The Hamsa-Gita is contained in slokas 22 to 54 of chapter 4 of Skandha VI of Srimad Bhagavata.
Sri Suka said:
1. He (Daksha) extolled the worshipful Lord, who is not perceived by the senses, with a hymn known as Hamsaguhya, which pleased the Lord very much; I shall transmit it
to you.
The Prajapati Daksha said:
2. Salutations to the Supreme Being whose experience is Truth abiding, who is the sustainer of both Maya and the Jiva, whose glorious presence is not felt by people with intelligence overpowered by longing for material fulfillments, who transcends all the ordinary means of knowledge but is intuited as Self-effulgent Consciousness.
What is ‘Truth’? Truth is experience of the Reality in one’s consciousness. ‘I have nothing to do with sorrow, with actions, with delusion or desire. I am at peace, free from sorrow. I am the Brahman’ – such is the Truth. ‘I am free from all defects; I am the All; I do not seek anything nor do I abandon anything; I am the Brahman’ – such is the Truth. ‘I am consciousness; I am the Brahman’ – such is the Truth. ‘I am the entire space; I am the Brahman’ – such is the Truth. ‘I am the consciousness in which all
things are strung and through whose power all beings engage themselves in all their activities; I am the essence of all things’ – such is the Truth. ‘All things exist in the
Brahman; all things flow from IT; all things are the Brahman; IT is omnipresent; IT is the One Self; IT is the Truth’- such is the Truth.
“Even as the taste of the juice of sugarcane cultivated in a hundred fields is uniform and the same, so the consciousness indwelling all beings is the same – that
consciousness I am. I am that conscious energy (cit-sakti) which is larger than the universe and yet subtler than the minutest sub-atomic particle and, therefore, invisible. I am the consciousness that exists everywhere like butter in milk, and whose very nature is experiencing. That consciousness is the reality that bestows the individual
characteristic on each and every substance of the universe. It is continuous and homogenous in waking, dreaming, deep-sleep and the transcendental state of
consciousness. It is devoid of desire and ego-sense, and is indivisible”. Established in the realization of this Truth, the great sages have lived forever in peace and equanimity.
The Truth which is omnipresent and which is pure consciousness devoid of objectivity is referred to variously as Consciousness, Self, The Brahman, Existence, Truth,
Reality, Order and also Pure-knowledge. IT is pure and in Its light all beings know their own self.
The enquiry of Non-dualism is ontology of the Spirit. Sankara, the greatest exponent of the Non-dualism of the Vedanta introduces the concept of Maya, synonymous with
Prakrti as the instrument that creates, sustains and dissolves the world of forms and names. Maya is indescribable. It is neither existent, nor non-existent, nor both. It is not existent, for the Brahman alone is the existent (sat). It is not non-existent, for it is responsible for the appearance of the world. It cannot be both existent and non-existent as such a statement is self-contradictory. It is thus neither real, nor unreal; it is Mithya. But it is not a non-entity or a figment of imagination like the son of a barren woman. In the example of a rope mistaken for a snake, the rope is the ground on which the illusion of snake is super-imposed. When right knowledge dawns, the illusion disappears. The relation between the rope and the snake is neither that of identity nor of difference, nor of both. It is unique and known as non-difference (tadatmya). Similarly, the Brahman is the ground, the substratum on which the world appears through Its potency – Maya. When right knowledge dawns, the real nature of the world is realized as Maya disappears.
Mind is the individualized consciousness with its own manifold potentialities, even as spices have taste in them. That consciousness is the subtle or ethereal body. When it
becomes gross, it appears to be a physical or material body. That individualized consciousness itself is known as the Jiva or the individual soul when the potentialities are in an extremely subtle state. When the Jiva sheds its individuality, it shines as the Supreme Being.
3. Just as the object of a sense, though in intimate contact with that sense, does not perceive that sense as the sense perceives the object, even so the Supreme Being,
the friend and lover of the Jiva, is present with the Jiva in the same body, but the Jiva knows Him not, the universal witness, and His love. To that Supreme Being, my
salutations!
Perception (pratyaksa) is direct knowledge of objects through senses and mind. It is external and internal. The senses come into contact with the objects, mind with the
senses and the ‘I’ consciousness with mind. Knowledge arises as consciousness, when mind and the ‘I’ consciousness or atman come into contact. Internal objects like
pains and pleasures are known by mind coming directly into contact with them without the aid of senses. Mind directly conveys them to the ‘I’ consciousness. This concept
of perception excludes the theory of correspondence.
What cannot come into contact with the senses is not considered an object of sense perception. An individual is no other than the Jiva in Consciousness. How does the Jiva perceive the objects outside? On account of the notion of ‘I am’, consciousness abides as Jiva in the body. When its senses descend upon similar bodies outside itself, there is contact between the two and there is a desire to know and to become one with them. When there is this contact, the object is reflected within itself and the Jiva perceives this reflection, though it believes that the reflection is outside. The Jiva knows only this reflection, which means it knows itself. This contact is the cause of the perception of the external objects. If the consciousness within is tranquil and placid, the whole perceived world is tranquil and placid. If the consciousness within is agitated, the perceived world is no different.
The Brahman is undifferentiated. The entire creation is like a stage on which all the potencies of consciousness dance to the tune of time. The foremost among them is
known as order – the natural order of things and sequences. It is this potency that ordains that each thing from the blade of grass to the creator Brahma should have a
characteristic. This natural order is what causes the world-appearance. The Supreme Being is the witness consciousness of this cosmic dance – world-appearance. IT is not different from the cosmic natural order and the happenings. The witness consciousness relating to the Brahman is the Cosmic Mind, which is the attribute itself. The idea of the witness consciousness is closely related to the ideas of being and becoming. This is to say that without something the same running through the different instants and moments of becoming, becoming cannot be becoming. The self-conscious beings are aware of the process of becoming so far as they are concerned.
