Modes of Nature

Bhagavad-Gītā Chapter 14

The 14th chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita deals with the way in which the qualities of material nature hold the soul in a kind of  hypnotic state which corresponds to the imagined reality of the material world. He explains to Arjuna that this system of wisdom is the highest form of subjective education by which even the great sages attain supreme perfection. One who realizes this becomes godlike in the sense that his innate spiritual perfection is revealed. Such a divine realized soul is neither born at the time of creation, nor dies at the universal annihilation. This is real education.

Kṛṣṇa says: 

मम योनिर् महद्-ब्रह्म

तस्मिन् गर्भं दधाम्य् अहम्

सम्भवः सर्व-भूतानां

ततो भवति भारत

mama yonir mahad-brahma

tasmin garbhaṃ dadhāmy aham

sambhavaḥ sarva-bhūtānāṃ

 tato bhavati bhārata

BG 14.3

“The mahat-brahma or “trimodal material nature in its entirety undivided by space and time” is the womb of reality impregnated by me with the seeds of consciousness, unborn souls bent on exploitation. In that region all beings headed by the creator Himself are generated.”

Here, Kṛṣṇa uses the metaphor of seeds. The Supreme Absolute disseminates the seeds of consciousness into this world. Living beings gradually evolve into different situations according to their particular levels of consciousness. They grow and adapt, surviving in different living conditions, species, and biological frameworks according to their individual levels of consciousness.

As consciousness evolves or devolves it generates adequate apparatus in the form of the variety of living species over milennia. Living consciousness is compared here to a seed. The Supreme Consciousness impregnates the universe with living energy. Just as seeds grow and flourish, the living entities within a universe activate the  genetic structures necessary for development and exploitation within the perceived world.

All souls are emanations from the Supreme Reality, just as light is an emanation from the sun. Through the agency of the three qualities of material nature each individual soul is held in a hypnotic state in which she is convinced that she is the subject.

And so it is that we feel that we are the subjects, the center of the universe; we feel that everything else is merely an object meant for our exploitation. The qualities of material nature enforce the illusion that we are exploiters and that the entire environment is for our exploitation. This is the foundation of misconception.

In reality, we are not the Subject, the center of the universe. The cause is in the higher world. Krishna is the Supreme Absolute Truth.

Here, in the 14th chapter, Krishna explains how the world of experience springs up from the divine will.

The Supersubjective generates the subjective universe of objective space and time. We are not describing a so-called “special creation,” but a gradual generation, development and evolution through millennia involving consciousness and its dazzling interplay with the objective world.

Consciousness is everywhere. Nature abhors a vacuum. We are engaged in a holographic space-time continuum constructed of subjective reality. It is as if the Absolute were the magician: he can show one thing to you something entirely different to me.

In the previous chapter we learned about the subject and the super subject. In reality, where I am not the subject nor are you. I am not the center of this universe, and neither are you. There is a Super subject: in a sense, we are all his Object. But by his mercy we are given the illusion of being subjects within the objective material world.

The Super Subject, the Universal Subject has such power.

This is the essential message of the 14^th chapter of Bhagavad-Gītā as I understand it.

In the 14th chapter of Bhagavad-Gita, Kṛṣṇa explains the origin of the universe. According to this understanding, it is not that from time eternal the fossils are developing into this world of experience. In fact it is quite the opposite. When we conceive of this world on the basis of fossils, we merely dive deep into an intense ocean of ignorance.

In Subjective Evolution of Consciousness, Shridhar Maharaja comments,

“Everything comes from above. What we experience at present is like the outcome of hypnosis. In the process of hypnosis, the hypnotist can make us withdraw our consciousness from anything at any moment and show us another way to view reality.

 In the same way God it is free, and whatever he wills becomes reality. Whatever he imagines becomes reality. He can force us to see something, and when he does so we cannot see it in any other way. 

If you can understand this principle you can understand how everything is possible in divinity. Then you can have some faith in what is Godhead. In a sense Godhead means this: the origin of creation. And yet this creation is only an insignificant part of his divine nature. He has infinite qualities and activities.

This world in which we live is only a negligible part of the cosmic manifestation. The whole basis of everything is there in hand. It comes from up to down and not from downed up. To the idea that everything is developing from downward up we must say no matter does not create spirit to say that from a fossil intelligence is coming is a fool's conception.

Consciousness, spirit, is all pervading. It is present even in the trees, stones, Earth, ether, air – everywhere. And to know the truth, we must connect to the conscious principle of the infinite.

What is the infinite? He is Almighty, omniscient, omnipotent, all sympathetic, all loving.

Our real aspiration must be to have a direct connection with him, leaving aside the charm of his created substance. We should want to negotiate how we can have a connection with the Creator himself.

And his position is not simply that of creator. This world is a creation of a lower order. But a higher creation also exists in the plane of reality which is infinitely higher than this world of experience.

We should inquire whether it is possible for us to have a life and that soil. We should try to understand what are the layers of reality in that realm of consciousness, and how we can go higher and higher in that plane.

We should inquire about that and find out how we can enter there. We must try to understand what is the key to the entrance into that transcendental abode. This should be the basis for search for truth. We should inquire into how to become free from both the plane of renunciation and the plane of exploitation.”

Bhaktivedanta Swami comments:

This is an explanation of the world: everything that takes place is due to the combination of kṣetra and kṣetrajṇa, the body and the spirit soul. This combination of material nature and the living entity is made possible by the Supreme God Himself. The mahat-tattva is the total cause of the total cosmic manifestation, and because in the total substance of the material cause there are three modes of nature, it is sometimes called Brahman. 

The Supreme Personality impregnates that total substance, and thus innumerable universes become possible. This total material sub­ stance, the mahat-tattva, is described as Brahman in the Vedic literature: tasmād etad brahma nāma-rūpam annaṃ ca jayate.  Into that Brahman the seeds of the living entities are impregnated by the Supreme Person.  The scorpion lays its eggs in piles of rice, and sometimes it is said that the scorpion is born out of rice. But the rice is not the cause of the scor­ pion. Actually, the eggs were laid by the mother. Similarly, material nature is not the cause of the birth of the living entities. The seed is given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and they only seem to come out as products of material nature. Thus every living entity, according to his past activities, has a different body, created by this material nature, and the entity can enjoy or suffer according to his past deeds. The Lord is the cause of all the manifestations of living entities in this material world.