THE HOLY GITA CHAPTER NUMBER 14 VERSE NUMBER 01 GUNATRAYA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THREE GUNAS

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 14

VERSE NUMBER 01

GUNATRAYA VIBHAGA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE DIVISION OF THE THREE GUNAS

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION

sree bhagavaan uvaacha

param bhooyah pravakshyaami jnaanaanaam jnaanam uttamam

yaj jnaatvaa munayah sarve paraam siddhim ito gataah

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH

param = supreme: bhooyah = again: pravakshaami = (I) will declare: jnaanaanaam = of all knowledge: jnaanam = knowledge: uttamam = the best: yat = which: jnaatvaa = having known: munayah = the sages: sarve = all: paraam = supreme: siddhim = to perfection: itah = after this life: gataah = gone.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

                                                                   THE BLESSED LORD SAID:

I shall again declare that supreme knowledge, the best of all forms of knowledge; by knowing which, all the sages have passed from this world to the highest perfection.

 

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The sages who have been blessed with Self-knowledge have nothing else to gain. And this supreme knowledge has already been explained. Still, it is again delineated from another angle. While Brahma jnaana is the easiest to acquire for those who have purified their minds, it is the hardest and the least understood for those whose minds are steeped in worldliness. It, therefore, requires to be presented in as many ways as possible. The votaries of Brahma jnaana are designated as Munis. Perfection is theirs to the extent they make progress in this knowledge. While the advanced Brahma jnaanis are ever perfect in themselves, their bodily existence often puts on apparent defects. The limits of the Kshetra ought not however to be imputed to the Kshetrajna or the self. But since this error is committed frequently, Self-knowledge requires to be expounded repeatedly, and in a variety of ways.

SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Knowledge pertaining to Iswara is the real knowledge. Branches of arts and science, logic, grammar—learning such as these usually confuse the understanding instead of clarifying it. Sacred books often function as shackles that prevent free-thinking. All learning is good if it can ever guide man Godward.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT  SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Further analysis of the field is made in this chapter.

In chapter XIII, verse 21, it has been stated that attachment to the qualities is the cause of Samsara or births in good and evil wombs. In this chapter, the Lord gives answers to the questions: “What are the qualities of Nature (Gunas)? How do they bind a man? What are the characteristics of these qualities? How do they operate? How can one obtain freedom from them? What are the characteristics of a liberated soul?”

All knowledge has no reference to the knowledge described in chapter XIII, verses 7 to 10, but it refers to that kind of knowledge which concerns sacrifices. That kind of knowledge which relates to sacrifices cannot give liberation. But the knowledge which is going to be imparted in this discourse will certainly lead to emancipation. The Lord eulogizes this knowledge by the epithets ‘supreme’ and “the best” in order to create great interest in Arjuna and other spiritual aspirants.

Having learnt this supreme knowledge, all the sages who practised Manana or reflection (Munis) have attained perfection after being freed from bondage to the body.

Itah: After this life; after being freed from this bondage to the body.    

Comments by the blogger:

Repetition is one of the beauties of Srimad Gita.

The same Truth is expounded from various angles. There is nothing as simple or uncomplicated Truth. The Truth in its purest form would if any of us is granted to experience for even a few minutes can easily and completely demoralize us. Man cannot put up with Truth. If a beautiful lady’s face is magnified to the level that each pore is developed to the size of a stalwart acne, we won’t and can’t put up with the ugliness of our True and Real outer self. Beauty is only skin deep is a gross understatement. There is no beauty in our outward personality. But there could be beauty in thinking and feeling. Beautiful books can be written. Shakespear is venerated for the beauty of his creativity. But we cannot find beauty in our external form. Does this mean that this body is useless? No! Man can only attain immortality and emancipation through the proper use of our physic and mind. Emancipation and Godliness are synonymous. This perishable body should be put to proper use. Yoga, for instance; we may employ this body and mind and intellect in a daily practice of Yoga. The result is a total emancipation. Total emancipation consists of all the beauties of the Atman. If this perishable body could lead to total emancipation then and only in that sense, this body can be viewed as beautiful.

Truth has many faces and shades and facets. The atomic particles can be viewed at once as a streak of light and a point of light. Then what is True? The streak of light or point of light? The streak presupposes the fact that there can be no point and the point of light presupposes that there could be no dots and streaks. An atom is the fundamental fact as to our personality and nature. There is nothing fixed inside the Atom. The personalities of streak and point are mutually contradictory and exclusive. When there is a point of light there is no streak and when there is a streak there is no point. One cancels out the other so that there is nothing fixed and perceptible and permanent about our body or physic! When the point and the streak of light cancel out each other, then our body has no permanent personality. We represent nothing and we only exist in the phenomenal void! Life is nothing but a passing, ever passing, show. Our body is an illusion. But this illusory body can lead us to permanent emancipation. To the extent, we are attracted by the worldliness we make expressway for more and more births. We come packed in this illusory body. It is disgusting to think that such illusory body and mind can lead us to utter slaves to our senses and this illusory world.   

Yet all knowledge is sacred; sacred in the sense they all ultimately lead to emancipation. We always, birth after birth, choose and select the most difficult way to attain emancipation: we become enslaved to our senses and the sense articles in the world. We experience all the worldly things and matter, birth after birth, and ultimately, after a trillion of re-births, turn to Yoga. Then we start to make great strides toward emancipation. And at one point of re-birth-time, we attain that immortality which is synonymous with total freedom from having to be born and sent back to this earth death after death and re-birth after re-birth.

This ineffable Truth must be couched in various words and expressions which is what Sri Bhagavan, Sri Krishna does in Bhagavad Gita. He exposes the totality of the illusion belonging to the life on the earthly plane and demonstrates, in the ultimate analysis, how the perishable body and the subtle mind can be put to the use of purchasing and exchanged for Freedom from this earthly life.

The four Yogas, namely, Karma Yoga, Bhagti Yoga, Gnana Yoga and Raja Yoga are so many Yogic Paths to manufacture our ultimate Emancipation.