THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 39, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 39

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

VERSE IN TRANSLITERATION:

vaayur yamo ‘gnir varunah sasaankah

     prajaapatis tvam prapitaamahas cha

namo namas te ‘stu sahasrakrrtvah

     punas cha bhooyo ‘pi namo namas te

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

vaayuh = Vayu (the wind): yamah = Yama(God of Death): agnih = Agni (Fire): varunah = Varuna (God of rain): sasaankah = Moon: prajaapatih = Prajapati: tvam = thou: prapitaamahah = great-grandfather: cha = and: namah = salutations: namah = salutations: te = to thee: astu = be: sahasra krrtvah = thousand times: punah = again: cha = and: bhooyah = again: api = also: namah = salutations: namah = salutations: te = to thee.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

You are Vahu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the Moon, Prajapati and the Great-grandfather. Salutation, salutation to You, a thousand times, and again and again salutation to You.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

Prajaapati is the progenitor of beings. Brahma the Creator is the Granfather, he being the progenitor of the Prajaapatis. The Lord Himself is the Great-grandfather since Brahma has come out of Him. The innumerable salutations indicate the upsurge of devotion.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

According to some, “Prajaapati and the grandsire of all.”

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Prajapati: Marichi and others were the seven mind-born sons of Brahma. Kasyapa descended from Marichi and from Kasyapa came all other progeny. Therefore, Marichi, Kasyapa and others are known as Prajapatis or the gods of progeny. The word Prajapati here is interpreted by some as Kasyapa and other Prajapatis. But as the word has been used here in the singular number it is appropriate to take Brahma as Prajapati. Brahma or the Hiranyagarbha is the Karya Brahman (effect). Ishvara is the Karana Brahman (the cause for Brahma). Therefore, Ishvara is the great-grandfather. He is the father of even Brahma.

Ishvara has Maya as the limiting adjunct. Maya is His causal body. Ishvara has no plane. Maya is in an undifferentiated state. She is in a state where the qualities of Nature (Gunas) are in equilibrium. When the equilibrium is disturbed through the will of Ishvara, the three Gunas, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva manifest.

Thou are the moon alludes to and includes the sun also.

Punah, Bhuyah: Again. Salutations a thousand times and again salutations. This indicates that Arjuna had intense faith in and boundless devotion for Lord Krishna. He was not satisfied even if he prostrated himself a thousand times.

Comments by the blogger:

Arjuna salutes the Lord of Gita presently in His Cosmic Form again and again and again! He now has no doubt whatsoever about the high and infinite merits of the Lord and understands that the Universe is not only pervaded by the Lord but the Universe is in God! Arjuna’s new understanding that he and his brothers and the two armies ready to fight and the brave Pitamaha, Bhishma, and venerable teacher, Drona, are all included in the sentient beings of this Universe. And the realization that they all are related to each other having come on to this earth’s plane to work out the effect of their individual past Karma gives Arjuna a sensation of oneness with all. Both his warriors and the warriors on the enemy’s side are going to die. But each warrior has a stake in the working out of the individual karma of each and every other warrior. Not only this. The Lord’s Cosmic Form brings to Arjuna a realization that even the insentient objects of this world are filled with God. The Universe is God’s body. Arjuna’s realization plus the Cosmic Form have brought him a tingling trepidation and raw fear. So we saw him cringe begging the Lord to please return to His earlier human form.

Here in this verse Arjuna bows a thousand times and is not satisfied with that and salutes again and again. The devotion and trepidation go hand in hand. As we saw earlier for the Cosmic Form of the Lord of Gita to bring ecstasy to Arjuna, Arjuna is not a consummate Yogi practising for years together Transcendental Meditation. But the Lord in His infinite compassion has opened the inner eye of Arjuna. So Arjuna is not quite comfortable with the Cosmic Form of the Lord. Another thing that already all the warriors on the enemy’s side have been slain by the Lord Himself without any agency of Arjuna. And Arjuna is now asked by the Lord to become willingly an able instrument in the hands of the Lord. All these new things and realization plus the formidable Cosmic Form of the Lord make Arjuna fervently to put the clock back and he intensely desires for the Lord to assume His endlessly endearing human form.

Arjuna salutes a thousand times and more. He vouchsafes that the Lord is Vayu (the wind god), Yama (the god of Death), Agni (the god of fire), Varuna (the god of rain), the moon and the sun, the Creator and the great-grandfather. The Lord is the Creator of even Brahma (the god of Creation)  Vayu, Yama, Agni, Varuna, the moon and the sun were the Vedic Deities. The Rig-vedic Saints saw godhood in each of the five elements, besides other Universal Powers. Later, in the period of Vedanta or the Upanishadic Period all the Rig-vedic gods were united in the Principal Three Entities, by name, Brahma (the Lord who creates beings), Vishnu (the Lord who sustains the beings and the world, and Siva (the Lord of dissolution of the Universe). Besides this, Lord Vishnu and Lord Siva were individualized by the two sects of worshipers and Vishnu and Siva were individually seen as the Ultimate Lord of the Universe carrying out all the three functions, Creation, Sustenance and Dissolution of the Universe. Though the Vedic gods and elemental powers have lost their relevance today, at the time of Gita, they must have been very much in vogue and worshipped reverently. That is why Vishnu claims throughout the Text of  Bhagavad Gita that He is the Ultimate God carrying out all the Three Cosmic Functions. Arjuna now is vouchsafing that fact in abundant words of mouth and endless salutations by his body.