Chapter 15Realization of the Ultimate TruthVerse 15

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Anvaya

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Commentaries of the Four Authorized Vaisnava Sampradayas

as confirmed in the Garga Samhita Canto 10, Chapter 61, Verses 23, 24, 25, 26
Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya:


Visnuswami

Sridhara Swami's Commentary

Continuing further the Supreme Lord Krishna confirms that He is situated simultaniously within the etheric hearts of all jivas or embodied beings as the internal monitor. The Supreme Lord is cognizant of hundreds of millions of lifetimes for every jivas and from Him comes memory concerning things remembered as well as knowledge and the loss of knowledge regarding things experienced by the senses. Some are stored within the collective consciousness and others are accessible directly within the individual consciousness. He is the originator of the Vedas and thus possessing all knowledge He is the promulgator of the Vedas exclusively through His four authorised channels of disciplic succession which lead directly back to Him as revealed in the Vedic scriptures. The Supreme Lord alone is to be known only through the eternal authority of the Vedic scriptures.

Brahma Vaisnava Sampradaya:


Madhvacarya

Madhvacarya's Commentary

Here the words vedais ca sarvam refers to the conclusions of the Vedic scriptures. The words vedanta-krt refers to Lord Krishnas avatar or incarnation of Vedavyasa the author of the Vedas, Puranas and Vedanta Sutras which all elucidate the absolute, ultimate truth.

Sri Vaisnava Sampradaya:


Ramanuja

Ramanuja's Commentary

Lord Krishna's manifestation of Himself as paramatma the Supreme Soul situated within the etheric heart of every jiva or embodied being next to His expansion of the atma or individual immortal soul. The heart is the exclusive, absolute center from where all consciousness radiates. It is also the factual center from where all impulses and frequencies originate both active and passive. The Brihadaranya Upanisad V.VI.I beginning manomayo ayam puruso states: One meditating should perceive the resplendent Supreme Lord the ruler and lord of all within the heart of the size of a grain of rice. The Chandogya Upanisad VIII.I beginning harih sum atha yadidamasmin states: Within the jiva or embodied being in the inner sanctorum of the heart abides the atma or immortal soul which is an infintesimal portion of paramatma. Hence from the Supreme Lord comes all memory remembered from past experience. All wisdom accruring from factual true perception and inference. Intuitive knowledge related exclusively to the authority of the Vedic scriptures and meditation which expands the consciousness. Contrarily also from the Supreme Lord comes the antithesis of the above which are loss of memory, speculative reasoning, erroneous hypothesis, conjectural suppositions and deprivation of consciousness.

The Supreme Lord is to be known by the exclusive authority of the Vedic scriptures. He is the atma within all jivas, the witness, the monitor, the inner guide. The terms found in the Vedas of demigod, humans, demons, etc. are alluding to the jivatma or individual immortal soul within the myriad of varieagated forms of embodied beings. The compound word vedanta-krt refers directly to Lord Krishna's avatara or incarnation of Vedavyasa who compiled the Vedas and divided them into four divisions. It also denotes the performance of Vedic enjoined rituals. The antonym antah also means the end which infers the fruits, the results of such rituals. He is the sole bequeather of all the fruits promised in the Vedic scriptures. This was previously touched upon in chapter seven verses 21 and 22 where Lord krishna confirms that in whatever form one chooses to worship the Supreme Lord, He renders there faith firm and they obtain the wishes they yearned for from Him alone. He is also the supreme knower of the Vedic scriptures for they originated from Him to guide and teach jivas about Himself. Whosoever understands the Vedic scriptures otherwise then what has been instructed by Lord Krishna in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita factually has no knowledge of it at all. This is due to their understanding and comprehension being influenced by under faulty assumptions and erroneous suppositions. The Vedic scriptures must be understood exclusively in light of the comprehensive and full authority of the Bhagavad-Gita.

Kumara Vaisnava Sampradaya:


Nimbaditya

Kesava Kasmiri's Commentary

The Supreme Lord Krishna affirmed that sun, the moon and fire which accomplish universal well being are His divine vibhutis or opulences . He previously revealed that the entire creation comprised of the sentient and non-sentient are fully dependent upon Him; yet He is completely independent. He inspires cosmic intelligence, He is worth knowing through the Vedas and is the precceptor of all as He is situated equally within the etheric heart of all jivas or embodied beings from Brahma the most evolved sentient being to the least evolved sentient being. He is the witness, the monitor and inner controller of every jiva. Memory of things experienced and true knowledge arising from accurate perception of contact with the senses comes from Him as well as the rationalisation faculty of faulty knowledge and loss of memory and knowledges also flow from Him. The Supreme Lord Krihsna is paramount to all and thus essential to know because everything manifests from Him and because He manifests Himself within all etheric hearts as the immortal part of every jiva. All the 33 million demigods who supervise universal management in trillions of unlimited universes throughout all material creation are expansions of His vibhutis and dependent solely upon Him such as Vayu the wind god, Agni the god of fire, Surya the sun god, etc. The Mahabharata confirms some worship the Supreme Lord as the sun, the moon, the wind, fire, the life breath, the infinite, the absolute. All the luminaries of the worlds, all the sovereigns of creation, the three sacrificial fires, the five daily austerities, all are verily the Supreme Lord Krishna. But this material creation comprises only one fourth or 25 percent of His unlimited potency. The remaining three quarters or 75 percent compries the eternal unlimited spiritual worlds. We offer praises to Him, the eternal repository of all praises. The Vedas glorify Lord Krishna. Propitiations of ghee and grains are offerred by the Vaisnavas and Brahmins to Him sanctifying the sacred fire. Throughout the Vedas, the Puranas, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; Lord Krishna is glorified in the beginning, the middle and the end. The Katha Upanisad I.II.XV beginning sarve veda yat padamamanvati states: The Supreme Lord is whom all the Vedas declare and for whom all austerities are performed. His personal sound vibration is OM, the all encompassing sound frequency of the Supreme Lord Krishna.

The Supreme Lord Krishna is the absolute authority on the Vedas, the deciding authority on the contrary statements of the Vedas when they appear contradictory to each other due to varying angles of vision while expounding on various, diverse topics. He is the eternal, universal guru and the propounder of the philosophy of the Vedic scriptures. As the originator of the Vedic scriptures He has imbued them with the ultimate import and no one can fathom this and know the meaning of the Vedic scriptures without His grace. One becomes a knower of the Vedic scriptures when through the grace of Lord Krishna one realises the reality that the Vedic scriptures originated from Him to guide and protect those in material creation to return to Him. Those who who are not graced by the Supreme Lord can never fathom and discover the import of the Vedic scriptures even if they are reknowned scholars and erudite professors who give detailed discourses on them. This is because they are not devotees of the Supreme Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna is the absolute, original establisher and ultimate authority on the Vedas and there are none qualified to expound upon any aspect of the Vedic scriptures contrary to that which has been directly revealed, declared and instructed by Him, His authorised avataras or incarnations and expansions as confirmed in Vedic scriptures and by His devotees in authorised disciplic succession who have received His grace. An example of this is the devotee Prahlad receiving the grace of Lord Krishna through His avatara known as Narasinghadeva who rescued His devotee from death nine times.

Thus ends commentaries of chapter 15, verse 15 of the Srimad Bhagavad-Gita.

Verse 15


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