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Re: 'Akshara' etc. in the BhG

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gundumalli2000 • April 10, 2002 


--- In bhakti-list@y..., "Krishna K"  wrote:

> With this intepretation of axara as mukta jIva, the questions would 
be: (a) Where is mukta-jIvopAsana mentioned? (b) why the singular 
despite the multiple mentioned for 'ksharaH'? esp when amukta jIvas 
don't become one on mukti (c) whether mukta or amukta jIvas are 
mentioned for upAsana, 7.20 and 9.23 clearly put 'upAsana of any 
other jIva' on a scale lower than that of Paramatma. In that light, 
isn't Arjuna's question in 12.01 redundant?
> 

Dear Krishna,

  Let me preface this email by a warning that my knowledge of
sanskrit is at the kindergarden level. In verse 12.1, the reference
is to two classes of devotees (a) yE satatayuktAh bhaktAh tvAm 
paryupAsate, that is those who meditate on you, and (b) Ye
aksharam avyaktam (paryupAsate), that is those who meditate on
the akshara. 

  My first impulse is to differentiate the sense of "paryupAsate" 
mean in the two cases. In the first case, it would mean loving
meditation on nArAyaNA, and in the second case, it would merely
have the sense of meditation on a tattva, in this case the true
nature of the akshara or the jIva. (Thus the question of propitiating
a being other than nArAyaNA does not arise in the second case, 
because the question of propitiating itself does not arise.) My
understanding is that the "upAsana" could be used in both these
senses. I leave it to you and others to comment on whether this
reading is technically acceptable.

  The other solution proposed, if I understand Mani correctly, is
that the phrase "Ye aksharam avyaktam (paryupAsate)" refers to 
the meditation on nArAyaNA as akshara in order to realize oneself
as akshara. Thought this was worth recalling.

-Kasturi



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