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

By Staff

Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:40

The spectator is not a particular entity who would stand aside from the spectacle, for in that case he would immediately become part of the spectacle and cease to be a spectator. Everything which appears in this universe, both in the mental and in the physical world, belongs to the spectacle. As to 'That' which is conscious of the spectacle, no one can apprehend that, no one can describe that: Its very nature is never to be perceived and, at the same time, never to be missing.

With the spectator and the spectacle it is as with the clay and the multiple objects that may be fashioned out of clay: The clay in itself is never perceived. What one is seeing, a jar for example, is but a form of it. Can one say, nevertheless, that the clay is an entity distinct from the jar? There are no two things: There is not the clay and the jar. The clay actually appears under this particular form, but there has never been and there will never be anything but clay: It is the infinite possibility of form. Therefore, we will never be able to perceive the spectator who is Being itself; we only know its manifestations. At the same time Being can never be absent: Nothing can exist without That, nothing exists but That. What, then, is the value of the spectacle from this point of view? There is only Being, the spectator, and the infinite possibility of spectacles.

In verse 2.16 we find this existential perspective again (cf chapter 6.2). In this context Shankara shows how, in each act of perception, a double consciousness, a double vision occurs: the vision of that which changes (the unreal), and the vision of that which remains (the Real). In fact, in the same act of perception five essential characteristics may be distinguished: asti (Existence), bhati (Luminosity), priya (Love), nama (name), and rupa (form). The latter two attributes which correspond to the manifested, particularize the object and, as a result, permit it to be known as an object. Our experience of space and time is conditioned by the vision which changes, that of nama-rupa.

On the other hand, the intuition of the Real (asti, bhati and priya) is non-dual and transcends the notions of time and space. But the power of Maya is such that man becomes attached to that which perishes. Only the knowledge of the akshara can remove this ignorance. The enquiry (vichara) which gradually eliminates the emotional reaction and the attachment to the perishable form will make the seeker conscious of the sole reality of Atman, the Self.

'There are two sorts of visions', Shankara writes in his commentary on the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (I.4.10), 'the ordinary vision and the real vision. The ordinary vision is a function of the mind, being effected through the organ of sight. It is an action and, therefore, it has a beginning and an end. But Atman is the witness of this ordinary vision, and its vision is like the heat and the light of fire: Being the very essence of the witness, it has neither beginning nor end. Because it appears to be connected with the ordinary vision (which is a product and but a mode of it), the real vision is called "the Witness". In fact, it is itself that which is being differentiated into witness and vision. The vision of Atman is the knowledge of the impersonal, the knowledge of the akshara. This is the highest realisation which man may attain to. He who reaches that state will neverbe deceived any more by the appearances. 'That,' Sri Krishna says, 'is My supreme abode.'

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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