Gita XIX-The way of knowledge: Jnana Marga

We can reach the goal of perfection; attain the saving truth in three different ways, by knowledge of Reality or adoration and love (bhakti) of the Supreme Being or by the subjection of the will to the Divine purpose (karma). At the end, knowledge, love and action mingle together. God himself is reality, truth and bliss. To those who are seeking light, HE is Eternal Light, clear and radiant as the sun at noonday, in which there is no darkness; to those struggling for virtue, HE is Eternal Righteousness, steadfast and impartial; and to those emotionally inclined, HE is Eternal Love and Beauty of Holiness.

Even as God combines in Himself all these features, man aims at the integral life of spirit. Cognition, will and feeling, though logically distinguishable, are not separable I concrete life and unity of mind. They are different aspects of the one movement of the soul.

Gita XVIII-Jnana or Wisdom

If world is nothing but ebb and flow, continual becoming, it is due to action. At the human level, action is caused by desire or attachment, kama. The root cause of desire is avidya or ignorance of the nature of things. The roots of desire lie in the ignorant belief in the individual’s self-sufficiency, in the attribution reality and permanence to it. We have to get over this ignorance. Vidya or wisdom is the means of liberation from the chain of avidya-kama-karma.

Wisdom should not be confused with theoretical learning or correct beliefs, for ignorance is not intellectual error. It is spiritual blindness. To remove it, we must cleanse the soul of its defilement and kindle the spiritual vision. The fire of passion and the tumult of desire must be suppressed.* (IV, 39)The mind, inconstant and unstable, must be steadied to reflect wisdom from above.

Wisdom is direct experience, which occurs as soon as obstacles to its realization are removed. The effort of the seeker is directed to the elimination of the hindrances, to the removal of the obscuring tendencies of avidya. According to Advaita Vedanta, this wisdom is always present. It can only be revealed. Utter silence of the mind and the will, an emptying of the ego produces illumination, wisdom, the light by which we grow into our true being; this is eternal life, complete fulfilment of our capacity of love and knowledge, “the completely simultaneous and perfect possession of unlimited life at a single moment.”

Jnana and ajnana, wisdom and ignorance are opposed as light and darkness. With the dawning of wisdom, ignorance dies and evil is cut off from the root. The liberated soul overcomes the world. When we grow into this wisdom, we live in the Supreme. This consciousness is not an abstract one.

(to be contd.)

*(IV, 39) He who has faith, who is absorbed in it (i.e.wisdom) and who has subdued his senses gains wisdom and having gained wisdom, he attains quickly, the supreme peace.

Gita XVII---Yoga-Shastra

Derived from the word yuj (root), to bind together, yoga means binding one’s psychic powers, balancing and enhancing. By yoking together and harnessing our energies by the most intense concentration of personality, we force the passages from narrow ego to the transcendent personality. The spirit frees itself away from its prison and stands out of it to reach into its own innermost being.

Gita gives a comprehensive yoga-shastra, large, flexible and many sided, which includes various phases of the soul’s development and ascent into he divine. The different yogas are special applications of the inner discipline, which leads to the liberation of the soul and a new understanding of the unity and meaning of humankind. Everything related to this discipline is called yoga such as jnana yoga, way of knowledge, bhakti yoga, way of devotion, karma yoga or way of action.

Perfection at the human level is a task to be accomplished by conscious endeavour. The image of God operating in us produces a sense of insufficiency. Man has a hunting sense of vanity, the transience and precariousness of all human happiness.

If the divine truth, which is free for access to all humanity, is attained by only a few, it shows those few are willing to surrender to him. The invisible impulse to seek God produces the agony that inspires heroic idealism and human fulfilment. The image of God in us expresses itself in the indefinite capacity for self-transcendence.

Gita XVI----Karma and Destiny

Nature does not absolutely determine. Karma is a condition, not a destiny. It is only one of the five factors involved in the accomplishment of any act, which are adhisthana or the basis or centre from which we work, kartr or doer, Karana or the instrumentation of nature, chesta or effort and daiva or fate. The last is the power or powers of other than human, the cosmic principle which stands behind, modifying the work and disposing of its reward. There are certain factors in our lives which are determined for us forces beyond our control. We do not choose how or when or where and in what condition of life we are born. On the theory of rebirth even these are not chosen by us. It is part of our Karma that determines our ancestry, heredity and environment. But when we look from the stand point of this life, we can say that we were not consulted about our nationality, race, parentage or social status. But subject those limitations, we have freedom of choice. Life is like a game of bridge. We did not invent the game or design the cards. Our life is a mixture of necessity, and freedom, chance and choice. By exercising our choice properly, we can control steadily all the elements and eliminate altogether the determinism of nature. While the movements of matter, the growth of plants and acts of animals are controlled more completely, man has understanding which enables him to co-operate consciously with the work of the world. He can approve or disapprove, give or withhold his consent to certain acts. If he does not exercise his intelligent will, he is acting in a way contrary to his humanity. If he acts blindly according to his impulses and passions and passions, he acts more like an animal than a man. Being human he justifies his actions.

The individual should become transparent to himself and different elements should reach a fundamental integration for spontaneous or creative activity to be possible. It is mans duty to control his rajas (material desires) and tamas (physical desires) by means of his sattva (spiritual desire) nature which seeks for the truth of things and the right law of action. But even when we act under the influence or our sattva nature we are not entirely free. Sattva binds us as much as rajas and tamas. Only our desires for truth and virtue are nobler. The sense of ego is still operative. We must raise our ego and grow into the Supreme Self of which the ego is an expression. When we make our individual being into one with the Supreme, we rise above nature with its modes and freed from the bonds of the world.

Gita XV---Individual’s freedom of choice

Every act of self is a creative one, while all acts of the not self are truly passive. It is in our inner life that we confront primary reality, the deeps of being. The law of Karma holds in the realms of the not-self where heredity, biological and social holds, but in the subject is possibility of freedom, of triumph over the determinism of nature, over the compulsion of the world. Man, the subject, should gain mastery over man, the object. Object indicates determinism from without; subject means freedom, indeterminism. The ego in its self-confinement, in its automatism, psychical and social, is a distortion of the true subject. The law of karma can be overcome by the affirmation of the freedom of spirit. The Gita affirms that there is no radical dualism between the supernatural and the natural. Through struggle and suffering, man can pass from his freedom that abides in the steadfastly chosen good. Liberation is a return to inward being, to subjectivity; bondage is enslavement to the object world, to necessity, to dependence.

Neither nature nor society can invade our inner being without permission. Even God acts with a peculiar delicacy in regard to human beings. He woos out consent but never compels. Human individuals have distinctive beings of their development. The world is not fulfilling a prearranged plan in a mechanical way. We are asked to control our impulses, shake off our confusions and wanderings, rise above the current of nature and regulate our conduct by reference to buddhi or understanding, as otherwise, we will become the victims of ‘lust which the enemy of man on earth’. The Gita lays stress on the individual’s freedom of choice and the way he exercises it. Man’s struggles, his sense of frustration and self accusation are not to be dismissed as errors of the mortal mind or mere phases of a dialectic process. This would be to deny the moral urgency of life.

(to be contd.)

Gita XIV-----Freedom vs. Determinism

The problem facing man is the integration of his personality, the development of a divine existence in which a spiritual principle has the mastery over all the powers of soul and body. This integral life is created by the spirit. The distinction between soul and body which links man with the life of nature is not an ultimate one. It does not exist in radical sense in which Descartes affirmed it. The life of the soul permeates the life of the body, even as the bodily life has its effect on the soul. There is vital unity of soul and body in man. The real dualism is between spirit and nature, between freedom and necessity. In the integrated personality, we have the victory of the spirit over nature, of freedom over necessity. The Gita which looks upon both aspects of the supreme affirms that we can spiritualise nature and communicate another quality to it.

The problem of freedom vs. determinism has meaning only with human individuals. It has no application to the Absolute which is above all opposites or to the subhuman species of plants and animals. Man is possessor of freedom. The whole teaching of Gita requires man to choose the good and realize it conscious effort. There are however many impediments to this problem of choice. Man is complex multi-dimensional being, including within him different elements of matter, life, consciousness, intelligence and the divine spark. He is free when he acts from the highest level and uses the other elements for the realization of purpose. But when he is on the level of objective Universe, and feels that he is subjected to the necessities of nature, he is not without hope, for one spirit, operates at all levels of being. Even matter is a manifestation of the supreme. There is an element of spontaneity and creativity inexplicable in terms of mechanical forces even in the lowest forms of nature. Each plane of our being has its own consciousness, its habitual ways of feelings, thoughts and action. The ego should not persist in retaining its obscure and limited consciousness, which is a distortion of its true nature. The light of consciousness stands in its own nature empirical self with its shifting tides of experiences is controlled by buddhi (wisdom) in which the light of consciousness is reflected.

(to be contd.)

Gita XIII (addendum)—The Individual self

Our intellectual nature produces self-consciousness; it leads to the emergence of the human individual from its original solidarity with nature. Most of us, by finding our specific place in the social world, give a meaning to our life and gain a feeling of security, a sense of belonging. Any sense of satisfaction and security derived by submission to external authority is bought at the price of the integrity of the self. By developing our inner spiritual nature, we gain a new kind of relatedness to the world and grow into freedom, where the integrity of the self is not compromised. We then become aware of ourselves as active creative individuals, living, not by the discipline of external authority but by the inward rule of free devotion to truth.

The individual self is a portion of the Lord, a real, not an imaginary form of the supreme, a limited manifestation of God. The soul which derives from the Supreme Isvara is not so much an emanation as a member of the Supreme. The soul’s substantial existence springs from the Divine intellect and its expression in life is effected by virtue of its vision of Divine who is its father and its ever-present companion. Its distinctiveness is determined by the divine pattern and the context of the senses and the mind which it draws to itself. The universal is embodied in a limited context of mental-----vital-physical sheath. No individual is quite like another, no life repeats another’s and yet a single pattern runs through all of them. The essence of ego, the distinguishing characteristic of human personality is a certain creative unity, an inner purpose, a plan which has gradually shaped itself into an organic unity.

Blog unblocked!

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This blog was finally unblocked today by bloggers after 12 days. They had claimed that they would do it in less than one working day. They blocked it on 12 Jan, 2007.

I am glad and I will be posting here soon. Today if time permits.

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Snakes and snake festival

Nagpanchami is a very important Hindu festival and is celebrated on the fifth day of the moonlit-fortnight in the month of July /August. This is the time when serpents invariably come out of their holes that get inundated with rain-water to seek shelter in gardens and many times in houses. It is celebrated with more fervour especially in the rural areas. On that day women and children visit snake-pits and worship the snakes residing there by performing invocative prayer and offering milk and honey to the snakes. In urban areas where snake pits are rare, clay images of the deity are worshipped. Even snake-charmers carry captive snakes from door to door to enable city house-wives to worship the deity.

Right from the beginning of mankind, Sun and Snake have been invoked with prayers and ritual worship in most of the countries. In India even before the Vedic times, the tradition of snake-worship was in vogue.

In ancient India, there lived a clan by the name of "NAGAS" whose culture was highly developed. The Indus Valley civilization of 3000 B.C. gives ample proof of the popularity of snake-worship amongst the Nagas before the Aryans came. After the Naga culture got incorporated into Hinduism, the Indo-Aryans themselves accepted many of the snake deities of the Nagas in their pantheon and some of them even enjoyed a pride of place in the Puranic Hinduism. The prominent Cobra snakes mentioned in the Puranas are Anant, Vasuki, Shesh, Padma, Kanwal, Karkotak, Kalia, Aswatar, Takshak, Sankhpal, Dhritarashtra and Pingal.

The thousand-headed Sheshnag who symbolises Eternity, is the couch of Lord Vishnu. It is here that the Lord reclines between the time of the dissolution of one Universe and creation of another. Hindus believe in the immortality of the snake because of its habit of sloughing its skin. As such Eternity in Hinduism is often represented by a serpent eating its own tail.

It is an age-old religious belief that serpents are loved and blessed by Lord Shiva. May be that’s the reason Shiva always wears them as ornamentation around his neck. Most of the festivals that fall in the month of July/Aug are celebrated in honour of Lord Shiva. Along with Him Snakes too are worshipped. Live cobras or their pictures are revered and religious rights are performed to seek their good will.

Varna System

It is difficult to trace out when the caste system entered into the life of Hindus and how and why there occurred confusion between the Varna System and the caste creation. In fact in the Vedic era, there existed no such division and discrimination among the people.

In the later Vedic period, the Varna system showed its signs of appearance with the classification of Brahmin. The word Brahmin was not used out of any sense of respect. Devas were called kavi and also Brahman but not as Brahmin. The word Brahmin was out of place in the composition of Kavis. They came to be related to rituals and were called the Vedagya Brahmins. It was they who first created distinction in their ranks for financial gains in performance of rituals. This discrimination was based on professional competition. The Kavis began to challenge this discrimination since its very inception. They voiced their grave concern over it.

In the beginning of Rg Veda period, the word Brahman was used but it did not indicate any Varna. Then the word Rajanya followed it. The use of this word Rajanya indicates that even in the later Vedic period the word Kshatriya was not known. The word Rajanya was used in context of a divine power or the power of governance of the king or any other power. During those days, there existed two types of political orders. One based on Kingship and based on power of ganas or other type of peoples rule. Rajanya was used for kings and other ruling powers or even for a powerful person. It was never used in context of caste.

It can therefore be safely concluded that the caste was never known to exist in the Vedic era.

(to be contd)

OM or AUM

OM is the symbol of essence of Hinduism. It denotes oneness with the Supreme, the amalgamation of the physical being with the spiritual. It is the most holy syllable, the first sound of the Almighty - the sound from which materializes each and every other sound, be it of music or of language.

In the Upanishads this sacrosanct syllable appears as a mystic sound, regarded by scriptures as the very basis of every other sacred mantra. It is the sound not only of beginning but also of termination. The past, present and future are all included in this one sound. The syllable OM also represents the TRIMURTI (triad) of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

Shiva's drum produced this sound and because of it came the notes of the octave, for ex., SA, RI, GA, MA, PA, DHA, NI. By this sound Shiva created and recreated the universe. OM is also the sound form of Atman.

The Upanishads state that everything, existent and non- existent, can be comprehended by uttering the sacred syllable of OM. Meditation on OM gratifies every need and ultimately leads to salvation. Nearly all the prayers and recitals of sacred passages are prefixed by the sound of OM.

Musically, it is also held that the term OM or AUM is made up by three base notes ' A ' 'U' 'M' or the basic 'SA' 'PA' of the fundamental scale and again Sa (the base note) of the immediately higher scale. When says these notes in continuity, all the basic notes from SA to NI are heard. Similarly when one pronounces AUM correctly, all the basic sounds also echo. It is the traditional way of clearing all the obstacles in the vocal chord to make one chant the hymns correctly. Their unison makes one not only sound resonating but also is essential for chanting a Mantra (Incantation) properly. All the Vedic Mantras have 'OM' or' AUM' as the first word.

Gita XIII—The Individual self

Reality is, in its own nature, infinite, absolute, untrammeled, inalienably possessed of its own unity and bliss. The cosmic process has assumed five stages which are matter (anna), life (prana), mind (manas), intelligence (vijnana) and bliss (ananda). There is an inner direction given to things by reason of their participation in the creative onrush of life. The human being is at the fourth stage which is intelligence or vijnana. He is aware of the universal reality which is operating in the whole scheme. He seems to know matter, life and mind. He has mastered, to a large extent, the material world, the vital existence and even obscure workings of mentality but has not yet become completely illumined consciousness.

The divine dwells in the inmost being of man and cannot be extinguished. It is the inner light, the concealed witness, that which endures and is imperishable from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption. It is the principle of the jiva, the psychic person which changes and grows from life to life and when the ego is completely harmonized by the Divine, it ascends into spiritual existence which is its destiny and until this happens it travels between birth and death.

Gita XII--- Brahmanda or Cosmic Egg

Cosmic egg or Brahmanda includes within itself the totality of manifested being. All later developments are contained within it in a germinal form. It contains the past, the present and the future. Arjuna sees the whole world form, visvarupa, in one vast shape. He sees the form of the divine bursting the very bounds of existence, filling the whole sky and the universe, worlds coursing through it like the cataracts.

God’s real being is veiled by the play of prakriti and its modes. The world is said to be deceptive as God hides Himself behind His creation. The world is not a deception but the occasion for it. The world and its changes constitute the self-concealment of God or obscuring of the creator by His creation. Man is inclined to turn towards the objects of the world instead of directing his mind to the creator. God seems to be a great deceiver as He creates the world and its sense objects and turns our senses outward. The proneness to self-deception lies in the desire for the things of sense which actually leads man away from God. The world or objectified nature or samsara is fallen, enslaved, alienated and it is full of suffering, as alienation from inward being is suffering.

This relative unreality of the world is confirmed by the self-contradictory nature of the process of becoming. There is a struggle of opposites in the world of experience, and the real is above all opposites.

Gita XI: Being and Non-being

The Spirit which transcends all dualities, when looked at from the cosmic end becomes sundered into the transcendental subject facing the transcendental object. Subject and object are the two poles of the one Reality. They are not unrelated. The principle of objectivity, mulaprakriti, the unmanifested (avyakta) potentiality of all existence is of the very nature of the creative Logos, Ishvara. The eternal “I” confronts the pseudo-eternal “not-I.” As the “not-I” Prakriti (nature), is a reflection of the Self, it is subordinate to the Self. When the element of negation is introduced to the Absolute, its inwardness is unfolded in the process of becoming. The original unity becomes pregnant with the whole course of the world.

Cosmic process is the interaction between the two principles of being and non-being. God is the upper limit with the complete control of non-being and matter or prakriti, is the lower limit of the being. The Gita does not uphold a metaphysical dualism; for the principle of non-being is dependent on being. Non-being is a necessary moment in reality for the unfolding of the Supreme. If the world is what it is, it is because of the stress. The world of time and change is ever striving to reach perfection. Non-being which is responsible for the imperfections is a necessary element in the world. Only because of this, the ideas of God are actualized. The divine forms and matter belong to the one spiritual whole. When it is lifted into incorruption, when it becomes completely illuminated, the purpose of the supreme is realized and the world is restored to its origin in pure Being, above all distinctions.

Why is there non-being? Why is there the fall or the precipitation of from absolute being to becoming? Why is the world a perpetual strife between being and non-being? Absolute being is behind and beyond the world and in the world; He is also the Supreme Living God, loving the world and redeeming it by His Grace. WE cannot account for the world but can only construe its nature, which is strife between being and non-being, in the process of becoming. Pure being is above the world and pure non-being is below the lowest existent. If we go lower still, it is absolute nothing, it is absolute non-entity. In the world of true becoming, samsara, we have the conflict between the two principles of being and non-being.

Gita X: Nirguna (above quality) and Acintya (inconceivable)

If the fundamental form of the Supreme is nirguna, beyond quality and acintya, inconceivable, the world is an appearance which cannot be logically related to the Absolute. In the unalterable eternity of Brahman, all the moves and evolves is founded. They exist by It, they cannot be without It, though it causes nothing, does nothing, determines nothing. While the world is dependent on Brahman, Brahman is not dependant on the world. This one sided dependence and the logical inconceivability of the relation between the Ultimate Reality and the world are brought out by the word, “maya.”

Maya does not imply that the world is an illusion or is non-existent absolutely. It is delimitation distinct from the unmeasured and immeasurable. By why is there this delimitation? We cannot answer this at empirical level. In this journey, we have embarked on, it may be revealed to us or maybe not. It solely depends on us.

In every religion, the Supreme Reality is conceived as infinitely above our time order, with its beginning and end, its movement and fluctuations. God, in the Christian religion, is represented as without variableness or shadow of turning. If this were all, there would be an absolute division between the Divine life and this pluralistic world, which would make all communions between the two impossible. If the Supreme Reality were unique, passive and immobile, there would be no room for time, for movement, for history. Time, with its processes of change and succession, would become a mere appearance. But God is living principle, a consuming fire. It is not question of either an Absolute with an apparent multiplicity or a living God working in this pluralistic universe. The Supreme is both this and that; Eternity does not mean the denial of time or history. It is the transfiguration of time. Time derives from eternity and finds fulfillment in it. In the Bhagavad-Gita, there is no antithesis between eternity and time. Krishna unites the eternal and historical. The temporal movement is related to the inmost depths of eternity.

Gita IX: God, the goal to God, the guide

According to the Bhagavadgita,”at midnight, in the thickest darkness, the Dweller in every heart revealed Himself in the divine Devaki (she is the mother of Krishna. He is said to be born of Vasudeva and Devaki) for the Lord is self hidden in the hearts of all beings.” The glorious radiance arises from the blackest of black nights. In mysteries and revelations, night is rich. The presence of night does not make the existence of light less real. But for night, there can be never human consciousness of light. Birth of Krishna in the darkest of stormy night is manifestation of redemption of Humanity. The incarnation of Krishna is not much of conversion of Godhead into flesh as of taking up manhood into God.

In Gita, Krishna, as teacher guides his pupil, Arjuna to attain the status that He has Himself attained. Arjuna has not yet received the saving truth. He is fighting with the forces of darkness, falsehood, limitations and mortality which bar the way to the higher world. When his whole world seems to have fallen apart, when he is unaware of law of action, he takes refuge in his higher self, typified by Krishna, the jagadguru, the world teacher, and appeals for the grace of enlightenment.

Every individual is a pupil, an aspirant of perfection, a seeker of God and if he seeks earnestly, with faith, God the goal, becomes God the guide. It must be mentioned here that so far as validity of teachings in the Gita is concerned, the realities of spirit are the same now as they were thousands of year ago and difference of race and nationality do not affect them. The essential thing is truth or significance.

Gita VIII---Creation and Incarnation

Creation and incarnation, both belong to the world of manifestation and not to the absolute spirit.

If the Infinite God is manifested in finite existence throughout time, then its special manifestation at one given moment by which nature is but the free fulfillment of that same movement by which the divine plenitude freely fulfills itself and inclines towards the finite.-God is present in the creatures by essence, presence, power. The relation between the absolute, infinite, self-existent and immutable and finite human individual who is enmeshed in the temporal order is unimaginably intimate though difficult to define and explain. Once God has granted us free will, He does not stand aside leaving us to make or unmake ourselves. Whenever by abuse of freedom unrighteousness increases and the world get stuck in a rut, He creates Himself to lift the world from out of its rut and set it on new tracks. Out of his love He is born again and again to renew the work of creation on a higher plane.

The Supreme who is ever ready to protect the worlds has four forms. One of them dwell on earth practicing penance; the second keeps watch over the erring humanity; the third is engaged in activity in the world of men, and the fourth is plunged in the slumber of a thousand years. The Hindu tradition makes out that the avatars are not confined to human level. The presence of pain and imperfection is traced not to man’s rebellious will but to a disharmony between the creative purpose of God and the actual world. The Gita points out that there is a Divine Creator who imposes His forms on the abysmal void. Prakriti (nature) is the raw material, the chaos out of which order is to be evolved, and a night which is to be illumined.

If God is looked upon as saviour of man, He must manifest Himself, whenever the forces of evil threaten to destroy human values. An avatar is a descent of God into man ant ascent of man into God, which is the case with the liberated soul. Though the Gita accepts the belief in avatar as the Divine limiting Himself for some purpose on earth, possessing in His limited form the fullness of knowledge, it also lays stress on the eternal avatar, the GOD in man, the Divine consciousness always present in the human being. Krishna’s avatar is an illustration of the revelation of the spirit in us, the Divine hidden in gloom.

Gita VII...Krishna, the teacher

Krishna plays an important part in the story of Mahabharata where he is presented as the friend of Arjuna. He preaches the virtues of austerity, charity, uprightness, non-violence and truthfulness. The book is called Bhagavad-Gita because Krishna is known as the Bhagavan (GOD). Gita was taught by Krishna when during the fight between the Kauravas and Pandavas, both the armies had got ready for war and Arjuna had become depressed.

In the Gita, Krishna is identified with Supreme Lord, the unity that lies behind the manifold universe, the changeless truth behind all appearances, transcendent over all and immanent in all. Krishna is called Paramatman which implies transcendence; the essential life of all.

The representation of an individual identical with the universe self is a very familiar concept in Hinduism. In the Upanishads, the fully awakened soul merges with the Absolute One. In the Gita, Krishna says, “delivered from passion, fear and anger, absorbed in me, taking refuge in me, many purified by the austerity of wisdom have attained to my state of being.”

The ego holds something other than, to which it should abandon itself. In this abandonment, one can find true liberation of the soul. A liberated soul uses its body as a vehicle for manifestation of the eternal. The divinity claimed by Krishna is the common reward of all those who seek spirituality. Krishna is everywhere and in each one of us, as ready to speak to us now as ever was anyone else. He is not a bygone personality but the indwelling spirit, an object for our spiritual awakening.

God is never born in the ordinary sense. Processes of birth and reincarnation which imply limitations do not apply to him. When the lord is said to manifest himself at a particular time, particular occasion, it means that it takes place with reference to finite being. God is born for the protection of the good, the destruction of the evil and the upholding the righteousness.

Krishna is an incarnation or descent of the Divine into the human form. Krishna is human embodiment of Vishnu. The assumption of the human nature by the Divine Reality, like the creation of the world, does not take away from or add to the integrity of the Divine.

Gita VI...Trinity----Creator, Preserver and Destroyer

The divine pattern and potential matter, both of which derived are from GOD; who is the beginning, the middle and the end, are Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.

God with creative ideas is Brahma, and who pours out his love and patience is Vishnu. When the conceptual becomes cosmic, God is represented by Shiva. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are fundamentally one though conceived in a threefold manner.

Vishnu is the internal controller who pervades the whole universe. He gathers to himself in an ever increasing measure, the position and dignity of external supreme. Krsna, the teacher of GITA, becomes identified with Vishnu, the ancient lord of the sun, and Narayana, an ancient God of cosmic character and the goal.

The real is the supracosmic, eternal, space less Brahman who supports this cosmic manifestation in space and time. He is the universal spirit, paramatman, who ensouls the cosmic forms and movements. He fills our being, illumines our understanding and sets in motion its hidden springs.

Though God controls it, he too has the element of negativity or Maya. He puts forth his active nature and controls the souls who work out their destinies along lines determined by their own natures. God is impersonal Absolute as well as the immanent will; He is uncaused cause, the unmoved mover. The boundless universe in an endless space and time rests in Him and not Him in it.

Gita V...All pervading Supreme God

For the supreme, it can be said, “thou art the woman; the man; the youth; the maiden. Thou face all directions." He is not visible; He can only be known with the heart; the mind. Those who know him this way become immortal. He is the Universal God who Himself is the Universe which He includes within His own self. He is the light within us. He is the Supreme Being whose shadow is life and death.

The Supreme is Immutable and the Unthinkable. He is the source of all that is, He is himself immovable. The Eternal Reality not only supports His existence but also is the active power is the world. God is both transcendent, dwelling in light, inaccessible, yet "more intimate to the soul than the soul itself. The Supreme is at once the transcendental, the cosmic and the individual reality. In its transcendental aspect, it is pure self, unaffected by any action or experience, detached, unconcerned. In its dynamic aspect, it not only supports but governs the whole cosmic actions and this very Self which is one, all in all, above all; is present in all individuals.

If the universe consists of thinking individuals, who can be influenced but not controlled, for God is not a dictator, conflict is inevitable. The world consists of free spirits meaning that evil is possible and probable. One cannot seek truth, beauty and goodness if there is no evil, error or ugliness.

Without negativism, there can never be positivism. For the Gita, the world is scene of an active struggle between good and evil. As God is completely good, His love is boundless, He is concerned about the suffering of the world. God is omnipotent as there are no external limits to his power. The social nature of the world is not imposed on God, but is willed by Him. The law of Karma does not limit the omnipotence of God. The reign of law is the mind and will of God and cannot be regarded as a limitation of His power.

The emphasis of the Gita is on the Supreme as a God who is close to us at a personal level. He resides in everyone's heart, God stirs our heart, grants our prayers; He is the source and sustainer of values. We can seek Him on a personal level only by our faith, worship and prayers.

He is responsible for creation, preservation and dissolution of the universe. He has both higher and lower values. The living represents the higher and material medium, the lower. God is responsible for the ideal plan and the concrete medium through which the ideal becomes actual, the conceptual, the cosmic. God is at the same time, wisdom, love and perfection.