THE HOLY GITA
CHAPTER NUMBER 11
VERSE NUMBER 23
VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE
COSMIC FORM
TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION
roopam mahat te bahu vaktra netram
mahaabaaho bahu
baahooru paadam
bahoodaram bahu damshtraakaraalam
drshtvaa lokaah
pravayathitaas tathaa ‘ham
Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning in English:
Roopam = form: mahat = immeasurable: te = thy: bahu vaktra
netram = with many mouths and eyes: mahaabaabaho = O mighty-armed: bahu baahu
ooru paadam = with many arms, thighs and feet: bahu udaram =with many stomachs:
bahu damshtraa karaalam = fearful with many tusks: drshtvaa = having seen:
lokaah = the worlds: pravyathitaah = are terrified: tathaa = also: aham = I.
TEXT IN ENGLISH:
Seeing Your immeasurable form with myriad mouths and eyes, O
mighty-armed, with myriad arms, thighs and feet, with myriad stomachs, and
terrible with myriad tusks—the worlds are terror-struk, and so am I.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:
Man projects the contents of his mind and cognizes them in
the world outside. Arjuna had no idea till then that it is Iswara who has
become the universe and that there is also a terrific aspect vision of it
frightens him even though he is a person extradinary calibre. He projects this
unsettled state of his mind on the world
and says that the worlds are terror-struk even as he is.
COMMENTAR BY DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN:
This is a poetic exaggeratin to bring out the universality
and the omniprsense of the Supreme.
COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:
Lokah: the worlds—all living beings in the world.
Here is the cause of my fear. Arjuna describes below the
nature of the Cosmic Form which has caused terror in his heart.
Comments by the blogger:
The vision of Cosmic Form of the Lord of Gita frightens
Arjuna.
It would frighten all of us if we were to look at the Cosmic
Form.
The entire Universe is nothing but Iswara or God.
Swami Vivekananda as a teenager was out to meet that great
man who has himself seen God in person. So he went out of his way to see one
guru or master or renouncer of the world. In his search Swami Vivekananda met
so many godmen and put to them all the question if the swami has himself met
with God of the Universe. He knocked at every spiritual person’s door. But,
while every renouncer claimed to have the idea of the Lord of the world, no one
of them came forward to meet the question if he or she has met with God.
Thus the wearied Narendran, as Swami Vivekananda was called
at home, came at last to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The unhesitating
Narendran put to Sri Ramakrishna the very same question and asked the
Paramahamsa if he has ever seen or met with the Lord of the Universe. To this
question the ready reply came from Sri Ramakrishna who claimed in front of the
seeker, Narendran, that he has indeed seen the Lord with his own eyes even as
he was seeing Narendran. “I have seen the Lord just in the same way as I am
seeing you!
Not only that but the master, Sri Ramakrishna, can make him,
the youth Narendran, to see the Lord.
“Are you prepared for the vision of the Lord?”
The eager seeker, Narendran, said he was ready to see God.
The next thing he knew was that the master, Sri Ramakrishna,
lifted his right foot and struck the boy, Narendran, on the right side of his
chest.
The moment the master touched the young boy on his chest the
young seeker of God was transported to differen worlds. One by one Narendran
lost the consciousness of this world and the boy was filled with
super-consciousness. He sensed he was shedding the consciousness of his friends
and about the place where he was seated. He was taken through many worlds of consciousness.
Narendran was filled with amazement and bewilderment. He realized that
everything he had taken for real and concrete in this world looked just as maya
or illusion. At last Narendran was about to shed the relationship of his with
his family. When the bewildered Narendran came to shed his consciousness about his dear mother,
Narendran howled and cried out that he wanted
to retain the consciousness of his own and dear mother. “Master, save
me. I don’t want to lose my consciousness of everything about this world. I
very much want to retain the consciousness of the world. I am bewildered and
save me and let me return to the world peopled by those dear and near!”
And, at this, the benign master, took his foot away and let
Narendran to return to the worldly consciousness!
When the whole Universe is seen by Arjuna at the same time,
he is bewildered. He is filled with utter fear and trepidation. The Lord is the earth and all
the beings in this world. Besides this all the insentient is filled with God. The whole Universe is the body of
the Lord. For the uninitiated Arjuna who had hitherto accustomed to look upon
the Lord, Sri Krishna, as his friend with whome he had shared many a joke and
treated Him as his trusted friend only.
The Cosmic Form makes Arjuna to tremble in fear.
No comments:
Post a Comment