The Science of Religion for Mankind - Shreemad Bhagwad Geeta: Yatharth Geeta

CHAPTER 4: ELUCIDATION OF THE DEED OF YAGYA

A Soul realizes the ultimate essence while he is yet in his assumed human body. If there is even the slightest flaw, he has to undergo another birth. Till now Arjun has thought Krishn to be a mortal like him. That is why he speaks of his recent birth. Is Krishn like other bodies?

6.“Although imperishable, birthless, and God of all beings, I manifest myself subduing the materialistic world of nature by the mysterious power of atm-maya.’’

Krishn is imperishable, birthless, and pervading the breath of all beings, but he is manifested when he restrains materialistic attachments by atm-maya[49]. One kind of maya is the moral ignorance that makes one accept the reality of the material world, and which is the cause of rebirth in low and inferior forms. The other maya is that which Krishn calls yog-maya, of which we are unaware. This is the maya of Self that provides access to the Soul and leads to awareness of the Supreme Spirit. It is by the operation of this yog-maya that Krishn subdues his three-propertied nature and manifests himself.

[49]In Ram Charit Manas, the devotional retelling and translation of thirty other Indian epics, the Ramayan, by the great poet Tulsidas, Goswami Tulsidas has defined maya thus: Whereas I and these are mine, you and those are yours. This notion is maya, of which all creatures are victims. It is twofold, made up first of ignorance and then of enlightenment. The first is a notorious rogue because it entraps every creature in the pitfalls of birth and death. On the contrary, although the other is reputed as the only fountain of virtues, it is wholly animated by the God within and has no power of its own. The process of enlightenment is called vidya-maya. Since it unites the individual Soul with the Infinite, it is also named yog-maya. And because it enables the Soul to attain to his highest glory, it is also known as atm-maya. After accomplishment a yogi is blessed with the power that enables him to look after thousands of his disciples at once. This power, called atm-maya, is the one that is used here.

People usually say that they will have a vision of God when he manifests himself through an incarnation. According to Krishn, however, there is no such incarnation as may be seen by others. God is not born in a corporal form. It is only by gradual stages that he controls his three-propertied nature by the exercise of yog-maya and manifests himself. But what are the circumstances of such manifestation?

7 “Whenever, O Bharat, righteousness (dharm) declines and unrighteousness is rampant, I manifest myself.”

Krishn tells the devout Arjun that when hearts fall into inertia in regard to the Supreme Spirit, the most sublime dharm, and when the pious are unable to see how to cross safely to the other bank, he begins to shape his form in order to manifest himself. Such a feeling of weariness had come to Manu. Goswami Tulsidas has written of his grief-laden heart because his life had passed without contemplation of God. When despairing tears flow from the eyes of loving worshippers because of their overpowering feeling of helplessness at their inability to steer across unrighteousness, God begins to mould his form into a manifest shape. But that also implies that God manifests himself to only loving worshippers and only for their well-being.

God’s incarnation comes about only within the heart of a blessed worshipper. But what does the manifest God do?

8. “I manifest myself from age to age to defend the pious, destroy the wicked, and strengthen dharm.”

God manifests himself as a saviour of saintly men. He, the adored, is the one God after attaining whom there is nothing else to contemplate. Krishn assumes a manifest form from age to age to destroy impediments that obstruct the smooth flow of righteous impulses such as wisdom, renunciation and restraint, as also to annihilate the demoniacal forces of passion, anger, attachment and repugnance, and to reinforce dharm.