bhagavad gita according to gandhi chapter 8

THE BHAGAVD GITAACCORDING TO

GANDHI

T K G NAMBOODHIRITHIRUVALLA, KERALA

Presentation adapted fromThe Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi, Orient

Paperbacks,2011

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHI

T K G Namboodhiri

CHAPTER 8

AKSHARA-BRAHMA YOGA


GANDHIINTRODUCTION

In Chapter 7 Lord Krishna described the Apara & Para prakritis of Brahman. In the last verse of this chapter, He used several new terms like Adhi-bhuta, Adhi-daiva & Adhi-yajna. Chapter 8 starts with a question from Arjuna regarding the meanings of these terms. The Lord continues His description of Brahman, & how to attain It.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 8.1 & 8.2

Arjuna asked:What is Brahman? What is Adhyatma? What is karma, O Purushothama? What is called adhi-bhuta? & what is adhi-daiva?And who here in this body is adhi-yajna & how? And how at the time of death art Thou to be known by the self-controlled?Arjuna asks Krishna: You have told me about Brahman, adhyatma, karma, adhi-bhuta & so on. But what do these terms mean? And what is adhi-yajna? What is meant by saying that he whose mind is yoked to the Lord can know all this at the moment of death?

T K G Namboodhiri



The Lord replies:The Supreme, the Imperishable is Brahman; Its manifestation is adhyatma; the creative process whereby all beings are created is called karma.Adhi-bhuta is My perishable form; adhi-daivata is the individual self in that form; & O best among the embodied, adhi-yajna am I in this body, purified by sacrifice.That which never perishes & is the ultimate Reality is Brahman. Our nature is adhyatma. The Lord is the power which creates this adhyatma. Creating all beings & keeping them in existence is known as karma. Sri Krishna says that He is the Lord of yajnas & grants their fruit. All living creatures which are perishable are the adhi-bhuta.

T K G Namboodhiri



And he who, only at the last hour, remembering Me departs leaving the body, enters into Me; of that there is no doubt.Or whatever form a man continually contemplates, that same he remembers in the hour of death, & to that very form he goes, O Kaunteya.Whatever ideas & images that are present in one’s mind in the very last thought before death is what one becomes in the next life. Final thoughts will necessarily be what was constantly reflected & meditated upon during life. Hence, you reap as you sow. Thinking is a form of karma. Thoughts have such power that sometimes their effects are more terrible than those of actions. A person, whose thoughts ever flow in a self-controlled stream, repeats the name of Narayana while engaged in any work. His actions are prompted by the Lord within. When he dies, his end will be good.

T K G Namboodhiri



Therefore at all times remember Me & fight on; thy mind & reason thus on Me fixed thou shalt surely come to Me.With thought steadied by constant practice, & wandering nowhere, he who meditates on the Supreme Celestial Being, O Partha, goes to Him.None should be under the wrong impression that it will suffice to remember the Lord at the moment of death. He who has been striving in this direction from his childhood will win the battle & others will lose. Everything we do should be dedicated to the Lord.

T K G Namboodhiri



Who, so, at the time of death, with unwavering mind, with devotion, & fixing the breath rightly between the brows by the power of yoga, meditate on the Sage, the Ancient, the Ruler, subtler than the subtlest, the Supporter of all, the Inconceivable, glorious as the sun beyond the darkness– he goes to that Supreme Celestial Being.Lord Krishna describes here that supreme Purusha, on whom one should think, at the time of death. That Purusha is beginningless, who rules the world, & who is in essence finer than the finest to conceive. He is the Creator of everything that exists, & He cannot be comprehended by our minds. He shines like the sun & is beyond the darkness of ignorance.He who, when leaving this world, thinks with a fixed & unwavering mind, with bhakti & power of his yoga, & who focusses his prana on the point midway between his brows, & meditates, attains the realm of the Supreme, the Divine Purusha.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 8.11 to 8.13

That which the knowers of the Vedas call the Imperishable, wherein the ascetics freed from passion enter & desiring which they practise Brahmacharya, that Goal I will declare to thee in brief.Closing all the gates, locking up the mind in the hridaya, fixing his breath within the head, rapt in yogic meditation.Who so departs leaving the body uttering AUM repeatedly, thinking on Me, he reaches the highest state.Here the Lord instructs on the meditation process for attaining the highest Goal.

T K G Namboodhiri



The yogi easily wins to Me, O Partha, who, ever attached to Me, constantly remembers Me with undivided mind.Great souls, having come to Me, reach the highest perfection; they come not again to birth, unlasting & an abode of misery.Attaining communion with Ultimate Consciousness by meditation is only possible if there is diligent daily practice, & not merely at the time of death. He who does not want death gives up his attachment to bodily life, closes all the bodily doors without much thinking. If he forgets the body, he will not have to die. Our life is a cause of suffering because there is death for everyone who is born. That state in which there is no death, birth, attachment or aversion, that supreme state is known as moksha. Life & death are both transitory states & they are the cause of all suffering. The only way of ensuring that after death we pass to a higher world is to give up attachment to life & free ourselves from all dualities. Thinking constantly about the miseries of life, one should absorb oneself in the duties of his life. One should see oneself in the whole world & the world in oneself, & act towards others accordingly.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerse 8.16

From the world of Brahma down, all the worlds are subject to return, O Arjuna; but on coming to Me there is no rebirth.All the worlds, including the world of Brahma, the Creator, will return to their source at the end of the Kalpa. The sun, the moon, Brahma, Vishnu, all will perish. So all those reaching these heavens will have to return to earth or perish. But once a human being comes to the Supreme, he never perishes. In this very poetic verse, the poet soars on the wings of his imagination. He says that all that is known through the senses is a product of the human mind, & is thus perishable; is subject to ceaseless change. Lord Krishna asks Arjuna to go to the world beyond all these worlds, the world in which He Himself dwells. This is simply beyond our imagination. If a person dies striving to reach that world, there is no rebirth for him.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerse 8.17

Those men indeed know what is Day & what is Night, who know that Brahma’s day lasts a thousand yugas & that his night too is a thousand yugas long.In order to become a jnani one must learn to look deep into things, then go beyond it, study self & draw far-reaching conclusions. He will realize that things are not what they seem. Such a person will realize that Brahma must have a day different from ours. Our day & night are made up of 24 hours based on the movement of earth in relation to sun. How can we measure infinite time? We should know that there is a day as long as 1000 yugas & a night as long in order that we may learn patience, & that we may not despair if the results of our efforts take time to show up. We may not see tangible results in our own life. Nonetheless, we should have faith & go on working.

T K G Namboodhiri



At the coming of Day all the manifest spring forth from the Unmanifest, & at the coming of Night they are dissolved into that same Unmanifest.This same multitude of creatures come to birth, O Partha, again & again; they are dissolved at the coming of Night, whether they will or not; and at the break of Day they are reborn.When Brahma’s Day (4,320,000,000 years) begins, the Unmanifest becomes manifest. All these creatures, which had vanished into nothingness, come to life again. When His night (of same length as His Day) begins, the whole creation vanishes, merges into the Unmanifest. All creation thus appears & vanishes, & does so endlessly.When the Night comes, whether we wish it or not, the universe returns into nothingness, & when the Day comes, a new creation appears.

T K G Namboodhiri


GANDHIVerses 8.20 to 8.22

But higher than that Unmanifest is another Unmanifest Being, everlasting, which perisheth not when all creatures perish.This Unmanifest, named the Imperishable, is declared to be the highest goal. For those who reach It there is no return. That is My highest abode.This Supreme Being, O Partha, may be won by undivided devotion; in It all beings dwell, by It all is pervaded.There is another Unmanifest Reality beyond this Unmanifest into which the visible universe returns at the end of the Day. It is the Immutable Reality immanent in all perishable creatures. Everything which exists will perish, but the ground of all this existence is imperishable. This superior Unmanifest is beyond the perception of our senses; It is without a beginning & It never ceases to exist even when all the worlds & created beings, inevitably perish. Sri Krishna says that you can come to this highest abode of Mine by patient striving & living in this world only as a witness. Have faith, & devoting yourself to duty, work out the welfare of your soul.The form in which the Timeless Essence, God, manifests Itself is known as His incarnation. We all have that Essence in all of us.

T K G Namboodhiri



Now I will tell thee, Bharatarshaba, the conditions which determine the exemption from return, as also the return, of yogis after they pass away hence.Fire, Light, Day, the Bright Fortnight, the six months of the Northern Solstice– through these departing men knowing Brahman go to Brahman.I shall now describe that state after reaching which, or that path after trading which, there is no returning.Those who die when there is fire & light, on any day in the bright half of one of the six months following the winter solstice (Utharayana), will reach the Brahman. Allegorically, it means that anyone who has attained a state like the bright half of the month, a state of knowledge as bright as light, will not return to this world after death.It is often said that this Verse & the next do not fit into the teaching of the Gita. They may have been interpolated later(?)

T K G Namboodhiri



Smoke, Night, the Dark Fortnight, the six months of the Southern Solstice---- there through the yogi attains to the lunar light & thence returns.These two paths– bright & dark– are deemed to be the eternal paths of the world; by the one a man goes to return not, by the other he returns again.One who dies during smoky night in the dark half of the six months of Southern Solstice (Dakshinayana) goes to heaven & when the merit earned by his virtuous deeds is exhausted, he returns to the earth. One who has not attained full illumination will have to return to earth. Utharayana is a time of light & signifies a waking state which is free from desire. Dakshinayana signifies a state of ignorance full of desires.These two paths, the bright & dark– one which leads to a permanent state from which there is no return, & the other which leads to an impermanent state- have existed from the beginning of time. The bright state is that of the illumination of knowledge, & the dark state is that of ignorance. Dying in the bright state, a person never returns; dying in the other, he is bound to return.

T K G Namboodhiri



The yogi knowing these two paths falls into no delusion, O Partha; therefore, at all times, O Arjuna, remain steadfast in yoga.Whatever fruit of good deeds is laid as accruing from the Vedas, from sacrifices, austerities & acts of charity---- all that the yogi transcends, on knowing this, & reaches the Supreme & Primal Abode.The yogi who knows the distinction between these two paths never succumbs to darkness. He clings to knowledge & single-minded devotion. All the gods are immortal compared to man, but they also perish. So he clings to the Ultimate Brahman & cleans himself, so that at the time of death he will spontaneously have the right thought.Gita repeatedly asserts that one who has acquired the light & knowledge of the Self has reached the permanent state & there is nothing else to be obtained. He is beyond all that the Vedas, sacrifices etc. will give.This concludes Chapter 8. T K G Namboodhiri

bhagavad gita according to gandhi chapter 8

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