ज्ञेयं यत्तत्प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वामृतमश्नुते ।
अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ।। १३.१२ ।।

jñeyaṁ yat-tat-pravakṣyāmi yaj-jñātvāmṛtam-aśnute |
anādi-mat-paraṁ brahma na sat-tan-nāsad-ucyate || 13.12 ||

After enunciating the 20 virtues, excellences, that verily engender and strengthen true spiritual wisdom and realization, Krishna now expounds, in six verses, the nature of the supreme Reality, using very lofty, profound words, but with practical all-fold relevance.

To the devotionally inclined, Krishna’s exposition should serve as a timely enlightenment and singular guidance. In reality, is the Almighty the way the devotees generally imagine and worship? Does the Supreme have a variety of physical features, as popularly believed? Or is the supreme Reality more a substance or source, which can be compared and contrasted with the pancabhutas?

As a devotee progresses in his devotion, his mind and intelligence must evolve steadily and imbibe higher dimensions, higher qualities. Sri Krishna has emphatically declared that the twenty virtues constitute knowledge. All else is ignorance alone!

A question arises: Does spiritual life end in the cultivation of good qualities, virtues or excellences? Or, is there a goal, something distinct, like the supreme Reality, the ultimate Source? Is that goal something the mind and intelligence can grasp clearly? Can it be approached confidently to get a very vital personal, experiential truth or realization? Does it equally have the power and potential to bestow fulfillment? Krishna answers all these questions with a clear “yes”. And that is the pivot of the entire spiritual life and pursuit! Thus, his next exposition commences with the words jneyam yat tat pravakshyami:

I shall now describe clearly that great Knowable, knowing which one attains immortality. It is the beginningless, supreme Brahman, which is neither existence nor nonexistence.

Realization – an inner process

All the disciplines and regulations, refinement and sublimation the seeker aims at, pursues and embodies are towards an ultimate goal. And this goal is in the nature of a perception, realization of the supreme Reality, Brahman.

In all sensory perceptions, perceiving is really an inner process, done by mind and intelligence. The same inner mind and intelligence have to perceive the Supreme, as well and as naturally as they do external objects. But generally they are unable to do so.

Why is it that our mind and intelligence do not bring about this? Kathopanishad explains it very beautifully, holding that the plight is squarely due to the Creator:

The self-manifested Lord rendered the senses outgoing. Therefore, one perceives the outer things and not the inner Self.

So, the entire effort of the seeker should be to overcome this handicap and enrich, equip and empower the mind-intelligence duo to gain the great inner perception. And this is the sole purpose of spiritual sadhana.

Thus the seeker must test his inner purity and refinement by finding out whether Krishna’s words on the ultimate Reality make meaning, relevance and inspiration to him. Krishna asserts that knowledge of the ultimate Reality alone will shower immortality on the seeker.

In knowing anything whatever, we must first have a proper description about it. With regard to instances transpired long ago, we only have a rendering of the events and episodes before us. Nevertheless, it is through such historical narration that we can access the past and draw our lessons for the present.

Here, it is not history, but the one great source of all, the supreme Reality, that permeates and surrounds every form of animate and inanimate existence. It is this supreme Reality that we have to perceive and realize. The effort will be properly guided only with the apt descriptions about it.

Probing the Source of Existence

Krishna begins his depiction with anādimat. It is beginningless. Anadi is a very common word in spiritual parlance, often used without any deliberate attempt to reflect upon its import. What is its deeper significance?

The whole world is an outcome, a becoming. In fact, this process of becoming is ceaseless. The entire phenomenon consists of cause and effect. Think of a tree. First a seed is sown in the soil. Necessary moisture and nutrition are provided to it. It then sprouts and grows steadily. To the extent the new growth has taken place, the source substances, namely nourishment from earth, air, light, heat, etc. will also be depleted as an inevitable counter and complement.

Cause-effect relationships are inseparable. Matter gets converted, energy is transformed. There is a measure of equalness, balance, in the cause and effect transformation.

Keeping this common ground before us, we have to probe into the very source of existence, the ultimate Reality. We are born of earth. But where from was earth born? What about water, air, fire and ultimately space itself?

If all these have come from another source, what is that other source from which this source has derived its emergence? Can such an investigation be extended endlessly? Then it will lead, ad infinitum, to a situation that will make our search fruitless and abortive.

Is there not an original source, which itself does not have any cause for its being? That first thing thus transcends the cause-effect sequence. Remaining independent by itself, it gives rise to the others, subjecting all thereafter to the cause-effect links. While cause-effect sequences govern all the other things, this one Supreme source reigns beyond them all.

Such a line of thinking cannot be avoided. That is how religious people conceive of God as inevitable and ineffable, possessing all the mastery to bring about any phenomenon any time because, the entire visible creation, in its full splendour, has sprung up from a previous ‘nothing’. Naturally, it stands to reason that what has progenitated such emergence must and will have the same potential to give rise to anything, anytime, anywhere.

To conceive of this stupendous creation, its Source must inevitably have ‘all-knowledge’. Thus it becomes omniscient. The visibles are endless; their Source too should be endless and ‘all-pervading’, omnipresent. As we find countless qualities and powers imbued with the world constituents, their great Source too has to be ‘all-powerful’, omnipotent.

Religionists thus prefer to regard their God as omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. At first look, it may appear to be mere eulogistic supplication. But on deeper examination, it is true to the letter. Krishna then says It (such a Source) is neither sat, existence or being, nor asat, non-existence or non-being. An intriguing statement, no doubt, at least on first hearing!

Think well, and reflect deeply. We are first of all born physically into the visible world. Thereafter through the bodily limbs and senses, we interact with the objects around and gain knowledge. Every word denoting anything is formed, derived, expressed and conveyed like this. So the whole knowledge we have gained is based on the existence around.

This existence is subject to change. That is, everything is getting continuously destroyed and also equally replaced.

This means that the visible existence is not the be all and end all. It is preceded by non-existence and succeeded by extinction. Thus existence and non-existence become relative and mutual. Neither has absolute status.

Not only that. The very idea of existence arose only after creation emerged from its source. That source thus is pre-existence and post-extinction. Thus Krishna says that the supreme Reality, Brahman, is neither existence nor non-existence. For both these have their relevance only after creation emerges and is in force.

What does Krishna aim at by thus describing the supreme Reality and designating it as the Knowable? To think about, reflect upon, enquire into or explore such a concept will, in effect, be to instill into the mind and intelligence lofty dimensions of absorption and delight. When the mind expands and intelligence becomes increasingly perceptive, it will elevate the seeker’s personality.

Normally the things of the world allure the mind, making one deluded and dislodged from his moorings. This plight will change when the supreme Reality is contemplated upon and by that, the mind and intelligence grow, shedding their delusion. About the source of joy too, a new discovery takes over. Compared to the delight the Supreme can bestow directly through the mind and intelligence, the joy from the sensory objects will appear trifling.

Dispassion is an indispensable virtue of seeking and a sure associate of the spiritual seeker. The joy of wisdom is another associate of the seeking mind. Both start welling forth from within by contemplating upon the jneya, the Knowable, as Krishna describes it.