These two verse are very popular but yet difficult for easy comprehension. They require considerable reflection.
As we have seen earlier whenever Bhagavan uses the word ‘ME’ it does not refer to him as any individual but it means the Supreme Lord, the Ultimate Cause of All, the Uncaused Cause. His unmanifested form is Consciousness, Atman which is imperceptible to the senses. All things in the universe denote from the highest Brahma, the cosmic Spirit, to a blade of grass. Nothing can exist in this world unless the Lord, the Spirit, forms its substratum. Upanishads declare that the Lord, after creating the objects entered them as their indwelling consciousness to enliven them. Brahman, God, exists as the unmanifest Reality and pervades everywhere. Nothing exists other than Brahman. Yet because of delusion we see only the manifested world of beings and not it’s underlying Reality. We superimpose the illusory world on the eternal Reality, Brahman.
This is like a deluded person misunderstanding a post as a ghost in darkness. He is said to superimpose the figure of ghost on the post on account of his wrong perception. The post is the substratum of the ghost; the post pervades every part of the ghost; the ghost cannot exist unless there is the post but the post can survive in spite of the absence of the ghost.
Similarly Brahman exists without the world, but the world’s existence depends upon Brahman.
Hence Krishna declares this truth in Verse 4 above that All things in this universe are pervaded by Him in His unmanifest aspect and that all beings exist in Him but He does not exist in them. This is just like saying that the ghost exists in the post but the post does not exist in the ghost. The post remains the source of the ghost. There can be no ghost without the post, but the post can remain without the ghost.
A thing devoid of inner reality cannot exist or be an object of experience. The Lord is the inner reality of everything. The reality of the Lord makes real everything in this world. But the reality of the Lord does not depend upon the world. He always exists whether the universe of names and forms exists or not.
The Lord is incorporeal and therefore has no real contact with the material world. He cannot be contained in any object. He is self-existent and self-luminous. Only a fraction of His majesty illumines the sun, the moon and the universe. But He himself is transcendental.
Having said that, the Lord further declares in the Verse 5 that ‘All beings do not dwell in Me; My spirit which is the support of all beings and the source of all things, does not dwell in them’. On the face of it, this verse seems to contradict what was stated in the previous verse. Verse 4 admits the existence of beings in Brahman while Verse 5 denies the existence of beings in Brahman. A little critical analysis will remove this apparent mismatch of ideas.
Applying the same previous example of the post and the ghost to this verse, it is like the post telling that ‘The ghost is not in me nor I am in the ghost. In fact, there never was a ghost. The ghost you perceive is only your imagination and not based on any fact or reality. The only reality is I, the post. I was, I am and I will be (the post only). This is the only truth from my standpoint’.
Thus the contradiction between these two verses is reconciled if we understand that there is no real existence of the universe and the beings. The existence of beings admitted in Verse 4 has only an illusory appearance to the eyes of the deluded. Beings do not actually exist, Brahman alone exists. Those who are fortunate to have wisdom clearly perceive and experience this truth. They see Brahman alone supporting the illusory phenomenon of this universe.
While in dream state we do not see the connection between the dream world and our mind. Only on waking up we understand such connection. Our mind alone projected the dream world which on waking up disappeared. Similarly, on tuning to God- consciousness, upon realizing the Self, we see the relation between the universe and God, Brahman.
What is this relation? The infinite Lord cannot be contained in a finite universe. Then why cannot the universe and the beings dwell in Him? The Lord, in reality, is neither the container nor the contained. In Him there is not the slightest trace of duality. In His purest essence He is above the law of cause and effect. In the final realization, the object and the subject become one; the whole universe merges in the Lord. In that state the Lord remains as One without a second, a homogeneous concentration of consciousness. The concepts of container and contained, cause and effect, apply to the realm of manifestation or maya. Through maya even though the Lord manifests in the tangible, relative universe, and appears to be its cause and support, yet He is always One without a second, transcendental, incorporeal and unattached. This is His eternal mystery – ‘My Divine Mystery’ as the Lord puts it in the Verse 5.
HOW THE LORD SUPPORTS THE WORLD?
