मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना ।
मत्स्थानि सर्वभूतानि न चाहं तेष्ववस्थितः ।। ९.४ ।।
न च मत्स्थानि भूतानि पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ।
भूतभृन्न च भूतस्थो ममात्मा भूतभावनः ।। ९.५ ।।

mayā tatam-idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad-avyakta-mūrtinā |
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv-avasthitaḥ || 9.4 ||
na ca mat-sthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam-aiśvaram |
bhūta-bhṛn-na ca bhūta-stho mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ || 9.5 ||

Audio-BG-9.4

Audio-BG-9.5

After describing in glorious terms the knowledge he was going to impart, as a kingly knowledge and kingly secret, Krishna emphasizes the great need for the seeker to grasp the message and imbibe its sublimity. Inattention and disregard to this, he warns, will surely be to miss the glory of eternality and fall a victim to the unending fate of perishability.

When both the grand benefits and the colossal loss in respect of a proposition are made clear right in the beginning, they will have the effect of ensuring faithful reception of whatever is conveyed. This kind of delineation of the merits and demerits of the discussion is an important part of effective communication in any field. Only then will it evoke the right response in the listener.

The subtle pervades the gross

The two verses that follow have become famous for their transcendental, intriguing note. Though they often remain enigmatic, they reveal the spiritual and philosophical truth of the world and its authenticity:

This entire universe is permeated by the unmanifest aspect of the Supreme. All beings inhere in the Supreme, but the Supreme does not abide in them.

Lo, the beings verily do not even abide in the Supreme; see the Divine Inscrutable Power of the Supreme. Though the Supreme creates and sustains the creation, It does not abide in anything. This is the wonder of the whole creative display and its survival.

As in the second chapter, while dealing with the transcendental Soul, Krishna treks into a very delicate area of exposition, wherein words and phrases coined on the basis of sensory perceptions and interactions with the visible objects around, naturally prove insufficient to convey the correct meaning of the concepts. While our entire vocabulary rests upon the objects perceived, here now the message to be conveyed relates to the Supreme, the one Subject of and in all. The illustrations and the explanations sought and provided will at best be mere approximations, not absolute. This insufficiency of articulation is inevitable and must be clearly borne in mind.

By jagat, is meant the visible world around us, of which every one is a part. For anything to be visible, it has to be gross. Senses, situated in the gross body, are themselves gross, and whatever they perceive is equally gross.

We make references to the world and its objects, only because our senses perceive them. Sensory perception, and hence perceptibility, instantly makes the world gross. The world objects present an amazing gradation in their structure, nature and characteristics. The earth is solid, the grossest. Then comes water, which is liquid. Next in succession is air, which is gaseous, and then reigns the brilliant fire. Nonetheless, all these are gross. Their grossness, in other words their perceptibility before the senses, is meant by the word vyaktata, distinctness.

It is such a gross world or the world of gross objects, that Krishna says, is pervaded or permeated by the Supreme (maya tatam idam sarvam). The subtle, and hence the imperceptible, alone can permeate the gross, the perceptibles. If the permeated is gross, perceptible, then the permeating has to be subtle, imperceptible. This is a simple conclusion. The word ‘vyakta’, meaning manifest, denotes tangibility to the senses. It means distinctness before them. Something indistinct or avyakta, alone will have the power or ability to permeate the vyakta world. Avyaktata will be revealed only in the presence of its contrast vyaktata. Thus as the gross objects and their aggregate, namely the world, are brought into expression, the avyakta Supreme reveals itself amply. Through this seemingly indirect expression or display, the Supreme lends itself to be felt or known.

Having explained the presence of the Supreme, in relation to the vyakta world, Krishna asserts that all beings, all forms of existence and expression, which our senses perceive, are strung together in order and sequence, only due to the avyakta Supreme.

Gross objects, by their very nature, are limited and bound. Earth, water, air, etc. are thus gross and bound in their size and expression. But the avyaktata that permeates and surrounds them is limitless and unbound. Naturally all the gross objects of the world can only abide in the Supreme, not vice versa.

Take a simple look at the world and its basic constituents. The earth on which we stand, the seas that surround it on the surface, then the air that encircles the earth as well as the water, the sun, the moon, the stars and the rest that hover around at various distances, are surely within the endless space, that engulfs them. Will anyone say that the endless space has emerged from these planets and bodies? Or the truth is that all the bodies have come from space and abide within its expanse? Thus the statement that matsthani sarva-bhutani, all beings abide in the Supreme, is quite suggestive.

Krishna follows it with another proposition, which is intriguing, and eludes easy grasp. The Supreme, he says, does not abide in the beings (na caaham teshu avasthitah).

If A pervades B, it does not mean that B pervades A too. To pervade anything means to be subtler than the pervaded and to be independent – like water in the moist cloth, like fire in the hot iron rod.

All the gross objects of the world are perishable. To permeate these perishables, will necessarily mean not to be perishable. That Imperishable, which permeates the perishables, cannot be considered as abiding and limited in the perishables. For, then the permeating too must perish when the permeated perish. That means there will be no further expression or existence at all. Because of the permeating capacity, the Supreme permeates all gross things. Besides the fact of this permeation, we cannot say that the permeating is ‘present’ in the beings, to become ‘absent’ with their extinction.

It is not like the house and its resident. If a house suddenly collapses, the one in it will also be involved. The gross person also meets the same fate as the gross house. On the other hand, if the resident were subtle and he only pervades, like space in the whole house, and hence extends beyond too, then nothing will happen to him when the house is destroyed.

So, to consider that the Supreme abides in the objects is wrong. That will be to limit the nature and presence of the Supreme. Think further, and grasp the nature of the Supreme, independent of the gross forms of existence. The objects, small and big, surrounding us, and the inter space and beyond of these, clearly give us a clue that something far greater and pervasive is there. That is what we generally identify as space, or place. It is desa, which is generally reckoned with kala, time.

Inscrutable power of the Supreme

Up to this everything seems clear. But Krishna adds in the same strain that the beings also do not abide in the Supreme (na ca matsthaani bhutaani), exhorting Arjuna to see, how wondrous is the display of the Supreme (pasya me yogam-aisvaram).

Why so? In discussing the facts and truths of life, of the world or God, if the discussion is to be meaningful and purposive, it cannot be limited to mere faith, easy acceptability or otherwise. Truth cannot be many. If milk is white, it is so, in part as well as whole. One cannot say differently.

Likewise, Krishna has to explain the facts of life, the truth of perceptions. For such a mission to be authentic and complete, he has to lead the discussion boldly to wherever it will rationally go, without any preference or prejudice.

Right from the beginning such an impersonal and impartial note has been abundant in his exposition. Here too, disregarding how his words would strike instantly the listener or reader, he discusses the subject thoroughly, setting forth all the acceptable standards of sruti (scriptures) and yukti (reason). Hinduism is not a dogma, nor is it a creed as such. It is a development, an expansion, an ascent, the crowning of thought and knowledge process in man.

In fact, the standard for our thinkers and exponents is very clearly set. It is not enough that one speaks and reveals the Truth. But every such statement must be born out of one’s own direct experience (anubhava). Equally so, it has to conform to similar statements made by other Seers, of which India always has a unique record in the form of sastras. The third canon is that whatever is said and revealed, must be supported by unassailable reasoning, rationality (yukti). Only when all the three, sruti, anubhava and yukti are concurrent, the statement becomes authoritative, authentic, and calls for acceptance.

We have the same intelligence for worldly interactions as well as for philosophical dissertations. The intelligence given to probing, investigation, finding and discovery in all the other branches of knowledge, cannot afford to relent or recede, when it comes to the question of dealing with faith and religious thoughts. To mortgage one’s intelligence in the spiritual field, is unimaginable to Hinduism. Krishna knows this. He was, right from the beginning, a crusader, a questioner, a lover of reason and rationalization. So his words go unhindered, uninhibited, in bringing forth the supreme Truths, giving true descriptions of the source of creation, and the creation’s stand in front of the creative source.

The Supreme alone causes the object display (bhuta-bhartr). It is the creator and sustainer of all forms of existence (bhuta-bhavanah). There is no ground or substratum at all for any form of existence other than the Supreme. Nevertheless, the Supreme does not abide in anyone of them.

Think of the ocean. It is vast and deep. How many waves are formed and travel on its surface! No wave is ever separate from the ocean, even for a short while. All waves emerge, subsist on the ocean alone. But by the same token, does the ocean subsist or abide in the wave? Each wave rises and sets subsequently. With such rising and setting, does the ocean also rise and set? Everything happens to the wave. In fact, to be a wave, is to be rising, moving and very soon subsiding. It is a changeful, destructive, expression. But the ocean is not so; it cannot be so.

So be sure. The earth, water, air, fire and other energies, and then even the space, their ground are all visible existence. All of them abide in the Supreme. But the Supreme does not need any of these for its abidance, expression. Only in the presence and permeation of the Supreme, the other things can be.

Krishna introduced the sankhya thought in the 2nd chapter, Sankhya Yoga. In that, he first of all pictured the transcendental vision of the Enlightened, the Knower, in which the living and the dead become alike (gataasun agataasun ca na anusocanti panditaah – 2.11). Then he posited the Imperishable Self. Arjuna’s mind and intelligence began to soar high to grasp the subtleties of Krishna’s exposition. In explaining the art of sharpening the vision, enhancing the thinking and grasping ability, Krishna also postulated the twin concepts of sat, the Real, and asat, the unreal.

Intelligence knows only intellection. It has to be given the necessary props for the purpose. When the intelligence takes up the consideration of sat and asat, its perceptional subtlety and purity increase until at last it is able to transcend all comparisons and contrasts and get to a state of homogeneity or uniformity.

Sat denotes the Real, which Krishna said, will never cease to be. And, asat, opposed to sat, can never have any expression too. The concepts are two, but the conclusion they warrant is only one. It is that asat can never exist. Whatever exists can only be sat. Or else it will not be (2.16).

Is the world we see, the objects reigning in it, sat then? If sat, then they would never cease to exist, or change in any manner. For, to change is to cause extinction first and emergence next. That disproves the sat character of the world, the objects in it. Then, can it be asat? No, it cannot be. For, if the world were asat, then we would not be perceiving it at all, as asat has no expression. Obviously, to the extent it is perceived, it is sat. And to the extent it changes and implies destruction and extinction, it is not sat. Perceptionally, the world though tangible to the senses, on subjecting it to the probe of our intelligence, is not really there; cannot be there in truth.

Do not these twin-characteristics make the world intriguing? The intelligence finds that it is not a true existence. At best, it is only a vanishing phenomenon. Does this not give ground to Krishna’s statement ‘na ca mat-sthaani bhutaani’? Equally so, the first statement ‘mat-sthaani sarva-bhutaani’. For, the world objects are, no doubt, perceived by us. Perceptionally they are there and their existence is only due to the Supreme. But when the perception is probed into, to determine its veracity, authenticity, it stands disproved without delay, making one say that the beings are not even in the Supreme.

But how does such an intriguing phenomenon arise?

The features of the Real, and the unreal, are adduced by perceiving the objects around us. The observation as well as the deduction is on the basis of the senses and their reports. But the moment we refer to the primary and ultimate source, the Supreme, all the usual norms and bases are annulled since the Supreme transcends object-perception.

So Krishna says that the Supreme makes the objects felt and equally disproves their authenticity. In other words, the world is an illusory expression. The Supreme, transcending the world and objects, brings about such an expression, that is beyond comprehension. The power by dint of which this perceptional drama takes place is yogamaya, yogaisvarya. Both the words are used by Krishna, and they mean Divine Inscrutable Power.

The Supreme is the producer and sustainer of the beings (bhutabharta). At the same time, it does not exist within the beings (simply because the beings do not themselves really exist). The whole creation is merely an illusory display of the supreme Power. How can this fact be felt with any sense of realism? The yukti part of the proposition is quite compulsive and cannot be denied.

But that is not sufficient. Where is that experiential glimpse on the basis of which such a conclusion becomes convincing and acceptable?

Significance of dream state

An example of the same is within us. We have the dream state, which authors a solely illusory display, akin to all that takes place around us, in wakefulness. It is the common experience and knowledge of all individuals.

The sleeping mind, which is within the body, suddenly projects the dream objects and everything connected with it. Something within the body creates things, which are far spread out, far beyond the mind. Can you imagine a mustard creating a mountain? But this is what takes place in dream. During the dream’s duration, all its objects are real. But on the dream breaking off, its display along with its dream-objects also becomes extinct.

So, there is a source and a cause, which makes such an illusory manifestation possible. That source is positively within the reach of every thinking seeker.

Thus Krishna presents the facts about the world-existence, step by step. As is the phenomenon of dream true and effective during its currency, so is the wakeful phenomenon true and factual, but only during its currency. That is why, when one sleeps at the end of wakefulness, all the wakeful facts and phenomena also vanish for him at one stretch. Wakefulness is the first in the series of our world perception. And wakefulness belongs to the individual. One wakes up himself, and then that wakefulness brings the world of perceptions.

As is the dream a state of the individual, constituting his mind and awareness, so also is the wakefulness another state of the individual, made up of the same mind and awareness. What holds true of the dream necessarily holds good of the waking too.

In the whole dream, all that comes into existence, namely the world with all its elements and objects, the various interactions the dreamer has with these, the resultant experiences and reactions, are but the display of the dreamer alone, his mind. The display, by its sudden extinction after a while, proves clearly its unreality and unauthenticity. But while the dreamt are unreal, the dreamer, the maker of it, endures intact. It is the dreamer, the Subject of all the dreamt, that creates the dream phenomena.

The same is the truth of the wakeful phenomena, their maker, the waker, the mind and awareness of the waker. Dream remains an individual’s experience. The waking, on the other hand, reigns as a common and universal fete. That does not dislodge the truth about its basis being the individual, his mind and awareness.

Without the dreamer no dream would ever be. So too without the waker, the wakeful phenomena too would not be. Before and after the dream, the dreamer endures. Before and after the waking, the waker too likewise prevails. That in the Supreme alone all beings abide, but the Supreme does not abide in the bhutas is thus quite obvious. Again, on further thought, the beings do not verily abide in the Supreme. For then, as the Supreme is ever present, the beings would also be ever present and that is not the case.

Perceptions are there. But on examination, their veracity, authenticity, as a prevailing fact is disproved. For any true philosophical dissertation or message to be full and complete, it has to expose this illusory nature of the world, its objects, their perceptions, too. That is what Krishna does here.

In the 2nd chapter too, he had hinted at the same truth when he said that all beings and objects, have an indistinct beginning; they equally have an indistinct end too. In other words, their origin as well as end is marked by indistinctness. If at all they appear to be manifest, it is only in between, for a short while (2.28). How can one attach true value to them then? Something that was not there and will not be there, cannot also be considered to be verily present now! What he briefly referred to then, Krishna now confirms with a fuller statement.

The same idea is contained, though in a different note, in the 8th chapter when he says that with the rising of the day, beings come into expression and with the setting of the night, they become extinct too (8.18).

All the three propositions stand together. The clue and guidance to evaluate the truth of any existence is the experience or perception we have of it. This is true in the case of objects as a whole, and hence of the world and its objectivity too. This will mean that it is the individual, who perceives and registers the perceived data, counts first and last in the whole process.

In the individual himself, the body stands included. Besides the body, besides materiality as such, nevertheless associated with it, reigns the Consciousness, the power and presence called ‘animation’. It is this Consciousness that proceeds to perceive, becoming the perceiver. From the perceiver alone perceiving takes place. Perception is its result, which is again received and stored by the perceiver. That perceiver is independent of all perceiving, perceptions and perceived phenomena.

Close scrutiny will reveal that the Sentience or Consciousness stands independently, whereas all the rest, namely perceiving, perception and perceived data are all dependent on it. Also, all the rest are solely the display by and of Consciousness alone. It is this fact that makes Krishna say so firmly, clearly and conclusively, that like dream and the dream phenomena, the wakeful sensory perceptions, namely the world and its objects, too are non-existent, when fully considered and determined.