The Matrix and the Sanskrit Texts

[svarga2]

Poet as Radical Thinker
 
The author of the Mahabharata, and the Bhagavad Gita within it, is Krishna Dwaipayana Vyasa. Vyasa means the compiler, sorter or editor, and nothing beyond what is written in the Sanskrit text is known about him.
 
KC/KK Nair dates the Mahabharata about 150 BC. The Mahabharata is an epic poem of 18 books and over 200,000 lines. It is 8 times as long as the Iliad and the Odyssey put together. It is rightly said of the Mahabharata that: “Whatever is found here may be found somewhere else, but what is not found here is found nowhere.” In others words, all the stories of mankind, the gods and other beings, are in this fantastic great poem. The Bhagavad Gita plays a crucial and pivotal role in The Mahabharata, even though sadly most people here in the west have only known the Gita as a separate stand-alone text.
 
There have been many additions included into the Mahabharata and KC/KK Nair is unable to accept some of these, like the Anugita, because they can be detached from the main story and therefore do not play into the integral whole. In Nair’s view, the great poet Vyasa would be incapable of such aesthetic inelegance. 
 
KC/KK Nair holds the poet Vyasa in the highest esteem and shows how Vyasa was a radical thinker who through Krishna’s words moved on from previous traditions, which were purely transcendental and therefore denied any meaningful reality to this world, to embrace a deeper metaphysical understanding. In the hands of a creative genius like Vyasa, the poetic form with its infinite possibilities to encompass human experience was superior to the treatise or philosophical argument.
 
Vyasa’s vast intelligence was saturated with a deep understanding and compassion for the human experience, along with the wisdom to discern and evaluate our existential predicament and offer the potential of profound solutions. Krishna comes across with answers. It is the opinion of KC/KK Nair that the views and words spoken by Krishna in the Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita are the views and words of Vyasa. Krishna in effect does say that he is Vyasa as sage in Book X, Verse 37 of the Bhagavad Gita.
 
I am fully aware that most Indians consider the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as the words of God and I would respectfully surely concur that the Bhagavad Gita is one of the most supernal, inspired, and holy books ever written. I deeply revere this book and hold the Gita as my personal lifeboat. 
 
Krishna is considered by most Hindus to be an avatar, the incarnation of the god Vishnu. KC/KK Nair is a scholar and a modern man, thus his view is based on a lifetime of research via the world of reason. My own feeling is that since Krishna himself tells us that he dwells within the heart of everyone (SARVASYA CAHAM HRDI SAMNIVISTO), there is no problem for me to accept the sublime utterances of Vyasa - who must have been one of the greatest thinkers, sages, and seers ever - as that of deity, the God within the Heart.
 
In focusing on Vyasa’s radical rejection of the absolutist transcendental, which has no use for the reality of the world, KC/KK Nair seeks to shine some light on the harm that has been done by those who say the world is unreal, and thereby shed their responsibility to work for its well-being.
 
Equally he makes us aware of the disastrous consequences that have been the result of those minds that have embraced empirical science, which he often refers to as mere ‘scientism’ to the exclusion of metaphysical wisdom. Modern man has opted for the ‘how’ of things and neglected the ‘why’ to the detriment of the integrity of our soul and the health of the environment so essential to life itself. Nair’s understanding of the message in the Bhagavad Gita is today immanently relevant in light of the overwhelming and life-threatening condition of our world, as we face the very real possibility of total extinction.
 
Knowledge is abused without wisdom, and invites chaos and inevitably Armageddon. As KC/KK Nair says, ‘Because we ignored the ‘why’ of the world, we may be destroyed by our know-how.’  It was no accident that the creator of the atom bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, chose to quote Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita when he fully realized the catastrophic and sinister consequences of the weapon he had helped to create: “I am Time grown old to destroy the world.” (Bh.G XI.32)
 
We must learn to temper science with wisdom, physics with metaphysics. In the Bhagavad Gita (VII.2) Krishna tells Arjuna that he will teach him the understanding that ‘uses empirical knowledge to reach beyond it to wisdom’ - SAVIJNANAM, meaning knowledge with understanding and discrimination. This reminds me of the descriptions of the ancient Druids who spent many years learning every aspect of knowledge, history, science, astronomy, philosophy, with the understanding that all knowledge is based ultimately upon and in the wisdom of metaphysics. The external is a reflection of the internal.
 
As a radical thinker, Vyasa’s Krishna totally rejected fundamentalism. Knowledge must be integrated with meaning, insight and intuition, and not allowed to descend into dogmatism. As Thomas Jefferson said: The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Fundamentalist dogmatism is the result of a specious laziness; vigilance requires energy and attention. Until you learn to reason for yourself, to think independently with your own discernment, no matter how many books you read, you will not find the peace and power of your own integrity.
 
The Kali Yuga was well under way in 150 BC and Vyasa’s Krishna realized that the religion of his time had ‘decayed into ritual’. There are passages in the Gita that can shock you with their forthright rejection of sacred traditions. Krishna ridicules rituals directed at fulfilling desires and material success, or that lead to temporary sojourns in the many illusory heavens. (Bh.G II.42-44) Krishna is equally direct in his evaluation of the Vedas’ usefulness to one who is enlightened, when he compares them to a well when water overflows on all sides. (Bh.G. II 45-46)
 
‘Vyasa’s primary concern was to refute the position of those who denied authenticity to the world and to incarnate existence.’ KC/KK Nair states that Sankara in the 9th century misinterpreted the Gita as ‘a text which regarded the world as illusion.’ Sankara, who is described by Nair as ‘being bookish to the point of ceasing to be human’ and who died in 820 at the age of 32, is discussed in detail later on and I will share that with you.
 
The ideal of the transcendental is appealing. Who eventually doesn’t long to escape the horror, boredom, and loneliness of ordinary life? In the 1960s my generation followed that Pied Piper into oblivion and while there were many dedicated activists, there were more who fell into the short-term comforts of smoke or took to dealing drugs to avoid the corporate world. The appeal of a far away misty never-never land, one can never quite reach, is seductive until you actually get there. Once you have arrived in the nirguna (without qualities) Void, yes you will find bliss and peace, but there is nothing.
 
Why would the Creator divide Itself into multiplicity and cloak its bliss-filled power in density to journey through the pain and joys of this world if at the end we are only back to square one, even if it is blissful? As KC/KK Nair says, this ‘would make our spiritual striving senseless …the liberation of pure nothingness is no less absurd than its enslavement.’  
 
Thus in spite of many traditions who claim that the Bhagavad Gita affirms that the world is unreal and should be rejected as such, KC/KK Nair insists that Vyasa’s Krishna was in fact offering a revelation of the real meaning of life, accepting and rejecting previous doctrines as he saw fit. Vyasa used the old traditions to give his revelations credibility. Vyasa ‘expresses the certitude that arrives when a man has thought and felt deeply.’
 
Vyasa’s Krishna performs few miracles and even though Krishna does reveal his God form to Arjuna, he returns - at Arjuna’s panic stricken urging - to his human form (manusham rupam), as friend and close comrade. The conversation between Arjuna and Krishna before the great war exemplifies the idea that God ‘does not run the world by direct, intrusive action, but acts only by inspiring men and to the extent that they accept his inspiration.’ Krishna asks Arjuna to listen to his counsel and evaluate it for himself and then, and only then, to act on his own conscience. Krishna does not even guarantee the outcome for Arjuna; he may be killed or lose the war. But he asks Arjuna to act, to participate in the Divine Intentionality of the world – inferring that God does have such intent as opposed to being a coldly detached eternal nothingness.
 
In fact Krishna’s description of God is that he dwells within the heart of each and every man, woman, and child. SARVASYA CAHAM HRDI SAMNIVISTO.
 
 God is close to us all and is ‘in some respects one’s own deepest self.’ Krishna tells Arjuna that man saves himself by himself. (Bh.G VI.5-6) Knowing that God is within you and every other living being, and simultaneously pervades the entire world, who can help but become kind, caring, compassionate, and respectful not only to all the living creatures, but to Nature, the planet Gaia herself and the universe. All the problems of our time would be solved. Our primary concern would be look for solutions and begin to heal.
 
‘… the wills of man and God are now in accord.’
 
We Become the ALL.
 
*** 
 
The Betrayal of Krishna, Vicissitudes of a Great Myth
Krishna Chaitanya/K.K. Nair
Clarion Books, 1991, New Delhi

http://www.metaphysicalmusing.com/articles/betray2.htm

[svarga2]

Immersed in the Heart: Warnings on Devotion in the Kali Yuga – Part 2

This is a polarity universe and thus even in our spiritual aspirations there is a wide spectrum of frequencies to choose from, discern, and differentiate. They don’t call the Path Home ‘The Razor’s Edge’ without good reason. Devotion has its pitfalls. One danger lies in becoming attached to the ‘image’ you are using to focus your thoughts in Love. Such external attachment and involvement may cause you to forget that God is within you as you displace your focus outside of the Heart. There are stories of people who spend all their time tending an altar and forget that God is everywhere, in them and in everyone.

Perhaps because I was born in the west I have struggled with the idea of worshipping, which is essentially oriental and authoritarian in the sense of accepting hierarchy. It is easy to see how an abundance of abuses can arise from this act of bowing down to worship another. This is why I have chosen the verse from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as the backbone and underlying principle of this website.

***

And to this day, [those] who...know the Self as I am Brahman [ONE-ness- ATMAN], become all this universe.
Even the gods [any other dimensional beings] cannot prevent his becoming this, for he has become their Self.
...if a man worships another deity thinking: He is one and I am another, he does not know.
He [who does not know] is like a sacrificial animal to the gods. As many animals serve a man, so does each man serve the gods. Even if one animal is taken away, it causes anguish to the owner; how much more so when many are taken away!
Therefore it is not pleasing to the gods that men should know this [that they are ONE-ness]. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, I.iv.10

***

This Upanishad verse makes it very clear - the man who does not realize that God is within him will essentially become the property of that which he worships. This is a simple formula every performer knows personally, because they experience absorbing the energies of their audience. A less polite and more graphic phrase to describe this interaction is ‘power vampire’.

Therefore when Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita tells Arjuna to worship him, it is my considered feeling that what he means is that Arjuna should worship Krishna as he personifies the God-within Arjuna and all of us. Krishna says that he dwells in the Heart of each and every man, woman, and child. Another name for Krishna is VASUDEVA, which means the ‘indweller’. Krishna is a man, meaning he is a consciousness dwelling in a human body, who has Become the SELF within him and thus represents is the total Realization of the God-within us all, that which we may also Become through Devotion and Knowledge.

Being ever vigilant, walking the Razor’s Edge, we learn to feel subtle energies that can let us know when we have slipped into the lower frequencies and are in danger of losing our way. It is essential that we surrender the small personality ego-self and its pre-programmed GUNAS up to the God-within us, but this does not mean that we should lose ourselves in ritualistic worship and offer our consciousness to the whims and vagaries of another’s GUNAMAYA.

... if a man worships another deity thinking: He is one and I am another, he does not know.

Rather Krishna tells us to learn how to remain immersed and absorbed in the consciousness of the God-within us. Krishna as the ideal of a totally God-realized man represents the ultimate goal for us all – Remembering who we are and achieving what is often termed Christ Consciousness in the west. Devotion is a way to move into and keep our consciousness fixed on higher frequency waveforms so that the God-within us may reveal Itself to us through the power of Grace.

No one can free himself or herself from the power of GUNAMAYA without the Grace of God. God created the three GUNAS to bind Itself in this temporal illusory holographic universe. Only the God-within you can liberate (moksha) you from these powerful forces, which are designed to enchant, delude, and bind. This is why you need to form a relationship with the God-within you and to transfer over time the focus of your consciousness from the unreal, the small identity self you have always falsely imagined you to be, into the Real, the SELF-ATMAN within you.

This temporal illusory holographic universe is a vast ocean of consciousness. Bhakti Yoga, devotion to SELF, and the words of Krishna Vasudeva in the Bhagavad Gita and the Uddhava Gita are our cosmic lifeboat, which allows us to safely cross over the spectrum of myriad waveforms that toss us around tsunami style, deluding and confusing. This boat can sail us Home back to our original state, in Divine Union to the God-within who waits patiently in our Heart.

Another real danger on this Path is in the trap of the false guru who poses as an object of devotion and steals the energies of the disciples. I would suggest that any person who asks you to worship them is very confused. Also be wary of visionary appearances of entities, light beings, ETs, even angels who promise you quick & easy enlightenment and liberation. These beings usually take more than they give and often leave one feeling exhausted and drained.

God is within you, in your Heart – so why do you need these beings? Are they going to act as go-betweens, like lawyers, to arbitrate your case with the God-within you? Or is it just that you need to tell your friends how special you are?

If these entities are so interested in the process of God Realization, perhaps they should incarnate into the very vulnerable flesh & blood of a human body and take their chances – like you and I are – at overcoming delusion and ignorance here in the Kali Yuga. Only your own efforts can win you Grace and liberation.

Slowly teach yourself how to discern between the Real and the unreal. The Phantasmal Hierarchies are no more real than the temporal illusory hologram. They are all merely the limitless appearances of multiplicity. The ‘darkside’ can be very clever in its attempts to make you stumble and lose your way. Ignore them! The Real is subtle and requires a dedicated, patient, persistent, focused awareness.

If any of you should find yourself having to experience the tyrannies of worshiping a power vampire, then consider the experience as a big and painful learning curve. The Kali Yuga nurtures such beings. Learn what you need to learn, pull yourself up out of the abyss, move on as quickly as you can and don’t look back.

The idea of Bhakti Yoga is to form a fulfilling personal and direct relationship with God. You can envision God as your best friend, your Mother or Father, a dearly beloved Child, or your sweetest lover. Having access to the God-within you frees you from priestcraft. The history of all religions follows a pattern of the emergence of an enlightened being whose teachings are then rewritten, diluted and transformed to suit the needs of the herds of priests, who are always waiting in the wings for their chance at influence, employment, and power.

This is why the tyrannical rulers of this world have worked diligently to suppress the primordial idea that God is within the human Heart. These lackluster parasites would soon be out of a job if everyone on the planet was grounded in a lasting relationship with the God-within them.


***


The BHAGAVATA PURANA
Translated and Annotated by Ganesh Vasudeo Tagare, M.A., PhD
Parts 1-5
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1976/1992; Delhi, India

BHAKTI, The Religion of Love
B. Bhattacharya
UBS Publishers’ Distributors Pvt. Ltd., 2003; New Delhi, India
The Concise SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM
Swami Venkatesananda
State University of NY Press, 1989; Albany NY

Abhinavagupta’s Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita
GITARTHA SAMGRAHA
Translated from Sanskrit with Introduction & Notes by Boris Marjanovic
Indica Books; 2004, Varanasi India

The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata
A Bilingual Edition
Translated & Edited by J.A.B. van Buitenen
The University of Chicago Press, 1981

The Bhagavad Gita
Translated from the Sanskrit with Notes, Comments & Introduction By Swami Nikhilananda, 1944
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1992

The Bhagavad Gita
Translated by Winthrop Sargeant
State University of New York Press, 1994

The Uddhava Gita, The Final Teaching of Krishna
Translated by Swami Ambikananda Saraswati
Ulysses Press, 2002

http://www.metaphysicalmusing.com/articles/bhakti.htm

[svarga2]

[svarga2]

Originally Posted by salomonghebrey

Not so much of a value has been said in the initial post of the Author except that the Observer is the Soul in which the clarity and the understanding in the expression in this topic is quite enough to be of value for me.

This is completely true that the Witness which witness whatever is witnessed is the Soul witnessing which you are.

Even that is not needed to know but very useful.

salomonghebrey,
If this is what you meant by the initial post, then Thank you!



The Matrix produces the hologram for the Oneness

The external world of objects is ‘real’ enough to the five senses.

The five senses transmit signals/waveforms of sound, light, etc. to the brain, which acts as a receiver.

These signals carry the appearance of duality, multiplicity, differentiation.

This ‘appearance’ of multiplicity is the job, the function of the five senses.

The five senses are the tools of the Matrix.

In Sanskrit the Matrix is termed Maya, meaning the power of creative illusion, or Matrika in Kashmir Shaivism.

She is the feminine polarity, the Yin side, and she produces the hologram for the Oneness as the Observer that dwells in the Heart.

This Heart is not the physical heart that pumps blood around your body; it is the seat of consciousness in your being.

The Observer within you remains connected to and united with the Oneness; it remains pure – untouched by any act good or evil.

The Observer is the ATMA/Soul or Spirit/Purusha.

Identify your consciousness with that Observer within you.

You are That. Tat Tvam Asi.
You have always been that. Remember.

Thus non-duality, meaning the Oneness, and duality, the appearance of multiplicity in the hologram, do exist simultaneously.

The hologram is temporal, fleeting – the Oneness is eternal.

[pilgrim]

'Bhagavad-Gita' (the Song of God) was spoken by Bhagavan Sri Krishna (the Supreme Personality of Godhead) to His devotee Arjuna (playing the role of a conditioned soul) for the spiritual enlightenment of humanity. Why do you feel the need to re-interperet Krishna's own words to try to prove that He doesn't exist or introduce your own ideas? You consider yourself a Sanskrit scholar, but you have been unable to point out any faults with the Sanskrit + Translations that i have posted from 'Bhagavad-Gita' and other Vedic texts. You have avoided my questions, used straw-man & ad-hominem arguments against me, and repeatedly posted the same speculative mis-interpretations of 'Bhagavad-Gita' by the Indian Communist KK Nair and British Empire Freemasons like Sir Monier Williams: http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showt...=244589&page=9 [posts 169-172 + 178]




'Bhagavad-Gita As It Is' Online: http://www.asitis.com/
'Bhagavad-Gita As It Is' eBook: http://www.freebooks.gokula-incense....rabhupada.epub

The Bhagavad-gita is universally renowned as the jewel of India's spiritual wisdom. Spoken by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead to His intimate disciple Arjuna, the Gita's seven hundred concise verses provide a definitive guide to the science of self realization. No other philosophical or religious work reveals, in such a lucid and profound way, the nature of consciousness, the self, the universe and the Supreme.

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada is uniquely qualified to present this English translation and commentary on Bhagavad-gita. He is the world's foremost Vedic scholar and teacher, and he is also the current representative of an unbroken chain of fully self-realized spiritual masters begining with Lord Krishna Himself. Thus, unlike other editions of the Gita, this one is presented as it is--without the slightest taint of adulteration or personal motivation. This edition is certain to stimulate and enlighten with its ancient yet thoroughly timely message



Srila Prabhupada on 'Bhagavad-Gita As It Is':

"If personally I have any credit in this matter, it is only that I have tried to present Bhagavad-gita as it is, without any adulteration. Before my presentation of Bhagavad-gita As It Is, almost all the English editions of Bhagavad-gita were introduced to fulfill someone's personal ambition. But our attempt, in presenting Bhagavad-gita As It Is, is to present the mission of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krishna. Our business is to present the will of Krishna, not that of any mundane speculator like the politician, philosopher or scientist, for they have very little knowledge of Krishna, despite all their other knowledge."

"Generally the so-called scholars, politicians, philosophers, and svamis, without perfect knowledge of Krishna, try to banish or kill Krishna when writing commentary on Bhagavad-gita. Such unauthorized commentary upon Bhagavad-gita is known as Mayavada-bhasya, and Lord Chaitanya has warned us about these unauthorized men. Lord Chaitanya clearly says that anyone who tries to understand Bhagavad-gita from the Mayavadi (impersonal) point of view will commit a great blunder. The result of such a blunder will be that the misguided student of Bhagavad-gita will certainly be bewildered on the path of spiritual guidance and will not be able to go back to home, back to Godhead."

"When Krishna says, man-mana bhava mad-bhakto mad-yaji mam namaskuru [Bhagavad-Gita 18.65], etc., we, unlike the so-called scholars, do not say that Krishna and His inner spirit are different. Krishna is absolute, and there is no difference between Krishna's name, Krishna's form, Krishna's qualities, Krishna's pastimes, etc. This absolute position of Krishna is difficult to understand for any person who is not a devotee of Krishna in the system of parampara (disciplic succession)."

"Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad Gita as it is. No change. Other they are interpreting in their own way. That is not Bhagavad-Gita. That is something else. In the words of God there is no question of changing. You cannot change. As soon as you make a change, immediately it is material; it has nothing to do with spiritual world."

[svarga2]

The World is Spirit Clothed in Sound

The Real is an Ocean of Consciousness,
undifferentiated
light pulsations (spanda-prakasha),
the plenum.

The periodic Desire (kama) of the One
emerges in the primeval un-struck (anahata)
Sound (shabd), a great howling Cry (Rudra).

Thus the primeval unmanifest Sound
covers the oceanic Spirit, ubiquitous,
the One everywhere,
creating the ‘appearance’ of separation.
An Illusion.

Objects are Spirit covered by sound.
Sound is the cosmic process
measuring out form (rupa).

Sound the primordial word (Vâk)
becomes multiplicity,
we experience manifest creation
through five-sense differentiation,
perception.

All gross material and subtle forms
are temporal holographic appearances,
Spirit covered, encased,
enclosed, clothed, embraced
in myriad Sound
frequencies, waveforms,
the primordial covering.

Sound freezes, coagulates,
solidifies Spirit in Time.



Bound and imprisoned in Time,
in place, limited
to a single distinct space,
all forms are fleeting,
subject to decay,
and inevitably - dissolution.

While the Spirit within remains
the observer, imperishable,
immutable pure, stainless,
unaffected.

God consciousness is everywhere
in all temporal forms,
you & me,
statues, rocks and trees,
within and beyond them,
eternal.

http://www.metaphysicalmusing.com/ar...rigveda001.htm

[svarga2]

I am always delighted and amused by metaphysical authors who state very plainly that
these things cannot be put into words, existence is beyond the meaning of words to describe,
there is no-thing that can be said!

And then... go on to write another 300 pages or 30 books!
Abhinavagupta wrote around 40 books.
David Carse in his excellent book 'Perfect Brilliant Stillness' kept saying that there is nothing that can be said.
And then wrote on...and on...

So it is.
The Joy of an ever closer encircling of That which is beyond Duality is yummy!

[svarga2]

This article has been 'stumbled' upon recently and is very popular on my website Metaphysical Musing, so perhaps the readers here will also enjoy. The truth does set us free, even if it hurts first! On the highest level the 'gods' are metaphysical principles. Perhaps there are astral beings and extraterrestrials pawning themselves off as these primordial metaphysical principles. But as so often the case, the truth is quite different.

***

Vishnu/Krishna’s Partnership with Shiva

Vishnu symbolizes the metaphysical principle of the Preserver. Periodically throughout the Cycles of Time, Vishnu incarnates for the purpose of persevering and protecting the world. He eliminates the ‘bad’ guys.

From the perspective of the soul traveling in time and space, lost in lifetime after lifetime of our own play, the cosmic force that "preserves" the universe is the lifeboat, the refuge.

The Preserver is revered and worshipped so that we, who are enveloped in the appearance of separation, may achieve our dreams. We offer our prayers and sacrifices to that energy which will bring a long healthy life, wealth and a good family. When storms assail us, we immediately turn to whatever we believe will protect us - in the hope that we will not be destroyed. Vishnu symbolizes this refuge, protection, and preservation.

However from the perspective of the Oneness that manifests the universe and the enormous variety of beings playing herein, the Preserver is the metaphysical principle that holds the temporal illusory hologram in tact.


The Principle of Cohesion

The Preserver's job is to infuse the holographic universe with cohesion. Vishnu is the metaphysical force that holds the temporal illusory hologram together. The appearance of cohesion allows the creative powers of Maya to continually weave ever more subtle and seductive webs to entrap us in increasingly dense delusion, as the cycles of time progress into greater solidification. We cannot play without a universe to play in!

Just as a spider can be lured into the seemingly invisible web of another spider and find itself caught, it legs being bound until it is helpless to fend off death - so we wander into webs of our own making in the endless quest to satisfy the thirst of our desires, that thirst which can never be filled.


Krishna moves the universe from one cycle of time to the next

In the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata, Krishna is the incarnation of Vishnu the Preserver – but if we view Krishna from the perspective of the Oneness, we may shed new light on his often-mysterious behavior. We perhaps come to understand that Krishna's role in the grand epic tale is to bring on the next cycle of time. Krishna appears to be facilitating the emergence of the Kali Yuga at the end of the Dvapara Yuga. In fact, it is commonly accepted that the Kali Yuga begins the moment Krishna leaves his body in 3603 B.C.

Krishna in the Mahabharata is aware that he is the incarnation of Vishnu, unlike Rama in the Ramayana. Krishna refers to himself as that immutable, eternal, imperishable Oneness which all souls must inevitably resort to. "I support this entire universe constantly with a single fraction of Myself!” (BhG.X.42).

In Chapter XI of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna reveals his real nature to his friend Arjuna through the astonishing ‘Vision of the Universal Form’. Krishna is clearly all-powerful, but in the epic tale he only rarely exhibits these powers. Krishna does not actually physically fight in the battle itself, and instead chooses to be the driver of Arjuna's chariot.

Keep in mind that the Krishna in the Mahabharata is not the Krishna in the later Sanskrit text the Bhagavata Purana. The delightful sweet cowherd stories of that text are not included in the older Mahabharata. In fact Radha is never mentioned. Krishna marries Rukmini, although he also has 16,000 other wives!


Krishna’s propitiations to Shiva

Towards the end of the Mahabharata’s Great War, we learn that it was Krishna’s ‘propiations’ to Shiva that had caused Shiva to intervene and protect the Panchalas, led by the sons of Pandu - Arjuna, Yuddisthira, Bhima and the twins, the side of the family that Krishna supports. In other words, the war had gone favorably for Arjuna and his brothers thus far because of Shiva’s honoring and respecting Krishna’s acts of austerity.

With truth (satya), purity, honesty, with renunciation, austerity (tapas) and restraint, with forbearance, devotion, resolve, and understanding and speech, has Krishna, whose actions are unsullied, propitiated (aradhana) me.

Therefore none is more favored by me [Shiva] than Krishna.
To honor that dear man and to assess you I have intervened to protect the Panchalas and displayed multiple illusions.
- K. Crosby, The Mahabharata, Clay Sanskrit Library; 7.60-62

The Sanskrit word TAPAS is derived from the verb-root ‘to burn’ and is defined as heat, energy, penance, austerity, and concentrated discipline. It is a bit like a bank of acquired powers. Great beings and masters who perform such Tapas are often described as standing on one toe in the icy Himalayas for 2000 years!

Krishna gave his armies to the enemy and became Arjuna’s charioteer because his power to control the outcome of the war did not lie in his vast armies, but rather in Krishna’s capacity to propitiate Shiva. These propitiations apparently have a time limit on them, as Shiva explains:

By protecting the Panchalas it is him that I have respected.
But they are overpowered by Time.
Today their life runs out.
- Ibid.7.63

Does the same Krishna, who in the Bhagavad Gita revealed to Arjuna his astonishing and all-powerful Universal Form, require some sort of extra power from the god Shiva? What we are being led to understand here by the author of the Mahabharata is the deeper metaphysical meaning personified by these deities.


As the incarnation of Vishnu, Krishna is playing his role as the metaphysical principle of Preservation and cohesion. Shiva’s domain is that of the Destroyer. Krishna protects and inevitably gains victory for Arjuna’s side through the propitiation of the Shiva principle - that powerful energy which controls the forces of destruction.

Shiva and Krishna/Vishnu are working together to unfold the woven universe within which the Oneness plays in Its myriad of veiled forms. They are two of the three metaphysical principles.

Vishnu is the principle of “the cohesive, or centripetal, tendency known as the sattva quality … while Shiva, the centrifugal principle, means dispersion, annihilation, nonexistence, darkness.” (A. Danielou)

The third principle, represented by Brahma, lies between the centripetal and the centrifugal principles. “It is a balance between concentration and dispersion, between a tendency toward existence and a tendency toward annihilation, between light and darkness, between Vishnu and Shiva” (A. Danielou). Brahma is the great Immensity, the Fullness envisioned as the Creator in Space and Time.

***

Krishna as Vishnu protects the universe and intervenes to allow the movement of one cycle of time to the next. He is the sustainer of the hologram we play in. When we are weary of our play, it is logical that we may turn to Shiva – the metaphysical principle that is the Destroyer, the force that destroys our delusion.

In the timeless Nataraja image of Shiva as Cosmic Dancer, he dances in waveforms as rings of fire on the dwarf of delusion and ignorance.

As metaphysical ideas these deities are the various expressions of the One, that That-ness, the eternal imperishable Oneness we all are - our eternal Home. While Shiva dances on our self-created delusion, Krishna invites us to enter into his consciousness.

Krishna promises to lift up out of eternal transmigration - the ocean of birth and death - the one who thinks of God, whose mind is absorbed in and whose thoughts have entered into the Supreme Self (XII.7).

Either way, we return to being that which we always are.



***

Mahabharata, Book Ten, The Sauptikaparvan, Dead of Night; translated by Kate Crosby; The Clay Sanskrit Library; New York University Press, JJC Foundation, 2009.
The Gods of India, Hindu Polytheism, by Alain Danielou; Inner Traditions International Ltd., New York, 1964 & 1985.
The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Winthrop Sargeant; State University of New York Press, 1994.


http://www.metaphysicalmusing.com/ar...2011/siva1.htm

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Shiva the Principle of Destruction & Dissolution

[princessofwands]

Thank you Susan.

I understand Vishnu as a kind of Saturn archetype.

But can you explain why Vishnu is called sattva, in this quote?

Vishnu is the principle of “the cohesive, or centripetal, tendency known as the sattva quality … while Shiva, the centrifugal principle, means dispersion, annihilation, nonexistence, darkness.” (A. Danielou)

[svarga2]

Originally Posted by princessofwands

Thank you Susan.

I understand Vishnu as a kind of Saturn archetype.

But can you explain why Vishnu is called sattva, in this quote?

Vishnu is the principle of “the cohesive, or centripetal, tendency known as the sattva quality … while Shiva, the centrifugal principle, means dispersion, annihilation, nonexistence, darkness.” (A. Danielou)

Respectfully, I have never heard or thought of of Vishnu being associated with Saturn.
I suppose you could stretch the idea of the 'Sustainer and Preserver', which Vishnu represents, as a form of Saturn.
However in Hinduism, Vishnu is not limiting the way Saturn limits and restricts.
To preserve the universe Vishnu will rebalance what has gone out of balance.
He is said to 'incarnate' periodically in order to destroy the demonic.
Krishna is said to be a form of Vishnu who has come to win the battle at Kurukshetra in the Mahabharata.

The three qualities, or as they are termed in Sanskrit the GUNAS, represent these three primal metaphysical principles.
And they have their equivalents in the three deities:

SATTVA = Vishnu

TAMAS = Shiva

RAJAS = Brahma

I hope this answers your most excellent question.
If not, feel free!


I have been meaning to post on the GUNAS and perhaps now is a good time.

[svarga2]

The GUNAS that Rule You

The war of the ancient Sanskrit text the Mahabharata is a war between two factions of one family – thus brothers will kill brothers, cousins will slaughter cousins, friends will slay friends and teachers, etc. With both armies massed on either side of a great battlefield, Arjuna, the greatest living warrior and archer, freezes, freaks!

The sight of all his relatives arrayed on the battlefield weakens Arjuna's resolve and he tells to his friend Krishna that the sight of his family has made him lose his nerve. He trembles at the thought of killing his own and cannot what good will come from this terrible war.

His heart anguished, his eyes filling with tears, Arjuna lets go of his arrows & bow, and sits down in the pit of his chariot. He prefers to be killed, unarmed and defenseless, rather than to fight.

Thus the most perplexing question ever asked in written history is posed in this Sanskrit text, the Bhagavad Gita, providing the superb opportunity for Krishna’s even more baffling, enigmatic and mysterious answer, which has confounded the finest of minds for centuries. Sooner or later, every intelligent thinking person attempts to read the Bhagavad Gita,which is contained within the Mahabharata. From saint to sinner, scientist to priest, the Gita has traditionally been seen as a profound key to understanding the meaning of life. Or to put it in more current terms: What are the rules?

Krishna is an incarnation of the god Vishnu, who protects and sustains the universe. Krishna’s first response to Arjuna is to inquire why this mood come over him at such a bad time. Derisively Krishna urges Arjuna not to act like a eunuch.

Still parked in the middle of the battlefield between the two armies of thousands of warriors, the armies of all the great kings of that time, their chariots, horses, and elephants all poised to commence a World War, Arjuna stubbornly decries that he will not fight!

Krishna tells him that he is wasting his sorrow, but his question – why should he fight? – is nevertheless based in eternal wisdom. He tells Arjuna that all these men here arrayed on the battlefield have always existed and always will.

***

Krishna then proceeds to explain to Arjuna that: Action without attachment to their fruits, meaning their results, bears no consequences.

Why? The answer is that whatever ‘act’ you might imagine you are doing or have done is in fact not done by you at all. You are not the ‘doer’! Only the deluded imagine they are doing anything – rather it is the three Forces of Nature, the GUNAS that are acting.

These three forces of Nature (Prakriti) are called the GUNAS, which in Sanskrit means ‘cord’ – as in a rope, that which binds, or as a bowstring that creates tension to compress waveforms. The GUNAS are forces that serve to distinguish you as an individual piece of God and therefore purposively ‘limit’ you from the infinite and immutable immensity.

In the first Cycle of Time, a golden age, the GUNAS would have served us well as instruments of exploration in time and space. But as the cycles move further into density and the solidification of the world, the GUNAS become – at least to my mind – more like goons! The Hindi word for thug or the mafia guy, who beats up the suckers, is ‘goonda’ and I can’t help amusing myself by associating these two words.

Disconnected from our Source, as we are here in the Kali Yuga, the GUNAS have become those polarity limitations we all falsely identify as ‘who & what’ we are. Our GUNAS are those endlessly multiplying and repeating downward cycles of the same-old-same-old and by now, very boring experiences inevitably leading you to that infamous brick wall. There hopefully, you are at long last forced to think, to rethink, and confront the in-your-face factoid that you are in a heinous rut that is growing progressively more unpleasant.

Your pain is a warning, an alarm, and you must confront the delusion – for it is delusional to imagine that you, as the small identity ego-self, can affect anything! As long as you believe and ‘think’ that you are SEPARATE from the God-within, the SELF-ATMA, then you have no power to control the GUNAS – yours or anyone else’s! The GUNAS are on automatic.

However anyone's hologram may seem to temporarily resonate with yours, you cannot change anyone or give them ‘the ears to hear’, or affect their illusory hologram one iota – unless the God-within them, through grace, ordains it to be so.

Krishna tells the warrior Arjuna that he may have become the greatest archer in the world, but he cannot make his enemy stand in one place to, as it were, await the arrow to hit him in the forehead!

If you or any of us could affect, God forbid, anyone or anything, without their conscious or unconscious consent, from the very limited state of the small ego-self - the entire universe would collapse under the monstrous imbalances we, in our state of ignorance and delusion, would generate.

Thus deluded and unaware, you remain utterly helpless as your GUNAS, which are forever and perpetually seeking their primordial balance, shift from one imbalance to another, seemingly digging themselves down into deeper and deeper confusion, anger and sorrow.

The SELF-ATMA within is beyond the GUNAS and as the creator of them, remains completely and totally unaffected by them. Nothing you have ever done or ever will do has ever diminished or affected the God-within you for a NY-minute! EVER!

The three GUNAS are:
SATTVA – illuminating, binds the souls by means of an attachment to joy and an attachment to knowledge.

RAJAS – are characterized by passion, arises from an attachment to craving and binds the soul by an attachment to action (activity, restlessness, enterprise and greed).

TAMAS – arises from ignorance and deludes the embodied souls and binds through absentmindedness, sloth, and sleep (obscurity, indolence, neglect and delusion arise when ‘tamas’ prevails). [My intuition tells me that ‘tamas’ is the waveform generated by the EMFs coming off our TVs, which reportedly place most in a depressed state within 15 minutes!]

For those of you who understand astrology, SATTVA is correlated to the mutable signs, RAJAS to the cardinal, and TAMAS to the fixed. The four elements of air (touch), fire (sight), water (taste), and earth (smell) play through the GUNAS in a multiplicity of variations. A fifth element, ETHER, pervades the other four, and corresponds to hearing and sound: thus the universe is emitted from sound as pulsating waveforms.

In this the Twilight of the Kali Yuga, as you may have noticed, the small identity ego-self, you falsely imagine you are, is not in control of these GUNAS - which are in fact generating your illusory hologram. Until you reconnect with the God-within you, the real SELF-ATMA, you will never control them or become, as they say, the master of yourself and create your own reality.

Krishna tells us that no matter what we think we are doing, we in fact DO NOTHING. Our perception of reality is only the five senses operating on their objects.

It is not a matter of a judgment call of right or wrong when it comes to being attached to the results or fruits of your actions. It is DELUSIONAL! It is delusional to believe that the small ego-self is the ‘doer’ and such a belief will draw your consciousness further down into density. The wise KNOW they do nothing!

The only ‘Doer’ is the God-within, the SELF-ATMA.

***

From The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata
Translated by J.A.B. van Buitenen /University of Chicago Press, 1981

http://www.metaphysicalmusing.com/ar.../gunasrule.htm

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