Friday 15 January 2021

Necessary Krishna

 Sometimes you will be told that Bhagavad.Gita VII.12 contains a contradiction when placed alongside directly previous verses:

“These things that indeed are made of (the quality of) sattva, and those things that are made of (the quality of) rajas and tamas,  know them to have sprung from Me alone.  However, I am not in them; they are in Me.”

From verse 5 on Krishna has been declaring that  he is the origin of the universe... “All this is strung on Me like pearls on a string”..... the sound in space, and manhood in men....the intellect of the intelligent and the courage of the courageous.  God it would appear in some readings is in ‘the intelligent’ etc.

Shankaracarya’s commentary clarifies:

Although they (the gunas i.e. sattva, rajas, tamas) originate from Me, still, however I am not in them - I am not subject to them, not under their control, as are the transmigrating beings.  They again are in Me, subject to Me, under My control.”

There is a continuity of being between God/Krishna/Isvara and the world by the non-difference of cause and effect (satkaryavada) yet God is a necessary being and the world is contingent being.

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