Proper Understanding Of The Bhagavad Gita – Part 112

We continue with the 14th chapter, titled as “Guna Traya or Bibhaga Yogah.” The meaning is the differentiation of the 3 basic qualities of Nature.

श्रीभगवानुवाच |
परं भूय: प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञानानां ज्ञानमुत्तमम् |
यज्ज्ञात्वा मुनय: सर्वे परां सिद्धिमितो गता: || 1||
śhrī-bhagavān uvācha
paraṁ bhūyaḥ pravakṣhyāmi jñānānāṁ jñānam uttamam
yaj jñātvā munayaḥ sarve parāṁ siddhim ito gatāḥ

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11  Verse 1

General Meaning:

The Blessed Lord speaks: 

I will tell you again that highest knowledge, which is the Supreme Knowledge, best of all knowledge. Attaining this knowledge, all saints and sages, have become liberated from the bondage of worldly life and have attained self-realization.

Explanatory Notes:

Knowing Brahma Vidya, nothing else needs to be known.All types of ignorance are removed when knowledge of God is realized. As a result, the knower or Brahmavid has realized the Absolute or the Truth and the relative or Maya or Ignorance cannot confuse him anymore and such a Master is beyond all sufferings.

इदं ज्ञानमुपाश्रित्य मम साधर्म्यमागता: |
सर्गेऽपि नोपजायन्ते प्रलये न व्यथन्ति च || 2||
idaṁ jñānam upāśhritya mama sādharmyam āgatāḥ
sarge ’pi nopajāyante pralaye na vyathanti cha

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11  Verse 1

General Meaning:

Taking shelter in this knowledge, those, who have realized Me, become free from the pangs of birth, during creation, nor do they suffer during the time of dissolution.

Explanatory Notes:

Knowledge is the greatest blessings. Material knowledge, give material benefits and freedom from superstitions, fears, and ignorance. Spiritual knowledge brings freedom from the bondage of relativity and matter. It brings awareness of one’s Absolute Self. The Absolute Self or the Soul is birthless, deathless, and timeless. Intellectual conviction of this Truth does not bring the liberating Self Realisation. It has to be the by constant remembrance and in the heart by Yoga Meditation. This knowledge of Creation, being taught by Lord Krishna, makes a person aware of one’s Absolute Self, over and above. Mother Nature, who operates the Creation and Dissolution by activating the Cosmic Laws of the 3 Gunas, i.e. Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas.Those who know it goes beyond the sufferings caused by the limitations of Matter, Birth, Growth, Disease, Decay, and Death (i.e.birthless Srusthi and Pralaya; Creation and Dissolution).

मम योनिर्महद् ब्रह्म तस्मिन्गर्भं दधाम्यहम् |
सम्भव: सर्वभूतानां ततो भवति भारत || 3||
mama yonir mahad brahma tasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmy aham
sambhavaḥ sarvabhūtānāṁ tato bhavati bhārata

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11  Verse 3

General Meaning:

My womb is the Mahat Brahma, Mother Nature. In it I put the fertilized seed. From this, occurs the birth of all Beings.

Explanatory Notes:

The whole, the Entire Macro, and Micro Cosmos are the Mahat, Brahmaa, the God of Creation. This is Mother Nature, the goes, also known as Moola Prakriti. As an expression, one can say, the Universe, the entire Creation, is the dance of Brahma. In simple language, the entire creation is the joyful dance of the Creator, which includes all aspects of Procreative activities. Interestingly, the Master of the Cosmic Time, Lord Shiva, is also known as Natraj, the Monarch of Cosmic Dance, which is also birthless Cosmic Time. The third of the Hindu Trinity, Visnu, described as the Maintainer of the Creation, is in between the two, Brahma and Shiv. Visnusymbolizes balance and harmony. These 3 are known as Manas Putra or Mental Sons of the Supreme Paramatma. As this verse signifies, the Supreme Lord, God does and gets things done, by His Will Power only, through the agency of Mahat Brahma or Mother Nature.

सर्वयोनिषु कौन्तेय मूर्तय: सम्भवन्ति या: |
तासां ब्रह्म महद्योनिरहं बीजप्रद: पिता || 4||
sarva-yoniṣhu kaunteya mūrtayaḥ sambhavanti yāḥ
tāsāṁ brahma mahadyonirahaṁ bījapradaḥ pitā

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 18, Verse 4

General Meaning:

O’ Kounteya (Arjuna), whatever forms are produced, in all the wombs, the great Brahma is this womb theirs. It is I who donates the seeds. I am the Father.

Explanatory Notes:

There are millions and millions of species of creatures (forms) being born constantly. The human beings are one of these. Brahma (not Brahmam) also known as Hiranyagarbha or Mother Nature, is the womb, the Cosmic Womb. It can be termed as the Cosmic Uterus. It may be the totality of all wombs, of all species of beings. The Father who places the seed in this womb is God. Mother Nature is the totality of matter, however subtle it maybe. The donor of the seed in this Cosmic womb is The Spirit, the Soul, also known as God, The Father.

सत्वं रजस्तम इति गुणा: प्रकृतिसम्भवा: |
निबध्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् || 5||
sattvaṁ rajas tama iti guṇāḥ prakṛiti-sambhavāḥ
nibadhnanti mahā-bāho dehe dehinam avyayam

The Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14, Verse 5

General Meaning:

O’ Mighty Armed, Truth and Harmony, Restlessness and Ignorance are the basic qualities of Nature. These are born of Nature and imprison the indestructible embodied soul in the body.

Explanatory Notes:

How and Why? Why do things happen? How do things happen? Atman, the Soul, the Spirit is free, Immortal, and how the Cosmic Law of Karma works and Creation, birth, death, and rebirth are perpetuated. How the ever free soul, Jeevatma, imagines being bound to the body, mind, intellect, and ego? How the concept of Me and Mine comes? In this verse, Krishna answers the basic questions. Mother Nature, Moola Prakruti or Brahma, the Creator, makes it happen by creating the three basic qualities (Gunas) of the Creation. These three: Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, in permutation and combination, bind the immortal Soul to the mortal body. In the process of experiencing Sattwa, Rajas and Taamasic Gunas, the Soul imagines that these experiences are real and belong to him. Sattwa binds by the enjoyment of Saattwik Pleasures like truth, philosophy, religion, friendship, love, joy birthless, etc. Raajasic qualities bind by addiction to egoistic sense pleasures, arrogance, dominance, anger and, restless activities. Taamasic qualities bind by lethargy, inertia, ignorance, sleep, procrastination, dullness, etc.

May God and the Great Masters, Bless, Guide, Protect and Inspire you.

With much love and humbleness,
Paramahansa Atmananda Ji