Verse 15.16

Verse 15.16: are the Purushas (Self-subsisting Entities) in this world: the Mutable and the Immutable. The Mutable is (the totality of) all beings; what stays unperturbed is called the Immutable. (471)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Then God said, Oh “Savyasachi (an epithet of Arjuna) the population of this town of the world-affairs is very small, there dwelling only two Purushas there. Both these live in the capital town of worldaffairs, as both the light and the darkness dwell in the sky. There is also a third Purusha, who does not even bear (to hear) the names of these two, and who with his eyes (on his arrival) immediately devours both these along with the town. Let that be kept apart for the timebeing. First, hear about these two who have come to reside in this town. One of these is blind, idiotic, and cripple, while the other is fully developed in bodily form. They have come into close association with each other, residing as they do in one and the same town. The one is called ‘Kshara’ (kṣara—Mutable) and the other is called ‘Akshara’ (akṣara—Immutable) and these two, between themselves, pervade the entire town (mundane affairs). I now expound to you in detail which of these is ‘Kshara’ and what is the aspect of ‘Akshara’.

That which exists—from the primeval intellect (Mahattatva—mahattattva) down to the very straw, Oh Dhanurdhara, that small and big, mobile and immobile (there exists)—nay all that which is preceptible to the mind and to the intellect; that which is formed from the five gross elements and has got form and name, and falls into the clutches of the three Gunas (Constituent-aspects): that gold from which are minted all the coins in the form of the entire class of beings, and those ‘cowries’ (kavaḍī—substitute for dice in gambling) with which gambles the ‘Kala’ (Time): that which is known through perverse knowledge (delusion): that which gets created and destroyed almost every moment: that which having created forests of delusion constructs the (body) form of the universe—in fact all that which is called nature: that which is shown (before) as the Prakriti (nature) of eightfold constitution or which is described as Kshetra (field) constituted of 36 elements—how far to repeat what has already been preached before, and which has again just been preached to you, under the allegory of a tree. Taking all this (having form) as its place the sentience has itself taken that form. A lion sees his own form reflected in a well (full of water) and mistaking it for another lion, he is highly excited and vehemently leaps into the well; or the reflection of the sky falls on the water which has that very sky as one of its component parts; in that way, the sentience although non-dual, assumes duality.

The soul, Oh Arjuna, fancying the town with form in this light (as his own place of living) forgets itself and goes and sleeps there. Just as one should, in a dream, see a bedroom and then should go and sleep there, in that way, the soul goes and sleeps in that imaginary town. Then in deep slumber he snores and blurts out ‘I’ am happy’—T am miserable’ and talks loudly in sleep in the phraseology of ‘I’-ness’ and ‘My-ness,’ such as, ‘This is my father, my mother, this is myself, fair or defective (in some limb) son, riches and wife—are these things not mine own?’ Labouring under such a dream he runs wildly through the wood in the form of this world, and the heaven. Such a sentience, is called ‘Kshara’ (mutable) Purusha.

Now the one who is called the field-owner ($w) and whose state of being is called the ‘soul’ (jīva) and who forgets himself and dances to the tune of the Gunas in all the beings, that individual soul is called Kshara Purusha. Since he himself constitutes Supreme Brahman the name Purusha becomes him. Besides, since he abides in a sleeping condition in the body, he is eligible to be called Purusha: so also being a slave to the attributes, he becomes subject to the false accusation of being mutable, prone to decay, as also non-etemal. Just as the reflection of the moon appears swinging backward and forward along with rippling water, in that way it appears as if he is swiftly changing owing to the disorders (i.e. mutations) of the attributes.

When the rippling water-flow gets dried up, the reflection of the moon also disappears, and in that way, when the attributes are destroyed, the mutations created by them also cease to appear. In this way, he appears to be endowed with momentary existence on account of the powerful influence of the attributes, and this weakness in him secures for him the name ‘mutable’. Therefore the totality of embodied sentience should be known as Kshara person (kṣara-puruṣa—Mutable). I shall make it clear to you now what is ‘Akshara’ (akṣara—Immutable). Another person who is also called ‘Akshara’ is, O Dhanurdara, situated in the middle part (of the body) as is the Meru, amongst the mountains. Just as the Meru stands the same (unconcerned) in relation to all the three divisions of the universe, viz. Earth, Patala (pātāla—the region under the earth), and Heavens, in that way the Immutable Purusha stands unconcerned in relation to both Knowledge and Nescience. Real knowledge does not achieve his unity, nor is nescience capable of differentiating him. Such pure (unalloyed) unknowingness is his form.

Earth’s loose particles cease completely to be particles, and pots and other things are not yet fashioned out of the (wet) lump; this person sitting in the middle part is like such a (wet) lump of earth. With the sea getting dried up, there remain neither waves nor water: such is the formless state of this Madhyama Purusha (madhyama-puruṣa—Man in the middle). He can be likened to that state of sleepy drowsiness, that lies between the passing away of the state of waking and the coming of the dreamy state. That state of entire ignorance (absence of consciousness) is called ‘Akshara’ that lies between the elimination of illusive existence of the universe and the dawn of knowledge of the self. This aspect of the ‘Akshara’ is like that of the Moon on the Amavasya Night (last night of the lunar month) completely stripped off of all her phases.

The tree (state) is merged in the seed when the fruit ripens; in that way that in which the state of living gets extinguished after the destruction of all the attributes, (that place) is called ‘the unmanifested’ (avyakta). The state of deep ignorance—deep slumber, is called the seed while the states of dream and wakefulness; are its fruit. That which is called the seed-state (bījabhāva) in the Vedanta Scripture, is the abode of the ‘Akshara Purusha’ (Immutable person).

That from which issues perverse knowledge, which is responsible for the states of wakefulness and dream and from which arises the forest in the form of multiplex ideas and fancy—that stage, Oh Kiriti, from which the sentient principle springs up, simultaneously moulding along with itself the entire world of beings, where meet together the non-manifested and manifested (duality and non-duality)—that state is the ‘Akshara Purusha’: that from which are created the two states of wakefulness and dream, which are made the subject of play (activity) by the other ‘Kshara’ Purusha (Mutable person), that state which is known as deep slumber, arising out of ignorance-, which stands on a lower plane than that of Supreme Brahman, and which, had it not been followed by the other states of dream and wakefulness, would aptly have been designated ‘Supreme Brahman’;—that state in the form of the sky in which arise two clouds in the form of Prakriti and Purusha; and which (state) witnesses the field and the field-knower in a dream—in short, that which is the root of the world tree that has spread out its branches—that is the form of Akshara Purusha.

With such a perfect form of Self, why is he called Purusha? (The answer is) because he indulges in slumber in the town of Maya (illusion), the slumber in which (state) are not experienced the activities of emotions, another type of perverse knowledge: therefore he is never modified by virtue of his nature, nor does he perish for want of knowledge. Therefore, with great fanfare he is declared ‘Akshara’ Purusha in the sphere of the theories of the Vedanta Philosophy. In short, that Akshara Purusha, who is the cause of the embodied souls (and the rest of the creation) through his association with Maya (illusion), is none else than sentience (caitanya).