Arjuna said: 1. What is that BRAHMAN? What is the ADHYATMA ? What is 'action' ? O best among men, what is declared to be the ADHIBHUTA? And what is ADHIDAIVA said to be? 2. Who, and how, is ADHIYAJNA here in this body, O destroyer of Madhu? And how, at the time of death, are you to be known by the self-controlled?

The new technical terms, used all of a sudden in the last two stanzas of the previous chapter (the Essential Being, the Essential Deity, the Essential Sacrifice etc.), which are to be known so that such Men-of-Wisdom "CONTINUE TO KNOW ME EVEN AT THE TIME OF DEATH STEADFAST IN MIND" (VII-30) confuse Arjuna. The chapter opens with the seeker questioning his teacher with a view to get an exact definition for each new term used in His learned discourse. Not only does Arjuna ask for an explanation of the terms used, but he is also anxious to know how exactly one can realise the Self at the time of death, when one gains perfect self-control as a result of one's constant spiritual practices in life. THE LORD EXPLAINS EACH TERM EXHAUSTIVELY IN THE FOLLOWING STANZAS:

The Blessed Lord said: 3 . BRAHMAN is Imperishable, the Supreme; His essential nature is called Self-knowledge, the creative force that causes beings to spring forth into manifestation is called "work. " 4. ADHIBHUTA (or elements) constitutes My perishable nature, and the Indweller (or the essence) is the ADHIDAIVATA; I alone am the ADHIYAJNA here, in this body, O best of the embodied.

IMPERISHABLE IS THE SUPREME BRAHMAN --- The term Brahman indicates the one changeless and imperishable subjective Essence behind the phenomenal world. It becomes the Self, the Conscious Principle which illumines the body, mind and intellect, during all their pilgrimages from birth to death through the infinite varieties of their vicissitudes. ITS PRESENCE IN EACH INDIVIDUAL BODY IS CALLED ADHYATMA --- Though the Self is formless and subtle, and therefore, all-pervading, Its glory and might, power and grace, are felt, experienced and lived by each physical structure; and this Self, expressing Itself through a given embodiment, as though conditioned by it, is called the Adhyatma. Shankara brings it out very clearly when he explains the term as, "THE PRINCIPLE THAT GRACES ALL BODIES AS THEIR ESSENTIAL SELF." Work is not only the turn-over; the turn-over can be ordered and brought about by sheer labour. The term 'work' connotes something deeper, subtler, diviner. The creative urge that is behind every active intellect, which ultimately fulfils itself in the creation of things and beings, that subtle spiritual strength is called "karma"; all else is mere sweat and toil, dust and blood, heaving and sobbing, smiling and singing, hoarding and wasting. THE ADHIBHUTA IS THE PERISHABLE EXISTENCE --- As a contrast to the Imperishable (Akshara) is the 'perishable-equipment' (Kshara), the world of prakriti, through which the potential dynamism, vigour and glory of the Infinite Self express themselves. Between the Kshara and Akshara, there is as much difference as between a steam-engine and the steam, a running car and the horse- power in the petrol, a singing radio and the electric current that makes it possible for the radio to sing. In short, by the term 'perishable' (kshara) the whole world of phenomena of the Universe is indicated. Subjectively, the equipments of cognition, feeling, and perception constitute, in the main, the destructible or the perishable factors in us.

ADHIDAIVA IS THE INDWELLER --- The term Indweller (Adhidaiva) is used to indicate the "special faculty" that presides over each apparatus of knowledge and activity in the living creatures (the Purushah). The presiding deities of the sense-organs, of the mind, and of the intellect, are called the Devatas, which are nothing other than the faculty of vision in the eyes, the faculty of audition in the ears, the power of smelling in the nose, and so on. Adhiyajna, HERE IN THIS BODY, I ALONE AM --- We have already seen that the Yajna here means the "act of perception, feeling, or thought." As in the Yajna, here also oblations --- the sense-objects --- are poured into the Yajna- altar --- the sense-organs --- when the Devata --- the particular faculty in it --- gets propitiated and invoked, and as a blessing from it we gain the "fruit" thereof, viz., the knowledge of the perception. In this Adhiyajna, in the subjective Yajna-act of perception, it is quite evident that the One Vital Factor that dominates the entire activity is the Self, the Principle of Life. By giving these definitions, the Lord is on the whole suggesting with a subtle under-current of the implications, that the Eternal Self alone is the Real, and that all else are delusory super-impositions upon it. Therefore, to know the Self is to know everything and having known the Eternal as one's own Real Nature, one is free to act or not to act, and to play or not to play, in any of the fields of the not-Self.

An individual who lives in the Awareness of this Knowledge, ever-conscious of the play of the Self at all levels of his personality --- physical, mental and intellectual --- such an individual, naturally, comes to experience himself as a Divine Witness, observing the very process of death that clips off layer by layer his self- chosen connections with the not-Self! WHAT HAPPENS TO ONE WHO LEAVES THE BODY IN THE AWARENESS OF THE SELF? LISTEN:

5. And whosoever, leaving the body, goes forth remembering Me alone, at the time of his death, he attains My being; there is no doubt about this.

Vyasa is never tired of emphasizing the cardinal philosophical idea in Vedanta that an individualised ego continues identifying with a given physical body only so long as it needs that particular instrument for eking out its desired quota of experiences. Once it is over, it 'kicks the bucket,' as it were, and walks off --- forgetting all its duties, its relationships and its vanities in that particular existence. At this moment of divorce from a given body it is logical to believe that its thoughts would be about the most predominant desire or aspiration in it --- either gathered in its past embodiments, or acquired in its present life. The techniques of meditation and devotion constitute the art of tutoring the mind to keep in it an unflickering flame of aspiration, so carefully trimmed and fed that such a seeker, "AT THE TIME OF DEATH, MEDITATING ON ME ALONE, GOES FORTH LEAVING THE BODY." This last powerful willing, determined by the last thought, decides its destinies in the future. An ego that lived all its life, in its ego-centric vanities, identifying Itself with merely the flesh and ever catering to its appetities, will be hoarding such sensuous vasanas that it must necessarily take a form, lower in the evolutionary scale, in order that its acquired animal instincts may thereby be fulfilled to the maximum. On the other hand, when an individual, in his discrimination, comes to recognise the futility of a lascivious life, and, therefore, aspires to release himself from the thraldom of the flesh, he surely moves higher up on the ladder of evolution when he retires from his present embodiment. Faithfully following this theory which is at once logical and reasonable, the Science of Life, as enunciated in Vedanta, declares that the last thoughts of a dying man order his future embodiments and their environments. Therefore, Krishna insists here that one who leaves the physical structure with his mind completely turned towards the Self will, naturally, reach the Eternal and the

Immortal, "THE SUPREME ABODE, reaching which there is no return" (VIII-21). BUT THEN, ARE THERE NO ARGUMENTS THAT CAN CONCLUSIVELY PROVE THE STATEMENT? LISTEN:

6. Whosoever, at the end, leaves the body, thinking of any being, to that being only he goes, O Kaunteya (O son of Kunti) , because of his constant thought of that being.

Declaring this well-thought-out conclusion of the Rishis, the Self-dedicated thinkers of India, the Lord says

"WHATEVER OBJECT ONE REMEMBERS WHILE LEAVING THE BODY, THAT ALONE IS REACHED BY HIM" --- be it a dog or a god.

"As you think so you become" is a theory which is obvious to every intelligent man even without an explanation from any philosopher. Thoughts guide all actions, and at any given moment the run of thoughts in an individual is governed and ordered by the channel of thinking, which he himself has ploughed in his bosom with his conscious and wilful thoughts and actions in the past. Naturally, therefore, a mental equipment that has been struggling during its existence in an embodiment to detach from all its identifications with that embodiment, and to fix itself in the contemplation of the Real and the Eternal, would be creating new channels of divine aspirations (Adhyatma Samskaras). The time of death, when the occupant of the body has packed up to quit, is not the moment to decide or to plan the travel. At such a moment, instinctively, its thoughts would run through its habitual channels, and the flight of thoughts at that moment would determine the direction of the ego's pilgrimage. THEREFORE:

7. Therefore, at all times, remember Me, and fight, with mind and intellect fixed (or absorbed) in Me; you shall doubtless come to Me alone.

No religion can continuously serve the society unless it gives its faithful followers specific instructions and guidance on how best to live their day-to-day life. Here is an instruction which is at once applicable in the secular fields of living and in the divine realms of life. Here is a simple instruction by which not only the STANDARD OF LIVING could be raised but also the STANDARD OF LIFE could be divinised. There are many who suspect that this method of splitting the mind between religion and life is detrimental to true success in either of them. This, in fact, is a thoughtless argument. Hardly ever is man's mind totally invested where his hands function. Ordinarily, a major portion of the mind, all the time, wanders into the jungles of dreadful fears, or into the caves of jealousies or into the deserts of imaginary possibilities of failures. Instead of thus wasting the total mental energy and dynamism, Krishna advises us that a truly successful man, striving to achieve the highest, both in the outer world of plurality, and in the realms within, should rest his mind at the gracious and peaceful feet of Truth. He can then pour out the entire wealth of his capacities into the work in his hand, and thereby assure for himself the highest laurels both here and in the hereafter. In Hinduism, religion is not divorced from life. If they are separated, both of them will die away. They are as intimately connected as the head and the trunk; separated from the other neither can live. Even while living through the turmoils of existence, a true seeker must learn to keep his mind continuously upon the awareness of his Real Nature and the Substratum of the world in one vast embrace of blissful homogeneity. This is not difficult, nor is it impracticable. An actor, playing the part of a king in a drama, can never completely forget that he has a wife and a child in his own house on the outskirts of the city. If he forgets his personal identity and acts as the king even outside the stage, he will immediately be segregated, and moved to a lunatic asylum for the safety of the society! He is efficient as the actor because he constantly remembers his own real identity. Similarly, even with continuous cognition of our Divine Nature, we can act in the world without any hindrance, and thereby add a glow to our achievements, and soften the reactions of any disappointments that we might meet with in life's pilgrimage. A truly educated man never forgets his education; it becomes part and parcel of his very nature and in every thought, word and action of his, he brings out the fragrance of his education. So, too, the man of constant Awareness will act in the world as a mastermind --- all his actions soaked in selflessness, all his thoughts flavoured with love, and all his feelings matured in kindness. This is the secret with which the Vedic civilisation enchanted the world of its time and compelled the adoration of all later generations. Krishna is here quite clear when He says that, in the case of an individual who lives a life of battle to win righteous profits, and constantly remembers the Lord while doing so, his "MIND AND INTELLECT GET ABSORBED IN ME." Following the above (VIII-5, 6) theory of "as you think so you become," "YOU SHALL COME TO ME," when once the mental equipment gets absorbed in the Self, through the process of constant contemplation on the Self with single-pointed devotion. FURTHER:

8. With the mind not moving towards any other thing, made steadfast by the method of habitual meditation, and constantly meditating on the Supreme PURUSHA, the Resplendent, O Partha, he goes (to Him) .

The term 'death'mentioned here does not mean only the irrevocable physical death, but also the "death of the ego," which is to be brought about through the steady practice of meditation. This stanza is added to the discourse to show that after the sublimation of the limited ego, one can live in full Godly Awareness as a liberated God-man, even here, while living this very life! One who is practising the above method of living in the world, "AS A SOJOURNER THEREIN, AND NOT AS A NATIVE OF IT," and who is training the mind constantly to rest upon the contemplation of the Self, becomes single- pointed in his concentration. This, in fact, is a revolutionary interpretation of the techniques of prayer and concentration (Upasana) as explained in the Vedas and also the methods of devotion and surrender championed in the Puranas, while what is advised in the preceding stanza is religion lived in the market-place, the everyday- Samnyasa for the man of action, in the very fields of his own activities. By this practice the devotee develops single-pointedness of the mind which helps to integrate his intellect. With such well-tuned up and nobly adjusted instruments of perception and comprehension, and intuitive realisation of the Divine, the Self becomes an easy experience:

"DWELLING ON THE SUPREME, RESPLENDENT

PURUSHA, O SON OF PRITHA, ONE GOES TO HIM." With integrated mind, whatever the individual meditates upon intensively, he must come to gain it soon enough. Thus, the stanza indicates an ampler significance than what has been so far declared. This realisation of the Self, and thereby gaining one's identity with It, can actually take place in this very same life, if, with prepared mind and intellect one can, with steadfastness, meditate upon Me, "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA. The term that has been used to indicate the one who meditates upon the Self (Anuchintayan) is very significant. Thoughts of the same species, made to run towards one fixed ideal or goal, in an unbroken flow, are called

"meditations." The prefix 'Anu' in 'Anuchintayan' provides this significant meaning of the "continuity" of the flow-of- thought, in one determined channel of contemplation. WHAT ARE THE SPECIFIC QUALITIES OF THIS GREAT PURUSHA UPON WHOM WE ARE CONSTANTLY TO MEDITATE?

9. Whosoever, meditates upon the Omniscient, the Ancient, the Ruler (of the whole world) , minuter than the atom, the Supporter of all, of Form inconceivable, Effulgent like the Sun and beyond the darkness (of ignorance) . . .

By holding the mind constantly in the contemplation of the Self, the devotee was promised that he could develop in himself such a powerful and divine trait that at the time of his departure he can easily come to entertain the thoughts of the Divine. By a very subtle implication, it was also suggested in two previous stanzas (VIII-5, 6), that even while continuing to live in the present embodiment, the seeker can reach a point where the ego-centric life is ended. Such a total annihilation of ignorance-created misconceptions, and the consequent vanities, can be successfully accomplished by the seekers only when their minds get totally withdrawn from their attachments to the false matter-envelopments through the process of continued contemplation upon the Self. In the preceding stanza, it was also vaguely hinted that the contemplation of the Self must be as "THE SUPREME RESPLENDENT PURUSHA." If I am advised by somebody to meditate upon or think out the possibilities of OXYGENELITEEN' it will be impossible for me, however wise a man I might be, unless I know what that is. Merely upon a name, no consistent contemplation is possible.

"OXYGENELITEEN" is merely a word constituted of letters --- it means nothing; it is only a sound represented by a few letters of the alphabet. Similarly, to be advised by a Shastra, to meditate upon the SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF, could only be as futile as to be asked to think over the possibilities of

"OXYGENELITEEN."

In a practical text-book of instruction as to how Vedanta can be lived, Krishna has to provide Arjuna with sufficient material indicating the line of contemplation to be undertaken by the meditator. The two stanzas now under review, give an exhaustive design for the students to make themselves successfully and profitably disciplined. These qualifying terms are as many different indications of the Truth (though none defines It), which is the thrilling core that gives a similitude of life and reality to inert, unreal matter. No single term here, therefore, is to be understood as complete in itself. Geometrically, a point can be defined and indicated only with reference to two different sets of data. So too, here the inexpressible Reality has been almost accurately explained with these different qualifying terms. Contemplation upon the Reality, through an attempt at exhaustively comprehending all the secret suggestions in the above stanza, is to prepare a mental condition in which, if a mind lives well-integrated and turned inward, it can come to pause in an atmosphere of Infinite Experience. The Conscious Principle, serving as the Soul in an embodiment, is that which illumines all the thought waves that rise in that particular mind, functioning in that given embodiment. The Infinite Self being One everywhere, it is the same Principle that illumines all the different embodiments, all the thought-experiences, at all times. Just as the Sun is said to be "SEEING EVERYTHING," because it illuminates all the objects on the globe, so too, is the Divine Principle of Awareness --- the factor without which no knowledge is ever possible. Thus, the Self is considered, in terms of the world of conditioned-knowledge which we experience today, as the Supreme Knower who knows everything, Omniscient (Kavih), and without whom no knowledge is ever possible. ANCIENT (Puranah) --- The Self is considered as the most Ancient because the Eternal Truth is that which was before all creation, which remains the same all through the ages of existence, and which shall ever remain the same even after the projections of plurality have ended. To indicate that the One Self ever remains the same everywhere, providing a substratum even for the concept of time, It is indicated here as the Ancient. THE OVER-RULER (Anushasitah) --- It is not in any way indicated here that the Self is a Sultan, tyrannically ruling over the world. Here the term 'Over-ruler' is only to indicate that if the Principle of Awareness were not presiding over the multiple faculties of perception, feeling, and comprehension in us, our physical, mental and intellectual experiences could not have been harmonised into the meaningful existence of our life-time.

The Overlordship, mentioned here, only indicates that the Knowing Principle of Consciousness is the very essence but for which life --- defined as a continuous series of experiences --- in any form is never possible. Without mud the mud-pots cannot exist; in all pots the mud is the OVER-RULER. Just as gold in all gold ornaments, the ocean in all waves, sweetness in all candy, so too is the Self in the Universe of names and forms. It is in this sense that the term 'Overruler' is to be understood. To conceive of God as a mighty policeman standing with two keys, one made of gold to open the gates of heaven, and the other of iron to open the doors of hell, is a barbarous concept of Godhood that has nothing sacred in it to attract the intellectually awakened generations! MINUTER THAN AN ATOM (Anoraniyan) --- The simplest and the smallest physically divisible particle of any element which still maintains the specific properties of that element is called its atom. Thus, it is indicated here that the Self is the subtlest of the subtle. The subtler a thing, the greater is its pervasiveness. Water is considered subtler than a block of ice, and the steam ensuing when water is boiled is considered subtler than the water itself. In all these stages, pervasiveness is the measuring rod of their comparative subtleties. In the Upanishadic lore, it is usual to consider the Self as "the Subtlest of the Subtle" which only indicates that "It pervades all, and nothing pervades It."

THE NOURISHER OF ALL (Sarvasya Dhatarah) --- The nourisher here means the support that sustains everything. In a cinema theatre, the changeless white- screen can be considered as the nourisher of the entertainment, inasmuch as, without it the ever-changing flow of pictures could not have given us the impression of a continuous story. However glorious might be the message that a master-painter has brought out with his brush, it is the consistent strength of the canvas behind, that nourishes and sustains the integrity and beauty of the picture. Similarly, if the One Consciousness were not constantly illumining the ever-changing flux of things and happenings around and within us from birth to death, through all conditions and states of our existence, the homogeneous oneness of life would never have been ours to react to and feel fulfilled with. OF FORM INCONCEIVABLE (Achintya-roopah) --- If there be a factor that is Omniscient, Ancient, Over-ruler, Subtlest of the subtle, and Nourisher of all, and if we are advised to meditate upon It, then it is possible that we immediately get a false notion that the Self can be thought of and comprehended, as any other finite object or idea, by our limited faculties of the head or the heart. To remove this wrong idea and to emphasize that the Infinite cannot be comprehended by the finite instruments of perception, feeling and understanding --- but can only be apprehended when these equipments are transcended --- the Lord is particularly anxious to tell His students that the Self is of "THE FORM INCONCEIVABLE." Though it is thus, in fact, inconceivable, yet, on transcending the equipment of experiences, the individual, in a process of Divine Awakening, can subjectively apprehend It to be his own Essential Nature. LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN (Aditya-varnah) --- If the implication of the above term (Achintya-roopah) be true, no intelligent seeker can arrest his temptation to doubt as to how the Self can ever be realised. As seekers, we live and strive within the limitations of our own mind and intellect. Every moment of our existence, we gather a harvest of experiences only through the use of the different equipments given to us. Living as we are, rooted in our false identifications with these equipments in the early days of our spiritual efforts, the seeker in us should necessarily despair at the impossible conception and the mad mission of "knowing the UN-KNOWABLE" --- conceiving the IN-CONCEIVABLE --- understanding the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE --- or experiencing the IN EXPERIENCABLE!!! The Self is defined as the UN-UNDERSTANDABLE, or the IN-CONCEIVABLE, or IN-EXPERIENCABLE, etc., only to indicate that the instruments of cognition, experience and apprehension are not available for functioning in the Self. The dream-gun, with which the dreamer had shot the enemies of his dream-world, cannot be any longer handled by him, when once he has awakened. Even the bloody hands of a dreamer, after a dream-murder, become automatically clean, without either soap or water, the moment he wakes up! As long as man is identifying with his limiting adjuncts, he lives in the external world of his self-projected delusory multiplicity, wherein the Self is "IN-CONCEIVABLE, and IN-EXPERIENCABLE." But the moment these adjuncts are transcended through a process of steadfast contemplation on the Self, he gets awakened to his own nature of Pure Being. Once having understood this much of the fundamental concepts of Vedanta, it becomes easy to appreciate the matchless beauty of the example of the Sun. In order to see the Sun, no other light is necessary, as the Sun is the

"SOURCE" of all light, the one illuminator that illuminates everything else. Just as, in the physical world, the Sun, in its self-effulgence, is self-evident, so too, in the spiritual realm, to know the Knowledge Absolute, no other knowing-principle is needed. The dreamer can never KNOW the waker, for, while knowing the waking-state the dreamer himself ends to BECOME the waker; to awaken oneself from the dream is to know the waker; to KNOW the waker is to BECOME the waker. So too, on ending the ego-centric existence, in the flash of the spiritual awakening, the misguided, panting ego ends itself in the re-discovery that it has been nothing but the Self, at all times. This vast suggestion is cramped into a mystic word-picture: "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN." BEYOND ALL DARKNESS (Tamasah-Parastat) --- The limited and the finite example of the Sun calls into the heart of a student some dangerous misgivings. The Sun in the heavens is, no doubt, resplendent, but only during the day; and even during the day-time there are various degrees of intensity of the sunlight experienced by the living kingdom. If the Self is "LUMINOUS LIKE THE SUN," then the industrious student may gather that the Self also varies in Its intensity, and that there are periods of time when It is not at all available! To remove these two fallacious ideas --- that the Self is variable in nature and sometimes totally absent, this qualifying term is used here. The very limitation of the Sun, meaning the darkness of the night, is negated when Krishna says that the Self is

"BEYOND THE DARKNESS" of ignorance, or Maya. He who meditates upon the Self thus, as Omniscient, Ancient, Overruler, Subtlest of the subtle, Nourisher of all, of Inconceivable Form, Self-illuminating as the Sun, and Beyond all traces of ignorance, is the one who "goes to Him."

10. At the time of death, with an unshaken mind full of devotion, by the power of 'YOGA' fixing the whole 'PRANA' (breath) between the two eyebrows, he (the seeker) reaches the

Supreme Resplendent 'PURUSHA. ' Following the word-meaning only, this stanza has been indeed, very often, sadly mis-understood and badly interpreted.

This section in the Geeta is describing single-pointed meditation upon the Highest. Therefore the expression AT THE TIME OF DEATH is to be understood as "AT THE MOMENT OF THE DEATH OF THE EGO." When all identifications with the body-mind-intellect are consciously withdrawn through the process of meditation, at the HALT-MOMENT of perfect inner silence and tranquillity, "WITH THE MIND UNMOVING," the meditator can follow the instructions contained in this stanza. The term "Bhakti" is not to be understood in its cheap connotation, which it has come to gather in its direct translation as 'devotion.' Self-less love, seeking a fulfilment in itself, when directed towards the divine with firm faith and an all-out belief, is called Bhakti. Love itself means identifying with the object of love in such a way that the joys and sorrows of the beloved become equally poignant joys and sorrows of the lover. In short, the lovers become one with their beloveds, both in their physical and emotional lives. Therefore, Shankara describes Bhakti as

"the identification of the ego with its Real Nature." In the context of the stanza here, the important suggestion given to the meditator is that his meditation should be accompanied by a readiness to identify himself intensely with the Principle of Awareness, which has been exhaustively indicated in the previous stanza. He must come to live the Self, within himself, at that still moment of Inward Silence, which rings the death-knell of the deluded-ego. BY THE POWER OF YOGA (Yoga-balena) --- Here we are not talking of some secret and mysterious strength --- the Serpent Power --- which is the highly guarded secret of a rare few, which should not be spilt to everyone even among those who profess to be the devotees of the Lord. The strength acquired by a meditator, when he meditates upon the Supreme regularly for a long period of time, is the strength --- the "POWER OF YOGA" --- that is indicated here. This is nothing other than the inward strength, the inward fire, that grows when the mind is withdrawn from its endless agitations and the intellect is peacefully rested in its contemplations upon the infinite qualities of the Absolute. The meditator, in a relatively short time, discovers in himself a wealth of mental equipoise and an indescribable efficiency, ready to bring his entire mental equipment into the contemplation of the Self in him. When an individual is thus engaged in meditation, all his pranas are concentrated at the point of his meditation --- maybe

"between the eye-brows," as it represents the frontal-brain, the seat of steady thought. Prana is the term used in the Science of Vedanta to indicate

"all the different expressions of life's vitality, through the various instruments and organs of the body." Life expressing itself as the various functions in a living physical body is called the Prana, which, according to its varied manifestations is classified under five main headings as: Prana: the faculty of sense perception; Apana: the excretory system; Vyana: the digestive system; Samana: the circulatory system; and Udana: the capacity in us to see beyond our present world of knowledge into the field of some greater concept and live it. All these different activities are channels of dissipation through which the vital attention in us is getting exhausted. When an individual gets lost in the Silence within at the moment of his merger with the Self, all these faculties are temporarily arrested. For a seeker walking the Path of Meditation no other violent physical practices at all are needed. Such an individual --- in whom, during the deepest moments of concentration, the mind becomes perfectly silent and tranquil; in whom, through the strength of his steadfast meditation, all manifestations of life's presence through his physical body become controlled and arrested and when he, in his enthusiasm, totally identifies with the point of his contemplation, the Self --- "HE GOES TO THAT SUPREME RESPLENDENT SELF (PURUSHA)." AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDITATION UPON OM, THE FOLLOWING IS GIVEN:

11. That which is declared Imperishable by the VEDA -knowers; That into which, the self-controlled and desire-freed enter; That desiring which BRAHMCHARYA is practised --- That Goal I will declare to thee in brief.

This stanza, which is reminiscent of a famous Upanishadic declaration, while glorifying the goal, is promising that Krishna will, in the following verses, explain the Supreme destination of Perfection and the means of achieving it. Worship (Upasana) of the syllable OM is frequently advised in almost all the Upanishads as a sure method of making the final adjustments in the mind-intellect- equipment of the meditator, so that complete success in meditation may be assured to him. From the Pauranic era onwards, meditation with faith and devotion, regularly, upon any of the recognised incarnations, has also been found to serve the same purpose with the same efficiency. Here, very many necessary precautions and warnings are given to the seeker, so that his spiritual pilgrimage may be comparatively easy and pleasant. The obstacles about which meditators generally complain arise from their own lack of self-withdrawal from the finite matter- envelopments. It is necessary that, as a Science of Self Perfection, Vedanta should not only give the techniques of meditation, but also indicate for the seekers the possible pit-falls on the path and equip them, sufficiently early, with all instructions as to how they can get out, in case they fall into any of these jamming ruts. This verse indicates how one can be assured of an easy path while moving ahead on the track of meditation --- carefully avoiding all extrovert desires that cater to one's sensuous appetites, and by practising severe and consistent self- control. In the opening of this chapter, (stanza-3) the Supreme was defined as the Imperishable. Quoting Himself, Krishna emphasises here that the very same Imperishable Truth can be realised --- they come to "enter into the Imperishable" --- when they, the men of self-control, who are unagitated by desires, withdraw successfully from the changeable and the perishable in themselves. FREED FROM ATTACHMENT (Veeta-ragah) --- The entire Geeta is a Song of renunciation; not a dull-witted and un- creative renunciation, but a healthy detachment through right knowledge, which is the harbinger of all progress and development everywhere. The renunciation of desires is not a psychological suppression of the existing appetites, but that which takes place as a result of a natural blossoming of the intellect. The newly opened buds, after a time, renounce their soft, beautiful skirts and stand naked, expressing a renunciation of the gorgeous; but in nature, this happens only when the flowers are pollinated and the fruits are well in the making. The shedding of the petals may be a sacrifice or renunciation from the standpoint of a casual flower-gazer, but to the farmer who knows, it is a sacrifice or renunciation of the flowers in their newly gained maturity that has automatically made the beautiful petals fall off.

Similarly, in the Spiritual Science of India, no doubt, there is an emphasis on the necessity of renunciation, but it is not a sad and melancholy self-denial or self-punishment, which some other religions do preach and practise. A renunciation that has sprung up from the fertile lands of efficient discrimination is that which is insisted upon by the intellectual giants of the Upanishads. The term "ONE FREED FROM ATTACHMENT" is therefore, to be understood as one who has grown out of his passionate attachments to the finite, that constitute the insignificant parade of the world, in his more mature and steady understanding of the nature and the goal of his life. Also, it is true that the more the number of desires entertained, the greater is the mental tossing, and the consequent agitation. The greater the disturbance in the mind, the lesser is the mental potentiality expressed. A meditator's success depends upon his mental dynamism, and the only wealth that can ease the rigours of the journey is his own mental equipoise and inward peace. Therefore, as a policy, it is advised that men of least desire have the maximum chance for the greatest success in the Path of Knowledge. IN ORDER TO INDICATE WHAT THE EARLY STAGES OF 'UPASANA' AND THEIR RESULTS ARE, THE FOLLOWING IS ADDED:

12. Having closed all the gates, having confined the mind in the heart, having fixed the life-breath in the "head, " engaged in the practice of concentration,

13. Uttering the one-syllabled 'OM' --- the (symbol of) BRAHMAN --- and remembering Me, he who departs, leaving the body, attains the Supreme Goal.

The practice of concentration can most effectively be undertaken and efficiently continued only when three necessary conditions are fulfilled by the meditator. These are narrated here in the verses in the sequence they have to be practised. CONTROLLING ALL THE SENSES --- Each sense-organ is an aperture in the physical body. The porous skin, the ear, the nose, the eyes, and the taste-buds are the five main gates through which the external stimuli reach the mental zone to agitate it. To shut these five doors through discrimination and detachment is the first process, before the meditator can ever hope to enter the field of meditation. These are the five inlets through which not only the external world storms in and agitates the mind, but our mind also runs out to wander among its sensuous ditches. When once these tunnels-of-disturbance are blockaded, the new flow of disturbances is shut out. CONFINING THE MIND IN THE HEART --- Even though the mind is not now directly open for any onslaught by fresh contingents of sense stimuli, it is capable of getting disturbed due to the previous impressions that it might have gathered in its past experiences in the finite world of change and pleasure. Therefore the mind, the instrument of emotion and feeling, it is advised, is to be confined in the 'heart.' The term 'heart'in Vedanta is not the pumping-organ that maintains the circulatory system in a physical structure. In the field of literature and philosophy, heart is a conceptual centre in the mind from where all positive and noble thoughts of love and tenderness, kindness and charity, devotion and surrender, constantly spring up. When once the gross stimuli are held back from entering the mind, the seeker is advised not to choke his faculty of emotion and feeling but to DIVINISE IT. Let the mind function only in the dignity and status of the heart. It has already been discussed how positive thinking brings into the mind the least amount of disturbance. Negative thoughts are those that bring into the mind stormy conditions of agitation and restlessness. WITHDRAWING ALL THE PRANAS, "THE VITAL MANIFESTATIONS OF LIFE THROUGH THE DIFFERENT EQUIPMENTS," INTO THE INTELLECT means the total withdrawal of the intellect from all its identifications with the lower, gained by dissociating ourselves from all our perceptions, etc. This is accomplished through a process of totally engaging the mind-intellect in the contemplation of the Self. When the meditator's mind, drawn away from the sense- disturbances, is purified in the realm of the diviner thoughts, and when such a mind is perfectly controlled and held steady by an intellect gushing out towards the contemplation of the Self, as explained earlier, (Ibid.-9, 10) the existing mental condition is said to be "occupied in the practice of concentration" (Yoga-dharanam). Every meditator who can make an attempt at forgetting his immediate sensual surroundings, and, surcharged with joy and contentment, can bring his mind under the total control of his discriminative intellect, can mentally chant OM with ease and enthusiasm, and observe the rising OM-waves in this otherwise silenced mind... is the student fit for the worship of OM. The following line in its amplitude of significance clearly brings out the same view-point. HE WHO DEPARTS, LEAVING THE BODY --- While chanting and contemplating upon the significance of OM, the seeker becomes so detached from all his delusory identifications with the false matter-envelopments that the ego is sublimated; this is the true death "LEAVING THE BODY." In his single-pointed, all-out, self-forgetting contemplation upon the significance of OM --- as the Substratum on which is played the drama of life and death, projected by the mischievous mind --- the seeker, in Krishna's own words, "ATTAINS THE SUPREME GOAL."

IS SELF RE-DISCOVERY SO DIFFICULT EQUALLY FOR ALL PEOPLE WHO ARE WALKING THE PATH OF MEDITATION?

14. I am easily attainable by that ever-steadfast YOGI who constantly remembers Me daily, not thinking of anything else,

O Partha. To the one who is ever-steadfast in the Life Divine and

"REMEMBERS ME," THE SELF, ALWAYS AND DAILY, with a mind unshattered, to him the Self is easily attainable. The statements in the previous stanzas are all again summarised here in a more emphatic and direct language. PRAYER IS NO INSECTICIDE TO BE SPRAYED NOW AND THEN; NOR SHOULD THE DIVINE ALTAR BE CONSIDERED AS A BATH-ROOM, WHERE ONE ENTERS DIRTY AND WALKS OUT CLEAN! Here Krishna is very careful to insist, with all the strength and emphasis that He can command, that the Divine Consciousness must be maintained by the seeker constantly and continuously "ALL THROUGH THE DAY, DAILY." To such an individual, "I AM EASILY ATTAINABLE, O ARJUNA." This positive assertion has a very important significance inasmuch as it indicates that the negation of these conditions will not be conducive even to hope for success in meditation. WHY SHOULD ONE STRUGGLE SO HARD TO REALISE THE SELF? LISTEN:

15. Having attained Me, these MAHATMAS (great souls) do not again take birth, which is the house of pain and is non- eternal, they having reached the Highest Perfection ,

MOKSHA. Estimating the benefit enjoyed by a Man-of-Perfection, through the realisation of the Self, it is said that "HAVING ATTAINED ME, THE HIGH-SOULED ONES ARE NO MORE SUBJECT TO RE-BIRTH." To the philosophically thoughtful, rebirth is the starting point of all pains and imperfections. Krishna also says in the verse that rebirth is a "HOUSE OF PAIN AND IS EPHEMERAL." In the history of thought in the Upanishads, it is quite interesting to note how the goal of life, which was considered in the beginning as "the state of deathlessness" (Amritattwa), came to the reckoned, later on, as the "the absence of rebirth" (Na-punar-janma). In the beginning, the anxiety of the seeker was to end the unavoidable and the most horrid of all experiences called 'death.' As knowledge increased through the right evaluation of the happenings in life, it soon became clear to the subjective research-scholars, the Rishis, that death had really no sting at all for those who had understood that it is nothing but one of the different experiences in life. Death can in no way clip off the continuity of existence. Those relentless thinkers had, in the logic of their thoughts, come to the conclusion that birth was the beginning of all pains, and therefore, the goal of life, if at all it was possible to achieve, should be "THE STATE OF NO MORE REBIRTH." The dream of rebirth and its destinies belongs to the delusory ego, which is nothing but the Unborn Self identifying with its delusory matter-envelopments. Electricity conditioned by the bulb is the light; when the bulb gets broken, the light which is an effect merges with its cause, the current, one-without-a-second, everywhere the same, illumining all the bulbs in the world. Similarly, the Self conditioned by a given mind and intellect is the ego (Jeeva), which suffers the rebirth, the agonies of imperfections, the disease, the decay and the death. The ego comes to rediscover that it is nothing other than the Self, once the mind-intellect equipment has been stilled. He who thus experiences the Self as his own Real Nature realises that he has never any relationship at all with the equipments of feeling and understanding. Just as an awakened man has no more relationship with his own dream-wife and children, the ego ends its march through the thorny path of pain and finitude, when it awakens to the spiritual cognition of the Self. Such great souls will no more have any need to manifest in the plane of plurality to be presented with the repeated lashes of sorrow and misery. He who has, through the process of "CONSTANT CONTEMPLATION OF THE SELF" (VIII-14) during his lifetime, learnt to control all the senses, to regulate the mind and the heart, to control and to arrest all pranas in the intellect --- he directly comes to identify himself with the Infinite and the Eternal, and shall no more come back into a limited embodiment to continue his futile search for infinite satisfaction among the finite world-of-objects. BUT ARE THERE ANY WHO COME BACK NOT REACHING THE HIGHEST? LISTEN:

16. Worlds upto the "world-of -BRAHMAJI" are subject to rebirth, O Arjuna; but he who reaches Me, O Kaunteya, has no birth. It is a characteristic technique, often employed by the Teacher in the Geeta, to bring home his ideas, by expressing them, for purposes of emphasis, against the background of their opposites. Thus, we find here in the verse two contradictory factors put in opposition to each other so that, each, as a contrast to the other, may shine out the best in the mental horizon of the students. "UP TO THE REALM OF BRAHMAJI ALL ARE SUBJECT TO REBIRTH." This idea is contrasted with the result of realising directly and totally the Self, the Eternal: "BUT, AFTER ATTAINING ME THERE IS NO REBIRTH." The theory of gradual liberation (Krama Mukti), accepted in Vedanta, says that ritualism (Karma), accompanied by meditation (Upasana), takes the ego to the realm-of-the- Creator (Brahma-loka) where, at the end of the Kalpa (the cycle of creation and dissolution), it merges with the Supreme. Even in Brahma-loka it is necessary that the ego must, through self-effort, live strictly all the spiritual directions of the Creator, and through constant contemplation upon the Self (Atma-Vichara) come to deserve the total liberation, by ending all its connections with "ignorance." Those who have not reached the realm- of-the-Creator, may not come to enjoy the Supreme- merger. They will, at the end of the Kalpa, have to come back and take their manifestation in embodiments, ordered by their remaining vasanas. This principle is kept in mind when Krishna says that rebirth is for everyone, even to those who have attained any high plane up to Brahma-loka; having once reached Brahma-loka, there is no return, but from there the meditator rises to merge in the Self. But to those who have awakened to the rediscovery of their essential, Eternal Nature and realised themselves to be the One, All-pervading Self --- "AFTER ATTAINING ME" --- to them, thereafter, there is no return to the plane of limited-existence. To the waker there is no re-admission into the realm where he was when he was dreaming; to awake is to miss for ever the joys and sorrows of that dream which he had dreamt. After attaining the waker- hood (Me) there is no return (rebirth) into the dreamland (Samsara).

17. Those people who know (the length of) the day- of- BRAHMA which ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , and the night which (also) ends in a thousand YUGAS (aeons) , they know day-and-night.

Einstein's 'Theory of Relativity' has pricked the bubble and it has been accepted even in the West that the concepts of time and space depend upon individual factors governing their measurements. Time hangs heavily and moves at a snail's pace when one is in agitation, as when one is anxiously waiting for something; while, to the same individual, time flies when he is quite at ease with himself, under circumstances happy, pleasant, and entertaining. One playing cards knows not when the night was spent and he is surprised when he notices the early dawn peeping through the windows. The same person will complain that each moment has lengthened itself to become hours, when he is at some unpleasant work, or is suffering some pain. He who is enjoying the homogeneous experience of sleep, has no concept of time at all while he is sleeping. From the above, it has been logically concluded in the philosophy of the Hindus, that time is truly the measure of the interval between two different experiences. The greater the number of experiences that flood the mind to agitate it, the slower will the time move; while the longer the same experience continues, the faster moves the time. In a single given experience there is no perception of time just as there is no concept of distance when there is only one point; distances can be measured only between two or more points. Basing their calculations upon this theory, the Pauranic-poets rightly conceived that their gods had a larger dial for their divine clocks! In the Upanishads also, we find a scale of relative intensity of Bliss-experience, from a mortal, healthy, young man, living in conducive environments, upto the very Creator Himself. This ascending scale of joy, experienced in different realms of Consciousness, is showing the relative mental equipoise and tranquillity at those different levels of existence. It is said here that a thousand "cycles" constitute the day- time of the Creator; and an equally long thousand "cycles" constitute the night-time of the Creator. This declaration of those, "WHO KNOW THE TRUE MEASURE OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT," calculated in terms of "cycles" has been translated in terms of our 365-day years. Each

"cycle" consists of aeons (Yugas). Four aeons (Yugas) together constitute one "cycle," and a thousand "cycles" are conceived of as constituting the daytime of the Creator! As the individual units, so is the sum total of the assembly. The individual mind projects, creates and sustains what its fancies dictate, and without any regret scraps the whole lot, only to create afresh. This constant function does take place in each individual only during the day time, as representing the waking state. In the same fashion the Total Mind --- the Cosmic Creator --- also is conceived as creating the gross world of dense objects and intelligent beings only during His waking hours.

18. From the unmanifested all the manifested proceed at the coming of the "day" ; at the coming of "night" they dissolve verily in that alone which is called the unmanifest.

19. This same multiple of beings are being born again and again, and are dissolved (into the unmanifest) ; helplessly, O Partha, at the coming of "night, " and they come forth again at the coming of "day. " In these two stanzas an explanation is given on how the Creator employs Himself, during his day, which is a thousand aeons long, and during his night, which also is an equally long interval. It is also added here, that the Creator creates during the day, and the entire created world, at the approach of His night, merges into 'the unmanifest' (Avyakta). In the worldly sense of the term, 'creation'is generally understood as the production of something new. Philosophically viewed, 'creation'has a subtler significance and a more intimate meaning. A pot-maker can 'create' pots out of mud, but he cannot 'create' Laddus (a popular Indian sweetmeat) out of the same mud! The act of 'creation'is only the production of a name and form, with some specific qualities, out of a raw-material in which the same name, form, and qualities are already existing in an unmanifest condition. The 'POT-NESS' was in the mud, while the 'Laddu-ness' is not therein, and therefore, a pot can be 'created' from a given sample of mud, not so even a tiny bit of Laddu. Hence, it is concluded by the thinkers of Vedanta that "CREATION IS BUT A CRYSTALLISATION OF THE UNMANIFEST DORMANT NAMES, FORMS, AND QUALITIES, INTO THEIR MANIFEST FORMS OF EXISTENCE." Anyone, living as he does on any given day, is but the product of the numerous yesterdays that he has lived in his intellectual thoughts, his emotional feelings and his physical actions. The actions of the past, supported by the thoughts entertained and the valuations accepted by him, leave a distinct flavour upon his mind and intellect, and the future thoughts and their flow are controlled and directed by the previously made thought-channels. Just as there is consistency of species in procreation, so also, there is a consistency noticeable in the multiplication of thoughts. Just as frogs breed frogs, and men breed men, or mango seeds germinate and grow to put forth mangoes, so too, good thoughts creating good thought- currents can multiply only into a flood of good thoughts. These thought-impressions in the mind (vasanas), that lie unmanifest to our sense-organs and often to our own mental and intellectual perceptions, become manifested as gross actions, thoughts and words, making our path of life either smooth or rough, according to the texture and quality of the thoughts manifested. Suppose a doctor, an advocate, a devotee and dacoit are all sleeping in a rest-house. While sleeping, all of them look the same --- masses of flesh and bones, warm and breathing. The advocate is in no way different from the dacoit, nor is the doctor different from the devotee. The specific qualities in each bosom, at this moment, though totally absent from observation are not non-existent but they remain in a condition of dormancy. These unmanifested temperaments, capacities, inclinations and tendencies come to project forth and manifest when they wake up, and once they leave the rest- house, each will be pursuing his own particular thought- tendencies. In the rest-house, the doctor, the advocate, the devotee and the dacoit, were all in their "unmanifest-state" (Pralaya) while they were asleep; but at dawn, when they wake up, these four different specimens are projected forth into manifestation. This, in the language of religion and philosophy, is called "creation." With this correct understanding of the process of

"creation," it would be certainly easy for us to understand the cosmic processes of "creation and dissolution." The Creator, or the Total-mind, during His waking hours of thousand aeons, projects out the already existing vasanas, and "AT THE APPROACH OF NIGHT, THEY MERGE VERILY INTO THAT ALONE, WHICH IS CALLED THE 'UNMANIFEST'." It is insisted here by Lord Krishna, that "THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS ARE BORN AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND MERGE IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES." Subjectively, this declaration provides us with a clearer understanding of how man becomes enslaved by his own thoughts and emotions. It is never possible that an animal- man, pursuing consistently the life of sensuality, perpetrating unkind cruelties in order to satisfy his passions can wake up overnight, to be a gracious man of all perfections --- however great his teacher, however divine the occasion, and whatever the sanctity of the place or the time may be. No teacher can, or shall ever, teach his disciple and thereby transform him, instantaneously, into a divine person, unless, of course, the student has the divine tendencies lying dormant and ready for manifestation in him! The moment anybody argues that, as a rare instance, one great soul had been so transformed in the past, by one unique teacher, then there must have been some equally unique instance of some magician producing a Laddu out of mud! In the latter case, we know that it was only magic and that the Laddu was NOT produced from the mud. Similarly, intelligent people, with some understanding of the Science of Life, and with at least a little share of respect for and devotion to the Prophet of the Geeta, will hoot down such a fantastic story. Such a story can be accepted only in a mood of poetic exaggeration indulged in by the disciples, in praise of their teacher. THE VERY SAME MULTITUDE OF BEINGS, meaning the very same bundles of thought-impressions --- an individual being nothing other than the thoughts that he entertains --- arrive at different fields of activity and states of Consciousness in order to exhaust themselves. "IN SPITE OF THEMSELVES" (Avassah), is a powerful expression indicating the incapacity of an individual to disinherit himself from his past. The past always faithfully follows us like our shadow --- darkening our path when we turn our back to the Light of Knowledge, and accompanying us submissively at our heels like a guardian angel when we turn towards the effulgent Self and wend our way towards It. On leaving a physical embodiment, a particular mind- intellect-equipment continues its existence in just the same way as an actor who drops down the apparel of the king at the close of the play and continues to exist in his individual capacity as the father of his children, the husband of his wife, etc. The taking up of a physical structure and singing the song of one's mental vasanas, in the form of actions, is called 'creation,' and when that physical structure is given up, the thoughts and ideas, having no equipment to express themselves, become the unmanifest. A violinist playing on his violin makes the music in him manifest; and, when the violin is kept away in its box, the music in the individual becomes unmanifest. This 'realm of the unmanifest' in each bosom undergoes constant change, whenever it comes in contact with the world of manifestation and reacts to it. We already know that change cannot take place unless it is upon a changeless substratum. UPON WHAT PERMANENT PLATFORM DOES THE UNMANIFEST COME TO PLAY ITS DRAMA OF LIFE?

20. But verily there exists, higher than that unmanifest (AVYAKTA) , another Unmanifested, which is Eternal, which is not destroyed when all beings are destroyed.

The same black-board is approached by different teachers to explain different subjects, during a single day in a class room. The mathematics teacher's geometrical figures and calculations are wiped clean by the geography teacher to design his maps of the world and to trace the path of rivers, the location of lakes and the position of mountains. When the chemistry teacher arrives, he erases the entire world of mountains, rivers and oceans represented on the black-board, and he, in his turn, writes on it the laws of chemical reactions among the various elements and their compounds. The history teacher makes the black-board clean again, to scribble on it the ancestral trees of dynasties destroyed and families forgotten. Each teacher comes and writes on the black-board different words and symbols which represent the design of knowledge that he has in his bosom. But all designs were chalked out and executed upon the same black-board, which illumined the mathematical calculations, the geographical data, the chemical formulae, and the historical facts, in turn. Similarly, the changing world of the unmanifest must have one Changeless Substratum, "THAT WHICH IS NOT DESTROYED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL BEINGS (bhutas)." When, in the evening, the students and teachers have all left the class room, the black-board still remains. The principle of Pure Consciousness, Itself Unmanifest --- inasmuch as It is not perceivable by the sense organs or comprehensible by the mind and intellect --- is indicated here as the changeless substratum of all, when the Lord declares, "BEYOND THIS UNMANIFEST, THERE IS THE OTHER ETERNAL EXISTENCE, THE UNMANIFESTED." The unmanifest (vasanas) are the seeds of the manifest and they constitute, what Vedanta indicates by its very familiar term, "Ignorance" (Avidya). "Ignorance" can be only of an existent something; I cannot be ignorant of my tail, since I do not have a tail. This proves the existence of some Positive Factor called the Truth, the Self --- the black- board upon which all other conditional knowledges are scribbled --- serving as the Permanent and Changeless Substratum. "The ignorance of the Real Nature of this Eternal Factor," is called Avidya, which, in its turn projects the manifested ever-changing world of names and forms. The Ultimate Reality, the Self, is being indicated here as something that lies beyond the hazy frontiers of the delusory experiences of creation, dissolution, and re- creation, over and over again. IS THIS UNMANIFEST THEN THE SUPREME? OR, IS THERE YET ANOTHER FACTOR WHICH ALONE IS FIT TO BE THE GOAL OF LIFE?

21. That which is called the Unmanifest and the Imperishable, that, they say is the Highest Goal (path) . They who reach It never again return. That is My highest abode (state) .

What has been indicated in the previous stanza as "THE OTHER UNMANIFEST --- WHICH IS THE ETERNAL EXISTENCE --- WHICH KNOWS NO DESTRUCTION," is explained here as the Imperishable mentioned earlier in this chapter. The Imperishable was defined as the Brahman, the substratum for the entire universe, and we were also advised that we must meditate upon OM as the symbol of this Imperishable. The Self which is of the nature of Pure Awareness is that which lends existence and dynamism to the unmanifested vasanas, and makes them capable of projecting out to form the manifested world of activities and behaviours. This Eternal

Unmanifested Factor, the Imperishable Self, is the highest goal for man to achieve. In all other states of existence, there is again and again the experience of return. Just as sleep is not the end of life, but only a refreshing pause between two spans of activity, so too death is not an end, but often, only a restful pause in the unmanifested condition, that comes between two successive manifested existences in different embodiments. It was already indicated that even from higher levels of Consciousness, the ego-centres will have to return to exhaust their unmanifested cravings, the vasanas. Birth, we have already been told, is "A HOUSE OF PAIN AND FINITUDE," and therefore, complete satisfaction can be reached only when there is no rebirth -- - no return. Often, educated students of the present generation ask:

"Why, after realising the Self, should there be no-return?" The question, though natural, cannot stand even a moment's scrutiny. Generally, cause-hunting is for things that happen and not for things that do not happen! Nobody anxiously enquires why I am not in a hospital but an intelligent enquirer has every right to enquire why I have gone to the hospital. We may enquire why the Infinite has become the finite; but the question does not arise at all why the Infinite should not fall again into the finite. This question is as absurd as my enquiring as to why you are not yet in jail. For not going to jail, no cause- hunting is necessary. And if you have actually gone to jail, there is certainly a justification to ask and enquire what is the exact crime for which you have been sent to jail. We can never explain to a little girl and make that child understand what are the physical and emotional thrills of married life; in her childhood she has not the vehicle for comprehending the biological thrills of sex-life. But, as the same girl grows in her maturity, she develops in herself the biological antennae to feel and mentally comprehend the very same thrills which were to her but empty suggestions in early childhood --- when all she wanted was that her mother should marry her! In the same fashion, a seeker who lies burrowed in the dung-heap of his mind and intellect, cannot, in its filthy atmosphere, know the vast embrace of the horizon and the glorious fragrance of the fresh breeze. As he detaches himself from his false identifications, through the process of meditation advised, (VIII-12, 13 and 14) he, as it were, hatches out of his limiting adjuncts, and enters the vaster fields of subtler experiences. On waking up alone can one realise the falsehood of one's dreams; the dreamer can never, so long as he dreams, realise the delusion from which he is suffering. Having awakened from a dream, the waker cannot be persecuted by his dream sorrows and his dream-happenings. The Self, or Pure Consciousness, is poetically described here by Vyasa as the dwelling place of Krishna, "THAT IS MY HIGHEST DWELLING-PLACE." In the Geeta, the Singer of the Song Divine, is THE Self, and as such the

Highest Goal is to reach the State of Pure Consciousness, the Imperishable, which is available for the experiencer of the Self. This was described at length while the teacher was indicating the nature of Knowledge gained by one who attains the State of the Divine Purusha. THE DIRECT PATH BY WHICH THIS CONSUMMATE GOAL CAN BE REACHED IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:

22. That Highest 'PURUSHA' , O Partha, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Him alone, within whom all beings dwell, by whom all this is pervaded.

Here Krishna, the Prophet of the Hindus, vividly chalks out the technique and the path by which "WHAT HAS BEEN CALLED THE UNMANIFEST, THE IMPERISHABLE --- THAT SUPREME PURUSHA IS ATTAINABLE." Single-pointed devotion is the way and the means. Devotion --- total selfless identification --- with the Supreme Purusha can be achieved only when the devotee has learnt to dissociate himself from all his preoccupations with his world of body, mind, and intellect. This detachment from the false is gained in a growing attachment with the Real, the Permanent. An act of inspired seeking, of identifying oneself totally with the experience of 'SELF I AM' is the "WHOLE-SOULED DEVOTION TO HIM ALONE,' that is mentioned in this verse.

The Self, thus identified by the seeker in his meditation as himself, should not be conceived of as merely the Divine Spark that presides over his own individual matter- envelopments. Though the seeking is subjective, in identifying with the Self, in the final experience, It is to be realised as the very Substratum of the entire universe. Implying this oneness of the Self with the Truth behind the entire world of phenomena, Bhagawan says, as an indication of the nature of the Purusha, "IN WHOM ALL BEINGS ABIDE AND BY WHOM ALL THIS IS PERVADED." All mud-pots exist in the mud, and the mud pervades all mud-pots irrespective of their shape, size, or colour. Whether it be a breaker, or a wave, or a wavelet, all are nothing but the ocean, and the ocean pervades all of them. Within and without, the substance of all pots is the substance with which they are made; the Essential Nature of all the waves, big, small, or tiny is nothing other than the ocean from which they are born. Pure awareness is the Eternal Truth in which the unmanifest comes to be projected forth as the manifest. But for the cotton, the weaver's unmanifested conception of beauty and proportion cannot be projected and spread out through his creative art of weaving a design on the cloth he is making. At all points in that design of cloth, the one factor without which the design cannot stand is the substance of the threads in the cloth --- the cotton.

Pure Awareness, poured into the moulds of vasanas, when frozen with "ignorance," becomes the multiple world of names and forms --- recognised, craved for, and fought over to acquire and to possess --- everywhere by everyone. Therefore, one who has identified oneself with the Self, in that vivid experience, comes to understand the very Essence out of which the confusing multiplicity has risen up into manifestation, to confound the stupid ego and to torment it with the delusory dream of its samsara! After enumerating the two distinct ways of procedure to go back from the manifest to the unmanifest, in the following, Krishna devotes an entire section to explain the different routes taken by seekers to reach the two different destinations. Some reach a destination from where there is a return and others attain a level of experience from which there is no return. WHAT ARE THE TWO PATHS?

23. Now at what time (path) departing, YOGINS go, never to return, as also to return, that time (path) , I will tell you, O Chief of Bharatas.

The Lord has already explained that there are two goals in life which men seek: the extrovert life of satisfying the ego and gaining its flickering joys among the sense-objects --- each experience of which soon sours itself to become sorrow; and the Divine Mission of seeking the

Imperishable by ending the ego in a re-discovery of its own real Nature as nothing other than the Eternal Consciousness, the Changeless Substratum of the whole universe. These two goals, it has been indicated, differ from each other inasmuch as the former ensures a return again to a finite embodiment, to live the consequent ego-centric life of limitations, and the latter promises a goal, having reached which, there is no return. The Realised One comes to experience and enjoy the Infinite Beatitude of the Bliss Absolute as his own Real Self. If thus, there are two goals to be gained, there must necessarily be two different paths guiding the two types of seekers to their respective destinations. In the stanza under review, the Lord promises that he will explain to

"the Chief of the Bharata family," both the "Path of return" and the "Path of no-return." There is a pun on the word 'Kale' used here; it shows both the TIME of departure and the PATH pursued by the different types of seekers at the end of their present manifestations. THE PATH PURSUED BY THOSE WHO HAVE NO RETURN IS AS FOLLOWS:

24. Fire, light, day-time, the bright fortnight, the six months of the northern solstice; following this path, men who know

BRAHMAN go to BRAHMAN. Here, in the stanza, the path of "gradual liberation" (Krama-mukti) is explained. According to the Upanishadic tradition, "he who lived a life of rituals (Karmas) and worship (Upasana), to enjoy the result so accrued, will walk the 'Path-of-the-gods' (Devayana) and entering through the Sun, will go beyond it to Brahma-loka." There he enjoys the super-sensuous Bliss till the end of the

"cycle," when, along with the Creator, he gets total liberation. This 'Path-of-the-gods,' is indicated here by the terms borrowed from the Upanishads which have a wealth of suggestiveness to all students of the Rishi-declarations. FIRE, FLAME, DAY-TIME, THE BRIGHT FORTNIGHT, THE SIX MONTHS OF THE NORTHERN SOLSTICE OF THE SUN --- These indicate the "Path-of-the-gods" presided over by the Sun. In the Prashnopanishad this has been vividly brought out when the Upanishad supplies the students with a theory of the creation of multiplicity from the one Great Truth. It is explained that Prajapati, the Creator, Himself became the Sun and the Moon, and these two phenomenal objects are mentioned as representing energy and matter respectively. Identifying with the Dynamic Centre in himself, a seeker tries to live the life. Such an Upasaka of Truth, at the time of his departure from his present manifestation in the world, comes to think of the object of contemplation of his whole life-time, and naturally, he goes to the world of his thoughts --- "as you think so you become." By entertaining evolutionary thoughts in one's mind all through one's life, one must, after leaving the present embodiment, walk the ascending path of evolution, the 'Path-of-the-gods,' indicated here as "THE PATH OF LIGHT AND FIRE, OF DAY TIME, OF THE BRIGHT FORTNIGHT, OF THE NORTHERN SOLSTICE OF THE SUN." Thus, in the mystic language of the Upanishads, the path pursued by those who are great devotees of Brahman, the Eternal, is described as stretching towards the North. These implications are all epitomised and the Upanishadic Rishis often use the term "Northern Route" to indicate "the Path of the Gradual Liberation." AS CONTRASTED WITH THIS PATH OF NO-RETURN THERE IS THE PATH OF SURE-RETURN WHICH IS EXPLAINED IN THE FOLLOWING:

25. Smoke, night-time, the dark fortnight, also six months of the southern solstice, attaining by these to the Moon, the lunar light, the 'YOGI' returns.

"The Path of Return" is called the "Path of the Ancestor" (Pitryana), and is considered as presided over by the Moon, which represents the world-of-matter. Those who leave the world after spending their lifetime in doing good and performing rituals (karmas), unaccompanied by any worship (upasana), are those who go to the World-of- Ancestors (Pitrus), otherwise popularly known as Heaven. These denizens of Heaven, on having exhausted their merits, gained by them through their divine actions, will have to return into deserved embodiments, ordered by their individual vasana-balance that is ardently pressing for expression and fulfilment. SMOKE, NIGHT-TIME, THE DARK FORTNIGHT, THE SIX MONTHS OF THE SOUTHERN SOLSTICE --- These indications chalk out "the Path through the Moon" (Pitriyaana) to the world of the ancestors. The moon, as we said, represents the world-of-matter and is the presiding deity of the sense enjoyments. Such people do return after having attained through the grace of the Moon the Heavenly enjoyments for a period. In short, these two stanzas indicate that, in his life-time, a seeker struggling to raise himself above the various matter-envelopments and his identifications with them, reaches the higher spiritual realms from where, in the stream of his spiritual progress, he reaches the Ultimate. But in case he be a courter of pleasures, ever singing at the temple of sensuality, then he falls on the path of realising those developed instincts, and comes back again into the field of action here --- wherein he can again make or unmake himself. IN CONCLUSION KRISHNA ADDS:

26. The Path of Light and the Path of Darkness available for the world are verily thought to be both eternal; by the one, the "Path of Light, " a man goes to return not; by the other, the "Path of Darkness, " he returns again.

The two paths so vividly described above, are renamed here as the 'Path-of-Light' and the 'Path-of-Darkness,' according to the goal to which each "path" leads the pilgrims. One takes the travellers to the brilliant heights of evolutionary success; the other into the dark abyss of devolutionary sorrow. These two "paths" described here, in their general implications, can be considered as showing the 'Path-of-Moksha' and the 'Path-of-Samsara.' The ways of life in any given generation always fall under two categories --- the secular and the sacred. The former, the secular, is pursued by those who feel that food, clothing and shelter are the absolutes and the fulfilment of life lies in the satisfaction of the largest number of physical and emotional sense-ticklers, and whose intellects are cold and satisfied, feeling no urge to seek anything nobler and diviner. The latter, the sacred, however, is pursued by those who can feel no encouragement in their bosom, when the sense-objects giggle and dance in front of their sense-organs, and whose intellects are ever on fire with a great seeking of something beyond, something deeper than the mere surface existence in life.

These two 'paths' --- which mean not only the two impulses of the sacred and the secular, but also all those who follow these two paths --- the seekers of materialism and the seekers of spirituality --- "ARE TO BE CONSIDERED AS TRULY ETERNAL." In the largest sense of the term, these two impulses together constitute the entire Samsara, and since the world of finitude and change is eternal, these two contrary impulses are also eternal. But it is the Vedantic theory, approved and upheld by the lived experiences of the Seers and Sages, that Samsara for the individual can be ended. Subjectively considered, this stanza may perhaps have a secret suggestion to make to true Yogis --- meaning, the sincere meditators. Even in an elderly Sadhaka, who has been on the 'path' for years, the existing vasanas in him may now and then come up to insist upon his extroversion. At such moments of inner revolt in us, we, as seekers and meditators, need not at all get flabbergasted because, as the Lord explains, the aspirations for the higher-life and the temptations for the lower-existence are the two opposing forces that are eternally at tug-of-war with each other. WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAIN IN KNOWING THESE TWO PATHS, AND THEIR ETERNAL NATURE?

27. Knowing these paths, O Partha, no YOGIN is deluded; therefore, at all times be steadfast in YOGA , O Arjuna.

After knowing that the "Path of Light" and the "Path of Darkness" are the two opposing forces that function in our mental life eternally, a true seeker will not fall into any sense of despair, when he watches a revolt rising in his bosom. "NO 'YOGI' IS DELUDED, KNOWING THESE PATHS." The entire line of argument pursued by Krishna, is to reveal slowly and steadily the "Path of Return" and the

"Path of No-Return" and now, in this, the penultimate stanza of this chapter, the Lord summarises the thesis and purpose, and says, "THEREFORE, ARJUNA, YOU BE A 'YOGI' AT ALL TIMES." Here, he who has withdrawn himself from his false identifications and has come to fix his single-pointed mind in the contemplation of the Self, is a Yogi. In short, the entire chapter is a divinely powerful plea recommending that Arjuna should, even while acting in the world, continuously strive to be one living in the awareness of the Divine, through a process of selfless identification with the Eternal, Imperishable Purusha. BY MERE MEDITATION HOW WILL WE GAIN THE SPECIFIC MERITS THAT ARE PROMISED BY THE SHRUTI AND THE SMRITI WHEN WE FOLLOW CERTAIN NOBLE ACTIONS IN LIFE?

28. Whether fruit of merit is declared (in the scriptures) as springing up from study of the VEDAS, from performance of sacrifices, from practice of austerities, and from charity --- beyond all these goes the YOGIN, who having known this (the two 'paths' ) attains to the Supreme, Primeval (Essence) .

Here Krishna is emphasizing that meditation can be undertaken by anyone who is even slightly capable of it, because, the Lord explains, "WHATEVER MERITORIOUS RESULTS ARE PROMISED IN THE SCRIPTURES TO ACCRUE FROM THE STUDY OF THE VEDAS, PERFORMANCE OF YAJNAS, PRACTICE OF AUSTERITIES, AND SELFLESS CHARITY," a true Yogi, meaning, a sincere meditator, gains them all. Besides, the Lord is emphatic when He says, "THE YOGI EVER RISES OVER ALL THESE." Attempts at meditation can integrate the personality a million times more easily and quickly than by the slower processes described above --- it being understood that the devoted meditator has developed in himself the necessary amount of dispassion, and discriminative thinking. Even these can grow when meditation is pursued regularly and sincerely. When thus, a meditator who has, through meditation, gained the results of selfless Karma and Upasanas, continued his practices, he learns to soar higher and higher, until at last he comes to realise "THIS," the Imperishable Purusha, and ATTAINS TO THE PRIMEVAL, SUPREME ABODE --- having attained which, MY HIGHEST STATE, there is no return.

Thus, in the UPANISHADS of the glorious Bhagawad-Geeta, in the Science of the Eternal, in the scripture of YOGA , in the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, the eightth discourse ends entitled: THE YOGA OF IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN.

Here the term "YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN" is to be understood as "THE WAY TO THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN." After answering in this chapter the questions raised by Arjuna, the Lord was borne away on the high tides of His Divine inspiration, to explain how those who can remember the Infinite at the time of their departure from the body will reach the Infinite. Therefore, He advised Arjuna to remember the Infinite always and face his life diligently. Naturally, Krishna has to explain what is the nature of that Infinite upon which the seeker is to fix his single- pointed mind. We had thus, in stanzas 9 and 10, a set of brilliant phrases, which, in their suggestive-ness, explain the Inexplicable. Having described the Imperishable BRAHMAN, Krishna explains the "Path-of-Light" and the

"Path-of-Darkness," the former leading to the Imperishable, and the latter abducting the ego away from its divine ]home into the 'house of pain and finitude.' Rightly, indeed, has the chapter been captioned as "THE WAY TO THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN."