The Lord declares –
मया ततमिदं सर्वं जगदव्यक्तमूर्तिना। (Gita 9/4)
‘All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form’. A ‘Murti’ (deity) is that which has a form and an ‘Avyakta Murti’ is that which has no form. As God is ‘Avyakta Murti’ (formless), so is a striver formless –
अव्यक्तोऽयमचिन्त्योऽयमविकार्योऽयमुच्यते। (Gita 2/25)
A striver is not the (physical) body – this fact has not been mentioned in the scriptures but it is a fact. A striver is ‘Bhava Sharira’ (Existence Conscious body). He is a Yogi (One who is equanimous), not a Bhogi (pleasure seeker). Bhoga and Yoga are contrary to each other. A Bhogi is not a Yogi and a Yogi is not a Bhogi. A striver does not perform any action for seeking pleasure, but he does for attaining equanimity. Equanimity is called ‘Yoga’ –
समत्वं योग उच्यते।। (Gita 2/48).
Equanimity is existent element (bhaav). Therefore a striver is ‘Bhava Sharira’.
The gross body changes every moment. There is no moment when it does not change. There are two Prakrtis (natures) of God. The body is ‘Apara‘ (lower) Prakrti and the soul is ‘Para’ (higher) Prakrti. The higher nature is unmanifest (formless). All beings were unmanifest before birth, in the mid-state they are manifest and after death they will be unmanifest.
When we have dreams, first there is wakefulness, in the mid-state there is dream (sleep) and again there is wakefulness. As there is dream in the mid- state, so are all beings manifest in the mid-state.
It is a cosmic law that whatever does not exist at the beginning and at the end, actually does not exist in the mid-state also ‘aadaavante ch yanasti vartamaanepi tattatha.’ (Mandukya Karika 2/6, 4/31). Beings are unmanifest (non-existent) at the beginning and at the end, therefore they are non-existent in the mid-state also, though they appear existent. In the manifest state even two persons cannot be similar (one), but in the unmanifest state all become one. Therefore in the unmanifest form all can attain God. He, Who can be attained by all, is God. He, who is attained by someone and not by others, is not God but is the world. Therefore God is attained by the unmanifest (formless) and in the unmanifest.
A striver is formless (unmanifest). The manifest is not a striver. The manifest does not stay even for a moment. ‘Pratikshan Parinaamino hi bhaavaa rute chitishakteh.’ Besides consciousness (the self) all beings and objects are kaleidoscopic, they don’t remain the same even for a moment. Think over, when we were born, what was the shape of our body and what is the shape now? On thinking we have to accept that the body and the world are kaleidoscopic. The heap of change is called the world. How can that, which changes, be a striver? A striver is he who does not change. A striver achieves his aims, the body does not achieve. Therefore a striver first of all should accept the fact that the body is not the self whether he understands it or not.
In the path of knowledge a striver first understands and then he accepts. In the Path of Devotion first a striver accepts and then he understands. It means that in the Path of Knowledge, power of discrimination, discretion (vivek) is important, while in devotion, faith-belief is important. This is the difference between the two paths. In each of the two paths there is one singularity. The striver following the Path of Knowledge from the very beginning becomes Brahma (the Supreme or the Absolute), he does not get down from that status. But a devotee even on having attained God (perfection) does not become Brahma, but Brahma comes under his control. Goswami Tulasidasaji‘ Maharaja having composed all volumes finally composed the ‘Vinaya Patrika’ in which like a child he, showing his pettiness and insignificance requests Mother Sita to tell Lord Rama about him.
It means that a devotee even on having attained God, considers himself petty. In fact such devotees are jnaani’ (wise). In the Gita, the Lord has not called the enlightened exalted soul, who has transcended the three modes of Nature, the man of wisdom, but He has called His devotee the man of wisdom (Gita 7/16-18). The Lord has also not called ‘Sarvavit’ (knower of all) to the person who follows the Path of Knowledge, but He has called His devotee ‘Sarvavit’, ‘Sa sarvavidbhajati maam sarvabhaaven bhaarat.’ (Gita 15/19). Goswami Tulasidasji Maharaj also declares –
‘Prem bhagati Jal binu Raghuraayi,
Abhiantar mal kabahun na jaayi.’
(Manasa, Uttara, 49/3)
Without devotion the internal filth (subtle ego) does not perish. That filth is not an obstacle to salvation but it creates difference of opinions among philosophers and their philosophical thoughts. When that subtle filth is wiped out, then difference of opinions does not persist. Therefore a devotee is really a man of wisdom.
The body is not the self. The body is formed on the earth (in the womb of the mother), walks about on the earth and merges in the earth after death. It will be transformed into three states – ashes or earth or excrement. If it is burnt, it will be turned into ashes, if it is buried, it will become earth and if beasts eat it, it will become excrement. Therefore the body is not important but there is importance of the formless (unmanifest) self-
‘Bhooma achal shaashvat amal sam thos hai hu sarvada,
Yah deha hai polaa ghadaa vantaa bigadataa hai sada.’
Therefore in fact only by becoming formless, strivers worship God. One is the gross body consisting of five subtle elements and one is the ‘Bhava Sarira’ (formless body with emotions). In fact a striver worships God and meditates on Him with the latter body. Worship means love (devotion) ‘Pannagaari sunu prem bhajan na doosa aan’ (Manasa, Aranya. 10 difference in text). In fact it is ‘Bhava Sarira’ (the self, the existent conscious element) which loves God, worships God and gets absorbed in God. It is not the physical body but the ‘Bhava Sarira’ to whom God seems loving and sweet, to whom His name and utterances seem pleasing and to whom His pastime or sport seems interesting.
The Lord declares, “The soul, an eternal fragment of My own self has become an embodied soul in the world” ‘Mamaivaansho jeevaloke jeevabhootah Sanatanah’ (Gita 15/7). Here by ‘mama eva amsah’ the Lord means to say that as the body is a fragment of both mother and father, the soul is not a fragment of Prakrti (nature) also but it is only God’s fragment. The body, the fragment of nature remains established in nature but the soul inspite of being a fragment of God does not remain established in Him. A man (the self) assumes that he is established in the world, not in God. He regards the body, senses, mind and intellect as the self – ‘manah shashthaaneeindriyaani prakritisthaani karshati’. Therefore he does not understand “I exist without the body.” The greatest blunder, that he commits, is that he identities the self with the body.
In the beginning of the Gita the Lord has described the body and the self with the intention to explain to a striver that he is not the body, he is different from the body. He is neither ‘sarira’ (body) nor ‘Sariri’ (one who has the body). A striver’s very image (nature) is Existence or Divinity but to explain it the Lord has mentioned the self as ‘Sariri’. The reason is that as a man having relationship with wealth is called wealthy, similarly by having relationship with the body, the self is called ‘Sariri’. As by not having relationship with wealth, the wealthy man (man) remains but he is not called wealthy, Similarly by not having relationship with the body, ‘Sariri’ (the self) remains but it is not called ‘Sariri’. In the same way the self by having relationship with the body (Kshetra, field) is called Kshetrajna (knower of the field), by having relationship with the scene, is called a spectator, by having relationship with evidence is called a witness. But in fact the self is neither body nor ‘Sariri’ (one who has the body); neither ‘Kshetra’ (field) nor ‘Kshetrajna’ (knower of the field); neither scene nor the spectator; neither evidence nor witness but is Existence or Divinity.
Here a point needs special attention as a man is wealthy because of wealth, the ‘Sariri’ does not exist because of ‘Sarira’ (body). The reason is that wealth and wealthy both belong to the same (insentient) class, but ‘Sarira’ and ‘Sariri’ don’t belong to the same class.
As a wealthy man is attracted towards wealth, the Sariri (self) is never attracted towards the body, but there is assumption of attraction. In the wealthy person there is predominance of wealth but in the ‘Sariri’, there is no predominance of ‘Sarira’ (body). The wealthy person is affected by the increase and decrease in wealth but the ‘Sariri’ is not affected by the changes in the body. Therefore when wealth deserts the wealthy man, he weeps but when the body leaves the ‘Sariri’; the ‘Sariri’ attains constant, boundless and limitless bliss. The discrimination between wealth and the wealthy man does not lead to salvation but the discrimination between the body and the self leads to salvation. Therefore when wealth deserts the wealthy man, he does not attain salvation but becomes poor or dispassionate but when relationship of the self with the body is renounced, the self attains salvation for ever. The reason is that the body is the seed of the world. Therefore he, who has relationship with the body, has relationship with the entire world. When relationship with the body is renounced then relationship with the entire world is renounced.
In the world two things are seen – objects and actions. Both of them are the evolutes of Prakrti. From the cursory view-point predominantly objects are seen to us but in fact there is predominance of actions, not of objects. The reason is that objects change every moment, then there are only actions, where are objects? The heap of actions appears in the form of objects. The actions also change. These actions and objects are image of (nature) Prakrti, they are not our nature. Our nature (the nature of the self) is unmanifest (formless), free from actions and objects. For example when we sit in the house, the house is different from us. So we go away, leaving the house. Similarly we (the self) sit in the body, the body is different from us. The body remains lying here while we leave the body. Thus we are really different from the body. In fact we don’t live in the body, but we assume that we live in the body. Therefore the Lord declares – ‘avinashi tu tadviddhi yena sarvamidam tatam’ (Gita 2/17) ‘know that to be perishable, by which all this world is pervaded’. It means that the self is all-pervading, it is not confined to a body – ‘nityah sarvagatah’ (Gita 2/24). So long as a striver accepts his relationship with the body, he is a striver. When his relationship with the body is totally renounced, he becomes an enlightened soul.
In the scripture it is mentioned that by becoming God’s one should worship God ‘Devo bhootva yajedevam’. Therefore by becoming unmanifest, a striver should worship the unmanifest God. The body changes every moment but a striver does not change at all. If a striver changes, how will he attain salvation and how will he be eternal? No one can destroy the self – ‘Vinaashamvyayasyaasya na kaschitkartumrhti’ (Gita 2/ 17) but the body can’t escape destruction. That, which is imperishable attains salvation. How will the perishable attain salvation? There is only delusion of bondage. When this delusion is destroyed-it is called salvation. Once delusion is destroyed, a man does not get deluded again – ‘yajyaatvaa na punarmoham’ (Gita 4/35).
The reason is that in fact delusion has no existence, so it perishes. Whatever really exists does not perish at all. The real never ceases to be and that which ceases to be, is not real but is unreal.
‘Naasato vidhyate bhaavo naabhaavo vidhyate satah’ (Gita 2/16)
As a dining room is the place for dinner, so is this body the place to enjoy pleasure and to suffer pain. He who undergoes pleasure and pain is not the body. The place of experience is different from the experiencer. The body is the garment. The garment of red or black or white colour is not the self. Similarly a man or a woman is like a garment. The self is neither a man nor a woman nor a eunuch. God, Prakrti and soul – the three are without any gender.
Everyone feels the absence of the body, senses, mind, intellect and egoism but no one feels one’s own absence. We (the self) transcend that whose absence is felt. Our existence persists continuously. In sound sleep the body, senses, mind, intellect and egoism-all merge. No one declares that he died in sound sleep and now he has regained life. We exist in sound sleep, therefore we say that I slept so soundly that I knew nothing. Our existence remains the same in sound sleep. The reason is that our existence does not depend on egoism or on intellect or on mind or on senses or on the body. Our existence is independent. There is non-existence of the gross, the subtle and the causal bodies but we (the self) never cease to exist. Therefore the self is formless. The body with form is formed later and then perishes. We are formless but we regard ourselves endowed with form in the form of the body. This is the main mistake. We have to repent for this mistake. In repentance there are three factors-
1. We have to accept our mistake of assuming the self as the body.
2. We have to repent of our mistake that inspite of being a striver, I committed such a mistake.
3. We should have a firm determination that in future I’ll never commit such a mistake viz., I’ll not regard the self as the body. By these three factors there is repentance and the striver gets established in his real unmanifest self.
Narayana ! Narayana !! Narayana !!!
From “For Salvation of Mankind” by Swami Ramsukhdasji
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