अव्यक्तोऽक्षर इत्युक्तस्तमाहु: परमां गतिम् |
यं प्राप्य न निवर्तन्ते तद्धाम परमं मम || 21||
avyakto ’kṣhara ityuktas tam āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim
yaṁ prāpya na nivartante tad dhāma paramaṁ mama
avyaktaḥ—unmanifest; akṣharaḥ—imperishable; iti—thus; uktaḥ—is said; tam—that; āhuḥ—is called; paramām—the supreme; gatim—destination; yam—which; prāpya—having reached; na—never; nivartante—come back; tat—that; dhāma—abode; paramam—the supreme; mama—My
Translation:
This Unmanifested is called the Imperishable; It is said to be the Ultimate Goal, from which those who reach It never come back. That is My Supreme Abode.
Commentary:
All the Vedas and Sastras declare that Paramatma, the Imperishable, is the highest state. Reaching it man does not return to the perishable body. There is no samsara again for the sage who attains the highest goal. Having lived in the world, it becomes clear that everything is vanishing like a dream. The child of today is the old man of tomorrow. Pleasures turn into pains. Joys lead to sorrow. Life ends in death. The whole scheme of existence is only a troubled dream. Time passes and death takes away all. Knowing this fully from experience the wise man is not at all interested in this child’s play. He has no relish for these insipid things. He knows that the dream life is utterly unbecoming of him, who has the eternal Self as his real Being. So he aims high, aims at Truth, aims at the lion rather than catch a jackal. So the Lord’s inspiring call to mankind is to give up the foolish little self, and ascend to him, and be one with him.
Reaching him, there is no re-birth. Why should man wish to be born in the cage of flesh? Is it to taste the ditch – water of several worldly pleasures again? Why does he crave for such wretched things when he is really the immortal bliss and blessedness. The man of Self-realisation rejects the body as a dirty tattered robe. He does not wish to wear it again. Immortality, bliss and blessedness, he enjoys when he attains the highest abode of the Lord.
After Totāpuri left Dakshineswar the Master determined to return to the nirvikalpa plane. He did so, and as a matter of fact, remained in that state, more or less, for six months. It is a puzzling period of his life, in one sense, since he was cared for not by Hriday or other relatives, nor by Mathur, nor the Brāhmaṇī (all of whom were, apparently, still at Dakshineswar), but by an unknown wandering sādhu, a sojourner at the temple garden. This monk somehow knew that this body, with its matted hair, flies entering mouth and nose, looking more dead than alive, needed to be preserved for the world. Sometimes he would beat that body with a short stick, when, finding a little external consciousness, he would force food into the Master’s mouth. ‘I was,’ says Ramakrishna, ‘in that state from which ordinary mortals never return. There was no consciousness at all of the coming of day and night. Calls of nature were perhaps answered unconsciously. Then after six months I heard the Mother’s command, “Remain in bhāvamukha for the spiritual enlightenment of men.”16 Twice before, he had heard this command (see Chap. II). Swami Saradananda devotes many pages to the explanation of this term. As we have said, it is a name for the general condition of a mystic’s mind which enables him on the one hand to experience the visions and ecstasies of the personal forms of God; and on the other, to leave the relative behind and plunge into the Absolute. This was to be Sri Ramakrishna’s condition for many years following. As already mentioned (in the Introduction) a devotee who saw him in 1874 testifies to his absorption in samādhi continuously for three days and nights. The Master said on many occasions, ‘The natural tendency of the mind is upwards, towards the nirvikalpa plane. Once in samādhi it does not feel inclined to come down. For your sake it has to be forced down. Even this is not motive enough, so I catch hold of trifling desires, and saying “I will have a smoke “, or “I will drink water”, or “I will eat this or that”, I thus force the mind gradually down to body-consciousness.’ (Source: The Visions of Sri Ramakrishna)
Question: What is the highest state?
Answer: The unmanifested, imperishable state of Paramatma.
Question: What happens when man attains it?
Answer: He attains immortality and is not reborn again.
Question: What is the nature of Paramatma?
Answer: He is imperishable, beyond the senses and the mind.
Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 8 🔻 (28 Verses)
