Chapter 7 Shloka 9
पुण्यो गन्ध: पृथिव्यां च तेजश्चास्मि विभावसौ।
जीवनं सर्वभूतेषु तपश्चास्मि तपस्विषु।।९।।
Little one, in order to aid your practice, the Lord now repeats:
I am the sweet fragrance of the earth; I am the brilliance of the fire; I am the life that permeates all living beings; I am the austerity of the tapasvi.
The Lord says, “I am the life that inheres all living beings. I am their life breath or praan.”
1. If life itself is the Lord’s, is there any place for the ‘I’?
2. All interact within the orbit of those attributes that are created by Him. Then which deeds can be attributed to the ‘I’?
3. The individual is rendered conscious when he receives that consciousness from Brahm. Then how can one take pride in the possession of that consciousness?
4. And which are the deeds that the ‘I’ can truly claim as its own?
The ‘I’ is ever the non-doer.
Understand this once more:
a) This body is His.
b) The mind is His.
c) The intellect is His.
d) All actions transpire through the qualities which are of His making.
e) This life too, is His.
Then where is there any place for the ‘I’?
The Lord says:
1. I am the pure fragrance in the earth.
2. I am the life breath of the universe.
3. I am the creative energy of the earth.
4. I am the austerity practised by the tapasvi.
5. I am the energy that enables those tapasvis to withstand the most fearful sorrows.
6. I am the brilliant energy of the tapasvi.
The Lord explains further that:
a) He Himself is the brilliance of the fire.
b) He is the warmth therein.
c) He is the energy that causes fire to burn and destroy.
d) He is the energy of digestion.
e) He is the heat that enables fire to cook.
Little one, if the Lord is all these, of what consequence is this ‘I’? What status does it have?
When the Lord Himself says, “I am this fragrance, energy, life and tapas itself,” then this ‘I’ which I have been claiming till now is also the Lord.
