Bhagavad Geeta studies Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Part 1

Bhagavad Geeta studies Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Part 1

God in His absolute state is beyond the ken of mind and speech. He is indefinable. But when He is immanent in the universe, He is denoted as Sat-cit-anandam—Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. There is no other connotation which is as appropriate as this. A more comprehensive and exhaustive definition than this cannot be had. That which is not affected by time, space and causation is Sat or Reality. But all the same, Reality puts on the appearance of getting entangled in time, space and causation. Limiting adjuncts—Upadhis—are thereby created. It is because of these limiting adjuncts that the individual souls or the Jivatmans have come into being. The Jivatmans are the manifestations of the Reality, the Paramatman. These individualized souls are moreover given to ceaseless activity. Karma is concomitant with Jivahood. As light and heat happen to be part and parcel of the blazing sun, karma is inherent in Jiva. Between the Jiva and his karma, the explanation of one necessarily contains the explanation of the other. The first six chapters of the Gita do therefore deal concurrently with the principles of the Karma Yoga and the category of the individual soul. Thought or mentation is a subtle form of karma. For this reason the sixth chapter of the Gita which deals with meditation, is given a place in the first section.

Verily each activity is actuated by will. There is no karma independent of the will. Man wills to walk, to eat, to sleep, to wake up and so on, and as a result action ensues. The gross manifestation of the will is action. The entire creation is the manifestation of the cosmic will. All forms of will resolve themselves ultimately into the will to live. It is the innate desire to preserve life that transforms itself into innumerable activities. Existence, not extinction is the essential nature of the soul. God is Life. Souls have emanated from God. So they attempt to assert life in the midst of the seeming extermination imposed on them by the play of Nature. Preserving life in the face of death and seeking permanence in the midst of perdition, are the workings of the will to assert existence. This assertion of existence is called Sat. And God is defined as Sat. The first six chapters of the Gita are devoted to the elucidation of Sat or Existence aspect of the Reality,

Machines turn out work and man also turns out work. But there is a sharp difference between the two. Man feels, but machines do not. Feeling is concomitant with life. It undergoes several modifications. Like and dislike, friendship and enmity, fulfillment and frustration, admiration and jealousy, support and opposition—these are all manifestations of feeling in various forms. Expressions such as like, friendship, fulfillment, admiration and support are all the positive aspects of the faculty of feeling, while dislike, enmity, frustration, jealousy and opposition are all its negative expressions. The positive aspects of emotion promote growth and evolution. Negative ones retard. To sublimate emotion to the highest pitch is the summum bonum of life.

Chapters seven to twelve of the Bhagavad Gita are devoted to the definition of God, and the cultivation of devotion. Purified emotion is Bhakti or devotion. Allegedly impure emotions become pure when directed towards God. Man’s love of God Increases in direct proportion to his being soaked in His glory. As iron is attracted towards a magnet, a man of devotion is attracted towards God. And God is Love. Pure Love generates sweetness. It also expresses itself as bliss. Supreme bliss is divinity itself. Anandam Brahmam— Bliss is Reality. It is in search of this Bliss that souls Struggle and hug life. But for its bliss, life would not be tolerated even for a moment. It would be voluntarily liquidated. Out of the fully blossomed flower of emotion flows the nectar of anandam. The second part of the Gita exhorts man to feast on It. To be concluded in Part 2

Source: Srimad Bhagavad Geeta-Commentary by Swami Chidbhavananda