Many Gita commentators treat Krishna as a pointer to an
amorphous non-personal Absolute Truth. They consider that the less intelligent
need a form to stabilize their meditation till it becomes strong enough to
focus on the impersonal light that the form is meant to point to. That the Gita(07.24) speaks exactly the opposite, deeming as unintelligent those who
consider the personal a temporary manifestation of the impersonal absolute,
doesn’t seem to matter to them.
Some such commentators think of themselves as being
especially charitably disposed towards the devout when they grant personality
more than provisional existence – they deem that personality is also a feature
of the Absolute Truth, which essentially is an infinity of idealized,
universalized perfection. That their conception of perfection is stripped of
personality, reciprocity and vitality doesn’t seem to matter to them. That theGita (07.07) speaks the opposite, declaring that there’s no higher truth than
the personal manifestation of Krishna, doesn’t seem to matter to them.
It should if what matters to us is the import of the Gita
and not the impressiveness of the intellectual gymnastics of its commentators.
Significantly, the Gita doesn’t need such gymnastics from
self-appointed arbiters of its meaning. It declares that personality is not
just a pointer to some higher impersonal Absolute Truth. Rather, everything
else, including the impersonal manifestation, is a pointer to the personal Absolute
Truth, as the Gita (10.41) emphasizes. This subordination of the impersonal to
the personal is evident also in the Gita’s declaration (18.54) that those who
attain impersonal realization thereafter graduate to personal devotion.
The personal manifestation is thus the pinnacle of the
Absolute Truth – and that pinnacle sustains all the other manifestations of the
Absolute Truth, including the impersonal, as the Gita (14.29) indicates.
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