The Philosophy of the Bhagavadgita

by Swami Krishnananda

“I am the Knower in all fields, and not merely in one field.” The Atman in my body is not confined to this body only; it is the Atman uniformly present in all other bodies, also. And, so, there is a necessity to understand the distinction between the Knower of the Field, the Field, the nature of Knowledge, and the Goal of Knowledge. These are the themes of the Thirteenth Chapter. The subject who is the individual percipient, or the conscious observer of things, is the conglomerate psycho-physical complex. This body constituted of the five gross elements of earth, water, fire, air and ether, and animated by the mind inside, working with the instrument of the intellect, filled with desires, is the subject proper. Here is a reference made to the Samkhya cosmological principles when, by suggestion, the principles of ahamkara, mahat (buddhi) and the avyakta (prakriti) are indicated. With these and the five elements the cosmic structure is complete. These very same principles with the ten sense organs and the mind constitute the individual. This individual complex which is physical as well as psychological at the same time, mind and body inseparably related, is the individual percipient, the empirical knower. And a knower is one who has knowledge. And what is correct knowledge, or right knowledge, or proper knowledge, and what is the opposite of it, is also mentioned further on.

In this categorisation of the various components of correct knowledge some sort of system or order appears to have been followed. In the beginning virtues such as humility, unpretentiousness, etc., are mentioned, which are supposed to be the endowments of the student, a brahmacharin, a disciple working and studying under a Guru. For, together with this requirement of ethical qualities, we are told that one should be endowed with the requisites of servicefulness to the Guru, the Master, the Teacher. Purity of thought, purity of word and purity of deed is again emphasised. Detachment, at the same time, is pointed out once again as an indispensable. Gradual withdrawal from external entanglements of every kind, culminating in the perception of the transiency of all things, the perishability of all objects, devotion to God, and the recognition of the existence of an eternal Reality behind all phenomena; all this is supposed to be knowledge. Perhaps, there is some subtle reference made to the various stages, or the Ashramas — Brahmacharya, Garhasthya, Vanaprasthya and Sannyasa — impliedly, in the suggestive verses. Every character, conduct, behaviour, action and outlook that is going to tend towards the acceptance of God’s ultimate supremacy, perfection and absoluteness is to be considered as knowledge, and everything else is ignorance. To move towards God, and to feel an aspiration for God-realisation is knowledge, and ultimate or final knowledge is the conviction that God alone is, and nothing else ever can be. And if our understanding varies from this conclusion we are in a state of ignorance. Here is the substance, the character of right knowledge.

That which is to be known is the object of knowledge. We have many things in this world which we consider as objects of knowledge. We have the branches of learning, the sciences, the arts and all the apparatus of scholarship. We are curious to know many things and we regard various themes and subjects taught in the schools, colleges and universities as the objects of knowledge. But, according to the Bhagavadgita, in this particular context, the object of knowledge is the Supreme Reality. An unreal thing cannot be regarded as an object of right knowledge. If the object is unreal, the knowledge of it cannot be real, and inasmuch as we are speaking here about right knowledge, true knowledge, real knowledge, we are also concerned with the corresponding reality of the object. “I shall speak to you about the Supreme Goal, the object of knowledge,” says the Teacher. This object of knowledge is not in any particular place. This is the peculiarity of this Great Object. Everything that we know, or anything that we are supposed to know in this world, is in some place and at some time — it is not everywhere. But this Supreme Object is everywhere and it is not only at some time. It has neither past, nor present, nor future. It is timeless eternity. It is not in one place, because it envelops all things, and in a majestic epic language the verses speak here of the Omnipresent Almighty as having hands and feet and heads and eyes and ears everywhere, grasping everything, knowing everything and comprehending all things through every means, at once, instantaneously, timelessly, here, and now. Undivided, yet appearing to be divided; existing at all times, yet appearing to manifest itself occasionally; free from the shackles of qualities and attributes of every kind, yet animating every quality and character and property; beyond the reach of all things is it, and yet is seated as the self within the hearts of everyone. It is moving and also unmoving. It is the light behind even the Sun itself. The brightness of the Sun is the shadow cast by the Glory of the Absolute. One may wonder where this wondrous Light is. It is inside us, we are carrying it wherever we go, and yet we seem to be groping in darkness holding this lamp of wisdom and eternal brilliance within ourselves. We have here a concise presentation of the characteristics of the Object of knowledge, which is God-existence, expressed in a stimulating diction of poetic power.

We know what is right knowledge and the individual percipient. The relationship between the Knower and the Known is the crux of the whole matter of perceptional psychology; we do not know which influences what, the subject influences the object, or it is the other way round. In fact there is no question of one influencing the other, or one standing below or above the other; they are on a par one with the other, because one flows into the other and the one is impossible without the other, the subject cannot be without the object, and vice-versa, because the subject and the object, purusha and prakriti, are the two arms of one uniform Omnipresence. God works through two hands, as it were, the purusha and prakriti of the Samkhya philosophy. And the subject and the object we are speaking of, consciousness and matter, are not two different things, they are the two modes of one seamless being. Here the Bhagavadgita is going head and shoulder above the dualistic philosophy of Samkhya dogmatism. The Purusha, which is pure impersonal consciousness, feature less transparency, works, or rather appears to work, through the medium of prakriti which is constituted of the three gunas, or properties, known as sattva, rajas and tamas. Now, again, we are to mention something about this in the Fourteenth Chapter which is devoted entirely to a discussion of the nature of these gunas, the strands of prakriti, the Field of action.

Pure equilibrium, harmony, luminosity, are the characteristics of sattva; distraction, activity, dissipation, division are the characteristics of rajas; inertia, stability, fixity, lethargy, sleepiness, are the characteristics of tamas. The individual is a component of all these qualities, sattva, rajas and tamas. We are not free from them at any time. Sometimes the one preponderates and at other times the other. We pass through various moods in our lives, sometimes dejected and melancholy are we, sometimes we are spirited and active and run about, and sometimes we are sublime and sober and enlightened in our outlook. But we do not maintain this attitude throughout the day and night, inasmuch as, like the spokes of a wheel that moves, which go up and down with the motion of the wheel, the properties of prakriti do not maintain a single position always, they move with the evolutionary process of the cosmos. And with this evolutionary process we are also dragged as contents of this vast universe. Hence it is that we are not in any particular mood at all times. In the progression of the soul in its aspiration and travel to the Supreme Being it has to transcend the lower for the sake of the higher. It may appear, for all practical purposes, that we have to rise from tamas to rajas, and from rajas to sattva, though this is not a mathematical movement or a travel along a beaten track. There is a commingling of qualities and we are not always, entirely, in one state alone. We are not hundred percent tamasika, hundred percent rajasika or hundred percent sattvika — all these things are present in us always. Yet there is a tentative need to apply ourselves for the purpose of a routine of practice which takes the shape of self-transcendence from tamas to rajas, and from rajas to sattva. Those who are tamasika preponderatingly are lethargic, stupid, idiotic, incapable of thinking properly and sleepy, gluttonous, etc. Those who are rajasika are restless, passionate, full of desires, run about here and there, never finding peace in themselves, and not having a moment of rest. Those who are sattvika are the people of knowledge, sedate in behaviour, calm and judicious in judgement, and these are the aspirants who are religious and spiritual. People who pass away from this world at the time of the preponderance of one quality or other have a corresponding experience after death. Those who die when the quality of sattva preponderates go to the higher regions, the realm of angels, paradise, Svarga-loka as we call it. Those who are rajasika if they die in that condition, come back to the mortal world of restless activity. Tamas drags one down to the nether regions, to the lower realms of suffering and unconsciousness. These gunas are rotating and revolving perpetually like a wheel, and they never rest in themselves in a state of harmony at any time. The whole universe is constituted of these gunas, the substance of prakriti; inside and outside only these are present. These are the building bricks of the cosmos. And one who is able to visualise, unattached, the presence of these characters of prakriti, who cognises the fact that the whole world is a drama played by these properties, who remains as a witness of this entire play enacted in the arena of experience by the gunas — such a person who stands above them, unaffected, who has transcended the gunas, who has gone above the operations of prakriti, is the one that is fit to enter into the bosom of Brahman, the Absolute.