THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 13
VERSE NUMBER 31
KSHETRA KSHETRAJNA VIBHAGA YOGA OR
THE YOGA OF THE DISCRIMINATION OF THE KSHETRA AND THE KSHETRAJNA:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
anaaditvaan nirgunnatvaat
paramaatmaa ‘yam avyayah
sareerastho ‘pi kaunteya na karoti
na lipyate
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Having no beginning and possessing
no Gunas, this Supreme Self, imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O
Kaunteya, neither acts nor is tainted.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI
CHIDBHAVANANDA:
A thing that is created has a
beginning. But Brahman is the one Reality that is not created. He is therefore
having no beginning. All productions of Maya (Illusion) are the components of
the three Gunas which are subject to transformation. For this reason, the
things made up of the Gunas are perishable. Brahman being Nirguna or beyond the
Gunas, is imperishable. In His equanimity vibration is impossible. In other
words no karma takes place in Him. He being the One without a second, there is
nothing to taint Him.
That destrudction to which the
Brahma Jnaani’s body is exposed, does not affect him. The karma taking place in
his body is not his. While the surface of the sea is all activity, its depth is
all poise and peace. While the body of the Jnaani is active, he is supremely
above action.
SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA
PARAMAHAMASA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANADA:
What are the characteristics of
Brahman? He is untarnished by the Gunas. There is no action or movement in Him.
The question of going and coming does not arise in His case. He is stationary
like the Mount Meru.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI
SIVANANDA:
The Supreme Self is beyond Nature.
Therefore It is without qualities. It is Nirguna. The activity in Nature is
really due to its own qualities which inhere in it. The Supreme Self existed
before the body came into being and will continue to be after its dissolution.
It is eternally the same and imperishable.
Avyaya: That which is free from the
changes of birth and death or appearance and destruction. That which has a
beginning has birth. After the object is born it is subject to the changes of
being (growth, decay, etc.) As the Self is birthless, It is free from the
changes of state (existence, birth, growth, change, decay and death). As the
Self is free from all sorts of functions It is Avyaya. Even if the reflection
of the sun in the water moves, the sun does not move a bit. Even so the Supreme
Self is not touched by the fruits of action as It is not the doer, as It is
without the qualities of Nature, or limbs, indivisible, devoid of parts,
without action, beginningless and unattached and causeless.
This Supreme Self is free from the
three kinds of differences, viz., Sajatiyabheda, Vijatiyabheda and
Svagatabheda-bheda. A mango tree is different from the fig tree. This is
Sajatiyabheda. A mango tree is different from a stone. This is Vijatiyabheda.
In the same mango tree there is difference between leaves, flowers and fruits.
This is Svagatabheda. But the Supreme Self is one without a second. There is no
other Brahman Which is equal to It. Therefore, there cannot be Sajatiyabheda in
Brahman. This world is a mere appearance. It is a mere figment of our
imagination. An imaginary object has no
independent existence apart from its substratum, just as the snake in the rope
has no independent existence apart from its substatratum, the rope. Therefore,
there cannot be Vijatiyabheda in Brahman. Brahman is inidivisible, partless,
without qaualities, without form and without any limbs. Therefore there cannot
be Svagatabheda in Brahman.
Brahman or the Supreme Self is beginningless.
It is without a cause. It is self-existent. It is without parts. It is without
qualities. Therefore Brahman is imperishable. As It is unattached, It is
neither the doer nor the enjoyer. If Brahman also is the doer and enjoyer, It
is no longer Brahman. It is in no way better than ourselves. This cannot be.
Agency and enjoyment are attributed to the ego on account of ignorance. “It is Nature that
acts”. (Cf.V.14; XV.9)
Comments by the blogger:
Hinduism is criticised by religious
scholars belonging to Christianity and Mohammedism chiefly for two factors. One
of the reasons, as they see, is the belief in re-births and the second reason
is the teeming number of Gods or gods Hindus worship right from the Vedic
period.
So far as the transmigration of our
Soul is concerned, we are taken for and belittled as highly and abjectly
superstitious. That there is only one God and Hindus offer worship to any
number of Gods or gods!
We, the Hindus, while offering worship to many a god or God, are not
superstitious in nature. For us there are any number of ways and means to
realise God, our Maker. Indeed someone has said that there are as many
religions as there are people! Because Spirituality is a matter of unflinching
Faith to start with. Also it is a most intimate and personal matter. We have
Ishta Devata or Personal God! While I offer studious worship to Lord
Lingeshwara, my neighbour might worship Lord Narayana and my friends might have
Lord Shiva, Lord Vinayaka, Lord Muruga or Goddess Saraswati or Goddess Lakshmi.
Some folks have Sri Hanuman as their personal God. And Hanuman Himself is a
staunch follower of Lord Rama! When Nathuram Godse’s bullets pierced the chest
of the Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, he fell down but till he breathed his last he was chanting
in a weak voice, “Hey Ram” or “O, Rama” for countless times. Lord Rama was the
personal God of Mahatma Gandhi.
We are not fools. But we and our forefathers are great wisdomatic
people who saw God in a trembling blade of grass and the towering trees like the Neem Tree and The
Banion Tree! While we visit temples devoted to all the above-mentioned Gods and
Goddesses, we have personal God to whom we can relate to easily.
In the Gita Sri Krishna says people come to Him from all sides! We are
so developed in the Culture of the Atman that we can discern God in a tree, in
an animal, in a holy man, etc., etc!
But, like the other two
religions we mentioned above, the Vedopanishads speak of only one God! If there
is a second God then there would be room for comparison and one would be
greater than the other! But we have a tatva that allows us to worship the One
and the Only God of the Universe through many forms! Sri Krishna says in Gita
that even while human beings worship some lower beings or Devatas they worship
Him only but in a wrong way. Surely they will evolve in future and in the
course of many a rebirth!
Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman are both sacred and sacrosant. While
all the Gods and Goddesses enumerated above come under the gategory of Saguna
Brahman, the Only Maker is called Nirguna Brahman. Saguna Brahman has attributes and
characteristics etc., but Nirguna Brahman simply is devoid of any attributes or
Name and Form or a beginning and an end. So we have no problem with worshipping
the Only One God, the Nirguna Brahman through various Gods and Goddesses who
belong to Saguna Brahman. Emancipation is assured even when we restrict our
worship to the Saguna Brahman alone throughout our lives!
The next thing Hindus are criticised is our staunch belief in re-births
and the Soul’s Transmigration.
When Mahaswami of Kanji was giving audience to a group of foreigners
who were Bible readers and one of them put this very question to the
Mahaswamigal! Why should there be so many births for our Soul?
Immediately our Mahaswamigal asked the foreigners to visit any
maternity hospital that day and see all the children born that day and take note
of the differences among them.
When the foreigners came to visit Mahaswamigal the next day they faithfully reported to Mahaswamigal the
differences among the newly born babies.
Then Mahaswamigal asked them why such disparities among the newly born
children. He further elongated that while one child is beautiful one is ugly,
when one is fair-complexioned the other is pitch dark in colour. While one baby
is born into a rich family another one is born to a poor couple. When some
babies are normal some babies could be physically or mentally challenged!
Mahaswamigal put the visitors just one simple question; “Why should
there be so many differences among the innocent babies come into this world?”
This factor, Mahaswamigal reasoned, cannot be answered except by the
theory of re-incarnation or re-births and the Transmigration of the Soul.
In this verse the Brahman who is spoken is about is Nirguna Brahman.
We can realise God by worshipping Saguna Brahman alone. This is the
beauty of Hinduism.
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