Gita for Youth - Yoga of Imperishable Brahman (Akshar Brahman Yoga)

Chapter 8: The Yoga of Imperishable Brahman

Arjuna now rightly asked the following questions which also come to our mind at the end of the seventh chapter - “Oh Purushottama! Tell me what is that Brahman? What is that science of Knowledge or Adhyatman? What is Action in the context that you described? What is Adhibhuta and pray what is Adhidaiva? What is Adhiyajna in this body? At the time of death how would one know you?”

The Lord says in response, “Brahman is immutable and beyond (the limits of intellect), the Supreme Being, the study of the Brahman or Atman (Swa- bhava – own bhava or nature) is called Adhyatman (Adhi Atman) or spiritual knowledge. Karma is the grand sacrifice by which all beings and their nature come into existence. Adhibhuta is manifested universe with all beings, which is mutable and modifiable; the Adhidaiva is the Purusha or the acting Self or the illuminating principle who presides over mind, intelligence and sense organs. Adhiyajna is Me, the Supreme Being who presides over all sacrifices, who is also the indweller in the body (Atman or the Self), the eternal witness. “

This knowledge is one of the most esoteric in Gita and there are various interpretations for the definitions which the Lord has provided. However there is a pattern in these explanations. There are three schools of Vedantic thoughts. Dvaita or dualism which is followed by most major religions of the world, which differentiates between individual souls and a Supreme Being who is the creator, preserver and destructor, who presides over all and looks after all, to whom one can pray and who incarnates for the devotees. Visistadvaita or qualified monism postulates that the Supreme Being divides itself into many individual souls and all these individual souls are contained in that Supreme consciousness. So according to this school of thought the individual beings are parts, not entirely separate from the Supreme Being. The grandest of them is however Advaita, or monism which postulates that this division of the Supreme Being into individuals is merely an illusion. There is a grand unity which pervades all beings, i.e. all are Supreme Being. The division is the work of the illusive force called Maya which creates myriads of names and forms and the visible and the perceived Universe. All schools accept that Brahman is one and immutable. However while Dvaita and Visistadvaita distinguishes between the individual souls and the Brahman, Advaita declares them to be one and the same thing once Maya has been transcended. So these schools are actually steps of spiritual knowledge through which one can obtain the knowledge of the grand unity pervading all, thus reaching the culmination called Advaita. Adhyatman is acquiring knowledge, whereby we get to know the real nature of the Brahman and the real nature of Atman. Karma is a means of obtaining knowledge as Karma is a result of desire, desire to enjoy the fruits of Karma brings sufferings in its wake, and sufferings makes the mind purer, thereby making it a better receptacle to assimilate the knowledge of the absolute and its real nature, the spirit or adhytaman. Adhyatman as the spirit is the obejct of illumination whereas the Adhibhuta as matter is the impermanence of the world of names and forms. The Dvaita, which is based on Names and Forms thus merges into Visistadvaita, as for the first time the aspirant gets to taste the true nature of divine, and begins to consider that the he, the individual soul, is not entirely separate from his beloved, the Lord, but is a part of the Him. From Adhibhuta thus one gets to know the Adhidaivata, the presiding deity of all functions, the active Purusha, or the illuminating principle, who is really the creative or motive power of the Universe. But still in the Visistadvaita sense, this creative or presiding power is different from the individuals, although He, in the Supreme aspect creates and presides over each of them. It is only by knowing Adhiyajna, the Supreme Being or the Self who is the Lord of all sacrifices, all knowledge and action, transience and intransience, mutable and immutable, and by understanding the unity of the individual soul with the Supreme, cosmic soul, that one gains the ultimate knowledge of Advaita. Realizing this unity, nothing else remains to be known – that the Supreme Being and the Self are one and the same. Also this realization is the convergence of all Yogas or paths – of action, of renunciation, of devotion and of knowledge. The concepts of Adhyatman, Adhidaiva and Adhibhuta occur as part ofthe Sankhya philosophy of Kapila. Therefore here is an attempt by Sri Krishna to integrate the teachings of Sankhya, Yoga and Vedanta on one harmonious string.