Analysis of Bhagwat Geeta II
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
1st Part: Man's eternal relation with God
First Chapter
Constitution of all living entities (2.11-30)
The physiological, anatomical or psychological analysis of the human body along with the advancement of human knowledge has not completely given us the desired perfection of knowing things as it ought to have been. The ephemeral study of physiological constitution of living entities is not all to know what a living entity is, and to speak pedagogically, about a subject of which very little is known, is not the business of a really man of knowledge. We speak loudly about the advancement of human knowledge both in the realm of art and science but we most childishly lament on matters which cometh and goes in the laws of nature. The living entity may it be in any particular form of material shape, is never a product of combining the eight elements of matter, neither the same can be manufactured in the scientist's laboratory by any amount of psycho-physical analysis of the living being. The living entity is therefore never born as is misconceived by human knowledge but be is eternally immortal for all the times namely past, present, and future. It is the material body that changes days after days and years after years or birth after births, as it is experienced in the general growth of a living body. After the birth of a living body in the womb of its mother, the living body grows days after days till it comes out of the womb and the child's body continues to grow from childhood to adolescent, adolescent to youth and from youth to old age. The changes that are visible on the human body never become the subject of serious study for the scholar because every body knows it well that by the external changes of the living body—the living entity evolved in the body does not undergo any sort of change. That is the proof of eternity of living being. The child, even after his becoming a father of another child, remains the same child before his parents and the parents out of love and affection forget the fact that the body of the eternal child has gone many changes by that time. The parents know well that their child is their infinite for many changes in the physical body, and these facts prove without any doubt that the living entity is distinct from the physical body. As such when the living entity leaves off an old and unworkable machinery of physical body, no sane man laments over it as the parents do not lament over the various changes over their child's body.
The feeling of pains and pleasures due to physical changes in the atmospheric nature does not affect the living entity in his pure consciousness. The impure consciousness of the living entity by its misidentification with the physical body obliges him to become subject to such feelings of pains and pleasures and the human being who is on his onward march to self-realization may not bother much with such material pains and pleasure. An avowed determination to eliminate material pains and pleasure is therefore a kind of lunatic effort and one who is sober and thoughtful mitigates such feelings of pains and pleasure in a point of making the best use of a bad bargain. The lunatic mode of civilization which seeks after maximum amount of material comfort is therefore doomed by the laws of nature and a self-realized soul is never affected by such mode of a false civilizing process covered by polished brutalism. The sane and self-realised soul has analysed that the soul has nothing to do with the material body and mind. The soul is always different from these two gross and subtle matters. The soul contacts these matters out of his own will, enters into the matter by his law of "karma", develops the body and mind in course of time and when the same material coverings become unworkable in the long run, the soul leaves the body. As such the soul is independent of them. The feelings of pains and pleasure in contact with the material body and mind is due to his impure consciousness. As the soul is never manufactured by the combination of all material elements both gross and subtle it is absurd to think that the soul has anything to do with such matters. In other words the material things both gross and subtle are always different from the soul. The matters can never therefore satisfy the eternal needs of the soul at any length, neither can the soul derive any amount of relief from his association with the gross and subtle matters.
The soul is the sample of Godhead. Qualitatively there is no difference between the soul and the supreme Godhead. Godhead is of the same spirit as the soul is. One renowned reformer of Indian culture perceived that we can know Godhead by knowing the living men moving about us. He was right in this sense that we can know Godhead by knowing the constitution of the soul which is qualitatively non-different from Godhead. The soul is the minute particle or atomic existence of Godhead. Godhead is all-pervading throughout the creation and similarly the soul is also all pervading throughout the whole body. Spiritual experts have measured the size of the soul as small as one ten thousandth part of the top of an hair. Thus its measurement is still more finer than the finest atom. But because it is the particle of the Supreme Almighty Godhead, its power is also proportionately more comprehensive than any material force. The extensive power of the soul maintains the material force of psycho-physical combination. Just as a grain of deadly poison can kill a gigantic material body, so the minute particle of Godhead known as spirit soul can maintain, develop and prolong the duration of life of material body. No material power therefore can do any harm "to the soul because it is made of no material elements but it is made of the same spiritual ingredients as Godhead is made of. The material body is perishable but the soul is imperishable and practically immeasurable.
When we say that such and such man is dead or killed by such and such man, we must understand that the name designated to such and such man is never meant for the soul of the man. The soul can never be named because nobody can see him with material eyes. So all designation that we enjoy during the duration of our life is meant for the body and not for the soul. The designations and titles are all in relation to the body are with the distinction of the body. The soul is undesignated and unaffected. Therefore it is due to ignorance only that we designate a living man and perpetrate the dead body"s memory in statue, stones all but falsely.
The soul is therefore neither born and nor killed. It does not take its birth neither it dies. Neither it was ever born before nor it shall be ever born in future. It is transcendental to the measurement and limitation of material time, past, present or future. It is ever existing permanent thing as the Godhead Himself. And because it is not made of any material elements the soul is ever fresh although it is older than the creation even. It has no decay, no old age and no destruction even after the destruction of the designated body in which the soul is (omitted). This is the fact but generally people is bewildered regarding the constitution of the body and the soul.
The conclusion is, according to Bhagwad Geeta, that the soul, which is the Lord of the body, is ever existing permanent and immutable. It changes the body only like one changes his dress and to distinguish it from matter it is negatively (omitted) as non-destructible by any weapon, non-inflammable by any fire, non-moist able by any water and non-evaporable by any air. In other words it can never be cut into pieces, can never be burnt, can never be moistened nor can it ever be evaporable. It is so permanent that it can go any where and everywhere as it desires and as such the soul exists in different forms all over the universe even in the sun. The soul being unaffected by fire, there is no reason to disbelieve that living entities cannot live in the sun. Nothing can destroy its permanency and therefore eternal. In order to establish its eternity, the Bhagwad Geeta has repeatedly stressed on the point once, twice and thrice.
This soul is the part and Parcel of Godhead
Every living entity being the part and parcel of the Supreme Godhead it is quite unnatural that they should live in this material world. The living entity's struggle for existence in the material world is a wrong struggle because the spirit soul cannot by happy by any amount of material pleasures. The basic principle of present day civilization is to enjoy and exploit the material world at the highest possible degree. That is a wrong civilization. The fifteenth chapter of Bhagwat Geeta denounces this tendency of material civilization. This material civilization is compared there with a banyan tree which has its root upwards and branches and leaves downwards. The highest plane of this universe is known as the "Brahmaloka" wherein lives the creator of this universe namely Brahma. Brahma being the root of this creation other lower planes which are called Jana, Tapa, Swarga, Bhuba and Bhuloka are but different branches of the tree going downwards. Those who know nothing except struggling hard for existence cannot know also the beginning or end of this banyan tree of universe.
The branches of this tree are spread all over the universe according to the modes of Nature. The three modes of nature namely goodness, passion and ignorance are the three dominating principles of Nature. As such those (souls) who are in the mode of goodness are found as powerful gods, those who are in the mode of passion are found to be powerful worker (omission) of the world and those who are in the mode of ignorance are found as uncivilized brutes, animals and similar lower grade forms of life. So the spirit soul is moving all over the tree without knowing how to get rid of the tangle of the tree. The speculators or the empiric philosophers may go on speculating in a speed like that of the wind or the mind and that for millions of years together, still they cannot know where is the beginning or end of the universe. If therefore the living entity wants to get free from the entanglement of this huge banyan tree he has to learn the tact from Bhagwat Geeta. The root of the tree has to be cut down by the sharpened weapon of non-affection. The real (omission) is he therefore who has surpassed the affection for this material world. Paid philosopher can only speculate but they cannot show us the way to get out. If therefore any body wishes to return to the kingdom of God the right place of happiness for the soul proper, one has to surrender unto Him from whom everything has emanated. And by returning to Him nobody has to come back again in this unhappy material world. The primary qualification for entering into the kingdom of God is to shun in the very beginning variety material knowledge to be one from the illusion of material civilization. Some persons can only transcend the affection of worldly pleasure and happiness and are therefore liberated persons. They can only understand in full knowledge how to (omission) from the false struggle for existence and they can survive only as the fittest persons.
The kingdom of God, as we can know from Bhagwat Geet, is not illuminated by the sun or moon like this material
world. The kingdom is self-illuminated and whoever shall go there can enjoy ever increasing happiness. The soul when he, mistakably, (omission) himself as the product of the material elements he is at once in bondage of the modes of nature. But as soon as he realises his own self as spirit he at once enters into the kingdom of God even in his present tabernacle. The affect for material pleasure is the root cause of material consciousness. One has to learn therefore the spiritual art for not being affected by material pleasure. The highest and grossest type of material pleasure is sexuality and one who has become to control the sexual appetite is on the road to the kingdom of God.
Therefore the living entity although he is part and parcel of Godhead, he is thrown into material existence due to his desire to enjoy the material world by his material and the sense organs.
It is the desire for material enjoyment that carries the soul from one body to another. It is mistake to think that the soul after his so called death i.e. after giving up this material body when it is unworkable, the soul is made liberated. He carries his desire with him after leaving this body and as the air carries the flavor good or bad so the soul carries with him the flavor of his present desire to another body. When he gets another body or transmigrates into another material body according to the flavor of his past desires, he develops synthetic body with suitable ears, eyes, hands, tongue, nose and other sense organs in 84 lakhs of life so that he can enjoy the material world according to his developed desires. It is therefore the desires that we have to rectify in order to enter into the kingdom of God. Those who want to enter into the kingdom of God can do so without any difficulty and those who do not went to enter there may remain here in this material world perpetually. That is the position of the soul proper. The foolish persons only do not desire to enter into the kingdom of God because they are so dumb that repeated miseries of the material world cannot bring them any good sense. Because such foolish persons are devoid of sight transcendental they cannot see to the threefold miseries of the material world.
The "yogis" especially the "Bhaktayogias" can understand the real position of the soul and therefore they do try to know further about it. But yogis who take to the process for some material gain are impure souls and by their yogic process they can improve their material position only without entering into the kingdom of spirit.
The gross materialists shall argue that they have no information of the kingdom of God and therefore they have no interest for it. But still they cannot explain the sun, the moon or the fire that illuminate the material world. The material world by constitution is dark. It is the sun, moon or the fire that illuminates it. And any sane man even among the gross materialists will I surely know that the light that comes from the sun, moon or fire are only rays of spiritualism. That is what is explained in the Bhagwat Geeta. The power that hangs the huge planets explained away by material scientist as law of gravitation but it is the sample of spiritualism. The power that generates the potency of (omission) in contact with the rays of the moon, is also spiritualism. The power that dominates in the stomach for digesting all kinds of food and drink is also spiritualism. Thus the spiritualism or the internal potency of Godhead is overcast all over the material world and the gross materialist (who under the external potency of God) may take hints from all these what is the kingdom of God and how He works. Unless Godhead would not have lived in the heart of every living body, the soul would fail to do work according to his past desire by remembrance. After the annihilation of the body of the soul, it forgets all about his past life. But it is Godhead only who makes him able to do according to his past desires. So Godhead is not only all pervading impersonal Brahma but He is also localised Godhead or Paramatma within the heart of all living entities. The personality of Godhead or the Purshotam is the primeval case of Brahma, Paramatma, and the individual soul and one who knows Him, knows everything well.
Godhead is the sun and individual souls are His rays
In Bhagwat Geeta (Ch. VII/4-5) the living entities are described as superior nature of Godhead and the material elements are described as His inferior nature. Living beings even up to the consciousness of human being or up to super consciousness of demigods are all of the same superior quality nature of Godhead but they are never equal to Godhead. God is one without a second but the living entities are innumerable. The sun is one but the particles of the rays of the sun are innumerable. Qualitatively the sun and its rays are the same but quantitatively the particles of sun rays and the sun itself are vastly different. Similarly the supreme Godhead and the living entities are not one and the same quantitatively although they are one and the same qualitatively.
Nobody can challenge the greatness of Godhead and thus the living entities are always subordinate to the will of God. The material world is the product of inferior nature of Godhead while the spirit world and the spirit soul are the product of His superior nature. He is thus owner of the two different natures and is the original primal cause of (omission). Nothing is greater than the greatest of all and everything that be rests on Him like the pearls worn and set on the existence of a thread.
When the superior nature of Godhead i.e, the living entities are overwhelmed by the inferior nature - matter - just like sometimes the rays of the sun is overwhelmed by a curtain of mist, at that time only the super-consciousness of the living being is mystified. In this state only the living being cannot know that he and God are of the same nature. This realisation of superior nature is sometimes miscalculated identifying the living entity with Godhead. This misidentification of Godhead with living being put forward by the Mayawad school or by the empiric philosophers has created a havoc in the right approach to Godhead. When this process of philosophising is (omission) people gradually become atheist. Acharya Sankar enunciated this illogical theory and Mayavada and it is most unfortunate that people now misinterpreted this Mayavada of Shankar without any end and the whole world is now practically Godless human forms.
They should know from the Bhagwat Geeta (ch.VII/3-4) that the mother nature (material or spiritual) is the womb of all living entities and Godhead Himself is the begetting Father.
He is not only the monopolised Father of the human being but He is also the Father of all other living beings. There are eighty-four lakh of different varieties of forms of living being and we can know that for all of them the Supreme Father is Godhead and the mother is Nature. So Godhead, living entities and the material nature all are in a family way. When we know the inter-relation of these three, then only we can attain to pure knowledge.
All classes of people are not very much anxious to realise the truth of universal brotherhood which has become (omission) term. The process of universal brotherhood will remain for ever (omission) if we do not come to know the constitution of the living entities, the material nature, the spiritual nature and above all the Supreme Godhead.
Out of hundreds and thousands of ordinary men some only try to purify life into perfection and out of thousands of such purified perfect human beings only a few can know Godhead as He is.
A strong desire to establish peace of the world with basis of universal brother-hood advocated by so many leaders will never be fulfilled if we are unable to … (Pages Missing)