THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER NUMBER 11, VERSE NUMBER 25, VISVARUPA DARSANA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE VISION OF THE COSMIC FORM

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 11

VERSE NUMBER 25

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

TEXT IN TRANSLITERATION:

damshtraakaraalaani cha te mukhaani

     drshtvai ‘va kaalaanalasamnibhaani

diso na jaane na labhe cha sarma

     praseeda devesa jagannivaasa

Sanskrit words and phrases and their meaning in English:

Damshtraa karaalaani = fearful with tusks: cha = and: te = thy: mukhaani = mouths: drshttvaa = having seen: eva = even: kaala analasamnibhaani = blazing like Pralaya-fires: disah = the quarters: na= not: jaane = know: na = not: labhe = do (I ) find: cha = and: sarma =peace: praseeda = have mercy: devesa = O Lord of the Devas: jagannivaasa = O abode of the universe:

TEXT IN ENGLISH:

When I see Your mouths terrible with tusks resembling Pralaya-fires, I know not the four quarters nor do I find peace. Be gracious, O Lord of the gods, O Abode of the universe.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI CHIDBHAVANANDA:

The quarters are discerned with the help of the sun and the moon. But let it be supposed that one gets immersed in the womb of the blazing and boundless sun. In such a situation the quarters and the directions are all lost sight of. Arjuna finds himself in such a position now. Like the fire of the dissolution of the universe, the all-consuming blaze of the Cosmic Form has confounded Arjuna. Therefore he begs of the Lord to withdraw that terrible form and resume the calm and gracious form.

COMMENTARY BY DR.RADHAKRISHNAN:

Kaalaanala: literally the doomsday fire.

Arjuna loses his bearings. The tremendous experience has in it elements of astonishment, terror and rapture.

COMMENTARY BY SRIMAT SWAMI SIVANANDA:

Jagannivasa: The substratum of the universe.

Kalannala: The  fires which consume the worlds during the final dissolution of the worlds (Pralaya). Time (Kala) is the consumer of all that is manifest.  

Diso na jane: I do not know the four quarters. I cannot distinguish the east from the west, nor the north from the south.

Comments by the blogger:

Arjuna continues to put in poetic words his fear and bewilderment of the Universal Form of the Lord of  Gita. There are caged birds which hatch chicks in the cage and the chicks grow up in the cage. Their universe is the little space of the cage. They do not know the real extant of God’s Universe. Even when the cage-door is opened to put the food and water inside the cage these birds, which knew nothing about the outer universe, do not attempt to leave the cage. And if you, at last, want to give freedom to the birds of the cage and keep the cage-door wide opened, the caged birds do not know what to do for quite some time. They are even bewildered at first. They hesitate to leave the protective wall of the cage! For any bird which was hatched in natural settings outside the cage the walls of a cage would be quite constricting, but for the cage-hatched bird the walls are considered to be protective.

Arjuna, despite the opening of the inner eye, finds the form of the Lord quite frightening. But for an accomplished Yogi the cosmic form would pose the ultimate in sense-satisfying experience.