The Eternal and the Non-eternal

I don't know how all of this got started, but because of my desire to chant the
entire Bhagavad Gita (I would still the pleasure of the company of other good
souls - Satsanga), I started reading the Introduction to The Bhagavad Gita As it
Is, by Srila Prabhupada, this morning.

I don't believe I have read the Introduction earlier, at least not in its entirety
like I did today. There are many important points made by Srila Prabhupada in his
introduction. One has to have complete proficiency and mastery of the subject to
be able to write such an introduction. I just like to share with you one of the
many important points made by Srila Prabhupada, which made an impression on me
today. (There are others for sure and that will, hopefully, be the subject of
subsequent emails at some future date.)

The subject matter of The Bhagavad Gita entails the comprehension of five basic
truths: Isavara (The Supreme Being), Jiva (the individual soul, or the living
entity), Prakŗti (Material nature), Kala (eternal time) and Karma (activity). Of
these, only karma is not eternal, everything else is eternal.

The effects of karma may be very old indeed. We accumulate karma over many births
(sanchita karma). Some of them start to bear desired fruits (which causes
happiness), or manifest their undesirable effects (which causes pain and
suffering) in this birth. These are the Prarbadha karmas. We cannot change these.

However, what is within our control and can be changed are Agami karmas, or karmas
that have still have not started to bear fruits or manifest themselves in a manner
that causes pain and suffering. At least in Kaliyuga, namasankirtanam is the
recommended way to destroy the karma baggage that we have. Indeed, according to
the story of Ajamila (Ajamilopakyanam, found in Srimad Bhagavatam), it is not
necessary to even chant the entire nama, like Rama, Krishna, or Narayana. It is
sufficient just to chant the padas of the nama: like "Ra" in Rama, or "Na" in
Narayana. Even the chanting of the namapada, either intentionally or
unintentionally, will burn our karmas, or papa sangraha, as mentioned the story of
Ajamila. (So, even if Mahatma Gandhi had just said, "Ra", when he was shot,
instead of "Hey Ram", he was liberated. Some of his detractors like to point out
that he never said, "Hey Ram", just made a sound!)

Ajamila, a Brahmin by birth. a great devotee and a great Vedic scholar in earlier
janmas, got enamoured by a prostitute, abandoned his family and lived a sinful
life with her and had 10 children, the youngest of whom he had named Narayana.
Although, he lived a sinful life when the time of death approached, he very
affectionately called for his son and started saying, "Narayana, Naraayana,.."
While he had no intention of thinking of The Supreme Lord and was also thinking of
his son, when the Yamadhootas came to take him away, they were stopped by
Vishnudhootas who had come to take him to Vaikuntaloka. The Yamadhootas were
perplexed and challenged the Vishnudhootas, who explained to them who Ajamila
really was and why he was to be liberated and taken to Vaikuntaloka. Then the
Yamadhootas went to their master, Yamaraja (also called Kala) and told him that
they had been stopped by Vishnudhootas in performing their duty. Lord Yama said
that he was very happy to hear that an offense had not been committed against the
Vishnudhootas, which would be offense against The Supreme Lord Himself. He then
again explains to them the great significance of "namapada". Just like the fire
burns every object with which it comes in contact, regardless of the intent of the
object that makes content with the fire (you might just want to "warm" your hand,
but if you come too close to fire, you will get burnt), engaging even in the act
of just "namapada uchharanam" will burn your karmas and destroy your sins. Ajamila
was therefore absolved of all his sins accumulated in his life.
Karma is the only thing that is not eternal. Everything else is eternal, even
time. In Sanskrit, the word Kala has two meanings: time and death. Kala is
eternal, means time is eternal, or death is eternal. Everyone and everything that
is born will face death. Even the entire Prakrti will disappear sometime, but it
will appear again. The disappearance of Prakrti (material nature, or the material
Universe) does not mean it is temporary or Maya. It is bound to appear again, and
Prakrti is therefore eternal.

According to modern physics, this Universe was created in a Big Bang. Why or how
did this Big Bang occur? What was there before the Big Bang? Physics cannot answer
these two questions. Modern physics also tells us that it is conceivable that the
Universe (which is supposed to be expanding) will collapse back on to itself and
start shrinking. Physicists are still carrying out observations to verify what is
the ultimate fate of the universe. Will it just keep expanding? Or, will it
collapse back on to itself? They still do not know. What if it collapses back on
to itself? What then? Everything will disappear and become non-existent.

Our scriptures call this the end of one day of Brahma (or kalpa), after which
creation starts once again! So, Prakrti is eternal, even if it seems to disappear
at times. (This is the main confusion of Mayavadis, Jagat mitya, the Universe is
false, according to Srila Prabuhpada. This is my interpretation of Prabhupada's
arguments against Advaita philosophy of Adi Sankara.)

Time is also eternal. Even if do not comprehend the theory of relativity (even
many physicists do not understand it, according to a story told by the Nobel
laureate Chandrasekhar, there were only two or three people who understand
Einstein, even in Einstein's days: Einstein, the astronomer Eddington, who did the
famous light bending experiment to confirm Einstein's theory, and may be one other
person. To which Eddington famously asked, "Who is the 3rd person?"), this
statement tells us that time is a concept hardly understood by physicists. Newton
talks about both Absolute Space and Absolute Time in his Principia, before he
develops his theory of gravitation. This is worth reading. (Absolute can also be
interpreted as eternal.) Today, more than ever, I am more convinced that Newton's
view of Absolute Time has greater merit than the now widely accepted relativistic
viewpoint of time. Essentially, Einstein argues that since the speed of light is
the same for all observers, regardless of their state of motion, time must be
relative and have different meanings for different observers. The clocks carried
by an observer moving close to the speed of light will tick more slowly than the
clock held by an observer like us (who are also moving observers, we are moving
with the earth).

However, a realized soul, can travel to all higher lokas, beyond the comprehension
of modern physicists. Such travel occurs instantly, at higher than the speed of
light! This topic is obviously beyond the level of our present discussion.

The main point here is that of the five topics covered by The Bhagavad Gita, only
karma is not eternal. Everything else is eternal, including time, or kala, or is
it death, or kala.

Very sincerely

V. Laxmanan
Posted December 11, 2008
Email: vlaxmanan@hotmail.com