootabhaavodbhvakaro visargah karmasamjnitah

Text in English:

The imperishable is Brahman, the Supreme. Its dwelling in the individual body is called Adhyatma. The offering which causes the origin of beings is called karma.

THE SUMMARY OF THE COMMENTARY BY SHANKARA:

Brahmam means imperishable(akshara) Paramatman or the Supreme Being. Paramam is not to be confused with Om, because, here Paramam means the imperishable nature of Brahman. Thus paramam means imperishable. (Paramam means Brahmam than the term Om.) The same Brahmam is in the individuals as their svabhava and Atman. This state is called Adhyatma. Adhyatma first is in the body of the Jiva and at last it becomes Brahmam. Karma means  the sacrifices like rice cakes given to the gods. All things have their origin in this sacrificial act. This kind of karma alone become seed for rain. All beings take their origin through rain.

THE SUMMARY OF THE COMMENTARY BY RAMANUJA:

Akshara means all the beings in their totality. When this Atman attains Salvation or mukti, it is understood by the term Brahmam. Param Aksharam is the Atman that has attained mukti. Adhyatma indicates the body that has continuation with the jiva or being from its origin. Adhyatma has a relation with the Atman, but it is not Atman. It has a subtle relationship with Atman, and it may be said it has joined its nature with Atman. All beings including human beings came into being because of the karma known as Visarkam. The term bhuta means bodily beings including Man. Visarkam indicates the sending of the semen.  

THE SUMMARY OF THE COMMENTARY BY MADHVA:

Brahmam is the parama akshara. (param means highly exalted, and akshara stands for that which is immutable). In the Vedas, there are passages which indicates the term akshara means Vedas and the prakriti or Nature. But here the term Param is used to mean that akshara indicates Brahmam alone. Adhyatma means the bodies, senses etc., which the jiva or beings use to get their necessities. Visarkam means the acts of Brahman creating the jiva and insentient. 

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

The Absolute Reality is Brahman. It is supremely above time, space and causation which are the characteristic of the universe. The senses and the intellect cannot gain access to It. For this reason It is called paramam—the Supreme. As the screen is the background for the moving pictures in a cinematograph, Brahman is the substratum, basis and background of the panorama of the universe. The changes that take place in the universe do not affect Brahman. It is ever Itself, the Being behind the Becoming of the universe. It is therefore called aksharam—the imperishable.

The intrinsic merit or property of a thing is called its svabhaava. The svabhaava of the sun is to put forth beams of light. Similarly, the svabhaava of Brahman is to appear as the multitudinous conscious beings called the Jivatman. This assumption of the role of the Jivatman is called Adhyaatma.

The vibration or the act of becoming that is taking place in the universe is karma. But here this word is used in a particular sense. The action that is the immediate cause of man having come into existence and of his making progress in life, is here technically called karma. Whatever work promotes the welfare of man is karma. The poorvvvamimaamsa, one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy claims that Karma is the only all-powerful agency for man’s origin, growth and prosperity.   

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

svabhaava: Brahman assumes the form of Jiva, Chapter XV. 7

adhyatma: the Lord of the body, the enjoyer. It is the phase of the Divine which constitutes the individual self.

Brahman is the immutable self-existence on which all that lives, moves and has its being rests. Self is the spirit in man and nature. Karma is the creative impulse out of which life’s forms issue. The whole cosmic evolution is called karma. The Supreme undertakes it and there is no reason why the individual jiva should not take part in it. The immutable which is above all dualities of subject and object, becomes, from the cosmic end, the eternal subject, adhyaatma, facing the eternal object which is mutable in nature, prakriti, the receptacle of all forms, while karma is the creative force, the principle of movement. All these are not independent but are the manifestations of the One Supreme. The subject-object interaction which is the central pattern of the cosmos is the expression of Brahman, the Absolute Spirit which is above the distinctions of subject and object.

Maandokya Upanishad affirms that while the absolute is indescribable, qualityless, the living God is the ruler of the world, the indwelling soul. The distinction between Godhead and God, the Absolute and the Personal God, Brahman and Isvara, is clearly enunciated in this Upanishad. The personal God is the cosmic Lord, while Brahman is the supra-cosmic reality.

COMMENTARY OF SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Brahman is imperishable, immutable, eternal, self-existent, self-luminous, unchanging and all-pervading. It is the source, root and womb of everything. In It all beings that are manifested live, move and have their very being. Hence It is Paramam, the Supreme and Akshara.

Its essential nature or Svabhava is Adhyatman. Brahman’s dwelling in each individual as the innermost Self (the Pratyagatama) is called Adhyatmam. Yajnvalkya (a great sage of the Upanishadic period) said: “O Gargi: Heaven and earth stand upheld in their places. The Bramanas call this (Brahman) the Akshara (the imperishable). It is neither red nor white; It is not shadow, not darkness, not air, not ether, without adhesion, without smell, without eyes, without ears, without speech, without mind, without light, without breath, without a mouth or door, without measures, having nothing within and nothing outside It. It does not consume anything, nor does anyone consume It.” Akshara is the Supreme Brahman only.

Akshara here does not mean the holy word Om, or the Avyaktam (the unmanifested source of all that is in Nature). There is Laya (absorption) for Om. There is destruction for the unmanifested Nature also. Therefore Brahman is the Aksharaa, the Imperishable, the Supreme Being.

Offering: All virtuous work.

The sacrificial act which consists of offering, cooked rice, cakes, etc., to the gods and which causes the genesis and support of beings is called Karma. The oblations in the sacrifice assume a subtle form and reach the sphere of the sun. Through the sun there is rain, and various sorts of grains, vegetables and fruits crop up. The living beings (Bhutas) live and develop on account of rice and other food-stuffs. Therefore Yagnas are the cause of the genesis and support of all beings.

Comments by the blogger:

The Brahman is that which is the Supreme. God has been described in the Upanishads as He or the state where our mind and speech cannot go. We cannot understand the Brahman with our intellect and senses. So it is Paramam or the Supreme, beyond the ken of all the becoming. Though the universe came out of It, while the universe gets destroyed, It is not destructed, so it is akshara or imperishable. Adhyatma is Brahman’s presence in the jivatman or beings. According to Dr.S.Radhakrishnan, karma is the creative force, the principle of movement. According to Shankara, karma is the havis or the oblationary things like rice cakes offered in the sacrificial fire. It reaches the gods or the celestials. They send down rain. And from rain, all beings get their sustenance.

Hard philosophy apart, dear readers, I wish to draw your attention to two things.

Every religion says God is Supreme and immutable and imperishable and ever-lasting.

That is here meant as Brahman.

But what I want you to understand is the Term Adhyatma and Karma.

If we understand these two words here in their right sense, our whole life will get changed. Our total attitude will get changed.

What is Adhyatma according to the Great Lord of the Gita?

Adhyatma is that one atman or Soul which inheres in all the sentient and the insentient! Can you just imagine? Has anybody spoken these words except in seers and sages of the Hindu Religion? Has any Scriptural Text in the world said that One Soul of the Supreme God inheres in all here---both sentient and insentient? I am deeply attached to all the human beings because the Lord has said it is He only that inheres in every being. So whether one is high or low socially and economically and educationally, it is our Lord Master who fills him, who pervades him or her! This habit of seeing Narayana and Lord Siva in everyone has stood me in good stead in the last eighteen years I have been perusing The Holy Gita.

Next is Karma. Karma is a creative force. And if you ask me what is the destructive force, I would like to say, it is also karma.

In the early chapters of Gita the Lord has said that in the beginning beings were created ALONG WITH SACRIFICE! Beings, you and me and our forefathers who had evolved from ape were created along with the sacrifice. So we can live only by performing sacrifices along with other activities! Nobody could live without sacrifices. The Lord of the Gita has said that in the beginning beings were created along with sacrifice and so you give the gods or the Celestial Beings their due and getting that they will give you rain and from rain, all beings can get food.

The idea of sacrifice as used in the Vedic period got changed in connotation in the Upanishadic period, dear readers.

And the external sacrifices got internalized in the period of the Upanishads.

So we need not perform any yagya or sacrifices as defined in the karma kanda of the Vedas.

But we must internalize it and perform sacrifices every day without fail.

Then what are the internal sacrifices?

Why even saying Thanks or Thank You is an act of sacrifice!

Whatever we do for the good of the entire humanity is sacrifices only.

So we must perform selfless sacrifices for the good of our neighbours and the whole world.

The jivatman or human beings become Brahman or mingle with Him. This knowledge also unique to Hinduism. If the ISI people were taught to see God in all beings and insentient things, the bloodshed could have been averted. The Bamian Buddha Statue would not have been destroyed! But to the other two major Religions, God and jeevatmans or human beings are different even after attaining salvation!

Another meritorious point in favour of the Hinduism is that all the esoteric and exalted philosophy has been taken to the last man and woman, the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low through various Puranas and Itihasas and the Two Epics. So the lay understands the intrinsic message of the Hinduism fully. It is not so in the case of the two other major Religions of the world.

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