Live Session - Pragmatic Gita - Chapter 8, Shlokas 19 to 28, Vancouver, BC

Concluding shlokas of the 8th chapter.

Shri Krishna provides deep technical details about the soul's journey after our death and how we can manage it well. Revisiting concepts like sthul sharir, sukshma sharir and karana sharir and the absolute brahman, the cycle of manifesting and unmanifesting, etc.

Manifestation through the unmanifested

In the previous verses we discussed how even Brahma is born and will die. We also discussed that Brahma’s one day and one night equals 8.64 billion earth years. When Brahma’s day ends, all living entities get unmanifest and stay in the body of Maha Vishnu. Their gross (sthūl) and subtle (sūkṣhma) body dissolve, but their causal body (kāraṇ sharīr) stays. When Brahma’s night ends and day starts, these souls are reborn or manifest again based on their past karmas and past sanskāras, which the soul’s causal body stores and carries with it.

This is another reminder that our sanskāras and karmic account follows us during all our births. They do not get destroyed even when our subtle bodies are destroyed as they are attached to our causal bodies which don't get destroyed until we get liberated and get united with God.

Shri Krishna uses the word avaśhaḥ, which means helpless or without any say. What that means is that when it is time for us to get unmanifest at the end of Brahma’s day, it happens without our consent, regardless of whether we want or don’t want to. This should help us understand how we are all under the control of Prakriti. We may think that we have free will however that is only a very limited freedom. We are all bound by the laws of the Universe and there is no escaping that.

It is important to realize that everything that is manifested was unmanifested at some time and will again become unmanifested at some time in the future. This is what is contained in the Vedantic concept that creation is merely the manifestation of the unmanifest.