Continuing Chapters 7 & 8

So, I've said that, for me, the crux of these two chapters is that they set about directly addressing the ultimate question: What is the one thing we can know that will give us ultimate knowledge?

In chapter 7, Krishna speaks as an embodiment of that answer. Krishna is speaking as God if you like. Or if you prefer, he is speaking as a manifestation of Universal Consciousness. He is acting as the very voice of the Theory of Everything. And he is trying to convey the essence of his nature:

8. I am the taste of living waters and the light of the sun and the moon.  I am OM the sacred word of the Vedas, sound in silence, heroism in men.
9. A am the pure fragrance that comes from the earth and the brightness of fire I am. I am the life of all living beings, and the austere life of those who train their souls.
10. And I am from everlasting the seed of eternal life. I am the intelligence of the intelligent. I am the beauty of the beautiful.
11. I am the power of those who are strong, when this power is free from passions and selfish desires. I am desire when this is pure, when this desire is not against righteousness.

These are the ways in which Krishna is expressing that 'He', as the manifestation of the Ultimate, is the very 'isness' of all things. He is the very essence, the very nature - the most fundamental cause and manifestation - of all things. He is Brahman, he is that upon which existence is founded, he is the Theory of Everything.

Again, I find it interesting to muse that in science, we don't say that the fundamental forces are 'in' the universe, or that the fundamental particles are 'part' of the universe. Instead, these are what the universe is. My body is made of cells, the cells of atoms, the atoms of protons, neutrons and electrons, the protons and neutrons are made of quarks. The quarks may be made of tiny strings. These are not artificial. Science hasn't made them. Instead they are each a step closer to the fundamental nature of all reality.

The Rishis, though, say that the fundamental nature of all reality is Sat Chit Ananda - Existence Consciousness Bliss.

The fundamental nature of reality is 'existence-consciousness-bliss'.

Remember I talked about emergence in the last post? About how something seemingly complex appears to emerge from something simple. This desk I am sitting on is cluttered with books, papers, keyboards, monitors, a tin of pepsi. But that complexity is just an illusion. It's all just atoms. 'Book' is just a concept we invent to describe a particular configuration of atoms. It's not really a book, that's just a feature that emerges from the underlying atoms.

They're not really atoms. Atoms are not real. Atoms are just a feature that emerge from the underlying protons, neutrons and electrons.

They're not really protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are not real. They are just a feature that emerges from the underlying quarks (called Truth, Beauty and Charm).

They are not really quarks. Quarks are not real. Quarks are just a feature that emerges from the underlying strings.

They are not really strings. Strings are not real. Strings are just a feature that emerges from the underlying Consciousness.

This is stated again in the next verse:

12. And know that the three Gunas come from me...But I am not in them: they are in me.

And to continue:

13. How the whole world is under the delusion of these shadows of the soul, and knows not me though forever I am!
14. My mysterious cloud of appearance is hard to pass beyond; but those who in truth come to Me go beyond the world of shadows.

So, the Gunas, the Yogic aspects of nature are in Krishna, not He in them. I've often heard it said that 'there is no room in science for God', and Krishna here is saying just that! Science - the natural world - does not contain 'God' or the ultimate reality. Rather, God contains all else. There is no room in science for God. But certainly, there is room in God for science!

The whole world is under the delusion of these shadows of the soul. By 'shadows', I understand 'things which have appearance but no real substance', and by this I understand protons and atoms etc. These are not 'real' things, these are 'shadows of the soul', or 'things manifested from the underlying consciousness'. The whole world is existing in the belief that manifest nature is the ultimate reality.

The 'mysterious cloud of appearance' is exactly the same. Another term describing the manifest world as something fleeting, and ultimately unreal. Again for 'world of shadows'.

So, 'those...who come to Me' go beyond the world of shadows. Remember Krishna is speaking as a manifestation of the Ultimate ExistenceConsciousnessBliss, and so when he says 'comes to Me', he means someone who has direct conscious experience of that ultimate Consciousness which is the fundamental basis of all existence. On having that experience, one 'goes beyond' normal existence. Again this emphasises that the ultimate reality is beyond this manifest world, and is of the nature of pure Consciousness.

For someone who loves science, and has for my whole life felt a strong pull to both God and Science, this is tremendously exciting. This means that finding the Grand Unified Theory, or the Theory of Everything is not an objective, detached experience. Rather, the ultimate answer to the question of the Theory of Everything is experiential: the only way to find the answer is to become the answer. Imagine that! Even better than being awed and moved at an incredibly beautiful set of field equations: you can actually be the answer to the ultimate question. You can have your existence as the conscious manifestation of the ultimate answer to the ultimate question!

Now that's got to be worth striving for!