Commentary on the Panchadasi: 14. Swami Krishnananda.

 

Chinmaya Mission:
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August 22 at 5:02 PM

Chinmaya Mission Guyana, in collaboration with the High Commission of India and the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre in Georgetown, Guyana, successfully conducted the National Bhagavad Gita Chanting Competition across Guyana between February and June. The initiative culminated in a special Award Ceremony held this past Sunday.

More than 70 children, youth, and adults dedicated themselves to learning to chant an entire chapter of the Bhagavad Gita during this period. Of these, 42 participants entered the final competition, and 35 were awarded medals of excellence in recognition of their outstanding chanting.

The Award Ceremony was graced by the presence of His Excellency Dr. Amit Telang and Madam Dr. Deepali Telang, whose support added great encouragement to the event.

Heartfelt congratulations were extended to all participants, with deep appreciation also expressed to their families for their encouragement and support throughout the program. Special gratitude was offered to the dedicated Bhagavad Gita Chanting teachers, described as the true gems behind the success of this initiative.

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Sunday 24, Aug 2025, 19:00.

BOOKS

UPANISHAD 

Discourse -4
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality
Mantras 28-29

SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
Post-14.

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28.

airaṇḍa statra bhuvanaṁ bhogya bhogā śrayod bhavaḥ, hiraṇyagarbhaḥ sthūle'smin dehe vaiśvā naro bhavet (28). 

The five elements have been constituted by means of a process known as quintuplication, as we noted yesterday. Half of a particular tanmatra—sound, touch, etc.—is mixed with one-eighth of each of the other elements so that every physical element—sky, wind, etc.—contains half of its own original tanmatra, and the other half consists of one-eighth of the other elements. This process of mixing up the tanmatras is called panchikarana, or quintuplication, by which the physical elements are formed.

The whole universe of physical substance is the body of Virat. The subtle cosmic universe is ruled by Hiranyagarbha. These fourteen realms of creation—all the levels of reality, all the worlds—were created by the Supreme Being for the purpose of finding a location for individuals in a particular atmosphere where alone it is possible for them to work out their past karmas.

Thus, the world in which we are living is a proper atmosphere created by God in which every one of us inhabitants in this world has ways and means of working out our karmas. Just as each individual has his own or her own karma, there is also a karma of species. All human beings are grouped together in one particular world, and it is not that some human beings are living here and some human beings are on Mars, etc. All human beings—men, women and children—though they individually have their own karmas due to which they are born in a particular body, in a particular circumstance, in a family, etc., have also a collective karma, due to which they are all born in one world. So for the fulfilment of the potencies of the particular karma of individuals of a specific type of species, the world which is correspondingly suitable to act as an environment and field of action has been very intelligently and wisely created by God: bhogya bhogā śrayod bhavaḥ.

Here, in this world of physical substance, Hiranya-garbha, the ruler of the subtle cosmos, becomes Virat, the ruler of the physical cosmos. Virat is also called Vaishvanara. This great Vaishvanara, this Virat, is the subject of the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, of the Vaishvanara Vidya of the Chhandogya Upanishad, and of the Purusha Sukta of the Veda.

29.

Taijasā viśvatāṁ yātā deva tiryaṅ narā dayaḥ, te parāg darṣi naḥ pratyak tattva bodha vivar jitāḥ (29). 

As Hiranyagarbha becomes Virat cosmically, the taijasa, the ruler of the dream world of the individual, becomes Visva, the ruler of the waking condition of the individual. This also happens in the case of all created beings, right from the gods in heaven to human beings in the world, animals, birds, etc.—deva tiryaṅ narā dayaḥ.

The world of the gods which is called heaven, and the world which is this Earth—the location of human beings and of other subhuman creatures—come under this category of Visva, or waking consciousness. All the living beings in the world who are conscious of a world outside are in the waking state, all those who are feeling a world inside them are in the dream state, and those who know nothing and sleep are in the causal body.

These individuals, jivas, whatever be their nature, whether they are gods in heaven, human beings or animals and birds, irrespective of the category into which they are born, have one common character: they see only things outside. They cannot see what is inside them: parāg darṣi naḥ. All created beings look outside. They are conditioned by space and time and objectivity and are bereft of the capacity to see what is inside them.

Parāg darṣi naḥ pratyak tattva bodha vivar jitāḥ. No one can know what oneself is inside. No one can know one's mind or self; but one tries to know everything that is outside in the world by observation through the sense organs. The common factor in all created beings is that they never know what them is inside. They only try to know through the senses what is outside them. This is the difficulty in which every created being finds himself or herself.

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Next-30.

Kurvate karma bhogāya karma kartuṁ ca bhuñjate, nadyāṁ kīṭā ivāvartād āvartāṁ tara māśu te, vrajanto janmano janma labhante naiva nirvṛtim (30). 

Continued

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