(From the discourses of Pujya Sri Swamiji)

Compiled by Swami Datta Pada Renu

The knowledge of Brahman is the secret of all secrets. Therefore it is called the sovereign secret (Raja Guhyam). It is also the supreme purifier, because it reduces to ashes in a moment the results of all actions done in the course of several lives.

The knowledge of Brahman purifies a man from all his impurities and imperfections and makes him free from all delusions. A man who wakes up from sleep is freed in a moment from all his dream experiences. In the same way, the man who is awakened to God-consciousness or the self-realized sage is freed from all delusions of sufferings and fear pertaining to earthly life. In an instant he becomes free from all his sins and imperfections. Therefore, the knowledge of Brahman is compared to a fire that burns up all rubbish to ashes and purifies everything. So it is the supreme purifier (Pavitram idam uttamam). It is also immediately comprehensible in the sense that it is directly realizable (Pratyakshavagamam) through intuition.

This knowledge of Brahman is righteous as it is unopposed to Dharma. As such it leads to the realization of the Ultimate Truth. Moreover, it is easy to practise. Generally actions that are accomplished easily yield small results, whereas those that take time to accomplish are productive of great results. So it may be imagined that this knowledge of Brahman, because it is easily attainable may produce results which are short-lived and of little significance. To prevent such a misconception the Lord says that it is imperishable (avyayam). Therefore, it is worth acquiring.

"Men lacking faith in this Dharma (self-knowledge), O Destroyer of the foes (Arjuna), not attaining Me, return to the path of mortal world." (3-IX).

Even in worldly matters, it is hard to achieve success without faith. This being so, how can a man devoid of faith attain the Supreme Lord and get deliverance from this world of mortality?
Those who lack faith in this Dharma (knowledge of the self) bring ruin to themselves. They are ignorant of the true nature of the Self. They consider the body as the self and take delight in transitory pleasures. They are sinful. They stick to the path of transmigration experiencing misery in the form of repetitive births and deaths. This path leads even to hell and even to births as low creatures. As these people are caught up in Samsara, the mortal world, they do not attain the Lord.

"All this world is pervaded by Me in My unmanifest form. All beings dwell in Me, but I do not dwell in them.’ (4-IX).

Just as the space pervades this whole universe, even so, the Supreme Lord pervades all beings in His unmanifest form, i.e., in His form that is beyond the range of any sense perception. Since the Lord alone is the self of all beings, it appears as though the Lord is dwelling within them. To ward off such a misconception the Lord says that He does not dwell in them. That means, like a gross body He is not held in them or imprisoned within them. This is so because He is spirit and not a material substance.

"Neither do beings exist in Me. Behold my divine Yoga. My self brings beings into existence and sustains them, and yet I am not dwelling in them." (5-IX).

In the previous verse the Lord said that all beings dwell in Him. But in this verse He says that no beings exist in Him. Although it looks somewhat a contradictory statement, it is not really so.

Even though the Lord dwells in the body of a being He remains unattached to the body. The idea is that He does not exist in a body like some object contained in a receptacle. Nor can anything exist in Him because He is spirit and free from contact with anything. This is His ‘divine yoga’ or His mysterious power.

Thus, although the Lord is the sustainer of beings and the originator of beings, He is not contained in beings. But for the Lord the world would have no existence. But the Lord is self-existent.

The Lord uses the expression ‘My Self’ only for the purpose of an ordinary man’s understanding. He has not said so considering Himself as different from the Supreme Self. The Lord is totally egoless.

According to Advaita school of philosophy, the whole world does not exist at all. Paramatma, the Supreme Lord alone exists. The world is only a superimposition on Paramatma. For instance, a man in twilight takes a piece of rope to be a snake by mistake. That means an unreal snake is superimposed on the real rope. This wrong notion persists in his mind till he is freed from his delusion. When the delusion is removed he would realize that only rope existed and not the snake. In the same way man superimposes this whole universe on Paramatma or the Supreme Self. When the real knowledge dawns on him, he will realize that only the Supreme Self exists and nothing else. Thus, from the pure Advaitic point of view, no beings exist in the Lord. Only the Lord exists