SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 11(Gita.11)
https://youtu.be/RgmhcSLVoW8
SRIMAD BHAGAWAD GITA CHAPTER 11
अथ एकादशोஉध्यायः ।
अर्जुन उवाच ।
मदनुग्रहाय परमं गुह्यमध्यात्मसञ्ज्ञितम् ।
यत्त्वयोक्तं वचस्तेन मोहोஉयं विगतो मम ॥ 1 ॥
मदनुग्रहाय परमं गुह्यमध्यात्मसञ्ज्ञितम् ।
यत्त्वयोक्तं वचस्तेन मोहोஉयं विगतो मम ॥ 1 ॥
भवाप्ययौ हि भूतानां श्रुतौ विस्तरशो मया ।
त्वत्तः कमलपत्राक्ष माहात्म्यमपि चाव्ययम् ॥ 2 ॥
त्वत्तः कमलपत्राक्ष माहात्म्यमपि चाव्ययम् ॥ 2 ॥
एवमेतद्यथात्थ त्वमात्मानं परमेश्वर ।
द्रष्टुमिच्छामि ते रूपमैश्वरं पुरुषोत्तम ॥ 3 ॥
द्रष्टुमिच्छामि ते रूपमैश्वरं पुरुषोत्तम ॥ 3 ॥
मन्यसे यदि तच्छक्यं मया द्रष्टुमिति प्रभो ।
योगेश्वर ततो मे त्वं दर्शयात्मानमव्ययम् ॥ 4 ॥
योगेश्वर ततो मे त्वं दर्शयात्मानमव्ययम् ॥ 4 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोஉथ सहस्रशः ।
नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च ॥ 5 ॥
पश्य मे पार्थ रूपाणि शतशोஉथ सहस्रशः ।
नानाविधानि दिव्यानि नानावर्णाकृतीनि च ॥ 5 ॥
पश्यादित्यान्वसून्रुद्रानश्विनौ मरुतस्तथा ।
बहून्यदृष्टपूर्वाणि पश्याश्चर्याणि भारत ॥ 6 ॥
बहून्यदृष्टपूर्वाणि पश्याश्चर्याणि भारत ॥ 6 ॥
इहैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं पश्याद्य सचराचरम् ।
मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद्द्रष्टुमिच्छसि ॥ 7 ॥
मम देहे गुडाकेश यच्चान्यद्द्रष्टुमिच्छसि ॥ 7 ॥
न तु मां शक्यसे द्रष्टुमनेनैव स्वचक्षुषा ।
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ॥ 8 ॥
दिव्यं ददामि ते चक्षुः पश्य मे योगमैश्वरम् ॥ 8 ॥
सञ्जय उवाच ।
एवमुक्त्वा ततो राजन्महायोगेश्वरो हरिः ।
दर्शयामास पार्थाय परमं रूपमैश्वरम् ॥ 9 ॥
एवमुक्त्वा ततो राजन्महायोगेश्वरो हरिः ।
दर्शयामास पार्थाय परमं रूपमैश्वरम् ॥ 9 ॥
अनेकवक्त्रनयनमनेकाद्भुतदर्शनम् ।
अनेकदिव्याभरणं दिव्यानेकोद्यतायुधम् ॥ 10 ॥
अनेकदिव्याभरणं दिव्यानेकोद्यतायुधम् ॥ 10 ॥
दिव्यमाल्याम्बरधरं दिव्यगन्धानुलेपनम् ।
सर्वाश्चर्यमयं देवमनन्तं विश्वतोमुखम् ॥ 11 ॥
सर्वाश्चर्यमयं देवमनन्तं विश्वतोमुखम् ॥ 11 ॥
दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता ।
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ॥ 12 ॥
यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्भासस्तस्य महात्मनः ॥ 12 ॥
तत्रैकस्थं जगत्कृत्स्नं प्रविभक्तमनेकधा ।
अपश्यद्देवदेवस्य शरीरे पाण्डवस्तदा ॥ 13 ॥
अपश्यद्देवदेवस्य शरीरे पाण्डवस्तदा ॥ 13 ॥
ततः स विस्मयाविष्टो हृष्टरोमा धनञ्जयः ।
प्रणम्य शिरसा देवं कृताञ्जलिरभाषत ॥ 14 ॥
प्रणम्य शिरसा देवं कृताञ्जलिरभाषत ॥ 14 ॥
अर्जुन उवाच ।
पश्यामि देवांस्तव देव देहे सर्वांस्तथा भूतविशेषसङ्घान् ।
ब्रह्माणमीशं कमलासनस्थमृषींश्च सर्वानुरगांश्च दिव्यान् ॥ 15 ॥
पश्यामि देवांस्तव देव देहे सर्वांस्तथा भूतविशेषसङ्घान् ।
ब्रह्माणमीशं कमलासनस्थमृषींश्च सर्वानुरगांश्च दिव्यान् ॥ 15 ॥
अनेकबाहूदरवक्त्रनेत्रं पश्यामि त्वां सर्वतोஉनन्तरूपम् ।
नान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस्तवादिं पश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप ॥ 16 ॥
नान्तं न मध्यं न पुनस्तवादिं पश्यामि विश्वेश्वर विश्वरूप ॥ 16 ॥
किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रिणं च तेजोराशिं सर्वतो दीप्तिमन्तम् ।
पश्यामि त्वां दुर्निरीक्ष्यं समन्ताद्दीप्तानलार्कद्युतिमप्रमेयम् ॥ 17 ॥
पश्यामि त्वां दुर्निरीक्ष्यं समन्ताद्दीप्तानलार्कद्युतिमप्रमेयम् ॥ 17 ॥
त्वमक्षरं परमं वेदितव्यं त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् ।
त्वमव्ययः शाश्वतधर्मगोप्ता सनातनस्त्वं पुरुषो मतो मे ॥ 18 ॥
त्वमव्ययः शाश्वतधर्मगोप्ता सनातनस्त्वं पुरुषो मतो मे ॥ 18 ॥
अनादिमध्यान्तमनन्तवीर्यमनन्तबाहुं शशिसूर्यनेत्रम् ।
पश्यामि त्वां दीप्तहुताशवक्त्रं स्वतेजसा विश्वमिदं तपन्तम् ॥ 19 ॥
पश्यामि त्वां दीप्तहुताशवक्त्रं स्वतेजसा विश्वमिदं तपन्तम् ॥ 19 ॥
द्यावापृथिव्योरिदमन्तरं हि व्याप्तं त्वयैकेन दिशश्च सर्वाः ।
दृष्ट्वाद्भुतं रूपमुग्रं तवेदं लोकत्रयं प्रव्यथितं महात्मन् ॥ 20 ॥
दृष्ट्वाद्भुतं रूपमुग्रं तवेदं लोकत्रयं प्रव्यथितं महात्मन् ॥ 20 ॥
अमी हि त्वां सुरसङ्घा विशन्ति केचिद्भीताः प्राञ्जलयो गृणन्ति ।
स्वस्तीत्युक्त्वा महर्षिसिद्धसङ्घाः स्तुवन्ति त्वां स्तुतिभिः पुष्कलाभिः ॥ 21 ॥
स्वस्तीत्युक्त्वा महर्षिसिद्धसङ्घाः स्तुवन्ति त्वां स्तुतिभिः पुष्कलाभिः ॥ 21 ॥
रुद्रादित्या वसवो ये च साध्या विश्वेஉश्विनौ मरुतश्चोष्मपाश्च ।
गन्धर्वयक्षासुरसिद्धसङ्घा वीक्षन्ते त्वां विस्मिताश्चैव सर्वे ॥ 22 ॥
गन्धर्वयक्षासुरसिद्धसङ्घा वीक्षन्ते त्वां विस्मिताश्चैव सर्वे ॥ 22 ॥
रूपं महत्ते बहुवक्त्रनेत्रं महाबाहो बहुबाहूरुपादम् ।
बहूदरं बहुदंष्ट्राकरालं दृष्ट्वा लोकाः प्रव्यथितास्तथाहम् ॥ 23 ॥
बहूदरं बहुदंष्ट्राकरालं दृष्ट्वा लोकाः प्रव्यथितास्तथाहम् ॥ 23 ॥
नभःस्पृशं दीप्तमनेकवर्णं व्यात्ताननं दीप्तविशालनेत्रम् ।
दृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा धृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो ॥ 24 ॥
दृष्ट्वा हि त्वां प्रव्यथितान्तरात्मा धृतिं न विन्दामि शमं च विष्णो ॥ 24 ॥
दंष्ट्राकरालानि च ते मुखानि दृष्ट्वैव कालानलसंनिभानि ।
दिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ॥ 25 ॥
दिशो न जाने न लभे च शर्म प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ॥ 25 ॥
अमी च त्वां धृतराष्ट्रस्य पुत्राः सर्वे सहैवावनिपालसङ्घैः ।
भीष्मो द्रोणः सूतपुत्रस्तथासौ सहास्मदीयैरपि योधमुख्यैः ॥ 26 ॥
भीष्मो द्रोणः सूतपुत्रस्तथासौ सहास्मदीयैरपि योधमुख्यैः ॥ 26 ॥
वक्त्राणि ते त्वरमाणा विशन्ति दंष्ट्राकरालानि भयानकानि ।
केचिद्विलग्ना दशनान्तरेषु सन्दृश्यन्ते चूर्णितैरुत्तमाङ्गैः ॥ 27 ॥
केचिद्विलग्ना दशनान्तरेषु सन्दृश्यन्ते चूर्णितैरुत्तमाङ्गैः ॥ 27 ॥
यथा नदीनां बहवोஉम्बुवेगाः समुद्रमेवाभिमुखा द्रवन्ति ।
तथा तवामी नरलोकवीरा विशन्ति वक्त्राण्यभिविज्वलन्ति ॥ 28 ॥
तथा तवामी नरलोकवीरा विशन्ति वक्त्राण्यभिविज्वलन्ति ॥ 28 ॥
यथा प्रदीप्तं ज्वलनं पतङ्गा विशन्ति नाशाय समृद्धवेगाः ।
तथैव नाशाय विशन्ति लोकास्तवापि वक्त्राणि समृद्धवेगाः ॥ 29 ॥
तथैव नाशाय विशन्ति लोकास्तवापि वक्त्राणि समृद्धवेगाः ॥ 29 ॥
लेलिह्यसे ग्रसमानः समन्ताल्लोकान्समग्रान्वदनैर्ज्वलद्भिः ।
तेजोभिरापूर्य जगत्समग्रं भासस्तवोग्राः प्रतपन्ति विष्णो ॥ 30 ॥
तेजोभिरापूर्य जगत्समग्रं भासस्तवोग्राः प्रतपन्ति विष्णो ॥ 30 ॥
आख्याहि मे को भवानुग्ररूपो नमोஉस्तु ते देववर प्रसीद ।
विज्ञातुमिच्छामि भवन्तमाद्यं न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिम् ॥ 31 ॥
विज्ञातुमिच्छामि भवन्तमाद्यं न हि प्रजानामि तव प्रवृत्तिम् ॥ 31 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
कालोஉस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः ।
ऋतेஉपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येஉवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः ॥ 32 ॥
कालोஉस्मि लोकक्षयकृत्प्रवृद्धो लोकान्समाहर्तुमिह प्रवृत्तः ।
ऋतेஉपि त्वां न भविष्यन्ति सर्वे येஉवस्थिताः प्रत्यनीकेषु योधाः ॥ 32 ॥
तस्मात्त्वमुत्तिष्ठ यशो लभस्व जित्वा शत्रून्भुङ्क्ष्व राज्यं समृद्धम् ।
मयैवैते निहताः पूर्वमेव निमित्तमात्रं भव सव्यसाचिन् ॥ 33 ॥
मयैवैते निहताः पूर्वमेव निमित्तमात्रं भव सव्यसाचिन् ॥ 33 ॥
द्रोणं च भीष्मं च जयद्रथं च कर्णं तथान्यानपि योधवीरान् ।
मया हतांस्त्वं जहि मा व्यथिष्ठा युध्यस्व जेतासि रणे सपत्नान् ॥ 34 ॥
मया हतांस्त्वं जहि मा व्यथिष्ठा युध्यस्व जेतासि रणे सपत्नान् ॥ 34 ॥
सञ्जय उवाच ।
एतच्छ्रुत्वा वचनं केशवस्य कृताञ्जलिर्वेपमानः किरीटी ।
नमस्कृत्वा भूय एवाह कृष्णं सगद्गदं भीतभीतः प्रणम्य ॥ 35 ॥
एतच्छ्रुत्वा वचनं केशवस्य कृताञ्जलिर्वेपमानः किरीटी ।
नमस्कृत्वा भूय एवाह कृष्णं सगद्गदं भीतभीतः प्रणम्य ॥ 35 ॥
अर्जुन उवाच ।
स्थाने हृषीकेश तव प्रकीर्त्या जगत्प्रहृष्यत्यनुरज्यते च ।
रक्षांसि भीतानि दिशो द्रवन्ति सर्वे नमस्यन्ति च सिद्धसङ्घाः ॥ 36 ॥
स्थाने हृषीकेश तव प्रकीर्त्या जगत्प्रहृष्यत्यनुरज्यते च ।
रक्षांसि भीतानि दिशो द्रवन्ति सर्वे नमस्यन्ति च सिद्धसङ्घाः ॥ 36 ॥
कस्माच्च ते न नमेरन्महात्मन्गरीयसे ब्रह्मणोஉप्यादिकर्त्रे ।
अनन्त देवेश जगन्निवास त्वमक्षरं सदसत्तत्परं यत् ॥ 37 ॥
अनन्त देवेश जगन्निवास त्वमक्षरं सदसत्तत्परं यत् ॥ 37 ॥
त्वमादिदेवः पुरुषः पुराणस्त्वमस्य विश्वस्य परं निधानम् ।
वेत्तासि वेद्यं च परं च धाम त्वया ततं विश्वमनन्तरूप ॥ 38 ॥
वेत्तासि वेद्यं च परं च धाम त्वया ततं विश्वमनन्तरूप ॥ 38 ॥
वायुर्यमोஉग्निर्वरुणः शशाङ्कः प्रजापतिस्त्वं प्रपितामहश्च ।
नमो नमस्तेஉस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः पुनश्च भूयोஉपि नमो नमस्ते ॥ 39 ॥
नमो नमस्तेஉस्तु सहस्रकृत्वः पुनश्च भूयोஉपि नमो नमस्ते ॥ 39 ॥
नमः पुरस्तादथ पृष्ठतस्ते नमोஉस्तु ते सर्वत एव सर्व ।
अनन्तवीर्यामितविक्रमस्त्वं सर्वं समाप्नोषि ततोஉसि सर्वः ॥ 40 ॥
अनन्तवीर्यामितविक्रमस्त्वं सर्वं समाप्नोषि ततोஉसि सर्वः ॥ 40 ॥
सखेति मत्वा प्रसभं यदुक्तं हे कृष्ण हे यादव हे सखेति ।
अजानता महिमानं तवेदं मया प्रमादात्प्रणयेन वापि ॥ 41 ॥
अजानता महिमानं तवेदं मया प्रमादात्प्रणयेन वापि ॥ 41 ॥
यच्चावहासार्थमसत्कृतोஉसि विहारशय्यासनभोजनेषु ।
एकोஉथवाप्यच्युत तत्समक्षं तत्क्षामये त्वामहमप्रमेयम् ॥ 42 ॥
एकोஉथवाप्यच्युत तत्समक्षं तत्क्षामये त्वामहमप्रमेयम् ॥ 42 ॥
पितासि लोकस्य चराचरस्य त्वमस्य पूज्यश्च गुरुर्गरीयान् ।
न त्वत्समोஉस्त्यभ्यधिकः कुतोஉन्यो लोकत्रयेஉप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव ॥ 43 ॥
न त्वत्समोஉस्त्यभ्यधिकः कुतोஉन्यो लोकत्रयेஉप्यप्रतिमप्रभाव ॥ 43 ॥
तस्मात्प्रणम्य प्रणिधाय कायं प्रसादये त्वामहमीशमीड्यम् ।
पितेव पुत्रस्य सखेव सख्युः प्रियः प्रियायार्हसि देव सोढुम् ॥ 44 ॥
पितेव पुत्रस्य सखेव सख्युः प्रियः प्रियायार्हसि देव सोढुम् ॥ 44 ॥
अदृष्टपूर्वं हृषितोஉस्मि दृष्ट्वा भयेन च प्रव्यथितं मनो मे ।
तदेव मे दर्शय देवरूपं प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ॥ 45 ॥
तदेव मे दर्शय देवरूपं प्रसीद देवेश जगन्निवास ॥ 45 ॥
किरीटिनं गदिनं चक्रहस्तमिच्छामि त्वां द्रष्टुमहं तथैव ।
तेनैव रूपेण चतुर्भुजेन सहस्रबाहो भव विश्वमूर्ते ॥ 46 ॥
तेनैव रूपेण चतुर्भुजेन सहस्रबाहो भव विश्वमूर्ते ॥ 46 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
मया प्रसन्नेन तवार्जुनेदं रूपं परं दर्शितमात्मयोगात् ।
तेजोमयं विश्वमनन्तमाद्यं यन्मे त्वदन्येन न दृष्टपूर्वम् ॥ 47 ॥
मया प्रसन्नेन तवार्जुनेदं रूपं परं दर्शितमात्मयोगात् ।
तेजोमयं विश्वमनन्तमाद्यं यन्मे त्वदन्येन न दृष्टपूर्वम् ॥ 47 ॥
न वेदयज्ञाध्ययनैर्न दानैर्न च क्रियाभिर्न तपोभिरुग्रैः ।
एवंरूपः शक्य अहं नृलोके द्रष्टुं त्वदन्येन कुरुप्रवीर ॥ 48 ॥
एवंरूपः शक्य अहं नृलोके द्रष्टुं त्वदन्येन कुरुप्रवीर ॥ 48 ॥
मा ते व्यथा मा च विमूढभावो दृष्ट्वा रूपं घोरमीदृङ्ममेदम् ।
व्यपेतभीः प्रीतमनाः पुनस्त्वं तदेव मे रूपमिदं प्रपश्य ॥ 49 ॥
व्यपेतभीः प्रीतमनाः पुनस्त्वं तदेव मे रूपमिदं प्रपश्य ॥ 49 ॥
सञ्जय उवाच ।
इत्यर्जुनं वासुदेवस्तथोक्त्वा स्वकं रूपं दर्शयामास भूयः ।
आश्वासयामास च भीतमेनं भूत्वा पुनः सौम्यवपुर्महात्मा ॥ 50 ॥
इत्यर्जुनं वासुदेवस्तथोक्त्वा स्वकं रूपं दर्शयामास भूयः ।
आश्वासयामास च भीतमेनं भूत्वा पुनः सौम्यवपुर्महात्मा ॥ 50 ॥
अर्जुन उवाच ।
दृष्ट्वेदं मानुषं रूपं तव सौम्यं जनार्दन ।
इदानीमस्मि संवृत्तः सचेताः प्रकृतिं गतः ॥ 51 ॥
दृष्ट्वेदं मानुषं रूपं तव सौम्यं जनार्दन ।
इदानीमस्मि संवृत्तः सचेताः प्रकृतिं गतः ॥ 51 ॥
श्रीभगवानुवाच ।
सुदुर्दर्शमिदं रूपं दृष्टवानसि यन्मम ।
देवा अप्यस्य रूपस्य नित्यं दर्शनकाङ्क्षिणः ॥ 52 ॥
सुदुर्दर्शमिदं रूपं दृष्टवानसि यन्मम ।
देवा अप्यस्य रूपस्य नित्यं दर्शनकाङ्क्षिणः ॥ 52 ॥
नाहं वेदैर्न तपसा न दानेन न चेज्यया ।
शक्य एवंविधो द्रष्टुं दृष्टवानसि मां यथा ॥ 53 ॥
शक्य एवंविधो द्रष्टुं दृष्टवानसि मां यथा ॥ 53 ॥
भक्त्या त्वनन्यया शक्य अहमेवंविधोஉर्जुन ।
ज्ञातुं द्रष्टुं च तत्त्वेन प्रवेष्टुं च परन्तप ॥ 54 ॥
ज्ञातुं द्रष्टुं च तत्त्वेन प्रवेष्टुं च परन्तप ॥ 54 ॥
मत्कर्मकृन्मत्परमो मद्भक्तः सङ्गवर्जितः ।
निर्वैरः सर्वभूतेषु यः स मामेति पाण्डव ॥ 55 ॥
निर्वैरः सर्वभूतेषु यः स मामेति पाण्डव ॥ 55 ॥
ॐ तत्सदिति श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतासूपनिषत्सु ब्रह्मविद्यायां योगशास्त्रे श्रीकृष्णार्जुनसंवादे
विश्वरूपदर्शनयोगो नामैकादशोஉध्यायः ॥11 ॥
==
https://youtu.be/AVJmiv84Gs8
==========================
https://youtu.be/AVJmiv84Gs8
==========================
https://youtu.be/ZQJxbbeJxmE
XI
The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form
Summary of Eleventh Discourse
Arjuna’s doubts having been removed through a clear description of the nature of the Atman and the origin and destruction of all created things, he is now ready to behold the Cosmic Vision.
Krishna grants him the divine sight by means of which Arjuna beholds the Lord as the vast Cosmic Manifestation. The vision is at once all-comprehensive and simultaneous. In every direction Arjuna sees the Lord as the entire universe. All the created worlds, gods, beings, creatures and things stand revealed as the one gigantic body of the Lord.
Arjuna further sees that the great cosmic drama is set in motion and controlled by the all-mighty power of the Lord. His Will alone prevails in all things and actions, both good and bad. The Lord exhorts him to fight, he being only an apparent cause of the destruction of his enemies.
Arjuna is unable to bear the pressure of the sudden expansion of consciousness and is filled with fear. He begs the Lord to assume once more His usual form.
Krishna reiterates that this vision cannot be had through any amount of austerities, study, sacrifices or philanthrophic acts. Supreme devotion is the only means by which one can have access to His grand vision.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Madanugrahaaya paramam guhyamadhyaatmasamjnitam; Yattwayoktam vachastena moho’yam vigato mama.
Arjuna said:
1. By this explanation of the highest secret concerning the Self, which Thou hast spoken out of compassion towards me my delusion is gone.
COMMENTARY: After hearing the glories of the Lord, Arjuna has an intense longing to have the wonderful Cosmic Vision.
Bhavaapyayau hi bhootaanaam shrutau vistarasho mayaa; Twattah kamalapatraaksha maahaatmyamapi chaavyayam.
2. The origin and the destruction of beings verily have been heard by me in detail from Thee, O lotus-eyed Lord, and also Thy inexhaustible greatness!
Evametadyathaattha twamaatmaanam parameshwara; Drashtumicchaami te roopamaishwaram purushottama.
3. (Now), O Supreme Lord, as Thou hast thus described Thyself, O Supreme Person, I wish to see Thy Divine Form!
Manyase yadi tacchakyam mayaa drashtumiti prabho; Yogeshwara tato me twam darshayaatmaanamavyayam.
4. If Thou, O Lord, thinkest it possible for me to see it, do Thou, then, O Lord of the Yogis, show me Thy imperishable Self!
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Pashya me paartha roopaani shatasho’tha sahasrashah; Naanaavidhaani divyaani naanaavarnaakriteeni cha.
The Blessed Lord said:
5. Behold, O Arjuna, My forms by the hundreds and thousands, of different sorts, divine and of various colours and shapes!
Pashyaadityaan vasoon rudraan ashwinau marutastathaa; Bahoonyadrishtapoorvaani pashyaashcharyaani bhaarata.
6. Behold the Adityas, the Vasus, the Rudras, the two Asvins and also the Maruts; behold many wonders never seen before, O Arjuna!
Ihaikastham jagatkritsnam pashyaadya sacharaacharam; Mama dehe gudaakesha yachchaanyad drashtumicchasi.
7. Now behold, O Arjuna, in this, My body, the whole universe centred in the one—including the moving and the unmoving—and whatever else thou desirest to see!
Na tu maam shakyase drashtum anenaiva swachakshushaa; Divyam dadaami te chakshuh pashya me yogamaishwaram.
8. But thou art not able to behold Me with these, thine own eyes; I give thee the divine eye; behold My lordly Yoga.
COMMENTARY: No fleshy eye can behold Me in My Cosmic Form. One can see Me only through the eye of intuition or the divine eye. It should not be confused with seeing through the physical eye or through the mind. It is an inner divine experience attained through intense devotion and concentration.
Sanjaya Uvaacha:
Evamuktwaa tato raajan mahaayogeshwaro harih; Darshayaamaasa paarthaaya paramam roopamaishwaram.
Sanjaya said:
9. Having thus spoken, O king, the great Lord of Yoga, Hari (Krishna), showed to Arjuna His supreme form as the Lord!
Anekavaktra nayanam anekaadbhuta darshanam; Anekadivyaabharanam divyaanekodyataayudham.
10. With numerous mouths and eyes, with numerous wonderful sights, with numerous divine ornaments, with numerous divine weapons uplifted (such a form He showed).
Divyamaalyaambaradharam divyagandhaanulepanam; Sarvaashcharyamayam devam anantam vishwatomukham.
11. Wearing divine garlands and apparel, anointed with divine unguents, the all-wonderful, resplendent (Being), endless, with faces on all sides,
Divi sooryasahasrasya bhavedyugapadutthitaa; Yadi bhaah sadrishee saa syaadbhaasastasya mahaatmanah.
12. If the splendour of a thousand suns were to blaze out at once (simultaneously) in the sky, that would be the splendour of that mighty Being (great soul).
Tatraikastham jagatkritsnam pravibhaktamanekadhaa; Apashyaddevadevasya shareere paandavastadaa.
13. There, in the body of the God of gods, Arjuna then saw the whole universe resting in the one, with its many groups.
Tatah sa vismayaavishto hrishtaromaa dhananjayah; Pranamya shirasaa devam kritaanjalirabhaashata.
14. Then, Arjuna, filled with wonder and with hair standing on end, bowed down his head to the Lord and spoke with joined palms.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Pashyaami devaamstava deva dehe Sarvaamstathaa bhootavisheshasanghaan;
Brahmaanameesham kamalaasanastha-
Mrisheemshcha sarvaanuragaamshcha divyaan.
Arjuna said:
15. I behold all the gods, O God, in Thy body, and hosts of various classes of beings; Brahma, the Lord, seated on the lotus, all the sages and the celestial serpents!
Anekabaahoodaravaktranetram Pashyaami twaam sarvato’nantaroopam;
Naantam na madhyam na punastavaadim
Pashyaami vishweshwara vishwaroopa.
16. I see Thee of boundless form on every side, with many arms, stomachs, mouths and eyes; neither the end nor the middle nor also the beginning do I see, O Lord of the universe, O Cosmic Form!
Kireetinam gadinam chakrinam cha, Tejoraashim sarvato deeptimantam;
Pashyaami twaam durnireekshyam samantaad
Deeptaanalaarkadyutimaprameyam.
17. I see Thee with the diadem, the club and the discus, a mass of radiance shining everywhere, very hard to look at, blazing all round like burning fire and the sun, and immeasurable.
Twamaksharam paramam veditavyam Twamasya vishwasya param nidhaanam;
Twamavyayah shaashwatadharmagoptaa
Sanaatanastwam purusho mato me.
18. Thou art the Imperishable, the Supreme Being, worthy of being known; Thou art the great treasure-house of this universe; Thou art the imperishable protector of the eternal Dharma; Thou art the ancient Person, I deem.
Anaadimadhyaantamanantaveeryam Anantabaahum shashisooryanetram;
Pashyaami twaam deeptahutaashavaktram
Swatejasaa vishwamidam tapantam.
19. I see Thee without beginning, middle or end, infinite in power, of endless arms, the sun and the moon being Thy eyes, the burning fire Thy mouth, heating the entire universe with Thy radiance.
Dyaavaaprithivyoridamantaram hi Vyaaptam twayaikena dishashcha sarvaah;
Drishtwaa’dbhutam roopamugram tavedam
Lokatrayam pravyathitam mahaatman.
20. The space between the earth and the heaven and all the quarters are filled by Thee alone; having seen this, Thy wonderful and terrible form, the three worlds are trembling with fear, O great-souled Being!
Amee hi twaam surasanghaah vishanti Kechid bheetaah praanjalayo grinanti;
Swasteetyuktwaa maharshisiddhasanghaah
Stuvanti twaam stutibhih pushkalaabhih.
21. Verily, into Thee enter these hosts of gods; some extol Thee in fear with joined palms: “May it be well.” Saying thus, bands of great sages and perfected ones praise Thee with complete hymns.
Rudraadityaa vasavo ye cha saadhyaa Vishwe’shvinau marutashchoshmapaashcha;
Gandharvayakshaasurasiddhasanghaa
Veekshante twaam vismitaashchaiva sarve.
22. The Rudras, Adityas, Vasus, Sadhyas, Visvedevas, the two Asvins, Maruts, the manes and hosts of celestial singers, Yakshas, demons and the perfected ones, are all looking at Thee in great astonishment.
Roopam mahat te bahuvaktranetram Mahaabaaho bahubaahoorupaadam;
Bahoodaram bahudamshtraakaraalam
Drishtwaa lokaah pravyathitaastathaa’ham.
23. Having beheld Thy immeasurable form with many mouths and eyes, O mighty-armed, with many arms, thighs and feet, with many stomachs, and fearful with many teeth, the worlds are terrified and so am I!
Nabhahsprisham deeptamanekavarnam Vyaattaananam deeptavishaalanetram;
Drishtwaa hi twaam pravyathitaantaraatmaa
Dhritim na vindaami shamam cha vishno.
24. On seeing Thee (the Cosmic Form) touching the sky, shining in many colours, with mouths wide open, with large, fiery eyes, I am terrified at heart and find neither courage nor peace, O Vishnu!
Damshtraakaraalaani cha te mukhaani Drishtwaiva kaalaanalasannibhaani;
Disho na jaane na labhe cha sharma
Praseeda devesha jagannivaasa.
25. Having seen Thy mouths, fearful with teeth, blazing like the fires of cosmic dissolution, I know not the four quarters, nor do I find peace. Have mercy, O Lord of the gods! O abode of the universe!
Amee cha twaam dhritaraashtrasya putraah Sarve sahaivaavanipaalasanghaih;
Bheeshmo dronah sootaputrastathaa’sau
Sahaasmadeeyairapi yodhamukhyaih.
26. All the sons of Dhritarashtra with the hosts of kings of the earth, Bhishma, Drona and Karna, with the chief among all our warriors,
Vaktraani te twaramaanaa vishanti Damshtraakaraalaani bhayaanakaani;
Kechidwilagnaa dashanaantareshu
Sandrishyante choornitairuttamaangaih.
27. They hurriedly enter into Thy mouths with terrible teeth and fearful to behold. Some are found sticking in the gaps between the teeth, with their heads crushed to powder.
Yathaa nadeenaam bahavo’mbuvegaah Samudramevaabhimukhaah dravanti;
Tathaa tavaamee naralokaveeraah
Vishanti vaktraanyabhivijwalanti.
28. Verily, just as many torrents of rivers flow towards the ocean, even so these heroes of the world of men enter Thy flaming mouths.
COMMENTARY: Arjuna sees all the warriors, whom he did not wish to kill, rushing to death. He knows now that the Lord has already destroyed them, so why should he worry about the inevitable.
Yathaa pradeeptam jwalanam patangaa Vishanti naashaaya samriddhavegaah;
Tathaiva naashaaya vishanti lokaas
Tavaapi vaktraani samriddhavegaah.
29. As moths hurriedly rush into a blazing fire for (their own) destruction, so also these creatures hurriedly rush into Thy mouths for (their own) destruction.
Lelihyase grasamaanah samantaal Lokaan samagraan vadanair jwaladbhih;
Tejobhiraapoorya jagatsamagram
Bhaasastavograah pratapanti vishno.
30. Thou lickest up, devouring all the worlds on every side with Thy flaming mouths. Thy fierce rays, filling the whole world with radiance, are burning, O Vishnu!
Aakhyaahi me ko bhavaanugraroopo Namo’stu te devavara praseeda;
Vijnaatumicchaami bhavantamaadyam
Na hi prajaanaami tava pravrittim.
31. Tell me, who Thou art, so fierce in form. Salutations to Thee, O God Supreme! Have mercy; I desire to know Thee, the original Being. I know not indeed Thy doing.
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Kaalo’smi lokakshayakrit pravriddho Lokaan samaahartumiha pravrittah;
Rite’pi twaam na bhavishyanti sarve
Ye’wasthitaah pratyaneekeshu yodhaah.
The Blessed Lord said:
32. I am the mighty world-destroying Time, now engaged in destroying the worlds. Even without thee, none of the warriors arrayed in the hostile armies shall live.
Tasmaat twam uttishtha yasho labhaswa Jitwaa shatroon bhungkshwa raajyam samriddham;
Mayaivaite nihataah poorvameva
Nimittamaatram bhava savyasaachin.
33. Therefore, stand up and obtain fame. Conquer the enemies and enjoy the unrivalled kingdom. Verily, they have already been slain by Me; be thou a mere instrument, O Arjuna!
Dronam cha bheeshmam cha jayadratham cha Karnam tathaa’nyaanapi yodhaveeraan;
Mayaa hataamstwam jahi maa vyathishthaa
Yudhyaswa jetaasi rane sapatnaan.
34. Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna and all the other courageous warriors—these have already been slain by Me; do thou kill; be not distressed with fear; fight and thou shalt conquer thy enemies in battle.
Sanjaya Uvaacha:
Etacchrutwaa vachanam keshavasya Kritaanjalirvepamaanah kireetee;
Namaskritwaa bhooya evaaha krishnam
Sagadgadam bheetabheetah pranamya.
Sanjaya said:
35. Having heard that speech of Lord Krishna, the crowned one (Arjuna), with joined palms, trembling, prostrating himself, again addressed Krishna, in a choked voice, bowing down, overwhelmed with fear.
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Sthaane hrisheekesha tava prakeertyaa Jagat prahrishyatyanurajyate cha;
Rakshaamsi bheetaani disho dravanti
Sarve namasyanti cha siddhasanghaah.
Arjuna said:
36. It is meet, O Krishna, that the world delights and rejoices in Thy praise; demons fly in fear to all quarters and the hosts of the perfected ones bow to Thee!
Kasmaachcha te na nameran mahaatman Gareeyase brahmano’pyaadikartre;
Ananta devesha jagannivaasa
Twamaksharam sadasattatparam yat.
37. And why should they not, O great soul, bow to Thee who art greater (than all else), the primal cause even of (Brahma) the creator, O Infinite Being! O Lord of the gods! O abode of the universe! Thou art the imperishable, the Being, the non-being and That which is the supreme (that which is beyond the Being and non-being).
COMMENTARY: The Lord is Mahatma. He is greater than all else. He is the imperishable, so He is the proper object of worship, love and delight.
Twamaadidevah purushah puraanas Twamasya vishwasya param nidhaanam;
Vettaasi vedyam cha param cha dhaama
Twayaa tatam vishwamanantaroopa.
38. Thou art the primal God, the ancient Purusha, the supreme refuge of this universe, the knower, the knowable and the supreme abode. By Thee is the universe pervaded, O Being of infinite forms!
Vaayuryamo’gnirvarunah shashaankah Prajaapatistwam prapitaamahashcha;
Namo namaste’stu sahasrakritwah
Punashcha bhooyo’pi namo namaste.
39. Thou art Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the moon, the creator, and the great-grandfather. Salutations, salutations unto Thee, a thousand times, and again salutations, salutations unto Thee!
Namah purastaadatha prishthataste Namo’stu te sarvata eva sarva;
Anantaveeryaamitavikramastwam
Sarvam samaapnoshi tato’si sarvah.
40. Salutations to Thee from front and from behind! Salutations to Thee on every side! O All! Thou infinite in power and prowess, pervadest all; wherefore Thou art all.
Sakheti matwaa prasabham yaduktam He krishna he yaadava he sakheti;
Ajaanataa mahimaanam tavedam
Mayaa pramaadaat pranayena vaapi.
41. Whatever I have presumptuously uttered from love or carelessness, addressing Thee as O Krishna! O Yadava! O Friend! regarding Thee merely as a friend, unknowing of this, Thy greatness,
Yachchaavahaasaartham asatkrito’si Vihaarashayyaasanabhojaneshu;
Eko’thavaapyachyuta tatsamaksham
Tatkshaamaye twaamaham aprameyam.
42. In whatever way I may have insulted Thee for the sake of fun while at play, reposing, sitting or at meals, when alone (with Thee), O Achyuta, or in company—that I implore Thee, immeasurable one, to forgive!
Pitaasi lokasya charaacharasya Twamasya poojyashcha gururgareeyaan;
Na twatsamo’styabhyadhikah kuto’nyo
Lokatraye’pyapratimaprabhaava.
43. Thou art the Father of this world, unmoving and moving. Thou art to be adored by this world. Thou art the greatest Guru; (for) none there exists who is equal to Thee; how then can there be another superior to Thee in the three worlds, O Being of unequalled power?
Tasmaatpranamya pranidhaaya kaayam Prasaadaye twaamahameeshameedyam;
Piteva putrasya sakheva sakhyuh
Priyah priyaayaarhasi deva sodhum.
44. Therefore, bowing down, prostrating my body, I crave Thy forgiveness, O adorable Lord! As a father forgives his son, a friend his (dear) friend, a lover his beloved, even so shouldst Thou forgive me, O God!
Adrishtapoorvam hrishito’smi drishtwaa Bhayena cha pravyathitam mano me;
Tadeva me darshaya deva roopam
Praseeda devesha jagannivaasa.
45. I am delighted, having seen what has never been seen before; and yet my mind is distressed with fear. Show me that (previous) form only, O God! Have mercy, O God of gods! O abode of the universe!
Kireetinam gadinam chakrahastam Icchaami twaam drashtumaham tathaiva;
Tenaiva roopena chaturbhujena
Sahasrabaaho bhava vishwamoorte.
46. I desire to see Thee as before, crowned, bearing a mace, with the discus in hand, in Thy former form only, having four arms, O thousand-armed, Cosmic Form (Being)!
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Mayaa prasannena tavaarjunedam Roopam param darshitamaatmayogaat;
Tejomayam vishwamanantamaadyam
Yanme twadanyena na drishtapoorvam.
The Blessed Lord said:
47. O Arjuna, this Cosmic Form has graciously been shown to thee by Me by My own Yogic power; full of splendour, primeval, and infinite, this Cosmic Form of Mine has never been seen before by anyone other than thyself.
Na vedayajnaadhyayanairna daanair Na cha kriyaabhirna tapobhirugraih;
Evam roopah shakya aham nriloke
Drashtum twadanyena karupraveera.
48. Neither by the study of the Vedas and sacrifices, nor by gifts, nor by rituals, nor by severe austerities, can I be seen in this form in the world of men by any other than thyself, O great hero of the Kurus (Arjuna)!
Maa te vyathaa maa cha vimoodhabhaavo Drishtwaa roopam ghorameedringmamedam;
Vyapetabheeh preetamanaah punastwam
Tadeva me roopamidam prapashya.
49. Be not afraid nor bewildered on seeing such a terrible form of Mine as this; with thy fear entirely dispelled and with a gladdened heart, now behold again this former form of Mine.
Sanjaya Uvaacha:
Ityarjunam vaasudevastathoktwaa Swakam roopam darshayaamaasa bhooyah;
Aashwaasayaamaasa cha bheetamenam
Bhootwaa punah saumyavapurmahaatmaa.
Sanjaya said:
50. Having thus spoken to Arjuna, Krishna again showed His own form; and the great soul (Krishna), assuming His gentle form, consoled him who was terrified (Arjuna).
Arjuna Uvaacha:
Drishtwedam maanusham roopam tava saumyam janaardana; Idaaneemasmi samvrittah sachetaah prakritim gatah.
Arjuna said:
51. Having seen this Thy gentle human form, O Krishna, now I am composed and restored to my own nature!
Sri Bhagavaan Uvaacha:
Sudurdarshamidam roopam drishtavaanasi yanmama; Devaa apyasya roopasya nityam darshanakaangkshinah.
The Blessed Lord said:
52. Very hard indeed it is to see this form of Mine which thou hast seen. Even the gods are ever longing to behold it.
Naa ham vedairna tapasaa na daanena na chejyayaa; Shakya evamvidho drashtum drishtavaanasi maam yathaa.
53. Neither by the Vedas, nor by austerity, nor by gift, nor by sacrifice, can I be seen in this form as thou hast seen Me (so easily).
Bhaktyaa twananyayaa shakyam aham evamvidho’rjuna; Jnaatum drashtum cha tattwena praveshtum cha parantapa.
54. But by single-minded devotion can I, of this form, be known and seen in reality and also entered into, O Arjuna!
Matkarmakrinmatparamo madbhaktah sangavarjitah; Nirvairah sarvabhooteshu yah sa maameti paandava.
55. He who does all actions for Me, who looks upon Me as the Supreme, who is devoted to Me, who is free from attachment, who bears enmity towards no creature, he comes to Me, O Arjuna!
COMMENTARY: This is the essence of the whole teaching of the Gita. He who practises this teaching attains supreme bliss and immortality. Such a one realises Him and enters into His Being, becoming completely one with Him. This verse contains the summary of the entire Gita philosophy.
Hari Om Tat Sat
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Vishwaroopa Darshanayogo Naama Ekaadasho’dhyaayah
Iti Srimad Bhagavadgeetaasoopanishatsu Brahmavidyaayaam
Yogashaastre Sri Krishnaarjunasamvaade
Vishwaroopa Darshanayogo Naama Ekaadasho’dhyaayah
Thus in the Upanishads of the glorious Bhagavad Gita, the science of the Eternal, the scripture of Yoga, the dialogue between Sri Krishna and Arjuna, ends the eleventh discourse entitled:
“The Yoga of the Vision of the Cosmic Form”
Swami Sivananda.https://youtu.be/-jlpryp1Pfw
===Discourse 32: The Eleventh Chapter Begins – Introduction to the Visvarupa Darshana
We concluded the Tenth Chapter of the Bhagavadgita, which gave a fairly good account of the glories of the Almighty as manifest in prominent and excellent forms in this world. The Lord said, “Wherever there is immense knowledge and immense power, I am manifest there.” If great genius, great strength, dexterity and great capacity to execute any work is discovered in a person—such as in geniuses like Srinivasa Ramanujan and Albert Einstein, who were exceptional human beings—it can be said that they are also one of the Vibhutis. Though poets like Shakespeare and Kalidasa are not mentioned in the Gita, we may infer that they are all exceptional human beings, not ordinary persons.
We have been gradually moving onward in the direction of comprehending God in His Reality as He Himself is. The emphasis in the early chapters was on discipline and the performance of one’s duty. Then it became the duty of self-integration through dhyana, as explained in the Sixth Chapter. In the Seventh Chapter, when we were found to be fit seekers to understand the mystery of the cosmos, we were introduced into the cosmology of the entire creation of the universe. In the Eighth Chapter, we were told what happens to a seeker after he departs from this body. In the Ninth Chapter, further light was thrown on the religion of humanity, what may be called true religion, and God gave us His promise that ananyāś cintayanto māṁ ye janāḥ paryupāsate, teṣāṁ nityābhiyuktānāṁ yogakṣemaṁ vahāmyaham (9.22): “Whoever is undividedly united with Me, him I shall take care of, and all shall be well with that person.”
Then Arjuna put a question: “I have understood everything that You say, but I want to know how You are visibly present in this world. What are Your special manifestations? I understand that You are, generally speaking, present everywhere; but where are You especially manifest?” Then Lord Sri Krishna gave a long list of special manifestations of great glories, powers and magnificences.
The whole point is that the Lord wants to drive into the mind of Arjuna the truth of God not merely being all things, or God being everywhere, God being present in highly excellent manifestations, God being the Creator, and God being the Procurer of all the welfare of people. This kind of teaching is good, but it is not enough for God, because God does not tolerate the presence of anyone outside Him. He is a supremely selfish person, we may say. God does not tolerate anything outside Him, not even the world. There is no question of transmigration, going to another realm, taking rebirth in some other place, becoming a yogi and again practising yoga to reach God, and contemplating on the creation of the universe as if creation is outside God—as if there is a material out of which He fashions the world. These ideas must be completely removed from the mind.
Though the intention of the Almighty is to say that nothing exists outside Him and He alone is, He did not proclaim it immediately because it is a hard nut to crack. Such a thought cannot easily enter the mind of a person. Hence, He slowly polished the mind of the student through karma and bhaktiand philosophical initiation, in order to finally say something startling which nobody would have expected. We would like to reach God and we would like to enjoy the presence of the Almighty, but we cannot understand anything at all when it is said “God only is”. This statement has no sense for us because we are here as devotees of God and we pray to Him and do yoga, and our entire ambition in life is to unite ourselves with God. We are here as seekers of God, and the world is there as an evolutionary process tending to perfection in Godhead. If that is the case, the meaning of “God only is” is incomprehensible to anyone who sees a world, who sees himself or herself, who sees the evolutionary process taking place, who deduces effects from causes and knows that when somebody dies they will be reborn. This conglomeration of ideas is the stock-in-trade of human thought, and the only way in which the human mind can operate. With these appurtenances of confusion in the mind—though they are philosophical confusions and metaphysical chaos—with all this, we are not prepared to understand when God says that He alone is.
“I cannot understand. Please tell me what exactly it is that You mean when You say that outside You nothing is. You have told me about Your glories as manifested in this world, but You also told me that finally the world is not in You though You are in the world.” Thus, the Eleventh Chapter starts with a prayerful question by Arjuna. Madanugrahāya paramaṁ guhyam adhyātmasaṁjñitam, yat tvayoktaṁ vacas tena moho’yaṁ vigato mama (11.1): “The nectarine teachings which You have poured into my ears have dispelled all my confusion and ignorance. All my delusion has gone. I understand what You say about the coming and going of beings.”
Bhavāpyayau hi bhūtānāṁ śrutau vistaraśo mayā, tvattaḥ kamalapatrākṣa māhātmyam api cāvyayam(11.2): “I heard Your glory from You Yourself. Who can describe You except Yourself? You have told me everything. You have glorified Your Atman, Your Self, as the be-all and end-all. Now I would like to see this wondrous existence of Yours, outside which nothing is. It startles me out of my wits when I hear that You are the Creator of this universe, that the universe is in You and yet You are not in it, that nothing can operate anywhere, not even prakriti and the three gunas, without Your being there as the substratum. You have told me all that. You have asked me to discipline myself through the performance of duty, and You have asked me to contemplate and meditate through the yoga techniques which You have mentioned. But You have also perplexed my mind by the additional statement that You frequently make together with other instructions: that everything is You, everything proceeds from You, everything is sustained by You, and everything recedes back into You, and finally saying that only You exist. This true existence of Yours, which is independent of all the manifestations that You speak of, is the true glory that You have been referring to now and then. I would like to be blessed with this vision. O Supreme Purusha! Purushottama! I would like to behold Your glorious Being, if You deem it proper for me, if You condescend to grant this boon to me, and if You graciously accept that I am fit enough to visualise this Great Form.”
Manyase yadi tac chakyaṁ mayā draṣṭum iti prabho (11.4): “O Supreme Lord! Master of yoga! If You think that I am ready for this vision, let me be granted the vision of the immortal Universality that You are.” This is the introduction to the Visvarupa Darshana in the Eleventh Chapter.
We also have a curiosity, as Arjuna did, in the matter of this Universal vision. Every one of us would also like to behold it. And our desire to behold this Universal Form has a peculiar conditioning factor which perhaps prevented Arjuna from actually uniting himself with it, and left him in the same condition that he was after the vision was withdrawn. He was the Arjuna that had the blessing of the great radiance, but he did not in any way become a different person. He could not get transformed and transmuted into that light, because he saw it, but he did not become it. The vision of God that we think of in our meditations is mostly of this kind. We say that so-and-so had darshanof Lord Krishna—which means to say, we want to see Lord Krishna with our own eyes, standing before us, but we do not know the fact that Lord Krishna, or whatever our concept of God is, is an all-pervading presence and, therefore, we cannot stand outside God.
A dry piece of grass cannot carry hot embers; the grass will be reduced to ashes. So when we ask for the vision of the Almighty, perhaps we do not know what it is that we are asking for. We are asking for the abolition of our existence in order that God may exist. There is an old saying: Where there is desire of any kind in terms of the mind and the sense organs, there God is not. Where God is, this kind of operation through the mind and the senses cannot be there. Either we are or God is; we can choose between the two. There is no bargaining: “Let me be there a little bit, and You also be there little bit.” This kind of bargaining is not possible with God. He is utterly special, Who wants everything to be cut and dried. “Do you want Me? Then you should not be.” We will be frightened. “If I am not there, what good is there in my asking You to have this vision? If You are there, how will I know that You are there? You say I should not be there. Okay, maybe You are there. How would You expect me to know that You are there if I am not there?” God says, “I do not know all that. Either you are and I am not, or I am and you are not.” We are not prepared for this kind of logic on the part of the Absolute. This is the reason why none of us can be said to be wholly fit for this kind of realisation, and neither was Arjuna.
After the entire war was over, one day Sri Krishna and Arjuna were sitting leisurely in a garden and chatting. Arjuna, who had doubts about this vision, asked Sri Krishna: “Great Master! You said something to me at the beginning of the war. I do not remember it fully. Will You kindly recount it once again?”
Sri Krishna replied: “Foolish man! I thought you were very intelligent, but you have forgotten everything that I told you.” Paraṁ hi brahma kathitaṁ yogayuktena tanmayā (Anu 1.12): “At that time I was one with That which alone is. I shall not summon this kind of unity at all times. At that time I assumed the form of Supreme Yoga, and the words were spoken by that Universal Existence with which I was one at that time. I will not once again summon that form, that vision, that power, that perfection, merely for titillating your curiosity. Anyway, I will tell you some stories, which are a kind of secondary substitute for what I told you earlier.”
That secondary substitute in the form of certain stories, illustrations, etc., that occurs towards the end of the Mahabharata epic is called the Anugita—a secondary Gita, not the primary one. The primary Gita is here; and once it is told, it is told forever, and nobody can repeat it. Krishno janati vai samyak kinchit partho dhananjayah, vyaso va vyasaputro va is an old saying: Only Sri Krishna knows the real meaning of the Gita. Arjuna knows something. Vyasa and Suka know. Others only hear it.
So here is a great treasure for us, and in this wondrous treasure of the Gita we have the supreme treasure of the description of the eternity and infinity that God is, the form which is called Visvarupa Darshana—Vaisvanara Tattva, which was revealed to Arjuna.
Sri Krishna showed this Visvarupa four times in his life. When he was a little baby, his elder brother complained to their mother that he was eating mud. His mother caught hold of the child and gave him a slap, “You are eating mud!”
“No, I didn’t eat mud. You can see my mouth,” he said.
He opened his mouth, and that lady saw the whole universe—all the oceans and rivers—and she was stunned. Then maya immediately cast a veil over her and she entirely forgot the vision, and placed the child on her lap.
The second time Sri Krishna showed this terrific vision was in the court of the Kauravas, when Duryodhana would not listen to any good advice. The third time was this Bhagavadgita Visvarupa Darshana. The fourth time was when Sri Krishna was returning to Dvaraka after the war was over and on the way, near Rajasthan, he met a sage called Uttanka.
Uttanka stopped Sri Krishna and said, “Please! What happened, after all? There was a quarrel between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, and you were trying to mediate. What was the outcome of it?”
Sri Krishna replied, “Oh, it was all no good. I tried my best to make peace, but Duryodhana would not listen. War took place, they were destroyed, and the Pandavas were crowned king.”
“Oh! You are a very partial person. This is very bad. You could have stopped the war if you wanted to. No! I’ll curse you just now,” said Uttanka.
Then Sri Krishna said, “Why do you waste the little tapasya that you have gained by the service of Guru, etc.? Your curse cannot affect Me, because the Universal Power is in Me.”
“Is it so? Is it? Are you the Universal Power? May I know that, then?”
Immediately Lord Sri Krishna showed the Visvarupa once again, and then he left for Dvaraka.
=
=
Discourse 33: The Eleventh Chapter Continues – The Visvarupa Darshana
It is very difficult to explain the Visvarupa unless you yourself become it. Unless you ‘be’ it, you cannot explain it; and I cannot ‘be’ it at present.
Arjuna’s request was: “May I, O compassionate Lord, be blessed with this grand Universal vision of Yours, to which You have made reference here and there in Your instructions to me—and especially Your emphasis on the presence of Your glories in different forms. May I know? May I see? Would You condescend to grant me this vision of Your grand, grand, great, glorious Universal Form, which I shall have the blessing and fortune to behold?”
Suddenly there was a blinding light dazzling the entire space, as if thousands of suns were rising together in the sky. One can only imagine what kind of light it could be, because such a thing we can never behold. Suddenly, distances vanished. Stars in the heavens seemed to touch the dust of the earth. A tiny object like a little flower in a cranny of a wall in a garden was seen to be touching the galaxies. The entire earth started glowing as if it was molten gold. Every leaf, every plant, every rock, every mountain—the entire space started exuding a light which was impossible for anyone to see with physical eyes. It was only light and light everywhere. The forms melted, as it were, into their original essence of light.
Today modern physics tells us that matter can be converted into light. There is an inter-convertibility between matter and form, and all the contents of the physical universe can be decomposed into a rarefied radiance. Actually, the sun and the stars, which are repositories of light, are constituted of rarefied matter which becomes gaseous; so light is also a kind of gas. But light is something more than gas. It is impossible to know what physical substance light is made of. We do not know whether it is made up of particles or waves. Light is just radiance, and such light flooded the entire atmosphere even as Arjuna asked to see the Lord’s grand Universal Form. The materiality of the world, the outsideness of the world, the visibility of objects, vanished into the menstruum of this inundating blaze, the ocean of light. “Arjuna, you cannot see this form with your eyes.”
Śrībhagavānuvāca: paśya me (11.5): “Look at Me!” Sri Krishna also said this to Duryodhana, in the court of the Kauravas: “Look at Me!” And immediately there was a burst of light that made everyone shut their eyes, and nobody could see what it was. Paśya me pārtha rūpāṇi śataśotha sahastraśaḥ: “In hundreds and thousands, in myriad forms, am I manifest here. Look at Me!” That is what the Lord said in answer to Arjuna’s query.
Nānāvidhāni divyāni nānāvarṇākṛtīni ca: “Every form, every colour, every detail, anything that you would like to see is here just now. And it is not just spread out in a distance or a spatial expanse; it is a distanceless compactness of the presence of all things at one and the same place.” There, when one thing was touched, everything was touched. Everything looked like a mirror reflecting every other thing. It appeared that everything could be seen everywhere. “Look at Me then, in this Form. Look at the suns dazzling everywhere! Look at the Vasus, the Adityas, the Rudras!” Everywhere these divinities could be seen. “You see here whatever you want to see—Asvinau, Maruts, all divinities, and all those things which you cannot even imagine with your mind. Those gods, divinities and powers which are not described even in the scriptures because the human being cannot comprehend them even with the farthest stretch of imagination, those too you see here. The whole world is concentrated here. You need not travel by air or by any vehicle to see other parts of the earth. It is here just now—every part of the earth, every part of creation, all creation in the fourteen worlds. It can be contacted, touched and experienced without travelling, because space has vanished.”
There is no need of travelling anywhere because at one moment, in an instantaneous consciousness of grasp, one comes in contact with the total whole of the entire universe—without distance, without time, without duration, without having to travel, without using any instruments. Unimaginable! One does not know what one is talking about!
“You cannot behold Me like this. I have to bless you with another eye altogether, called the eye of insight, which will enable you to behold this togetherness of things.” We see things in succession; here is one thing, here is the next thing, here is another thing. We see objects in a series. But here, in this vision, the succession of events, and also the succession of the series of objects and things in the world, gets melted down into a simultaneity of perception. It is what is called the ‘here and the now’ of all things. Anything whatsoever, whatever it be, whatever we can think of in all the heavens, it is here just now, and at this point.
Here, I am reminded of that majestic power that Bharadvaja Rishi exercised when Bharata, the brother of Rama, went to the forest in search of Rama. Bharata was accompanied by a large retinue, with elephants and horses and chariots, thousands in number. I do not know why he took such a large retinue. Perhaps he was under the impression that Rama would yield and come back, and he would take him back in all glory. That may have been the pious intention of Bharata. Otherwise, what is the purpose of taking this army? Anyway, he happened to pass through the ashram of Sage Bharadvaja, who was living in a little hut; and he wanted to offer his obeisance to the great Maharaj before continuing. Three miles from the ashram, Bharata told the army, “Stop here. No noise should be made here.” He removed his shoes, removed his royal attire, put on ordinary clothing, and walked barefooted.
When he went to the sage’s ashram and prostrated before him, there was a little conversation between the sage and Bharata.
“Have you come alone, all the way from Ayodhya?” asked Sage Bharadvaja.
“No, Maharaj. There is a big army with me,” replied Bharata.
“Why did you not bring them here?”
“I did not want to disturb the sanctity of this place. The elephants and horses will neigh and make noise, and I would not like to disturb your holy atmosphere.”
“I would like to entertain you today with dinner for all people,” said the sage.
Bharata could not understand what Sage Bharadvaja was talking about. Bharata had some thousands and thousands of people, and animals of various kinds, and here was a sage sitting in his hut, with nothing in his hand. They could not sit in a forest full of thorns!
Bharata said, “Maharaj, we don’t require any dinner. We have got our own preparation. We require only your blessing.”
Bharadvaja knew that this boy was thinking that he had nothing, and said, “No! You shall bring all of them. It shall be a pleasure to serve you with a repast. Let there be thousands of people; let all the elephants and horses come. Everybody will be fed.”
It was very difficult for Bharata to understand what this instruction was, but he summoned his entire host.
The sage went to his yajnasala, lit the fire and poured ghee, and said, “Indraya svaha. Indra! Come with all your glory, retinue, everything. I want to serve Bharata and all his host with a repast. Varuna! Bring rivers of honey and milk here. Let the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati flow here, just now. Let them all take bath here itself. Visvakarma! Come just now and build palaces, hundreds in number. Remove this forest. Make the ground level, and let there be scintillating light everywhere. Kubera! Send all your musicians and dancers immediately. And the best of dishes have to come just now, in a few minutes. Let it be done! Let my wish be fulfilled! Let all the denizens of the heavens descend just now to serve these people whom I consider as my guests.”
When he uttered these words, immediately, there was a dazzling light. The forest vanished; there was no forest. Celestials carrying golden plates started descending from the skies. Visvakarma levelled the whole ground in one minute, and thousands of palaces started shining everywhere—with swimming pools, with attendants, musicians, dancers, and all sorts of servants. Thousands of cooks, with food which was so fragrant that it could be smelt even from a distance, started serving such delicacies that even the emperor had not tasted. All the elephants and horses were properly groomed by suitable persons coming from heaven itself. Each person was served by four or five people from heaven; and all were bathed in oil and warm water. There were beautiful rivers flowing with cool refreshing water, rivers flowing with honey, and rivers flowing with milk. During dinner there was beautiful music, and celestial Apsarasas came and danced. There was celestial bedding for everybody, thousands in number, which had been instantaneously manufactured by Visvakarma.
Nobody could imagine what was happening. They wondered whether they were blind or had gone mad by what they were seeing. They all had such a beautiful dinner that, it seems, the soldiers said, “Let Bharata go in search of Rama. We shall be here.” This was because they had not seen this glory, this entertainment, even in Ayodhya. Then they all slept, and had a good rest. In the morning, everything vanished. There were no Apsarasas, no palaces, nothing remained.
The sage called Bharata and enquired, “Did you have a good dinner? Did you have a good rest?” Bharata did not know what to say. He was weeping with joy.
The idea is that these people are Godmen; and what God can do, these great heroes of spirit also can do. So when Sri Krishna assumed this Cosmic Form, the very earth started melting down into the liquid of consciousness, and it was God everywhere; the great ‘I’ was scintillating in everything. Brahma, Rudra, Asvinau—all the gods were there in different forms, the very limbs of this Virat Purusha.
Bhagavan Sri Krishna said to Arjuna, “I shall give you an eye with which you can instantaneously see this great, wonderful joy.” Paśya me yogam aiśvaram (11.8): “Look at My glory! Behold this majesty of My yoga, Arjuna. See, I am here! See that which you wanted Me to show you. Look!”
Evam uktvā tato rājan mahāyogeśvaro hariḥ, darśayāmāsa pārthāya paramaṁ rūpam aiśvaram (11.9). Sanjaya then spoke to Dhritarashtra: “O king! Look at this miracle! Having uttered these words, the great Lord of yoga revealed His majesty.” The Mahayogesvara, Lord Krishna, revealed His eternal form, aishvara rupa—His supreme, deathless form.
There were faces everywhere—everywhere eyes, everywhere hands, everywhere feet, everything was grasped by everything, as it were. Sarvataḥpāṇipādaṁ tat sarvto’kṣiśiromukham, sarvataḥśrutimal loke sarvam āvṛtya tiṣṭhati (13.13) is a verse in the Thirteenth Chapter. Everywhere were faces and eyes and hands and feet of this Mighty Being. Anekavaktranayanam (11.10): Marvel of marvels, wonder of wonders, giddy does the mind become even by thinking about it. All glorious ornamentations, attractions, all kinds of weapons, even of war, were lifted up. Not only the glories of beauty, but also the glories of power and energy—all things were seen there at once. Celestial garlands were decorating every form. All the faces were radiant with ornamentation.
Sarvāścaryamayaṁ (11.11). Again Sanjaya says, “Wonder! What can I tell you—wonder of wonders! Glory of glories!”
Even Sage Bharadvaja’s act was really a glory of glories. We will not sleep after hearing all these stories.
Anantaṁ: The Infinite Form was shown, with faces spread out everywhere. Wherever Arjuna cast his eyes, he saw the face of this Almighty gazing at him in different forms—in beautiful forms, in terrific forms, in blazing forms, in fierce forms, in kind forms, in every kind of form that we can imagine. How many kinds of attitudes and formations of psyche can we imagine in this world? All the navarasas—sringara, vira, karuna, adbhuta, hasya, bhayanaka, bibhatsa, raudra and shanti—were manifest in all things. The whole essence of attraction through the kavya rasas that we read in books were visibly manifest in this form.
Divi sūryasahastrasya bhaved yugapad utthitā, yadi bhāḥ sadṛśī sā syād bhāsas tasya mahātmanaḥ(11.12). Here, 1,000 does not necessarily mean 999 plus 1. The word ‘sahasra’ is used for an infinite number. Visvam anantam sahasram sarvam akshaya vachakam: In the Amara Kosam, visvamand sahasram also mean infinite. Infinite suns rose, as it were. We only hear these words, but we do not know what kind of light it is, because the sun does not shine there. Na tatra suryo bhati, it has been said. The sun will not shine; the sun’s light is like darkness before this great light. And yet, for our entertainment and for our education, we are told it is the light that surpasses all sunlight.
In that vast, mysterious, spread-out Universality, Arjuna saw the whole creation somewhere in a corner. The ananta koti brahmanda nayaka was showing His Visvarupa. This Brahmanda is not the only thing that God has created. Endless, endless, endless are the worlds that have been created. This particular world, these fourteen realms that are called this Brahmanda, which is ruled by Chaturmukha Brahma, is only one; and that entire thing was seen in some corner. Millions of them were rolling as fireballs, like solar orbs, and this universe was seen in some corner.
Tatraikasthaṁ jagat kṛtsnaṁ pravibhaktam anekadhā (11.13): Divided into multifarious shapes, this entire creation was seen there as if it is only a fraction of this total manifestation. Pādo’sya viśvā bhūtāni (P.S. 2): Only one-fourth of the Supreme Being is manifested in this cosmos, as it were. Tripādasyā’mṛtaṁ divi: Three-fourths is invisible. The imma- nent form of God is only one-fourth, as it were; the transcendent form is three-fourths, as it were. It is not actually an arithmetical division that is intended here; the idea is that it is a very small fraction. Viṣṭabhyāham idaṁ kṛtsnam ekāṁśena sthito jagat (10.42): “With a little fraction of Myself, I am supporting the entire cosmos.” The idea is that a little bit of the glory of God is revealed in the whole cosmos, and the real glory is transcendent. Estasyaivānandasyānyāni bhūtāni mātrām upajīvant (B.U. 4.3.32). Yajnavalkya says that with a little spoonful of the bliss of the ocean of Brahman, the whole universe is sustained. And we are licking it in a mild, adulterated, spread-out, dense, concretised form of one spoonful only. What would be the ocean of that bliss? Such a thing Arjuna beheld.
Tatraikasthaṁ jagat kṛtsnaṁ pravibhaktam anekadhā, apaśyad devadevasya śarīre pāṇḍavas tadā(11.13): In that great God of God’s Being, Arjuna had the blessing of beholding the wonder. There is no word in language to describe this wonder, except that it is a wonder.
Gaganam gagana karam sagarah sagaro panam, rama ravanayor yuddham rama ravanayor iva(Ramayana): “How was the battle of Rama with Ravana? Can you compare? What was it like?” somebody asked. It is like asking what the sky is like. The sky is like the sky only. What is the ocean like? The ocean is like the ocean only. How was the battle between Rama and Ravana? It was like the battle between Rama and Ravana; there is no other comparison. Such superb events which surpass understanding cannot have a comparison. In this wondrous Form which cannot bear comparison with anything else, Arjuna lost his consciousness, as it were, and he prostrated himself in dizzy heights of awareness when he beheld this might.
Tataḥ sa vismayāviṣṭa (11.14): Wonderstruck, fear struck, dizzied with horripilation; hṛṣṭaromā: prostrating himself in utter surrender; praṇamya śirasā devaṁ kṛtāñjalir abhāṣata: “O God! What can I say?”
Arjuna uvāca: paśyāmi devāṁs tava deva dehe sarvāṁs tathā bhūtaviśeṣasaṁghān, brahmāṇam īśaṁ kamalāsanasthaṁ ṛṣīṁś ca sarvān uragāṁś ca divyān (11.15): “O Lord! I behold everything here. Brahma, the Creator himself, is seen here. I am seeing him.” Who can have darshan of Brahma? We cannot see him, but here he was, and here Rudra was. “In Your form, I see all the gods. Every form of creation, including every created essence—all animals, all creatures, all human beings, all the denizens of heaven—I am seeing here just in front of me. I am seeing all the rishis. All the Nagas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, I am seeing them here just now. All the multifaceted forms of Yours, I am beholding in front of me.”
Anekabāhūdaravaktranetraṁ paśyāmi tvāṁ sarvato’nantarūpam, nāntaṁ na madhyaṁ na punas tavādiṁ paśyāmi viśveśvara viśvarūpa (11.16): “In this multifaceted manifestation of Yours, with faces everywhere turned in my direction, with all eyes gazing at me, I see the infinity of Yours everywhere. I cannot know where You begin, where You end, or where is Your middle is. I cannot understand how vast is this personality of Yours. Hey Visvesvara! O Lord of the universe! O Visvarupa! The All-form, Omni-form! I am not able to gauge how vast You are. I am simply struck with surprise.”
Kirīṭinaṁ gadinaṁ cakriṇaṁ ca tejorāśiṁ sarvato dīptimantam, paśyāmi tvāṁ durnirīkṣyaṁ samantād dīptānalārkadyutim aprameyam (11.17): “With diadems on every head of this multifarious form, I am seeing you shining. With gadas, with astras, together with this radiance that You are manifesting, I am unable to locate what is what at any place. Like blazing fire, I am seeing Your form spread out everywhere. You have a gada, chakra, shankha and diadem on Your heads—on all the millions of heads that I am seeing in front of me. And all these heads, all these faces, look like masses of fire. Columns of radiance, that is what I am seeing in front of me, and they have dazzled the whole space. I cannot see anything properly because my eyes are dazzled, dimmed completely in this light. Impossible it is for me to behold You, O Lord!” Durnirīkṣyaṁ: “Really I am speaking, I cannot behold You. It is not possible for me even with this blessing of a new eye that You have given me. This is too much for me, and I cannot behold You any more because You are fire, You are radiance, You are the Sun of suns. Immeasurable Thou art, O Lord!”
Tvam akṣaraṁ paramaṁ veditavyaṁ tvam asya viśvasya paraṁ nidhānam, tvam avyayaḥ śāśvatadharmagoptā sanātanas tvaṁ puruṣo mato me (11.18): “Lord! Thou art the Eternal Being.” Arjuna is in ecstasy. He does not know how to express himself. He does not even know what he is speaking. “Thou art the immortal essence! Thou art the thing that is to be known through the scriptures, the Vedas, the Upanishads and all the texts that deal with liberation! O Supreme Being! O the Abode, the very support and substratum of this universe, I am addressing You. You are really the endless Being that is making me behold You here as something located in some place. You are not in one place; everywhere Thou art.” Śāśvatadharmagoptā: “I am seeing all dharma, all law and regulation, all blessing, all righteousness, all justice, all goodness, everything wonderful ethically, aesthetically, philosophically and spiritually. Truth, goodness and beauty are scintillating everywhere. ‘Eternity’ is the only word I can use for you. Supreme Purusha Thou art.”
Anādimadhyāntam anantavīryam anantabāhuṁ śaśisūryanetram, paśyāmi tvāṁ dīptahutāśavaktraṁ svatejasā viśvam idaṁ tapantam (11.19): “You are Yourself light. It is not that some light is emanating from You. Thou art Thyself the entire mass of light, and it is that light that is radiating everything. There is no beginning, no end, for this radiance.” Anantavīrya: “What is Your prowess, what is Your energy, what is Your strength? They cannot be measured. Immeasurable strength, immeasurable prowess, is embedded in this vision of Virat.” Anantabāhuṁ: “Millions of hands are everywhere.” The Svestasvatara and Isavasya Upanishads tell us that without feet, He runs fast; without hands, He grasps everything. Even the fastest thing cannot overtake Him.
Arjuna repeats what he said. “I see You as columns of flames of light and radiance. I cannot see anything else in front of me, because Thou art Thyself. You glorify all things with Your presence, and it is Your glory that is glorying in the form of this vision. You are glorifying Yourself with Your own glory. Who can glorify You? Which thing in the world can glorify You? You are glorifying Yourself by Yourself.” We cannot glorify God. He has to glorify Himself with His own powers and grandeur. Svatejasā viśvam idaṁ tapantam: “The entire space and time is filled up with You. All the stars look like twinkling essences before this radiance. They have lost their radiance; they are dark before You.”
Dyāvāpṛthivyor idam antaraṁ hi vyāptaṁ tvayaikena diśaś ca sarvāḥ, dṛṣṭvādbhutaṁ rupam ugraṁ tavedaṁ lokatrayaṁ pravyathitaṁ mahātman (11.20): “The whole creation is trembling because Your form is terrific and it is striking fear in everything. Earth and heaven, the skies and whatever is between them, is filled with this radiance of Yours.”
The Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata describes how the whole creation was trembling when Sri Krishna took up his weapon against Bhishma and jumped from the chariot in the middle of the war. They say the earth shook and the oceans started throwing fierce waves, and Brahma himself could not understand why the end of the world was coming before its expected time. When Sri Krishna ran with the thud of his foot in the direction of Bhishma, Brahma felt that the Creator Himself had started destroying what He had created.
Amī hi tvāṁ surasaṁghā viśanti kecid bhītāḥ prāñjalayo gṛṇanti, svastītyuktvā maharṣisiddhasaṁghāḥ stuvanti tvāṁ stutibhiḥ puṣkalābhiḥ (11.21): In the tremendous unity that Arjuna was perceiving, he also saw the little details. All the gods, all the rishis, all the Rakshasas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras—all of them were also seen in detail at the background of this universal unity. On this canvas, or the substratum of this unity of perception, he also saw the details of creation simultaneously. “All the gods I see. They are entering into You. Some are running away from You in fear. Some are prostrating before You. Some are crying, ‘Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! O God! O God!’ and they are running hither and thither. Maharishis, siddhas and all other groups are unable to visualise this vision. They are also wonderstruck. ‘Glory! Glory! Glory!’ they say, and dance in ecstasy.”
Rudrādityā vasavo ye ca sādhyā viśve’śvinau marutaś coṣmapāś ca, gandharvayakṣāsurasiddhasaṁghā vīkṣante tvāṁ vismitāś caiva sarve (11.22): “All the Rudras, all the Adityas, all the Vasus, all the Sadhyas, all the Visvadevas, Asvini Kumaras, Maruts, and all the other gods like the Ushmapas, Gandharvas, Yakshas, the other demi-gods and siddhas—all of them are looking at You, gazing at You with unwinking eyes, and are struck with the wonder of this manifestation.”
Rūpaṁ mahat te (11.23): “Great, grand, glorious is this form, O Lord, that Thou are manifesting before me. Bahu- vaktranetraṁ: With all faces and eyes. Mahābāha: O all-armed one! Bahubāhūrupāda: With all kinds of feet everywhere, all kinds of hands are grasping varieties of weapons, and myriads of manifestations of these arms and feet. Many stomachs, many eyes, many arms, many chests—I do not know how I can manage to see them with this blessing of the third eye that you have given. Even that is very feeble in front of this Might of all mights. Daṁṣṭrākarālaṁ: You are very cruel in some forms, because You seem to be biting and crushing and chewing and swallowing—that also I am seeing in some forms. In some other forms it is all grace, blessing and beauty and majesty. The whole earth is unable to bear this any more. It is frightened and, O Lord, I am also very much frightened!”
==
==
Discourse 34: The Eleventh Chapter Continues – The Visvarupa Darshana Continues
The Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita—the Visvarupa Darshana—continues. Arjuna exclaimed his wonder at this great vision. Diśo na jāne na labhe ca śarma, prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa (11.25): “I am unable to locate even the quarters of the heavens. I have lost my wits when I behold this terrifying mysterious form of Yours. O Lord of Lords! Be gracious to bless me so that I may know who You are.”
Though the Bhagavadgita was spoken prior to the commencement of the war, in another realm of existence the Mahabharata had already taken place, the events had been recounted and the conclusion had been drawn, and victory had been won by the Pandavas. Everything had been done in another realm; we may call it the fourth dimensional realm, where events occur prior to their manifestation in the three-dimensional world. A lot of time is taken for events to manifest themselves as concrete appearances in the physical world. Even when wars take place in the world, they occur in heaven first. Ideas clash before people physically clash. An ideological war takes place first in the ethereal realm. Just as disease manifests inside first before it manifests itself outside in the body, in a similar manner, the decision as to what would be the outcome of the Mahabharata war had already been taken in higher realms, and the implementation of the decision in the form of an actual conflict, from the point of view of the process of time, was yet to take place.
There are wonders and wonders in the world. It is said that in some of the realms of creation, the Mahabharata has not yet occurred. It is to take place. In some of the realms of creation, the Mahabharata has already happened; and in other realms it is happening just now. It is something like the procession of a king moving from one part of the country to another part of the country. Suppose a king comes in a procession from Delhi to Laxmanjhula. For the people in Delhi, the procession is about to start, and he has moved. He has reached Muzaffarnagar. The people in Delhi say the procession is over. The people in Muzzafarnagar say the procession is taking place. The people in Rishikesh say it has not yet taken place. Thus, for one it has already happened, for another it is just happening, and for a third person it has not happened at all. This applies to all the events in the world. Every event takes place simultaneously in every part of the world, but they appear to be manifest at different times due to the action of the processes into which time is cast—namely past, present and future.
Dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putrāḥ (11.26): As Arjuna beheld this wondrous form of the Lord, the Kauravas—Duryodhana and his henchmen, with all their army—were entering the mouth of this Multi-formed Being. Their destruction had already been confirmed. Amī ca tvāṁ dhṛtarāṣṭrasya putrāḥ sarve sahaivāvanipālasaṁghaiḥ, bhīṣmo droṇaḥ sūtaputras tathāsau sahāsmadīyair api yodhamukhyaiḥ; vaktrāṇi te tvaramāṇā viśanti daṁṣṭrākarālāni bhayānakāni, kecid vilagnā daśanāntareṣu saṁdṛśyante cūrṇitair uttamāṅgaiḥ (11.26-27): “What am I seeing? The Mahabharata war has not yet taken place. It is just at the beginning.” The Bhagavadgita was told before the commencement of the war, but what does Arjuna see in that form? The entire army of the Kauravas, with Duryodhana, with Bhishma and Drona, with Karna, and even all the army of the Pandavas, which would not survive, were all rushing into this all-destroying mouth of the Cosmic Being. They were stuck, as it were, in the crevices between the terrific set of teeth of this all-destroying Time Spirit, manifest here as the Visvarupa. Some of them were caught between the teeth, and some were crushed into paste and powder, as it were, by the jaws of this mighty Yawning Face.
Yathā nadīnāṁ bahavo’mbuvegāḥ samudram evābhimukhā dravanti, tathā tavāmī naralokavīrā viśanti vaktrāṇyabhivijvalanti (11.28): “As rivers rush into the ocean, I am seeing all beings rushing into You. Into this flaming series of mouths of Thy wondrous form, I am seeing the rivers of kings and armies rushing inward. They are being reduced to ashes because they are like moths rushing into the flame, not knowing what will happen to them.”
Yathā pradīptaṁ jvalanaṁ pataṅgā viśanti nāśāya samṛddhavegāḥ (11.29): “As moths rush in great haste towards their destruction in the flaming fire, so do I see the entire world rushing towards its own destruction through the all-consuming mouths of this great Virat Purusha.”
Lelihyase (11.30): “You are lapping Your tongue, licking.” Lelihyase grasamānaḥ samantāl: “You, like a magnet, pull everything into Yourself.” Lokān samagrān vadanair jvaladbhiḥ, tejobhir āpūrya jagat samagraṁ bhāsas tavogrāḥ pratapanti viṣṇo: “What is it I am seeing? The Time Spirit in this tremendous form, swallowing everything through its mouths, is lapping its tongue as if it is not yet satisfied by the swallowing of all the worlds into its own mouths. O Vishnu! Hey Narayana, Who are now here in this great form of Visvarupa. Thy great radiance is burning the worlds around with its heat and light.”
Ᾱkhyāhi me ko bhavān ugrarūpo (11.31): “Who are You? I cannot understand. I thought this is Krishna, my friend, but I am seeing something here that I cannot recognise. Would You kindly tell me who You are? O Mighty Being, are You Krishna? I cannot see Krishna here; I see something else. I would like to know who this is that is standing before me and terrifying me with this Universal Form. Please tell me who You are, manifesting Yourself before me in this fear-striking form.” Namostu te: “Prostrations to You. In humble submission I beseech Thee to tell me who You are.” Devavara prasīda, vijñātum icchāmi bhavantam ādyaṁ: “O God of gods, I would like to know Your beginning, Your middle and Your end—who You are. I cannot know what it is that is in front of me, from where it has come, how it is sustained, and what its intention is.”
Śrībhagavānuvāca: This Great Being speaks now. Kālo’smi lokakṣayakṛt pravṛddho (11.32): “I am the all-destroying Time.” The very Spirit of Time is speaking. “I am here in this form for the destruction of the world through this war that is going to take place, to see that everything is put an end to.” The avatara of Sri Krishna was for the destruction of all evil and wickedness in the world, and in that Universal Form he did it in one instant—in a timeless instantaneity, as it were. Kālo’smi lokakṣayakṛt pravṛddho lokān samāhartum iha pravṛttaḥ: “I am here to withdraw everything into Myself. Even if you do not raise a finger, the Kauravas are not going to survive.” Ṛte’pi tvāṁ na bhaviṣyanti sarve ye’vasthitāḥ pratyanīkeṣu yodhāḥ: “None in this entire army is going to survive. You may say that you will not take up arms. You have your own flimsy arguments not to do anything and keep quiet. Okay, don’t do anything. But they shall not survive whether you take up arms or not, because their destruction has been already predetermined. They have been doomed by My will. So why do you consider yourself as a great instrument in bloodshed? You are nothing of the kind. They have already gone to the other world, and you are under the impression that you are going to do something which is not very pleasant. Therefore, wake up! Do not be pusillanimous. Do not be weak-hearted. I have already done the work that you are expected to do. Why are you unnecessarily talking to Me?”
Tasmāt tvam uttiṣṭha (11.33): “May the glory go to you, though the work has been done by Me.” Everyone says that Arjuna won the war; nobody says that Krishna won the war. Even today, nobody speaks of Krishna’s work. After the war was over, Sri Krishna met Yudhishthira and spoke to him, “After all, victory has been won due to the power of your righteousness, the strength of Bhima, and the dexterousness of Arjuna.” He never said that he had also contributed something. Yudhishthira actually wept upon hearing these words. Naturally, he could do nothing except weep because the Lord had given credit to Yudhishthira’s righteousness, Bhima’s strength and Arjuna’s dexterity, while the work had been done by somebody else—by the one who spoke these words as if he had done nothing. Sri Krishna never asked Draupadi whether she received his long sari. When a gift is given, sometimes we want it to be acknowledged. The work of God and the work of Godmen is never visible to the eyes, and these great beings expect no thanks from us. They do not wish that we should utter even a word of recognition. They do what they have to do; and when it is done, the matter is over and there is no further talk.
“Great glory be to you, O Arjuna, as the winner of the victory in this war. Conquer the enemies, and then rule this kingdom.” Jitvā śatrūn bhuṅkṣva rājyaṁ samṛddham: “I have already done the work for you.” Mayaivaite nihatāḥ pūrvam eva nimittamātraṁ bhava: “You be only an instrument. Let people know that you have won the victory, though the victory has already been won.”
Droṇaṁ ca bhīṣmaṁ ca jayadrathaṁ ca karṇaṁ tathānyān api yodhavīrān, mayā hatāṁs tvaṁ jahi mā vyathiṣṭhā yudhyasva jetāsi raṇe sapatnān (11.34): “Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna, and all other warriors whom I have already destroyed, you may destroy a second time. Take up arms! Go and thresh—the threshing of old straw, it is called—and kill the corpses. They are already dead; their energy has gone.”
Many of the contributors to the victory in the war are not known to history. Of course, Sri Krishna’s participation in this great Armageddon is well known, and we need not say anything about it. The hypnotic effect that he cast on the entire army when he gazed at the warriors was also a great contributory factor, as it drew fifty percent of the strength of the Kauravas. Hanuman, who was invisibly present on top of Arjuna’s chariot—Arjuna is known as Kapidhvaja because of this—terrified the nerves of all the soldiers with his roar, and they were practically paralysed by the very sound of it. But something more was there.
After the war was over, Arjuna was sitting calmly at one place, and Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa came to see him. Receiving the honoured guest and seating him, Arjuna posed a question: “Great Master! I have some doubt in my mind. During the war, which is now over, I saw something in front of me every day—some human-being-like figure whose feet were not touching the ground. It was whitish and greyish, with a trident in hand. It was visible and not visible. Every day this vision was in front of me. I had no occasion to ask this question to anybody. But now thou art here, O Master, will you tell me what it is that I have seen?”
Vyasa replied, “Blessed you are, Arjuna. It was Lord Siva. He knew that you were helpless. Before Bhishma, Drona and Karna, even a hundred Arjunas could not stand. Knowing this, knowing your goodness and your physical incapacity to meet these people, Rudra himself was standing in front of you. He did not take up arms. He did not use his trident. He only exuded a fragrance around him—sugandhiṁ puṣṭi-vardhanam (R.V. 7.59.12). That fragrance killed them, and they had no life afterwards. Though they appeared to be alive, they were actually corpses. Who could win this victory except Rudra, that great yogi of yogis? O Arjuna, you are really blessed because you had that darshan. You had darshan of the great Sankara.” This is mentioned in the Drona Parva.
“So whatever has to be done has already been done by Me. Take up arms only for the sake of portraying the picture of the war that is taking place, and you shall have the victory. You shall have the kingdom, and I will go to Dvaraka,” said Sri Krishna.
Etacchrutvā vacanaṁ keśavasya kṛtāñjalir vepamānaḥ kirīṭī, namaskṛtvā bhūya evāha kṛṣṇaṁ sagadgadaṁ bhītahītaḥ praṇamya (11.35): Sanjaya says, “After having heard these frightening words from this mysterious Being gazing at him, Arjuna speaks once again in tremor, joy and fright combined. Frightened to the core, with choked words, prostrating himself again and again before this Mighty Being, trembling, fear-struck, Arjuna speaks these words once again.”
Sthāne hṛṣīkeśa tava prakīrtyā jagat prahṛṣyatyanurjyate ca, rakṣāṁsi bhītāni diśo dravanti sarve namasyanti ca siddhasaṁghāḥ (11.36): “There is no wonder that all the worlds are rushing into You, because You said You are the Time Spirit come to destroy all things. The world is happy and unhappy at the same time. It is happy because it has Your vision. It is unhappy because it is going to be destroyed by You. All the Rakshasas—some of them are running away from You in fright, some are entering into You, to their doom.”
Kasmācca te na nameran mahātman garīyase brahmaṇo’pyādikartre (11.37): “Why should they not prostrate themselves before You, O Lord of lords? You are the Might of all mights, the Ruler of all the worlds, and the Dispenser of the justice to everybody that is created. The Creator of the world, Brahma, is nowhere near You. You are superior to Brahma, the Creator, because You are the Creator of even the Creator, Brahma himself.” Ananta: “O Infinite one!” Deveśa: “O Lord of lords, God of gods!” Jagannivāsa: “O Abode of the universe!” Tvam akṣaraṁ: “Thou art the Imperishable Eternal.” Sad asat: “You are existence and non-existence.” Tatparaṁ yat: “You are something more than that. I see You as the existence of all things, the non-existence of all things, and something beyond all concepts of existence and non-existence. Transcendent Eternity Thou art.”
Tvam ādidevaḥ (11.38): “The Original Ancient one, the God of gods, Thou art.” Puruṣaḥ purāṇas: “The ancient Purusha, Purushottama, Narayana.” Tvam asya viśvasya paraṁ nidhānam: “The very support and life-breath of this universe, Thou art. Who can know You except Yourself?” Vettāsi vedyaṁ ca paraṁ ca dhāma: “Thou knowest everything, whatever is to be known, because in Thy knowing Thyself, everything has already been known. The Supreme Abode is already attained in the vision of Thy Great Form. Thou art all things, spreading Thyself everywhere, O Visva Anantarupa, O All-formed One!” Tvayā tataṁ viśvam: “Thou hast spread Thyself everywhere in all space and time.”
Vāyur yamo’gnir varuṇaḥ śaśāṅkaḥ prajāpatis tvaṁ prapitāmahaś ca (11.39): “Thou art Vayu, Thou art Yama, Thou art Agni, Thou art Varuna, Thou art the Moon, Thou art Prajapati, Thou art the grandfather of the gods, the supreme Brahma himself. Thou art not merely pitamaha, grandfather; Thou art also great-grandfather.” Namo namas te: “What can I say except prostrations to You.” Sahastrakṛtvaḥ: “A thousand prostrations to You. Myriad prostrations to You.” Punaś ca bhūyo’pi:“Again and again, I prostrate myself before You.” Namo namas te: “Again, prostrations. How many times I can say I prostrate myself before You? Prostrations! Prostrations! Prostrations!” Sahasranama: “One thousand times I prostrate myself before Thee. Infinite times I prostrate myself before Thee. I have nothing. I am not capable of doing anything else except to surrender myself and plead inability to understand Thee, and place myself at Thy disposal. Prostrations!”
Anantavīrya (11.40): “O infinitely powerful one! From all sides I prostrate, not only in the front.” Sarvata eva: “From all sides.” Anantavīrya: “O All! From all sides I offer my prostrations.” Ᾱmitavikramas tvaṁ: “O all-powerful one! Thy power nobody can measure. Immeasurable power is Thine.” Sarvaṁ samāpnoṣi tato’si sarvaḥ: “Being all things Thyself, Thou includes within Thyself all things.”
Eko’thavāpyacyuta tatsamakṣaṁ tat kṣāmaye tvām aham aprameyam (11.42): “What a mistake I have committed by calling You a friend once upon a time. O Krishna! O Yadava! O dear one! Did I not refer to You with those words? I am frightened to see that You are something else altogether. I thought You were a friend of mine. In humorous moods during our times together, at all times, sometimes in joke, sometimes in sarcasm, I have disrespected You, O Lord. I thought You are a human being, and I called You friend, I called You Krishna, I called You Yadava. When we were sitting together, when we were reclining together, when we were eating together, when we were walking together, I addressed You as my friend. Please forgive me for this mistake that I have committed. I did not know who You are. Sometimes when I was alone with You, I spoke to You in a disrespectful manner. Sometimes I spoke to You in a disrespectful manner even before other people, thinking that You are my best friend and I can take liberties with You. I did that. Now I feel Thou art something else. Will You kindly forgive me for this error that I have committed under the impression that You were a friend, a human being like me. Thou art something else, O Eternal One! Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me! Pardon me for this mistake that I have committed in imagining that You are a human form.”
Pitāsi lokasya carācarasya (11.43): “Thou art the Father of all creation. Thou art the most adorable of all beings.” Sa eṣaḥ pūrveṣām api guruḥ kālenā anavacchedāt (Y.S. 1.26): “Thou art the Guru of all Gurus.” Tvam asya pūjyaś ca gurur garīyān: “You are the Guru of all the millions of Gurus in the world.” Na tvatsamo’styabhyadhikaḥ: “Nobody is equal to Thee.” Kuto’nyaḥ: “Nobody can be outside Thee.” Lokatray: “In all the three worlds, who can there be except You?” Apratimaprabhāva: “O Glorious One, incomparably great and puissant.”
Tasmāt praṇamya praṇidhāya kāyaṃ prasādaye tvām aham īśam īḍyam, piteva putrasya sakheva sakhyuḥ priyaḥ priyāyārhasi deva soḍhum (11.44): “Therefore, I once again prostrate myself before Thee. I offer my entire being to Thee. Sashtanga namaskara I do, offering myself entirely at Thy disposal. In humble surrender through sashtanga pranama, I beseech Thee to be gracious, kind, and merciful. Prasadaye tvam aham isam idyam: As a father would forgive a son, as a friend would forgive a friend, as a dear one, a beloved one, would forgive a beloved one, so I request Thee to forgive me and bear with me. The character of forgiveness is mentioned in three degrees. A father’s forgiveness, a friend’s forgiveness and the beloved’s forgiveness are the three different categories. In all the three categories I beseech Thee.”
Adṛṣṭapūrvaṁ hṛṣito’smi dṛṣṭvā bhayena ca pravyathitaṁ mano me, tad eva me darśaya deva rūpaṁ prasīda deveśa jagannivāsa (11.45): “In fear, my mind is not able to even think, because this is something which I have never seen up to this time. I am happy and elated, I am in a state of ecstasy, but fear-struck at the same time. Will You kindly come down and show Your original form as Sri Krishna, my old friend? Enough of this terrible form! I am fear-struck. Therefore, I request You to come down to the original level.”
Kirīṭinaṁ gadinaṁ cakrahastaṁ (11.46): “Please bless me and be gracious. I would like to see You once again with the diadem of that beloved, beautiful, grand, majestic, attractive Sri Krishna, with four hands holding the sankha, chakra, gadha and padma. I cannot bear this vision any more. Grand and great as it may be, enough of it! I shall have my old, dear friend Sri Krishna, and not this Visvarupa any longer.”
Śrībhagavānuvāca: mayā prasannena tavārjunedaṁ rūpaṁ paraṁ darśitam ātmayogāt, tejomayaṁ viśvam anantam ādyaṁ yan me tvadanyena na dṛṣṭapūrvam (11.47): Sri Bhagavan replies, “With great compassion, I have shown this form to you. With the power of My Universal Selfhood, I have manifested Myself for your welfare. Because you wanted to see Me in this form—because you are My beloved, you are dear to Me—therefore, I have shown this form to you. This great, wondrous Light, the Light of all lights, the Universal Reality, the Endless, the Origin—nobody has seen this kind of vision up to this time. This is something very strange, that in all creation nobody has seen this vision of the Virat. This is the first time that someone is beholding it, O Arjuna. You are blessed.”
Na vedayajñādhyayanair na dānair na ca kriyābhir na tapobhir ugraiḥ, evaṁrūpaḥ śakya ahaṁ nṛloke draṣṭuṁ tvadanyena kurupravīra (11.48): “This form, this Viratsvarupa, this Vaisvanara-tattva, this Universal Spirit, in which form you have beheld Me—this cannot be beheld by any kind of ritual, by study of the Vedas, by teaching, by charity, by ritualistic performances, by tapas or austerity of any kind. Whatever be the intensity and ferocity of that tapas, nothing of the kind can touch Me.”
Human action cannot touch Eternity, because all action is in the process of time. All action is in space and in time. This Eternal terror which was beheld by Arjuna is not in space, not in time. Therefore, our studies of the Vedas, our tapasyas, our charities, our philanthropies, our deeds—whatever their merit, they are, after all, like performances in the dream world. When we wake up, the merits of all our good deeds in dream disappear. Similarly, in the quality of the perception of the Supreme Being, actions of the human being in the world of space and time bear no relevance. No action which is conditioned by time can take us to the Unconditioned Reality, which is not in time. Na hy adhruvaiḥ prāpyate hi dhruvaṁ tat (Katha 1.2.10): The Imperishable, Eternal Reality cannot be contacted through the instrumentality of perishable deeds. Actions, deeds that we perform in this world have a beginning and an end. They are not eternal. How could we have the vision of that Eternal, contact with the Eternal or attain realisation of that Eternal, which is timeless, when the instruments that we are using for that purpose are in time?
“Nobody can behold this form. Do not be frightened. Do not be deluded. Be up and doing. Why are you afraid of seeing Me? Be happy that you have beheld Me. I look terrific because I am a terror to the egos of individuals.”
Who is saying, “I am afraid”? It is the ego of Arjuna that is saying that. The ego of Arjuna has not melted. It is frightened, as we are frightened to touch the oceanic waves. We are afraid to touch the elephant’s body because of our ego that gets humiliated immediately and feels that it is no more.
The Eternal is death to everything that is in time. Therefore, God looks like a terrific being to all who is afraid of death, because God is the death of all death—mṛtyoḥ mṛtyuḥ. God is called mṛtyoḥ mṛtyuḥ, the death of death. Therefore, “Knowing this truth of Mine, be not bewildered. Don’t say ‘I am afraid’. There is nothing here to be afraid of.” Vyapetabhīḥ (11.49): “Be fearless.” Prītamanāḥ: “Be pleased, and be subdued in your mind.” Punas tvaṁ tad eva me rūpam idaṁ prapaśya: “All right, here I am as the Yadava Krishna. Do you see me?”
In one moment of that stupendous vision, the world vanished before Arjuna. The fourteen worlds of the entire creation melted down into the liquid of the flame of the Eternal Godhead. Unable to behold it for a long time, he beseeches the Lord to come down to the original human form. This request is granted, and Sri Krishna is standing there as before—with a whip in his hand, grooming the horses.
Ityarjunaṁ vāsudevas tathoktvā svakaṁ rūpaṁ darśayāmāsa bhūyaḥ (11.50): Sanjaya speaks. “Having said this, the beautiful, charming, mighty Krishna of Dvaraka is now standing before Arjuna once again. Patting him on the back, he says, ‘How are you? All is well with you?’”
==
Discourse 35: The Eleventh Chapter Concludes – Whole-souled Devotion to God
The Great Lord withdrew His Cosmic Form and appeared once again in that charming, beautiful, human form as Sri Krishna of Dvaraka—to the great joy of Arjuna, who wanted to see that friendly comrade because he was too frightened of that Cosmic Vision.
Sañjaya uvāca: ityarjunaṁ vāsudevas tathoktvā svakaṁ rūpaṁ darśayām āsa bhūyaḥ (11.50): The great Sanjaya, who knew everything that was happening inside and outside, says here, “Having told Arjuna that this is a very difficult thing to visualise for ordinary mortals, the Lord withdrew Himself into the normal form of Yadava Sri Krishna; and then He consoled him—‘Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid’—as a parent would pat a child on the back. ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, Arjuna. All is well. Be happy. Don’t bother.’” Ᾱśvāsayām āsa ca bhītam: “He consoled the frightened Arjuna.”
Arjuna uvāca: dṛṣṭvedaṁ mānuṣaṁ rūpaṁ tava saumyaṁ janārdana, idānīm asmi saṁvṛttaḥ sacetāḥ prakṛtiṁ gataḥ (11.51): Arjuna now exclaims, “O Master, I was out of my wits! I did not know where I was, or what I was seeing. I had lost myself. Now I have come back to myself after seeing You in this kind, beautiful, friendly form. Having seen this human form which You have now assumed, which is calm, sober, friendly, beautiful, charming, I have come back to myself. I am a normal man now. At that time I was not a normal person. I had lost myself completely. I did not know what was happening to me. Great Master, be gracious!”
Śrībhagavānuvāca: sudurdarśam idaṁ rūpaṁ dṛṣṭavān asi yan mama, devā apyasya rūpasya nityaṁ darśanakāṅkṣiṇaḥ (11.52). Now, summing up this great theme of the Visvarupa Darshana, the Lord Himself speaks. Devair atrāpi vicikitsitam purā, na hi suvijñeyam, aṇur eṣa dharmaḥ (Katha 1.1.21) is a parallel passage in the Kathopanishad. Nachiketas pleads that the Eternal Secret be revealed to him. “Not even all the gods know this. Subtle is this matter,” is Yama’s reply to Nachiketas.
Likewise, Bhagavan Sri Krishna now speaks to Arjuna. Nāhaṁ vedair na tapasā na dānena na cejyayā, śakya evaṁvidho draṣṭuṁ dṛṣṭavān asi māṁ yathā (11.53): “Impossible it is to behold this Form. You have seen it; but it is not easy to see it. The gods are also eager to visualise this, to have darshan of this Great Form. Every day they eagerly await that occasion when they can have this darshan. But I cannot easily be known, not even by the gods, because the means that they employ to have darshan, the vision of this Supreme Form, are inadequate. The means and the end should be on a common pedestal. An inadequate means cannot suffice for the achievement of an end that is supremely adequate. Study of the Vedas and scriptures, and intense physical austerity, mortification of the flesh, any kind of charity and philanthropic deed that you perform, and sacrifices of any kind—these will not suffice. No mortal deed can take you to the Immortal.”
Bhaktyā tvananyayā śakya (11.54): The word ‘ananya’ comes many a time in the Bhagavadgita. Sri Krishna never forgets to use this word ‘ananya’. Of course, everybody has devotion for God in some measure. We are all devotees of God in some way; but are we ananya? Ananya means undivided, non-separate, non-externalised, whole-souled love. Now, many of us may not be able to entertain such a thing. We love God and pray to God, we worship God and consider Him as the Ultimate Reality and the aim and goal of our life—accepted; but yet, there is some string that pulls our devotion back in another direction altogether. We have loves of different types which are connected to this world and, therefore, these devotions are secondary in their nature and fall into the category of gaunabhakti. Because our devotions are more ritualistic in their nature, externalised in their nature, we express our devotion in some form outside; but the ananya bhakti that is spoken of here is the devotion of our soul for the Universal Soul.
It is not the mind, the intellect and the feeling that love God. Most of our affections are psychological. We use only our mind in thinking of God, and even in loving God. The soul, the spirit, does not always come up. We are not possessed by the spirit within our own selves. We are temporarily possessed by certain emotions, but these emotions are not devotion. We may be intensely stimulated for some time when we hear charming, stirring, devotional music, or when stimulating sankirtan is going on in a chorus or in a group. Yet the pulls of the earth, which limit this devotion that has temporarily taken possession of us through emotion, will manifest themselves after the satsanga is over, and we will be the same Mr. So-and-so. It would not have made much difference in our practical daily life. The practical daily conduct of business is also to be a part of devotion to God, and devotion to God is not to be confined to the chapel or the puja room or the temple. We should not say, “I shall finish my puja and come.” We cannot come from the puja. It is a whole-souled dedication of ours.
When the soul rises into action, the mind and the body cannot stand it. Very rarely our soul acts. In deep sleep we are possessed by our soul, and so we are immensely calm, quiet and happy. In the state of deep sleep, there is a subdual of all distraction for the time being. And in intense agony at the point of death, the soul also rises and is in complete possession of our personality. When we are sure that death is imminent and we do not have permission to live even for a second more, then the soul rises up into an action of agony. The third occasion when the soul rises is in an intense fulfilment of passionate action, whether it is political or personal. Where one loses oneself completely in a frenzy of behaviour and action, at that time the soul temporarily takes possession of us for a minute, for a second. It is only in these three conditions that the soul acts: at the greatest point or height of intensity when our longing is fulfilled, or when we are dying, or when we are sleeping. At other times the soul is sleeping, and only our mind is acting.
It is necessary for the soul to act in devotion to God—not merely because we are dying, or we are fulfilling some desire, or we are sleeping. This is a fourth kind of state altogether in which the soul acts. The thrill, the stimulation, the rejoicing, the horripilation, the sense of loss of self-consciousness, and the sense of being possessed by Universal-consciousness characterise this devotion gradually, stage by stage. This alone can permit us to have this Great Vision. No action, no tapasya, no study, no ritual, no charity can help us, because they are all in the world of space and time.
Bhaktyā tvananyayā śakya aham evaṁvidho’rjuna, jñātuṁ draṣṭuṁ ca tattvena praveṣṭuṁ ca paraṁtapa: There are three processes: knowing, implementing, and materialising the love of God. First of all it is a vision and a knowledge—ñātuṁ draṣṭuṁ. To know and to visualise, to see and to understand, has been bequeathed to Arjuna. He understood because of the explanation given by the Lord Himself as to what it is. He saw it, but he did not enter into it. He was standing outside it, as it were. He was looking at it. But it has to be borne in mind that the fulfilment of God-consciousness, or God-realisation, consists not merely in having the vision of God or knowing Him in a special characterisation as described here. We have to merge ourselves into it. The Atman becomes Brahman. The soul enters into the Maker of all things. “This devotion, which is the supreme means of knowing Me, will enable one to know Me, to visualise Me, and finally to enter into Me, which is the salvation of the soul.”
Sankaracharya tells us in his commentary that the last verse of this chapter is the quintessence of all teaching. That is his opinion. The last verse is matkarmakṛn matparamo madbhaktaḥ saṅgavarjitaḥ, nirvairaḥ sarva-bhūteṣu yaḥ sa mām eti pāṇḍava (11.55): “O Arjuna! Such a person will reach Me who performs all action and duty for My sake—matkarmakṛn; who regards Me as supreme above all things anywhere—matparamo; who is intensely devoted to Me throughout the day and night for all time—madbhaktaḥ; who is not attached to anything and is free from contamination by anything in the world—saṅgavarjitaḥ; who has no enmity with anybody and doesn’t hate anyone, and no one is an enemy of that person—nirvairaḥ sarvabhūteṣu: no living being is antagonistic to that person and he is not antagonistic to any living being. Such a person reaches Me.”
Om tatsaditi śrīmad bhagavadgītāsūpaniṣatsu brahmavidyāyāṁ yogaśāstre śrīkṛṣṇārjunasaṁvāde viśvarūpadarśanayogo nāmaikādaśo´dhyāyaḥ. In fact, the whole purport of the Bhagavadgita teaching is over with the Eleventh Chapter. Whatever follows from the Twelfth onwards is a kind of commentary, a kind of elucidation of certain minor details which have been briefly stated somewhere or the other in the earlier chapters. The ascent of the soul culminated in the vision of the Universal Spirit.
The lowest pedestal on which the soul was standing was the condition in which Arjuna found himself in the battlefield—everywhere fear, everywhere animosity, everywhere uncertainty, everywhere suspicion and agony, and everywhere strife and conflict. Kaliyuga manifested itself in full force in that picturisation of the Mahabharata battle. No one loved another. Everyone hated the other. From that samsaric mire of intense antagonism, conflict and fear, the soul had to be taken gradually, stage by stage. This has been done by the instructions that Sri Krishna gave, as a very good schoolmaster would give, without telling more than what is necessary under the given condition.
Apt words were used and suitable suggestions fitting to the occasion were given—not a word more, not a word less. But gradually the tempo went on rising, and we have observed how the tempo rose. The explanations became more and more clarifying, more in depth in their nature, until they reached a kind of perfection in the Sixth Chapter, where the individual person was taught the art of self-integration and making oneself whole.
Unless we become whole, we cannot attain the Whole that is the Universal Reality. As we know very well, most of us are shreds of personality, fractions of the psyche, torn pieces of individuality, and none of us is complete in ourselves. We think different things at different times, and we do not know today what we will think tomorrow. There is a non-alignment of our psychological individuality. The understanding, the feeling, the willing and the emotion do not act harmoniously in concert. Therefore, unhappiness, suspicion and even sleeplessness are caused by this distracted action of the psychological organ antahkarana—mano, buddhi, ahamkara, chitta, which act as if they are independent entities, while actually they are four facets of a single action of the total psyche.
For the integration of personality—to wean the person away from this difficulty of non-alignment—the art of meditation is prescribed in the Sixth Chapter. When a person is suitably fitted by this discipline of meditation, the student, the seeker, is introduced into his relationship with the whole creation—with the five elements, the tanmatras, and with God as the Supreme Maker of all things. God’s interference in the world becomes manifest in the Seventh Chapter, and not much of it is mentioned in the earlier chapters. Up to the Sixth Chapter, it is all psychological discipline. Then Divinity enters in the Seventh. Mere psychological discipline, social discipline or any kind of discipline is not sufficient. It becomes sufficient only if God gives the galvanising touch to the perfection that we have otherwise attained psychologically, educationally, or socially.
Gradually, the mind of the seeker is taken up to the consciousness of the true religion of God. The true religion of humanity is impartial in its nature and considers every human being as a brother or a sister, a cooperator, a pilgrim on the path. There is a spirit of cooperation among the individuals on account of everyone wanting only one God, because it has been emphasised that outside the one God there cannot be another god.
The little gods, whom people generally worship, are the manifestations, the facets, the fingers or the more concretised forms of the Universal Being, and their worship will also bring some result. We will get some blessing even from a patwari, but that is not enough. It is not sufficient because full authority of administration is not invested with the patwari. So is the case with the little gods. They will give us some blessing, but these blessings have a beginning and an end, and we will repent afterwards that the thing that we sought was not actually obtained. Therefore, it is necessary to seek the One God, outside Whom there cannot be any other god.
This is emphasised in the Ninth Chapter, and also it is further added that God is so kind and merciful that He shall take care of us as a kind father, as a kind mother, as a grandfather, as a great grandfather, as our very life-breath, our very sustenance—everything. In the Tenth Chapter, it is told that God is pervading in all the mighty excellences; and in the Eleventh Chapter, He stands alone, and nobody else can be there in front of Him.
For the perfection of yoga, for the removal of dirt in our mind, for removing even sins, and to do prayaschitta for any mistakes that we have committed, the Eleventh Chapter is generally read. The Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita is like a mantra which will purify us, cleanse our mind and burnish our soul. Students of yoga, students of true religion, lovers of God, would do well to read the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita every day, because without some kind of prop, some assistance from outside, we will not be in a position to contemplate on God independently. So, read the Eleventh Chapter every day.
The mahatmyas—which means the glories and descriptions of the importance of each chapter of the Bhagavadgita—are explained in independent chapters in the Padma Purana. That is, one chapter of the Padma Purana is devoted to the description of the greatness of one chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Thus, the twenty-four chapters of the Padma Purana tell us what is the importance and the greatness of each chapter of the Bhagavadgita. However, we need not go into all those glorifying chapters. The whole of the Gita is a textbook of spiritual practice, and devotees believe that every word of it is a gem.
The form has been withdrawn. Arjuna and Sri Krishna are sitting together as chums, in the same manner as they were sitting before. Now they can have a friendly chat or discourse. Krishna can treat Arjuna as his dear friend, comrade and equal; and Arjuna can put questions of any kind.
After having heard all this, seen all this, and understood all this, Arjuna raises a question which is very pertinent for every one of us: “You are the Mighty Lord, inclusive of all things, transcendent as well as immanent. You are inconceivable to the mind. You remain as the Supreme Absolute Brahman, but You are also manifest as a person, as I am seeing You here in front of me. You said You are manifest in various excellences, as You have mentioned to me earlier. Which way of contemplating You would You regard as better, or superior? Should I try to contemplate You as the indeterminate, infinite, transcendent, Absolute Brahman? Or, may I adore You as a manifest Bhagavan Sri Krishna or any of the forms that You have taken in these excellences? With form or without form—which way is the better one for me to contemplate You?”
That was Arjuna’s question, and this question is raised by every one of us also. Some say that nirguna bhakti is better than saguna bhakti, some say that saguna bhakti takes us to nirguna, and some, like the Vaishnavas, Saivas, Saktas, etc., cling to saguna only, especially in specialised forms of devotion. Which way are we to follow—the saguna form or the nirguna form, the transcendent form or the immanent form, the universal form or the personal form?”
No comments:
Post a Comment