Gita 13.23 One purusha is controlled by nature, the other is the controller of nature

Transcript

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thank you bhagavad gita 13.23 upadrashtana manta cha bharta bhokta maheshvarah paramatmeti cha piyukto dehesmin purushah paraha upadrashtana manta cha the overseer and the permitter bharta bhokta maheshvarah the maintainer the enjoyer the great controller paramatmeti cha piyukto known as paramatma dehesmin purushah paraha in the body there is another purusha in this section Krishna is talking about purusha and prakriti from 13.20 onwards and Krishna has talked about the purusha who has been entangled in the material world because of the desire to enjoy in 21 and 22 bhoktrutya and especially bhunkti those are the key words in those verses and now Krishna is talking about the process by which one can become purified so paramatmeti cha piyukto dehesmin purushah paraha so clearly Krishna is talking about another purusha over here paraha transcendental another paramatmeti cha piyukto is known as the paramatma so the previous soul is not rational it’s not rational to consider the purusha referred to in that in 13.22 and 13.23 to be the same because here this purusha is identified this purusha is known as paramatma so the paramatma is not the atma who is under material nature clearly the situation of the two atmas is talked about is very different so the previous atma is not the atma the previous purusha has come under material nature because of the desire to enjoy material nature the soul has that purusha and goes through various tribulations in material existence whereas this purusha is talked about as someone beyond material nature is the overseer the permitter so it’s different that this person is not got entangled there is no bhoktrutve or bhunkte it’s not prakriti sthohi now it’s interesting that another word that is used over here is bhokta that Maheshwara is the great controller which signifies that this purusha is in control of material nature also is the maintainer bhokta now the word bhokta can mean enjoyer the word bhokta can also mean the master so krishna has used the word bhokta the master is expected to be the enjoyer the word bhokta has been used several places in the bhagavad gita especially in 5.29 bhoktaram yegatapasam sarvalokamaheshwaram suratam sarvabhutanam yatvamam shanti micchati so it’s stated over there that actually the supreme lord is the bhoktaram what does it mean he is the enjoyer of material nature in some religions there is the idea that material nature material nature is filthy untouchable and that god doesn’t have anything to do with it it’s not like that if we see if we consider from a king’s perspective does the king have nothing to do with the prison well yes in our sense the king is not directly involved in management of the prison the king will have a warden and other people who work to manage the prison and the king does not get pleasure in people being people being subjected to harsh punishments in the prison people getting prison but the fact is that the prison’s purpose is not malevolent it is benevolent it is benevolent for other citizens so that they are separated from the law breaking citizens so that the disease of disease of breaking the law which is infected the other citizens won’t infect them and further it is benevolent even to the law breakers because by having the consequences of their law breaking made undeniably evident to them through the imprisonment of the atmosphere of the prison they are given an opportunity to reform themselves they are given an opportunity to raise themselves to a higher level of consciousness and to thus attain the highest level of reality to attain Krishna ultimately to be in freedom the purpose of the prison is not to keep everyone in prison forever the purpose of the prison is to reform the prisoners so in that sense if the prison’s purpose is being served and criminals are being reformed then the king is pleased by that the king is pleased by the reformation of the prisoners so in that sense the king actually by seeing the benevolent purpose of the prison is pleased so bhokta is not enjoy in the sense that the king enjoys the suffering of the prison the king is happy with the benevolent purpose of the prison certainly the king is not in the prison so the lord is also not in the material world, the lord has created the material world, the material world works under his plan and it works for his purpose but it is not that he is he is entangled in it it is not that he enjoys the suffering that happened over here but the realization that comes through suffering and the progress towards liberation that is made through the suffering that is something which is definitely enjoyed that is something which pleases the lord Krishna has earlier in this chapter also talked about two distinct kshetragya kshetragya and purusha are similar prakriti refers to material nature in general where kshetra refers to a particular part within the prakriti over which a purusha the anupurusha, the atma is given some jurisdiction so for example I am living in India, now I don’t have control over India I have control over my body of course I don’t have full control over my body but I have some limited control over my body so a significant level of control we could say at least from the perspective of daily functioning as long as the body is healthy so the body is my kshetra all of material existence is prakriti now kshetragya is the knower of the kshetra so Krishna has talked about in 13.3 kshetragyam chaapim aam viddhi sarva kshetre subharata that I am also the knower of the body Krishna has talked about that there is one knower in the body nam shariram kaunteya kshetram ityabhidhiyate etadhyo vittitam praahum kshetragyam kitadvidha Krishna says in 13.2 that one who knows this is the one who knows this kshetra is the kshetragyam that is the soul but there is another also and that is the person sarva kshetre subharata I know all kshetras so certainly we can’t claim that we know all kshetras I don’t know your body I don’t I am not conscious of what is happening in your body even if a doctor knows what is happening in a patient’s body that is not in terms of conscious experience that is in terms of say informational knowledge naam paramatmeti chaapyuktho this other purusha who knows who is actually above material nature that is the supreme lord paramatma it is a super soul now in 13.3 Krishna clearly identifies that I am the kshetragyam here Krishna is referring to himself as a third person and is calling, saying this paramatma now who is doing upadrashtana if we consider Krishna has said in 9.10 earlier that material nature works under my supervision so maya adhyakshena and then upadrashtana anumantha both are very similar senses and thus we can infer that the paramatma that is being referred to in third person here is none other than Krishna himself and this fact that Krishna and paramatma are the same this will be made explicit later on in the 15th chapter when Krishna says that that so in 15.17 and 18 he says that actually that it is I who am the other purusha who is situated in the body who is another purusha is there who is known as paramatma who maintains the worlds and Krishna just before that in the section from 15.12 to 15 he has talked about he is the maintainer of the world so from that section it becomes clear that what is being referred to here is as the paramatma is actually non different from Krishna