B.G. 13.2 : Are the Scriputures Useless?

There may be a profound lack of interest for the student of advaita in the rather hypothetical conundrum: what is the point of the scriptures if they are surpassed by the state of liberation? Are they rendered vacuous? Hardly is the firm answer. The vast majority of people, sincere seekers though they be, are not realized. They flounder in a state of avidya or primal ignorance. They need a guide to action even if the perfection of that action, so to speak, ends in inaction there being no identification with the motions of the gunas or the persistent dispositions of the erstwhile agent.

“Similarly, in our case let the scriptures be useless when the knowers of the field become identified with God; and purposeful within the sphere of ignorance.” further: “Nor do the scriptures become purposeless, because the scriptures are applicable to the commonly known unenlightened person. It is indeed in the case of the ignorant person- not in the case of the enlightened one - that there occurs the perception of identity of the Self with the effect (i.e. enjoyership) and the cause (agentship) which are not-Self.”

What isn’t treated here is the ethical problem which is created by the Perfected ones being beyond good and evil. Can they commit what would be regarded as sin by normal ethical standards? Persuading others that they remain pure has been the practice of many false teachers in all traditions. Of course they are scoundrels who manipulate the gullible who also may be willing participants in an illusion.�

Bhagavad Gita: Bookend verses in Chapter 9

The Gita contains two what might be called bookend metaphysical verses which may seem to contradict each other when one is simply juxtaposed with the other. “

This whole world is pervaded gby Me in My unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I am not contained in them! (B.G. 9.4)

Pure Being as such is the reality behind all manifestation. We are in it and our awareness is saturated by it in a direct immediate way. Even so it cannot be perceived or intuited as we might grasp any other awareness. We have no direct intuition of being, or any experience of it as a ‘something’. At the same time it makes all experience possible. Etienne Gilson rejected the idea of an intuition of being as proposed by Jacques Maritain which seemed to suggest an experience of some kind. It may be that Maritain meant something akin to a universal realisation of connaturality, a major theme of his in his brilliant monograph on ‘Art and Scholasticism’.

 

Sankara in his commentary on the Gita:

“For, no created thing that is bereft of the Self (i.e. of Reality) can be conceived as an object of practical use. Therefore, being possessed of their reality through Me who am their Self, they exist in Me. Hence they are said to be established in Me.”

He further makes it clear that pure Being is not contained within the individual as its receptacle.

“Since unlike gross objects I am not in contact with anything, therefore I am not the inmost core even of space. For a thing that has no contact with anything cannot exist like something contained in a receptacle.”

The following verse 9.5 amplifies this point:

“Nor do the beings dwell in Me. Behold my divine Yoga! I am the sustainer and originator of beings, by My Self is not contained in the beings.”

The rest of Chapter 9 up to what I have been calling the bookend is the teaching of how to achieve realisation of pure being. Without that liberation however righteous a person might be they are reborn after a period of heavenly bliss.

B.G. 9.29: I am impartial towards all beings; to Me there is not detestable or none dear. But those who worship Me with devotion, they exist in Me, and I too exist in them.

Karma is the key to the endless round of transmigration. It simply means action. Strictly there is no such thing as good or bad karma, there is only karma. The salient aspect of work is that it is goal directed, we act towards an end. Surely it is impossible to get beyond that. We must have a plan or drift aimlessly. Renunciation is the answer. Even though we act the spring of action is subverted, grasping after a goal.

B.G. 9.27: O son of Kunti (Arjuna), whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer as a sacrifice, whatever you give and whatever austerities you undertake, (all) that you offer to Me. B.G. 9.28: Thus, you will become free from bondages in the form of actions which are productive of good and evil results. Having your mind imbued with the yoga of renunciation and becoming free, you will attain Me.

Karma being surpassed the boundaries and limitations of the individual are transcended and the erstwhile devotee becomes dissolved into the divine completely liberated and not any longer subject to reincarnation.