Bhagavagd Gita - Session 38- Track 3809

So, even the Yogis when they come to act there is a difficulty: it is never perfect action, unless you have made a Sadhana in which you have gone beyond Apara Prakriti and entered into the Para Prakriti.

This is one of the important things that Sri Aurobindo describes in the chapter we have read earlier: ‘Ascend to the Supermind’. Para Prakriti is ‘Supermind’. It does not have Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas: these three qualities are not present in the Para Prakriti. There are distortions or deformations of Para Prakriti. In the Para Prakriti Sattwa becomes ‘Ananda’, Rajas becomes dynamic divine activity, not feverish activity, not desired activity, but a divine will which is absolute powerful omnipotence, and Tamas becomes Shama (śama), Shanti,

So, the supreme nature, Para Prakriti is marked by Shanti, divine activity and Ananda. In other words the supreme Prakriti is “Sachchidananda”, the dynamism of Sachchidananda: Sat is Shanti; Chit is Shakti; and Ananda. So, these three powers when they act fully, that is Para Prakriti: that is ‘Supermind’.

So, Yoga is not completed unless you ascend from three Gunas and go into the higher Prakriti. The whole purpose of these last six chapters is this secret. Very often people regard this only as an appendix, but basically it reveals a very important domain; that you rise from the lower nature into the higher nature, triguṇātīta, and you understand the psychology of triguṇātīta. How do you ascend to the Supermind?

And then Sri Aurobindo said that even that knowledge is not sufficient. The last passage of the Bhagavad Gita which says that you give completely yourself to the Divine: body, life and mind, Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas, your entire being given to the Divine, then what happens? You can ascend then. You ascend, but then what is the nature of this ascension? That is not given in the Gita. After ascending what happens? What are the different levels? The higher mind, the illumined mind, the intuitive mind, overmind and Supermind, all this is not described here in the Gita, but all that knowledge is to be obtained. The Bhagavad Gita gives you a key to open the gate.

That is why Sri Aurobindo says the Bhagavad Gita towards the end is reticent, it remain silent. After that what happens? Once you give yourself entirely to the Divine then what happens? Your attainment to the Supermind is promised, what is the nature of it? What are the steps of it? Sri Aurobindo says that this is a knowledge which is a secret knowledge. You need not even tell somebody, let them do this much the rest will come. It is reticent because even if you tell, people won’t understand. You start with this, you practise it and you will understand what it is.

Even that…this is also a part of the Veda, you go from the lower levels by various processes of ascending and descending you come to Truth-Consciousness: that is Para Prakriti. Having reached there, the question is: can you still act, even in the bodily action, exactly with the Para Prakriti. Then the Para Prakriti has to descend to convert Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas completely in each and every movement of action. And Sri Aurobindo has discovered this path: how to bring about the real descent of the Para Prakriti right up to the cells of the body and then, even the human being is transcended and a new species is born: all this knowledge is not in the Gita. But, whatever is in the Gita is a very powerful step towards the highest

Question: ananya Bhakti is the same?,

You can say that but the word avyabhicāriṇī Bhakti is used by Sri Krishna, so you might say this is the word you should use really, the supreme Bhakti which reconciles Jnana, Karma and Bhakti: that is avyabhicāriṇī Bhakti. It is the real passage; the real surrender comes at that point. What we call surrender, real surrender when everything is surrendered. In the case of ordinary Bhakti, only emotions are surrendered and Jnana is quieted, action is quieted, but not surrendered; action is not performed; Jnana is not pursued; only Bhakti, only emotions are offered to the Divine.

But that is not avyabhicāriṇī Bhakti because even in movement of knowledge, there should be Bhakti, even in movement of action there should be Bhakti, all the three should be integrated by the supreme Bhakti then only śaraṇam, that surrender of which Sri Krishna speaks at the end is that śaraṇam. It’s not ordinary śaranam; serva dharma paritjyajya, when all the Dharmas are renounced, all Dharmas which pertain to action, of knowledge and of devotion, all Dharmas are given up, when you really become a complete channel then only Para Prakriti begins to act in you, otherwise in every movement of activity Apara Prakriti again begins to act. The liberated man however only knows that this is all Apara Prakriti: ‘I am not bound by it’. He is liberated inwardly, but he cannot throw out Apara Prakriti, it is there. That is why many Yogis say ‘videha-mukti’.