​Gita 10.12 – Krishna is transcendence beyond transcendence

Thank you param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan purusham shashvatam divyam adi devam ajambibhum so Arjuna is speaking this verse and he is speaking after Krishna has just spoken the four verses that have been celebrated as the chatur shloki gita Krishna states here that he is actually Krishna has stated how he is the absolute truth and how devotion to him is life's absolute perfection so having said that now Krishna has paused Krishna has in one sense concluded this phase of the discussion and Arjuna recognizing that an important threshold in the discussion has been crossed now speaks the bhagavad gita is actually a conversation which is something that we may overlook or have forgotten when we get too caught in its intellectual susceptibilities or philosophical technicalities the bhagavad gita's essential message is that we all can turn towards Krishna and that we are all meant to turn towards Krishna because we are all souls and by learning to love him we can gain eternal happiness we can't love Krishna unless we understand his position properly and that understanding of his position is what Krishna has shared in the gita when we understand how lovable our beloved is naturally we fall in love with them that is what Krishna is guiding, directing us to do here and he states that he is actually giving us the opportunity to attain him so he states here that he has given the message of the gita and Arjuna is by sharing his understanding revealing to us what the correct understanding of the conclusion of the gita is normally if you consider that a teacher speaks something at the end of that class students speak something which is supposed to summarize or recapitulate or renunciate the understanding that the student has acquired from the teacher if the student had acquired an incorrect understanding the teacher would immediately clarify and if the teacher doesn't clarify then we can understand how that understanding must be correct so herein Krishna states that he is the absolute truth and Arjuna reiterates that understanding thereby confirming that Arjuna has got the correct understanding the bhagavad gita may discuss diverse subjects but there are amidst all those diversities some essential points those essential points are what Krishna states over here param brahma param dhama pavitram paramam bhavan the brahman is considered often the absolute truth and Arjuna declares Krishna to be param brahma so often it is thought that brahma is beyond all categorization brahman is beyond all hierarchy brahman is beyond all duality so duality is just higher and lower more beautiful and less beautiful wealthier and poorer all these dualities are in the material world and when one comes to brahman one of the most common words used to describe it is advaita, non-differentiated and yet the first word that Arjuna uses to describe brahman is param brahma that means he is saying that there is at least at some level some kind of differentiation within brahman otherwise there is no point in using the word param brahma over here so Krishna is not just brahman he is param brahma so brahman is non-differentiated in a material sense everything at the brahman level of existence is transcendental at the same time that doesn't mean that brahman is utterly non-differentiated alone brahman does have its own internal differentiation in terms of there is a sea of spiritual existence and there is a supreme person who is the supreme being within that vast sea so there are living beings who in spiritual existence are far freer, are eternal as compared to living beings in material existence at the same time the difference in the sense that the impersonals glorify brahman alone in the Bhagavad Gita it is talked about brahman but it moves on to talk about param brahma that is the significance of the word the first word Krishna used, Arjuna used to glorify Krishna is that you are not just brahman but param brahma so Krishna is within the non-differentiated whole of brahman he is still the param brahma and understanding this enables us to focus on Krishna in an intelligently focused way it means we devote ourselves to Krishna, we become attracted to Krishna knowing that he is he is transcendental to transcendence another word that is used here is param brahma, another word that is often used to describe the absolute truth is Parat Paratvatva he is transcendental to transcendence that is why the Bhagavatam describes that even those who were attracted to transcendence or who had no attraction to material things, Yashodev Goswami and the Kumaras they became attracted to Krishna to the Supreme Lord personality of Godhead because sankshobham akshara yusham apichitta tanvaho as it said of the Kumaras tasyaravindana yanasya padaravinda Tulsi from the lotus feet of the Lord entered into the nostrils of the Kumaras they became attracted to Krishna the Supreme Lord and they were agitated from their impersonal conception, nothing material could have agitated them yet the Lord agitated them, therefore his agitation is not material, it is transcendental and sankshobham akshara yusham apichitta tanvaho now moving onwards Arjuna also says several other attributes param dhama, Krishna is non-different from his every God he is himself the Supreme Person avitram paramam bhavan that he is supremely pure purusham shashvatam divyam he is the eternal person, he is transcendental the word divya has been used repeatedly before and especially in makarmachime divyam is another use of the same word and in the same sense of utterly transcendental Adidevam ajam vibhum so he is Adi, he is aja and he is vibhu, none of us is vibhu none of us is transcendental in the way Krishna is transcendental and understanding thus we can actually march onwards towards Krishna with the utter conviction that he is the highest reality.