Sharanagati

Although I feel we are a little dry and theoretical, nevertheless I think it’s useful to try to see and analyze in this way in order to find another kind of beauty in the structure and the meaning of our holy scriptures. There are many, many different layers of reality. And it depend on our consciousness which level of that reality we can touch.

There is an ongoing debate or exchange of opinions in devotional circles who is telling the “Gita”. We should answer:  it’s a Song Divine, it is spoken by Supreme Lord Krishna. And that’s true, but which aspect of Krishna is telling it? Some say that Vasudeva Krishna is speaking – like a general conception about Krishna as the supreme intelligence. Others say that the “Gita” is spoken by Nandanandana Krishna. And if you study the text carefully, the general impression is that this is Vasudeva Krishna as He speaks from His divine position. But there are some hints, there are some hidden verses, where He reveals Himself, where He forgets about His position, He forgets about the divine teacher and simply like a mistake He reveals His real identity.

So these types of secrets we also have to find. But right now let’s return back to our analysis.

We are searching for an identity between the revelation and the sacred tradition, the unity, the harmony of shruti and smriti. One line is the shruti and we picked from the shruti the “Rig Vedam” and from the smriti we picked the “Bhagavad Gita”. We can say that all the revealed scriptures somehow describe the supreme and relative reality – the universe around. And one aspect of this universe that we have around is time and space. In the Vedic cosmology one does not exist without the other. Time starts when space starts to manifest. And this cosmic time circle will end at the time of the cosmic dissolution. We know that one aspect of this system is the space structure. Of course we have many different visions about how the cosmological order is prepared. We understand that there are three main categories like the lower planetary systems; the middle lokas[1]; and the upper, higher, heavenly planets. But basically we can accept that there are two major categories: one is the spiritual sky and the other is the material energy. You see the higher energy, the spiritual sky; and the lower, inferior type of energy, manifested as the material universe. So, if we want to find the key number of space – this is two: upper and lower. Please remember this core number – the two, this is for space.

And the other element of the cosmic structure is time. How many aspects, how many phases should we find for time? The cosmic cycle is in four different yugas[2] which revolve like spring, summer, autumn, winter and spring again. But basically as we perceive time, this is in three phases like past, present and future. From these phases actually there is only one really existing – this is the present moment. Because past has already passed, therefore it does not really exist, only some reflection, some memory is there. And the future is very insecure, very unsure, it’s also like a dream, but we can contribute to the future. So we can say that future is a latent reality, full of possibilities and something will manifest from that; while the past is a sub-latent reality, already exposed and expired. But we have the present moment and we should do something about our spiritual identity in this moment, right now. Nevertheless these three aspects are there, so if we want to find the key number for the time aspect – that is three. Please remember: two for space, three for time.

(to be continued)

[1] planets

[2] Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali