Bhagavagd Gita - Session 39- Track 3903

…with this verse very often, so I am not dealing with it again. But this is a very important statement. This is the Lord from whom the whole world has moved out; this is the Lord who bears all the things, the Lord in whom all things reside, the Lord, yet, who does not reside in everything.

Now se come to the 15th chapter. Once again we have a description of the supreme Lord.

Question: What kind of God?

In the Gita, God is of…these three statements which I made:

In 3rd chapter: God who creates the world by sacrificing Himself, that is the first concept of god. Second is this now we just said just now: God who Himself is spun out into this world, and yet Himself He is not there. He bears all the creatures, all the creatures are in Him and yet He is not in them.

Now, we have the 15th chapter. If you remember even about the 9th chapter, Sri Krishna had said that ‘this is the secret of secrets’ of the nature of the Divine: the very title of the 9th chapter is rāja-vidyā rāja-guhya yoga; it is rāja-vidyā, the supreme knowledge and rāja-guhya, the supreme secret, secret of secrets. Now these 2 sentences which I read to you are the supreme knowledge and the supreme secret.

Now, similarly, if you come to the 15th chapter and you see the last sentence of the 15th chapter, it is verse n°20:

iti guhyatamaṁ śāstram idaṁ uktaṁ mayānagha |
etad buddhvā buddhimān syāt kṛta-kṛtyaś ca bhārata ||20|| (XV)

After stating the whole statement of the 15th chapter, He says:

“O Anagha, O Arjuna,…Anagha means the sinless, the one who has committed no sin, Anagha, O sinless Arjuna, I have now told you guhyatamaṁ śāstram, as if the guhyatama śāstra which was given in the 9th was not enough. Now, in the 15th chapter you have a further secret revealed about his being, iti guhyatamaṁ śāstram idaṁ uktaṁ, so this chapter goes even beyond the 9th chapter, the secret nature of the supreme Divine is further revealed in this chapter.

In fact whatever is said in this chapter is implied in all the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita. The Bhagavad Gita cannot be understood unless this chapter is understood explicitly, because implicitly, this chapter is underlying the whole thing. Therefore, this chapter…when we have come to the 15th chapter we have come at the heart as it were, because this is the guhyatamaṁ śāstram.

Now, this is guhyatamaṁ because not only is the nature of the Divine described here, but also the relationship of the Divine with the soul, also the relationship of the soul with the Divine, and the Divine with the soul is stated very briefly and also the secret of bondage and liberation and perfection is very briefly stated. Therefore, the complete answer to Arjuna’s question is implied in this chapter, complete answer.

And because of this importance, I would like to preface this chapter with a long, long statement. It is the most important chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, it is itself called ‘puruṣottama yoga’; the supreme Lord which is described supremely, but very briefly, so briefly that you will not even notice it; excepting at one or two points you will feel little jerk, but otherwise it is so smoothly stated…but when it is very smooth you should understand there is something very mysterious about it. So, I will preface this chapter with a long statement. This is concerning the concept of Purusha. In India the word Purusha is very prevalent, in Indian languages man is described as Purusha.

In its reality Purusha does not mean man or male power, but the Supreme from whom everything emerges, (that’s the meaning of Purusha), the supreme Reality: that is the original meaning of the word Purusha as described in the Veda. The first time that we used the word Purusha, it is in the Veda. Now, this Purusha, according to the Veda is wonderful and mysterious. I have often quoted from the Rig Veda that very important statement of the nature of Purusha:

na nūnaṁ asti no śvaḥ kas tad veda yad adbhutam
anyasya cittam abhisañcarenyam utādhitam vinaśyati,

It says that “The Reality is neither today nor tomorrow”, in other words Reality is eternal; “kastad veda yad adbhutam, but who can know that Reality which is adbhuta, which is wonderful. Why is it wonderful? That comes in the next sentence: although it is He Himself, anyasya citam abhisancarenyam, it has motion in the other…”

Now, this statement is a mysterious sentence…He Himself is other than Himself, although He is the ultimate reality, the only reality, there is no reality other than Himself, yet He is other than Himself. Whenever there is a motion that motion is qualified by consciousness and that consciousness is other than Himself. This is the actual mystery of the idea of Sachchidananda.