Gita Chapter 8

Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ has pricked the bubble and it has been accepted even in the West that the concepts of time and space depend upon individual factors governing their measurements. Time hangs heavily and moves at a snail’s pace when one is in agitation, as when one is anxiously waiting for something; while, to the same individual, time flies when he is quite at ease with himself, under circumstances happy, pleasant, and entertaining. One playing cards knows not when the night was spent and he is surprised when he notices the early dawn peeping through the windows. The same person will complain that each moment has lengthened itself to become hours, when he is at some unpleasant work, or is suffering some pain. He who is enjoying the homogeneous experience of sleep, has no concept of time at all while he is sleeping.

From the above, it has been logically concluded in the philosophy of the Hindus, that time is truly the measure of the interval between two different experiences. The greater the number of experiences that flood the mind to agitate it, the slower will the time move; while the longer the same experience continues, the faster moves the time. In a single given experience there is no perception of time just as there is no concept of distance when there is only one point; distances can be measured only between two or more points. Basing their calculations upon this theory, the Pauranic-poets rightly conceived that their gods had a larger dial for their divine clocks! In the Upanishads also, we find a scale of relative intensity of Bliss-experience, from a mortal, healthy, young man, living in conducive environments, upto the very Creator Himself. This ascending scale of joy, experienced in different realms of Consciousness, is showing the relative mental equipoise and tranquillity at those different levels of existence. It is said here that a thousand “cycles” constitute the day-time of the Creator; and an equally long thousand “cycles” constitute the night-time of the Creator. This declaration of those, “WHO KNOW THE TRUE MEASURE OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT,” calculated in terms of “cycles” has been translated in terms of our 365-day years. Each “cycle” consists of aeons (Yugas). Four aeons (Yugas) together constitute one “cycle,” and a thousand “cycles” are conceived of as constituting the daytime of the Creator!

As the individual units, so is the sum total of the assembly. The individual mind projects, creates and sustains what its fancies dictate, and without any regret scraps the whole lot, only to create afresh. This constant function does take place in each individual only during the day time, as representing the waking state. In the same fashion the Total Mind — the Cosmic Creator — also is conceived as creating the gross world of dense objects and intelligent beings only during His waking hours.

Viduh, they know; that ahah, day; brahmanah, of Brahma, of Prajapati, of Virat; yat, which; sahasra-yuga-paryantam, ends in a thousand yugas; and also the ratirm, night; yuga-sahasra-antam, which ends in a thousand yugas, having the same duration as the day. Who knows (these)? In reply the Lord says: Te, they; janah, poeple; ahoratra-vidah, who are the knowers of what day and night are, i.e. the people who know the measurement of time. Since the worlds are thus delimited by time, therefore they are subject to return. What happens during the day and the night of Prajapati is being stated:

Ahar-agame, with the coming of day, at the time when Brahma wakes; sarvah vyaktayah, all manifested things, all things that get manifested, all creatures characterized as moving and non-moving; prabhavanti, emerge, become manifested; avyaktat, from the Unmanifested-avyakta (Unmanifested) is the state of sleep of Prajapati; from that avyakta. Similarly, ratri-agame, when night comes, at the time when Brahma sleeps; praliyante, they, all the manifested things, merge; tatra eva, in that itself; avyakta-sanjnake, which is called the Unmanifested referred to above. In order to obviate the defect of the emergence of some unmerited result and the destruction of merited results; [The following verse says that the very same multitude of beings continues in the different cycles of creation, and there-fore these two defects do not arise.] for pointing out the meaningfulness of the scriptures [For the earlier reason the scriptures do not lose their validity.] dealing with bondage and Liberation; and with a view to propounding detachment from the world on the ground that the helpless multitude of beings perishes after being born again and again under the influence of accumulated results of actions that have for their origin such evils as ignorance etc. [The five evils are: ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life. (See P. Y. Su. 2.3)], the Lord says this:

In these two stanzas an explanation is given on how the Creator employs Himself, during his day, which is a thousand aeons long, and during his night, which also is an equally long interval. It is also added here, that the Creator creates during the day, and the entire created world, at the approach of His night, merges into ‘the unmanifest’ (Avyakta).

In the worldly sense of the term, ‘creation’is generally understood as the production of something new. Philosophically viewed, ‘creation’has a subtler significance and a more intimate meaning. A pot-maker can ‘create’ pots out of mud, but he cannot ‘create’ Laddus (a popular Indian sweetmeat) out of the same mud! The act of ‘creation’is only the production of a name and form, with some specific qualities, out of a raw-material in which the same name, form, and qualities are already existing in an unmanifest condition. The ‘POT-NESS’ was in the mud, while the ‘Laddu-ness’ is not therein, and therefore, a pot can be ‘created’ from a given sample of mud, not so even a tiny bit of Laddu. Hence, it is concluded by the thinkers of Vedanta that “CREATION IS BUT A CRYSTALLISATION OF THE UNMANIFEST DORMANT NAMES, FORMS, AND QUALITIES, INTO THEIR MANIFEST FORMS OF EXISTENCE.”

Anyone, living as he does on any given day, is but the product of the numerous yesterdays that he has lived in his intellectual thoughts, his emotional feelings and his physical actions. The actions of the past, supported by the thoughts entertained and the valuations accepted by him, leave a distinct flavour upon his mind and intellect, and the future thoughts and their flow are controlled and directed by the previously made thought-channels.

Just as there is consistency of species in procreation, so also, there is a consistency noticeable in the multiplication of thoughts. Just as frogs breed frogs, and men breed men, or mango seeds germinate and grow to put forth mangoes, so too, good thoughts creating good thought-currents can multiply only into a flood of good thoughts. These thought-impressions in the mind (vasanas), that lie unmanifest to our sense-organs and often to our own mental and intellectual perceptions, become manifested as gross actions, thoughts and words, making our path of life either smooth or rough, according to the texture and quality of the thoughts manifested.

Suppose a doctor, an advocate, a devotee and dacoit are all sleeping in a rest-house. While sleeping, all of them look the same — masses of flesh and bones, warm and breathing. The advocate is in no way different from the dacoit, nor is the doctor different from the devotee. The specific qualities in each bosom, at this moment, though totally absent from observation are not non-existent but they remain in a condition of dormancy.

These unmanifested temperaments, capacities, inclinations and tendencies come to project forth and manifest when they wake up, and once they leave the rest-house, each will be pursuing his own particular thought-tendencies. In the rest-house, the doctor, the advocate, the devotee and the dacoit, were all in their “unmanifest-state” (Pralaya) while they were asleep; but at dawn, when they wake up, these four different specimens are projected forth into manifestation. This, in the language of religion and philosophy, is called “creation.”With this correct understanding of the process of “creation,” it would be certainly easy for us to understand the cosmic processes of “creation and dissolution.” The Creator, or the Total-mind, during His waking hours of thousand aeons, projects out the already existing vasanas, and “AT THE APPROACH OF NIGHT, THEY MERGE VERILY INTO THAT ALONE, WHICH IS CALLED THE ‘UNMANIFEST’.”

It is insisted here by Lord Krishna, that “THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS ARE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND MERGE IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES.” Subjectively, this declaration provides us with a clearer understanding of how man becomes enslaved by his own thoughts and emotions. It is never possible that an animal-man, pursuing consistently the life of sensuality, perpetrating unkind cruelties in order to satisfy his passions can wake up overnight, to be a gracious man of all perfections — however great his teacher, however divine the occasion, and whatever the sanctity of the place or the time may be.

No teacher can, or shall ever, teach his disciple and thereby transform him, instantaneously, into a divine person, unless, of course, the student has the divine tendencies lying dormant and ready for manifestation in him! The moment anybody argues that, as a rare instance, one great soul had been so transformed in the past, by one unique teacher, then there must have been some equally unique instance of some magician producing a Laddu out of mud! In the latter case, we know that it was only magic and that the Laddu was NOT produced from the mud. Similarly, intelligent people, with some understanding of the Science of Life, and with at least a little share of respect for and devotion to the Prophet of the Geeta, will hoot down such a fantastic story. Such a story can be accepted only in a mood of poetic exaggeration indulged in by the disciples, in praise of their teacher.

THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS, meaning the very same bundles of thought-impressions — an individual being nothing other than the thoughts that he entertains — arrive at different fields of activity and states of Consciousness in order to exhaust themselves. “IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES” (Avassah), is a powerful expression indicating the incapacity of an individual to disinherit himself from his past. The past always faithfully follows us like our shadow — darkening our path when we turn our back to the Light of Knowledge, and accompanying us submissively at our heels like a guardian angel when we turn towards the effulgent Self and wend our way towards It.

On leaving a physical embodiment, a particular mind-intellect-equipment continues its existence in just the same way as an actor who drops down the apparel of the king at the close of the play and continues to exist in his individual capacity as the father of his children, the husband of his wife, etc. The taking up of a physical structure and singing the song of one’s mental vasanas, in the form of actions, is called ‘creation,’ and when that physical structure is given up, the thoughts and ideas, having no equipment to express themselves, become the unmanifest. A violinist playing on his violin makes the music in him manifest; and, when the violin is kept away in its box, the music in the individual becomes unmanifest.

This ‘realm of the unmanifest’ in each bosom undergoes constant change, whenever it comes in contact with the world of manifestation and reacts to it. We already know that change cannot take place unless it is upon a changeless substratum.

UPON WHAT PERMANENT PLATFORM DOES THE UNMANIFEST COME TO PLAY ITS DRAMA OF LIFE?

O son of Prtha, bhutva, after being born again and again at the approach of day; sah eva, that very-not any other; bhutagramah, multitude of beings, consisting of the moving and the non-moving objects that existed in the earlier cycle of creation; praliyate, disappears repeatedly; avasah, in spinte of itself, [For they are impelled by their own defects] without any independence whatever; ratri-agame, at the approach of night, at the close of the day. Prabhavati, it comes to life, verily in spite of itself; ahar-agame, at the approach of day. The means for the attainment of that Immutable which was introduced has been pointed out in, ‘He who departs by leaving the body while uttering the single syllable, viz Om, which is Brahman, ‘ etc. (13). Now, with a vies to indicating the real nature of that very Immutable, this is being said-that It is to be reached through this path of yoga:

The new technical terms, used all of a sudden in the last two stanzas of the previous chapter (the Essential Being, the Essential Deity, the Essential Sacrifice etc.

), which are to be known so that such Men-of-Wisdom “CONTINUE TO KNOW ME EVEN AT THE TIME OF DEATH STEADFAST IN MIND” (VII-30) confuse Arjuna.

The chapter opens with the seeker questioning his teacher with a view to get an exact definition for each new term used in His learned discourse. Not only does Arjuna ask for an explanation of the terms used, but he is also anxious to know how exactly one can realise the Self at the time of death, when one gains perfect self-control as a result of one’s constant spiritual practices in life.

THE LORD EXPLAINS EACH TERM EXHAUSTIVELY IN THE FOLLOWING STANZAS:

In order to settle these questions seriatim –

The same black-board is approached by different teachers to explain different subjects, during a single day in a class room. The mathematics teacher’s geometrical figures and calculations are wiped clean by the geography teacher to design his maps of the world and to trace the path of rivers, the location of lakes and the position of mountains. When the chemistry teacher arrives, he erases the entire world of mountains, rivers and oceans represented on the black-board, and he, in his turn, writes on it the laws of chemical reactions among the various elements and their compounds. The history teacher makes the black-board clean again, to scribble on it the ancestral trees of dynasties destroyed and families forgotten. Each teacher comes and writes on the black-board different words and symbols which represent the design of knowledge that he has in his bosom. But all designs were chalked out and executed upon the same black-board, which illumined the mathematical calculations, the geographical data, the chemical formulae, and the historical facts, in turn.

Similarly, the changing world of the unmanifest must have one Changeless Substratum, “THAT WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL BEINGS (bhutas).” When, in the evening, the students and teachers have all left the class room, the black-board still remains. The principle of Pure Consciousness, Itself Unmanifest — inasmuch as It is not perceivable by the sense organs or comprehensible by the mind and intellect — is indicated here as the changeless substratum of all, when the Lord declares, “BEYOND THIS UNMANIFEST, THERE IS THE OTHER ETERNAL EXISTENCE, THE UNMANIFESTED.”

The unmanifest (vasanas) are the seeds of the manifest and they constitute, what Vedanta indicates by its very familiar term, “Ignorance” (Avidya). “Ignorance” can be only of an existent something; I cannot be ignorant of my tail, since I do not have a tail. This proves the existence of some Positive Factor called the Truth, the Self — the black-board upon which all other conditional knowledges are scribbled — serving as the Permanent and Changeless Substratum. “The ignorance of the Real Nature of this Eternal Factor,” is called Avidya, which, in its turn projects the manifested ever-changing world of names and forms. The Ultimate Reality, the Self, is being indicated here as something that lies beyond the hazy frontiers of the delusory experiences of creation, dissolution, and re-creation, over and over again.

IS THIS UNMANIFEST THEN THE SUPREME? OR, IS THERE YET ANOTHER FACTOR WHICH ALONE IS FIT TO BE THE GOAL OF LIFE?

He is parah, distinct, different;-From what?-tasmat, from that aforesaid (Unmanifested). The word tu, but, is meant for showing the distinction of the Immutable that is going to be spoken of from the Unmanifested. He is bhavah, the Reality, the supreme Brahman called the Immutable. Even though different, there is the possibility of similarlity of characteristics. Hence, for obviating this the Lord says: anyah, the other, of a different characteristic, and He is the Immutable which is beyond the range of the organs. It has been said that He is distinct from that. From what, again is He distinct? Avyaktat, from the Unmaifested spoken of earlier, which is the seed of the multitude of beings, and which is characterized as ignorance (avidya) [Ast. adds, ‘anyah vilaksanah, bhavah ityabhiprayah: The meaning is that the Reality is different and distinct (form that Unmanifested).-Tr.] He is sanatnah, eternal. Bhavah, the Reality; yah sah, who is such; na, does not; vinasyati, get destroyed; when sarvesu bhutesu, all beings, beginning from Brahma; nasyatsu, get destroyed.

What has been indicated in the previous stanza as “THE OTHER UNMANIFEST — WHICH IS THE ETERNAL EXISTENCE — WHICH KNOWS NO DESTRUCTION,” is explained here as the Imperishable mentioned earlier in this chapter. The Imperishable was defined as the Brahman, the substratum for the entire universe, and we were

also advised that we must meditate upon OM as the symbol of this Imperishable. The Self which is of the nature of Pure Awareness is that which lends existence and dynamism to the unmanifested vasanas, and makes them capable of projecting out to form the manifested world of activities and behaviours. This Eternal Unmanifested Factor, the Imperishable Self, is the highest goal for man to achieve.

In all other states of existence, there is again and again the experience of return. Just as sleep is not the end of life, but only a refreshing pause between two spans of activity, so too death is not an end, but often, only a restful pause in the unmanifested condition, that comes between two successive manifested existences in different embodiments. It was already indicated that even from higher levels of Consciousness, the ego-centres will have to return to exhaust their unmanifested cravings, the vasanas. Birth, we have already been told, is “A HOUSE OF PAIN AND FINITUDE,” and therefore, complete satisfaction can be reached only when there is no rebirth — no return.

Often, educated students of the present generation ask: “Why, after realising the Self, should there be no-return?” The question, though natural, cannot stand even a moment’s scrutiny. Generally, cause-hunting is for things that happen and not for things that do not happen! Nobody anxiously enquires why I am not in a hospital but an intelligent enquirer has every right to enquire why I have gone to the hospital. We may enquire why the Infinite has become the finite; but the question does not arise at all why the Infinite should not fall again into the finite. This question is as absurd as my enquiring as to why you are not yet in jail. For not going to jail, no cause-hunting is necessary. And if you have actually gone to jail, there is certainly a justification to ask and enquire what is the exact crime for which you have been sent to jail.

We can never explain to a little girl and make that child understand what are the physical and emotional thrills of married life; in her childhood she has not the vehicle for comprehending the biological thrills of sex-life. But, as the same girl grows in her maturity, she develops in herself the biological antennae to feel and mentally comprehend the very same thrills which were to her but empty suggestions in early childhood — when all she wanted was that her mother should marry her! In the same fashion, a seeker who lies burrowed in the dung-heap of his mind and intellect, cannot, in its filthy atmosphere, know the vast embrace of the horizon and the glorious fragrance of the fresh breeze. As he detaches himself from his false identifications, through the process of meditation advised, (VIII-12, 13 and 14) he, as it were, hatches out of his limiting adjuncts, and enters the vaster fields of subtler experiences. On waking up alone can one realise the falsehood of one’s dreams; the dreamer can never, so long as he dreams, realise the delusion from which he is suffering. Having awakened from a dream, the waker cannot be persecuted by his dream sorrows and his dream-happenings.

The Self, or Pure Consciousness, is poetically described here by Vyasa as the dwelling place of Krishna, “THAT IS MY HIGHEST DWELLING-PLACE.” In the Geeta, the Singer of the Song Divine, is THE Self, and as such the Highest Goal is to reach the State of Pure Consciousness, the Imperishable, which is available for the experiencer of the Self. This was described at length while the teacher was indicating the nature of Knowledge gained by one who attains the State of the Divine Purusha.

THE DIRECT PATH BY WHICH THIS CONSUMMATE GOAL CAN BE REACHED IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:

He Himself who has been uktah, meantioned; as avyaktah, Unmanifest; the aksarah, Immutable; ahuh, they call; tam, Him-that very unmanifest Reality which is termed as the Immutable; the paramam, supreme; gatim, Goal. Tat, That; is the paramam, supreme; dhama, abode, i.e. the supreme State; mama, of Mine, of Visnu; yam prapya, reaching which Reality; na nivartante, they do not return to the worldly state. The means for gaining That is being stated:

Here Krishna, the Prophet of the Hindus, vividly chalks out the technique and the path by which “WHAT HAS BEEN CALLED THE UNMANIFEST, THE IMPERISHABLE — THAT SUPREME PURUSHA IS ATTAINABLE.” Single-pointed devotion is the way and the means. Devotion — total selfless identification — with the Supreme Purusha can be achieved only when the devotee has learnt to dissociate himself from all his preoccupations with his world of body, mind, and intellect. This detachment from the false is gained in a growing attachment with the Real, the Permanent. An act of inspired seeking, of identifying oneself totally with the experience of ‘SELF I AM’ is the “WHOLE-SOULED DEVOTION TO HIM ALONE,’ that is mentioned in this verse. The Self, thus identified by the seeker in his meditation as himself, should not be conceived of as merely the Divine Spark that presides over his own individual matter-envelopments. Though the seeking is subjective, in identifying with the Self, in the final experience, It is to be realised as the very Substratum of the entire universe. Implying this oneness of the Self with the Truth behind the entire world of phenomena, Bhagawan says, as an indication of the nature of the Purusha, “IN WHOM ALL BEINGS ABIDE AND BY WHOM ALL THIS IS PERVADED.”

All mud-pots exist in the mud, and the mud pervades all mud-pots irrespective of their shape, size, or colour. Whether it be a breaker, or a wave, or a wavelet, all are nothing but the ocean, and the ocean pervades all of them. Within and without, the substance of all pots is the substance with which they are made; the Essential Nature of all the waves, big, small, or tiny is nothing other than the ocean from which they are born.

Pure awareness is the Eternal Truth in which the unmanifest comes to be projected forth as the manifest. But for the cotton, the weaver’s unmanifested conception of beauty and proportion cannot be projected and spread out through his creative art of weaving a design on the cloth he is making. At all points in that design of cloth, the one factor without which the design cannot stand is the substance of the threads in the cloth — the cotton.

Pure Awareness, poured into the moulds of vasanas, when frozen with “ignorance,” becomes the multiple world of names and forms — recognised, craved for, and fought over to acquire and to possess — everywhere by everyone. Therefore, one who has identified oneself with the Self, in that vivid experience, comes to understand the very Essence out of which the confusing multiplicity has risen up into manifestation, to confound the stupid ego and to torment it with the delusory dream of its samsara!

After enumerating the two distinct ways of procedure to go back from the manifest to the unmanifest, in the following, Krishna devotes an entire section to explain the different routes taken by seekers to reach the two different destinations. Some reach a destination from where there is a return and others attain a level of experience from which there is no return.

WHAT ARE THE TWO PATHS?

O son of Prtha, sah, that; parah purusah, supreme, unsurpassable Person-(the word purusa) derived in the sense of ‘residing in the heart’ or ‘all-pervasiveness’; that Person, compared to whom there is nothing superior-; yasya, in whom, in which Person; antahsthani, are included; bhutani, (all) the beings which are Its products-for a product remains inherent in its cause; and yena, by whom, by which Person; tatam, is pervaded; sarvam, all; idam, this, the Universe, as pot etc. are by space; is tu, indeed; labhyah, reached; through ananyaya, one-pointed; bhaktya, through devotion, characterized as Knowledge; ananyaya, which is one pointed, which relates to the Self. The Northern Path meant for the attainment of Braman by the yogis under discussion, who have superimposed the idea of Brahman on the syllable Om and who are destined to get Liberation in due course, has to be stated. Hence, in order to present the intended idea the verse, ‘(O best of the Bharata dynasty) of that time…at which,’ etc. is being recited. The description of the Path of Return (in verse 25) is by way of praising the other Path (of Departure, in verse 24):

The Lord has already explained that there are two goals in life which men seek: the extrovert life of satisfying the ego and gaining its flickering joys among the sense-objects — each experience of which soon sours itself to become sorrow; and the Divine Mission of seeking the Imperishable by ending the ego in a re-discovery of its own real Nature as nothing other than the Eternal Consciousness, the Changeless Substratum of the whole universe.

These two goals, it has been indicated, differ from each other inasmuch as the former ensures a return again to a finite embodiment, to live the consequent ego-centric life of limitations, and the latter promises a goal, having reached which, there is no return. The Realised One comes to experience and enjoy the Infinite Beatitude of the Bliss Absolute as his own Real Self.

If thus, there are two goals to be gained, there must necessarily be two different paths guiding the two types of seekers to their respective destinations. In the stanza under review, the Lord promises that he will explain to “the Chief of the Bharata family,” both the “Path of return” and the “Path of no-return.”

There is a pun on the word ‘Kale’ used here; it shows both the TIME of departure and the PATH pursued by the different types of seekers at the end of their present manifestations.

THE PATH PURSUED BY THOSE WHO HAVE NO RETURN IS AS FOLLOWS:

Bharatarsabha, O best of the Bharata dynasty; vaksyami, I shall speak; tu, now; tam, of that; kalam, time; prayatah, by departing, by dying; (-these words are to be which time; yoginah, the yogis; yanti, attain; anavrttim, the State of Non-return, of nonrebirth; ca eva, and also; of the time by departing at which they attain its opposite, avrttim, the State of Return. By ‘Yogis’ are implied both the yogis (men of meditation) and the men of acitons (rites and duties). But the men of action are yogis by courtesy, in accordance with the description, ‘through the Yoga of Action for the yogis’ (3.3). The Lord speaks of that time: [This is Ast.’s reading.-Tr.]

Here, in the stanza, the path of “gradual liberation” (Krama-mukti) is explained. According to the Upanishadic tradition, “he who lived a life of rituals (Karmas) and worship (Upasana), to enjoy the result so accrued, will walk the ‘Path-of-the-gods’ (Devayana) and entering through the Sun, will go beyond it to Brahma-loka.” There he enjoys the super-sensuous Bliss till the end of the “cycle,” when, along with the Creator, he gets total liberation. This ‘Path-of-the-gods,’ is indicated here by the terms borrowed from the Upanishads which have a wealth of suggestiveness to all students of the Rishi-declarations.

FIRE, FLAME, DAY-TIME, THE BRIGHT FORTNIGHT, THE SIX MONTHS OF THE NORTHERN SOLSTICE OF THE SUN — These indicate the “Path-of-the-gods” presided over by the Sun. In the Prashnopanishad this has been vividly brought out when the Upanishad supplies the students with a theory of the creation of multiplicity from the one Great Truth. It is explained that Prajapati, the Creator, Himself became the Sun and the Moon, and these two phenomenal objects are mentioned as representing energy and matter respectively.

Identifying with the Dynamic Centre in himself, a seeker tries to live the life. Such an Upasaka of Truth, at the time of his departure from his present manifestation in the world, comes to think of the object of contemplation of his whole life-time, and naturally, he goes to the world of his thoughts — “as you think so you become.” By entertaining evolutionary thoughts in one’s mind all through one’s life, one must, after leaving the present embodiment, walk the ascending path of evolution, the ‘Path-of-the-gods,’ indicated here as “THE PATH OF LIGHT AND FIRE, OF DAY TIME, OF THE BRIGHT FORTNIGHT, OF THE NORTHERN SOLSTICE OF THE SUN.” Thus, in the mystic language of the Upanishads, the path pursued by those who are great devotees of Brahman, the Eternal, is described as stretching towards the North. These implications are all epitomised and the Upanishadic Rishis often use the term “Northern Route” to indicate “the Path of the Gradual Liberation.”

AS CONTRASTED WITH THIS PATH OF NO-RETURN THERE IS THE PATH OF SURE-RETURN WHICH IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:

Agnih, fire-is a deity presiding over a period of time; similarly, jyotih, light-also is a deity presiding over a period of time. Or fire and light are the well-known Vedic deities. As the expression ‘mango grove’ is used with regard to a place where mango trees are more numerous, similarly, the expressions ‘at which time’ and ‘that time’ (in the earlier verse) are used in view of the predominance (of the deities presiding over time). [If the first two (fire and light) are taken as Vedic deities, then the remaining three are the only deities of time. Still, the latter being numerically greater, all the five deities are referred to as deities of time. The deities of both the Paths-of gods and manes, or of the Northern and the Southern Paths as they are called-who are gods of time, are referred to here as ‘time’ by such words as day, fortnight, six months, etc.] So also, ahah, daytime, means the deity of daytime. Suklah, the bright fortnight, implies the deity presiding over the bright fortnight. Sanmasah uttarayanam, the six months of the Northern solstice-here, too, is understood the deity presiding over the Path. This is the principle (of interpretation followed elsewhere (in the Upanisads also). Tatra, following this Path; janah, persons; who are brahma-vidah, knowers of Brahman, those engaged in meditation on (the qualified) Brahman; gacchanti, attain; brahma, Brahman; prayatah, when they die. It is understood that they attain Brahman through stages. Indeed, according to the Upanisadic text, ‘His vital forces do not depart’ (Br. 4.4.46), there is neither going nor coming back for those established in full realization, who are fit for immediate Liberation. Having their organs merged in Brahman, they are suffused with Brahman, they are verily identified with Brahman.

“The Path of Return” is called the “Path of the Ancestor” (Pitryana), and is considered as presided over by the Moon, which represents the world-of-matter. Those who leave the world after spending their lifetime in doing good and performing rituals (karmas), unaccompanied by any worship (upasana), are those who go to the World-of-Ancestors (Pitrus), otherwise popularly known as Heaven. These denizens of Heaven, on having exhausted their merits, gained by them through their divine actions, will have to return into deserved embodiments, ordered by their individual vasana-balance that is ardently pressing for expression and fulfilment.

SMOKE, NIGHT-TIME, THE DARK FORTNIGHT, THE SIX MONTHS OF THE SOUTHERN SOLSTICE — These indications chalk out “the Path through the Moon” (Pitriyaana) to the world of the ancestors. The moon, as we said, represents the world-of-matter and is the presiding deity of the sense enjoyments. Such people do return after having attained through the grace of the Moon the Heavenly enjoyments for a period.

In short, these two stanzas indicate that, in his life-time, a seeker struggling to raise himself above the various matter-envelopments and his identifications with them, reaches the higher spiritual realms from where, in the stream of his spiritual progress, he reaches the Ultimate. But in case he be a courter of pleasures, ever singing at the temple of sensuality, then he falls on the path of realising those developed instincts, and comes back again into the field of action here — wherein he can again make or unmake himself.

IN CONCLUSION KRISHNA ADDS:

Dhuman, smoke; and ratrih night, are the deities presiding over smoke and night. Similarly, krsnah, the dark fornight, means the deity of the dark fortnight. Just as before, by sanmasah daksinayanam the six months of the Southern solstice, also is verily meant a deity. Tatra, following this Path; yogi, the yogi who performs sacrifices etc., the man of actions; prapya, having reached; candramasam jyotih, the lunar light-having enjoyed the results (of his actions); nivartate, returns, on their exhaustion.

The two paths so vividly described above, are renamed here as the ‘Path-of-Light’ and the ‘Path-of-Darkness,’ according to the goal to which each “path” leads the pilgrims. One takes the travellers to the brilliant heights of evolutionary success; the other into the dark abyss of devolutionary sorrow. These two “paths” described here, in their general implications, can be considered as showing the ‘Path-of-Moksha’ and the ‘Path-of-Samsara.’

The ways of life in any given generation always fall under two categories — the secular and the sacred. The former, the secular, is pursued by those who feel that food, clothing and shelter are the absolutes and the fulfilment of life lies in the satisfaction of the largest number of physical and emotional sense-ticklers, and whose intellects are cold and satisfied, feeling no urge to seek anything nobler and diviner. The latter, the sacred, however, is pursued by those who can feel no encouragement in their bosom, when the sense-objects giggle and dance in front of their sense-organs, and whose intellects are ever on fire with a great seeking of something beyond, something deeper than the mere surface existence in life.

These two ‘paths’ — which mean not only the two impulses of the sacred and the secular, but also all those who follow these two paths — the seekers of materialism and the seekers of spirituality — “ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AS TRULY ETERNAL.” In the largest sense of the term, these two impulses together constitute the entire Samsara, and since the world of finitude and change is eternal, these two contrary impulses are also eternal. But it is the Vedantic theory, approved and upheld by the lived experiences of the Seers and Sages, that Samsara for the individual can be ended.

Subjectively considered, this stanza may perhaps have a secret suggestion to make to true Yogis — meaning, the sincere meditators. Even in an elderly Sadhaka, who has been on the ‘path’ for years, the existing vasanas in him may now and then come up to insist upon his extroversion. At such moments of inner revolt in us, we, as seekers and meditators, need not at all get flabbergasted because, as the Lord explains, the aspirations for the higher-life and the temptations for the lower-existence are the two opposing forces that are eternally at tug-of-war with each other.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAIN IN KNOWING THESE TWO PATHS, AND THEIR ETERNAL NATURE?

Ete, these two; gati, courses; jagatah, of the world; which are sukla-krsne, white and black [The Northern Path (the path of the Gods), and the Southern Path (the Path of the Manes) respectively.]-white because it is a revealer of Knowlege, and black because there is absence of that (revelation); are hi, verily; mate, considered; sasvate, eternal, because the world is eternal. These two courses are possible for those who are qualified for Knowledge and for rites and duties; not for everybody. This being so, ekaya, by the one, by the white one; yati, a man goes; anavrttim, to the State of Non-return; anyaya, by the other; avartate, he returns; punah, again.