Category Archives: ahaha

Bhagavad Gita Verse 24, Chapter 8

21 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in 8.24, agnihi, ahaha, brahma, brahmavidaha, chapter 8 verse 24, gachhanti, janaahaa, jyotihi, prayaataa, shanmaasaa, shuklaha, tatra, uttaraayanam

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agnijyotiraha shuklaha shanmaasaa uttaraayanam |
tatra prayaataa gachhanti brahma brahma vido janaahaa || 24 ||
 
Fire, light, day, the bright (fortnight of the month), the northern movement comprising six months; those people who have departed through that path, knowers of brahman attain brahman.
 
agnihi : fire
jyotihi : light
ahaha : day
shuklaha : bright
shanmaasaa : comprising six months
uttaraayanam : northern movement
tatra : through that path
prayaataa : one who has departed the body
gachhanti : attain
brahma : brahman
brahmavidaha : knowers of brahman
janaahaa : people
 
Shri Krishna describes the journey that the individual soul or jeeva takes after death in this and the next shloka. Each jeeva is allocated one of two paths based on its actions while on this earth. Here, he speaks about the path taken by those who have practiced single-pointed devotion to Ishvara, indicated by the phrase “knowers of brahman”.
 
It is said that Ishvara has appointed special deities to guide the jeeva to the abode of Lord Brahma after its body has ceased to function. Agni, jyoti, shukla and uttaraayan are symbols that indicate the deities who preside over fire, light, the lunar fortnight and the six month period between winter and summer. The jeeva resides in Lord Brahma’s abode until dissolution, after which it is liberated. In other words, it “attains brahman”.
 
In India, Uttaraayana is considered highly auspicious. Its beginning is celebrated with the Makar Sankraanti festival. The lunar fortnight of each month is also the time in which most Indian festivals are celebrated including Navaratri and Guru Purnima.
 
Next, Shri Krishna described the second path that jeevas take after death.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 18, Chapter 8

15 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in 8.18, aagame, agame, ahaha, avyakta, avyaktaat, chapter 8 verse 18, eva, prabhavanti, praleeyante, raatrya, sangyake, sarvaahaa, tatra, vyaktayaha

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avyaktaadvyaktayaha sarvaahaa prabhavantyaharaagame |
raatryaagame praleeyante tatraivaavyaktasangyake || 18 ||
 
With the start of day, the entire manifest (universe) is produced from the unmanifest. With the start of night, it is dissolved into that which is called the unmanifest.
 
avyaktaat : from the unmanifest
vyaktayaha : manifest
sarvaahaa : entire
prabhavanti : produced
ahaha : day
aagame : start
raatrya : night
agame : start
praleeyante : dissolution
tatra : that
eva : only
avyakta : unmanifest
sangyake : called
 
Shri Krishna explains the process of cosmic creation in this shloka. When the day of Lord Brahma begins, the entire universe comprising all living and non-living entities wakes up and begins to act. This process continues until the end of his day. Then, the whole universe goes back into the same unmanifest state that it sprung from. Alternatively, the whole universe is born out of Lord Brahma (the unmanifest), and goes back into him.
 
We can understand this shloka using the analogy of the movie theatre from the beginning of this shloka. The entire animated movie lies unmanifest in the reel of film. When the movie begins, someone loads the film into the projector and turns the projector on. Then, the bright white movie screen comes alive with all the characters in the movie. When the reel of film ends, all the movie characters are “dissolved” from the white screen. This process is repeated next time, and so on and so forth.
 
Now let us examine the implications. The universe is never really destroyed. It goes into a state of suspended animation, only to be “un-frozen” when the next day of Lord Brahma begins. This is consistent with the law of conservation of energy and matter. Neither energy nor matter is created or destroyed. They just transform from one state to another.
 
If we know this, and if we also know that every action that we perform always yields a result sooner or later, we realize that the universe works on a set of well-defined laws. Nothing is random, everything is an effect of some earlier cause. Therefore, we can begin to develop the right set of expectations towards the world. Then, while performing actions in a spirit of karma yoga, we will know that only performance of actions is in our hand. The universe, with its set of in-built laws, will take care of the rest. There is no room for worry.
 
Now, do the living and non-living being have a choice in this process of creation and dissolution? We shall see in the next shloka.

Bhagavad Gita Verse 17, Chapter 8

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in 8.17, ahaha, ahoraatravidaha, brahmanaha, chapter 8 verse 17, janaahaa, paryantam, raatrim, sahastra, sahastraantaam, te, viduhu, yat, yuga

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sahastrayugaparyantamaharyadbrahmano viduhu |
raatrim yugasahastraantaam tehoraatravido janaahaa || 17 ||
 
They who know the day of Brahma comprising a thousand yugaas, the night of Brahma comprising a thousand yugaas, those people know day and night.
 
sahastra : thousand
yuga : yugaas
paryantam : until
ahaha : one day
yat : they who
brahmanaha : of Brahma
viduhu : know
raatrim : one night
yuga : yugaas
sahastraantaam : thousand
te : those
ahoraatravidaha : know day and night
janaahaa : people
 
We now enter into the topic of cosmic creation with this shloka. Before the topic is taken up, Shri Krishna introduces some words here as a way of introduction. The new words introduced here are sahastra and yuga. Although not mentioned explicitly, we shall also look at the four yugas or ages that are part of the cosmic creation: satya yuga, treta yuga, dvaapara yuga and kali yuga.
 
The cycle of creation is said to begin with satyayuga or the age of truth. It is followed by the treta yuga and the dvaapara yuga. The last yuga is kali yuga or the age of discord, which is the current yuga. Kali yuga is the shortest yuga comprising 432,000 years. Dvaapara is twice that long, treta is thrice that long, and satya yuga is four times that long. Therefore, the total time of creation is ten times 432,000, which is 4.32 million years. This period of creation is also known as chatur-yuga.
 
Now, having understood the length of chatur yuga, we can calculate the length of Brahma’s day and night. Shri Krishna says that one day of Lord Brahma equals one thousand yugaas. The interpretation of the word yuga here is traditionally taken to mean a chatur-yuga. So then, a day of Brahma equals one thousand times 4.32 million, which is 4.32 billion years. This is also the length of one night of Lord Brahma.
 
Let us know dig deeper into the symbolic meaning of this shloka. There are two aspects we need to look at. First, this shloka re-emphasizes that every action we perform always bears fruit, but not necessarily in the current lifetime.
 
We may try and try very hard, but the result of our action may not show up in this lifetime, it may bear fruit in another lifetime. Alternatively, we may sometimes get into situations that we think we do not deserve. These could be favourable situations (an unexpected financial windfall) or unfavourable situations (a natural disaster). These type of results are due to actions we have performed in a prior lifetime.
 
The second aspect is to do with the cultivation of dispassion or vairagya towards this world. We perform actions in this world not just for immediate gain, but also to leave behind a legacy, leave behind something that future generations will remember us by. It could be wealth, power, prestige and so on. But in effect, Shri Krishna tells us that nothing will last forever. Everything will eventually end, if not now then certainly in 4.32 billion years. So if this is going to be the case, it is better to cultivate dispassion right now so that we can proceed spiritually.
 
How exactly does the universe come into being and dissolve? This is explained next.