Gita Rahasya -Tilak 270

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF


that is, "all this was first covered up by darkness (tamas), and it was undiscernible and as if in a sleeping state, so that it would be impossible to differentiate between one thing and another ; thereafter, the imperceptible Paramatman entered it and first created water" [1]. Such and other different descriptions about the Fundamental Substance existing at the commencement of the universe must have been in vogue even at the time of the Nasadiya-Sukta; and the question as to which of these Fundamental Substances, was the really fundamental one, must also then have arisen. Therefore, the Rsi of that hymn gives the following explana- tion, in order to explain what the truth ( bija ) about the whole thing was in the following words :

nasadasin no sad asit tadanim,

nasid rajo no vyoma paro yat I

kim avarivah kuha kasya sarma-

nnambhah kim asid gahanam gabhiram II 1 II that is : (1) "then, that is, in the beginning, there was neither asat, nor sat, nor the firmament ( antariksa ), nor the ether (akasa ) beyond it. ( In this state ) who ( can be said to have ) covered ( whom ) ? Where ? For whose benefit ? Was there (even ) unfathomable and deep water ?"[2]

na mrtyur asid amrtam na tarhi

na ratrya anha asit praketah I

anid avatam svadhaya tad ekam

tasmad dhanyan na parah kimcanasa II 2 II that is: (2) "then, death, that is, the perishable, visible, mortal universe was not existing ; and, therefore, there was not (the distinction of) also (another) amrta, i. e., imperishable, eternal substance. (Similarly) there was no means ( = praketa) for finding out the difference between day and night. (Whatever there was) That solitary thing was breathing, that is, throbbing by svadha, that is, by its own power, without there being any air. Except or beyond that, there was nothing."

tama asit tamasa gudham agre

'praketam salilam sarvama idam I

tucchenabhvapihitam yad asit

tapasas tan mahina 'jayataikam ll 3 ll

that is : (3) "though there was (said to be) darkness in the beginning ; or that all this was water enveloped in darkness devoid of any differentiation ; ( or ) that abhu, that is, the all- pervading Brahman was ( from the beginning ) covered by tuccha, that is, by illusory Maya ; yet, that came into existence as a result of austerity (subsequently, by transformation), from the fundamentally one Brahman [3]


kamas tad agre samavartatadhi

manaso retah prathamam yad asit l

sato bandhum asah niravindan

hrdi pratisya kavayo manisa II 4 II

that is : (4) "the semen, that is, the seed of the Mind (of This) which first came into existence, became Kama (that is, the desire or the power to create the world). (This is) the (first) relation between sat, that is, the perishable visible world, and



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References And Context

  1. ↑ ( Manu. 1. 5 — 8 )
  2. ↑ First red : — I have given the above meaning, analysing the words 'kim asid' in the fourth line as "asit kim"; and the purport of it is, "water did not exist then" ( Tai. Bra, 2. 2. 9 ). .as a result of austerity (subsequently, by transformation), from the fundamentally one Brahman"
  3. ↑ Third Tea: — Soma commentators consider the first three lines of this stanza as independent, and interpret it by saying that in the beginning of the universe, there was "darkness, or water covered by darkness, or abhu (void) covered by tuccha". But, according to me that interpretation is not correct. Because, if in the first two stanzas there i 6 a clear statement that nothing whatso- ever existed in the beginning, it is not possible that it should be stated in this rca that there was in the beginning either darkness or water — which is something quite the opposite. Besides, accord- ing to this interpretation, the word yat in the third part of the stanza has to be considered meaningless; therefore, it becomes necessary to refer the word l yat, in the third part of the stanza, to the word 'fat' in the fourth part, and to interpret the stanza as has been done by me above. This Tea has been included in this hymn as an answer to those persons who maintained that there were in the beginning substances like water etc.; and what the Rsi intended to say was that there were no fundamental substances like darkness, water etc., as was said by these people, but that, all that was the further development of one and the same Brahman. As the two words ‘tuccha' and 'abhu' are mutually opposite, the word abhu means opposite of tuccha, that is to say, big or powerful, and the same meaning has been given to it by Sayanacarya in the other two places where that word occurs in the Rg-Veda ( Rg. 10. 27. 1, 4). In the Pancadasi (Chitra. 129, 130 ), the word tuccha has been interpreted as meaning Maya ( See Nrsim. Utta. 9). Therefore, abhu has not to be interpreted as meaning 'void' but as Parabr hman. The word ah (a + as) in the phrase 'sarvam ah Idam’ is the past tense form of the root ‘as’, and it means 'asit', that is, 'was'.