Gita 05.16 – Knowledge illumines our inner territory and reveals the indwelling Lord

5Th chapter, 16th verse, by Gyan, by knowledge, that ignorance, ignorance has been referred to the previous verse, we will come to that. By knowledge, that ignorance is, that knowledge is destroyed, by knowledge, that ignorance is destroyed, whose ignorance, Atmanah, of the soul, and that knowledge is Aditya, Aditya is the sun, that knowledge is like the sun, Aditya Vajyanam, knowledge is like the sun, which illumines like the sun, Prakashyati Tatparam, Prakashyati, it illumines, Tatparam, that transcendental reality, that truth. So essentially Krishna is talking here about how knowledge illumines us, and it illumines like the sun, and destroys darkness, Tatparam, that spiritual truth, and Krishna will elaborate on that Tat, in the next verse, how he says that we should fix, Tatbuddhaya, Tataatmanas, invest our consciousness in that absolute truth, so here the transformational role of knowledge in the seeker's life is stressed, a famous Vedic aphorism says, Tamasoma Jyotirgama, go from darkness to light, so this refers not just, not really in a physical terms of going from a dark place to a place of light, but it refers to a, to moving our consciousness internally from the state of ignorance, which creates a situation like darkness inside us to the situation of knowledge, to the state of knowledge, which creates light around us, this tells when we are externally in dark, we don't know where we should go, where is a wall, where is a ditch, where is a trap, where is the way, we can't figure out anything when the things are dark around us, similarly, when our inner world is filled with ignorance, then we don't know which desires of ours to choose and which desires to reject, what to do and what to not do, we can't perceive when there is darkness in the inner territory of our consciousness, suppose there is a war and on the war field there is darkness, now both soldiers, both the two armies are facing each other and fighting, in the darkness the soldiers can't make out whether the person coming near me is an ally or is an enemy and thinking that someone is an ally, I may embrace someone and that person may put a knife in my belly, so to prevent that from happening, we need light, so in general to avoid this kind of mistakes and betrayals in ethical, when war was fought according to war codes, in the past the warriors would stop fighting in the night, soldiers would stop fighting, that's what happened in the Mahabharata war, most of the days and that's what made Ashwatthama's killing Pandava's children and others when they were asleep in the darkness of the night, so reprehensible, so anyway the point is that just as we might mistake enemies to be friends in the dark, similarly when our consciousness is pervaded by the darkness of ignorance, then we mistake inimical desires to be amicable desires, we mistake the desires that are going to hurt us to be the desires that will help us, the desire that will cause us misery, we think that those are the desires that will bring us happiness, so we embrace our enemies unwittingly, so the soul under the influence of ignorance thinks that manipulating and controlling matter will lead to happiness and with this conception the soul strives to control matter more and more according to one's pet schemes and in that process even if the soul succeeds in controlling matter for some time, the very intention of control makes the soul attached to matter and thereby controlled by matter, so our real happiness and our real life are separate from matter in loving reciprocation with Krishna at the spiritual level and the desire to love and serve Krishna or even if we don't know about Krishna as is the stage here in the Bhagavad Gita's flow, even that understanding that I am a soul and liberation is possible for me with lasting happens at the spiritual level, so the desire for realizing spiritual reality that desire is a benevolent desire, is a good desire, is a friendly desire where the desire to manipulate and enjoy matter is a dangerous desire, but under the influence of ignorance and the darkness it causes within us, we mistake the desire that cause bondage and misery with to be the desires that will give freedom and happiness and in this way the soul becomes bound, so the previous verses, अज्ञानेनाऽवृतम् ज्ञानम् तेनमोहियंति जन्तबहा it is because of Ajnana, it is because of ignorance that the soul becomes bound and the soul acts in illusion, the ignorance of Ajnana causes Mohiyanthi, ignorance causes illusion and then under illusion the soul acts and the soul becomes bound, so now Krishna is saying that when we acquire spiritual knowledge then our inner terrain becomes illumined as if a sun has risen over there and just as when the sun rises, light and brightness everywhere and there is clear vision, similarly we can see clearly that these desires are my enemies, these are my friends, so we see how acting without selfish intent is the pathway to liberation and acting for self-centered bodily enjoyment is the pathway to bondage and beyond that तत्परम् we see the spiritual truth, so this verse marks a transition of the yogi from आत्मज्ञान to परमात्मज्ञान, so by the acquisition of knowledge, by consistently practicing Karma Yoga, the yogi eventually comes to the level of तत्परम् तकाशेति तत्परम् starts perceiving the spiritual truth, the absolute truth that is ultimately Krishna and when we come to know Krishna then there is liberation, so till now the yogi's focus has been on purifying oneself, on realizing that I am the soul, on meditating that I am the soul and I shouldn't be bound in material existence but this तत्परम् तकाशेति तत्परम् this verse marks a transition where the yogi starts focusing hereafter, after having seen the spiritual truth, that absolute truth, the super soul in the heart, the yogi focuses on that, that will mention तत्पुद्धे सदात्मानस and by this focus, लच्छन्त्य अपनरावृत्ति, one moves straight on the path to liberation, so knowledge illumines our inner territory, shows us, helps us identify who are our friends and who are our enemies correctly and reveals the absolute truth by meditating on whom we attain liberation, this is the glorious knowledge that awaits spiritual seekers and as we move forward in the Bhagavad Gita the highest such knowledge, it will be explained that the highest such knowledge is the knowledge of Krishna and such knowledge is most easily acquired through Bhakti Yoga and that will be revealed in the later parts of the Bhagavad Gita but here suffice it to say that here Krishna talks about how by acting with detachment as was mentioned in सर्वकर्माणि मनसा सन्यस्यास्ते सुखंवशी that by renouncing work mentally and acting with detachment one progresses, attains knowledge and that knowledge which enables us to pursue the super soul becomes the pathway to liberation.