News Bulletin of Tolani Institutions of Gandhidham Collegiate Board, Adipur
PHILOSOPHY IN FOCUS - GITA
UNMANIFEST AND MANIFEST
by - P. S. Tolani
(IX th Instalment - Continuing from the last issue ....)
(NIRGUNA AND SAGUNA)
After the grand exposition by the Lord, of Jnana Marga and Karma Marga a means of realizing Divinity, Arjuna, typical of the human race, found the technicalities and the exacting standards of intellectual attainments thereof too arduous to follow. He pleaded with the Lord that the Mind was ever fickle, restless and running away, turbulent and hard to control. How then to realize the Unmanifest Supreme is the problem. Although, as the Lord put it agreeing with Arjuna's difficulty, that the Unmanifet Supreme could be attained by constant awareness, knowledge and practise, it is very difficult for embodied beings to concentrate on the Unmanifest (Omnipresent, Indestructible, Ineffable, Unthinkable, Unchanging, Immutable, Eternal). The human mind can comprehend only such things and objects as will readily attract it for its p u r s u i t s. There fore, the Lord propounded the worship of the Known (Manifest) all his acts to Me and concentrates all his affections on Me, the Salvation is possible for man when he acquires knowledge of God. It is possible to visualize God in any of His Exalted virtues and excellences. Arjuna asked Lord Sri Krishna:-
"How may I know you, O Yogin, by constant meditation: in what various aspects are You, O Lord, to be thought by me?"
"Tell me again in detail, O Janardhana, of Your Yoga Powers and attributes; for I am not satisfied with hearing your lifeinfusing words."
To which, the Lord said:-
"I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all beings, I am the Beginning, the Middle and also the End of all Beings."
And the Lord proceeded to give illustration of His Excellences (Vibhutis), of His Power, Form and Glory. The Lord then said:-
"Whatever being there is glorious, prosperous or powerful, know that to have sprung from a spark of My Splendour."
Among the innumerable Vibhutis mentioned by the Lord is the one that He is Arjuna among the Pandavas. This is a straight pointer form Lord Sri Krishna to Arjuna that the latter has in himself the power to destroy all the Kauravas infused by Divinity, which alone is capable of destroying the forces of evil represented by the Kaurava army. The climax in the Lord's exhortations to Arjuna to realise the Divine power of destruction in himself is reached when the Lord declares:-
"But what need is there, O Arjuna, for this detailed knowledge? I stand supporting the whole universe with the single fragment of Myself."
To bring home this conviction to Arjuna, Lord Sri Krishna unfolded the Viswarupa, which Arjuna could behold with the help of the divine eye granted to him by the Lord. Arjuna saw the terrific phenomena of Destruction and not being able to stand the sight and trembling entreated the Yogeswara to resume His peaceful, normal, human form. The Lord acceded to the devotees's prayer. Lord Sri Krishna, in fact, wanted definitely to show Arjuna that Saguna Brahma is no other than Nirguna Brahma.
Thus, the purpose of the Vibhuti Yoga is to inculcate in every human being the Divine Will, that with such endless and inexhaustible anger and variety of divine glories and attributes, any worshipper can pick up any of those traits and endeavor to realize God in the particular trait or glory chosen by him. The Gita doctrine makes it quite clear that life and action are to follow the Divine Intent and pattern which will lead to perfection and Divinity. Duty is cast on man to work out his salvation. And the Lord told Arjuna that, whether he followed the injunctions or not, His Supreme Will would prevail:-
"You therefore rise and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy the unrivalled Kingdom. By me have they been verily slain already. You be merely an outward cause.:
The Lord continued:-
" S l a y D r o n a , B h i s h m a , Jayadratha, Karna and other brave warriors who are already doomed by Me. Be not distressed with fear. Fight and you will conquer your enemies in battle."
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa asked his disciple and chronicler "M", if he believed in God with form or without form, to which "M" said in reply that he liked to think of God as formless. The Paramahansa then observed: "Very good, it is enough to have faith in either aspect. You believe in God without form; that is quite all right. But never for a moment think that this alone is true and all else false. Remember that God with form is just as true as God without form. But hold fast to your own conviction". But the disciple was tempted to inquire further of the Master : "Sir, suppose one believes in God with form. Certainly He is not the clay image!" Interrogatively the Master asserted : "But why clay? It is an image of Spirit". The disciple quipped : "But Sir, one should explain to those who worship the clay image that it is not God and that, while worshiping it, they should have God in view and not the clay image". Sri RamakrishnaParamahamsa burst forth : "That is the one hobby of you Calcutta people -- giving lectures and bringing light to others ! Nobody ever stops to consider how to get the light himself. Who are to teach others?" And the Paramahamsa went on : "He, who is the Lord of the Universe, will teach every one. He alone teaches us, Who has created this Universe; Who has made Sun and Moon, men and beasts, and all other beings; Who has provided means for their sustenance; Who has given children parents and endowed them with love to bring them up. The Lord has done so many things -- will He not show the people the way to worship Him? If they need teaching, then He will be the Teacher. He is our Inner Guide". "Suppose -- there is an error in worshiping the clay image' does not God know that through it He alone is being invoked? He will be pleased with that very worship. Why should you get a headache over it? You had better try for knowledge and devotion yourself". The Paramahamsa ended up saying : "Even if the image is of clay, there is need for that sort of worship. God himself has provided different forms of worship..... has arranged all these forms to suit different men in different stages of knowledge.
The Paramahamsa draws a subtle distinction between impersonal and personal God.
"When the Supreme Being is thought of as inactive - not creating, sustaining or destroying - I call Him Brahman or Purusha, the Impersonal God. When I think of him as active - creating, sustaining and destroying - I call him Shakti or Maya or Prakriti or the Personal God. But really the distincion between Brahman and Shakti - or Impersonal God and Personal God - is a distinction without a difference. The Impersonal and the Personal are one and the same Being even as milk and its whiteness. They are one like a gem and its luster. They are one like a snake and its zig-zag movement. When you think of a snake, you automatically think of its zig-zag motion also.
Similar is the relation between Brahman and the Divine Mother.
The Paramahamsa is hailed as the greatest Divine our country has produced in our times. He was a simple, uneducated brahmin. He had very little of school education and was not literate in the customary sense. The world misjudged him as a raving mad man. But was there a greater saint then he? And why was it so? It was not because he worshiped Kali; but because he saw the real absolute Divinity in Kali; not that he chanted the name of Sri Krishna like a wanderer, but he saw in every object before him Sri Krishna. So much of this great Saint and Mahayogi I have read that it has thrilled my heart to see that he saw Divinity face to face. Not only that, but he has preached to his disciples that Saguna Brahma is not different from Nirguna Brahma. The very life of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is an object lesson for us and teaches us that Personal and Impersonal God are not different. What Shakti he brought about through his illustrious disciple Swami Vivekananda is apparent from the hundreds of institutions that have been founded in India and far-off countries ringing with knowledge of God.
Avatars have manifold intents which fulfil God's Mission. God incarnates Himself at any time, anywhere and in any form. Lod Sri Krishna declared in the Gita :
"Many are the births take my Me.."
"Though I am unborn, imperishable and the Lord of Beings, yet subjugating my Prakriti, I come into being by My own Maya".
Every Avatar exemplifies God's supreme powers, Mercy and Love and comes as a stern reminder and warning for the annihilation of adharma and establishment of dharma. Sri Krishna is my Isht Dev. Like millions of our countrymen I chant his name in the prayer : "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya". His is the Purna Avatar with all sixteen Kalas (rays or excellences). He is the World Teacher; the greatest lover of mankind. With His flute, He enchanted the Gopis of Brindavan, and when I reflect on His Form with flute on His lips, I hear the Song Celestial. Like a reed, we have to empty our 'ego'. Then alone we can reach His lips.
His Gita is the fathomless ocean from which, by diving deep, we can collect pearls according to the degree of our faith in Him and extent of worship we offer at His Lotus Feet. The vision He grants to His devotees, the blessings He pours upon them enthralls teeming millions even today. In every nook and corner of Bharat, we see Ashrams dedicated to Sri Vasudev, where people make their lives sublime.
(To be Continued in the next issue)
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