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[Gita Post #3]

What does the Bhagavad Gita teach? Many people understand it as a text that deals with the highest standards of moral conduct and behavior; people often carry an impression that dharma taught by the Gita is a moral code. For some others, the scripture is an instruction manual that explains how to perform one’s duties and transactions in this world. Politicians, social workers, entrepreneurs and people from all walks of life quote Kṛshṇa’s words from the Bhagavad Gita. Many a time, their purpose is to fortify their claims with a moral tone and to make them sound authentic. Such piecemeal application of the verses should not influence the understanding of the Gita learners.

The Bhagavad Gita itself clearly states what its subject matter is. Every chapter ends with a colophon in which every word except the name and number of the chapter is repeated. This is how it is at the end of Chapter 1:

(Aum tatsaditi srīmad bhagvad gītāsūpanishatsu brahma vidyāyām yoga śāstre Śrī Kṛshṇārjuna samvāde Arjuna vishāda yogo nāma prathamodhyāyaḥ)

Thus ends Chapter One entitled Arjuna-Vishāda Yoga in the Upanishads of the Bhagavad Gita, in the Science of Brahman (the Absolute), in the Science of Yoga, in the dialogue between Śri Kṛshṇa and Arjuna.

Sage Vyāsa asserts at the end of each chapter that the Gita is a compendium of Upanishads! The essence of the Upanishads is covered here. He further conveys unmistakably that the Gita is the Science of Brahman (the Absolute) and it is the Science of Yoga.

Attaining the state of Yoga, a person becomes free from the earlier awareness that he/she was the body. It was a false awareness. Instead, he/she gains the experiential awareness of Brahman. The person then exists as Brahman. The intuitive experience of Brahman he/she goes through is lifelong. The transactional world and its multiplicities are like a dream for such a person. They are unreal. In the state of Yoga, the person realizes that the only reality is Brahman. Being the science of Yoga, the Gita is yoga śastra.

The experiential awareness we have just described is ‘knowledge of Brahman’ (brahma-jñāna). It is not any bookish or empirical knowledge. One who has attained the experiential awareness of Brahman is a ‘knower of Brahman’ (brahma-jñāni) or yogi.

In this description, we may note that the final one ‘thing’ we are left with is Brahman. Or, everything boils down to Brahman. Therefore, what we need to know is Brahman alone. And the Gita declares itself the Science of Brahman (Brahma-vidya). So, it is important now for us to have a preliminary idea of the doctrine of Brahman.

[Let us bear in mind that in Advaita Vedanta the words Brahman, Ātman and the Absolute denote the same Reality.]

Brahma-tattva (The doctrine of Brahman)

The subject of investigation of the Upanishadic ṛshis was the primal cause of the universe. The ṛshis recognized the individual as the microcosm. They learned that the individual well represented the macrocosm—the universe. That was how they turned their inquiry into themselves. As the result of their inquiry, they found the answers to all their questions in Brahman or the doctrine of Brahman (Brahma-tattva). Their knowledge or awareness of Brahman and Its doctrine came about as an intuitive experience. The ṛshis who attained the knowledge of Brahman also found that the intuitive experience was not transient but lifelong.

How do the ṛshis describe Brahman or Consciousness? The following simplified description gives us an initial understanding; and then we will learn the finer details from the Gita.

We perceive everywhere in the universe that things come into being, exist/live for some time. During that time, many changes take place in them, and finally, they vanish or merge back into Nature. This is what we see in all the cases, from the smallest particle such as an electron to huge constellations of celestial bodies.

Humans and all living beings undergo the same process as well: birth takes place (emerge), live for some time, undergo continuous change, and then die (merge back into Nature).

If we can find the ultimate cause for this process of birth and death, we will know what actually happens in the universe. The inquiry leads to a primal cause. Nothing can be born or come into being without a cause. If we have something as an “original” or the very first cause, it could not have been born from something else. It only acts as the cause of all the other things that follow. For argument’s sake, if we say our original cause has come from something else, then that “something else” should be the original cause (or the primal cause). Thus, the conclusion is the original or the primal cause of the universe is something that is “unborn” (aja); it has always existed.

If the original cause is unborn, then it cannot die. Anything born will die one day. So our unborn thing, the primal cause, is also “deathless” (amara).

The thing that is unborn and deathless cannot undergo any change. Changes that happen to a thing are definite indications of its death one day. Therefore, the primal cause is unborn, deathless, and “changeless” (nirvikāra). Every change we see in a thing is, in fact, what we call birth and death ̶ a change is a death of the previous state and the birth of a new state. The primal cause is changeless.

We saw that the primal cause is changeless, and it is only one. It causes to manifest all other things (entities) in the universe. The things we see in the universe keep appearing and disappearing. They do not have the characteristics of our primal cause. They are not unborn, not deathless and not changeless. What are they? All of them are, in reality, the “effects” of the primal cause. The original cause can be only one. But those effects are visible everywhere in the universe. It is easy to understand that the effect cannot be present in any place without its cause; effect alone has no existence. (There will not be light without a glowing lamp.) All the things (or effects) we see around including us fill the entire universe. It is then obvious that the cause also must exist wherever the effects are present. It is only that the ordinary human beings like us can perceive the effects alone, although the same common cause itself hides behind every effect. The ṛshis found that the primal cause is “all-pervading” or “omnipresent”.

We also find that everything in the universe has a certain power, strength, or capability of its own. All the things including living beings are but effects. If an effect cannot exist without its cause, then it cannot have its power from anywhere else; the power must be that of the cause. The source of all power is therefore the primal cause; it is “all-powerful” or “omnipotent”.

All entities (effects), living or non-living, are also stores of information and knowledge. Again, the effects on their own cannot have anything independent of their cause. Thus, the original source of all knowledge must be the primal cause and so it is “all-knowing” or “omniscient”.

The cause of the universe, therefore, must be unborn, deathless, changeless, all-pervading or omnipresent, all-powerful or omnipotent, and all-knowing or omniscient. Only by knowing that primal cause will we know the secret of the universe. Be sure the cause exists, without which there is no universe.

The Upanishads called the primal cause by the name of Brahman. The word means the thing that expands itself to appear as the universe. We have already seen the other words such as Ātman to denote Brahman.

Of the unborn primal cause, can anything new be born? The unborn cause produces only its effects. Nothing new is born. [If another cause like the primal one exists in parallel, producing its own effects, there will be a contention for the primal cause. Then the result will be utter chaos in the effect, which is the universe]. All living beings form part of the effect. Yet we do get a perception that new things are born, exist for some time and then vanish. Vedanta explains it as the “magic-like effect” inherent in the all-powerful primal cause. The magic-like effect gives us the perception that new things are born, remain for some time and are destroyed. If our primal cause is the only thing that exists and all other things are its effect, there cannot be any actual births and deaths. In an effect, we only perceive as though some births and deaths take place all the time. In Vedanta, the “magic-like effect” which creates such a perception is māyā. It is the inherent power of Brahman, the primal cause. Māyā prevents us from “seeing” or experiencing our own primal cause. Each one of us, in reality, is the primal cause itself, not the body which is only the effect. Brahma-vidya teaches how to become free of māyā and experience ourselves as the primal cause, Brahman/Ātman.

Knowing Brahman in its fullness is a rare intuitive knowledge or experiential awareness. The Upanishadic ṛshis avow of the veracity of that experience. Here is a logic that explains the relation between Brahman and the universe: Consciousness is Brahman, which appears as the universe. Only when we are conscious (when we are awake) we perceive the universe. When we are not conscious (as in deep sleep), no universe exists for us. Consciousness or Brahman is within all beings, so they all perceive the universe. Suppose all beings together lose their consciousness. Nobody then has the (experience of the) universe.

So, where does the universe exist? In Consciousness. It is another name for Brahman. Consciousness is all-pervading, inside the beings and everywhere outside. Without Consciousness, the universe does not exist at all. However, Consciousness has always existed (unborn and deathless). Therefore, Its effect (the universe) has also existed always, although its form is subject to continuous change. Our concept of births and deaths is part of the continuous change.

[We observe a correspondence between what we discuss and the findings of modern physicists: (1) Modern science has discovered that electrons appear as particles and energy waves. All that we perceive as discrete entities in the world appear at the particle/wave level as a ‘single mass of flux’. The entire universe has an underlying ‘unitive structural behaviour!’ (2) The state change of an electron from particle to wave and back may be seen from the angle of what we call death and birth. In totality, still everything remains one and unchanged.]

This discussion also leads to another Vedantic fact that the universe has no beginning and end! It always existed as the effect of the unborn, deathless Brahman. [Mythological stories about the creation of the universe do exist. Those stories are allegorical explanations of the Vedantic principles. In pure Vedanta, there is no theory of creation.] But let us remember that in relation to Brahman, the universe and its constant changes are the perception or the dream-like appearance created by māyā.

The entire universe is only a magic-like effect! The reality is Brahman. It appears to us as the universe. The Bhagavad Gita is the Science of Brahman. Obviously, all other branches of science depend on the principle of Brahman because It is the primal cause. The Gita Śastra is thus the Science of all sciences.

The five senses cannot perceive the true nature of Brahman. Any modern scientific instrument is not powerful enough to capture Its characteristics either. The modern literate world is often unwilling to accept a thing like that. But the modern scientists themselves have reached a stage from where they cannot make a quantum leap in finding the origin of the universe. Many of them admit they must include the study of Consciousness in their future endeavors. (Read the verdict of the scientists in the article: Modern Science Meets the Philosophy of Mystics)

The ṛshis found human beings can know Brahman only as an experience or intuitive awareness. Through contemplation and meditation, one must train the mind and take it to a special state—a state in which one has completely withdrawn the mind and the sense organs from the physical/outer world. Attaining the state is possible only when one could free oneself from the attachment to all material possessions, from all the favourite objects of one’s sense organs. The scriptures say that the motivated seekers of Brahman who pursue this process are very rare, but it is important for all the others to gain an intellectual understanding of the doctrine.

What happens to those who attain the knowledge of Brahman?

• They live knowing their true nature, the primal cause.
• To them, there is nothing else worth knowing.
• They experience they are not the perishable physical body they carry. The pleasures and pains that bother the mind and the body do not bother them anymore. It is the state of perfect bliss (ānanda) that lasts forever.
• To them, the concept of death and birth is no more valid because they live as the birthless, deathless Brahman. It is the state of immortality.
• The relative world, its worries and pains and suffering do not bind them because all those affect only the body. They live as Brahman, not as the body they bear. It is the experience of liberation (moksha or mukti).
• They keep seeing that every other being (humans or the others) is nothing but Brahman—same as themselves—and they all are of equal value. And their only concern is the wellbeing of the others because they have no way to differentiate themselves from the others. To them, everything merges into One.

In becoming the knower of Brahman, one becomes detached from everything. Remember, it is detachment from the material; spiritually, the knower of Brahman sees everything and everybody as one; so, he/she works tirelessly for the wellbeing of the world. The Gita declares that its philosophy is not one of inaction, but one of constant endeavor that aims at the cosmic equilibrium.

We have seen what the conclusion of many acclaimed modern scientists is. We hold them in deep respect for their relentless endeavors on behalf of humanity. All the same, we witness their ongoing struggle with matter such as the subatomic particles, before they can go beyond the realm of the physical world.

[The latest in particle physics: “A heavier sibling of an electron, known as a muon, is challenging the ‘Standard Model’ of all the particles in the universe. In a landmark experiment, scientists have found fresh evidence that a subatomic particle is disobeying one of science’s most watertight theories, the Standard Model of particle physics. The gap between the model’s predictions and the particle’s newly measured behavior hints that the universe may contain unseen particles and forces beyond our current grasp.” Report by Michael Greshk, National Geographic, April 7, 2021.]

To those who are new to the principle of Brahman, it may sound elusive. To assimilate the doctrine, for anyone, it takes time and several rounds of reading from multiple but authentic sources. Let us keep ruminating on the principle of Brahman we discussed. Vichāra (contemplation) is the method the ṛshis suggest. It is not a topic we can just read and leave, and still be clear about. Let us remember, the topic is not a foreign one; it is about ourselves, or our Self! If, right in the beginning, we can apply our thought and absorb the doctrine we have read, we will find the expositions of the Vedantic texts easier to comprehend.

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(To read the next post [Gita Post #4] click/tap on this link: https://www.ekatma.org/node/176)