THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 11, VERSE NUMBER 28, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 28

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

VERSE IN TRANSLITERATION:

yathaa nadeenaam bahavo ‘mbuvegaah

     samudram evaa ‘bhimukhaa dravanti

tathaa tavaa ‘mee naralokaveeraa

     visanti vaktraany abhivijvalanti

SANSKRIT WORDS AND PHRASES AND THEIR MEANING IN ENGLISH:

yathaa = as: nadeenaam = of rivers: bahavah = many: ambuvegaah = water currents: samudram = to the ocean: eva = verily: abhimukhaah =towards: dravanti = flow: tathaa = so: tava = thy: amee = these: naraloka  veeraah = heroes in the world of men: visanti = enter: vaktraani = mouths: abhivijvalanti = flaming.

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

Truly, as the many torrents of rivers rush  towards the ocean, so do these heroes in the world of men fling themselves into Your fiercely flaming mouths.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The rivers that emerge from mountains have no alternative but to rush to empty themselves in the ocean. The rulers of the earth plan for their permanent domination over it while actually they are caught in the death-trap of Destiny. While being consumed they are planning for conquest.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Ami: these warriors such as Bhishma, Arjuna is now seeing all these warriors whom he did not wish to kill, rushing to death. His delusion has vanished. He thinks now: “This battle cannot be avoided. It has the sanction of the Supreme Lord. Why should I worry about the inevitable? The Lord has already destroyed these warriors. I am only an instrument in His hands. No sin can touch me even if I kill them. This is a just cause also”.

Comments by the blogger:

A lovely simile is used in this verse. As has already been seen through the words of Arjuna everyone rush toward the Lord of Gita in His present Form of annihilation. All the rivers inevitably rush toward the ocean. Like that all beings  rush toward the FLAMING MOUTHS of the Lord in His Cosmic Form. Life is like that. All our exertions are only toward a beautiful death! Sri Krishna shows many stomachs, many mouths, etc., and he just slurps up all in the universe at the time of Pralaya. In the Upanishads Agni or Fire is said to be acting as the medium and Agni or Fire welcomes us with our astral body after our death and it is Agni or Fire which brings us after our death to various worlds. Like our own world which is one form of physical consciousness on a physical plan, there are different worlds with varying consciousness. We are transported by Agni or Fire to the subtle world of consciousness according as our  individual accumulation of SAMSKARAS. SAMSKARA IS A SUBTLE UNIT OF MEASUREMENT WHICH WEIGHS UP ALL OUR THINKINGS, SENSATIONS, IMAGINATIONS BESIDES THE FRUIT OF OUR ACTIONS IN THIS PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS. We are the authors of our own fate which determines our next birth after our death.

So Agni is the medium through which we attain the different worlds of consciousness, according to the Upanishads.

It is very apt and pertinent to speak of the Lord’s flaming mouths and into which all the warriors and chiefs of warriors on the side of Dhuriyodanas rush inevitably. It is quite inexorable. All our exertions in this world is indirectly aimed towards a beautiful death! Agni and the Flaming Mouths of the Lord of Gita is one and the same!