Bhagavagd Gita - Session 26- Track 2602

Question: Is it not that amsha, is it also that?

Yes, because you are a part, a portion of the Divine; you can grow into the Divine; you can be one with the Divine. And this being is the mark of true spiritual knowledge. So, the basic distinction between intellectual knowledge and spiritual knowledge is that whereas intellectual knowledge concerns itself with phenomena, events and things, spiritual knowledge concerns itself with ‘being’. And even when there is a knowledge of phenomena and becomings in spirituality, it is a knowledge which is basically rooted in being.

Now, chapter n°7 to chapter n°12, wherever the word Jnana (jñāna) occurs, it is concerning with the ‘knowledge of the being’; when the word Vijnana (vijñāna) occurs, it is the knowledge of events and phenomena, which are rooted in the being, viśeṣam jñānam, (that is Vijnana), the knowledge which is wide. Being when manifesting into becomings, and knowing being at the root of becoming, that is Vijnana: to know the being in all its wideness universality, in all the teeming millions, but knowledge of the being in teeming millions: that is Vijnana. When Vijnana is a knowledge of becomings, without the knowledge of being, it is called ‘ignorance’, ajñāna: ajñāna is the knowledge of phenomena, of events, when the root of phenomena is not yet known to be rooted in the being.

Now, the main subject of chapter n°7 to 12, as Sri Krishna says: “I will tell you everything essentially, I will tell you everything in detail, in wideness, and I will tell you without remainder, aviśeṣena, I will tell you everything”. So, you might say that chapter n°7 to 12 gives you the knowledge of everything: it tells you about the ‘being’, it tells you the knowledge of all the becomings rooted in knowledge, rooted in being and this knowledge gives you a complete account of everything that is in the world. That is why in chapter n°7, we had the title ‘Jnana Vijnana Yoga’, that is the title of the 7th chapter: Jnana Vijana Yoga. In fact, what is given in the 7th chapter is elucidated in the remaining chapters up to 12. Already what is to be told is told.

For example, in the 7th chapter you are told that the Supreme Lord is ‘the Being’, the fundamental Being, and this supreme Being has got 2 natures: in other words, all the becomings that we see in the world are either reducible to the ‘lower nature’, or reducible to the ‘higher nature’; and further, that even that which is reducible to lower nature, is ultimately reducible to higher nature. This is the most important element that we get in the 7th chapter. So, 7th chapter is the basic chapter. The other chapters are only elucidations. We had seen in the chapter n°7, at the end, there are 2 verses which I had deliberately left out; and I had said that since this chapter, 7th chapter ends with these 2 verses, which are again repeated in the 8th chapter, we shall do them when we come to the 8th chapter.

So, let us see those 2 verses of the 7th chapter where Sri Krishna after explaining what is ‘the being’ and how that being manifests in the higher nature, and how this higher nature is connected with the lower nature…at the end, if you open chapter n°7 last 2 verses, where Sri Krishna says:

jarāmaraṇamokṣāya māmāśritya yatanti ye |
te brahma tadviduḥ kṛtsnam adhyātmaṁ karma cākhilam ||29|| (VII)

The most important thing that is told is that you should know the Brahman. But this knowledge is to be combined with devotion: mām-āśritya, by taking resort to Myself. So you combine knowledge and devotion: when you know the Divine fully, you cannot but love Him. To know the Divine and not love Him is impossible. So if you know the Divine fully, then you become Bhakta automatically. Or other way round: if you love the Divine, which you cannot do unless you know Him fully, but still, if you are in the process of Bhakti, little by little, then ultimately that Bhakti will take you to the full knowledge of the Divine. He Himself will take you to the fullness of the Divine knowledge. So, Sri Krishna says that: “Those who are making an effort, jarā-maraṇa-mokṣāya, to get liberated from jarā, from the old age, and from maraṇa, from death. How do they make an effort? mām-āśritya, taking resort to Me…” All those who are making an effort to come out of the bondage of old age and death by taking resort on to Me, what happens to them? te brahma tad viduḥ, “…they then come to realise Brahma; kṛtsnam adhyātmaṁ karma cākhilam, not only will they come to know the being, but they also come to know adhyātmaṁ.”

adhyātma is a very difficult word in the Sanskrit literature, we shall speak about it latter on, but at the moment it simply says: when the Brahman is to be found in the becoming, it is adhyātma. In that becoming you will find Karma, (becoming basically means movement; and movement means Karma). When you know ‘the being’, then you will come to know ‘the being in the becoming’, and you will know the karma, ākhilam, all the secret of action then you will come to know: this is the key. ‘To know the being’ is the key to the knowledge of becoming, but ‘knowing the being in the becoming’, adhyātmaṁ; not being and becoming, but ‘being in the becoming’: that is adhyātmaṁ; and when you know adhyātmaṁ, then you come to know what is karma and ākhilam, the entire to your Karma.

You will remember in one of the earlier chapter Sri Krishna said that, “Even the learned do not know what is Karma, what is Akarma and what is Vikarma”. Even the learned do not know; learned means: those who are still pursuing intellectual knowledge. By intellectual pursuit, he will come to know a great deal, but still, “he will falter”. It is only when you know Brahma, the Being, and when you know ‘the being in the becoming’, then only you know the complete mystery of action: what is real action in the world then you will come to know.