What is the Gita’s ontology?

From Peter

Transcript

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Hare Krishna. Hare Krishna.
Question from Peter. What is the Gita’s ontology? Answer, ontology refers to the nature of existence. So, as far as the Bhagavata is concerned, it explains that the fundamental existence is God, Krishna.
So, God is manifested as a person. There is no truth higher than me, 7.7 Bhagavata says. And it says further, that everything rests on me, as pearls are strung around a necklace.
So, Krishna says, I am the underlying thread of truth. So, that means Krishna is the highest existence who is transcendent, and he’s also underlying everything as the immanent absolute. So, the foundation of reality is Krishna.
And Bhagavata says in 10.8, I am the source of everything. And apart from that fundamental existence of Krishna, who is a person, he has all-pervading effulgence, which is mentioned in 14.27. And along with that, the Bhagavata explains that there are two energies of that absolute truth. This is mentioned in 7.4 and 7.5. 7.4 says that there is earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence, and ego.
These are the material energies, bhinname prakrita-rashtra-da, bhinnaprakrita-rashtra-da, separated energy. And then there is jiva-bhuta-maha-bahu, which is mentioned in 7.5, and there are the souls. So, matter and spirit are the two energies of the absolute truth.
And they are connected with him, they are dependent on him, but matter is separated in the sense that it is not having consciousness. And it is in the material world, whereas God himself in his personal manifestation exists performing pastimes in the spiritual world. And we hear with respect to the existence of matter, Bhagavata primarily uses the elemental theory of matter, although it does refer to an atom also in 8.9, when it says that the Supreme Lord is immanent, anor means atom, is smaller than the atom also, anor means smaller than atom.
So, the Bhagavad Gita is aware of the atomic theory of matter, but it focuses on the elemental theory and analyzes matter into these different elements. Now, of course, the way the Bhagavad Gita refers to elements is different from the way modern science refers to elements where there are over 100 plus elements. Bhagavata’s view of elements is in terms not so much of the specific way modern science does it, it is based on the fundamental building blocks of material existence.
And the whole ontology is theistic and consciousness is considered the primary reality. This ultimately all of us come from the Supreme Consciousness, that is Krishna, as I mentioned in 10.8, 7.6, Krishna says that. So, his consciousness is fundamental reality.
And even in the material world, consciousness and matter are two separate realities and consciousness is the active reality. So, that this world is maintained for the sake of the living entities and they are the doers, they are the maintainers of this world, not in the sense that they are sustaining it themselves, but it is for them that this is an arena. So, the Supreme Lord as the absolute truth who has also an impersonal aspect, who also has an immanent aspect, which is called as Paramatma, the impersonal aspect is called as Brahman, the personal aspect is called Bhagavan and he also has two energies, matter, spirit, which is all of us, consciousness, parts of spirit and then there is matter which is the material energy which is divided into various elements.
So, this is the nature of the ontology given in the Bhagavad Gita. Thank you.