Gita Second Series Part 2 Chapter 24
The
Message of the Gita
Note 5
…… contd from Note 4
The divine teacher continues with his message
:
“Who is Supreme ? He is the Purushottama.
He is eternal beyond all manifestation. He is infinite beyond all limitation by
Time or Space or Causality of any of his numberless qualities and features.[1] However,
it will be wrong to assume that because he is beyond all manifestation, he is least
interested with the happenings in this world of mortals or that he is cut off from
world and nature, or that he is aloof from all these things. It is true that he
is the supreme ineffable Brahman. He is impersonal self. But it is also true that he is all PERSONAL existences. Spirit
as well as life and matter, soul and Nature and the works of Nature are nothing
else but aspects and movements of his infinite and eternal existence. Yes, he is
the supreme transcendent Spirit. At the same time, all comes into manifestation
from him and are his forms and his self-powers. There is no contradiction here.
Both of his aspects are inter-related. In his nature of ‘ONE SELF’, he is here all-pervasive
and equal and impersonal in man and animal and thing and object and every force
of Nature. He is the supreme Soul and all souls are tireless flames of this one
Soul. All living beings are in their spiritual personality deathless portions of
the one Person or Purusha. He is the eternal Master of all manifested existence,
Lord of the worlds and their creatures. He is the omnipotent originator of all actions.
He is no bound by his work. To him go all action and effort and offerings. He is
in all and all are in him. He has become all and yet too he is above all and not
limited by his creations. He is the transcendent Divine. He descends as the Avatar.
He is manifest by his power in the Vibhuti. He is the Godhead secret in every human
being. All the gods whom men worship are
only personalities and forms and names and mental bodies of the one Divine Existence.
“The Supreme has manifested the world from
his spiritual essence and in his own infinite existence. He has also manifested
himself variously in the world. All things
are his powers and figures and to the powers and figures of him there is no end.
This is because he himself is infinite. He is all pervading and containing impersonal
self-existence. In this capacity he informs and sustains all this infinite manifestation
in Time and the universe. He does this equally and without any partiality, preference
or attachment to any person or thing or happening or feature. This pure and equal
Self does not act, but supports impartially all the action of things. And yet it
is the Supreme who in is aspect of the cosmic Spirit and the Time Spirit wills and
conducts and determines the action of the world. He does this through his multitudinous
power-to-be. This is the power of the Spirit which we call Nature. He creates, sustains
and destroys his creations. He is seated too in the heart of every living creature.
From this station he acts as a secret Power in the individual.[2] At
the same time he also acts from his universal presence in the cosmos. He originates
by force of Nature. He manifests some line of his mystery in quality of nature and
in executive energy of nature. He shapes each thing and being separately according
to its kind. He also initiates and upholds all action. The complex nature of the
cosmos is created out of this transcendent first origination from the Supreme. It
is caused by this constant universal and individual manifestation of Him in things
and beings.
………… to continue
………. Based on Essays on
the Gita by Sri Aurobindo
