THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 34. VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 34

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

dronam cha bheeshmam cha jayadratham cha

     karnam tathaa ‘nyaan api yodhaveeraan

mayaa hataams tvam  jahi maa vyathishthaa

     yudhyasava jetaasi rane sapatnaan

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

Dronam = Drona: cha = and: bheeshmam = Bhishma: cha = and: jayadratham = Jayadratha: cha = and: karnam = Karna: tathaa = also: anyaan = others: api = also: yodha = veeraan = brave warriors: mayaa = by me: hataan = slain: tvam = thou: jahi = do kill: maa = not: vyathishthaah = be distressed with fear: yudhyasva = fight: jetaasi = shalt conquer: rane = in the battle: sapatnaan = the enemies.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Slay Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna and other brave warriors who are already doomed by Me. Be not distressed with fear. Fight and you will conquer your enemies  in battle.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

It has been already made clear that the killing of Drona and Bhishma is not contrary to dharma. The next question is whether they can be killed at all. For, Drona is endowed with weapons divine. And Bhishma is one whom death cannot approach without his own permission. Nobody has so far successfully combated with him. Yet another problem is in regard to Jayadratha. By hard penance his father has acquired the power to make the head of that man burs who succeeded is equally problematic. He is armed with ‘Sakti’ a deadly weapon bestowed upon him by Indra. There is no escape for that man against whome this weapon is used. Karna keeps it to take vengeance on Arjuna’s plight.

‘When God is with us who is against us?’ –This maxim is worth pondering over and to be pursued in life. God is here with Arjuna. What can his powerful enemies do  against him? the Lord has willed to have them destroyed. Their power is already withdrawn from them. They are now like pictures which can be easily brushed aside. Arjuna has only to function just as an arrow at the hands of an archer. The Lord wil have His work done through his agency. The glory of a great conquest will be his, as a reward for this agency. This point is diven home into the mind of Partha.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHAKRISHNAN:

mayaa hataam: doomed by me. God knows the direction of their lives and their appointed goal. There is nothing however small or insignificant that has not been ordained or permitted by God, even to the fall of a sparrow.

Arjuna is asked to assume the office of Providence. He will be externally master of nature and inwardly superior to all possible accidents.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Already slain by Me: Therefore, O Arjuna, you need not be afraid of incurring sin by killing them.

Drona had celestial weapons. He was Arjuna’s teacher in the science of Archery. He was Arjuna’s beloved and greatest Guru. Bhishma also possessed celestial weapons. He could die only if and when he wanted to die. He once fought single-handed with Lord Parasurama and was not defeated. So powerful was he.

The father of Jayadratha performed penance with a resolve: “the head of the man who may cause the head of my son to fall on the ground, shall also fall”. During the war, however, Arjuna’s arrow cuts the head and drops it on the lap of the father who inadvertently, makes it fall on the ground: he too dies at once. Karna, the son of the Sun-god, had obtained an unerring missile from Indra.

Comments by the blogger:

This sloka or verse is in continuation of the verse number 34 of this chapter.

God states that Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna and other brave warriors are already slain by Him. Even God could not slain a man who has not accumulated consciously the required Samskaras. Thus that man’s death is scripted by himself. God’s  Universe revolves according as the rule of  cause and effect. If we throw a rubber ball against a wall, the ball is sent back with exactly equal force. And that is the effect of the cause of throwing the ball against the wall. In his Autobiography Srimat Swami Yogananda Paramahamsa describes this evocatively in his book. The Master of Yogananda’s Master was an exact replica of the renouned Babaji under whome the Master of Yogananda’s Master worked as a disciple. Though Yogananda’s Master’s Master was complete in his Sadana or practice of meditation  and realized God and after which he took up a number of disciples under his spiritual heir, he had but one wish that was not fulfilled on his earthly sojourn. What the worthy saint  wanted was to build a palace completely in gold with all the trappings of a great palace! This was one but strong Samskara he had had unfulfilled till his Mahasamadhi or Death. Because of this one Samskara, a strong desire to live in a palace made of gold made him unable to enter into Mahasamadhi. Only persons who have outwitted the Maya or Illusion of this world whereby everyone is motivated towards non-stop action and desiring the fruits of such activities and completely renounce the World can attain Mahasamadhi, God chose a way out so that that one unfulfilled ambition is fulfilled here on the earthly plane; Yoganandaji has colourfully described in his famous Autobiography, by name, “An Autobiography of a Yogi”. God chose that Master who had one blemish in him which made him a  slave to the Samskara shall fulfill completely: God created a great and shining Palace in pure gold! Babaji’s disciple was made to live in that palace till his Samskara was fully fulfilled! The sage, Lahiri Mahasaya, lived in that palace till his desire was completely fulfilled. This palace in gold was created in a vacant place. The moment Lahiri Mahasaya’s desire was fulfilled the whole shining Palace was dismantled and the same was lost to human sight. Once again there was just a vacant site! And Sri Lahiri Mahasaya went up to Heaven without any worldly desire!

The Lord of Gita has created the Universe with a rule that there would be no cause without a logical effect. If we suffer a thought or entertain a desire it gives place for a Samskara. No one, howsoever he or she may be great, can escape this chain of Cause and Effect. Human beings are utterly bewildered at the riches of the world and want to possess all the riches and comforts. Thus there is a rat race against Time! Even in the death-bed human beings are full of unfulfilled desires. Thus they have to come back to this Earth time and time again. only a few among the vast humanity know the Art of Karma Yoga whereby one is ordained to act ceaselessly but without the desire for the fruits of his or her actions. When a man indulges in activities throughout his life with no desire and thus without creating further Samskaras which cause the unwary beings to come back repeatedly to the Earth’s plane. The creation of a desire, howsoever small it might be, gives rise to a Samskara. And one who has created umpteen number of Samskaras cannot escape from having to come back to this World of God to work out those Samskaras.

And when one will die is also the result of one’s creation of Samskaras both in this incarnation and the previous ones. Samskaras follow men as though they were the shadow of them. Part of this working out is the effect of Death for all human beings. Men and Women live and create lots of Samskaras because of their selfish desires for their actions, meet with death at the proper time. There is no escape from the inexorable rule or law of the Universe.

Drona, Bhishma, Jayadratha, Karna and other brave warriors have earned death because of the chasing Samskaras and this is the time for their Death, and there is a compulsion to live as far as one’s Past and Present Samskaras would allow. The warriors mentioned above have given rise to their Samskaras which lead them toward death.

Since it is the Law of Nature governing God’s Universe, the Lord says He has killed all these warriors and urges Arjuna to fight his battle and obtain unrivalled glory on the Earth.