What does “avyakta” mean in the Gita’s eighth chapter?

From Pawan P

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you very much. Hare Krishna. Question from Pawan Prabhu.
What does the word avyakta mean in the eighth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita? Answer, let’s look at where it occurs. Primarily the word occurs, especially where its meaning can become confusing, is in 8.20 and 8.21 when it occurs successively. So, before that also, at some places the word occurs, in 8.80 for example.
But there the meaning is same as 8.20. Let’s look at these two verses first, 8.20 and 8.21. So, 8.20 is parastasmat tu bhavonyo vyakto vyaktat sanatanah yasa sarveshu bhuteshu nasyatsu navinasyati So, parastasmat tu bhavonyo. So, there is another bhava, there is another nature vyakto vyaktat sanatanah that which is vyakta and that is your vyakta, beyond both of this, that is sanatanah. And then to emphasize the sanatanah nature, it is stated again yasa sarveshu bhuteshu, all of existence, this existence entirely nasyatsu navinasyati, when all of it is destroyed, that is not destroyed.
So, now here it says vyakta and avyakta. Now, what does this refer to, vyakta and avyakta? To make it more clear, we can look at what was being discussed prior and this 20th is a continuation. So, 18th it was said that avyakta vyakta yaha sarva prabhavatyaharagame ratryagame praliyante tatraiva vyakta sanyake So, here it is talked about the day of Brahma and it is said that aragame.
So, at the start of the day, from the avyakta, things become vyakta and at the end of the day, when the night begins, from again, things go into avyakta. So, this is clearly referring to the manifested and unmanifested states of material nature or of material existence. So, the universe and the universal creations, they are manifested in the day of Brahma and they become unmanifested at night.
So, to give a simple example of this manifested and unmanifested is say there is a child who has some sort of toy game in which the person constructs some palace. So, there are some, or say a child who makes sand castles. So, now the sand castles are built and the sand castles are destroyed.
So, the sand castles are destroyed, there is no shape that is perceivable in terms of tangible objects which have some functional use. There is no shape perceivable like that of the sand that is there in the ground. But when the sand is arranged in the form of a castle, then that particular form is manifest.
So, like that in this world things are manifested sometime. So, that time the universe is seen to us and the universe becomes unmanifest at the time of night of Brahma. So, here avyakta refers to the state of being materially unmanifest and it is that same thing that has been talked about in 8.20 that this material creation is sometimes manifest, material existence is sometimes manifest and there is material existence which is sometimes unmanifest.
But beyond this there is another nature, parastasmatubhavonyu. Now, while describing that nature Krishna uses the word avyakta once again, 8.21 avyakta-aksharityukta-sthamahuparamangatim yampraapena nivartante taddama paramamama So, Krishna says that that nature is avyakta, it is akshara and it is known as paramangatim. So, what does this avyakta refer to over here? Now, Krishna has clearly stated that this is beyond the vyakta and avyakta of material existence.
It is transcendental. So, clearly then this cannot refer to the avyakta which was talked about earlier. So, this avyakta refers to that which is unmanifest in the sense of being inherently not manifest to the material senses.
So, it is transcendental. It can be perceived only by the transcendental senses. So, the material creation when it is withdrawn into itself at that time it is not manifested to the material senses not because the senses don’t have the capacity to see but because the creation has been withdrawn into itself.
So, the avyakta in 8.18 and 8.20 refers to that unmanifest state of material existence whereas the avyakta in 8.21 refers to the spiritual world which is inherently not manifest to the material senses because it is transcendental. So, in that sense the word avyakta has two distinct meanings. One is not manifest to the material senses because of being in a material manifested state and the other avyakta is not manifest to the material senses because of being inherently transcendental and being beyond material sense in perception.
Thank you. They say that we should beat the mind with a broom or with a shoe