THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 02
VERSE NUMBER 21
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
purushah prakrrtistho hi bhunkte prakrrtijaan gunaan
kaaranam gunasaango ‘sya sad asad yoni janmasu
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
purushah = Purushah; prakrrtisthah = seated in Prakriti: hi = indeed: bhunkte = enjoys: prakrrtijaan = born of Prakriti: gunaan = Gunas: kaaranam = the cause: gunasangah = attachment to the Gunas: asya = of his: sat asat yoni janmasu = of birth in good and evil wombs.
SLOKA IN ENGLISH:
Purusha seated in Prakriti experiences the Gunas born of Prakriti; attachment to the Gunas is the cause of his birth in good and evil wombs.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
He who is exposed to the sun gets heat and he who is exposed to rain gets wet. Similarly the Jivatman gets identified with Prakriti and imagines that its qualities are all his own. The varying sensations such as happiness and misery and the modification—these are all the outcome of clinging to the one or the other of the Gunas. It is this attachment again that prolongs the cycle of birth. By adhering to the superior Guna, the Jivatman is born as a celestial or fully evolved human being. By holding on to the inferior Guna, he is born as an animal or bird. Getting stuck in mingled Gunas, he is born as a mediocre man.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The soul residing in Nature and identifying itself with the body and the senses which are modifications of Nature acts through the qualities of Nature and experiences pleasure and pain and delusion. It thinks, “I am happy, I am miserable, I am deluded, I am wise”. When it thus identifies itself with the qualities, it assumes individuality and takes birth in pure and impure wombs.
The soul (Jivatma) enjoys the sensual objects in conjunction with the body, mind and the senses and thus becomes the enjoyer. Brahman is the silent witness and non-enjoyer. The souls' attachment to the qualities of pleasure, pain and delusion is the chief cause of its birth. If you add the word Samsara to the second half of the verse, it will mean: “Attachment to the qualities is the cause of Samsara through births in good and evil wombs”.
Good wombs (Sat Yoni) are those of the gods and the like; evil wombs (Asat Yoni) are those of lower animals. The human womb is partly good and partly evil on account of mixed Karmas.
Purusha prakritisthah: Purusha (the soul) seated in Prakriti (Nature). This is Avidya (ignorance). Attachment to the qualities of Nature is Kama (desire). Avidya and Kama are the cause of Samsara.
Jnana (wisdom) and Vairagya (dispassion) will destroy ignorance and desire. (Cf. XIV.5; XV.7)
Comments by the blogger:
What is meant by “The soul or Purusha seated in Prakriti or Nature?”
The genuine nature of the Soul or Purusha is bliss or Ananda. When Purusha or Soul is in its original State, It is pure; no activity whatever takes place in it. In this wise, Purusha or Soul is co-existing with Brahman. The state of Purusha’s coming to the World in itself signifies Purusha’s loss of and or fall from Its original State. It is no longer cotemporaneous with Brahman which fills all, sentient and insentient here in the Universe, and inheres in all as a mere witness. But that part of Brahman being a Witness in the sentient and insentient is the cause of all here in the Universe going through their duties. The Sun seems to rise in the east and sets in the west. The climatic conditions, the summer following the winter and so on and so forth, occur because of the proximity of the Action-less Brahman. The planets are revolving round the Sun thanks to the proximity of Brahman. But Man does not indulge in activities like this or after this fashion. Ok, in all beings inheres Brahman as an ineffable Witness. The man also is acting because of the proximity of the indwelling Brahman in him. But there is a slight difference which is a vital one so far as the actions carried out by Man and actions indulged in by the beings belonging to the animal kingdom. In the animal kingdom, every act is born of instinct. But Man indulges in actions not just because Man has the three Gunas but Man is invested by Brahman with a fair amount of Choice to lead Man’s life on the earthly plane. So this personal Choice given to the Human Beings separates them from all the animals and birds. While Man is action-oriented because of his Preponderating Guna and his identification with Prakriti of Nature, but Man has a personal choice as to how He will shape up His life here. Of course, Man’s coming here is an indication of His having fallen from His original State of uncloying and eternal Bliss or Ananda. Like Prakriti, Man also has his dose of the Three Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. All these three qualities or Gunas are there in each and every one of us. But we have them in varying proportions. In every one of us, any One Guna preponderates and the other two Gunas are there in us in a lesser level or state. We have stout egoism which also segregates us from the animals. The Thinking and discriminating faculties are peculiar to Human Beings. The animals lack these important faculties. God is a great Creative Writer! An ordinary novelist writes his story according to a plan or plot. So his characters in the novel written by him are having a set pattern. The characters in the Novel also have the Three Gunas and any one of the Three Gunas preponderates. But whether any one character is Sattvic, or Rajasic or Tamasic entirely depends on the general Plot of the Novel. But there are some Creative Writers among the teeming number of novelists, who have just a vague idea and a broad theme in mind and create characters and give each of the characters in the novel any one of the Three Gunas which must preponderate in such a character. And then the Novelists go on writing the story and the characters described by them vaguely at the beginning of the Novels continue to evolve and so much so, at the end of the Novel, the characters have fully evolved ones and they are far from the ones as explained at the beginning of the novel! This kind of story-writing shows the extraordinary creative power of the gifted novelists. Like them, God or Brahman, when He indulges in creating human beings, He gives them much choice to evolve according to both the Preponderating Guna and the inclination of the mind! This is very odd of God! He invests with each human being with a preponderating Guna. And then God gives the individual characters a personal choice to behave in whatever manner he or she wants to lead his or her life. And I think God, as a Mighty Creative Writer of the Story of this Universe with a teeming number of human beings as His characters, is desirous of watching the way each of his characters evolves in the character's lifetime in each incarnation! Because all the Hindu Saints including the Mighty Shankarar or Shankaracharya give the Reason For God’s Action of Creating the Human Beings and Making them Evolve through their lifetime in each incarnation AS A SPORT OF BRAHMAN! THE WHOLE ACT OF CREATION, SUSTENANCE AND DISSOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSE WITH HUMAN BEINGS JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF HIS “SPORT!” BECAUSE WE CAN NEVER COME UP WITH ANY OTHER REASON AS TO WHY AT ALL BRAHMAN INDULGES IN CREATION. HE JUST SPORTS, YOU SEE? AND ONLY THE SHALLOW-MINDED PERSONS WOULD GET ANGRY AT THIS “SPORT” OF THE LORD. IF WE PUT OUR MIND TO THIS CHARACTERISTIC OF GOD TO JUST SPORT THROUGH HIS CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE, SUSTAINING IT AND DISSOLVING THE SAME AT THE END OF EVERY YUGA OR KALPA OR AGE. IF WE ATTACH MUCH IMPORTANCE TO THIS SPORTING QUALITY OF ISWARA FOR THE REASON AS TO WHY HE SHOULD AT ALL START CREATING THE UNIVERSE, WE WOULD SHED ALL TENTION AND WORRIES ABOUT HOW WE HAVE LED OUR INDIVIDUAL LIVES. WE MIGHT NOT HAVE INDULGED IN THE FIVE KINDS OF SINS LIKE MURDERING OR RAPING. SO WE NEED NOT WORRY ABOUT THE WAY WE HAVE LED THIS FAR OUR LIVES HERE ON THE EARTH. AND, OF COURSE, WE MUST BE VERY VERY CAREFUL AS TO HOW WE LEAD OUR LIVES. THERE CAN BE NO TWO OPINIONS ABOUT THAT. BUT EVERY HUMAN BEING WOULD HAVE A SNEAKING SENSE OF DISSATISFACTION IN HIS HEART OF HEARTS AND THINK OFTEN THAT HE OR SHE COULD HAVE EXERTED STILL MORE AND BE MORE CAREFUL AS TO OUR ACTS OF COMMISSION AND OMISSION. EVEN THE ABJECT SINNER HAS IN HIM AS AN IN-BUILT PROGRAMME FOR STRIVING VERY MUCH FOR SALVATION. ONLY, WHEN WE CAN REALISE OUR SELF IN, SAY, TEN OR TWENTY REINCARNATIONS, THE ABJECT SINNER WILL NEED TO COME BACK TO THE EARTH SEVERAL THOUSAND TIMES MORE! BUT EVERY ONE HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHED THIS WORLDLY LIFE AND ATTAIN THE STATE OF GODHOOD IN THE ULTIMATE ANALYSIS OF THE UNIVERSAL THINGS!
Now we can read the whole of the sentence in Verse 21. Sri Krishna says, “The Purusha or Soul seated in Prakriti or Nature experiences the qualities born of Nature;
The Prakriti or Nature has three Gunas. Before creation, these three Gunas were in a proportionate state. Or the three Gunas are in a state of Equilibrium. At this time, there can be no creation. But just before Creation this state of Equilibrium is disturbed! The moment the Equilibrium of the three Gunas in Nature or Prakriti is disturbed Creation begins! Before the disturbance of the Three Gunas in Prakriti or Nature there was no action in Prakriti. But when there is a disturbance in the Equilibrium the Prakriti becomes full of non-stop activities. And the beings, starting from the single-cell animal, namely, Ameaba start to people this world! Of course, the evolution of the Species according to as The Theory of Evolution by Charles Darwin, takes place and from the single-cell animals come the multi-cell animals and in due course some animals come to the land from the Oceans and their evolution starts on land and by degree each species of animals evolves and ultimately Man evolves from the Gorilla. When Man arrives at this planet, then bodily evolution stops and Man starts to evolve only in his Mind! And full evolution of the Mind of individual human beings means the individual human beings have attained oneness with Brahman or God. Those human beings attain the stage of birthless and become either mingled with Brahman or shed the worldly life to go to God’s heaven and live there in the proximity of the Lord or Brahman. How does this emancipation occur or come into being? The Lord of Gita says that Nature is full of non-stop action. And the human beings born in this world cannot escape from this state of Nature or Prakriti and human beings start to carry out non-stop actions because of those qualities inhering in Nature. But the actions carried out by human beings in each birth is done for promoting the self or for selfish reasons. Then that Man who carries out actions for the personal enjoyment of Nature further evolves to carry out actions with no personal stack in the actions. Then those people who carry out duties-born actions with a selfish intention, they become en-chained to re-births. Once human beings develop self-knowledge and carry out actions with no personal stake in the outcome of the actions, those actions do not bind those people. And this is how Purusha or Soul ceases to experience the qualities born of Nature; then the emancipation occurs and those Souls or Purusha shed this worldly life and go to Brahman and enjoy eternal life like Brahman or mingle with Him.
The second sentence of verse 21 reads as follows; “attachment to the qualities is the cause of its birth in good and evil wombs.
This means that when a person carries out actions in order to harvest the results or the fruits of his actions then, after death, he or she comes back to this earth’s plane and continue to live till his or her death in still more activities for the furtherance of his or her selfish ends. Thus many hundreds of re-births happen to that soul and gradually they shed the worldliness and in the end, they start to carry out their Swadharma or Duties with a purpose to make a sacrament of them to the Lord. Then emancipation of the soul happens at long last!
Thus this verse 21 ends with “attachment to the Gunas or Qualities is the cause of Purusha’s or Soul’s birth in good and evil womb. This means, if we continue to carry out our actions with a personal and selfish end, we will be born in good and evil wombs according to the type of works we carry out in this incarnation and come back here time and time again and be born as children to good folks or in the wombs of animals!
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