Adhibhuta,Adhidaivam, Adhiyagna
A very basic concept to contemplate upon and experience!
178. adhibhūtaṃ kṣaro bhāvaḥ puruṣaś cādhidaivatam adhiyajñoham evātra dehe dehabhṛtāṃ vara 8.4
adhibútam is the ephemeral-principle; purusha is adhidaivam. adhiyajña is simply me here in the body, O best of embodies ones!
Here we have the definition of the three terms which Arjuna wanted to know about. The explanations rest on the idea that there are three aspects to the universe. First there is the material aspect. This is the apparently sturdy and substantial world of solids, liquids, gases, and plasma that constitute the totality of the material universe. Without these there would be mere void.
The concern and goal of science is to understand and explain this multifaceted dimension of reality. But what is emphasized here is that this aspect of the universe is impermanent. In fact, even the sun and the stars will eventually fade away and turn to nothing. Until the rise of astrophysics in the twentieth century the general impression among all the peoples of the world was that the sun and the stars are eternal. It is impressive that already millennia ago the deep insight into impermanence of the physical world found expression in the Gita. This is undoubtedly a profound understanding of the ultimate nature of physical reality.
But one may wonder whether if it is necessary to lose all interest in the world just because it is not going to be there for ever and ever. How one reacts to a news item is as important as the news item itself. Sometimes it is even more important. Giving up living and retreating to seclusion upon recognizing the impermanence of the world is not unlike running out of a concert hall in the middle of a concert upon being told that the recital will come to an end in a couple of hours.
One eminent commentator described adhidaiva as follows: “The gigantic universal form of the Lord called adhidaivata is contemplated by the neophyte who cannot approach the Supreme Lord in His manifestation as Supersoul. The neophyte is advised to contemplate the universal form whose legs are considered the lower planets and whose eyes are considered the sun and moon, and whose head is considered the upper planetary system.”
This explanation may not be very clear to everyone. It may not be satisfactory to those who have a different understanding of planets. But we may recall here that in the ancient poetic vision there was a cosmic personage with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet from whom everything emerged. He was referred to as Purusha: sahasra shírsha purushah sahasrákshas sahasrapát (Purusha Súkta). Adhidaivam is none other than this Purusha, we are told. In other words, it refers to the transcendental creative principle from which it all began. It may be regarded as the indescribable, intractable seed of the Big Bang from which – as per current cosmology – the physical universe emerged. This is certainly a magnificent vision. Both these ideas are in perfect harmony with the world picture offered by modern science, though the second one is phrased in a poetic metaphor.
Beyond the origin principle and the created material world, there are the individual consciousnesses that are at the core of living entities. The Upanishadic revelation is that each one of these is a different manifestation of that cosmic principle, not unlike the fact that the same substance called water is in different cups, or the same fire in different lamps. That is what is conveyed when it states that adhiyajña is none other than the source of it all present in each and
every body. This again is an enlightened perspective on the nature of existence: that our being in particular bodies in a confirmation of all the splendor of the universe. Indeed, if we imagine a universe without any individual consciousness, it would be like a poem without a reader, like music without a listener. So the adhiyajña is the purusha-particle that is embedded in every one of us: it is an inkling of the grander Whole. It is somewhat like a small initial of the artist in the corner of a wonderful painting.
We may note in passing that in the Gita Krishna addresses Arjuna with more than twenty different names. The one used here is dehabhritáṃ vara: the supreme soul dwelling in the body. Note that Arjuna is reminded here that he is the physical embodiment of the supreme soul. The point is, no matter in what we are engaged in we should never forget the infinity that is in our core.
V. V. Raman March 1, 2013
Hare Krishna
178. adhibhūtaṃ kṣaro bhāvaḥ puruṣaś cādhidaivatam adhiyajñoham evātra dehe dehabhṛtāṃ vara 8.4
adhibútam is the ephemeral-principle; purusha is adhidaivam. adhiyajña is simply me here in the body, O best of embodies ones!
Here we have the definition of the three terms which Arjuna wanted to know about. The explanations rest on the idea that there are three aspects to the universe. First there is the material aspect. This is the apparently sturdy and substantial world of solids, liquids, gases, and plasma that constitute the totality of the material universe. Without these there would be mere void.
The concern and goal of science is to understand and explain this multifaceted dimension of reality. But what is emphasized here is that this aspect of the universe is impermanent. In fact, even the sun and the stars will eventually fade away and turn to nothing. Until the rise of astrophysics in the twentieth century the general impression among all the peoples of the world was that the sun and the stars are eternal. It is impressive that already millennia ago the deep insight into impermanence of the physical world found expression in the Gita. This is undoubtedly a profound understanding of the ultimate nature of physical reality.
But one may wonder whether if it is necessary to lose all interest in the world just because it is not going to be there for ever and ever. How one reacts to a news item is as important as the news item itself. Sometimes it is even more important. Giving up living and retreating to seclusion upon recognizing the impermanence of the world is not unlike running out of a concert hall in the middle of a concert upon being told that the recital will come to an end in a couple of hours.
One eminent commentator described adhidaiva as follows: “The gigantic universal form of the Lord called adhidaivata is contemplated by the neophyte who cannot approach the Supreme Lord in His manifestation as Supersoul. The neophyte is advised to contemplate the universal form whose legs are considered the lower planets and whose eyes are considered the sun and moon, and whose head is considered the upper planetary system.”
This explanation may not be very clear to everyone. It may not be satisfactory to those who have a different understanding of planets. But we may recall here that in the ancient poetic vision there was a cosmic personage with a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet from whom everything emerged. He was referred to as Purusha: sahasra shírsha purushah sahasrákshas sahasrapát (Purusha Súkta). Adhidaivam is none other than this Purusha, we are told. In other words, it refers to the transcendental creative principle from which it all began. It may be regarded as the indescribable, intractable seed of the Big Bang from which – as per current cosmology – the physical universe emerged. This is certainly a magnificent vision. Both these ideas are in perfect harmony with the world picture offered by modern science, though the second one is phrased in a poetic metaphor.
Beyond the origin principle and the created material world, there are the individual consciousnesses that are at the core of living entities. The Upanishadic revelation is that each one of these is a different manifestation of that cosmic principle, not unlike the fact that the same substance called water is in different cups, or the same fire in different lamps. That is what is conveyed when it states that adhiyajña is none other than the source of it all present in each and
every body. This again is an enlightened perspective on the nature of existence: that our being in particular bodies in a confirmation of all the splendor of the universe. Indeed, if we imagine a universe without any individual consciousness, it would be like a poem without a reader, like music without a listener. So the adhiyajña is the purusha-particle that is embedded in every one of us: it is an inkling of the grander Whole. It is somewhat like a small initial of the artist in the corner of a wonderful painting.
We may note in passing that in the Gita Krishna addresses Arjuna with more than twenty different names. The one used here is dehabhritáṃ vara: the supreme soul dwelling in the body. Note that Arjuna is reminded here that he is the physical embodiment of the supreme soul. The point is, no matter in what we are engaged in we should never forget the infinity that is in our core.
V. V. Raman March 1, 2013
Hare Krishna
Comments