Gita 17.24 The many meanings of the word “brahma” in the Gita

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 17.24 tasmād om ity udhārūtya yajñidānata-pahakriyā pravartante vidhānokta ratatam brahmavādinām tasmād om ity udhārūtya therefore understanding om to be such a potent vibration yajñidānata-pahakriyā before doing yajñidānata-pahakriyā they recited pravartante they begin it with this vidhānokta as is prescribed in scriptures ratatam brahmavādinām brahmavādinām so Krishna will talk about om tatsat importance of reciting om tatsat and ultimately of pursuing transcendence while functioning in this world in the previous verse he has talked about how om tatsat are the symbolic representations of the absolute which are very potent and then in the next verses he will explain tat and sat so here he actually presumes that om is understood the word om is so common it is universally something that comes before the situation in this world where so many mantras are recited om namo narayanaya om namah shivaya just om is chanted as a preface to some mantras and om is chanted as a mantra in itself so because of its enormous potency Krishna does not specifically go about talking about om he focuses on talking about where it is to be chanted and herein he says that this brahmavādinām the brahmavādis chant this om before doing a gedana tapa and they mokṣa kaṅkṣi bhi sorry, they are nidhānokta-sutatam brahmavādinahā they are actually brahmavādinām let us recite these mantras so it is interesting now, two points we will elaborate brahmavādinām so the word brahmavādi as we generally use it in the Krishna consciousness movement that refers to people who are having a particular conception of the absolute they are considered as monists impersonalists but that is not the sole conception of the sole meaning of connotation of that word in fact the word brahmavādi is contrasted with the word mayavādi it is used within a limited context where if you look at the word mayavādi itself it is not a widely prevalent word in the scriptures it is there so that it can help it is used to differentiate between two particular conceptions within monism so mayavādi refers to the conception of oneness wherein even the form of the absolute is considered to be an illusion which needs to be transcended to attain absolute oneness to enter into the absolute non-differentiated oneness whereas brahmavādis are considered those who do not offend the absolute they are interested in the absolute as impersonal manifestation and without being judgmental or especially without being condemnatory about the personal aspects, condemnation in terms of considering it to be a product of illusion that needs to be transcended the brahmavādis are attracted primarily to the impersonal aspect of the absolute so their lack of offensiveness towards the personal aspect is what differentiates them from the mayavādis now here the word brahmavādi is understood differently there the word brahmavādi comes from the brahman aspect that they are attracted to the brahman aspect of the absolute mayavādis are referred to as such by because they consider even the bhagavān aspect of the absolute to be ultimately a product of māyā so in that sense everything that is perceivable by the senses they consider it to be a product of illusion even when the lord descends to the world he is perceivable and that is considered to be māyā so that is the so unwittingly māyā becomes the defining foundation of their ideology but brahmavādi in here refers to another meaning of the word brahma so brahma refers to vedic scriptures and krishna has used this in this sense earlier also śabda brahmāti vartate in the sixth chapter he has said purvābhyāsena te naiva riyateya-sopi-saha jijñāsura-piyogasya śabda brahmāti vartate in 6.44 he has said that by one’s previous practice of transcendence riyateya-sopi-saha one will be spontaneously attracted towards what avajijñāsura-piyogasya to the practice of yoga one will be inquisitive and attracted towards that śabda brahmā refers to the scope of vedic sound so vedic sound refers to the the sound of the scope of instructions of the vedas, now the vedas are considered to be interestingly primarily focused on karmakānda and that karmakānda is to be transcended the idea that once you do religious activities for gaining something material for improving one’s material situation that idea is something which needs to be given up transcendentalists go beyond śabda brahmā so there the word brahmā is used in the sense of the word brahmā is associated with śabda, śabda refers not so much to transcendental sound of the holy name it refers to the vedas so here also brahmavādīnām refers to the idea that brahman is the, that here refers to scripture and the whole principle over here is that Krishna has also used the word brahmā earlier to refer to scripture in 3.15 when he says so in the first line he says brahmā refers to the vedas over here it’s interesting the word brahmā it comes from transcendence among one’s prescribed therefore so here this word brahmā refers to something different this refers to transcendental reality so in the first two lines the word brahmā refers to the vedas the third line brahmā refers to not the vedas, it refers to the actually transcendental reality so the same word can have different meanings not just in the same verse but even in the same verse, that’s what happens over here so this word brahmavādīnām refers to people who are the followers of brahmā and of course the thrust of the verse which we are discussing right now is that they perform yajna whatever yajna they do they make sure that they do it with prefacing Aum so they are not consciously pursuing transcendence it sometimes happens when people are literally following the words of the vedas without knowing their essential purpose but they will move towards transcendence by the steady cultivation of citation of that mantra which will infuse them with transcendence to some extent so here Krishna is talking about Aum Tat Sat citation as a means to infuse transcendence into whatever activities we may be doing