Bg 7.24
avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam
Bg 7.25
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti loko mām ajam avyayam
Bg 7.26
vedāhaṁ samatītāni vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni māṁ tu veda na kaścana
Translation
24. The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having come to manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable and peerless nature.
25. I am not manifest to all (in My Real Nature) veiled by Divine- 'MAYA. ' This deluded world knows not Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.
26. I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, and present and the future, but no one knows Me.
Commentary
Men who lack discrimination and the capacity to perceive the subtle Truth that shines in and through the vast disturbances of the endless plurality, fail to realise the immutable and the peerless Self. In their extreme preoccupation with the ever-changing glory of the perceivable, the Prakriti, (VII-4 and 6) they do not understand that "ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME AS A ROW OF PEARLS ON A STRING."
This fundamental Reality, that is the beam of brilliance in which like dust-particles the Universes dance about, is termed as the "Unmanifest." This term is to be understood in all its philosophical implications. That which is called the MANIFEST is available either for the perceptions of the sense-organs, or for the feelings of the mind, or for the understanding of the intellect. That which is not available for any one of these instruments of cognition, feeling or understanding is considered as the UNMANIFEST.
The Self, indeed, should then be considered as the UNMANIFEST, for it is the VITALITY behind the sense-organs, the FEELER --- potential in the mind and the very LIGHT that illumines the intellect.
The distorted intellects of the extroverts, in their miscalculations, come to the false judgement that the physical glory of the Prophet, or of the incarnation, is all that is the Eternal Truth. The point-of-concentration (Upasya) is to be considered, no doubt, as the symbol of the Truth which the devotee is seeking, but it cannot IN ITSELF be the Truth. If it were the Truth, then after carving out an idol, or after approaching a Guru, the devotee has nothing more to do, since he has gained the Truth! Idol worship is only a convenience for gathering true concentration, for getting an initial momentum for the final flight into themselves, to reach the Self and discover therein their own oneness with It.
This stanza gives us a clear insight into the futility of mistaking the bottle for the medicine, the physical form for the Guru, the idol for the God! All white-wood is not the fragrant sandal-wood. Any bright light high up in the sky, however resplendent it might be, is not a star. Some men of incomparable foolishness may come to declare that the light from a tower is the Sun, but no wise man of the town will accept it. The idea of Divine Incarnation is accepted in Hinduism, and according to its theory, EVERYONE IS AN INCARNATION-TO-A-DEGREE! The same Truth pervades all, and is in each. It expresses through the enveloping layers of the mind-and-intellect. The clearer the mind and the purer the intellect, the greater is the effulgence of the Divine that beams out through them.
When the Self in anyone beams out through the steadied and purified mind and intellect completely sublimating his lower nature (Prakriti), he becomes a Prophet, a Sage. Krishna, Rama, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira are some of the examples. These Men-of-realisation, discovering their Self, understood and lived every moment of their lives in the Self, as the Self of all. To mistake their physical structure, or the lingering traces of their mind, or the film of their intellectual personality, for the very Essence of Truth, which these God-men were, is to make as miserable a mistake as taking the waves to be the ocean!
Naturally, therefore, Krishna uses here a severe term, to indicate such deluded men of superstitious false understanding, as "UNINTELLIGENT FOOLS" (A-Buddhayah).
WHAT CAUSES THIS PREVALENT IGNORANCE OF THE TRUE NATURE IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:
If there be such a glorious Essential Truth, which is the core of everything, why is it that it is not freely known and experienced by everyone at all times? In short, "what stands between me and my Self?" Why is it that we behave as though we are but limited ego-centric entities, incapacitated as we are, to comprehend that in essence we are the Infinite, the Immortal? These questions are unavoidable to an intelligent seeker, when he, in his aspirations, comes face to face with the staggering revelations contained in Vedanta.
THIS DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT, THE UNBORN AND THE IMMORTAL because their own "ILLUSION, BORN OUT OF THE THREE 'GUNAS,' VEILS ME." "Maya" is the most difficult theme of all for elementary students of Vedanta, when they try merely to understand this Science of Life objectively. The moment a student tries to experiment with this "Knowledge" upon himself subjectively, the explanations contained in the theory become evident. Maya is the conditioning through which, when the Non-dual Truth expresses Itself, the One Reality seems to fan out as the spectrum of the multiple universe.
The principle of Maya functioning in the individual is termed ignorance (Avidya). This subjective malady, which provides in its wake, the dreamy hallucinations of a sorrowful world of change and imperfections, has been very closely observed, and the Rishis of old have declared that it is caused by three types of "moods" in man's inner personality. These three temperaments (gunas), called Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, provide a prism, viewed through which, the kaleidoscopic world seems to dance, flashing its infinite patterns. Rajas creates 'mental-agitations" (Vikshepa), and Tamas creates the "intellectual-veiling" (Avarana).
To him who becomes confused and confounded by the play of these triple temperaments, the Self is not available for direct experience. Special instructions from teachers and diligent practice on the part of students are both necessary in order to make one realise one's own Real Nature. To an ignorant man of the jungle, electricity is unmanifest in the bulb and in its incandescent filament. In order to perceive the electrical current that flows through the equipment, theoretical knowledge and experimental confirmation are essential. After having gained the knowledge of the electrical energy and its properties, when the student happens to see the very same bulb, he comes to cognise through the perceived bulb the imperceptible, the unmanifest electrical energy!
Similarly, when through self-control, listening, reflection, and meditation, the agitations of the mind are quietened, and when the veiling has been pulled down, the seeker re-discovers "ME THE UNBORN, THE IMMUTABLE." As long as the agitations of the mind veil the intellect from its awareness of the Self, so long the limited ego (Jeeva) pants to fulfil itself and to gain the Infinite among the gutters of its sensual cravings!
Such frenzied hearts reeking with desires and lacerated with disappointments, crushed by dissatisfactions and smothered by the fear of their own annihilation --- can never have the integrated equipoise to live even a moment of still-awareness to experience the Pure Consciousness. "THE DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT" as it is steeped in "THE ILLUSION BORN OUT OF THE THREE-FOLD gunas." Screened off by this universe of names and forms, which is but an apparent projection of the Self, the sense-organs, mind or intellect fail to perceive It. The ghost veils the post! The mirage-waters clothe the desert!! The waves screen off the ocean!!!
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF IGNORANCE AND CONFUSION IN THE LIMITED FINITE EGO IS BROUGHT OUT VERY VIVIDLY IN THE FOLLOWING, BY CONTRASTING IT AGAINST THE BACK-GROUND OF THE SELF, WHICH IS OF THE NATURE OF ALL KNOWLEDGE:
The idea that God is Omniscient is common to all religions of the world, but a satisfactory explanation of this concept is given only in Vedanta. In the Geeta too --- as a Bible of the Hindu religion, as a hand-book of easy reference for the students of the Upanishads --- we find a wider hint as to what we mean by the Omniscience of the Self.
The Self, as the Pure Consciousness, is the illuminating principle that brings the entire field of the mind and intellect under the beam of Its clear awareness. Even the world-of-objects is brought within our understanding only when it enters, through the sense-organ-doors, and reaches the mental lake, and makes therein its characteristic thought-waves;
the thought-waves make the intellect function in classifying and determining them. Both these mental and intellectual disturbances are illumined for us by the ever-wakeful Consciousness, the Self in us.
Sunlight illuminates all the objects of the world. When my eyes or ears illumine a given form or sound, I say that I see or hear that particular form or sound. In short, to be aware of a thing is to know that thing; and to know is to illumine. Just as the Sun can be considered as the "eye of the world," inasmuch as without the Sun all organs-of-vision will be blind apertures, so too, the Self can be considered as the knower of everything, in everyone, at all times, and in all places. This Omniscience of the Supreme is vividly hinted at here, when Krishna declares, "I KNOW THE BEINGS OF THE PAST, OF THE PRESENT, AND OF THE FUTURE."
It must be noted that the Eternal Self is not only the Awareness that lights up all bosoms at this present moment, but it was the awareness that illumined the objects, feelings and thoughts in all bosoms from the beginningless beginning of creation and it shall be the same Principle behind every knower that knows anything in all the future generations till the endless end of time!
Electricity revolves the fan; but the fan can never fan the electricity! The gazer surveys the heavens through a telescope, but the telescope can never survey the gazer! The Conscious Principle vitalises the food-made mind and intellect and makes them capable of feeling and thinking. Without the Self dynamising them, they are incapable of sense-perceptions; but neither the mind, nor the intellect, can perceive, feel, or comprehend the Subjective Principle, the Self. The Lord declares here that, though he knows everything, at all times, in all places, He is known by none at any place or at any time --- "BUT ME NONE KNOWS."
According to the strictest Vedantic philosophy, the Self is not a "knower," just as in the strictest logic of thought it would not be correct to say that the Sun "illumines" the world. From our standpoint, contrasting with the hours of night when things are not illumined, we may rightly attribute the function of illuminating things during the day to the 'principle of light' called the Sun. However, from the standpoint of the Sun, which is ever brilliant, there is no moment when he is not blessing the objects with his shining touch. Therefore, it is as meaningless to say that the Sun "illumines" the objects, as to say that "I am too busy now-a-days breathing"!
'Knower-hood' is a status gained by Self when It functions through the equipment of Maya; and the Self, that functions in and through delusory Maya, is called the God-principle, termed in the Vedantic literature as Ishwara. Here Krishna is pictured by Vyasa as the divine embodiment of Truth, and an Incarnation of the Self, and therefore, it is perfectly right if He arrogates to Himself the nature of Omniscience and declares Himself as "THE KNOWER OF EVERYTHING IN ALL THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME."
But unfortunately, an ego-centric mortal viewing the universe through the pin-hole of his congested, constricted and limited mind-and-intellect, fails to see the harmonious rhythm in the macrocosm. He who can rip open his own self-made bondages of ignorance and rise to attune himself with the macrocosm, can certainly come to experience the Krishna view-point. Anyone who successfully comes to live thus in unison with the cosmic mind, is the Krishna of that age and for ever thereafter.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
avyaktaṁ vyaktim āpannaṁ manyante mām abuddhayaḥ
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mamāvyayam anuttamam
Bg 7.25
nāhaṁ prakāśaḥ sarvasya yoga-māyā-samāvṛtaḥ
mūḍho ’yaṁ nābhijānāti loko mām ajam avyayam
Bg 7.26
vedāhaṁ samatītāni vartamānāni cārjuna
bhaviṣyāṇi ca bhūtāni māṁ tu veda na kaścana
Translation
24. The foolish think of Me, the Unmanifest, as having come to manifestation, not knowing My higher, immutable and peerless nature.
25. I am not manifest to all (in My Real Nature) veiled by Divine- 'MAYA. ' This deluded world knows not Me, the Unborn, the Imperishable.
26. I know, O Arjuna, the beings of the past, and present and the future, but no one knows Me.
Commentary
Men who lack discrimination and the capacity to perceive the subtle Truth that shines in and through the vast disturbances of the endless plurality, fail to realise the immutable and the peerless Self. In their extreme preoccupation with the ever-changing glory of the perceivable, the Prakriti, (VII-4 and 6) they do not understand that "ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME AS A ROW OF PEARLS ON A STRING."
This fundamental Reality, that is the beam of brilliance in which like dust-particles the Universes dance about, is termed as the "Unmanifest." This term is to be understood in all its philosophical implications. That which is called the MANIFEST is available either for the perceptions of the sense-organs, or for the feelings of the mind, or for the understanding of the intellect. That which is not available for any one of these instruments of cognition, feeling or understanding is considered as the UNMANIFEST.
The Self, indeed, should then be considered as the UNMANIFEST, for it is the VITALITY behind the sense-organs, the FEELER --- potential in the mind and the very LIGHT that illumines the intellect.
The distorted intellects of the extroverts, in their miscalculations, come to the false judgement that the physical glory of the Prophet, or of the incarnation, is all that is the Eternal Truth. The point-of-concentration (Upasya) is to be considered, no doubt, as the symbol of the Truth which the devotee is seeking, but it cannot IN ITSELF be the Truth. If it were the Truth, then after carving out an idol, or after approaching a Guru, the devotee has nothing more to do, since he has gained the Truth! Idol worship is only a convenience for gathering true concentration, for getting an initial momentum for the final flight into themselves, to reach the Self and discover therein their own oneness with It.
This stanza gives us a clear insight into the futility of mistaking the bottle for the medicine, the physical form for the Guru, the idol for the God! All white-wood is not the fragrant sandal-wood. Any bright light high up in the sky, however resplendent it might be, is not a star. Some men of incomparable foolishness may come to declare that the light from a tower is the Sun, but no wise man of the town will accept it. The idea of Divine Incarnation is accepted in Hinduism, and according to its theory, EVERYONE IS AN INCARNATION-TO-A-DEGREE! The same Truth pervades all, and is in each. It expresses through the enveloping layers of the mind-and-intellect. The clearer the mind and the purer the intellect, the greater is the effulgence of the Divine that beams out through them.
When the Self in anyone beams out through the steadied and purified mind and intellect completely sublimating his lower nature (Prakriti), he becomes a Prophet, a Sage. Krishna, Rama, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira are some of the examples. These Men-of-realisation, discovering their Self, understood and lived every moment of their lives in the Self, as the Self of all. To mistake their physical structure, or the lingering traces of their mind, or the film of their intellectual personality, for the very Essence of Truth, which these God-men were, is to make as miserable a mistake as taking the waves to be the ocean!
Naturally, therefore, Krishna uses here a severe term, to indicate such deluded men of superstitious false understanding, as "UNINTELLIGENT FOOLS" (A-Buddhayah).
WHAT CAUSES THIS PREVALENT IGNORANCE OF THE TRUE NATURE IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:
If there be such a glorious Essential Truth, which is the core of everything, why is it that it is not freely known and experienced by everyone at all times? In short, "what stands between me and my Self?" Why is it that we behave as though we are but limited ego-centric entities, incapacitated as we are, to comprehend that in essence we are the Infinite, the Immortal? These questions are unavoidable to an intelligent seeker, when he, in his aspirations, comes face to face with the staggering revelations contained in Vedanta.
THIS DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT, THE UNBORN AND THE IMMORTAL because their own "ILLUSION, BORN OUT OF THE THREE 'GUNAS,' VEILS ME." "Maya" is the most difficult theme of all for elementary students of Vedanta, when they try merely to understand this Science of Life objectively. The moment a student tries to experiment with this "Knowledge" upon himself subjectively, the explanations contained in the theory become evident. Maya is the conditioning through which, when the Non-dual Truth expresses Itself, the One Reality seems to fan out as the spectrum of the multiple universe.
The principle of Maya functioning in the individual is termed ignorance (Avidya). This subjective malady, which provides in its wake, the dreamy hallucinations of a sorrowful world of change and imperfections, has been very closely observed, and the Rishis of old have declared that it is caused by three types of "moods" in man's inner personality. These three temperaments (gunas), called Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, provide a prism, viewed through which, the kaleidoscopic world seems to dance, flashing its infinite patterns. Rajas creates 'mental-agitations" (Vikshepa), and Tamas creates the "intellectual-veiling" (Avarana).
To him who becomes confused and confounded by the play of these triple temperaments, the Self is not available for direct experience. Special instructions from teachers and diligent practice on the part of students are both necessary in order to make one realise one's own Real Nature. To an ignorant man of the jungle, electricity is unmanifest in the bulb and in its incandescent filament. In order to perceive the electrical current that flows through the equipment, theoretical knowledge and experimental confirmation are essential. After having gained the knowledge of the electrical energy and its properties, when the student happens to see the very same bulb, he comes to cognise through the perceived bulb the imperceptible, the unmanifest electrical energy!
Similarly, when through self-control, listening, reflection, and meditation, the agitations of the mind are quietened, and when the veiling has been pulled down, the seeker re-discovers "ME THE UNBORN, THE IMMUTABLE." As long as the agitations of the mind veil the intellect from its awareness of the Self, so long the limited ego (Jeeva) pants to fulfil itself and to gain the Infinite among the gutters of its sensual cravings!
Such frenzied hearts reeking with desires and lacerated with disappointments, crushed by dissatisfactions and smothered by the fear of their own annihilation --- can never have the integrated equipoise to live even a moment of still-awareness to experience the Pure Consciousness. "THE DELUDED WORLD KNOWS ME NOT" as it is steeped in "THE ILLUSION BORN OUT OF THE THREE-FOLD gunas." Screened off by this universe of names and forms, which is but an apparent projection of the Self, the sense-organs, mind or intellect fail to perceive It. The ghost veils the post! The mirage-waters clothe the desert!! The waves screen off the ocean!!!
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF IGNORANCE AND CONFUSION IN THE LIMITED FINITE EGO IS BROUGHT OUT VERY VIVIDLY IN THE FOLLOWING, BY CONTRASTING IT AGAINST THE BACK-GROUND OF THE SELF, WHICH IS OF THE NATURE OF ALL KNOWLEDGE:
The idea that God is Omniscient is common to all religions of the world, but a satisfactory explanation of this concept is given only in Vedanta. In the Geeta too --- as a Bible of the Hindu religion, as a hand-book of easy reference for the students of the Upanishads --- we find a wider hint as to what we mean by the Omniscience of the Self.
The Self, as the Pure Consciousness, is the illuminating principle that brings the entire field of the mind and intellect under the beam of Its clear awareness. Even the world-of-objects is brought within our understanding only when it enters, through the sense-organ-doors, and reaches the mental lake, and makes therein its characteristic thought-waves;
the thought-waves make the intellect function in classifying and determining them. Both these mental and intellectual disturbances are illumined for us by the ever-wakeful Consciousness, the Self in us.
Sunlight illuminates all the objects of the world. When my eyes or ears illumine a given form or sound, I say that I see or hear that particular form or sound. In short, to be aware of a thing is to know that thing; and to know is to illumine. Just as the Sun can be considered as the "eye of the world," inasmuch as without the Sun all organs-of-vision will be blind apertures, so too, the Self can be considered as the knower of everything, in everyone, at all times, and in all places. This Omniscience of the Supreme is vividly hinted at here, when Krishna declares, "I KNOW THE BEINGS OF THE PAST, OF THE PRESENT, AND OF THE FUTURE."
It must be noted that the Eternal Self is not only the Awareness that lights up all bosoms at this present moment, but it was the awareness that illumined the objects, feelings and thoughts in all bosoms from the beginningless beginning of creation and it shall be the same Principle behind every knower that knows anything in all the future generations till the endless end of time!
Electricity revolves the fan; but the fan can never fan the electricity! The gazer surveys the heavens through a telescope, but the telescope can never survey the gazer! The Conscious Principle vitalises the food-made mind and intellect and makes them capable of feeling and thinking. Without the Self dynamising them, they are incapable of sense-perceptions; but neither the mind, nor the intellect, can perceive, feel, or comprehend the Subjective Principle, the Self. The Lord declares here that, though he knows everything, at all times, in all places, He is known by none at any place or at any time --- "BUT ME NONE KNOWS."
According to the strictest Vedantic philosophy, the Self is not a "knower," just as in the strictest logic of thought it would not be correct to say that the Sun "illumines" the world. From our standpoint, contrasting with the hours of night when things are not illumined, we may rightly attribute the function of illuminating things during the day to the 'principle of light' called the Sun. However, from the standpoint of the Sun, which is ever brilliant, there is no moment when he is not blessing the objects with his shining touch. Therefore, it is as meaningless to say that the Sun "illumines" the objects, as to say that "I am too busy now-a-days breathing"!
'Knower-hood' is a status gained by Self when It functions through the equipment of Maya; and the Self, that functions in and through delusory Maya, is called the God-principle, termed in the Vedantic literature as Ishwara. Here Krishna is pictured by Vyasa as the divine embodiment of Truth, and an Incarnation of the Self, and therefore, it is perfectly right if He arrogates to Himself the nature of Omniscience and declares Himself as "THE KNOWER OF EVERYTHING IN ALL THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME."
But unfortunately, an ego-centric mortal viewing the universe through the pin-hole of his congested, constricted and limited mind-and-intellect, fails to see the harmonious rhythm in the macrocosm. He who can rip open his own self-made bondages of ignorance and rise to attune himself with the macrocosm, can certainly come to experience the Krishna view-point. Anyone who successfully comes to live thus in unison with the cosmic mind, is the Krishna of that age and for ever thereafter.
Sources: Vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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