The ultimate God who is without a beginning and end is said to be neither a being nor a non-being, because so long as he is removed he is an entity, but who can say what he is when a worshiper-a-sage-is assimilated in him?

Lord Krishn sings:

“I shall discourse to you well upon the God
without a beginning or end,
who is worthy of being known and after knowing whom
the stuff of immortality is gained and who is said to be
neither a being nor a non-being.”

Now there is only a single entity and the consciousness of otherness is obliterated. In such a state God is neither an entity nor a non-entity; he is only that which is spontaneously perceived. Lord Krishn now elaborates the ways of this great Soul:

“He has hands and feet, eyes, heads, mouths,
and ears on all sides, because he exists pervading all in the world.”

“Knowing the objects of all senses he is yet without senses;
unattached to and beyond the properties of nature
he is yet the sustainer of all; and he is also the one into whom
all the properties merge.”

Devoid of senses, unattached, and beyond the properties of matter, he yet sustains all and is the enjoyer of all properties. As Lord Krishn has said before, he is the enjoyer of all yagya and penances. All the three properties are thus dissolved in him at last.

Lord Krishn adds:

“Existing in all animate and inanimate beings,
he is both animate and inanimate;
he is also unmanifest because he is so subtle,
and both distant and close.”

He is all-pervading, both animate and inanimate, imperceptible because of his fineness, beyond knowing by the mind and the senses, and both close and far away.

“The Supreme Spirit who is worth knowing,
and who appears to be different in different beings
although he is one and undivided, is the begetter,
sustainer, and destroyer of all beings.”

Both external and inner phenomena have been indicated here: for instance, external birth and inner awakening, external sustenance and inner adherence to the beneficial yog, external change of body and inner dissolution of all, that is, the disintegration of the causes that lead to the generation of beings, and along with this dissolution-access to the identitical God. These are all attributes of that Supreme Being.

Lord Krishn sings:

“The light among lights and said to be beyond darkness,
that God, the embodiment of knowledge, worthy of being known,
and attainable only through knowledge, dwells in the hearts of all.”

The awareness that comes with intuitive perception is knowledge. And by this knowledge alone can there be realization of God. He dwells in the hearts of all; the heart is his dwelling and we cannot find him if we search for him anywhere else. Therefore, it is laid down by the canon that God can be attained only through inner contemplation and conduct of yog.

“Knowing the truth of what has been briefly said of kshetr,
knowledge, and of God, who ought to be known,
my devotee attains to my state.”

Lord Krishn now makes use of the terms “nature” (prakriti) and “Soul” (purush) for what he earlier described as kshetr and kshetragya.

“Be it known to you that both nature and Soul are without
beginning and end, and also that maladies such as attachment,
revulsion, and all the objects that are possessed
of the three properties are born from nature.”

“Whereas nature is said to be the begetter of deed and doer,
the Soul is said to be begetter of the experience of pleasure and pain.”

Nature is said to generate deed and the agent by whom a deed is accomplished. Discrimination and renunciation are the doers of good, while passion and anger are the doers of evil deeds. On the contrary, the Soul engenders feelings of pleasure and pain.

Will man always continue to suffer, we may well ask, or will he also ever be rid of it? How can one be liberated from nature and Soul when both of them are eternal?

Lord Krishn answers:

“The nature-based Soul experiences nature-born objects
which are characterized by the three properties
and it is association with these properties
that is the cause of his birth in higher or lower forms.”

That means that liberation from birth and death is to be had only after the cessation of the properties of nature which prompt them.

~Revered Gurudev Swami Adgadanand Jee Paramhans~
©

_/l\_
Humble Wishes.
~mrityunjayanand~