Gita 13.24 Sankhya and bhakti are different in form, but similar in essential content and ultimate purpose

Transcript

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thank you 13.24 Bhagavad Gita so Krishna is now summarizing his description of the prakriti and purusha it started from the verse 20 till 23 and he says that one who knows thus purusha one who knows purusha and prakriti along with the gunas is always situated in such a way in such a way that one will not take birth again in this material world again one will not be reborn this is quite a strong proclamation Krishna is saying that the knowledge of purusha and prakriti will lead to liberation ultimately the purpose of sankhya which analyzes material nature into purusha and prakriti that also is disentanglement the purpose of sankhya is to liberate us from material existence and how we become liberated is by recognizing that we ourselves are not matter that we are different from matter and therefore we should seek our pleasure in something beyond matter and thus we disengage our consciousness disentangle our consciousness from matter and invest it in non material reality now what that non material reality is is not really very clearly or exhaustively talked about in sankhya its focus is more on analyzing material nature and understanding how we are not that material nature bhakti yoga tells us who that non material reality is in whom we can invest our consciousness fruitfully and it states that actually we at our core are spiritual beings, are souls and as souls we are meant to move towards Krishna with steady joy so this analysis of sankhya is done with a theistic context Krishna started this section in 13.19 when he finished that is a transitional verse that Krishna says that it is my devotee who understands these things and can attain my nature, so my nature, Krishna nature is of course spiritual nature and in a sense the same thing is talked about over here, the material nature the nature of birth and death takes place, the spiritual nature is the place where birth and death don’t take place sarvata vartamanopi nasabhuyo bhi jayate always being situated in thus in the knowledge of prakrti one will not take birth in material nature once again, will not be reborn now this assurance is quite similar to the assurances Krishna has given elsewhere when he talks about knowing him, for example 4.9 he said that janma karma chame divyam evam yo vetti tattvata tyaktva deham punar janma naiti bhaameti so arjuna he said those who know him, know his appearance and activities to be transcendental, to be divine to be divya, they will not take birth in this world tyaktva deham punar janma naiti bhaameti so arjuna they will attain me, so Krishna has said that then what is this point stating over here by knowledge of purusha and prakrti one can attain him the point is that evam vetti purusha prakrti nivya gunaisaha one who understands purusha and prakrti properly along with the modes of material nature, that person will not take birth, now if you see again, so it’s same but now is the knowledge, so the result is the same, that by knowing Krishna one will attain, one will not take birth in this world and by knowing about purusha and prakrti also one will not take birth in this world so then is it that there are two different causes which will lead to the same effect or are they talking about are the causes also somehow similar there are various schools of philosophy which are there and their purpose is liberation Krishna has said in 13.12 that actually it is the spiritual nature it is the to understand that philosophy should be done to actually get knowledge of ultimate reality and ultimate reality centers on understanding that actually this world is temporary and miserable and we should attain some other world beyond this which is eternal so whether it is bhakti or whether it is sankhya, the ultimate purpose is liberation and in form sankhya and bhakti seem different but in purpose they are similar Krishna has talked about this ultimate the similarity of the ultimate goals when he talks about in the 5th chapter some people who consider sankhya and yoga to be separate but actually they are not separate they are similar they are actually one and the same in terms of their ultimate purpose one who sees that whatever is attained by sankhya that is also attained by yoga, such a person such a person is perfect such a person is actually the seer you have pashyati, so pashyati those who don’t see this they are not actually seeing even if they see so here Krishna is talking about we could say sankhya and he is saying that by knowing purusha and prakriti properly we will attain liberation so in the Upanishads it is said that tam eva vidvan atimityum eti na anya pantha vidyate anaya that it is by knowing that absolute truth that one can attain liberation tam eva vidvan atimityum eti by knowing him one can attain liberation, without knowing him one cannot attain liberation na anya pantha vidyate anaya there is no other path to liberation so here Krishna is talking about the process by which one can attain liberation if you consider the way he has explained purusha and prakriti here and as he has explained it overall in the Gita, especially in the 7th chapter where purusha and prakriti Krishna is talked about as the both material and spiritual natures are coming for his prakriti the purusha, the atma and the prakriti, the material nature made of 8 elements, all this is his prakriti, so when we understand it in this context, then we actually know Krishna also, because we understand that purusha and prakriti are energies of the supreme purushottama and thus to know purusha and prakriti properly means to know purushottama and when we know purushottama then we get the uttama gati then we get liberation from material existence so by thus focusing on the not the form but the content and the purpose we will see that there is ultimate commonality in content in bhakti we focus directly on bhagwan and we try to devote our heart and life to bhagwan in sankhya also, in sankhya we start from matter, we analyze matter and then we look for something beyond matter and then we come to purusha and then we understand that this purusha is also not supreme, there has to be some higher principle and then we come to purushottama and thus also we surrender to the purushottama and when we surrender to the purushottama, when we devote ourselves to the purushottama, then we become liberated that we do not take birth in this world so now what does it mean to understand this to understand prakriti purusha and purushottama if we look at what has been talked in the previous verses, first it was said that that actually whatever changes happen in this purusha, that 13th point in prakriti, they happen because of material nature vikaram shivunam shivuddhi prakriti sambhavan and we get entangled in this that was said in 21 and 22 because of our desire to enjoy and there is another supreme, there is another purusha who is transcendental purusha paraha and he is not entangled so when we understand that our position also is to be disentangled and then we strive for disentanglement then this knowledge will act as the foundation for us to take off it will act as a launching pad for us to move into the journey towards liberation and how we can move towards liberation, Krishna will talk in the next verse thank you