THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 11, VERSE 5, VISVARUP 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 05

Text in Transliteration:

                                 sri bhagavaan uvaacha

pasya me partha roopaani sataso ‘tha sahasrastah:

naanaavidhaani divyaani naanaavarnaakrteeni cha

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning:

Pasya = behold; me = my; paartha = O Partha; roopaani = forms; satasah: = by hundreds; atha = and; sahasrasah: = by thousands; naanaavidhaani = of different sorts; divyaani = divine; naanaavarna aakrteeeni = of various colours and shapes; cha = and;

Text in English:

                               The Blessed Lord said:

Behold My forms, O Partha, by hundreds and thousands, manifold and divine and of multi-colours and shapes.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Things and beings seemingly extraneous to Iswara are not so in fact. Naught exists outside the pale of the Lord. Offshoots as they are of His immensity, the divine element is in one and all of them. It is going to be revealed shortly that the diversities in form, colour, nature and existence are all really the manifestations of the Cosmic Entity who is one without a second.

By asking Arjuna to behold His macrocosmic form, the Lord recognizes his worthiness for that holy communion.

SRIMAT SWAMI RAMAKRISHNA AS QUOTED BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

It is Narayana who has become the all. Man is Narayana; all creatures are Narayana; the Rishi is Narayana, the wicked man is Narayana; whatever is, is Narayana. Narayana sports in multiforms, displaying His glory in all these form.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNA:

The stupendous self-revelation of Divine power is manifested to Arjuna who understands the true meaning of the cosmic process and destiny. In Mahabharata VI, 131, it is said that Krishna appeared in His world-form to Duryodhana, who attempted to make Him a prisoner when He approached Duryodhana for a final attempt at reconciliation.

The vision is not a myth or a legend but spiritual experience. In the history of religious experience, we have a number of such visions. The transfiguration of Jesus, the vision of Saul on the Damascus Road, Constantine’s vision of the Cross bearing the motto “In this sign, conquer,” Joan of Arc’s visions are experiences akin to the vision of Arjuna.

Foot note to “The transfiguration of Jesus”

Mark ix, 2-8.  Saint Hildegard (1098-1180) reports a vision in which she saw a “fair human being” who declared his identity in words reminiscent of the Gita description. “I am that supreme and fiery force that sends forth all the sparks of life. Death hath no part in me, yet do I allot it, wherefore I am girt about with wisdom as with wings. I am that living and fiery essence of the divine substance that glows in the beauty of the fiends. I shine in the water. I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars. Mine is that mysterious force of the invisible wind. I sustain the breath of all living. I breathe in the verdure and in the flowers, and when the waters flow like living things, it is I. I formed those columns that support the whole earth... All these live because I am in them and am of their life. I am wisdom. Mine is the blast of the thundered word by which all things were made. I permeate all things that they may not die. I am life.”  Quoted in ‘Studies in the AHistory and Method of Science’, edited by Charles Singer (1917), page 33.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Divyani; divine; supernatural.

Satasah, Sahasrasah: By the hundreds and thousands countless.

O Arjuna, I want you to behold the Cosmic Form. All beings and entities are there. The fat and the lean, the short and the tall, the red and the black, the active and the passive, the rich and the poor, the intelligent and the dull, the healthy and the sick, the noisy and the silent, those that are awake, those that are asleep, the beautiful and the ugly,  and all grades of beings with their distinctive marks are all there. The blueness of the sky, the yellowness of the silk, the redness of twilight, the blackness of coal, the whiteness of the snow, and the greenness of the leaves will be seen by you. You will also behold the objects of various shapes.