The Eternal Message Of The Gita-The Non-Manifested II

By Staff

Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:36

Indeed, most of the time we are occupied by the search for the cause, for there is in us a natural need for explanation and satisfaction, which is an emotional reaction of our nature. Only a dhira buddhi, a man of superior intelligence, has the courage to discard the prejudices, the erroneous notions which are the result of our emotional reactions. He is no longer bound by an egocentric view of the world, nor by a belief in the absolute reality of the waking state. Such renunciation, however extreme it may seem, nevertheless constitutes the indispensable condition for following the method of avasthatraya.

Nothing would appear to be more shocking to common sense than to find the same value being attributed to the dream and the waking state! And, surely, from the point of view of the waking state, the dream appears as a remembrance, the reality of which is completely subjective. But the search for the truth according to the method of avasthatraya requires one to liberate oneself from the notions of 'objectivity' and 'subjectivity'. Since we are dealing here with a direct apprehension of the Reality, any intermediary will be repudiated, in particular the intellectual analysis which divides, which classifies, and which establishes this distinction between 'objective' and 'subjective'. It can give but a partial view of the truth.

Shankara comments as follows on verse 8.18: 'The non-manifested is the sleep of the Creator. At daybreak, that is to say, when Brahma wakes up, it is from this non-manifested that all creatures—animated and non-animated—are born. At nightfall, when Brahma goes to sleep, all manifestation dissolves into the non-manifested, avyakta.'1 One sees that Shankara is looking at the macrocosmic aspect of the question that occupies us. But, since this waking and sleeping condition of Brahma can only be studied on the authority of the Scriptures, we shall be able to understand the commentary better by looking at the microcosmic aspect, that is to say, the individual aspect where, every day, we have the experience of waking and sleeping. Our sleep then corresponds to the non-manifested and our waking state to the manifested, and in this manifested we are to include our dreams as well.

Since the activity of our mind is pursued within the domain of causality, we imagine the manifested and the non-manifested to be a succession of states. Avyakta, the non-manifested, then seems to be the cause of vyakta, the manifestation, which would thus exist in avyakta in its potential state.

In verse 8.20 Sri Krishna distinguishes an other non-manifested which is imperishable. That which does not perish has never taken birth. Therefore, Shankara says, we are dealing here with the akshara, the supreme Brahman (Parabrahman). In his commentary Shankara adds: 'Although different from avyakta, one could think of it as being of the same nature as avyakta. In order to take away this ambiguity Lord Krishna speaks of "an other non-manifested", thereby indicating that its nature is different from that of avyakta which is ignorance itself. The akshara does not perish, when all beings, from Brahma to the most minute, have perished.'

The one object of the Gita is to show how to attain to the highest freedom, how to escape suffering and successive rebirths (samsara). In verse 8.21, Sri Krishna teaches that the akshara is the highest state that one may realize: 'This supreme, imperishable Non-manifested is the final goal. Those who attain It do not come back any more. That is My supreme abode.' Ramana Maharshi spoke of it in these terms: 'The non-manifested also exists in your waking state. Even now you are in the non-manifested. You have to become conscious of it. It is a mistake to think that one enters sushupti (deep sleep) and that one leaves it. To be conscious of sushupti in the jagrat (the waking state), this is what is called "jagrat-sushupti" or "samadhi".' Ramana Maharshi is speaking here of sahaja samadhi which he distinguishes from kevala samadhi or yoga samadhi.

To be Continued To be Continued

About the author

Swami Siddheswarananda

A monk of the Ramakrishna Order, India, Swami Siddheswarananda (1897-1957) taught Vedanta in Europe in the 1940s as the Minister-in-Charge of Centre Vedantique Ramakrichna, Gretz, France. This is the fourth installment of a series of about a dozen articles on various themes of the Gita-teachings based on his notes.

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