Coming Close – Chapter 10 of the Bhagavad Gita

Chapter ten of the Bhagavad Gita is about how we may approach that which is beyond the range of thought (the absolute, God, Brahman, whatever we choose to call this), and about how the way we relate to that affects our progress on the path of inner discovery.

Thinking of the absolute in tangible forms is the basis of devotion, and this chapter is highly devotional, suggesting a warm connection between the seeker and the sought. At the beginning of the chapter, seeing that the pupil is pleased by what he has heard so far, the teacher, who is at one with the supreme reality, invites the pupil to listen once more to the great teachings, which, he says, he will give again because he has the highest well-being of the pupil at heart.

The teacher goes on to say something supremely encouraging: ‘Even the heavenly hosts and great sages do not know My origin, because I am the origin of them.’ Yet, he says, one who knows God as ‘unborn and beginningless’, that is, directly, not as apparently limited in space and time, is free of illusion and imperfection. And the implication is that the pupil is being offered a way to this supreme realisation. [10:2-3]

Then God in the teacher speaks of God’s own qualities. ‘I am’, says the teacher, speaking as Brahman, ‘the source of all: intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, strength, happiness, sorrow, being, non-being, fear, fearlessness, harmlessness, equanimity, contentment, austerity, generosity, glory, disgrace; all these conditions of being come into being from Me. The power and intelligence that manifest in the universe come from me, Brahman.’ [10:4-6]

There is a reason for saying all this, it is the effect on the mind of the pupil who hears it:

One who sees this manifest power of mine as it is in truth, is united in unshakable devotion with that power, of this there is no doubt. [10:7]

This is an interesting verse. One meaning is the obvious one—that someone who recognises the power of God is endowed with unshakable devotion. And there is more: what is here translated as ‘power’ (of God) and (unshakable) ‘devotion’, is the same word —Yoga. Yoga comes from a root meaning to join. It is often used to mean a way of joining or connecting, that is, a method of reaching some objective. What we commonly call ‘yoga’ means the way or method of gaining inner strength and ultimately direct knowledge of Truth. Being a method, Yoga can also mean a capacity or power. Elsewhere God declares ‘Behold my divine Yoga’, meaning ‘Behold my divine power, or action (in sustaining the universe, without being limited by it. [9:5]). So this verse (10:7) can mean that one who sees God’s mighty power gains unshakable devotion, which is a great help on the path to realisation. And it can also mean that one who recognises the true nature and source of the power of God is united with that power, that is, themselves attain that power, as suggested in the opening verses of this chapter.

The next verse says:

I am the source of all, from Me all comes forth. Thinking this way, the wise worship Me, attaining to truth. [10:8]

This indicates that we shall become wise and attain to truth when we see Brahman, God, as the source of all. This will arouse in us the reverence and thoughtfulness that is needed. It also implies that without this vision, those qualities will not arise.

We notice that the Bhagavad Gita can be understood in the non-dual way, teaching that Brahman is beyond all limitations and qualities; and at the same time the Gita makes clear that the wisdom, concentration and reverence we need, will arise when we think of Brahman as the origin and sustainer of our world. To believe simultaneously that God is absolute and actionless, and is also the source of the world, is not a logical contradiction: it is to recognise the limits of thought and how far ultimate reality exceeds any conception we can form in our mind.
The next verse describes the state of those who see in this way:

Thinking of Me, with their lives absorbed in Me, enlightening one another, always talking about Me, they are happy and rejoice. [10:9]

Then:

To the ever-dedicated loving devotees, I give the buddhi-yoga by which they come to me. [10:10]

Buddhi means the higher part of the mind, the understanding when made clear and open, and yoga, as we noted, means ‘joining’ and ‘method’. So it is the conjoining of the purified understanding to Brahman which is the way of coming to Brahman.

Here then it is shown how understanding and seeing Brahman as the source and sustainer of our life brings out love and dedication in us, and this opens the way to Brahman, so that:

Being within them, I dispel the darkness born of ignorance, just out of compassion, with the shining lamp of knowledge. [10:11]

A significant nuance in this verse is the presence of God in our own being. It says that when we see all things as coming from and depending on their source, then, ‘out of compassion I, Brahman, dispel the darkness of ignorance’. One meaning of ‘Out of compassion’ is that God is not bound by any causal necessity, so his action in helping us does not arise from any compulsion. At the same time, compassion literally means ‘feeling with’. Brahman is within our own being and so this compassionate help, what is sometimes called grace, does not come from something outside and far from us. It comes through our identity with That. So ultimately, our devotion and God’s compassion are not separate like and cause and effect: they are essentially simultaneous and identical.

At this point in the Bhagavad Gita, the pupil interjects: ‘You, Brahman, are supreme, the highest light, supreme purifier, the eternal spirit, source of all, unmanifest, all-pervading. So have all the great teachers said, and so do I believe.’

The pupil’s feelings of devotion are tempered with intellectual clarity. He recognises that: ‘You alone know yourself through yourself, sustaining all beings’. [10, 16] Then he asks:

‘Please speak without reserve of your divine self-manifestations which permeate the worlds. How may I know you, how can I constantly meditate on you? In what particular aspects of being am I to think about you?’ [10, 17]

This is an expression of high devotion and dedication. It is also psychologically astute; the pupil has recognised what is needed, a way of being aware of the presence of the unmanifest God in the manifest world.

This is a question to which the teacher, or teachers, provide an answer, in fact many answers, usually long before a pupil consciously asks for it. This passage suggests that the pupil has reached a high level of understanding in fully recognising for himself the urgency of this question. He has realised that Brahman cannot be conceived of by the mind, but that the mind needs some way of being stilled, focused, purified and then ultimately transcended, by being turned towards that supreme Being. The remainder of this chapter of the Bhagavad Gita is a response to this question. It continues:

Oh! I will tell you the most prominent of my divine manifestations. There is no limit to my extent!

I am the Self abiding in the heart of all beings. I am the beginning, middle and end of all beings. [10:19-20]

First then we are to understand that Brahman is not limited in space and time. Also that Brahman is the Self in everything and everyone. What does this mean? All things have qualities and characteristics, many of which can change without the Self changing, just as we grow and age and yet remain ourselves. What is the enduring element that underlies the qualities? It is the Self, and Brahman is the Self, the existence, in all things.

This we have heard before in the Gita. As a statement it may cease to impress us because of its seemingly abstract nature. What we can do to make it meaningful is to think of how all things come to be and remain in existence every moment: this bringing into being and sustaining is not self-explanatory, it rests on a power or principle which in its universal aspect is the supreme Being, God. What a mighty, fecund, all-begetting power it is! To arouse the appropriate attention and respect in our minds, the Gita here prompts us to think of this, even to feel this agency of Brahman in our own being from moment to moment, as the beginning, continuity and end of all that is.

Then come many examples of how Brahman is the reality in things, the essence that makes things what they are. Among these instances are:

Of lights I am the sun; of inner faculties the mind; of beings intelligence; of water I am the Ocean; of words I am OM; of limits death; of reckoning time; of knowledges I am the supreme Self-knowledge; I am infinite time; the dispenser of results; prosperity in the prosperous; fame in the famous; I am the birth and death of all; I am risk in those who deceive; I am victory; I am effort; I am glory in the glorious; goodness in the good; silence in secrets; power in the powerful; knowledge in knowers; the seed of all beings. Nothing, moving or unmoving, could exist without my existence. [from 10:20-39]

All this ends with a recognition that the power of words to convey what is meant here is limited:

There is no end to my divine manifestations. These are just examples. Wherever there is power or glory or life, know that to be a manifestation of a fraction of my effulgence. [10:41]

In a very sympathetic way, God in the teacher recognises that the pupil’s mind cannot encompass the magnitude of the truth:

What use is all this knowledge to you? I sustain the whole world with a single fraction of my Self. [10, 42]

We remember that this was the response of Brahman to the pupil’s question: how am I to think of you? The answer came with many examples, even though none are entirely adequate. The implication seems to be: Try to keep this alive in your mind, somehow. If you can, the reverence, concentration and all the other appropriate and helpful mental qualities will naturally follow, and thus you will be led to the discovery of the supreme Reality at the heart of your own being.

P.H.