Bhagavagd Gita - Session 29- Track 2906

In any case now we have got a statement of rājavidyā, and Sri Krishna prepares Arjuna by saying that this rājavidyā, is actually a matter of verification and experience. It is not a dogma that I am giving you. I am giving you a statement of a knowledge, and a knowledge which can be experienced, which can be verified, which can be realised. But when I give you only an intellectual statement, I warn you that anybody who is aśraddhā in it will not attain to the realisation of it: ‘Start, open up that perception in you and when that perception is open up to you then further process will start.’ And that process which is involved is one of the most important elements of this chapter n°9. If you have real śraddhā, what will you do? You will take to paths, you will make a journey, you will take staff in your hand and say: ‘Now I will set out, I will make a journey’. What is that journey? That journey is the synthesis of knowledge, devotion and action, the path which unites knowledge, action and devotion.

Therefore this chapter has got two aspects: the revelation of secret of secrets, the revelation of the King-knowledge, the revelation of the knowledge of the supreme Reality in all his aspects, jñānaṁ vijñāna-sahitaṁ in which all that is to be known jñāna and viśeśajñānaṁ: Jnana which is essential and that which is phenomenal, all this combined together in totality, this is one aspect of this chapter; the second aspect of this chapter is path of union of Jnana, Karma and Bhakti.

Now, starts the statement of the rājavidyā, of the king-knowledge. This thing is a summary; this thing is known in a certain way, therefore many people feel it is a repetition. This is not a repetition because this is a complete statement. Up till now statements were made from time to time; sometimes hints were given; sometimes partial statements are made, but now for the first time in the Bhagavad Gita in the following verses, you get a complete statement of the knowledge of the supreme Reality and relationship of the Reality with the world and with the individual: this complete statement is now given:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyaktamūrtinā |
matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ ||4|| (IX)

na ca matsthāni bhūtāni paśya me yogam aiśvaram |
bhūtabhṛn na ca bhūtastho mamātmā bhūtabhāvanaḥ ||5|| (IX)

These two verses contain all that has to be said. This is the rājavidyā, in two verses. This is the speciality of Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata and of the Gita, very brief, pregnant, complete, nothing is left out once these 2 statements are made, complete statement of the ultimate Reality and everything that is to be known is given. Therefore some of the people, if you ask them: what is the sum and substance of the whole knowledge of the Gita? They refer only to these two verses. If you want to say: in brief what is the whole teaching, quintessence, but the full, without remainder, then these are the two statements, two verses:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā |
mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣv avasthitaḥ ||4|| (IX)

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad: sarvaṁ means ‘all’; jagad means ‘this world’. This entire world is tatam, is fabricated, woven. In the Upanishad we have got an example of a spider and the web: out of oneself the tatam, all the threads of the web are brought out of the spider itself. It is not as if some other web or like a nest has been built by a bird, not like that; but mayā tatam idaṁ: all this world is woven, is brought out; tatam means that which is spread out. “All this world is spread out and woven; mayā, by Me”. avyakta-mūrtinā: mūrti is a form, now all the forms that we see are all vyaktamūrti, but the Supreme has a form which is avyakta, so between the vyaktamūrti and the Supreme, there is an intermediate which is avyaktamūrti.

Sri Krishna uses words which waken us from slumber because mūrti and avyakta, these two are contradictions: all forms are vyakta, they are formed, but avyaktamūrti, and Sri Krishna means it, therefore be awakened, don’t say: ‘I don’t accept this contradiction’: “Fine! Start with śraddhā, that what is being stated is ultimately to be realised by you, you will realise it, it is already given, pratyakṣāvagamaṁ, this knowledge is that which you will gain if you persist, I don’t say you take it for granted and I am making statements which will startled you”.

And this is the first startling statement:

mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā

There is a form which is not manifest: ‘I am also unmanifest but between Me who is unmanifest and all the forms which are manifested there is another form which is unmanifest.’