EIGHT
God in Power of Becoming
A VERY important step has been reached, a decisive statement
of its metaphysical and psychological synthesis has been added to the
development of the Gita’s gospel of spiritual liberation and divine works. The
Godhead has been revealed in thought to Arjuna; he has been made visible to the
mind’s search and the heart’s seeing as the supreme and universal Being, the
supernal and universal Person, the inward-dwelling Master of our existence for
whom man’s knowledge, will and adoration were seeking through the mists of the
Ignorance. There remains only the vision of the multiple Virat Purusha to complete
the revelation on one more of its many sides.
The metaphysical
synthesis is complete. Sankhya has been admitted for the separation of the soul
from the lower nature, – a separation that must be effected by self-knowledge
through the discriminating reason and by transcendence of our subjection to the
three gunas constituent of that nature. It has been completed and its
limitations exceeded by a large revelation of the unity of the supreme Soul and
supreme Nature, para purusa,
parā prakrti. Vedanta of the philosophers has been admitted
for the self-effacement of the natural separative personality built round the
ego. Its method has been used to replace the little personal by the large
impersonal being, to annul the separative illusion in the unity of the Brahman and
to substitute for the blind seeing of the ego the truer vision of all things in
one Self and one Self in all things. Its truth has been completed by the
impartial revelation of the Parabrahman from whom originate both the mobile and
the immobile, the mutable and the immutable, the action and the silence. Its
possible limitations have been transcended by the intimate revelation of the
supreme Soul and Lord who becomes here in all Nature, manifests himself
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in all personality and puts forth
the power of his Nature in all action. Yoga has been admitted for the
self-surrender of the will, mind, heart, all the psychological being to the
Ishwara, the divine Lord of the nature. It has been completed by the revelation
of the supernal Master of existence as the original Godhead of whom the Jiva is
the partial being in Nature. Its possible limitations have been exceeded by the
soul’s seeing of all things as the Lord in the light of a perfect spiritual
oneness.
There results an integral vision of the Divine
Existent at once as the transcendent Reality, supracosmic origin of cosmos, as
the impersonal Self of all things, calm continent of the cosmos, and as the
immanent Divinity in all beings, personalities, objects, powers and qualities,
the Immanent who is the constituent self, the effective nature and the inward and
outward becoming of all existences. The Yoga of knowledge has been fulfilled
sovereignly in this integral seeing and knowing of the One. The Yoga of works
has been crowned by the surrender of all works to their Master, – for the
natural man is now only an instrument of his will. The Yoga of love and
adoration has been declared in its amplest forms. The intense consummation of
knowledge and works, love conducts to a crowning union of soul and Oversoul in
a highest amplitude. In that union the revelations of knowledge are made real
to the heart as well as to the intelligence. In that union the difficult
sacrifice of self in an instrumental action becomes the easy, free and blissful
expression of a living oneness. The whole means of the spiritual liberation has
been given; the whole foundation of the divine action has been constructed.
Arjuna accepts the entire knowledge that has
thus been given to him by the divine Teacher. His mind is already delivered
from its doubts and seekings; his heart, turned now from the outward aspect of
the world, from its baffling appearance to its supreme sense and origin and its
inner realities, is already released from sorrow and affliction and touched with
the ineffable gladness of a divine revelation. The language which he is made to
use in voicing his acceptance is such as to emphasise and insist once again on
the profound integrality of this knowledge and its all-embracing finality and
fullness. He accepts
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first the Avatar, the Godhead in man who is
speaking to him as the supreme Brahman, as the supracosmic All and Absolute of
existence in which the soul can dwell when it rises out of this manifestation
and this partial becoming to its source, param
brahma, param dhāma. He accepts him as the supreme purity of the ever
free Existence to which one arrives through the effacement of ego in the self’s
immutable impersonality calm and still for ever, pavitram paramam. He accepts him next as the one Permanent, the
eternal Soul, the divine Purusha, purusam
śāśvatam divyam. He acclaims in him the original Godhead,
adores the Unborn who is the pervading, indwelling, self-extending master of
all existence, ādi-devam ajam vibhum.
He accepts him therefore not only as that Wonderful who is beyond expression of
any kind, for nothing is sufficient to manifest him, – “neither the Gods nor
the Titans, O blessed Lord, know thy manifestation,” na hi te bhagavan vyaktim vidur devā na dānavāh,
– but as the lord of all existences and the one divine efficient cause of all
their becoming, God of the gods from whom all godheads have sprung, master of
the universe who manifests and governs it from above by the power of his
supreme and his universal Nature, bhūta-bhāvana
bhūteśa deva-deva jagat-pate. And lastly he accepts him as that
Vasudeva in and around us who is all things here by virtue of the
world-pervading, all-inhabiting, all-constituting master powers of his
becoming, vibhūtayah,
“the sovereign powers of thy becoming by which thou standest pervading these
worlds,” yābhirvibhūtibhir lokān
imāms tvam vyāpya tisthasi.¹
He
has accepted the truth with the adoration of his heart, the submission of his
will and the understanding of his intelligence. He is already prepared to act
as the divine instrument in this knowledge and with this self-surrender. But a desire
for a deeper constant spiritual realisation has been awakened in his heart and
will. This is a truth which is evident only to the supreme Soul in its own
self-knowledge, – for, cries Arjuna, “thou alone, O Purushottama, knowest
thyself by thyself,” ātmanā ātmānam
vettha. This is a knowledge that comes by spiritual identity and the
unaided heart, will, intelligence of the
¹Gita, X. 12-15.
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natural man cannot arrive at it by their own
motion and can only get at imperfect mental reflections that reveal less than
they conceal and disfigure. This is a secret wisdom which one must hear from
the seers who have seen the face of this Truth, have heard its word and have
become one with it in self and spirit. “All the Rishis say this of thee and the
divine seer Narada, Asita, Devala, Vyasa.” Or else one must receive it from
within by revelation and inspiration from the inner Godhead who lifts in us the
blazing lamp of knowledge. svayañcaiva
bravīsi me, “and
thou thyself sayest it to me.” Once revealed, it has to be accepted by the
assent of the mind, the consent of the will and the heart’s delight and
submission, the three elements of the complete mental faith, śraddhā. It is so that Arjuna
has accepted it; “all this that thou sayest, my mind holds for the truth.” But
still there will remain the need of that deeper possession in the very self of
our being out from its most intimate psychic centre, the soul’s demand for that
inexpressible permanent spiritual realisation of which the mental is only a
preliminary or a shadow and without which there cannot be a complete union with
the Eternal.
Now the way to arrive at that realisation has
been given to Arjuna. And so far as regards the great self-evident divine principles,
these do not baffle the mind; it can open to the idea of the supreme Godhead,
to the experience of the immutable Self, to the direct perception of the
immanent Divinity, to the contact of the conscient universal Being. One can,
once the mind is illumined with the idea, follow readily the way and, with
whatever preliminary difficult effort to exceed the normal mental perceptions,
come in the end to the self-experience of these essential truths that stand
behind our and all existence, ātmanā
ātmānam. One can do it with this readiness because these, once
conceived, are evidently divine realities; there is nothing in our mental
associations to prevent us from admitting God in these high aspects. But the
difficulty is to see him in the apparent truths of existence, to detect him in
this fact of Nature and in these disguising phenomena of the world’s becoming;
for here all is opposed to the sublimity of this unifying conception. How can
we consent to see the Divine as man and animal being and
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inanimate object, in the noble
and the low, the sweet and the terrible, the good and the evil? If, assenting
to some idea of God extended in the things of the cosmos, we see him in ideal
light of knowledge and greatness of power and charm of beauty and beneficence
of love and ample largeness of spirit, how shall we avoid the breaking of the
unity by their opposites which in actual fact cling to these high things and
envelop them and obscure? And if in spite of the limitations of human mind and
nature we can see God in the man of God, how shall we see him in those who
oppose him and represent in act and nature all that we conceive of as undivine?
If Narayana is without difficulty visible in the sage and the saint, how shall he
be easily visible to us in the sinner, the criminal, the harlot and the
outcaste? To all the differentiations of the world-existence the sage, looking
everywhere for the supreme purity and oneness, returns the austere cry, “not
this, not this,” neti neti. Even if
to many things in the world we give a willing or reluctant assent and admit the
Divine in the universe, still before most must not the mind persist in that cry
“not this, not this”? Here constantly the assent of the understanding, the
consent of the will and the heart’s faith become difficult to a human mentality
anchored always on phenomenon and appearance. At least some compelling
indications are needed, some links and bridges, some supports to the difficult
effort at oneness.
Arjuna, though he accepts the revelation of
Vasudeva as all and though his heart is full of the delight of it, – for
already he finds that it is delivering him from the perplexity and stumbling
differentiations of his mind which was crying for a clue, a guiding truth amid the
bewildering problems of a world of oppositions, and it is to his hearing the
nectar of immortality, amrtam,
– yet feels the need of such supports and indices. He feels that they are
indispensable to overcome the difficulty of a complete and firm realisation;
for how else can this knowledge be made a thing of the heart and life? He
requires guiding indications, asks Krishna even for a
complete and detailed enumeration of the sovereign powers of his becoming and
desires that nothing shall be left out of the vision, nothing remain to baffle
him. “Thou shouldst tell me” he says “of thy divine self-manifestations
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in thy sovereign power of
becoming, divyā ātma-vibhūtayah,
all without exception, – aśesena,
nothing omitted, – thy Vibhutis by which thou pervadest these worlds and
peoples. How shall I know thee, O Yogin, by thinking of thee everywhere at all
moments and in what pre-eminent becomings should I think of thee?” This Yoga by which thou art one with
all and one in all and all are becomings of thy being, all are pervading or pre-eminent
or disguised powers of thy nature, tell me of it, he cries, in its detail and
extent, and tell me ever more of it; it is nectar of immortality to me, and
however much of it I hear, I am not satiated. Here we get an indication in the
Gita of something which the Gita itself does not bring out expressly, but which
occurs frequently in the Upanishads and was developed later on by Vaishnavism
and Shaktism in a greater intensity of vision, man’s possible joy of the Divine
in the world-existence, the universal Ananda, the play of the Mother, the
sweetness and beauty of God’s Lila.¹
The divine
Teacher accedes to the request of the disciple, but with an initial reminder
that a full reply is not possible. For God is infinite and his manifestation is
infinite. The forms of his manifestation too are innumerable. Each form is a symbol
of some divine power, vibhūti,
concealed in it and to the seeing eye each finite carries in it its own
revelation of the infinite. Yes, he says, I will tell thee of my divine
Vibhutis, but only in some of my principal pre-eminences and as an indication
and by the example of things in which thou canst most readily see the power of
the Godhead, prādhānyatah,
uddeśatah. For there is no end to the innumerable detail of
the Godhead’s self-extension in the universe, nāsti anto vistarasya me. This reminder begins the passage and
is repeated at the end in order to give it a greater and unmistakable emphasis.
And then throughout the rest of the chapter²
we get a summary description of these principal indications, these pre-eminent
signs of the divine force present in the things and persons of the universe. It
seems at first as if they were given pell-mell, without any order, but still
there is a certain principle in the enumeration, which, if it is once disengaged,
can lead by a helpful guidance to the inner sense of the idea and its
¹X. 16-18.
²X. 19-42.
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consequences. The chapter has been called the
Vibhuti-Yoga, – an indispensable yoga. For while we must identify ourselves
impartially with the universal divine Becoming in all its extension, its good
and evil, perfection and imperfection, light and darkness, we must at the same
time realise that there is an ascending evolutionary power in it, an increasing
intensity of its revelation in things, a hierarchic secret something that
carries us upward from the first concealing appearances through higher and
higher forms towards the large ideal nature of the universal Godhead.
This
summary enumeration begins with a statement of the primal principle that
underlies all the power of this manifestation in the universe. It is this that
in every being and object God dwells concealed and discoverable; he is housed as
in a crypt in the mind and heart of every thing and creature, an inner self in
the core of its subjective and its objective becoming, one who is the beginning
and middle and end of all that is, has been or will be. For it is this inner
divine Self hidden from the mind and heart which he inhabits, this luminous
Inhabitant concealed from the view of the soul in Nature which he has put forth
into Nature as his representative, who is all the time evolving the mutations
of our personality in Time and our sensational existence in Space, – Time and
Space that are the conceptual movement and extension of the Godhead in us. All
is this self-seeing Soul, this self-representing Spirit. For ever from within
all beings, from within all conscient and inconscient existences, this
All-conscient develops his manifested self in quality and power, develops it in
the forms of objects, in the instruments of our subjectivity, in knowledge and
word and thinking, in the creations of the mind and in the passion and actions
of the doer, in the measures of Time, in cosmic powers and godheads and in the
forces of Nature, in plant life, in animal life, in human and superhuman
beings.
If
we look at things with this eye of vision unblinded by differentiations of
quality and quantity or by difference of values and oppositions of nature, we
shall see that all things are in fact and can be nothing but powers of his
manifestation, vibhutis of this universal Soul and Spirit, Yoga of this great
Yogin, self-creations
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of this marvellous self-Creator.
He is the unborn and the all-pervading Master of his own innumerable becomings
in the universe, ajo vibhuh;
all things are his powers and effectuations in his self-Nature, Vibhutis. He is
the origin of all they are, their beginning; he is their support in their
ever-changing status, their middle; he is their end too, the culmination or the
disintegration of each created thing in its cessation or its disappearance. He
brings them out from his consciousness and is hidden in them, he withdraws them
into his consciousness and they are hidden in him for a time or for ever. What
is apparent to us is only a power of becoming of the One: what disappears from
our sense and vision is effect of that power of becoming of the One. All
classes, genera, species, individuals are such Vibhutis. But since it is
through power in his becoming that he is apparent to us, he is especially
apparent in whatever is of a pre-eminent value or seems to act with a powerful
and pre-eminent force. And therefore in each kind of being we can see him most
in those in whom the power of nature of that kind reaches its highest, its
leading, its most effectively self-revealing manifestation. These are in a special
sense Vibhutis. Yet the highest power and manifestation is only a very partial
revelation of the Infinite; even the whole universe is informed by only one
degree of his greatness, illumined by one ray of his splendour, glorious with a
faint hint of his delight and beauty. This is in sum the gist of the
enumeration, the result we carry away from it, the heart of its meaning.
God is imperishable, beginningless, unending
Time; this is his most evident Power of becoming and the essence of the whole
universal movement. Aham eva aksayah
kālah. In that movement of Time and Becoming God appears to
our conception or experience of him by the evidence of his works as the divine
Power who ordains and sets all things in their place in the movement. In his
form of Space it is he who fronts us in every direction, million-bodied,
myriad-minded, manifest in each existence; we see his faces on all sides of us.
Dhātā’ham viśvatomukhah.
For simultaneously in all these many million persons and things, sarva-bhūtesu, there works
the mystery of his self and thought and force and his divine genius of creation
and his
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marvellous art of formation and his impeccable
ordering of relations and possibilities and inevitable consequences. He appears
to us too in the universe as the universal spirit of Destruction, who seems to
create only to undo his creations in the end, – “I am all-snatching Death,” aham mrtyuh sarvaharah.
And yet his Power of becoming does not cease from its workings, for the force
of rebirth and new creation ever keeps pace with the force of death and
destruction, – “and I am too the birth of all that shall come into being.” The
divine Self in things is the sustaining Spirit of the present, the withdrawing
Spirit of the past, the creative Spirit of the future.
Then among all these living beings, cosmic
godheads, superhuman and human and subhuman creatures, and amid all these
qualities, powers and objects, the chief, the head, the greatest in quality of
each class is a special power of the becoming of the Godhead. I am, says the
Godhead, Vishnu among the Adityas, Shiva among the Rudras, Indra among the gods,
Prahlada among the Titans, Brihaspati the chief of the high priests of the
world, Skanda the war-god, leader of the leaders of battle, Marichi among the
Maruts, the lord of wealth among the Yakshas and Rakshasas, the serpent Ananta among
the Nagas, Agni among the Vasus, Chitraratha among the Gandharvas, Kandarpa the
love-God among the progenitors, Varuna among the peoples of the sea, Aryaman
among the Fathers, Narada among the divine sages, Yama lord of the Law among
those who maintain rule and law, among the powers of storm the Wind-God. At the
other end of the scale I am the radiant sun among lights and splendours, the
moon among the stars of night, the ocean among the flowing waters, Meru among
the peaks of the world, Himalaya among the mountain-ranges, Ganges among the
rivers, the divine thunderbolt among weapons. Among all plants and trees I am
the Aswattha, among horses Indra’s horse Uchchaihsravas, Airavata among the
elephants, among the birds Garuda, Vasuki the snake-god among the serpents,
Kamadhuk the cow of plenty among cattle, the alligator among fishes, the lion
among the beasts of the forest. I am Margasirsha, first of the months; I am spring,
the fairest of the seasons.
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In
living beings, the Godhead tells Arjuna, I am consciousness by which they are
aware of themselves and their surroundings. I am mind among the senses, mind by
which they receive the impressions of objects and react upon them. I am man’s
qualities of mind and character and body and action; I am glory and speech and
memory and intelligence and steadfastness and forgiveness, the energy of the
energetic and the strength of the mighty. I am resolution and perseverance and
victory, I am the sattwic quality of the good, I am the gambling of the
cunning; I am the mastery and power of all who rule and tame and vanquish and
the policy of all who succeed and conquer; I am the silence of things secret,
the knowledge of the knower, the logic of those who debate. I am the letter A
among letters, the dual among compounds, the sacred syllable OM
among words, the Gayatri among metres, the Sama-veda among the Vedas and the
great Sama among the mantras. I am Time the head of all reckoning to those who
reckon and measure. I am spiritual knowledge among the many philosophies, arts
and sciences. I am all the powers of the human being and all the energies of
the universe and its creatures.
Those in whom my powers rise to the utmost
heights of human attainment are myself always, my special Vibhutis. I am among
men the king of men, the leader, the mighty man, the hero. I am Rama among
warriors, Krishna among the Vrishnis, Arjuna among the
Pandavas. The illumined Rishi is my Vibhuti; I am Bhrigu among the great
Rishis. The great seer, the inspired poet who sees and reveals the truth by the
light of the idea and sound of the word, is myself luminous in the mortal; I am
Ushanas among the seer-poets. The great sage, thinker, philosopher is my power
among men, my own vast intelligence; I am Vyasa among the sages. But, with
whatever variety of degree in manifestation, all beings are in their own way
and nature powers of the Godhead; nothing moving or unmoving, animate or
inanimate in the world can be without me. I am the divine seed of all
existences and of that seed they are the branches and flowers; what is in the
seed of self, that only they can develop in Nature. There is no numbering or
limit to My divine Vibhutis; what I have spoken is nothing more than
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a summary development and I have
given only the light of a few leading indications and a strong opening to endless
verities. Whatever beautiful and glorious creature thou seest in the world,
whatever being is mighty and forceful among men and above man and below him,
know to be a very splendour, light and energy of Me and born of a potent
portion and intense power of my existence. But what need is there of a
multitude of details for this knowledge? Take it thus, that I am here in this
world and everywhere, I am in all and I constitute all: there is nothing else
than I, nothing without Me. I support this entire universe with a single degree
of my illimitable power and an infinitesimal portion of my fathomless spirit;
all these worlds are only sparks, hints, glintings of the I Am eternal and
immeasurable.
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