Gita 14.27 Brahman refers not just to the impersonal spiritual but also the generically spiritual

Transcript

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Bhagavad Gita 14.27 Krishna is speaking He says I am the support of the brahman It is immortal It is imperishable It is It is the foundation platform of eternal dharma and platform of ultimate happiness In the previous verse Krishna has stated that Arjuna should work towards that practicing bhakti unflinchingly by which he can transcend the modes and by transcending the modes he was assured that he will attain spiritual perfection and what is the spiritual perfection that was talked about it was said that he will attain the brahman platform now what that brahman is is talked about over here so normally the word brahman is used to refer to the impersonal absolute the all pervading effulgence of the absolute the all pervading light basically at the same time the word brahman is also a generic describer of spiritual reality that means that the word brahman can also be used to describe spiritual reality here the word brahman is used not specifically to refer to an impersonal absolute it is referred generically to refer to the fact that there is a reality beyond this world and it is that reality that we need to pursue now the nature of that specific reality is something which is a matter of subsequent exploration so athato brahma jijnasa so brahman is a general word which is used to describe spiritual reality the truth beyond the material so brahma one who expands, one who is great if you look at the etymological roots of the word brahman it doesn’t have any inbuilt impersonalistic connotation to it it simply refers to the absolute truth being of a giant truth which exists somewhere beyond this world what the nature of that truth is, how it exists how it pervades the world all those are subsequent things which can be understood by further exploration the essential point is that the brahman is what we as souls look towards and when we look towards the soul like this what we understand is that when we look towards the spiritual reality like this what is that reality so Krishna is saying that here he is describing that reality first thing he is telling is that the brahman is resting on me that it is not an independent existence its existence is sustained by me and that brahman, that spiritual reality can’t exist without me it is I who sustain the existence so this is actually the opposite of the conception of the impersonalists the impersonalists say that the brahman is the ultimate reality and Krishna is a temporary expansion manifesting from that brahman however what Krishna tells Arjuna here is that rather than he being an emergent reality coming from the brahman rather than he resting on the foundational reality of brahman rather it is the brahman which rests on him it is the brahman which emanates from him it is the brahman that is the higher truth and we as souls are lower truths the word lower is not necessarily in the sense of derogatory actually the brahman is not lower also in the sense that the brahman is also the same absolute truth so brahman is also but what it is not it is not simply a matter of impersonal reality it is not the supreme reality and also that it is not an independent reality brahman, parmatma and bhagavan are aspects of the same one absolute and this one absolute exists in different features in the material world and one such feature sorry not in the material world, in existence and the personal aspect is the foundation when krishna is speaking himself when he is using the word aham he is clearly not referring to any abstract conception he is referring to himself in the personal conception and he is telling that actually this personal conception emanates from the impersonal so to the extent we can see the personal and impersonal as to the extent we can see the personal and impersonal as related to the as being aspects of the same one absolute truth but we understand as krishna says over here that relatively speaking in terms of not the absolute truth from krishna’s perspective, krishna and brahman these two aspects of the same being but from our perspective they are different in the sense that it is the impersonal aspect which is eternal and the personal aspect which is temporary sorry, it is the personal aspect that has when we realize the personal aspect at that time we realize all the features of the absolute sat, chit, ananda whereas when we realize the impersonal aspect we don’t realize all the aspects of the absolute we realize some of the aspects of the absolute that means we realize the aspect of sat but chit and ananda are not yet realized so when sat, chit, ananda all three of them are fully realized that is when we understand the absolute truth in full and when we understand the absolute truth in full like this that is when we move towards spiritual perfection so we move towards the fullest spiritual realization if you see when krishna talks about the characteristics of brahman many of the characteristics he is describing is similar to the characteristics of the atma described in the second chapter amrta, avyaya, shashvata so actually the word brahman is used generically to refer to spiritual reality not specifically to refer to any particular feature of spiritual reality brahman refers to the absolute truth as is manifested in this world and as can be manifested beyond this world in the fullness so there is the all pervading spiritual reality which exists as the effulgence in which even this world exists and at the same time beyond this effulgence is the supreme being who is the source of everything and who is the lord of everything and so that lord is not just transcendent but he is also present as eminent now therein is found the highest happiness when we say that this is the characteristic of eternal dharma that means now the eternal dharma of the soul is the practice of bhakti so if you consider from that perspective the practice of bhakti is eternal and that bhakti is practiced at the spiritual level so the ultimate happiness the eternal dharma all these are practiced at the spiritual level so if we see the word brahma as referring to generically spiritual not to specifically a particular manifestation of the spiritual so this verse can be seen in two ways one is that the general spiritual reality is founded on him that means it is he who is the sustainer just as he is the sustainer of the material world he is the sustainer of the spiritual world also everything comes from him and even if we consider that brahman refers to impersonal spiritual reality still the point remains that brahman alone is not the independent or the ultimate spiritual reality because it is founded in him and it is founded in Krishna supported by Krishna so in that case if we consider brahman to refer to the impersonal absolute then we can say that the remaining are characteristics of that brahman of spiritual reality and it is in spiritual reality that the ultimate happiness and the eternal dharma that is practiced