Bg 9.11
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram
Bg 9.12
moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ
rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ
Bg 9.13
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
Translation
11. Fools disregard Me when I dwell in human form; they know not My Higher being as the Great Lord of all beings.
12. Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, and senseless, they verily are possessed of the delusive nature of RAKSHASAS and ASURAS.
13. But the MAHATMAS (great-souls) O Partha, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single mind (with a mind devoted to nothing else) , knowing Me as the Imperishable Source of all beings.
Commentary
In the seventh chapter, while giving a discourse upon the "Higher" and "Lower" natures of the Eternal, Krishna declared that the FOOLISH, in their ignorance of the Supreme State of the Higher Self, as Immutable and Transcendental, regard the "Unmanifest" as having come into manifestation. In this chapter while claiming to be the Self in all, Krishna uses the same strong word, 'fools,' to condemn those who cling to the form and lose the essence. "UNAWARE OF MY HIGHER NATURE, FOOLS REGARD ME" as dwelling in a particular form only!
To mistake the idol for God, or the form of the Guru for the Infinite, is to mistake the container for the contents. An idol is only a symbol (Pratika) for an imperceptible and subtle Truth. To play with the milk-bottle is not to feel refreshed when one is hungry or thirsty; playing with a spoon and fork over an empty plate is no satisfaction when one is really hungry. To mistake the idol to be itself the goal is to mistake the means for the end. And such a misunderstanding alone breeds fanatics, who sow seeds of rivalry and jealousy, to reap, in time, a harvest of death and disaster, all in the name of their stone-deities, wooden-symbols, or brass-gods! Three tiny bits of coloured khadi-cloth may make the national-flag, but that is not my mother-land; but when I bow my head as my country's flag goes up, I am adoring my nation; the flag is the sacred symbol of my country's culture and its aspirations.
With this idea in mind, if we read the stanza it becomes very vivid and clear. The Lord says: "ordinary devotees are unaware of My real status 'AS THE GREAT LORD OF ALL BEINGS'," and adds that these deluded "FOOLS SCORN ME WHEN I DWELL IN HUMAN FORM," meaning, when they consider Him, the Self, as merely a human-form, which He may take for Himself, to bless a particular generation.
WHY ARE THE FOOLS RENDERED INCAPABLE OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING AND CORRECT JUDGEMENT REGARDING THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SELF?
In order to drive home an argument, it is the style in Krishna's discourses that He always brings the contrasting factors together so that each may come to shine all the more against the background supplied by the other. Here is a pair of stanzas in which, if the former explains the low men deluded to pursue their baser nature (Rakshasas and Asuras), the latter paints the picture of the great-souls (Mahatmas), possessed of all the divine qualities.
Deluded by false desires and wearied with false activities to fulfil those wrong desires, some become confused in intellect and totally confounded in their reasoning. Such people lose all divine perspective and become monstrous in their activities, expressing nothing but their demoniac sensuous nature at all times. Such men are called here as Rakshasas and Asuras, belonging to the tradition of Ravana.
The actions undertaken in the present leave their impressions on the mind, and order the future desires and thoughts in the individual. Out of vain actions, only negative Vasanas can arise, and they can only thicken the dull-witted stupidities of the intellect. When an individual has lived in this ditch of falsehood and impurity, he cannot become any nobler than a monster, in the eyes of the "wise".
As a contrast to this Rakshasa-culture, we are shown how men-of-Wisdom feel and act. This dissection of man's bosom reveals to the seekers of self-development, the right attitude they must adopt and the correct perspective with which they must look at the things of the world.
THE GREAT-SOULS POSSESSED OF THE DIVINE NATURE of the Self, and desiring this Infinite, seek the Immortal by realising the Self, "THROUGH SINGLE-POINTED SELF-APPLICATION." They "know Me to be the Origin of all beings"; and those who know the mud to be the origin of all mud-pots, cannot fail to see the mud in all pots. So too, the true children of the Hindu culture, who understand the Divine Principle as the "Source-of-all-beings," cannot but respect every other member of the society as they would respect themselves. There is no greater and more effective socialism ever preached in the world. If the present generation is not able to understand the appreciate this spiritual socialism, which is the only panacea for the ills of the world, the reason for it has been already given in the preceding stanza --- it is because of the predominance of the Asuric forces in it.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
avajānanti māṁ mūḍhā mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam
paraṁ bhāvam ajānanto mama bhūta-maheśvaram
Bg 9.12
moghāśā mogha-karmāṇo mogha-jñānā vicetasaḥ
rākṣasīm āsurīṁ caiva prakṛtiṁ mohinīṁ śritāḥ
Bg 9.13
mahātmānas tu māṁ pārtha daivīṁ prakṛtim āśritāḥ
bhajanty ananya-manaso jñātvā bhūtādim avyayam
Translation
11. Fools disregard Me when I dwell in human form; they know not My Higher being as the Great Lord of all beings.
12. Of vain hopes, of vain actions, of vain knowledge, and senseless, they verily are possessed of the delusive nature of RAKSHASAS and ASURAS.
13. But the MAHATMAS (great-souls) O Partha, partaking of My divine nature, worship Me with a single mind (with a mind devoted to nothing else) , knowing Me as the Imperishable Source of all beings.
Commentary
In the seventh chapter, while giving a discourse upon the "Higher" and "Lower" natures of the Eternal, Krishna declared that the FOOLISH, in their ignorance of the Supreme State of the Higher Self, as Immutable and Transcendental, regard the "Unmanifest" as having come into manifestation. In this chapter while claiming to be the Self in all, Krishna uses the same strong word, 'fools,' to condemn those who cling to the form and lose the essence. "UNAWARE OF MY HIGHER NATURE, FOOLS REGARD ME" as dwelling in a particular form only!
To mistake the idol for God, or the form of the Guru for the Infinite, is to mistake the container for the contents. An idol is only a symbol (Pratika) for an imperceptible and subtle Truth. To play with the milk-bottle is not to feel refreshed when one is hungry or thirsty; playing with a spoon and fork over an empty plate is no satisfaction when one is really hungry. To mistake the idol to be itself the goal is to mistake the means for the end. And such a misunderstanding alone breeds fanatics, who sow seeds of rivalry and jealousy, to reap, in time, a harvest of death and disaster, all in the name of their stone-deities, wooden-symbols, or brass-gods! Three tiny bits of coloured khadi-cloth may make the national-flag, but that is not my mother-land; but when I bow my head as my country's flag goes up, I am adoring my nation; the flag is the sacred symbol of my country's culture and its aspirations.
With this idea in mind, if we read the stanza it becomes very vivid and clear. The Lord says: "ordinary devotees are unaware of My real status 'AS THE GREAT LORD OF ALL BEINGS'," and adds that these deluded "FOOLS SCORN ME WHEN I DWELL IN HUMAN FORM," meaning, when they consider Him, the Self, as merely a human-form, which He may take for Himself, to bless a particular generation.
WHY ARE THE FOOLS RENDERED INCAPABLE OF RIGHT UNDERSTANDING AND CORRECT JUDGEMENT REGARDING THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SELF?
In order to drive home an argument, it is the style in Krishna's discourses that He always brings the contrasting factors together so that each may come to shine all the more against the background supplied by the other. Here is a pair of stanzas in which, if the former explains the low men deluded to pursue their baser nature (Rakshasas and Asuras), the latter paints the picture of the great-souls (Mahatmas), possessed of all the divine qualities.
Deluded by false desires and wearied with false activities to fulfil those wrong desires, some become confused in intellect and totally confounded in their reasoning. Such people lose all divine perspective and become monstrous in their activities, expressing nothing but their demoniac sensuous nature at all times. Such men are called here as Rakshasas and Asuras, belonging to the tradition of Ravana.
The actions undertaken in the present leave their impressions on the mind, and order the future desires and thoughts in the individual. Out of vain actions, only negative Vasanas can arise, and they can only thicken the dull-witted stupidities of the intellect. When an individual has lived in this ditch of falsehood and impurity, he cannot become any nobler than a monster, in the eyes of the "wise".
As a contrast to this Rakshasa-culture, we are shown how men-of-Wisdom feel and act. This dissection of man's bosom reveals to the seekers of self-development, the right attitude they must adopt and the correct perspective with which they must look at the things of the world.
THE GREAT-SOULS POSSESSED OF THE DIVINE NATURE of the Self, and desiring this Infinite, seek the Immortal by realising the Self, "THROUGH SINGLE-POINTED SELF-APPLICATION." They "know Me to be the Origin of all beings"; and those who know the mud to be the origin of all mud-pots, cannot fail to see the mud in all pots. So too, the true children of the Hindu culture, who understand the Divine Principle as the "Source-of-all-beings," cannot but respect every other member of the society as they would respect themselves. There is no greater and more effective socialism ever preached in the world. If the present generation is not able to understand the appreciate this spiritual socialism, which is the only panacea for the ills of the world, the reason for it has been already given in the preceding stanza --- it is because of the predominance of the Asuric forces in it.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
No comments:
Post a Comment