THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 38, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 38

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

tvam aadideva purushah puraanas

     tvam asya visvasya param nidhaanam

vettaa ‘si vedyam cha param cha dhaama

     tvayaa tatam visvam ananta roopa

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

tvam = thou: aadi devah = the primal God: purushah = Purusha: puraanah = the ancient: tvam = thou: asya = of (this): visvasya = of universe: param = the supreme: nidhaanam = refuge: vettaa = knower: asi (thou) art: vedyam = to be known: cha = and: param = the supreme: cha = and: dhaama = abode: tvayaa = by thee: tatam = is pervaded: visvam = the universe: ananta roopa = O being of infinite forms.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

You are the Primal God, the Ancient Purusha; You are the Supreme Abode of all this, You are the Knower and the knowable and the Supreme Abode; this universe is pervaded by You, O Being of infinite form.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The Lord is aadideva or the Primal God because of His being the source of everything sentient and insentient. The Puri of Prakriti (nature) is His construction; and He being its oldest occupant, He is Puraana Purusha (Ancient Person). When Prakriti is withdrawn during Pralaya, (the dissolution of the universe) it goes to rest in Him. For this reason, He is called Param Nidhaanam or the Supreme Abode.

The sun throws light and reveals the earth that has come out from itself. Akin to this, the Lord is the cognizer and the object cognized. The sea is the abode, it being the originator, the sustainer and the withholder of the waves. Even so, the Lord is the Supreme Abode, Param Dhaama (Supreme Abode of Vishnu), of the universe. The effect known as the universe is pervaded by the cause known as Iswara in His infinite forms.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Primal God, because the Lord is the creator of the universe.

Purusha, because the Lord lies in the body (Puri Sayanat)

Nidhanam: That in which the world rests during the great deluge or cosmic dissolution.

The pot comes out of the clay and gets merged in clay. Even so the world has come out of the Lord and gets dissolved or involved in the Lord. So the Lord is the material cause of the world. Therefore, He is the primal God and the supreme refuge also.

Vetta: Knower of the knowable things. As the Lord is omniscient He knows all about the world, and He is the instrumental or the efficient cause of this world.

Param Dhama: Supreme Abode of Vishnu. Just as the rope (the substratum for the superimposed snake) pervades the ‘snake’ so also Brahman or Vishnu through His Nature as Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute pervades the whole universe.    

Comments by the blogger:

God is the Supreme Abode of the universe. Our life in this world is a challenging one. We can never recall what we were in our earlier incarnations. We can never tell as to when the latest sojourn on the earth will end. God is the Supreme Creative Writer. Before His creativity, all our thriller novel experts pale into insignificant nothingness. God clothes this Atman in skeleton and flesh and a network of the nervous system. He hides our Atman from us by His masterly illusion. He creates time and gives us twenty-four hours. We are on a continuous working mode and we can’t remain even a few seconds without indulging in action. The illusion of this world and the universe hides our great soul, which is an individualized expression of God. So we become earth oriented instead of self orientedness. The continuous action by us ever aims in Yogakshema or earning money and other things that increase our material comforts and keeping for our enjoyment makes us selfish. We don’t even know that everything, sentient and insentient, belongs to God and is pervaded by Him. We don’t realize that our brothers and sisters and the whole humanity have a vested interest in what we do and the vice versa. The work and action we indulge in for selfish ends shades our Atman or Soul from us. We individually can make this compulsion to work by putting our selfish ends on the back-burner and take up the social cause and work for the emancipation of the humanity. The selfish eds for which we devote our best part of life binds us to work-related life for the sake of selfish ends. This binds us all to this worldly life repeatedly after death. The masterly creative writer, God, has given us a personal choice in the way we expend twenty-four hours a day and let us loose on the earth. We, thinking that is our only duty, indulge in various comforts and selfish enrichment. The Self-realization never occurs to us. God lets us preponderatingly free in this world and thus create our own Karmas and Fate as to how we will work further in our succeeding births. WE ARE UNABLE TO REALIZE THAT GOD IS THE SUPREME REFUGE OF THIS UNIVERSE. We must work ceaselessly toward enriching our spiritual mode and way of  life. THIS WORLD IS FULL OF SENSE PLEASURES WHICH BIND US TO REPEATED AND ENDLESS BIRTHS, AND GOD IS THE ONLY REFUGE OF THIS SET UP. WE HAVE TO TAKE REFUGE BY SEEKING GOD’S SOCIETY. THE LIFE IN THIS UNIVERSE IS FULL OF LOWLY AND BIRTH-CREATING PLEASURES. WE ARE UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT GOD IS THE ONLY REFUGE OF THIS UNIVERSE. GOD IS THE KNOWER OF ALL THINGS. HE IS THE ONLY ENTITY THAT WE SHOULD GET TO KNOW IN THIS UNIVERSE. THOUGH GOD IS THE SUPREME ABODE WE SEEK PLEASURE AND COMFORTS FROM THIS UNIVERSE ITSELF, FORGETTING THE LORD WHO IS THE SOLE REFUGE FROM THE PITFALLS OF THIS ILLUSORY UNIVERSE. ARJUNA HAS COME TO UNDERSTAND CLEARLY ABOUT THESE THINGS AND THIS MAKES ARJUNA ON A CONTINUOUS MODE OF GLORIFICATION OF THE LORD.