Men who lack discrimination and the capacity to perceive the subtle Truth that shines in and through the vast disturbances of the endless plurality, fail to realise the immutable and the peerless Self. In their extreme preoccupation with the ever-changing glory of the perceivable, the Prakriti, (VII-4 and 6) they do not understand that “ALL THIS IS STRUNG IN ME AS A ROW OF PEARLS ON A STRING.”
This fundamental Reality, that is the beam of brilliance in which like dust-particles the Universes dance about, is termed as the “Unmanifest.” This term is to be understood in all its philosophical implications. That which is called the MANIFEST is available either for the perceptions of the sense-organs, or for the feelings of the mind, or for the understanding of the intellect. That which is not available for any one of these instruments of cognition, feeling or understanding is considered as the UNMANIFEST.
The Self, indeed, should then be considered as the UNMANIFEST, for it is the VITALITY behind the sense-organs, the FEELER — potential in the mind and the very LIGHT that illumines the intellect.
The distorted intellects of the extroverts, in their miscalculations, come to the false judgement that the physical glory of the Prophet, or of the incarnation, is all that is the Eternal Truth. The point-of-concentration (Upasya) is to be considered, no doubt, as the symbol of the Truth which the devotee is seeking, but it cannot IN ITSELF be the Truth. If it were the Truth, then after carving out an idol, or after approaching a Guru, the devotee has nothing more to do, since he has gained the Truth! Idol worship is only a convenience for gathering true concentration, for getting an initial momentum for the final flight into themselves, to reach the Self and discover therein their own oneness with It.
This stanza gives us a clear insight into the futility of mistaking the bottle for the medicine, the physical form for the Guru, the idol for the God! All white-wood is not the fragrant sandal-wood. Any bright light high up in the sky, however resplendent it might be, is not a star. Some men of incomparable foolishness may come to declare that the light from a tower is the Sun, but no wise man of the town will accept it. The idea of Divine Incarnation is accepted in Hinduism, and according to its theory, EVERYONE IS AN INCARNATION-TO-A-DEGREE! The same Truth pervades all, and is in each. It expresses through the enveloping layers of the mind-and-intellect. The clearer the mind and the purer the intellect, the greater is the effulgence of the Divine that beams out through them.
When the Self in anyone beams out through the steadied and purified mind and intellect completely sublimating his lower nature (Prakriti), he becomes a Prophet, a Sage. Krishna, Rama, Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Mahavira are some of the examples. These Men-of-realisation, discovering their Self, understood and lived every moment of their lives in the Self, as the Self of all. To mistake their physical structure, or the lingering traces of their mind, or the film of their intellectual personality, for the very Essence of Truth, which these God-men were, is to make as miserable a mistake as taking the waves to be the ocean!
Naturally, therefore, Krishna uses here a severe term, to indicate such deluded men of superstitious false understanding, as “UNINTELLIGENT FOOLS” (A-Buddhayah).
WHAT CAUSES THIS PREVALENT IGNORANCE OF THE TRUE NATURE IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:
