"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.

'Sadrsam cestate svasyah prakrteh jnanavanapi;
Prakrtim yanti bhutani nigrahah kim karisyati'---3.33

'Even a wise person acts in accordance with his or her own
nature; beings follow nature; what suppression can do?'---3.33

The word prakriti has been used in several of these verses. We call it nature--the whole of nature outside, and the same nature within us also. The body--soul--mind complex is an evolution of the same material out of which the external nature has also evolved. That is the Vedantic teaching and that is also modern scientific teaching. So, nature is also within us, not merely outside. Our body, our sensory system, even our psyche, are all outposts of external nature in you and me. That nature exerts a great force within us. We are pulled down by that nature to live like an ordinary animal or beast; we must reckon with this nature. Sri Krishna says here, even a man of knowledge is impelled by nature within to act in particular ways: Sadrsam cestate svasyah, 'one's own nature dictates how one shall act', what conduct one shall adopt; prakriti or nature within us will dictate what we shall do, what we shall not do. Now that prakriti consists of the impulses of the sensory system to go out to the external world all the time, and the mind follows the senses and also goes after the sensory pleasures outside. And by doing so, we create another type of nature within us, namely, innate tendencies, what we call samaskara or vasanas, a beautiful scientific term in Vedantic psychology. We have these within the mind, below the conscious level, in the subconscious and unconscious mind of man, which is innate nature in its raw state. Everything is there and they try to come out, try to express themselves through our conscious mind; and, not only you and I, jnanavan api, 'even a person of knowledge', is dragged by these forces within. In spite of possessing knowledge, he or she is being pulled in a particular direction by these forces.

Vedanta wants people to understand what are these forces operating upon them? And Vedanta answers: there are two forces: external forces and internal forces. People neglect these internal forces. That is why they are in trouble. If we don't neglect this, and if we know how to handle these internal forces, then we can live a better and fuller life. That will be taught in the verses to follow. So, prakrter jnanavan api, 'even a jnani, one of knowledge, is carried away by the forces of nature' implanted within oneself. Prakrtim yanti bhutani, 'beings follow the impulsions of nature', nigrahah kim karisyati, 'what can mere suppression do?' You can't suppress these forces of nature. That is not the way. We have to educate them. As Sri Ramakrishna would say, 'give them a new direction', mode phiriye dao, that is this Bengali expression. A new direction ethical, moral, spiritual, you have to give to such impulses, and not suppress them. That is your own responsibility. When you try to do so, you need help. Then you turn to books like Gita and other spiritual books. They give you guidance in this matter. And so, it is a problem everybody has to face, human beings in particular. Animals are all controlled by nature, they don't protest against nature. You can see nature in its fullest expression in the animal.

But in a human being, that nature in its outer and inner forms, is there; the highest form of nature, the Atman. That something is the human source of freedom, the Atman manifesting through the body-mind complex as an urge for freedom: 'I want to take my life in my own hands and shape it, I don't want nature to shape it.' In this way, there is an element of freedom in every human child, which you won't find in any animal. Vedanta therefore calls this human system as cit-jada-granthi, a combination of cit and jada, that means consciousness and inert matter. These two are combined in the human system. What is inert matter, is what nature has implanted in us. What is consciousness, is also present within us in our 'higher nature', para prakrti; in evolution, it has found a higher manifestation in this human system. We are in a difficult situation. We would have no struggle in life, if that consciousness and its urge for freedom were not there, if only ordinary nature was there; we would then say 'yes' to every impulse. But, because that consciousness is there and it is tied to this nature, you revolt against it. All moral life, all culture, all civilization, comes out of that struggle. I want to assert my own true nature which is of the nature of pure consciousness. We are, says Vedanta, cit-jada-granthi, the knot of cit and jada, cit means 'consciousness', and jada means 'unconsciousness or inertness'. Nature is inert outside. That nature has implanted itself within us; when that is strong, we are carried away. Prakrter jnanavanapi, 'even a jnani is subject to this pressure'.

In the Devi Mahatmyam, that great book of bhakti to the Divine Mother, there is this sloka (verse):

Jnaninam api cetamsi devi bhagavati hi sa;
Balad akrsya mohaya mahamaya prayacchati---1-55

'That Divine Mother manifesting as Mahamaya,
that great delusion which is functioning in this world
of manifestation, drags away even the mind of a
jnani, person of knowledge, towards delusive life,
delusive action.'---1-55

And so we have to be careful. Everything is not easy within us. Human life is a struggle. The concept of human life as a struggle is a wonderful concept. Animals do not struggle to manifest themselves on a higher plane. We struggle. Their struggle is for mere survival, eating, drinking and mating; ours is not for mere survival; something within us is seeking expression and to dominate this body-mind complex. That is how we develop culture, we develop civilization: saying 'no' to nature, going beyond nature to some extent. Nature says: remain in sun and rain; the human being says, 'no', and builds a house. But even then, even a person of culture and civilization is subject to the pressures of nature. And we can see it in civilization everywhere. There is a deeper dimension to human life, not merely civilization. Civilization is only more of comfort, more of conveniences, more of gadgets. I sometimes quote a sentence from Disraeli, the British Prime Minister about a hundred years ago, who was a great scholar. There he says,'the European talks of progress because by the aid of a few scientific discoveries, he has constructed a society which mistakes comfort for civilization.' Because we are more comfortable, we are more civilized! That is not correct. There is something higher which we have to manifest. Comfortable life is not a truly civilized life. So, the verse says: Prakrtim yanti bhutani, 'beings follow impulsions of nature'. Most of what we are doing, are nothing but impulsions of nature, as I have said earlier quoting Carl Jung of Switzerland. In all these matters, what functions is just plain nature. But that is not the whole thing. There is such a thing as culture or personality development. There you are on your own ground. You are trying to manifest some dimension within you beyond the nature level. Out of that comes ethics, morality, and higher spiritual life.

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.

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