Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Naham prakashah sarvasya (7.25): “Everybody cannot see Me. I am not visible to all people.” Only our soul can behold It – not our sense organs, not our sentiments, and not our longing or desire. Yoga-maya-samavritah: “I have covered Myself with the veil of the presentation of this world of prakriti – sattva, rajas and tamas.” The Absolute has put on a dress, as it were, and we see only this dress of the manifestation in the form of the three gunas of prakriti. When we open our eyes and see, we see only the manifestation of prakriti in the form of this world – the three gunas. The essence behind it, the purusha behind the prakriti, is not cognised by the vision of our eyes or the action of any of our sense organs. Naham prakashah sarvasya yoga-maya-samavritah. Here, yogamaya means the veil that God seems to be putting on Himself in the form of His creation. The radiance of the sun may blind our eyes to such an extent that we may not be able to see the sun. Tattvam pushannapavrinu satyadharmaya drishtaye is a prayer in the Isavasya Upanishad: “O Sun! Withdraw your rays, the golden cover that you are hiding yourself with, so that I may behold you in your essence.” The glory of God in the form of this creation blinds our eyes to such an extent that we cannot see God behind this glory. The radiance of a nugget of gold may blind us to the real perception of it. So too is the wonder of this world that tantalises us, attracts us, promises us all things, and gives us immense satisfaction. It is a cover that God has put on Himself so that we may be blinded with the attraction for the things of sense – which is the veil that is referred to as maya – and, therefore, we will not be able to behold Him that is behind. We will see the dramatic personae, but the director Himself is not seen.

Mudho’yam nabhijanati loko mam ajam avyayam: “I am the eternal in the process of time, but the temporal mind that is in this world of space and time concentrates itself only on that which is visible to the eyes.” Mudha is the word that is used here. Fools are they, idiots, who think that the visible is the real while the invisible alone is the real. They go for the objects of visible perception. The invisible does not attract them in any way whatsoever because all attraction is sensory, and the senses cannot see or behold that which is unmanifest. They see only the manifest world of sense objects. Therefore, deluded are these people. Mudho’yam nabhijanati loko mam ajam avyayam: “The immortal and uncreated essence that I am cannot be beheld by deluded people who only look through their eyes, hear through their ears, and enjoy through their physical personality.”

Vedaham samatitani vartamanani charjuna (7.26): “I know everything, Arjuna, but you do not know anything. I know all that was, all that is, and all that will be.” Sri Krishna also says, “I too have undergone many a form. Several incarnations I have taken, as you also have taken several incarnations, Arjuna. The only difference is that I know that I have passed through all these stages of incarnations, but you do not know that you have undergone these incarnations. I have detached myself from the forms in which I appear to people, whereas you are attached to the form that you appear to your own self.” Vedaham samatitani vartamanani charjuna, bhavishyani cha bhutani mam tu veda na kaschana: “I know everything, but nobody can know me. I know everything because I am the universal light that permeates all things, and even the vision of the individuals is just a modicum of the reflection of this universal light.” So, It knows everything. It also knows how the individuals perceive things, but the individuals cannot know what is behind them.

Plato gives us the allegory of the cave. People are bound hand and foot in a dark cave for their entire life, without being able to see the entrance to the cave. But the entrance is open, and sunlight enters and falls on the wall of the cave. People are walking in the sunlight on the road above, and their shadows appear on the wall. The prisoners watch these two-dimensional shadow images dancing on the wall. Because they have been bound hand and foot right from the beginning and have never seen sunlight, they think that this is the only reality. They do not know what light is. They have always been under the impression that the whole world of reality is this two-dimensional dance. This world is three-dimensional; but reality is four-dimensional. We are unable to conceive the four-dimensional reality, which is timeless and spaceless, because of our being bound to the concept of three dimensions – length, breadth and height only. But suppose these prisoners are released and they are brought to the sunlit road. They will be surprised to see three-dimensional figures – people walking – and they will be blinded by the sunlight. They will not know what has happened to them, because they have seen only the two-dimensional shadows cast by the light falling on the people who were walking on the road.

Due to a peculiar structure of our sense organs and mind, we see things only as length, breadth and height, even though there is no such thing as length, breadth and height. It is an illusion that is created by the peculiar structure of our sense organs. There are actually no dimensions. That the world is dimensionless is proclaimed today by our modern scientific experts. So Sri Krishna says, “I know everything; but the world of three dimensions cannot know the four-dimensional Eternal.” Vedaham samatitani vartamanani charjuna, bhavishyani cha bhutani mam tu veda na kaschana: The four-dimensional Universal knows everything that is taking place in the three-dimensional world; but people bound to three-dimensional perception cannot know the transcendent, which is of four dimensions.

We think that there is no such thing as four dimensions, because we cannot imagine what it is. Dimensions are only length, breadth and height. What is the fourth dimension? That is the Universal. Nobody knows what universality is because they know only subjectivity and externality. The total universality is completely obliterated from our perception. It is only a dream for us, an imagination and an abstract concept. Yet, that is the true reality. The universal four-dimensional continuum – which is neither space nor time nor object nor anything solid – is the reality, though we mistake solid, three-dimensional objects to be realities. Hence, the Immortal Being, the timeless four-dimensional essence, says: “The Universal that I am, I know everything – past, present and future.” Because in a spaceless and timeless existence there is no past, present and future, at once there is a grasp of eternal instantaneous knowledge in the Supreme Absolute. One grasp is equal to a total grasp. The past, present and future are in the palm of our hand, as it were, because the past, present and future do not actually exist. They are only a three-partite division created by a peculiar structure of our mind and sense organs. At least in this sense, the world is illusory. It is not as it appears to be. Things are not what they seem.

Iccha-dvesha samutthena dvandva-mohena bharata, sarva-bhutani sammoham sarge yanti parantapa (7.27): The moment we are born, we are born into delusion. It is said in the Bhagavata Purana that when a child is in the womb it knows its previous existence. It weeps and cries: “Why I am in this womb? Is it because of the karmas of my past? O Narayana! I shall not commit these mistakes, due to which I am in this womb now. I shall never make such mistakes.” Tam prapadye narayanam: “I will always resort to Narayana and will never commit such mistakes which cause me to be born into the world.” Once the child comes out into the world, it forgets everything. The moment we are born into this world, the maya of the three dimensions, the prakritis, the gunas, catch hold of us to such an extent that all these prayers we made in the womb vanish into thin air and we are once again the same idiots, and know not what has happened to us; and we commit the same blunder. The mistake of erroneous perception is born together with the biological tabernacle which we put on at the time of birth. Ignorance is born with us; and we get deluded right from childhood itself, right from babyhood, right from the time of coming into existence in this world.

What is the reason for this? Iccha dvesha samutthena: Throughout the different incarnations, the soul has been involved in likes and dislikes. There is no way of thinking except through likes and dislikes. Analytically, psychoanalytically, we should go deep into our own mind and see if we can think without the touch of love and hatred. It is impossible for us to think anything without a touch of some like for something and dislike for something else. Therefore, this division that we have unnecessarily created in our psyche creates a split personality in our own self. We are not whole persons at any time. We are double dealers, two-partite fractions, as it were, dovetailed together – like Jarasandha.

Jarasandha, a famous man in the Mahabharata, was born in two halves due to a defect in the process of conception; and because a demoness called Jara joined the two pieces together, he was called Jarasandha. Likewise, we are Jarasandhas. We are two different things altogether. The love aspect and the hatred aspect of our personality become dovetailed into a single individuality, as it were, making it appear that we are one individual. Actually we are two individuals, loving and hating people. Therefore, our perceptions are dual, and we never have an integrated perception of anything. There is non-alignment of our inner psyche. We are double-dealers in our own selves, let alone in respect of other people.

Iccha-dvesha samutthena: because of this involvement in love and hatred. Dvandva-mohena bharata: Because of the delusion that this dvandva, or duality, is the source of joy. Don’t we think that it is a great happiness to be in a state of love and hatred? “I love this immensely, and hate that immensely”: this is the way that we live in this world, and it gives us great satisfaction. It is a great satisfaction to love something, and it is a greater satisfaction to hate something. Both are satisfactions only; and it is this kind of satisfaction that we are having in this world. Mudho’yam nabhijanati: The idiotic mind does not understand anything. Iccha dvesha samutthena dvandva mohena bharata, sarvabhutani sammoham sarge yanti parantapa: All beings are deluded in this fashion. They see topsy-turvy. They do not know what is behind things. But – the ‘but’ will be discussed tomorrow.