"We are happy to present before our readers the first volume of a three--volume work, Universal Message of the Bhagavad Gita---a verse by verse exposition of the Gita by Swami Ranganathanandaji, President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. This commentary was originally given as a series of Sunday discourse, from 1988 to 1990, at the 1200 capacity Vivekananda Hall of the Ramakrishna Math, Hydrabad (India), and it regularly drew an overflow audience consisting of a cross-section of the city population, including many youths.

These lectures, delivered extempore, were recorded, and the audio and video cassettes have reached homes. in various parts of India and abroad. The nature of the subject as well as its treatment by the speaker and his method of delivery, invariably held the attention and sustained the interest and enthusiasm of a large and varied audience
. . . ."

--From the Preface of Universal Message of the Bhagavad-Gita, Vol. 1, by Swami Ranganathananda, published July, 2000, by Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, India.

To order this three-volume set, please visit or contact the Vedanta Center nearest you.

Bahirantasca bhutanam acaram carameva ca;
Suksmatvat tadavijneyam durastham cantike ca tat---13.15

'Without and within (all) beings; the unmoving and also the moving; because of Its subtlety, It is incomprehensible; It is far and It is also near.'---13-15.

Bahirantasca bhutanam,' it is inside everything; it is outside everything.' This Atman is both inside and outside everything. How can a thing be both inside and outside everything? Ordinary things cannot be so. They are all spatially limited things. But this is not spatially limited. It can be anywhere; it can be here, it can be there. One famous nuclear physicist was describing the behaviour of an electron. An electron circling around the nucleus of an atom, changes its location. When it is hot, it goes in one direction; when it is cold, it goes in another direction. So, the electron changes its orbit. Now, when you say an electron changes.its orbit, you are talking of the electron being like any other material object. But it is not so in the case of an electron. The electron disappears from one orbit and suddenly appears in the other without passing through the intervening space, says the physicist. These are all very strange utterances. But today's science is full of such strange utterances.

And the great sages of India, with their highly subtle minds, came across this experience when they dealt with that ulfimate Reality. Bahirantasca bhutanam, 'the Atman is both inside and outside of all beings'. Acaram, 'it doesn't move'; caram eva ca, 'it also moves'. See the language. This is taken from the Isa Upanisad. While dealing with the Atman, the Isa Upanisad says, tat ejati, tat na ejati, 'It moves or functions, It doesn't move or It is stationary'; ejati means kampana, 'to move'; all action is an ejana, 'movernent'. A small movement is going on; that is called ejr kampane; kampana means this kind of small movement. We have both in nature---movement and also absence of movement. And so, in this case, this Atman moves, tat ejati; It moves or else the universe cannot function. All these are similar ideas. Tat na ejati, 'It does not move'; when you study It, when you understand It as It really is, there is no movement at all. That is absolutely steady then; there is absolutely no movement. That is the nature of the Atman. It is much more subtle compared to an electron or a photon in behaviour. And so, It does not vibrate, and It vibrates. Then, tat dure, 'It is far away'; tat u antike, 'It is also the nearest of the near'. This is the language. God is far away, God is also very near to us. These are the experiences of all the rnystics---Christian, Sufi, Hindu. They have said the same thing. And physical scientists, dealing with the subtle dimensions of matter, are saying the same thing.

So, let us not think that our normal experience of the world is a standard for everything. Not at all. This is one aspect of Reality revealed by the senses and you try to understand it. But if you go deeper, it will be quite different. We are dealing with extremely subtle aspects of reality in nuclear science; and when you come to Vedanta, we are dealing with the subtlest aspect of Reality. There can be nothing more subtle.

Acaram caram eva ca. Cara means 'to move'. Acara means 'no movement'. So, this Atman is both moving and unmoving. Then comes a wonderful idea. Suksmatvat tat avijneyam, 'because It is extremely subtle, It is not knowable'. Suksma means 'subtle'. It is avijneyam, 'not knowable'; you cannot know It. Durastham, 'It is far away'; ca antike ca tat, 'and It is also the nearest of the near'.

These are the statements which the Upanisads made ages ago, which today the scientific mind is able to appreciate because they are coming across such experiences in their physics also. Professor Fritjof Capra, the author of The Tao of Physics, refers to an interview with Werner Heisenberg in his third book Uncommon Wisdom (pp. 42-43). Heisenberg is the discoverer of the 'Uncertainty Principle' in modem physics---a very revolutionary discovery, where the principle of causality doesn't apply. Till now we studied the world entirely based on causality. The Newtonian physics was based entirely on causality. Cause and effect are non-different. Therefore, we can understand things. But Heisenberg came across this Principle of Uncertainty. In the behaviour of a nuclear particle, you can either determine its position or its velocity, but not both. And without both, you cannot predict its trajectory. That is the language. If you know its position, its velocity will be uncertain, and then, also the reverse. He didn't immediately publish it. In his conversation with Capra, Heisenberg stated his findings and said, when I discovered it, I found it to be a crazy idea. I didn't want to publish it immediately. Then comes a wonderful statement. Prof. Capra says (Uncommon Wisdom, pp. 42-43):

In 1929, Heisenberg spent some time in India as the guest of the celebrated poet Rabindranath Tagore with whom he had long conversations about science and Indian philosophy. This introduction to Indian thought brought Heisenberg great comfort, he told me. . . . After these conversations with Tagore, he [Heisenberg] said, some of the ideas that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense. That was a great help for me [Heisenberg].'

Just see the beauty of it ! And, therefore, when he returned to the West, he decided to publish this 'crazy idea of the principle of indeterminacy!' In this way, as we go deeper, we come across subtle and more subtle realities. At the end of this comes the subtlest Reality, the Atman. That truth is slowly dawning on the thinking minds of the West. 'Subtler than the subtlest' is the expression used in the Upanisads about the Atman. The Katha Upanisad says (I. ii. 20):

Anoraniyan mahato mahiyan;
atmasya jantoh nihito guhayam ---

What a wonderful verse is this! In the West, when they listen to these things, when they hear someone expounding these things, they become really fascinated. The case of those whose minds are fully prejudiced is different. A scientific mind is an open mind. All open minds are fascinated by these descriptions. The Atman is anoraniyan, 'smaller than an atom'. mahato mahiyan, 'greater than the whole universe'; atma asya jantoh nihito guhayam, 'that Atman is hidden in the heart of this jantu, this ordinary creature'. What wonderful depth one finds there! Such books are not to be studied like any ordinary type of books. They are telling us of something very profound and yet it is experiential. The ancient sages experienced it; and we all also can experience these subtle truths.

So, Sri Krishna says, Suksmatvat tat avijneyam, 'because It is extremely subtle, It is not subject to knowledge, It cannot be known'. Jneyam means 'a thing that can be known'. Vijneyam means visesatah jneyam, 'specially knowing. Avijneyam means 'impossible to know' in any way. Durasthanm,'it is far away'; ca antike ca tat, 'it is also near'. Far as well as near! How can the same thing be far as well as near? That is why the word 'crazy' comes there. From the logical point of view, these are all crazy ideas. There is one principle in logic---a very important principle---which says that a thing cannot have two contradictory natures at the same time. A thing cannot also be its opposite. It can be only this or that; not both at the same time. But, when you come to this subtlest dimension of Reality, logic breaks down. That has been said in the Upanisads, in the Brahma-sutra-bhasya. Logic breaks down at the deepest level of experience. Logic takes causality as an important principle, but it breaks down when Heisenberg deals with the most minute particles of nuclear physics. We understand cause and effect; all our sensory knowledge is based on cause and effect. But here, in dealing with subtle things, cause-effect relation breaks down. That is an important point. That is why, in all spiritual experience, you go beyond logic, beyond intellectualism.

This is how the present sloka [verse] of this chapter puts it: durastham cantike ca tat, 'It is both far as well as near'. It is good to know how these ideas are expressed by some of the world's mystics---Christian mystics and equally so Sufi mystics. And because they experienced these 'crazy' things and uttered them which were too high to grasp, the orthodox Muslims killed them; orthodox Christian church also tried to kill them. If Heisenberg had been a religious man, he would have been killed. He was a scientist, and therefore, nobody troubled him. In dogmatic religion, unfortunately, there is the fixed track; one should go only on that track. That is the rule---except in India. In India, we can have all such 'extremely crazy' experiences; we have got a mind to receive them. We know that the deeper you go to Reality, the more crazy aspects will appear. We know it very well. That is why we don't kill mystics in India. We revere them; but some Christian and several Sufi mystics were not revered by orthodox Muslims and were killed. There is a very famous book by Evelyn Underhill on mysticism. She quotes one Christian mystic Suso: 'That nameless something which is great enough to be me'. Here you are in the midst of highly paradoxical language. We think that this sensory level is the region of greatest joy. The knowledge, the joy, the pleasure that we get at the sensory level are nothing compared to what is available beyond that level. That is the great statement of Vedanta. That is why some gifted people go in that direction. The human being alone can have spiritual experience; no animal can have it. They are tied down by the sensory system. We can detach ourselves from the sensory system. We have the power to do it, and then to experience something higher.

That is the great achievement of the sages of the Upanisads. They thoroughly investigated the whole gamut of ideas associated with this subject by personal enquiry and experience, and gave us a profound body of truths which we call sruti, and which is most authoritative because it is based on experience which you can re-experience yourself. That is its scientific strength and validity.

This is the sentence which I wish to specially mention here, because we are living in a very scientific age. Every day we are going toward more and more subtle dimensions of reality. Even in biology, in genetics, as we go deeper, we come across extremely subtle aspects of Reality. And God alone knows how many new discoveries will come within the next few decades when this subject of biology goes deep into living matter! I used to say, molecule is not a very subtle entity. Behind the molecule is the atom. Today's molecular biology has not gone to that atomic level. Suppose if one dives deeper to the atomic level in the field of biology, and then to its subatomic level where physics has gone, then what new discoveries will come out of such studies in biology! Many of these great truths of Vedanta will be reestablished through the parallel truths of physical science when these developments will take place in the coming decades. That is why Swami Vivekananda said (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol. 1, p. 15):

'. . . .the Hindu is only glad that what he has been cherishing in his bosom for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language, and with further light from the latest conclusions of science.

Vedanta has nothing to fear from physical science; it has everything to gain from science. What Vedanta thought to be true, science is proving it in a much more demonstrable form. That is the Indian attitude towards scientific discoveries. In the West, Christian theology never allowed science to proceed deeper and deeper; they tried to stop it, and even killed a few scientists. But truth is powerful; it has to become manifest; it has to be victorious, as our Mundaka Upanisads has said, Satyam eva jayate, 'truth alone triumphs'. So, a few well-tested truths of science could demolish the whole dogmas of Christian religion in the modern West. That is the Hindu's firm conviction. We want science, we want more science. We have tremendous new discoveries to make. And our sages have done it by their own experience. They have given us hints and suggestions. They will be re-strengthened by modem scientific discoveries. That is the great theme.

The next few verses are also equally beautiful, marvellous, and make us think deeply, so that a little vibration of the subtle elements of truth may come to us. That is the beauty of this chapter. In the earlier chapters, except in the seventh, we never had this kind of deep scientific presentation---the way it has been presented to us in this thirteenth chapter.

1. Universal Message of the Bhagavad-Gita -- Vols. 1-3
2. Vedanta and the Future of Mankind
3. Science and Religion
4. Swami Vivekananda: His Humanism
5. Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence
6. The Essence of Indian Culture
7. Christ We Adore
8. An Introduction to the Study of the Gita
9. The Message of Upanisads
10. Eternal Values for a Changing Society -- Vols. 1-4, and many others. . .

For more information contact: The Vedanta Society of New York.

To order any of these books contact the Vedanta Center nearest you.

Please check out our Lecture and Class Schedules.