यथा सोम्यैकेन मृत्पिण्डेन सर्वं मृन्मयं विज्ञातं स्याद्वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं मृत्तिकेत्येव सत्यम् ॥ ६.१.४ ॥
yathā somyaikena mṛtpiṇḍena sarvaṃ mṛnmayaṃ vijñātaṃ syādvācārambhaṇaṃ vikāro nāmadheyaṃ mṛttiketyeva satyam || 6.1.4 ||
4. O Somya, it is like this: By knowing a single lump of earth you know all objects made of earth. All changes are mere words, in name only. But earth is the reality.
Word-for-word explanation:
Somya, young man; yathā, just as; ekena mṛtpiṇḍena, from one single lump of earth; sarvam mṛnmayam vijñātam, all objects made of earth are known; vācārambhaṇam nāmadheyam vikāraḥ, all changes are mere words, in name only; mṛttika iti eva satyam, the earth is the reality.
Commentary:
What is this ādeśa that Śvetaketu’s father wanted him to learn from his teacher? It is that there is only one single reality in this world, and that reality appears to be many because of the different names and forms superimposed on it.
Here he is using earth as an example. If you know a single thing made of earth—for instance, a pot—then you know all things made of earth. How? The word ‘pot’ is merely a name; the real object is earth. Earth may assume different names and forms, but it remains the same earth.
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
MASTER: “A devotee thinks of God as he sees Him. In reality there is no confusion about God. God explains all this to the devotee if the devotee only realises Him somehow. You haven’t set your foot in that direction. How can you expect to know all about God?
“Listen to a story. Once a man entered a wood and saw a small animal on a tree. He came back and told another man that he had seen a creature of a beautiful red colour on a certain tree. The second man replied: ‘When I went into the wood, I also saw that animal. But why do you call it red? It is green.’ Another man who was present contradicted them both and insisted that it was yellow. Presently others arrived and contended that it was grey, violet, blue, and so forth and so on. At last they started quarrelling among themselves. To settle the dispute they all went to the tree. They saw a man sitting under it. On being asked, he replied: ‘Yes, I live under this tree and I know the animal very well. All your descriptions are true. Sometimes it appears red, sometimes yellow, and at other times blue, violet, grey, and so forth. It is a chameleon. And sometimes it has no colour at all. Now it has a colour, and now it has none.’
“In like manner, one who constantly thinks of God can know His real nature; he alone knows that God reveals Himself to seekers in various forms and aspects. God has attributes; then again He has none. Only the man who lives under the tree knows that the chameleon can appear in various colours, and he knows, further, that the animal at times has no colour at all. It is the others who suffer from the agony of futile argument. (BG 11.54)
“Kabir used to say, The formless Absolute is my Father, and God with form is my Mother.’
“God reveals Himself in the form which His devotee loves most. His love for the devotee knows no bounds. It is written in the Purana that God assumed the form of Rama for His heroic devotee, Hanuman.
“The forms and aspects of God disappear when one discriminates in accordance with the Vedanta philosophy. The ultimate conclusion of such discrimination is that Brahman alone is real and this world of names and forms illusory. It is possible for a man to see the forms of God, or to think of Him as a Person, only so long as he is conscious that he is a devotee. From the standpoint of discrimination this ‘ego of a devotee’ keeps him a little away from God.
“Do you know why images of Krishna or Kali are three and a half cubits high? Because of distance. Again, on account of distance the sun appears to be small. But if you go near it you will find the sun so big that you won’t be able to comprehend it. Why have images of Krishna and Kali a dark-blue colour? That too is on account of distance, like the water of a lake, which appears green, blue, or black from a distance. Go near, take the water in the palm of your hand, and you will find that it has no colour. The sky also appears blue from a distance. Go near and you will see that it has no colour at all.
“Therefore I say that in the light of Vedantic reasoning Brahman has no attributes. The real nature of Brahman cannot be described. But so long as your individuality is real, the world also is real, and equally real are the different forms of God and the feeling that God is a Person. (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
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- But by devotion to Me alone may I be known in this form, Ο Arjuna, realized truly, and entered into, Ο dreaded prince. (BG 11.54)