Bg 13.32
anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ
śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate
Bg 13.33
yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate
sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate
Translation
32. Being without beginning, and being devoid of qualities, the Supreme Self, the Imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Kaunteya, neither acts, nor is tainted.
33. As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, because of its subtlety, so too the Self, seated everywhere in the body, is not tainted.
Commentary
Even though at Its touch It thrills the matter equipments into various activities, the fact that the Spirit is actionless is emphasised by the scriptures, and this is not an idea so easy for early students of Vedanta to understand. Therefore, the Upanishads have taken great pains to make us understand that the All-full Infinite, being One-without-a-second in its All-pervasiveness, has nothing to accomplish for Itself. Earlier we have discussed in the Geeta: "it is Nature that acts" (V-14). This Spirit, identifying Itself with "Field" (Prakriti), becomes the "Knower-of-the Field" (Purusha) and it is this "individualised ego" that acts and accomplishes.
Here we are given some logical reasons why the Infinite Consciousness, "THOUGH DWELLING IN THE BODY, NEITHER ACTS, NOR IS TAINTED." When the local Judge, Shri Gopal Rao, condemns a murderer to be hanged, the Judge is not considered as having committed a murder; the individuality in the Judge can gain no taint. Shri Gopal Rao in the chair acts as the Sessions Judge and it is the Judge who has passed the death sentence.
HAVING NO BEGINNING --- That which has a cause alone has a beginning. "No beginning," means "no cause." Truth being "that from which everything comes," it is the Uncaused Cause for all that has been created. That which owes its existence to a CAUSE becomes itself an EFFECT, and every EFFECT is nothing other than its CAUSE "which has undergone a change." All effects are thus changeable and things that are subject to change must necessarily perish.
HAVING NO QUALITY --- That which has no change cannot have any quality since that which has qualities is a substance and all substances are perishable. The Imperishable Infinite, THE CAUSE for everything, Itself caused by nothing, must, therefore, be without any quality.
THIS SUPREME SELF, IMPERISHABLE --- The Uncaused Cause for the entire world of phenomena, the Paramatman, which is devoid of qualities must necessarily be, by its own logic, "Imperishable." The process-of-change, happening in the properties and to the qualities of a thing, is the phenomenon of its decay. That which is Changeless cannot perish. And that which has no quality cannot change!
Therefore, the Beginningless, the Quality-less, the Imperishable Supreme Self, though living in the physical structure, and thrilling the inner matter-field around each embodied creature into the play of life, does not, in Itself, and by Itself, act.
This is one of the subtle concepts in Vedanta which lesser intellects must find rather difficult to grasp. This is a well-recognised difficult portion in the Vedantic literature. But a little effort at reflection can clear the confusions and remove all the difficulties
HERE THE LORD GIVES SOME PARALLEL EXAMPLES TO ILLUSTRATE THE ACTION-LESS-NESS OF THE SELF AND ALSO THE QUALITY-LESS-NESS OF THE SPIRIT IN ESSENCE, IN SPITE OF THE DISCORDANT AND DEVLISH ACTIVITIES OF MATTER AROUND IT:
AS THE ALL-PERVADING AKASHA (SPACE) IS NEVER SOILED --- Space is an example we can take to indicate the relationship of Spirit with Matter. Akasha means "that which gives accommodation to things." In short, it is the concept of pure Space. It is the subtlest of all gross elements, and since greater subtlety implies greater pervasiveness, Space pervades everything that is grosser than it. A subtler thing cannot be conditioned by a grosser factor --- the stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage, for the thoughts of the captive, being subtler than the stone walls and iron bars, can penetrate them, --- Akasha is the subtlest of all.
Space, being subtle, it allows everything to remain in it, yet, nothing that it contains can contaminate it. The Supreme Self, which is the very cause for the Akasha itself, and therefore, subtler than it, "IT PREVADES ALL: NOTHING PREVADES IT"... It cannot be contaminated by anything that exists or happens in the world-of-plurality.
Murders committed in the dream cannot soil the hands of the waker! The bloody garb of the ghost cannot leave its marks on the post. The mirage waters cannot wet even a grain of sand in the desert. These are examples of hallucinations, or delusory super-impositions. The world of plurality being nothing but mis-apprehensions of Reality arising out of the non-apprehension of the Real, the realm-of-matter (Prakriti) and its activities cannot contaminate and soil the Perfect and the Eternal.
THE SELF, THOUGH IT PERMEATES AND PREVADES THE WHOLE BODY, IS NOT SOILED, JUST AS SPACE CANNOT BE DIRTIED BY ALL THE AMOUNT OF FILTH THAT IT MAY ACCOMMODATE IN ITSELF.
SourcesL vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
anāditvān nirguṇatvāt paramātmāyam avyayaḥ
śarīra-stho ’pi kaunteya na karoti na lipyate
Bg 13.33
yathā sarva-gataṁ saukṣmyād ākāśaṁ nopalipyate
sarvatrāvasthito dehe tathātmā nopalipyate
Translation
32. Being without beginning, and being devoid of qualities, the Supreme Self, the Imperishable, though dwelling in the body, O Kaunteya, neither acts, nor is tainted.
33. As the all-pervading ether is not tainted, because of its subtlety, so too the Self, seated everywhere in the body, is not tainted.
Commentary
Even though at Its touch It thrills the matter equipments into various activities, the fact that the Spirit is actionless is emphasised by the scriptures, and this is not an idea so easy for early students of Vedanta to understand. Therefore, the Upanishads have taken great pains to make us understand that the All-full Infinite, being One-without-a-second in its All-pervasiveness, has nothing to accomplish for Itself. Earlier we have discussed in the Geeta: "it is Nature that acts" (V-14). This Spirit, identifying Itself with "Field" (Prakriti), becomes the "Knower-of-the Field" (Purusha) and it is this "individualised ego" that acts and accomplishes.
Here we are given some logical reasons why the Infinite Consciousness, "THOUGH DWELLING IN THE BODY, NEITHER ACTS, NOR IS TAINTED." When the local Judge, Shri Gopal Rao, condemns a murderer to be hanged, the Judge is not considered as having committed a murder; the individuality in the Judge can gain no taint. Shri Gopal Rao in the chair acts as the Sessions Judge and it is the Judge who has passed the death sentence.
HAVING NO BEGINNING --- That which has a cause alone has a beginning. "No beginning," means "no cause." Truth being "that from which everything comes," it is the Uncaused Cause for all that has been created. That which owes its existence to a CAUSE becomes itself an EFFECT, and every EFFECT is nothing other than its CAUSE "which has undergone a change." All effects are thus changeable and things that are subject to change must necessarily perish.
HAVING NO QUALITY --- That which has no change cannot have any quality since that which has qualities is a substance and all substances are perishable. The Imperishable Infinite, THE CAUSE for everything, Itself caused by nothing, must, therefore, be without any quality.
THIS SUPREME SELF, IMPERISHABLE --- The Uncaused Cause for the entire world of phenomena, the Paramatman, which is devoid of qualities must necessarily be, by its own logic, "Imperishable." The process-of-change, happening in the properties and to the qualities of a thing, is the phenomenon of its decay. That which is Changeless cannot perish. And that which has no quality cannot change!
Therefore, the Beginningless, the Quality-less, the Imperishable Supreme Self, though living in the physical structure, and thrilling the inner matter-field around each embodied creature into the play of life, does not, in Itself, and by Itself, act.
This is one of the subtle concepts in Vedanta which lesser intellects must find rather difficult to grasp. This is a well-recognised difficult portion in the Vedantic literature. But a little effort at reflection can clear the confusions and remove all the difficulties
HERE THE LORD GIVES SOME PARALLEL EXAMPLES TO ILLUSTRATE THE ACTION-LESS-NESS OF THE SELF AND ALSO THE QUALITY-LESS-NESS OF THE SPIRIT IN ESSENCE, IN SPITE OF THE DISCORDANT AND DEVLISH ACTIVITIES OF MATTER AROUND IT:
AS THE ALL-PERVADING AKASHA (SPACE) IS NEVER SOILED --- Space is an example we can take to indicate the relationship of Spirit with Matter. Akasha means "that which gives accommodation to things." In short, it is the concept of pure Space. It is the subtlest of all gross elements, and since greater subtlety implies greater pervasiveness, Space pervades everything that is grosser than it. A subtler thing cannot be conditioned by a grosser factor --- the stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage, for the thoughts of the captive, being subtler than the stone walls and iron bars, can penetrate them, --- Akasha is the subtlest of all.
Space, being subtle, it allows everything to remain in it, yet, nothing that it contains can contaminate it. The Supreme Self, which is the very cause for the Akasha itself, and therefore, subtler than it, "IT PREVADES ALL: NOTHING PREVADES IT"... It cannot be contaminated by anything that exists or happens in the world-of-plurality.
Murders committed in the dream cannot soil the hands of the waker! The bloody garb of the ghost cannot leave its marks on the post. The mirage waters cannot wet even a grain of sand in the desert. These are examples of hallucinations, or delusory super-impositions. The world of plurality being nothing but mis-apprehensions of Reality arising out of the non-apprehension of the Real, the realm-of-matter (Prakriti) and its activities cannot contaminate and soil the Perfect and the Eternal.
THE SELF, THOUGH IT PERMEATES AND PREVADES THE WHOLE BODY, IS NOT SOILED, JUST AS SPACE CANNOT BE DIRTIED BY ALL THE AMOUNT OF FILTH THAT IT MAY ACCOMMODATE IN ITSELF.
SourcesL vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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