The Highest Knowledge
sribhagavan, uvaca
1. param bhuyah pravak.sydmi
jnananam pnanam uttamam
ye jnatva munayar sarve
haram siddhiin ito gatah
The Blessed Lord said.
1) I shall again declare that Supremc wisdom, of all wisdom the best, by knowing which all sages have passed from this world to the highest perfection
2. idam jnanam upasritya mama
sddharmyam agatah sarge
`pi no 'pajuyante
pralaye na vyathanti ca
(2) Having resorted to this wisdom and become of like nature to Me, they are not born at the time of creation ; nor are they disturbed at the time of dissolution
Life eternal is not dissolution into the indefinable Absolute but attainment of a univeisality and freedom of spirit, which is lifted above the empirical movement Its status is unaffected by the cyclic processes of creation and dissolution, being superior to all manifestations. The saved soul grows into the likeness of the Divine and assumes an unchangeable being, eternally conscious of the Supreme .Lord who assumes varied cosmic forms. It is not svarupata or identity but only samanadharmata or similarity of quality. He becomes one in nature with what he seeks, attains sadrgvaanuskti. He realizes the divine in his outer consciousness and life. Cp. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matthew v, 48 's view is different from this He holds that sadharmyam means identity of nature and not equality of attributes.[1]
3. mama yonir mahad brahma
tasmin garbham dadhdmy aham
sambhavah sarvabhutanam
tato bhavati bharata
(3) Great brahma (prakrti) is My womb: in that I cast the seed and from it is the birth of all beings, 0 Bharata (Arjuna) If we were merely products of nature, we could not attain life eternal. This verse affirms that all existence is a manifestation of the Divine. He is the cosmic seed. With reference to this world, He becomes Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic soul. . says : "I unite the ksetra with the ksetrajna, giving birth to Hiranyagarbha, hence to all beings." The Lord is the Father who deposits in the womb which is not-self, the seed which is essential life, thus causing the birth of every individual. The world is the play of the Infinite on the finite See note on II, 12. The author here adopts the theory of creation as the development of form from non-being, chaos or night. The forms of all things which arise out of the abysmal void are derived from God. They are the seeds He casts into non-being
4. sarvayonisu kaunteya
murtayah sarhbhavanti ydh
tasam brahma mahad
yonir aham bijapradah pita
(4) Whatever forms are produced in any wombs whatsoever, 0 Son of Kunti (Arjuna), great brahma is their womb and I am the Father who casts the seed.
Prakrti is the mother and God is the father of all living forms As prakrti is also of the nature of God, God is the father and mother of the universe. He is the seed and the womb of tilt universe This conception is utilized in certain forns of worship which are developed out of what some modern puritans deride as obscene phallicism The Spirit of God fertilizes our lives and makes them what God wants them to be. The Supreme is the Seminal Reason of the world. All beings result from the impregnation of matter through logoi spermatikoi or animating souls. Through them God carries out His work in the world. These seeds of the Loos are the ideal forms which mould the gross world of matter into beings. The ideas, the patterns of things to be, are all in God Every possibility of manifestation has its root in a corresponding possibility in the un manifest, wherein it subsists as in its eternal cause, of which the manifestation is an explicit affirmation. God has an eternal vision of creation in all its details. Whereas in Socrates and Plato, ideas and matter are conceived as a dualism, where the relation between the subtle world of ideas and the gross world of matter is difficult to understand, in the Gita the two are said to belong to the Divine God Himself incarnates the seminal ideas in the forms of the gross world. These seminal ideas which have a divine origin, which belong to the causal Logos are the explanation of our love for God. While God is in one sense transcendent to human nature, there is also in the soul a direct expression of the Divine. The cosmic process continues until the causal origin, alpha, and the final consummation, omega, coincide.
