Gita 05.17 – Spiritualize all the channels of consciousness to gain liberating knowledge

Thank you. Intelligence fixed in that absolute truth, the Atmanas with the mind fixed in the absolute truth, the Nishthas with the faith invested in the absolute truth, तत्परायणः, with oneself devoted to that absolute truth, गच्छन्ति, one will go along the path, अपुनरावृतिम्, the path from which there is no return, ज्ञान निर्धूत कल्मशह, having become purified, by knowledge of all impurities. So now, this is a section talking about knowledge, previous was stated about how we can all acquire knowledge by the process of, that rather when we acquire knowledge we become illumined, the way the sun is illumined, the sun illumines everything, similarly the person becomes illumined when that person has knowledge, now this verse talks about how knowledge can be acquired, what is the process for acquiring knowledge, that knowledge illumines everything, which purifies, so here this ज्ञान निर्धूत कल्मशह, the impurities are washed away, are cleansed away, निर्धूत, by knowledge, this feature of knowledge, of purifying or cleansing, has already been referred in the Bhagavad Gita several times, for example in 4.10 it was stated, बहवो ज्ञान तपसा, many have by the austerity of knowledge, बूता मधभावमागतः, have become purified by the austerity of knowledge, then also it was stated in 4.38, नहीं ज्ञाने ने सद्रुष्यं, पवित्रमिहविद्यते, that there is nothing in this world as pure as knowledge, so the same thing is continued here, ज्ञान निर्धूत कल्मशह, that by knowledge, all the impurities will be removed, and when the impurities are removed, then what happens? पच्छन्ति अपुनरावृत्तें, पच्छन्ति अपुनरावृत्तें, one moves along the path from which there is no return, that means we are talking about eternal attainment, as contrasted with the temporary attainment, so what ensures the eternal attainment is, investing four things in तद, that absolute truth, now what is that तद, that is not yet clearly defined at this stage in the Bhagavad Gita, but the focus is quite clear, the focus is on some higher reality, the focus is clear when the word तद is used, focus is not on oneself, some truth beyond oneself, and that truth is the truth where the Bhagavad Gita recommends तद, what do we do, तद बुद्ध, yes, we offer our intelligence there, बुद्ध स्थदात्मानस् तन्निष्टास् तद परायनः, तद तद, four times the word तद comes, and each time it is connected with another aspect of the personality, so, of the human being, personality means human being, so बुद्धी, आत्मानिष्टा, परायनः, these are all different aspects of a person, now, sometimes, there is a conflict between emotion and reason, but here, Bhagavad Gita is urging us to invest both emotion and reason in Krishna, because it states that तद बुद्ध स्थदात्मानस्, so, दी is the faculty of reason, and आत्मानस्, the mind, is the faculty of emotion, both are to be invested in the absolute truth, now, we could say that our consciousness is a stream that moves from us towards the object of which we are conscious, but when this stream moves, how does it move? Actually, it moves by, slow and along various channels, so, sometimes when we are intellectually attracted to something, the intelligence is the channel along which the consciousness primarily moves, or, sometimes we are very caught by the mind, and the mind is the channel along which the consciousness moves, now, what I mean by this is, we are not talking in terms of discrete channels, which exist inside the consciousness, something like that, rather, these are all pathways to which each of these components are oriented, so, emotional people are, say, inclined towards the flight of emotions, whereas, rational people are more inclined towards the movement of reason, now, the consciousness can move along the flight of emotions, or it can move along the ascent of reason, whichever way it moves, the point is that these are all channels along which the consciousness can move, similarly, beyond our reasoning faculty and beyond our emotional faculty, there is something fundamental, which is our faith, so, our faith can also move in different directions, and wherever our faith moves, that's where our consciousness will also move, and we make certain things the goals of our life, to which we devote ourselves, so, that's also something which we tend to be very readily conscious of, so, here it is stated that these four faculties, we invest in Krishna, ultimately, that is not mentioned what it is, but it will be later revealed that that is Krishna, so, it is for us, we see, it will come soon, 7.7 in the Gita, so, here, so, essentially, the various directions in which our consciousness may move, or various channels, or various trajectories in the inner territory, along which the consciousness may move, are all the source and joints to be directed towards Krishna, to be invested in Krishna, in this way, when we invest our consciousness in the absolute, and the absolute reciprocates by granting knowledge, so, there is a true and true reciprocation, so, when we invest our consciousness by investing our emotions, our intelligence, our heart, our faith in our heart, that is heart, we can call the whole, all those when we invest in Krishna, then by that we attain the knowledge that purifies us, and propels us on the path of no return, on the path towards eternal liberation.