My Wanderings - 95 Shrimad Bhagwathgita as I understood it to rediscover my father Dr.Sham Lal Kaul, who was an ardent follower and personification of its ideals Part -5

My Wanderings - 95 

  

  Shrimad Bhagwathgita as I understood it to rediscover my Late  father Dr.Sham Lal Kaul, who was an ardent follower and personification of its ideals        Part -5

           Then Krishna tells further to Arjuna , The body is called a field or khetra,  because the various actions  good or bad are done by this body directed by the soul. The fruits of such actions  in the form of good things and bad things etc.are also experienced by this body . The soul experiences the fruits by means of body. So the soul , which experiences, is different from the body, which is the field or place of experience. The wise people call him , who knows the above fact, as the knower of field or Khetrjana . Thus the soul is called khetrjana. The soul which knows the body as this is my leg etc. Is the knower . The body is the object known by soul. Just as a person who knows an object is different from that object, the soul is different from body. 

                 Know me as the inner soul of the jivatma (khetrajna) residing in all the bodies, like those of Devas and men . Similarly, the khetras or bodies of all beings and men have also  'Me' as their inner soul . The lord is therefore, the inner soul of all chetans and achetans . The body can not exist without soul. When the soul leaves the body , the body dies. Similarly the body and the soul cannot exist independently of their inner soul i.e Me, the lord. 

            The khetra i.e body forms the base or place for the soul to experience desire, hatred,  pleasure or pain . 

The following good qualities are helpful in attaining real knowledge about the soul.

1.Freedom from arrogance 2.Having a calm mind even towards people who cause injury to him .3. Not desiring the pleasure objects that are enjoyed by the senses. 4. Freedom from attachment to material objects 5. Absence of intense affection for son, wife , house and such things 6. Single minded firm devotion to Me, without desiring any material fruits and without worshipping any body else. 

               The vedas declare that Supreme Brahman is without hands and feet . But everywhere he does all the work which is done by hands and feet. With out eyes,  he sees . With out ears, he hears. The jivatmas after liberation attains highest similarity with the lord I.e it can go everywhere, it can see everything , it can hear everything and so on.The soul as already said is atomic in nature but after liberation , its knowledge becomes infinite , like that of lord.   It pervades everything in universe. The liberated jivatma , out of it's own free will, remains with out a body or can assume one body or many other bodies at the same time. 

The Prakrati , having evolved into the form of a body , in association with the soul, becomes the cause of world , because of desire , hatred and such other bad qualities . The same prakrati , with good qualities like freedom from arrogance etc. becomes the cause of salvation. 

The soul, in its essential nature, enjoys itself and gets extreme happiness . But the soul , in association with Prakriti i.e after assuming  body experiences pleasure and pain , which are the effects of the qualities sativa, rajas and tamas. These qualities also evolve from Prakrati. The soul in association with the bodies of deva man etc.gets attached to three Gunas. If sattva predominates it does good deeds resulting in punya and if rajas and tamas predominates , it does bad deeds resulting in papa. Then for the purpose of experiencing the results of punya and papa , the soul is 'born' again in good and evil  bodies . There again , it does good or bad activities and is born again to experience the fruits of these activities. This endless cycle of births and deaths goes on , till the soul gets liberated by adopting suitable means , like Bhakti Yoga. So the soul taking on  good or evil bodies is due to  its attachment to the three Gunas sattva, rajas and tamas due to which it performs good or bad deeds

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            Then Krishna tells Arjuna about the Prakrati, which is like a womb from which the whole universe comes out. In this womb of prakriti , I , the lord , put the seed , consisting of infinite number of souls. In other words I unite souls with Prakriti . From that union comes the birth of all beings  from Bramah to blade of grass. I unite the souls with various types of bodies , depending upon their past karmas. 

Sattava, Rajas and Tamas are Gunas or qualities , which belong to Prakrati and arise from Prakrati. By its essential nature the soul, is not associated with these Gunas, but because the soul resides in the bodies of Devas,  men etc. , the gunas which belong to the bodies , bind the soul also. 

         The sattva guna is free from impurity. It produces true knowledge about everything . It produces sound health free from disease. So such person does good activities and consequently ,he is born again, in superior bodies to enjoy the fruits for him. Thus the sattva guns causes repeated births in superior bodies and binds himself in this world. The Rajas guna causes desire for sense objects and thereby rajasguna binds soul by desire to do activities for attaining happiness, rather than on the goal of happi ess itself.             A person in rajas thus does activities , resulting in punya and Papa.  In this way he is involved in endless cycle of births and deaths. Tamas is caused by ignorance I.e wrong knowledge about a thing which causes a person doing evil deeds. Besides it leads to  dullness of mind, lethargy and laziness. This again results in  Papa and leads to repeated births and deaths. The three Gunas Sattvik, Rajas and Tamas are in the prakriti , which evolves into the body.

        A person , who transcends these three Gunas,  who sees soul is different from the Gunas and is of the sole full of knowledge , he is freed from the sorrows of birth,death and old age. He enjoys immortal soul. He who has transcended the three Gunas is indifferent to all things, other than realization of the soul.He realises that the Gunas function in their normal sphere in producing their knowledge , activity and delusion and remains silent. He does not exert himself in such things which are the effects of the Gunas.  He remains engaged only in realisation of his soul. Because his sole love in  atma, he does not get joy from the birth of sons or sorrow due to death of his sons etc. He treats mud , stone and gold as the same and worthless. He treats equally both  pleasant  and unpleasant things. He is indifferent towards honour or dishonour , respect or disrespect shown by others realizing that they do not affect the soul in any way. He treats his friend and enemy in the same manner. He has given up all efforts to attain all desirable objects , other than his soul. The person who worships me with single minded devotion and intense love , who does not worship any other deva, who does not desire any other fruits and who adopts Bhakti yoga transcends these three Gunas.  I see to this because my will is true, I am extremely compassionate and I am an ocean of affection towards those , who seek refuge in me.

                Now referring to my  Late father Dr.Sham Lal Kaul  ,  I consider that his personality was predominated by sattvic Guna only ,  but after visualizing his  close resemblance with the character of persons who have transcended the three Gunas as described by Shrikrishna ,I can perceive that he had also transcended the three Gunas i.e Sattvic, Rajas and Tamas to a large extent.

Om tat sat bramho.

To be Concluded ..........

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