Bhakti Shastri (129) – Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15 Text 11 to 14

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Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Welcome back to the Bhagavad Gita Bhakti Shastri course.
We are in the 15th chapter. We discussed the first two sections of the 15th chapter. Let’s have a quick overview.
So, first was about the upside down banyan tree, attain liberation by detachment and if one is not detached, then one goes on in the cycle of birth and death. So, this section goes from 7 to 11. We have discussed till 10th verse.
The 10th verse talked about jnana chakshu, about seeing with the eyes of knowledge. So, now the question may come up, why do some people have jnana chakshu and others don’t have jnana chakshu? What is the difference? That is talked about in this particular verse 15.11. So, yogis, those who are striving for yoga, they endeavour and enam means this. This is what? This reality of how the soul is trapped in material existence and is dragged around by the modes.
So, pashyanti, so the yogis who endeavour, they pursue. How do they pursue? By becoming situated on the spiritual platform. But on the other hand, tanto api akrutatmano.
Others may endeavour, but still they are akrutatmano. They are not situated on the spiritual platform. Atmana is the soul.
Akruta means they have not actually adequately situated themselves on the spiritual platform. They are not on the atma level and therefore, nainam pashyanti, one is not able to pursue, achetasaha, because of misdirected consciousness one cannot pursue. So, basically there is a contrast here between those who is able to pursue, one whose consciousness is, both are endeavouring, the word tanto comes for both, but one is atmanyavasthitam and the other is akrutatmano and achetasaha.
So, they are not able to pursue. So, that means, it is not just enough that we desire and strive to pursue the spiritual reality. So, jnana chakshu, so the previous verse had the word jnana chakshu, now here the word is pashyanti.
Yes, this logical connection with eyes we see. So, what is required for developing this jnana chakshu? It is not just endeavour. Endeavour is important, but that endeavour should lead to a transformation by which one can become atmanyavasthitam, one becomes situated on the spiritual platform.
Shri Prabhupada would give the example that just endeavour or willpower alone is not enough. If a person is blind and does a beautiful painting, maybe the world’s most beautiful painting, say a Mona Lisa or some other painting like that, even from the secular point of view, what is considered to be very artistically magnificent. Now, if a person just stands in front of a painting and stares and glares and peers, it is not going to be much magnificent.
No matter how long a person stares and glares, the person is not going to be able to see. A process is required. What is the process? The process is a process of healing, a process of surgery or healing or whatever, by which the person will develop the eyes to see.
So, just endeavour is not enough. There has to be guided endeavour. So, the guided endeavour will involve some treatment by which a person can get the eyes and see thereof.
So, both are yatantho, but just by yatantho, it is not that pashyanti will come. By yatantho, there has to be a transformation by which ātmaññavastitam, one becomes situated on the spiritual platform. Now, it may seem a little bit a kind of a circular logic which traps us.
It says that to see the soul, we have to be situated on the spiritual platform. And those who can’t see the soul, they can’t see the soul because they’re not situated on the spiritual platform. Now, we wonder what comes first.
If I can’t see the soul, I won’t feel inspired to become situated on the spiritual platform, to try to advance to the spiritual level. And if I’m not advancing to a spiritual level, I can’t see the soul. So, where does it begin? So, we can rephrase this as two words, perceive and pursue.
Perceive is to see and pursue, p-e-u-r-s-u-e, pursue is to go after. So, what comes first? Does perceiving come first or pursuing comes first? So, do we pursue the spiritual platform first and then we will come to perceive it or do we perceive it first and then we start pursuing it? Actually, what comes first is hearing, is submissive hearing. By hearing, we understand there is a higher reality.
So, there is a higher reality and then that triggers both. We get some perception of that reality and that inspires us to pursue it further. And then when you pursue it more, we perceive it more and then that inspires us to pursue it further.
So, we could say that initially, we had to do a little bit of pursuing by hearing. When we hear, by that we start pursuing. That itself is a pursuing basically.
Seeking, that’s a Aadav Shraddha, with a little faith. What is that faith we are discussing? It is just inquisitiveness, but a serious inquisitiveness. Okay, what is this actually? So, it may even be a positive curiosity.
It may not be a very life-transforming inquisitiveness at that stage. That stage will come later. But even if there is an initial inquisitiveness, a positive, favourable curiosity, that itself is a pursuit.
Okay, let me find out what is the spiritual level? That will begin the process and यतन्तो अप्याकुर्थात्मानु नैनं पश्चन्ति अचेतसह। नैनं पश्चन्ति, one cannot perceive because अचेतसह, the consciousness is caught at the material level. So, Krishna has talked about this अचेतसह and similar point of not being able to perceive in भोगैश्वेलिप सक्तानाम् तया अपहरित चेतसाम् विवसायात्मिका बुद्धी समाध्ह। नविधियते। So, चेतसाम् is अपहरित, the consciousness is abducted. अपहरित can also be kidnapped.
So, the child when is coming, when the child is coming from say school to home, at that time child wants to go in a particular way, but some kidnappers come and take the child somewhere else. So, अपहरित, अपहरण is kidnapping. So, actually, we have to be careful.
If we don’t want our consciousness to be kidnapped, अपहरित चेतसाम्, so what causes the अपहरित चेतसाम्? That is the attachment to matter. So, if we don’t want our consciousness to be kidnapped, we should not be kids and we should not take naps. What does that mean? Don’t be kid and don’t kidnap.
So, don’t be a kid, don’t take a nap. What does it mean? You know, we shouldn’t be, don’t be a kid means don’t be naive, don’t be childish. We have to recognise that spiritual life is a serious pursuit and children may be casual, playful, frivolous.
You know, sometimes they like something, so they will play. Sometimes they don’t like it, they will not play, they’ll just give it up. So, they have hobbies.
I take one thing as a hobby, tomorrow another thing as a hobby. So, they are casual, but we cannot be kids like that in our pursuit of spiritual life. We have to be serious.
Serious means, we grow up, when adults grow up, they recognise. Now, normally, if we are working in a company and sometimes if we have a difficult work to do, if the boss gives some work and we don’t do the work and the boss asks, why didn’t you do it? Will we say, I didn’t feel like doing it? No, we will not say like that. The boss will say, I don’t feel like employing, you know, get out.
This shows the door then. It doesn’t work like that. So, we may have our feelings, but we subordinate our feelings.
So, kids are often ruled by their feelings, but adults at least to some extent are meant to rule their feelings. So, when we rule our feelings, then that doesn’t mean that we switch off all the feelings, but then we know when to be guided by the feelings and when to subordinate, control the feelings. So, that is important.
So, don’t be a kid and don’t take naps. Don’t take naps means, we can’t become lazy. A nap means just go off to sleep.
So, we have to be constantly alert. We recognise that if I have to rise to the spiritual platform, it has to be a continuous steady pursuit. If at any moment I lower my guard, what will happen? Maya is just waiting outside and Maya will come and catch me.
Nikatastha Maya is right close by and is waiting. Actually, the jhapatiya pounce and capture. That can be related very easily with kidnapping.
Kidnappers, what they do? As soon as they get an opportunity, they pounce on the child and drag away. So, like that, what we have to do is we have to be alert. So, we have to know that Krishna consciousness is not just momentary or short-lived peaks of ecstasy.
There has to be a steady climb in our consciousness and the peaks of ecstasy may sometimes come and we feel very high. We feel wonderful. Oh, I feel so happy.
I feel like dancing and singing. I feel like, I feel joyful. But then other times, I feel so dry.
But either we feel high or we feel dry. We recognise that I have to keep going on. So, those who don’t do this, those who don’t do akritatmana, those who don’t do all this homework of situating oneself on the spiritual platform.
Situating oneself on the spiritual platform is not an abstract concept. It’s not that, you know, just sometimes when we go in a programme, there is a stage. So, you go and stand on the platform.
So, a spiritual platform like that, some platform somewhere we go and stand on it. So, situating ourselves on the spiritual platform means basically acting at the level of the soul as much as possible and not acting at the level of the body. At the level of the body means what? My eyes see something attractive and I think, oh, this is so attractive.
I want to go and enjoy it. My tongue, I see something beautiful, delicious, I want to enjoy it and we go after it. So, acting at the bodily level means letting the bodily desires and drives rule our life.
Acting at a spiritual level means letting the needs and the opportunities of the soul guide our life, shape our life, mould our decisions. So, it’s not an abstract conception. To be at the spiritual platform, one doesn’t necessarily have to be fully self-realised.
We cannot be entirely at the spiritual platform right now, but we can act at the spiritual level to a significant extent by choosing to not let the bodily drives and desires rule our life. So, those who don’t do this, those who let the bodily desires and drives rule their life, what happens is achetasaha. For them, their consciousness gets dragged away from Krishna.
Krishna has used the word achetasaha also earlier in the Bhagavad Gita when he’s talking about the faithless people. He talks about the faithful people in 3.31 and 3.32 he talks about the faithless. So, achetasaha, he says those who are envious of me, those who don’t have faith in my words, even if they have knowledge, sarva-jnana-vimudha-amstvam, their knowledge gets destroyed because viddhinashtana-achetasaha.
Achetasaha, their consciousness gets dragged away, dragged away from Krishna. So, achetasaha. Now, when here Krishna is using the word achetasaha, chetasaha is related with chetana, consciousness.
So, achetasaha means one is not conscious. So, now we are actually always conscious of something, where somebody is absent-minded. Now, when we say absent-minded, that doesn’t mean the person doesn’t have a mind.
The mind is not where we are. Where the body is physically present, the mind is not there. So, like that, achetasaha means not that the person doesn’t have consciousness.
The person has consciousness and the person is conscious. But the person is not conscious of what one should be conscious of. So, achetasaha means one should be conscious of spiritual reality, but instead, because of excessive and unregulated material desires and material attachments, one is not conscious of Krishna, one is simply conscious of matter.
So, how can this happen? You know, we may go to the temple and beautiful darshan over there, beautiful deities are there, but if we are agitated by lust, you know, we may not be taking darshan of Krishna, we may be fantasising about other things, when we are meant to take darshan of Krishna. Krishna is right in front of us and our eyes may also be in Krishna. But if we are captivated and fantasising about other things, then achetasaha, we are in front of Krishna, but we are not in front of, we are not looking at Krishna.
So, achetasaha. So, even if one endeavours, but if one is not striving to situate in the spiritual platform, then one cannot perceive the spiritual reality. Then we may say, what exactly is yatantho in the second case referring to? Yatantho refers to misinformed endeavour.
Misinformed endeavour means, as I said earlier, a person, blind person just trying to stare and stare and stare and glare and glare and glare at a painting in order to see it. That endeavour is misinformed and it is unproductive. But when there is well-informed endeavour, when guided endeavour, then that becomes productive.
So, the difference between the two is proper and improper endeavour. And proper and improper is determined by whether it is guided or not guided. So, Prabhupada explains that even though they are endeavouring in a so-called yoga system, so-called yoga system, even though they are endeavouring, they are not self-realised.
And they cannot understand the process of transmigration of the soul. That means they have a hazy conception of not self-realised means they have a hazy conception of the soul. Because of the hazy conception, they do not make tangible steps towards self-realisation.
And that is why they have neither comprehension nor transformation resulting from it. Now, let us look at the next verse. So, from here, the next section is starting.
The next section is how Krishna assists us in our material existence and our spiritual endeavour. So, what is the connection between the two? How Krishna assists us in our material existence, that is described from verses 12 to 14, and our spiritual endeavour, that is described in verse 15. So, the correlation between this and the previous verse is that the previous verse said that the people should have Jnana Chakshu, so as they can pursue the Atma.
But the question comes up that what if a person is not able to pursue the Atma? What if a person is at the bodily level itself? And the person is not so developed in consciousness or thinking to be able to perceive the soul, then how can such a person make spiritual advancement? Or is it that for such a person spiritual advancement is blocked? No, it is not blocked. Actually, Krishna starts talking about Himself and how the Jnana Chakshu can work in a different way. See, the Jnana Chakshu can pursue the Atma or we can work and we can instead try to pursue the hand of God.
We can try to pursue Krishna’s role in our life. What is the difference between the two, perceiving Atma Tattva? Actually, perceiving Atma Tattva requires more critical thinking, more intellectual sophistication, more depth of penetration in contemplation. That is not always easy.
But even if somebody is at the material level of consciousness, one is not able to pursue spiritual reality, it does not matter. Even if the person is at the material level of consciousness, one can see the hand of God in material things. And whatever material things we have, even those we cannot get by ourselves.
Even those come to us by the arrangement of the Lord. That is what we talk about in the next verse. So, actually, let us look at this.
So, get Jnana by perceiving higher arrangement in material world. So, we want Jnana Chakshu, we cannot pursue the Atma, but still we can get some Jnana, we can start pursuing the spiritual reality in terms of Krishna’s hand. So, higher arrangement.
So, the 12th verse talks about cosmological arrangement, 13th verse talks about the terrestrial arrangement, 14th verse talks about the physiological arrangement and 15th verse talks about the spiritual arrangement. So, cosmological refers to the universe, terrestrial refers to the earth and physical refers to the body. So, we can see this Atma is encased in various coverings.
So, the Atma is at a broad level, we are in the material world. That is our broad material, that is the broad material covering around us. Then within the material world, we are on a particular planet, we are on the earth.
So, that is referring to the terrestrial. So, there also, in this particular enclosure also, we need some facilities for living. And within that, we are living in this body.
The body also needs to be maintained. So, let us look at how Krishna arranges for our maintenance at the material level by looking at some examples. So, 15.12, So, Adityagatam is the sunshine.
So, Aditya is sun, Adityagatam is sunshine. So, the splendour of the sunshine. So, the whole universe gets illumined by Jagadbha, by the sun.
And then, the moon and the fire. That tej comes from me. Viddhimamakam, that effulgence comes from me.
What this means is, So, now Krishna has used these three, same three, the sun, the moon and the fire, earlier in 15.6. So, here, the same three objects are used. All the names are different. There was Surya, here it was Aditya.
There it was Sushanka, here it is Chandra. And there it was Pavaka, here it is Agni. But the objects referred to are the same.
So, the point is, what Krishna is saying, that in the spiritual world, these are not required. Because in the spiritual world, everything is self-luminous. But that is not the case in the material world.
In the material world, the reality is not self-luminous. So, we need sources of illumination. So, things are not self-luminous.
So, these are the three representative sources of illumination. And actually, they are not just sources of illumination, they are also sources of, sun, if we consider, is also a source of nutrition. So, the nutrition also takes place by the arrangement of the sun.
Sun gives energy, by which photosynthesis happens and then we get food. But even if you consider illumination, still at a universal level, without the energy coming from the sun, nothing would have been possible. So, now Krishna is saying that, the important point is, that their effulgence comes from Me.
Now, what do we mean by this point, that their effulgence comes from Me? So, is it that, you know, the sun is having its effulgence and the sun has some other source from which the effulgence comes? Now, this may seem to be disproved by modern science. Modern science will say that there is a particular process. Of course, that process sometimes, there is some unexplanation of the process.
But there are sometimes alternative explanations also given. There is debate. But whatever, scientists will say that there is some mechanical process, by which the sun is giving light.
So, where does God come into the picture? See, the understanding is that the mechanical process is a partial explanation. What started the mechanical process? What sustains the mechanical process? That is the arrangement of God. So, tat tejo viddhi ma makam means that this illumination is made by my arrangement.
We may study the arrangement. Studying the arrangement can be helpful. But beyond the arrangement is the arranger.
We may study the design, but beyond the design is the designer. So, tat tejo viddhi ma makam. Krishna is saying that it is I who make all these arrangements, by which illumination is possible and existence becomes possible.
So, this is Krishna’s arrangement at the cosmological level. Sri Krishna Prabhupada explains the purport. He begins by saying, the unintelligent cannot understand how things are taking place.
The unintelligent. So, this unintelligent refers to vimudha. Vimudha nanupashyanti.
The unintelligent cannot understand how things are happening. So, that means they just say, the sun is there. It is there.
Sun gives light. Very good. Enjoy the light.
But yes, that is how the animals live. And when the sun comes, the birds start chirping and the animals may start, if they are not nocturnal animals, the animals wake up and then they start moving around. So, that is what the animals do.
Animals don’t think about why. They just think, okay, things are there. Yes, season has come.
Enjoy now. Season has gone. Now, what should we do? So, they don’t really think about why things are.
So, animals can only think about how. Okay, how can I get food? How can I get a mate? How can I get shelter? They cannot think about much beyond that. We human beings, however, can think not only about the how questions but the why questions.
So, science largely focusses on answering the how question. The how question means, okay, what is the mechanism by which the sun gives light? That is fine. There may be some mechanism and investigating that mechanism can give us some understanding.
But why? Why does the sun exist at all? Why does sun give light? Now, if we look at the, even if we consider from the perspective of modern cosmology, then the sun is at a particular distance from the earth. So, even if we assume that life requires the kind of conditions that modern science considers necessary, that means oxygen and water and a particular temperature range. So, then we find that actually, according to modern science itself, if the earth would have been slightly closer to the sun, if the earth would have been, say, in the position of Venus, instead of its own position.
So, we have, the earth is a according to modern cosmology. So, then if it had been in second position, then what would have happened is the earth would have become too hot for life as we know it to exist. And the earth had been in a position slightly away from the sun, that is the position of Mars.
Then it would have been too cold. And again, life would have been difficult. So, either way, the point is that now the Vedic culture says that life exists everywhere and life can exist in all possible conditions, in different possible conditions, because the Atma is not affected by any material condition.
Atma is Sarvagata, it is not destroyed by anything material. So, in principle that is correct. But now when we are looking at things, this Jnana Chakshu, we are trying to look from the point of view of people who are at the material level of consciousness, how they can begin to appreciate God.
So, in the initial stage of scientific research, when scientists studied the universe, actually, if you look at all the pioneer scientists, Newton, Galileo, and that is right at the start of scientific revolution. But throughout the centuries, when the leading scientists, they were all believers in God, maybe consider Kelvin or Pasteur or any of the other scientists of the later centuries or 19th century also, almost all of them believed in God. And the reason for their belief was not just religious.
You know, religion at that time was taking a beating, Christianity was taking a beating, but still there are many scientists who continue to believe, not just because of their religious predispositions, but also because of their scientific conclusions that they felt that by the study of science, they had uncovered such a majestic order, majestic harmony, majestic intricacy that this reflects superhuman mind, supreme intelligence. So, it is only later that after Darwin’s theory of evolution and subsequent ideas, that scientists became overconfident, they felt that there is no need for God and they rejected God. So, we discussed earlier about how there is theism, there is deism and there is atheism.
So, theism is the understanding that God is the creator and the controller. Deism is the idea that God is the creator but not the controller. And atheism is the idea that God is neither the nor the controller.
So, that God does not exist only. So, science itself can at the very least help us to move towards deism, that God is the creator, things cannot have started on their own. But if we let science move forward, then science not only reveals a deistic conception but also a theistic conception.
So, theism is the idea that God is not just the creator but also the controller. So, that we will see in 15.15 when we come to it. See, deism is the idea that the universe is like a clock.
Now, a clock surely requires a maker. But after the clock is made, now the clock has been given to people. A clock has been handed over to the customer and now the creator of the clock does not have any control.
The clock is made by mechanism and the clock runs according to mechanism. So, that is the idea of many scientists. The universe is like a clock and it functions according to its own rules.
So, the mechanisms have been set up and it functions according to the mechanisms. That is true. That is the very normal way things function.
And scientists do not deny that. Even theistic scientists do not deny that, that there are mechanisms. But where do the mechanisms come from? The mechanisms are set up by the Supreme Lord and they are set up by the Supreme Lord and by under His supervision, by His guidance, things work.
Maya adhyakshena prakriti. So, the word adhyakshata indicates that Krishna is overseeing. He is not directly involved.
He does not touch material nature but He oversees. But His sight alone is enough for the actions of material nature to take place. Maya adhyakshena.
So, when we look at the majesty of material nature, we understand that this is all by Krishna’s arrangement. So, from the point of view of Bhagavad Gita, here Krishna is revealing. So, this was one example.
But from this example, we can understand the underlying point that Krishna is saying. That even if somebody is at the material level of consciousness, still at the material level of consciousness also for existence and enjoyment, there are so many background arrangements needed. And those background arrangements do not come by chance.
They come by divine plan. And through that recognition of the divine plan, one can appreciate the arrangement of the Supreme Lord. So, Prabhupada explains that so, without His mercy, there cannot be sun, there cannot be moon, there cannot be fire.
And without the help of sun, moon and fire, no one can live. These are some thoughts to provoke Krishna consciousness in the conditioned soul. So, this is an interesting word, provoke.
Provoke, we generally use the word provoke in terms of negative, provocative, you know, provocative sights, provocative sense objects. So, the idea of provoke is, there is a forceful shaking up. So, if you contemplate seriously, a person gets forcefully shaken up.
That is why I think it is Pascal, I have written about this in my book Science and Spirituality. Pascal, I think, who said that, a little of science takes a man away from God, but immersion in science brings a person back to God. So, a little of science gives a person infatuation, intoxication.
Yes, I know everything, I do not need God. We can explain everything without God. But when one goes deep into science, one starts understanding, oh, actually God is required, God is essential.
So, that is how things move forward. Now, so when we contemplate on the nature of the universe seriously, it provokes Krishna consciousness. It forces us to become, recognise the hand of God and become conscious of Him.
So, after the cosmological, now let us look at the terrestrial arrangement. So, Somo bhūtvāra-sātma-kahaṁ gāmāviśya. So, gām is the planets, āviśya, entering into them.
So, living in it is also dhārayāmi ahaṁ ojasāṁ. Dhārayāmi is to maintain ahaṁ ojasāṁ. Ojasā is by my energy.
The word ojas generally refers to energy. So, Krishna says, I am sustaining all the planets along with other living entities by my energy. How? āviśya, by entering into them.
And further he says, puṣṇāmi ca uṣadhi sarva. So, puṣṇāmi, it is, I am nourishing the auṣadhi, auṣadhi. The word auṣadhi often we use in conversational sense to refer to medicine, but it also in general refers to vegetables and plants and herbs.
So, they are also medicines and medicinal components. So, puṣṇāmi ca uṣadhi sarva. So, actually, I nourish all the plants and vegetables.
How? The vegetables especially. Somo bhūtvāra-sātma-kahaṁ. As the moon, I provide the rasātma-kahaṁ.
I provide the juice that nourishes the vegetables. Rasātma-kahaṁ. So, here what is happening? Krishna is illustrating a principle again.
What is the principle? That He provides arrangement. So, now, we may say that why the planets are sustained in their particular orbits? It is because of gravity. So, when Krishna is saying, it is I who sustain.
So, what does it mean? I who sustain. So, how do we understand this? Actually, ultimately, gravity is also acting by the will of Krishna. All the rules of material nature, the laws of material nature, they are all acting by the will of Krishna.
So, it is Krishna who has made the arrangement for the force of gravity. And, you know, even scientists admit that often, what they call as explanations are often descriptions. They are not really explanations.
What does it mean? What is the difference between a description and explanation? Description simply means that, okay, something is there and we describe. This is how it is, this is how it is, this is how it is. Explanation means we give causes.
So, now, if we ask what is gravity? Gravity is, say, I mean, a non-technical, generic definition. Gravity is the force that keeps the planets in their orbits. And then, okay, and what keeps the planets in their orbits? Gravity.
And what is happening over here? What is gravity? The force that keeps planets in their orbit. And what keeps planets in their orbit? That is gravity. So, this is circular.
So, where is the explanation over here? So, actually, just naming a pre-existing phenomena, is it really an explanation of that phenomena? And if you say, no, we have got an equation for it. Yes, the equation is fine. But even Newton himself admitted that actually, one of the peers of Newton was Leibniz.
And Leibniz said that, you know, this whole idea of gravity smacks of occultism. Occultism is said to be unscientific. You know, whole idea of spirits and energies going through space.
He says, what is the medium through which the whole force of gravity is coming from another planet to this planet? And how is it connected? And he said, what is the explanation for this? So, Newton frankly admitted, he said, I am not talking about ontology here. I am not talking about nature of existence. What is the source of this force? I am simply giving mathematical formulation for an observed phenomena.
So, we see that planets move in particular orbits and I am giving a mathematical equation by which we can explain those motions. So, to whatever length it goes, it is useful. But the point is again, that here we are not going to cause this.
Now, of course, Einstein later on came up with the idea of space time. And therein he said that gravity is a character of space time. I do not want to go into science too much.
We are studying Bhagavad Gita here. But the point is that that is also a piling of concepts. First, to explain observed phenomena, we posited an invisible concept called gravity.
And then after that, as a part of explanation for gravity, we posited another concept called space time. So, we are just piling up concepts. So, what exactly is being explained? What is at the bottom of the chain of inference, which is solidly rooted, there is nothing.
So, that is why there is a serious issue over here, a serious problem here. Now, when we move forward and recognise that ultimately, Sri Prabhupada would give the example that if a person is observing, normally when we see light, when we are moving along in an area where there is light, light, light, and suddenly light goes, stops, we wonder what happened? Has the power got switched off? Or we look at it, okay, maybe there is power over there, but the power is reaching, the light doesn’t come over here. So, what happens is, we understand that darkness is the absence of light.
On the other hand, if a person has always lived in light, after living in light for a long time, the person suddenly comes out, and then the person comes out and starts looking. Okay, where is this, when suddenly the person sees light and the person asks, oh, how has darkness produced light? Actually, from that person’s limited experience, the question seems to be natural and valid. Okay, I was in darkness, suddenly I am seeing light.
So, darkness was what I had experienced. So, from darkness, light has come. So, how did it come about? But the person has got the question all wrong.
Actually, the question is not how darkness produces light, because darkness never produces light, rather, darkness is nothing but the absence of light. Similarly, to try to explain how matter and material, at the material level, everything can be explained, including the intricacy of all the arrangements without considering any ultimate cause, that is a invalid understanding, an incorrect understanding. So, we got all the questions wrong.
So, consciousness comes first and consciousness arranges matter. It is not that matter produces consciousness. That is what Krishna is pointing towards in this verse when he says that, actually, it is I who sustain the planet.
So, there may be some material mechanism, but it is Krishna’s presence within everything that sustains it. So, dhārāyāmi hamo jasa. Dhārāyāmi.
So, Prabhupāda explains that by His strength and energy, all moving and non-moving things stay in their place. It is said in the Vedic hymns that because of Supreme Personality of Godhead, the sun is shining and planets are steadily moving. So, it is by His arrangement that all these things are happening.
So, were it not for Him, all the planets would scatter like dust in air and perish. They will perish. So, Prabhupāda gives the example also of a person who is of the soul.
The soul gives life to the body. Matter is heavy, but the presence of soul makes matter light. And then the person moves around.
So, when the soul dies, one soul by its presence can make the body run around, dance and skimp and play. But when the soul dies, then what happens? The body is so heavy that one person finds it impossible to lift. Actually, often when there is a procession to be taken to crematorium, when the four people are not enough, their shoulder starts paining and they keep changing.
Maybe you take, you take, you carry, you carry. So, why is it like that? Because actually it is so tiny. The soul is so tiny, but it is so powerful.
The soul brings its energy and the body is active. So, similarly, Prabhupāda writes that actually it is Supreme Lord because of whom everything is floating. So, when a person is alive, the person can swim along.
After that person dies, the soul departs, the person drowns. So, the same way, this is what happens with respect to the soul also. With respect to the general material universe also, it is by the presence of the Lord that everything is sustained.
Now, what about this point about puṣṇāmi ca uṣadhī sarva somo bhūtvā rasātmakaḥ that I nourish the moon. And according to modern science, photosynthesis is what brings about the transformation by which we can get edible food through the plant world. That is true.
But Krishna is not talking about that. Krishna is talking specifically about puṣṇāmi. He says rasātmakaḥ.
He says I nourish in what sense? Rasātmakaḥ, the juice. The juice comes because of my arrangement and it happens through the moon. So, now, we have to know that scientific research is never complete and science is ever evolving.
So, the ideas of science that are considered today to be bedrock truths may be rejected tomorrow as outdated ideas. So, there is no need to, the history of time and history of ideas has shown that no man-made idea has survived the test of time. All man-made ideas which were considered infallible at one time are eventually shown to be fallible.
So, we shouldn’t put too much faith in doubt. What does it mean to put faith in doubt? That means science may come up with particular explanations, material mechanisms for explaining certain phenomena and that may be true in a limited extent. But we don’t have to put undue amount of faith in that because it’s ultimately, it’s one conception.
If you look at the history of science, there have been so many different theories which have come up. Some of them have lasted for some time, some have lasted for more, but ultimately, all these explanations are incomplete. They may be correct in a limited perspective, but they are not correct in the ultimate perspective.
So, that’s why, what we understand is that if the Lord Himself is saying that He is providing nourishment through the moon, then there is some mechanism which we don’t know about. Now, there are some researchers who say that, there are some studies, some research has been done that when the vegetation is growing, say when the crops are growing, if at that time the overhead is cloudy and the moon is not there in the sky at night, then the rate of plant crop vegetation, vegetable growth is less and when there is a moon shining at night, the growth is more. So, this sort of empirical research is ultimately indecisive.
It may come to the right conclusion or it may go to wrong conclusion. That’s why we don’t focus on empirical research. We focus on shabda and to the extent empirical research can help us in understanding shabda, we use it.
But otherwise, we don’t focus on it. So, now after describing this, how Krishna is making arrangement at the terrestrial level, now we look at how Krishna is making arrangement at the physiological level. So, here Krishna is now moving on to physiological arrangement that he makes.
So, 12th was cosmological, that he is providing the sun and energy and light that comes from it. Then 13th was terrestrial, how he is sustaining the earth. And now it is physiological, how he is sustaining the body.
So, Vaishwanar is the devta who presides over digestion. It is I who become bhutva, means I become Vaishwanar. That means, it is not that there is a complete oneness between Krishna and Vaishwanar.
But just like in the Vibhuti yoga chapter, some kind of correlation is described. There, of course, the correlation is more in terms of, as we discussed, the one among the many, the one above the many. Here, the correlation is more in terms of, it is the Vaishwanar gets power to digest and make all the arrangements by the grace of the Lord.
Yes, the sun gets power to give light by the arrangement of the Lord. So, am Vaishwanaro bhutva praninam deham ashritaha praninam. So, actually this applies not just to human beings, it applies to all living beings.
Praninam, the word prani refers to all living entities. Deham ashritaha. So, the living entities are, as 15.7 has said, mamaivamsho.
They are parts of Krishna. They are meant to live in shelter of Krishna. But instead, now they have taken shelter of the body.
Deham ashritaha. And having taken shelter of the body, they are trying to enjoy at the bodily level. But when they are trying to enjoy at the bodily level, they themselves can’t maintain the body by their independent effort.
No, we are living in a body, we think not only that this is my body, but we think I am the body. But actually speaking, we can’t maintain the body ourselves. Pranapanasamayuktaha.
Digestion, how does it take place? Now, there may be certain chemicals involved. And the chemicals also play a role. But pranapanasamayuktaha.
That actually by the moment of prana and apaan, the modern science talks about peristalsis and how the food that we swallow, chew and swallow, that goes down because of the diaphragm, the motions that happen in the alimentary canal. That is true. Now, how do those motions happen? The Vedic, the Gita worldview explains, the Vedic worldview from which Gita is, on which Gita is based.
It explains that actually this happens by the movement of the airs in the body. Pranapanasamayuktaha. So, this is when a person is unable to excrete, when a person gets constipation, that is because there is not adequate air to excrete the waste matter from the body.
So, the prana, the airs are, the various airs are very important in all the functions of the body. And they play a vital role even in digestion also. Pranapanasamayuktaha.
So, by keeping in balance the up, the down going air and the up, and the outgoing air. So, pranapanasamayuktaha. Pachamnyannam.
I digest the food. What, which are the foods? Chaturvidham. So, the four different kinds of food.
We talk about these four different kinds of food even in our Mangal Aarti that the spiritual master prepares, the four different kinds of food and offers to Krishna and then distributes it to everyone. So, that is the Chaturvidham, four kinds of foods. That is the chewed, swallowed, sucked and eaten.
Like that. So, now when we talk about these four kinds of food, drunk also. So, now when we talk about these four kinds of foods, the important point to recognise is that we can eat the food, but after that we do not know what happens.
We cannot digest the food ourselves. Who digests the food? Actually, it just happens as far as we know it. We put the food inside and then it gets digested.
The only time when we think about our digestive system is when it doesn’t work. That is the time when we think about, oh, it’s not working. Why is it not working? So, it’s a blessing when it works, but we don’t think about it.
As it is said, God gives and forgives. We get and forget. So, therefore, if we contemplate seriously, we’ll recognise that the body’s functioning is not in our hands.
We may provide food for the body. That is a part of our duty to maintain the body also. But then even that alone, even no matter how competently we do it, that alone is not enough for the functioning of the body.
After we digest the food also, after we eat the food, it has to be digested. And how does digestion happen? It happens by the arrangement of Krishna through Vishwanath. Some people may say, oh, I don’t believe in all this idea of some devta supervising digestion.
But if we think about it seriously, even scientifically, we’ll understand that digestion is a very complex process. It doesn’t work very easily. Why is the process of digestion complex? Because digestion requires us to digest food.
It involves many, many complex reactions, which transform the food into usable energy. So, nowadays, it is the age of transplantation and usage of artificial organs and limbs. So, people, when their hand is damaged or amputated, then they use artificial hand.
So, like that, they may use different artificial limbs. So, some researchers have been trying that can we make artificial digestive system that when the person can’t digest food, then we just put a digestive machine inside. But they found that if we try to replicate, try to use a machine to digest the food, the process is so complex that a machine won’t suffice.
Actually, we’ll need a factory and not just a factory, a chain of factories that may extend over several miles at times. It’s a complex process. So, who does that actually? Who does that? All those complex reactions.
No one knows who does it. We just assume that it happens. So, like that, not just digestion in the alimentary canal, but all the bodily functions, very few of them are under our control.
There are voluntary bodily functions like say, I raise my hand, now I speak. These are to some extent in my control. But there are involuntary bodily functions like blood circulation, respiration, the digestion of food.
These are vital for the functioning and even the survival of the body. But we don’t do them. It is Krishna who does them.
Researchers have found out that if we, you know, when a person is sick and is about to die, at that time, sometimes artificial ventilation is used. So, breathing can be sustained artificially. So, some of the functionalities in the body can be artificially, externally sustained.
But actually, this is very expensive. And to keep a person artificially alive for even a day costs thousands and thousands of rupees. I mean, more also.
And if it has to be done for several days, it costs even much, much more. So, now when we have to spend so much, we first of all, we can’t do those functions ourselves. We have to use external machines to do them.
And when we do them using the external machines also, still it costs so much. So, who is it, which is doing it normally, is to dismiss it away by saying it all happens by chance or by nature. It is no explanation.
Yes, it is not by chance. It is so well designed. And it is not by nature alone, because nature is not, nature is not in itself intelligent.
Nature doesn’t have consciousness as purpose. So, there has to be a being with consciousness and purpose who is overseeing it. So, when we understand this, that actually Dehamashrita, we are taking shelter of the body, but the body is ultimately sheltered by Krishna only.
So, we can’t move away from the shelter of Krishna. We are always dependent on Krishna. And even when we are turning away from Krishna, we are still resting on Krishna only.
We are still dependent on Krishna for His merciful arrangements, so that we can live at the material level also properly. So, to live at the material level, to enjoy at the material level also, we need Krishna’s arrangement. You know, in the Ramayana, Ravana, when he sees Sita, before he is about to kidnap her, he is flattering her by talking about her beauty.
And he says that, you know, your beauty is so great that I think after making you, the creator must have retired, because the creator must have thought that I cannot make anyone more beautiful than you. This is perfection of my beauty. So, even Ravana recognises that I did not make this beauty.
So, but still he thinks that this beauty is meant for my enjoyment. So, even if you want to enjoy sense objects, who makes those sense objects? We don’t make them. They are actually made by the Supreme Lord.
They are made by the Supreme Lord. So, that is the important thing that we need to understand, that ultimately it is the Lord who creates everything. It is He who is the sustainer, the maintainer.
It is He who is the caretaker of the body. It is He who is the arranger of all bodily necessities in terms of internal functioning. So, by recognising this, we can develop the jnana chakshu, that Krishna is maintaining us at all times.
And even when we want, whether it is survival at the material level or it is enjoyment at the material level, ultimately we ourselves cannot do either. We cannot even survive and nor can we ourselves create the sense objects for enjoyment. So, in this way, even if we cannot perceive the atma tattva, even if we are conscious in that material level, at the material level we can see the benedictory nature of the Lord.
We can see His arrangements and thereby learn to develop appreciation for Him. Learn to start appreciating and connecting with the spiritual reality, with the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna, who is maintaining the material reality, so that we can live and do our material things in this world. And this is the first step in developing jnana chakshu.
And then Krishna does not just arrange for our material life, but He also, His primary purpose is to elevate us to spiritual level of consciousness. And that is what He talks about in the next verse, which we will discuss in