CHAPTER 7, VERSE 7 BHAGVAT GITA

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Pravin Kumar
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CHAPTER 7, VERSE 7 BHAGVAT GITA

Post by Pravin Kumar » Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:54 am

Chapter 7, Verse 7



“There is nothing, Arjuna,

More fundamental than me.

Upon me, all worlds

And all beings

Are held like pearls

Strung on a thread.”



Sri Aurobindo:



“It is the supreme nature of spirit, the infinite, conscious power of its Being, which maintains all these phenomenal existences in relation to each other, penetrates them, abides in and supports them and weaves them into the system of its manifestation.  This one supreme power manifests not only in all as the one, but in each as the Jiva, the individual spiritual presence. It is the inherent, one yet variable, inner power of all these variations.



This supreme nature is not the working of the three Gunas, which is the phenomenon of quality and not its spiritual essence.  It is a fundamental truth of the becoming, supporting and giving a spiritual and divine significance to all its appearances.  The workings of the Gunas are only the superficial, unstable becomings of mind, sense, ego and matter.  This supreme nature of spirit, Para Prakriti, is, rather, the essential, stable, original, intimate power of the becoming.  It is this which determines the primary law of all becoming and of each Jiva.  The souls or Jivas who are involved here in the shackled, inferior play of the phenomenal qualities, are to extricate themselves by resorting to the pure action of this primordial power of Being, by becoming aligned with that higher law of their own core existence in which is discovered the will, the power, the dynamic principle, and the highest working of their divine nature beyond the Gunas.”



Swami Satchidananda:



“Always remember that whenever Krishna speaks in the first person in this way, he is speaking as the cosmic essence in all beings and not just as the aspect called Krishna.

I would like to suggest a little different analogy, because the string or thread is usually seen as different from the gems.  I hope Krishna will pardon me if I give a slightly different example.  A mala is a prayer necklace like a rosary.  There is a certain kind made out of one string tied into knots.  Take one long string, make a type of knot, leave a little space, make another knot, leave a little space, and so on.  When you pull it, the knots disappear and it all becomes one string again.  Here’s a knot, and there’s a knot, and in between is thread.  What seems to be a knot actually is not a knot.  It appears to be a knot, but it’s nothing but the twisted string.  What you see is just string twisted.



The absolute essence, speaking as Krishna, says, ‘Whatever knot you see is nothing but me.  I am the knot.  I am the string.  I am the entire mala.’  This is why there is nothing to worry about.  Just have some fun.  Ultimately, that essence is the one whose original, creative power accomplishes everything.  He himself became all these knots and in between the knots it is only him.  Understand this well and apply it in your daily life, and there will be no more knots at all.



Theoretically we may know this, but we don’t always experience it our lives.  We may have heard this truth presented many ways, but do we experience it?  If not, why not?



The reason is that when we become involved in action, we often forget.  Maybe afterwards we remember, ‘Yes, I should have thought of that earlier.’  Later, we do the same thing, perhaps in a different way.  Again, we remember the teaching, and say, ‘Ah, I forgot again.’  Know that it’s okay.”



[Both in our active life and in our meditative life it's like a game of hide and seek, forgetting and remembering, remembering and forgetting, losing the thread and finding it anew.  If we could re-experience our lives a couple or a few years ago, I think we'd see that we're in the remembering mode more often now and were in the forgetting mode more often then (at least I hope this would be the case).  It's such a gradual thing that daily progress is impossible to measure (sometimes I think about how neat it would be if there was a device...an imonitor?...that could record my remembering and forgetting to measure progress), but when our aim is pure and our enthusiasm strong, progress becomes a foregone conclusion, no matter how slow and painstaking it may turn out to be.



There is a danger in becoming preoccupied with this idea of “progress.”  Ram Dass addresses it with reference to his activities after his stroke:



“I have all kinds of therapies these days: speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, aquatherapy.  All the therapies call upon me as an ego to try harder.  Don’t you want to get better?  Exert your will.  I fight that, because it pegs me as an ego.  The stroke became a playing field for a whole new level of achieving.  How much ‘progress’ has there been?  Can you walk yet?  More gold stars to be won.  In spite of this old conditioning, I’ve found in myself a peaceful surrender to the Karmic unfolding in my life, an unfolding that’s like a tree growing or a flower blooming.”



This is a fine line to tread...between our enthusiasm and vigor to move forward on the path and that "peaceful surrender to the Karmic unfolding..."...the vibrant dynamic of our efforts on the one hand and the grace of God on the other, as we learn how to ride the wave of that primordial power that is our spiritual nature.

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