Devotion – an all-fold insurance against worldly miseries
Although the adherence of the mind at the time of leaving the body will irresistibly determine the outcome that meets one thereafter, Krishna does not want the earnest seeker to risk any such indefiniteness. Using the necessary viveka (discrimination), the seeker, he says, should exercise the better option of preserving continuity and exclusiveness in his devotional practice. To encourage, nay even compel, such an option, he explains, rather extols, how rewarding is such a course of ceaseless reliance:
To that constantly united yogin who remembers Me exclusively, I am easily available. Attaining to Me, the high-souled people beget such spiritual perfection, siddhi, that they no more fall victim to perishability, the pitiable abode of misery.
To make the devotional note supreme, exclusive and ceaseless, is the real crux of spiritual seeking and achievement. True, the Vedas and other texts prescribe a variety of disciplines and performances like the protracted rituals. Religionists, as a rule, get fascinated by these. But what do these performances ultimately bring about, either here or hereafter? It is one thing to be fascinated by something on first hearing. But it is altogether different to think about such fascination and arrive at the necessary insight and resolve.
Right from the start, Krishna’s task has been to enlighten Arjuna and inculcate in him the much needed discrimination, which alone can bestow real strength, support and refuge to the mind to face the world and all the plights and fates it fetches. Beginning with the exposition of the immortal Soul to dispel Arjuna’s fear of war – fear of causing death to the relatives and friends, and of consequent sin and moral downfall – Krishna proceeded to discuss the genesis of karma, describing how it relates to the overall scheme of creation as well as one’s own individual nature.
This suddenly kindled Arjuna’s interest and enquiry. Krishna’s exposition naturally broadened and deepened to cater to the new quest of Arjuna. He analyzed the place of activity in the scheme of human life and the world, presenting a new spirit and purpose in both. Everything, he said, can become a yoga-sadhana, provided the intelligence is rightly awakened and the mind is poised to derive purity and expansion.
Spiritual pursuit is not so much a rarity, a struggle or persecution, as it is an august process of self-refinement and self-sublimation. The discussion became more and more authentic, rational and philosophical, throwing light and clarity on a number of thoughts, systems and beliefs. Everywhere Krishna brought the one idea of yoga and yoga-sadhana. Many an allied concept like yajna and its overall linkage with Nature and social welfare also came up for scrutiny and discussion. Krishna then went on to describe the art and process of meditation, showing how it leads the mind to inward absorption and outer expansion, to make one stable, harmonious and creative.
Adding a typical devotional dimension to the discussion, he now emphasizes that the exclusiveness and continuity of any thought process is what makes the mind great and invincible. To take to devotion to the Teacher or God is to deserve the supreme spiritual perfection (samsiddhih). Devotion in its fullness makes one a mahatma (high-souled). Such Mahatmas do not fall a prey to the allurements of the world and become miserable. Devotion is an all-fold insulation and insurance against worldly miseries of all kinds. Exclusiveness (ananyacetah) is the one note that makes devotion invaluable and rewarding.
Spiritual practice goes beyond religious rewards
Now Krishna comes up with a sweeping statement, which stands out prominently, especially in the context of the sacred Vedas and the various goals they profess and promise:
All the worlds, O Arjuna, from Brahmaloka downwards, are terminable and repetitive. (None of them has anything final or absolute to offer.) If, on the other hand, one gets to Me, he will no more have any re-birth. (It ensures absolute redemption.)
The ritualists piously think that the Creator’s world, Brahmaloka is the highest one can aspire to gain through Vedic life of rituals and ceremonies. They look to this highest abode so fondly and hopefully that nothing else appeals to them. But Krishna says that in reality even Brahmaloka is not the supreme goal. Life there is subject to the law of birth and death, and those who reach there, if at all, are sure to fall again into the lower worlds. The immortal, eternal, singular fate consists in taking to unflinching devotion to the Supreme.
In the 2nd chapter, he had made a striking evaluation that the Vedic declarations are, at best, flowery, but not fruitful. To adhere to them is to deny oneself the resolute nature of intelligence (vyavasayatmika buddhih 2.42-44), the sole foundation for spiritual growth and fulfillment. Krishna strengthens and confirms the same view here too, by holding that all the gains attainable through Vedic rituals are time-bound and limited. In other words, they all have endings, whereas the path inculcating fondness for the supreme Reality is not so; it saves one from repeated births and deaths, and bestows full redemption from mortality as well as misery.
This evaluation by Krishna has since become very famous in our land, emphasizing the futility of ritualistic practices and upholding the spiritual and yogic pursuit.
‘Day and night’ – their spiritual connotation
The next verses refer to the concept of spiritual day and night, a proper knowledge of which, he says, will lead one to the supreme Truth:
As the day dawns, all beings emerge from the unmanifest. And at night they glide back into the same unmanifest. All beings, O Arjuna, born again and again, get dissolved as night sets, and then again irresistibly come forth when the day dawns.
Krishna’s statement that the beings get born at day, to merge back into the unmanifest when night befalls, and that this process of getting born and getting extinct takes place repetitively, clearly compels the seeker to think of the whole phenomenon in a deeper note.
These physical, visual days and nights do not obviously become a subject for spiritual study or evaluation. In fact, only those lying beyond the senses, need become a subject for the scriptures to discuss and reveal.
How the gross world has come to be and is going to dissolve is not alone a scientific question. In so far as the question involves our life, experience and interaction, the spiritual seeker also is obliged to take it up and see what answer he is able to arrive at, fulfilling his own needs and aspirations.
From a spiritual angle, Krishna says that every distinct form of existence arises from the indistinct, and it recedes into the same indistinctness in the end. The indistinctness of the source is the first factor to be recognized and dealt with. From that being alone will anything else come to be. This Source, the original Presence, is called avyakta. Krishna referred to It in the 2nd chapter, when he stated that all beings have their origin as well as end in the avyakta (indistinctness) alone. What is there so much then to grieve about, was the proposition he had set forth (2.28).
The process or cycle by which the visible emergence and subsidence – appearance and disappearance – take place is the spiritual or metaphysical ‘day and night’. The seeker has to look deeper to understand these with greater meaning and relevance that will enrich his spiritual wisdom.
Daily, the dawning of jagrat (wakefulness) ending our susupti (deep sleep state) marks the beginning of the active day for us. But because the occurrence is so common and repetitive, none is led to probe into how the phenomenon takes place. But in spiritual enquiry, jagrat and susupti are extremely revealing, holding the key to know the supreme Reality, the cause and source of the entire visible world.
Wakefulness (jagrat) sets in, bringing the sleep state (susupti) to an end every day, manifesting suddenly the visible existence. Similarly when the wakefulness itself slips into sleep, which lasts for a few hours, the whole manifest world also goes into extinction. The emergence and extinction thus of the manifest existence inhere in the dawning and setting of our own individual day, namely wakefulness, and night, susupti (deep sleep). Even the rising of sun and the consequent dawning of visible world around are sensed only when we wake up first. This fundamental ‘subject’ cause is, however, missed by all. It is a powerful delusion, overtaking one and all.
The cyclic emergence of wakefulness and its subsidence take place individually on a short-term basis, within twenty-four hours, by the time the earth on which we live rotates fully once. The constant effortless prevalence of these makes every one miss their place and importance. More than treating them as great revealers to the mystery of creation and dissolution, people dispose them of as a simple fact, giving no room for thought or enquiry.
But, when the wakeful and sleep states are taken up for deep study, as Mandukyopanishad has done, then the visva and prajna (two aspects of our nature corresponding to wakeful and sleep states) will come into full focus, unveiling the whole spiritual wisdom, making the seeker a full heir to Imperishability and the resultant freedom.
Manifestation of the Universe – the source is inner
The source and power that brings about waking and sleep states is, no doubt, reigning right within jagrat and susupti. That is why a person wakes up, all by himself, leaving his slumber, without being occasioned by any external factor. Equally so, he also readily courts sleep from wakefulness. Only when the cause of both the states remains co-existential, he can terminate each, without any external help or support. Even in the worst din and bustle, does not one at times slip into dense sleep? What does it indicate?
This inner source transcends both waking and sleep states. Its transcendental presence is quite evident, unchallengeable. It gives the clue to the greater phenomenon – the emergence and subsidence of the visible creation itself. The srshti (evolution or creation) as also laya (dissolution) are due to the same source reigning within the individual. It has the power, supremacy and absoluteness to cause as well as withdraw any manifestation. But we find it has chosen to preserve some order, sequence and cycle in the process, to give it the necessary vyavastha (stability, dependable status).
On slipping into sleep, time suddenly ceases. With that, objectivity also vanishes, thereby dispensing with even space, its ground. It is thus evident that the inner source alone brings about time, space as well as objects, the three constituents of manifest existence.
The reverse too takes place when susupti is terminated to bring in wakefulness again. Then all the lost triad of time, space and objects suddenly comes into full display. To thus enfold the manifest existence and again unfold it, without any exterior help or support whatever, how sovereign must be the potential and magnitude of the inner source! But does anyone ever think of such a supreme source reigning within?
Manifestation and un-manifestation – power of the Supreme
Krishna describes this inner supreme Reality as transcending the indistinct and distinct existences. That it is above the distinct manifestations can be grasped. But that it is equally above the indistinct existence like space will become comprehensible only when the seeker reflects upon susupti (sleep state), his own personal, direct experience. Sleep state is by all means fully indistinct.
As one can say he is awake, likewise he also says he has slept. The indistinct, nothing-knowing state of susupti is, nevertheless, fully experiential. That means it makes itself readily felt and revealed, as does wakefulness.
Thus the inner source has the power to reveal manifestation as well as un-manifestation. It does so remaining within both. Such a source is naturally above the vyakta and avyakta, says Krishna :
Above the manifest and the unmanifest reigns the superior Unmanifest, that does not vanish while yet all the beings go on perishing.
Reaching which the yogins do not ever return to worldliness, that supreme, absolute abode is said to be the Imperishable and Indistinct.
That supreme Purusha, within whom resides all the creation and who permeates all this, is attainable by exclusive, unflinching devotion.
This inlying, unmanifest presence is the Imperishable, emphasizes Krishna. People generally look to the Imperishable as something far away and above them. But that is wrong. The Imperishable is closer to one than even his body, mind, intelligence and ego.
Though Krishna’s exposure undergoes a drastic change to bring in and emphasize the devotional focus and supremacy, it does not lose sight of the spirituo-philosophical truths and facts, which alone are the foundation for religio-devotional thoughts and pursuits. In the three verses, he makes reference to the Supreme in the third person as well as in the first person, thereby removing all kinds of conflict, as to whether the Imperishable Self and the supreme Lord are in any way different.
The concept of the Imperishable and making it the sole refuge for contemplation, dominates Bhagavad Gita throughout. In the earlier chapter, Krishna said with a note of identity that the supreme Reality is the source of evolution as well as dissolution of beings (7.6). Here he clarifies that it is the source of both waking and sleep states, experienced regularly by every one.
This is the supreme Source or Refuge. Once it is unveiled, perceived and realized as a vital experience and knowledge, it would bring an end to worldly miseries. In Krishna’s words, there will then be no coming back into the perishable plane of existence. Thus it is clear that the ultimate rest for the mind is its own inlying source, which originates and sustains the three mental states of waking, sleep and dream.
Although people go through these states, no one as a rule cares to think about their genesis. Familiarity with wakefulness and all that it displays, overtake their attention and care. The inner source, transcending the senses, mind and intelligence is the Supreme. All existence and expression reign within that alone. The visible external world has no external cause whatever. It completely rests upon the One Inner Source. Thus the whole externality is a sheer display of the inward Self.
This inmost presence permeates everything interior, as in dream, and exterior as in wakefulness. True to the spirit of Yoga, Krishna spares no effort to draw the seeker to his own inmostness.
Was he not alluding to the same sovereign truth earlier (3.42)? The senses, though seemingly small, he said, are superior to the objects, big and small, they perceive. The mind within is superior to the senses themselves. Superior to the mind is the intelligence. And what is still subtler and superior to the intelligence is the Supreme, he concluded! The same inmost presence he describes here as transcending the manifest and unmanifest alike.
The real sadhana, whether you call it religious or moral, ethical or philosophical, spiritual or yogic, is to turn to one’s own inside and reach the magnificence reigning beyond knowledge and ignorance, day and night, existence and non-existence.
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(From Essential Concepts In Bhagavad Gita - Volume 4)
