ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः ।
मनःषष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ १५.७ ॥
शरीरं यदवाप्नोति यच्चाप्युत्क्रामतीश्वरः ।
गृहीत्वैतानि संयाति वायुर्गन्धानिवाशयात् ॥ १५.८ ॥

mamaivāṃśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūta: sanātana: |
mana:ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛtisthāni karṣati || 15.7 ||
śarīraṃ yad-avāpnoti yaccāpy-utkrāmatīśvara: |
gṛhītvaitāni saṃyāti vāyur-gandhānivāśayāt || 15.8 ||

Audio-BG-15.7

Audio-BG-15.8

Contemplation on Power of animation

With a few striking words Krishna emphasizes that the brilliance called ‘life’ is no other than the eternal supreme Reality itself, the one Great Divinity enfolding and sustaining the whole creation. His effort is to awaken the sādhaka to the importance of understanding the majesty and magnificence of the supreme Power that resides within the body – a point that eludes most people, even seekers.

The Soul (jīva) manifesting the power called ‘life’ abiding in the body is eternal and a part of the supreme Reality itself. It draws the five senses and the mind from the elemental nature.

And like wind carrying fragrances from their seats, it takes away these six powers while exiting from the body.

The supreme Reality from which the visible creation has emanated, which interpenetrates the whole manifold existence, is itself imperceptible to the senses and even inconceivable to begin with. As such the whole grandeur is inaccessible to human comprehension.

But the supreme Reality manifests as the power or spirit called life. It is as though a part of the Supreme has itself become life or the enlivening power that animates and activates one’s body. It is something to be contemplated upon, conceived in its full potential and glory. In fact, this is the only goal of spiritual sādhanā.

While the body is mortal, this animating power is immortal (sanātanaḥ). Where there is life, there alone we find the glory of the Supreme manifest. So Krishna says that the supreme Reality has become the manifest jīva (life) and jivabhūtaḥ (living power). In earth, where survive various kinds of life forms, the Supreme has manifested as life and animation.

To have a glimpse of the profundity, potency and grandeur of this inner power as a distinct expression of the Supreme, Krishna draws attention to the fact that the whole group of senses, as well as their powers, is evolved by this Power of Animation. He speaks of the senses as six (ṣaṣṭhāni-indriyāṇi). Of these eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin constitute the five. And mind itself is the sixth. Mind is called a sense because, like the other senses, its function also is to perceive. The bodily senses perceive outer objects, whereas the internal mind perceives internal processes like thoughts, feelings, emotions, memory, etc. In both cases it is perception or comprehension that takes place.

This inner Power of Animation is what holds the power of the senses. The senses left to themselves are inert. To illustrate this fact, Krishna says that when the life-forces depart, the senses, which were till then functional become functionless. A person’s eyes and ears may be quite healthy, intact. Suddenly, if his life forces become inoperative making him dead, neither the senses nor the mind will be active in him thereafter. At the same time, if a healthy part, like the cornea, is taken out and grafted to a blind person, then the latter begins to see.

That which could not bring about vision in the dead body, suddenly enables vision in a living body. What does this mean? The actual perception is not just due to the sense organs, but the perceiving Spirit within. Hearing, seeing, holding, tasting, smelling and touching are actually the powers and potentials of the animating agent, the life itself, and not of the senses. This is a point people mostly fail to grasp.

Can we imagine such a magnificent source that holds all these powers? It can only be something great, stupendous, incomprehensible and transcendental! Every sense is unique and exclusive in its place and function. Take the eye for instance. It can only see, not hear or smell or feel or taste. Very small though, the eye is capable of observing infinite distances and variety. That is how we are able to see the sun, moon, stars and the rest in great distances. We also have a clear vision of the endless sky.

Notions like infinitude, endlessness, manifoldness, multiple dimensions etc. are brought about by the eyes alone. But the eyes are just external perishable instruments in the process of external comprehension. What verily employs the eyes and other senses, connects them with the objects around and causes comprehension, is the Power of animation in the body, which is invisible, internal and supra-material.

To have a glimpse of it, Krishna first of all takes the seeker to the instance of death, when suddenly all the sensory functions cease. Though physically sense organs are healthy and can fulfill their roles, life spirit being absent, they become useless. This implies that it is the Power of animation that empowers senses as well as renders them powerless.

The same Power also generates the entire physical aggregate called the body. For example, how does a foetus grow in the womb? Right from the moment of fertilization of female ovum by male sperm, there is no external interference at all in empowering growth of the fertilized ovum. Power and potential that brings about growth of each part, organ and its function in the foetus is not at all external.

Blood cells from the mother at best carry food and nourishment for the foetus to grow. All the cells are just physical in nature. In fact, blood itself is generated from food and nourishment that the mother takes in response to her hunger, thirst and taste. All the food substances are inert. But when digested and assimilated in the alimentary canal, they become hot living blood in a few hours. Who administers this livingness to the food substances taken by us?

Evidently it is the potential and Power of animation itself. The same potential is what formulates the various organs and parts of the body. Eyes are its handicraft. Ears and other senses too. The same is the truth about hands, feet and other physical organs and their functions. Together they enable an adult individual to interact with this endless world, comprehend its infinite magnitude, think, know, probe into virtually any sphere of this endlessness.

To whom or which factor can this be attributed? Initially to the body and its parts. But when one thinks about death, which makes the body useless, then he is obliged to think of the inlying Power of animation, which alone holds the key to this multiple potential. And this Power, the jīva, is but a part of the supreme Reality itself. In a way it is the Lord of Nature, whose manifestation this huge endless world is.

Krishna said, when death befalls the body, jīva transits taking the power of the senses away with it. He had explained it in the second chapter too. Just as one removes used clothes and puts on fresh ones, so does the Soul leave the body and take to another. There also Krishna has used the word saṃyāti, as in this verse. This is more to make the seeker think of the jīva as different from the body and the senses.