आश्चर्यवत्पश्यति कश्चिदेन
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आश्चर्यवच्चैनमन्य: शृ्णोति
श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित् || 29||
āśhcharya-vat paśhyati kaśhchid enan
āśhcharya-vad vadati tathaiva chānyaḥ
āśhcharya-vach chainam anyaḥ śhṛiṇoti
śhrutvāpyenaṁ veda na chaiva kaśhchit
āśhcharya-vat—as amazing; paśhyati—see; kaśhchit—someone; enam—this soul; āśhcharya-vat—as amazing; vadati—speak of; tathā—thus; eva—indeed; cha—and; anyaḥ—other; āśhcharya-vat—similarly amazing; cha—also; enam—this soul; anyaḥ—others; śhṛiṇoti—hear; śhrutvā—having heard; api—even; enam—this soul; veda—understand; na—not; cha—and; eva—even; kaśhchit—some
Translation:
Some look on the Self as a wonder; some speak of It as a wonder; some hear of It as a wonder; still others, though hearing, do not understand It at all.
Commentary:
Spiritual science does not end with mere theory. It is a practical experience. Only by experience does a man know the Self and understand what it is and how it functions in the practical world. But, for such direct experience, much good should have accumulated in the past, the mind should have been purified and freed from all bad tendencies. Therefore only the man who has long practiced the control of the senses, (` Sama’ and Dama’), and who has gone through many forms of spiritual discipline, is qualified to enter the domain of the Self. Others, though they enquire after the truth, are far away from understanding and realizing it. When the mirror is clear, the image is reflected clearly in it. A pure cloth can easily be dyed with any color. The seed sown in a watered ground soon sprouts into a plant. Even so, when the mind is pure, the Self is reflected in it clearly. But such men of pure mind are rare. So spiritual experience is a rare achievement for any human being. The same idea is expressed in the Katha Upanishad.
The man of heroic courage and determination desiring immortality turns the out-going senses and mind inwards and sees the supreme Self.
The Self is not an object to be seen or spoken or heard of. It is beyond the senses and mind. It is the subtlest of the subtle. It is hidden in the inmost recesses of the heart. By selfless action, devotion, dispassion, mediation, and such other methods, the heart should first be purified, and the inquiry for the Self should be continued for a long time before the Self is directly perceived. The Lord does not say that no one knows Him. He means only that such men are rare.
Since the Self is entirely different from any object seen or known, it is looked upon as wonder.
The verse may also mean that the speaker, the hearer, and the knower of the Supreme Being are all men of wonder.
Swami Vivekananda Says —
Some look at It [the Self] with wonder. Some talk of It as wonderful. Others hear of It as wonderful. Others, hearing of It, do not understand.[Source]
In the Ramakrishna Incarnation there is knowledge, devotion and love — infinite knowledge, infinite love, infinite work, infinite compassion for all beings. You have not yet been able to understand him. “श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित् — Even after hearing about Him, most people do not understand Him.” What the whole Hindu race has thought in ages, he lived in one life. His life is the living commentary to the Vedas of all nations. People will come to know him by degrees.[Source]
But it falleth out, that many who often hear the Gospel of Christ, are yet but little affected, because they are void of the Spirit of Christ. But whosoever would fully and feelingly understand the words of Christ, must endeavour to conform his life wholly to the life of Christ.[Source] (The Imitation of Christ, V. 2.) (*1)
Sri Ramakrishna Says —
A BRAHMO DEVOTEE: “Sir, has God forms or has He none?”
MASTER: “No one can say with finality that God is only ‘this’ and nothing else. He is formless, and again He has forms. For the bhakta He assumes forms. But He is formless for the jnani, that is, for him who looks on the world as a mere dream. The bhakta feels that he is one entity and the world another. Therefore God, reveals Himself to him as a Person. But the jnani — the Vedantist, for instance — always reasons, applying the process of ‘Not this, not this’. Through this discrimination he realises, by his inner perception, that the ego and the universe are both illusory, like a dream. Then the jnani realises Brahman in his own consciousness. He cannot describe what Brahman is.
“Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge- Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta’s love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn’t feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God’s forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his ‘I’ any more.
“If one analyses oneself, one doesn’t find any such thing as ‘I’. Take an onion, for instance. First of all you peel off the red outer skin; then you find thick white skins. Peel these off one after the other, and you won’t find anything inside.
“In that state a man no longer finds the existence of his ego. And who is there left to seek it? Who can describe how he feels in that state — in his own Pure Consciousness — about the real nature of Brahman? Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. No sooner was it in the water than it melted. Now who was to tell the depth?
“There is a sign of Perfect Knowledge. Man becomes silent when It is attained. Then the ‘I’, which may be likened to the salt doll, melts in the Ocean of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute and becomes one with It. Not the slightest trace of distinction is left.
“As long as his self-analysis is not complete, man argues with much ado. But he becomes silent when he completes it. When the empty pitcher has been filled with water, when the water inside the pitcher becomes one with the water of the lake outside, no more sound is heard. Sound comes from the pitcher as long as the pitcher is not filled with water.
“People used to say in olden days that no boat returns after having once entered the black waters’ of the ocean.
“All trouble and botheration come to an end when the ‘I’ dies. You may indulge in thousands of reasonings, but still the ‘I’ doesn’t disappear. For people like you and me, it is good to have the feeling, ‘I am a lover of God.’
“The Saguna Brahman is meant for the bhaktas. In other words, a bhakta believes that God has attributes and reveals Himself to men as a Person, assuming forms. It is He who listens to our prayers. The prayers that you utter are directed to Him alone. You are bhaktas, not jnanis or Vedantists. It doesn’t matter whether you accept God with form or not. It is enough to feel that God is a Person who listens to our prayers, who creates, preserves, and destroys the universe, and who is endowed with infinite power.
“It is easier to attain God by following the path of devotion.”
BRAHMO DEVOTEE: “Sir, is it possible for one to see God? If so, why can’t we see Him?”
MASTER: “Yes, He can surely be seen. One can see His forms, and His formless aspect as well. How can I explain that to you?” (Source: Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna)
Many there are who do not even hear of Atman; though hearing of Him, many do not comprehend. Wonderful is the expounder and rare the hearer; rare indeed is the experiencer of Atman taught by an able preceptor. (Katha Upanishad 1.2.7)
[*1] This passage is the English version of Swami Vivekananda’s translation of The Imitation of Christ (V. 2) into Bengali. To this he had supplied the following footnote referring to the Gita (2. 29): श्रुत्वाप्येनं वेद न चैव कश्चित्। “Others, hearing of It, do not understand.”
