Bhagavagd Gita - Session 29- Track 2907

We shall continue with this: these are all contradictory statements. We shall first listen to them very, very sharply, without being startled, or even if startled we will take the shock of them: “mat-sthāni sarva-bhūtāni, all these creatures, mat-sthāni, they are all located in Me; na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ, but I am not located in them”: they are in Me but I am not in them. Now, this is a self contradiction. Normally when somebody is in you, in some way you are in them; this is the normal experience of our life; in some way something is…when you put ‘something’ here, then it is impossible that ‘that something’ is not here. But Sri Krishna says very clearly, in a startling manner: matsthāni sarvabhūtāni na cāhaṁ teṣvavasthitaḥ. But then again He says: na ca matsthāni bhūtāni, even they are not in Me. First He says: “They are in Me and I am not in them”; but now He says na ca matsthāni bhūtāni, it is a sharp contradiction. Here He says: “They are in Me”, there He says: “They are not in Me”. paśya me yogamaiśvaram: see My supreme aiśvara, My supreme royalty, this is the king-knowledge, aiśvaram, see My Yoga which is so powerful, so mysterious, so wonderful;

bhūta-bhṛn na ca bhūta-stho mamātmā bhūta-bhāvanaḥ ||

bhūtabhṛn, I am the bearer of all these creatures; na bhūta-stho, and yet I am not in them; He repeats, na ca bhūta-stho, I am not in them, I am not seated in the bhūta(s); I am the bearer of all the bhūta(s), and yet I am not in bhūta(s), not in the creatures; mamātmā, My very Self is bhūta-bhāvanaḥ, My very Self has become these very creatures; bhūtabhāvanaḥ, one who has become all these.

“I am the bearer of all the creatures, I am Myself all these creatures, they are all in Me, they are not in Me, they are in Me but I am not in them, such is my wonderful nature.” And this is all that is to be known, king-knowledge is given, perfect, full knowledge is given.

Now, let us try to understand. These are only two statements and we shall dwell upon it today, these two important statements.

Question: May the knowledge of mother and child to be associated with this?

You mean, if you make an analogy with the mother and child? It could not be wrong. Statement is true, therefore, in a sense you might say, this statement is such which is anupama. Basically this statement does not apply to anybody in the world. It is a statement which is true only of the supreme Divine, therefore there is no analogy. So now you cannot say I have explained to you by bringing an analogy: look now this is how, this is it. Sri Krishna Himself will give another analogy afterwards in the next paragraph, but we shall wait for it. Basically, there is nothing comparable to the Divine. if it was comparable, then the Divine would not be divine, He is the Supreme, therefore He is anupama. Therefore, no analogy will take you to understand it properly, but you can approximate.

But first, let us try to understand the statements in two or three different ways. There are in the history of thought three conceptions of God. I now refer to these historical conceptions because here we have an exposition of the knowledge of God: mayā tatam-idaṁ, mayā means ‘Me’, He is the Supreme, Supreme says: ‘all this world is manifested by Me’, therefore this is the knowledge of the supreme Reality. This was the knowledge of the Reality which was missing in Arjuna’s question, and therefore the question had become so grave. If you bring this knowledge into all that Arjuna has said that question will be dissolved and answered, because it is the rājavidyā, it is the capital king-knowledge and king-knowledge which whips out, rubs out all the doubts, everything is to be made clear now. So, we need therefore to understand this concept and one of the ways by which we can understand this concept is to see how, through out the history of the world, people have tried to understand God.