THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 11, VERSE 13, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM:

VERSE NUMBER 13

Text in Transliteration:

tatrai ‘kastham jagat kritsnam pravibhaktam amekadhaa

apasyad devadevasya Sartre paandvas tadaa

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

tatra = there; ekastham = resting in one; jagat = the universe; krrtsnam = the whole; pravibhaktam = divided; anekadhaa = in many groups; apasyat = saw; deva devasya = of the god of gods; sareere = in the body; paanadavah = son of Pandu; tadaa = then.

Text in English:

There in the body of the God of gods, Pandava then saw the whole universe with its many divisions drawn together into one.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Unity in variety is the plan of Nature. The Cosmic Life is manifesting Itslf as the celestials, as the human beings, as animals, as birds, as the vegetable kingdom and other species. These are all expressions of the same Consciousness. The celestial world, the terrestrial world, the nether world—these are all regions intended for enjoyments of various kinds. And each region has its own objects of enjoyment. All these are contained in Iswara who is the Life of lives; this is how the unity in variedty is made possible.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Arjuna had the vision of the One in the many and the many in the One. Aa things remain the same and yet all are changed. There is astonishment at the disappearance of the familiar landmarks of the everyday world. Everything is interfused, each with each and mirrors the whole. The vision is a revelation of the potential divinity of all earthly life.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Tatra: there—in the Cosmic Form.

Anekadha: many groups—gods, manes, men and other species of beings.

Arjuna beheld the forms as the forms of the Lord, all heads as His heads, all eyes as His eyes, all hands as His hands, all feet as His feet, every part of everybody as the limb of the Lord’s divine form. Wherever he looked he beheld nothing but the Lord. He got mystic divine knowledge.

Sanjaya has given a truly graphic description of the Cosmic Form. Yet, it would be futile to grasp it with the finite mind. It is a transcendental vision, beyond the reach of the mind and senses. It has to be realised in Samadhi.

Comments by the blogger:

It could be quite frightening to have an integral vision of this cosmos. For us out the five elements, the air and the sky largely remain unseen. Air, ok. How come we do not see the sky? The sky as we understand is quite different from the one as we get to see! We see an expanse of blue bright sky or the overcast sky. At least in the blue and bright sky, there is room for illusion and the sky seems to our naked eye as expanding into the infinitude, as the sea waters. But the overcast sky or the sky overcast with dark rain-bearing clouds give a definite and a very limited shape to the sky. The clouds hung so low as though they could be touched if only we stretched up our arms!

But the sky, though finite according to the theory of Albert Einstein, is described by the poets and even ordinary laymen as infinite, because of its intense immensity and massive proportions. And this sky houses millions of trillions of stars! There are said to be millions of milky ways like that of our Solar System. That is why it is strongly believed even by serious scientists that there are human beings more intelligent than us! There are numberless planets seen travelling fast at the speed of the light away from our planet, the Earth, since the Big Bang! That should give us a proper idea as to the size of the sky itself. But we are not threatened by the sky! On the other hand, we enjoy looking at the sky in its many moods! The poets write in praise of the sun-up and sunset. But we never get to see the sky in its true massive form. If we ever do get to see that, that would frighten us! It is one thing to make a mental picture and mentally analyze and understand about the sky, and quite different from actually seeing it in its true potential form all in its massiveness. What the eyes do not see the mind do not worry about!

Likewise, we do not get to see the air in its myriad moods. We only see the effect of the hurricane and tornado wrought on the other elements. And we do not get to see the water, the earth and fire in their real immense and massiveness. For example, we haven’t seen the ultimate deluge. The Chennai flood last year was the child of the deluge. But it frightened us!

So any element in their real and deluge-size will frighten us.

All we see of the mother Earth is the flat form and expanse with familiar landmarks like hills, forests or concrete jungle. But what would happen if we develop an acumen to see all at once the whole of the revolving earth? We would be actually wetting our pants in the sheerness of mighty fear! Once again, what the eyes do not get to see the mind does not bother about.

But Arjunan gets to see all the furious elements in their immense, full and massive form and the familiar landmarks are nowhere to be seen and this frightens and over-awes him.

Blessed we are only till we do not get to see the reality with our naked eyes! We thrive in limited illusive figures and shapes! The human mind cannot put up with God’s immensity and variety.