Bg 8.8
abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena cetasā nānya-gāminā
paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ yāti pārthānucintayan
Bg 8.9
kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ
sarvasya dhātāram acintya-rūpam āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt
Bg 8.10
prayāṇa-kāle manasācalena bhaktyā yukto yoga-balena caiva
bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak sa taṁ paraṁ puruṣam upaiti divyam
Translation
8. With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating on the Supreme PURUSHA, the Resplendent, O Partha, he goes (to Him) .
9. Whosoever, meditates upon the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world) , minuter than the atom, the Supporter of all, of Form inconceivable, Effulgent like the Sun and beyond the darkness (of ignorance) . . .
10. At the time of death, with an unshaken mind full of devotion, by the power of 'YOGA' fixing the whole 'PRANA' (breath) between the two eyebrows, he (the seeker) reaches the Supreme Resplendent 'PURUSHA. '
Commentary
The term 'death'mentioned here does not mean only the irrevocable physical death, but also the "death of the ego," which is to be brought about through the steady practice of meditation. This stanza is added to the discourse to show that after the sublimation of the limited ego, one can live in full Godly Awareness as a liberated God-man, even here, while living this very life!
One who is practising the above method of living in the world, "AS A SOJOURNER THEREIN, AND NOT AS A NATIVE OF IT," and who is training the mind constantly to rest upon the contemplation of the Self, becomes single-pointed in his concentration. This, in fact, is a revolutionary interpretation of the techniques of prayer and concentration (Upasana) as explained in the Vedas and also the methods of devotion and surrender championed in the Puranas, while what is advised in the preceding stanza is religion lived in the market-place, the everyday-Samnyasa for the man of action, in the very fields of his own activities.
By this practice the devotee develops single-pointedness of the mind which helps to integrate his intellect. With such well-tuned up and nobly adjusted instruments of perception and comprehension, and intuitive realisation of the Divine, the Self becomes an easy experience: "DWELLING ON THE SUPREME, RESPLENDENT PURUSHA, O SON OF PRITHA, ONE GOES TO HIM." With integrated mind, whatever the individual meditates upon intensively, he must come to gain it soon enough. Thus, the stanza indicates an ampler significance than what has been so far declared. This realisation of the Self, and thereby gaining one's identity with It, can actually take place in this very same life, if, with prepared mind and intellect one can, with steadfastness, meditate upon Me, "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA.
The term that has been used to indicate the one who meditates upon the Self (Anuchintayan) is very significant. Thoughts of the same species, made to run towards one fixed ideal or goal, in an unbroken flow, are called "meditations." The prefix 'Anu' in 'Anuchintayan' provides this significant meaning of the "continuity" of the flow-of-thought, in one determined channel of contemplation.
WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC QUALITIES OF THIS GREAT PURUSHA UPON WHOM WE ARE CONSTANTLY TO MEDITATE?
By holding the mind constantly in the contemplation of the Self, the devotee was promised that he could develop in himself such a powerful and divine trait that at the time of his departure he can easily come to entertain the thoughts of the Divine. By a very subtle implication, it was also suggested in two previous stanzas (VIII-5, 6), that even while continuing to live in the present embodiment, the seeker can reach a point where the ego-centric life is ended. Such a total annihilation of ignorance-created misconceptions, and the consequent vanities, can be successfully accomplished by the seekers only when their minds get totally withdrawn from their attachments to the false matter-envelopments through the process of continued contemplation upon the Self.
In the preceding stanza, it was also vaguely hinted that the contemplation of the Self must be as "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA." If I am advised by somebody to meditate upon or think out the possibilities of OXYGENELITEEN' it will be impossible for me, however wise a man I might be, unless I know what that is. Merely upon a name, no consistent contemplation is possible. "OXYGENELITEEN" is merely a word constituted of letters --- it means nothing; it is only a sound represented by a few letters of the alphabet. Similarly, to be advised by a Shastra, to meditate upon the SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF, could only be as futile as to be asked to think over the possibilities of "OXYGENELITEEN."
In a practical text-book of instruction as to how Vedanta can be lived, Krishna has to provide Arjuna with sufficient material indicating the line of contemplation to be undertaken by the meditator. The two stanzas now under review, give an exhaustive design for the students to make themselves successfully and profitably disciplined.
These qualifying terms are as many different indications of the Truth (though none defines It), which is the thrilling core that gives a similitude of life and reality to inert, unreal matter. No single term here, therefore, is to be understood as complete in itself. Geometrically, a point can be defined and indicated only with reference to two different sets of data. So too, here the inexpressible Reality has been almost accurately explained with these different qualifying terms.
Contemplation upon the Reality, through an attempt at exhaustively comprehending all the secret suggestions in the above stanza, is to prepare a mental condition in which, if a mind lives well-integrated and turned inward, it can come to pause in an atmosphere of Infinite Experience.
The Conscious Principle, serving as the Soul in an embodiment, is that which illumines all the thought waves that rise in that particular mind, functioning in that given embodiment. The Infinite Self being One everywhere, it is the same Principle that illumines all the different embodiments, all the thought-experiences, at all times. Just as the Sun is said to be "SEEING EVERYTHING," because it illuminates all the objects on the globe, so too, is the Divine Principle of Awareness --- the factor without which no knowledge is ever possible. Thus, the Self is considered, in terms of the world of conditioned-knowledge which we experience today, as the Supreme Knower who knows everything, Omniscient (Kavih), and without whom no knowledge is ever possible.
ANCIENT (Puranah) --- The Self is considered as the most Ancient because the Eternal Truth is that which was before all creation, which remains the same all through the ages of existence, and which shall ever remain the same even after the projections of plurality have ended. To indicate that the One Self ever remains the same everywhere, providing a substratum even for the concept of time, It is indicated here as the Ancient.
THE OVER-RULER (Anushasitah) --- It is not in any way indicated here that the Self is a Sultan, tyrannically ruling over the world. Here the term 'Over-ruler' is only to indicate that if the Principle of Awareness were not presiding over the multiple faculties of perception, feeling, and comprehension in us, our physical, mental and intellectual experiences could not have been harmonised into the meaningful existence of our life-time.
The Overlordship, mentioned here, only indicates that the Knowing Principle of Consciousness is the very essence but for which life --- defined as a continuous series of experiences --- in any form is never possible. Without mud the mud-pots cannot exist; in all pots the mud is the OVER-RULER. Just as gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, sweetness in all candy, so too is the Self in the Universe of names and forms. It is in this sense that the term 'Overruler' is to be understood. To conceive of God as a mighty policeman standing with two keys, one made of gold to open the gates of heaven, and the other of iron to open the doors of hell, is a barbarous concept of Godhood that has nothing sacred in it to attract the intellectually awakened generations!
MINUTER THAN AN ATOM (Anoraniyan) --- The simplest and the smallest physically divisible particle of any element which still maintains the specific properties of that element is called its atom. Thus, it is indicated here that the Self is the subtlest of the subtle. The subtler a thing, the greater is its pervasiveness. Water is considered subtler than a block of ice, and the steam ensuing when water is boiled is considered subtler than the water itself. In all these stages, pervasiveness is the measuring rod of their comparative subtleties. In the Upanishadic lore, it is usual to consider the Self as "the Subtlest of the Subtle" which only indicates that "It pervades all, and nothing pervades It."
THE NOURISHER OF ALL (Sarvasya Dhatarah) --- The nourisher here means the support that sustains everything. In a cinema theatre, the changeless white-screen can be considered as the nourisher of the entertainment, inasmuch as, without it the ever-changing flow of pictures could not have given us the impression of a continuous story. However glorious might be the message that a master-painter has brought out with his brush, it is the consistent strength of the canvas behind, that nourishes and sustains the integrity and beauty of the picture. Similarly, if the One Consciousness were not constantly illumining the ever-changing flux of things and happenings around and within us from birth to death, through all conditions and states of our existence, the homogeneous oneness of life would never have been ours to react to and feel fulfilled with.
OF FORM INCONCEIVABLE (Achintya-roopah) --- If there be a factor that is Omniscient, Ancient, Over-ruler, Subtlest of the subtle, and Nourisher of all, and if we are advised to meditate upon It, then it is possible that we immediately get a false notion that the Self can be thought of and comprehended, as any other finite object or idea, by our limited faculties of the head or the heart. To remove this wrong idea and to emphasize that the Infinite cannot be comprehended by the finite instruments of perception, feeling and understanding --- but can only be apprehended when these equipments are transcended --- the Lord is particularly anxious to tell His students that the Self is of "THE FORM INCONCEIVABLE." Though it is thus, in fact, inconceivable, yet, on transcending the equipment of experiences, the individual, in a process of Divine Awakening, can subjectively apprehend It to be his own Essential Nature.
LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN (Aditya-varnah) --- If the implication of the above term (Achintya-roopah) be true, no intelligent seeker can arrest his temptation to doubt as to how the Self can ever be realised. As seekers, we live and strive within the limitations of our own mind and intellect. Every moment of our existence, we gather a harvest of experiences only through the use of the different equipments given to us. Living as we are, rooted in our false identifications with these equipments in the early days of our spiritual efforts, the seeker in us should necessarily despair at the impossible conception and the mad mission of "knowing the UN-KNOWABLE" --- conceiving the IN-CONCEIVABLE --- understanding the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE --- or experiencing the IN EXPERIENCABLE!!!
The Self is defined as the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE, or the IN-CONCEIVABLE, or IN-EXPERIENCABLE, etc., only to indicate that the instruments of cognition, experience and apprehension are not available for functioning in the Self. The dream-gun, with which the dreamer had shot the enemies of his dream-world, cannot be any longer handled by him, when once he has awakened. Even the bloody hands of a dreamer, after a dream-murder, become automatically clean, without either soap or water, the moment he wakes up! As long as man is identifying with his limiting adjuncts, he lives in the external world of his self-projected delusory multiplicity, wherein the Self is "IN-CONCEIVABLE, and IN-EXPERIENCABLE." But the moment these adjuncts are transcended through a process of steadfast contemplation on the Self, he gets awakened to his own nature of Pure Being.
Once having understood this much of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta, it becomes easy to appreciate the matchless beauty of the example of the Sun. In order to see the Sun, no other light is necessary, as the Sun is the "SOURCE" of all light, the one illuminator that illuminates everything else. Just as, in the physical world, the Sun, in its self-effulgence, is self-evident, so too, in the spiritual realm, to know the Knowledge Absolute, no other knowing-principle is needed. The dreamer can never KNOW the waker, for, while knowing the waking-state the dreamer himself ends to BECOME the waker; to awaken oneself from the dream is to know the waker; to KNOW the waker is to BECOME the waker. So too, on ending the ego-centric existence, in the flash of the spiritual awakening, the misguided, panting ego ends itself in the re-discovery that it has been nothing but the Self, at all times. This vast suggestion is cramped into a mystic word-picture: "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN."
BEYOND ALL DARKNESS (Tamasah-Parastat) --- The limited and the finite example of the Sun calls into the heart of a student some dangerous misgivings. The Sun in the heavens is, no doubt, resplendent, but only during the day; and even during the day-time there are various degrees of intensity of the sunlight experienced by the living kingdom. If the Self is "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN," then the industrious student may gather that the Self also varies in Its intensity, and that there are periods of time when It is not at all available! To remove these two fallacious ideas --- that the Self is variable in nature and sometimes totally absent, this qualifying term is used here. The very limitation of the Sun, meaning the darkness of the night, is negated when Krishna says that the Self is "BEYOND THE DARKNESS" of ignorance, or Maya.
He who meditates upon the Self thus, as Omniscient, Ancient, Overruler, Subtlest of the subtle, Nourisher of all, of Inconceivable Form, Self-illuminating as the Sun, and Beyond all traces of ignorance, is the one who "goes to Him."
Following the word-meaning only, this stanza has been indeed, very often, sadly mis-understood and badly interpreted.
This section in the Geeta is describing single-pointed meditation upon the Highest. Therefore the expression AT THE TIME OF DEATH is to be understood as "AT THE MOMENT OF THE DEATH OF THE EGO." When all identifications with the body-mind-intellect are consciously withdrawn through the process of meditation, at the HALT-MOMENT of perfect inner silence and tranquillity, "WITH THE MIND UNMOVING," the meditator can follow the instructions contained in this stanza.
The term "Bhakti" is not to be understood in its cheap connotation, which it has come to gather in its direct translation as 'devotion.' Self-less love, seeking a fulfilment in itself, when directed towards the divine with firm faith and an all-out belief, is called Bhakti. Love itself means identifying with the object of love in such a way that the joys and sorrows of the beloved become equally poignant joys and sorrows of the lover. In short, the lovers become one with their beloveds, both in their physical and emotional lives. Therefore, Shankara describes Bhakti as "the identification of the ego with its Real Nature."
In the context of the stanza here, the important suggestion given to the meditator is that his meditation should be accompanied by a readiness to identify himself intensely with the Principle of Awareness, which has been exhaustively indicated in the previous stanza. He must come to live the Self, within himself, at that still moment of Inward Silence, which rings the death-knell of the deluded-ego.
BY THE POWER OF YOGA (Yoga-balena) --- Here we are not talking of some secret and mysterious strength --- the Serpent Power --- which is the highly guarded secret of a rare few, which should not be spilt to everyone even among those who profess to be the devotees of the Lord. The strength acquired by a meditator, when he meditates upon the Supreme regularly for a long period of time, is the strength --- the "POWER OF YOGA" --- that is indicated here. This is nothing other than the inward strength, the inward fire, that grows when the mind is withdrawn from its endless agitations and the intellect is peacefully rested in its contemplations upon the infinite qualities of the Absolute.
The meditator, in a relatively short time, discovers in himself a wealth of mental equipoise and an indescribable efficiency, ready to bring his entire mental equipment into the contemplation of the Self in him. When an individual is thus engaged in meditation, all his pranas are concentrated at the point of his meditation --- maybe "between the eye-brows," as it represents the frontal-brain, the seat of steady thought.
Prana is the term used in the Science of Vedanta to indicate "all the different expressions of life's vitality, through the various instruments and organs of the body." Life expressing itself as the various functions in a living physical body is called the Prana, which, according to its varied manifestations is classified under five main headings as: Prana: the faculty of sense perception; Apana: the excretory system; Vyana: the digestive system; Samana: the circulatory system; and Udana: the capacity in us to see beyond our present world of knowledge into the field of some greater concept and live it. All these different activities are channels of dissipation through which the vital attention in us is getting exhausted. When an individual gets lost in the Silence within at the moment of his merger with the Self, all these faculties are temporarily arrested. For a seeker walking the Path of Meditation no other violent physical practices at all are needed.
Such an individual --- in whom, during the deepest moments of concentration, the mind becomes perfectly silent and tranquil; in whom, through the strength of his steadfast meditation, all manifestations of life's presence through his physical body become controlled and arrested and when he, in his enthusiasm, totally identifies with the point of his contemplation, the Self --- "HE GOES TO THAT SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF (PURUSHA)."
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
abhyāsa-yoga-yuktena cetasā nānya-gāminā
paramaṁ puruṣaṁ divyaṁ yāti pārthānucintayan
Bg 8.9
kaviṁ purāṇam anuśāsitāram aṇor aṇīyāṁsam anusmared yaḥ
sarvasya dhātāram acintya-rūpam āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt
Bg 8.10
prayāṇa-kāle manasācalena bhaktyā yukto yoga-balena caiva
bhruvor madhye prāṇam āveśya samyak sa taṁ paraṁ puruṣam upaiti divyam
Translation
8. With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating on the Supreme PURUSHA, the Resplendent, O Partha, he goes (to Him) .
9. Whosoever, meditates upon the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world) , minuter than the atom, the Supporter of all, of Form inconceivable, Effulgent like the Sun and beyond the darkness (of ignorance) . . .
10. At the time of death, with an unshaken mind full of devotion, by the power of 'YOGA' fixing the whole 'PRANA' (breath) between the two eyebrows, he (the seeker) reaches the Supreme Resplendent 'PURUSHA. '
Commentary
The term 'death'mentioned here does not mean only the irrevocable physical death, but also the "death of the ego," which is to be brought about through the steady practice of meditation. This stanza is added to the discourse to show that after the sublimation of the limited ego, one can live in full Godly Awareness as a liberated God-man, even here, while living this very life!
One who is practising the above method of living in the world, "AS A SOJOURNER THEREIN, AND NOT AS A NATIVE OF IT," and who is training the mind constantly to rest upon the contemplation of the Self, becomes single-pointed in his concentration. This, in fact, is a revolutionary interpretation of the techniques of prayer and concentration (Upasana) as explained in the Vedas and also the methods of devotion and surrender championed in the Puranas, while what is advised in the preceding stanza is religion lived in the market-place, the everyday-Samnyasa for the man of action, in the very fields of his own activities.
By this practice the devotee develops single-pointedness of the mind which helps to integrate his intellect. With such well-tuned up and nobly adjusted instruments of perception and comprehension, and intuitive realisation of the Divine, the Self becomes an easy experience: "DWELLING ON THE SUPREME, RESPLENDENT PURUSHA, O SON OF PRITHA, ONE GOES TO HIM." With integrated mind, whatever the individual meditates upon intensively, he must come to gain it soon enough. Thus, the stanza indicates an ampler significance than what has been so far declared. This realisation of the Self, and thereby gaining one's identity with It, can actually take place in this very same life, if, with prepared mind and intellect one can, with steadfastness, meditate upon Me, "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA.
The term that has been used to indicate the one who meditates upon the Self (Anuchintayan) is very significant. Thoughts of the same species, made to run towards one fixed ideal or goal, in an unbroken flow, are called "meditations." The prefix 'Anu' in 'Anuchintayan' provides this significant meaning of the "continuity" of the flow-of-thought, in one determined channel of contemplation.
WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC QUALITIES OF THIS GREAT PURUSHA UPON WHOM WE ARE CONSTANTLY TO MEDITATE?
By holding the mind constantly in the contemplation of the Self, the devotee was promised that he could develop in himself such a powerful and divine trait that at the time of his departure he can easily come to entertain the thoughts of the Divine. By a very subtle implication, it was also suggested in two previous stanzas (VIII-5, 6), that even while continuing to live in the present embodiment, the seeker can reach a point where the ego-centric life is ended. Such a total annihilation of ignorance-created misconceptions, and the consequent vanities, can be successfully accomplished by the seekers only when their minds get totally withdrawn from their attachments to the false matter-envelopments through the process of continued contemplation upon the Self.
In the preceding stanza, it was also vaguely hinted that the contemplation of the Self must be as "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA." If I am advised by somebody to meditate upon or think out the possibilities of OXYGENELITEEN' it will be impossible for me, however wise a man I might be, unless I know what that is. Merely upon a name, no consistent contemplation is possible. "OXYGENELITEEN" is merely a word constituted of letters --- it means nothing; it is only a sound represented by a few letters of the alphabet. Similarly, to be advised by a Shastra, to meditate upon the SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF, could only be as futile as to be asked to think over the possibilities of "OXYGENELITEEN."
In a practical text-book of instruction as to how Vedanta can be lived, Krishna has to provide Arjuna with sufficient material indicating the line of contemplation to be undertaken by the meditator. The two stanzas now under review, give an exhaustive design for the students to make themselves successfully and profitably disciplined.
These qualifying terms are as many different indications of the Truth (though none defines It), which is the thrilling core that gives a similitude of life and reality to inert, unreal matter. No single term here, therefore, is to be understood as complete in itself. Geometrically, a point can be defined and indicated only with reference to two different sets of data. So too, here the inexpressible Reality has been almost accurately explained with these different qualifying terms.
Contemplation upon the Reality, through an attempt at exhaustively comprehending all the secret suggestions in the above stanza, is to prepare a mental condition in which, if a mind lives well-integrated and turned inward, it can come to pause in an atmosphere of Infinite Experience.
The Conscious Principle, serving as the Soul in an embodiment, is that which illumines all the thought waves that rise in that particular mind, functioning in that given embodiment. The Infinite Self being One everywhere, it is the same Principle that illumines all the different embodiments, all the thought-experiences, at all times. Just as the Sun is said to be "SEEING EVERYTHING," because it illuminates all the objects on the globe, so too, is the Divine Principle of Awareness --- the factor without which no knowledge is ever possible. Thus, the Self is considered, in terms of the world of conditioned-knowledge which we experience today, as the Supreme Knower who knows everything, Omniscient (Kavih), and without whom no knowledge is ever possible.
ANCIENT (Puranah) --- The Self is considered as the most Ancient because the Eternal Truth is that which was before all creation, which remains the same all through the ages of existence, and which shall ever remain the same even after the projections of plurality have ended. To indicate that the One Self ever remains the same everywhere, providing a substratum even for the concept of time, It is indicated here as the Ancient.
THE OVER-RULER (Anushasitah) --- It is not in any way indicated here that the Self is a Sultan, tyrannically ruling over the world. Here the term 'Over-ruler' is only to indicate that if the Principle of Awareness were not presiding over the multiple faculties of perception, feeling, and comprehension in us, our physical, mental and intellectual experiences could not have been harmonised into the meaningful existence of our life-time.
The Overlordship, mentioned here, only indicates that the Knowing Principle of Consciousness is the very essence but for which life --- defined as a continuous series of experiences --- in any form is never possible. Without mud the mud-pots cannot exist; in all pots the mud is the OVER-RULER. Just as gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, sweetness in all candy, so too is the Self in the Universe of names and forms. It is in this sense that the term 'Overruler' is to be understood. To conceive of God as a mighty policeman standing with two keys, one made of gold to open the gates of heaven, and the other of iron to open the doors of hell, is a barbarous concept of Godhood that has nothing sacred in it to attract the intellectually awakened generations!
MINUTER THAN AN ATOM (Anoraniyan) --- The simplest and the smallest physically divisible particle of any element which still maintains the specific properties of that element is called its atom. Thus, it is indicated here that the Self is the subtlest of the subtle. The subtler a thing, the greater is its pervasiveness. Water is considered subtler than a block of ice, and the steam ensuing when water is boiled is considered subtler than the water itself. In all these stages, pervasiveness is the measuring rod of their comparative subtleties. In the Upanishadic lore, it is usual to consider the Self as "the Subtlest of the Subtle" which only indicates that "It pervades all, and nothing pervades It."
THE NOURISHER OF ALL (Sarvasya Dhatarah) --- The nourisher here means the support that sustains everything. In a cinema theatre, the changeless white-screen can be considered as the nourisher of the entertainment, inasmuch as, without it the ever-changing flow of pictures could not have given us the impression of a continuous story. However glorious might be the message that a master-painter has brought out with his brush, it is the consistent strength of the canvas behind, that nourishes and sustains the integrity and beauty of the picture. Similarly, if the One Consciousness were not constantly illumining the ever-changing flux of things and happenings around and within us from birth to death, through all conditions and states of our existence, the homogeneous oneness of life would never have been ours to react to and feel fulfilled with.
OF FORM INCONCEIVABLE (Achintya-roopah) --- If there be a factor that is Omniscient, Ancient, Over-ruler, Subtlest of the subtle, and Nourisher of all, and if we are advised to meditate upon It, then it is possible that we immediately get a false notion that the Self can be thought of and comprehended, as any other finite object or idea, by our limited faculties of the head or the heart. To remove this wrong idea and to emphasize that the Infinite cannot be comprehended by the finite instruments of perception, feeling and understanding --- but can only be apprehended when these equipments are transcended --- the Lord is particularly anxious to tell His students that the Self is of "THE FORM INCONCEIVABLE." Though it is thus, in fact, inconceivable, yet, on transcending the equipment of experiences, the individual, in a process of Divine Awakening, can subjectively apprehend It to be his own Essential Nature.
LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN (Aditya-varnah) --- If the implication of the above term (Achintya-roopah) be true, no intelligent seeker can arrest his temptation to doubt as to how the Self can ever be realised. As seekers, we live and strive within the limitations of our own mind and intellect. Every moment of our existence, we gather a harvest of experiences only through the use of the different equipments given to us. Living as we are, rooted in our false identifications with these equipments in the early days of our spiritual efforts, the seeker in us should necessarily despair at the impossible conception and the mad mission of "knowing the UN-KNOWABLE" --- conceiving the IN-CONCEIVABLE --- understanding the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE --- or experiencing the IN EXPERIENCABLE!!!
The Self is defined as the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE, or the IN-CONCEIVABLE, or IN-EXPERIENCABLE, etc., only to indicate that the instruments of cognition, experience and apprehension are not available for functioning in the Self. The dream-gun, with which the dreamer had shot the enemies of his dream-world, cannot be any longer handled by him, when once he has awakened. Even the bloody hands of a dreamer, after a dream-murder, become automatically clean, without either soap or water, the moment he wakes up! As long as man is identifying with his limiting adjuncts, he lives in the external world of his self-projected delusory multiplicity, wherein the Self is "IN-CONCEIVABLE, and IN-EXPERIENCABLE." But the moment these adjuncts are transcended through a process of steadfast contemplation on the Self, he gets awakened to his own nature of Pure Being.
Once having understood this much of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta, it becomes easy to appreciate the matchless beauty of the example of the Sun. In order to see the Sun, no other light is necessary, as the Sun is the "SOURCE" of all light, the one illuminator that illuminates everything else. Just as, in the physical world, the Sun, in its self-effulgence, is self-evident, so too, in the spiritual realm, to know the Knowledge Absolute, no other knowing-principle is needed. The dreamer can never KNOW the waker, for, while knowing the waking-state the dreamer himself ends to BECOME the waker; to awaken oneself from the dream is to know the waker; to KNOW the waker is to BECOME the waker. So too, on ending the ego-centric existence, in the flash of the spiritual awakening, the misguided, panting ego ends itself in the re-discovery that it has been nothing but the Self, at all times. This vast suggestion is cramped into a mystic word-picture: "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN."
BEYOND ALL DARKNESS (Tamasah-Parastat) --- The limited and the finite example of the Sun calls into the heart of a student some dangerous misgivings. The Sun in the heavens is, no doubt, resplendent, but only during the day; and even during the day-time there are various degrees of intensity of the sunlight experienced by the living kingdom. If the Self is "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN," then the industrious student may gather that the Self also varies in Its intensity, and that there are periods of time when It is not at all available! To remove these two fallacious ideas --- that the Self is variable in nature and sometimes totally absent, this qualifying term is used here. The very limitation of the Sun, meaning the darkness of the night, is negated when Krishna says that the Self is "BEYOND THE DARKNESS" of ignorance, or Maya.
He who meditates upon the Self thus, as Omniscient, Ancient, Overruler, Subtlest of the subtle, Nourisher of all, of Inconceivable Form, Self-illuminating as the Sun, and Beyond all traces of ignorance, is the one who "goes to Him."
Following the word-meaning only, this stanza has been indeed, very often, sadly mis-understood and badly interpreted.
This section in the Geeta is describing single-pointed meditation upon the Highest. Therefore the expression AT THE TIME OF DEATH is to be understood as "AT THE MOMENT OF THE DEATH OF THE EGO." When all identifications with the body-mind-intellect are consciously withdrawn through the process of meditation, at the HALT-MOMENT of perfect inner silence and tranquillity, "WITH THE MIND UNMOVING," the meditator can follow the instructions contained in this stanza.
The term "Bhakti" is not to be understood in its cheap connotation, which it has come to gather in its direct translation as 'devotion.' Self-less love, seeking a fulfilment in itself, when directed towards the divine with firm faith and an all-out belief, is called Bhakti. Love itself means identifying with the object of love in such a way that the joys and sorrows of the beloved become equally poignant joys and sorrows of the lover. In short, the lovers become one with their beloveds, both in their physical and emotional lives. Therefore, Shankara describes Bhakti as "the identification of the ego with its Real Nature."
In the context of the stanza here, the important suggestion given to the meditator is that his meditation should be accompanied by a readiness to identify himself intensely with the Principle of Awareness, which has been exhaustively indicated in the previous stanza. He must come to live the Self, within himself, at that still moment of Inward Silence, which rings the death-knell of the deluded-ego.
BY THE POWER OF YOGA (Yoga-balena) --- Here we are not talking of some secret and mysterious strength --- the Serpent Power --- which is the highly guarded secret of a rare few, which should not be spilt to everyone even among those who profess to be the devotees of the Lord. The strength acquired by a meditator, when he meditates upon the Supreme regularly for a long period of time, is the strength --- the "POWER OF YOGA" --- that is indicated here. This is nothing other than the inward strength, the inward fire, that grows when the mind is withdrawn from its endless agitations and the intellect is peacefully rested in its contemplations upon the infinite qualities of the Absolute.
The meditator, in a relatively short time, discovers in himself a wealth of mental equipoise and an indescribable efficiency, ready to bring his entire mental equipment into the contemplation of the Self in him. When an individual is thus engaged in meditation, all his pranas are concentrated at the point of his meditation --- maybe "between the eye-brows," as it represents the frontal-brain, the seat of steady thought.
Prana is the term used in the Science of Vedanta to indicate "all the different expressions of life's vitality, through the various instruments and organs of the body." Life expressing itself as the various functions in a living physical body is called the Prana, which, according to its varied manifestations is classified under five main headings as: Prana: the faculty of sense perception; Apana: the excretory system; Vyana: the digestive system; Samana: the circulatory system; and Udana: the capacity in us to see beyond our present world of knowledge into the field of some greater concept and live it. All these different activities are channels of dissipation through which the vital attention in us is getting exhausted. When an individual gets lost in the Silence within at the moment of his merger with the Self, all these faculties are temporarily arrested. For a seeker walking the Path of Meditation no other violent physical practices at all are needed.
Such an individual --- in whom, during the deepest moments of concentration, the mind becomes perfectly silent and tranquil; in whom, through the strength of his steadfast meditation, all manifestations of life's presence through his physical body become controlled and arrested and when he, in his enthusiasm, totally identifies with the point of his contemplation, the Self --- "HE GOES TO THAT SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF (PURUSHA)."
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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