The Eternal And The Non-eternal

The Eternal and the Non-eternal I don't know how all of this got started, but because of my desire to chant the entire Bhagavad Gita (I would still the pleasure of the company of other good souls - Satsanga), I started reading the Introduction to The Bhagavad Gita As it Is, by Srila Prabhupada, this morning. I don't believe I have read the Introduction earlier, at least not in its entirety like I did today. There are many important points made by Srila Prabhupada in his introduction. One has to have complete proficiency and mastery of the subject to be able to write such an introduction. I just like to share with you one of the many important points made by Srila Prabhupada, which made an impression on me today. (There are others for sure and that will, hopefully, be the subject of subsequent emails at some future date.) The subject matter of The Bhagavad Gita entails the comprehension of five basic truths: Isavara (The Supreme Being), Jiva (the individual soul, or the living entity), Prakŗti (Material nature), Kala (eternal time) and Karma (activity). Of these, only karma is not eternal, everything else is eternal. The effects of karma may be very old indeed. We accumulate karma over many births (sanchita karma). Some of them start to bear desired fruits (which causes happiness), or manifest their undesirable effects (which causes pain and suffering) in this birth. These are the Prarbadha karmas. We cannot change these. However, what is within our control and can be changed are Agami karmas, or karmas that have still have not started to bear fruits or manifest themselves in a manner that causes pain and suffering. At least in Kaliyuga, namasankirtanam is the recommended way to destroy the karma baggage that we have. Indeed, according to the story of Ajamila (Ajamilopakyanam, found in Srimad Bhagavatam), it is not necessary to even chant the entire nama, like Rama, Krishna, or Narayana. It is sufficient just to chant the padas of the nama: like "Ra" in Rama, or "Na" in Narayana. Even the chanting of the namapada, either intentionally or unintentionally, will burn our karmas, or papa sangraha, as mentioned the story of Ajamila. (So, even if Mahatma Gandhi had just said, "Ra", when he was shot, instead of "Hey Ram", he was liberated. Some of his detractors like to point out that he never said, "Hey Ram", just made a sound!) Ajamila, a Brahmin by birth. a great devotee and a great Vedic scholar in earlier janmas, got enamoured by a prostitute, abandoned his family and lived a sinful life with her and had 10 children, the youngest of whom he had named Narayana. Although, he lived a sinful life when the time of death approached, he very affectionately called for his son and started saying, "Narayana, Naraayana,.." While he had no intention of thinking of The Supreme Lord and was also thinking of his son, when the Yamadhootas came to take him away, they were stopped by Vishnudhootas who had come to take him to Vaikuntaloka. The Yamadhootas were perplexed and challenged the Vishnudhootas, who explained to them who Ajamila really was and why he was to be liberated and taken to Vaikuntaloka. Then the Yamadhootas went to their master, Yamaraja (also called Kala) and told him that they had been stopped by Vishnudhootas in performing their duty. Lord Yama said that he was very happy to hear that an offense had not been committed against the Vishnudhootas, which would be offense against The Supreme Lord Himself. He then again explains to them the great significance of "namapada". Just like the fire burns every object with which it comes in contact, regardless of the intent of the object that makes content with the fire (you might just want to "warm" your hand, but if you come too close to fire, you will get burnt), engaging even in the act of just "namapada uchharanam" will burn your karmas and destroy your sins. Ajamila was therefore absolved of all his sins accumulated in his life.

Karma is the only thing that is not eternal. Everything else is eternal, even time. In Sanskrit, the word Kala has two meanings: time and death. Kala is eternal, means time is eternal, or death is eternal. Everyone and everything that is born will face death. Even the entire Prakrti will disappear sometime, but it will appear again. The disappearance of Prakrti (material nature, or the material Universe) does not mean it is temporary or Maya. It is bound to appear again, and Prakrti is therefore eternal. According to modern physics, this Universe was created in a Big Bang. Why or how did this Big Bang occur? What was there before the Big Bang? Physics cannot answer these two questions. Modern physics also tells us that it is conceivable that the Universe (which is supposed to be expanding) will collapse back on to itself and start shrinking. Physicists are still carrying out observations to verify what is the ultimate fate of the universe. Will it just keep expanding? Or, will it collapse back on to itself? They still do not know. What if it collapses back on to itself? What then? Everything will disappear and become non-existent. Our scriptures call this the end of one day of Brahma (or kalpa), after which creation starts once again! So, Prakrti is eternal, even if it seems to disappear at times. (This is the main confusion of Mayavadis, Jagat mitya, the Universe is false, according to Srila Prabuhpada. This is my interpretation of Prabhupada's arguments against Advaita philosophy of Adi Sankara.) Time is also eternal. Even if do not comprehend the theory of relativity (even many physicists do not understand it, according to a story told by the Nobel laureate Chandrasekhar, there were only two or three people who understand Einstein, even in Einstein's days: Einstein, the astronomer Eddington, who did the famous light bending experiment to confirm Einstein's theory, and may be one other person. To which Eddington famously asked, "Who is the 3rd person?"), this statement tells us that time is a concept hardly understood by physicists. Newton talks about both Absolute Space and Absolute Time in his Principia, before he develops his theory of gravitation. This is worth reading. (Absolute can also be interpreted as eternal.) Today, more than ever, I am more convinced that Newton's view of Absolute Time has greater merit than the now widely accepted relativistic viewpoint of time. Essentially, Einstein argues that since the speed of light is the same for all observers, regardless of their state of motion, time must be relative and have different meanings for different observers. The clocks carried by an observer moving close to the speed of light will tick more slowly than the clock held by an observer like us (who are also moving observers, we are moving with the earth). However, a realized soul, can travel to all higher lokas, beyond the comprehension of modern physicists. Such travel occurs instantly, at higher than the speed of light! This topic is obviously beyond the level of our present discussion. The main point here is that of the five topics covered by The Bhagavad Gita, only karma is not eternal. Everything else is eternal, including time, or kala, or is it death, or kala. Very sincerely V. Laxmanan Posted December 11, 2008 Email: [email protected]