Chapter Three
The Human Disciple
Note 3.2
Vedic origin of the concept of Human Soul and Divine in Chariot
▀ ▄ ▀ Vedic origin of the concept of Human Soul and Divine in a Chariot
We have seen that Arjuna is the representative man of a great world-knowledge and divinely-guided movement of men and nations.
In the Gita he typifies the human soul of action brought face to face through that action in its highest and most violent crisis. This crisis is related to the problem of human life and its apparent incompatibility with the spiritual state.
This incompatibility is even with a purely ethical ideal of perfection.
Arjuna is the fighter in the chariot with the divine Krishna as his charioteer. The Veda also depict this image of the human soul and the divine riding in one chariot through a great battle to the goal of a high-aspiring effort. However, in Veda it is a pure figure and a symbol.
This is explained as follows :
▀ Divine : There Indra is the Divine. He is master of the world of Light and Immortality. He is the power of divine knowledge. This power descends to the aid of the human seeker battling with the sons of falsehood, darkness, limitation and mortality.
▀ Battle : The battle is with the spiritual enemies. These enemies obstruct the way to the higher world of our being.
▀ Goal : And the goal is that place of vast being which is resplendent with the light of the supreme Truth and uplifted to the conscious immortality of the perfected soul. Indra is the master of this perfected soul.
▀ Human Soul : Kutsa is the human soul. He constantly seeks the seer-knowledge, as his name implies. He is the son of Arjuna or Arjuni. The White One, child of Switra the White Mother.
The Human Soul represents the sattwic or purified and light-filled soul. He is open to the unbroken glories of the divine knowledge. End of the journey is the home of the Indra.
By the time the chariot has reached the end of its journey the human Kutsa has grown into an exact likeness of his divine companion.
He can only be distinguished by Suchi, who is the wife of Indra. Suchi can do this because she is “truth-conscious”.
This parable is obviously of the inner life of man. It is a figure of the human growing into the likeness of the eternal divine by the increasing illumination of Knowledge. On the other hand, Gita starts from action and Arjuna is the man of action and not of knowledge. He is the fighter, never the seer or the thinker.
From the beginning of the Gita this characteristic temperament of the disciple (i.e. man of action and not of knowledge) is clearly indicated. It is also maintained throughout.
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....... ▀ ▄ Chapter Three - Note 2 ▄ ▀ ........
The Human Disciple
.......... to continue
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