Gita 07.09 – Krishna underlies diverse manifestations as earth, fire, life and ascetic
Thank you Bhagavad Gita 7.9 Punyo Gandha Prithir Vyamcha Tejas Prapaschasmi Vibhavasam Jeevanam Sarva Bhuteshu Prapaschasmi Tapasvishum Krishna is continuing the description of how he is the essence of everything Punyo Gandha Prithir Vyamcha Prithir Vyam Prithir Vyam refers to the earth Gandha is fragrance, scent smell aroma Krishna says I am the fragrance of ether Punya, auspicious what this means is again in the Sankhya analysis each element is associated with a particular sense object so the earth is associated therein with fragrance it is the earth that gives fragrance to all elements now we can ourselves sometimes smell the fragrance of earth especially after the first rains come then when the rains contact when the rain falls on the earth rain water percolates into the earth then even the mud becomes auspiciously fragrant apart from that we may put a rose under the ground and we pour water on it now both the rose and the water have no fragrance we may put a rose seed so the rose seed and the water both have no fragrance but from them a rose comes out and that is enticingly enchantingly captivatingly fragrant so the earth is the source of earth is so the earth's essence is the fragrance and that essence Krishna says I am the fragrance so Teja Teja is the effulgence vibhava so of fire Krishna says I am the burning potency of fire when the dharma of various objects is talked about in the sense of dharma referring to the essential nature of things at that time the dharma of fire is said to be to burn Yugoslavia also uses example to talk about defining characteristic in the sandarbhas so fire burns so fire's defining characteristic is to burn so so the essential quality of fire is to burn and Krishna says that that particular element has this essential quality because of me so the issue the essence of living beings is life and that is conveyed in the word itself living beings they would not be called as living beings if there were no life in it there is being and there is living being that is essential just being means existing but existing and having life that is living being and that is that is what defines the living beings jeevanam sarvabhuteshu that means Krishna is saying that he is the life of all that lives he is the he he is the he is the source of life he is the sustainer of life how from the union of a sperm and an embryo, a zygote a zygote, an embryo and ultimately a baby is formed it's a great miracle and that miracle is an arrangement of divine design so the moment of transition from birth to death when life goes out that is also a great medical mystery although it can be associated with certain biochemical malfunctioning or imbalance in the body but it is not reducible only to that so there is Krishna says that it is he who gives the soul a particular body, that means he sends the soul into the body and it is he who by his will decides the soul should leave that body and the soul leaves that body and the bhuteshu the living being no longer has jeevanam and then tapasya asmi tapasvishu Krishna says that I am the tapa I am the austerity of the austere tapasvishu now this might seem somewhat tautological that tapa and tapasvishu same thing being talked about no tapasvis are also human beings they may also have various other attributes some tapasvis may be more intellectual some tapasvis may be less intellectual some tapasvis may be expert in fire sacrifice ritual also some tapasvis may not be so expert but what defines tapasvis is their capacity for tapasya that's why they are called tapasvis so their essence is their capacity for tapasya and Krishna says over here that I am that essence tapasya asmi tapasvishu now and this verse Krishna has given further examples in this 8th verse he has given 5 examples of how he is the essence of everything and now he has given 4 examples punyo gandha pritibhyam cha so the fragrance of the earth tejas cha smivabhavasau the effulgence the burning capacity of fire the life of living beings jivanam sarvabhuteshu tapasya asmi tapasvishu and the capacity for doing austerity the austerity of the ascetics so if you look at these elements now Krishna is very quite precise always giving a broad overview there is a difference between say fire and light fire gives light but fire is also a burning capacity so when he is talking about light he said that I am the prabhasmi chasmi suryayo that he talked about in 7.8b and now in 7.9b he talks about tejas cha smivabhavasau so he is the light of the sun and the moon and he is the heating burning capacity of fire so in that way there is subtle but significant differentiation and these two different manifestations have their different defining qualities sun also is a huge burning capacity far greater than what any fire that we may have in this world but then the sun is so far away for us that for us its defining quality we don't experience its burning capacity directly yes sometimes we go in the midnight heat in the midday heat and we stand under the sun we will feel scorched and burned but much more frequently than that we experience the sun's illuminating capacity when the morning sun comes sun rises then we see oh the whole room has become lit so like that sun's greater defining quality is light whereas fire's quality is heat and burning so krishna is giving a broad spectrum over here associated with various fields of life, various mentalities so jivanam sarvabhuteshu is almost universal its saying that sarvabhuteshu not just madbhakteshu nor does he say that only manaveshu sarvabhuteshu wherever there is life it is krishna who is manifesting as that life that means it is by krishna's arrangement that the soul which is a part of krishna is manifesting in that body and is manifesting its activities through that body and to the extent we learn to see how krishna is the essence of everything to that extent we will all become more easily more naturally and more deeply krishna conscious easily because we will observe various substances and we will look for their essence and as a part of their essence we will think of krishna more naturally naturally means when we live at the material level of existence suddenly for us to withdraw our consciousness and think of spiritual truths of the past life of krishna which we have read or heard it is not always very easy but with the external world our senses are always interacting and if we can perceive their essence and then remember krishna then it will be much more natural and fruitfully meaningfully, fruitfully, deeply because we may hear krishna's past times sometimes just for titillation some entertainment and then when the newness of those past times and the humor goes away we may think what is there to hear in these past times but when we hear when we understand how krishna pervades material existence then we understand the glory of krishna much more deeply and then our appreciation of krishna becomes deeper and our meditation on him also becomes deeper thank you.