Bg 8.17
sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ
rātriṁ yuga-sahasrāntāṁ te ’ho-rātra-vido janāḥ
Bg 8.18
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavanty ahar-āgame
rātry-āgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-saṁjñake
Bg 8.19
bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
rātry-āgame ’vaśaḥ pārtha prabhavaty ahar-āgame
Bg 8.20
paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ’nyo ’vyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ
yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati
Translation
17. Those people who know (the length of) the day- of-BRAHMA which ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , and the night which (also) ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , they know day-and-night.
18. From the unmanifested all the manifested proceed at the coming of the "day" ; at the coming of "night" they dissolve verily in that alone which is called the unmanifest.
19. This same multiple of beings are being born again and again, and are dissolved (into the unmanifest) ; helplessly, O Partha, at the coming of "night, " and they come forth again at the coming of "day. "
20. But verily there exists, higher than that unmanifest (AVYAKTA) , another Unmanifested, which is Eternal, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.
Commentary
Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity' has pricked the bubble and it has been accepted even in the West that the concepts of time and space depend upon individual factors governing their measurements. Time hangs heavily and moves at a snail's pace when one is in agitation, as when one is anxiously waiting for something; while, to the same individual, time flies when he is quite at ease with himself, under circumstances happy, pleasant, and entertaining. One playing cards knows not when the night was spent and he is surprised when he notices the early dawn peeping through the windows. The same person will complain that each moment has lengthened itself to become hours, when he is at some unpleasant work, or is suffering some pain. He who is enjoying the homogeneous experience of sleep, has no concept of time at all while he is sleeping.
From the above, it has been logically concluded in the philosophy of the Hindus, that time is truly the measure of the interval between two different experiences. The greater the number of experiences that flood the mind to agitate it, the slower will the time move; while the longer the same experience continues, the faster moves the time. In a single given experience there is no perception of time just as there is no concept of distance when there is only one point; distances can be measured only between two or more points. Basing their calculations upon this theory, the Pauranic-poets rightly conceived that their gods had a larger dial for their divine clocks! In the Upanishads also, we find a scale of relative intensity of Bliss-experience, from a mortal, healthy, young man, living in conducive environments, upto the very Creator Himself. This ascending scale of joy, experienced in different realms of Consciousness, is showing the relative mental equipoise and tranquillity at those different levels of existence.
It is said here that a thousand "cycles" constitute the day-time of the Creator; and an equally long thousand "cycles" constitute the night-time of the Creator. This declaration of those, "WHO KNOW THE TRUE MEASURE OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT," calculated in terms of "cycles" has been translated in terms of our 365-day years. Each "cycle" consists of aeons (Yugas). Four aeons (Yugas) together constitute one "cycle," and a thousand "cycles" are conceived of as constituting the daytime of the Creator!
As the individual units, so is the sum total of the assembly. The individual mind projects, creates and sustains what its fancies dictate, and without any regret scraps the whole lot, only to create afresh. This constant function does take place in each individual only during the day time, as representing the waking state. In the same fashion the Total Mind --- the Cosmic Creator --- also is conceived as creating the gross world of dense objects and intelligent beings only during His waking hours.
In these two stanzas an explanation is given on how the Creator employs Himself, during his day, which is a thousand aeons long, and during his night, which also is an equally long interval. It is also added here, that the Creator creates during the day, and the entire created world, at the approach of His night, merges into 'the unmanifest' (Avyakta).
In the worldly sense of the term, 'creation' is generally understood as the production of something new. Philosophically viewed, 'creation' has a subtler significance and a more intimate meaning. A pot-maker can 'create' pots out of mud, but he cannot 'create' Laddus (a popular Indian sweetmeat) out of the same mud! The act of 'creation'is only the production of a name and form, with some specific qualities, out of a raw-material in which the same name, form, and qualities are already existing in an unmanifest condition. The 'POT-NESS' was in the mud, while the 'Laddu-ness' is not therein, and therefore, a pot can be 'created' from a given sample of mud, not so even a tiny bit of Laddu. Hence, it is concluded by the thinkers of Vedanta that "CREATION IS BUT A CRYSTALLISATION OF THE UNMANIFEST DORMANT NAMES, FORMS, AND QUALITIES, INTO THEIR MANIFEST FORMS OF EXISTENCE."
Anyone, living as he does on any given day, is but the product of the numerous yesterdays that he has lived in his intellectual thoughts, his emotional feelings and his physical actions. The actions of the past, supported by the thoughts entertained and the valuations accepted by him, leave a distinct flavour upon his mind and intellect, and the future thoughts and their flow are controlled and directed by the previously made thought-channels.
Just as there is consistency of species in procreation, so also, there is a consistency noticeable in the multiplication of thoughts. Just as frogs breed frogs, and men breed men, or mango seeds germinate and grow to put forth mangoes, so too, good thoughts creating good thought-currents can multiply only into a flood of good thoughts. These thought-impressions in the mind (vasanas), that lie unmanifest to our sense-organs and often to our own mental and intellectual perceptions, become manifested as gross actions, thoughts and words, making our path of life either smooth or rough, according to the texture and quality of the thoughts manifested.
Suppose a doctor, an advocate, a devotee and dacoit are all sleeping in a rest-house. While sleeping, all of them look the same --- masses of flesh and bones, warm and breathing. The advocate is in no way different from the dacoit, nor is the doctor different from the devotee. The specific qualities in each bosom, at this moment, though totally absent from observation are not non-existent but they remain in a condition of dormancy.
These unmanifested temperaments, capacities, inclinations and tendencies come to project forth and manifest when they wake up, and once they leave the rest-house, each will be pursuing his own particular thought-tendencies. In the rest-house, the doctor, the advocate, the devotee and the dacoit, were all in their "unmanifest-state" (Pralaya) while they were asleep; but at dawn, when they wake up, these four different specimens are projected forth into manifestation. This, in the language of religion and philosophy, is called "creation."
With this correct understanding of the process of "creation," it would be certainly easy for us to understand the cosmic processes of "creation and dissolution." The Creator, or the Total-mind, during His waking hours of thousand aeons, projects out the already existing vasanas, and "AT THE APPROACH OF NIGHT, THEY MERGE VERILY INTO THAT ALONE, WHICH IS CALLED THE 'UNMANIFEST'."
It is insisted here by Lord Krishna, that "THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS ARE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND MERGE IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES." Subjectively, this declaration provides us with a clearer understanding of how man becomes enslaved by his own thoughts and emotions. It is never possible that an animal-man, pursuing consistently the life of sensuality, perpetrating unkind cruelties in order to satisfy his passions can wake up overnight, to be a gracious man of all perfections --- however great his teacher, however divine the occasion, and whatever the sanctity of the place or the time may be.
No teacher can, or shall ever, teach his disciple and thereby transform him, instantaneously, into a divine person, unless, of course, the student has the divine tendencies lying dormant and ready for manifestation in him! The moment anybody argues that, as a rare instance, one great soul had been so transformed in the past, by one unique teacher, then there must have been some equally unique instance of some magician producing a Laddu out of mud! In the latter case, we know that it was only magic and that the Laddu was NOT produced from the mud. Similarly, intelligent people, with some understanding of the Science of Life, and with at least a little share of respect for and devotion to the Prophet of the Geeta, will hoot down such a fantastic story. Such a story can be accepted only in a mood of poetic exaggeration indulged in by the disciples, in praise of their teacher.
THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS, meaning the very same bundles of thought-impressions --- an individual being nothing other than the thoughts that he entertains --- arrive at different fields of activity and states of Consciousness in order to exhaust themselves. "IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES" (Avassah), is a powerful expression indicating the incapacity of an individual to disinherit himself from his past. The past always faithfully follows us like our shadow --- darkening our path when we turn our back to the Light of Knowledge, and accompanying us submissively at our heels like a guardian angel when we turn towards the effulgent Self and wend our way towards It.
On leaving a physical embodiment, a particular mind-intellect-equipment continues its existence in just the same way as an actor who drops down the apparel of the king at the close of the play and continues to exist in his individual capacity as the father of his children, the husband of his wife, etc. The taking up of a physical structure and singing the song of one's mental vasanas, in the form of actions, is called 'creation,' and when that physical structure is given up, the thoughts and ideas, having no equipment to express themselves, become the unmanifest. A violinist playing on his violin makes the music in him manifest; and, when the violin is kept away in its box, the music in the individual becomes unmanifest.
This 'realm of the unmanifest' in each bosom undergoes constant change, whenever it comes in contact with the world of manifestation and reacts to it. We already know that change cannot take place unless it is upon a changeless substratum.
UPON WHAT PERMANENT PLATFORM DOES THE UNMANIFEST COME TO PLAY ITS DRAMA OF LIFE?
The same black-board is approached by different teachers to explain different subjects, during a single day in a class room. The mathematics teacher's geometrical figures and calculations are wiped clean by the geography teacher to design his maps of the world and to trace the path of rivers, the location of lakes and the position of mountains. When the chemistry teacher arrives, he erases the entire world of mountains, rivers and oceans represented on the black-board, and he, in his turn, writes on it the laws of chemical reactions among the various elements and their compounds. The history teacher makes the black-board clean again, to scribble on it the ancestral trees of dynasties destroyed and families forgotten. Each teacher comes and writes on the black-board different words and symbols which represent the design of knowledge that he has in his bosom. But all designs were chalked out and executed upon the same black-board, which illumined the mathematical calculations, the geographical data, the chemical formulae, and the historical facts, in turn.
Similarly, the changing world of the unmanifest must have one Changeless Substratum, "THAT WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL BEINGS (bhutas)." When, in the evening, the students and teachers have all left the class room, the black-board still remains. The principle of Pure Consciousness, Itself Unmanifest --- inasmuch as It is not perceivable by the sense organs or comprehensible by the mind and intellect --- is indicated here as the changeless substratum of all, when the Lord declares, "BEYOND THIS UNMANIFEST, THERE IS THE OTHER ETERNAL EXISTENCE, THE UNMANIFESTED."
The unmanifest (vasanas) are the seeds of the manifest and they constitute, what Vedanta indicates by its very familiar term, "Ignorance" (Avidya). "Ignorance" can be only of an existent something; I cannot be ignorant of my tail, since I do not have a tail. This proves the existence of some Positive Factor called the Truth, the Self --- the black-board upon which all other conditional knowledges are scribbled --- serving as the Permanent and Changeless Substratum. "The ignorance of the Real Nature of this Eternal Factor," is called Avidya, which, in its turn projects the manifested ever-changing world of names and forms. The Ultimate Reality, the Self, is being indicated here as something that lies beyond the hazy frontiers of the delusory experiences of creation, dissolution, and re-creation, over and over again.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
sahasra-yuga-paryantam ahar yad brahmaṇo viduḥ
rātriṁ yuga-sahasrāntāṁ te ’ho-rātra-vido janāḥ
Bg 8.18
avyaktād vyaktayaḥ sarvāḥ prabhavanty ahar-āgame
rātry-āgame pralīyante tatraivāvyakta-saṁjñake
Bg 8.19
bhūta-grāmaḥ sa evāyaṁ bhūtvā bhūtvā pralīyate
rātry-āgame ’vaśaḥ pārtha prabhavaty ahar-āgame
Bg 8.20
paras tasmāt tu bhāvo ’nyo ’vyakto ’vyaktāt sanātanaḥ
yaḥ sa sarveṣu bhūteṣu naśyatsu na vinaśyati
Translation
17. Those people who know (the length of) the day- of-BRAHMA which ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , and the night which (also) ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , they know day-and-night.
18. From the unmanifested all the manifested proceed at the coming of the "day" ; at the coming of "night" they dissolve verily in that alone which is called the unmanifest.
19. This same multiple of beings are being born again and again, and are dissolved (into the unmanifest) ; helplessly, O Partha, at the coming of "night, " and they come forth again at the coming of "day. "
20. But verily there exists, higher than that unmanifest (AVYAKTA) , another Unmanifested, which is Eternal, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.
Commentary
Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity' has pricked the bubble and it has been accepted even in the West that the concepts of time and space depend upon individual factors governing their measurements. Time hangs heavily and moves at a snail's pace when one is in agitation, as when one is anxiously waiting for something; while, to the same individual, time flies when he is quite at ease with himself, under circumstances happy, pleasant, and entertaining. One playing cards knows not when the night was spent and he is surprised when he notices the early dawn peeping through the windows. The same person will complain that each moment has lengthened itself to become hours, when he is at some unpleasant work, or is suffering some pain. He who is enjoying the homogeneous experience of sleep, has no concept of time at all while he is sleeping.
From the above, it has been logically concluded in the philosophy of the Hindus, that time is truly the measure of the interval between two different experiences. The greater the number of experiences that flood the mind to agitate it, the slower will the time move; while the longer the same experience continues, the faster moves the time. In a single given experience there is no perception of time just as there is no concept of distance when there is only one point; distances can be measured only between two or more points. Basing their calculations upon this theory, the Pauranic-poets rightly conceived that their gods had a larger dial for their divine clocks! In the Upanishads also, we find a scale of relative intensity of Bliss-experience, from a mortal, healthy, young man, living in conducive environments, upto the very Creator Himself. This ascending scale of joy, experienced in different realms of Consciousness, is showing the relative mental equipoise and tranquillity at those different levels of existence.
It is said here that a thousand "cycles" constitute the day-time of the Creator; and an equally long thousand "cycles" constitute the night-time of the Creator. This declaration of those, "WHO KNOW THE TRUE MEASURE OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT," calculated in terms of "cycles" has been translated in terms of our 365-day years. Each "cycle" consists of aeons (Yugas). Four aeons (Yugas) together constitute one "cycle," and a thousand "cycles" are conceived of as constituting the daytime of the Creator!
As the individual units, so is the sum total of the assembly. The individual mind projects, creates and sustains what its fancies dictate, and without any regret scraps the whole lot, only to create afresh. This constant function does take place in each individual only during the day time, as representing the waking state. In the same fashion the Total Mind --- the Cosmic Creator --- also is conceived as creating the gross world of dense objects and intelligent beings only during His waking hours.
In these two stanzas an explanation is given on how the Creator employs Himself, during his day, which is a thousand aeons long, and during his night, which also is an equally long interval. It is also added here, that the Creator creates during the day, and the entire created world, at the approach of His night, merges into 'the unmanifest' (Avyakta).
In the worldly sense of the term, 'creation' is generally understood as the production of something new. Philosophically viewed, 'creation' has a subtler significance and a more intimate meaning. A pot-maker can 'create' pots out of mud, but he cannot 'create' Laddus (a popular Indian sweetmeat) out of the same mud! The act of 'creation'is only the production of a name and form, with some specific qualities, out of a raw-material in which the same name, form, and qualities are already existing in an unmanifest condition. The 'POT-NESS' was in the mud, while the 'Laddu-ness' is not therein, and therefore, a pot can be 'created' from a given sample of mud, not so even a tiny bit of Laddu. Hence, it is concluded by the thinkers of Vedanta that "CREATION IS BUT A CRYSTALLISATION OF THE UNMANIFEST DORMANT NAMES, FORMS, AND QUALITIES, INTO THEIR MANIFEST FORMS OF EXISTENCE."
Anyone, living as he does on any given day, is but the product of the numerous yesterdays that he has lived in his intellectual thoughts, his emotional feelings and his physical actions. The actions of the past, supported by the thoughts entertained and the valuations accepted by him, leave a distinct flavour upon his mind and intellect, and the future thoughts and their flow are controlled and directed by the previously made thought-channels.
Just as there is consistency of species in procreation, so also, there is a consistency noticeable in the multiplication of thoughts. Just as frogs breed frogs, and men breed men, or mango seeds germinate and grow to put forth mangoes, so too, good thoughts creating good thought-currents can multiply only into a flood of good thoughts. These thought-impressions in the mind (vasanas), that lie unmanifest to our sense-organs and often to our own mental and intellectual perceptions, become manifested as gross actions, thoughts and words, making our path of life either smooth or rough, according to the texture and quality of the thoughts manifested.
Suppose a doctor, an advocate, a devotee and dacoit are all sleeping in a rest-house. While sleeping, all of them look the same --- masses of flesh and bones, warm and breathing. The advocate is in no way different from the dacoit, nor is the doctor different from the devotee. The specific qualities in each bosom, at this moment, though totally absent from observation are not non-existent but they remain in a condition of dormancy.
These unmanifested temperaments, capacities, inclinations and tendencies come to project forth and manifest when they wake up, and once they leave the rest-house, each will be pursuing his own particular thought-tendencies. In the rest-house, the doctor, the advocate, the devotee and the dacoit, were all in their "unmanifest-state" (Pralaya) while they were asleep; but at dawn, when they wake up, these four different specimens are projected forth into manifestation. This, in the language of religion and philosophy, is called "creation."
With this correct understanding of the process of "creation," it would be certainly easy for us to understand the cosmic processes of "creation and dissolution." The Creator, or the Total-mind, during His waking hours of thousand aeons, projects out the already existing vasanas, and "AT THE APPROACH OF NIGHT, THEY MERGE VERILY INTO THAT ALONE, WHICH IS CALLED THE 'UNMANIFEST'."
It is insisted here by Lord Krishna, that "THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS ARE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND MERGE IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES." Subjectively, this declaration provides us with a clearer understanding of how man becomes enslaved by his own thoughts and emotions. It is never possible that an animal-man, pursuing consistently the life of sensuality, perpetrating unkind cruelties in order to satisfy his passions can wake up overnight, to be a gracious man of all perfections --- however great his teacher, however divine the occasion, and whatever the sanctity of the place or the time may be.
No teacher can, or shall ever, teach his disciple and thereby transform him, instantaneously, into a divine person, unless, of course, the student has the divine tendencies lying dormant and ready for manifestation in him! The moment anybody argues that, as a rare instance, one great soul had been so transformed in the past, by one unique teacher, then there must have been some equally unique instance of some magician producing a Laddu out of mud! In the latter case, we know that it was only magic and that the Laddu was NOT produced from the mud. Similarly, intelligent people, with some understanding of the Science of Life, and with at least a little share of respect for and devotion to the Prophet of the Geeta, will hoot down such a fantastic story. Such a story can be accepted only in a mood of poetic exaggeration indulged in by the disciples, in praise of their teacher.
THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS, meaning the very same bundles of thought-impressions --- an individual being nothing other than the thoughts that he entertains --- arrive at different fields of activity and states of Consciousness in order to exhaust themselves. "IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES" (Avassah), is a powerful expression indicating the incapacity of an individual to disinherit himself from his past. The past always faithfully follows us like our shadow --- darkening our path when we turn our back to the Light of Knowledge, and accompanying us submissively at our heels like a guardian angel when we turn towards the effulgent Self and wend our way towards It.
On leaving a physical embodiment, a particular mind-intellect-equipment continues its existence in just the same way as an actor who drops down the apparel of the king at the close of the play and continues to exist in his individual capacity as the father of his children, the husband of his wife, etc. The taking up of a physical structure and singing the song of one's mental vasanas, in the form of actions, is called 'creation,' and when that physical structure is given up, the thoughts and ideas, having no equipment to express themselves, become the unmanifest. A violinist playing on his violin makes the music in him manifest; and, when the violin is kept away in its box, the music in the individual becomes unmanifest.
This 'realm of the unmanifest' in each bosom undergoes constant change, whenever it comes in contact with the world of manifestation and reacts to it. We already know that change cannot take place unless it is upon a changeless substratum.
UPON WHAT PERMANENT PLATFORM DOES THE UNMANIFEST COME TO PLAY ITS DRAMA OF LIFE?
The same black-board is approached by different teachers to explain different subjects, during a single day in a class room. The mathematics teacher's geometrical figures and calculations are wiped clean by the geography teacher to design his maps of the world and to trace the path of rivers, the location of lakes and the position of mountains. When the chemistry teacher arrives, he erases the entire world of mountains, rivers and oceans represented on the black-board, and he, in his turn, writes on it the laws of chemical reactions among the various elements and their compounds. The history teacher makes the black-board clean again, to scribble on it the ancestral trees of dynasties destroyed and families forgotten. Each teacher comes and writes on the black-board different words and symbols which represent the design of knowledge that he has in his bosom. But all designs were chalked out and executed upon the same black-board, which illumined the mathematical calculations, the geographical data, the chemical formulae, and the historical facts, in turn.
Similarly, the changing world of the unmanifest must have one Changeless Substratum, "THAT WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL BEINGS (bhutas)." When, in the evening, the students and teachers have all left the class room, the black-board still remains. The principle of Pure Consciousness, Itself Unmanifest --- inasmuch as It is not perceivable by the sense organs or comprehensible by the mind and intellect --- is indicated here as the changeless substratum of all, when the Lord declares, "BEYOND THIS UNMANIFEST, THERE IS THE OTHER ETERNAL EXISTENCE, THE UNMANIFESTED."
The unmanifest (vasanas) are the seeds of the manifest and they constitute, what Vedanta indicates by its very familiar term, "Ignorance" (Avidya). "Ignorance" can be only of an existent something; I cannot be ignorant of my tail, since I do not have a tail. This proves the existence of some Positive Factor called the Truth, the Self --- the black-board upon which all other conditional knowledges are scribbled --- serving as the Permanent and Changeless Substratum. "The ignorance of the Real Nature of this Eternal Factor," is called Avidya, which, in its turn projects the manifested ever-changing world of names and forms. The Ultimate Reality, the Self, is being indicated here as something that lies beyond the hazy frontiers of the delusory experiences of creation, dissolution, and re-creation, over and over again.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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