By holding the mind constantly in the contemplation of the Self, the devotee was promised that he could develop in himself such a powerful and divine trait that at the time of his departure he can easily come to entertain the thoughts of the Divine. By a very subtle implication, it was also suggested in two previous stanzas (VIII-5, 6), that even while continuing to live in the present embodiment, the seeker can reach a point where the ego-centric life is ended. Such a total annihilation of ignorance-created misconceptions, and the consequent vanities, can be successfully accomplished by the seekers only when their minds get totally withdrawn from their attachments to the false matter-envelopments through the process of continued contemplation upon the Self.
In the preceding stanza, it was also vaguely hinted that the contemplation of the Self must be as “THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA.” If I am advised by somebody to meditate upon or think out the possibilities of OXYGENELITEEN’ it will be impossible for me, however wise a man I might be, unless I know what that is. Merelyupon a name, no consistent contemplation is possible. “OXYGENELITEEN” is merely a word constituted of letters — it means nothing; it is only a sound represented by a few letters of the alphabet. Similarly, to be advised by a Shastra, to meditate upon the SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF, could only be as futile as to be asked to think over the possibilities of “OXYGENELITEEN.”In a practical text-book of instruction as to how Vedanta can be lived, Krishna has to provide Arjuna with sufficient material indicating the line of contemplation to be undertaken by the meditator. The two stanzas now under review, give an exhaustive design for the students to make themselves successfully and profitably disciplined.
These qualifying terms are as many different indications of the Truth (though none defines It), which is the thrilling core that gives a similitude of life and reality to inert, unreal matter. No single term here, therefore, is to be understood as complete in itself. Geometrically, a point can be defined and indicated only with reference to two different sets of data. So too, here the inexpressible Reality has been almost accurately explained with these different qualifying terms.
Contemplation upon the Reality, through an attempt at exhaustively comprehending all the secret suggestions in the above stanza, is to prepare a mental condition in which, if a mind lives well-integrated and turned inward, it can come to pause in an atmosphere of Infinite Experience.
The Conscious Principle, serving as the Soul in an embodiment, is that which illumines all the thought waves that rise in that particular mind, functioning in that given embodiment. The Infinite Self being One everywhere, it is the same Principle that illumines all the different embodiments, all the thought-experiences, at all times. Just as the Sun is said to be “SEEING EVERYTHING,” because it illuminates all the objects on the globe, so too, is the Divine Principle of Awareness — the factor without which no knowledge is ever possible. Thus, the Self is considered, in terms of the world of conditioned-knowledge which we experience today, as the Supreme Knower who knows everything, Omniscient (Kavih), and without whom no knowledge is ever possible.
ANCIENT (Puranah) — The Self is considered as the most Ancient because the Eternal Truth is that which was before all creation, which remains the same all through the ages of existence, and which shall ever remain the same even after the projections of plurality have ended. To indicate that the One Self ever remains the same everywhere, providing a substratum even for the concept of time, It is indicated here as the Ancient.
THE OVER-RULER (Anushasitah) — It is not in any way indicated here that the Self is a Sultan, tyrannically ruling over the world. Here the term ‘Over-ruler’ is only to indicate that if the Principle of Awareness were not presiding over the multiple faculties of perception, feeling, and comprehension in us, our physical, mental and intellectual experiences could not have been harmonised into the meaningful existence of our life-time. The Overlordship, mentioned here, only indicates that the Knowing Principle of Consciousness is the very essence but for which life — defined as a continuous series of experiences — in any form is never possible. Without mud the mud-pots cannot exist; in all pots the mud is the OVER-RULER. Just as gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, sweetness in all candy, so too is the Self in the Universe of names and forms. It is in this sense that the term ‘Overruler’ is to be understood. To conceive of God as a mighty policeman standing with two keys, one made of gold to open the gates of heaven, and the other of iron to open the doors of hell, is a barbarous concept of Godhood that has nothing sacred in it to attract the intellectually awakened generations!
MINUTER THAN AN ATOM (Anoraniyan) — The simplest and the smallest physically divisible particle of any element which still maintains the specific properties of that element is called its atom. Thus, it is indicated here that the Self is the subtlest of the subtle. The subtler a thing, the greater is its pervasiveness. Water is considered subtler than a block of ice, and the steam ensuing when water is boiled is considered subtler than the water itself. In all these stages, pervasiveness is the measuring rod of their comparative subtleties. In the Upanishadic lore, it is usual to consider the Self as “the Subtlest of the Subtle” which only indicates that “It pervades all, and nothing pervades It.”
THE NOURISHER OF ALL (Sarvasya Dhatarah) — The nourisher here means the support that sustains everything. In a cinema theatre, the changeless white-screen can be considered as the nourisher of the entertainment, inasmuch as, without it the ever-changing flow of pictures could not have given us the impression of a continuous story. However glorious might be the message that a master-painter has brought out with his brush, it is the consistent strength of the canvas behind, that nourishes and sustains the integrity and beauty of the picture. Similarly, if the One Consciousness were not constantly illumining the ever-changing flux of things and happenings around and within us from birth to death, through all conditions and states of our existence, the homogeneous oneness of life would never have been ours to react to and feel fulfilled with.
OF FORM INCONCEIVABLE (Achintya-roopah) — If there be a factor that is Omniscient, Ancient, Over-ruler, Subtlest of the subtle, and Nourisher of all, and if we are advised to meditate upon It, then it is possible that we immediately get a false notion that the Self can be thought of and comprehended, as any other finite object or idea, by our limited faculties of the head or the heart. To remove this wrong idea and to emphasize that the Infinite cannot be comprehended by the finite instruments of perception, feeling and understanding — but can only be apprehended when these equipments are transcended — the Lord is particularly anxious to tell His students that the Self is of “THE FORM INCONCEIVABLE.” Though it is thus, in fact, inconceivable, yet, on transcending the equipment of experiences, the individual, in a process of Divine Awakening, can subjectively apprehend It to be his own Essential Nature.
LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN (Aditya-varnah) — If the implication of the above term (Achintya-roopah) be true, no intelligent seeker can arrest his temptation to doubt as to how the Self can ever be realised. As seekers, we live and strive within the limitations of our own mind and intellect. Every moment of our existence, we gather a harvest of experiences only through the use of the different equipments given to us. Living as we are, rooted in our false identifications with these equipments in the early days of our spiritual efforts, the seeker in us should necessarily despair at the impossible conception and the mad mission of “knowing the UN-KNOWABLE” — conceiving the IN-CONCEIVABLE — understanding the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE — or experiencing the IN EXPERIENCABLE!!!
The Self is defined as the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE, or the IN-CONCEIVABLE, or IN-EXPERIENCABLE, etc., only to indicate that the instruments of cognition, experience and apprehension are not available for functioning in the Self. The dream-gun, with which the dreamer had shot the enemies of his dream-world, cannot be any longer handled by him, when once he has awakened. Even the bloody hands of a dreamer, after a dream-murder, become automatically clean, without either soap or water, the moment he wakes up! As long as man is identifying with his limiting adjuncts, he lives in the external world of his self-projected delusory multiplicity, wherein the Self is “IN-CONCEIVABLE, and IN-EXPERIENCABLE.” But the moment these adjuncts are transcended through a process of steadfast contemplation on the Self, he gets awakened to his own nature of Pure Being.
Once having understood this much of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta, it becomes easy to appreciate the matchless beauty of the example of the Sun. In order to see the Sun, no other light is necessary, as the Sun is the “SOURCE” of all light, the one illuminator that illuminates everything else. Just as, in the physical world, the Sun, in its self-effulgence, is self-evident, so too, in the spiritual realm, to know the Knowledge Absolute, no other knowing-principle is needed. The dreamer can never KNOW the waker, for, while knowing the waking-state the dreamer himself ends to BECOME the waker; to awaken oneself from the dream is to know the waker; to KNOW the waker is to BECOME the waker. So too, on ending the ego-centric existence, in the flash of the spiritual awakening, the misguided, panting ego ends itself in the re-discovery that it has been nothing but the Self, at all times. This vast suggestion is cramped into a mystic word-picture: “LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN.”
BEYOND ALL DARKNESS (Tamasah-Parastat) — The limited and the finite example of the Sun calls into the heart of a student some dangerous misgivings. The Sun in the heavens is, no doubt, resplendent, but only during the day; and even during the day-time there are various degrees of intensity of the sunlight experienced by the living kingdom. If the Self is “LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN,” then the industrious student may gather that the Self also varies in Its intensity, and that there are periods of time when It is not at all available! To remove these two fallacious ideas — that the Self is variable in nature and sometimes totally absent, this qualifying term is used here. The very limitation of the Sun, meaning the darkness of the night, is negated when Krishna says that the Self is “BEYOND THE DARKNESS” of ignorance, or Maya.
He who meditates upon the Self thus, as Omniscient, Ancient, Overruler, Subtlest of the subtle, Nourisher of all, of Inconceivable Form, Self-illuminating as the Sun, and Beyond all traces of ignorance, is the one who “goes to Him.”
