Gita Rahasya -Tilak 273

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER IX THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF The word 'tapa’ in this rca is intended to describe the wonderful Spiritual: power of the fundamental Brahman, and the same thing is' described in the fourth rca. . It need not be' said that that Fundamental Substance, the result of the- prowess of Which is this entire universe, according to the- saying : etavan asya mahima 'to jyayams ca purusah" , is beyond such universe and superior to and different from everything. But, though this Rsi had, in this - way, at a stroke cast off all Dualistic couples like, the object to be seen and the observer, the enjoyer and the enjoyed, the clother and the clothed, darkness and light, mortal and immortal etc., and come to the conclusion that there was fundamentally only one unmixed wonderful Parabrahman in the form of Consciousness ( i. e., cidrupi ), yet, when he was faced with the problem of having to explain how the diverse, perishable, qualityful, Name-d and Form-ed universe, consisting of the couples of water etc. or the three-constituented Prakrti from which it ( the universe ) sprang, had come into existence out of this ONE and sole, indescribable, and qualityless Element, he had to take shelter under the Dualistic terminology of Mind, Desire, asat, sat etc., and he ultimately frankly admits that this question is beyond the grasp of human Reason. In the fourth k5, the fundamental Brahman has been referred to as asat; but that ward cannot be interpreted as meaning 'nothing'; because, already in the second rca, there is a clear statement that ' It is'. Not only in this hymn, but in the Rg-Veda and the Vajasaneyi Samhita, moot questions have been asked, making use of the language of ordinary parlance, by comparing the visible world with a sacrifice ( yajna ), and asking from where the ingredients such as, clarified butter, dried sticks etc. necessary for performing the yajna were initially brought ; or, by taking the illustration of a house, and asking the question as to from where the timber ( funda- mental Prakrti ) for constructing this imposing edifice of ether and the earth, which is actually visible to the eyes, out of one Fundamental qualityless Substance, was brought; such as, "kim svid vanam ka u sa vrksa asa yato dyavaprthivi nistataksuh .