What are Prakrati and Purusha? What is beyond them? || Acharya Prashant, on Bhagavad Gita (2020)

Acharya Prashant

‍♂️ Want to meet Acharya Prashant? Be a part of the Live Sessions: https://acharyaprashant.org/hi/enquir...   Want to read Acharya Prashant's Books? Get Free Delivery: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/books?...   Read 3 handpicked wisdom articles, just for you: https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articl...  ~~~~~  Video Information: 26.04.2020, Month of Awakening, Greater Noida  Context:   सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् | असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च  Shining by the foundation of all the senses yet without the senses  Absolute yet sustaining all devoid of gunas yet their experiencer.  Shrimad Bhagavad Gita (Chapter - 13, verse - 15)  ~ What are Prakriti and Purusha? ~ What is Beyond than Prakriti and Purusha? ~ What Krishna says about Prakriti and Purusha? ~ How doesn't the ego not exist? ~ What Shankhya Darshan is saying about prakrati and purush?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~

Transcript

00:00Shreemad Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 13.

00:09Shining by the functions of all the senses, yet without the senses,

00:20absolute yet sustaining all, devoid of gunas, yet their experiencer,

00:29then in the production of the body and the senses, Prakriti is said to be the cause.

00:39In the experience of pleasure and pain, Purush is said to be the cause.

00:43So the questioner is saying the absolute has been called the experiencer and then

00:52the Purush has been called the cause in the experience of pleasure and pain.

00:57Is absolute or Purush not the witness, the one who stands separate from all the happening

01:02Prakriti? Why is it being described as a part of the experiencer experience complex?

01:08No, no, no. There is a fundamental problem here in the interpretation.

01:14The Purush is the experiencer and the Purush is not the absolute.

01:22Purush is the experiencer and the Purush is not the absolute.

01:29I'll come to why the absolute too has been talked of as an experiencer. I'll come to that.

01:39The experiencer experience complex, as you have rightly said, is within the domain of Prakriti.

01:52Within Prakriti is both the object of experience and the one who experiences.

02:02They both exist within Prakriti. One is called Prakriti or Apara Prakriti and the other is

02:13called Para Prakriti or Purush. It has to be remembered that even the

02:19experiencer of objects is some kind of an object himself.

02:28Let the experiencer not hold himself very highly. If you say I am looking at an object,

02:38you too are an object. If you say that I am looking at Prakriti,

02:45you too are part of the Prakriti. You are not the witness really.

02:51The witness, mind you, has no business even looking at Prakriti.

02:57If you find it interesting enough to even look at Prakriti, then you are not a witness.

03:06The witness is not the looker. The witness is the one who does not bother even to look.

03:13The witness has no interest in even looking at anything. Forget about participating.

03:22He does not even want to look. That's the witness.

03:28The one who looks is the observer. The observer is not the absolute.

03:33So I'll come to the point your confusion is coming from.

03:41You're saying, shining by the functions of all the senses yet without the senses,

03:49absolute yet sustaining all, devoid of gunas yet their experiencer.

03:55So you are asking why has the absolute been called as their experiencer?

04:02Just metaphorically, just to highlight the all-pervasiveness and the omnipotency of the absolute.

04:21The absolute is very indescribable. Therefore, he has to be described in ways

04:31that are beyond interpretation. I'll give you an example here.

04:37It says, devoid of gunas yet their experiencer. Kabir sahib sings,

04:41nirbhaya nirgun gun re gaunga. The same thing.

04:46Now, if the absolute is actually nirgun, why is he saying, nirgun ke gun gaunga?

04:57It's like a zen koan. He has no attributes of his own, yet all attributes belong to him.

05:07In no attribute can you find him, but in him you will find all attributes.

05:14And Shri Krishna was saying this very clearly in chapter 12.

05:19I am in none of the bhutas, yet all bhutas exist in me.

05:31I am in none of the physical elements, yet all physical elements exist in me.

05:40So in no guna can you find the completeness of Krishna, but in Krishna you can find all of them.

05:49That's what is being said here. Obviously, the absolute is not an experiencer

05:56in the same way as the purush is. The absolute is a non-experiencer experiencer.

06:06How? Shri Krishna tells Arjun, see Arjun, I am beyond all this worldly business

06:15and it makes me no difference whether the world remains or goes. I fully well know

06:23how hollow and ephemeral all these worldly beings are. I fully well know how meaningless

06:31the entire business of this world is. Still, knowing fully well the meaninglessness

06:40of the entire worldly business, I still sustain and run it.

06:46I get nothing from it and I still sustain and run it. The question is why? There is no why.

06:53It's leela. If you will ask Krishna, when you are the non-doer, then why do you run this entire show?

07:01He will say just like this. The reason is just like this. If you are the non-experiencer,

07:13because whenever you experience something, you have a stake involved. You experience something

07:19for the sake of your gratification. Whenever you enter an experience, it is because you want

07:24something from it, because you are incomplete. Krishna is pure and complete. Yet he experiences

07:31why? Just like that. His leela. Wanting nothing yet doing much. That's leela.

07:51To the common man, it is quite beyond description.

08:02He can neither decipher it nor describe it, because it is something that he

08:11cannot even think of, let alone experience. Why will somebody do something if he is not to get

08:18something out of it? That's how Krishna is. He does much, wanting nothing.

08:26So he experiences when there is nothing in that experience for him.

08:33He experiences when there is nothing in that experience for him.

08:36On the other hand, when the purush experiences, he experiences

08:41because he is hungry or thirsty. That's the reason the purush gets attracted and attached

08:52to prakriti. Krishna does not. Krishna makes prakriti dance around. Purush, on the other hand,

09:00after a while, starts dancing around prakriti. That's the difference between these two experiencers.

09:11Are you getting it? So, Krishna is an experiencer of everything.

09:18Even look at the way you see his character comes up in the Mahabharata.

09:27He is not a renouncer. He is not a world forsaker. He is an experiencer.

09:33Of all the avatars and prophets that we know of, Krishna is the biggest experiencer of everything

09:45that the world has to offer. Riches, he has them. Throne, he has it. Kingdom, he has it.

09:54Women, he has them. Worldly goods, he has them.

10:02There is nothing in life that Krishna does not experience.

10:06There is nothing in life that he has forsaken.

10:11Question is, what is in it for him? Krishna will say, nothing.

10:17Then why did you run after all those girls? Just like that, you know. My Leela.

10:25But we don't do that. When we run after girls, there is a lot at stake. Why did you do that?

10:34That's me. That's how I am. I just did that.

10:39So he is the experiencer, yet a non-experiencer. That's how the absolute is.

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