SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
Chapter 8
<< Chapter 8 verses 21
purusha: sa para: pArtha bhakthyA labhyas thvananyayA |
yasyAnthassthAni bhUthAni yEna sarvam idham thatham ||
word-by-word meaning (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
pArtha – Oh son of kunthI!
bhUthAni – all entities
yasya – in which paramapurusha
anthassthAni – present inside
yEna – by whom
sarvam idham – all these
thatham – pervaded
sa: para: purusha: – that supreme lord
ananyA bhakthyA – exclusive devotion
labhya: – attainable
Simple Translation (based on puththUr krishNamAchArya swAmy’s thamizh translation)
Oh son of kunthI! In which paramapurusha (supreme lord) all entities are present inside, by whom all these [entities] are pervaded, that paramapurusha is attainable through exclusive devotion.
Rendering based on ALkoNdavilli gOvindhAchArya swAmy’s English translation of gIthA bhAshyam
‘Supreme is that Spirit (purusha), Pārtha! Who is attainable but by unswerving love; in Whom are all beings, by Whom is all this pervaded.‘
The Purusha, Supreme, is He in Whom all things reside, Who enters into all things; He who was declared in :—
‘Naught whatsoever, higher than I, Dhanañjaya! exists. Like unto a row of gems strung on a string, all this is threaded by Me.’ (VII-7).
‘I am the Exhaustless, Superior to these ’ (VII-13).
This is the Supreme Purusha, Who is accessible to unswerving love (bhakti) as declared already in:—
‘Whoso, with undivided mind, ever etc’ (VIII-14).
Next, the journey that is called Archir-ādi (or the spiritual road beginning with light) which is common to both the knower of the true ātma (or soul-lover) and him who is devoted to Parama-Purusha (God-lover), is discoursed on:—
That archir-ādi is the road by which both these kinds of devotees travel is declared in the Śruti. It is the road, travelled by which, there is no returning (or retracing). Says the Śruti, when treating on the Science of the Five Fires (Pañch-āgni-vidyā) thus:
‘Those who know (ātma) to be thus; and those again who meditate on Tapas (Brahm=God) with Śraddhā (Lakshmi=Mediatrix, in Me), in a retired place, reach (the deity of) Archiḥ=light; from (the deity of) light, to (the deity of) day, etc.’
That he who travels by the archir-ādi road, reaches Para-brahma, and that he returns not, is thus announced in the Śruti:
‘He (the spirit or angel or cherub, named Amānava) conducts them (the redeemed souls) to Brahm…. Travelled by this road, they return not to this mortal round of existence.’
The Śruti: referring to:—
‘Those who know it (ātma) to be thus,’ is not to be understood as having reference to those aspirants who follow the Prajāpati-declared Para-vidyā (or God-science or Wisdom), auxiliary to which they have to know ātma (or their own soul, first); for if it did refer to the God-seekers, then the mention of God-seekers or God-wisdom (Para-vidyā) again (immediately after the above-cited passage), viz:—
‘And those who meditate on Śraddhā-united Tapas or Mother-Father God)’ would be superfluous and meaningless.
In the texts of Pañch-āgni-vidyā, viz:—
‘Thus do the waters come to be designated as the Purusha, in the fifth oblation’ etc., and,
‘Those of righteous deeds, those of iniquitous deeds’ etc., have reference to the (physical) forms alone like man etc., fashioned according to virtuous or wicked deeds, out of waters in conjunction with other elements, and that ātma is but in association with those forms. After thus declaring the distinction between Intelligent and Non-intelligent Principles, then next, the Śruti:—
‘Those who know it (ātma) thus…. join (the road of) Archiḥ; and return not to this whirl of mortal existence etc’.
Teaches that the non-intelligent nature (matter) is a thing fit to be discarded, and the intelligent nature (ātma) is the thing fit to be espoused; so that it is learnt that,
‘Those who understand it (ātma) thus’ are those (the soul-seekers) who go by the road of Archiḥ, and return not.
The passage, —‘He conducts these to Brahm,’ as meaning ‘Brahm is attained,’ is applicable to both the aspirant for the realization of pure ātma-essence (or soul-seeker), and the aspirant devoted to Parama-purusha (or God-seeker), in the light that the mode of meditation for the former also consists in the contemplating of matter-exempt ātma-principle, as Brahm-ensouled, and in the relation that ātma is essentially leige to Brahm. This holds conformably to the Vedanta-axiom called the tat-kratu-nyāya [or the truth ‘that the like effort begets like result; and therefore when Brahm is to be the fruit of a devotee, he should have devoted himself to] contemplation of Brahm. In the present case, when the fruit Brahm, —as declared in; ‘He conducts those to Brahm,’— is mentioned, it is inferred that the soul-seeker’s contemplative mode involves contemplation of Brahm. How he contemplates on Brahm was mentioned viz., he contemplates on Brahm as ancillary to ātma, —atma (Soul) being his chief aim,— whereas the God-seeker’s contemplation is Brahm Itself, with his soul as ancillary to Brahm, —Brahm (God) being his sole Aim, not atma (soul).
As regards meditation being of the nature that ātma shall therein be regarded as by essence standing in the relation of fealty to the Sovereign God, authority is found in the Śruti:
‘Who (Brahm) abides in ātma (as Soul…..), of Whom ātma is body etc.’
>> Chapter 8 verse 23
archived in http://githa.koyil.org
pramEyam (goal) – http://koyil.org
pramANam (scriptures) – http://granthams.koyil.org
pramAthA (preceptors) – http://acharyas.koyil.org
SrIvaishNava education/kids portal – http://pillai.koyil.