Bg 7.4
bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
Bg 7.5
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
Bg 7.6
etad-yonīni bhūtāni sarvāṇīty upadhāraya
ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā
Translation
4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, egoism --- these are My eight-fold PRAKRITI.
5. This is the "lower" PRAKRITI; different from it, know thou, O mighty-armed, My "Higher" PRAKRITI , the very Life-element, by which this world is upheld.
6. Know that these (two PRAKRITIS ) , are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe.
Commentary
In an attempt to explain the world outside as a marriage between matter and spirit, great thinkers of the Vedic period had exercised their philosophical acumen and had given us the Sankhyan Philosophy. According to them, the Spiritual Factor (Purusha) presiding over a given matter envelopment, dynamises the inert matter and makes the insentient mineral assembly to act, as though it is intelligent and vital. This idea becomes clear to us when we take an example from the modern world.
With steel and iron, the manufacturer completes a steam-engine and when the cold engine is harnessed to steam, at high pressure, it does work. Steam by itself can never express its dynamic capacity and strength; on the other hand, when it is made to work through a given equipment, it is capable of adding motion and performance to the inert iron assemblage.
Thus, one of the schools of philosophy in India tries to explain scientifically, how the Eternal and the Perfect Self comes to express Itself as the world-of-plurality, in the embrace of matter. This also explains the relationship between Spirit and matter. The technical terms used in the philosophy for those two items are: Prakriti, for the "matter-envelopments," and Purusha for the "Spirit-factor."
Krishna explains in this and the following stanza, all the items that together constitute the matter and those that constitute the Spiritual Entity within a living man. Once the individual comes to understand clearly the distinction between matter and Spirit he will indeed come to understand that the Spirit identifying with matter, is the cause for all Its sufferings and when It is detached from Its identifications, it rediscovers for itself its own essential nature as Perfection and Bliss Absolute. The spirit identifying with matter, and sharing the destinies of the inert equipment, is called the "ego" (Jeeva). It is the "ego" that comes to rediscover itself to be nothing other than the Spirit that presides over matter.
In order to make Arjuna realise how exactly one is to understand the true nature of the Self, in all Its divine might and glory, Lord Krishna tries to enumerate the matter-aspect, as distinct from the Spiritual-Truth in each individual.
The five great elements, mind, intellect and ego constitute, according to the Geeta, the eight-fold Prakriti that has come to be superimposed upon the Truth through ignorance. The five great cosmic elements are represented in the microcosm by the five sense-organs by which the individual comes to experience and live in the world of sense-objects. Thus, the list making up Prakriti is nothing other than the subtle body and its vehicles of expression are constituted of the sense-organs. The sense-organs are the channels through which the world of stimuli reaches within, and the inner point of focus of the five sense-organs is called the "mind". The impulses received by the mind are rationally classified and systematised into the knowledge of their perception by the intellect. At all these three levels of sense perception, mental reception, and intellectual assimilation, there is a continuous sense of I-ness, which is called the "ego". These constitute the equipments through which, at the touch of Life, man functions as the intelligent being that he is.
WHAT THEN IS YOUR HIGHER NATURE? LISTEN:
After enumerating in the above stanza the "lower" nature of the Self, Krishna says that this is not all. The Self possesses, besides these equipments, a Higher-Nature which is constituted of Pure Consciousness, or Awareness. It is this Spiritual Entity that makes it possible for the body, mind and intellect, made up of mere inert minerals, to act as if they were in themselves so vitally sentient and intelligent.
The Spiritual Factor is the entity by whose contact the equipments function, and without which the equipments become dull and insentient. If Consciousness were not in us, we would not be able to experience either the world outside or the world within us. It is the Consciousness that maintains, nourishes, and sustains all the possibilities in us. Without this Spiritual Spark functioning in us, we would be no more intelligent or divine than the "stone-world".
Even by a more material consideration, we can logically come to accept the conclusions declared in this stanza. I am standing on the floor of my house; the house is supported by my piece of land; the land is protected by the city Corporation; the city is supported by the country; and the country is supported by the world; the world is supported by water --- the waters of the ocean; water is held in position by the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is a part of the planetary system! The universe stays in space, and this space rests upon the "concept of space" that is in our mind! The mind gets its support from the judgement of the intellect. Since the decision of the intellect is known and realised by the Consciousness in us, this Spiritual Entity is, indeed, the ultimate support for the entire world-of-change (Jagat)!!!
In philosophy, the term Jagat means not only the world of objects perceived by us though our sense-organs, but it includes in its concept, the world experienced through and interpreted by the mind and intellect also. Thus the world-of-objects, the world-of-feelings, and the world-of-ideas that we experience, together, in their totality, constitute the Jagat. This is supported by the Conscious Principle with Its grace showering upon them all. In this sense also, Krishna's declarations are scientifically true, when He says that the "Higher" Prakriti, the Principle of Consciousness, is that
"BY WHICH THIS ENTIRE WORLD OF EXPERIENCES IS SUSTAINED."
HOW IS THE SELF THE CREATOR, SUSTAINER AND THE DESTROYER OF THE WORLD? LISTEN:
The above-mentioned Higher and lower-nature, each functioning in the embrace of the other, cause all the manifestations of the world of plurality. If matter were not there, the latent dynamism in the Spirit will not find a field for Its expression. Matter, by itself, in its inertness, will not be able to express the similitude of Consciousness unless the Spirit were there to dynamise it. Electricity, expressing itself through the filament in the bulb, manifests as light. Without the bulb, the light in the electricity cannot manifest itself, nor can the bulb smile forth in light without the electrical current flowing through it. The bulb is the equipment, functioning through which, electricity expresses itself as light. Similarly, the Spirit, when it comes to function through the five layers of matter, discovers for Itself a field to express Its own potentialities.
Keeping this idea in mind, Lord Krishna declares here: "THESE TWO ARE THE WOMB OF ALL BEINGS." It is not very difficult for an intelligent student to understand what it actually means. Not only does the pluralistic world of objects, feelings, and ideas rise from, and stay in the Spirit, but it dissolves into It, again to become the Higher-Nature. Thus, the lower-nature is, in its essential constitution, nothing other than the Higher. The Higher, forgetting Its own divinity, identifies Itself with the lower and comes to the ego-centric sorrows and imperfections. The Higher seemingly suffers, at present, in Its own delusions, the sorrows of the lower. Its own rediscovery of Its native divine glory is the redemption of matter. The idea that the lower has arisen from the Higher is likened to the way in which pots of different shapes and colours have all arisen from the mud. Just as the mud is the truth in all the pots, the Higher is the essential Reality in all the objects of the sense-organs, mind and intellect which the lower procreates.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
bhūmir āpo ’nalo vāyuḥ khaṁ mano buddhir eva ca
ahaṅkāra itīyaṁ me bhinnā prakṛtir aṣṭadhā
Bg 7.5
apareyam itas tv anyāṁ prakṛtiṁ viddhi me parām
jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bāho yayedaṁ dhāryate jagat
Bg 7.6
etad-yonīni bhūtāni sarvāṇīty upadhāraya
ahaṁ kṛtsnasya jagataḥ prabhavaḥ pralayas tathā
Translation
4. Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intellect, egoism --- these are My eight-fold PRAKRITI.
5. This is the "lower" PRAKRITI; different from it, know thou, O mighty-armed, My "Higher" PRAKRITI , the very Life-element, by which this world is upheld.
6. Know that these (two PRAKRITIS ) , are the womb of all beings. So I am the source and dissolution of the whole universe.
Commentary
In an attempt to explain the world outside as a marriage between matter and spirit, great thinkers of the Vedic period had exercised their philosophical acumen and had given us the Sankhyan Philosophy. According to them, the Spiritual Factor (Purusha) presiding over a given matter envelopment, dynamises the inert matter and makes the insentient mineral assembly to act, as though it is intelligent and vital. This idea becomes clear to us when we take an example from the modern world.
With steel and iron, the manufacturer completes a steam-engine and when the cold engine is harnessed to steam, at high pressure, it does work. Steam by itself can never express its dynamic capacity and strength; on the other hand, when it is made to work through a given equipment, it is capable of adding motion and performance to the inert iron assemblage.
Thus, one of the schools of philosophy in India tries to explain scientifically, how the Eternal and the Perfect Self comes to express Itself as the world-of-plurality, in the embrace of matter. This also explains the relationship between Spirit and matter. The technical terms used in the philosophy for those two items are: Prakriti, for the "matter-envelopments," and Purusha for the "Spirit-factor."
Krishna explains in this and the following stanza, all the items that together constitute the matter and those that constitute the Spiritual Entity within a living man. Once the individual comes to understand clearly the distinction between matter and Spirit he will indeed come to understand that the Spirit identifying with matter, is the cause for all Its sufferings and when It is detached from Its identifications, it rediscovers for itself its own essential nature as Perfection and Bliss Absolute. The spirit identifying with matter, and sharing the destinies of the inert equipment, is called the "ego" (Jeeva). It is the "ego" that comes to rediscover itself to be nothing other than the Spirit that presides over matter.
In order to make Arjuna realise how exactly one is to understand the true nature of the Self, in all Its divine might and glory, Lord Krishna tries to enumerate the matter-aspect, as distinct from the Spiritual-Truth in each individual.
The five great elements, mind, intellect and ego constitute, according to the Geeta, the eight-fold Prakriti that has come to be superimposed upon the Truth through ignorance. The five great cosmic elements are represented in the microcosm by the five sense-organs by which the individual comes to experience and live in the world of sense-objects. Thus, the list making up Prakriti is nothing other than the subtle body and its vehicles of expression are constituted of the sense-organs. The sense-organs are the channels through which the world of stimuli reaches within, and the inner point of focus of the five sense-organs is called the "mind". The impulses received by the mind are rationally classified and systematised into the knowledge of their perception by the intellect. At all these three levels of sense perception, mental reception, and intellectual assimilation, there is a continuous sense of I-ness, which is called the "ego". These constitute the equipments through which, at the touch of Life, man functions as the intelligent being that he is.
WHAT THEN IS YOUR HIGHER NATURE? LISTEN:
After enumerating in the above stanza the "lower" nature of the Self, Krishna says that this is not all. The Self possesses, besides these equipments, a Higher-Nature which is constituted of Pure Consciousness, or Awareness. It is this Spiritual Entity that makes it possible for the body, mind and intellect, made up of mere inert minerals, to act as if they were in themselves so vitally sentient and intelligent.
The Spiritual Factor is the entity by whose contact the equipments function, and without which the equipments become dull and insentient. If Consciousness were not in us, we would not be able to experience either the world outside or the world within us. It is the Consciousness that maintains, nourishes, and sustains all the possibilities in us. Without this Spiritual Spark functioning in us, we would be no more intelligent or divine than the "stone-world".
Even by a more material consideration, we can logically come to accept the conclusions declared in this stanza. I am standing on the floor of my house; the house is supported by my piece of land; the land is protected by the city Corporation; the city is supported by the country; and the country is supported by the world; the world is supported by water --- the waters of the ocean; water is held in position by the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is a part of the planetary system! The universe stays in space, and this space rests upon the "concept of space" that is in our mind! The mind gets its support from the judgement of the intellect. Since the decision of the intellect is known and realised by the Consciousness in us, this Spiritual Entity is, indeed, the ultimate support for the entire world-of-change (Jagat)!!!
In philosophy, the term Jagat means not only the world of objects perceived by us though our sense-organs, but it includes in its concept, the world experienced through and interpreted by the mind and intellect also. Thus the world-of-objects, the world-of-feelings, and the world-of-ideas that we experience, together, in their totality, constitute the Jagat. This is supported by the Conscious Principle with Its grace showering upon them all. In this sense also, Krishna's declarations are scientifically true, when He says that the "Higher" Prakriti, the Principle of Consciousness, is that
"BY WHICH THIS ENTIRE WORLD OF EXPERIENCES IS SUSTAINED."
HOW IS THE SELF THE CREATOR, SUSTAINER AND THE DESTROYER OF THE WORLD? LISTEN:
The above-mentioned Higher and lower-nature, each functioning in the embrace of the other, cause all the manifestations of the world of plurality. If matter were not there, the latent dynamism in the Spirit will not find a field for Its expression. Matter, by itself, in its inertness, will not be able to express the similitude of Consciousness unless the Spirit were there to dynamise it. Electricity, expressing itself through the filament in the bulb, manifests as light. Without the bulb, the light in the electricity cannot manifest itself, nor can the bulb smile forth in light without the electrical current flowing through it. The bulb is the equipment, functioning through which, electricity expresses itself as light. Similarly, the Spirit, when it comes to function through the five layers of matter, discovers for Itself a field to express Its own potentialities.
Keeping this idea in mind, Lord Krishna declares here: "THESE TWO ARE THE WOMB OF ALL BEINGS." It is not very difficult for an intelligent student to understand what it actually means. Not only does the pluralistic world of objects, feelings, and ideas rise from, and stay in the Spirit, but it dissolves into It, again to become the Higher-Nature. Thus, the lower-nature is, in its essential constitution, nothing other than the Higher. The Higher, forgetting Its own divinity, identifies Itself with the lower and comes to the ego-centric sorrows and imperfections. The Higher seemingly suffers, at present, in Its own delusions, the sorrows of the lower. Its own rediscovery of Its native divine glory is the redemption of matter. The idea that the lower has arisen from the Higher is likened to the way in which pots of different shapes and colours have all arisen from the mud. Just as the mud is the truth in all the pots, the Higher is the essential Reality in all the objects of the sense-organs, mind and intellect which the lower procreates.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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