AtmaJyothi

Jnanenathu tath ajnanam yeshaam naashitam atmanah |

Teshaam aadithyavath jnanam prakaashayathi tatparam || 5.16 ||

"But to those whose ignorance is destroyed by the Knowledge of the Self, like the sun, to them Knowledge reveals the Supreme (BRAHMAN) ."

My meaning:

For whose ignorance is destroyed in the presence of Knowledge, his knowledge of the self, shines the Bhrahan, like in the presence of sun, darkness disappears automatically and brightens the world. If there is no disturbance in that person (Jnani), no darkness, then automatically what gives raise to is Paramatman/Supreme, that is light(Atma-Jyothi).

Commentary by Chinmayananda Swami:

In the case of finite mortals, sighing and sobbing in ignorance, the Self is screened off from them by lifeless walls of nescience (Avidya). The man of realisation is one in whom Knowledge has lifted this veil of ignorance. Darkness is removed by Light not by degrees but instantaneously --- however old the darkness may be and however thick its density. Similarly, in one who has Knowledge (Jnana) of the Self, the beginningless ignorance is lifted and within a lightning flash, his ignorance ends. Ignorance creates the ego-centric concept and the ego thrives in the body, mind and intellect. With the end of ignorance, the ego too ends.

At this stage of Vedantic discussion, the dualists (Dwaitins) generally feel like collapsing in sheer despair. they fail to understand how the Self can be experienced when the experiencer, the ego and the instruments of experiencing, which are familiar to them in perception, feeling and thinking, have all ended. Any intelligent student must surely entertain this doubt. Foreseeing this possibility, Krishna is here trying to explain how, when the ego has ended, Knowledge becomes self-evident.

This explanation cannot be brought so easily within the comprehension of a thinking intellect but by the example, which the Lord gives in the second line: "LIKE THE SUN." It is the experience of all of us that, during the monsoon, we do not see the sun for days together, and we, in our hasty conclusions, cry out "the sun has been covered by clouds."

When we reconsider this statement, it is not very difficult for us to understand that the sun cannot be covered by a tiny bit of a cloud. Also, the region of the cloud is far removed from the centre of the Universe where the sun, in its infinite glory, revels as the one-without-a-second. The minute humans observing from the surface of the globe with their tiny eyes, experience that the glorious orb of the sun is being veiled because of a wisp of cloud. Even a mighty mountain can be veiled from our vision if we put our tiny little finger very near our eyes!

Similarly, the ego (Jiva) looking up to the Atman finds that ignorance is enveloping the Infinite. This ignorance is not in Truth, just as the clouds are never in the sun. The finite ignorance is certainly a limited factor compared with the infinitude of Reality. And yet, the mist of Self-forgetfulness that hangs in the chambers of the heart gives the ego the false notion that the Spiritual Reality is enveloped by ignorance. When this ignorance is removed, the Self becomes manifest, just as when the cloud has moved away, the sun becomes manifest.

To see the sun, we need no other light; to experience the Self we need no other experience. The Self IS Awareness. It is Consciousness. To become conscious of Consciousness, we need no separate consciousness; to know knowledge we need no knowledge other than Knowledge; Knowledge is the very faculty of knowing. Similarly, when the ego rediscovers the Self, it becomes the Self.

When a dreamer has ended his dream-career along with his dream, he rediscovers himself to be the waker. The waker is never known or understood or recognised as an object by the dreamer. The dreamer himself transcends the dream-world and enters the realm of waking, wherein he knows himself to be the waker. In the same fashion, the deluded ego, when it walks out of ignorance and enters the realm of pure consciousness, it BECOMES the Consciousness which is the Atman. This relationship between the ego and the Atman, and the technique of rediscovery of the Atman by the ego, are beautifully described by this metaphor which is full of deep significance --- for those who know how to chew upon it in independent thinking. THE SAGE, WHOSE INTELLECT IS ABSORBED IN TRUTH, WILL HAVE NO MORE BIRTHS.

Knowledge and Ignorance

Naadatte kasyachit paapam nachaiva sukrutam vibhuh |

Ajnaanena aavrutam jnanam tenamuhyanthi jantavah || 5.15 ||

Meaning:

"The Lord takes neither the demerit not even the merit of any; knowledge is enveloped by ignorance, thereby beings are deluded."

My understanding:

God will not take result of good actions or bad actions, merits or demerits of anybody. God is pure. We are only responsible for our actions and non-actions, and only we have to experience whatever it gives as result of actions. After getting the knowledge, these merits and demerits also will not affect to Yogi. One he have found the taste of knowledge, he does not want to come back to taste the ignorance. But in this world, ignorance is covered the knowledge, like dust covered the surface of pure water pool. Thats why, all living beings get attached to 'Maya' and believed that this is only the Truth. Once this ignorance is removed, knowledge can be found automatically. There is only one truth. That is Atman/Self. This is the eternal and permanent truth.

Comentary by Chinmayananda Swami:

The Supreme, who is All-pervading (Vibhuh), contrary to all our Pauranic concepts of stock-taking gods and deities, is declared here as not taking any note of the merit or the demerit of the living creatures. It is such passages that shock the story-reading devotee-class, and therefore, they generally ignore the Geeta and read instead the glories of Krishna. The concept that God sits just over the clouds, peeping down and observing every sin and merit of all the people all over the world, and that He keeps a perfect account of all these so that on the Day of Judgement each one will approach the Father who will pass the judgement --- is a concept which can appeal only to simple folk in whom the intellect is the least developed faculty!

The Eternal-Principle underlying life's activities cannot be conceived of as taking any active note or interest in the created or in the finite. From the Infinite standpoint, the finite exists not. It is only when the Supreme functions through Self-forgetfulness that It comes to see Itself split up into the concepts of agent, action, fruit, etc. Sunlight passing through a plane glass, in spite of the medium through which it has passed, emerges in its pure nature, if the glass be clean, flawless and colourless. If, on the other hand, a pencil of light were to pass through a glass prism, we all know that it would emerge in its seven component colours, constituting the spectrum. Similarly, the Self passing through Knowledge (Jnana) emerges as Self, which is the One-without-a-second, All-pervading, All-perfect. But the same Self, when It passes through ignorance --- meaning, the body, mind and intellect --- It splits up into the endless world of plurality.

The relationship between Knowledge and Ignorance is very beautifully explained here. Ignorance cannot be Knowledge, nor can Knowledge be a part of Ignorance. Where Ignorance is, there Knowledge cannot be. Where Knowledge has come, Ignorance must depart. But here, we are told "KNOWLEDGE IS ENVELOPED BY IGNORANCE," just as a solitary light in a dark jungle, seen from a distance can be described as a light encaged in darkness.