Bhagavagd Gita - Session 33- Track 3302

The third meaning of perfect…this relates to the sense of ‘sovereignty’. When there is an expression which is not opposed by any other, and when that expression rules over all other forces, then we say that that expression is ‘perfect’.

So, ‘sovereignty’, ‘unity’, and ‘maximum’, these are the three meanings of ‘perfection’.

Now, if you examine the meaning of the word ‘maximum’, you will find that in the world in a given situation, there is maximum, but not in itself: it like the horizon. In a given view of things the horizon completes your vision and nothing more is added while you are standing at a particular standpoint. But if you changed your stand, if you move farther or backwards, then the horizon either recedes or goes forward. So, the word maximum has significance only in a certain situation but not in absolute terms: there is nothing like ‘absolute maximum’.

And yet there is a meaning; that is to say there is constant increase of potency and constant addition to actualise values. I am using two words here which are new: ‘potency’ and ‘value’. Potency is the ‘power of expression’, and value is the ‘meaning of expression’. In the movement of the world, there is a constant increase of power of expression. In a sense you might say, there is no end of it, it goes on maximising itself. Meaning of values also goes on expanding itself, so as far as the movement of manifestation is concerned, there is a constant movement towards a more and more and more, and in a given situation if you reach maximum you say: now it is perfect. But we must understand it is only with regard to particular situation.

In a given company you can say who is the wealthiest, you can count each one wealth and you say now this is the wealthiest, but that is because you limit a particular field, but if you ask what is the wealthiest in the world it includes the also past, present and future: so it becomes indefinite. So, in terms of more and more and more, it is always relative.

But in terms of ‘sovereignty’, in terms of ‘unity’, you can have at every stage a perception of perfection; it does not depend upon this situation or that situation or any situation. Wherever there is a movement which is sovereign, you say it’s absolute. Whenever an expression stands out in a ruling position, stands out as something that overarches everything and there is no opposition to it, you call it perfect. Similarly about ‘unity’, in any given situation, there is a kind of unity of such a nature that everything is in its proper place. Now, sovereignty and unity, these are the two characteristics basically of perfection. Maximisation is only a ‘relative’ perfection. Perfections in themselves are either in the terms of sovereignty or in terms of unity. Usually both are common together: the sovereignty of movement and unification of movement, unity of movement, they obtain together.

Now, we have seen in the Bhagavad Gita and exposition of the idea of Para Prakriti in the 7th chapter: ‘Para Prakriti’ as distinguished from ‘Apara Prakriti’, the ‘higher nature’ as distinguished from ‘lower nature’.