Day, Night, and the Two Paths

A Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita–by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Within relativity, duality–positive and negative–is an absolute necessity for manifestation. Being alive, the cosmos requires that all things manifest this duality in a cyclic manner, that the positive and the negative polarities alternate in dominance. This can be seen in everything that “lives.” In fact, the more alive something is, the more evident are the alternating cycles. This principle manifests most obviously in the human body. The universe, being the “body” of God, also possesses this duality. Just as the “image” of God, the human being, breathes in and out to live, in the same way God “breathes.” The creation/manifestation of the universe is the “exhalation” of God, and its withdrawal/dissolution is the “inhalation.” Therefore Krishna says: “There is day, also, and night in the universe: the wise know this, declaring the day of Brahma a thousand ages in span and the night a thousand ages.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:17)

I will not weary you–and me–with the mathematical basis for arriving at the numbers assigned to the ages, known as yugas. There are smaller ages within greater ages–wheels within wheels. Anyhow, some say that a “day of Brahma” lasts 4,320,000,000 years, and the “night” is of equal length. However, Paramhansa Yogananda, whose guru Swami Sriyukteswar Giri was a foremost expert in these calculations, says in his Autobiography of a Yogi:

“The universal cycle of the scriptures is 4,300,560,000 years in extent, and measures out a Day of Creation or the length of life assigned to our planetary system in its present form. This vast figure given by the rishis is based on a relationship between the length of the solar year and a multiple of Pi (3.1416, the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle).

“The life span for a whole universe, according to the ancient seers, is 314,159,000,000,000 solar years, or ‘One Age of Brahma.’”

Krishna continues: “Day dawns, and all those lives that lay hidden asleep come forth and show themselves, mortally manifest: night falls, and all are dissolved into the sleeping germ of life. Thus they are seen, O Prince, and appear unceasingly, dissolving with the dark, and with day returning back to the new birth, new death: all helpless. They do what they must.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:18, 19)

This is the situation of us all: compelled to manifest and compelled to return to unmanifestation in unending cycles. Will this ever end? Yes and No. It CAN end for those who wish it to end. For the rest, the coming and going will never end. Krishna will now show us how we can step off the ever-rotating wheel.

The Supreme Unmanifest

“But behind the manifest and the unmanifest, there is another Existence, which is eternal and changeless. This is not dissolved in the general cosmic dissolution. It has been called the unmanifest, the imperishable. To reach It is said to be the greatest of all achievements. It is my highest state of being. Those who reach It are not reborn.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:20, 21)

Although the germs of the cosmos are “unmanifest” when withdrawn and invisible, there is another Unmanifest that is the Supreme Being behind both manifestation and dissolution. This is the ultimate source of all, eternal and changeless, untouched by the ever-changing condition of relative existence. It is the Reality behind the cosmic illusion-drama. To attain that state of being is the highest attainment possible for finite beings, for it is Infinity Itself. Only those who reach that are freed from rebirth. For all the worlds from the highest to the lowest are subject to continual rebirth. The Unmanifest lies beyond all worlds, transcendent and changeless. And those who enter It become themselves transcendent and changeless.

“That highest state of being can only be achieved through devotion to Him in whom all creatures exist, and by whom this universe is pervaded.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:22)

Bhakti, the word here translated as “devotion,” means much more than mere emotion, but means devotion in the sense of being absolutely devoted–dedicated–to the endeavor to unite with God. As Swami Sivananda said: “Bhakti begins with two and ends in One.” (He also said: “Devotion is not emotion.”) Yoga (union) in the highest sense must be the driving force of the aspirant’s life, the point of reference around which he arranges his entire existence. Dabblers and fiddlers-around are not yogis, nor are those who are only intellectually intrigued by the possibility of divine union. The real yogis as those who live the words: “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” God is the only Goal for them. And the search for God is their only life.

Two paths

“Now I will tell you, O chief of the Bharatas, the times departing at which the Yogis will return or not return!” (Bhagavad Gita 8:23. This is the translation of Swami Sivananda.)

We have already seen in the first part of this chapter that what we think most of in life will be remembered by us at death and will determine the state we will then attain. Here Krishna adds another factor, telling us that there are two “times” that determine whether or not the departing soul will return to earthly rebirth or pass on to evolve in higher worlds–perhaps even reaching the Absolute directly.

Now he describes them: “There is the path of light, of fire and day, the path of the moon’s bright fortnight and the six months’ journey of the sun to the north: the knower of Brahman who takes this path goes to Brahman: he does not return. There is the path of night and smoke, the path of the moon’s dark fortnight and the six months’ journey of the sun to the south: the yogi who takes this path will reach the lunar light: This path leads back to human birth, at last. These two paths, the bright and the dark, may be said to have existed in this world of change from a time without any beginning. By the one, a man goes to the place of no return. By the other, he comes back to human birth.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:24-26)

These paths, or bands of subtle energies on which the soul either ascends or descends, are spoken about in the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya upanishads. All commentators on the upanishads and the Gita agree that these lists are symbolic of psychic energies or magnetism which draw the astral and causal bodies of the dying person upward or downward. Various specific interpretations are possible. For example, light and fire represent clarity of consciousness, whereas night and smoke symbolize darkness and confusion of mind. The bright fortnight of the month and the northward movement of the sun refer to the upward orientation of the consciousness, and the dark fortnight and the southern solar movement indicate the habitual turning of the consciousness downward to materiality and ignorance. The moon is a symbol of the astral worlds in which earthly rebirth is inevitable, but the sun symbolizes those astral regions in which the soul is free of the compulsion to material re-embodiment and can move on to higher levels of existence for continued evolution.

Obviously the two paths or streams of energy and consciousness are being taken by each one of us right here in our present life, and will continue, then, after our subtle bodies are separated from the physical at the process we call death–though it is really a movement into a different mode of life. Therefore we should seriously analyze our life and see which stream we are moving in. For after death we only continue on just as we have been, although in the subtler realms the nature of our life becomes more evident. Here we can lie to ourselves and others, but not “over there.” There the truth of things is revealed. Unless, of course, at the moment of death we merely fall into a psychic coma and know nothing until someone whacks us on the backside at the time of our next birth. This happens to a large percentage of human beings. It takes a definite degree of evolution to go to either heaven or hell! As John Oxenham wrote: “The high soul climbs the high way, and the low soul gropes the low, and in between on the misty flats the rest drift to and fro” as spiritual sleepwalkers.

“No yogi who knows these two paths is ever misled. Therefore, Arjuna, you must be steadfast in yoga, always.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:27) This implies that only the yogi follows the upward path to liberation. What about virtuous, sincerely religious people who are not yogis? We would assume that they, too, go the upward path, but Krishna concludes with these words:

“The scriptures declare that merit can be acquired by studying the Vedas, performing ritualistic sacrifices, practising austerities and giving alms. But the yogi who has understood this teaching of mine will gain more than any who do these things. He will reach that universal source, which is the uttermost abode of God.” (Bhagavad Gita 8:28)

“Therefore, Arjuna, become a yogi!” (Bhagavad Gita 6:46)

We have had lots of positive feedback on the newsletter and website. Here are a few comments:

• Great Newsletter! Thank you very much for this service.
• I am regularly reading commentary on the Bhagavad Gita and also sharing the same with my colleagues.
  
• Pranams. The article on Brahmacharya by Swami Nirmalananda Giri is very good. I printed those pages and am reading them almost everyday to remind myself. Thanks again and I seek your blessings to continue my Brahmacharya.