In order to grasp the meaning of the seven ideas
Implicitly conveyed by Lord Shree Krishna
In the previous chapter, Arjuna said:
"O Purushottama ! Thou art the Being Most
Supreme
And therefore perfectly aware of everything.
Tell me now, what dost Thou mean by Brahman,
Adhyatma, Karma, Adhibhuta, Adhidaiva?
Whom dost Thou refer to by Brahman?
Is He the Para-Brahman?
Dost Thou by Adhyatma mean the Oversoul or
individual soul?
BY Karma, am I to understand the Scriptural rites
or social duties?
Is the gross fleshy body meant by Adhibhuta?
Whom shall I consider Adhidaiva-
The gods or the Aggregate Great Being?
Tell me, I pray, what dost Thou really mean by
these?
Who is the Adhiyajna in this body?
Is he Indra or Vishnu?
And in what form does he exist?
How do the self-restrained ones come to know Thee
at the time of death?
Tell me, O Madhusudhana ! explicitly about these
things."
SREE Bhagavan then replied :
"The principle of the Divine Word
Is beyond all limited distinction.
It is unchangeable and attributeless.
It is not Para-Brahman, but Brahman.
By Para-Brahman thou art to understand Myself
alone,
Who am eternally Supreme and Absolute
Existing with My Transcendental Name, Form,
Attributes, Occupations and Equipment.
Para-Brahman should be differentiated
From the Non-designated Negative Brahman.
By Adhyatma thou must not conceive of the
ontology of conscious entities,
But soul, released from earth's associations.
From Karma, the chain that binds the individual
to the world,
Arises the worldly bondage of the soul
And all its gross and subtle bodies,
Composed of all the elements.
ADHIBHUTA refers to perishable objects
Or the principle of change.
By Adhidaiva, thou must understand Virata-Purusa
Who is the Aggregate of all the minor gods,
That is the Presiding Deity of all empiric knowledge.
Adiyajna is non other than Myself
Who am the Knower and Indweller of the hearts
of Jivas-
The souls engaged in gross and subtle bodies.
From deep within their hearts,
I urge them to perform their sacrifice.
HE who forsaking mortal clay,
Remembers Me alone at the last moment of
his life,
Becomes imbued with My divine emotions.
One who recalls My memory when facing death
Is blessed with devotional aptitude towards Me in
the next world.
There is no doubt of this.
It should be noted here
That his remembrance of the Lord
At the last moment of death, is not meant to imply
Merely a mental image of a fanciful man-created
God;
This remembrance must come to mind
According to the true transcendental knowledge
And conception of the Godhead
As prescribed by the unchallengeable Scriptures
Corroborated by a genuine spiritual master.
THOSE who remember Me at death,
Come to Me then
Or are reborn with My divine thoughts and ideas.
On the other hand, he who leaves the body,
Son of Kunti !
Thinking of other objects at the hour of death
Reaches those objects and ideas,
Which he did meditate upon.
Remember Me, Arjuna ! constantly under every
circumstance,
And fight the battle as a duty
Laid upon you by life as a Kshatriya.
Dedicate all thy mentality and perseverence unto Me
And thou shalt find Me at the end.
By contemplation and remembrance of the Lord,
With a determined will and practice and unflinching
constancy of heart,
Thou shalt attain the Lord Divine
And ne'er revert to perishable elements.
I am Omniscient, Eternal, the Regulator,
Providence of all,
Most subtle, inconceivable to human reasoning and
understanding.
I am the quintessential Principle of human beauty
Forever adolescent; self-effulgent like the sun,
Luminous of complexion and beyond all earthly ken.
He who by dint of previous practices in Yoga
Fixes the Prana or breath between the eye-brows
at the time of death
With an unshaken mind and true devotion
Can yet attain Me the Most Divine.
This Yoga is mentioned to thee
So that thou mayst retain thine equanimity when
facing death.
NOW I shall tell thee about Akshara,
Object Supreme and most deserving End,
Whom the dispassionate auster ascetics enter,
And for whose sake the Brahmacharins observe
their life-long chastity.
In practising Yoga, he who controls all senses
By non-attachment to his sense-perceptions,
Confines the mind within the heart
By dint of his reluctance to indulge in sensual
pleasures,
Fixes the vital life-death in the centre of the head
And, while constantly recalling Me,
Utters the Vedic Word "OM",
Which is Brahman, and passes out,
Leaving the body behind,
Attains the End Supreme
By realising Mine Own Realm
Which is identical with Me in Natrue.
This is unmixed devotion
In which Yoga is the predominant factor.
SO far as I have told thee of that Bhakti
In which either Karma or Jnana predominates,
While dilating on the arguments on the distressed,
The seekers after wealth and truth
And the Jnanins, until decrepitude is reached,
Then death and liberation;
And I have also dealt with Bhakti in which Yoga
plays a part
Hinting at intervals on the conception of unalloyed
devotion.
Now I shall explain to thee what steadfast, pure
devotion is.
I am accessible to My devotees, O Partha !
Who are ever attached to Me alone,
And who unceasingly yet lovingly remember Me.
With single-minded aptitude for serving Me.
They are the highest devotees and greatest Yogins.
My purest devotees do not resort to any Yoga system
Which is not conducive to My service.
Their only Yoga or connection is with Me,
Supremest Lord of all.
The Bhakti-Yogins, having realised Me,
No longer pass through birth and death upon this
plane.
They reach the culmination of their goal.
Steadfast attention and constant thought of Me
Is the criterion of Kevala-Bhakti.
Leaving aside alluring practices and tempting fruits
of Yoga
And of Jnana, he who practices pure devotion
With unswerving love, has followed Kevala-Bhakti
Which alone can lead thee to complete realisation
of My Self.
ALL the worlds, from the Brahma-Loka
To the seven lower regions, are but transitory.
Inhabitants of these worlds are apt,
O Arjuna, to be reborn,
But he who follows Me upon the path
Of pure devotion, meets not with rebirth.
That they are not reborn who follow Karma-
Jnana-, and Astanga-Yoga
In practising their Bhakti-Yoga is true,
In so far as they follow these
And gradually turn exclusively to Bhakti-Yoga.
IN a scale of human time,
A thousand Four Ages make a day of Brahma,
The Creator of the Universe;
Another thousand Four Ages make one night of
Brahma;
Three hundred and sixty such days and nights
complete his year;
A hundred such years compose the span of his
life-time,
At the close of which time Brahma, the Creator,
has his fall.
The Brahma, who is devoted to the service of the
Lord Supreme,
Is liberated; when such is the fate of Brahma himself
What wonder that the Sannyasins
Who live within his range,
Are liable to rebirths?
THERE are Four Ages:
Satya, Treta, Dwapara and Kali.
The current Age is the Kali-
The Age of discord, difference, and warfare.
The Satya Age equals 17,28,000 years.
The Treta Age equals 12,96,000 years.
The Dwapara Age equals 8,64,000 years.
The Kali Age equals 4,32,000 years.
The Four Ages therefore are equivalent to
43,20,000 years.
1000 times 43,20,000 years is 432,00,00,000.
Which equal one day of Brahma.
432,00,00,000 years also equal one night of
Brahma.
Therefore 864,00,00,000, years
Equal one day and one night of Brahma.
360 times of 864,00,00,000 years =
3,11,040,00,00,000 years
Which equal one long year of Brahma,
The Creator of the Universe.
100 years is his life time,
Which means 31,10,40,000,00,00,000 years.
ONE thousand series of Four Ages equal 14
Manwantaras,
So that one Manwantara equals 71 series of Four
Ages,
That is, in each Manwantara, the 4 Ages revolve
71 times.
The present Kali Age is in its 28th revolution
In the 7th Manwantara, called the Vaivaswata
Manwntara
Of the Sveta-Varaha-Kalpa.
One Kalpa is one day of Brahma;
Creation takes place when a Kalpa begins
At the beginning of a day of Brahma
And cataclysm occurs when
The Kalpa ends at the end of a night of Brahma.
The Jivas are destined to briths and deaths in each
Kalpa
Until their final liberation.
The present year of the Kali Age is 5038,
Corresponding to A.D. 1937-1938, 1343-1344
Bengali Era;
1858-1859 of Saka Era, 1993-94 of the Sambat
Era.
And 452 of the Chaitanya Era.
THE gods, human beings, birds and beasts
In the three worlds are still more precarious,
And their rebirths are more frequent than those
Of the inhabitants of the region of Brahma,
When a new Brahmic Day begins,
That the created Universe comes into existence
Out of the Unmanifested;
And again with the approach af a Night of Brahma
When a Kalpa ends,
Worldly manifestation is dissolved and cataclysm
takes place.
The 'Unmanifested' is not to be confused here with
Pradhana,
As it only implies Brahma's state of sleep.
SENTIENT and insentient beings are born,
Again and yet again, O Partha ! during the Days
of Brahma,
While mighty cataclysms do occur
At the approach of Brahma's Nights.
There is a eternal Unmanifested Principle,
Existing irrespective of the night Brahma sleeps
And far superior to Brahmic Night.
This Principle prevails irrespective of all else
Even after every creature shall have been destroyed
At the time of universal dissolution.
That eternal Unmanifested Principle is called
"Akshara";
This is the ultimate and highest End of all;
Know this eternal unbounded Ocean
Of Unmanifested Existence, to be My Spiritual Realm,
From union with Which no soul returns.
The Supreme Immortal person
Who is Autocratic Lord of all that Realm
Is to be attained by single-minded and unswerving
love alone.
O Partha ! all sentient and insentient beings exist in
Him,
And I am that Being Supreme
Who enters into every object as the Indwelling
Monitor !
MY truests devotees can with facility approach My
Feet;
But those who offer not exclusive loyalty to Me
And count upon their Karma and their Jnana for
coveted results
Have to encounter great obstacles upon the way to
realizing Me.
Their progress and path are limited by time and
space.
Let Me now tell thee, O Chief of the Bharatas !
About the time when Jnana-Yogins die,
Never to return,
And of the time when the ignorant depart to be
reborn.
THOSE conversant with the knowledge of
Brahman
Attain Brahman and have no return unto this
world
If they die at a time when favourably influenced
by Agni and Jyoti-
The presiding deities of light;
Ahah-the god of day;
Sukla-the presiding deity of the bright fortnight;
Uttarayana-the summer solstice
When the sun moves to the north of the equator.
A Jnana-Yogin attains Brahman at death
When his mind and senses are in a pleasing mood
Under the influence of the aforesaid time.
The Karma-Yogins who die when their senses
Are influenced by the presiding deities of smoke,
night, the dark fortnight
Or the six months of the southern solstice,
Go to the lunar region and therefore are reborn
When their heavenly joys have run their course.
VERILY are these two bright and dark
Paths of the world deemed to be eternal.
When a Jiva follows the bright path,
He returns not to the world of death,
But rebirth is the fate of him
Who treads the sombre path.
The path of devotion transcends these other two.
Conceiving the difference in principle,
Between these courses of Karma-Yoga and Jnana-
Yoga,
Those who follow with great avidity the pure path,
Bhakti-Yoga,
Are never entagled or illusioned by sinister ways,
And adhere more devoutly to their Yoga
Realising the evil consequence of both the others.
Follow this Bhakti-Yoga, O Arjuna ! hence for all
time.
THOU shalt not be deprived of any fruits
If thou pursuest with devotion thy Bhakti-Yoga.
Thou shalt know and gain not only all the possible
reward
Of Jnana and karma, that may accrue from studying
the Vedas,
Performing sacrifices, observances, harsh austerities
And offering of largesse, but thou wilt pass beyond
all these
And come at last to My Most Blissful Transcendental
Realm,
Which ne'er began and never ends.
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