“The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna, and is directing the wanderings of all living entities, who are seated as on a machine, made of the material energy.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 18.61)

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ईश्वरः सर्व-भूतानां
हृद्-देशे ऽर्जुन तिष्ठति
भ्रामयन् सर्व-भूतानि
यन्त्रारूढानि मायया

īśvaraḥ sarva-bhūtānāṁ
hṛd-deśe ‘rjuna tiṣṭhati
bhrāmayan sarva-bhūtāni
yantrārūḍhāni māyayā

1. The hammer and the home-improvement project

“Yup, bought this last week; was delivered yesterday. I am not embarrassed to say how much I paid for it. With something important, you want quality. I was not bargain-hunting, if you know what I mean. Of course I am going to use it. You didn’t expect me to keep the hammer sitting in the toolshed, gathering rust, did you? We are renovating the living room next week. This thing will be a huge help.”

2. The stand-mixer and the kitchen

“They had it on display at the bulk item store. You know, the one where you have to purchase the membership. They refuse to put signs on the aisles. They want the customers to browse as much as possible. They extend your visit with all the free samples of food. Anyway, I saw this thing a few weeks ago. I have had my eye on it for a while. It is expensive, but the purchase is worth it. Of course I am going to use it. It’s not going to gather dust. The next time we need to make cookies, a cake, or dough of any kind, I will not need to get my hands messy, if you know what I mean.”

3. The riding mower and the lawn

“I bought it used, but it was still expensive. Based on the size of our property, there is no other option. You have to take it to get serviced at the beginning of the season. No, I do not plan on joy-riding with this thing. It is a machine of hefty weight and considerable power. I will use it to cut the grass. That is the whole point to having one of these things.”

4. The automobile and the highway

“Isn’t this beautiful? I had to special order it, to get the color I wanted. Yes, it is in the garage now, but it won’t be stationed there. This is not one of those collector’s items, to sit in a museum. I plan to drive it. Those long-haul journeys will be much more enjoyable. The roads here are treacherous. I needed something to absorb the bumps, to cause less fatigue for the driver.”

5. The individual and the setting of formal worship (with the deity)

The living being is spotless. This is because the living being is spirit soul. They are atma, and in the material world the countless atmas are of the jiva category. They are conditioned by nature, in associating with duality and being affected by the different conditions. Since they are still atma, there is no long-term impact to the association. This is why Shri Krishna explains that in the technical sense, no one can be killed and no one can kill another person.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

What exactly is birth, then? Why do we mourn after death? Why do we refer to it as a “passing”? In these events, the jiva soul simply travels. At birth it arrives, in the manifest sense, vyakta. At death, it leaves. It becomes unmanifest, avyakta. It was also unmanifest prior to birth. Unmanifest is in the sense of perception; to the observer the individual is unmanifest, but this has no bearing on existence. The individual always exists.

अव्यक्तादीनि भूतानि व्यक्तमध्यानि भारत
अव्यक्तनिधनान्येव तत्र का परिदेवना

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

“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)

If the individual always exists, then what exactly is the life experience for? What is it? How can life in the material world be defined? Shri Krishna explains that the living entity is like seated on something like a machine. That machine consists of the material elements. It is the Divine energy responsible for the mechanism. Similar to the experience with a vehicle, the individual might feel as if they are in control, but prior construction was necessary. There has to be a fuel supply to power the engine. There must be cooperation from nature for the machine to successfully function.

The body is like a machine temporarily guided by the individual. As seen in our examples above, the machine has an ideal use. To have it sit somewhere, gathering dust, with rust forming, is not the ideal use. There is a corresponding field of play. For the individual seated on the machine that is the body, the ideal playing field is any place conducive to worship.

This explains the timeless practice of worshiping the deity. To the outsider, it is odd to have a physical depiction of the Almighty. The deity is like the saguna version of the individual who is also nirguna. God is without gunas, or material qualities, but this does not mean that He cannot be depicted. The features, gunas, are transcendental, and when those features come together as a collection, you have the saguna form.

This is all to say that deity worship is completely natural. It is rather unnatural to worship only in the abstract, to imagine features on the Almighty, or to deny that He is even a distinct individual. A person spoke Bhagavad-gita. The same person directs the wanderings of the living beings. The same person is above both the machines and the playing fields. The ideal use of our machine, over which we have a certain amount of control, is to worship, such that we are always connected to transcendence.

In Closing:

With choice to make,
I’m gonna break.

From my rusty ways,
This machine now prays.

Ideal field upon which to play,
Confirmed by Krishna to say.

Who in that direction guiding,
Fixed with transcendence siding.

Categories: the five

Tags: bhagavad-gita, dailyprompt, dharma, poem, poems, poetry, religion