Krishjan

Chapter 5 — Fifth Chapter

Shvetashvatara

14 Shloka • Translation Only

In the Supreme, Infinite Brahman are hidden two principles—knowledge (vidyā) and ignorance (avidyā). Ignorance is perishable, while knowledge is immortal. But He who rules over both knowledge and ignorance is another, distinct from them.

He alone presides over every source of birth (yoni) and over all forms that arise from them. He is the One who governs all wombs and all manifestations. He who, in the beginning, brought forth the sage Kapila and endowed him with knowledge—may one behold that Divine Being, who is present even as creation comes into being.

This Divine Being unfolds the one net into many forms within this field (of creation) and again withdraws them into Himself. Thereafter, creating them once more, that Lord, the Great Self, exercises sovereignty over all and all rulers.

As the blazing fire illuminates all directions—above, below, and across—so does that one Divine Lord, the Blessed and Most Excellent Being, shine forth. He alone presides over and governs the various sources and natures of all beings.

He, the Source of the universe, who causes Nature (svabhāva) to evolve and transforms all things that are subject to change; He alone presides over this entire universe and assigns and directs all the guṇas (qualities and forces of Nature).

That Reality, hidden in the secret teachings of the Upanishads, is known by Brahmā, the source of sacred knowledge. Those ancient gods and sages who realized that Truth became one with It and indeed attained immortality.

Associated with the guṇas, he becomes the doer of actions that produce their results; and he alone experiences the fruits of those actions. Assuming various forms throughout the universe, connected with the three guṇas and moving along the three paths, the lord of the life-forces wanders according to his own karma.

The individual self is said to be of the size of a thumb and radiant like the sun. It is associated with resolve (saṅkalpa) and ego-consciousness (ahaṅkāra). Through the qualities of the intellect and its own attributes, it is also perceived as being as subtle as the tip of a goad (or the point of a hair).

Know the individual soul (jīva) to be as subtle as one part of a hundredth part of the tip of a hair, and that again divided a hundredfold. Yet that very soul is capable of attaining infinitude.

This Self is neither female, nor male, nor indeed neuter. Whatever body it assumes, with that body it becomes associated.

Through desires and intentions, through contact, perception, and delusion, and through the intake of food, water, and nourishment, the embodied being grows and is born. In accordance with its karma, the embodied self successively assumes various forms and conditions of existence.

The embodied self (dehī) assumes many forms, both gross and subtle, according to its own qualities. Yet another (the Supreme) is seen as the cause of the union of these forms with the qualities of action and the qualities of the self.

Knowing that Divine Being—beginningless and endless, dwelling amidst the cosmic complexity, the creator of the universe, manifesting in many forms, and the One who encompasses and surrounds the entire universe—a person is freed from all bonds.

Those who know that Divine Reality—grasped through inner realization, without any material support or abode, the source of both manifestation and dissolution, the auspicious One (Śiva), and the creator of the cosmic powers and their unfoldment—cast off the body (and become liberated).