Event Milestone Yesterday we completed the Chapter 8 of The Bhagavad Geeta. Five main points have been elaborated in the chapter. At the beginning, made curious by problem hinted at by Krishn at the end of Chapter 7, Arjun puts forward seven questions. He wishes to know the nature of the Supreme Spirit, adhyatm, the perfect action, adhidaiv, adhibhoot and adhiyagya, and how he (Krishn) may be so known at the end that he is never forgotten thereafter. Replying to these questions, Krishn tells him that the one who is imperishable is God. The devotion that secures realization of God is adhyatm; it is the knowledge that brings man under the domination of Self by freeing him from the supremacy of maya. Shedding away the innate properties of nature which produce good or evil impressions (sanskar)- the annihilation or destruction of these properties is the perfection of action. There is no need of any further action after this. So true action is something that destroys the very source of the merits that are called sanskar. Transient, perishable desires are adhibhoot. In other words, that which is destroyed is the medium for the generation of all beings. The Supreme Spirit is adhidaiv and in him is dissolved the treasure of divinity. Krishn is himself adhiyagya in the body for all the sacrifices of yagya are made to him. He is the agent who effects the sacrifices. And he is also the one in whom the sacrifices are all dissolved. Adhiyagya is someone who lives within the body, not out of it. Arjun’s last question is how he (Krishn) is known at the end. Krishn tells him that man who contemplate him alone and nothing else, and who depart from the body thinking of him, know him by direct perception and become one with what they have perceived. Since they have always contemplated him, at the end also they attain to what they have borne in mind at all time. It is not that this attainment comes after physical death. If perfection were to come only after physical death, Krishn would not be immaculate. Were it so, he would not have the knowledge that is gained from the practice of spiritual discipline through a number of lives. The real end comes when even the wholly restrained mind ceases to be, after which the process of assuming new bodies is discontinued forever. The worshipper then merges into the Supreme Spirit and is not reborn thereafter. According to Krishn remembrance is the way to this realization. So Arjun should constantly keep him in mind and wage war. How is it possible to do both at once ? Is it that Krishn is referring thus to the usual practice of fighting and at the same time uttering the name of some deity? Remembrance, as he defines it, is incessant contemplation of him without a thought of anything else. When remembrance is so refined and intent, who can fight? What war is possible with such intense absorption of the mind on a single object. In fact, the real form of the “war” that is the theme of the Geeta emerges only when a worshipper is imersed in such total and unswerving contemplation. This is also the state in which the obstructive properties of maya are clearly visible. Passion, anger, attachment and aversion are our most terrible enemies. They obstruct the worshipper’s memory and to overcome them is to fight a war. The supreme goal is reached only after the destruction of these enemies. So Arjun is counselled to recite the sacred syllable of OM but contemplate the form of Krishn, and adept in yog. Reciting the deity’s name while at the same time visualizing the known form of a noble mentor, an accomplished or enlightened teacher, is the key to successful worship. In the chapter Krishn has also taken up the problem of rebirth and said that the whole world, from Brahma himself to the lowest of creatures, repeats itself. But even after all of them are destroyed, his (Krishn’s) sublime, unmanifest being and the steady devotion to him never come to an end. A man who is initiated into yog is provided with two ways by which he may proceed. On the first of these two paths, blessed with the radiance of perfect knowledge, possessed of six fold excellence (verse 24), in a state of upward motion, and absolutely free from any blemish, the worshipper is assured of redemption. But if there is even the least imperfection about him or any touch of the gloom that prevails in the dark fortnight of a month, and he departs from the body in such a state, he has to undergo yet another birth. However, since he has been a worshipper, instead of being for ever enmeshed in the vicious web of birth and death, after his new birth he sets himself anew to the task of completing his unaccomplished worship. Thus, following the path of action in his next birth, the imperfect worshipper too can reach the supreme goal. Krishn has also said earlier that even a partial accomplishment of worship does no cease until it has brought about liberation from the great fear of life and death. Both the ways are eternal and indestructible. The man who understands this is ever steady and in repose. So Arjun is advised to be a yogi, for yogi transcend even the sacred rewards of study of the Ved, penance, yagya and charity and so attain to ultimate liberation. At several points in the chapter there is a reference to the supreme goal as the attainment of God, who is represented as unmanifest, imperishable and eternal.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 18:30:01 +0000
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