Bg 15.13
gām āviśya ca bhūtāni dhārayāmy aham ojasā
puṣṇāmi cauṣadhīḥ sarvāḥ somo bhūtvā rasātmakaḥ
Bg 15.14
ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ
prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham
Bg 15.15
sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
Translation
13. Permeating the earth I support all beings by (My) energy; and having become the liquid moon, I nourish all herbs.
14. Having become (the Fire) VAISHVAANARA , I abide in the body of beings, and associated with PRANA and APANA, digest the four-fold food.
15. And I am seated in the hearts of all, from Me are memory, knowledge, as well as their absence. I am verily that which has to be known in all the VEDAS; I am indeed the author of VEDANTA, and, the "knower of the VEDAS" am I.
Commentary
PERMEATING THE EARTH I SUPPORT ALL BEINGS WITH MY ENERGY --- Long before artificial manure was discovered, the earth had, no doubt, a long history; and some of those eras in the bygone days were, perhaps, more over-populated than the present. And yet, the earth continued to sustain life. The capacity of the earth to sustain life and nourish it, the warmth and the mineral contents, are all, says the Lord, "MY OWN VITALITY," meaning, the same Consciousness which, through the Sun became the necessary warmth of the atmosphere, while expressing through the earth, became the 'potential fertility' of the soil and the 'life-giving secret capacity' of the earth.
HAVING BECOME THE MOONLIGHT I NOURISH ALL THE PLANTS --- The same Eternal Consciousness, while functioning through the moon expresses Itself as moon-light and fills each plant with its "essence" content. If this passage was rejected by members of a previous generation, children of the modern scientific knowledge will not dare to question it. Modern agricultural science proves that the planetary organisation, especially the moon, has got some strange connection with the expected productivity in agriculture! Recent experiments have been reported where tomato seedlings sown on the full-moon day and plucked again on a full-moon day were found to yield a better crop.
Indeed it is accepted everywhere that the paddy preserved for seeds is not only to be dried in the Sun, but is must also lie exposed to the moon. The naturopaths keep some of their preparations --- as also the Ayurvedic physicians --- exposed to the moon for a certain number of days, and they claim that the medicines gain certain curative powers thereby.
All these above facts, touched upon lightly here, should prove that the declaration in the stanza is not totally unscientific.
The Sun, the moon and the fire are the Cosmic sources of all energy in the world, and the very Source-of-the-energy, from where it flows through these phenomenal expressions, is the Infinite Consciousness. The Consciousness functions through the earth and gives the fields their special capacity to sustain and nourish the vegetable world, and when the flora grows up, it is again the same Consciousness, functioning through the moon and manifesting as moonlight that fills each plant and fruit with its essential food-value (Vitamins).
MOREOVER:
ABIDING IN THE BODY OF LIVING BEINGS AS VAISHVAANARA --- The same Supreme Consciousness expresses Itself as the warmth-of-life in all living creatures. That physical structure from which all warmth has gone, is dead. Metabolism creates the body-heat and the functions of the inner organisms continue automatically without any conscious effort on the part of the individual, so long as LIFE is pulsating in the body.
Here, the Eternal Reality is indicated as that mighty LIFE, which, when pulsating through the body, manifests Itself as the 'digestive fire' (Vaishvaanara), which assimilates all the food taken in.
I DIGEST THE FOUR-FOLD FOOD --- The digestive power in a healthy living organism assimilates all types of food. The entire variety of human diet is classified under four heads in Sanskrit as food that should be (i) masticated, (ii) swallowed, (iii) sucked, and (iv) licked. Under these four types, we can embrace all kinds of food, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, prepared and unprepared, raw and ripe. All things consumed by the mouth are digested, assimilated and absorbed because of the digestive system and the power in the digestive system is nothing but a manifestation of the All-present Life Principle.
ASSOCIATED WITH PRANA AND APANA --- The two physiological functions of "perception" and of "excretion" in all living creatures are called Prana and Apana. Here, however, these terms can be considered in their broadest general sense. Not only does the Consciousness, as the 'digestive fire,' assimilate the food that has reached the stomach, but is again Life manifested as the peristaltic movement (Prana) that receives and rolls down the food swallowed, through the oesophagus into the stomach. After digesting, assimilating and absorbing food, it is again the same Divine Spark-of-Life that gives the intestines its capacity to throw out (Apana) the undigested and unnecessary by-products. In short, it is the Lord that helps us to swallow the food, it is the Lord that assimilates the food, and it is the Lord again that presides over the function of eliminating the by-products.
MOREOVER:
I AM SEATED IN THE HEARTS OF ALL --- If there be thus an Infinite Omnipotent Power that manifests Itself as the different things and beings in the world, how can a seeker make his pilgrimage towards It and meet this Great Divine? Lord Krishna says that He lives in the Hearts of all living creatures. Here the HEART does not mean the physiological "heart" but it is the metaphysical HEART. The term HEART, in philosophy, means "mind which has been trained to entertain constantly the positive qualities of love, tolerance, mercy, charity, kindness, and like." A peaceful, joyous mind, settled in tranquillity, alert and vigilant to receive higher intimations, is called the "heart." The Infinite 'DWELLS IN THE HEART'means, though He is present everywhere the Lord is most conspicuously self-evident, during meditation, in the HEART of the meditator.
FROM ME ARE MEMORY KNOWLEDGE, AS WELL AS THEIR ABSENCE --- The Consciousness Divine has been declared above as revelling in the heart of every living creature. This Light-of-Life seems to have no particular justification to exit since all perceptions are through the body, all feelings are through the mind, all thoughts are through the intellect. The Geeta here declares what exactly is then the special grace of Consciousness. It is the light of Consciousness that illumines all our experiences in Life. From this Supreme alone all memories, knowledge, as well as forgetfulness, come to us. Memory is constituted of our experiences of the past, stored away in our understanding which guide our present and future activities. All education and knowledge that we have at this moment are memories from the past. Unless we are aware of these memories, they will not be available in our present life. Reacting properly to the present sets of stimuli and thereby gaining fresh and vivid experiences, is the process of widening our field of knowledge. And all these processes are possible only in the Light of Life.
Acquisition of new knowledge presupposes our capacity to give up our earlier false notions. Imperfect knowledge gets weeded out when a person is cultivating new knowledge. A capacity to forget is an essential pre-requisite in acquiring fresh knowledge. This stanza explains that all these subjective activities, mental and intellectual, arise from and are maintained by the Conscious Principle, the Lord-Himself.
IT IS I THAT IS TO BE KNOWN BY ALL THE VEDAS --- In all the scriptures of the world, including the various portions of all the Vedas in India, Krishna says, this Infinite Consciousness is the one common factor that has been extolled and adored. To realise this is to reach the goal-of-life, the fulfilment of existence. The Consciousness that revels in the hearts of all living creatures is the non-dual Immortal Reality, the All-pervading and It is the only substratum for the pluralistic world of experiences.
I AM INDEED THE AUTHOR OF VEDANTA, AS WELL AS THE KNOWER OF THE VEDAS --- Since Consciousness alone is the Eternal Reality, and everything else is a projection upon it, the very essence in everything, as expressed in the Vedas also, is this Consciousness. The seeker who listens to the Vedas reflects upon their wisdom, and ultimately comes to experience the fulfilment of his life, is also at no stage anything other than the same Consciousness.
In short, it has been said that the Consciousness is the Light in the Sun; it is the same Consciousness that fertilises the earth; the Consciousness as moonlight supplies food-value to the plant-kingdom; it is Truth Itself, as the body-warmth that presides over the assimilation of the food within the body, and supervises the process of life's transactions with the world outside; and it is the same Light of Consciousness that makes it possible for us to gain experience, to store away knowledge, and to replace ignorance with better knowledge.
The Eternal Principle which thus expresses Itself as the phenomenal powers --- which, with their activities make it possible for life to exist on the surface of the earth, and which helps the higher life to grow and expand into wisdom --- is the very theme indicated in the Vedas as the Eternal Reality, and to know it and to bring It under our experience is to know the Infinite.
Till now the earlier verses have enumerated the glories of Narayana, the Blessed Lord, as manifested through the various vehicles such as the Sun, the moon, the earth, the body, the mind and the intellect. Now, in the following verses, Lord Krishna points out the True Nature of the Infinite as the unconditioned (Niru-padhika), All pervading (Sarva gatah) and Eternal (Nityah). This Infinite Reality transcends all intellectual concepts, such as the finite and the infinite --- as the perishable and the imperishable.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
gām āviśya ca bhūtāni dhārayāmy aham ojasā
puṣṇāmi cauṣadhīḥ sarvāḥ somo bhūtvā rasātmakaḥ
Bg 15.14
ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ
prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham
Bg 15.15
sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca
vedaiś ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedānta-kṛd veda-vid eva cāham
Translation
13. Permeating the earth I support all beings by (My) energy; and having become the liquid moon, I nourish all herbs.
14. Having become (the Fire) VAISHVAANARA , I abide in the body of beings, and associated with PRANA and APANA, digest the four-fold food.
15. And I am seated in the hearts of all, from Me are memory, knowledge, as well as their absence. I am verily that which has to be known in all the VEDAS; I am indeed the author of VEDANTA, and, the "knower of the VEDAS" am I.
Commentary
PERMEATING THE EARTH I SUPPORT ALL BEINGS WITH MY ENERGY --- Long before artificial manure was discovered, the earth had, no doubt, a long history; and some of those eras in the bygone days were, perhaps, more over-populated than the present. And yet, the earth continued to sustain life. The capacity of the earth to sustain life and nourish it, the warmth and the mineral contents, are all, says the Lord, "MY OWN VITALITY," meaning, the same Consciousness which, through the Sun became the necessary warmth of the atmosphere, while expressing through the earth, became the 'potential fertility' of the soil and the 'life-giving secret capacity' of the earth.
HAVING BECOME THE MOONLIGHT I NOURISH ALL THE PLANTS --- The same Eternal Consciousness, while functioning through the moon expresses Itself as moon-light and fills each plant with its "essence" content. If this passage was rejected by members of a previous generation, children of the modern scientific knowledge will not dare to question it. Modern agricultural science proves that the planetary organisation, especially the moon, has got some strange connection with the expected productivity in agriculture! Recent experiments have been reported where tomato seedlings sown on the full-moon day and plucked again on a full-moon day were found to yield a better crop.
Indeed it is accepted everywhere that the paddy preserved for seeds is not only to be dried in the Sun, but is must also lie exposed to the moon. The naturopaths keep some of their preparations --- as also the Ayurvedic physicians --- exposed to the moon for a certain number of days, and they claim that the medicines gain certain curative powers thereby.
All these above facts, touched upon lightly here, should prove that the declaration in the stanza is not totally unscientific.
The Sun, the moon and the fire are the Cosmic sources of all energy in the world, and the very Source-of-the-energy, from where it flows through these phenomenal expressions, is the Infinite Consciousness. The Consciousness functions through the earth and gives the fields their special capacity to sustain and nourish the vegetable world, and when the flora grows up, it is again the same Consciousness, functioning through the moon and manifesting as moonlight that fills each plant and fruit with its essential food-value (Vitamins).
MOREOVER:
ABIDING IN THE BODY OF LIVING BEINGS AS VAISHVAANARA --- The same Supreme Consciousness expresses Itself as the warmth-of-life in all living creatures. That physical structure from which all warmth has gone, is dead. Metabolism creates the body-heat and the functions of the inner organisms continue automatically without any conscious effort on the part of the individual, so long as LIFE is pulsating in the body.
Here, the Eternal Reality is indicated as that mighty LIFE, which, when pulsating through the body, manifests Itself as the 'digestive fire' (Vaishvaanara), which assimilates all the food taken in.
I DIGEST THE FOUR-FOLD FOOD --- The digestive power in a healthy living organism assimilates all types of food. The entire variety of human diet is classified under four heads in Sanskrit as food that should be (i) masticated, (ii) swallowed, (iii) sucked, and (iv) licked. Under these four types, we can embrace all kinds of food, vegetarian and non-vegetarian, prepared and unprepared, raw and ripe. All things consumed by the mouth are digested, assimilated and absorbed because of the digestive system and the power in the digestive system is nothing but a manifestation of the All-present Life Principle.
ASSOCIATED WITH PRANA AND APANA --- The two physiological functions of "perception" and of "excretion" in all living creatures are called Prana and Apana. Here, however, these terms can be considered in their broadest general sense. Not only does the Consciousness, as the 'digestive fire,' assimilate the food that has reached the stomach, but is again Life manifested as the peristaltic movement (Prana) that receives and rolls down the food swallowed, through the oesophagus into the stomach. After digesting, assimilating and absorbing food, it is again the same Divine Spark-of-Life that gives the intestines its capacity to throw out (Apana) the undigested and unnecessary by-products. In short, it is the Lord that helps us to swallow the food, it is the Lord that assimilates the food, and it is the Lord again that presides over the function of eliminating the by-products.
MOREOVER:
I AM SEATED IN THE HEARTS OF ALL --- If there be thus an Infinite Omnipotent Power that manifests Itself as the different things and beings in the world, how can a seeker make his pilgrimage towards It and meet this Great Divine? Lord Krishna says that He lives in the Hearts of all living creatures. Here the HEART does not mean the physiological "heart" but it is the metaphysical HEART. The term HEART, in philosophy, means "mind which has been trained to entertain constantly the positive qualities of love, tolerance, mercy, charity, kindness, and like." A peaceful, joyous mind, settled in tranquillity, alert and vigilant to receive higher intimations, is called the "heart." The Infinite 'DWELLS IN THE HEART'means, though He is present everywhere the Lord is most conspicuously self-evident, during meditation, in the HEART of the meditator.
FROM ME ARE MEMORY KNOWLEDGE, AS WELL AS THEIR ABSENCE --- The Consciousness Divine has been declared above as revelling in the heart of every living creature. This Light-of-Life seems to have no particular justification to exit since all perceptions are through the body, all feelings are through the mind, all thoughts are through the intellect. The Geeta here declares what exactly is then the special grace of Consciousness. It is the light of Consciousness that illumines all our experiences in Life. From this Supreme alone all memories, knowledge, as well as forgetfulness, come to us. Memory is constituted of our experiences of the past, stored away in our understanding which guide our present and future activities. All education and knowledge that we have at this moment are memories from the past. Unless we are aware of these memories, they will not be available in our present life. Reacting properly to the present sets of stimuli and thereby gaining fresh and vivid experiences, is the process of widening our field of knowledge. And all these processes are possible only in the Light of Life.
Acquisition of new knowledge presupposes our capacity to give up our earlier false notions. Imperfect knowledge gets weeded out when a person is cultivating new knowledge. A capacity to forget is an essential pre-requisite in acquiring fresh knowledge. This stanza explains that all these subjective activities, mental and intellectual, arise from and are maintained by the Conscious Principle, the Lord-Himself.
IT IS I THAT IS TO BE KNOWN BY ALL THE VEDAS --- In all the scriptures of the world, including the various portions of all the Vedas in India, Krishna says, this Infinite Consciousness is the one common factor that has been extolled and adored. To realise this is to reach the goal-of-life, the fulfilment of existence. The Consciousness that revels in the hearts of all living creatures is the non-dual Immortal Reality, the All-pervading and It is the only substratum for the pluralistic world of experiences.
I AM INDEED THE AUTHOR OF VEDANTA, AS WELL AS THE KNOWER OF THE VEDAS --- Since Consciousness alone is the Eternal Reality, and everything else is a projection upon it, the very essence in everything, as expressed in the Vedas also, is this Consciousness. The seeker who listens to the Vedas reflects upon their wisdom, and ultimately comes to experience the fulfilment of his life, is also at no stage anything other than the same Consciousness.
In short, it has been said that the Consciousness is the Light in the Sun; it is the same Consciousness that fertilises the earth; the Consciousness as moonlight supplies food-value to the plant-kingdom; it is Truth Itself, as the body-warmth that presides over the assimilation of the food within the body, and supervises the process of life's transactions with the world outside; and it is the same Light of Consciousness that makes it possible for us to gain experience, to store away knowledge, and to replace ignorance with better knowledge.
The Eternal Principle which thus expresses Itself as the phenomenal powers --- which, with their activities make it possible for life to exist on the surface of the earth, and which helps the higher life to grow and expand into wisdom --- is the very theme indicated in the Vedas as the Eternal Reality, and to know it and to bring It under our experience is to know the Infinite.
Till now the earlier verses have enumerated the glories of Narayana, the Blessed Lord, as manifested through the various vehicles such as the Sun, the moon, the earth, the body, the mind and the intellect. Now, in the following verses, Lord Krishna points out the True Nature of the Infinite as the unconditioned (Niru-padhika), All pervading (Sarva gatah) and Eternal (Nityah). This Infinite Reality transcends all intellectual concepts, such as the finite and the infinite --- as the perishable and the imperishable.
Sources: vedabase.com; The Holy Geeta
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