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| Bhagavadgíta,-अष्टमोऽध्यायः । अक्षरब्रह्मयोगः , (S.-1, Ch.-8, V.-3) |
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।अक्षरं ब्रह्म परमं स्वभावोऽध्यात्ममुच्यते ।भूतभावोद्भवकरो विसर्गः कर्मसंज्ञितः ॥ ८-३॥ |
śrībhagavānuvāca । akṣaraṃ brahma paramaṃ svabhāvo'dhyātmamucyate । bhūtabhāvodbhavakaro visargaḥ karmasaṃjñitaḥ ॥ 8-3॥ |
śrībhagavān - the Blessed Lord, the Blessed One. uvāca - he said, he spoke. akṣaraṃ - inseparable brahma - Brahman. paramam - supreme, highest. svabhāvo - one's own nature, inherent nature. Adhyātmam - Supreme Self, aggregation of elements of the individual personality. ucyate - it is said, it is called. bhūtabhāvo - state of being. udbhava - origin, existence, production. karas - making, causing, doing. visargas - creative power, sending forth, discharging. karma - action. saṃgjñitaḥ - known as, understood to be, called. |
The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna said: The Supreme, eternal, and imperishable
entity is Brahma. His eternal nature is called Adhyatma, and the immediate
cause of living entities having come into existence is called Karma. ||8-3||
This sutra is the answer by Krishna to the preceding questions from Arjuna. The word akṣaraṃ means immutable, unchangeable, in the sense that nothing can be taken away from it, it is without beginning and without end (eternal), it is always whole, it has not been caused by anything outside it or separate from it. This is difficult for us to grasp if we identify with the body, with its birth date and death date. Our fears and concerns prevent us from experiencing this kind of eternal wholeness, but it exists and can be accessed by human beings who are able to infer it. The very fact that we are able to grasp the existence of something as invisible as the air, for example, demonstrates that we are capable of this. For us, our deductions and inferences become more real than the sensory input we receive, and our inferences are very often incorrect. We can infer causal relationships incorrectly, for example.
The inherent nature, the Self of Brahma is eternal, and is called Adhyatma. Krishna then explains that the process of manifestation is called Karma, the making of all that exists.