- The Eternal Brahma
- The way to imperishable brahman
- Attaining the supreme
Explains the various sanskrit terms of Atma, Brahma, Brahman, Jiva, Devata, Adhibhoot, Adhyatma...etc
- Brahman : supreme, indestructible
- Adhidaivya : not changing , always there like the Sun
- Adhiyagna : all done to know paramatma. working towards God realisation
- Adhyatma : self. Knowing that there is God. Route to knowing atma.
- Adhibhoot : is all perishable objects / things. Sum total of all matter , prakriti. All physical entities
- Karma : General meaning is work/action. It also means the stored up fruits of ones work over past lives
- Ishwara : the power of God in the body of living beings
- Jiva : the living beings . That take birth and hence die.
- Animals usually have 2-3 senses & humans have 5 in general and 6th for some. Animals cannot change themselves much, stay as were : A tiger will kill and eat & a cow will graze grass. Humans can adapt a lot more and faster within one lifetime.
- The human form is to experience and realise God. Humans having a divine experience or divinity having a human experience?
- Life & death : death of Ego & duality, leads to unity with divine
- Importance of Om, the cosmic frequency.
Shlokas references
- One of the shorter chapters with 28 shlokas
- 8.1 - 8.4 : Lord is supreme and creator of the world
- 8.05-8.14 Remembering Lord at all times especially death
- 8.05 -8.06 mentions that the next birth is decided by our thoughts at the time of death
- 8.07 states that thinking of lord all the time will ensure we are in his thoughts when we depart from this body
- 8.15-8.22 : Cycles of birth & death. Cycles of the manifest form and returning to divine
- 8.19 mentions about mah yuga = 4.32 m human years!!
- 8.23-8.28 : The two paths
- Dark path - attached to material world and take birth again as effect of karma. Rebirths to exhaust vasanas and progress to God realisation.
- Bright path : realisation . 8.24 God realized persons do not reincarnate
Key message from the chapter
A simple way to realise God is to always remember him
Summary in poetry
I am the knowledge and the source
Everything springs from my creative force
Those who know ME as the ONE
And fill their thoughts of ME alone
At their end and along the road
They make their way easily to my abode
Mind and Intellect fixed in my sublime
Therefore remember ME all the time
Noble devotees reach their aim of eternal peace
A story related to the message
The Story of King Bharata
When Sage Vishvāmitra was busy creating his own universe; Indra, the King of heaven could not tolerate that. So he sent a beautiful heavenly dancer, Menakā, to disturb him from his work. She succeeded and bore sage Vishvāmitra's daughter, Shakuntalā. She was raised in the hermitage of sage Kanava after Menakā left for heaven.
One day a King named Dushyanta wandered in the hermitage of sage Kanava. There he met and fell in love with Shakuntalā, whom he secretly married in the hermitage. Afterwards, she gave birth to a baby boy named Bharata. He was very handsome and strong, even during his childhood. Bharata looked like the son of a Deva. When he was only six years old, he used to play in the jungle by tying up baby wild animals, such as tigers, lions, and elephants.
Bharata became the king after Dushyanta. Bharata was the greatest king of the land. Even today we also call India BhārataVarsha, the land of King Bharata. He had nine sons, but none of them seemed fit to rule after him, so he adopted a qualified child, who took over the kingdom after Bharata. Thus, King Bharata laid the foundation of democracy.
There have been several other rulers by the name of Bharata such as Bharata, the younger brother of Lord Rāma and Mahārāja Bharata. Here is a story of Mahārāja Bharata:
A devotee named Mahārāja Bharata, the son of a saintly King Rishabha Deva, also ruled over our entire planet. He ruled for many years but eventually renounced everything to take up spiritual life of an ascetic. Although he was able to give up his opulent kingdom, he became attached to a baby deer. Once when the deer was absent, Mahārāja Bharata was so disturbed that he began to search for it. While searching and lamenting the deer's absence, Mahārāja Bharata fell down and died. Because his mind was fully absorbed thinking of the deer at the time of his death, he naturally took his next birth from the womb of a deer. This is the theory of transmigration of the soul, which we believe. Some western philosophers believe in reincarnation. The reincarnation theory is based on the assumption that a human soul takes birth only as humans, not as animals. The theory of transmigration seems more universal than the theory of reincarnation.
Related posts on this blog
- Earth and Sun
- Sun and Sunshine
- Sun and Moon again
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