Continuing his teachings
Swamiji said, today
I will give you a summary of the fifteenth chapter of the Gita, which we completed in the last class. The 15th chapter, titled Purushottama yoga, is a very popular chapter. Many people learn it by-heart, because in
many places, people have to chant
it compulsorily to get food!! Therefore, many people learn it by-heart and some people learn it because it is one of the shortest
chapters, and therefore useful for regular parayanam and some
people learn it because it is one of the most significant and complete chapters
of the Bhagavat Gita. This contains
all the important features of the Upanishads. The essence
of Upanishads is contained in this chapter and therefore this is a very significant
chapter. And for the convenience of
our summarization, I will divide the chapter into five portions and then
summarize each portion.


The
first topic is samsara
varnanam, the
description of samsara
or transmigration.


The
second topic is moksha sadhanani, the
spiritual disciplines leading to liberation.


The
third topic is Brahman sarvamatkatvam,
Brahman being in the form of everything, Brahman as everything.


Then
the fourth topic is Brahmanaha purushottamatvam,
Brahman being purushottama,


And
then the fifth and final topic is Brahma Gyana phalam; the knowledge of such a
Brahman and the benefit of such knowledge.

These
are the five topics of this chapter. We will take one by one and summarize each.

1. Samsara varnanam.

The
first topic is samsara
varnanam, which we
get in the first 2-1/2 verses. In this, Sri Krishna compares the whole universe
to a huge Ashvatta tree, a
huge fig tree or peepal tree, because of the several common features between
the tree and the universe. And Sri Krishna himself mentions several common
features between the tree and the whole universe; but I do not want to go to into
those details. I have enumerated several common features. And among several
common features, there is one significant feature, we have to note and
remember. And Sri Krishna has not mentioned that feature in the 15th chapter
but we have to borrow that from the Upanishads, because this comparison is not Sri
Krishna’s own invention but it is borrowed from two Upanishads. One is Kathopanishad and other is
Mundako Upanishad where this comparison is elaborately given.

There
is a Kathopanishad mantra, from
which Sri Krishna has borrowed this imagery.

Also
the same comparison comes in Mundaka Upanishad as well.

In Kathopanishad, the tree is called Ashvatta vrksha, and in Mundakopanishad, it is called pippalam; Ashvatta and pippalam means the same. In the Mundakopanishad, all the living beings are compared to the birds, which are seated or perched on the samsara tree. If the whole universe is comparable to a tree, all the living beings are comparable to the birds, which are seated on different branches of the tree, higher, lower and middle branches. And not only we are the birds seated on the samsara tree, we are constantly consuming the fruits which comes in the samsara vrksha and therefore the jiva bird is eating the fruit which comes in the samsara tree. And those fruits produced by the samsara tree, are of two types, and one is called sukha phalam and another is called dukha phalam, the fruit of pleasure and the fruit of pain. One is tasty fruit; another is a bitter fruit. And therefore through this imagery, Sri Krishna points out that the universe is going to constantly give us pleasures and pain. Even as the tree produces tasty and bitter fruits, the world will constantly produce pleasures and pains and as birds, we the jivas, will also have to constantly experience pleasure and pain. Which means nobody can uniformly expect pleasures, nobody need worry about uniform pain as well; life will give you a mixture of pleasure and pain. And therefore pleasures and pains are like the two sides of one coin; you can never have one alone; just as a one-sided coin is impossible; mere pleasures also are impossible; mere pain also does not exist.

And
therefore in life, we have only two options.

Welcome the pleasures and be ready to consume the attendant pains as well, are first option.

And
the second option is to reject all the pains but along with the pains, you have
reject or forego the worldly pleasures as well. Either accept both or reject
both.

The
idea of welcoming one alone and giving up the other is simply is not
impossible.

So
accept both or reject both.

But
the problem is if we have to accept both or reject both options it requires tremendous
mental strength.

Because
when you are accepting both, you should have the mental strength to withstand
the pain. When you reject both; you should have the mental strength to give up
the worldly pleasures. Both require mental strength.

And the problem of human being is, he is weak in his mind. The problem is not with the world; the problem of the human being is, he is weak in mind and therefore neither is he able to accept both nor is he able to reject both. Sometimes he feels like accepting everything, so that he can enjoy a wonderful life; and when the pains also come, then he says, Swamiji, I want to run, leaving everything. When he runs away to a quiet place, he cannot stay there for more than a week. That then becomes a miserable life; then he feels coming to the city and living with everything is wonderful. When in Chennai, Rishikesh seems to be wonderful and while in Rishikesh, Chennai seems to be wonderful. Problem is neither with Rishikesh nor with Chennai, the problem is inside us.

And
therefore samsara is because
of the mental weakness of the human being, because of which he is neither able
to accept both pleasures and pain, nor is he able to renounce both pleasure and
pain. Neither he is able to take to grihastha ashrama nor is he able to take to sanyasa ashrama. In
Grihasthshrama, sanyasa ashrama seems better,
and in sanyasa ashrama, grihastha
ashrama seems the
best.

The problem is not with the ashrama; the problem is inside us. And therefore the solution is not changing the world, because the nature of the world is that it is a mixture of pleasure and pain. Therefore the solution is removing the weakness from the mind by gathering and collecting inner strength. Once I gather inner strength; I canchoose any of the option; I will have the strength to give up both; or I will have the strength to accept both; I will be able to remain in Grihastha ashrama or I will be able to remain in Sanyasa  ashrama; I will be able to remain in an active life or I will be able to remain in a secluded life. So secluded life is also not better; active life is also not better; problem is neither with activity nor with seclusion; the problem is with the mind; and therefore freedom from samsara is freedom from mental weakness. Therefore moksha is transformation of the mind. Mind alone is the cause of bondage; mind alone is the cause of liberation.

The weak mind
is the cause of bondage; strong mind is the cause of liberation. So this idea
is indirectly conveyed through samsara varnanam,
in the first two and half verses of this chapter.

2. Moksha sadhanani.

Then
comes the second topic from the second half of the third verse up to the 6^th
verse. Verse No.3 to verse No.6, is the next topic. How do you make the mind strong?
What is the method of strengthening the mind, so that I can be in grihastha ashrama and enjoy
the pleasures of the family members and also the problems caused by
relationship. Every relationship has two sides. Either I can give up all relationships
and take sanyasa or enjoy all
relationships. Sri Krishna prescribes four fold disciplines to strengthen the mind.
Four sadhanas are
mentioned: They are:

1.Vairagyam.

2.
Sadgunaha;

3.
Sharanaagathihi and

4.
Atma vichara or Shastra vichara

What
do you mean by vairagyam?
Vairagyam is freedom from addiction. Freedom from addiction to tamasic
and rajasic pursuits of life. What do you mean by tamasic pursuits? Any
adharmic activity, unrighteous activity, improper activity, unethical activity or
pursuit is called tamasic pursuit; I have to give up all such addictions and
pursuits of improper nature. That is de-addiction No.1.

And the second de-addiction is from rajasic pursuits. And that is dharmic materialistic activities are called rajasic pursuits. I take to dharmic activities only but they are all materialistic in nature. They are called rajasic pursuit. The tamasic addiction will lead to spiritual downfall, rajasic addiction will lead to spiritual stagnation.

And therefore
reduction of the adharmic activities and the reduction of dharmic materialistic
activities is called vairagyam.

And how do you remove those two addictions; or at least reduce those two addictions. The method is forming a new addiction. You have to remove one thorn using another thorn.

Remove
addiction with addiction. Tamasic and
rajasic tendencies are balanced, or reduced by forming satvic
addictions; like attending Gita class; I have to make sure that you keep coming. So, therefore, satvic addiction
or good addiction will reduce tamasic and rajasic addiction.

Then
you will ask Swamiji how to handle satvic addiction. Let satvic addiction come first; why are you
bothered about handling that now; we will see that when we face that problem.
We do have methods of handling satvic addictions also later and therefore, satsanga as well as Shastric study,
etc. are satvic addictions,
which will promote vairagyam.
Satsangatve, nissangatvam. This is Vairagyam.

The
second sadhana is sadgunaha. Developing vedanta friendly
virtues. Developing virtues, which are conducive to Vedanta, conducive to
spiritual growth. We have already seen a big list in the 13th chapter, from the
8th verse up to the 12th verse, Amanitvam, adambitvam,
etc. Sri Krishna reminds us of them in this chapter.

Thus
develop healthy virtues. Thus developing moral values is the second spiritual
discipline.

Then
the third one is sharanagathi. What is sharanagathi? It is a
very important spiritual discipline. It is developing a particular attitude in
life.

What
is that attitude? Whatever choiceless situations, I face in life; whatever
helpless, choiceless situations I face in life, they are all specially sent by
the Lord for me, for the sake of my spiritual refinement and growth. It is a very
difficult attitude but we have to cultivate it. It will not come easily. You
will only get angry with God whenever a choiceless situation comes, especially
unfavourable choiceless situation. When any unfavourable choiceless situation comes, I cannot change the situation.  Swamiji how to change the choiceless
situation? I have said that it is choiceless; since choiceless situations cannot be changed; work on changing your
attitude. Intelligence is working to change what can be changed.

Therefore in all choiceless and unfavourable situations, I have to work on ‘my mind’, because I can work only on my mind only. And what is the direction of the work? Changing the attitude. And what is the attitude? I require that situation for my improvement and the Lord has specially designed it and he has sent it to me. This is a very, very, difficult attitude. If you can develop that attitude, it is called sharanagathihi. This is the third sadhana.

And sharanagathi includes, seeking Lord’s help for the spiritual
growth, so that I will convert the choiceless situations into a spiritual
ladder. Seeking Lord’s help so that I
will convert choiceless situations into a spirtual ladder or stepping-stone.
This is called sharanagathi.
Vairagyam, sharanagathi and
sadguna are all over.

Then the fourth one is shastra vichara or study of Vedantic scriptures for a length of time under the guidance of a competent acharya or guru. All these four will cumulatively contribute to the reinforcement of the strengthening of the mind, which will lead to moksha. Moksha means freedom from mental weakness.

Arjuna, the bravest warrior, was tormented by mental pain when a
crisis arose. And how does this work with the four-fold sadhana’s?  That also Sri Krishna says the four-fold sadhana’s will
lead you to Brahma prapthihi. It will take you to Brahman, which is the only
source of strength in the creation. It will lead you to Brahman, which is the
only source of strength in this universe.

And of course you should make a note, when we say that it will lead you to Brahman, do not imagine, Brahman is sitting in Mumbai, Calcutta or somewhere, and the sadhana will lead you to Brahman, which is your inner higher real nature. You will fall back to yourselves. This Brahma prapthi is called moksha.

And then Sri Krishna defines that Brahman also in an important
verse #15.6.

It
is a very important definition of Brahman based on the upanishadic mantra,
occurring in Kathopanishad and Mundakopanishad. Sri Krishna
points out that Brahman is nothing but
the pure consciousness, which is a formless and all pervading entity; which objectifies
everything and which itself cannot be objectified by anyone. It is an unobjectifiable-subject.
That consciousness; that witness chaitanyam is Brahman; Satyam, Gyanam,
Anantham Brahma.

3.
Brahmana sarvatmakatvam.

Now we will go to the third topic, from verse No.7 to 15 and in this Sri Krishna points out that Brahman alone appears or manifests in the form of the world. There is no world other than Brahman. Brahman is the only substance. Consciousness is the only basic substance. There is no such thing called matter. And this Brahman, this consciousness alone with different names and forms appears as the material universe. Consciousness plus names and forms is equal to space. Consciousness plus name and form is equal to air. Consciousness plus name and form is fire, akasha, vayu, agni, apaha, prthvi and all the elemental products.

Are
you understanding? So if you think that there is a substance called ornament,
it is a delusion; there is no substance called ornament, the substance is only
gold; we are wrongly attributing substantiality to ornament. We are wrongly
attributing substantiality to the furniture. Furnitures are not there; then
what is there; wood; This, the wooden headed fellow does not understand. Clay
headed fellow does not understand that the clay is the truth. Wooden headed
does not understand that the wood is the truth. Similarly Vedanta says that
there is only one substance called Consciousness; the formless Consciousness
manifests as the formed materials of the creation. The intangible consciousness
manifests as the tangible material universe.

And
here also the whole world is nama
rupa, but in this
nama rupa also, there
are two varieties. One variety of nama rupa is that which manifests the
existence-nature of Brahman. But, that nama rupa, is not able to manifest the
chit aspect and therefore that part of the creation exists but it is only inert
in nature.

But
there is another set of nama
rupa, which is
able to manifest, not only the existence, the sat nature, but also it is able
to manifest the chit or consciousness nature as well. Like the physical body it
manifests Brahman’s existence as well as consciousness. Here Sat and Chit, both
are visible outside. Thus, when you look at this mike it’s existence you are
able to appreciate; but consciousness, it is not able to manifest.

To
give another example, let us say, you heat a piece of metal and a glass of
water. The heat principle, the fire principle will pervade the metal, the fire
principle will pervade the water as well, when it comes in contact with fire.
We know the fire has got two attributes; heat and light; it has got ushnatvam and
prakashatvam; the fire
pervades the metal also; the fire pervades the water also. But you find,
interestingly, the metal, because of the contact with fire, borrows the heat
from the fire. Therefore the metal becomes hot; if you have doubt, touch and
see. And not only the metal borrows the heat, the metal becomes bright as well,
shining, with a red-hot glow. Therefore metal manifests ushnatvam and
prakashatvam of the
fire.

Whereas
water when it comes in contact with fire, it borrows only the heat part of the fire,
water never becomes bright. It does not borrow the light. Both are materials;
but one is capable of borrowing only one feature, the other is capable of
borrowing two features.

Similarly, in the universe, some part will borrow the sat amsha while another part borrows both the sat and the chit amsha’s. Thus, wherever sat and chit are there; it is called sentient part of the universe, but wherever sat alone is manifest, it is called insentient universe. Thus Brahman is manifest in the universe in the form of sat in some portions and in the form of sat and chit in some; and when the chit is manifest in some portion, it is called the jiva. while when sat alone is manifest, it is called jagat. Thus Brahman alone is in the form of the insentient jagat; Brahman alone is also in the form of sentient jiva as well. Thus Brahman is everywhere.

And
Sri Krishna concludes that portion saying when Brahman is manifest in this
whole creation, just as gold is manifest in all ornaments, Brahman is also
manifest. If a person misses this Brahman, which is evident everywhere, that
person must be a very gross and unrefined person. Like looking at the ornaments
and missing the gold.

It is like looking at the electrical gadgets and missing the electricity. Similarly looking at all human beings, I miss the consciousness in everyone, My capacity to talk is an expression of the consciousness principle and your capacity to hear is an expression of consciousness principle; minus consciousness, I cannot talk and you cannot hear. And if a person misses this consciousness it is a problem. And for a person who has prepared the mind; Brahman is appreciated everywhere. So, this is the third topic: Brahman being chetana-achetana prapancha or sarvatmakatvam.

4.
Brahmana purushottamatvam.

Then
the 4th topic from the 16th to 18th verse is Brahmana purushottamatvam; Brahman
being purushottama. And to
convey this idea, Sri Krishna divides the whole universe into three parts;
three components.

First
part is manifest matter; the material universe which is manifest; manifest
meaning visible to the sense organs.

Second
part is unmanifest matter; that matter which is not sensorily perceptible or
tangible. You can call it energy. We will use the word unmanifest matter.

Third
part: And then beyond these two matter and energy, there is the third part,
which is the all-pervading consciousness principle, which is a distinct entity;
which alone, we called in Tatva bodha, the original consciousness or OC.

It
is not part of matter; it is not product of matter,

it
is not property of matter, but it is an independent entity. The first one is
called kshara purusha, the second
one is called akshara purusha and the third
one is called uttama purusha.

And
Sri Krishna says, of these three factors, the third one; consciousness alone is
the greatest principle. It is the highest principle. The word uttama means the
greatest.

Why
greatest? Because, matter cannot exist independent of consciousness; whereas,
consciousness can exist independent of matter. Consciousness alone lends
existence to the matter. Therefore, Kshara purusha and akshara purusha both are inferior. When I say
matter, it includes the reflected consciousness as well. Even if I do not say,
include it. RC is also included in Kshara purusha. And akshara purusha is also RC.

Just take it that, as matter is inferior, OC the original consciousness is uttamaha purusha. And this uttama purusha alone is reversed and called purushottama.

And
Sri Krishna says that uttama purusha or purushottama is My real and higher nature;
which was called in the 7th chapter, as Para prakrti. The uttama purusha of the 15th
chapter is the para prakrithi of the 7th chapter. Therefore Arjuna: real God is
formless consciousness and that God is not located in any one place. That
formless, intangible consciousness, which is the real God, is all pervading.
Thus all the forms attributed to God in the religious scriptures are
temporarily given as a stepping-stone to go to the formless god. From the form,
you go to the formless. Form is the steppingstone to the formless one.

Every
person, in the beginning, is not capable of appreciating the formless God. The attributeless
God, everybody cannot understand. For them you give a support in the Rama form,
Krishna form, and that is why we have no quarrel with any form that you choose
as a Ishta devatha; you
can choose any form, but form is only a steppingstone, the destination is not
form. Destination is the formless. And when you reach the destination,
formless-Vishnu is identical
with formless Shiva, who is identical with formless Krishna, who is identical with
formless Rama. Why do you quarrel saying that I am Shaiva; I am Vaishnava etc.
Religious quarrel is meaningless if religion is understood properly. That is
why somebody said that we have enough religion for quarrel; we do not have enough
religion to live harmoniously, because it is not understood.

Thus,
the formless purushottama
is the real Sri Krishna,

So
this is the purushottama topic. A
very important because of which the chapter is called purushottama yoga.

5.
Brahma Gyanam.

Then
the last topic ends with verses, 19 and 20 and Sri Krishna talks about Brahma
Gyanam.

O Arjuna, everyone has to attain this Brahma Gyanam to derive mental strength, so that you can live a life of a grihastha or you can live a life of sanyasi, without any burden. Therefore Gyanam is the destination of all; and the benefit of this Gyanam is that you will attain total fulfillment in life. You will feel that the life has been a meaningful one. To make the life meaningful, you have to attain this Gyanam. With this Gyanam and phalam, the fifth and final topic of the 15th chapter is over.

Thus
ends the fifteenth chapter named Purushottama Yoga in Srimad-bhagavadgita which
is the essence of the Upanishads,
which deals with Brahman-knowledge as well as the preparatory disciplines, and
which is in the form of a dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna.

Take Away:

And
therefore pleasures and pains are like the two sides of one coin; you can never
have one alone; just as a one-sided coin is impossible; mere pleasures also are
impossible; mere pain also does not exist.

When
in Chennai, Rishikesh seems to be
wonderful; while in Rishikesh, Chennai
seems to be wonderful. Problem is neither with Rishikesh nor with Chennai, the problem is inside us.

And
therefore the solution is not changing the world, because the nature of the
world is that it is a mixture of pleasure and pain. Therefore the solution is
removing the weakness from the mind by gathering and collecting inner strength

So
secluded life is also not better; active life is also not better; problem is neither
with activity nor with seclusion; the problem is with the mind; and therefore
freedom from samsara
is freedom from mental weakness. Therefore moksha
is transformation of the mind. Mind alone is the cause of bondage, mind alone
is the cause of liberation.

The
weak mind is the cause of bondage; strong mind is the cause of liberation.

Reduction
of the adharmic activities and the reduction of dharmic materialistic
activities is called vairagyam.

Seeking Lord’s help so that I will convert choiceless situations
into a spiritual ladder or stepping-stone is called sharanagathi.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka
15:15:

And I am seated in the hearts of all. From Me
are memory, knowledge and their loss. I alone am the object to be known through
all the Vedas; I am also the originator of the Vedanta, and I Myself am the
knower of the Vedas.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, with this 15th shloka, which we completed in the last class, Sri Krishna completes the important topic of Brahmana sarvatmakatvam. Brahman sarvatmakatvam means Brahman alone is in the form of everything. This is the essential teaching of all the upanishads. In the Mundakopanishad we saw a shloka that says, what is in front is Brahman, what is behind is Brahman, what is on the right, on the left, above and below, everything is Brahman, just with different names and forms, which causes only a superficial difference. So the world is superficially different, but in essence the whole is Brahman; there is nothing other than Brahman. And Sri Krishna has mentioned this in the 4th chapter; shloka 4.24 also conveys the same idea. Brahman alone is everything. And this topic Sri Krishna started from the 7th verse and he concluded this in the 15th verse, and we should remember that the ultimate discovery is that Sarvatmakam Brahma is nothing but myself. It is not enough that we say Brahman is everything; then the sadhana is incomplete; I should finally say that, “ That Brahman I am”. Then the statement would bemreworded; instead of saying Brahman is everything; we say I am everything. Aham Annam, Aham Annadaha, Aham Slokakrt, Aham eva idagum sarvam. This is called sarvatmabhava and we completed that in the last class.

Now in the following three verses, 16, 17, and 18, Sri Krishna
gives the definition of the word purushottama and based on
this word alone, the very chapter is called purushottama
yoga.
What is purushottama and who is purushottama, Sri Krishna
tells us in these three verses.

Shloka
15:16:

15.16 There are these two persons in the
world-the mutable and the immutable. The mutable consists of all things; the
one existing as Maya is called the immutable.

First I will give the gist of these three verses, so that you will
get a total picture, then understanding these verses becomes easier. To reveal
Purushottama, Sri Krishna divides the whole universe into three portions
or three components or amsa trayam.

The first portion is the visible universe, which is accessible, perceptible to our sense organs. This sensorially visible, tangible universe is one component and this we can call the manifest matter. Manifest matter is this visible universe; is made up of matter, that we know of. Scientifically it has been shown that the world is made up of matter and even scripturally we know that the world is made up of pancha bhutani, akasha, vayu, apaha, prthvi, and all of them are matter, inert-matter principle. Therefore, the first component is manifest matter and Sri Krishna gives it a technical name and calls it Kshara purusha.

Normally,
matter is indicated only by the word prakrti. or referred to as prakrti tatvam,
but this is an exceptional context in which the manifest matter is called kshara purusha.

Then Sri Krishna talks about the second component. When matter is destroyed; what happens to matter? We know scientifically, logically and shastrically that matter cannot be totally destroyed due to the law of conservation of matter and therefore when matter is destroyed, it will get converted into an unmanifest form, you may call it energy form, but it goes to the invisible intangible, unmanifest form and therefore at the time of total destruction of this universe, at the time of pralaya, the matter will continue but not in the form of manifest matter, but it will survive in the form of unmanifest matter and therefore the second component of the universe is matter in unmanifest form. So unmanifest matter, which is also inert in nature, is the second component. Sri Krishna gives it the name of akshara purusha. This is also an exceptionally rare usage because normally, the word akshara purusha is used for Nirgunam Brahma or consciousness. That is the general usage; but in this exceptional context; the unmanifest matter, you may called it energy; is named akshara purusha; it is also called Maya, because in Vedanta, Maya is unmanifest universe, and that maya tatvam, the unmanifest matter principle, in this context, is called aksharam purusha. So we have manifest matter; unmanifest matter; kshara purusha and akshara purusha.

Consciousness principle, chetana tatvam, is the third component, because according to our scriptures, consciousness is distinct from matter. Remember, consciousness is not a part, product or property of matter. Consciousness is a distinct and independent entity; it is neither a part of matter; nor a property of matter, nor is it a product of matter. Material sciences think that consciousness is a product or phenomenon in matter; Vedanta strongly rejects that view and vedanta says consciousness is independent of matter and this independent consciousness is the third component or part of this universe. And this consciousness principle, Sri Krishna names it Uttama purusha.

Now, if you make a comparative study of these three components, we
will see certain important differences among them. The three are: manifest matter,
unmanifest matter and consciousness. Of these three, the first two components being
matter, both of them are achetana tatvam, inert principle, whereas the third one
being consciousness, it is chetana tatvam. The first two, are inert, the third
one is sentient. Then the first two principles being matter, or material, it is
full of varieties of properties or attributes or qualities. In Sanskrit, we
call it guna; therefore the first two components are sagunam
in nature, whereas the consciousness according to vedanta
is free from all the attributes; hence nirguna tatvam. So one is chetanam,
the other is achetanam; one is sagunam and the other is nirgunam.

Then the third difference, both manifest and unmanifest matter is
subject to modification and or violent changes. Matter can never remain the
same. It is constantly undergoing changes. In fact, manifest and unmanifest
matter themselves are inter-convertible.

Manifest matter can be converted into unmanifest matter; unmanifest matter can be converted into manifest matter. In scientific language, we say matter and energy are inter-convertible.

The whole E= mc2, the equation, is only revealing the fact of the
inter-convertibility of matter and energy. In fact, at the time of creation,
unmanifest matter is getting converted into manifest matter and at the time of
pralayam or dissolution, the manifest matter is getting converted into
unmanifest matter.

We had seen a parallel idea in the 8th chapter.

Therefore the first two are savikaram, whereas consciousness is nirvikaram. You cannot say that manifest consciousness getting converted is into unmanifest consciousness. You cannot say that because if you talk about the transformation of consciousness into manifest and unmanifest matter, consciousness also will be subject to change, but it is not so. So achetanam, chetanam, sagunam, nirgunam, savikaram, nirvikaram are the qualities.

Then the fourth difference is, the matter principle, both manifest and unmanifest are subject to divisions. They are subject to divisions; it is divisible principle. This body itself can be divided. This carpet can be divided. In fact our body gets divided; teeth is missing after some years; After some time, hair will disappear; one by one it will disappear; whereas consciousness principle is indivisible. One is savikalpam as matter, savikalpam is divisible; nirvikalpam is consciousness.

And
finally and most importantly, matter does not have an independent existence of
its own. It does not have the svatantra satta. Therefore it is called mithya
Therefore kshara purusha and akshara purusha both are mithya
whereas uttama purusha,
the consciousness principle alone has independent existence and therefore it is
called satyam and therefore uttama purusha alone lends existence to kshara and akshara purusha; Just as the
screen lends existence to the movie drama going on; similarly, the uttama purusha lends existence
to the kshara, akshara purusha drama going
on which is called creation and destruction. Matter manifests, then matter goes
into unmanifest form; and this drama, is sustained by the screen called uttama purush, the chaitanyam.

And therefore of these three components, Sri Krishna says that the third component is the supreme one. Why? Because that is sarva adharam; Vishvadharam gagana sadrsham is uttama purusha.

And having said this much, Sri Krishna adds that the uttama purusha, the consciousness alone, is my real nature; this chaitanya tatvam alone is my real nature and therefore I would like to claim myself not as kshara purusha, I won’t claim myself as the akshara purusha also, but I would like to claim myself as Uttama purusha, which is chetana nirguna, nirvikara, nirvikalpa tatvam. And since I am the uttama purusha, whole world knows me as Purushottama.

This
is the saram; the
essence. Now we will go to the verses.

In this cosmos, in this creation; firstly there are two purushas. The third one will be introduced later. First he talks about two purushas, and they are known as; kshara purusha and akshara purusha. Sri Krishna himself defines them as all the things and beings, which are visible matter, the visible material universe. The word ‘beings’ represent our physical body, and the word ‘things’ represents all the objects. Both the body as well as the objects, comes under visible matter.

Remember the body also comes under matter principle, because the
body is made up of iron, sodium, carbon, nickel, cobalt, etc. You will know it
when there is deficiency.

It is made of all those things; and therefore, sarvani bhutani, the entire visible matter is kshara purusha and kutastha, the unmanifest matter.

In this context, the word kutastha means
unmanifest matter or maya tatvam. And since this maya is relatively eternal, it
is kutastha. kutastha means relatively eternal.

Kutastha, the unmanifest matter, is also called akshara purusha. So in this shloka He says; manifest matter is kshara purusha; and unmanifest matter is akshara purusha. After that:

Shloka 15:17:

15.17 But different is the supreme Person who
is spoken of as the transcendental Self, who, permeating the three worlds, upholds
(them), and is the imperishable God.

Anyaha: means there is a different principle, a third
principle, other than kshara and akshara
purusha. Other than the manifest and unmanifest matter, there is a
principle, which is called chaitanyam. Since we used the word consciousness, we
have to supply anyaha that means the chetana tatvam.

And what is the chetana tatvam? Uttama purusha is
the third component of this creation. And what is its nature? The
uttama purusha or chaitanyam is nirgunam, nirvikaram,
nirvikalpam and satyam. That satyam must be remembered very well.

Even though we have enumerated three tatvams, kshara,
akshara
and uttama, still we say advaitam because two of them are mithya; mithya means
unreal; and therefore, those two cannot be counted. Satyam is only one. And
therefore it is uttama purusha that is the satya tatvam.

And this uttama purusha, the chaitanyam, is known as paramatmetyudartaha. In all the upanishads, this consciousness principle is called paramatma.

What is the function of this uttama purusha?
We know the functions of manifest and unmanifest matter, because all the
sciences are dealing with matter and energy. And all the advancements are in
the field of matter and energy.

Sri Krishna says: This uttama purusha is pervades
(pervades, penetrates, inheres) all the three universes; all the three worlds.
And here the word loka trayam represents kshara
and akshara purusha.

What does the uttama purusha do? Bibarthi, means sustains; supports, and lends existence; exactly like gold pervades all the ornaments and lends existence. Wood pervades all the furniture and lends existence. Water pervades all the waves and lends existence. Minus gold, no ornaments. Minus wood, no furniture; minus water, no wave; minus uttama purusha, there can be neither kshara purusha nor akshara purusha. No matter or energy is possible without consciousness principle. Consciousness is the substance behind both matter and energy. Even though the consciousness pervades the changing matter, consciousness itself does not undergo any change. In the movie, the characters may move, the vehicles may run, but the screen does not run. In fact, in the presence of the stationary screen alone, all the movements are possible. Similarly in the presence of the motionless consciousness alone, all the changes of the universe are possible. That anchor of the universe is consciousness.

Therefore
avyayaha; avyayaha
means
changeless it also means Ishvara.
Ishvara means this
consciousness, even though it pervades the changing matter, the consciousness
is not affected by, not tormented by, whatever happens in the material
universe. The body may be born; it may grow old, and it may die at the
individual level; upheavals may take place in the cosmos; there may be atomic
explosions; whatever happens to matter, consciousness is unaffected;

Therefore
it is called master; Ishvaraha means master of
matter; not the slave of matter. Consciousness is not a slave of matter; that
means whatever happens to matter, consciousness is asangaha.

All the navagrahas may affect the body; Navagrahas cannot affect the chaitanya atma tatvam. Therefore, Consciousness is the real God or Ishvaraha.

Shloka 15.18:

15.18 Since I am transcendental to the mutable
and above even the immutable, hence I am well known in the world and in the
Vedas as the supreme Person.

This third component, viz., the consciousness principle is ksharam.  Consciousness is superior to manifest matter.  Consciousness is superior to even unmanifest matter. It is superior to even all forms of energy. That is why we should remember that consciousness is not a form of energy.

Consciousness
is a principle, distinct from and superior to all forms of energy, because
energy is only unmanifest matter. Therefore Sri Krishna says
consciousness is superior to manifest matter and unmanifest matter.

And
in Sanskrit, the word uttama means
superior most.

Being
the superior most, the consciousness, is known as uttama purush, and if you
reverse it, it is Purushottama.
The consciousness is well known as Purushottamaha, both in the world of people as well as
in the scriptures.

Here
Sri Krishna does a small mischief, instead of saying Consciousness is superior,
Sri Krishna quietly identifies with that consciousness, claiming it as His real
nature. And therefore Arjuna, that consciousness is myself. Do not look at my
body. My body is kshara
purusha. I am the
consciousness principle behind the Sri Krishna shariram and therefore that is
My real nature and therefore I would say I am the Uttama purushaha. And therefore
I am called purushottamaha.

Therefore
Sri Krishna says: Aham That is myself, instead of the word chaitanyam. Sri Krishna
is purushottama.

We are referring to the nirguna Sri Krishna, who is chaitanya
svarupa. And therefore, I am Purushottama.

So with this, Sri Krishna concludes the definition of the word Purushottama. And because of this reason alone, this chapter is called Purushottama yoga and now Sri Krishna says the aim of every spiritual seeker is the knowledge of Purushottama.

Shloka 15.19:

15.19 O scion of the Bharata dynasty, he who,
being free from delusion, knows Me the supreme Person thus, he is all-knowing
and adores Me with his whole being.

So here the Lord says all the intelligent people of the world will
not go after kshara purusha; they will not go after akshara purusha, they will
go after uttama purusha; purushottama, the nirgunam brahma. Whereas
deluded people alone will be materialistic people. What do you mean by
materialistic people? The one’s going after manifest matter or unmanifest
matter; are the deluded people, whereas a viveki, a sadhana chatushtaya
sampanna will go after uttama purusha, or Purushottama, by
following karma, upasana and Gyana yoga.

Ultimately they will come to know purushottama; the nirguna,
nirvikara, nirvikalpa, chetana, brahma tatvam.  So intelligent people who know the purushottama,
they are called the omniscient ones, because by knowing Brahman, they have
known everything because Brahman alone is everything. And therefore,
knowing Brahman is knowing everything. And thereafter he will continue to
worship me, but his worship will be of a higher order. So Sri Krishna says such
a Gyani will worship me in totality; wholeheartedly and fully.

And what do you mean by wholeheartedly or fully worshipping? Shankaracharya says the worship will be in the form of the knowledge that that purushottama is none other than “I”, the atma chaitanyam. It is the all-pervading consciousness residing within my body-mind complex. And therefore, Gyani worships in the form of advaitha bhakthi. So sarva bhavena means advaitha bhavena, abheda bhavena.

And in the 7th chapter, Sri Krishna talked about four layers of
bhakthi: artha bhakthi, artharthi bhakthi, jignasu
bhakthi and Gyani bhakthi; and there Sri Krishna says Gyani bhakthi is the
highest bhakthi and that is advaitha bhakthi.

Sri Krishna now concludes:

Shloka
# 15.20:

15.20 O sinless one, this most secret
scripture has thus been uttered by Me. Understanding this, one becomes wise and
has his duties fulfilled, O scion of the Bharata dynasty.

This teaching about sarvatmakam brahma, this teaching about purushottama, both are one and same; sarvakatma brahma, or purushottama, are same. This teaching about Brahman or purushottama, is the greatest secret that is not easily available. You may go all over the world, there may be so many universities giving varieties of courses and there may be additions of newer and newer courses, but all those courses will be dealing with either kshara purusha or akshara purusha. All the researches in the world happening are dealing with kshara or akshara; all objective sciences are material sciences, all the material sciences are kshara, akshara purusha vidya, and Mundaka upanishad calls them, apara vidya, they are all inferior sciences; whereas para vidya is that which is the study of purushottama, the nirguna chaitanyam. In fact some of the scientists claim that the material sciences can never study consciousness.

Therefore, that rarely available knowledge, O Arjuna, I have told
you. And why did I choose you for the teaching? Firstly, because you asked,
that is important; and secondly you deserved the teaching as well as you are
anagha or pure minded. Agam means papam, anagha means papa rahithaha or shuddha
purusha. Since you are a pure one, I choose to give you this teaching.

May you receive this teaching and assimilate this teaching; and
how should you assimilate it, by practising that uttama purusha, I am. I am neither
the body, which is the kshara purusha, nor the mind, which is also kshara purusha,
nor even the karana shariram, which is akshara purusha. I am the Turiyam of
Mandukya Upanishad, which is the Uttama purushaha. May you become buddhiman.
May you become a wise person.

Then you will ask the fundamental question what will I get out of it? Sri Krishna says, there is a practical benefit that this knowledge alone will give fulfillment in life. Krita krithyaha bhava. Nothing else will give you fulfillment; even if it gives fulfillment, it is a fake and temporary fulfillment. Sooner or later, you are again ready for next thing.  Therefore the journey of fulfillment ends only when you get this wisdom.

Thus
ends the fifteenth chapter named purushottama yoga in Srimad-bhagavad Gita which
is the essence of the upanishads,
which deals with Brahman-knowledge as well as the preparatory disciplines, and
which is in the form of a dialogue between Lord Sri Krishna and Arjuna.

Take Away:

We
should remember that consciousness is not a form of energy. Consciousness is a
principle, distinct from, and superior to, all forms of energy, because energy
is only unmanifest matter.

Brahman sarvatmakatvam
means Brahman alone is in the form of everything. This is the essential
teaching of all the
upanishads.

Mandukya
Upanishad, the last chapter, shloka # 79, says that the benefit of this
knowledge is that one will not develop Raga and Dvesha towards material world.
He will not run after material objects. (not from Gita).

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka
15:12:

15.12 That light in the sun which illumines
the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know
that light to be Mine.

Continuing his teachings
Swamiji said, after
defining Brahman in the 6th verse of this chapter, Sri Krishna establishes in the
later verses, that Brahman alone is in the form of everything. And in Sanskrit,
this is called sarvatmakatvam
and here Sri Krishna talks as one with Brahman; He says: I alone am appearing
as everything.

I
am everything. He has already talked about this in the seventh, ninth, tenth,
and eleventh chapters. In the fact the very vishvarupa darshanam
is revealing this fact that Bhagavan is everything and that sarvatmakatvam is briefly dealt with in
these verses and for this purpose, the whole universe is divided into two, the
sentient, the living beings, and the insentient objects of the creation. Sri Krishna
says that I alone appear in the form of chetana jiva, I alone appear
in the form of the achetana
jagat also. Of these we have seen the first part, from verse No.7 to verse
No.11. In the first part he says, I alone am in the form of the chetana jiva. We have
entered into the second part, from verse no.12, which I introduced in the last
class. And this part is I, the Brahman alone, am in the form of achetana jagat
also. So from the 12th verse, up to the 15^th verse, Brahman or
Bhagavan is everything.

And in this context, Sri Krishna does not give the logic behind this conclusion because the logic has already been given in the previous chapters. Why do we say that Bhagavan is everything? Bhagavan being the cause of everything, Bhagavan alone has to be everything. Remember the example, gold is the cause of all ornaments and therefore gold alone is in the form of all the ornaments. So cause of the ornaments means, it is in the form of ornaments, because there are no ornaments other than gold. Wood is the cause of the furniture, means wood alone is in the form of furniture; there is no furniture separate from wood.

Generalizing, cause alone is in the form of all the effect; extending that, Brahman or Bhagavan being the cause of everything, Brahman or Bhagavan alone is in the form of everything. In short, there is no creation different or separate from Ishvara and this is the uniqueness of the vedic teaching, because that is why, we worship the Lord in any form and every form. We worship animals as God; we worship human beings as God; we worship trees as God; we worship rivers as God; we worship even the five elements as God; the reason is these do not exist separate from Bhagavan or Brahman. And therefore Bhagavan is in the form of everything. And therefore Sri Krishna has to say, I am the table, I am the chair, I am the pen, I am the book, I am you, I am he, I am mike; if Sri Krishna has to enumerate everything in the creation, the 15th chapter will not end at all.

And therefore Sri Krishna wants to take a few important things in the creation and he points out they are my own manifestation. Just a few samples are taken to point out that Bhagavan is in the form of them and from that you can extend to everything else also. And what are those few samples Bhagavan takes? They are the fundamental natural forces that we experience all the time, which we have not created, but they are very much part of this creation. Without these natural power or forces or energy, we cannot think of the creation or its survival. What are the natural forces that Sri Krishna takes up? He takes three of them. One is surya Shakti, The solar energy. The solar power called surya Shakti and the second one is the lunar power, the chandra Shakti. Sri Krishna uses the word tejaha instead of Shakti; therefore surya teja, chandra teja, teja is Shakti, energy, power and the third one is Agni Shakti and Agni teja. The power of the fire. So these are the three natural and very important forces or energy; the more you study their glory, the more you admire. The scientists have been studying the sun for years, decades, for centuries and they are still studying; still they have not completed the glory of the Sun.

Sri Krishna enumerates them first and says I am in the form of Surya Shakti and I am in the form of chandra shakti and I am in the form of agni shakti. That is said in the 12th verse, which we read in the last class.

And
even those people who feel that all other sources of energy will be exhausted;
they think that ultimately we have to tap the solar energy only. And
especially, we the people in the tropical country, we have got solar battery,
solar cells; so many things are solar based.

Sri
Krishna says that energy belongs to me; the energy located in the sun, which illumines
the entire universe;

So
he says; akhilam
jagat
bhasayate; meaning
the energy of the sun never ends.

And
yat chandramasi; that energy, which obtains in the moon, the moonlight or the
lunar energy, of course it is borrowed from the sun.

The
original sunlight is getting reflected in the moon; that reflection itself is
so powerful that on a full paurnami day, you can even read a book.

And
what is the third one, it is
the energy which is stored in agni; agni means the fire principle, agni shakti, all these
three powers belong to me.

That
is why in the vedic discipline,
the day begins with the worship of the sun. And all the prayers are surya prayers.

So
this Sun alone sustains the living beings. Sun alone sustains the earth.

The brilliant light and energy and lot of nutrients like vitamin
D, etc are there due to the sun. Our skin requires sunlight. And even our sleep
and waking is connected to sunlight;  And
that is why they say, do not take heavy meal in the night, because, everything
slows down including digestive power. So the more you study the Sun, the more
its glory is. Therefore morning begins with the Surya Namaskara and on most
pauranami days, we have got some festival or the other; every month you see
pauranami is special for us, because we worship the moonlight. And then of
course Agni worship is fundamental to vedic religion.

Do not take powers of Surya, Chandra and Agni for granted.

In the following verses, Sri Krishna is going to talk about the
glory of each shakti. What is the contribution of sun light? What is the
contribution of moonlight? He is going to explain in the following verses. We
will read.

Shloka 15:13:

And entering the earth I sustain the beings
through (My) power; and nourish all the plants by becoming Soma [According to
S. and most other translators, Soma means the moon.-Tr.] which is of the nature
of sap.

The first line talks about the contribution of the surya
shakti,
which is a blessing from the Lord. So Sri Krishna says: regularly the solar
energy, through the rays of the Sun, penetrate or enter on to the surface of
the earth;

It pervades all the directions and blesses all the jiva rashis
with ojas or prana shakti.

Having entered the earth, the sun rays or the solar light
penetrates into every being, that is why we are asked to get up before sun rise
and we are supposed to expose ourselves to the morning sunlight and therefore
they go to the rivers for bath.

We are all exposing our body to the solar energy; which is called
pranic
energy. And that is why the pranic healers talk about drawing energy from the
Sun and handing over to our prana maya kosha.

The entire pranamaya kosha is sustained by
the Sun. And therefore, all the living beings, I sustain. Sri Krishna says: I
sustain through the solar energy, by blessing the living beings with ojas,
or prana Shakti or pranic energy or vital force.
And this is supposed to be responsible for the health of the annamaya kosha. And
it is also responsible for the health of manomaya kosha.

directly pranamaya kosha; indirectly
annamaya and manomaya; That is why, one of the
most powerful daily prayers is aditya hridayam. If you do not know it, learn
it; and daily chant it in the morning; it will take care of the annamaya kosha
health;

pranamaya
kosha health; manomaya kosha health, and vignana
maya kosha health, those who do not know
gayathri mantra, those who do not chant gayathri, they can replace their
sandhya vandhanam with Aditya Hridya, because it is invoking aditya Shakti.

Then what is the contribution of the soma Shakti? or Moon energy. He says:  I myself become the moonlight or lunar energy and what type of moonlight it is? It is a light which is full of the plant nutrient; according to shastra, the moonlight has got lot of energy or nutrition, which is directly given to the plant kingdom. So here rasa means the sap of the plants, the nutrient power for the plant is here called rasa and I become that. And through that, I nourish all the plants. So through Surya Shakti I nourish the human beings; through Chandra Shakti, I nourish the plant kingdom; i.e. why they say, some of the farmers, they expose the seeds to the moonlight; they say it is very good, to expose the seeds to the moonlight; before sowing them; it will draw energy from the moon. So I am chandra teja. Then what is left out; it is agni teja.

Shloka
15:14:

Taking the form of Vaisvanara and residing in
the bodies of creatures, I, in association with Prana and Apana, digest the
four kinds of food.

So in this verse, the agni shakti or agni tejas or power is talked about. In the shastra, agni tatvam is divided into two types; one is called bhahya agni, the external fire principle; which is the popular one; and the shastra says there is another internal fire principle; which is within our stomach, which is called anthara agni; the internal fire; this anthara agnihi, is known by different names. It is called jataragni; jataram means stomach; jataram, means within the stomach; so jataragni, the fire within the stomach; And, it is also known by another name, vaishvanara agni and this fire is called the digestive fire, which cooks the eaten food, the second time; before the body assimilates the food, the food should go through two types of cooking; one is the external cooking; another is the internal cooking; and in each cooking; the food gets transformed. Initially you gather the food in the form of vegetables; grains, cereals etc. and you do not directly eat the grains; normally we do not eat directly, and vegetables also generally we do not eat directly unless you are a naturopath and all the time living on salads only. Cooking is banned for them. Eat with the skin is their motto. Skin has got more nutrients than the original fruit. There are some who eat the skin and leave the fruit.

The
first transformation takes place in the external cooking; where the vegetables
are converted into variety of foods, so that we have the taste; we have to do
lot of ‘dressing’ so that it becomes eatable.

First conversion is make it edible, tasty for the tongue. and once you have eaten all the varieties of vegetables, it goes inside. but remember, idlis and dosas, cannot be directlly taken; a second cooking has to take place, wherein the eaten food items have to go through second transformation. And after that alone the body canabs orb; and this is done by the digestive fire; vaishvanara agni. In science they are called digestive juices, the enzymes and acids, and we have lot of acids and enzymes.

That
is why if you do not feed the body, the acid begins to eat your own stomach,
which is called ulcer.

Therefore
you have to feed the internal fire, which cooks the food a second time.

And once the second time cooking takes place, all the idlis and dosas, have been converted into carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals; all these conversion takes place and the body absorbs this converted food alone. So first conversion is called cooking outside; the second cooking or conversion is inside; first cooking is done by bahya agnihi, the second cooking is done by anathara agnihi; vaisgvanara agni.

And Sri Krishna says, that cooking power belongs to me alone, which is otherwise called samana prana; the digestive power is Bhagavan’s power and that is why, before we eat the food, we worship Bhagavan and consider the food as an offering to the Lord; the Lord who is in your stomach. And what type of Lord he is? vaishvanara agni; and that is why, that offering is also called another form of agni hotram. According to Chandogya upanishad, eating itself is a form of agni hotra ritual called pranagni hotram.

Therefore Sri Krishna says I am that power.

In Brihadarnya upanishad,
there is a special upasana upon vaishvanara
agni; you meditate upon your hunger, or digestive power as the Lord. Have you
heard of Hunger upasana anywhere? And how do you detect your
hunger. The Upanishad says, when you are hungry within the stomach, you hear of
varieties of noises; so that noise represents the digestive power, the hunger that
is asking for food, and therefore meditate upon the sound as Bhagavan.

So Sri Krishna reminds us of that; he says; I myself am in the
form of anthara agni Shakti and the bahya agni Shakti as well.

Sri Krishna does not talk about here that we can supply; here he
talks about only the internal digestive fire. And were do I reside?

I reside in the body of every pranani.

 What is my job? I cook all forms
of foods that are offered inside; in this second cooking; converting the food
into the respective nutrients called carbohydrates; fats, etc. So I, digest the
food, assimilate the food; What type of food;

There are four types of food; which a human being consumes; what
is the chaturvidham annam?

They say all the food consumed all the living beings can be
classified into four types, based on the mode of consumption; not-based on the
type of food, not like Gujarati food, Tamil food, etc. etc.;

Here we classify the food based on the type of consumption, method
that we used to eat; and accordingly we use four types; they are called bhakshyam,
bhojyam, lehyam and chokshiyam;
these are the four types of eating.What are those four:

bhakshyam means, those
types of food which are masticated, which you bite and masticate and swallow

Second
type is bhojyam; those types
of food, which you directly swallow; liquid type of food, like milk or soup or
coffee or tea, which are directly swallowed. You do not require to masticulate
them.

The
third one is called lehyam;
lehyam means that
which has to be licked and consumed; You cannot directly pour into the mouth;
like honey, honey you should not directly pour, it is viscous liquid, if you
directly take, one could even be dead; it has to be licked; or lehyam.

The
fourth one is chokshiyam, which has to
be sucked inside, like the sugar cane, etc., or modern day example is the way
you consume the soft drinks with a straw.

So
bhakshyam, bhojyam, lehyam and chokshiyam; these are the
only four types of eating; intravenous feeding, nasal feeding are all irregular
and exceptions. Sri Krishna says all these types of foods, I cook or I digest
in the form of digestive fire and naturally, the question is how the external
fire is fanned; a normal fire is kindled by fanning.

So if the external fire is kindled by fanning; the question comes
how is the digestive fire kindled; Sri Krishna says that is also done by
fanning; You require another type of fanning; prana,
apana,
breathing in, and breathing out is the fanning of the digestive fire; and
therefore, Whenever you do extra activity; breathing becomes faster, and when
breathing becomes fast internal fire is kindled and the vaishvanara
agni becomes big, when vaishvanara agni is kindled, you
feel hunger, therefore you eat more.

When the breathing slows down, hunger slows down; and breathing increases; hunger increases; from that it is clear, breathing is the fanning of the digestive fire; therefore Sri Krishna says, prana, apana, prana means breathing out, or exhalation; and apana here means breathing in, inhalation, supported by, activated by the breathing, I, in the form of vaishvanara agni, digest the food; and that is the agni shakti. And therefore, O Arjuna appreciate me in the creation; in the form of surya shakti, chandra shakti, and agni shakti. And therefore I am everything. And now Sri Krishna concludes that topic.

Shloka
15:15:

And I am seated in the hearts of all. From Me
are memory, knowledge and their loss. I alone am the object to be known through
all the Vedas; I am also the originator of the Vedanta, and I Myself am the
knower of the Vedas.

So here concludes the topic, pointing out that I am everything; I am in everything; he says, sarvasya hrdi aham sannivishtah. O Arjuna, I, the paramatma, reside in the heart of everyone. So everybody is like a temple; the heart represents the mind, the mind represents the sanctum or garbha griham; and in that mind, I, the paramatma, am present as the jivatma; witnessing every thought occurring in the mind. Therefore, Hrdi sakshi chaitanya rupena; in the form of the very consciousness, I am inevery living being; And mattaha; because of me, the consciousness alone, allthe functions of the body are going on and all the mental faculties are alive. What aresome of the faculties; Gyanam means the capacity to learn, learning faculty; is alive because of me.Then smrtir, learning should be followed by remembering; remembering faculty is because of me.

And some people may say, I do not have remembering faculty, I have
got forgetting faculty. Remember, we think forgetting is a curse, remember,
forgetfulness is also important, we go through lot of painful experiences in
life, in due course we have to forget; imagine if you remember all the painful
experiences, you will be terrible; and that is why we say time is a healer;
because in time, we forget those things. So remembering is an important
faculty. Forgetfulness is also an important faculty.

Sri Krishna says what is to be remembered and what is to be
forgotten; both faculties are a blessing; and both of them are my glory alone. And
one commentator (name not given) gives a special meaning to these words.

He says Gyanam refers to the waking state; because the in the waking
state we are gathering fresh experiences. Smrti represents the dream state;
because in dream, we do not gather anything new, only what is already
registered that is projected again; therefore smrtir indicates
svapna avastha.
And apohanam means
forgetfulness and forgetfulness represents sushipthi

Avastha, as in sleep, we forget everything. Therefore Gyanam, jagrath, smrtir, svapna, apohanam, sushupti, all these three avasthas are because of me alone. So I am in everyone, responsible for their expereinces in all the three states. And not only that; sarvai vedaiha aham eva vedhya; I am the subject matter of all the scriptures; because scriptures are dealing with the Lord alone, the veda purva bhaga is dealing with Saguna Ishvara; Veda antha bhaga is dealing with Nirguna Ishvara. In short the entire veda is dealing with Ishvara alone. Therefore, he says, through all the four vedas, I am the one to be known. And vedantakrt aham; and I am the one who is the initiator of the vedantic tradition; vedantic tradition includes the vedas and the entire vedic tradition; so, therefore, what is known through the veda, I am, and the vedas themselves are nothing but my creation; or myself

Then
what about the students of the vedic teaching; he says the students are also myself; so vedavit; the
students; the knower of veda.
So the knower I am; the known I am; the
means of knowledge, I am; pramata, pramanam, prameyam, the entire triputi I am. Therefore I am everything.

So
with this Krishna concludes the second topic that I am in the form of the
insentient world too. Previously he said I am in the form of the sentient
living beings also; therefore, chetana-achetana
prapancha aham asmi. This is called sarvatmakatvam.

Take Away:

So
the knower I am; the known I am; the means of knowledge, I am; pramata, pramanam, prameyam, the entire
triputi I am. Therefore I am everything.

 I, the paramatma,
reside in the heart of everyone. So everybody is like a temple; the heart represents

the mind, the mind represents the sanctum or garbha griham; and in
that mind, I, the paramatma, am present as the jivatma;
witnessing every thought occurring in the mind.

One of the most powerful daily prayers is aditya hridayam. If you
do not know it, learn it; and daily chant it in the morning;

Shloka # 15.8:

5.8 When the master leaves it and even when he
assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from
their receptacles.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said in the first six verses of the 15th chapter, Sri Krishna talked about samsara and also the means of crossing the ocean of samsara; otherwise called moksha and he defined moksha as merging into Brahman; that brahman which happens to be the very root and base of the creation. Brahma aikya prapthi or merger into Brahman is not a physical event, it is only dropping the notion, that I, the Jivatman, am away from the Brahman. Dropping the notion, which is purely a cognitive or intellectual event, is called moksha, that is why Vedanta Gyanam and moksha are treated synonymously, because Moksha is dropping the notion or wrong notion and any wrong notion is removed by right notion (we cannot say that) or by right knowledge. And Sri Krishna gave the definition of Brahman in the 6th important verse, which is based on the well-known upanishadic mantra: na tatra suryo bhati na chandratarakam, which essentially means that Brahman is the all-pervading consciousness.

Chaitanya
svarupam Brahman is
one which can objectify everything but which itself can never be objectified by
any means; it is the unobjectifiable subject, unobserverable observer; chaitanya
svarupam brahma.

And having defined Brahman in the sixth verse, from the seventh verse onwards, Sri Krishna introduced two important topics to show that Brahman alone appears in the form of everything. Just as God alone appears as varieties of ornaments, wood alone appears as different kinds of furniture or waker alone appears in the form of the dream universe; similarly, Brahman alone appears in the form of the universe. This is called sarvatmakatvam; Sarvatmakatvam means Brahman is everything. For the sake of convenience, the entire universe is divided into two parts; one is the chetana Jivas, the sentient living beings, and the other achetana prapancha, the insentient objects. So the creation is chetanam plus achetanam, the sentient Jiva plus the insentient jagat and in these verses Sri Krishna points out Brahman alone appears in the form of jiva also; Brahman alone appears in the form of jagat also. Jiva api brahmaiva, jagat api brahmaiva, sarvam brahma mayam jagat; which is beautifully revealed in all the upanishads, especially in the well-known Mundaka Upanishad Mantra, II.11.

Whether
you experience a sentient living and you are experiencing an insentient object,
everything is Brahman alone and of this from verse No.7 up to 11, Sri Krishna says
Brahman alone is in the form of Jiva.

This
is from verse No.7 to 11. Then from verse no.12 to 15, Sri Krishna says Brahman
alone is in the form of the inert universe also. Of this we are now seeing the
first part. Brahman alone is in the form of jeeva. And in this particular portion,
as I said in the last class, Sri Krishna is referring to himself as Brahman and
therefore the Brahman is replaced by the word I, in the first person singular; therefore
whenever we hear the word aham, or I, we should replace it by the word Brahman.
Therefore Sri Krishna said,

Shloka 15.7 &
15.8:

15.7 It is verily a part of Mine which,
becoming the eternal individual soul in the region of living beings, draws (to
itself) the organs which have the mind as their sixth, and which abide in
Nature.

15.8 When the master leaves it and even when
he assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from
their receptacles.

I, the original all-pervading Consciousness, alone am present in every living being as the reflected consciousness; the chidabhasa chaitanyam obtaining in the mind. And this chidabhasa alone makes the body sentient and alive. Just as the pervading electricity alone makes the filament bright and the brightness of the light only makes the filament bright, appreciating the light, my mind has to appreciate the invisible electricity which is expressing as the light in the bulb; as the motion in the fan, as the magnifying power in the mike, as the heat in the ironing machine. So different expressions I experience, they are blessings of the one invisible electricity. Similarly, all our physical bodies are like bulbs, very fragile; and our subtle body, the sukshma shariram is like the filament; and atma or Brahman is like the electricity; or Brahman is comparable to electricity. Bulb is visible, filament is visible, and electricity is invisible. Similarly body is visible, mind is partially visible, whereas Conciousness is invisible. But the presence of electricity can be discerned through the functions of the bulb, fan, mike, radio, television, etc. Similarly, if all of us are alive and sentient, as Taittariya upanishad says:  If our breath is going out and coming in; all these are because of the chidabhasa obtaining within and chidabhasa itself is possible because of the original chit. And therefore Sri Krishna says every function of every organ reveals the presence of Brahman. And this is said beautifully in Kenopanishad as: Prana is prana because of the presence of consciousness; Eye is an eye because of the presence of consciousness and Ear is ear because of it. And this chidabhasa alone leaves the physical body at the time of death; after which alone the body which is so sacred, which is so divine, which is very much decorated bathed and shampooed and painted and lipsticked and all those things we do because it is alive; but the moment that chidabhasa quits; chit quits (be careful) the moment reflected consciousness leaves along with the reflecting medium; the mind is the reflecting medium, the mind leaves the body, the chidabhasa leaves the body and the sacred body has become an impure corpse.

It has become asoucham and the sooner it is disposed the better it is. What makes the difference between the dead body and live body? The scientists, the doctors; can only say that the functions have stopped but they can never say what was responsible for this function and what has left the body, they do not know. They cannot understand what is life, they cannot understand what is death. All others they know. What all others? What others, when there is only two. When the chidabasa leaves, it takes the all the pancha Gyaendriyani, pancha karmendriyani, and goes to another body, and starts its new business in a small shop.

And when this Jiva leaves this body, and shariram takes another body; we make such a big fuss about this change. And the rent is karma. Punyapapam prarabhda is the rent and when that is gone; it goes to another body; how does it go; along with a huge lorry of all the things. And he gave the example, just as the invisible wind carries the fragrance from the visible flower; the invisible chidabhasa carries the fragrance of life.

What
is the fragrance of life? Not powder and snow. The fragrance of body, is the very
life in the visible body; it goes to another set up. What does it do there?

Again
start the old business of LKG, UKG, college, get married, get children, get grand
children, then what? Pop off; then what; and again go to another place, it will
go on like that.

Shloka 15.9:

15.9 This one enjoys the objects by presiding
over the ear, eyes, skin and tongue as also the nose and the mind.

So
this invisible chidabhasa,
the reflected consciousness carries the entire sukshma shariram and
sukshma shariram includes all
the organs, pancha Gyanendriyani,
pancha karmendriyani panchca prana, manah, buddhi; and
all the sense organs. Sense organs means not the eye ball. It does not carry
the eye ball; but behind the eye ball, the perceptive power is there; which is
carried with the sense organ, that is taken.

When a new body comes, and there also only if the next body is a human body, where all the five sense organs can be used, if it is a tree body, the tree does not have five sense organs; so the tree has only the skin; the other four sense organs are not utilized. So therefore this sukshma shariram of the tree has got all the sense organs but they do not have the physical medium for utilization.

Here, Sri Krishna assumes, the Jiva goes to another human body and in that human body, the chakshur indriyam is placed in the chakshur golakam; the srothram indriyam, the invisible part, is placed on the srothra golakam, which is the called the physical part; indriyam is the invisible part, golakam is the visible part.

Similarly,
the srothra, tvak, chakshu,
rasana, all of them are placed in the respective slots that is said here. srothram,
ear, chakshu, the eye,
sparshanam, the skin,
invisible organ of touch, rasanam, the invisible organ of taste, grahnam, the organ
of smell, all of them are placed in the respective golakas and also adishtyaya mana. All
the sense organs have to be backed by the mind and therefore the mind also must
be located appropriately and according to the shastra,
hrdyam is the location of the mind; not the brain. According to shastra,
hrdyam is the golakam for the indriyam called mind. Which hrdyam? The physical
heart is golakam. The physical heart is the golakam, because golakam should be
visible Golakam must be the tangible part of the body, the tangible physical
heart is the golakam; mind is the indriyam; which is located there.

Adhishtaya means resorting to all these six organs, pancha Gyanendriyani and plus one anthakaranam, resorting to all of them. What does the Jiva do; start experiencing the new environment. If the parents are wonderful parents, the child would have a gala time. If the parents are terrible, the child would have only misery; poor innocent child, has harsh experiences right from the birth itself and what determines the type of experience? It is not child’s freewill, child was not consulted as to who should the parents; spouse can be chosen by svayamvaram; parents cannot be chosen, you are already born with parents; therefore what determines the innocent child’s life? It is determined by the purva janma karma. If it is punya karma; wonderful mom, wonderful dad, wonderful siblings, wonderful neighbour, wonderful place; if karma’s are not good, we are hearing lot of child abuse and all, and child cannot even protest; Now only some methods are suggested; child has to silently suffer. All because of purva janma punya and papa.

And remember all these are possible; the experience of pleasures or pain; both are possible because of the chidabhasa alone; A dead body cannot experience pleasure; nor can it experience pain. Therefore experience reveals the presence of life, which is chidabhasa. Which reveals the presence of Brahman, which is the chit, the all-pervading consciousness.

And therefore Sri Krishna says; every moment of life reveals Brahman, for a discerning mind. Every moment of life reveals Brahman. Just as every letter you read in your book, reveals the presence of the light all over; the presence of light is not revealed at a particular moment, every letter you read is because of the presence of light. Similarly every word I speak and every word you listen is because of Brahman. And a person asks for the proof of Brahman. It is like when mother asked her son to ask neighbor’s house to see if they had power or not. And the child was an obedient child; the child enters the neighbors house and sees the fan is on; the light is there; TV is running; Yet he tells them: My mother asked me to check up with you whether there is current in your house. A child can do that but if a grown up person asks, you will laugh. Similarly an immature person can ask for a proof of God; but for a mature person, the very question is a meaningless and ridiculous question. That is stated in the next verse.

Shloka 15.10:

15.10 Persons who are diversely deluded do not
see it even when it is leaving or residing (in this body), or experiencing, or
in association with the alities. Those with the eye of knowledge see.

So
while the previous verses were preparatory verses, this is the crucial verse.
So here alone Sri Krishna says, for a discerning mind, Brahman is recognizable
in every activity of the individual, in every function of the Jiva. Just as the
invisible electricity is discerned in every function of the electrical gadgets,
in every function of the Jiva,
Brahman is discerned. Of course, directly discern the function from the
functions, we discern the chidabhasa; reflected consciousness; and from the reflected consciousness;
we discern the original Conciousness, because we know that the original
consciousness alone appears as the reflected consciousness. When you want to apply kumkumam or chandanam or vibhuthi,
you see the mirror and you see the face upon the mirror in front of you, and
when you want to apply, you see the mirror but
apply the tilakam, where; on your face, and not on the mirror, because you know
that there is no difference between that face and this face. What you see is
that face, but what you discern or recognize
is this face. And if you find a black dot on your face, but you wipe here. What
does it mean? Seeing the abhasa
mukham, you
discern the original mukham. Similarly, I experience
the abhasa chaitanyam, every moment, I understand the original consciousness
and therefore Sri Krishna says mature people appreciate God in every breadth.

Gyanachakshu means people who have the eye of discernment, because it is not the physical eye that sees the electricity. Physical eye sees only the moving fan but I have got a third eye, called Gyana chakshu that tells me that behind the visible moving fan, there is an invisible electricity blessing it; because I know a fan by itself cannot move. If a fan can move by itself the increase in electricity tariff will not affect you. Similarly, this body is like the fan; and I discern through my third eye, the invisible Consciousness, which touches the body. Gyana chakshusa means the people who have the eye of understanding.

And what is the understanding? Body is inert by itself, mind is inert by itself; but both are now as though sentient; because of an extraneous factor. That is called chakshusa atma anatma viveka. Gyana chakshusa, those people, pashyanti, they discern, not through the physical eye, but the eye of understanding. What do they discern? The chidabhasa, the Jiva, which is none other than Brahman which has descended down; Brahman’s avataram is Java; because the original face alone has descended down on the mirror; Similarly, chit alone is in the form of chidabhasa, and that Brahman they recognize; Brahman in the form of chidabhasa.

And in what all ways that cidabhasa is playing in the body? sthitam; First we will take the word sthitam, which is very much present in the body, keeping the body alive. So sthitam means residing in the body. What is the proof; that very question is possible because of the chidabhasa or Brahman is there.

Bhunjanam means this Jiva
alone, this consciousness alone, experiences everything including shabda,
sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha in the world.

I am aware of the sound; I am conscious of the So, Bhunjanam means experiencing the world. So it resides in the body, experiences the world and as even the experience comes; every experience generates a response; some of joy and some of sorrow.

Responses are broadly divided into three types: satvic
response, rajasic response and tamasic response.

Shankaracharya calls it sukha, dukha
and moha responses. And that is called here as said gunanvitham.

Thus the Jivatma is endowed with these threefold
reactions and every reaction reveals the presence of the Brahman in the body.

Therefore every response reveals the presence of the Jiva.
Therefore gunanvitham, Jivam, all these words are adjective to Jiva,
which is an image of what? Brahman. And such a Brahman, gyana chakshu
perceives or mature people recognize.

But vimudha, the immature people, the indiscriminate people, don’t see this. They think that the body has got consciousness of its own. Their philosophy is that consciousness is the property of matter, the material body. Such a philosophy is charuvaka matham, they do not believe in God. They say body has got natural life; God need not enliven the body. That is called materialistic philosophy. What do we say? Body can never have a life of its own; If body has life it is the gift of the Lord alone. Therefore vimudha do not recognize this.

Shloka
15:11:

15.11 And the yogis who are diligent see this
one as existing in themselves. The non-discriminating ones who lack
self-control do not see this one-though (they be) diligent.

So here Sri Krishna talks of the two types of people; the discerning, the vivekis and the non-discerning, aviveki. Just as I see only one fan, but I have discrimination, I know that there are two things; what I see is one; what I understand is two. These two are, the invisible electricity and visible fan. They are both intimately associated, but they are not one and same; they are separate entities.

Even after the destruction of the fan, the visible fan, the electricity continues to be there. Immediately he will recognize if one puts the hand inside. What I see is one; what I recognize is two. Similarly what I see in every living being is only one, but if I study vedanta, I know, there is a visible body and an invisible consciousness. Body will perish; consciousness will survive. And consciousness is, you have to remember, is not a part, property, or product of the body; it is an independent principle.

So Sri Krishna says yoginaha; yoginaha means the discerning people, mature people recognize this Brahman, which is present in the body as Jiva. They recognize this paramatma, present in the body-mind complex.

Present in what form? It is in the form of the reflected consciousness, RC.

 Here atma
has to be translated as body, mind complex.

Thus, body is a temple; Mind is the garbha griham, the sanctum;
and the consciousness is the deity.

Hence for moksha,
let me worship atma lingam residing in the body.

Thus sadhana chatushtaya
sampanna or qualified people, recognize this. And how do they accomplish that? Yathantaha
means putting appropriate effort. So, the discovery, this recognition is through
yathanta kurvanthaha. And what is prayathnam? All the spiritual sadhanas
are the prayathnam, which means what? One has to follow karma yoga, Upasana
yoga and Gyana yoga. In short by going through all the sadhanas,

Including attending the classes they recognize this great truth. Whereas
the other people who have not qualified, whose mind is not pure never recognize
the Lord in their hearts.

And that is why every day, before doing the puja, puja starts with atma puja, because the Lord is very much in the sanctum in the Mind and after atma puja, we invoke the Lord outside and they do bahya puja. So atma puja should be the beginning and the end as well.

Shloka
15:12:

15.12 That light in the sun which illumines
the whole world, that which is in the moon, and that which is in fire,-know
that light to be Mine.

With the previous verse, the first topic that Brahman alone is present in every body as the chidabhasa, the Jivatma is over. Paramatma alone resides in every body as Jivatma and that is why in our culture, anybody we meet we greet with namasthe; that means, tey namaha, my namaskaram to you; we know very well that person does not deserve namaskaram, but we still offer, because we know that behind this body mind, there is paramatma alone in the form of Jivatma, behind a unclean body mind; but paramatma, the Jivatma is ever shuddhaha.

Moving
to next topic, from 12th to 15^th verse, we are entering topic that
Brahman alone is in the form of the jagat; the inert universe as well.

Shloka : 15.
7

15.7 It is verily a part of Mine, which
becoming the eternal individual soul in the region of living beings, draws (to
itself) the organs which have the mind as their sixth, and which abide in
Nature.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, in the first 6 verses of the 15th chapter, we saw the first part of the vedantic teaching. Sri Krishna described the nature of samsara, by comparing it to the ashvatta tree and then he talked about the four important disciplines, by following which, a person will get out of samsara, the disciplines being, vairagyam, sharanagathi, satgunas, and vedanta vichara. And by following these four, a person attains freedom from samsara, which is otherwise called attainment of moksha. Attainment of moksha is nothing but attainment of Brahman, which is the very substratum of the samsara tree and Sri Krishna concluded that discussion by defining the nature of Brahman through a very important upanishad mantra that defined Brahman as the consciousness principle, which objectifies everything but itself cannot be objectified through any instrument. And then finally Sri Krishna added a note pointing out, that this consciousness is my higher nature. I-the-Lord have two natures or features; as apara and para prakrti, the lower and the higher nature, the lower nature is the saguna Ishvara, and the higher nature is the nirguna Ishvara, which is the consciousness. And therefore, indirectly Krishna tells:

Hey Arjuna! Do not look upon me as a physical body; born as son of Devaki; this visible personality of mine is only my inferior lower material nature and my real higher nature is the Nirguna chaitanyam which is never subject to birth or death, or even travel. That is why, we use the word Sri Krishna Paramatma, and that paramatma; the chaitanya svarupam, cannot travel from one place to another, because that Lord is all pervading.

And
therefore Sri Krishna hereafter talks about himself as Nirguna Brahma Chaitanyam.

We have to remember that Sri Krishna uses the word I, but it has three different meanings, which has confused many students of the Gita. Sri Krishna is very loose in using the first person singular. In certain context he uses the word I as the physical Krishna; having a date of birth and a date of death, and born as a contemporary of Arjuna and a friend of Arjuna

When
Krishna addresses Arjuna as his friend, Krishna is taking himself to be a
personal God.
So the word ‘I’ sometimes is also used as the all-pervading virat svarupam.

In Shloka 7.24 he says, People think I am human being; people think I was born, because people do not know my formless higher nature.

So
Sri Krishna has three natures: ekarupa Krishna, anekarupa virat Ishvara and arupa nirguna Brahma chaitanyam.

Therefore
whenever Krishna says, aham, maya, mama, we have to enquire and find out which
I is being refrred to.

Shankaracharya says mam, neither
means ekarupa, nor anekarupa, but arupa, nirgunam brahma alone

Here
in the following portions when Krishna says tat damam paramam mama, here mama refers to
my own nirguna svarupam. Having
said this much in the first six verses from the seventh verse onwards, Sri Krishna
is entering into the next topic.

The
next topic is: I, the Nirgunam
Brahma alone with the help of Maya,
appear as both the jiva
as well as the jagat. The conscious experiencer in the world, and the
experienced object; both of them are my own manifestation. Just as in dream, we
divide ourselves into two; both the dream-world and the dream-experiencer, and
we interact. Just as I bifurcate myself in dream, similarly, I the Lord alone
divide myself into bhoktha and
bhogyam.

And therefore, I alone am everything. This is called sarva Ishvara bhava or Sarva brahma bhava. That is the topic.

And there from the 7th verse up to the 11th verse, Sri Krishna says that I am in the form of jiva; jiva means the individual experiencer in the world and from the 12th verse onwards up to 15th verse Krishna says, I alone am in the form of universe also. And therefore I am all. I am everything.

So
this is the topic now.

So
there in the 7th verse, I introduced how Bhagavan, the consciousness alone is in the
form of every jiva. And how are
we to understand? Every jiva,
individual, has got primarily two bodies; the physical body and the subtle
body. The causal body is not relevant at this time. Therefore, we will ignore
that now; every individual consists of the physical body and the subtle body
that we can take as the mind. And according to the shastras, the
physical body is also inert, because it is made up of matter, and mind is also
inert, because it is also made up of matter. We have seen in tatva bodha, that
mind is also made up of panchca sukshma
bhuthani.

The
idea is that the mind is made of subtle matter or energy; therefore body and mind
are both inert intrinsically. However,
now we find the body and mind are sentient; we are experiencing the sentiency
of the body and mind. The scriptures point out that this sentiency or life in
the body-mind complex is not natural to the body mind, but it is borrowed from
Brahma chaitanyam. The original all-pervading consciousness when it
pervades the mind, the mind becomes a live-mind. By itself it is dead matter;
but pervaded by the consciousness, the mind becomes live. And that
consciousness which pervades the mind is called pratibhimba chaitanyam, or abhasa chaitanyam.
In the last class, I used the word, RC, the reflectedconsciousness. So when the original consciousness pervades the
individual mind, the mind becomes live. And what does the mind do? It has
borrowed life fromBrahman, and out
of the borrowed consciousness, the mind lends consciousness to the physical
body.

And
from that borrowed consciousness, mind lends consciousness to the body, and therefore
now the body is also alive. Now the body is alive, because of the mind and the
mind is sentient because of the OC.

And
at the time of death, the mind quits the body. You should not say consciousness
quits as consciousness cannot quit because it is all pervading; whereas the
mind quits, and hence the mind is no more available to lend consciousness to
the body.

Why
can’t the original consciousness lend consciousness to the body, if you ask; OC
cannot directly lend to the body. If OC, the original
all-pervading-consciousness can lend consciousness to the body, what will be
the consequence?  If OC can lend
consciousness to the body, body will be eternally sentient. We will never die.
You may say it is good.

Already
we have got 6 billion people and imagine nobody dies. So therefore for the good
of the world, and for the good of others, we all should successfully die, which
means the mind should quit the body; and thereafter the body will become insentient;
and it will decay and then people will dispose it off.

So
therefore, the consciousness makes the mind sentient; the mind makes the body sentient.
Therefore whenever I see a live body, I should remember that behind the live
body, there is a live mind, even though I do not see the mind. That is why you can
escape, you can think of something else also, because I do not see your mind and
I do not know whether you are ‘here’. I do not see your mind, whether you are listening
to me or not. It is my great optimism.

But
how do I know that there is a mind, because you are alive.

Therefore
every activity of the body is the proof to the presence of the mind, live-mind;
and the presence of the live-mind is the proof for the original consciousness,
this is so because, without the original consciousness lending consciousness,
mind will not be sentient. Therefore body helps me recognize the mind; mind
helps me recognize the original Conciousness, which is also called God.

Therefore Sri Krishna says every activity of a live person is a proof for the existence of the original consciousness, called God. Suppose somebody asks the question: Is there electricity in this hall; how do you know; you cannot perceive because electricity is invisible. So if somebody asks whether there is power or not, what do I do? Look at the bulb; the bulb is called sthoola shariram. So when I see a bright bulb, I know that the bulb does not have brightness of its own; therefore the brightness of the bulb is a borrowed brightness. And this brightness of the bulb is given by sthoola shariram, there is a sukshma shariram called the filament; tungsten filament; and that filament is very bright; and that bright filament alone lends brightness to the bulb.

Now the next question is: How is the tungsten filament is bright? Does the brightness belong to the filament itself or is it borrowed? The filament is not bright by itself; but now it is bright because of an invisible power that pervades. I do not see it but I recognize it because I tell other people, there is power. I do not say that there is bulb. I am seeing the bulb; I do not say I see the filament; my reply is there is power. Power means electricity. How do I recognize this; electricity enlivens the filament makes and it bright and that bright filament makes the bulb bright.

And some times the bulb is there; power is also there; but it is not burning. Why, electricity is there, bulb is there; but it is not burning. You say bulb is fused or Sukshma shariram out. The filament is gone. Similarly, there is a person till yesterday, walking talking, scolding; one day I see the bulb is there; the body is like a bulb (round!) and of course, Conciousness is there everywhere, but no life. Why, because the mind filament that borrows consciousness and lends to the body that mind has quit this place; also because mind is not all pervading. And therefore Sri Krishna says: whenever you see the activity of a living being, you remember that it is the touch of the all-pervading Conciousness called God. You do not require any special tapas to realize God. Sri Krishna says; for a mature mind, God is realizable in and through every movement. Even my ability to talk is because of God. Consciousness blesses the mind; the mind blesses the mouth and therefore the mouth speaks. And the consciousness blesses your mind and your mind blesses your ears and therefore you hear. That I talk that you listen is the most amply evident proof for the existence of God. And Sri Krishna says inspite of so much clear evidence, people ask, what is the proof for God.

This
is the essence. Now look at the shloka.

Sri Krishna says mamaiva amsa. Mama, my, when he is referring to arupa nirguna brahma chaitanam; amsa means reflection or prathibhiṁba. So my own reflection alone is formed in the inert mind of every one. Just as the electricity alone is behind every live bulb that is why we say the wire is live wire. There also we use the word live wire. Therefore, He says, mamaiva amsa means prathibhimba. Is there in the jiva loke, in the world of living beings, which means in every body mind complex or jiva there is Ishvara in reflected form. Just as from the original sun we get a reflected bright sun depending on the many, many mirrors; similarly, as many minds are there; as many reflected paramatmas are also there. Each reflected paramatma is called the jivatma. And how long does this jiva live; it is sanatana or he is eternal. At the time of death also, jiva does not die; jiva quits or leaves the body, the death belongs to the physical body alone; because it does not have the blessing of the mind with RC and that mind with RC is called jiva. That jiva does not die, that jiva travels. And therefore, that jiva is eternal. When did that jiva begin? Anadi kala meaning the jiva is beginningless, the jiva will continue the journey endlessly also until liberation.

And
therefore jiva is called
sanatana, during death jiva does not die; even during pralayam the cosmos
dissolution, jiva does not
die, the mind does not die, the mind goes to dormant condition; as it happens
in sleep. In sleep, mind goes to dormant state. How do you know?  Because when we get up, we get up with the
same worry, if it is a different worry, we can say that it is a different mind
and that it has been switched.

But
we wake up with the same problem, indicating during sushupthi, the mind
survives, during pralayam also the mind with Reflected Consciousness called the
jiva will
survive; therefore sanatana;
And what does that jiva
do, at the time of death; he says, at the time of death, not only the reflected
Conciousness goes away, but it drags the entire sukshma shariram also along with it. And what is the sukshma shariram; it is all
the sense organs; sense organs do not mean the physical sense organ, that is
called golakam; but behind the golakam, the sensory perception faculty is there
called the indriyani. That is why in the dead body, physical eye will be there,
but it cannot see; all the physical parts will be there. In short, the anatomy
will be there; but the physiology will be missing; physiology, the power of
acting, that is sucked by the RC.

The
word karshati means
dragged; not only the sense organs, mana sastani, which
includes the mind also are dargged. Not only the five Gyanendriyas are dragged
away, but also the mind behind the sense organs as well. All our sensory
faculties at the time of death, they are taken away. Who does that? Jiva the RC takes
it away. It takes it away when the jiva leaves the body.

Then the next incidental question is: When will the jiva leave the body? Is it arbitrary or does God decide or do the family members decide. When does it happen? It is decided by karma. So we have got a set of punyams and papams to be exhausted through this medium. We have taken this specific medium called the physical body to exhaust our punya-papam. And once those punyams and papams are exhausted then death occurs and this medium is left.

Then
what happens? Next bunch of punya-papam is waiting
in queue. You get ready for next body based upon one’s sanchita karmas. Your
next bunch of karmas will determine what should be the type of next body.
Whether it should be uttama shariram, madhyama shariram or adama shariram. And that
karma guides the jiva
to the appropriate environment. And that is called the travel of the jiva.

Shloka # 15.8:

5.8 When the master leaves it and even when he
assumes a body, he departs taking these, as wind (carries away) odours from
their receptacles.

When the jiva leaves the body, it carries with it the sense the organs
and the mind. Now the next question is: What will the jiva do next? We are all
eager to know.

Whenever death occurs in the neighborhood or in our own family,
you suddenly begin to think of, what happened to that person? Where will that
person go; when will he go; how will he go; what will happen? etc.

Sri Krishna answers that question. Before looking at his answer a
few clarifications are in order. Jiva

Is the Lord of the body, jiva itself is called here Ishvara.

Why is jiva called Ishvara? Because of two reasons: first reason
is Ishvara alone is in the form of jiva when he is reflected; after all jiva is
reflected version.

The second reason is Ishvara means the master, the Lord and jiva
is called Ishvara the master,
because jiva is the Lord
of the individual body, because only his presence makes the body alive; and his
absence makes the body dead and thereforeIshvara or swami Jiva.
And this swami jiva, after
leaving this body, what does he do?

He
takes another body. There is no rule that human being will take only human
birth; there is no rule;

Human
being can become a deva,
a human being; or even inferior janmas are all possible. Because there are some
other philosophers who say that evolution is uniformly from lower to higher
only; matsya, kurma, varaha, they take it as the Darwin’s theory of evolution;
first we were monkeys (Now also doubtful), and then man.

We think from lower forms of life, we uniformly go to higher form, but Veda does not accept that; the journey need not be always upwards, that is why we give the example of the snake and ladder. You may take a ladder. So a human being may take a lower janma also.

Then
the next question is; who determines the next janma? Is it Bhagavan?

Shastras says do
not blame anyone. It is totally dependent on karma, and karma is dependent on
karta, and you are
the karta and therefore
you alone determine your next janma. And in the 6th chapter, Sri Krishna gives
a great consolation for us; all the Gita students
will never take lower janma. So be regular

in the class; that is better. So all the Gita students, of course, they will get liberation; no janma at all, but if at all they do not get liberation, the next janma will invariably be manushya janma only.

This is not my promise but Sri Krishna’s promise. Therefore the next body is determined by punya papa karma. And when the jiva takes another body, what does he do? He has taken all the indriyas, sense organs from the previous body and all those sense organs, He, the jiva, will place in the respective physical plane; thus eye, the sense organ, must be placed in the chakshur golakam, chakshur indriyam must go to chakshur golakam.

Similarly, all Gyanendriya’s are placed in respective Gyanendriya golakas, karmendriyas are placed in the karmendriya golakas; and one starts transactions in the new transferred body. So rebirth is nothing but a transfer.

Sri
Krishna provides us with a comparison for the death process.  Imagine there is a flower; the flower is compared
to the physical body; because it is visible; and the flower has got the fragrance,
the fragrance is compared to the sukshma
shariram, the
invisible mind. So the invisible vayu, wind, carries the invisible fragrance from
the visible flower and travels. And how do you know vayu carries the
fragrance. You can feel the smell. Therefore, just as the invisible vayu carries the
invisible fragrance; similarly the invisible jiva carries the invisible mind from the
physical body. Asayat, means flower,
gandha, means fragance, vayu,
the wind;

And
the next question they will ask it, how long does it take to take the next body?

It
all will depend upon the fructification of the next karma, it can be one day;
one year, or one-lakh years, and it will vary from individual to individual.
Therefore there is no regular rule and secondly, once the jiva quits this
body, another important fact we should remember is, this particular time and
space will become irrelevant for the jiva, which has quit this body.

You
should remember that this time and space are relevant only when you function through
this body; that shows how time and space are highly relative. That is why the
moment you withdraw from this body, and enter the dream body, for your dream
experiences, you have a different time, space field. So if this is true for
your dream experiences, extend it to the other thirteen lokas. Each loka is a distinctive world like your dream world, which means
the present time and space are meaningless. Therefore how can you measure
the duration of jiva’s
travel based on our present time and space? And what is 100 years for us, may
be one year or one day,

Therefore,
we cannot say and that is why shastra
says; when you are doing sradham,
do it for three generations; we simply obey them; it is not based on when the jiva takes
rebirth.

Sri
Krishna wants us to remember is our primary topic.

What
Krishna wants to say that the sentiency of the body is the proof for the presence
of the mind, and the presence of the live-mind is the proof for the existence
of god, and therefore, life is the proof for the presence of God and the death
is a bigger proof for the presence of the Lord; because when the body becomes
dead body.

What
has happened? The Ishvara’s
blessing in the form of reflected consciousness is withdrawn. When Ishvara is there
in this body, I am alive, when Ishvara
has quit this body, Ishvara
means you should understand, Ishvara
in the form of chidabasa,
has quit the body, the body becomes dead. So life is the proof for the Lord,
death is the proof for the Lord and in the next verse he will say that between
life and death, whatever activities you undertake, they are also the proof for
the presence

of
the Lord. How can you miss that Lord? It is like asking what is the proof that there
is electricity? Sitting under the fan, sitting in a well-lit room, what is the
proof for electricity; that he is able to see, that he is able to feel the
breeze of the fan, is the proof for the invisible electricity.

Take Away:

Moksha:

Four
important disciplines, by following which, a person will get out of samsara (moksha)
are: vairagyam, sharanagathi, satgunas, and vedanta vichara.

The
scriptures point out that this sentiency or life in the body-mind complex is
not natural to the body mind, but it is borrowed from Brahma chaitanyam.

Each
loka is a
distinctive world like your dream world, which means the present time and space
are meaningless.

With Best Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Continuing his teachings
Swamiji said,

Shloka
15.5:

15.5 The wise ones who are free from pride and
non-discrimination, who have conered the evil of association, [Hatred and love
arising from association with foes and friends.] who are ever devoted to
spirituality, completely free from desires, free from the dualities called
happiness and sorrow, reach that undecaying State.

After
giving a description of samsara in the first few verses, Sri Krishna dealt with the samsara nivrtti upaya, the means
or methods for removal of samsara or attaining mokshaha.

What
are the disciplines to be followed to attain moksha were described. Four
disciplines were highlighted.

The first one is vairagyam or dispassion; the second one is sharanagathi, surrendering to the Lord in the form of any Ishta devatha; the third discipline is the acquisition or cultivation of healthy values, which we called sadgunaha also discussed in the 16th chapter as daivi sampathi. Cultivating healthy virtues is the third discipline and the fourth and the primary discipline are vedantic enquiry, Vedanta vichara, vedanta sravana manana nidhidhyasanam. And the word Sri Krishna uses for this vichara is parimarganam.

And enquiry into Brahman is possible only through Vedantic scriptures and therefore Brahman enquiry automatically means vedantic enquiry. Of these four, the first three are supporting sadhanas, and vedantic enquiry alone is the primary sadhana, which alone removes the self or Brahman ignorance. And if a person follows all these four disciplines, the seekers will benefit from becoming wise people or Gyani and they will attain Brahman.

Previously Brahman was presented as the root of the world and now Brahman is presented as the destination of the seeker. So what is the substratum of the world alone is the destination of the seeker, and that is why the word padam is a versatile word; it has got two meanings. One meaning is the substratum; the other meaning is the destination. So Brahman is padam, the support of the world and Brahman is padam, the destination of the seeker, that Brahman they attain.

Shloka
# 15. 6:

15.6 Neither the sun nor the moon nor fire
illumines That. That is My supreme Abode, reaching which they do not return.

In the previous verse it was mentioned that the seekers who follow
the four fold disciplines will attain that undecaying padam, which is called
Brahman, which is the root of the universe. Now in this verse, Sri Krishna tells
us the nature of that Brahman; which is the destination of the seekers; which
is the substratum of the universe.

So this verse is the Brahma lakshana shloka.
A shloka, which defines Brahman. Wherever Brahman is defined that verse is considered
important.

And
while defining Brahman in this verse, Sri Krishna is borrowing from a well-known
upanishad mantra. I
have often said that the entire Gita is a borrowed teaching,

Sri
Krishna does not give anything original rather the whole Gita is extracted
from the upanishads. That is
why you should remember the verse,  sarvopanishado gavo dogdha gopala-nandana, partho vatsa sudhirbhokta dugdham gitamrtam mahat. This
verse is based on a well-known upanishad mantra, which occurs both in the Mundaka
upanishad and Kathopaniṣad and it is so
well known that it is used in all the temples regularly, at the time of deeparadhana.
And that mantra is:

na
tatra suryo bhati na candratarakam

nema vidyuto bhanti kuto yamagnih |

tameva bhantamanubhati sarvam

tasya
bhasa sarvamidam vibhati || 2.II.10
||

It is one of the very important definitions of Brahman, which we use at the time of arathi. The essence of the shloka is that, any instrument of knowledge cannot objectify Brahman. Brahman is not objectifiable through any instrument of knowledge. Brahman cannot be illumined by anything. And to convey this idea, the Upanishad uses the example of light. Light in Vedanta is that in whose presence things are known. For example, this is called light, because in its presence I am able to know you are seated in front. Imagine light goes away; I will not know whether you are continuing to sit or quietly walk off. I won’t know. Therefore light is that in whose presence things are known. And keeping this definition, the Upanishads mention or point out that every sense organ can be compared to a light. Every sense organ can be compared to a light, because sense organ is that in whose presence things are known. Therefore ear is a light, in whose presence sounds are known; therefore ear becomes a light (light with quotation, it is figurative expression)’ nose is a light in whose presence smells are known; tongue is a light in whose presence, tastes are known and if you extend further, any pramanam or instrument of knowledge is called a light. Any pramanam; any instrument of knowledge; is also called light, because in the presence of instrument of knowledge the objects are known. Thus inference is also a form of light, through which you can know things and even words are a form of light. Even a lecture is a form of light. Hence the expression: Can you throw some light upon that particular topic?

Thus
even words are a form of light called shabda pramanam through which we come to know
things and the upanishads says that there are so many lights in the world. Sun is
a light; moon is a light; stars are light; fire is light. There are so many
lights, and there are many sense organs, which are also light and in addition
to that, there is shabda pramanam, which is light. Thus
there are so many lights and Brahman is that which can never be illumined by or
known through any light. No light can objectify that Brahman. To use a
technical language, anything that can be known through a light, an instrument
of knowledge, anything that is known through a pramanam is called a
prameyam. Anything
that is objectified, known, illumined through any pramanam is called a
prameyam. Sri Krishna
says Brahman is that which is not an object
of knowledge; it is not a prameyam at all.

And then
finally, we will have a question. If Brahman cannot be objectified through any
instrument of knowledge, does that Brahman exist at all?

If you say that it cannot be tasted, touched, seen, heard, etc.; if it cannot be inferred or described; if it cannot be known through any instrument of knowledge, does it exist at all? The upanishads however say that it does exist.

So while Brahman
is not an object of knowledge, Brahman does exist. If so, what is that Brahman?
You can have only one answer, if Brahman exists, and if it is not an object,
there can be only one answer; That, it is the very subject; it is the very
conscious being, which objectifies everything but which can never be
objectified.
Which is the experiencer of everything,
but which is never experienced. It is this seer of everything but never seen. The
unseen seer; the unseen hearer, the unsmelled smeller; the untasted taster, the
untouched toucher, these are all not my expressions. These are all upanishadic
expressions.

So
therefore, adrshto drashtaha asrto srota, amato manto, avijjato vijnata, this
subject that is never objectified and objectifiable is Brahman. In short, Brahman is the consciousness-principle.
It illumines the inert world; but it is not illumined by the inert world. It illumines
matter but; it is never illumined by matter. It knows the matter; but the
matter does not know it. So thus Brahma lakshana is finallychaitanya swaroopam brahma or Chid
rupam brahma. Satyam Gyanam ananthambrahma;
this is the essence of this verse.

And why do we use this mantra at the time of deeparadhana. We use this mantra to expose our foolishness. Oh Lord you are the illuminator of everything while I am using this miserable camphor light tri illuminate you. So therefore, the pujari says, I am trying to illumine you through this fire, but the fact is fire does not illumine you. On the other hand, it is you the consciousness, which is illumining this fire. And that is the significance of such a prayoga.

Now
look at the shloka. Sri Krishna says:

The
sunlight does not illumine the Brahma chaitanyam, the Conciousness; on the other
hand, the sunlight itself is known because of the Conciousness alone. The
moonlight does not illumine that Brahma chaitanyam.

So
the fire does not illumine that Brahman. On the other hand, Brahman illumines
the fire; illumines, means makes the fire known. In vedanta, the word illumine
is equal to making something known. So Brahman illumines the fire means,
Brahman alone makes
the fire known because the Brahman is the Consciousness principle because of which I am
conscious of the fire’s existence.

And in the original mundaka mantra, two more are added that means Stars do not illumine; flashes of lightening, do not illumine that Brahman.

And if that Brahman is Consciousness, which can never be objectified, I said that Brahman has to be the very subject itself. Now the question is if Brahman happens to be I, the subject; how many kilometers, I should travel to reach that Brahman?

I have to understand that Brahman is the subject, the Subject, I, the observer, the conscious-principle. In short the very atma. Once I know Brahman is the very atma, or aham, how far should I travel to reach Brahman? I need not travel even a millimeter, because by the very knowledge I have discovered the fact that there is no distance between Brahman and me. And therefore, we get a very important idea that we should know. Reaching Brahman is not a physical event.

Reaching Brahman is not a physical event, which requires a time or a process; reaching Brahman is an intellectual event. Reaching brahman is an intellectual event; what type of intellectual event is it? It is an event, which involves dropping a misconception. Dropping a misconception is that event; and what is the Misconception? That there is a misconception that between Brahman and me there is a difference; this is my false notion. This false notion, which is distancing me from Brahman, is neither a physical distance nor a temporal distance; rather it is a notional distance. What is that false notion? The false notion is that Brahman is somewhere and I should reach there. All the movies will reinforce our misconception. A Bhakta will die in the movie or the TV serial and you will see a jyothi rising from the bhakta, a flame from the body, the jivatma flame, and the flame will travel, come out of door, (all the modern technology are used), flame will be travelling, travelling, and will rise and rise and paramatma will be sitting there, and jivatma will travel and travel and merge. All these things will reinforce my misconception, that there is a distance between God and me. What Vedanta says is that if God is all pervading, there cannot be a distance between God and me. And if at all there is a distance, it is a distance caused by a false notion; that Bhagavan is in Kailasa or Vaikuntha.

If
the distance is caused by a false notion, how do you remove the distance? By removing
the false notion. And how do you remove
the false notion; only by knowledge.

Therefore knowledge is equal to merger. Other than Gyanam, there is no other merger with Lord. Therefore Sri Krishna says yat gatva, having merged into that Brahman; “merge” within quoting, by dropping the notion that there is a distance between Brahman and Me and knowing that I was never away from Brahman and I can never be away from Brahman, having removed the notion, na nivartante. There is no question of coming back to samsara once again. When merger is in the form of knowledge; it is permanent merger. If merger is in the form of a physical event, that merger will be temporary; you will merge and remain there for some time; thus, every union will end in separation. Any physical merger is not permanent. That is why we all have come together between 6 and 7 am. Samyoga at 6 o’ clock and viyoga at 7 o clock. Samyoga in svarga loka and afterwards what viyoga; any physical merger is temporary. That is why we say if merger is going to vaikuntha, you will go alright, but after some time, if merger is going to Kailasa, you will come back; Physical merger is temporary. But Vedantic merger is not physical. It is in the form of Gyanam. And knowledge based merger is permanent, because ignorance once gone, is gone for good.

And having merged into Brahman, that person does not come back again. That destination Brahman is nothing but, Sri Krishna says, my own higher nature; Hey Arjuna Brahman is my own higher nature. So, by saying higher nature, Sri Krishna indirectly indicates I have got a lower nature also. When you say that person is more intelligent, this person is less. When Bhagavan has got higher nature and lower nature and that has already been described in a previous chapter . And therefore Arjuna my body is my lower nature, and the Consciousness is my higher nature.

Para
Prkriti we defined as Nirguna,
nirvikara, satya, and
chetana tatvam. And apara prakrti
we defined as saguna, savikara, mithya, and chetana
tatvam.

Shloka : 15.
7

15.7 It is verily a part of Mine, which
becoming the eternal individual soul in the region of living beings, draws (to
itself) the organs which have the mind as their sixth, and which abide in
Nature.

So with the previous verse the topic of the moksha upaya
is over. The methods or disciplines to be followed for attaining moksha,
which is the four-fold discipline and by following that one will attain Brahman.
The second topic was called Brahma nirvanam. Nirvanam
means merger. So with that, the first part of the 15th chapter is over.

Now from the 7th verse onwards, Sri Krishna is entering into another very important topic and that topic is Brahman alone is in the form of the whole universe. Brahman alone is in the form of whole universe, which means there is no universe at all, other than Brahman. Just as saying there are no ornaments other than the gold, ornaments are nothing but different names that we use, but they are not substances. There is no substance called bangle. Substance is gold alone. There is no substance called chair; the chair is nothing but wood alone. Similarly there is no substance called world. Brahman alone is known by the name world. And this idea has been hinted in the fourth chapter of the Gita. In the well known shloka:

brahmarpanam brahma
havirbrahmagnau brahmana hutam

brahmaiva
tena gantavyam brahma karma
samadhina.

And
if we chant this verse, you will get hungry, because it is used for eating. But
the idea, the content of this shloka is: Brahman alone is in the form of
everything.

And to convey this idea, Sri Krishna divides the entire world into two parts; one part is the jiva rupa; jivas; so the conscious experiencers are known as jiva, and the second part is the inert objects of experience, called jagat. So universe is nothing but jiva plus jagat. The experiencer plus the experienced, if you remember the Mandukya Upanishad, it calls it, the pramata and the prameya, or the jiva and jagat. And Sri Krishna wants to say that one Brahman alone is appearing in the form of jiva and the same Brahman is in the form of jagat, the inert world as well.

And for this purpose, we should know what is the definition of jiva. What is the definition of jiva? For this purpose, you should remember tatva bodha. And Sri Krishna defines jiva as all pervading brahma chaitanyam, all pervading consciousness, which is reflected or manifest in our body mind-reflecting medium. In Sanskrit, we call it chaitanya prathibhimbam, jiva. The originalall pervading Consciousness is called Brahman or paramatma. In Tatva Bodha, weused the expression, OC. OC means original consciousness. And that original consciousness when it is expressing through the body, expressing through the mind that reflected or manifest consciousness is called RC; the reflected consciousness.

And this body
mind matter medium, is called the RM, the reflecting medium. So OC, RC and
RM.

And to understand this, I will give you an example, which also we have seen before; I am reminding you of that example. Imagine during the daytime there is the original sun in the sky, that we will call as OS. Original sun is OC and OS, or the original sun in the sky.  And imagine there is a room down below or a hall down below, and because there is roof and also the doors are closed, the room is dark within. There is no light. And original sunlight is not able to illumine the light because there is a roof obstructing the sunlight. And you take a mirror. A darpanaḥ, a reflecting mirror and you open one of the windows of the room, and you keep the mirror at a 45 degrees angle that you keep outside. You know that the mirror does not have a light of its own.

Therefore,
mirror is not an illuminating principle; it is not a luminous principle at all.
But when you keep the mirror down below, the original sunlight gets reflected
in the mirror and now the mirror has got Reflected sunlight (RS). And what is
the mirror? The mirror is the reflecting medium. Therefore OS, RS, RM. RM is
common to both and this RM which is not luminous by itself has now become
luminous because of the reflecting sunlight. And not only the mirror has become
bright, it is capable of illumining the dark room.

Now
I ask you a question; what is illumining the dark room; the mirror, or the
original sunlight? Suppose you say, original sunlight is illumining; not the
mirror, then I will ask you to remove the mirror and you will find that once
the mirror is removed, the hall gets dark. It cannot be illumined.

Suppose
another person says, the mirror alone is illumining, original sunlight is not required;
then I will ask you in the night you try. So, it is not the mirror alone nor
the original sunlight alone; but you require the combination of both. You
require the combination of both to illumine the dark room.

Now in this combination you can focus on any one of them. You can give importance to any one of them because both are equally important. In a particular context, you can highlight; like father and mother; who is important for the child to be born; both are required; But at some time, the mother takes the credit; at some time the father takes the credit.

Therefore,
you can focus any one of them.

Based on this, we have got two ways of presentation. One way is I say the mirror illumines the dark room; blessed by the original sun; so in this the importance is given to the mirror, when the mirror illumines the dark room; but I add quietly blessed by the original sun. But who is the illuminator? When the mirror illumines importance is given to the mirror. Or I can present in a different language also; the Sun alone illumines the dark room; not directly but through the mirror. The sun alone illumines the dark room, not directly; but through the mirror and therefore the credit of illumination goes to ultimately the sun alone.

In the same way, our body mind complex is like the mirror. The original consciousness is Brahman and the reflected consciousness is Jiva. The body-mind complex is RM; the reflecting medium, it does not have sentiency of its own; body is inert matter, mind is inert matter. Just as the mirror by itself is non-luminous and this body mind complex has got the reflected consciousness, we call the Jiva, and the reflected consciousness is possible because of the original consciousness called Brahman. And therefore we say: Brahman alone is available in the body-mind complex as the jiva. OC-Brahman alone is present in the body mind complex as the RC-jiva and as the jiva; Brahman alone illumines or experiences the dark room, what is the dark room? The entire world is comparable to dark room.

And
suppose you remove the mirror, what happens? Original sunlight will be there; but since there would not be
reflection, mirror is removed; the room will become darker. Similarly, during
sleep, what happens? The mind-mirror is removed, and therefore the reflected
consciousness is not available and therefore the world becomes what? Dark,
means during sleep, there is total darkness. Why there is darkness? Not because
Brahman is not there, the original consciousness is, but the reflecting medium
the mind has resolved, therefore the world is not illumined.

And
therefore in these verses, from the 7th up to the 11th, Krishna says Brahman the
OC alone is in the form of jiva,
the RC. Thus Brahman the original consciousness alone is in the form of Jiva, the
Reflected consciousness (RC).

And
now in the shloka, Sri Krishna says: Jivaloke, in the world
of Jivas, I, the
Brahman alone am in the form of reflection and this reflected-consciousness
alone makes the body mind complex alive and sentient. And once the RC is not
there; the body will become dead matter. So this is the description, which is
going to come, the details we will see in the next class.

Take Away:

Brahman
is that which can never be illumined by or known through any light. No light
can objectify that Brahman.

Brahman
is that which is not an object of knowledge; it is not a prameyam at all.

Brahman
is the very subject; it is the very conscious being, which objectifies
everything but which can never be objectified. Which is the experiencer of everything,
but which is never experienced. It is this seer of everything but never seen; the
unseen seer; the unseen hearer, the un-smelled smeller; the un-tasted taster
and the untouched toucher.

In
short, Brahman is the consciousness-principle. It illumines the inert world;
but it is not illumined by the inert world. It illumines matter but; it is
never illumined by matter. It knows the matter; but the matter does not know
it.

Reaching
Brahman is not a physical event, which requires a time or a process; reaching
Brahman is an intellectual event.

We have
the false notion that Brahman is somewhere and I should reach there.

And
how do you remove the false notion; only by knowledge. Therefore, knowledge is
equal to merger.

Brahman alone is in the form of whole universe, which means there
is no universe at all, other than Brahman.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka 15.4:

15.4 Thereafter, that State has to be sought
for, going where they do not return again: I take refuge in that Primeval
Person Himself, from whom has ensued the eternal Manifestation

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, in the first part of the 15th chapter, Sri Krishna gave a description of samsara, so that a person would get a desire for moksha; because unless one diagnoses the human problem, there will never be an attempt to get out of the Problem, and therefore he gave the description of samsara by comparing samsara to a huge tree.  This was done in the first 2-1/2 verses and thereafter Sri Krishna has now entered into the sadhanas meant for obtaining moksha or samsara nivrtti.

And many disciplines are discussed in the shastras and Sri Krishna is here highlighting four disciplines, which I introduced in the last class; the first one is vairagyam; which Sri Krishna called asangatvam. And by the word vairagyam, we saw the idea conveyed is deciding to depend upon the Lord more than the world. So shifting from world dependence to God dependence is vairagyam. So that later, we can discover that the Lord is none other than my own higher nature. The scriptures do not reveal this fact in the beginning; in the beginning, Lord is presented as a third person, other than me. Thus he srishti and sthithi karta, he is omniscient, he is omnipotent, God is described as a parokshavastu, as someone different, and we are asked to depend upon that Lord in any form we like, in the form of Ganesha, Shiva, Vishnu, etc. And thereafter alone, we discover the fact that the Lord is not away from me, that the Lord is my own higher nature, and therefore, God-dependence will later be converted into self-dependence, which is total freedom. So thus vairagyam is shifting the dependence from the world to the Lord.

The next one, the second one, that Krishna mentions is sharanagathi or surrender to the Lord, to pursue the moksha marga. This is based on the discovery of the fact that any human undertaking can be successful only when two factors are favorable. One is my sincere effort called prayathna. Without my effort, nothing can happen. As they say, ten people can take a horse to the water, but the horse alone has to drink. Similarly, if my effort is not there, even God cannot help me. Therefore, prayathna is one factor, and the second factor is Ishvara anugraha; the grace of the Lord, so that all the other factors are favorable to me. All the hidden factors are favorable to me, and to seek this grace of the Lord, I surrender to the Lord. Sharanagathi or prapathi is the second sadhana and the third one is the development of healthy virtues. So, sadguna sampadanam means only in the atmosphere of healthy virtues, self-knowledge can take place. Just as in chemistry, when they talk about various chemical reactions; they always specify the temperature and the pressure; in whose conditions alone the reactions can take place.

Vedanta says that
self-knowledge can take place only in certain conditions. Therefore the ideal
condition of the mind in which self-knowledge can take place is called sadhana chatushtaya sampathi or
healthy virtues. Some of the virtues, Sri Krishna will Himself enumerate later,
some we have already seen in the 10th. 12 th and 13th chapters.

The
fourth virtue is Vedanta vichara; enquiry into the scriptures or scriptural study. Unfortunately,
this sadhana is not
emphasized nowadays. Vedanta Vichara is a systematic study of shastras consisting of shravana, mananam and nidhidhyasanam, and Sri Krishna
uses the word here parimarganam. Parimarganam means self-enquiry, through the instrumentality of
scriptures.

Self-enquiry
requires the instrument called shastra pramanam.

That
is why we always say; self-enquiry is equal to shastric enquiry.  Atma vichara is equal to Vedanta vichara. It is like
looking at your own reflection in a mirror.

Similarly,
the more you get into the shastras properly with the right guru, greater the shastric study,
the greater the understanding of myself. The
deeper you penetrate into the shastras, the deeper is your understanding of yourselves. So this is the
fourth sadhana.

What is the
most important virtue of the four?

Sri Krishna
does not mention, but we should remember that the most important one is Vedanta vichara alone. The other
three are only supportive causes, because they only prepare the condition of
the mind.

And ignorance is removed only by knowledge generated by Vedanta vichara; sharanagathi cannot remove ignorance, all the virtues cannot remove ignorance. If you have all virtues, you will be a virtuously ignorant; previously viciously ignorant; now virtuously ignorant; virtues cannot remove ignorance. Vairagyam cannot remove ignorance,

therefore
vairagyam, sharanagathi and
sadguna, they only
create the condition, the actual job is done by vedantic study, which generates the
knowledge and in the process, removes the ignorance.

 Therefore three are supporting causes and Vedanta vichara is the primary cause. All these four are mentioned in the third verse; vairagyam has been mentioned in the 4th verse; Sri Krishna is mentioning Vedanta vichara and sharanagathi. So look at the third line first.

Without Ishvara bhakthi,
any amount of intellectual acumen will not bless a person, we do require a
sharp intellect, no doubt, but bhakthi is very important.

And
that is why we start the class with a prayer;

Therefore the last two lines are within quotation, the surrender expressed by the devotee. He address the lord, Oh Lord, I surrender to that Lord who is called purusha, the word purusha has two meaning, one meaning is the all pervading one, purayathi sarvam ithi.

Another
meaning is pure iti vasathi, iti purushaha; puram means the body, vasathi, one
who dwells; therefore purusha means the one who indwells the body and that is natural
because if the Lord is all pervading, the Lord will be in my heart as well.

So Purusha also means that all pervading Lord who is in my heart to whom I surrender. And What type of Lord he is? The Lord from whom the creation originates

 And when did all this start, when does this origination Begin? Sri Krishna says the most ancient creation proceeds or emerges from that Lord to whom  I surrender to. So this is called sharanagathi. This is the second upayaha. And then we will go back to the first line, in which the third sadhana is mentioned, viz., Vedanta vichara, and means after preparing the mind very well or after sadhana chatushtaya sampathi anantharam. That is how brahma sutra also begins.

Vyasacharya wrote the
famous brahma sutra, consisting of 555 sutras, most important vedantic literature
and it begins with athatho brahma jijnasa. And Shankaracharya writes an elaborate commentary on the first word, atha, by reading which
itself you get heated up. He analyzes various possible meaning of the word Athaha and dismisses
all other possible meanings and arrives at the meaning thereafter.

For that 1-1/2 page commentary, for which 10 page sub-commentary and 100 pages of Others have written sub-sub-commentary for word athah. And once he establishes the meaning as thereafter, he himself asks the question, thereafter means where after?

Then shankaracharya himself answers the question, sadhana chatushtaya sampathi ananatharam or after preparing the mind. In fact our entire religious life is for this preparation. All our rituals are called samskara, the very conception is a samskara, thus: garbhadhana samskara, pumsavana samskara, seemantha samskara, jatakarma samskara; samskara means refinment process. Everything that we do in our religion, including navarathri kolu and also chundal; all are meant for refinement of the mind or samskara, what a beautiful name. And a mind, which is refined, is called samskrita anthakaranam. So here the word tataha means athaha of brahma sutra.

So, tataha is equal to athaha. What should you do? parimargitavyam; enter into vedantic study seriously, systematically. Find out what is sthula shariram, what is sukshma shariram; what is karana shariram; is there something beyond, if there is something beyond; what is its nature; it is a very elaborate enquiry.

In
Vyasa sutra it is
called Brahma jijnasaha. jijnasaha means parimarganam. What do you enquire into? We enquire into padam.

Padam
in the last class I explained; one meaning is the ultimate goal of every human
being, which is Brahman.

There
is a second meaning as well meaning it is the basis or substratum. And according
to the second meaning also, it is Brahman only. So Brahman, which is the destination
and Brahman which is the substratum of the whole creation, which is the root of
the samsara vrksha; of that
Brahman may you enquire through Vedanta.

What is the advantage of reaching that destination. Sri Krishna tells that this is the best destination because this is the only destination reaching Which, there is nothing further to go to. A person has reached Home. So Brahman alone is the real home, where you can feel at Home. With any other goal you fulfill, for a day, you are fulfilled and relaxed; then you are ready for what next? Education over? what next?

Employment over? Getting married? Then what? Children? Then, what
next? They should be settled.

Then what next? Grand children; they should be settled. I am
eternally unsettled. Looking for some settlement or the other; I am always
unsettled; the agenda never ends. And this has been going on from anadi
kala.

Whereas this is the destination where you feel at home with yourselves and thereafter whatever you do, it is not a struggle, but it is a sport or enjoyment. And, therefore, Sri Krishna says yasmin gatha, reaching Brahman destination, moksha destination, one does not come back to samsara, which is the perpetual struggle. Perpetual struggle ends once and for all.

With this three sadhanas,
have been talked about, that is Vairagyam;
sharanagathi, and Vedanta
vichara. Now the fourth is in next verse.

Shloka
15.5:

15.5 The wise ones who are free from pride and
non-discrimination, who have conered the evil of association, [Hatred and love
arising from association with foes and friends.] who are ever devoted to
spirituality, completely free from desires, free from the dualities called
happiness and sorrow, reach that undecaying State.

So the fourth discipline is sadgunaha; cultivation of healthy virtues; Vedanta-friendly virtues, which serve as a catalyst for the Moksha reaction to take place. So what are those virtues? We have already enumerated in the thirteenth chapter, from verse No.8 to 12; amanitvam, adambitvam, etc. and Sri Krishna will again elaborate in the 16th chapter, in the form of daivi sampathi and later in the 17th chapter as well. So Sri Krishna wants only to give certain sample of virtues.

And what are they? Krishna says, nirmanamoha; first and foremost develop humility; get rid of arrogance; pride, vanity, which unknowingly creep into our personality; a few achievements can easily get into our head. And when a few people glorify us, we lose our balance. And therefore our scriptures emphasize Vinaya or humility as one of the most important virtues required and as I said, the thing in one of the classes before, one of the exercises prescribed is learning to do namaskara. The very physical prostration has the capacity to develop humility; and in our culture left and right, any occasion namaskara is there; Not only in front of the Lord, namaskara to parents, to elders, to teachers; So this is one method; and the second one is to constantly remember that there are people who are greater than me; and superior to me in any field. I am never the greatest one in the creation. If I remember this fact, humility will be automatic and secondly and more importantly I should remember; whatever glories or faculties I have, they are all gift from the Lord, it does not take much time to lose them; a wonderful voice can be easily lost with one ice-cream; or anything. So any faculty that I have can be lost at any time; Remember the 10th chapter of the Gītā; everything I possess is Bhagavan’s gift. And any glorification I receive, you do not have that problem!!, It is OK, if no one curses! Any glorification I receive, any namaskara I receive, I directly handover mentally to the Lord.

If these two points I remember; first point, that there are people who are superior and greater and second point, whatever I have is Bhagavan’s grace. If these two I remember in my mind, and physically I keep doing namaskara wherever appropriate, without hesitation, satsanga namaskara, if there is a back-ache, pancanga namaskara, or at least the short cut namaskara, you do, nirmana is nothing but amanitvam of the 13th chapter, vinayaha. Then the next virtue is nirmoha, meaning freedom from delusion. And that means proper thinking or discrimination and what is proper thinking? We should remember, every individual is a mixture of a spiritual personality and a material personality. Spiritual personality is the atma tatvam and the material personality is the anatma personality and every individual is a mixture of spirit and matter.

We are both spiritual and materialistic. As Dayananda Swamiji says; even the greatest spiritual person when he is eating food, he is a materialist; because he is dealing with matter to nourish the matter; there is no atma involved in eating. So we have both the personalities; our growth is balanced growth in which I take care of my material needs and I should also take care of my spiritual growth. And that is why we have divided the purusharta into four: artha kama are also important; dharma moksha is also important. There should not be a lopsided approach. That is what Sri Krishna said in the 16th chapter; 100% spiritual pursuit nobody can have. 100% material pursuit is also lopsided. Therefore Sri Krishna says; Give balanced time for artha kama, earn well, eat well but at the same time have time for attending the Sunday classes. And therefore mohaha means the misconception that pursuit of money alone will give me fulfillment in life. And therefore, nirmoha means the one who gives equal importance to spirituality as well.

And the next virtue is jita sangha dosha. Sangha means emotional slavery; emotional attachment, emotional addiction, emotional leaning upon external factors is a risky proposition; because the external world is constantly changing; So leaning upon a changing support is not a healthy one and therefore use everything but do not lean on anything; and if at all you want to lean upon something, lean upon something sashvatham. And that is why I told in the beginning itself, from world dependence to God-dependence. So jitasangadosha means those who have mastery, those who are not emotional slaves of people, of situations and of things. So this will take time, but we have to work on that. In fact all our vrithams prescribed in the scriptures are meant to develop that self-dependence only; whatever we are used to, we are asked to give up for a day. For a week; those people who take vrtham for Shabarimalai, they learn to live without those dependences. See what happens if coffee is not there for. You have start there. So therefore, freedom from slavery.

Then
the next one vinivrttakama that means not developing new dependencies.

Previous value is giving up present dependence and there are some people who give up, they say I have given up smoking and now I do; pan parag; you have left one and replaced by something equal or worse Therefore do not replace one dependence with another. So vinivrttakama means free from fresh attachments or desires.

Then the next virtue is dvandvai vimukta; those who can withstand the opposite experiences of life; the capacity to withstand the opposite experiences of life; which are inevitable in life. So there is prosperity, lot of money, and then there is also situation, lot of debts also, and health is there; ill-health is also there; and gain is there; and loss is there; victory is there; failure is there; mana apamana, in fact life is a series of opposites. In Sanskrit we call it dvandvam. Dvandvam means pair. And that is why reading puranic stories, which is useful because from the puranas we come to know that even the greater emperors and even great bhakthas and even avath aras have faced opposites;

When
faced with choice-less situations, irremediable situations, how can I help
myself. I have toughen myself, I have to thicken my skin; that is called shock absorber,
through viveka and bhakthi; discrimination and devotion will give a mind with a
shock absorber. It frees us from violent reactions. You cannot avoid reactions
totally, but the shock absorber would reduce the intensity. I would not go Mad,
I would not think of committing suicide, I may be upset a little bit; but it is
a withstandable, manageable condition. So those who are free from violent
reactions with regard to adverse circumstances. And what are the adverse
experiences, sukha dukham sama; in the form of pleasure and pain; and others.
So when that well known proverb, you might have heard, when going gets tough,
the tough gets going.

In Sanskrit, we have got a beautiful shloka, in which they divide the human beings into two types of balls. One is a wet clay ball; a ball made-up of wet clay; and another is a rubber ball. The wet clay ball once it falls, never gets up. Fallen for good. It does not have the capacity to bounce back. Low resilience; permanently scarred and damaged; whereas the rubber ball, the moment it falls, it bounces back; in fact, the harder the fall, more is the bounce. I have to decide whether I am clay or ball. And one who is like a ball, is called dvandvairvimukta.

And the next and the most important virtue is  adhyatmanityaha; means regular study of scriptures; In fact they nourish these virtues. Just as physical health requires a consumption of regular nutritious food; physical health requires regular consumption of nutritious food; not junk food, similarly, mental health requires regular consumption of nutritious food called scriptural study. It is a nutrition for the mind and the intellect. And if you read any other book such as star dust; what will happen, we will go to dust; that is all. That is called like junk food; therefore, reading Gita, reading the saying of the mahatmas. Remember, that is nourishment to the mind and intellect and therefore Sri Krishna says adhyatmanityaha that means regularly committed to adyatma or spiritual study. It can also be by sharing your knowledge of scriptures with others.

And if a person follows these virtues, along with the other three; that is vairagyam, saranagathi and Vedanta vichara, then people who follow all these sadhanas, become wise people or amudhaha or they become Gyani’s.  And then they will reach the destination of Brahman, the destination of God or the destination of moksha; they will certainly attain; guaranteed.

Avyayam in shloka means
the destination is a permanent one, as the wisdom is never lost. Money
you gain, it gets depleted; exhausted; but knowledge when you share with others,
it will never get depleted. As I teach Gita more, reality is that, the more I
teach, the more I know.

The
more you use your knowledge, the more it increases; and therefore moksha is a permanent
benefit. It is never lost.

Take Away:

Shifting
from world dependence to God dependence is vairagyam.

Sharanagathi or
surrender to the Lord, to pursue the moksha marga.

Humility:
I should remember that there are people who are superior and greater and second
point, whatever I have is due to Bhagavan’s grace.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Shloka 15.1:

The Blessed Lord said They say that the peepul
Tree, which has its roots upward and the branches downward, and of which the
Vedas are the leaves, is imperishable. He who realizes it is knower of the
Vedas.

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, in the beginning of the 15th chapter, Sri Krishna gives a description of Samsara, so that a seeker will know what is moksha;because moksha is defined as samsara Nivrithi; or as freedom from samsara. So if I do not know, what samsara is, I will not know what is samsara nivrithi. And only when I know what is samsara, I can understand samsara moksha and only when I value moksha; I will turn my attention to the means of attaining moksha.

We will be committed to this spiritual sadhana only when we clearly know what is the sadhyam, the destination, which we are attempting to reach. And therefore, we get the description of samsara in the first 2-1/2 verses of this chapter.

We have covered the first verse, in which Sri Krishna compared samsara to a huge and eternal tree of birth and death. And this tree comparison continues in the next verse as well

Shloka 15.2:

15.2 The branches of that (Tree), extending
down-wards and upwards, are strengthened by the alities and have sense-objects
as their shoots. And the roots, which are followed by actions, spread
down-wards in the human world [According to A.G. and M.S. manusya-loke means a
body distinguished by Brahminhood etc.].

In the previous verse Sri Krishna has mentioned that God or
Brahman is the primary root of the samsara tree and the entire
visible universe is the trunk as well as, the branches and all the karma kanda or
the ritualistic portions of the veda are to be taken as the leaves of the tree,
which sustain the samsara tree.

Now in this verse, more details about the branches of the samsara tree are given. Sri Krishna says the branches of the huge samsara tree, the tree of life, are spread far and wide.

Some of the branches are up above, and some of them are down below; and some of them are in the middle. All the 14 lokas are the branches of the huge samsara tree. Some lokas occupy the upper branches; some the lower branches; and some the middle branches. The branches are far spread.

Now in every loka there is a corresponding body to experience in the specific world. Higher lokas means the superior body such as Deva Shariram, Pitr Shariram etc. These bodies have more refined physical bodies.

Similarly the middle body, the human body, is neither superior nor
inferior; it is madhyama shariram.

Adho lokas have inferior bodies like the animal body, the plant body etc. And the jiva is not the body itself because we have seen body is not the individual rather body is the tenement or house in which the jiva comes for occupation. Now jiva consists of the subtle body with the reflected consciousness (RC).  And this physical body is in madhyama branch; mediocre branch and occupying this branch the jiva is experiencing pleasures and pain. And at some point due to karmas the jiva leaves this branch and then the body dies. A jiva can occupy any shariram at any level.

Thus
Indra shariram is not the
Indra, it is only an abode or tenement; even I can occupy the Indra shariram, a body
which is superior.

So
we saw in Kathopanishad, 2.II, that a human being
need not always progress. It
is not that a jiva always goes
higher and higher.
According to veda, after manushya janma, a
person can come down to lower janma also. While the theory of evolution says one
evolves to a higher-level veda
does not accept the linear progression. If we do not lead a proper life, there is a chance of
slipping as well.

But
our goal is freedom. We want to be free birds and therefore do not worry about upper
branch or lower branches.

Now how are these branches, which include the three forms of bodies, how are they generated? We ourselves give our order for the type of body we want. What will be my next body is not decided by Bhagavan; not decided by fate, but decided by my freewill which I can use or abuse or misuse. So each body is determined by the three gunas.

All
the sense objects are like all the shoots, which are responsible for the
branch; before a full fledged branch comes on the tree from the trunk of the
tree, initially the branches emerge in the form of a small shoot and that shoot
alone, it is called shoot, because it shoots forth, and this shoot is the rudimentary
form of the branch and the shoot alone is gradually nourished and will become a
full fledged branch.

Similarly
my next body must exist in this janma itself, in the form of a shoot. I am
preparing my next body, now itself by the type of activity I perform.  Sri Krishna says the sense objects of the world
are responsible for the type of activity I choose to perform. Because these objects
alone create a desire in me. Every sense object is the producer of a desire.
That is why we have an overkill of advertisements; every time, they show
something, they want to generate a want in you. And therefore sense objects are
responsible for kama;

And
kama means
desire. Every sense organ is a potential kama. And Kama
leads to desires that can be fulfilled only by activity. If you see a particular
brand of Benz I have to start to save now to be able to afford it.

That means Vishaya leads to Kama; kama leads to karma; karma leads to karma phalam called punya papa, punya papa determines next shariram. See the grand connection: Objects to desire, to action to punya papa to next shariram. And once you get the next body, do we keep quiet. We continue the same process.

And therefore sense objects are the shoots that are responsible, for the next shariram. And not only that, any tree, will have several roots; one the main root, and several secondary roots, all-spreading all over. Bigger the tree, more the number of secondary roots and more vast it is.

The
samsara vrksha also must
have primary as well as secondary roots.

Brahman
or Bhagavan is the primary
root.

Sri Krishna says there are many secondary roots, spreading all over, as well. He does not actually name them but they are raga-dvesha or vasanas that are the spreading secondary roots. Raga-dvesha vasanas are Well-entrenched vasanas. These are tendencies, in the form of raga, I like these things, and I dislike these things. In fact, every experience makes me judge the experience. As I go forward in my life every experience makes my intellect classify things, as this is welcome, this is not welcome. You meet a person for two days or three days, youwill classify. Even in the class if you do not like, you will sit elsewhere. In the camp,do not put this person as my room mate.

Clear
slotting or categorization; such as, this is welcome; this is not welcome. And
every raga leads to pravrtti.
When I consider some thing as favorable, I have to chase that object. I have to
go after that object. Thus raga leads to
pravrithi and once I dislike something, dvesha, that leads to nivrtti; withdrawal or
avoidance. So thus raga-dvesha lead to pravrtti, nivrtti; pravrtti nivrttis are karma
and karma will lead to punya papa; punya papa will lead to punarjanma.

 Anubhanda in shloka means consequences. Consequences of raga-dvesha vasanas are karmas. What type of karmas? Either pravrtti karma or nivrtti karmas; or going after or going away.

And all these are happening in manushyaloka. This
wheel of samsara goes round and round and we as human beings are helplessly
stuck in this wheel.

And why does Sri Krishna specifically use the mention manushya
loka?
Because it is only in this loka that karma can be performed. All other Lokas
are Bhoga Pradhana Lokas.

Shloka
15.3:

 15.3 Its form is not
perceived here in that way; nor its end, nor beginning, nor continuance, After
felling this Peepul whose roots are well developed, with the strong sword of
detachment-;

In first half of this shloka Samsara description continues. Here Sri Krishna tells us a very important technical information. The more we try to understand this life, the more mysterious it becomes. Thus creation is a mystery and is also called Maya. Scientists have been thinking that they will have clear explanation to every phenomenon. They are all working for a theory of everything. It is called the TOE. They want a theory of everything. They solve certain mysteries and find

 they are replaced by further and deeper
mysteries. And therefore, Sri Krishna says the nature of the universe is not
comprehensible. It is anirvachaniyam.

Question
comes up, why are you born; due to our Karma. Why did I do that karma, because
of your perevious janma. How did previous janma come; it came due to previous
karma. How did first janma come? How did first Karma come? Gaudapada talks
about this Theory of Causation in Mandukya Upanishad.

Now,
beginning of creation involves beginning of time, they are inseparable.
Beginning of time is a contradiction, as you need another time to measure it.
(Thus one may say the creation started at 9 O clock. It is similar with space.
It is a paradox. Like the chicken or egg, which came first, this is also a
paradox. Even scientists say these questions may never be answered.

Maya
is samsara. So, we can’t talk of beginning of universe nor its end (end of
time). After time, before time, are all contradictions. Hence they say Na anthaha,
na adihi. What about the middle? Citing example of a hall, if I ask you to mark
the middle of the hall, the first thing you do is try to find out both the ends
of the hall. Without locating the beginning and end, you cannot pinpoint the middle;
therefore, if you do not know the beginning and end, you cannot talk about the
middle.

So
never try to understand Samsara; only try to remove it. If dream creates a
problem, there is no sense in trying to understand the dream; we just need to
wake up from the dream. So how to get over Samsara is now described in the next
line of this shloka. We are in the next topic of the chapter of how to get out
of the Samsara Chakra. Sri Krishna talks about four disciplines and none of
them is optional to achieve this.

They
are:

1. Vairagyam or Dispassion.
2. Brahma Vichara: Enquiry into Brahman.
3. Sharanagathi: Devotion or surrender. Prapatti is a very
   important concept in Vishnu Sampradya.
4. Sadgunaha: developing a healthy and refined mind.

The
above four Upayas or methods will now be described.

Sri
Krishna says with the axe of Vairagya learn to reduce your dependence on the
world, as the world is unpredictable.

It
is not hatred of the world. It does not mean hatred rather it means from world dependence,
gradually develop God-dependence. God in any form initially can be worshipped,
such as in the form of an ishta devatha. And later, when we discover that Lord
in our own heart, in the form of our own higher nature, then, from
God-dependence I will come to self-dependence, which is otherwise independence.
What is independence; it is independence of myself. And therefore turn your
attention from world dependence to God dependence. So:

World
dependent>God dependent>Self dependent.

What
should you cut?

May
you cut the dependence on this samsara vrksha.

And what type of samsara vrksha; one with very strong roots; this well rooted, well entrenched samsara, you are leaning upon, is a risky thing.

I
have often told you that when there is a cardboard chair; a well-decorated
cardboard chair is there; it is beautiful and nice, you can keep for showcase it
but you can’t sit on it. Similarly, love people, move with people, and show
your care, everything you do; it is a gift from the Lord, whatever I have, but when
you need stability and security, have the Lord as the source of security. So stage
No.1. is from world dependence to God
dependence. This is called Vairagyam. Not hatred. Maturity. Having done that, don’t stop with
that; there are three more disciplines, which you have to practice. What are
those three?

That
is given in the next verse.

Shloka 15.4:

15.4 Thereafter, that State has to be sought for,
going where they do not return again: I take refuge in that Primeval Person
Himself, from whom has ensued the eternal Manifestation.

After getting vairagyam one goes to parimargitavyam, that is towards Brahman.Vairagyam is not suppression, but mature dispassion. Suppression is never correct; it is growing out of the dependence, just as we grow out of the attachment to the dolls and play things we used in our childhood, only thing is the physical growth from childhood is a natural process. But we need emotional growth as well. Emotional growth requires working on it. That is called viveka janya vairagyam.

We
have to study our experiences and learn and after getting that dispassion, healthy
dispassion; you have to go to the second upaya known as parimargitavyam. Parimarganam
means enquiry. Vichara
means searching and seeking of padam. Padam here means that ultimate
destination of life and also the ultimate substratum of the samsara tree that is
the Brahman. So may you enquire into Brahman through Guru Shastra Vichrara or
Vedanta Vichara.

Take Away:

Moving
from world dependence to God dependence is called Vairagyam.

Objects
lead to desire that lead to action that leads to punya papa that leads to
next shariram.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy

Greetings,

Continuing his teachings Swamiji said, having completed the 14th chapter, now we will enter into the 15th chapter, one of the smallest chapters in the Gita, with only 20 verses; but one of the most important and popular chapters of the Gita, and it is often used as a prayer verse before taking food; therefore generally, when this chapter is chanted, people remember the food, rather than the Lord, but it is a very important Vedantic chapter.

And
since it occurs in the last shatkam
of the Gita, all the three
important topics of the last shatkam
are dealt with in this chapter. The three important themes of the last shatkam, if you
remember, are:

Gyana
yoga as the sadhana,

Jivatma paramatma aikyam as the subject matter; the importance of values or sadgunaha as a preparatory step, for the aikya Gyanam.

All these three topics have been well dealt with in this chapter. And this chapter is titled Purushottama yoga and the word Purushottama here means Nirguna chaitanyam. It does not refer to saguna Ishvara, nor to Vishnu or Sri Krishna or Shiva. It refers to Nirgunam Brahma or Nirguna chaitanyam and this meaning Lord himself gives at the end of the chapter, so there can be no controversy, because Sri Krishna himself says Purushottama means attributeless consciousness and yoga here it means the subject matter. So Purushottama yoga means the topic of Nirgunam brahma, which is the main teaching of this chapter.

With
this background we will enter into the Chapter proper.

Shloka 15.1:

The Blessed Lord said They say that the peepul
Tree, which has its roots upward and the branches downward, and of which the
Vedas are the leaves, is imperishable. He who realizes it is knower of the
Vedas.

As
the very title of this chapter shows, the topic is Nirguna Brahma and by
the study of this chapter, one will get Nirguna Brahma Gyanam. And naturally a person
will have a question, why should I get nirguna Brahma Gyanam at all, because a person would not go after
any knowledge, unless he expects some benefit out of it.

The
subject we study in the college is from the standpoint of employment, so the question
will come, why should I get Brahma Gyanam? We should remember Sri Krishna is
giving here Brahma Gyanam as a means of moksha
or freedom.

Then
the next question will come, what do you mean by moksha? We say Moksha is samsara nivrtti,
freedom from samsara.
And naturally, the next question will be what is samsara? Samsara is the
varieties of problems that a human being continuously faces, and to get out of
the problem he continuously runs about.

So samsara means continuously facing problems and running about to get rid of the problem. And this struggle is called samsara. And freedom from that samsara is called Moksha and; Brahma Gyanam is the remedy for moksha. And according to the Vedanta, Brahma Gyanam is not one of the remedies, it is the only remedy available. And therefore, Brahma Gyanam is for moksha; moksha is freedom from samsara.

Now
the thing is: I would like to get rid of samsara, if only I think samsara is a problem.

If a person says I am very comfortable as a samsari  he would not like moksha and for him Brahma Gyanam is irrelevant.

So
seeing the problem of samsara is the pre-requisite for the desire of moksha, and moksha iccha is a
prerequisite to develop interest in Brahma Gyanam. And interest in Brahma Gyanam
is a pre-requisite for continuously attending the class. So therefore Sri Krishna
wants the students to continue and that is possible only if they have diagnosed
the problem.

Without
diagnosing the disease, I will never attempt an appropriate treatment. And everybody
has got this basic disease called bhava roga.

We
have to scan our life to discover the disease called bhava roga only then we
can go through the treatment of Gyana Yoga. Therefore, Sri Krishna begins the
15th chapter with a description of samsara. Samsara means the whole life of
change; the whole life of birth and death; the old age, disease and death;
association and disassociation.

He
talks about this in the first 2-1/2 verses.

And in the 15th chapter, we do not find Arjuna asking any question. Therefore Sri Krishna himself volunteers to continue the teaching.

Arjuna, (whether you like it or not), I love teaching, and Therefore, I would like to clarify further. And to give a description of this samsara, the ever-changing universe, Sri Krishna compares samsara to a huge Peepal tree (Arasha maram in tamil).

And
this comparative study is not Sri Krishna’s own original version but this has
been already done in Kathopanishad.

In Kathopanishad in mantra 2,3.1, the universe; the changing universe and life; is compared to a huge ashvatha tree. And Shankaracharya gives a very  elaborate commentary on this, both in his Kathopanishad Bhashyam as well as the Gita Bhashyam. In his commentary, he studies the common features between the samsara and the ashvatha tree. Common features are called Sadhramyam.

The
common features are:

1. Mahatvam: both are very huge.
2. Adhyanta rahithatvam. You cannot trace the beginning of both.
   People ask when did the

universe start? Why am I born? I came because of karma. Where
did karma come from; from previous janma. Where did previous janma come from?
Why did God create me? The answer is there is no beginning for creation;
Universe ever was, is and will be.

Same questions come for the tree as well. How did tree come?
It came due to the seed. How did seed come? So one soon gets caught in this
never ending paradox of which came first, the seed or the tree? Thus, Samsara
is a cyclical phenomenon

3.
Anivarchaniyatvam: Inexplicability; Logically cannot be categorized; In what sense?
You can never say a thing is a cause or an effect. You can never pinpoint a thing
is a cause or an effect, because from one standpoint a thing is a cause, the
very same is an effect, from another standpoint. So today is cause or an
effect? From yesterday’s standpoint today is an effect. From tomorrow’s standpoint
it is a cause.

Fate
and free will also fall into this argument.

If
you look at a particular point and see as an effect of the cause, you will call
it fate. And if the very same point is seen as the cause of the future, you
will call it Freewill. You can never pinpoint whether a thing is absolutely
freewill or absolutely fate; absolutely cause or absolutely effect; or
absolutely parent or absolutely children; nobody is an absolute parent. Nothing
is logically classifiable. The more you probe the more mysterious it becomes.

4.
Moolavatvam: A tree has a root and it is not visible. But you are aware that
there is a root. Similarly, the universe also has a root called Ishwara. He is
also not visible like the root. I know that without a root a tree cannot stand;
similarly, the universe cannot stand without a god.

5.
Shakavatvam:

A huge tree has many branches, some at top, some in middle and some at bottom. Similarly, Universe also has higher, middle and lower Lokas. So the higher lokas and the higher bodies; deva shariram, represents urdhva shakas, the upper branches; manushya lokas comes under the middle branch and the athala, vithala, suthala, rasatala mahatala, talatala, patala, all the lower lokas will come under the lower branches. Thus, the universe is a vast tree with the fourteen lokas as its branches. So shakavatvam is the next common feature.

6.
Parnavatvam: Tree is so full of leaves that one cant even see the trunk. Similarly, the
universal tree has got the leaves
in the form of karmani; or karma kanda of the vedas are compared to the leaves of the
samsara tree. So
here you will require a slight explanation. Why do we

compare
karma kanda to the leaves
of the tree? The leaves are very important for the perpetuation and the growth
of the tree. In fact, leaves protect the tree and help the tree survive. And
you know the leaf alone has got chlorophyll; that is why it is green, and it
does photosynthesis and it cooks food and because of that alone, the tree
survives. And through osmotic pressure, it absorbs the water.

The
karma kanda of the vedas is called
chandas because it protects the samsara tree like the leaves of the original
tree.

How
does the karma kanda protect,
perpetuate and help the growth of the tree? You must have inferred by now.
Karma kanda talks about varieties
of karmas and also tempts all the people to do those karmas by promising

many varieties of results. If you perform this karma, you will get children. If you perform that karma, you will get money. You do that karma and you will go to heaven. Full of advertisements.

And
naturally a person is attracted to karma kanda; in fact Gyana kanda is never appealing.
If I ask, how is mandukya upanishad? You will probably say it is very dry.

So
Gyana kanda is generally
not appealing,

Whereas, karma kanda is the most appealing thing, because he asks you to do varieties of karma to get varieties of results. And therefore this person will take to varieties of karmas and karmas will produce Karma phalam. And from karma phalam you get punya or papam. Punya papas, as they increase, will lead to punarapi jananam, punarapi maranam. Thus the samsara cycle of birth and death is perpetuated by karma kanda by tempting the people to do varieties of karma.

Punya karmas will
take you to higher lokas. Rajas karmas will take you to the middle loka or manushya
loka; Tamo karmas will take you to lower lokas.

While
Gyana kanda puts an end to
the samsara tree, karma kanda nourishes the
samsara tree. And
therefore they are like the leaves of a tree. Therefore parnavatvam.

7.
Phalavatvam: Now trees bear fruits; some are sweet, some sour and some a
mixture of both. Samara tree also gives three types of phalam. It gives Sukham,
Dukham and Mishra phalam, mixture of both sukha and dukha

8. Ashrayavathavam: The tree helps the birds by providing them with a nest. So the trees serves as the nesting site for the birds, which alone would eat the fruit. The tree is not going to eat; only the birds which occupy the tree, they alone enjoy this sukha dukha phalam; Similarly in the vast universe, all the jivas are like the birds. Some jivas are on the higher branches, or like svarga loka with Deva shariram, some of them are in the middle branch, meaning like in manushya loka with manushya shariram, some of them are in the lower branches, meaning adho loka with adho shariram and therefore the tree supports the birds. Similarly the samsara tree supports the jiva world. This same concept is referenced in Mundaka upanishadic mantra (III.1.1) as well.

9. Chalanavatvam: The huge tree moves because of the wind; especially when there is powerful cyclonic wind. Even though it is a huge tree, it moves up and down, here and there. In the same way, the whole samsara tree along with all the jivas are taken here and there by the wind of prarabdha karma. So we are all taken to various conditions, various places, various situation, lashed by Prarabhda’s winds. A person wanted to be transferred to Madras but got transferred elsewhere. Such situations can affect life and is governed by the prarabdha karma wind and hence chalanatvam.

10.
Chedyathvam: Even
though the tree is very huge, by appropriate effort, this tree can be uprooted.
It is possible to put an end to this tree by using the appropriate axe.
Similarly, the special axe called Gyanam also can uproot the huge samsara
chakram. In fact the very word vrikshaha means
that which can be uprooted. It is derived from the root vrasch; Shankaracharya says the
uprooting is not easy.

If
it is a small plant, we can effortlessly remove, but if

it
is ashvatha tree it is not that easy.

So,
all the above were common features between the tree and Samsara.

In
Shloka ashvattham
prahuhu means this entire samsara; the life of change is considered to be
similar to ashvattha tree. Urdhvam also means superior or sacred as well as
incomprehensible.

Urdhvamulam
means one, which has got a root. Urdhwam also means spatial aboveness. Thus
Brahman is superior and incomprehensible. This Brahman is the moolam or root of
the samsara tree.

Avyaya:
means eternal. The beginning and end cannot be traced. Thus we have the seed
and tree paradox; similarly human life is a paradox; we can’t say when first
jiva was born.

Chandamsi yasya parnani in shloka
means:
So
the protecting sustaining leaves of the samsara tree are none other than the veda prescribed
karmas.

And
karma kanda always makes
the people to remain in the field of rituals. There are many who love the
rituals but they never like Gita and Upanishads.
They are highly religious people; they love the ritualistic portion, but never
come to Vedanta. Thus, they
successfully perpetuate the samsara.

It does not mean that karma kanda is our enemy to be thrown away. We say is, karma kanda must be used, up to a particular limit, and sooner or later, one should transcend the ritualistic portion and spend more time in philosophical portion.

Generally,
people tend to go to two extremes. One extreme is people never like religious
poojas or rituals. For them, they have no way of purifying the mind. Pooja is the only method of purification.

And the other extreme are people who stay with puja alone; that is also not correct. One should enter karma kanda, purify the mind and then come to Gyana kanda.

Yah tam veda in
shloka means, the one who understands this universal tree with its many
branches, leaves, fruits etc. the one who knows this universal tree and Shankaracharya adds; along
that knows that the root is Brahman. He says, He alone is a wise person, who
has understood the scriptures properly. Vedavit in shloka means the one who is a Gyani.

Take Away:

Swamiji
says that Puja (a part of Karma kanda) alone is the method of purification of the mind.

With Best
Wishes,

Ram Ramaswamy