Chapter Seven
In Sanskrit this chapter is called “The Yoga of Wisdom and Realization” – or “The Yoga of Wisdom from Realization.” The term used for wisdom is jnana; for realization, vijnana. There is room for confusion in this terminology, as jnana and vijnana are open to differing interpretations. Both words are from the root jna, “to know,” which is related to the Greek word gnosis. The prefix vi added to a noun usually intensifies its meaning; so vijnana could mean to know intensely or to a greater degree. In this context, however,jnana is the standard term for the highest kind of knowledge: not scholarship or book-learning but direct knowledge of God, spiritual wisdom. If we take jnana in this sense, we are not left with an obvious meaning for vijnana, a “more intense kind of jnana.” Ramakrishna takes vijnana to mean an intimate, practical familiarity with God, the ability to carry through in daily affairs with the more abstract understanding that is jnana. Ramakrishna says, “One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana, ignorance. One who has seen fire has jnana. But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana.”
In this chapter we find ourselves following several trails and sometimes lose the unifying theme, which is knowledge of the supreme reality underlying nature. Eventually, however, we come back to the starting point: knowledge contrasted with ignorance, transcendent reality as opposed to the phenomenal world.
But to pursue the byways. First, Krishna’s “two natures” are discussed. On the one hand, he has created out of himself the elements and all things that make up the phenomenal world. Beyond this is Krishna’s spiritual nature as the transcendent Lord of the universe. Here the Gita is referring to a concept that later became a basis of the Sankhya school of Hindu philosophy. Sankhya recognized two fundamental principles underlying all things: prakriti, the principle of mind and matter, and Purusha, the principle of pure spirit. The union of these two eternal, fundamental forces sets in motion the creation of the world as we know it. Their union also shapes and defines all ordinary human experience. In Sankhya, the goal of Self-realization is seen as the final freeing of the spirit (Purusha) from its flirtation with mind and matter (prakriti).
Unlike Sankhya, however, in the Gita it is Krishna who is behind both prakriti and Purusha. In this chapter, Krishna is presented as the Creator of the world. His divine nature can be glimpsed in his bewildering and wonderful creation. In much Hindu mythology, it is the god Brahma who takes credit for creating the world. It is he, the four-faced deity, who has flung forth the manifold worlds of this and former (as well as future) universes. But in the mythology of Vishnu, Brahma is born in the lotus that grows from Vishnu’s navel. The lotus is Vishnu’s womb. In it Brahma is born, and at Vishnu’s urging he creates the worlds. Vishnu is the real Creator; Brahma is a demigod born of Vishnu’s will to create. Here in the Gita Krishna directly assumes all the roles and honors usually shared with the other aspects of God worshipped in the Hindu faith. It is not that these other divine personifications are rejected, but simply that all attention is on Krishna. For the author of the Gita, Krishna is the form of God to be worshipped, and for the time being all other forms of God disappear. Krishna alone is. In fact, one verse states that whatever other god one seems to worship, one is in reality approaching Krishna himself. Worshipping him, knowing him, enables the devotee to attain the goal.
Though the word is not used in the Gita, the idea of the world as Krishna’s lila, his play, became a cherished theme of later Hinduism. Krishna, it is said, created the world in play: just as a child might desire to have companions to play with, Krishna desired companions, and made the world. Krishna participates in the game of life; his divine qualities shine through in the world wherever there is excellence of any kind. He is, he tells Arjuna, the essence of every created thing: the sapidity of water, the brightness of fire, the effort of the spiritual aspirant. This may be what is meant by the vijnana of our title – the mystic’s vision of the divine as present here and now is perhaps the real meaning of the term.
The word maya appears here, though not for the first time in the Gita. Just as the concepts of prakriti and Purusha are later developed in Sankhya philosophy, maya is later built into the formal structure of Vedanta, another of the six major schools of Indian philosophy. The word maya comes from the root ma, “to measure out,” and originally meant the power of a deity to create, especially to create what Indian philosophy calls “name and form”: matter and its percepts. Maya was the magical capacity to create form and illusion – a god’s divine power to put on a disguise, or to fling forth world after world of life. Maya is also the outward look of things, the passing show that conceals immortal being. Maya can be both delightful and dangerous, alluring and yet treacherous. The gunas, the three basic qualities of all created things, swirl within the world of maya. Crossing over the ocean of maya is the goal of the wise voyager, and one boat is devotion. In this chapter the Gita begins to stress the importance of love and devotion – themes that later become dominant.
Krishna’s true nature is hidden by maya (7:25). The dangers of maya are not depicted strongly in this chapter, but the “delusions” – moha – of life in maya’s world are hinted at; they are, essentially, the self-centered attachments Krishna has been warning against.Moha, which means confusion or delusion, is something like dreaming while awake, “living in a dream.” The duality of attachment and aversion (love and hate) beguiles the mind into this moha-swoon right at birth (7:27). Knowing Krishna, and devotion to him, is the way beyond this delusion. Thus chapter 7 contrasts wisdom (jnana and vijnana) with the delusion (moha) of spiritual ignorance.
We find here many seminal ideas that are elaborated in the later philosophies of Sankhya and Vedanta. These concepts of prakriti, Purusha, and maya do not originate with the Gita, however. The word maya appears in the Rig Veda, the most ancient of the Vedas, and Purusha is a recurring theme in the Upanishads. The Gita is a halfway point between the spontaneous insights of the Upanishads and the later, highly formalized philosophical systems. In the Gita we find an organized presentation of these and other key concepts without a cumbersome technical explanation. –D.M.
7: Wisdom from Realization
KRISHNA
1 With your mind intent on me, Arjuna, discipline yourself with the practice of yoga. Depend on me completely. Listen, and I will dispel all your doubts; you will come to know me fully and be united with me.
2 I will give you both jnana and vijnana. When both these are realized, there is nothing more you need to know.
3 One person in many thousands may seek perfection, yet of these only a few reach the goal and come to realize me. 4 Earth, water, fire, air, akasha, mind, intellect, and ego – these are the eight divisions of my prakriti. 5 But beyond this I have another, higher nature, Arjuna; it supports the whole universe and is the source of life in all beings.
6 In these two aspects of my nature is the womb of all creation. The birth and dissolution of the cosmos itself take place in me. 7 There is nothing that exists separate from me, Arjuna. The entire universe is suspended from me as my necklace of jewels.
8 Arjuna, I am the taste of pure water and the radiance of the sun and moon. I am the sacred word and the sound heard in air, and the courage of human beings. 9 I am the sweet fragrance in the earth and the radiance of fire; I am the life in every creature and the striving of the spiritual aspirant.
10 My eternal seed, Arjuna, is to be found in every creature. I am the power of discrimination in those who are intelligent, and the glory of the noble. 11 In those who are strong, I am strength, free from passion and selfish attachment. I am desire itself, if that desire is in harmony with the purpose of life.
12 The states of sattva, rajas, and tamas come from me, but I am not in them. 13 These three gunas deceive the world: people fail to look beyond them to me, supreme and imperishable. 14 The three gunas make up my divine maya, difficult to overcome. But they cross over this maya who take refuge in me. 15 Others are deluded by maya; performing evil deeds, they have no devotion to me. Having lost all discrimination, they follow the way of their lower nature.
16 Good people come to worship me for different reasons. Some come to the spiritual life because of suffering, some in order to understand life; some come through a desire to achieve life’s purpose, and some come who are men and women of wisdom.17Unwavering in devotion, always united with me, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others. To them I am the dearest beloved, and they are very dear to me. 18 All those who follow the spiritual path are blessed. But the wise who are always established in union, for whom there is no higher goal than me, may be regarded as my very Self.
19 After many births the wise seek refuge in me, seeing me everywhere and in everything. Such great souls are very rare. 20 There are others whose discrimination is misled by many desires. Following their own nature, they worship lower gods, practicing various rites.
21 When a person is devoted to something with complete faith, I unify his faith in that. 22 Then, when faith is completely unified, one gains the object of devotion. In this way, every desire is fulfilled by me. 23 Those whose understanding is small attain only transient satisfaction: those who worship the gods go to the gods. But my devotees come to me.
24 Through lack of understanding, people believe that I, the Unmanifest, have entered into some form. They fail to realize my true nature, which transcends birth and death. 25 Few see through the veil of maya. The world, deluded, does not know that I am without birth and changeless. 26 I know everything about the past, the present, and the future, Arjuna; but there is no one who knows me completely.
27 Delusion arises from the duality of attraction and aversion, Arjuna; every creature is deluded by these from birth. 28 But those who have freed themselves from all wrongdoing are firmly established in worship of me. Their actions are pure, and they are free from the delusion caused by the pairs of opposites.
29 Those who take refuge in me, striving for liberation from old age and death, come to know Brahman, the Self, and the nature of all action. 30 Those who see me ruling the cosmos, who see me in the adhibhuta, the adhidaiva, and the adhiyajna, are conscious of me even at the time of death.