Bhagavagd Gita - Session 37- Track 3705

So, Sri Krishna describes what is Shraddha, what are the different kinds of Shraddha and then a very important question is raised by Arjuna because in this pursuit of movement there is of course the pursuit of Dharma, the law of development, but in this development of Dharma, since a given Dharma is limited, and although one is enjoined always to follow Dharma, an individual raises a question or rises to a point where he revolts against Dharma.

One wants to give up one Dharma and takes up another Dharma, (not religion), but Dharma is the law of development: I have moved up to a certain point, under one law of development, that cycle is finished, I have got to pursue now another line of development and another Dharma therefore arises and therefore I give up one Dharma and go to another Dharma, another law of development; so, sometimes it is done by a revolt against the previous one.

Today’s children, for example are in a mood of revolt and we say it’s a revolt against Dharma: all our routines, methods, practises, all the things that we are doing today are being questioned by the young people: there is a revolt as it were. There is a search for another, there is another Shraddha in the children today and they want to move forward with that Shraddha and the present Dharma collides with that Shraddha. So, although they have a Shraddha, they revolt against the present Dharma.

So Arjuna puts this question that “if somebody deviates from Dharma, but has still Shraddha, then what kind of Shraddha is it?” And Sri Krishna answers that question. It is a question which is extremely relevant to the present times. It is in answer to this question that Sri Krishna describes what is Dharma, what Swabhava is, and what is Swadharma, some of the things which are of highest importance which have not yet been discussed in the first 12 chapters at all, except very briefly and by hint somewhere.

And then finally there are two very important questions: the role of the mind, since we are all proceeding upwards through the instrument of the mind, what is the nature of the mind? And since this path is a path of works, along with a path of knowledge and devotion, what exactly is work? On this, Sri Krishna throws flood of light in these chapters.

Until you come finally to the question of renouncing all Dharmas and arriving at the climax of Knowledge, Devotion and Action and a complete submission from where the divyam karma, the divine work proceeds. In the 4th chapter we had an idea of divyam karma, of the divine action; but the psychology of divine action was not described in the 4th chapter, it is now here, in these last 6 chapters that we really have the psychological analysis of divyam karma: the Karma which is not bound by any Dharma; the Karma which proceeds directly from the Divine; the Karma which is not acted from the lower nature, Apara Prakriti; the Karma which is done in divya prakriti, in the divine nature, Para Prakriti. This is the main content of these 6 chapters.

As we said there are things in these chapters which are of highest importance and the last message is even greater and of the supreme importance. So, it is with this background that we were reading the 13th chapter and we have already finished…I think first 18th verse, no?

Now, we have from the 19th verse the relationship between Purusha and Prakriti is described. This is still in the context of the concept kṣetra of and kṣetrajña.

The 18th verse…we shall repeat the last verse that we had done last time:

iti kṣetraṁ tathā jñānaṁ jñeyaṁ coktaṁ samsataḥ |
mad-bhakta etad vijñāya mad-bhāvāyopapadyate ||18|| (XIII)

He has described already what is kṣetra, what is the field, what is knowledge and what is to be known, in all totality, samsataḥ; it has been described already in the first 18 verses.

etad vijñāya, having known this; mad-bhakta, My devotee; mad-bhāvāyopapadyate, mad-bhāvā: mad and mad-bhāvā there is a difference, he arrives at Me…that is, may be he arrives at Me in essence, but here mad-bhāvā, he also arrives in My becoming. ‘To arrive at Me’ may be to arrive only in the essence of the Supreme, but to participate in the Divine’s action, in the movement, in the divine Dharma, amṛtam dharma, madbhāvā is amṛtam dharma, “he arrives at My own Dharma, My own becoming”.

Now it is this which is further explained in the remaining part of this chapter:

prakṛtiṁ puruṣaṁ caiva viddhy anādī ubhāv api |
vikārāṁś ca guṇāṁś caiva viddhi prakṛti-sambhavān ||19|| (XIII)

“Know for certain that there are two things which are both original: Purusha and Prakriti. All the modifications, all the qualities and powers, understand they are all born from Prakriti.”

The distinction of Purusha and Prakriti is that all the modifications and Gunas and properties and powers, they don’t belong to Purusha. The modifications, all the becomings, they belong to Prakriti, they derive from Prakriti.