Unmanifest Before And After

By krishnasmercy on August 22, 2024 • ( 0 )

“All created beings are unmanifest in their beginning, manifest in their interim state, and unmanifest again when they are annihilated. So what need is there for lamentation?” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.28)

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अव्यक्तादीनि भूतानि व्यक्तमध्यानि भारत
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना

avyaktādīni bhūtāni
vyakta-madhyāni bhārata
avyakta-nidhanāny eva
tatra kā paridevanā

“Can there be a more difficult ordeal than the passing of a loved one? Even if you knew it was coming. Even if you are well-versed in the science of self-realization. Even if you already have dealt with loss before. There is just something so sad about never having the opportunity to speak to someone again.

“How can we overcome this grief? Is it a valid objective? Is it not okay to miss someone? After all, that speaks volumes of the significance of the relationship. If I don’t miss someone when they are gone, what impact did they really make on my life?”

The perspective from the standard of wisdom, which has relevance beyond this lifetime, is that the living entities, bhutas, are essentially always unmanifest. The Sanskrit word is avyakta. This does not indicate a lack of existence. On the contrary, the living being, as part and parcel of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, always exists. Nothing can extinguish its vibrancy.

Just as someone may be sleeping during the nighttime, so the living being may not always be fully active. This is based on the external perception. The sleeping person at night is just as much alive as the one who is awake during the day. There is merely a difference in the outbound expression, in the visual presented for others to see.

As Shri Krishna explains in Bhagavad-gita, the bhutas are avyakta before and after. We lament when someone has passed on, but what about the time prior to their birth? We acknowledge that there are thousands of years of recorded history. Where was this person during that time? Why do we not lament the loss in perception during such a significant duration?

The aftermath of death is the same in terms of our interaction. The bhuta again becomes avyakta. They are out of our vision, but still completely vibrant. We can properly identify them during the vyakta period, when they are alive before us, but this is a brief period of time in the larger scheme.

The bhuta is only vyakta in the middle period, but these three periods of time are relative. My beginning, middle, and end are different from your beginning, middle, and end. I am living in the present right now, but this is the distant past to someone in the future. It was the foreseeable future a few days ago.

“The Vedic wisdom encourages self-realization on the basis of the nonexistence of the material body. Therefore, in either case, whether one believes in the existence of the soul, or one does not believe in the existence of the soul, there is no cause for lamentation for loss of the body.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Bhagavad-gita, 2.28 Purport)

As His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada explains, because of this duality in avyakta and vyakta, the material body is something which has practically no existence. There is no lasting shape. It is always changing. The living being is the active principle, the animating force inside. The focus of all education, all thoughts, all considerations, and all future plans should be on the interests of this active principle. That is the meaning to an implementation of genuine spiritual life.

आश्चर्यवत्पश्यति कश्चिदेन
माश्चर्यवद्वदति तथैव चान्यः
आश्चर्यवच्च‍ैनमन्यः श‍ृणोति
श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित्

āścarya-vat paśyati kaścid enam
āścarya-vad vadati tathaiva cānyaḥ
āścarya-vac cainam anyaḥ śṛṇoti
śrutvāpy enaṁ veda na caiva kaścit

“Some look on the soul as amazing, some describe him as amazing, and some hear of him as amazing, while others, even after hearing about him, cannot understand him at all.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.29)

In Closing:

Their association longing for,
But where they were before?

For those thousands of years,
So easily the mind clears.

Krishna saying that avyakta at the start,
And again after to depart.

But vibrant the entire time,
On the bhuta this focus of mine.