Devotion implies understanding the Creation
Krishna is all set to describe the visvarupa, the Universal Form, meaning the universal dimension reigning within the human individual. That the individual is universal too, the microcosm is the macrocosm as well, is a fundamental principle in creation. In fact, the creation itself is an expansion, enlargement, in the same way as the entire dream creation is an expansion of the mind. The same power of Creation is encased within the body, with a limited power and dimension. When it swells, as it were, to become the dream world and creation, it reveals its broad, nay, endless dimension.
Take a cell in the body. It contains the inherent, genetic characteristics of the whole body. In the body, there is nothing but cells. The cells ‘enlarged and expanded’, as it were, become the body. Likewise, a molecule or an atom of any substance has the characteristics of that substance itself, in full. Take a point. When ‘enlarged and expanded’, it becomes a sizeable sphere – so big as to encompass the whole universe.
Thus, in any speck, is contained its expanse. This expanse is, therefore, an inner one. It is evidenced when the insentient matter gets animated to be a living organism. In the living organisms, there is a progressive order. From amoebae, it ascends to become tiny beings that go on increasing, becoming bigger and more developed. Thus there are, on the land as well as in the ocean, a plethora of living beings – animals, birds, fish, monkeys, and finally the humans.
In the human, the inner faculties and dimensions are manifest to the maximum. This manifestation is made possible by the structure of the body itself. For instance, it is the hands and fingers that make human activities as efficient as we see now. In the same way, it is the brain and intelligence that further empower the human being to think, formulate ideas and gain knowledge. Tongue, cheeks, lips, teeth, etc. enable him to express and communicate, resulting in multifaceted interactions.
The same brain and intelligence also empower him to probe within, arrive at and relate dimensions, leading him to the universal magnitude. That there is this universality, contained in the sentient part of our personality, and that it is understandable and accessible to us for comprehension and communication, is something that our biological body provides for. The difference between the human and the non-humans is thus mainly in the body, its parts, and the scope and potential these host and display.
Release from sins through wisdom
Instructed sufficiently, Arjuna is now ready to imbibe and reflect the inner spiritual dimensions Krishna wishes to communicate. This instruction and the corresponding reception of what is communicated, are quite important in spiritual dialogues and interactions. Spirituality is not a mere intellectual pursuit. It is emotionally fulfilling. There is a strong bond between the Teacher and the disciple. Krishna brings all the personal fondness and focus in communicating the message, so that the instruction becomes warm and especially effective:
Listen, Arjuna, again, the supreme words from me. I tell you these because I am fond of you, and am desirous of your welfare.
The secret of my origin is not known to either gods or the maharshis, because, I am the very source of all gods and the great Seers.
Whoever is able to know me, the supreme Reality, as unborn and without beginning, hence as the very Lord of the universe, such a one, among the humans, becomes free of all delusions, and by dint of that also gets rid of all sins and blemishes.
The words and descriptions may be put in any graphic form and level. But what they mean is quite simple and brief. From inside alone does the outside of any life-form become, to get born and grow. The visible form comes from the invisible within. In any living organism, more conspicuously in the human, when we think of or touch the conscious realm within the material, gross body, it implies an altogether new vista that verily represents and reveals universality, the universal dimension. This is true of anybody.
What does Krishna mean by saying that neither the devas nor the maharshis know him, and that he is the cause of them both? Before the visible existence came to be, sentience was there, as its progenitor. It is this sentience that Krishna refers to here as the essence in him. By Krishna, is not meant a body consisting of five elements. If you amalgamate the pancabhutas, can it become a sentient, living unit? So, in the living ‘Krishna-body’, the animating life is the fundamental presence.
Taking his stand on this inner animating power, presence, Krishna says whoever is able to grasp its extensive, endless dimensions, by dint of that very perception he will be able to shed his delusion. Dissolving the ego, his mind will become universal and all kinds of blemishes and stains also will vanish. He will verily become free, liberated.
This is the effect of understanding, knowledge. All notions abide in the mind. To set them right, the only powerful means is wisdom, knowledge. To know that Krishna, or any one else for that matter, is Sentience, and as Sentience he or she is primordial, is to have the same vision and view about every one and everything. Such a universal vision, uniform perception, results in instant liberation. Do not think that this knowledge should essentially relate to Krishna-body. It is the truth about every one, be it Krishna, Arjuna, Bheeshma, yourself or another.
Avikampa-yoga – yoga of stable-devotion
Having set forth this central, basic fact, Krishna now proceeds to discuss it in greater detail, step by step, like ascending the ladder. He lists a number of qualities and virtues like intelligence, discrimination, patience, truthfulness, etc., and also refers to the seven great Rishis and the four ancient Manus from whom are born all the people. All these qualities and the personalities, he says, have emerged from the supreme Reality and subsist on It.
This is not a new proposition. What did he say in the 7th chapter? “The supreme Reality, its nature, is manifest in an eight-fold manner. External gross elements like earth, water, etc. are part of it. Internally mind, intelligence and ego, are another part. Yet, there is something more. That is the spirit or jiva, by which the whole creation is sustained, preserved” (7.4-5).
Does not every human body contain the jiva? And does not this jiva have its superior all-sustaining power and potential?
When one is able to understand himself as verily unborn, and all-sustaining, then that very understanding rids him of all delusions.
It also delivers him from all blemishes. While actions are performed by the senses, mind and intelligence, above and beyond these is the sovereign Spirit, the Self, unaffected by anything. It is the same truth Krishna spoke in the fifth chapter (5.8, 9). The born body and the unborn Self go together, and that is how the whole vibrant creation with its living and non-living beings subsists.
The apprehension of sin and impurity first transpires by looking at and identifying with the senses, mind and intelligence. The same identity proves to be a delusion when the higher contemplation on the Spirit, the beyond, grows to become wholesome. The first and the second both take place in the same sentient being.
When thus the source of everything is understood to be the same supreme Reality, mind’s faith and restfulness on the Supreme become easier. The compulsions for the mind to get distracted decrease, and the affinity and attunement with the Supreme dawn. Krishna calls this avikampa yoga.
That is the state of wholesome worship. In wholesome worship, the mind has to be wholesomely given to the Supreme. That will be accomplished only when we are able to take the Supreme as the source, sustenance and dissolution of everything. What Krishna says in this context is very significant:
The Supreme is the source of everything, from the Supreme alone everything and all are activated. Wise people understand this truth and worship Me, the Supreme, through their inner wholesome reflection.
This verse is very important and it should guide devotees and seekers in growing from the ‘constricted’ representations of God to the wholesome manifestation. True worship consists in manana (reflection or rumination). Resting only on the mind, the worship becomes deep, wholesome and consistent. It is also self-dependent. Mental worship has to be in the nature of thoughts, attitudes, memory and feelings.
The mind begins to think of the whole world as Godly. Bhavasamanvitah is a very profound, suggestive word. Devotional growth as well as merger is a purely mental development. The devotee, as he was identifying God with an idol, picture or a form, now begins to identify Him with the whole creation – earth, water, energy, air, space, nay, everything – in all his thoughts, attitudes, feelings and memories. The expansion and freedom are great, unshakable.
Fondness for the Lord leads to wisdom
Everything rests upon his mind, and as such remains unhindered. He will have his thoughts, debates, doubts and other hindrances, yet all these will remain soaked in this one bhava-samanvitatva, attitudinal wholesomeness. And then what happens? Krishna describes in three verses how devotional pursuit, in such a wholesome level, expresses itself, elevating the devotee to true spiritual wisdom:
Their mind given to the Supreme, their activities resigned to the Supreme, enlightening each other about the Supreme, freely speaking and referring to the Supreme, such devotees with enlarged vision delight and exult.
For them, who worship the Supreme, through constant affinity and with delight, the Supreme bestows buddhi-yoga, by dint of which they attain to the Supreme.
The Supreme, being merciful to them, destroys the darkness of ignorance, by lighting the lamp of wisdom in their intelligence.
Only when the devotional attitude and affinity grow and become wholesome, consistent and uniform, one gets the benevolence of true wisdom.
No more from then on does his devotional linkage remain selective or disconnected. In speech, deeds as well as inter-personal interactions, nay in everything and all, Godliness becomes pronounced and ceaseless for him. His mind assumes its true all-encompassing dimension. It becomes pure. Such devotees naturally grow an affinity, a devotional bond, between them.
It makes them share their mind and heart, and in doing so they begin to exult freely. Shyness and reservation vanish from them. Devotional exultation becomes collective. Like blazing fire, these devotees, rejoicing and delighting together with the remembrance of God and discussions on God, become verily great, glorious.
The way external visible or perceptible objects offer delight, is quite widely known. Even then, people fail to realize that the sights and sound merely become an occasion for the mind to generate delight. The delight is always internal and the mind is what creates it. The same mind can bestow joy by thinking about the supreme Source of creation too, as it happens with the wholesome devotees. In fact, this second delight is the more direct one, far greater, deeper, independent and wholesome.
This final transition to spiritual wisdom is quite significant. However much one may be devotional, the devotee’s fulfillment consists in getting spiritually and philosophically illumined. Knowledge should crown him.
Krishna clarifies the process more specifically: The Supreme mercifully decides to remove their ignorance and delusion. The way this takes place is not by a stroke of blessing bestowed upon them by any special appearance or descent, as generally thought of. The place where ignorance and delusion work, that very place is swept clean and right knowledge is ignited there. Where glows light, from there darkness flees.
Bhasvata jnanadipena are the potent words Krishna has used. They mean: by the glowing lamp of wisdom. Wisdom itself becomes the lamp. Wisdom of what? Of the Self! The Wisdom that the Self is immortal, ever luminous, ever present, unbound! It needs nothing from anywhere, for anything whatsoever. This fact, nay truth, begins to shine.
As the intelligence gets filled with the knowledge of ‘world objects’ – one detail after another unfolding before it – now it gets filled with the detailed knowledge of the spiritual presence called the Self. All the descriptions given from the second chapter onwards dawn clearly before the devotee’s intelligence, namely, na jayate mriyate va kadacit (It neither gets born nor does it die 2.20); acchedyo’yam adahyo’yam (It can neither be pierced nor burnt 2.24); avyakto’yam acintyo’yam (It is unmanifest and beyond the grasp of mind 2.25), etc.
The intelligence, which was earlier not given to thinking about the indwelling Self, its Supremacy and splendour, now contemplates only upon these. In fact, the thoughts on the external God cease, and those on the inmost Self reign. The external loses its influence, and the internal takes over. Everything becomes the internal’s own expression, manifestation and glory.
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(From Essential Concepts in Bhagavad Gita - Volume 4)
