Jñāna-yoga

In the Twenty-eighth Chapter, the Lord, who speaks all types of philosophy, explains jñāna-yoga of the Advaita philosophy, which sees the world as illusion. There are two types of jñānīs who see oneness of the Lord. One group, accepting vivarta-vāda, says that the world is false and Brahman is without change. This group rejects the theory of pariṇāma-vada in which Brahman is the material cause of the universe, since Brahman would then undergo change. Another group says that Brahman is the material cause of the universe since its śakti, prakṛti, carries out the creation. Though prakṛti undergoes change, Brahman, beyond prakṛti, remains unchanged in nature. Thus there is no harm to Brahman in this theory of pariṇāma-vāda. The Lord has said:

prakṛtir yasyopādānam ādhāraḥ puruṣaḥ paraḥ

sato ’bhivyañjakaḥ kālo brahma tat tritayaṁ tv aham

Prakrṭi is the material cause and the puruṣa is the foundational cause. Time, the indirect cause, is agitator of prakṛti. I am all three. SB 11.24.19

Though there is duality in pariṇāma-vāda, there is oneness of Brahman, since prakṛti is one with the effects of prakṛti; since prakṛti is one with the Supreme Lord (being his śakti); and since there is oneness of the Lord though he has many forms. Though both groups are jñānīs, the latter group is approved by the Lord. Among the first group, those who claim that the form of the Lord, his devotees, his abode, his names, and other related objects are all false have been defeated in the story of Bharata (SB 5.12.11). The Lord speaks this philosophy to Uddhava, who is curious about all philosophies, in five verses. After that, until the end of the chapter, the Lord’s statements can be taken as either vivarta-vāda or pariṇāma-vāda.

The word asat is taken by the followers of vivarta-vāda to mean false. But according to the followers of pariṇāma-vāda, asat means a real object which does not remain permanently. This difference should be noted. Though effects in this world are real, they are temporary, and are thus called asat according to the followers of pariṇāma-vāda. The followers of vivarta-vāda say that effects are all false, and are thus called asat. This fact should be understood. In order to explain briefly jñāna-yoga, which has already been explained extensively, the Lord now begins to speak. One should not praise or criticize the natures of other people (such as peaceful or ferocious) or their actions, since one sees everything in the world as one with the Lord.

The faults of not agreeing to this proposition are given. Saḥ means the jñānī. He falls from being fixed in jñāna (svārthāt) because of being absorbed in false duality.

The Lord illustrates the fall down with an example. When the senses, the effect of ahaḍkāra in rajas (taijase), are overcome by dreams, the jīva situated in the body (pinòa-sthaḥ) achieves only dreams by the mind. When the mind stops functioning, and one loses consciousness, one achieves deep sleep, similar to death. Similarly the jñānī absorbed in duality achieves agitation and destruction.

He explains the lack of object for one’s praise and criticism since duality is false, in six and a half verses (from verse 4 to 9, with extra lines in verse 7). Duality is false (avastunaḥ). The meaning for the devotee is: because my form, abode, name and devotees are all spiritual entities, they are Brahman and nothing else. What arises by words or by the mind related to duality is all false. In that case, what does good or bad mean and to what extent is something good, since praise and condemnation will always exist in the material world? The word asat in later verses will be used to indicate something which is not spiritual, just as avastunaḥ in this verse indicates something material, rather than totally false. Real objects exist beyond the material guṇas. This is expressed in the following verses.

satya-jñānānantānanda-mātraika-rasa-mūrtayaḥ

aspṛṣṭa-bhūri-māhātmyā api hy upaniṣad-dṛśām

The forms of the Lord were eternal, unlimited forms, full of knowledge and bliss and existing beyond the influence of time. Their great glory was not even to be touched by the jñānīs engaged in studying the Upaniṣads. SB 10.13.54

tāsāṁ madhye sākṣād brahma gopāla-purī hi

Among all the places, the abode of Kṛṣṇa is directly brahman Gopāla-tāpanī Upaniṣad

om ā asya jānanto nāma cid vivaktana

You who know the Lord’s name is spiritual should chant it. Ṛg Veda 1.156.3

prayujyamāne mayi tāṁ śuddhāṁ bhāgavatīṁ tanum

ārabdha-karma-nirvāṇo nyapatat pāñca-bhautikaḥ

Having been awarded a transcendental body befitting an associate of the Lord, I quit the body made of five material elements, and thus all acquired karma stopped. SB 1.6.28

The Lord has also said man-niketaṁ tu nirguṇam: my abode is beyond the guṇas (SB 11.25.25) and nirguṇo mad-apāśrayaḥ: the devotee is beyond the guṇas. (SB 11.25.26) Therefore one should not say that these objects are false.

“If duality is false, do perception of a pot or cloth have any real meaning?” Reflections, echoes, or mistaken perceptions, such as thinking a shell is silver, though not real objects, are still real experiences. Though ultimately false, seeing duality in objects, though actually false, gives us real experiences. Thus the state of having a body, though based on falsity, gives this jīva fear of suffering in saṁsāra up until death.

“How can duality desired in the scriptures which speak of creation be considered false?” This is explained in two verses. The Supreme Lord creates the universe, and he is also created. There is no duality. He maintains the universe and is maintained. There is no object other than Paramātmā, who is also different from the objects he creates (anyasmāt). The perception of pain arising from self, others or nature is baseless. If Paramātmā alone is the universe, how can these three factors exist, since Paramātmā is devoid of these three types of suffering? “Why then are these three perceived?” They are created by my inconceivable energy. This is the meaning given by supporters of pariṇāma-vāda. Or, they are created by ignorance. This is the interpretation of vivarta-vāda.1

One who knows this knowledge and specialized knowledge completely acts like the sun, equal to all.

One understands a pot is temporary by sense perception. One can understand that earth and other visible elements are temporary by inference. One can understand that invisible elements like ether are temporary by scripture. One can understand everything which is not spiritual is temporary by one’s realization.

“Though the universe with beginning and end is illusory, during the interim when one perceives it as real, who experiences saṁsāra, the jīva or his body?” Saṁsāra cannot belong to the jīva or his body, because the body, which is unconscious (anātma), cannot experience the suffering of saṁsāra, and the jīva with knowledge inherent in him (sva-dṛk) can never be without knowledge. Saṁsāra does not belong to either.

He further explains. Jīva is without destruction, creation or change (avyayaḥ). Jīva is without qualities like attachment. It is pure, without sin or piety. It is without ignorance (svayam-jyotiḥ). It is not covered by anything, it is not bound. The body is unconscious. The meaning is this. Though one can understand that there is no difference between fire and wood, wood is revealed and fire is the revealer. Similarly the body is revealed (known) and the jīva is the revealer (knower), but the jīva is only a knower because Paramātmā gives knowledge to the jīva. Thus material existence does not belong to either jīva or his body.

But it is true that the lack of discrimination of the jīva supports saṁsāra. This is explained in five verses. Sannikarṣaṇam means relationship. As long as the

jīva is related to his body and senses, saṁsāra, though illusory, gives results. “But how does the jīva, beyond matter, have a relationship with the body and senses?” It is because of his ignorance (avivekinaḥ).

“Since the body and senses are all temporary or false, why does the jīva have a relation with them, from which saṁsāra arises?” Though objects are temporary or unreal, saṁsāra will result. In a dream which is actually illusory, a person, absorbed in those contents, experiences fear of a snake or tiger (anarthāgamah).

“Even a person with discrimination, a jīvan-mukta, has difficult avoiding some meditation on sense objects. This means he cannot get liberation.” Though a dream produces many bad experiences for the sleeper, for a person who has woken up, the dream does not produce bewilderment since he understands the dream was false.

Fear and lamentation are not qualities of the ātmā since one does not see these qualities during deep sleep, when ahaḍkāra is absent and the ātmā still is active. Though ahaḍkāra is responsible for lamentation and fear, ahaḍkāra does not experience them since it is unconscious. Thus saṁsāra does not belong to ahaḍkāra either.

“If lamentation and joy are qualities of ahaḍkāra, not the ātmā, why does the ātmā accept those qualities and experience the suffering of saṁsāra? No one will accept someone else’s qualities if they give him suffering.” Ahaḍkāra (abhimānaḥ) is an imposition on the jīva (jīvaḥ), which takes its form by the guṇas and karma. It makes the jīva receive its qualities (ādhāvati) for continuing saṁsāra. Ahaḍkāra is subservient to the Lord called kāla-- one who pushes (kalayati). It is called by many names such as “body” in the scriptures concerning jñāna. Body, senses, life air and mind are a dvandva compound in the singular. Antarātmā is intelligence. The jīva, bound by ignorance in the form of ahaḍkāra, falls into suffering in saṁsāra.

How can we become free of the bondage of ahaḍkāra? The bondage of ahaḍkāra is actually rootless. However it is perceived in many forms such as mind, speech, life airs, body and action. The list is a dvandva compound. One should destroy ahaḍkāra by sword of jñāna sharpened by bhakti.

Jñāna is discrimination. The factors in cultivation of jñāna are described: the Vedas, following one’s dharma (tapaḥ), one’s realization (pratyakṣam), instructions (aitihyam), and reasoning (anumānam). The result is described. That which exists at the beginning and at the end of the universe and in the middle as well, is the cause, Brahman (kālaḥ), which reveals (kalayati) everything

Gold is made into products like earrings etc. (svakṛtam). That which existed prior to the earrings and jewelry and will exist after they are destroyed and is known by many names such as earrings in the interim is actually only gold. Similarly I existed before the universe, I will exist after the universe and I exist while the universe is present.

Having explained that the effect is none other than the cause, the Lord now states that what is revealed is none other than the revealer. Vijñānam means intelligence. Intelligence has three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. According to grammarians like Vyāòi and Gālava, the form triy-avastham is permissible. The causes of these states are the three items called cause (adhyātmam), effect (adhibhūtam) and doer (adhidaivam). The effect of these three is the universe with the three states of consciousness. The fourth state, pervasive knowledge, by which all things arise in succession (samanvayena), is real. Tam eva bhāntam anu bhāti sarvaṁ tasya bhāsā sarvam idaṁ vibhāti: after the Lord shines, all things shine and by his illumination all things shine. (Katha Upaniṣad 2.2.5) Cakṣuṣaś cakṣur uta śrotrasya śrotraṁ manaso ye mano viduḥ: the Lord is the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear and the mind of the mind. (Taittirīya Upaniṣad 2.7) “We cannot realize the fourth state except by special knowledge.” This state is realized by samādhi (vyatirekataḥ).

It has been said that the truth is that which exists without change through all three states of time. Whatever changes in time is not truth. What exists in the middle is not a separate existing object. It is only a name. Why? Whatever is revealed by another entity is only the revealer, the cause, not something separate. That is my understanding.

Becoming discrimination about Brahman by realization, teaching, and reasoning, one cuts doubts concerning ātmā by skillfully rejecting the body as the self (para apavādena) and then remains satisfied in one’s own bliss, dissociated from all the senses (kāmukebhyaḥ).

Rejection of the body and other things is explained. The body is not the ātmā, because it comes from earth like a pot. The senses, their devatās, prāṇa, intelligence, citta (sattvam), and ahaḍkāra are not the ātmā. Why? They are all supported by food like the body. Air, water, fire, ether and earth the five gross elements are not the ātmā. The tan-mātras and prakṛti (sāmyam) are not the ātmā because they are unconscious like a pot.

My devotee with knowledge and discrimination has no relation to the good and bad produced by the senses and mind. What is the virtue by having steady senses for a person who has realized my form? What is the fault in having unsteady senses?

The jīva-mukta becomes Brahman. There is no good or bad in him at that time. An example is given. The sky is not affected by the elements, which dry, heat, moisten or soil with dust and then disappear, or by the season which create heat and cold. Similarly Brahman is not affected by ahaḍkāra, or contamination of the gunās which cause saṁsāra.

The unperfected jñānī should not act as he pleases like the liberated person. This is expressed in two verses. Attraction (rajaḥ) for sense objects should be eliminated.

Just as an imperfect diagnosed disease gives distress again and again, the mind, without having contamination and its root in karma destroyed, gives suffering to the yogī.

Yogīs who are obstructed by friends or disciples inspired by the devatās, not by their absorption in enjoyment, resume their practice in the next life.

yadi na samuddharanti yatayo hṛdi kāma-jaṭā

duradhigamo ’satāṁ hṛdi gato ’smṛta-kaṇṭha-maṇiḥ

asu-tṛpa-yoginām ubhayato ’py asukhaṁ bhagavann

anapagatāntakād anadhirūòha-padād bhavataḥ

Members of the renounced order who fail to uproot the last traces of material desire in their hearts remain impure, and thus you do not allow them to understand you. Although you are present within their hearts, for them you are like a jewel worn around the neck of a person who has totally forgotten it is there. O Lord, those who practice yoga only for sense gratification must suffer punishment both in this life and the next: from death, who will not release them, and from you, whose kingdom they cannot reach. SB 10.87.39

Such sannyāsīs are different from the yogīs mentioned in the present verse. Śruti says yasmāt tad eṣāṁ na priyaṁ yad etan manuṣyā viduḥ: the devatās are not pleased that men know Brahman. (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.4.10) Bhūyaḥ means “in the next life.”

The jñānī does not become bound like the karmī. The jīva inspired by antaryāmī performs actions. By this action, he takes birth as pig or dog, until final devastation. The jñānī however, though situated in the body, does not do activity, and is not placed in other bodies by those actions.

The jñānī, though situated in the body, does not investigate his body. His intelligence fixed in Paramātmā, he does not know the body (ātmānam). Ukṣantam means “while urinating.”

Moreover, if sometimes when breaking samādhi, he sees material sense objects, he makes them false by thinking that the effect is not different from the cause, just as cloth is not different from its threads. The wise man does not consider anything except ātmā to be real just as, waking from a dream, a person does not consider the dream objects which appeared by impressions to be real, since those objects disappear on their own.

Therefore jñāna which destroys ignorance is recommended. Previously, in the state of bondage, ignorance which is of many varieties by actions created by the guṇas, was accepted as the ātmā, the object “you” without investigation (aviviktam). He does not consider “Where did ignorance come from? What is its nature?” One destroys that state of ignorance by jñāna in the liberated state. In the previous state jñāna was not accepted. In the later state jñāna is accepted. But ātmā is never accepted or rejected. Ātmā alone gives pleasure at all times.

When one realizes that ātmā always exists, one is simply aware of it and when does not realize ātmā, one is not aware of it. When the sun rises objects are revealed and when the sun sets objects are hidden. The sun destroys the covering of darkness for the eye but does not create the eye, since the eye always existed as the same dear object. Fixed knowledge, my vidyā-śakti, destroys the covering on knowledge for the person endowed with knowledge of ātmā.

Will there be merging of the purified ātmā with Paramātmā, the sun, by bhakti? Paramātmā is different from the jīva. He is self revealing. The jīva is revealed. He is unborn, but the jīva takes on upādhis. He is beyond measure, since he is pervading everywhere, but the jīva is a small particle of consciousness. He is omniscient, but the jīva has little knowledge. He is one, since there is no other Supreme Lord, and he has no internal difference of his many forms. The jīvas are many. He is without a second, without anything else existing, since the jīva and māyā are non-different from him as his śaktis. The jīva is not like this. Paramātmā is not approachable by speech or mind like the jīva. He is beyond words since they cannot describe him. Śruti says yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha: from him words return, along with the mind, not attaining him. (Taittīrya Upaniṣad 2.4.1) But he can be understood. Inspired by him, the voice and life airs move. It is said:

sattvaṁ na ced dhātar idaṁ nijaṁ bhaved

vijñānam ajñāna-bhidāpamārjanam

guṇa-prakāśair anumīyate bhavān

prakāśate yasya ca yena vā guṇaḥ

O Lord, cause of all causes, if your transcendental body were not beyond the modes of material nature, one could not understand the difference between matter and transcendence. Only by your presence can one understand the transcendental nature of your Lordship, who are the controller of material nature. Your transcendental nature is very difficult to understand unless one is influenced by the presence of your transcendental form. SB 10.2.35

“How can the universe be one with the Lord when it is seen to be different?” Though there is only one ātmā, distinction arises. One’s bewilderment has no basis other than the jīva himself. The jīva perceives separateness by his ignorance. The jīva, though different from Paramātmā, is an effect of Paramātmā, and thus is one with Paramātmā. Śruti say neha nānāsti kinñcana: there is no duality in this world at all. (Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.19) There is no duality.

The effect and cause are one just as threads and cloth are one. The difference of the effects is thus annulled. Those who consider the variety of effects to be existing, not annulled (abādhitam), are learned in name only. They are not learned. The existence of the five gross elements, perceived by the senses to have name and form, are perceived because of duality, which has not yet been annulled. Those who pose themselves to be learned accept these elements. The wise do not, since this is a claim of real objects without real objects. An object with beginning and end cannot be accepted as real. The Lord has already said:

pratyakṣeṇānumānena nigamenātma-saṁvidā

ādy-antavad asaj jñātvā niḥsaḍgo vicared iha

By direct perception, logical deduction, scriptural testimony and personal realization, one should know that this world has a beginning and an end and so is merely temporary. Thus one should live in this world without attachment. SB 11.28.9

Jñāna-yoga along with discrimination has been described. Now the solution for obstacles occurring for the practitioner is described in three verses. For the person practicing yoga, if the body somehow is overcome by natural phenomena like sickness, there is a remedy.

By meditating on the moon and sun, heat and cold can be counteracted. By āsanas, along with meditation on air, one can counteract sickness arising from vāta. By austerities, mantras and medicines one can counteract troubles caused by bad planets or snakes etc.

One can remove lust by meditation on me. One can remove pride and hypocrisy by following the great masters of yoga.

Some keep the body youthful, free from old age and sickness (sukalpam) by other methods and engage in yoga with meditation for siddhis like entering others’ bodies which do not have disease. But this yoga is not centered on jñāna.

But this procedure is not respected by the wise. The ātmā, like the tree, is permanent, but the body, like the fruit, is perishable.

One who constantly engages in yoga may achieve bodily fitness.

Thus ends the commentary on the Twenty-eighth Chapter of the Eleventh Canto of the Bhāgavatam for the pleasure of the devotees, in accordance with the previous ācāryas.