What Is Man from Bhagavad gita
Man is not a body. The body is just a temporary material container of man. Man is a consciousness (soul), i.e. self-aware energy. The size of the “lump” of consciousness of different people may differ significantly: from tiny “rudimentary” — to cosmic sizes. It depends on two factors: the psychogenetic age (i.e. the age of the soul) and the intensity of efforts made on the spiritual Path.
Krishna said about correspondence between man and man’s body the following:
2:18. Only the bodies of the embodied are perishable, but he himself is eternal and indestructible…
2:19. He who thinks that he can kill and he who thinks that he can be killed are both mistaken. Man can neither kill nor can be killed.
2:22. As man throws off worn-out clothes and puts on others that are new, so does he throws off worn-out bodies and enters new ones.
Man, as it was said above, represents the last stage of the evolutionary development of incarnate purusha (minerals — plants — animals — man — God). Man’s task consists in striving to achieve the Divine Perfection. On this path, people go through certain stages, steps. We have considered already one of the schemes of such an ascent. In the Bhagavad Gita two other schemes are presented.
One of them is a description of the evolution in terms of gunas. That is, there are three gunas: a) tamas — darkness, ignorance, stupidity, coarseness, b) rajas — passionateness, activity, intensive search for one’s place in life, fight for one’s ideals, and so on, and c) sattva — purity, harmony. But, Krishna said, one has to go still higher — higher than sattva, to mergence with God, and this calls for new efforts, new struggle with oneself. One has to keep this in mind, since sattva may turn out to be a trap: it captivates one with its bliss, peculiar to this stage. It “relaxes” one, tempts to abandon further efforts. But to become Brahman (having cognized the Nirvana in Brahman) and then Ishvara, one has to do much.
However, it is impossible to bypass the sattva guna. It is impossible to merge with God without mastering the qualities inherent to this guna.
Likewise, it is impossible to bypass the rajas guna, for it is in this guna that man masters such qualities as energy, self-discipline, power.
There is another scheme of man’s evolutionary advancement in the Bhagavad Gita — the scale of varnas. (Let me stress that this and many other scales are mutually complementary; complex use of them in application to oneself or to others gives a more complete picture).
According to the scale of varnas, man on the first stage is called shudra. People of this stage are too young in their psychogenesis and able of doing too little. Their task is to learn from others who are more mature evolutionary, helping them in their work.
The second stage is represented by vaishyas. These are merchants, craftsmen, farmers. Being in this varna implies having a developed intellect for starting creative business activity, because for running a business one needs to have an intellect which is already developed. It is through such activity that the representatives of this varna continue self-development.
The next varna is represented by kshatriyas. These are people who have ascended still higher in their intellectual development, in being energetic. These are leaders possessing corresponding “broadness” of the mind, corresponding personal power.
By the way, one can start preparing oneself to this stage of spiritual development since youth by developing personal power and energy. Helpful in this work are physical labor, outdoor competitive sports, dances to rhythmical music. If one does all this without coarse emotional states, if one remembers about God and about the necessity to observe known ethical standards in front of Him, then this can make a good “reserve” for the future spiritual development in mature age. Then it will be necessary to renounce both competitiveness and passionateness. On the contrary, one should come then to calm, harmony, tenderness, wisdom. But this will be based on the foundation of big personal power — i.e. the energy might of the consciousness and intellect.
The highest varna consists of brahmans, that is spiritual leaders.
By the way, Brahman is a Sanskrit word which is translated sometimes inadequately — with diverse Sanskrit-like words. Thus, such words appeared as brahmin, Brahma, Brahmo, Brama. But in Sanskrit there is one word denoting both the Consciousness of Brahman and a person who has attained the Nirvana in Brahman.
It became historically established in India to hand down the varna membership by inheritance. Thus, it is quite obvious that not all people who assign themselves to the highest varna have high spiritual achievements.
But let us come back to the problem of self-development.
Let me cite some words of Krishna on how to choose the adequate methods of work on oneself — that is those which are in accordance with the real stages of psychogenesis and ontogenesis.
12:8. Direct your thoughts to Me, submerge yourself as a consciousness into Me — verily, then you will live in Me…
12:9. But if you are not able to fix your thoughts steadily on Me — try to reach Me by practicing yoga…
12:10. If you are not capable of doing constantly yoga exercises, then dedicate yourself to serving Me, performing only those actions which are needful to Me — then you will reach Perfection!
12:11. If you are not able of doing even this, then seek the Mergence with Me by renouncing the personal profit of your activity; restrain yourself in this way.
Who of us are capable of fulfilling the first recommendation?…
This means we can try the second one, i.e. the yoga exercises…
However, not everyone is capable of performing them successfully…
In such a case, said Krishna, pave your way to God through karma yoga, i.e. the activity dedicated to God, and not to yourself. The activity devoid of egoistic, selfish component is karma yoga.
It is also essential to indicate what great importance Krishna attached to the intellectual development of people on the spiritual Path.
This appears to be especially important due to the fact that there are many schools denying the importance of intellectual development — up to opposing the traditional education of children.
This point of view was expressed by Rajneesh in the early period of his preaching activity. He put it this way: your intellects, he said, are inherent to your brains, but your brains will perish along with your bodies, so one should be concerned only with that which is eternal — that is the consciousness. These are his early teachings. Later on, he abandoned such views and held the opinion that the highest spiritual achievements are possible only for the one who has mastered wisdom.
However, today there are sects fighting against mind. Some of their adherents believe that insanity is the norm in the development on the religious path.
But Krishna exalted Wisdom:
4:33. Superior to all outer sacrifices is the sacrifice of wisdom… All actions… become perfect when they are performed by the wise.
4:34. Therefore, gain wisdom through devotion, inquiry, and service…
4:37. As fire turns fuel into ashes, so does the fire of wisdom burns all false actions to ashes.
4:38. There is no purifier better than wisdom in this world. Through it the one skilled in yoga attains Enlightenment in the Atman in due course.
4:39. The one full of faith gains wisdom. The one controlling his indriyas gains it too. Having achieved wisdom, they quickly attain the higher worlds.
7:16. There are four types of righteous men worshipping Me…: desiring to free themselves from suffering, aspiring to knowledge, seeking personal achievements, and the wise.
(It follows from the last words of Krishna that: first, any active person who is not of demonic nature, i.e. not indulging in coarse vices, is a righteous one. Second, the representatives of the first three mentioned groups are not wise yet: the wise are an independent group of a higher level. Those striving to break away from suffering, those thirsting for knowledge, and those striving for personal achievements on the stage of rajas — they are not wise yet).
7:17. … Superior to the others is the wise, even-minded and devoted to Me completely. Verily, I am dear to the wise, and he is dear to Me.
8:28. Studying the Vedas, performing sacrifice, ascetic exploits, and good deeds give one proper fruits. But a yogi possessing the true knowledge is superior to all these; he attains the Supreme Abode.
So who can be called the wise? — He who has a wide scope of knowledge on the main subjects: about God, about man, about man’s Path to God. This is the basis, the foundation of Wisdom. But it is not the Wisdom yet. This is just possession of much knowledge, erudition. Wisdom implies an additional capability of operating the knowledge, the ability to create intellectually.
How we can develop all this in ourselves? The easiest way is to study in traditional educational institutions: schools, universities… Plus mastering as many skills, professions as possible, communications with people, with God, and many other things. It is essential to go through the stage of grihastha (householder) in full. It is through the service to other people, caring about them — first within one’s family, and then within the “family” of one’s spiritual disciples — that Wisdom can be gained.
And fool people are not let by the Creator into Himself: He does not need them.
Topic: The Wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita (Read 13509 times)