Bhoomirâpo’nalo vâyuh, kham mano buddhireva ca
Ahankâra iteeyam me bhinnâ prakrtirastadhâ
Apareyamitastvanyâm prakrtim viddhi me parâm
jeevabhootâm mahâbâho yayedan dhâryate jagat” (Gita 7:4-5)
God says – “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, – these constitute My
nature – five elements (prakriti) and mind, intellect, ego in this
manner a total of eightfold divided is my My lower (insentient)
nature; And O mighty armed, in this manner, apart from my lower
nature, but different from it, the life-element (Jeev), is My higher
(sentient) nature – by which this Universe is sustained. (Gita 7:4-
5)
Commentary – When that consciousness element (Self), gets
identified with the “ego” and assumes identity and oneness with it,
then it is called “Para-prakriti” (Higher nature). Both the world
(apara) and the embodied soul, (jeev, para) – are part of God’s
(Bhagwân’s) innate nature, in other words, divine potency (energy).
Without the powerful, the power has no independent existence. Just
like nail and hair, inspite of being lifeless, are not separate from
from the body, similarly the lower nature (apara prakrti) inspite of
being inert, is not separate from Supreme Consciousness (Paramatma).
That is both lower and higher nature – being a manifestation (form)
of Bhagwân are there. There is absolutely nothing else
remaining !
It is only the embodied soul that has taken on this world. The
point is that neither is the world in the eyes of God, nor in the
eyes of a great Soul, rather it is only in the eyes of the embodied
soul (Jeev). It is only this embodied soul (Jeev), that has taken
and sustained this world and by giving it significance and a
reality, caused kinship with it, which lead to bondage of birth and
death.
From this earth all the way to ego, everything is inert lower
nature. Just like earth, water, fire, etc. are to be known,
similarly this ego is also to be known. This embodied soul (Jeev)
by identifying with ego, begins to believe himself to be “I am”. In
this the “I” is lower nature and “am” is higher nature. On
servering relations with ego, the “I” becomes non-existent and “am”
becomes one with existence in the form of “Is-ness” – this itself is
Moksha (release from rebirth in the world).
On assuming ego, the embodied soul (jeev) takes on the entire lower
nature. “I am” – keeping this pride and egoism itself is assuming
and taking on the entire lower nature. If that “I” becomes free of
egoism, rather by not having pride, if that pure “I-ness” of the
lower nature remains, then it will not be the kind that will lead to
bondage; just as earth, water, fire, etc. are never cause of
bondage.
From “Gita Prabodhani” in Hindi by Swami Ramsukhdasji,(Gita 7:4-5)
