Gurudev Ravi Shankarji speaks on Tattva-jnana (Bhagvad Gita Discourse)
So Lord Krishna says that out of millions of people, very few will walk the spiritual path, and of those few who follow the spiritual path, fewer still are able to realize Me and know Me completely by my true form (Tattva).
The rest of the people come, just listen and go away without grasping anything. Only a few rare people are actually able to know Me by My true nature (Tattva-jnana: here meaning knowledge of the deepest principle or element).
This is a great secret. And what is the Tattva that He is speaking about here? He explains this in the fourth verse: ‘Bhumir apo 'nalo vayuh kham mano buddhir eva cha. Ahamkara itiyam me bhinna prakrtir ashtadha’. (7.4)
He says, ‘Do you think I am only this physical body? No! I am Earth, I am Water, I am Fire, I am Air and I am Space. I am the Mind, Intellect and the Ego. These are the eight types of energies, that is me, and I call these my Apara-prakruti (eight types of nature or modes of expression of the Divine in the materialistic realm). I am all eight of these. I am present in every particle of this Earth, and in every molecule of water.
Water is present everywhere – in the Earth, in the sky, in the air and in the sea; it is everywhere.
Do you know, 60% of your body is composed of water? So all these people sitting here today are nothing but many litres of water (laughter).
If you weigh 60 kg, then nearly 36 kg of your body weight is nothing but water. So each person is like an earthen pot, filled with water. Similarly, 15% of your body is made up of the air element. Your body also has the earth element and all these are bound together by the fire element, and that is where body heat comes from. So there is heat in the body due to the fire element.
Then, Lord Krishna also says, ‘I am the mind, intellect and the ego’.
Many times people come to me and say, ‘Gurudev, I want to get rid of my ego’.
What is it that you want to get rid of? Ego too is a form of God, so just let it be there. The ego seated deep within you is also a form of the Divinity.
He says, ‘All these eight types of nature are present within you, and they ar
e all nothing but different forms of Me’, this is what Lord Krishna says to Arjuna. You are not your mind. You are not your intellect. You are not your ego. So what remains then?
In the next verse He says: ‘Apareyam itas tva anyam prakrtim viddhi me param. Jiva-bhutam maha-baho yayedam dharyate jagat’. (7.5)
Besides these eight types of nature which are collectively called the Apara-prakruti (Apara means that which is related to the material world), there is another Prakruti (energy) which is much higher, called the Para-prakruti. Everything in creation is upheld by this Para-prakruti.
That which has taken all the form that you see in the world; that which is the cause of all that is happening in the world, the reason behind the Sun shining and the Moon rotating is the Para-prakruti. It is the primary cause behind all that is happening in the material creation.
So Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, ‘In the absence of the which, no living creature or human being, neither the Earth, the Universe nor this entire creation can exist; that Tattva, i.e., the Para-prakruti is me. That which cannot be seen, yet it is, and is the basis of everything that exists, that Para-prakruti is me, and this is what you should know’.
The entire creation rests upon this Para-prakruti, which scientists today call the Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
Scientists today say that the Sun is round like a sphere only because there is tremendous amounts of pressure of energy from all sides. And the energy in this empty space around the Sun is much more powerful than the Sun itself. It is just like how you see a bubble inside a bottle of water. Why is the bubble round in shape? It is because the water around it is exerting pressure from all sides.
That is why, any object that appear round in shape, is only because of the pressure of the energy present in the empty space (which is unseen) around the object, and which is a 1000 times more powerful than the object itself.
All this empty space that you see here, is not actually empty. It is full of energy which is called Dark Energy and Dark Matter.
It is said, ‘That which is unseen is true’. This is because all that you can see, is a very small part of what actual is.
All the stars and planets that you see in the sky are very small compared to the invisible energy in the empty space around them, which is much more powerful than the stars themselves. So this is what scientists today have spoken about, and the same thing was told by Lord Krishna.
He says, ‘I am that Para-prakruti that holds the entire creation, and which this creation rests upon’.
So Lord Krishna is that Dark Energy that scientists today refer to. The word Krishna also means dark in colour.
That which cannot be seen is the basis of everything, and that which we can see is actually nothing! (Laughter)
Whatever we can see – the trees, the flowers – are a very small part of what is. It is the manifestation of the Apara-prakruti. But this Apara-prakruti is contained within the Para-prakruti that cannot be seen. So Lord Krishna says both these things.
For example, you cannot see the consciousness that is present within you. But you can perceive the projection of your consciousness in the form of your mind, intellect and the ego. Isn’t it?
So this is what Lord Krishna means when He speaks of Tattva-jnana: (knowing the creation in terms of its underlying principle or Tattva, i.e., the Divinity).
The speciality of Indian spirituality is that it has never dismissed science. In fact science has always been given equal importance in Indian spirituality.
This is why it is said, ‘Tattva-jnana’, first understand this creation as the manifestation of the five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. By understanding this knowledge (Apara-prakruti), you can then understand the higher knowledge of the Para-prakruti. This is what Tattva-jnana is.
Even God has been identified as a Tattva or a fundamental principle. That is why Indian spirituality is a combination of spiritual knowledge and scientific principles.
