Gita 09.11 – To claim the impersonal to be Krishna’s param bhava is contextually and grammatically indefensible
9.11 Avajanantimā mūḍha mānuṣīṁ tanum āśritam parambhāva-majānanto umbhūta-maheśvaram avajanantimā mūḍha mūḍha. Krishna uses the word to describe those who are foolish.
avajānanti. They not know me, rather they know me the opposite of what I am. jānanti, ajānanti, avajānanti.
jānanti is to know, ajānanti is to not know, avajānanti is to know the opposite of what is to be known. Krishna will talk later in the 18th chapter when he talks about knowledge in the three modes, he talks about sarvārthaṁ viparitāṁś ca buddhiḥ sāpārthaṁ tamasīṁ. He talks about the, rather not knowledge, intelligence in the three modes and then he says when he's talking about knowledge in the ignorance that sarvārthaṁ viparitāṁś ca.
In all the ways, the knowledge is opposite of what it should be. adharmam dharmamitīyā manyate tamasāvṛtaha sarvārthaṁ viparitāṁś ca buddhiḥ sāpārthaṁ tamasīṁ. So adharmam dharmamitīyā, he says that those who think adharma to be dharma, manyate tamasāvṛtaha.
Those who are āvṛta, covered by tamasā, they think like this. And this is just one of the things which they get wrong. In fact, they go get everything wrong.
sarvārthaṁ viparitāṁś ca sarvārthaṁ, whatever is the artha, viparitāṁ, they get the opposite artha of that. sarvārthaṁ viparitāṁś ca buddhiḥ sāpārthaṁ tamasīṁ. He says this is the buddhi that is tamasik.
That same tamasik mentality is being addressed here with respect to the conception of Krishna. So when Krishna talks specifically in 18.35, he talks about dharma, how they understand the adharma to be dharma and dharma to be adharma, that is knowledge in the mode of intelligence and ignorance. So here Krishna talks about people, mūḍha, they are foolish.
avajānanti mām They understand me to be the opposite of what I actually am. mānuṣyam tanu māśritāṁ That I have taken shelter of a material body. parambhāvam ajānanto parambhāvam, that the topmost nature, ajānanto, they do not know.
mamabhūtaṁ mahēśvaram That I am the mahēśvara, I am of all of existence or of all living beings, I am their controller, supreme controller, mahēśvara, the great controller. parambhāvam ajānanto They do not know my supreme nature. So here Krishna has used the word ajānanto, earlier he has used the word avajānanti, avajānanti mām mūḍha.
So what exactly is going on here? Is Krishna talking about those people, so they know him wrong because they don't know his higher nature. parambhāva So what is the supreme nature? That he does not have a material form, he is not a product of the illusory energy. He is himself transcendental.
So Krishna has said just in the previous verse that he is not under prakṛti, prakṛti is under him. So the impersonalist notion that Krishna is the product of, is the absolute Brahman who is contaminated by material nature or who is in contact with material nature, that is not at all defensible when we look at it from the context of the Gita. It is Krishna as a personal manifestation, in his personal manifestation who is speaking this, he is clearly using the first person pronoun mām, avajānanti mām mūḍha.
And not only, so mūḍhas misunderstand me and parambhāva-majānanto-bhūta-maheśvaram, they don't understand my parambhāva, my superior nature or my supreme nature. So what is that supreme nature? There are many important words here which will give us, point us towards that. So, mānuṣyam tannu āśritam.
So, mānuṣyam tannu is a human form, āśritam, has taken shelter of. So has Krishna actually taken shelter of a human form? avajānanti mām mūḍha mānuṣyam tannu āśritam. So they think that I have taken shelter of a human form.
So Krishna has just now said that He is the shelter of prakṛti, He is the master of prakṛti, prakṛti mayādhyakṣeṇa prakṛti. So, mānuṣyam tannu, like all tannus, like the mānuṣyam tannu, are the product of prakṛti. So if Krishna is the lord of prakṛti in general, if prakṛti is sheltered in Him, indeed by taking shelter of Him, one goes beyond prakṛti as was told in 7.14, then it becomes illogical to say that actually it is Krishna who is under prakṛti, because it is Krishna who has come under prakṛti.
So here, when He is talking about mānuṣyam tannu āśritam, it is not the truth that He has taken shelter of human form. Rather, this is the avajānanti of mūḍha, the mūḍhas, they think that He has taken shelter of the human form. Rather, Krishna eternally has a human form.
And when He descends, He descends in that eternal self-same human form. Parambhāva ājānanto, did not know His parambhāva. And now some impersonalists may argue that actually Krishna's parambhāva is actually the impersonal Brahman.
So from that impersonal Brahman, Krishna has temporarily manifested. So to know His parambhāva means to know that He is the impersonal Brahman. But then mama bhūta mahēśvaram.
Krishna is saying, mama, I am bhūta mahēśvaram. I am the great controller, the supreme controller of all living beings, of all of existence. Now, mahēśvara is clearly a personal conception He is talking about.
He is the personal controller of the various personal living beings. So Krishna is talking about using a personal first-person pronoun and is using a personal describer. So to try to say that parambhāva refers here to impersonalist conceptions, that is not grammatically defensible over here.
So neither contextually nor grammatically can this verse be interpreted as saying that Krishna says that those who do not understand Him to be the Brahman, they are mūḍha. No, what Krishna is saying is, those who do not understand Him are those who think Him to be like ordinary human being. Those who think that He too has become conditioned like other living beings, when they descend, they become conditioned.
Those who think like this, they are in illusion. So Krishna is, in that sense, very clear at this point. Now, bhūta-mahēśvaram, He has earlier talked about how all living beings are His energy.
apareyam itas tu anyām prakṛtiṁ viddhiṁ parāṁ jīva-bhūtāṁ mahā-bhāho yayaidam dhāryate jagat In 7.5 He has said that prakṛtiṁ viddhiṁ parāṁ, the living beings are His parā-prakṛti. Now here, so if you look at the connection between the verses, 9.10 gives the correct conception, 9.11 tells about the error, and 9.10 will be erroneous conception, and 9.12 will give the consequence of that erroneous conception. So, He'll talk about moghāśamoghakarmāṇuṁ mogha-jñāna-vicheta-sahaṇa He'll talk about how such souls, people are mogha, everything that they do ends in futility.
So when Krishna speaks thus, if you look at the overall context, His meaning is very clear. Now what is so serious about considering that Krishna is, what is so seriously wrong about considering that Krishna is the Brahman descended in a human form? There is the nirguna-brahma and saguna-brahma, that is what the Advaitins talk about. The problem is that the saguna-brahma is not considered to be an eternal reality.
And the saguna-brahma is considered a reality to be transcended ultimately. So that one realizes the absolute oneness of all living beings within the nirguna-brahma. So then God doesn't become a shelter, God simply becomes a ladder.
And there are impersonalists who say that, okay, we are not atheists, we are not theists, we are transtheists. Or they may say that I was an atheist till I discovered that I was God. These sort of conceptions are grievous misconceptions and they have seriously negative consequences on the spiritual prospects of seekers.
So Krishna strongly here condemns this saying that such people are mudha, they are deluded, they are foolish. Krishna earlier used the word mudha to describe those who are gross materialists, the mam duskrtino mudha, who are simply chasing material fruits, material things without considering anything higher in spiritual life. Then he has referred to with the reproachful word mudha and now also uses the same word here to describe those people who may have some spiritual inclinations, but they are completely misunderstanding the nature of the personal absolute truth.
And the consequences of their misunderstanding will be talked about in the next verse. Thank you.