YOGA OF UNMANIFESTED REALITY AND MANIFESTED DIVINITY – JNANA VIJNANA YOGA

By

Dr. R. J. Kalpana Ph.D

Visvaayudha April 2025

vasudevasutaḿ devaḿ kaḿsa-cāṇūra-mardanam

devakī-paramānandaḿ kṛṣṇaḿ vande jagadgurum

I bow down to Sri Krishna, who is the Master of the Universe, beloved son of Vasudeva, who vanquished Kamsa and Chanura, who brings immense joy to his mother, Devaki.

Pranams from Dr. R J Kalpana, Welcome to the study of The Bhagavad Gita.

Dear Readers, thus far from chapters 1 to 6, we have studied the various options available for a seeker of divinity and how to live a life divine. From chapter 7 onwards, we delve into the world of integral divinity. Our understanding of the concept of God is difficult at its best and complex. But in this chapter, Bhagavan Shri Krishna explains the various nuances of the Divine and the best means to reach Him.

In the first verse, Shri Krishna asks Arjuna to listen to a discussion of integral Divinity. He quantifies it with very specific instructions of how our mind must be exclusively attached to the Divine, we must practice the Yoga of meditation with absolute dependence on the Divine and then we will experience and in the experience we will know the truth about the unmanifested Reality and the Manifested Divinity.

 In this chapter we get a glimpse of the concept of Unmanifested Divinity and the Manifested Divinity in its form and formless aspects – Saguna Brahman and Niguna Brahman. If this we understand, then, Shri Krishna assures us that nothing remains in the world for us to understand.

With the deepest sense of regret, we realize that hardly one amongst thousands seek the Divine and out of those rarefied yogis, only the rarest one devoting exclusively to the Divine knows the Truth. Recall the Gita was sung 7000 years ago and if that was the condition of affairs of men back then, what remains to be said of the humanity today.

Bhagavan Shri Krishna further elucidates by citing examples like the Divine is the essence of water, the luminosity in the sun and the moon, the sacred syllable OM, the sound in ether and the essence of man that procreates. The odour of earth, the brilliance of fire, the life of beings and the austerity of yogis.

He is the eternal seed of all beings and the intelligence, the glory and the might, the celibacy and desire.

Every entity has evolved from one of the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas and yet, they all have their origin in the Divine. And yet, Shri Krishna further quantifies by saying that neither they exist in Him nor does He exist in them.

Let us understand this with an example. We see the clouds against the backdrop of the sky and we classify them together and yet, they exist independent of each other. Neither the cloud exists in the sky nor does the sky contain the clouds.

The entire creation is caught up in the modes of Prakriti, the three gunas and therefore, they are unable to distinguish the Divine from them as imperishable.

Now Shri Krishna admits that this maya veil of illusion consisting of the three gunas is difficult to cross through but one who is determined and focused on constant remembrance of the Divine can cross the world of maya.

To understand this word maya or illusion, let us look at a story. Once Sage Narada went to Sri Vaikuntam and asked Sriman Narayana, “Lord, what is this maya that everyone is talking about?”

The Lord smiled and said, “Narada, I am thirsty, can you get me a glass of water?”

Narada turns to get a glass of water and he finds himself shipwrecked on earth with no memory of who he is and where he is from. He is rescued by a passing merchant ship. He works for the merchant, marries his daughter, takes over his business and has children of his own.

At the end of his life, after his wife passed on, he hands over his business affairs to his children and retires to a small hut at the corner of his estate.

One evening, there’s a knock on the door and when he opens, he sees Sriman Narayana on the doorstep who asks him, “What took you so long Narada? I only asked for a glass of water?”

In that instance, Narada remembers who he is and where he is from and how he ended up on earth. He understands maya.

We are not human beings living a spiritual life. We are spiritual beings living a human life.

If we forget this little truth of who we are, we are all doomed like Narada to forget our original home.

For there are four types of people who worship the Divine: seeker of worldly possessions, the afflicted, seeker of knowledge and the wise. People who turn to the Divine for material wealth, people who yearn for spiritual knowledge – the jijnasu, people who when in need turn to the Divine for help like the famous Draupadi and Gajendra moksham. Finally, the wise – jnani, who knows the truth of integral Divinity; who worships and adores Him with no expectations from Him.

Of the best, the wise is most favoured because he is possessed of exclusive devotion without any attachments and desires. For those who are able to keep their mind in constant remembrance of the Divine and whose heart ever hears the voice of the Divine, such a devotee merges with the Divine. For that soul, the human birth becomes the last step in the journey to the Divine. But such a soul is great and very rare.

The rest get carried away by desires, prompted by their nature controlled by the gunas and they worship minor deities according to their own wishes.

The compassion of the Divine is exemplary as is the Divine Love. For in sloka 21, Shri Krishna says out of His infinite compassion that whatever deities people worship often craving for materialistic objects, Shri Krishna stabilizes the faith in that form. Endowed with that faith, the devotee obtains gifts and goods that he desires that are but ordained by the Divine.

The Divine does not object to the varied forms and manners of worship; suffice that people worship for sooner or later they will come upon the right path. But we must understand that the gains acquired in such a manner is perishable. The worshipper of gods attain the gods, the manifested Divinity – saguna Brahman.

If we thirst for the unmanifested Reality, the Absolute, Nirguna Brahman then we have to turn towards that Divine Principle.

Ignorant are we that we consider the imperishable, the supreme, the embodiment of sat-chit-ananda, truth –knowledge-bliss to have assumed a finite form as an ordinary human being.

And here, Bhagavan Shri Krishna gives us a secret that He is veiled by His own Divine potency. And ignorant are we that we fail to recognize the unborn, imperishable as subject to birth and death. How ignorant and pitiable are the people that God walked amongst men and yet, we failed to recognize Him.

The Divine knows all beings and their past, present and future and yet, we fail to know Him for we are caught in the veil of delusions and dvandvas – opposites as pain and pleasure. But those who by their virtuous deeds and whose samskaras have come to an end are freed from such delusions and they are firm in their worship of the Divine.

For they know Brahman (the Absolute), Adhyatma (embodied souls), field of Karma (action), as well as Adhibhuta (matter), Adhidaiva (Brahma), and Adhiyajna (unmanifested Divinity that exists in the hearts as sakshi – witness). If they know this at the time of death, they know Krishna, the Divine.

We will study these words in great detail in the next chapter.

yogeśaṁ(m) saccidānandaṁ(v̐), vāsudevaṁ(v̐) vrajapriyam,

dharmasaṁsthāpakaṁ(v̐) vīraṁ(ṅ), kṛṣṇaṁ(v̐) vande jagadgurum

I bow to the Master of Yoga, who is the beloved son of Vasudeva, the brave warrior who established Dharma, the spiritual guru of the world.

                                             OM ŚRĪKṚṢṆĀRPAṆAMASTU

Note: The talks can be accessed on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@kalpanarj3101