32. Verse 10-8

 

“I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.”

So, in this particular chapter, chapter 10, Krishna begins revealing His actual spiritual opulence to Arjuna. The description here is, of course, most wonderful, and of great importance for anyone that wants to achieve the highest spiritual realization and experience. The statement of Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita is also confirmed in the Brahma Samhita. In the Brahma Samhita Lord Brahma, who is the actual creator of this universe, makes the following statement in the 1st sloka, in the 5th chapter of this work he states:

“Krishna, who is known as Govinda, is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal, blissful, spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin, and He is the prime cause of all causes.”

The sarva karana karanam, the prime cause of all causes, and His eternal spiritual form is described as sat cit ananda vigraha, that it is eternal, all cognisant, and filled with transcendental blissfulness, or ananda, this vigraha, this form of the Lord. Of course, there are going to be different people that put forward different proposals about what is the ultimate manifestation of Godhead. The Vedas repeatedly describe the full picture in its entirety. Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada speaks to this in his commentary on this particular verse:

“In the Artha Veda it is said “yo brahmanam vidadhati purvam yo vai vedams ca gapayati sma krsnah.” “It was Krishna who in the beginning instructed Brahma in Vedic knowledge and who disseminated Vedic knowledge in the past.” Then again it is said “atha purusa ha vai narayano ‘kamayata prajah srjeya ity upakramya.” “Then the Supreme Personality Narayana desired to create living entities.”

“So, Lord Krishna is the actual source of all generations, and He is called the most efficient cause of everything. He says that because “everything is born of Me, I am the original source of all. Everything is under Me; no one is above Me.” There is no supreme controller other than Krishna. One who understands Krishna in such a way from a bonafide spiritual master and from Vedic literature who engages all his energy in Krishna consciousness becomes a truly learned man.”

The confirmation of the supremacy of Krishna is continuously stated throughout the Bhagavad-gita and the Vedas. I’ll just address—I had mentioned that Lord Narayana is an expansion of Krishna. One of the well-known expansions of Lord Narayana is Lord Vishnu. For people that have a poor fund of knowledge, they may become confused and think that these are different personalities. They may be different expansions, but they are not different personalities. And so if you look, I guess on Wikipedia, or do a search on—a Google search, it’s quite often promoted by people that are not fully knowledgeable that Krishna is, they say, the eighth incarnation of Lord Vishnu; and this is a misunderstanding.

The origin of this idea is in the Bhagavat Purana, where, in describing one particular set of incarnations of the Lord—and we mentioned this previously that there are limitless varieties of incarnations—that this what are called lila avatars, they are numbered as being ten, and in listing these they mentioned Lord Krishna as the eighth in this list. However just one or two verses after this there is the phrase, krsnas tu bhagavan svayam, that Lord Krishna is actually the original source, the fountainhead, of all of these incarnations. And so people take a limited understanding of a spiritual principle, it becomes widely adopted, and then promoted as being the highest spiritual truth.

In another verse in the Bhagavad-gita, also from this chapter—or rather from the previous chapter, the 9th chapter, the 18th sloka it states:

“I am the goal, the sustainer, the master, the witness, the abode, the refuge and the most dear friend. I am the creation and the annihilation, the basis of everything, the resting place and the eternal seed.”

 So in this verse Krishna speaks about the truth connected with His existence and it leaves no room whatsoever for not being able to appreciate that He is the ultimate source of everything, the sarva karana karanam, the cause of all causes, the origin of all origins.

This idea, of course, clashes with the teachings of Sankaracharya and what is known as advaita vedanta, where they propose that Brahman is the only reality, and that reality is both impersonal and undifferentiated. So it is referred to as undifferentiated monism, this idea. But as we’ve pointed out this is not the way in which the term Brahman should actually be understood, nor the idea of oneness, that everything has to be in all respects undifferentiated for it to be one. And I’ll bring your attention to a verse that we have quoted before from the Bhagavat Purana. In speaking of the ultimate truth it states,

“Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this non-dual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan.”

So I will just bring your attention to the advaya which is at its root—where the term advaita, meaning non-dual, where it comes from. But we see here the explanation that the ultimate truth or reality does manifest in three features. These three features of Brahman, of Paramatma, and Bhagavan are considered to be one, but that oneness does not require them not to have three completely different features. That is a materialistic conception. This is because of people’s limited appreciation or knowledge over that which is spiritual.

And for example, in this world we know that anything that has form is limited by that form, but the Vedas teach us that within this transcendental realm spiritual form is without limitation. But if a person takes the limited material understanding of form and the limitations imposed upon that and tries to overlay that on the transcendent reality, the spiritual reality, then they are in illusion. They are sorely mistaken.

So there is this understanding with the impersonalist philosophy that the form of Krishna is a temporary manifestation. It is spiritually potent but it is temporary, and it does not contain full spiritual potency. And they say that that which is impersonal, the Brahman effulgence, is the actual source or basis of all truth and all reality.

However in one verse from the 14th chapter, the 27th sloka, Lord Krishna clearly states,

“And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is the constitutional position of ultimate happiness, and which is immortal, imperishable and eternal.”

And I will just bring your attention to the word pratistha. Pratistha, it means—here it’s got the rest which is correct, but it can also mean like the foundation. If you have a column, the place where it is standing upon is known as the pratishta. This is the foundation for things. And so it is Lord Krishna who is saying that I, I, He, is the basis for the impersonal Brahman, not that the impersonal Brahman is His basis.

So if a person wants to insist on that point of view then they must necessarily reject the Vedas and Vedic teaching. People will try to use word games and extraordinarily complex ways of trying to explain some Sanskrit grammar, but these are just word jugglery. We should see things clearly and for what they are. There is a principle in Sanskrit grammar that the most obvious meaning should be first embraced. So when Krishna says I am the basis for the impersonal Brahman He uses the term aham, I am; and so one should embrace and accept that and try to understand the actual meaning of that.

Similarly in the Isa Upanishad, the Isopanisad, in the 15th mantra there is a statement also about this, where the personal feature of Godhead, Bhagavan, is accepted as being foundational and that the Brahmajyoti, this dazzling spiritual light, is actually an effulgence emanating from this Divine Personality. And so we have the verse:

“O my Lord, sustainer of all that lives, Your real face is covered by your dazzling effulgence. Kindly remove that covering and exhibit Yourself to Your pure devotee.”

So looking carefully at this verse we can see that it is completely supporting also this spiritual truth or spiritual reality. This is also again confirmed in another sloka in the Brahma Samhita, the 40th sloka of the 5th chapter, where it clearly states:

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the non-differentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upanishads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe, appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless truth.”

This is extraordinary revelation of this highest spiritual principle.

The term Govinda is another name of Krishna. The Supreme Lord being without limit has unlimited names. These names of the Supreme are divided into two categories, those which state or describe His power and opulence, and those which speak about His transcendentally sweet nature and the way in which He engages in loving connections with those who are devoted, his devoted servants. So the name Krishna, for example, it means the All Attractive. Everyone and everything in their original pure state will be attracted by Krishna. It is because we are bound as it is by an eternal bond of kinship. The word Govinda describes Krishna as being one who enlivens the senses, and gives shelter and enlivenment also to the cows—referencing His transcendental pastimes which He displayed when He manifest in this planet five thousand years ago. So the name Govinda is referring to Lord Sri Krishna.

So once again:

“I worship Govinda, the primeval Lord, whose effulgence is the source of the non-differentiated Brahman mentioned in the Upanishads, being differentiated from the infinity of glories of the mundane universe, appears as the indivisible, infinite, limitless truth.”

So here we have a description of Krishna, Govinda, as both being the primeval Lord, [and] as being the indivisible, infinite and limitless truth. So if we accept that description then we have to understand that the form which He manifests is entirely transcendental in nature.

Now in closing out we’ll just reread the verse that we’re studying here

“I am the source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who know this perfectly engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.”

Thank you very much.