THE MAHABHARATA: A Modern Rendering, Vol 2 (25 page)

Krishna’s eyes twinkled at his friend. “How much more should devoted kshatriyas worship me in this impermanent, sorrowful world.”

Arjuna was startled in his absorption, the song of peace snatched at his mind. Now the Pandava hung on the Dark One’s every word; he was convinced he must fight and he did not know if he would see the light of another day.

“Fix your heart on me,” said Krishna, “be devoted to me; love me and to me you shall come in life and in death. Arjuna listen, now that you have a mind to: not the Devas, or the maharishis know my beginning. I am their source.

From me came the Saptarishi and the four Manus and from them all these generations of men. I am the origin and so the sages worship me. I give them fixity of understanding. I light the lamps of their wisdom and dispel the ignorant dark.”

Arjuna said, “Krishna, you are the Brahman, first of all the Gods, Un-born, pervasive. Narada, Asita, Devala, Vyasa, all the rishis say as much and now I hear it from your own lips. And I believe it all. Not the Devas or the Asuras know your manifestations; only you know yourself. So, tell me, on which of your forms shall I meditate? Tell me, Krishna, your words are like amrita to me.”

Krishna said, “Hear my divine forms, but only some of them; because to all my forms there is no end. I am the atman in every being, their soul. I am the beginning, the middle and the end of everything that ever is.

Of Adityas I am Vishnu, of lamps I am the Sun; of planets the Moon, Maricha of the Maruts.

Of Vedas I am the Sama, Indra of the Devas; of senses I am mind, consciousness in the living. Of Rudras I am Sankara, Kubera of the Yakshas; of Vasus I am Agni, Meru of the mountain peaks.

Of priests I am Brihaspati, Skanda of the generals; of waters I am the ocean, Bhrigu among the rishis. Of speech I am AUM, japam of the offerings; and of ranges, the Himalaya.

Of trees I am the Aswattha, Narada of the seers; of gandharvas I am Chitraratha, Kapila among the perfect.

Of horses I am Ucchaisravas, nectar-born, Airavata of elephants; of weapons I am the Vajra, Kamadhenu among cows. Of lovers I am Kama, Vasuki among serpents.

Of Nagas I am Ananta, Varuna among the marine beings; of the manes I am Aryaman, Yama among judges.

Of titans I am Prahlada, I am time of measures; of beasts I am the lion, Garuda among birds. Of purifiers I am the wind, Rama among kshatriyas. Of fish I am the whale, Ganga of rivers.

Of creations, I am the Beginning, the End and the Middle, Arjuna; of sciences I am the science of the spirit, the dialectic for debaters. I am death that devours everything and the source of all, all that is yet to come. Fame I am among the feminine beings and prosperity, speech, memory, intelligence, firmness and patience, too.

Of hymns I am Brihatsaman, the Gayatri of mantras; Mrigasirsa of the months, of seasons I am spring. I am the dice-play of deceivers, I am the splendor of the splendid; karma am I and the punya of the good.”

Krishna smiled, “Of the Vrishnis I am Krishna, Arjuna of the Pandavas; of the munis I am Vyasa, Usanas among poets. Of kings I am their scepter, the policy of conquerors; of secrets I am the silence, their wisdom of those that know.

And, more, I am the seed of all beings, for nothing which is exists without me. But what do you want to know all this for? There is no end to me, my friend: I support the universe with an atom of myself.”

Knowing clearly that Krishna’s Gita was more vital than the war before him, Arjuna said to his divine cousin, “Of those who worship you, Krishna and those who worship the Parabrahman, who has the greater yoga?”

Krishna replied, “Those who worship me are the most perfect yogins. And those who restrain their senses, are serene, compassionate to all beings and worship the Parabrahman: they, also, come to me. But surely, the task of these is harder, because the unmanifest Brahman is difficult for embodied beings to attain to.

Have no doubt, Arjuna, that I deliver my bhaktas quickly from samsara, this sea of grief. Fix your mind on me, let your thoughts come to me and in me you will live forever. If at first your mind wanders, meditate slowly on me, by stages. If you cannot do this, act in my name. If this is also impossible, offer your life to me, whatever it is. Better than gyana is dhyana, but better than dhyana is bhakti and surrender. Then, comes peace.”

Arjuna gazed at Krishna with such absorption that the Lord ruffled his hair like a child’s.

“He who has no malice to any creature, who is compassionate and friendly, free of egotism, always serene: he is my bhakta, dear to me. Who does not shrink from the world and from whom the world does not shrink, who is no slave to joy or sorrow, anger, fear or agitation, he is dear to me.

Who is pure, with no expectations, skilled, serene and has surrendered to me: he is my bhakta, precious to me. Who is devoted, who does not rejoice or grieve, does not hate or lust, who has passed beyond good and evil; he is dear to me. Who is the same with an enemy and a friend, to slander and fame, in pain and pleasure, cold and heat; whose spirit is unattached, to whom praise and blame are one, who is content and tranquil, his speech controlled, his mind steady, who has no permanent dwelling: he is my bhakta and dear to me.

And dearest of all is he who surrenders to me in faith, with all his heart.”

Thus, spoke Sri Krishna.

SEVEN
THE BHAGAVAD GITA 

Arjuna asked, “Prakriti and purusha, kshetra and the knower of the kshetra; what are they, Krishna?”

Krishna said, “The body is the kshetra, the field. The seeds of karma are sown in it and their harvest reaped. Munis say that he who knows the kshetra watches what happens within his body. Arjuna, I am the knower of the kshetra in every body. Discernment between field and knower is the highest knowledge.

Listen to the nature of the field and the knower.

Prakriti, the cosmos, first; then, ego, intellect, the ten senses—five of the body, five in the mind—the five subjects of sense, pleasure and pain, desire and revulsion, the entire organism, intelligence and will: all this is the field of kshetra.

Humility, honesty, non-violence, patience, self-effacement and the perception that birth, death, old age, illness and pain are evil; detachment, no dependence on a wife, children or a home and absolute equal-mindedness to pleasure and pain; unswerving devotion to me, a life in solitary parts, far from the crowd; constancy in the yoga of the atman, insight: all this is knowledge.”

Weightless, always on the verge of an explosion of freedom, Arjuna was carried upon the wave of light that crested Krishna’s song. The Pandava surrendered to the magic absolutely; it held him like its child.

“I will tell you how to reach the Brahman who has no beginning or end and is transcendent, eternal. He is beyond both what is and what is not. His hands and feet are everywhere, in all times; his heads, faces and eyes are on every side. His ear is this world and He lives in the world as well, all-enfolding.

He moves the senses, but is beyond them. He is perfectly unattached, yet supports the universe. He is free of the gunas of nature, but enjoys them. He is within every creature and beyond them all, always working, ever still, subtle beyond the mind’s grasp: so near us, so utterly remote.

He is one and with every creature, at once, creating them, nurturing them, destroying them and creating them afresh. He is the light of lights, beyond darkness. He is knowledge, all wisdom’s only object and its sole purpose, innate in every heart.

Nature and soul, prakriti and purusha, both have no beginning. The soul in nature enjoys the infinite essences in nature. Attachment causes the soul to incarnate in wombs of good and evil.

The witness is the Brahman in the body. He is the atman, the last self and the final experiencer. No matter how a man has lived, if he once experiences the Brahman directly, beyond nature, he will not be reborn.

By dhyana, some reach the atman, some by gyana and others by the way of karma. Yet others are ignorant of these three paths and they resort to worship. They, too, cross over the sea of death by their bhakti, their devotion to what they have heard.

All that live do so by the union between the kshetra and its knower, nature and soul, prakriti and Brahman. The man who sees God abiding in all things and all beings, God dwelling deathless in the mortal world, he truly sees.

The man who sees that only the gunas of nature act and never the atman, he truly sees. For the soul is actless. When a man sees that manifold, multifarious being is centered in just the One and how from that One it spreads, he attains the Brahman.

The Brahman has no beginning; it is before and beyond the gunas. Arjuna, the Brahman lives in the body, but it does not act, nor do actions touch it: just as the all-pervasive ether is untainted, immaculate, because it is so subtle.

Even as the sun does the world, the Lord of the field illumines every kshetra. The man who sees the difference between the kshetra and its knower, who sees the liberation of man from nature, he becomes free.”

Arjuna was awash on that sea of calm, the Song of God. Krishna’s song radiated shafts of light that pierced the marmas, the fine portals to the Pandava’s spirit and through him entered distant men in unborn times, on strangest battlefields. Arjuna heard Krishna within his heart, under his skin now, speaking to those multitudes, beginning his eternal work of Salvation again.

“Listen to the wisdom of ages. The sages on whom it dawned became perfect; they were freed from the bonds of the body. They became like me. They are not born at creation, they are not destroyed at the dissolution.

Great Nature is my womb. I cast the seed of all things into myself. Of any being born into any world, Arjuna, I am the father who casts the seed and prakriti is the mother. Sattva, rajas and tamas, the three gunas of nature, bring the deathless dweller into the body.

Sattva is pure and reveals the atman by blemishless light. Yet, sattva binds with attachment to goodness and to knowledge.

Rajas is attraction, passion sprung from desire and attachment. It binds the soul to the body with hunger for action.

Tamas is dullness, born of ignorance; it is blind delusion. It binds with darkness, sloth and stupor.

From time to time, age to age, sattva dominates, then rajas and tamas, too, prevailing over the other two gunas.

When the light of knowledge shines at all the body’s gates, sattva prevails. Unrest and greed are the signs of rajas and complete delusion dominates when tamas rules.

If death comes when sattva prevails, the soul attains to the higher world of beings that know God. If death comes when rajas rules, the soul is reborn among those who live the life of power and action. And if a man dies when tamas reigns, he is born among the deluded, once more.

The good rise upwards, the passionate remain in the middle realms and the tamasic sink; they devolve down to the realms of darkness.”

Arjuna felt a seismic disturbance in his heart. It was the labor of the ending of a yuga and the birth of another; and he could not fathom it. Krishna, who saw it clearly, Krishna, who had caused it, sang on to his bhakta. The ripples of enlightenment were on his lips and his depths were like the ocean’s, unmoving. The Dark One calmed Arjuna, who was churned by the spirits of the two ages at whose very edge they stood, out on Kurukshetra.

“When the dweller in the body transcends the gunas that cause the body, he is liberated from life and death, decay and pain. He becomes immortal.”

His terror quieted again, Arjuna said, “How do we know the one who is beyond the gunas? How does he live? How does he transcend the gunas?”

“He does not despise illumination, restless activity or dark delusion, when they prevail. Nor does he long for them, when they cease.

For him pain and pleasure are alike. He never wavers. For him a clod of earth, a stone and a bar of gold are the same; blame and praise are the same to him, because he is established in the atman’s inner peace. He who has relinquished the initiative of action, but lives in harmony with his nature, he has grown beyond the conflicting gunas.

The man who is devoted to me transcends the gunas. He becomes the Brahman, because I am that abode of bliss.”

Krishna’s every word was a scripture.

“The everlasting Aswattha, the Tree of Life, has its roots in heaven and its branches down in the earth below. Its leaves are the Vedas.” He spoke in some wonder, as if his own birth’s greater reasons were being revealed to him, even now: the secrets of incarnation being laid bare to the Avatara. At the end of his lonely anguish, sublime calm stole over him.

“Like the banyan’s, the branches of the Tree of Life reach above and below, nourished by the gunas, down even into the world of men.

Its true form is never seen in this world: not its beginning, its end, or its nature. The bhakta cuts down the tree with the sword of detachment, saying, ‘I seek refuge not in the tree, but in the Primal One from whom this current of the world flows.’

He who is free of pride and delusion, who has conquered the evil of attachment, whose lusts are stilled, who is devoted to me, he who is freed of the opposites of pleasure and pain, comes to the changeless state.

Not fire, not the moon or the sun illumines the self-lustrous Being who is my abode. He who attains me shall never be reborn.”