Bhagavd Gita Chapter 9: Question and Answers

Question- BG 9.4-5 states- "All this universe is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings abide in Me, but I do not abide in them. Nor does the whole creation vest in Me;" Krishna says that He is in everyone in unmanifest from. All are in Him and He is not in them. He again says that the creation is not in Him. Why Krishna contradicts himself in this verse?

Answer: From the subjective perspective of embodied soul (jiva) seeking the Absolute, there is world and there is Paramatma. The jiva has the egoistic notion of self as body, the sense of mineness and desires. For such striver, Paramatma is in the world and the world is in Paramatma. This is characterized by seeing the presence of Paramatma in everyone and therefore, treating everyone with love, respect, service and equal vision.

From the absolute perspective, there on only Paramatma. The world is like a dream and has no existence. From this  perspective, Paramatma is not in the world and world is not in Paramatma. This is the absolute truth platform. When the egoistic notion of self as body, the sense of mineness and desires, then there is neither world in Paramatma nor Paramtma in the world. There is nothing else besides God.

The example of waves and ocean can be used to further explain this. A person may see waves and water in ocean. Therefore, waves are in the water and water in the waves. But from another perspective, there is only water. Same way, in reality there is only Paramatma or Brahman. When a striver sees the existence of the world, then he should accept the world in Paramatma and Paramatma in the world. Gradually, such person comes to state of seeing only Paramatma or Brahman.

Question: What is jnana and vijnana?

Answer: Jnana is to see Paramatma (God or Brahman) in the world and the world in Paramatma. Vijnana is to see only Paramatma (Brahman) i.e. there is nothing else besides Paramatma.

Gita Summarized

The Absolute Truth (sat) always exists and does not change whereas the unreal has no existence. You need to see the truth. If you don't see or realize the truths, then you should start with acceptance of truth with faith. Most important truths explained in Gita are:

• You (atma) are eternal, full of knowledge, full of happiness, complete, never changing and beyond inert matter and body. Your body dies but you never die.
• Atma is part of Paramatma (God). You are Paramatma's. Ultimately, you are one with Paramatma.
• Everything and everyone is ultimately Parmatma. Parmatma is in everyone and is everywhere. Everything ultimately belongs to Paramatma.
• As self (atma) is beyond matter, it is ultimately not the doer of actions. Actions are carried out by the nature (matter) in the nature (matter).

Right now, you may not realize above truths. You should accept these truth. Gradually, the realization will develop with the acceptance.

How to become happy and worry free? When you accept you as eternal and beyond body, then you don't give importance to negative events in your life. You accept things as they are. You let go things which make you sad and worried. You are satisfied and content and  in harmony with your self, other people and environment.You will find things to be changed in the world to make it a better place. You act to help other but still, maintain your inner state of happiness. You are not worried or sad as self is beyond matter and is always happy. From the perspective of bhakti, you are part of Paramatma and He eternally loves you. Paramatma will always do good to you and will always maintain and protect you. You should be peaceful with this acceptance.

How do you act with above acceptance? When you accept that Paramatma is in everyone, then the tendencies of envy, rivaly, discrimination and abusiveness will go away and you will see other people equally with love. (Srimad Bhagavatam 11.29.15). Actions should be done with intention of giving happiness to others and to yourself. So, give happiness to others. At least don't think bad of other and don't do bad to others. There is no better dharma than helping others and there is no worse sin than giving pain to others. Gita gives importance to intention than to action itself. Actions are supposed to be with the intention of giving happiness to others seeing them as part of Paramatma. These actions will liberate you i.e. give you knowledge to realize the Absolute Truth. Ultimately, the acceptance of presence of Paramatma  in everyone fills you with love towards others and your naturally want to help others and give happiness to them. 

What if you cannot act with above acceptance? Give most importance to not hurting others. If you can't give happiness to people around you, the least you should try to do is to not hurt others. Try your best with the understanding that ultimately you are always pure, eternal and part of Paramatma.

Worrying about teeth extraction

My son's 3 teeth got extracted today. He was worried the whole week about it. He thought that it will hurt him a lot. He wished that the day of teeth extraction never came. When he went to dentist, everything happened so quickly. He did not even know when his teeth got extracted. He did not feel a thing. Worrying about teeth extraction seemed silly and unnecessary. There was nothing to worry about. We make the same mistake as adult. Krishna assures that there is no need to worry. He resides in our heart. He controls the whole world. He loves all of us. So, everything will be for the best. So, do not worry and be happy. (Ref BG 5.29) Bhakti yoga (yoga of love of God) means to have faith that Krishna will always protect and maintain us.

When I explained this to him, he replied back, "I wasn't going to die. I shouldn't have worried." Yes, I agree but what if something really bad like death happens. Does that mean that Krishna did not protect or maintain us? Gita tells us that the self is beyond body and it never dies. It is illusion to see the death of the self. In the same way, the self is always full of happiness and knowledge and it is infinitely complete. So, it may seems that something bad may happen to the body or to the objects that we identify with our self. But in reality, no bad can ever happen to us. Everything is always all-good for self. Self is always happy (anand), it always exist (sat) and it is full of knowledge (chid) and completely (purna) and it is all-good and auspicious (shiv).

Yoga Summarized

The Basic Dharma

There is no better pious activity (dharma) than helping others and giving happiness to others. There is no sinful activity worse than inflicting suffering on others. This is the verdict of all the Vedas and Puranas. Those who inflict pain on others have to suffer the negative karmic reactions in the current and future lives. Thus, they ruin their next lives. Those who give happiness to people around them receive the positive fruits of their pious actions.

Bhakti Yoga 

God (Bhagavan Ram or Krishna) as Yama (The God of Death) dispenses the fruit of their good and evil actions. Realizing this, those who are supremely clever adore Bhagavan to get out of the cycle of birth and death. They take refuge in Bhagavan and try their best to give happiness to others seeing them as part of their beloved Bhagavan. In this way, they transcend the cycle of birth and death and attain the Supreme Abode.

The Absolute Perspective (Jnana Yoga)

The good and evil in this world are all product of maya (illusion). Ultimately, they don't exist. The greatest knowledge is to see this world as the dream and therefore, to not attach  any importance to the good and evil in this world. 

(From Ram Charit Manas Uttarkand Doha 41)

The Witness and The Seer

The Movie of Life
While watching a good movie, we virtually go through the different emotions of the characters in the movie. We laugh at their jokes, feel the suspense and thrill and also we become sad when something tragic  happens. We may sometimes get so engrossed in the movie that we may feel as if we were part of the movie. Still, we know that we are just watching the movie and we are different from the movie. Bhagavad Gita explains our life to be similar to the movie. The self (I, atma or soul) is the Witness (Sakshi) and the Seer (Drashta).  Like the movie, all material objects including gross and subtle bodies are witnessed or seen by the self. The self  is beyond the body and the world. Due to projection of mind, the self considers itself as body. This self is eternal and can never die or be affected by any physical entity. It can never be burned, cut or harmed in any way. The body dies and the self remains complete. One may feel incompleteness in this world but in reality, the self is complete and filled with infinite happiness. In fact, the self is just a witness to all the changes in this world i.e. events or actions happening in nature. From an absolute perspective, this world is also like a movie. We experience happiness and distress, victory and defeat, praise and critic, and profit and loss. Like a movie, these are just projections of  the mind and our self remains untouched or unaffected by these projections. In this movie of the world, we also participate in script writing. We have some freedom to change the script. We can give happiness to the people around us and make this movie fun. Or we can cause suffering to others or just fail to do anything. Giving happiness to other or doing service (seva) helps us to remove the projections of this world and to realize our true self.

Next time when you feel sad or experience adverse circumstance, keep your focus on your true self and  understand that you are just the witness of these events and they are just like a movie. So, don't get overwhelmed by circumstances and be happy no matter what. This does not mean that you become like stone and don't feel the world. You feel the world, you enjoy the world and have fun and you also experience the sadness. Even amongst all these experiences, you should know that they are like a movie or a dream. So, don't give too much importance to them and ultimately, experience the happiness which comes from understanding that you are eternal (sat), all-good (siva) and full of knowledge (cit) and happiness (anand).

The nature of self

The self (I or soul) is eternal and always existed in the past and will always exist in the future. We will never cease to exist. Just like we change garments, the same way we (the self) changes bodies. The soul goes through birth, childhood, youth, old age and finally, death and passes on to another new body. It goes through the cycle of birth and death commonly known as reincarnation. The soul never dies or can never be destroyed by any means. The eternal (sat) always exists and the transient (body and bodily objects) have no factual existence. The self remains unchanged amidst the changes in body and bodily objects. The transient happiness and distress are like summer and winter seasons. They come and go and the self remains the same among all these changes. Therefore, the yogi who understand the true nature of the self don't get overwhelmed or disturbed by these changes and remain steady and equanimous amongst dualities of happiness and distress, pain and pleasure, victory and defeat, honor and dishonor & profit and loss.