What does the Gita 4.24 verse brahmarpanam brahma havir mean? How do we respond to its impersonalist interpretation?

Transcript

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Question from Panchakantaprabhu What is the meaning of the verse Brahmaarpanam Brahmakabhir and how do the Mayavadis interpret it and how can we respond to that interpretation Answer This is 4.24 in the Bhagavad Gita Brahmaarpanam Brahmakabhir Brahmaagno brahmanam Brahmaiva tena gandavyam Brahmakarma samadhinam So this comes right at the start of the section on Yajna in the Bhagavad Gita so after this Krishna will talk about various types of Yajnas Yajnas are very common in the Vedic culture but in this section Krishna is giving a vision of how Yajnas are essentially spiritual they are not just religious rituals for gaining some mutual benefits but they are essentially spiritual so Brahmaarpanam Brahmakabhir so Arpanam that which is offered the Havi means the so basically the essential meaning of this verse is that in the Prasanghya that which is offered is spiritual the thing into which it is offered is spiritual the person who is offering is spiritual the whole process of the offering consumed is spiritual and the person himself the person who is offering himself will attain Brahman Brahmaiva tena gandavyam if Brahmakarma samadhinam it means it is probably in his consciousness he is understanding that I am the Brahmakarma I am the spiritual one so essentially Krishna is giving us a vision of how this whole process of sacrifice is spiritual and this is an elaboration of 3.15 where Krishna has mentioned this mantra yuktyam yagya pratishthitam that is all pervading Brahman eternally situated in yagya so how the Brahman is situated in yagya is being explained here in 2.22 now in the context of the future verses in the Gita what this means is now we will redefine yagya or we will expand the conception of yagya we include the yagya which will have yagya so giving charity of food is also yagya food studies is also yagya austerity is also yagya so basically Krishna explains that all the activities that are there in the religious culture of the Vedic times all of them are forms of yagya because the sacrifice being offered is offered to someone and if it is being done with the proper understanding it will lead to a spiritual elevation a spiritual liberation an ultimate liberation so now the Chakravarti Vishnu Acharya Thakur Naracharya has given a meaning of this verse with the context of the Gita they say that Arjuna you should perform the Dhyana on this natural field so you become the Brahmana and let the Kurukshetra be the Nagisthani your bow and arrow is the is the sacrificial spear with which the offering is made and the offering will be the Kauravas therefore the sacrificial bow you are the Brahmana and you offer us so that is actually what Krishna will talk about later in the 10th chapter in the 11th chapter when Krishna shows the Virat Rupa consuming the Kaurava soldiers that is Krishna giving a vision of how the Ahupada that Arjuna is offering, the Virat Rupa is actually accepting it that there is a fire coming out and the fire is consuming that so of course this is a representation but it indicates what is being taught over here that all the activities which we do them for a spiritual purpose and they will become spiritual so Brahma Karma Samhita Samadhi is the critical point over here that is what we should do and then if we do this everything will become Brahman and then what will attain the Brahman for example if we sit in a class then even that is a Yajna so the person who is speaking is a spiritual person that person is Brahman, the person who is hearing is Brahman the sound vibration that is being spoken is Brahman the purification it requires by the sound vibration is Brahman so from the mouth speaker to the ear of the hearer, there is a big sacrifice that is being offered so how is the absorption in Brahman, then the attainment of Brahman by Purva Yajna of Shravan so like that this verse enables us to re-envision all these activities as spiritual Yajnas now the impersonalist explanation of this verse is often everything is Brahman and therefore for example when they eat food there are some impersonalists who offer this verse as a prayer before acceptance of food and their idea is that this food is Brahman, I am Brahman the act of eating the food is also Brahman entering into Brahman and when Brahman enters into Brahman and if I meditate on Brahman eventually when I meditate on Brahman I will also enter into Brahman so that is their contribution so now later in the 9th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita there is a elaboration of this verse where he will explain that actually that Brahman doesn’t necessarily refer to impersonal Brahman that refers to Krishna himself in 9.16 he will say that there he describes how all the limbs of Yajna are essentially manifestations of Krishna himself so the offering, the fire the mantras that are chanted the herbs that are offered the offering is Krishna, what does it mean? it means actually it is a manifestation of Krishna so essentially in the development of the Gita Brahma has been reclaimed by Aham Krishna has revealed himself to be the highest Brahman and that becomes clear in Arjuna’s statement in 10.12 where he says that Krishna is Parambrahman so now the Mayavadi idea that everything is Brahman and when they are eating food Brahman is entering into Brahman that idea is not essentially false but it is not the complete understanding because although there is Brahman there are levels of Brahman realization which Prabhupada explains that ultimately even material energy is emanating from the Supreme Absolute so even material energy is also we could say non-existent Prabhupada explains in Chaitanya Chaitanya Amrit Parbho that we could argue that even a bottle of liquor is Brahman and Somaras is Brahman and even Krishna Krishna is Brahman so all three are Brahman whether one drinks Somaras or drinks liquor or drinks Krishna all of them are Brahman entering into Brahman however although in a sense of origin it is true everything is an animation of Brahman but in the sense of effect it is not so experiencing Brahman as alcohol ultimately whatever pleasure there is in alcohol that also comes from Krishna only the beauty of the opposite sex also comes from Krishna in Krishna Adaranyam that’s how people are and although that is coming from Krishna that doesn’t take us towards Krishna so the taste of alcohol the experience of alcohol we could say is the experience of Brahman but that experience doesn’t take us towards Brahman it takes us away from Brahman whereas the experience of Brahman as Krishna Katha purifies it and takes us towards Krishna towards Brahman, towards the highest reality so therefore this is not a simplistic equalization of everything as Brahman but it is a contemplation that should lead to beautiful Krishna and that’s why the contemplation has to be done with a conscious awareness of what we are doing, why, and what will be its effects so at one level the impersonalist idea of using this as a as a basis for, as a starting prayer for consuming food is not wrong it is ok as far as it goes but then there is the well-known pastime of Shankaracharya where he once went into a liquor shop and drank liquor and he said Sarvam khalmamidam Brahman and his followers drank liquor but then Shankaracharya after that went to a shop of ironsmiths and he has molten iron over there and he picked the molten iron and drank it also, Sarvam khalmamidam Brahman and his followers were shipwrecked none of them could follow that see Shankaracharya was on a very advanced platform and he could do it so we cannot reject or neglect the difference between mutual things in the name of calling everything as Brahman Mutual things will have other effects on them and we have to be careful that we don’t get consumed by the lower modes because of these effects that’s why the Vaishnava understanding of this verse is that actually the whole process of yajna can be spiritualized not just spiritualized in terms of connecting it as an action of Brahman interacting with Brahman but it can even be devotionalized in the action of Krishna manifesting or connecting one manifestation of Krishna with another manifestation the essential point is that the effect on us the purification will reside only when there is the appropriate interaction with appropriate understanding then there will be purification so when we take prasad we don’t chant the Brahmara mantra we chant Mahaprasad because a lot of people that I am Brahman and the food is Brahman I am a soul who is trapped in little existence and I need Krishna’s mercy to get out of little existence and that mercy of Krishna manifests into prasad therefore we chant Mahaprasad and at one level that is also Brahman entering into Brahman only but with contemplation of Brahman entering into Brahman it can at one level lead to negative effects of negative things secondly it is not a devotional vision and that’s why it’s not conducive to and also it doesn’t allow us to seek the lord’s mercy because when we consider everything as the form of the absolute Brahman then there is no one to seek mercy from and there is no one to seek mercy for but ultimately everything is one that’s why this vision it is not spiritually sound and it is not spiritually beneficial and that’s why this vision is not accepted by the Vaishnavas that everything is into Brahman entering into Brahman but we understand that it is one manifestation of Krishna entering into another manifestation and if that manifestation’s interaction is not spiritually beneficial then there will be Brahman