Bhagavadgita -Radhakrishnan 176

The Bhagavadgita -S. Radhakrishnan

CHAPTER 8 The Course of Cosmic Evolution Arjuna Questions arjuna uvaca 1. kim tad brahma kim adhydtmam kith karma pursuottama adhibhatath ca kim proktamadhidaivat kim ucyate Arjuna said : (1.) What is Brahman (or the Absolute) ? What is the Self and what is action, 0 the Best of persons? What Is said to be the domain of the elements? What is called the domain of the gods? What is present in the self (adhydtmam) ? What is present in the gods (adhiya-inam) ? What is present in the sacrifice (jnam) ? What is present in all beings (adhibhutam) ? The answer to these questions is that the Supreme Spirit pervades all created beings, all sacrifices, all deities and all work. These are only the varied expressions of the Supreme. 2. adkiyajnah katham ko 'Ira deem ' min madhusudan i prayaiakale ca Latham jñeyo 'sib niyatatmabhih (2) What is the domain (part) of sacrifice in this body and how, o Madhusudana (Krsna). How again art Thou to be known at the time of departure by the self-controlled? How art Thou revealed at the hour of death to the spiritual-minded ? Krsna Answers sribhagavan uvaca 3. aksaram brahma parama svabhavo 'dhyatmcm ucyate bhubhutabhavodbhavakaro visargah karmasamjnitah The Blessed Lord said : (3) Brahman (or the Absolute) is the indestructible, the Supreme (higher than all else), essential nature is called the Self Karma is the name given to the creative force that brings beings into existence svabhavah: Brahman assumes the form of j iva, Chap. XV, 7. ctdhyatma. the lord of the body, the enjoyer. It is the phase of the Divine which constitutes the individual self. Brahman is the immutable self-existence on which all that lives, moves and has its being rests. Self is the spirit in man and nature. Karma is the creative impulse out of which life's forms issue. The whole cosmic evolution is called karma. The Supreme undertakes it and there is no reason why the individual jiva should not take part in it. The Immutable which is above all dualities of subject and object, becomes, from the cosmic end, the eternal subject, adhyatrna, facing the eternal object which is mutable in nature, prakrti, the receptacle of all forms, while karma is the creative force, the principle of movement. All these are not independent but are the manifestations of the one Supreme. The subject-object interaction which is the central pattern of the cosmos is the expression of Brahman, the Absolute Spirit which is above the distinctions of subject and object. Mundukya Up. affirms that while the Absolute is indescribable, qualitvless, the living God is the ruler of the world, the indwelling soul. The distinction between Godhead and God, the Absolute and the Personal God, Brahman and Isvara, is clearly enunciated in this Upanisad. The personal God is the cosmic Lord, while Brahman is the supra-cosmic reality. 4. adhibhutam ksaro bhavah purusas cã 'dhidaivatam adhiyajno 'ham eva 'tra dehe dehabhrtalit vara (4) The basis of all created things is the mutable nature: the basis of the divine elements is the cosmic spirit. And the basis of all sacrifices, here in the body is Myself, 0 Best of embodied beings (Arjuna). Here again the author wishes us to possess an integral know-ledge of the Divine in all aspects. There is the Immutable Divine, Brahman; there is the Personal God Isvara, the object of all devotion ; there is the Cosmic Self, Hiranyagarbha the presiding deity of the cosmos, and the j Iva the individual soul which partakes of the higher nature of the Divine and prakrti the mutable nature. See VII, 4 if. The Soul goes to that on which it is set at the Moment of Dissolution 5. antakale ca mam eva smaran muktva kalevaram yah prayati sa madbhavarh yati na 'sty atra samsayah (5) And whoever, at the time of death, gives up his- body and departs, thinking of Me alone, he comes to My status (of being) ; of that there is no doubt. This verse takes up the point raised in VII, 30. The importance of the state of mind at the moment of death is emphasized in the Upanisads. Chandogya, III, 14, I ; Prasna, III, 10. We will think of God in the last moments only if we are devoted to Him previously also.