Commentary on the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

Purushah prakriti-stho hi bhunkte prakrti-jan gunan, karanam guna-sango’sya:The reason for this so-called enjoyment and suffering of the purusha is its contact with the gunas of prakriti – sattva, rajas, tamas. And, as I mentioned, the threefold contact brings about a threefold experience – pleasurable, or unpleasurable, or static. Because of repeated contact and getting habituated to this kind of contact with sattva, rajas, tamas, the purusha – as it were, indescribably though – forgets its original universality, and develops a tendency to get involved in the fulfilment of its own limited desires, the limitation being caused by the rajoguna prakriti with which also it comes in contact. Just as a lion cub that is lost may end up in a flock of sheep, and may bleat like a sheep though it is actually a lion, the Universal Purusha bleats like an individual on account of its contact with the distracting qualities of rajas and tamas, and it is born in various species. Karanam guna-sango’sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu: It can be born as celestials in heaven, it can be born as gandharvas, yakshas, kinnaras, it can be born as human beings, it can be born as animals or even as plants, trees and stone. But there is a universal witness behind all this drama that is taking place. What is that witness?

Updrashtanumanta cha bharta bhokta mahesvarah, paramatmeti chapy ukto dehe’smin purushah parah (13.22): In spite of all this drama of involvement – the joy and sorrow of birth in various species of yonis – there is hope. Just as the witness in waking consciousness is unaffected even by the suffering and enjoyment in dream, there is a Supreme Witness who remains unaffected by our experiences in waking consciousness. We have all kinds of experiences in the dream world: birth and death, joy and sorrow, and every kind of thing conceivable in this world. Notwithstanding the fact of this drama that is taking place in the dream world, the consciousness of waking seems to be there as an upadrashta – as a witness thereof. Though it does not seem to be operative in the light of the mind’s involvement in the dream world, actually the fact that there is a witnessing consciousness transcending the dream world can be known when we wake up from dream and find ourselves totally unaffected by the events of the dream world. This will happen to us when we attain liberation in Paramatma – the Supreme Purusha, the transcendent witness of all these dream-like experiences of the struggle of life through the contact of the gunas of prakriti.

Ya evam vetti purusham (13.23): Whoever knows this Supreme Purusha in this manner as described in this chapter, together with the dramatic performances of prakriti – prakritim cha gunaih saha – let him live in any manner he likes. He is a liberated person. Sarvatha vartamano’pi na sa bhuyo’bhijayate: Because of knowing this, that person will not be reborn. Again I have to emphasise, knowing does not mean reading the Gita and intellectually comprehending the linguistic meaning or the dictionary meaning of the word, but imbibing the spirit of the teaching, making it part and parcel of our very blood and veins. Such a person who has this knowledge which is identical with being can behave in any way – sarvatha vartamano’pi – but there will be no rebirth, because no karma accrues to that person.

Now there is a reference, as a kind of diversion, as it were, to the methods of practice. How are we to come in contact with this Supreme Being? Varieties of sadhana are mentioned in different places in the Bhagavadgita, and some of the diversities of sadhana are stated in the Fourth Chapter: daivam evapare yajnam yoginah paryupasate, brahmagnav apare yajnam yajnenaivopajuhvati (4.25), etc. Here also there is a brief statement of the varieties of spiritual practice – sadhana.

Some people try to behold the Supreme Being by meditation, pure and simple. Dhyanenatmani pasyanti kechid atamanam atmana (13.24): By intense concentration on the pure Self, some people try to behold the Self in the self. That is, they behold the universal Self in their own self, and they behold their own self in the universal Self. Similar to that is this statement: yo mam pasyati sarvatra sarvam cha mayi pasyati (6.30). Atmana atmanam janati: By the self, the Self is known. The higher Self is known through the lower self. The lower self merges itself in the higher Self. It is in that manner that the Self is known through the self, by the self, by intense meditation on the nature of the higher Self.

Dhyanenatmani pasyanti kechid atamanam atmana, anye sankhyena yogena: There are others who contemplate on the categories of the manifestation of the world as delineated in the Sankhya; that is also a way of sadhana. The twenty-four categories of creation mentioned in the Sankhya doctrine reveal the fact that our individuality is also constituted of the same universal categories and, therefore, we do not stand independently as persons by ourselves. Thus, our personality-consciousness and ego-consciousness automatically vanish even by contemplation on the twenty-four tattvas of the Sankhya. Hence, some attain the state of perfection by the Sankhya category also, and by the methods of yoga practice that are described to us in the sutras of Patanjali or any other yoga: mantra yoga, dhyana yoga, laya yoga, japa yoga, kundalini yoga. There are all kinds of yogas. As yoga is mentioned together with Sankhya, we may appreciate that the yoga referred to here is almost similar to the ashtanga yoga of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and to samapatti or samadhi, which is based on the Sankhya categories themselves.

Karma-yogena chapare: There are some, like Raja Janaka, who attained perfection only through action, because actually they do not perform any action. Brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahma-karma-samadhina (4.24): The performer of the action, the deed that is performed, and the process of the action are all like the waters of the ocean rumbling within themselves and, therefore, nobody does any action. Even when a person is intensely active, actually no action is taking place; that is the nature of the supreme karmayogin. By that karma yoga, which is also a method of contemplation and dhyana, one can attain God.

Anye tv evam ajanantah srutvanyebhya upasate (13.25): There are others who cannot do these things. They cannot meditate; they cannot contemplate the Self by the self; they cannot meditate on the categories of Sankhya; they cannot engage themselves in the ashtanga yoga of Patanjali; they cannot do karma yoga. What should they do? The compassionate Lord says: “They also reach Me, who merely listen to My glories and the glories of this knowledge in satsangas.” Anye ajanantah evam: Not knowing the difficult techniques of practice that have been mentioned, they can attain perfection only by hearing – srutva. Satsanga is a very potent method of self-purification. If the satsanga is properly conducted and we are honest in our participation in that satsanga, that satsanga itself will be sufficient not only for purification of the self, but it will even act as a supreme meditation itself. We will be in ecstasy at that time. As Tulsidas says, binu satsanga viveka na hoi: Without satsanga, discrimination does not dawn. Anye tv evam ajanantah srutvanyebhya upasate: By merely hearing the glories through satsanga, people also attain perfection. Te’pi chatitaranty eva mrtyum sruti-parayanah: Therefore, all of you will attain moksha. You will not be reborn, because at least you have heard what is being said. God is very compassionate. He will not harass you with hard disciplines. Listen, hear, and absorb this knowledge into yourself. You will cross over the realm of death – mrtyum atitaranti.

Yavat samjayate kinchit sattvam sthavar-jangamam, kshetra-kshetrajna-samyogat tad viddhi bharatarshabha (13.26): All the manifestation, living or nonliving, is due to a combination of kshetra and kshetrajna, a manifold type of contact of purusha with prakriti in various degrees of ascent and descent. In the higher realms of celestials where existence is transparent, the contact of purusha with prakriti is rarefied. Existence becomes more and more gross as the rajasic and the tamasic qualities of prakriti become more predominant. Sattva is supposed to be predominant in the heavenly regions; rajasic qualities are predominant in the human realm, and tamas is predominant in the nether regions. But whatever be the contact through sattva or rajas or tamas – experiences either in heaven, in this mortal world or in the lower realm – every experience is a result of the contact of purusha with prakriti in various ways. Kshetra kshetrajna samyogat tadviddhi bharatarshabha: Anything that is born has significance as an individual only because both purusha and prakriti are set together in some proportion.

Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam paramesvaram, vinasyatsv avinasyantam yah pasyati sa pasyati (13.27): Again we are brought back to the transcendent existence of an equally distributed consciousness – not a little purusha coming in contact with prakriti, but something transcending the contact of purusha with prakriti. Upadrashta, anumanta and paramatma were mentioned earlier, and something similar is repeated in this verse. Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam: That Being is equally present in all as the self of all. It is the self of the ant and the elephant and the human being and the god. The distinction among them is due to the appearance of their subtle bodies and gross bodies, but the life that is behind the subtle and gross bodies is common – as sunlight is common but appears to be coloured or distorted according to the nature of the glasses that we put on. Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishthantam paramesvaram: The Supreme Lord exists in an equilibrated fashion everywhere.

Vinasyatsu avinasyantam: Deathless in the midst of dying individuals. People die, everything perishes, and all things get destroyed. Yah pasyati sa pasyati: But in the midst of this destruction taking place perennially, perpetually, right from creation – in the midst of this flux and destruction and movement – there is an unmoving Eternity. Whoever knows that really knows the truth. We should not get involved in the fluxation of prakriti, but should withdraw our consciousness to that transcendent element which witnesses this drama of prakriti: vinasyatsv avinasyantam yah pasyati sa pasyati.

Samam pasyan hi sarvatra samavasthitam isvaram, na hinasty atmanatmanam tato yati param gatim (16.28): Mostly we kill the Self with the self – hinasty atmanatmanam. A kind of atma hatya is going on when the Self is forgotten and only objects are remembered. Only external things are in that person’s memory; the Self is completely obliterated from experience. That state of affairs – where the consciousness of the Self being there is completely obscured by intense concentration on objects outside – is called spiritual suicide; it is killing the Self with the self. That is, we do not know that we are existing at all as the Self. We know that there is a world outside, we are busy with things outside, but we are not busy with our Self. But having known the equally distributed consciousness of the Paramatman, equally distributed Eternity – knowing This, seeing This, beholding It, and contemplating It, one will not be subject to this otherwise-common experience of self-destruction; and knowing this, one attains to the supreme state, param gatim yati.