THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 36, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 36

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

arjuna uvaacha

sthaane hrrsheekesa tava prakirtyaa

     jagat prahrrshyaty anurajyate cha

rakshaamsi bheetaani diso dravanti

     sarve namasyanti cha siddhasamghaah

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR  MEANING IN ENGLISH:

arjuna uvaacha = Arjuna said:

sthaane = it is meet: hrrsheekesa = O Hrishikesa: tava = thy: prakeertyaa = in praise: jagat = the world: prahrrshyati = is delighted: anurajyate = rajyate = rejoices: cha = and: rakshaamsi = the Rakshasas: bheetaani =  in fear: disah = to all quarters: dravanti = fly: sarve = all: namasyanti = bow (to thee): cha = and: siddha samghaah = the hosts of Siddhas.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Arjuna said:

It is meet, O Hrishikesa, that the world is delighted and rejoices in Your praise; Rakshasas fly in fear in all directions and all the hosts of Siddhas bow to you.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

If a rustic from a remote rural area be brought into a huge factory with gigantic machinery, he would get terrified and run away. People with some knowledge about the modern machines would stand by and look on the huge machines at work, while the mechanics and technicians would be busily working in that factory.

Arjuna’s vision of the cosmic form of Iswara is parallel to this. The Rakshasas who are ignorant about the working of the universe run pell-mell bringing ruin on themselves. The knowing devotees speak highly of it. The perfected ones such as the yogis and Siddhas pay their reverence by participating in His cosmic functions.

SRI RAMAKRISHNA’S WORDS OF WISDOM AS QUOTED BY SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

People are all variously related to Iswara. The Rishis are all His kith and kin. The other spiritually advanced people are like His friends and companions. The commonality is just His creation. 

  

COMMENTARY BY DR.RADHAKRISHNAN:

In an ecstasy of adoration and anguish, Arjuna praises the Supreme. He sees not only the destructive power of Time but also the spiritual presence and law governing the cosmos. While the former produces terror, the latter gives rise to a sense of rapturous ecstasy and he pours forth his soul in utter adoration.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Praise: description of the glory of the Lord. The Lord is the object worthy of adoration, love and delight because He is the Self and friend of all beings.

The Lord is the object of adoration, love and delight for the following reason also. He is the primal cause even of Brahma, the Creator of the universe.

Comments by the blogger:

The child adores its mother and father. In its presence, if anyone happens to say something derogatory about the parents of the child, it affects the child deeply. “My mother pure love and she is the object of adoration,” the child thinks. “My father knows everything in this world,” the child thinks. Adoration of the parents by the child comes naturally to a child. Nothing delights the child than the praise of its parents. Because the child is the product of its parents. The child has come out of the parents. It is a small expression of the parents. The tiny tot adores its parents without anyone’s say-so. It comes quite naturally to the child.

We are tiny expressions of Iswara. Iswara has no material form in his pure self. But our Atma or Soul belongs to the Maker of the Universe. There is a continuous relationship between Father and child and this relationship does not undergo any change with the passing of the Time. While a child takes delight in the praise of its own parents when the child grows into a young man this young man comes to know the weakness and minus points about his father and mother. Though this realization does not change the young man’s respect and affections for his parents there is an understanding of the minus points and weaknesses in the parents' character and looks. For example, if one of the parents of the child is physically challenged, the child does not realize that when it is quite a tiny tot. But what happens is that the child undergoes the transformation physically and mentally. Thus the child when it is growing into a young man it realizes that one of its parents is physically challenged.

But what happens to a child’s realization as it grows into a young man about God, its natural Father, is quite amazing: the child is tutored by its parents to worship the Lord. But when it grows into a young man the child’s notion about the Primary Cause of this Universe undergoes an awesome transformation. Now the young man glorifies the Lord on his own. When the child grows to become an old man, all the worldly pulls and attractions go away and in its place, the old man’s understanding of the Lord goes through a tremendous and stupendous transformation. The old man takes rapturous delight in glorifying the Lord because all the pulls and pressures of the worldly life have a lesser effect on the old man. The only thing he or she can delight in is God and glorification of the Lord. Iswara is the Father of us all. We take pride in Him. We sing His greatness and this glorification of the Lord for its own sake brings the old man unbearable ecstasy and rapture. In time the old man has come to understand the glorification of the Lord is the end in itself in our worldly life which is an illusion.

Arjuna takes delight in singing the praise of the Lord because of the transformation in his understanding of the Lord of Gita. Arjuna adores the Lord. He has come to understand that being a faithful instrument in God’s Hands besides exercising our free choice of Action by worshipping the Lord and see in everyone the Lord Himself. The new understanding brings a lot of pleasure to Arjuna and he understands that the battle to be started is a medium of self-realization by fighting without any self-interest. He is no more afraid of killing his enemies including the mighty Bhishma and Drona. We can understand God better by paying heed to our inner voice. We would come to understand that by indulging in Karma Yoga with our mind focuses on God all the time, we can realize our soul.

The Bhagavad Gita teaches four Yogas: bhakti yoga or the yoga of devotion, Karma Yoga or the Yoga of indulging in right action without any personal stake in the outcome or result, Raja Yoga and Gnana Yoga or the Yoga of Wisdom.

Of the four types of Yoga Bhakti Yoga or the Yoga of Devotion comes quite naturally to us. In its ultimate form devotion of the Lord for its own sake brings complete raptures to us. The devotion of the Lord for its own sake brings us a consummate understanding of the Universe and Its purpose. All can indulge in the Yoga of Devotion.

This unflinching Devotion on the part of Arjuna for Sri Krishna brings soul satisfaction and Arjuna gives expression to his inner state in beautiful words in this sloka or verse.