Gita is a message of eternity and it has timeless significance for all of us. It does not get rusted or worn out by the movements of time or change that takes place. The vicissitudes of life has no impact on this message, because it arises from a source which transcends the transitions of life. When everything passes away, something shall remain; the nature of this something is the object of the quest for knowledge which is embodied in the Bhagavadgita. It is called Brahmavidya, the knowledge of the absolute, the Brahman. Our existence is relative since we can not exist without basic necessities of life and also the physical and cosmological factors that make this planet habitable. Hence life and this world are relative, it has no absolute existence, but there is something beyond this that is absolute and makes the rest relative, this is Brahman. The method that is used to gain the knowledge of Brahman is through the practice of yoga, thus the yogashastra, the art of coming in contact with absolute and the Brahmavidya, the science and philosophy of the absolute are taught in Gita. The conversation between God and man, Krishna and Arjuna are taken up as occasions for illuminating the relationship between the absolute and the relative. The union of an individual and the Absolute is gist of this story. The message is carried through the 700 verses of this Holy book at a time of a war within a family. The death and destruction that would follow a battle indicates the futility of life and that is the most desirable time for God to be teaching the truth of existence and temporary nature of mortal life, and the relationship between the two. In fact life itself is a battlefield and the battle starts at birth. The birth, growth and evolution are only physical change in spacetime but the soul and consciousness does not change. The death is not a destruction of soul but a mere transformation in spacetime from one state to another. All change whatever is its nature is a cosmic justice and therefore no event or circumstance is objective or subjective, there is intermingling of inner and outer, the objective and subjective occurrences in any event. It is not the world and the individual reacting to each other, but it is the will of the Absolute. An individual or mere mater which is a part of this universe has no freedom to self-determination over the prescriptions of physical laws. For anyone to say that he shall do this or he shall not do that would be a lack of the understanding. The universe is not separable from the individual, and vice versa. Between us and the universe outside, our actions ceases to be actions they become movement of cosmic power. Our intelligence has to rise to the level where we should recognize inaction in action and action in inaction. It is as if we are doing nothing because we are moving with the whole pattern of the universe outside with which we are connected. The center of the universe is not a point in a circle but it is everywhere, but its circumference nowhere. One has to merge everything in all space and time. The centre here means the self rootedness of all things, the quintessential essence of the universe. The metaphysics of this gospel is that when we touch a point, we begin to realize that it is connected with another point. The second connected to the third, and so on. It reveals that nothing can be explained unless everything is explained as a whole.
The knowledge based action is karma yoga. We are required to perform, perforce and action as integrated beings in the structure of the universe. As we rise higher and higher in the level of our comprehension. When we realize the Absolute, we enter into the being of Brahman, and when we are established in the wholeness of His being, the action becomes knowledge; action is being, and being is action. The Cosmic Thinking Principle is something we cannot conceive and perceive. It is beyond the confines of elements and it can only be an object of direct realization and experience, and it can never become an object in spacetime. It is certain that the mind conditions the objects, but an individual mind is not the creator or a total conditioner of the object of perception. It is the Mind of infinite knowledge, All-in-One, the Supreme Brahman. Everything is subsumed under this Great Reality, so that the Sankhya of the Bhagavadgita overcomes the difficulties of the dualism of the classical Sankhya. The Purusha and the Prakriti of the Sankhya are subsidiary to the Supreme Being. He is the cause of all causes and a cause existing not outside the effects but inseparable for all effects. He is One Absolute (Ekatvena), Immortality (Amrita), Death (mritya), Existence (Sat), Non-existence (Asat), Everything in the World (Bahuda) and He is the manifold universe (Prithaktvena). The Absolute does not travel because He is not in space and He does not take time to act, because He is eternity. Every speck of space, every atom which he only created reflects the face of God. Those who are capable of tuning their minds in an undivided manner to All-inclusive Almighty Being, they would have reached the highest point of perfection and purity of consciousness. God-vision is a timeless and space-less experience. The 13th chapter teaches about Purusha and Prakriti or consciousness and matter or subject and object. The central philosophy of the Gita is that the relationship between the knower and the known. Which influences what? Is it subject influences the object or the other way around; they are on a par one with one another, because one cannot exist without the other. Since subject and object, the Purusha and Prakriti respectively are the two arms of one uniform Omnipresence. These are the two modes of one Seamless Being. The Purusha is pure impersonal consciousness, featureless transparency, appears to work through the medium of Prakriti which is consists of three Gunas known as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas; the nature of these Gunas which are in essence the field of action. In Gita the knower and known is referred to as Akshara, the imperishable, and Kshara, the perishable. Comprehending both is the Purushottama, the Supreme Purusha. In the final reality, there is only one Purusha in the whole universe. All thoughts are his thought, all deeds are his deed. No one does anything besides him and no one can exist besides this marvelous Being.
The knowledge based action is karma yoga. We are required to perform, perforce and action as integrated beings in the structure of the universe. As we rise higher and higher in the level of our comprehension. When we realize the Absolute, we enter into the being of Brahman, and when we are established in the wholeness of His being, the action becomes knowledge; action is being, and being is action. The Cosmic Thinking Principle is something we cannot conceive and perceive. It is beyond the confines of elements and it can only be an object of direct realization and experience, and it can never become an object in spacetime. It is certain that the mind conditions the objects, but an individual mind is not the creator or a total conditioner of the object of perception. It is the Mind of infinite knowledge, All-in-One, the Supreme Brahman. Everything is subsumed under this Great Reality, so that the Sankhya of the Bhagavadgita overcomes the difficulties of the dualism of the classical Sankhya. The Purusha and the Prakriti of the Sankhya are subsidiary to the Supreme Being. He is the cause of all causes and a cause existing not outside the effects but inseparable for all effects. He is One Absolute (Ekatvena), Immortality (Amrita), Death (mritya), Existence (Sat), Non-existence (Asat), Everything in the World (Bahuda) and He is the manifold universe (Prithaktvena). The Absolute does not travel because He is not in space and He does not take time to act, because He is eternity. Every speck of space, every atom which he only created reflects the face of God. Those who are capable of tuning their minds in an undivided manner to All-inclusive Almighty Being, they would have reached the highest point of perfection and purity of consciousness. God-vision is a timeless and space-less experience. The 13th chapter teaches about Purusha and Prakriti or consciousness and matter or subject and object. The central philosophy of the Gita is that the relationship between the knower and the known. Which influences what? Is it subject influences the object or the other way around; they are on a par one with one another, because one cannot exist without the other. Since subject and object, the Purusha and Prakriti respectively are the two arms of one uniform Omnipresence. These are the two modes of one Seamless Being. The Purusha is pure impersonal consciousness, featureless transparency, appears to work through the medium of Prakriti which is consists of three Gunas known as Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas; the nature of these Gunas which are in essence the field of action. In Gita the knower and known is referred to as Akshara, the imperishable, and Kshara, the perishable. Comprehending both is the Purushottama, the Supreme Purusha. In the final reality, there is only one Purusha in the whole universe. All thoughts are his thought, all deeds are his deed. No one does anything besides him and no one can exist besides this marvelous Being.
Reference: the philosophy of the Bhagavadgita by Swami Krishnananda
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