THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 11
VERSE NUMBER 40
VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM:
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:
namah purastaad atha prrshtthatas te
namo ‘stu te sarvata eva sarva
ananta veeryaamita vikramas tvam
sarvam samaapnoshi tato ‘si sarvah
SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:
namah = salutation: purastaat = (from) before: atha = also: prrshtthatah = (from) behind: te = to thee: namah = salutation: astu = be: te = to thee: sarvatah = on every side: eva = even: sarva = O all: ananta veerya = infinite in power: amita vikramah = infinite in powers: tvam = thou: sarvam = all: samaapnoshi = pervadest: tatah = wherefore: asi = (thou) art: sarvah = all.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Salutation to You before, salutation to You behind, salutation to You on every side, O All! Infinite in might and immeasurable in strength, You pervade all and therefore You are all.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
The question of seeking God does not arise to the enlightened; it is a matter of seeing and recognizing Him everywhere and in everything. Arjuna has now risen to this exalted position.
The Lord is revealing His omnipotence exuberantly through the working of the universe. A reverent recognition of it is a form of adoration offered to the Almighty. Nay, man has something more to do. The powers and resources he is gifted with, have all come from God. A proper utilization of them for the public good is a potent form of prayer. It is the proper application of man’s dharma. He who fails to discharge his dharma spoils his life.
Just as a fruit is inclusive of the pulp, the seed and the skin, Iswara is inclusive of the universe and the beings in it. In the act of adoration the Lord, the act of upholding and propitiating the beings is included. In serving the beings, the Lord is served well.
COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:
The Supreme dwells everywhere, within, without, above, below and around and there is no place where He is not. See Mundaka Upanishad, II. 2. II; Chaandogya Upanishad, VII. 25
The truth that we are all the creatures of the One Supreme and that He is in each and every one of us is frequently repeated.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
The words “I prostrate myself before Thee, behind Thee and on every side” indicate the all-pervading nature of the Lord. How can the all-pervading Self have front and back? Finite objects only have front and back sides! Arjuna imagined that there were front and back sides to the Lord and so prostrated himself in his extreme faith and devotion.
O All: Nothing exists without Thee. As the Self is all-pervading, He is called the All. There is nothing except the Self.
On every side, as Thou art present everywhere or in all quarters.
One may be powerful but may not possess the courage to kill the enemies or he may be endowed with a mild form of courage, but the Lord is infinite in courage and infinite in power.
Pervadest by Thy One Self.
Comments by the blogger:
God is all.
There is nothing that is not pervaded and filled by God.
This understanding of Nature and the Cosmos is unique to the Hinduism.
Almost all major religions of this world do not have a concrete conception of this world. But Hinduism though holds this world as a mere mirage and illusion, understands full well that this world is pervaded by the Lord and the whole cosmos exists in Him. It requires lots of courage and spiritual understanding to hold the illusory world as a material thing and understand that it is filled with God and inheres in Him. There are two words, Andam and Pindam. Andam means the whole cosmos. Pindam means our corporeal body of flesh and bones and veins. The holy Sages of Hinduism said thousands of years ago that WHAT IS THERE IN THE ANDAM IS IN PINDAM! Andam or the Cosmos and Pindam or the body are made up of the same ingredients. The Master Chef, the Almighty God, has created the whole world with the help of the FIVE ELEMENTS. And He has created our bodies in the same way. We are nothing but a conglomeration of the FIVE ELEMENTS! And the Hindu Saints found out thousands of years back that in order to understand the Andam or the Cosmos one should understand the Pindam or one's body! They sought lonely forest retreats and sat in meditation for years together. They found out that the FIVE SENSES are a great iron wall between the illusion and reality. They found out that if one can shut one’s eyes and sit in the lotus posture, one can easily get the better of the other senses! The Five Senses are a great barrier in understanding this world. For their function is to bind us to this Material World. We want to taste the best food and thus we become addicted to luxurious food items and want to earn much in order to get this comfort. The sense of touching makes our senses reel crazily and even after 60 years of life in this world, Man cannot forget what a beautiful woman has got! Thus the Five Senses tie us up to this Material World, while emancipation consists of subduing the Five Senses according to the Hindu Saints and Sages. The primary function of the Senses is to bind forever the human beings to the material pleasures of this world. If we can subdue and get the better of the Five Senses then our inner eye will start to open and the dormant serpent power existing behind the testicles will rise up along the back-bone vertically till it reaches the head. Once that happens, the five senses totally lose their power and attraction and the Sage becomes one with God. This understanding also is unique to the Hinduism. Other major religions hold that the ultimate emancipation consists of the human beings’ entering into Heaven and live forever with God. But the Hindu Saints found out that anyone who is not swayed by the Five Senses and realizes God can mingle in Him. Man is nothing but an individual spark of the Lord. It stands to reason that once we free us from the attraction and pulls of the Five Senses we get back to our original self, that is God.
God fills the world and there can be nothing outside of Him. Arjuna is bewildered and frightened by the Cosmic Form of the Lord of Gita. So he keeps harking back to his original request that the Lord should shed His terrible Cosmic Form and revert back to His endearing human form.
God is All.
The total universe is filled by Him only. But during the Pralaya or Dissolution of the Universe God just slurps up the whole Universe. This attitude and Prowess of the Lord brings tension and discomfort to Arjuna’s understanding.
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